Review: The Jester

The first events of this book move exceptionally swiftly. All within about 50 pages, our "hero" Hugh deLuc’s village has been attacked by a group of Knights, he trundles off to the crusades, becomes disillusioned by the horrific acts being carried out in the name of God, and returns, only to find his wife abducted by a group of marauding knights, to punish him for leaving for the crusades with a band who were not the local Duke’s men. These Knights, tunics daubed with black crosses, were also searching for something very valuable. A Holy Relic more valuable than anything else in the Kingdom…and they come to believe that Hugh might know where it is.

So Hugh sets off to Tours - to infiltrate the castle where he believes his wife is being held, and rescue her - dressed only as a mere jester. However, that is still only the beginning of this sprawling historical adventure…

You must hand it to the authors, this is undoubtedly a rip-roaring adventure story. The historical detail whether correct or not I cannot say certainly adds colour to an already ebullient tale, and the characters are a vibrant and entertaining bunch. The only one with any real depth at all, though, is Hugh, but that matters little as the story moves so fast that creating fully developed characters would likely be a wasted effort, because the reader wouldn’t have time to appreciate it anyway!

In true Patterson style, this lightning-paced book is packed full of short chapters (there are 150 plus of them here, and roughly 100 more pages than most of his novels, which is good to see, as several of his recent books have been growing slimmer and slimmer…) and the pages flick by as if blown by the breeze. The quality of the prose is also getting better, closer to that of his first Cross novel, but I expect much of that is down to Gross.

Patterson fans are likely to be very pleased with this. Even though it is almost instantly forgettable, it has all the action of his thrillers, plus its set in an interesting time period which the authors utilise well. Certainly, read it, if only for the wonderful escapism it provides.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Fiona Walker

Book Review: The Jester