The Devil's Diadem

June 27, 2011
Douglass (The Infinity Gate) immerses the reader in a fully realized medieval world where the supernatural is taken for granted, but her story falls short. Maeb Langtofte inherited a noble name and not much else from her father. Her hopes of a secure future rest on serving as a lady-in-waiting to the house of Pengraic, but her place is imperiled by a devastating plague and Maeb's mutual attraction with the earl's son. Maeb must balance her desires and others' agendas, at the risk of her life and the lives of those she cares for. Unfortunately, the singular heroine gradually becomes a Mary Sueâstyle caricature: practically every man she encounters falls for herâeven her own son praises her sexual attractivenessâand she alone survives an otherwise invariably fatal illness. This regrettable transformation costs the story much of its plausibility and charm.

July 1, 2011
This prolific fantasy writer returns, with the first volume in a new saga. The time and place are a somewhat alternate twelfth-century Englandone suspects more Anglo-Saxon influence, for one thing. Lady Maeb travels to the Welch Marches to attend an earl's wife at a time when a fearful plague is said to be spreading across Europe. The earl has to leave the ladies while he rides out to keep orderbut what can he do against an epidemic that is said to give its victims visions of hell? Not to mention that the earl seems to have some dark secrets of his own, and Lady Maeb may possess a magical talisman sought by the devil himself. Readers weary of the classic talisman tale may still appreciate the emotional intensity, historical scholarship, and sound characterization of this fast-moving tale.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)