ANCIENT EGYPT
THE WAY OF FIRE
Christian Jacq, Simon & Schuster 2005 £10.99 pb, 38pp 0743259610 (US details not available)
This is the third in the series, "The mysteries of Osiris.' The youthful Iker, one-time enthusiastic rebel, has seen the truth - the destruction of the pharaoh Senusret is to be the first strike against the blessed, mysterious place called Egypt, and the triumph of 'The Herald' - the greatest being in wickedness. The Tree of Life stands accursed at Abydos and can only be restored by the fabulous 'green gold of Punt'. Iker has earned his title, 'The Royal Son,' with all that it demands: the use of his courage to the ultimate of physical endurance in this world and even greater dangers in the world of the gods. He is protected and inspired by his love for Isis, the young priestess who has already undergone terrifying ordeals of the spirit.
In spite of a violent beginning, this novel ultimately has a greater emphasis on magic than on battles. Amongst an enormous cast, look out for Sobek - ever sceptical and suspicious: Iker has trouble winning him over.
With its back up of knowledge and the author's love for his subject, this book would surely be enjoyed by adults and keen young readers aged ten plus. The erotic content is restrained, the translation lucid and the characterisation straightforward. Nancy Henshaw
BIBLICAL
SONG OF REDEMPTION
Lynn Austin, Bethany House, 2005, $ l 2.99, pb,348pp,0764229907
In book two of the "Chronicles of the Kings,'' Austin continues the Biblical story of King Hezekiah of Judah. Determined to bring his people back to Yahweh, the young king follows advice from his grandfather, Zechariah, and the prophet, Isaiah, and ends all tribute to the powerful Assyrians. He does so with opposition from his palace administrator, Shebna, and most of his council.
As refugees from war-ravaged Israel pour into Judah, Hezekiah begins preparations to withstand the invading Assyrian army. He hires Eliakim, son of the merchant Hilkiah, as his chief engineer of fortifications. Eliakim seeks help from his father's houseguest, the beautiful Israeli girl Jerusha, who has only recently quite miraculously escaped a brutal captivity with the Assyrians. Meanwhile, Hephzibah, Hezekiah's queen, grieving over her recent miscarriage, turns away from God to an ancient fertility goddess for help; Prince Gedaliah, the king's brother, plots a revolt from within the palace; and Jerusha and Eliakim each find love. When Samaria falls, and an Assyrian siege of Jerusalem seems imminent, Hezekiah's faith in God is put to its most extreme test.
An action-filled, vivid, well-paced picture of love and war in ancient Palestine. Michael I. Shoop
A CROWN IN THE STARS
Kacy Bamett-Gramckow, Moody, 2005, $12.99,pb,420pp,0802413692 Bamett-Gramckow wraps up her Genesis trilogy with an account of events following the death ofNimr-Rada (Nimrod) concerning the Tower of Babel and the Most High's stunning response to its construction. The story focuses on Roshannah, a daughter of Keren and Zekaryah of He Who Lifts the Skies.
Traveling with members of her family's tribe, Roshannah unwillingly enters the dangerous, seductively beautiful Great City, long avoided by her parents. In the marketplace, she is identified and forcibly taken to her uncle, Ra-Anan, a powerful , vengeful man who no longer believes in the Most High. Held captive, surrounded by plots and counterplots, and forced to learn the ways of the temple, Roshannah survives by her wits and her faith in the Most High. After she becomes a pawn in the power game between handsome, ambitious Adoniyram, his mother, the cruel Lady Sharah, and RaAnan, she fears for her life. Her lover Kaleb, meanwhile, plans her rescue. However, when violence erupts and all seems doomed, events take an astonishing and completely unexpected tum for everyone involved. Ente1taining, intriguing, and thoughtful. Recommended.
Michael r. Shoop
THE SONG OF HANNAH
Eva Etzioni-Halevy, Plume, 2005, $ 14 .00/ C$20.00,pb,304pp,0452286727
First-time novelist Etzioni-Halevy puts flesh on the bones of the Old Testament story of Hannah. As related here, Hannah and her girlhood friend Pninah become rivals for the love of the man they both marry, Elkanah. The sensual, physically exciting Pninah becomes Elkanah's first wife; later he
lSSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
marries the good and devoted Hannah. Frustrated and unhappy at being barren while Pninah is fruitful , Hannah promises God that if given a boy child, he will be dedicated to God When she indeed bears Elkanah a son, she takes him to be raised and educated at the temple Extraordinarily gifted, this beloved child becomes the great Hebrew judge and prophet Samuel. The novel follows these characters through years of love and betrayal, wars , childbirth, secret longings , uneasy alliances, forgiveness and reconciliation. Ultimately , Hannah and Pninah each come to appreciate their lot in life and to take mutual comfort and joy in Samuel.
With a rich, flowing narrative brimming with details of life in ancient Israel, and enlivened by humanly flawed characters, the author has woven a satisfying and inspiring story of love and devotion that has lasted through the passage of time
Michael I. Shoop
CHOSEN: The Lost Diaries of Queen Esther
Ginger Garrett, NavPress, 2005, $12.99, pb, 272pp , 1576836517
The oft- told story of Queen Esther is one of the most compelling human dramas in history Esther, a beautiful Jewish girl, is plucked from her village and forced to compete in a beauty contest for the opportunity to marry King Xerxes and become queen of Persia . With the assistance of one of the eunuchs, she wins the coveted crown When a plot to kill all the Jews within the kingdom is exposed, Esther risks her Ii fe to seek the salvation of her people
As Ga1Tett tells it, the queen's diary was recently discovered in Iran. Esther's voice rings across the centuries , telling us not only of kings and politics but also of concubines and secret loves. By interjecting news briefs and modem commentary into the reading of the diary, Garrett adds layers of meaning to the ancient story. Although the last few entries feel more contrived than those that go before, this diary of a Jewish woman who once ruled in the Middle East is a fascinating read Nancy J. Attwell
JOSEPH AND HIS BROTHERS
Thomas Mann, Everyman's Library, 2005 , $42 .00 /C$55.00/ £25.00, hb, l492pp, 1400040019 (US /Can) , 1857152875 (UK) The plot of this book is familiar, a more or less chronological rendering of a portion of Genesis Thomas Mann's hefty tome is not just the story of Joseph and his brothers (the favored son with the coat of many colors sold into slavery in Egypt by jealous siblings), but also the story of Joseph's father, Jacob We read of Jacob stealing his brother Esau's birthright and then fleeing to his Uncle Laban ' s home, where the well-known saga of Leah and Rachel unfolds. The book
does not truly become Joseph's until he arrives in Egypt and begins his rise and eventual fall because of Potiphar's lovesick wife. Then Joseph the dream interpreter, favored by God, rises again to become Pharaoh's right- hand man , saving the Egyptians from famine His starving brothers come to buy food. After toying with them a bit, Joseph reveals himself to them , explaining how it was all part of God's plan. Of course, the Bible fleshes out this brief summary, but the Bible leaves a lot open to speculation, particularly any psychological insights into the motivation of the main actors .
Joseph and His Broth ers leaves nothing out. Thomas Mann wants to illuminate the story's significance from every angle, examining every detail, even those details that are necessarily obscure . Still reeling from the experience, I believe he succeeds. This is an extraordinary book. Despite its length, its detours, and the fact that I always knew more or less what was going to happen next, I was never bored. In a new translation by John E. Woods it is surprisingly readable, subtly humorous at times, challenging, and ultimately rewarding. It is by far the best book I have read in years Sue Asher
CHRIST THE LORD: OUT OF EGYPT
Anne Rice, Knopf, 2005 , $25 95/$35 95, hb, 322pp, 1400052090
Pub in the UK by Chatto & Windus, 2005, £17.99, hb, 320pp, 0701173564; also pb, £11.99, 070117692X
In her infamous September 2004 posting on Amazon com, Anne Rice made clear her abhorrence for editors who "distort, cut, or otherwise mutilate sentences that I have edited and re-edited, and organized and polished myself. I fought a great battle to achieve a status where I did not have to put up with editors making demands on me, and I will never relinquish that status." Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt is an unfortunate lesson in what happens when authors forsake their editors, and illustrates why the editing profession is safe for the time being from a mass exodus of clientele.
Rice has a good story here, introducing us to the young Jesus as he and his family prepare to leave Alexandria to return to Nazareth. A journey that should take at most a few chapters stretches over a hundred pages, many of them laden with stylistic distractions. And not much happens after they get there Incredibly vivid and gorgeously descriptive passages alternate with clunking redundancies or jarring language that is by turns anachronistic (it's difficult to imagine an inhabitant of ancient Alexandria or Nazareth talking about going "up the road a piece") or hollowly archaic. While Rice incorporates copious research from the New Testament and Apocrypha to
construct a very human Jesus who struggles with his divine background and calling, it's clear that she's a bit out of her depth. Her seventeen-page Author's Note indicates that this is the magnum opus to which her entire career has been building, and it's a safe bet that this novel is the first in a series; subsequent books may well rescue this one, since this is a story that gets better in the second and third acts.
Val Perry
CLASSICAL
VERGIL'S AENEID: HERO, WAR, HUMANITY
G. 8. Cobbold, trans., Bolchazy-Carducci, 2005,$12.95,pb,366pp,0865165963
After the fall of Troy to the Greeks, Aeneas and the surviving Trojans flee, barely escaping with their lives. He knows that he is destined to establish a new Troy, one that will outshine the original. So the small band set forth on a sea journey that takes them throughout the Aegean Sea then on to Sicily, where his father dies. For a time, Aeneas settles in Carthage where he and Dido become lovers, but Jupiter reminds him of his destiny, and the nomads sail on to Italy. They are welcomed by Latinus , but a feud erupts between Aeneas and Tumus, a local chieftain, over Latinus's daughter Lavinia. After much bloodshed and heroism, the final combat culminates with Aeneas the victor. The prophecy is fulfilled as Troy is reborn as Rome.
The Aeneid has been translated numerous times, but Cobbold's narrative interpretation adds a dimension to the classic tale, giving it the feel of an adventurous novel that will appeal to a wider audience Gerald T. Burke
THE MEMOIRS OF HELEN OF TROY Amanda Elyot, Crown, 2005 , $23.95, hb , 320pp,0307209989
Helen's memoirs are a gift to Hermione, her only remaining child, written with the intention of justifying her seemingly selfish decisions. At age five, Helen discovers that her father is Zeus , not her mother's husband, giving her the gift of phenomenal beauty and the inability to die. Soon after this revelation, llclen finds her mother dead of suicide The remainder of this first-person account spans her life, beginning with her lonely childhood, to1mented by her sister Clytemnestra and despised by her father, through her reunion with her husband Menelaus. Substantial coverage of Helen's abduction by Theseus , affair with Paris Alexandros, and involvement in the Trojan War fills the pages between Elyot's research into Greek mythology shines as the stories inte11wined with Helen's recollections conform to the popular versions of many recognizable myths, including the
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
requisite animal sacrifices and overt sexuality of the time. The author does provide a disclaimer, however , that a few liberties were taken. Elyot does not overly elaborate on the history of secondary characters like Odysseus , but gives background information when needed- such as the myth of Helen's conception and the curse on the house of Mycenae
While previous knowledge of Greek mythology is helpful, anyone interested in stories about ancient gods and goddesses will find Helen's memoirs to be compelling and persuasive, especially concerning the argument that the fall of Troy was due to greed, not revenge.
Suzanne J Sprague
TROY: Lord of the Silver Bow
David Gemmell, Bantam Press 2005, £17 .99 , hb, 5 l 2pp, 0593052196. Pub. in US by Del Rey,2005 , $24.95,hb,496pp,0345458354 David Gemmell is regarded as the 'finest living writer of heroic fantasy', leaves the overly fantastical aside and writes a story of heroes in this first of a trilogy that will encompass the Trojan War.
Aeneas, Prince of Dardania and nephew of Priam, King of Troy , is taken as a youth under the wing of fabled Odysseus, teller of tales Overcoming his traumatic childhood he rises to become the Golden One . Andromache, Princess of Thebe and priestess of the Minotaur, less pretty than her sisters , intelligent and independent with a fiery nature is betrothed to Hector, a man she has never seen Argurios of Mycenae, courageous warrior of battles from Sparta to Thessaly, tall , lean, coldly distant and driven by thoughts of revenge, discovers love unexpectedly and finds himself fighting alongside those who have always been the enemy
The players gather and the stage is set for this marvellous literary and historical achievement. The novel traces the events in and of the countries surrounding the Great Green, the Middle Sea we now know as the eastern Mediterranean , illuminating the causes of the Trojan War in that legendary time of bravery, bloodshed, disloyalty and dread.
The prose is tl a wless , the writing vivid and imaginative Immensely readable and g ripping throughout I wanted it to continue and by happenstance it will. This is a GOOD book Gwen Sly
THE SWORD OF HANNIBAL
Terry McCarthy, Warner, 2005 , $6.99/£6.99 , pb,40lpp,0446615l7X Hannibal and his armies are preparing to cross the Alps, but this only serves as the background for the main story, how a talented mercenary named Strabo comes to be part of a wandering tribe of Asturian horse trainers who are pretending to help the
Carthaginians in order to rescue a captive princess. Their leader is slyer than Ulysses, and needs to be, because only two of the band are trained as soldiers. There is no shortage of bloodshed; the reader is treated to a severed leg before the third tum of the page, and Strabo's sword runs through one stomach before another victim's clean-cut head hits the tloor. The author precedes one particularly improbable sequence with the adverb "impossibly," as if to confess having gone too far. The band draws its strength from its refusal to leave any member behind , even a dead body, a characteristic of some of the most elite military forces throughout history In between action sequences , Strabo learns to bond with the members of the group , particularly the horse he has difficulty riding and the woman who initially dislikes him
The closest thing to an afterword called itself a glossary, really just a list of weights and measures. When I used it to check some weights , I found that one of the pankrators weighed nearly nine hundred pounds, and the heroine was pushing three hundred. There was enough history in the novel to provide some explanation of how the events fit in with recorded events, but more explanation, as would be presented in an afterword, is probably too much to expect from a massmarket paperback
James Hawking
A
GLADlATOR DIES ONLY ONCE
Steven Saylor, Minotaur, 2005, $23.95/C$33 95 , hb, 260pp , 0312271204
Pub in the UK by Constable & Robinson, 2005, £16.99, hb, 320pp , 1845291255
This collection featuring Gordianus the Finder is satisfying from beginning to end. Gordianus , who is "useful at digging up dirt," has a reputation for being trustworthy, tactful, and discreet. Naturally, the elite of the Republic , including Cicero and Lucullus , tum to him for assistance in personal matters. With his foster son, Eco, Gordianus solves mysteries big and small in and around Rome , as well as in far reaches of the Empire . They travel to Spain and the rebel camp of Sertorius , in "The White Fawn ," to Syracuse in "Archimedes' Tomb" and to Naples in "Death by Eros." A common thread running through many of these stories is that greed spares no one
Having never read any Saylor's Roma Sub Rosa novels, I found these stories very easy to dive into. Thanks to the author's notes , I know that the events recorded in this collection occur over a thirteen-year period beginning in 77 BCE Saylor obviously has done his scholarly work , filling each story with details of Roman life. This, combined with clever dialogue , vivid characters, ironic twists and bittersweet turns, is enticement for me to read more Saylor as soon as possible Alice Logsdon
HAWK
THE HISTOR[CAL NOVELS REVlEW
1ST CENTURY
George Green, Bantam Press 2005, £ I 0.99 , pb,396pp,0593053966
In 43 AD, due to the increasing demand for exotic wild animals in the voracious circuses , a huge complex of barns and holding pens to the north of Rome had grown into a small town. It was placed so that dangerou s, untrained beasts would not have to be he rd ed through the streets until such time as they were required for the slaughter in the arena. Serpicus, once a charioteer and now a hunter to faraway Syria and Egypt for tho se creatures provided to the games by wealthy sponsors, wanted only a quiet life with hi s wife and children. He had promised Antonia one more trip, that would gain him enough gold to retire from the trade but the nature of this employment would bring him to the brink of disaster and the despair of divided loyalties. He is empowered to make a perilous journey across the Alps in winter to a Germany in revolt against Rome and bring back a ferocious rare beast. His family are taken as hostages to ensure his obedience. George Green takes a look at ancient Rome through the eyes of these animal trappers, describing the vileness beneath the amphitheatres and the constant tang of fear and death that permeated such places. His graphic descriptions of chariot racing arc so powerful that you taste the sand and sweat as each circuit is completed
There is subtle underlying humour to the narrative and thought-provoking analogies to our own age Intelligently plotted with strong characterisation set in a resonant historical setting. Riveting.
Gwen Sly
ATTILA
William Napier, Orion, £12 .99, hb , 400pp , 0752861123, tbk, 0752868268 This is the first book in an historical trilogy about the rise and fall of one of history's most infamous villains - Attila - King of the Huns and 'Scourge of God .' The time is 406 AD when the notorious tribe s of Vandal s and Visigoths threaten Europe and in particular the Roman Empire which is already weakened by internal division
The boy Attila, a Hun and prince of the royal blood - son of Mundzuk , the son of King Uldin - is held hostage by the Romans following the defeat of the Barbarian tribes Wild and untamed Attila refoses to accept an easy life in the Imperial Palace and is driven by an unquenchable desire to return to his tribe of primitive horse warriors who have been striking terror on their neighbouring peoples for over fifty years.
Little can be known about this early period of Attila's life but William Napier
[SSUE 34 , NOVEMBER 2005
makes imaginative use of historical accounts of life in the Roman Court and records the violence of the Barbaric tribes that swept out of Asia He tells the story of Attila's escape, his horrific journey and his eventual return to his own tribe, the Huns. His realisation that the Romans had intended to kill him - to make it appear that he was killed by the people of Alaric the Goth, so that the Huns would turn against the Goths. Hardships, violence and immense cruelty accompany him and harden him, turning him from wild boy into a bloodthirsty leader who will never forget his past and who is accompanied by death and destruction wherever he rides, and fear for whoever he meets.
This is the start of a saga of warfare, lust and power. It sets the scene for the struggle for domination between east and west, between Christian and eastern mythology and religions. It is the beginning of a story of two men - Attila the Hun and Aetius the Roman and it leads us eventually to its end in Gaul. Jane Hill
MEDIEVAL (GENERAL)
LORD OF SAMARCAND AND OTHER ADVENTURE TALES OF THE OLD ORIENT
Robert E. Howard, Bison Books, 2005, $18.95, pb, 462pp, 0080327355X
Most people who have heard of Robert E. Howard know of him only as the creator of Conan the Barbarian; others perhaps also that of King Kull. The fantasy adventures of both appeared first in the pulp magazines of the 1930s, heroes who were larger than life, kept alive in the hearts and minds of a cult following that rivals that of Tarzan for sheer adventure.
Both Conan and Kull were pure fantasy. Before Howard created either, he was writing historical fiction, tales comprised almost entirely of bloody battles taking place in the Middle East during the Crnsades. Names such as Nur-al-din faced and conquered the Christians; Saladin, Baibars, Ghengis Khan, Talaman, and Suleiman the Great. Facing these emperors and warlords in Howard's tales are heroes of his creation, often lone men, Godric de Villehard, Cormac Fitz Geoffrey, and Cahal Ruadh O'Donnel, once king of Ireland. Often wronged by both sides and seeking revenge, they worked for the hi ghest bidder or whoever suited them.
These stories are not for the fainthearted. Bodies pile up like kindling. Limbs are lopped off, skulls crushed in, heads chopped from bodies. These should not be read one after the other, but spaced out to leave time for breathing.
Steve Lewis
11 TH CENTURY
RASHl'S DAUGHTERS: BOOK ONE, JOHEVED
Maggie Anton, Banot Press, 2005, $15.95, pb,364pp,0976305054
This novel centers on the life of Salomon Ben Isaac, known today as Rashi, and his three daughters. In I 068, Ras hi returns to Troyes, France, from his studies in Germany to take over his family's winemaking business. Known as the first scholar ever to write a Talmud commentary, Rashi secretly begins teaching his daughters the Talmud, a dangerous and heretical practice. If this were ever discovered by the Jewish community in Troyes, there would be dire consequences.
This first book in a trilogy focuses on Rashi's eldest daughter, Joheved. The author has researched women's lives in the Jewish environment of eleventh-century France and uses this knowledge to weave a fascinating story around Joheved's passion for learning and knowledge, which she must keep hidden from her betrothed, Meir ben Samuel. Joheved is an especially astute learner, and she becomes quite knowledgeable in everything that she studies, whether it is the Talmud or winemaking or business practices In the end, she must decide between her marriage and her true self.
The author does a wonderful job of weaving the drama around Joheved, but also of illustrating the complex relationships between three sisters and their parents. The reader is also given brief glimpses of Joheved's sisters Miriam and Rachel/Belle, who will be the main characters in the two books to follow. As a tickler, a preview of book two, Miriam, is inserted at the end of this book.
Brad Eden
THE MOSAlC OF SHADOWS
Tom Harper, St. Martin's Minotaur, 2005, $23.95,hb,275pp,03l2338678
Pub. in the UK by Arrow, 2005, £6.99, pb, 0099453487
This exerting mystery takes place in Constantinople in I096. Demetrios Askiates, unveilcr of mysteries, is asked to investigate the attempted assassination of the Emperor. The bungled attempt has killed a guardsman, and the tool of his death is an arrow unlike one ever seen before, one that is able to pierce armor. Demetrios is hired by Krysaphios, the Emperor's Chamberlain, and soon finds himself investigating some of Constantinople's elite, when he is not prowling its slums for clues. He has close contact with Sigurd, leader of the Emperor's Varangian guard, and meets Anna, a skilled physician and a most determined woman, when he saves the life of a young man being hacked to death by a Bulgar. While he is investigating, a mammoth army of Crusaders
from the west, requested by the Emperor to take back Byzantine lands in the east, arrives at the city gates. I found the plot and the characters fascinating. Constantinople was a veritable melting pot of people from many countries, and their interactions and prejudices came to life. 1 hope this is the start of a long series.
Trudi E. Jacobson
VIKING: Sworn Brother
Tim Severin, Macmillan 2005, £12.99, hb, 352pp, 1405041145
This is the second volume of a trilogy about Thorgils, a Norseman who becomes the 'sworn brother' to Grettir the outlaw hero of an Icelandic saga. The novel depends to some extent on the story of Grettir and recreates its atmosphere and spirit. Thorgils' journeys take him to Iceland, England, Orkney, Scandinavia, Russia and finally to Milklagard, or Byzantium as we know it. It is an exciting story that contains much fighting, cruelty and bloodshed.
I was fascinated by the description of the places and peoples Thorgils saw on his travels. There is a wealth of detail about daily life and customs, seamanship and farming, fighting and hunting all fitting smoothly into the story and I was completely convinced that this was authentic.
Tim Severin's restrained writing avoids sensationalism and simply gives an impression of the Viking age as it was; brntal and crnel, yet fearless and courageous. I look forward to the final part of the trilogy.
Ruth Nash
12TH CENTURY
PEOPLE OF THE MOON
W . Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear, Forge, 2005, $25. 95/C$34.95, hb, 528pp, 0765308568
About I 150 in the western United States, on what is now the New Mexico/Colorado border, Ripple, a member of the First Moon People, hunts in the mountains. After killing an elk, he signals for his friends to help retrieve the meat. It has been a very hot and dry summer, but during the night as he waits for their arrival, Ripple has a vision from Cold Bringing Woman. They strike a deal to free the First Moon People from the tyrannous yoke of the First People. Thus begins the story of the cataclysmic events, both natural and man-made, that spell the end of a civilization. It is a saga involving myth s, gods, war, and conquest, as well as the timeless human qualities of decency, bravery, loyalty, deceit, betrayal, and greed.
The novel, another entry in the fine First North Americans Series, is a fascinating glimpse into Native American history, a sto1y about tumultuous events that changed the lives of the Chaco Anasazi forever. The
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
Gears have constructed a fine, historically rich narrative around interesting and complex characters. Although a bit long, the novel is well worth exploring.
Gerald T. Burke
1 3TH CENTUR Y
TYRANT OF THE MIND
Priscilla Royal, Poisoned Pen Press, 2004, $24.95,hb,24lpp, 1590581350
In the bitter cold winter of 1271, Prioress Eleanor of Tyndal returns to her father's castle on the Welsh border. Her young nephew is ailing from a mysterious illness, and Eleanor has brought her infirmarian to attend the young boy, together with Brother Thomas, an intelligent and attractive young monk who reluctantly joined the priesthood. Eleanor's brother, Robert, is discovered kneeling over the body of the son of an old man holding the bloody knife. Although the family doesn't believe he is capable of murder, his father calls for the sheriff. Eleanor and her party intend to solve the crime before the storm abates and the sheriff arrives.
The time period comes alive for the reader in Royal's descriptions of the people, the castle and most especially the mindset of the times. While we know the people loved their children, worried about the future, and paid their bills, their thought processes are distant to us Thankfully, with her vast know ledge of medieval life, Ms. Royal does not force the characters to fit into 21st century preconceptions. A jacket blurb comparison to Brother Cadfael 1s appropriate: her books are as good, but significantly different.
Lorraine Gelly
14 th CENT UR Y
THE F IRST VIAL
Linnea Heinrichs, Thistledown Press, 2005, $10.95 / C$12.95, pb, 347pp, 1894345843 In her debut novel , Heinrichs doesn ' t manage to avoid the pitfalls often seen in first works. The characters are two-dimensional, and the plot sometimes overcomes the most determined suspension of disbelief. Young and beautiful Katherine, Lady of Crenfield Castle, is saddled with a whiny little tyrant of a husband. Luckily, he's killed off in the first act, under mysterious circumstances that just happen to throw Katherine in with the handsome, rough Victor, Katherine's rich liege lord and neighbor. It soon becomes apparent that the maniacal village priest will do anything to secure Katherine's land. To add to this, people begin dropping of the dreaded Black Death and the village doctor, one of the more well-developed characters in the novel, is powerless to help. But when a main character comes down with plague, he
easily cures her by lancing a bubo, leaving (in addition to the medical dubiousness of this explanation) the mystery of why he didn't bother to try this on his other patients. Had Heinrichs been able to prolong the foreboding atmosphere she conjured so well at the beginning of the novel, the plot would have greatly benefited. It would also have been wise to leave doubt as to who the villain was, adding to the suspense and allowing him to be revealed later on Though the novel is hampered by weak points, Heinrichs has crafted a story that has plenty of action and a sizable bit of romance. In addition, the prose is straightforward and well written. Despite its faults, this is a respectable first try and a readable novel.
Bethany Skaggs
15 TH CENTURY
lT
SLEEPS IN ME
Kathleen O'Neal Gear, Forge, 2005, $13.95/£9.99, 254pp, pb, 0765314150 Is it witchcraft or delusional sexual obsession? Set in about 1400 CE, in a preCo lumbian Mississippian culture on Lake Jackson in present-day northern Florida, this off-beat erotic historical keeps the reader guessing. Sora, the beautifol young chieftess of Black Falcon Nation, is confused. Her beloved ex-husband Flint has just died violently, but his shadow-soul may be in possession of his best friend Skinner's equally handsome body. Sora, born to rule in the matriarchal elite of her tribe, is both narrator and protagonist. At thirty-two, she bears great responsibility for deciding her clan's future. She is under pressure to wage war on other clans, to maintain her tribe's wealth and trading su1:>remacy. The council of elders, including Sora's present husband, is divided. Yet she repeatedly risks her position in life to engage in forbidden sexual gymnastics with Skinner/Flint, graphically described. Woven into the main plot, murders among the ruling clan families make the story seem like a thriller.
Gear is co-author of the monumental First North Americans series, and It Sleeps in Me is distinguished by the same meticulous and wide-ranging research. With great skill, the author weaves in tribal beliefs like the three souls that are released at death, and vivid details of daily life like the shimmering rain cloaks of goose feathers and the healing rituals used for mental illness. The weakest part of the book for me is the political subplot, which is overwhelmed by the intensity of the repetitive eroticism and the mystery thriller aspect. Includes historical note, map, and bibliography.
Nina de Angeli
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
THE LION OF ST. MARK
Thomas Quinn, St. Martin's Press, 2005 , $25.95 /£17.99, hb , 336pp , 0312319088
In November 1452 , in the midst of a raging storm , fifteen-year-old Venetian Marco Soranzo ignores marine officer Antonio Ziani's orders to stay below deck- and pays for his disobedience with his life Washed overboard, Marco drowns as the Venetian fleet plows forward through the tempestuou s Aegean Sea toward the Venetian port city and naval base at Negropont. This ignites the generations-old blood feud between the two noble Houses of Ziani and Soranzo Vowing revenge for Marco's death, Marco's two brothers, Giovanni and Pietro Soranzo, plot to ruin Antonio Ziani's family business as well as his good reputation among the Venetian nobles The Sorzanos very nearly succeed in this story of jealousy and betrayal set against the bloody backdrop of Venice's decades-long war with Mehmed II, who, after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, meant to conquer the west and convert Christian souls to Islam-or else.
This is Thomas Quinn's first novel and the first in a new series While on the whole the author maintains a neutral stance when describing the conflict between late Renaissance Italian Christians and their war against Islam, the question Giovanni Soranzo asks Antonio Ziani at the end of the book"Do you really think [our temporary truce] can end this vendetta that has consumed three generations of your family and mine?"- will most likely resonate with many readers. Thomas Quinn knows fifteenthcentury Venice by heart. For me, however , this essentially history-driven novel allows La Serenissima's political and religious ordeals to command center stage far too often and at much too high a cost to character development and story.
Alana White
16 t h CENTU R Y
THE CONSTANT PRINCESS
Philippa Grego1y, Touchstone, 2005, $24.95, hb,375pp , 074327248X
Pub. in the UK by HarperCollins , 2005 , £17.99 , hb , 0007190301
From infancy , Catalina , lnfanta of Spain , daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella , has been groomed to be the Queen of England . She travels to England as a young girl, torn out of her familiar surroundings, not speaking English, and thrust into a world she cannot fathom. Yet she has the presence of mind, the rearing and the maturity to cope with eve1ything and anything that is thrown at her. She never forgets that she is to be Queen of England someday. That is her one and only goal. It is by the strength of her character, her resilience and her talent that she discovers a way to make that goal a reality
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
The facts are well known, but the way that Gregory tells the story is a wonder. The transformation from the young Catalina to the mature Katherine of Aragon, dryly recounted in our history books , comes to life in Gregory's talented hands. Moving between third-party narrative and personal revelations by Catalina, we are made privy to the lnfanta's tortured introduction into English life, her love affair with her oncedespised husband, Arthur, her widowhood , and her machinations leading her to the throne of England by marriage to the feisty, immature Henry , Arthur's brother.
The most recent in Gregory 's magnificent Tudor novels, thi s is a terrific book and a must read.
Ilysa Magnus
MY WICKED HIGHLANDER
Jen Holling, Pocket, 2005, $6.99/ C$10 50, pb , 328pp,0743471067
Holling's latest romance opens with Isobel MacDonell hiding in England from the witch hunts ravaging Scotland. When Sir Philip Kilpatrick, sent by her father , arrives to escort her to her betrothed in the Highlands , she finds herself on a journey where her magic could help solve a mystery while at the same time placing those around her in mortal danger. My Wicked Highlander, the first in a new trilogy about three sisters- all of them witches- is a certainly a page-turner. The tag-line on the front cover says it all : her unearthly powers are no match for a rugged Scotsman's desire! For devotees of romances, this is good reading. The plot has good twists and definitely allows the reader a bit of escapism. Characters were well fleshed-out and intriguing; Kilpatrick's angst over his little sister's disappearance is a thread that pulls the reader through the book. The use of Isobel's witchcraft and the dramatic consequences if she's discovered adds an extra bit of pizzazz to what would otherwise be just another entertammg romance. Overall, there were no complaints and there were no revelatory moments, but the book was certainly enjoyable Dana Cohlmeyer
T H E MALEVOLENT COMEDY
Edward Marston, Minotaur , 2005 , $23.95 / C$33.95, hb , 245pp, 0312342837
Fans of the theatre are bound to enjoy th is series centered on a troupe in E lizabethan England. The plot, revolving around nasty events intended to prevent the performance of a new author's play, offers a wellresearched view of what theatre life was in that Puritan society: no women on stage (which were set outdoors in inn yards), companies "belonging" to rich patrons, stock of plays that were presented over and over, and superstitions. The characters are wellrounded and suited to their times and roles in society. Bracewell makes for an endearing
and believable leading man Marston, a prolific author under various pseudonyms, is an old hand at historical writing, and the ease and precision with which he sets the scene for his story, both physical and social, reflect his skills. Even the spectators become a live entity in the performances. The plot, rife with undercurrents of rivalry and revenge, is original yet accessible. Reading the series in order should add to one's pleasure , but this book stands very well by itself.
Nicole Leclerc
MADDALENA
Eva Jana Siroka, Semele Books, 2005 , $26.95, hb , 272 pp, 0976493705
The author, a well-respected Renaissance art historian and artist, peppers this first novel about the model for Titian's St. Mary Magdalen with color sketches of various scenes. For me , this is a first!
It is Rome in the 1560s. Cardinal Alessandro Farnese is in line for the papacy after the death of Pope Pius V. But the Cardinal, who is a powerful prelate, develops an attraction for Monna Rebecca, the daughter of a Jewish apothecary. After Rebecca nurses Alessandro through a lifethreatening illness, they realize that their passion for each other must be consummated. They begin a long and scandalous affair that, eventually, costs the Cardinal the papacy and converts Rebecca to Maddalena, a Christian.
Moving back and forth between the art studios of the period, the music, the science , and the religious and political backdrop of Renaissance Rome, Siroka does a first-rate job of crystallizing the greed , betrayal and passion of that period . The Cardina l is a fascinating and sensuous man, addicted to women and to art. Manna Rebecca is mysterious in many ways: why she so easily leaves her family and her religion is not entirely clear. The co lor paintings, although a nice touch, really add nothing to the story other than communicating on another level the author's expansive talents.
I look forward to the second instalment in this series, to be set in imperia l Prague Ilysa Magnus
MARlE AND MA RY
Nigel Tranter, Hodder & Stoughton/ Trafalgar Square , 2004 , $29.99, hb, 200pp, 0340823542; also £6.99, pb, 0340823550 The author, who died in 2000 after publishing more than ninety historical novels about Scotland and Scots-related issues, revisits the stories of Marie of Guise and her daughter, Mary, who later became Queen of Scotland. The history is well known. Marie; wife to James V, ruled Scotland alone after his death. In turbulent times, Marie succeeded in protecting Scotland's borders, in denying England a foothold on the throne of Scot la nd by foi ling Henry Tudor's plan to marry Mary to his son, Edward, and by
keeping the peace between the Protestants and Catholics living in Sco tl and.
The story is recounted in typical Tranter fashion ; that is, it's dry, virtually devoid of dialogue, and told in an almost sing-song-y narrative storyteller's voice. But it is , true to form, Tranter's voice. If you love Tranter, you'll love this one If you need to be involved in the action or want to hear the character speak to you, this novel is not for you.
Ilysa Magnus
MEMOIRS O F A DWARF AT THE SUN KING'S COURT
Paul Weidner, Terrace Books/ Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 2004, $24.95, hb, 339pp, 029920510X
Monsieur Hugues, the dwarf at the center of this tale, draws a coarse and bawdy portrait of the g littering court of Louis XIV. Boarded in youth at the same house as several of the king's bastards, Monsieur Hugues works himself up to roya l service, emptying and cleaning the king's own chamber pot in the morning, and performing other services at night- mostly beneath tables, where he helps courtiers cheat at cards, and performs specia l services for the lad ies. These particular services come in handy as he is summoned to perform them for a very powerful womanthe king's own mistress. Now so close to the center of power, the dwarf presses his heartfelt petition for legitimacy, for he has come to believe that legitimacy will make a true man of him Yet in his fumbling attempts at blackmail and revenge , he is undone. For his seemingly insignificant petition causes a terrible secret to be revealed, a secret that threatens his life as well as the stabi lity of the French monarchy. A strongly sexual tale that portrays the crueler side of human nature, Memoirs of a Dwarf is vivid and well-written, but definitely not for the faint-hearted.
Lisa Ann Verge
17TH CENTUR Y
STRANGE SAINT
Andrew Beahrs , Toby, 2005, $22 95 , hb, 376pp, 1592641245
This is the author's first novel. He effectively uses accounts of the old Plymouth Colony to portray life in a congregation of Saints, religious separatists who did not pledge their allegiance to the official church in England and who lived in isolated communities. As a small child of two, Melode is orphaned in a tavern fire set by the Saints and then taken in as a servant by one of the families in the congregation. At the time the story begins, she is sixteen, strong-minded, spirited, and somewhat impetuous. Hers is not an easy life. She is treated harshly, feels like an outsider in the congregation, and harbors resentment towards the Saints for her
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
mother's death. She finds comfort and joy where she can, with friends and tending the herb garden.
When the Saints' landlord dies and the new landlord is not sympathetic to their cause, the congregation decides to travel to America. Melode sees this as an opportunity to start a new life with her lover, Adam, the son of the congregation's leader. The story follows Melode on her journey to America, taking many twists and turns, and ultimately ending up at Thomas Merton's Merrymount settlement in Massachusetts. Along the way, events and Melode's nature cause her to suffer and endure much. In the end, she matures and makes peace with herself and her decisions.
Melode is a complex character, one not always likable. I found the reading slow going at times, as the story is written in the first person and the dialogue is not in quotes. I had to keep figuring out who said what. However, the story was captivating and populated with interesting characters, and the author's use of period vocabulary really helped transport me to the seventeenth century.
