Review: "The Mystery of Lancelot Kingdom" by Andre Alexander ★★★★

Review The Mystery of Lancelot Kingdom by Andre Alexander

Robin Hood meets The Winter King and Snow White and The Huntsman with a touch of Lord of the Rings and The Witcher in this medieval fantasy mystery.

Alexander was a wanted criminal with an award on his head. It was the talk of the century. To the rebels, a hero had been born, and to the rest, he was nothing but pure evil.

PLOT SUMMARY
Princess Juliet of Jewel Kingdom has been betrothed for 2 years to marry King Henricus Draquin “Drake” of Lancelot Kingdom. They are to be wedded in the next month. While she and her stepsister Lady Mariette are escorted to Lancelot Kingdom, they are attacked on the road by bandits and giants. Juliet falls into the river but is rescued by a mysterious outlaw, Alexander Blackstallion, who disappears, and she is reunited with King Drake.

Once at the castle, Mariette discovers a bracelet, engraved with the words “To my Eduard. With all my love the Queen”. This is puzzling as, according to documents – and both Juliet and Mariette’s knowledge of the kingdom – no such prince existed. And what’s more, none of the staff have been employed there long, the most being 2 years. Louise, the kingdom’s healer, befriends one of the prisoners in the dungeon who there is more to than meets the eye. Stranger still, there is an ill omen of a crow attacking a raven.

The more the women uncover secrets, the more they are uncertain of everything they have ever known. With enemies closing in left, right and center (including a Silver Warrior with a wicked crow as a pet, a temptress who governs the kingdom of dark Clorestica and those within their own kingdom), they have no choice but to seek out Alexander to find out the dark secrets of Lancelot.

The story is written in a past-tense third-person narrative, from the points of views of just about all the characters.

OVERALL OPINIONS
I must commend André on his efforts to publish this book. This story came out around 2 years ago and, honestly, deserved more hype than it did. What an incredible read! A rare thrilling combination of the medieval period, magic and mystery. I hope André can one day finish the series as was originally intended. I wish him all the best in this.

The writing is very descriptive, you can tell exactly how André wanted you to imagine his characters, locations, architecture and action. I love any story that is rich in detail: I really felt like I was there! Its style is akin to J.R.R. Tolkien’s LOTR trilogy and Bernard Cornwell’s The Winter King trilogy with a little bit of Elizabeth Chadwick’s books. If you like any or all of these authors, you should absolutely check this story out!

<< Positives >>
🠚 Plot: I always enjoy a good Robin Hood-esque tale, and this had so much action and adventure as well as the constant stimulation of the mind trying to piece together the mystery as I read along. – and the twists were not so predictable as other books can be (except the more obvious one concerning the King himself). Some things I thought I had worked out were actually not the case, so this book kept me guessing.
🠚 Characters: There were so many great characters. I love how many strong female characters were within this book, mostly Juliet and Mariette but Louise too. I loved the bond between the two sisters as they worked together. Daniel Broadnose, commander of the guard, had some really epic moments. I liked the idea of Count Ashley’s character being a horse whisperer, I think he was my favorite besides Alexander. I always loved the idea of having a crow as a pet so I found the Silver Warrior really cool haha.
🠚 The play on the character names: e.g. Drake means dragon (rather fitting for the “monster” they discover he is), Alexander means man’s defender (considering he is the Robin Hood character, this is perfect)
🠚 There were quite a lot of amusing moments. My favourite has to be Mariette lobbing a stick at Ashley after him saying it was not ladylike of her to use such language – that was hilarious! And when Daniel keeps beating Ashley at chess: “Ashley was convinced he had gotten that nose from numerous opponents breaking it with a chessboard.” – I loved this description! Absolute perfection!
🠚 I really appreciate André having a prologue which contains the history of the three kingdoms. This really helps when first getting into a story by establishing some of the things you need to know. Not everyone does this, and I always find this annoying. Kudos to you, sir!

