Product Description

Lost in the Quagmire (The Search for the Grail)
A Merlin Mystery
by Jay Ruud
Arthurian/Mystery
Pub Date: 10/15/18
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-948338-12-7
$16.99 Paperback
$3.99 eBook

When Sir Galahad arrives in Camelot to fulfill his destiny, the presence of Lancelot’s illegitimate son disturbs Queen Guinevere. But the young knight’s vision of the Holy Grail at Pentecost inspires the entire fellowship of the Round Table to rush off in quest of Christendom’s most holy relic. But as the quest gets under way, Sir Gawain and Sir Ywain are both seriously wounded, and Sir Safer and Sir Ironside are killed by a mysterious White Knight, who claims to impose rules upon the quest. And this is just the beginning. When knight after knight turns up dead or gravely wounded, sometimes at the hands of their fellow knights, Gildas and Merlin begin to suspect some sinister force behind the Grail madness, bent on nothing less than the destruction of Arthur and his table. They begin their own quest: to find the conspirator or conspirators behind the deaths of Arthur’s good knights. Is it the king’s enigmatic sister Morgan la Fay? Could it be Arthur’s own bastard Sir Mordred, hoping to seize the throne for himself? Or is it some darker, older grievance against the king that cries out for vengeance? Before Merlin and Gildas are through, they are destined to lose a number of close comrades, and Gildas finds himself finally forced to prove his worth as a potential knight, facing down an armed and mounted enemy with nothing less than the lives of Merlin and his master Sir Gareth at stake.

“Jay Ruud’s Merlin may or may not be a wizard, but the author certainly is, with his ability to infuse new energy into the well-loved mythical world of Arthur, once and future King. An imaginatively conjured tale, enlivened by the peripheral point of view of its narrator, Gildas, a young man coming of age in a time of legend. Enchanting!”—Kyran Pittman, New York Times best-selling author of Planting Dandelions

“Fans of medieval mysteries and Arthurian legends will enjoy this imaginative tale of
gallant knights” —Library Journal

“Like Merlin in his clever series, Jay Ruud works his own special kind of magic.”—Trenton Lee Stewart, New York Times best-selling author of The Mysterious Benedict Society series

“Where most modern interpreters of the Arthurian tradition ignore the literary backgrounds of this magnificent cast of characters, Mr. Ruud meticulously provides accurate character genealogies and is refreshingly faithful to the medieval narratives he uses as his sources.”—Janet M. Jesmok, author of Malory and Christianity

“The Bleak and Empty Sea: The Tristram and Isolde Story is a perfect combination of Arthurian legend and a medieval whodunit. It’s a thinking person’s mystery; full of intricate story telling and rich with fascinating details of life in the Middle Ages. I only hope Ruud continues to write more books in the Merlin series.”—Brenda Donelan, author of the University Mystery Series