Reviews
N n ANCIENT
THE PALACE OF ILLUSIONS
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Doubleday, 2008, $23.95/C$29.95, hb, 277pp, 9780385515993
Set in a mythic age, “when the lives of men and gods still intersected,” this new novel from feminist writer Divakaruni retells the story of the Indian epic Mahabharat from an original point of view, that of Panchaali, the wife of the five brothers of the epic tale, an extraordinary princess born out of Fire and destined to “change the course of history.”
The Palace of Illusions starts fascinatingly. Using a meta-fiction device, the author has Panchaali and her twin brother Dhri interrupt the flow of a story—the story of their unusual birth. They add to it, they go back in time, or another character, their nurse Dhai Ma, mixes what actually happened with things that should have happened. Unfortunately, the fun is quickly spoiled. As soon as Panchaali marries the five Pandava brothers, the promise of the novel begins to fade. There are genderchanging, celestial astras (weapons), gods in disguise, epiphanies and many other marvelous events, but there is also no suspense or tension. Dreams and foretold destinies are fulfilled with disheartening alacrity. The arresting power and tragedy of the Vedic doctrine of karma that illustrates the grand ancient epic ultimately crush this novel.
Adelaida Lower
BIBLICAL
MARK’S STORY: The Gospel According to Peter (The Jesus Chronicles, Book Two)
Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, Putnam, 2006, $24.95, hb, 320pp, 9780399154477
Much like this series’ first book, John’s Story, this novel from the authors of the Left Behind series has many of the same flaws and virtues. In telling the story of the creation of Mark’s Gospel, we meet its writer as a young boy who witnesses the Last Supper and the transformational events following the crucifixion of Jesus. The book follows his evolving faith, his apprenticeship with Simon Peter, and how the second Gospel came to be. It also depicts the struggles of the early church against forces within and without. But while compelling situations are introduced, the possibilities are often unexploited. Characters are barely sketched out, and dialogue is routinely implausible and wooden. What’s more, vast portions of the book are taken verbatim from the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, Paul’s epistles and Peter’s letters. One is compelled to ask why one should read this novel when the New
Testament itself is far more compelling. But the book does a good job of illustrating its message while illuminating, if briefly, the church’s early history. Like the earlier volume in the series, it concludes with the genuine articles: Mark’s Gospel and the letters of Peter.
William Thornton
THE SECRET GOSPEL OF MARY MAGDALENE
Michèle Roberts, Pegasus, 2007 (c1984), $13.95, pb, 208pp, 9781933648569
Originally published in England in 1984 under the title The Wild Girl, this is what has almost become a genre unto itself since—a hidden gospel story. This fifth gospel is written by Mary Magdalene herself, whose unusual life circumstances make her a fitting consort to a Jesus who embraces both the equality and spirituality of women.
From the start, Mary’s childhood visions set her apart from other dutiful Jewish girls of her town whose “God was mediated to me by father, brother, home, village, priest and rulers.” She escapes early, to Egypt, where her education is broadened for four years by Sibylla, a hetaera, lover of rich and powerful Romans. But Mary rejects that path for her life and returns home just in time to meet a new friend of her brother Lazarus: Jesus of Nazareth. They quickly become both lovers and heart friends over the years of Jesus’s preaching.
Many of the most well known of gospel miracles seem to have stemmed from the knowledge and wit of the Magdalene herself. But Mary’s interpretation of Jesus’s words differs from his male disciples and apostles, although she has a strong ally in his mother. Her vision of the resurrected Christ is denied by that champion denier, Simon Peter, and her different experience of revelation is eventually not tolerated in the early Christian community. She is exiled with a daughter and the time to set down her gospel.
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Roberts paints a feisty, difficult Mary Magdalene, at war with both her time and herself, and finding acceptance only within the arms of Christ. But what was highly original and daring in 1984 may now seem a bit hashed over and of its written time.
Eileen Charbonneau
CLASSICAL
TROY: Fall of Kings
David and Stella Gemmell, Bantam, 2007, £17.99, hb, 495pp, 9780593052259 / Ballantine, 2008, $25.95, hb, 464pp, 9780345477033
David Gemmell’s untimely death in 2006 robbed the world of a master storyteller. His wife’s involvement in the Troy trilogy was unknown to me, but through this collaboration we now have the final part, Fall of Kings Troy: the word evokes valour and heroism, beautiful women and legendary heroes, names that echo down the centuries with the story of its
fall. Gemmell, however, has his own thoughts on the world they inhabited, which differs from the accepted source of Homer and makes interesting reading.
