Spoilers Ahead

The next book in the Uhtred series after The Last Kingdom. The Danes and Saxons have concluded a truce. Uhtred lives with Mildreth, his wife on her estate, but he is bored. He takes some men and goes on an unauthorized raid to Cornwall where he takes up with Iseult, a young woman who has dreams of the future. When he returns, he discovers that King Alfred is angry about the raid.

The Danes break the truce and raid Wessex, destroying and killing as they go. Uhtred and Iseult are chased into a swamp where they hide out with Alfred and a handful of others. Over the long winter, they slowly build up and train a new army. In the spring, they set out, determined to preserve the last of the English kingdoms at the battle of Ethandun.

Like all of Cornwell's books — not terribly deep, crude in places, violent but interesting because they follow actual history fairly closely. They make for good reads when life is busy and I don't have the energy for deeper reading.