From Publishers Weekly
Nicholas de Fleury, cosmopolitan merchant banker of late-15th century Venice, burgher of Bruges, master manipulator who craves absolute personal power, stands at the dawn of the modern age, shedding light on our own. In this sixth engrossing installment of her House of Niccolo saga (following The Unicorn Hunt), Scottish novelist Dunnett focuses on her scheming, autocratic, charming hero's startlingly modern open marriage to quick-witted, self-sufficient Gelis van Borselen. It's a war of wills, egos and attrition that erupts in 1471 as de Fleury (aka Nicholas vander Poele) snatches his infant son, Jordan, from Gelis's arms and kidnaps the boy, a pawn in a bitter power struggle that will take the lives of friends and rivals. Nicholas, who often resembles a mercenary or soldier of fortune more than he does a banker, serves multiple masters, working secretly for French King Louis XI while openly advising Charles, Duke of Burgundy and Scottish King James III. With her usual dramatic flair, Dunnett mixes historical and fictive characters in a tale that sweeps from Venice to Antwerp, Edinburgh, Iceland, France and Cyprus, where Nicholas undertakes a diplomatic mission to James de Lusignan, King of Jerusalem, Cyprus and Armenia. High adventure, high finance, war, piracy and royal intrigue enliven a historical romance that seems unerringly realistic in its quicksilver evocation of a world where happiness is fleeting and usually unexpected.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Readers who discover Dorothy Dunnett's razor-sharp prose for the first time in
To Lie with Lions will be delighted to find that they have more than 2,600 pages to savor in the five preceding volumes of the House of Niccolo saga, which began with
Niccolo Rising (1986). This complex and entertaining story of pre-Renaissance Europe tells of Nicholas van der Poole, who transforms himself from dye-yard apprentice into savvy businessman, gentleman, and, finally, head of the Banco di Niccolo, a powerful institution competing with the bank of the de Medicis and the Vatachino. Dunnett's great gift is to combine fascinating period settings and genuine historical events with characters of wit, deep emotion, and strong desires. Throughout the saga, Nicholas has been warring with his natural father, Simon de Fleury, who refuses to acknowledge him. He is also in conflict with Gelis van Borselen, who betrayed and then married Nicholas (
Scales of Gold, 1991), blaming him for her sister Katelina's death. To these battles, Nicholas brings as weapons his formidable talents: intelligence, physical skill, and, most recently discovered, the power of divining for metals--or people. The preceding five books have concerned themselves with some critical fifteenth-century commodity: sugar, alum, silk, glass, slaves, and with this sixth volume, the children of the aristocracy. Both Nicholas' legitimate and illegitimate sons are used as pawns by his powerful enemies, and his struggle to protect them takes him on journeys through Scotland and the Loire and on a truly epic voyage to Iceland, among the geysers, volcanoes, and polar bears. New and old fans of Dunnett's fiction will be enthralled.
Roberta Johnson
by Dorothy Dunnett
by Dorothy Dunnett
by Dorothy Dunnett
by Dorothy Dunnett
by Dorothy Dunnett
