The Traitor of Sherwood Forest

Kaufman debuts with an ambitious if flawed attempt to return Robin Hood to his roots as a “complicated, morally gray medieval trickster,” rather than the “squeaky-clean hero” of the movies. The story, set during the reign of King Edward I, centers on young Jane Crowe, who’s been displaced from her home after her mother moved in with a lover. Jane’s boyfriend, Bran, a member of Robin Hood’s band, introduces her to the outlaw, and she offers to be his spy while working as a servant in the King’s Houses. Jane is initially heartened by the opportunity to “live a life where no one could tell her who or what she ought to be, which path she ought to take,” but her feelings change after Robin Hood’s men kill an innocent page whom she’d befriended. Her shift in thinking leads to a dramatic choice that will change her life. Unfortunately, Kaufman’s good intentions are largely scuttled by hackneyed and often anachronistic prose and telegraphed plot turns. Other authors, such as Stephen Lawhead in his King Raven trilogy, have done better with a similar concept. (Apr.)