What do you think?
Rate this book
The Castle
England, 1106 AD
The earl of Trent's Norman widow, Blanche, and her English steward, Miles Edwulfson, take possession of Blanche's estates, hoping to live a life of peace and quiet. However, they run afoul of a baron named Aimerie, who is building an illegal castle and taxing the surrounding manors--including Blanche's--to pay for it. Aimerie has ambitions that go far beyond this castle, to the heart of the English throne, and he won't let anyone stand in his way. What's more, Aimerie's hot-headed son, Ernoul, lusts after Blanche and wants to make her his wife. When Blanche and Miles refuse to pay Aimerie's taxes, Aimerie vows to crush them.
The earl of Trent's Norman widow, Blanche, and her English steward, Miles Edwulfson, take possession of Blanche's estates, hoping to live a life of peace and quiet. However, they run afoul of a baron named Aimerie, who is building an illegal castle and taxing the surrounding manors--including Blanche's--to pay for it. Aimerie has ambitions that go far beyond this castle, to the heart of the English throne, and he won't let anyone stand in his way. What's more, Aimerie's hot-headed son, Ernoul, lusts after Blanche and wants to make her his wife. When Blanche and Miles refuse to pay Aimerie's taxes, Aimerie vows to crush them.
- GenresMystery
300 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 18, 2022
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 14, 2022
This is the sequel to the author's "A Case Of Murdrum" which introduced the reader to the character of Miles Edwulfson and others. Reads fast and is a rollicking good adventure story set in Merrye Olde England in 1106.
As might be expected with a book about those times, there's a goodly amount of bloodshed - particularly in the last few chapters - in which, sadly, a couple of the better characters bite the dust, but then when you're doing these battles, you have to expect people to die.
Obviously, the plot revolves in great part about a castle, hence the name, but to go further would be to get into spoilers and I hate it when that happens which is why I very seldom read reviews - everyone wants to tell you what happens and why. So why bother reading the book? Just read a couple of reviews! I will just say, there's probably going to be a third volume in the series - and if you've read the first two, you'll want to pick up #3 when it comes out - probably next year.
If you're into historical fiction featuring swordplay, dukes, earls, a homicidal sadistic knight, outlaws in the forest and other characters you might expect to find in a period piece like this, you'll definitely enjoy this. You might want to pick up the initial novel and read it first so you'll have a better handle on who's who, although Broomall does a more than adequate job of explaining who these recurring characters are - there are some writers who could take a lesson from him in that department!
A highly enjoyable read. Not available in hardback, only in trade paper and probably on the dreaded Kindle.
As might be expected with a book about those times, there's a goodly amount of bloodshed - particularly in the last few chapters - in which, sadly, a couple of the better characters bite the dust, but then when you're doing these battles, you have to expect people to die.
Obviously, the plot revolves in great part about a castle, hence the name, but to go further would be to get into spoilers and I hate it when that happens which is why I very seldom read reviews - everyone wants to tell you what happens and why. So why bother reading the book? Just read a couple of reviews! I will just say, there's probably going to be a third volume in the series - and if you've read the first two, you'll want to pick up #3 when it comes out - probably next year.
If you're into historical fiction featuring swordplay, dukes, earls, a homicidal sadistic knight, outlaws in the forest and other characters you might expect to find in a period piece like this, you'll definitely enjoy this. You might want to pick up the initial novel and read it first so you'll have a better handle on who's who, although Broomall does a more than adequate job of explaining who these recurring characters are - there are some writers who could take a lesson from him in that department!
A highly enjoyable read. Not available in hardback, only in trade paper and probably on the dreaded Kindle.
September 16, 2024
Medieval mayhem
This book is not as much a "mystery" as the first book was. However, it does provide good insight into the lives of folks in the early 12th century. The description of clothes, food and customers all seem to be reasonably realistic.
It was certainly a brutal time to live...and the story reflects that. I also appreciated the size of the battles. They were a few dozen or so per side...and not the thousands per side.
It's a good read!
This book is not as much a "mystery" as the first book was. However, it does provide good insight into the lives of folks in the early 12th century. The description of clothes, food and customers all seem to be reasonably realistic.
It was certainly a brutal time to live...and the story reflects that. I also appreciated the size of the battles. They were a few dozen or so per side...and not the thousands per side.
It's a good read!
February 17, 2024
Good read. Fictional history a good plot and believable characters.
Kept my interest more than the first book in the series. I didn't finish the first book until after reading the second. I need more information about the characters and how the relationship developed between them.
Kept my interest more than the first book in the series. I didn't finish the first book until after reading the second. I need more information about the characters and how the relationship developed between them.