Agamemnon, King of Mykene, is now gathering his forces together to declare war on Priam, King of Troy, who has maintained peace in the Mediterranean for the past forty years. Helen’s abduction by Paris is used as an excuse for the hostilities, but the reasons are more prosaic: Mykene covets the golden treasury of Troy. Before the end of the battles, and beneath the walls of that city, Hektor and Achilles will destroy each other and Odysseus will reluctantly ally himself to the Greeks. The volcanic explosion on Thera will release the biblical plagues of Egypt, and Aeneas will survive to become the founder of Rome.
His interpretation of the Trojan Horse is imaginative; the clues are there all through the book. The scenes become repetitive, with the same ground being fought over, and fill too many pages. However, the novel is filled with authenticity and is superbly crafted. As David Gemmell’s last stand, Fall of Kings is a very fitting tribute.
Gwen Sly
THE PILLARS OF ROME
Jack Ludlow, Allison & Busby, 2007, £19.99, hb, 442pp, 9780749080174
This is the first book in a trilogy from an author more usually known as David Donachie, writer of historical maritime fiction. Set around 200 BC in Rome, the story centres on two friends, Lucius Felenius and Aulus Cornelius. Lucius becomes a ruthless and successful politician in Rome, while Aulus forges a career as a general in the Roman Army. Both, however, face challenges that threaten their pre-eminent positions. Lucius desperately wants a male heir to inherit his legacy and form a new political dynasty; Aulus has to avoid a sudden and potentially lethal scandal when his young wife is rescued successfully after capture by rebel forces, but is newly pregnant.
The cruelty and brutality of political and military life in Rome immediately before the rise of the Caesars is explicit. The story is fascinating and expertly told, narrated intelligently and with élan. For readers who have liked Conn Iggulden’s Emperor series, this is required reading – and is historical fiction at its very best.
Doug Kemp
SPQR XI: Under Vesuvius
John Maddox Roberts, Thomas Dunne, 2007, $23.95/C$29.95, hb, 211pp, 0312370886
The author’s eleventh entry in the Decius Metellus SPQR series takes place in the difficult days of rivalry between Pompey and the everrising Julius Caesar. Our intrepid hero is newly established in a southern Italian location close to Mount Vesuvius. His position as Praetor Peregrinus requires him to step in and investigate the murder of Gorgo, the beautiful daughter of
Y ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Colleen McCullough, Simon & Schuster, 2007, $26.95, hb, 567pp, 1416552949 / HarperCollins, 2007, £17.99, hb, 592pp, 0007225806
In this sprawling seventh novel, the latest in her Masters of Rome series, author McCullough recounts the gigantic power struggle for dominance in the Mediterranean after the death of Julius Caesar. Spanning the years from 41 to 27 BC, the story focuses mainly on the political maneuverings and relationships of three larger-than-life figures: the handsome and charismatic Mark Antony, the brilliantly methodical Octavian, and the seductive and power-seeking Cleopatra of Egypt.
Rivals to rule over Rome and its ever-expanding empire, Antony and Octavian, Caesar’s legal heir, quickly realize that their joint governance of Roman lands will not work, and each becomes obsessed with gaining control over Caesar’s legacy. After his unsuccessful campaigns against Parthia in the East, Antony becomes ensnared by the charms of the wealthy queen Cleopatra, who is determined to make her son by Caesar, Caesarion, king of Rome. No slacker himself, Octavian has been busily scheming and manipulating others to consolidate his power in Rome and Italia, as well as to discredit Antony. A collision between the parties is imminent and unavoidable. With the Mediterranean their battleground and Rome the prize, the stakes are high, and defeat will mean dishonor and death.
McCullough moves the story along at a rapid pace: her descriptions of Antony’s disastrous march to Phraaspa and her rendering of the Battle of Actium are riveting. She takes pains to bring to life even her minor characters: the long-suffering Octavia, the coldly calculating Livia, the youthfully promising Caesarion, the loyal Marcus Agrippa. A page-turner filled with high drama, tragedy, and interesting psychological insight, McCullough’s meticulous research and masterful storytelling combine to provide a fresh perspective on an old and familiar story.
a powerful local priest. Suspicion falls on a young and handsome Numidian, Gelon, but Decius is skeptical and believes Gelon has been singled out simply because he is foreign and happens to be the son of a rich slave trader. Xenophobia and love play off one another as Decius navigates local politics and mores in his search for both fairness and the murderer. This is only my second journey with Decius and his wife Julia, and I regret that I have not followed their fictional lives in a turbulent Rome and her empire more. The history is spot on, the characters are well developed and lifelike, and the plot is captivating. There are more than a few detective novels set in Roman times on the book shelves. Decius should not be missed.
