The Veil

In 1060, Viking hero Einar Thorhallsson sets out to find a sacred chalice tied to his family. Once in Antioch, he spies and instantly falls in love with Scottish heroine Finola minutes before an earthquake topples the marketplace. This is only the first of a string of disasters that serve to move the rather artificial plot along. In Rome on one of several searches for Finola, Einar is conked on the head, imprisoned and can't help seeming a great, hulking lunkhead. Mittermeyer (Princess of the Veil) requires great suspension of disbelief. For example, after managing to flee captors, kill an attacker (and smartly rob him), Finola confides the importance of the chalice to Reric, a complete stranger. Good thing: as it turns out Reric, lowly stable boy, just happens to know where the chalice is and retrieves it undetected. Cardboard characterizations are followed by cliched plot devices (like the hero-happens-upon-naked-heroine-while-bathing scene) which, combined, make for a lackluster read. (Jan.)