The Blood-Red Crescent

The plot and historical outline are given in the product description. What it does not tell you is that the characters are well-sketched and the fictional plot underlying the historical battle (that happens at the end of the book) is a great read. It may be a little confusing at first if one does not have some grasp of the era, but then the story kicks in and some of the historical details are secondary. It is wise to look up terms with which one is not familiar. Terms such as The Holy League and bodkin are not common today. The story is told from the viewpoint of a Roman Catholic boy in Venice. It should not surprise anyone that Venice was Catholic at that time. Many of the major forces involved in the naval battle were from Italy, Spain, and Austria. Interestingly, the boy spends some time in a monastery for protection. That form of sanctuary played a role countless lives through the centuries and in this novel we get a glimpse of the wisdom, love, and mentoring that was received by those who inhabited a monastery for a time. It is important for Westerners to have some grasp of just how much Western Europe was threatened by the Turkish Empire following the fall of Constantinople.