Calumet Editions

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Ring of Lions

When one stone lions in the Alhambra’s famed fountain begins gushing water each evening—after five hundred years of silence—an ancient rupture opens. Ring of Lions entwines the last Moorish kings of Spain with a string of modern deaths at the castle of Granada’s final Emir. Moving across timelines, folktales, and generations, the story follows seekers drawn by cultural, religious, and academic motives. Shadowing it all is an animal fable adapted from the “Story of the Ring Dove,” linked to the Ikhwān al-Ṣafā’ tradition.

Dalglish writes her characters vividly as she weaves the history of the Alhambra and the Moors’ influence into her plot so carefully a reader doesn’t realize how much knowledge she absorbs.

—Mary Ann Grossman, St. Paul Pioneer Press

Description

Something very strange is happening to the ring of stone lions at the center of the Alhambra, lions that have refused to spit water for five hundred years, until suddenly one of the lions is gushing every evening. Ring of Lions explores the power of memory as mysteries around the last Moorish kings of Spain become entangled with a series of recent deaths at the Alhambra, the castle of the last Emir of Granada. The novel leads readers across timelines and through folktales as the story is told by characters of several generations whose cultural, religious and academic motives have drawn them to the Alhambra. In the shadow of the novel lives a fable about animals, a tale adapted from the “Story of the Ring Dove,” a text that plays a significant role in the philosophy of the Muslim Neoplatonist Ikhwān al-Ṣafā’ in medieval Spain.

Product Details

PublishedFebruary 3, 2025
ImprintCalumet Editions
LanguageEnglish
Print length302
ISBN-13978-1962834346
Dimensions6 x 0.76 x 9 inches

Reminiscent of Arturo Pérez-Reverte, A. S. Byatt, and Umberto Eco, Dalglish brings together history, architecture, and myth in a murder mystery peopled by transatlantic characters, including two young Americans, one from Cuba and one from New York, tracing their heritage back to southern Spain. In this compelling novel, their personal investment in Spanish history drives our own fascination with its complexities and its far-reaching legacy.

—Becky Boling & D. E. Green, Co-Poets Laureate of Northfield 2023-2024

I was delighted to feel the influence here, too, of A. S. Byatt’s Possession (1990). Both it and Dalglish’s Ring of Lions draw on the tools of detective fiction, although setting their stories among learned scholars and collectors. Both novels demonstrate that a thirst for knowledge and a penchant for solving puzzles aren’t the only burning passions propelling such work.

—Devoney Looser, author, Sister Novelists: The Trailblazing Porter Sisters Who Paved the Way for Austen and the Brontës

Cass Dalglish’s Ring of Lions uses two mysterious deaths to lure readers into the world of the Alhambra and its history, going back to the reign of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabelle, and to the Reconquista, the Inquisition, and the exodus of Jews and Moors from Spain. Ring of Lions is more than just a mystery. It is a voyage through time into a world that will fascinate readers.

—Brian Duren, author of The Gravity of Love

 Once I started, I could not put it down as the suspense, the rich history woven throughout its pages captured my full attention. I highly recommend this book. Cass Dalglish has a brilliant way of bringing in each character, and each one added to the mystery unfolding in the story.

—Sharon G. Mijares, verified review on Amazon

Ring of Lions is beautifully written—a wonderful combination of Spanish history, poetry, and intrigue. Cass Dalglish has taken her genuine love for the area around the Alhambra, blended it with the events of 15th Century Spain and produced a terrific 21st Century thriller that I could not put down until the very end. A genuine tour de force!

—Brian F., verified review on Amazon