The Relic Master

For his latest comic novel, Buckley (Thank You for Smoking) turns his satiric eye from the political present to the dramatic Holy Roman Empire in 1517. Dismas, ex-mercenary, plies his trade as a buyer of religious artifacts for his two primary patrons: Frederick, Elector of Saxony, and the ambitious Archbishop of Mainz. Egged on by his good friend, painter Albrecht Durer, Dismas tries to sell the despised archbishop a fake shroud of Christ. But when the deception is uncovered, Dismas is forced to do penance by stealing the real shroud of Christ from the Duke of Savoy, who lives in Chambery. Accompanied by Durer and a small band of mercenaries, Dismas heads for Chambery, stopping along the way to rescue an apothecary's daughter who's accused of being a witch. Disguised as pilgrims, Dismas and his band are granted an audience with the duke, which brings them one step closer to the shroud. But complications in the form of Signore Caraffa, the Machiavellian henchman to Lorenzo de' Medici, stand in their way. This historical novel is part Monty Python and part Ocean's 11. The clever narrative is filled with laugh-out-loud one-liners but, amazingly, doesn't stint on the suspense as Dismas tries to play all the angles to get his hands on the shroud. Through the cheeky humor, the author gives readers a very real sense of the early 16th century, when science and superstition held equal sway, and a man was always a swordsbreadth away from a horrible death. (Dec.)