John R. Vallely
1st CENTURY
THE UNCERTAIN HOUR
Jesse Browner, Bloomsbury USA, 2007, $23.95, hb, 209pp, 9781596913394
What would you do if someone were to tell you that you had one more night to live? How would you spend those last hours? Titus Petronius, the protagonist of Jesse Browner’s new novel, is not a religious man. It is the year 66 AD and the Emperor Nero, who once called him his “Arbiter of Elegance,” has condemned him to choose between execution and suicide. Petronius chooses suicide, and decides to spend his last hours hosting an exquisite dinner for his
Michael I. Shoop
friends. With the help of Melissa, the woman he loves and once abandoned, he arranges every detail of this last evening; “Far better to die with saffron than with rhetoric,” he thinks. Petronius wonders how his guests will react, frets about the dinner dishes, and looks back to figure out how he has ended up in this predicament.
A meditative, philosophical novel, The
Y OF MERCHANTS AND HEROES
Uncertain Hour seizes the reader at once. Then Browner unfolds a deeply compassionate story of universal appeal, told in excruciating detail that is exotic and refined when it needs to be (the dinner dishes are fabulous). Petronius’s search for serenity and acceptance of his fate are profoundly moving. I found myself turning pages, knowing better but still hoping unreasonably for a different resolution.
Adelaida Lower
THE EAGLE AND THE RAVEN
Pauline Gedge, Chicago Review Press, 2007 (c1978), $18.95, 704pp, pb, 139781556527081
Had the tale been passed down from earliest times, The Eagle and the Raven could well be Britain’s epic poem. But instead it is a fine story created by Pauline Gedge, first published in 1978 and now reprinted by Chicago Review Press. The rambling novel carries us back to the 1st century when Britain – then called Albion – rebelled against Roman colonization. The epic’s heroes are the tribal chieftains Caradoc and Venutius, and the swordswoman of lore, Boudicca.
The author creates a magical setting of dark, fearsome forests, sweeping plains and of misty villages hidden in wild mountain valleys. It is a time of superstition and fear of the unknown. But the story’s characters – and there are many –are not at all magical. Albion’s people and their Roman conquerors are fully three-dimensional personae, eliciting sympathy, admiration, scorn, or loathing – just like real people.
What takes away from the enjoyment of the story are the implausible twists in Caradoc’s and Venutius’s military efforts. As the author would have it, they both came to within a hairsbreadth of victory over Roman forces only to lose it all through what can only be described as uncharacteristically and unbelievably stupid
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Paul Waters, Macmillan, 2008, £14.99, hb, 471pp, 9780230530317
Set around 200 BC in Rome and Greece, Paul Waters’ first novel is a well-written and intelligent tale. Marcus, aged just fourteen, witnesses the murder of his father by pirates and makes a vow with Mars to exact vengeance on the leader of the group. Despite his relative youth, this inner determination and direction spurs Marcus to forge a career as a military leader and diplomat. He plays a prominent and heroic role in Rome’s struggle against Philip of Macedon (the II not the more famous V), who indirectly threatened Rome through his occupation of various Greek city-states. But this book is much more than a narrative of political-military events. Marcus’s love for the beautiful Greek athlete and soldier, Menexenos – together with loyalty, bravery and conviction to do that which is right, and the myopia, jealousies and brutal violence of the human experience – helps forge him into a decent but still vulnerable human being.
I am not an expert in this period of classical history and so cannot comment on the historical accuracy, or otherwise, of the novel. Yet Paul Waters has achieved that which is very difficult: creating a feeling of authenticity in that Marcus and his fellow characters are not just 21st century figures transported back in time, but live in a culture, milieu and essence that is genuine and fundamentally different from ours. This is an admirable read. Doug Kemp N n
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behavior. The author then portrays Boudicca as a ravaged warrior widow who starts – but never truly leads – what amounts to no more than a disorganized slave rebellion. Albion’s heroes turn out to be too tragically flawed to deserve the title at all. In this the tale is disappointing. That being said, I would still recommend The Eagle and the Raven. It is a sweeping saga full of lovely, evocative passages of a time long ago that, in the way of myths, has much to say to a modern audience.
Lucille Cormier
4th CENTURY
THE LAST LEGIONARY
at sea, Tessa marries for her safety but discovers her husband is not what she thought. She escapes to Scotland where her uncle is now king, but a tortured man. Husbands, would-be kings, spies, traitors, and women finding their way in a life (mis)managed by these men color an adventure in which Tessa learns the true import of the witches’ prophecies.
