Heretic (Grail Quest) - Bernard Cornwell

...in love with Genevieve, a heretic girl whom he finds chained up in the castle dungeons and refuses to give up to be publically burned. Robbie becomes infatuated with her as well, and finds his values and loyalties to his friend Thomas tested when Thomas shelters the girl from the Church's wrath. Thomas quickly finds himself excommunicated by the Church, and is forced to abandon his command, fleeing across the countryside with his persecuted lover. ...
...was once home to the Heretic Cathars and rumoured keepers of the grail before they were scourged from the earth centuries earlier. Is it possible that he has found the real grail?

Thomas seeks refuge in a Cistercian monastery before being forced to flee, falling in with a ragged group of coredors (bandits) in his desperate attempt to surivive. Cornwell is successful in creating a sense of urgency and peril, and a feeling that the ... more

'Heretic', the third and final book in Bernard Cornwell's Grail Quest series, opens with a skirmish as the French army attempts cross the river Ham in another attempt to reclaim the English-occupied city of Calais. English archer Thomas of Hookton comes to the aid of his lord, the Earl of Northampton, assisting his escape when the Earl and his men become trapped on a marshy outcrop by the river in the face of overwhelming French odds. This is all depicted in a lively and exciting way, and kicks the off the book nicely, the pages thick with imagery of the splashing of hooves through water, the clashing of steel on steel and the thudding of crossbow bolts through armour and flesh.

The grateful Northampton sends Thomas and his companions to Gascony to search for the grail, with orders to capture the castle of Castillion D'Arbizon in Berat, which Northampton feels he has a legitimate claim over. Thomas, and his unlikely companions, namely Sir Guillaime, a displaced French Lord, and Robbie, a Scottish prince down on his luck, capture the castle in a stealthy night time mission accompanied by a small band of archers and men at arms. Dissent soon spreads throughout the new garrison however when Thomas falls in love with Genevieve, a heretic girl whom he finds chained up in the castle dungeons and refuses to give up to be publically burned. Robbie becomes infatuated with her as well, and finds his values and loyalties to his friend Thomas tested when Thomas shelters the girl from the Church's wrath. Thomas quickly finds himself excommunicated by the Church, and is forced to abandon his command, fleeing across the countryside with his persecuted lover.

Meanwhile, Thomas' enemies are closing in on him in their efforts to recover the grail for their own ends. His shadowy cousin, Guy Vexille, is seeking Thomas to torture out of him whatever knowledge he has. Vexille is in league with the corrupt Cardinal Bessieres, who, assisted by his murderous brother Charles, seeks to seize the papal throne by having a goldsmith fashion a fake grail and staging its discovery against the backdrop of the quest. Bessieres wants Thomas out of the picture, for fear that he might find the real grail and expose him as a fraud.

Elsewhere Jocelyn, the fearsome yet thick-skulled heir to the throne of Berat, seeks to retake Castillion D'Arbizon and make those who stole it pay for the insult with their lives. His uncle, The Count of Berat, who seeks the grail so God will grant him a son, finds a sealed chamber behind a solid wall in the catacombs beneath the ruined castle of Astarac, which was once home to the Heretic Cathars and rumoured keepers of the grail before they were scourged from the earth centuries earlier. Is it possible that he has found the real grail?

Thomas seeks refuge in a Cistercian monastery before being forced to flee, falling in with a ragged group of coredors (bandits) in his desperate attempt to surivive. Cornwell is successful in creating a sense of urgency and peril, and a feeling that the fibres of the wider story are slowly drawing together to a finale. Whilst there are no large-scale battles as in the previous books, these replaced instead by a series of small skirmishes and deadly fights, there is enough going on to keep the reader interested throughout. The book concludes with a truly savage white-knuckle struggle for the grail amidst the dead and dying in the castle of a town gripped by a sudden plague epidemic.

Whilst solidly entertaining, 'Heretic' draws to a somewhat messy close, leaving a number of questions unanswered. We never learn what became of Jeanette, the French Countess with whom Tomas was in love in the previous two books and whose captured son Thomas had sworn to rescue. Likewise, several newly-introduced characters simply disappear towards the end, their fates remaining frustratingly untold. The plot also feels rather contrived in places- The Earl of Northampton's sending of Thomas to Castillion D'Arbizon feels somewhat arbitrary and unconvincing, for example. The final conclusion to the quest itself is something of a letdown too. I won't give it away here, but suffice to say I had already identified exactly what the outcome would be from a couple of small, throwaway sentences carelessly placed into one of the earlier books.

'Heretic', unlike its predecessors, is largely based on fiction; everything other than the opening French attack and the introduction of the plague in the closing chapters is made up. I don't personally have a problem with this, as the book is still hugely believable and interesting, but given that Cornwell chooses here to incorporate such poetic licence into his story, he could have opted for a conclusion that was a little less safe and predictable.

Overall though, 'Heretic' remains an exhilarating read, and brings the series to a satisfactory if not particularly imaginative close.

Summary: a good end to a hugely entertaining series.

 

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