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The Horn of Roland
Lucas Corinth, now a world-famous conductor and composer, returns with his daughter, Una, to the Alpine town where he grew up in the War. He is to be the guest of honor at a concert and will conduct the world premiere of his new work, "The Horn of Roland."
Out of the memories of his past and the haunting remembrances of occupation, secrecy, and danger springs an implacable threat: Corinth will be killed during his visit in revenge for an act of betrayal many years ago.
Una plays detective in this breathless series of chase and counterchase to the final, unexpected denouement.
Out of the memories of his past and the haunting remembrances of occupation, secrecy, and danger springs an implacable threat: Corinth will be killed during his visit in revenge for an act of betrayal many years ago.
Una plays detective in this breathless series of chase and counterchase to the final, unexpected denouement.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published August 28, 1974
97 people are currently reading
176 people want to read
About the author
Ellis Peters
208 books1,148 followersA pseudonym used by Edith Pargeter.
Edith Mary Pargeter, OBE, BEM was a prolific author of works in many categories, especially history and historical fiction, and was also honoured for her translations of Czech classics; she is probably best known for her murder mysteries, both historical and modern. Born in the village of Horsehay (Shropshire, England), she had Welsh ancestry, and many of her short stories and books (both fictional and non-fictional) were set in Wales and its borderlands.
During World War II, she worked in an administrative role in the Women's Royal Naval Service, and received the British Empire Medal - BEM.
Pargeter wrote under a number of pseudonyms; it was under the name Ellis Peters that she wrote the highly popular series of Brother Cadfael medieval mysteries, many of which were made into films for television.
Edith Mary Pargeter, OBE, BEM was a prolific author of works in many categories, especially history and historical fiction, and was also honoured for her translations of Czech classics; she is probably best known for her murder mysteries, both historical and modern. Born in the village of Horsehay (Shropshire, England), she had Welsh ancestry, and many of her short stories and books (both fictional and non-fictional) were set in Wales and its borderlands.
During World War II, she worked in an administrative role in the Women's Royal Naval Service, and received the British Empire Medal - BEM.
Pargeter wrote under a number of pseudonyms; it was under the name Ellis Peters that she wrote the highly popular series of Brother Cadfael medieval mysteries, many of which were made into films for television.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
October 14, 2020
Fine mystery
To my disappointment, The Horn of Roland is not a historical novel. To my pleasure it is one of Ellis Peters' better non-Cadfael mysteries. The Horn of Roland is the latest composition of famous composer Lucas Cornith. The music is based upon the original Chanson de Roland which relates the fate of Roland and the rest of Charlemagne’s rearguard at Roncesvalles. The story of Roland is one of the great epics and legends of Western civilization and much is expected from the composition.
Lucas has been invited to his Austrian home town to conduct the first public performance of the music. He has not been there for 26 years, since he left in 1944, fleeing the Nazis. In addition to his fame as a composer he is regarded as a hero of the resistance. However he has secrets and an enemy threatening his life for his actions in the resistance.
All of this develops into romance, mystery, danger and a revealing and resolving of old secrets. The story does have some young characters but no children or teenagers solving the mystery as in so many of Peters' other non-Cadfael mysteries.
To my disappointment, The Horn of Roland is not a historical novel. To my pleasure it is one of Ellis Peters' better non-Cadfael mysteries. The Horn of Roland is the latest composition of famous composer Lucas Cornith. The music is based upon the original Chanson de Roland which relates the fate of Roland and the rest of Charlemagne’s rearguard at Roncesvalles. The story of Roland is one of the great epics and legends of Western civilization and much is expected from the composition.
Lucas has been invited to his Austrian home town to conduct the first public performance of the music. He has not been there for 26 years, since he left in 1944, fleeing the Nazis. In addition to his fame as a composer he is regarded as a hero of the resistance. However he has secrets and an enemy threatening his life for his actions in the resistance.
