A GUY OF GISBURNE NOVEL England, 1191. Richard Lionheart has left the realm bankrupt and leaderless in his quest for glory. Only Prince John seems willing to fight back the tide of chaos threatening England – embodied by the traitorous ‘Hood.’ But John has a secret weapon: Guy of Gisburne, outcast, mercenary, and now knight. His first mission: to intercept the jewel-encrusted skull of John the Baptist, sent by the Templars to Philip, King of France. Gisburne’s quest takes him from the Tower of London to the hectic crusader port of Marseilles – and into increasingly bloody encounters with ‘The White Devil’: the fanatical Templar de Mercheval. Relentlessly pursued back to England, and aided by the beautiful and secretive Mélisande, Gisburne battles his way with sword, lance and bow to a bitter confrontation at the Castel de Mercheval. But beyond it – if he survives – lies an even more unpredictable adversary.

Guy of Gisburne, knight and agent to Prince John, is all that stands between England and anarchy, fighting a shadow battle to protect the kingdom from those who would destroy it. Returning to England after foiling a plot to destroy Jerusalem, Guy of Gisburne is arrested and hauled to the Tower of London; John, England's regent in the absence of its monstrous King, needs his knight once more. A killer has broken into the Prince’s most secure castle in the north and left a message, drawn on the skin of one of his victims: 'the circle is closing,' signed with a handprint in blood. Is the threat genuine? Who or what is the Red Hand? Someone is killing John's men, and the obvious culprit—the most dangerous man in the Kingdom, Hood himself—has an alibi even Guy can't deny.

The vendetta with Robin Hood has cost too blood shed, lives lost, friendships severed. Guy of Gisburne, knight and agent of the crown, has had enough, and wishes to enjoy a little quiet on his own land. But Hood grows ever more troublesome, and if the barons of the North will not convince Guy to resume the hunt – nor even the rightful King Richard, returned from long imprisonment – then perhaps the simple plea of a missing daughter's father, and a promise to restore a good man's name, will. Hood has gathered an the insidious Friar Took, the giant John Lyttel, the cutthroat Scarlet Will, the brilliant and unhinged Alan O'Doyle, among others. Guy will need an army of his the redoubtable de Rosseley, the deadly Lady Melisande, the resourceful Asif ibn Salah, even Guy's former enemy, the ferocious Tancred... and his old friend and squire, Galfrid. The stage is Sherwood, long a home to both men. The final confrontation begins...