With the Black Prince

The hunt is on in Longwood Forest, and the deer is royal, killing it means certain trouble. William O. Stoddard drops readers into the smoke and fury of medieval England, where a young lord named Richard Neville must navigate the dangerous currents of feudal power: the king's law is absolute, outlaws roam the borderlands, and a single act of courage could reshape his fate. The novel opens on a breathless chase, a stag at bay, and an arrow that will tie fates together. Richard stands at a crossroads: protect his people from lawless men, earn the loyalty of common folk who see nobles as wolves, and prove himself worthy of a larger destiny. Along the way he meets Guy the Bow, a bold archer whose skill with the longbow proves that worth lives in the arm, not the blood. When war calls and Richard marches to serve under Edward, the Black Prince, in the campaign against France, the novel becomes a coming-of-age story set against the clangor of arms. Stoddard writes with the kinetic energy of a boy who has read too many adventure tales and knows exactly what readers want: honor, danger, and the making of a man.