Paul Elliott, Spellmount, 2007, £16.99, pb, 208pp, 9781862273634
This is a lively description of the Roman army in the last years of its stay in Britain, using the experiences of an imaginary soldier, Gaius. By this period, 383 to 402 AD, declining manpower, a contracting economy, and the influence of Germanic culture had brought about many changes in the army’s organisation and equipment. Paul Elliott belongs to the Comitatus re-enactment group, and he gives accounts of what has been learnt from experimental archaeology and from rigorous route marches. Elliott carefully distinguishes between facts and conjecture. There are a large number of drawings and photographs, as well as a generous bibliography, and a guide to visible remains of places mentioned in the account of Gaius’s fictional career. This would be a very useful source for anyone writing a historical novel set in this period. Not only did it fill in many gaps in my knowledge, but it also corrected an embarrassing number of misconceptions that I had held for decades. A little more editing and proofreading would have been welcome, but this is a minor blemish in a highly recommended book.
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Alan Fisk
11th CENTURY
MACBETH’S NIECE
Peg Herring, Five Star, 2008, $25.95, hb, 343pp, 9781594146503
Tessa, Macbeth’s niece of the title, is on her way to join her uncle’s household when she is waylaid by the three weird sisters, who give her several mysterious messages: she is heading for England; she will find happiness only among the dead; she will marry two men who will never be her lovers; and her true lover will forget her name.
At Macbeth’s home, she unwittingly overhears a plot against the Scottish throne, and is kidnapped and taken across the border by the English spy, Jeremy Brixton. Her feelings for Jeremy are torn, although she finds friendship and a home with his sister-in-law, Eleanor. When Eleanor dies, and Jeremy is also apparently lost
As a student and teacher of Shakespeare, I admit that I took this title prepared to experience a little righteous indignation. However, I found an entertaining yarn worthy of a place by a Celtic fireside (though I am still not sure whether to laugh or cringe at the allusions to the Scottish play). Ms. Herring is, after all, correct when she points out that Shakespeare took as many liberties with the scant facts about this 11th century king as she does. This is a romance in the literary definition of the word: love, adventure, extraordinary characters, and a touch of the supernatural, and, with the romantic action (refreshingly) going no further than a kiss, you can happily pass this on to your own niece, too.
Susan Cook
NAJILA
C.J. Illinik, Kregel, 2007, $13.99, pb, 350pp, 9780825429071
Najila is the daughter of a Persian Muslim princess and a Byzantine Orthodox diplomat in 11th-century Baghdad. Orphaned at the age of seventeen, she leaves her childhood home to inherit her father’s estate in Constantinople. In this new world many obstacles confront her: the struggles of a female landowner, the integration of two cultures, an unexpected romance, and the decision of which spiritual path to embrace. What follows is a tale of discovery, love, adventure, and faith.
The prose is so ornate as to be flowery; this serves the novel’s exotic locales, but at times it weighs down the flow and makes dialogue feel somewhat stilted. Muslim characters are not portrayed in the most flattering light, but then neither are many of the Christians. However, the historical research is meticulous and the descriptions rich and vibrant; the writer is clearly passionate about her time period and settings while keeping her plot within genre traditions. For fans of inspirational romance, Najila will be an absorbing and captivating choice.
Heather Domin
LADY MACBETH
Susan Fraser King, Crown, 2008, $23.95/ C$29.95, hb, 304pp, 9780307341747
As the descendant of Scottish kings, young Gruadh is a valuable prize, as a man who marries her can claim the throne of Scotland. Married, pregnant, and widowed within a matter of months, Gruadh after her husband’s death is immediately claimed in marriage by another man—the warrior Macbeth, killer of her first husband.
King paints a vivid picture of the often brutal world of 11th-century Scotland, where
allegiances constantly shift and where peace is always elusive. Gruadh, who bears little resemblance to her Shakespearian counterpart, is a compelling heroine, fiercely protective of her lineage, proud of her Celtic heritage, and determined to fight for what she holds dear. Macbeth is not only a man of intense ambition, but a man of honor, a quality that Gruadh shares with him and that she gradually comes to recognize in her husband. Their evolving relationship, one between two strong-willed, intelligent people, is rendered skillfully. Gruadh tells her own story in a narrative voice that evokes the atmosphere of her time and place without feeling contrived or stilted.
As King points out in a detailed author’s note, little is known of the historical Lady Macbeth. Working with the information available, King has created a memorable portrait of a courageous woman.
Susan Higginbotham
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12th CENTURY
THE SERPENT’S TALE (UK title: THE DEATH MAZE)
Ariana Franklin, Putnam, 2008, $25.95, hb, 384pp, 9780399154647 / Bantam, May 2008, £12.99, hb, 320pp, 9780593056509
Adelia Aguilar is still in England after her detecting adventures as chronicled in Mistress of the Art of Death. King Henry II has refused to give his permission for her to leave the island, expecting that he may need to call upon her unique forensic skills once again. She is living a quiet life in the fens with her baby daughter when she is indeed summoned to look into the poisoning of Rosamund Clifford, King Henry’s mistress. The king, and most particularly Rowley Picot, the bishop of St. Albans, fear that Queen Eleanor will be blamed, and that this might set off more civil war. The country, wracked by that between Stephen and Maude, is loath to experience it again.
