CASTILE, 1474-1492: The death of King Enrique and the assumption of the throne of Castile by Isabel, his half-sister, precipitates a war of succession between Isabelline forces and the Portuguese supporting the daughter of the late king. Fernan's mentor and friend, Cardinal Mendoza, now senior military officer of Castile, engages him as military advisor to Isabel and, after hostility with Portugal ends with Isabel triumphant, Fernan is appointed commander of the Hermandad, the new Castilian police force. He succeeds in freeing his sister's husband from the clutches of Torquemada, mastermind of the Inquisition, his talent for the military is recognized by the Catholic Kings, Ferdinand and Isabel, and Fernan is drawn into a series of actions during the ten-year war against the Muslim empire in Granada, the sole remnant of seven-century Arabic power in Iberia. Believing Jews and conversos are now secure from persecution, the release of an Edict by Isabel and Fernando overwhelms all Jews, including Fernan's family, a cataclysmic eruption that no one anticipated and no one can escape. Praise for the Novel ..".I am awed by the amount of historical background you have mastered and translated into gripping narrative." Robert Farwell Santa Fe, NM ..".you lived in the 1400s and then appeared to use word-art as a medium to paint vivid scenes and situations." Charles C. Rayburn Albuquerque, NM Author of Axioms for the Inventor"