Can the Templar bandwagon hold another occupant?
Two reviewers give Robyn Young’s debut novel, the first of a trilogy, the once-over...
BRETHREN
Robyn Young, Hodder & Stoughton, 2006, £10, hb, 492pp, 0340839694
The narrative opens in 1260 and follows Will Campbell, a young man who has been brought up from boyhood in the Order of the Knights Templar. Struggling to make sense of his own tragic past, Will is confused by his feelings, not only for his father, who had left the family to become a Templar, but also for Elwen, a strong-willed woman whose path seems to continually cross his own. Will is drawn into the deadly world of Templar politics, where a small group at the heart of the Order seeks to impose its own heretical vision on the civilized world. Meanwhile, a new star is rising in the East. The former slave Baybars, a ruthless fighter and brilliant general driven by his hatred of the European invaders of his homeland, has declared jihad and is systematically conquering the remaining crusader strongholds in Outremer.
The novel is well written and researched. The characters are well drawn, although I did find elements of the plot a little contrived. Brethren is the first novel by Robyn Young and at a price of £10 excellent value for money. Recommended.
Mike Ashworth Pub in North America by Dutton, 2006, $25.95/C$34.00, hb, 480pp, 0525949755
Another Templar novel? This one confines itself solely to the historical period from 1260 to 1272, when the Mamluk warrior Baybars terrorized Outremer and wrenched control of much of the Holy Land back from the Franks. He succeeded despite the efforts of the Templars and Hospitallers. In addition to Baybars’s tale, the storyline follows the turbulent careers of two young men, William Campbell and Garin de Lyons, who have joined the Templars for all the wrong reasons. The reasons are understandably human, but none too inspiring. They pursue their separate goals (personal redemption, finding a secret lost book, regaining family honor) with fierce determination, destroying their friendship, sacrificing even their duty to the Temple, until their paths meet again in Outremer. There, they must face Baybars, and in so doing, they discover what is really important.
Religion plays a surprisingly small role in the lives of these Templar knights, though it is seemingly important to Baybars. This book is truly an epic adventure as billed. The history is fascinating. The characters are well-developed. The plot is exciting. However, I found it relentlessly downbeat. Rather than being a “page-turner,” I could only read it in small doses. It’s not that I need unrealistic cheeriness, but I do like to believe there is some good in the world. This book is the first of a trilogy, and I will likely read the next. The main protagonist has matured by the end, and I have hopes for his character.
the Ashewells, Gosyns, and Medcotes. Murder is soon committed, and Joliffe must uncover the guilty party before the village turns against the players, or more people are murdered.
This little mystery is an easy read, Joliffe is an engaging protagonist, and the players are an appealing group. The reader won’t find discovering the identity of the murderer to be too taxing of an exercise, but the seething undercurrents of the village’s secrets provide enough respectable suspects to forestall instant recognition. This installment also provides more
Sue Asher
insight into Joliffe’s character, exposing the secret regrets and desires under his mischievous, playful exterior. Overall, a pleasant enough way to spend a couple of hours.
Bethany
Skaggs
THE BELOVED
Posie Graham-Evans, Hodder & Stoughton, 2006, £6.99, pb, 450pp, 0340836520 / Pub. in the US as The Uncrowned Queen, Atria, 2006, $14.00, pb, 480pp, 0743443748
The Beloved is the third in a trilogy, now
set in Flanders during the exile of Edward IV. Warwick is plotting to reinstate Henry VI as King of England, supported by George, Duke of Clarence. Already in exile is the Lady Anne de Bohun, illegitimate daughter of Henry VI, mistress of Edward IV and mother of his son, Edward. It is her task to help Edward meet his reluctant brother-in-law, Charles Duke of Burgundy, and raise the army needed to return to England and regain the throne. Anne is fully aware of the fact that she is still very much in love with Edward and is fearful of meeting him again.
On the whole I enjoyed this book. The pace was good, and there were enough ‘real’ events and characters to justify it as an historical novel, but I have to wonder just how the author thought she could make Anne the illegitimate daughter of Henry VI when he was not known for taking mistresses (even the paternity of his son was doubted), and there are other strange quirks of detail. She uses an old spelling of the name Woodville, presumably to add authenticity, and yet has the Duke of Burgundy referring to his daughter, Mary, as a teenager. I also thought that there were too many unnecessary explanations which tended to hold up the story.
Marilyn Sherlock
I, MONA LISA
Jeanne Kalogridis, St. Martin’s Press, 2006, $14.95, pb, 544pp, 0312341393 / Pub. in the UK as Painting Mona Lisa, HarperCollins, 2006, £17.99, hb, 576pp, 0007210299
In her follow-up to 2005’s The Borgia Bride, Jeanne Kalogridis brings to life the woman behind the enigmatic smile of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous painting. Lisa di Antonio Gherardini is born the daughter of a successful cloth merchant in 15th century Florence, a city dominated by the Medici family and rife with dangerous intrigue and treachery since the assassination attempt known as the Pazzi Conspiracy. During this attempt, the Medici overlord, Lorenzo Il Magnifico, lost his younger brother and nearly his own life. Lisa grows into womanhood overshadowed by these traumatic events and the popular rise of the fanatic monk, Savonarola, whose rabid crusade against the Medici results in a dark period of fear and persecution. Unbeknownst to her, Lisa also carries a secret, one that binds her to the Medici cause and brings her to the attention of Leonardo.
Kalogridis vividly recreates the Pazzi Conspiracy through the eyes of one of its conspirators, and details her narrative with a realistic depiction of life in Renaissance Florence. Likewise, the Medicis’ magnetic appeal and passion for power and the arts offer a fascinating contrast to Savonarola’s brimstone condemnation, while the inclusion of a slave in Lisa’s household underscores the deep division between social classes. Lisa herself, however, evolves less in complexity, emerging as a quintessential headstrong heroine whose unlikely love affair carries few surprises. This is offset by a more interesting relationship with the exceptional artist who will eventually immortalize her, as well as an intriguing interpretation of his painting’s genesis.
Romantic conventions aside, I, Mona Lisa offers readers a well-researched foray into this turbulent episode in Italian history.
C.W. Gortner
THE KING’S WOMEN
Deryn Lake, Allison & Busby, 2006 (c1992, written as Dinah Lampitt), £6.99, pb, 592pp, 0749092747
1403. The middle of the Hundred Years War. The wolves are circling France. We follow the fortunes of the Dauphin Charles, who will eventually, with the aid of Jeanne D’Arc, force the English out and break the dominance of England’s ally, Burgundy.
This blockbuster of a book can best be described as Dan Brown meets Angelique. The women are beautiful (Agnes Sorel, Charles’s mistress); depraved (Isabeau, Charles’s mother); astute rulers (Yolande of Anjou); and illegitimate (Jeanne d’Arc, daughter of two Very Important People). The men are evil (the Satanist, Gilles de Rais); passionate (Arthur de Richemont, Yolande’s lover); into alchemy and scrying (Guy, the Astronomer Royal); and we must not forget our old friends, the Knights Templar and the Priory of Sion, who have, apparently, been operating underground for a century and now emerge to train Jeanne in the arts of war.
The cast list is vast, and you need your wits about you as various rapacious nobles switch sides. Fortunately, there is a detailed family tree and a much-needed Cast of Characters. I found the book colourful, fast-paced, bloodthirsty, sexy and page-turning. But is it accurate historically? What the hell, it’s a terrific read. What more do you want?
Elizabeth Hawksley
Henry in spirited discussions about religion and politics. Under Cat’s calm exterior lies a passionate woman: passionate about education, religious reform, her stepchildren, and the man she must leave to marry Henry. Through it all, she deals valiantly with her fears – justifiable in light of Henry’s paranoia – and manages to leave a legacy of poise, determination and intelligence.
Erickson creates beautifully drawn characters, not the least of which is Cat herself – but Henry and Tom Seymour deserve mention as well. Clothing, manners, music, politics and religion are all part of the whirlwind of Henry’s court, a court in which virtually no one remains unscathed. A highly recommended read.
Ilysa Magnus
COURTESAN
Diane Haeger, Three Rivers, 2006 (c1993), $13.00, pb, 576pp, 9781400051748
N n16th CENTURY
THE LAST WIFE OF HENRY VIII
Carolly Erickson, St. Martin’s Press, 2006, $24.95/C$33.95, hb, 336pp, 0312352182
Erickson is well known to lovers of royal non-fiction. Only with her previous novel, The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette, did Erickson move into the genre of historical fiction. The newest novel is a welcome addition and should encourage Erickson to continue writing in the genre.
Catherine Parr is probably one of the least well-known and understood of Henry VIII’s wives. First and foremost, we know that she survived Henry’s slaughter or gross betrayal of his first five wives to become his final spouse. We know that she had a torrid affair with Thomas Seymour. Frankly, other than those two facts, I knew little about Cat Parr.
In Erickson’s talented hands, Cat Parr comes to life. She matures from a young child in Catherine of Aragon’s retinue, through her first two marriages, to dealing with the intrigues of Henry’s court. Through it all, Cat struggles to maintain her own intellect, dignity and selfrespect, goals which become increasingly difficult as she is in a position to see Henry deteriorate both physically and mentally. Cat nurses Henry, tending to his suppurating leg wounds, managing her own disgust. She engages
When the beautiful widow Diane of Poitiers is called back to court, after spending the past five years in exile, she is reluctant and worried. King François I has an eye for the ladies. Diane suspects that her presence will inevitably bring back tales of her past. Devout, dressed in black, and old enough to have daughters of marriageable age, she should not be competition for the king’s attention, but her return immediately earns her the enmity of Anne d’Heilly, the king’s favorite, who sets out to drive her away. Diane, however, finds a powerful defender, Henri of Valois, the king’s second son. Twenty years her junior, moody, and headstrong, the young prince falls in love with Diane. Fighting the attraction she feels for him, Diane refuses his advances at first. Nonetheless, the widow and the prince are thrown into a maelstrom of gossip, passion, and danger.
Courtesan, the story of this unlikely, doomed affair, was Diane Haeger’s first novel, written thirteen years ago. The author of several other romantic novels and historical romances, Ms. Haeger uses historical characters to weave the entirely fictionalized account of this MaySeptember romance that once shook the French court. Rich in detail, gusto, and heady, breathless encounters between the lovers, this is a book that readers of the genre will enjoy rediscovering.
Adelaida Lower
THE PRINCESS OF DENMARK
Edward Marston, St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2006, $24.95/C$33.95, hb, 230pp, 0312356188
Life is never a quiet river for Lord Westfield’s Men, an Elizabethan theatre company. A fire burns down the inn where they are contracted to play, killing a young man in the process. Then their patron finds a new bride in Denmark and decides to bring the troupe to Elsinore as a gift for his betrothed. Crossing the North Sea is perilous, and the ship undergoes a lively attack by pirates before reaching its destination. Followed by hired killers, landing amid political conspiracies, the troupe soon becomes suspect when the marriage broker is murdered.
This is one of the better entries in the Nicholas Bracewell series. The social unrest which is apparent in London because of the existence of “strangers” resonates to this day; there is a
Y EDITORS’ CHOICE
THE BOLEYN INHERITANCE
Philippa Gregory, Touchstone, 2006, $25.95, hb, 519pp, 0743272501 / HarperCollins, 2006, £17.99, hb, 528pp, 0007190328
Gregory’s latest novel focuses on the lives of three women, all of whom bear witness to the Boleyn family’s legacy: Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII’s fourth wife; Katherine Howard, Henry’s fifth wife; and Jane Rochford, whose sister-in-law, Anne Boleyn, and husband, George Boleyn, went to the executioner’s block because she testified against them. Gregory alternates their narratives, and we hear their stories in the first person as they experience their daily lives.
Anne, the maiden from Flanders, who has lived her life under her brother’s thumb, is finally free to leave her bondage. She travels to England to become Henry’s wife and finds herself a stranger in a strange land. She cannot speak the language, her clothing is unfashionable, and her initial response to Henry – revulsion – does not earn her Henry’s good graces, even before they are married. She is clearly not long for the throne of England. How Anne is falsely accused and manages to avoid the axe is a miracle of storytelling.
Kitty Howard is groomed to seduce Henry and to manipulate the Howard family – cousins to Anne Boleyn – back into the king’s inner circle. She is a silly, pitiful, yet beautiful girl who is in love with love. She entices Henry away from Anne and sees her life as a revolving door of new dresses, jewelry and pretty young men.
Jane Rochford is, perhaps, the most moving of Gregory’s characters because she is so depraved. Spying for her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, Jane manages to bear false witness against just about anyone whose downfall will exalt her family line and ensure her fortune and title. Universally distrusted and loathed, Jane does not understand how manipulated she has been until it is too late.
Beautifully drawn characters, glorious storytelling – a tour de force from Philippa Gregory and a must read.
clever twist when the company itself becomes the “strangers” after they arrive in Denmark. As always, the characters are full of life and believable, except for Bracewell, who is a little too good to be true. The descriptions of the social mores of Elizabethan England and a brief history of Denmark provide a perfect setting for the multiple-stranded plot. Marston is an old pro at storytelling, and no reader should come away from this book bored or disappointed.
Nicole Leclerc
THE RELIGION
Tim Willocks, Jonathan Cape, 2006, £17.99, hb, 640pp, 022407797X / To be pub. in 2007 by Farrar Straus & Giroux
British novelist Tim Willocks is good at evoking the unfamiliar, so perhaps it’s inevitable that he should turn eventually to historical fiction. His first novel, Green River Rising, won praise for the authenticity of its contemporary American prison setting and his latest gives an equally powerful, even pungent, account of 16th-century Malta under siege. Malta is the stronghold of the Knights Hospitaller of St John (‘The Religion’), who are preparing to resist the vast approaching army of Suleiman the Magnificent. The Knights want our German hero, Mattias Tannhauser, for his knowledge of their enemy. Mattias, you see, was kidnapped by Muslims as a boy, converted to Islam and served in the Janissaries, the Ottoman Empire’s most formidable soldiery. Eventually he escaped, and gave up fighting (and religion) to become a merchant in Italy. Reluctant to return to bloodshed, he is only persuaded by Carla, a beautiful, disgraced noblewoman who begs him
Ilysa Magnus
to accompany her to Malta to find the bastard son taken from her at birth. But they haven’t reckoned with the sinister Inquisitor-monk Ludovico, who has his own reasons for keeping Carla from her son.
Thus the scene is set for a thrilling adventure of love and war with added depth, for in choosing a backcloth of Christians versus Muslims, Willocks can scarcely avoid holding up a mirror to present-day conflicts. Mercifully,
Y
SOVEREIGN
he doesn’t hit us over the head with it. Instead, he bludgeons us with cudgels-worth of Bad Sex and lashings of repulsively-detailed violence. One may, however, be confident that both are anatomically accurate, since the author is a qualified doctor. Although the settings are splendidly envisioned, the descriptive prose is sometimes over-purpled, while narrative and dialogue are an uneasy, occasionally risible, mix of the modern and the archaic.
Sarah Cuthbertson
N17th CENTURY
CATALINA, A TRUE STORY
Markus Orths (trans. Helen Atkins), Toby Press, 2006, $24.95/C33.95/£14.99, hb, 256pp, 1592641652
This novel was inspired by the autobiography of Catalina de Erauso, who was born in Basque country around 1592. Known in her own time as the Lieutenant Nun, Catalina begins life as the granddaughter of a man whose fortune flows from a single silver mine in what is today Bolivia. Catalina idolizes her older brother, Miguel, who is being groomed to become the overseer of the mine. When Miguel is sent to what he has been told is a tropical paradise, Catalina forms a plan to join him. First, she enters a nunnery where she will be educated. When an opportunity presents itself, she runs away, and manages to pass herself off as a young man. It takes years of study and inspired role playing to reach South America. When she does at last, in the guise of soldier, her search ends at the mountain of Potosi, whose mines are called “eaters of men,” and whose sides gleam with the skeletons of slaves. Lies, betrayal, illusion and disillusion are the stuff of Catalina, but it is also a page turner, a vivid recreation of history, and a treatise on the malleable nature of what we simplistically refer to as “the self.”
Juliet Waldron
EDITORS’ CHOICE
C.J. Sansom, Macmillan, 2006, £16.99/C$32.95, hb, 581pp, 1405050489 / To be pub. in the US by Viking, March 2007, $25.95, hb, 592pp, 0670038318
To overawe the rebellious north, Henry VIII makes a grand Progress to York. Travelling ahead are lawyer Matthew Shardlake and his assistant, Jack Barak, to help prepare petitions and, at Cranmer’s behest, to ensure that an important conspirator arrives in good health at the Tower for questioning.
A workman is murdered and papers are found which could shake the throne. Shardlake, confronted by personal enemies, threats and constant danger, is determined to seek out the truth. In typical sleuth fashion he has a disability, personal problems, and moral dilemmas he must resolve in order to carry out his instructions.
Meticulously detailed (though the frequent references to ‘lunch’ in the early 16th century struck a jarring note), this novel provides an intriguing glimpse into the lives of people behind the throne and the preparations involved in keeping royal lives running smoothly. The plot is satisfyingly complex, and the people, real and fictional, are portrayed with skill. The background, the private lives of the court and the ordinary people, is brought vividly to life.
Marina Oliver
THE REDEMPTION
M.L. Tyndall, Barbour, 2006, $9.97, pb, 317pp, 1597893595
In 1665, Lady Charlisse Bristol escapes from an abusive uncle and boards a ship to the Caribbean to search for her merchant father, whom she has never met. Caught in a storm, Charlisse finds herself shipwrecked and alone on a deserted island. Battling the elements, struggling to survive, and near starvation, Charlisse is ready to face her death when a band of pirates rescues her. Their captain, a buccaneer named Edmund Merrick who secretly spies for the English, reluctantly assumes the role of her protector. Soon, he discovers her father to be his mortal enemy, Edward the Terror, a cruel, sadistic pirate for whom Edmund is determined to bring to justice. This is a Christian swashbuckling adventure story with great characterization and an intriguing plot. The author has done an excellent job of researching, bringing to life the tumultuous 17th century and the romantic life of pirating on the high seas.
Mirella Patzer
LADY KATHERNE’S WILD RIDE
Jeane Westin, Signet Eclipse, 2006, $6.99, pb, 352pp, 0451121921X
At the start of Westin’s lively Restoration romp, Lady Katherne Lindsay suffers the indignities common to a poor and dependent relation. One insult she will not tolerate. When her lecherous uncle invades her bedchamber one night, the servant-woman comes to Kit’s aid. Certain that the gentleman is dead, the pair flee into the night – only to fall into the clutches of Jeremy Hughes, an impoverished strolling actor. He immediately turns the fugitives over to the law, for the reward. Immediately regretting his action, the enterprising Jeremy rescues them and carries them away to London to turn them into actresses. The romance that soon develops between the rakish actor and the well-born beauty is deliberately thwarted by the wicked Earl of Rochester. But with two enemies stalking Kit, she and Jeremy are not so easily divided.
The plot contains its share of clichés – the jealous, unstable other woman and an improbable reunion – but Westin’s sure control of the action and her characters’ witty repartee more than compensate. The relationship between theatre and court, country and city, is well represented. Some readers may find the rich idiom and vocabulary of the period intrusive, but most should welcome it.
Margaret Barr
18th CENTURY
BY FIRE AND SWORD
Elaine Coffman, Mira, 2006, $6.99/C$8.50, pb, 377pp, 0778322882
On Christmas Eve, 1746, Lady Kenna Lennox is off to France to hone her fencing skills so she can return to Scotland and revenge her father’s and brothers’ murders at the hand of her uncle. She has already earned this uncle’s hatred by rescuing her sister, whom he had imprisoned. Arriving at Edinburgh’s harbor, Kenna picks out the best-looking ship, boards it, and asks to be taken to Calais. The captain is Colin Montgomery, an American privateer. Despite
Y EDITORS’ CHOICE
DARK ANGELS
Karleen Koen, Crown, 2006, $25.95/$C34.95, hb, 544pp, 0307339912
Through a Glass Darkly was a book that lingered in the memory: a lush historical setting, carefully created characters, riveting storyline. Now, twenty years later, I have finished its prequel, Dark Angels, and am happy to report that it is every bit as memorable. In this new novel, Alice Verney is maid-of-honour to Princess Henriette, the beloved sister of Charles II of England. After the monarchy is restored, people who experienced years of turmoil want pleasure and little else, but even at this court there is intrigue aplenty, particularly about the childless Queen Catherine. Alice – an inveterate meddler – becomes embroiled in secrets involving the powerful Duke of Balmoral (whom she wishes to marry) and the mysterious Henri Ange (who could be English, could be French). As the plot gallops along, Alice learns much about herself and her relationships with her father, her friends, and Richard Saylor, the soldier who becomes one of the only people she can trust.
One of the things I enjoyed most about Dark Angels was its elaborate picture of the English court and its various sub-courts (e.g., Queen Catherine’s). The period details are thoughtfully chosen, and the numerous courtiers and servants are distinct from one another. Censorious and stubborn Alice is not exactly a likeable protagonist, but it is a tribute to the author’s skill that we care about her anyway.
It is a rare book where the characters are so real, they could easily be the people you encounter each day. Karleen Koen accomplished this with her first two novels, and now, with Dark Angels, she has done it once again. A note from the publisher says, “I guarantee that you’re in for quite a treat [if you read this novel].” I can’t phrase it any better than that.
an immediate mutual attraction, Colin turns her down. He has a cargo to deliver and she is on a mission of revenge. However, he cannot forget the redheaded beauty. After delivering his cargo, he takes off for Paris to find her.
Coffman has written a smashing beginning,
Claire Morris
but once Kenna reaches Paris the story begins to fizzle out. It is choppy with an unpolished naiveté that is surprising for a fifth book. By Fire and Sword is disappointingly not up to the standard of her previous book, The Italian Audrey Braver
Y EDITORS’ CHOICE
DUCHESS: A Novel of Sarah Churchill
Susan Holloway Scott, New American Library, 2006, $14.00/C$18.50, pb, 384pp, 0451218558
This wonderful fictional biography of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, whisks the reader into a period rife with intrigue, love, sex, war and religious strife. Told through Sarah’s eyes, Duchess follows her life from her first days at court in the 1670s until her return from exile just before the death of Queen Anne in 1714.
There are so many reasons to recommend this book, from its myriad believable characters, ably drawn setting, polished and fluent prose, to its ability to totally immerse the reader in the past. We watch Sarah grow from a young woman of ambition and inner strength to a political and social leader at Queen Anne’s court. But her success doesn’t come without sacrifice, petty rivalry or danger, especially when she and her husband, John, throw their support behind the rebellion against James II. The reader experiences it all in glorious detail.
Scott’s in-depth research is clear from her setting and plot, yet she doesn’t overwhelm the reader with minutiae; her clear prose evokes the language of the period without falling into the realms of gadzookery. Readers will also find that the story moves along at a fine pace. Sarah recounts those events of most importance to her, and it is interesting to note how she moves through time more quickly as her relationship with Anne begins to crumble.
What ties this book together, though, is the love match between Sarah and John. Despite many separations due to his military career and their somewhat divergent views on politics and child-raising, the reader never doubts the depth of their love and the strength it gives them, both individually and as a couple.
Readers looking for a true escape into the past will want to add this book to their collection and their keeper shelf.
Teresa Basinski Eckford
MIDNIGHT BLUE
Phoebe Conn, Leisure, 2006, $6.99/ C$8.99/£5.99, pb, 337pp, 0843957093
In the waning days of the American Revolution, an American privateer captures a ship with the pregnant widow of a British officer on board. Captain Christopher MacLeod can’t return Sarah to British-held Charleston, so she remains his prisoner for the duration of the cruise. Sparks fly as two people from opposite sides of the war must co-exist in a tiny ship’s cabin, but a truce is called when Sarah goes into labor during a storm. By the time they reach shore, Chris has grown to love her and her newborn son. But will Sarah overcome her resentment at being held prisoner?
Conn’s period dialogue is stilted in places, and she is fond of having the characters “hiss” non-sibilant words, a no-no in every writing manual. The plot provides believable reasons for conflict between the protagonists in the first section, but once ashore, the tension becomes arbitrary. Some of the history is questionable – I doubt a respectable 18th century woman would wear her nightdress to a picnic, or that people on shipboard would have enough fresh water to wash themselves and their clothing daily. Other naval fiction I’ve read contradicts that fact. The historical romance started well, but went downhill partway through.
B.J. Sedlock
SARATOGA: A Novel of the American Revolution
David Garland, St. Martin’s Griffin, 2006, $13.95/C$18.95, pb, 308pp, 0312361483
The British 1777 offensive commanded by the larger-than-life “Gentleman Johnny” Burgoyne that culminated in the American victory at Saratoga has long been the setting for historical novels. Garland’s Captain Jamie Skoyles, an infantry officer, goes beyond the stereotypical British officer in that he is sensitive to the needs of his men, alert to the errors of his commanders, and sympathetic to the rebel cause. The fact that he falls in love with his commanding officer’s fiancée certainly complicates the life of this professional soldier.
Garland presents the action in a straightforward style, although it does stretch the bounds of reason to have Skoyles play such a key role in all of the battles. The author seems driven to deprive our Captain of any rest or relaxation on this most arduous of campaigns by shoehorning him into every crucial moment of General Burgoyne’s decision making and engagements. His characters are not welldeveloped, however, and this detracts from the tale. This lack of care in etching out the personalities of the leading players is especially obvious with Skoyles’s commanding officer, Major Harry Featherstone, his fiancée, Elizabeth, and an American rebel, Ezekiel Proudfoot. They appear more as stereotypes than living beings. Indeed, Featherstone’s evil and vindictive nature is fairly unimaginatively crafted. This is the first of a planned series on Jamie Skoyles in the American Revolution.
John R. Vallely
THE THIEF TAKER
Janet Gleeson, Simon & Schuster, 2006, $14.00, pb, 305pp, 0743290186 / Bantam, 2005, £6.99, pb, 409pp, 0553816349
After the death of her husband, Agnes Meadowes obtains employment as a cook. Working in London for the Blanchards, a family of once prosperous silversmiths, Agnes struggles to support her son. Next door, at the silversmith shop, an apprentice is murdered and an expensive wine cooler stolen. The loss of the wine cooler, meant for a wealthy client, could mean disaster for the Blanchards and the end of Agnes’s service. When a kitchen maid also disappears, Mrs. Blanchard asks Agnes to discover what happened to the girl, who’s suspected of being part of the theft. Then Mr. Blanchard requests that Agnes contact a local thief taker to ascertain the whereabouts of his wine cooler. The unscrupulous thief taker promises to locate the item after being charmed by Agnes, but he has more sinister plans in store for her. Agnes becomes embroiled in two additional murders that involve someone in the Blanchard’s household. When she continues to investigate, her son is kidnapped and now she must save the boy.
The atmosphere of mid-18th century London is sharp and the cooking fascinating. But in this often convoluted story, I found many of Agnes’s actions unbelievable, given her background.
Diane Scott Lewis
BEDLAM
Greg Hollingshead, St. Martin’s Press, 2006, $24.95, hb, 312pp, 9780312354749
Snatched off to London’s notorious madhouse Bethlem hospital in 1797, James Matthews is denied access to his family or any contact with the outside world. Insisting he’s been imprisoned for political reasons, his rants about ‘gangs’ that inhabit people’s bodies and an ‘airloom’ that alters your brain keep him chained in a stark cell. His wife, Margaret, tries to verify the underlying reason for his incarceration, but is thwarted at every turn. An apothecary, John Haslam, struggles to care for his various lunatics as the only constant doctor they have, and begins to believe Matthews’ ravings about political intrigue when prominent government officials demand the patient be sequestered in the incurable ward. Soon Haslam’s own desire for literary aggrandizement stalls any true effort in fighting for his most infamous patient’s release. Haslam finds his own reputation at risk in delving into the past of this ‘dangerous’ republican during the troubled times of the French Revolution.
Based on the true story of James Tilly Matthews, Bedlam follows the twenty-year commitment of a London tea merchant as told by Matthew’s wife, his doctor and the patient himself. Always near the center looms London’s notorious madhouse, Bethlem Hospital, nicknamed Bedlam, which became a catchphrase for chaos and insanity. The novel is also a discourse on the treatment of the insane in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Filled with conspiracies and gruesome details of patient care in a crueler time, you will wonder which parts are real, and which are the ramblings of
a madman. Full of wit and humor as well as poignancy, the story is fascinating because it’s basically true.
Diane Scott Lewis
JACK ABSOLUTE
C.C. Humphreys, St. Martin’s Press, 2006, $23.95, hb, 305pp, 0312358229 / Orion, 2004, £6.99, pb, 352pp, 0752859773
“Rollicking” is not a word I usually use, but it perfectly describes C.C. Humphreys’ new novel, Jack Absolute. The title character claims to be “the real” Captain Jack Absolute, the man who inspired the lovelorn hero of the same name in Richard Sheridan’s 18th century play, The Rivals. Humphreys, an actor, had brought Jack Absolute to life first on the stage and now on the page, imagining a backstory full of romance, adventures and intrigue.
The story is loads of fun, grounded in rich visual detail of the American Revolutionary War, specifically General Burgoyne’s campaign from Quebec to his ultimate defeat at Saratoga. Burgoyne has drafted Jack, and his native friend, Até, to help him recruit the members of the Five Tribes of the Iroquois as allies in the king’s cause. Jack has a dual mission: he is also the general’s personal spy, charged with learning the identities of rebel operatives known only as Cato and Diomedes. His love for a Loyalist New York debutante and a deadly grudge against him from a German count further complicate his mission.
Descriptions of Georgian-era theatre, both its personalities and productions, are painstakingly accurate. The duels, and there are many, are particularly well done. Humphreys’ background as schoolboy fencing champion and fight choreographer serve him well. Though the characterization lacks nuance, the story more than makes up for any shallowness of character. Jack Absolute has sex, love, jealousy, betrayal, loyalty and sacrifice. It’s a delightful read in the tradition of Patrick O’Brian and will appeal to anyone with a soft spot for swashbuckling romance. I can’t wait for the next book in the series.
Lessa J. Scherrer
A KING’S TRADE
Dewey Lambdin, St. Martin’s Press, 2006, $25.95/C$34.95, hb, 352pp, 031231549X
It’s 1799, and the Napoleonic Wars have just begun. Alan Lewrie, captain of the 32-gun British frigate HMS Proteus, is in trouble – again. In an earlier engagement in the Caribbean, he had confiscated twelve slaves from a plantation and enlisted them in the Royal Navy. While ashore in England, it becomes apparent that he might very well be sued for stealing property (slaves) and faces a court martial. The nefarious Zachariah Twiggs, of the Foreign Office, proposes that they present Lewrie not as a thief but as an abolitionist hero.
Realizing that heroes are best fashioned when absent, he arranges an assignment for the captain that will take him to the other side of the world. As part of an escort to the Far East, a French frigate disables his ship, and they are forced to anchor at Cape Town to refit Proteus’ shot-off rudder. One of the merchantmen from
18th
Century-19th Century
the escort, the Festival, also anchors. The Festival is a floating Russian circus, literally. The lascivious Lewrie, although a married man with children, is attracted to a beautiful young performer, Eudoxia, but it comes to naught. Finally, after the Proteus is refitted, it sails straight into another battle with the French.
Lambdin’s novel is rich in 18th century nautical detail that does not overwhelm. He captures the linguistic diversity of his welldefined characters. It might be easy to compare him to Patrick O’Brian, but Lambdin holds his own, demonstrating that there is plenty of room on the high seas for everyone. I look forward to reading the rest of the series.
Gerald T. Burke
CRUEL MUSIC
Beverle Graves Myers, Poisoned Pen Press, 2006, $24.95/C$34.95, hb, 312pp, 1590582306
Third in her series of Baroque mysteries, Beverle Graves Myers’s Cruel Music finds Venetian castrato Tito Amato involved in the machinations to secure votes for a successor to Pope Clement XII, who is on his deathbed. Tito is coerced by a wealthy Venetian family into going “under cover” in the home of the epicurean cardinal Fabiani, whose support of their candidate is critical to ultimate success.
The murder of a pretty young maid in the Fabiani household soon after his arrival leads Tito to suspect that all is not as it appears. The mystery unfolds in a series of twists and turns that read more like a modern thriller than a true historical, despite many well-researched details of the musical life at the time. Myers’ somewhat predictable characters not only lapse into modern colloquialisms, but also profess occasionally anachronistic opinions and beliefs, particularly about religion.
That said, this was still a fast-paced and satisfying mystery, spiced up with witchcraft and illicit romance. Cruel Music should appeal to those who like their whodunits to have a historical twist.
Susanne Dunlap
MAGIC MAN
Patricia Rice, Signet, 2006, $7.99/C$10.99, pb, 384pp, 0451218965
Magic Man is the finale for a series of books which began with Merely Magic in 2000. All take place in the mid-18th century and center around Scotland, detailing the romantic lives of two families, the Malcolms and the Ives. This is the book for Aidan Dougal, a character who appeared in earlier books and generated much interest on the part of Rice’s readers. The magical gifts, which all Malcolm women have, are interesting, the romance is midway between a gentle read and the repetitively erotic, and there is plenty of action. Since these characters all appear in this last book and all have their own stories, it is strongly recommended that readers begin with an earlier book. The plot of Magic Man revolves entirely on the genealogy of the clan, a detail which will please some readers and try the patience of others, and works better when some knowledge of the family pre-exists. Mary K. Bird-Guilliams
TENACIOUS
Julian Stockwin, McBooks, 2006, $24.00, hb, 336pp, 1590131193 / Hodder and Stoughton, 2006, £6.99, 446pp, 0340832223
Fans of Napoleonic naval action will certainly enjoy sailing with Lieutenant Thomas Kydd, RN in Stockwin’s sixth book in his Kydd Sea Adventure series. Set in the Mediterranean during the French expeditions against Egypt and Syria, Kydd’s service on H.M.S. Tenacious takes him to Toulon, Minorca, the Battle of the Nile, and the siege of Acre. Along the way, he encounters the always intriguing Lady Hamilton, the equally fascinating Admiral Nelson, and the largely forgotten but indefatigable defender of Acre, Sir Sydney Smith.
The historical events occupy center stage, but Stockwin fleshes out the story by continually reminding us that Kydd is designed to portray a living being and not simply a stereotypical hero. The treatment of one of Kydd’s fellow officers, a nobleman named Renzi, who rejects his life of privilege in favor of a man-of-war in wartime, is an unexpected highlight. I may be overstating the case when I say that secondary characters in novels such as this are rarely given the breadth and depth routinely accorded the hero or heroine. Renzi’s noble background is only hinted at in opening chapters, but the tension between this officer determined to make his way in the Royal Navy and his equally stubborn father, who wants him to resume his duties as the eldest son, provide the reader with a well-drawn glimpse into English upper-class life of the time. There were times when I wished the novel had followed Renzi’s life and career rather than Kydd’s.
John R. Vallely
Written in spare, elegant prose whose clarity belies the murkiness of every truth it tells, this is a very clever novel indeed. Even the title is open to at least three interpretations. The story is simple, but full of fine gothic set pieces, including an earthquake, a daredevil ride through a storm, death by sorcery and attempted murder with a snake. There is also, improbably, a dancing goat. Despite all this, and a cast straight out of Rider Haggard, the novel left me dissatisfied. Although intellectually brilliant, it lacks passion and its characters have little depth. I admired it, but did not engage with it on an emotional level.
Sarah Bower
HIDDEN IN THE HEART
Beth Andrews, Robert Hale, 2006, £18.99, hb, 224pp, 070908109X
N n19th CENTURY
THE FALL OF TROY
Peter Ackroyd, Chatto & Windus, 2006, £16.99, hb, 224pp, 0701179112
In this small but perfectly formed novel, Peter Ackroyd returns to the themes of fakes and forgeries. Set during the excavation of Troy, it tells the story of Sophia Chrysanthis, teenage bride of Heinrich Obermann, the archaeologist in charge. It is not so much Sophia’s beauty which attracts Obermann as her knowledge of Homer – and her father’s money. Obermann’s convictions about Troy are not supported by the evidence, and he is running out of support. Besieged by his Turkish overseer, who suspects he has been looting precious finds, and under scrutiny from British and American academics who question his methods, Obermann needs a break. But for Obermann, archaeology is an art, not a science, a matter more of intuition than evidence, and Homer is history rather than myth. The novel reaches its dramatic conclusion when Obermann’s vision of Troy is challenged by the decipherment of writing on clay tablets which shows the Trojans to have been cannibals and exponents of human sacrifice. Sophia, meanwhile, has been doing a little archaeology of her own, digging up her husband’s past to find he is guilty of mythologising himself as well as the Trojans.
