Not as exciting as his others. Interesting concept, but seemed a bit...stilted, and I'm not sure the portrayal of the characters of their time seemed realistic. That being said, it's meant to be a mystery, and that worked ok. ( )

Though I did read it to the end I think the story overall was dumb and juvenile. The characters were often caricatures, especially Elise who was totally out of sync with the mores of the times--more like an oversexed, rash modern day teen--and thoroughly unbelievable as the princess' coimpanion, to the extent that it was distracting. The mystery's structure was decent, and the historical environment interesting and uncommon, but the sex focus and descriptions totally gratuitous. A day wasted. ( )

Historical mystery, taking place in 1546, involving a fictional account of a chess tournament in Constantinople. Players are invited by the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Among those players, an Englishman who is accompanied by the girl Princess Elizabeth and her tutor. While the contest gets underway dead bodies start showing up and Elizabeth and her tutor become the gum-shoes to help solve the mystery of who killed them. I know it is fictional, but it seemed just too out there for me. I did not hate it, but I struggled to finally finish it. There was grossly described ( and I am not a prude) sexual encounters that in my opinion were unnecessary.

Not really what I was expecting from this book. One of the MPG tags should have been "alternate reality". ( )

1188 ( )

Interesting but not an awesome read like his others. I found myself skipping ahead a lot. ( )