Requiem for a Knave (review) by Laura Carlin

From Goodreads

From the author of The Wicked Cometh comes a dark, page-turning tale of passion and romance in the darkest of places. . .

Carlin can tell a good story Observer

After the death of his mother, young Alwin of Whittaker leaves the only home he has ever known to seek answers about his unknown father through a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham.

On the journey, Alwin falls in with a band of violent and marauding soldiers and is witness to their terrible crimes. When Alwin later joins up with a group of pilgrims, he must hide his identity . . . but he is not the only one with secrets to keep. Rosamund, a young woman travelling the same path, has much to conceal too.

The journey to discovering who he really is will lead Alwin into great danger and great passion. These are dark times, and through them, Alwin must shine a light.


My thoughts

My thanks to the Publishers for a copy of this book to read and review prior to publication day. I took part in the blog tour for this one. Sadly, I didn't get time to finish it in time to review it on the blog tour, so my blog post about it was an excerpt post rather than a review. I did promise to post a review blog post about the book once I had read it, so here it is.

I gave this story a 7/10 or 3.5 stars. The story is an interesting one in many ways, one is that it's written in part in an older style of English to one that we are used to reading. Whilst this took a little getting used to at the start, I feel that it added to the charm of the story. This is the first story that I have read by this Author and I will be looking to read more in the future.

Telling the story of Alwin who sets out on a journey of discovery to find out about the father and family that he has never known, following the death of his mother. His mother had shielded him all his life from aspects of his origins that she knew would be a cause of some concern for him. As his journey progresses Alwin does indeed find out secrets about his past and some of these, I felt that he would have preferred to have been kept in the dark about.

Partially set around the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, (this brought back some memories for me as I visited this shrine in my youth on a Church choir trip) and the Norfolk area this was a journey not just of discovery, but romance too.

I liked the writing style, it fit the narrative of the story and time that it was set in well. As I was reading the story I got the impression that there was more to Alwin than what we were told and I wasn't disappointed to find out that my feelings were in fact well justified. I enjoyed taking part in his journey with him.

You could follow and take part in Alwin's journey if you grab a copy of this book for yourself, it's available from all the usual places.