February 26, 2023
Too much gore for my liking but you have to admire Miles and Blanche.
March 8, 2023
An all round excellent read. I recommend it.
Buy it read it. Most enjoyable. A fab romp through medieval England. I look forward to more tales in this series.
Buy it read it. Most enjoyable. A fab romp through medieval England. I look forward to more tales in this series.
August 17, 2024
Another great adventure
Bad Lords, good lords, a love story against the odds and the trials and tribulations of those that live within the manor - thoroughly recommended.
Bad Lords, good lords, a love story against the odds and the trials and tribulations of those that live within the manor - thoroughly recommended.
May 1, 2025
Couldn't put down
Excellent book, great plot. Really enjoyed learning about the traditions and customs of the time. You will not regret ready this one.
Excellent book, great plot. Really enjoyed learning about the traditions and customs of the time. You will not regret ready this one.
February 19, 2024
I want to give this a better rating but it has a lot of serious problems. First off, someone is building a castle, which the locals are being forced to help with labor and taxed to pay for it. Building a castle is only allowed at the time if the King specifically permitted it or commanded it. Its like building a military base in your back yard.
Given that the man who is building the castle is an enemy of King Henry and was chased away by the law to France, now is back and declared himself a Baron (the circumstances are hazy in the book, its possible he married into money, but could not inherit a title from a wife in any case), the king would ABSOLUTELY never allow this.
Yet at no point in the entire book does someone say "hey, let's send a messenger to the king with this information." There's no way people would obey this jerk and his horrific rapist murdering son, just because he says he's a baron, either.
And again, although there's a better attempt to include the church in this book, its only a very side part of the community and culture, like priests exist, but they're just a guy in the village and people make almost no effort whatsoever to be religious beyond swearing.
The story was okay, it took a lot of twists and turns and unexpected paths, but there are logistical problems. How many soldiers does this fake Baron have, exactly? We know he has 5 knights, who are never named (except for the "Baron's" son who is made the 6th), but he seems to have an endless number of cannon fodder who are mowed down by villagers and ex soldiers. How on earth he supports this vast retinue is not clear. Worse still are the bandits, who seem small in number at first, but dozens die, and they don't freak out at the loss of membership, but just go on demanding revenge with even more bandits like they are generated by a computer program.
And finally the author goes out of the way to portray a great number of the men as monsters but all the women in the book, without exception, are the bestest evar and heroic and strong and brave and even the bad ones aren't really bad in the end. Which is kind of annoying, since there are bad women and good men, mixed together in any real culture.
Its not uniformly bad. The story is overall entertaining. The characters of Miles and Blanche are interesting, as are some of the others, especially the peasant girl. The treatment of women is not unreasonable for the time, that felt historically plausible, as was a neighboring lord's extreme distrust of Saxon locals and contempt for them. A lot of this was well written, but it needed better understanding of laws, military, and logistics for the time period, as well as a more rounded perspective on human nature.
Given that the man who is building the castle is an enemy of King Henry and was chased away by the law to France, now is back and declared himself a Baron (the circumstances are hazy in the book, its possible he married into money, but could not inherit a title from a wife in any case), the king would ABSOLUTELY never allow this.
Yet at no point in the entire book does someone say "hey, let's send a messenger to the king with this information." There's no way people would obey this jerk and his horrific rapist murdering son, just because he says he's a baron, either.
And again, although there's a better attempt to include the church in this book, its only a very side part of the community and culture, like priests exist, but they're just a guy in the village and people make almost no effort whatsoever to be religious beyond swearing.
The story was okay, it took a lot of twists and turns and unexpected paths, but there are logistical problems. How many soldiers does this fake Baron have, exactly? We know he has 5 knights, who are never named (except for the "Baron's" son who is made the 6th), but he seems to have an endless number of cannon fodder who are mowed down by villagers and ex soldiers. How on earth he supports this vast retinue is not clear. Worse still are the bandits, who seem small in number at first, but dozens die, and they don't freak out at the loss of membership, but just go on demanding revenge with even more bandits like they are generated by a computer program.
And finally the author goes out of the way to portray a great number of the men as monsters but all the women in the book, without exception, are the bestest evar and heroic and strong and brave and even the bad ones aren't really bad in the end. Which is kind of annoying, since there are bad women and good men, mixed together in any real culture.
Its not uniformly bad. The story is overall entertaining. The characters of Miles and Blanche are interesting, as are some of the others, especially the peasant girl. The treatment of women is not unreasonable for the time, that felt historically plausible, as was a neighboring lord's extreme distrust of Saxon locals and contempt for them. A lot of this was well written, but it needed better understanding of laws, military, and logistics for the time period, as well as a more rounded perspective on human nature.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews