Once you get used to the peasant lingo of 1590, British author Pilkington's third Thomas the Falconer historical (after A Ruinous Wind
) offers a real treat. Thomas Finbow, master falconer, is called into service by the impoverished Sir Giles Buckridge, lord of Chilbourne manor, to train his hunting hawks. A wild "ramage" hawk has escaped, and its flight is soon matched by that of Sir Giles's oldest daughter, Jane, from an unhappy betrothal to Stephen Ridley, a "dried-up merchant with an abacus for a soul." Thomas leads the search for the wayward girl, and, assisted by various underlings, takes us the length and breadth of Wiltshire in a prolonged quest. With bits of humor interwoven, the story darkens with the involvement of a murderous duo searching for a hoard of Spanish gold ducats looted from one of Sir Frances Drake's ships. This tale gives an authentic sense of Elizabethan life's visceral side with all its lawlessness and brutality, including a climactic battle over the stolen bags of gold and "a tearful reunion" of battered and bruised survivors who are much indebted to the lowly falconer from west Berkshire. (July)
