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The Tournament by Matthew Reilly (view source)

Revision as of 18:17, 30 January 2014

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|summary=When the plague returns to 16th Century England it is thought best to send the young Princess Elizabeth to Constantinople to watch the upcoming chess championship. Crikey! If that was not dangerous enough, a murderer is loose on the streets and Bess, along with her tutor, must solve the crime.
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Michael Matthew Reilly is somewhat of a guilty pleasure of mine; his novels are hi-octane adventures that are often as ludicrous as they are sublime. ‘The Tournament’ is a departure from his action packed Scarecrow and Jack West thrillers; instead creating an alternative history for our own Queen Elizabeth I. Why was she such a formidable leader whose reluctance to marry and dislike of the Catholics were only part of her make-up? Reilly poses a hypothetical tale about a 13 year old Bess going to Constantinople to watch a tournament of the world’s greatest chess players. Here she will be embroiled in a murder mystery alongside her tutor Roger Ascham.
Having read the synopsis for ‘The Tournament’, I was worried that Reilly had for some reason altered his writing style and decided to reinvent himself as the new Umberto Eco. However, after reading the first 5 pages, my fears were allayed. Reilly is as controversial and fun as ever! There is no doubt that ‘The Tournament’ is his most serious novel to date and in many ways his best. Creating a duel story of murder and chess in the 16th century is a very intriguing one and it works. There are certainly echoes of ‘In The Name of the Rose’ here, but only if you look at this as the Ladybird version of that great novel.
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