Jane Kessler
ISLAND
WILDERNESS: Imagining the Early Years of Martha's Vineyard Christopher Bums, The Seashell Press, 2005, $14.95, pb, 246pp,0976886618
In June of I 67 l, Governor Thomas Mayhew was sole proprietor of Martha's Vineyard. When Island Wilderness begins , he has ruled for twenty-nine years. History shows Mayhew as a more or less benign despot , an intelligent conciliator, even in his relations with the Indians. Then a gruesome act of piracy brings him, and his small kingdom, to the belated notice of Royal Authority. The seventy-eight-year-old governor is summoned to Fort James (Manhattan) to explain the breakdown of order in his domain -a nd why he has ignored all taxes, military direction and royal inquiries for the last twenty-five years. The inquisition lasts a week, and is chaired by examiners who are determined to remove Mayhew from his position and his property , but the old fox has more fight in him than anyone supposes. Based on original documents, the writer offers a lively and satisfying picture of the Vineyard's eccentric first governor (and of his world-weary royal antagonist), as well as Indians, soldiers, and settlers. Unsurprisingly, the historical characters arc better fleshed out than the fictional, for the author's background is in journalism. Juliet Waldron
ANGEL AND APOSTLE
Deborah Noyes, Unbridled, 2005, $23.95, hb,304p~ 1932961100
At the close of The S ca rlet letter, Hester Prynne speaks of the angel and apostle as a woman of beauty and purity who will someday reveal the truth of sacred lo ve
between woman and man. Hester has returned to her New England cottage to live out her life. She receives correspondence and expensive gifts from someone living in Europe-someone close to her. We're left with the hope that it is Pearl.
For readers who miss Hawthorne's fine writing style, Deborah Noyes has given us a wonderful gift with Angel and Apostle. Her prose is descriptive and moves at a fine pace. The story begins in Puritan Boston of the mid-seventeenth century. Hester's elevenyear-old daughter, Pearl, runs wild about the countryside and seashore. The child's only friend is Simon, a blind boy near her own age, who will come to know her better than anyone. She also becomes acquainted with Dr. Devlin, a stranger to her but not to her past. His relationship with Hester and Reverend Dimmesdalc is at the core of the narrative
When Pearl has grown to maturity , Simon's handsome brother, Nehemiah, desires her , and they are wed. They return to London where she and Simon, now her "brother," are once more thrust to the forefront of the story. Had Pearl been in Boston instead of London at the time of her own transgression, she, too , could have worn the scarlet "A" upon her breast.
I enjoyed every page of this debut novel. The ending surprised me, but that's the beauty of good storytelling. Ms. Noyes captures the heart of the time period, and I think Mr. Hawthorne would have liked this story, too.
Susan Zabolotny
THE ASSASSIN'S TOUCH
Laura Joh Rowland , Minotaur, 2005, $24.95 / C$34.95, hb, 336pp, 97803120319007
In the page-turning climax of her tenth Inspector Sano mystery, Rowland locks us in a remote villa with Sano and the Assassin. It is a battle of Sano's samurai skills against the Assassin's superb martial arts tactics . To build suspense, the author interrupts the action to flash to scenes of another Ii fe-anddeath fight being waged in the villa-one fought with altogether different weapons.
Hopefully your appetite has been whetted enough to read Rowland's excellent mystery set in 17th century Japan. With two sets of murders to solve in this story, the reader is taken into the highest echelons of medieval Japanese society and to the lowest points in the place of the hinin, the outcasts of Edo.
As in the earlier Inspector Sano mysteries , Reiko, Sano's wife, plays an active role in his investigations, this time solving one of the murders on her own. One wonders how plausible this is given the strict codes of behavior in Japan at that time But Reiko is a likable character, and her strong
presence provides the opportunity to look at marriage and family life in 17 th century Japan.
Lucille Cormier
1gTH CENTURY
RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
Bruce Alexander, Putnam , 2005, $24.95 / CS36, hb , 244pp,0399152423
This is the eleventh and final book in the mystery series featuring the blind magistrate Sir John Fielding (half-brother of novelist Henry) and his ward, now clerk Jeremy Proctor. It 1s 1775. When Lord Lammennoor, a prominent member of Parliament , jumps to his death from Westminster Bridge , his friend the Lord Chief Justice finds that verdict hard to swallow and asks Fielding, the Blind Beak of Bow Street, to investigate. Jeremy , acting as Fielding's eyes, finds Lammerrnoor 's widow reluctant to cooperate-and no motive for suicide. A doctor friend of Fielding's takes the Fieldings, Jeremy, and his fiancee to a mesmerist , giving the reader an "ah ha" moment that comes a little later to Jeremy and Fielding.
Alexander (a pseudonym of author Bruce Cook) died when this work was two-thirds completed , and it was finished by his wife and a close friend working from his notes. That explanation may account for the mystery's red herrings and blind alleys, which are numerous, but it does not detract from the reader 's enjoyment of the last book in this wonderful series. Fielding's prodigious talents are on display in this last hurrah, and the boy Jeremy has become a man.
Ellen Keith
THE ADVENTURESS
Ann Barker , Robert Hale, 2005, £ I 8.99, hb, 224pp,0709078803
The Adventuress of the title is Miss Florence Browne, who in the opening chapters lives alone and in miserable poverty with her curmudgeonly father. An unpromising start for an aspiring adventuress, you might think . Our heroine agrees. On the death of her father, finding herself alone in the world and in pos sessio n of an unexpected fortune, Florence sets out to find Adventure in the town of Bath. The rest of the novel deals with the adventurous escapades-a morous and otherwise - of our heroine. This being Georgian England, one would expect to meet a scoundrel, a nobleman in search of love , and a dandy. There is, of course, a governess, too-a ll quite in order for a Georgian romance This particular offering is perhaps a little slow to get started but once the pace picks up , the characters and plot become increasingly captivating. A gentle, unassuming offering withal but a pleasing romance nonetheless.
Fiona Lowes
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
[SSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
ON THE SPUR OF SPEED
J.E Fender, Univ. Press of New England, 2005, $26.95, hb, 31 lpp, 1584654759
In volume four of the Frost series, J.E. Fender provides a new insight into a seldomseen Revolutionary War battle, a detailed look at the slave trade, and a challenging way of organizing these two stories.
Joseph Frost volunteers for Benedict Arnold's 1776 Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain. Fender gives us a Patrick O'Brian-like description of how Frost and Arnold build and fight an outnumbered American fleet against the British. This offers a rare look at a patriotic Benedict Arnold and a key strategic battle in the Revolutionary War. Joseph's story is interspersed, chapter by chapter, with a flashback to his brother's first voyage on a slave ship. Here we see ten-year-old Geoffrey Frost abused under the heavy hand of a slave ship captain. This tale, too, abounds in O'Brian-like descriptions of eighteenth century nautical detail.
Each tale tells an interesting story. However , the stories s tand alone. Th ey are two fine novellas shuffled together like a deck of playing cards. The result imposes on the reader the task of shifting gears at each chapter. If your interests lie in the American Revolutionary War, the s lav e trade or the ongoing saga of the Frost family, you will find much to like here. However , your pleas ure will be tempered by the two-storiesin-one approach.
Chuck Curtis
IN LUCIA'S EYES
Arthur J a pin , translated from the Dutch by David Colmer, Chatto and Windus 2005, £12.99, hb, 247pp, 070117795. Pub. in US by Knopf 2005, $24.00, hb, 256pp, 1400044642
[n Amsterdam, 1758 , a masked courtesan captures the attention of Monsieur le Chevalier de Seingalt - who will later come to be known as Casanova. ln the hope of becoming Galathee de Pompignac's lover, Seingalt makes a wager with her that she will be unable to find a si ngle woman whose heart he ha s broken.
What Seingalt doe sn' t know is that Galathee is none other than his first lo ve Lucia , the girl he planned to marry before she left without a word. Lucia's disappearance crushed him and he never discovered that she had contracted small pox and run away because of her horrible disfiguremen t. Now years later Galathee knows she ca n win the wager and becomes hi s lov er again, accepting that one da y the affair will finish and she will once more lose the love of he r life.
Arthur Japin has tak e n a brief reference to Lucia in Casanova 's memoirs and expanded it into a tale of tragedy and heart break. The re s ultin g novel is a delightful portrait of 18th
century Amsterdam and a study of enduring love. The author deserves the many plaudits and prizes lavished on hi s work in Europe. Congratulations must also go to David Colmer who seamlessly translated the novel in to English from the original Dutch. Hi s is a triumph an t achievement that avoids the stiffness and lack of sensitivity that has ruined many a translation befo re now. In Lu cia's Eyes is a literary work that should appeal to the romantic in us all.
Sara Wil son
BOONE
Cameron Judd , High Country, 2005, $24.95, hb, 344pp, 1932158685
Cameron Judd's biographical novel of Daniel Boone is amusing, poignant , and gripping, a nd the author manages to provide a wealth of histori ca l information without ever sounding like a textbook. Judd does an excellent job of fleshing out Boone and his supporting characters; no one is simply a hero or a drunkard or a villain. The novel opens in 1755 as Boone and his injudicious friend Nate Meriwether serve as wagoners under Major General Edward Braddock, and it follows them back to Boone's courtship and marriage to Rebecca Bryan in North Carolina. The reader follows Boone 's attempts to blaze a trail from North Carolina to Tennes see, with triumphant and tragic results. Boone founds Boonesborough , Kentucky , but struggles with the Shawnee and the lo ss of many friends and family members. Hi s relation s hip with Rebecca is complex; he is constantly tom between the love of hi s family and the call to travel and explore The Boones are frequently beset by poverty , and Daniel's reputation is not unassailabl e when he is captured for the second time by the Shawnee Judd's choice to end the novel in 1783 is highly appropriat e : Boone the wanderer is packing up his family once again to relocate
Andrea Bell
WHAT LIES BURIED : A NOVEL OF OLD CAPE FEAR
Dewey Lambdin, McBooks , 2005, $23.95, hb,282p~ 1590131169
Readers may be familiar with Lambdin from his naval adve ntures , and though his love of all thing s nautical appears in passing , he's chosen to keep both feet firmly planted on the soil of pre-Revolutionary Wilmington , North Carolina, in his first murder mystery Harry Tre smay ne , respected political leader and gentleman, has been found murdered, and his fri e nd , chandler Matthew Live sey, must find the gui lty party. The more Livesey learns about Harry's private life, the more suspects he uncovers, some of whom are willing to do anything to prevent discovery Lambdin has crafted an appealing m ystery that delves into the politics and social structure of colonial America. The fast
pace keeps the reader's attention, but Lambdin 's real forte lies m his characterization and setting. Livesey, his family, and the inhabitants of Wilmington come alive, and Lambdin's setting, from Livesey's chandlery to the ships in the harbor , transports the reader to the I 700s. The story's one drawback springs from Lambdin's excellent characterization: the realistic Scots brogue and frontier polyglot of some characters' dialogue will slow readers while they pause to mentally translate Overall, a very enjoyable mystery which 1 hope will be the first of many to feature Matthew Livesey and his family.
Bethany Skaggs
ADAM RUNAWAY
Peter Prince , Touchstone, 2005, $24.95, hb , 438pp , 0743271017
Pub. in the UK by Bloomsbury, 2005 , £17.99, hb,480pp , 0747578761
In I 721 , the protagonist of the novel, Adam Hanaway, leaves his mother and sister in England to seek success in Lisbon after his father's unexpected death. His relatives there are cordial but distant. His uncle's assistant, Gomes, does his best to undermine Adam. Along the way, he becomes enamored with three beautiful women. He also becomes involved in a number of situations where conflict is inevitable, and he consistently displays the behavior that earned him the niclrname of the novel's title [n addition, Adam has to cope with the treachery and deceit that accompanies the dangerous Inquisition in Portugal.
Thoroughly researched , Prince's novel is a rich tapestry , and it paints a vivid picture of Lisbon at the zenith of its glory. Character development and a twisting plot keep this lengthy novel moving and should be a source of pleasure for readers interested in the time period.
Gerald T. Burke
SHADOW PATRIOTS
Lucia St. Clair Robson, Forge, 2005, $24.95, hb ,352 pp,076530550X
The title Shadow Patriots refers to those individuals who assisted the Americans during the War for Independence by gathering intelligence- spies, in other words. In this novel , the spies are members of the Culper Rin g headed by Abraham Woodhull and Robert Townsend of Long Island. The heroine is Kate Darby, a young Quaker woman from Philadelphia with family connections in New York and Long Is land Kate is acquainted with Pe ggy Shippen, her husband Ben edict Arnold, and Major John Andre. As a Quaker, Kate is not considered to be a threat by the British , and as Peggy Shippen's friend , she is in a unique position to learn of their plans Kate 's efforts as a spy begin innoc e ntly with visits to her brother in Washington's am1y at Valley Forge. She is
THE HISTORI CAL NOVELS REVIEW
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
soon recruited to gather inte lligence for the Americans, using the code name "355."
Robson has written an interesting and at times beautiful narrative. History has recorded a spy with the code name "355," which means "lady," but has carefully guarded her true identity. Robson's fictional accounts of "355's" activities, and her theory of the "how" and "why" behind her actions, are a logica l extension of the facts known to us.
Audrey Braver
A FACTO R Y OF CUNN I NG
Philippa Stockley, Harcourt , 2005, $25.00, hb,355pp,0151011729
Pub. in the UK by Little, Brown, 2005, £14.99,384pp,0316729280
By age thirty, French noblewoman Mrs. Fox has been scandalized and chased to Holland with her loyal maid, Victoire. There Mrs. Fox establishes herself as an eccentric fixture of a successful brothel. Her landlord Hubert Van Essel, hiding his own secrets, honors her desire for discretion. ln 1784, Mrs. Fox is forced to run again, this time to London, where she finds herself the anonymous owner of another stew. Mrs. fox's slyness is equal parts luck and preparation. Upon meeting some American men and corresponding with Van Essel and his contacts, Mrs. Fox hatches a multifaceted scheme that will obtain her the security she needs, the comfort she expects, and the entertainment that she craves. However, some amusement at the expense of a local parson's daughter and attempted revenge on behalf of Van Essel lead to unexpected results, which she may not be able to spin in her favour.
The tale unfolds through journal entries and correspondence between Mrs. Fox and the individuals she confides in and manipulates. Stockley adeptly develops the characters with this convention through their easily identifiable writing styles. The novel is liberally sprinkled with witty wordplay, literary allusions, and appropriate cultural references. An included glossary he lps define some of the more obscure expressions.
Despite the brothel backdrop and a scheme that involves the parson's daughter and a trapeze, the novel contains no lurid sexual scenes and contains more humor than sexuality. Some may be offended at the hint of incest , but most will delight in this clever comedy of manners.
Suzanne J. Sprague
See our int e rview ll'ith Philippa Stockley in issue 31.
SA I LS ON THE HO RI ZON
Jay Worrall, Random House, 2005, $24.95 / C$34.95, hb, 284pp , 1400063051 Worrall 's novel of a young Royal Navy officer, the brave and resourceful Charles Edgemont, covers waters already familiar to devotees of adventures from the Age of
THE HISTORlCAL NOVELS REVIEW
Fighting Sail. Edgemont's story begins with his life as a junior officer in the Napoleonic Wars. His rise to independent command would make Lord Nelson envious. He faces the hazards of command with the squarejawed determination one has grown to expect of the Royal Navy, but his character is fleshed out with periods of self-doubt. He naturally emerges triumphant over his momentary lack of resolve and conquers both French and Spanish opponents in the formulaic manner first introduced in fiction by C. S. Forester.
While the description of life on board a warship is first rate, the story itself is relatively sterile and disappointing. Is the genre of Napoleonic sea fights done to death? I would say no. lt simply needs character development and plots that can stand up to comparisons with those of Aubrey, Lewrie, and Hornblower. Fighting the French and Spanish may seem easier in comparison.
John R. Vallely
19 th CEN T URY
THE DEATH OF ACHlLLES
Boris Akunin, Weidenfeld&Nicolson, 2005 , £ 12.99 ($17. 77), hb, 330 pp , 0297645536 Those of you who have read any of the other three novels by Boris Akunin already available in English will need no encouragement to read this latest work to be translated form Russian. Yes, Erast Fandorin is back, more like James Bond than ever, complete with the Japanese manservant with whom he practises martial arts in his hotel bedroom. But of course Fandorin is also a master sleuth, Bond with the deductive powers of Sherlock Holmes. This time he is back in Moscow in 1879 investigating the sudden death of the military hero , General Sobolcv.
The first half of the book is classic Fandorin , a swashbuckling romp in elegant , measured prose. Then halfway through the story changes tack. The second half is written not from the viewpoint of Fandorin but from the viewpoint of the assassin. Whodunnit becomes how-does-he-getcaught , and in the process it becomes a deeper, more psychological thriller.
It took me a while to adjust, but it worked. There are still more Fandorin books out there in Russia and I am sure that there are many like me who are looking forward ro their arrival in the English speaking world. Edward James
MR. EME RSON'S W I FE
Amy Belding Brown, St. Martin ·s Press , 2005, S24.95 / CS34.95 , hb, 328 pp, 0312336373
Lidian (nee Lydia) Jackson is thirty-three years old when she first meets Ralph Waldo
Emerson in 1835. A strong-willed and intelligent woman, Lidian never expected to marry, and is both flattered and hesitant when young Emerson proposes ma1Tiage soon after they meet. Though Emerson promises her a new kind of partnership, based on egalitarian principles, Lidian discovers that living in the shadow of her husband's ideals (and his obsession with his first wife) is not easy. As soon as she becomes a mother, Lidian is no longer privy to her husband's philosophies and thoughts, and their "new partnership" provides no solace or intellectual stimulation. Over time as Emerson seeks out other companions, Lidi~n is attracted to his friend and protege, Henry David Thoreau. Lidian struggles to stay faithful to her family, to Henry, and to herself.
Lidian and Henry are sympathetic characters, and so too is Ralph Waldo Emerson, in spite of his treatment of his wife. All three can debate with wellarticulated arguments, but their own feelings and emotions are not so neatly summed up. This is a fascinating and thoughtful tale; the Emersons, Thoreau, and their transcendental community vividly come alive Brown's style is lyrical, no easy feat when capturing philosophical rhetoric. My one quibble is that although Brown admits to conjecture, she doesn't elaborate, so it is difficult to know what is fact and what is fiction. Mr. Emerson's Wife reads almost as a creative and beau ti fully-crafted biography. Recommended.
L. K. Mason
FRIDA Y'S G l RL
Charlotte Bingham, Bantam Press 2005, £15.00, hb,439pp,0593054245
Edith Hanson earns her living working as a maid in her father's public house until she is spotted by the famous artist , Napier Todd. In true romantic style he sweeps her off her feet and into a marriage but it turns out to be a chaste affair where Edith's value as an artist's model apparently outweighs Napier's desire to make love to her. This awkward situation continues until they meet up with Sheridan Montague Robertson and his wife, Celandine.
Confronted by the passionate nature of the other couple's marriage and the equality of that relationship, Edith determines to awaken Napier 's latent passion Her ploy is to arouse his jealousy and she is successful until her own jealousy is stirred. Misunderstanding follows and the couple arc pulled so far apart it seems that they may never be reconciled unless Sheridan and Celandine intervene.
This is a love story set against the backdrop of a Victorian artists' community in Cornwall. Charlotte Bingham is a prolific novelist and knows how to please her core fans by concentrating on believable characters operating within a colourful setting. As a natural storyteller, her attention
ISSUE 3-l, NOVEMBER 2005
to detail is always good and she weaves together the strands of her story with confidence and sty le.
Sara Wilson
A LADY'S GUIDE TO RAKES
Kathryn Caskie, Warner Forever, 2005, $6.50/C$9.50, pb, 303pp, 0446616095 Meredith Merriweather has only good intentions when she sets out to research the behavior of rakes in Regency-era London. After all, she herself has suffered greatly at the hands of a rake and wants only to protect other innocent maidens from same fate. Her book, "A Lady's Guide to Rakes," will teach other young women how to safeguard themselves against the temptations offered by this particular sub-species of man. Meredith's rallying cry, "once a rake, always a rake," propels her higher and higher until she actually falls out of a hot air balloon and lands in the lap of her most recent target, the notorious Lord Lansing, Alexander Lamont. Lord Lansing, however, insists he's reformed, and Meredith's great-aunts, Letitia and Viola, seem to be under the impression that reformed rakes make the best husbands. This li ght, amusing novel follows Meredith as she stumbles from one comical situation to another, all in her quest to study Lord Lansing without actually getting caught in his seductive embrace. Her great-aunts, fresh from their previous appearances in Kathryn Caskie's two previous novels Rules of Engagement and lady in Waiting, certainly don't help Meredith's cause. The characters are funny, occasionally silly, but the writing supports the humor without lettin g hero or heroine fall into caricature.
Debra Rodcnsky
THE GREAT STINK
Clare Clark, Harcourt, 2005, $25.00, hb, 368pp,01510116l3
Reviewed in Issue 32, May 2005.
SUMMONS TO THE CHATEAU D'ARC
Kay Cornelius, Five Star, 2005, $26.95, hb, 324pp, 1594143862
In 1882, Ellen Edmonds, a twenty-year-old American, contacts the Marquis d'Arc to infom1 him of the passing of her mother. lt seems that Ellen's mother had spent some time at the Chateau D'Arc in Dreux. France, and had many fond memories which she had shared with her daughter over the years. The Marquis responds with a summons for Ellen. I le desires to hire her as companion for his daughter. Arriving shortly thereafter at the Chateau D'Arc, Ellen finds herself working in a hostile environment. Everyone seems to have a secret, including the Chateau itself. Exploring the dark comers of her new home, however, proves dangerous, and more than once Ellen finds herself rescued by the estate manager, the handsome Philip Mailley.
While the writing in this novel is lush and romantic, Ellen seems to fall in love with Philip because he's handsome and treats her only marginally better than the villain of the piece. Far more int e re sting is Ellen's relationship with Lucy, The Marquis's spoiled, wheelchair-bound, seventeen-yearold daughter. Throughout the story, Ellen and Lucy verbally spar, while ever so slowly gaining each other's respe ct, and they finally become friends without either character losing her sharp edge. It's this relationship that gives this story a heart and soul.
Debra Rodensky
THE LAST DAYS OF DOGTOWN
Anita Diamant, Scribner, 2005, $25.00 / $34 .50 ,hb,288pp,0743225732
To be pub. in the UK by Macmillan, 2006, £ I 2.99, hb, 320pp, 1405049677
There actually was a settlement on Cape Ann, Massachusetts, called Dogtown. It was a poor, small place; its real name was Commons Settlement. The people living there, mostly outcasts, were reviled by residents of neighboring towns. Judy Rhines, the main character followed throughout the book , does not mind being associated with the many dogs who roam the area; they are gentle and associate lightly with their human neighbours.
The story opens in the bitter winter of 1814 as Judy is on her way to a wake. At this point there are still a couple of dozen people in the settlement. There is Easter, whose home is the meeting place for villagers and visitors alike, and her boarder, Ruth, one of two freed s laves living in the area. The little town even boasts a brothel, with a classy madam and two rather simp le "working girls."
This is almost a collection of short stories touching on and following each of the Dogtowners through a portion of th eir lives , until the last person is left living there in a rundown cottage. The author simply but lovin gly tells us the tales, some of them sad, some happy, some are just life. The characters are varied, and the good shines through most, but there are bad apples too. The reader is privy to the day-to-day lives of poor people in New England in that era; the soil was too rocky to harvest much, and the villagers had to find ways to earn their daily bread. Well written and told with love and affection, this is a sometimes bittersweet but charming book.
Lorraine Gelly
THE MARCH
E. L Doctorow, Random House, 2005, S25.95 t CS35.95, hb, 365pp, 03 755067 13
To be pub. in the UK by Little Brown, 2006, £10.99, pb,384pp,03167Jl986
The March unfolds in sporadic episodes in the same manner as this historic military maneuver wended its way through Georgia and the Carolinas at the end of the War
Between the States. As inhuman as the bare facts are when taken at face value, we learn enough about General William Tecumseh Shennan and his personal demons to understand, sympathize with, and admire him as both man and general. As the march progresses, we meet soldiers of both armies, including a pair of Confederate misfits who conveniently wear either unifonn. Among the stragg lers and followers arc women who have lost husbands, sons, homes, their purpose in life We meet Mattie Jameson, a widow, seek in g her two sons taken as adolescents into the Confederate army; Emily Thompson, daughter of a Southern judge, who has a brief involvement with Colonel Sartorious, an outstanding Union Army surgeon; and Pearl, a beautiful halfwhite, freed slave on the brink of womanhood and searching for her destiny.
This is vintage Doctorow. His sympathetic portrayal of the havoc and destruction wreaked on a helpless civilian population is brilliant. His insight into the suffering, both civilian and military, is compassionate. The March is a forceful and mesmerizing literary novel.
Audrey Braver
HUMAN TRACES
Sebastian Faulks, Hutchinson, 2005, hb £ I 7.99, 6 I 5pp, ISBN 0091794900 (US, pb ISBN 0091794900)
Set mostly in the final quarter of the 19 •h Century, this is a dense and thoughtprovoking novel by a writer who has already shown hi s considerable talents in historical fiction through such titles as Birdsong. Doctors Thomas Midwinter and Jacques Rebiere, English and French respectively, form a partnership with the aim of understanding and explaining the nature of mental illness. The novel is set in a time in Europe when theories about the causes of condi tions suc h as hysteria and dementia changed and developed with bewildering rapidity and both the young and ambitious doctors were determined to play a dynamic part in the great adventure of getting to the truth behind the complexities of the human mind.
The story can be read in two ways: either as a straightforward saga of the progress of Midwinter and Rebiere, their successes and uncertainties, marriages and experiences in setting up and running sanatoria to help a range of afflicted folk. Alternatively, the novel is an endeavour to discover that which makes us human. How is it that we differ from animals and why did this fundamental change occur in the evolution of mankind? Faulks suggests, through Midwinter, that it is consciousness of being human itself which also brings with it the unwelcome but unavoidable associated risks of mental instability that is the key. So, while the story flows along in routine linear fashion, there
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
are also elements that delve deeply into human behaviour.
It is blended capably, though I did feel at times that the background story tended to plod a little. But it is a moving and emotionally uplifting story, and the ending leaves the reader feeling a sense of completion and with a renewed insight into the nature of the human condition. The historical context is convincing and this novel demands time and attention, but it is worth it.
Doug Kemp
FORT ZION
Robert L. Foster, Horse Creek, 2005, $ I 3.95, pb,32lpp,097222176X
Foster creates a fictional "a dvance guard" of Mormons going west in 1844 to blaze the trail for the rest of the faithful. Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, hires Jeff Curtis, a nonbelieving ex-army officer, to lead the wagon train. Because of the persecution of church members, and the fact that Utah is still part of Mexico, he cautions Curtis to keep the expedition secret. Weather, disease, snakebite, and a Mexican spy in their midst are only a few of the trials the pioneers endure Curtis begins to fall in love with an English convert, but can there be any future for a Gentile man and a Mormon woman? And will the first wave of pioneers make it to Utah?
The author uses real events as a base for the story, and it does enlighten the reader about what the Mormon trail was like . But I didn't find the characters very memorable. There were some plot anomalies, like a pair of suddenly-orphaned children getting over their grief with unbelievable speed. Interestingly, Foster does not mention the 500-lb. gorilla of polygamy , even though the practice was a major reason for Gentile persecutions of Church members.
B.J. Sedlock
METROPOLIS
Elizabeth Gaffney , William Heinemann 2005 £10.99 hb 474 pp 0434013315/USA , Random House, $16.97
Here is a big book packed with incident , color and life, mainly of the darker variety. Set in New York in the 1860s it concerns Frank Harris, who fled Hamburg to arrive in the Land of the Free where he becomes a stablehand at Barnum 's show. He is framed for a crime he didn't commit, and forced to join the Whyos by Beatrice O'Gamhna. Thus his Ii fe takes on a very different appearance, as he . is now "Irish", and working as a sewerrnan while being blissfully unaware of what it truly means to be a Whyo
Now read on! The Whyos apparently really existed, and Gaffney paints a vibrant picture of them wo11hy of a latterday Dickens " Oliver Twist has many parallels. If you like his work, and are a Caleb Carr aficionado too then this ought to appeal,
although its gory elements mean that it wouldn't necessarily to everybody. I have read far darker books though, and there is always something going on to entertain, shock or infonn (as this is a very wellresearched novel). It could still stand some editing, and gets repetitive at times but nonetheless I would read another by this author if it is as lively and larger-than-life as this is.
Rachel A. Hyde
THE FIERCER HEART: A NOVEL OF LOVE AND OBSESSION
Micaela Gilchrist, Simon & Schuster , 2005, $25.00,hb,384pp,0743222822
In 1841, Lt. Philip Kearney returns to America from his service overseas to di scover that Diana Bullitt, the southern belle he'd spent three years trying to forget, is on the verge of a marrying another. Rushing to Diana's side and demanding that she marry him, Lt. Kearney begins a twenty-year downward spiral into a black hole of the most selfish of love affairs. These two pursue their lust for one another at the expense of those around them. However, while Philip finds Diana to be an exciting lover, what he truly desires is a compliant wife, one he can bully into submission and who won't question his unrepentant philandering. By 1851 , Diana has had enough. Yet, despite the scandal, these two still cannot stop tormenting one another. It isn't until much later that either of them can achieve some peace.
While The Fiercer Heart is very well written and fast paced , the characters raised no sympathetic emotions in this reviewer. The obsession mentioned in the subtitle is obvious; the love , however, is not. Philip and Diana are arrogant, self-centered, and unappealing. I would still recommend this novel to those who enjoy 19th centu1y family sagas, but if it is a love story you seek, this is not the novel for you.
Debra Rodensky
MOON IN THE WATER
Stan Gordon, Five Star, 2004, S26.95, hb , 287pp, 1594141185
1830: Baby Lozen of the Warm Springs Apache, sister of the great leader Victoria, is discovered to have the Power of the Blue Hands, which will warn her when the enemy is near. As she grows older, she is unu s ual in other ways: a tomboy who trains with the boys , goes on raids , and later is admitted to the war council. She is a full participant in the Apaches' struggle against both Mexicans and Americans. Many times the tribe agrees to stop raiding, but the Americans repeatedly break their promises to provide supplies, and Lozen's band must raid or starve.
Even non-students of American histo1y can guess the sad outcome of the story. Lozen was a real person, and Gordon successfully portrays the Apaches' wrongs.
But other parts of the book are less successful. The real-life Lozen supposedly never man-ied because of a brief attachment to a visitor from another tribe. Gordon's use of this part of her story leads to a trite final page. I found a fight scene in which Lo ze n singlehandedly kills four men and a horse in rapid succession a bit hard to believe At one point, Gordon tries to show that Lozen regrets killing, and yet in later scenes she tortures captives with enthusiasm, taking two days to kill one of them. If that was his attempt to make her a more sympathetic character for modern sensibilities, it would have been better to let his portrayal of injustices against the Apaches create the sympathy. An epilogue telling the reader which parts were historical and which fiction would have helped.
There are the seeds of a good book here. Gordon has done extensive research into the Apache way of life. But it will take more plot and character polishing to make this novel stand out.
B.J. Sedlock
THE OTHER WOMAN
Iris Gower, Bantam Press 2005, £17.99, hb , 339pp , 0593050851
This is the third novel in the Welsh Drovers series. The heroine , Gwenllyn Lyons has previously been living with Caradoc Jones whom she found wounded and suffering from amnesia. As this book opens, Caradoc has recovered his memory and returned to his wife, Non. Gwen lets him go and does not tell him that she is expecting his child.
High spirited and strong minded , Gwen offers a drover a bag of gold to marry her and then go away but Harry Rees determines to make the marriage work once he has seen her comfortable home and fine possessions Caradoc then becomes obsessed about the baby as soon as he learns of his existence.
This is a well-written book with strong characters and a real sense of time and place . Mairead McKerracher
THE WIDOW OF THE SOUTH
Robert I-licks , Warner , 2005, $24.95 / C$33.95, hb , 4l4pp, 0446500127
To be pub in the UK by Bantam , 2006, £ I 0.99, pb , 416pp, 059305590X
"The widow of the South" is Carrie McGavock , the wife of a Tenn essee plantation owner who, in 1864, finds her house commandeered as a field hospital by Confederate general Nathan Bedford Fonest. After the Battle of Franklin, wounded men cram every square foot of Carnton 's stately rooms. Numbed by the deaths of three children and her emotional separation from her husband , Carrie discovers purpose in caring for the remains of a decimated anny. Time spent with one of the injured men, Arkansas sergeant Zachariah Cashwell, helps her heal wounds from her past , and she goes
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 1005
on to arrange the interment of almost 1,500 soldiers on her property.
A note from the publisher compares this novel to Cold Mountain and Gone with the Wind. When I read these types of claims, I usually smile skeptically, but in the case of The Widow of the South, the hype is warranted. This is an intensely moving and wholly believable novel. Hicks crafts his characters with care, resulting in people we learn to care about too.
If, like me, you're not particularly interested in the American Civil War, read The Widow of the South. It offers what is found in only the best historical fiction: a story so irresistibly attractive that you decide upon finishing it to go out and read everything that 's ever been written about the events that inspired it.
Claire Morris
DJSTANT IMAGES
Audrey Howard, Hodder & Stoughton/ Trafalgar Square, 2004, £ 18.99/ $29.99, hb, 475pp , 0340824050; also Headline, 2005, £6.99, pb , 0340824069
Beth and Milly Goodwin are the beautiful twin daughters of Noah Goodwin, a well-todo Lancashire glass manufacturer, and his wife Abby (the heroine of Howard' R eflec tions from th e Past). In 1887, at Queen Victoria's Jubilee Ball, they catch the eye of Hugh , Lord Thomley, a captain in Her Majesty's Army. Hugh needs a rich wife to replenish the family fortune, which he and his dissolute father had gambled away. Though he sets his sights on modest Beth, Milly entrances him with her wanton ways, and it's she who traps him into marriage. Milly regrets her decision many times over, for Hugh proves to be a cruel husband and father. Beth settles down with a close family friend, and over time , they form a true love match. But to save her sister, Beth makes an impetuous (though inspired) decision that sets Hugh on a path to destroy the entire Goodwin family. Despite some intense melodrama - Hugh is painted as completely evil- I found the Goodwin sisters' story compelling and rooted for them both to find happiness. Another worthwhile saga from this deservedly popular author.
Sarah Johnson
MEMORIES TRAIL
DL Larson, Helm, 2004, $25.00, pb, 475pp , 0972301186
This is a novel of the War of 1812 Elizabeth Kincaid and her mother are captured on the Ohio River by Shawnee raiders, led by Tecumseh. Elizabeth's visions earn her a certain amount of respect from some of the Shawnee, but Tecumseh ·s brother Tenskwatawa accuses Elizabeth of conjuring the Evil One. Frontiersman Will Douglas, who was raised among the Pawnee , agrees to run the gauntlet in order to free Elizabeth. He
THE !IISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
is barely successful, and they are allowed to leave for his home in Kentucky.
Elizabeth is shocked to find that Will expects her to live with him without an official wedding-there is a crucial shortage of clergy on the frontier-a nd also that he has obligations to support the wife and son of his blood brother among th e Pawnee. She is tried further when Will leaves to join the Indians led by Tecumseh to fight the Americans. After the failed attack on Ft. Wayne, Tecumseh releases Will to go back to Elizabeth, but he is barely home before the Americans forcibly take him to serve as a scout. Now Will has enemies on both sides of the conflict.
Larson did extensive research, judging by her 31-item bibliography. There are some powerful scenes, such as Will 's torture at Tenskwatawa's hands , but the book needs more polishing to raise it above run-of-themill. Errors abound of the type that spellcheckers don't catch, such as a frightened character "shuttering," or "aide" used as a verb. The battle scenes are all long stretches of dialogue-free narrative, which slows the action down, just when the reader would expect more excitement, not less Tenskwatawa is presented as an unrelentingly evil character, with no reJeeming qualities. But with further revisions to fix these problems, Memories Trail has the potential to rise above the pack.
B.J. Sedlock
THE TRUTH ABOUT LOVE
Stephanie Laurens , Morrow, 2005, $22.95 / CS32.50, hb, 384pp, 0060505753
With The Tnl!h about Love, Stephanie Laurens has created a sma1ily-plotted murder mystery as well as a torrid Regency romance. The hero, Gerrard Debbington, is as handsome, bold , and self-assured as the genre requires , but with a charming twist. He is a painter, and until now he has reserved his passion for his art. In fact, he has resolved not to fall in love-as his Cynster cousins have done- because he fears one passion might drain potency from another. The heroine , Jacqueline Tregonning, is a damsel in distress. Nevertheless, she is a superior protagonist- intelligent and honest. Jacqueline has been accused, by means of a whispering campaign, of murdering her mother. Not only that, but Jacqueline's beau vanished without a trace three years earlier If she is a murderer, she is likely responsible for his disappearance, too Here , the premise becomes a bit shaky. Jacqueline and her aunt put a bug in her father's ear to commission Gerrard to paint her portrait. They are convinced her true nature will shine through, proving her innocence. (Fortunately for me , Gerrard brought along his friend Barnaby , who has a more scientific way of looking at the evidence.) Of course, as he paints her, Gen·ard not only become her determined
champion, but falls in love If you enjoy romance with strong plotting to hold together the bedroom scenes and there are those aplenty- you'll enjoy this latest Cynster novel. Sue Asher
LICE MOUNTS, FREE TRAPPER
Frank B. Linderman , Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2005, $15. 95, pb, 33 7pp, 08032804 l 6 By 1922, when Frank B. Linderman wrote Lige Mounts, he had given up his life as a free trapper in the rugged mountains of Montana to marry and start writing his adventures from hi home on flathead Lake, Montana. The experiences of Lindcrman's youth were still fresh in his mind, and through the character of Lige Mounts, Linderman gives the reader a vivid account of what life was like for those who sought adventure in the Rocky Mountain West in the early nineteenth century. Lige Mounts is a story about an eighteen-year-old boy who le aves the comforts of his aun t and uncle's farm in Missouri and walks 100 miles to St. Louis to "hook up" with fur trappers heading west. While in St. Louis, he is befriended by an older trapper, Wash Lamkin , or "Dad." Dad takes a liking to Lige and offers him a position with his men to trap the upper Missouri in present day Montana. Lige Mounts comes of age through his association with Dad and his experiences in the West , which include hunting and killing buffalo to survive, defending against the Blackfoot in northern Montana, and living amongst the Cree. Lige Mounts is an excellent story that invites the reader into a time and place far removed from twentieth-century America. Linderman, a contemporary of western artist Charles M Russell, put on paper what Russell put on canvas, a chronicle of the American West that was quickly becoming civilized. Both artists leave us words and images of a time long past.
