Having Roger tell the tale in his own words is one of the things that makes this series so popular. Apart from the odd modernism, such as comparing Fotheringay Castle to a "prehistoric animal," this continues to work excellently, and on the long march north we get an insight into what it must have been like to be a menial in the retinue of a powerful noble. It is a long march too, with vague suspicions of lurking assassins, but it is not until halfway through the book that there is an actual murder for Roger to solve. This has the effect of cutting the book in half, and despite the historical verisimilitude of the affairs of each day, this has a less than satisfactory effect. Even less satisfactory is the ending, which struck me as being weak in many ways and disappointed me, as this is such a fine series usually with a good underpinning of research. I won’t spoil the plot by saying any more, but it has me wondering whether this is an interlude or a new direction for the series. I hope not - there are many histmyst series but this is one of my favorite mediaeval ones.