THE EDGE ON THE SWORD

Medieval history buffs will be enthralled byTingle's first novel. The author sets her tale in the late 800s and imagines the formative years of an actual historic figure, the West Saxon King Alfred's oldest child (a daughter), Æthelflæd. Heavily saturated with political and military strategy, it will likely hold boys' attention as well as girls. Fifteen-year-old Flæd's life becomes endangered when she is betrothed to Ethelred, chief aldorman of Mercia, because enemies opposed to the union start plotting against both royal families. Flæd escapes one kidnapping, but later, on her way to Mercia to wed Ethelred, a pack of raiders attack her party. Flæd must employ all she's learned about battle from books, her father and her faithful guard, Red. In this meticulously researched novel, which alludes to the poem Beowulf and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Tingle brings to life the mindset and emotions of her heroine, whose loyalty tinged with a rebellious streak is convincing enough to lay the groundwork for her destiny as "the greatest woman in Old English military history" (according to the closing historical note). If Flæd's wisdom and bravery seem larger than life, her regret over leaving her homeland and ambivalence about marriage make her all too human. Ages 12-up. (June)