Looking for a Good Historical Novel? Try Dunnett

To call Dorothy Dunnett’s two immense historical sagas intricately plotted or exhaustively researched would be something of an understatement. In Dunnett’s wonderful and exciting novels, plots, subplots, and characters multiply, intersect, and change at such a prodigious rate that the reader would be forgiven the occasional need for a flow chart and a bottle of aspirin.

Though she also wrote a series of mysteries, Dunnett is best known for her historical novels – The Lymond Chronicles and its follow-up, a series entitled The House of Niccolo. Each series is massive in its scope – in terms of the numbers of characters (both real and fictional), historical settings, and plot detail involved.

Adding to these complexities is the density of her prose style: her detailed vocabulary and ornate syntax often push her narrative into the realms of the baroque or the byzantine. Whole passages occasionally appear in untranslated French or Latin (among other languages), antiquated terms are used without definition, and many characters are saddled with more than one name. So be prepared.

The novels' style may require a bit of initial patience, but once acclimated, the reader should find each series addicting. Combining elements of romance, adventure, mystery, character study, and melodrama, Dunnett wound up creating some of the best – and most exciting – historical novels ever written.

This isn’t to say that her two series are perfect. Every now and then one of her characters is underutilized or underdeveloped, and certain plot points aren’t entirely satisfying. Both the Lymond and the Niccolo series contain very mild forays into the supernatural (the former involving astrology, the latter divination), and each foray detracts from the credibility of the series’ surrounding plots.

These failings should not deter potential readers. The books, while dense, are genuinely involving. Dunnett was an incredibly gifted author who knew how to create suspense and a genuine sense of mystery. The books in each series should not be read out of order, as major plot threads continue throughout the novels.

Below, you will find a listing of some of the best books in each series.

The Lymond Chronicles
The Game of Kings (Lymond Chronicles, Book 1)
The Game of Kings starts things off admirably. The outlaw Francis Crawford of Lymond returns to his native Scotland in an effort to clear his name of treason. Unlike the other books in this series, the action here is limited to Scotland, and while the plot is rather complex, it’s a model of simplicity when compared to later entries.

The Disorderly Knights (Lymond Chronicles, Book 3)
Here Dunnett takes the reader to Malta and Tripoli. While the major plot thread centers on the presence of a traitor within the Order of the Knights Hospitaller, the numerous subplots help keep things interesting. Dunnett’s description of the battle at Tripoli is exciting, and her villain, when revealed, is brilliantly hateful.

Pawn in Frankincense (Lymond Chronicles, Book 4)
A contender for the strongest book in the series, though that’s a tough call and open to debate. Extraordinarily rich and very well paced. Though this book, like its predecessors, has a huge cast, Dunnett made the wise decision this time of focusing the bulk of the action on a small group of characters. This book takes readers to the heart of the Ottoman Empire, and in the process winds up a number of plot threads from previous books while adding new ones. Exciting and, in its ending, rather devastating for fans of the series.


The House of Niccolo
Niccolo Rising (The House of Niccolo, Book 1)
The first in the series, it focuses on the rise of the apprentice dyer Nicholas vander Poele – or Claes, as he is often called. The book manages the rare feat of being both quite dense and highly readable. One brief word to the wise - be prepared to deal with an enormous cast. A (continually expanding) cheat sheet of names is provided in each book, but said cheat sheet is a long one.

Scales of Gold (The House of Niccolo, Book 4)
Or, Nicholas’ adventures in Africa. One of the highpoints of the series – exciting, dense, and containing a major twist at the end that would have major ramifications for the series.

To Lie With Lions (The House of Niccolo, Book 6)
Here Nicholas travels to Iceland, and by the end of the novel the reader (and the novel’s characters) have begun to grasp just how detailed, enormous, and angry Nicholas’ true schemes are.