THE RINGED CASTLE

Move five in Miss Dunnett's popular adventures of that 16th century Bond/Lord Peter Wimsey — Francis Crawford of Lymond and one would chance a guess the author is not castling for an end game. The King, one step removed, is the Tsar of Russia, Ivan Vasilievich, whom Lymond serves as a mercenary with his band of fighting Scots. But Philippa, Lymond's bride in name only, has returned from Turkey (events recorded in Pawn in Frankincense, 1969) to her mother in Scotland bringing with her an orphan tot whose parentage (Lymond's or his arch enemy's, Graham Mallett?) is debated from time to time. While Lymond manages a capricious and violent Tsar and consorts with the brilliant and exciting courtesan who brought him to Russia, he also guides a group of British merchants through the intrigue-ridden intricacies of the Tsar's preserves. Philippa, now in the service of Mary, Queen of England, is busy unravelling her husband's family's past, mainly in the interest of reuniting Lymond with his mother Sybilla. When Lymond reluctantly returns to Scotland and England, both he and Philippa become entangled in plots in which land and Lymond himself are the main targets. But Philippa is as wily and cool as Lymond's "clear-lidded flower-blue eyes" about which one tires of hearing, and the two are no mean hands themselves at setting traps and collecting enemy pelts. Assassins, traitors, and old enemies come tumbling down, although at the close Lymond is tricked into safety by friends and wife — (still intact). As the others in this series, multi-layered, talky, and thick with thieves but ruthlessly busy.