Checkmate

The Lymond Chronicles #6

by Dorothy Dunnett

For the first time Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles are available in the United States in quality paperback editions.

Sixth in the legendary Lymond Chronicles , Checkmate takes place in 1557, where Francis Crawford of Lymond is once again in France, leading an army against England. But even as the Scots adventurer succeeds brilliantly on the battlefield, his haunted past becomes a subject of intense interest to forces on both sides.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Historical, Fiction, Scotland, Romance, Adventure, 16th Century

581 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Dorothy Dunnett OBE was a Scottish historical novelist. She is best known for her six-part series about Francis Crawford of Lymond, The Lymond Chronicles, which she followed with the eight-part prequel The House of Niccolò. She also wrote a novel about the real Macbeth called King Hereafter and a series of mystery novels centered on Johnson Johnson, a portrait painter/spy.

Her New York times obituary is here.

Dorothy Dunnett Society: http://dorothydunnett.org
Fansite: http://www.dorothydunnett.co.uk/

Reviews

[Nataliya · Rating 4 out of 5]

The hardest part of any great story is finishing it right, especially for the one that has its true devotees undeterred by having been put through the wringer for a few thousand pages.

“What remains, four years afterwards, are the haunted rooms of the departed: of a young, vigorous man with red hair and an old man left in his blood in a bothy; of a henchman dragged from his horse with an arrow in him, and another, darker of skin, dead of fighting in a Greek courtyard. Of a man returning from perilous seas to drown, seeking his son, near his homeland; of a girl dying blind behind yellow silk curtains, and another burning at night in an African pavilion. And a child, a son … an only son … playing with shells at the feet of the father who shortly would kill it.”

These 6 doorstoppers created a fascinating, engrossing story, even if we started off on the wrong foot with me almost hurling it at a wall before the first 100 pages were over. Yeah, shows how little I know. But after my initial disdain of that infamous, “Drama entered, mincing like a cat” I got swept away by the politics and secrets and intrigues, by all the red herrings and impossible clues, and all those allusions that made me wish I had been more deeply educated in the classics. Even the flowery language stopped grating on me, and Dunnett herself toned it down a few dozen notches.

“A great many inferior people, Mr Crawford, have helped you over the years in your well-publicized career of adversity, but you mustn’t be surprised if the circle begins to diminish. To go by what happened this evening, the man who has finally emerged from it all isn’t worth helping.”

So after a mad dash through 10 years and a tour of the world - Scotland, England, France, Malta, Algiers, Turkey and even Russia - and at least one terrible sacrifice we arrived at the grand finale.

And unfortunately got bogged down in a bit too much melodrama at times. A bit too much of a historical romance flavor over historical adventure.

Since, as we have been warned back in book 1, “Drama entered, mincing like a cat” .

Francis Crawford and Philippa Somerville, you were supposed to be a perfectly refreshing match. What you weren’t supposed to be was pages and pages of silly drama that screamed of deliberate authorial intent to make characters do what she wanted them to do, even if it didn’t fit their development as established by now. Because both of them — but Francis especially — deserved to be put in a long time-out and think deeply about why they’ve done and why acting ridiculously for drama sake should not be encouraged.

But silly or not, I still love Philippa, although I prefer her practicality and deadpan wit from before she, like everyone else but Austin Grey, got terminally charmed by our dear Francis.

“It doesn’t do my self-esteem much good though, does it?’
‘Your self-esteem has had a lifetime of steady attention,’ said Philippa abstractedly.”
————

“Philippa allowed polite regret to inform every muscle. ‘Whatever day it occurs,’ she said, ‘I feel I have a previous engagement.’
————

“Only, where is the little bitch?’
He never did hear the answer, for Philippa stabbed him from behind with her husband’s poniard. She dragged it out as he fell and stabbed him again, gritting her teeth, in the area delineated in white paint by the black eunuch who instructed the princes’ class in the seraglio.”

But melodrama aside, this was quite interesting. Not in the least because Lymond in this book is not the master holding the strings but often almost a puppet, with more or less successful results. Kings and cardinals, mothers and wives, sisters and dead astrologers — the list of those wanting to steer and control him goes on and on. And meanwhile, the secrets of Francis’ parentage come to life — and yeah, the Culters/Crawfords were basically living a telenovela.

“My son took many years to learn the simple truth. You cannot love any one person adequately until you have made friends with the rest of the human race also. Adult love demands qualities which cannot be learned living in a vacuum of resentment.”

The continuing theme of this story is sacrifice, and we have it here in spades. Some poignant, some pointless, and some accidental. But Lymond’s road to peace — if there’s such for him in the end, beyond a few happy final pages — is littered with those sacrificial pawns, and all of them left scars on his soul. And a broken soul needs to find a way to heal if it wants to keep its humanity.

And a bit of politics here as well, the Calvinists versus the Catholics, the change in English monarchy behind the scenes, the formation of Mary Queen of Scots into a religious zealot. All those were delicious crumbs that I would gave loved to spend more time on, and less on the personal relationship drama of Francis and Philippa — but alas, the personal here outweighs the political. And the adventure, too — although that chapter with Francis and Philippa’s mad escape in Lyon (before she went all weak-kneed and googly-eyed) was probably the most fun in this whole series. Rooftop chase in book 2, you’ve been owned.

And in those scenes where melodrama, mincing like a cat, fades in the background, we get Dunnett’s trademark insights into humanity, and they are as sharp as ever.

“I am saying that the salvation of each man’s soul lies within himself, and is not a matter which concerns even his brother.’
‘So,’ said Mary, ‘you would condemn the human race to hell, for want of enlightenment?’
‘Why not?’ said Francis Crawford. ‘It has nothing to fear, surely, from hell.”

—————

So yeah, it’s hard to finish the series on the note that satisfies the fans, and I think this may be one of the weaker entries in this sprawling saga. But it’s the last, and it tied up the loose ends and completes character arcs (even if not always in the way I’d prefer), and it’s quite impossible for me to view it on its own, independent of the preceding thousands of pages and dozens of heartbreaks.

And so I’ll give it 4 stars, for the old sakes, for Philippa of the Lyon chase, for Kate, for Marthe (my reading buddy’s favorite character), for Adam Blacklock, for politics snd humanistic insights, and for Francis hopefully - even if almost improbably - getting what he wants and needs.

“We have reached the open sea, with some charts; and the firmament.”

Farewell, you crazy 16th century denizens. I’ll miss you. Smooth sailing to you all.
————

Buddy read with Nastya. Did we *really* make a 500+ posts thread on this???

——————
Also posted on my blog.

[Marquise · Rating 1 out of 5]

Is it logical to feel this sad about the “happy ending” of a book? The very phrase sounds like a contradiction in itself, as happy endings are supposed to make you happy, and the sensitive ones might shed some tears, too, but essentially ‘tis supposed to make you feel satisfied, elated about the conclusion. And yet . . .

Narrator: And yet, she does feel a wee pang of sadness in the year of the Lord 2023 when the long road comes to an end and there's no happy ending to her saga with the story of Lymond. This book and the first are the ones she's had more issues with the most, so the ending, albeit unhappy, does come with a much-needed closure. It has, in the end, been a good journey regardless.

[Melindam · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first (and definitely not the last) reread of The Lymond Chronicles is hereby complete.

It was a totally different journey & reading experience (time to comtemplate instead of the mad rush to finish, which resulted in the greatest book hangover & bookhigh I've ever had to date), but so worth it.

