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A review by timinbc
The Disorderly Knights by Dorothy Dunnett
5.0
This book is not without flaws, but Dunnett's writing means we're scoring out of six. This is a master class in free-flowing beautiful writing.
The book includes perhaps the greatest single descriptive paragraph I have ever read, and I don't expect ever to read a better one. Yeah, THAT one, the description of Birgu. Maybe I'm biased, because I've been to Valletta and Gozo, but wow.
And the zingers, sometimes just a couple of words tossed in effortlessly. The SNARK.
OK, Dunnett heavily telegraphed the Importance of Being Blyth, and kept teasing us with it; but in the end it was well played.
Someday I must find a historian and ask whether Scots casually slaughtered each other the way they do here. I suspect the answer will be yes. Things were a tad different in 155x.
Joleta is a heckuva character.
And then there are the plot twists. This one makes Agatha Christie read like Dick and Jane!
After plowing through the first two of these, I had decided that #3 would be make or break.
It's a make. I am going to look for #4 ASAP.
And I'm going to hope the series doesn't fall into the trap that so many good TV shows and movies have -- letting the bad guy slip away time after time.
The book includes perhaps the greatest single descriptive paragraph I have ever read, and I don't expect ever to read a better one. Yeah, THAT one, the description of Birgu. Maybe I'm biased, because I've been to Valletta and Gozo, but wow.
And the zingers, sometimes just a couple of words tossed in effortlessly. The SNARK.
OK, Dunnett heavily telegraphed the Importance of Being Blyth, and kept teasing us with it; but in the end it was well played.
Someday I must find a historian and ask whether Scots casually slaughtered each other the way they do here. I suspect the answer will be yes. Things were a tad different in 155x.
Joleta is a heckuva character.
And then there are the plot twists. This one makes Agatha Christie read like Dick and Jane!
After plowing through the first two of these, I had decided that #3 would be make or break.
It's a make. I am going to look for #4 ASAP.
And I'm going to hope the series doesn't fall into the trap that so many good TV shows and movies have -- letting the bad guy slip away time after time.