Historical Novels Review | Issue 108 (May 2024)

ISSUE 108

HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW

LIFE UNDER MY BELT

Kristin Hannah's The Women | More on page 8

May 2024

FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE ...

More Like the Real World Representation in Historical Romance

Page 10

Language Slip Languages & the Writing Process

Page 12

Add Earthquake & Stir

The Phoenix Crown

Page 12

Life, Death & Literature

The Titanic Survivors Book Club

Page 14

Importance of Place

Robin Oliveira Discusses the Meaning of Place

Page 15

Historical Fiction Market News

Page 1

New Voices

Page 4

History & Film

Page 6

HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW

ISSN 1471-7492

Issue 108, May 2024 | © 2024 The Historical Novel Society

PUBLISHER

Richard Lee

Marine Cottage, The Strand, Starcross, Devon EX6 8NY UK <richard@historicalnovelsociety.org>

EDITORIAL BOARD

Managing Editor: Bethany Latham

Houston Cole Library, Jacksonville State University 700 Pelham Road North, Jacksonville, AL 36265-1602 USA <blatham@jsu.edu>

Book Review Editor: Sarah Johnson

Booth Library, Eastern Illinois University, 600 Lincoln Avenue, Charleston, IL 61920 USA <sljohnson2@eiu.edu>

Publisher Coverage: Bethany House; HarperCollins; IPG; Penguin Random House (all imprints); Severn House; Australian presses; and university presses

Features Editor: Lucinda Byatt 13 Park Road, Edinburgh, EH6 4LE UK <textline13@gmail.com>

New Voices Column Editor: Myfanwy Cook 47 Old Exeter Road, Tavistock, Devon PL19 OJE UK <myfanwyc@btinternet.com>

REVIEWS EDITORS, UK

Ben Bergonzi

<bergonziben@gmail.com>

Publisher Coverage: Birlinn/Polygon; Duckworth Overlook; Faber & Faber; Granta; HarperCollins UK; Little Brown; Orenda; Orion; Pan Macmillan; Simon & Schuster UK

Alan Fisk

<alan.fisk@alanfisk.com>

Publisher Coverage: Aardvark Bureau; Black and White; Bonnier Zaffre; Crooked Cat; Freight; Gallic; Honno; Karnac; Legend; Pushkin; Oldcastle; Quartet; Saraband; Seren; Serpent’s Tail

Edward James

<busywords_ed@yahoo.com>

Publisher Coverage: Arcadia; Atlantic Books; Bloomsbury; Canongate; Head of Zeus; Glagoslav; Hodder Headline (inc. Coronet, Hodder & Stoughton, NEL, Sceptre); John Murray; Pen & Sword; Robert Hale; Alma; The History Press

Douglas Kemp

<douglaskemp62@gmail.com>

Publisher Coverage: Allison & Busby; Canelo; Penguin Random House UK; Quercus

Ann Lazim

<annlazim@googlemail.com>

Publisher Coverage: All UK children’s historicals

REVIEWS EDITORS, USA

Tracy Barrett

<tracy.t.barrett@gmail.com>

Publisher Coverage: All North American children's historicals

Kate Braithwaite

<kate.braithwaite@gmail.com>

Publisher Coverage: Poisoned Pen Press; Skyhorse; Sourcebooks; and Soho

Peggy Kurkowski

<pegkurkowski@gmail.com>

Publisher Coverage: Bloomsbury; Macmillan (all imprints); Grove/ Atlantic; and Simon & Schuster (all imprints)

Janice Ottersberg

<jkottersberg@gmail.com>

Publisher Coverage: Amazon Publishing; Europa; Guernica; Hachette; Kensington; Pegasus; and W.W. Norton

Misty Urban

<misty@historicalnovelsociety.org>

Publisher Coverage: North American small presses

REVIEWS EDITORS, INDIE

J. Lynn Else & Bonnie DeMoss

<jlynn@historicalnovelsociety.org> <bonnie@historicalnovelsociety.org>

Publisher Coverage: all self- and subsidy-published novels

EDITORIAL POLICY & COPYRIGHT

Reviews, articles, and letters may be edited for reasons of space, clarity, and grammatical correctness. We will endeavour to reflect the authors’ intent as closely as possible, and will contact the authors for approval of any major change. We welcome ideas for articles, but have specific requirements to consider. Before submitting material, please contact the editor to discuss whether the proposed article is appropriate for Historical Novels Review

In all cases, the copyright remains with the authors of the articles. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the authors concerned.

MEMBERSHIP DETAILS

THE HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY was formed in 1997 to help promote historical fiction. We are an open society — if you want to get involved, get in touch.

MEMBERSHIP in the Historical Novel Society entitles members to all the year’s publications: four issues of Historical Novels Review, as well as exclusive membership benefits through the Society website. Back issues of Society magazines are also available. For current rates, please see: https://historicalnovelsociety.org/members/join/

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ISSUE 108 MAY 2024 COLUMNS

1 Historical Fiction Market News

Sarah Johnson

4 New Voices

Claire Coughlan, Eve J. Chung, Kuchenga Shenjé & Susan Weissbach | Myfanwy Cook

6 History & Film

Theda Bara & the Rise of the Vamp | Trish MacEnulty

FEATURES & INTERVIEWS

8 Life Under My Belt

Kristin Hannah on Women’s Friendship by Mary Tod

10 More Like the Real World

Representation in Historical Romance by Misty Urban

12 Language Slip

How Languages and Environment Affect Character and the Writing Process by Katie Stine

12 Add Earthquake & Stir

The Phoenix Crown by Sarah Hendess

14 Life, Death & Literature

The Titanic Survivors Book Club by Kate Pettigrew

15 Importance of Place

Robin Oliveira Discusses the Meaning of Place by Myfanwy Cook

REVIEWS

16 Book Reviews

Editors’ choice and more

HISTORICAL FICTION MARKET NEWS

EDITORIAL UPDATES

Tracy Barrett has joined the US-based editorial team as the new reviews editor for children’s and young adult titles. The author of more than 20 books for young people, Tracy has been involved in the children’s literature community for many years. Find her contact details on the masthead. Welcome, Tracy!

NEW BOOKS BY HNS MEMBERS

If you’ve written a historical novel or nonfiction work published (or to be published) in January 2024 or after, send the following details to me at sljohnson2@eiu.edu or @readingthepast by July 7 to be featured here: author, title, publisher, release date, and a blurb of one sentence or less. Please edit your blurbs down to one sentence before submitting; space is limited, and concise blurbs are appreciated. Details will appear in the August 2024 issue of HNR. Submissions may be edited.

In Jason Monaghan’s Blackshirt Conspiracy (Level Best, Oct. 2023), fascist plots swirl around the British king and his American mistress during the Abdication Crisis of 1936.

Most, if not all, adaptations of the biblical story of Wise Men from the East arriving at the Nativity assume the visitors knew who and what to expect; in We Three (Show Up Press, Nov 3, 2023), Kerry Ames claims no, they didn’t, and in lowly Bethlehem, those foreigners must confront their unfounded conjectures.

She is an ungovernable widow accused of witchcraft; he is a witch hunter, sworn to restore order, and together they ignite a passion that could consume everything they touch in Devil in Our Hearts, by Lizzie Jenks (Wheel Horse Press, Nov. 14, 2023).

DL Fowler’s Lincoln’s Angel: The Rebecca Pomroy Story (Harbor Hill Publishing, Jan. 3) is a novel of triumph over tragedy amid President Lincoln’s struggle to save the soul of the Union.

In James A. Humphrey’s Cherokee Rock, white exploitation in 1779 engulfs a boy who allies with a mentor squirrel, trains as a teacher, and blood-brothers with a freedman during pestilence and war, only to lose his people’s trust to a malignant medicine man. Cherokee Rose follows a Georgia Freedman’s half-Cherokee daughter as she battles pestilence, bigotry, alcoholism, and starvation during a forced removal led by her father’s murderer, only to face a white jury in a trial that sets national precedents for the rights of Native Americans. And in Cherokee Reel, a half-Cherokee woman loses her sister to a political assassin, marries a freedman, organizes a freedom railroad, and leads a Federal guerilla band in Oklahoma during the turmoil of the Civil War. All appeared from TSALAGI Books on Nov. 1, 2023.

Cape Corse (Independently published, Nov. 2023) is a complex novel with a compelling, fast-moving and historically plausible plot, set in the Napoleonic Wars, and inspired by author Paul Weston’s seafaring background.

Rebecca Hazell’s The War Queens (TellWell, Dec. 2023), primarily set in the 6th century, tells the true and tragic saga of rival queens who dominated Dark Age Europe and who passed into fairytale and legend.

Called “a rare feat, a seamless amalgam of an unflinching literary realism with an unsentimental affirmation of life” by Kirkus, To Steal a Moment’s Time by Katharina Berger with G. J. Berger (Acorn, Jan. 17) is a memoir by a remarkable woman: the most sought-after stage and film actress in pre-WWII Germany, she evaded Nazi fanatics and helped Jews escape during the war, scrounging for food and shelter while hoping she and her child might live to see a better world.

Set in both 19th-century and present-day Shetland and Canada, Beyond the Shetland Sea by Barbara Greig (Pegasus Publishing, Jan.) weaves the experiences of a young blacksmith, Gideon Thompson, who reluctantly leaves his island home, and the girl he admires, to join the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1849, with those of Eve Cummins who in 2019 embarks on a quest to discover the origins of an old valentine.

In the tradition of Olive Kitteridge and Winesburg, Ohio, the novel in stories Falling Through the New World by Cynthia Reeves (Gold Wake Press, Feb. 5) follows four generations of an Italian American family set against the often-tumultuous events of the past century.

D.P.G. Farrington’s Heathenesse (Two Dogs Books, ebook only, Feb. 6) sees a group of English soldiers following their lord on a hapless winter crusade against Europe’s last pagans in the freezing wilderness of 14th-century Poland and Lithuania.

In A Graveyard in Algiers, Book 4 in The Muhammad Amalfi Mysteries by AJ Lewis (Independently published, Feb. 7), when an exorcism goes wrong at a villa outside the city of Algiers in 1793, the bodies start piling up. This is followed by Book 5, An Affair of Honor in Algiers (Independently published, Feb. 7), in which a famed Algerian corsair captain is pitted against a Turkish shipowner who vows to avenge his family’s honor.

The Serpent and the Rose by Catherine Butterfield (Book Baby, Feb. 19) tells the story of Marguerite de Valois, 16th-century princess of France, and her stormy relationship with her Machiavellian mother, Queen Catherine de Medici.

116-year-old Rube Wingo recalls his captivating and hysterical journey through an American century of life, love, race and baseball in Wingo: The Remarkable Life of an Unremarkable Man by Mike Vance (Dos Dogs Press, Feb. 20).

In 1935 a shell-shocked war veteran wins a suicidal bet with a ghost from his past, but there are conditions attached and the dead will have their due, as told in Veterans Key by Richard Bareford (Independently published, Mar. 5).

In Jules Larimore’s Find Me in the Stars (Mystic Lore Books, Mar. 20), inspired by a true refugee’s tale of sacrifice, separation, and abiding love, an apothecary from a noble French Huguenot family and a holy-woman healer are separated by miles but connected by the stars as they each forge their destinies in a quest for a brighter tomorrow during Louis XIV’s persecutions against Huguenots.

Kampaku: The Rise and Fall of Ishida Mitsunari, by David Klason (AM publishers, Mar. 28) invites you to dive into the heart of feudal Japan, where honour and deception collide in the life of Ishida Mitsunari, a samurai caught in the deadly games of power and destiny, as he

battles to shape the future of a nation on the brink of transformation.

Deadly Gamble, #11 in the Deadly Series, by Kate Parker (JDP Press, April 16) involves murder, spying, and a young orphan with the key to a mission by the Axis powers in neutral Portugal during WWII.

Katerina Dunne’s Return to the Eyrie (Historium Press, Apr. 23), set in 15th century Hungary, features a young Transylvanian noblewoman who must break the constraints of her gender and social status to avenge her father’s murder and reclaim her stolen legacy.

In The Sister Knot by Ann S. Epstein (Vine Leaves Press, Apr. 30), two girls orphaned by WWII survive on the streets of Berlin and are brought to the U.S. by a Jewish refugee agency, where their lives diverge when one is adopted and the other is sent to a group home.

AD 395: In a Christian Roman Empire, worshipping the old gods is a death sentence, and traditionalists Maelia, Lucius and Galla must choose whether to stay, hoping for the best, or leave Rome and go into exile forever in EXSILIUM by Alison Morton, the sequel to JULIA PRIMA (an HNR Editors’ Choice).

In a story of love, loyalty, power, and penance in post-colonial America, The Scandalous Life of Nancy Randolph by Kate Braithwaite (Lume, May), born into a wealthy plantation family, Nancy Randolph’s life should be one of ease and order, but the death of her mother sets off a chain of events, culminating in a trial where it is alleged Nancy has had a child with her sister’s husband – but what really happened, and is the truth overrated if it cannot heal?

Following the second in the Ladies Least Likely historical romance series, The Forger and the Duke by Misty Urban (Oliver Heber Books, Mar. 5), where young copyist (and suspected forger) Amaranthe Illingworth discovers a document that rewrites the future for illegitimate duke’s son Malden Grey, the third in the series, The Painter Takes an Earl (Oliver Heber, May 7), brings upheaval into the life of scarred the scarred Earl of Renwick when his hoydenish childhood friend Harriette Smythe climbs through his window with the demand he commission a painting that will save her reputation—but risk his heart.

In Kinley Bryan’s The Lost Women of Mill Street (Blue Mug Press, May 7), set during the American Civil War, two sisters are among 400 Georgia mill workers charged with treason and sent to the North, where they must summon unknown reserves of courage and strength if they are to survive in an unfamiliar, unwelcoming land.

Loretta Goldberg, author of The Reversible Mask: An Elizabethan Spy Novel, releases Bombs Over the Bukubuk Tree: A Novel of World War II (MadeGlobal, June), which is set in tropical Papua New Guinea, where an idealistic Australian Jewish army doctor finds forbidden love, medical challenges and the ultimate peril when Japanese bombs fall (IFBAward 2023).

In The Schoolmaster by Jessica Tvordi (Garden Scriptorium, June 1), when scholar Peter Young is appointed to help the famous George Buchanan create the perfect Protestant ruler in young King James VI, their goal is derailed when the young monarch’s seductive Catholic cousin, Esmé Stewart, Seigneur d’Aubigny, arrives at court.

The Keys of Hell and Death by Charles Cordell (Myrmidon, June 4), #2 in the English Civil War series Divided Kingdom, is described as “heart-pounding action, heartbreaking loss as a nation tears itself apart ... vividly rich in historical detail ... not to be missed” by David Gilman, author of the Master of War series.

In Edward McSweegan’s The Cottage Industry (Wild Rose Press, June 5), WWI pilot David Enders returns to 1922 Connecticut looking for emotional peace but finds small-town corruption and lingering national paranoia, which complicate his new job and relationship with an artist at Old Lyme’s famous art colony.

Alexandra Weston’s The Hollywood Governess (Boldwood Books, June 26) incorporates an English governess bound by her own strict rules, a 1930s movie-star tormented by grief, and a forbidden love story you won’t forget.

Carol McGrath’s latest historical novel, The Lost Queen (Headline Accent, July) focuses on Berengaria of Navarre.

American Ghoul by Michelle McGill-Vargas (Blackstone Publishing, Sept.) is a darkly humorous novel set in the aftermath of America’s Civil War about a Black woman living in the South who decides her best chance at survival is to journey north to the Midwest with a strange white woman whose most notable characteristic is an insatiable bloodlust.

Jillian Forsberg’s debut, The Rhino Keeper (History Through Fiction, Oct.) is a dual-timeline novel, set in both the modern day and the 18th century, that tells the true story of Clara the Indian rhino and her Dutch keeper.

NEW PUBLISHING DEALS

Sources include authors and publishers, Publishers Weekly, Publishers Marketplace, The Bookseller, and more. Email me at sljohnson2@eiu. edu or tweet @readingthepast to have your publishing deal included. You may also submit news via the Contact Us form on the HNS website.

Angela Shupe’s In the Light of the Sun, an upmarket novel set in the European and Southeast Asian World War II theaters, following the stories of two sisters, one in the Philippines, one in Italy, who find themselves caught up in the secrets, devastation, and intrigues of war—inspired by the true wartime experiences of the author’s mother and aunt, and by the life of her great-grandmother, who performed with Gran Compania de Opera Italiana, sold to Jamie Lapeyrolerie at WaterBrook Multnomah, for publication in fall 2025, by Tamela Hancock Murray at Steve Laube Agency.

Nan Swanson at The Wild Rose Press acquired Sarah Hendess’ A Capital Christmas, a romance between Fiona Ellicott, director of the Smithsonian Institution Library in the District of Columbia in 1859, and Caleb Fox, a Quaker who runs a Friends’ orphanage in Georgetown, set at a time when married women are typically barred from the professions, for publication in fall 2024.

Donna Jones Alward’s second historical fiction, in which two women seek to escape their troubled lives only to have their plans irrevocably altered aboard the Titanic, sold to Charlotte Ledger at HarperCollins One More Chapter. In addition, Alward’s debut historical fiction, When the World Fell Silent, will be released on July 20, 2024.

In the vein of her “wildly entertaining” debut, Parlor Games, awardwinning author Maryka Biaggio’s Margery and Me, based on the true story of Margery Crandon, the medium who tangled with magician and spiritualism detractor Harry Houdini, sold to Jaynie Royal at Regal House Publishing for release in early 2026.

Tough Luck by Sandra Dallas, set in 1863 and reminiscent of True Grit in its story of a young girl seeking her missing father and his gold

mine in Colorado Territory, as well as The Hired Man, set in Dust Bowl Kansas as a teenager is murdered just after a handsome stranger arrives in town, sold in a two-book deal to Elisabeth Dyssegaard at St. Martin’s via Danielle Egan-Miller at Browne & Miller Literary Associates.

The Devil Hath a Pleasing Shape by Terry Roberts, in which his protagonist investigates the murder of a young woman at Asheville, North Carolina’s elite Grove Park Inn, sold to Turner Publishing’s Amanda Chiu Krohn via agent Margaret Sutherland Brown at Folio Literary Management for fall 2024 publication.

Rochelle Gloege at Bethany House acquired The Valley of the Penitents by Elizabeth Musser, a dual-period story about a WWII-era resistance fighter and her niece, who in 1984 begins uncovering her aunt’s secrets, via Chip MacGregor at MacGregor Literary.

The Thirteenth Husband by Greer Macallister, inspired by the scandalous, multi-married 19th-century heiress Aimee Crocker, sold to Sourcebooks Landmark’s Shana Drehs via Nicole Cunningham at The Book Group. Publication will be August 2024.

Madeleine O’Shea, publishing director at Mantle (UK), acquired UK/Commonwealth rights (excl. Canada) to three books from Kate Foster via agent Viola Hayden at Curtis Brown. The first, The King’s Witches, out this June, is a tale of witchcraft at the time of the betrothal of Scotland’s James VI and Anna of Denmark. The Reawakening, to appear next June, centers on Maggie Dickson, a real woman of 18thcentury Edinburgh who survived her own execution.

Grace Tiffany, Shakespeare and Renaissance literature professor, sold The Owl Was a Baker’s Daughter (sequel to her 2003 novel My Father Had a Daughter), about Judith Shakespeare, now a middleaged apothecary and midwife during the English Civil War, to Sara Nelson at Harper via Julia Livshin at her own agency; publication will be winter 2025.

OTHER NEW AND FORTHCOMING TITLES

For forthcoming novels through late 2024, please see our guides, compiled by Fiona Sheppard: https://historicalnovelsociety.org/guides/forthcoming-historicalnovels/

COMPILED BY SARAH JOHNSON

Sarah Johnson is Book Review Editor of HNR, a librarian, readers’ advisor, and author of reference books. She reviews for Booklist and CHOICE and blogs about historical novels at readingthepast.com. Her latest book is Historical Fiction II: A Guide to the Genre

NEW VOICES

Claire Coughlan, Eve J. Chung, Kuchenga Shenjé & Susan Weissbach combine a love of excavating facts and desire to convey explanations about their characters’ lives to provide readers with innovative glimpses into the past.

A little over ten years ago, Susan Weissbach, author of Klara’s Truth (She Writes Press, 2024), was “journaling about the experience of psychotherapy as both a psychotherapist myself, and as someone who has been in psychotherapy,” she says. “Although the profession strongly recommends this, I know I would have found my way there one way or another. Through my writing I began to think of deepseated memories as similar to buried artifacts, which need to be handled with great care during the excavation or unearthing process.

“In this way, the psychotherapist is like an archaeologist, I thought, gently going more deeply into old or childhood memory in tandem with the client, to then incorporate those memories into the present. I more recently learned that the well-known psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud spoke about analysis in this way, and was quite interested in actual artifacts himself.”

She is “not a Freudian,” she continues, “but I do think this concept is spot on. Thus, my main character, Professor Klara Lieberman, was born, and I was writing a book called “Artifacts - A Novel,” in which Klara could connect with thousand-year-old artifacts from past Mesoamerican cultures more easily than with her own life, as it was much safer to do so.”

Her main protagonist is Klara, “a 49-year-old professor of archaeology co-leading a Yucatán dig, with few emotional or social attachments in her life. Two things then happen. First, she becomes acquainted with a wise Mayan healer, Rosario, who asks her, ‘Why are you so interested in everyone else’s culture? What about your

own?’ Second, she receives a letter from her 82-year-old estranged mother in New York, telling her the truth about her long-agodisappeared father—that he’s buried in Warsaw and that the Polish government is now giving financial reparations to the families of Holocaust survivors whose land was stolen under Nazi rule. Although her mother urges her to fly to Warsaw right away, Klara decides to do so for her own reasons—to meet her late father’s family.”

Klara’s visit to Poland enables her connect with her extended family, but also opens up her mind and her heart towards an inviting new future.

For Eve J. Chung, “before Daughters of Shandong (Berkley, 2024) became a book, it was a Band-Aid. The impetus for this novel came from a simple desire to record a family history, one that had been partially lost because I had taken time, and life itself, for granted.”

Chung’s grandmother was in and out of hospitals for a year before she died, but it had never occurred to Chung to interview her. “It felt unlucky to do so—like I would be giving up on her. I wish that I had understood then the importance of preserving her memories, the closest thing that any of us have to immortality.

“Many years after my grandmother’s death, I was with my mother and my children in Seattle. My daughter had recently turned one, and I regretted that neither of my children would meet my grandmother, who had helped raise me—my grandmother had often spoken about how she hoped to become a great-grandmother, and how excited she was to meet my children.”

Chung explains, “That Seattle trip was the first time that my mom and I sat together and spoke in detail about my grandmother’s journey from China to Taiwan. I had always known that my grandmother and her mother and sisters had been left behind by the rest of their family during the Chinese Civil War, but was astonished by the sheer distance of this journey, which spanned thousands of miles. My great-grandmother had bound feet, but took her daughters by foot through rugged terrain to escape persecution, bluffing and begging along the way. When I told my mom that I was going to write down this story, she offered to pay for its publication. Neither of us thought that it would become a novel, which would eventually get me an agent and a book deal. Much of Daughters of Shandong had to be filled in through research, but the heart of the story remains as it was—one of a woman and three girls who not only survived, but thrived despite horrific circumstances. I am honored to be able share this story with readers around the world.”

Claire Coughlan’s debut thriller Where They Lie (Harper Perennial/ Simon & Schuster UK, 2024) was prompted in part by what “Stephen King says in On Writing: that good ideas occur when ‘two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new. This began to resonate with me when I completed an MA in Creative Writing at University College Dublin in 2009. One of the modules I took was called Archive of the Imagination, taught by the acclaimed writer (in both the English and Irish languages), Éilís Ní Dhuibhne.

“I studied story archetypes: in fairy tales, myths and legends. There is nothing new under the sun, we concluded. It was up to us to make something new. I read an Irish folk tale called ‘The Man Who Had No Story.’ It was archived by UCD’s folklore department in the midlate 20th century from the oral tradition after being translated into

Susan Weissbach

Claire Coughlan Kuchenga Shenjé

Eve J. Chung

photo credit: Beta Bajgartova

©

From the Hip Photo

English. This was about a man with no story to tell, who involves himself in a fantastical, fast-paced caper, so that by the end, he does have a story. I reimagined this as a piece about a freelance journalist with no copy whose deadline is looming, a world I was familiar with.”

After that, Coughlan says, “I read a collection of journalism by the late Irish novelist Maeve Binchy, Maeve’s Times. Better known for her novels, Binchy was the first editor of the women’s pages at The Irish Times in the late 1960s, and this volume included her work up to the 2000s, a period of huge change in Ireland, especially for women. At competing newspapers, women’s pages were set up specifically to cover women’s issues, with female editors at the helm. Here was my portal – I decided on 1968 as the time and Dublin as the place for my debut novel, Where They Lie. But my protagonist, Nicoletta, was still the woman who had no story.

“While researching something else, I read a fascinating paper on abortion in mid-20th century Ireland by academic Sandra McAvoy of University College Cork, as part of a book called The Lost Decade: Ireland in the 1950s. Reading about this culture of high-stakes secrecy was a lightbulb moment for me. The character of ‘notorious’ abortionist Gloria Fitzpatrick arrived in my imagination and set the young, ambitious reporter Nicoletta off on her quest for the truth.”

The emotional motivation for Kuchenga Shenjé’s novel The Library Thief (Hanover Square Press/Sphere, 2024), which conjures up the atmosphere of a Gothic-style mystery, came from “a desire to play with the tantalising tropes of the Gothic genre,” she says. “A lone penniless woman reaching for survival in a new and forbidding environment. A repudiation of passivity and imposed victimhood. I spent many years writing personal essays and pop culture opinion pieces for women’s magazines. It was expected that for my debut novel, I would dive into writing autobiographical fiction that trawled through my identity and trauma. The prospect felt like a trap. I felt that I had shared enough of my personal life, and I wanted the release that historical fiction offered to indulge my imagination in a project girded by reading and research.”

For Shenjé, “there were a few kernels that sprouted into the orchard that became the novel idea. The Oprah Winfrey interview of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. Meghan said that she had anticipated ingratiating herself with the British tabloid media would be hard, but she had thought they would at least be ‘fair’. A babe in the woods! Through the story of my white-presenting protagonist navigating her racial ambiguity, I could explore the historical moment that led to our current landscape. A story that Meghan and women of many

colours might be able to relate to.”

The late Andrea Levy was a huge inspiration for Shenjé to accomplish this endeavour. Levy, who died in 2019, was best known for her novel Small Island. “Her book The Long Song plundered and presented history a lot of effort was put into submerging. I felt her handing me a baton as a British Jamaican writer in her passing. My author’s note explains the explicit connection between our novels.”

Shenjé points out, “I also wanted to present examples of discrimination that were from contemporary history into a past that were a little more distant in a way that made me feel like a trickster. The verbal abuse specifically are all examples from our post-Windrush experiences inserted into the late Victorian era to show that our history is very much who we are now. People say it was a different time, but empathy and a healthy intellectual and ethical regard were not invented yesterday. I do believe these qualities will keep us from sliding back there. Or at least, I hope so.”

Coughlan, Chung, Shenjé and Weissbach have all used the “lightbulb moments” which helped to inspire their novels to shed light on moments in history that would otherwise have remained in darkness and that can also shine a light on the hidden corners of our world today.

WRITTEN BY MYFANWY COOK

Myfanwy Cook is an Associate University Fellow. She enjoys facilitating writing workshops and is a keen reader of historical fiction that makes her view the past in a different light. Please contact (myfanwyc@btinternet.com) if you discover debut novelists you would like to see featured.

HISTORY & FILM

Theda Bara and the Rise of the Vamp

“The vampire I play is the vengeance of my sex upon its exploiters. I have the face of a vampire, but the heart of a feminist.”

—Theda Bara

In spite of the fact that she was an international sensation during the silent film era and starred in more than forty films, Theda Bara (unlike Charlie Chaplin or Mary Pickford) is not well known. There’s a reason for her relative obscurity: most of the films in which she appeared burned in a fire in 1937. Only four films survive along with a few clips and photographic stills from others. Bara’s heyday only lasted a few years (1915 - 1920). In that short time her portrayal of a vamp (from the word “vampire”) — a confident and cunning woman who uses men for her own purposes — became notorious around the world.

Another reason modern film fans may know little to nothing about Theda Bara could be that, for all the scandal and titillation surrounding her vamp persona, the actress herself is not a tragic figure. When her stellar career faded, she set up house in Hollywood with her director husband, Charles Brabin, and became popular as a hostess, where at parties she sometimes made fun of her vamp image.

Of greater interest to me than her obscurity is her meteoric rise to stardom. As her biographer Eve Golden writes, “Theda Bara was the first film star to rise overnight from anonymity into superstardom. In the fall of 1914, she was an unknown actress. Four months later she was the world’s most famous star. She was also the most reviled, which in itself added to her fame.”

The seeds of her success can be attributed to a myth created by the public relations team at Fox Studios, which involved an encounter in the Egyptian desert between an Italian artist and a French actress, whose passionate union resulted in the birth of the future actress. According to this legend, Bara had a brilliant stage career in Paris before making her film debut in 1915. (An earlier film in 1914 is conveniently ignored in the myth.) The public ate it up.

Theda Bara was not her real name, of course. Born Theodosia Burr Goodman (she was named after Aaron Burr’s daughter), she was a “nice Jewish girl” — as she liked to tell people later — from a prosperous family in Cincinnati. And her stage career was anything but brilliant.

So, what qualities did Bara possess that transformed her from a third-rate stage actress into a mega-star of the screen? Like many a young girl with a dramatic bent, Bara dragooned siblings and neighborhood children into her homespun productions, but what may have had a more significant influence on her future was her mother’s successful business as a wig maker. The role model of a respected, successful woman was augmented by an impressive clientele.

In the late 19th century, when Bara was growing up, Cincinnati had a thriving theatrical scene, including road shows from New York. Highclass Vaudeville acts as well as famous performers such as Eleanora Duse and Sarah Bernhardt made appearances in venues such as the Music Hall, the Grand Opera House and the Lyric. And the services of wig-maker Pauline Goodman were in demand. The presence of these women who were successful in their own right in her mother’s salon most likely fueled the dreams of stage success in the young girl.

Another consideration is the fact that Cincinnati was home to a strong and vibrant Jewish immigrant community, which most likely fostered an ethic of hard work and determination. Bara was always proud of her Jewish roots.

One mystery is how a woman who, by all accounts, was kind and warm-hearted in real life managed to portray such a cold and calculating villain? Part of the answer lies in her acting abilities, her costumes, and her make up — those kohl-rimmed eyes! — but there may be a personal inspiration as well. Bara reputedly had her heart broken by an artist in Paris (a relative of Isadora Duncan). When she returned from Europe, she threw herself into her work, perhaps in an effort to forget her personal and professional failures. Her iron will to succeed may have been what Frank Powell saw when he cast her in a small role as a nun in the film, The Stain

Powell insisted that she, rather than a known star, play the “vampire” in his next film for William Fox. Powell’s instincts were right. Bara had the strength of character to portray a self-assured, ruthless woman — the precursor to the femme fatale that Barbara Stanwyck and Lana Turner would later play in noir films. Even Vivien Leigh’s Scarlett O’Hara with her reckless insouciance owes something to the vamp. Although the words “vamp” and “vampire” were used interchangably, these were women who sucked the life force out of men, not their blood.

Another factor in Bara’s rise to fame has to do with timing. In the early silent films, women often played virginal and saintly characters in need of saving by a manly hero. It’s noteworthy that 1914 saw

the rise of The Perils of Pauline and The Exploits of Elaine — two series featuring hapless heroines who epitomized the “damsel in distress.” The vamp, on the other hand, has no need or desire for a male savior. In fact, she devours those who attempt to rescue her.

The vamp’s assertion of power over a man must have been eye opening in an era when women across the country were fighting an uphill battle for the right to vote, discouraged from meaningful careers, and sometimes trapped in oppressive marriages where they had no rights at all. A devious woman who uses her sexuality to get ahead may not seem like the ideal feminist icon, and yet women at the time must have thrilled to see a powerful woman who was not the mere pawn or plaything of men, but who lived her life on her own terms. The vamp was just such a woman. Though there were earlier depictions of this female vampire in paintings, poems, and plays, Theda Bara’s savage performance in the film A Fool There Was established the vamp in the public consciousness at a new level.

To understand the impact of the vamp on the public psyche, it is instructive to take a closer look at Bara’s debut, which can be seen on YouTube in its entirety.

The film opens with a poem by Rudyard Kipling on the title cards. One line in particular captures the essence of the vamp: “We called her the woman who did not care.” In a world where women were expected to constantly care for others, to care for their reputations, and to care about the opinions of men, here was a revelation. A woman who did not care!

After the poem, the film opens with a full shot of Bara against a plain backdrop, looking around. Her eyes light upon a vase of roses. Taking one of the flowers, she holds it to her nose and smiles as if enjoying the aroma. With her smile frozen in place, she rips the petals off the stem and crushes them. Her smile grows as she looks from the crushed petals in her hand back to the demolished stem. At this moment, we understand she really doesn’t care.

After this strange and unsettling prologue, the plot is set into motion with a long shot of a society woman and her little girl, both dressed all in white. They are the “angels” of the house, smiling and happy. Once the “good girls” are established, we cut to Bara and her victim/ companion.

Unlike the angels, the vamp does not smile. Her costume consists of a dark (probably black) blouse with long sleeves and a high neck and a skirt of dark and light stripes. Scowling with her fists clenched, she conveys her annoyance with her silly, drunken companion. At this point, it is not her beauty (such as it is) that is alluring so much as her strength. She is imperious.

In the credits, Bara’s character has no name. She is simply called “The Vampire,” and her companion is listed as “One of her Victims.” He also needs no name. He represents all the men who have been ruined by this wanton woman.

When we first see them, the vamp and her victim are in trouble with the hotel management. After a brief confrontation, Bara jerks her companion away. Obviously she’s the one in control. In the next scene, she wears a white flower affixed to her dark bosom. She spies the angelic mother and daughter and desperately wants to make a good impression, patting the flower as if to signify her own purity.

When the little girl finds another flower at Bara’s feet and hands it to her mother, the society woman grimaces and tosses the flower away without acknowledging the vamp’s existence. The white flower on her bosom cannot diminish the effect of the dark lips, the kohl-

rimmed eyes and the dark outfit. The mother knows an unsavory woman when she sees one.

The aggrieved look on the vamp’s face at this snub, followed by the title card “Someday you will regret that” foreshadows the tragedy to come. The vamp will destroy the society woman by seducing and then ruining her husband.

In another early scene, we find the vampire in her lair, her long hair down, her face deathly white, wearing a filmy white negligee. The strap of her gown constantly slips off her shoulder, emphasizing her sexuality. Here is the foundation of her power: the appearance of feminine vulnerability juxtaposed against the malevolent glee on her face when she’s crushed her victim just as she crushed the rose petals.

Suffice to say, the husband doesn’t stand a chance when the vamp sets her sights on him. But the plot is almost beside the point. The raw power the vamp holds over men in an oppressive patriarchal society is reminiscent of the power that women such as Salome and Cleopatra (both roles that Bara later played to great acclaim) wield. But in this movie, the vamp could be any woman. What a revelation that must have been in 1915!

The allure of the vamp archetype eventually faded, and Bara grew tired of the monotony of playing the villain. She wanted to be known as a serious actress but had only modest success in other roles. After her contract with Fox Studios lapsed, she made some half-hearted attempts to revive her career, but nothing came of it. However, her retreat into a happy domestic life could be construed as the ultimate vamp move. She had what she wanted. The vamp had healed Bara’s broken heart and given her the success and fame she craved. It was time to discard her and move on.

REFERENCES

1. Golden, Eve. VAMP, The Rise and Fall of Theda Bara. Vestal Press. New York. 1996.

2. Watch A Fool There Was (1915) here: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=NHiDBo6ajoo

3.Here’s a useful documentary called The Woman with the Hungry Eyes (2006): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjwGsPf6GyM

4. Opening quote from Genini, Ronald. Theda Bara: A Biography of the Silent Screen Vamp. McFarland & Co. 1996.

5. Portrait of Theda Bara (1921), wikicommons.

WRITTEN BY TRISH MACENULTY

Trish MacEnulty is the author of four novels, a short story collection, and a memoir. She is currently working on a series of historical novels. www.trishmacenulty.com

LIFE UNDER MY BELT

Kristin Hannah’s Commitment to Women’s Friendship and Telling Their Lost Stories

Kristen Hannah does not tackle light-hearted topics. Instead, her novels consider women and men facing tragic circumstances, lifealtering decisions, war, drought, marriage breakdown, parental loss, and terrible truths. She writes about life, the power of love, and the bonds of friendship as well as the incredible courage women draw on during times of crisis and danger.

The Women (St Martin’s Press/Macmillan, 2024) is Kristin Hannah’s latest novel, a must-read story of the women who served in Vietnam. While the main character is Frankie McGrath, a young woman who trains to be a nurse and not long after graduation signs up for the army, the supporting cast includes two other Vietnam nurses who become Frankie’s lifelong friends, several doctors and soldiers Frankie serves with, and her parents, who strongly disapprove of her decision.

The story begins in 1966, a time when prevailing attitudes about women stressed their roles as wife and mother, and when the importance of attending college was to get an MRS degree. It was a time when nursing and teaching were the only acceptable careers

and when women were expected to leave their jobs as soon as they married. Frankie’s mother reacts to Frankie’s decision to enlist by asking “what will we tell people?”, as if serving as a combat nurse brought shame on the family.

Shortly after arriving in Vietnam, Frankie is assigned to 42nd evac hospital, a 300-bed hospital not too far from Saigon where she provides care for VSIs—the very seriously injured. Her first challenge is to jump out of the helicopter that takes her to the hospital, and she soon discovers how terrible the conditions are. From then on Frankie’s world is filled with panic-stricken moments, grueling days and nights on duty, and circumstances that are far beyond her training. Inside the ER, Frankie is at first overwhelmed by the horror of it, the screaming patients, the shouting of medics and doctors, wounded men everywhere, and never enough time to help everyone. Kristin Hannah provides many little details to bring readers into that world, like the sight of a boot with a foot still in it.

The night air smelled heavy, like blood on metal. Empty sawhorses littered the triage staging area. Blood had turned the ground soft; pooled there and created mudpuddles.

Frankie’s friend Ethyl explains: “No one is ever ready for this. The worst part is that you’ll get used to it.” Later Ethyl adds: “We age in dog years over here, Frank.”

Sprinkled throughout the novel are letters from Frankie’s mother. It’s through these letters that we read of the protests and politics back home in America. Protestors carry signs with sayings such as Bombing for peace is like screwing for virginity or Impeach LBJ. Women burn their bras. Others burn the American flag.

Part One of the novel is set in Vietnam. The men and women Frankie meets there change her profoundly. Part Two follows Frankie’s path after she returns home from the war. It’s equally dramatic and compelling.

As someone who lived through the daily news of the Vietnam War and saw its impact on families and communities, Kristin knew she wanted to write about the women involved and first proposed this novel to her editor in 1997. Her editor suggested that she would be able to tell that story in a more powerful way if she were to wait. So, what’s different now? “I think that, honestly, I needed a bit more life under my belt to write this story, to really understand it and realize fully its importance. I also needed more experience with writing.” Had she written The Women twenty-five or more years ago, “it would have been entirely different. I am so much more committed to telling women’s lost stories than I was twenty or so years ago.”

The notion of women’s lost stories is key to The Women, whose characters were treated like second- or even third-class members of the armed forces both during and after their service.

Once the action shifts to Vietnam, the scenes are compelling and graphic, and the pacing is almost as frenetic as you would imagine that war to be. Hannah’s narrative and dialogue keep the reader immersed in the danger and chaos of that war, and in the ways that those who served coped with such circumstances. What motivated the author and prepared her to write such scenes? Kristin Hannah described how important it was to her “to be accurate and authentic

I THINK THAT, honestly, I needed a bit more life under my belt to write this story, to really understand it and realize fully its importance. I also needed more experience with writing.

in this novel, to truly show the reader what the nurses in Vietnam experienced on a daily basis. And yes, the scenes are graphic and visceral and relentless sometimes. That was my intent.”  Much of this came from the research she did and the conversations she had with nurses and doctors who had been there, but it was also a choice she made because of the PTSD that so many of the medical veterans suffered as a result of their service in country. These veterans were often denied treatment at home and told that because they weren’t “in combat” they couldn’t suffer emotional trauma. Hannah wanted to show the fallacy of such thinking.

I’ve read many of Kristin Hannah’s novels, my first being The Nightingale, her breakout WWII novel. While WWII was vastly different from the Vietnam War in terms of scope and purpose, Hannah was able to bring a personal perspective to writing The Women. The biggest difference, of course, was that she remembered the Vietnam era. She lived through it. “I was young—in elementary or middle school—but the war cast a huge shadow over my youth. I had a good friend whose father was shot down and lost; he never came home. I saw how the veterans were treated when they returned to America after their service. All of it resonated with me and made me want to tell this story and shine a light on the veterans’—especially the women’s—service.”

As Kristin Hannah says, “now is the perfect time to look back at this era; that’s why I decided to write the novel at this time. America is again divided, and I believe we all need to be reminded that we are stronger when we focus on what we have in common, rather than what divides us. Also, it’s important now because the Vietnam veterans are in their seventies, eighties, and nineties. We need to remember their service, thank them, and do what we can to help and heal them.”

Now that The Women has been published, Kristin Hannah is hearing from a lot of readers who lived through this time—from men and women who served, from their children, from people who lived through the era and didn’t realize what the veterans went through. “I am just really glad to get this conversation started.” Like many of us, she keeps hearing about the healing that still needs to happen for these veterans and their families, and she hopes that this book can help that in some small way.

There are so many issues that find their way front and center in The Women: military service and the price of it, duty, patriotism, friendship, trauma, PTSD. But at the centre of the novel is the often overlooked and forgotten role of women in the military, particularly in the Vietnam war era. However, Hannah is quick to point out that this issue “extends to all women in the military, especially those who deploy, as well as the difficulties presented in returning from war.”

Friendship is a critical theme in The Women. Ethyl and Barb, the combat nurses who became Frankie’s closest friends during the war, continue to be close, supportive friends after the war. Kristin Hannah admits that she “literally can’t seem to write a book where female friendship isn’t a key element. I think that’s because I believe in it so fiercely. Our girlfriends matter so deeply to us. I love to emphasize that.” And she does it superbly in this novel as well as all the others I’ve read.

Heroism is another important theme. In Frankie’s father’s study, there

is what he calls a hero’s wall which is featured throughout the story. The only pictures on the wall, except a few family photos, are of men. Why was it so hard for people of that time like Frankie’s father—or even people today—to think of women as heroes? Kristin Hannah shares her perspective: “I think that women’s heroism and courage and military service are routinely overlooked and/or minimized. We are conditioned by history books and news accounts and school curriculums to focus on male achievement and courage. It’s about time we recognize and remember The Women.”

Several of Kristin Hannah’s novels are contemporary; others are historical fiction. She loves to write both genres and feels that each has its own challenges and benefits. She loves “the world building and educational opportunities that come with writing historical fiction” and equally loves the relevance and timeliness that come with writing contemporary fiction. Hannah says that she never knows what’s coming next.

Whether you have memories of the Vietnam war or not, The Women is such a powerful story that you will be carried away to that time and place.

WRITTEN BY MARY TOD

M.K. (Mary) Tod writes historical fiction. Her latest novel, The Admiral’s Wife, won three Indie awards. Mary can be contacted on Facebook, Instagram, and Goodreads or on her award-winning blog, A Writer of History.

MORE LIKE THE REAL WORLD

Representation in Historical Romance

As a reader, I’m delighted and grateful to see that the genre of historical romance has finally begun to include characters who look more like the world I live in, and more like the world I know from my literary studies and author research. Though for many historical romance readers, Lizzie and Darcy are still the mold, we know from the work of dedicated and resourceful scholars that the historical record is full of individuals who weren’t white, cisgender, heterosexual, or physically abled. I’m thrilled, at long last, to see the romance shelves diversifying their casts and increasing their representation of marginalized groups, bringing us new and fresh stories of love that crosses boundaries and writes a happy-ever-after for those whose historical—or present—reality doesn’t get its fair share of joy.

An expanding color palette is one welcome development. Beverly Jenkins, the acknowledged Queen of Black historical romance, long reigned alone, but now she is gratifyingly joined by Alyssa Cole, Vanessa Riley, and Bridgerton, to name a few high-profile examples Adriana Herrera and Liana De la Rosa (whose works have been reviewed here in the HNR) have introduced Latina heroines to 19thcentury Britain, while Courtney Milan has leads of Asian descent, for instance in The Marquis Who Musn’t (independently published, 2023).

We know that queer people have existed since recorded history—the term sapphic romance honors the legendary lady-loving poetess— but now authors like Olivia Waite, Cat Sebastian, and Erica Ridley have made more space for ladies in love on our library shelves, while titles like A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall (Forever, 2022) remind us that trans people exist in history, too, fighting the same battles for love and a place in the world. Further, authors like Evie Dunmore write their neurodivergent characters a happy ending, while Emily Murdoch shows us that a main character’s physical limitations don’t impact their ability to love.

As an author of historical romance, I feel it is both an opportunity and a responsibility to represent the diversity of these past worlds in my fiction. In my Ladies Least Likely series and other forthcoming titles, I include characters who are little persons, are blind or deaf, or are physically impaired through injury or birth. The Earl of Renwick, a lead in The Painter Takes an Earl (Oliver Heber Books, 2024), has a clubfoot.

In Viscount Overboard (OHB, 2023), I included in Gwen’s little society of cast-offs a boy with what would now be diagnosed as Down syndrome (our modern world didn’t create neurodivergence; it merely has more labels.) And if you look closely, there are always queer romances blooming beneath the lead love story in my books.

But given how much oppression and discrimination is also a part of the historical record, how do romance authors convey historical authenticity while creating narratives palatable to modern sensibilities? I turned to authors I admire to find out how they strike this balance and how they developed their more unconventional characters.

In Lady Asilia’s Gamble (independently published, 2024), Mihwa Lee creates a fiery heroine who is dedicated to preserving the legacy of her adored grandmother, a regal Black woman who married into the British aristocracy. Living in Africa after a shattering scandal drove her from England, Asilia knows what it is to fight against people’s perceptions of her. When I asked Lee about how she developed Asilia, she brought up a real-life example of an African-born woman moving in the highest circles of English society: Sarah Forbes Bonetta, who became a goddaughter to Queen Victoria. (Our review of Denny S. Bryce’s The Other Princess [William Morrow, 2023] appeared in HNR 106).

Admitting she set out to “create a fictional character who could transcend the boundaries of race,” Lee deliberately made Asilia “a woman who fearlessly molds the world to her desires rather than conforming to societal expectations.” “When crafting historical fiction,” Lee told me, “authors must strike a delicate balance between adhering to historical accuracy and allowing room for creative freedom.” Lee grappled with how vividly she wanted to depict the cruelties of slavery and racism, but admits, “I chose to omit these harsh realities of the era, as they did not serve the romantic narrative I sought to tell.”

Erica Ridley includes two Black leads in her dashing Regency romp Nobody’s Princess (Forever, 2022; reviewed in HNR 101), which brings together Graham, ringleader of the wildly unconventional Wynchester family, and Kunigunde, who has spent her life training to become an elite Royal Guard for the princess of her country. In our

HISTORICAL FICTION often requires a suspension of reality to some degree, in order to create engaging and accessible narratives for modern readers.

conversation, Ridley pointed out what so many Regency romances overlook: Black people have lived in Britain for centuries, and there was in fact a large Black population in London during the Regency. As she is Black herself, Ridley admits, “I have long yearned to see someone like me reflected in Regency romance.”

Faced with the historical realities that confronted Lee, Ridley invented a new European country, Balcovia, for Kuni’s homeland. In our conversation, she explained, “While the topic of race and racism is present in the novel, I did not want this particular story to focus on Black pain. I invented Balcovia to serve as a counterpart to Britain. Sort of a what-if nation. What if, instead of colonizing and enslaving, a country in that time period believed and practiced full equality?” Kuni experiences culture shock in London due to the rigid social classes more than anything, but Graham, who is of mixed heritage, offers her understanding as well as his protection.

Earlier in the Wild Wynchesters series, Ridley, a New York Times bestselling author, paired clever, unconventional Thomasina Wynchester with equally clever bluestocking Phillipa York in The Perks of Loving a Wallflower (Forever, 2021). When I asked Ridley about writing a sapphic romance, she pointed again to the historical record: “There are many examples of historic sapphic couples in this time period, some living openly—the Ladies of Llangollen, for example.” But in shaping the history for modern readers, she notes: “One important difference is that the Regency did not have vocabulary like demisexual or trans, as we do today. Modern readers are more likely to pick up clues and understand context that might have been misinterpreted back then.”

The Wynchesters are a family that cheerfully embraces neurodivergence, so I asked Ridley about that choice. Ridley noted that, “Although often invisible, neurodivergence is such a big part of many people’s lives,” including herself as well as family, and friends. “While Regency society certainly wasn’t as considerate as now— and we still have far to go!” Ridley shared, “I believe in finding your people, whether that means biological or found family.” Creating the Wynchesters was in part a declaration: “I very passionately believe everyone has an equal right to be the hero, and to be loved,” Ridley wrote.

I turned to USA Today bestselling author Emily Murdoch, author of sweet and steamy historical romances, to discuss how she negotiated her portrayal of Sapphire, the heroine of The Convenient Engagement (Dragonblade, 2022), who is born with a limb difference. Murdoch was motivated by awareness that “readers of all backgrounds and experiences want to see characters like themselves on the page,” but because she has not experienced limb difference for herself, she was extra careful about her research and portrayal. She notes that Sapphire, “like so many people I know with physical disabilities, is living an entirely normal life as far as she is concerned.” Though Sapphire encounters prejudice in the outside world, Murdoch admits, “That was a real struggle to write, because hatred or fear are never pleasant topics.”

She faced a slightly different scenario in writing Joseph, the hero of Put Your Best Duke Forward (Dragonblade, 2023), who lost a leg in a war injury. There, Murdoch says, “Joseph had to face his trauma from being in a war, as well as re-learning so many things that he took for granted: walking, running, riding a horse.”

In striking a balance between being representing the historical period but also delivering what modern romance readers expect (or hope) to read, Murdoch admits, “it was a really delicate balance to weave.” Some of the language used, then and now, is downright offensive, so, “I had to decide just how rude people were going to be around my characters.”

When I asked these authors about these new directions in historical fiction, they all gave thoughtful answers to the question of how to balance sensitive representation with historical fact. Murdoch wants to give more readers a chance to see themselves, but she also realizes her readers come to her novels for “joy and wit and love,” so she wants the darkness in her stories to be overcome by the light.

As Lee put it, “Historical fiction often requires a suspension of reality to some degree, in order to create engaging and accessible narratives for modern readers.” But, she adds, authors have the power to introduce readers to the realities as well; “through the eyes of characters who may be considered outsiders, readers can gain new insights into the customs, beliefs, and power structures of the time period, and can better understand the ways in which these factors impact individuals and relationships.” Still, Lee admits she wanted to “create a narrative that respected the historical context while prioritizing the development of the characters and their romantic journey.”

While I personally cheer when I see more inclusive representation, Ridley has experienced mixed reactions to her unconventional leads. However, she notes, “It is especially affirming when readers come up to me at signings and tell me my book was the first time they saw themselves represented in this kind of story. I’m delighted there are now so many talented authors whose fabulous books center neurodiverse, differently abled, queer and/or non-white characters. I would love to see diversity in historical romance become the norm.”

Me, too.

WRITTEN BY MISTY URBAN

Misty Urban is an HNR reviews editor, medieval scholar, professor, and author of literary short fiction, women’s fiction, and historical romance. The romances in her Ladies Least Likely series feature diverse casts finding love and adventure in late Georgian England.

LANGUAGE SLIP

BY KATIE STINE

How Languages and Environment Affect Character and the Writing Process

Finding the right word is the quintessential writer’s struggle. But when writing about characters who speak one language, and the narrative is in another, which word is best? The language of the author, or the language of the character? Add another layer into it: where the first chapter is written in the author’s second language, and the characters speak the author’s mother tongue? That was the case with Julia Malye’s English-language fiction debut, Pelican Girls (Harper/Headline Review, 2024).

The book tells the story of the forgotten French women who were sent from France to the colony of Louisiana in the 1720s as wives for the French colonists. New Orleans was a pest-filled swamp, relations with the indigenous people were fraught, and the mortality rate was exceedingly high. These French women were not of high society, of course, and in this story, we meet criminals, abortionists, petty thieves, and the misunderstood. Yet all of these women had the opportunity to change their lives through reinvention—if they survived.

When talking with the author, Malye, she spoke of the struggles of research involved, and that their lives were so unusual. “I found that the very fact of trying to imagine the lives of these women was an act of reinvention. They were forgotten both in France and in the United States: for eight years, I worked on compiling the information that I needed to craft this one version of what a white French woman’s life might have been like in 1720s Louisiana.”

While she is currently a French translator living in France, Malye studied fiction writing at Oregon State University. “Writing in English felt obvious… at Oregon State.” She began her research in America. Yet when she returned to France, research in hand, with “the first chapter of an early draft of Pelican Girls in English,” she found her language skills slipping without the immersed experience of living in America. “I suddenly felt like there was a ticking clock: I needed to finish my novel fast, or I wouldn’t be able to write it in English anymore.”

Anyone with a deadline could sympathize, but not many of us could understand working on one book in two languages simultaneously. Yet, Malye said it helped her process. “ When the time came to rewrite this novel in French, reinvention became even more central in my process. I met my characters—these women I had been living with for five years already—in another language, my mother tongue, and they started speaking differently to me. What I discovered about them, I used to rework the English manuscript.”

With two languages to pull from, and manuscripts in both, the amount of work had to be overwhelming. I asked Malye about this difference in language, and how it informed each version. “ When I started rewriting my novel in French, there were words I missed from the English language. ‘Unfazed,’ ‘obnoxious,’ ‘endearing,’ ‘bewildered,’ ‘whimsical.’ I found myself looking up their exact definition so that I could find the right translation in my mother tongue, something I had never done because I had learned these

words when I lived in Oregon. They belonged to a specific context, an easily conjured memory that made for a personal illustration of each word.”

With this unique perspective of language, and the unique ability to view the characters in different ways, the reinvention that occurs for these characters, indeed, for the entire novel, feels inevitable. The novel begins in Paris, at Salpêtrière, which is half hospital, half jail for women. Catholic nuns are in charge of these girls—some have been there since infancy—but as the novel continues, the women chosen for this venture board a boat where a male captain becomes the authority, despite the presence of a nun. Upon arrival in la Louisiane, the remaining women are picked by men to become wives. Authority is once again shifted from nuns to men. But these shifts in space and authority also give the women an opportunity to leave certain labels and experiences behind them. With one exception. The beautiful girl with the birthmark on her face.

Pétronille is only one of the many women in the story, but she is one who cannot hide who and what she is. Aside from her birthmark, she seems to be what we would now consider to be on the autistic spectrum. No matter how hard she tries, her inner life is complex and deep, but the rest of the world doesn’t always see her as such. She enters her predicament as the most innocent of all the cohort, yet she ends up seeing the most of the New World’s horrors. Her loyalty is confused, uncertain, and her complexity is exactly what gives her metamorphosis the most emotionally fraught transition.

“ When I first started working on this novel, I was very interested in the many ways in which these women had been marginalized,” Malye notes. “But it might have been because of their physical appearance, like Pétronille—and women today are sadly still marginalized because of what they look like. Some characters in the book see Pétronille’s birthmark as a sign of the devil, and even when they don’t, this is the first characteristic that they notice about her face.”

Regardless of their marginalization in France, they endured hardships both before and after their journey to Louisiana. Their bravery and fortitude were and are remarkable, and Malye does the good work of historical novelists: she tells an immersive tale of the unsung and the forgotten. These women were put aside by their families and society, but they found a way to distinguish themselves, and to forge an unconventional life out of nothing but swamp and grit. Thanks to Malye, we can recognize their uncommon journey once again.

Katie Stine, writing as Edie Cay, is an award-winning romance author. When the Blood Is Up is a five-book series about women’s boxing and the mixing of lower-class London with the elites during the Regency era. The Ladies Alpine Society series is about Victorian women mountain climbers. She is a founding member of Paper Lantern Writers. www.ediecay.com

ADD EARTHQUAKE & STIR

BY SARAH HENDESS

In Kate Quinn and Janie Chang’s new book, The Phoenix Crown (William Morrow, 2024), a pair of unlikely friends team up to solve a mystery just as San Francisco is devastated by the massive 1906 earthquake. Less dramatically, but still unexpectedly, the authors were brought together by a calamitous experience of their own.

“We met in 2017 after the Historical Novel Society conference, where our publisher sent us from Portland to Canada on a three-author, three-city tour with our mutual friend Jennifer Robson,” the authors said via email. “Everything that could possibly go wrong on a book tour went wrong, and the whole fiasco quickly morphed from the Historical Fiction Tour to the Hysterical Fiction Tour. We could have ended that week scratching each other’s eyes out, but instead we ended up the best of friends! So, when the idea of a novel about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake reared its head, we thought, ‘If we could survive the Hysterical Fiction Tour and still be friends at the end of it, the odds that we can write a book together without bloodshed are pretty good.’ Which was very important, because our goal in writing together was to turn out a book we could be proud of, but not torpedo a long and lovely friendship in the process.”

Quinn said she’d long wanted to write a book set during the earthquake, and the more she learned about it, the more convinced she was that she needed a heroine from San Francisco’s Chinatown. “So I called Janie up and crossed my fingers that she’d find the history as interesting as I did,” Quinn said.

Chang didn’t take long to hop on board. “Five minutes [searching online] was enough to tell me that yes, this was a historical event with lots of usable grist. In particular, that I’d be able to create a heroine from Chinatown whose efforts to take control of her life would require conflict. No conflict, no story.”

Creating characters was their first task. “This book really began with a plotline as simple as ‘Let’s each create a heroine we like and then throw them together, add an earthquake, and stir,’” the authors said. “Kate knew she wanted to write an opera singer, since she has a background in opera training and because there was a famous performance of Carmen the night before the earthquake, which made a perfect backdrop for a musical heroine. Janie knew she wanted to create a Chinatown heroine who is part of the first generation of Chinese-American women in California, and thus has a foot in each world. We formed our two women first—Gemma the opera singer, Suling the Chinatown seamstress—then let the plot evolve from their characters.”

The authors were ready and eager… and then COVID hit, throwing up an obstacle to on-the-ground research. They relied on books and internet searches for the first round of research, but as soon as they were able to travel, they set off for San Francisco.

“We needed details to infuse the book with a sense of place, so as soon as we were able to travel, we went to San Francisco with a very full itinerary of museums, libraries, archives, and stately homes to visit,” the authors said. “The highlights of that research trip would have to be Carolands and Filoli House and Gardens, two stately homes where the curators very kindly gave us ‘behind the scenes’ tours to rooms the public don’t usually get to see, and wonderful information about how the lives of people who lived in those homes both upstairs and downstairs.”

Quinn’s heroine, Gemma Garland, gets to see the “upstairs” life of San Francisco’s wealthy elite, while Chang’s heroine, Feng Suling, is hired as a seamstress, so the details of both experiences were vital to creating realistic characters and setting.

A favorite research stop of both authors was the California Academy of Sciences where one of their secondary characters, the real-life curator of botany Alice Eastwood, worked at the time of the earthquake. “The librarians there were thrilled that we were there to learn about Alice and could not have been more helpful,” the authors said. “We were thrilled to be reading—and touching—the ephemera of her life. We are such Alice fans!”

Eastwood appeared early in the authors’ research and became an important inspiration to the book’s younger female protagonists “who are striving for agency in a man’s world.”

This theme of sexism developed naturally, as did racism. “Given that the story takes place during the years of the Chinese Exclusion Act, we always knew that racism would be one of the challenges facing our heroine Suling,” the authors said.

Since they’d be working remotely and independently—Quinn from San Diego and Chang from British Columbia—they first ensured that they had their plot firmly in place. “Before drafting a single word we wrote an overview of each chapter, which went into a spreadsheet,” the authors said. “Since we both knew how each chapter began and ended, that made it possible for us to dovetail the action. We decided that Kate would write from Gemma’s POV and Janie would write from Suling’s POV, and that we would write alternating chapters.”

What they didn’t plan or expect was the way their writing styles would blend so seamlessly into something new altogether. “Readers have commented that we obviously changed our writing styles in order to provide a seamless reading experience. That’s surprising because we did not strive to do that, not consciously anyway. We always figured that since we were writing from the POV of two very different women, that we could retain our individual styles and get away with it. But probably what happened is that in working closely together and reading each

other’s prose every day, there was some osmosis and we ended up with a more unified style.”

The key to this style seems to have been the authors’ close collaboration throughout the entire process. No major decisions were made unilaterally, and they were careful not to “red-pen” each other’s chapters. “The beauty of the process is that two heads are better than one,” the authors said.

Readers will likely agree.

Sarah Hendess is a reviewer and former editor for Historical Novels Review. Her second novel, A Capital Christmas, will be published by The Wild Rose Press in Fall 2024.

LIFE, DEATH & LITERATURE

BY KATE PETTIGREW

The Perfume Thief author Timothy Schaffert’s latest novel (Doubleday, 2024) has an unusual premise: what if invented survivors of the Titanic sinking met secretly and, as a way of coping with survivors’ guilt, set up a book club? The drama is increased by “sliding doors” moments, as they all missed boarding the ship for various reasons.

The main character is Yorick, a Titanic librarian, who reads his name on a list of the dead while very much alive in Paris, where he owns a bookshop. White Star Line officials decided Yorick just wasn’t quite the right person to run the library. Someone else replaced him and perished.

Yorick meets fellow survivors, runs the book club, and becomes embroiled in a moving love triangle with photographer Haze and candy heiress Zinnia.

Inspiration for the book was complex, Schaffert says, but came after he survived a car crash. ‘I wrote a version of this novel once before, set in 1920s Hollywood, with a plot centered around the filming of a silent movie about the Titanic. But I struggled with the motivations.

‘When I figured out that I needed to go back to the beginning, and to bring the tragedy closer to the narrator, I considered that he might be a survivor, or might know one.

‘And then it just occurred to me that maybe if he’d only intended to board, but didn’t at the last minute, he would enter a world that more of us are familiar with: the close call, the near-miss, the therebut-for-the-grace-of-God-go-I. Plus, I’d just survived a car accident. And when I went back to the beginning with that in mind, the novel changed entirely. I wrote a completely different book.’

The books the group discuss are banned ones Yorick planned to smuggle on board. What made Schaffert choose them? ‘I considered and explored so many books. So many books. Not only did I consider the content, but I considered the objects themselves, the covers, the publishers, the artwork, the reviews at the time of their publication.

‘I could have spent years and years trying to find the exact right books for the club, so I realized I needed to focus, or I’d go mad. Yorick, the bookseller, feels somewhat at odds with the world, so it seemed he’d be attracted to books that stirred up some scandal.’

The characters are changed by the book club, but Schaffert admits he’s never belonged to one. ‘I’ve visited many of them: in some, the members commit to discussing only the book; in others, they talk about their lives, maybe over a glass or two of wine.

‘Sometimes when I’ve been invited to discuss my book with a club, I feel a little conspicuous… I think sometimes they really would just like to talk about their own connections to the book – and about whether they liked it or not – without needing to consider the author’s perspective on it all.

‘And I think the book club in my novel becomes a way for a group of strangers to discover shared experiences. They definitely wouldn’t want any authors around.’

But if he was choosing a book club read, it would be Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. ‘I choose it all the time for book discussions, for the literature classes I teach. It gives us so much to talk about, and every time I read it, it’s like I’m reading it for the first time. It’s a book that burrows into your soul.’

In his novel there is a touching Cyrano de Bergerac-type plotline addressing illiteracy. Schaffert says this is important, as ‘I think we’ve all found times in our lives – and perhaps often in our lives, or even regularly – when words escape us. Even when we’re at our most desperate to fathom our own hearts, that might be when we’re also our most inarticulate. Afraid. Self-conscious.

‘In the novel, the complication that emerges with the exchange of the letters speaks to those obstacles; while the three of them are seeking to beguile, romance, to enrapture, and to do it the best they can, they make mistakes along the way that prove devastating.’

The novel is set in Paris, a city which he wrote about in The Perfume Thief. ‘World War II Paris was initially just one stop along a long lifeline I’d outlined for The Perfume Thief. I initially saw the novel beginning with Clem’s birth, and ending with her 100th birthday, touching on all her crimes along the way. But once I’d decided she would be in Paris during the war, it became clear that was the novel I needed to write. And I guess I wasn’t done with Paris, and there was certainly something provocative about a bookseller who finds himself a war censor. I do want to write even more about Paris, but the next book is 1920s Manhattan.’

His writing engages all the senses, and as a professor of creative writing at the University of Nebraska, what guidance does he give his students? ‘My students are very patient with me! I beg them to include sensory details, though often they just want to tell the story. And, frankly, all kinds of writing advice advises writers against indulging the senses to the degree that I do. Just tell the story – I heard that often from my writing teachers. ‘But, in class, we do discuss the dangers of too much detail, too much atmosphere, too many rich desserts described with too much icing. In the end, we do hope for all such imagery and sensory detail to be moving the story forward, and bringing depth to it all, but different readers respond to different things. As a reader myself, I tend to care less for the story than I do for the way it’s told.’

In the novel characters exchange business cards, and one has a paper doll on it. On his social media Schaffert has images of candy wrapper dresses. Is he channelling Zinnia, the candy heiress? ‘I’ve been drawing those cartoons, and incorporating candy wrappers,

The Titanic Survivors Book Club Author Timothy Schaffert Dives Deep

ONE OF THE THEMES is place in all its meanings: home, identity, person. I decided to root the characters in my own identity as a fourth-generation Scot, as an exploration of my history.

for years now. It’s an odd preoccupation that I can’t quite explain. But yes, candy, and its history, its design, its traditions: that all went right into the creation of my candy heiress. I blame Roald Dahl.’

Kate Pettigrew is a former Times journalist, was shortlisted for Blue Pencil Agency First Novel Award 2022 and is a book reviewer for the Historical Novel Society.

IMPORTANCE OF PLACE

BY MYFANWY COOK

Robin Oliveira Discusses All the Meanings of Place in Her Writing

For bestselling author Robin Oliveira, her creative journey to produce her latest novel A Wild and Heavenly Place (Putnam, 2024), which is set in the 19th century and transports the reader from the grim streets of Glasgow to the Pacific Northwest, was an engaging one.

Finding an appropriate setting was vital because she is “a creature of place,” she says. “Landscape resonates within me, holds a persona, helps me to find peace. It has prompted me to write stories so specific to the setting in which they occur that they cannot take place anywhere else, or the nature of the story will change. In A Wild and Heavenly Place I wanted to highlight Cougar Mountain, where I live now outside of Seattle, because the history is so fascinating. Scotland became important for myriad reasons, explored in the answers below. San Juan Island figures prominently in the novel because the island feeds my soul.”

The association between the landscapes of where Oliveira lives and the wilderness aspect of the Highlands attracted her. “As I toured Scotland, it was breathtaking to discover that the landscape of sea and mountains and wilderness—a landscape that I love—matched Western Washington’s, forming a strong connection not only for me, but also for my characters. It was serendipitous when I realized that the stone architecture in Scotland matched the ruins of the stone house I had stumbled across on San Juan Island that would become essential to the novel’s conclusion. These fortuitous parallels could only make the novel cohere and resonate in a meaningful way.”

Family history also influenced her writing. “One of the themes is place in all its meanings: home, identity, person. I decided to root the characters in my own identity as a fourth-generation Scot, as an exploration of my history. Learning about the Scottish diaspora after the Highland clearances and reading emigrants’ letters from America, in which some boasted of their success while others complained of bewildering failure, gave me a livelier connection to the characters than if they had been from Germany, a place I have no history. In 2019 I set foot on Scottish soil for the first time, and it was like coming home in a way I hadn’t experienced when traveling anywhere else in the world. That kind of connection may resonate in the writing in an intangible way, but even an indiscernible manifestation has its effect.”

Oliveira admits that when she began working on her novel, she didn’t know about the failure of the City of Glasgow Bank in 1878. “I was reading the Glasgow Herald online, searching for information about Smyllum Orphanage, when I stumbled onto the cataclysmic bank failure. I needed a real-life reason for the MacIntyres to leave Scotland, and there it was. The blessed gift of research is that it gives me story, and in turn the demands of story prompt more research. It is a synergistic and symbiotic process. Another wonderful connection was that a catastrophic explosion occurred in a coal mine near Glasgow, contemporaneous with the time period of the novel. Finally, my characters are from Glasgow and not Edinburgh, because in the 19th and 20th century, Glaswegian shipyards on the River Clyde built the best ships in the world, coining the expression ‘Clyde-built’ to denote shipbuilding excellence. In the 19th century, Puget Sound had many shipyards. When I understood that I could give Samuel Fiddes a viable profession/dream which he could carry to Seattle, the novel logically had to begin in Glasgow.”

Research for Oliveira is an ongoing process, and “therefore I cannot accurately calculate the amount of time I spend on any particular topic,” she says. “I do not undergo a comprehensive period of research before writing, because I never know what information I will need to tell the story. I knew nothing about 19th-century coal mining, so I initially read 19th-century mining textbooks and scholarly papers to obtain a certain level of knowledge and a basis of accuracy to stand on. Then I began writing. When I needed to know more, I consulted myriad primary and secondary resources, which included textbooks, JSTOR articles, historical maps (of Glasgow, High Blantyre, Newcastle, and Seattle and also mine maps to see the inner workings). I relied heavily on The Newcastle (Washington) Historical Society whose members have done remarkable primary research and who answered many questions, and sent me documents, maps, etc. One member showed me the multiple entrances to the old coal mines, historic sheds, old artifacts, etc. Research is always a multipronged approach.”

When creating her characters, it is possible that her career in nursing has enabled her to add extra depth. “As a Bone Marrow Transplant and Critical Care nurse, I considered it a privilege to care for people and their families during the most vulnerable period of their lives. I learned a great deal about what matters when the ordinary cares of life are stripped away and mortality looms. I didn’t know then that I was going to become a writer, and I didn’t intentionally store away any of those experiences with that objective in mind, but the deep connection forged during trauma no doubt breeds a certain kind of understanding of humanity.”

Was it the romantic aspects, the emigration or the adventure of her story that captured Oliveira’s imagination and intrigued her the most? “Every aspect intrigued me. My intention was to write a 19thcentury epic, continents-spanning love story, a Romeo and Julietesque tale of the grand gestures we make for love. All else rose from that intention. I loved learning about the trials and trails of Scottish emigrants. I enjoyed the puzzle aspect of trying to figure out how people were moving through the 19th-century world, the various modes of transportation, the amount of time it would take to sail halfway around the world, what hurdles my characters would face. It’s never just one part that excites me. It’s everything.”

Myfanwy Cook is an Associate University Fellow and ‘a creative enabler’. She is a prize-winning short story writer who facilitates creative writing workshops. She edits HNR’s New Voices column.

ONLINE EXCLUSIVES

Due to an ever-increasing number of books for review and space constraints within HNR, some selected fiction reviews and all nonfiction reviews are now published as online exclusives. To view these reviews and much more, please visit www.historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews

ANCIENT HISTORY

THE RIVER OF ETERNITY

Bruce Balfour, Scribbling Gargoyle, 2024, $15.99, pb, 291pp, 9798218346584

The River of Eternity is the first in a sequence of two books that treat the story of the conspiracy to assassinate Ramesses III, who is widely considered to be the last of the great Pharaohs of the New Kingdom. The “Harem Conspiracy” is so named because its principal figure was one of the pharaoh’s secondary wives, Tiye, who attempted to place her son, Pentawere, on the throne instead of Ramesses’ chosen heir. Balfour tells his story largely through the eyes of young Ray, a scribe’s son who has been raised with the children of Ramesses. However, there are several secondary narratives, including one centered on the sheltered princess Tentopet, who is trafficked when forced to pursue a career as a dancer after fleeing the court.

Balfour’s research is impeccable, and readers will savor the details about ancient Egypt’s funerary practices, food and drink, and personal hygiene. But the story breaks no new ground in the reader’s understanding of ancient Egypt, which is portrayed as a rigid theocracy centered on the divinity of Pharaoh. Nor does Balfour break new ground in his characters: Ray and Tentopet are typical adolescents journeying from innocence to worldliness. Finally, the novel’s structure may be off-putting to many: Its small scale feels at odds with the sweep of grand events it portrays, and a reader is likely to feel disappointed in this volume if they are not committed to reading its sequel.

Erica Obey

KINGDOMS OF PERIL: Curse of the Bao Lords, v.1

Feng Menglong, trans. Olivia Milburn, Univ. of California Press, 2023, $34.95/C$43.95, pb, 511pp, 9780520381001

If you’re looking for an epic saga with political intrigue and action at every turn, then Curse of the Bao Lords is a spectacular novel to check out. Recorded by author Feng Menglong in the 1600s, this is the first time the Kingdoms

in Peril series will be appearing in American English, as translated by Olivia Milburn. Filled with engrossing plots, a plethora of interesting characters, and rich with historical context, this book teaches something new with every page.

In this mostly political drama, Feng took the time to research major historical events from eras long before his birth and record them in a personable format for readers. The book opens with a history of the western Zhou dynasty and gives valuable insight into what would become a bane on their reign: a curse placed upon them by the Bao Lords. Combining historical facts and documentation with rumored fantasy and narrative elements embroiled in the stories and handed down from generation to generation makes for a fascinating read. Another interesting thing about Feng is that he gives consideration to women’s voices, as many at the time did not. The introduction states: “Feng Menglong’s writings are interesting not only for the great sympathy he expresses concerning the fates of these women, but also because he clearly spent time discussing their lives with them, and records their thoughts and opinions.” Which is just another reason why this classic work of Chinese literature chronicling the 500 years (827-221 BCE) leading up to the unification of the country is enjoyable and educational.

Ellaura Shoop

AKMARAL

Judith Lindbergh, Regal House, 2024, $19.95/ C$26.95, pb, 336pp, 9781646034697

The Sauromatae of Central Asia during the Iron Age may have been the inspiration for the Greek stories of the Amazons. Women of those peoples fought as warriors along with the men. This is the story of one of them, Akmaral. During training, male warrior Erzhan seems to hate Akmaral for no reason, yet is attracted to her. After a battle with Scythians, Akmaral must guard three captives. Erzhan argues for their death, but the tribe’s elder decrees they will be kept as slaves. Akmaral is attracted to one of the slaves, Timor, and becomes pregnant by him, changing her status from warrior to ana-woman once their son, Arman, is born. Arman’s father, Timor, is adopted into their aul, yet some members, like Erzhan, are reluctant to trust him. Timor’s foreign ways influence the group away from its matriarchal customs and towards a more aggressive maleled society, which results in more reciprocal attacks by other tribes. During one of these, the kinsmen of Timor arrive to rescue him, forcing his choice between returning home or remaining with Akmaral. The outcome of his action leads to shocking consequences.

In her historical note, Lindbergh said she was inspired by the Siberian Ice Maiden and Issyk Gold Man archaeological discoveries in writing this story. Akmaral’s world involves frequent

animal sacrifice and human conflict, so readers with an aversion to graphic descriptions should be warned. The Akmaral/Erzhan/Timor love triangle is a successful source of plot conflict. Yet I was a bit disappointed with one aspect of the climax, a deception that seemed to me to weaken the plot somewhat. Still, I appreciated learning about an era and culture I knew little about, and recommend the book to fans of fiction set in ancient times, and/or war stories.

B. J. Sedlock

CLASSICAL ACHILLES THE CHANGELING

Judith Foster, Independently published, 2023, £7.99, pb, 96pp, 9781914458279

The Achilles of conventional mythology is an expert fighter, a man of strong affections, but vengeful when crossed. We recall his role in the siege of Troy and his vindictive treatment of Hector’s dead body to avenge the death of his favourite, Patroclus. In this novella, Judith Foster cleverly upends that myth. Instead of providing battle scenes, she brings us into Achilles’ mind, focusing on his relationships with those around him, as he walks the earth as a half-God, half man. There are his parents –his mother, the Goddess Thetis, and his mortal father Peleus, the God Apollo, and the poet Apomeros.

This is very far from being solely another modern reappraisal of an oft-told tale because Foster has chosen to reflect the work of Homer himself by writing her story in verse. A gifted poet, she cleverly employs different styles of verse, sometimes formal and declaratory, sometimes more intimate, but always beautiful in their descriptions of weather, nature, horses; and psychologically convincing, occasionally comic, in the windows offered into the characters’ minds. Foster’s Achilles is a peaceable fellow, considerate enough of his mother’s hopes for him to instruct Apomeros to construct the myth of his life that we all know today. As he says, although ‘I returned warshy To Aegina, had ceased to fight at Troy She needs the myth that glory will deploy.’

Although a short book, this is very memorable and rewarding – always approachable and clear, amusing and well-observed; it brings the past to life as successfully as the very best of historical fiction.

Ben Bergonzi

ORPHIA AND EURYDICIUS

Elyse John, HarperCollins, 2023, £9.99/$18.99/ C$24.99, pb, 400pp, 9781460763049

In a retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice’s myth, author Elyse John turns the story on its head. Orpheus becomes the female Orphia and Eurydice is the male Eurydicius. It’s a clever device worth exploring, to see the patriarchal myths from a different angle.

Many will be familiar with the traditional versions of the classical text and, indeed, the satirical retelling in the comic operetta by

French composer Jacques Offenbach, in which Orpheus and Eurydice are trapped in a failing marriage. Eurydice ends up in the Underworld with Hades. Orpheus is so wrapped up in his lyre playing that, when he has the chance to rescue his wife, he fatally casts his glance back to the partying going on in the Underworld. This action leads to Eurydice being trapped there forever and the infamous Galop Infernal can-can, a tune which most people know but not everyone can name.

The author is a writer and poet, and it’s that obvious lyrical quality that shines through in the novel from the very outset: it is evocative and alluring and always compelling. Once I overcame my initial reluctance to accept Orphia in the thick of things with Jason and his Argonauts, I was able to appreciate the retelling of the stories in which the woman’s voice – so often absent from the classical texts – is strong and relevant.

The novel is drawn from John’s experiences walking in the steps of the ancients at important sites in mythology such as Mount Parnassus, Delphi and Mount Olympus. She cites as her travelling companion the ancient Greek traveller Pausanias, a geographer from the second century AD, who is well known for his first-hand descriptions of ancient Greece. Euripides, Homer, Ovid, Virgil and Apollonius are all acknowledged as sources. John knows her Greek mythology well and comes up with something entirely new and refreshing.

Margery Hookings

ON THE HORNS OF DEATH

Eleanor Kuhns, Severn House, 2024, $29.99/£21.99, hb, 224pp, 9781448310883

Crete, 1450 BCE. Young Martis is apprenticed to her mother, a weaver, yet dances with bulls for the thrill of it. When a fellow dancer Duzi turns up dead in a bull’s pen, the others assume he was mauled after daring to enter the raging beast’s enclosure. Yet his injuries seem to be stab wounds, not the result of a furious animal. With the help of the town healer, who confirms her suspicions, Martis investigates the mysterious death. She soon finds herself deep in a web of conflicting romances and alliances, all involving bull jumpers and their wealthy admirers. As she draws closer to the truth, which seems to somehow relate to a twinned set of golden dragonfly pins, the bodies continue to pile up. I didn’t figure out the killer’s identity until Martis herself did.

The unique setting and fascinating characters really drew my interest. Rarely does one find historical fiction set in ancient Greece, let alone upon the island of Crete specifically. The author does an extraordinary job of depicting this enthralling, exotic world. I especially liked her decision to focus on bull-jumpers, whose thrillingly dangerous occupation is often depicted in surviving art. The risks of dancing with such volatile animals add a unique tension and drama to the already dramatic story. My only quibble relating to the setting is the repeated mention of tea, which

was not available in Ancient Crete. However, this is only an anachronism if she is specifically referring to what we generally call tea rather than an herbal infusion of some kind involving plants known to Crete.

Overall, On the Horns of Death is a thrilling read, sure to fascinate fans of historical mysteries and anyone with an interest in ancient Greece.

Lee Lanzillotta

GLORIOUS EXPLOITS

Ferdia Lennon, Holt, 2024, $26.99/C$35.99, hb, 304pp, 9781250893697 / Fig Tree, 2024, £16.99, hb, 288pp, 9780241617649

It is 412 BCE, and Athens is losing the Peloponnesian War, while in Sicily the city of Syracuse is rising. Gelon and Lampo, two out-ofwork Syracusan potters, bring meager rations to a quarry where hundreds of Athenian prisoners waste away in shackles.

But where Gelon’s compatriots see captive enemy soldiers, he recognizes a precious source of knowledge. He loves Euripides, and he proposes to mount a production of Medea, a play he assumes at least some of the prisoners must know by heart. Wouldn’t any cultured Athenian? Lampo thinks his friend is cracked but goes along.

From this unusual premise springs a poignant, madcap, powerful, often hilarious, unpredictable story told in vigorous and profane modern Irish slang. When doomed men perform a tragedy about pride and betrayal, greed and downfall, nobody can look on unmoved. The production changes everyone who encounters it.

Lennon expands on themes in Medea, notably its nascent feminism and portrayal of children as pawns. For instance, Lampo sets out to woo a beautiful slave, hoping to buy her freedom and marry her, rather than use her whenever he has the money. Gelon, whose only child died young, befriends a group of kids and treats them as full-fledged people, folding them into the production crew.

The novel is a love letter to make-believe and the power of storytelling. The satire on oversized stage personalities—a role Lampo grows into with comic gusto—is delicious, but there is serious matter, too. The money he flashes (courtesy of a generous producer), earns him respect and deference for the first time in his life. Such commentary about social class runs throughout the narrative.

I heartily recommend Glorious Exploits, an imaginative, original novel that has much to

say about our modern times, even from 2,500 years ago.

Larry Zuckerman

I AM ROME

Santiago Posteguillo, trans. Frances Riddle, Ballantine, 2024, $31.00/C$41.00, hb, 624pp, 9780593598047

In the twilight of the Roman Republic, corruption and social unrest reach tremendous heights, exemplified by the horrible actions of Gnaeus Cornelius Dolabella. As a close advisor to dictator Sulla and governor of Macedonia, Dolabella exploits his position for wealth, committing acts of abuse, theft, and rape. When Dolabella is finally put on trial, a young and inexperienced Gaius Julius Caesar (yes, that Caesar) steps into the role of the prosecutor, an act that may cost him both his political career and his life. The novel might be a 600+ page doorstopper, but it swiftly captivates readers with its engaging flow and interesting format.

The novel mixes Dolabella’s trial with flashbacks from various perspectives, which reveal the motivations of the main characters. Action sequences and battles are the novel’s strength, vividly showcasing Roman military strategies without bogging down the pace. However, there is little in the way of actual character development, particularly in the case of Caesar, who remains mostly the same throughout the book despite ranging in age from childhood to young adulthood. Also, the dialogue occasionally feels stilted, but Caesar’s personal reflections – namely that he doesn’t think he’ll ever do anything memorable – help.

While there are some historical inaccuracies, I appreciated the novel’s entertainment value over strict adherence to historical fidelity. The story’s action and excitement overshadow any discrepancies. Also, since not as much is known about Caesar’s earlier years, some inaccuracies are easy to forgive.

Overall, despite some flaws, Posteguillo’s novel is a highly enjoyable read. The engaging storytelling makes it a great starting point for those seeking to learn more about the world of the late Roman Republic. I hope more of Posteguillo’s works will be translated into English. Strongly recommended.

Kristen McQuinn

1ST CENTURY

THE WOLF QUEEN

Marie McCurdy, Marie McCurdy Books, 2023, $15.99, pb, 354pp, 9798987720806

Thusnelda has never forgotten when she was nine years old and the Romans came. They burned their fields, killed many of her tribe including her warrior mother, and kidnapped her betrothed, along with other young men, for their army. Now in 8 CE, Thusnelda is a young woman. Her father is the chief and believes an alliance with Rome is what will keep them safe, but Thusnelda would rather die than align herself with the Romans.

A chance encounter has her facing her oncebetrothed, Arminius, now an assistant to a Roman officer. He has a new Roman name along with his shiny new armor. Thusnelda curses him as a traitor until she learns their goals align, and his knowledge about Roman tactics could be the key to a rebellion to take back their land.

There are some editorial errors and only a few obvious modern references here and there (examples include “curb”-ing someone’s enthusiasm, eye rolling, or keeping someone “in check”). Otherwise, Thusnelda is a fierce protagonist being pulled apart by rival demands within a well-detailed cultural setting. She’s betrothed to a man her father’s age, she struggles to trust Arminius who’s now as Roman-looking as they come, and she leads a rebellion in secret while her father and two brothers are Roman collaborators. Thusnelda’s growth is the most compelling aspect of this novel. She must learn when to sacrifice for others and when to follow her heart. The plot moves at a swift pace as it charges readers towards the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. There’s a steamy enemies-to-lovers subplot while Thusnelda and Arminius are also trying to convince the scattered tribes to unite in pushing the Romans back. It’s bloody, it’s pulse pounding, and it’s a page turner. Recommended.

J. Lynn Else

IMPERATRIX

S. P. Somtow, Diplodocus Press, 2023, $16.99, pb, 271pp, 9781940999869

In 65 CE, Emperor Nero, although not officially declared a deity, thought himself equal to the gods of Olympus; untouchable, allseeing, all-knowing, and capable of anything, although he may have fallen marginally short of the depravities of Tiberius. He wrote dreadful poetry whilst making sure his literary detractors weren’t around to criticize. One such detractor was Petronius who, before his own suicide, freed his slave, Sporus. Somtow has delved into the mostly forgotten history of this delicately feminine young man, whom Nero had castrated and made empress after the death of his second wife, Poppaea Sabina. Using witty irony, which is oddly endearing, Somtow sheds light on the flippant attitude towards death–the more gruesome the better–which was very much part of 1st-century Rome. Sporus relates his life as he is about to go to his death in 69 CE.

Sporus lives life on a knife’s edge. Nero is a depraved madman. Somtow pulls these two together with extraordinary empathy and vivid detail, which never feels overdone; a frank and gritty narrative written without belabouring the obvious. Not for the faint-hearted perhaps, but richly compelling all the same. It can be read without the first book, Delicatus. The downside is the editing. Its origin as a serial on Amazon Vella may explain why the novel is full of small errors: missing, doubled and inserted words, and word reversals and typos. This is a fast, addictive read, and Somtow manages

his narrative with deceptive ease, juggling historical detail, politics and court intrigue, with Nero’s sexual proclivities and random cruelty, keeping it all relatable to a modern audience. Readers who enjoy historical novels set in Rome will find this a skillful, carefully researched novel from a talented author, and will be looking for the prequel. This is undoubtedly Sporus’ story, and what a story it is!

Fiona Alison

9TH CENTURY

THE QUEEN OF WAR

Johanna Wittenberg, Shellback Studio, 2024, $13.99, pb, 234 pp, 9781734566468 The epic Nordic saga, The Queen of War (Book 5 of The Norsewomen), continues the legendary tale of Queen Åsa from Tromøy, an island off the east coast of Norway. Sufficient backstory is provided so the book can be read as a standalone. The tale begins in 825 CE, a year after Åsa survived an odyssey to Hel to break a curse that unleashed a deadly plague in her kingdom. With her kingdom at peace, she arranges for her six-year-old son to be mentored by his biological father and her previous secret lover. However, her world turns upside down when she is captured by the Danish king, Horik, who is determined to make her his queen in his scheme to conquer and rule the Norwegian coast. Against all odds, Åsa has to find a way to escape imprisonment and warn her Norse allies of Horik’s threat. She must rely on her cunning and magic to thwart the Danish invasion and save her people.

Author Johanna Wittenberg is a masterful storyteller reminiscent of the oral traditions of skalds retelling mythological tales and legends. The author vividly describes battle scenes that are riveting and cinematic in scope. The fast-paced adventure races to a heartthrobbing climax where Norsemen and Danes ultimately clash. Mystical elements seamlessly weave into the historical backdrop of medieval Scandinavia. A sorceress, Åsa can cast spells and spiritually meld with a falcon to see through its eyes. A list of characters, maps, and glossaries of Norse terms, gods, and heroes help the reader to navigate through the story.

The Queen of War is an epic adventure that captures the battle tactics, religious beliefs, and culture of the seafaring Vikings. Highly recommended.

Linnea Tanner

11TH CENTURY

BATTLE LORD

P. W. Finch, Canelo, 2024, £10.99, pb, 352pp, 9781804362181

Nearly a thousand years ago, England endured its last invasion. After the chaos of Senlac Ridge, Cerdic, who is a young scion of a northern noble Saxon house, finds himself a prisoner of the Normans, forced to march eastwards as the Conqueror’s army moves inland. His instinct is survival, combined with a burning desire to reclaim his family’s lands in Northumbria from the Viking warlords who had seized them after the defeat of Harald Hardraada. Cerdic thinks strategically and sees a way of using his Norman captors’ desire for new lands as a way of bargaining his path to freedom. To his surprise, some Normans follow the new code of chivalry; others are simply motivated by ambition and bloodlust. Cerdic has an unlikely ally – Yvette, a fellow prisoner, the bilingual daughter of an exiled French count who had sent her to safety in England as a child. With her help, Cerdic masters the conquerors’ language and is then able to negotiate with the Normans.

The novel follows the journey of this unlikely band of adventurers as they head north through the cold autumn and biting winter, facing the disorder and turmoil in England as various bandit-type groups of fighters try to take advantage of the power vacuum. William the Bastard may call himself king, but he does not yet hold sway in the far lands of Mercia and Northumbria. Evil possesses the landscape as powerfully as the blizzards and ice. What will it take to ensure the success of Cerdic’s fragile plan? Finch’s writing is stylish and assured. His detailed knowledge of Anglo-Saxon England allows him to create a wholly credible world. This is an absorbing read for fans of the era who can also enjoy the prequel, Usurper, and look forward to following Cerdic and Yvette’s story next time.

Jan Middleton

QUEEN MACBETH

Val McDermid, Polygon, 2024, £12.00, hb, 152pp, 9781846976759

Gruoch, Macbeth’s widowed queen, lives secretly on a small isle in a lowland loch, inseparable from her three lady companions, safeguarded by monks. Her royal standing spells death if she’s discovered by pretenders to the throne. Eventually she is found but manages to flee the monastery, trekking northward with her friends across rough landscapes with minimal sustenance. Gruoch survives some brutally fatal skirmishes, then succumbs to treacherous capture, and prepares to confront her destiny.

Unsurprisingly, this short tale is the adroitest of constructs, a classic thriller. Chapter after chapter, past and present are warp and weft, alternately interweaving the compelling, violent machinations of pre-Scotland royal bloodlines with an enthralling love story. McDermid offers a no-nonsense, authentic earthiness of language, dialogue and descriptive passages, which linger beyond the

ending, as might a memorable film. This fifth in The Darkland Tales series is likewise based upon the conceit of imaginative composition, filling in gaps within famous stories from Scottish history – historical facts at their fictional best. (Note to self: read them all).

One small gripe: why provide a 40-word Scottish/English glossary when some printed Scots words are excluded: e.g., dwam, skelp, clowder? Yet words most readers would know are included, e.g., auld, bonny, dugs, pottage and canny. Meaning can be gleaned from context.

Simon Rickman

THE SEA’S EDGE

Garth Pettersen, Tirgearr, 2023, $4.99/£3.99, ebook, 247pp, B0CKZKH9MD

The year is 1030 when Harald, the second son of Engla-lond’s ruler, King Cnute, is tasked with a mission that will take him from his beloved wife, Selia, in Mercia, to the strifetorn coast of Wales. Harald prefers the quiet life of a landholder. However, he’s not one to shirk his duty when his father summons him to coordinate an attack on powerful King Rhydderch of Gwynedd, a Welsh county along England’s border, and replace him with a puppet ruler.

Harald does not expect to see military action, but an ironic turn of events finds him honor-bound, though understandably hesitant, to lead a contingent of warriors into battle. Among other things, he promised his wife not to take part in the fighting. What’s more, the loyalty of his Norse-Irish allies is questionable. And to make matters worse, there’s a spy among his inner circle.

The Sea’s Edge is Book 4 in Pettersen’s Atheling Chronicles, but can be read as a standalone novel, in large part because the author’s dramatic storytelling and lush descriptions quickly draw readers into Britain’s often harsh but beautiful medieval world. Harald’s early life was not recorded, so the author makes some creative assumptions as he paints the portrait of a man struggling to strike a balance in his life while he matures into an experienced leader who will one day wear the crown.

A minor secondary plot involving Selia’s domestic trouble does little to advance the story. For this is Harald’s journey, replete with lusty wenches seeking power, and battlefield violence as seen through the eyes of a somewhat reluctant warrior hero about to confront his destiny. Bibliographic references, author’s notes, map, and glossary are noteworthy features of this engaging work of historical fiction that will keep readers turning pages and looking forward to the next in the series.

Deborah Cay Wilding

ESPERANZA’S WAY

Cindy Burkart Maynard, Historium Press, 2023, $15.99/£13.99, pb, 260pp, 9798988381716

Book two of the Seekers Series follows Esperanza, an orphan taken in by two healers who run an herbal shop on the Camino de Santiago in 1259. A rich courtier buys belladonna but does not heed Esperanza’s warnings about its use, and the woman dies. The authorities mean to charge Esperanza with murder, so the healers send her away to Salamanca to live with a Jewish doctor’s family. She serves as a companion to the daughter, Rebecca, and helps with the medical practice.

Esperanza’s ambition is to attend the medical school in Salerno, which admits women students. After Rebecca is married, Esperanza is sent not to Salerno, as she thinks, but to Naples, where she has been sold off to pay a debt. She’s forced to tend to Adolfo, a rich old ex-pirate. She is now more or less a slave, confined to his luxurious mansion, while she tends to Adolfo’s many ills. She uses his library of medical books to research Adolfo’s symptoms. The maid/cook Dolores is brusque with Esperanza at first but eventually thaws enough that Esperanza begins teaching Dolores about herbal medicine. When Adolfo’s trader friend comes to visit, Esperanza learns that Adolfo plans to have Ibrahim sell her into prostitution. Dolores offers to help Esperanza escape to Salerno. Will Esperanza avoid capture, and can she persuade the medical school to admit her, a penniless runaway?

I knew little about Spain and Italy in that era, and enjoyed learning about medieval life. However, I found the minor characters rather flat; only Esperanza and Dolores show much development. Also, the ending is disappointing in that it telescopes major events in the characters’ lives into a few pages. Was the author rushed to finish? An interesting time and place to read about, but the narrative has some flaws.

B.J. Sedlock

14TH CENTURY HOUSE ARETOLI

K. M. Butler, Firsthand Account Press, 2023, $16.95, pb, 386pp, 9781737639145

This book is set in the mid-14th century principally in Venice and Constantinople. The family of the hero Niccolo (house Aretoli) becomes entangled in international politics, and personal tragedy ensues. As the stakes increase, Niccolo is forced to contrive solutions with all the strategies at his disposal, even including a friendly pirate!

The story makes a villain of the Doge Lorenzo Celsi – since he may have really been blameless, this is somewhat unfair from a historical perspective. But the author quite cleverly ends the novel with the victors wiping out his villainy from the pages of history. The style of the book perhaps intentionally harks back to the swashbucklers of yesteryear: Sabatini in particular comes to mind as the story progresses. The plotting is masterful

with unrequited love, a poisoning, fraternal jealousy, two battles at sea, several more on land, and sword fights, all sequenced to build up to the climax.

Petrarch makes a guest appearance, and I wish he could have had more screen time. Some characters are well-developed, notably one of the hero’s sisters, but several could have been developed further. However, the largerthan-life hero and the fast-moving plot makes this book a solid page-turner and a good weekend read.

Kishore Krishna

ALL THE PAINTED STARS

Emma Denny, HQ, 2024, £9.99/$18.99, pb, 336pp, 9780008622435

In 1362, Johanna de Foucart is preparing for a tournament at her late father’s Oxfordshire castle. She has had a failed betrothal after her intended groom Penn Barden became romantically involved with her brother Raff, but she doesn’t really mind; it has let her develop a friendship with Penn’s sister Lily.

Johanna’s hand in marriage is being offered as the tournament prize, and Lord Adam Wyck claims her as his bride. Johanna has no feelings for Lord Adam but knows her duty. However, she is drawn to a young red-headed knight-errant, with a shield of painted stars and a rusty sword. The knight is a disguised Lily, determined to stop the marriage.

This LGBT love story sees Johanna and Lily forced to flee as events at the tournament boil over and, as they change from friends to lovers, they are forced to face the challenges of trying to live a life together.

The read was a mixed one for me. The pacing is slow with the tournament taking up around a third of the book, and I felt Johanna was far too old, as a medieval noblewoman, to be married for the first time aged 27. Despite that, it is an easy read, with an interesting twist involving Lord Adam. One for Mills & Boon fans and those of Denny’s first novel, One Night in Hartswood, which tells the Penn/ Raff love story.

Kate Pettigrew

THE ROAD TO POITIERS

Jonathan Lunn, Canelo, 2024, £9.99, pb, 336pp, 9781804366950

An exciting tale set during the Hundred Years’ War in the run-up to the Battle of Poitiers. September 1356: Martin Kemp and his archers ride with the Black Prince and the Anglo-Gaston army, pillaging their way across France. Their aim is to rendezvous with the Duke of Lancaster’s forces at Châtellerault, but they find all the bridges across the Loire destroyed. Will Kemp be able to rescue his lady love, Ysabeau, and win her hand? The story begins right in the heat of battle, almost too exciting, because unless we’ve read Books 1-7 (this is Book 8 in the Arrows of Albion series) we’re not yet familiar with the protagonist.

A rich period of history; many, many characters. The varied viewpoints are hard

to keep up with, in places, but they add to the feeling of breathlessness of pace and keep faithful to the real history. Besides Kemp’s sworn foe, the Chamberlain Geoffroi de Charny (owner of the Turin Shroud), whom he once enjoyed ‘p***ing on’, and my ancestors the Douglases, there are some surprises as to who is marching with the French. The genius loci is so good you’d be sure the author must have been there. We feel the hard-bitten partisanship; we hear ‘the jingle of crotal bells’ of the pursuing enemy. We learn details about mediaeval warfare and enjoy discussions of religious philosophy that were common at the time. The dialogue and the rough talk of the soldiers are vivid and believably of the time. The French call English archers ‘les goddams’, referencing their constant cursing the English, denying King Jean II’s right to the French throne by calling him ‘the Crowned One’. Fans of military fiction will love this. Spoiler alert: the English win this one, but the French eventually win the war.

Susie Helme

A COURT OF BETRAYAL

Anne O’Brien, Orion, 2024, £20.00/$28.99/ C$36.99, hb, 464pp, 9781398711198

England 1301. A marriage is arranged between two great houses: Mortimer and De Geneville. Roger Mortimer, eldest son of the Baron of Wigmore, and Johane de Geneville, heiress to vast estates in Ireland and England, join hands and lands in a marriage that was to last almost thirty years and be part of great events in English history.

This is the story of marriage, love (in that order), passion, ambition, lust, betrayal, selfsacrifice and ultimate forgiveness, all seen through the eyes of one incredible lady, almost forgotten by history but brought to life by a skilful author.

Everything is seen through the eyes of Johane. Therefore, most of the tremendous events of the period happen away from her. She relies on news from her husband on his brief, increasingly sparse visits, his messengers, royal envoys or even travelling traders to hear what is happening in the realm. His imprisonment in the Tower of London leads to her own incarceration, a hardship which she bears bravely and stoically.

One slight historical niggle – O’Brien conveys, in wonderful detail, where her (twelve) children are throughout the story. However, in the spring of 1326 she refers to when ‘Edmund is released from the Tower’. A few pages later she explains how Edmund is moved from his long-term incarceration in Windsor to the Tower on his father’s return to England in September 1326, so the earlier conversation is anachronistic, easily changed by substituting ‘Tower’ with ‘Windsor’.

This is an extremely well-written and wellresearched novel which brings to life a littleknown character in a realistic way. Johane is a powerful woman of her time and is portrayed in that light. How much truth there is in this

characterisation we’ll never know, but it matters not one jot, as this is a fabulous story.

Aidan K. Morrissey

BENEATH A CRESCENT SHADOW

A. L. Sowards, Shadow Mountain, 2024, $27.99/ C$37.99, hb, 368pp, 9781639932467

In 1373 in Rivak, Serbia, young Konstantin arrives on horseback at his village only to find it devastated by fire. Although most houses and the inhabitants were saved, the fields and the entire harvest have burned. Following the recent death of his father and uncles in a battle against the Ottomans, Konstantin, at seventeen, has taken over as the župan (count) and a vassal of the Ottoman sultan. Konstantin’s duty of paying tribute to the Ottomans now seems impossible, and with very few guards, it is difficult to catch the unknown arsonists.

Help comes to Konstantin through a proposal from a wealthy merchant to marry his daughter, Suzana. Konstantin’s grandfather, the župan of another region, arranges the offer with a hidden personal agenda. Although initially unsure, Konstantin agrees when told that the bride comes with a dowry large enough to resolve his problems. Suzana and Konstantin strive to make their arranged marriage work. Still, harmful events unfold that threaten not only their marriage but also their family, lands, and independence from the Ottoman subjugation.

Sowards has penned this captivating first novel in what promises to be a thoughtprovoking series on the Balkan wars between the Serbs and the Ottomans. As the author’s note mentions, Sowards consulted over 60 books covering that period. Extensive research shows in the evocative descriptions of the land, its people, and its culture. These are interwoven seamlessly into the storyline. Interesting details abound, such as that arranged marriages were standard and Serbian girls could marry as young as twelve. In the plot, Turkish characters are skillfully included to show the various aspects of Ottoman rule. They add depth to the story.

The novel provides historical background on the conflict between the various ethnic groups in the former Yugoslavia. Highly recommended.

Waheed Rabbani

15TH CENTURY THE SLAUGHTER STONE

Anna Boyland, Paperwitch Publishing, 2023, £11.99, pb, 492 pp, 9781739178406 Wales, 1389. When William learns of riches buried on an old farmstead once managed by his late father, he seeks tenancy for it. Unfortunately for him, the Priory has found other tenants: a Welsh family. In the upper meadows of this contested land is what’s known as Llech y Lladd, the Slaughter Stone, a remnant from a long-forgotten battle. The

family’s daughter, Gwendolen, begins to learn the healing arts. However, in 1405, the entire family is pulled into the affairs of war as tensions between English and Welsh rise. With Gwendolen’s uncle Tomos away and her older brothers joining the rebels, she, her mother, and her youngest brother are alone on the farm that William Osborne will do almost anything to reclaim.

The narrative switches between Gwendolen, Tomos, and John, an English soldier and archer, along with a few chapters from William Osborne. Tomos is unwittingly pulled into carrying a secret message to the rebels and grapples with his responsibilities to his widowed sister, his part in the war, and his heart. Gwendolen hasn’t been in love until she meets John, who is part of the occupying English forces and should be an enemy. John has seen enough of killing and is faced with a choice: love or duty? With each representing a different side of the war, their voices are well constructed and compelling.

The author’s historical notes state that her novel’s “not a historical account.” With that in mind, other than some out-of-time eye rolls, the storyline feels period-authentic. Boyland’s research is evident as the richly layered setting and social details are vivid, enlivening the narrative. It was easy to feel the struggles of a poor family amidst the Glyndŵr revolt of 1405 in which, particularly for Gwen and her mother, there are few choices beyond survival.

Recommended!

16TH CENTURY

J. Lynn Else

THE TOWER

Flora Carr, Hutchinson Heinemann, 2024, £16.99, hb, 272pp, 9781529153729 / Doubleday, 2024, $28.00/C$37.99, hb, 272pp, 9780385550185

A pregnant Mary Stuart, known usually as Queen of Scots, is taken to the isolated, bleak watergirt island of Lochleven Castle in the summer of 1567. Having just married the violent Bothwell after the murder of her favourite, Rizzio, Mary is forcibly imprisoned in the damp and gloomy tower, along with two chambermaids, Scottish Jane and the French Marie de Courcelles, known as Coucou, who split the greater part of the narrative focus. Along with Mary’s older friend Lady Seton (also Mary), they share the eleven months of incarceration in the tower of the castle.

This is a violent and cruel misogynist society, one where so many people behave despicably

and selfishly in the evil maelstrom of royal and nobility politics in Scotland. But Mary is a charismatic figure; both men and women are drawn towards her as they would be to a siren. The historical context is superb, with research thorough and melded seamlessly into the narrative. This is historical fiction at its very best: literary, yet thoroughly absorbing. Flora Carr takes us into the very consciousness and mentality of the harsh 16th-century world and portrays it with immaculate understanding and perception from a feminist perspective. There is one error, when Mary sees a murmuration of starlings at sunrise and in the summer. Both times are exceedingly unlikely, as they occur at sunset and in the autumn or winter!

Douglas Kemp

THE FAMILISTS

V. E. H. Masters, Nydie Books, 2023, $13.99/£10.99, pb, 378pp, 9781838251574

Sixteenth-century Europe is a complicated place—especially from a religious perspective. Where there was once one true faith, there are now at least two—maybe more, as Protestantism fragments further. Add to this the ubiquitous antisemitism, the forcibly converted (well, more or less) Jews—the Conversos—and the violence of the CounterReformation headed by Spain, and Europe is a difficult place to navigate.

This is the world of Bethia, her husband Mainard, and Bethia’s brother Will. Bethia is Catholic, Mainard is a Converso with growing leanings towards the faith of his ancestors, and Will is a Calvinist. Both Will and Mainard are in constant danger from the Inquisition, and when things explode in Italy, Bethia and her children flee to Constantinople, with Mainard promising to come later. Except he doesn’t.

Ms. Masters has set herself a challenging task in weaving the various threads of her multi-layered story together. One moment, we accompany Will as he works with Calvin, travels with Knox to Scotland, and generally risks his life for his new religion. The next, we are with Mainard, who has the Inquisition snapping at his heels. And then there is Bethia, desperate for news of her husband and incapable of doing anything to help.

There is no faulting Ms. Masters’ excellent historical research, and her lead characters are easy to relate to. Vivid descriptions give a clear sense of place, as do the various historical details. I do, however, find myself overwhelmed by the sheer amount of adventure crammed into this one book. At times, the narrative becomes fragmented, with huge leaps in time and place that detract from what is otherwise an entertaining and extremely educational read.

Anna Belfrage

THE MAIDEN OF FLORENCE

Katherine Mezzacappa, Fairlight, 2024, £14.99, hb, 336pp, 9781914148507

From the opening, harrowing pages to the final quiet and amazingly satisfying ending, this is a magnificent historical novel.

The Maiden of Florence is the story of Giulia, told mostly in her own words, based on the impeccably researched archives of the de’ Medici family, and is the story of how that dominant but ultimately depraved family could control the lives of innocent girls and women, using them for their own vile wishes and desires. Where the historically provable events end, Katherine Mezzacappa weaves a totally believable story of ‘what happened next’, using real places and characters as a backdrop as we travel through Renaissance Italy, its palaces, churches, houses and orphanages.

The author’s power of description makes this journey real and all-encompassing. The reader can feel the splendour of the homes of the wealthy, with the servants milling around, rich food and haute couture, juxtaposed with the simplicity and poverty of the orphanages, run by nuns, some of whom are very dubious characters.

Giulia, an orphan, is taken from the orphanage and promised wealth and a husband for which she has to perform one ‘simple’ act. That simple act has a lifelong effect on Giulia and those around her. Her use and abuse are heart-wrenching. Her ability to deal with all that is thrown at her, shows an inner strength despite outer frailties, and the story is an ultimate triumph of one woman against the misogynistic baseness of the wealthy of that time and place.

This is a novel with multiple (two) firstperson narratives (those of Giulia and her eventual husband, Giuliano) that gives us a chance to delve deeply into their characters, fears, confusions and motivations. Written by someone who clearly has a love for Italy, its language and history, this is well worth picking up, reading and re-reading.

Aidan K. Morrissey

I, CARAVAGGIO

Eugenio Volpe, CLASH Books, 2023, $19.95, pb, 342pp, 9781955904759

Michelangelo Merisi (1571-1610), known by his birthplace, Caravaggio, was a towering figure in Baroque painting, known for intense, sometimes grotesque psychological realism and dramatic lighting. Eugenio Volpe’s fictive autobiography, I, Caravaggio, links the artist genius and his restive, violent life by positing three personae: “Michelangelo,” streetfighter, poppy-addicted, accused murderer with eclectic sexual tastes; Caravaggio the painter of pious Biblical scenes; and “yours truly,” who tries to connect and pacify the warring personae.

While most historical fiction attempts a semblance of historical diction, Caravaggio

speaks of cops, selfies, and images “gone viral.” He’s gobsmacked, he schleps, he paints his sex life in pungent, modern terms. He flaunts the irony of his creative process: prostitutes model his Madonnas and saints, their street price soars, and pimps fume. Cardinals, popes and princes protest, but pay handsomely for his Biblical visions; Caravaggio revels in their hypocrisy—and squanders their pay. His artistic mastery magnificently expands as his personal life and health devolves. I, Caravaggio is rich in complex irony.

Readers may want to look up the paintings Volpe cites and need a rough understanding of papal politics. The multiplicity of characters and their plots and counter-plots are often dizzying. Caravaggio’s personal vendettas, furies, and petty quarrels become tiresomely repetitive, yet deeply pitiable. Ultimately, Michaelangelo, Caravaggio, and “yours truly” cannot endure, and all nearly welcome the inevitable, violent end. Yet great art endures, and I, Caravaggio makes painfully clear the horrific price of its creation.

Pamela Schoenewaldt

MARY I: Queen of Sorrows (UK) / THE PASSIONATE TUDOR (US)

Alison Weir, Headline Review, 2024, £25.00, hb, 544pp, 9781472278135 / Ballantine, 2024, $30.00, hb, 528pp, 9780593355107

A lot has been written about Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII and queen regnant of England, in the last 25 years. Most of it has been directed at rehabilitating her, revising her traditional reputation as ‘Bloody Mary’. In 1996 Weir published a non-fiction biography of Mary as part of Children of England, about Mary and her two siblings, which largely supported the traditional view. This year she is publishing a biographical novel about Mary. How far has she shifted her opinions?

Weir clearly sympathises with Mary for her unhappy childhood, even drawing parallels with her own experience, but she is too good an historian to fly in the face of the evidence. In three years (1555-58), Mary ordered about 300 people to be burnt alive for the good of their souls. She may have meant well, but this was considered excessive even by the standards of the day – even by the standards of the Spanish Inquisition! Mary was brave and resilient, leading the only successful rebellion in Tudor England and facing down another rebellion even when her palace was under fire, but she was also a ruthless fanatic who squandered the goodwill of her people.

Weir writes fictionalised biography rather than historical fiction, keeping close to the historical record. She tells the story from inside the head of her principal character, be they saint or sinner, and does it very convincingly. This is her 15th novel, and readers will need no encouragement to add it to their collection.

Edward James

17TH CENTURY

THE BALLAD OF JACQUOTTE DELAHAYE

Briony Cameron, Atria, 2024, $27.99/C$36.99, hb, 368pp, 9781668051023 / Piatkus, 2024, £20.00, hb, 368pp, 9780349439686

Briony Cameron’s queer, feminist seafaring romance debut begins in Yaquimo (now Jacmel), Saint-Domingue, in 1655. Jacquotte Delahaye works as a skilled shipwright, with a crew of four men whose intense loyalty to her cannot be questioned. When an incident at the governor’s mansion turns violent and her father is murdered, Jacquotte flees with her shipbuilding crew and her young brother, a talented doctor-in-training, on a barely seaworthy ship. As they search for safe mooring, they are overrun by pirates, and Jacquotte’s crew are forced into indenture under the brutal Captain Blackhand’s erratic and drunken leadership. In Port Royal she believes she has found haven, but all too soon discovers she will never be free of the intrigues and political machinations of Saint-Domingue’s new governor, who chased her into exile.

While I enjoyed the novel overall, some suspension of disbelief is required. Jacquotte’s liaison belowdecks, while the rest of her crew commandeers another ship and fights for their lives, is unlikely (and would surely raise the ire of her fellow pirates!). There is a bit too much last-minute lifesaving, as well, and the conclusion is unexpected. Jacquotte seems a Robin-Hood-type amalgam of many other historical peoples rather than a real person, but Cameron uses what little information there is to create a highly imaginative, swashbuckling thrill ride as the action sails from one dire event to the next. A stormy journey through Caribbean high seas, with a courageous heroine packing a berserker temper and long (too-often-mentioned) red hair, no doubt a godsend to an adversary in a fight. Sticklers for pirate historical accuracy might take exception to a few things, but set your credulity aside for a while and enjoy the fun ride.

Fiona Alison

DAUGHTER OF SNOW AND SECRETS

Kerry Chaput, Black Rose Writing, 2024, $22.95, pb, 289pp, 9781685133900

This is the final adventure in Kerry Chaput’s award-winning Defying the Crown series. Isabelle’s journey begins in Daughter of the King as she flees from France to Canada, denying her Protestant beliefs to escape persecution by the Catholic king, in 1661. In book two, Daughter of the Shadows, Isabelle is leading a double life as a spy traveling from Quebec to Paris to challenge King Louis XIV in 1667. In Daughter of Snow and Secrets, Chaput masterfully weaves the tangled threads of Isabelle’s childhood persecution and early marriage to a Catholic soldier with the Protestant Resistance in 1681 as she tenaciously leads Huguenots through the French countryside to safety in Geneva.

Isabelle’s thoughts, dreams, and memories give readers a glimpse into her plans, creating

anticipation and injecting suspense into the fast-paced plot. After rescuing Huguenot families and killing many of the king’s dragoons, Isabelle, a warrior and fighter, becomes known as the Red Fox. The loss of a long-time friend and the need for revenge forces Isabelle’s return to Paris.

Humorous banter with a rescued duke adds levity to the decision as readers are whisked to the ornately ostentatious Palace of Versailles and its labyrinth of gardens. Vivid details of the nobility, their dress, and activities pale in comparison to the elaborate scheme Isabelle and her family have concocted to defy the king. From poisoning guards to the stench of the mirrored halls, Chaput creates impassioned escapades that fill readers and guests with desperation and fear as word spreads that the infamous Red Fox is indeed inside the palace.

This thrilling novel demonstrates how, after years of preparation, fierce women must choose between survival instincts and personal convictions to keep their cause alive. The series is highly recommended.

Dorothy Schwab

1666: A Novel

Lora Chilton, Sibylline Press, 2024, $17.00/£13.99, pb, 224pp, 9781960573957

1666 is a story that needs to be told, one of relentless brutality, but also one of hope. It is hope fulfilled, too, since the author is a member of the Patawomeck Indian Tribe of Virginia, nearly wiped out by English settlers in 1666. The English kill the men and boys, sell the women and girls into slavery, and steal the tribe’s land. The Patawomeck women join African women on board the ship bound for Barbados. Their humanity is peeled away, layer by layer, as they are stripped of their clothing and names, branded, prodded, and thrown into a filthy hold for the long journey, during which many are raped repeatedly.

The two protagonists—Ah’ Sawei and Xo, close friends each with a daughter—take turns showing us the story, as they are sold to different plantations in Barbados. Escape and return to their homeland is never far from their thoughts, and each woman plots to somehow return to Virginia with her daughter. Xo’s daughter voices the last chapter to tell the reader the end of the story, which would have been better served by showing the dramatic end to this gripping, well-researched tale. Chilton includes glossaries and sufficient clues to help the alert reader recognize the native words and many given names throughout.

Constance Emmett

THE BOOK OF SECRETS

Anna Mazzola, Orion, 2024, £18.99, hb, 384pp, 9781398714304

Rome, the Papal States, 1659. Ambitious, yet shy Stefano finally gets the chance to prove himself to his father and the world when he is asked to investigate a mysterious plague killing men, yet leaving their corpses strangely preserved. Yet this is no ordinary illness,

but a series of poisonings with no obvious connection. He soon learns that a tasteless, odourless poison is being sold to women throughout the city. With the help of a kindly doctor, he tries to track down the manufacturer of this poison. He locks up countless women in a tower-prison, where they are interrogated and tortured for information. They endure this indignity without cracking. After all, at the hands of their husbands these women faced daily horrors worse than anything the Pope’s torture experts can inflict. This increasingly weighs on Stefano’s mind, making him sicker and sicker.

Meanwhile, young Anna is horrifically abused by her husband. She is terrified for both herself and her unborn child. Yet she is unwilling to go so far as to kill him with the undetectable poison procured by her maid. After learning that her husband murdered her own father, to gain an inheritance which he has since squandered, she decides that something must be done. This is a surprisingly nuanced and accurate portrayal of domestic abuse, a problem which still afflicts society today –most especially in Italy, where femicide and gender-based violence are serious concerns. Like all the very best historical fiction, this book addresses issues of vital relevance to our own day and age.

Lee Lanzillotta

SOLSTICE

Helen Steadman, Bell Jar Books, 2023, £9.99/$11.99, pb, 250pp, 9781915421975

Although presented as a standalone novel, Helen Steadman’s Solstice brings with it strong elements of the two volumes which preceded it in her Widdershins Trilogy, Widdershins and Sunwise.

When the Rev Leaton and his family are unwillingly forced, by allegations involving witchcraft, to relocate from comfortable Ely to Mutton Clog, a bleak and remote parish in Yorkshire, the troubles which brought about this transfer soon escalate. What follows is a scenario that seethes with menace and with a sustained degree of malevolence that exceeds anything I have ever before encountered. The central characters (barely less than evil and seldom more than innocently foolish) struggle under the cloud of witchcraft accusations and suffer bleak conditions, drawing misfortune and disasters upon themselves, each other and all those who become involved with them.

Rose, a local girl, and Patience, daughter of the incoming incumbent, carry the two central and robust storylines. While Rose, innocent but foolish, falls victim to her own poor judgement, Patience, a flawed and unremittingly cruel character, accuses her of witchcraft and sets about destroying her, subjecting her to treatment which, at times, she seems unlikely to survive.

As incidents reveal the tarnished and destructive histories of locals and incomers alike, the writer draws her characters, halfstarved and shivering, through their miserable storylines and delivers them, beaten but

in some cases unbowed, to their various resolutions. There is well managed tension by now, which eventually delivers a compelling courtroom denouement.

Helen Steadman is mistress of her subject here and fluently incorporates her impressive knowledge of the situations she describes. In Solstice she has created a vivid and disturbing world and peopled it with worryingly memorable characters. This is a compelling “not to be missed” novel.

Julia Stoneham

THE CAVALIER’S OATH

Eleanor Swift-Hook, Sharpe Books, 2023, £8.99, pb, 269pp, 9798387772603

The book opens in May 1643, when the Civil War is still going the Royalists’ way. The book’s principal characters are all on that side of the war, but they are far from in agreement with one another. Events are seen through the eyes of Gideon Lennox, though the plot is chiefly motivated by the actions of Sir Philip Lord, who employs Lennox (later known as Gideon Fox) amongst his many followers, military and civilian. One of these is Christobel, estranged wife of Lord’s cruel enemy Nicholas Tempest; the latter’s attempt to recover her is one of the plotlines. Lord, his wife Catherine, Christobel and Gideon travel from Oxford to the city of Worcester whose defence is to be strengthened by Lord’s regiments of Horse and Foot. Here there is wangling about the lines of command, including an enjoyable artillery duel fought between one of Lord’s officers and another commander, a whodunnit as two women are found murdered, and battle scenes as the Parliament forces attack the city. However, amidst all this, the dominant plot strand is the attempt by Lord to penetrate a conspiracy around a secret bloodline from Henry VIII, which may nullify all the era’s religious divisions.

Lord’s character is immensely charismatic: fearless, poetry-quoting. Lord’s wife and Christobel are stylish and feisty women. At one point Christobel encourages others to join her sitting on hay bales, which amusingly looks forward to all the beer tents of the modern reenactment societies (amongst which I well remember ‘refighting’ the English Civil War.) The intricate conspiracy element of the plot was for me a little less interesting than the War itself. Still, I found this a gripping read, and very much look forward to discovering more of this talented author’s work.

Ben Bergonzi

THE NIGHTINGALE’S CASTLE

Sonia Velton, Abacus, 2024, £18.99, hb, 352pp, 9780349146096

The Nightingale’s Castle marks Sonia Velton’s triumphant return to historical fiction with a daring choice of subject matter: Erzsébet Báthory, the ‘Blood Countess.’ The story unfolds through the eyes of Boróka, a servant girl of unknown origin, picked out from the crowd by an Italian painter for her similarity to

the countess. Boróka dresses in fine clothes to pose as the countess and is welcomed into the countess’s library and her confidence, but all the while rumours and gossip fill the castle and surrounding area about the many dead young girls that come from the castle. Is it a sickness, or is the countess a murderer?

Meanwhile Boróka’s friend Suzanna, like many of the other serving girls, is tormented, beaten, and punished. As Boróka grows closer to the countess and the painting takes shape, she struggles to match the countess she has come to know with the cruel and wicked woman the others talk of. As Thurzo the Count Palatine enlists the King in his campaign against the countess and the date for a trial is set, Boróka must decide where her loyalty lies. A page-turning tale of witchcraft and cruelty, which covers both a woman fighting for her place in society and an evocative tale of a young girl seeking beauty and friendship in a brutal age. Perfect for fans of Stacey Halls, Laura Purcell, and Anna Mazzola.

Lisa Redmond

18TH CENTURY

A PROVINCIAL PEER

Sian Ann Bessey, Covenant, 2024, $16.99, pb, 248pp, 9781524426187

1796. To recuperate from the ravages of smallpox that took her naval husband’s life, Caroline Granger returns to the home of her widowed vicar father in Gloucestershire. Distressed by people’s reactions, she wears a veil to conceal her facial scars, but she finds ready acceptance among those who have faced their own struggles and hardship. Not only ‘decent’, hard-working folk, but Benedict Lord Benning, a childhood friend, now trying to restore the farm on his estate to prosperity after devastating crop losses. And might there be a second chance for love?

Benedict soon falls in love with his kindhearted neighbour, helped in no small part by Meg, her adorable four-year-old daughter. Caroline, however, is not only very aware of the social gulf between them, but she also suffers from her own insecurities after a disappointing marriage.

Most of the characters are idealized, and didactic notes sometimes intrude, but the challenges they face are real enough, especially the impact of injury and disease, poverty, and starvation. There is interesting information on Dr. Jenner’s discovery that vaccination with cowpox protects against smallpox.

A heart-warming and timely tale of how taking responsibility for others helps communities survive difficult times: ‘everyone deserves kindness.’ Highly recommended.

Ray Thompson

STAFF PUBLICATION

THE SCANDALOUS LIFE OF NANCY RANDOLPH

Kate Braithwaite, Lume, 2024, £10.99, pb, 358pp, 9781839015755 / £0.99/$0.99, ebook, 358pp, B0CYTJSFBV

Kate Braithwaite’s new novel, set in late 18th-century Virginia, tells the story of the notorious Ann “Nancy” Cary Randolph, younger sister of Thomas Mann Randolph. After her mother passes away and her father remarries, Nancy – accompanied by Phebe, her enslaved companion – goes to live with her sister, Judy, and brother-in-law, Richard “Dick” Randolph, at Bizarre plantation. While there, Nancy tries her best to be of use to her sister and unknowingly attracts the attention of Dick’s two brothers: Theodorick “Theo” and John “Jack” Randolph. In a similar vein, Phebe finds her own way at Bizarre, interacting with the enslaved workers and Randolph family members.

Rumors arise that Nancy was made pregnant by Dick, beginning with whispers among the enslaved people at Glentivar, a cousin’s plantation house. The situation grows dire when Dick is brought to trial in Williamsburg. Nancy becomes a social pariah.

Braithwaite explains her inspirations: “I came across an article online about Nancy quite by chance and was immediately fascinated by her story. Certain elements really jumped out. Nancy was widely and very publicly accused of sleeping with her sister Judy’s husband, Dick Randolph, and yet Nancy and Judy continued living together for a full ten years after Dick’s trial.

“What really happened? The truth remains a mystery, and that’s the sweet spot for me when writing historical fiction. I love to take the known facts and try and weave a story that could have happened, even if we can never know for sure.”

Braithwaite began researching during COVID and was able to read primary and secondary sources online, including letters handwritten by Nancy herself. Eventually she visited “key sites, particularly Historical Tuckahoe, where Nancy and Judy grew up. It’s a remarkable place to visit.”

Through Nancy, Judy, and Phebe, all strong and resilient women, Braithwaite shows us three sides to the scandal. “Judy and Nancy grew up expecting to live in comfort and luxury, but the death of their mother changed everything. Dick Randolph was a spendthrift. Judy found herself living on a remote plantation struggling to bring up her two sons, one of whom was profoundly deaf. Nancy’s life was derailed by public scandal, seemingly ending any prospect of marriage and security. Phebe, as an enslaved woman, was born into a world that failed to recognize her basic human rights, and her life was entwined with Nancy’s. She has her story, and her own perspective on what transpired.”

Braithwaite elaborates, “In John Marshall’s papers about the trial of Richard Randolph, it’s explicitly mentioned that Nancy’s maid was a witness… At that time, any evidence

she might have given wasn’t admissible in court, and there’s no suggestion she was ever asked a question about it all. I felt that writing the story as if Phebe wasn’t there would be perpetuating the same basic wrong. She was there when it happened and needed to be there in the book. Having decided that, I did my best to give her an authentic life and agency, and I enjoyed working with a wonderful sensitivity reader who is also writing about this period in Virginia.”

Elizabeth K. Corbett

MISS AUSTEN INVESTIGATES

Jessica Bull, Michael Joseph, 2024, £16.99, hb, 464pp, 9780241642085 / Union Square, 2024, $18.99, pb, 368pp, 9781454951803

Jane Austen’s world, with its intelligent heroines, romance and issues of propriety, is blended deliciously with murder mystery motifs, resulting in an engaging read. Our heroine is Jane herself, wearing her Miss Marple bonnet and determined to winkle out the truth behind the murder of the mysterious Belgian lacemaker Zoe Renard, bludgeoned to death in the linen cupboard with a warming pan. Whodunnit? Jane’s beloved learning-disabled brother Georgy? Her father’s former pupil Jonathan Harcourt? The odious Sir John? His housekeeper? When Jane swings into spirited action as an amateur sleuth, we are right behind her!

Jessica Bull’s imagined Jane is a blend of her most attractive protagonists: as sharp and energetic as Lizzy; as thoughtful as Eleanor; as mistaken as Emma; as passionate as Marianne and enduring the same inner turmoil as Anne. Members of her real family and events from her own life are presented cleverly and plausibly in this well-plotted and satisfying novel. The exploration of Jane’s love for Tom Lefroy and the future she imagines as his wife is touching. Thwarted by economic truths, her distress is palpable; her courage laudable. Through Jane’s eyes we are offered an acerbic assessment of a woman’s lot in 1790s society, from servants to heiresses; from glamorous widows to secret brides. Jessica Bull captures the minutiae of their lives in sparkling prose and lively dialogue.

The love in the Austen family is heartwarming, and Jane’s determination to save her most vulnerable brother Georgy from transportation or, worse still, the hangman’s rope, reminds us of the cruelty of the age. You can smell the beeswax candles and feel the mud dragging on hems and boots as Jane

dances, walks and finally rides her way to uncovering the truth in Steventon. The real Jane would have loved this novel.

Jan Middleton

SALTBLOOD

Francesca de Tores, Bloomsbury, 2024, £16.99, hb, 368pp, 9781526661333

What a juicy subject for a historical novel—an infamous female buccaneer during the Golden Age of Piracy and her infamous shipmates, Anne Bonny and Calico Jack Rackham.

Mary Read’s life begins in hardship. She masquerades as a boy to solicit financial help for her mother from her brother’s paternal grandmother. Making her way through early 1700s society dressed as ‘Mark’ in service as a footman, she is pulled toward that wildest of man’s worlds—the sea.

A woman dressed as a man to become a sailor is a common theme in the misogynistic world of bygone cultures, but this one goes deep into the psychology, as Mary seeks a ‘name that fits her skin’. She marries and puts on a dress, and the couple run a tavern in Flanders. The men all now treat her differently, and Mary struggles to teach her husband that ‘the stuff between her legs is not the end of what she is’.

All the while, the dampness that seeps into their floorboards threatens to reclaim her for the sea. Perhaps a sailor is something else, neither man nor woman, but an identity unto itself. Read’s love of the sea, tinged with fear of its power, shines forth from the pages. The crow that follows Read around—a symbol of death—is an apt metaphor.

This is a great work of literature, historically correct and beautifully written. The characters are richly nuanced—the ‘specimen’-collecting captain and his ‘invisible’ wife, the eloquent Jack, free-spirited Bonny, Mary’s hard-bitten laundress mother. I loved the laundress’s ‘constant battle against colour’, beautiful metaphors like the ‘curved blade’ of a smile, ‘we wait like tubers for spring’, the ‘crabwise patience of shelled things’ and other gorgeous details of humanity, of ‘casual fond brutality’ and ‘gallows fellowship’, and of battle, death and pirates.

Susie Helme

BLOOD OF THE KNIGHTS

B. M. Howard, Canelo, 2024, £9.99, pb, 320pp, 9781804362747

It’s June 1798 when French Lieutenant Vanderville perilously and secretly enters Valletta, the fortified capital of the island of Malta. General Bonaparte, on his way to Egypt, is bent on freeing Malta from the oppressive rule of the Knights Hospitaller –and, even more, on securing the island as a base. Hence Vanderville’s mission, to prepare for the arrival of the French fleet with the help of a mysterious local sympathiser, possibly one of the knights. But things quickly go downhill when, at the appointed meeting place, our hero stumbles onto a corpse. Only the help of an

elegant and well-connected “public woman”, Donna Eva, saves Vanderville from arrest as a murderer, and lands him instead among the Knights of the Orders’s Anglo-Bavarian as a half-guest and half-prisoner. And if you think his plight is complicated, wait until another old acquaintance turns up in Valletta – the very peculiar ex-magistrate, Felix Gracchus!

To be perfectly frank, I wasn’t convinced by Gracchus’s own mission, and much less by the street children, with their sophisticated literary speech, and eight-year-old leader. That said, I liked the twisty plot, and Howard’s descriptions and atmospheres are always lovely. The sundrenched Valletta, with its unrest, mistrust, and petty power struggles within and around the much-decayed Order, springs to life around the bewildered but always game Vanderville. As a rule I’m not fond of open endings, but this time I’m very glad that the door is left open for more of Vanderville’s adventures in Malta.

Chiara Prezzavento

THE COOK OF CASTAMAR

Fernando J. Muñez, trans. Rahul Bery and Tim Gutteridge, Apollo, 2024, £25.00/$32.99, hb, 608pp, 9781803285603

In this period drama, set in Madrid in 1720, Clara, high-born but without means, obtains a position as assistant cook in the palace of the Duke of Castamar, Don Diego. She has agoraphobia and is afraid to go outside the kitchen. She is under the thumb of housekeeper Úrsula, who commands even the butler, Melkíades, and the head cook, Escrivá. Clara’s skill is exceptional, and she is promoted to head cook, whipping the kitchen into shape and producing culinary masterpieces.

Upstairs is Don Diego, his mother, Doña Mercedes, his adopted Black brother Don Gabriel, and his suitor Lady Amelia. Diego’s friends Don Enrique, Don Alfredo, Don Francisco and Mercedes’ friend, Doña Sol, are frequent visitors. A complex web is woven of secret vendettas and forbidden romances. Everyone has secrets, on which enemies of the duke seek to capitalise to wreak their vengeance.

Clara is noticed by the duke, who is also bereaved, and an impossible romance blooms. Despite jealousies downstairs and machinations upstairs, Clara manages to act with integrity. Called upon to save her master, her heroism is all the more laudatory as she struggles against her condition. The Castamar brothers conclude that one should find one’s true self, fall into the arms of the person you love, regardless of race or class. True nobility is from the heart.

Set very much in its time, with historical backstory and political intrigues, this story is deliciously detailed, right down to the porcelain, and contains some beautiful cuisine-related metaphors (e.g., ‘wobbled like a jelly that had just been turned onto a serving dish’). The descriptions of Clara’s experience during her agoraphobic episodes, and as she tries to hide it, are fantastic.

A gorgeous novel, a best-seller in Spain.

It has been made into a sumptuous Netflix series, with some unnecessary plot changes.

Susie Helme

THE

ORDER OF THE FURIES: 1795 (US) / 1795: The Order of the Furies (UK)

Niklas Natt och Dag, trans. Ian Giles, Atria, 2024, $28.99, hb, 400pp, 9781982145972

/ Baskerville, 2023, £16.99, hb, 448pp, 9781529304688

This is the third in a trilogy set in 18th-century Stockholm, and a fitting finale to a tale that is pervasively dark, gripping, and a standout in the genres of both historical and crime fiction. The Order of the Furies picks up with Jean Mickel Cardell, war veteran and watchman. The one-armed Cardell may be broken-down, but he’s still a dangerous blunt instrument. The problem is that he’s lost the foil who made his crime-solving possible in the first novel – the incisive investigator Cecil Winge, who has died of tuberculosis. Cardell has joined forces with Winge’s brother, Emil, who is perhaps as intelligent as Cecil, but suffers from debilitating alcoholism and mental illness. Together, they have been on the trail of a malefactor who is a member of the Furies, a “cabal of depraved hedonists” who will stop at nothing to gratify their horrific lusts, leaving mutilated and murdered innocents in their wake.

It’s difficult to encapsulate the plot of this work because it builds on the two novels that preceded it, which are prerequisites to understand this book. Plotting is complicated, the reader is never condescended to, and Natt och Dag’s writing is the very best of show rather than tell. He paints pictures with his words that will linger. Throughout this series, he has created characters that seem capable of stepping right off the page, were they not mired in the hellscape that is the City Between the Bridges. To say the setting is immersive is an understatement, so be warned that Natt och Dag’s Stockholm is a place readers may find disturbing. Corruption and degeneracy are constants, and the deeds some of its inhabitants commit are unspeakable. This is historical fiction of a kind seldom seen in the genre’s current landscape: beautifully written, darkly realistic, and deeply absorbing.

Bethany Latham

IF THE TIDE TURNS

Rachel Rueckert, Kensington, 2024, $17.95/ C$24.95/£16.99, pb, 384pp, 9781496747532

During a visit to Cape Cod, you would

doubtless hear murmurs of Samuel (Black Sam) Bellamy and his winsome beauty, Maria (Mehitable) Brown. Myths and legends abound, but it’s worth considering that tales of the Whydah (Bellamy’s flagship) were part of the legends until she and her sunken treasure were discovered in 1984. Rueckert has woven detailed research into a romance between Sam and Maria in a bid to explain Sam’s known actions. Having been pressed into service at age eight, Sam is now laid off along with thousands of Navy sailors in 1715, and needs another commission. Maria, a well-known Eastham beauty, catches his eye, they fall in love, and he asks for her hand in marriage. Spurned by her parents, he signs onto Paulsgrave Williams’ treasure-hunting expedition, later goes on the account, befriends Benjamin Hornigold, and is made commodore of the Whydah in 1716 by a widemargin vote. Maria is forced into marriage with an older man and is trapped in a series of tragic events.

This is an exciting, action-filled clean romance with the added attraction of high seas adventure. I have a few niggles: telling rather than showing kept me emotionally distanced from the settings. One example: Sam issues an order in a howling gale ferocious enough to snap the main mast, but the difficulty of speaking isn’t felt in the narrative. Historical detail is light in places where I would have liked to know and feel more. There is occasional melodrama, and much as I wanted to be on the Whydah with Sam, I am not sure I could have weathered his introspective whining. Readers who enjoy romantic suspense and tales of pirates, albeit polite ones who carry weapons they rarely use, will relish this. Overall, a fast-paced and satisfying read.

Fiona Alison

THE BOOK OF PERILOUS DISHES

Doina Rusti, trans. James Christian Brown, Neem Tree Press, 2024, $26.95, hb, 272pp, 9781911107439

First published in Romanian in 2017 and set in Bucharest under Turkish rule at the end of the 18th century, The Book of Perilous Dishes weaves an atmosphere of magic, some real and some perhaps, but not necessarily, imagined by its fourteen-year-old heroine, Pâtca, child of a mystical order called the Satorines. When her grandmother is arrested for witchcraft, Pâtca flees to Bucharest to take refuge with her uncle Zăval only to find him murdered along with his household servants. What follows is an elaborate dance through a time of political turbulence, when the ruling prince might be replaced by the Ottoman Sultan for the price of four bags of coin, and no one can be trusted.

Pâtca is an enterprising child, but she is also fourteen and, as she later confesses, prone to do exactly the wrong thing in a crisis. She becomes embroiled in a feud between her new guardian and the current prince over

the services of a Gypsy cook with magical abilities. The cook is in possession of a copy of the dangerous Book of Perilous Dishes, whose recipes have the power to wreak havoc. Pâtca’s efforts to find her uncle’s killer and secure her inheritance take her on a wild tour of the prince’s kitchens, the local prisons, and the house of a mysterious “spiritist” named Perticari. The character of Pâtca is wonderfully delineated, and throughout Pâtca’s first-person narrative, we too are fourteen, smart, frightened, beginning to fall in love with unsuitable men, and furious a good deal of the time. I loved her.

Amanda Cockrell

TO CROWN WITH LIBERTY

Karen Ullo, Chrism Press, 2024, $19.99, pb, 326pp, 9798887090382

In 1795, Alix de Morainville Carpentier is haunted by the crumbling world she left behind.

A former lady-inwaiting to Marie Antoinette, the ill-fated French queen, Alix now resides in the Spanish colony of Louisiana.

An aristocrat by birth, she is married to Joseph, her family’s former gardener. Her goal is to maintain a low profile and to avoid being discovered by any supporters of the violent French Revolution. The truth is that Louisiana is a place where she feels like she doesn’t belong. Amid the colorful and exotic New World, she feels like a fish out of water. No matter where she goes, haunting memories of the revolution are not far behind.

To Crown with Liberty is an expertly crafted tale about resilience and survival. This book is separated into two timelines: the Ancien Régime/the French Revolution and the Spanish colony of Louisiana. I found the characters, both fictional and historical, to be exceedingly well written. The character that most stood out to me was Alix because, despite facing adversity, she remains admirable and strong. Ullo’s writing also shines in the impressive amount of historical detail; she must have done a considerable amount of research.

Not only is the prose gorgeous, but it’s steeped in rich historical images that truly bring the story to life. In the author’s note, she explains her inspirations and the real historical facts. Overall, this is a fantastic read.

Elizabeth K. Corbett

19TH CENTURY

THE ORCHIDS OF ASHTHORNE HALL

Rebecca Anderson, Shadow Mountain, 2024, $16.99, pb, 272pp, 9781639932351

1887, Cornwall coast, England. When botanist Hyacinth Bell accepts a temporary position at Ashthorne Hall, a mansion rumored to be haunted, puzzling events unfold. While maintaining the absentee owner’s rare orchid collection, she often sees fleeting apparitions and hears strange cries and moans echoing from the manor and gardens. She feels bewildered when she finds small gifts placed in her private quarters and her possessions rearranged. After meeting Lucas Harding, the caretaker, and being smitten by this charming yet mysterious man, Hyacinth questions him about these haunting events. When Lucas reveals little, she boldly begins her search to unravel the secrets hidden within the walls of Ashthorne Hall, soon finding herself in dangerous, life-threatening situations.

Anderson’s romantic mystery is an entertaining, well-paced story. Hyacinth Bell, an engaging, heart-warming heroine, is skillfully portrayed through tender, humorous exchanges with Lucas and her interactions with a cast of enigmatic and eccentric characters. Anderson’s vivid descriptions of the Cornwall coast, depicting the isolated terrain, dismal weather, and ghostly historical events, provide the perfect setting for this suspenseful tale. The poetic laments at the beginning of each chapter add an extra element of poignancy and surprise.

Marcy McNally

BRIGHTER THAN HER FEARS

Lisa Ard, Creative James Media, 2024, $18.99, pb, 356pp, 9781956183146

In her emotionally resonant debut, Lisa Ard paints a vivid picture of farming life near Asheville, North Carolina, in 1882. Based on the author’s family history, this is a beautifully crafted, tender story of family lost and found, friendship and grit.

Alice and her younger sister, Jennie, are very close. Considered old spinsters, now they must marry, conjugal commitments to much older men negotiated by their mother to save the family from ruin. Thirtyish Alice covets her independence, running the family home, caring for younger siblings, gardening, and animal husbandry. Now she faces servitude and control with Jasper Carter, a man almost twice her age, who she barely knows.

Physical distance from her sister becomes emotionally charged, as Alice realizes Jennie no longer needs her as she once did. Loneliness dogs her first weeks in a mostly silent house. Alice’s outspoken frankness, in an age when deferral to her husband is expected, adds narrative tension, but she comes to love Jasper deeply, and her thoughtful maneuvering

around the extensive Carter family gains her several sisterly allies.

Tobacco farming is dawn-to-dusk backbreaking work, even with a paid Black tenantfarmer. Alice has never shirked work, but when events overtake her life, she discovers the strength, alongside friends and family, to fight her own corner, and to champion public education in the rapidly expanding Asheville, and her local town of Democrat. Ard’s novel is sensitive to the issues of the day–Southern business owners unwilling to pay taxes for education or to take direction from the North, and the prickly issue of school integration. Drawing attention to the many local families who rebuilt from nothing after their livelihoods were plundered during the Civil War, whether they enslaved others or not, Ard writes with practiced ease, deftly employing her extensive research. May this lovely novel be the first of many.

Fiona Alison

A LADY’S GUIDE TO MARVELS AND MISADVENTURE

Angela Bell, Bethany House, 2024, $17.99, pb, 384pp, 9780764242137

Clara Stanton bears the weight of her family’s woes on her 23-year-old shoulders. That, and her ability to imagine the world beyond London in 1860 via books and maps, lead her grandfather, clockmaker C. E. Drosselmeyer, to dub her his “Little Atlas.” So, when Drosselmeyer disappears, leaving a clue that one of his inventions will lead to his whereabouts, Clara sets off on the adventure of a lifetime.

Theodore Kingsley is the youngest son in a successful family who had the misfortune of causing his mother’s death in childbirth. His father holds that and his failure to learn a trade befitting his status against him, so he seeks his fortune in the army. Misfortune befalls the Light Brigade and, as a failed leader of men, Theodore is blamed despite losing a leg in the slaughter. He is reduced to begging, but his one useful skill is in clock repair, which leads him to Drosselmeyer’s shop, where he is hired as an apprentice (to Clara’s initial dismay). They must pool their resources with her eccentric mother to find Drosselmeyer before Clara’s exfiancé can expose the family as insane.

Bell’s debut novel is a mashup of steampunk, Beauty and the Beast, and Around the World in 80 Days. Her characters are astoundingly welldrawn and endearing, making you root for the good ones and despise the rotten ones – and

appreciate the difference between “eccentric” and “insane.” The best historical fiction reveals fascinating details about the past, and what we learn about the Victorian world in Clara’s travels across Europe makes this offbeat story work to perfection.

Tom Vallar

THE GOLDEN HOUR

Jacquie Bloese, Hodder & Stoughton, 2024, £22.00, hb, 376pp, 9781529377361

Victorian England had a problem with a new technology which created such an upsurge of pornography that it became accessible even to schoolboys. The new technology was photography, and the pornography took the form of ‘saucy’ photos of naked women. Bloese’s novel centres on Ellen, who with her brother, Reynold, runs a back-street photographic studio in Brighton that makes its money from selling indecent photos to a dealer in London, and by mail order.

At first the novel reads like a light-hearted satire on Victorian prudery, as the National Vigilance Association tries to hunt down the illicit photos, but in later chapters it takes on a much darker tone. Bloese clearly feels that the photos did no harm and provided a welcome income for young women who otherwise might have been forced into prostitution. Her contempt is reserved for the customers, and it is the attempts to repress the trade which destroy lives.

The book also explores Victorian attitudes to lesbian sex. Ellen has sexual relationships with each of the other three main female characters. The book is essentially the story of a small group of people from very different levels of society who defy social taboos, either for profit or pleasure. Some are crushed by society, others survive. A very atmospheric novel, both in time and place.

Edward James

THE DUKE’S ALL THAT

Christina Britton, Forever, 2024, $8.99/ C$11.99, pb, 336pp, 9781538710449

Thirteen years ago, earl’s daughter Seraphina married strapping, orphaned Iain MacInnes, only to be parted immediately. After he becomes the Duke of Balgair and learns Seraphina isn’t dead after all, Iain tracks her down on the Isle of Synne where she’s hiding with her younger sisters. Seraphina, believing Iain betrayed her all those years ago, agrees to initiate divorce proceedings, but as they travel to Scotland together, days in a close carriage and nights in intimate inns lead to revelations and renewed attraction.

Seraphina is one tough heroine; hardened by trauma and hatred, ashamed of the choices she made to support her sisters through lean times, she’s certain she knows best for everyone. She won’t bend an inch, though she does seek comfort, then sex from Iain while insisting he make no claims on her. Iain, lovestruck all over again, will take her on any terms she sets. There’s little historical detail to indicate

the Regency setting, but historical romance readers who adore sexy Scottish men in kilts, funny animal sidekicks, forced proximity, and second chances will enjoy Seraphina and Iain’s rocky travels back to wedded bliss.

Misty Urban

THE WIDOW SPY

Megan Campisi, Atria, 2024, $27.99/$36.99, hb, 246pp, 9781668024850

Campisi’s premise is quite intriguing and based on a real situation: Kate Warne, Pinkerton’s first female detective and a Union spy, is assigned to the house containing the notorious socialite and Confederate spy, Rose O’Neal Greenhow, in Washington, DC, in August 1861. Kate’s mission is to ferret out Greenhow’s code used for sending messages across enemy lines to Richmond. The determined detective tries every tactic she knows to manipulate the canny widow and achieve her objective. But just who is manipulating whom? The adversarial Greenhow is as crafty and skilled as Kate at turning events to her advantage, and Kate becomes enmeshed in playing a high-stakes game that draws others in as well, including Greenhow’s own young daughter, fellow agent John Scobell, the visiting Mackall sisters, and spymaster Allan Pinkerton himself.

Campisi has developed and crafted a plausible and entertaining tale surrounding the early spying activities of the Civil War, with all its chaos, confusion, and political disruption. Her descriptions of early wartime Washington add depth and interest to her narrative, along with her lively and colorful characters, especially the two strong-willed women involved in this battle of wits and wills. While an enjoyable read, there are a couple of factual errors: it was Dolley Madison’s nephew, not her son, who married Greenhow’s sister, and Greenhow was en route to Wilmington, North Carolina (not South Carolina), when her ship sank off the coast. However, a larger issue is the author’s anachronisms, where several characters express modern-day attitudes concerning race, women, and labor. These sound out of place and tend to pull the reader out of the story instead of engaging with it.

Michael I. Shoop

THE VOYAGEUR

Paul Carlucci, Swift Press, 2024, £16.99, hb, 400pp, 9781800753150

Lower Canada (modern Quebec), 1830. Carrying supplies to Fort William (now Thunder Bay) to trade for furs, members of the voyageur (French-Canadian fur traders) brigade are dropping like flies from consumption. Motherless stockboy Alex wants to make enough money from trading furs to buy a plot of land along the St. Lawrence for a peach orchard. Alex makes his way in a multicultured, uncivilised land full of bad men out for their own advantage.

When they reach Mackinac Island, they

get in serious trouble. Alex’s experience is truly harrowing. He comes under the care of Dr Beaumont—it seems Alex is a medical miracle. He learns some lessons in spirituality from some Nishnaabe (Ojibwe) Indians. The miracle connects the inside of Alex’s body with the outside world in a graphic way, but the phenomenon has a spiritual side. He is nourished by the ghost of his ‘tit frère (little brother).

This novel deals insightfully with serious suffering in a harsh world. Alex’s thoughts as he confronts life-threatening situations are profound. We feel his pain, confusion, grief, loneliness. The admixture of French words and phrases is untranslated, which might be confusing to a non-francophone (but hey, there’s Google Translate), and yet it adds an exotic feel for the time and place. It both accentuates Alex’s threatened innocence and lends an immediacy, in this wild frontier, where one never really knew which people were around the corner and what unfamiliar language they might speak.

Alex is young and too frail to manage this hard life, and we follow along with his naivety, stunned by the hardships and the betrayals of false friends. I was amazed to learn that Dr. Beaumont’s experiments and this ‘medical miracle’ were historical. This is an astonishing tale of the wild frontier, sometimes shocking, sometimes deeply emotional.

Susie

ROUGH TRADE

Katrina Carrasco, MCD, 2024, $28.00/ C$37.00, hb, 384pp, 9780374272685

The rough-and-tumble gender-fluid opium smuggler Alma Rosales is back in this action-packed sequel to The Best Bad Things Wherever Alma goes trouble is not far behind. Set in the growing hub of 1888 Tacoma, Rough Trade is the second part of Alma’s story (with hopefully more to come), and it’s as spicy and thrilling as its predecessor. Now that Alma has cleaned up the drug trade in Port Townsend, she’s moved to Tacoma alongside boss and partner, Delphine Beaumond, to set up shop. Feeling like she’s running the show for once, Alma recruits her own crew and sets down roots. When men start turning up bearing all the signs of opium use and the disposal of two bodies is botched, lawmen come rolling into town. Coinciding with the reappearance of Alma’s first love, Bess Spencer, and a young man sniffing around her crew and asking questions, Alma will have to confront the hardest question of all—the price of desire and whether she’s willing to pay it. With survival and wants of the heart clashing, Alma and her crew are about to find out just how dangerous their way of life is.

Katrina Carrasco outdoes herself with this genre- and gender-bending tale of passion, murder, and sacrifice. With a gift for punchy prose, evocative language, and a fast pace, Carrasco’s Rough Trade is a worthy continuation of Alma’s journey. Twists at every

turn will keep you wondering and reading late into the night.

Ellaura Shoop

THE LUCKY PENNY

Dilly Court, HarperCollins, 2024, £8.99/$19.99 /C$23.99, pb, 467pp, 9780008580872

London 1853. Falsely claiming to be her uncle and aunt, Syd and Gert Fox take little Flora, six, out street-begging. A wealthy couple question them about her and don’t trust their explanations. Compassionately, they offer to buy Flora as companion to their own similarly aged daughter, Bella. The villains consent, and Flora begins a new privileged life but, despite Bella’s constant affirmations that she and Flora are ‘sisters, or as good as’, not knowing her true identity affects Flora’s standing, and her prospects are uncertain.

A decade or so later, Bella is ready to face society and find a suitor. One rich roguish admirer is, with Flora’s help, eventually given short shrift, but meeting him reveals her present whereabouts to that same nasty Syd, who kidnaps and imprisons her. Again she’s sold on, this time to a pub, where she performs menial tasks, all the while learning the catering trade for which she discovers an innate ability. Bella’s family get word, returning her to the posh life and her ongoing romance with gardener Daniel; better yet, she has meanwhile gleaned information about her foundling status and can commence investigating her parentage. Ever-hopeful and likeable, Flora’s natural talents uncover the truth.

Period settings, characters and attitudes are well portrayed, the exciting kidnap and its aftermath adroitly handled. Dilly devotees and newcomers alike will surely enjoy this latest title.

Simon Rickman

ISABEL AND THE ROGUE

Liana De la Rosa, Berkley, 2024, $18.99, pb, 352pp, 9780593440902

Readers will do well to read the author’s Ana María and the Fox first, for that scene when Sirius Dawson finds Isabel Luna crouched under a desk in a study she’s not supposed to be in. In this book, both characters find their initial impressions of the other were wide of the mark.

Isabel’s parents send her and her sisters to London to be safely away from Mexico while their father supports President Juarez’s rebellion against the Emperor Maximilian, who was installed by France. Isabel hopes to aid the independence effort by unearthing blackmail material that might induce British aristocrats to support Juarez. When Sirius, earl’s son, war hero, and spy, keeps running across Isabel in his work for the Home Office, he offers to aid her mission. What he really wants is an excuse to be close to her, and as golden-haired Sirius works his charm, Isabel

Helme

flowers from the shy, overlooked Luna sister she’s always thought herself to be.

Isabel is the hand-wringing, tearful sort of heroine, so it’s sweet to see how gentle and supportive Sirius is of her. One wonders why the leads feel responsible for conflicts they couldn’t possibly control, but the spy work serves to bring them together. It’s amusing to see Isabel lecturing others on moral behavior while she picks locks on desks of homes she’s a guest in and reads private mail. It’s all to save democracy in Mexico, of course, the land that holds Isabel’s heart—unless Sirius can steal it away. It’s high time Victorian historical romance became aware of the world outside of Britain, and Mexico, the focal point for three different empires at this time—France, Austria, and the United States—certainly deserves the attention. An enjoyable read.

Misty Urban

THE LADY HE LOST

Faye Delacour, Sourcebooks Casablanca, 2024, $16.99/C$25.99, pb, 336pp, 9781728290638

London, 1839. In this spicy Victorian romance, orphaned Jane Bishop has had three seasons but is still unmarried. Financially dependent on her kind uncle, and with a younger brother to be launched in life, Jane needs a source of income. She and her best friend, the lively aristocrat Della, start a genteel, secret gambling club for ladies. Jane studies the science of gaming probabilities and knows that she can earn the house a steady income.

Years ago, Eli Williams, a Royal Navy lieutenant, had unwisely offered for Jane’s cousin instead of her. Eli was lost at sea before he and Cecily could marry. This soured Jane on both of them, as well as on marriage, because she had loved Eli herself. Then he turns out to be alive, having been a pirates’ captive for years. Cecily is now happily married with children. Eli and Jane realize they love each other, but their romance seems blocked by any number of what they see as obstacles. This doesn’t stop their steamy lovemaking, which commences around page 102 and only gets hotter from there.

This story is well-organized and written, with many interesting facts about Victorian England folded seamlessly into the plot. There are at least six secondary characters who would be fun to see in other books. Eli and Jane are the same stock figures we have all met in Regency romances. Jane’s constant carping and negativity about why she could not be with Eli are beyond tiresome. It takes her a couple hundred pages to figure out what was obvious to everybody else: She and Eli were in love, had always been, and should—please—just get married. Despite my quibbles, an entertaining read.

Elizabeth Knowles

HOUSE OF SHADES

Lianne Dillsworth, Hutchinson Heinemann, 2024, £18.99, hb, 400pp, 9781529152159 / Harper, 2024, $30.00/C$37.00, hb, 256pp, 9780358627920

London 1833. Hester Reeves is employed as a nurse/healer to Gervaise Cherville, old, frail and ill. He is head of his rich family at his London house, Tall Trees, which is a forbidding, neglected property. Hester is of AfroCaribbean ethnicity, and she soon discovers that the Cherville family wealth derived from former plantation and slavery ownership in Honduras. Gervaise Cherville appears to be suffering from guilt for his slave-owning past and asks Hester to track down two female slaves that previously worked in Tall Trees so that he can make some form of reparation by retrospectively paying them for their labour, thereby assuaging his guilt. Hester uncovers all sorts of secrets in her quest and inadvertently sets in train a series of profound events.

The style is fairly formulaic gothic: the young, friendly servant and the hostile housekeeper, as well as the dangerous and sinister son Rowland Cherville, who has lewd designs upon Hester’s younger sister, whom Hester made a deathbed promise to their mother to protect. The story is rather routine, although the plot is well told and proceeds agreeably with a few unexpected twists and turns. The issue of slavery, guilt, reparation and atonement is very much the essence of the narrative. The historical context is quite light and lacking credibility at times, and the dialogue is not very period in terms of what the characters say and how they say it. Moreover, without giving away any of the denouement, the ending involves a technically highly implausible event that seems to play fast and loose with elementary physics.

Douglas Kemp

THE SWEET BLUE DISTANCE

Sara Donati, Berkley, 2024, $28.00/C$39.00, hb, 800pp, 9781984805058

Another inviting plunge into 19th-century America, Donati’s long-awaited novel sits between the Wilderness series (17921824) and the Waverly Place duology (18831885). When New York midwife Carrie Ballentyne accepts a nursing position with a Santa Fe doctor, her inquisitive younger brother, Nathan, offers welcome companionship on her months-long journey. Carrie is drawn to fellow traveler Eli Ibarra, a Mestizo surveyor, while widowed Eva Zavala, taking her son, Beto, home to Santa Fe, offers frank and friendly talk about what Carrie should expect socially and professionally. The

Santa Fe trail stagecoach is stopped within days by three trackers, with an urgent message that Carrie is to be escorted on horseback to Santa Fe. Eli is with them, and riding is much faster. Nathan feels compelled to protect Eva and Beto, and the siblings reluctantly part ways. Carrie, raised part-Mohawk by her grandfather’s second family, is skilled with horses and weaponry. Dressed like a wrangler, she embarks on the 800-mile trek over plains, desert and mountains, the ride strengthening the bond between Carrie and Eli in a world equal parts danger and wonder. Once in Santa Fe, her midwifery position seems in jeopardy from the outset.

Having read the previous books, I settled into a comfortable feeling, as though I’d never left, and eager to learn more of the intriguing, mixed-race Bonner-Savard-Ballentyne clan, although The Sweet Blue Distance stands well alone. Meticulous research, a host of fictional characters, backstories woven seamlessly into historical settings, and Donati’s marvellous storytelling all prove fertile ground to sow details of the American West, white colonialism, and the genocidal annihilation of tribal life. It’s immersive and compelling, with a delicate balance which never oversteps itself. Written in the tradition of the best of historical fiction, Donati’s sweeping novel is as expansive as the magnificent land through which Carrie and Eli ride.

Fiona Alison

LOCKED IN SILENCE

Natalie Zellat Dyen, Black Rose Writing, 2024, $21.95, pb, 267pp, 9781685133634

Eighteen-year-old Lizzy O’Meara is sentenced to four years in solitary confinement in Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary for the murder of her newborn child. However, the events surrounding her daughter’s birth are hazy and only come to Lizzy in flashes. She has no memory of committing the crime she has been accused of, and can’t distinguish between what is real and what her imagination conjures up. As the months of isolated imprisonment drag on, she tries to piece together what happened, but harsh treatment from her jailors leaves her mentally and physically broken.

After her release, she discovers the truth about her alleged crime and her daughter’s fate. Hoping to rebuild some semblance of a life and wanting to help others, she becomes involved in the abolitionist movement. Her experience in prison has taught her the real meaning of freedom, and she is eager to help travelers on the Underground Railroad escape their bondage. But Lizzy’s life is about to be turned upside down when she is confronted with a love she thought was lost and an evil man from her past.

Dyen’s well-researched novel captures a city boiling over with racial tension and social injustice in the decade leading up to the Civil War. The first half of the story, set in Lizzy’s tiny cell, vividly creates a sense of the character’s claustrophobic captivity, especially by using intense sensory descriptions of the smells and

sounds of prison life. A lot is packed into under 300 pages, and fewer subplots might have strengthened the story, but Lizzy is a sympathetic character, and readers will root for her to get justice and find happiness.

Janice Derr

THE BEST OF FRIENDS

Sarah M. Eden, Covenant, 2024, $16.99, pb, 272pp, 9781524424510

1819. Daria Mullins and Toss Comstock like each other well enough, but when they learn that they are both struggling with unkind and controlling family members, they form a bond. To cheer themselves up, they play a game: who can engage in the most activities that will be disapproved of by her parents and his older brother? As they spend time together, however, they gain an appreciation of each other’s admirable qualities and start to fall in love.

Since a large number of friends rally to provide sympathy and assistance, this is a crowded canvas, and the lovers’ anxious state of mind does become repetitive. Nor is it clear why Toss’s brother seems to undergo a change of heart at the end. There are, however, valuable insights into how harsh criticism can undermine self-confidence, and the pressures created by the ruthless exercise of patriarchal authority and financial control over others. And to rigid mindsets: as Daria observes about Toss’s brother, ‘he is like my parents… he cannot see anything he hasn’t already decided to believe.’ Sadly, this is an increasingly worrisome concern.

Ray Thompson

THE LOVE REMEDY

Elizabeth Everett, Berkley, 2024, $18.00/ C$24.95, pb, 351pp, 9780593550465

Lucinda Peterson has worked herself to exhaustion to make the London apothecary her father left her a success and to provide for herself and her siblings. Two years ago, a rival apothecary—and former lover—stole Lucy’s formula for throat lozenges before she could patent it. Now, in 1843, her formula for a salve to soothe babies’ croup has gone missing, and Lucy’s certain her ex-lover is the culprit once more.

Jonathan Thorne, a former prizefighter, now works for an agency that helps the palace cover up royal indiscretions and sometimes assists civilians who have been wronged. Hired by Lucy to recover her missing formula, Thorne poses as the apothecary’s new bookkeeper, and he and his nine-yearold daughter, Sadie, move into an apartment above the apothecary.

The sparks between Lucy and Thorne are immediate and intense, but they both hold back. Lucy fears being duped by another man, while Thorne has never forgiven himself for not saving Sadie’s mother from an early death. But as Thorne works to uncover the thief, he

and Lucy are irresistibly drawn together, and they must challenge themselves to heal.

Once again, Everett mixes romance with sharp insights into women’s lives in Victorian England—as well as today. She pulls no punches highlighting the unequal treatment of women throughout history, particularly as it relates to healthcare access, freedom of choice regarding one’s own life, and safety. Readers of Everett’s previous series, Secret Scientists of London, will cheer to see cameo appearances from familiar characters while being treated to a colorful and often amusing cast of new ones. Dealing unflinchingly with birth control, abortion, and sexual assault—as well as containing some of Everett’s steamiest bedroom scenes yet—this book is not for the squeamish, but it’s sure to win Everett a legion of new fans.

JAMES

Percival Everett, Doubleday, 2024, $28.00/ C$37.99, hb, 303pp, 9780385550369 / Mantle, 2024, £20.00, hb, 320pp, 9781035031238

This novel retells the story of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain’s adolescent rascal, but from the viewpoint of Jim (James), the slave who accompanies Huck on his adventures. James comes fully into his own in this version of the narrative, which follows the pair as they embark on their dangerous journey on the river. Everett follows Twain’s lead for several of the original incidents, including their misadventures with the nefarious Duke and Dauphin.

Everett shares Twain’s disdain for “the damned human race,” which is exemplified by the venal characters the pair meet on their travels, though, in this version, the condemnation is especially realized by white slavers who cruelly abuse and rape the men and women they consider their lawful property, all the while claiming they are good, God-fearing Christians.

As a well-developed hero, James demonstrates intelligence and resourcefulness, which save Huck and himself in several threatening situations. His ironic insights about the people and situations he encounters—not the least of which is the institution of slavery—expose a tragic period in American history. His reflections on the morality of some of his actions— “was it evil to kill evil?”—present the reader with opportunities for serious reflection.

The novel and James have flaws, however. Critics generally agree that Twain, realizing how bleak Huckleberry Finn’s plot was developing, contrived a happy ending by having the pair end up at Aunt Sally’s home with a chance for Jim to be free. Everett follows suit with his surprise ending to this novel, which is, while positive, contrived. Moreover, while James has taught himself how to read and write and his actions prove his intelligence many times over, his presumed ability to read and comprehend a philosopher such as

Kierkegaard strains the reader’s credulity and is really not necessary.

Joanne Vickers

TO LOVE THE BROODING BARON

Jentry Flint, Shadow Mountain, 2024, $16.99, pb, 256pp, 9781639932399

London, 1815. Arabella Latham is ‘searching for a spark’ which would signal she has found love. What she does not expect is to find it in the taciturn Henry Northcott, known amongst the ton as the Brooding Baron. She, by contrast, is lively and impulsive, but though they seem ill-matched, she has observed that he treats her with kindness and is willing to engage in her favourite game: identifying Shakespearian quotations. For his part, Henry is helplessly attracted to her, but because he fears he has inherited the madness he believes runs in his family, he decides never to marry. The obstacles seem insurmountable, but Arabella is very determined.

The plot grows rather bizarre and, during the rescue of Arabella from the insane asylum she has been caught trying to sneak into, it takes on gothic overtones. The effect is heightened by the exaggerated behaviour of the characters, notably Henry’s malevolent aunt, his frivolous friend Bradbury, and a corrupt doctor and his thuggish cohorts. Though Henry’s struggle with his conflicted feelings does grow tiresome, the insights into the impact of childhood trauma and the mistreatment of those condemned as lunatics are valuable.

Ray Thompson

THE MILLINER OF BENDIGO

Darry Fraser, HQ Fiction, 2023, A$32.99, pb, 432pp, 9781867237617

Evie Emerson is in a tricky situation. Edwin Cooper, a man she had briefly and foolishly courted, announces via the local newspaper that they are engaged. When she tries to set him straight, that she has no intention of marrying him, he turns nasty and says he’ll sue her for breach of promise.

Meanwhile, Evie’s prior gentleman friend, journalist Fitz O’Shea, is in a bit of bother after investigating the murky world of police corruption, and he and his loyal pal, Raff Dolan (who secretly carries a torch for Evie), must skedaddle out of Bendigo. Apart from the dastardly Edwin, Evie has other worries. Why has she not heard from her married sister, Meryl, who lives near the Murray River?

As Edwin’s threats become more menacing and her employer’s millinery business is affected by the growing scandal, Evie decides it’s time to visit Meryl. She is reunited with Fitz and Raff in the town of Cobram, where a powerful landowner has a sinister agenda that involves Meryl’s property and maybe even murder.

This refreshingly vibrant novel will transport you to late 19th-century country Australia with

Sarah Hendess

its similarities to America’s Wild West. The morality of the time is reflected accurately in the dialogue, actions, and emotions of an authentic set of characters. Misunderstandings in the relationship between Evie, Fitz and Raff are finely negotiated. The other plot-lines seamlessly come together, as do the sensitive issues of sexual identity and female health that wouldn’t have been openly discussed in this era.

There are cameos by characters from the author’s earlier books set along the Murray River, but it is not necessary to have read them to get full value out of this one. Mysterious disappearances, chases, heroes, villains, romances and fancy hats. What’s not to love?

Marina Maxwell

THE LOST GIRL

Rosie Goodwin, Zaffre, 2024, £8.99, pb, 386pp, 9781838773663 / 2023, $21.99, hb, 400pp, 9781838773656

In the 1870s, Esme and Gabriel are forced to leave the safety of the vardo (gypsy caravan) where they once lived happily with their nowmissing Romani father and recently deceased mother. Together they make the journey across English farm country towards the house of their maternal grandfather, a vicar whom they’ve never met.

He turns out to be a cruel and disturbed man who swiftly begins abusing the children physically, emotionally, and – in Esme’s case –sexually. As horrible as these scenes are, they are played extremely realistically. Clearly, the author understands the psychology of abusers and people trapped in relationships with them.

Meanwhile, Esme begins to see the ghosts of a number of miserable young women in her bedroom at night, as well as another woman who, like Jane Eyre’s Bertha, seems to have been confined to the attic. Esme, you see, has “the gift” – that is, the ability to see the dead – which she inherited from her paternal grandmother, the stereotypically-named Griselda. Esme knows well that she’s not safe in the creepy old house. Luckily, she befriends the daughter of a wealthy couple, who invites her to join in on her lessons. This friendship saves Esme.

While the prose style is simple and not particularly beautiful, that’s probably a good thing if you’re looking for a fast, dramatic read that will pull at your heartstrings. Here the drama of the family’s story is the real draw. However, I found the timeline vaguely implausible. Initially Esme seems to behave like a child of twelve or even younger, but by the end she’s clearly in her late teens at least, yet other details seem to indicate that at most two or three years have passed.

Lee Lanzillotta

Cambridge inn when the inn’s cook is found dead. It quickly becomes clear the death wasn’t accidental, so Hardiman makes a promise to the cook’s widow to discover what happened. As Hardiman’s inquiries lead him to St. Clement’s College, the head of the house grants Hardiman authority to investigate within the small college’s walls, in hopes of avoiding a scandal. Soon, Hardiman’s investigation turns up missing items from the college, some of great value. As more people are questioned, threats begin to nip at Hardiman’s heels. Then the college butler is found dead with a note clutched in his hand, opening the investigation to an even greater conspiracy.

The narrative voice is Hardiman recounting the investigation after the fact, which unfolds events smoothly while also hinting at a broader picture yet to be revealed. It’s subtle, with the occasional aside to the reader, but works quite well to set the stage. The author deftly weaves character moments in naturally within the path of Hardiman’s investigation. For instance, our main character is a fan of words and keeps with him a small notebook to record new ones he learns while speaking with the booksellers, college administrators, and bankers he must question. Hardiman’s intriguing quirk easily drew me into this society and its vernacular (along with a helpful glossary within the end pages). The investigation is a mid-paced jaunt through a vibrant Regency era setting and a long list of suspects. I found this to be an excellent start to a new historical crime series.

J. Lynn Else

THE AZIOLA’S CRY

Ezra Harker Shaw, History Through Fiction, 2024, $19.95/£16.99, pb, 372pp, 9798987319185

The Aziola’s Cry is as mournful and haunting as Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem about the ‘little downy owl’. Crafted around the years the Shelleys spent together, 1814-1822, Harker Shaw’s biographical fiction focuses on how those years may have contributed to literary conversation and collaboration between the two intellectuals.

OSTLER

Susan Grossey, Independently published, 2023, £8.99, pb, 273pp, 9781916001992

Cambridge, 1825. Former soldier Gregory Hardiman carries scars with him from the war against Napoleon—both emotionally and physically. He’s working as an ostler at a

In 1814, twenty-one-year-old Shelley declared undying love for the brilliant sixteenyear-old Mary Wollstonecraft. Refusing to be encumbered by the strictures of British society, Mary wholeheartedly agreed to become his mistress (Shelley was married, although estranged from his wife at the time). Shunned by her outraged family, Shelley, Mary, and her stepsister, Jane (Claire Clairmont), left for the continent. For Mary there was no other option. Shelley was her destiny, the mirror to her soul.

Their peripatetic lifestyle was dogged by

financial insecurity, tragedy, and loss, one event after another. Mary, wrapped in her unspeakable grief, became distant, unable to give of herself, and concentrated instead on her writing. Shelley, who craved her companionship like the air he breathed, found some comfort in other pursuits.

Harker Shaw’s Shelley is a conflicted soul, slandered in England as an atheist, a revolutionary and a writer of immoral works. His fear that no one would ever read his words overrode his wish to contribute to the betterment of mankind. Mary was a consistent stabilising force for his inner torment. Harker Shaw’s first-person narrative is a spell-binding historical account, an enduring ode to the terrible price the Shelleys paid for their love—a viscerally painful story of unrelenting loss. Pages are haunted by an overriding sense of fate. Magnificent descriptions of violent storms foreshadow the future. Periods of happy bliss alternate with overwhelming grief and melancholy. Harker Shaw sticks very closely to historical fact, which could become tedious, yet this emotionally stirring love story is a work of beauty I won’t soon forget.

Fiona Alison

WHAT CANNOT BE SAID

C. S. Harris, Berkley, 2024, $28.00/C$37.99, hb, 368pp, 9780593639184

In this nineteenth installment in Harris’s well-loved and well-respected series, Sebastian St. Cyr and his wife, Hero, are faced with the murder of a mother and daughter, who are found laid out like tomb effigies after a family picnic in Richmond Park. When a young chocolatier’s apprentice is found in a similarly ritualistic pose, St. Cyr and Hero must investigate whether London is being stalked by a serial killer who is imitating the murders of another mother and daughter fourteen years earlier. Their search will take them through the ugly underbelly of the Regency workhouses and the appalling treatment of apprenticed orphans, as well as to a baby farmer adept at quietly disposing of unwanted infants, under the guise of caring for them. At the same time, England is facing a new crisis in the form of the exiled Napoleon Bonaparte, for the government must decide whether to return him to near-certain execution in France, or allow their deadly enemy to live in England as he has requested.

As always, Harris blends an unflinching look at the bleak existence of the majority of London’s population with the glittering scenes in salons and assembly rooms that Regency readers love. Series fans will be pleased with further developments in the stories of several recurring characters, but the overarching series arcs never interfere with a satisfying mystery, supported by well-researched history. Harris’s trademark concern for the social wrongs of the Regency period is still the driving force of the novel, but mystery-first readers will not be dissatisfied with the well-constructed, if sometimes diffuse, central puzzle.

Erica Obey

OF HOAXES AND HOMICIDE

Anastasia Hastings, Minotaur, 2024, $28.00/ C$37.00, hb, 304pp, 9781250848581

In 1885, Violet Manville is five months into her secret persona as Miss Hermione, Britain’s best-loved Agony Aunt, and finding it a tad frustrating. Same-old, same-old is interspersed with more of the same—mothersin-law, unfaithful spouses, debutantes, manners, etiquette—and Violet is desperate for the thrill of a new investigation, like the one which found her in the arms of the enigmatic Eli Marsh. Who, by the way, hasn’t contacted her since! Rifling through recent correspondence, she sees one letter which piques her interest. A daughter has run off and joined the Hermetic Order of the Children of Aed, a cult known to practice human sacrifice, devil worship and orgies, amongst other salacious rituals—according to Violet’s flighty stepsister, Sephora, who delights in reading penny-dreadfuls, the more dreadful the better. Violet isn’t so easily duped, however, and decides to attend a gathering with Master, the cult leader. Charismatic and charming, she discovers he is not at all the devil-worshipping fiend of the press. One of the group’s yellow-robed acolytes is familiar— Sephora’s best friend, Margaret— and Violet follows her to the cult’s rustic camp near Nottingham, and feigns interest in becoming a member.

Hastings’ second dive into Miss Hermione’s adventures holds on tight until the end. I was immersed with Violet, the peculiarities of the cult, rituals and ceremonies, shadowy specters, shifting personalities, and Eli’s surprise appearance. Margaret thwarts Violet’s attempts to rescue her, and Violet finds herself investigating the random death of a novice like herself. The stepsisters’ relationship is well drawn, each underestimating the other’s investigative prowess, and Sephora may yet prove worthy of cognitive thought beyond frilly dresses and conjugal bliss. Hastings weaves backstory deftly through an engrossing narrative. And what of Eli and the stolen kiss behind the rhododendron bush? Perhaps the next installment will tell.

Fiona Alison

THE QUEEN OF THE PLATFORM

Susan Higginbotham, Onslow Press, 2024, $15.99, pb, 371pp, 9781737474937

Ernestine Rose, Polish-born freethinker and women’s rights advocate, lived a life that spanned most of the 19th century. This novel narrates her story as imagined through her own voice at its end. Born into a Jewish heritage whose traditions she later rejected, Ernestine’s journey took her from Poland, Berlin, and Paris to London and New York during a time of revolutions and civil war. She experienced anti-Semitism throughout her life, as well as distrust at being a foreigner, and rejection for her participation in public

politics as a woman. Nevertheless, she insisted on defying conventional female norms and made her views widely known on topics such as women’s property rights, divorce, suffrage, atheism, and abolition. Through her prolific public lectures, she became known as the queen of the speaking platform.

The character of Ernestine Rose is compellingly human in this novel. Her developing roles as daughter, sister, mother, and wife pull readers into the narrative as it unfolds. The nature of her relationships with her allies and her adversaries further shows how she made sense of her social and political environment, and how she tried to live her best life in those challenging times. Filled with episodes of seemingly unsurmountable odds overcome with extraordinary persistence, this novel offers inspiration at its core.

Karen Bordonaro

A HOME FOR FRIENDLESS WOMEN

Kelly E. Hill, Vintage, 2024, $17.00/C$22.99, pb, 288pp, 9780593685815

Kelly E. Hill’s debut reads like a living, breathing scrapbook about the women from the titular Home, a religious organization from late 19th-century Louisville, Kentucky, that took in unwed pregnant women, attempting to instill them with godly virtues while persuading them to discard their “sinful” ways. Of course, what constitutes sin is in the beholder’s eye, and the line between the oppressed and their female oppressors often hinges on an unfortunate quirk of fate.

In 1878, a brilliant former Oberlin College student named Ruth arrives at the Home after an unknown man sexually assaults her in the campus museum – a place where women students were permitted to clean but not use the microscopes. With nowhere else to go, Ruth puts up with the founders’ obnoxious moralizing, but shocking events have her worrying about the other girls and their babies. Eleven years later, we hear from the witty Belle Queeney, who left the brothel several blocks away after she fell pregnant. Belle’s tireless work ethic threatens to make the other “inmates” look bad, but she knows her worth even if society calls her a fallen woman. Belle dreams of reuniting with her lover, Rose, who has gone missing. And in 1901, the founders’ daughter Minnie Davidson, now a fortyish wife and mother, uncovers a past scandal at the Home just in time for its 25th anniversary celebration. Their accounts appear chronologically, a technique that allows mysteries to build.

Delighting in research but never weighed down by it, Hill’s novel is based around cryptic mentions from the Home’s actual minute books (“Two women have been sent to City Hospital, one to Insane Asylum, one expelled”), transforming these long-silenced individuals into memorable characters, alongside primary source snippets and informative footnotes. Echoing with themes of human dignity, bodily autonomy, and

the rights all women deserve, this wise and compassionate work is completely absorbing.

Sarah Johnson

THE KELSEY OUTRAGE

Alison Louise Hubbard, Black Rose Writing, 2024, $24.95, pb, 360pp, 9781685133597

A historic plaque in Huntingdon, New York, commemorates a despicable crime, when a young Irish poet and Sunday school teacher, who had the misfortune to fall for a local girl, was tarred and feathered by persons unknown. Hubbard draws heavily on remaining records to tell a story of unrequited love, jealousy, rage, and revenge.

After the death of their parents, Cathleen and Danny Kelsey eke out a farming living in the fictional town of Huntoria. Their brother, Charles, a poet, a dreamer and shy idealist, contributes little to the household, but is loved and understood for his foibles. On the evening of November 4, 1872, he tells his siblings he is going to town to vote in the presidential election. He doesn’t come home.

What follows is a step-by-step investigation by almost-retired Constable Alec Ruggles and Cathleen Kelsey. The main issue, the narrator says, is that ‘a large group of wellheeled individuals from the church had appointed themselves judge and jury, and had punished a lone man for his “sins.”’ These men are church elders, school board and town council members, supposedly upstanding representatives of their community. The fact the men indicted were found not guilty shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Women were also complicit.

The novel, whilst grabbing my interest early on, lost it as the investigation continued. Ruggles’ methods are so lethargic that it becomes boring to read, and a crime which was and is so sickeningly cruel becomes distanced in the telling for most of the book. Several scenes that are based on fact fail to convince. This would be an excellent read as a true crime nonfiction thriller, but as fiction it didn’t work for me.

Fiona Alison

FOLLOWED BY THE LARK

Helen Humphreys, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2024, $27.00, hb, 240pp, 9780374611491 / HarperCollins Canada, 2024, C$32.99, hb, 240pp, 9781443468923

The imagined interior life of renowned American naturalist Henry David Thoreau blossoms in this lyrical exploration of his world from childhood to his death at the age of forty-four. Humphreys, a Canadian writer, relies on Thoreau’s letters, diaries, and journals to inspire this fictional patchwork of memories and scenes that begin with a five-year-old Henry seeing Walden Pond for the first time: “Walden was the first pond he’d ever known, so it might as well have been the wild ocean.” Humphreys conjures up imaginary yet revealing conversations among Thoreau’s eclectic friends, not least of which is the great American literary mind

of his time, Ralph Waldo Emerson. The major highlights of Thoreau’s short life are all here: the publication of his major books Walden and A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, with Thoreau noting in his journal about the former’s publication alongside the fact that “the elderberries had ripened and the climbing bittersweet was yellowing,” the two events no more important than the other “in Henry’s universe.” But there were tragedies and sorrows for Thoreau, as well: the death of his beloved siblings, Helen and John, and the fruitless search for fellow Transcendentalist Margaret Fuller’s body, after she was shipwrecked off Fire Island in July 1850. Mitigating the peaks and valleys of his personal life is the ever-present natural world that holds him in thrall—its animals, plants, and rocks—which he obsessively collects, measures, observes, and sketches.

This slim volume is a fast read, but its masterful prose entices the reader to slow down and appreciate the “return of the bluebird” in the spring. Humphreys pays a tender tribute to Thoreau, but also to the wonders of the natural world that he loved so much.

Peggy Kurkowski

THE MAYFAIR DAGGER

Ava January, Crooked Lane, 2024, $29.99/ C$38.99, hb, 304pp, 9781639107513

If you enjoy Victorian-lady-detective-meetsa-duke novels, then this book is for you. It is a light-hearted romp through a London of carriages and crinolines where a thoroughly nasty man is found dead. Albertine Von Dagga, struggling to start the Mayfair Dagger detective agency, appears to be the last person to have seen him alive.

Unaware at first of the suspicion that will befall her, Albertine rejoices in the fat fee that will be coming her way for finding Lady Roche’s love letters and for returning Lady Cobham’s lost dog. Unfortunately, both ladies renege on payment, just when Albertine most needs the money because she has hired the best-looking man in London to assist her. How was she to know he was both a senior Scotland Yard detective and the Duke of Erleigh?

The author seems to have the Dickens method of naming characters, so she has given us the handsome Duke of Erleigh’s street name ‘Sweetman’ as well as naming an unsavory character ‘Wallop’. The most fascinating character of all, Albertine’s sidekick, is simply Joan.

This novel could have used more research and more careful editing, but it is saved by the rapid pacing and by the author’s light touch of humor. A pleasant read.

Valerie Adolph

THE WICKED AND THE DEAD

William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone, Pinnacle, 2024, $8.99, pb, 368pp, 9780786051212

Hack Long and his gang of outlaws were on

the run when they stashed a fortune in stolen gold in Barstow, Texas, then high-tailed it across the Rio Grande. Now they have to bust out of a Mexican prison and head north if they ever hope to get their hands on the loot again.

In the authors’ newest tale of the Old West, readers are taken on a high-desert chase alongside Luke Fisher, Two-Horses, Gabriel Santana, Billy Lightning, and Long as they make a daring break for freedom in a race for the border. It’s going to be a bumpy ride with more trouble ahead in Texas. Each chapter is short, the language lean, the storyline packed with adventure, blazing guns, and dead bodies dropping left and right all over the place. A large cast of Indians, homesteaders, and lawmen pops up along the way without much character development, but the authors weave the lives of the five desperados into an unbreakable bond of loyalty that keeps the story on track. Set during the days when Jesse James was making a name for himself, The Wicked and the Dead has plenty of gun-toting action for fans of genre western fiction.

Deborah Cay Wilding

ALL WE WERE PROMISED

Ashton Lattimore, Ballantine, 2024, $30.00/$39.99, hb, 368pp, 9780593600153

Lattimore’s debut exudes originality in its characters, plot situations, and especially in its well-chosen setting of 1830s Philadelphia, “the self-proclaimed cradle of liberty,” a landmark American city whose grand ideals of freedom and brotherly love fall short for its Black residents. The opening scene makes plain this philosophical struggle. As Charlotte Walker and Nell Gardner attend a speech by prominent abolitionist Robert Purvis in Washington Square Park, white men’s resentment agitates a violent mob.

The young women’s worlds rarely intersect; their friendship is an exception. Nell’s family are well-to-do Black elites who have been free for generations, while Charlotte had escaped a Maryland plantation with her father four years earlier, a fact she keeps hidden. Charlotte is forced to serve as housemaid to her ambitious father while he passes for white and establishes an upscale woodworking business. Charlotte gradually opens Nell’s eyes to the hypocritical limitations of the Philadelphia Female Antislavery Society that Nell belongs to, since it hesitates to take action to help runaway slaves, even as these needs become immediate. Charlotte had left her younger friend Evie behind when she fled Maryland, and when Evie arrives in Philadelphia with her enslaver, the self-absorbed Missus Kate, Charlotte risks having her cover blown.

The viewpoint nimbly switches among the three lead characters, and pre-Civil War Philadelphia arises fully formed on the page with its diverse residential neighborhoods, public spaces, and a moral edifice whose structure is continually tested. The storyline keeps readers guessing on how everyone’s relationships will evolve under the weight of secrets: not just the women’s friendships, but

also Nell’s potential romance with a family friend and Charlotte’s strained bond with her father/boss, who refuses to acknowledge their past. A few too-modern word choices stand out (“slow-walked”), but this is an altogether absorbing, thought-provoking story.

Sarah Johnson

THE VICAR AND THE VILLAGE SCANDAL

Roseanne E. Lortz, Madison Street, 2023, $3.99, ebook, 205pp, B0CB4TKJJF

When his cousin offers him the living of Allenham Church, Thomas Allen is surprised. His past conduct towards Crispin and his wife Eloise had been offensive, and though he had apologized sincerely and received forgiveness, the offer is remarkably generous. He has since reformed and taken holy orders, but will the congregation, familiar with his scandalous youth, be willing to accept him? Especially the father of Mary Bates, to whom he feels a growing attraction? And one that she seems to return. Thomas is making slow progress in winning over the villagers before a mysterious child is left in his care, and rumours begin to circulate that he is the father.

Set in 1816, ‘the year without a summer’, this is a story in which the virtues of repentance and forgiveness, compassion and patient adherence to duty, are richly rewarded, while the villains are exposed. Readers looking for a tightly written love story with likeable protagonists will find much to enjoy in the third in the Allen Abbey Romance series, and it is refreshing to find a Regency concerned with the lives of people far below the rank of the dukes and high-born ladies of the ton. Strongly recommended.

Ray Thompson

SPITTING GOLD

Carmella Lowkis, Atria, 2024, $27.00/C$36.99, hb, 288pp, 9781668024959 / Doubleday, 2024, £16.99, hb, 336pp, 9780857529466

Baroness Sylvie Devereux and her sister, Charlotte Mothe, agree to pull off one last scam in this gothic, sapphic romance, set in Paris in 1866. A condition of Sylvie’s noble marriage was that she cut herself off from family, so for more than two years, Charlotte has cared for their father alone. Now on his deathbed, Charlotte needs money, so she seeks out her wealthy sister. The sisters are spiritists, well versed in conning nobility in the name of helping them rid their lives of unwanted spectral manifestations. The targeted de Jacquinot family has fallen from grace: Madame, the dowager marquise; Florence, her wan, fragile daughter; Madame’s son, Maximilien, the present marquis and bored cynic; and Ardoir, the siblings’ vindictive grandfather. With dwindling finances and scandal nipping at their heels, the de Jacquinots are being haunted by Comtesse Sabine de Lisle, a greataunt murdered during the French Revolution, but events at the séances begin to look suspiciously like the work of real malevolent

spirits. Maximilien accidentally discovers Sylvie’s lie in disguising her noble status, which causes disruption in her life as secrets threaten to emerge.

A novel presenting two distinct points of view is often written in alternating chapters, but here the author chooses two parts. First is Sylvie’s story, her impressions of the peculiar de Jacquinots, as well as her doubts and fears about her sister. The second half is Charlotte’s story, showing a new turn of events during the same timeframe, which allows readers to see Sylvie in a different light. A couple of tells in the narrative are a bit obvious, and the ending is melodramatic, but overall, a ghostly read, set in a suitably eerie house, peppered with a bit of wry humor. A well-written, memorable debut.

Fiona Alison

THE PARIS AFFAIR

Maureen Marshall, Grand Central, 2024, $19.99/C$25.99, pb, 416pp, 9781538757802

In the late 1880s, Gustave Eiffel met with a lot of resistance in building his tower – in fact, there was no guarantee that the tower would be built, given lack of financial support from the government and adverse public opinion. Fin Tighe, an English engineer and subordinate of Eiffel, is drawn into an elaborate scheme to fund the tower’s construction. He is the illegitimate son of an English noble and the caretaker and guardian of a cousin who is a budding ballet dancer. He is also gay and attracted to the creator of the funding scheme. He has kept these parts of his life compartmentalized, but the walls come crashing down as the story progresses.

This novel weaves in elements of romance and mystery but is focused on the human drama of the various characters. Most of the supporting characters are not just who Fin perceives them to be – their actions and motivations become clearer towards the end. All the characters are well-developed and feel accurate to their time and truth.

The novel closes on a happy note with the opening of the Eiffel Tower. This can perhaps be taken as a symbol of a new and more open order rising in the world. The book includes a Q&A section as well as detailed background to both the story and the author’s own history. A sequel featuring the Universal Exposition of 1889 and exploring the questions of race, gender, and inequality would be welcome, not to mention more of Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley, who get minuscule cameos at the end. Overall, an absorbing novel well worth the reader’s time.

Kishore Krishna

arrives in Cuba in 1898 to tend to the sick and injured during the Spanish-American War. While dodging bullets, he befriends an African American surgeon and meets a host of other medical professionals.

As the war winds down, Cleary chooses to stay in Cuba. He finds a sweetheart and immerses himself in the study of tropical diseases. Yellow fever, which was a problem during the war, rages through Havana and the military bases where Cleary works. He partners with a succession of doctors to understand the disease.

Some doctors believe that bacillus causes yellow fever. Another group suspects the mosquito. Cleary focuses on his patients while other doctors vie for recognition and career advancement. After trial and error, they all come to recognize that a humble mosquito biting an infected person within seventy-two hours can transfer yellow fever by biting a healthy individual twelve days later.

McSweegan excels at explaining such medical matters in the era as the dreadful progress of yellow fever, surgical practices, scientific experimentation, and the benefits of an early X-ray machine. He also entertains readers with references to the celebrated men who pass through Cuba, including Teddy Roosevelt, Stephen Crane, and Walter Reed. McSweegan’s subplots, including Cleary’s romance, the role of the German military in Cuba, and the nature of strained race relations, seem less well-developed. Nonetheless, readers will welcome the novel for the well-crafted setting and the fresh plot centering around advances in disease.

Marlie Wasserman

UNLADYLIKE RULES OF ATTRACTION

Amita Murray, Avon, 2024, $18.99, pb, 352pp, 9780063296527

When she inherits most of the Dowager Countess Budleigh’s fortune, Anya Marleigh is stunned. Not only is she no relation, but she is a sitar player and singer at the court of Queen Charlotte. Not to mention the daughter of an English earl and his Indian mistress. There are, moreover, some tricky conditions in the will.

but the distractions are numerous. Second in the Marleigh Sisters series.

Ray Thompson

THE BEHOLDERS

Hester Musson, 4th Estate, 2024, £16.99, hb, 328pp, 9780008558611

1878: The body of a boy is pulled from the river Thames. He is suspected to be the missing child of Liberal MP Ralph Gethin. The author relates this via graphic newspaper headlines, shattering any notion that what follows may be an easy or comfortable read. Agog for the disclosure on which the grisly case may hinge, one is caught in a deeply disturbing vortex of Victorian intrigue from the very opening page of this exceptional gothic thriller.

A bizarre tale hypnotically unfurls, its sticky tendrils tugging its witness inescapably into a labyrinth of shadows and sordid secrets. Therein lies a hydra-headed monster: a composite of everything putrid underlying the society of the time. Told through the pencil-scrawled diary of Harriet Watkins, an iron-willed housemaid who staunchly refuses victimhood no matter what her lot, there is hell and damnation, persecution and salvation, martyrdom, sacrifice and redemption etched into pages and lives with heart-stopping, gutwrenching precision.

THE FEVER HUT

Edward McSweegan, Fireship, 2024, $21.99, pb, 266pp, 9781611794267

For fans of historical fiction interested in developments in medicine, The Fever Hut is an informative and engaging read. As the book opens, an American doctor, Duncan Cleary,

How these are resolved initiates a complicated series of adventures involving robbery, blackmail, death, a wild horse ride, rescues, stressful family relationships and, of course, falling in love. Since various social issues are also raised, such as aristocratic privilege and the treatment of minors, gay people, and people of mixed race, there is rather a lot going on. Nor does it help that when the lovers are not locked in passionate embrace, they spend most of their time worrying about their many problems, including what they perceive to be their own inadequacies.

There is interesting material here, especially on the long-term impact of childhood trauma,

Perspectives are repeatedly tipped giddily onto their heads before glimmers of truth can be gathered as offerings to the innocent, scraps of light against a suffocating backdrop of overwhelming vileness. Hester Musson’s dramatic timing is impeccable and harrowing, leaving the reader fairly slavering to discover the fate of Watkins and her glamourous, highly-strung mistress – and the answer to the mystery that threads through the narrative like smoke from a heaped bonfire of naïve assumptions. The dénouement is a blazing beacon, the more powerful for its juxtaposition against the stench of corruption out of which it is born, its message searing into the soul for all time: the assurance that there are angels among us indeed.

A relentlessly claustrophobic nightmare, unquestionably a jewel of the genre. You will need to step outside to gulp at the air long before the final page.

K. Darbey

AN IDLE WOMAN

Wendy Parkins, Legend Press, 2024, £9.99/$17.99, pb, 288pp, 9781915643278

Having established the central character,

Frances Dickinson, known also as Fanny, as a lively, well-educated young heiress, we are told of her courtship and subsequent marriage to the attractive and apparently suitable young John Giels. John, however, was not what he seemed. At a time when wives were expected to be warm and submissive, Fanny attempted to comply, while John’s treatment of his new young bride moved from contempt to verbal and then physical abuse.

In addition to his poor treatment of his wife, John preyed on the servant girls, indulging in sexual relationships with many of them, some of whom condoned this while others later supported Fanny when, eventually, she turned to the law in order to protect herself and her daughters. Despite her strong character, financial position and many influential friends, the ensuing legal process was painfully protracted. For years John’s threats forced Fanny and her children into hiding in various remote parts of the country, while the depositions of her supporters were duly assembled by her lawyers. Eventually Fanny achieved her primary ambitions – to procure a legal separation from John and to secure lasting custody of her daughters.

This account of things is told, in a slightly pedestrian style, through the words of Fanny herself, substantiated by a plethora of legal and personal correspondence and sworn statements.

From John himself, we hear nothing and this, in my view, is a situation which hugely diminishes the appeal of this novel. Yes, John is an appalling character and yes, he deserves to lose his wife, the custody of his daughters and much money, but some insight into his personality, some explanation for his treatment of Fanny and a hint, perhaps, about what may have later become of him, would have been welcomed by this reader.

FINDING MARGARET FULLER

Allison Pataki, Ballantine, 2024, $30.00/ C$39.99, hb, 416pp, 9780593600238

Margaret Fuller, friend and muse to Emerson, Whitman, Hawthorne, Thoreau, and a host of other Victorian literary luminaries, is an ideal subject for a fictionalized biography, chiefly because she didn’t leave much personal writing behind. A prolific translator and journalist, Fuller turned her brilliant talents outward, offering the world deeply researched arguments in favor of abolition, education, female emancipation, and the rights of working-class people, as well as critical assessments of the greatest writers of her age.

Pataki creates a detailed narrative, from Fuller’s point of view, of her tragically short professional career from 1836-1850. This is a choice that helps the reader understand the decisions she made in her personal and professional lives, but we do lose a sense of just what made Fuller’s writing so powerful and influential. Louisa May Alcott is only one of the 19th-century American authors whom

she inspired, but Pataki focuses mostly on the domestic details of Fuller’s life in Concord, Boston, New York and finally Rome. These details are lovingly rendered, particularly the beauties of nature that Margaret delighted in, which humanizes the heroine but keeps us at a distance from her unique mind and talent.

This is an absorbing read because Fuller herself was so fascinating, but it’s also a bit melancholy because the reader is aware of Margaret’s fate, detailed in the prologue. As a tour of the brilliance and innovation – as well as the personal foibles – of the Transcendentalists, however, it’s a gem.

Kristen McDermott

THE SONGBIRD OF HOPE HILL

Kim Vogel Sawyer, WaterBrook, 2024, $18.00, pb, 352pp, 9780593600818

Set in 1895 Texas, The Songbird of Hope Hill tells the story of Birdie Clarkson, a young woman who is trapped in a brothel. For some time, she has been working at Lida’s Palace because, as a penniless and friendless woman, she had little choice. When Reverend Isaiah Overly and his son, Ephraim, appear on the scene, she finally has her chance to escape and seizes it. At Hope Hill, she is able to heal and make a life for herself. When she begins to develop feelings for Ephraim, she questions whether anything will cleanse her from the stains of the past.

This was my first time reading a book by Kim Vogel Sawyer, and I was glad I did. The characters possess great depth and human vulnerability, especially Birdie. While she does have a romance with Ephraim, I liked how the story focused more on her journey and her path to finding self-love. This heartfelt tale of faith is replete with gorgeous prose and larger-thanlife characters. The overarching message—that no one is too far gone for hope and grace—was honestly my favorite part of the story. But while the novel has slow moments in the pacing, the conclusion feels somewhat rushed. I was left feeling a bit underwhelmed.

Elizabeth K. Corbett

THE LIBRARY THIEF

Kuchenga Shenjé, Sphere, 2024, £16.99, hb, 400pp, 9781408726846 / Hanover Square, 2024, $29.99/C$36.99, hb, 368pp, 9781335909695

When white-passing bookbinder Florence Granger arrives on the doorstep of Rose Hall in late 1896, she finds an isolated house still in mourning. She is greeted by Wesley, an androgynous manservant, whom she befriends. The only other servant is a rather taciturn cook. Widowed Lord Belfield, a longstanding customer of Florence’s bookbinder father, keeps to his rooms at first, barely acknowledging Florence’s presence. His valuable book collection is to be sold now that the estate has fallen on difficult times, but Florence has stolen Lord Belfield’s letter to her father and pretends to have come at her father’s request. She fails to divulge that

her father threw her out after finding her in flagrante delicto with her anarchist lover. Destitute and without prospects or home, Florence delays her work, melding into the enigmatic household. Lady Penelope Belfield’s half-burned diary, discovered after a breakin, leaves Florence pondering the woman’s untimely death.

This late-Victorian Gothic, with bookbinding and a love of literature at its heart, begins well. Descriptions of Florence’s work are fascinating, and her slow awakening to her mixed-race heritage is very well handled. Characters are multi-faceted and unorthodox in an atmospheric setting, but trouble for me began as the plot sidetracked. Florence learns to ride for no reason I could determine, other than to meet ostler Joseph, whose romantic relationship proves distracting. A small cast of racially and sexually diverse characters displaying so many secrets and misrepresentations in a tale of class distinction, rape, arson, theft, revenge, and possibly murder, turned a taut plot into a confusing medley that didn’t seem sure of its purpose. I thoroughly enjoyed much of the novel and would have liked more development of the cook’s part, as there are some excellent scenes, but my overall sense is that the novel is trying to be too many things and a tighter plot would be of benefit.

Fiona Alison

THREE TIMES BURIED

Jane Smith, Independently published, 2024, $17.75, pb, 287pp, 9780648650331

This gripping true crime thriller is crafted from a trial which took place in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1827.

In 1826, young Meggy McKessar was hired as a servant girl at Futteret Den, the farm belonging to John Lovie, in the isolated community of Fraserburgh. The work was mostly helping John’s elderly mother, Widow Lovie, in the kitchen. Meggy was slovenly, inclined towards laziness and of a demanding and saucy nature, but Widow Lovie grew fond of her cheeriness and blather—and besides, the widow was old and careworn, and her overriding concern was for her son’s immortal soul. A three-year-long accusation from a local girl hung over him, that he had fathered her son (christened John Lovie), and the kirk would accept nothing but his repentance of his transgression. His mother believed none of the girl’s lies.

Seen primarily through Widow Lovie’s eyes and musings, Smith’s evocation of early 19th-century farming life makes a compelling read as we live cheek-by-jowl in a cramped little house, with its four occupants, including

Julia Stoneham

farmworker Rannie, whose opinion of Meggy fluctuates between irritation and attraction. In 1827, a death occurred in this small farming community, and its suspicious nature came to the attention of procurator fiscal, William Simpson. Suddenly the bucolic life at Futteret Den was open to criticism from an inquisitive world. As the exhaustive investigation takes its toll, Smith’s vivid characterizations make it impossible not to wonder what the citified world of lawyers and judges and scientists might have looked like to the illiterate farmers and fishermen of Fraserburgh.

This intriguing novel may well dispel misconceptions about the ineptness of forensic science 200 years ago. Readers of novels such as Graeme Macrae Burnet’s His Bloody Project will find this a well-written and unusual tale.

Fiona Alison

A SWEET STING OF SALT

Rose Sutherland, Dell, 2024, $18.00, pb, 352pp, 9780593594599

Sutherland retells the folktale, “The Selkie Wife,” in this moving novel of two women and their potential love for each other. She exposes the violence and cruelty inherent in this folk tradition of a mythic creature captured by a man and forced to be his wife. The plot keeps the reader on edge, driven by gradually revealed heroes and villains with complex motives.

Sutherland brings to life 19th-century Nova Scotia. She immerses her reader in the daily routines of Jean, the town’s midwife, as she tends goats and chickens on her small coastal homestead, and as she navigates the vicious gossip that forces her to hold herself separate from others, except when her services are needed. The angry mother of the girl Jean loved in a way forbidden by the community, has made it her job to marginalize Jean. Then one wet night, Jean finds a mysterious neighbor outside, seeking something Jean doesn’t understand, but also heavily pregnant and very much in need of Jean’s midwifery. More trouble comes with the introduction of the woman’s husband and escalates with deadly consequences. Jean has allies in town who will help if only she will let them.

Sutherland creates vivid language to express both physical descriptions and inner emotions. For example, a cold dawn leaves “the grass silver tipped and furred with frost.” At a reminder of Jean’s first love, “The memory opened up a hollow between Jean’s shoulders, where her spine ought to be, as empty and cold as the hours after midnight.” When

she’s neglected someone, “Jean’s skin shrunk, prickling with guilt.”

The novel is a striking, beautifully written love story set in a world of finely portrayed details.

Judith Starkston

DEATH AND GLORY

Will Thomas, Minotaur, 2024, $28.00/ C$37.00, hb, 304pp, 9781250864925

More than a dozen books into his Barker and Llewelyn series, Will Thomas offers his skilled hand with descriptions of 1894 London and an enjoyable pair of investigators. In Death and Glory, the duo isn’t asked to solve a crime, however; instead, a team of investors who claim to be secretly continuing the Confederate States of America want Cyrus Barker to connect them with the Prime Minister in secret. They have a signed treaty committing Britain to their cause.

Complicating the plot is the presence of Masonic and other secret order connections that force the “enquiry agents” into making the introduction. Then the action dives through high-end parties into rough conflict and murder. The Confederates can exert the power of the purse, as well as maneuver diplomacy: As Brigadier St. Ives drawls, “Everyone is interested in us. The cotton merchants, tobacco growers, coffee plantations …”

When strong reasons to doubt the validity of the treaty arise, it is up to the investigators— with the younger partner, Thomas Llewelyn, often sent into trouble—to prove forgery or fraud and prevent the Prime Minister and the nation from being pulled into yet another American war jeopardizing Britain’s interests. These very unpleasant Rebel leaders are, as Barker points out, ready to “swallow the entirety of the British West Indies, Jamaica, the Virgin Islands, the Bahamas and Monserrat” if they do not get their way.

Barker and Llewelyn play a timehonored double-double espionage role, which the author unveils with tongue firmly in cheek. Adding American Wild West figures compounds the teasing. Finally, the background romance of Llewelyn and his wife Rebecca adds sweetness and zest to this lively and imaginative read.

Beth Kanell

UNREST

Gwen Tuinman, Random House Canada, 2024, C$37.95, hb, 440pp, 9781039008601

Unrest centres on the raw beginnings of Ottawa, called Bytown, in 1836 – a squalid, crime-and-booze-infested shantytown. Mariah, badly facially scarred from a vicious dog attack when she was sixteen, is unmarried, in her thirties, and mostly invisible. Her resulting terror of men and dogs pervades every moment she is away from the homestead, when she ventures into Bytown to sell her sister’s medicines. Thomas, Mariah’s teenage son, apprenticed to a Bytown blacksmith, has been raised to believe she’s his

aunt. Mariah’s sister, Biddy, and her husband Seamus agreed to raise Thomas as their own and shelter Mariah when they emigrated to Upper Canada. But Mariah is treated worse than a servant by all except Seamus, whom she still holds a candle for. In Bytown, Thomas’s Irish heritage attracts repeated prejudice, drawing him into the protection of the Shiners, Irish thugs who assault anyone antiIrish, and sometimes just anyone. Meanwhile, the family homestead, which Thomas refuses to visit, is rife with bitterness and anger now that Mariah threatens to tell all and reclaim her motherhood.

Fear is a well-utilised theme: fear of safety, hunger, violence, poverty, and particularly men and dogs. Tuinman expertly paints this unsafe place in an unsafe time, bursting with racial tension, making her characters’ choices all the more understandable. In intimate firstperson accounts, Tuinman moves her two main protagonists down separate paths, with little interaction, revealing their thoughts, insecurities and decisions, good and bad. Several scenes of note capture Mariah’s courage and quick thinking when she’s up against her worst fears, despite spending most of her life in hiding. The festering family resentment drives the plot, but settles to a satisfying and quite unexpected ending to one woman’s resolute journey to take back what is hers. A riveting, tightly plotted family story.

Fiona Alison

THE INNOCENTS

Bridget Walsh, Gallic, 2024, $17.95/£12.99, 260pp, pb, 9781913547523

The Innocents is the second in a mystery series set in Victorian London in the 1870s. Its main protagonists are Minnie Ward, a twentysomething manager of the Palace Theatre, and Albert Easterbrook, a former police officer turned detective.

A terrible tragedy sets the novel off at a page-turning pace as hundreds of children die in a stampede at the end of a theatrical performance. Years later, people begin getting murdered within the tight-knit theatre community. At first, there seems to be no sense to the killings, no connection. But secrets abound in the world of the theatre. All Minnie knows for sure is that the lives of people near and dear to her are suddenly being placed at risk.

A good mystery follows more than one simple path and has numerous plots twists. The Innocents has these in good measure. There is a subplot about a stolen money and dogs being trained to tear each other apart. Minnie’s theatre itself is at risk of being sold out from under her by an unscrupulous imprisoned English lord. And, of course, there are the brewing romantic relationships, the clever repartee between people whose orbits are constantly being drawn closer and pushed apart by the gravity of shared experiences, some wonderful, others painful.

Author Walsh captures the Victorian period in both language and description with colorful

characters who populate the London theatre scene, filling out the novel with their own substories. The author drops clues throughout. Will you pick them up? Even if you do, you will enjoy the setting and the people who inhabit it. The Palace Mystery series has all the makings of PBS programming, with readers thirsting for the third installment.

Peter Clenott

INFERNO ON FIFTH

Marlie Parker Wasserman, Level Best/Historia, 2023, $18.95, pb, 360pp, 9781685124328

This fin-desiècle mystery centers on the Windsor Hotel on Fifth Avenue in New York City, which burned to the ground on March 17, 1899. The hotel housed many of America’s wealthy, so the fire was extensively covered by media, but names of the understaff are mostly unknown.

Wasserman has fashioned a remarkable story, using the three women who did, in fact, investigate the fire: Marguerite Wells, daughter of Dakota banker Edward Wells; Theodate Pope, daughter of industrialist and art collector Alfred Pope; and Angelica Gerry, daughter of reformer Eldridge Gerry. It is notable that all three women are distinguished historical figures in their own right. Every historical figure from Fire Chief to Buildings Commissioner to Chief of Detectives, who could be included, is packed into this complex story with precision.

There is no way to adequately sum this up other than to say that the before, during and aftermath of the inferno are described in a gripping account that I found impossible to put down. Theories ranged from someone flicking their cigar at a lace curtain, to small fires being set to conceal a robbery, to a poor water supply, to a lack of fire doors, to ladies’ maids leaving plugged-in electric irons on wooden boards. Such facts as Alfred Pope redirecting a fireman to retrieve his paintings, while women jumped to their death, remain undisputed on the historical record. Characters spring to life in the bustling 19th-century city setting of St. Patrick’s Day, backstories are fascinating, and the mystery of a robbery is well thought out. Motivation, guilt, blame, theory—all are packed into a taut plot.

I can’t praise this work highly enough for its attention to detail, unbiased retelling, and the author’s narrative ability to make it all so relatable and so compelling. Simply marvelous!

Fiona Alison

OUR LITTLE HISTORIES

Janice Weizman, Toby Press, 2023, $24.82/ C$32.40, pb, 238pp, 9781592645992

Every human being has their own little history. The seven little histories in this book come from imagined characters in an extended Jewish family beginning in 1850 in Eastern Europe. Working from the present day backwards to that time, the author has beautifully and poignantly shared their little histories with the world. We meet Jews in this book who are Americans, Israelis, Germans, Lithuanians, Russians, and Poles. We meet believing and non-believing Jews. We meet freethinkers, Socialists, Zionists, and Talmudic scholars. Each chapter about a different person is a story unto itself, yet it fits into the larger sense of family, culture, and time periods that connect all of them together. The thread that connects them are words of poetry written long ago in Yiddish which were saved by family members and passed on to future generations.

The author’s words that tell these stories are themselves translucent. She has so skillfully rendered thoughts and conversations in the different time periods that the reader will feel transported to that era simply by reading her words on the page. Along with this sense of immersion, the reader will also feel an increasing urgency to see how all the pieces of the various stories will finally fit together. Serving as a testament to the grief and suffering endured by the Jewish people, along with their strength, resiliency, and fortitude, we see how little histories do indeed become history. Hard to put down, this novel will remain with a reader long after the last page is read.

Karen Bordonaro

REBEL FALLS

Tim Wendel, Three Hills/Cornell Univ. Press, 2024, $28.95, hb, 272pp, 9781501774973

In the latter stages of the Civil War, the Confederacy wanted to disrupt the northern border of the United States in the hopes of exploiting war fatigue, thereby swinging the 1864 election against President Lincoln and ultimately triggering a settlement that would end the war and recognize the Confederate states. This tale of two littleknown Confederate agents, John Yates Beall and Bennet Burleigh, who were sent to pull off espionage-driven missions near Niagara Falls and in Ohio, is narrated by fictional character Rory Chase, a young woman who is a close family friend of Secretary of State William Seward. Contemporary major historical figures like Seward, President Lincoln, Walt Whitman and John Wilkes Booth make appearances in the plot.

The prose clips along at a steady and engaging pace, with edifying precision in scenes set at historical sites like the Cataract House Hotel at Niagara Falls, the last stop on the Underground Railroad for enslaved people fleeing to Canada, and Sandusky, Ohio, where the U.S.S. Michigan was moored and a major prison for Confederates was located. Photography technology of the day is explored

in some detail. Protagonist Rory is drawn as a courageous young woman who is determined to do her part for Secretary Seward in dealing with the Confederate agents, while at the same time confronting her own sense of loyalty and justice. Author Wendel, who is perhaps best known for his nonfiction works, provides an entertaining story that merges an interesting but largely unknown episode from the War Between the States, with historically grounded but imagined interactions with major players in the conflict.

Brodie Curtis

AN INCONVENIENT LETTER

Julie Wright, Shadow Mountain, 2024, $16.99, pb, 256pp, 9781639932306

Young Marietta Stone thinks she is indulging in a safe fantasy by writing to her friend’s brother, Mr. Frederick Finch—until her elder sister Anne accidentally mails the letters. Braving a family feud to get them back, Etta finds her letters in the clutches of a Finch cousin, Mr. Gerard Hartwell. Through a tortuously twisted logic, Etta and Gerard decide to pretend they are courting so that Etta can win the regard of Mr. Finch and Gerard can make a bid for gentle Anne and her dowry, which will restore the burdened estate his father left him.

To her credit, Wright soon departs from a premise that engages her lead characters in deceit and manipulation for terrible reasons. Rather, she builds Gerard and Etta’s bond first through their experiences of playing together as children, then as intelligent young adults who confide in and understand one another. Despite the glaringly despicable behavior of Frederick, everyone’s mother, and the grating Miss Bates, Gerard and Etta manage to grow close until, of course, their original deception comes to light, with the requisite groveling and grand gestures to follow.

The prose is solid, and while the 1828 setting is no more well developed than anything in Austen, the turns of feeling are believable and precise. Etta, for all her youth, is likeable and truly kind, and many characters undergo a redemptive arc. Readers will enjoy how the madcap antics turn into a sweet romance with lessons about knowing, and trusting, one’s own heart.

Misty Urban

20TH CENTURY

THE PHILADELPHIA HEIRESS

Anita Abriel, Lake Union, 2024, $16.99/£8.99, pb, 287pp, 9781662509841

Helen Montgomery lives with her wealthy parents on the Main Line just outside of Philadelphia in the late 1920s. As the novel opens, she reluctantly seeks a husband. Her father, suffering from a scandal, has lost business clients, so Helen must not only marry but marry well to counter this reversal. After a failed try or two, she snags a husband who

comes close to fitting the bill. As Helen adapts to life as a newlywed, she also follows her true love—dairy products. She wants to start a line of cheese, produced from the milk of cows on her family’s estate. Helen’s husband, while recognizing her entrepreneurial spirit, chooses to follow his own interests, which takes the couple to England where they connect to the Bloomsbury crowd, including Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, and Leonard Woolf. After a tempestuous stay in England, the couple returns separately to Pennsylvania, where they follow their passions.

Abriel focuses on the story of a marriage, with its ups and downs. She excels at showing the evolution of characters. As a young woman, Helen is judgmental and considers that a strength, not a weakness. Readers see her tolerance for others grow, inch by inch. In parallel fashion, her husband realizes what is most important to him and strives to accomplish his goals. Abriel offers the readers long and lush descriptions of settings, clothing, and food—descriptions that only occasionally advance the plot. Despite that minor issue, the novel should appeal to those interested in Philadelphia society, the Bloomsbury circle, and above all a profile of an unconventional marriage.

Marlie Wasserman

SHATTERED JADE

Larry Alexander, Blackstone, 2024, $26.99, hb, 350pp, 9798200816040

It’s June 1944, and Japanese and American forces have been engaged in monstrously costly battles across thousands of square miles of ocean and multiple islands, small and large, in the Pacific. US Marine Sergeant Pete “Hardball”

Talbot is a rocksolid and protective squad leader doing his best to assure the fighting spirit and, whenever possible, the survival of the young men on his team. Now it’s their turn to land on and fight across the island of Saipan, full of innocent civilians and hardened Japanese veteran warriors, including Major Tadashi Tanimura, whose mother was an American, Peggy Driscoll.

What follows is an account of intense, gritty and bloody combat, mostly at the tactical level, including perspectives from participants on both sides. The Americans must close with and destroy a dug-in and ferocious enemy in their well-prepared defensive positions while trying to avoid harming the native civilians, who are everywhere.

In addition to the realistic and often horrific descriptions of combined arms WWII ground

operations warfare, the author interestingly illustrates the terrain and diverse population groups on the island along with individual personalities of combatant warriors. The well- crafted detailed description of the initial island landing is like a symphony of light, sound and death.

The Japanese honor code of never surrendering to an enemy makes the Americans’ tough job even harder. As with all classic war novels, presenting events from both perspectives makes a good book even better, and this masterpiece delivers. USMC LT Shimada, a Japanese American officer, is a particularly fascinating character. The author’s previous war novels were bestsellers, and this superb book is a welcome addition. Outstanding historical fiction.

Thomas J. Howley

THE FLOWER SISTERS

Michelle Collins Anderson, John Scognamiglio, 2024, $17.95/C$24.95/£16.99, pb, 310pp, 9781496748287

Summer 1978. Fifteen-year-old Daisy, abandoned by her drifting mother Violet in the sleepy town of Possum Flats, Missouri, is left with her grandmother, Rose Flowers, the town’s mortician. Bored to tears, Daisy talks her way into an internship at the town newspaper where she learns of a tragic dance hall fire nearly fifty years earlier that killed 39 people. Through Daisy’s interviews with the reluctant survivors and their unspoken recollections, the author transports us to 1928, with the hopes, pleasures, and disappointments of the young people of that time, all of whom are marked by the violence that ripped the building apart.

Anderson sets a light tone in Daisy’s first interaction with her grandmother’s profession, as the corpse of a former mayor arrives still in a state of excitement from his death in flagrante. Through Daisy’s eyes we see a cast of quirky small-town septuagenarians whose grim narratives of the fire help her see not only the tragedy, but their lives as deeper than the “story.” The perspectives of different characters dominate each chapter so that the reader knows a great deal more than Daisy, our nominal tour guide.

The Flower women—Daisy’s grandmother and her mother—are wonderful creations, strong, conflicted characters; and I hope that in a future novel, Anderson will focus more deeply on women like them. The vagaries of their relationships with each other and with the town—why Rose remained in Possum Flats, why Violet escaped but never quite arrived anywhere else—are the real stories Daisy needs to uncover in order to truly understand where she is from.

Melissa Bloom Bissonette

DREAM A LITTLE DREAM

Rosie Archer, Quercus, 2023, £21.99, hb, 388pp, 9781529419313

The formulation of stories within the historical fiction genre is often accompanied by some anticipation as the tale develops

along unusual paths. Sadly, there is an enormous amount of predictability in this latest offering from Rosie Archer, following four so-called lumberjills who are posted to the estate of a Scottish laird, Noah MacKay. The Forestry Commission had not pre-warned MacKay to expect women, but as The Second World War was underway, most able-bodied men were fighting on the front. This naivety results in MacKay’s immediate decision to send them back whence they came without questioning their skills nor assessing their ability to undertake the tasks of measuring, felling, preparing and dispatching the lumber from his forests. Neither does he expect that they could find a local sawmill that will give him a welcome income whilst also helping the war effort by supplying the much-needed materials that have previously been shipped from Scandinavia. But this intrepid foursome chooses to stay and prove their worth on the estate. Needless to say, a laird who is unattached, with a bevy of young single women living under his roof, is bound to fall for the charms of one of these strong-minded workers, and hence a romance blossoms between MacKay and one of the lumberjills.

While acknowledging that the lack of novelty will not faze many aficionados of novels of this genre, it would surely be sensible of an author to look for some originality when deciding the outcome for their tale.

Cathy Kemp

THE HOME FRONT GIRLS

Susanna Bavin, Bookouture, 2024, $2.99/ C$3.99/£1.99, ebook, 329pp, B0CSG3WLMV

It’s July 1940, and the end of what was called the “phoney war,” when Great Britain waited, mobilized for German bombs and invasion. Manchester girls like Sally, age 20, have taken jobs to help prepare the country for the worst. Sally mostly loves working for the Food Office, alongside her childhood best friend, Deborah. Helping people stretch rationed foods with new recipes and advice delights Sally. The only part she doesn’t like is when she’s sent out to “test” the shops by trying to buy butter without a ration card. Reminded by her boss’s oft-repeated “This is our patriotic duty, Miss White, unpleasant though we may find it,” Sally follows the script and plows ahead.

Sally also faces a romantic dilemma— she’s been writing to Deborah’s brother Rod, keeping the “tone cheerful and friendly, not lovey-dovey.” However, Rod and both their families believe she’s in love with him. Sally is reluctant to break it off in part because she fears losing Deborah’s friendship. Across town, another Manchester girl, Betty, rues the day that Sally walked into the shop, seeking some butter without a ration card.

This friendship story told by Sally and Betty is filled with rich details of daily life for ordinary young women during WWII. From how to achieve the desired “rolled” hairstyle, to fighting fatigue as they work day jobs and watch for fires at night, these young women’s

stories bring the era to life. With a romantic subplot that’s very chaste, this book is suitable for teens and adults.

This is the first book in the planned Home Front Series.

Lisa Lowe Stauffer

REDNECKS

Taylor Brown, St. Martin’s, 2024, $29.00/ C$39.00, hb, 320pp, 9781250329332

The littleknown 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain is the vivid backdrop for Brown’s compelling story, which gives voice to the thousands of coal miners who engaged in the largest armed insurrection on American soil. Historical characters deftly grab attention one hundred years on—Matewan Police Chief, Sid Hatfield (yes, those Hatfields) — a staunch miners’ supporter and larger-than-life figure on the page and historically, who was shot dead on the McDowell County Courthouse steps; “Mother Jones,” a relentless advocate for workers’ rights well into her eighties; and union leader Bill Blizzard.

Opening with the shoot-out in Matewan between Sid and the coal barons’ hired guns, which exploded after mass firings and evictions of miners who refused to sign company contracts forbidding unionization, Brown’s settings and language command attention. Mingo County, West Virginia, last bastion of non-union coalmines—where men with “broad backs and brutal forearms” toiled seventy hours a week underground, fought for America against Nazi oppression and returned home to enslavement of a different sort. Powerful men, yes, but powerless where it counted. With Sid’s murder, years of pent-up anger are unleashed.

Set well into the 20th century, Rednecks maintains its Western frontier feel. Readers are ankle-deep in mud in Lick Creek, the tent village where the evicted miners’ families subsist, watching as their children starve. Three fictional giants, the endlessly compassionate Lebanese Doc Moo (Muhanna), courageous Big Frank Hugham, and his grandmother, Mama B, live and breathe on the page. The novel is a searing indictment of big business, a blistering story of the illegal suppression of human rights, and a tribute to the laborers who put their lives on the line to bring about change. In a story largely lost to history, plaudits to Brown for returning it to the spotlight. Exceptional!

Fiona Alison

CAN’T WE BE FRIENDS

Denny S. Bryce & Eliza Knight, William Morrow, 2024, $18.99/C$23.99, pb, 384pp, 9780063282902

On the face of it, a close friendship between jazz icon Ella Fitzgerald and movie superstar Marilyn Monroe might be surprising, but by the end of this book it makes perfect sense. When Marilyn is preparing for her role in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, she decides to write to Ella Fitzgerald and ask for singing lessons. Ella’s not interested—she’s self-taught and would have no idea how to help—and initially it’s her cousin and assistant Georgiana who replies. But Marilyn keeps writing and Ella starts to write back… and so it begins. Different as they are, the women find many things in common: struggling to find autonomy in male-dominated industries, challenging family histories, difficulties balancing ambition with desires for marriage and family, and, entertainingly, a shared love of potato salad.

Told in alternating chapters, the voices and concerns of Ella and Marilyn are distinct but equally engaging. Marilyn’s descent into depression and substance abuse is well rendered, and Ella’s concern and frustration ring true. There are occasions where events are reported in fictionalized letters or summarized in their conversations—for example, some of the racism Ella Fitzgerald had to live with, and Marilyn’s struggles with husband Arthur Miller—and it feels like each author could easily have written a full novel, so well have they grasped the material and characters involved.

That said, this is a novel about friendship. The support Ella and Marilyn show to each other is heartfelt and fascinating, and their relationship is nuanced and natural. Fans of either—or both—of these tremendous women will not be disappointed.

Kate Braithwaite

WHAT THE MOUNTAINS REMEMBER

Joy Callaway, Harper Muse, 2024, $18.99/ C$23.99/£10.99, pb, 368pp, 9781400244317

In the early days of the motor car, a camping group called the Vagabonds, headed by Henry Ford and his friends Harvey Firestone and Thomas Edison, travels through Asheville, North Carolina, to visit the new Grove Park Inn. Included in the group are Belle, stepdaughter of gasoline magnate Shipley Newbold, and her cousin Marie Austen Kipp. Both Belle and Marie Austen are of marriageable age. Belle has been corresponding with Worth Delafield, only son of a wealthy family, and they have a somewhat unromantic but steady relationship.

Belle, however, is the daughter of a poor miner, a story she and her mother prefer not to share. As they watch the laborers toiling over the construction of the inn, Belle finds herself interested in the stories of the workers themselves, and she reconnects with family friends of her late father who are suffering from tuberculosis. She struggles to keep this and other evidence of her disadvantaged childhood

from the wealthy group, and especially from Worth.

The author clearly has great affection for the Grove Park Inn: she sees it as a ‘wonder of the world’, built without modern equipment, set in a beautiful mountain environment. She has surrounded the history of its construction with a love story and with penetrating tales of the social dynamics of the Southern U.S. during 1913–1918.

The novel is full of well-developed characters from all walks of life, showing her protagonist Belle relating comfortably with the wealthiest and the poorest. She has woven construction details into a tale that demonstrates not only the differences between rich and poor at the time, but also the roles of men and women as they are evolving with glacial slowness. All of this within a dramatic and exciting romance with many twists and turns.

Valerie Adolph

DARK DAYS AT THE BEACH HOTEL

Francesca Capaldi, Canelo Hera, 2024, £9.99, pb, 352pp, 9781804361375

The third book in Capaldi’s saga series, this follows Helen Bygrove, who is managing the hotel now that her difficult husband Douglas has been conscripted into fighting. But the peace that Helen has been able to establish has been shattered, as malicious pen letters have been sent to prominent townsfolk and Helen is the subject of an investigation. Only to escape this situation with the help of friendly Inspector Toshack, Helen finds herself having to cope with an angry and bitter invalided husband who has returned from the war.

I found Capaldi’s book entertaining and fast-paced; the characters were engaging from the start and the story had rewarding twists. The author uses historical information to enhance the plot and determine the fate of her characters. Overall, this is a light-hearted third book in the saga, and it was fun to read and learn about how women in the First World War stepped up and realised what they were really capable of.

Clare Lehovsky

VILLAGE WEAVERS

Myriam J. A. Chancy, Tin House, 2024, $27.95/ C$36.95, hb, 336pp, 9781959030379

Myriam Chancy’s two-family story of PortAu-Prince in Haiti begins in 1941 with two young girls, a world apart economically but drawn into a deep and lasting friendship. Simone and Gertie have in common their ages and their city, although each is enfolded differently by the families around them. The warmth that Gertie didn’t know enough to crave comes to her through the more rural family; in turn, Simone learns about power and politics and the way wealth entitles dominion, through observing Gertie’s life.

Young adulthood pulls them into romances continents apart, although Simone remains hungry for sisterhood. With each new friend,

she dreads the separation that split the original pairing: “they will drift away from each other until all that is left of their bond is a memory, a longing for something, once experienced, that can never be fully recovered.”

Chancy continues to rotate friendships among the women, in parallel with struggles of their rapidly changing nation and its political upheaval; forces keep tugging them back into each other’s orbits, and Gertie is not as far away as Simone fears. Chancy draws their story through decades of struggle and efforts, before she spins the women back toward each other in 2002, with a chance to name and forgive the betrayal and fractures between them.

Readers looking for a languorous exploration of affection and its deeper currents will savor Chancy’s unhurried exposition of the island nation. Some of the Creole portions of her conversations wobble between French and the intimacy of an independently changing language for a place where heritage is a mixed blessing, so the dialogue can feel forced at times. But sustained revelations of activism and women’s friendships redeem and enrich the novel’s progress.

Beth Kanell

MISS MORGAN’S BOOK BRIGADE (US) / THE LIBRARIANS OF RUE DE PICARDIE (UK)

Janet Skeslien Charles, Atria, 2024, $28.99, hb, 315pp, 9781668008980 / Headline Review, 2024, £20.00, hb, 336pp, 9781035417889

Following on her best-selling The Paris Library, Charles returns to the book stacks for a dual-timeline novel centered on the Great War and the lives of several extraordinary women. As World War I rages in 1918, Jessie Carson (1876-1959), a New York Public Library employee, joins the American Committee for Devastated France. Organized by “debutante” Anne Morgan (1873-1952), millionaire Pierpont Morgan’s daughter, and physician Anne Murray Dike (1879-1929), members call themselves “Cards.” Carson, nicknamed “Kit” by fellow Cards, is stationed at Blérancourt, a 17th-century château in northern France, near the bomb-destroyed Red Zone. She strives to bring libraries to wartorn France’s children.

In 1987, aspiring novelist Wendy Peterson also works at the NYPL, where she is documenting Card manuscripts. Arriving at work, she greets “Patience and Fortitude”, the mud-smeared marble lions who guard the library entrance. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote Patience and fortitude conquer all things, and since I began at the NYPL two years ago, it’s been my motto. Not so much for the job, but for my writing career,” she muses. Readers take in the city sights, like the Morgan Library and Museum, as Peterson becomes infatuated with telling the Cards’ stories.

Some will find the storyline overly predictable and the writing, at times,

too transparently clichéd (“Books were necessities”; “When it’s the right man, you know”; “History is about perspective,” etc.), and those seeking humor won’t find much of it. Still, literary allusions abound —mostly to children’s books, from Anne of Green Gables to The Wizard of Oz, but also Jack London’s The Call of the Wild, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, and Lewis Carroll’s Bones of the Moon. An author’s note includes several period photographs, as well. Charles’ fans should be entertained while they learn about France during the Great War.

Mark Spencer

IN THE SHADOW OF WAR

Adrienne Chinn, One More Chapter, 2024, £9.99, pb, 413pp, 9780008501662 / $2.99, ebook, 413pp, B0CNVLQ831

For the Fry women, the 1930s pose differing challenges. While dutiful Celie and her family are struggling to make farming pay on the Canadian prairies and her spirited sister Jessie is training to be a doctor in an increasingly turbulent Egypt, while juggling marriage, motherhood and a difficult mother-in-law, flighty youngest sister Etta sets her sights on becoming a Hollywood star, despite the disadvantage of being in her late 30s. Meanwhile, their formidable mother, Christina, is struggling to keep a decadeslong secret under wraps, while fighting for an inheritance she believes is rightfully hers, and the world teeters dangerously towards war.

This is the third book in a series that will clearly have at least one more sequel. As such, there’s a lot of backstory to fill in, but this is done skilfully enough not to become confusing or tedious and doesn’t get in the way of unfolding events. The characters are welldeveloped and individualised. (I’m especially fond of Christina’s bullish maid Hettie.) On the whole, the research seems sound (though having read a lot of novels written in the 1930s, I’m not sure that individual Bakewell tarts or cannoli were standard fare at tea parties of the time).

There are a few malapropisms, e.g. ‘espoused’ for ‘expounded’, and I doubt student lodgings in Cambridge would have been referred to as ‘dorm rooms’. I wondered about Jessie’s Black American journalist friend Ruth, but working for French publications probably gives her greater freedoms than if she had been working for the American press.

The whole novel comes across like a soap opera with its highly dramatic storylines, but as with any long-running serial, some plot elements (illegitimacy, blackmail, disputed wills) are made use of more than once. Fans of the late Penny Vincenzi’s sweeping family dramas should enjoy this.

Jasmina Svenne

DAUGHTERS OF SHANDONG

Eve J. Chung, Berkley, 2024, $28.00/C$37.99, hb, 400pp, 9780593640531

In 1948 the ruling Nationalist party is losing ground to the Communists in China; the country is torn by fighting and disorder. Families like the Angs, wealthy landowners, are most at risk.

Teenage Hai, the eldest of the Ang daughters, is forced to flee with her mother and sisters.

Caught by an enemy group, Hai is brutally tortured; had it not been for the family’s loyal workers, she would have been killed. After her recovery, the little group sets off to try to reach Taiwan, where they believe their father is living.

This novel is a vivid, heart-wrenching tale of survival during their journey: always on the verge of starvation, scrounging for even the most meagre food and shelter. They join thousands of others, equally wretched, heading south to the strait and the haven of Taiwan.

While the story itself is immersive, written with passion and insight, the underlying theme – the worthlessness of women in Chinese society – is portrayed in heartbreaking clarity. Hai’s mother is treated worse than a slave in her own house because she has borne no son.

The author has included notes at the beginning and the end. These provide familial and social context that add poignancy. The protagonist Hai, grandmother of the book’s author, was regarded as valueless compared to a male heir, despite her strength and resilience during the life-threatening trek across China. The author, herself a human rights lawyer, still feels this. This powerful novel is invaluable in revealing and breaking this chain of discrimination. It also has relevance in today’s geopolitical situation.

Valerie Adolph

THE HOUSE ON BISCAYNE BAY

Chanel Cleeton, Berkley, 2024, $18.00, pb, 336pp, 9780593440513

Cleeton’s dual-period mystery intermixes tropical heat and gothic chills in a satisfying way as two women, decades apart, face up to shocking truths. The glamour factor is high as Anna Barnes and Carmen Acosta each arrive at Marbrisa, a palatial Miami showpiece, but despite its ornate furnishings and beautifully manicured grounds, neither finds their new home comfortable at all.

Just after the Great War, Anna’s longtime

husband, Robert, a wealthy businessman, whisks her from New York to Florida and presents her with Marbrisa as a birthday gift. Anna is a shy woman with subdued tastes; the architect notes her dismay and tries adapting it to her preferences, but just when she’s getting accustomed to her new residence, a young woman attending the Barneses’ glitzy evening gala is discovered drowned. In 1941, eighteenyear-old Carmen moves from Cuba after her parents’ deaths to live with her older sister Carolina and brother-in-law Asher Wyatt, Marbrisa’s new owners. Carolina, to whom Carmen was never close, seems unnaturally guarded and may be having an affair. With nowhere else to go, and Asher overseeing her inheritance, Carmen doesn’t know who to trust.

How well do we really know the people we love? This important question guides the novel’s suspense. To Anna, Robert has always been a devoted partner, but does he have secrets? Who is causing disturbances at Marbrisa in the ´40s, and how do they relate to the reasons why the house was abandoned and believed cursed? The action moves fast, and Cleeton proves a daring writer as the plot twists unexpectedly. Alongside deadly alligators, shrieking peacocks, and fierce winds whipping off the bay, the uneasy atmosphere suits the historical backdrop, with rich northerners swooping in on undeveloped Florida land, and locals eyeing the rich interlopers with curious envy and resentment. The ending is perfect, too.

Sarah Johnson

HIDDEN YELLOW STARS

Rebecca Connolly, Shadow Mountain, 2024, $26.99/C$35.50, hb, 304pp, 9781639932344

This novel starts in September 1942 in Brussels, when a young schoolteacher, Andrée Geulen, helps her students remove their jackets with the hated yellow star sewn on to identify them as Jews. Although she is not Jewish herself, Andrée is violently opposed to the persecution the children are experiencing since the Nazis invaded Belgium. After a few weeks, the headmistress of Andrée’s school introduces her to Ida Sterno, a Jewish woman working for a Belgian resistance group called the Committee for the Defense of Jews. Their goal is to place in hiding as many Belgian Jewish children as possible and save them from the Nazis.

Together, Andrée and Ida form an inseparable bond, working for over two years to circumvent Nazi soldiers and hide Jewish children in convent schools or private farms throughout Belgium. While Andrée looks Aryan with her light-colored hair, Ida’s features are darker, and eventually, the Nazis arrest her. Andrée continues their work using an elaborate notebook system. She records each child’s original and new name as they go into hiding with the hopes of being reunited with family once the war ends.

The two protagonists of this novel, Andrée and Ida, were real women. Without giving away the ending, I can repeat the historical

fact that their work and the Committee for the Defense of Jews helped almost 3,000 Belgian Jewish children to survive the Nazi occupation of WWII. My only slight disappointment was that the quotes of Nazi propaganda that started each chapter became too repetitive. The book, however, is well worth reading.

Linda Harris Sittig

HOUNDS OF THE HOLLYWOOD BASKERVILLES

Elizabeth Crowens, Level Best/Historia, 2024, $16.95, pb, 250pp, 9781685125424

Private eye Babs Norman and her partner Guy Brandt are wrestling with a feral, fleainfested cat and a box of kittens when the 1940s star of Sherlock Holmes films, Basil Rathbone, enters the veterinary clinic and reports that he’s lost his red cocker spaniel, Leo. Soon, another dog, the terrier known as Asta in the Nick and Nora Charles’ Thin Man series, goes missing. Then, it’s the Wizard of Oz’s Toto, too.

A retainer from Rathbone and promise of a reward from MGM put Babs on the trail of the dog-nappers and lead her and her associate to galas, dog shows, the Brown Derby, and film studio lots where they mix with the likes of Dashiell Hammett, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Rathbone’s wife Ouida, and the mysterious countess whose last name translates to Revenge—Velma von Rache.

Hounds of the Hollywood Baskervilles is the first in Crowens’ new Babs Norman series. Crowens is known for the three-book Time Traveler Professor Series that pairs Arthur Conan Doyle and John Patrick Scott, an investigator of the paranormal and time traveler. Here, Crowens highlights Conan Doyle’s frequent use of dogs in Holmes’ mysteries, including Sherlock’s tests of suspicious pills on his landlady’s terrier in “The Study in Scarlet,” the bloodhound Toby’s sense of scent in “The Sign of Four,” and the hellhound threatening Henry Baskerville.

Scenes capture the glamour of Tinseltown in the prewar years and drop hints of chicanery and sabotage by aggressive German operatives. Action does not flow smoothly, however, because of unnecessary complications and sidetracks. Dialogue and interactions are often testy, and more time seems to be spent on descriptions of attire and wardrobe than on sniffing out and tracking clues. Readers observe, but do not have the chance to participate in the action.

K. M. Sandrick

THE IRISH MATCHMAKER

Jennifer Deibel, Revell, 2024, $16.99/C$20.99, pb, 336pp, 9780800744854

1905: Catríona Daly is one of the most successful matchmakers in the town of Lisdoonvarna, but so far Catríona herself has remained single. She’s intent that her husbandto-be will provide her with a luxurious future and an escape from her memories of childhood poverty. The opportunity to find a wife for the wealthy and handsome Andrew Osborne

seems heaven-sent. But a chance meeting with the nine-year-old farm girl Sara Bunratty, and the assignment of finding a bride for Sara’s widowed father Donal, may thwart Catríona’s best-laid plans.

This inspirational romance takes the reader on a lovely journey to the famous Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival, and to Ireland in the early 1900s. The setting seems authentically portrayed, and the many Gaelic phrases sprinkled through the novel (along with a helpful glossary) evoke the Irish spirit. The characters of Catríona, Sara, and Donal are especially well depicted. Readers of sweet romances will enjoy all these characters, and this charming trip back in time.

Susan McDuffie

THE SPICE MAKER’S SECRET

Renita D’Silva, Bookouture, 2024, $12.99/ C$15.99/£9.99, pb, 462pp, 9781800198036

In a small village in 1930s India, Bindu and her grandmother struggle to survive drought after drought by cooking delicious meals for their fellow villagers and occasionally for the rich landowners, who flaunt their wealth while sparing nothing for those starving around them. When Bindu is given a chance to win a scholarship and a better life in the city, she knows she should be elated, but she worries about her grandmother. So, when her grandmother falls ill, she gives it up to marry the landowner’s son, Guru, who has taken an interest in her. Willful and stubborn, they struggle to get along, and Bindu puts everything at risk by befriending an Englishman who offers to print her recipes in his magazine.

Nearly 60 years later in London, Eve is grieving the loss of her husband and young daughter. When her neighbor, the mother of her daughter’s best friend, lands in the hospital, she ends up caring for the young girl. Together they navigate the grief and joy brought by remembering the past. Cooking for her young friend from an old hand-written book of recipes left to her by her mother, Eve begins to wonder about the family she never knew back in India.

The lush setting and beautiful descriptions of life in India captivate the imagination. I could practically smell the food when I read the detailed explanations of each meal’s preparation. The story is heavily weighted on Bindu’s character and involves a fair bit of repetition that slows the pace of the story and may cause some readers to give up altogether. That said, when the two storylines come together, it does make for a heartfelt ending.

Shauna McIntyre

A KILLING ON THE HILL

Robert Dugoni, Thomas & Mercer, 2024, $16.99/ C$22.99, pb, 379pp, 9781662500251

Nineteen-year-old William Shumacher (“Shoe”) works as an intern for Seattle’s only afternoon paper. On an early morning in 1933, Shoe gets tipped off about a killing

at an upscale gaming and drinking club atop Profanity Hill. Club owner and long-time crook, George Miller, has shot Frankie Ray, a former prizefighter.

Shoe’s paper gives him prime responsibility for covering the arrests, trial, and jury verdict. Shoe’s curiosity, youthful ambition, and sense of justice impel him to take on more than merely writing about the daily events. He chases leads that both sides of the case seem to either ignore or cover up but is soon warned not to meddle. An important witness dies in a head-first fall from a building, other witnesses change their stories. Beset by the Depression and suffering from Prohibition, corruption fuels the city. Shoe learns everyone from the mayor down to most beat cops will ignore rules for extra cash or an open bar tab. He wonders if even the righteous trial judge is on the take.

Dugoni’s plotlines flow fast through twists and dead ends to page-turning but believable resolutions. The sensational court proceedings are realistic. An unforced emotional romance softens the story’s harder edges. Thugs and their women, lawyers and cops, keep everyone on edge and looking over their shoulders. Shoe’s boarding house owner is a delight, and his boss at the paper comes up with surprises right to the end. Seattle, its hills, harbor area, slums and fancy homes, trolleys and busy traffic all feel authentic. Highly recommended as a murder mystery, a legal thriller, and a historical about Seattle and its people during hard times.

G. J. Berger

THE STARGAZERS

Harriet Evans, Headline Review, 2023, £16.99, hb, 400pp, 9781472271426

A disordered childhood and abusive parents can cast a long shadow over adult life. The Stargazers is the story of Sarah, who has a bizarrely unhappy childhood with an obsessive and deranged mother, from which she escapes only to find the transition to marriage and parenthood extremely difficult.

The story is told principally in two timestreams. The first part of the book is set in north London in the early 1970s and sees Sarah setting up home in a new neighbourhood and starting a family. The second part goes back to the early 1950s and her weirdly dysfunctional home life and dreadful boarding school. Then we are back in the early 1970s for part three and from there we follow her life episodically to 2020. There are also flashbacks to the 1920s to explore Sarah’s mother’s childhood.

The plot is quite improbable but the story is psychologically convincing. This is how a child would have reacted to such a childhood

– although not the only way because her older sister reacted differently – and this is how it would have scarred her later life. It is a fairy tale which embodies deeper truths, and like most fairy tales has a happy ending.

Edward James

THE TROUBLE WITH YOU

Ellen Feldman, St. Martin’s Griffin, 2024, $31.00/C$41.00, hb, 368pp, 9781250879479

Fanny Fabricant’s husband comes home safely from World War II, and all is supposed to return to normal. Instead, Fanny is left with a young daughter and a life she was never prepared for: that of a woman who must work when jobs that were plentiful while the men were at war are suddenly unavailable to women. It was patriotic for a woman to work during the war. Now it is patriotic for her not to, and to give the jobs back to men. Feldman combines Fanny’s dilemma and her simultaneous blossoming as a writer of radio serials with the looming danger of the McCarthy-era blacklist, which invades Fanny’s new profession like a dark, poisonous gas.

Ellen Feldman is a child of that time, and her memory is spot-on, from seams in women’s stockings to the cloud of suspicion that gathered around a writer who went to the wrong meeting or subscribed to the wrong magazine, much less flirted with Communism twenty years earlier or even knew someone who had. Defending oneself against it is impossible. A blacklisted writer or actor simply disappears.

The narrative follows Fanny and her daughter Chloe in skillful close third person. The secondary characters are equally well drawn: Fanny’s boss Alice; her aunt Rose, an old lefty who knows a thing or two; her straitlaced cousin Mimi; and Charlie Berlin, who can’t resist skating on the edge of the blacklist to thumb his nose at McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee. The reader may find uncomfortable echoes of current politics in both the blacklist and the post-war urge to shove women back into the kitchen and nursery. Highly recommended.

TO SLIP THE BONDS OF EARTH

Amanda Flower, Kensington, 2024, $27.00/ C$37.00, hb, 288pp, 9781496747662

Everyone knows about the Wright Brothers who pioneered flight, but Amanda Flower’s latest historical mystery brings to life their hidden-from-history sister—real-life high school teacher Katharine Wright. An Oberlin College graduate, Katharine takes her career teaching classical languages seriously, and she’s equally earnest about her responsibility to look after her widowed father and bachelor brothers in their Dayton home.

As the novel opens in December 1903, Orville and Wilbur return to Ohio from Kitty Hawk, triumphant in flight but not lauded in their hometown. At a local Christmas party attended by Katharine and Orville, ominous

events unfold that appear to be connected— Orville’s engineering drawings are mislaid (or stolen?) and a prominent citizen is murdered, possibly by one of Katharine’s students. It falls to Katharine both to solve the murder and locate the lost papers before older brother Wilbur finds out because, as introverted Orville puts it, “You’re better with people... If I go about asking questions, it will appear odd.”

Flower’s signature attention to period detail and extensive research are on full display here, as she paints a vivid picture of gender and class differences in turn-of-the-century Dayton. The story gets off to a leisurely start, with the murder occurring a fourth of the way in, but the pace picks up when the investigation takes off. With her smarts and plucky nature, Katharine is a good choice for sleuth. But ironically, as the star of her own novel, she’s still overshadowed by her famous brothers, whose invention lies at the heart of the plot; even the title references their achievement, not hers.

Paula Martinac

THE GIRL FROM PROVENCE

Helen Fripp, Bookouture, 2024, $10.99/ C$13.99/£8.99, pb, 306pp, 9781835254769

Lilou, a young beekeeper and seamstress in 1942 Provence, thinks her peaceful world, far from the horrors of the war, will never change, until German soldiers enter her village and carry off her friend Joseph and his mother because they are Jewish. Soon afterwards the Germans take her brother away to a forced labor camp. Determined not to let the Nazis destroy her village, Lilou joins a Resistance organization led by Marie-Madeleine, a society hostess she has worked for. She runs secret missions, meeting British pilots as they land by moonlight. Then she is asked to hide Eliot, a traumatized Jewish boy, at her farmhouse. He holds the key to a dangerous secret that could change the course of the war. Kristian, a Luftwaffe pilot, discovers Eliot while searching the house for Jews, but promises to keep the secret. He says he is anti-Hitler and was forced to fight, and Lilou feels attracted to him. But can she trust him?

Helen Fripp writes beautifully of the countryside in Provence, and Lilou is an unforgettable heroine: brave and determined to fight for what’s right. We feel her love for her home—the lavender fields, woods, and hills. Kristian appears sympathetic, but we, and Lilou, never forget he is a German soldier. I kept wondering how their romance would end up. I also loved the way Fripp includes the aviator/author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry as a character. He is a friend of Marie-Madeleine, and Lilou and the members of the Resistance group use the unpublished manuscript of The Little Prince to decipher codes. Eliot has his own copy, with an extra chapter, and, along with Lilou, is fascinated by the planets and stars. Of course, this all ties in with the secret he is keeping. This is a wonderful World War II novel.

Vicki Kondelik

Amanda Cockrell

THE SONG OF SOURWOOD MOUNTAIN

Ann H. Gabhart, Revell, 2024, $17.99, pb, 368pp, 9780800741730

In 1910, Mira Dean is teaching in Louisville when preacher Gordon Covington comes to town to talk about his mission work in the Appalachian Mountains. Mira hasn’t seen Gordon in years, not since before her fiancé, Edward, died, and she gave up on love. Content with her students and quiet life, Mira never intends to marry, so Gordon’s proposal out of the blue is just preposterous. She can’t marry a man she hasn’t seen in years! But then circumstances occur that make Mira feel as if all other avenues are being closed off. Does God want her to marry Gordon and go to teach the mountain children of Sourwood, Kentucky?

This book grabs the reader right away, with a proposal of marriage in the first sentence. Mira’s reactions, from disbelief to wondering if this is God’s plan for her, start a journey many have been on—finding God’s will. The vivid descriptions of the people and their surroundings paint a realistic picture of early 20th-century Appalachian Mountain life. The “married strangers” theme works well here, and there are many intriguing characters, especially Ada June, who lost her voice when she lost her mama and won’t go anywhere without her dog. There are strong Christian messages about learning God’s will, finding family, and treating others with love and compassion. Fans of Christian romance will love this one, which I would compare in some ways to Catherine Marshall’s Christy

Bonnie DeMoss

THE HOUSE FILLER

Tong Ge, Ronsdale Press, 2023, $22.95/C$22.95, pb, 250pp, 9781553806981

It is 1918, in East-Central China. A woman contemplating marriage might have rosy thoughts. Instead, our extraordinary protagonist, Golden Phoenix, contemplates a Chinese saying: ‘A daughter-inlaw is made by beating just as dough is made by kneading. I only hoped I wouldn’t be kneaded too hard.’ She knows that she is an old maid at twenty-six, and at best she can be a “house filler”. Her father put off her foot-binding for two years too many, and that put paid to her prospects in the marriage market. Tong Ge’s unflinching description of the little girl’s footbinding prepares readers for the voice of the rest of this saga.

Aphorisms abound throughout the story

that unfolds, covering a vast swathe of history, but staying anchored in the daily lives of Golden Phoenix and her family. When she discovers that she has been misled about her husband, she rationalises: ‘I felt cheated, but once rice is cooked, nobody can make it raw again.’ As she realises that she must do more than her fair share of the household chores, she likens this to fast cattle being whipped.

When momentous events take the whole of China by storm, her family is buffeted as well: ‘Blessings do not come in pairs, and calamities never come alone.’ Quotidian struggles give way to horrendous tragedies with the Japanese invasion, the civil war between the Communists and the Nationalists, and the iron-fisted regime of modern China. Golden Phoenix and her family go through incredible pain. In simplistic works, the ones who inflict pain under an occupying power would face retribution when the regime changes. This is no such fairy tale. It is a testament to the power of spirit; a work reminiscent of Yu Hua’s To Live but also one with a unique, wry voice.

A. K. Kulshreshth

THE SOCIALITE’S GUIDE TO DEATH AND DATING

S. K. Golden, Crooked Lane, 2023, $30.99/ C$39.99/£29.99, hb, 336pp, 9781639104857

Evelyn Murphy is in love. This would not ordinarily be a problem, but she loves her assistant, Mac, in the wealthy environment of the 1950s New York hotel scene, where Evelyn has grown up as the child of a father who runs a posh hotel catering to the mayors and politicians of class-conscious Manhattan.

One night, following a fundraiser that Evelyn has hosted in the hotel, she and Mac plan a getaway in her father’s Rolls Royce in the hotel’s parking garage. There they spot the body of Judge Baker in a parked Cadillac, a needle stuck in his arm. The police discover a woman, still alive in the trunk, and take her to the hospital, where someone later suffocates her. That evening Daddy suffers a seizure and is found with a needle in his arm, and soon after, the police discover Evelyn’s maid strangled in a closet. Daddy recovers and threatens to disown Evelyn if she and Mac get married.

Evelyn and Mac are certain all the murders connect. Determined to find the culprit, Evelyn locates the sympathetic former Detective Hodgson, and together they work to solve the case.

The strength of the novel not only lies in its detailed description of the settings and characters, but also in Evelyn’s depth of characterization. She says, “Death haunted my every step. How long did I have before it caught up to me?” The reader feels as though they know Evelyn as she navigates the plot’s twists and turns and overcomes her agoraphobia, which proves to be as daunting as finding the killer could be. Evelyn’s frank determination to marry Mac despite Daddy’s disapproval is refreshing, as she could just as easily be a snobby girl caught in a 1950s high-

class milieu. An entertaining, page-turning mystery.

Gini Grossenbacher

THE FOXHOLE VICTORY TOUR

Amy Lynn Green, Bethany House, 2024, $18.99/ C$23.99, pb, 400pp, 9780764239571

Did you ever wonder what life was like for women USO performers who provided entertainment for front-line troops during World War II? This novel follows Maggie McCleod and Catherine Duquette, a trumpetplaying comedienne and a talented classical violinist, as they tour North Africa. Their troupe is a minor one; they dream of being selected to tour with the top rank performers like Bob Hope. The young ladies also deal with personal issues back home: Maggie’s family is active in the Salvation Army, and her father disapproves of her performing in the secular setting of the USO. Catherine’s rich parents are in the middle of an acrimonious divorce, and she wants to escape their expectations that she marry a “suitable” man. Life on the road is far from glamorous: uncomfortable truck transport, an emergency plane landing, erratic meals, bombs, and strict rules against fraternizing or going sightseeing. Then their lives are in peril when German planes spot their truck on a lonely road in Tunisia and start shooting.

I loved the characterizations in this book; the other members of the troupe are well-rounded and interesting. Maggie becomes attracted to the troupe’s mysterious magician and wonders why he isn’t in the army. The snooty diva singer shows a good side now and then. Their boss unexpectedly runs into his estranged son, a private in the army, and attempts a reconciliation. I enjoyed finding out about how the noncombatant entertainers coped near the front lines. One of my uncles would have been among those troops in North Africa, and I wish I could ask him what it was like to be in the audience for a USO show. The climactic scene was briefer than I expected, but the fates of the two main characters at the denouement was very satisfying. Warmly recommended.

B. J. Sedlock

NO MORE EMPTY SPACES

D. J. Green, She Writes Press, 2024, $17.95, pb, 305pp, 9781647426163

In the 1970s, a broken American family goes to Turkey when their adventurous geologist father takes a job on a dam-building site— the fictitious Kayakale—on the Euphrates. Repairs to the improperly surveyed ground and fractured relationships form the plot. Aspects of Turkish life and geology are vividly recreated down to the peculiar ice cream. The deceptively simple story is told in various points of view and with realism, and can be recommended for that.

Little in the book evoked a different time period for me, however. The American slang— “dude” and much of the profanity—hit my ear as

anachronistic. Older history—archaeological sites—are threatened by the dam. I think of real-life Zeugma and Rumkale lying now below the waters of Birecik Dam. Readers are cheated of information of these sites equal to the loving detail the rocks below receive. We understand little of the import of losing all access to these levels of life. What the dam was in theory meant to do for the natives did not receive enough justification, either, nor the jolt it must have been to their traditional lives. The Author’s Notes at the end admit that Green did not bother to research whether a Turkish dog could be imported to the States without quarantine. That detail leapt out at me like bulldozed antiquity while I was reading.

Ann Chamberlin

THE EVOLUTION OF ANNABEL CRAIG

Lisa Grunwald, Random House, 2024, $30.00/ C$39.99, hb, 320pp, 9780593596159

Before William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow came to Dayton, Tennessee in 1925 for what became known as the monkey trial, few Americans had heard of the sleepy hill town. Lisa Grunwald drops her readers in the middle of Dayton, giving life to its streets, its shops, and above all to its 2000 churchloving residents as they prepare for what they think of as the trial of the century. We follow the enfolding drama through the eyes of Annabel Craig. Her husband, George, joins the team representing John Scopes, accused of teaching evolution in a public school, in violation of Tennessee’s Butler Act. Armed with a Kodak camera, Annabel finds an opportunity of her own, photographing the proceedings for newspaper publication.

Against the background of the trial, Annabel and George grapple with tensions in their marriage. George obsesses about his career and his ham radio hobby, while Annabel longs to start a family. She embraces religion, though her growing understanding of evolution tests her faith. In contrast, George embraces science and discounts religion. His self-pity over professional setbacks and his disgust for his neighbors’ uninformed opinions compromise his ability to sway others.

Grunwald depicts a major trial in American history through the lens of a troubled marriage. The fact that readers know the outcome of the trial in no way deters from the power of this well-crafted, well-paced novel. Grunwald wisely chooses a nuanced ending, and readers will root for Annabel as she struggles to find her path through competing worldviews and competing ideas about the role of a wife in a marriage.

Marlie Wasserman

THE LOOSE THREAD

Liz Harris, Heywood Press, 2024, £9.99/$11.99/ C$17.99, pb, 362pp, 9781913687410

In 1938 London, young Rose, the eldest of three daughters of a wealthy haberdasher,

returns to her posh home to find her father scolding her boyfriend, Tom, in the drawing room. Young Tom is from a Jersey island family and is in London on business. Rose and Tom, having fallen in love earlier, are planning to marry and travel together to Jersey to Tom’s family farm. Rose’s parents, although initially upset at the prospect of their daughter becoming a farm wife, reluctantly give their blessings. In Jersey, while Rose is met cordially by Tom’s parents, she is surprisingly coldshouldered by Tom’s younger sister, Kathleen. Rose does her utmost to make a go of her marriage, participate in farming chores, and struggles to gain acceptance within her new family and the community. However, WWII breaks out, and as the British are unable to protect Jersey, the Germans invade the island. The war takes a toll on Rose and Tom’s marriage, which leads to inconceivable pain and suffering that test their love.

Although the first of the Three Sisters series, this novel is essentially a standalone. It’s written in Liz Harris’ typical descriptive style and set just before and during WWII. Her visit (mentioned in the acknowledgements) to Jersey and extensive research on the German occupation are used effectively in the plot and the narration of the lives and sufferings endured by the islanders. The era’s customs and the dialogue and mannerisms of the people transport us to the locations. The characters are well chosen, particularly Kathleen as a nasty villain. Some of the details of the Nazis’ brutal treatment of the non-Jersey-born individuals are revealing. An informative novel of the only area where the German troops set foot on a British Dependency.

Waheed Rabbani

DINNER WITH CHURCHILL

Robin Hawdon, Cambria Books, 2023, £15.99/$18.00, pb, 262pp, 9781738423125

In 1939, young Lucy Armitage leaves her Lake District home to attend secretarial college in London. Staying late one evening to fix her typewriter, she is commandeered by her teacher and rushed to Admiralty Headquarters, where she finds herself taking dictation from Winston Churchill himself, late into the evening. Despite not having finished college, she excels at typing and shorthand, and is immediately offered a full-time job.

As explained by her boss, Grace Hamblin, she should be ready for anything from typing top secret documents to delivering messages, to making dentist’s appointments; from shopping for paints to feeding the cat. This wide-ranging (and perhaps unacceptable today) set of circumstances leads to her fill in as assistant to butler David Inches, who is short-staffed in serving an informal dinner to Winston, Clementine, PM Neville Chamberlain, and his wife, Anne.

Hawdon sandwiches his ‘dinner’ between a romantic entanglement in which Lucy is inadvertently drawn into casually dropping

false information. Historically it is undisputed that the unofficial dinner took place, but there is no record of what passed between the two men, who had been at each other’s throats politically for years.

This is intriguing speculative fiction which is in no way an attempt to compete with the thousands of pages on record about Churchill.

The result is an exceptionally frank, realistic and enlightening novel, which reads as though you are sitting at the table (or perhaps standing to one side to serve). The novel is so dialogue-heavy that the words spoken have to be absolutely spot-on. At no point did I drift from the narrative.

Research into Churchill’s dress, mannerisms, mode of speech, demanding nature and infamous temper is flawless. Readers interested in a sideways look at history will be as fascinated by this novel as I was.

Fiona Alison

THE GREAT DIVIDE

Cristina Henríquez, Ecco, 2024, $30.00/ C$37.00, hb, 336pp, 9780063291324 / Fourth Estate, 2024, £16.99, hb, 336pp, 9780008607982

The Great Divide is the epic novel of the Panama Canal’s construction you didn’t know you’d been missing. This major engineering feat of the early 20th century linked the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, making international shipping more efficient, but its excavation caused untold hardships for Panama’s people. With this event as a backdrop, Henríquez brings together a large cast whose lives are transformed by it.

Among them are Ada Bunting, an enterprising young Barbadian woman who stows away aboard a steamer to Panama, hoping to earn enough money there to pay for surgery for her ill sister back home. Omar Aquino, a fisherman’s son, seeks adventure and community in signing on as a laborer for the canal, but his decision provokes his father, who hates seeing his country torn up by outsiders, to give him the silent treatment. A caring woman with botanical expertise, Marian Oswald has accompanied her scientist husband, John, from Tennessee in support of his dream of eradicating malaria but finds herself isolated and lonely.

The viewpoint is deliberately inclusive and moves from familiar perspectives to new ones with ease, introducing characters like Ada’s proudly independent mother in Barbados; the fishmonger Joaquín and wife Valentina, whose childhood home at Gatún is the rumored site of a proposed dam; and the Oswalds’ cook, Antoinette, who sends funds back to her children in Antigua. Henríquez’s style resembles Ken Follett’s in its smoothness and approachability, though her cast is more culturally diverse, the scope not as sprawling, and she avoids crazy coincidences in gathering the different threads together. The novel is a stellar example of how historical novels can bring lesser-known voices to the surface,

emphasizing how every person has a story worth listening to.

Sarah Johnson

THE GERMAN CHILD

Catherine Hokin, Bookouture, 2024, $10.99/£8.99, pb, 328pp, 9781837900077

This is a heart-wrenching novel sharing a part of the Holocaust that is perhaps not so well known. In 1941, a special group of Nazis begins to kidnap Polish children. They only take the ones with blonde hair and blue eyes, those who look Aryan. The goal is to separate them from their families and indoctrinate them to become good German children. For every German soldier who dies in battle, a new good German child will join the ranks of the Fatherland.

The novel begins with Polish mothers trying to hide their children from the Angel of Death, a heartless woman who steals children away from their families. Then, the plot switches to 1979 with a lawyer named Evie, who is working on the cases of Polish children torn from their families in WWII to see if their stories can be documented and families hopefully reunited.

One case involves a young man named Sebastian, whose childhood memories are foggy, but he remembers two sets of mothers. As Evie takes on his case and journeys with him to Germany, they discover documents that will alter both of their lives forever. Suddenly, the Angel of Death has a real name, a name that Evie recognizes.

This was a very emotional book to read. The story is well-paced, the characters are all very real, and the action propels the reader to keep reading and hoping for a happy ending. While I recommend the book, I found myself drained by the horrific details of what mankind has done to their fellow man or, in this case, to children.

Linda Harris Sittig

AMERICAN DAUGHTERS

Piper Huguley, William Morrow, 2024, $18.99/ C$23.99, pb, 368pp, 9780063273702

Huguley continues her interest in highlighting the lives of Black professional women who make a place for themselves in the corridors of American power. Following up her well-received By Her Own Design (about Ann Lowe, the woman who created Jackie Kennedy’s wedding dress), this novel imagines the details of a friendship between Alice Roosevelt Longworth (daughter of President Teddy) and Portia Washington Pittman, daughter of Booker T. Washington, the founder of Tuskegee University. Little is known about why these women were friends, only that they were, and Huguley finds ample parallels in their life experiences to make a rapport between them not only possible but entirely believable.

They were both groundbreakers in their own way: Alice was an acknowledged political mover and shaker who worked closely with her father and Congressman husband, while

Portia, a gifted musician, helped pioneer the arrangement and performance of Black spiritual music at Tuskegee and around the nation. Both had tumultuous marriages, and it is their family life that Huguley (an awardwinning author of inspirational romances) chooses to focus on, beginning with their entry into adult life in 1901 and continuing to 1930. This makes her characters emotionally appealing but can sometimes be frustrating because it glosses over the larger effects of institutional sexism and racism on their lives. In particular, we’re often reminded of Longworth’s political genius, but her thoughts are almost constantly portrayed as concerns about what the men in her life think of her. Pittman is a more well-rounded character, a moving example of the talent and genius of the Black intellectuals of the early 20th century whose struggles inspired the Civil Rights Movement.

Kristen McDermott

BLOOD ROSES

Douglas Jackson, Canelo, 2024, £16.99, hb, 320pp, 9781804367483

Warsaw, September 1939. Police Inspector and army reservist Jan Kalisz is wounded in defending his country, Poland, against the Blitzkrieg invasion by Germany. As a German speaker, he is recruited by the underground Polish resistance to continue his work as a police official in Warsaw and secretly report back on the occupiers. It is a role filled with constant danger, as he has to appear compliant with his German controllers whose brutality towards the Polish population is shocking, while simultaneously controlling the stresses of the double game he plays and the constant jeopardy from amongst his own people, including his wife, by seeming to be collaborating with the Germans.

In a parallel story, a particularly sadistic serial killer who preys on young, vulnerable women joins the SS and is transferred to Warsaw, giving him an excellent opportunity to continue and expand his horrific killings. The man does not just kill his victims – he then makes some form of horrific art work from their organs and entrails he extracts from their bodies. The two elements of the story join, and when the daughter of a prominent German is brutally murdered by the serial killer, Kalisz is under huge pressure to find the culprit.

Douglas Jackson is known mostly for his popular Hero of Rome series set in Classical Rome. This is an excellently researched, plotted and presented novel. The historical context is superb and thoroughly accurate. It is the first of a planned quartet that chronicle Jan Kalisz’s double life of resistance and criminal police officer under the German yoke during the most evil of occupations.

Douglas Kemp

EVERY TIME WE SAY GOODBYE

Natalie Jenner, St. Martin’s, 2024, $29.00/ C$39.00, hb, 416pp, 9781250285188 / Allison & Busby, 2024, £22.00, hb, 320pp, 9780749030063

Jenner’s previous novels, The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls, have established an enchanting group of characters drawn together by their love of literature and their dedication to making room for women’s voices in post-WorldWar-II English culture. This third novel in the series offers an entirely new setting – Cinecittà, Rome’s burgeoning film studio, in 1955 – and quite a different mood from the quirky, bookish world of the first two titles. One of the main characters in Bloomsbury Girls, author Vivien Lowry, is the central character this time, fleeing to a temporary gig as a script doctor after her latest play receives disastrous reviews from misogynist London theatre critics. Once in Rome, she finds herself caught up in a variety of romantic and professional schemes among her colleagues, who include real-life luminaries such as Gina Lollobrigida, Ava Gardner, and Federico Fellini, along with fictional directors and stars.

Jenner shifts the focus, however, from cinematic glamour to serious questions about how the citizens of Rome cope with their particularly traumatic wartime experiences. Another central character, whose story takes place 12 years earlier, is “La Scolaretta,” a young woman whose work for the Resistance includes assassination, and whose capture and execution are the dark center of a swirl of relationships, both open and hidden, that Vivien gradually learns the truth about.

Ultimately, this is a story about survivors’ guilt and the redemption that can come from trust and self-sacrifice. Readers looking for the charm of the first two novels will still find it in Jenner’s evocation of Roman culture and street life, but this book asks more of the reader and is ultimately incredibly moving. Its insights into the way history can both empower and hold us back are thoughtful, and beautifully woven into a compelling narrative.

Kristen McDermott

LADIES’ REST AND WRITING ROOM

Kim Kelly, Finlay Lloyd, 2023, A$24.00, pb, 128pp, 9780994516596

The Ladies’ Rest and Writing Room is located in Farmer’s department store in Sydney, Australia. After spending the day spending

their money, Sydney’s wealthy women can sit comfortably, drink tea, eat scones, write letters, and gossip without leaving the store.

Every Tuesday, Dotty Bluebrook stops in the room to write a letter to the secret love of her life, Digs Sweet. Digs went missing in action during the Great War, which ended four years ago. Dotty won’t let herself think that he isn’t coming home. She writes him regularly, though she has no address.

Clarinda Littlemore is the new attendant at this room. Once a classmate of Dotty’s, Clarinda has fallen on hard times. Both of her brothers died in the war, and her father committed suicide after losing all their money. Clarinda grew up rich, but now lives in a small apartment with her dreadfully ill mother. Both young women are suffocated by grief but show and experience it in different ways.

In this beautiful novella, Kelly brings to life the bustle of Sydney, its various neighborhoods and streets, its beaches and businesses, in these post-war years. Her development of these two characters is tremendous. Dotty is delicate and child-like; on the surface she seems shallow and spoiled, yet her deep, secret love and grief are tearing her apart. Clarinda also hides her grief, but working, caring for her mother, and worrying about the future is wearing her down. Kelly’s prose is gorgeous; reading this book is like studying a painting by a master or listening to a symphony. Nearly perfect in its execution. Highly recommended.

Elizabeth Caulfield Felt

THE LANTERN’S DANCE

Laurie R. King, Bantam, 2024, $28.99/C$38.99, hb, 320pp, 9780593496596 / Allison & Busby, 2024, £22.00, hb, 384pp, 9780749030247

This is the latest entry in Laurie R. King’s long-running mystery series about Sherlock Holmes and his brilliant, much-younger wife Mary Russell. In 1925, Holmes and Russell arrive at a French village, hoping to spend time with Holmes’s son, the surrealist artist Damian Adler, and Damian’s fiancée and daughter. But they find that the Adlers have fled the house after a break-in by an armed man. Holmes goes to look for his family while Russell, who stays behind because of a sprained ankle, finds four crates containing paintings by Holmes’s great-uncle, Horace Vernet, as well as a diary in code. Russell deciphers the diary, which tells the story of Lakshmi, the daughter of a liaison between a married Frenchwoman and a man from a wealthy Indian family. Lakshmi’s father takes her to India, where she has many adventures, often in male disguise. The diary reveals a

link to Holmes’s family, and Russell realizes Damian may be in danger because of past events.

To fans of the series, of which I am one, this book seems like a visit to old friends. I am happy to say the Holmes/Russell series is still going strong after thirty years. Russell’s brilliant mind is easily a match for Holmes. King always gives the reader an excellent sense of setting, and this is no exception, with scenes set in Paris, the French countryside, and India. Lakshmi is a fascinating character, and the scenes from her diary are central to the book. You feel her despair as her comfortable life with her father’s family goes horribly wrong. The reader also learns the history of Holmes’s family—King’s version of it, at any rate, because there are not many details in Doyle’s originals, even though one story mentions Vernet as a relative of Holmes. Highly recommended.

THE LOST BOOK OF BONN

Brianna Labuskes, William Morrow, 2024, $18.99/C$23.99/£10.99, pb, 384pp, 9780063259287

Can poetry change the world? This novel set in WWII Germany poses that question through the lives of three young women. Two of the women are German sisters growing up in Bonn under the Nazi regime, and one is an American librarian in the immediate aftermath of the war, working to return plundered books to their rightful owners. Framed by the librarian’s search, the stories of the sisters unfold in two sequences: one during 1937-1938 as circumstances become more dire, and one in 1943 after they have parted ways. Different in temperament and personality, the older sister is a member of the Edelweiss Pirates, a real-life group of nonconformist young people who resisted the Hitler Youth through clandestine means. The younger sister, in contrast, gets caught up in the BDM (Bund der Deutschen Mädchen), the female counterpart to the Hitler Youth. Both sisters try to protect each other, particularly when the older sister becomes involved with a German Jewish poet who gives her a book. The librarian’s own personal story unfolds as she searches for the poet with the help of the Monuments Men in the war-ravaged nation.

Many forms of bravery and courage take place in both sisters’ lives, along with nuanced changes in their outlooks and shifting loyalties. Self-righteousness, self-loathing, and self-recrimination surface throughout the narrative, along with dawning self-awareness, forgiveness, and redemption. The bond between the sisters weaves their lives together with others both in their daily existence and on the larger canvas of Nazi terror. The power of books to connect different people together strongly resonates throughout. Highly recommended.

Karen Bordonaro

CANDLELIGHT BRIDGE

Cara Lopez Lee, Flowersong Press, 2024, $21.95, pb, 456pp, 9781963245073

At Christmas time in 1910, twelve-year-old Candelaria and her family leave their village in Mexico. They plan to walk north for weeks to Juarez and then sneak across the border into America. Bandit gangs and federal soldiers have made life hell for poor locals in Mexico, especially able-bodied boys and men. About the same time in China, twenty-year-old Yan Chi Wong has suffered the brutal loss of the woman he was to marry. Shunned for a series of foolish decisions he made trying to save her, Yan Chi flees to his brother in America. This work then plays out over the next 24 years, awash in the tides of racism, the Depression, plagues, the Great War, and Prohibition.

Candelaria’s family and Yan Chi separately find their way to El Paso, Texas. Candelaria soon waits on tables at Yan Chi’s restaurant. They marry, raise children, and strive to find a decent place in a world that’s dangerous and often does not want them. Yan Chi, clever in business, is both charming and cruel. Candelaria struggles every day to do what’s right for herself and others who depend on her, including her constantly pregnant mother, her disabled father, and younger siblings.

Lopez Lee does not shy away from intense details of a sandstorm, death and dying, forced sex, a difficult birth, gun fights and even a child-scarring coyote. The literary prose delves into the innermost thoughts and secrets of the main characters. Many subplots contain surprising twists and turns right up to a cluster of life-changing decisions at the very end. Readers wanting to be transported to those harrowing times and places for immigrants from China and Mexico will appreciate this story.

G. J. Berger

THE QUEEN OF DIAMONDS

Beezy Marsh, Orion, 2024, £9.99, pb, 294pp, 9781398718890

This book consists of two alternating storylines, set initially in 1898 and 1923. The earlier tale is Mary Carr’s, closely mirrored a generation later by Alice Diamond’s, who appears to emulate Mary’s life; both are factually based according to the afterwords. The two girls grow up similarly in London’s Victorian squalor, but instead of resigning themselves to a life of miserable poverty, both decide to right the wrongs of social inequality by “hoisting” gloves, dresses, furs and jewellery from prestigious West End stores and selling on the stolen goods, or indeed, keeping them. Both are attractive, confident women, sly enough to pass themselves and their ‘girl-gang’ mates off as wealthy shoppers, a deception which allows them to rub shoulders, and other body parts, with the upper classes, resulting in truly awful consequences, again for them both. As the storylines gradually converge, gruesome descriptions of incarceration display not only both women’s strengths and determination to

Vicki Kondelik

survive, but also vividly contrast the calamitous present with their carefree past.

This cleverly worked prequel is a must for those familiar with Marsh’s later-set novels, yet as a stand-alone story, presents sufficient interestingly detailed drama to satisfy any newcomer.

Simon Rickman

THE ISLAND OF MISTS AND MIRACLES

Victoria Mas, trans. Frank Wynne, Doubleday, 2024, £16.99, hb, 212pp, 9780857529367

Mas’ second novel is translated from the French by Frank Wynne. It wasn’t until I checked the details to write this review that I realised that it had been translated; the language is lyrical, flowing and engaging. Set on a small island, with an island’s sense of tightly interwoven community and a touch of claustrophobia, the novel tells the tale of a young convent nun who asks to be sent to the island because of a prophecy that she will witness a vision of the Virgin Mary there. Unfortunately, it turns out that she will witness someone else’s vision…

Beautifully crafted, this book gripped me right up to the last dozen pages or so. There is what I felt to be the perfect ending to the book at that point; it made me go “oof!” and put the book down, completely satisfied, but then there was more to read. I felt that the wrapping-up scenes, set fourteen years later, were unnecessary, and detracted a little from the sparse beauty of the rest of the writing.

I’m not sure how to categorise this book: historical fiction, certainly, the bulk of it is set in something that feels late 20th-century, harking back to a start in the 1830s. It is also a superbly suspenseful thriller; at times it felt like a Carl Hiaasen story. And through it all is the landscape as character, seen through the eyes of the boy who has known and loved it all his life. Read it, you won’t regret it. Just leave it a day or two before catching up with the characters in those last few pages.

Nicky Moxey

THE KEEPER OF SECRETS

Maria McDonald, Bloodhound Books, 2024, £9.99/$15.99/C$19.99, pb, 312pp, 9781916978652

County Cork, 1912: Lizzie McCarthy’s hitherto idyllic childhood, growing up in a cottage on the estate of the Big House where both parents work, is overshadowed by an unexpected and sinister encounter with their employer; much worse is to come. Ralph, Lord Haughton’s bullied youngest son, finds companionship with the McCarthy children that transcends class, but George, the elder son, exercises his privilege as he sees fit, and it is the McCarthy family that pays.

After the ensuing family tragedy, the full details of which are not revealed until the breathlessly pacey last pages, Lizzie moves to Queenstown (present day Cobh). Here

she is courted by the dependable, devoted Ed Anderson, of the US Navy, now part of World War I in the aftermath of the sinking of the Lusitania

Lizzie’s story is revealed in discreet flashback, through the tapes she has left for her granddaughter. This is McDonald’s third novel: I love the way Lizzie’s shipboard meeting with someone from the Riverdale boarding house in Belfast links back to her second. All the historical nuggets are there, woven into Lizzie’s American experiences: she is dismayed by Jim Crow segregation but overjoyed by the innovation of a refrigerator, all white enamel and cork lining.

The physical challenges of a different climate are vividly described; a hurricane is prepared for as though it were a bombardment. The Keeper of Secrets has at its heart an enduring love story, but it is also an examination of what motherhood really means. Lizzie is not the only one to keep secrets; so, for so long, did the mother and baby homes who sold infants to American adopters. McDonald writes vivid, relatable characters. In particular, Lizzie’s resilient, feisty sister-in-law would have made Maeve Binchy proud.

Katherine Mezzacappa

THREE-DECKER MURDER IN A NUTSHELL

Frances McNamara, Level Best/Historia, 2024, $16.95, pb, 220pp, 9781685124755

In December 1919, Boston medical examiner Dr. George “Jake” Magrath chides a young police detective for removing the body of a young woman from a crime scene because he assumed she had fallen from the porch of a three-decker tenement when in fact she had been shot in the head. Not long afterward, a man’s beaten and bloody body is found in a storage box that, Magrath laments, has not been scoured for the murder weapon.

Rather than please superiors and make a quick arrest, detective Peter Attwood follows Magrath’s experimental crime scene investigation techniques, in the process witnessing the first ballistics tests of bullets fired from rifles and using details from a dollhouselike crime scene reconstruction to explain the two deaths.

Three-Decker Murder in a Nutshell is the second in McNamara’s Nutshell Mystery series that fictionalize the work of forensic pioneers Magrath and Frances Glessner Lee, who set the standard for legal medicine education in the 1940s. Their seminars taught men in law enforcement how to observe, gather details, and interpret findings. Key educational tools were 18 dollhouse-like crime scene reconstructions created by Lee and called the Nutshell Studies.

This book is a delight for fans of stories set in the early days of forensic science. It presents characters determined enough to test authority and patient enough to test theory against practice. It also offers details about

time and place, political and social situations, and major historical figures. In this case: the days before Prohibition, the Brahmins vs. the workers, and former Boston mayor “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald. Suitably twisty-turny and yet surprising; plot resolution centers not only on the usual forensic suspects—bullets, fingerprints—but also on a piece of delicate handiwork.

K. M. Sandrick

THE LIGHT OVER LAKE COMO

Roland Merullo, Lake Union, 2024, $16.99/£8.99, pb, 284pp, 9781662510786

This suspenseful tale set in Italy in the final days of World War II is told in four alternating voices. Two years before the story opens, Sarah, a young Jewish woman, escaped to Switzerland with her aging mother when three months pregnant. Her fiancé Luca helped them escape, then remained in Italy as a partisan fighting the Fascists. Enzo Riccio, Mussolini’s close confidant and assistant, has lost his former zeal for Il Duce but still lives in his Lake Como retreat. Wealthy Silvio Merino secretly supports the partisans under his casual façade. Their lives intertwine as Mussolini’s power fades. Hitler, clearly losing the war in spring 1945, has vowed that German troops will fight to the last man, and erratic Benito Mussolini shares his view.

Roland Merullo maintains the suspense throughout his fresh angle on the war, capturing the challenges and beauty of the landscape from Lake Como up to the Swiss border, and down to Milan. The four characters are strongly drawn and conflicted. Sarah’s daughter, now 18 months old, has never seen her father. After Sarah’s mother dies, she is desperate to find Luca and solemnize their marriage, but he’s hiding out in the mountains and could be dead or have found another woman. Luca hates the Fascists with a passion and will take on any assignment to bring them down, regardless of risk. Enzo’s conscience plagues him: what is the right course? In contrast, Silvio is driven by his strong dictum: be a good man.

There is much to admire about in The Light Over Lake Como: the meticulous research, compelling structure, emotional intensity, and powerful, descriptive writing. This novel helps readers understand why Italy still has such complicated politics. World War II left its mark. Highly recommended.

Jinny Webber

THE CURSE OF PIETRO HOUDINI

Derek B. Miller, Doubleday, 2024, £20.00, hb, 354pp, 9780857529275 / Avid Reader, 2024, $28.99, hb, 384pp, 9781668020883

Germanoccupied Italy, 1943. Having witnessed his parents’ death in a bombing raid on Rome, Massimo (aged 14) flees south to relatives in Naples. On the journey he meets the enigmatic intellectual extrovert that is Pietro Houdini, “Master of Art Restoration and Conservation”, a man with “the sorted mind of a scientist but the spirit of a shaman”. Pietro is travelling to Montecassino Abbey, at the monks’ request, to examine the vast array of priceless artefacts stored within. He takes Massimo on as assistant, secretly preparing to steal some of this “loot” from the Nazis, who themselves are stealing it from the Abbey. During this planning, as if in a truncated degree course from the University of Life (and Death), Pietro philosophises magnificently to Massimo on the gamut of human knowledge and behaviour. Plans completed, and anticipating disaster if they remain in the Abbey’s relative safety, he gathers a small band of survivors who accept the consequences of leaving. He initiates their escape, hoping to avoid both German defences and the advancing Allied frontline. Inevitably, plans go awry, and people are not who they seem, sometimes startlingly so.

Supremely entertaining throughout, this cleverly crafted story of war’s desperations, as much about Massimo as Pietro, presents many levels yet progresses simply and excitingly alongside genuine historic timelines. Pietro’s ‘Curse’ itself is movingly revealed in the remarkable final chapter. Truly unforgettable.

Simon Rickman

THE SECRETS WE KEEP

Liz Milliron, Level Best/Historia, 2024, $16.95, pb, 296pp, 9781685125554

This fifth book is a fine continuation of Milliron’s series about PI Betty Ahern and the other women who discover new careers and abilities on the home front during World War II. In this installment, Betty has finally qualified for her license as a private investigator; however, she still can only afford to conduct business out of a booth at the local diner.

Her first official client is a soldier raised in an orphanage who wants to find his birth mother before he returns to the front. It is not a simple task, for the only clue he can provide is a St. Christopher medal that was left with him when he was abandoned. The case rapidly

grows more complex when Betty’s client unwisely confronts the society matron she believes to be his mother – and the woman is found murdered shortly after his visit.

As always, Milliron presents a wellresearched historical portrait of Buffalo as a city weathering the economic ups and downs of industrialization, the Great Depression, and a subsequent defense manufacturing boom. The series continues to sensitively chronicle the divide between blue-collar ethnic neighborhoods and the wealthy magnates who have brought prosperity to the city, while on a personal level, Betty’s doubts about her engagement to a man serving at the front enter a new and more complex chapter.

The Secrets We Keep is first and foremost a satisfying mystery, while at the same time offering a thoughtful look at the wives, sweethearts, and mothers of the Greatest Generation.

Erica Obey

ROSALIND (UK) / THE ENGLISH CHEMIST (US)

Jessica Mills, Legend Press, 2024, £9.99, pb, 288pp, 9781915643391 / Pegasus, 2024, $27.95, hb, 288pp, 9781639367085

Rosalind takes up the now familiar cudgels and, using the mass of proven evidence available to her, reprises Rosalind Franklin’s whole sad story – and it was, and still is, a sad story.

There is, and always has been, plenty of evidence that the group of scientists, Watson, Crick and Wilkins, alongside whom Franklin worked, blatantly plundered her research and that when the facts of the two-chain helical structure of DNA were proved and published, removed from Franklin the credit that was due to her for this historic discovery. It is regrettable that as the facts eventually became obvious, the Nobel Institute, because of its rule against posthumous awards, failed, and is still failing, to right this injustice.

Poor Rosalind. Was it because women were at that time still sidelined in ways that fortunately no longer prevail? Was it because she was Jewish? Or, as Jessica Mills suggests in her version of things, was it due to her rather chilly, unresponsive personality?

In Rosalind, Jessica Mills gives us a character who is a detached individual who fails to react warmly with her fellows. This personality quirk does not excuse their treatment of her, but it may, in part, explain it.

Had Franklin survived the cancer that cruelly killed her at an early age, she might have been able to establish a healthier relationship with her colleagues or fought her corner and won for herself the recognition and its rewards to which she was clearly entitled.

Has Jessica Mills succeeded in adding anything to Franklin’s story? I find this novel unsatisfactory and confusing, in that it seems to be caught between the two stools of biography and autobiography, switching

between Franklin’s voice and Jessica Mills’s interpretation of her subject’s personality.

Julia Stoneham

THE WEALTH OF SHADOWS

Graham Moore, Random House, 2024, $30.00/ C$39.99, hb, 355pp, 9780593731925

Graham Moore has written a historical thriller based on true events, many littleremembered or understood, during World War II. These incidents and decisions made a significant impact upon the financial world.

The protagonist is a lawyer named Ansel Luxford. He is recruited by Harry Dexter White, a senior US Treasury official, to be part of a research department within the Treasury. Luxford leaves a successful law practice in St. Paul, Minnesota, and moves with his family to Washington, DC in September 1939.

Harry White explains to Ansel and the other newly recruited team members that they will be working on a clandestine project. Since the US has declared its neutrality in the war and is therefore unable to engage in military warfare against the Germans, the group’s secretive mission is to wage economic warfare on the Nazis. Specifically, their task is to understand how the Germans are building a war operation and then set out to defeat it economically. Ansel’s mission will take him around the world, engaging in the perilous work of espionage, secret trade deals, and deceit.

The novel’s major characters were real, and the author has skillfully used them to develop the story with actual events. Since little information was available about the protagonist, the author has used Ansel to tell this interesting story from his own point of view. The Wealth of Shadows will appeal to readers who like historically based thrillers. The novel moves at a fast pace with much suspense.

Frances E. Stephenson

THE GRAND ILLUSION

Syd Moore, Magpie, 2024, £16.99/$25.95/ C$33.95, hb, 355pp, 9780861541607

England, 1940. Throughout the land all the talk, the trepidation, is of imminent German invasion. British Military Intelligence are aware not only of such plans, but also of Nazi High Command’s penchant for the occult; the SS even have a department, the Ahnenerbe, investigating ancient Aryan culture to affirm notions of superiority. Keen to exploit this possible weakness, the Secret Services recruit a group of radical free-thinkers, specialists in their own particular fields – precognition, mysticism, astrology, witchcraft etc. –who could be key in thwarting, or at least distracting the enemy, through trickery. Failing that, they might even summon, God forbid, The Forces of Darkness. Among these chosen few are Jonty Trevelyan and Daphne Devine, renowned stage magician and assistant, expert illusionists who, with

their new colleagues and minimal resources, stage an effective misdirection stunt, then participate in a magical power ceremony in the New Forest. However, not everything goes smoothly, and Daphne must plumb the depths of her ingenuity and determination to prevail.

Moore’s in-depth character analyses augment the suspenseful plot and exhibit this proven thriller writer’s skill to the full. She also has a nicely capable turn of phrase especially in outdoor descriptions. Further, her writing is such that often it’s as if she’s reading the story to you, rather than you reading it. This novel presents an intriguing new slant on the usual Second World War deprivation tales – exciting and believable. A rare treat.

Simon Rickman

THE MURDER OF MR. MA

John Shen Yen Nee and S. J. Rozan, Soho Crime, 2024, $25.95/C$34.95, hb, 312pp, 9781641295499

One of the most unusual collaborations of today’s mystery genre created The Murder of Mr. Ma, as John Shen Yen Nee has led at DC Comics and Marvel Comics, and S. J. Rozan’s Lydia Chin series (mostly New York and Chinatown) began in 1994. This pair plunge readers into 1924 London and an astonishing resuscitation of the noted Judge Dee Ren Jie. He was a semi-fictional character originally based on a Tang court statesman, brought into a Chinese crime novel in the 18th century, then the hero of Robert van Gulik’s historical mysteries. Nee and Rozan re-create him once again, investigating a murder of Mr. Ma, for the sake of an old friendship.

