Historical Novels Review | Issue 111 (February 2025)

ISSUE 111

HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW

FEBRUARY 2025

CONTROVERSIAL CHARACTER

Allison Epstein's Fagin the Thief | More on page 8

FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE

...

Good and Interesting?

Clare Chambers on Shy Creatures

Page 10

By Any Other Name

Jodi Picoult's Latest Dual Time-period Novel

Page 12

Following Mary Leakey

Penny Haw Tells the Story Through Fresh Eyes

Page 13

Into the Light

Reclaiming the Story of Jessie Redmon Fauset

Page 14

Complex Mysteries, Cryptic Clues

Vaseem Khan on his Jazz Age Mysteries

Page 15

Historical Fiction Market News

Page 1

New Voices

Page 4

History & Film

Page 6

HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW

ISSN 1471-7492

Issue 111, February 2025 | © 2025 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; Bookouture; HarperCollins, IPG; Penguin Random House US; Severn House; Australian presses; 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; Bloomsbury UK; Duckworth Overlook; Faber & Faber; Granta; HarperCollins UK; Head of Zeus; Orenda; Pan Macmillan; Sapere; Simon & Schuster UK; Storm; Swift Press

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

Ann Lazim

<annlazim@googlemail.com>

Publisher Coverage: All UK children’s historicals

Aidan Morrissey

<aidankmorrissey@gmail.com>

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

Adele Wills

<adele.wills@btinternet.com>

Publisher Coverage: Alma; Atlantic; Canongate; Glagoslav; Hachette UK; Pen & Sword; The History Press

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

Bonnie DeMoss

<bonnie@historicalnovelsociety.org>

Publisher Coverage: North American small presses

Peggy Kurkowski

<pegkurkowski@gmail.com>

Publisher Coverage: Bellevue; Blackstone; Bloomsbury; Casemate; 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

REVIEWS EDITORS, INDIE

J. Lynn Else

<jlynn@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/

HISTORICAL FICTION MARKET NEWS

NEW BOOKS BY HNS MEMBERS

We love hearing about our author members’ new historical releases. Congrats to everyone who sent in details on their new books! If you’ve written a historical novel or nonfiction work published (or to be published) in October 2024 or after, send the following details to me at sljohnson2@eiu.edu by April 7: author, title, publisher, release date, and a blurb of one sentence or less. Please shorten your blurbs down to one sentence, as space is limited. Details will appear in the May 2025 issue of HNR. Submissions may be edited.

In Try Before You Trust by Constance Briones (Historium Press, July 24, 2024), eighteen-year-old Elizabethan poet Isabella Whitney leaves her country home for London, where she has an ill-fated affair with the dashing nephew of her aristocratic employer, and sets out to shock the reading public with her poem about men and women in love in a time when women were required to be silent, obedient, and chaste.

Ravenous: A Life of Barbara Villiers, Charles II’s Most Infamous Mistress by Andrea Zuvich (Pen & Sword History, July 30/UK, Sept. 30/US) is a biography of Barbara Villiers, a woman so beautiful, so magnetic, and so sexually attractive that she captured the hearts of many in Stuart-era Britain... including that of King Charles II.

Set in the Napoleonic-era Mediterranean, Jennifer Newbold’s On Wounds of Woe (Luminare Press, Aug. 12, 2024), second in the Nell Nobody trilogy, reveals a woman who has been a soldier, sailor, and mother, and who becomes entangled with a British intelligence network; determined to protect her new, unorthodox ‘family’, Nell must reconcile her feelings for two men, and must ultimately confront her greatest enemy—risking her humanity in the process.

John Daniel’s Follow the Dragon (Taupo Publishing, Aug. 20, 2024) follows a British son who returns to Hong Kong for his father’s funeral and discovers that a devil’s bargain with a Chinese billionaire from WWII has surfaced to threaten both of their family names and fortunes.

In the desert southwest of North America about a thousand years ago, two brothers fight for control of an ancient holy city wracked by drought, famine and disbelief in Thomas Christian Williams’s Kash Kachu (White House) (Amazon, Aug. 29, 2024).

In Nina Wachsman’s The Courtesan’s Pirate (Level Best/Historia, Sept. 3, 2024), Belladonna, former courtesan of Venice and her lover, the pirate captain Isaak, have sailed off to the Caribbean, where they must survive a hurricane, marauding Spanish and unscrupulous pirates.

The Mare by Angharad Hampshire (Northodox Press, Sept. 19, 2024) is based on the true story of Hermine Braunsteiner, a brutal Nazi concentration camp guard who hid her identity from her American husband, and what happened when he discovered what she had done.

In The Golden Door by Alice Mitchell (Arcanum Press Ltd., Oct. 1, 2024), a diverse group of emigrants who set sail for America in 1850 find their paths crossing and recrossing as they journey from New York to Kansas and Virginia, and they are caught up in the Civil War which will change their lives forever.

As told in Of Ships and Sealing Wax by Suzanne Shaw (Meryton Press, Oct. 16, 2024), in 1795, one of the England’s most successful frigate captains returns from war against the French but, estranged from his wife, he is faced with unexpected temptation, forcing him—along with two different yet remarkable women—to resolve a tangle of love, honor, and duty.

Jessica McCann’s award-winning novel Bitter Thaw was narrated and produced by Jesse Ganteaume and released in audiobook by Perspective Books (Oct. 2024). Publishers Weekly called the novel “an engrossing family drama stacked with secrets and regrets.”

The Nabob’s Daughter by Rosemary Morris (Books We Love, Nov. 1, 2024), set in early 19th-century Madras and England, delves into an English girl’s deep-rooted love of life in India and Hindu culture, her homesickness at school in England, and her return to her material and spiritual home.

At a time when Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Emperor, declares war on the pagans of Denmark, Pomerania and the Baltic lands, in a small fjord in the north of Norway, a young Norse warrior is about to embark on a journey that will take him far to the south, beyond the land of the Angles and the Franks – as told in Norse Warrior by Griff Hosker (Sword Books Limited, Nov. 10, 2024).

In Our Desperate Hour – Novels of the Great War by John F. Andrews (46 North Publications, Nov. 10, 2024), a father’s search for his estranged son plunges US Army Major Ab Johnson into a desperate battle in which honor, courage, commitment, and a father’s love are tested to their limits.

It’s 1812 and young Percy Shelley, recently expelled from Oxford University, decides to begin his political life by trying to free the Irish from British tyranny while completing Robert Emmet’s 1803 rebellion; in  Kathleen Williams Renk‘s alternate history  No Coward Soul Have I (Bedazzled Ink, Nov. 12, 2024), Shelley meets Emmet’s colleague, Anne Devlin, who has no reason to trust Shelley or his wife, no matter how much they profess to possess Irish hearts.

The concierge of a Parisian apartment building discovers the murderer of the building’s wealthy owner by reliving the terrible days of the twenty-five-year-old Paris Commune behind the glitter of the Belle Époque in Ann Chamberlin’s La Belle Époque and the Terrible Year (Epigraph, Nov. 14, 2024).

When murder inserts itself into the brutal landscape of sharecropping and convict leasing, irascible defense attorney J.B. Duckworth aims to set things right, no matter the lengths needed to secure justice for his clients or what others will do to stop him in Mike Vance’s The Devil’s Lease. (Dos Dogs Press, Nov. 20, 2024).

The Wicked of the Earth by A. D. Bergin (Northodox Press, Nov. 21, 2024) is dark historical crime fiction based upon Britain’s biggest witch trial, the brave women who dared to fight back, and one damaged man’s search for redemption.

Egypt, 1276 BC, and as the pharaoh Ramesses II prepares for war against the Hittite empire a young Egyptian chariot warrior finds himself caught in a deadly feud with a corrupt senior officer in The

Road to Kadesh by A. W. Whinnett (Field of Reeds books, Nov. 21, 2024).

The Refugee’s Daughter by Carolyn Newton (Bloodhound Books, Nov. 21, 2024), inspired by the tragic history of the Wolfskinder, is a dual-timeline novel about a fractured family struggling to recover from a traumatic separation in the waning days of the Second World War and the quest of the next generation to bring about redemption and reconciliation.

After losing his home, Richard joins the Swordbrothers as they embark on the Northern Crusades in Sword Brethren by Jon Byrne (The Book Guild, Nov. 28, 2024).

Starting in 1917, in the final year of WWI, and concluding in 1956, at the end of the Mau Mau uprising, A Remembrance of Death by Andrew Tweeddale (Tweeddale Consulting Ltd, Dec. 1, 2024) takes the reader through modern history’s darkest moments with a story of hope and forgiveness, where, despite 30 years of a passionless marriage, Basil Drewe and Celia Lutyens find that love like rain cannot choose the grass on which it falls.

Behind the spotlights and glamour lurk secrets and murder in Deadly Performance (JDP Press, Dec. 9, 2024), twelfth in the Deadly Series by Kate Parker

In Captain of Horse by Griff Hosker (Sword Books Limited, Dec. 20, 2024), with ample fortunes garnered as a Sword for Hire and a loving wife now at his side, Captain James Bretherton looks to the prospect of leaving the world of war, but plans for an easier life are thwarted when King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden seeks Bretherton’s services as a Captain of Horse to fight for the Protestant cause.

Sailors call her the Black Witch of Cornwall, but the wrecker’s daughter lives one step ahead of the Devil in G.M. Baker’s The Wrecker’s Daughter (Stories All the Way Down, Jan. 6).

Graham Ley’s saga of the Wentworth family in the 1790s concludes dramatically in its fourth volume, Moonlight at Cuckmere Haven (Sapere Books, Jan. 17) as Héloïse from the plantation on SaintDomingue finds a new home and a lover in Brittany, while in England Amelia and Justin have to decide where their hearts and their loyalties lie.

Dean Cycon’s A Quest for God and Spices (Koehler Books, Jan. 21) is a literary romp through the geopolitical, religious and mercantile landscape of medieval Europe and beyond, as an older monk and younger merchant seek the fabled Christian king Prester John in the unknown east).

The Tudor Prophecy by Julie Strong (OCPublishing, Jan 25) is an epic tale set in the turmoil of the English Reformation which tells of two cousins, herbalists, one denounced for witchcraft; the other molested by Henry VIII, but who then becomes betrothed to a bard whose master has visions foretelling the return of the goddess of Wales in the person of Elizabeth the First.

My Lady Melisende (Oliver Heber Books, Feb.), book 6 in Misty Urban’s Ladies Least Likely series, is a historical romance featuring an exiled grand duchess trying to reclaim her kingdom with the help of a British spy.

Beth Ford’s third novel is After the Spirits Come: A Continuation of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol (Independently published, Feb. 11).

Lynna Banning’s A Sunday Kind of Love (The Wild Rose Press, Feb) is an old-fashioned romance set in 1873 Oregon, putting a reformed gambler with a secret and a sensible, hard-working spinster on a collision course.

A tale of love, dishonesty and cunning in a museum in Suffolk, England, in 1948, The Woven Lie by Liz Harris (Heywood Press, Feb. 13) will grip readers as they follow Violet Hammond’s story.

Set against the backdrop of 18th-century London, Paris during the French Revolution, and the remote shores of Scandinavia, Solitary Walker: A Novel of Mary Wollstonecraft by N. J. Mastro (Black Rose Writing, Feb. 20) is biofiction about Wollstonecraft’s incredible rise as a writer and her ill-fated forays into love.

Alix Christie’s The Shining Mountains (High Road Books/Univ. of New Mexico Press, out in pb on Mar. 4) is the epic saga of a Scots-Native family caught in the crossfire of American westward expansion in the 19th century Rocky Mountain West.

As we approach the 50th anniversary of Jimmy Hoffa’s disappearance, Lew Paper’s Legacy of Lies (Level Best, Mar. 18) provides a fast-paced historical thriller revolving around a former FBI Special Agentturned-private investigator who is asked by a Mafia contact to follow Hoffa in the weeks before his abduction.

The most scapegoated heroine in Greek mythology, Helen of Troy, must decide where her loyalty and her safety lies, in Helen’s Judgement (Neem Tree Press, Mar. 20), the second novel in Susan C. Wilson’s epic The House of Atreus trilogy, which began with Clytemnestra’s Bind

It is 1865, and Charles Agnew wants a life of daring adventure; Avarice of Empire by C.Q. Turnstone (Brindle Books, Mar.) is his untold true story.

A Southern teenager wants to become a journalist to shed light on 1950s racial injustice, but she must overcome her fears, society’s constraints, and the power of family secrets in Half-Truths by Carol Baldwin (Monarch Educational Services, Apr. 2).

The Golden Hour by Kate Lord Brown (Simon & Schuster UK, Apr. 10) is an epic dual timeline story which interweaves glory-seeking desert archaeologists, the hunt for Nefertiti’s tomb and the decadent cabarets of WW2 Cairo with restless expat lives in bohemian 1970s Beirut.

NEW PUBLISHING DEALS

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

David Nix’s Shadow Sisters, in which three late 16th-century women from different classes, frustrated by societal restrictions that prohibit women from writing for the stage, band together in secret to write plays and hire a footloose actor called Will Shakespeare as their front man, sold to Tara Gavin at Alcove Press, by Jill Marsal at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.

Of Love and Treason author Jamie Ogle sold The Last Gladiatrix, following a female warrior captured and sold into a gladiator school in ancient Rome, to Elizabeth Jackson at Tyndale, in a two-book deal,

via Kristy Cambron at Gardner Literary. Publication will be early summer 2026.

A Time of Witches by Madeline Martin, a dual-timeline novel moving between the witch trials of 17th-century England and the present day, relating events from the viewpoints of two female witches from the same family and connected by a spell that has lasted centuries, sold to Hanover Square Press’s Peter Joseph via Kevan Lyon at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.

Rembrandt’s Promise by Irish author Barbara Leahy, set during the Dutch Golden Age and based on the true story of Geertje Dircx, who became Rembrandt’s lover after his wife’s death and successfully sued him for breach of promise, sold to Deirdre Nolan, publishing director at Eriu, Bonnier Books UK’s Dublin-based imprint, via Ger Nichol at The Book Bureau, for March 2025 publication.

Returning to the Tudor era, Philippa Gregory’s Boleyn Traitor, about Jane Boleyn (nee Parker), exploring her role in giving evidence against her husband George and sister-in-law Queen Anne, sold to Rachel Kahan at William Morrow and to Kate Elton at Harper UK, with Lynne Drew editing, for publication beginning in October 2025. It will be the first in a three-book series, each focusing on different women.

A narrative about wealth and class in the post-WWII years, The Great Mann by Kyra Davis Lurie, retelling The Great Gatsby in 1945 Los Angeles among the Black elite, and featuring a young veteran discovering a world of lucrative opportunities and festering tensions in L.A.’s Sugar Hill neighborhood, sold to Shannon Criss at Crown for June 2025 publication, via Michelle Richter at Fuse Literary.

Boudicca’s Daughter by Wolf Den trilogy author Elodie Harper, about the rise and fall of Boudicca, warrior queen of the Iceni in 1st-century Britain, seen through her eldest daughter’s eyes, sold to Barbara Berger at Union Square & Co, for fall 2025 publication, via Juliet Mushens at Mushens Entertainment. Apollo will publish it in the UK in late August.

OTHER NEW & FORTHCOMING TITLES

For forthcoming novels through late 2025, please see our guides, compiled by Fiona Sheppard:

https://historicalnovelsociety.org/guides/forthcoming-historical-novels/

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

Debut novelists Elyse Durham, Joanna Miller, Tiffany L. Warren & Jane Yang explore captivating characters from hidden gems of history.

Joanna Miller shares the moment that sparked her debut, The Eights (Fig Tree/Putnam, 2025): “In October 2020, Oxford University shared a series of photographs to commemorate one hundred years of women being awarded degrees. As I stared at the grainy images of students in square woollen caps, I wondered what had driven them to study at a university that had long sought to exclude them. As an Oxford alumna, I realised that their story was one that I both wanted to read – and write.”

Miller’s novel, set in 1920, “features four women from different backgrounds studying at St Hugh’s College,” she says. “Beatrice, Dora, Otto, and Marianne, part of the first cohort of women to study alongside men, form an unlikely bond in the face of sexism, secrets, and survivor’s guilt. I was determined to recreate faithfully the life of Oxford’s women, and to acknowledge the sixty-year fight for equality that brought them there. I wanted to celebrate the intense female friendships that sustain women through pivotal moments in their lives, inspired by my own experience as a student, a young teacher, and a new mother.”

As a starting point she used “memoirs such as Vera Brittain’s Testament of Youth,” and she continues, “the Bodleian Library kindly renewed my ‘Bodcard’ after thirty years, allowing me to scour digital archives of photographs, newspaper clippings, letters, and documents uploaded by the former women’s colleges. I visited St Hugh’s several times, gaining access to their archives. The first-hand accounts by students from the 1920s were invaluable. Although Beatrice, Dora, Otto, and Marianne are fictional characters, the novel, and the metatextual elements which appear throughout, draw on real articles and documents found there.”

From her research “it became clear that there were many restrictions on female undergraduates,” she relates, “and that they had to work twice as hard as men to prove themselves. Not only were the rules strict (chaperoned outings, chapel every morning, no alcohol, no

dances), but male tutors could refuse to teach the women, University magazines mocked them, and the Oxford Union debated whether women’s colleges should be razed to the ground. Their presence was not only resented, but precarious, and I wanted to tell that tale.

“I was moved by stories of war-damaged students returning to their studies and feeling alienated. Harold Macmillan described Oxford after the Great War as a ‘City of ghosts,’ and you will find that Beatrice, Dora, Otto, and Marianne are all haunted in their own ways. Thus, the novel is concerned with recovery, both personal and social, and how courage takes different forms.”

The Eights demonstrates Miller’s “passion for Oxford,” as she describes, “and draws on my time there as an undergraduate, a trainee teacher, and most recently as a mature student studying creative writing. It pays homage to Oxford’s seasons, its iconic buildings, and its traditions. I made over fifty visits to the city while completing the first draft, walking hundreds of miles, often with my dog, Dickens, in tow. Oxford’s thousand-year history is so rich and so compelling that it felt as if the story was always there, perfectly formed; I just had to walk – and research – my way into it.”

As a child, Elyse Durham, author of Maya and Natasha (Mariner, 2025), wanted a time machine more than anything. “What appealed to me wasn’t going back in time and altering history (even a cursory glance into the sci-fi genre confirms this is a dangerous idea), but simply observing, seeing if modern culture’s attempts to portray the past were at all accurate. As I got older, this curiosity about the past only intensified. The sensory details interested me, sure—how exactly did people smell in the Middle Ages? — but what I was most curious about were people’s habits of mind. Are there values, attitudes, and desires that are universal to human experience, even across culture and time? Or is a 19th-century person as different from a 21st as a peach is from a kumquat?”

It was questions like these that led Durham to write her first novel. “I had fallen in love with ballet as an adult and, like all people in love, had to learn everything I could about my beloved. I attended performances, took classes at the barre, and read dozens of books about dance history. Soon, I discovered the strange and fascinating world of Soviet ballet, the scores of dancers raised on a bizarre diet of deprivation, censorship and hefty state support. Some of these dancers left behind everything they knew and fled to the West, in part so they could practice their art more freely.”

The more Durham read about these dancers, the more she wanted to know. “But I didn’t just want to know about them: I wanted to know how it felt to be them. What did it feel like to have your self-expression sponsored by a Communist government? What was the cost of trusting your entire life, your very body, to an art that demanded so much of you? And, most of all, did those exiled dancers ever feel at home in the West?”

As Durham points out, “I may have never gotten that time machine, but I found the next best thing: I wrote a novel, which is every bit as absorbing and fascinating and joyous.”

For Jane Yang, “Some trees, like the Ginkgo, take decades to reach maturity. My inspiration for The Lotus Shoes (Park Row/Sphere, 2025) is like this species.”

The first seed sprouted in her mind, she says, “at age five, when my maa maa (grandmother) showed me a double-sided goldfish embroidery. Maa Maa also told me that, against all odds, her grand

Elyse Durham

Tiffany L. Warren Jane Yang

Joanna Miller

© Elemental Media

aunt’s exceptional talent for embroidery allowed her to marry into a genteel family despite her lack of golden lilies (bound feet).

“During 1800s China, in the marriage stakes, minuscular feet trumped beauty, a rich dowry and sometimes even lineage. For my forebears, a pair of four-inch golden lilies was the most precious gift a mother could bestow on her daughter. Even so, images of those deformed feet made me feel ashamed and outraged by association. Why were my ancestors so barbaric? How could mothers inflict such torture on their daughters? For much of my youth, I had no doubt that the Western-initiated crusade to abolish that primitive practice was an indisputable triumph, with no downside.”

However, in her late twenties, she began “to suspect the reality was far more complex for women who lived through those times,” she explains. “In The Lotus Shoes, after being sold into slavery, Little Flower is forced to unbind her golden lilies since Linjing, her mistress, will keep her natural feet. Their dynamics allowed me to examine the unintended consequences of the anti-foot-binding movement. While it is, of course, liberating for women to have natural feet, those who were the first to relinquish this tradition likely paid an immense price—their social standing and marriage prospects were greatly diminished by the well-intended activism of progress.”

Yang’s maternal grandmother taught her “about the Celibate Sisterhood: communities of frugal, black-clad women who rejected marriage and established sanctuaries, living a life of relative freedom. Yet, any Sister who lost her virginity would be shoved into a narrow bamboo cylinder, one designed to cage pigs, and drowned in a river. This under-explored feminist movement is central to the second half of The Lotus Shoes. My grandmothers’ contrasting values are reflected in the duality of Little Flower and Linjing’s characters.”

Tiffany L. Warren’s The Unexpected Diva (William Morrow, 2025) brings out of the shadows of history the life of Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, who was born into enslavement on a Mississippi plantation.

For many years, Warren says, “I shied away from writing historical fiction. The stories I felt uniquely qualified to write—about Black heroes and heroines in past iterations of these United States of America— are dark, heavy, and necessary. But I have chosen not to write about trauma and violence to Black bodies. Those stories stay with me too long. Those stories are still happening every day in 2024.”

However, in 1850s Philadelphia, Warren “found a gem of a story for The Unexpected Diva. This was a tiny pocket of antebellum America that looked different from the rest of the ailing nation. A Quaker

and Black abolitionist community where the manumitted Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield was reared by the widow of her former owner and given the education she needed to hone her gift—a three-octave voice. Young Eliza lived a privileged, charmed, and joyful life for a young Black woman during a time when most were enslaved, trying to escape enslavement, or living in fear of being human trafficked.”

Warren highlights that “in that community, there were other fearless women too. The founding members of the multi-racial Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society were Black members of the Forten family, and prominent Quakers like Lucretia Mott who led the charge and of self-shuttled many across the Underground Railroad to freedom.”

It was here that she “found a story of Black joy that inspired my pen (or keyboard). It was Eliza’s journey awareness, to understanding her place within the abolitionist movement, to defining her own activism, while in hot pursuit of her gift that gave me all the feels. I cheered for Eliza as she resisted the persistent patriarchy and explored love and relationships on her own terms. And when she toured the country, then Great Britain culminating in a performance for Queen Victoria in Buckingham Palace? What a journey!”

Warren wonders, “How had I never heard of her? This Beyoncé of the antebellum. This girl who ran her world. This diva. I can imagine that in the 1850s no one expected this unassuming, curvaceous woman to bring tears to their eyes with her singing. The reviews said she did that and more. Tears of joy.

“So, I had to share Eliza’s story. She mustn’t be a hidden figure. Divas are meant to be applauded.”

WRITTEN BY MYFANWY COOK

Myfanwy Cook is an Associate University Fellow. She creates and facilitates historical fiction writing workshops and is a keen reader of historical fiction that makes her see the past in a different light. Contact (myfanwyc@btinternet. com) if you uncover debut novelists you would like to see showcased.

HISTORY & FILM

Weirdly Authentic: The Historical Films of Robert Eggers

“There’s little humanity, and what there is is veiled in transgression, but this is the bold, barnstorming filmmaking of the Lynchs, the Cronenbergs, the Kubricks. Robert Eggers is weird. And he knows it. In fact, he revels in it.” 1

Auteur Robert Eggers, who burst onto the moviemaking scene a decade ago, has had a noticeable impact on the genre of historical film. He’s proved to be “cinema’s premier researcher, capable of evoking a historical period with centuries-old vernaculars, periodaccurate tactile details, and a visual schema rooted in the past.”2 His directorial debut, The VVitch, had critics effusing over its originality, some going so far as to call it one of the best historical horror films to date. Its theatrical release grossed $40 million on an infinitesimal (by Hollywood standards) budget of $4 million.3 My initial impression was that this was like nothing I'd seen before, a unique work, offering as close as one could get to a clear-paned window into the past. The plot: in 1630s New England, a fiercely devout Puritan family – father, mother, teenaged Thomasin, her slightly younger brother, a set of fraternal twins, and baby brother – must leave the settlement due to religious dissent. Alone, homesteading on the harsh colonial frontier, they face the prospect of starvation if they cannot make adequate provision. When Thomasin’s infant brother disappears (literally in the blink of an eye as she plays peek-a-boo with him) and the twins mention they've been conversing with the family's goat, forces out of Increase Mather’s worst nightmares close in.

While the plotting contains folklore and the supernatural (the subtitle is “A New England Folktale”), The VVitch still demonstrates what, after four films, has become a hallmark of Eggers’s work – historical verisimilitude. He is obsessive about research, especially of the primary source variety, and in a landscape of “historical” film which delights in revising and “reimagining” the past, Eggers strives instead to precisely recreate it. He doesn't pander and his characters don’t talk like us, act like us, think like us – they are of their time. And thus, they feel authentic. This is not to say his films are flawless, and their appeal is far from universal. I’ve seen the first three (his last, Nosferatu, just having been released as of this writing) and his detractors make valid points: 1. His films can exhibit problematic pacing. (One critic’s take: “Atmospheric it may be, but … in other key aspects, very, very dull indeed.”4) 2. They can be opaque, ambiguous, anticlimactic in resolution (when they offer one at all). 3. This has led to the ultimate criticism, that Eggers sacrifices substance for style. For this last, I somewhat disagree. Style

may come first (atmosphere and tone seem paramount to him), but that doesn’t mean his films lack substance – one simply has to exert effort to engage with it. These are disturbing, strange, and thoughtprovoking movies, sometimes referential and allegorical. Yet even for those who eschew a puzzle, these films are well worth a watch for their historical world-building alone. From the visuals to the costumes to the feel of each film, Eggers excels in capturing the period in which it is set.

So far, Eggers has focused his flair for historical detail on colonial America (the VVitch), 9th-century Scandinavia (The Northman), 1890s New England (The Lighthouse), and 1830s Europe (Nosferatu). I think I enjoyed The VVitch most, with The Northman a close second, but perhaps we’ll take a look at The Lighthouse, since it’s the most visually arresting, and Eggers's most polarizing when it comes to audience reception. It’s also the one Eggers himself would choose: “If I had to watch one of my movies, which I would prefer not to do.”5

From the first frame of The Lighthouse, one is struck by how very different this film looks. Shot in high-contrast black and white at a 1.19:1 ratio called Movietone (almost square, rather than theatrical widescreen), it mimics the visual record of the time period – Movietone had its day during the transition between silent film and talkies.6 Eggers and the movie’s cinematographer, Jarin Blaschke, utilized camera lenses from the turn of the last century. It’s not explicit in the film exactly what the time period or precise location is – late 1800s and New England from context clues in clothing and dialogue; given the accents and vernacular employed for this dialogue, perhaps somewhere off the Maine coast. The film shoot, a grueling affair, was conducted on Cape Forchu in Nova Scotia, where Eggers had a working lighthouse constructed for filming. The apect ratio makes the most of the lighthouse’s structure – everything looks taller and thinner when shot this way, the focus always on the vertical, the camera often elevatoring up from bottom to top, or looking straight down from God's eye view.

There are elements of a historical event, the Smalls Lighthouse tragedy (a fascinating real-life horror tale), but Eggers has roamed far afield from source, describing the film as “Waiting for Godot in a lighthouse.”7 In the 1890s, two men arrive on an island to take their 4-week turn as lighthouse keepers. The film opens with a dense fog, which eventually resolves to a ship’s prow slicing through the waves, and a view of the lighthouse framed between the shoulders of two men standing on deck. Once upon shore, they trek their belongings up the rocky slope, passing without a word the keepers they’ve relieved, who are on their way back to the boat and off the isolated island. The viewer is given the first glimpse of these new keepers’ faces as they’re looking, seemingly, directly into the camera – the effect is nigh on indistinguishable from a photograph of the era. The elder seems pleased, and it is he who turns and heads blithely inside while the younger, looking unhappy and perhaps anxious, continues to stare into the camera. What he’s actually looking at is the boat as it disappears from the island, leaving him alone with his companion.

The score could best be described as atonal and dissonant, and there is the constant thrum of the foghorn, which lends a melancholy and increasingly menacing cadence to life on the inhospitable island. Though there’s no dialogue for some time, finally the viewer learns via conversation over an unappetizing meal that the elder man is Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe), taken to lighthouse keeping after a long career at sea. Given the pronunciation, it appears in reading reviews that I wasn’t alone in hearing his name as “Wick,” which seemed some sort of play on “wickies” – his historically-accurate name for lighthouse keepers. Dafoe does a fantastic job with dialogue; I was tempted to turn on subtitles, and there is definitely a Long John Silver vibe here,

says I. Eggers draws heavily from the literature, especially surreal and sea: Coleridge, Melville, Stevenson, Lovecraft. Wake speaks equal parts poet and pirate. Eggers stated that he relied on the work of Maine author Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909) for the region-specific voice adopted by Wake and his subordinate,8 who introduces himself as Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson). The two main characters are entirely dissimilar, and it quickly becomes clear that neither can be trusted as narrator, with the point of view being primarily Winslow’s.

Wake is in charge, a fact he lords over the greenhorn Winslow. Wake notes that the light is his and his alone, referring to it as “she” and proclaiming he’s “wedded to this here light,” that it’s truer than any wife he’s known, and he’s not unknowledgeable about such things. The light, the sea, and a mermaid make up a feminine triad of power in this movie fraught with sexual frustration on the part of its isolated male duo. Winslow covets working with the light but is relegated to the Sisyphean grunt work – endlessly hauling this and that (coal, kerosene, etc.) in a wheelbarrow in the mud and cold and driving rain. There are overfull chamber pots to be emptied and heavy canisters to be dragged up stairs and lobster pots to be laboriously pulled out of the raging sea, all of these shots framed to reinforce the harshness of the historical environment. Eggers described the shoot as “miserable,” and for a New Hampshire native to say, “There were days when I wanted to die, and I love the cold,”9 belies hyperbole. It’s reflected in the actors’ portrayals. This, like The VVitch before it, is a tale of isolation, loneliness, and hardship. It's steeped in the lore of the sea: merfolk appear, and Winslow is idiot enough to kill a seabird despite portentous warnings from Wake. All of Eggers’s films have a folkloric aspect. He’s noted, “The idea of a fable or a myth is definitely at the forefront of our process. I start with atmosphere…in story beats and mythological motifs."10

It all feels pitch-perfect. Eggers is meticulous in his staging, especially when he has photographs or paintings for visual reference. He read keepers' logs, the lighthouse keeper’s code of conduct manual, and worked all this into the film; he used lists of the stores wickies had available to get the meals, tools, and other details right. He offers insight on those “period-accurate” details and how historicity can make a filmmaker’s job easier: “All of my collaborators are on the same page and we know what we’re after. There’s no discussion of, ‘Would a peak lapel be better? What says more about the character?’ ... There are so many choices to be made that it’s nice to have choices being made for you by research.”11 If more filmmakers adopted this approach for period offerings, would we, the viewers, enjoy a more immersive experience in an authentic historical space?

Yet authenticity can also offer excuse for aspects we might prefer not to consider. The Lighthouse has its fair share of … we’ll call it vulgarity. “The Lighthouse is inundated with urination, vomiting, fecal matter in the wind, an intense masturbation scene, monstrous tentacles, and a mermaid’s slimy labia. It’s all rather gross and juvenile at times.”12 The reviewer forgot flatulence – enough to be a character trait and plot point. Argue amongst yourselves about preferences for monochrome cinematography, but there were times where I was sincerely grateful for it; seeing certain things in Technicolor would’ve been unbearable. Be forewarned that there are elements of this film that are viscerally distressing. Things go off the rails as the drink (rum?) flows like water, and by the time the keepers exhaust the supply and begin consuming whatever fuels the lamp (turpentine? kerosene?) cut with honey (?) we know that however bad we thought it might get … it’s gonna get worse. Given the onanism and questionable spirits, it's a miracle no one goes blind, and this film would make an effective scared-straight PSA to show at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. It may beggar belief, but there is also an undercurrent, thanks primarily to Dafoe, of black comedy. After a terrifying, minutes-long Shakespearean tirade of curses from Wake triggered when Winslow casts aspersions on his culinary ability, Winslow, having been knocked flat on the floor, replies with exhausted understatement, “All right, have it your way – I like

your cooking.” Wait: is this trying to be … funny? Apparently.

The list of actors who could succeed in the the kind of movies Eggers makes is a short one. (He gave Anya Taylor-Joy her first film role.) Serious chops are necessary. Both Dafoe and Pattinson approached Eggers after seeing The VVitch, asking to be part of whatever project he next pursued. Dafoe is a natural in his role and in general for the kind of creepy, arthouse sensibility Eggers delights in – no one does slightly (or entirely) unsettling like Dafoe. Pattinson proves that he’s far outgrown his sparkly heartthrob vampire origins. Both he and Dafoe are excellent, there is much scenery chewing and overwrought performance. The melodrama doesn’t feel out of place for the period; rather, it conjures the overstatement of Edwardian theatre tradition. Though, truly, what actions or affect would be off the table for a person sloshed on a quart of turpentine? But the crux, reached well before the film's midpoint: if the viewer is seeing events from the perspective of such characters, how can we tell what is real and what is madness?

Given Eggers's love of ambiguity, it’s no spoiler that, in the end, it’s up to the viewer to decide much of this: “It’s important for us to leave the questions open … If we’ve succeeded in our efforts, the ambiguity should be keeping you engaged as an audience.”13 I couldn’t say if the ambiguity kept me engaged, but the adept evocation of the past, the sensory experience of watching an Eggers film and feeling submerged in a historical time and place – that does.

REFERENCES

1. Tibbits, Ben. "Interview: Robert Eggers." Man About Town website. 4 December 2024. https://manabouttown.tv/blogs/words-and-images/ interview-robert-eggers.

2. Eggert, Brian. "The Lighthouse." Deep Focus Review. 27 October 2019. https://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/the-lighthouse/

3. Box Office Mojo website. https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/ rl947684865/. Accessed 10 January 2025.

4. O'Shea, Keri. "The Lighthouse." Warped Perspective Reviews. 10 February 2020. https://warped-perspective.com/2020/02/the-lighthouse-2019/ 5. Tibbits, ibid.

6. Eggert, ibid.

7. Fear, David. "Drunken Sailors and Movie Stars: Robert Eggers on Making 'The Lighthouse'." 25 October 2019. https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/ tv-movie-features/robert-eggers-the-lighthouse-interview-898545/ 8. Ibid.

9. Ibid.

10. Wilkinson, Alissa. "The Witch Director Robert Eggers Spills His Beans about The Lighthouse." 15 October 2019. https://www.vox.com/ culture/2019/10/15/20914097/robert-eggers-lighthouse-interview-witch 11. Ibid.

12. Eggert, ibid.

13. Ibid.

WRITTEN BY BETHANY LATHAM

Bethany Latham is a professor, librarian, author, regular book reviewer for various venues, and Managing Editor of Historical Novels Review

CONTROVERSIAL CHARACTER

Allison

Epstein rounds out a contentious character in Fagin the Thief

Fagin the Thief (Doubleday, 2025; reviewed in this issue) is an enjoyable and vivid biographical novel by Allison Epstein focusing on the imagined life, between 1793 and 1838, of the character Fagin –created by Charles Dickens as a charismatic, humorous semi-villain in Oliver Twist, but whom the author then maligned with antisemitic slurs. Epstein names him Jacob and gives him an extensive backstory.

I began our interview by observing that one of Epstein’s previous novels1 features Christopher Marlowe as a protagonist, and that the reframing of famous fictional or historical characters seems to be one of the dominant approaches within historical fiction. I asked her why she thinks this is.

She replied that she was drawn to historical topics or characters about whom she already had some knowledge. ‘There’s always pleasure in feeling grounded and at home in a story. Historical fiction is such a context-dependent genre that it can be intimidating to jump into something where the geography or political background requires a stop-and-Google break every few pages for the first five chapters.

That said, while books like this might suit readers’ preferences, I don’t write with that in mind. I like the approach of biographical historical fiction or retellings because it allows me to engage with my characters both as a writer and as a reader. As a reader, there’s something about Fagin in Oliver Twist that caught my attention and wouldn’t let go. As a writer, he felt tantalizingly unfinished in the original text. It was a similar feeling with Marlowe: what records and documents exist about his life fascinate me as a reader of history, and as a writer there’s just enough gaps and mystery between the facts for my imagination to fit. I don’t think I’d get as much satisfaction out of biographical fiction about someone like Queen Elizabeth I, or a retelling of a character like Hamlet. Those stories already feel fleshed-out and lived-in; I need the room of a half-drawn thought or a rumor to play and explore.’

I wondered if she agreed that this can bring a danger of modern attitudes being applied to those who lived in a rougher and more intolerant period. ‘Oh, absolutely!’ she replied. ‘I think of this as “the corset problem”. You know how every period film includes the obligatory scene of a woman gasping to the point of fainting as someone laces her corset too tightly, as a metaphor for the restrictions placed on women in the XYZ era? Those are modern sensibilities. We see the corset today as an example of restrictive femininity; two hundred years ago, it was just underwear. It would be wrong to say that everyone in a particular era held uniformly biased or bigoted views, just as it would be wrong to say that today everyone is enlightened and accepting. And social progress isn’t purely linear: take Berlin in the 1920s and 1930s.

‘Historical fiction shouldn’t paste modern viewpoints over past scenarios, but it also shouldn’t be an excuse to revel in the worst kind of intolerance because “that’s just how it used to be.” I prefer reading—and try to write—historical fiction that’s less interested in explaining and more interested in understanding. What was it like to live in a given time? How did social expectations, personal beliefs and morality, relationships, identity all come together to form a particular kind of person in a particular place and time?’

I reassured Epstein that I felt she ably avoided any of the ‘identity politics’ point scoring of some modern critiques of Dickens’ Fagin. She responded that ‘It was important to me not to write a “Good Guy Fagin” retelling, as I have no interest in reading about or writing characters who are purely good. A person living in the circumstances Dickens gives Fagin wouldn’t be a kind, generous, selfless, courageous person. He couldn’t afford to be. So to understand the personality of Jacob, I tried to immerse myself as much in his world as possible.’

She went on to discuss her research methods. ‘One nice thing about writing a Dickens retelling is that the early Victorians loved a sociological study of “the underworld.” I read many pages of ethnography by Henry Mayhew – he went into detail on everything: how much bread was given out in Millbank Prison, what shawls women usually wore when picking pockets on the omnibus. The late Victorian surveyor Charles Booth also created an incredible resource called a Poverty Map. Having previously written about periods that were not so meticulously documented, it was a joy to find a primary source for almost every specific question I had.

‘I also did a fair amount of reading into the overall European Jewish

HISTORICAL FICTION shouldn’t paste modern viewpoints over past scenarios, but it also shouldn’t be an excuse to revel in the worst kind of intolerance because “that’s just how it used to be.”

experience in the late 18th and early 19th centuries: David Vital’s A People Apart2 was particularly useful in this area. England at this time wasn’t known for state-sanctioned antisemitic violence, as was the case elsewhere in Europe. But there was quiet, simmering mistrust. Jews could live openly under their religion, they could hold jobs, they could even earn a seat in Parliament, but true acceptance was something else altogether. It was putting these two aspects together, the demands of poverty and the sense that any acceptance was superficial and conditional, that helped me make sense of Jacob’s character. Of course he’s selfish, of course he’s fearful, of course he’s cruel: with his personality and his circumstances, these things were only logical.’

I then wondered if Epstein reads Dickens for pleasure. She does enjoy some; particularly ‘Bleak House, which I feel doesn’t get enough credit for being absolutely bonkers, and David Copperfield and A Tale of Two Cities are also personal favorites. That said, it took me four attempts to get through Great Expectations, and Hard Times is one of my all-time least favorite classic novels. For Oliver Twist, I’m torn! It definitely reads like Dickens is still learning. He creates a world that draws the reader in immediately, and there’s a reason Dodger and Sikes and Nancy have entertained readers for two hundred years. There’s a humming, dangerous energy to those chapters that I still find engaging, even having reread the book many times. At the same time, each character in Oliver Twist is relentlessly two-dimensional, the plot resolution is ludicrous, and the Brownlow-Maylie side plot is unforgivably boring.

‘Overall, I think about Dickens much the way I think about Shakespeare: he’s become so famous that critiquing anything he wrote is as good as admitting yourself to be uncultured and pedestrian. But both Dickens and Shakespeare were entertainers who got paid for turning in a story on a deadline. They aren’t marble busts in the hall of Great Literature; they were human beings, artists, and salespeople, just like any talented author living now. Sometimes Dickens is so insightful and so funny he takes your breath away.’

I told Epstein that one of the strongest aspects of the book is the level of obligation in the relationship between Fagin and Bill. I was fascinated by how Fagin starts by teaching Bill all he knows, then Bill comes to rescue Fagin from jail. Sikes’ lethal romance with Nancy is also shown with well-observed characterisation. I asked: what inspired this psychological acuity?

Epstein replied: ‘The question I kept asking while building out Bill, Jacob, and Nancy’s characters was a very basic one: “Why don’t they leave?” In the original text Dickens has several characters ask this question of Nancy outright. But I was just as intrigued by how Bill and Fagin would answer that question, if anyone ever thought to ask them. In Oliver Twist, they hate each other, only continuing together as literal partners in crime because each knows too much about the other. But that didn’t feel satisfying to me. I’ve seen many people I love in relationships that hurt them, and they don’t start out predatory. There’s always something good at the start – something meaningful, something precious that makes it possible to overlook the pain.

‘It would be rational for Nan to leave Bill the first moment he hurts her. It would be rational for Jacob to walk away from Bill at the first

sign of violence. It would be rational for Bill to break it off with Nan when she starts exposing his vulnerability, or to turn his back on Jacob when their professional paths begin to diverge. But they aren’t making decisions rationally. They’re remembering that day, however long ago, when everything felt good and they were necessary and useful and respected. And so they stay, and they hurt themselves, and they hurt each other.’

I was particularly struck by a fine scene where Fagin contemplates suicide and ponders his posthumous reputation. So, finally, I asked Epstein about her writing technique, whether she prioritizes writing characters’ interior voices over writing physical events.

She said ‘I always imagined Fagin the Thief as being a very introspective book, in part as a deliberate contrast with the almosttotal lack of interiority in Oliver Twist. The draft I originally sent to my editor had much less surface description, spending almost the entire first third of the book in Jacob’s head with minimal real-time action. My editor gently told me “This is a novel, and novels have scenes in them where things happen.” I added much more dialogue and “grounding” detail in the second draft of the book, which was definitely needed.’

A perceptive vindication of Fagin and a fine novel in its own right, Fagin the Thief should appeal to all readers with an interest in intelligent storytelling and believable characterisation – whether or not they like Dickens.

REFERENCES

1. Allison Epstein

A Tip for the Hangman, Doubleday, 2021

2. T.C.W. Blanning

Oxford History of Modern Europe, 1999.

WRITTEN

BY BEN BERGONZI

Ben Bergonzi is an HNR Reviews Editor. His first published novel, set in the 18th century, will be out later this spring.

GOOD AND INTERESTING?

Clare Chambers on how to make goodness interesting in Shy

Creatures

Clare Chambers, author of Shy Creatures (W&N/Mariner, 2024), needed to look no further her own family to comprehend the opportunities and limitations of women’s experience in the mid1960s. Like her latest protagonist Helen Hansford, Chambers’ mother was born in the early 1930s and grew up during the Second World War.

“Until her marriage,” she explains, “she worked as a teacher and lived in ‘digs’ with a landlady who provided all meals. Her single friends on higher incomes might manage the rent of a flat, but it was still impossible for a woman to get a mortgage on a property without a male signatory. Marriage was still the expectation; spinsters and the childless were still to be pitied.”

Chambers, a British novelist, has published ten novels across different genres, and all reveal her mastery of dialogue, as well as her incisive understanding of relationships and the nuances of social expectations. Her novel, Learning to Swim, was named the Romantic Novel of the Year Award in 1999, an accolade bestowed by the Romantic Novelists’ Association, the professional body

representing authors of romantic fiction in the United Kingdom.

Shy Creatures follows Chambers’ previous novel set inside the rather stifling social boundaries of 1950s Britain, the highly regarded Small Pleasures (2020). Both  Small Pleasures and Shy Creatures were inspired by newspaper reports from the 1950s. Chambers describes how “novelists often cite with some pride that their work has its origin in a true story, almost as if to distance ourselves from the airy notion of ‘making stuff up’. I always feel there is an element of authority in that germ of truth behind my stories – it is usually this element that is more bizarre and unbelievable than the invented material.”

The narrative of 2020’s Small Pleasures intersects with the 1957 Lewisham train crash, and Shy Creatures also found its inspiration in a true story, the ‘Hidden Man’, Harry Tucker, discovered in 1952. Chambers migrated his story to 1964, allowing her to incorporate the beginnings of more humane attitudes to mental illness into the story. The two main characters of Shy Creatures are the art therapist and the hidden man, allowing the author to engage with both characters’ inner and outer selves and the gender divide as well as society’s attitudes to difference.

Helen works as an art therapist in a Croydon psychiatric hospital, alongside progressive doctor Gil Rudden, who encourages her compassionate and supportive approach to art therapy. Young professionals in a hidebound institution, they navigate a medical landscape dense with outdated and futile practices, such as staff unpicking the patients’ daily craft for them to repeat on the morrow. Both search for meaning and connection as they try to bring light to the troubled minds around them. The sexual tension between the two rises, but Helen and Gil bond in particular over the treatment of William, the recluse suddenly introduced to the outside world.

For background to the relatively new discipline of art therapy in the 1960s, Chambers consulted the collection of essays Art, Psychotherapy and Psychosis edited by Katherine Killick and Joy Schaverien (1997). She also studied fiction by women writers of the 1960s. “What used to be called, disparagingly, Domestic Fiction – early Margaret Drabble, Elizabeth Jane Howard, Pamela Hansford Johnson, Lynne Reid Banks – was a rich source of inspiration for details of daily lives, sexual politics, vocabulary and the cadences of speech,” Clare expands. “The chief surprise was how modern these works felt.” It is hardly startling, then, that Shy Creatures gives readers the same experience: all the characters are so finely drawn that it would hardly shock to meet any one of them around the next corner, no matter their eccentricities, habits and quirks.

Chambers, as noted previously, regularly looks to true stories for stimulus, from many sources, both overt and intuitive. “Once I have found something that strikes me as having novelistic potential, I hang it up in my mind like a bit of flypaper to see if anything sticks to it… I am endlessly interested in the way unconscious influences end up surfacing in a novel – much more operates at a subconscious level than a reader would imagine. In the case of Shy Creatures, it occurred to me that the early Sixties was an interesting time for psychiatry and for the newly emerging therapies replacing the more brutal treatments of the past.”

There are dual timelines in Shy Creatures as Helen investigates William’s past, while William’s own story unfolds backwards in time.

NOVELISTS OFTEN CITE with some pride that their work has its origin in a true story, almost as if to distance ourselves from the airy notion of "making stuff up.".

The two perspectives progress alternatively through the narrative, each with a fast hold on the reader’s attention. William’s artistic talent, known to the reader through the narrative and becoming more uncovered once he reaches Helen’s art therapy sessions, lends him a certain perspicacity as he studies line, form and attitudes of the creatures he can see from his prison-like home. His naturally open and caring personality leads him to regard all creatures with a kindly eye, and dog-loving readers will find the dogs in this novel delightful. Chambers, however, has no furry writing companion. “Sadly,” says Clare, “I am a dog lover but not a dog owner, and all my yearnings have to be sublimated in my fictional dogs. I do need silence for writing, however. I know that there are some writers who play music to inspire them while they write, but I am too easily distracted for that.”

Relationships between the sexes are navigated compassionately in Shy Creatures, with Chambers demonstrating a deep understanding of the cultural and societal influences that operate behind the behaviours of women and men through the ages. Dr Gil Rudden, for example, has enormous charm that gilds his transformative thinking about the treatment of psychiatric disorders, making Helen’s infatuation – as a mid-century woman accustomed to being sidelined in serious discussions – almost inevitable. “Gil’s conscience is not engaged,” explains Clare. “He fails to see the irony of championing the rights of his patients not to be medicated, while his wife and mistress are both self-medicating in various ways as a result of his behaviour.”

Chambers portrays Gil as an acolyte of Scottish psychiatrist R.D. Laing, who disdained the – normal at the time – electroconvulsive and chemical therapies for psychosis. “Gil perhaps owes something to his mentor being both a progressive alternative thinker, and a man of potentially disruptive charisma. I have tried to make Gil plausibly attractive, by the standards of the time, so that Helen’s infatuation is credible.” The author acknowledges that Gil’s allure is somewhat outdated for today’s expectations. “Younger female readers tend to judge him more harshly. Women of my generation encountered many such men during our careers so are perhaps less appalled.” Like all infatuations, what Helen feels for Gil alters over time as she becomes more assured about her own instincts and knowledge.

But the heart of the novel, Chambers explains, is the story of William, who progresses through “three ‘closed institutions’–boarding school, the family, the psychiatric hospital – all of which tend to prioritise the wellbeing of the institution over the health of the individual within.” The reader learns about William gradually, through Chambers’ use of the reverse narrative strategy that “echoes or perhaps parodies the layperson’s idea of psychotherapy: a stripping away of the past until the truth is somehow revealed in childhood.”

Minor characters sing true notes throughout the novel. Chambers has achieved a notoriously difficult feat in making Marion Kenley, a motherly figure from William’s past, both a paragon of maternal virtue and a thoroughly likeable, human woman. “Marion feels guilty about her failure to act on her suspicions about William’s wellbeing and is prepared to make a significant sacrifice decades later to atone,” says Clare. “Marion is based on my mother only to the extent that she had a wonderfully warm and loving personality and would also much rather be out in the garden playing cricket or tennis than inside doing housework. Sportiness is a quality underrepresented in

fictional women and one that might appeal to a young boy in search of a mother figure. She was a difficult character to write; it is hard to make goodness interesting. Hypocrites and eccentrics are more obviously entertaining.”

Readers who loved Clare Chambers’ previous mid-century novel, Small Pleasures, will rejoice in this new offering. “Shy Creatures certainly has a more hopeful ending,” says Clare. “William’s journey ends at the place where he was once happy and can be again. Helen has faced a reckoning herself, been humbled and restored.” Chambers views the two novels as connected through “the theme of confinement, and the iron grip that duty or society can exert on an individual who plays by different rules.” Both stories explore relationships and ways of living an authentic self in a changing world.

Matching a complete mastery of the period with an empathetic understanding of her characters’ motivations and choices, Clare Chambers’ latest novel recreates mid-century Britain in an intriguing and irresistible way.

WRITTEN BY CLARE E. RODEN

Clare Rhoden, PhD, is a writer and reviewer from Melbourne Australia. Her Great War novel was published in 2019, and her latest novel is a mystery for younger readers. She is currently writing the history of a residential college at the University of Melbourne.

BY ANY OTHER NAME

BY LUCINDA BYATT

Jodi Picoult's dual time-period novel

With 29 books to her credit – and sales of upwards of 40 million copies – many readers will have read one or more of Jodi Picoult’s novels. Historical fiction was not among her usual genres (an exception being The Storyteller (2013). That changed with the publication of By Any Other Name (Ballantine/Michael Joseph, 2024). This compelling story is written as a dual timeline around the historical figure of Emilia Bassano and a contemporary young American playwright, Melina Green, whose failure to get noticed prompts her best friend to submit her play under a deliberately gender ambiguous name: Mel Green. As Picoult told an audience at the Hay Festival last summer: “It’s really a book about how things have changed for women in 400 years – and how they haven’t.”

Doubts that a single writer could have penned all the “Shakespeare” plays have been around for centuries. The so-called AntiStratfordians – or Oxfordians, depending on the candidate in question – have argued the case for alternatives, whether the Earl of Oxford, Christopher Marlowe or Francis Bacon, or a loose collective. Picoult’s novel convincingly builds on the supposition that a woman – or women – should be included in that roster of playwrights. Bassano’s introduction to the theatre began in her teens when she became the mistress of Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon, closely associated to the Tudor court and responsible for approving (censoring) all plays before they were performed. Bassano later became the first Englishwoman to publish her own verse (composing poetry, preferably for private enjoyment, was acceptable), but writing for the stage, or worse, acting on it were completely offlimits: selling her plays to Shakespeare, who put his name to them, was her only option.

I begin by asking Picoult whether her interest in the debate surrounding Shakespeare’s authorship was recent. “I didn’t even think twice about Shakespeare’s authorship when I was in college – I laughed off the idea of him not writing his own plays. But I fell in love with the plays because of the female characters, which were so three-dimensional. Then I learned he had two daughters who he never taught to read or write – which I didn’t buy at all. The deeper I dove, the more I learned that Shakespeare didn’t have the education, opportunity, or wherewithal to write the plays – but Emilia’s life, without even trying, mapped them very closely.” Indeed, one of the most fascinating aspects of this novel is how Picoult subtly traces events and episodes in Emilia’s life and cultural background that map directly onto the plays. (Conveniently, there is also an appendix of quotes.)

In the contemporary plot, Melina Green discovers that she is descended from the Bassanos, an Italian, probably Jewish family, who moved to London where Emilia was born. Her interest is sufficiently piqued to write a play about her Elizabethan forebear in which the evident barriers of identity and gender mirror her own. As Picoult tells me: “My experience as a playwright who has experienced gender discrimination in theater led to Melina’s storyline. However, the idea of intertwining two women was a decision I made intentionally – I think people read historical fiction and think, ‘Things were terrible

but that was then, this is now.’ I wanted to point out that it’s still happening.”

New York Public Library is the setting for some of Melina’s research. What about Picoult’s approach to the period? Typically thorough, her reading included “Multiple professors - mostly women - who teach Shakespeare” – among them Elizabeth Winckler, whose pivotal article “Was Shakespeare a Woman?” first appeared in The Atlantic (June 2019).[1] Picoult also used the AGAS map (online) and the historical documents that discuss Emilia, “namely Simon Foreman’s diary of their sessions, which is in the Ashmolean, and the mention of Emilia’s court case against her brothers-in-law for which Southampton intervened.” The period detail is vivid, including two miniatures by Nicholas Hilliard: one of the youthful Henry Wriothesley, third Earl of Southampton, and the other tentatively identified as Emilia Bassano. Like her character Melina, who examines a First Folio in the NYPL, Picoult also experienced the thrill of handling a First Folio in Eton College Library. “It was incredibly cool to touch something ‘of the time’ – and to think about Ben Jonson writing the prefatory poem and why he might have done that, given that Shakespeare was someone he detested.”

There are multifaceted reflections at play in the novel. Melina finds herself in the same position as her protagonist, Emilia, watching a performance of her work which the audience believe is written by a man. I ask Picoult whether she was interested in exploring this mirroring, also at a personal level. “I do not usually write about autobiographical experiences,” she replies, “although ironically, By Any Other Name is full of them – because I viscerally know what it’s like to be a female writer judged differently from a man. Even at this point of my career when I say I’m a writer, I am asked, ‘Oh, children’s books?  Romance?’ as if those are the only acceptable lanes for women writers.”

When I ask how much more there is to be done about not writing women out of history, especially in the light of the recent explosion of book banning, Picoult says: “We are right back in Elizabethan England, in terms of banning. The language used by the banners is almost verbatim what was used by the Puritans in the Elizabethan era to challenge theater, because they felt it led people astray from God, and that people who saw theater would not be able to tell the difference between a stabbing acted out onstage and one committed in real life. They sought to remove art from society because it encouraged people to think – and that meant they couldn’t control the populace’s thoughts themselves through religion. As for history being written by men – and women being judged on a different scale than men – well, look at the results of the US election. I think that makes the point very clearly that it’s still a problem.” Picoult’s favourite female character in the plays is Portia, that model of equanimity, with the intellect to argue and win a trial. It’s a character that perhaps only a woman could have penned.

Lucinda Byatt is HNR Features Editor and teaches at the University of Edinburgh.

References:

1. Elizabeth Winkler, Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies New York, 2023.

FOLLOWING MARY LEAKEY

BY NICKY MOXEY

Penny Haw has a fascinating stable of historical novels – indeed, she’s just won the 2024 Philida Literary Award for them in her native South Africa, an award which celebrates mid-career writers who have three to five books in any genre. (She also has a contemporary novel and a children’s book under her belt.)

All her historical novels tell the tale of strong, intelligent women who, by the nature of their times, also struggle against the patriarchy and society’s perceived limitations of their sex. The Invincible Miss Cust (Sourcebooks Landmark, 2022) is the story of the UK’s first female vet, Aleen Cust, and is set towards the end of the 19th century.  The Woman at the Wheel (Sourcebooks Landmark, 2023) is based on the life of Bertha Benz, wife of Carl Benz of automobile fame, in a similar timescale. Both Aleen and Bertha have to step outside the bounds of propriety in order to achieve their goals; both books are excellent reads, written in the first person and immersive.

Follow Me to Africa (Sourcebooks Landmark, 2025) is inspired by the life of distinguished paleoanthropologist, Mary Leakey (1913-1996). Unlike the others, it is written in the third person and includes an extra protagonist; 17-year-old Grace is a fictional character. I asked Haw about that choice.

“Mary Leakey is widely published, both in her autobiography and her academic works. Her writing voice exists. As such, the point of view for  Follow Me to Africa is third-person omniscient, which meant I took a step back from Mary. Also, because her autobiography already exists, I wanted to create a different perspective, which is one of the reasons I introduced the dual timeline and fictional Grace Clark to the story. The challenge was telling Mary’s story in a fresh way. I introduced seventeenyear-old Grace as a foil to Mary. I wanted her to provoke seventy-yearold Mary to reflect upon her life.”

And what a life it was; this woman, who had such a huge influence on the field of paleoanthropology, developing techniques and setting recording standards that are still respected today, had virtually no schooling nor formal training. Almost entirely self-taught, she was already developing a reputation for professional excellence before she and Louis Leakey met,

and the focus of her life’s work shifted to Africa. The introduction of Grace, and the contrast of lives and times half a century apart, allows Haw to draw Mary clearly and sympathetically.

Another aspect that is well done indeed is landscape as character. I grew up in Kenya in the 1960s, and my family regularly visited the Leakeys in camp; through this book I tasted again the dust of the Olduvai, and the impossibility of travelling through the red mud of the rains. When Grace stands on the lip of the Ngorongoro Crater and sees a landscape so full of life that it seethes, that was the experience of my childhood; I sadly doubt that it is like that today. That same intimate knowledge of the bush and wildlife is also present in Haw’s other novel The Wilderness Between Us  (Köehler Books, 2021). This is set in her native South Africa, a very different landscape; I asked where her deep knowledge of East Africa came from.

“Although I’ve lived near Cape Town for decades, I was raised on a farm in KwaZulu-Natal in the eastern regions of South Africa. My childhood was spent outdoors. I know and love the bush and its wildlife and spend as much time as I can in the wilderness. I’ve travelled throughout southern Africa and to parts of East Africa. The bush and animals (both wild and domesticated) are so integral to my enjoyment of life that writing about them seems unavoidable and natural to me. I’m at my happiest writing on the subjects. .... I love the idea of readers feeling transported to the setting. So yes, it was my intention that the bush be something of a force.”

It’s not just in Haw’s African books that landscape is an integral part of the story, though. This same facility is present in her other two books. The Woman at the Wheel transports us to a bustling 19th-century city, with unfortunate amounts of horse manure underfoot, and an edge of danger from spooked horses. The Invincible Miss Cust starts in a gentle Irish country estate and goes on to grey, bleak, unwelcoming Edinburgh before capturing the detail of Aleen’s vet practice.

In my work as a counsellor I frequently encounter problems that are caused, or made worse, by childhood events, such as Grace’s and Bertha’s bereavement, or Aleen’s uprooting from her beloved Ireland. Whilst not a heavily drawn-on theme in any of the books, this underlying darkness gives a depth and weight to her characters that might otherwise be missing, and makes them – to my eye at least –much more sympathetic and interesting than they might otherwise be. It can also give our fictional characters a life of their own. Haw writes:

“I didn’t know when I began writing exactly what would happen to Grace. It’s one of the joys of writing fiction; being surprised by your characters. I was a journalist before I began writing fiction, and once

Penny Haw tells the story through fresh eyes

pooh-poohed the notion of an author being led by their characters. I now understand that it happens and how.”

Given that she writes in deeper and also more contemporary periods, I was interested in Haw’s take on the differences: “There’s so much more known about near-period history. The challenges are finding room to move within that information and creating a story that is plausible and, most importantly, entertains readers.”

I asked what the next book is about. “It’s set between 1772 and 1789 and tells a story of Caroline Herschel’s move from being a soprano in Bath to relocating near Windsor Castle and becoming a salaried astronomer to King George III. There are no scenes in the African bushveld in this one, but there are animals, walks and rides in the countryside and starry night skies.“

I look forward very much to another book about a complex, fascinating woman, set in a beautifully encapsulated landscape, and perhaps again with that theme of unwanted relocation.

Nicky Moxey is a counsellor and archaeologist who writes about the priory she discovered, and its people – although the next book is a textbook on boarding-school trauma due out in December.

INTO THE LIGHT

BY KATE BRAITHWAITE

Reclaiming the hidden story of Jessie Redmon Fauset

Best-selling author Victoria Christopher Murray didn’t start out writing historical fiction. But two successful collaborations with Marie Benedict for The Personal Librarian (Berkley, 2021) – about Belle da Costa Greene, the librarian for J. P. Morgan – and The First Ladies (Berkley, 2023) – a story of the friendship between Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune – have changed her direction. This, she tells me, is where she will stay as a writer: “There are so many women whose stories have been hidden in the folds of history. I want to excavate them and bring these women into the light where they belong.”

Her first solo historical outing, Harlem Rhapsody, does just that, inviting readers to learn about the life of Jessie Redmon Fauset. The story opens in 1919. Jessie, a young writer and editor, has a new position. She’s the literary editor for The Crisis, a magazine still in existence today, the official publication of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and now the nation’s oldest African American publication. She’s also in a secret relationship with W. E. B. Du Bois, the founder of both the NAACP and The Crisis. Right away, the reader is swept into a fascinating period in Black history. These are the years just before what became known as the Harlem Renaissance, a period in the 1920s and ´30s that saw an explosion of Black creativity. Black culture flourished as never before as African Americans demonstrated literary and artistic talent challenging racist stereotypes and misconceptions. Think blues. Think jazz. Think Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes. Think Louis Armstrong. Think Ma Rainey and Josephine Baker. Of course, it was also the time of Jim Crow laws, and social change was needed. In his 1903 essay, The Talented Tenth, W. E. B. Du Bois had advocated this would come from nurturing the gifts of the best among his race, to demonstrate

intellectual equality and leadership ability. His appointment of Jessie Redmon Fauset put those words into action.

In writing biographical historical fiction, there’s often a balance to be struck between the personal and professional lives of the subject. Murray addresses this tension head on, explaining: “This was probably the most difficult part of writing Harlem Rhapsody – the relationship between Jessie and W. E. B. Du Bois. Both of them stand as giants in history and I didn’t want to sully their reputations in any way. But I couldn’t write the story without their affair because the one thing that will always be amazing to me – there wasn’t a literary editor before Jessie, and there was never a literary editor after her. Du Bois created that position solely for her, to have her close, I believe. And she turned her position at The Crisis into the breeding ground for the great voices of the Renaissance. I really wanted to balance her work and her relationship so that Jessie would be most of all, recognized as the woman who ignited the Harlem Renaissance.”

I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that in life, Jessie Redmon Fauset made her mark in two distinct ways. First, there are the writers she discovered and nurtured, including Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Jean Toomer and Claude McKay. Then there are her own novels, beginning with There is Confusion (1924). Murray explains why this first novel was so impactful: “There is Confusion hit the shelves with a bang, shocking the industry and readers. A Black woman had never written a novel about the Black middle class. Before Jessie’s novel, the stories (many memoirs) focused on Black characters as servants or slaves. There was a reason white editors believed white readers would find Jessie’s novel unbelievable. Since Africans arrived on American soil, they’d been portrayed as uneducated savages. No one imagined Black people having and living in solid families, excelling in school, and going to college. White readers would have found her characters unbelievable.”

So how did Jessie Redmon Fauset – author of a landmark novel, fosterer of such talented writers – manage to disappear from the public consciousness? Murray sees several reasons: “First, she was at the very beginning of the Harlem Renaissance. In fact, it was the launch party for her novel on March 24, 1924, that officially began the new Negro Renaissance, as it was called at the time. Jessie wrote three other novels, but then disappeared herself, not writing again. Also, once Jessie left the Crisis, most of her accomplishments were attributed to Du Bois. I’m not sure if he was responsible for this, or if people looking back on that time couldn’t imagine a woman achieving all that she did – it had to be W. E. B. Du Bois. And while Jessie was so prolific during the Renaissance with her four novels and all the writing she did for the Crisis, others wrote far more than she did. She was drowned out by the success of those she discovered.”

In Harlem Rhapsody, however, Jessie Fauset is drowned out no longer. She’s given back her voice and story in an accessible and entertaining, as well as eye-opening, way. It’s a story about race and publishing one hundred years ago that left me wondering how far the industry has traveled, and much further it still has to go. Murray told me she had always enjoyed historical fiction, but she didn’t see herself in the books she read. Happily, that’s changing, and she’s leading the way. “As a Black writer who has always written about the Black middle and upper middle class,” she explains, “I stand on Jessie Redmon Fauset’s shoulders. Her characters were very real.” And it’s heartening to hear Murray say that while she can’t speak for the industry as a whole, she is “one voice that my publisher is raising and supporting. I think we’re all moving in the right direction. I just pray it stays that way.”

Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray was released by Berkley in February 2025.

IN THE INDIA that Khan conjures up so convincingly, as well as in the world in general, the past cannot be ignored.

Kate Braithwaite has authored four historical novels, including The Scandalous Life of Nancy Randolph (Joffe Books, 2024). In 2025, Joffe will publish her first contemporary thriller, The Neighborhood. Kate also writes Sis-Stories, a Substack publication about sisters in history and fiction, and is an reviews editor for HNR.

COMPLEX MYSTERIES, CRYPTIC CLUES

BY ANN NORTHFIELD

Vaseem Khan on his Jazz Age crime series

India is a country which holds great fascination for many. It is a place of vibrant colour, diversity, contrast and a vivid, sometimes brutal history. Perhaps this explains the enduring popularity of novels set in this endlessly intriguing location from E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India to Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance (1995), and from Abir Mukherjee’s excellent crime series set in 1920s India to Vaseem Khan who has written two best-selling series. Khan’s books feature very different protagonists: Persis Wadia, a female police detective, and Inspector Chopra who, despite having to look after a baby elephant and being retired, still manages to solve murders. The Malabar House series, with Persis Wadia, begins in post-World War Two Bombay/Mumbai, and the house of the title is where the less wellregarded police officers are sent to languish. Having the temerity to be female, Persis is consigned there and frequently underestimated, although, after spending a very short time with this indomitable and strong-willed woman, not by the reader. The books in the Inspector Chopra series, on the other hand, are contemporary but also set in this chaotic and populous city.

Khan is British Indian and lived in Mumbai for ten years, and this has really given his works an immense sense of time and place as the reader feels totally immersed in the sights, smells, sounds of the city. He feels this experience powers his writing, and in a recent interview, he states that the Chopra novels demonstrate “the extraordinariness of modern India, a nation superheated by the forces of globalisation and westernisation, but also at the mercy of legacy issues such as widespread poverty, caste prejudice and religious conflict”. Certainly, these are ideas and themes which resonate through both series. Issues such as religion, gender, caste and money all play their part in reflecting the essence of India, whether 60 or more years ago or in the modern era.

One aspect of both series which stands out is the contrast between the traditional and the modern, and when you add in the 300 plus years of colonialism with British rule, this makes for quite a melting pot of beliefs, values and attitudes. Khan tells me that: “No nation can truly escape its colonial past, whether as coloniser or colonised,” and this is something that can be seen in the difficult relationship between Persis and Archie Blackfinch, her work colleague (or maybe

more), who is an English forensic scientist employed to develop the scientific knowledge of the Indian police service. Their relationship is very much affected and hampered by these ethnic and historical divides. In the India that Khan conjures up so convincingly, as well as in the world in general, the past cannot be ignored. We are all products of our upbringings to a certain extent.

Another area I was interested in exploring with Khan was plotting. With crime, more than any other genre in my opinion, the storyline is of vital importance. Both series are tightly plotted with intricate clues and dramatic events that drive the characters forward to the final denouement. I have never worked out in advance the murderer for any of the books, I have to confess, but then my logical and analytical skills for solving crimes are not at the level of Chopra’s or Wadia’s (sadly). When asked about how he plots, Khan says that he does indeed plot in great detail and begins this process about two months before starting to write. He also admits that he throws down the intellectual gauntlet to his readers and describes the Malabar House books as “complex mysteries, with historical detail, overarching themes and cryptic clues”. He also uses the opportunity to correct any misconceptions about the British in India and gives me an example from the third book, The Lost Man of Bombay, concerning the naming of Mount Everest. It was named after a Welsh surveyor, George Everest, who never went near the place. An Indian called Radhanath Sikdar determined it was the world’s highest peak, but despite this, his name has not been included on any map.

Khan has produced two very different protagonists for his two series and perhaps their very diversity is a reflection of a country which has such a rich and varied history. When asked about his personal favourite, Khan admits that it is Persis, because Chopra “is basically my alter-ego. His views are my own and reflect my time living in India. So it would be highly egotistical of me to like him more!” I am now left wondering if Khan too had a baby elephant to care for while in India and if they would make good pets?

Khan is heading in a slightly different direction in the future for another series based on the character of Q from the Bond films and books. As a huge Bond fan myself, I was very intrigued to ask about this new venture and how it all came about. Khan was approached by the Ian Fleming estate to write a series where Q takes centre stage. According to Khan, the premise is as follows: “Q has been booted out of MI6 and returns to his hometown to investigate the mysterious death of his childhood friend, a quantum computer scientist. He soon realises sinister forces might be at work.” Khan says he is not channelling Desmond Llewelyn or Ben Whishaw, but instead a character somewhere in the middle, a man in his 50s who is using his tech background with weapons and gadgets to solve a murder. The book is called Quantum of Menace and yes, Bond will make a cameo appearance. It is due out in October 2025, but pre-orders would be gratefully received as these are of course critical to the success of any new series. I’ve placed mine already!

Vaseem Khan’s Malabar House series appeared in this order: Midnight at Malabar House (2020); The Dying Day (2021); The Lost Man of Bombay (2022); Death of a Lesser God (2023); City of Destruction (Hodder & Stoughton, 2024).

Ann Northfield is an avid reader and compulsive book buyer who teaches English Literature in an international school. Originally from the UK, she has lived in Switzerland for over twenty years.

REVIEWS

THE VOYAGE HOME

ONLINE EXCLUSIVES

Due to an ever-increasing number of books for review and space constraints within HNR, 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 LIFE OF HEROD THE GREAT

Zora Neale Hurston, ed. and with commentary by Deborah G. Plant, Amistad, 2025, $28.99/ C$35.99, pb, 432pp, 9780063433458 / HQ, 2025, £20.00, hb, 368pp, 9780008732783

Salvaged from a fire, re-assembled and edited, this unfinished Zora Neale Hurston novel is only now being posthumously published. In these pages, Hurston set down her researched version of the story of King Herod I of Judea. Called Herod the Great, this Herod should not be confused with his son, the King Herod who taunted Jesus, although both seem to have equally unsavory reputations in the popular imagination. The Herod of this story was the first ruler of a monarchy put in place by the Romans which replaced the theocracy presided over by the high priests. In this novel, Hurston flips contemporary views of Herod the Great by presenting him as a misunderstood man who deserves to be comprehended in the context of his own times rather than through our modern perspectives.

Hurston sets the tone in her preface by placing his story into a very wide historical setting of violence, chaos, change, and competing visions of Eastern and Western ideas in the world of the ancient Middle East. Her Herod is a charismatic leader, one who embraces change but is often restrained by customs he considers outdated and of little use either for his contemporary time or for the future. Described in heroic terms as courageous, intelligent, and resourceful, he is also portrayed as completely devoted to the ideals of his father, who inculcated in him respect for all honest men and a disdain for liars and schemers. The plot is thick and enemies abound as Rome’s might transforms the Middle East as well as the course of Herod’s life, who rises alongside in strength as the mighty protector of Judea. Highly recommended for its distinctiveness as an unusual novelistic treatment of an enigmatic historical figure written in a crisp literary style.

Karen Bordonaro

Pat Barker, Doubleday, 2024, $29.00/C$39.00, hb, 288pp, 9780385549110 / Hamish Hamilton, 2024, £20.00, hb, 304pp, 9780241568248

Time to brush up your Aeschylus (Agamemnon in Oresteia trilogy), and a bit of Euripides (Trojan Women) for good measure. The war is over, Troy’s in ruins, and there’s a horrible curse on the house of Atreus. The Voyage Home immediately follows the war with Troy where Paris abducted Helen. Men are dead, women enslaved (even the Trojan queen and princesses), and children thrown over the battlements. Victorious King Agamemnon is returning home on board a leaky old ship, somewhat resembling his own body. As it sails to Mycenae, Trojan women in tow (Cassandra and her slave Ritsa), he has no idea what Queen Clytemnestra is plotting.

Barker’s British vernacular might surprise readers. Phrases like “bit of a bother” and “storm in a pisspot” appear in Ritsa’s first-person point of view sections (Barker’s invention: a healer who was once a freeborn woman, wife and mother). This chatter all sounds deliberately modern. Until a tonal shift enters, as the narrative alternates between Trojan Ritsa and Cassandra (Priam’s daughter, priestess to Apollo, and Agamemnon’s concubine) and Greek Clytemnestra (beautiful Helen’s sister). Sections cleaving to vengeful Clytemnestra (planning her husband’s murder for sacrificing their beloved daughter Iphigenia for fair winds that launched the Greek ships) form the ancient tragedy that runs its inevitable course. Barker creates the interiority of reimagined female characters, painting in graphic details life and death in 5th-century BCE Greece, revealing Cassandra’s prophecy: she and Agamemnon will be slaughtered. Nobody ever believes “mad” Cassandra—the curse of Apollo, god of sun, music, dance, healing, prophecy, and truth—this is what a woman gets for refusing to lie down with the allpowerful son of Zeus. But it’s Ritsa, witness to moral violence, a powerless woman, whose voice underscores the new story based on ancient tragedy. Barker, however, stops short of Aeschylus’ final justice.

Christina

Nellas-Acosta

upon Mars the night before she is to enter the Vestal order. When the sun rises the following day, Rhea will carry the future of a nation within her womb.

This is a lavish story about the connection between women and the power of motherhood. The story is passionate in its motivation and gut-wrenching in its misfortune. The historical setting and social structures are resplendent in detail. The prose is evocative and vivid, which wraps around the reader and doesn’t let go until the final pages. With the help of the gods and her ancestors, Rhea’s life will not be silenced. It is a truly talented author who can create such a rich and stirring character that the reader is moved to tears in its final pages when their remarkable journey must come to its end. Mother of Rome is a breathtaking feminist tale about the founding of a nation and the everlasting and unsung power of women. Highly recommended.

J. Lynn Else

QUEEN OF HEAVEN

Ava McKevitt, Sapere, 2024, £9.99/$9.99, pb, 242pp, 9780854953431

Hera, the sister and wife of Zeus, is brought to life with modern twists. Queen of Heaven is written in the first person to give a more personal view of a somewhat controversial character amongst the gods and goddesses of Olympus. Sticking with the prevalent view of her rebirth from the stomach of her father, Cronos, aided by her brother, Zeus, rather than the more normal upbringing mentioned in The Iliad adds some drama and a first-hand account of the ‘birth’ event.

MOTHER OF ROME

Lauren J. A. Bear, Ace, 2025, $30.00/C$39.99, hb, 400pp, 9780593638941 / Titan, 2025, £9.99, pb, 400pp, 9781803364742

CLASSICAL

After her uncle takes the throne from her father, Princess Rhea is decreed to spend the rest of her life as a Vestal Virgin. However, the gods have other plans. Sometime earlier, Rhea encountered an enormous wolf. The wolf, impressed by Rhea’s bravery, revealed himself to be the god Mars. Rhea is strong-willed yet powerless when the organizations she’s been taught to honor become the instruments of her downfall. In an act of defiance, Rhea calls

This is a thoroughly and excellently researched novel, as to be expected from a Classics scholar; however, the ‘modern twists’ referred to earlier detract from the substance of the story. This is a book written by a 21stcentury woman putting modern morals and attitudes into an ancient Greek scenario. For example, the treatment of Athena as transgender seems particularly incongruous. There are descriptions of her identity struggles in detail, and the author promises more in the books to follow. This would really not have been an issue amongst the powers on Mount Olympus, and Athena would not have had to justify, or even worry, about her sexuality.

All in all, this is a very readable novel, and it is good to get a different perspective on such a well-known story. It is a shame that putting too much modern thinking into the mind of Hera makes her feel a little anachronistic in her setting. The classical Hera was a vengeful (particularly against her husband’s lovers) yet loving goddess, but was a woman of her time.

She would have dealt with things as they were and not how 21st-century thinking would make her.

A good story that could have been excellent.

Aidan K. Morrissey

THE IMMIGRANT QUEEN

Peter Taylor-Gooby, Troubador, 2024, £10.99/$14.99, pb, 320pp, 9781836280606 Athens, 5th Century BCE. Limander serves as a bard for Lady Aspasia, a woman of education who engages in rhetorical debates with the likes of Socrates and is in love with a politician named Pericles. At one of Aspasia’s parties, Limander meets a young man of high standing and falls in love. But the young noble named Alcis thinks Limander is a visitor to the city, not a slave. Meanwhile, tensions in the city rise to a boiling point. When Aspasia is accused of blasphemy, she must face a jury of men who seem intent on her execution.

I expected Aspasia to be a main part of the narration. However, it’s told entirely through Limander’s perspective, which I enjoyed, as well as his enduring love story. However, because of this choice, Aspasia doesn’t feel fully developed. Is it plausible for a wealthy owner to find occasion to share personal feelings and struggles with their slave? For me, a more accurate plot summary would help temper reader expectations: Limander is not even mentioned in the book blurbs I’ve come across. This novel tells the story of Aspasia from, although sympathetic, a male point of view. In this sense, regretfully, the book disappoints.

The formatting is atypical, particularly with dialogue. Often, the dialogue tags are either left out or in a separate paragraph. While a bit confusing on who’s speaking, the book is otherwise well-written and intriguing. Through Limander’s eyes, readers get a glimpse of the dark back alleys of Athens, the living conditions for slaves and their treatment, the work to keep a wealthy household running, and some Assembly meetings. The worldly details and the mindsets of characters are well-crafted and were elements I delighted in.

J. Lynn Else

attacks on Camulodunum, Londinium and Verulamium, then withdraws to prepare for all-out war to expel the Romans from Britain.

Cast’s epic story is crafted around events chronicled by Roman historian, Tacitus, whose father-inlaw, Agricola, was an eyewitness to the uprising. Happily, the author doesn’t rely on modernisations, yet the story and its lessons are easily accessible to today’s audiences, as its characters bound with dynamic life. The thoughts and feelings of the tribe are felt through details of their life and culture told by Boudicca in her gripping story. Cast handles a long list of characters, tribes, towns and areas of ancient Britain with seeming ease, without need for introductory maps or indexes. Modern thinkers might tag this as feminist, but Boudicca’s life, in an age when warriors both male and female respected her leadership, meant they followed her unquestioningly into the face of death at her command. Female autonomy wasn’t something she needed to prove. As she emerges from queen of a peaceful, prosperous settlement to goddess-protected warrior, we walk with her daughters through their slow recovery from assault and degradation. The rape, flogging and subsequent healing journey are graphic but treated with great compassion. This is an exemplary work and one which helps us to truly appreciate Boudicca and the tribes of Britain’s enormous sacrifice. Few novels evoke the emotion that this does in its closing chapters.

Fiona Alison

REVENGE OF ROME

Simon Scarrow, Headline, 2024, £22.00, hb, 411pp, 9781472287175

recovering the Eagle and delivering Boudica, dead or alive, up to Rome’s vengeance.

We accompany her as she withdraws along hidden pathways through marshes and fens to the secret islands where she will make her last stand. The Romans must follow, always at risk of being stranded or attacked. As they penetrate deeper into this eerie world of half water, half land, will their tried and proven tactics prevail?

Simon Scarrow does not insult the reader by rewriting history but shares his insights into those critical weeks, presenting both sides of the story. Each party considers itself in the right, has its reasons to feel aggrieved. Cato and Macro, who in the past considered Boudica a friend and ally, must now weigh their sense of duty against their personal honour. Is this their swansong? If so, it is a fitting end to a great series, but fans will be left hoping their adventures continue.

Catherine Kullmann

4TH CENTURY

AS SURE AS THE SEA

Jamie Ogle, Tyndale, 2025, $17.99, pb, 368pp, 9781496479723

In 310 CE, life is exceedingly difficult for the few but growing number of Christians in the Roman empire under its ruler, Diocletian. Demetria is a young believer in the port city of Myra. She works hard as a diver, collecting coral and pearls along with her brother Theseus. Her employer knows they are Christians but tolerates them because they are so good at their jobs. They also work some nights, smuggling provisions to other believers upriver. On one dive when Theseus is bizarrely injured, Demetria is aided by a strange, apparently shipwrecked young man named Nikolas.

1ST CENTURY BOUDICCA

P. C. Cast, William Morrow, 2025, $30.00/ C$37.00/£25.00, hb, 480pp, 9780063294974

AD 60/61. Iceni chief Prasutagus is dead, his 33-year-old wife Boudicca now the accepted queen of Tribe Iceni. When tax collector Decianus and his centuria attack the Iceni settlement of Tasceni without warning, Boudicca is viciously flogged, her two young daughters brutally gang-raped, and the tribe is decimated. In the name of the tribe’s patroness, the goddess Andraste, Boudicca vows vengeance for her people. Acknowledged as a trained warrior and War Queen, she allies with the Trinovantes to lead successful

Britannia, AD 61. It is over twenty years since Simon Scarrow introduced us to tough centurion Macro and his callow secondin-command, the idealistic Cato. In the intervening years, we have followed their adventures in Britannia and elsewhere, fighting for the glory of Rome. Almost twenty years have also elapsed in ‘book time’, and the pair are back in Britannia, Cato as Prefect and commander of the eighth Illyrian Auxiliary Cohort with Macro, still a centurion, as his second in command.

The unthinkable has almost happened. Boudica’s rebels have been defeated but at the cost of enormous death and destruction, and the loss of the Eagle of the Ninth Legion. Boudica herself is still at large. Emperor and Empire howl for revenge. Cato and Macro are tasked with hunting down the rebels,

The two bring the injured brother to safety, where they find out Nikolas is a Christian too. Demi has a shameful secret which drives her altruism, and Nikolas, having been selected as a new pastor for Myra, is also privately concerned he is not fit for the task because of issues with his own family. When he admits he has access to a fortune that lies at the bottom of the sea, the two agree to conduct treasure hunting dives together to use the wealth for the benefit of the Christian community. They also tenderly discover their mutual attraction when together. Then, suddenly, Nikolas is arrested with other believers after being betrayed. With trust in their faith and in each other, they must all persevere to survive.

This novel is a colorful and insightful account of life under constant threat of imprisonment or execution by a merciless state. Ironically, it’s also a heartwarming inspirational romance and rollicking adventure. The passages describing the dives for coral and the sunken coins are described in vivid and interesting detail. The book is ultimately a tale of divine forgiveness and familial devotion.

Thomas J. Howley

5TH CENTURY

REBEL EMPRESS

Faith L. Justice, Raggedy Moon Books, 2024, $14.95/C$20.95, pb, 384pp, 9780917053320

This novel tells the dramatic story of Athenais, wife of Theodosius, Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire in Constantinople in the 5th century CE. Athenais was born in Antioch but grew up in Athens as the daughter of a scholar. She received a classical education through the efforts of her father which she drew on throughout her life. This tale narrates her story from her first meeting and subsequent marriage to the emperor, through motherhood and pilgrimage, to her political involvement in religious disputes. Her character remains steadfast throughout the tumult of her life through her abiding connection to and solace from philosophy, poetry, and literature. She also draws strength and pleasure from her devotion to improving the lot of her subjects through both charitable social supports and the beautification of urban life. What does not remain steady are her changing personal relationships with some members of the court, and shifting circumstances due to imperial intrigue, religious doctrinal disputes, and military warfare at the empire’s borders.

Fast paced, with a multitude of short chapters that portray various scenes in her life with different people at different times in different places, this novel is a very entertaining read. It also sheds light on the customs and social expectations of an era not featured as often in historical fiction as other eras. Anyone who enjoys watching characters discover their own inherent inner strengths and abilities to adapt to changing and often dangerous circumstances in an intriguing setting will enjoy this book.

Karen Bordonaro

DARK AGE MONARCH: Uther Pendragon

Joseph J. Swope, Black Rose Writing, 2024, $20.95, pb, 249pp, 9781685134907

The Arthurian legend of Uther Pendragon is examined by Joseph J. Swope in Dark Age Monarch. This book takes a unique approach, first examining what were often inconsistent historical records and then pulling together vignettes of Uther’s story. The tale begins when Ambrosius Aurelius, a military commander with the gift of sight, leads the British resistance against the Anglo-Saxon invasion while leaving his son, Uther, in the care of his cousin. At an early age, Uther shows a propensity for cruelty and violence—traits that later serve him well in battle but leave a trail of distrust. After his father is grievously wounded, Uther takes ruthless command of the war effort against the invaders. When the regional king, Gorlois, challenges his leadership at a gathering, Uther declares him a traitor, overtakes his castle at Tintagel, and beds his wife, Igraine, to sire the legendary King Arthur.

Swope seamlessly weaves historical

accounts and scenes to create the legendary tale of Uther. As Morgan Le Fay points out, “I could see from the start that his fury and his appetites would overwhelm his promise. Uther had all the zeal one could want, but none of his father’s judgement or modernization.” Though there is debate on whether Arthurian characters ever existed, the book examines various sources to create a legendary tale of Uther that contains elements of truth.

For anyone interested in learning more about the source documents on which Arthurian legends are based, I recommend this novel for its compelling insight into the tragic tale of Uther Pendragon, a double-edged character known both for his military heroics and for his shortcomings resulting in internal divisions that his son, Arthur, must heal.

Linnea Tanner

7TH CENTURY

SHADOWS OF THE SLAIN

Matthew Harffy, Head of Zeus, 2024, £20.00, hb, 448pp, 9781804548646

AD 652, in the northern parts of what is now Italy. Beobrand, Thegn of Ubbanford, leads his Black Shield warriors as they escort a group of monks on pilgrimage to the Holy City, Roma. They are from Northumbria, a kingdom on an island in the chill seas of north-west Europe.

The Christian monks are in desperate need of pagan Beobrand’s services. The road is infested with bandits and highway robbers. Hence, there is plenty of opportunity for the wielding of Beobrand’s sword, and Harffy’s detailed and imaginative battle scenes.

When they reach Roma, things only get worse. They become embroiled in a complex web of power struggles and vendettas, both within and without the Church. Despite Beobrand’s valiant efforts to contain both his temper and his sword, he must fight again.

This is one of a series, with references to past adventures, but can be read alone. Beobrand fulfils expectations. Disregarding bodily pain and grief for lost friends, he fights hard and well. His oath-sworn companions are trusty and cheerful. Beobrand honourably defends women, who respond by happily serving, without troubling him with their own feelings. The description of Rome after the shift of Imperial power to Constantinople is vivid, evocative, and believable.

Beobrand is fictional, but he escorts the historical figure of Wilfred, who was credited with persuading Northumbria into the Roman, rather than the Irish/Celtic Christian tradition. Wilfred later became a saint. I thought Harffy’s depiction of him interesting, and it lifted the book beyond the common swordfighting story. Unfortunately, I found one fight scene confusing, due to editing errors with a character name. Otherwise, the book is expertly written, and will please lovers of a fight, with good reason to fight it.

Helen Johnson

PROPHET OF BLOOD

Peter Tremayne, Headline, 2024, £22.00, hb, 352pp, 9781472296092 / Severn House, 2024, $29.99, hb, 352pp, 9781448309818

Prophet of Blood is the thirty-fifth novel in Peter Tremayne’s highly successful series of mystery books featuring 7th-century Irish super-sleuth Sister Fidelma. The very fact that the series has not yet run out of steam is itself testament to Tremayne’s skill as a storyteller.

The year is 672 AD. At the remote abbey of Dair Inis, Abbot Brocc encounters a mysterious figure cloaked in grey who prophesies his imminent death. Naturally perturbed by this, the Abbot sends for Sister Fidelma for advice, but he is murdered before she arrives. It falls on Fidelma to get to the bottom of it all, assisted by her husband, Eadulf, and her trusty bodyguard, Dego.

Fidelma is an expert in Brehon law, a dálaigh, and she brings a rational and legalistic perspective to the unfolding events. Fidelma’s questions to the various participants that she meets along the way help the reader to understand the issues at stake which are deftly explored through the narrative. We find ourselves in a world where the Old and the New are in collision, where Christianity has started to lay its roots but where the older pagan beliefs refuse to be silenced. Fidelma must also deal with the consequences of an unsuccessful rebellion by local clans against their Eóganachta overlords in Cashel. As Fidelma and her companions travel further west in their search for answers, they enter hostile territory where law, order and Christian compassion give way to a darker, less certain, world of Druidism, bardic lore and supernatural prophecy.

It is no surprise that Peter Tremayne is the pen name of Peter Berresford Ellis, the respected Celtic scholar. The narrative carries its learning lightly, but there is a fascinating depth of historical information about ancient Ireland on every page. Nonetheless, the story is also absolutely engaging and overall a very satisfying and enjoyable read.

Adele Wills

8TH CENTURY

BLOOD OF THE BEAR

Angus Donald, Canelo, 2024, £9.99/$16.99, pb, 368pp, 9781804362358

8th century, Saxon Germany. Frankish Christianity is laying siege to the hearts and minds of the receding numbers of pagans. This is the continuing story of Bjarki Bloodhand, renowned and much feared ‘beserkr,’ now wanting to lead a quiet normal life with his wife and children. However, his enemies and the Frankish Christians have other plans.

Struck down by an unknown illness, or worse, a curse of devastating powers, Bjarki has to take something of a back seat in this novel, and much of the action and intrigue revolves around his wonderful Shield Maiden sister, Torfinn. A fierce warrior in her own right,

Tor, as she is known to family, is a magnificent character, brave, fearless and devious!

This is an action-packed novel, based (very) loosely on the real-life Saxon paganturned-Christian, Widukind of Westphalia. His enmity and that of his closest ally, Abbio, towards Bjarki is vicious and constant due to the beserkr stealing Widukind’s sister, Edith, and taking her for his wife. However, Tor’s feelings towards Widukind are more ambivalent and shrewder.

Angus Donald is a great storyteller, and although this is not the best ‘beserkr’ novel I have read recently, it is certainly well researched and well written with a wonderful ending – which hopefully means we have not seen the end of Tor. Please, Mr. Donald, you can’t leave us like that!

Aidan K. Morrissey

9TH CENTURY

THE GIRL OF MANY CROWNS

D. H. Morris, New Classics, 2024, $21.99, pb, 303pp, 9798990828001

Judith is the eldest daughter of King Charles of Francia, grandson of Charlemagne. Her role in life is to marry a king with whom her father seeks alliance. That is how things are done in 9th century Europe, and she is given no choice in the matter. Charles selects an Anglo-Saxon king, and Judith becomes Queen of Wessex at the tender age of 12. Within a few years, she is widowed twice and returns to her father’s court, against his wishes, determined not to wed again unless to someone of her own choosing. She falls in love with young Count Baldwin of Flanders, a trusted retainer of Charles, but of too lowly a rank to satisfy her father’s political ambitions. Can they succeed in defying the king?

The narrative is told from three perspectives: Judith, Baldwin, and Archbishop Hincmar, one of King Charles’ chief advisors. This affords us a rounded view of the geopolitical intrigues of the time as the successors to Charlemagne’s now much divided Holy Roman Empire vie for territory and dominance against each other and against Viking raiders. Morris has obviously done her research and sticks close to the historical record. Personally, I appreciated the wealth of dynastic detail and enjoyed the dramatization of internecine squabbles. However, I worry that other readers might feel a little overwhelmed by the amount of exposition, especially in the Hincmar sections. Some might prefer less distraction from the central Judith plot, which is the most effective part of the book. Her character development as she matures is convincing, and her emotional journey is depicted with sensitivity as it builds to a genuinely moving conclusion.

Nigel Willits

LOKI UNBOUND

S. J. A. Turney, Canelo, 2024, £10.99/$18.99, pb, 384pp, 9781804367797

Book 5 in the Wolves of Odin Series, this is the story of Bjorn Beartorn, an albino Viking ‘Beserkr’ in 11th-century Swaledale fighting either for his jarl Halfdan, or just for the hell of it!

This is a tale about pagans fighting for their survival as Christianity becomes increasingly powerful and all-consuming. Halfdan’s Wolves take on a task on behalf of the Bishop of Jorvik to ensure their freedom to leave England and try and preserve their way of life. However, the odds are stacked against them, and success is far from assured. Their journey is full of danger, with both fierce warriors and magic working against them. But the Wolves have Gunnhild, a marvellously clever and extremely brave witch who has skills needed if the mission is to be successful.

This is an extremely well-written novel based on meticulous research into both history and geography. Even though there are frequent chapters looking back at what made Bjorn the man he is, the story moves forward at a relentless pace. I read this book in one sitting and enjoyed every page-turning paragraph. Turney’s ability to write battle scenes reminds me of Bernard Cornwell. His characters jump out of the page and, if Bjorn had his way, would smack you in the face. One of the best books I have read in 2024, and an author I will keep a lookout for.

Aidan K. Morrissey

12TH CENTURY

LITANY OF LIES

Sarah Hawkswood, Allison & Busby, 2024, £22.00/$28.00, hb, 384pp, 9780749031084

Litany of Lies opens with shadowy figures flinging a steward of the abbey into a well. We must find out why, as much as who, with the arrival of the medieval detective duo, Lord Bradecote and Serjeant Catchpoll. Readers might do well to read earlier books in the series first, as the introductions to these essential protagonists are light as we are thrown directly into the action.

The novel evokes the small and claustrophobic world of the abbey and those who live in its shadow with their fears and jealousies. It isn’t long before the list of suspects is longer than the passenger list of the Orient Express, and the reader has plenty of reasons to sympathise more with the potential perpetrators than the victim, as one naturally is drawn more to side with the powerless in a feudal hierarchy riven with abuses, corruption and hypocrisy.

less philosophical and more direct social commentary.

Aron Paul

13TH CENTURY

A QUEST FOR GOD AND SPICES

Dean Cycon, Köehler Books, 2025, $22.95, pb, 314pp, 9798888245156

In 1200 AD, Pope Innocent III wants another crusade to oust Muslims from Jerusalem. He also yearns to bring back the breakaway Constantinople branch of the Catholic Church. Rumors say a mysterious Christian king, known as Presbyter John, controls great armies and vast regions in the Far East and has promised to aid Rome’s crusades. The Pope enlists the young son of a minor Genoese merchant and an elderly scholar monk as his emissaries to first convince the renegade church to rejoin the Roman Catholic Church and then push on to find Presbyter John. Local rulers from Genoa to Constantinople outwardly honor the Pope’s unlikely emissaries, but they will double-cross, and even torture and slaughter, anyone to enhance their own power. The merchant son, Nicolo, has learned Arab arithmetic—a nice advantage over those who make trade calculations using Roman numerals. He also has a remarkable sense of smell—a great help in selecting the best unspoiled spices. But his youth and ambition get him into constant trouble. The monk, Brother Mauro, knows ancient languages and scriptures. But his learning is useless against the greedy and treacherous.

Readers travel along with Nicolo and Mauro and to several other locales where those emissaries do not tread. Details of the mercantile world, the way people worship, live and die all feel convincing. Many passages of author narration or lengthy dialogue fill in more history and philosophy. Shifts in point of view, sometimes three or four on a page, take readers into the thoughts of primary and secondary characters. This “Emissary Book One” might have worked better with less straight narration and fewer viewpoint shifts. Nicolo and Mauro’s great adventures deserve a tighter focus. The promised Emissary Book Two should reveal more of their engaging story.

G. J. Berger

14TH CENTURY

THE EMPEROR’S SWORD

11TH CENTURY

The historical world is well drawn, peopled by a variety of intriguing and lively characters, though the investigators themselves remain enigmatic. The story will appeal to readers who enjoy forensic detail and dialogue. The scene of the murder naturally evokes comparison with The Name of the Rose, though the emphasis of Litany of Lies is ultimately

Christian Cameron, Orion, 2024, £10.99/$17.99, pb, 336pp, 9781409180296

The Emperor’s Sword is the sixth instalment in Christian Cameron’s Chivalry series, picking up the story from the earlier Hawkwood’s Sword. One of Cameron’s protagonists comments, ‘It was a complicated time’ – and it is hard to disagree with that observation. I certainly found the book complicated, both in

terms of the characters and their backstories, and the period of history that is explored. Nonetheless, I would strongly encourage any reader to persevere and not be overawed by these challenges.

The main narrative is framed by Sir William Gold, in 1381, telling the story of his life to no less than Geoffrey Chaucer and Jean Froissart. They are comfortably ensconced in a tavern in Calais, and there is more than a hint that Chaucer and Froissart are gathering materials for their own works on medieval life and history.

The main narrative then returns to 1372, where we follow Sir William fighting with John Hawkwood’s White Company for the papal states in Northern Italy. When the Pope fails to pay his mercenaries, Sir William accepts a contract with Nerio Acciaioli, travelling to Greece to fight for Emperor John V in the Byzantine Civil War. Through several other military encounters, the novel ends with Sir William travelling to Venice to be offered a contract to fight for the Venetians in their pending war with Genoa – whetting the appetite for the next instalment.

There are rich and detailed descriptions of many aspects of medieval life, particularly warfare, and a cast of characters to rival Chaucer – chivalric knights, corrupt friars, feisty women. We meet Tatars, Mongols, Greeks and Turks along the way, all motivated by shifting political allegiances – and money. If it is hard to follow who is supporting whom, Sir William himself often shares the same uncertainties.

This is not an easy read for those new to the series, but one that well repays the effort.

Adele Wills

THE ROYAL REBEL

Elizabeth Chadwick, Sphere, 2024, £22.00, hb, 480pp, 9781408729809 / Mobius, 2024, $28.00, hb, 528pp, 9781408729809

Elizabeth Chadwick’s website describes her as standing ‘at the pinnacle of historical fiction’ and, judging from her latest novel, it is hard to dispute that claim.

The Royal Rebel follows the early life of Joan of Kent, cousin to King Edward III, and her clandestine marriage to Thomas Holland. The couple keep their relationship secret, worried about the consequences if it is revealed, and, while Thomas is overseas, Joan is manipulated into a second bigamous and loveless marriage. The novel follows the couple’s fight to be together, including their conflicts and alliances with powerful court figures and their final appeal to the papal court in Avignon.

The story is told with clarity and narrative drive. The bare historical details are fleshed out with believable characters and motivations, making sense of what we know of Joan’s life and filling in the gaps. The details of the central romance are developed against the backdrop of the early days of the Hundred Years’ War, and the meticulously researched historical facts never feel intrusive or hinder the progress of the story. We are shown the realities of courtly life, with its extravagant displays of wealth and status, contrasted with unflinching

descriptions of violent battles. We also find ourselves caught up in the fear of infection as the Black Death sweeps its way across Europe.

If I have one criticism, it is that the writing seems more comfortably settled on domestic aspects of the story, such as the clothing and food, than on the grim reality of medieval warfare. However, this is not to decry the beautiful writing, the superb control of narrative and the careful creation of each character. Well known historical figures – such as Edward III and the Black Prince – are skilfully brought to life, and the story is totally gripping to the very end. Joan’s story will be concluded in a much-anticipated sequel.

Adele Wills

TO KILL A KING

David Gilman, Head of Zeus, 2024, £22.00, hb, 480pp, 9781801108096

In the brutal years of what we now know as the Hundred Years’ War, Sir Thomas Blackstone, King Edward’s Master of War, has to lead his men across the Pyrenees with a largely mercenary army, mustered by the Prince of Wales, to put King Pedro, a man Blackstone hates and despises, on the throne of Castile. Saving King Pedro from an assassination attempt leads to increasing complications in Backstone’s life.

Meanwhile another complication is heading his way. Henry Blackstone, Sir Thomas’s son, has abandoned student life and is fighting his way across France to try and reach his father. Accompanied by a loyal man-at-arms, young Henry gathers a group of misfits on his perilous journey and earns the enmity of a powerful outlaw. If he is to survive with his honour intact Henry will have to find a way to defeat the man they call ‘The Claw’.

Set in the savage heart of 14th-century warfare, To Kill a King is the eighth book in the Master of War series, but there is no need to have read any of the previous volumes to be able to jump right into the action with the characters. The book pulls no punches about the brutality of this war, but there is much more to it than that. The battle scenes are well told, but so are the moments of personal reflection. The adrenaline of a fight hits home, but so does a moment of tenderness.

David Gilman is a masterful author and takes his readers on not one, but two thrilling and gritty adventures with Blackstone father and son. Well worth your time if you like stories of war. I’m now heading back to book one to catch up and enjoy the story I’ve missed.

Eleanor Swift-Hook

BEYOND THE CRESCENT SKY

A. L. Sowards, Shadow Mountain, 2025, $27.99, hb, 360pp, 9781639933006

An extensive glossary and character list precede the novel, hinting at the complexity in the second book in a series set in the Balkans at the end of the 14th century. Beyond the Crescent Sky is a love story set in the midst of Serb

and Greek conflicts and encapsulated by the expanding power of the Ottomans, a literary nested tale. Shifting loyalties and betrayals drive the conflict elements of the narrative. The violence of the medieval period permeates scenes without being so graphic as to turn off readers.

Ivan, a Serb, is grievously wounded and held for a prisoner exchange. Helena, a Greek with nascent midwife and healing skills, is charged with keeping Ivan alive in captivity. Ivan’s escape attempts result in beatings, making Helena’s job all the more challenging. The Greeks need Ivan alive to trade for their leader. Helena risks her good name and reputation as her love grows for the enemy held within her fortified village. Their deepening love is thwarted over a period of years as each is captive in turn, forcing them to choose between their family/ people and their love.

The alternating storylines for the Serb and Greek sides move the novel along. The straightforward plot helps the reader follow both action and character. The looming Ottoman threat adds depth. Sowards’ excellent research shines in the details. Helena will learn a new technique from a Jewish midwife to save a mother and her babe. A new tool of warfare appears. Sowards brings to life events in a place and time that is both new and exciting.

Catherine Mathis

FROM TICKHILL, 1348

Pamela Taylor, Black Rose Writing, 2024, $21.95, pb, 280pp, 9781685135201

1341.When the Duke of Brittany settles his will on his half-brother, Count John de Montfort, the succession is challenged by the old duke’s niece, Countess Penthèvre—plunging the dukedom into the middle of the Hundred Years’ War. It quickly falls to Montfort’s wife, Jeanne, to take up the defense of Brittany’s ducal crown on behalf of her husband, imprisoned by King Philip of France. In short order she strategizes to survive siege and leads a surprise attack on the French army. Meanwhile, on the other side of the channel, Edward III of England pledges support for the Montforts, although his troops are suspiciously slow to arrive. Eventually, Jeanne is taken to England and confined to Tickhill Castle. But is it for her own protection, or does Edward have a self-serving purpose meant to strengthen his power in Brittany?

Author Taylor paints a multi-dimensional portrait of a woman warrior often overlooked by historians: Jeanne de Flandre, Countess de Montfort, Duchess of Brittany. In the course of her life, she experiences adventure, deception and intrigue while courageously fighting to protect her son’s patrimony and preserve Breton culture and language. Most outstanding are the chapters where she rides into war—astride a war horse and in full armor, no less—rallies her beloved people for conflict, and makes more than one daring escape. Less rousing is the description of her time spent at Tickhill, separated from all she loves dear. However, this is a thoroughly engaging read,

full of emotion, well-drawn characters and dramatic tension. The author’s historical notes detailing the characters, events and places drawn from history, along with genealogical charts, are particularly interesting.

Deborah Cay Wilding

15TH CENTURY LADY

LCW Allingham, Mirror World Publishing, 2024, $19.95, pb, 364pp, 9781998360055

Allingham’s debut, a refreshing take on the warrior woman, delivers swift action, high stakes, lively prose, and a contemporary moral of becoming who you are.

In the turmoil following Edward of York’s ascent to the English throne, Rosalynde of Casstone confronts the recent loss of a child, her ill husband, the Baron Alexander FitzRoland, and an avaricious neighbor calling at the castle. In a desperate gamble, Rosalynde dons her husband’s armor and turns the attackers away. With Alexander dying and no chance of an heir, it falls on Rosalynde to protect Casstone and its people, and so, with the help of a few allies, Rosalynde resumes her training in arms and becomes both lord and lady. In so doing she must contend with her own physical limits, the animosity of her husband’s lover, a spy within the castle itself, and the warning all around her of what happens to women who don’t keep to their place.

The book appeals in the dimension and depth of its characters, the realism of its setting, the swift, clean prose, and the space for those who don’t conform to expectation. The place never slows as conflicts mount: Rosalynde must make peace with a jealous Robert; work with the clever Sarah and her husband, an Arabic Muslim, to keep Alexander alive; learn what she can from her prisoner, spy and bastard Arthur Hemington; and come to terms with her love for physical action and her lack of typical femininity. Allingham accurately represents beliefs of the time but doesn’t let her characters be hobbled by them. When Alexander’s death cuts her ties to Casstone, Rosalynde forges a new future for herself, one shaped by her own cleverness and strength, and her choices are both believable and compelling. Recommended.

Misty Urban

DEADLY RIVALRIES

Ken Tentarelli, Independently published, 2024, $14.99, pb, 308pp, 9798985662474

On an April day in 1466, the Ridolfi family welcomes a stream of wealthy guests to their country villa. For weeks, Simona Ridolfi has invested heavily to ensure the celebration of her son’s betrothal will be a success. The groom-to-be, Marco, is not as enthused as his mother about all this hullabaloo—but he is very fond of his betrothed, Daniela Martone,

and if the celebration makes his mother happy, so be it.

Hours later, Marco is dead. A devastated mother, a crushed father and a grieving fiancée must not only cope with his death, but also with the fact that he has been murdered. Enter Nico Argenti, young lawyer turned sleuth, and his companions Vittori and Massimo, the three of them reporting directly to Chancellor Scala. Soon enough, a murder investigation is on its way, leading the reader into the complicated bureaucracy of Renaissance Florence.

Mr. Tentarelli paints a vivid picture of the city, from the archives of the city government to the murkier quarters, places where a man can be knifed and left to die in the dark. He weaves an entertaining plot, presenting us with a gallery of potential suspects. Our three friends are obliged to combine their skills to get to the truth of the matter, all the while treading a fine dance with tax controllers, chief archivists, and Chancellor Scala himself. Well-written and well-researched, Deadly Rivalries brims with life. Occasionally, there is a whiff of anachronism, as in the use of the words ‘restaurant’ and ‘trattoria’—and of paper sheets to measure distance—but all in all, this is an entertaining read. I would have liked a less abrupt ending but suspect Mr. Tentarelli is already busy with a sequel. Warmly recommended.

Anna Belfrage

16TH CENTURY

A DIVINE FURY

D. V. Bishop, Macmillan, 2024, £18.99, hb, 399pp, 9781529096538

Florence, 1539. Demoted to constable and stuck on perpetual night patrol, Cesare Aldo is in pursuit of a curfew-dodger when he stumbles upon a corpse. Posed like a crucifix, the dead man shows signs of having been ritually killed. Aldo manages to get himself assigned to assist the recently promoted Strocchi to investigate the murder. When the murderer strikes again, evidence points towards the church of San Felice, where the fearsome Father Negri performs exorcisms. But in a city where everyone is keeping secrets, Aldo and Strocchi will have their work cut out to uncover the truth.

This is the fourth Cesare Aldo novel. The author clearly knows his characters well and introduces them effectively so even a newcomer to the series never feels confused about who is who. Florence, too, is vividly evoked, both in its glory and especially in its squalor, with its narrow alleys, teeming piazzas and gloomy churches.

As a gay man living in a brothel but in love with the Jewish doctor who performs (unofficial) post-mortems for him, Aldo is perpetually in danger of his own secrets coming to light, which only adds to the tension, especially as Negri’s exorcisms seem to be a form of conversion therapy.

I did spot the flaw in one of the lines of

questioning before the investigators did, but other plot twists took me by surprise. There’s a sprinkling of Italian (including every single swear word in the book), but their meaning is easily deduced from the context. My only niggle is the slightly random use of the pronouns ‘they/them/their’ – fair enough when the identity of a suspect is unknown, but a little odd when referring to someone unequivocally male. Otherwise, this gripping crime novel is bound to appeal to fans of S. J. Parris and her ilk.

Jasmina Svenne

BOY

Nicole Galland, William Morrow, 2025, $30.00/C$37.00, hb, 352pp, 9780063342859

Sander Cooke and Joan Buckler, best friends since childhood, have watched one another grow towards their dreams. Sander, a popular boy player in the Chamberlain’s Men theatre company, is the toast of Elizabethan London. Despite the limitations of her gender, science-minded Joan has quietly built a network of botanists, apothecaries, and natural philosophers who aren’t afraid of a young woman’s curiosity. But Sander and Joan, on the verge of adulthood, are confronted with new problems as they consider the future, the least of which is the new and confusing feelings they have for one another. As a boy player, Sander plays the leading women’s roles, many written especially for him by William Shakespeare. But the career of a boy player is short, ending when manhood makes their Violas and Juliets less convincing, and Sander is reluctant to leave the safety of his skirts behind. Meanwhile Joan longs to shed hers so that she can more easily move in London’s intellectual circles and undertake scientific work with the eminent philosopher Francis Bacon. Their search for a future that includes their passions—and each other— takes them through the political turmoil of Elizabeth I’s court.

Boy is a sharply-written exploration of love, philosophy, and gender in Elizabethan England. Sander and Joan are both neatly drawn characters, with their own fascinations, foibles, and frustrations. Galland tells their stories through the lens of gender—how each character uses presentations of gender to play a role, how they conform to or subvert gender expectations, and how they find comfort in gendered boxes of their own making. Though Galland writes convincingly of the confusing tangle of young love, stronger still is how she writes of their deep and encouraging

friendship. An excellent and engrossing novel, beautifully written.

Jessica Brockmole

ISOLA

Allegra Goodman, Dial Press, 2025, $28.99/ C$38.99, hb, 368pp, 9780593730089

Marguerite de La Rocque de Roberval, a young girl in 1530s France, has inherited the vast wealth of her father – a château, villages, vineyards, fields. She and her fortune are under the guardianship of her father’s cousin, Jean-François Roberval, until a suitable marriage takes place. Roberval, absent much of the time, is a friend of the king, a voyager, an adventurer, and a speculator. Her idyllic childhood is shattered when she is moved to the austere north tower along with her beloved nurse Damienne, her teacher, and her young companion Claire. Her palatial château has been mortgaged and leased to strangers, and her lands sold. No longer marriageable, Marguerite is at the mercy of Roberval, who has stolen her fortune and her future. She and her loyal nurse are taken with him on his voyage to the New World, where he is establishing a colony in New France.

On the voyage, Roberval proves to be a harsh and cruel commander. When Marguerite and Auguste Dupré, Roberval’s secretary, fall in love, Roberval’s anger explodes. Planning to kill the lovers, he decides instead to abandon them on one of the rocky, desolate islands in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Stranded with few necessities, Marguerite, Auguste, and Damienne labor to build a shelter, keep a fire, and gather food as the deep, dark winter descends.

The desolate landscape and brutal cold are described in language vivid and visceral as each day brings new challenges and new dangers. Despair threatens to bring Marguerite down as loss overwhelms her. It is not a question of if Marguerite survives, but how she survives for over two years and makes her way back to France. She reclaims her agency and takes control of her life in brave and admirable choices. Drawn from 16th-century contemporary accounts, one by Queen Marguerite of Navarre in the Heptameron, Goodman’s fictional biography is a remarkable story.

Janice Ottersberg

ARDEN

G. D. Harper, Ginger Cat, 2024, $12.99, pb, 402pp, 9781739677831

In 16th-century England, Will Shakespeare wants nothing more than to leave his father’s gloving business, provide for his family, and make his mark on the London stage as a playwright. His primary problem? Finding more than two scenes to craft on the page. That’s where Alice Arden comes in, decades earlier. As Will learns about the death of Alice’s husband, Thomas, and the part she did and did not play, he discovers his muse. And the

rest, they say, is history… yet we don’t always know history as well as we think we do.

The Faversham events and Will’s life in Arden are meticulously researched, and both the language and details throughout the book are evocative of the setting. The chapters featuring Will’s story are exciting for the reader who wants to get to know a younger, more mischievous, and more human Bard. However, the chapters which focus on Alice’s story read as unfinished, with too much summary and not enough in-scene, leaving behind opportunities to increase stakes and tension that would drive the narrative forward with more gusto. Often, the text slips into dropping paragraphs of information that showcase the author’s expertise, but leave the story by the wayside. Unfortunately, a little more than halfway through the novel, Will makes a discovery that, without more narrative drive within Alice’s own chapters, saps tension out of the remainder of Alice’s story.

That said, this novel conjures compassion for Alice, and honors her memory with the truth and an inner dignity in spite of the injustices foisted upon her. Fans of Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet may enjoy diving into these pre-fame days for the Shakespeares, this time with a primary focus on Will.

Margaret McNellis

MURDER MOST FOUL

Guy Jenkin, Legend Press, 2025, £9.99, pb, 304pp, 9781917163682

The circumstances surrounding the death of renowned playwright Christopher Marlowe on 30th May 1593 remain intriguing to this day. In Murder Most Foul, William Shakespeare and Marlowe’s sister Ann are unconvinced by the coroner’s version of events and join forces to uncover the truth.

The plot gallops along, from the marshes of the Isle of Dogs to the torture chambers of William Cecil and his sadistic sidekick Topcliffe. Along the way, Shakespeare and Ann resume their doomed, rather poignant love affair; meet a charismatic gravedigger and an off-beat friar who experiments with potions (enjoyable nods to Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet), and even find themselves boarded up inside a plague house, only to devise a daring escape.

The story is told in five acts, and from the perspective of five alternating characters. Four of them are female, all finely drawn, fearless and fiercely intelligent. As one would expect from an award-winning comedy writer, there is plenty of humour and laugh-out-loud oneliners, which counterbalance the dark themes of murder and revenge.

However, a word of warning – historical inaccuracies abound. There are house numbers, which didn’t exist in Tudor England. It was Robert Cecil, not his father William Cecil who was said to have a hunchback. A poor widow tucks into a potato pie when they were a rare luxury, and telescopes hadn’t been invented in 1593. In the same vein, the use of

startlingly modern language won’t appeal to everyone.

Nevertheless, Guy Jenkin is a skilled storyteller, and I thoroughly enjoyed the read.

Penny Ingham

MURDER AT GREENWICH PALACE

Adele Jordan, Sapere, 2024, £9.99/$10.99, pb, 270pp, 9780854953851

London, 1536. Henry VIII’s first wife has just died, and his second wife is already beginning to feel she is falling out of favour; this is the historical backdrop for the first of the Shadow Cutpurses Tudor Thrillers. The notorious cutpurses are a mother-and-daughter duo, who are pretending to be maids in King Henry’s palace in order to pull off one last big heist so they can give up their life of crime.

Daughter Gwynnie is in the process of pocketing the jewels belonging to someone close to the king when she witnesses that same person committing a murder. Gwynnie and her mother, Emlyn, need to have their wits about them and use all their tricks – including lockpicking and wearing disguises – to avoid being blamed for the murder as well as being outed as the thieves.

Their skills aren’t really put to the most trying of tests; however, due to the ineptitude of the guards, who are all either gullible or asleep on the job, which seems a little far-fetched. And no one seems to question where these two new maids have come from. It’s difficult to have much sympathy for the pair, as they are thieves after all, and it’s never really established what drove them to this. Emlyn is also guilty of murder herself – another crime for which she has never been punished.

Gwynnie does find an ally in Elric Tombstone, a lawyer working for Cromwell. It seems they will continue to work together in future books in the series. The author does a good job of evoking the period, especially within such a short novel, although more astute readers may notice some anachronisms, such as Anne Boleyn eating with a fork. Unfortunately, this book did not quite live up to my expectations.

Sarah Dronfield

SERPENT IN THE GARDEN

Howard Linskey, Canelo, 2025, £18.99, hb, 352pp, 9781804368770

Serpent in the Garden is an action-packed historical novel about what may have happened during Shakespeare’s lost years, during the plague and the shutting down of theatres.

The author wonders how Shakespeare managed to procure significant funds and was able to continue producing plays. As well as titbits about Shakespeare’s life and relationship with his wife, Anne, there is a main plot of murder and whodunit.

The author is successful in creating believable characters true to historical accounts and adds a flair of his own, a hard thing to achieve when writing historical fiction. It is interesting to see

how the author’s use of words mirror that of the Covid-19 pandemic, when talking about the Black Death and how the Londoners back then coped with it. Furthermore, his research on the court of Elizabeth I and her men is very intriguing and is presented with its own stories to further the novel’s plot.

What I enjoyed most was Shakespeare’s own perspective as protagonist, and his ability to separate himself from what was happening in order to complete his writing, as well as using inspiration from his own life to create these world-famous stories, a common habit for nearly every writer. Overall, Linskey is able to create an Elizabethan England that we can all relate to, as well as shed light on a man who will be remembered forever.

Clare Lehovsky

A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME

Mary McMyne, Orbit, 2024, £9.99, pb, 384pp, 9780356517728 / Redhook, 2024, $19.99, pb, 384pp, 9780316393515

Poetry has often been viewed as an autobiographical craft, and readers are frequently tempted to see connections between the subject matter of a poem and the poet’s life. This is particularly true of Shakespeare’s sonnets, and the poems feel so personal it is hard not to be convinced by such arguments.

Mary McMyne has taken inspiration from these ideas and used them to create the story of one of the characters from the sonnets: Shakespeare’s Dark Lady. It is 1591. In her rural English home, Rose Rushe dreams of becoming a court musician in London, rejecting the conventional path of marriage and family laid out for an Elizabethan woman at that time. However, her plans are thwarted by the unexpected death of her father, and Rose is forced into a loveless marriage as a way of escaping penury for herself and her mother and young brother.

In a move to London, Rose is exposed to a range of new influences: alchemical and astrological through the character of John Dee; and artistic and romantic through a chance meeting with William Shakespeare. The story suggests why the sonnets contain such a dark strand of bitterness and anger about the Dark Lady, with the youthful Shakespeare presented as vain, arrogant and self-seeking.

Some aspects of the novel left me unconvinced: I wonder if perhaps the Earl of Southampton is a little too caring, or whether Queen Elizabeth would have had such interest in Rose’s difficulties. I also felt that some of the troubles arising later in the novel, many potentially life-threatening, seem very easily resolved. Overall, though, while not always persuaded, I admired McMyne’s inventiveness in evoking the Elizabethan world and enjoyed her well-researched use of the sonnets as inspiration.

Adele Wills

LIGHTBORNE

Hesse Phillips, Atlantic, 2024, £14.99, pb, 448pp, 9781805460374 / Pegasus, 2024, $27.95/C$36.95, hb, 448pp, 9781639367382

The death of playwright Christopher Marlowe in 1593 has generated a whole industry of speculation on why he died the way he did. Ostensibly murdered in a bar-room brawl in a dispute over the bill, numerous attempts to find other explanations have taken readers into the dark underworld of Elizabethan politics and espionage. One of the best known is Anthony Burgess’s 1993 novel, A Dead Man in Deptford

Hesse Phillips has picked up the baton from Burgess, re-examining many of his themes while adding a contemporary twist. The novel opens in 1587 with an acclaimed public performance of Tamburlaine at The Globe Theatre, reflecting Marlowe’s growing success as a playwright. However, he cannot shake off his previous employment as a spy for Walsingham, and memories from the past soon return to haunt him. The narrative then fast-forwards to 1593 and Marlowe’s final days. There is a detailed examination of all the characters’ psychological motivations, explored through shifting points of view, and the narrative drives towards its inevitable conclusion. The Elizabethan world is recreated in a convincing and often brutal way: the intrigues of the Privy Court, the routine use of torture, the harshness of punishments for those who refuse to conform, while life is constantly threatened by the fear of plague and violent death. Marlowe’s earlier involvement in the Babington Plot casts a long shadow over everything.

However, perhaps the most memorable aspect of the novel is its depiction of male love. In a society where such love is condemned, the intensity of emotion is always counterbalanced by fear of exposure and frequently tainted by the destructive power of betrayal. This is most strongly illustrated in the title’s character – Lightborne – the assassin in Edward II whose seductive words disguise his murderous intent. Trust, love and betrayal all compete in this fascinating take on the life and death of Kit Marlowe.

Adele Wills

REBELLIOUS GRACE

Jeri Westerson, Severn House, 2025, $29.99/£21.99, hb, 224pp, 9781448315864

The third in Westerson’s A King’s Fool Mystery series, Rebellious Grace, finds Henry VIII’s jester, Will Somers, tasked again to solve a murder at court. Queen Jane’s servant is brutally murdered, then mysteriously exhumed, and the corpse desecrated. Somers goes everywhere with impunity. His tools are his wit, being unnoticed in a room, and others underestimating his intelligence. While Somers investigates, Henry deals with Robert Aske. Aske, a London barrister, leads a pilgrimage (mind you, not a rebellion) from Yorkshire to court. The Pilgrimage of Grace was the largest expression of unrest

in the Tudor years. Thousands of laypeople lost their jobs when Henry shuttered the monasteries. Monks were tossed out to find a new livelihood. Henry’s people seek a return to the Catholic church’s satisfying rituals and the monasteries, for they need jobs. Aske avers loyalty to the king and is invited to Christmas at court.

Somers, of whom little is said in historical records, is bisexual in Westerson’s novels. LGBTQ individuals were abhorred, inviting a death sentence. Too much of the book is given over to the angst he professes, balancing love and sex with his wife and his handsome, young noble lover. I do not know if Jane Fool was in the first two books, but she is an ingenious character who, despite limitations, does the most to move the story forward. The solution to the crime is clever, and the resolution is realistic. I enjoyed Westerson’s prior series, the Crispin Guest mysteries, featuring a darker character than Will Somers. Now I will go back to read the first two in this series and look forward to future adventures.

Catherine Mathis

17TH CENTURY

THE WICKED OF THE EARTH

A. D. Bergin, Northodox Press, 2024, £9.99, pb, 336pp, 9781915179432

It is October 1650, and Cromwell rules England. During the previous year King Charles I had been executed. James Archer, Parliamentary spy, whose Newcastle family are by tradition loyalist, departed Newcastle to choose the Parliamentary side during the wars. Now traumatised after his experience at Drogheda, he is sent north by the Parliamentarian Council to spy in his home town.

His task is to investigate trade and, importantly, peculiar recent witch trials as well as the ongoing killing of women associated with the accused. His personal mission is to discover the fate of his sister Meg, who was one of the accused witches.

Archer is persistently placed in danger once he reaches Newcastle, a city where both wealthy Royalist and Parliamentarian families continue to be invested in the city’s trade. The accused women were drawn from many of these families. Archer faces danger everywhere he goes, particularly once he discovers much has been concealed and the charlatan nature of the Scots witch picker.

This is a thrilling novel, meticulously researched, peopled with a collection of welldefined characters, women and men, friends and ruthless foes, mostly the latter. Archer’s quest is continuously thwarted. Thus, the novel’s carefully constructed plot is laden with brilliant twists and turns. The Wicked of the Earth is an atmospheric novel rooted in a credible mid-17th century Newcastle. The story’s narrative kept me fascinated until a poignant, surprising climatic ending. Scenes

are vividly and accurately portrayed with attention to fascinating detail.

This story is one of the best researched novels of the Interregnum era I have read, praiseworthy for its heart, characterisation, understanding of the human condition in a particular time and place, and importantly the novelist’s fine writing and its great pageturning quality. Highly recommended, The Wicked of the Earth is a superb debut novel, and I very much look forward to a sequel.

Carol McGrath

THE NOBLEST SHARE OF EARTH

Nancy Blanton, Ellys-Daughtrey Books, 2024, $20.00, pb, 314pp, 9781733592864

Geep is sitting among the scattered stones of Buncrana, the castle that only years before had towered over the fertile lands of Inishowen peninsula in the north of Ireland. He is telling 11-year-old Fia the story of Lord Cahir, leader of the O’Doherty Clan, who, with his wife Lady Maire, ruled over the castle and the land, and was that rarest of Irish creature—the person who in times of trouble is both a valiant leader in battle and a schemer who can turn “things about.” It is the early 1600s when Cahir and Maire marry, and Cahir becomes clan leader. Bands of English soldiers fight to secure Irish land holdings, Catholics are increasingly persecuted, and Cahir leads the O’Doherty Rebellion when the Lord Deputy of Dublin and his office stop listening to Irishmen, impose mandates, and threaten the survival of the clans and their lands.

The Noblest Share of Earth is author Blanton’s fifth novel set in 17th-century Ireland. It is written in a series of first-person narratives, providing the thoughts, observations, and feelings of Cahir, Maire, and long-time friend and aide Stoat. The narratives recall historical events at the time as well as intimate moments of life—Cahir and Maire’s first meeting, their first night as husband and wife. Readers learn through the eyes of the narrators about external threats as well as rivalries, betrayals, petty swindlers and duplicitous actors in their midst. Readers see and feel history unfold at the same time as Cahir, Maire, and Stoat. Scéal spéisiúil, illuminating.

K. M. Sandrick

THE MOERS MURDERS

Graham Brack, Sapere, 2024, $9.99/ C$11.99/£8.99, pb, 245pp, 9780854955152

Master Mercurius, an academic at the University of Leiden in the late 17th century, is dragged into various undercover scrapes by the ruler of the Dutch Republic, the Stadhouder, Prince William of Orange. William is married to Mary, the sister of the King of England. Both William and Mary prevail upon Mercurius to become governor of the city of Moers, a German town that happens to belong to the Dutch, a task which he has no wish to undertake. Whilst there he has to make judgement on four very different

criminal cases which are presented to him for rubber-stamping. But Mercurius is unhappy to do that and sets about investigating them all. Having the bonus of four investigations for the price of one is an unusual experience in whodunnits of any genre. Here we have a case of domestic abuse, one of treasonous pamphlet writing, and two killings. Did a man murder his best friend? Did a son murder his parents? Mercurius delves diligently to determine the truth and deliver true justice.

This is my first meeting with Master Mercurius, although I already am very familiar with this author’s excellent Slonský series. The humorous first-person approach of someone writing their memoirs (which allows that fourth wall to topple now and then), works very well and results in a highly entertaining read with some genuine laugh-out-loud moments. Mercurius is a complex, sometimes irritating, but always engaging character, and I thoroughly enjoyed spending time in his company. I only regret not encountering the series sooner.

If you have a penchant for historical murder mysteries and the 17th century in particular, I would recommend adding The Moers Murders to your reading list.

Eleanor Swift-Hook

WANTON TROOPERS

Lindsey Erith, Olympia Publishers, 2024, £11.99, pb, 266pp, 9781804399132

Hugh Malahide arrives at his nonagenarian uncle’s house having deserted the Royalist cause following the battle of Naseby. Why his uncle’s house? Because he cannot stand his Puritan wife. Instead, after her estranged brother turns up wounded on the doorstep, he falls for Isabella, daughter of one of the local Puritan gentry. Isabella’s father is set on marrying her to a man who cares nothing for her, and on buying out Hugh’s uncle. Isabella’s brother, declared dead by his father for supporting the king, manages to aggravate matters by stealing the family heirloom pearls. The course of true love has Hugh taking a white-water ride over these obstacles and more, knowing he can’t offer Isabella his hand even if they are all overcome.

Like most romances set in the English Civil War, a jaded Cavalier is drawn to a trapped Puritan maiden, but the adventure charting the course of this particular romance is engaging and has some highly unusual and unexpected twists and turns.

The writing style is one that some readers will delight in and others balk at. Ornate, full of metaphor, written in third person, but deeply in the head of each character, which means a sudden jump for a paragraph or two into another perspective can be confusing. I did feel a lot of the assumptions made by the characters, while clear from a historical perspective, were not at all obvious at the time. Fortunately for the peace of mind of the characters, foreknowledge of the inevitable

sequestration of Royalist lands was not one such.

But the characters themselves are definitely the stars of this show: fully realised and very human. The reader is drawn into Hugh’s desperation from the first, and rides with him every step of the way in hope of the fulfilment of his impossible dream.

Eleanor Swift-Hook

THE WITCHFINDER’S ASSISTANT

Ruth Goldstraw, One More Chapter, 2024, £9.99, pb, 374pp, 9780008697846

It is 1643, and England is being torn apart by civil war. Former army captain John Carne, wounded at the battle of Edgehill, goes to the home of magistrate Sir Moreton Spibey in the Shropshire town of Wem. Carne had been destined for a career in law until the war and injury put paid to his plans. But now a new role beckons: Sir Moreton needs an assistant. His first job is to help solve the mystery about human remains discovered in a bog. It doesn’t take long for Carne to establish that a woman and her unborn child have been killed and buried at the spot, a stake thrust in her back and out through the other side.

So begins a 17th-century murder mystery, with the quiet and practical protagonist Carne a contrast to the godly Spibey, who disapproves of singing and tobacco and sees evil everywhere. From the outset, the reader knows that Carne is conflicted, with his wife, Zipporah, being referred to as a whore in the opening sentence. Their relationship is complicated. It is clear their secrets will have an effect on how things develop. The novel is a slow burner, with plot and characters taking a while to establish themselves, but stick with it – The Witchfinder’s Assistant is a very satisfying and well-researched read.

Margery Hookings

EVEN BEYOND DEATH

Fiona Melrose, Corsair, 2025, £20.00, hb, 380pp, 9781472158765

In Avignon, Jehan, the Marquis de Baudelaire, narrates the events of 1657, a year in which his life was irrevocably changed. At 24, Jehan is considered an extremely eligible bachelor due to his wealth and the status of his family. The novel opens at a tennis match in which Jehan meets Jonathan Kryk, an enigmatic young Dutchman who becomes his valet. The novel charts their relationship as it deepens from servant/master into love, which if discovered would result in death for the crime of sodomy. Such a conviction would also have devastating consequences for Jehan’s beloved sister, Hortense, and his uncle. This novel examines the pressures upon Jehan to abandon Jonathan and conform to social expectations; to marry and sire an heir to continue the Baudelaire line, as his uncle demands.

Jehan tells his tale through a scribe, and he is a wry, self-deprecating and amusing narrator. The historical period and attitudes of

the time are very well rendered and immerse the reader in 17th-century Avignon. The plot builds gradually throughout the novel and has a sense of inevitability about it. As this is a book about love and the all-consuming nature of it, it does contain (to quote Jehan) ‘a good deal of passion, intrigue and carnal pleasure’ which some may find overly explicit in places. Overall, this is a very moving read about forbidden love and the impact of it upon Jehan and, to a lesser extent, Jonathan and also their families.

THE MODERN FAIRIES

Clare Pollard, Avid Reader/Simon & Schuster, 2024, $28.00/C$37.00, hb, 272pp, 9781668049419 / Fig Tree, 2024, £18.99, hb, 256pp, 9780241672457

This short but delicious novel follows the activities of the author Charles Perrault and the salon of Madame Marie d’Aulnoy in the 1680s. Perrault and d’Aulnoy are best known for writing literary versions of “Mother Goose” tales – what we now think of as contes de fées or fairy tales. The narrative takes place in the palace of Versailles and in Paris at the height of the reign of the “Sun King,” Louis XIV. But this is no mere elegant confection –Pollard presents the contentious, licentious world of the decadent court in all its squalor as the women of d’Aulnoy’s salon trade stories, lovers, and murderous plots amongst themselves, with the kind-hearted Perrault and d’Aulnoy as uncomfortable witnesses.

Pollard is an award-winning poet, and it shows in the elegance and wit of her prose. In her afterword, she notes, “an almost unbelievable amount of this is true,” which makes the knowing voice of her omniscient narrator all the more entertaining. The reader should have a tolerance for graphic descriptions of sex and disease, but they are balanced by brilliant details of daily life in 17th-century France and a judicious amount of political satire that makes the end of the novel not just satisfying but surprisingly insightful. It’s a quick, diverting read; however, it sparks ideas about the relationship between storytelling, community, and justice that will stay with the reader long after.

Kristen McDermott

THE HOUSE OF BARBARY

Isabelle Schuler, Raven Books, 2025, £16.99, hb, 356pp, 9781526647290 / $9.99, ebook, 356pp, B0DFT11GXH

Bern, 1653: Beatrice Barbary apparently buries her murdered father, joint mayor of the city, with all the great and the good in attendance. A widower, he had both encouraged his daughter in her talent for science but also zealously prevented her going into the world, to the extent that as a child she socialised only with adults visiting the labyrinth of the Barbary ancestral home. While she resembles the mother she never

knew and whose clothes she wears, the girl’s pale face and hair seem as much the result of her sequestered, almost sunless life as her genetic inheritance, in a Bern that outside the walls of the Barbary house teems with sound, activity and the vividness of life both prosperous and cruel.

Beatrice fantasises about ‘laying out her father’s murderer on her dissecting table, making a clean cut down the centre of his front, pulling aside the skin.’ But was Jakob Barbary an enlightened, affectionate father, a coercive controller, both – or something even worse? And how did the macabre contents of the cellar come to be there, deprived even of their names? A horrifying discovery made by a young artist residing in the house while he paints portraits of Jakob and his circle of friends, members of the mysterious ‘Order of St Eve’, ultimately unleashes in Beatrice the violence nestling just below the surface of her psyche, a craving to administer a justice that otherwise will not be delivered.

This carefully plotted novel is told in two timelines mainly from the point of view of the child Beatrice, the bereaved adult woman and the craven, hapless artist. It is inspired distantly by the Bluebeard legend, but ‘outcreeps’ Angela Carter’s retelling of that famous myth. One of the most original books I have read in a long time.

Katherine Mezzacappa

THE KING’S INTELLIGENCER

Elizabeth St. John, Independently published, 2024, $15.99/C$19.99, pb, 412pp, 9798341165724

London, 1674. The bones of two children are discovered in the Tower of London and assumed to be those of the Princes, Richard III’s nephews, murdered by the infamous Richard to secure his throne two hundred years previously, as related in Shakespeare.

Franny Apsley, lady in waiting to the future Queen Mary, gets involved in the ensuing investigations, fearing her ancestors may have been responsible, which would mean difficulties for the present monarch, Charles II, lately restored to his beheaded father’s throne, as well as for Franny’s own family. At the same time, the Lady Mary’s drawing master Nicholas Jameson is following the clues for reasons of his own and engages Franny’s heart. But can she trust him?

It’s obvious St. John has familiarized herself with recent discoveries as to the real fate

of young Princes Edward and Richard – a justification to apologists for the king found buried in the carpark – and in The King’s Intelligencer offers a much more engaging and understandable portrayal than some of the nonfiction books on the subject I’ve encountered.

St. John handles complicated dynastic relations well, with terrific scene setting. What I found particularly intriguing is that these characters are members on St. John’s own family tree, the manor where many of the discoveries are made the seat of her own family. She even shares a name with one of the long-ago women involved in the cover-up. Would that offerings from “traditional” publishers could be as well written and edited.

Ann Chamberlin

THE OWL WAS A BAKER’S DAUGHTER

Grace Tiffany, Harper, 2025, $30.00/£16.99, hb, 256pp, 9780063380530

We meet Judith, Shakespeare’s daughter, in the Year of Our Lord 1646 in this follow-up novel to Tiffany’s My Father Had a Daughter, where we followed her life as a child into young adulthood. We left Judith newly married to Quiney and anticipating their first child, and now join her about forty years later at the age of sixty-one long after the loss of both their sons to plague. Now they are “a geezer and a crone… creaking about and grumbling as [they] perform [their] separate businesses.” And Judith admits she is not a wife “with the soft voice that turns away wrath.” This novel can be enjoyed without reading the first book, because Tiffany does a superb job of weaving the past events into the current narrative.

Four years into the English Civil War, Quiney has never stopped mourning the loss of his sons, and neither has Judith, but she keeps busy with her healing arts and midwifery. Showing up on their doorstep is Jane and her sister’s child, Pearl-of-Great-Price. Judith rashly allows them to stay because of their connection to her family. Jane is devoutly religious, and Judith has little use for gospellers, and even though Jane annoyingly spouts scripture and bursts into song non-stop, a friendship grows. Pearl is a “mad hoyden,” devilishly unruly, and spontaneously disruptive. When the two accompany Judith on a birthing call and Pearl begins growling and barking, things quickly unravel. Out of threats and fears of witchery accusations, Judith, Jane, and Pearl leave the village until things calm down. They head to a much-changed London from Judith’s younger days, and adventure follows as Judith revels in her new freedom.

The unique characters of Jane and Pearl add so much texture to the novel, and Judith herself, witty and indomitable, is a delight. The dialogue and language flow easily with a feel of their time. An immersive, satisfying read.

Janice Ottersberg

Serena Press

THE THREE DEATHS OF JUSTICE GODFREY

L. C. Tyler, Constable, 2024, £24.99, hb, 307pp, 9781408718735

Fifth in the Lord John Grey series, this novel sees the Essex magistrate and sometime spy continue his adventures navigating the strains and struggles of solving a murder (or was it suicide?). The date is 1678, some eighteen years after the Restoration of King Charles the Second. Getting involved with the movers and shakers of this society is as fraught with danger as ever, as is getting to grips with a convoluted plot complicated by lying, double-dealing and self-preservation. Lord John is aided by his intelligent playwright wife, Aminta, in his attempts to solve the case of Sir Godfrey, which is actually a long-time and real-life cold case. The historical notes give the interested reader the full background of the real events as much as is known and has been interpreted by different historians. The historical personage of Titus Oates is another character, with his amazing discoveries of Catholic plots feeding the fears of those willing to suspend disbelief and rationality in order to nourish their own prejudices. Modern parallels do come to mind here. The usual Tyler-style dry humour is much in evidence as human foibles are exposed.

Admirers of the series and of Tyler`s Ethelred series will find much to enjoy here. New fans may wish to start with the first, A Cruel Necessity, but this can also be read as an enjoyable standalone.

Ann Northfield

THE PLAYERS

Minette Walters, Allen & Unwin, 2025, £20.00, hb, 496pp, 9781805463153 / Blackstone, 2024, $28.99, hb, 416pp, 9798228315075

In June 1685, Charles II’s illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth, arrived on the south coast of England to lay claim to the English throne. Over the next month, the Duke travelled around the southwest gathering supporters and preparing for the disastrous Battle of Sedgemoor, where he was finally defeated. Accounts of the Monmouth Rebellion tend to focus mainly on these events, ending with the Duke’s execution. This is balanced by some coverage of the so-called Bloody Assizes that followed.

Minette Walters has taken an original and utterly engrossing view on these events. The battle itself is hardly mentioned, while her focus is on the consequences, both for the individuals involved and for the country as a whole. Throughout, there is a clear focus on the

Rebellion laying the foundation for the Glorious Revolution and the strategic manoeuverings of the key ‘players’ (an important word and the title of the novel) to that end.

Characterisation is the real strength of this book, particularly in relation to Judge Jeffreys, who has gone down in history as a ruthless and brutal tyrant. Here, he is not just that, but a man of complexities and contradictions, motivated by social climbing, and an instrument of retribution in the hands of a vengeful king. In the end, Walters leads us to feel compassion for a man caught up in forces beyond his control.

Other characters are equally excellent: the intelligent, independent women who are experts in medicine and law; and the chameleon-like Lord Granville (the central player and master of disguise) who seeks to save the rebels from the cruel sentences that they face. The dialogue is always vibrant where vital issues of the day are discussed articulately and with insight: law and mercy; class and human potential; slavery.

In all, a well-crafted, intelligent and thoroughly engaging read – this is literary historical fiction at its very best.

Adele Wills

18TH CENTURY

THE SUPPOSED SISTER

Pamela Belle, Independently published, 2024, £10.99/$14.25, pb, 386pp, 9781068678431

The reader will be well-served to be familiar with Belle’s A Parcel of Rogues as events of this book extend the consequences of the previous book’s Jacobite plot that retired courtesan Polly Paradice and her lover, artist and spy Andre Dark, foiled in 1715 London. Six months later, happily running her Covent Garden coffee house, Polly is once again called to adventure when she receives a missive from Mattie, the sister she thought long lost. Tracking the traveling players with whom Mattie has thrown her lot, Polly finds a fierce and guarded young woman nothing like the child she remembers. When Mattie’s next missive seems a call for help, Polly can’t help but answer, along with her friends, Oxford merchant Sam Jessop and streetwise handmaiden Gin. Before long Polly finds herself embroiled with smugglers, spies, and what might be a nefarious plot to lure Dark to his doom using Polly as bait. Will Polly’s eclectic and resourceful friends manage to save her from the clutches of a villain? Chances are good, since there’s a third book on the horizon, but the reader will be drawn in by the quest.

Though the novel takes its time revealing the true stakes of the action, Belle’s writing is assured, and the scenes clip along nicely. The lively cast blends friends from the first book along with new actors like the precocious young Phil and her inventive, likeable brother, Tawny. Belle’s sense of time and place is impeccable; one smells the coffee, tastes the food, feels the soggy ground of Romney Marsh shift beneath one’s feet. Every detail, from the dialogue to the geography, feels precise without ever slowing

the story. Though romance fans might wish there were a little more Dark in the Paradice and Dark duo, this is a delightful read.

Misty Urban

THE BLACKBIRDS OF ST GILES

Lila Cain, Simon & Schuster, 2025, £18.99, hb, 483pp, 9781398526570 / Dafina, 2025, $28.00/ C$37.99, hb, 480pp, 9781496755629

‘Lila Cain’ is a pen name for an agentconceived partnership between new author Marcia Hutchinson and established historical novelist Kate Griffin, whose previous books I have enjoyed. Hallmarks of Griffin’s writing are on show: for example, an all-powerful criminal overlord controlling a cruel empire from a lair of guarded luxury, and a fine knack for describing smells. In a prologue we see Black slave Daniel Garnett winning his freedom along with his young sister Pearl, during a bloody uprising against the plantation owners. Much later, once Daniel has done well fighting for the British in the American War of Independence, even securing an officer’s commission, we find him and Pearl adrift in London. Victims of tricksters, they have lost everything but make friends in a criminal underworld below the rookeries of St Giles. Daniel has to struggle to stay alive, let alone recover his status.

He resorts to working as a bare-knuckle boxer, but his precarious situation thrillingly heightens the stakes of each match. The plot is ingenious with unforeseeable twists, and there are imaginative locations in rich and poor London. Daniel is an attractive hero, though inevitably a rather sensitive soul for an 18th-century fighting man. His sister Pearl is feisty, gets into extra jeopardy, and frequently moves the plot forward. Background details are strong, bringing us such historical figures as Black ballad singer Joseph Johnson, who wore a hat in the shape of a ship. At times I felt this rich understorey of supporting characters slightly distracted us from focusing on the main protagonists’ troubles – this may be due to the composite writing method. Others might not share my worry.

Balancing a Gothic flavour with solid research, plus tough action and harsh betrayals, this is an original and rewarding read, very much to be recommended.

Ben Bergonzi

NAPOLEON’S MIRAGE

Michelle Cameron, She Writes Press, 2024, $17.99, pb, 377pp, 9781647426200

Cameron’s first installment in this saga set at the end of the 18th century, Beyond the Ghetto Gates, celebrated Napoleon’s benefits for Jews, including French citizenship, emancipation throughout Europe, and opening the centuries-old ghetto gates in Italy. This present installment, which is meant to be the conclusion, follows our characters—young French soldier Daniel, his love Mirelle, and Ethan, a gifted spy and linguist—as Napoleon invades Egypt. This ill-fated expedition, which

is remembered in metro stops across Paris, resulted in the discovery, among other things, of the Rosetta stone.

The first third of the present book left me very impatient with poorly rendered battles, trite descriptions, and stereotypical yet improbable long-distance lover problems. This may be due to the fact that I haven’t read volume one, and getting up to speed in a case like that is never easy.

Battle descriptions didn’t perk up later, but Daniel’s disillusion with the commander he’d idealized seemed more real, and important for today’s world. In fact, in her Author’s Note, Cameron cites “a certain American president’s term” as impetus for her work. The arrogance and brutality of the Egyptian campaign— which, besides the rape and pillage of a native population, included the great leader seducing his generals’ wives, abandoning and even murdering his own soldiers, and the promise of a Jewish homeland never meant to be fulfilled—present plenty of thought for a modern reader.

Ann Chamberlin

THE BONE CUTTER

G. F. Cope, Penmore, 2024, £16.99/$20.50, pb, 328pp, 9781957851266

It is 1793, and in northern France, British troops under the command of the inexperienced Prince Frederick of York are involved in various bloody skirmishes with the rebel armies and in two successive and disastrous sieges. Into this scenario comes Andrew Jardine, a young Scot with a happy marriage, a pregnant wife, and an almost-completed medical training behind him. Tragedy strikes when Jardine’s wife dies soon after giving birth, leaving him with the immediate need to provide funds for the care of his infant daughter.

We first meet Jardine when he is given the rank of assistant surgical officer and shipped to northern France, where, with nothing more than his own limited experience, a small selection of medical instruments and a textbook or two, he finds himself faced with groups of horribly injured men in a series of reeking spaces. Apart from a brief, doomed encounter with a young French nurse, nothing diverts his focus from the casualties he must care for. He soon earns the respect of not only his patients but also of his military medical colleagues. Jardine emerges from the author’s story as a noble, dedicated and selfless character.

Several aspects of this novel prevent it being the satisfying read it could have been. The first is the fact that it relies almost exclusively on one single strand of its story, i.e. the physical horrors of warfare. The recent loss of his wife and the survival and wellbeing of his child seem not to concern him and are never significantly referred to. We see events through the author’s eyes rather than through Jardine’s and are asked to care for him without being given due access to him as a fully rounded character. The historical

background to key events is noticeably and, perhaps deliberately, absent.

Julia

Stoneham

ALLEGRO

Ariel Dorfman, Other Press, 2025, $17.99/ C$23.99, pb, 272pp, 9781635424485

In Allegro, Ariel Dorfman imagines Wolfgang Mozart at three distinct stages: as a child, a young man, and toward the end of his life. As a nine-year-old prodigy in 1765 London, under the mentorship of Johann Christian Bach (the “London Bach”), Mozart becomes enmeshed in a feud that only the dead can settle. Did the oculist Chevalier Taylor blind Johann Sebastian Bach with inept, or even fraudulent surgery, as the younger Bach maintains, or is there a more honorable turn to the story, as the Chevalier’s son insists? As Mozart grows older, he returns to this unfinished tale, or it returns to him, like Bach’s last, incomplete fugue. With his mother’s death, when he is twenty-two, Mozart momentarily loses the music that once flowed through him, he says, “like a fountain, like a flood, like a lake and a sea and an ocean.” And when he faces his own impending death, toward the end of the novel, he needs the truth of Bach’s blindness and death more desperately than ever.

This lovely novel will be particularly meaningful to musicians, as it is structured in four movements (Allegro Ma Non Troppo, Adiante, Andante, Minuetto). Handel and J.S. Bach and their compositions are at the center of all conversations, all stories, all music, it seems, though both are already dead before the novel begins.

Dorfman’s “divertimento,” first published in Spanish in 2015, reads like an 18th-century picaresque, about tragedies but not itself tragic, charming, and somewhat distanced. For all the poverty, illness, loss, and death surrounding him, this Mozart delights the reader with his effusive appreciation of food, drink, women, and music, music above all. Music, he believes with a bone-deep optimism, can change the very shape of the world. I loved viewing that world through his eyes.

Melissa Bissonette

THE WOMAN IN THE WALLPAPER

Lora Jones, Sphere, 2025, £18.99, hb, 490pp, 9781408731437 / Union Square, 2025, $28.99/ C$38.99, hb, 480pp, 9781454956006

In 1788, France is on the brink of insurrection when sisters Lara and Sofi, along with their

mother, are evicted from their Marseille home following the death of their father. Their aunt finds them work at the Oberst wallpaper factory at Jouy-en-Jouant near Paris. Here they discover that the reclusive factory owner and his son, Josef, to whom they both form an attachment, have been profoundly affected by the tragic mystery of the death of Josef’s mother, years before. The sisters become entangled in the legacies of this tragedy as Revolution sparks and relationships turn volatile, testing sisterly loyalty.

Inspired by the 18th- century wallpaper designs of Oberkampf’s textile factory near Paris, this story may remind readers of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s tale The Yellow Wallpaper, in which the wallpaper uncannily morphs into life. In Jones’ novel, Lara, moved into the mysterious tower room in the Oberst chateau, begins to see herself as the woman caught in its wallpaper vignettes, mirroring scenes from her own life.

This story is full of secrets to be uncovered and romantic tangles to be unknotted. It has as many twists and turns as the spiral staircase which leads to the tower chamber which was Josef’s mother’s room, and which holds the truth everyone seeks. Jones spotlights women’s experience of the French Revolution as workplace activists and sansculottes insurrectionists, which is welcome. Aristocratic self-absorption is also enjoyably conveyed as Jones has fun engaging us in the pointless lives of nobles.

There is some elision here of the course of the Revolution. I would have liked more about the events between the fall of the Bastille and the Terror. These are understandably chosen milestones, but characters seem untouched by the changes of the intervening years. That said, readers who enjoy a Gothic tale will absolutely love this.

Louise Tree

REQUIEM OF REVENGE

Richard Kurti, Sapere, 2024, £10.99/$11.99, pb, 295pp, 9780854952434

This short novel is a page-turning mystery with a promising premise. Taking the reader from the bowels of a Bath prison to Norfolk, London, and central Europe, it tells the story of Lady Arabella Taylor, who is arrested on suspicion of torturing and imprisoning her famous oculist husband. A surgeon, Erasmus Harvey, is sent to assess her and declare her insane to avoid scandalizing Bath elite society. But who is the real villain?

Writing brief chapters from both Arabella and Dr Harvey’s perspectives, Kurti wastes no time in getting us straight into the heart of the action. But the ‘as told to’ narrative style unfortunately limits character exploration and growth. None of the main characters has anything affable about them. A novel that delves into dark themes, within this genre, isn’t inherently problematic. The lack of any nuance, however, results in caricatures which prevent the reader from ever truly engaging or rooting for a resolution. The descriptions of the

oculist’s bespoke theatre, its instruments and of music venues in Europe are well-observed, but two key real-life composers that feature in the novel (one being no less a personage than Johann Sebastian Bach) are little more than cameos. Their stories predominantly unfold off the page. Period detail is sparse, and apart from a few choice 18th-century swear words, which fall flat, this could have been set in any pre-20th century era.

The ending abruptly contradicts a key character’s motivation from the previous 290 pages, demanding significant suspension of disbelief. This is a quick read, and it tells a good tale but overall left this reader wanting more emotional depth.

Katharine Riordan

THE DEAD CURATE

Laura Martin, Sapere, 2024, £9.99/$10.99, pb, 255pp, 9780854955176

Steventon, October 1798. With both parents ill, Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra go to church by themselves, only to find the door locked and the curate dead and posed in a crucifix position. Since the local magistrate is ill too, Jane is forced to work alongside his Mr Darcy-esque son, Mr Harrington, to solve the crime and discover if there is a link to a similar murder in the same church of a previous rector 25 years earlier.

This is the fifth in this series, though the only one I’ve read. I was hoping for a preRegency ‘Death in Paradise’ - a satisfying mystery leavened by more light-hearted scenes featuring the investigators. What I found instead is a sordid tale of stalking, sacrilege and historic child abuse. Martin’s heroine comes across as humourless and easily offended, so it’s hard to imagine her writing witty novels, much less exuberant letters and anarchic juvenilia. Cassandra is a mere cipher, who barely speaks when she is present and often shirks her responsibilities as a chaperone.

I spotted the culprit long before the investigators did, and a lot of the action is repetitive. Even worse, the timings don’t fit. In 1773, when the earlier crime allegedly took place, George Austen was already rector of Steventon and Cassandra was a newborn –the second child in the family to be born there. Moreover, Austen’s surviving letters suggest that she, her mother and sister spent at least part of October 1798 in Kent, visiting her brother Edward’s family.

There are numerous breaches of etiquette (like Jane being repeatedly called ‘Miss Austen’ in front of her older sister), but the most outrageous gaffe is having two unmarried sisters travelling unchaperoned to a different county with an unrelated bachelor.

Nice cover – shame about the story.

Jasmina Svenne

THE BALLAD OF MARY KEARNEY

Katherine Mezzacappa, Histria, 2025, $19.99/£17.95, pb, 350pp, 9781592115099

Ireland, 1765. When young Mary Kearney is sent to work at Goward Hall, she joins her brother and sister in service and lightens the load of her impoverished father, who has too many mouths to feed. She begins to wait on the very married Lady Mitchelstown, who is involved in a scandalous romance with Lord and Lady Goward’s son James. James eventually arranges for Mary to learn to read and write, and as they become much closer, the outrage of both the upper and lower classes descends upon them. They enter into a secret marriage, but in the eyes of the world, Mary is a mistress, and only a few at the time know that she is James’ wife. And nearby, an evil man waits, determined to ruin Mary for good.

Late 18th to early 19th-century Ireland comes alive in this book, as the characters speak to us from the past in dialect true to the time. There is a great deal of epistolary work, and it is woven in beautifully. Letters, articles, documents, and diary entries highlight the many voices, bringing each character to life with great effect. The novel begins with the dictated words of Mary’s father, who cannot read or write. The letters contain everything from love to gossip to threats, depending upon the writer. The class differences of the time are highlighted well, and the Catholic versus Protestant conflict is explored. The attempted uprising by the United Irishmen is well researched, and its consequences spill across the page. The captivating love story of James and Mary endures many hardships, including plotting and scheming from wicked people. Honest and intriguing, this gripping saga will transport and inspire you, and it just might break your heart. Highly recommended.

Bonnie DeMoss

SICILIAN AVENGERS

Luigi Natoli, trans. Stephen Riggio, Radius Book Group, Book One, 2024, $19.99/C$25.99, pb, 480pp, 9781635769272 / Book Two, 2024, $19.99/C$25.99, pb, 464pp, 9781635769463

A veritable opera in book format, Sicilian Avengers is a masterpiece of Italian historical fiction by Luigi Natoli (1857–1941). Translated into English for the first time, it tells a riveting tale featuring the Beati Paoli, a secret society dedicated to fighting injustices committed by the high and mighty upon the lower classes who have no other recourse. This tale takes

place in Palermo, the capital of Sicily, during the years 1698 to 1719. It oozes with Sicilianismo, the essence of a culture formed by layers of survival under centuries of conquering invaders. The people who arose from this soil form a dramatic cast of characters. Readers will want to boo and hiss at the evil characters, and clap and cheer for the heroes. Richly vibrant descriptions of the people and places that comprise the physical environment of this era further embellish the theatrical landscape of its telling.

The plot is quick; the drama is high, and emotions run rampant. Book One begins with Don Raimondo, a devious younger brother, scheming to secure his place in his noble family through nefarious means. His plan seems to work until Blasco da Castiglione, a wandering adventurer and swashbuckler seeking his destiny, arrives on the scene fifteen years later. Blasco’s presence, coupled with mysterious notes accusing Don Raimondo of wrongdoing, usher in a time of intrigue and mayhem involving the ongoing intersections of multiple characters. The plot thickens; secrets and accusations escalate; and Book One ends as a cliffhanger. Book Two immediately picks up the unresolved threads from Book One, and adds in further kidnappings, swordfights, love interests, subterfuge, betrayal, and revenge.

Whether or not the Beati Paoli ever truly existed or served as a precursor to the Mafia is unknown. Its powerful appeal as a vehicle for a storyline in a literary work, however, is undeniable. Bravo!

Karen Bordonaro

THE WOMAN WITH THE STONE KNIFE

Dale Neal, Histria, 2024, $19.99/C$26.99, pb, 250pp, 9781592114665

Dale Neal reimagines the life of Helena Ostenaco Timberlake—a woman barely a footnote to history, who came forward in 1786 claiming to be Lieutenant Henry Timberlake’s widow. Helena was born in Tomotley, a Cherokee Overhills town in East Tennessee, daughter of the Tsalagi (Real People) war chief, ‘Mankiller’ Ostenaco. In the aftermath of the Anglo-Cherokee war, Henry Timberlake, an emissary to the Cherokee, arrived in Tomotley, where he and Helena fell in love. Henry escorted a delegation of chiefs to England in 1762, for an audience with King George. Upon their return, British troops broke the promises of peace, and a second trip was made to beg the king to intercede and rein in his out-of-control subjects. Helena accompanied Timberlake on this second trip, leaving behind their twoyear-old son in Tomotley. Henry stood surety

for the cost of escorting the first delegation, and upon his arrival back in England in 1765 was summarily arrested, thrown in debtor’s prison, and shortly died, leaving an extensive memoir. Helena’s story is as compelling as it is heartbreaking and gruelling.

From this reviewer’s standpoint, the novel’s only fault is its ill-chosen title. Beyond that it is a truly impressive work, beautifully written and remarkable for its depth of emotion and ability to draw the reader into this little-known world. Neal’s research seems impeccable. His scenes of Cherokee life represent an astute reading of the culture and times, filled with colour, vitality and compassion: surely a stunning tribute to Cherokee history. For an author who claims no Indigenous heritage to take on a story which relies so heavily on an understanding of Indigenous life and its people is a courageous endeavour, and I can only hope Neal’s novel reaches the broad readership it so richly deserves.

Fiona Alison

MAGGIE AND THE PIRATE’S SON

Rose Prendeville, Eridani Press, 2024. $16.99, pb, 284pp, 9781955643122

Scotland, 1730. Maggie is a widow, and glad of it as her late husband was a brute who beat and abused her. Now that her mourning period is over, her father has arranged a new marriage for her. Instead of falling under the control of another man, Maggie runs, stowing away on the first ship she can find. Unfortunately, it is a pirate ship. Bastian, or “Bash,” has been sailing with his pirate captain father since he was a boy. He is unprepared to find a real lady stowed away on his ship but is determined to save her from a horrible fate and certain death. Under Bash’s guidance, Maggie poses as a cabin boy and becomes part of the crew, but they both live in fear that her true identity will be discovered.

This is the third book in the Brides of Chattan series. Bash and Maggie are both quite likable, and Bash’s efforts to keep Maggie alive make a compelling story. Maggie is an independent, spunky, and determined character who is easy to root for. Her plight highlights the lack of rights for women at that time. The romance between Maggie and Bash is slow burning, but as it builds there are some sex scenes with a lot of spice. The ending is thrilling and welldone. Fans of spicy romance and pirate stories may want to check this one out.

Bonnie DeMoss

A THIEF’S BLOOD

Douglas Skelton, Canelo, 2024, £14.99, hb, 304pp, 9781804368831

It’s London in 1718, and Jonas Flynt, a ‘gambler’, is confronted with the horrific spectacle of a lowly family in a poor part of the city, butchered! Why is he there? He works – very reluctantly – for a wealthy taskmaster Colonel Charters, who seems to have a personal stake in the massacre. Also on site

is Jonathan Wild – the “Thiefmaster General” and official of the judicial system.

Unusually, he too is obviously outraged by the killing of parents and two children. Finally, he’s contacted by the lonely and discrete criminal kingpin The Admiral – the dead man was his trusted (and honest) bookkeeper.

So, there it is – the political, the judicial, and the criminal world all concentrating on a disgusting attack in a poor part of the East End. And all have secrets, all have reasons for the butcher to be caught, and all expecting the most from Jonas Flynt. An ex-highwayman, ex-soldier, fighter, and spy, he’s been vicious, he’s tortured, he’s a ruthless killer – all when called upon. But when he sees the first crime scene, it becomes personal. Not because of a relationship with the victim but because of their situation. He’s sympathetic in an unsympathetic world.

What follows is Jonas travelling quietly through the dingy, dangerous world of Georgian London. If he has to kill, he will. Jonas wants the killer dead!

In this fourth in a series, Skelton manages to balance action and brutality with setting and reason. Well-written, the hero might be the cliched ‘troubled,’ but this ‘trouble’ doesn’t get in the way of his tasks. The description of place and time is vivid. The author is good at expressing the personality of the characters by reaction rather than description.

Alan Cassady-Bishop

A FIRE BENEATH THE WORLD

Jas Treadwell, Hodder & Stoughton, 2024, £22.00, hb, 464pp, 9781529347371

If you are looking for an unusual, erudite and beautifully written historical novel set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, then this strange and compelling work will not disappoint.

It is 1791. The conflagration of the French Revolution has subsided, and a new world is emerging from the ashes. But nothing is settled. The king and queen are still imprisoned in the Tuileries awaiting their fate, and law and order has not yet been fully reestablished.

The novel moves between England and France, a touch of A Tale of Two Cities to which numerous references are made. We are, however, very much in the world of the 18thcentury novel, with its elaborate language and style. The narrator frequently speaks directly to the reader, guiding their reactions often to comic effect. There is even a hint of Jane Austen encouraging us to consider whether the supernatural events will turn out to have a more mundane explanation.

The plot is pure Gothic fantasy. Thomas Peach, living in quiet retirement in the English countryside, travels to France to rescue his friend, the poetess Arabella Farthingay, who has been abducted by the dastardly libertine, Sir de Charizard. Along the way, we are introduced to a range of colourful and amusing characters. I particularly enjoyed

the French rustics and vagabonds who are reluctantly drawn into the extravagant events. There is even a nod to The Scarlet Pimpernel, characterised as the ‘Forget-Me-Not’, an English lord who rescues imperilled aristocrats in France.

Although hugely entertaining, my only criticism would be that the action starts to drag a little towards the end as the Gothic excesses become more extreme. And not everyone will enjoy the archaic language and style. But for those up for the challenge, it is certainly an interesting and original read.

Adele Wills

19TH CENTURY

REMEMBER WHEN

Mary Balogh, Berkley, 2025, $29.00/C$39.00, hb, 368pp, 9780593638415 / Piatkus, 2025, £10.99, pb, 368pp, 9780349439600 1818. With family responsibilities discharged and her fiftieth birthday fast approaching, Clarissa Ware, Dowager Countess of Stratton, retires home for a quiet summer alone to ponder her future. Though they welcome her company and love her deeply, her family no longer really needs her. Might it be time to think of her own wishes, for a change? Perhaps renew her acquaintance with Matthew Taylor, her close childhood friend?

But though born a gentleman, Matthew has rejected his birthright and become a village carpenter, albeit of more than common artistic talent. The gap in their social status has widened, and the Regency era is oppressively hierarchical, especially at the higher levels. Can they span the gap? Do they want to? How will others react?

This is a second chance romance which confronts not only Clarissa and Matthew with challenges, but their families too. If they want to find true happiness and fulfilment, however, they must take risks: leave behind the comfort of their familiar pattern of life; recognize that ‘all humanity was flawed’ and acknowledge their own failings; forgive others and, most importantly, themselves. Not an easy journey, but one conducted with Balogh’s customary wisdom and grace.

Highly recommended.

Ray Thompson

THE JACKAL’S MISTRESS

Chris Bohjalian, Doubleday, 2025, $29.00/ C$39.00, hb, 336pp, 9780385547642

Skirmishes and battles plague Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley during America’s Civil War, with the same territory changing hands numerous times. Libby Steadman’s husband, Peter, is last known to be in a northern POW camp, now presumed dead. Libby, along with Joseph and Sally, their Black servants, and her twelve-year-old niece Jubilee, are left to run the family’s grist mill on the Opequon River, which provides flour for the Confederate Army. When Libby discovers a Union officer near death, his leg and part of a hand missing,

and abandoned by his unit to his fate, she is determined to save his life. This is what she would want a Northern woman to do for her beloved Peter. This act of treason creates a new level of danger for everyone in the household. Libby is resourceful in keeping Captain Jonathan Weybridge hidden. Even trickier is getting the medical supplies she needs to care for him without drawing unwanted attention.

Vulnerable to rape and violence by rogue Confederates and the suspicious Mosby’s Rangers patrolling the area, Libby’s life is surrounded by danger, death, and deprivation. This story is propulsive and tense with each plot turn as Libby must do things she never dreamed herself capable of to protect Captain Weybridge, herself, and the others under her care. Jubilee is feisty and sassy, a favorite character adding a child’s perspective. She names the Union officer “Jackal,” and her sarcastic interactions with him gradually turn to reluctant affection. The elderly Joseph and Sally, who stayed to work for wages after Peter freed them, are fiercely loyal and protective of Libby and Jubilee. A lonely Libby spends long evenings in Weybridge’s company, and gradually love grows as they get to know each other, but Libby struggles to accept that Peter may never return. This is a flawless novel, emotional and poignant while showing humanity in all its good and evil during war.

Janice

Ottersberg

THE CASE OF THE BETH-EL STONE

David Cairns of Finavon, Finavon Press, £9.99, pb, 416pp, 9780645978834

Melbourne, 1864. On the very first page of the book, Findo Gask avoids being shot by a would-be assassin by the merest fluke. It seems that Die Broederskap, a secret criminal society, has a contract out on him and his close friend, Errol Rait, a Sherlock Holmes type, to prevent them from testifying against two of their band. Gask and Rait decide to get out of harm’s way by travelling to Scotland, Gask’s homeland, accompanied by Mary Mitchell, who was also involved in an adventure that resulted in Die Broederskap’s thirst for revenge.

Their time in Scotland, however, is not a holiday, and very soon their investigative talents are put to the test when they are caught in the middle of a battle to the death between the TSD, the Topographical and Statistic Department, which was set up by the War Office to gather intelligence by fair means or foul, and the Knights Templar Lodge of the Freemasons, who have a secret they have been

guarding for centuries and a promise to fulfil that would split the British Empire asunder.

The Case of the Beth-El Stone is Book 3 in the Major Gask Mysteries series but can easily be read on its own, although I intend to read books 1 and 2 (The Case of the Emigrant Niece and The Case of the Wandering Corpse) to learn how Gask and Rait came to investigate crime together.

The story is told in the first person by Gask, and although it has all the ingredients of a derring-do adventure story, Cairns has obviously done a lot of historical research and the details he includes are fascinating; it’s as if the reader is breathing the same air as Gask.

I enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone who enjoys a fast-paced historical thriller/adventure.

Marilyn Pemberton

MORAL TREATMENT

Stephanie Carpenter, Central Michigan Univ. Press, 2025, $19.95, pb, 374pp, 9798991064606

Moral Treatment takes place in a Michigan psychiatric hospital in 1889. Seventeenyear-old Amy Underwood suffers from what today might be called teen angst: aberrant behaviour, self-harm, unworthiness, anxiety, loneliness. The medical superintendent of the 700-patient hospital where she is admitted as a private patient, is ‘the doctor’, and remains anonymous throughout the novel. His commitment to his undertaking is immersive, even to the detriment of his relationship with his wife. Amy, diagnosed with moral insanity, is attended by the ‘large’ and ‘small’ attendants. Her handling by staff runs anywhere between benign and cruel, at a time when female ‘hysteria’ was endemic and admissions were on the rise. Amy has no outside influences, no visits, no letters and rarely sets eyes on ‘the doctor’. No similar-aged girls are present until she meets Letitia, and their atypical friendship gives rise to striking, sometimes disquieting observations.

To represent this novel as anything other than dark and tragic would be misleading. It’s difficult to summarise but covers considerable ground— a reflection perhaps of the immense complexities of the human mind. Hospital dynamics are explored through Amy’s growing recognition that nothing is being done to help her, and the doctor’s unshakeable certainty that ‘moral treatment’ is the best remedy. The author’s deliberate generalisations about the mundanity of institutional life are particularly powerful, but become more specific and personal as Amy’s self-awareness grows.

This meticulous research project was begun by Carpenter when she was a teenager, and is packed with information about insane asylum infrastructure and the early days of psychiatry. I found myself deeply invested in Amy’s troubled life and wanted closure for her. Part of the innate beauty of this novel for me, lies in my discovery of the preservation of the Traverse City State Hospital upon which it is based.

Fiona Alison

IN KNOTS OVER YOU

Edie Cay, Dragonblade, 2024, $12.99, pb, 262pp, 9798333932501

Although her parents want her to marry into the aristocracy, Eleanor Piper is sensible enough to recognize that class barriers in Victorian England are formidable. Though wealthy, her father is in business. At her first ball, however, she is befriended by Ophelia, an earl’s daughter, who eagerly enlists her into her all-women mountain-climbing team. For Eleanor, it turns out, is highly knowledgeable about ropes and knots.

Despite feelings of inadequacy, Eleanor makes steady progress during training, and her relationship with Ophelia’s brother Tristan develops promisingly. Until he tries to exclude her from the team so that he can court her. Deeply hurt, she declares, ‘I choose the mountain’.

It takes time to untangle the mess, and it requires Tristan to grow out of self-centred irresponsibility towards greater empathy with others, a chastening experience. The characters are sympathetic, their experiences involving, and their defiance of convention inspiring. Especially arrogant assumptions of male superiority.

Since the novel concludes rather abruptly with a steamy description of the wedding night, those curious about the further progress of the team will need to read more of the series. An afterword on the history of women climbing in the 19th century would be helpful.

Definitely recommended.

THE SNOW ANGEL

Ray Thompson

Dilly Court, HarperCollins, 2024, £8.99, pb, 468pp, 9780008580803

Romance is afoot as we escape into a snowy winter in the 1850s. At that time in history, it was not deemed appropriate for an unmarried woman to be alone in the company of a man without a chaperone. However, Rose Northwood seems blind to the special interest shown by a handsome stranger whose presence in the locality intrigues many. Despite being a vicar’s middle daughter, Rose appears to ignore societal expectations on numerous occasions, demonstrating a wilfulness that would in reality have seen a female of her social standing shunned by society.

Rose does possess caring attributes that she utilises to nurse a teenage boy to health after she discovers him unconscious in the nativity crib of her father’s church. Despite her coaxing, the lad has little memory of recent events, but she is determined to find his family and restore him safely to them. Her repeated exposure of them both to unnecessary risks, without even informing her loved ones of her intentions, therefore left this reader annoyed at her character’s behaviour and undermined any empathy for her latest predicament.

However, Rose appears to relish each sticky situation, bouncing back into the bosom of her family with renewed enthusiasm and bringing delight along with envy to her stay-

at-home sisters, Marianne and Emily, whom she regales with highlights of her experiences during these unpredictable absences. Her mother’s continued withdrawal from family life following the death of her only son Felix a couple of years earlier, alongside her father’s parish involvement, distance them both from their middle daughter’s escapades. But this does demonstrate a surprising lack of parental interest. Altogether, the storytelling comes across as a series of exciting events that are thrown together with scant attention to authenticity.

Cathy Kemp

COUNTING ON LOVE

Carol Coventry, Dragonblade, 2024, $12.99, pb, 274pp, 9798338423929

1812. When the handsome and personable Lord Jasper Taverston indicates that his interest in her is serious—’Just imagine how happy it will make our mothers’—Lady Georgiana Stewart reacts, not with delight at securing so eligible a match, but with panic at the ‘feeling of being hemmed in.’ Even though he is an earl’s heir and she a duke’s daughter, she wants more from marriage than social status. Her mother assures her that love does grow in a relationship, so perhaps?

But then she meets Reginald, Jasper’s youngest brother. He not only shares her scholarly interests, but views her remarkable mathematical talents as valuable, not an unladylike oddity. Yet as their attraction grows stronger, so does their feeling of guilt over what feels like a betrayal.

Although the story does acknowledge the precarious position of mistresses and overworked servants, the focus remains firmly on the challenges facing their aristocratic employers. Even today, the predicament of women pressured into an unwelcome marriage by social and parental expectations is more widespread than many realize. As are the obstacles with which entrenched conventions and prejudices block the development of their abilities. Strongly recommended.

Ray Thompson

NEPHTHYS (UK) / THE HOUSE OF TWO SISTERS (US/Can)

Rachel Louise Driscoll, Harvill Secker, 2025, £16.99, hb, 336pp, 9781787304451 / Ballantine, 2025, $30.00/C$39.99, hb, 352pp, 9780593982884

Victorian England, when Egyptomania and mummy unwrapping parties were at their height, and Dr Clement Attridge is at the centre – hosting such parties for the rich, macabre and curious. However, one night and one party set in motion a series of events that only his daughter Clementine, or ‘Clemmie’ to her friends, is able to understand. Her remarkable ability to read hieroglyphics enables her to comprehend and be very concerned about the amulet wrapped with

the two-headed mummy, the main guest at the party.

Tragedy ensues, obliging Clemmie to travel away from the safety of London to Egypt. This was a dangerous time to be travelling in the North African home of Isis and Osiris, particularly carrying an extremely valuable and equally frightening amulet, which needs to be returned to its rightful owner.

This is a remarkable debut novel. The level of research into both Victorian London and Egypt in Victorian times is breathtaking. Clemmie has only two people in Egypt she can truly trust: her sister Rosetta, and Mariam, the local cook on board the boat they hire to travel along the Nile. What Clemmie sees around her, and Mariam’s interpretation and insight into the reality of the circumstances they are living through, are both fascinating and educational.

Rachel Louise Driscoll is a writer to look out for. Her ability to intertwine the ancient with the not-quite-so-old is phenomenal. Knowing ancient Egypt is one thing, but knowing how Egyptology was viewed a century or more ago is even more meritorious.

Aidan K. Morrissey

JUNIE

Erin Crosby Eckstine, Ballantine, 2025, $30.00/ C$39.99, hb, 368pp, 9780593725115

The narrative voice in Junie sounds so assured that you wouldn’t realize it was a debut. The title character, just sixteen in 1860, has lived her whole life on Bellereine Plantation in rural central Alabama, as “property” of the McQueen family. Junie has hopes and dreams like any young woman, and her interior life is fully and richly described. Although she shares household duties with her family— including her loving grandparents, Auntie Marilla, and cousin Bess—she primarily acts as companion to her white master’s daughter, Violet, who taught her to read. The teenagers share confidences and thoughts on literature; Junie has a fondness for British poetry, while her relatives worry that her head’s too much in the clouds.

Junie’s world is about to change. Already in financial distress due to the master’s alcoholism and irresponsibility, the McQueens are becoming nervous about potential war. When Mr. Beauregard Taylor, a wealthy suitor for Violet’s hand, arrives to stay at Bellereine, Junie—fearful of what Violet’s marriage will mean for her—undertakes a daring nighttime excursion that awakens the spirit of her late sister, Minnie, who had died after saving Junie from drowning. Minnie has several demands for Junie to accomplish on her behalf, and fulfilling them unearths terrible truths about life at Bellereine.

The eeriness of the ghostly visitations stands in effective contrast with the verdant beauty of the woods that Junie loves. The plotting is superb, with many unforeseen twists, and Junie is a compelling creation. Her growing closeness to the Taylors’ coachman, Caleb, is depicted with tender realism. Knowing

that enslaved people’s futures aren’t their own, both hesitate to become too close. Still innocent in many ways as the novel begins, Junie is repeatedly tested, and she recalibrates the meaning of friendship, freedom, and sisterhood with every shocking revelation.

Sarah Johnson

FAGIN THE THIEF

Allison Epstein, Doubleday, 2025, $28.99/ C$37.99, hb, 336pp, 9780385550703

In Fagin the Thief, Epstein entices a vilified creature from the pages of literature and gives readers an opportunity to see Fagin the Hebrew through an alternate lens to Dickens’ antisemitic stereotype—a less biased lens where his mother, his childhood, his environs, and those he meets conjoin to make him who he is, and who and what he becomes. Dickens didn’t bless Fagin with a first name, so to Epstein he is simply Jacob. Scenes in 1838 revisit similar ones in Oliver Twist (familiarity with Oliver Twist isn’t needed) and are interspersed with Jacob’s early life, beginning in 1793, at age six, living with his mum, Leah, in a Stepney slum. Despite his mother’s fair warnings, her beloved son is a product of his times, falling in with a gang and at 11, finessing pickpocketing during five years of expert tutelage. He’s 26 when 13-year-old Bill Sikes stumbles across the doorstep of the tumbledown house in Clerkenwell. Thereafter, various and sundry boys are taught pickpocketing and thievery. The secondary characters—Charley Bates, Toby Crackit, Dodger—seem close to Dickens’ vision, with Oliver a sidenote to a story which is primarily the interrelationship between Jacob, the brutal Bill Sikes and the thief Nancy, Bill’s plucky, long-suffering girl.

Despite his label of career criminal who rarely ventures out to commit crimes, Epstein’s Jacob is very much in the thick of his trade— one which doesn’t make him much money, but a living he willingly shares. This is a kinder, less miserly vision of the thief who, perhaps because he is so extraordinary at what he does, doesn’t fall prey to criminal charges until he is 51. But at that point we’ve seen, through extended vignettes, that Jacob is, above all, a human being rather than a fanciful stereotype. I was thoroughly transported to the mean streets of 19th-century London in this absorbing character study.

Fiona Alison

A MOST PERILOUS JOURNEY

Kathleen Ernst, Level Best/Historia, 2024, $16.95, pb, 258pp, 9781685126926

A Most Perilous Journey is the third installment of the Hanneke Bauer Mystery series. Frau Bauer is a recent immigrant from Germany living in Wisconsin at a time when civil war is a few years away. She is young and widowed, a very capable woman managing her farm by herself and acting on occasion as a doctor for her many German neighbors.

As the novel opens, Hanneke is frightened

by the sudden banging on her door in the middle of the night. The Fugitive Slave Act has just been passed, giving slave owners the right to recapture slaves who have run away desperately trying to reach Canada via the Underground Railroad. Two figures await her. One is wounded, unconscious, the other a frail Black woman who flees before Hanneke can stop her.

There are many in Wisconsin, native-born Americans, who don’t like the new immigrants from Europe. Know-Nothings. They will do anything to stop Hanneke from taking her perilous journey. So will the violent slave hunters who follow her and threaten her and her young “package.”

Author Ernst immediately draws the reader in. The research she has done is remarkable. Her eye for detail is impeccable. Hanneke lives in a world of political turmoil and violent repression. Not only is A Most Perilous Journey a thrilling historical recounting of the risks people were willing to take to counter the evils of slavery, Ernst has created depth to the novel as Hanneke investigates the death of a fellow abolitionist. She has even managed to write a romance, as the widowed Hanneke, alone in the Wisconsin wilderness, discovers that flowers are not the only things that bloom in the spring. A Most Perilous Journey has everything—thrills, mystery, romance and historical insight—wrapped up in 258 pages.

Peter Clenott

AFTER THE SPIRITS COME

Beth Ford, Peony Books, 2025, $18.99, pb, 273pp, 9798330476206

It’s January 1, 1844, days after the ghosts of past, present, and future have visited and led Ebenezer Scrooge to mend his selfish, avaricious ways. He is strengthening his relationship with his nephew Fred and wife Clara, rewarding Bob Cratchit with a larger share of the business and even partnership, rectifying past business dealings that had placed a heavy burden on borrowers, and learning about ways he may support the sick and working poor in the present and future. But change does not come easily. Scrooge’s descriptions of interactions with ghosts lead to questions about his sanity. Business dealings with new clients may not be all they appear to be. Disgruntled former clients renew their longstanding plans for revenge, acknowledging it “won’t be easy, taking everything from a man the way he did from us.”

This return trip to the time of the holiday classic A Christmas Carol is true to, dare I say, the spirit of Dickens. The novel holds to Dickens’ own missive: “Make them laugh. Make them cry. Make them wait.” Readers chuckle as characters marvel that Scrooge maintained his new demeanor for a whole week and wager over how long that will last. Readers lament the hardships Scrooge sees in the workhouses, orphanages, and the houses of the working poor. Readers fret that enemies may end up getting the better of Scrooge or he will turn out to be his own worst enemy, and

enjoy the many surprises along his journey. A spirited adventure.

K. M. Sandrick

IN THE TIME OF SPIRITS

Beth Ford, Peony Books, 2024, $16.99, pb, 200pp, 9798869373748

In the Time of Spirits is a novel of the late 19th-century spiritualist movement, seen from the perspective of those who performed seances for gullible audiences. Its plot takes unpredictable, often confounding turns, much like its strong-minded heroine. Are her actions irritating or all too fitting? They certainly offer much to think about!

After losing her parents in a house fire in Washington, DC, 22-year-old Adalinda (Addy) Cohart inherits a tidy sum. Although she’s grateful for the support of her longtime suitor, Arthur Simmons, Addy doesn’t want to wed anyone. She adores Marie Corelli’s mystical novels and sees mediums as important role models for independent, adventurous women. Her interests lead her to New York City, alongside a female travel companion, and into the company of William Fairley, the handsome and charismatic assistant to the renowned Mrs. Alexi, whose spiritual talents seem fully plausible to the innocent Addy. Before long, Addy marries William, despite her previous aversion to wedlock, then accompanies him to London following an invite from a spiritualist organization. After being introduced to the secret tricks of his trade, Addy faces a lifechanging choice.

The author’s smooth prose, unencumbered by elaborate descriptions, ensures a fast-paced read as Addy figures out what she wants and what she can tolerate. The text is so sparing of details, though, that the settings feel generic. Aside from notable landmarks, Manhattan, London, and Paris of the 1890s appear much the same. The theatrical performances Addy attends and the museum she visits remain nameless. The exceptions are the seances themselves. Rather selfish and a poor friend to others, Addy is often an unlikeable protagonist. However, by the dramatic turns of the finale, one might argue she is a memorable one.

Sarah Johnson

THE ELGIN CONSPIRACY

Julia Golding, One More Chapter, 2024, £9.99, pb, 355pp, 9780008636890 / $2.99, ebook, 369pp, B0D52JVXNG

1812: Napoleon’s piecemeal plundering of a sybaritic array of European treasures had brought art conservation to its zenith in Britain. Diplomat Lord Elgin eagerly oversaw his final shipment of ancient marbles from the Parthenon, convinced he had dealt equitably with Greek officials as self-appointed custodian and Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. Controversy ensued, Lord Byron’s injured sensibilities hotly insinuating cultural vandalism of the highest order in scathing published indictments.

Enter Julia Golding’s warmly human fictional protagonists: gentle-mannered retired army

surgeon (and former laudanum addict) Dr Jacob Sandys and his raison d’être, shrewd, lightningwitted, earthy and humbly born actress Ms Dora Fitz-Pennington. Add their joint risky, ruse-filled undercover efforts to investigate a plausible death threat to Lord Elgin, an ostensibly motiveless murder or two, an archaic clandestine dawn initiation ceremony, a French librarian with a penchant for rare manuscripts and gentlemen’s fashion but a fluid identity and strangely illfitting past. Mix in copious gunpowder, a book of salacious prints, a dead-end here, a red herring there, a sprinkling of irked oneupmanship from Bow Street Runners utterly bemused by unexpected competition…et voilà: a rip-roaring, helter-skelter adventure careening breathlessly through Regency society from silk-bedecked aristocracy to the secret parallel networks of servants’ underground gossip, dramshop desperados and stage-door sirens, not forgetting Byron’s eclectic, eccentric entourage.

The deliciously audacious writing style perfectly illuminates the quicksilver plot, beguiling the reader with the equally mercurial interaction of the likeable sleuths in love. Together they create as many fireworks as their brilliantly farcical last-ditch battle-cry for justice…Will Jacob persuade his pistol-toting, lock-picking, wild-haired leading lady that life with him would knock a return to treading the boards into a cocked hat? Whatever the outcome, the two find plenty of stolen moments to celebrate survival of their iconoclastic life on the edge with a passion. An uproarious delight.

K. Darbey

TRAITOR’S GAME

Rosemary Hayes, Sharpe Books, 2024, £7.99, pb, 134pp, 9798340308788

Followers of Rosemary Hayes will be pleased to learn a new trilogy is on its way, beginning with Traitor’s Game. Not only is this a robust stand-alone novel, set firmly in a welldefined world and populated by an engaging set of characters, but it hints at diverse areas of exploration ripe for future development. So we are at least doubly hooked by a promising cast of characters from various walks of life ranging from the military to the rich and powerful, avaricious slum landladies, charmingly ambitious “theatricals,” impoverished fishermen, and wily smugglers. Gaining momentum through all this are hints of espionage and the muffled drumbeat of the Napoleonic Wars, all of this undercut by the military history of its central character, the dishonourably discharged Captain Will Fraser.

The author recreates a London as diverse

as her characters and vividly contrasts luxurious excesses with the lice-ridden stench and squalor of the grimy slums, establishing an endearing relationship between Will and his rougher associates – “who jostled and drank and spat and laughed beside him”. The relationship between Will and his brother Jack, missing when this narrative opens and only glimpsed as it progresses, forms a poignant and delicately handled strand to the storyline. This novel is a pleasure to read. The unpretentious prose flows easily and like all good research, we are barely aware of it.

Julia Stoneham

THE PORTRAIT ARTIST

Dani Heywood-Lonsdale, Bloomsbury, 2025, £16.99, hb, 326pp, 9781526669957

This atmospheric debut historical novel is immersed in the London art world in 1890, when a painting in brown paper, ‘the kind you get meat wrapped in at the butcher’s’, is found on the steps of the National Gallery. It is ostensibly by the artist and explorer, Timothy Ponden-Hall, who had been thought to have died 50 years earlier and whose works are celebrated for the skill with which they render their subjects alive in paint. This has led to ongoing speculation that he had discovered the ‘elixir of life’.

As the discovery is announced, rumours that Ponden-Hall is alive spread throughout London and beyond, and the gallery enlists Solomon Oak, a well-known art historian, to investigate the provenance of ‘a painting of exquisite detail and beauty’, albeit of a pig. Oak has to be coaxed out of seclusion in Oxford, following the deaths of his wife and oldest daughter. He has a strained relationship with his ‘unorthodox’ second-born daughter, Alice, who is quietly resisting being smothered by his protective fathering.

Soon Alice, along with a portrait sitter at the gallery, Grace, becomes involved in the investigation. As they dig into the mystery, however, secrets come to light that bring into question not only their family, but the values of Victorian society itself.

The Portrait Artist beautifully brings to life London just before the turn of the 20thcentury, and the characters are well drawn, authentic and sympathetic. Attitudes about the role of women in society, as well as race and ethnicity are subtly questioned in the novel, which also explores the era’s obsession with death and immortality. This finely written novel is richly evocative of both time and place and is highly recommended to readers of historical fiction.

Katherine Quarmby

MISERY HATES COMPANY

Elizabeth Hobbs, Crooked Lane, 2024, $29.99/ C$39.99, hb, 313pp, 9781639109739

In Boston in 1894, feisty twenty-oneyear-old Marigold Manners’ parents have just died from influenza. She learns that due to her father’s debts, she will inherit little.

After studying at Wellesley College and a life of comfort, Marigold is on her own and must depend on relatives for support. Many welcome her, but Aunt Sophronia Hatchet, who lives on barren Great Misery Island off the coast of Salem, entices her there with an offer to reveal family secrets. Marigold moves to the island where she meets her eccentric cousins, as well as their sinister father and his ghostlike mother, Alva. Marigold’s potential beau, Cab Cox, follows her to the island and courts her, even as she asserts her independence.

Finding living conditions on the island disorganized and filthy, Marigold cleans up the homestead and brings culture to her seemingly rustic relatives. She scours the kitchen, starts a vegetable garden, and introduces her cousins to posh society folks on the mainland. In the weeks it takes Marigold to reform the household, she encounters unsettling tales that may, or may not, be omens—talk of fire, poison, curses, illegitimacy, incest, drownings, hidden treasures, and guns. But despite her efforts as an amateur detective, she cannot learn the family secrets until a series of disasters reveals a web of deceit going back several generations.

Hobbs succeeds at creating an intricate plot, rising suspense, a bleak setting, and brisk dialog. She fills every chapter with gothic horror and unrelenting gloom, so readers may find the atmosphere overwrought and unrelenting. Although characters such as Cab Cox seem too good to be true, and others such as Alva Hatchet too devilish to be true, Hobbs portrays Marigold as a multifaceted “New Woman” with both spunk and self-doubts. I hope Marigold makes an appearance in future books.

Marlie Wasserman

THE TINKER’S SON

Paul Horvitz, Albion-Andalus, 2024, $18.00, pb, 296pp, 9781953220424

It is 1877 in the Pale of Settlement, the only place in the Russian Empire where Jews may live. Yakov Leibovich is destined to be a rabbi, a path decided by his teacher at the beit midrash where he studies Torah and Talmud every day, and by his disillusioned father, who earlier gave up his own studies. When Yakov is chosen in the draft lottery and conscripted into the Imperial Army for the Tsar’s war against the Ottoman Empire, his father and the rabbi find a semi-legal way to keep him out of it and assigned instead to a supply company ferrying goods to the front.

But the reassignment comes at a moral cost, and Yakov, when he discovers this, is tormented by guilt. Already itching under the traditional expectations of his isolated society, and beginning to read new thinkers from outside the Pale, he now begins to question everything.

The author has achieved pitch-perfect voice as Yakov tells his story in the first person and in present tense as it unfolds. His journey into the unknown outer world is one of both discovery and self-reflection as he abandons

his supply wagon to join an army unit at the front in a moment of expiation, kills an enemy soldier with a bayonet, and is badly wounded. The idea of forgiveness, both asked and given, drives him as he falls in love and looks for a way to hold onto his relationship with God while escaping the traditions that constrain him.

Yakov is a fully realized character, a seeker and a thinker. As we watch him take his first tentative steps toward another life, we hope that all goes well with him.

Amanda Cockrell

A MATTER OF PERSUASION

Theresa Howes, HQ, 2025, £9.99, pb, 336pp, 9780008666842

It is 1882 and Amy Eaton, a member of an old New York family, finds herself tasked with managing a disastrous downturn in the household finances. As a successful author she is able to provide some extra income, but she has to contend with the expectations and extravagances of her father and elder sister, as well as being called upon to assist her younger sister with childcare whenever demanded.

Amy struggles with the family’s disapproval of her writing, and with the constraints placed upon her as an unmarried woman. So it is perhaps unsurprising that she becomes drawn into the emerging campaign for women’s suffrage. And her life becomes even more complicated with the reappearance of the man she was once in love with, who she was persuaded to reject on the grounds of his social inferiority.

Amy’s latest novel is being written in instalments, each one bringing in some muchneeded income. But it proves to be her most difficult work yet: the storyline parallels her own, but the ending is uncertain.

This book is a clear homage to Jane Austen’s Persuasion, with obvious similarities between Austen’s England and New York’s Gilded Age. In both cases there is a strict social hierarchy, women’s roles are restricted, and there is a desperate need to find the right sort of husband. But here we can see glimmers of hope, as Amy struggles against the expectations of others and hopes for a future in which women are able to control their own destiny.

The writing may not be quite as subtle as Austen’s (few authors could achieve that), but this was an enjoyable read, and I was cheering Amy on as she quietly dealt with some of the –to a modern reader – outrageous demands of her family. Recommended for all Austen fans.

Karen Warren

THE BAKU INHERITANCE

Anne M. Kennedy, Wonky Cat Press, 2024, £9.99/$13.99, pb, 405pp, 9781068630200

Azerbaijan, 1890. When Anton Sabroski returns home after years away to find his father on his deathbed, he is horrified to discover the once-wealthy oil baron has been declared bankrupt, and the family’s oil fields are now in

others’ possession. To Anton’s amazement, his father has left him a mysterious package with a Fabergé egg and his will, which requires Anton to retain in his employment Klara, a puzzling and intriguing young woman.

But Anton has another reason for returning to Baku. He wants his talented friend Rafiq to design an oil tanker according to top-secret specifications that would permit it to use the Suez Canal. As Americans and European vie for control of the Caspian oil fields, Anton and Rafiq are caught up in a brutal clash between some of the world’s richest men, and Klara has her own secrets.

Kennedy immerses us in the melting pot that is Baku, where local companies have longsought to exploit the vast oil fields around the Caspian Sea, the world’s largest, landlocked body of water. Muslims, Christians, Jews and Armenians have co-existed uneasily in this far-flung outpost of the Russian empire, always subject to Tsarist rule as imposed by the Okhrana, or secret police. The arrival of foreign carpetbaggers upsets this fragile equilibrium and raises the stakes. The number of characters and their plots and counterplots makes for mesmerising reading, but at times I struggled to find my way through the maze. A character list would have been helpful.

In a background note, the author explains the historical events that inspired her and which of her characters are real and which fictional. Overall, a gripping novel that will especially appeal to readers who like unusual settings and historical fiction that informs as well as entertains.

Catherine Kullmann

THE SEASIDE HOMECOMING

Julie Klassen, Bethany House, 2024, $18.99, pb, 448pp, 9780764241017

This is the third book in Klassen’s On Devonshire Shores series. Claire Summers has been in disgrace for years, banished from her home and immediate family, and serving as an unpaid companion for her unpleasant, elderly aunt in Scotland. When her aunt dies, she takes a position as partner in managing a boarding house in Devon. It is in the same town as a seaside boarding home owned by her mother and several sisters. The family apparently has seen better days but, due to an entail, has lost their original home. Claire is hoping to re-establish some contact with them despite her disgrace. In a moment of uncharacteristic recklessness, she

had ruined herself and changed her family’s life forever. Redemption seems almost impossible. I loved this story, and will definitely read the other novels in the series. Characters are multilayered and change and grow throughout the book. There is a moral tone, but it is not preachy. The historical research is obvious throughout the narrative, and adds texture and veracity. Dialogue is usually simple but slightly formal, with no jarring attempts at regional or national accents. A diversity theme is skillfully woven in, and seems true to the history of the times. Each chapter begins with a well-chosen epigraph. I did have a little trouble in the beginning chapters figuring out who all the people were and their relationships, but that always happens to me when coming in late to a series. I did scratch my head over how in the world Claire could have been so foolish in the first place, but of course without that one out-of-character mistake, there would have been no story. Highly recommended.

Elizabeth Knowles

THE PARIS FOOTMAN

Rosanne E. Lortz, Madison Street Publishing, 2024, $12.99, pb, 291pp, 9781961708044

In Regency England, Lady Louisa is the season’s Incomparable, set to inherit a vast fortune upon reaching her majority… if only she didn’t have a nefarious uncle trying to sell her to one of his vile friends in a scheme worthy of the most disreputable pair of rakes. Louisa is no pushover—she seems to have every man’s number and the wit to match the most dastardly intentions, but can she go toe-to-toe with her uncle, the duke, long enough to claim her independence?

Gyles Audeley wants nothing more than to tend his growing rose garden and create a compendium of his horticultural experiences and expertise. But his chivalric nature leads him right into Lady Louisa’s path and takes them both on a journey farther afield from his Derbyshire home than he ever imagined. Though he sets out only to see to Lady Louisa’s safety, can he climb over the walls she’s built around her heart when his own begins to beat for her?

A strong and delightfully sassy voice infuses the narration of this romantic adventure from Louisa’s perspective, while Gyles’ character couches his point of view with more care. This book was hard to put down, and despite some minor typographical and typesetting faux pas, was a true delight to delve into. Female agency strains against the constraints of a man’s world in this engaging and heartfelt Regency romance.

Any Austenite or fan of historical romance with a strong female protagonist will enjoy being swept up in fetes and fates and joining a character unafraid to claim her own agency in a world so beautifully crafted by Rosanne E. Lortz in The Paris Footman. This is book two of the Kendall House series, and this reader is eager to go back for more in books one and three.

Margaret McNellis

BITTER PASSAGE

Colin Mills, Lake Union, 2025, $16.99/ C$24.99/£8.99, pb, 303pp, 9781662520600

Every so often a reader has to wonder at the creation of an epic novel which cannot have come from the author’s experience, yet is so intense as to appear that it must have. Such a novel is Bitter Passage, which follows the Arctic expedition in 1848 of HMS Investigator to find John Franklin and his surviving crew, who disappeared in 1845. Colin Mills mines the psychology of two very different men, Lt. Frederick Robinson and naval surgeon Edward Adams, who lead a party of illiterate seamen across the ice towards King William Land in search of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror

Billings, a favourite character of mine, who doggedly hauls a supply sledge singlehandedly, is described as a “heavily muscled man-child.” Living cheek-by-jowl in this bone-chilling cold for seven weeks makes for some visceral interplay between Robinson, who wants recognition and promotion, and the more compassionate Adams, who seeks redemption for his father’s suicide for which he feels responsible. The reader is forced willynilly into trying to understand these men, whose strengths and weaknesses are laid bare in this formidable world.

This is one of the most engrossing novels I’ve read, not a word of it extraneous to its subject which, it has to be said, isn’t for everyone. Beware graphic descriptions of things people prefer to pretend don’t happen to other people in extremity, and certainly the story brought to Naval Command, if they get out alive, will be suitably redacted, according to Robinson. Both men are haunted by their fathers’ legacies, and both use their wives as mental sounding boards for their actions. When I began this novel, I wasn’t sure I had chosen correctly, but I was completely engrossed within the first few pages. Colin Mills’ masterful command of language captures both the beauty and the terror of this constantly mutating land of ice and snow.

Fiona Alison

THE CASE OF THE MISSING MAID

Rob Osler, Kensington, 2024, $27.00/ C$37.00/£25.00, hb, 320pp, 9781496749482

It is 1898 in Chicago, and 21-year-old Harriet Morrow isn’t like other women. She tools around town on her bicycle, longing for the freedom of men’s clothing, and has no aspirations to marry. She’s drawn to women instead, although she knows that’s forbidden; plus, she’s set her sights

on becoming a private detective.

The head of the Prescott Detective Agency recognizes her potential and hires her as his first female detective but gives her only a week for her first assignment—to determine if a wealthy widow’s Polish maid has actually gone missing or simply skipped out of work.

Harriet’s preliminary investigations lead her to suspect the maid has indeed been abducted. She finds herself up against not only a deadline, but a Polish community wary of her questions, a dangerous criminal underground, and an office full of resentful, possibly sabotaging, male detectives. She finds help—and comfort—in the city’s hidden queer community.

Osler made his mystery debut with humorous contemporary “quozies” (queer cozies), but his historical fiction really showcases his talents. The Chicago setting is vibrant and atmospheric, the amount of historical detail spot on. Harriet is an intrepid protagonist, easy to root for; and she’s surrounded by a delightful supporting cast. Especially noteworthy are the often-addled widow who insists on calling her “Harry” and the missing maid’s sister, a potential love interest for the budding detective. The pacing of the mystery never flags. Even Osler’s author’s note is good reading for history fans with its details of his extensive research into the time period and queer history, and his choice of vocabulary for sexual identity. Highly recommended.

Paula Martinac

THE UNWEAVING

Cheryl Parisien, Tidewater Press, 2024, $21.95/ C$24.95, pb, 252pp, 9781990160400

Debut author Cheryl Parisien sets her novel in St. Norbert Parish, Red River, in 1869-70, as the new Dominion of Canada acquires Rupert’s Land from the Hudson’s Bay Company. Soldiers and surveyors from Ontario start surveying the lots, which are inhabited by Métis people. Métis are descendants of French and British voyageurs who moved west with the fur trade, marrying Indigenous women. The a la sayncheur flayshii on the cover is a three-

meter-long woven wool sash (belt/scarf) synonymous with Métis culture, and the title refers to the unweaving or unravelling of Métis community and culture. Parisien, herself, is a descendant of Métis from St. Norbert.

We experience their fight against expansionist colonialism through the Rougeau family: father Clément (farmer/ trader), wife Marienne (trying to hold the family together), Julien (idealist, oldest son), Charlotte (bead embroiderer), Suzette and young Fredie. Politician and Métis leader Louis Riel, regarded as the founder of Manitoba, forms a provisional government to address native and Métis rights. Often seen as controversial, here he is depicted as Montrealeducated, well-spoken and charismatic. Julien joins Riel’s Red River Resistance.

Parisien’s fluid writing and character development, especially of Julien and Charlotte on the brink of adulthood— with heroic Julien wanting to count, and Charlotte’s crush on British Callum Wakefield and her friendship with his sister Alyce as she teaches her French—build aspirations, then show condescending attitudes. It also adds a poignant coming-of-age element. Parisien writes from the Métis perspective, showing us their customs, way of life, humiliation, loss of land and dignity, violence towards them, and unfair treatment by both government and unscrupulous land speculators swindling them from long-settled property. We are privy to the slow disintegration of the Red River community; many are forced to move further west. Although Parisien’s distinctly Métis perspective deftly weaves in historical fact with her riveting story, the reader would benefit from historical notes and a bibliography. Excellent; recommended.

Gail M. Murray

GOLDEN LORD

Mary Jo Putney, Zebra, 2024, $27.95, hb, 369pp, 9781496739223

The adventures of the Tribe of Tremayne continue when their spymaster parents assign Lady Tamsyn, a biological daughter, and Caden, an adopted son, to escort the British ambassador home from France as the Peace of Amiens dissolves in 1803. Both Tamsyn and Cade are gifted with supernatural abilities, which they use to overcome a challenger when Cade is kidnapped and tortured. The danger unleashes their desire for one another, and as they adventure their way home, both dread how the family will receive news of their love. Putney, as always, creates appealing characters, Cade for his loyalty to the girl he’s loved from a child, Tamsyn in her bravery and self-sacrificial ways. Readers who can get past the vaguely incestuous brothersister relationship will appreciate the sweet development of love and passion. Historical details are authentic, though there are so many gifted individuals in this world that one wonders why they are considered unusual or strange. Cade and Tamsyn prove themselves equal to any danger, leaving little fear that

they will escape safely home in one another’s arms, but readers who enjoy lightly sensual historical romance with a hint of espionage and the paranormal will adore this book.

Misty Urban

THE TAKING OF IRENE HART

Madeleine Reiss, One More Chapter, 2025, £9.99, pb, 336pp, 9780008614232

1859. Hester, a widow, and her two daughters, mourning the loss of their beloved husband and father, take a stroll through town and happen upon a travelling preacher. Hester Hart is captivated and, within weeks, Ruby and Irene Hart are taken by their mother to join a reclusive religious community in the Somerset countryside. Ruby is wary of the Reverend Peters and his promises of eternal life and finds the rules of this new community stifling and restrictive. Her sister Irene, already delicate and prone to fits, seems to find a calmness and acceptance amongst the people of the Garden Kingdom; however, her health grows more delicate and her fits more frequent and violent.

Ruby fears for her sister’s safety. The community believe that Irene’s fits gift her visions of the future and bring her closer to sainthood, while their mother Hester seems entirely under the spell of the charismatic leader Reverend Peters. Ruby begins to question just how saintly the community is and befriends a local policeman who is also wary of the community, having discovered an abandoned baby near their farmstead and, just a few weeks later, a young woman hanged in the nearby orchard. This is a fast-paced gothic novel that explores themes of religion and morality, with hints of the supernatural and will appeal to fans of The Essex Serpent, The Shadow Key and The Silence Factory Lisa Redmond

THE LOST LADY

Jacqueline Seewald, Luminosity, 2025, £9.99, pb, 256pp, 9781738497935

In June of 1816, Brianna has run off from scandalous circumstances and finds herself lost amid the hustle of London’s Bond Street. Overcome by the heat and her distress, she faints. In true Regency romance fashion, she’s rescued by the handsome man standing nearby, James Winthrop. They are thrown together by an unexpected request from James’s mother to hire Brianna as a companion. Over several weeks they develop feelings for one another they both refuse to admit.

One day while out shopping, Brianna is recognised by the Duchess of Clarmont –her sister-in-law – and everything changes. Brianna is thrown into society and away from James, to the discontent of both. One night at a ball, Brianna is attacked and nearly kidnapped, but James rescues her again, and their shared passion ignites. Brianna recovers at home, hopeful that James will come and

propose, but he has set out to discover her attacker. Unfortunately, he’s caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and is accused of murder. Brianna must search for the true culprit to ensure James receives justice. This time, she must be the one to rescue him.

The plot of The Lost Lady follows a predictable path for a mystery Regency romance; however, many scenes are described in a de facto manner, leaving little to the imagination and making it hard for the reader to stay engaged. Often, word choice and anachronisms distract from the story. Brianna’s mysterious past and the events that surround her arrival in London are unique, yet contrived in a manner that made it difficult for me to suspend my disbelief. Though this novel brings together two lovers who overcome all the odds, it was a bumpy ride that left me unfulfilled.

Kelly Urgan

MURDER AT THE FOUNDLING HOSPITAL

Irina Shapiro, Storm, 2024, £8.99/$11.99, pb, 316pp, 9781805086604

Christmas 1858, and the murdered body of Amanda Carter, aged just 14, is found in the laundry of the foundling hospital in London. This is the third in the series where Scotland Yard’s Inspector Sebastian Bell and nurse Gemma Tate form an effective, if informal and clandestine working partnership to investigate and solve murders in the capital. Bell struggles to get full access to the hospital/orphanage at a time when the police authority was relatively new and often met resistance from the local population. Likewise, Gemma Tate has to be very careful that the authoritarian Matron Holcombe does not find out about her covert role in solving the crime.

The historical context is good, and the plot rumbles along agreeably in capable hands. The contingencies, uncertainties and cruelties of life in those times are effectively delineated. The characters are well formed and interesting, but while the historical architecture and context is in place, the overall impression and atmosphere are not sufficiently convincing that it is all taking place in mid-19th century London. Further, it may be a minor point, but many of the first names of the characters in the story were not that common at the time, and again this gives rather a modern taste to the narrative, in addition to the dialogue frequently incorporating more contemporary terms. Nonetheless, this is enjoyable historical crime fiction and a pleasure to read.

Douglas Kemp

THE REINDEER OF CHINESE GARDENS

Barbara Sjoholm, Cedar Street, 2025, $19.95, pb, 368pp, 9798991120609

A Norwegian woman unveils her colorful life in the Pacific Northwest at the time of the Yukon Gold Rush in this engaging novel. Dagny’s story unfolds through a series of journals she keeps as events occur. Prior to her

life in Washington State, she had already seen an amazing panorama of human life as the wife of a sea captain who sailed cargoes and passengers from Norway to Chile and Peru and to ports in China. With the accidental ruin of his ship, her husband finds work along the Pacific coast of the United States when large contingents of people and reindeer arrive looking to travel north.

Against this backdrop, Dagny has plenty of her own adventures in Washington and Alaska. She writes stories for the Norwegian press about life as an American immigrant while simultaneously crossing paths and melding relationships with a Chinese refugee (at the time of the Chinese Exclusion Act), and with a Sami woman from Lapland (then part of northern Norway) who is there at the request of the American government to introduce reindeer into Alaska. Dagny captures not only the twists and turns of her own personal journey from Norway to the U.S., but also the equally compelling stories of her foster children, her friends, her colleagues, and other community members who often made perilous journeys of their own.

The characters in this novel come fully to life in the journals’ pages. Fascinating details about the different cultures intermingling at this time and in this place come to the fore while the common humanity behind these differences is ever present. An entertaining and informative story of Scandinavian and Chinese immigration to the Western U.S. in the late 19th century, this novel will appeal to readers on many levels.

Karen Bordonaro

FATALLY INFERIOR

Lyn Squire, Level Best/Historia, 2024, $16.95, pb, 309pp, 9781685127831

This is the second mystery in a proposed three-part series featuring Dunston Burnett, retired bookkeeper turned detective. Lyn Squire must write in a room where the shelved novels of Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, and Arthur Conan Doyle look down on him. His implacable detective even wears a Deerstalker hat!

The time is 1872; the locale is London and its countryside. The heart of the mystery is focused on the disappearance of Charles Darwin’s daughter-in-law, Henrietta, from a locked room in his home. Darwin’s newly published theories on evolution and the furor they caused conservatively-minded citizens are seemingly the impetus for the woman’s kidnapping. Surprisingly, and even worse, Charles’s son and the woman’s husband, Richard Darwin, is accused of the crime.

The fast-paced plot explodes with surprising twists that involve secret keys, missed messages, complicated voyages, unexpected violence, complicated family relationships, a bumbling judiciary process, and religious prejudices. Lots of tears! Quite a few red herrings! Perhaps a bit melodramatic, but who wants to worry about that?

The narrative introduces a veritably

amazing collection of characters that include self-important politicians, crooked policemen, loving mothers, cut-throat (literally) gangs, loyal friends, depressed maniacs, crazy victims, lost children, and, of course, sweet damsels in distress. Readers will want to curl up in a comfortable chair with their favorite beverage and enjoy!

Joanne Vickers

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE CABINET OF WONDERS

Linda Stratmann, Sapere, 2024, £9.99/$10.99, pb, 244pp, 9780854955572

London, 1878. In book eight of Stratmann’s series, The Early Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, we meet a young Holmes who has broken off his studies and plans to become a ‘master detective’. To this end, he is honing his powers of observation and deduction. Although refusing to accept any payment for his efforts, he is happy to make enquiries when so requested. The narrator is Holmes’ good friend, Mr Stamford, who is about to take his final examinations in medicine. Stamford has become concerned at his friend’s lethargy and convinces him to attend the performance of a famous conjuror.

When a corpse is found inside the ‘Cabinet of Wonders’ used by the conjuror, Holmes is asked to investigate. He and Stamford are soon immersed in a world of illusion, peopled by all types of magicians and conjurors who appear on stages and music halls in the United Kingdom and Europe. Nothing and nobody are as they seem.

Linda Stratmann has clearly done her research, as is evidenced by her historical notes. I enjoyed her insights into the world of Victorian stage magic, as practised by a range of sympathetic and not so sympathetic characters. Furthermore, her measured narrative, reminiscent of Conan Doyle but without ever falling into parody, allows the suspension of disbelief so that we can indeed believe we are reading an undiscovered early work by the master himself. A treat for all fans of the great detective.

Catherine Kullmann

NATE: The Wyoming Story

Mark Warren, Wolfpack Publishing, 2024, $12.99, pb, 390pp, 9781639775361

By 1885, twenty-year-old Nathan Champion has left Round Rock, Texas behind and struck out for the new Wyoming Territory. He takes with him his reputation as a patient trainer of horses and a man true to his word. He latches onto a job with a small ranch near the Powder River and becomes their de facto foreman, recruiting some friends and family from Texas. All is well until he comes up against a cattle baron who, since he was born in England, feels he has the right to whatever cattle and land he can get his hands on. Unfortunately for Nate, the sham outfit known as the Wyoming Stock Growers Association is in league with politicians and local lawmen to

enforce these claims over those of the smaller ranches attempting to put down roots, in spite of the federal “free range” law.

Warren’s prose is rich with the twang of the Old West, and the story flows well in continuance of the saga laid out in Part One of the series. The number of similar-sounding names the reader must keep straight to sort out the good guys from the bad can be taxing, and the body count is also excessive even for that time period. What truly strains believability, however, is the saintliness of his hero in a time when gunslingers rule the range. I recommend this only for devotees of the genre.

Tom Vallar

THE UNEXPECTED DIVA

Tiffany L. Warren, William Morrow, 2025, $19.99/C$24.99/£10.99, pb, 432pp, 9780063322134

An extraordinary tale of Eliza Taylor Greenfield’s rise, in the years before the Civil War, from a plantation in Natchez to international stardom as the “Black Swan.”

When Eliza’s family is freed from slavery, her parents and sisters return to Africa, but she is sent to live with Miss Lizbeth, a wellto-do matron in Philadelphia, who educates Eliza and nurtures her astounding singing voice. But when Miss Lizbeth passes, Eliza’s future is called into question, so she must find a reservoir of inner strength to pursue a professional singing career. Her three-octave voice captivates listeners, and her fame grows. This fictional rendering of Eliza’s journey unfolds from her first-person point of view, through a voice that memorably conveys her resolve and perception of societal forces. Eliza’s internal narrative is layered and nuanced as she grapples with pressures to marry and raise a family, as well as with her ability to use her fame as a platform to promote social justice. Interesting detail on singing techniques and voice qualities brings Eliza’s performances alive. Scenes are richly set, putting the reader in a seat in the gas lamp-lit auditorium as Eliza’s lovely arias and ballads drift over the audience. The heartbeat of the story is Eliza’s incredible voice, with less focus on the racial prejudices and injustices she, her family, and her collaborators surely endured. A polished and powerfully enlightening tale of a 19thcentury musical giant who should have a far more prominent place in American musical appreciation and history.

Brodie Curtis

THE GIRL FROM GREENWICH STREET

Lauren Willig, William Morrow, 2025, $30.00/ C$37.00, hb, 352pp, 9780063306110

In the evening of December 22, 1799, Elma Sands, a young woman of illegitimate birth, donned her best calico gown and left her cousin Caty’s boardinghouse on New York City’s Greenwich Street, planning to elope with her wealthy intended. Twelve days later, her body was found in a well, and her purported fiancé, Levi Weeks, was put on trial. For those new to this real-life incident, a noted murder case from early America, Lauren Willig’s latest book reads as an edge-ofyour-seat crime novel, with sharp, panoramic characterizations and twists seemingly too fantastic to be true. For others familiar with the history, it resounds as a well-thought-out dramatization, capped by a long, satisfying author’s note.

The evidence against Levi is circumstantial, so the prosecution, led by assistant attorney general Cadwallader Colden, has an uphill battle. Already smarting from a recent loss, Colden knows his professional reputation hinges on success. And on the defense team are Brockholst Livingston, Aaron Burr, and Alexander Hamilton, an unlikely alliance of men with past entanglements, future political aspirations, and conflicting approaches. The atmosphere is tight with suspense as it becomes clear only Alexander seeks the truth as well as justice for Elma. Can he possibly win?

Guided by primary sources and careful analysis, Willig (who holds a law degree herself) brilliantly steers through events with Elma at the center, looking back to her position as a poor relation in her Quaker family, her relationships with cousins Hope and Caty, and Caty’s complicated role as major breadwinner in her marriage, which irritates her husband, Elias. The story has impressive stage-dressing full of details on household life and customs. Alexander, while a bit naïve and prone to verbosity, has a quick legal mind, and watching him and Aaron each try to out-maneuver the other makes for riveting fiction.

Sarah

Johnson

a contented existence with their father, with Minny managing the household and Anny attending to her own budding career as a writer. Then, on Christmas Eve of 1863, 26-year-old Anny awakens in the family’s London home to devastating news: her beloved father has died suddenly during the night. With him gone and their mother hopelessly insane, Anny and Minny must forge new lives—and new loves— for themselves.

Known today primarily for her biographical studies and essays (and also as the step-aunt of Virginia Woolf), Anne Thackeray Ritchie was a popular novelist in her time, and it’s good to see her featured as a heroine in her own right. Anny in Love serves her well: the writing is excellent, as are the characterizations, although those looking for suspense and high drama won’t find it here.

Well researched and based on primary sources, Anny in Love is a feast for lovers of all things Victorian, with appearances by Lewis Carroll, Ellen Terry, Julia Margaret Cameron, and Alfred Tennyson, along with Minny’s future husband, Leslie Stephen. A look at Wright’s Amazon page shows that she is a versatile novelist, whose books feature diverse settings and time periods; I look forward to seeing where she next casts her net.

Susan Higginbotham

THE LOTUS SHOES

Jane Yang, Park Row, 2025, $28.99, hb, 368pp, 9780778310679 / Sphere, 2025, £20.00, hb, 400pp, 9781408730300

In late 19thcentury China, Little Flower’s life is one of extreme poverty. Her mother binds her feet at a very young age to elevate Little Flower’s status. Perfect “golden lilies” will mean Little Flower is of good character and have a better life and marriage. When her father dies, her mother’s only option is to sell Little Flower so what meager resources they have can go to pay Little Brother’s apprenticeship. Girls are useless and expendable; Little Brother has a chance at a better life. So, at the age of six, Little Flower becomes a muizai (slave) to the prosperous Fong family to serve the daughter, Linjing.

ANNY IN LOVE

Barbara Wright, Onslow Square Books, 2024, $19.99, pb, 302pp, 9798990403604

As the grown, unmarried daughters of acclaimed novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, Anny and her sister, Minny, live

Linjing’s father forbids the binding of Linjing’s feet, because China is moving toward a modernized future. This means accepting Westerners and their ways, and foot-binding will become the past. This practice is so valued by Chinese society, Linjing is desolate but must obey. A muizai cannot have bound feet while her mistress has shameful, big feet, so Little Flower is forced to remove her bindings,

leaving her feet badly deformed. With great sorrow and humility, Little Flower learns to navigate her life of slavery. Linjing is jealous of Little Flower’s superior needlework and the extra attention it brings her. She is cruel to Little Flower, and their relationship is contentious. Upheaval in the Fong family turns Linjing’s future grim. As the girls grow into women, they refuse to surrender to the roles they were allotted – each in their own way.

Little Flower and Linjing are fully dimensional, strong characters who change and grow with life’s hard knocks. This novel is rich in plot and family drama, including fascinating details of Chinese culture, the devalued lives of Chinese women, and Chinese feminist history – an unforgettable, impressive work based on the author’s ancestral history.

Janice Ottersberg

20TH CENTURY

THE MASQUERADES OF SPRING

Ben Aaronovitch, Orion, 2024, £16.99, hb, 192pp, 9781473224407

Ben Aaronovitch opens The Masquerades of Spring with a quote from Toni Morrison’s novel Jazz: “I’m crazy about this city,” taking his wildly popular Rivers of London series across the Atlantic for an entertaining, if slight, romp through the Harlem Renaissance in 1920s New York. The narrator is a Bertie Wooster clone, the “disgraced fop and Englishman abroad” Augustus Berrycloth-Young, or Gussie to his friends. Gussie is an émigré who likes “nightclubs and jazz, and cups of coffee in the morning” and even has his own Jeeves, the valet Beauregard, who “floats in as if on a cushion of air” and makes withering observations “with just a touch of hauteur.”

But Gussie is catapulted out of his idle existence when he receives a surprise visit from his old friend, Thomas Nightingale, who has crossed the Atlantic in pursuit of an enchanted saxophone, said to possess a strange power over those who play it.

The pair dash around Prohibition-era New York in pursuit of the McGuffin, encountering a grotesque cast of musicians, cops, gangsters and flappers. It’s all a little breathless, with a plot as light and improvised as a saxophonist’s solo, but like some of the best jazz, there’s a sprinkling of madness and magic that carries you along.

Pete Sherlock

AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE

Anita Abriel, Lake Union, 2025, $16.99/£8.99, pb, 271pp, 9781662525537

Maggie is the newly hired star of the Maggie Lane Baking Show on morning television. The sponsors expect her to be married and at least enough of a housewife to bake a cake, so she marries Teddy after rejecting his previous proposals. But there are secrets in Maggie’s past, and she spends the novel worrying they will be discovered and Teddy won’t love her

anymore, particularly as her success begins to eclipse his.

The author has clearly done her homework on buildings, clothes, and hairstyles in 1950s New York, and a reader interested in that will appreciate those details. Unfortunately, the narrative is heavy on telling with little showing. When something important happens, there is summary rather than action and dialogue.

Maggie’s hasty marriage is the first of several implausible plot points. Maggie and her friend Dolly have secrets they feel they can’t confess to their guys – Maggie’s involving two previous relationships with a soldier during WWII and with a famous playwright, and Dolly’s that she is Jewish. Teddy, too, has a secret concerning his activities during the war, and although Maggie knows it troubles him, she won’t ask him about it directly. They spend a lot of time thinking “if only” they could tell, ask, discuss, actually communicate with these men. Instead, the plot rests largely on their implausible attempts at subterfuge and the misunderstandings that result.

A reader seeking details of fashion and social conventions in 1950 will find them. A reader hoping to be immersed in the lives of believable characters will be disappointed. The detailed descriptions read like set directions for a play, and we keep waiting for live people to inhabit them.

Amanda Cockrell

DOGS DON’T CRY

John F. Andrews, 46 North Publications, 2024, $14.99, pb, 287pp, 9798989383535

This novel tells the story of two French children, Marcel and Geneviève Durand, and their border collie Abby. As the German army approaches their village, the family must evacuate, but thirteen-yearold Geneviève has pneumonia, and her doctor says she cannot be moved. Meanwhile, fifteen-year-old Marcel plays war games with his friends and dreams of joining his father in the army. Their world is shattered when they receive news that their father has been killed in battle, and then their mother dies in an attempt to escape from the village. The children and Abby have nowhere to go except to the home of a distant cousin in Paris, whom they have never met. They know only his first name, Henri, and the name of the neighborhood where he lives. Henri is Abby’s former owner, and she is the only one who could identify him, if only dogs could talk. The children undertake a long and exhausting journey as Geneviève is sent to an orphanage and Marcel and Abby are left to walk to Paris. Dogs Don’t Cry is a poignant and

heartwarming novel about the plight of French refugee children during World War I. John F. Andrews tells the story from the alternating points of view of Marcel, Geneviève, and Abby. I found the dog’s point of view the most entertaining, and I especially loved those chapters. Abby is highly intelligent, and Andrews conveys her love for the two children very well. Marcel and Geneviève are wonderful characters too. Marcel wants to be a soldier but is afraid he won’t live up to his war hero father, and Geneviève wants to be a nurse, and is frustrated that her illness is slowing them down. Andrews’ description of their journey and the hardships they face is powerful. I highly recommend this book.

Vicki Kondelik

PARADISE ON THE PIKE

Sarah Angleton, Bright Button Press, 2024, $15.99, pb, 305pp, 9780998785301

This is a beautifully descriptive family saga focused around the World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1904. After his father’s death, Max Eyer and his mother sell their family potato farm in Stellingen, Germany, to Carl Hagenbeck, a famous animal trader, for him to build a zoological park. Max and his mother emigrate halfway across the world to live with Max’s uncle in St. Louis. Max finds work initially helping to build the World’s Fair exhibitions, but a chance encounter sees him working for the Hagenbeck family on their Animal Paradise on the Pike attraction, looking after exotic animals. Here Max meets the lovely Shehani, a Sinhalese dancer, and a brutal death threatens to tear his new life in America apart.

The pace of this story starts gently with Max’s transition from his old life in Germany, through to him being a new immigrant to America and then finally to him feeling that he belongs. With the introduction of the mystery element, the story builds rapidly to a surprising climax.

What I love about this story is the historical details on the World’s Fair; the reader comes away feeling that they have attended it with Max. The author shines a light on the attitudes and practices that were considered normal in 1904, but which society now knows to be wrong and she does it sensitively, without impacting the narrative. If you are a fan of formulaic historical murder mysteries, then this book is probably not for you. If you love an epic family saga grounded in real history, and with glorious descriptive prose, then you will not be disappointed.

Lizzie Bentham

33 PLACE BRUGMANN

Alice Austen, Grove Press, 2025, $28.00, hb, 368pp, 9780802164087 / Bloomsbury, 2025, £16.99, hb, 368pp, 9781526678744

The residents of an apartment building in Brussels are living their ordinary lives when the Nazi invasion disrupts their routines. The author brings us into the lives of these diverse characters as we walk the halls, drop in on conversations, observe the comings and goings,

listen at doors, and peek around corners. Is it possible to put the pieces together and really know what is going on in these characters’ lives and what motivates them? Some could be deceptive and engaging in questionable activities; some could be admirable and involved in heroic acts.

Walk in the front door, and there is the Everard family’s apartment; Mr. Everard is a notary. Head to the second floor, on the left is 2L, vacant after the death of widow Boudrot, and soon a Nazi sympathizer will move in; on the right the squawk of a saxophone comes from 2R where Dirk, the unlikeable schoolmate of Charlotte in 4L, lives alone after the death of his parents. Walk up another flight. In 3L is retired Colonel Warlemont of the Belgian Armed Forces, and in 3R is the busy-body Miss Hobart. Another flight up, Charlotte Sauvin is an art student living with her architect father in 4L. Across the hall in 4R are their friends, the Jewish Raphaël family – art dealer Leo, his wife Sophia, and children Julien and Esther, who will soon secretly escape to safety. In the fifth-floor former maid’s room is Masha, a seamstress and Charlotte’s mentor and confidante.

Each resident has their say in revolving chapters with Charlotte as the standout character and a central storyline. As we piece together relationships, actions, and conversations, we see betrayals and bravery; failures and victories; secrets revealed and sacrifices made in this original, engaging narrative of ordinary people living through difficult times.

Janice Ottersberg

GROWN MEN DON’T CRY

Susie Baggaley, Baggatelle Publishing, 2024, £8.95, pb, 380pp, 9781739140830

This is the third part of the author’s “Mac” series of novels that feature Dr Elizabeth Stuart-Mackenzie (generally known as Mac). Mac qualified from the University of Edinburgh as a medical doctor and was traveling on the P&O vessel to India in 1929-1930 to begin research on tropical diseases. Onboard, she met and had a fling with Dr Tom Wallace, the ship’s surgeon. But things went sour when Mac found out that Wallace was already married. This book in the series departs from the previous focus and instead concentrates more on Tom Wallace. His long-distance marriage to his brother’s widow is in trouble; he is enraptured by Mac and distressed that their affair seems to be at an end.

The historical context is excellent and thoroughly well researched, especially the parts that deal with naval elements, which is perhaps as it should be as Susie Baggaley is a keen sailor. The reader certainly feels that the author understands her subject and milieu, and the novel has a definite sound sense of historical context. The writing is capable if not outstanding technically, and the plot moves along at a good and reasonably engaging pace. Just one word about the cover, though,

which for this reviewer looks very amateurish and rather lets both the quality of the research and the writing down.

Douglas Kemp

THE QUEENS OF CRIME

Marie Benedict, St. Martin’s, 2025, $29.00/ C$39.99, hb, 320pp, 9781250280756

Dorothy Sayers is the narrator of this clever novel. Her fellow Queens include Agatha Christie; Baroness Emma Orczy, author of The Scarlet Pimpernel; Ngaio Marsh, and Margery Allingham. Dorothy and Agatha assemble them to join a Detection Club founded in London in 1931 by Sayers and G.K. Chesterton. Although the male writers welcome those two, they fear an “abundance of women” in their Club. The three crash their initial meeting and manage to join, but then are dismissed by the men. To prove they’re worthy. Dorothy suggests they solve a real murder. Her husband, the reporter Mac Fleming, is researching the story of an English nurse who disappeared in Boulogne four months earlier. Dorothy suggests she go with him to Boulogne to bring a novelist’s viewpoint and invites her four friends to come on their own. After the body of May Daniels is found with a syringe beside her, French and English police assume her death followed a drug deal gone bad. The press has a heyday sensationalizing the tale, reminding the five of the how police and journalists regard women, especially young women making their own way.

Through Sayers’ narration we see the Queens’ friendships develop and learn their approaches to “locked room” mystery writing, making this a kind of meta-mystery novel, with red herrings, false leads, and dangerous risks. Their original idea of impressing the males in the Detection Club seems frivolous after they see the scorn of men in power for “surplus” unmarried women. They’re now on a quest to rescue May Daniels’ reputation by finding the true circumstances of her murder. The Queens of Crime has all the appeal of a conventional murder mystery with the added dimensions of lively female friendships, justice for women, and the writing process itself. Recommended.

Jinny Webber

A DEADLY DISCOVERY

Ciar Byrne, Headline Accent, 2024, £10.99, pb, 339pp, 9781035413928

Another ‘Golden Age’ murder/mystery, this one set in Lewes, Sussex, in 1928, the distinctive feature being that the sleuths are none other than Virginia Woolf and her sister, Vanessa Bell. Indeed, almost all the Bloomsbury Set have at least walk-on parts as the story develops.

The book keeps close to the classic Golden Age format. The victim is a young archaeologist murdered at a dig at Lewes castle. As the two sleuths dig deeper into the case, they uncover more and more suspects, each with a motive to kill. The local police are

completely out of their depth. Eventually all is revealed, there is a dramatic denouement, and all the loose ends are tied up. It is a totally improbable tale, but that is not the point. It is a puzzle that invites the reader to help solve, and there is a neat and satisfying answer.

Lewes is the author’s hometown, and she conveys the sleepy Sussex ambiance perfectly. She is a horticultural journalist, and this is her debut novel. The sequel will appear next year.

Edward James

THE MANY LIVES & LOVES OF HAZEL LAVERY

Lois Cahall, Historium Press, 2025, $32.99/£25.99, hb, 310pp, 9781962465625

Hazel Martyn, John Lavery, Michael Collins: three names pivotal to Cahall’s fine biographical fiction, which features a large secondary cast of early 20thcentury historical figures. Of those three, only Michael Collins was known to this reviewer, but the other two stories weave through his, into a narrative that feels familiar and comfortable to spend time in. Hazel Lavery, née Martyn, is a free-spirited, artistic socialite with strong Irish roots. We become privy to the men in her life, but also her family loves, primarily her adored and tragic sister, Dorothy. Mrs Martyn, an elitist snob and less than attentive mother, exerts far too much control over her daughter’s freedom, but this results in Hazel having opportunities ladies of lower status would not have enjoyed. One of these is meeting Irish painter and portraitist, John Lavery, who, at almost twice her age, is not considered suitable for Hazel’s hand. Throughout many years their devotion never wavers, and they marry in 1910, after Mrs. Martyn’s death. The age disparity plays a positive role in Hazel’s search for a stable father figure, but over time becomes a dampener on her fun-loving exuberance.

The novel’s world view broadens as it draws in the charismatic Michael Collins, a leading Irish freedom fighter long before he falls for Hazel. Their relationship is touching and tenderly evoked. Within this framework, their shared love of Ireland and their achievements in promoting Irish independence, become the overriding theme. Cahall manages it all expertly, spotlighting a truly charming socialite who reinvents a simpler version of herself, using her drive and zest for life to influence a positive political goal. The novel explores Collins’ and Sir John Lavery’s, as well as Hazel’s, contributions to the times in which they lived. This vibrant portrait of Hazel taps

into the soul of yet another woman painted into a back-corner of history.

Fiona Alison

THE DELICATE BEAST

Roger Celestin, Bellevue Literary Press, 2025, $18.99/C$29.50, pb, 432pp, 9781954276369

The boy lives with his family, enjoying a life of wealth and privilege in the Tropical Republic in the 1950s. This lifestyle ends abruptly when the Mortician begins his rule and unleashes his undisciplined army to terrify the population into submission. The boy’s grandfather is arrested and narrowly escapes, a broken man. Other men ‘disappear’, leaving families searching, devastated, for months. The boy sees dead bodies thrown in the road.

He and his parents and brother are fortunate to escape to a new life in the United States, physically unharmed. He grows up, now referred to as Robert Carpentier, and travels to Paris to study. He feels detached from life in the US and in Paris, only starting to feel comfortable when a friend takes him to Greece where he can swim at beaches near Athens. It is there he meets Eve, and he falls in love. But this is not a romance. The shadows of his past envelop him. He continues to be unable to feel a sense of belonging; he has become a difficult man, isolating himself from a caring family.

The author increases the immediacy of this novel by writing in the present tense and close third person. He uses a minimum of dialog, relying on long, descriptive paragraphs to intensify the depth and breadth of the psychological wounds inflicted on a boy who has suffered no obvious physical harm. Especially effective is the extended metaphor of his friend Sebastian’s death, which drives home the point of man’s inability to escape his past. He is indeed ‘a delicate beast’.

This novel is intense, with each moment, each character given full value within the developing saga of Robert Carpentier. It is a landscape of time and place, tightly focused, accurately and flawlessly depicted.

Valerie Adolph

GLAMOROUS NOTIONS

embedded the notion of the appropriate healthy American family.

In 1951, Elsie Gruner frees herself from farm country Ohio to chase the American Dream to the bright lights of Los Angeles with her wannabe actor hustler boyfriend. Her waitressing job in a small café feels to Elsie as though her aspiration to be a dress designer is unattainable, but her sketches are noticed, and luck lands her a scholarship to the American Art Academy in Rome. There, a vivacious, funloving, and manipulative archeology student lures Elsie to remake her image, including changing her name to Lena Taylor, which gives her a powerful sense of self she can take true ownership of.

Once back in the U.S. Lena’s star rises rapidly. Taken on as a sketch artist at Lux Studios and quickly promoted to costume designer, she is in demand by the acting elite but finds herself in Hedda Hopper’s crosshairs as Hedda investigates Lena’s seemingly welldisguised origins. Lena’s relationship with screenwriter, Paul, carries its own dangers when the overzealous censor from HUAC becomes insidiously picky about his changes to Paul’s script, characters, settings, and costumes. As Lena’s past mistakes return to haunt her, she must play her part, bury her secrets, or lose it all.

Glamorous Notions has an unhurried approach to its characters and plot in its early chapters, but readers are swiftly rewarded once Lena arrives in vibrant Rome. The novel reads like a thriller. The plot is intense and dramatic, and it is always edifying to experience Chance’s scene-setting where she revels in minute detail to embed her characters firmly in time and place. The author writes superbly and never fails to weave a powerful story.

Fiona Alison

THE GIRLS OF THE GLIMMER FACTORY

Jennifer Coburn, Sourcebooks Landmark, 2025, $27.99/C$41.99, hb, 480pp, 9781728277288

Megan Chance, Lake Union, 2025, $16.99/ C$24.99/£8.99, pb, 395pp, 9781662515774 Following Chance’s previous 1950s-era novel A Dangerous Education , Glamorous Notions once again plunges into McCarthyism, this time exploring the Red Scare, Hollywood cinema, propaganda, and how entertainment geared to white Christian Nationalism

In 1941, Hannah Kaufman and her optimistic grandfather leave for the promising Jewish settlement at Theresienstadt. When they arrive, however, they find it is a ghetto that they are forbidden to leave. Despite the imprisonment, the ever-present misery and hunger, and the constant threat of being selected for deportation to labor camps further east, the residents of Theresienstadt find ways to build a rich cultural life, with musical performances, children’s education, and clandestine religious services. Hannah will do what she can to protect that culture and her people.

Working in the Ministry of Propaganda, Hilde Kramer-Bischoff dreams of being a filmmaker like her idol Leni Riefenstahl and furthering the Nazi cause. When she is chosen to assist with a documentary of the model ghetto Theresienstadt, she’s determined to help create a film that will catch the attention of those who could help her advance in

the Reich. When Hilde encounters her old childhood friend, Hannah, in Theresienstadt, she sees a potential liaison for the film crew, not thinking that Hannah’s suggestions might be deliberate attempts to undermine the film and its messages of propaganda.

The Girls of the Glimmer Factory is a loose sequel to Coburn’s excellent Cradles of the Reich, with familiar characters making reappearances. Taking place almost entirely in the ghetto of Theresienstadt, it is, unsurprisingly, a difficult and despondent story, with the reader as unsure and afraid as the characters of what comes next. The clueless Hilde, focusing only on herself and her advancement in the Nazi Party, adds another layer to the book, as she thoughtlessly exploits her privilege while mouthing propaganda-fueled platitudes. Her chapters are a contrast to Hannah’s chapters of pinching hunger, sadness, and fear. Also appreciated is Coburn’s compassionate and interesting author’s note. Worthwhile and thoughtful, Coburn has written another superb book.

Jessica Brockmole

THE UNDOING OF VIOLET CLAYBOURNE

Emily Critchley, Sourcebooks Landmark, 2025, $17.99, pb, 400pp, 9781728287195 / Zaffre, 2024, £16.99, hb, 400pp, 9781804185100

It’s 1999, and seventy-something Gillian is visiting Thornleigh Hall. Now a National Trust property, it was once a private home: somewhere Gillian spent time as a teenager and found herself involved in events that changed her forever. She’s spent decades forgetting about what happened at Thornleigh, but a letter from a relative of the family she knew there forces Gillian to confront her past.

In 1938, lonely fifteen-year-old Gillian Larking is at boarding school. She has a neglectful family and few friends – at least until the arrival of Violet Claybourne. Violet has been brought up at Thornleigh Hall, and this is her first time at school. She’s irreverent and a little odd – and the two girls become fast friends. But when Violet invites Gillian to spend Christmas at Thornleigh, it’s her glamorous older sisters, Emmeline and Laura, who really capture Gillian’s attention. She’s drawn to spending more and more time with them instead of her friend. So much so, that when an accident occurs during the Boxing Day hunt, Gillian finds herself committing to a deception with decades long consequences, particularly for Violet.

The Undoing of Violet Claybourne is a gripping read. The prologue sets the tone nicely, and the reader feels the suspense climb. The Claybourne family harbors many secrets, all of which produce a neatly constructed conclusion when the story moves back to the modern day. With echoes of the novel  Atonement, Critchley does an excellent job of portraying an upperclass English family’s decaying grandeur. This is a solid page-turner. I flew through the pages. Kate Braithwaite

THE STOLEN QUEEN

Fiona Davis, Dutton, 2025, $29.00/ C$39.00/£25.99, hb, 352pp, 9780593474273

Once again spotlighting New York’s worldfamous architecture and strong female protagonists in a poignant story, Fiona Davis has crafted a compelling tale set in 1930s Egypt and the Metropolitan Museum in the late Seventies. It’s all systems go at the Met in 1978 as two simultaneous exhibitions are being staged: the touring King Tutankhamun exhibition, and the Costume Institute display of the early 20th-century choreographer Diaghilev’s flamboyant and vibrant costumes, overseen by Diana Vreeland.

Within this whirlwind of preparation, sixty-year-old Charlotte Cross and nineteenyear-old Annie Jenkins cross unlikely paths, eventually striking up a partnership of sorts through common interests in ancient history. Charlotte, an Egyptologist, is curator of the Department of Egyptian Art. Annie is fortuitously hired as assistant to Vreeland and suggests the Costume Department borrow a stunning broad collar (necklace) from the Egyptian Art collection, to accent one of Diaghilev’s costumes. Charlotte recognised the collar immediately, when the Met signed it in, as one lost long ago in Egypt when she was a young woman, and is highly suspicious of its provenance, but is stymied by the director because the owner wishes to remain anonymous. The two women pass in the night as they prepare for the exhibitions and meet again the evening of the Met Gala, when things go wildly wrong and Charlotte can no longer ignore her tragic history.

Davis knows New York and its architecture well and expertly takes readers inside the famous museum with its thousands of artifacts and inevitable internal politics. The Egyptian settings exude a powerful sense of antiquity, and arguments for and against ownership of artifacts outside their country of origin reflect old and new thinking. Threading its way through the novel is Charlotte’s research into Hathorkare, Davis’s fictional Hatshepsut, an important and often overlooked Egyptian queen. The author’s notes are a welcome addition.

Fiona Alison

HOLD STRONG

Robert Dugoni with Jeff Langholz and Chris Crabtree, Lake Union, 2025, $16.99/£8.99, pb, 555pp, 9781662516306

Sam Carlson and Sarah Haber fall in love in the small town of Eagle Grove, Minnesota. In 1938, the nation is still in the grip of the Depression. Desperate to earn some money and learn job skills, Sam joins the Minnesota National Guard as soon as he finishes high school. He asks Sarah to wait for him. The wait turns out to be longer than planned.

Right before Sam’s three years are up, President Roosevelt federalizes the Guard and extends their term of service. Sam’s unit is sent to the Philippines shortly before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Sam fights in the hopeless battle for Bataan and

endures the notorious Bataan Death March. He suffers greatly in the two-and-a-half years that follow. Meanwhile, Sarah joins the WAVES and becomes a master codebreaker. In 1944, she finds herself in a situation where she knows that delivering the message she has just decoded could cost Sam his life.

Sam and Sarah are sympathetic and very heroic characters, but not stainless. Dugoni presents them with one moral dilemma after another. Often, there is no good option, and they must settle for the least-bad choice.

This book is hard to put down, but also often hard to read. Using graphic sensory detail, Dugoni spares his readers none of the horror of war. He puts you right there in the midst of the pain, the terror, and the odors of burning metal, gasoline, excrement, and decaying bodies. Recommended for fans of war fiction.

Kathryn Bashaar

IN THAT SLEEP OF DEATH

Jonathan Dunsky, Lion Cub Publishing, 2024, $26.99, hb, 370pp, 9789657795491

It’s 1952, and life is tough in the new State of Israel with harsh rationing, extensive poverty, and a thriving black market. In Tel Aviv, Adam Lapid – a former Hungarian policeman, Holocaust survivor, and former Nazi hunter who now works as a private investigator –copes with his nightmares by taking long, solitary walks through the deserted late-night streets. He’s fascinated when he discovers another walker: a man in army boots with a determined walk who is seemingly unaware of his surroundings.

One night, Adam discovers the other walker dead in a quiet park – murdered, with his wallet stolen. Adam reports the death anonymously to the police, knowing he would be their prime suspect if identified. By coincidence, he’s then asked to investigate the crime. Adam sets out to retrace the dead man’s time in Israel and ask provocative questions in an effort to uncover the truth. What he discovers is a pre-war crime that occurred in Poland and continues to create danger for a small group of Polish Jews – people who survived the war and have since tried to start a new life in Israel. As Adam uncovers a trail of intrigue, he risks becoming its next victim. He doesn’t know who to trust.

In That Sleep of Death is a well-paced, entertaining book that will keep you reading to the last page. Even though there’s a lot of conjecture and coincidence, the final resolution is satisfying. This is the ninth book in the Adam Lapid series, but can easily be read as a stand-alone novel. You may find that reading one Adam Lapid novel will leave you wanting more.

Judy Gregory

own life, and the girls are brought up by their mother’s friend, Katusha, and raised to be dancers at the Vaganova Ballet Academy in Leningrad. By 1958, the girls are in their late teens. Ballet school is coming to an end, and the competition heats up for a coveted spot in the Kirov, the premier Soviet ballet company. The girls are close, but very different, and when a government directive determines that only one sibling can join the Kirov, it seems obvious that Natasha, the more flamboyant, outgoing twin, will be the one to succeed. For the first time in their lives, the siblings are rivals – with dramatic and long-lasting consequences.

Durham employs an omniscient narrator which allows her to develop a large cast of characters and move her story across continents and decades. The girls’ paths divide with one continuing in the world of ballet, and the other pursuing a role in a Soviet-sponsored epic film production of War and Peace, blending historical characters – director Sergei Bondarchuk, for example –with fictional ones.

This is an ambitious novel which successfully depicts the dramatic upheaval between the two main characters. Both are fully developed, both are flawed, and their actions – at times jaw-dropping – are shocking but believable. There may be a few too many characters to follow, but that nit-pick aside, Maya and Natasha is a greatly enjoyable, immersive read. Cold War Russia can be fascinating to read about, and this one will surely appeal to fans of Colum McCann’s Dancer and Daphne Kalotay’s Russian Winter. Kate Braithwaite

LOOKIN’ FOR LOVE

Susen Edwards, She Writes Press, 2024, $17.99, pb, 388pp, 9781647427900

Lookin’ For Love tells a timely story about a young woman who escapes into alcohol and drugs as a way to handle her pain and losses. Writing in the first person, Ava Stanton describes her family as one without any motherly love, stability, and support. Ava confesses that a lack of a sense of belonging became an underlying “theme of my life.”

MAYA & NATASHA

Elyse Durham, Mariner, 2025, $30.00/ C$37.00, hb, 384pp, 9780063393615

Twins Maya and Natasha are born into tragedy. Their ballerina mother takes her

Ava was born in the early spring of 1944 in Ohio. After her father dies, the family moves to New Jersey and her mother remarries. After she changes her grades on her permanent high school record to please her mother, Ava’s life at home becomes unbearable. Following graduation, she attended Trenton State College, but leaves after one semester. She explains that she became a disappointment and disgrace in the family’s eyes. Her feelings of shame and guilt became overwhelming. She soon starts dating a high school dropout from an alcoholic family. The poor decisions Ava makes in her young adult life, due to a lack of a confidence and belief in herself, have a detrimental effect on her future marriages and relationship with her own two children.

The author tells a tragic but important and compelling story that expands over several

decades of the narrator’s life. The story moves at a fast pace covering scenes of Ava’s search for excitement, adventure, and a sense of belonging, occasionally at the expense of character development and interaction.

Frances E. Stephenson

THE KINGS HEAD

Kelly Frost, Atlantic, 2025, £16.99, hb, 304pp, 9781805462385

North London in the 1950s, and the still bomb-damaged streets are “governed” by a small girl gang called the Kings. Like most gangs, their main function and pursuit seems to be to defend their territory against other gangs intent on encroaching upon their property. Harry is a charismatic but dangerously ambitious teenaged girl, just back from a spell in prison and, resuming the initiative in the gang, decides to seize some adjoining territory from a rival gang. Naturally, this causes all sorts of brutal, violent response. The female characters all seem to have names which can be shortened to male diminutives (Tony, Harry, Les, etc.) giving them, presumably, a more masculine sense of threat and dominance.

Kelly Frost is a young, first-published author, and she writes in a direct, pointed, assertive style commensurate with the lifestyle and language of the girl gangs in London. But occasionally it becomes decidedly literary, and the descriptions can be a little obscure – to take an example, “The plans swirled in Harry’s head like fleecy clouds across what remained of the day’s blue sky, teased apart, slowly clomping together”. I have to admit to hitherto knowing nothing about the culture, style and practices of 1950s female gangs in London, and hence assume that Frost’s depictions of the quite baroque clothing fashions are accurate. There is a strong sense of historical context with the north London streets still recovering from the depredations of German bombing and with the country looking to find its new role in the world, just like the young women are exploring their own part in a traditionally male-dominated sphere. The story is plotted capably, and the story and subject interesting. On the evidence of her debut novel, Kelly Frost should have a sound career ahead of her as a writer.

Douglas Kemp

VIENNA ON FIRE

Don Gabor, Blue Danube Press, 2024, $22.99, hb, 289pp, 9781879834019

Eighteen-year-old Greta Kolbe would like nothing better than to savor her youth, her happy home life with her mother and father, to look forward to university in the fall, romance and scholarship. But she lives in Vienna in 1938, and the Nazis have just invaded. Vienna on Fire brings to startling life the awful reality of what happens to normal people when their lives are completely undone by an evil that, months, weeks, days before, would have been unthinkable. To survive, Greta must leave everything she knows behind, leave everyone she loves to their own unknown fate.

Her parents have sacrificed everything to see that she gets transport on a ship to America. The problem is, and there are many of them on her perilous journey, she is wanted by the SS and the Gestapo for murder.

Much of Europe is on fire or will be soon. Greta has been raised a secular Jew who has attended church and celebrated Christmas. Now, she is simply a Jew, a criminal on the run. Can she make it to the Netherlands before she is detained and sent to one of the new German camps?

Vienna on Fire is a fast-paced Olympian sprint mined with dangers every mile of the way. Evil is palpable. Trust a thing of the past. Greta’s life has become a nightmare where the next instant can bring salvation or calamity.

Author Gabor’s writing is sleek. There are no slow moments. Sometimes the dialogue is a little stiff, relaying interesting, perhaps, but not necessarily needed information rather than heightening the emotion of the moment. But the characters come to life, and the writing will pull you swiftly to the last page. Unique enough in the WWII genre to be a compelling read.

Peter Clenott

THE MISCHIEF MAKERS

Elisabeth Gifford, Corvus, 2024, £17.99/$24.95, hb, 324pp, 9781838959821

This is a beautifully told historical novel following the life of Daphne du Maurier, the famous author. It starts in the early 20th century and finishes in 1970. We follow Daphne growing up in the talented du Maurier family, desperately wanting to be a writer. She is encouraged by J. M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, and the guardian of her orphaned cousins. Throughout her life, she experiences love and loss, light and darkness. Her love for Cornwall inspires her novels, but it is Barrie’s mysterious influence on her family that brings the shadows that haunt her mind and her works.

This novel is perfectly paced and draws the reader in. It contains elements of romance and mystery, and there are nods to all of Daphne du Maurier’s literary creations. There are some very evocative descriptions of locations in Cornwall, which help create a melancholy and rich tone to the prose. I personally didn’t know a lot about Daphne du Maurier’s life and her family history, before reading The Mischief Makers. Elisabeth Gifford is such an enthralling storyteller that I was encouraged to read around the subject matter further, which is in itself fascinating.

Once I picked up this book, I found it very hard to put down. I would highly recommend this novel for some cosy Sunday afternoon reading.

Lizzie Bentham

A SCANDALOUS AFFAIR

Leonard Goldberg, Pegasus Crime, 2025, $27.95/C$36.95, hb, 272pp, 9781639368358

In this enjoyable continuation of a well-liked and well-crafted series, Sherlock Holmes’s daughter, Joanna, must prevent a scandal that

threatens the highest levels of government at a crucial moment during the Great War. Her client is Sir William Radcliffe, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who is being blackmailed with compromising photographs that involve his granddaughter, who is recently engaged to be married. Sir William has already attempted to appease the blackmailer by acceding to his demands for money, but the result is a threat of even more salacious pictures and a demand for even more exorbitant sums. Joanna and her husband, Dr. John Watson, Jr., must venture into opium dens and seedy docksides to unmask the blackmailer.

Some Sherlockians may object to the plot’s emphasis on action rather than ratiocination. The identity and motives of the blackmailer are established early, so the story is much more of a chase than any real mystery. What deduction there is, is done by Joanna’s husband, John Watson, Jr., and his elderly father, John Watson. Both Watsons are trained physicians (as is the author) so the story’s most dazzling detective work depends on their medical knowledge. Joanna’s resemblance to her famous father depends more on her attitude and taste for cheroots than any demonstrated mental abilities. But Joanna’s precociously brilliant son, Johnnie, is an enjoyable foil to his mother, although he is introduced so late in the book, the reader may wish to see more of him. Overall, a likeable pastiche that is sure to be enjoyed by fans of Enola Holmes.

Erica Obey

BEYOND THE BUKUBUK TREE

Loretta Goldberg, MadeGlobal Publishing, 2024, $18.99/£14.99, pb, 357pp, 9788412232585

Goldberg writes this taut, dramatic novel to honor her childhood memory of an uncle who served in Australia’s World War II Lark Force. She has spent considerable effort in researching this widely forgotten, lamentable episode in military history to create a pageturning story.

Jake Friedman, the protagonist, is a naïve, young Jewish doctor who joins the military because of his guilt about a young colleague who was killed in an automobile accident when he was driving a car. It is 1941. Jake is sent to a remote post in Rabaul, New Guinea, where he works enthusiastically with the native population, even developing a novel treatment for helping young patients suffering from polio. Jake’s interactions with these people are developed with detailed energy.

Jake is gay though he has tried to hide his sexuality for the sake of his family in Melbourne who expect him to marry and have children. In Rabaul, he meets a man he falls in love with, though his background and experience are much different. In spite of various difficulties, including the necessity for keeping their love secret and the threatening war, they eke out a tender relationship that Goldberg portrays with care.

The Japanese invade New Guinea shortly after Pearl Harbor. The invasion is brutal. The

Australians are confronted with the enemy in a jungle terrain with very few military defenses and overwhelming threats such as mosquitoes and polluted water. The author’s descriptions of this warfare are detailed, almost cinematic. This is not an easy novel to read, but it is a remarkable testimony to the human spirit.

Joanne

Vickers

THE HOUSE WITH NINE LOCKS

Philip Gray, Harvill Secker, 2025, £18.99, hb, 416pp, 9781787304420

Ghent, Belgium, in the early 1950s. Adelais de Wolf is a teenaged girl from a rather troubled Flemish family, with her parents’ secrets emerging during the narrative. Adelais is disabled from polio – a bright and engaging female but also strongly defined by her infirmity.

Two events crucially influence the course of her young life: one when she saves the life of Sebastian Pieters, who falls off his bike and nearly drowns in the river, and the other when her much-loved Uncle Cornelis leaves her a very surprising bequest following his sudden and premature death. The essence of the story is the production and circulation of counterfeit banknotes in Belgium and the police operation to track down the perpetrators.

The historical context is exceptionally sound and authentic; Philip Gray immerses the reader in the peculiar times and milieu of postwar Belgium. The narrative is excellent, and the reader is thoroughly engaged with the plot and the cast of intriguing and convincing characters. There is one element in the book that is perhaps a little unusual – Adelais makes two very important decisions in her young life, but the author seems to present both of these key choices as fait accompli, and elides the deliberations that went into making up her mind, as well as skating over all the substantial effort and work that was triggered by her second decision and which seems a little beyond the bounds of possibility that a young girl could achieve whilst relying upon gaining large bank loans. Nonetheless, this is most enjoyable and intelligent historical fiction.

Douglas Kemp

FOLLOW ME TO AFRICA

Penny Haw, Sourcebooks Landmark, 2025, $17.99/C$26.99, pb, 304pp, 9781728295459

Penny Haw’s Follow Me to Africa is a richly detailed narrative that captures the spirit of adventure and discovery. Inspired by the life of Mary Leakey, one of the foremost paleoanthropologists, the novel spans two timeframes, immersing readers in both the vibrant landscapes of 1930s archaeological digs and the emotional complexities of the 1980s. In 1983, 17-year-old Grace Clark, reeling from the loss of her mother, reluctantly accompanies her father to Tanzania. There, she meets seventy-year-old Mary Leakey, who

enlists Grace’s help in sorting through decades of her work and memories. The dynamic between Grace and Mary is beautifully crafted, with their interactions providing poignant reflections on Mary’s own youthful escapades sneaking into lectures and excavations in the 1930s. These moments of mentorship and shared passion for discovery are some of the novel’s most touching and illuminating.

Haw’s prose is immersive, making readers feel as though they are truly there, experiencing the heat of the African sun and the excitement of unearthing historical treasures. The dual timelines are seamlessly woven together, enhancing the narrative’s depth and resonance. Follow Me to Africa is an engrossing read, celebrating the enduring legacy of Mary Leakey and the transformative power of curiosity and perseverance. Highly recommended.

Ellaura Shoop

SIX WEEKS IN RENO

Lucy H. Hedrick, Lake Union, 2025, $16.99/£8.99, pb, 271pp, 9781662525711

In 1931, Nevada, already a popular divorce destination, lowered its residency requirement to six weeks, and a flood of unhappy women took the train west to wait out their residency for a chance to start over. Evelyn Henderson leaves behind an appalled sister, a withdrawn husband, and a marriage that has effectively ceased to exist. She has no idea what she will find at the other end, but anything has to be better than this. Evelyn meets a crew of other “six-weekers,” and we watch through her eyes as they all undergo changes in personality, ambition, and sense of self – some for the better, others tragically.

The first-person, present-tense narrative serves well to make an unsettling, sometimes frightening experience immediate. The time, the beginning of the Depression, is well researched and skillfully woven into the narrative. The landscape of Nevada itself is as much a character as any of the women – a stark contrast to Evelyn’s home in New Jersey –offering both danger and possibility.

The only jarring note is the decision to use the terms “Native American” and “African American,” designations that did not come into use until decades later. If the author (or a heavy-handed sensitivity reader) felt that her audience would be put off by the use of “Indian” and “Negro” (the polite language of 1931), better choices would have been either to include an explanatory author’s note or to indicate ethnicity by description. The otherwise authentic sense of time and place dissolves every time one of those terms appears. In all other respects, this is a terrific book with well-developed characters who we can root for all the way through their six-week metamorphosis.

Amanda Cockrell

WITCHCRAFT FOR WAYWARD GIRLS

Grady Hendrix, Berkley, 2025, $30.00/ C$39.99, hb, 496pp, 9780593548981 / Tor Nightfire, 2025, £22.00, hb, 496pp, 9781035030873

At a home for unwed mothers in 1970 St. Augustine, Florida, pregnant 15-year-old Neva is dropped off by her father without even a goodbye and quickly learns no one is going to tell her the truth. The truth about what they’re feeling, what to expect, or even what happens during a doctor’s exam. “You’re here to shed your sin.” “Listen and do what you’re told.” She’s even given a new name, Fern, and told not to discuss her past with anyone. When an eccentric librarian gives Fern a book about witchcraft, she and three other girls unlock a power they’ve never experienced before. But that power will come with a very steep price. It’s easy to slip into the period with the injections of slang, pop culture, and the social climate references into the prose. The witchy elements emerge slowly while readers experience the horrific, oppressive conditions vulnerable girls were forced to endure prior to Roe v. Wade. Hendrix masterfully weaves in the tension, the moments to make the heart pound, and some body horror/birthing gore. I highly encourage checking out the author’s website to learn about his motivation for writing this book, because the story transcends the horror genre. Its most terrifying moments aren’t from the witchcraft but from reality. As the characters’ innocence is slowly shattered, readers will find their hearts bleeding alongside girls who have been abused, abandoned, and slandered— particularly as our main characters are only 14 and 15 years old. This is an unapologetic coming-of-age story of pregnant teens without the option of autonomy who, after being silenced and shipped off to give birth, will suffer the rest of their lives as their babies are taken away and they’re told to forget. It’s an unforgettable, brutally honest read that’s timely in its release.

J. Lynn Else

ONE GOOD THING

Georgia Hunter, Viking/Pamela Dorman Books, 2025, $30.00/C$39.99, hb, 432pp, 9781984880932

Fans of World War II fiction who have read Georgia Hunter’s first book, We Were the Lucky Ones, or seen the limited series on Hulu, will be chomping at the bit to get their hands on this one. They will not be disappointed. The story,

while smaller in scope, again tells the story of ordinary people ensnared in the vise of fascism.

Hunter focuses on Italy this time, where a young Jewish woman named Lili and her friends, Esti and Niko, are beginning their lives after university. Esti and Niko have started a family while Lili enjoys a budding career as a journalist. Hunter effectively develops these characters as their world slowly becomes a boiling vat—Lili, the sensible one; Esti, the rebel; and Niko, the playful young papa. Bit by bit, they lose their freedoms and must come to terms with a new and violent reality. When Niko leaves to help his family in Greece, Esti convinces Lili to relocate to a small village with her and her young son to help take care of a group of Jewish orphans. As the war machine moves inexorably closer, Lili must relinquish the dreams of the past in order to fight for the future.

Drawn from actual events, the story shows us not just the villains but also the many ordinary heroes who risked their lives to help the oppressed. Rather than dwelling on the horrors of the Holocaust, Hunter focuses on the emotional cost of loss as well as the resilience of the human heart. This is a beautiful, compelling novel. The pace is slow at times, but it never drags. As with her earlier book, there’s a feeling of forward momentum at the conclusion—a defiant hopefulness that may well bring tears to your eyes.

Trish MacEnulty

BLOOD SACRIFICE

Douglas Jackson, Canelo, 2024, £16.99, hb, 288pp, 9781804367490

January 1943. As 50,000 Jews in the Warsaw ghetto prepare to ‘create a story that will never be forgotten’, double agent Jan Kalisz is prepared to supply them with weapons. Smuggling them into the ghetto will be difficult. The Jews are starving, but they have treasure to trade—gold, gemstones, Picassos. Isaac Goldberg is ready to fight to the death. He tells Kalisz, ‘The Nazis will have us for breakfast; they’ll have you Poles for dinner’.

New Gestapo member, Axel Weiss, is found hanging, and the man had secrets— and multiple aliases. Was he investigating corruption in the expropriation of the Jews or looking for a piece of the action? The SS are a danger; the ghetto is a danger; traitors are not tolerated. The King of the Ghetto, The Piano Man—the saviour of the Jews or another Nazi bloodsucker? There is another threat, a cannibal targeting starving orphans, called The Golem.

The Warsaw Ghetto, just before the final blaze of martyrdom, is a powerful setting. The

stories of persecution, as the Nazis exterminate the Jews one street at a time, painful to read, give the story unstoppable tension. The people who orchestrate this terror use euphemisms— ‘taken the train’, ‘resettled in the east’—to dehumanise what they are doing, which only serves to accentuate it for the reader.

The time-bomb in this story is horrific, and we feel it ticking on every page. Just when you think the stakes couldn’t be higher, it gets even more exciting. Jackson is masterful at giving away information a bit at a time, keeping us hooked. We’re kept guessing the whole way through—Who are the good guys? Who are the collaborators? Who is hiding what secret? The complex social identities—Germans/ Poles, Jews/Aryans, Nazis/Resistance, Zionists/ Communists—make for fascinating character interactions.

Susie Helme

PEOPLE OF MEANS

Nancy Johnson, William Morrow, 2025, $30.00/C$37.00, hb, 368pp, 9780063157514

This ambitious and captivating dual narrative explores the life of a mother and daughter, trying to navigate the turbulent 1960s and 1990s. Each is a “person of means,” an African-American woman who believes that her social class will insulate her from the brutality and insidious racism of American society. Freda comes of age in 1960s Nashville while attending Fisk College, a historically Black college that both her parents attended; Tulip, her daughter, is working toward a promotion at a high-end, mostly-white Chicago advertising agency. The families of both protagonists try to create a bubble of privilege, where each woman is given every possible advantage. Johnson’s well-researched and well-conceived story raises important questions about race, gender and class, challenging the foundational principle that hard work and sacrifice will allow everyone to live a meaningful and successful life.

We want to believe this. But like the figures in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, our perceptions and even realities are shaped by what we experience. Until the events in this story, Freda and Tulip could believe that everything was possible. But what happens to them in these pages forces them to accept a new reality about race and their place in American society. The beauty of this story is that Nancy Johnson gives us the opportunity to stand with them, feeling what they feel: optimism; confusion; even despair. Still, though, the story is hopeful, as Freda and Tulip are called upon to try again to build the beloved community based upon equality and freedom. This is the challenge for all of us: to see our society clearly and yet keep working for social change.

Suzanne Uttaro Samuels

THE ENDEAVOUR OF ELSIE MACKAY

Flora Johnston, Allison & Busby, 2025, £22.00/$28.00/C$39.95, hb, 346pp, 9780749031374

Elsie Mackay. So much for people to admire. Wealthy, physically attractive, and intelligent. A successful moving picture actor, the first female jockey, and employed as an interior designer for the P&O shipping line, her father’s company.

In personality she’s charming, sensitive and driven. As a person she’s hard to dislike. Her one major passion, out of all her many famous and infamous fields of endeavour, is aviation. Dedicated and professional, she’s making waves in the male-dominated world of flight. Elected to the advisory committee of pilots to the British Empire Air League, she’s showing her worth to the world, even if she has to fight against the wishes of her magnate father who despises air flight.

One of the Paris Peacemakers series, this fictional account of part of this remarkable woman’s life shines a light on interwar conditions. From the shipyards and the tenements of Glasgow to the fascism of Mussolini’s Italy, the story brings home the impact of rebuilding after the Great War, and the life of an incredible woman!

Alan Cassady-Bishop

MURDER IN THE RANKS

Kristi Jones, Crooked Lane, 2024, $31.99/ C$41.99, hb, 304pp, 9781639109715

Twenty-nine-year-old Dottie has joined the new Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps. Its members perform back-office work for America’s military in North Africa. This novel opens in 1943 at an Army-Navy dance in Algiers, which Dottie must attend to mingle and supervise her WAAC squad members. Before the dance ends, one of her squad members, Ruth, lies dead in the street. The Military Police investigator quickly concludes Ruth took her own life by jumping from a high balcony. Dottie can’t believe that and presses the MP to look deeper. Ruth’s boyfriend becomes the prime suspect but is soon cleared.

A black market in stolen American goods plagues Algiers and may have triggered Ruth’s killing. Other members of Dottie’s squad become suspects, even Dottie herself. Years before the war’s breakout, she had married Konrad, a German. They had a daughter, Sadie. One day, Konrad grabbed Sadie and headed back to the Fatherland. His last letter to Dottie, in German and with a German stamp and swastika, comes to light and thwarts Dottie’s pursuit of Ruth’s killer. She’s placed under guard, stripped of leadership, and scorned as a German spy.

Dottie is easy to root for. She still suffers from her life with brutish Konrad and must overcome the disdain of most military men with whom she now works. Her lost daughter makes for a constant heartache. The settings and military details around Dottie all ring true. However, longer dialogue passages read like

short, well-edited essays and not like people under stress would speak. Readers will also need to overlook too much lip biting, even a mouth “twisted into a frown.” Nonetheless, Dottie and the complex plot deserve a sequel. Will Dottie and Sadie reunite? Will Dottie chase down other crimes in WWII or later?

G. J. Berger

CITY OF DESTRUCTION

Vaseem Khan, Hodder & Stoughton, 2024, £20.00/$26.99, hb, 399pp, 9781399707657

Vaseem Khan writes police procedurals, but with Khan you always get more than a detective story. His Malabar House series centres on a police station in Bombay in 1950, in newly independent India, and almost every crime seems to have political ramifications. Indeed City of Destruction starts with an attempt to assassinate the Minister of Defence.

Some readers may prefer a more classic whodunnit, but Khan wants to tell you about India, its politics, its history, its social problems and its diversity. This suits me; it is 100 years ago this year that my father first landed in India, so I grew up on stories about the subcontinent, but I am sure many other people share my fascination.

The central character in the series is Persis Wadia, India’s first woman Detective Inspector. Frustrated by the political restrictions on her work she repeatedly ‘goes rogue’ and pursues her investigations even when taken off the case. Invariably she puts herself in extreme danger and escapes often by sheer chance.

City of Destruction has a more credible plot than some others in the series while retaining the same depth of characterisation and local colour. I enjoyed it and hope to come back for more.

Edward James

MURDER AT GULLS NEST

Jess Kidd, Faber, 2025, £16.99, hb, 333pp, 9780571378944 / Atria, 2025, $28.99/C$34.99, hb, 336pp, 9781668034033

This is the best written historical murder mystery I have read this year. The first in the Nora Breen Investigates series, it is set in the 1950s in Gore-on-Sea, an English seaside town, during off-season. Miss Nora Breen, formally Sister Agnes, decides to leave her convent after a vocation of thirty years. Back out in the world, she could have chosen to go anywhere and do anything. For her own reasons, she arrives at Gulls Nest, a

genteel, if down-at-heel guest house full of misfits. There are poisonous undercurrents between the residents, and it is not long before a body is found. Nora’s inquisitiveness and her no-nonsense manner, picked up during a convent infirmary nursing career, is pivotal to her winkling out the truth and bringing the guilty to justice.

Nora Breen is a very likable and audacious mix of Miss Marple crossed with Sister Boniface from the BBC TV series, with extra sass. Her backstory makes her more threedimensional than some fictional sleuths. Nora’s detecting foil in the battle-scarred Inspector Rideout is inspired, and I foresee a long partnership full of banter. From the author’s description of Gore-on-Sea, you do get a real sense of a seaside resort which is on the cusp of descending into seediness.

The story is narrated in the present tense, which took me a couple of chapters to get used to, but definitely adds pace. The plot is twisty but at the right level to carry the reader along. I had my suspicions fairly early on whodunit, but the reveal is very satisfying, and I went away feeling smug with my own deductions. This is a highly enjoyable book, perfect for a cosy Sunday afternoon, or a holiday read.

Lizzie

Bentham

MISS BURNHAM AND THE LOOSE THREAD

Lynn Knight, Bantam, 2025, £16.99, hb, 304pp, 9780857506467

Miss Burnham and the Loose Thread is a cozy mystery set in 1925 London, where the population is grappling with the changes brought about as a result of World War 1, particularly the shortage of men. Rose Burnham, and her sisters—Ginny (a war widow) and Alice—use their talents as seamstresses to build a business. Others, desperate to find a husband, turn to a matrimonial agency. However, ‘Cupid’s Arrow’, has been set up to exploit vulnerable women of means, and when one of Rose’s key customers confides that she has been duped, Rose determines to find the man responsible.

The female protagonists are diverse in background, character and desires, and Knight has provided a clear view of the differing pressures and problems they face. The writing is sharp and perceptive (‘stray words pierced the air and hung there; a gramophone would have helped’), and Knight’s background as a non-fiction author has ensured the authenticity of the descriptions of clothing. However, the level of detail tends, on occasion, to slow the pace of the story. One character presents Rose with two mysteries to solve, but as only one relates to the main plot, I found the second an unnecessary distraction. The villains are stereotypical, but their lack of distinct characteristics is central to the confusions and misinterpretations underpinning the mystery.

The denouement is satisfying, with all the

various threads resolved, except one, which hints at a sequel to come. Recommended.

Margaret Skea

CONTAGION OF THE NIGHT

Edward J. Leahy, Black Rose Writing, 2024, $18.95, pb, 335pp, 9781685134877

An attractive young woman is murdered in a New York City churchyard during World War II. No-nonsense Irish-immigrant detective Danny Brady takes the case, which quickly spirals in unexpected directions. Danny must deal with the victim’s secrets, her husband’s strange detachment, possible involvement of the Bronx rackets, roadblocks put up by his Lieutenant and an Assistant District Attorney, his partner’s marital strife, and his wife’s pregnancy and fears of her first husband’s reemergence. Whew! Scenes break with short and to the point, often clipped dialogue that propels Danny’s search through the evidence.

The story, based on the real-life “Cupcake Killing” in New York City, establishes Danny as a hard-nosed and solid, yet likeable, protagonist. The settings are wellresearched, giving the reader a great feel for neighborhoods and haunts, shortages and living conditions that New Yorkers dealt with during the war, as well as gangster activities of the period. Suspense builds as Danny sifts through leads and tips from his law enforcement contacts, forcing him to question whether the investigation is delving too deeply into mobsters and “cops on the pad,” thereby putting himself and his family at risk.

A page-turning read sure to be enjoyed by fans of hard-boiled detective fiction with a historical bent. This is book two of the author’s Dan Brady Mysteries series, but it can be read as a standalone.

Brodie Curtis

THE UMBRELLA MAKER’S SON

Tod Lending, Harper Paperbacks, 2025, $18.99/C$23.99, pb, 400pp, 9780063413849

On September 1, 1939, Reuven Berkowitz has just recently turned 17 and is living amongst his close-knit immediate and extended Jewish family in Krakow, Poland. He is missing his girlfriend, Zelda, when the family hears ominous blasts echo in the distance. World War II has started, and the Germans are on their way into Poland. His parents survived the hardships of the first war, but nothing can prepare them for what is now coming.

As things rapidly deteriorate, Zelda’s family moves further east in hope of illusionary safety. Reuven’s father, a skilled business owner and craftsman, has his shop taken away at the hands of a particularly cruel SS officer. Meanwhile, Reuven decides he must find Zelda wherever she is. Life for all of them spirals into an unimaginable series of horrific tragedies as Reuven desperately tries to find

his beloved and care for his family during their frantic attempts at reaching safety. This is a strikingly intense and superbly produced novel. Told from Reuven’s perspective, the teen experiences immense suffering at the hands of unspeakably evil foes, kindness from a blessed few friends and strangers, and complete indifference from others. At one point, while working on a Polish farm and feigning muteness, he contrives to both give names to and talk with the farm animals in a rather tender segment. The characters who make up his multi-generational family and their friends and employees resonate strongly. With a fondness for the Yiddish language, I particularly liked reading short passages in that tongue with their translations. Given the subject matter, readers must be prepared for heartbreaking sorrow, but the history is real. This is one of the most absolutely memorable books I’ve ever read. Strongly recommended.

Thomas J. Howley

BRONSHTEIN IN THE BRONX

Robert Littell, Soho, 2025, $25.95, hb, 208pp, 9781641296861

The words “Bronshtein” and “Bronx” do not automatically evoke the word “Trotsky,” but in fact “Leon Trotsky” was merely the notorious revolutionary’s nom de guerre. His real name was Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, and he did indeed spend ten weeks in the Bronx in 1917.

Robert Littell prefaces his new novel with a personal anecdote: in 1919 his father, Leon Litzky, changed his last name to Littell because he was continually ridiculed for the resemblance between his surname and that of the infamous Trotsky. And in the novel Littell gives his father, under his original name, the important if thankless role of Trotsky’s invisible conscience—whom Trotsky dumps when he exits the Bronx to fight in the Bolshevik Revolution. Beset by this witty, contrarian conscience (Litzky), Trotsky listens but usually ignores all warnings. As they spar, Trotsky’s biography comes out: son of a Ukrainian pig farmer, escapee from Siberia, abandoner of wife and daughters. He arrives in America with his longtime companion, Nata, and their two sons. Trotsky comes to incite revolution in the New World—and because he has been “spit out of” Russia, Austria, Switzerland, France, and Spain. Upon arrival, he encounters an oily young cop named “John E. Hoover” who will dog his footsteps, like Litzky, to the end of his eventful stay. Meanwhile Trotsky entrenches himself in radical New York, is feted and interviewed, hangs out with socialist

journalists, and gives a flaming speech at the Cooper Union.

Trotsky’s later career looms darkly over this clever novel, satirical, ribald, and entertaining as it is. Littell, a Russia expert, provides an afterword detailing the dismal endings that Trotsky and almost all his associates and relatives eventually suffered—another good reason, if any were needed, for his father to change his name.

Susan Lowell

THE LAST AGENT IN PARIS

Sharon Maas, Bookouture, 2024, $12.99/£10.99, pb, 410pp, 9781835251966

1941 London. A young Anglo-Indian woman, Noor, arrives at the MI6 offices in a dilapidated building for her interview. Captain Jepson meets her. He questions Noor about her motives for wanting to work in intelligence. He is impressed by her responses, particularly her determination to work to defeat Nazi Germany and that, having lived in France with her Indian father and American mother, she is fluent in French. Although there is some concern about her father’s association with Mr. Gandhi, Jepson is satisfied, and Noor is hired. After training, she is told she’ll be sent to France as the first female SOE agent. In Paris, Noor is assigned to a spy network. She walks the streets, dodging the Nazis, carrying a radio transmitter in a briefcase, and broadcasts messages to London from safe locations. Following betrayals by someone, her fellow agents are captured one after another until Noor is the last agent in Paris.

Using biographical and other material on Noor-un-Nissa Inayat Khan, Sharon Maas brings her story to life, from her birth in 1914 in Russia through WWII. Maas also includes a historical note separating facts from fiction, saying, “At least 90% of what happens in this book really happened.” Even in the face of danger, Noor’s untiring efforts and dedication to her job are portrayed vividly. Maas successfully uses a prologue by starting the novel at the WWII Gestapo Headquarters in Paris to hook readers into the story. Another scene, set in 1914 Russia, where baby Noor’s presence helps her parents escape a revolutionary mob, effectively shows Noor’s helpfulness to her parents and country throughout her life. Although Noor was awarded medals in France and Britain, her life has remained obscure. Readers will learn much about Noor and her family from this novel. Highly recommended.

Waheed Rabbani

THE LAST WORD IS DEATH

Faith Martin, HQ, 2025, £16.99, hb, 272pp, 9780008590130

This classic whodunnit is set in a big house hotel by the sea in 1920s England. The occasion is an engagement party, for which a collection of oddball relatives and fashionable young guests arrive. The jolly mood is rather dampened, however, when one of them suffers a shocking fatal accident. Or is it murder? Among the ensemble are affable young gentleman Arbie, a travel guide writer, and his plucky sidekick Val, a determined vicar’s daughter. The pair have previous experience solving a mysterious death, and the distraught bride-to-be persuades them to investigate, much to the chagrin of local police inspector Gormley, a grumpy old curmudgeon who discourages encroachment on his territory.

Witness interviews ensue, revealing a slippery shoal of red herrings that keep us guessing. Searches of the hotel and its grounds unearth some clues that seem only to baffle rather than clarify. Meanwhile, the true solution is carefully concealed by a diversionary sub-plot, until all is revealed in a final twist of the tale. Along the way, a hilarious ghost-hunt distracts our duo of amateur sleuths, providing local colour for Arbie’s next tourist guide.

Period detail is sparingly deployed and doesn’t impede the narrative flow of this second outing for Arbuthnot and Valerie. You don’t need to read the first in the series to enjoy it, and enjoy it you will if you like an amusing well-paced romp in the Agatha Christie mode, perhaps as you relax in a deckchair on your own seaside excursion.

Nigel Willits

GREEN INK

Stephen May, Swift Press, 2025, £16.99, hb, 288pp, 9781800754676

A murky backwater of British political history becomes an entertaining novel. The main story takes place during two days in September 1920 and provides a conjectural resolution of the enduring mystery over the disappearance of former MP Victor Grayson. Other reallife characters include Prime Minister David Lloyd George, his mistress Frances Stevenson, Home Office Director of Intelligence Sir Basil Thomson, and the Whitehall fixer Maundy Gregory (whose name is forever linked with Lloyd George’s cash-for-honours scandal).

We find that Lloyd George’s affair is a barely-suppressed secret – Stevenson is shown chairing a top-level meeting on his behalf, and indeed their bedroom is bugged by the secret service. This amoral ruling class is in the sights of Grayson, who started out as an MP further to the left than the nascent Labour party, though by 1920 his Parliamentary days are well behind him. The bitter results of the war that he first opposed, then joined, are well evoked in a convincingly cynical inner voice. Troublesome to the authorities, despite attempts to bribe him, his disappearance looms, though we are left wondering how it will happen. Ultimately, the author does avoid the elaborate conspiracy

theories of some present-day left wingers who regard Grayson as something close to a martyr.

May states that the surveillance microphones of the period were connected to machines cutting acetate discs like shellac records, but I believe such recording technology was not yet available. Otherwise, the book seems to be extremely well researched. I enjoyed authorial observations about how the Prime Minister’s Buckinghamshire mansion Chequers was given to the nation by Lord Lee as a ploy to turn radical leaders into members of the establishment, and about how tough it was then to be the mistress of high-powered man. Funny, scurrilous, revealing and memorable. Recommended.

Ben Bergonzi

A PERILOUS PREMIERE

Gail Meath, Cranberry Pond Publishing, 2024, $11.99, pb, 206pp, 9798341427457

This Golden Age of Hollywood mystery opens in October 1937. Vivian Steele has been running a Beverly Hills fashion boutique. After a short romance, she married a successful local banker, George. While the two are out for an evening stroll, they talk about their upcoming first anniversary and the house they want to buy. But to Vivian, nothing feels right about their walk or plans. George ducks into a drugstore for cigarettes and is shot dead. The killer vanishes before anyone gets a good look at him. Vivian’s sleuthing leads to more dead bodies, police corruption, and stolen coins. She learns George spent “bank trips” with another woman and intended to run off with her. In earlier times, Vivian’s sister had an affair with handsome and wealthy Hollywood playboy Preston Stone. Preston now seems to follow Vivian’s every move. Preston and Vivian, though suspicious of each other, are forced to work together through multiple threats to them both.

The book’s cover shows stylish images of Vivian and Preston, and an informative photo or drawing begins each of the short chapters. The cover illustrations and chapter headings allow readers to visualize the main characters and the plot’s key locations. Unfortunately, the story ignores that all telephone calls had to go through switchboard operators and that public elevators had elevator attendants. The twenty-five stolen coins, worth $2 million in 1937, are handled like common pennies with no attention to scratches or oxidation. Readers will also have to overlook editing glitches (golfers play “eight holes”; “further” instead of farther; possessive ’s where plural s is called for). Nonetheless, glamorous and engaging Preston and Vivian’s solving of multiple murders while mingling with Hollywood luminaries make this fast-paced novel an easy and worthwhile read.

G. J. Berger

A MAP TO PARADISE

Susan Meissner, Berkley, 2025, $29.00/ C$39.00, hb, 352pp, 9780593332863

In 1956, the Red Scare is cooling off, but not quickly enough to save film star Melanie Cole from being blacklisted when her paramour is accused of being a communist. Hiding out in a rented Malibu home while she waits for the scandal to pass, Melanie’s only friends are her hired maid, Eva Kruse, and her shut-in neighbor, screenwriter Elwood Blankenship.

Eva is hiding too. Having immigrated to the United States four years earlier as a Displaced Person from Poland, she’s terrified that if the feds start looking into Melanie, they’ll discover her secret as well—which would end badly for both her and the star. But when Elwood stops coming to his window to talk to Melanie, the ladies worry that his sister-in-law, June, is abusing or harming him in some way. Melanie sends Eva over to the Blankenship home to check things out, and Eva uncovers much more than either she or Melanie could have possibly expected.

Once again, Meissner has delivered a tale of unexpected friendships and female strength in a male-dominated world. Seen through the eyes of Melanie, Eva, and June, the story casts a critical eye on the paranoia that sparks panics like the Red Scare. In a rare stumble, though, Meissner muddles the message by excusing a drunken-driving accident as unintentional, arguing that the driver wasn’t responsible for his passenger’s death because he hadn’t deliberately pulled a trigger. Meissner’s fans will likely forgive the blunder, but readers new to Meissner’s work might want to start with one of her older titles.

Sarah Hendess

RESCUE RUN

John Winn Miller, Bancroft Press, 2025, $27.95, hb, 352pp, 9781610886437

Miller’s follow-up to The Hunt for the Peggy C finds Captain Jake Rogers in the thick of WWII in dangerous German U-boat infested waters. The opening scene vibrantly captures a ship under siege, with the captain fighting to save his sinking ship and crew. It’s an exhilarating start to the ongoing story of Jake and Miriam.

Thinking his Jewish love is safe in Palestine, Jake is shaken to his core to discover she is alive and in danger. Taking advantage of Dutch ships able to get in and out of Holland, Jake doesn’t hesitate to find Miriam and her father, who is trapped in a Nazi work camp. This is just the start of the perilous adventures that ensue, as Miriam’s role as an SOE spy draws them into more life and death situations. Through it all, Jake and Miriam’s love is unshakable.

Miller’s depth of WWII research is evident in the rich descriptions that paint the occupied war years in all their grim harshness. His ability to build tension, particularly with cliffhanging scenes at the end of each chapter, keeps the reader engaged and wanting to turn the page.

The final page leaves no doubt there will be another sequel – sure to please Miller’s fans. I would have liked to see a few flashbacks to help me understand the depth of emotion driving the characters’ actions. More interiority would also help me connect with Jake and Miriam and their deep bond. Adding more action beats to the dialogue would reduce the need to use as much description to evoke scene imagery and would advance the story more quickly.

Overall, this is a satisfying read about aspects of wartime history that were unfamiliar to me. The narrative moves along with lots of action that kept me involved and rooting for the main characters. The pace is spot on, and Miller’s writing style is clear and direct. A fine example of a story well researched and told.

Deb Stratas

HARLEM RHAPSODY

Victoria Christopher Murray, Berkley, 2025, $29.00/C$39.00/£25.99, hb, 400pp, 9780593638484

An unsung heroine of the Harlem Renaissance gets her due in this glamorous narrative. Jessie Fauset was the editor of W.E.B. Du Bois’s ground-breaking magazine, The Crisis, from 1919 to 1926. She is credited with discovering and nurturing literary geniuses like Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Nella Larsen, and wrote poems and novels of her own. Her life was an unusually privileged one as a member of the “Talented Tenth”: the movers and shapers of Black intellectual society and social justice in the pre-Civil Rights era.

Murray takes as fact the rumored long-term liaison between the famously womanizing Du Bois and Jessie, and this novel is primarily concerned with their complicated relationship. For that reason, the historical aspect consists of a lot of name-dropping of – and cameos by – famous figures of the movement, with the only real conflict occurring between Jessie and “Will” as they negotiate their personal and professional responsibilities. The vicious racial prejudice of the time is referred to and discussed, of course, but we don’t actually see any characters experience it – instead they live in the narrowly-bordered world of the wealthy and well-educated elite of Black society, enjoying hotels, clubs, and the cultural riches of the city with very little contact with white New Yorkers. This is deliberate, and probably a sensible choice because the author wants to focus on the accomplishments of these remarkable writers and civic organizers.

Jessie herself, as well as her beloved Harlem, is brought vividly to life, and Murray accomplishes the remarkable feat of making literary editing an active and interesting process. Readers who want to be immersed in the excitement of Jazz Age New York City’s discovery of these remarkable artists will enjoy spending time with the principled and brilliant Jessie.

Kristen McDermott

THE SILENT RESISTANCE

Anna Normann, Allison & Busby, 2024, £22.00/$28.00, hb, 352pp, 9780749032166

Nazi-occupied Norway, 1944. Anni Odland and daughter Ingrid, aged 7, live in a small coastal fishing village. Merchant marine husband Lars is away at sea and out of touch. One day a mysterious stranger comes to her home to inform her that he’s been billeted there – turns out he’s a German civilian official working for the Reich. A risky attraction develops and worse, Ingrid is now fighting off bullies at school, her once best friends, influenced by rumour, calling her “Nazi bastard”. Is the stranger there to spy on them, and should Anni trust his apparent kindnesses?

Exacerbating matters further, Anni belongs to the Norwegian resistance, distributing forbidden newspapers and aiding the escape of allied personnel across the sea to Shetland’s safety. As the war ends, she receives traumatic news by letter from London where the Norwegian government in exile have passed a ‘Bigamy Law’. Then she is arrested for collaboration and goes missing. Devastated, Ingrid spends the next four decades uncovering the truth behind her mother’s disappearance

This intriguing mystery is well-drawn in simple sentences interspersed with flashbacks from the future as Ingrid ages. Each revelation brings her closer to her mum’s fate and, for the reader, shines more light on civilian life under Nazi occupation and the immense risks of opposition and collusion. A tale of love, loyalty and their conflicting consequences clearly depicting the shock, shame and injustice of those caught in the Bigamy Law’s pernicious net. Exciting, realistic and informative.

Simon Rickman

FRANKIE

Graham Norton, Coronet, 2024, £20.00, hb, 288pp, 9781529391442 / HarperVia, 2025, $18.99, pb, 304pp, 9780063436473

It might seem like a common novel trope – an old lady looking back over her life and communicating the highs and lows through flashbacks to a younger companion. In the hands or perhaps pen of Graham Norton, however, this is transformed into something both charming and compelling. The eponymous character Frankie needs a carer for a while because of a broken leg. Her best friend Nor hires the pleasant, loyal and hard-working Damian to look after her. Over the long evenings and nights together, the reader and Damian are treated to the story of Frankie`s first marriage, which is fascinatingly awful, and her subsequent escape overseas. The twin arts of cooking and modern art are interwoven through the text, as is the advent of the AIDS epidemic of the ´80s, and the reader is always left, like Damian, waiting to hear the next instalment. Not satisfied with commenting on Eurovision and having his own long-running successful talk show, now Norton seems to have cracked the novel-writing business too. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and have no hesitation recommending it to all who enjoy

a novel with a strong plot and memorable characters.

Ann Northfield

MUNICHS

David Peace, Faber, 2024, £20.00, hb, 480pp, 9780571381159 / W. W. Norton, 2024, $29.99, hb, 480pp, 9781324086260

Germany, February 6th, 1958. Having refuelled at Munich airport on its journey from Serbia to England, a British charter flight crashes on takeoff in extreme weather. Of the 44 people on board, 23 perish there, or soon after. Included in the dead are 11 players and officials of Manchester United FC, returning from a victorious European Cup match against

Red Star Belgrade, plus eight journalists. With the core of his successful young team now gone, assistant manager Jimmy Murphy must drag his club, and city, away from disaster and return to winning ways.

The colophon asserts the book to be ‘a work of fiction’ – well, you could have fooled me. This is a beyond-remarkable story presenting a breathless, as-it-just-happened, heartrending, heart-wrenching study of horror and deep personal grief. Everything; the survivors and victims, their families and friends, all their thoughts, the flight and enquiry, the funerals, the media reports, all are examined in ultraforensic, so very intimate detail. Yet there is a poetic, conversational realism to the narrative’s relentless mournfulness, somehow explaining, emphasising, how sturdy folk endured these most personal losses all the while within the huge global scrutiny of ‘the bloody press’. Also highlighted is the genuine kindness and care of the German medical staff, so soon after WW2. Spoilers redundant, this is a very sad story of close family – blood and club – and the wider tragedy of love and lost potential. The title is because ‘Munichs’ was a cruel term of abuse used by fans of rival teams. It matters not if, football-wise, you’re red, blue, black, white or neutral, just read this book. Everybody should, in memory of ‘those young, red ghosts’.

Simon Rickman

ANOTHER MAN IN THE STREET

Caryl Phillips, Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2025, $27.00/C$36.00, hb, 240pp, 9780374613556 / Bloomsbury, 2025, £16.99, hb, 240pp, 9781526678638

More epic than historical novel, Another Man in the Street opens with Victor Johnson coming from the island of St. Kitts to London

in the 1960s with dreams of becoming a journalist. After working in a pub and collecting rent for Peter Feldman, he finds his way into journalism with high hopes. We feel for Victor from the moment he boards the ship, but as the story continues, he becomes one of three major characters, including the landlord Feldman and his secretary-girlfriend, Ruth. Both have immigrated to London as well: Peter Feldman, released from a concentration camp in Germany as a young man, and Ruth from a difficult family situation in northern England. Through shifting points of view we see how their lives and personal tragedies impact one another. All three fight loneliness and face challenging circumstances with limited options. Their attempts to overcome their traumas don’t necessarily succeed, but they carry on with the courage of resignation, as Ruth says of Victor.

This novel spans fifty years. Dating the chapters would have helped, as it leaps over time and leaves gaps to be filled in later. With these three points of view, it’s hard to place Victor. Is he sympathetic, downtrodden, tragic, selfish? Only at the end do we again get into the head of that brave young man who sailed to London from the Caribbean. Phillips is a well-published author whose mastery of style and emotion is impressive, making Another Man in the Street a moving, powerful novel.

Jinny Webber

THE LOST PASSENGER

Frances Quinn, Ballantine, 2025, $18.00/ C$24.95, pb, 384pp, 9780593973035 / Simon & Schuster UK, 2025, £18.99, hb, 416pp, 9781398520684

In 1910, Elinor Hayward is swept off her feet by the attentions of Frederick Coombes, heir to a large English estate. But immediately after the wedding, reality hits. Frederick doesn’t love her. She’s been snatched up for her family wealth, even though her industrialist father is sneered at by her mother-in-law, Lady Storton, who makes Elinor’s life thoroughly miserable. She soon reconciles with herself that she can’t fight the system, even after the birth of a son and heir, so she settles for meek compliance, all the while watching for an avenue of escape. This eventually arrives by way of tickets for the Titanic’s maiden voyage. The sinking of the luxurious liner is the narrative bridge Quinn employs to cross from Elinor’s miserable English life to her new venture, under a new name, in New York.

Elinor’s experiences after her marriage are disturbing. She is repeatedly silenced and kept from her son, nastiness meant to ensure the family traditions are upheld as they have been for hundreds of years. But a fortuitous encounter aboard ship gives her an opportunity to escape and become a real mother to her son. Taking on a dead woman’s persona isn’t a decision Elinor, now Molly, takes lightly. Guilt haunts her, and her feelings are heartfelt as she surmounts many hurdles to avoid being discovered. New York’s Lower East Side’s cacophony is one of the joys of this novel.

The clamour of the street markets, raucously competing languages, crowds bantering and bartering. It all creates a marvellous din that really grabs the reader’s senses. Elinor before, and Molly after, are both characters we’re willing to root for. Some necessary subterfuge aids plot tension as Molly finds her way in a life nothing like Elinor ever experienced. Quinn’s focused lens on an immigrant-centred early 20th-century New York explores the sincere value of true family and lasting friendships.

Fiona Alison

THE BERLIN AGENT

Stephen Ronson, Hodder & Stoughton, 2024, £22.00, hb, 380pp, 9781399721288

Southern England in June 1940 and following the Dunkirk evacuation, the country lies under the imminent threat of invasion from Germany. John Cook, farmer and Great War veteran, has an odd role as a sort of informal security agent setting up auxiliary defence units in his home county of Sussex, keeping the peace and staying alert for signs of the invasion as well as coordinating the unofficial resistance in the event of German troops landing on English soil. There is also the threat of domestic treacherous German sympathizers who agitate for peace and work to welcome the invader. This is the second in the series and again Cook shows his taste for sniffing out trouble and getting involved in all sorts of imbroglios.

It is all terribly gung-ho with lots of fastpaced violence in a USA-noir style which seems a little incongruous in wartime leafy Sussex. John Cook crashes from one brutal confrontation to another, using his expert military skills to emerge successful from the brutal encounters. It’s all rather breakneck and utterly implausible, but that is the nature of these type of thrillers, I suppose. It reminded me a little of the adventure comics such as Victor or Commando aimed primarily at boys. Even though the writer cheerfully admits to a number of historical inaccuracies, there is a glaring anachronism or two; for example, you could not have a room filled with Wisden Cricketer magazines in 1940 when publication only started in 1979; I assume Ronson means the yellow-covered Wisden annual almanac. It’s an entertaining and racy read nonetheless.

Douglas Kemp

LET’S CALL HER BARBIE

Renée Rosen, Berkley, 2025, $29.00/ C39.00/£25.99, hb, 432pp, 9780593953631

Can an 11 ½” doll have a “coming of age”? In this case, maybe, because that’s what Rosen’s ambitious novel feels like. In the 1940s, two friends (Matt & Elliot) made dollhouse furniture from wood scraps. By 1956 Mattel boasted an Ivy League engineering and development team, led by genius Jack Ryan. When Ruth Handler, Elliot’s wife and CEO, brings a Bild Lilli doll to a board meeting, the concept of marketing a “doll with tits” that looks “like a hooker” is a huge joke to the

all-male team. Only baby dolls were being produced at the time, but Ruth’s vision was bold and courageous—if boys could be given toy guns and soldiers, symbols of manhood, why couldn’t girls aspire to more than husbands and babies? A very personal feel runs through Rosen’s story of Barbie’s growing pains, and stumbling rise to fame —apart from hundreds of redesigns, the anatomically impossible, visually-proportioned female shape had to accommodate fabric thickness and textures; and individually hand-painted makeup, lacquered nails and rooting of each strand of hair is all quite mind-boggling and engrossing.

Ruth’s innovative vision grows with the politically changing times as the story moves into the ´60s and ´70s; women’s discontent with being overlooked and ignored; Vietnam protests; the moon landing (Barbie launched Mattel into the stratosphere four years earlier); and the sexual revolution and objectification of the female body, resulting in a barrage of hate mail. Rosen deep dives into the psychology of driven business execs, Ruth’s inability to exert control in the home, and family and business relationships pivotal to Mattel’s success. Jack Ryan’s sex-drugsand-rock-and-roll lifestyle did feel overworked at times, but understanding Jack is crucial to grasping how Barbie stayed on track as a treasured feminine icon, while new designers tried to subvert and sexualise her. I’ve never owned a Barbie, but was deeply invested in this extraordinary story.

Fiona Alison

THE ANTIDOTE

Karen Russell, Knopf, 2025, $30.00/C$39.99, hb, 432pp, 9780593802250 / Chatto & Windus, 2025, £18.99, hb, 400pp, 9781784745639

Fans of Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead will want to grab this gorgeous magical-realist novel set on the Nebraska prairie during the height of the Dust Bowl climate disaster. Russell, a MacArthur grant winner, is best known for her collections of short stories, and this is only her second novel after the 2012 Pulitzer finalist Swamplandia! It is well worth the wait, offering a ferociously moving meditation on America’s refusal to come to terms with the violence and injustice of its own past. The story begins on “Black Sunday,” April 14, 1935, when tornadic dust storms destroyed farmland throughout the Great Plains, and a variety of point-of-view characters lead the reader to an intimate understanding of the Great Midwestern Drought that decimated

the farmlands of the American prairie and worsened the Great Depression.

The premise sounds grim, but Russell draws on some of our most enchanting national myths to bring these characters to life. The alert reader will quickly realize that yes, this novel is set in the fictional town of Uz, Nebraska, in the depths of the Dust Bowl Depression, and yes, the inhabitants are menaced by dust tornados, and yes, the main characters are a scrappy orphan girl, a mysterious scarecrow, a stiff midwestern bachelor searching for love, and an exhausted prairie witch whose task it is to collect the toxic memories of her neighbors and store them away inside herself. But Russell’s evocations of L. Frank Baum’s American fairytale are subtle and never distract from the gritty, tender, fierce realism of this expansive story. The supernatural elements of the novel are infused with such a deep, compassionate humanity that the reader never has the sense that this is anything but a completely true story. Russell has created a masterpiece that will probably be on many 2025 award lists.

Kristen McDermott

THE LIES WE LEAVE BEHIND

Noelle Salazar, MIRA, 2024, $18.99/C$25.99, pb, 416pp, 9780778369615

In 1943, Kate Campbell is an American flight nurse in the Pacific Theater. Beneath her devotion to her work and to the soldiers she nurses is a secret, one that she worries could jeopardize her friendship and her freedom. When an injury sidelines her back to her upper crust Manhattan apartment and then leads to her reassignment in England, Kate is frustrated, longing to be back out in the dirt, chaos, and excitement of the Pacific. Things seem to be looking up when she finds love in the form of a wisecracking officer, but her past intrudes on the peace she’s found in the English countryside. When Kate learns that she has a chance to save the one person she’s never forgotten, she must decide if it’s worth jeopardizing her fragile happiness to throw herself headlong into danger.

In The Lies We Leave Behind, Salazar doles out the secrets and the reveals neatly. We see Kate, comfortable in her own skin, before we learn who she used to be and how she came to be living the life of an American flight nurse. The mystery of Kate’s past is interesting and engaging, keeping the reader turning the page. Salazar also keeps the reader on the edge of their seat with the addition of a present-day frame story that teases these reveals. Salazar shines in creating rich and detailed characters who draw the reader into wartime Europe and the Pacific, through effective dialogue, characterizations, and actions. A good wartime novel full of action, romance, and mystery.

Jessica Brockmole

THE ARTIST

Lucy Steeds, John Murray, 2025, £16.99, hb, 292pp, 9781399819565

Provence, 1920. Young art journalist, Joseph Adelaide, arrives at an isolated farmhouse to interview the reclusive artist, Edouard Tartuffe. He wants to discover why Tartuffe retreated from Paris years earlier, and the nature of his rumoured feud with Cézanne. The mercurial, controlling Tartuffe allows Joseph to stay, if he poses for his new still life, Young Man with Orange. Awed by Tartuffe and his reputation, Joseph initially overlooks Tartuffe’s quiet niece and housekeeper, Ettie. Stifled by life with her uncle, lonely Ettie yearns to be free. Drawn to Joseph, Ettie wants him to fully see her as she is.

The novel is structured with alternating chapters, told from the point of view of Joseph and Ettie. Gradually the reader is drawn deeper into their lives, in order to build a wonderfully intricate picture of these characters and their complex relationship with Tartuffe. The Artist is beautifully written. Lucy Steeds uses vivid, sensory language to evoke the sultriness of a summer in Provence and the tyranny of living with a genius artist. The intricate plot builds steadily throughout the novel, piecing together to reach a satisfying conclusion.

Covering themes such as the impact of the First World War, the role of women in art, loneliness and belonging; The Artist is a thought-provoking book whose characters will stay with you long after you’ve finished reading it. Highly recommended.

Serena Press

THE LAST LETTERS FROM VILLA CLARA

Sarah Steele, Headline Review, 2024, £15.99, pb, 420pp, 9781035412990

The event that kick-starts this story happens in 1939, but most of the action takes place in the early 1960s and late 1980s, in Tuscany and London.

In 1989, Phoebe Cato’s beloved uncle Bruce dies, leaving her with a dilapidated villa in Italy and a struggling art museum in London. But he has also left her a trail of clues to follow, to find out the truth about what happened to the painting that went missing in 1939 and the events that led to a very public court case in 1964, involving the owner of a prestigious Mayfair art gallery and the landlady of a boarding house in Pimlico.

Phoebe is reluctant to investigate at first; not only is she grieving for her uncle and dealing with the stress of her failing art gallery, but she is also newly single and beginning to realise she has feelings for her childhood friend Stefano. But gradually she is drawn into the mystery and becomes increasingly intrigued and determined to get to the bottom of it all – and to right the wrongs of the past. She is helped by, among others, the former residents of Leonora Birch’s boarding house. All is revealed through a series of flashbacks, letters, newspaper reports, and a transcript of the court case.

At first, the way the story unfolds is

confusing because some of the flashbacks reveal information to the reader before Phoebe knows about it, so it’s difficult to keep track of what she’s discovered. But this could be deliberate on the author’s part, to convey the sense that Phoebe is not invested in the process herself at that point. Most of the characters in this novel are strong, interesting women from all walks of life, and the ending is both satisfying and poignant.

Sarah Dronfield

THE CODE GIRL FROM LONDON

Deb Stratas, Readmore, 2024, $14.99, pb, 255pp, 9798326059833

May 1944, Dover, England. Katie, a young and pretty petty officer, works at a secret naval base as a telegraph operator, translating intercepted German Morse-code transmissions that might provide vital information to the Allied forces. One evening, while having a drink with friends at a pub, she meets Lieutenant Ciaran McElroy, an Irishman. Katie is grateful to Ciaran for thwarting the unsavory advances of a U.S. serviceman who’d sat at their table uninvited. They become friends, start seeing each other, and soon fall in love. However, Ciaran and his special forces unit are selected to be part of the Operation Overlord invasion force and depart for France on D-Day. Katie toils diligently at her crucial job. She worries about her parents suffering under the Blitz in London and her brother also serving in the war. But she is alarmed when she doesn’t hear from Ciaran for quite some time and wonders what the future holds for them.

This novel is the third in Deb Stratas’ Kingston Sisters series. It tells the story of Katie, the youngest of three sisters, reasonably independently. Stratas, a Canadian, has covered that era of British history remarkably well. She managed that through her extensive research and (as mentioned in the acknowledgements) by visiting the story’s locations, such as Dover and London, including the #40 Townhouse in Earl’s Court, where Katie’s parents lived. It’s no wonder that the descriptions and mannerisms of the characters are so very real and transport us to the novel’s locales. The dialogue, particularly among the working classes, is captured realistically. The numerous occurrences of phrases such as: “bloody hell” and “don’t be daft” will make us smile. The detailed descriptions of the war events tend to slow the story of Katie and some minor characters, but they will interest some readers.

Waheed Rabbani

THE FLYING SOPRANO

Gareth Thomas, Y Lolfa, 2024, £9.99, pb, 320pp, 9781800996007

London, 1938: Amongst the new students at the Academy of Music, Sîan Lewis stands out amongst her peers by the demureness of her appearance, and with it, her dedication to making a success of her career as a singer. Her

determination is shaped by the narrowness of her choices: from the mining community of Clydach in Glamorgan, staying at home means her future as she sees it would be marrying a collier, hoping he stayed in work, and wearing herself out in raising a family and keeping everyone and everything clean despite the all-pervading miasma of coal dust. Yet she goes to London with almost universal support from her community and loving family; her prowess as a singer was first revealed in her local chapel.

The Academy is a total contrast, populated by characters like Miss Radosowich, a violin teacher who ‘adorned herself with jewelry and necklaces so large and gothic that they only looked right viewed from a considerable distance.’ Sîan goes into this world armed with a hat pin her mother has given her for personal safety, a Chekhov’s gun that comes satisfyingly into its own when Sîan ventures into singing in nightclubs. She is somewhat prickly herself, as George, a gentle, middle-class fellow student finds out.

It is their tender love story that forms the spine of this novel, a love put to the test when the outbreak of war upends everything, with Sîan returning home to work in munitions and George becoming a fighter pilot. The real epiphany of the story is George’s, through his encounter with Sîan’s brother Owain, blacklisted miner and veteran of the International Brigade in Spain. I was gripped by this novel and its wholly unsentimental sense of place and the privations of the time.

Katherine Mezzacappa

GRACE OF THE EMPIRE STATE

Gemma Tizzard, Gallery, 2025, $28.99/ C$38.99, hb, 336pp, 9781668056943 / Headline Review, 2025, £15.99, pb, 352pp, 9781035412174

Grace O’Connell is a fraternal twin who bears a remarkable resemblance to her brother, Patrick, one of a four-man team of riveters on the Empire State Building. It’s 1930, and Grace’s income is badly needed to pay for medical supplies for their young sister. Originally circus-trained, Grace, a club dancer, is devasted when she and her fellow dancers are laid off. But that’s not the only heartache the family will endure. When Patrick breaks his arm, he knows his inability to do his job means his three teammates will be fired along with him. Can they implement a wild plan to substitute Grace for Patrick on the steel, and save three desperate families?

My one quibble is the U.S. book cover, which belies the gripping, emotional tale told within its pages. At no point does Grace experience a carefree life, as the picture implies to me. That said, Tizzard’s exciting debut ticks many boxes – it’s well written, full of dramatic tension with easily relatable, driven characters. Some smaller roles, like fellow dancers Edie and Betty, make us long to know more about them. The O’Connells are a closeknit fatherless Irish family facing an uphill battle every day, like so many in the Depression years, living

in the tenements, just about surviving as their rent increases dramatically. 1930s New York blossoms into life on the page in this hardscrabble era, when jobs were scarce. The details of a riveter’s work are astounding. The author’s at-home Italian family scene, with its scrumptious food, is inspiring. Tizzard has turned an unlikely scenario into a solid page-turner, without resorting to a ‘dancer to steelworker’ romance. This pays fine tribute to the brave men who risked their lives (no safety harnesses here) on the steel to build a worldrenowned icon. Gemma Tizzard is a notable new voice in historical fiction.

Fiona Alison

NO. 10 DOYERS STREET

Radha Vatsal, Level Best/Historia, 2025, $27.95, hb, 244pp, 9781685127749

Radha Vatsal’s novel, set in 1907, is based on historical events in New York City in an untried part of a new century. Our viewpoint is through Archie (Archana) Morley, a journalist from Bombay who revels in her freedom to tromp through the streets of her new home in trousers, although she’s not averse to wearing saris to support her doctor husband in his pursuit of better health for the people. Mayor ‘Hizzoner’ Georgie B. McLellan has big plans on the drawing board; one is the Catskills Reservoir Project; the other is demolishing Chinatown in favour of green space, a politically savvy move considering the white elected officials’ firm belief that Chinatown isn’t a worthy part of the city.

Archie’s sojourns to Doyers Street intrigue and scare her after interviewing Mock Duck, the supposed head of the Hip Sing Tong. He is the most feared gangster, responsible for all the violence, yet witnessing the removal, by child services, of his six-year-old adopted daughter, with intent to erase her Asian heritage in favour of a white one, gives Archie a new perspective that both surprises and shocks her, but to which she can relate as an immigrant from an alien country. As she mingles with law and local politics, Archie sees racial inequality playing out firsthand. She gets what she can into print. Sometimes she succeeds, sometimes she doesn’t.

Vatsal’s six years of research has created a compelling look at the early growing pains of New York City, and its relationship with Chinatown, which might well be “Anytown” were there to have been a huge influx of any other non-white culture into the city in a short space of time. The legend of Mock Duck, juxtaposed against what Archie sees and feels, makes for an engrossing read about the erasure of people and their homes and culture in the name of so-called progress.

Fiona Alison

in western Canada. He never knew his mother and works on a twoman crew with his father. Six months after Pearl Harbor, a lumber accident kills his father. This impels Josiah to try to enlist, but the Canadian army does not allow men of Chinese heritage to serve. Josiah finds employment as a riveter in a shipyard. Strong, handsome, and smart, he soon wins the respect of most around him, especially office worker Polly Miller. Headturner Polly is also a talented nightclub singer. Josiah and Polly fall rapturously in love, but the law forbids white Canadians to marry those of Asian descent. Polly’s father, a lawyer, refuses to let them marry, even in secret. After hearing of some Asians now serving in the Canadian military, Josiah flees the shipyard and Polly. He works his way into an elite paratroop unit that joins the Normandy invasion. The unit fights through France, Belgium, Holland and into Germany. Every moment he strives to do what’s right—for Polly, her parents, and for himself.

In often lyrical literary prose, Wang has created two captivating main characters challenged by racism and harsh circumstances. He has rendered honest, gut-wrenching scenes of training and war. Night parachute jumps into strange lands and close combat, as well as times of numbing tedium for soldiers itching to fight, all come alive. Wang superbly portrays the two lovers, always unsure about each other and then not knowing whether they will see each other again. For long stretches they communicate only by letters that are weeks, even months, outdated. No one can remain unchanged by years of intense, soulcrushing war and separation. How Josiah and Polly emerge is both heart-tugging and true to life. Highly recommended

G. J. Berger

THE RED TUNIC

Kate Wiseman, Neem Tree Press, 2024, £9.99/$17.95, pb, 225pp, 9781915584137

THE RIVETER

Jack Wang, HarperVia, 2025, $30.00/£20.00, hb, 368pp, 9780063081833 / House of Anansi Press, 2025, C$24.99, pb, 392pp, 9781487007614

Josiah Chang grows up felling lumber

1910 Cambridge, England: Twins Alfie and Nina are the products of an unhappy home, with a distant and unloving father, and they find comfort in cross-dressing play. Alfie is timid and tends to be the nurturing sort, while Nina is wild and brave, but protective of Alfie, as when he is forced into a boxing match at school. Alfie impersonates Nina at a family wedding when she balks at being a bridesmaid. When the twins come of age during the Great War, Nina gets the idea that they should switch roles, wanting to protect Alfie, whom she believes would never survive on the front. After Alfie passes his army physical, the night

before he must leave, Nina steals his uniform and reports in his place, leaving him a letter telling him to take her place at nurses’ training instead.

Nina soon learns to swear and drink like the other soldiers, and how to survive in the trenches. She manages to overcome a bayonet wound without having the medics find out she is a woman, which could lead to Alfie being shot as a deserter. But Liam, one of her comrades in the unit, discovers her secret, as does Lacey, the unit’s bully, who intends to blackmail her into giving him sexual favors.

I was a bit exasperated at first when the story kept jumping between the twins’ childhood and Nina’s experiences in the trenches, but was soon caught up in the tale and eager to know how it would turn out. Short chapters keep the story moving. Narrator Nina is an intriguing gender-nonconforming character, wanting the freedom of male attire and gender role, but still interested as a woman in romancing Liam. Alfie and the twins’ aunt Julia, a fervent suffragette, are also engaging, non-conforming characters. A thoroughly enjoyable novel.

B.J. Sedlock

THE NEW INTERNATIONALS

David Wright Faladé, Atlantic Monthly, 2025, $28.00/£19.99, hb, 304pp, 9780802164063

The turbulent economic and political maelstrom of Paris in 1947 serves as an apt setting for this characterdriven novel of young people from different cultures, who are coming to maturity and looking to the future in the aftermath of the city’s occupation in WWII. Cecile Rosenbaum, a young Jewish woman who is a survivor of the war due to both bravery and profiteering on the part of others in her family, meets Sebastien, a West African man from a royal line in Dahomey (now part of Benin) who seeks to become an architect to enhance his nation. Their friends are members of a youth Communist group who are also searching for a better way forward for themselves. Differing political views of how best to accomplish this aim both connect and disconnect them. Add to this mix more students from other African countries still held as colonies by France and American GIs who bring jazz music, soul food, and better cigarettes to the city, and the kaleidoscopic face of Paris becomes evident.

Themes of what progress means, what the idea of family should encompass in terms of cultural traditions and expectations going forward, and how people see themselves and

are seen by others, weave in and out of the novel through the various characters’ lives. These are timeless themes, but they unroll here in a very specific setting of a city on the brink of change potentially fueled by new international perspectives. Thought-provoking and written in a style that reflects these different perspectives, this book is highly recommended for any readers willing to dive into a time of change in the past that can perhaps help us see our own time in new ways as well.

Karen Bordonaro

ELEANOR AND THE COLD WAR

Ellen Yardley, Kensington, 2025, $27.00/ C$37.00/£25.00, hb, 320pp, 9781496750075

Kay Thompson, newly assigned secretary to former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, finds the body of a young woman stabbed to death and crammed in a washroom of the Royal Blue Train just after arrival in Union Station, Washington, DC. The woman is Susan Meyer, daughter of an atomic scientist who escaped Nazi Germany for Sweden in 1938, and the woman Eleanor had boarded the train to meet.

Eleanor and the Cold War capitalizes on Kay’s and Eleanor’s observations of crime scene details and their interactions with suspects and investigators. The book highlights some of the rising political figures and issues of the time. Side characters include Robert F. Kennedy, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and Jacqueline Bouvier. Backstories touch on research on atomic weapons, the actions of the House UnAmerican Activities Committee and concerns about closet Communists as well as spies within and outside government.

The narrative captures attitudes and popular culture of the 1950s—the overriding concern for women to make a good match with a well-connected or wealthy suitor, the ease with which men slip into and out of relationships with women, the trappings of Alfred Hitchcock film storylines and heroines’ actions. The narrative also adds details about Eleanor’s life—her “My Day” column for the United Features Syndicate and her work for the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights.

The investigation leads readers back and forth from one suspicious actor to another. Readers bob and weave as characters’ questions suggest one meaning, then another. Developments late in the storyline, including the denouement, seem rushed. While the ending pulls storyline threads together, readers may be disappointed their own little gray cells weren’t given more of a chance to piece those threads together themselves.

K. M. Sandrick

MULTI-PERIOD

THE MOONLIGHT HEALERS

Elizabeth Becker, Graydon House, 2025, $30.00, hb, 336pp, 9781525830426

This is the story of a teenage girl and the legacy of healing that runs through her DNA.

The story begins in modern-day Richmond, Virginia, when Louise Winston is involved in a terrible automobile accident after a graduation party. She manages to crawl out of the car, but her high school boyfriend is lying in the road without a pulse. She begins what the reader first thinks is CPR, but the energy that flows from Louise’s hands while placed on his chest is something different. The paramedics arrive, but by then, Peter is breathing again.

Louise knows she brought him back from death but is terrified to admit it to anyone. Then the story switches to Honfleur, France, in 1942, and Louise’s ancestor, a young woman named Helene, has been sent to a convent. Helene’s mother has told her it is to keep her safe during the war (WWII), but Helene suspects it has something to do with her healing abilities.

As the two plots advance and converge, Louise and Helene find themselves using their unusual healing powers to save the people they love. But their particular gift of healing comes with unforeseen consequences. Eventually, each woman is confronted with a choice that will alter her life forever.

For a debut novel, this was an amazing story. The dual narratives complement each other, the characters are authentic, and the plot moves forward with excellent pacing. A great read with an ending I did not see coming. Highly recommended.

Linda Harris Sittig

HORSE SHOW

Jess Bowers, Santa Fe Writer’s Project, 2024, $15.95, pb, 180pp, 9781951631314

This amazing collection of short stories looks at the equine from many perspectives, from 19th-century London to New York’s Coney Island in the early 20th century to Hollywood movies and beyond. The majority of the stories are set from the mid-19th through the mid-20th centuries and mostly in various parts of the United States.

“The Mammoth Horse,” set in London, is a sad look at the abuse of animals in the circuses and follies of the 19th century. “Shooting A Mule” tells of the violent execution of a mule with explosives at a military base in Willett’s Point, NY, in 1881. “The Lost Hoof of Fire Horse #12” tells the story of a lone horse’s hoof that now gathers dust in the Smithsonian. “One Trick Pony” describes the abuse of stunt horses during the 1939 movie Jesse James.

I was so impressed by “Two on a Horse,” set on the Steeplechase ride at Coney Island in the early 20th century. Although the horses were made of wood, they were part of a harrowing ride, and Bowers describes the personal stories of the riders in vivid detail. From the first lady

to attempt to ride the Steeplechase astride to a sexual assault occurring during the ride itself, the story has a strong impact, and the reader can see and feel the violence of the ride as well as the trauma of the riders.

Equally fine is “Of Course, Of Course,” which on the surface is about a young newlywed couple who discover a horse abandoned on their new property. However, underneath lurks a saga of a wife awakening to her own abandonment, abuse, and neglect in 1960s California.

These perfectly crafted tales create a tragic picture that will have an emotional impact on the reader. Highly recommended.

Bonnie DeMoss

HOMESEEKING

Karissa Chen, Putnam, 2025, $30.00/C$39.99, hb, 512pp, 9780593712993

Homeseeking is a romantic saga of the Chinese diaspora that spans 1938 Shanghai to 2008 Los Angeles, with location and time jumps to mid-century Hong Kong and Taiwan. Haiwen and Suchi live in the same longtang in Shanghai, where Suchi takes pity on Haiwen on their first school day: he did not know to bring a lunch, so she shares hers. Haiwen is a violin prodigy who lives for music and hears it in his head constantly. As teenagers they plan a future together, but postwar conflicts between the Nationalists and Communists in China intervene. The Nationalists require every family to offer a son to serve in the army. A bitter argument between Haiwen and Suchi, just as he was thinking about proposing to her, prompts Haiwen to enlist in his older brother’s stead. As the Communists approach Shanghai, Suchi’s parents send her and her sister to Hong Kong to get them out of harm’s way. Years later, in desperate circumstances, she meets Haiwen again by chance. Will the encounter change the course of Suchi’s life?

The nonlinear timeline took a bit of concentration, as did keeping track of the characters’ changing names, depending on whether Mandarin, English, or Shanghainese was being spoken. The author’s note points out that the ambiguity may help readers understand language barriers that immigrants must confront daily. The themes of family loyalty, love, survival, regret, and where one’s true home lies, are achingly poignant. I thoroughly enjoyed the memorable, touching characterizations and highly recommend this novel.

B.J. Sedlock

RED CLAY

Charles B. Fancher, Blackstone, 2025, $28.99, hb, 373pp, 9798212408691

“I am Miss Adelaide Parker…. and a lifetime ago, my family owned yours.”

Prior to this startling revelation, Eileen has no knowledge of Addie Parker, or any of the family history her beloved grandfather, Felix, chose not to divulge. But after Felix’s funeral in 1943, she pays rapt attention to Addie’s long

and soul-searching story. Back in 1864, John Robert Parker owned a plantation outside of Red Clay, Alabama. A studious gentleman more suited to an academic career, he renounced Princeton after the untimely death of his father. Portrayed as a good man with a hard edge, he can justify his ownership of slaves, but may one day have to salve his growing conscience, as the Civil War draws to a close. He adores his wife, Marie Louise and their three children—Jean Louis, who can’t escape plantation life fast enough; sixteen-year-old Claude, who eagerly awaits custodianship of his own property; and nineyear-old Addie, a peculiar girl with a sharp intelligence and a spiteful streak. On the property list, along with 1,100 acres, house, barn, and livestock, are household cook, Elmira; husband, Plessant, the master’s valet; and their eight-year-old son, Felix, all portrayed with credible dignity in the face of justifiable hatred. One memorable day in 1864, Felix is burdened with a secret, a burden no eight-year-old should have to bear.

Portrayals of Black, white, good and bad are multifaceted and convincing. Of particular note is the vindictiveness wrought by those who have nothing, against those they believe have more, explored through the abuse Felix experiences as a cotton-field water-carrier. Lies, secrets and doubledealing dominate, but there is also room for kindness and forgiveness. It is worth noting that Fancher places both narratives in times of war. Beginning as research into his greatgrandfather’s life, Fancher has fictionalised a far-reaching tribute to everyone touched by the travesty of slavery.

Fiona Alison

A CALAMITY OF NOBLE HOUSES

Amira Ghenim, trans. Miled Faiza and Karen McNeil, Europa, 2025, $28.00, hb, 432pp, 9798889660507 / £14.99, pb, 380pp, 9781787705586 What price honour? The destiny of two noble families hangs in the balance in 1930s Tunisia when a neverdisclosed letter, assumed to be the correspondence between two lovers, one of whom is a married woman, leads to a series of fateful assumptions and an attendant number of unforgivable cruelties. In the course of a single night, the life, health, and happiness of Zubeida al-Rasaa’ and her erstwhile tutor, El-Taher El-Haddad, are destroyed while members of the household who witnessed the tragedy are doomed to

relive the traumatic event during their entire lives.

Interweaving the testimonies of eleven different narrators throughout key moments of the history of modern Tunisia, a richly patterned tapestry emerges that throws a startling light on the original catastrophe and illuminates the ways in which people remember and narrate incidents in diametrically opposed, contrasting ways, laying bare their prejudices, hypocrisies, and inconsistences. In the end, it is left to Zubeida’s modern, erudite granddaughter to assume the troubled custodianship of a legacy that comes not only in the form of painful memories and contradictory reminiscences, but of one of the noble houses of the novel’s title. She undertakes a search for the truth that might or might not yield the resolution she so ardently desires—the restitution of her grandmother’s reputation and a path into a future, where Tunisian women are no longer judged by the merciless standards of the conservative patriarchy.

Featuring the real, historical personality of El-Taher El-Haddad, whose pioneering work Our Women in the Shari ‘a and Society turned him into a pariah while showing Tunisia the way to modernity, A Calamity of Noble Houses is a stirring portrayal of a society rent apart by the need to observe tradition and the ambition to reform. The storytelling is extraordinary.

Elisabeth Lenckos

BEYOND THE SHETLAND SEA

Barbara Greig, Vanguard, 2024, £12.99, pb, 348pp, 9781837940653

In 1849, Gideon Thompson decides to leave the Shetland Islands, and the girl he admires, Grizzel Cattanach, in order to try and earn money for his family in Rupert’s Land, now part of Canada. Over a fiveyear period, Gideon and Grizzel, though far apart, exchange letters, and their love grows stronger. In 2019, Eve finds a love letter among her family possessions and travels to Canada to find out more about Gideon and Grizzel. She is helped in her search by a rancher, Joel, and soon finds romance of her own.

I enjoyed the relationship between Gideon and Grizzel and their continued efforts to keep in touch despite a long and remote absence. Gideon’s oath to Grizzel, repeated in his letters, was touching: “Though I be beyond the Shetland Sea, my heart will always be with Thee.” Gideon’s struggles in the wilderness are compelling, and the hardships he endures for wages that would not be paid for five years are astounding.

I found the 2019 timeline not as strong and the characters less interesting. I would have liked to have seen more of Gideon and Grizzel and a lot less of Eve. The romance Eve found in Canada doesn’t seem believable, although the absence she and Joel endure during the COVID pandemic does make them reflect on Gideon and Grizzel’s long separation, which is a nice touch. I would have loved a

novel strictly about Gideon and Grizzel, their letters, and their hardships, without the 2019 timeline. However, if you enjoy dual-timeline novels with one of the timelines occurring in the present day, you may enjoy this book.

Bonnie DeMoss

ORDINARY DEVOTION

Kristen Holt-Browning, Monkfish, 2024, $24.99, pb, 260pp, 9781958972489

In 1370 England, twelve-year-old Elinor enters an anchoress’s chamber to serve her and be educated. Still in mourning for her mother, who had died in childbirth, and separated from her displaced family, she is shut into the small cell and the door bricked over behind her. In the shadows of that darkened room is the anchoress herself, Adela, a noblewoman who has already lived alone in the cell for a few years.

In 2017 upstate New York, Liz, an adjunct professor in her thirties, is also in mourning, for her father, while she struggles to find her place in an academic world of narrowing options. Her scholarly work has focused on the medieval concept of purgatory, but her heart is elsewhere, first with a pregnancy that anchors her but creates many unknowns, and secondly with the energy of a new interest in medieval anchoresses, women who closed themselves off from the normal demands of life and community.

But although Elinor and Adela are sealed into the small room, they are not separate from a community. They are in a liminal space, with one small window looking into a monastery church through which they follow the monastic hours and another facing the outside, from which visitors, mostly women, come to consult Adela, to receive her prayers and blessing – and advice.

The stories of Elinor and Liz weave together to consider the relation of women to their bodies, to the church, to each other, and to in-between places and the sometimes narrow circumstances of life. For readers who know academia, Liz’s struggles may seem all too familiar – maybe even painfully familiar. But they result in an ideal of discovery in historical research and scholarly collaboration that one hopes is also a reality.

Martha Hoffman

THE MANUAL FOR GOOD WIVES

Lola Jaye, Macmillan, 2025, £18.99/$27.99, hb, 384pp, 9781529064629

The Manual for Good Wives is set both in the present day and in the last half of the 19th century, first in Nigeria and then in England. Everything about this novel sounded intriguing. Temi, a young Black princess from Nigeria, is forced by her father to marry a much older and abusive man for political reasons. She escapes with the love of her life, Olu, whose tribe is at war with her own, and they work their passage on a ship to England where, despite racial barriers and other

setbacks, they build a successful business. And then, gradually, things start to go wrong for Temi and she has to find a way to support herself and her daughter. As a Black woman in Victorian England, the only way she can do this is through a massive deception.

Interwoven through Temi’s story is that of her great-great-great granddaughter, Landri, a complex, high achieving woman living in London. Landri also escapes from a relationship and hides away in the cottage bequeathed to her by Temi. Here she finds Temi’s old notebook which helps her understand her ancestor – and herself.

This should have been a terrific read, but it is let down by the writing. Throughout the book, the author tells the reader what is happening through prose rather than moving the story along with more subtlety through dialogue – and what dialogue there is, is stilted and unnatural; because of this it is difficult to engage with the characters, who are themselves not consistent but change to suit the plotline. The book is billed as an historical novel, yet the reader is given little historical background to the story. There’s also so much potential for a richly painted sense of place, which is sadly lacking.

R. Hayes

RIDDLE OF SPIRIT AND BONE

Carolyn Korsmeyer, Regal House, 2025, $19.95, pb, 300pp, 9781646035403

In Buffalo, New York, in 2015, Dan is replacing a gas line when a human bone is discovered. Almost immediately, the job is shut down until archaeologists can excavate the site, remove the remains, and determine whether this is a solo burial. Intrigued, Dan joins in the dig and soon begins investigating the death of the unfortunate buried woman with the help of Karen, one of the archaeologists.

In 1851 New York, Lydia and Jane are orphaned cousins living with their Aunt Madeleine and Uncle George. Then Uncle George dies, and Madeleine, the second wife, finds out George has left her nothing. Madeleine, Lydia, and Jane are soon evicted by George’s sons from his first marriage and are left with only Madeleine’s jewelry as assets. Hurt and unable to believe this, Madeleine becomes acquainted with Alexander Dodge Lewis, a medium who claims he can communicate with the dead. Desperate to contact George beyond the grave and see if he really did provide for her, Madeleine begins attending traveling seances, along with her nieces. During these seances, Lydia discovers she herself is a medium. Jane, however, remains doubtful and suspicious, especially of Lewis, so she escapes into her love of art and meets a fellow artist, Jed Porter.

The 19th-century timeline is intriguing, especially the art of Jane and Jed and the “camera obscura” that they use in developing their sketches. The grief-crazed and betrayed Madeleine is the perfect example of the type of person a charlatan might have targeted. The romance of Jane and Jed is believable and

moves at a perfect pace for the era. The 2015 romance of Dan and Karen is not as developed and feels rushed, but this time period is otherwise used well to peel back layers of the unsolved mystery. Recommended.

Bonnie DeMoss

THE GIRL MADE OF STARS

K. E. Le Veque, Dragonblade, 2025, $17.99, pb, 346pp, 9781963585933

This dual-timeline novel explores the legacy of fictional Hollywood starlet Lola Grayson and the efforts of two women to shape a future of their own choosing.

In the modern-day timeline, bestselling author Joey Cabot buys the Los Angeles bungalow known to be the love nest of Hollywood stars Robert “Tag” Taggart and Lola Grayson until Grayson’s tragic early death. But the contents of a century-old safe yield a deeper mystery that leads Joey to the son of Grayson’s former maid and a story he’s been waiting his whole life to tell.

The narrative then shifts to 1935, when Grayson, worn down by the demands of her stardom and what she did to get there, dreams of living the life of an ordinary wife and mother with Tag. The discovery that she’s pregnant could end both their careers, for MGM controls everything about Lola’s life, including her uterus. But Lola’s health isn’t up the challenge, and when a collapse on set lands her in the hospital, Tag faces a devastating tragedy and the loss of the woman he loves. Back in the modern day, when Lola’s secret comes to light, Joey tracks down the last answers on a mission to render justice for Lola and make peace with a troubled past of her own.

Le Veque’s romance career proves she knows how to put together a story, and the new reveals in each chapter will keep a reader turning pages far into the night. Joey’s endearing boyfriend and quirky best friend add humor and tenderness to her scenes, while Lola’s chums are a roster of Hollywood megastars, including Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. Lola’s tragic destiny as a studiocontrolled sexpot isn’t unique, but the tale is lively, readable, and comes to a satisfying conclusion. Le Veque’s foray into women’s fiction is a stellar read.

Misty Urban

THE MANY MOTHERS OF IVY PUDDINGSTONE

Randy Susan Meyers, Köehler Books, 2024, $19.95, pb, 362pp, 9798888245330

Buoyed by youthful optimism and a sincere desire to help people, Annabel travels to Mississippi in 1964 to help African Americans register to vote. Raised in a middle-class, white household and a bit naïve, she is unprepared for the racism and violence she witnesses. Upon returning to Boston, she and her boyfriend move in with four other like-minded couples in a collective community.

However, organizing a new way of life isn’t easy, and ideas frequently clash. The women in the group are particularly unhappy with the

distribution of labor. Taking care of children, cooking, cleaning, and working outside the home doesn’t leave much time or energy for artistic pursuits and political activism. The group decides to take their living experiment to the next level and creates a separate home in Vermont for the couples’ combined seven children. The kids have almost total freedom to create, learn, and explore as they want while being parented by rotating members of the Boston group, giving the adults more time to do what they value. But the arrangement doesn’t go as expected, culminating in an event that will change all of their lives.

Meyers’ novel is a sensitive exploration of the idealism and dark realities of a turbulent era. The chapters alternate between Annabel and her daughter Ivy’s point of view, from the 1960s to 2020. Hearing both women’s sides of the story gives the reader a richer appreciation for their complex relationship and an understanding of the ripple effect of good intentions. The author takes her time creating fully believable, multifaceted characters, and the 56-year span of the book feels authentic, with each character gradually growing and changing as time passes. A mustread for those interested in intentional living communities and women’s stories.

Janice Derr

THE SECRETS OF FLOWERS

Sally Page, Blackstone, 2025, $28.99, hb, 350pp, 9798228307506 / HarperCollins, 2024, £9.99, pb, 432pp, 9780008612900

As can be gleaned from the title, Sally Page’s novel is about flowers; she understands their importance to us; their symbolic representation of love—for a christening, a wedding, a birthday, a funeral. No matter the occasion, flowers bring comfort and connection. They weave through our own lives, and through the lives of two women—Emma in the present and Violet a hundred years earlier. Combining the timelessness of flowers with the timeless icon that the Titanic has become, in its many guises in print or on film, defines this as a true gem. Emma is ungainly, and she feels it; tall, with flaming red hair and big feet, she stands out and doesn’t want to. Add to that her struggle to deal with her husband’s death, and life has become overwhelming. But she does understand the language of flowers, so after resigning from a professional position, she takes a job at a small independent florist, owned by Betty and Les. There she regains the footing in life which she had lost, with friendship and newfound family, her interest in Titanic sparked and encouraged by Betty’s unconditional friendship, and Les’s love of history. Initially a distraction against her pain, she becomes happily involved in researching who might have arranged the flowers on the magnificent ship.

Violet’s story unfolds more abstractly, as Page leads her reader along a path of discovery. This delightful novel is like the unfolding of flower petals where the vibrant richness of scent and colour slowly reveal

themselves. To add more detail will inevitably contain spoilers. Flowing at a leisurely and comfortable pace, it takes a while to establish where the author is headed. That said, there are many reasons to delve into this unique and gentle tale where readers will feel richly rewarded.

Fiona Alison

FLOREANA

Midge Raymond, Little A, 2024, $16.99/£8.99, pb, 287pp, 9781662525124

In 1929 Berlin, Dore Strauch is unhappy with her life—ill with multiple sclerosis, married to an older man she doesn’t love, and straddled with the domesticity of a hausfrau. She falls in love with her physician, Dr. Friedrich Ritter, and they leave the civilized world for Floreana, an isolated and uninhabited island of the Galápagos. Friedrich persuades Dore that she can heal herself by determination alone. But as she doesn’t improve and struggles with the brutal labor of homesteading, Friedrich grows increasingly hostile. Even when two other groups join them on the island, the German Wittmer family and the eccentric Baroness with her two male lovers, Dore’s loneliness increases.

In modern-day Galápagos, Mallory is a biologist who abruptly left her research and conservation work on the islands ten years ago in order to be a mother and wife. But even as she escapes from her domestic Boston life to return to her former lover and the conservation work she so loved, she feels torn between the two experiences. When she discovers the lost journals of Dore Strauch, the original settler of Floreana, Mallory realizes that she could find the real explanation for the mysterious disappearances and deaths that occurred back in the Thirties. If Mallory can get the journals translated from the original German, she can parlay that into money they could use to save the penguins.

But as Dore’s secrets unravel, so do Mallory’s. Based on the true events of the Floreana murders, this reimagining is immersive and supremely well done. The setting is spot on, down to the gentle shushing noises made by the salt-spitting iguanas. The complex relationships in both timelines speak of haunting loneliness that comes with age and marriage. Highly recommended.

Katie Stine

THE PARIS DANCER

Nicola Rayner, Aria, 2025, £9.99/$18.99, pb, 368pp, 9781837931828

Anyone hankering for more glitz and glamour as BBC TV’s Strictly Come Dancing packs up the glitterball for another year may find solace in this stylish evocation of the dance scene in 1930s Paris. The Paris Dancer brings to life the golden era of music halls, where gossipy dancers in cramped and smoky dressing rooms slip on their stockings in preparation for the only show in town.

The story is inspired in part by the real-

life story of Florence Waren, a South African dancer who worked for the resistance in occupied France during World War II. Rayner tells her story through Annie, a Jewish immigrant who arrives in Paris with ambitions to join the Ballet Russes, but who ends up at the Bal Tabarin, a music hall once as famous as the Moulin Rouge. It is 1938, and the drums of war are beating louder.

A second narrative, set in 2012, sees Mim travel to New York to sort out the affairs of her great-aunt Esther. Within her aunt’s papers, Mim finds a memoir of Esther’s time at the Bel Tabarin, in which she recalls her developing friendship with Annie. Mim is fleeing grief, and finds solace in dance, as she embarks on a love affair with a young man called Lucky during a dizzying New York summer.

Rayner’s prose captures the magic of dance, how two people glide and move across the floor: the steps, the holds, the costumes. But dance here is not just a technical coming together, it is a way that human beings, despite darkness and grief, find intimacy and love. It is a sweeping historical novel about the healing power of art, and the courage and vulnerability it takes to step beyond grief.

Pete Sherlock

THAT YOU REMEMBER

Isabel Reddy, Belle Isle Books, 2023, $17.95, pb, 254pp, 9781958754054

1970. The residents of Otter Creek Hollow, Kentucky, have been working in the coal mines for generations. They work there because there are few options and because they always have. But tragedy comes with the job, and Sara, who grew up in the “holler,” knows that well. If you didn’t die in an accident, the black lung might take you like it did Sara’s father. If you make it out of the mine one day, you might not be so lucky the next. When she meets Frank Rowan, one of the visiting mine bosses who lives in New York, she tries to call out all the ongoing problems and safety issues. But along the way, a relationship begins that she never saw coming. Thirty years later, Aleena, Frank’s daughter, finds a cryptic note and tries to locate Sara.

That You Remember is an intriguing novel set in Appalachian coal country. The actual operation of a coal mine is described so well that the reader feels as if they are there. The ways that coal mining can lead to flooding are meticulously researched and plainly laid out for the reader. But the human side is where this book shines. The feeling of always impending disaster shared by the miners’ families leaps onto every page, and is made so real in the quote: “You always kiss a miner goodbye.” The prioritization of money over safety is made obvious. The romance is unique but does not take over the story. There are multiple points of view from people on both sides—management and workers—to create a complete picture of a serious problem. The devastation of a flood is so well written that the reader can see the raging waters. This is a

gripping, informative, and tragic story. Highly recommended.

Bonnie DeMoss

THE YEAR OF YES & NO

Sara Sartagne, Independently published, 2024, $16.99, pb, 396pp, 9798338650912

The Year of Yes & No is a dual-timeline story set in 1802 and 2023, with parallel narratives connected by a pair of Regency miniatures of Harriet Colchester – one painted early in her marriage and the other painted just a few years later, when Harriet is a widow. The women at the centre of the book, Harriet and Gabriella, struggle with unwelcome demands from their extended families, their desire for independence, and their attraction to men who are seemingly out of reach.

In 1802, Harriet Colchester unexpectedly becomes rich when she inherits her husband’s estate. While her wealth offers freedom, she needs to prevent her mother-in-law forcing her into an unwanted marriage and consider whether marrying for love will threaten her independence. In 2023, Gabriella Sullivan is an art gallery assistant, keen for more responsibility, who is struggling with a poor self-image and demanding family. When Gabriella delivers the two miniatures of Harriet Colchester to Hugo Cavendish in Northumberland, she becomes captivated both by Harriet’s story and by Hugo. As she researches Harriet’s life, she wonders how she can learn to ‘be more Harriet’.

The Year of Yes & No is about women striving to make their own decisions within the confines of acceptability. The story is told in alternating chapters, with equal attention to the Regency and modern timeline. For readers, part of the fun is watching parallel themes unfold across the 220-year gap. Both storylines are strong, with a great sense of place and captivating characters facing realistic challenges. Both women experience internal angst – but as a reader I had more sympathy for Harriet than Gabriella, and at times I wanted Gabriella to stop being unnecessarily dramatic. Maybe that was the author’s intent!

Judy Gregory

REMNANT

Katie Sweeting, Resource Publications, 2024, $26.00, pb, 282pp,9798385203710

In 1753, eleven-year-old Oluchukwu (Olu) and her brother Olaudah (Ledu) are kidnapped in Africa, separated, and sold. Olu ends up in America on a rice plantation in South Carolina, but she longs to find Ledu. As she grows from a child to a woman, she learns to survive and is secretly taught to read and write by the plantation owner’s brother. Even while she endures the cruelty of enslavement, Olu plans an escape and tries to look for Ledu.

In 1807 London, eleven-year-old Joanna Vassa is a guest of William Wilberforce at a party thrown to celebrate the passage of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act. She is accompanied by her guardian, John Audley, or

Uncle John. Audley has cared for her since the death of her father, Gustavus Vassa, a formerly enslaved abolitionist whose memoir helped open the eyes of many regarding the horrors of slavery. As Joanna goes off to a prominent boarding school, faces discrimination, and grows into womanhood, she begins to wonder what happened to her father’s sister, Olu.

This dual-timeline, dual coming of age story does not hold back or try to sugarcoat the evils of slavery and discrimination. Using as a foundation the real-life memoir of Olaudah Equiano, also known as Gustavus Vassa, this gripping novel explores the lives of Equiano’s sister Olu, about whom little is known, and his daughter Joanna. Olu endures the horrors of slavery while Joanna, who grew up much more comfortably under her guardian’s protection, is isolated and bullied at school due to her race. Real-life and fictional characters combine to create an honest and compelling novel. This book celebrates two strong and remarkable women of color who survive a great period of evil in the history of the world. Highly recommended.

Bonnie DeMoss

A SEA OF SPECTRES

Nancy Taber, Acorn Press, 2024, $17.95, pb, 248pp, 9781773661575

Down through the generations, a family mystery unfolds. When an ancestor’s journal is found, Raina may finally uncover answers to the mysterious and deadly call she hears from a flaming phantom ship that no one else can see or hear. The journal’s pages reveal her female ancestors’ lives, their own mysterious powers, and their connection to the phantom ship. Can their experiences help Raina resist the call that nearly took her life and continues to attempt to pull her into a watery grave?

From the 1758 Acadian Expulsion from Prince Edward Island to the present day, Taber weaves between three different generations. Each woman has a unique power, but not every descendant is born with abilities. Raina’s own mother wished for them, and her jealousy of Raina’s abilities has built a rift between them. Without guidance, Raina tried to suppress the sea’s call. When her job forces her to return to her hometown, Raina must confront not only the mystery surrounding the phantom ship but also the tension between her and her mother. Why each woman’s powers are so different, though, isn’t well-explained.

The three settings are peppered with immersive details and provide an intriguing look into the lives of women who must overcome the odds and take control of their lives. The three women’s viewpoints blend well and, by the end, weave together in satisfying ways. There’s a significant mystery that’s left hanging open, which makes me curious if more is to come. A lovely supernatural tale about the strength of family.

J. Lynn Else

THE LAST SONG OF WINTER

Lulu Taylor, Pan Macmillan, 2024, £9.99, pb, 552pp, 9781529094008

After an edgy prologue in 1948, the main story starts in 1938 with Veronica Mindenhall, teenage daughter of a wealthy actor and playwright, enjoying her comfortable life on her family’s private Welsh island, St Elfwy. She happens across Jack Bannock, a star actor and composer, and falls deeply in love, but disappointment beckons, for she soon discovers Bannock is homosexual. She goes to Paris and moves into new circles, achieving sexual emancipation. But then war intervenes.

On page 145 the second strand of the narrative is introduced. In modern times, troubled writer Romy goes to St Elfwy, now a bird sanctuary, seeking to forget past trauma. She wants to write a new history of a muchstudied cult horror film of the 1960s named The Last Song of Winter, after the last song composed by Bannock. Though the film was shot on the island, it’s frowned upon by the charitable trust which now allocates permits to stay, so she has had to fabricate a different purpose. There are two men interested in Romy, one the standoffish resident warden, the other an over-friendly Australian boatman. Jeopardy lurks in a tidal cave that featured in the film. I found one obvious error – Veronica is shown, in 1940, wondering if aeroplanes overhead are Lancasters or Fortresses. In that year they could have been neither. Also, I was sorry the author did not give us the words of the titular song.

Whilst replete with coincidences, the multilayered plot – too complex to summarise –carries conviction because of the author’s clarity in conveying what people are thinking and feeling. There are many allusions – Ivor Novello, Noel Coward, The Wicker Man – but Taylor does not allow herself to become too hung up on the pegs of real people and places. Compelling escapist fun, a satisfying read.

Ben Bergonzi

TIMESLIP

A TIME TRAVELER’S MASQUERADE

Sian Ann Bessey, Shadow Mountain, 2025, $17.99, pb, 296pp, 9781639933822

Modern-day Isla Crawford, assistant to a Member of Parliament, wants to make a difference in the world. But her day-to-day work consists mostly of replying to constituent complaints. It’s a bit of a lonely life, with the highlight of her evenings being reading a new history book. When her office mates decide to attend the annual Parliamentary Autumn Ball together in themed costumes, she has to delay her new book to pick up a Wendy (Peter Pan) costume at McQuivey’s Costume Shop. Instead of searching for the blue nightgown Isla wants, the proprietress pulls out a 17thcentury gown and insists Isla try it on.

In 1605, Simon, a member of the House

of Lords, is riding out the London plague at his sister’s country home. When he finds Isla shivering in the rain, he’s puzzled as to how the barefoot lady came to be there with no sign of a carriage, horse, or servants. Together with Simon’s sister and brother-in-law, they find it may be up to them to thwart Guy Fawkes and keep history on course.

This story is a fun fish-out-of-water romp. The romance builds at a believable pace and the history is well-integrated into the plot. Unlike many time-traveler books, the reader is left uncertain until the very end as to whether the protagonist will be able—or will want to—return to her own time. Launching the new series “A McQuivey’s Costume Shop Romance,” A Time Traveler’s Masquerade is a charming read. Well-researched and rated G, it’s suitable for both adults and teens. Lisa Lowe Stauffer

THE TIDES OF TIME

Sarah M. Eden, Shadow Mountain, 2025, $17.99, pb, 368pp, 9781639933815

In 1793, seamstress Lili Minet is helping innocent people escape the Reign of Terror with her own brother, Gérard, an agent of the Tribunal, hunting her down. Forced into flight, Lili falls into the stormy waters of the Channel only to be pulled by lighthouse keepers Grandpa and Armitage Pierce into a world she doesn’t recognize: a world of matches, trains, ready-made clothing, and, more importantly, the warm, peaceful community of Loftstone Island.

Lili has been brought to 1873 Britain by the Tides of Time, a phenomenon surrounding the fictional Loftstone, and as she struggles to adjust to this new world, her wariness toward Armitage melts into attraction, kindled by his kindness and humor despite his own tragedy of having lost his parents to the sea a decade earlier. Just when Lili feels she’s found a new home, the Tides of Time deposit Géraud on the island, and he is determined to drag her back to the nightmare Lili thought she had left behind.

Eden excels at warm, well-crafted romances where trust builds sweetly and in small, believable ways. Her humor allays Lili’s war trauma and Armitage’s grief. Characters are sympathetic and mostly good-natured, her fictional Loftstone lightly but convincingly drawn. The surprises and dramatic action of the last quarter of the book repay patience with the slow build. Timeslip novels can be notoriously tricky, but Eden makes her leaps and overlaps adhere to a logical enough process that one can follow the twists. The prose is strong and assured, though a reader must enjoy French, or better yet, understand it. This first in a series that breaks new ground for Eden is sure to have fans following her to the finish.

Urban

HISTORICAL FANTASY

Misty

THE LIGHT AT THE END

L. M. Affrossman, Sparsile Books, 2024, £10.99, pb, 320pp, 9781914399589

Finding himself at a modern private clinic somewhere in the UK, we follow Darius, a tetraplegic car crash victim who was given a clinical trial drug as part of his initial treatment. The side effects that subsequently became evident in other patients given this experimental medication led to it being withdrawn from trials.

Darius’ doctor, Lexie Song, is the only person whose interest is piqued when he tells her about the strange memories that flood into his brain, depicting him as different characters from the Dark Ages to WW2. As the regularity of reliving episodes from the past increases, Darius’ brother becomes concerned for his mental state.

When a Dr Song lookalike enters Darius’ warped memories, their fantastical stories become intertwined in other-worldly experiences. Travelling through time together, doctor and patient discover common links appearing that are difficult to interpret.

Affrossman’s writing of the weird wandering that Darius’ train of thought follow are credible, though at times they are tricky to absorb when the scenarios flit from one era to another so transiently. However, the inevitable progress that is being made towards Darius’ final destination comes through subtly, along with the odd surprising event to maintain interest right to the conclusion of the journey. The periods of history encountered along the route are reasonably interpreted to include visual, olfactory and audible clues appropriate to the time frame that the character is enduring.

Cathy Kemp

ROSE OF JERICHO

Alex Grecian, Tor Nightfire, 2025, $28.99, hb, 352pp, 9781250874719

Set in 19th-century New England, Rose of Jericho combines gothic horror with historical fantasy in this follow-up to Grecian’s Red Rabbit. Multiple supernatural plot strands join into a compelling, thought-provoking tale. The novel opens with a quickly told tragic love story that wins us over to the side of one of the main characters, Moses Burke. When he loses his beloved Katie, it seems logical within the construct of the novel that he’d go after and kill Death.

But what happens to humankind without death? The layers of Grecian’s exploration of that question are masterful. On the one hand, the novel digs into its horror roots with vivid descriptions of those who cannot die, but really ought to. Moses talks with a man hanging by a noose “buried deep in the bloated purple flesh of his throat.” The man says, “I can’t see too good on account of a blackbird ate up both my eyes.” The novel also portrays the emotional strains arising from being dead among the living.

Against that thematic arc, Grecian places two other significant sets of characters with

their own goals. We meet the good Graces, a mother-daughter duo of powerful witches and their much loved “ordinary” Rose, a smart, goodhearted woman with whom the reader becomes emotionally invested. These three women move into a haunted mansion in the village of Ascension, where much of the novel’s action takes place. In addition, narrating from the attic is a supernatural being with a vested interest in the bizarre events playing out in the village and across the world. This being has a brother and a foe, whose identities and purposes gradually unfold. All these mysterious elements add up to an intelligent, worthwhile novel.

Judith Starkston

THE VAMPIRE OF KINGS STREET

Asha Greyling, Crooked Lane, 2024, $29.99/ C$39.99/£28.99, hb, 262pp, 9781639108671

Remarkable storytelling at its best, The Vampire of Kings Street is one of the finest mysteries I’ve ever encountered. Greyling uses a finesse of details and gripping prose to create the setting of Winterside, New York in the 19th century. This time period has one certain difference from what we know from history books: vampires are known and owned by the upper crust of New York society. For a bit of blood and a resting place away from the sun, vampires persist as live-in servants to the rich. It is all the fashion, and costly to boot. Should a member of the undead step out of line, however… the consequences are swift and immutable.

As a newly licensed lawyer struggling to land even a single client, Radhika Dhingra isn’t the foremost expert in vampires or the habits of the elite, but when the vampire Evelyn More arrives on her doorstep with no other options for legal representation, Radhika can’t turn him away. Through her connection to More, Radhika soon finds herself embroiled in a ghastly murder case. The odds are stacked against More, but is it possible he may be innocent? After being judged herself based on her appearance and ancestry, Radhika manages to give More the benefit of the doubt. That doesn’t mean she can clear his name, especially with his wealthy host family determined to release her from More’s employ. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the young lawyer must investigate even if she herself is placed in harm’s way.

Greyling captures the imagination with thorough world-building and intriguing characters. I can’t help but hope to meet these wonderful characters again in a future mystery. Fingers crossed.

Ellaura

Shoop

realism, history, and romance. It stars Oya, a very human young woman whose adventurous journey takes her from Cuba to New Orleans to San Francisco in the 1870s.

But she is also a weather goddess. When Oya waves her hands, she can call up anything from a slight breeze to a hurricane. She has inherited this mystical meteorological power from her African Yoruba Orisha ancestors, but as a willful, inexperienced adolescent she is more than her mother, Yemaya, a Cuban healer, can manage: weather can be dangerous as well as beneficial. Oya is also devastated by the miscarriage of her first child. So Yemaya sends Oya off to New Orleans to be treated and taught by Marie Laveau, the Queen of Voodoo.

The novel begins with a helpful historical timeline, but actually the period details are sketched in very lightly. The Voodoo world is much more vivid, full of color, flavor, music, love, and action. The “real” world tends only to impinge upon it in negative ways, such as incidents of racism and violence.

Oya continues her education by setting out across the turbulent United States, where she experiences a train robbery and is kidnapped by Jesse James, who has fallen in love with her (By now Oya herself has fallen for a handsome, sexy New Orleanian, Shango.) But she always has the power of the wind at her service—increasingly under her own control— and finally arrives safely in San Francisco in its wicked Barbary Coast era. The infamous Riot of 1877 brings the novel to a stirring, tragic, but also satisfyingly romantic close, and Oya’s winds grow calm at last.

Susan Lowell

THE BOX OF DEATH

R. Marsden, Hurogol Press, 2024, $15.99, pb, 468pp, 9781917063005

Book 1 in the Tales of Castle Rory is set in 1263. The people of Hambrig and the Celtic tribe (the “Nahvitch”) living across the River Hurogol both stake claim to the land that Lord Rory’s castle presides over. A lost prince of the Nahvitch who was raised in Hambrig, Sammy, unexpectedly returns to his people, and a mysterious box is given in exchange as a gift. The riddle that accompanies the box promises death to any who dare open it. Soon, word reaches the castle that the Nahvitch are raising an army in hopes of retaking Hambrig by force. Time is short, and Lord Rory will need to find a way to prevent war before everything he’s worked for is destroyed.

THE WIND ON HER TONGUE

Anita Kopacz, Atria/Black Privilege, 2025, $26.99, hb, 224pp, 9781668052211

This novel is a glorious gumbo of magic,

I enjoyed the mystery, the characters, and the places explored. Marsden adds a woman or two in the castle guard, which I found to be a delight. I applaud this thoughtful injection of women into the storyline (as there are accounts of women as leaders and warriors in medieval times). My only concern was the subplot regarding Rory’s lost love from his past. It felt a bit much for a plot already quite rich with tension. Despite Rory showing a lot of growth by the end, in the moment when he confronts another man about his lost

love, it prompts Rory into unsettling actions. Otherwise, this is a well-written character exploration of a young lord trying to overcome the shadows of the past in an ever-changing world with light fantasy elements. The clash of cultures, the immersive setting detail, the enigmatic characters, and the search for a missing treaty will captivate readers.

J. Lynn Else

THE MIDNIGHT OF EIGHTS

Justin Newland, The Book Guild, 2024, £9.99, pb, 288pp, 9781835740330

1580s England. Queen Bess sits on the throne, and the threat to the nation is real as Spain plans an invasion of the island to oust the Protestant ruler. Nelan Michaels begins his tale with a number of woes: he’s a wanted man searching for his true love while shouldering the responsibilities of avenging his family, saving England, all while being pressed into service by Walsingham, the queen’s spymaster, a man who slips between acting the friend and the foe. Politics at home and abroad threaten to unseat the very thing Nelan wants most: a family life. The pressure’s on for Nelan, a friend of Dr. Dee, to do what he must while also protecting – and learning to harness – his astral and elemental knowledge and abilities.

For anyone who has ever been fascinated by use of the occult by a government that would otherwise deem such practices heretical, this story wades confidently into that arena. Fantastical and fun, and well-researched to boot, The Midnight of Eights is full of stakes and tension. Though some problems get resolved too easily, and despite some loose threads and inconsistencies, the story is an adventure into which readers won’t regret escaping… not to mention the settings are delightfully textured and rich, without the pages getting bogged down with too much description. This is book 2 of The Island of Angels series; I have not yet read book 1, but that didn’t impede my enjoyment.

Full of political intrigue and occultism, this story will appeal to anyone who enjoys tales about the Tudors and those which spark their own magic.

Margaret McNellis

THE DARK KING SWALLOWS THE WORLD

Robert G. Penner, Radiant Press, 2024, $20.00/ C$25.00, pb, 254pp, 9781998926152

In this beautifully crafted fantasy thriller, twelve-year-old Nora returns from America to join the household where her mother has taken refuge from the Blitz in London with her latest lover, an artist named Charles. But no sooner is Nora introduced to her three-year-old halfbrother Sam, than he dies in a car crash. In despair, Nora’s mother turns to Olaf Winter, a louche necromancer modeled on the real-life Aleister Crowley, who also fled to Cornwall during WWII. Both parents blame themselves for the accident, but Nora believes Winter is the one responsible, in a mad attempt to trade her half-brother’s life for a homunculus. In

order to save her family, Nora embarks on an epic journey to the land of the dead to ransom her brother from the dark king who rules that realm.

As the novel progresses, what begins as a deft portrait of Bohemian refugees fleeing the terrible reality of WWII London becomes increasingly fantastic. Penner’s dark realm is populated by wondrously imagined creatures that could have risen straight from the Celtic imagination, including a horse named Motorcycle, a Drosselmeyer-like inventor, and a half mad itinerant preacher determined to save the soul of a giantess. But Penner succeeds in maintaining a balance between historical realism and mythopoeic excess, and his elegant writing serves the real world and the fantastic one equally well. A fine atmospheric historical fantasy.

Erica Obey

CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULT

BLACK STAR

Kwame Alexander, Little, Brown, 2024, $17.99, hb, 374pp, 9780316442596

This star of a book comes from a star of an author: Kwame Alexander is a poet and broadcaster as well as a novelist whose books have won both Newbery and Caldecott Medals, along with many other awards, including an Emmy.

Another shining star is the novel’s main character, Charley (a.k.a. Charlene) Cuffey, who dreams of being “the first girl pitcher to play professional.” Smart, smart-mouthed, and totally engaging, Charley plays backyard ball with her friends, Cool Willie Green and Socks, idolizing the teams and players of the Negro League, for this novel takes place in rural Virginia in the 1920s, amid segregation, cruelty, and violence. It was also, tragically, an era when the Ku Klux Klan terrorized Black citizens without repercussions.

In Black Star (the title invokes the Black visionary Marcus Garvey’s Black Star Steamship Line), Alexander deploys a daring and brilliantly successful literary technique. The novel is constructed from a series of poems—some lyrical, some dramatic, some conversational—all filtered through Charley’s sparkling twelve-year-old intelligence. Many of the poems are dialogues; one even rhymes. Altogether they create a thrilling, touching story easily accessible to readers aged 10 and up, including adults.

Another wonderful character is Charley’s beloved grandfather, Nana Kofi, who links this second volume to the first (The Door of No Return). Relationships are beautifully drawn, especially the tender one between Charley and her nana—meaning “grandfather” in Twi, the African language he teaches her, along with African culture recalled from his boyhood. Warm family scenes alternate with funny banter between Charley and her baseballobsessed buddies. But two crucial baseball

games drive the novel to a shocking, openended conclusion.

This is the second volume of Alexander’s projected Door of No Return trilogy. To be continued… in the forthcoming Book III!

Susan Lowell

GOLDEN THREADS

Ariella Aïsha Azoulay, illus. Hagar Ophir, Ayin Press, 2025, $19.95, pb, 124pp, 9781961814219

Set in Fès, Morocco, in the 1920s, this middle-grade book describes a warm and welcoming neighborhood of Jewish and Muslim artisans. Rachelle, the narrator, is eight years old. Her parents spin golden thread for a jewelry workshop. She plays with friends, listens to stories told by her grandmother, and plays jokes on a visiting photographer. Rumors circulate that a monster/machine is coming that will replace the artisans, and everyone is worried. The community bands together to strike, and they succeed at first, but eventually the machine wins.

This book is filled with delicate illustrations of children, buildings, and aspects of the jewelry trade. Interspersed between short chapters are glossaries explaining the language, with detailed illustrations. For example, one glossary page explains in words and illustrations a mhazma, a semainier, an amulet holster, a fibula, and a diadem. Though the artistry is exquisite, the explanations interrupt the story and raise the question of whether this is a book of fiction or narrative nonfiction. Rachelle, a budding storyteller like her grandmother, tells us what she sees and thinks but essentially watches the historical events occur rather than having agency within them. For families yearning to see a time when Jews and Muslims lived together, supported each other, and celebrated the work of artisans, Golden Threads is one of few that succeeds in portraying such a time. But if a child is looking to emotionally connect with a heroine, this book is not the right choice.

Lorelei R. Brush

THE DARKNESS OF COLOURS

Martín Blasco, trans. Claire Storey, HopeRoad, 2024, £9.99, pb, 149pp, 9781913109332

In 1885 five children go missing in the Argentinian capital, Buenos Aires. They are the offspring of poor immigrants and matter little to the authorities. Twenty-five years later, one of them, a young woman called Amira, turns up on her family’s doorstep. She cannot remember what happened; all she recalls is the colour white.

Her father calls in journalist Alejandro, who realises this is a fascinating story, and he tries to unlock Amira’s secrets. As Alejandro investigates, things get darker and more mysterious, and people start dying. Can he solve the puzzle before the killer gets to him too?

The book is written from the alternate points of view of Alejandro and the kidnapper,

so the reader gets to know what is happening to the children and why. I must admit I guessed the twist early on, which marred the story a little for me. However, this part-horror, partmystery and historical thriller has strong characterisation, and the descriptions of Buenos Aires are lively.

It also raises many interesting philosophical questions about the nature/nurture debate, which I am sure will make it a memorable read for the young adults at whom it is aimed.

Kate Pettigrew

SCATTERGOOD

H. M. Bouwman, Neal Porter Books, 2025, $18.99/C$25.99, pb, 308pp, 9780823457755

This is a remarkable coming-of-age novel in its depiction of an adolescent girl coming to terms with family, friendships, romantic love, serious illness, religious beliefs, and career aspirations—as she goes through the process of maturing mentally, psychologically, emotionally, and socially. Big claim? But this novel meets it!

The time is summer, 1941. The place is the community of Scattergood in rural Iowa, far from the war raging in Europe. The heroine is a farm girl, twelve-year-old Peggy…who is going on thirty! Peggy’s cousin and best friend, Delia, an aspiring romantic poet, has leukemia. Delia’s younger brother, Sam, is trying all sorts of remedies to cope with her illness. Peggy’s hardscrabble parents hope to bring in a pumpkin harvest that will save the family financially. Casual friend Ida Jean is every young girl’s self-absorbed nightmare.

Near Scattergood is a Quaker residential institution for Jewish refugees from Hitler’s regime. One of its residents is a curmudgeonly professor who teaches Peggy how to play chess because she has an extraordinary mathematical and logical mind. (Peggy’s analysis of a sonnet versus Delia’s analysis of a sonnet is worth the price of the novel.) Another Scattergood resident is the charming teenager Gunther, who sets female hearts afire. Joe volunteers at the institution and wants to develop a friendship (or more?) with Peggy.

All of these characters are developed subtly and slowly, but jump off the page to engage the reader. Dialogue, description, and symbolism wonderfully complement the characters and the plot, which itself is masterfully complicated. Middle-school readers will greatly enjoy this novel.

Joanne Vickers

ROMAN BOY

Tony Bradman, illus. Alessandro Valdrighi, Walker, 2024, £6.99, pb, 240pp, 9781529512748

Rome, 125 AD. Lucius, age 15, desperately needs his stepfather, Gaius, to help him make his way in the world. Gaius is a rich and important man, but he lacks noble connections – which Lucius has – but will being connected to Lucius’s classier relations be

enough for Gaius to help his stepson? Lucius’s main concern is that he should have a proper coming of age ceremony where he officially becomes a man and return his childhood bulla to the three priests who conduct the ceremony. I really enjoyed this book, I particularly enjoyed following Lucius’s gruelling struggles to be allowed to join the Eagles. The recent British Museum exhibition completely failed to explain this satisfactorily, and it only left me baffled, so I was delighted to learn exactly how the system worked and what a young Eagle’s training comprised. Lucius had also to learn how to deal with those who wished him ill; how to recognize them and how to evade their tactics. In other words, he must wise up pretty fast. And we see that on stage, which I think is important.

A lot of blood is spilled. The author has no problem describing the moment when Centurion Ulpianus is shot through the neck. There are a number of female characters, each with their own important role to play, which contributes to the forward movement of the plot. However, this is primarily a boy-centred book – and very well Tony Bradman does it. For example, Lucius is sometimes frightened and worried, and we see him learning to tackle the difficult stuff. I commend it highly.

Elizabeth Hawksley

A TRAITOROUS HEART

Erin Cotter, Simon & Schuster, 2025, $19.99/ C$27.99, hb, 464pp, 9781665960809

Erin Cotter’s young adult novel A Traitorous Heart is a captivating tale that blends romance, intrigue, and espionage, taking place in volatile prerevolutionary France. The story centers on Jac, a determined young woman who serves as lady-in-waiting to her best friend and secret lover, French Princess Margot de Valois. Jac’s ambition to join a covert society of spies known as Societas Solis, inspired by her uncle and guardian’s exploits within the society, forms the crux of this enthralling narrative.

As France teeters on the brink of war, Jac finds herself thrust into a dangerous game of political maneuvering and matchmaking. Her task is to secure a marriage between Princess Margot and an odious prince, a challenge that tests her loyalty and cunning at every turn. Cotter’s portrayal of Jac is both vivid and compelling, capturing her inner conflict and resilience in the face of mounting pressure.

The novel’s rich historical setting and intricate plot are matched by Cotter’s elegant prose, making for a read that is both immersive

and gripping. The dynamic between Jac and Margot adds a layer of emotional depth that elevates the stakes, making each twist and revelation all the more impactful. A Traitorous Heart is a must-read for fans of historical fiction and espionage, offering a perfect blend of romance and adventure.

Ellaura Shoop

WHAT FELL FROM THE SKY

Adrianna Cuevas, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2025, $17.99/C$23.99/£13.70, hb, 304pp, 9780374390457

Pineda and his sixth-grade friends like to play pranks, avoid chores, and buy treats at the Five and Dime in their small Texas town. The Cold War doesn’t really affect them beyond duck-and-cover drills at school. Then one day, soldiers parachute in and take over their town as a training exercise. Pretty quickly the townspeople get fed up with wrecked fences, destroyed crops, and authoritarian rules. It seems like the exercise should end quickly, but when Pineda meets a strange girl hiding in his barn, he figures out that this is more than an exercise. She, too, fell from the sky, and her parents are missing. Kind-hearted Pineda sets out to rescue them.

With tons of humor, the author paints a vivid picture of small-town life in 1952 with its fears and prejudices. All the characters are well developed, including the adults. The author has crafted a clever plot so that when the final scene happens, it plays as beautifully as a Steven Spielberg movie, only with whacky twists that are just right. Ages 8-12.

Lisa Lowe Stauffer

SALLY AND THE LOST PHOTOGRAPH

Judi Curtin, O’Brien Press, 2024, £11.99, pb, 288pp, 9781788495295

Teenage sisters, Sally and Bridget have emigrated to New York from Ireland. The year is 1900. They are living in a tenement building with their distant cousin, Catherine, who allows them to stay because they pay rent from their salaries. There is little familial loyalty.

The sisters meet a young woman called Betty. She is personable and kind but has developed a reputation for flouting the law, out of necessity to survive. When Bridget’s employer, an elderly lady in need of a companion, wants to find her long lost lover, whom her parents prevented her from marrying, all three girls decide in secret to help. Betty steals a stamp. Unfortunately, she is caught. Can the girls and Bridget’s employer help Betty start a new life?

The main themes in Curtin’s work are not judging people by appearance and Curtin also explores in detail the lengths to which young immigrants will go to make a new life. This narrative will be interesting to scholars of history, and it could also be studied alongside a story of immigration set in contemporary times. Curtin’s great strength is the empathy

she fosters in her readers for her characters. They are well-rounded and believable.

This is the second book of what is currently a duology.

Rebecca Butler

THE FORBIDDEN BOOK

Sacha Lamb, Levine Querido, 2024, $19.99/£14.99, hb, 251pp, 9781646144563 With shapeshifters who outfox oppression, Jewish mysticism, and a deal with a demon, Sacha Lamb’s new novel, The Forbidden Book, flings readers into the Old World alongside seventeen-yearold Sorel as she leaps out a window to escape her arranged marriage. Fleeing into the woods, Sorel steals a man’s clothes and ditches her wedding dress. What follows is a unique comingof-age story that subtly captures Sorel’s path toward her true identity.

While the promotional materials for this novel boast of “a genderqueer lesbian with a knife,” Lamb’s work is much more sophisticated than that blunt phrase. For much of the story, the main character does not have words for the unbelievable things happening in her internal and external worlds. Sorel’s adventure mirrors the experience of so many young queer readers who are navigating communities that have no words or spaces for them, and it is up to them to carve a new path through frightening and undiscovered places.

As the hero and her allies make their way through a small city in the Pale of Settlement, they are harassed by Russian soldiers, tricked by wily smugglers, and saved by the blind. It is stunning how this novel set in the 1870s mirrors the danger, confusion, and isolation faced by so many queer youths today.

The chance to read and share a book that represents Jewish culture before the Holocaust and presents queer themes with sensitivity, is a rare gift for students and educators alike. Lamb’s decision to plunge the reader headfirst into Yiddish phrases, ancient mysticism, and the antisemitism of the Russian Empire sets their novel apart. Lamb trusts their young readers’ ability to navigate any world, real or imagined. I highly recommend it for readers 12 and up.

Melissa Warren

THE LAST BOY

Eve McDonnell, illus. Holly Ovenden, Everything with Words, 2024, £8.99, pb, 324pp, 9781911427414

Dedicated to the real George Brewster, this story is based on the last child sweep who died by getting stuck in a chimney. The ‘real Brewster’ died aged 12, in 1875, galvanising the Earl of Shaftesbury to pass the Chimney Sweeps Act which outlawed the use of climbing boys. The Brewster of our story is orphaned then sold, aged six, to a brutal Master Sweep who takes him out chimney sweeping at night. Brewster’s special

power is the power of numbers, and Birr Castle’s chimneys have a special place in his heart, for it is a scientific centre of learning.

By the time Brewster is twelve, his legs are deformed and his skin blistered and embedded with soot, but he can calculate the movement of stars and comets, especially one comet which appears every 33 years. It brings showers of shooting stars so thick, people think it is the end of the world. Lady Rosse is also watching the stars through the castle’s great telescope, Leviathan. With the help of Lady Rosse’s deaf, elusive daughter, Alice, who he meets secretly in the Castle Library, he reads scientific books and writes sooty comet predictions on empty pages.

The night on which Brewster has predicted the beginning of the return of his comet, he is stuck in a castle chimney. But he believes he can fly and is determined to wish on every shooting star his comet brings: to be the last chimney boy. When Lady Rosse discovers Brewster’s calculations, he agrees to help her achieve her own scientific ambition. In return, she must help him make his wish come true. Brewster’s grim world of child labour shows how freedom can come through our own power. This is a story of magic, friendship and hope, which is beautifully written and highly recommended.

Louise Tree

RADIANT

Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, Dutton, 2025, $18.99/ C$24.99, hb, 320pp, 9780593855782

It’s 1963 near Pittsburgh, and eleven-year-old Cooper Dale approaches the new school year with trepidation. Not only has she heard that the fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. Keating, is mean— the Queen of Darkness, as she puts it—but her classmate Wade Carter constantly singles her out and bullies her for being the only Black child in the class. But Cooper’s determined to shine this year. No, she’s determined to be radiant. This means having to tamp down her fury over Wade’s often racist taunts and working extra hard to win Mrs. Keating’s approval. As she works to accomplish both goals, she learns important lessons about forgiveness and putting herself in other people’s shoes, and that being a radiant person goes beyond earning good grades.

Nelson has crafted a beautiful novel in verse that brims with lessons about friendship, family, hard work, and staying true to oneself. While Cooper and her family experience racism—and Cooper sometimes wishes she were white—it’s not the entirety of their experience. In scenes bubbling with Black joy, the reader sees Cooper playing with friends, cooing over a litter of puppies, and reconnecting with her teenage sister over their shared love for that new rock band, the Beatles. Nelson’s gentle touch and deep understanding of tween life is sure to win her loads of fans. Aimed at readers ages ten to fourteen, this book is highly recommended for all.

Sarah Hendess

THE LITTLE BOOKS OF THE LITTLE BRONTËS

Sara O’Leary and Briony May Smith, Walker, 2024, £14.99, hb, 40pp, 9781529518313

The childhoods of the Brontë family have inspired a number of picture book creators for

all ages, particularly the playful worlds they wrote about in tiny books. These include: The Brontës: Children of the Moors in which Mick Manning imagines Charlotte telling him their story; Anna Doherty’s The Brontës with the sisters drawn as early feminists demonstrating how their childhood creations inspired their later work; Isabel Greenberg’s excellent graphic novel Glass Town that immerses readers in their world building.

In this book Sara O’Leary and Briony May Smith have interpreted the Brontës’ childhoods for a younger age group, focusing very much on the writing and making of the little books. Readers are directly addressed and invited to look through the window of the Haworth parsonage, where Charlotte is creating a miniature book for her sister Anne. This intimate approach is carried through to an appendix with instructions on how to make a little book. The Brontës are left on a happier note than in other books that have seen them through to adulthood, and the author’s stated aim is to emphasise the joyful role imagination played in their early lives rather than some of its bleakness. ‘The books they write are tiny, but the worlds inside them are huge.’

This is echoed in Briony May Smith’s illustrations, which portray the children with round, rosy cheeked faces and convey their enjoyment of the resources they have to draw on, whether it is the toy wooden soldiers that stimulate their inventions or the wild moors close to their Haworth home.

For older readers who wish to delve further, a bibliography of adult books Sara O’Leary has consulted as sources is provided, as well as a timeline for context.

Ann Lazim

WHEN THE MAPOU SINGS

Nadine Pinede, Candlewick, 2024, $19.99/ C$25.99, hb, 432pp, 9781536235661

Haiti, 1934. Sixteen-year-old Lucille has a beloved mapou tree that she caresses and climbs, and which sings to her. Lucille and her best friend, Fifina, attend a mission school, dreaming of one day opening their own school. When Fifina disappears and then her beloved mapou tree is cut down, Lucille confronts the powerful and corrupt section chief who is to blame for both deeds. Lucille’s family knows she’ll be punished for what she’s done, and sends her away. Lucille moves to the city and finds work as a maid in the house of a rich woman who is involved in women’s rights and other progressive issues. Lucille becomes good friends, and then romantically involved, with the woman’s son, an intellectual and secret revolutionary. When his mother notices, she sends Lucille away to work as a servant to Ameriken Zora Neale Hurston, a writer doing research in Haiti. Lucille learns from each person she meets on her journey of self-realization, finding Fifina and making a difference in her world.

This valuable, important book is a novel in verse, a format I would normally recommend to reluctant readers. But this is not an easy read, because it is complex, handling difficult questions and sometimes unpleasant historical facts. It is a

powerful, engaging story with great character development, a clear look at Haiti during the 1930s, excellent historical details, vivid descriptions of the island and its people, and good questions about freedom, dreams, and personal values. The use of French and Kreyol may sometimes be confusing but adds to the verisimilitude of time and place. The extensive end notes are fascinating. Ages 12 and up.

Elizabeth Caulfield Felt

HARDIT SINGH MALIK.

World War One Flying Ace

Bali Rai, Scholastic, 2024, £6.99, pb, 175pp, 9780702311741

A new title in the Voices series which aims to bring attention to authentic, unsung stories. This is the eighth in the series written by a diverse range of writers (see HNR 104, A Different Kind of Freedom by Romani author Richard O’Neill) and the second by Bali Rai whose earlier book was from the viewpoint of a young Indian soldier in World War Two. Here he tells the story of Hardit Singh Malik, who became a pilot in World War One.

Readers are drawn straight in by Hardit describing a mission moment by moment as he flies a Sopwith Camel under German fire. He then goes back in time to evoke, using all the senses, his privileged childhood in a wealthy Sikh family in Rawalpindi, and we gain a brief insight into how a love of kite flying inspired his later interest in flying planes.

In 1908, aged 14, Hardit travels alone to England to join his brother to continue his education, where his experiences are broadly positive, although he faces prejudice and racism from some quarters. This is exacerbated when World War One begins, as Hardit wishes to enlist and is not allowed to do so in Britain. A contact enables him to join the French Red Cross, initially as an ambulance driver. He is later offered training as a pilot, and at this point the British authorities at last become convinced that he be allowed to join the Royal Flying Corps after all, and Hardit becomes their first Indian pilot.

This novel for around age 9+ is based on true life and includes references to real people such as Princess Sophia Duleep Singh (The Royal Rebel by Bali Rai – see HNR 100). An excellent addition to this important series.

Ann Lazim

HALLEY AND THE MYSTERY OF THE LOST GIRLS

Susy Robison, Big Sister Books, 2024, $15.99, pb, 222pp, 9798989104079

In 1951, fifteen-year-old Halley Pederson moves with her father from New York to India. Her father is pursuing a new job, and with her mother’s recent death, the abrupt move halfway around the world is both exciting and scary for Halley. She quickly makes friends with other teens, some from India and other expatriates like herself. While initially overwhelmed by India’s customs, culture, and lifestyle changes,

she also finds herself fascinated by the exotic differences. And then, one day, on a hunting trip with her father, Halley is kidnapped and held with other abducted girls. Using all her talents and courage, she escapes more than once from her captors and eventually is able to rescue the other girls as well.

The author does an admirable job of capturing the nuances of life in India in print. The food, the animals, and the scents help to bring the setting to life. However, I did find it a bit of a stretch to believe that a fifteen-year-old girl could outwit a criminal gang involved in human trafficking. Still, this conundrum keeps the reader turning the page. This novel is intended for thirteen- to fifteen-year-old readers, and the action should keep them interested.

Linda Harris Sittig

BIRDIE

J. P. Rose, Andersen Press, 2024, £7.99, pb, 246pp, 9781839132414

Yorkshire 1950s. This story begins in the Fitzwilliam Children’s Home on the outskirts of Leeds and then moves to the Dales village of Berrington Vale, a coal-mining community. Birdie is a young girl with a single mother and a Black American GI father, though she doesn’t know the full details and their implications at the beginning of the story. She has to leave the comfort of the children’s home where she has been happy with a small group of children like herself, looked after by the kindly Mrs Dudley. When Birdie’s mother dies, her great-aunt Mabel sends for her, but is shocked on her arrival, as she does not know that Birdie is a mixed-race child.

Birdie has a clear narrative voice, and her gradual realisation that other people see her as different is portrayed convincingly.

The story describes her difficulties in settling into the tight-knit village community and the local school, and her feelings are described very well. Her own aunt treats her cruelly at first, but is a good-hearted woman, deep-down, and soon repents and reveals her own past tragedy. Not all the village is hostile, however, and Birdie gradually starts to make friends, including her great uncle, Walter, and Julie next door, who is her age. Her first real friend, however, is Mr Duke, the old pit pony who rescues her when she gets lost down the mine. He is the last pit pony living down the mine, which is about to close, and faces a grim fate, but Birdie is determined to rescue him. The descriptions of the countryside and landscape are realistic, and the life and times of the 1950s in a Yorkshire mining village are convincing. Recommended for readers of 9-12.

Julie Parker

THE WHISPERING DEAD OF REWLEY ABBEY

Peter Stephenson, Historium Press, 2024, $23.99/£18.99, hb, 227pp, 9781962465731

In this novel the reader glimpses a time when town-gown tensions were high in Oxford, England. This is a murder mystery set in the late 13th century and the first book in The Murders

in the Abbey series. Sister Agnes, a Benedictine nun from Godstow Abbey, investigates the brutal murder of a young academic from Balliol College just outside of Rewley Abbey, with the help of her noble friend, Lady Beatrix de Aylesbridge. Together they face danger, supernatural forces, and a ruthless killer.

I like that this story has two female detectives from very different backgrounds. Sister Agnes looks after the abbey’s infirmary and, like Ellis Peters’s Cadfael, she knows about nursing, herbs, and anatomical science. Because Sister Agnes can’t leave Godstow Abbey due to her vows, Lady Beatrix investigates on her behalf out in the secular world. It would be interesting to find out some more about these characters’ backstories as the series progresses because we don’t get to know a lot about them in this book. The pace of the narrative is slow in places due to repetition of information, as the main characters have to relay their findings back to Sister Agnes.

The author sets up a fairly easy to solve case; however, there is an oblique plot twist at the end in preparation for the second book which throws doubt on everything we thought we knew. Fans of traditionally plotted murder mysteries may find the solution to this story disappointing. If you enjoy reading about this time period and like a dollop of mysticism with your serving of murder, then this book is for you. Young adult.

Lizzie Bentham

BIG JIM AND THE WHITE BOY

David F. Walker and Marcus Kwame Anderson, Ten Speed Graphic, 2024, $35.00, hb, 288pp, 9780593836118

1860s, United States. Mark Twain was not an accurate storyteller. In their old age, Big Jim and Huckleberry Finn recount to Jim’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren what really happened during Jim’s quest to find his sold-away wife and children. Jim and Huck floated down the Mississippi, fought Confederate soldiers, brought slaves to freedom, and took on Huck’s evil father and the Packard brothers—among other things. The two elderly friends laugh and bicker and correct each other. In places, the story flashes forward to 1983, when one of Jim’s granddaughters tells his stories to her own granddaughter, and to 2022, when that granddaughter, now a history professor, talks about history and publishes Jim’s story.

This graphic novel is a fast, exciting read. The way it is formatted had me sometimes wondering what was true and what was fiction, with the professor granddaughter mixing historical information and details from Jim’s fictional life. However, the ending material makes everything clear. This version of the Huckleberry Finn story dives deeply into Jim’s story and his relationship with Huck. While the elderly Jim and Huck provide some comic relief, the actual difficulties of slavery, torture, and war are made clear in words and images. It would be an excellent book to read alongside the original in a high school class. Ages 14 and up.

Elizabeth Caulfield Felt

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).