All of this develops into romance, mystery, danger and a revealing and resolving of old secrets. The story does have some young characters but no children or teenagers solving the mystery as in so many of Peters' other non-Cadfael mysteries.
December 12, 2025
I’ve read and enjoyed two series by author Ellis Peters, but this stand-alone set in the Austria is just meh.
The title comes from The Song of Roland, the oldest surviving major work in French literature, but other than a musical composition being named The Song of Roland and a handsome, if enigmatic, trumpet player, there’s not much connection. Austrian-born composer Lucas Corinth has returned from England in triumph for a music festival to his birthplace, Gries-am-Sees in the Alps.
As part of the Resistance, an 18-year-old Corinth led 35 (a few at a time) who were sought by the Nazis into Switzerland, fleeing for good with the last of them and eventually ending up in England. Since then, Corinth has become an internationally recognized composer, and he will be debuting his newest work The Horn of Roland. Corinth’s pretty blonde daughter Una has come along, as well. But Corinth receives a death threat from someone who remembers him not as the hero the world considers him, but as a coward who abandoned what should have been his 36th and final rescue. I thought that Police Detective George Felse and/or his wife Bunty would be making an appearance at some point, as they did in The House of Green Turf, also set in Austria, but no such luck. Not sure that even the Felses could save this thin plot and an ending I saw coming before the halfway mark.
The title comes from The Song of Roland, the oldest surviving major work in French literature, but other than a musical composition being named The Song of Roland and a handsome, if enigmatic, trumpet player, there’s not much connection. Austrian-born composer Lucas Corinth has returned from England in triumph for a music festival to his birthplace, Gries-am-Sees in the Alps.
As part of the Resistance, an 18-year-old Corinth led 35 (a few at a time) who were sought by the Nazis into Switzerland, fleeing for good with the last of them and eventually ending up in England. Since then, Corinth has become an internationally recognized composer, and he will be debuting his newest work The Horn of Roland. Corinth’s pretty blonde daughter Una has come along, as well. But Corinth receives a death threat from someone who remembers him not as the hero the world considers him, but as a coward who abandoned what should have been his 36th and final rescue. I thought that Police Detective George Felse and/or his wife Bunty would be making an appearance at some point, as they did in The House of Green Turf, also set in Austria, but no such luck. Not sure that even the Felses could save this thin plot and an ending I saw coming before the halfway mark.
November 2, 2025
I have long enjoyed anything written by this author and this book was yet another gift. I am reminded that I should go back and look through lists to see if there are any other books she wrote I may have missed.
Lucky me, this was on sale for 1.99 from Amazon...now $7.99.
Lucky me, this was on sale for 1.99 from Amazon...now $7.99.
June 3, 2019
3 1/2 stars - no lower, because it's so beautifully written; no higher because I predicted the end about a third of the way in, and only hoped that the author would say "Ha! I knew you would think that, so I will address your prediction and then blow it out of the water with a fakeout and a much better ending!" But she didn't. It went pretty much exactly as I thought.
February 11, 2024
Lucas Corinth, a celebrated composer returns to a small Austrian town near the border with Switzerland for a special festival, including a premiere of his new piece The Horn of Roland. Being familiar with Cadfael I was expecting a historical mystery, but this is contemporary to the 1970s when it was published. Lucas (Lu) left the town during the second world war in controversial circumstances, to some he was a hero but to one whose father didn't make it, he was a traitor and a letter to the local newspaper made their feelings clear. I think if I were more interested in classical music I would be more invested in the story. Ellis Peters writes well, particularly about music but I was not too invested in the characters or the story, I much prefer Cadfael.
August 21, 2013
In the interest of full disclosure I must admit that when I picked this book up from the library I thought it would be a historical fiction telling of the the medieval story of Roland (which I was very excited to read based on Peters' fantastic Cadfael series. The copy from the library had been re-bound so I had no indication that it was not until I read in the second paragraph: "Una sat up straighter in the back seat of the car". Oops!
