Lymond Chronicles

4 primary works • 6 total works

Disorderly Knights

by Dorothy Dunnett

Published May 1966

Before George R. R. Martin there was Dorothy Dunnett . . . PERFECT for fans of A Game of Thrones. 'She is a brilliant story teller, The Lymond Chronicles will keep you reading late into the night, desperate to know the fate of the characters you have come to care deeply about.' The Times Literary Supplement The Disorderly Knights is the third book in the series ----------------------------- 'The trouble about Mr Crawford is that he puts up with his enemies and plays merry hell with his friends' Summer, 1551, and Francis Crawford of Lymond is in Malta to assist the Knights of St John defend the island from an invading Turkish fleet. But under a weak leader there is dissension in the ranks of the Knights - and the chances of repelling invasion look slim. Here Lymond meets Knight Grand Cross Graham Reid Malett - known as Gabriel - a fellow Scot famed for his virtues. It is soon clear that Gabriel's wiles in war and intrigue rival Lymond's own as he attempts to bring his new comrade in arms into the bosom of his scheming. And if Gabriel should fail then his sister, Joleta, whose seductive charms no man can resist is waiting to prevail. Caught between warring factions and nations, between the wiles of Gabriel and the lascivious charms of Joleta, will Lymond prove strong enough to remain his own man? 'Romance in the grand manner. I recommend it for your delight' Sunday Times 'Melodrama of the most magnificent kind' The Guardian

Pawn in Frankincense

by Dorothy Dunnett

Published April 1969

Before George R. R. Martin there was Dorothy Dunnett . . . PERFECT for fans of A Game of Thrones. 'She is a brilliant story teller, The Lymond Chronicles will keep you reading late into the night, desperate to know the fate of the characters you have come to care deeply about.' The Times Literary Supplement Pawn in Frankincense is the fourth book in the series ----------------------------- 'It seems to me that on the whole we run more risks with Mr Crawford's protection than without it . . .' It is 1552 and the royal galley Dauphine, under the command of Francis Crawford of Lymond, sails the glittering but dangerous Mediterranean looking for a lost son. Yet as the search grows more urgent, Lymond knows he is being drawn deeper into the intricate web of his enemy Gabriel, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St John, who is already weaving a subtle tapestry of revenge. It is a journey that will lead Lymond to Constantinople and the court of Suleiman the Magnificent where a terrible game will be played with deadly and incalculable consequences . . . 'Marvellous, breathtaking' The Times 'Melodrama of the most magnificent kind' The Guardian

Ringed Castle

by Dorothy Dunnett

Published 11 November 1971

The fifth volume of Dorothy Dunnett's bestselling series of six novels exploring the intricacies of sixteenth-century history through the exploits of the soldier Francis Crawford of Lymond.

Checkmate

by Dorothy Dunnett

Published 24 April 1975

CHECKMATE is the sixth book of Dorothy Dunnett's famous Lymond chronicles, relating the adventures of Frances Crawford of Lymond, Scottish soldier fortune, scholar and wit. They have woven the threads of the sixth century into a web of suspense that is entangled only in this, the final volume, the magnificent climax to the whole series. France 1557. Lymond is bound over to serve the King for one year, after which he will be free to return to Russia where he believes his destiny lies. And yet the astrologer John Dee has said: "It is not one thing you seek, but two; and the place for neither is Russia....."

Queen's Play

by Dorothy Dunnett

Published December 1964

The second book in the world-famous Lymond Chronicles, which bring to life sixteenth-century history through the eyes of one man: Francis Crawford of Lymond. Menaced by England and riven by internal discord, Scotland in 1548 clung to a single hope of survival as a nation - an alliance with France to be sealed by the betrothal of the five-year-old Mary, Queen of Scots, to the Dauphin. But once in France, Mary suffers a series of ominous 'accidents'. The one man Mary's mother, the Dowager Queen, feels she can trust to procter her daughter, now seven, is Francis Crawford. Lymond is dispatched to France and embarks upon a nightmare game of hide-and-seek at the very heart of the glittering, decadent court of Henri II.

Game of Kings

by Dorothy Dunnett

Published December 1963

VOTED ONE OF BRITAIN'S FAVOURITE HISTORICAL NOVELS

Before George R. R. Martin there was Dorothy Dunnett . . . PERFECT for fans of A Game of Thrones.

'She is a brilliant story teller, The Lymond Chronicles will keep you reading late into the night, desperate to know the fate of the characters you have come to care deeply about.' The Times Literary Supplement
_____________

'I despised men who accepted their fate. I shaped mine twenty times and had it broken twenty times in my hands'

It is 1547 and, after five years imprisonment and exile far from his homeland, Francis Crawford of Lymond - scholar, soldier, rebel, nobleman, outlaw - has at last come back to Edinburgh.

But for many in an already divided Scotland, where conspiracies swarm around the infant Queen Mary like clouds of midges, he is not welcome.

Lymond is wanted for treason and murder, and he is accompanied by a band of killers and ruffians who will only bring further violence and strife.

Is he back to foment rebellion?
Does he seek revenge on those who banished him?
Or has he returned to clear his name?

No one but the enigmatic Lymond himself knows the truth - and no one will discover it until he is ready . . .

'A storyteller who could teach Scheherazade a thing or two about pace, suspense and imaginative invention'New York Times

'Melodrama of the most magnificent kind' The Guardian