The Kestrel
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The Kestrel is second book of Lloyd Alexander's Westmark Trilogy, following Westmark and preceding The Beggar Queen. The trilogy is set in the fictional nation of Westmark, which is in a place resembling 18th-century Europe.
[edit] Plot summary
Theo is traveling Westmark, learning about the country of which he will soon be Prince Consort. He is not surprised to find great poverty: Mickle - now known as Princess Augusta - could have told him that from her years on the street. His friend Florian could have told him about the aristocracy's graft and corruption. But neither could have foreseen a loaded pistol in the practiced hand of the assassin Skeit. The echoes of that shot ring from the muskets and cannons of a Westmark suddenly at war - a war that turns simple, honest men into cold-blooded killers, Mickle into a military commander, and Theo himself into a stranger.