After updating my expectations I read what ended up being a very pleasant mystery set about 30 years after World War Two. Like the Cadfael series, Peters' books don't seem to be so much about plot or even characters but atmosphere and place. That is not to say that she spends a great deal of time describing the world but more that her writing style just seems to have exactly the correct pace and tone of the world of the novel. There is a homey, slightly rustic feel to her writing that fits so well a slightly sleepy abbey in England or a resort town in Austria. Similarly, I would have little interest in reading an Ellis mystery set in New York City; it would just feel off.
The character relationships in the novel were (possibly intentionally) a bit odd. The Una/Lucas, Christa/Lucas and (later) Una/Mike relationships all rang a bit false. Intentional or not it served to give the novel a source of tension it would not have had otherwise; I did not necessarily believe the relationships so I was very ready to accept that they were lies.
A word of praise must be given to Peters on how she writes about music. She obviously knows a great deal about it and it shows; she does not fall into the cliche trap most authors do when they write about classical music (it seems the the only thing many authors know about music is the word crescendo, which they invariably couple with soaring and use in places where there is not actually a crescendo).
Overall this is a fine book but it has not inspired me to go off and hunt down all of Peters' other non-Cadfael novels though. I think I'll stick with medival monasteries for the near future
After updating my expectations I read what ended up being a very pleasant mystery set about 30 years after World War Two. Like the Cadfael series, Peters' books don't seem to be so much about plot or even characters but atmosphere and place. That is not to say that she spends a great deal of time describing the world but more that her writing style just seems to have exactly the correct pace and tone of the world of the novel. There is a homey, slightly rustic feel to her writing that fits so well a slightly sleepy abbey in England or a resort town in Austria. Similarly, I would have little interest in reading an Ellis mystery set in New York City; it would just feel off.
The character relationships in the novel were (possibly intentionally) a bit odd. The Una/Lucas, Christa/Lucas and (later) Una/Mike relationships all rang a bit false. Intentional or not it served to give the novel a source of tension it would not have had otherwise; I did not necessarily believe the relationships so I was very ready to accept that they were lies.
A word of praise must be given to Peters on how she writes about music. She obviously knows a great deal about it and it shows; she does not fall into the cliche trap most authors do when they write about classical music (it seems the the only thing many authors know about music is the word crescendo, which they invariably couple with soaring and use in places where there is not actually a crescendo).
Overall this is a fine book but it has not inspired me to go off and hunt down all of Peters' other non-Cadfael novels though. I think I'll stick with medival monasteries for the near future
April 26, 2014
The blurb describes this as 'a classic whodunnit' and I guess it is, but it was pretty easy to guess the villain.
A good travel read.
A good travel read.
March 5, 2021
DNF - just didn't seem compelling enough to go beyond page 32
December 28, 2018
I generally enjoy Ellis Peters'books, but I found this one underwhelming. I give it a 4 for psychological elements and a 2 for plot development.
"The Horn of Roland" is about composer/conductor Lucas Corinth who returns to his Austrian hometown 28 years after he left. As a young man, he had been involved in the anti-Nazi resistance. He feels some trepidation about the return. This feeling is justified when he receives a death threat from the child of someone who died as a result of a failed mission. How this plays out as Corinth prepares for the debut of his composition "The Horn of Roland " involves his daughter Una, town officials, and a mysterious horn player. All the elements of a taut thriller are in place but they just flop around on the page.
Disappointing.
"The Horn of Roland" is about composer/conductor Lucas Corinth who returns to his Austrian hometown 28 years after he left. As a young man, he had been involved in the anti-Nazi resistance. He feels some trepidation about the return. This feeling is justified when he receives a death threat from the child of someone who died as a result of a failed mission. How this plays out as Corinth prepares for the debut of his composition "The Horn of Roland " involves his daughter Una, town officials, and a mysterious horn player. All the elements of a taut thriller are in place but they just flop around on the page.
Disappointing.
February 24, 2024
My mother's opinion: ''A bit melodramatic.''
