Extensively researched, Marcantel's earnest retelling of the story of Joan of Arc traces the saint's life from her childhood to her fiery death, keeping the labyrinthine politics of the age clearly delineated at all times. Marcantel depicts a willful, impatient, hot-tempered Joan who, at times, is just as frightened as anyone else in her situation would be. In 1425, in the village of Domremy, 13-year-old Jhanette, an austere and pious girl, receives her first mystic visitation. Told she is "His special one," she is renamed Jehanne. By her second vision, her destiny?to serve France and God?is revealed to her. The voices of the archangels Michel, Catherine and Marguerite begin to speak to Jehanne more frequently. A calm intensity comes upon her, and she takes an oath to remain virginal. Leaving her village at age 17, she makes her way to Charles de Valois, 26, the uncrowned and unanointed king of France, cutting her hair and adopting men's dress along the way. Received by the Dauphin, she convinces him that she has come to beat back the seven-month English siege of Orleans, then to accompany him to Riems to be crowned. Marcantel knows and clearly loves her history, but perhaps too much so. As the story chugs toward Jehanne's death, dates and names dutifully accumulate until the novel, Marcantel's first, seems more like a ritual than a dramatic narrative. Ultimately, this tale is reminiscent of its subject's famed suit of armor: well structured, densely woven?and lifeless.

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