“A riveting tale of intrigue and skullduggery most foul!” – Brian Brennan, award-winning and best-selling author
Thomas Percival was born in England in 1384. At the age of 13, he meets Nicodemus, a dwarf like himself, and Thomas runs away from home and joins the nefarious entertainer’s traveling circus. Nicodemus teaches the lad how to juggle, play the lute, and pick a lock, as well as the secrets of the Magnii, the ancient, mythical race that lived in the distant past with men and giants.
When Thomas is imprisoned for mocking the Bishop of Winchester, he meets Hal, the son of the exiled Earl of Derby. When Hal’s father overthrows Richard II and claims the English throne as Henry IV, Thomas becomes Magnus the Magnificent, jester to the Crown. When Hal inherits the crown after the death of his father, Magnus accompanies Henry V to France where the monarch defeats the French nobility in the Battle of Agincourt, marries the daughter of mad King Charles VI, and becomes king of both England and France.
Magnus’s most daunting challenge occurs in 1422, when Henry, along with his wife Catherine and their infant son Henry, are living in the castle of Vincennes outside of Paris. Someone is trying to poison the king; battling through murder, mystery and mayhem, Magnus and his clever companion Friar Petronius must find the plotters before their evil scheme can succeed.