Once again, my heartfelt thanks to the Dunetteers, who were there for me: supporting & challenging me and helping me to discover more layers & offering different opinions. Thank you for the intense discussions & the laughs.
🥰

--‐--------

Original Review

"Whip, whip
Run me like a racehorse
Pull me like a ripcord
Break me down and build me up
I wanna be the slip, slip
Word upon your lip, lip
Letter that you rip, rip
Break me down and build me up..."

Yes, break down and build up, break down... that's Dorothy Dunnett for you, SIGH!"




I am absolutely incapable of writing a proper review of this. First I need time to distance myself a bit from it all and to recover my mental and emotional sanity.

There was a lot of stuff here to love, to despair of and to get really frustrated about, mostly wrapped into one all the time. I don't think I have ever felt so desperate and exhausted to finish a series of books. I tore through books 3-6, so to speak and they certainly have their toll. BUT I REGRET NOTHING!

Also, BIG THANKS TO NASTYA AND NATALIYA whose reviews introduced me to the Lymond Chronicles. Will be eternally grateful to you.

[Algernon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A heady experience, for an only child accustomed to single-thread happiness, and not to the moment of creation that occurs when the warp is interlocked with the weft. When the singer is matched with the sounding-board; the dream with the poet. When the sun and the fountain first meet one another.
Side by side they were evading, she and Francis Crawford, a pack of men who intended to kill them.

About time we got to the romance part of this 'historical romance' series. Adventures and battles and journeys to distant lands we had aplenty. But the hero's heart remained throughout uncommitted. A more accurate description would be that his heart was the best kept secret of Lymond's life. Understandably so, seeing as most of the people he cared deeply about had been removed from the board of these deadly chess games with human pawns we have witnessed in five sprawling volumes. "Diccon and Salablanca, Tosh and Christian Stewart; Oonagh; Will Scott and his father; Turkey Mat and Tom Erskine; the dog Luadhas; the child Khaireddin ... What shall I say to your son when I meet him? Don't be surprised: your sire loved me also?" is a bittersweet reminder of the characters I have come to care so much about, and who are missing from the final roll call . The last book also uses the chess terminology to describe the endgame, the finish line :

I am tired of journeys. It is time I arrived somewhere. confesses Lymond at last, his frantic energy and mental control having reach their limits and passed beyond into territories of such anguish and self doubt no human being should experience. Dunnett has been merciless with her main character, foiling one ambitious plan after another, removing everybody he trusted from his entourage, practically blackmailing Lymond into acting like a puppet (a pawn at last) in a game of kings. The plot here has two major threads:

I - the war between France and the Papacy on one side versus England and Spain on the other. Lymond is forced to take command of the French troops, which he does brilliantly, on the promise he would receive an annulment to his fake marriage and be allowed to disappear into the Russian steppe. He wants out of the game, badly, but everyone else is keen in keeping him busy at what he does best - strategic mayhem. He is thoroughly disillusioned with war and power plays:

I began, as you did, by defending my country. Then, disinherited, I had to follow the only profession I knew. There are only two roads to power: the Church, and the army; and there are villains in both. It is a moot point which does the most harm.

II - the quest to uncover the secret of Lymond's birth, an investigation that he both dreads and wants to be rid off, a mystery whose key is to be found in a little townhouse in Paris. Philippa Somerville is often the prime engine of this particular search, but the more she gets involved in Lymond's life, the more she is danger of sharing in his pain and in his apparent curse of hurting the people he loves the most.

For readers already familiar with the previous five books, the identity of Lymond's intended partner is no surprise. She has been built up strongly in the last three books, to bring her to a level of competence and erudition that could stand up to the famous talents of her beau. But don't expect a conventional love story, it would go against everything Dunnett has been forging here. Her chess pieces will be mauled, and burned and blown to pieces, literally and emotionally, just as they have been in each of the previous books. A happy ending seems as far fetched for the lover's prospects as a trip outside the Solar System. The passage I have started my review with is an isolated incident of merriment and passion and riotous adventure in a novel that turns out much darker and more painful than even the Constantinople debacle in Pawn in Frankincense the high mark of the series for me.

I can't say more without spoiling the final resolutions. Suffice to say it was SPECTACULAR, a fitting ending to a series that has captured my imagination and held me in thrall for most of the second half of 2013. I actually finished the book two and a half months ago, but I kept putting off writing down a review, both out of despair at trying to capture the whole canvas in a couple of paragraphs, and out of a reluctance to say goodbye to the characters and to the world of Renaissance Europe. The best epitaph I could come up with is another quote from the book describing Francis Crawford of Lymond, the heroic figure around whom everything else revolves:

No one, once they met him, could remain the same.

[edit] some spelling errors

[nastya · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I don’t like to see things done badly on either. At the moment, I am tired of journeys. It is time I arrived somewhere.”

The journey is finally over. All mysteries are unveiled, games played and ghosts are still there.

How do you even start to review this amazing series? These books are so rich in characters and themes, from nationalism, religion, humanism, sexual abuse, sacrifices (or there’s so so much of it all over the series), honor. Pick anything and we can discuss for hours.

And of course the characters, I never ever loved so many complex fleshed out fictional people in my life.
Lymond, Jerott, Adam, Christian, Erskines, Kate.

Oonagh…

“Stay down.” Surely, from her Celtic breeding, she could transmit to him this silent anguish? “Stay down. And I shall let go this little cord, and share your rest in the sea.”

(Damn, I get teary-eyed just thinking about Oonagh…)

And, of course, Marthe.

I know, this a grand finale and finally a romance story. But for me this book is so much a Marthe’s story in addition to this grand romance story at the forefront. Her arc in it is incredible. She starts the book very bitter and angry, trapped in a dysfunctional marriage of her own making. She has a chip on her shoulder, anger management problems, jealousy and animosity towards her brother, the victim of childhood neglect and sexual abuse.

And she goes from wanting her brother for her family and for him to get what’s rightfully his to her last scene where she is content and finally lets go of her anger. And that’s her great tragedy, and her great unintended sacrifice for her brother. When she was finally content with herself and might have been happy finally. Rancourless That's what I choose to believe anyway.

(There’s obviously one notable omission in the character list. I liked how Dunnett wrote her in other books, unfortunately in this one she was a generator of the pointless drama and maker of really unnecessary mistakes but that’s in her character, I must admit. But on the bright side, I really disliked her on the first read and in this one I dislike her a little less. Who knows, perhaps one day on n-th re-read I will stop disliking her all together. But this is not that day. I dreaded to see that a chapter was from her point of view in the last half of the book. Or dumb Austin's)

Also this is the first book in the series that can be called a historical romance but here's where my struggle starts. How can you enjoy historical romance where you dislike the romance itself, its structure, characterization and unbelievable levels of melodrama? I guess you can, if you have a residual sympathy from the previous 5 books and some engaging subplots because I still love this book. So at this point these characters feel like friends to me, that’s how. I’m talking, obviously, about residual sympathy for Francis, because he’s such a complex layered and unique hero in literature. (“In Francis, there was so much that was admirable; and the flaws were so great. Yet one forgot them.”) Phillipa’s character that had a weaker characterization and who become a sobbing suffering mess in this one just didn’t have a chance.

But any Dunnett's decision regarding plot or character development that I’m not a fan of never will eclipse my love for this series. And I can only rate this book as part of the whole series since it is a finale even though on this re-read I think it's the weakest one (for me the series peaked with incredible Pawn in Frankincense).

But this is the best series I’ve ever read. And such a treat, maybe even more on the second read. I mean, I've read this series twice already and in one year. Oops.


Beware of spoilers in the comments

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

10 stars

I shall harness thee a chariot
of lapis-lazuli and gold
Come into our dwelling, in the
perfume of the cedars.

This fragment of poetry is laced through the chapters of this book, and for me, it evokes the emotions of longing and and finally, fulfillment to be found in the Lymond Chronicles.

Masterfully woven, filled with tension, hope, despair, grief, violence and love; Checkmate brings the saga of Francis Crawford of Culter, Comte de Sevigny to a close. Alas, any story following this is bound to be a disappointment, with a few notable exceptions. Dunnett is without question a master of historical fiction. She challenges us with her French and literary quotations, her olde English, to join the journeys and adventures of the remarkable Lymond. I promise you, if you accept the challenge, and wade into the depths of 16th century Europe with Lymond, his brother Richard, his mother Sybilla, his fellow armsmen, his women, and finally his love - you will not be disappointed. I join the ranks of people who say, 'Oh, I love these books,' and sigh with poignant regret that they are now read.

I will be rereading them, that is without doubt. From racing through to find out what happens, to stopping to savor the beauty and terror along the way, I find myself even now returning to parts of the book to reread, to recall bits lost and to re-savor the wealth.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I reached the end of this book, the sixth and final volume of the Lymond Chronicles, I was emotionally drained and somewhat bereft, I had a head full of thoughts but little idea of what to say. I’m not sure that I have much more idea now, but I am going to start writing and see what happens.

I was lost not just because I had reached the end of a series of books, but because the world of that series of books was so vividly realised and the drama that was playing out in that world was so captivating that I have no choice by the be pulled right in; and because the depth and detail was such that I knew I hadn’t seen and understood everything. I will go back one day; I have known that for a long time, and my return became more and more certain.

This sixth book opens not long after the fifth book closed.

Lymond is in France, having been propelled their not by his own wish but by the wishes of friends who knew that the course he planned himself – a return to Russia – would inevitably lead to the destruction of his life. He was still set on that course, but the French were well aware of his talents and his value to them, and so a choice was set before him.

He could stay for one year in the service of France, after which he would be granted that annulment of his ‘marriage of convenience’ that he had been seeking for some time; and if he chose to reject that offer, the French would see that the annulment would never be granted.

He chose to stay.

This opening led into a glorious cavalcade of dramatic scenes; from a spooky and unsettling spell in the chamber of the Dame de Doubtance; to the unveiling of a character in disguise that I was so happy to see again; to a chase that echoed another in ‘Queens’ Play’ and that told me how far the characters had come and their relationships had evolved ….

I could go on, but I don’t want to say to much to anyone who is still on their journey through this series of books or to anyone who is contemplating starting that journey.

The time and place for this final act was perfectly chosen, and worked so well for those individual scenes and for the story as a whole. The court was preparing for the marriage of their Dauphin to Mary Queen of Scots – who had appeared as an infant in the very first book if this series – and the military was fending off the English, who were understandably concerned about the strengthening alliance between their neighbours to the south and to the north.

There are still two main strands to this story; two continuing quests:

Phillipa Somerville was still working to uncover and untangle the history of the Crawford family, in the belief that truth and honesty were always the best thing. The evidence that she uncovered seemed contradictory, a rational explanation seemed elusive, and she would be led to a very dark place that might destroy and would certainly damage her….

Meanwhile, Francis Crawford, continued to try to loosen the ties that bound him to others, to find his own place in the world, and was quite prepared – and quite willing – to die in the attempt rather than compromise. He found though that he had to do everything that he could for the people who loved and had served him, and that maybe there might be a way that he could do the right thing without having to break those ties ….

The evolution of these two complex and engaging characters over the course of six books – her from a child into a capable and accomplished young woman; and him on a journey far to difficult to neatly summarise – has been an utter delight.

Every significant character left alive was dawn into this final story. I found that I gained new understanding of some of them, that I wished to have seen rather more of certain others, and that there were one or two who were compromised just a little to allow the story to play out as it had to.

I want to say about this last book the same thing that I said about the first – I was captivated, I had to keep turning the pages, and it was lovely to be able to listen to someone so much cleverer than me, who was so articulate, who had so much to say about a subject that she loved, talking at very great length …

Her quality of writing; her world building; her depth of characterisation; her story telling; I found so much to love.

My favourite moments in this book were the most wonderful declaration and the realisation that I had been held in suspense to the very last page, suspecting but not really knowing how this grandest of stories would end.

I would love to know what happened next, I would love to read that stories that must have been happening before and after and to one side of the stories in these six books; but all I can do is go back and read then again, because I am quite sure that there are things that I have missed, I know that there are things I don’t quite understand, and I am certain that there is more to be revealed on a second reading.

Even if there wasn’t, I would want to step back into this world and live though this glorious telling of the life and times of Francis Crawford of Lymond and Sevigny again .

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW! I would give this 6 stars if I could! There are no words to adequately give praise to this final book in the Lymond Chronicles.

Unwillingly brought to France by well-meaning friends, Lymond reluctantly accepts a commission in the armies of King Henri II, while struggling with an array of challenges and complications in his personal life. As passions flare and personalities clash, the mysteries of Lymond’s character and origins become clear, forcing him to deal with his own tarnished past and ambiguous nature.

I have to agree with the Washington Post which claimed that Dorothy Dunnett is "the finest living writer of historical fiction." She is now my favorite author and this book (and it predecessors) as my favorite novel(s) and blows all other books I've read out of the water. I feel sorry for the book that I'll be reading next because nothing will be as rich and rewarding as what I've just experienced.

I'm buying the companion book so that I can reread all six books and hopefully understand all the references and languages that were so equivocal to my uneducated mind.

Favorite lines:
"You might, without my crediting it, fall deeply in love and forever, with some warped hunchback whelped in the gutter. I should equally stop you from taking him." P.353

"Do I appear," she inquired, "crazed with lust?"
His eyes flicked wide open, Lymond considered her. Then he bent his head, and she could not tell if he was smiling. "Very seldom," he said.
"Or artless? Or addled? Or excitable?" She was getting angrier. "Is that why you keep recoiling as if I was a line of armed calvary?"
He was not smiling. He looked up slowly and met her gaze, his own level. He said, "I beg your pardon. I didn't know I was giving quite such an insufferable impression." P. 81

[Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been exactly a week since I finished this book and I still don't know what to say about it besides something incoherent while flapping my hands about and sobbing. THESE BOOKS, MY GOD.

So instead I'll just plot summarize a bit: This book finds Lymond back in France after the events of book five. He wants to get back to Russia but instead agrees to stay in France for a year to help their campaign against the newly united Spanish and English.

Thankfully, we're reunited with almost everyone I love right away. Adam Blacklock, you are maybe the only reasonable person in these books! Danny! Archie! Jerrott! (It was oddly comforting to yell at Jerrott again. I missed your stupidity Jerrott!) Marthe! Crawfords! And obviously Phillipa, one of the coolest heroines ever.

In this last book Phillipa continues delving into the mystery of Lymond's birth until the whole thing unravels and blows up in their faces. Lymond himself is basically held together with gum and duct tape in this book. It gets more than a bit depressing.

As with all the books, there are a number of TERRIBLE THINGS that happen. The first section of Part Five might be the most oppressively terrible and tough to get through of all the books. Something started in the hall of revels scene in the last book continues in this book and leads to some of the best and worst scenes of the book.

Overall, I was pleased with how the book (and the series) wrapped up. I cried quiet a bit, but I was expecting that. Throughout the course of these books I managed to get so attached to all of the character, who felt like real people, with moments of brilliance and glaring flaws. I'll miss the Crawfords and Phillipa and everyone. I'll miss Francis Crawford of Lymond, who has become possibly my favorite fictional character. I wish there were more books to the series but I'm looking forward to rereading the first two, as I feel my enjoyment will be much greater when I know what's happening more than 20% of the time. Everyone should read these books!

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Early in this book, Lymond is cornered in the streets of Lyon by various people intent on murdering him. With his companion Philippa Somerville he embarks on a high-speed chase through the streets and over the rooftops, involving extreme physical danger, courage, agility and a healthy measure of quick-witted verbal assaults on his attackers.

It's a throwback to a similar episode in "Queens' Play", but it's also a fair metaphor for the whole Lymond series. As a reader, I spent much of my time feeling rather like Philippa - pitchforked into situations of which I had no experience; forced to keep up by finding a mental toughness and agility I didn't know I possessed.

This is the epitome of great historical fiction. Dunnett doesn't stop to explain anything; she makes few concessions to a modern readership's sensibilities; but she invites us into the sparkling, complex, contradictory world of the mid-sixteenth century, and shows us exactly what made that world tick. And in the process, she shows us a lot about what we too are capable of achieving.

I tend to read this book when I need to walk taller, when I need to achieve the impossible.

(This is a summary review; I will write a more detailed one when I have finished my next reading.)

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great finish to the series. Dunnett wields her pen like a knife, and if she waxes flowery on occasion, one can forgive her for the imagery she builds is so vivid you can't help but be sucked in. She's not afraid to use that knife to murder prominent characters, some of whom have been with us for quite some time...but always with surgical intent and driven by plot necessity. These are not killings a la George RR Martin, who especially recently has sometimes felt like he killed characters for sheer shock value rather than any need to drive the plot forward.

This book welds seamlessly together Lymond's critical personal story (his relationship with Philippa and the nature of his parentage) with his professional success (the winding down of the Italian wars between France & Spain in the Low Lands). Some books have leaned too heavily on one side or the other (Ringed Castle was overly thinky, whereas Disorderly Knights was almost too action-heavy), but this one balanced it all very well -- only the first one, I think, made that balance with this degree of finesse.

Checkmate is not, however, the first book, and it definitely shows. This is a more mature work than Game of Kings, with more than a decade in between the two, and this one definitely shows a degree of polish much greater than the first. Which is no denigration on the first book, which is still I think my favorite one. Just that her prose ripens with age :-).

Another thing that Dunnett crafts extremely well are her characters, and I would like to call attention specifically to two sides of that -- her female characters are strong and well developed, despite being set in a time period where it would be all too easy to denigrate them to the background, and she writes about her supporting characters in a way that makes you care about their fates. In the grand scheme of things, Archie Abernethy, Jerrott Blyth, Piero Strozzi, etc., are merely Lymond's lieutenants, executors of his will, but you find yourself rooting for their survival anyway. I swore that if she killed my little Scots mahout Archie, I would hurl my book violently at the wall. Without revealing whether that took place or not, I think it says something that you can become invested in someone who is, at the end of the day, not integral to the story.

But the books have always been about Lymond, and despite the magnificent way the author reintroduces old threads and characters to wrap everything up, the book rightfully maintains its focus on our mercenary captain. It has become increasingly clear that, the deadly enmity of the Lennoxes notwithstanding...Lymond has always been his own worst enemy. He continues to do battle with the dangerous health consequences of his prior opium addiction, as well as an ill-advised (by me) attempt to distance himself from his de jure wife Philippa by shutting down / bottling up *any* emotion...with sadly predictable debilitating consequences. Lymond is a flawed hero, and he is tormented by the mistakes and difficult decisions he's been forced to make through the series. One memorable passage has him pondering on all the innocents who have died at (or because of) his hands. It's clear that these losses weigh heavily on him, despite the iron nonchalance he displays to the world when they are mentioned.

I started this series more than a year ago, off a recommendation from someone (I believe on a blog) counselling those going through "GRRM-withdrawal" and it quickly became one of my favorite series of all time. The jury is out on GRRM, since his series is not finished, but as stands, I would rank this one above his. Dunnett maintains an iron discipline and focus on her plot and her end-goals, which Mr. Martin especially in AFFC has seemed to wander from. She does not pander to her readers, and these are not easy reads, but they are so rewarding to those who are willing to match Dunnett's writing discipline with some hard reading discipline of their own.

I highly, highly recommend this series of books to anyone who enjoys historical fiction. Obviously...don't start with this one, though. Go back to Game of Kings :-)

[Misfit · Rating 5 out of 5]

The final book in the Lymond Chronicles and a spectacular finish! Checkmate opens as Lymond and his band of mercenaries leave England behind and travel to France to serve the French King in his battles with King Phillip. As Lymond is still set upon returning to Russia King Henri offers Lymond the annulment from Philippa that he desperately wants if he serves France for one year - if he doesn't Henri will do all in his power to block the annulment forever. Philippa comes to France to serve as lady in waiting to the young Mary Queen of Scotts, and continues her investigation into who actually parented Lymond and Marthe, as Lymond starts his own separate inquiry into his parentage.

The story unfolds amidst the pageantry of the French Court as it prepares for the wedding of Queen Mary to the Dauphin of France, and Philippa and Lymond struggle to deny the love they have come to feel for each other. Lymond and Philippa's adventures take them from the domicile of the deceased Dame de Doubtance, to a wild chase through the back streets of a French town (loved it!), until Philippa's quest to obtain the proof of Lymond's birth before it's sold to the evil Margaret Lennox and culminates in a disastrous encounter for Philippa that tears Philippa and Lymond apart and almost destroys any chance they have for happiness together.

As with the first five books in the series, Francis Crawford is a fascinating hero, and is as suave, debonair, flawed and fascinating as only a 16th Century version of James Bond could be. This was a rock-solid finish to a fabulous series, and it was wonderful to see the return of Jerrott and Marthe, along with more of Lymond's mother Sybilla and his brother Richard. I most especially enjoyed the mature and grown up Philippa who stole every scene and was a perfect foil for Lymond. My only complaints are the return of the French and Latin without translations as was found in the first book, and thumbs down to the publisher for not including a cast of characters as they did in the first four, this was a complex tale with many characters coming and going and that would have been greatly appreciated. Five Stars.

[Roman Clodia · Rating 5 out of 5]

After the shock ending of the last book, Lymond is back in France and forced to serve for a year, before returning to Russia where he sees his future. His friends and family, however, see things differently, and there are major plots to keep him away from Russia where Ivan is going steadily mad and where Lymond himself will be killed.

All the plot strands of the previous five extremely complex books come together here - Lymond's origins and identity, the truth of his family relationships, his future - and incredibly Dunnett weaves and unweaves them flawlessly. The end is a sheer masterpiece of writing - and when you finally finish this huge masterpiece, you'll want to go straight back to the beginning to re-live it all again.

[LeahBethany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my goodness. Checkmate was an incredible conclusion to the Lymond Chronicles. I knew it would be more than good, but I had no idea how utterly brilliant Dorothy Dunnett would be in tying up the story of one of the most infuriating, alluring, and complex characters in literature.

I'm completely in love with everything about this series—the characters, the settings, the intricate plot (and its subplots), and the profound themes. Francis Crawford of Lymond is a character who lingers; I couldn’t start another book for days because I wasn’t ready to leave his world behind.

I’m already looking forward to rereading the series. There’s so much depth to Dunnett’s storytelling that I know I must have missed countless nuances the first time around.

[Giki · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the last and best book in this truly brilliant series. Some other reviewers have complained about the melodramatic nature of this episode, but in truth I think the whole series is high melodrama, (in the first chapter of the first book, for goodness sake, there was a drunk pig and Lymond sets fire to his mother). This is just building to a climax before the end. The highs are higher and the lows are lower, it is all as we should expect, and it is glorious.

Quick recap: In the Previous book Lymond became estranged from his family. Now convinced his parentage is not what it ought to have been, he cannot face his mother. His brother, Richard, sensibly demanded that he cut out the usual confusion and deception and tell him exactly what was going on. He got half an answer and he didn't like it, and so smashed Lymond in the face. Lymond more than deserved it but it hasn't helped family relations.
In the hall of revels, thanks to an Lish play, Francis finally realised what everyone else had known long ago, and fell deeply and unfortunately in love with his wife.
Phillipa has decided that the only way to heal the family rift and make Francis whole again, is to find out all the dirty little secrets surrounding his birth, and once Phillipa has decided on a course of action it is pretty much impossible to divert her.
These three strands, along with the wars waged by France against her all her neighbours and any one else who wants a go, drive the plot of this book.

An early episode has Lymond being chased across the rooftops of Lyon, an echo of an adventure many years ago in Bios, only this time more deadly and in much better company. It is as if all his previous adventures have just been preparation for the events of this book. Lymond appears on top form, dealing with danger through wit, guile and humour, Philippa, his equal in every way, follows leaping across the roofs, cheerfully dispatching her opponents with skills leaned in the Sultan's Harem. Together they soar, laughing, sure of each other's talents. It is strong wine indeed for a wife in name only, the crash that follows is complete.

Jerott is back too, last seen abandoned to fate with Marthe in Volos They are married now, I am not entirely sure why, a reason is given in the book but I suspect it way just as likely that Marthe just wanted to cause someone pain.
You want to marry me? Fine – Do it! And then we shall see how happy you are...
Not very, by all accounts, Marthe is as fierce as ever an clearly has no great love for her husband. Jerott puts a brave face on it and cries into his wine every night.

Phillipa is the real star of the show, coming into her own in the French court, she has wealth and status, and a whole troop of men who would lay down their lives for her love. She still makes just about every sacrifice possible to help her reluctant husband.

The ending was stunning, to say the twists were unexpected is a massive understatement, it is a roller-coaster. I was so glad – having enjoyed the series so far so much, I was glad to see it go out with a bang.

Oh, I love this book, I have read the ending about 20 times in the past week and cried for about 5 of them. If that means I am a soppy sentimental lover of melodrama then so be it.

[Hobbes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dense, intense and utterly satisfying. I was near tears toward the end of this book and it's rare a book or series gets my heart pounding and my mind frantic with anxiety. I both did and didn't want the journey to end and it's been nearly a day since I've been able to even contemplate giving a flavour of how I felt finishing this series.

Lymond is a mastermind Renaissance Man in this bloodied world and readers finally get to understand the true man behind the enigma. Love the many complicated relationships Dunnett creates and although many truths are revealed some questions have ambiguous answers. It would be interesting to re-read the series with the benefit of hindsight and pay closer attention to detail to get a clearer understanding for those answers (even though I've been reading at a snail-pace and often rereading or thumbing back to previous passages to get a better grasp). So, not everything has been fully resolved in my mind but even that doesn't detract from my love for these complicated novels.

Thoroughly enjoyed the race scene where Lymond and Philippa must try to evade capture running through foggy Lyon and it's reminiscent of the Blois rooftop race in Queen's Play. Well written action, warfare tactics and subterfuge, political ambitions, religious power play and above all so many facets of humanity. And, thankfully, there are some humorous passages and phrases to soften the emotional onslaught. I only worry that other historical fiction may pale into comparison to The Lymond Chronicles, for me.

The love story that has been brewing for thousands of pages is finally addressed. But, the suffering, torment, trauma and sacrifice is soul destroying. Dunnett, as usual, punches her characters and reader in the gut many, many times. Such a manipulative writer. Many characters are emotionally manipulated but none more than Philippa who receives both physical and mental trauma and Lymond who has been paying the price for his identity issues throughout the whole series. I think it's safe to say that Lymond will remain one of my favourite characters of all time, warts and all.

An epic series that I'll re-read after a healthy distance to discover clear answers to some questions that evade me for now, especially those concerning parental ambiguity that destroyed me at the end of Pawn in Frankincense and Checkmate. It was a difficult beginning and hard work but ultimately well worth the initial struggle. Now the only question is whether to read the Niccolo series next or read a few lighter novels first?

[Nymeria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Checkmate is a rare book, a unique book. It's the only romance novel (come on, don't deny it. You know it's at heart a romance novel!) that has thousands of pages of character development in the form of the previous 5 books in the series.

So the feels when everything comes together in Checkmate...

The feels...

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do not listen to anyone who tells you that this book is the best of the six. It isn't. (I think we've all agreed that Pawn was.) However, to devotees of the books it will seem like the best, because it's the one with the (relatively) Happy Ending. If you read any of the reviews online they all say the same thing: Dunnett seems to have lost some of her edge. This book pulls out all the stops and employs every last romance novel cliche you can think of. But it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter because it's Dunnett, and because, if you've made it this far, you're already so in love with the characters that you're willing to sacrifice anything in order to see them happy. And that's what happens.

Dunnett is at her best when she has Gabriel to throw Lymond up against. When Lymond is just struggling with Gabriel's shadow, the plot is less knife-like. But, as I've noted above, no one with an ounce of heart cares. This is a great ending, and Dunnett's gift to her loyal readers.

That being said, it is still, as literature, above 92% of everything else out there.

[Rachel Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

The final book of the Lymond Chronicles, by far DD's greatest book, and the best book I have ever read.

This is Lymond and Phillipa's love story. It is also Lymond's redemption and the resolution of the question of his parentage and issues with his mother. He is a man with more burdens than a single human should be asked to carry, and his friends are all worried about his physical health and mental strength.

All that, a war in France, the marriage of a spoiled Scottish princess, and Nostradamus.

Phillipa is unbelievable - a woman of strength and ingenuity. A woman willing to sacrifice her pride, her heart, her self so totally that I started to feel uncomfortable. And yet I loved her for it.

Lymond is... well... Lymond. Books don't come better than this one. (But don't start here. This book works because of the previous five)

[Renee M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, I LOVE this series! And also hate it so much. I never ever finish one of these books without coming away completely wrung out and gasping for air... In the best possible way.

So of course they must be read over and over again. Each time I find new things; or find I've forgotten things, so that events continue to strike me like a smack in the head... In the best possible way. :)

[Victoria (Eve's Alexandria) · Rating 5 out of 5]

And so ends one of the greatest reading experiences of my life. And what an ending. What a perfect ending.

[Regan Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Scottish Hero Like None Other and the Woman who Loves Him, a Keeper in a great series!

Set in 1557, this is book 6 in a most exceptional series. Our hero, Francis Crawford of Lymond, is now back in France, thanks to the actions of his friends and his unwanted wife, Phillipa Somerville. To get the annulment he seeks for his marriage that will free both him and Philippa to marry others, Lymond agrees to serve France for one year, leading an army against England and Spain.

Lymond succeeds brilliantly on the battlefield, and his wit, wisdom and charm win over the French court, but his mysterious past becomes an issue. Powers in Scotland want to use it to destroy him and Lymond wants to protect the story he discovers before others that will shame the family that raised him. Philippa makes this her quest. If she cannot have him, at least she can protect him.

Brilliantly told, you won’t even mind the long passages and poems in French that are not translated. I just let the story drag me on. There were nights I had to keep reading after my bedtime just because I could not bear to leave it. There were mornings I rose from my bed with the story fresh in my mind. The dialog is amazing, the characters beguiling and the twists and turns something to behold.

More than the others in the series, this one is the love story between Francis and Philippa, which I relished. Philippa is Lymond’s soulmate, the only woman who is his true equal (or at least close to it) and every man who meets her wants her. Lymond holds her away feeling unworthy of her for he has lived a jaded life.

As the end nears, courage triumphs, and love sacrifices. If you, like me, want a happy ending, you will get it so hang in there. This series of six novels is a triumph of adventure, history, great characters in a time of war and love that conquers all. The royal courts are well pictured and history of four countries in the 16th century laid bare. In the midst of it all, one man rises a hero inspiring all around him, even his enemies. Only Philippa, who loves him with her heart and soul, was his worthy match.

I recommend reading the first five books before this one. They are all connected and you can’t really understand this last one without the others.

“There is nothing of me that does not belong to you.” ~ Philippa to Francis

“My son took many years to learn the simple truth. You cannot love any one person adequately until you have made friends with the rest of the human race also. Adult love demands qualities which cannot be learned living in a vacuum of resentment.”
~ Sybilla, Dowager Countess of Culter, Francis Crawford’s mother

The Lymond Chronicles:

The Game of Kings
Queens’ Play
The Disorderly Knights
Pawn in Frankincense
The Ringed Castle
Checkmate

[Jamie Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’d been saving this one, because I didn’t want the Lymond saga to be over, but it was a lovely start for my reading year. I do still have Dunnett’s other series to look forward to, although I don’t see how it could be as good as this one.

In this action-packed finale, featuring the highest of highbrow melodrama, we have Crawford and Philippa dancing circles around each other in France, in 1557-58. Crawford is there because his friends have prevented him from returning to a certain death in Russia; Philippa is there making increasingly desperate attempts to uncover Crawford’s family secrets ahead of his enemies. They are both awaiting an annulment of their nominal marriage, which has been promised in return for Crawford serving France’s military, for instance during the Siege of Calais. (Which results in the return of Calais to French control after over 200 years of English rule. The Duke of Guise gets the credit, but it was really all Crawford.)

The annulment has been scheduled to take place just after the sixteen-year-old Mary Queen of Scots weds the French Dauphin. (Just before the wedding Mary secretly, blithely signs papers bequeathing the Scottish and English thrones to France, if she dies without issue.) Crawford’s mother and brother are a part of the Scottish delegation sent to witness the wedding; also many of Crawford’s friends are with him, including the few who are privy to some of his secrets, such as the blinding migraines which are becoming difficult to conceal. (The man has taken innumerable blows to the head, not to mention the rest of his body, during this decade-long adventure.)

We finally untangle the mystery of Crawford’s parentage, and there is a clever twist at the very end. This has a marvelous denouement, including a heart-dropping scene which had me quite upset for a few moments.

I can’t recommend this series enough to people who like long, dense historical dramas. I’ve been buying the new trade paperback editions, which are lovely, but I very much wish they had included a dramatis personae, as some earlier editions have done - there are a lot of French names. I would also have appreciated a translation of the many bits of French, especially those which occur at moments of high emotion between Crawford and Philippa. Dunnett evidently believed that any educated person would be able to read French.

As with Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series, I don’t know anybody in real life who has even heard of these books, so it’s really nice to come to Goodreads and hear from others who love it.

My favorite book of the series remains Pawn in Frankincense.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book took me forever to read - months and months and month. Why? Because, though I've read it multiple times before and knew how it ended, I knew what I had to get through and my anxiety levels just couldn't stay that high for long. When you're that invested in a book and the characters you know it's worth the read (or the second read, or fifth, or...) I don't want to give away even one little detail to anyone who hasn't read it, suffice it to say that Dorothy always makes reading her books worth your time.

Once again, the threads of history became fascinatingly alive - each time I read one of Dorothy Dunnett's books I learn some new little thing about our history, in addition to catching another well placed clue or finally understanding an obscure little phrase that suddenly sheds light on a huge question mark. I've probably said it in every review I've written for her, but Dorothy Dunnett is a genius and the satisfaction in reading her stories cannot be overstated.

[MaryCatherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a find! I had no idea what I was starting when I ordered this as a special buy. I have not read any of the series so I started at the end. Anyone who knows me is not surprised; I often read the end of a new author’s book to see if I can trust them—weird issues! I did acidentally read the end of this last of a series first, though! My French Studies BA, emphasis history, centered in 15th-16th century religious conflict, so this was delightful. My rusty Early Modern French (pre-Racinian) got a workout in this book, and the Scots dialect is from more than a century before Burns! The author‘s breadth of knowledge and scope was breathtaking. The story is complex and fascinating. This was my first Dunnett book, but it won’t be my last! I plan to read more of this series. I want to add that Dunnett’s writing would definitely appeal more to readers who enjoy Walter Scott or Alexandre Dumas’ works more than to fans of modern material like the “Outlander” series.

[Rebekah · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the moment, I am tired of journeys. It is time I arrived somewhere.

He wondered why his lordship had claimed to be unable to identify the boy on the bridge. Then he recalled something he had heard rumoured. Once, Lymond had questioned a child and lived to regret it.

"You may give me a brooch. A sapphire one."
"Ah," he said. "But will you take care of it?"

It’s been about 3 weeks since I finished this last book in The Lymond Chronicles. And this review has been hanging over my head. Between finishing the book and seriously tackling this review I have had a ball reading other peoples thoughts and insights into the series which I was unable to do while I was reading it because of fear of running into spoilers. More on that later. In short, I have been, off and on, just immersing myself even further in the series.. I have a lot more exploring yet to do down the Lymond/Dorothy Dunnett rabbit hole.

As I look back on this book, Checkmate, I am amazed at how much happened action-wise, the character arcs, and the seamless involvement of our fictional characters with the military actions, politics, and religion of the time. In the course of the series, Dorothy Dunnett has shown herself to be ready, willing, and able to kill off important characters as well as animals. So while I was happy at the return of those whom we kind of left by the wayside during Pawn in Frankincense and/or The Ringed Castle, I feared for them. These included Kate, Philippa’s mother, Jerrott “I don’t understand” Blythe, Marthe, his difficult and troubled wife, and Archie Abernathy, the rock. Of course Lymond’s mother, Sybilla, so beloved and admired by me in previous books was certainly under threat of ye old chopping block given her advanced age (at least for those times) alone. And what of his estranged brother Richard? It would be just like DD to kill him off before he and Lymond could be reconciled. Though frankly, Richard was such a dumbass throughout most of this one, I can’t say I cared much about his ultimate fate.

What we went through in this book, along with Lymond and Philippa, our daring duo! We begin the book, right where The Ringed Castle left off, picking up with Lymond shortly after he has landed back in France after being kidnapped by Philippa and his friends, for his own good. They successfully conspired to prevent him from returning to what he saw as his mission in Russia where he would face certain death. Which was OK with him, but not with anyone else. I know I sure didn’t want him to go back there. Although at the end of TRC, he loves Philippa “in every way known to man” he is determined to divorce her for her own protection and because of his own self-loathing. Philippa is as yet unaware of the nature of her attachment to “Mr. Crawford.” He enters into an agreement to serve embattled France in his capacity as a military leader without peer. In return, the powers that be will see that the divorce is granted. Along with placing Lymond in the middle of real historical military battles and political machinations, we experience all manner of…stuff. High spirited swashbuckling adventure, a love story for the ages (which for me, had its earliest beginnings in The Disorderly Knights), deep dark mystery, family drama, mental and physical anguish of all sorts, sacrifice, evil, goodness, triumph and…well, just name it. And that’s just Philippa. Kidding. But Philippa and Lymond are equal or almost equal partners in all that transpires in this book.

Before I bought the books many moons ago, I vetted the series enough to know it ended in a rewarding and satisfying way. But as the books went on, I didn’t see how the ending could possibly be completely happy due to Lymond's physical and mental health challenges. But Dorothy accomplished it. At least I chose to buy it. As much as I loved the book, it wasn’t perfect. I struggled with getting my head around the motivations, mindsets, and decisions of Philippa, Lymond, and Sybilla. So much harm and suffering for, what I felt, were weak and not very well supported reasons. I asked the DD in my head, at too many points, “Because why now?” “Huh? But.…” Also, I feel like the title of the book is a little misleading and I felt a bit cheated by part of the conclusion. Because the book is called “Checkmate” I expected a battle of the titans between Lymond and his nemesis throughout most of the series, Margaret Lennox. With, of course, Lymond outmaneuvering, tricking, and finally conquering the wily Margaret in an exciting showdown for the ages. Of course it would exceed in guile and excitement the climaxes we were treated to in 4 of the 5 preceding volumes. The word “Checkmate” comes with certain expectations. The confrontation between the two had its rewards, but in the end that part was anticlimactic. But, thanks to the gorgeous and fulfilling conclusion to Francis’ and Philippa’s love story, It is a fairly minor quibble. In the end there is peace and joy at long last, and that is enough. But still so many questions! I learned from reading this series that sometimes that’s not a bad thing.

So many lovers of this series have read it many times. They comment how much they missed the first time. I had a different experience, thanks to helpful websites and Youtube chapter by chapter discussions posted years ago which leant valuable insights, and conscientiously avoided spoilers. They added historical political and religious context, explained obscure literary allusions, translated foreign language passages, and a whole lot more. Many personal opinions and speculations over countless plot and character points were offered and explored. Not to mention, “What did Dorothy Dunnett really mean by that?” Some hearty souls read this massive work while it was still being written and had to wait years between books. I can’t pretend to imagine what that experience was like. Many forged ahead while up in the air as to whether all would end tragically with Lymond’s death (or worse!). Given his death wish, it seemed more than likely. I had the advantage of knowing the end would be a happy one, though I took great care to avoid any other spoilers. But a funny thing happened. I went through Checkmate and part The Ringed Castle, under a misapprehension. In looking up an innocuous factoid, I ran across what I thought was a huge spoiler. I caught a glimpse of the answer to one of the big running mysteries we had been teased with throughout the series: Lymond’s true parentage. But since I shut down what I was reading immediately, I got it wrong. It would have been quite juicy, had it been true, so I was a little disappointed when I finally realized that all of the clues that pointed in another direction were not, as I thought, red herrings. Also I read that one very important character died, and he/she didn’t. Where that came from I’ll probably never know. But I was sure happy about it.

So there you have it: A small part of my experience with this scholarly, flamboyant, and, yes, sometimes preposterous series which is influencing writers to this day. But I am certainly not done with Dunnett. I now have the audio books in my library and another series to look forward to: Niccolo Rising. Which from what I gather should be almost as profound a reading experience as was The Lymond Chronicles. We’ll see.
https://rebekahsreadingsandwatchings....

[Chad D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two decades ago, in my callowly ambitious twenties, I read the Lymond Chronicles from first front cover to final back cover. The experience was frustrating—masterful set pieces, swamped in relentless and impenetrable historical detail. The good parts were worth reading the frustrating parts for.

Recently I picked the series up again. In the interim, I learned a lot about early modern British history. I got a PhD in its literature. I visited England, and Scotland. The Lymond Chronicles should be more accessible, surely.

And the history and literature were clearer and more accessible, but the plot was still frustrating. The set pieces were still amazing, even more so, the detail was more penetrable (though not less relentless), but some of the plot lines still blurred. Dunnett’s design is so very intricate that it is hard to hold in the mind all at once. People would visit places and do things for obscure reasons.

By the beginning of Checkmate, the series had narrowed to two questions. 1) From whence comes Francis Crawford? 2) Will Philippa achieve happiness? The plot of Checkmate keeps focused on those twin foci. It is a page-turner, relentlessly, perhaps more so than any other of the series save The Game of Kings. One or both resolutions are almost always in reach or in peril. To the impossible heroism of Francis Crawford is now added, by the end of the series, the impossible heroism of Philippa Somerville. She is as larger-than-life as the series’s eponymous character, though at the same time heartbreakingly human and very, very easy to root for.

The set pieces are as frequent as and more powerful than other books in the series (Dunnett is as good at scenes at once intensely emotional and concussively plot-resolving as any author I have ever read). The conversation between Lymond, Sybilla, and Richard, in which three different people have three different agendas and three different levels of understanding. The conversation between Lymond and Philippa in his bedroom. The brief flurry at the end. Rather than paying off the intricacies of one book, they pay off all six.

The wit, too, is relentless, wit in the old sense, perpetual cleverness in the language and even in the physical details. Cleverness in most paragraphs, in most sentences--the surprise that someone smarter than me has a thought I would never reach on my own. Something that is difficult for me to understand is probably a cleverness I’m missing.

You shouldn’t dream of reading this as a standalone. But if you have persevered throughout the series, the strengths of the series are very strong here. This book is a focusing and a quintessence of them. You will almost certainly be very pleased.

[Bibliophile · Rating 5 out of 5]

Goodreads informs me that I last read Checkmate almost fifteen years ago (I could have sworn it was later than that, but who knows …) which probably explains why I had forgotten everything about it except Philippa's disastrous visit to the house on the Rue de Cerisaye and the qualified (because of all the suffering and death that went before it!) happy ending. So I was in a strange position of knowing the Big Events, but having forgotten all the smaller details that embroidered those big events, and led up to them and led away from them, neither wholly new to me nor wholly known, which might be why I was alternately engrossed and frustrated by the book.

I loved so many things about it, including the amazing scene where Lymond tells Philippa that he loves her, and later, that he cannot lie about that one good thing; I also loved (in a sobbing into my kerchief way) the moment when he is dying and remembers all his dead, last of all the little boy he could not save in Istanbul.

What I didn't love were Richard, once again acting like an ass to Lymond, and imputing horrible, venal motives to his brother after, time and time again, having it shoved in his face that Lymond wasn't the selfish hedonist he appeared to be (and man, what is with Richard's prurient interest in Lymond's sex life? Sometimes he sounds like a spurned lover, not a disapproving older brother.) I thought we were past that after the ending of The Disorderly Knights! (Yes, I realize Richard is sad that Sibylla is sad because Lymond won't come back to be with her - and I"ll get to Sybilla's own monumental selfishness in a minute - but I hate that Richard won't even consider how dubious his own motives are, how much he's jealous of Sybilla's ridiculous partiality for Lymond that she apparently never bothered to hide from her other children.) I almost wanted Richard to know at some point, that Lymond loved him so much that he gave up his own entirely legit claim to Midculter for Richard's sake and that of his family and his love for his mother.

AND SIBYLLA!!! You know, I was cheering Philippa when she rebuked Sibylla for making Francis (and Richard and Eloise!) suffer for the sake of Sibylla's promise to a dead man. I get that Francis Crawford Senior was the great love of her life, blahblah, but SHE HAD THREE CHILDREN. (And poor Eloise doesn't even get a mention, even though it's strongly implied that she, like Francis, was suicidal because of the mystery surrounding her parentage.) There is absolutely no reason I can fathom why Sibylla didn't just frelling TELL LYMOND what she told him at the very end of the book (and I still can't forgive her letting him believe that Richard was dead at Dieppe, like, really, WTF?) And it all gets hand waved away as "oh, it was the Dame de Doubtance's fault." Um, no, I think you all have some free will here too!

