Of course, since it's a hidden few months in the life of Queen Elizabeth I before she took the throne and it's set in 1546-47, some changes could be expected.
Suleiman the Magnificent, the greatest Ottoman Sultan, has called on the rulers of the nations in Europe and even in Asia to send forth their best champions of chess for a tournament in Constantinople. England's candidate, selected by King Henry VIII, is a friend to Roger Ascham, the tutor to Princess Elizabeth. Roger decides to travel with the caravan and take his teenaged charge away from a palace threatened by the plague and swarming with intrigue. He also reasons it will help broaden her experience should she ever have to take the throne of England. Once in Constantinople, the English contingent is enthralled by the ancient and exotic city, as well as surrounded by a host of other historical characters, like Michelangelo, Ignatius of Loyola, Ivan the Terrible and Suleiman himself. But they also find foul murder afoot, and Suleiman enlists Roger's keen mind and deductive reasoning to solve the crime. Elizabeth, acting like a mix of Dr. Watson and Nancy Drew, accompanies him so he can keep watch on her.
The Tournament carries with it a lot of issues, ranging from cultural to religious, but probably not that many more than a lot of suspense thrillers and murder mysteries do. Yes, the religious leaders of the story are almost uniformly vile and vice-ridden, the Muslim Turks treacherous, sneaky cheaters, and I don't remember if any villain ever actually twirls a mustache but if not it's because he's clean-shaven. The chess match conceit is supposed to offer the book a structure as Ascham tries to outwit an opponent as he would if they faced each other across a board, but it's pretty flimsy. And Ascham offers Reilly an excellent example for how to see the 16th century through a 21st century center-left political and cultural lens as he drips disdain on all the backward folks that we would drip disdain upon were we to meet them.
Still, much of that could be forgiven, but... The Tournament challenges the Implausibility Barrier with Suleiman, Ivan, Ignatius, Michelangelo and Elizabeth gathered in the same place and time for a chess tournament. In order to coerce disbelief into hanging from that high a wire, it needs one thing above all others: Fun. There are plenty of lurid sex scenes courtesy of a lusty teenage lady-in-waiting and her eagerness to describe them to Elizabeth, as well as the rich and powerful who slake their lusts upon the poor and powerless. There's plenty of Ascham bemoaning the superstitious yokels with which this time and place have saddled him and commiserating with Michelangelo about the doof-itude of the undeserving rich and powerful. But there is so little fun served up on a table set for that kind of whimsy that long before The Tournament ends, you're reading just so you can find out who did it and get out of that book.
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