Rosamund lives in a tower surrounded by a maze, and when Adelia and her companions arrive, they find Eleanor’s entourage close behind. Adelia’s group is taken hostage and transported, in a harrowing winter journey, to the nunnery of Godstow, where everyone is trapped by a fierce snowstorm. In the meantime, other murders or attempted murders are occurring: several people connected to Rosamund’s poisoning, and a lone traveler whose body is found near the nunnery.
The Serpent’s Tale completely engaged this reader, just as its predecessor did. The politics of the time are brought vividly to life, as are the very limited powers a woman had over her own destiny. The murders and mysteries twine and intertwine, but are all cleverly and neatly resolved. The author’s note explains what was, what wasn’t, and what might have been.
Trudi E. Jacobson
STANDARD OF HONOR
Jack Whyte, Putnam, 2007, $25.95, hb, 624pp, 9780399154294
Standard of Honor is the second volume of Jack Whyte’s Templar trilogy. The story opens in 1187 with a small host of Crusaders preparing to face vastly superior Saracen forces in the Battle of Hattin. Alexander Sinclair is a young Scots Templar who fights heroically until he falls wounded. He escapes into the desert only to be taken prisoner.
In Europe, Richard I is assembling the armies of the Third Crusade. He calls upon his old master of arms, Henry St. Clair, to take up the cross and manage his forces. St. Clair accedes to his liege’s wishes in tacit return of a favor from Richard to his son, André. Richard then decrees that André will join the order of Templars and accompany him to the Holy Land as well. Unbeknownst to either Richard or Henry, André and the captive Alec Sinclair are members of the ancient and secret Brotherhood of Sion. Their paths would soon cross and their missions merge in the deserts of Outremer.
The novel opens and closes with battle scenes, written as only Jack Whyte can. His love of military strategy and medieval armament permeate the story, and a reader looking for action will not be disappointed. Yet Standard of Honor has a decidedly reflective side to it. True to the book’s title, its characters think hard about Richard’s perfidy and duplicitous behavior, his treatment of Jews, about the greed and venality of Church and Temple leaders. The question they wrestle with: How does a man set a standard of honor?
Thus, Standard of Honor can be read as an excellent Templar adventure or as an excellent Templar adventure with a great deal of food for thought. Either way, it’s going to be a great read.
Lucille Cormier
EVERLASTING
Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, William Morrow, 2007, $24.95/C$28.95, hb, 336pp, 9780060545529 / HarperCollins, 2007, £10.99, hb, 496pp, 9780061452925
If a serious historical novel is meat and potatoes, this romance is a sweet, fluffy dessert. Just don’t expect historical veracity. We enter a world in which young girls have the final word about their betrothals, men expect their wives to be equal partners—at least good men do— and instituting a job training program makes wonderful sense as a way to help the serfs in the 12th century. Is this England in the time of Stephen and Maude? Not exactly. But why not curl up and enjoy this female-oriented fantasy on its own terms?
With just a few words, Kathleen E. Woodiwiss can breathe life into a completely charming male character. Her Raven (that’s the hero’s name) is sensitive but manly, and has a delightful Scottish burr. However, he and beautiful Abrielle get off on the wrong foot, and, in order to save her
family from poverty, she becomes betrothed to the fiendish Desmond, who has already murdered two wives. Does Abrielle escape Desmond’s clutches? Do Raven and Abrielle eventually find true love? Kathleen E. Woodiwiss is not called the queen of historical romance for nothing. Once you start reading, chances are you’ll read right on until you find out.
Phyllis Smith
13th CENTURY
THE LAST TROUBADOUR
Derek Armstrong, Kunati, 2007, $24.95/ C$26.95, hb, 375pp, 1601640102
The year is 1240, and Ramon Troubadour has returned to his beloved Carcassonne. The once beautiful town, a cultural center of the Occitan, has been reduced to slums and ruins thanks to the Cathar crusades of the French and the fear and horror of the Inquisition. Ramon has returned to rescue The Jewel of the South, the key to the secret holy relic of Montségur – for which a dying pope will kill, and a king will go to war. Helped by a nameless one-eyed knight, a fighting damsel, a witch, and a circus of colorful entertainers on dancing horses, Ramon must use his famous voice and sense of humor to make new allies and rescue The Jewel – and prevent a new crusade.
The plot is complex and the action, once it gets going, moves quickly. The conceit of associating characters with the Major Arcana of the Tarot is an interesting one, but I found it confusing in the beginning as I was trying to get to know the plethora of characters. That said, Armstrong does a good job of weaving character lines and points of view together well, and Ramon is a winning protagonist. The combination of historical thriller and fantasy elements is seamless and engaging, and the historical details of life in Carcassonne during the Inquisition realistic.
However, this book would have benefited from another pass across the copyeditor’s desk and a stronger editorial hand. The number of typos, and the repetition of salient plot and historical points, was distracting. However, if you can overlook these issues, the story is engaging and the characters interesting and clearly drawn.
This book is the first in a trilogy, Song of Montségur; the next book, The Last Quest, will be out in Fall 2008.
Julie K. Rose
THE ALEHOUSE MURDERS
Maureen Ash, Berkley Prime Crime, 2007, $6.99/C$9.99, pb, 275pp, 9780425217658
AD 1200. In the bustling town of Lincoln, summer heat and drenching rain threaten to mar the festivities of the annual fair – only days away. But weather is not the biggest concern of the castle’s chatelaine, Nicolaa de la Haye, and her husband, Gerard Camville, sheriff of Lincoln. A taverner and two guests are found
stabbed to death. Two more murders follow –with the same M.O. Tension builds as the fair’s opening approaches and the killer is still on the loose.
Sir Bascot deMarins is a knight just returned from captivity in Outremer. Nicolaa has welcomed him into her household so he might regain his health. She requests his assistance in solving the murders. Bascot’s wit and perseverance yield success, but not before he exposes himself to fatal danger in a dramatic closing scene.
Apprehensions about yet another Templar Knight story quickly dissolve as Sir Bascot and the inhabitants of Lincoln emerge as fresh and complex characters. With an adopted Italian orphan and a fondness for candi, this Templar is his own man. The story is also fresh and complex with enough twists and red herrings to keep the reader thinking right to the end. Absolutely recommended to all medieval mystery fans.
Lucille Cormier
14th CENTURY
WORLD WITHOUT END
Ken Follett, Dutton, 2007, $35.00, hb, 1024pp, 9780525950073 / Macmillan, 2007, £20.00, hb, 1111pp, 9780333908426
World Without End, Ken Follett’s longanticipated sequel to his international bestseller The Pillars of the Earth, arrived with a great deal of fanfare and high expectations. Set two centuries after the construction of the gothic cathedral of Kingsbridge—an event that anchored the first book—Follett attempts, with varying degrees of success, to recreate his panoramic view of the medieval world. He once again offers an array of characters culled from the social strata, including a gifted architect, a woman caught between forbidden passion and the art of healing, a warm-hearted peasant girl, a psychopathic knight who becomes a noble, and an assortment of nuns, monks, townspeople, and serfs. While none of the characters are particularly innovative, Follett’s straightforward prose and impressive command of his various storylines sweep us into his fictional English town, where everyday life is overshadowed first by the folly of the Hundred Years War and then by the horrors of the Black Plague.
Engaging details abound, from the construction of a faulty bridge to the design of a revolutionary loom and the superstitions governing medicine; nevertheless, the novel falters in its emotional landscape. Without the trials and tragedies of building a cathedral to rally around, World Without End at times reads like a catalog of vaguely connected occurrences. The witnessing of a murder by the four central characters as children promises a mystery around which Follett will weave his epic tale, but this event is soon lost within a maelstrom of architectural disasters, thwarted love, clerical machinations, and other vicissitudes. Readers with stamina will emerge somewhat dazed but
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with an overall sense of accomplishment; those seeking another Pillars could be disappointed.
C.W.
Gortner
WARRIOR’S BRIDE
Gerri Russell, Leisure, 2007, $6.99/£5.99, pb, 325pp, 9780843959840
Douglas “Wolf” Stewart, bastard son of Scotland’s king, lives as his father’s pawn. The latest command: marry an orphan girl for reasons unrevealed. Wolf intends to disobey, but when he sees the girl he is determined to protect her – from what, he is not sure. Isobel Grange, abused and abandoned, has been a victim all her life. She carries memories of her mother’s madness and her father’s cruelty, and a deep fear of her destiny. That destiny is tied to the Stone she carries, a Stone that shows the future – not only her own, but Wolf’s, and perhaps that of the entire kingdom.
Fourteenth-century Scotland is a dark place in Warrior’s Bride, a place of supernatural powers and bloody betrayals as well as deep passions. The writer tells rather than shows, which is distracting, but the characters are sympathetic and alive, and the plot mixes romance, fantasy, and intrigue. Isobel, spiritless at first, matures into a strong heroine by the end; Wolf, with his checkered past, hides a deeper side of his own. The result is a page-turning historical romance, holding the reader’s attention until the unconventional conclusion.
Heather Domin
DAUGHTER OF YORK
Anne Easter Smith, Touchstone, 2008, $16.95, pb, 592pp, 0743277317
In Easter Smith’s second voyage into the lives and hearts of the children of the House of York, Margaret is put into clear focus after centuries of attention paid to her brothers, Edward IV and Richard III.
The story of the York progeny is one of legend. But as she did in A Rose for the Crown, Easter Smith takes a more creative approach to the retelling. She pairs Margaret with the one man who could have been her lifelong love – Anthony Woodville, Edward IV’s brotherin-law. Although there is nothing in historical annals that compels a finding that Margaret and Anthony were lovers, Easter Smith uses this “invention” to take whatever literary freedoms she needs to make Margaret a flesh-and-blood woman of her time, and one to whom modern women can relate.
navigating through Margaret’s early life immediately after her father’s death, through the throes of young womanhood and into maturity, all with impeccable detail to period (costume, court intrigues, music, dance) – yet never letting us lose sight of Margaret as a fully realized woman. The pages of this sizeable novel are peopled not only by the Yorks, but also by William Caxton, for instance, who clearly plays an important role in the Margaret-Anthony connection.
A dense, pleasurable read; highly recommended.
Ilysa Magnus
THE NICHOLAS FEAST
Pat McIntosh, Robinson, 2007, £6.99, pb, 332pp, 9781845295004 / Carroll & Graf, 2007, $14.99, pb, 304pp, 9780786719976
This is the second book in the Gil Cunningham series and begins, ‘Gil Cunningham said later that if he had known he would find a corpse in the coal house of Glasgow University, he would never have gone to the Arts Faculty feast.’
One of the students is found dead and although it appears to have been a prank that went wrong, Gil, a young and rising notary, is not convinced and sets out, with Alys to whom he is betrothed, to discover the truth. In the process he uncovers a web of espionage and blackmail involving both the students and tutors, and makes the acquaintance of Socrates, a grey, shaggy puppy.
15th CENTURY
N n
Y IMMORTAL
Politically astute, gutsy and wise, Margaret understood the way of the world. While recognizing that her marriage would be a political one – Edward married her off to Duke Charles of Burgundy, a miserable wretch by most accounts, notwithstanding his brilliant military mind – Margaret remained a significant player in political circles. Her counsel was often sought, even by Charles’s advisors and Charles himself. While Margaret remained childless (perhaps the greatest pain she bore), she was a generous, loving woman to her servants, her brother George’s illegitimate son who she raised, and the Burgundian people.
Easter Smith does an extraordinary job
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Traci L. Slatton, Delta, 2008, $14.00, pb, 528pp, 9780385339742
Traci L. Slatton’s highly inventive and lush debut novel follows Luca Bastardo across the 14th and 15th centuries in his search for his parents and for his own salvation. An orphan lost as a babe on the streets of Florence, Luca manages a bare-bones existence until—blessed and cursed by his outstanding beauty—as a very young boy he is kidnapped by murderous Silvano, who forces Luca to work in his brothel where children are used as prostitutes. But Luca has a gift: the ability to transport his mind to other realms, where the beauty of great works of art soothes him while he is forced to “work.” Luca has another gift, too. He does not age as others do, only growing a bit taller and filling out physically as the years pass. Or is this a curse? Is Luca a sorcerer or a freak and worthy of burning, as his enemies claim?
Space limits all the good things that might be said about this remarkable book; suffice it to say Luca escapes his captor—only to face Silvano’s progeny across the ages. Along the way, in vibrant conversations with luminaries of the Italian Renaissance (Giotto, Petrarca, Cosimo de’ Medici), Luca questions the wisdom of honoring a God whom he can only see as cruel. In his experience, beauty and art are the brothers of light and lead to salvation.
Driving Luca Bastardo through this compelling story is his root longing for a wife and a family of his own. Though Immortal at times seems relentlessly cruel, it is beautifully conceived and written and asks such questions as: What is history, the great swatches of events or the sum of individual lives? Which is more important?
The very highest recommendation.
Alana White
The story moves along well, twisting and turning in all directions. The characters are diverse and interesting and the detailed descriptions of university life in 15th century Glasgow are good. To add to its authenticity, the author has included the staff who were lecturing or working in the University at the time.
Marilyn Sherlock
THE RELUCTANT QUEEN
Jean Plaidy, Three Rivers, 2007, $14.95, pb, 450pp, 9780307346155
Richard III is possibly the most maligned of English kings. If for no other reason than that, Jean Plaidy’s alternate interpretation of his story through the eyes of Anne of York should be required reading.