ALSO, Philippa and the whole quest to find out Francis's antecedents seems so wrong to me as well. He told her to leave it alone and so much misery ensued from her not listening to him; everyone keeps talking in the series about how birth doesn't matter (Marthe, Danny, Kuzum are all bastards, and we're always told that their lives are what they make of them) and then to have this whole story hinge on some crazy breeding program and Philippa's desire to find out who Francis's parents were just annoys the heck out of me, because it seemingly casts doubt on the entire idea that we're NOT fated to be who we are from our bloodlines. (I forgive Philippa more readily because I love Philippa so much… but still.)

In the end, I guess I felt sorriest for Jerrott, poor steadfast, honest, blunt Jerrott, who was trapped in this web of subtle lies and subtler truths that he was never equipped to handle, loving the wrong person at the wrong time and being destroyed. Maybe he went back to Malta and served under la Vallette and withstood the great Ottoman siege and was somehow happy there. I hope so :D

SO with all that said - I still really loved this book and loved the series. I can't even rate this book lower than the others because obviously if I can summon this passion towards fictional characters, something about them was completely moving and compelling to me. "Tant que je vive, mon couer ne changera…"

And now I'm going to go read some nonfiction for a while, because I'm not sure I'm ready for another novel after the glorious six weeks I've spent reading these.

[Danica · Rating 3 out of 5]

THIS BOOK IS GOING DOWN.

Lymond upon reuniting with Jerott: "Your ass got fat."
Me:

***

I've been sitting on my thoughts about this book for a while. It keeps bugging me. Like every time I think of this series I'm like -- "ASGLKAJGLKAJGASGAJGLK BEST SERIES EVER!!!!!!!!!" but then I think of the ending and my face takes on this involuntary grimace and I feel horribly let down by it, as if by a extraordinarily precocious child prodigy who goes to college swearing to solve cancer and comes back a obese couch potato with zero ambitions and his finger permanently inserted in a chip bag. Specifically, Marthe. Can I get a WTF, ladies? When I read it, I couldn't put a finger on what exactly about Marthe's ending - besides the obvious - made my mouth shrivel like a prune, but now I think I've got it. It's that we're made to feel relief at her death. After two books of investing our sympathy in this wonderful, horrible, faceted, mad, motivated, spit-in-your-face defiant woman, Dunnett has her decide to expose the family secrets. There's a dramatic confrontation and a stabbing of the adorable Monseiur Hislop thrown in for good measure. Then she goes and rides off while vicious thoughts of vengeance condense in a miasma about her head and the reader is like "noooooo. don't let this happen. STOP HER!" And she is stopped. In the most literal way possible. And then the reader puts down the book, blows out a breath that ruffles the bangs on her forehead, picks the book back up, and blithely forgets ALL ABOUT MARTHE when she returns to reading roughly twenty pages of Philippa and Lymond sexing in their blessed matrimonial bed.

As another review sniped, seeing a friend die horribly and graphically in front of you is a surefire way to make any rape victim horny again, I can tell you that.

Other than that I think I would've found this book extremely affecting if I hadn't been already spoiled for about 80% of its developments. Sabina called the First Baron Culter/Sybilla connection. I knew Marthe was going to die because clodhead that I was, I tried to read fic before finishing the series. I still felt nauseous at Philippa's sacrifice and my chest got all blocked up and my breath came faster when I was reading it. What else? I think another criticism that I've read elsewhere is spot-on. This last book is pretty much structured like a romance novel. Depending on your tolerance of Lymond/Philippa, this is either a great thing or a thing to make your gorge rise. Books 3 and 4 (still my favorites) were much more adventure-oriented, in that Lymond had an external enemy whom he pursued across several continents and eventually put to the death. But once the conflict guiding the narrative turned inward (books 5 and 6) -- Lymond struggles with his pain and wants to kill himself, among other tiresome retreads -- things get so much more soppy and ungainly.

Things that I liked: Lovely descriptions. And Adam and Danny. On the level of the writing, I thought Lymond's discovery of Philippa post-Bailey was very well done. Once again, Dunnett excels at letting the reader realize on her own the horror of the unstated. Powerful technique.

And poor Jerott:

"As he watched, she bent her head and crossing her hands, slid them along her forearms to still them. Oh God, thought Jerott. Don't let it happen. She doesn't deserve the torment. The lifetime of waiting, in return for a handful of moments of ecstasy. And standing behind him, always, the ghosts of his other, experienced women. The thoughts he did not share. The knowledge that one had his total friendship but never the key to the innermost door. . . . And there was an innermost door, which Marthe did not have, and had never had, although his hopes of that, and that alone, had been his reason for marrying her.

Adam was looking at him. Stupid with too much wine and too much emotion Jerott turned his head, and so caught, without warning, the expression on Austin Grey's face."

Can't remember anything else, it's all been blotted out by the wtf ending.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read April 2025
My second time through the Lymond Chronicles. Knowing how it all ends, I could relax into it and see things I missed. All the ratings I had bestowed on these six books, back in 2018, have stayed the same or gotten better, except this one, which is dropping from 5 to 4 stars, and here's why: it does not have the balance of the others.

First, it is weighed down by non-English poems, quips, songs and dialogue (mostly French and Latin), without translations or footnotes of course (very Dunnett). Lymond is well-read, artistic and theatrical so it's not a slam on his character; all six books showcase this worldly, polyglottal self-expression. But this one was way too top-heavy with them, it drove me nuts. Yes, there's google translate and other sources (forums and companion books) to suss out the meaning but stopping every other page to do that is a lot to ask.

Second, it's clogged up by the political and religious intrigue. Again, all the books use the Royal goings-on as a main character, and I've no doubt her historical research is deep and accurate. Even when I don't fully understand the political machinations (and I usually don't) I get the gist and can keep going. But I found the name dropping in this one over the top and unnecessary, as if she had promised these long-dead characters a shout-out, but forgot, until the last half of the book and then crammed them all in. Ugh.

Lastly, this is the romance book! The reader has waited six meaty books for this big finish and it hits the high note but doesn't stay long enough. The twist is great, it's beautifully written (I wept, I bawled, as much as the first read) and I'm not disappointed in what happens, but it's not enough. I felt that was more juice to squeeze out of the romantic orange.

Even though this last book is losing a star, I will always recommend this series (and House of Niccolo) to anyone and everyone. Dorothy has raised the bar quite high for hard-to-put down, epic historical fiction.

*****
5-star rating, first read:
It's already been over a day since I finished and I'm still hungover with Lymond-ness. Probably because I've been re-reading that last 10 pages or so over and over and over.

How can I give less than 5 stars to a book that I read straight through in one sitting? Well, almost, I did sleep fitfully for 3 hours.

Thank God that:
1) Warning, this is a HUGE SPOILER: Francis and Philippa get to be together FULLY! Such a happy and satisfying ending, despite the tragedy of Marthe. I think I'd still be crying if he had died, sooo close to having that joyous reunion with Philippa.
2) I am free from the grip this series has had on me! Although I would run out right now and read the next one if it magically appeared, I am quite relieved that I don't have that option. It was such an amazing ride and I will be re-reading these.
3) there are some discussion threads online for this series; so much to process and dissect!