A modern-feeling hero is our tour guide through a vicious war that devastated southern France. The year is 1206, the place is the Languedoc region of France and Peter and John’s adolescent religious debates have been growing more heated. As religious conflict between the Catholic Church and the Cathar heresy increases, the boys—best friends all their lives—can’t avoid the tension. Though both are good Catholics, Peter humorlessly disapproves of John’s thirst for knowledge, and by the time the Albigensian Crusade begins three years later, the boys have parted. Peter’s become the right-hand man of the fanatic inquisitor leading the Crusade. John, on the other hand, has served first a troubadour, secondly the Viscount of Carcassonne and finally the heretic Beatrice. The more John learns, the more he questions both the Catholic Church and the gentle, idealized Cathars. The characters are thin, uninteresting vehicles for this historically accurate view of the Crusade, but the densely gruesome journey will please enthusiasts of historical wars. (Historical fiction. 12-14)