She is not wrong. I enjoyed this for the time in the music world and the time in rural Europe. I thought all the characters were compelling individually, and I liked them, and I appreciated the portrayal of the father-daughter relationship, but together the four main characters felt sort of smooshed together for Plot Purposes. A bit of insta-love, some lack of chemistry.
Una, however much she feels oddly named to me because I just finished reading the Anne of Green Gables series and the Una in those books is a quiet, shy, sweet wisp of a girl, does have an action scene worthy of a Mary Stewart heroine at the end there, which I appreciated.
She is not wrong. I enjoyed this for the time in the music world and the time in rural Europe. I thought all the characters were compelling individually, and I liked them, and I appreciated the portrayal of the father-daughter relationship, but together the four main characters felt sort of smooshed together for Plot Purposes. A bit of insta-love, some lack of chemistry.
Una, however much she feels oddly named to me because I just finished reading the Anne of Green Gables series and the Una in those books is a quiet, shy, sweet wisp of a girl, does have an action scene worthy of a Mary Stewart heroine at the end there, which I appreciated.
May 24, 2020
Romantic suspense, with more emphasis on the suspense. Twenty-eight years earlier Lucas Corinth helped anti-Nazis escape over the mountains to Switzerland. Until one day, when he himself had to escape, but was unable to warn a colleague in time. Now Lucas is a world-famous composer and conductor, and has returned to the town of his birth for the premiere of his new work. But when he receives a death threat from that colleague's son, he agrees to protection, not so much for himself, but for his daughter, Una, whose whole life still stretches in front of her. Atmospheric, full of surprising twists and turns, this story keeps the reader on the edge of the seat. highly recommended.
December 19, 2020
2.5 stars. This is a standalone mystery/suspense novel, unrelated to either the Brother Cadfael or Inspector Felse books, and really not one of Peters' best. It was atmospheric, with lovely descriptions of the setting, and I enjoyed the focus on music, but the plot was thin and not particularly suspenseful. Worse, the characters and the relationships between them didn't really make sense to me. This was a case of too much Telling what kind of people they were and not enough Showing the details that would make them come alive for us.
May 11, 2019
I just honestly can’t recommend a book that I figured out each plot point. No mystery at all about who the villain was or who the witness would be or how it would end. I appreciated that when the daughter was “trapped”, (again no surprise it was going to happen or who did it) she escaped rather dramatically. I liked her gumption at that point and had the most dramatic moments. Otherwise really terribly disappointing.
February 9, 2024
Except for my admiration for Cadfeael, this is my first experience with Ellis Peters, and a surprise. I liked the gentle insight into an unexpected world, Austria in an unspecified time, but surely before the book's 1974 publication. The relationship between daughter and famous father, and their development as characters, was well told.
July 7, 2025
This story is somewhere between a 3.5 and a 3.75 simply because of the writing. After reading a lot of modern mush with weak story telling and elementary writing, Peters has a gift of capturing a place and people with her pen. The people are powerful - but the relationships are weak and odd (not quite realistic). Brother Cadfael is certainly better - yet I enjoyed this
February 20, 2022
A nice mystery/suspense. What a mess parents can make of their children, especially when they bring them up to think only of revenge. I do enjoy Ellis Peters' books - this is one of the few I hadn't read yet.
February 6, 2024
Well-plotted thriller featuring musicians and a long-buried grudge. It is a tragedy that this was not made into a film, since the characters and setting are so engaging and there is an amazingly tense finale to rival North by Northwest.
June 26, 2017
Pretty decent read. Somewhat predictable in places, but I enjoyed the story and the characters.
April 23, 2020
Skilfully done
Keeps you guessing until the twist is revealed. The dialogue tends to be a bit stilted, and the ending both predictable and somewhat of a letdown
Keeps you guessing until the twist is revealed. The dialogue tends to be a bit stilted, and the ending both predictable and somewhat of a letdown
March 15, 2022
Yes...it was good...a bit light, but okay.
