Niccolò Rising by Dorothy Dunnett – 14/20 Books of Summer

It’s hard to know where to start with this dazzling book but, after a slow start, it became so compelling I had to switch from the leisurely pace of the audiobook to a trusty paperback. That also helped with the typically Dunnett vast array of characters, as the actual book has a proper list of those involved, most of whom are “recorded in history,” as is noted a bit smugly. Her best known series, the Lymond Chronicles, is set during the 16th century. In Niccolò Rising, which turned out to be book one of eight, she sets the scene in 1460 and her hero is not a member of the landed gentry like Francis Crawford but a lowly 18-year-old apprentice for a Bruges dyer.