cover image Knight on the Bridge

Knight on the Bridge

William Watson. Harvill Press, $16.99 (0pp) ISBN 978-1-86046-140-8

Set in a decrepit castle in southern France, this languorous medieval tale, told in Watson's (Last of the Templars) beautifully stylized prose, follows the travails of the mad lord Caesar Grailly and his household. Caesar, his beautiful wife, Bonne, their daughter, Flore, and their servants have lived in a dream state for what seems like an eternity--frozen by the madness that has consumed Caesar since he mistakenly killed his own son in a battle years earlier. The haunted idyll is shattered, however, when a thief and murderer, Amanieu, insinuates his way into their lives. His arrival is the catalyst for a series of events that culminates in Caesar's joust with a German knight bent on vengeance and a final chance for sanity. Watson writes an entertaining combination of pastiche and farce: ""That's one of these new pot helmets. Cover the whole head and face. You can see where he banged it on the doorway."" It's appropriate to this sexy, elegantly plotted novel, in which a knight will issue a challenge to the honor of a lady he's just raped but ""will not name this fair lady, to spare her blushes."" (Oct.)