December 5, 2022
One of Peters' earlier books, not as enjoyable as the Brother Cadfael series, but still a good mystery. Not too hard to guess the potential killer, but enjoyable overall.
December 30, 2025
astonishing!
Another masterful tale by the inimitable Ellis Peters! No one could foresee the ending of this gripping story. Riveting right through to the end.
Another masterful tale by the inimitable Ellis Peters! No one could foresee the ending of this gripping story. Riveting right through to the end.
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April 11, 2008here is a summary for chapter three if you need it.
The Horn of Roland Chapter Summary: The Winning of Durandal
The winning of Durandal, Chapter three, is about Charlemagne and his vassals went to the city of Nagar and the giant Ferragus was guarding the front gates. He challenged any Christian knight to come and to battle him, and 2 peers were taken captive in the city. Roland battled him, and they fought for a long time, and finally, took a truce so that they could rest. When they finished, they fought again. When Roland asked Ferragus where his weak spot was, he got a riddle instead. He figured it out, and stabbed Ferragus in the navel.
Then, King Charlemagne went to King Agolant and asked him to become a Christian. Agolant considered it, but then decided against it, because he saw how the poor were treated. Then Agolant scolded Charlemagne and taught him a lesson. Charlemagne was embarrassed and dressed and treated each peasant like royalty. After that, they went to war.
In that battle, his father Milo was killed died. He saved the life of the Emperor and disarmed the attacker. He took the attacker’s sword, Durandal, Durand of the Hard- Smiters and with that, drove away the Saracens, the enemy, and won the battle for Santonge. The King awarded Roland with the cities of Maine and Guinne. Roland went to the perron, a piece of hard iron from the sky. He tried his new sword on it and bit a piece off of the iron. That was remarkable, as for only one other sword could do that and that was King Charlemagne’s sword, Joyuese.
The Horn of Roland Chapter Summary: The Winning of Durandal
The winning of Durandal, Chapter three, is about Charlemagne and his vassals went to the city of Nagar and the giant Ferragus was guarding the front gates. He challenged any Christian knight to come and to battle him, and 2 peers were taken captive in the city. Roland battled him, and they fought for a long time, and finally, took a truce so that they could rest. When they finished, they fought again. When Roland asked Ferragus where his weak spot was, he got a riddle instead. He figured it out, and stabbed Ferragus in the navel.
Then, King Charlemagne went to King Agolant and asked him to become a Christian. Agolant considered it, but then decided against it, because he saw how the poor were treated. Then Agolant scolded Charlemagne and taught him a lesson. Charlemagne was embarrassed and dressed and treated each peasant like royalty. After that, they went to war.
In that battle, his father Milo was killed died. He saved the life of the Emperor and disarmed the attacker. He took the attacker’s sword, Durandal, Durand of the Hard- Smiters and with that, drove away the Saracens, the enemy, and won the battle for Santonge. The King awarded Roland with the cities of Maine and Guinne. Roland went to the perron, a piece of hard iron from the sky. He tried his new sword on it and bit a piece off of the iron. That was remarkable, as for only one other sword could do that and that was King Charlemagne’s sword, Joyuese.
October 27, 2012
This whodunit was a pleasant read--slightly reminiscent of Mary Stewart in its location and setting. Follows a composer and his daughter who return to the little German town of his birth to premiere a composition, if I remember correctly. I give this 4 stars because a) I'm a French Horn player and you have to love the horn-playing hero and b) I thought the climax of the mystery story was truly unique--
March 3, 2011
In general I really enjoyed this. It had a nice atmosphere and Una is very likeable. But I simply wasn’t clear enough on the relationship between Crista and Lucas. Are they in love? Is it a father-daughter thing? (In context this is not as creepy as it sounds.) I needed some more basis for judgement. [Feb. 2011]
September 23, 2009
An easy read, but I have a hard time recommending any whodunit where I figure out the major plot details (and quite a few minor) by page 50.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews