"If you can find a first impression, hoard it and wait till it rises in value like a first edition of 'Lord of the Rings'. This is as good." Crime Time UK The Tower of London, 1536, and the expert swordsman, Jean Rombaud, is brought from France by Henry VIII to behead his wife, Anne Boleyn. Yet on the eve of her execution Jean swears a vow to the fabled, ill-fated queen - to bury her six-fingered hand, symbol of her rumoured witchery, at a sacred crossroads. But in a Europe ravaged by religious war, the hand of this infamous Protestant icon is so powerful a relic that many will kill to have it. including Giancarlo Cibo, Alchemist and Archbishop of Siena. Stealing the hand, he leaves Jean for dead. Gathering a group of heroic misfits, Jean pursues his quest across a continent.

Through battle and betrayal, from clashing blades aboard slave galleys to a black mass in a dungeon, from the hallucinations of St. Anthony's Fire to the besieged fortress of an apocalyptic Messiah, Jean seeks to honor his vow. "Thrilling, funny. painfully poignant." Independent on Sunday, UK.