Sue Schrems
MARRIAGE MOST SCANDALOUS
Johanna Lindsey, Pocket, 2005, $25.00, hb, 326pp, 1416505458
To be pub. in 2006 by Corgi, £6.99, pb, 0552153397
Bestselling author Johanna Lindsey has crafted another historical romance for her fans. In her latest, we are first pre se nted with a life-altering 1808 duel between Sebastian Townshend and his best friend, Giles. Sebastian unintentionally kills Giles at Dueling Rock , and, feeling immense guilt, flees to the continent where he becomes Raven, the mercenary , vowing never to return to England. Margaret Landor inadvertently hires Raven to find Sebastian Townshend. To carry out his assignment Raven/ Sebastian must return to England and pose as Margaret's husband. Of course, neither one of them is prepared for what
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
ensues. This was my first time reading a Johanna Lindsey novel and so cannot compare it to her others. It does seem, however, to have a great deal of repetition and few historical details. True fans of Johanna Lindsey will have to give it their own read.
Nancy Castaldo
FJRSTDAWN
Judith Miller, Bethany House, 2005, $12.99 , pb,379pp , 0764229974
In 1877 , two Kentucky girls and their families set off for the Kansas wilderness.
Jarena Harban moved west with her father and twin sisters to sett le in the first African American settlement, Nicodemus, Kansas. Macia Boyle and her Caucasian family headed for neighboring Hill City. Although both families believed they were going to well-established towns , they were differently equipped to face the stark reality they encountered. While the re sidents of Hill City had little, the Nicodemus residents had nothing. Nevertheless, through hard work and cooperation, both cities struggled towards survival and growth as both girls learned the va lue of true friendship and cooperation. Judith Miller's wann-hearted, inspirational novel is the first in th e Freedom's Path series. There isn't a strong plotline in this story, nor are there any moving or unexpected scenarios. It 's a gentle read, showing how people and communities grow through cooperation and faith.
Nan Curnutt
INDISCRETION
Jude Morgan, Headline Review, 2005 , £10.99, hb, 378 pp, 075530764X
You might think that to call your heroine Miss Fo11une would handicap her, but Caroline Fortune is too strong a character for that. When her eccentric father lo ses all his money gambling, Caroline is forced to seek employment. She becomes companion to a positive gorgon of a rich old lady and is immediately embroiled in her employer's feud with her niece and nephew. Caroline enjoys Brighton society, as much as Mrs Cat tin g allows he r to , and there meets an attractive man who does not, as she supposes, wish to offer her honourable love, but to make her his mistress. She keeps the humiliating proposition to herself. Even when she leaves Mrs Catting and finds a welcome in the home of a lon g lost aunt, she keeps her own counsel. Caroline soon makes friends and is accepted in this new milieu, but to her horror she finds her ungallant suitor from Brighton is the fiance of her new best friend. which puts her in a dilemma. How she copes with this difficult situation and finally finds someone who she can tndy love ends this stylishly written, engaging story.
The characters are wonderfully drawnsome seem to have stepped out from the
pages of Jane Austen, others from those of Georgette Heyer. This is the best Regency I have come across for a long time Pamela Cleaver
GLORY IN THE NAME
James Nelson, Corgi 2005, £6.99, pb, 667pp, 0552150975. Pub in US by Harper Collins 2004, $13.95,pb,432pp,0060959053
When Civil War breaks out Samuel Bowater, previously a lieutenant in the United States Navy, signs up to serve in the Confederate Navy. He is given command of the fonner tugboat, Cape Fear. With its rabble ofa crew this seems a mixed blessing and Bowater, along with the rest of the Confederate Navy, faces the seemingly impossible task of fighting for Southern independence.
Elsewhere, other young men rush to answer the call to anns including three brothers, Robley, Nathaniel and Jonathon Paine. It seems as if no family in the land will be left untouched by war and even the lucky survivors are left to carry a heavy burden of guilt.
James Nelson is the author of two previous popular naval series and this pacey read looks set to begin a new one. Although there are many novels in the market that take a look at the American Civil War, rarely , if ever, do they feature the exploits of the Confederate Navy which in itself makes this one well worth reading. But even without this pull, Glory in the Name is a fine example of naval literature.
The action charts a course from Hampton Roads to Roanoke Island culminating in a bitter fight for New Orleans and, although there are some great set piece battles, Nelson never makes the mistake of substituting action for emotion but provides both by the bucket load
Sara Wilson
A PERILOUS PROPOSAL
Michael Phillips, Bethany House , 2005, $12.99, 346ppp, pb , ISBN07642004 I 0
In the opening pages of this inspirational novel, the first in the Carolina Cousins series, Master Winegaard has assigned Jake Patterson to work with the adult s laves. Jake happens upon a white drifter attacking his mother. Already outraged over his father's disappearance , Jake kills the attacker and then attends to his dying mother. He is captured by Confederates while running for safety in the north. Escaping with wounds, Jake encounters Union forces who take him into camp. There a black soldier, Micah Duff, supplies him with medicine and food while lecturing Jake about anger management. Running again to find his father in the Carolinas, he circles back to the Dawson plantation, now under attack by raiders. Once in the Carolinas he finds his father, Hank, who tells a different story of being sent away. In working for pay as a free
man, Jake comes upon a fonner slave girl with whom he falls in love.
The author stresses the equality of African Americans through a narrative filled with emotion and suffering. Well-researched historical examples from Civil War times, such as hooded night riders and gangsters burning property , enhance the telling of this true-to-life tale.
Jetta Culpepper
THE BOOK OF SPIRITS
James Reese, Morrow, 2005, $24.95, hb, 432pp,006056l05X
Sequels to best-selling books have proven the bane of many authors. After his debut novel , The Book of Shadows, which introduced a legion of fans to the hennaphrodite witch Herculine , James Reese faced a challenging task. A sumptuous gothic tale of the supernatural set in eighteenth-century France, that novel ended with Herculine embarking on a voyage to the New World at the behest of her mentor, the fabled Sebastiana d'Azur. Fans had to wait three years for the sequel, Book of Spirits, to arrive
Here, Herculine lands in Virginia only to fall passionately in love with a violet-eyed slave, Celia, with whom she soon becomes entangled. Reese is an undisputed master of prose, his facility for language both subtle and rare; he convincingly depicts a dark world of magic, bondage, and carnal obsession during the era of slavery in the United States. His research is impeccable, the historical characters seamlessly entwined with unforgettable fictional ones, amongst whom is the sage Mammy Venus. Unfortunately, his Herculine - despite her encounters with the dead and various ghouls, such as the rancid spirit of Edgar Allan Poe 's mother - seems more than a little perplexed not only about the object of her affection, but indeed about everything she spent so much effort seeking to discover in the first book And without a true quest to keep her , and us , focused, the novel revolves around a series of graphic, and at times gratuitous, descriptions of unusual encounters that are not for the faint of heart. It offers a glimpse of the sublime when Herculine finds herself among the gloriously human and humane witches of the Cyprian House brothel in New York , only to careen into a bewildering and disjointed labyrinth involving a hunt for the runaway Celia, the lost fountain of youth, and Florida's Native American battles.
C.W. Gortner
THE RUSSIAN HILL MURDERS
Shirley Tallman , Minotaur, 2005, $23.95 /CS33.95, hb, 280pp, 0312328575
The second volume of Shirley Tallman 's series finds Sarah Woolson, an attorney in I 880s San Francisco, at a charity dinner for the new Women and Children's hospital when the hostess, Caroline Godfrey , drops
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
dead of what appears to be a heart attack. Soon, however, her death is discovered to have been caused by poison; then three more people associated with the hospital die in the same way. When the hospital's Chinese chef is arrested for the murders , Sarah takes on his defense, appearing in court for the first time.
Meanwhile, a young widow whose husband died in a sweatshop fire asks Sarah to file suit against the shop's owner, a task which proves extremely difficult because the owner is nearly impossible to find. And Caroline Godfrey's handsome brother-in-law asks Sarah to represent his company, while showing a decidedly un-businesslike interest in her.
This is a worthy successor to the previous volume in the series. Sarah is a very strong character: a woman detem1ined to make her way in a man 's world and fight her battles against her chauvinistic employer while at the same time displaying a charming sense of humor. And the mystery keeps you guessing! Vicki Kondelik
THE SPICE BOX
Lou Jane Temple, Berkley Prime Crime, 2005,$22.95, hb,3l2pp,0425200434
When Irish immigrant Bridget Heaney takes work in a well-to-do household, the young woman doesn't realize being a cook for the Gold family will also require skills apart from culinary ones. After she discovers the body of Mr. Gold's missing son, Bridget finds she's strategically placed to help track down the killer.
The Spice Box gives readers a glimpse into New York City around the time of the Civil War; it's a comfortable mystery , welltold with historical details. Food preparation is homey and takes on a grounding property: Bridget 's duties as cook arc her home-base for lack of a real home of her own. A vibrant character, Bridget is more so than one might expect of a servant. She's able to trade ideas with her employer while working hard enough in the kitchen that other staff don't resent her time spent away. Perhaps she could use a rougher edge , but she's so likable that it's easy to overlook how she blends into her new circumstances a bit too well. The book holds the promise of being the first of a series. If future tales are able to live up to this one, it will be worth following. Janette King
THE CHAINS OF ALBION
Edwin Thomas , St. Martin's Press , 2005, $24.95, hb , 304 pp , 0312325134
Pub in the UK by Bantam, 2005, £6.99, pb , 439pp,0553815156
The Chains of Albion continues the escapades of Martin Jerrold. a likable, disinterested , easy-going lieutenant in His Majesty's Royal Navy. He commands a prison ship, Prometheus, anchored in The Medway during the Napoleonic Wars. As duties go, it's pretty cushy. That is until,
Dumont, a French prisoner of war escapes. Dumont speaks English well enough for the trusting and often naive Jerrold to use him as an interpreter, which carries certain privileges, such as having his own cabin and a monthly shilling. But then Dumont disguises himself in a dress he's stolen from Jerrold's cabin that belonged to a lady friend Jerrold is "entertaining" at the time. Thus begins a confusing, sometimes merry chase across England to capture Dumont and retrieve some mysterious papers he's carrying Everyone is looking for this Frenchman, from the army and the navy to the secret service and various members of the Royal household. It soon becomes a matter of life and death for Jerrold as well as for Dumont.
ln this second novel of a trilogy, The Reluctant Adventures of Lieutenant Martin Jerrold , Edwin Thomas continues to regale us with tongue-in-cheek descriptions of Jerrold's sometimes hilarious, sometimes dangerous adventures. This tidy mystery with its reluctant hero is a fun read.
Audrey Braver
THIS THING OF DARKNESS
Harry Thompson, Headline Review, 2005, £12.99, hb,626pp,075530280X
In 183 I, HMS Beagle set out on her nowfamous second voyage, to complete the Admiralty's survey of the South American coast. Her captain was the brilliant young officer Robert Fitzroy, who had hired a cleric-in-training to be his intellectual companion and the ship's naturalist. This Thing of Darkness is the story of that voyage and its consequences for both Fitzroy and his 'scientific gentleman,' Charles Darwin. The two men got on well , despite their contrasting temperaments (Fitzroy was a complex manic-depressive, Darwin a relatively easygoing optimist) and backgrounds (Fitzroy was a mmor aristocrat, a descendant of Charles II , while Darwin belonged to a family of nonconformist entrepreneurs and intellectuals). But Darwin's researches gradually led him into religious doubts, and began to seem to Fitzroy like attacks on his own fundamentalist Christianity. Lest this should all seem too dry-as-dust, Thompson has skilfully woven the conflict of ideas between Fitzroy and Darwin into a tapestry of danger, adventure, tragedy and satire, a story with a terrific sense of period and place, peopled with memorable characters, major and minor. Especially poignant are the tragicomic Fuegians, whom Fitzroy had brought back to England on a previous voyage in order to 'civilise' them, returning them on this voyage to Tierra del Fuego so that their compatriots might 'catch' civilisation from them.
Judging from the lengthy bibliography provided , Thompson did a prodigious amount of research and it's greatly to his
credit that it enriches, but never overwhelms, the story. It's hard to believe that this highlyaccomplished novel is the first from an author better known as a biographer of Peter Cook and producer of the TV show Have I Got News For You. Deservedly Bookerlonglisted , This Thing of Darkness is by far the best historical novel I've read all yearan engrossing, thought-provoking pageturner that entertained me for hours on end and showed me many wonders Sarah Cuthbertson
THE JUNGLE LAW
Victoria Vinton, MacAdam/Cage , 2005 , $25.00, hb, 312pp, 15969 21498
Rudyard Kipling is most famous for his Jungle Books , a series of stories that are deeply rooted in Kipling's childhood in Bombay. In this novel , Vinton mixes fact with fiction as she attempts to trace the development of these stories in the context of a snippet of Kipling's life. In I 892, Kipling and his new, pregnant wife leave behind the literary high life in London and settle in rural Vermont, where Kipling hopes to build a sanctuary conducive to his writing. Down the road lives the Connolly family: drunken , bitter father Jack, hardworking mother Addie, and their dreamy eleven-year-old son, Joe. Joe is drawn to Kipling and his stories, but Jack fears losing him to Kipling, whom he despises as a representation of the aristocracy.
Vinton ski llfull y delves into the inner recesses of her characters , aided by flashbacks and an adept use of third person narration that allows examination of each character's point of view. Unfortunately, what this delving uncovers is not particularly appealing. Kipling is exuberant and childlike, but egocentric to an extreme, using Joe as a foil for his stories and casting him off abruptly when he no longer needs him. Kipling's wife, Caroline, is a pretentious , overbearing woman who is even more selfish than her husband. Though Vinton provides a partial explanation for Jack's drunken abusiveness in the form of a tragic childhood and series of subsequent disappointments, the only truly sympathetic characters are Joe and his loving , much put-upon mother. The novel's graceful prose and meandering tone add a sense of lyricism but at the same time slow the story. Overall, this well-written novel works as a complex look into the way imagination and reality intertwine to fom1 literary greatness, but its glimpses into the character's inner selves are less than engaging.
Bethany Skaggs
THE ROAD TO KANDAHAR
John Wilcox, Headline, 2005, £6.99, pb, 400 pp, 0755309855
This second novel in the Simon Fonthill series is set in 1879. Disillusioned with the
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
British Army after fighting in the Zulu Wars , Captain Simon fonthill and Sergeant "352" Jenkins have resigned from the British army and are preparing to leave South Africa However, they are persuaded to withdraw their resignations and travel to Afghanistan, where they will support the British forces by infiltrating the warlike Pathan tribes to provide intelligence back to the army. They are joined by a Sikh who acts as their guide and interpreter. The Sikh is a great fan of the game of cricket, which is why he is known as W G Grace, after the cricketer of the same name . This, and various joke at the expense of "352 Jenkins ," forms a string of humour, which pervades the book. Humour is personal; I felt that the two characters were in danger of becoming objects of parody, rather than strong people in their own right. Romantic diversion is provided in the shape of Miss Alice Griffith, a journalist reporting for the Morning Post. A strong-minded, almost wilful young woman, her main function seems to be to encourage Fonthill into ever more dangerous situations. She also provides a unique form of medical intervention of which I am not sure Florence Nightingale would have approved.
Th e Road to Kandahar is fast-paced , full of action and brave deeds. If you are a fan of Simon Scarrow or Wilbur Smith, then this is for you. Readers who are looking for detailed insight into the Afghan campaign will need to look elsewhere. As for me, l 've starched my stiff upper lip, loaded my Martini-Henry rifle and am off to my favourite bookshop to buy the first in the Simon Fonthill seriesTh e Horns of th e Buffalo. Mike Ashworth
VESSEL OF SAD ESS
William Woodruff, Abacus Trafalgar Square, 2004, £6.99/ $12.50, pb, 205pp, 03491 18116 Vessel of Sadness is not a new book ; it was first published in 1969. But it is fitting that there be a new printing on the 60 th anniversary of the Anzio campaign. The book is a requiem of extraordinary beauty, a prose poem honoring the 50,000 Allied troops who gave their lives to open the road to Rome in early 1944 The author is a veteran of that campaign. The twenty or so stories that make up Vessel of Sadness were created from his and his comrades' experiences. Woodruff places the reader squarely at the battlefront and forces us to see the war through infantrymen's eyes, makes us feel their terror , exhaustion, loss, madness and \\'ill to carry on.
The structure of the '"novel" is confusing at first. It takes a few chapters to understand that this is a collection of stories connected only by chronology. The stories are narrated in the order they "'ould have occurred, from the beginning of the invasion to its end. Each story has its own protagonist. Some stories are told in the first person, some in the third
To get a sense of the whole one could envision a group of veteran soldiers sitting round by a fireplace, reliving their memories. Some relate their own experiences. Others talk about those of their comrades. One tells of a dream he had Still another recites a poem. Together they tell us what happen s when men go to war.
This is a powerful book that should be read by everyone more than once in a lifetime. There is simply nothing to say when you finish it. It is a vessel of sadness.
Lucille Cormier
RIDERS OF DEATHWA TER VALLEY
James C. Work, Five Star, 2005, $25.95, hb, 285pp, 1594141606
Art Pendragon , owner of the Keystone Ranch, faces problems from every quarter. Outlaws have graduated from rustling his neighbor's cattle to kidnapping his wife and murdering his men. Closer to home , his longtime friend Link Lochlin has more than friendly feelings for his wife Gwen, and Gwen seems inclined to return these feelings. The solutions to his problems lie in the outlaw's heavily fortified Gorre Valley.
If you've been waiting for the Arthurian legend redressed in Western wear, this is the book for you. The readers of Mr. Work's earlier Keystone Ranch books will welcome the continuation of this tale. Those who have not acquired a taste for King Arthur in cowboy clothing may be unsettled by the contradictions between the two genres. We expect our Western heroes to be decisive; their wives are faithful and their friends are loyal. Art Pendragon makes decision with I lamlet-like deliberation. Gwen wavers in her wifely devotion. Link gives barely a second thought to Art as he nurtures his love for his friend's wife Readers who prefer their Westerns straight up may be jarred when they discover evil dwarfs , spell-binding streams and prophetic dreams in the mountains and valleys of nineteenth-century America.
Chuck Curtis
MURDERATTHEPORTLA D VARIETY
M.J. Zellnik, Midnight Ink , 2005. $13.95, pb , 336pp,0738707864
In Portland, Oregon, in 1894 Libb y Scale is working as a costumer a t the Portland Variety, having left her family in New York City. Although Libby has kept to herself since the move, fearing to share a secret from her past. she finds herself moved to action when Vera Carabella, one of the performers, is found murdered Vera had been kind to Libby, almost her first friend in the city. She make the acquaintance of reporter Peter Eberle and enlists his aid in solving Vera's murder. Their investigations take them to brothels and inside the home of a prominent Portland businessman and bring them closer
together-a lthough Libby's secret threatens their burgeoning relationship. Nineteenth-century Portland has an undercurrent of danger, with girls having disappeared from dark tunnels and the "o therness" of its Chinatown neighborhood. Zellnik deftly evokes both the menace and the veneer of respectability its prominent citizens desire , introducing those on the fringes and those in the spotlight. The mystery is well-crafted and propelled by the very human characters Zellnik is the pen name of a brother- s is ter writing team , and I hope this is the first in a series.
Ellen Keith
19 th I 20 th CENTURIES
A SAFE HARBOUR
Benita Brown, Headline, 2005, £ I 8.99, hb, 342pp,0755323254
Benita Brown's new regional saga is set in the Tyneside village of Cullercoats, 1895 . Her novel is inspired by the experiences of her forebears - who were Cullercoats fishermen. Benita's intimate knowledge of fisher folk is, indeed, deeply embedded in the descriptive power of her narrative Life in tum-of-the-century Cullercoats is far from easy. The heroine of Safe Harbour , Kate Lawler, loses her fiancc to the sea in the opening chapters. Hence forwards, Kate faces stark choices-pregnant and homeless-s he finds herself torn between loyalty and love. Her friend Jane fares little better- forced to choose between love and a burgeoning new career, she must somehow find a way to juggle both. The village itself stands on the brink of disaster - competition from the new-fangled steam trawlers is destroying the life of ordinary fishern1en. A warmly empathic novel with a rich cast of characters.
Fiona Lowes
WHY SHE MARRIED 1111\1
Myriam Chapman, Other Press, 2005, $23.95, hb , 336pp, 1590511751
Set in the late I 9th and early 20 th centuries, this novel begins with the marriage of Nma Schavranski to Abraham Podselver, an ardent socialist. in Paris in 1912. Thi s brief section is folio,, ed by one that concentrates on their courtship (if one c.:ould call 1t that). The next sections depict Nina's early life in the Ukraine , continuing up to and JUSt beyond the wedding. Nina's family, ,vho is Jewish. struggles to achieve a comfortable lifestyle in Yek ate rino s la, Her father and mother own a tailoring business, and Ide is good until the pogroms make life unten ab le for them. Once in Paris, they must start again, but, despite hardships, their life is a refined one.
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
Chapman has a good eye for details, and her descriptions can give a vivid impression ISSUE 34. NOVEMBl::R 2005
in just a few words ("The cafes, doors open to invite a late afternoon public, exude a vinegary darkness"). The historical setting and details are the great strength of this novel. The nascent socialist movement is illuminated through Nina's friends. Nina, her younger brother, and most of all Abraham, do not completely cohere as characters: I felt I never really understood them, whereas Nina's mother and father are more completely and sympathetically drawn. Abraham is most unpleasant, so for this reader the book took flight only after the sections in which he appeared. The structure of the book, starting with the somewhat perplexing marriage, and then working backwards to earlier periods, is intriguing and worked well for this plot. After finishing the book, one does · have a somewhat better idea of why Nina married Abraham, though it ultimately remains puzzling. Chapman explains in an end note that she has tried to recreate the world described by her grandmother in a manuscript, imagining the sections connected to her grandmother's courtship.
Trudi E. Jacobson
SAND MANSIONS
Norman Gilliland, NEMO / Univ. of Wisconsin , 2005, $24.95, hb, 559pp, 097150931 X
This novel, covering the years 1876 to 1905, starts out in Liberty County, Missouri. Young Nathaniel Larabee attempts to rob a bank in revenge for the bank's foreclosure of his family's farm, which had resulted in his father's death. He takes a wrong tum while trying to escape and ends up in Alachua County in northern Florida at a boarding house run by the widowed Emma Newhouse and her three daughters. Nathaniel is fascinated by this rapidly growing place, and believing himself a wanted man in Missouri, decides to stay. His life becomes intertwined with the lives of the Newhouses, especially the middle daughter, Anna.
The novel also tells the story of the dishonest and devious John Howard, whom Nathaniel meets when he first comes to Florida. After Howard involves Nathaniel in some questionable dealings, Nathaniel doesn't trust him, and they become bitter rivals. Both men's fortunes rise and fall repeatedly in the unpredictable developing economy of the county.
Gilliland, who was raised in Gainesville, Florida, has clearly done extensive research for this book. He expertly weaves historical events into the story of the Nathaniel's life , such as the corrupt elections of 1876, the yellow fever epidemic of I 888, the catastrophic freezes of 1895 and 1899, the temperance movement and the founding of the University of Florida. The story is populated with historical figures, including the outlaws Harmon Murray and Michael
Kierens and the politicians Major Leonard G. Dennis and Josiah T. Walls. This is what I think of when I think of historical fiction. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and hope that Mr. Gilliland will write more historical novels.
Jane Kessler
THE PAINTED KISS
Elizabeth Hickey, Atria, 2005, $24.00/ C$35.00, hb, 270pp, 0743492609
In 1944, Emilie Fliige lives with her niece in their family's country house at Kammer am Attersee, having fled their Vienna apartment to escape the Nazis. Gustav Klimt's drawings of women he knew, loved, and painted-and often all three- were all Emilie was able to save of her former life. They release memories of her past.
The daughter of a prosperous manufacturer, Emilie and her two sisters grow up comfortably in 1870s Vienna. When she is twelve, her family meets painter Gustav Klimt at an imperial procession, and her father engages him to give Emilie drawing lessons. They become friends, and young Emilie gets introduced to Gustav's sensual world of nud e models, discarded mistresses, and decadent high society. A few years later they briefly become lovers, but their passion is not to last. Later, as proprietor of a Viennese fashion salon, which Gustav finances , Emilie obtains success on her own terms. Though she loves Gustav throughout her life, they prove to be better companions than lovers, and Emilie wisely knows that to keep him near, she must allow him his freedom.
With this beautifully written novel, Hickey has created a flesh-and-blood person from the few facts known of the life of Emilie Fliige, best known as the female model for Klimt's masterwork. The bohemian atmosphere of the pre-war Viennese art world feels authentic, and the characters leap from the page. The exact year is often vague, however, and sometimes Emilie ages from chapter to chapter without warning. Though not as flamboyant as others from their coterie, Hickey·s protagonist proudly holds her own, and Gustav recognizes her inner strength for what it is. To dismiss her as merely his mistress or model would be demeaning.
Sarah Johnson
THE FOREVER STREET
Frederic Morton, Simon & Schuster, 2005, S 15.00/ CS2 l.00, pb, 536pp, 0743252209
Originally published in 19 84, this novel is an incredibly rich and heady brew that tracks the Spiegelglass family from 1873 to the annexation of Austria by Gem1any in 1938. Berek Spiegelglass, son of the town goosedown maker, brings a Whitsuntide goose to the Emperor, along with a petition for the Jews of Varungy in Slovakia to move
to Turk Place in Vienna. Once he is the owner of Turk Place, Berek gains possession of a brick from the ancient Jerusalem Temple. It had come to with Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa, when Turkish armies laid siege to Vienna in 1683. We follow the Spiegelglass family through Berek's marriage, the birth of his sons seventeen years later, his bereavement and remarriage, and the life of those sons and his grandson. Their lives are bound up with the Brick, in which they insert written pleas at crucial periods in their lives, and with Turk Place itself. At times, events seem almost magical, though Berek would just view them as happening because of the Brick.
The characters come alive through the accretion of detail. The author's imagination is astonishing, and I kept marveling over small details, unexpected or unusual but just perfect for the evolving story. The novel provides focused glimpses of Vienna through the 65-year period when Spiegelglasses live on Turk Place. I read The Forever Street in conjunction with Morton's autobiographical work, The Runaway Waltz, and it was poignant to note influences from his own life on this work of fiction.
Trudi E. Jacobson
THE PLOUGH'S SHARE
David Richards, Thistledown, 2004, $20.95 / CS22.95, pb, 534pp, 1894345738
The Plough's Share follows Jack Thornton from England to South Africa to Canada at the end of the 19 th century. Jack's father, Assistant Dean at Gloucester Cathedral, has died disgraced after some unwise investments, forcing Jack to give up his job as a clerk and take up work as a farmhand for a vicar in the Forest of Dean. Jack's regard for the vicar's niece, Emma, prompts him to seek glory, and so he enlists to fight in the Boer War. But his s tint in South Africa does not improve his standing in society and so soon after returning to England, Jack decides to claim free acreage as part of the British colony in Saskatchewan.
Jack's love for Emma and his determination to make something of his life were the forces that kept me turning the pages of this hefty novel. I did wonder in places whether the story could have been told in fewer words. But David Richards' research was surely displayed, a challenging task when focusing on three very distinct aspects of the period - life in the Forest of Dean, the Boer War, and Briti h colonization in Canada's West. Richards ' depiction of life on a fledging farm in Canada circa 1905 was particularly realistic, highlighting how dependent human survival can be on extraneous forces.
Claire Morris
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS
REVIEW
34, NOVEMBER 2005
THE STONECUTTER'S DAUGHTER
Janet Woods, Simon & Schuster 2005 £5.99 pb,387pp0743484002
A ship breaks up off Portland where the Dorset coast is treacherous, and the inhabitants retrieve the ship's cargo to ease their own hard lives. If they could save the lives of its crew or passengers , they would do so. But there is only one survivor, a female infant secured into a cradle decorated with a rose. Stonecutter Joseph Rushmore and his wife take the child and call her Joanna Rose . Their own stillborn boy is buried with the little girl's mother.
In the offices of Darsham and Morcant Shipping Company, manager Tobias Darsham waits with ten year old Alex Morcant for news of the Cormorant, the vessel bringing a most precious cargo from New York. The news is brought that the Cormorant has foundered; Tobias has lost his young wife and their baby girl; Alex has lost his father, the Cormorant's captain.
Years later Tobias visits the grave of his wife and child on Portland The presence of a mourning girl, distressed and hauntingly beautiful , leads the hard headed, middle aged ship owner along a course that for ever changes the lives of Tobias, Alex and Joanna Rose.
This is a thoroughly researched, well paced and enjoyable novel, conveying Portland's unique, sometimes sinister atmosphere. To be ultra fault-finding: it is surprising to find such a capable author occasionally using expressions that don't ring true for the mid - nineteenth century. 'Bad for my image' is one such.
Nancy Henshaw
20 th CENTURY
VALAIDA
Candace Allen, Virago/Trafalgar Square , 2005, £7 .99/ $14.00, pb, 512pp, 1844081 729
Based on the life of Valaida Snow, one of the first female jazz trumpcteri., this lyrical novel pulses with the heartbeat of black America in the early decades of the twentieth century. Valaida is just fourteen when she leaves her home in Chattanooga, Tennessee, lo work as a chorus girl in a travelling revue I !ired as a singer, dancer and violinist, Valaida moves beyond the security of the egro neighbourhood into a world where Jim Crow law s and attitudes define the borders of her lite Valaida 's passion for the trumpet is ignited the first t11ne she holds the instrument in her hands, and she sets her course to make he r name as a trumpeter. Other jazz greats such as Earl Hines, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington gain recognition for their talent, but Valaida as a woman-faces ridicule and rejection within the jazz community. When offered opportunities to perform o, erseas, Valaida seizes them
gladly, enjoying the freedom from American prejudices.
Soaring from the exhilaration of Harlem nightclubs to the hopelessness of Chinese opium dens, and from the thrills of Parisian cabarets to the terrors of a Danish prison camp, this biographical novel is the story of an era. Although some of the techniques used to tell that story weaken the strength of the novel-notably Valaida 's imagined conversations with a friend while imprisoned in Denmark-Allen's tour de force is to bring to life the brilliance and passion of the jazz musicians. Highly recommended.
Nancy J. Attwell
TOMMY GLOVER'S SKETCH OF HEAVEN
Jane Bailey , Robinson 2005, £6.99, pb, 278pp, 1845290909
Kitty, a perky eight-year-old cockney, is evacuated to a small Gloucester village in 1944. Living with the childless Joyce and Jack Shepherd is difficult. Against their orders, for they dislike him , Kitty makes friends with the older Tommy, an orphan from the local home. Always curious, Kitty listens avidly to village gossip at the knitting circle and gradually uncovers secrets.
The novel is evocative of wartime days and nights in the country, told with gentle humour yet with piercing , desperate hurts hidden behind a fa9:.de of calm - until Kitty begins to uncover them.
Sometimes I found the mixture of childish innocence and adult understanding as Kitty relives this time a little unreal but it is a charming tale of love, longing and loss.
Marina Oliver
THE SWIMMER
Zsuzsa Bank, Harcourt, 2005, $23.00, hb , 278pp,0151009325
Bank writes in an understated style, using poignant details to relate a story of abandonment. Kata and her brother lsti are small children in 1956 when their mother boards a train from Hungary to the West. Their father finds release in wandering and swimming far out in the deep lake. Each remaining family member threatens to desert the others. Lyrical vignettes give depth to the episodes \\ hen the three stay with relatives and friends Left to their own devices, the children spend time at the railroad station, and trains become a trope for change and motion that happen on schedule. They comfort themselves by memorizing the timetable.
A series of events beyond her control affects Kata's life. While waiting for her mother to come back. she develops attachments, making new friends when she has little to offer and little to gain. Conflict comes from the reader 's anger at the irresponsible people whose thoughtless,
selfish and cruel deeds make Hansel and Gretel's parents look good.
The boundaries of family relationships are strained to the breaking point, yet beauty and joy survive. "A train station is the best place for a new beginning," and also to do a lot of waiting. This book helped me understand what children go through when parents break up. It's an impressive literary milestone for a young author.
Marcia K. Matthews
A LONG, LO~G WAY
Sebastian Barry, Faber & Faber 2005, £12.99, pb, 294pp, 571218008. Pub in US by Viking , $24.05, hb, 304pp, 0670033804
Saebastian Barry depicts the experiences of the Irish soldiers who fought in WW! for 'King and Country' in all the harrowing detail you would expect of a story set in that time. The awful conditions of trench warfare, the horror of a first gas attack, the great battles of the Somme and Ypres, the atrocious winters in the mud and torrential rain and severe snowfalls. But there is also the camaraderie and humour that develops between those who endure so much together at so great a cost.
The protagonist is 18 year-old Willie Dunne from Dublin who is too short to become a policeman like his father and enlists in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers in 1914 and is promptly despatched to France. Whilst tracing Willie's experiences through the course of the War the novel also explores and dramatises the events of the Easter Rising of l 916 and the effect this had on Irish soldiers fighting abroad.
What lifts this novel above others of its kind is the sheer lyricism and quality of the writing. Ba1Ty's prose style has the power to move the reader without becoming sentimental or mawkish. For its juxtaposition of the savage and the tender and its creation of a truly memorable hero this novel is to be highly recommended.
Ray Taylor
SPIES
Marcel Beyer, Harcourt, 2005, $24.00. hb, 288pp,0l5l008590
Translated from the original German by Breon Mitchell. this no,el. onginally published in 2000. tells of the quest of four cousins to discover the mysteries of their common past generations. As children, they start by wanting to learn the source of the "Italian" eyes that set them aside from their playmates. They begin with a Hardy Boysstyle gathering of clues and making conjectures about their long-dead grandmother and long-lost-to-them grandfather. Was she really a famous opera singer? Did he fly in the German air force on secret missions during the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s? Why are her images carefully eliminated from family albums'>
THE HISTORICAL OVELS REVIEW
ISSUE 34. OVEMBER 2005
Intricately told in crisscrossing points of view and time periods, Spies can become di rticult to follow and strained at times, but the challenges of its story is well rewarded as its revelations descend.
Eileen Charbonneau
A SAILOR OF AUSTRIA
John Biggins, McBooks, 2005, $16.95, pb , 369pp, l590l3107X
Pub. in the UK by Secker & Warburg, 1991, out of print
Years ago , after seeing a revival of a certain musical involving an Austrian naval captain and his children's governess, I remember a college friend declaring , with the utmost seriousness , that the plot had a ridiculous error: everyone knows that Austria couldn't have had a navy because it's a land-locked country. I wish I had been able to hand that chemistry major a copy of A Sailor of Austria.
The narrator is Otto Prohaska, of Czech and Polish parentage, who is assigned to a submarine in the 1915 Austrian Imperial Navy. His first command of the U-8 is far from glamorous-petrol fumes nearly kill the crew, the toilet explodes, and they have no real sleeping or cooking facilities. A bout of indigestion caused by bad rations sends them to the surface for fresh air, right beside an Italian cruiser, enabling Prohaska 's men to be the first crew to sink a ship due to flatulence
The author's sense of the ridiculous shows in other incidents, such as whores refusing crewmembers because their breath reeks of petrol, or being assigned to transport a young camel, a present for their Emperor, inside the U-boat from North Africa to Crete. Yet it isn't a war comedy, a la M*A*S*H. The reader gains a real sense of time and place in the Austrian submarine service. War technology buffs will appreciate Biggins's attention to getting equipment details right. He includes explanations of abbreviations, place names, maps, and ship diagrams. Readers preferring a human emphasis in their stories will find plenty to like in Prohaska 's flashback to his childhood and his romance of a Romanian countess.
World War I was not previously very high on my list of favorite eras to read about, but I finished this book wanting to learn more. Excellent military fiction.
B.J. Sedlock
THREE DAY ROAD
Joseph Boyden , Weidenfeld&Nicolson, 2005, £ 12.99, hb, 351 pp, 0297847929. Published in the US by Viking Adult, 523.95, hb,0670034312
Elijah and Xavier are Cree Indians who enlist in the Canadian a1my and are sent to Flanders in 1916. Natural hunters, they make brilliant snipers, becoming legends at the Front for their many kills For the extrovert
Elijah, killing becomes a passion and a joy. For Xavier, a "bush Indian" who barely speaks English, shooting Germans is a duty he comes to loathe. Elijah's skill brings him medals, promotion and fame as he sinks into madness fuelled by morphine. Xavier is haunted by his victims and by the pointless horrors of the white man's war.
Xavier's narration is intertwined with that of Niska, his aunt, who rescued him when he was a child from the reservation school and raised him in ancient Cree ways The "three day road" is a Cree metaphor for death as well the actual time of Xavier's and Niska's journey back into the wilderness after he is demobbed. Near death from his wounds and morphine addiction, he is healed by her tales as she struggles to save his Indian soul.
The double narrative and the shifts between time and place are so adeptly handled that the reader is never confused. The depiction of the trenches, army life and "going over the top" is powerful and terrifying. Almost unreadable at times. Especially interesting for British readers may be the picture of Indian life in the Canadian wilds and the otherness of those Cree who reject the white man's civilisation, his laws and his alcohol.
The language is poetic without pretentiousness although was "window of opportunity" a 1916 concept? I did also wonder whether morphine was so easily available in the trenches. These arc small quibbles for this is an illuminating, gripping and satisfying first novel.
Lynn Guest
THE GOOD EARTH
Pearl S. Buck Pocket Books ( 2005) £6.99, pb, 357pp, 1416511105 (USA Contemporary Classics $ I 1.20 pb 0743272935)
The Good Earth is a re-discovered modem classic written by Nobel and Pulitzer prizewinning author Pearl S. Buck, originally published in 1931 to great acclaim. Pearl, a child of Presbyterian missionaries often stationed in China, grew up speaking Chinese and English and returned there to Ii\ e after her marriage. This ~as her second novel, and her writing had a profound influence on international attitudes to a country long hidden from western eyes. Controversially she wrote The Good Earlh from the point of view of a Chinese man. In the reign of the Last Emperor a servant woman O-lan marries a humble man, the farmer Wang Lung. Each day they work endlessly on the land, drawing only meagre reward from the reluctant earth; even when giving birth O-lan does not halt the day's labour. Being frugal enables them to buy a rice field, but one day the rains do not come and there is famine in the land. Forced to flee or die of starvation, they join thousands of
other peasants going south to beg in the streets of a city. A combination of luck and a will to survive enables them to return home with undreamed-of wealth.
This is a beau ti fully observed book of life in China before the revolution at a time when women, often sold when children by their families, were called slaves and had no status. It is elegantly crafted by Mrs Buck with great charm and style and has resonance today.
Classical novels gain their definition by the quality of writing and the social issues they present; this is a superb example of the genre. It must not be 'lost' again.
Gwen
Sly
SOMETHING GORGEOUS
Junior Burke, Farfalla press/McMillan & Parish, 2005, $20.99, pb, 394pp, 0971466890 Some1hing Gorgeous is a speculative retelling of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic The Great Gatsby. There are different plot twists and a new insight into the hero, George Ritz (Gatsby), usually referred to simply as Ritz. The heroine, Faye Kingsley, is more vulnerable, more likable, more like Zelda Fitzgerald than Daisy ever was. The same is true of Ritz, where Gatsby is concerned. His story begins in Venezuela and ends in a swimming pool on a Long Island estate. In between, Ritz endures World War I and is tapped by the British to spy on the neophyte Nazis as they begin searching for a leader. When he is discharged from the army, too late to stop Faye from marrying the wrong man, Ritz turns to bootlegging and narcotics trafficking as a way to quickly build a fortune large enough to tempt Faye away from her husband.
Junior Burke's narrative is compelling and richer in both characters and plot than the original. He has created some new characters: Ritz's boss Harold Meyerstein, who is a conglomeration of Prohibition-era gangsters, and Major Hamilton, a British anny officer. The narrator is Judith Ealing, Faye's friend, golf pro and protegee of Meyerstein. Even purist Fitzgerald fans can enjoy it.
Audrey Braver
THE ROGUES' GAME
Milton T Burton, St. Martin's Press, 2005, $23.95, hb, 296 pp, 312336810
Milton T Burton knows Texas inside ouc, and one can only hope that this first novel will not be his last. The book's dust jacket proclaims it "a mystery," but it's really a series of multiple, intert,, ined con jobs, many of which are not fully exposed until the final chapters.
It ' s 1947, and a nameless narrator breezes into a nameless West Texas town with his enigmatic girlfriend Della. He says he's in town for a high-stakes poker game at the local hotel, but readers know early that he's
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
come for a great deal more than that. The narrator and Della quickly get caught up in an oil boom. The novel is peppered with scores of memorable characters, including Chicken Little, an Oklahoma gamecock breeder and excon; Ollie Mame, a deputy who needs to decide just how good "the good guys" should be; and Clifton Robillard, a banker who may have unsavoury ties to the Nazis
Burton has an astounding wealth of knowledge about the laws and paper trails involved in post-WWII Texan real estate and oil; such a topic might be dry in lesser hands, but he uses it to create a fascinating account of small-town skullduggery.
Andrea Bell
THE OLD BUZZARD HAD IT COMING
Donis Casey, Poisoned Pen Press, 2005, $24.95, hb, 220pp, 1590581490
Mystery readers everywhere, rejoice! This first of the Alafair Tucker mysteries introduces an engaging new heroine to treasure. Set during the cold winter of 19 I 2 on the Oklahoma frontier, Alafair Tucker is a farm wife and mother of nine. She determines to discover the murderer of an abusive neighbor, even when the clues point to his eldest son, whom Alafair's daughter Phoebe loves and who is hiding in one of the family's outbuildings.
Don't be misled by the unfortunate title and cover design. Casey's novel brims with wit, humor and the occasional devastating sorrow. Alafair and Shaw and their wholesome brood stand in sharp contrast to the murdered man and his family. Their children run through household duties as if sired by the Gold Shoe bunny so their mom can work her investigation around the authorities and the expectations that she'll stay within her female sphere. She works those expectations to her own advantage. Alafair is naturally curious, wise, and a bit too courageous for her own good now and then, when she's also lucky. If the wholesome meter gets to tipping, a welcome touch of magical realism saves the novel from sentimentality. A deep pleasure to read, and a few of Alafair's recipes are included' I can't wait for the next adventure of this original new sleuth. Highly recommended.
Eileen Charbonneau
THE SAINT OF LOST THINGS
Christopher Castellani, Algonquin, 2005, $23.95, hb, 336pp , 1565124332
Christopher Castellani's second novel is a sequel to his first , A Kiss from Maddalena. Maddalena is now ma~ied to Antonio Grasso and living in Wilmington, Delaware, with Antonio and his parents, Antonio's brother and sister-in-law, and their two children. After seven years of marriage, to everyone's great disappointment, Maddalena has not yet had a baby, so she goes to work in a gannent factory in Philadelphia. Antonio is a
distant husband, and Maddalena longs for her family back in Italy and a child of her own. Antonio longs to be his own boss and own a restaurant. Their neighbor, middle-aged Guilio Fabbri, longs for his dead parents and isn't sure how to create a life for himself.
While there is not much history woven into the story, the author does a good job of evoking an Italian-American community in the I 950s. The writing is lovely, as are the parts of the story dealing with Guilio and Maddalena's friendship. However, the author's characterization of Antonio just didn't work for me and prevented me from enjoying the book. He may have been attempting to portray Antonio as a complex guy, but I saw someone with deep personality flaws and a nasty streak, which made it hard for me to like or root for him. His behavior throughout most of the book ranged from selfish to self-destructive and was often baffling. The conclusion did not seem to fit the story. The abrupt disappearance of Antonio's personality flaws was puzzling, and I found myself annoyed that a character so unworthy of a happy ending got one.
Jane Kessler
A PRIVATE HOTEL FOR GENTLE LADIES
Ellen Cooney, Pantheon, 2005, $23.95, hh , 320pp,0375423400
In 1900 Charlotte Heath pulls herself from her sickbed after many months of suspected polio and decides to surprise her husband, Hays, at his uncle's wake. Instead, she is stunned to catch Hays about to kiss another woman, and Charlotte dashes off in sorrow to Boston. At a Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies, Charlotte locates the cook who once befriended her at her husband's stifling mansion where, since her marriage , she has lived with his condescending relatives. Charlotte discovers that the denizens of this hotel all have eccentric secrets, and she finds her own strength and sensual capacity in one of the "night po11ers" that service the clientele. Charlotte now embarks on a journey to unravel her own humble past and perhaps allow Hays back into her life on her own tenns.
Cooney's story is full of earthy characters and situations you hate to leave. I only quibble that after just one night there the hotel proprietor insists, without proper instructions, that Charlotte be interviewed as a "typical hotel guest" by a policeman looking to expose the vice rumored to take place there. Her na·ivete might have undone his entire operation. A delightful and intriguing read.
Diane Scott Lewis
CHLOE
Lyn Cote, Warner Faith, 2005, $ l 0.99, pb, 296pp,0446694347
Chloe is the first of a four-book series spanning four generations of women in the same Maryland family. The reader meets wealthy young Chloe Kimball in 1917 as she works on her manipulative father's political campaign. Her elopement to New York with a soldier frees her from her parents' unhappy household , but Chloe soon finds herself on her own. Chloe and her friend (and fonner servant) Minnie rise to fame as Fifth Avenue models, and both become involved with the NAACP, but Chloe's short-lived independence ends disappointingly when she finds that her brief marriage has left her pregnant. A reader might predict that the responsibility of caring for a child could restrain Chloe's options, but Chloe's loss of independence is for sadder reasons: Chloe allows her mother to raise the child in Maryland, and she returns to playing her father's hostess in Washington, DC. The plot jerks a little too quickly through to the Depression and further courtship. A subplot with a young orphan boy is particularly detrimental to anyone who wants to root for Chloe: it makes her appear jealous, unreasonable, and whiny. By the time Chloe found some independence and love again, I found I no longer cared.
Andrea Bell
CRIMSON SNOW
Jeanne M. Dams, Perseverance Press , $!3 95,pb,256p~ 1880284790
Hilda Johansson solves another South Bend, Indiana, murder mystery while continuing to work as a maid in the Studebaker household, the wealthiest and most genteel in town. When Hilda is not polishing, dusting , or being bullied by the butler, she shocks her Swedish Lutheran family by keeping company with her Irish Catholic intended husband. This entry in the series is loosely based on the 1904 murder of a local schoolteacher. Dams creates the atmosphere of that transitional time with newly flickering electric street lights and a factory witching from the manufacture of catTiages to that of motor cars, something the elder Studebaker considers a foolish fad. The northern Indiana .January is so cold that when Hilda provides evidence that seems to solve the case, the police refuse to pursue the killer until the blizzard stops, not wanting a horse to break a leg. Casting an immigrant maid as heroine allows for much social observation across classes , and adds interest to this portrait of American society in a small city over a hundred years ago
James Hawking
THE SUi\li\lER WE GOT SAVED
Pat Cunningham Devoto, Warner, 2005, S23.95 ICS32.95, hb, 4 l 6pp , 0446576964 Set in Alabama and Tennessee in the l 960s, this novel follows events in the lives of a
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
white family and in those of a few members of a black church. Tab is barely an adolescent the summer her aunt Eugenia arrives from Berkeley to take her and her sister to the Highlander Folk School, where they are encouraged to co-exist amicably with blacks. Tab's father, Charles, finds himself supporting a candidate for state governor who believes in racial integration. Meanwhile, Maudie settles at the Word of Truth Missionary Baptist Church, charged with teaching its members how to register for the vote. Her "voting school" turns into so much more, inspiring its attendees to closely examine the restrictions that shape their lives.
The two threads of this story do not twine together as much as I would have liked. Maudie and Tab were friends before the novel's time frame, but they never reunite, and their worlds touch only briefly toward the end of the novel. I also felt that the details of the time and place were presented blatantly, rather than worked subtly into the narrative. Nevertheless, The Summer We Got Saved provides insight into the changes that took place in the lives of ordinary people during this time and place.
Claire Morris
98 REASONS FO R B EING
Clare Dudman, Viking, 2005, $25.95, hb, 342pp,067003424X
Reviewed in Issue 33 (August 2005).
SHADOWS AND LlES
Marjorie Eccles, UK: Alison & Busby 2002 £ 18:99, hb, 333pages, ISBN74908295 US: $34.24, Gardners Books, July 2005 Shadows and Lies opens in 1909, with an amnesiac woman trying to piece the missing years of her life together. She is cared for by Rosa, who is foreign, and sullen to the point of hostility.
The scene shifts to the Shropshire estate of the Chctwynds. Sebastian Chetwynd is reluctantly returning home to Belmonde Abbey. He has no interest in running the estate after the unexpected death of his older brother as he wishes to make a career for himself as an architect. The only consolation is the company of Louisa, a bright cheery girl he has known all his life. She is a suffragette and training to be a doctor. Just the sort of "Moderne" girl who appals Sebastian's father, Sir Henry.
Sir Henry is ill matched with the lovely Adele, an American heiress he married for her money. He adores his estate and seldom moves off it. He likes the shabby comfort of his old clothes, dogs and old fashioned library. Through the years he has had to witness his wife transforn1 rooms into tastefully furnished salons. Her afternoon teas make him feel awkward. Her constant spending and high living in London ho1Tifies him. That money belongs to the estate.
Tl-IE I-IISTORICAL NOVELS
Then Rosa's dead body is discovered in the estate. The Chetwynds do no know her. Why was she here? The police must be called in and ask all kinds of impertinent questions. Scandal threatens.
The scene shifts to South Africa and the siege of Mafeking and from now on the clues come fast.
The book is beautifully written we keep sight of all the many characters. The scenes merge gracefully into each other. The history is good and the Edwardian atmosphere of opulence, elegance and correctness is well portrayed. So too is the secret world of Shadows and Lies lying beneath the glitter. All the characters are nursing secrets and lying to cover up.
The book has fast moving plot that holds you to the end.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Mairead McKerracher
ONE SUNDAY MORN I NG
Arny Ephron, Morrow, 2005, $21.95 /C$29.95, hb, 224pp, 0060585528
Despite its title, One Sunday Morning actually takes place over a period of several weeks in an unspecified year in the 1920s after four young New York society women spot another member of their circle leaving a hotel with another woman's fiance. From there the women's lives spread out in different directions, leading to scandal, marriage, heartbreak, European travel, and disillusionment with the nan-ow options life offers to even the most privileged of them. This is one of those novels whose plot is difficult to define linearly, but which is driven mainly by the brief, eloquent beauty of the characters' rotating narratives, the silences that say much more than words. Ephron is adept at creating three-dimensional characters who radiate quiet emotion ranging from joy to despair. At times the same scenes arc narrated from the perspective of different characters, revealing their backstories and varied reactions to what they see, hear and remember (each in her own way). Though a quick read, the simplicity of the drama heightens its impact and stays with the reader long after other details fade.
Val Perry
THE BOY WHO LOVED ANNE FRANK
Ellen Feldman, Picador 2005, £ 12.99 , hb, 256pp, 0330439669. Pub in US by WW. Norton & Co. $ I 6.29, hb, 264pp, 0330439669
Peter van Pels has made a good life for himself in the USA after WWII. He owns a company, has a lovely wife and three adorable children. But something is ve1y wrong. After losing his voice and being physically investigated to no avail, he is finally advised to see a psychiatrist. Peter speaks but says nothing about what happened to him during the War. In l 944, he told Anne
Frank that, should he survive the War, he would re-invent himself so that no one would know who or what he was. It is the world's growing awareness of Anne Frank and her diaries that resurrect Peter's memories and deep fears.
The book is written in the first person making the narrative very immediate. Peter's motives for keeping quiet are expertly explored. Anti-Semitism is still rife after the end of the War but Peter knows how to work the system. Denying that he is Jewish helps him make the life he wants but it comes at a price. Eventually, the past catches up with him.
The author wrote this book after being inspired by a visit to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. The tour guide told her that, (of all those hiding in the attic) , only the fate of Peter was unknown. It turned out that this was inaccurate and it is recorded that he died in Mauthausen concentration camp. By the time Feldman found out it was too late and the idea of Peter's post-war life was firmly set in he imagination The result is a rewarding study of silence, fear and the inevitable effects of the past.
S. Garside-Neville
A DREAM TO S HA RE
June Francis Allison & Busby £ 18 .99 360pp h b. 074908359 X
This is the second in June Francis' exciting trilogy set in Chester in the early twentieth century We have the same mix of characters as before, plus Emma Griffiths, her family and David Davis. Alice is still working for Miss Victoria, and Hannah's brother, Bert Kirk, has returned to terrorise them all. Bert is as vicious as he was in the first book, and his crimes include murder, as well as rape and theft. This is a nice mix of middle and working class life, with the Women's Movement and politics of the time defty woven in. However the plot is almost irrelevant. The book reveals a slice of life in the early nineteen hundreds. This novel is character led, and reading it is a though one were spying on the people below through a gap in the clouds. Real characters and emotions. Another excellent book from one of our best saga writers.
Linda Sol
JASS
David Fulmer, Harcourt, 2005, $23.00, hb , 334 pp, 0151010250
Swimming in the muddy waters of New Orleans jazz culture, circa 1908 , private security guard and sometime detective Valentin St. Cyr roams the sordid streets of Storyville, the city's infamous red light district. Piano man Jelly Roll Morton makes a cameo appearance, enlisting St. Cyr to investigate the mysterious deaths of a series of small-time musicians who once played in the same band. St. Cyr's boss, the cafe owner ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
and politician feared for his power over all of Storyville, in league with the corrupt precinct police, tries to derail the investigation. Adding to St. Cyr's woes, he is caught in a romantic triangle between two beautiful "soiled doves" while he stalks the night streets brooding and sinking into depression.
The character of St. Cyr lends interest to this unusual private eye outing. The detective is a light-skinned half-Italian Creole, who passes as white for convenience. The racial politics of tum-of-the-century New Orleans, unlike that of any other American city, forces St. Cyr to juggle relationships with allies, informers, and enemies of varied racial hues. Stylishly written and solidly researched, Fulmer's tale plumbs the depths of the violent , drug-soaked yet vibrant milieu where American jazz was born. 2nd in series.
Nina de Angeli
RIVER RISING
Dorothy Garlock , Warner, 2005 , $ I 2.95 / C$17.95 /£8 .99, pb , 380pp, 0440693944
With her car stuck in the mud on the outskirts of Fertile, Missouri, April Asbury slogs through pouring rain , scoots under a barbed-wire fence, and flees an angry bull to reach the safety of a small farmhouse. Meeting handsome Joe Jones, the bull's owner, sets off April's alarm bells, but his kindness and teasing tug at her heartstrings. Thus begins her new life as Doc Forbes' nurse. But this charming town has secrets. With the unending rain, the river threatens to flood. As the water rises, so do prejudices against those who live near the river. Yet nothing threatens Fertile as much as a bitter widow's plan to destroy the legacy of her husband, and in doing so, she will ruin the lives of innocent residents.
Once again, Ms. Garlock captivates readers with a tale involving this quaint town and the people who live there. Her threedimensional characters, with all their strengths, frailties, laughter, and warped thinking, make this Depression-era town a living place that readers will want to visit and remember for years to come.
Cindy Vallar
GLIMMERING GIRLS
Merrill Joan Gerber, Terrace Books / Univ. of Wisconsin , 2005, $24.95, hb , 249pp, 029921060X
At intimate distance, Glimmering Girls captures the subtleties of adolescent discovery , how innocence negotiates the ' 'biological imperative ." Writing in the present tense, Gerber hovers in the moment as her heroine flirts with adulthood while keeping hard decisions at bay.
Francie is a senior at the University of Florida at Gainesville in I 959. Mary Ellen occupies the dom1 room like a Buddha and fortune-teller whose prophecy is "a cover for
every pot." Francie's friends Amanda and Liz talk her into moving off campus with them and three boys in a platonic household. She agrees, but keeps her parents in the dark about this radical arrangement. Francie meets Joshua, a music major, and experiences romantic love so intense she's on Cloud Nine. Liz encourages Francie to be happy and "have fun in the here and now," but graver issues intrude.
By observing the unities of theme, place, time and character, Gerber evokes an age that was just a gl imrner.
Marcia K. Matthews
GROUCHO MARX, KING OF THE JUNGLE
Ron Goulart, Thomas Dunne , 2005 , $22.95 / C$32.95 , hb , 214pp,03123222l6X
Sixth in Goulart's enjoyable mystery series featuring screenwriter Frank Denby and the legendary Groucho Marx, this outing, set in 1940, finds the pair embroiled in a murder on the set of the screenwriter's latest film , a Tarzan rip-off. Although Denby had sworn off amateur sleuthing at the request of his pregnant wife, he and Groucho put on their deerstalkers to clear the name of a movie stuntwoman, girlfriend of an actor friend and ex-girlfriend of the dead actor. Familiar Hollywood types--directors, producers , starlets-populate the rest of the tale.
Although the real life-actor-authorwhoever as sleuth is a conceit that is often forced, Goulart continues to make it work. Groucho's quips come fast and furious yet are not self-conscious. They could be coming from the real Groucho himself. Denby and his wife Jane are both good foils and good friends to him, and the dialog crackles with the patter of 1940s movies. The mystery is almost negligible , just a device to feature that incessant wit, but it's enough to bring me back for the seventh in the series.
Ellen Keith
WE'LL MEET AGAIN
Hilary Green , Hodder & Stoughton , £ I 8.99, hb, 416 pp , 034083899X / £6.99, pb, 0340839007
Liverpool is 1942 is bleak and battered by German bombing, which has reduced much of the city to rubble. One night in an air raid shelter, seventeen-year-old Frankie meets Nick Harper, a dashing officer. Impressed by Frankie's courage and cleverness, he recruits her into the FANYs , an operation that trains young women to serve in secret intelligence. After getting her family's reluctant pem1ission , Frankie undergoes basic training with posh girls who are quick to belittle her working-class background and Italian heritage. Frankie rises to the occasion brilliantly and gives as good as she gets. While working as a decoder in Algiers, she crosses paths with Nick Harper again and romance blossoms. Love and duty unite
when he is dropped behind enemy line s. Upon discovering that he is in grave danger , Frankie must make a wrenching and dangerous choice.
The novel is steeped in period detail and very much centred on the strong, plucky heroine. Though the story is packed with incident, the pacing is gentle, almost episodic in places. Those who prefer fast-paced, plotdriven tales might find this book slow-going. However, if I have any substantive criticism, it is not with the writing but with the lacklustre cover and the cheap paper and binding. A novel like Green's surely deserves better. Hopefully, a good many readers will be willing to look beyond the cover.
Mary Sharratt
THE GERMAN OFFICER'S BOY
Harlan Greene , Univ. of Wisconsin Press , 2005,$26.95, hb,206pp , 0299208l09
Most historians agree that the 1938 murder of a Gennan diplomat in Paris by a teenaged Jew provided the excuse for Kristallnacht , the upsurge of Jewish persecution in Germany that lead to the Holocaust They disagree on why the teenaged boy committed the murder. Was Herschel Grynszpan a scorned lover or a defender of Jewish rights? Although the few facts are open to interpretation, Harlan Greene embellishes the idea that Herschel Grynszpan and his murder victim, Ernst vom Rath, were lovers.
While Greene has few historical facts to move his story along, he more than makes up for this shortcoming with prose so tender and seductive your heart aches for the actors in this tragedy. Jn addition to the main characters, you feel the emotional hopes and fears of Jewish families pushed by bigotry from Poland to Germany to France.
Both the Gennans and the Jews used Vom Rath 's murder for propaganda. The Nazis cast Yorn Rath as a "distinguished member of a distinguished family," not the kind of man who would have a Jewish friend, much less a Jewish lover. To his lawyers , Grynszpan offered "the key to turning back all that oppression bursting forth 111 Germany" ; certainly not a willing participant in a German homosexual 's perversions Greene brings us the perso nal love story he imagines for these two victims of Nazi per sec ution. And in doing so he personali zes the oft-told story of the Holocaust in a new and hea11-touching way.
Chuck Curtis
THE BELL HOUSE
Ruth Hamilton, Corgi 2005, £6.99, pb , 538pp,055215l67X
The Bell House is set in a small Lancashire village in the early 1950s. Typical of its area, it is divided by Catholics and Protestants and mutual suspicion, even hatred. Mix in a refugee Jewish family and an ardent Methodist and there is a rich assortment of
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
characters all of whom are skilfully differentiated. The story involves several cleverly interwoven sub-plots and is full of colourful, even horrific incident. Much of it was over the top but Ruth Hamilton's smooth writing kept me reading on.
A group of Catholic, Protestant and Jewish children forrn a tight knit gang. Their leader, an unbelievably intelligent 11-yearold, is much concerned with searching for the fundamental truth at the heart of all religions and draws the others into her quest. Again, I found this unconvincing.
In spite of infidelity, murders and sexual abuse, all is resolved and the fi-iendship between the children extends to the adult community. Ten years later the wedding of a Catholic girl and a Jewish boy is attended by their families and mends blithely disregarding their religious differences. This improbably happy ending will please readers who enjoy romantic novels but it ruined any notion that this is a serious novel despite the author's competence at handling plot and character.
Ruth Nash
T H E PITCHER SHOWER
Donald I larington, Toby, 2005, $22.95, hb, 212pp, 1592641237
Happy Boyd travels the back road of the Ozarks during the Depression with his portable motion picture gear. Everywhere he goes, he is greeted with gleeful anticipation by small-town folks dying to see the next Hopalong Cassidy feature. Young people are fascinated by his apparent glamorous life of fantasy and travel; they always connive to go along with him as assistants. I loppy prefers his solitary existence, but one day he decides to take along Carl Whitlow for companionship. He quickly learns that Carl is really Sharline. Together they begin to expand the traveling show with juggling acts, popcorn, and other new embellishments. Then they run into the deranged preacher Emmitt Binns, who has a blinding crush on Sharline. Subsequently, Binns steals Happy's movies, forcing him to try his luck showing the only movie he can find: a film adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Mayhem follows. Harrington has written a playful, funny tale that sometimes contains a certain pathos. Like Shakespeare's play, this story borders on the mythic in its exploration of the mysteries of love and life in a realistic setting of the Depression-era South.
Gerald T. Burke
T IIR EE LITTLE SH I PS
Lilian Harry, Orion, 2005. £9.99 ($25) hb. 358pp, 0752867180
Dunkirk - so familiar a story to visualiseyet Lilian Harry brings new eyes to draw the best of human qualities from its horror. This is a book about grit and dcterrnination, but above all, hope.
A River Dart pleasure steamer, a Basham motor cruiser and a Thames fireboat are manned by three very different men with a common aim, to help find a loved one 50 miles away in France. Devon country folk, Hampshire solicitors, and confident cockneys venture to rescue 340,000 tired, dirty, hungry, dispirited men of the British Expeditionary Force.
Characterisation is excellent. Up to Lilian's high standard. Seventeen-year-old Patricia is deterrnined to go but forbidden. She cuts her hair off and stows away until it's too late to be stopped. Charles steals away in the family cabin cruiser against his father's wishes. Olly sails his fireboat hoping to rescue his son, Joe. From the detail of currents, shelves and sandbanks on the sail from Dartmouth to Dover, the author must be a sailor or at least have a nautical friend.
The men on the beach regret shooting Gerrnans but console themselves that if the Nazis invade Britain their mothers, wives and girl friends will be at their mercy. Sadly it is imperative to bring only the able-bodied back to fight another day. Britain is under threat of invasion. There is a happy coincidence as Charles brings back his brother-in-law with his new French wife disguised in a filthy battledress taken from a dead soldier.
It is a triumph for Lilian Harry to put herself through such anguish, such horror. I almost gave up on the relentless awfulness. But it has to be told. A touch of ironical humour lightens the terrible trauma when a crewman is struck by a sailor's leg and he worries about throwing it overboard. I just hope it hasn't hit another poor sod on the head, he thinks in sudden anxiety.
Predictable and warm cockney banter is heard at the homecoming. It's all tea, sandwiches and buns, and slaps on the back as the vile, exhausted a1my takes over Ramsgate. Last night I met a woman who, as a schoolgirl, was there to help. New to my eyes is the description of the hundreds of miles of wann reception given to the brave boys as their trains amble along the south coast to Plymouth. Touching reunions with loved ones abound.
How can we bear to read about such horror, such heroism and such devotion? Because it revitalises that one essential human quality without which life would not be worth living. Hope 1 With faith in dedication, charity in devotion, hope sustains to the end.
Geoffrey Harfield
DA ISY'S WARS
Meg Henderson, HarperCollins, 2005, £18.99,hb,392p~0002261901
Daisy Sheridan is the main character of this engrossing story, which starts before the Second World War in Newcastle and ends in peacetime Australia. Daisy is born into a
working class family whose attention is focused on her talented younger sister Kay. Kathleen Daisy's mother is an invalid and Daisy's role in the family is one of carer until she is provoked into searching for a better life by her dislike of Kay's boyfriend Dessie.
She finds a mentor at Fenwick's department store in elegant Mrs. Johnstone, who helps Daisy to come to terrns with her unwanted gifts - a curvaceous figure and a face to go with it. These attributes make her a target for the attentions of most men who come anywhere near her. Her sister's husband proves more difficult to keep at arrns length than most of the men who cross her path and Daisy joins the W AAFs to escape his attentions.
In RAF Langer's control tower Daisy's shapely body causes a stir with the pilots she meets, but only one Frank Moran, a young Australian spitfire pilot, manages to break through her icy reserve. Her Ii fe as WAAF brings her more than admiring glances it also brings her friends like Dotty and Edith, a substitute family headed by Mar, and eventually a husband.
The character of Daisy is compelling, and as a reader you can't help but care about her determination to move forward and find herself. However, even more striking is the brilliance with which the author has conjured up a picture of the camaraderie of a group of WAAFs and the RAF pilots and their crews. This novel has an exceptionally powerful opening, which impels you to read on. For readers who have never experienced the dangers of war and the heightened emotional feelings that go along with it, Meg Henderson has managed without any mawkish sentimentality to capture in words the spirit of the time.
Myfanwy Cook
WHISPER TOWN
Patricia Hickman, Warner Faith, 2005, SI2.99/ C$17.99, tpb 264pp, 0446692344
In Hickman's third installment of the Millwood Hollow series, Jeb Nubey returns as the minister of a small congregation in Nazareth, Arkansas, during the Great Depression. As the single parent of three adopted children, Jeb is not very happy to discover an unexpected basket on his porch containing an abandoned black child. After having no luck with finding the infant's relatives, the minister succumbs to the responsibility of caring for the baby. However, his parishioners are not pleased with this charitable act, as racial tensions in the town arise over the situation. The story contains acts of racial destruction, rape and murder. Jeb is perplexed yet determined to find a solution and bring peace to his community. This tale highlights the importance of family, loyalty, and unity. Through these strong bonds Jeb is able to resolve this dilemma.
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
In this heartwarming story, H ickma n develops a cast of am iable, supportive characters, which include J eb's love interest , the sweet school teacher, Fern. There is a religious thread throughout the novel that feels much heavier in the later sections.
Carol Anne Germain
AS THE NIGHT ENDS
Audrey Howard, Hodder, 2005, £6.99 , pb , 470pp,0340824085
It is 1913 in London, and the suffrage movement is in full swing. Alex Goodwin will do anything to attract attention to the cause: protesting politicians' speeches, breaking shop windows, serving time , going on hunger strikes. After she faints in the courtroom after being manhandled by police , Patrick O'Leary , a physician , rescues her and sees her home safely to her family. Thus begins their tumultuous on-again, off-again relationship, though Alex's militant suffragism gets in the way of true love Then World War 1 breaks out, which proves tragic for them , their friends , and family. This is third in a series about the Goodwin family, following Reflect ions from the Past and Distant Images While it was a pleasure to spend time with them again, I never really warmed to Alex, although with all she suffers, I did feel sorry for her. Howard includes many vivid details on the women's movement (including repetitive descriptions of suffragettes being force-fed in pri so n) and on nurses' wartime roles. However , while I generally enjoy Audrey Howard's novels , I can ' t say that Alex's and Patrick 's love story moved me. The novel also seemed overlong, as if it was trying to cover too much historical ground.
Sarah John so n
THE MORN[NG PROMISE
Margaret James , Robert Hale, 2005 , £ 18 .99, hb , 224 pp, 0709078765
In 1914 Rose Courtenay, aged 18 , lives with her rich parents in Dorset. She is stifled by the dull life she leads and her parents ' expectations that she will marry her handsome neighbour Michael. She is drawn to raffish Edgar but is not at ease with him. When war breaks out she decide s this is her once-in-a-lifetime chance to break free. She daringly run s away to London where she enrols as a nursing assistant. Never having needed to Ii ft a finger before , she finds it hard-going at first, but she ha s a definite aptitude and her kindness and beauty make her a favourite among her patients She has to endure many gruesome experiences and to face a total lack of understanding from her pa,ents and Michael. She volunteers to go to France where the nur s ing is harder and even more grisly. A misunderstanding embroils her in scandal, but Rose has grown up and does not care what people think. A touching love story runs through the book and
THE HISTORICAL
enlivens Rose's hard life as a nurse. Her adventures take her right through the war and even to Russia as the war ends.
A well written, well researched book , which, in spite of the grim details , is a pleasure to read.
Pamela Cleaver
MIDNIGHT PLAGUE
Gregg Keizer, Putnam, 2005, $24.95 / C$35.00,hb,352pp,0399153195
The fact that none of the warring nations in the Asian or European theaters of World War II used chemical warfare, a cruel weapon routinely used in World War 1, was a welcome surprise to those who lived through this most awful of wars. Gregg Kei ze r bring s this subject into play in his second novel of the Second World War , following the critically acclaimed The Longest Night. Frank Brink, an American physician , is ordered to leave his work developing antibiotics for Allied use to examine a young French resistance fighter's claim that the Germans are working on pneumonic plague , a deadly agent which would frustrate any Allied invasion. Dr. Brink accompanies the French woman back to occupied France to find and destroy the test site for this plague. SS troops are meanwhile searching for the Allied team as they are well aware pneumonic plague represents the only viable card left in the Nazi deck. This is a vivid portrayal of a great might-have-been of World War fl.
John R. Vallely
ROREY'S SECRET
Leisha Kelly, Revell, 2005, $12.99, pb , 286pp,0800759850
Kelly continues turning out Christian novels with strong characterizations about the Hammond and Wortham families in Depression-era Illinois. Seven years have passed since Kati e's Dream, and the Worthams ' fortunes have risen to the extent that meat at meals is no longer a rarity, although resources are still tight. Fresh disaster looms when Samuel Wortham is severely injured during a barn fire, throwing him out of work. Blame for the fire falls alternately on two of the Hammond kids: Franky, the clumsy " dummy" who might have knocked over a lantern ; and Rore y, suspected of clandestinely meeting a mucholder boy in the barn that night. Resolving the crisis shakes up family relationships and tests everyone 's faith.
Count,y life in the Depression is vividly depicted , such as making do with the food produced on one's own Fann, and the difficulty of commun ication in emergencies. Kelly overdoes describing domestic routines. with all the action except for the last chapter taking place over one weekend. Even so, I enjoyed the characterizations. This is vol um e one Ill the Count1y Road Chronicles,
although it continues with the same characters from her other book s. Readers will appreciate the Worthams' story most if they beg in with Julia's Hop e.
B.J. Sedlock
LOCKED ROOMS
Laurie R King , Bantam , 2005, $24.00/ C$34.00, hb, 403pp, 055380197X Pub. in the UK by Allison & Busby , 2005, £18.99, hb, 288pp
In the eighth installment in the Mary Russell / Sherlock Holmes series, the mystery is about Mary herself. It' s a lso about who is hying to kill her Mary doesn't remember anything about her life in San Franci sco as a young child, not even that she lived there in 1906 during the terrible earthquake that virtua lly destroyed the city. Nor does she remember much about that terrible day when her entire family died in a car that went over a cliff on the Pacific Coast Highway. The grief and guilt have haunted her for many years.
This all becomes significant when Mary and Sherlock arrive in San Francisco to sign legal papers finalizing her parents' estate. The locked rooms of the title refer both to rooms in the house where she grew up and to her denial of memories that continue to haunt her dreams Only those locked memorie s can save her life
This is a wonderful book , evocative of both the terror of 1906 San Francisco, the mystery suITounding the death of Mary's family, and 1920s San Francisco. Mary is a marvelous character and becomes a real person in King's talented hand s. Highly recommended.
Ilysa Magnus
OH MY STARS
Lorna Landvik , Ballantine, 2005, $24.95 / C$32.95, hb, 389pp, 0345472314
To be pub in the UK by Bantam , 2006, £6.99, pb,480pp,05538l7590
The time is the Depres sio n. Violet Mathers is eighteen years old, creatively accomplished yet a cacophony of ugline ss: the product of an absent mother and a cruel father, the casualty of a factory accident that robs her of her talents and sets her on a suicide mission to the Golden Gate Bridge. As chance (or fate, luck, or doom 'l) would have it, the bus on which she trav e ls crashes in a smal l North Dakot a town. Here, Violet meets the men who will change her life , musicians Kjel Hedstrom and his "black as night " friend Austin Skyes. In love with Kjel, repulsed by Austin and eventually annoyed by Dallas (Austin's ex-con brother) , Violet joins the threesome as they travel across America on a tuneful , almost Elvis-like adventure of selfdiscovery and soc ial issues.
The self-discovery is nicely done It's quite easy to become drawn into Violet's world, thanks to Landvik 's brilliant humor and empathy. The qua1tet of characters,
ISSUE 34, NOVEtv!BER 2005
though not deep , is fun, pleasing, and easy to care about. Landvik ultimately loses her reality when dealing with the social issues of a distinctly blaclvwhite 1930s America. They are never fully addressed or even worse, developed into the sticky situations and considerable quandaries they were. An encounter with the KKK is dealt with in four pages, with no ensuing aftermath or logical social ramifications for the times I sensed as if the author was noating through the period, apprehensive about taking on racial matters and losing the cloudy, lighthearted atmosphere she had created.
