Hmm, I meant to mark it currently reading last week. Now that I've finished it, I need to take it down a star, for a couple reasons. But first the good things....

This is a gripping supernatural thriller, set in Spain during the Inquisition. The main character is the Infante Real - the heir to the Spanish throne, and son to a king who was cursed - before the son was born - but the was to fall on "the heads of the innocent", so the Infante has always been told, and has always believed, that he himself had a curse. Over the course of the book, the Infante learns, as we do with him, just what the nature of the curse is, and he struggles to deal with it, keep its secret from his father, his enemies, his loved ones, and the Inquisition. Meanwhile an ambitious priest, a jealous bastard brother, and others all have their own agendas, which seem to require the Infante's destruction. This is great.

What bothers me about it is repetition: over 390-odd pages, we probably read 100 passages about how Spain is bleak, overly serious, and controlled by the Inquisition. Yes, mood is important, but after the first few times we know that everyone except visiting foreign nobility wears only uncomfortable black clothing, that everyone has to watch what they say because the church has spies and informants everywhere, and that Rolon (the Infante) is serious, moody, and not well liked. For the first half of the book I was able to put up with this easily enough, but it got to be irritating by the end.

The other problem is the ending. For a while the build-up to the big climax seems to really be rolling, everything is fantastic, then it makes a huge veer into what feels like left field at that point, and ultimately concludes in a not-very-satisfying way. Although apparently there's a sequel, and simply knowing it exists changes a lot about how the end events need to be interpreted - although the ending feels somewhat better with that information, I'm not sure that's a good thing in itself.

Nevertheless, overall a decent read. ( )

Pros: political intrigue, sense of dread throughout, wonderfully complex characters

Cons: slow & somewhat confusing beginning

King Alonzo II’s Spanish court works in close connection with the Inquisition of Padre Juan Murador, rooting out heresy wherever it lies. At an auto-da-fe, a condemned woman proclaims her innocence and pronounces a curse on Alonzo’s line, a curse his now 19 year old legitimate son bears the burden - and effects - of. The Infante Real, Don Rolon, is beset by doubts as to his worthiness to be the heir to the Spanish throne, as the curse worsens, turning him into a beast during the full moon. But he walks a fine line, as the king would prefer to see his bastard son, Gil del Rey, heir, and the inquisition is eager to find fault with those at court, with spies everywhere.

While the prologue, which sets the scene of the Spanish court and the curse, is easy to follow, I found the first chapter, which introduced Don Rolon a little confusing. We meet him travelling on his father’s orders to a remote castle. Given the number of titles and names used, I thought it was a large party, and only realized that the names and titles were for the same people when the text stated that only 5 people were travelling. The heir is called numerous things, and until I had them all straight (which didn’t take long once I was aware of the situation), it was a bit confusing. Similarly, I had assumed the men travelling with him were all friends, but that turned out to not be the case either.

It takes a while to get into the story as a lot of the early part of the book is cementing the personalities of Don Rolon and, to a lesser extent, Lugantes, the court jester. Other characters are fleshed out and given POV scenes later, when the company returns to court.

The characters are all fascinating, and diverse. Everyone’s terrified of the inquisition, though some less than others, assuming that their innocence and devotion protects them. The priests are all devout in their beliefs that they’re doing god’s work, even as they torture innocents. In fact, some of the most terrifying scenes in the book are listening to the priests justify their work, knowing they’re 100% oblivious to the irony of their accusations in comparison to their actions.

While I liked Don Rolon’s complexity in his dealings with everyone, my favourite character was the jester. Lugantes, though a little person and much mocked by the court as a whole, with the noted exception of Don Rolon, which earns him Lugantes’ devotion, is remarkably clever. He hides his cleverness with japes and jokes, and uses his lower status as a form of invisibility, to learn important news and visit people in private. He’s given a good amount of page time, and he’s instrumental in helping Don Rolon, though he also has his own interests (and love) to occupy, and worry, him.

Not given as much page time, but interesting all the same - if not as developed a character - is Don Rolon’s valet, Ciro Eje, a converso who’s not as devout in his Catholicism as would be wise considering his position.

Certain other characters changed over the course of the book, making me like them more. I’d put Genevieve, the French Queen and Don Rolon’s fiance in that category. Conversely, I liked Inez at first, but her unwise decisions - and to be fair, Don Rolon’s interest in her - put her in danger.

The king’s blindness towards what the priests were doing - and some of the liberties he allows them to take with their accusations and denouncements, is astonishing. And led to several plot twists, especially towards the end, that I did not see coming.

There’s a deep feeling of dread that settles on you as you read this book. As with actual torture, there’s so much anticipation of what the Inquisition will do to Don Rolon should they learn what the curse does to him that it starts to feel like a physical weight pressing you down as you read on. So many people you come to care for are in so much danger that you rush towards the ending, just to put yourself out of the misery of uncertainty. And while I wasn’t necessarily happy with the ending, it did suit the book magnificently.

The book takes place in Spain, but the protagonists are all invented - including the royal family. The curse makes the book a very light historical fantasy, though it reads like historical fiction. If you like political intrigue and touches of horror in your stories, you’ll love this. ( )