Checkmate

Book Six in the Legendary Lymond Chronicles

By: Dorothy Dunnett

Narrated by: David Monteath

For the first time Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles are available in the United States in quality paperback editions.

Sixth in the legendary Lymond Chronicles, Checkmate takes place in 1557, where Francis Crawford of Lymond is once again in France, leading an army against England. But even as the Scots adventurer succeeds brilliantly on the battlefield, his haunted past becomes a subject of intense interest to forces on both sides.

Critic reviews

“Exciting, dangerous, fascinating.”
—The Boston Globe

“[Dunnett’s] hero. . .is as polished and perceptive as Lord Peter Wimsey and as resourceful as James Bond.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Vivid, engaging, densely plotted. . . . Dunnett is a master of suspense and misdirection.”
—The New York Times

“A masterpiece of historical fiction.”
—The Washington Post

“[Lymond] is arguably the perfect romantic hero.”
—The Guardian

“Dorothy Dunnett is one of the greatest talespinners since Dumas . . . breathlessly exciting.”
—Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Dunnett is a name to conjure with. Her work exemplifies the best the genre can offer.”
—Christian Science Monitor

“Ingenious and exceptional . . . its effect brilliant, its pace swift and colorful and its multi-linear plot spirited and absorbing.”
—Boston Herald

“Dunnett evokes the sixteenth century with an amazing richness of allusion and scholarship, while keeping a firm control on an intricately twisting narrative. She has another more unusual quality . . . an ability to check her imagination with irony, to mix high romance with wit.”
—Sunday Times (London)

“A very stylish blend of high romance and high camp. Her hero, the enigmatic Lymond, [is] Byron crossed with Lawrence of Arabia. . . . He moves in an aura of intrigue, hidden menace and sheer physical daring.”
—Times Literary Supplement (London)

“With shrewd psychological insight and a rare gift of narrative and descriptive power, Dorothy Dunnett reveals the color, wit, lushness . . . and turbulent intensity of one of Europe’s greatest eras.”
—Raleigh News and Observer

Glorious end to a saga

The last book of the Lymond Chronicles is so satisfying!! I love this series and this book so much. My only disappointment is how David Monteath manages—or doesn’t— the French and Italian, of which there is lots. Is he using the British approach to French? Is he trying to use 16th century pronunciation as for the Old English quotes and songs? It is extremely distracting. It’s hard yo imagine he or the company recording him did not do a thorough investigation of how to pronounce things.

Best historical fiction ever written

It’s not hyperbole to say Dorothy Dunnett is the master of the genre with her beautiful evocative writing, exceptional research, perfect dialog and intricate story craft, with wonderful characters, real and fictional, led by the most entrancing, compelling character of Lymond. Narration brought it all to life.

Excellent

A favorite series both written and now read aloud. Narrator was very pleasant to listen to. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Checkmate great book!

The last book in the Lymond series. It was great, as are all the other books in the series.

A brilliant conclusion to the legendary series

Another reviewer called this volume a "rollercoaster," and that seems an accurate description of the emotional and action-packed ride Dunnett takes us through in the final volume of the Lymond Chronicles. Characters are pushed to their physical and emotional limits. Political, family, and personal conflicts, both historical and fictional, drive the various plotlines. Two marriages teeter in the balance here: Lymond's and that of Mary, Queen of Scots.
David Monteath's narration is taxed somewhat by the extreme amount of French (including the archaic French prophecies of Nostradamus) interspersed throughout, but he is so good with everything else that I forgive his French and still give him five stars.