Oh My Stars is a pleasurable read; nonetheless , historically it lacks a significant punch to give it the real impact it could so easily have had.
Wendy Zollo
THE ART OF FALU G
Deborah Lawrenson 2005 Arrow £6.99 pb 337pp 0099481898
This book has already had an eventful history, having been self-published before being taken up by Arrow Books just as the initial print run was about to run out. It operates on two levels Isabel Wainwright goes to the small Italian town where a square is to be named after her father, who served there in 1944-45 and is regarded as a hero in the locality But Tom Wainwright left his family twenty years ago and has not been heard of since. Isabel 's curiosity is triggered, and she begins to follow his trail, reasoning that when he disappeared he must have returned to Italy, at least for a time The novel proceeds on two levels ; Isabel's search, narrated in the present tense, and Tom's wartime activities, his friendship with a local family and relationship with an Italian girl. This is not a war novel; it is very much a book about relationships; military matters are incidental, so those who prefer action are likely to find it frnstrating However, there is plenty to occupy those readers are more interested in the way war a!Tects non-combatants.
Ann Lyon
TIIE MAD COOK OF PYMATUNING
Christopher Lehmann-Haupt , Simon & Schuster, 2005, $24.00, hb, 320pp, 0684834278
Th e Mad Cook of Pymatuning is set in 1952 in an unu s ual summer camp. Over the years, the couple who own Camp Senica have allowed the boys to discover their strengths through challenges, some times involving harmless deception, all for the goal of building self-reliance. Over several summers, Jerry (now seventeen) has worked his way through the camp system from a first-time camper to senior camper and now to junior counselor. But this year camp life takes on a sinister edge with the addition of Buck "Redclaw" Silverstone, expert in Indian lore, to the camp's faculty.
Author Christopher Lehmann-Haupt maintains suspense throughout, and peoples his fictional camp with believable inmates. Wally, one of Camp Senica's owners, is almost deliciously the opposite of the cunning and unfathomable Buck Redclaw is a compelling character, Jerry's personal challenge, for the teen finds it difficult to convince adults that Redclaw has nefarious motivations. The implication that Redclaw will do hann works well throughout the novel : the transition to the reality of what he truly intends changes the tone in a disturbing way, mirroring Jerry 's shock of being proved so dreadfully right. Not the usual coming-of-age novel and not for the faint of heart!
Janette King
THE HOT KID
Elmore Leonard, Morrow, 2005, $25.95, hb, 312pp, 0060724226. Pub. in the UK by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005, £12.99, hb, 256pp,0297848097
Elmore Leonard's writing career began with westerns of the classic, traditional variety. While he was successful at it (with books turned into movies like Hombre and and 3: 10 to Yuma) his sales didn't begin to take off until he switched to contemporary crime novels (with books turned into movies like Mr. Majestyk and Get Shorty).
The Hot Kid is a semi-combination of the two genres, permuted into historical gangster fiction taking place in the Old West of the I 920s. The world of Pretty Boy Floyd, Dillinger, Machine Gun Kelly , and Bonnie and Clyde, all of whom are mentioned, but while Floyd comes close, none actually appear.
It's a meandering sort of tale, but when it comes down to it, there are two primary players who are involved, and they are on opposite side of the law : Carlos (Carl) Webster, a U.S. Marshal, and Jack Belmont, the son of a wealthy businessman, but a gentleman intent on becoming Public Enemy Number One.
And nearly succeeding. The problem is that everyone's dialogue , while suitably terse and in the vernacular, sounds exactly the same as everyone else's That includes the descriptive passages as well, as if one old fellow had wound himself up and spieled off a yam of his own making. One might have also expected a little more jaggedness; except for a few isolated moments , this one's too calm.
Steve Lewis
SOMEWHERE BEHIND THE MORNI G Frances MacNeil, Orion, 2005, 342pp, 0752868519
Daughters of a Gem,an-Jewish father and an Irish-Catholic mother, now deceased , Julia and Margaret Wood are growing up in Leeds in the years before 19 I 4. While Margaret learns to make hats, Julia and her father
make pork pies to sell on the streets for their living and to pay for Margaret's apprenticeship. As the war looms nearer, it is Julia who learns to do whatever is necessary to bring in the money they so desperately need, while Margaret joins the Suffragettes and dreams of a better life as the wife of a rich man. When their father is ill, accused of theft and perhaps murder , it is Julia who cares for him. It is Julia who has to watch Margaret in the throes of love and despair, while the war rages on. It is Julia who cares for Margaret's despised fiance and helps to keep a record of certain aspects of the war not often mentioned, but will she eventually emerge from her sister's shadow to find happiness for herself? That is the question answered satisfactorily at the end.
This book grows on you so that by the time you reach the end you wish it was twice as long. It has a sting in the tail and is a good read for anyone who likes a gripping story with a touch of fun.
Linda Sole
HOT FUDGE SU DAE BLUES
Bev Marshall, Ballantine, 2005, $ I 3.95, pb, 288pp,0345468430
In Pisgah, Mississippi, in 1963, teenage Layla Jay decides to please her grandmother and "get saved." Grandma despairs of Layla Jay's Mama, a widow who enjoys male company just a little too much , and Mama, in turn, enjoys baiting her mother. Layla Jay walks an uneasy tightrope between the two women in her life. When her mother marries a revivalist preacher, Layla Jay gets not a father but a man with a less-than-appropriate interest in her. Marshall makes all too vivid the fear of a young girl being menaced by an authority figure , and Layla Jay 's experience with Wallace comes to a violent end.
What could have been a gently nostalgic story about quirky people in the South is actually something altogether darker. However , redemption wins out in the end. Characters are sharply drawn - loveable, irascible Pawpaw, unconventional yet maternal Mama, even the seemingly rigid Grandma-with the exception of Layla Jay, who remains enigmatic. At times guileless and at other times manipulative, she changes faces throughout the story. Nevertheless, Marshall adroitly describes this particular Southern way of life. She knows what she's talking about.
Ellen Keith
IT'S A MOD, MOD, MOD, MOD MURDER
Rosemary Ma11in, Signet, 2005, S6.50, C$9.99, pb, 260pp, 0451214706
Bebe Bennett, native of Richmond, Virginia, has moved to the Big Apple in 1964 , four years before the Summer of Love, when teased rather than long hair was the norm , everything was '·groovy," and fake lashes
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
were de rigueur. Bebe, a secretary to a record exec, and her roommate, Darlene, arrive at the Legends Hotel to meet up with two English bandmates for a night on the town. They find lead singer Philip Royal dead in his bathtub, and Darlene, who shared a "mile high" experience with the victim on the band's flight over from London. becomes a suspect. In the tradition of plucky amateur sleuths everywhere, Bebe decides that it's up to her to clear her friend's name.
The wide-eyed Southern naff takes on I960s New York with a guilelessness that opens doors for her in her investigations. Martin ably evokes a specific time and place , when music was moving from crooners to mop tops and sexual freedom was trumping sexual repression. The mystery itself is less compelling, with a laundry list of suspects traipsing through the chapters until the denouement, but Bebe is a warm and genuine character, despite her predictable crush on her gorgeous playboy boss.
Ellen Keith
VITA
Melania G. Mazzucco, Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2005,$25.00,hb,433pp,0374284954
"There's no sense crying over misfortune. Who's to say it's not a fortune instead? And there's no point in rejoicing over happiness: who's to say it's not a misfortune? Destiny is what hasn't happened to you yet." This quote depicts the tone of this deeply painful yet also joyful immigrant story. Diamante and Vita, the central charncters, suffer horrific experiences that seem almost surreal. Their imaginative visions and positive dreams are amazingly depicted by this highly literate writer.
Beginning with their difficult arrival al Ellis Island, Diamante and Vita suffer the abuses of the early twentieth century child worker as well physical and verbal violence from their guardian. Diamante quickly surmounts his financially hopeless newspaper sale job by robbing a grave for a hoodlum. Thus he earns the right to work for an undertaker. Vita discovers the power of words and begins to learn English but is forced to quit school. In her uniquely atypical situation, her landlord/guardian equates her growing sexual interest in Diamante with evil American ways. Both dream of escape.
On and on flow scenes involving actual historical situations: the little-known anger of American Negroes at Italians after Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia, the brutality of reform schools and coal mines to which immigrants were often sent. Woven into the story arc news reports of ItalianAmericans' living conditions and the account of. a descendant searching for the true story of this family during WWII. Every character represents the strengths and weaknesses of immigrants who initially received a most unwelcome reception on American shores.
Viviane Crystal
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
AFTER THE ARMISTICE BALL
Catriona McPherson, Constable 2005, £17.99, hb, 302pp, 1845291301. Pub in US by Carroll & Graf, $25.00, hb, 256pp, 0786716088
Dandy Gilver, like so many of her friends in upper class Perthshire is coming to terms with life after WWI. Struggling , financially and at a loss for an occupation following her husband's return from the Front, she is commissioned to investigate a diamond theft. At first, excited by the prospect of earning some money at what seems to be something of a parlour game, a suspicious death apparently linked to the theft draws Dandy into a darker scenario.
Dandy is an engaging, likeable sleuth. lier initial naivete puts her in danger of being used for the advantage of others as she finds herself in the position of a go-between. Aided and encouraged by the dead girl's fiance, Alec Osborne, the two form a lively partnership of intelligent discussion and banter. With her husband, Hugh showing little interest in anything except improvements to his estate and her sons away at school most of the time, there is little interference in their enquiries.
As Dandy's investigations progress, her questioning of possible witnesses often develops into babbling, charming in her awareness of it and perseverance when she sees she has nothing to lose. There are some excellent descriptions of the reactions she receives and she accepts philosophically obvious doubts about her mental state.
An atmospheric and well-paced first novel with interesting characters and a well constructed plot. It has elements of humour and comfort that make the reader relax before springing an unexpected twist. I look forward to further adventures with Dandy.
Mary Andrea Clarke
MA DRAKES FROM THE HOLY LA D
Aharon Megged (trans. Sondra Silverston), Toby ,2 005 ,$22.95, hb,205pp , 1592640575
In 1906, Beatrice Campbell-Bennett, a young Englishwoman on the fringes of the Bloomsbury Group , travels to Palestine to paint the flowers of the Holy Land Through her letters and diary , Beatrice reveals her extreme religious convictions ahd identity, which conflict with her repressed lesbian feelings for fellow painter Vanessa Bell (sister of Virginia Woolf). Vanessa's correspondence with Dr. Morrison serves as the framing device as the story opens: both are concerned about Beatrice's apparent hysterical breakdown while on her travels , and Beatrice is now under his care. Dr. Morrison 's annotations appear alongside Beatrice's account of her experiences on her journey, casting doubt on the credibility of her narrative and dismissing much of her account as the hallucinations of a hysterical
mind. The doctor 's selectivity regarding what he chooses to believe and what to doubt is surely intended to underscore his pompousness , though his character is not sufficiently developed to explain this Megged loads every page with detailed descriptions of landscape and surroundings, as befitting a painter's perspective; what seems less believable is Beatrice' s apparently calm, detailed recollection of recent trauma, described in almost journalistic fashion. While intended to be a tragic heroine, Beatrice's life seems almost a farce of mishap and error. Both the story and Beatrice's own language are heavy with Biblical parallels, which are laid out a bit too obviously at the end. Megged is very good at recreating the sight, sounds and smells of the setting and time, and these may make up for a story and protagonist that are interesting at the moment but ultimately just a bit dissatisfying.
Val Perry
HE DROW SHE IN THE SEA
Shani Mootoo, Grove, 2005, $23, hb, 321 pp, 0802117988
Set on the fictional Caribbean island of Guanagaspar around World War II and in the present day , He Drown She in th e Sea explores the repercussions of a relationship caste wouldn't allow. Harry St. George, son of a man whose origins are unknown, cannot hope to wed his beloved Rose ever. I le immigrates to British Columbia. Away from Guanagaspar, I larry finds he can overcome obstacles innate at home His lack of proximity to the Caribbean should have destroyed the remotest likelihood of ever seeing Rose again
This beautifully written book evokes images of life so well, from the child knowing simply what is without understanding why things should be that way, to the adult powerless to change the way everything has always been , except by leaving But leaving someone behind cannot era e all. As fluidly as the main characters arc brought to life , Mootoo's supporting characters are equally well-illustrated, from the elder St. George lost at sea and presumed drowned, to Kay the B.C. liquor store clerk, to the members of the Once a Taxi Driver Wine Tasting and General Tomfoolery Club. The final chapter is told in dream image : Mootoo seamlessly guides the reader to the only interpretation that truly fits. An exquisite story.
Janette King
THE HOMEPLACE
Gilbert Morris , Zondervan, 2005, S 12 .99, pb, 327pp,0310252326
In the year preceding the worst economic depression in American history , fourteenyear old Lanie Freeman and her family were
ISSUE 34, OVEMBER 2005
optimistic about what the future held for them in the small town of Fairhope, Arkansas. But tragedy befalls Lanie when her mother dies shortly after giving birth to a little girl, and her father is wrongly accused of murder and imprisoned. The responsibility of taking care of her four siblings, including a newborn baby, and managing to hold on to their home and live acres falls upon Lanie's small shoulders. Lanie manages to keep up the bank payments by continuing her father's logging business, but a banker who covets the Freeman land ensures that it is unsuccessful. If Lanie defaults on the note, the bank will take the Freeman home and property, and her siblings will most likely be placed in an orphanage.
Gilbert Morri s has crafted a beautiful story about the determination of friends and neighbors to help Lanie and her siblings to survive. The characters in The Homeplace demonstrate that one can survive adverse situations through prayer vigils, helping hands, secret donations, and most importantly, through faith in God. The Homep/ace is historical Chnstian fiction at its best. The story portrays an accurate account of the problems faced by many Americans during the Depression while at the same time offering an uplifting story of faith and courage.
Sue Schrems
THE LOST MOTHER
Mary McGarry Morris, Viking, 2005, $23.95, hb , 433 pp, 0670033898
Sometimes one can wish for something so badly that one can't see the special quality of what is in the present moment. This is the theme of Henry, Thomas, and Margaret Talcott's story. They endure the Depression in the most awful conditions imaginable. Henry 's wife, Irene, has left after the death of their son. Thomas and Margaret, the children, believe that Irene has gone to work for some desperately needed money. While they await her return and allempt to communicate with her , they make the best of living in an outdoor tent with little food except for what generous neighbors offer. The author depicts not only the ongoing disasters they manage to survive, but also the thoughts and feelings of responsibility, guilt, remorse , separation, and reconnection the children experience.
One neighbor would love to marry Henry if he were free; another schemes to have Thomas and Margaret join her family to add some direly needed zest to a sickly son. While the lirst neighbor accepts and deals with things as they are, the other is fawning and manipulative to the point of being despicable. Henry strnggles beyond his everlooming despair to provide the barest necessities of life. When the children finally see their mother and experience living with her, as well as what follows in the years to come, their epiphany provides a potent ,
endearing, and unexpected ending that is sure to move every reader. Written in a spare yet highly literate style, The Lost Mother depicts the strengths, agonies, and personal connections that link us to the essence of what really matters in any age.
Viviane Crystal
CINNAMON KISS
Walter Mosley, Little, Brown, 2005, $24.95 C$33.95, hb, 320pp,0316073024
Pub. in the UK by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005,£12.99, hb,320pp,0297848542
[t is the Summer of Love, I 967. In Los Angeles, Easy Rawlins is scrambling to find money. His daughter, Feather, is seriously ill , and he is contemplating robbery as the only way to secure the needed cash for an experimental treatment she needs in Switzerland. But a friend and fellow detective, Saul Lynx, offers Easy an opportunity that would solve his dilemma without threat of the law. It involves finding a missing attorney and his assistant, Cinnamon Cargill. Easy is quickly immersed in a predicament that requires all his skills, not only to solve the mystery but to survive. This is another fine novel in Mosley's Easy Rawlins series. His prose is spare but riveting, and he does an excellent job of putting his plot and characters into the social and physical landscape of Los Angeles during the turbulent 60s. This is crime fiction at its best.
Gerald T. Burke
COURTESA
Dora Levy Mossanen, Touchstone, 2005, Sl4/C$19,pb, 290pp,0743246781
Simone d'Honore was raised in Chateau Gabrielle, located in the Valley of Civet Cats, France. Her grandmother Madame Gabrielle is a courtesan renowned for her sensual hands and pestered by the ghosts of her former famous lovers. Simone's mother, Franyoise, also provide s companionship. Although expected to follow in the family profession , Simone confounds her grandmother by falling in love with her first lover, Cyrus, a Per ian manipulated by Gabrielle into seducing Simone. He is equally smitten, and they marry. Cyrus, despite being Jewish, becomes jeweler to the Muslim shah of Persia , supplying him with red diamonds. After Cyrus is murdered, Simone calls upon her gift of emitting intoxicating scents and the skills learned from her kin to track the killer.
More than just a murder mystery, this multifaceted novel explores the place of the independent woman in French society, the relationships between family members, the rift between Jews and Muslims, and the extent that love will drive a person to unexpected extremes. The novel shifts between 190 l, when the story begins with Simone and Cyrus contently married in the
Persian mountains, to Simone's thoughts as she reminisces about her upbringing in the Honore household. Excerpts from Gabrielle's memoirs se rve to fill in the blanks as to Simone's heritage.
Gabrielle's comedic ghosts sometimes detract from what seems to be the focal point of the book-the ache in Simone's soul-but otherwise, Courtesan is touching as it reveals a means of survival foreign to most of us. Marketed to book clubs, the novel includes a reading group guide.
Suzanne J. Sprague
ENCARNITA'S JOURNEY
Joan Lingard, Allison & Busby Aug 2005, £ I 5.99, hb, pp 288, 074908280 I. Published in the US February 2006
Born at the tum of the year 1920 , in the Andalucian village of Yegen, Encarnita grows up under the influence of the English writer, Gerald Brennan, who comes to live in her village, bringing with him a string of visitors, including Dora Carrington (makes a portrait of Encamita's goat), Lytton Strachey (piles make riding a mule problematic) and the Woolfs (Virginia noted chiefly for her beautiful, soft leather shoes). Inspired by Brennan's wanderlust , Encarnita clings to the notion that she too will travel and, as the book 's title suggests, this is the story of her journey. Although there are two significant physical journeys in her life, this book is really about how Encamita 's journey through life reflects her country's progress from the Civil War to the present day.
Joan Lingard is an author at the top of her game. The novel is tightly constructed and written in lucid, economical prose. There is, however, a danger of complacency at the top , and a sense that she is just going through the motions takes the fresh off an otherwise absorbing and entertaining read Encarnita's romance with a Scottish soldier in the International Brigades is predictable, as is the final twist in the tale which I had guessed by half way through the book On the other hand, the sense Lingard creates of the continuity of "real" rural Spanish life beneath the veneer of the tourist influx along the Costa Brava, begirming with the bohemian Brennan and culminating in the villa complexes and golf courses we are so familiar with today, is refreshing and thought-provoking Sarah Bower
LAST RIGHTS
Barbara Nadel, Headline , 2005, £18.99 ' S34.82,hb,278pp,0755321359. ft is 1940 and Francis Hancock works as an undertaker in the bomb-stricken London Borough of West Ham. Unsurprisingly, death consumes his life, especially since Francis cannot escape the guilt of survi, ing the Great War or the fear of dying in this one. Then a chance encounter with an injured man during an air raid leads Francis to
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
believe that a murder has been attempted. When that same man is brought to his undertaking business very much dead , Francis feels compelled to investigate
From the slums of the East End his enquiries lead Francis through the seedy lives of London's prostitutes , into the close-knit Jewish community and a Catholic convent, and end at the fringes of high society. The story of madness and murder Francis uncovers chills hi s soul and threatens his life.
This is Francis Hancock ' s first detective investigation and looks set to tum into another successful series for Barbara Nadel - who already writes the popular Inspector Ikmen series. It's an intriguing enough tale that speeds towards a conclusion that , whilst not entirely unexpected, is thoroughly satisfying. There is plenty of historical colour, with the atmosphere of London and the Blitz being particularly well -drawn.
Sara Wilson
ADI OS HEMINGWAY
Leonardo Padura Fuentes, Canongate , 2005, $20.00, hb, 229pp , 1841956422; also £7.99, pb, 1841955418 (UK)
Writer Ernest Hemingway was a "man's man," known for his zeal for violence in many forms , from bullfights and safaris to his unsanctioned acts of piracy in the Spanish Civil War. With so many adventures requiring so much bravery to his credit, how does such a man come to commit suicide? This is one of the questions that faces investigator Mario Conde when the corpse of an FBI agent dating back to Hemingway's last days is found at Finca Vigia, Hemingway's home in Havana, which now serves as a museum
Mario Conde, former cop , now a struggling writer himself, is conflicted about Hemingway and the outsized influence he had over Cuba, his adopted country. Hemingway was obsessed with weapons, insecure, petty with other writers , and unable to return love, yet loyal to the men who were important to him and all too aware of his own frailty. A nuanced portrait of the famous writer emerges as Conde speaks to the men who fish ed with him , worked with him, and kept his secrets.
Thi s spare , evocative novel is a tribute to Hemingway , exploring themes he would have approved: loyalty , bravery , and what defines a man' s place in the world It is also a meditation on growing old and the courage required to face it , a challenge Hemingway could not bring himself to face Colleen Quinn
A DEAD MAN IN lSTANBUL
Michael Pearce , Constable 2005 , £ I 7 99 , hb , 208pp, 184529131X. Pub in US by Carroll & Graf2005,$25 00,hb,256pp,0786715979
In Michael Pearce's new series featuring Seymour of Special Branch and set in the
British Embassies and Consulates of Europe in the early 1900s, he re-creates a way of life that would disappear in the aftermath of WWI.
In the British Embassy, Istanbul in 1911 the second secretary has died in decidedly strange circumstances whist attempting to swim the Dardanelle Straits in the manner of Leander. The Ottoman Empire is crumbling and in a matter of such significance the Foreign Office sends out an officer from Special Branch to investigate
All the trappings of protocol are faithfully described, as is an atmospheric Istanbul but, I found the story disjointed, repetitive and over wordy. Mr Pearce attempts a lightness of touch and humour that is not sufficiently captured here. The book is somewhat overpriced.
Gwen Sly
WE'LL SING AT DAWN
Victor Pemberton, Headline, 2005, £5.99, pb , 437pp,075532384X
Set during the London Blitz, the novel follows the lives of a group of North Islington residents who gather for shelter each night in the cellar of a piano factory. Beth Shanks helps keep spirits up by playing popular tunes on an old piano. She is afraid for her boyfriend, Thomas, who is Irish and under suspicion of betraying the whereabouts of sensitive factory sites.
There is copious local detail of the area , the shops and bus and tram routes , which evoke nostalgic memories for those who knew pre-war London. The atmosphere of fear and defiance during the air raids is convincing. I found the continuous phonetic Cockney dialect heavy-going, though. Normally the occasional hint of a dialect is enough to establish a character's voice. This book will appeal to readers who want to live or relive those terrible times.
Marina Oliver
DANCING IN THE DARK
Caryl Phillips, Knopf, 2005 , $23.95 / C$33.95, hb, 209pp, 1400043964
Pub . in the UK by Secker & Warburg, 2005, £12 99,hb,224pp,0436205831
Bert Williams (1874-1922) achieved success beyond his wildest dreams. An emigrant from the Bahamas, he was the · first black ente11ainer in America to headline on Broadway , perform in the Ziegfeld Follies , and eventually own a musical company. As an entertainer, he was compared to Charlie Chaplin and W. C. Fields .
We join Williams in 1903 , impersonating Shylock Homestead in Dahom ey. The brilliant performer's career was dependent on playing the "coon." This fact emban·assed his family and outraged his race, but its appeal to whites was essential to his professional success. Williams hoped to reach white
theater-goers by showing black characters exhibiting the same human feelings as others Through this biographical novel , the author reaches inside Williams' mind and soul to show readers a sad man burdened with anguish over discrimination. Playing black characters, though highly profitable, proved difficult because of the stark differences between his work and life His personal life grew steadily more unstabl e , as shown by his increased drinking habits and the growing distance between him and his wife , which led to multiple affa irs. Th e reali s tic narrative and chara c ters open an exceptional window into the lives of strugg ling black entertainers who seek a chance to help their people. Dan c ing in th e Dark evokes the history of black society and theater in the United States and shows the suppression of discrimination upon even the most talented. Highly recommended.
Jetta Culpepper
COOPERSTOWN
Eugena Pilek, Touchstone, 2005, $ I 6 00/ C$17.95,pb,324pp , 9780743266949
Eugena Pilek's debut novel is rich in baseball lore and the quirky small-town characters who inhabit the hometown of baseball, Cooperstown, New York. In the prologue, "Batting Practice," a typical 1957 middle -class America is seen through the eyes and words of tour guide Francis ("Frank, if you know him well") , beginning with Cooperstown's founding by the father of James Fenimore Cooper, author of Th e Last of th e Mahicans Clean air, family living and baseball; these city slickers never had it so good!
Fast forward to 1979 , and the town gains a different perspective through the eyes of a newcomer, Dr. Kerwin Chylak , a selfmedicating psychiatrist whose analysis of the local denizens reveal it's a good season for psychiatry. The doctor soon gets into the swing by forging hero Mickey Mantle's name on his children's wooden baseball bat.
Times change, however, and when the town sees its heritage in jeopardy, they set out to save it in hilarious and often heartrending ways. In Coop ers town, Pilek has laid out a feast of Americana, bringing out the social history that makes the United States unique Author Stewart O'Nan's comment hits the mark: "Coop erstown is a loopy tribute both to baseball and the small - town upstate novel." It's a delightful read and a treat for nostalgia buffs.
Tess Allegra
ISLE OF PASSION
Laura Restrepo (trans . Dolores M . Koch), Ecco , 2005,$24.95 , hb , 272pp , 0060088982 Its dual time periods of the beginning and the end of the twentieth century help make Isle of Passion both a mystery and a harrowing tale of survival. The tiny Pacific atoll of the title is settled for political purposes by a
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
small group of Mexican soldiers and their families. Political upheaval then causes them to be forgotten by the mainland and the country they served. In their isolation, the families are left to fend for themselves, with the dang e rs that their deprivations engender. Raw personality traits are laid bare and lead to violence. Rising above her desperate circumstances to become a leader of strength and spirit is Alicia , the wife of the island's proud and intemperate captain, who had come to the island as a young bride in 1908 Survival becomes dependent on her. Now available in both the original Spani s h and this fine English translation by Dolores M Koch, Is le of Passion's castaway story is riveting in its pace, characterization , language and haunting setting
Eileen Charbonneau
DOUBLE CROSS BLIND
Joel N. Ross, Doubleday , 2005, $24.95, hb, 372pp, 0385513887
Pub. in the UK by Hodder & Stoughton, 2005,£14.99,hb,368pp , 0340836628
December I, 1941, six days before the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. The days are numbered for Sondegger, a Nazi spy trying to take down the Twenty Committee, a network of German spies the British have turned. For American Tom Wall the days have run together, as he awakens to find himself in a British military asylum. Wounded and shell-shocked, he remembers only that his brother Earl betrayed his unit in Crete, causing one of the bloodiest massacres of the war.
MIS releases Tom by way of a bargain. Pretend to be Earl and convince Sondegger to reveal how and where he has arranged to transmit his intelligence to Germany. Fail, and Tom will spend the rest of the war in jail. Succeed, and though still considered a danger to himself, he will be allowed to leave the hospital to find Earl - the brother who stole his girl and may well be a Nazi informant. The cunning Sondegger is not so easily fooled. Even as he surrendered to British Intelligence , he knew the Japanese fleet had sailed for Pearl Harbor The question is : Who will gain more if the Allies prevent the attack? With no one to trust and the clock ticking , Torn attempts to save the Twenty Committee and stop the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Ross's debut novel hits all the right notes for a WWII spy thriller. His picture of wartime London is accurate down to the period slan g. The obligatory RAF Flight Lieutenant was a bit too " Biggies" for me, but otherwise Ross has managed to freshen familiar formulae with deft characterization. Fans of genre masters Follett, Le Carre, and Higgins will find Double Cro ss Blind an enjoyable addition to the canon.
Lessa Scherrer
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
THE WOODSMAN'S DAUGHTER
Gwyn Hyman Rubio, Viking, 2005, $24.95, hb,402pp,0670033219
The flat pinelands of southern Georgia and its nineteenth-century culture of turpentine farming are the setting for Rubio's dark, gothic look at three generations of the Miller family. In spite of Monroe Miller's wealth , his wife has good reason to hate her hardliving and hard-working husband and to teach her daughters to despise him also. The elder daughter , Dalia, is lovely and independent minded, while the younger , Nellie Ann, has been blind since birth. The cause of her affliction, and of the deep , often twisted undercurrents of Nellie Ann's character and the family's life, is revealed in the story ' s first generation. The Biblical prophecy of the sins of the father being visited upon the children truly comes to pass with Nellie Ann inheriting the consequences of his sin.
The tale loses some focus and power once the father dies and Dalia is forced to leave her home in near poverty. Riveting and moving, the first generation of the story would have made a powerful novel in itself, almost epic in its portrayal of the flawed, complicated father and in its dark themes and vivid characterization of the piney flatlands Once Dalia moves to a nearby town in search of a husband, the story loses some of its dark momentum. However , the theme of the father's sin continues. Dalia, while physically unaffected, remains psychologically maimed by her family ' s history, and her choice of husbands and her relationships with her children are all warped by this horrible inheritance. Despite some loss of focus , the novel is beautifully written and evocative It is recommended , especially for readers who enjoy strong regional settings
Pamela Ortega
A THREAD OF GRACE
Mary Doria Russell, Doubleday 2005, £16.99, hb, 426pp , 0385608667 Pub in US by Random House , $25 95, hb, 448pp, 0375501843
'No matter how dark the tapestry God weaves for us, there's always a thread of grace .' Mary Doria Russell ' s account of the German occupation of north west Italy 194345 is certainly a dark tapestry
Fourteen - year-old Clara Blum and her father cross the Alps to find sanctuary in Italy now that it has broken with Germany. The Allies are already in the south but they face a long and bitter battle against the occupying German armies before any kind of peace can be restored. The Blurns, along with thousands of other Jews, are helped by the native Italians and there is often a terrible price to pay when the Germans order reprisals.
The author spent five years researching this area of Italian WWII history listening to
the stories told by those who lived through the horrors and hardships of the final years of the War. There is a host of characters in this novel , all are fictional but their stories are frighteningly real. When many turned their backs on the Jewish refugees Italy hid and succoured over 40,000 in isolated cottages and villages. A sobering, final thought about Klara Hitler's sickly son: 'all the harm he ever did was done for him by others.'
Ann Oughton
THE PICTURE SHE TOOK
Fiona Shaw, Virago , 2005, £14.99 hb, 352pp, l -84408 -000 -5
In 1920s England, Jude is working in a boring office job, drifting after her experiences as a nurse during the First World War. She took photos while she was serving in Belgium, and one of them brings Daniel to her door. Daniel, an ex-soldier who served in Ireland in the Black and Tans , comes across the photograph at an exhibition It shows a man he knew, and brings back haunting memories so he finds Jude to get further information. Then Daniel goes missing, and Jude thinks she knows where he's gone. This book has a quiet, almost dream-like quality about it. The scenes are acutely observed , though often a sense of period does not come through strongly, from either the material culture around them or the characters' behaviour. However, the people are, for the most part, vividly drawn This is a tightly focused and absorbing tale of two people finding their way after formative and devastating events.
S Garside-Neville
GARBO AND GILBERT lN LOVE
Colin Shindler, Orion, 2005, £ 16.99, hb , 296pp , 0752871749
This novel has been published to celebrate the centenary of Greta Garbo's birth on the I 8 th of September 1905 in Stockholm. It is set in Hollywood in the late twenties and the early thirties. Greta, the fledgling star and Jack Gilbert first worked together on 'The Flesh and the Devil', which became a MGM Box office success. The passion, which captivated audiences on screen between Garbo and Gilbert, was real , and they became a 'celebrity' couple The depth of their love was apparent not just to their adoring fans, but also to fri e nds. They both had emotionally tough childhoods , which should have bound them together Unfortunately , problems s uch as the death of Garbo ' s sister, her reliance on the Swedish director Stiller, who had discovered her , when mixed with Jack Gilbert's reliance on ' liquor' and his jealously , resulted in a toxic cocktail that eroded their passion The couple appear to have been addicted to each other, but always unable to resolve their differences. Their seesaw relationship continued until Gilbert ' s ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
death at the age of thirty-six, which left 'Yackie' alone.
This novel is a skilful blend of fact and fiction. It is a great read and enables us to enter the black and white world of the silent movies and see it in glorious 'Technicolor'.
Myfanwy Cook
ZOIA'SGOLD
Philip Sington, Atlantic Books, 2005, £ l 2 99, pb, 39 I pp, 1843542331
Zoia is not a fictional character. She was born in 1903 into a wealthy St Petersburg family, played with royal children and was befriended by the Tsar's former mistress, the ballerina Kshesinskaya. The intervention of a Swedish communist saved her from a Lubyanka firing squad in 1921. She married him, settled in Sweden, but later travel led to Paris, North Africa and Italy to study and paint, perfecting the technique of painting on gold. At her death, aged 96, she left an archive of correspondence, to which the author of Zoia 's Gold has been allowed access.
Like his protagonist, the author became fascinated by Zoia and has fictionalised events in Sweden in the months following her death. Elliott, the English former art dealer who travels to Sweden to write the catalogue that will accompany the sale of her work, uncovers shady dealings. As he reads her letters he searches for the real Zoia and also seeks to lay his own ghosts of scandal and family breakup. Elliott's mission is interwoven with scenes from Zoia's early life through extracts from her letters , reporting (the author was a journalist for many years) and dramatising events-the White Russian retreat to Sevastopol is particularly harrowing.
The changes in time, place and viewpoint can be disorientating to the reader: I was forever flicking back, re-reading, as Zoia's early years are not revealed sequentially. However, as the layers are peeled back, the truth becomes apparent, the gilded serenity of her work reconciled with her turbulent life. I would like to have known more of Elliott's mother and her relationship to Zoia, and also to have seen him with the daughter he was desperate not to lose. Nevertheless, this is an interesting book, ingeniously crafted Janet Hancock
SEARCHING FOR HOME
Mary Stanley, Headline Review, 2005, £7.99, pb, 384 pp, 0755325060
Mary Stanley's fourth novel is a heartfelt family saga, which centres on sisters Amelia and Mattie, orphaned when a German fighter plane, blown off course, crashes near their home in the Wicklow Mountains. The two gir'is and their young aunt Lucy struggle to find their place in a war-fractured world-an odyssey that takes them from 1940s Ireland to post-war England, and then to Malta.
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
Unfortunately Stanley tends to gloss over historical realities. The horror of the London Blitz is conveyed in a few vaguely sketched sentences, even though Lucy works as an ambulance driver. The only impact post-war rationing and austerity have on the characters' lives is a scarcity of sweets. In trying to heal from the loss of their family at the hands of the Germans, the orphaned sisters and their aunt are irresistibly drawn to German men, one of whom played a crucial role in the bombing of Malta. However, the question of German war guilt is dismissed with a glibness that many readers, including Gennan readers, will find troubling. "War is like a gigantic machine," Lucy states, "and it scoops up human beings so that they would do things they would never normally do."
Elsewhere in the book, the same character opines, "All war is criminal." Yet the book seems to be saying that individuals who act in war are not culpable for their deeds.
This lack of depth coupled with the characters' tendency to make preachy pronouncements make for an irksome read.
Mary Sharratt
TOBE A LADY
June Tate, Headline, 2005, £18.99, hb , 312pp,0755321103
Bryony Travis is the daughter of unscrupulous car dealer Dan. Her father is prosperous and provides her with every material comfort. As far as Bryony is concerned there is just one problem- class. She wants to be a society lady, something Dan's money cannot buy.
Nonetheless Bryony does meet James, the son of a wealthy barrister, and jumps at the chance to mix with his society friends. At first she is dazzled by their high-flying lifestyles, but soon discovers there are as many villains in the upper classes as there are in any other walk of life. It's a revelation that opens the way for Bryony to accept her family and choose a life of love over one of privilege
Set in the 1950s, To Be a Lady might not be considered "proper" history by everyone. That said, it certainly deals with values and ideals that have all but disappeared. It's an engaging saga that recaptures its era with judicious use of telling details Bryony is a sparky heroine, lik eable, amusing and definitely not a stereotype.
Sara Wilson
THE CRAZYLADIES OF PEARL STREET
Trevanian, Crown , 2005, $24.95/C$34.95, hb, 384pp, 14000080363
As someone who has lived in the Albany, New York, area much of her life, I was unable to pass up this memoir cum novel set downtown on Pearl Street in the late 1930s and early 1940s Six year old Jean-Luc LaPointe and his younger sister have been
brought to poverty-stricken North Pearl Street by their mother. Their long-absent father has found them an apartment, and, for once, they will all live as a family. When Jean-Luc, Anne-Marie and their mother arrive, they find the kitchen decorated for a St. Patrick's Day party, with green streamers and green soda, and a note from their father saying he's just gone out to buy a green cake to make the celebration complete . He never returns
Jean-Luc is nearing the end of his life as he narrates the story of his family's tribulations, and occasional joys, through the eyes of his younger self. The Depression has had a tremendous impact on the families of North Pearl Street, and we live with the LaPointes as they scrimp and manage as best they can. One extravagance that enlivens their lives immeasurably is a battered Emerson radio they buy on installment from the local pawn shop. The novel is suffused by the popular culture of the time: the radio shows and characters that Jean-Luc incorporates into his "story games," the movie stars and the songs of the period. This is the Albany that William Kennedy writes about, and the Democratic machine is alive and well in Trevanian's tale. In fact , Kennedy and Trevanian grew up at the same time just a few blocks from each other, assuming that Trevanian is Rodney Whitaker, who lived at the same Pearl Street address as Jean-Luc. I encourage readers to enter Jean-Luc's richly described world you'll be glad you did.
Trudi E. Jacobson
A CRIMSON DAW
Janet Macleod Trotter, Headline, 2005, £ 18.99 , hb , 0755308506
A Crimson Dawn is not your grandmother's saga-unless your grandmother was a socialist firebrand. This novel illuminates a forgotten chapter of history: progressive politics in early 20 th century, working class Britain.
We know we are in unfamiliar territory from the first page, when young Emmie, our protagonist, is rescued from the Gateshead slums by a woman doctor. She delivers the girl into the care of the MacRaes, a family of warm-hearted but rabble-rousing radicals, living in an otherwise staid mining village where they earn the scorn of their teetotalling Methodist neighbours. When Emmie comes of age, she finds herself torn between her foster family's politics and her desire to be accepted in her community and lead a normal life. Her suitor, Tom Curran makes it quite clear that he disapproves of her involvement in the suffragist movement. When she marries him, it appears that Emmie has renounced her ideals in order to appease him. However, when the First World War breaks out and Rab MacRae, her dearest childhood friend, is arrested for being a conscientious
34, NOVEMBER 2005
objector, Emmie abandons all restraint, puts her marriage on the line, and prepares to make the ultimate sacrifice to protest an unjust war.
The reader is plunged into an era when "conchies" faced firing squads and when those who dared to tear down recruiting posters were punished with imprisonment and hard labour. Janet MacLeod Trotter writes in the tradition of Barbara Kingsolver and Marge Piercy; she wears her political heart on her sleeve without apology Whether or not one agrees with the author ' s politics, Emmie's story is wrenching and unforgettable Mary Sharratt
SARAH'S QUILT
Nancy E. Turner, St. Martin's Press, 2005, $24.95/C$34 95, hb , 416pp, 0312332629 Sarah's Quilt is the long-awaited sequel to Turner's debut novel, These Is My Words, and takes place five years after the first book ends. It is best appreciated by having read the first installment, which begins the story of Sarah Prine and her journey to the Arizona Territories.
As this sequel begins, Sarah is a rancher in Southern Arizona, facing the third year of a horrible drought. Over the course of several months in 1906, she must contend with finding a water source, rescuing her brother and his family after the San Francisco earthquake, prairie fire, a water witch who appears obsessed with her, the arrival of an unknown relative, unwanted proposals, an ailing mother, the growing independence of her children, and the real fear that she may lose everything she has struggled to achieve.
Although this succession of trials may sound melodramatic, it is deftly told and not sensationalized Arizona at the tum of the century still had elements of the Wild West, and surviving its dangers was a challenge for both men and women. Told in diary format, Sarah's Quilt is a moving, vivid, and intimate tale of a pioneer woman making the best of every hardship, no matter how devastating. There are moments of humor, intrigue, and of deep sorrow. This reader hopes that Sarah's story hasn't ended with this book, as some questions remained unanswered. Highly recommended, especially if read soon after Th ese l\· My Words. L. K. Mason
TWO TRAINS RUNNING
Andrew Vachss, Pantheon, 2005, $25.00 , hb, 448pp , 1400043816
I was mildly disappointed with Andrew Vachss ' sprawling new novel; I had read several of the author's well-known, gritty Burke series, and their tone always made me think that he would excel at a noir novel set 1n the 1940s or 1950s. When taken individually and consolidated , the numerous subplots 111 Two Trains Running are
suspenseful and engrossing (I gave up trying to count them), but Vachss' choice of jarringly short, third-person chapters detracts- and distracts - from the city-wide action story he attempts to create.
The novel is set in 1959 in Locke City, a town under the thumb of Royal Beaumont (a man alternately twisted, pitiable, generous, and villainous) and his sly sister/lover Cynthia. A man who calls himself Walker Dett arrives in Beaumont's town just as it is set to explode: multiple groups are planning to reclaim or stake out turf, including the Irish mob, the New York mafia, a group of African-American militants, white supremacists, and youth gangs. Who is Walker, and what is his agenda in this stew of political intrigue and violence? The number of characters is vast; many of those in the various gangs seem frustratingly similar, but those who transcend the gang plots (like Dett, Beaumont, the waitresswith-a-heart-of-gold Tussy, elevator man Moses, and cop Sherman Layne) are arresting and memorable.
Vachss date- and time-stamps his chapters, most of which are extremely short; the reader has the sense of observing events all over the city in real-time. Unfortunately, the chapters are often so brief that they yank the reader's attention, to the point that it prevents the reader from becoming absorbed in any of the numerous tales that Vachss wants to tell. In such a case, the third-person narrative only serves to distance us further from the action. Not bad, but not Vachss's best.
Andrea Bell
BORGES AND THE ETERNAL ORANGUTANS
Luis Fernando Verissimo, New Directions, 2005, $13.95, pb, 135pp, 081121592X Pub. in the UK by Vintage, 2005, £6.99, pb, 140pp,009946l676
In Borges and the Eternal Orangutans, the theme is that there is no such thing as a coincidence. The narrator- a meek translator of foreign texts into Portuguese-is invited to attend a conference on Edgar Allan Poe, a conference also attended by the narrator's idol, writer Jorge Luis Borges. The conference is also attended by a cast of feuding Poe scholars, one of whom is found stabbed to death in his locked hotel room, a mystery worthy of Poe himself. The first orangutan is the one trained to kill in Poe's story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue ."
Our humble narrator, the last person to see the victim alive, finds himself working with the great Borges , whom the Brazilian police consult on especially baffling cases. Their ruminations start with Poe's love of cryptography. The body is found positioned in the shape of a letter-a V or an L-or, taking the mirror beside him into account, possibly an X or a W. Did he drag himself to the mirror to leave a clue to the identity of
his killer, or was he arranged to incriminate someone else? Along the way, our philosopher-investigators touch on the secret language of the world and the mission of the Eternal Orangutan: given enough time, paper, and ink, the Orangutan will write and write, eventually coming up with the sacred syllables that comprise the name of God, thus ending the world.
What does all this have to do with a dead Poe scholar? Borges wraps it all up for us, noting some revealing clues in the narrator's account. Readers familiar with Borges will enjoy this foray into language, meaning, and hidden agendas, while mystery fans will appreciate the classic locked-room murder. Colleen Quinn
THE TRAITOR
Guy Walters, Touchstone, 2005, $ l 5.00, pb, 512pp,0743270150
Pub. in the UK by Headline, 2002, £6.99, pb, 627pp,0755300564
The British Free Corps, one of the most curious of the often absurd "volunteer" nonGerman units of the Waffen SS, was a failed attempt by Himmler's agents to recruit proNazi soldiers from among British POWs and fascists. Captive British agent John Lockhart becomes an unwilling member in order to guarantee the safety of his imprisoned wife and to aid his country in fighting Germany. While the actual history of the British Free Corps is infinitely more mundane, the author's tale is full of twists, plots, and counterplots that would make Le Carre envious The thugs in the tiny Free Corps unit are the least interesting of the multinational players brought in to both aid and frustrate Captain Lockhart as he pursues his goals while waging his unique, and highly dangerous, war.
John R. Vallely
FOOTPRINTS ON THE HORIZON
Stephanie Grace Whitson, Bethany House, 2005,$12 99,pb,317pp,0764227874
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
Footprints on the Horizon is the third in Whitson's Pine Ridge Portraits series of novels about women on the Nebraska frontier. Footprints follows CJ Jackson, a young girl in the previous story, into her cantankerous middle age at the end of WWII , when she decides to use German prisoner labor from nearby Fort Robinson to bring in her harvest. This decision has repercussions throughout small-town Crawford. The stories of CJ's teenaged niece, Jo, trying to find her passion during wartime and particularly the gut-wrenching story of Hank Frey trying to rebuild his life after being disfigured in an Army plane crash are elegantly told The climactic scene between Hank and his wife Helen had tears streaming down my cheeks. Unfortunately, CJ's was the one voice in this book I really couldn't relate to. Though she claims to be "plain spoken," CJ gives us ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
endless detail about balled fists and ducked heads instead of simply saying, "She looked embarrassed." Her habit of referring to other characters by their full names feels stilted, but that is a tiny quibble in an otherwise strong book. Footprints on the Horizon is an engaging read that will appeal to Christian and non-Christian readers alike.
Lessa J Scherrer
UP FROM OR CHARD STREET
Eleanor Widmer, Bantam, 2005, $23.00, hb , 390pp,0553804006
The 1930s lower East Side of Manhattan comes to brimming life in this novel/ memoir. Told from the precocious viewpoint of nineyear-old Elka Roth, the odd duck of her threegeneration family, we meet the people of her Jewish neighborhood and the melting pot city around it. Characters, both major and minor, come to immediate life. Widmer's details, from the squalor of the slum that is the family home to the delicacies wrought by her beloved grandmother, leap from the page.
Although besieged by crisis, sickness, poverty and their own frailty, the Roths live each moment with a zest and intensity that is the envy of uptown relatives, country vacationers and their constantly fretting team of doctors. Manya, the family founder and open-hearted nurturer, rises above all. A wonderful woman's extreme adventure story of endurance that can take its place proudly beside The Color Purple, Jane Eyre, and the work it most resembles in setting and tone , A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. H ighly recommended.
Eileen Charbonneau
COTTON
Christopher Wilson, Harcourt, 2005 , $24.00, hb,320pp,0151011230
Pub. in the UK as The Ballad of Lee Cotton, Little Brown, 2005, £14.99, hb, 320pp, 0316730262
Cotton is a modem-day Orlando, in which an identity-shifting protagonist must adapt to changes several times in one lifetime. Lee Cotton is born to a black mother and Icelandic father and looks white. He inherited a gift of medium-ship from his Grandma Celeste This gives rise to irony in the 1950s rural South and to magical realism , since he can hear people think.
Wilson's skill at characterization allows some choice riffs, as when a Mr. Jones brings Lee a message from the beyond "He comes tappety down the aisle of the bus , flicking folks' ankles careless with his cane , taking his steerage from their protests." Inventive language that makes up words and uses words in a new way, combined with Lee's voice as he is beset by spirits, makes for an entertaining read.
Wilson uses Lee's story as a vehicle to explore issues of race and gender. He doesn't spare him any experience, and there are
cringe-worthy moments. Lee throws himself into the changes whole-heartedly and keeps his sense of humor. The intimate first person, present-tense narration has an in-your-face immediacy that forces the reader to experience all the changes with him. If suspension were a hammock and disbelief were a cannonball, the fantasy can swing if not dropped too hard.
Marcia K. Matthews
PARDONABLE LIES
Jacqueline Winspear, Henry Holt, 2005 , $23.00, hb,352pp,0805078975
To be pub. in the UK by John Murray, 2006, £12.99,pb,0719567343
In 1930, still haunted by his son ' s death in the Great War, Cecil Lawton, Q C., hires Maisie Dobbs, ostensibly to docwnent the circumstances of the plane crash near Reims that killed his son. Maisie reluctantly agrees to take the case, although it means revisiting France for the first time since her horrific experiences nursing in a battlefield casualty station, where she was wounded and lost the man she loved. Facing her nightmares will be the greatest challenge of the case. Adding to the complications , her best friend begs her to investigate the unexplained wartime death of her beloved brother, Peter, last heard of in France Was he involved in secret intelligence missions? In this outing, Maisie faces both physical and psychological dangers, as the two cases reveal unexpected connections.
Once a precocious housemaid educated by her wealthy employer, Maisie has a wellestablished London business as a psychologist and private investigator. Her uncanny intuitive skills hover on the edge of paranormal , • but Maisie is a thoroughly credible character in spite of that. In Pardonable Lies, Winspear delivers another elegant, warmhearted mystery with a strong sense of period and place. Third in series.
Nina de Angeli
MULTI-P ERIOD
THE DA RWIN CONSP[RACY
John Damton, Knopf, 2005, $xx , hb, 320pp, 1400041376
This latest work by the Putitzer Prizewinning journalist involves three loosely connected plots that center on the life and career of Charles Darwin. Hugh Kellem , a modem-day naturalist studying Darwin's finches in Ecuador, discovers the lost diary of Darwin's "forgotten" daughter Lizzie. The Hugh chapters and those written in Lizzie's own voice portray Darwin as a reluctant celebrity tormented by a dark secret, which his closest friends work to keep through bribery and conspiracy. Conflict abounds as Hugh pursues various goals: solving the mystery of Darwin's secret nuit de feu on
Tierra de! Fuego, Lizzie's fate, the whereabouts of the second volume of her diary, and a romance with fellow scientist and Darwin descendant Beth Dulcimer. Some of these threads are resolved rather quickly and quietly; others stretch on a bit too long to sustain interest. Damton make s an attempt to tie his protagonist's motivation for solving the "mystery" (itself an oversimplistic letdown) together with hi s search for answers about the mysterious death of his older brother, but the reader may still be left wondering why he (or we) should care so much. The device of Lizzie's diary is a bit strained; at times it's difficult to believe any y oung girl would devote so much of her diary to discussing her father, regardless of who he is. By far the best chapters are those that depict Darwin ' s 1831-36 voyage on the HMS Beagle that eventually led him to foimulate the theory of natural selection explained in The Origin of the Sp ec ies. The secondary characters on the voyage almost upstage Darwin himself, particularly Orundellico, the native abducted from Tierra del Fuego to England. Such detailed historical reconstruction is where Damton's journalistic training seems to pay off the most, and where the voices, emotions and landscapes come to life most vividly. Val Perry
THE GIRL IN THE GREEN GLASS MIRR O R
Elizabeth McGregor, Bantam, 2005, $24.00/ C$34.00 , hb,310pp,055380359x Pub. in the UK by Bantam, 2005, £6.99, pb, 370pp,0553816055
Catherine Sargeant is the co-owner of an auction firm and an expert in 19 th century art She is initially devastated when her husband leaves her without warning, but she soon meets an older architect who has recently returned to England from Spain She and John Brigham feel an immediate connection with one another, enhanced by a shared interest in the life and works of Richard Dadd, an insane but extraordinari ly gifted early Victorian painter who spent much of his life in Bedlam and Broadmoor.
The novel alternates between the presentday storyline involving Catherine and Richard and briefer sections that focus on Dadd and provide background for th e present-day thread. The two period s intertwine through his artwork, and there are intriguing connections as the reader discovers that people from Dadd's life are also named Catherine and John. Both storylines catch the reader up and refuse to let go. The characters spring to life from the first, even though their backgrounds and motivations are only gradually revealed throughout the course of the novel. I was so impressed by this author that I plan to seek out her two earlier books that are available in
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
the U.S., A Road Through the Mountains and the historical novel The Ice Child.
Trudi E. Jacobson
WHAT CASANOVA TOLD ME
Susan Swan, Bloomsbury USA, 2005, $23.95, hb, 302pp, 1582344531
Luce Adams, a twenty-seven-year-old archivist, travels to present-day Venice to attend her mother's memorial at the request of her mother's still-grieving partner. Luce is also tasked with delivering documents dating from 1797 to a Venetian archive. In one of these documents, Asked For Adams, niece of John Adams, details a business trip to Venice with her father and rather dull fiance. Asked For's journal interests the Venetians because of her relationship with an elderly though still virile Casanova. But the journal's impact on Luce goes beyond interest in her ancestors. By following Asked For's path in Venice, Luce meets people who affect her life, most notably by introducing her to Ender Mecid. A scholar from Istanbul, Ender helps Luce translate a letter in Italian that was found with Asked For's journal. The letter continues the chronicle of Asked For's travels, and Ender and Luce form a connection as they discover Asked For's fate.
The two stories intertwine as Luce reads from the journal, which is presented as indented text throughout the novel, while she travels through Venice, Athens, and Istanbul. Swan provides opportunities for comparison between the two young Adams ladies, adeptly conveyi ng their feelings of awkwardness. Both women have parental issues to resolve and dispositions stronger than they ever imagined.
Readers will be sure to enjoy this gentle book about relationships, love, and finding contentment with what one has been given. Suzanne J. Sprague
FIND ME AGAIN
Sylvia Maultash Warsh, Dundurn, 2003, $7.99/C$1 l.99, pb , 416 pp, 1550024744
In this Edgar-winning novel spanning three centuries from Enlightenment Europe, Nazi Germany, and present-day Toronto, Warsh's protagonist must resolve mysteries both old and new. Thitiy-something Dr. Rebecca Temple has recently lost her husband but remains close to his mother, Sarah, who grew up in Poland and escaped the Holocaust. Through Sarah, Rebecca meets a charming Polish count who has completed a manuscript about a young princess living in Enlightenment Europe. After the count is inexplicably murdered, Rebecca begins to read his manuscript, realizing quickly that there is a connection between the count's death and the manuscript revelations abou t the relationship between Catherine the Great and the last Polish king, Poniatowski.
This is a fascinating journey through the 18th century world of a young princess,
through the horror of Nazi Poland and through the emotional upheavals facing a widowed young professional. Yet, despite the centuries, Warsh has managed to forge a bond between Rebecca and Catherine and between Rebecca and the count. Rebecca is an attractive character-bold, forceful, determined, resilient, smart-yet extremely vulnerable in her mourning. I enjoyed this book immensely.
Ilysa Magnus
HISTORICAL FANTASY
THE COURTESAN
Susan Carroll, Ballantine, 2005, $13.95/C$19.95, pb, 560pp, 0345437977
In this second book of a trilogy set in Renaissance France, daughter of the earth Gabrielle Cheney leaves Faire Isle and lives as a courtesan in Paris. Haunted by Huguenot soldier Nicolas Remy, murdered on St. Bartholomew 's Eve, she consults a fellow wise-woman to raise Remy from the dead to beg forgiveness for spuming his love . Instead she is told she will become mistress of Henry of Navarre , future king of France. When Remy, who survived the massacre, surprises Gabrielle, he requests that she help him rescue Navarre from Catherine de Medici, who holds him prisoner. Gabrielle must choose between her love for Remy and her ambition to become Navarre's mistress while facing trial as a witch.
I felt no time or place in this novel. Listed as historical fantasy, it 's more of a romance. "Bloody" and "blasted" weren't interjections used in this era and sound awkward. Gabrielle is supposed to be a courtesan, yet little in her actions proves her capable of such notoriety: she throws temper tantrums in front of the queen and is terrified of sex. The publisher errs in using a portrait of Empress Josephine from 1805 on the front cover. I can't recommend it.
Diane Scott Lewis
THE JAGUAR AND THE WOLF
Leah R. Cutter, ROC, 2005, $6.99/C$9.99, pb,309pp,045146026X
Having escaped arrow-shooting skraelings and "the damn monks from Eire," a boatload of lselanders (Vikings) blows ashore among the ltza (Maya), in a jungle so different from their own frozen north. Tyrthbrand, leader of the Vikings and one of the last believers in Tyr and the rest of the gods of Aesir, finds himself at the mercy of Lady Two Bird, former high priestess of Ix Chebel, who struggles with doubts and politics of her own. The Vikings, few as they are, do know the secret of the "blood stone" (iron) which Lady Two Bird sees in a vision could save her people and their gods from the prophesied White Hand Cortez.
While the two peoples negotiate, the two sets of gods try to work out their own fragile differences. I found this vivid portrayal of gods as characters the most delightful part of this historical fantasy: Itzanam, the old iguana god pivoting his reptilian eye on the world, Loki the trickster, Tyr brooding in his fire-stoked hall, Ix Chebel dancing like those mortals she favors, madmen and suicides. One set of gods earns its immortality by eating golden apples when they grow old. The others, of much more shimmering and varied aspect, allow their hearts to be torn out in sacrifice. What does a nature god do in terrain so different from his own? And what happens to his immortality when his last believer dies?
Ann Chamberlin
THE PIRATES! IN AN AVENTURE WITH WHALING
Gideon Defoe, Weidenfeld&Nicolson, 2005, £7.99, hb, 160pp, 0297849018
I opened this small book up to read on the train. It's contemporary humour in a pseudo-historical setting and I knew by page two this was certainly not a book to be taken seriously. And then I laughed out loud.
The Pirate Captain is like any boss suffering alternately from delusions of grandeur and self-doubt that he's up to the task at hand. He continually reminds us of his luxuriant beard. We observe his consolation against the hard world is ham . We follow his adventures with his crew as they trade-in their dilapidated pirate ship for an all-new one from cut-throat Cutlass Liz's boatyard. The problem is that they are now in hock and thus ensue a series of adventures as they struggle to raise the necessary cash.
The last time I so enjoyed hi sto rical humour was that long-ago first reading of Sellar and Yeatman's classic 1066 and All That. Gideon Defoe has pulled off a rare pleasure. A perfect book for any history lover's Christmas stocking.
Kate Allan
(Editor's note: This is the 2"d book in a series that began with The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists.)
THE NARROWS
Alexander C. Irvine, Del Rey, 2005, $ l 3.95/C$21.00, pb, 341 pp, 0345466985
One reader called this author's style "historical occult fiction," which is a more precise term than alternate history, although Mr. Irvine's novels are certainly that as well. The events aren't altered, precisely, he just adds mythological creatures to them, so there are golems in the factory, imps in the foundry, and the Nain Rouge (Red Dwarf) capering as an omen of disaster for Detroit. Ford factory worker Jared Cleaves has injuries to his hand that prevent him from army service in World War I, so instead he
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
works the "Frankenline" forming golems from clay. Because he sees the Nain Rouge in his dreams, he attracts the attention of a network of spies and counterspies operating in the area. His domestic life, already suffering from lack of self-esteem due to his draft status and his wife's higher paying job, becomes entangled in the espionage, and the danger escalates to threaten everything he holds dear. Mr. Irvine's writing shines with realistic description and character development, which points up the fantastic elements by contrast. The book requires a bit of a mind stretch to take in this created world, but is worth the effort and it will appeal to horror fans , fantasy fans and science fiction fans , as well as history fans.
Mary K. Bird-Guilliams
THE RATS OF HAMELIN
Adam McCune & Keith McCune, Moody, 2005,$12.99,pb,258pp,0802467016
The Rats of Hamelin is a fusion of fantasy, folktale and a smattering of history, delicately entwined so that they fold into one another. ft is the late thirteenth century. Johannes, an apprentice piper, is sent to the German town of Hamelin on a task that will hopefully earn him a place as a master piper in his guild. His directives are plain: iiberate Hamelin from the scourge of rats that have overtaken the town, collect his prize, and make excellent use of it in a kindly and compassionate manner. Johannes quickly discovers that there are other rats besides the furry, chomping monsters he must deal with to achieve his end.
Johannes is a lively and fleshed-out individual, as are most of the McCunes' characters, who handle the well-known tale with whimsy and shrewdness. The language is rich and melodic, and the authors maintain a vivacious flow throughout the novel, though they noticeably slither into contemporary idioms like, well , "like," "you know," and "I mean." While not particularly vexing, they were noticeable compared to the tranquility of words found throughout.
The Rats of Hamelin is an inspired working of the famous folktale, one worth sharing with the entire family.
Wendy Zollo
TEMERATRE
Naomi Novik, Voyager (HarperCollins), 2006, £12.99, pb, 330pp, 0007219091
The British Navy is engaged in the battle for supremacy of the seas against the fleet of Napoleon Captain Laurence of the 'Reliant' engages the French vessel 'Amitie', and discovers on boarding her that his 'prize' is far more valuable than he anticipated. It is a rare dragon's egg , which is about to hatch.
Temeraire is a talking dragon with special powers, and picks Laurence as his handler. Laurence is forced to resign from
the Royal Navy and to become part of Britain's Ariel defence system. After training at a covert in Scotland, Temeraire and Laurence are ready for action; defending Britain from an invasion lead by the Imperial dragons of Napoleon's Air force.
Naomi Novik's plot is full of satisfying twists and she writes in a style that is easy to read. She has managed to integrate fantasy, seamlessly into the historical events of the period. Her characterisation of the dragons is spellbinding. I would love one if only they weren't such messy eaters!
This is a delightful , satisfying and engrossing novel, and for once the blurb on the back of the novel is accurate this is 'an astoundingly addictive debut novel' It is historical fantasy writing at its best.
Myfanwy Cook
NON-FICTION
THE REIGN OF CHIVALRY
Richard Barber, Boydell & Brewer 2005, £20.00, hb, 232pp, 184383 I 821
This handsomely produced book is a reissue of a work originally published in 1980 by the highly acclaimed author of Holy Grail: The History of A Legend. Barber gives a lucid, economic account of the development of the concept of knighthood from the fall of Rome to the Renaissance. His analysis is based on the dual concept of the knight as mounted
soldier (chevalier, Ritter, cavaliere, caballero) and servant ( the Anglo Saxon cniht). He takes the reader through the history of knighthood at a brisk canter , covering the knight's role in warfare, the relationship between chivalry and literature, the influence of Christianity on the development of the concept, with particular reference to the orders of chivalry which arose during the Crusades , and the transition of knight to gentleman between the 16th and I 8'h centuries as well as the influence of chivalry on 19 •h century Romantic culture. The book is fabulously illustrated , with 33 colour plates and 53 black and white illustrations It is a useful reference work for anyone concerned with the history of the knight , but Barber's fluent and readable prose also makes it an excellent read in its own right.
Sarah Bower
CHEKHOV, SCENES FROM A LIFE
Rosamund Bartlett The Free Press (2005) £8.99 352 pb. 0743230752
Doctor Anton Chekhov, skilful and compassionate medical practitioner, playwright and short story writer, traveller, gardener, philanthropist: he excelled in all these, his chosen occupations, while wrestling throughout his short adult life with the tuberculosis that was certain to kill him in early middle age Sometimes a superbly gifted individual has unforgivable faults of character, This was not so with Chekhov, a loving son and brother, a loyal and affectionate friend If he drank a lotwell, he was a Russian, and his love affairs were discreet.
It has been a pleasure to read about this attractive man in an unusual and appealing book, in spite of agonising with him over First Nights in the theatre, and the uncomprehending reviews of his exquisite short stories. His nomadic roots and phenomenal energy sent him on journeys of sometimes interminable discomfort. Wherever he stopped to make a home, Chekhov would be fund raising and often supervising the building of a school, hospital or library. For a wonderful Chekovian mixture of pathos, triumphs, disaster and hilarity, read Chapter 7 "Melikhovo". (This was his longedfor countty estate). He loved fishing, picking mushrooms and flowers - wild and cultivated, and snow in winter which made a troika the best of all ways to travel. His was a life lived to the absolute limit of his physical ability , and this is a book to dip into again and again.
Nancy Henshaw
NELL GWYN: A Biography
Charles Beauclerk, Macmillan 2005 , £20.00 , hb, 432pp, 0333904710. Pub in US as NELL GWYN, Mistress to a King , by Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005, $29.95, hb, 320pp, 087113926X
Charles Beauclerk admits, as a direct descendant of Charles II and Nell Gwyn , that his biography is a subjective portrait. Very
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
little is known about Nell apart from the fact that her mother kept a bawdy house where Nell served the customers. She went on to become a leading performer on the London stage, (Charles II passed a law allowing women to tread the boards), and finally one of Charles's many mistresses. Nell called him Charles III as she had already had two previous lovers bearing that name.
The London scene of the day is vividly brought to life but as Nell left no journals or letters the real character behind the jaunty fa9ade remains a tantalising mystery. Ann Oughton
JUST AS WELL I'M LEA YING
Michael Booth, Jonathon Cape, £12.99, pb, 359 pp 0224073869
I offered to read this biography of Hans Christian Andersen with no particular expectations. He wasn't someone who interested me. This lively and amusing book has changed my mind.
The author, washed up on the shores of Denmark, sought escape by offering to retrace a journey across Europe and into Turkey made by Andersen in 1840. In so doing he re-creates not only the sense of the uncertainties of Europe during Andersen's time, but an amusing account of his own experiences. Following the route as meticulously as possible (certain ferry services no longer operate and important buildings proved hard to identify), he faithfully retraces Anderson's itinerary that included prostrating himself before Keats' grave in Rome and visiting a Hamburg brothel for a chat.
Described as looking like a crane, all legs and beak, Andersen was a bundle of uncertainties. Often "ill", his love affairs were mostly with men and always unconsummated. He was a raving social climber and desperate for recognition. The author is often frustrated by him but comes to love this fragile being who always travelled with a length or rope sufficient to allow escape from a hotel window should fire break out.
It is too late for summer reading but I still recommend this as a highly entertaining and escapist experience
Jan Toms
BLONDEL'S SONG
David Boyle, Viking 2005, £20.00 hb, 320pp,067091486X
In 1192, as every British schoolchild used to know, Richard the Lionheart was returning from the Crusades when he was captured by Leopold of Austria and held for ransom. Legend has it that Richard's friend, the troubadour, Blonde! discovered where Richard was imprisoned by travelling around Europe, singing under every castle wall a song that only the two of them knew until, one night he heard the king take up the refrain.
David Boyle's researches have left him in no doubt that the shadowy minstrel was a real person and, in Blonde/'s Song he sets out to rescue the story from the romantic realm of fairy tale and thereby discover its real meaning. Whether or not you agree with his conclusions you can be sure of a rewarding read as Boyle vividly tells the parallel stories of a king and his faithful troubadour incorporating many fascinating details about life, politics and religion in the era of the Third Crusade.
Sarah Cuthbertson
CHILDREN OF THE RAJ
Vivian Brendon, Weidenfeld&Nicholson, £20,hb,362pp,0297847295
This fresh viewpoint of the rise and fall of the Raj is both illuminating and delightful. The letters of both children and adults add a personal aspect to the military and political activities.
Sir George Hilaro Barlow anticipated becoming Governor General in 1805, but his rigid civil-service mindset led to the reneging of defence treaties with Indian Princes, and the onset of horrendous anarchy. He was replaced in 1807 and remains generally execrated. A fresh light is shone on him and his fifteen children. Letters between them were unsent or unread, dumped into a dusty cupboard and ignored.
The book illustrates also the position of Eurasians [those of mixed race], able to prosper in Georgian times. Gardner and Skinner, the founders of superb cavalry regiments that still thrive, are shining examples.
Many ladies shone also. During the appalling retreat from Kabul in 1842, captured by the Afghans, the ladies were shown courtesy and compassion but still complained about greasy food and the lack of knives and forks. As the Mutiny exploded in 1857, a Mrs Brydon, in escaping from Lucknow, left behind her daughter's harp. She promptly sent four coolies back through shot and shell, to retrieve it. They did so safely.
But attitudes were changing from the flexible Georgian to the rigid Victorian. Parents sent their children home believing that 'an upright, Christian, respectable and hardworking subject of Queen Victoria had to be home-grown.' Sir John Lawrence, Viceroy in 1864, believed that 'We are here through our moral superiority ' Even in the hill stations, it was rare for the children to cross social barriers that were as rigid as racial ones.
The end became sadder. Spike Milligan, brought up in India where his father was a soldier, wrote: 'In the bazaar the khaki men are brawlin No wonder they asked us to leave.'
This is a book to be enjoyed. Roger S. Harris.
THE LOSS OF THE WAGER.
John Bulkeley and John Byron with an Introduction by Alan Gurney, The Boydell Press, 2004, pb, 1843830965
The Wager was an East Indiaman, bought into the Royal Navy as a supply ship. She sailed from England with seven other ships on September 18'\ I 740 under the command of Commodore George Anson bound for Cape Hom and the seas off South America with orders to 'annoy and distress the Spaniards' but because of delays in sailing, the weather was at its worst when they rounded Cape Hom. When the Wager was wrecked on a small island, later to be called Wager Island, in the Spring of I 741 discipline and order in the surviving crew broke down and anarchy ensued. Gunner, John Bulkely was in the habit of keeping a daily journal and after making his way back to England in January 1743, published 'A Voyage to the south Seas' some months later. It became a best seller of its day. John Byron (father of Lord Byron) was a 17 year old Midshipman on board the Wager when she set sail from Southampton. He also survived the wrecking but in trying to escape from Wager Island was captured by the Spanish. He eventually managed to make his way back to England in 1746 and his account of the voyage and subsequent events was published some years later as 'The Narrative of the Honourable John Byron'.
This book incorporates both accounts and is said to have been Patrick O'Brien's inspiration for his book, 'The Golden Ocean' and the later Master and Commander Series. It is a tale of shipwreck, disease, starvation, treachery, murder and mutiny but I did not find it an easy book to read and have a strong feeling that this will appeal more to our male readers who may more readily understand the terminology and jargon of the day.
Marilyn Sherlock
NEW YORK NIGHT: THE MYSTIQUE AND ITS HISTORY
Mark Caldwell, Scribner, 2005, $27.50, hb, 390 pp, 9780743242769
In New York Night, Mark Caldwell reports on the evolution of Manhattan nightlife from the era of Dutch colonization to the heyday of discos and gay clubs. Along the way, he gives the reader concise histories of lighting, communications technology, water sewage systems, urban construction, theater, race relations, and a whole host of other issues that affect how people entertain themselves after hours. A captivating read, New York Night is like a leisurely evening stroll through Manhattan in the company of an enthusiastic gossip, a man with an incredible recall of minutiae and the ability to make four hundred years of history sound like one wild night in the city.
Lisa Ann Verge
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
THE PRINCESS AND THE POLITICIANS:
Sex, Intrigue and Diplomacy, 1812-40
John Charmley, Viking 205, £20 00, hb, 350pp,0670889644
Wellington called her, 'a female politician'. Dorothea Lieven, wife of the Russian ambassador in London from 18 I 2 to I 840 was denied having any formal power in the world of diplomacy because she was a woman but, Dorothea knew how to wield power through her many conquests. Although no great beauty and without any formal education, she was clever, charming and graceful and managed to ensnare many of the most influential men of the day. Among her many conquests were, Metternich , Lord Grey , the Duke of Wellington and Lord Palmerston and she played the political game with expertise for Russia. Any choice piece of useful information was immediately passed on to the Tsar.
Charmley portrays a unique woman who refused to be the power behind any man but one who sought to influence the destiny of nations by playing the men at their own game.
Ann Oughton
SACAGA WEA'S CHlLD
Susan Colby, Arthur H. Clark Co., 2005, $28.50,hb,203pp,0870623397
This is a great book for the Lewis and Clark enthusiast, for it was on that exploration that Sacagawea's child, Pomp, was born. This monograph outlines his explorations, and like his parents, Jean-Baptiste lived an adventurous life. By way of this tex:t, the reader has the opportunity to share in these journeys, from the early Corps of Discovery days, through European travel, and onto the western expansion to California. Throughout his sixty-one years, Jean-Baptiste remained loyal to his mother's Tndian heritage and his father's customs. The book also highlights the strong connection and influence William Clark had on the young Charbonneau. This well-researched tex:t contains a chronology of the Charbonneau family, extensive notes, illustrations , maps, and a thorough bibliography.
Carol Anne Germain
CURRY
Lizzie Collingham Chatto & Windus (August 2005) £ 16.99 3 I 8pp hb, 07013351 (USA Oxford Univeristy Press December 2005 $18.48 352pp hb O195172418)
This is a history of the Indian sub-continent as seen through its food but also the story of how cuny successfully traveled the world. It is atale of colonization and absorption. For example. The 16 th Century Mughal Emperor Akbar, missing the food of his Persian homeland, taught his Hindu cooks to marinade meat the Persian way. But they also added Indian spices to the Persian pilau Result - biryani. Later colonization by the Portuguese, Dutch and British brought
tomatoes, potatoes and chillis from the New World which rapidly became absorbed into the Hindu vegetable diet. Conversely, imported Indian labour spread Indian food all round the British Empire. Initially cooked locally a comfort food for homesick Asians, cuny is now a British institution. Fascinating and revealing. Recommended. Fascinating and revealing. Elizabeth Hawksley
A DICTIONARY OF MEDlEVAL TERMS AND PHRASES
Christopher Coredon with Ann Williams, D. S. Brewer 2005, £25.00/ $49.95 , pp308, 1843840235
"The past is foreign country. They do things differently there," wrote L. P. Hartley in one of the most oft quoted and misquoted openings to a novel in English. Just as we go abroad armed with dictionaries and phrasebooks, so Coredon and Williams recognise visits to the past can be made easier and more valuable with the same kind of help. In their preface, they state their intent to provide the lay enthusiast with a guide to mediaeval language, and this they achieve magnificently. Whether you want to know how many arpents are covered by your vineyard or whether you are entitled to edge your cloak with pean or ermine, whether horse furniture or hearth taxes are your bag , you will find useful and fascinating information between the covers of this dictionary. Clearly laid out and fully cross referenced, it is an invaluable resource for the author of mediaeval fiction who wants to use the language of the period to contribute to the atmosphere - and make sure he or she uses it correctly!
I should also like to offer a word of praise for the cover, which features a wonderful photograph by Dominic Harbour of the chained library of Hereford Cathedral. Sarah Bower
DEBS AT WAR
Anne de Courcy, Orion, 2005, £18.99 ($25.70), hb, 258pp, 0297829300
This is an extraordinarily moving book about the daughters of upper class families on active service during the Second World War. I was expecting to read about a group of debutantes playing at war work1 but these girls did their bit like everyone else, working long hours in factories in terrible conditions, joining the women's services , working on the land, becoming nurses, and in some cases joining the SOE and being parachuted into enemy territory.
