There are currently two new mystery series set during the time of King Arthur. Having read and greatly enjoyed Tony Hays’s The Killing Way, also reviewed on Myshelf, I was curious to see how this series compared. The short answer is that they’re really very different, in style and in their view of Arthur and his world. Both series make Merlin a wise man advisor rather than a wizard, but that’s about where the similarities end.

While this one isn’t exactly cozy (there’s "on screen" violence and some gritty scenes), it’s closer to that end of the reading spectrum. Arthur lives in a fairly traditional (to modern eyes) castle, and the focus is largely on people and relationships. The times, however, are far from cozy. Plague strikes Dover while Merlin is there to give his assistants a treat, and is spreading. Returning to Camelot, Merlin comes across gruesome murders with pagan overtones at Stonehenge. And warlords who have done the opposite of embrace Arthur as king keep everything unsettled. A constant sub-thread is Arthur’s promiscuity and its effects, including the resulting progeny. Arthur and Guinevere have no children and in this version of the tale are extremely unlikely to.

Convinced by some of his advisors that the plague was caused by his appropriation of the Stone of Bran, Arthur decides to return it, taking Merlin with him. For a trip designed to appease the gods (which one[s] depends on who you ask) and remove a curse, the expedition itself seems amazingly cursed, with more deaths that nearly include Arthur and Merlin, and do include more of Arthur’s suspected offspring. Who or what is behind the deaths and the plague... if what looked like plague really was plague in all cases?

How you feel about the people and their relationships is probably going to decide how well you like this book. I genuinely enjoyed some of it, but also quickly tired of the constant bickering and picking at / picking on each other, along with a number of otherwise irritating interactions. Helpful in moderation to add some spice, but here it goes way beyond overdone—exaggerated  (Arthur just ignored Merlin’s report of plague—PLAGUE—thinking he was joking??!!) and relentless. The fact that the story is told in fairly modern language probably emphasizes the effect. However, how annoying that all is is a matter of taste, and you may very well disagree. So give this one a try to enjoy a somewhat different and far from worshipful depiction of Arthur and Camelot. The setting and characters are vivid, very much real people and not just figures from legend. And there’s an interesting, enjoyable story wrapped around all that bickering.