To escape a lifetime of poverty, mercenary Sir Benedict Palmer agrees to one final, lucrative job: help King Henry II’s knights seize the traitor Archbishop Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. But what begins as a clandestine arrest ends in cold-blooded murder. And when Fitzurse, the knights’ ringleader, kidnaps Theodosia, a beautiful young nun who witnessed the crime, Palmer can sit silently by no longer. For not only is Theodosia’s virtue at stake, so too is the secret she unknowingly carries―a secret he knows Fitzurse will torture out of her.
Now Palmer and Theodosia are on the run, strangers from different worlds forced to rely only on each other as they race to uncover the hidden motive behind Becket’s grisly murder―and the shocking truth that could destroy a kingdom.
Oh cruel world! The language grips you and draws you into a reality so different, cold and cruel, that you want to escape. But that’s not so easy as the plot, unrelenting, takes you from a battle at sea through cobbled streets to the cathedral where the gruesome murder takes place. You plan your escape at the end of the next chapter but, too late, the characters like a shroud have wrapped themselves around you and refuse to let go. You need to know what happens to Theodosia, are we seeing the true Palmer,…
Medieval Roller Coaster Ride “The Fifth Knight”, by E.M. Powell, attracted me because I read many novels about Thomas Becket (my patron saint), The Templars and Arthurian Legend. What I took away from this work cannot be explained, except like this: I am richer in spirit and historic perspective because of it.
The Fifth Knight Changes Everything This book is a fast paced story that provides a new twist on the story of Thomas Becket’s murder. Adding the fifth knight changes everything you have heard about the event and opens up a gripping alternative account of it.