The Cavalier in the Yellow Doublet

For those already acquainted with El Capitan Alatriste and his amanuensis, the sensitive, brave, and observant Iñigo, who serves as Watson to Alatriste’s Holmes, this book is a good choice. For those not already so acquainted, this should not be your last Perez Reverte.

In an interlude between campaigns, in Madrid, as the profligate Philip IV is tupping everything that moves well in a skirt and the poets and playwrights of Spain are disemboweling each other (often literally), our heroes are carving their own way.

With some of the flavor of a grizzled wolf murderously on the prowl, blended with a resolution and personal pride bordering on suicidal arrogance, Alatriste sleeps and slays his way into the waning years of the Spanish Empire. He finds himself at amorous odds with the king, among many unfortunate others. Non-stop, sharp-edged, and laden with poetry serving as weaponry much as the similarly wielded swords herein, The Cavalier In the Yellow Doublet is a bloody good read.