"Only a fool would pass this one up." —Laurie R. King In 1205, Theophilos—a fool by trade, a family man by choice, and a spy by design—belongs, along with his family, to the Fools' Guild, a group that secretly maintains the fragile order of society. In Toulouse, that order is threatened when, unexpectedly, a man claiming to be a full brother of the ruling count is found one morning in a local bordello next to a dead whore, killed with his own sword. Now, Theophilos and his family must uncover the truth.

In 1204 A.D., Theophilos, jester and agent for the Fools' Guild, is sent to Toulouse with his jester wife, infant daughter and young apprentice with one simple mission – get the current Bishop to quietly retire so that the position can be filled with one more sympathetic to the Guild's goals. Arriving just before Christmas, they quickly learn that the Bishop is in some hot water with a man widely known as the local money lender. A man who, a day after pressing the Bishop particularly hard, is found floating face down in a tanner's vat. Now, with time running out for him to accomplish their mission and thus protect the Guild, Theophilos has but one option left: find out what actually happened the night that the Moneylender of Toulouse ended up so spectacularly dead.

1204 A.D. The Fools’ Guild is on the run from an increasingly intolerant Church. Arriving too late at the Guildhall to join them, the jester couple Theophilos and Claudia and their newborn daughter Portia must now flee the Papal army, having first risked their lives to steal, of all things, a tavern sign. As they journey across the Alps, Theophilos recounts to his wife a story from the Third Crusade, of the most beautiful woman in the Kingdom of Jerusalem and her dwarf jester, Scarlet. In 1191, as Richard the Lionhearted leads his forces in an attempt to recapture Jerusalem from the army of Saladin, Theophilos and Scarlet are quietly manipulating events to bring about an end to the bloodshed. Their mission leads them to Tyre, the only city in the Kingdom of Jerusalem to withstand Saladin. Governed by a rogue general, the city is aswarm with refugees, spies, and splintered factions vying for power and position, and even success may only prove fatal. The key chesspiece amidst the swirling intrigues remains Isabelle, the Queen of Jerusalem, desired by many but married against her will to a man decades her senior. But there are forces at work that will stop at nothing, and it is up to Scarlet to protect the interests of the Guild, the lives of the people, and the future of Isabelle. Drawn from actual events, The Widow of Jerusalem is a tale of intrigue and ambition, love fulfilled and love unrequited, and a trio of historical deaths that have never been fully explained. Until now. **

“Only a fool would pass this one up.” —Laurie R. King In 1205, Theophilos—a fool by trade, a family man by choice, and a spy by design—belongs, along with his family, to the Fools’ Guild, a group that secretly maintains the fragile order of society. In Toulouse, that order is threatened when, unexpectedly, a man claiming to be a full brother of the ruling count is found one morning in a local bordello next to a dead whore, killed with his own sword. Now, Theophilos and his family must uncover the truth.**

Twelfth Night is for revelry, Thirteenth Night is for revelations..."Orsino is dead." The message sends the jester Feste, disguised as a German merchant, back to the duchy where, years earlier, he had foiled the plans of Saladin's agent, Malvolio, and secured the duchy for Orsino and his bride, Viola. As agent of the Fool's Guild, Feste must uncover the cause of Orsino's death, be it accidental, suicide, or murder. Has Malvolio returned to win the revenge he swore? Or has another, more sinister cabal plunged the duchy into political upheaval?Set in a brilliantly recreated time of pageantry and squalor, THIRTEENTH NIGHT brings alive a world long vanished. From the fetid canals of Venice to the high seas to the castles and hidden Roman tunnels of Orsino, here is a tale that will keep readers in its thrall until its dramatic and unexpected final scene...

In 1204 A.D., the Fools' Guild is on the run from an enraged Pope Innocent III and the Papal troops he's dispatched to destroy them. Now, hidden in their secret enclave deep within the Black Forest, the fools, troubadours and novitiates, including the jester couple Theophilos and Claudia, come together for their evening gathering to hear Father Gerald, their ancient leader, tell one of the greatest stories from the history of the Guild. It begins in Denmark, during a time of civil war when three men laid claim to the throne while a fourth watched and bided his time. Into the strategically crucial town of Slesvig, the Guild sends Terence of York, who is promptly dubbed Yorick by the Duke's young son, Amleth. What unfolds is a tale of treachery, tragedy and bloodshed that is the true story behind one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies. But Father Gerald's history contains secrets never known to anyone outside the Guild, and as he recounts it, Theophilos feels a chill steal over his heart. For not even Father Gerald knows the ending of this story. But Theophilos does. **

In 1203, the relative peace of the Byzantine Empire is imperiled when the ships of the Fourth Crusade show up outside the walls of Constantinople. Instead of traveling to the Holy Land to battle the infidels, the Crusade, having sailed out of Venice, has been subverted and is now besieging the city. The jester known as Feste, his wife Viola, and their compatriots within the city are faced with catastrophe as the peace the Fool's Guild has worked so hard to maintain is about to be shattered. With such a disaster looming, the death of one silk merchant in the Venetian Quarter of Constantinople seems insignificant. But Philoxenites, the Imperial Treasurer and one of the most power schemers at court, has taken a special interest in the case and wants Feste to investigate Venetian merchant's death. The merchant, of course, was not what he appeared to be and, if Constantinople is to have any hope of surviving the troops outside its gates, Feste must quickly uncover what...

