The Paths of the Air

June 23, 2008
Clare's absorbing 11th entry in her Hawkenlye series (The Enchanter's Forest
, etc.) highlights the many perils of life in medieval England. One cold November day in 1196, an exhausted stranger arrives at the estate of Sir Josse d'Acquin, a loyal soldier of the king bored with inactivity. Josse gives the man shelter in an outbuilding, suspecting him to be the servant of a crusader recently returned from the Holy Land. After a fortnight, the stranger abruptly vanishes, then a body, brutalized beyond recognition, turns up in the nearby woods. Meanwhile, a prisoner exchange gone wrong has led to a hunt across Europe for a runaway monk carrying unknown treasure. Josse relies on Abbess Helewise of Hawkenlye Abbey for counsel and solace, while the local sheriff, Gervase de Gifford, helps Josse track down a secret with the potential to change warfare forever. A lurid subplot set in the Holy Land adds to the suspense.

May 1, 2008
England, 1196. Sir Josse dAcquin is bored with managing his estate and longs to get back to his first love, soldiering. Failing that, hed be content with returning to his beloved Hawkenlye Abbey, where he can find peace, good conversation, and a warm drink. But his boredom turns to interest when a stranger dressed in travel-stained robes appears at his door. Josse assumes the mysterious, dark-skinned man is a servant of one of the Crusaders recently returned from Outremer. The man stays a few days in Josses outbuilding, then mysteriously disappears. At first offended, then puzzled, Josse determines to learn the fate of the secretive stranger. When a local merchant discovers the brutalized body of a man beneath a tree in the nearby forest, Josse discovers a connection between the dead man and the stranger. His attempt to unravel the baffling mystery soon leads him into a tangled web of blackmail andmurder. Clare is a gifted storyteller whose vibrant characters, unusual plot, and vivid descriptions of life in twelfth-century England make for a period mystery with immense appeal.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)