Dark mysteries are the name of the game for suspenseful stories these days, whether historical or contemporary. Internationally renowned novelist John Banville (winner of the Man Booker Prize, among other awards in his storied career) carried this over into the mysteries he has penned under the pseudonym “Benjamin Black.” That includes WOLF ON A STRING, his new historical mystery set in Renaissance Prague. At times unnecessarily wordy, it balances insufficient pacing with beautiful description for an uneven read.

"At times unnecessarily wordy, it balances insufficient pacing with beautiful description for an uneven read."

Meet Christian Stern, an ambitious young alchemist and scholar who is trying to make his own way in the world. Born the illegitimate son of a bishop, he was raised by rather awful foster parents, but Christian is full of the arrogance of youth. Carrying some money and a letter confirming his paternity, he gallops off into the German countryside, determined to make his fortune in Prague, the Holy Roman Empire’s capital, ruled by the eccentric Emperor Rudolf II.

On his very first evening in a snowbound Prague, Christian stumbles across the corpse of a young woman, her throat slit and the blood pooling beneath her. He rouses the authorities, but soon finds himself embroiled in court politics that have both everything and nothing to do with the tragic maiden. He’s plucked from near-obscurity to heights he’s only dreamed of reaching, but he just might have to sacrifice everything he holds dear at an imperial altar.

Black beautifully brings Prague to vivid life. Readers can feel the frigid bite of the air nipping at Christian as he tromps through the city’s winding streets, visualize every dramatic gesture Rudolf’s courtiers make, and feel the silk and velvet rustling beneath Christian’s trembling fingers as he inches closer to solving this murder. But these passages appear far too often; in many cases, the pacing of the story is dragged down by too many descriptions, rather than moving the plot or the mystery forward. As a result, WOLF ON A STRING suffers from a surfeit of excellent writing and a lack of proper narrative structure.