Lydia Bramwell finds herself packed off to the Sussex village of Diddlington to spend the summer with her spinster aunt, whilst her elder, and far prettier, sister Louisa trots off to London on the catch for a title. Lydia promptly finds herself pleasantly surprised by the adventures she finds herself plunged into. Murder no less! And romance! Lydia’s beau, the charmingly named John Savidge, is a delight, being plainspoken, honest as the day is long and thoroughly sensible. Lydia herself is a fine snip of a thing, spirited, intelligent and not tardy in speaking her mind either. An enchanting pair! Though personally I think the masterpiece of the novel is Aunt Camilla, a comic character with such fine sensibilities she finds it necessary to retire frequently to her chamber. There is a delightful tone of light irony and wit running through this charming Regency, most often to be found in the colourful characters inhabiting the quaintly and aptly named Diddlington. Smuggling, treasure hunting, foul murder and deception all take their turn upon the stage, yet all the many twists and strands of the plot twist together perfectly to create a very readable novel. Highly recommended.
Fiona Lowe
THE JUDAS FIELD
Howard Bahr, Henry Holt, 2006, $25.00/ C$34.00/£17.99, hb, 292pp, 0805067396
Living a sad, lonely and alcoholic life in Mississippi in 1885, Cass Wakefield is asked to accompany a widow of the Civil War, Alison Sansing, to Franklin, Tennessee, to find the graves of her father and brother, killed in the Battle of Franklin. Two of his comrades-inarms accompany them. All three of the former Confederate soldiers have a story to tell about the battle, and Howard Bahr tells it brilliantly in flashback. They are each drawn to Franklin to face their pasts and reflect on this tragic battle that changed their lives so drastically.
I’ve read all of Howard Bahr’s books on the Civil War and find him an excellent writer. His choice of words and phrases, and his poetic descriptions of the settings and characters, draw the reader into the story. He has the innate ability to describe the horrors of war. My only reservation about this novel is the treatment of the main character. Cass is always despondent
and listless, always feeling that the war ruined his life; he wasn’t a character I could like. But if you enjoy a well-written story by a master of words, you should definitely add this book to your library.
Jeff Westerhoff
SIMPLY LOVE
Mary Balogh, Delacorte, 2006, $22.00/C$30.00, hb, 320pp, 038533883X
Anne Jewell, teacher at Miss Martin’s School for Girls in Regency England, is twenty-nine, unmarried, and independent. She is also an unwed mother, and though she loves her son dearly, motherhood has come at great costs to her. Through her son’s father, she is related to the Bewcastle family, and holidays with them in Wales. There, she meets Sydnam Butler, disfigured hero of the Peninsular Wars, currently steward of the Bewcastle estate. The Bewcastle family is keen on matchmaking, but both Anne and Sydnam bear such terrible emotional and physical wounds from their pasts that happiness is no sure thing. Anne and Sydnam are sympathetically drawn, two adults who are doing their best to overcome personal trauma, and the obstacles that hinder their relationship are not contrived. The tragic stories of both protagonists lend an air of melancholy and weight to this romance, elevating it from standard Regency fare. Readers of Balogh’s Bedwyn series will recognize many familiar faces, but prior knowledge of those books is not necessary to appreciate this mature love story. This reader eagerly looks forward to the third Simply book. Recommended!
L.K. Mason
THE OTHER MISS FROBISHER
Ann Barker, Robert Hale, 2006, £18.99, hb, 223pp, 0709080603
Anthea was always the prettier, more vivacious, popular and successful of the Frobisher sisters, but now she needs sister Elfrida to chaperone her daughter, Prudence, in London. Reluctantly Elfrida leaves behind her rural idyll and, in particular, Mr Erskine, a respectable clergyman she has a half-hearted attachment to. Once in London she realizes that Prudence is going to be more of a handful than she expected.
What with her niece forming an attachment to an unsuitable army officer and with the eligible Rufus Tyler also apparently pursuing her young charge, Elfrida decides that they must leave London at once. Unfortunately that might also mean leaving behind the man she has truly fallen in love with.
Misunderstandings and confusion abound in this delightful Regency romance. With kidnaps, elopements, lovers betrayed and reunited, The Other Miss Frobisher has all the important ingredients to be expected from the genre, but avoids falling into cliché by the sheer charm of the writing.
Sara Wilson
Rogues remaining unaccounted for in this popular Regency series. Known for his love of life, Dare could be relied upon for light-hearted fun until he was wounded at Waterloo, made a captive, and forcibly addicted to laudanum. Now returned to physical health, he is fighting the addiction. He seems a different man, yet flashes of his old self appear, giving hope to his friends and family, particularly to Lady Ademara St. Bride. The sister of a Rogue, Mara remembers Dare as he was, not only her brother’s friend, but her one-time champion. When he rescues her from yet another lark that might have ruined her, she sees his many strengths. She has faith he will overcome his addiction – with her help. She convinces him to escort her around London to keep her out of trouble, and before long, the two fall in love. That part is simple, and their courting makes for a charming and entertaining read. Beverley throws a few difficulties in their path to keep the plot lively, but the main villain is Dare’s addiction, villain enough.
Sue Asher
DAWN ENCOUNTER
Jennifer Blake, Mira, 2006, $5.99, pb, 393pp, 0778322130
Lisette Moisant was desperate while she was married but she’s even more desperate now that she’s a widow! And who is the man who perchance rescues her from death? Caid O’Neill is a maître d’armes who finds Lisette near death, a situation he might have caused. Lisette quickly realizes what an honorable man Caid is and manipulates him into promising protection from her monstrous father-in-law. What makes this novel particularly intriguing, however, is the historical and social atmosphere that surrounds Caid and Lisette’s individual situations. For Lisette is a woman of Louisiana proclaiming her independence in 1840, a time when women were still viewed as respectable only in the married or protected widow state. And Caid has earned a respectable place in society because of his sword skills that convey power and protection, but he will never be acceptable in any sophisticated social hierarchy of French New Orleans because of his weak bloodline and his un-gentlemanly career. So Lisette and Caid are pariahs in more than one sense. The challenges they face and how they come to respect and love each other are told in an endearing and fascinating manner. Very nicely done historical romance!
Viviane Crystal
culture. My main complaint about the story was the lack of depth in Crazy Horse’s character; I couldn’t really feel any compassion for him. With little emotion expressed by the protagonist, it felt more like reading a biography of his life. I also thought the book portrayed too much of the spirit world of the Sioux. My eyes glazed over as I read yet another page concerning Crazy Horse and his visions. There are also few action and dialog scenes.
Jeff Westerhoff
HIS MISTRESS BY MORNING
Elizabeth Boyle, Avon, 2006, $6.99, pb, 384pp, 0060784024
The early 19th century is often depicted with reserved, straitlaced characters adhering to rigid standards. But humans, being adventurous creatures in any age, have wild wishes that fill their daily moments with unimaginable pleasures. Miss Charlotte Wilmont is given the opportunity to live a wish made in a whimsical moment, due to a very special ring she inherits. She awakens as none other than Lottie Trent, the mistress of Sebastian Marlowe, Viscount Trent, the grandson of Thomas Marlowe, Earl of Walbrook. Both characters find each other inexplicably unpredictable, and the humor flows seamlessly through their London romp with a bit of challenge from two competitors, one honorable and one a scoundrel for sure. Boyle knows how to craft a believable, entertaining plot with just enough complexity and detail to engage the reader in 19th century English society. The dress, art, sportsmanship – indeed the magic – creatively pulses through this passionate, starcrossed tale.
Viviane Crystal
FURY
Bill Bright and Jack Cavanaugh, Howard, 2006, $12.99, pb, 317pp, 1582295735
Sixteen-year-old Daniel Cooper has witnessed a gruesome murder but no one, except the murderer, believes his accusations. After barely surviving an attempt on his own life, Daniel flees home and heads toward upstate New York, where he hopes to find work on the construction of the Erie Canal. His joy at escape is shattered, however, when he realizes that the killer is tracking him with deadly intent.
STONE SONG
Win Blevins, Forge, 2006 (c1995), $14.95, pb, 400pp, 0765314975
TO RESCUE A ROGUE
Jo Beverley, Signet, 2006, $7.99/C$9.99, pb, 432pp, 0451220110
Lord Darius Debenham is the last of the
Originally published in 1995, this is a novel of the life of Crazy Horse, a Lakota Sioux Indian who helped lead his people against General Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Winner of the coveted Spur award for Best Novel of the West, the author portrays Crazy Horse as a loner, almost an outcast of his tribe. He believed the spirits would guide him to future greatness. Crazy Horse could only find peace within by fighting and killing his enemies.
With this well-researched novel, the author demonstrates that he knows the American Indian
This last installment in The Great Awakening Series (and the final work of the late Bill Bright) combines the tensions of a good thriller with the pleasures of a comfortable yarn. (Think John Grisham crossed with Mark Twain.) Although the writing felt choppy in the opening pages, this weakness was so immediately counterbalanced by vivid descriptions coupled with delicious ironies (such as an undertaker who cannot tolerate dead bodies, and a progressive schoolmaster who cannot fathom the adolescent vagaries of his own ward) that the flow of the story soon swept me past any obstructions of style. Loosely set against the background of the spiritual revival of the 1820s, this story of a young man’s flight from danger is a compelling introduction to a dynamic period of American history. Recommended especially for young adults.
Nancy J. Attwell
FORTUNE’S DAUGHTER
Benita Brown, Headline, 2006, £19.99, hb, 343 pp, 0755323270
When Daisy Belle is told that her daughter Dolly has died from an accident she is devastated, but in reality the man she trusts has had the child spirited away so that she can concentrate on her singing career. Dolly is adopted by a good family, renamed Rosina, and loved by her adoptive mother. As a small child she is happy, despite troubling dreams, but when that good woman dies, Rosina’s fortunes change. Rejected by her new family, can she follow in the footsteps of her real mother and find fame, fortune and that elusive thing, happiness?
This is a really good read. Despite Daisy’s suffering at the loss of her daughter, and Rosina’s unhappy childhood, this is not a misery saga, but a story of hope and determination. I found it enjoyable and well fleshed out, the people worth caring about in the main and the background believable.
Linda Sole
HOW TO SEDUCE A DUKE
Kathryn Caskie, Avon, 2006, $6.99/C$9.99, pb, 384pp, 0061124567
One of the astounding things about the Royle sisters is that they are fraternal triplets. Another is their mission to prove the Prince Regent and Mrs. Fitzherbert are their natural parents. Livelier nor more disparate sisters would be hard to find. Mary, the oldest and most levelheaded, talks her siblings into masquerading as garden statuary during a party so she can point out the man she wants to marry. However, it is the Duke of Blackstone, the older brother of the object of her affections, who is captivated by the lifelike statue. He cannot resist touching her. Unfortunately, before his hand reaches her breast, the statue comes to life, slaps him, and runs off.
Caskie has written a sometimes hilarious, although choppy, madcap Regency romp. Throughout, the villain is referred to only as Lady Jersey. It should be pointed out that it is Lady Frances Jersey, one-time mistress of the Prince Regent, and not Lady Sarah (Sally) Jersey, patroness of Almack’s, who is wellknown to Regency readers.
Audrey Braver
UNCONFESSED
Yvette Christiansë, Other Press, 2006, $25.95, hb, 347pp, 1590512405
“I say, life is a disease women get from men.” Readers of Unconfessed will understand Sila Van den Kapp’s misandry. She is a slave in early 19th century Cape Colony, enduring the vagaries of a sequence of white owners. Beaten until she loses much of her hearing. Forced to lie with masters, and later, prison guards, and have children by them. Promised freedom for both her and her children, only to have it reneged by masters unwilling to be hurt in the pocket. Sila is driven to such an extreme that she is accused of child murder, which she refuses to acknowledge (hence the title). The court condemns her to death, but because she is pregnant, she is instead sentenced to a 14-year term on the notorious
Robben Island. To take her mind off the horrible living conditions, bad food, and hard labor, she speaks to her lost son Baro’s spirit, telling him the story of her life.
Sila is a strong, likable character who survives adversities that would destroy most people. She has a few happy times to remember, but of course the tone of any book about slavery is mainly distressing. Readers who prefer a linear storyline may struggle to puzzle out the sequence of events, as Sila’s memories come and go in a poetic, stream-of-consciousness fashion. Christiansë’s word choice and syntax effectively convey that Sila is not an English speaker, without distracting the reader.
Slavery in the United States has often been chronicled in historical fiction. Books about African slavery of the same period are much less common, and I appreciated being enlightened about slavery from a new perspective.
B.J. Sedlock
DECEIVED
Nicola Cornick, HQN, 2006, $5.99/C$6.99, pb, 376pp, 0373771649
Isabella, English widow of a wastrel foreign prince, is deep in debt. She intends to marry a nobleman so fixed in debtors’ prison that her liabilities will make no difference to his own, and afterwards get an annulment. The man the jailer selects for her turns out to be Marcus, Earl of Stockhaven, whom she had left at the altar twelve years ago to marry the prince. She doesn’t know that Marcus is merely posing as a debtor in order to gather information about a criminal who harmed his family. Soon Isabella finds herself firmly married to a husband who intends to collect on her debts in more ways than one.
Despite the premise being a bit of a stretch, for the first 21 chapters it’s an enjoyable Regency historical romance. The book goes downhill in the climax, which involves so much backstory
it distances the reader from what should be the most exciting part. A couple more problems: One character receives a knife wound in one scene and is recovering from a gunshot wound in the next. And I have difficulty believing that paparazzi-style reporters existed and would be allowed to haunt a West End doorstep in 1816.
B.J. Sedlock
TICKET TO TOMORROW
Carol Cox, Barbour, 2006, $12.95, pb, 317pp, 1593109482
This is Book One of a gentle new series set at the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. The White City is a fabulous setting previously featured in the 2003 nonfiction bestseller, Erik Larson’s Devil in the White City. The author provides some interesting data on her website regarding the fair, and reviewing the facts convinces the reader that many books could be written about the fair and its events without repetition. A young widow and her business partner exhibit their version of an automobile at the exposition, and with a classic switched-belongings caper are involved in a plot to assassinate the Infanta of Spain. The historical and fictional characters interact realistically, and we meet Buffalo Bill, Thomas Edison and others. This is a very good historical novel with Christian values that add to character development and enhance the novel’s credibility. You can enjoy the stand that Annie makes against her rich, bigoted in-laws as much as I did, and you will also find this a pleasant read.
Mary K. Bird-Guilliams
THE GLASS BOOKS OF THE DREAM EATERS
Gordon Dahlquist, Bantam, 2006, $26.00, hb, 760pp, 0385340354 / Viking, 2007, £16.99, hb, 768pp, 0670916471
The power to absorb the intimacy of our secret selves and thereby manipulate the mind
Y EDITORS’ CHOICE
DREAD MURDER
Gwendoline Butler, Allison & Busby, 2006, £18.99, hb, 217pp, 0749082836 / To be pub. by Minotaur in April 2007, $23.95, hb, 288pp, 0312361335
When Major Mearns, old soldier and sometime spy, receives a large package in his office in Windsor Castle the last thing he expects to find in it are a pair of legs. A perturbing problem, especially when they turn out to belong to a fellow soldier, Tommy Traddles. With the help of Sergeant Denny and the often unwanted assistance of a young runaway by the name of Charlie, Major Mearns begins his investigations. Not always an easy task in the secretive court of George IV. As other body parts are uncovered and the death toll rises, Mearns and Denny find themselves in conflict with their bête noir, Felix Ferguson, who seems intent on muddying the waters and hindering their activities. Matters are further complicated when Major Mearns comes to accept his growing love for Mindy, one of the Queen’s attendants, a lively lass who might just be in danger herself.
Gwendoline Butler certainly knows her audience – Dread Murder is everything a historical detective novel should be. There are suspects aplenty, spadefuls of action, red herrings, intrigue, romance and a healthy sprinkling of historical detail to keep the enthusiast happy. The outcome is never obvious, and the “twist” in the final sentence put a smile on my face for the rest of the day.
Sara Wilson
in a ruthless quest for world dominion is at the heart of Gordon Dahlquist’s absorbing and bizarre The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters Set in a pseudo-Victorian city that closely resembles London but is never mentioned by name, written in lucid prose that echoes classic literature, this novel reads like an amalgam of Clive Barker and Caleb Carr, featuring a relentless cabal and three intrepid heroes who unwittingly stumble upon its vast evil plan. When the forthright and independently wealthy Ms Celeste Temple discovers her engagement has been inexplicably severed by her fiancé, she eschews the usual vaporous self-pity of her era and instead sets out to find out why she has been thrown over. Within hours, she finds herself immersed in a treacherous world of covert rendezvous, where she witnesses the conversion of innocents to the mesmerizing power of the blue glass. She matches wits with a lethal chainsmoking Contessa; and, after nearly losing her life, meets and befriends the other two members of her triad – the noble criminal, Chang, and loyal Dr. Svenson, each of whom has his own reason for bringing down the cabal.
The novel alternates between their three points of view, as the triad is separated and each one embarks on a personal journey through a nightmarish landscape. At times, all the chasing about and near-escapes start to wear thin; however, Dahlquist can send a chill down the spine when describing the effects of the transformative process on its victims. He also has a compelling leading man in Chang, whose troubled complexity serves as a perfect counterpoint to the smoke-wreathed menace of the villainess Contessa, who gives this book its dark heart.
C.W. Gortner
DELICIOUSLY WICKED
Robyn DeHart, Avon, 2006, $5.99/C$7.99, pb, 304pp, 0061127523
Meg Piddington found herself locked in the storeroom of her father’s confectionery with Gareth Mandeville, a handsome factory worker. There was a way out through a small, high window. Meg was small enough to get out the window, but only when she removed her dress with its fancy bustle and had Gareth boost her up. If anyone found out how they got free, her reputation would be ruined. If she did not tell, Gareth would be convicted of a crime he did not commit. Meg was eager to turn the case over to her three best friends. The four of them made up the Ladies’ Amateur Sleuth Society. Perhaps the Society can save Gareth, and save Meg’s reputation at the same time.
This is the second in author DeHart’s series about the sleuthing ladies, set in London in 1892. While the book is not filled with historical details or a particularly original plot, it has all the sensuality, humor and adventure needed for a good, entertaining romance.
Nan Curnutt
her nonfiction writings on maritime history. She also writes historical fiction by sailing along with her creation, Wiki Coffin (a child of a white man and a Maori woman). Coffin is an accomplished linguist navigating his passage between the cultures and peoples which surround him. His language skills enable him to join the late 1830s US Exploring Expedition commanded by Charles Wilkes, the flamboyant and idiosyncratic captain. Life on board ship is tense as Coffin encounters scientists and sailors of diverse personalities. The voyage is interrupted by a chance encounter with Coffin’s father, Captain William Coffin, and two murders which result in Wiki Coffin seeking the real killer, rather than see his father executed for the crimes.
John R. Vallely
CACTUS FLOWER
Alice Duncan, Five Star, 2006, $26.95, hb, 291pp, 1594144567
When Eulalie Gibb travels from Chicago to the New Mexico Territory in the 1890s to take a job as a saloon singer, she’s none too pleased with men, and her acquaintanceship with Nick Taggart gets off to a particularly poor start when Nick’s drunken uncle forces her to dance with him down the main street of Rio Peñasco. Nick, the local blacksmith, has his own uses for women, none of them at all romantic. When Eulalie decides that she needs male protection for her fragile sister, however, it is Nick with whom she strikes a highly unorthodox bargain – one that will have unexpected consequences for all concerned.
Those who like steam in their romances won’t find much here, as quite a lot is left to the reader’s imagination. Readers who want sympathetic, likable characters, lively dialogue, and warm humor, however, will find all of these elements here, making Cactus Flower an engaging frontier romance.
Susan Higginbotham
GATHERING THE WATER
Robert Edric, Doubleday, 2006, £14.99, hb, 250pp, 0385603126
relationship which develops between the two of them, though Mary remains the more aloof.
The reader is drawn to empathise with the two main characters as they struggle with the challenges which beset them but there is no equivalent empathy elicited on behalf of the unfortunate inhabitants being evicted. Edric gives realism to the harshness of an alien environment with some conviction and has turned out a credible story.
Cathy Kemp
THE APPLE: New Crimson Petal Stories
Michel Faber, Canongate, 2006, £12.99, hb, 199pp, 1841958387
The Crimson Petal and the White, Faber’s monumental novel of a Victorian prostitute’s progress, won him fans all over the globe. However, some readers were frustrated by the ending, which left Sugar, the prostitute, and her young charge, Sophie, on the streets with an uncertain future ahead of them. While these stories do not reveal Sugar’s final outcome, Faber revisits the same cast of characters and moves backward and forward in time with them.
RUN AFOUL
Joan Druett, Minotaur, 2006, $23.95/C$31.95, hb, 288pp, 0312353367
Joan Druett is a New Zealander known for
Imagine how you would feel if your home was put under a compulsory purchase order and the area turned into a reservoir to facilitate neighbouring towns to develop. Charles Weightman was the overseer whose task it was to act on behalf of the company and ensure that the evictions were undertaken in addition to acting as recorder of the flooding of the valley. Set in the North of England in 1847 with a people who, in the main, have not travelled far from their own valley and with winter on the way, it is far from hospitable for a stranger. The task is a thankless one and unsupported by the bailiff who is arrested for embezzlement of the funds allocated for compensation. Charles, as an outsider, feels isolated and vulnerable but finds some support from the company of Mary Latimer. Though born and raised in the area, Mary is also excluded from the local community because of her sister, who has recently been released from a mental institution against medical advice. There is some comfort to be found in the odd
Although a huge fan of the novel, I found this collection to be uneven and disappointing. After a less-than-modest introduction (‘All in all, my novel had made a powerful impression on an extraordinary range of people’), Faber launches into “Christmas on Silver Street,” an annoyingly twee Yuletide fable. The other tales are entertaining enough, although some, like “The Fly, and Its Effects upon Mr Bodley,” seem more like character sketches than fully realised narratives. Only the final piece, “A Mighty Horde of Women in Very Big Hats, Advancing” matches the depth and power evident in Faber’s novel writing. Here we meet a grown-up Sophie as an Edwardian suffragette living in a free-spirited ménage with her bohemian artist husband and androgynous sister-in-law. The story is poignantly narrated through the eyes of her son, now an old man in a nursing home, trying to recall a lost era of hope and innocence, before the promise of the 20th century clouded over with world wars and bitter disillusionment.
As £12.99 seems a hefty price for this slender collection of only seven stories, I recommend waiting for the paperback.
Mary Sharratt
THE PLAINS OF PROMISE
Roslyn Fentiman, Robert Hale, 2006, £18.99, hb, 224pp, 0709080646
It’s 1850, and a group of pioneers, led by English curate Tom Barrett, travels to North Australia to found a new colony. This is the story of their journey, the loves of Tom and a German orphan, Annelise, and Tom’s sister, Elinor and ex-convict, Danny. The second part of the book is mainly concerned with Danny’s daughter, Aiden.
The life and scenery of Australia are eloquently described, both in the beauty and the cruelty. Life in the convict settlement is brutal and hard. The details of the long trek, from near the Brisbane River to the north of what became
Queensland, shows how tough the early settlers were. The author shows an equally sure touch when Aiden visits her English family. My only regret is that the events and characters are dealt with too briefly, and I’d have preferred two books, or one twice the length! I’m looking forward to more books by this author.
Marina
Oliver
TAKEN BY STORM
Donna Fletcher, Avon, 2006, $5.99/C$7.99, pb, 384pp, 0061136255
In mid-19th century Scotland, a poor person in trouble with the law didn’t have much hope of escaping a hard prison sentence and, most likely, death. One outlaw, though, is on the side of the accused: enter Storm, a raven-haired, blue-eyed beauty who lives her life one step ahead of the authorities and whose goal in life is to rescue those wrongly imprisoned. She’s a strong, fearless leader, sure of her every move, until she rescues Burke Longton, a rich, handsome American who came to Scotland to find his half-brother Cullen. Romantic sparks fly, and so do the verbal confrontations as Storm and Burke fight, then give in to, their mutual attraction. The couple’s future together is questionable, given the forceful personalities, and there’s the very real possibility that one of them will be sacrificed in an ill-advised attempt to rescue Cullen from the most impregnable of fortresses. If readers are willing to overlook the anachronisms – forests such as Storm’s rebel band inhabit were gone long before the timeframe of this tale, for example – this makes for a mildly diverting read.
Helene Williams
NO MAN’S BRIDE
Shana Galen, Avon, 2006, $5.99, pb, 371pp, 006112494X
Set in pre-Regency England, No Man’s Bride begins a series about the amorous adventures of four friends who have sworn never to marry. The first of the quartet to fall to matrimony is Catherine Fullbright, the abused daughter of an aristocratic “Bill Sikes” who forces her to marry her sister’s unsuspecting betrothed – an astounding feat of duplicity accomplished with surprising ease. When the hoodwinked bridegroom, Lord Valentine, discovers the deceit, he is not entirely dismayed, for his wife is as desirable as she is intriguing. To prevent his fearful bride from ruining his political aspirations by seeking an annulment, Lord Valentine must overcome her dread of men and woo her to his bed.
Although the psychological reactions of a woman brutalized by her father ring true, the speed of Catherine’s evolution from overanxious loner into competent hostess is rather unbelievable. At almost every point the plot feels forced, including the all-important motivation for switching the brides at the altar. That having been said, since the main thrust of this novel is the sizzling foreplay between the newlyweds, those readers who seek more steam than substance will enjoy the romp with Lord and Lady Valentine.
Nancy J. Attwell
A COVENT GARDEN MYSTERY
Ashley Gardner, Berkley Prime Crime, 2006, $7.99/C$10.99, pb, 282pp, 0425210863
Captain Lacey has been called in to help investigate the mysterious disappearances of two street girls in Covent Garden. It appears that a man in an expensive carriage asked these women to meet him there. Lacey has friends and acquaintances amongst the other street girls, and may be able to make more progress than the River Police and a Runner has. At the same time, Lacey is grappling with tension in his own life. James Denis, the very powerful man who is trying to get Lacey under his control, has brought Lacey’s wife back from France, accompanied by her “husband” and Gabriella, the daughter Lacey last saw so many years ago. Denis will arrange for a divorce – something very difficult to obtain – so that Lacey can pursue his relationship with Lady Breckenridge. The two plotlines converge when Gabriella also goes missing from Covent Garden.
Lacey’s ability to move amongst members of both the upper and lower classes allows the author to paint a picture of widely different facets of life in Regency London. In this volume, Lucius Grenville, Lacey’s friend and an arbiter of fashion, begins to be seen more openly with Marianne, his mistress and a former actress. The ripples this causes amongst Grenville’s and Lacey’s liberal friends are interesting to observe. This series continues to delight.
Trudi E. Jacobson
BROKEN TRAIL
Alan Geoffrion, Fulcrum, 2006, $14.95, pb, 248pp, 1555916058
In the late 1880s, Print Ritter and his young nephew lead a herd of mustangs from eastern Oregon to Sheridan, Wyoming. The two horsemen meet trouble and several unusual people on the trail. They save five kidnapped Chinese girls from a life of prostitution and then become their unlikely guardians as they cross the western plains. The journey will change the life of Print and those he meets.
While reading this book, I pictured Robert Duvall playing the part of Print Ritter; the character and his mannerisms mimicked this great western star. When I saw the movie of the same name, I was amazed how Duvall was able to bring Print Ritter to life. If you enjoyed Lonesome Dove, you will not be disappointed with this novel. I should note that due to several graphic scenes, this novel is geared toward adults. It belongs in every western lover’s library.
Jeff Westerhoff
THE MEASURE OF A LADY
Deeanne Gist, Bethany House, 2006, $12.99, pb, 320pp, 0764200739
Rachel Van Buren’s Victorian morals are challenged when she and her siblings arrive in San Francisco during the Gold Rush in 1849. They discover that she and sister Lissa are the only “sunbonnets” (respectable women) for miles, and they are forced to accept the offer of saloon owner Johnnie Parker’s private shack for lodging. Johnnie agrees to let Rachel clean his
saloon in exchange for room and board. Then Lissa, seduced by the women-hungry miners’ constant attentions, shocks the family by running off to live with one of them. Rachel was brought up to believe that respectable women do not associate with the “fallen” kind. She must decide the true measure of a lady – adhering to society’s morals, or doing what one’s heart says is right.
I enjoyed Rachel’s struggle against her deeprooted beliefs, which gives depth to her character. Her romantic scenes with Johnnie push the envelope of the Christian fiction genre without getting graphic. While Gist used period diaries as sources, she got some facts wrong, such as placing Samuel Clemens in San Francisco years too early. Nevertheless, the book enlightened me about life in the Gold Rush, and entertained me with rounded protagonists.
B.J. Sedlock
GARY JENNINGS’ AZTEC RAGE
Robert Gleason and Junius Podrug, Forge, 2006, $27.95/C$37.95, hb, 432pp, 0765310147
Gleason and Podrug continue the late Gary Jennings’ popular Aztec series, bringing it up to the early 19th century, the Peninsular War in Spain and the rousing of the long-suppressed rage of the Aztecs to join Father Hidalgo’s revolt in Mexico. When we first meet our hero, Don Juan de Zavala, he is a dashing caballero interested (we are told frequently) only in horses and women and in lording it over the peons his noble Spanish blood lets him wipe his feet on. One evening, he asks his uncle to buy him a title so he may marry the lovely Doña Isabella, and his fate is sealed. His uncle balks – then drinks poisoned wine meant for our hero. Uncle Bruto doesn’t die without first revealing that Don Juan’s blood is not pure Spanish at all. He is the son of a whore raised to replace the inheriting nephew who died. So now not only has our hero become one of the native blood he so despised, he is also accused of murder.
After this point, the tale, which had been galloping along, runs into thick patches of travelogue mire and every sort of distancing distraction. Don Juan must flee to Spain, where against his better selfish judgment he helps win freedom for the peninsula from Napoleon’s armies, all the while taking two or three putas a night as well as servicing the historical Doña Marina, who fought alongside the valiant Hidalgo for freedom in the colony on this continent. It is a very masculine tale, dripping machismo, which should please fans of the series.
Ann Chamberlin
ACT OF LOVE
Iris Gower, Bantam, 2006, £17.99, hb, 335pp, 0593056035
On her first day at work as a cleaner at the Palace theatre, Swansea, Ella Burton meets Anthony Weatherby Nichols and falls in love. She progresses rapidly from cleaning to helping run the show behind the scenes. But this blissful time is cut cruelly short by financial difficulties and a personal family tragedy. Forced to abandon the man she loves in favour of the man her father
Y EDITORS’ CHOICE
THIRTEEN MOONS
Charles Frazier, Random House, 2006, $26.95, hb, 422pp, 0375509321 / Sceptre, 2006, £17.99, hb, 416pp, 0340826614
Cold Mountain is a tough act to follow. Yet Charles Frazier more than rises to the occasion with Thirteen Moons, an extraordinary fictional reminiscence of a rich, exotic life in the South in the first half of the 19th century. The engaging narrator, Will Cooper, is bound in servitude to run a remote trading post in Indian country in the mountains of North Carolina, about twenty-five years before the Civil War. An intelligent, literate young man with a romantic imagination, Will is adopted by an old Cherokee chief named Bear, and spends much of his life helping his adopted people preserve their heritage from an encroaching Federal policy of Indian removal.
The heart of the story, however, is Will’s love affair with the mysterious Claire. Like the poetically named Indian moons that thread the novel as timekeepers and symbols, Claire’s presence haunts every page of this beautifully imagined, exquisitely told tale. In addition to creating vivid characters, Frazier has an astonishing command of his craft, making sentences and paragraphs into scenes that stay with you on all levels. Yet at no time does the style become overbearing, or lose its gently humorous undertone of self-awareness. Some moments call to mind the comic timing of Mark Twain. Others take one’s breath away with the sheer magnificence of their insight.
If, as Will says midway through the book, “Writers can tell any lie that leaps into their heads,” in doing so Frazier reveals essential truths. This is a book to be savored, to be read slowly, to be reread from time to time. Highly recommended. Susanne Dunlap
has chosen for her, Ella tries her best to be a good wife to Jolly Mortimer and stepmother to his five young daughters. She finds happiness of a kind, but her heart always remains with Anthony and the love of the theatre is never far from her thoughts. Fate takes another turn, and it seems that her dreams might just come true. Iris Gower has a legion of fans both in Wales and elsewhere and it is easy to see why. She is a natural storyteller with a flair for drama and romance. Once again her characters leap right off the page and engage the reader in their exploits from page one. Act of Love is yet another highclass page turner.
Sara Wilson
THE PERFECT STRANGER
Anne Gracie, Berkley Sensation, 2006, $7.99/ C$10.99, pb, 344pp, 0425210529
There must be an unofficial rule for writing Regency romances: start with a large family. Faith Merridew has already seen two of her sisters married off – to a perfect rake and a perfect waltzer. As the musical sister, Faith eloped with a talented violinist, but everything he told her was a lie. Now ruined, she is on the run... and runs right into the arms of a perfect stranger. Nicholas Blacklock is a Waterloo veteran intent on retracing the steps of his haunting memories. But is it to lay them to rest or something darker? He rescues Faith and offers to marry her, in name only. Romance readers know where their journey will lead; the question is whether it’s worth going along for the ride. Gracie writes compelling stories with sympathetic characters and injects clever humor. The book starts strong. However, an official rule for romances is the requirement for happy-ever-after endings, and Gracie might have written herself into a corner. Can she resolve, in a credible manner, the dilemma she has created for Faith and Nicholas?
I’m a Gracie fan, but I reluctantly vote no. The other “Perfect” romances are better.
Sue Asher
A TEXAN’S HONOR
Leigh Greenwood, Leisure, 2006, $6.99/ C$8.99/£5.99, pb, 353pp, 0843956844
Although born and raised a Texan, Bret Nolan has spent the last six years behind a Boston desk trying to prove to his mother’s family that he is a worthy member of the family. A mission to escort heiress Emily Abercrombie back to Boston gives Bret the chance he has been waiting for. Told never to come back if he fails to bring Emily home, Bret determinedly returns to Texas, which takes him back to his roots. Texas in 1881 is much the same as when he left, and Bret finds himself remembering his love for ranching, and his adopted family.
Emily is happily settled on her ranch, determined to continue her father’s business, and stubbornly refusing to move to Boston. Bret, who admires the courageous young woman, worries about her safety when he learns someone is rustling her cattle. Promising to find the rustler, Bret finds himself falling in love with Emily, and wondering how he can convince her to change her plans.
This is a delightful story that brings 19th century cattle country vividly to life. Both Emily and Bret are believable, likable characters, if not slightly too pure. A sweet historical western with a fast-paced plot and cowboy-style action, it is a surprisingly entertaining story.
Rebecca Roberts
California to live with the father she has never known. When Ruth arrives, young Josh McCain, Jr., greets her with unexpected news: Ruth’s father has recently died, giving her a claim to half of the ranch owned by her father and the McCain family. As Ruth settles in with Josh and his family, humor, friendship, and romance ensue – and danger, as Josh makes a series of troubling discoveries that will change life at the Broken P Ranch forever.
Good-hearted but with an ineptitude for artificial social graces that has gotten her kicked out of a number of schools for young ladies, Ruth is a charming, likable heroine with an appealing habit of speaking her mind. The dialogue is lively and natural, and the narrative flows nicely.
Letter Perfect has romance, mystery, suspense, and gentle humor. For the most part, the lighter and the darker elements of the novel fit well together, though in the closing pages I found their juxtaposition to be somewhat jarring. All in all, though, this was a well-done novel that allows us to see the worst side of human nature without ever losing sight of the best.
