The Tournament

May 25, 2015
The 13-year-old Princess Elizabeth Tudor, the narrator of this delightful, well-crafted thriller set in 1546 from Reilly (The Great Zoo of China), accompanies her tutor, Roger Ascham, to Constantinople, where the sultan Suleiman is hosting a tournament to determine the world’s chess champion. As part of her political education, Elizabeth has a memorable encounter with arrogant young Ivan, “grand prince of the Duchy of Muscovy” and future Ivan the Terrible, but her life lessons turn to the deductive when Suleiman puts brilliant Ascham in charge of investigating the murder and mutilation of an anti-Islamic cardinal just before the tournament’s start. She also gains a better understanding of man’s carnal nature from hearing about the Ottoman crown prince’s after-hours parties and spying on drunken priests cavorting with teenage boys in the priests’ chambers. Reilly remains true to the realities of his historical characters and effectively communicates Elizabeth’s feeling of being an inquisitive stranger without falling into undue exoticism. Agent: Suzanne Gluck, WME.

May 15, 2015

Reilly is a master storyteller of modern adventure thrillers (Ice Station; Temple). In a departure from his usual motif, he sets this novel in Elizabethan England, featuring the Virgin Queen herself. On her deathbed, good Queen Bess recounts a tale of depravity and palace intrigue in which she was an unexpected witness. It is 1546, a plague is sweeping through England, and Elizabeth is 13 years old. When her father, King Henry VIII, receives an invitation from the sultan of the Ottoman empire to send his best chess player to an international tournament in Constantinople, Roger Ascham, the royal tutor, convinces the king to allow Princess Elizabeth to accompany the English delegation for safekeeping. Their visit to Constantinople is marred by sexual indiscretion, dishonesty, and murder. Owing to his reputation for logic, Ascham is asked by the sultan to solve the murders that have occurred during the tournament. With Elizabeth in tow, Ascham uncovers treachery and debauchery at the most exalted levels. VERDICT Fans may be disappointed in this slow-paced murder mystery with a chess theme that is far less captivating than Reilly's previous work. For a better example, see Katherine Neville's The Eight. Checkmate.--Laura Cifelli, Fort Myers-Lee Cty. P.L., FL

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