<< Negatives >>
🠚 My main issue was in the spacing of some paragraphs. I feel the dialogue could be spread out instead of in the same paragraphs because there were confusing moments where I lost track of who was actually speaking. This made me come out of some more important moments. This, of course, can be easily fixed and would make the story even better.
🠚 Some aspects of the story I would have liked more detail about, such as Mariette’s gift of being a clairvoyant. I assume some plots will be expanded on if the story continues. Some moments also felt very random, like Trevor’s character (why does he help at one point and not elsewhere?)
🠚 A map would be handy to see where the kingdoms are in relation to each other and where some of the events in the woods take place. This is just me being picky though!

INSPIRATION
This story has taken inspiration from various works before and has been given back excellently combined, and I loved these touches.
🠚 Tolkien and Cornwell’s stories for not only the in-depth and insightful descriptions but also the character of Maester Morgan resembling Gandalf and Merlin respectively. Indeed, I could tell André was heavily inspired by Tolkien (as we all should!) from certain names like Argon and Faramis, to quotes rather similar to Gandalf that Morgan says, to the temptress able to see the past, present and future like Galadriel
🠚 I mentioned the film Snow White and The Huntsman previously because the temptress in this story reminds me of Ravenna, controlling crows and using magical powers.
🠚 The description of the Silver Warrior alone made me think of Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher – of course, a more evil version of him – and the fact he has a pet crow was giving the vibes of Grimaud from The Musketeers season 3 (one of the best TV villains, in my opinion).
🠚 There was even a moment near the start of the story where I was reminded of Ever After: A Cinderella Story as the royal family of the Jewel Kingdom have a tradition of waving at the gate when departing. This is much like Cinderella’s father’s tradition of waving to her at the gate before departing.
🠚 “my dear sister” reminded me of Sherlock Holmes “Elementary, my dear Watson”.

FAV QUOTES
• The blackened landscape had the illusion of a giant’s open hand about to grab the castle in its mighty grip, but the clear crystal-like waterfall just right of the centre prevented that.
• The enormous fates were placed between two beautifully sculpted stone angels with their wings coming together on the top to form the gatehouse.
• Mariette came bursting into the room breaking down the door. “Hello, my most beloved sister,” she rushed across the room and sat on the side of the bed. “Your only sister. What do you want?”
• King Drake’s chest swelled: he drew in air and his whole body seemed to grow tall. The people sensed his mood: in it, they read love, trust, and honour for the woman he was to present to them.
• Thaddeus had to, on more than one occasion, duck away from a swinging crutch when a more elaborate interpretation of events was being conveys and guffawed boisterously. • He crossed the room to where Juliet was seated on a red throne-like chair, kissed the yellow tulip, and handed it to her. He stared at her for a wonderful moment, his eyes glistening, and in that moment, she loved him more than ever before.
• The light shone onto Daniel’s legs, and he played with the dot of light that shone off his boot buckle, making it dance on the wall. Then the door was filled in shadow, ending his little game and darkening the tavern.
• Silver-scar was a mater strategist, one he would not want to meet during a battle not containing a game board.
• “if there’s something to find, I’ll find it before I marry the King.”
• “glory, handsome, arrogant, cheeky as hell, glad to have met him, good to be rid of him, Alexander.”
• “Ingenious,” Richard finally said, to angry stares from those around him. “What?” he shrugged his shoulders. “Say what you will, it is true.” | “Well, now that we have established he is a clever bastard, what are we going to do to stop him?”
• “We are women. The role we play in life is never easy. Men are brutes, most of the time only thinking of sex and survival. We are their moral wind-socks. That is how we lead.”
• “It’s her knee.” “It’s my ankle,” they both said at the same time. “It’s her knee AND ankle,” Mariette corrected.
• Mariette’s arrow flew. In the moment that followed, [Alexander] caught it beside his head and threw his knife, pegging it into the wall an inch from Juliet’s face. Everyone froze. “…Presume to threaten me again, and I’ll end you.”
• Here stood two men fighting each other, both with a misconception of what was really going on, both with the best intentions.
• Considered by most an intellectual god among men, they expected arrogance or superiority, and he he was eccentric, funny and pleasant and most of all grounded.
• “You can’t understand it… the morality of knowing what I know and deciding what to do with it… there is a very significant different between knowing the path and walking the path.”
• The peace would not last, and anyone among them could be the one to rule them all.