I l iked the book.
I was always interested in Jeanne d´Arcs Story and this book cleverly links it to the present day

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

February 2014: Police Capitaine Inés Picaut is called out to investigate a blaze in the old town of Orléans. This is the fourth in a series of increasingly brutal arson attacks, and at the centre of the conflagration lies a body. An Islamic extremist faction claims responsibility, but Inés and her team cannot trace its whereabouts, or any evidence of its existence. And a partly melted memory card found in the victim's throat is the only clue to his identity.

September 1429: Joan of Arc is in the process of turning the tide of The Hundred Years' War. English troops have Orléans under siege, and Tomas Rustbeard, the Duke of Bedford's most accomplished agent, finally has her in his sights. But he knows that killing 'The Maid' – the apparently illiterate peasant girl who nonetheless has an unmatched sense of military strategy and can ride a warhorse in battle – is not enough. He must destroy the legend that has already grown around her. And to do that, he must get close enough to discover who she really is.
More fires rage and the death toll mounts while Inés fights to discover what connects an expert in the analysis of war graves, the unquenchable ambitions of the Family which seeks to hold the city in its absolute power, and the discredited historical theories of her own late and much lamented father.
When Tomas risks everything to infiltrate the hotly defended inner circle of the Saviour of France, he finally discovers a secret that will prove as explosive nearly six hundred years later as it would do if revealed in his own time.

*3.5 stars*

There is a danger mixing historical fiction with contemporary stories as the focus on one or the other can waver - and I think this book did suffer from that a little bit.

For the first half of the book, I was right there - the historical story of Joan of Arc and the military campaigns of the 15th century was fascinating. It was so well written; some authors make reading historical fiction like studying history at school - boring loads of info with nothing to keep it interesting. That is not the case here at all. I really did fly through that stuff and enjoyed it immensely.

However, as the modern story started to come to the fore later in the book, it started to lose its focus and really did become a modern thriller novel. And that really isn't a compliment. With the historical story, we got tight, compelling writing - with the modern, we got unbelievable characters doing even more unbelievable things. We even got a random romance angle that I have no clue what it was doing there.

I think this would have just been a far better novel if the author had just stuck with telling the Joan of Arc story and not tried to make it a dual narrative. It just really didn't work here.


Paul
ARH