The tex:t contains lots of interviews , and in these the women, all now in their eighties and nineties, relate their good and bad experiences with candour and wry humour. It took great courage to go and work in factories where they were mocked, bullied and victimised just for coming from a
different social class. The women frequently say that of course they were young at the time, and that their youth made it easy to be brave. But their courage and self-sacrifice are impressive, all the same
It's so easy to forget what we all owe that generation, and Debs at War serves as a timely reminder of our debt to the people from every social class who won the war for us. The book is written in an accessible , anecdotal style which makes the reader turn the pages, and I was hooked from the start I recommend it both as a social document and a jolly good read
Margaret James
HADRIAN'S EMPIRE
Danny Danziger and Nicholas Purcell, Hodder & Stoughton, 2005, £20, hb, 305pp, 0340833602
Hadrian was one of the more enlightened Roman rulers, presiding over the empire at its zenith. Son of a provincial senator, he was brought up in Rome and adopted by Trajan, whom he succeeded as emperor in 117 AD. Hadrian was a highly-educated man of perpetual curiosity and many interests, including architecture and Greek culture, and he travelled all over his empire His private life, however, was less satisfactory- he loathed his wife and found the love of his life in the handsome youth Antinous, who came to a mysterious end . Danny Danziger, co-author of popular surveys of the first millennium and of the year of Magna Carta, and Nicholas Purcell , an Oxford Tutor and Fellow in Ancient History, have cleverly used Hadrian's restless life and complex: personality as a framework for this accessible introduction to life in the Roman world.
Sarah Cuthbertson
THE PIRATES! IN AN AVENTURE WITH WHALING
Gideon Defoe, Weidenfeld&Nicolson, 2005 , £7.99, hb, l60pp, 0297849018
I opened this small book up to read on the train. It's contemporary humour in a pseudo-historical setting and I knew by page two this was certainly not a book to be taken seriously. And then I laughed out loud
The Pirate Captain is like any boss suffering alternately from delusions of grandeur and self-doubt that he's up to the task at hand. He continually reminds us of his luxuriant beard. We observe his consolation against the hard world is ham We follow his adventures with his crew as they trade-in their dilapidated pirate ship for an all-new one from cut-throat Cutlass Liz's boatyard. The problem is that they are now in hock and thus ensue a series of adventures as they struggle to raise the necessary cash . The last time I so enjoyed historical humour was that long-ago first reading of
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
Sellar and Yeatman's classic 1066 and All That. Gideon Defoe has pulled off a rare pleasure. A perfect book for any history lover's Christmas stocking.
Kate Allan (Editor's note: This is the 2nd book in a series that began with The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists.)
FAITH AND BETRAYAL: A Pioneer Woman's Passage in the American West
Sally Denton, Knopf, 2005, $23.00, hb, 216pp, 140004135X
Jean Rio Baker found the message delivered by the missionaries from the Church of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) refreshing and in many ways the answer to her salvation. In 1850, she was forty years old , a widow , and the sole provider for her seven children. Along with this responsibility, she had a deep concern for the societal ills of the industrial world of mid-19 th century England
Jean Rio accepted the Mormon millennial belief in the Second Coming of Christ and the concept that immigrating to America and to the new Mormon Zion would be the salvation for her and her family.
In 1851, her family left the comforts of her upper-class life in England. After their ship landed in New Orleans, Jean Rio had the means to buy and outfit four wagons to carry her family, which consisted of her children and her in -laws. Eventually the Mormon immigrants gathered in Council Bluffs, from where they headed across the Great Plains and the rugged mountains to the Great Basin of present-day Utah. What Jean Rio found in the new Zion was not what she was led to believe by the Mormon Missionaries. There was no secure future for a widow with substantial financial means in a utopian society where plural marriage was believed to be one of the religious tenets of the Church.
Journalist and the great-greatgranddaughter of Jean Rio Baker, Sally Denton reconstructs the history of her ancestor's life and conversion to Mormonism from the diary she left of her early life as a Mormon convert.
Sue Schrems
LIBER ELIENSIS: A HISTORY OF THE ISLE OF ELY
Tr. Janet Fairweather, Boydell & Brewer 2005, £30.00/$50.00, pb, 627pp, 1843830159 Before you think, too obscure, too specialised for me, pause to consider a few interesting facts about Ely The monastery there, in celebration of whose 500 th anniversary this book was compiled, by one of its monks, was founded by a woman, Saint Etheldreda, who was also Queen of Northumbria during the 7th century. No fewer than three other saints served as abbesses of Ely during its foundation period, when it was a double house for both male and female religious but always under the rule of an
abbess. A narrative embroidery donated to the abbey by the widow of Earl Byrhtnoth to commemorate his feats at the Battle of Malden may have been the inspiration behind the Bayeux Tapestry. Following the Norman Conquest, the abbey was deeply implicated in the revolt of Hereward the Wake, which is chronicled in some detail in this fascinating history of Ely from the foundation of the abbey until the mid-twelfth century.
The Lib er Eliensis has never been translated before. A rich mixture of transcriptions from saints' lives, accounts of miracles , chronicle material and the abbey's own archives and economic records, it is a wonderful source of information, not only about Ely, but, by extension, about the life of all great mediaeval religious institutions, and an insight into the eclectic approach of the mediaeval mind to the defining and recording of history. Janet Fairweather's translation is clear and readable, supported by an excellent introduction, notes on the translation and a comprehensive index. As a resident of East Anglia, I have to confess to a certain bias, but I have no doubt this is a valuable addition to the project of making mediaeval history more accessible to the lay reader or researcher.
Sarah Bower
EAST END CHRONICLES: Three Hundred Years of Mystery and Mayhem
Ed Glinert, Allen Lane 2005 , £20 00, hb, 297pp, 0713997745
The East End of London has a unique history From Jack the Ripper, Jack London, Bud Flanagan to the notorious Kray twins it seems that this area of London has spawned and succoured some of the most diverse characters as no other city. An area of constant flux, it has seen a continuous wave of penniless, fearful immigrants throughout the ages. The Chinese opium dens, the Jewish ghetto, the Huguenot silk weavers of Spitalfields, the music hall, the Communist Party, the Labour Party all these and more found their home in and contributed to the violent, colourful tapestry that is London ' s East End.
Not only an entertaining read this lively account is also a first class reference for anyone interested in the history of this area of London.
Ann Oughton
THE RULES OF THE GAME
Andrew Gordon, John Murray, 2005, £12.99 , pb, 710pp,0719561310
Subtitled "Jutland and British Naval Command", this is an exhaustive study of the biggest naval battle of the First World Warand indeed the greatest purely ship-to-ship naval battle of all time. For two years, the British had been eagerly waiting their chance of crushing the German high seas fleet, but Jutland turned out to be no twentieth-century Trafalgar. The Germans managed to escape
and the Royal Navy suffered heavy casualties in driving them off. Andrew Gordan's "take" on the affair is correlating the personalities of the Royal Navy Admirals and the traditions of the senior service to this lacklustre result. He is only partially successful. The research is painstaking, to anorak levels. In fact, this book feels more like a PhD thesis for a "War Studies" doctorate than a popular history book. Some insights are compelling but mostly the detail and language are far too heavy for the general reader. One for the dedicated military history buff only.
Martin Bourne
MISTRESS BRADSTREET:
THE UNTOLD LIFE OF AMERICA'S FIRST POET
Charlotte Gordon, Little, Brown, 2005 , $27.95 / C$39 95, hb, 285pp, 0316169078
The historical record of Anne Bradstreet's life is slight but adequate to give us a solid picture of the times. Her father, her husband and other acquaintances included highlyplaced Puritan leaders in both England and the New World. One of the foremost successes achieved in Anne Bradstreet's life is that she never incurred censure but always support for her way of life and her writing, no mean feat, as Puritan society was rigid and fractious. The author gives poetical exposition along with the biography, giving the reader a fresh look at the Puritan era and an admirable woman among them.
Mary K. Bird-Guilliams
THE FELLOWSHIP: The Story of a Revolution
John Gribbin, Allen Lane 2005, £20.00, hb, 318pp,0713997451
In the 17 th century whilst England was embroiled in civil war a revolution in science was also taking place; the founding of the Royal Society. It grew from a series of meetings in Oxford and London between, among others, William Gilbert, Francis Bacon , William Harvey, Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke. As Galileo was being persecuted by the Catholic Church for his heretical views scientists in London could openly publish what was condemned elsewhere. Through conducting experiments to prove hypotheses they continued and developed work already begun by A1istotle and Gilbert.
This is Gribbin 's I 00 th book and although he explains scientific ideas with crystal clarity the individual players do not always come to life. Nevertheless, this is popular science at its best.
Ann Oughton
HUDSON'S ENGLISH HISTORY: A Compendium
Roger Hudson, Weidenfeld&Nicolson , 2005, £9.99 ($12.98), l60pp, 0297844156
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
This slim volume is another of these books of lists and arcane facts for which I blame Mr ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
Schott and his Miscellany. Mind you, they all have their uses They're just the thing to buy Uncle Geoffrey for Christmas as a change from socks and help fill those bloated hours after the turkey has been dismembered and is more fun that dozing through yet another showing of The Sound of Music. But has it any worth after the tinsel has been swept away?
As is the case with such books it is a strange mix. Do you want to know all the mediaeval pilgrim sites in England, the strncture of the Elizabethan Court or the typical daily timetable of an 18 th century Oxford student? (Rise at 6am ? Students must indeed have changed a great deal.) And what about the names of the British ships at Trafalgar and their captains? Or the number of people sentenced to death and those actually hanged and for what crime between 1814 and 1834?
All good fun and I can see it in the stockings of many a member of the HNS this Christmas.
Sally Zigmond
HELEN OF TROY: GODDESS, PRINCESS, WHORE
Bettany Hughes, Jonathan Cape, 2005, £20, hb,480pp,022407l777
( USA Knopf, 2005 , $30, hb , 496pp, 1400041783)
Published to coincide with the October showing of a Channel Four documentary written and presented by the author , this is an absorbing investigation into the life and meaning of the legendary beauty. Taking the little we know of Helen from Homer's Iliad and other, sometimes fragmentary, Greek writings, Hughes fleshes it out with evidence from archaeology and insights from her own visits to sites associated with Helen in Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean. While making a case for the existence of a real Bronze Age Helen, Hughes paints a vivid portrait of life in a culture where women enjoyed surprising freedoms. There are reference notes aplenty and a hefty academic bibliography, but Hughes's narrative is rich, lucid and lively, shot through with a novelist' s gift for pace and imaginative empathy.
Sarah Cuthbertson
THE SPICE ROUTE. A HISTORY
John Keay, John Murray, 2005, £20 00 , 286pp , 071956198I
Drawing on much of his earlier 'research , John Keay presents a comprehensive history of spices. A 5 th century document known as the Alexandria Manifest- dating from Justinian's reign- lists 54 species liable to duty at the port of Alexandria; a later document drawn up by the Florentine merchant Pegolotti included 289. Today, only a fraction would be recognisable as edible spices. The arboreal spices- like spikenard and aloes-wood, mainly used as
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
balsams and incense-were probably more valuable than the humble black pepper often used as ballast in the long sea voyages. The origins of many spices remained mysterious, almost mythical, until the late 15 th century: even then, the spice-producing islands east of Java, home to nutmeg and mace, would not be "discovered" for another century or so. The continuity of the Spice Route was subject to sudden fissures caused by international or local politics, technological innovations, and religious pressures, among others. Trade was the driving force for European designs on the Spice Route , but the demand for spices was motivated by simple prestige, not the need to preserve food- a theory that has now been comprehens ively disproved. By early modem times, the social function of spice had changed little sinc e Roman times, when Pliny lamented the fact that spices were imported to " gratify a taste for the most superfluous forms of luxury". Keay argues that the Spice Route drew the Portuguese, and subsequently the English and the Dutch, eastwards by "titillating palates and tantalising pioneers ." This book is a fitting tribute to spices-too often confused with herbs and dumbed down as generically " spicy" food- as well as an extraordinarily detailed history of the spice trade.
Lucinda Byatt
THE PURSUIT OF VICTORY: The Life and Achievement of Horatio Nelson
Roger Knight, Allen Lane 2005, £30.00 , 86lpp,0713996196
Of the many biographies eulogising Nelson during this bi-centenary year Roger Knight's brilliantly researched book has to be the most accurate and comprehensive account to date. Drawing on a mass of documents including letters and ship's logs he dispels the myths and reveals the true nature of the man, warts and all. Nelson was flawed but brilliant, only happy when in command, a shrewd political operator, charismatic and ruthless. From boarding his first ship at the age of twelve, his relationship with Emma Hamilton, his victorious battles of the Nile, Copenhagen and finally Trafalgar, Nelson's life unfolds on the pag e Together with a chronology of Nelson ' s life, naval and political event s, his ships and full listing of officers , a detailed bibliography, maps and illustt<ations this magnificent work is not merely a historic a l record it is predominantly a fascinating read.
Ann Oughton
YIDDISH CIVILISATlON: The Rise and Fall of a Forgotten Generation.
Paul Kriwaczek, Weidenfeld&Nicolson , 2005,£25,hb,348pp , 02978294l6
Civilisations, as we all know, rise and fall. But very little has been written about the European Jewish civilisation that managed to flourish, despite repeated attempts to destroy it. In actual fact it lasted from the 11 th
century, until it was slowly dismantled in the 19 th and totally obliterated by the joint actions of Hitler and Stalin
But the Yiddish civilisation should not be forgotten. No study of modem America, for example, is complete without knowing to what extent it has informed American cultural life.
The author writes with authority , compassion and fluid readability. This is a book no student of European or American history should be without.
Sally Zi gmond
BESS OF HARDWICK
Mary S Lo ve ll, Little Brown, 2005 , £20 00, 555 pp, hb, 0316724823
Be ss of the title began life as Eli zabeth Hardwick and ended it as Countess of Shrewsbury. Widowed at 16, she contracted three further marriages, one of them for love. They transformed her from a modest girl of good background, into one of the great ladies of the Tudor dynasty
Remembered mostly as the builder of Chatsworth and female founder of the Devonshire dynasty, Bess lived life at the centre of various dramas acted out during the reign of Elizabeth I. Her second husband, Sir William Cavendish was closely associated with the plot to place Lady Jane Grey on the English throne. He survived the "mistake" and by virtue of shrewd investments, made a fortune Her marriage to her third husband, Sir William St Lo e ended dramatically when he died, probably a victim of poison by his brother. Her final marriage was stretched to breaking point when Queen Elizabeth bequeathed to her husband the role of guardian to the troublesome Mary Queen of Scots.
Much of the character of Bess is inferred from her actions and the author has done a splendid job of presenting this formidable woman in a most accessible way At the same time, this book has all the elements of a really exciting adventure and there are some cliff hanging moments .
Any would-be novelist looking for useful research into the I 6 th centu1y would benefit from reading this highly enjoyable biography Janet Mary Tomson
MY LADY SCANDALOUS
Jo Manning , Simon & Schuster, 2005 , $25 00 / C $35 50 , hb , 432pp, 0 743 2 6262X In this eminently readable and enjoyable biography , Regency author Jo Manning reveals the life and times of a celebrated courtesan. Born in Scotland sometime in the mid-eighteenth century, Grace Dahymple eventually warmed the beds of both George, Prince of Wales, and the Duke of Orleans. This book is a curious dichotomy, half serious history, based as it is around primary documents, and half celebrity bio , with catty
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
asides and lots of gossip. The sidebars enhance the background information, but this historian would also liked to have seen footnotes. That aside, its easy style and fascinating subject won this reviewer over.
Teresa Basinski Eckford
WITCHCRAFT, A HISTORY
P.G. Maxwell-Stuart, Tempus/frafalgar Square, 2004, £9.99/$19 95, pb, 220pp, 0752429663 Witchcraft, A History is a concentrated examination of the rituals and customs of the craft's first architects in Greece and Rome through the current resurgence of Wicca. Maxwell-Stuart deals generally with historical specifics (e.g., recent surveys and the Malleus Malleficarum) as well as the Christian church's beliefs, which were essentially an extension of Pagan ideals, in a highly analytical yet extremely readable fashion Witchcraft is a judicious evaluation of the "ugly crone" and burning stakes , which encompass so little of the reality of their subject matter.
Wendy Zollo
RIVER OF DOUBT
Candice Millard, Doubleday, 2005, $26.00/ C$37.00, hb, 365pp, 0385507968
Pub. in the UK by Little Brown, 2005 , £18.99, hb,480pp,0316724750
President Theodore Roosevelt found energy through grueling physical challenges. In this highly recommended biographical work, comparable to a thriller, he explores the River of Doubt, an unmapped tributary of the Amazon. Roosevelt boarded a ship to travel to South America in October 1913; he returned to the United States via New York Harbor in May 1914. While en route, Roosevelt's companions included his son Kermit and Brazilian explorer Candido Mariano da Silva Rondon. In this harsh environment, incidents with rapids, maneating creatures, starvation and disease are the reality of daily life. The author's decision to selectively limit descriptions to their surroundings--canoe crashes, deaths of pack animals, theft of supplies, and disgruntlements within the caravan- results in a quick-flowing narrative.
Jetta Carol Culpepper
THE BIGOD EARLS OF NORFOLK IN THE THlRTEENTH CENTURY
Marc Morris, The Boydell Press 2005 £40.00, hb,261 pp, 1843831643
Roger 111 Bigod, Earl of Norfolk and his nephew, Roger IV were powerful magnates who spent much time at the political centre of 13 th century England in the reigns of Henry Ill and Edward I. However, this is a study not only of the power plays and politics at the heart of the government but takes a more intimate look at the lives and family connections of these two men. Roger III the tourney champion , Roger IV the great
builder. The scholarship is pointed up by use of unpublished manuscript sources including charters belonging to both earls and ministers' accounts surviving from the administration of Roger IV. As always from Boydell, an excellent reference work for the scholar and interested reader alike.
Elizabeth Chadwick
RUNAWAY WALTZ: A MEMOIR FROM VIENNA TO NEW YORK
Frederic Morton, Simon & Schuster, 2005 , $25.00 /C$34.50, hb, 2 l 2pp , 0743215392
Ten distinct episodes from Morton's life make up this brief memoir. The vignettes begin with his mania for movies as a young boy, particularly those of Fred Astaire, then move on to his very tense escape with his father from Vienna in 1939, and his well-todo family's transformation to impoverished refugees. We see Morton in high society, as a devoted son with his aging parents, and finally, when he himself is elderly, recollecting his early life in Vienna as it is being filmed. Runaway Waltz provides an interesting glimpse into the life of the author of the historical novel The Forever Street (also reviewed this issue -ed).
Trudi E. Jacobson
THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY
Lucien Musset, trans. Richard Rex, Boydell & Brewer 2005 , £25.00/ $49.95, hb, 272pp, 1843831635
The late Lucien Musset was Emeritus Professor at the University of Caen, and his work on the Bayeux Tapestry, completed in 2002 and now in its first English translation, is possibly the most authoritative of the many books spawned by the Tapestry in its long and eventful life. In Musset's own words, he "does not pretend to revolutionise the study of the Bayeux Tapestry". He avoids the wilder shores of speculation but takes stock of modern scholarship on the subject, without attempting to answer questions which cannot realistically be answered now, nearly one thousand years after the events the Tapestry portrays.
The book is beautifully presented , in a large format, with full colour illustration throughout. Each episode has a full page illustration with detailed commentary , as well as a continuous illustration running along the top of each page like a frieze, locating each episode in its place. Musset's introductory chapters cover the Tapestry's history - which is amazing, its artistic context, the written captions, the characters and all the details of weaponry, ships , buildings , horse furniture etc. that make it such a valuable source of information about the early Anglo-Norman period.
Richard Rex's translation is lucid and readable, making this a book for the serious student and lay reader alike.
Sarah Bower
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HORA TIO HORNBLOWER
C. Northcote Parkinson, McBooks, 2005, $16 .95,pb,368pp, 1590130650
Pub. in the UK by Sutton, 1998, out of print This " biography" of C.S Forester's famous fictional naval hero, written in 1970, is back in print in this new, handsome trade paper edition. Drawn from both the Hornblower series and its author's extensive knowledge of the Royal Navy, Parkinson's fiction is rife with footnotes, illustrations and family trees--enough to have a reader checking the Duke of Wellington's actual dinner invitations for the good captain's name. Fans of the twelve books of the Hornblower series will rejoice and be highly entertained by both content and the polite, respectful and high academic tone of this confection.
Eileen Charbonneau
MEDICI MONEY
Tim Parks, Profile Books 2005, £15.99, hb, pp273, 1861977913/W.W. Norton 2005, $22.95,hb, pp273,0393058271
Although better known as a fiction writer, Tim Parks · lives in Italy and has written several non-fiction books about the country. Medici Money is part of Profile's Atlas series, devoted to exploring entrepreneurship, greed, finance, business and economics over the centuries. Though a brief look at the history of the Medici, ending with Lorenzo ii Magnifico because he presided over the closure of the bank, this is a fluent, witty and eminently readable book. Parks wears his erudition lightly and navigates with assurance through the murky waters of mediaeval and early Renaissance economics and its complex relationship to religion and the arts. The Medici themselves, especially Cosimo, under whom the bank attained its greatest profitability, but whose management style sowed the seeds of its ultimate failure, emerge vividly as individuals. Ugly, goutridden, subtle, clever and charn1ing, they somehow epitomise their city, the home of Savonarola, double entry book-keeping and more great artists and architects than you could shake a stick at.
[ have two quibbles, firstly, the lack of colour illustrations in a book whose avowed intent is to examine the relationship between money and art, and secondly, the substitution of a "bibliographic note" , a very general guide to further reading, for a full bibliography.
Sarah Bower
LASCIVIOUS BODIES: A Sexual History of the Eighteenth Century
Julie Peakman, Atlantic Books 2005 , £9.99, pb,348pp, 1843541572
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
Originally published in 2004, Julie Peakman's spicy, entertaining history of sex in eighteenth century Britain has now been issued in paperback. Drawing upon a variety of first hand materials and private letters, ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
Peakman explores the full range of sexual behaviour in a period which, inside and outside the bedroom, laid the foundations of modem thought and attitudes.
But don't be deceived into thinking this is a dry, academic read. Peakman wears her learning lightly and tackles her subject with frankness and a kind of endearing schoolgirl jollity which makes even some of the more extreme subject matter acceptable. By pointing out in her introduction the similarities between the eighteenth century and our own times, with a society in flux, open to experimentation and influenced by the social and cultural mores of people of many different nationalities, Peakman ensures her book will have relevance for the general reader. It is also likely to be an invaluable reference work for novelists whose characters delight in such arcana as cross dressing, cattle buggering or membership of the Scottish secret sex societies.
Sarah Bower
VICTORIAN LONDON: The Life of a City 1840 -1870
Liza Picard, Weidenfeld&Nicolson, 2005, £20 ($35.58), hb, 368pp, 0297847333
If you have read Liza Picard's previous books (Restoration London, Dr Johnson's London and Elizabeth's London) then you will know what to expect in this latest volume. So does it live up to those expectations? Absolutely. Here you will find everything you need to know about the city is this most vibrant of periods. Using diaries, memoirs and other contemporary works of non-fiction (she had to leave out fiction as she hadn't the time or space) she builds up a comprehensive picture
She is the first to admit she can't possibly deal with everything in depth but there are excellent endnotes for those who want to study a particular topic further. Health, food , crime, clothing, education, transport and housing are all covered not from the present-day looking back, but through the eyes and ears and noses of those who were there.
This book provides both an enticing introduction and a concise overview of the Victorian metropolis, at its worst and best. As a bit of a Victorian buff myself, I found nothing wrong in the detail and plenty I didn't know. No writer of Victorian fiction should be without this book.
Sally Zigmond
ALEXANDER U: THE LAST GREAT TSAR
Edvard Radzinsky, Free Press, 2005 , $35.00/ C$48.00, hb , 512pp, 074327332X Alexander II ( 1818-1881 ), known as Russia's "Tsar Liberator" for his freeing of the serfs, eased the censorship that had been in force under his father's repressive regime, and his reign saw a great flourishing of Russian literature. In the last few months of
Alexander's life, he planned to give Russia an elected assembly. But to many, his reforms did not go far enough. After several attempts on his life, he was killed by a terrorist's bomb. Radzinsky devotes much of the book to the development of radicalism in Russia. His style is enjoyable, and I highly recommend the book.
Vicki Kondelik
THE TYRANNICIDE BRIEF
Geoffrey Robertson Chatto & Windus (2005) £20.00 hb, 4 l 8pp, 0701179511
Geoffrey Robertson, one of Britain's leading Human Rights lawyers, has presented in "the Tyrannicide Brief' one of the most lucid and reasoned guides to the causes of the English Civil War. He follows the career of John Cook, who did not flee from London at the prospect of prosecuting Charles l, and who dutifully took on the case, a poisoned chalice. After the Restoration, Cook was barbarically executed for regicide.
The king was, in fact, tried for tyranny, and both sides brought in the full force of legal and religious argument. Many aspects of the dispute are still being played out today. Seeing the Civil War from a legal viewpoint gives it a clarity often lacking in military or political histories. A short review is nowhere near enough to describe the excellence of this book.
Ruth Ginarlis
Note: An interview with Geoffrey Robertson will appear in Issue 35.
DRUIDS, PREACHERS OF IMMORTALITY
Anne Ross, Tempus/Trafalgar Square, 2004, £ 12.99/$22.95, pb, 222pp, 0752425765
Druids is another piece of solid research and interpretation from Dr. Ross, whose earlier Pagan Celtic Britain is regarded as seminal. The Drnids were an aristocratic class, and their power, both spiritual and political, was immense. Beginning with classical commentators, who observed those they conquered, Dr. Ross draws together information from Irish vernacular literature and archeological sites to illuminate the lives of men and women who were much more than magicians. Her research, following the pioneering folklorist Alexander Carn1ichael, showed some amazing survivals.
Juliet Waldron
1599, A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
James Shapiro, Faber & Faber 2005 , £16 .99, hb,4l6pp,0571214800
Shakespeare's life remains largely a mystery but in one eventful year Shapiro assumes how he turned from a talented writer of comedies to one of the greatest writers who ever lived. 1599 was Shakespeare's annus mirabilis, as he rebuilds the Globe theatre and writes four of his most famous plays: Hemy V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and Hamlet.
Shakespeare's great achievements together with the Elizabethan's sending of an army to crush an Irish rebellion, the threat of an Armada from Spain and the uncertainty of who might succeed their ageing queen are vividly brought to life in this most perspicacious account yet of the enigmatic playwright.
Ann Oughton
THE LAST SHOT
Lynn Schooler, Ecco, 2005, $25.95 / C$34 95, hb , 308pp,0060523336
Most readers of Civil War fiction are surprised when novels dealing with naval operations touch on something other than ironclads dueling on America's rivers or around forts guarding harbors. Students of the conflict know that Confederate commerce raiders (frequently built in British shipyards) preyed on Northern merchant shipping in most of the world's oceans While the Alabama is the most famous, the raider Shenandoah waged a relentless campaign against the Union. She traveled some 58,000 miles and destroyed the New England whaling industry by taking 38 ships. Schooler has produced a lucid and authoritative account of a largely unknown aspect of Civil War naval history that rivals the best fiction for drama and adventure. John R. Vallely
THE ART OF COOKERY IN THE MIDDLE AGES
Terence Scully, The Boydell Press March 2005, £16.99/$29.95, pp276, 0851154301 First published in 1995, this excellent reference work is now into its fourth reprint, which says a great deal about the quality of the writing and the wealth of information it contains. Covering both the practical aspects of mediaeval food and cookery and the theoretical and philosophical concepts underlying what may seem to the modern palate some strange combinations - an Italian pear and turnip pie, for exampleScully makes elegant sense of what often seems mysterious to us with our refrigerators, microwaves and Atkins diets. By constantly relating mediaeval cookery, table manners or drinking habits to their modern equivalents , he puts this fascinating subject in context for expert and lay reader alike. He also gives recipes and a practical account of the workings of the mediaeval kitchen, making his book a useful tool for reenactors as well as theoretical researchers or mere foodies. The eating habits of different classes of society and different regions of Europe are covered, and an excellent chapter on beverages makes it clear that the Anglo Saxon tendency to drink too much ale began long before Andrew Flintoff! Not cheap, but worth every penny. Sarah Bower
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
VILLAINS' PARADISE: Britain's Underworld from the Spivs to the Krays Donald Thomas, John Murray 2005, hb, 506pp, £20.00, ISBN 0-7195-5734-8
The 'heroic myth' of the British experience of the Second World War pays scant attention to the criminal underworld which flourished on the Home Front throughout the hostilities and continued during the 'austerity years' that followed. With virtually all essential items subject to strict rationing and most luxuries simply unavailable, anybody who could tap a source of scarce items was assured of a ready market at prices far in excess of the real value of the goods. Professor Thomas sets his survey of the criminal underworld - covering the period from the 1940s to the mid 1970s - very firmly in the context of the peculiar opportunities which the Second World War provided for organised crime, but in reading it I had at times a distinct sense of deja vu. In the late 1940s, for instance, there was much concern over the increased incidence of juvenile crime, then attributed to an absence of consistent discipline in the home due to fathers being away for long periods during the war, and a sudden wave of gun crime, often utilising weapons originally obtained as 'spoils of war' and passed on via the black market. While the author paints a vivid picture of an age, he does not fall into the trap of glamourising high profile figures such as the Krays; his criminal underworld is at best slightly seedy, at times downright sordid, and always with vicious retribution lurking for any of its members who chanced a little too much.
Highly recommended.
Ann Lyon
ISABELLA SHE WOLF OF FRANCE
QUEEN OF ENGLAND , Alison Weir, Jonathan Cape 2005, £20.00 hb,494pp,0224063200
Published in the US as QUEEN ISABELLA, Ballantyne 2005, $27.95/ C$36.95, hb,487pp,0345453190
Once upon a time there was a beautiful Princess who married the heir to the throne of England. He was unfaithful and the union was doomed. To compensate for her unhappiness, the Princess became a world class shopper and courted public sympathy at home and abroad.
I always enjoy Alison Weir's books. 1 hardly ever agree with her conclusions, but that is beside the point. This time she has tackled the subject of Isabella, wife of Edward IL In order to present a biography of a woman about whom very little is known, Ms. Weir has plundered the royal accounts, and presented a picture of a person who tried her best to be the perfect wife and Queen, but who was defeated by her husband's affairs, it would seem with both men and women. It is a fascinating read. When the King's
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
personal allowance was cut to £10 per day, Isabella managed to spend over £40,000 on a visit to Canterbury, not to mention a wardrobe which would have made Mrs. Beckham appear miserly.
The author clearly has much sympathy for the Queen, and argues that it is unlikely she had any foreknowledge of Edward's murder by her lover Roger Mortimer (shades of Mary Queen of Scots here). There may not even have been a murder at all. The book is a gripping gallop through the murderous medieval Court. Read it and enjoy.
Ruth Ginarlis
CHARLEMAGNE: THE GREAT ADVENTURE
Derek Wilson, Hutchinson, 2005, £20, hb, 228pp,0091794617
This lucid and timely book sets out to explain the importance of Charlemagne, whose rule the French and Germans regard as essential to the identity of Europe (a concept with which, Derek Wilson maintains, we British still have difficulty)
Beginning with Charlemagne the contradictory personality, Wilson goes on to explore the reign in which Charlemagne, a champion of Christianity, conquered large parts of Western Europe, establishing an early form of European Union. The narrative finishes with a discussion of Charlemagne's legacy, which includes inspmng the Crusades, as well as the careers of such figures as Barbarossa, Napoleon, Hitler and de Gaulle. The book is well-provided with a timeline, maps and copious illustrations.
Sarah Cuthbertson
A
BRIEF HISTORY OF MUTINY
Richard Woodman, Robinson 2005, £8.99, pb, 310pp, 1841197378. Pub in the US by Carroll & Graf 2005, $14.95, pb, 310pp, 0786715677
Most people have heard of Captain Bligh and the mutiny on the Bounty as glamorised in many a Hollywood epic. What about Captain Pigot and the mutiny on the Hermione? Or indeed the uprising on Magellan's 1520 voyage of discovery? Richard Woodman, author of the popular Nathaniel Drinkwater novels, recounts these and many other incidences of mutiny on the high seas in this highly readable brief history.
Sara Wilson
CHILDREN'S & YOUNG ADULTS'
REBEL ANGELS
Libba Bray, Delacorte, 2005, $ I 8.99/C$26.99, hb, 560pp, 0385730292
In this companion book to the New York Times bestseller A Great and Terrible
Beauty, Libba Bray takes up where she left off, at Spence Academy, a posh English finishing school. Three sixteen-year-oldsrich Felicity, impoverished Ann, and the new girl, Gemma-head off to London for the 1895 Christmas season, still committed in their quest to bind the wild magic of The Realms, the world into which only Gemma has the power to enter. Bray has a firm grasp of the cruel interactions of young women, and she keeps the tension among them taut even as they work together to defeat Circe, a witch trying claim the power of The Realms for herself-leaving corpses and madwomen in her wake. Like the first book, Rebel Angels is a complex and well-blended mix of fantasy, mystery, romance, and even a little horror, all dressed up in historical costumes. Yet its greatest charm is Gemma herselfpowerful yet insecure, intelligent and witty, yet gauche in society, searching for a place in a world constantly trying to put her in her place. Brava to Libba Bray for a thoroughly entertaining, imaginative, and original novel. Lisa Ann Verge
THE LADY GRACE MYSTERCES; EXILE
Jan Burchett & Sara Vogler, Doubleday £6.99, hb, 217pp, 0385608500
Delacorte books for Young Readers, 208pp, $7.95, pub Feb. 2006 0385733224
This tale is written using the rather clever device of the two authors writing in the first person as Lady Grace Cavendish writing in a "daybook" or antique form of diary.
Lady Grace is a Maid of Honour to Queen Elizabeth 1st and has become the queen's Lady Pursuivant by various acts of courage, daring and intelligence that have protected her queen from danger since the girl has been at Court.
ln this, the firth of a series, it is not the queen herself Grace helps but a foreign Princess from a vaguely middle eastern country that has been taken over by an upstart ruler who has deposed the rightful one, a member of the exiled princess's family. The Princess escaped and throws herself on the mercy of Elizabeth J5 1
The princess has brought not only a retinue of her own people but has managed to escape with a huge ruby, known as the Heart Of Kings and without this stone the false ruler of her country cannot claim to be the true ruler. The ruby is said to bring bad luck to any who have it wrongfully.
At a reception where the Princess asks Queen Elizabeth to keep the stone safe until it can be returned to a rightful ruler the casket it is in is accidentally knocked over, the stone is spilled and smashes into fragments. Clearly, someone has stolen the Ruby and replaced it with a glass replica!
How Lady Grace is able to foil the thief and restore the stone to the princess makes a pleasant read and will probably give the
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
readers a thirst to enjoy the other books in the series.
A pleasant read for the pre-teens. Jan Shaw.
NICOLA AND THE VISCOUNT
Meg Cabot, Macmillan, 2002. £5.99. pb. 210pp.0330415174
Avon, $5.99, pb, 272pp, ISBN 00607532X I 808 London. 16-year-old orphan Nicola Sparks is about to enter Polite Society under the aegis of Lord and Lady Farely, whose handsome son Sebastian is the object of her uncritical adoration. She has two other admirers. One is her cousin Harold, who dresses appallingly so he's out. Then there's the infuriating Nathaniel who dares to suggest that Sebastian has feet of clay_.
Nicky is no heiress: her dowry 1s small and her much-loved family home, Bakewell Abbey in Northumberland, is run down. To Nicky's delight Sebastian proposes. Then her guardian receives a generous offer to buy Bakewell Abbey. Sebastian, Lord Farely and her guardian intend to demolish it to make way for the Stockton-Darlington railway and reap huge financial rewards. When she realizes this Nicky breaks off her engagement. Things tum nasty. It takes an abduction and a rescue by the mtrep1d Nathaniel before she realizes where her true affections lie.
The author has gone to some trouble to have Nicky behave correctly for ladies of the period, though she thinks like a 21st century girl. Sadly, almost everything _else 1s inaccurate: Meg Cabot moves the bmldmg of the Stockton-Darlington railway, on which the plot is predicated, from 1821-5 to 1808; Bakewell Abbey manages to be both near the river Tweed and a few miles from Stocktona good hundred miles further south; no respectable head-mistress would give a pupil anything by the notorious Mary Wollstonecraft; and finally, 'Lord Sebastian'. Sons of earls are Lord-plus-Christian-name. The eldest son might have the courtesy title of Viscount, m which case he'd be Lord-plus-title. There are numerous other anachronisms.
Frankly any IO plus girl who enjoys Regency romances would be better off trying Georgette Heyer or the real thing, Jane Austen. Eli zabeth Hawksley
This book is for girls. [ don't think that boys would like it because it involves the love lives of the main characters. There was a lot of history in it but it was put in a rather unusual way. [t was set in London in 1890 (sic) and showed you what. it would have been like. It told you how ladies should have acted in Victorian times , the way they dressed, ate, and what they did.
