The melodramatic tenor of Fields's (Marrying Jezebel) medieval-era cloak-and-dagger caper is surpassed only by the sheer implausibility of its plot. When 16-year-old Jared de Navarre discovers that Lady Isabeau de Lyon, his eight-year-old charge and betrothed, is missing, he vows never to return until he has found her. Sixteen years later, Jared, now a mercenary named the Black Lion, meets with the Shadow Hunter, a notorious assassin who is none other than Isabeau disguised as a man. Although she recognizes Jared instantly, she keeps him in the dark as to her identity and hires him to aid her in perpetrating a theft from Malik al-Fayed, the man in whose harem she served after being abducted. Isabeau joins Jared and his band as they travel to Baghdad, but their journey is so protracted that only the most earnest of readers will manage to endure it. Although the pace picks up when Isabeau reveals herself to Jared, their romance, despite being reinforced by undying declarations of love, is unconvincing. In addition, Fields's characters have all the subtlety and intelligence of caricatures; at one point, Isabeau sneaks into Malik's palace to offer her own life for Jared's, and when Malik rejects her proposal, she performs a seductive dance for him in the hopes that he'll change his mind. Just as Isabeau's performance fails to sway the all-too-sinister Malik, this outrageous tale doesn't succeed in engaging the reader. (Dec.)
