[The Hoodsman 05] • Blackstone Edge

This is book five of the Hoodsman Series.

It was 1070 and William the Conqueror had finally made a mistake. The news was that he was taking his army from York to Chester by crossing the Pennines in the winter. The young hoodsman, Raynar of the Peaks, raced home to the Peaks Forest. William was about to cross his peaks, his backyard, and to do that he must use the old Roman street through to Manchester.

Raynar needed to convince the local bowmen of the brotherhood to set a trap. If all went well, William would die at Blackstone Edge.

By 1101, Edith, Queen of the English was playing matchmaker to find a husband for her sister the Princess Mary of Scotland. But whom? The elder Raynar was not about to allow the lovely young Mary to be betrothed to a rapist pig of a Norman, especially not to William Mortain, the Earl of Cornwall. Over William's dead body.

About The Author

Skye Smith is my pen name. My ancestors were miners and shepherds near Castleton in the Peaks District of Derbyshire. I have been told by some readers that this series reminds them of Bernard Cornwell’s historical novels, and have always been delighted by the comparison.

This is the fifth of my Hoodsman series of books, and you should read the first “Killing Kings” before you read this book. All of the books contain two timelines linked by characters and places. The “current” story is set in the era of King Henry I in the 1100’s, while the longer “flashback” story is set in the era of King William I after 1066.

I have self-published twelve "The Hoodsman ..." books and they are:

1. Killing Kings

2. Hunting Kings

3. Frisians of the Fens

4. Saving Princesses

5. Blackstone Edge

6. Ely Wakes

7. Courtesans and Exiles

8. The Revolt of the Earls

9. Forest Law

10. Queens and Widows

11. Popes and Emperors

12. The Second Invasion