The Black Arrow
Narrated by Andrew Bond
The Black Arrow is Robert Louis Stevenson's tale of feuding houses and hidden wrongs, set in England during the Wars of the Roses.
Dick Shelton has grown up as the ward of Sir Daniel Brackley, a hard, ambitious knight who fights for whichever side pays best. But strange things start happening around Sir Daniel's men. One by one, they turn up dead, each killed by a black-feathered arrow, with a note pinned nearby naming the victim as a traitor. The arrows come from a band of outlaws hiding in the forest, and Dick begins to suspect they know something about his own father's death years before.
Cast out of Sir Daniel's household and hunted by his old guardian's men, Dick falls in with the outlaws and starts piecing together the truth. Along the way he meets a sharp-tongued runaway calling himself John Matcham, who turns out to be Joanna Sedley, a young woman fleeing a marriage arranged against her will. As Lancaster and York armies clash across the countryside, Dick and Joanna are pulled deeper into a fight that is as much about old debts and buried lies as it is about the crown.
This is a swashbuckling coming-of-age adventure, built on disguise, revenge, and shifting loyalty, in the same vein as Stevenson's other tales of young people forced to grow up fast. It's a good match for listeners who enjoy Robin Hood stories, medieval sieges, and classic historical adventure with a bit of romance folded in.
The forests, castles, and skirmishes unfold at an easy pace rather than a breathless one. It's less a thriller than a quiet old story well told — a good last chapter before sleep, read low and gentle by Andrew Bond.
