Night Wolf picks up where Glendalough Fair left off. Thorgrim Night Wolf was betrayed by his erstwhile allies, the fellow viking Ottar Thorolfson and the Irish lord Kevin mac Lugaed, and consequently he and his men were soundly defeated during their attack on the Irish monastery town of Glendalough. Of the hundreds who sailed with Thorgrim, only about a dozen are still alive, among them his son Harald and his close friend, the injured berserker Starri Deathless. Of his longships, only one -- Sea Hammer -- remains, and it has been damaged and is taking on water. Irish men-at-arms from Glendalough are scouring the countryside for survivors of the viking raid.

So, of course, there's only one course of action left for Thorgrim to take:

- Return to Glendalough.
- Loot the church.
- Repair the ship.
- Take revenge on mac Lugaed.
- Retake his home at Vik-Lo from Ottar.
- Oh, and probably kill him, too.

Fortunately, Thorgrim has a few allies besides his few surviving men. There's the Frankish nobleman-cum-soldier-cum-monk Louis de Roumois, who has been forced by circumstances to ally himself with the raiders, and there's Failend, Louis' Irish lover, newly widowed (by her own hand) and surprisingly content to travel with (and fight alongside) the viking party. (Both characters, so likable in the previous book, are less likable now.) Then there's Conan and his band of Irish outlaws, who are willing to throw their lot in with a strong leader. And there's Aghen Ormsson, the elderly shipwright at Vik-Lo who doubts Ottar's story of Thorgrim's death and has a cunning, bloody plan to sow fear and discord among Ottar's loyal men.

Thorgrim moves men around the fields of Ireland like a chess master. And, while there are battles a-plenty, the best scene in Night Wolf involves a holmganga, a duel between two mighty warriors, with life-or-death stakes.

Author James L. Nelson continues to impress me with this series. I'll admit, when he first started producing The Norsemen Saga more than a decade ago, I quietly resented that it was taking him away from other book series I wanted him to devote all of his time and attention to. Now that I am several books into the series, however, I must confess my misgivings were misplaced. These books are excellent, and I am already looking forward to the next one!

[ visit James Nelson''s website ]