The charming point of view is that of an inexperienced and reserved academic, Lao She, whose studies get entirely disrupted by the demands of Judge Dee Ren Jie: The noted and notorious Bertrand Russell recruits Lao She to assist, as “Dee Ren Jie has found himself mistakenly swept up in the arrest of a group of Chinese agitators in the Limehouse.” When the astonished Lao She agrees to Russell’s plot, he throws into jeopardy his carefully cultivated relationship with his domineering British landlady and the landlady’s lovely daughter. In return, he gets the adventure of a lifetime, even seeing “Flying Tiger” style martial arts. Then again, Lao She is a former laudanum user—so can he escape becoming addicted when his responsibility for rescuing the careless judge takes him into an opium den?

From rooftops to back alleys, the book offers insights into British class at the time, postwar changes in culture, and anti-Chinese sentiment and maneuvers, seasoned with lively adventures and abundant humor.

Beth Kanell

SECRETS OF A SCOTTISH ISLE

Erica Ruth Neubauer, Kensington, 2024, $27.00/C$37.00, hb, 272pp, 9781496741189

On a remote island in the Scottish Hebrides in 1927, Jane Wunderly is initiated into the

mysterious Order of the Golden Dawn in a secret midnight ceremony. But Jane’s intention is not to gain magical prowess or travel the astral planes. Instead, she and her fiancé Redvers have come to Iona to secretly investigate Robert Nightingale, the charismatic leader of this branch of the order. However, the disappearance of another member of the order, found dead on an isolated hilltop, quickly changes the trajectory of Jane’s investigation. The woman’s body was covered with mysterious scratches, and she wore only a black cloak. Did the dead woman leave her wealth to the Order, as Nightingale insists, or was her will a forgery? Was her death the result of rivalry between two factions of the Order? And will Redvers and Jane manage to escape this sacred island safely, or will they fall prey to Nightingale’s occult machinations?

Secrets of a Scottish Isle is the fifth in the Jane Wunderly mysteries. The Order of the Golden Dawn, which did exist in the late 1890s and into the 20th century, provides an intriguing background for the mystery. Nightingale, Neubauer states, is very loosely based on the notorious magician Aleister Crowley. Other real historical personages such as William Butler Yeats and Dion Fortune add interest to the plot. The Isle of Iona is convincingly depicted, although I can’t relate to Jane’s dislike of single malt whisky! To each his own, I suppose. The deepening relationship between Jane and Redvers will satisfy longtime readers of the series, while both new and old readers will enjoy the potent mix of 1920s mystical orders and the Scottish setting. A fun read!

Susan McDuffie

THE SECRET PIANIST

Andie Newton, One More Chapter, 2024, £9.99, pb, 384pp, 9780008541996 / $3.99, ebook, 384pp, B0CGWT768N

Gabriella, Martine, and Simone are doing their best to survive in a small town along the northern coast of occupied France. When the Commandant comes to their door to investigate their aunt’s now-empty apartment, which they had tried to hide, he spies their piano and orders Gabriella to teach his stepdaughter to play piano. Meanwhile, Martine has brought home a carrier pigeon with a message from the British secret service, and Simone is sneaking in after dark most nights. Their pact to always make decisions together is pushed to the limits as life under German occupation grows ever more treacherous. As they struggle to find a balance between resistance and survival, each sister

must make her own choice about the risks she will take.

In London, Guy Burton is the MI6 agent waiting impatiently for any response from his carrier pigeons that does not involve German practical jokes. When he finally receives a message coded in music, he is thrilled to finally have proof of his success. When he searches for answers at the local music school, the music itself provokes emotions he long thought buried by grief. Despite the apparent success of the program, his superiors have other ideas, and he realizes his mysterious musician may be in more danger than she knows.

This heartfelt WWII story brings to life the everyday challenges people faced when trying to decide who to trust and who will betray them. Complicated characters and dire circumstances create unlikely alliances and make for a unique take on a well-known time period. With plenty of surprising twists and turns, The Secret Pianist is as suspenseful as a mystery, while also deeply moving and thought-provoking. Highly recommended.

Shauna McIntyre

WHALE FALL

Elizabeth O’Connor, Picador, 2024, £14.99, hb, 210pp, 9781035024728 / Pantheon, 2024, $27.00, hb, 224pp, 9780593700914

In 1938, as Europe appears to be on the brink of another war, a beached whale is washed up on a fictional, nameless island off the Welsh coast. We see the effect of its stranding on the small, isolated community through the eyes of Manod, the motherless daughter of a fisherman. Interspersed with her jottings are the notes and journals of Joan and Edward, two English anthropologists whose interest is aroused by reports of the beached whale and who come to stay on the island to record its folklore.

Trapped as Manod is between an uncaring father who is as likely to address her by his dog’s name as by her own, and a younger sister who insists on speaking only Welsh, refusing to learn English, she eagerly agrees to assist Joan and Edward in their research, providing them with invaluable insights into the island way of life. But do they perceive her and the islanders as they are, or as they would like them to be? They have their own agenda; to them, the unwitting girl is as much research subject as assistant.

Manod’s narrative unfolds in a series of dreamy musings; it is not clear whether she wrote them as these events unfolded in 1938 or afterwards, as she looks back on that period in her life. Her language is deceptively simple; her limpid descriptions of the island and the bleak life of the islanders also unveil her own unspoken, undefined longings for a different, richer world. Each new entry, short or long and whether from Manod, Joan or Edward, merits a new page, and the resulting blank spaces are quite disorienting for the reader, adding to the feeling of isolation and otherness. A beautifully written if desolate coming-of-age story.

Catherine Kullmann

SUFFERANCE

Charles Palliser, Guernica Editions, 2024, $18.95/C$22.95, pb, 212pp, 9781771838856

The War, a country in Eastern Europe, the Western Zone, the Eastern Zone, the Enemy, the Occupation, minority members of the “other” community; a “decontamination” of the nation’s source of infection – all ambiguous names and phrases, but unquestionably the reader is placed in a WWII story.

As the father narrates this story, we learn that he, his wife, and two daughters have taken in a young school friend to stay until she can be reunited with her family, who are trapped in the Western Zone after the invasion with all means of communication severed. This family is of the “other” community.

With a self-serving motive, the narrator is convinced that in caring for this child, her wealthy father and owner of a successful business will be so grateful that he will be rewarded with a better job. As he moves among his neighbors and co-workers and we see his interactions with them, his self-importance and self-righteousness are evident. It becomes clear the father is an unreliable narrator. Is this young girl as spoiled and selfish as he claims? Is he really the magnanimous person he perceives himself to be? With this girl in their midst, paranoia, internal conflict, and discord are tearing apart the family. While the occupying regime tightens its authority, rules and consequences become increasingly harsh, and the family is trapped in a situation with any choice resulting in severe consequences. It is too late to register her as required; they cannot continue to secret her.

A sinister undertone lurks throughout the narrative, and a real sense of doom overshadows. In the father, Palliser has created a rare character who in turns can be sympathetic and contemptible. His story races to an ending that leaves the reader stunned. This novel will evoke a full range of emotions. An impressive novel not to be missed.

Janice Ottersberg

TWILIGHT TERRITORY

Andrew X. Pham, W. W. Norton, 2024, $27.99/ C$36.99, hb, 384pp, 9781324064848

When Japan occupies Vietnam during World War II, the Vietnamese people, long under French colonial rule, have traded one oppressor for another. So single mother Le Tuyet is understandably wary when a Japanese major, Yamazaki Takeshi, enters the shop she owns with her aunt, seeking an introduction. Though she is hesitant, as she gets to know the battered veteran, she discovers kindness, strength, and compassion. Despite the war, love blossoms. At the war’s end, the Japanese soldiers repatriate, but the French remain in power. Sympathetic to the Vietnamese and in love with Tuyet, Takeshi chooses to stay and, as the French tighten their control, he joins the Viet Minh resistance movement. Fiercely patriotic Tuyet has battles of her own,

as she tries to keep her family fed throughout famine and safe from French retaliations against those suspected of aiding the Viet Minh. Spanning World War II and the First Indochina War, Tuyet and Takeshi’s story is one of love and heartbreak.

Twilight Territory brings to life a time and place underexplored in English-language fiction. As an American who knew little about French colonization of present-day Vietnam and the fight for control in that region prior to the Vietnam War, I appreciated the historical perspective. Pham’s writing is lyrical and assured, painting a picture of a landscape that is lush and heady, but also ravaged by famine, monsoon, power, and war. The characters have moments of defeat but, like the country they live in and fight for, they grow stronger with each season. A novel full of conflict, character, and meticulously researched history; a fascinating and recommended read.

Jessica Brockmole

ASH DARK AS NIGHT

Gary Phillips, Soho Crime, 2024, $27.95/$36.95, hb, 312pp, 9781641294744

In August 1965, a Watts traffic stop of Black motorists triggers protests, riots, and arson, soon followed by an enraged police response. Black Vietnam vet and now-crime photographer Harry Ingram prowls the carnage with two cameras. One of his many clicks might have captured the police shooting an unarmed protestor at point-blank range. The cops notice Harry, beat him senseless, and haul him to a prison hospital, but not before he hides rolls of film. Harry’s girlfriend, Anita Claire, finds the film. Days later his widely published photo of the police shooting makes him famous but reviled by the LAPD.

After Harry’s recovery and release from the hospital, a friend of Anita’s mother hires him to find her business associate, “Mose” Tolbert. Mose disappeared during the riots. The search takes Harry to high-end burglary rings, poker parlors, bank robberies, and interlocking businesses with shady owners. Racist and corrupt from top to bottom, the LAPD bugs Harry’s home and threatens him and Anita. Dr. Martin Luther King pays a visit, and other celebrities, including Marlon Brando, appear at a fundraiser for Black rights.

The most impressive aspects of this story are the accurate historical settings. We see and feel LA’s poorer neighborhoods and inhabitants, how its people survive, interact, work and play. The novel’s depiction of political and law enforcement leaders closely follows actual history. The two main plotlines (Mose’s disappearance and LAPD corruption) unfold side by side to surprising resolutions. This second Harry Ingram novel will appeal to fans of the first and to any reader wanting to learn about the awakening Black community in Los Angeles of sixty years ago.

G. J. Berger

THE LAST TWELVE MILES

Erika Robuck, Sourcebooks Landmark, 2024, $16.99/C$25.99/£12.99, pb, 368pp, 9781728299839

As if Elizebeth Smith Friedman and William Friedman, the most soughtafter cryptanalytical minds in US Military Intelligence, and Elizebeth’s work for the US Coast Guard aren’t enough of a draw, Robuck has added the rumrunner, ‘Spanish’ Marie, into the mix to craft a tightly plotted thriller, set upon the high seas between Miami and the Bahamas, and Key West and Cuba in the 1920s.

Twelve miles (increased from three) was the limit beyond which the Coast Guard could not exert its authority. This meant the rumrunners had to be faster and savvier to race those miles without being caught, and more deceptively inventive, outpacing anything the Coast Guard could come up with. Spanish Marie was remarkably good at strategic planning, using multiple boats as decoys, but the ace in the Coast Guard’s hand was Elizebeth, whose exceptional mind went far beyond decoding messages. Robuck begins her story aboard a Coast Guard vessel which comes across a rumrunner, who has his baby daughter aboard! —an intriguing introduction to Elizebeth and the dilemmas she often faced.

The spotlight here shines on three formidable women: Elizebeth, a codebreaker who was also a loving wife and mother; Marie, who recognised and embraced her ruthless nature, yet cared deeply for her children; and assistant DA Leila Russell, a beauty coupled with a brilliant mind and a private pilot’s license. Told in third person, chapters alternate between Marie, who fought her way to the top of her game and Elizebeth, always mentally several steps ahead. We get glimpses of how Elizebeth’s mind worked, in a story of three women fully capable of excelling in a man’s world. Extensive author’s notes are well worth reading and include how, after liquor smuggling had run its course, Elizebeth worked to curb narcotics smuggling and human trafficking. An eye-opening and compelling read.

Fiona Alison

THE STAR ON THE GRAVE

Linda Margolin Royal, Affirm Press, 2024, A$34.99, pb, 280pp, 9781922930392

Based on the author’s own family history, this novel features a little-known aspect of World War II.

It’s 1968 in Sydney, Australia. Rachel Margol, a nurse, is set to marry Yanni Poulos, a doctor of Greek heritage. Raised a Catholic and already facing issues with Yanni’s Orthodox family, Rachel is devastated when her Polish grandmother, Felka, reveals that she is Jewish, a fact deliberately kept from her by both Felka and Michael, Rachel’s father. Their reasons being that they wanted her to: ‘… grow up free. Without fear. Without having to run and hide …[and] of being judged.’ Felka

also says: ‘People hate us without reason. It is just how it is. How it has always been.’

Rachel’s life is irrevocably changed. Her engagement to Yanni on hold, she accompanies Felka to a reunion of Jewish refugees in Japan, where she discovers more about her family origins and learns about Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese diplomat in Lithuania who defied orders and was instrumental in saving the lives of numerous Jews in the 1930s-40s. (Although allies of the Nazis, the Japanese did not align with their anti-Semitic practices.)

Life in the Polish refugee circle in Sydney is well-described, and the exuberant Felka and surly Michael feel authentic, whereas Rachel’s character seems uneven. Sugihara’s own narrative is related in short parallel extracts, but there is little about his equally important associate, Dutch businessman Jan Zwartendijk, who facilitated the Jews’ journeys beyond Europe. The significance of the novel is diminished by an irrelevant intimate relationship in Japan and its contrived sentimental conclusion.

The author’s notes detail aspects of her family’s experiences that have been fictionalised for dramatic purposes, and it may be that this historically important and powerful story would have been better served in a more accurate non-fiction format.

Marina Maxwell

WALK THE EARTH AS BROTHERS

Henry Rozycki, Addison & Highsmith, 2024, $29.99/C$39.99/£26.95, hb, 300pp, 9781592113866

Can the dreams of innocent youth survive the horrors that reality oftentimes thrusts upon us without regard, nightmares years in length, unrelenting, perverse and constant? Do we have the fortitude and resilience to withstand everything that fate seems to hurl at us and come out the better for it?

Ian and Daniel are Polish Jewish brothers who, at the outset of World War II, have dreams of becoming architects, engineers of a bright future for all mankind. Then, of course, Hitler invades Poland and chaos ensues.

Bereft of home and family and, more importantly, each other, both young men find love in the most unexpected of places, Ian in a Paris thrown into turmoil and Daniel in a Siberian gulag. But love is just a temporary oasis. Ian, the younger sibling, has to flee Paris, avoiding detection as a Jew, and join a ragtag group of Polish exiles skirting arrest, trying to make their way aiming eventually for the British Isles and a renewed fight against the occupying Nazis. Daniel’s enemies are myriad: Nazis, Stalinists, thieves, and murderers.

Rozycki captures not only the feel of nightmare but the emotional scarring that occurs to people deprived of footing in reality, separated from loved ones and from all hope that life can revert to the way it was before. He does not paint a rosy picture; this is not a Disney version of World War II. The reader suffers along with Daniel and Ian and prays for

their survival, not just physical, but emotional as well. In such a cruel world, not everyone does survive. Loss takes its toll. Hopefully, we learn something from it. Loss of love. Loss of dignity. But, in the end, a strength to carry on.

Peter Clenott

ORIANA

Anastasia Rubis, Delphinium, 2024, $27.99/ C$37.99, hb, 368pp, 9781953002365

Oriana is an exuberant novel about an exuberant woman, the famous Italian interviewer of the Seventies, Oriana Fallaci. Fallaci was born in Florence under Mussolini’s regime and was raised by fiercely brave partisan parents who expected her to do something with her life, including assisting them in their efforts to fight against the Fascists and Nazis. She learned her lessons well and applied them when she chose journalism for her career.

Though she was “born poor, born in war, born a woman,” Fallaci became extraordinarily famous by developing her own distinctive style of interviewing people: She bravely asked her subjects personal questions without hesitation and then inserted herself into their stories. Her brashness earned her interviews with such luminaries as Henry Kissinger, Golda Meir, Robert Kennedy, and the Shah of Iran.

This novel recounts her adventures with such famous people, and they make for captivating reading. It develops her touching friendship with actress Ingrid Bergman, another woman who was torn between her career and her desires for love and a family.

The novel is also about a woman who had to face relentless sexism both in Italy and America. Rubis develops Oriana well as a celebrity who, ironically, faces the world alone except for her parents. She is taken advantage of by a callous lover when she is young and must have an abortion. When she falls in love at age 45 with a younger Greek patriot, who is as dedicated to his dreams and ambitions as she is, she is beset by doubts about who she is and what she wants most in life.

Rubis is faithful to her heroine and builds her story with careful detail, often using the journalist’s own words to make Oriana come vividly alive.

Joanne Vickers

THE TITANIC SURVIVORS BOOK CLUB

Timothy Schaffert, Doubleday, 2024, $29.00/ C$39.00, hb, 320pp, 9780385549158

Among those who survived the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 are those who never got aboard: ticket holders who changed their minds at the last moment. And Yorick, librarian of the ship’s second-class library, abruptly fired and left behind. Now the proprietor of a Paris bookshop, he is drawn together with a group of other intended passengers, all struggling with a strange survivor guilt affecting those who simply missed a deadly boat. They form a book club, based on the banned and censored books that Yorick smuggled into the library

that sailed without him, and gradually they tell their own stories.

The novel revolves around Yorick and two others: beautiful Zinnia, heiress to a candy company, and the mysterious Haze, who has no legal identity. The three fall complicatedly in love and navigate the alternating and conflicting relations between them while the situation in Europe builds toward the First World War. Their story is told by Yorick, supplemented with letters between the three. Yorick, named by a father obsessed with Shakespeare, also shares the book club with a writer of “penny dreadfuls,” cheap romantic mysteries; a disillusioned evangelist; a famous aging actress; and a toy maker stuck with an unsalable inventory of commemorative Titanic-related playthings.

Full of details of pre-war Paris as intricate as the ethereal candies that Zinnia’s family produces, this is both a novel of the human heart and a novel rooted in the power of books and language and reading. The bookstore becomes a character in itself, and each book a specific message of hope and second chances.

Amanda Cockrell

THE SHADOW OF WAR

Jeff Shaara, St. Martin’s, 2024, $30.00/ C$40.00, hb, 368pp, 9781250279965

The Cuban Missile Crisis is the next thrilling and tense historical setting for bestselling author Jeff Shaara in The Shadow of War. In October 1962, the United States and the Soviet Union came close to unleashing a nuclear holocaust when the Soviets installed offensive nuclear missiles in Communist Cuba.

While everyone knows how the story ends, Shaara’s meticulous research and established storytelling chops put the reader at the center of the storm. Shaara frames the story through the viewpoints of three principal characters: Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. Attorney General and President John F. Kennedy’s most trusted advisor, Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev, and fictional Joseph Russo, professor of English at Florida State University, a family man who witnesses the looming catastrophe from newspapers and nightly television news with his wife and two children.

Beginning with the disaster of the Bay of Pigs, Shaara sets up JFK in Khruschev’s eyes as vulnerable to Soviet expansion, thereby setting in motion his plans to bolster fellow communist Fidel Castro’s regime from further U.S. invasion or interference. Shaara follows history closely in the closed-door Executive Committee meetings, where senior U.S. officials and the military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff battle it out over the best plan to remove the missiles: “quarantine” or blockade Cuba from future shipments, conduct a limited strike against the missile sites, or invade Cuba altogether. Shaara mined the substantial documentary record to inform these scenes, and he takes a sympathetic view of both Kennedy and Khruschev attempting to rein in hotheaded advisors eager to go to war.

The Shadow of War revisits this dicey episode

of Cold War brinksmanship with taut writing and historic authenticity. Shaara fans will not want to miss this one.

Peggy Kurkowski

SISTERS OF THE SPRUCE

Leslie Shimotakahara, Caitlin Press, 2024, $19.00/C$26.00, pb, 234pp, 9781773861371

Sisters of the Spruce depicts the coming-ofage of 14-year-old tomboy Khya, second of three daughters of Sannosuke (Sam) Terada, who is hired to organize a logging camp at British Columbia’s Masset Inlet in 1918. The Buckley Bay site, upon the family’s arrival, consists of some barely habitable cabins, a group of Chinese, Japanese, and Indigenous loggers, and a steam donkey. The imminent need is a mill, which Sam sets the loggers to building.

When the white workers arrive, their leader, known as the Captain, seduces Khya’s 16-yearold sister, Izumi, resulting in heartbreak for the family. After irreconcilable differences break out between the ethnic groups, the Captain takes his workers south, leaving Izzy to mourn her loss. When she is sent to the mainland, Khyra is determined to find the Captain and demand he rescue her. Daisy, a young prostitute who feels a dull resignation towards her life, finds a means of escape with Khyra, and the two set off together in the direction of Thurston Harbour. Finding the Captain proves difficult despite the girls’ pluck and determination, and they soon find themselves running from the law.

Shimotakahara’s deeply moving novel takes place on the Queen Charlotte archipelago (Haida Gwaii), amidst the magnificent Sitka Spruce forests, trees strong enough to use to build fighter planes during the war, part of an ancient forested wilderness, homeland to the Haida. Kyha and Daisy first meet in the cave-like root system of a huge Sitka, the tree becoming a narrative symbol of hope and strength. The novel unfolds with organic fluidity, each event triggering another along Khya and Daisy’s route, as they bear witness to much tragedy. A map of Khya’s journey would be a welcome addition to this poignant story of friendship and love, family loyalty and the strength of the human spirit.

Fiona Alison

THE HAZELBOURNE LADIES MOTORCYCLE AND FLYING CLUB

Helen Simonson, Dial Press, 2024, $29.00/$36.95, hb, 432pp, 9781984801319

/ Bloomsbury, 2024, £16.99, hb, 432pp, 9781526670236

It’s 1919, the Great War is over, and everyone is expected to get back to their normal, meaning pre-war, lives. No one wants to see the maimed and the scarred, and women who went to work during the war are being pushed

out of jobs that a new law requires be given to the returning men.

In this beautifully crafted examination of post-war cultural upheaval, Helen Simonson has given us everything we could look for in a novel of the human heart. Constance Haverhill managed a country estate, but has now been summarily dismissed. She has a tenuous position as summer companion to elderly Mrs. Fog at a seaside resort and no idea of what she will do next. Besides Constance, there is Poppy Wirrall, a wartime motorcycle despatch rider unwilling to be shoved back into the candy box; her brother Harris, a fighter pilot whose amputated leg everyone assumes will end his flying career; and Mrs. Fog, who proves to have a past she is willing to fight to reclaim. These characters and more interact with the guests at a seaside hotel and the scandalously oil-stained members of Poppy’s all-female motorcycle taxi service.

The Hazelbourne ladies are perched on the edge of great change, and the hard lines of class are shifting too. Simonson’s gift of characterization lies in her ability to show us the story behind the story in just a few deft strokes: even the unpleasant and vindictive have their reasons, and we know what they are and understand, even as we root for those with more heart.

The setting and time are impeccably researched, from wartime rationing to rising hemlines to flying a Sopwith Camel. Highly recommended.

THE MEDICINE WOMAN OF GALVESTON

Amanda Skenandore, Kensington, 2024, $17.95, pb, 384pp, 9781496741684

When we first meet Dr. Tucia Hatherley in St. Louis in 1900, her world has fallen apart. She has been expelled from an internship at a hospital, supposedly for incompetence. She finds work in a dangerous corset factory but is fired when she resists her boss’s attention. She struggles to raise her six-year-old son, who has special needs and no apparent father. As the last straw, she is about to lose her lodging because she cannot pay down the debt for her medical school education.

Tucia has a chance encounter with Huey Horn, also known as the Amazing Adolphus. He owns a traveling medicine show, setting up performances in towns throughout the middle of the country. He offers to pay off Tucia’s debts if she joins his troupe. Seeing few alternatives, she agrees and befriends other members of the company including a handsome handyman,

a dancing giant, a bow-legged musician, and an Indian who wants to be a writer. Gradually, she learns their secrets and they learn hers. At first, the Amazing Adolphus asks Tucia to participate in his scams by impersonating a fortune teller. Then he asks her to assist him as he offers exams to his audience members and sells them useless nostrums. Once the troupe reaches Galveston, his demands become increasingly unreasonable.

Skenandore has done a splendid job with perfect pacing and original characters who change convincingly over time. Her settings are a bit vague as the troupe moves from town to town, but once the show reaches Galveston, readers smell the water, envision the buildings, and sense the forces of nature. Readers will route for Tucia and the members of the troupe to free themselves from the Amazing Adolphus.

Marlie Wasserman

UNDER THE PAPER MOON

Shaina Steinberg, Kensington, 2024, $27.00/ C$37.00/£25.00, hb, 290pp, 9781496747808

Opening in Los Angeles in 1948, this novel introduces characters out of film noir: beautiful, tough protagonist Evelyn Bishop and her handsome boyfriend James; a wealthy businessman who is soon murdered and the pretty young waitress he appeared to be having an affair with; Nick Gallagher, an old contact of Evelyn’s, now a harddrinker whose life has gone askew. Chapter Two shifts to London in 1942: another sort of movie altogether. With a small group of OSS operatives, Evelyn and Nick parachute behind enemy lines to work with the French Resistance defeating the Nazis. Nefarious dealings during the war extend afterwards with murderous consequences.

Having long lost contact, Evelyn and Nick are now private investigators, she for women clients from her Rodeo Drive office in Beverly Hills, he from a shabby downtown cubbyhole. Both become entangled with the murder of George Palmer, and details of their wartime adventures and relationship weave through the story. The aeronautics tycoon, widower Logan Bishop, raised Evelyn and her brother Matthew around airplanes; Nick and James were their childhood friends. Thus, family, friendship, and planes play a significant role.

These elements create an ever-intensifying plot with a mysterious antagonist worming his way into Los Angeles business, politics, and events from WW II hanging over the major characters. Steinberg’s style is vivid, recreating late 1940s Los Angeles in the hard-boiled mode reminiscent of Raymond Chandler. Even more in the manner of detective novels of that era is the brutality. More violent than earlier scenes during WWII are the fights, sabotages, and narrow escapes—or not—of these characters in the face of soulless villainy. Under the Paper Moon, a suspenseful pageturner, would make a compelling movie.

Jinny Webber

Amanda Cockrell

THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

Mary-Lou Stephens, HQ Fiction, 2024, A$32.99, pb, 432pp, 9781867255659

In the early 1920s, the British confectionary consortium of Cadbury-Fry-Pascall sets up its first overseas factory near Hobart, Tasmania.

Dorothy Adwell is one of several Cadbury’s employees sent to Australia to help with its establishment. A war widow, she sees this as a step up in her career and also a chance to find a renewed sense of purpose following the loss of her husband. En route she meets Thomas, a man who has been damaged psychologically by the ravages of war.

Dorothy is charged with employing local staff and sees potential in young Maisie Greenwood, eldest daughter in a struggling family also affected by the loss of her father. Maisie is attracted to foreman, Frank, until something in his past drives a wedge between them, while Dorothy must tread a cautious path as she tries to help Thomas with his demons.

After Dorothy witnesses what might be an act of sabotage in the factory, she receives strangely worded anonymous letters. Is it possible there is a spy in the factory, someone working for a rival company intent on disrupting Cadbury’s business or trying to steal the secret recipe for the famous Dairy Milk chocolate? Love, friendships and loyalties are tested as Dorothy and Maisie are caught up in the plot.

The business of the manufacture of chocolate, including engineering processes, is well-researched and described, as are the social mores, religious attitudes and prejudices against both men and women trying to overcome the lingering tragedies of World War I. With its unusual setting and account of industrial chocolate espionage that is based in fact, there is much to recommend this novel. Although a little slow to start, when the pace intensifies it improves considerably as these indomitable Cadbury girls step up and display their courage and determination.

Marina Maxwell

THE GIRL FROM KYIV

Sue Stern, Red Bank Books, 2023, $16.99/£7.99, pb, 386pp, 9780957494831

London, 1905: Sophia and Dov meet on the boat coming to London, she longing to be a doctor and he working for the anarchist cause with the aim of bringing about revolution in Tsarist Russia. She is devoted, idealistic, and hardworking; he is attractive, mercurial, and a keeper of secrets. This is their love story, but a great deal else besides. Sophia expected to meet her brother in London to travel together on to New York, only to find that of the two tickets he had booked for them, only one is valid, and he has gone on ahead. This swindle leaves Sophia alone and friendless in London, but she is quickly assisted by ladies running a hostel and finds herself in the midst of a supportive, close-knit Yiddish speaking community in Whitechapel.

Stern, drawing on family history, paints a picture of a vanished world: the sweated

garment factories of the East End, the revolutionary meetings in smoke-filled pubs, where orthodox upbringings clash with revolutionary beliefs. To keep herself, Sophia works as a seamstress and part-time midwife. This is an echo of both the lives of Aletta Jacobs, Dutch physician, birth control pioneer and suffragist, who early in life trained in needlework as one of the few choices open to a woman, and the heroine of Chernyshevsky’s 1863 novel What Is To Be Done? in which the heroine, longing to study medicine, survives meantime by her needle. Both Jacobs’s ideas and Chernyshevsky’s are referenced in this novel, which brims with faultless period detail, down to a reused Cadbury’s tin featuring a dairy maid. Other historical figures, like Rudolf Rocker and Milly Witcop, appear. My only regret is that this dramatic novel finished a little abruptly when I was hoping for more. Perhaps there will be more.

Katherine Mezzacappa

CATCH THE MOMENTS AS THEY FLY

Zoë Strachan, Blackwater Press, 2023, $19.99/£13.99, hb, 452pp, 9798987718162

In 1936 Scotland, fourteen-year-old Rena is determined to change her life. Enlisting the aid of her three aunts, she relocates her mother and two younger brothers away from their brutally abusive father and nurtures her mother through the subsequent upheaval.

Her enterprising spirit doesn’t stop there. She and brother Thomas run their small local store, up at 4am, bicycling deliveries of newspapers and fresh rolls around the neighborhood. Rena never looks back – well, only when she turns around, in Glasgow, to see a handsome young man admiring her in her new fur coat, bought by her aunts for her twenty-first birthday. “Reflected in his eyes,” Strachan writes, “is Rena in the future.”

Bobby Young goes to sea in 1939, sees the world, and almost dies when German U-Boats sink the flotilla. Home on safe ground, he’s a bit of a chancer, but a first glimpse of Rena is lifechanging. He follows her, in her stunning new fur, though he doesn’t have a coat himself or a penny to his name. He asks her out, borrows a car and petrol money, and the rest is history.

Strachan’s linear narrative follows Rena and Bobby as they slowly climb the ladder towards respectability, nurturing business after business in the hospitality industry. Rena is the driver, Bobby is the fixer, playing the political game with those who would thwart their rise. Rena, a striking beauty, is as adept at playing hostess as she is at scrubbing floors, and she isn’t afraid to do either.

Several times the couple are knocked back by forces beyond their control, but Rena remains undaunted. The conclusion is abrupt, but I thoroughly enjoyed this novel of family loyalty, which is steeped in the changing moments in Kilmarnock, pre-and post-war, and pulled off with Strachan’s superb narrative style.

Fiona Alison

THE SHADOW NETWORK

Deborah Swift, HQ Digital, 2024, £9.99, pb, 352pp, 9780008586898 / $0.99, ebook, 352pp, B0C4XJ5TBS

In 1938 Lilli Bergen, a German Jew, escapes from Berlin and makes her way to England. After a shaky start, when she is held on the Isle of Man as an enemy alien, she is recruited as a singer for a new radio station that has been set up to broadcast propaganda to German soldiers. This is the “shadow network” of the title.

Lilli’s new life is soon threatened by the arrival of a new recruit, her ex-boyfriend Bren Murphy, whom she suspects of having betrayed her and her father to the Nazis. It soon becomes apparent to the reader that Bren is not what he seems, but is in fact an IRA supporter working with the Germans to undermine Britain. Lilli is torn between the demands of a promising new relationship with a fellow worker on the radio station, her desire to find out what Bren is really up to, and her precarious position as a German in wartime Britain.

I found the subject matter of this book interesting, as I had not previously known of the internment camp on the Isle of Man, or of the creation of fake radio stations. However, I sometimes found the characterisation sketchy: Bren in particular seemed like a twodimensional villain with no redeeming features. I also felt that the story would have been stronger if we had been left guessing about him rather than being told about his activities right at the beginning. Another minor quibble was that Bren would have been unlikely to make the mistake of describing a Scot as ‘English’. But the novel will appeal to anyone who wants to know more about Britain’s propaganda activities during the Second World War.

Karen Warren

BURMA SAHIB

Paul Theroux, Mariner, 2024, $30.00/C$37.00, pb, 400pp, 9780063297548 / Hamish Hamilton, 2024, £20.00, hb, 400pp, 9780241633342

In 1922, 19-year-old Eric Blair, upon graduating Eton, joined the Indian Imperial Police in Burma. It is later when his career turns to writing that he takes the pen name of George Orwell. In Burma Sahib, Theroux fictionalizes the five years Orwell spent in Burma.

Upon arriving in Burma, Orwell begins his job as a police superintendent, and the cadets under his command were Burmese and Indian. At six foot two, he awkwardly towers over everyone else. He has difficulty fitting in with his unit, always feeling like an outsider and avoiding social situations while he seeks solitude to read and write poetry – Maugham and Jack London being favorite authors. He thought E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India “sounded like touristic tosh” and convinces himself he could be a better, more honest writer about the realities of colonialism. Even with his distaste for the wrongness and futility of the Raj, he still wants to fit in with the status quo and goes to great lengths to keep secret his “half-caste relatives” living in Moulmein. He is transferred

to various places in Burma – Myaungmya, Twante, Syriam, Insein, Mandalay, Rangoon, Moulmein – moving with his boxes of books, his ducks and chickens in two large baskets, and his cat. He writes numerous unsent letters to his family, “I am not cut out for this” as he details his complaints, and shame over his failures. Yet he finds pleasure in nature, the various animals he acquires, and the women that come into his life.

This is a rich and fascinating narrative of Orwell’s life during the years that influence him as a writer. Theroux’s dialog is perfection, the banter between the men authentic. He was a complex and conflicted man, and Theroux shows how his life was shaped and formed by his service in Burma.

Janice Ottersberg

THESE TANGLED THREADS

Sarah Loudin Thomas, Bethany House, 2024, $17.99, pb, 368pp, 9780764242014

Set between 1916 and 1923 on and near the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, this is a story of love, loss, betrayal, and weaving. Lorna is working on the estate as a weaver, training the precocious and unpredictable young Gentry in the trade as well. Their friend Arthur, a woodcarver, also works on the estate, and is silently in love with Lorna. Suddenly, Gentry disappears and Lorna becomes a successful designer of remarkable fabric. Then one day it all falls apart, and Lorna begins to search the surrounding mountain towns in order to find Gentry and set things right.

This is a heart-touching book about betrayal and forgiveness, set in the beautiful Appalachian Mountains. Life at The Biltmore Estate at that time is so well portrayed that the reader will feel instantly transported there. The tragic 1916 flood at Biltmore Village is part of the events that unfold, and it shapes the life of one of the characters, Lorna. The flood and its tragic aftermath are well described. The beauty of the mountains is woven perfectly throughout the novel. The magic of talent, and the desperation to possess it, lies at the heart of the conflict. There are strong themes of betrayal, guilt, and whether forgiveness is deserved or should be freely given. The love story in this book makes it all the sweeter. The author also does a good job of describing the heart of mountain artistry and how it has been passed down over generations. This novel is a tapestry of art, love, history, and betrayal that will delight the reader.

Bonnie DeMoss

THE WARTIME BOOK CLUB

Kate Thompson, Hodder & Stoughton, 2024, £22.00, hb, 512pp, 9781399714938 / Forever, 2024, $18.99/C$24.99, pb, 512pp, 9781538757017

Kate Thompson has set her novel in the Channel Islands, bringing vividly to life the experiences of Jersey residents between 1940 and 1945, when the island was under enemy occupation. This was the only German-

occupied territory where there was no armed resistance, which has attracted some adverse comment. Thompson seeks to rectify this. She has included details of her research into the historical background in an appendix. Not all the characters are fictional, and actual events are included. The imprisonment of islanders for perceived insults to the occupiers or disobeying Nazi regulations, and the transportation of some to German concentration camps were very real.

Action centres round the public library and its chief librarian, Grace. Convinced of the power of books to transform and enrich ordinary lives, the wartime occupation prompts Grace to start a book club to help islanders survive in extraordinary times. As she says towards the end of the novel: ‘bad times are good for books.’ The focus of the story is the group regularly attending the book club, as we follow their varied, brave and sometimes terrifying lives under Nazi rule. Alien occupation produces heightened responses both negative and positive. It divides some inhabitants as well as uniting others, breeds distrust and constant fear as well as kindness, courage, intense friendships and romance.

The final chapters cover the arrival of British forces on Jersey on May 9th 1945, a date celebrated in Jersey as Liberation Day. The author shows how impossible it was for the inhabitants to revert immediately to life before the Germans came, so traumatised and emotionally depleted were they by five years of occupation.

Imogen Varney

DEATH IN THE DETAILS

Katie Tietjen, Crooked Lane, 2024, $29.99/ C$38.99/£28.99, hb, 288pp, 9781639107186

Newcomer Maple Bishop has never quite felt at home in sleepy Elderberry, Vermont, but she feels more adrift since her husband’s death in the aftermath of World War II. She finds solace—and a welcome income—in the meticulous dollhouses she constructs in her garage. When one of her customers dies under suspicious circumstances and the sheriff’s office bungles the investigation, she turns her talent for observation and for miniatures to recreating the crime scene. As Maple is pulled further into the investigation, she uncovers secrets hidden behind Elderberry’s quiet façade and allies within the tight-knit community.

This new cozy mystery series is inspired by the work of Frances Glessner Lee, a pioneer in the field of forensic science who created detailed dioramas of death scenes to train detectives on crime scene investigation. Tietjen’s fictional miniaturist is smart, fearless, and determined to uncover the truth, even if it makes her enemies in the bucolic community. Tietjen writes believably about small-town New England and its worries in the immediate postwar years. I look forward to Maple’s next adventure.

Jessica Brockmole

THE LITTLE PENGUIN BOOKSHOP

Joanna Toye, Penguin, 2024, £7.99, pb, 358pp, 9781804946053

August 1939, and the unwelcome spectre of war descends again on Britain – a country that has barely recovered from the disasters of The Great War. Carrie Anderson lives with her parents in the rather dull suburban town of Brockington, where she works in the family newsagents’ business. Carrie feels she needs to do something positive to assist in the war effort, and with the support of her uncle Johnnie, she takes the plunge to set up a train station bookstall to provide reading matter for the rail travellers. As the title of the novel suggests, the focus of her retail display and efforts are the bright and welldesigned Penguin titles. The company was founded just four years earlier, and Carrie sees the potential they have for inexpensive but stylish books for the literate traveller. She starts a romantic liaison with Lieutenant Mike Hudson, a dashing officer who visits her bookstore and charms Carrie off her feet. But matters begin to get tricky when he is posted abroad.

This is the first in a new series and is an entertaining, absorbing and pleasant read. The narrative is undemanding and zips along. The historical context is sound as Joanna Toye encapsulates the uncertainty and anxiety of the times, with the rush, crowds and delays of the train station, acting as a sort of metaphor for elements of the domestic experience of The Second World War. There are interesting references to the titles of the books Carrie retails to show which books and authors were popular in England in 1939.

Douglas Kemp

THE SAFEKEEP

Yael van der Wouden, Viking, 2024, £16.99, hb, 256pp, 9780241652305 / Avid Reader, 2024, $28.99/C$38.99, hb, 258pp, 9781668034347

The Netherlands in the spring of 1961. Isabel Den Brave, aged 30, lives alone in her deceased parents’ house in Zwolle in the east of the country. She is single, spiky and rather eccentric. When her brother Louis’ girlfriend Eva is dumped on her to stay for a month while Louis is working abroad, matters begin to get complicated for Isabel. And the narrative moves in a direction that this reader had not anticipated.

From the opening pages of the book, the author makes it clear that there is a back-story to Isabel’s tenancy of the house, which her family initially occupied during the Second World War. This is only developed towards the end of the story, and perhaps could be anticipated from hints provided by Van der Wouden, but nonetheless does not make the account any the less disturbing. The story is carefully observed, picking at the minutiae of human behaviour and the mundane experience and small constant challenges and minor pleasures of living from day to day. The historical context initially is light – Netherlands

is a provincial country still recovering from the occupation by Germany in the War that ended just 15 years ago, but one that is slowly emerging into the recognisable modernity that swept through west Europe in the 1960s. But the backstory from the war brings to the fore some very dark events that further complicate the plot as well as the conventional narrative that the Netherlands has about its role as victim of German aggression. This is an admirable, engaging and intelligent story from a talented author.

Douglas Kemp

THE CLOCK STRUCK MURDER

Betty Webb, Poisoned Pen Press, 2024, $16.99/$25.99, pb, 320pp, 9781728269931

Zoe Barlow, an American artist enjoying the frenetic social life of Paris in 1924, finds lost Chagall paintings at a flea market. Searching for more, she finds the beautiful flea market vendor, Laurette, brutally murdered. Zoe sets out to find the killer, hoping for the help and support of her lover, Detective Inspector Henri Challiot.

Henri is married to stroke victim Gabrielle, who lies in bed virtually helpless with only a tiny green spider on her pillow to understand her. But Gabrielle is working to regain motion in order to wreak vengeance on her husband’s lover. Not knowing this, Zoe ignores Henri’s advice to stop investigating Laurette’s murder and, despite threats to her own safety, traces the girl’s romantic past with a pig farmer, Vicomte Gervais and an auto mechanic.

This novel, second in the Lost in Paris series, takes the reader on a vivid journey through the brilliantly stimulating artistic life of postWW1 Paris, still recovering from the war but determined to become the cultural centre of the universe, as well as being the host of the 1924 Olympics. Besides Chagall, poets and sculptors, Zoe meets American medal-winner Johnny Weissmuller at the Moulin Rouge.

The plethora of characters—the cultural elite of the time together with the fictional characters involved in the investigation into Laurette’s killing—tends to become somewhat overwhelming. However, the accurate descriptions of the small places in Paris—the individual cafés, flea markets, steep stairs to the apartments—attract and hold the reader from page to page.

A mystery full of suspense and intrigue throughout, this is a welcome addition to Webb’s considerable body of humorous and insightful novels with strong and revealing settings.

Valerie Adolph

FAREWELL DINNER FOR A SPY

Edward Wilson, Arcadia Books, 2024, £20.00, hb, 368pp, 9781529429077

The eighth of Wilson’s spy thrillers in the series begins with William Catesby’s recall to

London for a dressing-down from his seniors, and what appears to be a forced resignation from the Secret Service following the murder of a suspected double agent. Frances, his wife, holds a position within MI6 that gives her access to secret intelligence that could assist William, but is prevented from divulging any information because of the classified nature of the material. When William is assigned an undercover post as a budding author, researching a book on the French Resistance due to his experience in the Second World War, he encounters diverse groups with hidden agendas of their own. His director of operations, Bone, uses a diplomat’s wife to facilitate the initial coded information exchanges, using the guaranteed protection afforded by her husband from William back to London, which gives him opportunity to report on her clandestine activities too.

Striking dockworkers, fuelled and supported by the Communist Party, alongside criminal coercion wrought by the Mafia and the influences of some shady CIA operatives based in Marseille, see William’s role challenged as well as direct threats to his wellbeing. Knowing Wilson’s own background from serving in Vietnam with the US Special Forces, our spy William becomes involved in drug runs to Laos with two men from his Special Operational Executive (SOE) days, while he tries to figure out which of them is the target that London wants removed.

Just like the subterfuge with which a spy must live and work, it can at times be a trial to understand exactly where the author is going with this novel, but William’s character is sufficiently engaging to keep the reader concerned and involved unto the conclusion.

Cathy Kemp

FAMILIARIS

David Wroblewski, Blackstone, 2024, $34.99, hb, 990pp, 9798212194297 / Doubleday Canada, 2024, C$45.00, hb, 992pp, 9780385667937

In the spring of 1919, young John Sawtelle and his wife, Mary, leave their jobs and home in Hartford, Wisconsin, to settle in the north on unkempt farmland with a worn-down house and giant barn. John can walk 63 yards on his hands and is an avid reader, thinker, and note-taker. He believes anything is possible, while Mary is as practical as she is beautiful. Joined by two school friends and three dogs, John and Mary yearn for the future that their new place and freedom will bring. One of the two Sawtelle friends is a severely wounded veteran, the other a quiet craftsman/builder of anything needed.

The nearby tiny town’s dry goods store is run by Walter and his daughter, Ida. Walter found baby Ida back in 1871 after a forest fire wiped out her town. Ida, a peculiar spirit, summons swarms of bees or lightning bolts to save Walter or Mary from harm. Working non-stop to fix house and barn, the group manages impossible tasks rather well. Mary and John raise two sons. Through it all, their main purpose becomes training young dogs for sale. Their dogs behave so well that buyers

stretch across the US and over to Japan and South Africa.

This sprawling work recounts the lives of the main characters and others until the early 1960s, with asides ranging from man’s domestication of wolves, to the proper use of “lie” or “lay.” Wroblewski’s creative subplots and beautiful writing deeply explore the nature of friendship, work, love, decency, treachery, even life itself. The roughly 1000 pages might have made two or three separate novels, but readers will find something to savor from the first page to the last.

G. J. Berger

MULTI-PERIOD

FARAWAY THE SOUTHERN SKY

Joseph Andras, trans. Simon Leser, Verso, 2024, $17.95/£9.99, pb, 96pp, 9781804291719

Readers walk along the streets of Paris, retracing the steps taken by Vietnamese leader Hô Chí Minh in the 1920s, noting the addresses where he once lodged, the hotel where he was once an apprentice cook, the establishment where he once retouched photographs, and the hospital where he once recovered from a phlegmon of the shoulder. Readers pass locations burned into revolutionary history—Charonne metro station, where protestors seeking peace in Algeria were gunned down in 1962, and a little way further along Charonne Street, where barricades rose in the 1871 Commune against soldiers of the Third Republic.

The small details of Hô’s life contrast with the trappings of the everyday in 2024—a pair of thirty-somethings jogging, a restaurant sign flickering, a woman in “formless gray” and another whose scarf is as orange as her shopping cart.

This is the third book by Andras, noted for bringing to present-day light the actions of socialist radicals and revolutionaries that were not ever fully known or have been forgotten, such as Fernand Iveton, an anti-war Communist activist guillotined for carrying a bomb that never exploded (Tomorrow They Won’t Dare to Murder Us, 2016) and Alphonse Dianon, a Zapatista (Kanaky, 2018).

Faraway the Southern Sky is revealing: Hô’s futile attempts to present the demands of the Annamite (Vietnamese) people to the Versailles Treaty conference in 1919 under the pseudonym Nguyen Ai Quâc. Text is often poetic: “Paris drops itself in a blue that can only announce the night.” The intent is insightful: “The dead haunt only the fabulist minds of the

living. ‘Here lies’ obstructs the image. ‘Here lived’ stimulates it.”

More than a read. An experience.

K. M. Sandrick

THE LADY WITH THE DARK HAIR

Erin Bartels, Revell, 2024, $17.99/C$23.99, pb, 347pp, 9780800741662

The Lady with the Dark Hair, a dual-timeline novel, immerses readers in the art worlds of the late 1800s and today. Following similar pathways traveled by Tracy Chevalier in Girl with a Pearl Earring and Marta Molnar in The Secret Life of Sunflowers, we see and feel the limitations imposed on young women involved in artistic endeavors and yearning to be painters in their own right.

Viviana Torrens, a young Catalan woman, is a servant in the home of an elderly French artist. Her employer asks her to model and teaches her to paint, but her future is bleak until she meets Francisco Vella, who sells paints. She poses as his sister and joins him to travel and paint. In the present, Esther Markstrom runs a museum devoted to Vella’s paintings while caring for her schizophrenic mother. The Markstroms know that Vella is a distant relative. His revered painting of the lady with dark hair hangs over their fireplace. With the help of her former art history professor, Esther searches for this woman’s identity and discovers questions about who actually painted this great work and how she is—or is not—related to the painter.

