Review of Sworn to God by Steven A. McKay

A tidy little thriller that’ll keep you turning pages to the end. 

A religious sect seems friendly enough, but when two members kill themselves after leaving their fortunes to its charismatic leader, Bailiff Little John, Friar Tuck, and Will Scarlet investigate. 

If the names seem familiar, it’s because they’re part of the Robin Hood legend so many of us grew up with. But unlike most depictions, which take place during King Richard the Lionheart’s absence during the Third Crusade, Steven A. McKay’s version follows the earliest mentions of Robin Hood in ballads, which place him in the fourteenth century during the reigns of Edward II and III. But Robin isn’t even in this story! 

Sworn to God takes place years after Robin’s “apparent death.” His band of outlaws have been pardoned. Now, Little John works as a bailiff for the sheriff. While out collecting fines, he learns of the strange deaths, and enlists his old buddies to help unravel the clues behind Lady Alice de Staynton and her “Disciples of God.” 

What ensues is a fun little mystery, which I did not know how it would play out until the very end. McKay brings depth to the well-known characters, making them flesh and blood: the irascible Will Scarlet, Friar Tuck’s struggles with self-doubt, and the jolly giant Little John. Together, they make an unlikely team of sleuths who strangely work well in these new roles and share great chemistry.

McKay has written a four-book set of novels about Robin Hood as well as several novellas that take place in and around those four books. Sworn to God is one of a few post-Robin stories in which Little John and Friar Tuck team up to solve mysteries. However, Sworn to God’s fifty-thousand-plus word count puts it more in the range of a short novel than a novella. 

However you want to classify it, it’s a tight and enjoyable read, which took me about a week to read but you could certainly burn through it in a weekend. Either way, it’s a fun story with plenty of action and suspense, which will keep you guessing.

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