The Henchmen of Zenda Review

When I stumbled over “The Henchmen of Zenda” by K.J. Charles on a list of suggested reads with same-sex relationships, I remembered the many, many, many times I’d watched the Peter-Sellers-version of  “The Prisoner of Zenda.” I’d liked that movie, even though I’m not sure whether it would still muster up today (even though I recently learned I still find “Murder by Death” funny). The novel wasn’t very expensive on Kindle, so I bought it and read it, enjoying myself very much.

First of all, “The Henchmen of Zenda” is a retelling of the original “The Prisoner of Zenda” (written by Sir Anthony Hope), but from the point of view of one of the six henchmen which Duke Michael, the villain of the tale, has at his disposal.

I do have a weakness for stories told from the villain’s point of view (or from the point of view of a close ally of the villain), which was one reason why I started reading the book in the first place. Jasper Detchard has been working as a henchman for a while already and is telling the story from his memories. He’s been hired by Duke Michael, but has accepted the job partially to repay an old friend, whom he helps to follow her own plans. This eventually leads to him becoming a quadruple-agent. Jasper’s voice is amusingly rough and honest and his own love story, which runs afoul with his master’s orders more than once, is interesting to see develop as well.

The book, as most of the gay love stories which K.J. Charles writes (two more reviews are coming) has quite explicit sex scenes and the rather straight-forward wording fits twice as well with Jasper and Rupert (the second half of the love story) than it might fit with other characters from other stories, since both of them are hardly people to watch their tongue overly much.

What I also enjoyed, though, was the fact that both women who feature heavily in the story (Jasper’s old friend Toni, who is Michael’s mistress, and Flavia of Ruritania, the cousin of Michael and Rudolf) have their own agenda and follow it well. They are not pitched as the mere damsels which other versions have made of them. Toni wants to get away from Michael and she wants their daughter back (which he had taken from her, so he can keep Toni under control). Flavia doesn’t want to marry either of her cousins (and nobody could blame her, the future king Rudolf isn’t any better than his half-brother, if we’re honest), she wants to rule the country - and she surely is intelligent and devious enough to do it.

The original “The Prisoner of Zenda” is a story which revolves a lot around intrigue and confusion. The fact alone that it includes two men by the name of Rudolf who are sitting on the throne at various times throughout the story leads to interesting mix-ups.

Just by ‘coincidence’ (the kind you rarely find outside of old-fashioned adventure novels) the entourage of the future king of Zenda (Rudolf V.) happens across a man who looks like a perfect copy of the king on precisely the night during which Duke Michael plans to poison the real king so he’ll seem completely and utterly drunk at his inauguration the next morning (or won’t turn up at all). So when a fresh-faced and much better behaved Rudolf turns up the next morning, very gracefully going through all of the ritual, Michael is beside himself with anger. It abates only slightly after the real Rudolf is found and locked away well in the old tower of castle Zenda.

Both sides reach an impasse this way - Rudolf’s entourage can’t admit that they’ve put the wrong person (a very distant cousin who isn’t part of the succession) on the throne while Michael can’t admit he has his own half-brother locked away in the deep dungeons. So while both sides are aware the king is a fake (and Flavia suspects it, because the new king is much more of a king than her cousin ever was), they have to keep silent about it and let things go on.

Of course, things end in a great battle between both sides, where the fake Rudolf valiantly goes on to save the real king (only not so much like this) and Michael and his men are vanquished. By that time, however, Rupert and Jasper have already become Flavia’s agents for real (Rupert has always been her man) and they act on her interest, together with Toni, whom Flavia has promised help with finding her daughter.

A lot of fun in the story comes from the many twists and turns, especially also the many turns of Jasper’s own loyalty. When he realizes he has become a quadruple-agent, he adds the suggestion everyone else finding themselves in such a situation should make sure they have a notebook to keep up with all which is going on.

The story is surprisingly light-hearted for a story which includes murder and kidnapping, which might also be down to the way Jasper tells it. It deals very well with all the subterfuge necessary to survive and ends on a high note (which I, unlike one of the Amazon reviewers, liked a lot).

The book is pretty long and it took me a bit to get into the story, but that was mostly down to trying to remember what I knew about “The Prisoner of Zenda” before, which wasn’t necessary to do - the story works well without knowing the original. Once I was really immersed in it, however, I had a lot of fun while reading it. The writing is fluid, the story is well-told and full of twists, and the ending is gratifying.