Their number decimated after the bloody battle at Crecy, the mercenaries known as the Essex Dogs are weary and ready to go home.

That hope is dashed when, while scavenging the battlefield for booty, they discover the mutilated body of Sir Robert de Straunge, the man under whose banner they fought for wages. With little hope of claiming the pay due them, they are reduced to dire circumstances.

It soon becomes clear they aren't going home yet. Other lords, at the behest of King Edward, need their bodies and weapons for more warfare.

The ultimate target is the fortified French port city of Calais. But even before they reach the city, each of the surviving members of the crew will face personal challenges. Loveday FitzTalbot, the leader of the Dogs, is accused of cowardice. The Scotsman struggles with drunkenness and temper issues. Young Romford is haunted by the ghost of the fallen priest known only as Father and the trials of his homosexuality.

In addition to these and other notable characters from the first novel, we get a fuller portrait of the Captain, who deserted the Dogs when they first landed in France, and we're introduced to some fascinating new ones, including Hircent, a Flemish woman-warrior, and the pirate Jean Mirant.

As Jones relates in an afterword, the 1346-47 siege of Calais isn't well known today, even to most medieval historians. But the author took the sketchy facts and wove them into an absorbing number of chapters for this novel that will leave the reader cognizant of the suffering of both those trapped within the walls of the city and the soldiers outside awaiting their surrender.

This second installment in a proposed trilogy is sure to whet the appetite of readers for the next book. I know it's on my "must-read" list.