I am not a big fan of short story anthologies. I usually find a few that I enjoy, and equal number that I loathe, most that are enjoyable enough ways to pass the time, and, if I'm lucky, one really great story that makes the purchase worthwhile.

I was torn between giving this 4 and 5 stars. Four because none of these stories was a "great", that I will always want to go back to, but almost all of them were very good and interesting. There were none that I thought were truly bad. On this basis, I am going to give Mike Ashley's other anthologies a try.

The stories move over something like a thousand years in time, and I enjoyed the constantly changing times, places and people. They range from almost gruesome to very funny. Not being a historian, I cannot say how accurate they all were, but the ambience was generally very well evoked.

One comment as a matter of taste. Many of the stories are very cynical, which is actually quite appropriate, given the royal subjects. Mysteries usually concern themselves justice, but don't count on it here! ( )