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Irresistible adventure story based on the real-life figure of Jean Rombaud, who beheaded Anne Boleyn.
‘Cornwell is good… but Humphreys is better!’ HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
It is 1536, and the expert swordsman, Jean Rombaud, has been brought over from France by Henry VIII to behead his wife, Anne Boleyn.
But on the eve of her execution Rombaud swears a vow to the ill-fated queen – to bury her six-fingered hand, symbol of her rumoured witchery, at a sacred crossroads. Yet in a Europe ravaged by religious war, the hand of this infamous Protestant icon is so powerful a relic that many will kill for it…
From a battle between slave galleys to a black mass in a dungeon, through the hallucinations of St Anthony’s Fire to the fortress of an apocalyptic Messiah, Jean seeks to honour his vow.
‘Cornwell is good… but Humphreys is better!’ HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
It is 1536, and the expert swordsman, Jean Rombaud, has been brought over from France by Henry VIII to behead his wife, Anne Boleyn.
But on the eve of her execution Rombaud swears a vow to the ill-fated queen – to bury her six-fingered hand, symbol of her rumoured witchery, at a sacred crossroads. Yet in a Europe ravaged by religious war, the hand of this infamous Protestant icon is so powerful a relic that many will kill for it…
From a battle between slave galleys to a black mass in a dungeon, through the hallucinations of St Anthony’s Fire to the fortress of an apocalyptic Messiah, Jean seeks to honour his vow.
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Reviews
Thrilling, funny, well researched and, at times, painfully poignant
If you can find a first impression, hoard it and wait till it rises in value like a first edition of LORD OF THE RINGS. This is as good
To my mind Cornwell is good... but Humphreys is better!
This unusual tale conjures visions of an Errol Flynn-type Hollywood swashbuckler...the tale's well-told, engagingly written, and includes a colourful immersion into a time when life was cheap and danger or death literally waited around every corner. A gory but fascinating...look at the world in the early 16th century
Set against the backdrop of the Protestant Reformation, his superbloody Princess Bride-like adventure is, at its heart, a tale of redemption, well earned and hard-won
Humphreys' [Jack Absolute] breathes life into 16th century Europe with this fascinating tale of adventure and mystery...Humphreys' characters are well drawn and deeply empathetic, and Rombaud's mission remains entertaining throughout
Falling somewhere between the novels of Bernard Cornwell and Wilbur Smith, C. C. Humphreys has fashioned a rollicking good yarn that keeps the pages turning from start to finish
Don't miss this wonderful saga of magic and heroism ... stirring and delightful ... constantly exciting ... For sheer pleasure I've read nothing to match it all year