The story is carefully crafted with lots of historical detail, elegant language, and interesting twists. For example, as in Shakespearean plays, Viviana poses as a man to escape Vella. This young woman also has fascinating conversations with Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot, and Marie Bracquemond. The book educates readers about the art world while absorbing them in a great story.

Lorelei R. Brush

FIRE MUSIC

Connie Hampton Connally, Coffeetown Press, 2024, $24.95, pb, 422pp, 9781684921591

American Lisa comes to Hungary with a sheet of music that belonged to her grandfather Sándor. Kristóf, grandson of Lisa’s uncle Antal and the last survivor of his generation, meets her, and the story shifts between Antal and Sándor in Hungary in 1945, and later, in 2006-07 when Lisa visits; and her subsequent correspondence with Kristóf after she returns to Tacoma.

It’s a moving story of music, family, faith, and survival, with characters in both eras suffering losses that seem irredeemable. Neither Lisa nor Kristóf’s life is going well when she arrives with the sheet music, and Antal, ailing, carries grief and anger decades old. But the music composed and performed by his and Sándor’s Bomb Shelter Quintet lives on, eventually tying the two eras together.

The story will charm music lovers. It

practically sings—and weeps—during both the final violent stages of the war and ensuing Soviet occupation and the later era. But its appeal extends to those fascinated by varying angles on WWII, and readers who love history of lesser-known times and settings. A song written by Varga Antal (in Hungary one’s surname comes first) serves as a kind of theme: light over darkness, impossible as that often seems, ironic yet hopeful. Antal wrote a piece entitled “Song to our Enemies,” which Lisa, a composer herself, helps blend with “Light Over Darkness,” for a final performance celebrated in 2007 in Hungary.

Connally’s writing is sensitive and evocative and the two stories engrossing. Some mysteries must be resolved before any sort of redemptive future is possible. We’re enlightened and touched by the Varga family and their lives in Hungary and beyond. Highly recommended.

Jinny Webber

HIS HEAD ON A PLATTER

Alan Gold, Romaunce Books, 2023, £11.85/$14.00, pb, 412pp, 9781739185763

Seventeen-year-old Artemisia Gentileschi is raped – it’s no secret – and this very young, talented woman’s life is thrown into chaos. Her rapist, Agostino Tassi, promises to marry her but keeps postponing the wedding. After a year of waiting, Artemisia’s father, the wellknown artist Orazio Gentileschi, takes Tassi to court. Artemisia endures horrors during a seven-month trial to prove her innocence, but this is Rome in 1612, and Tassi works directly for the Pope, leaving Artemisia to wonder if she will receive justice.

In 1641, forty-eight-year-old Artemisia lives in London and is writing about her horrific past. To get her revenge against men, she has spent her life painting strong women, but she worries that she and her work will be lost over time. She plans to complete her memoir, which will reveal the truth about her life and work while keeping her memory alive.

Meanwhile, in 21st-century Sydney, Australia, retired geologist David Cabot finds a painting in a suburban gallery that he can’t resist buying despite its gruesome nature: a child who has bitten his mother while nursing. While David unlocks the mystery of the painting, another secret develops: what happened to the book Artemisia wrote?

Artemisia’s tale is a deep, horrific story full of rage at the injustice women suffer, and this book is her retribution. The framework that this novel is built upon is clever, especially since a new mystery had to be created. However, the modern storyline with bumbling David Cabot is a real disappointment. It’s based on true events, but it’s a shame the storyline couldn’t have focused instead on the detective skills of the intelligent and strong Professor Martina Calabrese, the Uffizi’s Gentileschi expert.

Kelly Urgan

THE GENIZAH CODEX

Susie Helme, The Conrad Press, 2024, £10.99, pb, 368pp, 9781916966130

The book opens with an intriguing scene set in the present day, depicting a tense encounter between one of the protagonists, Catherine, and an Israeli customs official. Soon after, she meets with a researcher studying a newly unearthed scroll pertaining to a mysterious female philosopher. Mere hours after their meeting, the researcher is murdered.

Meanwhile, in the ancient Holy Land during the reign of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, an academy of women devote themselves to studying and preserving the writings of a fictional female philosopher, Sophia Zealotes, introduced in Helme’s previous book, The Lost Wisdom of the Magi

In the Middle Ages, we follow a philologist called Hugues who goes to the Holy Land seeking rare scrolls. Across the centuries, murders, lootings, family secrets, hidden treasures, and religious conflicts abound. By the end, though, everything comes together quite tidily.

The prose could have used a little more polishing, to clear up some of the repetition and confusing phrasing. Overall, the story is more of a draw than the prose styling. A few more rounds of revisions would have really brought this manuscript to its full potential.

As a language geek and Classics major, I particularly appreciated Ms. Helme’s occasional use of Latin, Hebrew, and Greek terminology. This provides an air of authenticity without perplexing readers who lack knowledge of these languages, because she specifically chooses words with English cognates, such as Christiani or ekklesia. There are also some snippets of Arabic and Hebrew in the present-day scenes and French in the Medieval ones, which go untranslated but do not hinder the reader’s comprehension of the story.

Overall, The Genizah Codex is a fun, pulpy read.

Lee Lanzillotta

THE INCORRIGIBLES

Meredith Jaeger, Dutton, 2024, $18.00/ C$24.95/£16.99, pb, 354pp, 9780593473757 San Francisco, 1972: Twentyfive-year-old Judy has recently separated from her abusive, unfaithful husband. Women’s liberation is in the air, and Judy dreams of reviving her old ambition to go to graduate school for photography. She rents an apartment in a tattered section of town, and starts photographing her

colorful, struggling neighbors and embraces their fight for a voice in what happens in the neighborhood. Then, at her job in a studio, Judy comes across a photograph from 1890 that haunts her. It is a mug shot of a very young, very scared woman.

San Francisco, 1890: Annie has emigrated from Ireland and found a position as a maid with a wealthy family. She plans to better herself and bring her nine siblings to the U.S. from their lives of privation back home. Her hopes rise when her employer’s nephew takes an interest in her.

The Incorrigibles tells both of these women’s stories in alternating chapters. Judy becomes obsessed with learning about the young woman in the mug shot, while at the same time fending off her husband’s increasingly forceful attempts to bring her back home. Annie’s hopes of a brilliant marriage are quickly dashed. She finds herself in a nightmare of imprisonment, degradation, and helplessness. Her only solace is the friendship of a fellow prisoner, who teaches her a trade that may become her lifeline.

Judy and Annie are very sympathetic characters. Both of them must find the courage to stand up to men who want to control them, and find the lives they have dreamed of. Jaeger skillfully develops strong themes of both selfdetermination and solidarity. I was so invested in the plights of these two heroines that I found the book hard to put down and read all 354 pages in just two days. Highly recommended.

Kathryn Bashaar

THE ENGRAVER’S SECRET

Lisa Medved, HarperCollins Australia, 2024, A$32.99, pb, 420pp, 9781460764275 / HarperCollins, 2024, £8.49, ebook, 420pp, 9781460716328

This dual-timeline novel has its roots in a feud between the Flemish artist, Peter Paul Rubens, and his principal engraver, Lucas Vorsterman. Canadian Charlotte Hubert is a modern Rubens scholar who gains a research position in Rubens’ home city of Antwerp. Antonia is the engraver’s only daughter who hopes to become an artist in her own right as she witnesses her father’s fall from grace.

Charlotte is excited by the discovery of a map folio containing clues that could lead to some missing Rubens engravings that would be worth millions. But her explorations are hampered by her personal anxiety issues and the shock discovery that a faculty member is her father. Then there are sinister undercurrents in the university with assaults, break-ins, and “…talk of academic theft floating around campus like an invisible cloud of poisonous gas.” As Charlotte and her co-worker Miles investigate further, they are drawn into a complicated web of riddles and betrayal.

The historical aspects featuring Antonia display excellent research on the competitive artistic life and politics in 17th-century Antwerp and London. The suspenseful contemporary storyline has echoes of Dan Brown-type novels in

its twists and turns with cryptic messages in art and mysterious members of a religious order.

Antonia is spirited and principled, but her ambition to become a recognised cartographer is thwarted by her sex and her father’s misdemeanours. Charlotte’s misdirected anger and suspicious nature often threaten to derail her as she ventures into risky situations. Although four centuries apart in time, the warning words of Charlotte’s mother can be applied to both women. “You’ve entered a highly competitive, male-dominated field. So be careful who you trust.”

An innovative debut novel that should gain many fans and may encourage interest in more historical fiction set in the often-neglected 17th century.

Marina Maxwell

HOW TO SOLVE YOUR OWN MURDER

Kristen Perrin, Dutton, 2024, $28.00/C$37.99, hb, 368pp, 9780593474013 / Quercus, 2024, £16.99, hb, 384pp, 9781529430059

A dual-timeline murder mystery stocked with colorful characters, this is a fun page-turner with a lot of atmosphere. In the present-day timeline, Annie Adams, a struggling writer, receives a letter summoning her to her great-aunt’s mansion in Dorset. When she gets there, she finds that her great-aunt Frances has been murdered. Annie gets involved in trying to find the killer, her primary resource being Frances’s journal.

Since 1965, when a fortune-teller at a fair predicted she would be murdered one day, Frances has been obsessed with documenting everything about her life and those around her, in an attempt to prevent her foretold fate. Her journal, which exposes love affairs, rocky friendships, and long-held secrets, is the second narrative in the novel, one we follow with as much interest as Annie as she races to solve the crime.

With plenty of plot twists, red herrings, and attempted poisonings, along with the overarching riddle of Frances’s fortune told in 1965, this has all the typical elements of a classic murder mystery. Yet it doesn’t feel flat or clichéd—our heroines are realistic, flawed, interesting characters. The solution to the mysteries (there’s really more than one) is solvable but not predictable. This debut novel is a worthy addition to mystery lovers’ shelves.

Elizabeth Crachiolo

THE SICILIAN INHERITANCE

Jo Piazza, HQ, 2024, £16.99, hb, 374pp, 9780008626181 / Dutton, 2024, $28.00/ C$37.99, hb, 384pp, 9780593474167

Sicily, 1920s and present day: enticed by the inheritance of a plot of land, Sara flees Philadelphia for the village of her ancestors in Sicily, leaving behind a failed marriage and business. But she has another reason for the visit: her beloved great-aunt Rosie was convinced that Sara’s great-great grandmother, Serafina, a skilled healer, was the victim of an honour killing (the plot was inspired by the murder of one of

Piazza’s ancestors). But where is Serafina’s grave, and why does asking about her meet only with omertà?

This novel is a thriller, in which an alternating dual narrative keeps the tension high, as the physical threats to Sara multiply. Piazza paints a vivid picture of why rural Sicily of a hundred years ago was significantly different from the boot of Italy. Mass migration of men of working age to the United States meant women took on men’s roles, much as happens in wartime, yet whatever the absent husbands did, their wives were expected to maintain their honour at all costs. The novel is also a paeon to female solidarity, in both strands of the narrative, in a society which, in Piazza’s presentation, diminishes the female role: nuttata persa e figlia fimmina (a wasted night and a female child), as Inspector Montalbano was wont to say.

Only after finishing the book is there a bit of an aftertaste that perhaps Piazza has not given enough credit to modern Sicilians for their resistance to Mafia dominance. And a tactless and inaccurate referencing of Amanda Knox is merely playing to the gallery rather than advancing the plot. But read Piazza’s novel for her engaging prose, and for her masterfully constructed, fast-paced plot. It’s certainly a page turner.

Katherine Mezzacappa

NEVER CLOSER

Margot Shepherd, Umbel, 2023, £8.99, pb, 254pp, 9781739519803

Oxford, 1940: teenaged Alice’s first job is in a laboratory where mould is deliberately grown in a motley collection of bedpans, pie-dishes, and biscuit tins. This is the realm of the scientists Heatley, Chain and Florey, and the mould is penicillin. Alice’s story is told in parallel with Jo’s, in 2017.

Ultimately their two narratives intertwine in this carefully crafted story, starting with Jo finding Alice’s diary in a vintage clothes shop; the discovery offering her a respite from her life with an unreliable, insensitive, and covertly domineering husband. Then she receives an urgent call to the John Radcliffe Hospital (the modern successor to the institution where penicillin was first administered), where her daughter is in a coma with meningitis. In wartime, Alice and her fellow ‘penicillin girls’ scramble frantically to grow more penicillin in an attempt to save the life of a policeman; the leaders of the lab have to cross the Atlantic to find pharma companies prepared to manufacture their discovery. Domestically, Alice worries about her father and a young man met at a dance, both servicemen, while dreaming of a nursing career, and clashing with her cold and unhappy mother.

The stories of these two women are told with empathy and perception. Shepherd’s

impeccable research shines through: anaemia as a side effect of the amyl acetate used in extraction; Molyneaux’s rayon utility shirtwaisters; a train journey with no stations identified. Reading Alice’s diary to her convalescing daughter, Jo reminds her that ‘the death rate from infectious diseases in this country is the lowest it’s ever been’ but has a premonition of an impending medical calamity. This is a historical novel for our times, a reminder of how much medical science has bettered our lives.

Katherine Mezzacappa

HISTORICAL FANTASY

THE FAIR FOLK

Su Bristow, Europa, 2024, $18.00, pb, 400pp, 9798889660125

The Fairy Folk living in the Surrey woods are very discriminating in who they choose to reveal themselves to. In 1959, eight-year-old Felicity loves the woods on her father’s old farm – a place of solitude that feels magical with her secret den hidden in the woods. Here she escapes at every opportunity, regardless of her father’s warnings to stay away. One evening Elfrida and her band of fairies appear. Enchanted and awestruck, Felicity dines and dances with these mischievous fairies who dress her in glamorous, sparkling gowns. The next morning, she finds herself back in her ordinary life.

As time passes, there are many of these magical meetings. Felicity feels honored as their chosen one and wants to please them. The Fairy Folk convince Felicity to invite them into her house – without an invitation, they cannot cross the threshold. On a dark night they enter, create havoc and mischief throughout the house; but when morning dawns, all is back to rights. Or is it? Felicity realizes something terrible has been done. This results in a bargain and a gift between Felicity and Elfrida with far-reaching consequences. As Felicity ages and heads to Cambridge, Elfrida and Hob continue to pop in and out of her life as they please, and Felicity puzzles over what they want with her.

Felicity faces numerous challenges – her struggles, like other women of the ´60s and ´70s, to seek autonomy and freedom to make her own choices; a romantic relationship; and her questions of why she is the fairies’ chosen one. The illusion of glamour tempts Felicity to disappear forever into the Fairy Folk’s magical world, but Elfrida reminds her, “[Glamour] flits hither and thither… Allow it to be your guiding star, and it will leave you desolate in the end.” Lose yourself in this magical literary fantasy grounded with real-life wisdom.

Janice Ottersberg

THE MONSTROUS MISSES MAI

Van Hoang, 47North, 2024, $16.99/£8.99, pb, 347pp, 9781662517846

Set in Los Angeles in 1959, The Monstrous Misses Mai revolves around the hopes and ambitions of four Asian roommates, particularly

the main character, Cordelia Mai Yin. The girls share the same middle name, Mai, and refer to themselves as the Misses Mai. Each is trying to get ahead without the support of family. In Cordelia’s case, she’s been disowned by her hardworking Vietnamese immigrant parents after an argument escalated out of control. At her parents’ alteration shop she learned to sew and went on to design her own clothes because the standard American sizes didn’t match her body. Her secret dream is to be a fashion designer. No one, however, wants to give an Asian-looking face a job.

A handsome young man, who triggers the readers’ suspicions, offers help with a form of magic the girls have all heard of and been warned off. He tells them to wish for what they want and with a sacrifice, it will be theirs. Things go both uphill and downhill from there.

This historical fantasy reads as an allegory about the emptiness of wealth and beauty. To find happiness, Cordelia must reconcile with her family and find contentment with her own appearance and social status. Success is valuable, but only within limits. The rich become rich at the expense of others.

Certain setting descriptions and types of events intentionally repeat, which slows pacing. Also, even with magic in play, character motivations and choices should be emotionally persuasive, and Hoang fudges a little on this at a climactic moment. Nonetheless, Hoang’s mixture of suggestive magic and evocatively depicted history create an enjoyable tale of youthful striving within the American Dream.

Judith Starkston

THE EMPEROR AND THE ENDLESS PALACE

Justinian Huang, MIRA, 2024, $28.99/ C$35.99, hb, 320pp, 9780778305231

Set in three different periods, The Emperor and the Endless Palace is a fantastical, queer take on the past life romance. In 4 BCE, Dong Xian, a young courtier with a strong knowledge of classical poetry and a reputation for seduction, is tasked by the emperor’s meddling, manipulative mother with seducing him. In the 1700s, a mysterious young man requests that innkeeper, He Shican, acquire a mysterious medicine from his former lover, Dr. Qi, in order to help his ailing grandmother. This medicine is truly a magical potion from legend. And, in present-day Los Angeles, med student River becomes entangled with a tech billionaire’s mysterious lover, Joey, an artist who has created countless statues and portraits of River, long before they actually met in person. Each of these stories is engaging on its own. While they seem disconnected at first, by the halfway point they come together quite cleverly.

References to shared peaches and cut sleeves, two poetic metaphors for love between men, which derive from Chinese legend, abound. The shared peach comes up most often, while the story of the emperor who cut off his voluminous sleeve to avoid waking his sleeping lover is recreated in the sequences set in 4 BCE. The legend of the fox spirit, who takes a human form

and brings destruction to the men they seduce, also appears in multiple timelines. At least one character is, in fact, a fox spirit in disguise.

I don’t want to give too much away, but the ending is creepy, almost disturbing, in a way that cleverly acknowledges the weirdness of the idea of lovers from past lives being reunited, and the dangers of obsessive romantic attachment more generally. It’s not a typical romance ending and all the better for it.

Lee Lanzillotta

SPARKS OF BRIGHT MATTER

Leeanne O’Donnell, Eriu Publishing, 2024, £16.99, hb, 304pp, 9781804184127

O’Donnell’s debut is a surreal meditation on medieval science in Georgian London, centering an illustrated and highly sought-after book, the Mutus Liber

The novel opens in 1780 with the inadvertent death of Mal Burkiss, assistant to alchemist, Peter Woulfe, who is thereafter haunted by Mal’s ghostly presence and for whose death he must atone. Rewind to 1744, when the book is in the possession of apothecary Josiah Sweetnam, who tasks his young apprentice, aspiring chemist Peter Woulfe, with returning it to its owner, Baron Swedenborg.

But the baron is suffering a strange fit of madness, and Peter finds himself unable to hand over the precious burden. Thereafter, he succumbs to the seductive charms of the thieving Sukie, who relieves him of his treasure while he is still in the throes of her voluptuous gifts. Some very dangerous men tear the book apart, but Peter claims its remnants, and ponders its strange effect on those who possess it, not least provoking bouts of madness. He studies its illustrations which he’s sure are connected to his ongoing search for the catalyst to turn base metal into gold. He hides the book, foiling his rival who is blackmailing him over Mal’s death, and who seeks the book’s knowledge for personal gain.

O’Donnell’s novel is a highly atmospheric read, written in an oblique nonlinear style quite open to interpretation. Inanimate objects seem imbued with life and movement, as though the solution to the alchemical conundrum is about to break through the narrative. It begins and ends in Ireland, the mystical, shrouded land of Peter’s birth, where he finds something far more precious than wealth and power. This is not a straightforward read—the kind of novel that grew on me—an otherworldly journey down a dark path, I believe well worth walking.

Fiona Alison

TIMESLIP

THE LIGHT BETWEEN US

Elaine Chiew, Neem Tree Press, 2024, $17.95/£9.99, pb, 336pp, 9781915584670

Wang Tian Wei is pouring his heart out in a letter from Singapore: ‘The wait for your letters is so interminable, it is painful. I clutch at shadows. This intensity of feeling is new to me.

It isn’t always hopeful or joyous.’ His voice might seem archaic. That is as it should be; it is 1921. The lovesick Wang is a man of many talents, but he is mainly a photographer. In her reply, Charlie Sze-Toh writes differently: ‘If you were trying to impress me with all the literature you’ve read, consider it done. I am very impressed.’ As it happens, she is writing in 2019 Singapore.

This unique romance is grounded in Quantum Entanglement, a concept that not many scientists may understand. For those who can immerse themselves in its wonderful intersection of worlds, this is an unusual and syncretic work. There is much about the nature of photography and light, the mores of modern Singapore, and those of Singapore of the 1920s through the early 1940s.

Wang is desperately searching for a young girl, Aiko, whose disappearance does not seem to have ruffled her own father too much. For a while, the bond between Charlie and Wang attains symmetry as Charlie is forced to search for her brother.

A few raw edges – minor inaccuracies and some jarring phrases in the letters – are easily compensated for by the extremely well-woven story threads. Does Wang honestly not lust after the pretty Aiko? Will he be able to rescue her from the clutches of a brothel? Will Wang and Charlie ever meet? This is a genre-defying work that blends in elements of mystery and a nicely over-the-top family drama featuring an evil stepmother. That it is rich with references to literature, art, and food makes it even more delightful.

A. K. Kulshreshth

THE CAPTIVE

Jennifer Marchman, Independently published, 2023, $14.99, pb, 251pp, 9798850921255

This is book 2 of The Mender series. Eva is a time traveler, originally sent to this world to “correct its timeline.” In this installment, Eva has abandoned her original mission, set for March 1836, and is living with her new husband, Jim, among the Comanche. But while she tries to adapt to tribal life, she knows her old partner, Tophe, will be coming to complete her original task—kill Francisca Alavez, the “Angel of Goliad,” and change the result of the Texans’ war for Independence from Mexico.

This is a well-researched novel set mostly amid a Comanche tribe in 1835 and 1836. Marchman has done a good job of portraying the way the Comanche lived at that time. The customs, language, and practices of the tribe are very well described. Eva’s struggles include living in a polygamous society, dealing with the fact that women were mainly relegated to taking care of the home, and observing that captives were not always well treated. Her biggest challenge is knowing the possible future and not using her ability to change current events or remove herself from that time altogether. Her romance with Jim, who was raised by the Comanche and sees things very differently than she does, is complex and intriguing. Her ultimate decisions and the plans she makes set the stage for the final book in the trilogy. As always, the author is

very honest about the brutality people can inflict on each other and the imperfect nature of every human being. Recommended to fans of time travel fiction, Native American history, and US history. This book is not a standalone, and the series should be read in order.

Bonnie DeMoss

FORGETTING TO REMEMBER

M. J. Rose, Blue Box Press, 2024, $29.99/ C$38.00, hb, 336pp, 9781957568942

M. J. Rose’s European art mystery begins with a cryptic prologue set in 1790, as Marie Antoinette poses for a highly unusual portrait: a painting of her eye, framed in rubies and backed with gold, that her lover will be able to wear “near his heart” as a stickpin. Then the tale leaps to London after the Second World War, as Jeannine Maycroft, who holds a prestigious “Keeper” position at the Victoria and Albert Museum, learns of a decision to demote her. It’s not that she’s done anything wrong (she’s been great), but that war hero Hugh Kenward wants her job. Since he’s been employed at the museum before, Mr. Gibbons, the supervisor, intends to open the position for him through this move.

But Jeannine knows her own assets, and they’re not limited to her expertise with art and jewels. “My father had recently been knighted for his war efforts, and it wouldn’t do to let me go either.” When she stands firm for her employment, Mr. Gibbons opts to create a competition between Jeannine and Hugh (whom she mistrusts deeply): Whoever creates the more successful half of the museum’s Valentine’s Day exhibit will “win” the job.

From this intriguing conundrum with its highlights of portraiture and gems, Rose takes the tale into a startling jump of time, as one of the art pieces draws Jeannine back eighty years, to meet the painter whose work has always spoken to her heart. Romance ensues, with all the complications of a double life across two intense historic eras. Although Rose doesn’t pull off the sensuality that propels Gabaldon’s Outlander series with this device, she still inks a bold pattern of love and courage.

Beth Kanell

CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULT TIME TRAVELLERS:

Adventure Calling

Sufiya Ahmed, Little Tiger, 2024, £7.99, pb, 160pp, 9781788956598

Suhana and her friends Mia and Ayaan, who are in the final year of primary school, are whisked off back in time by means of a phone app when they are on a visit to the Houses of Parliament. They quickly establish that the year is 1911, the coronation of a new king is imminent, and they find themselves in the midst of a crowd of women protesting about not having the right to vote. Suhana is amazed to discover that some of these women have brown skin like her, and an

acquaintance with Reena Rao of Rajasthan, the king’s goddaughter, is soon made.

In the course of this short chapter book, Suhana learns about suffragettes and suffragists and that Indian women played a significant role that she was not aware of, within the British women’s suffrage movement. This information is well integrated within an exciting and sometimes tense tale, although the return of the trio to their own time is not really seriously in doubt.

There is also a link made with the importance of protest in the past and in modern times with reference to the international global climate strike movement led by Greta Thunberg and many other young people. Appendices explain more about this and about the role of Indian women in the suffrage movement, including named personalities such as Lolita Roy, who makes an appearance in the story, and Princess Sophia Duleep Singh, about whom two books for children have previously appeared – one by Sufiya Ahmed herself, the other being The Royal Rebel by Bali Rai (reviewed in HNR100).

The first in a proposed series in which the three Time Travellers will explore hidden history – ‘experience the past and make it right in the present’ to create empathy.

Ann Lazim

THE NIGHT WAR

Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, Dial, 2024, $17.99, hb, 288pp, 9780735228566

In 1942, 12-yearold Miriam lives with her parents in Paris after fleeing Germany following Kristallnacht. During a roundup of all Jews in the Pletzl, Miri is separated from her parents, but joins her neighbor Madame Rosenbaum and two-year-old Nora. Urged by Madame Rosenbaum, Miri manages to escape with Nora in the chaos. With the help of a Catholic nun, the girls are sent to Chenonceaux, a French village, where Miri, now called Marie, attends the Convent School and Nora is adopted by a Catholic couple. Miri quickly discovers two of the nuns are helping Jews escape the Nazis through the Chateau de Chenonceau, which straddles the river between Occupied France and Vichy. Wracked with guilt over her choices that failed to save her mother and Nora’s father, Miri joins the nuns’ efforts to save as many people as she can, all while plotting a way to reclaim Nora and escape themselves. In the gardens of Chateau de Chenonceau, Miri encounters an enigmatic older woman who helps her succeed.

This middle-grade novel is fast-paced, suspenseful, and heart-wrenching. Miri is a sympathetic character who faces terrifying situations, forcing her to make life and death decisions. Her emotions are believable,

admirable, and valiant. A fantastical element may catch some readers by surprise, but Bradley places hints along the way that may tip off those who read more closely. The secondary characters are fully formed and give younger readers of this period hope that people are capable of seeing the errors of their ways. An extensive author’s note expands on elements of historical events. Highly recommended for any reader who enjoys historical fiction and as an addition to any library collection of Holocaust books.

Meg Wiviott

ONE BIG OPEN SKY

Lesa Cline-Ransome, Holiday House, 2024, $18.99, hb, 304pp, 9780823450169

WHERE THE HEART SHOULD BE

Sarah Crossan, Bloomsbury YA, 2024, £14.99, hb, 403pp, 9781526666598

In Mississippi in 1879, Lettie’s dad, Thomas, convinces her mother and siblings that they should pack and move far west to Nebraska, where they will be able to receive a plot of land and live free and independent. They pack up, carefully

preparing their supplies, and join other Black neighbors, many former slaves, to form their own wagon train and become homesteaders like thousands of other Americans of the time. It is an immensely daunting task, but they delight in each other’s company despite the many challenges and obstacles awaiting them.

The journey is full of wonders but also hardships, risks from outlaws, swollen rivers, and hunger. Along the way the family experiences both tragedy and welcome surprise as they are joined by another young Black woman, Philomena, who has been promised a position as a teacher in a Nebraska school. The former neighbors become even closer along the way, and even their animals, mules Charly and Titus and crooked-eared dog Sutter, make their lives just a little bit more bearable through it all.

The verse format of the book took a bit of getting used to, but because the wonderful story shines through so brightly, I quickly adapted. The descriptions of the lands they pass, the personal thoughts of some of the main characters, and the delightful humor and sweetness of the banter among them charm the reader. In the final analysis, the entire book emphasizes the bonds of family, both immediate and extended. This exquisite novel is geared for children 8-12 years but can be cherished by readers of all ages. A classic, and in a perfect world it would be required reading in all elementary schools.

Thomas J. Howley

Awardwinning Irish writer Sarah Crossan makes a fantastic return to young adult fiction with her latest work: a novel in verse set during the years of the Irish famine. This book is Crossan’s first historical novel and her first set in Ireland. Where the Heart Should Be is the story of Nell, a young scullery maid at the Big House, who begins her new job just as the tenants, including her own family, are reeling from a ruined potato crop. Watching the dogs eating leftover meat while her friends and neighbours starve makes Nell resentful, but alongside this is her growing relationship with the heir to the estate, Johnny. Crossan manages, in the limited space that verse allows, to convey so much: deftly written characters, an absorbing sense of time and place, the joy of first love and the anguish of a community torn apart. Crossan has been vocal about how personal this novel has been for her and how long the work has taken. Where the Heart Should Be is an astounding work of fiction, a beautiful tribute to those who died or emigrated, and an incredibly beautifully written and absorbing story. It deserves to be a future classic.

Lisa Redmond

TRAJECTORY

Cambria Gordon, Scholastic, 2024, $19.99/ C$26.99, hb, 304pp, 9781338853827

In 1942, seventeen-year-old Eleanor has earned the moniker Nervous Nellie. She is quiet and shy, nothing like her role model Eleanor Roosevelt. She hides many secrets: her mathematical abilities, and the fact that she’s responsible for causing the stroke that essentially stole her father’s mathematical brain and changed their family’s lives forever. After being recruited to join a top-secret Philadelphia Computing Section (PCS) of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, she has even more secrets to hide. Eleanor quickly stands out amongst these brilliant women. She is selected to go to an army airbase in California’s Mojave Desert to work on yet another top-secret project, the Norden, a new bombsight to be used by the US Air Corps. Though beginning as a Nervous Nellie, Eleanor gains confidence and maturity, eventually earning the Distinguished Civilian Service Award, yet another secret she cannot tell.

Trajectory is a work of fiction but is historical at its roots, drawing from the real women who worked as “human computers” and calculated firing tables for use during WWII. Gordon deftly draws in the horrors of the Holocaust

through Eleanor’s missing relatives in Poland. She addresses historical racism when Eleanor’s friend at the PCS, Alyce (the only Black person on the team and a historical member of the PCS), must face it amongst their teammates. Gordon also touches on the Japanese American internment camps, segregation in the military, and antisemitism in the US State Department, without being didactic. Gordon presents an honest glimpse of American society during the 1940s. The story is fast-paced, and the characters are substantive, believable, and likeable. Recommended for readers ages 12 and up who enjoy WWII history, women’s history, military history, or just a plain good story.

Meg Wiviott

HEROES

Alan Gratz, Scholastic, 2024, $18.99/C$24.99, hb, 272pp, 9781338736076

Frank and Stanley are the best of friends, living an idyllic life in Hawaii, where their fathers are stationed at the Pearl Harbor US naval base. There is a war raging in Europe but that is far away, and America has not yet been dragged into it. The boys spend happy days on Oahu working together on creating superhero comic books; Stanley is a talented illustrator, and Frank’s words bring the stories to life.

On a sunny Sunday in December, the boys are touring one of the many formidable battleships of the US Pacific Fleet when the unthinkable happens. Wave after wave of Japanese airplanes suddenly appear in the skies overhead, and in seconds, the peaceful tranquility of Pearl Harbor becomes a living hell of death and destruction. The boys are caught in the midst of it all and must escape for their lives as bombs burst and bullets whizz around them.

Their world changes in the aftermath of the attack, especially for Stanley, whose mother is Japanese-American. The racist paranoia levelled against Americans of Japanese descent chills the boys’ friendship and separates them. Will they ever see each other again?

This is an exciting page-turner of a novel. The history is well researched but never becomes heavy-handed. There are important themes underlying the history as Frank discovers courage he never knew he had, and both boys, in different ways, are forced to deal with the trauma of racism. This thrilling and moving novel is highly recommended.

John Kachuba

HOW FAR WE’VE COME

Joyce Efia Harmer, Simon & Schuster, 2023, £14.99, hb, 324pp, 9781398510999

The seventeen-year-old protagonist of

this novel has two names, two identities: she is Orrinda, her slave name for services to Miss Frida up at the Big House; and she is Obah, her African name, given to her by her mother, who was forcibly trafficked from Ghana to the Unity sugar cane plantation in Barbados. Her mother miraculously escaped but left her daughter behind. Obah suffers the rapacious degradations of 18th-century enslavement, but she dreams of being a ‘proper person’. One day when she is taking the secret messages between her mistress and the brutal slave overseer, Leary, she meets Jacob, a white boy her own age who is strangely dressed, hatless, and speaks to her gently, unlike a white man. At first believing he is an apparition, they become friends and then he offers her an astonishing means of escape. The reader might assume this is an easy choice, but as Obah struggles with the prospect of a new life, her choices are shown to be more complex than they at first seem.

What strikes the reader on opening this debut novel is the immediacy of Obah’s voice: the creative grammar of her given language, with its own logic, telling an authentic story of her inner life. This is a story of going home, no matter what that entails, and it is very powerfully told. The mechanics of time travel are of course mysterious, but I would have liked a little more focus on this to avoid a prolonged feeling of suspended disbelief. The time travel conceit does, however, shine a forensic light from the long 18th century onto the present. The title of this novel invites the question, asking us to honestly acknowledge the stain of racism still seeping into Black lives.

Louise Tree

WARRIOR ON THE MOUND

Sandra W. Headen, Holiday House, 2024, $18.99/C$25.99, hb, 272pp, 9780823453788

1939 North Carolina. Twelve-year-old Cato Jones is obsessed with baseball. His older brother pitches for the Kansas City Monarchs, and his deceased father was also a pitcher in the Negro League. When Cato’s town’s white ball club gets a new baseball field, he and his team skip school to play a practice game there, despite the “no trespassing” sign. They are caught, and as punishment, Cato has to do chores for the man who built the field, Mr. Luke. Cato’s uncle blames Mr. Luke for the death of Cato’s father, but the young boy doesn’t know why. Tensions between the white ball club and the “colored” ball club escalate, until a game between the two teams is proposed. Can baseball bring harmony to the town, or will the proposed game make things worse? Will Cato discover how his father died?

Author Headen does a great job of bringing this time and place to life. The unfairness of segregation is shown on every page, and the stress of constant danger for the town’s Black residents makes for suspenseful reading. Cato is a dynamic character, his passion and ambition for baseball driving everything he does. He’s bold and brave, trying to make good decisions but sometimes, impulsively and realistically, making bad ones. Readers will cheer for him and his team and learn a lot about history. End notes offer additional information about the National Negro League, its players, and other books on the topic. Ages 8-12.

Elizabeth Caulfield Felt

THE LUMINOUS LIFE OF LUCY LANDRY

Anna Rose Johnson, Holiday House, 2024, $18.99/C$25.99, hb, 192pp, 9780823453634

1912 Michigan. Of Ojibwe and Acadian heritage, Lucy Landry has suffered many losses in her eleven years. Her mother died when she was little. Her Da, a sailor, drowned in a shipwreck two years ago, and now her dear guardian, Miss Mamie, has passed away. Her way of coping with sadness and fear is to daydream and to take on the personae of characters: the Queen, Small Waif Girl, and others. Lucy doesn’t want to go live with the Martin family in a lighthouse until she hears they live near Mermaid Island. Lucy’s Da’s dream was to find a ruby necklace lost in a shipwreck off the coast of Mermaid Island. The Martin family includes six children, and the lighthouse is a small space that must be kept clean and orderly. If the inspector finds one more fault with the lighthouse and its keeping, Mr. Martin may lose his job. Lucy struggles to adapt to this new environment, although she longs to be a part of the family.

Several characters call Lucy an “odd child,” which is a good description. She is whimsical, haughty, remorseful, irresponsible, and incredibly brave. I found her delightful. Her ability to face her greatest fear is credible, but the act also entails skills she doesn’t have, making the ending wonderful if a bit unbelievable. Johnson smoothly incorporates interesting settings and other details, such as words in the Anishinaabemowin language and the history of the Acadian people. The islands and Michigan coast of Lake Superior come alive with dangers and adventure, an unusual and fascinating setting, especially for children. Ages 8-12.

Elizabeth Caulfield Felt

CINNAMON GIRL

Trish MacEnulty, Livingston Press, 2023, $19.95, pb, 314pp, 9781604893564

1960s Augusta, Georgia, and motherless Eli Burnes enjoys a magical childhood in the home of her opera singing step-grandmother, Mattie. Mattie spoils Eli, while maid Miz Johnny dishes the discipline. It’s a home full of love and music, where what matters is not the colour of your skin, but what you bring to opera. But in 1970, Mattie dies and Eli, aged 14, loses her home. She runs away with her friend’s brother, who is trying to escape being drafted to Vietnam.

So begins a road trip in which Eli discovers not only herself, but also a hidden world. They witness murderous riots and fall in with a secret anti-racist network that also supports boys evading the draft. Collectively dubbed ‘hippies’, they gravitate towards mind-altering drugs.

Eli’s trip is a roller-coaster, full of twists and turns in which she meets a variety of characters, some helpful, some dangerous. There are nods to Jack Kerouac, Timothy Leary, Jimi Hendrix, and other icons of the era. Those who were there will remember the music and the smell of marijuana. Those who were not will gain a flavour of those heady days when youth believed they could change the world, one song at a time.

Politics, however, is skilfully sketched as background, not motivation, for Eli’s story. True to the experience of a ´70s teen, Eli’s world is evoked through music, food, shops, cars, and

hanging out in the park. This is the story of one girl’s coming of age.

Wisely, MacEnulty does not preach but, through the many characters Eli meets, shows different points of view, allowing readers to form their own conclusions. At the end of Eli’s journey, I was left wanting to read about the next stage of her life.

Helen Johnson

THE DJINN’S APPLE

Djamila Morani, trans. Sawad Hussain, Neem Tree Press, 2024, £8.99/$12.95, pb, 160pp, 9781911107859

Nardeen Baramika is a scholar with a desire to be a doctor and work in the hospital known as the Bimaristan. She has a prodigious memory and the skill to achieve her ambition, encouraged by her father to the distress of her mother, fearful of the shifting political sands of the court of Harun Al-Rashid, the famous Abbasid caliph. At the beginning of this short novel, Nardeen becomes the sole survivor of her family following an attack on their home, seemingly in search of a mysterious manuscript. Narrowly escaping becoming a slave, she is taken under the wing of Muallim Ishaq, who enables her to develop her medical career, including ministering to Queen Zubeida. However, Nardeen is determined to plot the demise of the man she believes murdered her family, but who can she truly trust?

This fast-moving story is told in the voice of a tough heroine who copes with her grief by putting the knowledge gained from her father and her new guardian to good use in helping people but also uses it in seeking revenge. The history of Iraq during the golden age of the city of Baghdad, and the flourishing of culture and learning that took place there, form the backdrop to the novel. The way people fell in and out of political favour is integral to the plot.

There are still too few translations into English among books for children and YA readers. Although the spread of languages among translations has widened in recent years, they are still mainly from western Europe, so it is particularly pleasing to read a book originally written in Arabic by an author from Algeria rendered into English by an award-winning translator.

Ann Lazim

THE CLIMBING BOYS

Ann Murtagh, O’Brien Press, 2023, €9.99, pb, 205pp, 9781788493727

Written as a tale of adventure, this is an accomplished novel that deals with class, gender, employment and welfare issues for children in its well-imagined 19th-century Dublin.

When his father falls ill, Hugh ‘Scholar’ O’Dare is forced to leave school to help support his family. He becomes an apprentice in the family business – cleaning chimneys. As he works with his older brothers, he is spared some of the worse aspects of the trade but meets and befriends other sweeps not so fortunate. The rescue of one, young Bert McCoy, provides the focus of the story. Real characters of the time appear in this well-researched work, and one, Daniel O’Connor, ‘The Liberator’, plays a significant role, cleverly introduced by having the boys clean his chimneys. The political issue of Catholic

emancipation, and the oppressive colonial laws affecting the Ireland of the time, are dealt with sympathetically, whilst never losing focus on the children’s story.

Dialogue plays a large part in establishing character, scene and narrative in this novel, and is always pert, bright and authentic-sounding. Excellent research is used with subtlety and relevance, and the settings and set-pieces –Christmas Day Mass, the Lampkins’ party, the Wren boys on the street – as well as the small details of place and time, are well-rendered. Descriptive writing is at a minimum but is evocative and effective, particularly with regard to scents and smells – the ‘fusty ashes’ of the chimney flue, the church smell of ‘damp coats and incense’.

Highly recommended for children of 8 – 12.

Jane Burke

ONLY THIS BEAUTIFUL MOMENT

Abdi Nazemian, Little Tiger, 2023, £8.99, pb, 432pp, 9781788957045

Only This Beautiful Moment is a book that lives up to its name – it’s one big, beautiful moment of reading about three generations of a family and the secrets they hide. In present-day Los Angeles, gay teenager Moud is due to visit Iran, the land of his ancestors, for the first time. This is met with anger by his boyfriend, Shane, who condemns the country’s anti-gay stance.

Moud has reservations too, deleting his social media, and he will have to go on the trip with his father, Saeed, who is not welcoming of his son’s sexuality. They arrive in Tehran to see Moud’s ailing grandfather, Bobby, and Moud finds himself becoming entranced with a culture he didn’t know, but which speaks to his soul. On the visit, secrets of love, loss and treachery across the generations are revealed, and the men are changed forever.

The novel flashes back to 1978 when Saeed was an engineering student taking part in protests against the regime while pursuing a beautiful woman. It also reveals Bobby’s story in 1939 Hollywood where his pushy mother helps him get an MGM contract. Bobby is tipped to be a star but has signed a morals clause which causes difficulties – he is gay.

All three storylines are well fleshed out and believable, and I found Bobby’s life particularly poignant. It shows what prejudice gay men and women faced then and includes biographical tales of gay film stars, including Billy Haines, who refused to give up his partner.

The book is written with warmth and verve, and while advised for YA readers, it’s highly recommended for all ages.

Kate Pettigrew

WOLF ROAD

Alice Roberts, illus. Keith Robinson, Simon & Schuster, 2023, £14.99, hb, 336pp, 9781398521339

Tuuli’s small tribe load up their belongings onto their ‘pulks’ to drag across prehistoric Europe as they follow the trail of the reindeer herds on which their survival depends. Winter melts away to spring, which is described in fascinating detail. From the onset, the reader is

given an amazing insight into the harsh realities of Tuuli’s life in this long-ago era, and the strong bonds of love and friendship, which are so important to the survival of their ‘talo’. Tuuli has a best friend, Wren, with whom she shares her joys and sorrows.

This story is set against harsh scenery and dramatically changing climate. The impact of these determines what they wear, hunt and eat as well as the superstitions and belief system they live by. Respect is shown to the environment that they survive within, and acceptance that sometimes it gives and at other times it takes away.

To keep the girls’ dialogue accessible to today’s young readers, Tuuli’s and Wren’s thinking and responses are made relatable. A strong theme throughout the story is the fear of the yet unknown greater world, which is illustrated by how others react to a boy who is very different in appearance to Tuuli’s people and the tribes who congregate together at Spring Camp.

There is a very dramatic twist to this story that sets Tuuli and her lovely wolf cub on a different path. The strong bond between Tuuli and the cub is built up carefully; it is not forced, and grows naturally. Recommended for competent readers of 10 years + who enjoy a page-turning adventure of loving bonds and survival. Delightfully illustrated by Keith Robinson.

Valerie Loh

A DROP OF GOLDEN SUN

Kate Saunders, Faber & Faber, 2024, £7.99, pb, 324pp, 9780571310982

In 1973, twelve-year-old Jenny Crawford is about to undertake the final audition for a part in a film musical called The Music Makers, heavily based on The Sound of Music. Jenny does get the part, so the reader is able to follow her progress as the film is made. This is a perfect book for anyone who has wondered how a film goes from script to screen, and if it really is as glamorous as we are led to believe.

We also meet the three other children who are in the film with Jenny, and their chaperones. The first of the children is John, a bright Winchester School boy. The second child is Harriet, who is fifteen and lives with her irascible grandmother. It transpires that there are mental health issues in Harriet’s family, and these are dealt with sensitively. Refreshingly, the character with mental health issues is shown as a threedimensional being and, when mentally well, is very endearing.

The final child is nine-year-old Belinda, who fulfils the role of the narcissistic child star at first, but then becomes more three-dimensional as we discover the reason for her attitude. Her mother has an alcohol problem. This is again sensitively portrayed and discussed while providing some realistic moments of tension within the narrative.

Although the book is set in 1973, the period which features most is that of the 1940s as the tension between Jews and Germans is shown during the film. Saunders expertly asks us to question our perceptions and those of the enemy because one of the most humane characters is the German actor playing the Nazi commandant who is known as Horse.

Rebecca Butler

THE ORPHAN

Sylvia Maultash Warsh, Auctus Publishers, 2024, $20.00, pb, 238pp, 9798989481279

Fifteen-year-old Samuel Evans suddenly wakes up on the dissection table of an 1844 Washington City (currently Washington, DC) medical laboratory, much to the surprise of Dr. James Pyper and his medical students. What Samuel has yet to discover is that he has been revived from near-death by an experimental drug derived from an Amazonian plant. He soon discovers that his cure has endowed him with new abilities to envision the memories of animals and send them, in return, mental pictures of his own invention. This turns out to be a useful skill when investigating the deaths of his loving parents.

The author, Sylvia Maultash Warsh, masterfully guides us along a murder mystery plot set in a developing nation’s capital where corruption, greed, and lies bump up against the high stakes of doing what’s right, when everything around you is wrong. Our teenage protagonist has to learn the hard way who to trust when it comes to the new mentors in his life. With a well-developed cast of characters, Samuel experiences a wide range of emotions, from betrayal to new love. His search for resolution and belonging will keep you guessing until the very end.

The story is fast-paced with plenty of action, cliff-hangers, and twists to keep you turning the pages, while at the same time graciously reminding you of who did what so you don’t get lost in the details. Warsh blends the imaginative with real science and puts you smack dab in the middle of a turbulent time and place. A great YA historical fiction read for anyone with an affection for animals, history, and science.

Bonnie Kelso

MY DAY WITH ABE LINCOLN

Jonathan W. White, illus. Madeline Renaux, Reedy Press, 2024, $12.00, pb, 96pp, 9781681065069

Plotting to avoid another boring day at school, elementary-schooler Lucy Millaway decides to dress as absurdly as possible in hopes of being sent home. When she tops off her ensemble with a stovepipe hat from her brother’s magic kit, however, Lucy suddenly finds herself on a dirt path in the middle of the woods, where she encounters a boy and a girl walking to school. Accepting their invitation to accompany them, the bewildered Lucy soon learns that she is in rustic Spencer County, Indiana—and that her new friends are young Abraham Lincoln and his older sister, Sarah.

As Lucy goes through a day in the 1820s with Abe and Sarah—attending their one-room schoolhouse, learning lessons through the “blab” method of saying them aloud, meeting their father and stepmother, and hearing family stories—we painlessly learn a lot of Lincoln lore, some of which may be unfamiliar even to Lincoln buffs. Historian Jonathan W. White will leave young readers, as her time-traveling experience leaves Lucy, with an urge to learn more about America’s sixteenth president. The charming illustrations by Madeline Renaux add to the delightful experience.

Susan Higginbotham

CONFERENCES

The Society organizes biennial conferences in the UK, North America, and Australasia. Contact Richard Lee <richard@historicalnovelsociety.org> (UK), Jenny Quinlan <jennyq@historicaleditorial.com> (North America), or Elisabeth Storrs <contact@hnsa.org.au> (Australasia).