In 13th century Europe, political turmoil is the order of the day and the Fool's Guild and its agents - jesters, jugglers, and knaves to a man - works behind the scenes to manipulate events, trying to maintain a balance of power. Theophilos, a member of the Guild known by many names, is still recovering from his last mission during which he was severely wounded and nearly lost his life but, in the person of Viola, found himself an apprentice and a wife. But there is no rest for the wicked. While he is recovering on the Dalmatian coast, the Guild approaches him with another mission. A crusade is being launched, with Venice as the staging ground, but some believe that Venice means to turn it to it's own ends. At the same time, there is trouble in Byzantine throne - a pretender to the throne is gathering European backers. And to make matters worse, all of the Guild's agents in Constantinople have gone suddenly and mysteriously missing. So now, the newly married Theophilos and Viola must go to Constantinople to gather information, thwart the rivals of the Guild, stop the war, and maybe - just maybe - stay alive. From Publishers WeeklyHaving boldly appropriated Shakespeare's Feste and Viola from Twelfth Night for his well-received debut novel, Thirteenth Night (1999), Gordon returns with a cunningly plotted sequel that is sure to be another crowd pleaser. Feste the Fool and his wife, Viola, are off to Constantinople to ensure that the Crusade of 1202 sticks to its goal of capturing the Holy Land. The son of a deposed Byzantine emperor threatens to turn the Crusaders against the Eastern Christian Church in a bid to gain his throne, while certain trading interests want to divert the force to invade the Muslim empire in Egypt. Amid the sometimes confusing but never less than intriguing plots and counterplots, Feste and Viola must resort to sleight of hand, disguise and other tricks in order to unmask the assassin who's been silencing agents trying to preserve peace in ConstantinopleAbefore they themselves become victims. Gordon brings Constantinople and its environs wonderfully alive against the backdrop of the political and religious uncertainty and tension of the time. Like a master juggler, the author puts on a fine show, full of fun and surprises. While there are many medieval historicals in the marketplace, there's always room for another high quality series. An eye-catching "stained-glass window" jacket design will attract browsers. Agent, Jessica Jones. (Nov.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. From BooklistGordon's Thirteenth Night [BKL Ja 1 & 15 99] was a clever mystery, a twist on Twelfth Night * in which Feste, a minor character in the Shakespeare play, took center stage. Feste, it turns out, is an operative of the Fools' Guild, a collective of secret agents who roam the countryside, posing as jesters and keeping the Christian world safe from evil. This time the secret agent is sent to Byzantium to find out why six of his colleagues seem to have vanished and, if he's lucky, to stop an attack on Byzantium itself. Too many medieval mysteries are dull conglomerations of period detail and shopworn plots. This one, on the other hand, is exciting, original, and exceedingly well told. Gordon, a New York attorney, has a remarkable grasp of the historical period (the very beginning of the thirteenth century), and he knows how to pack an immense amount of detail into his novels without making readers feel like they are being educated. Fans of historical mysteries will be delighted by this second installment in a charming series. David PittCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved*

In 1204 A.D., the Fools' Guild is in hiding, under attack from the forces of Pope Innocent III. Theophilos and Claudia, jesters with the Guild, are sent to enlist the help of a former guild member - the minstrel Folquet, now the abbot Folq at a Cistercian monastery - to intercede with the pope on their behalf. But while they are at the abbey pleading their case, a gruesome murder takes place - a monk is killed in the librarium and a cryptic message written on the wall in his blood.         In the wake of the murder, Folq issues an ultimatum to Theophilos. If he learns the meaning of the message and finds the killer, Folq will help the Guild. But if the Jester fails, Folq will have the pope declare the Guild anathema. With the future of the Guild on the line, Theophilos, his wife, and their apprentice go off in search of Folquet's past and the meaning of the message, uncovering a long-ago series of events that were as deadly then as they are proving to be now. From Publishers WeeklyAt the start of Gordon's winning sixth medieval mystery (after 2004's An Antic Disposition), series hero Theo and his wife, Claudia, both members of the Fool's Guild, visit Cistercian Abbot Folc—previously a troubadour known as Folquet—to solicit his help preserving the guild from enemies in the church. But that night, someone murders one of Folc's monks and leaves a threatening message for the abbot next to the body. When Folc demands that Theo find the man responsible, Theo and Claudia's quest takes them deep into the recesses of domestic and religious life in 13th-century France. At the center of the mystery lies a haunting song, which implores "Sweet Lady Lark, why will you not fly?" To discover who's threatening Folc, Theo and Claudia must identify the Lark. While Gordon makes confusing and distracting shifts in first-person point-of-view between Theo and Claudia, the husband-and-wife jesters are charming, the story behind the murder unpredictable yet entirely believable. (May) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistThe sixth Fools Guild mystery opens on a cheerless note. It's the year 1204, and the guild is under attack from Pope Innocent III, its members in hiding. (Gordon's delightful premise posits that the thirteenth-century Fools Guild, made up of court jesters, functioned as an intelligence organization run by the government.) Series hero Theophilos the Jester, one of the guild's top spies, is sent to negotiate with Folquet, a former guild member (and our hero's old friend), who is now an abbot with connections to the pope. The hope is that Folquet will provide aid in keeping the guild alive. But Theophilos' mission grows more complicated when a monk is murdered, and Folquet makes him a deal: you find out whodunit, and I'll do what I can for the guild. But if you fail, I'll bury all of you. Theophilos' investigation takes him to some surprising places, including the distant past of his old friend. As usual, Gordon's vivid writing style and his smooth blending of history and mystery make the book a delight to read. David PittCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved