The Banners of Hell– by Paul Doherty

Last updated on: November 30, 2024 at 1:44 am by Ben Witherington

The Banners of Hell– by Paul Doherty 2024-11-22T17:10:47-05:00 Ben Witherington

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Paul Doherty (pronounced Dokerty) is nothing if not prolific. This is the 24th volume in his series of novels featuring King Edward’s clerk Hugh Corbett, and he has two other long running series going at the same time. And yet somehow he is also headmaster at a parochial school at the edge of London. I guess sleep is optional. This volume just emerged last month, and is 368 pages long. It is top drawer historical fiction dealing with the chaos in the kingdom on King Edward II in 1312. It is up to Corbett and his right hand man Ranulf to get to the bottom of the grisly murder of Lord Gaveston, the king’s personal favorite, and possible his catamite. His murder comes at a precarious time for king because pirates were advancing up the Thames and pillaging and plundering along the south coast as they go, and Lord Lancaster and his entourage are actually those suspected of doing away with Gaveston. Meanwhile, the French king and his serpentine spy de’Craon are excited to see the King of England weak, and being challenged.

Doherty knows the history of this period inside out, and it shows in the particulars of his tale. He doesn’t have to make up mayhem or many of the central characters (other than Corbett) as this fiction is all too historical in content, sadly, involving many murders, court intrigue, and Christians behaving badly. I have read all the volumes in this series, and they are all good, but this one shines above the rest, and as we are being led down the garden path, and the plot picks up speed, we wonder if Corbett can really solve all the mysterious murders, and wrap things up before too late, never mind get rid of the pirates. The ending is impressive and of course involves some surprise. To give you a small sample of the prose, here is an excerpt from Corbett’s stirring peroration near the end (pp. 277-78): “Now I consider most men and women to be reasonable. They want to love and be loved. They need to be happy and safe. They have ideals and dreams they nourish. But in every ten such people there are two to three who are radically different. They believe in chaos, confusion, confrontation. They are argumentative and disputatious. They would start a row in heaven and so bring hell into paradise. The Greeks have a word for it– anarchy.”

Does this sound familiar? Doherty’s novels can be ‘red in tooth and claw’, a bit bloody in other words, but they are excellent, and they often raise pertinent and poignant questions about how Christians should act and behalf in such dark and chaotic times. Perhaps these novels are especially apt for the current political season we are in. If only there were a Hugh Corbett who could come to the rescue, and deal with evil in the world.

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