Publishers Weekly
11/20/2023
The eponymous band of 14th-century British mercenaries from Essex Dogs returns in historian Jones’s rousing and atmospheric sequel, which continues following the Dogs through the dawn of the Hundred Years’ War. Loveday FitzTalbot and the surviving Dogs are seen where Jones left them at the end of the last book, pilfering the battlefield after a French rout at Crecy in 1346. Now, with their patron dead and the Earl of Northampton newly in charge, they are part of a large force laying siege to the French port of Calais. The Dogs are tasked with setting up a brothel in the siege town of Villeneuve. Loveday has a personal reason for wanting to enter Calais—to see if rumors are true that the Dogs’ long missing captain is sheltering there. One of the novel’s many sublots follows archer and apprentice cannoneer Romford, who’s captured by the French, while another centers on a young Frenchwoman named Squelette, who disguises herself as a camp follower and finds work at the brothel, where she plots revenge against the English for murdering her family. Jones skillfully weaves together these and other strands as he juxtaposes scenes of incredible action with moments of black comedy and pathos. Readers will be panting for the Dogs’ next adventure. Agent: Georgina Capel, Georgina Capel Assoc. (Jan.)
From the Publisher
Praise for Wolves of Winter:
"Recalls Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall novels with its masterly control, period details, and understated humor…Jones’ entertaining second installment in a trilogy more than whets the appetite for the conclusion."—Kirkus *starred review*
“Rousing and atmospheric…Jones skillfully weaves together these and other strands as he juxtaposes scenes of incredible action with moments of black comedy and pathos. Readers will be panting for the Dogs’ next adventure.”—Publishers Weekly
"Brilliant, brutal and bloody . . . It’s a grim and grisly tale vividly told, as Jones deftly unravels the cynical reasons for the continuation of the endless conflict, and the miseries it brings to the ordinary medieval soldier."—Daily Mail (UK)
“Dan Jones brings us his Essex Dogs in a new campaign—the siege of Calais in 1347— where their grim courage and innate violence are thrown against the high walls and deep moats of Calais. A convincing picture of hard men in a hard time, Dan Jones’s fiction rings with the authority of his scholarly history.”—Philippa Gregory, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Other Boleyn Girl
“Absolutely fabulous. A raucous, swaggering charge through the medieval underworld. I had such a good time reading it that I never wanted it to stop.”—Antonia Fraser, New York Times bestselling author of The Wives of Henry VIII and Marie Antoinette
“An enthralling, captivating, and thrilling chronicle of fourteenth century warfare. Truly wonderful and truly fascinating!”—General David Petraeus, former commander of the Surge in Iraq, US Central Command, and US/NATO Forces in Afghanistan; former Director of the CIA
“Finding hints of light amid the darkness of war, Wolves of Winter captures the humanity at the heart of our history.”—Michael Livingston, PhD, Distinguished Professor, The Citadel, and Secretary-General of the United States Commission for Military History
“Another brilliant book by Dan Jones.”—Charles Spencer, author of The White Ship and Killers of the King
“Nobody but Dan Jones could write this story. I could not put it down. It captures the grime, blood, sweat, and friendship of medieval war brilliantly.”—Gareth Russell, author of The Palace and Young and Damned and Fair
“A simply stunning read.”—Duff McKagan, #1 New York Times bestselling author of It’s So Easy and founding member of Guns N’ Roses
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2023-10-21
Having survived a brutal campaign in the Normandy town of Crécy that left 1,500 Frenchmen dead, the small band of soldiers-for-hire known as the Essex Dogs are sent by King Edward III of England to help erase the French from the walled port city of Calais.
King Philippe of France, who had disbanded his army following the massive defeat in Crécy, has done a turnaround by installing a new army in Calais to turn back the English. Reduced to six in the aftermath of the parched and squalid Crécy war, the Dogs, an unruly mix of English, Welsh, and Scots, are not the crack, tightly bonded unit they were. Faded veteran Loveday FitzTalbot has departed the battlefield to search for the captain, who’s vanished. The “gruff-tempered” Scotsman is a drunk. Romford, the troublemaking teenage archer, is haunted by the ghost of the dead priest, Father, and attacked (when not pursued) for his homosexuality. As before, the Dogs struggle with the impetuous demands of King Edward. Though the novel boasts less head-lopping, bone-crushing action than Essex Dogs (2023), it’s no less a page-turner, with the addition of lively characters including Hircent, a stout Flemish warrior and brothel queen with nastier proclivities than any man, and the profit-minded pirate leader Jean Marant, who shrewdly plays both sides of the conflict. At its best, the book recalls Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall novels with its masterly control, period details, and understated humor. “Virtue, glory, chivalry—all that shit,” says Northampton. “The tragedy is, a lot of them fucking believe it.”
Jones’ entertaining second installment in a trilogy more than whets the appetite for the conclusion.