Susan Higginbotham
WAR DRUMS
Livia Hallam with James Reasoner, Cumberland House, 2006, $18.95/C$24.95, pb, 400pp, 1581825730
This is the second book in the Palmetto Trilogy, the first being Call To Arms. This series portrays how the American Civil War affected the lives of several families living in Charleston, South Carolina. The second volume continues the narration, with Allard Tyler returning from blockade running to marry his sweetheart, Diana, and then join his father in building ships for the Confederacy. His best friend, Robert, fights against the hated Yankees in the Peninsular Campaign and pines for Jacqueline, his girlfriend back home. Robert’s younger brother, Cam, is enrolled at the Citadel and is enraptured with Allard’s nasty and promiscuous sister, Lucinda.
This novel is primarily a romance novel set during the Civil War. There is no one major character, with each chapter presenting a new point of view. This is very similar in style to James Reasoner’s (husband of Livia Hallam) ten-novel Civil War Battles series featuring members of a Southern family. If you enjoy reading about gory battle scenes and constant war strategy, you would probably not care for this book. But if you like reading about how war can complicate relationships between men and women, you will find this novel enjoyable.
Jeff Westerhoff
LETTER PERFECT
Cathy Marie Hake, Bethany House, 2006, $13.99, pb, 379pp, 0764201654
In 1859, nineteen-year-old Ruth Caldwell fulfills her mother’s dying wish that she go to
REBEL TRAIN
David Healey, Harbor House, 2005, 16.95/ C$21.95, pb, 300pp, 1891799274
President Lincoln is on his way to commemorate the fallen on the battlefield of Gettysburg. In Richmond, William Norris, head of the Confederate Secret Service, gets wind of the train the enemy commander-in-chief will take to avoid threats to his life – a change that opens the way for a daring band of maverick rebels to kidnap him and turn the tide of the
war. Led by dashing Colonel Percy, in trouble for seducing a general’s wife, and a rogue Irishman, Flynn, the band sets out to perform the impossible. Once the heist is underway, the engineer and fireman of the stolen train set off in pursuit, sometimes only on foot and completely unarmed, but with plenty of determination. The engineer and fireman are ignorant of the more precious cargo. Isn’t it enough that there are hundreds of thousands of dollars, payroll for the federal army in the baggage car? A pair of thieves, a Baltimore dandy and his whore, among the kidnapped passengers adds another layer of scheming action.
The plot takes inspiration from the Andrews Raid in Georgia of 1862, a real train heist, and, no doubt, from Lincoln’s train shuffle that brought him safely to Washington for his first inauguration. That Gettysburg was free of such a raid hardly matters, nor do the minor glitches in the narrative. Once we’re on board, we hang on for one terrific ride.
Ann Chamberlin
A SCANDALOUS PUBLICATION
Sandra Heath, Robert Hale, 2006, £18.99, hb, 223pp, 0709080840
When Charlotte Wyndham first crosses swords with Sir Max Talgarth, the sparks inevitably begin to fly. She feels aggrieved by his apparently callous attitude to her family’s near destitution, and he is aggravated by her cool condescension and obvious disdain. Each determines to get the better of the other. Inspired by the recent success of Lady Caroline Lamb’s roman à clef, Glenarvon, Charlotte sets out to
write her own scandalous publication – for her eyes only. Unfortunately other people also have a grudge against Sir Max, and her novel is stolen and offered for sale without her knowledge. Too late to stop the print run, and only now aware of her true feelings for Sir Max, Charlotte has her work cut out to persuade society of her innocence and convince Max of the depth of her newfound love.
Anyone looking for a lighthearted romp through early 19th-century society need go no further than A Scandalous Publication. Sparky and good-natured, the novel races along in true Regency romance style. Not one to be taken too seriously, but enjoyable nonetheless.
Sara Wilson
JUST ONE OF THOSE FLINGS
Candice Hern, Signet Eclipse, 2006, $6.99, pb, 320pp, 0451219201
Gabriel, the Marquess of Thayne, has just returned from India and is out to view potential debutantes for a possible future wife. Meanwhile, Lady Beatrice Somerfield is chaperoning her very eligible and daring niece, Emily, at a masked ball. The Lady belongs to a group who call themselves the Merry Widows and vow to each take a lover. But that’s hardly on Beatrice’s mind when she meets a masked stranger who immediately restores her longforgotten passionate desire. Will there be a significant conflict between aunt and niece? Gabriel’s family approves of Emily and so Gabriel agrees to pursue her, but his heart and head definitely tell him otherwise. What would be the scandal in 1813 London if he decided
to marry his own “choice” instead of society’s obvious selection? And what would be the outcome after the Lady informs Gabriel that she really doesn’t wish to marry again? Will he take her for a mistress or abandon her? Hern has created very real characters with stirring passion but also intelligence, wit, and personalities that break the stereotypical 19th century social standards. Her descriptions of that period’s costumes and clothing are vivid and accurate. Overall, Just One of Those Flings is a terrific read for those who love historical romance or the exotic in 19th century historical fiction.
Viviane Crystal
THE CHAIN GARDEN
Jane Jackson, Robert Hale, 2006, £18.99, hb, 224pp, 0709080654
Grace Damerel is the daughter of the local tin mine owner and, as such, carries a huge burden of guilt over the recent number of deaths in the mine. In between caring for her invalid mother and preparing for the return of her twin brothers she also ministers to the poor, bereaved and sick in the local village of Treworthal.
Y EDITORS’ CHOICE
CRITIQUE OF CRIMINAL REASON
Michael Gregorio, Faber & Faber, 2006, £12.99, pb, 395pp, 0571229271 / St Martin’s Press, $24.95, hb, 400pp, 0312349947
‘Observe, Stiffeniis. It slid in like a hot knife cutting lard.’ So begins Michael Gregorio’s chilling story of murder at a time when the scientific detection of crime was in its infancy. It is 1804, and young country magistrate Hanno Stiffeniis is mysteriously called into the Prussian city of Konigsberg to investigate a series of random brutal killings. Once there he finds the city in uproar with the general public convinced that the devil is at work. Rioting on the streets is becoming a distinct possibility. At first unable to understand why such a minor official has been ordered to head the investigation, Hanno soon finds himself drawn into a whirlwind of death and destruction. The only light at the end of the tunnel is offered by a man Hanno greatly admires, the philosopher Immanuel Kant.
Hanno’s work is clouded by his own demons, and it seems that many people he meets are determined to muddy the waters still further. No one is quite who they seem, and even Professor Kant’s involvement might not be as impartial as expected. With his dour assistant Koch to aid him, Hanno is unwavering in his resolution to solve the case only to find himself a target for the killer. It soon becomes clear that the reason for his own summons to Konigsberg is more sinister than he first realised.
Critique of Criminal Reason is a marvellously atmospheric thriller in which the dark and dangerous streets of Konigsberg are evocatively brought to chilling life. Grotesque characters march through the pages, shedding light and blurring truth in equal measure. Reason and logic fight with superstition and random violence for the upper hand, and it is never clear which side is going to win. This is the first in a proposed series of crime novels set to feature Hanno Stiffeniis, and if this opener is anything to go by, lovers of detective fiction are in for a rare treat.
Sara Wilson
Into her secluded life comes a young missionary, Edwin Philpotts, newly arrived from overseas. Their attraction is mutual, but both are hesitant to declare their feelings. Grace is inhibited by her lack of confidence and Edwin is battling his own guilty demons. Then the twins arrive home and it soon becomes obvious that the elder brother, Bryce, has a shadow hanging over him. In the background lies the mysterious symbolism of the chain garden, which looks so benign and beautiful on the surface, but probe into the ancient language of flowers, and a different and repelling story is waiting to be told.
The Chain Garden is more than a straightforward romance; it is also a study into the nature of guilt and the effect it can have over the human mind and heart. All of the characters carry their own burdens, to a greater or lesser extent, and have allowed it to colour their lives. It is only when each of them lets their guilt go, and accepts who and what they are, that they can each find happiness.
Jane Jackson’s novel is satisfying on many levels and succeeds in being an interesting story, well-written and pleasurable to read.
Sara Wilson
STAR OF THE NORTH
Anna Jacobs, Hodder & Stoughton, 2006, £18.99, hb, 376pp, 0340840730
Marjorie, the second of the Preston sisters, is both pretty and whimsical. Unsuited to work in the mill or to heavy housework, she finally finds her forte when asked to stand in for an injured performer at the local music hall, the Pride of Lancashire. She soon becomes popular with the crowd, and this leads to her marriage to singer Denby Sinclair. Happiness turns to misery as the pair travel around the country performing their act. Denby turns out to be a brutal man and eventually is exposed as a bigamist. By then Marjorie is pregnant and alone until the comedian Hal Kidd comes to her rescue.
Back home in Hedderby, the Pride of Lancashire is going from strength to strength,
much to the displeasure of the malevolent Athol Stott. The local mill owner has been horribly disfigured in a previous accident, but one glimpse of Marjorie and he decides that it is time for him to seek his revenge.
Star of the North continues the story of the Preston sisters, begun in Pride of Lancashire Like its prequel it takes the embryonic Music Hall as its backdrop and once again provides a spirited story of a young woman’s attempt to find happiness in the harsh conditions of a northern mill town.
Since there are many more Preston sisters in the family this looks set to be a series that will run and run, which gives fans of Anna Jacobs – and I count myself as one of them – plenty to look forward to.
Sara Wilson
ONLY A DUKE WILL DO
Sabrina Jeffries, Pocket, 2006, $6.99, pb, 384pp, 1416516093
Seven years ago Simon Tremaine, instilled by the harsh lessons of his loveless grandfather, abandoned Louisa North, illegitimate daughter of King George IV, to make his fortune in India. Now, in 1821, Simon returns to England, his political aspirations his highest priority. Not forgetting his past, Simon makes a deal with the king: in exchange for marrying Louisa, he will make Simon prime minister.
But courting Louisa is not an easy task, and Simon is constantly drawn into verbal skirmishes with her. A proud woman, Louisa has put all her passions into charitable work for the women prisoners of Newgate, and remains determined never to let a man break her heart again. Battling with secret pasts, each pursuing their political agendas and falling further into political scandal, Louisa and Simon fight to overcome their rising passions and love for one another.
Taking a poetic license on historical events, Jeffries has created an interesting story filled with lust, mystery, and intrigue. With an audacious heroine, and a scarred hero, Only a Duke Will Do is a characteristic modern-day Regency romance. This is the second installment in Jeffries’s School of Heiresses trilogy, but reading the first is not necessary for enjoying this one.
Rebecca Roberts
HOUSE OF ANGELS
Brian John, Corgi, 2006, £6.99, pb, 551pp, 0552153281
The second book of a series, this recently discovered diary of Martha Morgan, mistress of an estate in Pembrokeshire, covers two momentous years of her life. When tragedy strikes she has to support her young family and the other people who depend on her. Gradually the machinations of her enemies are revealed, and she calls upon numerous friends and locals to bring her news and, when necessary, give her more tangible support in dealing with the threats to her family and their livelihood.
Martha and her children and household are attractive characters lovingly portrayed. This book is written in a very atmospheric style, capturing the language of the early 19th century
Y EDITORS’ CHOICE
GENTLEMEN IN QUESTION
Melinda Hammond, Robert Hale, 2006, £18.99, hb, 223pp, 0709080859
From the moment Madeleine Sedgewick waits on the dockside at the busy port of Rye for the arrival of her French cousin, Camille, Comte du Viviere, she becomes embroiled in all kinds of adventure and intrigue. Madeleine soon finds herself plunged into the murky world of crime. All is not as it appears. And soon doubts arise as to the true character of the Comte. And then there is the fascinating Mr Hauxwell, a rich beau who rather intriguingly has a handy quip for every occasion.
The murder and mayhem occurs at a protracted house party in a Georgian country house at Christmas time. The amusing foibles of the house guests are lovingly described, as are the entertainments. Delightful. Madeleine is a sporting Regency heroine of the madcap variety. I loved her. Her dollops of good sense combined with complete honesty made her a refreshing read.
A nicely paced story. The narrative rattles along when the action demands, yet lingering attention is paid to the tender moments. A most enjoyable read; highly recommended.
with evocative descriptions of the countryside indicating that the author knows and loves it. The superstitions of the people, with visions and spells, are used with sympathy to enhance the plot.
There are also detailed descriptions of the weather, the farming year and the agricultural practices of the 1800s. I felt that I could have done with rather less detail on the different methods of reaping wheat, oats and barley, but readers who revel in this amount of local colour will enjoy the novel.
Marina Oliver
WHISPERS OF THE NIGHT
Lydia Joyce, Signet, 2006, $6.99/C$9.99, pb, 320pp, 0451218973
For all fans of the old Gothic novel, this is an author to consider: Lydia Joyce creates a brooding atmosphere and rather creepy settings. Her heroine, Alcyone, is no Victorian miss, and is rather a trial to the men of her day. She is blunt, intelligent, rational and quick-witted. The beginning of this novel sets the tone at a high level of dramatic tension: night arrival at a stone castle, a handsome man who doesn’t quite look like his pictures, a quick wedding that she is rushed into, and then that wedding supper...
The subsequent action revolves around the period of adjustment difficulties of the newlywed pair, since he is both a spymaster and planning to use her dowry to modernize his country. This results in some dissension: she takes off across the Danube, and they both fall into the hands of the Ottomans. A follow-up may be planned.
Mary K. Bird-Guilliams
THE BOOK OF TRUE DESIRES
Betina Krahn, Jove, 2006, $7.99/C$10.99, pb, 352pp, 0515141704
Krahn’s second in her Book series (following The Book of the Seven Delights) puts a feminist spin on the adventure tales in the vein of Allan Quartermain and the Lost City of Gold. This tale, like Seven Delights, features a confident and knowledgeable female protagonist, reluctantly paired on a treasure hunt with a skeptical male.
Fiona Lowe
Naturally, their bickering scarcely conceals an attraction that, when the chips are down, turns to lust and love. It’s 1898, and adventurer Cordelia O’Keefe seeks funding from her estranged grandfather for an expedition. He only agrees to front her the money if she first finds the Gift of the Jaguar for him in Mexico and if his butler (but is he really a butler?), Hartford Goodnight, accompanies her to make sure Grandpa’s money is well spent.
Through Goodnight’s journal, chronicling their travels and expenses, Krahn amusingly highlights the perils of travel at the turn of the 20th century. From a hazardous trip to Havana to primitive conditions in the jungles of Mexico, Cordelia and Hartford encounter it all: devious professors, helpful peasants, and villains who only lack a mustache to twirl to complete their stereotypical portrait. Although all of that implies a formula, and indeed it is one, this is still a fast, fun read.
Ellen Keith
A REASON TO LIVE
Maureen McKade, Berkley Sensation, 2006, $6.99/C$9.99, pb, 304pp, 0425212203
During the Civil War, Laurel Covey nurses young Confederate soldiers. In a journal, she records their dying words and wishes, promising to relay them to their families. After the war, a traumatized Laurel is haunted by nightmares and plagued with a hopeless depression. Nevertheless, she embarks on her journey throughout the devastated South to visit the families whose sons died in her care.
Along the way, Creede Forrester, an exgunslinger who is searching for his son, rescues her from a band of ruffians. She realizes that his son was one of the soldiers whose death she witnessed. Creede is a man tormented by his past, and he blames himself for driving his son away. Profound pain, grief, and distress are the ingredients that draw and keep the two together throughout their journey.
Maureen McKade has created a brilliant storyline that tugged at my heart. The characters gush with integrity and endear themselves to the reader. The prose is vibrant and the writing so invisible that I found myself drawn inextricably
into the story. McKade is fast becoming one of my favorite authors because of the realism of her down-to-earth, highly believable romances. Mirella Patzer
MARY
Janis Cooke Newman, MacAdam/Cage, 2006, $26.00/C$34.95, hb, 700pp, 193156163X
Committed to the Bellevue Place Sanitarium by her eldest son in 1875, Mary Todd Lincoln begins to write the story of her life in order to pass her sleepless nights and to keep herself sane – and also to gain the love of her coldnatured son. As Mary reflects upon her past, she also makes new acquaintances in the present, notably that of Minnie Judd, a fellow sanitarium inmate.
Minnie is starving herself in order to win the love of her indifferent husband, and Mary soon recognizes a kindred spirit in the young woman, for Mary’s life has also been an elusive quest for love, thwarted sometimes by death, sometimes by the frigidity of those whose affections she seeks to gain. Minnie’s quest, however, is doomed to defeat, while Mary’s ultimately ends in self-discovery.
Mary, however, is far more than just an account of a woman’s search for love. The novel is also a story of the Lincoln marriage, a mutually loving one marked in turn by defeat and triumph, by shared happiness and shared tragedy. Both Lincoln and Mary are vividly drawn characters, but Mary, as the center of the novel, is inevitably the more so. Her charm and wit are present throughout this book, but her faults – her temper, her extravagance, even on one occasion her infidelity – are amply on display. The novel is also, of course, one of a nation divided by civil war, and this gives rise to some memorable scenes, particularly a postwar visit to Richmond where the Lincolns get very different receptions from black Southerners and white Southerners.
Moving and with an almost palpable compassion for its subject, yet clear-eyed and even humorous at times, this is a book I will be re-reading.
Susan Higginbotham
HAWK’S PLEDGE
Constance O’Banyon, Leisure, 2006, $6.99, pb, 336pp, 0843956356
Whit Hawk grew up in a horrific environment. After losing his parents, he and his siblings are sent to an orphanage, where Whit is obsessed with protecting them from being separated. But through the evil reaction of a jealous man, disaster destroys most of his family in a fire, and Whit pledges his life to find the brother he believes is still alive. Instead he first meets Jacqueline Douglas, a strong woman about to lose the love of her life, her own ranch that she inherited but cannot financially manage much longer.
The wild Texas ranch of the late 19th century is well depicted in the meeting of these two formidable characters who are enchanted from their first meeting but whose fiery spirits will not allow them to surrender. Add the typical criminal element about to be broken by an intelligent and powerful hero, and you have the outline of a romance waiting to happen once the barriers
have been reduced to ashes, both literally and figuratively. For Whit and Jacqueline, their true passion is family, represented by the life and land of Texas. This novel has a simple but engaging historical romance plot.
Viviane Crystal
THE ENIGMATIC RAKE
Anne O’Brien, Harlequin, 2006, $5.50, pb, 297pp, 0373293917 / Mills & Boon, 2006, £3.69, 0263846385
Plot elements of Jane Eyre meet late Regency espionage in this fast-moving historical romance. Lord Joshua Sherborne Farington has the thankless task of being a spy as Napoleon is dying and the restored French monarchy struggles to take hold. The young and impoverished war widow Sarah Russell, his newly appointed housekeeper, has all she can do to steer clear of her new employer and his rakish reputation. When she begins turning his young daughter’s heart toward him, and her own son adds to the new family mix, Joshua sends his mistress packing and makes a surprise proposal of marriage. The post-nuptial courtship involves firing the young widow’s heart and court intrigue on a fateful trip to Paris.
Though an anachronism or two (“selfesteem”) pops up and “telling” short cuts might have been better shown, this story of doubtplagued Sarah and her rescuer rarely fails to enchant. Besides, who can resist a romance literate enough to put “enigmatic” in the title?
Eileen Charbonneau
DEVOTION
Julia Oliver, Univ. of Georgia Press, 2006,
$24.95, hb, 206pp, 082032874X
This slender novel provides a rather romanticized account of the life of Winnie (née Varina Anne) Davis. The second daughter and last child of Confederate president Jefferson Davis and his wife, the strong-willed Varina, young Winnie never looked for celebrity. Born in the midst of war, partly educated in Europe, and devoted to her parents, she had fame thrust upon her from an early age. Traveling with her father after the war, she was paraded at “Lost Cause” reunions, and was christened by the veterans as “The Daughter of the Confederacy.”
Oliver sympathetically chronicles Winnie’s ultimately doomed love affair with Alfred Wilkinson, grandson of an abolitionist, who was accepted by her father, but not by her adoring public. After her father’s death, she continued his legacy, supporting herself and her mother through public speaking engagements and writing. Well researched and told through journals and letters, her story is narrated by several people, including her friend Kate Pulitzer, her older sister Maggie, Alfred Wilkinson, and by Winnie herself.
Although it often seems clogged with unnecessary detail, the flow feels somewhat choppy, and the narrators all sound similar, the novel does give an illuminating glimpse into the life of someone who, while famous in her own time, is now almost forgotten. Oliver’s brief descriptions of the meetings between Winnie and her literary soul mate Louisa May Alcott are rather intriguing. For die-hard fans of post-Civil War novels.
Michael I.
Shoop
Y EDITORS’ CHOICE
DANGEROUS PURSUITS
Alanna Knight, Allison & Busby, 2006, £6.99/$9.95, pb, 288pp, 0749082445
The second book in the Rose McQuinn mystery series is a thoroughly enjoyable introduction to the world of Edinburgh’s first intrepid female private investigator, for readers who like me happened to miss the first book in the series. An oversight I will not be long in setting to rights!
In the 1890s, ‘intrepid’ is certainly a fair description of Rose McQuinn, a most engaging character, intelligent, independently minded and utterly unconventional. Lovingly employed details help to create a convincing and compelling picture of late Victorian Edinburgh, amongst which are a heroine who reads the novels of Robert Louis Stevenson and a young nanny who performs in Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic operettas. The plot is shot through with darker undertones: Dockers’ strikes, appalling poverty and errant husbands, to name but a few.
In Dangerous Pursuits we find Mrs McQuinn attempting to persuade her lover, Detective Sergeant Jack MacMerry, that she has discovered a dead woman’s body whilst walking on Arthur’s seat, the volcanic outcrop perched high above the city. Detective Sergeant MacMerry is not so easily persuaded, not without good reason – there is no report of a dead body. An inconvenient occurrence Mrs McQuinn is determined to explain. She is certain foul murder has taken place.
The central relationship between Jack MacMerry and Rose McQuinn is full of charm. One cannot help but admire the Detective Sergeant’s terrier-like tenacity in the face of his lady-love’s implacable independence. Alanna Knight’s writing is richly diffused with a winning combination of warm-hearted tenderness and humour, whilst the mystery story is equally captivating and reaching a deeply satisfying conclusion. Highly recommended.
Fiona Lowe
IRON TIES
Ann Parker, Poisoned Pen Press, 2006, $24.95/ C$27.70, hb, 369pp, 1590582624
In Leadville, Colorado, in 1880, the town is waiting for the railroad to be constructed, but not everyone is happy about the way things will change. When Inez Stannert’s friend, Susan, fails to arrive from Twin Lakes at their appointed meeting time, Inez finds herself drawn into a mystery when she finds her friend. Was Susan injured in a simple rock slide, or was the railroad deliberately sabotaged?
But even as Inez tries to solve the mystery, she must deal with the changing realities of her own life. Inez is involved with the Reverend Sands, yet she’s attracted to the payroll guard to the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, Preston Holt, and she wonders what’s become of her errant husband, Mark. Not to mention, she’s at odds with her business partner with the Silver Queen Saloon.
This novel is paced well and contains a wonderful array of characters. Inez is a fabulous character choice for an amateur detective: she is independent and can beat a man at a man’s game. Parker pays great attention to historical detail, and Iron Ties is an excellent mystery. I have to read the first of the series now.
Janette King
THE HAUNTING OF HOUSES
Maureen Peters, Robert Hale, 2006, £18.99, hb, 224 pp, 0709080212
Inspired by Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, this unusual novel tells the story of Aspen Stewart, Heathcliff’s daughter, born of a loveless marriage in Ireland, where Heathcliff
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SYMPHONY
fled after Cathy wed Linton. Heathcliff’s marriage to the Irish heiress makes him a wealthy man of business, but the heiress herself dies after Aspen’s birth. Orphaned Aspen only sees her father every few years, but slowly comes under his thrall. After his death, she travels to Yorkshire to carry out his unfinished business, insinuating herself between lovers, Hareton and young Cathy (the original Cathy’s daughter). The evocation of rural Ireland and Yorkshire is lyrical and lovely. However, the portrayal of Heathcliff suffers from clichés – he snarls and his lip is forever curled. Some readers may find the frisson of erotic attraction between him and his daughter distasteful. Despite the allure of Heathcliff and the romance of the landscape, the book isn’t spooky or suspenseful enough to work as a proper ghost story.
Mary Sharratt
THE LAST VAN GOGH
Alyson Richman, Berkley, 2006, $14.00, pb, 320pp, 042521267X
In 1890, during the last two months of his life, Vincent van Gogh was in the care of Dr. Gachet, a believer in herbs and homeopathy who tried to wean him from the addictive absinthe, giving him tinctures made from wormwood (one of its sources). Dr. Gachet was also a failed painter, and insinuated himself into the lives of patients such as Pissarro and Cézanne when they passed through his care, and accepted their paintings in lieu of money. At an exhibit of the Gachet Collection, Richman alighted on the idea of having Gachet’s daughter, Marguerite, narrate the story of several of van Gogh’s final paintings: herself in the garden and at the piano
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Jude Morgan, Headline, 2006, £11.99, pb, 374 pp, 0755327721
This stunning novel illuminates the passionate and stormy union of great Romantic composer, Hector Berlioz, and Anglo-Irish actress, Harriet Smithson, his muse, who inspired his Symphonie Fantastique. Though penniless, Hector eventually marries Harriet when she is past her prime and down on her luck, thus creating a scandal which leaves him disinherited and banished to the fringes of respectable society. The most interesting part is what comes next – what happens when a genius marries his muse and the muse is a brilliant artist in her own right, not content to be frozen upon a pedestal? Hector’s opium and infidelity and Harriet’s drinking and jealousy shatter their idyll. In the hands of a lesser author, their story would be reduced to a sad melodrama. Morgan, however, lifts the narrative to another level, starting with Harriet and Hector’s childhoods. They do not even become lovers until the last third of the book. Instead we meet each of them as individual artists heroically struggling to make their mark in an indifferent world. Morgan’s great gift to the reader is in rescuing Harriet Smithson from the footnotes of history and presenting her as an accomplished actress who, after years of obscurity, electrifies Paris and inspires a whole generation of young writers and artists, even though she can barely speak French. This dignified portrait of Harriet makes the tragedy of her marriage all the more heartbreaking.
Interludes narrated from the perspectives of Chopin and Mendelssohn prevent the story from becoming too claustrophobic or heavy-handed. Ultimately this book is a transcendent meditation on the redemptive power of love and art. The finest historical novel I have read this year, Symphony is best savoured with Berlioz’s music playing in the background. Mary Sharratt
and, in addition, a third painting only hinted at but never seen publicly.
Marguerite begins her tale of Vincent’s arrival, his effect on the family, and her huge crush on the painter, which she writes was reciprocated. Because this is a fantasy (or is it?), the affair gives the young girl some stature that the paintings could never do in the presence of a stern and sadistic father. Although the writing itself has a modern feel, it is also filled with passion and some history as we see a different, more tender Vincent than the history books recount. Richman did extensive research in Auvers-sur-Oise, France, and paid a visit to two nonagenarians who lived in the village when Marguerite was alive. This novel is an earnest young woman’s account of the love of her life and the blossoming of her soul, sadly entwined with the deterioration of the very person who released her from familial cocoon.
Tess Allegra
WAITING FOR SUMMER’S RETURN
Kim Vogel Sawyer, Bethany House, 2006, $12.99, pb, 348pp, 0764201824
In October 1894, Summer Steadman is seeking employment in the small Mennonite community of Gaeddert, Kansas. She and her family were on their way to settle in Oklahoma when she lost them all to typhoid fever. Peter Ollenburger, the local mill owner, is a man who knows loss as well: he lost his own wife when coming to the New World. He is now seeking a tutor for his son, Thomas. Frau Steadman seems perfect for the job, but will the community he belongs to accept this arrangement with an outsider? Summer has her doubts as well. She is a well-educated Boston woman, used to a life of leisure. The Ollenburgers live a simple life. She is shocked to find she will live in a shack with a dirt floor.
This outstanding inspirational story reveals true faith and love that transcend grief and prejudice. The author honors the Mennonite traditions, revealing a little of the history of these amazing people. The author effectively uses Plautdietsch, or Low German, to enhance the story. The reader learns the meaning of these words along with the main character. This is a must-read for anyone who enjoys stories of Mennonite or prairie living.
Nan Curnutt
FOUR SUMMERS WAITING
Mary Fremont Schoenecker, Five Star, 2006, $26.95, hb, 245pp, 1594144753
The American Civil War is the setting for this story of the friendship shared by women of different temperaments and the contract Union surgeon who loves one of them. Maria Onderdonk is of a prominent family, while her friend Caroline is helping slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad. Through Caroline, Maria meets Henry Simms, a young doctor with family on both sides of the conflict. Though the two plan marriage, the war and Maria’s family – a father who is against the war, and an older sister who is not interested in marrying first – present obstacles. The two keep their romance alive through Maria’s journal and the
Y EDITORS’ CHOICE ON AGATE HILL
Lee Smith, Algonquin, 2006, $24.95/C$34.95, hb, 416pp, 1565124529
Lee Smith is a talented novelist who has written an absorbing novel of the post-Civil War South. Molly Petree is an orphan living on her uncle’s North Carolina plantation on Agate Hill. Molly’s parents, brothers, and aunt have all died, and her uncle is emotionally shattered by the war and the loss of his wife and children. Molly, too, is saddened by the death of her family, but still manages to find joy in the beautiful countryside.
Molly’s situation becomes precarious when her uncle dies, leaving her in the care of Selena, the tenant farmer’s widow, whom her uncle married shortly before dying. She acquires a protector in the mysterious Simon Black, a devoted friend of her parents, who arranges for her to go to a boarding school. As Molly grows up, her life continues to be marked by tragedy. She seems destined to lose everyone she loves, but through all this, Molly endures, and in the end, returns to Agate Hill.
In beautifully written prose, Smith writes about the survival of the human spirit in the midst of heartbreaking tragedy. She has done meticulous research, basing much of the book on memoirs and diaries. This is reflected in the vividness with which this time and place is depicted: the daily life and activities, the description of the countryside and the mood of the people. Not to be missed.
letters they share, as well as their brief, dramatic encounters.
Although well researched and based in family history, the story’s characters tend toward the sentimental, and do not come to vivid lives of their own. They often stop to “tell” the history going on around them, too, distancing the reader further.
Eileen
Charbonneau
PEMBERLEY, OR PRIDE AND PREJUDICE CONTINUED
Emma Tennant, St. Martin’s Griffin, 2006, $12.95, pb, 256pp, 0312361793
Recently there has been a proliferation of books featuring characters from Jane Austen’s novels. This particular offering is a continuation of Pride and Prejudice. Darcy and Elizabeth have been married for a year. The Christmas holidays are approaching, and Elizabeth finally decides to invite her newly widowed mother and unmarried sisters for a visit. Unhappily, due to bad weather, the Darcys end up spending the holiday with a full house, including their least favorite relatives: Elizabeth’s sister Lydia Wickham and her family, Darcy’s aunt, the unpleasant Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and Charles Bingley’s sister.
The author’s attempt to imagine Darcy and Elizabeth’s life together doesn’t work. Some aspects, such as Elizabeth’s struggle to learn the management of the large household at Pemberley, ring true. But Darcy and Elizabeth don’t act consistently with their characters as previously portrayed by Austen. Elizabeth especially does not display the spirit and selfconfidence that she had in Pride & Prejudice Tennant reduces her to an overwhelmed worrywart full of self-doubt. Darcy is alternately portrayed as being head-over-heels in love with his wife and then treating her unkindly. Supposedly, it has been a blissful first year, and yet Elizabeth easily believes gossip about her
Jane Kessler
new husband and never discusses it with him, getting all her information from neighbors and relatives. In addition, Tennant has taken liberties with Austen’s timeline that some readers may find objectionable. It is a year since the events of Pride and Prejudice, yet Lydia Wickham now has four children. True Pride & Prejudice fans will want something closer to Austen’s characters.
Jane Kessler
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RED RIVER
SAINT PATRICK’S BATTALION
James Alexander Thom, Ballantine, 2006, $24.95, hb, 336 pp, 0345445562
Veteran historical novelist Thom (Sign Talker, Follow the River) leads readers through the conflicted mid- 19th century war with Mexico, as seen through the first person viewpoints of Paddy, an impoverished young camp boy for the American army, and a young Mexican cadet, Augustin. Both have ties to John Riley, an Irishman who deserted from the American side before war was officially declared and led a famous artillery unit for Mexico, the San Patricios.
Befriended despite his status, young Paddy is more than once tempted to follow the charismatic Riley to the other side, where, drawn by their Catholic bond, the abused Irish- and Germanborn soldiers are treated as heroes. Once engaged by Mexico, Riley rises in the ranks, participates in the war’s major campaigns, and falls in love with the widowed mother of young Augustin. Still, he, his men, and the two young men for whom he becomes a hero pay a terrible price.
Although the character of the real-life Riley remains elusive, the two young narrators are vivid and unforgettable, and the war narrative fast-paced. Illuminating and compelling, Saint Patrick’s Battalion presents a stirring and provocative look at American Manifest Destiny, and is full of questions to ponder about both past and present. Highly recommended.
Eileen Charbonneau
THE LIMEHOUSE TEXT
Will Thomas, Touchstone, 2006, $14.00/ C$19.00, pb, 338pp, 0743273354
The adventures of Thomas Llewelyn,
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Lalita Tademy, Warner, 2007, $24.99, hb, 418pp, 0446578981 / Headline Review, 2006, £19.99, hb, 416pp, 0755332687
“This is not a story to go down easy, and the backwash still got hold of us today. The history of a family. The history of a country… Wasn’t no riot like they say… it was a massacre.”
In 1873, five years after the Louisiana Constitution grants citizen rights to former slaves, the black men of Grant Parish risk their lives to vote, electing a Republican sheriff. When the Democratic incumbent refuses to step down, a group of black militiamen blockade the courthouse. Expecting the U.S. government to uphold the election results, the militants wait for federal reinforcements, but weeks pass and no relief appears. The white attackers finally break the impasse by setting fire to the courthouse; and a massacre ensues that includes the slaughter of four dozen unarmed blacks. Sam Tademy and Isaiah Smith (the author’s great-greatgrandfathers) are two of the few survivors of the “Colfax Riot.”
With a deft hand, Lalita Tademy intertwines historical events with her own ancestral story to create a novel about two families struggling to build a better world for the generations that follow. Her varied characters are unforgettable, her forthright descriptions are vivid (“The precarious relationship… crumples like a wobbly wagon wheel that finally capsizes the cart”) and her unusual use of the present tense provides immediacy while propelling the story forward. It is accomplishment enough to write a novel that so poignantly exposes the indignities endured by one group of people during one small period of history, but the author’s stunning achievement is to tell a story that, despite its specificity of time, place, and race, universalizes both the suffering and the sacrifice. More than a family saga, Red River is a clear glass that illuminates the misery of injustice and the magnificence of sacrifice, wherever they are found. Bravo! Nancy J. Attwell
assistant to Victorian-era “enquiry agent” (private detective) Cyrus Barker, continue with a search through London’s Chinese district of Limehouse for a stolen martial arts book. The Holmes and Watson-like duo struggle with government interference as they enter a part of London that appears more Imperial Chinese than a section of the seat of British power. Barker, as always, possesses insights and knowledge which are denied to the always-keen Llewelyn. Thomas transports the reader to the setting an impressive grasp of the times and social life and customs. His description of Chinese society in London is especially vivid and illustrates the level of his research and his keen attention to detail. This London is radically different than the one found in other novels set in the timeframe. In many ways, this is the most interesting aspect of Thomas’s writing. Historical novels promise to deliver the reader to a long dead world but many (most?) fail in that goal. The London of Chinese immigrants and their relationships with the center of British imperial power is something I have never encountered before. The question of the leading characters being Holmes and Watson clones takes second place compared to this new and exciting London.
John R. Vallely
MURDER IN LITTLE ITALY
Victoria Thompson, Berkley Prime Crime, $23.95, hb, 291pp, 042520989X
In the turbulent immigrant neighborhoods of late 1890s New York, Tammany Hall ward heelers juggle political power while other ethnic groups protect their own and work for a piece of the action. When midwife Sarah Brandt answers a birthing call from an engaging family of Italian-American restaurant owners in her latest outing as amateur sleuth, the new baby, of mixed Irish-Italian heritage, comes with a dark secret. To Brandt’s horror, the baby’s IrishAmerican mother is murdered soon after giving birth. The two grandmothers, Irish and Italian, fight over the baby. Soon underlying ethnic tensions erupt into a riot between the Italian Black Hand and Tammany’s thugs. Brandt’s friend, NYPD detective Malloy, must tread carefully to protect the family and find the killer, hampered by politicians threatening to interfere with his reforming boss, Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt.
Thompson’s fast-moving style and solid research in 1890s New York life makes this a consistently satisfying series.
Nina
de Angeli
A DEATH AT THE ROSE PAPERWORKS
M.J. Zellnik, Midnight Ink, 2006, $13.95, pb, 312pp, 0738708976
Second in the new mystery series featuring Libby Seale, seamstress with a secret in 19thcentury Portland, Oregon, this outing finds Libby at the home of one of her clients, Adele Rose, when the family learns that patriarch Hiram Rose has been crushed in the machinery of his paper mill. Scarcely do they have time to absorb the news when Rose walks through the door. Who has been identified as the brusque mill owner? Due to her connection to the
family, Libby’s would-be beau, reporter Peter Eberle, enlists her aid in discovering why the manufacturer would be a target.
As in Zellnik’s first book, injustice towards those who are different – in this case, the Chinese immigrants who work in the mill and the European immigrants who were fired because the Chinese work more cheaply – is a theme that runs through the narration. The Roses and Libby are Jewish, each having changed their last names so as to escape prejudice. The mystery is one that revealed itself fairly easily, but the book’s strength is in its characters and evocation of a particular time. The Portland of this novel is far removed from the liberal, environmentally conscious image of Portland today. And, the revelation at the end of the book means that I am anxiously awaiting the third in the series.
Ellen Keith
20th CENTURY
THE TALE OF CUCKOO BROW WOOD
Susan Wittig Albert, Berkley Prime Crime, 2006, $23.95/C$31.50, hb, 352pp, 0425210049
I am currently relishing rereading Beatrix Potter’s books with my daughter, so I was delighted to discover a mystery series featuring Miss Potter herself. This story, the third of the Cottage Tales, draws inspiration from The Tale of Samuel Whiskers. It is 1907. Miss Potter has escaped London for her beloved farm in the village of Sawrey, but unwelcome visitors are everywhere. Rats have overrun her property; tiresome relatives refuse to leave the vicarage; Major Kitteridge has returned home with a mysterious wife, a witch some say, who seems to be behind an unwelcome plan to develop property on Lake Windermere; some local children have a problem that they think can only be solved by the fairies said to inhabit Cuckoo Brow Wood. Beatrix – and her animal friends – must connect the threads and set the village to rights again.
The book begins slowly, reintroducing people and places familiar to previous readers. However, a few chapters in, I found myself immersed in the human and animal worlds of the Lake District. Ms. Albert weaves fact, fiction, folklore, and the tone of Potter’s own books to make a cosy read. For adults and young adults who love Beatrix Potter and the English countryside.
Susan Cook
THE TORCH OF TANGIER
Aileen G. Baron, Poisoned Pen Press, 2006, $24.95/C$34.95, hb, 204pp, 1590582217
Archaeologist Lily Sampson, last seen in Jerusalem in A Fly Has a Hundred Eyes, is now in wartime Tangier. Work at the dig she has been involved with has been suspended, and she and her colleagues have time on their hands. Tangier at this time is full of subterfuge, intrigue, and competing national interests. The Germans, Spanish, English and Americans are all represented, and nationalism plays a role as well. Lily becomes involved in a dangerous undercover mission with some of her colleagues, but who is working for whom? Who can be
trusted? When murders occur and Lily herself is about to be evicted from Spanish Morocco, will the entire operation collapse?
Baron describes splendidly the sights, sounds and tensions of this city caught up in World War II. The key players represent a variety of nationalities, ethnic groups, and religions, and the interplay adds greatly to the atmosphere, and even the confusion, of the tale. Thus must Lily feel, not knowing exactly what is happening all around her, and trying her best to make sense of it all, and to operate successfully within the situation.
Trudi E. Jacobson
BILLY BOYLE
James R. Benn, Soho, 2006, $23.00, hb, 284pp, 1569474338
Barely promoted to detective in his native Boston, William ‘Billy’ Boyd is sent to England to work with his ‘uncle’ Ike Eisenhower. It is June 1942, and World War II rages on. Billy’s mission is to uncover a spy within the Norwegian government in exile. When one of the King of Norway’s advisors is found dead, he sets out to find the killer, aided by a Polish baron and a beautiful British Navy officer. While the mystery is satisfyingly complex, captivating, and filled with action and twists, this is mainly the story of a young lad who emerges from the protective network of a Boston Irish family into the harsh realities of an England worn out by three years of war. Through the well-defined people he meets, the receptions he gets as a Yank, his confrontation with people forced from their country, and the extraordinary events he is forced to live through, Billy goes from being a disarmingly naïve to a realistically mature man. Benn is to be commended for having written such a multilayered, balanced and well-crafted first book. It is comforting to know that more are in the offing.
Nicole Leclerc
IN DISTANT FIELDS
Charlotte Bingham, Bantam, 2006, £12.99, hb, 461pp, 0593055896
This story follows a well-worn narrative path. The opening chapters are about a group of young people living the gilded life of the upper classes pre-1914. So much has already been written about this period that it did not make much impact on me. I could not remember who was who and who paired off with whom.
When the story turned to the outbreak of war, I found this to be the strongest part of the novel. The author really conveys the incredible atmosphere of the time: the euphoria of people in general and the manic enthusiasm of young men eager to enlist for ‘the party’.
The reality of trench warfare and the nursing of the wounded and dying are dealt with more softly, and I wondered whether the author played down the description of the horrific events deliberately to make the novel a more pleasant romantic read.
A postscript covers the lives of the group after the war. Inevitably, some of the men were killed, but this does not cast a great shadow over the weddings and happy ever after lives of the
Y EDITORS’ CHOICE RESTLESS
William Boyd, Bloomsbury USA, 2006, $24.95, hb, 352pp, 1596912367 / Bloomsbury, 2006, £17.99, hb, 336pp, 0747585717
Ruth is a young single mother in mid-1970s Oxford, teaching English to foreign students and executives while avoiding working on her thesis; her mother lives in a small town not far away. Her life has a rhythm: of new students arriving, students-turned-friends leaving, visiting her emotionally-distant mother, not thinking about her son’s father… until one day her world is upended with her mother’s declaration that someone is trying to kill her. Why, Ruth asks, only to be told that her mother, Sally Gilmartin, is really Eva Delectorskaya, a Russian recruited by the British Secret Service at the beginning of World War II. The story of Eva’s life as a spy unfolds in parallel with Ruth’s discoveries about her own “real” self, and both are riveting. Eva’s final assignment, nearly forty years after the war, requires her to recruit Ruth for assistance.
Prizewinning author Boyd (Any Human Heart) bases this novel on some little-known facts about British spy involvement in the United States during World War II; his story of British manipulation of the world press in order to coerce America into the fight is fascinating, with memorable characters and evocative scenes. Eva comes to life as an unwitting pawn in a worldwide game of life and death, and Boyd’s expert weaving of her life and Ruth’s earns extra kudos. Knowing that the historical setting is based on reality makes it all the more worthwhile. This is one of those books you won’t be able to put down, and at the same time you won’t want it to end. Highly recommended!
survivors. In fact, one death neatly solves an eternal triangle problem. So, all’s well that ends well.
Ruth Nash
SUMMER CROSSING
Truman Capote, Penguin Modern Classics, 2006, £7.99, pb, 138pp, 0141188588 / Modern Library, 2005, $12.95, pb, 160pp, 0812975936
Set in post-WWII New York, Summer Crossing tells the story of young socialite Grady McNeil. While her parents set sail for France to check on their war-damaged villa, Grady, left in the Fifth Avenue apartment, makes another kind of crossing when she begins an affair with a Jewish war veteran working as a parking lot attendant. The affair has disastrous consequences for her and those who care about her.
Capote wrote this debut novel when he was barely twenty. Lost for forty years, it was discovered in a cache of documents from a pavement outside his apartment in 2000. The character of Grady has been compared with that of Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and there is a kind of self-destructive freespiritedness common to both. The writing is poetic, and the characters intriguing, involving the reader in an engrossing story from one of the greatest writers of the 20th century.
Ann Oughton
HORNSWOGGLED
Donis Casey, Poisoned Pen Press, 2006, $22.95/ C$29.95, hb, 232pp, 1590583094
Hornswoggled is the second mystery (following The Old Buzzard Had It Coming) in Donis Casey’s series featuring Alafair Tucker, a farmwife and mother of ten in 1913 Oklahoma. Alafair’s 18-year-old daughter, the beautiful headstrong Alice, has fallen for the wealthy, charming Walter Kelley, a recent widower
Helene Williams
whose wife’s body has been found stabbed with a kitchen knife in the creek on the Tucker family’s property. Walter, always a ladies’ man, might have wished to be rid of his wife in order to marry again, but he was in Kansas City on the night of the murder. Still, Alafair wonders if he hired someone to do it for him. She sets out to discover whether or not her daughter is in love with a killer.
This is a successful follow-up to the first book in Casey’s series, which was one of my favorite mysteries of last year. It is rich in authentic period detail from a time when traditional frontier life was slowly giving way to the modern age. The characters, several of whom are based on people from Casey’s family, are warm and deeply human. This series will certainly appeal to fans of Little House on the Prairie
Vicki Kondelik
BROTHERS
Da Chen, Shaye Areheart, 2006, $25.00/ C$33.00, hb, 419pp, 14000097282
This elegantly written and gripping book provides stunning insight into the China of Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution. If your knowledge of Communist China was gathered through Western news, then this book will be a revelation. If you thought life was better for many people after the People’s Revolution, you will be as disappointed as I to read about Chairman Mao’s lordly feudal lifestyle and his traditional methods of government.
Brothers is about Shento and Tan, halfbrothers sharing a father but not a lifestyle. It follows them from the Cultural Revolution until the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Also linking them is the love story between each brother and Sumi, the orphan who becomes a national literary star.
Tan is the adored son of one of Mao’s
favourites. He and his family live as part of the Chairman’s extended family in glorious feudal comfort in Beijing. Shento is the bastard, rescued from a bizarre birth into a happy if poor village childhood. After a Chinese-Vietnamese border dispute, Shento’s village becomes home to the Chinese army, and he finally meets his father, the general, and works out the truth. From then on, in Shento’s mind, he and Tan’s family are linked. An attack on the village by the Vietnamese leaves Shento the sole survivor, but his appeal for help is rejected by his “family.” He is shipped off to an orphanage. This hellhole is far removed from Tan’s palatial home, but Shento does meet Sumi, and they manage to survive.
So what happens when two brilliant minds are nurtured in such different ways? The plot weaves an intricate pattern through Tan and Shento’s lives, with rejection, Sumi’s love, and the struggle for power as strong forces in shaping the men the boys become. It is an absorbing read.
Patrika Salmon
THE LYDGATE WIDOW
Alexandra Connor, Headline, 2006, £19.99, hb, 343pp, 0755323734
Young Adele’s father fills her head with tales of the enigmatic Lydgate Widow, whose abandoned house dominates the Lancashire village. Orphaned at eight, Adele is then brought up by her sister, Julia, only ten years older. While Julia hopes to attain respectability through marriage, Adele, who must leave school early to earn her keep, aspires to make her career in the antiques trade. A false accusation of theft thwarts these ambitions. Eventually Adele marries a successful businessman, only to later flee his violence. Struggling to raise her young son in gritty 1930s Failsworth, her path eventually leads her back to the empty house of the Lydgate widow, whose haunting story has pursued her since childhood.
Connor’s portrayal of hard life in the Northwest is undermined by gaps in historical accuracy. Julia’s fiancé, a soldier in the First World War, sends her letters harshly criticising the war – surely these would not have passed the military censors. The dialogue also feels anachronistic in places. However, Connor’s fans will undoubtedly enjoy this heart-warming saga.
Mary Sharratt
PLUM WINE
Angela Davis-Gardner, Terrace/Univ. of Wisconsin, 2006, $26.95, hb, 316pp, 0299211608
While teaching at a Tokyo school in the 1960s, Barbara Jefferson receives a bequest from her Japanese surrogate mother and mentor, Michiko Nakamoto. This bequest is a tansu (chest) full of bottles of plum wine. Barbara later discovers that the rice paper wrappings around the bottles are journal entries, telling the story of Michi’s life. Barbara asks Seiji Okada, a friend of Michi’s, to translate the documents. Throughout the remainder of the book, the story of Michi’s life unfolds: her experience
in the Hiroshima bombing, her shame at being “hibakusha” (a Hiroshima survivor), and how this event influenced the rest of her life. Woven in through Michi’s story is Barbara’s evolving relationship with Seiji and the pain of secrets he holds dear.
Plum Wine is part drama and part mystery. It is part Barbara’s search for her own past and part exploration of war and examination of cultural differences. It is a sensitive and touching portrayal of the horror that was Hiroshima and a questioning of the policy behind the Vietnam War. A gentle novel of tragedies and the human connections they foster.
Andrea Connell
SPRING AND FALL
Nicholas Delbanco, Warner, 2006, $24.90/ C$33.99, 304 pp, hb, 1446578711
It’s 1962, with intellectual, cultural, and sexual revolutions in full swing on college campuses when Lawrence, a Harvard senior in art history, meets Hermia, a Radcliffe junior studying English. Their semester-long romance ends abruptly, with neither realizing the strength of their relationship and depth of feelings for each other until they have moved on to other partners. Lawrence and Hermia travel different paths as adults, only to unexpectedly find each other again forty years later on a Mediterranean cruise, a world away from the hallowed halls of Cambridge. Their reconnection is measured, even tentative, as both are aware of the passage of time and the perils of past relationships; both are divorced, they each have children with their own issues and baggage, and they are not the young idealists they were in their youth. Chapters alternate between the past and present, and between Lawrence’s and Hermia’s lives, with all storylines eventually merging, aided by a bit of coincidence. Delbanco (Vagabonds, What Remains) effectively summons up the academic atmosphere of the undergraduate Ivy League experience as well as the life of the tenure-track academic, while allowing Lawrence some pivotal commercial experience and success as an architect. Hermia’s life as the well-to-do daughter of a famous, nowdead artist also seems fairly staid and protected, with reality encroaching only when those she loves disappoint her. The delight in this story comes from watching two characters growing enough as individuals to be able to make the leap into a late-in-life relationship, and discovering that one’s first great love never really diminishes but can instead provide a strong foundation for happiness.
Helene Williams
CHURCHILL’S TRIUMPH
Michael Dobbs, Headline, 2006, £6.99, pb, 471pp, 0755332008
Yalta, 1945. Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin have gathered to negotiate a future for the end of the war. All three men have their own agendas, driven not only by their political and social ambitions but also by the need to make their own individual marks on history. As the negotiations progress, Churchill’s difficult relationship with the other leaders becomes a power struggle that will have global consequences. At the same time
a Polish soldier risks his life by secretly appealing to Churchill for help to return to Warsaw to search for his daughter. This is a personal decision for Churchill which could have grave political consequences if revealed. Will political pragmatism triumph over humanity? The three leaders are portrayed as old and physically ailing, ostensibly looking to set up a new world order of freedom, but in reality driven by their own individual agendas. This is an absorbing read which presents a credible historical picture of what was one of the most important meetings of World War Two. However, I did find the secondary storyline involving the Polish soldier a little contrived. Overall, recommended.
Mike Ashworth
A CABINET OF WONDERS
Renee Dodd, Toby Press, 2006, $24.95/ C$34.95/£14.99, hb, 313pp, 1592641644
Narrated by a dwarf, a wolf-woman, conjoined twins, a tattooed man, and an individual of ambiguous sex – and a few more of God’s unique creations – this curious and compelling story details the lives of a traveling carnival’s sideshow freaks, billed collectively as Dugan’s Cabinet of Wonders. Cozy in their insular world, the group functions as well as any blood family. The elegant dwarf Dugan is their kindly patriarch, watching over the young and increasingly frisky conjoined twins. He carries a torch for the wolf woman, who after five years still mourns the death of her husband. The burly black photographer yearns to leave carnival life and start a business, and he aches, too, for the tattooed man, who made himself a freak and now is considering studying to become a preacher. But the year is 1927 and the world is changing. The movie business threatens the livelihood of traveling carnivals. Natural disasters plague the group. And as unique as these individuals are, they are afflicted by very ordinary troubles – anger, jealousy, ambition, and a yearning for love. Dugan, sick in his bones, struggles to keep this odd family together even as forces both inside and out tear it apart. Reminiscent of the 1990s novel Geek Love, A Cabinet of Wonders illustrates that the only freakish thing about self-proclaimed “freaks” is their appearance; inside, they ache and love and yearn just like any common rube.
Lisa Ann Verge
THE VOTE
Sybil Downing, Univ. of New Mexico Press, 2006, $19.95, pb, 272pp, 0826338577
Kate Brennan is a college graduate who stumbles upon a picket line of woman suffragists outside the White House in Washington, DC, during the summer of 1918. Mistaken for one of the protestors, she is carted off to prison for fifteen days, where she suffers indignity and privation. Her sense of justice is aroused, and she begins to work with the National Women’s Party, inspired by strong, determined women in this final year of the fight for universal suffrage. Kate becomes a key figure in the struggle to convince senators to vote for the Susan B. Anthony amendment. Her growing involvement with the NWP takes her back to her native Colorado, where she heads a campaign against
the incumbent Democrat, whose expressed support has failed to raise the requisite number of votes.
Although Kate’s adventures read quickly and are laced with drama and melodrama, the book is marred by clichés and anachronisms, as well as a certain sameness in the quality of the characters. Overall, the narrative style resembles that of a romance, yet the romantic elements are limited. The story is inherently interesting and deserves to be told, however, and despite its flaws, Downing’s research in The Vote reveals a fascinating side of this important moment in the history of women.
Susanne Dunlap
GUNPOWDER PLOT
Carola Dunn, St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2006, $23.95/C$31.95, hb, 272pp, 9780312349899
It’s Guy Fawkes Night, 1924, and Daisy Fletcher, née Dalrymple, is invited to celebrate at friend Gwen’s family estate in the Cotswolds. However, internal fireworks pre-empt the festivities with family quarrels ignited by Sir Harold, Viscount and unyielding scourge of the family’s wish to move with the times. Yet “stiff upper lip” prevails as the upper crust is invited to view the pyrotechnic wonders of this venerable English tradition. But where Daisy goes, murder usually follows. Predictably, the despised Sir Harold is found dead in his library, apparently after having killed one of his visitors. Nearly everyone has a motive, as Daisy’s husband, D.C.I. Alex Fletcher, discovers when summoned by the Chief Constable to investigate with a minimum of fuss or scandal. Daisy will add her intuitive powers to the case in her usual inimitable way, and a fairly transparent solution will be proven.
For ongoing fans, this story is an enjoyable read if only for the suspense of wondering when the very pregnant Daisy will deliver her first heir.
Tess Allegra
THE EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD
Leslie Epstein, Handsel, 2006, $25.95, hb, 461pp, 1590512502
Think Umberto Eco and Louis de Bernières for the tone, tongue-in-cheek use of language, and somewhat fantastical plotting that makes up The Eighth Wonder of the World. Max Shabilian leaves the U.S. for Italy in 1936 to become the assistant of famed architect Amos Prince. Mussolini has announced plans for a monument to commemorate his victory over Ethiopia, and Amos and Max are the selected duo who will make this happen. They begin work on a tower that they intend to be the tallest in the world, but when World War II breaks out, complications arise. Amos’s son Frankie is a Blackshirt; his daughter Nina is madly in love with Max; his daughter Aria has caught the eye of Mussolini and his son, Bruno; Amos himself is obsessed with his project; while Max, walking in privileged circles, wrestles with his concern for his fellow Jews. In 2005, Max, now in his nineties, travels with his granddaughter to Italy to confront the ghosts of that long-ago time. With its political statement, innovative story,
and quirky characters, this is not an effortless read. There were times when I could only manage a handful of pages before needing to take a break. But the novel grew on me, perhaps because it is so intricately plotted. Its tragedy creeps up on you because of its light-hearted veneer. Savouring Epstein’s descriptions, I could imagine Rome in the Mussolini era, and the liberal sprinkling of Italian throughout the dialogue, along with extreme versions of Italians speaking English and Americans speaking English, succeeded in helping to set the stage. Definitely an original.
Claire Morris
SMONK
Tom Franklin, Morrow, 2006, $23.95/C$31.00, hb, 272pp, ISBN 006084681X
It’s 1911 in Alabama. The citizens of the small town of Old Texas have had enough of E.O. Smonk, a dissolute rogue who murders and rapes at will. The town demands that Smonk appear for a trial. Instead, he and an associate, Ike, kill most of the town’s men. The bailiff, a former partner, Will McKissock, believes that Smonk has kidnapped his son and rounds up a pathetic posse consisting of himself and the cowardly blacksmith, Gates, the only man who survived the assault. Meanwhile, another posse, the Christian Deputies, is in hot pursuit of the young murdering prostitute, Evangeline. In her travels, she stumbles on a group of lost children, including McKissock’s 12-year-old son. Eventually, Evangeline’s and Smonk’s paths cross in Old Texas, and the town’s bizarre history is revealed.
Franklin’s novel is pure Southern gothic fantasy. The vigorous narrative is compelling in an odd, humorous way. There is no attempt to be historically accurate, but somehow one gets the impression that a compelling truth lies behind the relentless violence. Overall, an interesting twist on history.
Gerald T. Burke
GOLDEN COUNTRY
Jennifer Gilmore, Scribner, 2006, $25.00/ C$34.50, hb, 336pp, 0743288637
Jennifer Gilmore’s debut novel is a sweeping story of Russian Jewish immigrants in New York during the 20th century. Many novels of this sort take a military/historical view, beginning with the disillusionment of the Lost Generation and continuing through the manifestations of evil during and after World War II. It’s even spawned its own subgenre: the coming-ofage-between-the-wars story. Gilmore takes a different tack. Her story uses the rapid evolution of technology between the 1920s and 1960s as a metaphor for the Americanization of the immigrant characters. Each character and each generation assimilates to different degrees, and Gilmore’s novel probes the choices assimilation requires and the benefits and drawbacks of these choices.
The story follows three characters who came to New York City as children. Joseph is a doorto-door salesman who manages to invent the first 2-in-1 cleaning product. Seymour joins the Jewish mafia to finance his dream of becoming
Y EDITORS’ CHOICE
THE WHISTLING SEASON
Ivan Doig, Harcourt, 2006, $25.00, hb, 345pp, 0151012377
When Paul’s widower father decides to answer an advertisement in the Westwater Gazette (“Can’t cook but doesn’t bite: Housekeeping position sought by widow… salary negotiable but must include railroad fare to Montana locality”), he and his brothers have no idea how much their lives will change. The Milliron family lives at Marias Coulee, where drywater farming is the order of the day. It is autumn, 1909. Paul, the eldest son, is the scholar of the family, and comprises half of the 7th grade local oneroom schoolhouse. Paul narrates this beguiling tale of how Rose, the “A-1” housekeeper of the advertisement, and Morrie, her brother who arrives unexpectedly with Rose, fit into the life of the community, and their family. Life for the three boys centers on the schoolhouse, and when the schoolmistress unexpectedly leaves and Morrie is pressed into service, amazing things happen.
Paul narrates this story many years later, when Sputnik has challenged the quality of teaching occurring in America’s schools, especially in those remaining one-room schoolhouses still to be found in less populous areas. Paul Milliron, State Superintendent of Schools – the youngest in the nation when he was first elected – is facing a difficult decision about closing these rural schools. However, the extraordinarily vivid storytelling throws readers headlong into those heady days of 1909 and 1910, without the gap in time dimming or diluting the tale.
This was the first book I’d read by Doig, but I was so enchanted by the Milliron family, Rose and Morrie, the depiction of the local landscape, and the author’s lyrical writing that I’ve already decided on the next book of his that I’ll lose myself in.
Trudi E. Jacobson
a Broadway producer. And Frances Gold, the ugly duckling, recognizes the limitless future and rides the crest of newfangled technology into every living room in America.
Gilmore’s narrative leaps effortlessly backward and forward in time and from character to character. Despite its sweep, the story never drags nor bogs down in historical detail. She well captures the struggles of the Depression and the excitement of the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair, as well as the more minute tragedies and joys of family life. Golden Country is written with great wit and insight. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys family sagas or literary fiction.
Lessa J. Scherrer
ARMS OF DELIVERANCE
Tricia Goyer, Moody, 2006, $12.99, pb, 318pp, 0802415563
Subtitled “A Story of Promise,” this is the fourth of the author’s Christian works that focus on World War II. It tells the story of three women whose lives become entwined in wartime Europe of 1944. Katrine, a blond Jewess hiding in Belgium, finds herself pregnant by a married SS officer named Hendrick. As the plot unfolds, she learns he may have an ulterior motive, manifested in his connection to the Nazi Lebensborn program. Meanwhile, two newspaper women in America seek to cover the war in Europe. Lee, trying to remake her fashion girl image, volunteers to go on the Normandy landings. The other, Mary, who is really the main character, hitches a ride on a B17 bound for Berlin, a trip that will ultimately connect her to the unfortunate Katrine. In the tattered threads of the remaining Nazi presence, she finds not only peace for herself, but a future
calling as well.
The work suffers from its multiplicity of main characters. Although the author rather neatly ties their stories together in the end, the reader is apt to be confused in the early chapters. Many will likely find their stories, especially the Jewess who hides her identity by becoming the lover of an astonishingly evil SS officer, too incredible to be believed. On the other hand, the book succeeds as a story of faith and redemption, as long as one doesn’t look too deeply into the motivations of the women, or question the coincidences that abound in its pages.
Ken Kreckel
ANOTHER GREEN WORLD
Richard Grant, Knopf, 2006, $24.95/C$32.95, hb, 384pp, 0307263592
In 1929, four young Americans journey to an international youth conference in Weimar, Germany, which promises the dawning of a new era. Here they forge friendships with their European counterparts, relationships which become immersed in the political and racist currents that will plunge the world into chaos. Fifteen years later, two of them, now back in America, are summoned by another who has become a legendary member of the Polish resistance. He is seeking to hand over critical evidence concerning the Final Solution. This launches the childhood friends on a mission to the partisan dominated wilds of central Europe, where they must confront the truth about themselves and the tortured world they have inherited.
Far from a quick read, this is an ambitious book that mixes myth with reality, youthful idealism with the horrors of war. It is told in meticulous detail, with frequent flights into the ideologies
of the times. The author’s prose is elaborate, given to lush descriptions and a myriad of historical and literary references. His characters are remarkably introspective. Overall, the sheer scope of the work is impressive, especially in its illumination of some seldom examined facets of prewar Germany and the wartime backwaters of Eastern Europe.
Ken Kreckel
DEATH AT VICTORIA DOCKS
Kerry Greenwood, Poisoned Pen Press, 2006, $24.95/C$34.95, hb, 176pp, 1590582381
This is the fourth in that delightful 1920s mystery series by Kerry Greenwood about the Honourable Phryne Fisher. Phryne is the woman we’d all like to be: debonair, independent and brilliant, the Australian private investigator who never turns a hair.
Phryne is driving home past the Victorian Dock when some blaggard shoots at her, smashing her beautiful car’s windscreen. The two men continue shooting. Phryne is outraged, more so when she finds that what the men originally shot was a handsome young man, who dies in her arms. Vowing vengeance, Phryne begins investigating and finds herself deep in a tangle of politics, bigots and revolutionaries. Worse yet, the anarchists start hunting her. Bringing the villains to justice takes place amidst the usual whirl of Phryne’s social life in Melbourne: beautiful dresses, evenings at the ballet or luxurious times at home. She even manages to find a runaway schoolgirl before winding up the anarchists and giving them their just desserts.
It’s a wonderful read, and a delightful glimpse of 1920s Melbourne. I’m glad the early books are being republished and look forward to adding them to my bookshelf.
Patrika Salmon
FLYING TOO HIGH
Kerry Greenwood, Poisoned Pen Press, 2006, $24.95, hb, 166pp, 1590582373
Sprightly, witty, fast-moving – all describe both this mystery and its heroine. Phryne (pronounced fry-nee) Fisher is named for an Athenian courtesan of legendary beauty. Our Miss Fisher, a rich and multi-talented flapper living in 1928 Melbourne, Australia, lives up to her namesake. When not speeding in her red Hispano-Suiza or seducing innocent young men, Phryne solves crimes. She handles condescending policemen with all the sweetness of a chocolate-coated razor blade.
Two cases occupy her this time: an amateur pilot accused of murdering his abusive father, and the kidnapping of the precocious young daughter of another pilot. Phryne of course is an accomplished flyer who can swap stories with the best. The frothy plot is less sophisticated than later entries in the series, but still great fun. Flying Too High, the latest title to appear in the United States, is actually the second of the original series. Thanks to the publisher for reprinting these delightful crime novels, even if not in order.
Nina de Angeli
MURDER ON THE BALLARAT TRAIN
Kerry Greenwood, Poisoned Pen Press, 2006, $25.95, hb, 160pp, 1590582411
This is the third book of the adventures of the Honourable Phryne Fisher, lady detective, set in 1920s Australia. Phryne is on the train, traveling to Ballarat to visit family with her faithful maid, Dot. She wakens to the cloying smell of chloroform and discovers that the passengers have being poisoned as they sleep. Phryne rescues her fellow passengers by shooting out the window with her pistol, pulling the alarm, and getting everyone off the train. One of the passengers, a cantankerous old woman, is missing and later found dead. Phryne brings the woman’s injured daughter to her home in Melbourne and attempts to solve the mystery of the elderly woman’s murder. To further complicate matters, a young girl is found on the train who is not on the passenger list. She doesn’t know who she is or how she got there. Phryne takes her in also, and soon has her hands and her house full.
Phryne is a delightful character: smart, independent, sophisticated, and free-spirited. Although she is wealthy, she remembers what it is like to be poor. I admired her outrage at the mistreatment of young girls in this story, and it is great fun to watch her exact justice (her methods are just a little unorthodox). The other characters are well drawn, too, including her maid, Dot, and her friend, the doctor. I plan to read everything in this very entertaining series. Jane Kessler
WHEN MADELINE WAS YOUNG
Jane Hamilton, Doubleday, 2006, $22.95/ C$29.95, hb, 272pp, 0385516711 / To be pub. in Mar 2007 by Doubleday, £14.99, hb, 288pp, 0385611102
In 1940s Chicago, ornithologist Aaron Maciver marries the beautiful, fashionconscious Madeline. Shortly after their wedding, Madeline suffers a bicycle accident, which leaves her with the intellectual powers of a seven-year-old. Enter Julia Beeson, friend of Aaron’s sister Figgy, who convinces Aaron to divorce Madeline, marry her, and live happily ever after – with Madeline their special charge. Figgy can’t understand why Aaron and Julia would not place Madeline in a home, but their son Mac does. Growing up with Madeline as his “sister,” Mac comes to understand that if not for Madeline’s misfortune, Aaron and Julia might never have married, and he himself might never have been born.
This is the framework for a non-linear, complex story, which Mac narrates. He takes us into the present day, where his family situation is inevitably coloured by what has gone before. He explores questions about Madeline’s state: what if she had not been relegated to the role of a child; what if new opportunities had been available to her? He returns frequently to the part-admiring, part-despising relationship he shares with Figgy’s son, Buddy. A rift between the two family branches widens as the war in Vietnam takes Buddy overseas, and Mac to a lab in New Jersey as a conscientious objector. Rich in the telling, Jane Hamilton’s fifth
novel is a window into the life of one American family during the second half of the 20th century. I stress the word “American” because as I read this book, I felt that one needs to be American to properly understand the sentiments expressed about suburban life, politics, war and religion. Although I could not fully identify with the tragedies and triumphs, I enjoyed the author’s insights into relationships of all types, and was moved by the Madeline plotline, which ends in a satisfying, appropriate manner.
Claire Morris
A SONG AT TWILIGHT
Lilian Harry, Orion, 2006, £12.99/$24.95, hb, 327pp, 0752867202
This is a nostalgic wartime novel set at RAF Harrowbeer and in Milton Combe on the fringes of Dartmoor. In 1943 Squadron-Leader Andrew Knight arrives to take over his first operational posting after recovering from his crash in Kent. His wife Alison, with their young son Hughie, accompanies him. The run-down house that they rent is turned into a home by Alison with the help of May Pettyjohn, the daughter of a friendly local family. The house and Alison become a sanctuary for Tubby Marsh, Andrew’s oldest friend; and for Ben, a newly qualified pilot, and Stefan, a Polish airman, when they need to try to forget the perils of night-flying and to discuss their own personal battles, loves and fears.
Lilian Harry is Orion’s best-selling author of wartime novels, and her skill as a writer is clearly demonstrated in this novel about ordinary people struggling to hold their lives together under the shadow of war. She uses just the right amount of historical detail to convey a sense of place and time without dominating the plot or characters. Similarly, by artfully using Devonian dialect words such as ‘moithered’ (upset/bothered) she has managed to conjure up an image of rural Devon during the war.
The most powerful characters for me were Tubby Marsh and the Polish airman Stefan. This is because both of them are written with a degree of passion that sets alight one’s interest as a reader, and which most probably makes this one of Lilian Harry’s most compelling novels. Lovers of wartime fiction will devour this novel, and if they are lucky they may have some Devonshire clotted cream, homemade jam and scones to complement it!
Myfanwy Cook
THE HUNTER’S DANCE
Kathleen Hills, Poisoned Pen Press, 2006 (c2004), $14.95, pb, 336pp, 1590582756
For fans of detective mysteries, there is a lot to enjoy in this, the second appearance of township constable John McIntire, and for the very same readers, a huge disappointment in the ending. Set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in late 1950, the death of Bambi Morlen presents quite a challenge. He is found tied up, poisoned, scalped, stabbed and worse: someone has attempted to drill a hole in his skull.
Not all of these were done by the same individual, as it turns out, and thereby lies the puzzle that McIntire and county sheriff Pete
Koski must put back together. There are a good many local residents of rural St. Adele and the semi-wilderness surrounding it, and the reader is introduced to many of them, not all of whom get along well with one another: the Finns; the Chippewa Indians; the hardy long-time residents; the rich folks in their own enclave along Lake Superior. Bambi is the son of one of the latter, and yes, I know, what kind of name is that?
During the long patient investigation that ensues, the pieces slowly start snapping into place, but the ending, which comes as quite a surprise, brings forth as many new questions as it answers. The final chapter is no help either. More eye-opening events occur, not related to Bambi’s death, but producing more headscratching wonder (and dismay) on the part of the reader, or at least those of us who prefer some sort of closure in the mystery fiction they read.
Steve Lewis
WITCH CRADLE
Kathleen Hills, Poisoned Pen Press, 2006, $24.95, hb, 334pp, 1590582543
Although set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in 1950, Hunter’s Dance, Kathleen Hills’ previous book in her John McIntire series, could have taken place at any time between 1940 and 1960, the relatively isolated UP having changed very little in that time. Not likewise with Witch Cradle, which takes place in early 1951, only a few months later. When a huge winter storm brings down trees across the countryside, what’s found in the roots of one (hence the title) suggests that one married couple never managed to take their long-planned trek to a Russian commune sixteen years before.
Tied in with the Communistic dreams had by some in the 1930s is the repugnant McCarthyism of the 1950s, that era of national paranoia about Reds around every corner, and in every schoolhouse and in every film in the country. McIntire’s investigation seems to lead to tragedy and heartbreak at every turn of the tale, including his finding an FBI agent breathing heavily down his own neck.
Based on true events, Hills’ story has a lot of resonance to it, but it reads as though too much has been crammed into it. That one player’s characterization is completely reversed from the previous book does not help, either. The revelation of secrets from McIntire’s hidden past also seems forced and insufficiently blended in. The intention is admirable, but the execution is lacking.
Steve Lewis
ALL FOR LOVE
Dan Jacobson, Henry Holt, 2006, $24.00, hb, 288pp, 0805081038 / Penguin, 2006, £7.99, pb, 272pp, 0141017422
In All for Love, Dan Jacobson brings to light a tempestuous turn-of-the-century affair amid the petty royals of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Princess Louise of Belgium, married young to a fat prince of Saxe-Coburg, falls in love with a dashing Croatian hussar. Defying discretion, she makes the lowly second lieutenant, Géza
Mattachich, her stable master. The lovers are reckless and ignore all warnings. Soon the lover is exiled from Vienna and the wife is driven out as well. From there they begin an odyssey through Europe, overspending Louise’s generous allowance as they travel from city to city, with debtors and moneylenders snapping at their heels. The spree never wavers; when relations and friends financially abandon them, Géza resorts to forgery, which leads to his imprisonment, her abduction, and her institutionalization for “insanity.” The lovers are defiant, even through their separation. They consider themselves victims of a grand conspiracy, and they remain loyal to one another.
Such is the stuff of lascivious headlines and operatic drama, and, indeed, All for Love is an addictive read, but for one major flaw: Jacobson presents the story more like narrative non-fiction than a novel. The book contains footnotes and extensively quotes both characters’ autobiographies, and the author himself is a presence in the narrative. An opportunity lost, indeed: What an amazing novel this would have been, had the author taken the full imaginative leap into true fiction.
Lisa Ann Verge
THE ONE FROM THE OTHER
Philip Kerr, Putnam, 2006, $26.95/C$35.50, hb, 371pp, 0399152997
Think Sam Spade as a German PI in postwar Europe, only here the streets are meaner than any in Dashiell Hammett’s California, and Philip Kerr’s creation, Bernie Gunther, has more baggage than a Deutsche Bahn express train. Like many of the classic detective stories, this one starts with a stunning blonde in a red dress, arriving with a seemingly simple task. This leads Gunther into his most complex case, one with consequences that he may not escape. His investigation takes him into a world where good and bad seem synonymous, and one cannot tell the “one from the other.”
Written in the style of Hammett and Raymond Chandler, this book can be both humorous and disturbing, often in the same paragraph. But the evil portrayed is anything but fictional, from an appearance by Adolph Eichmann to the complicity of the CIA in subverting justice for war criminals. Kerr’s main character is complex as well, with a past tainted by Nazism and the brutality of war. Far more than just a mystery, this book sheds light on a postwar period largely forgotten, and brings to the fore the very real criminality of both victor and vanquished.
For all its rather serious nature, it is a highly entertaining book, imaginatively conceived and smartly executed. Although it stands as a remarkable work of historical fiction, fans of hard-boiled detective stories will not be disappointed. This is the fourth in the Bernie Gunther series, written some fifteen years after his initial appearance. The only disappointment would be if we have to wait another decade and a half for another.
Ken Kreckel
AN UNMENTIONABLE MURDER
Kate Kingsbury, Berkley Prime Crime, 2006,
$6.99/C$9.99, pb, 217pp, 0425211142
This delightful cozy mystery, set in World War II rural England, is the latest in the author’s Manor House series. Elizabeth Compton, lady of the village manor house, has a heavy burden of responsibility. Not only does she have the duty of running the great house under trying wartime conditions, but the residents of Sitting Marsh depend on her for everything from a cheerful visit to solving crimes. If that wasn’t enough, her elderly butler goes missing, her American pilot friend is on a dangerous mission, and there’s that thief that makes off with women’s knickers from the village’s clotheslines. Soon, a body is discovered...
This is great entertainment: charming, at times amusing, but with a dose of reality that is just enough to emotionally involve the reader. It also stands as a marvelous look into the lives of ordinary English villagers, thrust into a new reality by the intrusion of the war. However, lest one grow too nostalgic for those days, the author reprints the actual wartime recipe for Lord Woolton Pie, a most abominable concoction even by the standards of English cuisine. Highly recommended for all mystery lovers.
Ken Kreckel
THE ROMMEL MISSION
Ken Kreckel, Red Engine Press, 2006, $16.95, pb, 304pp, 0966327659
This novel’s setting is the summer of 1944. In Normandy, the D-Day invasion is under way. Field Marshal Rommel is frustrated by his inability to deploy troops to contain the Allies on the beaches, which he believes is the Germans’ only hope of success. Hitler insists a second invasion will happen and refuses to allow reinforcements to be sent. Rommel feels that the war is essentially lost. While personal arguments with the Fuehrer continue to fail, he decides to take action himself. He begins to persuade officers in his command that surrender of the Western Armies is the only sensible course of action to keep the Russians out of the Fatherland. Finally, he decides to open negotiations with the Allies. Major Helder, a loyal staff officer and narrator of the novel, agrees to help.
Kreckel’s fictional interpretation of a wellknown historical fact is fascinating. Through the voices of his characters, the moral and ethical dilemma facing the Germans is revealed. The story also paints a realistic portrait of life on the other side of the Normandy invasion, one that is seldom explored. This is a must read for fans of World War II history and fiction.
Gerald T. Burke
FOOLS FALL IN LOVE.
Freda Lightfoot, Hodder & Stoughton, 2006, £19.99, hb, 412pp, 0340897368
The story unfolds in Champion Street Market in Manchester, 1956. Patsy Bowman, hungry and looking for work, steals a hot pie from Molly Poulson’s stall. At her screech of outrage, Patsy flees and finds herself in the market hall itself where she finally reaches the Higginson sisters’ hat stall. Abandoned in infancy and not wanted by her foster parents, Patsy is anxious
to trace her real mother and thinks she may be in Manchester. Clara and Annie Higginson take pity on her and not only take her into their own home but also give her a job on the hat stall. From there the tale evolves taking in the tangled love lives of Molly Poulson’s two daughters, as well as following Patsy’s efforts to find her mother.
I enjoyed this book very much. The characters are entirely believable and the reader soon gets involved with them and wants to know ‘what happens next’. It is well paced and the final outcome a good twist. My only criticism is that I do not remember things being ‘cool’ in the fifties in the way that they are today. However, a good read. Recommended.
Marilyn Sherlock
HIDDEN
Victoria Lustbader, Forge, 2006, $24.95/C33.95, hb, 463pp, 0765315564
Lustbader’s enticing debut novel is a multigenerational family saga that pulsates with life. Hidden spans the years 1917 to 1925 in New York City, a time and place of great turmoil and change. We are introduced to the Gates family, a wealthy, powerful dynasty led by family patriarch and mogul Joseph Gates, and the Warshinskys, a family of Russian Jewish immigrants struggling to survive in the povertyridden Lower East Side. Jed Gates and David Warshinsky meet as they are enlisting in the army in 1917 and form a lifelong bond through the traumas they suffered during the Great War. After the war, the Gates “adopt” David into their clan. This is where the drama really begins. Hidden is a story of secrets. Everybody has one. It is a story of loves lost and found, of passion, betrayal, treachery and redemption. Strong, well-defined characters, evocative sensory descriptions, layers of political and social drama intertwined with the characters’ personal dramas, and unpredictable storylines all amount to an immensely absorbing, pleasurable, and satisfying read. I am eagerly anticipating this gifted author’s next creation.
Andrea Connell
RESURRECTION
Tucker Malarkey, Riverhead, 2006, $24.95/ C$32.50, hb, 374pp, 159448919X
In 1947, Gemma Bastian makes a decision to leave London for Cairo upon receiving word of her father’s death. Charles was an archaeologist, and had spent the war years in Egypt. As a nurse, Gemma had watched many young men return home maimed, and some to die. An independent and strong-willed young woman, she is saddened that she had not had a chance to see her father for many years; she resolves to scatter his ashes in the country that he loved. Charles had been studying the recently discovered Nag Hammadi Lost Gospels. It was his contention that their discovery would shake the foundations of the Christian world. When Gemma arrives at the home of Charles’s former archaeological partner, David Lazar, she learns that the two men had disagreed and parted ways. However, one of David’s sons was working with Charles, who was a mentor to him. David’s older
Y
THIS TIME OF DYING
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Reina James, Portobello, 2006, £10.99, pb, 240pp, 1846270456 / To be pub. in the US by St. Martin’s, April 2007, $24.95, hb, 304pp, 031236444X
This most unusual first novel chronicles the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic in London. The story opens with flustricken Dr. Wey drawing on his last reserves of strength to post a letter warning the government to close the ports and stop the movement of the troops in order to halt the epidemic. Before Wey can reach the post box, he collapses and dies in the street, his face blue with cyanosis, the Spanish flu’s trademark symptom.
Undertaker Henry Speake finds both Wey’s body and his letter, which he reads and keeps. As the disease spreads and the body count mounts, Wey’s letter haunts him. Unable to confide in his self-centred sisters, he turns to Mrs. Allen Thompson, a widowed teacher whose school has closed down for the duration of the epidemic. When their friendship evolves into slow-burning romance, they suffer the censure of their family and friends: Henry, a common tradesman, is beneath Allen’s station, and a respectable woman has no business seeking his company. But as the flu ravages the community, old social barriers break down. Servants and working class people stand up to their social ‘betters’ and women take on male professions. Meanwhile Henry and Allen struggle to find the courage to be true to themselves.
Written in deceptively plain and unsentimental prose, the novel is quite sophisticated in structure. The author manages to dip into many different characters’ heads to paint an intimate portrait of how the flu impacts an entire community already decimated by war: from the elderly doctor who cannot live up to the weight of his duties, to Henry’s ‘masculine’ sister, seething in resentment because she believes she could run the family business more competently than her distracted brother. Despite its macabre subject matter, a highly compelling and recommended read. Mary Sharratt
son, Michael, was a decorated RAF flyer who suffered burns and the loss of a leg. Both sons are attracted to Gemma, and she to them.
The author has based her fictional account on the true events surrounding the discovery of the gospels and includes many real people in her novel. While those events and the narration of them are interesting, the storyline also contains elements of the lost feminism within Christianity, as portrayed in many recent popular novels. The writing is strong, and the subject of current interest, though the novel suffers from extremely slow pacing. However, it will not diminish the reader’s fascination with this tale of ancient secrets brought to life.
Lorraine Gelly
MAGIC TIME
Doug Marlette, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2006, $25.00/$31.00, hb, 496pp, 0374200017
When a terrorist group bombs a Manhattan museum, newspaper columnist Carter Ransom suffers an emotional breakdown and returns to his hometown in Troy, Mississippi, to recuperate. While home, an ambitious young attorney reopens the Shiloh Church bombing case of 1965, forcing Carter to face his past. Then, the Ku Klux Klan had killed Carter’s girlfriend, Sarah Solomon, and three other civil rights activists in an attack at a local church. His father, the local judge, had presided over the case, which Sydney Rushton now claims was flawed. One man was convicted but the instigator, Samuel Bohanon, the Imperial Wizard of the KKK, went free.
As Carter prepares to testify, he must revisit the 1965 Freedom Summer and the events leading up to Sarah’s demise. He begins to
understand that he never fully accepted Sarah’s death, which led to failed relationships and eventually his breakdown. Childhood friends, memories, and Sydney help Carter sort through his wounds and come to terms with his past.
Marlette, a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist, has written an emotional novel filled with all the violence of the Freedom Summer. While slow to start, the story picks up and speeds through Mississippi’s most traumatic times in a vivid, eloquent manner. Told in flashbacks, the story is personal, drawing readers into the past, and touching on the humanity of the people involved. Full of courtroom drama, history, humor, love, and ultimately, justice, Magic Time is a potent story about one man’s journey to acceptance, and Mississippi’s journey to freedom.
Rebecca Roberts
ON, OFF
Colleen McCullough, Simon & Schuster, 2006, $25.95, hb, 372pp, 0743286421 / HarperCollins, 2006, £6.99, pb, 400pp, 0007199767
On October 6, 1965, female body parts are discovered in the animal morgue in the neuroscience research center of a private university in Connecticut. Lieutenant Carmine Delmonico is assigned to the case. Certainly, the killer must be someone who works at the facility, one of the researchers, administrators or assistants; but after interviewing them all, he has no reason to suspect one over another. Neither does the reader. He turns his attention to the victim. Contrary to expectations, he learns she was from a good family, Catholic, no boyfriend, never a moment’s trouble. Casting a wider net, he finds she was not the only Connecticut girl
fitting that description to have disappeared over the past couple years. The killer has been busy, and he isn’t finished yet. Typical of the genre, the story becomes a race, where cop tries to catch killer before he strikes again. Deaths mount along with new clues. For fans of serial killer murder mysteries, this is a well-plotted page-turner. For fans of Colleen McCullough, the same meticulous attention to detail and characterization that make all her stories so fascinating makes this one enjoyable as well.
Sue Asher
SIXPENCE IN HER SHOE
Francis McNeil, Orion, 2006, £18.99, hb, 340pp, 0752868527
This novel opens in working-class Leeds in the 1920s. Jessica Price, the central character, comes from a Catholic family whose father makes his living from mending shoes. Her love of fairy-tales draws her close to her gifted adopted cousin, Wilf. His talent as a sculptor and artist leads him to study in London, while Jessica finds her loyal spirit leads her to rescue her godchild, Leila, from the orphanage. It also carries her away from Wilf, and her own close family to face a series of challenges on the shores of Morecambe Bay.
From the outset of the novel the author captures a sense of place and the flavour of the region: in particular, the evocative descriptions of Morecambe Bay, the life of a tenant farmer, who combined farming with cockle picking, and the bleakness of the barrack-like Leeds Poor Children’s Holiday Camp. Even the minor characters like Gladys Hardy, with her love of jigsaw puzzles, and the Dickensian Mr and Mrs Treasure, with their peculiar obsession, create a vivid and lasting impression.
This novel is engrossing, easy to read and as satisfying as an excellent meal. Historically, it is intriguing because it sheds light on the working life of a ‘cobbler’ and of the shoe industry at that period. However, its special charm lies in the poetic quality of the writing which complements the fairy-tales that provide solace to Jessica and add magic to her own life.
Myfanwy Cook
THE BURRY MAN’S DAY
Catriona McPherson, Constable, 2006, £17.99, hb, 332pp, 1854293010 / Carroll & Graf, 2006, $25.95, hb, 336pp, 0786717408
It is 1923 in South Queensferry, and the local inhabitants are preparing for the annual Ferry Fair. On the eve of the fair it is the tradition for the Burry Man to walk about the town cheered on by children throwing pennies into his bucket while the adults offer him the traditional nips of whisky. At the end of his day the Burry Man is dead. The post mortem result shows that he died from heart failure brought on by an overindulgence in whisky. Dandy Gilver is intrigued by this hasty verdict and the strange behaviour of the dead man’s widow, and before long she and her faithful sidekick, Alec, are involved in a convoluted mystery of half truths and mistaken identity.
This is the second book in the Dandy Gilver series and, as with the first, the story fairly romps
along. In Dandy Gilver, Catriona McPherson has created a clever, witty amateur sleuth with a full supporting cast of well-rounded characters. The atmosphere of 1920s Scotland is totally convincing.
Ann Oughton
54
Wu Ming, Harcourt, 2006, $25.00, hb, 549pp, 0151013802 / Arrow, 2006, £7.99, pb, 560pp, 0099472333
Wu Ming is a collective of novelists meaning “no-name” in Chinese; most of the same collective was responsible for the Luther Blissett novel Q. One reviewer called this “a beach read for grown-ups.” I freely admit to frequenting another beach.
54 (so titled for the year in which it takes place) is a challenging novel to clarify, to begin reading, and to connect with. The unremitting fluctuations of plotlines and introductions of characters and settings exemplify the word “confusion.” Cary Grant, as a member of the British Intelligence Agency M16, heads to Yugoslavia to convince Marshal Tito that “West is Best” and filming a movie wouldn’t be a bad idea either. Robespierre is a young Italian whose quest to find his father reads like a travelogue on speed. And, as a third plot device, Wu Ming has tossed in Lucky Luciano and his driver/ gofer Steve “Cement” Zollo, who has a knack for pilfering Lucky’s money, making waves, and causing trouble for his Boss. I liked Steve. But then I liked McGuffin the television. He kept changing hands, showing up unexpectedly in the storyline, had his own dialogue. McGuffin was a delightful, mad character. I’m sure I’ve overlooked the social significance of a talking television…but I certainly enjoyed him.
The plotlines do eventually converge, and the ending was satisfying, though it wasn’t worth the exhausting struggle it took to get there. Maybe it depends on what you consider beach reading?
Wendy A. Zollo
THE LAST TOWN ON EARTH
Thomas Mullen, 4th Estate, 2006, £10.99, pb, 394pp, 0007234996 / Random House, 2006, $23.95, hb, 416pp, 1400065208
The year is 1918, and we are deep in the forests of Washington State among the townsfolk of Commonwealth, a logging town founded on progressive principles and a refuge for early feminists, union men and Wobblies, all victims of the violent imposition of capitalism in the newly industrialised United States. When the Spanish flu epidemic reaches their area, Commonwealth’s founding fathers decide to quarantine the town, a decision which will have far-reaching consequences and will lead to the virtual destruction of their utopia.
Mullen’s debut novel is as upright, squarejawed and serious as the people he writes about and, alas, as wooden. He has a good story to tell, weaving together the flu epidemic, America’s entry into the First World War and its pioneering history of labour organisation. He has done his research thoroughly and developed his characters carefully. What he has failed to
do is successfully embed his work in the fiction. Each character has a full back story, but, with the honourable exception of Philip Worthy, the novel’s main protagonist, this is given in a series of dedicated chapters rather than being revealed or concealed as the story dictates. The storytelling is unbalanced, with the many fight scenes being given in meticulous detail, while the accounts of the flu and its effects employ a limited and repetitive syntax, and the sexual awakenings of Philip and his friend, Graham Strong (oh yes, name and nature) are sketchy to the point of coyness.
The cover blurb states that film rights have already been bought by Dreamworks. If I were you, I’d wait for the movie, in the hope that it will be imaginatively scripted, well cast and skilfully directed. Then we might be on to something.
Sarah Bower
THE FLOWERS OF BALLYGRACE
Geraldine O’Neill, Orion, 2006, £10.99, pb, 360pp, 0752872516
Set in 1950s Ireland, this novel traces how love and loss shape the emotional growth of Kate Flowers, her wayward brother and her ailing mother. It has the makings of a strong romantic drama with just enough social history to give it depth. But O’Neill favours a finely detailed writing style and sometimes succumbs to an urge to over-explain moods and feeling, watering down the story’s pathos and drastically reducing my interest in the joys and sorrows of the Flowers family.
I must, of course, admit my bias. I prefer authors that only give hints of what their characters think or feel, leaving the reader some room to exercise his or her imagination. People who prefer descriptive writing will likely enjoy The Flowers of Ballygrace.
Carla Passino
THE SERPENT’S TOOTH
Michelle Paver, Corgi, 2006, £6.99/C$19.95, pb, 512pp, 0552148741
Michelle Paver has written a very good book in The Serpent’s Tooth. It is the final part of her Eden trilogy but it stands on its own with a tantalising air of mystery. Isabelle (Belle) Lawe was born in Jamaica at the dawning of the 20th century and has, since the age of thirteen, lived with a secret isolating her from family and friends. Leaving the Caribbean for school in England, her search for inner peace leads to a superficial life of parties during the surrounding horrors of the First World War.
The author captures the period perfectly when describing the numbness of existence in the trenches and the indiscriminate slaughter which gives way to the surprise of survival. Interweaving ‘letters to the Front’ into the story, a dimension of normality is introduced which shows how, for a brief moment, fear is kept at bay.
The influenza epidemic which sweeps the country just as war is drawing to a close sees Belle in the remoteness of Scotland on a journey of personal discovery and, consequently, she breaks free from her debilitating secret and finds
the way to true happiness.
Ms. Paver invests her characters with strength and determination; there is an enigmatic quality to her writing which enhances the novel and shows how love and friendship can triumph over assumed guilt and adversity.
Gwen Sly
THE FACE IN THE CEMETERY
Michael Pearce, Poisoned Pen Press, 2006, $14.95, pb, 218pp, 1590580702
In 1914 Egypt, the Mamur Zapt – equivalent of the head of the Political Branch of England’s C.I.D. – was usually summoned only for matters with political implications. So, why is Gareth Owen in a cat cemetery surrounded by “tenderly mummified” felines? Because a larger mummy with fresh bandages reveals a very modern, fair-headed and very dead German woman. The locals suggest suicide, but no suicide wraps herself in mummy’s bandages after doing the deed. The explanation must be more sinister.
Along with the ministry’s instructions to detain all Germans in the area, Owen must link the German woman’s murder with the truth despite the distractions of marauders, missing guns, corruption and Owen’s own heated relationship with a beautiful Egyptian. Except for a couple of distracting modern expressions, the story entertains with elements of a subtle thriller combined with British bureaucracy versus the easygoing and often amusing Egyptian methods of handling their Anglo-Egyptian environment.
Tess Allegra
THE SKIN OF THE SKY
Elena Poniatowska (trans. Deanna Heikkinen), Univ. of New Mexico Press, 2006 (c2004), $17.95/C$22.50, pb, 322pp, 0826341209
The Skin of the Sky is a fictionalized biography of Mexican astronomer Lorenzo de Tena. Beginning in the 1930s, Florencia, Lorenzo’s mother, instills the wonder of science in her eldest son at an early age, though she herself has no formal education. But Lorenzo also learns that he and his four siblings are the illegitimate children of a Mexican businessman who will never acknowledge their paternity.
The de Tena children must meet the reality quickly when Florencia dies suddenly and they are sent away to live, as “orphans,” with their father. Lorenzo and his brother, Juan, rebel. Lorenzo’s protestations are not as marked as Juan’s, for the younger brother leaves the influence of his father’s house. Lorenzo remains, going through the motions toward a career in law.
It isn’t until he renounces the path chosen by his father’s family that Lorenzo can identify a direction for his life. He wants to change Mexico, to educate the people so they can rise from poverty but is unable to do that within the prevailing system. When he meets someone who offers him an opportunity to explore the wonders of the cosmos he excels, easily entering philosophical discussions with educated scientists, and securing his way to further education, even finding – briefly – love.
Lorenzo’s story unfolds in a simple style, revealing a complicated individual. His early rebellion serves only to identify what he doesn’t
want rather than to focus him toward a goal. Juan too suffers – a near intellectual equal to Lorenzo, he shuts out the world, finding his fortunes more dismal than his brother’s as his business ventures fail and his mistrust grows. But Lorenzo finds fulfillment, at least through his career; his life is a fascinating journey.
Janette King
TINISIMA
Elena Poniatowska (trans. Katherine Silver), Univ. of New Mexico, 2006 (c1996), $17.95, pb, 357pp, 0826341233
Tinisima opens with a vibrant description of the assassination of Julio Antonio Mella, a Cuban revolutionary fighting in 1920s Mexico, and captures the reader with the intrigue surrounding the trail of his accused murderer, Tina Modetti, well-known as his lover. What follows is a fictionalized account of Modetti’s life – an Italian-American famous for both her work as a photographer and her exploits roaming the world from Mexico to Moscow and many locales in between.
Along the way, readers can’t help but be entranced with the story of Tina’s life as well as Poniatowska’s lush, seductive writing. Working as a silent film actress in Hollywood, Modetti begins modeling for painter Diego Rivera and falls in love with photographer Edward Weston. She finds her way to Mexico and soon becomes a beloved champion for the poor as a result of her touching, stark photos of peasant life. Fleeing after the collapse of murder charges against her, she seeks respite in Germany and is welcomed into the Soviet Union. Loyal comrade Modetti finds herself trusted with secret missions across Europe and soon is providing support for the Spanish Civil War before sneaking back into Mexico before her early death.
Tinisima is a heady mix of biography and fiction. Poniatowska’s style succinctly and evocatively captures both the moment – whether describing a dusty Mexican village, the harsh Soviet winters, or dodging bullets in Spain – and the spirit of a strong and sometimes desperately lonely woman.
No parts of this gem are forgettable, and each is so intertwined with the other that forgiveness must be begged if too much is given away here. It’s biographical, after all, and is a matter of public record. But Elena Poniatowska writes a beautiful version of this entrancing story. Read it.
Dana Cohlmeyer
GATSBY’S GIRL
Caroline Preston, Houghton Mifflin, 2006, $24/ C$31.95, hb, 312pp, 0618537252
In 1915, F. Scott Fitzgerald met a society girl, Ginevra King, with whom he had a brief romance before she lost interest in him. Gatsby’s Girl, with Ginevra Perry as the heroine, is loosely based on this episode in Fitzgerald’s life; the author, as she explains in a detailed, informative historical note, has purposely altered characters and events.
Dazzled by a handsome aviator-in-training at a party, fickle Ginevra wastes no time in ridding herself of Fitzgerald, a “silly college boy” with
a pronounced taste for highballs who “̀writes, plays dress-up, and is flunking geometry.” Five years later, Ginevra, married and a mother, realizes that her spurned suitor has become famous and that a female character in his new novel bears a distinct resemblance to herself. From that point on, Ginevra’s and Fitzgerald’s lives will occasionally intersect and parallel each other, with sometimes surprising results.
With Fitzgerald and Ginevra’s romance over, I wondered at first whether Ginevra, the narrator, was going to be able to carry the rest of Gatsby’s Girl by herself. I needn’t have worried, however, for Ginevra turns out to be more than simply a shallow debutante. As she faces an unhappy marriage, a mentally ill child, and the consequences of her own recklessness with increasing maturity, sensitivity, and selfawareness, she gains the reader’s respect. Gatsby’s Girl is an engaging and absorbing novel in which the heroine proves wrong her old boyfriend’s declaration, “There are no second acts in American lives.”
Susan Higginbotham
THE FRIENDS OF MEAGER FORTUNE
David Adams Richards, MacAdam/Cage, 2007, $25.00/C$34.95, hb, 380pp, 1596921897 / Jonathan Cape, 2006, £11.99, pb, 288pp, 0224078151
From the first page of celebrated Canadian author Richards’ (River of the Brokenhearted) latest novel, the reader knows that this is going to be a story of anguish, broken dreams, death, and of everything going wrong; in spite of this foreknowledge, however, the narrative proves gripping and well worth pursuing. The time is just after World War II; the location, a small town on the Miramichi River in New Brunswick. The Jameson family is a lumber giant in the area, with competition from companies which are using more modern machinery and paying less attention to the skills and ethics of individual loggers. There’s a prophecy about the Jameson family, a curse revealed before Will and Owen Jameson were even born, that the boys would be powerful, great, and ultimately destructive of their legacy. Every person in town, and every logger and horse on the mountain, has a memorable part to play in this tragedy.
The Canadian wilderness is as prominent a character as any human or animal; as logging causes the forest to recede, it becomes more powerful and dangerous, with crews of men traveling further and higher in order to harvest the lumber. The word “hero” has many meanings in this story, none of which are without their dark side. The one innocent character is the Meager Fortune of the title. He is the simple soul who only sees the good in people, never the evil, yet the literal meaning of his name is what the other characters associate with their difficult lives. Told in well-wrought, sparse prose, this story of the nature of progress, man, and the wilderness is at once harsh and engrossing.
Helene Williams
THE ASSASSINS’ GALLERY
David L. Robbins, Bantam, 2006, $25.00/ C$33.00, hb, 432pp, 0553804413
It’s January 1, 1945. World War II is winding
down, as the Allies have the upper hand. On a frigid, deserted beach in Massachusetts, a highly trained assassin comes ashore and begins a long and convoluted mission to kill the most powerful man in the world, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Only two men are convinced the assassin exists at all: Special Agent “Dag” Nabbit of the Secret Service and Professor Mikhal Lammeck, a historian who also trains Special Forces soldiers. But proving the existence of the assassin to a skeptical Secret Service boss is almost as difficult as tracking down the elusive killer.
Robbins is the master at bringing the reader into the minds of soldiers locked in combat. He makes you feel the fear, the anger, and the exhaustion. Better than anyone else, he gives his readers a real sense of being there with all the sights and sounds and smells. And maybe because there is no combat here, this is why he narrowly misses the mark with this story. The character development is impressive as always, but the tension never really develops, and the ending becomes apparent fairly early on, or so it appears. I found myself reading to the end just to see how he’d write the story, and for that I was rewarded with an eye-opening plot twist. Still, this story didn’t grab me and shake me up like his earlier work.
Mark F. Johnson
THE INTERPRETATION OF MURDER
Jed Rubenfeld, Henry Holt, 2006, $25.95, hb, 384pp, 0805080988 / Headline Review, 2006, £12.99, hb, 416pp, 0755331400
In 1909, Sigmund Freud paid his one and only visit to the United States. He referred to Americans as “savages” for the rest of his life and never returned. The premise of Jed Rubenfeld’s novel is that Freud witnessed something terrible during his stay in New York City, something so horrible he could never bring himself to speak of it. Yes, he repressed it! If you can accept
Y
THE LIGHT OF EVENING
that a man capable of brilliant, sophisticated insights into the human condition could also be so short-sighted as to blame an entire society for the deviancy of one man, then what follows is a fast-paced mystery that whisks readers from Manhattan’s most fashionable addresses to the opium dens of Chinatown.
Sigmund Freud amazes all over again, just on the brink of springing the new philosophy of psychoanalysis on the American public. The author is clearly very familiar with Freud’s work, and he manages to create an accurate, compelling portrait of the man and of the many strong characters involved in the birth of psychoanalysis. Unfortunately, the true historical figures are only minor characters in the plot, and the major characters are drawn far more thinly and forgettably; they serve to act out elements of one of Freud’s most famous case histories, but never really come to life on their own.
It is inevitable that comparisons will be made between this book and Caleb Carr’s The Alienist Same city, very close timeframes, and similar styles force the reader to remember the earlier book, to which The Interpretation of Murder owes a large debt.
Colleen Quinn
TOO DARN HOT
Sandra Scoppettone, Ballantine, 2006, $24.95/ C$32.95, hb, 268pp, 0-345-47812-6
It is July, 1943, and New York City is too darn hot. It isn’t enough that the temperature is rising; professionally, things are getting very hot for the heroine, Faye Quick, a private detective. Claire, a beautiful young woman who would make any man drool, hires Faye to find her missing boyfriend, Charlie, a private on leave from the Army. During her investigation, Faye finds a body in Charlie’s hotel room that is not Charlie. And that’s just for starters. The plot twists and turns, and Faye can barely keep track of who
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Edna O’Brien, Houghton Mifflin, 2006, $25.00/C$33.95, hb, 304pp, 0618718672 / Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006, £14.99, hb, 224pp, 0297851330
The novel opens in the latter half of the 20th century. Dilly, bedridden in a small rural Irish hospital, reminisces about her past as she waits for the arrival of her eldest daughter, Eleanora. She recalls her early life, her strong desire to leave home, and her subsequent return. A large part of the novel’s first half explores Dilly’s time spent in Brooklyn, in the late 1920s, when she arrives in America with dreams of success and adventure only to be sorely disappointed. After a failed relationship and her brother’s death, Dilly returns to Ireland, marries a wealthy man, Cornelius, and moves to his rustic estate, Rusheen, where they raise their two children. Most of the second half of the novel follows Eleanora, who moves to England, begins a successful writing career, and marries an older novelist. Soon she divorces him and begins a series of affairs. Through this time, mother and daughter are constantly at odds. Despite Eleanora’s reluctance to return to Ireland, it is all she writes about. At the end of the novel, they reconcile in a surprising way.
O’Brien’s complicated subject is reflected in her compelling style. She shifts from Dilly’s first person narrative to the third person in Eleanora’s. Her characters’ complex emotions and thoughts are reflected in the prose and in their journal entries and letters. This is an exceptional novel about passion, family, and time. Gerald T. Burke
the good guys are, let alone find a murderer. Scoppettone has created a quirky heroine and a wacky, fast-paced detective story. She captures the flavor of New York City during World War II beautifully. But in an effort to add color, she throws in every slang expression of the era, which at times slows the pace.
Audrey Braver
THE DAWNING OF THE DAY: A Jerusalem Tale
Haim Sabato (trans. Yaacab Dweck), Toby Press, 2006, $22.95/C$29.95, hb, 183pp, 1592641407
The Dawning of the Day is a tale of understanding another culture, told in a graceful, charming and intelligent prose. Ezra Simon Tov is a man who takes not only great comfort but immense pleasure in his religion. His world revolves around it in a palpable calm. Ezra works in a laundry as a presser in Jerusalem of the late 1950s. He’s never late. He never deviates from his routine. More than anything what defines Ezra besides his religion is his ability to tell a story. He’s renowned as a storyteller about the common people of Israel. His stories are warm and hold the essence of a community.
In many ways The Dawning of the Day is a simple narrative of a man’s daily life; even Ezra’s secrets are not unsettling or startling, they are just set against an exquisitely detailed culture. Those secrets are equal to the same selfdoubts we all have, saving one twist.
As lovely as Sabato’s story is, its pace is inexcusably slow to the point of interfering with the reading pleasure of this culturally rich book.
Wendy A. Zollo
THE BRUSHSTROKE LEGACY
Lauraine Snelling, WaterBrook, 2006, $13.99, pb, 400pp, 1578567890
Ragni Clauson needs to get her life fixed – big time! Although she’s looking forward to an immensely needed vacation, her sister tells her that she’s got to help her mother fix up her great-grandmother’s cabin, which is falling apart. In addition, Ragni is going to have her temperamental, rebellious niece, Erika, traveling along. Ragni, of course, is just about to burst with the added pressure. But she braces herself to make the journey and fixes up a rundown log cabin, unearthing some significant paranormallike connections to her long-deceased greatgrandmother.
The story is somewhat stereotypical in that Ragni and Erika eventually come to an understanding, and romance enters the picture for Ragni at a most opportune time, But what is more memorable is the older love story that parallels the contemporary story. For Ragni’s great-grandmother, a woman fighting for the health and survival of her daughter in 1906 North Dakota, a journey westward develops into a sweet romance and the tender, creative budding of her hobby/career as an artist. Nilda’s story is beautiful and representative of the tough and talented women who helped to shape America, past and present. Sweet tale, indeed! Viviane Crystal
LIBERATION MOVEMENTS
Olen Steinhauer, St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2006, $24.95/C$33.95, hb, 291pp, 031232041
For those not familiar with Steinhauer, this is far from being a brain candy novel. It requires work and attention, but the rewards are highly worth the effort. This series is mostly set in a fictional country, a composite of various real States, known mostly as the Capital. The story goes back and forth between 1975 in the Capital and Istanbul and real-life 1968 Prague, and is told from the viewpoints of various characters, which can be confusing. The main event is the explosion mid-flight of a plane hijacked by an Armenian group, the result of a chain of events going back to 1968. Each character, including the investigators – a secret policeman and a homicide detective – is a piece of the complex puzzle marvellously unravelled during the investigation.
Steinhauer is a master at blending the private with the political, making you feel the weight of the Soviet regime on individual lives. Although all the threads are neatly tied at the end, the ending was somewhat of a let-down; the author resorted to a touch of paranormal which didn’t sit well with the realism of the book and felt like a cheat. Despite this, it remains a satisfying, substantial novel.
Nicole Leclerc
THE ANGELS OF MORGAN HILL
Donna VanLiere, St. Martin’s Press, 2006, $14.95/C$19.95, pb, 240pp, 0312334524
In 1947, nine-year-old Jane Gable is attending the funeral of her drunken, abusive father when she sees the face of a black person up close for the first time. The face belongs to Milo Turner, a small boy who with his family has just come to the small Tennessee town of Morgan Hill. Milo’s mother and Jane’s mother, Fran, soon become friends – leading to a promise that will expose the Gables to hostility and danger, but that will also turn them into the sort of family for which Jane has longed.
Most of this novel is narrated by the adult Jane, though occasionally, and jarringly, the narration switches to the third person when dealing with incidents the young Jane did not personally witness. Jane’s voice is an informal, refreshingly unsentimental one, and Jane herself is feisty and courageous, tangling with a mean drunk on one occasion and staging her own sit-in on another. Fran Gable, emotionally scarred from years of abuse yet still proud and independent, is another appealing character, as are Joe Cannon, Fran’s childhood friend, and Henry Walker, the kindly storeowner who befriends the Gable family. This is no idealized small town, though; it has its share of nasty characters, as the Gables are all too aware.
The Angels of Morgan Hill being an inspirational novel, its ending is never in doubt, but VanLiere’s compassion for her characters and her eye for the comic – a funeral marred by a downpour and a wailing bride, a Christmas pageant where a squash plays the role of the Baby Jesus – make this an exceptionally enjoyable read.
Susan Higginbotham
SECRETLY INSIDE
Hans Warren (trans. S. J. Leinbach), Terrace/Univ. of Wisconsin, 2006, hb, 99p, 9780299209803
The first 26 pages of this novella consist of an introduction by Jolanda Vanderwal Taylor that sets the story in its historical context. This is important because if the reader does not know what happened in Holland during the Second World War, much of the story’s impact will be lost. Secretly Inside is a simple tale, stark and beautifully written, but without the introduction I would not have grasped all the nuances.
A young Jewish man has to hide from the occupying Germans, not only because he is a Jew but also because he has been involved in some form of resistance. He must hide far from the city, on a farm among strangers. He’s a fish out of water, in the midst of a dysfunctional family, in a village of people who do not understand what hiding a partisan really involves. Our hero is a troubled young man, but he does escape the inevitable German descent on the farm.
The story’s main point is that the history the Dutch made for themselves after the war, that of fierce resistance against the Germans, was not true. For those who were brought up on tales of the brave Dutch Resistance, it will be a difficult story to read. Those of us reading the story as a piece of history are given a clear idea of the “on the edge living” it was for those trying to hide. But the novella also shows how those involved in the hiding were not the courageous heroes we imagined or were told about. They were just ordinary people in an intolerable situation: some cracked, some gave in, and some held out. Just as we would have done.
Patrika Salmon
TRIANGLE
Katharine Weber, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2006, $23.00/C$31.00, hb, 242pp, 0374281424
Almost 150 people died in the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire in 1911. Triangle opens with a vivid account of the fire by the last living survivor, Esther Gottesfeld. After this opening, the book shifts to Esther’s granddaughter, Rebecca, and her partner, George, a very successful composer of pieces based on patterns found in nature, including the DNA of the rich who line up to commission personalized musical portraits. Rebecca and George, who are both very close to Esther, are facing the trauma of her imminent death (at age 106). There is one other key player in the novel, a very pushy, militantly feminist historical researcher, who provides some comedic moments, but also proves to be the spur to greater revelations, both about the fire and about Esther herself.
While the present-day story takes precedence in the first part of the book, the past and present soon begin to intertwine very satisfyingly. The historical recollections come through the researcher’s interviews with Esther, transcripts of the actual trial following the fire, and an early 1960s interview with Esther. These paint a picture of the conditions in the factory, and also provide a glimpse of Esther and her sister’s life as new immigrants in America. This is a fascinating novel, with a special appeal for those
interested in musical composition.
Trudi E. Jacobson
THE WOMAN IN THE PICTURE
James Wilson, Faber & Faber 2006, hb, £12.99, 400pp, 0571224733
James Wilson’s third novel is set in the late 1920s and 1930s with current day interpolations which become increasingly important as the novel progresses. The plot is about the drift into mental imbalance of an English film director, one Henry Whitaker, expressed through his own jottings and observations. His daughter from his second marriage, Miranda, is contacted by an academic biographer attempting to write the life of Henry Whitaker. This raises all sorts of questions about Miranda’s mother’s apparent suicide whilst married to Henry Whitaker, and the story develops into Miranda’s search for as much truth as she can gather about the past.
Although this is a thoughtful and intelligent story, there are just too many coincidences in the plot. This does develop into a feature of the book – how much our destiny is shaped by contingencies and unplanned elements – but such a high rate does stretch the credulity of the reader. Similarly, there were too many technical details about meeting the challenges of making silent films and preparations for the most effective shots and getting the best lighting effects which, for the reader not particularly interested in such specialist knowledge, can make for tedious reading. In general, this is a good novel set in a sound and effective historical context.
Doug Kemp
BENEATH US THE STARS
David Wiltshire, Robert Hale, 2006, £18.99, hb, 224pp, 07090811111
Most wartime romances seem doomed, especially those between US servicemen and young British girls holding the home front. But when Mary Rice, a Cambridge University academic, meets Bill Anderson, an American fighter pilot, their attraction is immediate, allconsuming and forever.
Risking everything they embark on a passionate affair, made all the more urgent by the fear and danger surrounding them. When Bill returns to his squadron they both know that his life will be in jeopardy, yet each is prepared to take the chance. When the worst happens and Bill is declared missing, presumed to be dead, Mary refuses to give up hope. She’s even prepared to travel into postwar Europe to search for her lost love all by herself.
Flitting between the present day and the 1940s, Beneath Us the Stars charts the progress of their love affair, from its tentative beginnings to its inevitable finale. The underlying theme of the novel, the power of love and the influence it can wield over lovers, is entirely believable. It’s a compelling story, well told, although some of its impact is lessened by the opening chapter, which reveals Bill’s survival. The love story itself is beautifully written and completely convincing, whilst the final melodramatic scenes are well-handled and deliver a hefty punch.
Sara Wilson
MESSENGER OF TRUTH
Jacqueline Winspear, Henry Holt, 2006, $24.00, hb, 319pp, 0805078983 / John Murray, 2006, £14.99, hb, 336pp, 0719567378
In 1931, psychologist and private inquiry agent Maisie Dobbs is hired by a young woman to investigate the death of her artist twin brother. Accident or murder? Maisie’s working method consists of getting to know the victim intimately to find the killer. This allows Winspear to go from London to Kent to explore an affluent artistic family, then move to the poor struggling veterans of post-World War I days. The social problems left by the war on the domestic and international fronts are an integral part of the plot, well-described by means of the various suspects and Maisie’s lower-class, East End assistant. We also glimpse the nature of the crimes specific to the era and the workings of the various police forces. Maisie is a complex character: a woman of her time, baggage-laden, self-sufficient, and prone to self-analysis. She never hesitates to question her decisions, whether professional or emotional, and is very attentive to the people she meets and how they affect her. The story is well structured and rather moving at times. Because of these traits, the novel should appeal to both mystery and general fiction readers alike.
Nicole Leclerc
MULTI-PERIOD
DOMINION
Calvin Baker, Grove, 2006, $24.00, hb, 368pp, 0802118291
At the end of the 17th century, Jasper Merian, a freed bondsman, leaves a wife and child in Virginia to carve out a life farming the western edge of Carolina. He contends with the forces of nature, as well as the supernatural, to establish his utopia, Stonehouses. He marries a strong woman, Sanne, has another son, and, with hard work, through periods of deprivation and abundance, he prospers as a landowner, husband, and father. However, memories of the family he left behind and the promises he made compel him to try to buy their freedom once he has the means. At the risk of losing his new family, Jasper travels the roads back to Virginia. He is a free man of means, but he is not without limits in society, regardless.
This multigenerational story is wide ranging and superbly written. The action covers a large geographical area, from Carolina to Virginia, New York, and beyond, from the time of the earliest settlements to just after the Revolution. It delves into questions of politics, social status and success, family obligation and religious freedom in colonial America. Baker confronts the injustices of slavery and the slave trade, but doesn’t shy away from the harsher realities of the time period, such as that some free black landowners owned slaves themselves. He explores the terrain of the heart and soul: what is love, why is love at times so cruel, and how can it be kept safe when the world falls apart? This novel is memorable, moving, and full of the small moments in life that reveal larger truths. Definitely recommended.
Alice Logsdon
THE SCROLL OF SEDUCTION
Gioconda Belli (trans. Lisa Dillman), Rayo, 2006, $24.95/C$32.50, hb, 320pp, 0060833122
Lucia, an orphaned teenager at school in a convent in Madrid in the 1960s, meets Manuel, a historian with an obsession about Juana of Castile, daughter of Queen Isabella, nicknamed “Juana the Mad.” Manuel takes advantage of Lucia’s lonely, bereft state and persuades her to join him in a hypothetical journey to the past, to reconstruct the way Juana really felt by having her “channel” the 16th-century queen. He has Lucia dress in an antique gown, and narrates the story while she listens in a semi-hypnotic state. His ostensible motive is to vindicate the legendary Juana from the charge of madness, and prove that she was simply an extraordinarily passionate and sensitive woman who became a victim of circumstances.
The historical basis for this novel is indeed fascinating. The “mad” queen fell madly in love with her consort, Philippe the Handsome (Philip the Fair), and was wracked with jealousy over his affairs. The political turmoil and dynastic feuding that pervaded the courts of Europe are chillingly brought to life through the perspective of this shadowy figure. The book deserves a reading for this if for no other reason.
The basic framework of the novel suffers, however, from a plot that is a little too contrived. Although Belli creates some very sexy scenes and uses often surprising imagery, her valiant attempt to match the drama of the present-day to that of the historical tale ultimately fails. There is simply not enough depth in the characterization to carry it off. The denouement feels unprepared and hurried, and the surprising ending therefore loses its ability to hold the book together.
Susanne Dunlap
THE SIDEWALK ARTIST
Gina Buonaguro & Janice Kirk, St. Martin’s Press, 2006, $22.95, hb, 224pp, 0312358032
In this debut novel, Gina Buonaguro and Janice Kirk weave a love story between Tulia Rose, a young, 21st century American writer, and the sidewalk artist she meets in Paris. To her, his street painting of Raffaello Sanzio’s angels seem inspired, as fresh as the day the Renaissance master painted them five hundred years before. Smarting from the poor reception given her first novel, estranged from her boyfriend and lonely, Tulia Rose is deeply drawn to the sidewalk artist, who is as handsome and kind as he is mysterious and full of magic tricks. Playfully, he declines to tell her his name, and so she calls him Raphael.
Inspired by him (and for a time suspicious of his motives), she begins writing a new novel, a tragic love story set in 16th-century Rome with the Italian master as its hero, while Raffaello Sanzio’s own fictional story plays out in alternating sections. Although this story-within-a-story approach might have been confusing in lesser hands, Buonaguro and Kirk manage it beautifully. So does Tulia Rose, with the successful publication of her Raffaello novel, For My Beloved. All in all, an impressive debut.
Alana White
A
FICTIONAL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES WITH HUGE CHUNKS MISSING Ed. T Cooper and Adam Mansbach, Akashic, 2006, $15.95, pb, 331pp, 193335402X
This diverse collection of short stories spans the history of the United States from 1426 to the year 2011. The seventeen stories approach history with the intent to fill in gaps, give new perspectives, and speak for the intentionally dispossessed. For example, Alexander Chee’s “Wampeshau” explores the possibility that the Chinese discovered America; Keith Knight presents a humorous, insightful, and original slant on an American icon, the Harlem Globetrotters, in a story titled, well, “The Harlem Globetrotters”; and Felicia Luna Lemus gives voice to a woman who participates in a 1937 strike that shuts down a Woolworth’s (the Wal-Mart of the time) in her amusing yet poignant “Five and Dime Valentine.”
As the editors note, this is a serious attempt to tell the truth through fiction. It works! This anthology does not try to be comprehensive, as declared by part of the title (“With Huge Chunks Missing”). What it does do exceptionally well is provide an antidote to the glossy dross that often passes for history. A must read for individuals serious about history, this book belongs on the shelf right next to Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States and James W. Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. Gerald T. Burke
ANNA’S WISH
Paul Daniel and Ann Thompson Carter, Bear Cave Press (www.bearcavepress.com), 2006, $24.95/C$36.00, hb, 464pp, 0976644509
San Francisco, 1906. The city collapses in earthquake. William and Emma Denny lose everything. Brother and sister board a train to Ridgeville, Missouri, their childhood home. It is a place of sorrow and fearful memories.
It had been over forty years since William and Emma left Missouri. They’d fled for their lives from dangers they never fully understood, although the memories of being packed onto a train to San Francisco, alone, to find an aunt they did not know, remained with them. As they stood at their mother’s grave, Anna’s grave, the need to understand the horror that drove them away led them to read letters and journals saved for them by the family’s friend, Estill Northington.
And so Anna’s story is told, and it’s not an easy one to hear. Orphaned as a child, Anna marries Charles Denny when she is but sixteen. She is widowed at twenty-five, left with two small children and a large prosperous farm. Charles’s death was only the beginning of Anna’s troubles. At one point she defends her household against Civil War deserters bent on rape and plunder. Then, too soon, she enters into a relationship with a young doctor, Joshua Hurt. Tragedy quickly follows, accompanied by such acute danger that her children’s lives hang on a thread. Anna sends them literally running from the house – to Estill, who is trusted to see them safely away.
This is a harsh story with graphic scenes of
physical and sexual brutality. They are part of the tale Anna’s wants her children to understand. The novel is not only about the tragedy of Anna’s life, though; it’s also about the strength, compassion, loyalty, and love of the people in her life, and this softens and balances the pervasive darkness of Anna’s Wish Lucille Cormier
THE MATHEMATICS OF LOVE
Emma Darwin, Headline, 2006, £12.99, hb, 405pp, 0755330625 / Morrow, 2007, $24.95, hb, 384pp, 0061140260
1819: Waterloo veteran Stephen Fairhurst has lost his leg and his true love to war. Returning to England, he is devastated to find that the mother country, for which he sacrificed so much, has become a tyranny of corrupt aristocrats and industrialists squeezing their fortunes out of a starving underclass. The book begins with a moving depiction of Manchester’s Peterloo Massacre. Fairhurst embarks on a long journey of redemption that will eventually lead him back to Spain to lay old ghosts to rest.
1976: 15-year-old Anna Ware comes to live in Fairhurst’s old home with her alcoholic uncle, mentally unstable grandmother, and Cecil, a neglected child. She seeks solace in Stephen Fairhurst’s letters and in her friendship with Eva and Theo, an émigré couple who teach her photography. Upon learning of their open relationship, Anna is both scandalised and secretly aroused. When Eva leaves on a trip, underaged Anna embarks on a searing amour fou with Theo. Meanwhile her grandmother’s rages get out of hand, and Cecil is in danger.
This ambitious debut novel is painted on a broad canvas and embraces monumental themes such as war, family violence, loss, and the healing power of love and sex. The 1970s narrative seems much more fully realised, possibly because the author is more adept at writing from a female viewpoint. Anna Ware’s confusion and longing are utterly convincing, and the writing is spare and compelling. In comparison, Stephen Fairhurst’s first person narrative comes across as stilted and overwritten, especially toward the end. Catalina, his great lost love, remains a cipher. Despite the device of Anna reading Stephen’s letters, the two narratives did not mesh for me in a satisfying way to become something more than the sum of their parts. Nonetheless, an absorbing read.
Mary Sharratt
The plot is essentially split into two halves. The first focuses on the experiences of Maureen Paschal, author of the bestselling HerStory: A Defense of History’s Most Hated Heroines. She experiences biblical dreams and visions which ultimately lead her on a journey from Jerusalem to France’s mysterious Languedoc region. Through a series of events, she begins to wonder just who she can trust as she discovers she is a descendant of Mary Magdalene and Jesus – and the only one who can find Mary’s long-lost Gospel. The second half is mostly dedicated to the telling of the story contained within the Magdalene scrolls, which reveal details about Mary’s relationship and life with Jesus and the events surrounding the crucifixion.
The plot is imaginative, and the story contained in the scrolls is portrayed in a captivating, engaging manner. The biblical characters come fully to life, and the feel of the 1st century surrounds the reader. Unfortunately, the first half of the book plods along, reading like a journalistic narration rather than flowing smoothly like the story in the scrolls. Although for reading enjoyment, this book was a mixed bag, I found the ideas in it to be thoughtprovoking and intriguing.
Andrea Connell
THE STONE HOUSE DIARIES
Robert C. Moore, The Local History Company, 2006, $21.95, pb, 444pp, 0977042936
In Moore’s second novel, he covers the history of Niagara Falls, New York, from the turn of the 19th to the late 20th centuries, using characters from several periods who have connections to a stone house and a diary written by one of its first inhabitants.
The first section is one of the longest, and is presented as the diary mentioned above, kept by a young man who enrolls in the American army to fight in the War of 1812. From there we see the city change to tourist attraction, a source of power and, finally, a city in decline fighting for renewal.
Though the author structures his novel well, the execution is lacking. The first part is violent, with far too many military details for a general reader to appreciate. Further, he slips in and out of first person point of view, sometimes hopping back and forth between paragraphs. The later sections are told in third person, but the head hopping continues, breaking up the flow of the narrative.
history.
THE EXPECTED ONE
Kathleen McGowan, Touchstone, 2006, $25.95, hb, 460pp, 0743299426 / Simon & Schuster, 2006, £10.00, pb, 464pp, 0743295323
Described as an autobiographical religious thriller, this is the first book of a trilogy. It contains elements – religion, murder, conspiracy – which have been compared with The Da Vinci Code. (Never having read this book, I cannot comment!) It would be easy to get distracted by this novel’s controversial ideas, in particular the concept of the marriage and progeny of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, and the idea that the protagonist’s experiences are autobiographical, but let’s view the book simply as a novel instead.
The awkward prose, while very descriptive in places, slows the pace further. But by far the biggest problem with this novel is the characters. From the young infantryman who kills in cold blood to rid himself of a romantic rival to the 1960s disgraced soldier-turned-activist who then seems to learn nothing from his experience, the people brought to life in this novel lack true development.
I also found a significant historical error: the author seems under the impression that Ottawa, Canada, existed under that name in the early 1800s. It wasn’t given that name until 1855 and during the War of 1812 was a very small settlement indeed.
Alas, this book is one with limited appeal for those with a genuine interest in New York
Teresa Basinski Eckford
BACK TO WANDO PASSO
David Payne, Morrow, 2006, $24.95, hb, 448pp, 0060851899
Ransom Hill is desperately hopeful that his problems will work out because he has made the decision to turn over a new leaf and be all that he can be for his family and friends. That includes his disillusioned wife, Clare, who wants to give their relationship one more “run” for “the sake of the children.” To add to that, he’s a washedout, mentally ill composer/singer/ex-rock band leader. Not too much is fresh here, except for some memorable conversations about the origin and development of blues, soul, and rock music.
The novel becomes gripping only when the reader begins to comprehend the parallel story of Clare’s ancestors, Harlan and Addie DeLay, a family living in a most unusual style for Civil War times. Harlan’s Daddy had married a Cuban woman, and the ramifications of that sanctified union hauntingly reverberate through the DeLay children and the Hill family as well.
The plot seems rather predictable, but two threads save this story – written in the lush, prosaic style reminiscent of Pat Conroy – from tedium. One involves the mysterious voodoo practice of Cuba transported to sleepy South Carolina in a manner that grips its adherents and those related to these followers, propelling them toward a frighteningly complex and dangerous future. The other incorporates interracial relationships virtually unthinkable in Civil War times, and which even today are fraught with prejudicial baggage the “white” men and women cannot seem to avoid, deny, or escape – or can they? David Payne leaves the reader seriously contemplating the powerful effect of religions, superstition, and race that has so deeply permeated American history and culture.
Viviane Crystal
THE EVIDENCE OF THE SWORD AND OTHER MYSTERIES
Rafael Sabatini, Crippen & Landru, 2006, $19.00, tpb, 208pp, 1932009434
Master of the swashbuckler novel, the author of Captain Blood and Scaramouche also wrote short fiction, and this is a fine collection of his early work. Only about half the stories are historicals (the rest are contemporary – although now a story from 1906 seems historical, if only in tone), but all are great reads. Those stories that are historical mysteries are mostly set in 17th century France, and the plots swirling around Cardinal Mazarin serve as the focus for many of them. Those who love Dumas will love these stories – resourceful maidens save the day while fluttering their fans; dashing gallants wield swordblade and wit with equal aplomb. Aficionados of historical mysteries should enjoy this long-overdue compilation.
India Edghill
THE BOOK OF FATHERS
Miklos Vamos, (trans. Peter Sherwood), Abacus, 2006, £11.99, pb, 474pp, 0349119309
Spanning four centuries of Hungarian history, from the solar eclipse of May 17th, 1706, to the one of August 11th, 1999, the central conceit of this novel is that the firstborn son of each generation of the Csillag family has the gift of being able to see into his family’s past and, sometimes, partially, his own future. Otherwise, they are much the same as any other family. They marry and have children, drift in and out of jobs, are sometimes prosperous and sometimes desperately poor. They have their share of criminals, revolutionaries, artists and pillars of society. They are sometimes Catholic and sometimes Jewish and sometimes decidedly vague about what they are.
During the Second World War, not only do many of the clan lose their lives in the concentration camps, but they also lose the Book of Fathers, in which the firstborn sons have recorded their lives, and the fob watch which conferred their special vision upon them. The loss of the collective memory, the loss of the past, is at the heart of the novel. The Csillags stand for something larger in the Hungarian context. As Vamos points out in his very informative historical note, Hungary has been part of somebody else’s empire for much of its history. It has struggled to develop and retain a national identity.
A warm, humorous, courageous story, the novel was slightly marred for me by the translation, which seemed clumsy in places, as though the translator had tried too hard to capture the Hungarian idiom at the expense of creating pleasing English prose. There are occasional changes in tense which seem to have no justification. But these are minor quibbles. The Book of Fathers is a wonderful reading experience. Highly recommended, especially for lovers of Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude
Sarah Bower
to surprise the reader. Eros and Persephone from Greek mythology make appearances, and people fly in hot-air balloons in this otherwise medieval country. It is definitely a place where I, as a reader, would like to spend more time.
Vicki Kondelik
THE HARSH CRY OF THE HERON
Lian Hearn, Riverhead, 2006, $26.95/$35.50, hb, 506pp, 1594489238 / Macmillan, 2006, £16.99, hb, 576pp, 1405092106
In this engrossing fourth and final volume of Hearn’s Otori series (though a prequel series is in the works), the boundaries between her lightly disguised feudal Japan and the “real world” feel thinner than ever. Sixteen years after Otori Takeo consolidated power in the Three Kingdoms under himself and his wife, Kaede, the realm appears to be at peace, but it’s only an illusion. Barbarian traders are throwing society’s fabric into disarray, as they come bearing firearms and preaching an odd new religion, which strongly resembles Christianity. The distant Emperor of the Eight Islands has turned his covetous gaze towards Takeo’s prosperous realm. But the greatest threat to Takeo’s benevolent rule comes from within his own family, for his secret, illegitimate son – whom prophecy holds can be the only one to kill him – is being raised by his mortal enemies, the Kikuta.
Hearn’s spare yet elegant writing ably conveys the beauty and tragedy ever-present in Japanese culture; images of delicate, breathtaking beauty alternate with action-packed battle scenes and stirring depictions of honor and sacrifice. Her characters are very well drawn, particularly Shigeko, Takeo’s intelligent eldest daughter, and his younger daughter, Maya, one of twins, whose growing supernatural abilities and resentment against her mother’s coldness prove to be a dangerous combination. An intricate and powerful historical fantasy set in a world I’d love to visit again.
The devil, I think, lies in the detail. Jesamiah Acorne is no Jack Sparrow. He is realistically drawn. Yes. He does all the terrible things you’d expect a pirate to do, but, for me at any rate, he lacks the essential charm and likeability that makes the bad bits worth reading about. And I have to confess I very quickly got tired with Jesamiah’s liking for whores! A realistic trait, yes, but not likeable. And it is absolutely not likeable when your hero admits to the rape of a virgin! A pirate-like deed, yes, but not heroic. However if you don’t mind your hero having rather large faults, and you like thundering action and plenty of it, then this outing is worth trying.
Fiona Lowe
SONG OF IRELAND
Juilene Osborne-McKnight, Forge, 2006,$24.95/ C$33.95, hb, 336pp, 0765312433
Song of Ireland, Osborne-McKnight’s fourth novel, once again gives insight into all things Irish. Reaching back into Irish myth, she draws readers into the legendary world of the invasion of Ireland by the Sons of Mil (aka the Celts) and the battle put forth by the Tuatha de Danaan (also called the Danu or Little People).
As the Sons of Mil are influenced by their long-held dream of the Island of Destiny, their bard, Amergin, pushes them forward to secure their dream. However, upon encountering the Danu they are forced to reexamine both their motivations and their very beliefs. At the time of the Milesian invasion, the Danu are ruled by the Three Sisters, Banba, Fodla and Eriu. The ensuing struggle builds to a battle for the island and finds the characters examining love, war, and magic.
HISTORICAL FANTASY
Sarah Johnson
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FIREBIRD
R. Garcia y Robertson, Tor, 2006, $24.95/ C$33.95, hb, 320pp, 0765313561
Markovy, a land that resembles medieval Russia except for the presence of werewolves, troll-bears, ghouls, and various magical beings, is under a curse. The legendary Firebird’s Egg, Markovy’s most precious treasure, has been stolen by the king, who has since died, leaving a child as heir. Civil war rages through the land as various factions fight for control. Aria, a young girl of unknown parentage, raised by the ancient Bone Witch in the Iron Wood, comes across a French knight who carries the egg out of a burning castle. After Tartars attack and the Bone Witch is killed, Aria and her knight take on the task of returning the egg to its nest and freeing the land from the curse.
Firebird is a beautifully written historical fantasy, full of adventure, excitement, and narrow escapes from mortal danger. Garcia y Robertson has a vivid imagination, and brings his magical country to life with a wonderful variety of characters and inventions, continuing
SEA WITCH
Helen Hollick, Discovered Authors, 2006, £9.99/$18.99, pb, 409pp, 1905108141
I really wanted to read Helen Hollick’s latest book; an historical fantasy involving pirates and a white witch served up with lashings of adventure seemed too good to miss. I’d seen Pirates of the Caribbean and loved it. Is there anyone who doesn’t love Jack Sparrow?
Unfortunately I did not finish the book feeling quite as enthusiastic as I did when I started. Somehow the admittedly appealing ingredients did not quite make the totally satisfying read I would have expected.
First the good bits. There is lots of action. Things move pretty rapidly in this book. In the blink of an eye it seemed Captain Jesamiah Acorne was involved in all kinds of mayhem, hair-raising scrapes and fights to the death, not all of the action taking place on the high seas either; Captain Acorne’s adventures often spill over onto land! Then there’s the heroine. She is certainly interesting. A fifteen-year-old white witch with a talent for midwifery and healing is not your usual brand of heroine. I rather liked her.
The characters, well fleshed out, and the setting – perfect in its descriptions of the evocative Milesian journey from Egypt and Europe, and highly evocative of the emeraldgreen, misty sweeps across Ireland – combine to create a well-crafted mix of mythology and fantasy. To any reader reasonably versed in Irish mythology, this book provides an intriguing look at these two fabled peoples. (Neophytes to the subject should read the notes at the back first.)
This is definitely an addictive read, provided one pauses now and again to make sure everything’s straight in the mind before turning the page.
Dana Cohlmeyer
TIME-SLIP
POISON TO PURGE MELANCHOLY
Elena Santangelo, Midnight Ink, 2006, $13.95, pb, 384pp, 0738708909
The third installment in this delightful series is set during Christmas in presentday Williamsburg, Virginia. Pat Montella, though promising to refrain from ghostly communications because her boyfriend, Hugh, does not approve, finds herself in the midst of ghostly antics while she visits for the first time with her potential in-laws. How can she refuse if those on the other side have chosen her to tell their story? Of course, the simple answer is that she cannot.
Alternating between 1783 and the present, Santangelo deftly interweaves the mystery of N n
Time-slip-Children & YA
a Williamsburg Revolutionary War home filled with intrigue, and the inexplicable aches, pains, symptoms of poisoning and invisible stolen kisses experienced by Pat and Hugh’s family. How these two mysteries mesh is, naturally, resolved by Pat’s ability to see what the other side has to offer her by way of explanation.
Santangelo gives us a fascinating look at the reality of the politics and social life of 18th century Williamsburg residents. She has a talent for imbuing her historical characters with the sense of place and time. Hugh’s family is idiosyncratic, funny and compellingly fascinating. All these elements taken together make this a quick read and romping good mystery.
Ilysa Magnus
CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULT
HELLO, AMERICA
Livia Bitton-Jackson, Simon Pulse, 2006, $5.99/ C$8.25, pb, 230pp, 0689867557
This is the third and final book of Livia Bitton-Jackson’s journey from life as a refugee in the camps of Auschwitz to her new and exciting home, New York City. This young and determined woman faces her new struggles like a champion. She is not ashamed of her past and is taken aback by others who wish to hide it. After she becomes a teacher, and her school’s principal instructs her to tell first graders that the numbers on her arm are her phone number, she adamantly refuses.
Hello, America also provides the reader with the opportunity to witness life as a female in the 1950s, a decade of numerous social changes. Young Livia, known as Elli, must face the challenges of teen sexuality as well as peer pressure.
Bitton-Jackson has a very enjoyable and tender writing style. One of the hardest parts with finishing this book is in knowing that that there is no forthcoming sequel. Certainly teen readers will appreciate the struggles Elli endured and the possibilities she embraced.
Carol Anne Germain
WARRIOR GIRL
Pauline Chandler, Oxford, 2005, £5.99, pb, 277pp, 0192754106 / Greenwillow, 2006, $16.99, hb, 368pp, 0060841028 1428 France. This is the story of Joan of Arc. France and England are at war. At this period, France comprised a number of powerful duchies, nominally under the king of France, but in practice largely independent. Some, like Burgundy, have sided with England. Jehanne (Joan), the daughter of a peasant farmer, is called by God to save France. She must convince the Dauphin and the French nobility that she can both raise the siege of the strategic town of Orleans and crown the Dauphin king in Reims.
We see the story through the eyes of Mariane, Jehanne’s fictitious cousin, whose own story intertwines with Jehanne’s. Mariane saw English soldiers murder her mother and destroy her home, a terrible memory which has left her mute. But, later, she learns that her uncle and follower of the Duke of Burgundy, the brutal
Sir Gaston, was also involved in her mother’s death. The family estate of La Paix was left to Mariane, and Sir Gaston suspects that Mariane’s father left her the family seal which proves her claim. Mariane’s mother refuses to tell him where it is – and pays the price.
As Jehanne’s life pursues its extraordinary course, Mariane is by her side. Both girls can see that the French king’s indecision, the nobles’ political manoeuverings and the church’s distrust of Jehanne’s visions could lead to tragedy for Jehanne. Mariane must try and keep faith with her cousin and, at the same time, fight for her own inheritance against a merciless enemy.
Pauline Chandler not only makes you want to turn over the pages, she also illuminates the zeitgeist of the time and pulls you right into the turbulent world of the Hundred Years War. A terrific achievement. Highly recommended. 10 plus.
Elizabeth Hawksley
VICTORY
Susan Cooper, Margaret K. McElderry, 2006, $16.95/C$23.50, hb, 196pp, 1416914773 / Bodley Head, 2006, £8.99, hb, 304pp, 0370328914
Victory tells the parallel stories of two children, one in the past and one in the present. In the present-day story, twelve-year-old Molly Jennings, who has a mild form of epilepsy, has moved from England to the United States because her stepfather has taken a job in Connecticut. She is terribly lonely and homesick for England, and has a hard time adjusting to her new life. Told in alternating chapters is the story of eleven-year-old Sam Robbins. In 1803, Sam and his uncle are kidnapped by a press gang and forced to join the Royal Navy. They are assigned to Nelson’s flagship, HMS Victory, where Sam serves first as cook’s boy, then as a “powder monkey,” delivering cartridges to the gun crew. At first, Sam hates life in the navy, with its cruel punishments even for trivial offenses, but eventually he comes to love the sea and HMS Victory, especially after Nelson saves his life. Two years later, he serves in the Battle of Trafalgar.
Susan Cooper, author of the wonderful Dark Is Rising fantasy series, has written an excellent stand-alone novel, with only a hint of fantasy, as Molly is drawn to a biography of Nelson with a note from Sam’s daughter stuck inside the cover. When she and her mother return to England for a week, she has a breakdown on board HMS Victory, and experiences some of Sam’s memories of Trafalgar. Cooper captures Molly’s sense of culture shock, and the details of Sam’s life at sea, extremely well. I highly recommend this book, especially for young people who enjoyed the film Master and Commander. Ages 9-12.
Vicki Kondelik
THE LOUD SILENCE OF FRANCINE GREEN
Karen Cushman, Clarion, 2006, $16/C$21.95, hb, 240pp 9780618504558
It is 1949, and the McCarthy Era has begun. In Hollywood, Francine Green, a modest 8th grader who tries to sit still and be quiet like
she is taught, has just become friends with Sophie Bowman. Sophie is a new student in Francine’s Catholic school. She was kicked out of public school for painting “There’s no free speech here” on the gym floor. Sophie is never afraid to question authority. Francine, who tries to live by her father’s mantra, “Don’t get involved,” is fascinated by Sophie’s courage. When a friend of Sophie’s father is blacklisted from Hollywood, Francine starts to question the effects of suspicion and hatred on innocent people. She also begins to find her own voice.
Karen Cushman delivers a thought-provoking message creatively encased in a warm, engaging story. She captures the fear and confusion of the times, but also the warmth and love of family and the excitement of the post-war era. Her novel includes an author’s note with historical details and a bibliography. Grades 5-9. Nan Curnutt
POWDER MONKEY
Paul Dowswell, Bloomsbury, 2005, £12.99, hb, 276pp, 0747577048 / Bloomsbury, 2006, $7.95, pb, 288pp, 1582347484
1800. Britain is at war with France and Spain. Young Sam Witchall is press-ganged and forced to join a Royal Navy frigate. He becomes a powder monkey – carrying the highly inflammable gunpowder to the waiting guns, one of a warship’s most dangerous jobs. There is more. He must ‘learn the ropes’ and be able to climb the rigging and take in or let out the sails, and one mistake can mean a fall of several hundred feet and certain death. He is also taught to fight with hand arms: pike, tomahawk and cutlass.
Before long, Sam’s new skills are needed. There is a near miss with a French privateer looking for easy pickings, and a far more dangerous encounter with two Spanish ships off Gibraltar. As if this weren’t enough, Sam must keep on the right side of a sadistic officer who has it in for him, and cope with the malice of some fellow sailors who resent his ability to read and write.
I enjoyed this. It’s very much a boys’ book, full of deeds of derring-do and lots of action: storms, battles, hair’s-breath escapes and so on, and none the worse for that (I’m sure some girls will enjoy it, too). Life in Nelson’s navy is dramatically conveyed and Dowswell’s impeccable research is never intrusive. 10 plus Elizabeth Hawksley
THE SEA OF TROLLS
Nancy Farmer, Simon Pulse, 2006, $8.99/ C$12.50, pb, 450pp, 9780689867446 / Simon & Schuster, 2005, £6.99, pb, 480pp, 068986096X
It is 793. The Holy Isle of Lindisfarne has been sacked. Jack and his little sister are stolen from their Yorkshire village by Viking raiders. For ordinary slaves the future would be black, but fortunately Jack has undergone the beginnings of his Bardic – read magical – training. Bards were highly regarded by the Norse, so Jack’s first challenge is to summon powers he’s barely learned to use, with effects which are both funny and uncertain. Although The Sea of Trolls is labeled a fantasy, research into the period provides a solid foundation. The
intertwined religions of the time, both New and Old, are respectfully evoked. Harsh 8th century realities are never shirked, yet the narrative remains engagingly light-handed. Jack’s quest to save himself and his sister takes place among forbidding characters named Gizur ThumbCrusher, Olaf One Brow, and Ivar the Boneless. His final ordeal comes in the terrifying land of Jotenheim, where there are gigantic animals and man-eating Trolls. Throughout, mythic and visionary worlds are conjured in ways that read as “real” as the early descriptions of Jack’s life in his small Saxon village. On all fronts, The Sea of Trolls is a compelling page turner, a thrilling and deservedly much praised young adult book.
Juliet Waldron
MUCH ADO ABOUT GRUBSTAKE
Jean Ferris, Harcourt, 2006, $17.00, hb, 2006, 272pp, 0152057064
In the 19th century, penny dreadfuls were sensational tales of crime, adventure, or horror. These inexpensive texts, printed on cheap paper, were a favorite of boys and some girls. The protagonist of Grubstake, Arley, is a highlyspirited and self-sufficient 16-year-old girl who loves penny dreadfuls. As the proprietor of a run-down boardinghouse, this young lady works hard to keep her rag-tag bunch of mining tenants in line.
When the monthly train arrives with a new batch of these dime novels for Arley, it also contains a smooth-talking con artist looking to pay high prices for the area’s “worthless” mines. Arley becomes suspicious and makes it clear that she’ll get to the bottom of this situation. From that point on, this tale of the haphazard western town of Grubstake in 1888 becomes a thrilling adventure, with Arley leading the excitement. There’s an entertaining cast of eclectic characters, from the Chinese baker who cooks up donuts and sound philosophies to the dark geology expert, all of whom add to the fun.
If you’re ready for a penny dreadful, this book is for you. Ages 10 and up.
Carol Anne Germain
GETORIX: The Eagle and The Bull Judith Geary, Claystone, 2006, $24.95, hb, 280pp, 193215874X
Claodicos is a leader of the Celts, and he and his son Getorix are captured by Romans after a mighty battle. They are brought to Rome, and are about to be sacrificed as a part of the triumphal parade. Fourteen-year old Getorix, who is not much of a warrior, strives hard to be seen as worthy of this sacrifice, an event that in his own culture would be dignified and honorable. However, he is stunned when it is accompanied by no ritual, and when he is saved at the last moment by the son of the victorious Roman general. However, to live as a slave is intolerable to him, and readers come to understand the struggle he feels between remaining alive and dying honorably, as he believes his father would expect of him.
The other slaves in the household really come to life, and the detailed historical setting is enhanced by a variety of illustrations, maps, and diagrams throughout the text, all
carefully labeled in an index. Indeed, the supplementary material is outstanding: a list of characters indicating if they were actual people; a historical note to set the stage; extensive author’s notes about research, the Celts and Romans, the calendar, and more; biographies; a bibliography; and a glossary. A second book about Getorix is planned (the opening chapter is included), which is cause for celebration. This is a compelling novel, both for young adults and adults, that teaches a great deal about Rome of about 100 BCE.
Trudi E. Jacobson
HOMEFRONT
Doris Gwaltney, Simon & Schuster, 2006, $16.99, hb, 310pp, 0689868421
Set in rural Virginia over World War II, this coming-of-age novel centers on young Margaret Ann Motley, middle child in a large family who is about to be granted her heart’s desire: her own room, as an older sister goes off to college. But her joy is short-lived as an aunt and cousin come seeking refuge during the London blitz. The beautiful cousin Courtney becomes everyone’s favorite and Margaret Ann’s nemesis.
Soon life is disrupted even further as time and the war bring many more changes to the household: a beloved brother enlists in the navy, a sister marries, and loses her husband to the war, a cantankerous grandmother has a stroke, and her brother’s new wife takes over the room. But new life enters the family, too, and a boyfriend proves steadfast to Margaret Ann and her father’s farm.
Told in first person by a narrator so selfabsorbed that she can’t tell her own twin sisters apart for years, Homefront becomes a long, slow slog to maturity through her eyes. Still, the characterizations are strong and many scenes compelling. The catalyst for change is the growing friendship Margaret Ann forms with her English cousin, which, although welcome,
was not fully convincing. Ages 11 and up. Eileen Charbonneau
THE FETCH
Chris Humphreys, Knopf, 2006, $15.95, hb, 368pp, 0375832920
The title comes from Nordic lore, which holds that everyone has a “fetch” or double, able to wander and shape-shift into an animal or ancestor. Humphreys uses this premise to weave a time-travel story of fifteen-year-old Sky, who is by day an only child of a constantly-moving family trying to fit in to each new community. By night and magic, he’s “fetched” in and out of time and forms at the behest of his sea captain grandfather’s runestones. He enters a distant Viking era at two ages: as a young man and an elder. At first terrified of his transformations, Sky begins to look forward to each calling back, as they add up to a rite of passage.
Sky’s sleeping self is watched over by his cohort cousin, who also becomes various relatives in other times and places (with the inevitable “Oh, gross!” comment when she becomes his daughter). Sky is also stalked by a deadly enemy, a black-cloaked wraith who has been haunting his dreams since childhood and demands blood sacrifice.
Elements of horror, fantasy, and historical fiction combine in a sometimes choppy progression that is often effective but may leave the reader confused by tone shifts. This ambitious tale also sometimes sacrifices characterization to plot development. Ages 12+
Eileen Charbonneau
THE FUGITIVE FROM CORINTH
Caroline Lawrence, Orion, 2005, £8.99, hb, 224pp, 1842552546 / Roaring Brook, 2006, $16.95, 208 pp, 1596430834
80 AD, Corinth. This is Caroline Lawrence’s tenth Roman mystery, and the young detectives, Nubia, Flavia, Lupus and Jonathan, are in
Y EDITORS’ CHOICE
INCANTATION
Alice Hoffman, Little Brown, 2006, $16.99/C$22.99, hb, 166pp, 0316017159
Encaleflora, a tiny village in Spain, has been home for the deMadrigal family for over five hundred years. Estrella, sixteen and on the verge of womanhood, lives there with her mother, Abra, a skilled herbalist and artisan, her formidable grandmother, and her grandfather, Jose, a well respected scholar. None of them pay her much attention, especially since her older brother, Luis, has gone to study at the seminary. One day Estrella and her best friend, Catalina, see smoke coming from the direction of the city’s center. They run to find out the cause. At first, Estrella thinks someone is burning doves. Then she realizes that the ‘doves’ are pages from books seized from the Jews in the town’s alajama, or Jewish quarter. The fires that day signal the beginning of a series of life changing events for Estrella and her family.
This profoundly moving young adult novel explores the persecution of the Jews in 15th and 16th century Spain. In particular, it delves into the lives of the Marranos, or secret Jews, who converted to Christianity in order to avoid expulsion but covertly practiced their true religion. As Estrella’s mother teaches her, “the inside of something [is] not necessarily its outside.”
I found this book impossible to put down. Estrella deMadrigal is a brave, admirable, and honest heroine for young readers. This is a richly descriptive narrative, and I would recommend it to adults as well as teens.
Alice Logsdon
Corinth with Flavia’s father, the sea-captain Geminus. They are preparing to return to Rome when Geminus is brutally attacked and left for dead. Suspicion falls on Ariosto, Flavia’s Greek tutor, who is discovered clutching a dagger and covered in blood. He is caught but escapes.
Flavia decides to track him down. She enlists the help of a reliable bodyguard, and the four children set off in pursuit. It should be easy enough to catch a man with bound hands, bare feet and a blood-stained tunic, but then they discover that Ariosto has a brother, Dion, who looks very similar .Which brother are they pursuing?
Caroline Lawrence offers a fascinating glimpse into life in ancient Greece; we learn about the food, clothes, hostels, travel and so on, all integrated seamlessly into the story. We visit the oracle at Delphi, one of ancient Greece’s holiest sites, and see how the system worked – the manoeuvering to get to the front of the queue, the anger when the oracle’s reply seems to be gibberish, and so on.
The trail ends in the Cave of the Furies in Athens, named after the goddesses of retribution. It is here that Flavia and Nubia find Ariosto and Dion and finally learn the dreadful truth. But is it too late? They are locked in the cave and the air is running out…
This is a lively and painless way to learn about the classical world and ‘Ariostos scroll’ at the end helps with unfamiliar words and pronunciation. My one caveat is that the children’s characters are very thinly drawn, but doubtless the story is exciting enough to carry most young readers through. 9 plus.
Elizabeth Hawksley
THE BLOOD CONFESSION
Alisa M. Libby, Dutton, 2006, $18.99/C$25.00, hb, 388pp, 0525477322
This disturbingly dark young adult novel is based on the life of Countess Erzsébet Báthory, the notorious female Dracula who holds the distinction of being one of history’s most prolific serial killers. Born in mid-16th century Hungary, the Blood Countess was accused of torturing and murdering numerous young women, allegedly in order to bathe in their blood as a beauty treatment. Due to her nobility, she was not executed, but imprisoned for the remainder of her life. Libby’s tale is a confession Erzebet, her Báthory-like protagonist, writes while in prison.
Libby successfully portrays the absolute power landed aristocrats had over their social inferiors, and it is telling that Erzebet, like the real Báthory, is not brought to account until she murders a noblewoman. Libby slathers on the gothic atmosphere with a trowel, however, and Erzebet’s evolution from unbalanced orphan to murderer is painfully slow. The endless bloodletting scenes become repetitive very quickly, and there is also an unneeded supernatural element added to the story. It is not enough for Erzebet to make a figurative deal with the devil; Libby bashes the reader over the head with a literal person coaxing Erzebet to greater evil. Thankfully, most of the horrendous tortures allegedly inflicted by the real Báthory are not
in evidence in Libby’s tale. There are sensual descriptions of gore galore, however, assuring this novel will appeal to the Anne Rice crowd, if no one else – the novel’s lack of subtlety is not likely to interfere with young adult readers’ enjoyment of the tale if they are fans of that genre. For a more well-written story (but even more disturbing and less appropriate for young audiences) involving Erzsébet Báthory, see The Blood Countess by NPR commentator Andrei Codrescu.
Bethany Skaggs
THE WITCHES’ MARK
Donald Lightwood, Floris Books (Kelpies), 2006, £5.99, pb, 144pp, 0863155723
A fishing village in Fife at the time of Charles II. Pheemie is an old, lonely, deformed woman who lives in a little cottage in the woods just outside the village. Superstition is rife, and Pheemie is believed to be a witch. The fishermen think she should be burnt, but Pheemie has a worse enemy, the powerful and evil local laird. Nevertheless Pheemie does have a few friends. A local lad, fifteen-year-old Murdo, does a simple act of kindness for Pheemie. That leads to him being put off his fishing boat. He goes to live with her and is later joined by his best friend Alex. And Pheemie has a really staunch friend in the local minister who definitely does not believe in witchcraft.
Matters come to a head when the laird decides to bring Pheemie to trial and sends for a witchfinder to come down from Edinburgh to ‘test’ her. The minister knows this is against the law. He hides Pheemie in his stable and sends Murdo and Alex to Edinburgh to get a warrant from the Lord Advocate to stop the trial.
This book is notable for bringing out the fact that despite the hysteria against witches, the witch trials were actually governed by the law of the land. The prickers – the men who would push needles into a so-called witch to find a part where she felt no pain (the witches’ mark) – had to have a license. It also shows that in the second half of the 17th century many people were beginning to question the old beliefs in witches.
The story moves at a good pace and clearly brings out the ideas and convictions of the age. For ages 9-13.
Mary Moffat
CYRANO
Geraldine McCaughrean, Harcourt, 2006, $16.00, hb, 114pp, 0152058052 / Oxford, 2006, £8.99, hb, 175pp, 019272603X
McCaughrean’s version of Edmond Rostand’s celebrated and classic romantic tale is delightful. Readers of all ages will appreciate the author’s engaging style in retelling the story of Roxanne and Cyrano. As in Rostand’s version, beautiful Roxanne persuades the longnosed, self-conscious Cyrano to become the go-between connecting her and the love of her life, the handsome Christian de Neuvillette. Cyrano, who is helplessly in love with his cousin Roxanne, cannot refuse and befriends the inarticulate young man.
However, Roxanne longs for a romance
with a passionate writer, and Christian cannot play this part. Cyrano, in keeping with his pledge to Roxanne, intervenes and produces lavish love letters to Roxanne and signs them from Christian. This correspondence is really a declaration of Cyrano’s own adoration for the maiden. As with any ruse, there is a cost, and Roxanne, Christian, and Cyrano pay a dear price. Geraldine McCaughrean delivers a wonderful rendition of Rostand’s tale, whisking the reader through exhilarating swordfights, balcony love encounters, and dramatic war scenes; it ends with the acknowledgment of tender friendship. Ages 12 and up.
Carol Anne Germain
LOVING WILL SHAKESPEARE
Carolyn Meyer, Harcourt, 2006, $17.00, hb, 272pp, 0152054510
Just before the plague returns to England, seven-year-old Agnes (Anne) Hathaway and her family are invited to a christening by friends: John and Mary Shakespeare, who have just had a son, William. From that point on, Anne’s and Will’s lives will constantly intersect, even when the pair are miles apart.
Despite the title, this appealing novel is not so much the story of Anne and Will’s courtship and marriage as it is of Anne’s coming of age, though the budding playwright is never very far offstage, and the love story does assume prominence in the latter part of the book. Growing up as a yeoman farmer’s daughter, Anne, the narrator, is an ordinary girl but by no means a dull one. She must cope with her difficult stepmother and half-sister, the temptations posed by men, and the deaths of loved ones. She worries over friends who choose to practice Catholicism and her increasing fear of spinsterhood, and she does so with resourcefulness and good humor. All of this plays out against the vividly rendered backdrop of life in Elizabethan England: the once-in-a-lifetime excitement of a royal progress, the annual May Day and Yuletide feasts, the periodic visitations of plague and sweating sickness, the daily business of running a farm. These elements make this an engrossing story, one that should appeal to adults as well as to the teens for whom it is intended. Ages 12 and up.
Susan Higginbotham
IN THE BELLY OF THE BLOODHOUND: Being an Account of a Particularly Peculiar Adventure in the Life of Jacky Faber
L. A. Meyer, Harcourt, 2006, $17.00, hb, 528pp, 0152055576
In L.A. Meyer’s fourth installment of this swashbuckling series set in the early 1800s, street-wise Jacky Faber is once again up to her scarred eyebrow in trouble. Sailing away from the battle of Trafalgar (and her great love, Jamie), Jacky steers her small boat toward the transatlantic shipping lanes. She soon crosses paths with a Yankee merchantman willing, for a price, to tow her back to the States. Once there, she fiddles, dances and sings her way up the coast to Boston – discreetly, of course – because she’s wanted by the British authorities for piracy (see the third book). She meets up with
old friends who advise her that the best place to hide is in the newly rebuilt Peabody School for Young Girls (her alma mater, which she’d unintentionally burned down in book two). But while on a scientific outing, the entire student body is abducted and put on a ship bound for the Barbary Coast slave markets. Forced into the stinking hold, Jacky takes charge, displaying leadership abilities by making new alliances among old enemies and putting all her seafaring knowledge to good use. With military discipline, the girls plot and plan, with the help of Jacky’s almost magical sea-kit, whose contents save the day.
Jacky is a compelling, complicated heroine – tough but empathetic, lusty but loyal, effervescent but prone to bouts of depression – and the force of her personality will certainly carry this series through many more installments. This is a charming and rollicking tale, and an absolute joy to read.
Lisa Ann Verge
SET IN STONE
Linda Newbery, David Pickling, 2006, £12.99/$16.95, hb, 358pp, 0385607482
1898. Samuel Godwin, fresh from Art College, is appointed art tutor to 19-yearold Juliana Farrow and her 16-year-old sister Marianne by their widower father, who himself has artistic leanings. He designed his house, Fourwinds, in the Arts and Crafts style with great flair, and commissioned carvings of the four winds from the sculptor Gideon Waring to adorn each facade. But the west wind sculpture is unaccountably missing, which distresses Marianne.
Samuel, infatuated with Marianne, realizes that there is some mystery .Why was Waring suddenly dismissed? What is the reclusive Juliana hiding? Is it to do with her mother’s recent untimely death? Is Charlotte Agnew, the girls’ governess-companion, an ally, or is she, too, hiding something?
Samuel is driven to find out the truth. What he discovers involves incest, illegitimacy, suicide and a tissue of lies which threatens to destroy the entire family.
The book owes a debt to the ‘sensation novels’ of the late 19th century, in particular, Wilkie Collins’ Woman in White. The Victorian atmosphere of mystery and oppression is particularly effective.
The central theme is incest and its concomitant damage, and herein lies the problem. It is aimed at teenage girls. Linda Newbery cannot show incest on stage, where it would be more powerful; instead, the book charts the emotional and psychological fall-out on the family some time after the event.
According to the press release, Linda Newbery ‘refuses to compromise… on subject matter.’ But that’s just what she’s done – pulled her punches emotionally speaking by having the real horrors offstage. I can’t blame her, but the result is a compromise. As an adult book it could have been terrifically powerful. I admire Linda Newbery’s writing, and this book is certainly page-turning but, however carefully the incest is handled, I’m concerned about its suitability for teenage girls. Elizabeth Hawksley
BREAD AND ROSES, TOO
Katherine Paterson, Clarion, 2006, $16.00, hb, 275pp, 0618654798
Paterson tells the story of the pivotal 1912 “Bread and Roses” strike through the eyes of two children. Rosa Serruti attends school, while her mother and sister are two of the many immigrant mill workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, who can’t afford to buy the clothing they make. Young Jake Beale also works in the mills, avoiding his drunken father by living on the streets.
When the workers strike over short pay, Rosa fears for her family’s safety. She nevertheless helps the illiterate strikers by making a picket sign, “We want bread, and roses, too.” When the conflict turns violent, the union arranges to send strikers’ children to live with union sympathizers out of state, where they will be fed and clothed for the duration. Rosa boards the train to Vermont reluctantly, where her own worries are briefly set aside when she finds Jake hiding under a seat. She agrees to let him pretend to be her brother, but doesn’t know that Jake is fleeing Lawrence before he can be accused of causing his father’s sudden death.
The strike was the first in the U.S. to be led by women, and was also important because immigrants of 25 different nationalities worked together to make it successful. Paterson’s historical note explains the strike’s background and outcomes. She lives in Barre, Vermont, where some of the children were sent, which lends authenticity to the later scenes among the stonecutters who take the children in. While the story certainly gives more dimension than a textbook could to an important event in labor history, I didn’t find these young protagonists as compelling as those in Paterson’s best work. Some of the adults were more interesting. But even a lesser book by the double Newbery Medal winner is a standout in the field of children’s literature. Ages 10-14.
B.J. Sedlock
AN UNLIKELY FRIENDSHIP
Ann Rinaldi, Harcourt, 2007, $17.00, hb, 256pp, 0152055975
Mary Todd suffers through the loss of her beloved mother and endures the outsider status in her father’s new family, but is privileged enough to reach her childhood ambition to live in the White House. Elizabeth Keckley (“Lizzy”) has her problems with her father’s present family too – they own her. She’s granted privileges, but they afford no protection when the family’s Virginia soil can no longer sustain a tobacco crop, or her clergyman half-brother decides she needs to be “broken.” Her goal becomes being able to buy herself and her young son out of slavery. Both women succeed, meet through Lizzy’s dressmaking abilities, and form the unlikely friendship of the book’s title.
After a somewhat stilted and anachronistic opening (“You’ve always been there for me,” Mary tells Lizzy) with both women in middle age at the momentous time of the Lincoln assassination, the book moves on to the first- person narration of Mary’s, then Lizzy’s, childhood. Here it picks up power and momentum as both women acquire the needs, attitudes and attributes that fuel their lives. At
the end of each personal narrative, the author brings us up to the date of their meeting. Lacking the strength of their self-told sections, it seems the title is not well served, as the women interact very little. Ages 10-14.
Eileen Charbonneau
VIKING WARRIOR
Judson Roberts, HarperCollins, 2006, $16.99/ C$21.99, hb, 360pp, 006079996X
In this first book of the Strongbow Saga, fifteen-year-old Halfdan has been a slave in his father’s household until his Irish mother makes a tragic bargain for his freedom. Already an expert bowman, his half-brother steps in to train him as a warrior.
So soon after his life is turned upside down, Halfdan must face both the complications of his family’s past and a mortal enemy who turns him from newly-minted heir to hunted prey, thanks to a stepmother (who could take her place nicely beside Snow White’s) and her son, Toke, a berserk (yes, exactly what that sounds like).
9th-century Viking history comes alive with unforgettable characters and a story teeming with adventure, heart and even poetry in the telling. Halfdan’s strength as a protagonist lies in his complexity – he’s wise enough to respect and communicate with animals and the natural world, tender enough to love his mother with his whole heart, and young enough to make mistakes based on his inexperience. He’s got conflict galore both within and without. I look forward to the next adventure in the Strongbow Saga. Highly recommended. Ages 12 and up.
Eileen Charbonneau
PLAGUE SORCERER
Christopher Russell, Penguin, 2006, £4.99, pb, 197pp, 0141318554
14th century. Set in the time of the Black Death, the story is about Brind and Aurelie, the two main characters, who are accused of being “plague bringers” and “servants of the devil”. The novel is very dark in this respect. Throughout the story Aurelie and Brink try to escape these false accusations and are always in search of help and safety. Brind, known as the “dog boy”, is in my opinion a very interesting character as Christopher Russell always inserts elements of his “dog nature”. Aurelie, an orphan from France who works in the same household as Brind, is involved by the spiralling crisis. She is infected by the plague but manages to fight it off. The villain in the novel is called Brother Rohan. He is the man that started the ridiculous accusations, so that he could find an explanation for the plague. Unfortunately for Brind and Aurelie, they are just two unknown orphans who are perfect scapegoats.
Join the helpless pair on their adventure and be with them as they struggle out of tight situations. If the pair have any more adventures planned, I am sure they will find many other ways to shock, surprise and intrigue their readers.
Emily Granozio, age 15
THE FORESHADOWING
Marcus Sedgwick, Orion Children’s Books, 2005, £5.99, pb, 1842555170 / Wendy Lamb,
2006, $16.95, hb, 304pp, 0385746466
The Foreshadowing tells the story of seventeen-year-old Sasha Fox in England. It is 1915 and men from all over the country are being sent to fight across the English Channel. Even though they lead a privileged life, Sasha’s brothers, Edgar and Tom, cannot escape the war. However, they have different attitudes to the conflict. Whereas Edgar is keen to fight for his country, Tom is much more reluctant and chooses to go to Manchester to study medicine, with his father hoping he will join the Medical Corps. However, when his brother is killed, Tom changes his mind and joins the army as an officer. Sasha, meanwhile, is reluctantly allowed by her father to start work as a VAD nurse at the hospital where he works.
This may sound like a mundane novel about the First World War, but there is a haunting twist in the tale –Sasha can see the future. She sees the deaths of those in her hospital, and most distressing is that of her brother Edgar. It is when she has a vision of the death of her other brother in France that she steals another nurse’s identity, and travels to France to tell him of this terrible vision. She nurses injured men from the front line each day, but never sees any man from her brother’s regiment. Then she introduced to Hoodoo Jack, who experiences these visions as well. Her true identity is eventually discovered, and Sasha is imprisoned. With her hopes fading fast that she will see her brother alive again, will she escape from prison and find Tom?
I found The Foreshadowing more gripping as the book progressed, and it kept me guessing until the end. However, I did find that it ended rather abruptly, which I did find slightly disappointing. I would recommend it to 12-16 year olds.
Charlotte Kemp
BOWERY GIRL
Kim Taylor, Viking, 2006, $16.99/C$24.00, hb, 223pp, 0670059668
Mollie Flynn and Annabelle Lee are bad girls, make no mistake. When the two have their first meet-up with a settlement house do-gooder, Mollie declares defiantly, “I’m a thief and she’s a whore.” Bowery Girl was inspired by How the Other Half Lives, Jacob Riis’ ground-breaking photographic essay of tenement life in late 19thcentury New York. At that time, as many as twenty thousand children, turned out by families unable to support them, lived on the streets. One of these “street Arabs,” Annabelle, finds a slightly younger Mollie hiding in a pile of rags, and that is the start of their friendship. Since then, they’ve protected and looked out for each other. From rat pits to beer halls, along filthy streets ruled by brutal adolescent gangs, the two girls hustle a living. Annabelle, emerging from jail visibly pregnant, begins to long for the better life education might bring, and starts learning to read at a settlement house. Mollie, however, remains attracted to the thrills and fast bucks available on the street. By the book’s end, it appears that Mollie may at last be ready to walk the long, hard road to a regular job and self respect. Despite the unsavory atmosphere, the author’s skillful handling keeps the narrative firmly within the bounds of young adult fiction.
In an author’s note, Ms. Taylor observes that real examples of teen friends helping each other toward womanhood while enduring poverty and degradation may be found as easily today in the slums of any megalopolis.
Juliet
Waldron
THE UNRESOLVED
T. K. Welsh, Dutton, 2006, $16.99, hb, 192pp, 9780525477314
Fire! This is the greatest fear of passengers and crews of ships, both now and in the past. On 15 June 1904, fear becomes reality for fifteenyear-old Mallory Meer of Little Germany on New York City’s Lower East Side. She is one of more than 1300 passengers aboard the General Slocum bound for Locust Grove when fire spreads rapidly through the steamship. Mallory and her baby sister are among the 1,021 who die amidst the panic and confusion as people try to escape while the crew attempts to extinguish the flames.
Her unexpected death compels Mallory to recount what happened – her excitement of a secret tryst with Dustin Brauer, her disappointment when Bingham Goldstein’s bullying ruins her first kiss. With so many dead, everyone knows someone who died; sadness turns to anger after Bingham accuses Dustin of starting the fire. This injustice, the Slocum’s owners’ cover-up of oversights, and love for her grieving family spur Mallory to induce those who know the truth to speak.
This spellbinding young adult novel, based on a true story, overwhelms the reader with the tragic loss of so many lives and the sudden end to the promising life of one young girl. She tells her story without looking through rose-colored glasses and confronts the truths even when they hurt. Mallory will haunt you, just as she does those she leaves behind.
Cindy
Vallar
THE MISLAID MAGICIAN
Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer, Harcourt, 2006, $17.00, hb, 336pp, 0152055487
It has been ten years since Kate and Cecy married Thomas and James in The Grand Tour. With budding families, the four friends once again undertake magical mysteries. At the request of the Duke of Wellington, Cecy and James embark on a chase across England to discover the mystery surrounding the sudden disappearance of a German railway engineer. In their search, they find that the railway lines are wreaking havoc with ancient underground magic, and someone is magically turning wizards into dogs.
Meanwhile, Kate and Thomas have their hands full taking care of all the children, a mysterious girl they rescue from a kidnapper, an intruder sneaking about their property, and sister Georgiana running away from her husband. Not to mention Kate accidentally getting turned into a foxhound.
As with their other two novels (Sorcery and Cecelia or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot, and The Grand Tour), Wrede and Stevermer wrote this installment of the cousins’ exploits by playing the Letter Game. This time, the letters are not only between Kate and Cecy, but also between
their husbands. It makes for a wonderful blend of magic, mystery, adventure, and romance. All the best characters from the previous novels, including Aunt Elizabeth and Aunt Charlotte, have made appearances in the story, creating a quirky humorous tale of adventure, filled with historical detail, and sparkling with wit. The entire series is a wonderful young adult fantasy, and a must read for adults and kids alike.
Rebecca Roberts
NNONFICTION
ALLEN’S ENGLISH PHRASES
Robert Allen, Penguin Reference Library, 2006, £25.00, hb, 805pp, 0141006722
This wonderful book offers, for the first time on such a scale, a scholarly and systematic treatment of thousands of idiomatic phrases used in modern written and spoken English. It is interesting to discover that the expression, ‘to set one’s teeth on edge’, was first used in the 16th century, as was, ‘as right as rain’. With evidence in the form of quotations to support their history there are over 6,000 phrases compiled by Penguin’s leading lexicographer. This is a must on anyone’s bookshelf especially for anyone researching the history of idiomatic language or looking for that elusive bon mot for their historical hero or heroine.
Ann Oughton
LOST VOICES OF THE EDWARDIANS
Max Arthur, HarperCollins, 2006, £20, hb, 424pp, 0007216130
This book combines oral history and pictures which include stills from Mitchell and Kenyon film footage in a compilation of hundreds of excerpts from private and public archives, recapturing day-to-day life in the first decade of the 20th century. The book is divided into sections such as childhood, work, politics, travel. An index makes it possible to follow the contributors through a decade which saw the first manned flights, growth in public transport and the motor car, as well as an upsurge in political activity and the suffragette movement. Holidays and leisure time became a reality for ordinary people. Share the memories of miners, postmen, actresses, soldiers, seamstresses, farmhands, children dividing their day between factory and schoolroom, Sonia Keppel playing with ‘Kingy’ when he came to take tea with her mother. For this reviewer the last word must go to the little girl who loved oranges: ‘We ate them with the peel on. We were always hungry.’
Janet Hancock
RIGHT ROYAL BASTARDS
Peter Beauclerk-Dewar and Roger Powell, Burke’s Peerage & Gentry, 2006, £19.99, pb, 248pp, 0971196680
Since the English throne was taken by William the Bastard, aka the Conqueror, in 1066, the British monarchy has enjoyed an equivocal and colourful relationship with its bastards. Several of our great families can trace their heritage back to royal scions conceived on the wrong side of the blanket. The St. Albans family alone claims more than 2000 living descendants of Charles II and his most famous mistress, Nell Gwynn. They include dukes and dustmen and
David Cameron’s wife.
This book is an absorbing read, full of anecdotes attesting to the eccentricity and sheer humanity of that curious anachronism, the British Royal Family. It is also a serious, scholarly study of four dynasties, the Tudor, Stuart, Hanoverian and Windsor, and the breadth and complexity of their reach into the life of the nation. Forgetting history for a moment, we can indulge ourselves in a spot of contemporary gossip, as even the parentage of Prince Harry is speculated upon here. Though it is all done in the best possible taste, as you would expect of Burke’s.
And you’ll have to read the book to find out who the authors think Harry’s father is…
Sarah Bower
SCARLETT RULES: When Life Gives You Green Velvet Curtains, Make a Green Velvet Dress
Lisa Bertagnoli, Villard, 2006, $12.95/C$16.95, pb, 165pp, 0182975316
Advice books don’t really seem to have been Scarlett O’Hara’s thing. She never was all that good at taking advice, and she seldom deigned to give any either. Scarlett had better things to do, like saving Tara. Nonetheless, this is an advice book of twenty-four rules, inspired by Scarlett (“Rule 1: Pretty Is as Pretty Does”). Each rule begins with a section on Scarlett herself, then there’s some related advice, and finally there’s a “Scarlett Lesson” consisting of tips, usually from an expert in a field – a former bond broker, for example.
Despite the book’s lighthearted title, the advice has a decidedly earnest tone about it, and it’s pretty much what one finds in any women’s magazine: being yourself, taking risks, accepting trade-offs. Some of it seems a little strained when Scarlett is concerned: for instance, Bertagnoli says that Scarlett would have been a lot better off if she’d had more female friends. Well, maybe, but would Scarlett have been Scarlett if she had gone running off to her book club buddies for sympathy and advice every time she had a crisis?
Readers who enjoy advice or self-help books will probably like this one, while readers who aren’t partial to them will at least have a good excuse to dip back into Gone with the Wind, since Bertagnoli knows it backward and forward and revives memories of long-forgotten scenes.
Perhaps the most intriguing part of this book is the all-too-short afterword, where Bertagnoli suggests that women look for role models in literature as well as in real life. Anne Elliot, anyone?
Susan Higginbotham
MY DARLING HERIOTT
Jane Brown, HarperCollins, 2006, £20.00, hb, 288pp, 0007129947
Jane Brown has created a fascinating biography of Henrietta St. John: ‘My Darling Heriott’ of the title. Henrietta was born in 1699; her lineage included royalty and politicians on her father’s side; her mother was a Huguenot who had fled France.
The dominant person in her life was her stepbrother, Harry St. John, who was twenty-one when Henrietta was born and already a prominent
Tory politician. Tragically, it appears that Harry brokered her marriage, which foundered when her husband accused her of adultery. Despite pleading her innocence, Henrietta was banished to a farm in Warwickshire, denied access to her children and given a limited allowance from her own money. On her farm Henrietta shows her determination and energy by creating a romantic garden of woodland walks.
My Darling Heriott is a wonderful insight into the life of an astonishing woman who starts her life within the circle of the court and high politics, and ends it far from the ‘beau monde.’ More than a biography, it sheds light on the role of women, the history of gardening and the moral expectations of the first half of the 18th century.
Bill Dodds
HER MAJESTY’S SPYMASTER
Stephen Budiansky, Plume, 2006, $15.00, pb, 235pp, 0452287472
This is the story of Sir Francis Walsingham, Principal Secretary to Queen Elizabeth I of England. Caught up in the political and religious intrigue of Elizabeth’s early reign, Walsingham remains loyal to his queen. He uncovers plots and conspiracies to capture and execute people loyal to Mary, Queen of Scots, who is held in confinement by Elizabeth. Mary is still able to communicate with those who wish to return the English religion to Catholicism. Walsingham uses informers and develops a spy network throughout England and the Continent to thwart the covert plans of the Scottish queen and her minions.
In this enjoyable read, the author is able to convey how England was fragmented by religious beliefs and foreign interference from those nations who wished to bring it back to Catholicism. The book is well researched and includes a bibliography, notes on sources, and a chronology from 1532 to 1590. My only complaint about the book is the lack of interplay between Elizabeth and Walsingham; I would like to have known more about their relationship. Still, a fine book on the Elizabethan period.
Jeff Westerhoff
HENRY VIII’S LAST VICTIM
Jessie Childs, Jonathan Cape, 2006, £18.99, hb, 375 pp, 0224063251
This book is rightly subtitled ‘The Life and Times of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey.’ The author is to be congratulated on the width and depth of her research which leave the reader thinking, ‘If only.’ Born to greatness, probably in 1517, son and heir to the Duke of Norfolk, Henry Surrey lived and died under two giant shadows: his father, an unscrupulous, manipulative bully and arch-survivor; and King Henry VIII, who looms with the monstrous unpredictability of a volcano over a reign of political and religious terror. If only the Earl’s beloved friend – the King’s cherished bastard, the young Duke of Richmond – had lived beyond seventeen to delight his royal father with the strong bond between two young men in love with honour and chivalry. If only the Earl had survived the King, living to serve the young Elizabeth in his maturity. Henry Surrey reveals his potential
greatness in Chapter 10 (‘Poet Without Peer’).
This is a sympathetic portrayal of a prideful aristocrat at odds with the Tudor Court as it is increasingly dominated by the King’s brutally ambitious ‘new men.’
Nancy Henshaw
THE BLACK HOLE: Money, Myth and Empire
Jan Dalley, Fig Tree, 2006, £16.99, hb, 222pp, 0670914479
In 1756 the Nawab of Bengal besieged the British East India Company’s fort in Calcutta and 146 people were imprisoned in a cell 18ft by 14ft. The only ventilation was supplied by a tiny grille. When the doors were opened the following morning only 23 walked out, stumbling over the bodies of those who had succumbed to the heat.
That is the legend that has become enshrined in British mythology despite the account being challenged, even ridiculed by both British and Indian historians. In this book Jan Dalley investigates the historical background, the list of players and concludes that rather than an act of deliberate cruelty the incarceration of the prisoners was no more than the result of a tragic blunder.
Ann Oughton
A SCENTED PALACE: The Secret History of Marie Antoinette’s Perfumer Elisabeth de Feydeau (trans. Jane Lizop), I.B. Tauris, 2006, $26.95/£14.99, hb, 176pp, 1845111893
Jean-Louis Fargeon, son of a perfumer in the scent-rich town of Montpellier, France, apprenticed well and took his trade to Paris, where his made-to-order scents spread his reputation to the court of Versailles. He soon became exclusive perfumer to the young Marie Antoinette, creating fragrances to suit her moods as well as healing unguents to help her retain her beauty and health. Although devoted to his queen for many years, he remained a Republican at heart, which caused a rift when the Revolution of 1789 swept France, and all who aided the palace were considered enemies of the state. Fargeon was imprisoned merely for “profiting from the vices of aristocrats” although he could prove his support of the Republic.
Well-researched from Fargeon’s papers, this book is a fascinating read not only for detail of the complex creation of scent but for one man’s view of the Revolution, as seen from both sides. Fargeon’s palette and a glossary of botanical terms appear in the appendix, exemplifying the knowledge and skill of a master perfumer. This is a unique study of craft, extravagance, and the violence which dealt a blow to both.
Tess Allegra
THE LAST REVOLUTION:
1688 and the Creation of
the Modern World
Patrick Dillon, Jonathan Cape, 2006, £20, hb, 430 pp, 0224071955
The Revolution of 1688 has been called ‘bloodless’. On the whole the description holds. But as Patrick Dillon’s fascinating book makes clear, ‘bloodless’ should not be taken to imply anaemic. For according to Dillon its
consequences were more profound and farreaching than is commonly supposed, and the myth of the Glorious Revolution contains within it much more than a grain of truth. For one thing the absolute power of kings had been broken. It was this and what he saw as the toleration and openness of 18th-century English society – in marked contrast to pre-revolutionary France – which won the admiration of Voltaire. It was not yet democracy, but the necessary conditions for the development of modern liberal democracy – toleration, freedom of the press, freedom under the law – were surely in place. This is the burden of Dillon’s argument, and I agree with him. Britain was certainly the freest country in Europe at the time, as Voltaire recognised. For anyone interested in British history, this is an immensely important book. And the moral for historical novelists? Think twice before romanticising those counterrevolutionaries, the Jacobites.
