Sharon Kay Penman

Here Be Dragons

The sunne in splendour

When Christ and his saints slept

From the critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Sharon Kay Penman comes the story of the reign of King Baldwin IV and the Kingdom of Jerusalem's defense against Saladin's famous army. The Kingdom of Jerusalem, also known as Outremer, is the land far beyond the sea. Baptized in blood when the men of the First Crusade captured Jerusalem from the Saracens in the early twelfth century, the kingdom defined an utterly new world, a land of blazing heat and a medley of cultures, a place where enemies were neighbors and neighbors became enemies. At the helm of this growing kingdom sits young Baldwin IV, an intelligent and courageous boy committed to the welfare and protection of his people. But despite Baldwin's dedication to his land, he is afflicted with leprosy at an early age and the threats against his power and his health nearly outweigh the risk of battle. As political deception scours the halls of the royal court, the Muslim army--led by the first sultan of Egypt and Syria, Saladin--is never far from the kingdom's doorstep, and there are only a handful Baldwin can trust, including the archbishop William of Tyre and Lord Balian d'Ibelin, a charismatic leader who has been one of the few able to maintain the peace. Filled with drama and battle, tragedy and romance, Sharon Kay Penman's latest novel brings a definitive period of history vividly alive with a tale of power and glory that will resonate with readers today.

The Land Beyond the Sea

Falls the Shadow

Lionheart

A swashbuckling mystery set in England in the year 1193 traces the investigation of Justin de Quincy, the trusted confidant of Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, into the disappearance of Eleanor's son Richard Lionheart and the rumors concerning a conspiracy involving his brother John. Reprint.

The Queen's Man

The Reckoning

Recreates the tumultuous marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II, presenting a tale filled with love, ambition, betrayal, and murder.

Time and Chance

Devil's brood

A sequel to the best-selling Lionheart reimagines the dangerous final years of Richard I, tracing his captivity by the Holy Roman Emperor in spite of papal decrees protecting crusaders and Eleanor of Aquitaine's considerable efforts to secure his freedom.

A King's Ransom

When her son Richard is held for ransom in an Austrian dungeon and Prince John plots with the French king to prevent Richard's return, Queen Eleanor sends Justin de Quincy into Wales to recover a ransom payment that has gone missing.

Dragon's Lair

Steeped in political machinations, London in 1193 provides the setting for a new investigation by Justin de Quincy, the Queen's Man, who searches for the individual responsible for the brutal murder of a young girl in a churchyard while attempting to negotate a truce between the Dowager Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine and her son, John. Reprint.

Cruel as the Grave

Justin de Quincy is drawn into a high-level conspiracy when he is forced into a dangerous and uneasy alliance with his enemy, Prince John, after he is asked to investigate a forged document that implicates the prince in a plot to kill his brother, King Richard, a scheme that also endangers the woman Justin serves, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Reprint.

Prince of Darkness

**To celebrate thirty years since its first publication, Pan Macmillan are proud to publish this special, re-edited edition, with a new author's note from Sharon Penman** Richard, last-born son of the Duke of York, was seven months short of his nineteenth birthday when he bloodied himself at the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury, earning his legendary reputation as a battle commander and ending the Lancastrian line of succession. But Richard was far more than a warrior schooled in combat. He was also a devoted brother, an ardent suitor, a patron of the arts, an indulgent father, a generous friend. Above all, he was a man of fierce loyalties, great courage and firm principles, who was ill at ease among the intrigues of Edward's court. The very codes Richard lived by ultimately betrayed him. But he was betrayed by history too. Leaving no heir, his reputation was at the mercy of his successor, and Henry Tudor had too much at stake to risk mercy. Thus was born the myth of the man who would stop at nothing to gain the throne. Filled with the sights and sounds of battle, the customs and love of daily life, the rigours and dangers of Court politics and the touching concerns of very real men and women, The Sunne in Splendour is a richly coloured tapestry of medieval England.

The Sunne in Splendour

Sharon Kay Penman follows up her acclaimed novel Lionheart with this vivid and heart-wrenching New York Times bestseller about the last event-filled years in the life of Richard I of England, Coeur de Lion. November 1192. After his bloody crusade in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Richard and his crew are overcome by a sudden storm, its fierce winds propelling the ship onto the Sicilian shore. But this misfortune is just the beginning. Forced to make a dangerous choice, Richard finds himself in enemy territory, where he is captured—in violation of the papal decree protecting all crusaders—and handed over to the Holy Roman Emperor. Imprisoned in the notorious fortress at Trifels, from which few ever leave alive, Richard, for the first time in his life, experiences pure, visceral fear—while his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, moves heaven and earth to secure his release. Amid betrayals, intrigues, infidelities, wars, and illness, Richard’s courage and intelligence will become legend.

She was fifteen, carefree and innocent, unused to London's violence and its dark secrets. Why was pedlar's daughter Melangell brutally killed in a churchyard near Cripplegate, her head bloodied and her bodice ripped open? As the Queen's Man, helping Eleanor of Aquitaine in her search for her missing son Richard Lionheart, Justin de Quincy has one clear duty: to restrain Richard's brother Prince John in his relentless quest for the throne. Yet, even though he is intensely loyal to Eleanor, Justin cannot tear his mind away from Melangell's hideous death... Juggling his investigation and his allegiance to the Queen with the subtle intrigues at Court - including those of his treacherous mistress Lady Claudine - can Justin unmask Melangell's murderer without neglecting his royal duties?

This novel about the struggle for power in England in the Middle Ages centres on the life of Simon de Montfort, a French nobleman who came to England to lay claim to an earldom, married the King's sister, and eventually mounted a civil war against Henry III.

Sharon Kay Penman

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