When Sir Hugh de Grey returns to England from the battlefields of France it is to greet the pestilence he just recently escaped. He races home to find that while his wife is healthy his son has succumbed to the plague. Desperate to save his only child The Pale Knight makes a deal with Death to murder a good man.
Aaron a Jew acting as a sorcerer for Sir Maurice Beauchamp has fallen in love with the nobleman's daughter Joan. Maurice has been lying about his supernatural gifts but it has saved him from the gruesome fate his fellow Jews faced when the plague struck England. One day Joan informs Aaron that her father has married her off and for them to remain together her father must die before the wedding can take place. Afraid of what may happen if Aaron reveals he nor any Jew is not some all-powerful sorcerer so he goes along with her plan, telling her he has created a powerful poison and becomes the very thing the Christian's accused him of being.
Plague stories are really hit and miss for me and this one just didn't hit. Bargaining with Death during the plague is not really a new or unusual plot and the implication that Death was out there purposefully spreading the plague as some sort of evil being is pretty outdated. de Grey's motivation seemed less than genuine as well.
Aaron's story was a little more interesting, but he was just an idiot till the very end.
What I did enjoy was Crispin's story though. He was obnoxious until the very end and that was my true motivation to finish this because eff that guy.
The art was absolutely spectacular though and that definitely saved this. Some of these images are truly gruesome.
To be fair I feel like a ton of people would enjoy this story, I probably have just read way too many plague stories at this point.
As always thanks to NetGalley and Mad Cave Studios for the eArc!
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