Reviewed by Chris
TITLE: The Henchmen of Zenda
AUTHOR: K.J. Charles
PUBLISHER: KJC Books
LENGTH: 196 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 15, 2018
BLURB:
Jasper Detchard is a disgraced British officer, now selling his blade to the highest bidder. Currently that’s Michael Elphberg, half-brother to the King of Ruritania. Michael wants the throne for himself, and Jasper is one of the scoundrels he hires to help him take it. But when Michael makes his move, things don’t go entirely to plan—and the penalty for treason is death.
Rupert of Hentzau is Michael’s newest addition to his sinister band of henchmen. Charming, lethal, and intolerably handsome, Rupert is out for his own ends—which seem to include getting Jasper into bed. But Jasper needs to work out what Rupert’s really up to amid a maelstrom of plots, swordfights, scheming, impersonation, desire, betrayal, and murder.
Nobody can be trusted. Everyone has a secret. And love is the worst mistake you can make.
A retelling of the swashbuckling classic The Prisoner of Zenda from a very different point of view.
REVIEW:
Oh dear lord, but this was fun.
Combine K.J. Charles, swashbuckling mercenaries, squabbling and murderous royalty…and then sit back and watch the majesty unfold. The writing is both quick and quick-witted. Jasper and Hentzau are men of rather dubious morals, but who win your heart anyways. The plot is just convoluted enough to keep you guessing, but never leaves you behind. And for just about every second of reading you are fully, deeply, and absolutely sold on the world and the rather ridiculous schemes unfolding in front of you. I had almost no expectations going into this book, except maybe that it would be competently written, but I can’t express my sheer joy at having read something so damn fun and witty.
Luckily if you have never read The Prisoner of Zenda you don’t need to fear. I hadn’t even heard of the story till I picked up this book, so even with zero background information this story worked perfectly. I can’t say how far, or where the plot differs–well except for the rather obvious–from the original, but this story goes thus: Jasper Detchard is a blade-for-higher who finds himself bought by Michael Elphberg, second son of the current king of Ruritania. Michael is not fond of his father, but is even less fond of his half-brother, the current heir and by all means horrible human being, Rudolf. Not that Michael is all that better than his brother, but he at least has the smarts to keep his dark side out-of-sight-out-of-mind. With the king’s failing health, and his brother’s wastrel ways souring the public more each day, Michael sees his chance to take the throne for his own. So he hires/blackmails Jasper and five other men of less-than-stellar morals to help him in his endeavors. Among the five is Rupert of Hentzau, a man who is charming, deadly, and very much a pain in Jasper’s side. And if Jasper is lucky…maybe a pain is certain other areas as well. What follows is a tale of intrigue, plotting, fighting, double-crossing, triple-crossing, and general mayhem as all sides attempt to steal the crown from the others’ heads.
…and it is bloody glorious.
I really don’t know what else to say, but that. This was just a very well written, very well told, incredibly well crafted, swashbuckling story of palace intrigue and unabashedly enthusiastic sex between two men of amoral character. I loved every bloody second of it.
If I was to pick out any flaw–and it would be serious nit-picking to be sure–it would be that because of the way the story is told–that being solely from Jasper’s perspective–that some of the scenes that I would have really loved to actually see on page had to be conveyed to the reader after-the-fact in dialogue between Jasper and the other characters. There really was no other way to do it, though, other then come up with ever increasingly convoluted ways of getting Jasper to every little event that had to take place in the story to move the plot forward. That probably would have come off a bit ridiculous, in the end. Still…man I do love a well-written sword fight. Could read about a dozen more in this story no problem.
As you can probably tell from my very restrained review so far, I can recommend this book with very few qualms. I know the ending doesn’t go full-on HEA–at least not in the way that some romance readers want–but it worked perfectly for me. I left happy, satisfied, and with a need to go find me another sword-wielding hero(ish) to read about.
RATING: 
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