The year is 1342 in the sleepy coastal English town of Hookton when marauders attack and steal a precious relic. Thomas, a young archer, is the only survivor. With his father’s dying breath, he has given Thomas a mission to carry out, retrieve the relic, and avenge his family’s honor. The hunt for the man responsible takes Thomas to France during the beginning of the conflict that will be known as the Hundred Years’ War. Can Thomas of Hookton find the relic he was tasked to find or will another quest drag him into an even darker path? Thomas’s tale begins in the first book of the Grail Quest trilogy by Bernard Cornwell called, “The Archer’s Tale.”

I found this particular book in a used bookstore and it caught my eye. I have enjoyed the Saxon Stories series by Bernard Cornwell and so when I saw that he had written a trilogy set during the Hundred Years’ War, I was intrigued. I wanted to see how well he would tackle the medieval period and the conflict between England and France.

We begin with the massacre of Hookton, which happened in the early hour of Easter morning 1342. The prize that the raiders are after is the lance that St. George used to slay the dragon, or that’s the story that Father Ralph tells the town. His illegitimate son Thomas is given the task of recovering the lance for a man wearing black armor with a blue and yellow standard who happened to be Thomas’s cousin. As there is nothing left for Thomas in Hookton, he decides to join Will Skeat and his archers in France as they fight for King Edward III and his son Edward the Black Prince. It is in Brittany that Thomas is introduced to the Blackbird, a female archer whose true identity is Jeanette the widowed Countess of Armorica who is trying to protect her young son, the new Count of Armorica from the English.

After saving Jeanette from a complicated situation, Thomas is on the run for killing a man. It is while he is on the run that his life is saved by a Jewish doctor and in return, Thomas saves the life of a girl named Eleanor. This girl is the illegitimate daughter of Sir Guillaume d’Evecque, a French nobleman who was with the black armored man who attacked Hookton. They both have a grudge against the man, but Sir Guillaume offers Thomas a different quest, which is to find the Holy Grail, the same relic the man in black armor is searching for. Thomas decides that he must help his friends in the English army as they face off against the French army in the battle that will be known as the Battle of Crecy.

As someone who is a fan of the Saxon Stories series, I felt like Thomas of Hookton was very much like Uhtred of Bebbanburg in the way that he is on a long quest for revenge, but he discovers that he is destined for a bigger purpose and an even more deadly path. I found myself enjoying the way Cornwell portrays medieval England and France during this conflict and I am looking forward to seeing where Thomas of Hookton will go next and if he will get his revenge and recover the Holy Grail. If you love medieval tales full of adventure and action, you should check out the first book in The Grail Quest, “The Archer’s Tale” by Bernard Cornwell.