The Mystic Rose: Bk. 3 (Celtic Crusades S) [Paperback]

Given the normal high quality of Lawhead's work, the final part of the Celtic Crusades trilogy has ended somewhat disappointingly. Lawhead's prose style, as evidenced in the Arthur sextet or the Song of Albion trilogy, is usually precise, sweeping in its sense of the epic, and a delight to read. The Mystic Rose proves extremely weak from an author who normally provides wonderful stories. Inevitably, you cannot help comparing it to the Sarentium Mosaic dulogy and the gulf between the two is vast.
Taking the trilogy as a whole, it is fairly simple to understand how the intended cryptic early nineteenth century side story is going to conclude so it becomes more a case of seeing how the story will unfold. Unfortunately, this is where The Mystic Rose falls down. Unlike the Black Rood or the Iron Lance
Caitriona's voyage (after Duncan's somewhat hasty dispatch) comes across as a series of fundamentally unbelievable sketches. The placement of a harem in mid-Spain with Prince Hasan's fantastical palace and the eventual conclusion on a thinly-veiled Avalon-esque community provides minimal excitement and the problem is further enhanced by all of the major characters either being two-dimensional or subject to so many quick personality changes as to be implausible. Alethea's transformation from irritating teenage sister to pious nun is untenable; Cait's constant stubborness and Rognvald's stoical protector mentality together with the overly brutish de Bracineaux provide a bewildering mix of characters who do not respond from situation to situation with any kind of uniformity.
The Mystic Rose is the story of the vengeful Caitriona and her somewhat awkward half-sister Alethea who seek to avenge Duncan's murder at the hands of the Templar Commander de Bracineaux. After buying a Norse bodyguard from the Byzantine jails she steals a letter purporting to reveal the location of the Mystic Rose (unfortunately, guessable as to what it really is fairly quickly) and disappears off after seeing Brother Andrew (as did Murdo and Duncan before her) to steal it. Alethea's abduction leads ultimately to the prize and gives a conclusion to the `modern-day' plot that runs alongside.
Stephen Lawhead is one of the finest fantasy authors writing today and his name usually guarantees a purchase. As a result, expectations of his work are higher than normal. However, whilst the Iron Lance commenced the trilogy so well, the Mystic Rose has ended it poorly.

Concluding the "Celtic Crusades" trilogy - this book kind of had to be a grail quest really! Better than the second book, Lawhead recovers his sense of storytelling, but still I think the first of the series was the best. Lawhead writes action sequences very well, but the journeying I found a little too long winded.

In this story Cait, daughter of Duncan, son of Murdo Ranulfson, witnesses the murder of her father at the hands of a Knight Templer. She promises not to avenge him, but does not keep her vow - but before she can kill her father's murderer, she discovers an important document and steals it. This then sets in train a grail quest across medieval Europe.

The Mystic Rose concludes the Celtic Crusades trilogy of Stephen Lawhead and ends the series of on strong note after the dullness that was The Black Rood. Crusades is perhaps the wrong word for the series, though; each of the three books instead deal with a quest for the holiest items of Christendom.

Again, we follow our Celtic protagonist (a heroine this time) on a quest for holy relics - this time the holy grail. Catriona is a stronger protagonist than her father Duncan from book 2, and unlike the previous volume, there is plenty of suspense and excitement in the story. Partly this is because Lawhead has abandoned the "diary" format of the Black Rood for a much better format, partly because the characters in this book are far more interesting, and partly because the plot itself is simply much better.

The book is not without its flaws, however. The characters are not always well realized; a problem that is particularly pronounced for the main protagonist. The writer obviously wants the reader to think and feel in certain directions, and thus lets Catriona "comment" on the behavior of her surroundings. Unfortunately, this comes off as very stupid and silly when the comments are related to actions of her sister which should hardly come as a surprise unless they are strangers who have just met (they're not). Similarly, Catriona in one moment comments on the uselessness of one of her companions, only to - a few sentences on - turn for advice to the self-same person. Errors like these make the characterization fall flat and have been a problem in every book of the series.

The early 20th century story-line which Lawhead has woven into these three volumes also come to a conclusion in this book. It was particularly irritating in the second book (due to being unfinished), and the conclusion in this story is both predictable and unsatisfying - especially when one considers the setup hinted at in the previous novels. This is unfortunate, because Gordon Murray's story is an irritating and dull addendum to the much better story of Catriona.

My rating for this book is 3 1/2 stars, but I decided to round up (rather than down), for three reasons.
- The main story itself is an excellent yarn; good light reading if you like historical fiction.
- Despite being part of a series, you don't need to read the previous volumes in the series to enjoy this one. That's an excellent thing, because it means you can ignore the very tepid fare of the preceding volume, if you wish.
- It's clearly the best of the series. Since I rate The Iron Lance (Celtic Crusades S) BOOK1 as 3 stars and The Black Rood as 2 stars, 4 stars seems appropriate for The Mystic Rose.