Some parts were very predictable but there were quite a few surprises. There were lots of words which were difficult for me to understand - I had to imagine what they
meant. I liked this book because it had excitement, drama, fun and a fiendish plot. Rachel Beggs, aged 10
PIZZA FOR THE QUEEN
Nancy Castaldo, Holiday House, 2005, $16.95, hb,32pp,0823418650
Nancy Castaldo is a lucky woman- her birthday falls on International Pizza Day! Such a fortunate coincidence combmed with her love of pizza led her to write an absolutely charming "history" of the world's favorite pizza- the Margherita. The pictu~e book, ideal for those aged 4-8, opens m Napoli, Italy, in 1889. Italy's queen, Margherita, has heard, of the tasty concoctions made by Raffaele Esposito m his pizzeria, Pietro e Basta Cosi, and wants to find out what all the fuss is about! After racking his brain for the perfect topping combinations, Raffaele sets out to collect the ingredients for the perfect pizza. Disaster strikes and, inspired by the Italian flag, he ends up making her a simple pie of red sauce, basil and mozzarella.
This lovely look at the most famous episode in pizza history is made ev~r more delectable by the whimsical illustrat10ns by Melisande Potter. The story, renowned among pizza devotees, is well-written ~nd engaging to youngsters. Overall , this one 1s a delicious tidbit sure to make you reach for the delivery menus!
Dana Cohlmeyer
THE MISADVENTURES OF MAUDE MARCH
Audrey Couloumbis, Random House, 2005, $15.95/C$22.95, hb, 304pp, 0375932453
This is a western adventure that pokes fun at the westerns. When Sallie and Maude's guardian, Aunt Ruthie ; is killed by a freak gunshot, the girls find themselve~ orphaned for the second time. Now v1ct1ms m an unlikely chain of events, the girls (masquerading as boys) run away - taking two horses (in trade for goods but not with permission) - to avoid Maude's being married off to an older man and to find their only other living relative , Uncle Arlen. They hook up with Joe Harden (who's also been cau<>ht in unlikely events and whose real nai:e is Marion Hardly). Together with Marion (and separately) , their unintentional adventures are captured inaccurately by reporters. Maude - who's done nothing wrong (apart from horse theft) - finds her_self known as Mad Maude , the bank-robbmg, murdering leader of a lawless gang. Not bad for a sixteen-year-old that isn't really trying!
The tale is narrated by eleven-year-old Sallie who is wise in the ways of the trouble and c~wboys: she's a prolific reader of dime novels. The sisters squabble and make up, just like real sisters. It's a terrific ride on a fast horse. Ages 12 and up.
Janette King
FEAST OF FOOLS
Bridget Crowley, Hodder Children's Books 2003, £5.99, pb, 215pp, 0340850825 Hodder, $9.99, pb , 224pp, 0340850825 Margaret K McElderry , 2003 , $15.95, hb, 272pp , 0689865120
This is a clever, well-written book that I really enjoyed. It is a thrilling read about a boy chorister and his successful attempt to figure out the mystery of two murders which suddenly take place in the cathedral where he studies.
When John - the boy chorister - was little, a stone angel fell on his foot , leaving him crippled for life. In the book we learn about his father who was a stonemason and John often refers back to the time when he could walk without lirnping It took me while to work out what the title meant, but then I realised that as happened in the Feast of Fools, everything is the reverse of what it should be. Although John is growing up m religious surroundings, most of the canons despise the Jews, but John learns that they have actually done nothing wrong. He makes friends with a Jewish man who later on in the book helps John to uncover the murderers. This book is filled with excitement, but one criticism I have is that looking at the book cover, you would think that it would be for older children and young teenagers, however the book delves into religious subjects that some might not fully understand.
In conclusion, Bridget Crowley deserves praise for writing a great book that_kept me sitting on the edge ofmy seat at all times! Emily Granozio (14)
THE ROYAL DIARIES: ANACAONA, GOLDEN FLOWER
Edwidge Dan ti cat, Scholastic, 2005, $ I 0.95, hb, 186pp,0439499062
Anacaona explores the life of a proud, young Taino woman as she grows into mlersh1p , love and motherhood. This young adult nov;I provides wonderful in s ight into the first encounters between Columbus's expeditions and the native pe~ple of the ~rea that is now Haiti. Edw1dge Dant1cat acknowledo-es that the Taino had no written language, but her imagining of the diary Anacaona might have kept is rich and beautifully written. The reader follow s Anacaona's strategic decision to cede rulership ofXaragua to her brother Behechio, and to marry Chief Caonab6 to become cacica of Managua. She becomes a mother, and raising her daughter Higuamota and defendino ao-ainst the neighboring Kalmas b O seem like her biggest concerns until men with pale skins" appear on her shores The arrival of Columbus's explorers marks a major turning point in the novel, and Danticat shifts from a languid, poetic style to a tense , high gear that makes it difficult to put the book down. Anacaona's interactions
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
with the white men are both plausible and insightful; they stay true to historical account, but Anacaona's motives and thoughts are her own. Historical information on Anacaona and the Tainos' fate is thoughtfully included at the end of the book
Andrea Bell
THE SILENT WITNESS
Robin Friedman and Claire A. Nivola (illus.) , Houghton Mifflin , 2005, $ I 6/C$22 95, hb, 32pp,0618442308
This picture book fictionalizes a little girl's experience during the American Civil War . Lula McLean lives on a farm near Bull Run, and her home serves as headquarters for the Confederate Army before the 1861 battle there. She and her brother even help out in the camp Afterwards , Lula's family moves south to Appomattox Court House, where Lula's doll, the Silent Witness, is present for the peace negotiations towards the end of the war
While a charming tale at heart, this story suffers from information dumping in the form of too many military details that only slow the pace. Lula herself is an appealing protagonist, and her everyday life will draw young readers in alongside Ms. Nivola's rich, evocative illustrations My seven-year-old niece, Nylah, liked the story and thought some of the history facts were neat , but she wanted to know more about what happened to Lula and less about the soldiers. Her favorite part was when the cannon ball landed in the pot of stew and exploded.
While T commend Ms. Friedman for wanting to teach history through fiction, a lighter hand with the military minutiae was needed to make this book a true keeper. (Ages 4-8)
Teresa Basinski Eckford and Nylah TaylorEckford
l, CORIANDER
Sally Gardner, Dial, 2005, $16 99 , hb, 272pp,00803730993
Pub in the UK by Orion, 2005, £8.99, pb, 1842552902
Sally Gardner delightfully draws the reader into this historical fiction/fantasy novel with her main character, Coriander Hobie, stating, " I have a great many things to tell , of how I came by the silver shoes and more. And this being my story and a fairy tale besides, I will start once upon a time "
Set in mid-seventeenth century England, I, Coriander blends historical imagery and rich characters with the mystical happenings of the fairy world Coriander is born the child of a London merchant and a fairy princess during the English Civil War. Her wonderful childhood abruptly ends with the death of her mother. Her father, under suspicion of being a Royalist, is cornered into marrying a devout, cruel Puritan woman who is under the influence of an evil preacher. Coriander suffers under the hand of both her stepmother
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
and the preacher when her father disappears. Their ultimate cruelty forces her into another realm, where she discovers her heritage. Caught between the two worlds, she finds that she must set one world right before her future can be determined.
/, Coriander is a beautifully written tale of suspense and intrigue. (Ages IO+)
Nancy Castaldo
THE LOST VOYAGE OF JOHN CABOT
Henry Garfield, Simon and Schuster/ Atheneum, 2004, $16.95/C$25.50, hb, 309pp,0689851731
The two sons of John Cabot (born Giovanni Caboto, a real-life merchant of Venice) narrate. While Sebastian remains at home in Bristol and learns to be a river pilot, his brother Sancio voyages with his father to the New World. A superior geographer, John Cabot knew that Columbus had not reached the Indies by the southern route, so it is with this voyage that centuries of doomed searches for a northwest passage begin. A storrn separates the three ships of Cabot's expedition One turns back. One is sunk. Although dismasted, the third, containing father and son, reaches the coast of North America. Sancio writes letters he hopes to someday present to Sebastian, telling of adventures along the coasts and among the natives of the strange new land. Through these lost letters we learn the eventual fate of Cabot's expedition Historical "what if..." for early teens with well-drawn characters, solid history, fascinating science, and minimal bowdlerizing. If only more young adult books were as well executed as this! (Ages 14+)
Juliet Waldron
lTHAKA
Adele Geras, Harcourt, 2006, $17 .00, tpb, 368pp,0l52056033
Pub in the UK by David Fickling Books , 2005,£12 99, hb,4l6pp,0385603916
This stunning novel retells the Odyssey, all from the point of view of those waiting for the hero those long, lonely years in lthaka. Circe, Scylla and Charybdis and the rest of the familiar adventures appear only briefly-go elsewhere for them- in pages of poetry relating Penelope's dreams. Waking, the wife captures her dreams of sorceresses and monsters in the colors of the threads on her loom, which also serves to keep her man alive. And, here and there, are dog dreams, the world full of smells and sun and sleep and bones of the faithful hound. More world-bound, caring for and loving both of these waiters, is our heroine, young Klymene. With her twin brother lkarios, she was raised with Telemachus by her grandmother, the patient nurse whose old eyes first see through the beggar's disguise . Klymene comes of age in this world of weaving, cooking and serving the queen's vile, groping suitors But it is also a world
where the gods appear at every tum as they dabble in the affairs of mortals: Pallas Athene's white owl, Artemis lover of dogs, Aphrodite lover of those struck by her son' sharp shafts, the thwarter Poseidon who stinks of fish, Ares who knows "here every blade comes to rest"and ever-waiting Hades. (Ages 14+)
Ann Chamberlin
THE MINISTER'S DAUGHTER (UK title: THE MERRYBEGOT)
Julie Heam, Simon & Schuster/Atheneum, 2005,$16 95,hb,272pp,0689043341
Pub. in the UK by Oxford Univ. Press, 2005, £5.99,pb,0192791575
Young Nell the merrybegot converses with piskies and fairies. Her grandmother, the healer and midwife in their English village, fosters her connection to the unseen world. But in 1645, suspicion and persecutionpolitical and religious- runs rampant. The local minister has two daughters: Grace, whose virtue does not match her beauty, and Patience, who narrates portions of the story They accuse Nell and her grandmother of tormenting them; their father, determined to rid the town of their evil influence, calls in a witch hunter. The villagers judge harshly, and Nell suffers a painful loss, yet she finds her powers will alter the course of history. An impressive and evocative novel. (Ages 14+ )
Margaret Barr
VlCTRlX TRIUMPH IN THE ROMAN ARENA
Frances Hendry, Hodder Children's Books, 2004 , £5.99, pb, pp 214, 0340877758 $8.78
Victoria is a Briton who carries the blood of the Iceni tribe in her veins, along with their temper. She arrives in Italy at a school for female gladiators and is about to enslave herself to the owner for five years. She has volunteered to become a gladiatrix Victoria is given the name Victrix and, once accepted by the school, is oathswom to them. She is set on a path that will teach her many new skills: weapon and temper control, along with physical strength and dexterity. She will discover the glory of victory, the gifts of popularity and the grim reality of life in the arena. However, most unexpectedly, she also finds love.
This story is action packed. The author never lingers on the gore nor on the cruelty of the life Victoria has chosen, but neither does she flinch from exposing it for what it was: a hard and perilous existence requiring immense skill and both great physical and emotional strength.
The character of Victrix is both believable and admirable She struggles to control her temper and keep faith with her friends, whilst setting out on a course to avenge the wrong the Romans have done to her and her people.
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
It is a story excellently told, which weaves historic detail within the action, never slowing the pace as it moves swiftly along. I look forward to reading the following book in the set.
Val Loh
YOU COME TO YOKUM
Carol Otis Hurst and Kay Life (illus.), Houghton Mifflin, 2005, $15 /C$2l.9 5, hb, 144pp , 0618551220
You Come to Yokum asks the question: how would a nonnal teenage fam1 boy view a mother who was a suffragist? In a series of touching slice-of-life vignettes, the narrator Frank Carlyle demonstrates how his mother's political activities were simp ly part of the landscape of his childhood like his father's muttering, his Aunt Winnie's tears , and his Uncle Clint's tricks. Through the eyes of a lo ving son, we see Grace Carlyle first and foremost as a mother. It is not until Frank sees her through the eyes of the women whose lives she influenced does it begin to dawn on him how important her work might truly have been. This book is a gem. (Ages 8- 12)
Sue Asher
This book is very inspirational. Set back during the time when women who wanted equal rights were called "suffragists," this book zooms in on that stuff from a different view: that of 12-year-old Frank, whose mom is serious about getting the vote for women. Moving to Becket to run a lodge by Yokum Pond changes everything. After the ratification of the 19th amendment and an unfortunate happening with bees , Frank's life will never be the same again! This is a great book. On a scale of 1-10, I would rate it an 8. Lila Asher , age 9.
PAGAN'S CRUSADE
Catherine Jink s, Candlewick, 2003, $15.99, hb, 256pp, 0763620 I 9X; also HarperCollins UK , 2004 , £5.99, 0007153163
PAGAN IN EXILE
Catherine Jinks, Candlewick, 2004, $15.99, hb, 336pp, 0763620203; also HarperCollins UK, 2004, £5.99, 0007153l8X
PAGAN'S VOWS
Catherine Jinks, Candlewick, 2004, $16.99 C$23.99, hb, 336pp , 0763620211
PAGAN'S SCRIBE
Catherine Jinks , Candlewick, 2005, $ I 6.99/ C$23.99, hb , 368pp , 076362022X These four young adult novels form the Pagan Chronicles. In book one, Pagan joins the Crusaders in Jerusalem and is introduced to Lord Roland de Bram. Lord Roland is about as different as can be from the rash and shrewd Pagan , but when Pagan becomes Lord Roland's squire, a lifelong friendship is fom1ed. In book two , Pagan and Lord Roland head for Lord Roland's home in France, where they will encounter Lord Roland's family and a world for \\hich Pagan may not be prepared. In book
three, Pagan and Lord Roland enter the monastery to begin a new life , a life most unsuited to Pagan. In book four, Pagan, now archdeacon , meets Isadore and invites Isadore to be his scribe. Isadore doesn't know what to think of Pagan and his unusual looks and even more unusual demeanor.
The stories provide a delightful account of life in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries , from Jerusalem to Europe. Jinks offers rich descriptions of everyday life as well as the multifaceted nature of Catholicism. Within the Church, the reader is exposed to the religious warrior, the monastic, the scholar, the politician, and more. No punches are pulled as the author describes the less-than-appetizing interior of a small French castle or the violent clashes between the Church and her enemies.
The narration is from a specific character ' s point of view and often entails not just the character's interactions with others, but the thoughts in his head. Not only does it contain historical infonnation wrapped up in a fictional story, but the thoughts and feelings of the character bring the environment and events alive. These stories are exciting and well written enough to be enjoyed by anyone who wants to step back in time and feel, smell , and see that history
Alycia Harris
SECRETS OF THE FEARLESS
Elizabeth Laird, Macmillan, 2005, hb, 35l pp, £12.99, 1405048905
$23.25, 368 pp , hb
1807. At the height of the Napoleonic Wars , 12-year-o ld John Barr and his father are treacherously press-ganged into the navy , where John becomes a powder monkey aboard the Man O' War HMS ·Fearless' patrolling French waters. All John has from his fonner life is an old satchel which contains, so he thinks , only family papers. He must learn the ropes (literally), cany the dangerous gunpowder-filled cartridges to the waiting gunners and cope with the revolting food and the constant malice of the bosun's mate Higgins, who is suspiciously interested in the contents of John's satchel. However , there are compensations ; HMS 'Fearless' is run by a fair captain and John comes to appreciate life aboard ship. His first exper ience of war is both terrifying and exhilarating He also makes friends with the quiet Kit.
But there are dangerous secrets aboard the Fearless. John's satchel, unbeknownst to him, contains a French code book, and, on its discovery , the captain decides to exploit its potential. John and Kit are recruited into a daring plot to outwit the French spies, of whom Higgins is one , and they soon find themselves in deadly danger behind enemy lines.
A recent article in ' The Times' said that children's books should contain 'the essential ingredients of convincing characters , strong
plots, and heart-pumping pace. ' This book delivers on all three plus the sort of believable historical detail that makes you feel you're there. It is published to coincide with the Trafalgar bicentennial and the Nelson/Napoleon exhibition at the National Maritime Museum.
The author has won both the Smarties prize and the Children's Book A ward and one can see why. Historically , it cannot be faulted but it's also a terrific read which should appeal to fluent readers of both sexes of I I plus Highly recommended.
Elizabeth Hawksley
The first part of 'Secrets of the Fearless' was essentially a scene setter, with lots of description of the setting and characters. This gives the book a slow start and the descripllon swallows up some of the plot and gives Part I the illusion ofno apparent storyline.
In Part 2, however, things definitely picked up due to a lot more action, making the book flow better. There were some very well thought out factors to the plot, for example, Kit's secret was essential, and was very well done. It would, perhaps, be more attractive to boys, though some girls might enjoy it .
Lucy Beggs, aged 13
JUST JANE
William Lavender , Harcourt/Gulliver, 2005, $6.95 IC$9.95, pb, 328pp, 0152054723 Spanning the era of the American Revolution , this young adult novel is a coming-of-age story about an English orphan sent to live in the fledgling United States with her uncle. Jane soon finds her loyalties tom between her Loyalist guardian and her Rebel cousins. Life becomes more complicated when she finds herself attracted to a Rebel , while being romanced by her uncle's obnoxious son and a British officer. In the end, Jane must choose between family , love and loy alty.
Jane herself is an appealing heroine, thought at time s she does seem a little too good. Still, her courage and dedication to family are well motivated. The secondary characters, however, all seem rather stereotypical, with the exception of Cousin Hugh. He stood out as a flesh and blood person, just like Jane. The writing itself is adequate, though at times the overabundance of telling. rather than showing, distances the reader from the events. More successful was the setting: Mr. Lavender immerses hi s reader in colonial America, incorporating a wealth of detail, effectively recreating Charleston and its outlying plantations. A well-paced and often exciting tale Just Jane will appeal to younger teens eager to learn about early America. (Ages
Teresa Basinski Eckford
THE ll!STORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
ISSUE 34. NOVEMBER 2005
ROSA,SOLA
Carmela M. Martino, Candlewick, 2005, $ I 5.99/ C$22.99, hb, 244pp, 0763623954
Carmela Martino provides a wonderful message of love, friendship, and family in this young adult novel. Set in Chicago in the late I 960s, Rosa Bernardi is a nine-year-old girl who strongly desires a s iblin g. Rosa prays long and hard for her mother to get pregnant, and eventually she does. Sadly , all of Rosa's wishes do not come true, and she must face difficult emotional times with her family. Rosa is able to confront these challenges with courage and the support of fami ly members, neighbors, and friends. The author blends hope, faith , and destiny in this sensitive story.
While there are strong religious overtones in this text, your heart will open wide ly to this coming-of-age tale. Since the Bemardis are an immigrant fami ly, some of the dialog includes ltalian words; these are defined in th e book's g lossary. In lookin g up "sola," readers will l earn that the title means "Rosa alone." While there are times when Rosa feels lon e ly, in the end, she learns she is fa r from a lone.
Carol Anne Germain
FALL OF THE SUN GOD
Henye Meyer, Pitstopany Press , 2004 , $18.95, hb, 336 pp, I 93268705X
Soft cover 1-932687-06-8
This is a book about a teenage boy trying to find his own particular niche in the world at the end of the I I th century.
Martin's parents were killed by bandits when he was a toddler. Born a Jew, he was baptised by a priest and brought up in a small English village but he never really fitted in. He leaves to join the Arn1ed Pilgrimage, or First Crusade. He saves a Jewish boy, Efrain1, from the massacre of the Jews in Mainz. Efraim persuades him to try living like a Jew. On arriving at Constantinope he spends some time with an o ld man before quarrelling with him and leaving to become the luck-piece of one of the Varangian Guard. He finally realises that the Varangian Guard is not the place for him and he goes back to the old man to try again to become a Jew. Has he found his place in the world at last?
This book is well written and moves at a good pace. It has been thoroughly researched resulting in a full and authentic background. There is a map of Europe in I 096 and also a close up map of Constantinople.
One question arises? ls this a book for the Jewish community or for the general reader? If for the latter then a comprehensive note on the Jewish religion should have been included. We live in a secular society. How many people know what the Feast of the Passover is about let alone that Pesach is the Jewish word for Passover9 To give only one one example. There is also the point that
Martin actively rejects Christianity. Many people would have a problem with that.
For this reason, although the book gives a good picture of the Europe of the timein particular the section about Constantinople and the Varangian Guard is fascinating - I personally would say that this book is for thoughtful Jewish teenagers and adults. 12 to adult
Mary Moffat
HEROES DON'T RUN: A NOVEL OF THE PACIFIC WAR
Harry Mazer , Simon & Schuster, 2005, $15.99,hb, 128pp,0689855346
Adam Pelko is seventeen and unable to enlist in the Marines without his mother's consent. (His father died at Pearl Harbor in this trilogy's initial novel, A Boy at War.) He persuades his grandfather to endorse the necessary papers without his mother's knowledge and quickly finds himself in the reality of a grueling boot-camp and grisly combat when he is shipped to Okinawa.
Mazer writes in a smooth, flowing, ageappropriate narrative without losing the grit and spir it of not only a young man in war but an entire country as well. The author allows Adam and his readers to experience the discipline and taunting of boot-camp, the loneliness and brotherhood of wartime, and the almost automatic preservation instinct that jerks into gear in the intensity of ferocious battles. My sons (age 9 & 12) relished the intensity of Heroes Don't Run enough to head off to the library for the first two books in Mazer's trilogy. (Ages 10-14)
Wendy Zollo
MARIE, DANCING
Carolyn Meyer, Gulliver/ Harcourt, 2005, $ 17 .00, hb, 272, 0152051163
Every time I visit the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, I visit Degas' Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen. It's like visiting an old friend. I can remember ho ldin g my daughter's hand and showing it to her when she was only waist high, and together we'd gaze at the ribbon in her hair and marvel at her gauzy tutu. Now Carolyn Meyer has told the tale of the model of that famous statue as eloquently as it deserves. Marie Van Goethem is a dancer in the corps de ballet of the famed Paris Opera. It is one of her only joys , a time when she can escape the hardships of her life at home. It is when Monsieur Degas requests her as a model th at she sees what life could be lik e for her and her family. She dreams of better days. It is a story of dancing, life, and love, and transformation.
Carolyn Meyer, a veteran of historical fiction, having written White Lilacs and Mary. Bloody Ma,y , is quite adept at weaving historical facts and descriptions
with a li vely plot. Marie, Dancing is no exception. (Ages 12+)
Nancy Castaldo
UNDER THE JOLLY ROGER
L. A Meyer, Harcourt, 2005, $17 .00, 518pp, hb,015205345X
In London to hook up with her beloved Jaimy, Jacky Faber spies him holding hands with another gir l, destroying Jacky's dreams of marriage and family. Too angry to listen to explanations, she flees. A press gang mistakes her for a man, and once again she finds herself serving in the Royal Navy. Even though she reveals her true identity to the captain, he refuses to dismiss her, for he wants to bed her with or without her permission. Thus begins Jacky's newest nautical adventure that includes smugg lers, spies, sea battles, her own ship, and being declared a pirate.
Written for young adults, this third book in the Bloody Jack Adventures series will enthra ll readers as much as the first. Headstrong and rash, Jacky nevertheless finds intriguing solutions to the dilemmas she faces. The twists and turns will keep readers guess in g until the very end. (Ages 12+)
Cindy Vallar
BLITZ BOYS
Linda Newbery, A & C Black, 2000, £8.99, hb, 88pp,07136542 1X $8.93,pb,07136542244 12-year-old Ronnie Cooper lives in London's East End during the Blitz. One day, illegally exploring a bombed-out building, he meets Dusty, who ha s escaped from a cruel aunt and has an exciting story to tell of his heroic Spitfire pilot father. Ronnie is deeply envious; his own father is only an Air-Raid Warden - hardly in the same league. Dusty is sleeping rough, trying to avoid the authorities. Ronnie tells him about a possible hide-out in a stable with the milkman's horse. One night, Ronnie sneaks out to check that Dusty is safe. The boys are caught in a horrific raid with incendiary bombs, and the stab le is full of inflammable straw. Ronnie is desperate to get out, but Dusty won't leave the terrified horse. There is a nail-biting escape.
When the Evacuation Officer inevitably catches up with Dusty, it turns out that his father's story is not Dusty's heroic fantasy but something much sadder. In World War I, she II-shocked soldiers were accused of cowardice and executed. [n World War 2, they were accused of LMF - Lack of Moral Fibre, stripped of their rank and demoted to menial tasks.
This is what has happened to Dusty"s father. The boys must learn the difference between true courage and fantasy heroism. I enjoyed this. The characters were real, the pace terrific , the historical research impeccable and it felt absolutely in period. The book has something important to say about the effects of post-traumatic stress and
THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
is a plea for understanding and a truer definition of courage.
Aimed at boys 7-1 I, though personally I think it more suited to IO plus, both in terms of language and moral complexity. Elizabeth Hawksley
When first saw this book, was immediately put off because of the cover. The first chapter was hard to understand and it seemed like a boy' s book. As I progressed further, I found it really good - it was so unpredictable and exciting and awesome. I read it until bedtime. I loved it and was disappointed when it had finished as I wanted to find out what happened next.
It sets a picture in your mind of what it would be like to be Ronnie living through World War IL It was like a journey back in time to the Anderson shelters, Ronnie's school lessons, the stables and his house. I also felt I'd made a new friend called Dusty.
I reckon this is an outstandingly good book for boys and girls and I would be happy to read another in the series, if it was as good. I would give it a brilliant 9 out of IO!
Rachel Beggs, aged 10.
THREE BLIND EYES
Alison Prince, Oxford University Press, 2003, I 63pp, £6.00, 0192719025
It is the I 800s and Lucy Bellman lives a safe and comfortable life in Victorian London. However, her beloved father is in debt from a gambling addiction, and men are coming into her father's shop demanding the money that he owes them Lucy starts to notice things that are missing from the house, and one day on her way back from school she spots a silver pin-cushion that belonged to her late mother. When her father can no longer afford to pay the mortgage on the house, Xavier Winterthom and Ada (the Bellman's former housemaid) open their house to the public as a hostel. Lucy and her father rent a small room in the house, but Lucy has to work as a maid in the house to earn the money needed for the rent and there food because her father would gamble away the money needed otherwise. However, events take a tum for the worse when one of the residents is murdered, ancl her father is accused of murdering him and sent to jail. Will Lucy ever see her father again? Lucy ends up working for a gang of criminals in a dark, dirty house somewhere in the cast end of London - separated from her best friend Tom and his little brother Finn, who has gone missing. Lucy finds herself locked in the dark, dirty, rat-infested house by day, and robbing houses by night. Will Lucy ever escape and find Finn? And what is the whining sound that Lucy can hear coming from the cellar of the house every night?
This is a good read, with a good atmosphere of Victorian London.
Charlotte Kemp age 14
THE WED DJ NG: An Encounter with Jan Van Eyck
Elizabeth M. Rees, Watson-Guptill, 2005, $15.95 / C$21.95, hb, 144pp, 0823004074
Have you ever wondered about the story behind a painting? You're not alone. In The Wedding, children's author Elizabeth Rees brings Jan Van Eyck's Arnoljini Wedding to life. Focusing on the bride, Ms. Rees introduces us to a young woman from Bruges caught between duty and her first crush. Giovanna Cenami's father arranges a marriage for her with a business acquaintance at the same time she falls for a charming young nobleman who works for Van Eyck. It turns out the latter is a member of the family with whom her own has feuded for years Can she trust him?
Though Giovanna seems a little modem in some of her ideas, it is easy to sympathize with her plight, while Signor Amolfini is an understated hero in every sense. Ms. Rees's other characters are equally well-drawn and brimming with personality, moving in a world depicted accurately through small details and slightly formal language.
My only quibble came with a violent scene towards the end that struck me as overwritten and not in keeping with the overall tone of the book. That aside, I believe readers will enjoy this fast-paced and historically authentic tale set in 15th century Flanders.
Teresa Basinski Eckford
LADY WITH AN ALIEN: An Encounter with Leonardo da Vinci
Mike Resnick, Watson-Guptill, 2005, $15.95 / $21.95, hb, I 92pp, 082300323X
Based on the idea that Da Vinci's painting Lady with an Ermine could have extraordinary inspirations, the latest title from Mike Resnick, one of the world's most honoured science fiction authors, is entrancing. His first book for young adults is a timetravelling peek into the art and mind of the greatest Renaissance man of all time. During a vacation from 2523 AD, Mario Ravelli befriends Leonardo da Vinci and experiences a look into the mind of a genius. As the story of how Mario's pet influences the famed painting progresses, readers are drawn into an earthy portrait of Renaissance Italy.
Novels in the publisher's Art Encounters series are intended for young adults, but this offering is so intriguing that adults will find this book well worth picking up. Mario and da Vinci arc both brilliantly fleshed out, and the descriptions of Italian life arc fantastic: readers can almost smell the candles burning in Da Vinci's workshop! Readers are compelled to keep turning the pages, if only to find out if Mario accidentally spills the beans about the future and causes catastrophic changes in history.
Dana Cohlmeyer
KEEP SMILJ G THROUGH
Ann Rinaldi, Harcourt, 2005, $6.95, pb, 188pp,0152053999
Ann Rinaldi's Keep Smiling Though follows the adventures of ten-year-old Kay Hennings as she goes about daily life in her little comer of New Jersey during World War II. While facing emotional hardships imposed by her step-mother, Kay struggles with popular rumors and unpopular truths, and learns that doing the right thing sometimes requires great courage. Keep Smiling Though is fairly typical of a young adult book. What sets it apart from others is the author's use of the radio programs of the day: Kay's brothers use the familiar programs and their characters to explain things to Kay. The references made me smile, and I hope they make young readers smile, too . (Ages 9-12)
Janette King
MUDLARK
John Sedden, Puffin, 2005, £4 99, pb. 248pp, 0141318686
Gardners books, $6.94, 0141318686
Based on real events, this story shows what life was like for the poor in Portsmouth in the early years of the last century.
Jimmy and his friend Reg are fourteen year old mudlarks, diving in the harbour mud and showing-off to people on the pier who throw them money. Jimmy is old enough to get a job but prefers the freedom of mudlarking while his mother works in pubs and (although the word is not used) as a prostitute. Neither boy knows who his father is, and this has begun to trouble Jimmy. Also, around this time, he makes his first attempt to get a date with a girl. It's 1914, the time of the First World War , and Portsmouth is full of soldiers and sailors. There is anti-foreign feeling in the town and the boys are shocked when foreigners are interned - among them a Belgian shopkeeper with whom they have become friendly. The ending is cleverly constructed and provides a poignant contrast to the opening scenes.
These aspects of the story are vivid and convincing. Threaded throughout, however, is a mystery about the murder of a number of prostitutes, and a theory about who the killer might be. At the beginning of the story the boys find a skull on the beach - a scene which is more dramatic than anything that results from that find. Although the mystery is intriguing I found the second half of the book disappointing as the boys detem1ined to prove that there has been an official cover-up - become involved in some unlikely escapades. These are oddly unexciting and don't seem to fit with the otherwise realistic story.
Ann Turnbull
THE HISTORJCAL NOVELS REVIEW
ISSUE 34, NOVEMBER 2005
KIPLING'S CHOICE
Geert Spillebeen (trans. Terese Edelstein), Houghton Mifflin, 2005, $16/ C$22.95, hb, 160pp,0618431241
"Without my spectacles, I'm nothing!" cries out Lt. John Kipling as he falls, wounded and gassed whilst leading his battered regiment in a hunt for German "nests." They are nobly fighting the Great War to End All Wars, and the dying lieutenant's cries are earsplitting, yet "none of the bewildered soldiers dare to help him for fear of humiliating the young officer." Blacking out, he floats in and out of his halcyon past, recalling his "Daddo's" efforts to influence friends to give his son a commission despite his inherited bad eyes. Rudyard Kipling's Navy dreams give way to his son's commission in the Irish Guard The father fights vicariously through his son, but he cannot know the true suffering at the end. Such a brief life
Although written for children, the novel covers brilliantly the themes of war, patriotism, ideal ism and how they are passed from father to son. The reader is pulled along in the alternating accounts of one privileged but brave life, snuffed out by the very ideals for which he was fighting. (Ages 12+)
Tess Allegra
BILLY THE KID
Theodore Taylor, Harcourt, 2005, $17 .00, hb , 208pp,0152049304
In this young adult novel, Theodore Taylor creates a tale for boys about the Wild West, its law, and the notorious rebel, Billy the Kid. Throughout the book, the author liberally stretches the historical truth about this character, painting Billy as a charming victim of circumstance rather than the true cold-blooded killer he was. Certainly, as readers we expect to suspend our disbelief with some historical facts. However, Taylor goes a bit too far. In emphasizing Billy ' s admiration for his father, the author highlights how "his papa" was "the best gunsmith in the whole world. He'd made guns for the president as well as for the king of England. " Since this is set in the late 19th century, it seems unlikely that Billy's father could have made a gun for the last King of England, who died in 1837.
fn the author ' s note, Taylor admits to the lack of "resemblance" between his character and the legend. It might have been a better read if he had simply created a fictional name for his lead character rather than leaving young readers with the impression that this is the story of the infamous outlaw. (Ages 12+)
Carol Anne Germain
HITLER'S CANARY
Sandi Toksvig , Doubleday, 2005 , pb, 275pp, £8 .99, 0385608896
Doubleday, $11.86 , hb, 209pp , 0385608896
' Hitler's Canary' is about an exceptionally brave ten-year-old boy called Bamse, who is
faced with the invasion of the German Army in Denmark in the Second World War. The book follows Bamse and his best friend Anton on their quest to try to remove the Nazis from Denmark and in risking their lives doing so. I found this book enticing; I felt that it captures the essence of the times perfectly. The author has chosen an excellent character to portray the story, a somewhat naive child whose opinion of the Nazis changes very early on in the story. I especially like the way that, instead of chapters, the author has chosen to have "Acts", which is suitable seeing as Bamse's mother is an actress! I would recommend this book for all ages.
Annemarie Simmons age 15
AGAINST THE TIDE
Theresa Tomlinson, Corgi Books , 2005, £5 99, pb,388pp,0552552798, 780552552790
This is a collection of three of Theresa Tomlinson's novels about the fishing families of north east England.
The 'Flither Pickers' depicts the hard lives of the women who spend their lives picking shellfish on the shore for bait. In 'The Herring Girls,' when her mother is taken ill young Dory Lythe goes to join the herring girls who stand on the harbour and gut and pack the fish there the minute the fishing fleet comes in. 'Beneath Burning Mountain' is slightly different. It is about two different communities - the members of a fishing village and also another set of people who work in a quarry and burn alum. Both communities have their problemsthe alum burners when a landslide destroys their village and the fishermen when they have a visit from the dreaded press gang.
All three books have previously been reviewed in the HNS 'Review.'
Mary Moffat
MAIA OF THEBES: 1463 B.C.
Ann Turner, Scholastic, 2005, $10.95 / C$14.99,hb, 169pp,0439652235
This is the story ofMafa, a thirteen-year-old girl living in 1463 B.C. when Egypt was ruled by the woman pharaoh Hatshepsut. Mafa and her brother are orphans. They live with their stingy uncle, who is a priest, and their shrewish aunt, who treats Mai"a more as a slave than a niece. She envies her brother who escapes each day to the House of Life where he is training to be a scribe. Mafa yearns for a better life, away from the drudgery of servitude, so whenever they find time for themselves, her brother teaches her what he has learned. Then, one night, she discovers her uncle has been stealing grain from the temple. Deeply superstitious, she turns him in, only to find out it is even more dangerous to offend the priests than to offend the gods. The resourcefi.tl Mafa must use all her skills- not just writing, but cool-headedness, bravery, and mercy-if she wants to save her family and herself. This is an interesting peek into a girl's
life in ancient Egypt, showing a strong character who gets herself into a bit of an ethical dilemma. It's well-suited to the 9-12 age range. Recommended. Sue Asher
TEN THOUSAND CHARMS
Leander Watts, Houghton Mifflin, 2005, $16 /C$22.95, hb, 240pp, 0618448977
This gothic tale is set in the Genesee Valley in western New York sometime during the first half of the I 9th century. Roddy Whitelaw, age I 0 , has been apprenticed by his parents to the ropeworks factory under the sinister taskmaster Mr. Queed. He works six days a week turning the crank of the rope braiding machine.
King Iva.rs and bis three daughters settle in the area from Germany when the King loses his throne. He is interested in strange events and mysterious objects (what he calls charms), such as two-headed cats and rivers that flow backward. There's much to keep him occupied in America, including a parliament of crows. King Ivar's middle daughter, Thea, becomes the object of desire of the evil Scalandar, who is the son of Mother Fecula, housekeeper for Mr. Queed. Roddy and the king join forces to rescue Thea from Mother Fecula's evil plotting.
My eleven-year-old daughter and I enjoyed the characters and plot of this story, but were left feeling somewhat dissatisfied that certain elements weren't explained , such as bow Mother Fecula came to have a son like Sealander. We wanted more! (Ages 11+)
Jane Kessler
SOUND
TH E HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
From Geraldine Perriam
There are no reviews this issue but I would like to suggest a few titles that might be of interest. Christopher Hibbert's Nelson takes a fresh look at the naval hero, Andrew Williams' book D-Day to Berlin is a nonfiction title that centres on the "final push through Europe". For fans of the Western, there are several new titles including Zane Grey's Rangers of the Lone Star. For those interested in early periods, Paul Doherty's The House of Death is a mystery that centres on Alexander at Hellespont, where intrigues abound from Persian spies and spies within Alexander's own camp.
As you will see from the list below, there are many titles on offer.
34, NOVEMBER 2005
