The Raven and the Nine (the Viking Blood and Blade Saga)

by Peter Gibbons Book 6 in the The Viking Blood and Blade Saga series.

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Ireland, 879. Halfdan Ragnarsson, king of Dublin, is fighting rival Norse and Irish forces for control of the island's coastal strongholds. Hundr and Einar are sent to find a missing son of Bjorn Ironside, but their search revives enemies connected with Ivar the Boneless and earlier campaigns. The mission becomes a contest of vengeance and political survival amid the shifting alliances of Viking Ireland.

Ireland's patchwork of Norse ports and Irish kingdoms makes a missing-person search immediately political. Hundr and Einar cannot move through the island without entering alliances created by earlier wars, while the memory of Ivar ensures that old enemies recognise them. The mission shows how family obligations travel across the Viking world and how a private disappearance can reopen conflicts thought to be settled.