The jester - James Patterson and Andrew Gross

It was laughter that saved me. I was only a breath away from death and yet instead of panic and fear, laughter had entered my soul. It had saved my life. Amid all this fighting, I had simply made the Turk smile. Now he was gone and I was here. A calm came over me. I was finally free.

Freedom — in eleventh-century France, it is a luxury enjoyed by only the King and nobility. For the rest, it is surely worth fighting for.

But is it worth dying for?

Arriving home disillusioned from the Crusades, Hugh DeLuc discovers that his village has been ransacked and his wife abducted. The dark riders came in the dead of night, like devils, wearing no colours but black crosses on their chests, leaving no clue as to who they are. Knights they may be, but honour and chivalry are not part of their code. They search for a relic, one worth more than any throne in Europe, and no man can stand in their way. Until Hugh, taking on the role of a jester, is able to infiltrate the enemy’s castle where he believes his wife is being held captive. And when a man is fighting for freedom – for his wife, and for everything he holds dear – he will prove a formidable opponent.

With the unstoppable pace and plot of a page-turning thriller, THE JESTER is a breathtaking, pulse-pounding adventure. No one who has ever hoped for good to defeat evil or for love to conquer all will be able to stop turning the pages of this masterful novel. James Patterson, writing with his co-author of 2ND CHANCE, Andrew Gross, has done it again.