Neville Firman
THE GREAT MATCH RACE
John Eisenberg, Houghton Mifflin, 2006, $25.00, hb, 258pp, 0618556125
On May 27, 1823, 60,000 people crammed into the Union Course on Long Island, New York, eager to see a thrilling horse race settle the burning issue of which region had the fastest horse: North or South? Insulted by his horse’s earlier loss to the Northern champion Eclipse at the National Course in Washington, prideful Virginia horse enthusiast William Ransom “Napoleon” Johnson challenged Eclipse’s owner, New York businessman Cornelius Van Ranst, to a match race between Eclipse and a horse of Johnson’s choice. The prize purse would be a staggering $20,000, and the horses would run a grueling series of three four-mile heats. This major racing event, between the older, established Eclipse and Johnson’s young upstart Southern hopeful, Sir Henry, drew such enthusiastic spectators and supporters as President Andrew Jackson, Aaron Burr, John Randolph of Roanoke, and millionaire John Cox Stevens. Written with great energy, absorbing detail, and first-rate storytelling, Eisenberg manages to infuse suspense and excitement in his narrative, effectively using this first-of-its-kind sports spectacle to illustrate the already deep divisions in the nation and as a foreshadowing of the tragic conflict to come. Accessible, informative, and grand entertainment.
Michael I. Shoop
HOW TO LOSE A BATTLE: Foolish Plans And Great Military Blunders
Ed. Bill Fawcett, Harper, 2006, $13.95/C$17.95, pb, 325pp, 0060760249
The author/editor of a number of popular histories, Bill Fawcett and the other contributors offer light and breezy interpretations of military defeats from Arbela in 331 BC to the Six Day War in 1967. The brief essays are written by a number of different writers who, strangely enough, are never identified beyond their names, leaving the reader to guess at their expertise to write on these matters. Some stylistic decisions (referring to a Union officer at Gettysburg
as “John,” for instance) are as grating as the genuine whoppers (Gettysburg took place in 1863, not 1864; there was no German offensive in the Ardennes Forest in 1939). There is no bibliography. Fawcett has also written a book titled You Did What? I am tempted to ask him “you wrote what?” regarding this volume.
John R. Vallely
CONSUMING PASSIONS: Leisure and Pleasure in Victorian Britain
Judith Flanders, HarperCollins, 2006, £20, hb, 604pp, 0007172958
When we think of the Britain in the Victorian age, certain images spring to mind; grim industrialisation being the most potent. But it was directly as a result of industrialisation that regulated secular leisure-time was created. Bank holidays and the ease and relative cheapness of rail travel meant that whole populations could decamp to the coast and so the foundations were laid of the traditional seaside holiday.
Mass tourism is a Victorian invention as is the commercial aspects of Christmas. Railways and mechanised printing methods encouraged the spread of affordable newspapers and magazines (courtesy of Mr W H Smith and others). They offered self-improvement as well as jokes, puzzles and serial fiction from the likes of Charles Dickens. The bicycle gave mobility to many, especially young women. The new department stores were chiefly designed for the suburban wife. Not only could she shop for clothes and household items without her husband, she could meet friends in the restaurant and take comfort in the rest-room. (A vital consideration when spending a day in town!)
The Victorians were the first to fully embrace leisure, and Judith Flanders brings this to life with gusto. Well illustrated and packed with fascinating facts, it’s a rattling good read as well as an essential resource for an historical novelist. With its comprehensive index, notes and bibliography, this is an excellent companion volume to her previous book, The Victorian House.
Sally Zigmond
AN ARISTOCRATIC AFFAIR, The life of Georgiana’s Sister, Harriet Spencer, Countess of Bessborough
Janet Gleeson, Bantam Press, 2006, £20.00, hb, 448pp, 0593054873
Harriet Spencer, Countess of Bessborough, had always been overshadowed by her more flamboyant sister, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, but she was an attractive woman of wit and intelligence who married well and played an energetic part in the politics of the day. High-born females in the 18th century had little scope for their talents and apart from her activities as a political hostess and her lifelong devotion to Georgiana, Harriet’s interests were her children, gambling and affairs (including a brief liaison but life-long friendship with the playwright Richard Sheridan).
The lack of evidence leads to a fair amount of supposition by the author. Harriet insisted that all her correspondence should be destroyed after her death but enough evidence survives to provide a fascinating insight into the life of a
fashionable Georgian woman. Harriet’s difficult relationship with her socially inept husband made her more dependent on her sister and her mother, Lady Spencer. These three intelligent, energetic women formed a mutual support group, travelled through war-torn Europe, and the two sisters, without their mother’s knowledge or approval, paid each other’s debts and colluded to keep the births of their illegitimate children a secret.
This is not really the story of one grand love affair, rather it is an example of how women survive in a man’s world. A lively accessible tale with comprehensive source notes. It gives a rich glimpse into the England of the late 18thand early 19th centuries.
Melinda Hammond
DR. KIMBALL AND MR. JEFFERSON: Rediscovering the Founding Fathers of American Architecture
Hugh Howard, Bloomsbury USA, 2006, $25.95, hb, 352pp, 1582344558
Up until the beginning of the 20th century, few people realized that Thomas Jefferson was also one of the nation’s first architects. Howard relates this story and the related investigation by Dr. Fiske Kimball in the early 20th century into Jefferson’s life as an architect. Up until then, Jefferson’s drawings were hidden away amongst the estate papers of T. Jefferson Coolidge. Kimball used this collection, which was deposited into the Massachusetts Historical Society on loan, to tell the story of Jefferson’s architectural career and his contribution to the study of historical architecture.
Howard does a wonderful job of integrating the life of Kimball, first a student and then a professor of architecture, with that of Jefferson. The author’s technique of switching back and forth between the two time periods and two different characters is a difficult writing accomplishment, and Howard does it very effectively.
Sue Schrems
EDGE OF EMPIRE: Conquest and Collecting in the East 1750-1850
Maya Jasanoff, Harper Perennial, 2006, £8.99, pb, 401pp, 000718011X / Vintage, $15.95, pb, 416pp, 1400075467
The breathtaking scope of this book, which was recently awarded the 50th Duff Cooper prize, is infused by Jasanoff’s imaginative approach to her subject. Taking the view that events happen piecemeal, with a strong element of accident and chance, Empire is interpreted as a flexible term and her stated aims are to “start small”, namely by using the stories of sometimes unknown collectors whose crossborder activities provide “active, tangible engagement with other cultures”; “it is a plea to bring a human dimension to imperial history.”
The other important strand to the book is revealed by the dates in the title: this account of Britain’s struggle to establish an empire stresses the resistance it encountered from both indigenous powers and, above all, France. Moving from the western Empire to India, and then to Egypt, Jasanoff recounts an astonishing series of episodes – some well-known, others,
quite simply, extraordinary – involving such figures as the Swiss mercenary Antoine Polier and the French defector Claude Martin, who between them briefly turned Lucknow into cosmopolitan centre of European and Muslim connoisseurship; or the extraordinary duo of Giambattista Belzoni, the strongman turned collector, and Henry Salt in Egypt. This is academic history at its best: a highly readable and provocative tour de force.
Lucinda
Byatt
THE PLIMSOLL SENSATION
Nicolette Jones, Little, Brown, 2006, £20, hb, 395pp, 0316726125
Samuel Plimsoll was a self-made Victorian who became an MP and, against considerable opposition, championed the introduction of what became known as the Plimsoll line on ships to prevent the dangerous, profiteering practice of overloading which had caused the deaths of many sailors. This book is the story of the likeable, determined Plimsoll and the ten-year campaign for humane legislation that nearly ruined him. It’s written with great narrative gusto underpinned by solid research and insightful comment. There’s a glossy photographic section, and the text is liberally illustrated with contemporary cartoons and other magazine illustrations showing the plight of merchant seamen and their families, the popular support Plimsoll gained, and the often acrimonious political infighting that took place during what became known as The Plimsoll Sensation. This is an excellent addition to that genre of popular history which sets out to tackle a single theme and ends by illuminating an age.
Sarah Cuthbertson
PAPER KISSES: A True Love Story
Reinhard Kaiser (trans. Anthea Bell), Other Press, 2006, $13.95, pb, 120pp, 1590511816
“I was not looking for stories when I found Rudolph Kaufmann’s first letters to Ingeborg Magnusson – in May, 1991, at a stamp auction in Frankfurt.” Paper Kisses is that collection of letters, written by Kaufmann to his sweetheart between 1935 and 1939, lovingly saved by Ingeborg until her death in 1972, and, after, by her sister Greta. Kaiser has collated and researched their lives, providing historical data and summaries of what had happened between letters, but otherwise he lets the letters speak for themselves.
Though they only represent half the story – Ingeborg’s letters to Rudolph have been lost to history – what survives is perhaps the more historically interesting half, Rudi’s experiences in the tightening snare of Hitler’s race laws and the onset of war. His inability to find a job much better than construction worker despite holding a PhD, his arrest and imprisonment on trumpedup charges, his frustrated desire to visit his beloved – all come through, despite his attempts to put a good face on his experiences for Inge. Paper Kisses is a story that will haunt the reader long after the short book is over.
Lessa J. Scherrer
WHEN THE ASTORS OWNED NEW YORK: Blue Bloods and Grand Hotels in a
Gilded Age
Justin Kaplan, Viking, 2006, $24.95/C$32.50, hb, 181pp, 0670037699
Telling the tale of New York’s famed Astor family, this book takes readers from the family’s humble beginnings in the German village of Waldorf through its meteoric rise to the heights of American wealth and prestige and looks at how its heirs battled (each other, mostly) to create their legendary hotels in Manhattan. Kaplan, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of Mark Twain, keeps readers interested with a story that’s one part serious biographical history and two parts juicy gossip and scandal-ridden glamour. The pages almost can’t be turned fast enough to soak up the scandals and in-fighting as John Jacob and William Waldorf rule New York, roam Italy, and create uproar among British aristocracy. Descriptions of the sumptuousness of their various New York landmark mansions and hotels are interesting. Insights into the development of the hotel industry in America are intriguing. This book, however, glories in its almost-beach-read feel when the author delves into the personal lives of these two men. It’s an ideal read for gossip/reality-TV fans searching for fresh blood!
Dana Cohlmeyer
BLACKBEARD: America’s Most Notorious Pirate
Angus Konstam, Wiley, 2006, $24.95/ C$31.99/£16.99, hb, 322pp, 047175885X
While other pirates have faded from memory, Blackbeard still conjures up vivid imagery of pirates terrorizing people and shipping for about two years in the early 18th century. This notorious pirate has been the subject of many books, but Konstam’s aim is to separate the man from the myth. He strives to understand why Blackbeard went from legal privateer to outlaw, why other pirates joined his crew, and why he met such a bloody end. The author intersperses the narrative with the basic fundamentals of piracy, as well as background and motivations of the other key players who crossed paths with Blackbeard from 1716 until his death in 1718. I enjoyed reading this book, but as a pirate historian I found myself wanting to pass over sections of text because I already knew the information contained there. I wanted to learn more about Blackbeard, but his story equates to only two or three chapters. I recommend Blackbeard to readers unfamiliar with the Golden Age of Piracy rather than those already familiar with Blackbeard and pirates in general.
Cindy Vallar
THUNDERSTRUCK
Erik Larson, Crown, 2006, $25.95, hb, 480pp, 1400080665 / Doubleday, 2006, £11.99, pb, 480pp, 0385608462
Larson (of Devil in the White City fame) again uses his trademark dual storylines to chronicle Guglielmo Marconi and the advent of the wireless while simultaneously recounting the story of infamous London cellar murderer Dr. H.H. Crippen. Sort of. In actuality, the alternating chapters are uneven, and much more effort and page space is spent on Marconi than Crippen. The Crippen tale is fascinatingly lurid;
this makes Larson’s constant switching between the unassuming homeopath who’s about to leave nothing of his flamboyant, badgering wife but the steaming entrails, to Marconi’s endless puttering with his wireless, rather annoying. To call Larson well-written, however, would be an understatement; his style is both erudite and amusing, and he possesses an uncanny ability to construct extremely vivid likenesses of the personalities involved in any story. He does have a tendency to repeat himself at times, mentioning Crippen’s overly large, bulging eyes and spectacles almost every time the little doctor steps onto the page. Larson also has a tendency to digress, which he readily acknowledges (by his own account rather unrepentantly) in his introduction. Overall, Thunderstruck is well worth the read, and for those more scientifically minded than myself, might provide two fascinating stories rather than just one.
Bethany Skaggs
ARCHIE AND AMÉLIE: Love and Madness in the Gilded Age
Donna M. Lucey, Harmony, 2006, $25.95/ C$34.95, hb, 339pp, 1400048524
Archie Chanler, heir to the Astor fortune, and Amélie Rives were the Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald of their day: the money, the eccentric behavior, the scandals, and, eventually, the breakdowns. This biography of two late 19th-century American iconoclasts makes for fascinating reading. Famous for her scandalous (and wildly popular) fiction as well as her revealing selfportraits, Amélie exemplified the kind of girl an Astor shouldn’t be seen with, much less marry. For his part, Archie was in love, and paid no heed to family tradition or outrage. Both had strong wills, and, of course, that proved to be their undoing, with Archie ending up in (and escaping from) the famous Bloomingdale Asylum. A lot of space is devoted to Astor family background and genealogy, perhaps because it is better documented than that of the antebellum Rives family, who, while still acting as if their fortune was intact, really hung on to upper-class society by the thread of Amélie’s writing and escapades. Though somewhat overwritten in places, Lucey’s account of Archie and Amélie is a diverting read.
Helene Williams
SINS OF THE INNOCENT
Mireille Marokvia, Unbridled, 2006, $24.95, hb, 288pp, 1932961259
A reader of a European memoir set during World War II has certain expectations – intrigue, deprivation, narrow escapes from death and a cheer at the end for surviving. Sins of the Innocent provides these from a slightly different (and captivating) viewpoint – that of a French woman married to a German artist and living in Germany. Markovia writes of her time in Germany with a frankness and clarity that capture the imagination. What follows is the story of a woman – suspected of spying for the Allies and left alone after her husband is drafted – who struggles to survive in Germany. This well-written and touching book is a gem. Marokvia bears herself out to be a woman of strength and resourcefulness, as evidenced by
her weekly interrogations by the local police chief. As the war’s end draws near, however, the writing becomes much more stark and at times a touch cold. Having said that, the ending does leave the reader breathing a sigh of relief for Marokvia and her husband, as well as wondering about her life over the last 55 years.
Dana Cohlmeyer
MEDIEVAL OBSCENITIES
Ed. Nicola McDonald, York Medieval Press, 2006, £45.00/$80.00, hb, 210, 1903153182
Yes, it’s expensive, but you know you’re in for some fun as soon as you look at the cover illustration on this collection of essays arising out of an international seminar series hosted by the University of York in 2001. A detail from a manuscript in the collection of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France shows two rather anxiouslooking nuns picking fruit from a surprisingly well-endowed bush. Other illustrations in this luscious volume include a gold cap badge consisting of a certain part of the female anatomy, mounted on horseback and wielding a bow, entitled ‘Pussy Goes A Hunting.’ My girlfriends and I have been considering reproducing it on a tee-shirt and going to Dublin or Prague for a lost weekend!
There is, of course a serious side to all this. A society’s concept of obscenity and its response to it is one of its strongest defining characteristics. The essays in this collection therefore, ranging as they do over subjects as various as obscenity in church art, voyeurism, homosexuality and the devil and defecation, offer a wonderful peepshow into the mediaeval mind. If you really want to know what made mediaeval men and women laugh, or what 13th-century teenagers would die rather than share with their parents, this book is a great place to begin.
Sarah Bower
LIONHEART AND LACKLAND AND THE WARS OF CONQUEST
Frank McLynn, Jonathan Cape, 2006, £20.00, hb, 592pp, 0224062441
This is a scholarly but somehow nostalgic look at the “Devil’s Brood”, the quarrelsome sons of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Although opening with the revisionist argument that Richard was a Bad King who bled the country dry to pay for his wars, and John was an Alright King who did much to develop the legislative and judicial systems founded by his father, McLynn finally comes round to the view that Richard was the best of a bad bunch after all. This is dangerous talk at a time when European colonial ambitions in the Middle East are coming home to roost yet again, nor did I find McLynn’s arguments, or his analyses of the characters of the Plantagenet boys, particularly convincing. His style, however, is easy and beguiling. The book is full of modern phrases such as Henry II adducing “the weight loss argument” to explain his love of hunting, or John’s enjoyment of his “mobile library”. Do I feel a script for a TV series coming on?
A good, old fashioned biography, told straight and with humour, about a family whose fascination continues to abide after nearly a thousand years. Sarah Bower
THE
COLONEL AND LITTLE MISSIE: Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, and the Beginnings of Superstardom in America
Larry McMurtry, Simon & Schuster, 2006, $14.00/C$19.00, pb, 245pp, 0743271726
Larry McMurtry recounts the life stories of two 19th century American icons in this short, easy-to-read work of narrative nonfiction. Starting with funerals, and then skipping around in time, McMurtry lovingly polishes Buffalo Bill Cody’s legendary adventures: the tales of the Pony Express, of the scalping of Yellow Hand, of Cody’s work as an army scout and buffalo hunter. All are examined in detail to determine not only what really happened, but also to speculate on how Cody fictionalized the events for use in his shows. Every once in a while, McMurtry mentions Annie Oakley, too. But this incredible sharpshooter was one act among many, and her modest, sober personality fades in contrast to the exuberant, often drunk, and frequently philandering scout. Much like Buffalo Bill himself, who was vague about his own history, this book contains nary a single footnote, and the author frequently makes offhand references to events without specifying dates or places. Yet this very feature is what makes the book so compelling: reading it is like sitting across a campfire from a grizzled old scout telling war stories – completely out of order, frequently interrupted by tangents, and with many a subplot left dangling. You just can’t help but lean forward, eager for more.
Lisa Ann Verge
LIBERTY: The Life and Times of Six Women in Revolutionary France
Lucy Moore, HarperCollins, 2006, £20, hb, 464pp, 000720601
The French Revolution and its aftermath is such a well-trodden path that it always needs a fresh focus. In this beautifully bound volume, Lucy Moore has chosen to focus on six individual women, each one representing a different aspect of the revolution. The ‘Salonnière’ and ‘Emigrée’ are both represented by Madame de Staël. Pauline Léon is the ‘Fille Sans Culotte.’ The other four women under scrutiny are Thérésia de Fontenay, Manon Roland, Théroigne de Mericourt and Juliette Récamier.
This welcome new addition to the canon reminds us that one of the cornerstones of the Revolution – Fraternité - excluded women. However, Lucy Moore vividly shows us that women, too, could and did risk all for a revolutionary ideal. And who knows, they may inspire the novelists amongst us to choose one of them as a heroine.
Sally Zigmond
MAYFLOWER: A Story of Courage, Community, and War
Nathaniel Philbrick, Viking, 2006, $29.95, hb, 480pp, 0670037605 / HarperCollins, 2006, £20.00, hb, 480pp, 0007151276
In this revisionist, popular history, Philbrick takes on Plymouth, the Pilgrims, and King Philip’s War. Unlike the harshness of life at Jamestown, the comfortably familiar view of Plymouth is one of friendly Indians, pious Pilgrims, and mutual cooperation. Utilizing
William Bradford’s seminal Of Plymouth Plantation, letters, and other primary sources, Philbrick recounts how the Pilgrims managed to coexist peaceably with the Pokanokets due to the moderating influences of Bradford and Massasoit, only to have everything come crashing down a generation later because of Massasoit’s equivocating son, Metacom (aka Philip), and the antagonistic, confrontational later generation of Pilgrims. Philbrick skillfully illustrates the English exploitation of tribal rivalries to gain Indian allies, ultimately the only factor allowing them victory in this most bloody of conflicts. Particularly interesting is the portrait that emerges of Squanto, the quintessential friendly Indian that Americans learn to love in kindergarten. This Squanto is devious and crafty, playing the English and Pokanokets off one another with only one goal in mind: making himself the absolute ruler of the Pokanokets.
Philbrick’s style is accessible, and his research thorough. His goal isn’t to tear down well-loved mythology – just to present the established view, and how it differs from primary sources. He has accomplished this and produced an interesting, readable history.
Bethany Skaggs
SAMUEL ADAMS: Father of the American Revolution
Mark Puls, Palgrave MacMillan, 2006, $24.95, hb, 240pp, 1403975825
Never president like his cousin John, not a military leader like George Washington, Samuel Adams seems to have become simply “the other Adams” – the one who was believed to incite to action a gang of semi-ruffians known as the Sons of Liberty.
Samuel Adams was not always viewed so dismissively. Thomas Jefferson called him “the Patriarch of Liberty.” Sam Adams was an agitator, but he was also the chief philosopher behind arguments for independence from Britain. Eleven years before the Declaration of Independence, he wrote that men were “unalienably entitled to those essential rights in common with all men.” Others would rise up in response to particular issues such as the Stamp Act, but when the crisis was over, most again became complacent. In Sam Adams, though, the fire of liberty always burned. Independence from Britain seems to have been on his mind as early as his commencement address at Harvard in 1843.
In Samuel Adams: Father of the American Revolution, Mark Puls resurrects the true historical importance of Samuel Adams. This fascinating, engaging book most definitely deserves to join other recent histories and biographies of the Revolutionary period as a bestseller.
Sue Schrems
SAND IN MY SHOES: War-Time Diaries of a WAAF
Joan Rice, HarperCollins, 2006, £16.99, hb, 265pp, 0007228201
Joan Rice’s diary covers the years from September 1939 to December 1942. She came
from a middle-class family, attended secretarial college and then worked for the Asiatic Petroleum Company (Shell), but her ambitions were not those of most of her contemporaries. Her wish-list consisted of writing, travelling and becoming famous and so, at the age of twenty, she seized the opportunity to join the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) in 1939 when war broke out.
This is a diary that reads like a novel. It charts the daily life of a vibrant young woman on the verge of adulthood. At first the war appears to be simply a backdrop for parties, boyfriends and going to the cinema. Then the tone of her entries changes with the Battle of Britain and the bombing of London.
She has captured the determined ‘gaiety’ of the young pilots of 504 Squadron and the WAAFs, who are keenly aware of how short their lives may be. The destruction of places she used often, such as Colindale Station, and the sheer exhaustion caused by the nightly bombings while stationed at RAF Hendon is contrasted with the boredom and frustration of her time at RAF Medmenham.
Her life may have been ‘untidy’, but the blend of adventure, romance and everyday wartime life makes an engrossing read and a useful historical resource. (Joan Rice is the mother of Sir Tim Rice. –ed.)
Myfanwy Cook
TWELVE DAYS
Victor Sebestyen, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006, £20, hb, 340pp, 0297847317 / Pantheon, 2006, $26, hb, 368pp, 037542458X
Everyone knows about the defeated Hungarian revolution of 1956, but few know the details. Although the rebellion does not start until a hundred pages into the book, this long preamble is essential because it explains why the revolution occurred and why it happened when it did. The book then becomes a day-byday account of the revolution, which ultimately failed because there was no single individual in charge who could have struck a deal with the Soviet Union.
Sebestyen also examines the charge that the West encouraged the revolution, but then abandoned the Hungarians when the Soviet tanks moved in. Nothing is simple in this story: loyalties are switched, appalling betrayals are committed, and in all of it, many of the most steadfast rebels declare themselves still to be good and faithful Communists. The account of the aftermath is disappointingly short and sketchy; I would have liked to read more about the diaspora of Hungarian refugees that enriched so many Western countries.
Although there are several minor errors in non-Hungarian matters, this book would be a valuable source for any writer planning a novel about the Hungarian revolution.
Alan Fisk
2006, £16.99/$29.95, pb, 424pp, 0859915131
This English translation of Simek’s comprehensive work was first published in 1984 but has been updated and repackaged for this edition. The title is misleading as the dictionary covers the full range of Germanic as well as Scandinavian mythology, including that of the Angles and Saxons. The oldest stories go back to 1500 BCE, and the most recent references draw in the works of Wagner and the appropriation of Nordic myths by the Nazi propaganda machine. An invaluable work of reference for anyone reading or writing fiction about early and mediaeval northern European societies, its comprehensive, meticulously researched and referenced entries are fascinating scholarly essays in themselves. Simek has made full use of many different sources, from inscriptions on votive stones to the works of Tacitus and later Christian commentators. Here are tales not only of gods and heroes but elves and giants and, of course, the creation of man and his world. Whether your interest is in Bronze Age burial customs or Tolkien’s inspiration for the Hobbits, you will find something of value here.
Sarah Bower
CONSUELO & ALVA VANDERBILT: The Story of a Mother and Daughter in the Gilded Age
Amanda Mackenzie Stuart, Harper Perennial, 2006, £8.99, pb, 579pp, 0007127316 / HarperCollins, 2006, $27.95, hb, 608pp, 0066214181
This intriguing biography combines the stories of mother and daughter, allowing us to see how the one influenced the other. It opens with the wedding, in 1895, of Consuelo, one of the greatest heiresses of the late 19th century, to the 9th Duke of Marlborough. The marriage was arranged by Alva, and Stuart carefully outlines the evidence that a degree of force was used to induce Consuelo to marry the duke. In order to explain this, Stuart then backtracks to cover both Consuelo’s and Alva’s early lives before moving forward again to cover the gradual breakdown of the Marlboroughs’ marriage over the next ten years.
We are given a detailed character analysis of both these strong-willed women, and much space is given to their activities outside marriage. Following the death of her second husband, Alva became a radical suffragist, and worked hard for the cause. Consuelo, following her separation from the duke in 1906, devoted much time to philanthropy, particularly during the Great War, and was known as a moderate suffragist.
This is an accomplished book; it is well researched, and has a good bibliography for further reading, index and notes.
Cas Stavert
DICTIONARY OF NORTHERN MYTHOLOGY
Rudolf Simek (trans. Angela Hall), D. S. Brewer,
THE HIGH ROAD TO CHINA, George Bogel, The Panchen Lama and the First British Expedition to Tibet
Kate Teltscher, Bloomsbury, 2006, £20.00, hb,
316pp, 0747584842
This is an extraordinary tale of a young Glaswegian, George Bogle, who developed a genuine friendship with the incarnation of the Buddha of Boundless Light, aka the Panchen Lama. It is also a remarkable account of a journey into unknown territory – the only map he was given of Tibet was based on sketchy information gathered by Jesuit missionaries. The purpose of his unprecedented endeavour was to find a ‘high road’ to China via Tibet and to establish British trade relations with the impenetrable court of Imperial China, ruled over by the Qianlong Emperor.
Bogle had arrived in Calcutta in 1770 as a lowly clerk, but within four years he had won the trust of the Governor Warren Hastings, and in 1774 he was appointed to accompany Purangir, a travelling Hindu monk who was acting as a Lama’s envoy on a daring mission northwards. Both Hastings and Bogle were interested in genuine trade, diplomatic relations and social observation. Bogle was an acute observer and an assiduous and gifted diarist and letter writer. Based on this unique testimony, Kate Teltscher’s outstanding account offers a lively and vivid insight into the workings and failures of the early British Empire as well as an extraordinary description of Tibetan life as ‘a mountain stronghold of innocent happiness’, an image that laid the foundations for the myth of Shangri-La.
Lucinda Byatt
SHE WENT TO THE WAR: Women Soldiers of the Civil War
Bonnie Tsui, Twodot, 2006, $14.95, pb, 149pp, 0762743840
Until relatively recently, Clara Barton, Belle Boyd, Harriet Tubman, Elizabeth van Lew, and a very few others were the only American women famous for their wartime experience in America’s deadliest conflict. While the overwhelming majority of soldiers and sailors were men, a surprisingly significant number of women managed to pass as male soldiers, to serve as nurses, or to engage in the deadly world of clandestine operations. That these women’s biographies are notable for illustrating their daring natures and thirst for adventure is a central aspect of the more than 22 women covered briefly in this introductory survey. A fairly comprehensive bibliography follows the essays.
John R. Vallely
THE UNEXPECTED GEORGE
WASHINGTON: His Private Life
Harlow Giles Unger, Wiley, 2006, $27.95, hb, 320pp, 0471744964
Could there be a new biography that reveals anything unexpected about the Founding Father? Possibly, but this isn’t it. Unger utilizes correspondence and Washington’s diary, but since both often cover Washington’s agricultural pursuits in mind-numbing detail, frequent quoting of these sources makes for long, boring passages. Unger’s unfortunate prose reads like a
second-rate romance; about George and Martha at an assembly he pronounces, “Others stepped back to marvel at his grace – she, like a feather, floating in his gentle arms. The dance left Martha breathless and giddy, George thoroughly enchanted, and both of them laughing and madly in love.” The equivalent in Washington’s diary was probably “…seedlings doth better in Manure than fish Compost and ye Chinese hogg is mated. Mrs. W. & I at Assembly til 2.”
Unger paints a picture of a caring man who, though childless, raised/supported many of his and Martha’s minor relatives and was effusive in his goodwill towards friends. On the flip side is a man disingenuous about his desire for power whose insatiable greed for land and the latest goods/fashions resulted in a habit of vastly outspending his income. All in all, Unger offers a window into the first George W.’s domestic life, but it’s neither private nor unexpected, and not particularly interesting.
Bethany Skaggs
BERLIN GAMES: How the Nazis Stole the Olympic Dream
Guy Walters, Morrow, 2006, $24.95, hb, 368pp, 0060874120
The publicity for this book touts that “acclaimed author Guy Walters presents a fascinating and brilliantly detailed account of the most controversial and politically charged sporting event of the twentieth century.” It’s right. Examining the 1936 Olympics from the venue announcement in 1931 through 1936, Berlin Games lays out the manipulation exercised by the Nazi propaganda machine to, in essence, hijack the games and turn them into a set piece for the glory of the Nazi regime.
Writing in tight narrative, Walters dissects the motives of those behind Berlin winning the venue and the efforts of Hitler’s men to wrest control. Not forgetting the athletes’ role, he also gives a thorough accounting of their exploits and the mythical stories that have grown up around them (dispelling one or two along the way).
Overall, Berlin Games moves past what could be a gossipy sports read and becomes an insightful look into the impact of the 1936 Olympics. Packed with Nazis, talented athletes, English aristocrats swooning over Hitler and the frightening miasma that will become the Final Solution, this book will be enjoyed by sports fans and historians alike.
Dana Cohlmeyer
SAILING FROM BYZANTIUM: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World
Colin Wells, Delacorte, 2006, $22.00, hb, 368pp, 9780553803816
Before reading Sailing from Byzantium, the whole of my knowledge about this empire was that their capitol was Constantinople and that the adjective “Byzantine” meant intricate, overly complicated and difficult to understand. Little did I know that the Byzantine Empire had at least as much influence over modern societies as the Romans. Byzantium held safe the treasure of Reason and other ancient Greek knowledge,
until the Western Europeans, the Islamic world and the Slavic world were ready to “rediscover” them.
Despite his subject matter, Colin Wells’ book is anything but Byzantine, at least in the modern sense. He writes in a clear, accessible style and has included numerous maps, a list of major characters, and a concurrent timeline as well as end notes, a bibliography and an extensive index. I found the section on Byzantium and the developing Islamic world particularly interesting in light of current world events. This book is a must read for lovers of Renaissance history or non-Western world culture.
Lessa J. Scherrer
SHAKESPEARE & CO
Stanley Wells, Allen Lane, 2006, £25.00/C$45, hb, 285pp, 0713997737
The Elizabethan and Jacobean periods are often referred to as ‘the age of Shakespeare’ and his is the first name we think of today when exploring the early history of drama and poetry. The spectre of Shakespeare often looms so large that there is a danger of forgetting some of his great contemporaries such as Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton and John Fletcher.
In this excellent book Stanley Wells explores the lives and careers of the writers and actors that Shakespeare worked with as well as the Elizabethan theatrical scene. People flocked to the Globe and the Fortune where most of the entertainment took place offstage as the theatres were often places of rioting and where prostitutes solicited. The age of Shakespeare, when anyone convicted of stealing more than twelve pence could be hanged, is vividly brought to life. Through the study of his associates, a little more light is shed on the shadowy figure of the Bard himself.
Ann Oughton
DAYS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD:
The 50 Defining Events of World History
Hywel Williams, Quercus, 2006, £14.99, hb, 204pp, 1905204760
Ask a dozen historians to list the fifty defining events of world history and you will get at least a dozen different answers.
This author’s first event is the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC; the last is the horror of Nine Eleven. We might expect to find the crucifixion of Jesus, the storming of the Bastille and Columbus’s landing in the New World. However, to me, the choice of nineteen events from the 20th century seems more than a little unbalanced. It may also be pedantic to question whether the development of the telephone can be classed as a ‘day’ that changed the world; or whether the day a confederacy of German tribes crossed the Rhine marked the downfall of the Roman Empire. To call these ‘days’ when such events are evolutions, culminations of a series of events is a bit of a gimmick. Was the opening of the first passenger railway line more important than James Watt’s discovery of the
power of steam or the building of the Rocket? Is the phenomenon that is Bill Gates of equal significance to the birth of Islam, and why is the day Isaac Newton matriculated more important than the day the apple fell on his head? I could go on, and others probably will.
Williams, however, is a persuasive and entertaining writer and provides a rich banquet rather than food for thought, but this jury is still out.
Sally Zigmond
THE AMBASSADORS: From Ancient Greece to Renaissance Europe, the Men Who Introduced the World to Itself
Jonathan Wright, Harcourt, 2006, $26.00, hb, 400pp, 151011117 / Pub. in the UK as The Ambassadors: From Ancient Greece to the Nation State, HarperCollins, 2006, £20.00, hb, 352pp, 0007173431
In The Ambassadors, Jonathan Wright’s stated purpose is to show how influential ambassadors have been “in the encounters, collisions, and rivalries among the world’s disparate civilizations.” Not only did these men represent their own culture (in its entirety, for the most part and for better or worse), they took home with them their personal impressions of the places they had been, at times with their own personal prejudices (Russians were cruel drunks, according to Tudor England’s ambassador to Moscow, Giles Fletcher). Ambassadorial missions fostered an exciting exchange of foreign ideas, as well, from the scientific to fashions and foods.
Wright has divided the book into five sections, beginning with the Ancient World and on through the Middle Centuries, the Medieval Age and the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. Along the way he creates a vivid and complex world based on the personalities who were the world’s first ambassadors, beginning in Part I with the eleventh century B.C. Egyptian envoy who traveled to Lebanon to purchase wood for the god Amun-re’s sacred barque. Colorful accounts such as this one make The Ambassadors a valuable addition to any library, whether for research purposes or for an enjoyable read.
Alana White
THE WOMEN OF THE HOUSE: How a Colonial She-Merchant Built a Mansion, a Fortune and a Dynasty
Jean Zimmerman, Harcourt, 2006, $26.00, hb, 348pp, 978015101065
In 1695, twenty-two-year-old Margaret Hardenbroeck arrived in the colony of New Amsterdam. Margaret wasn’t anyone’s dependent, but a factor, a representative of her uncle’s trading firm, assigned to collect money from his customers and seek buyers for his merchandise. In Holland, women, even married ones, were legal persons, able to own property, draw contracts and testify in court. After the British took over (renaming the busy port “New York”), this equality between the sexes disappeared. The Women of the House is a well-researched and vibrantly written history
which follows the fortunes of Margaret and of her descendants, who are better known by her second husband’s name: Philipse. The section devoted to Margaret and to the uniquely Dutch customs of the 17th century colony is particularly informative and lively. The three Philipse descendants who come after their dynamic founding mother are a far more conventional story. The last of these still formidable women, Mary Philipse, rejected the suit of a young George Washington in favor of a British officer. During the Revolution, the Philipses remained loyal to the Crown. In 1783 they fled, leaving their mansions and estates behind. A fascinating read, with extensive notes and bibliography. Juliet Waldron
POSITION VACANCIES
FEATURES EDITOR
Historical Novels Review
HNR is seeking a new Features Editor. The Features Editor is responsible for:
Developing ideas for features, including profiles, interviews, and articles
Working with contributors, editing submissions, and turning in material by deadline
Dealing with publicists and setting up interviews as necessary
Coordinating efforts with the Managing Editor, Book Review Editor, and Managing Editor of Solander
Keeping abreast of current publishing in order to gauge audience interest and select appropriate topics/interviews for publication
Ensuring the focus of HNR remains international and well-balanced If you are interested in applying for or learning more about this position, please contact Bethany Skaggs at bskaggs@jsu.edu.
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