The novel begins with the young Anne growing up in her father’s castle in York, where Edward, the heir to the English throne, and his younger brothers, Richard and George, come to be groomed as warriors. She is drawn to the weak and sickly Richard, and they become childhood friends. Their friendship endures, despite separation and estrangement and a complete shift of loyalties.
Unlike Shakespeare’s version of the story, Richard does not ultimately have to use his wiles to persuade Anne to wed him: she is predisposed because of their early history and her long-cherished inclination—which for a modern reader makes their marriage plausible. In addition, Plaidy handles the thorny problem of the death of the princes in the tower with
realistic depth and a true grasp of human nature.
All in all, Plaidy makes the nearly incomprehensible interweavings of Lancastrian and Yorkist factions reasonably easy to follow. Perhaps that is in part due to her deceptively simple writing style. In the case of such an involved piece of history, the repetitions and reuse of images serves to anchor rather than dull the story.
And, I must admit, the 450 pages went by very quickly. All Plaidy fans will be grateful for this quality paperback reprint of her novel.
Susanne Dunlap
THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT: A Leonardo da Vinci Mystery
Diane A.S. Stuckart, Berkley Prime Crime, 2008, $23.95/C$28.50, hb, 336pp, 9780425219232
Art is but one skill under scrutiny at Castle Sforza, Milan, in 1483. The Duke commands his court artist and engineer, Leonardo da Vinci, to orchestrate a live chess game in lieu of a duel with the French ambassador to claim ownership of a prized painting. When one of the “pieces” goes missing during intermission, Leonardo dispatches his favored apprentice, Dino, to search for the man who is found stabbed to death in the hidden garden. The Duke entreats Leonardo to find the killer with all due speed. He chooses Dino as his trusted assistant, and thus begins an adventure which takes the duo from castle to crypt, threading their way through the deceptive servants, scheming nobles and lascivious contessas to find a murderer who may kill again. This is a delightful and suspenseful tale of chess, art and detection set against a backdrop of human emotions. Highly recommended.
Tess Allegra
LADY OF THE ROSES
Sandra Worth, Berkley, 2008, $14.00, pb, 394pp, 0425219140
In this novel, we see the War of the Roses through the eyes of Isobel, the wife of Sir John Neville, brother of Warwick the Kingmaker. A ward of the Lancastrian queen Marguerite, she falls in love with John, though he is a Yorkist. Against all odds, they manage to marry. But as friends turn into enemies and switch back again, and even close family ties prove untrustworthy, their lives are tempest-tossed.
Fans of Sandra Worth’s award-winning Richard III trilogy, in which John and Isobel were minor characters, will relish this book. Richard and his beloved wife Anne make cameo appearances, and there is a deep affinity between Richard and John Neville. Worth sees them both as uncommonly decent men, living in a remarkably savage time. Because of the greed and power-seeking of others, John is again and again pulled in two directions by competing loyalties. Torn between his brother and his king, he grows in moral stature as he grapples with
a situation in which there is simply no good choice.
The novel is entirely written in first person from Isobel’s point of view, and she is a most perceptive and engaging witness to history. Isobel and John’s love story, and sixteen years of English history, culminating in the Battle of Barnet, are skillfully interwoven. Worth paints vivid, up-close portraits of many historical figures, among them Queen Marguerite, Elizabeth Woodville, and John Tiptoft, Isobel’s pious uncle, who is transformed by war into the Butcher of England. While it’s possible to differ with Worth’s take on certain people and events, her work rests on a firm foundation of historical accuracy. Both historical romance fans and those who are fascinated by this era will find much here to enjoy.
Phyllis T. Smith
some of the most trying and difficult times in her life.
Troy Reed
THE JEWEL TRADER OF PEGU
Jeffrey Hantover, Morrow, 2008, $21.95/ C$23.50, hb, 240pp, 9780061252709
In the 1590s, news reached Italy of the source of Asia’s outstanding jewels. Sailors’ tales were backed by samples, and so Abraham, a dutiful and good nephew, is sent by his uncle on the long and difficult journey from Venice to trade for the jewels that will make their family fortune. And there begins the tale of Abraham and what happens to him in Pegu, a Burmese kingdom noted for its rubies, sapphires, and spinels. Pegu, ruled by the usual foolish autocratic king, is now at war with its neighbours, and sold its jewels to foreigners to keep the king in the kind of excessive luxury he preferred.
16th CENTURY
N nELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE
Tasha Alexander, HarperEntertainment, 2007, $13.95/C$16.50, pb, 304pp, 9780061431234 / HarperCollins, 2007, £8.99, pb, 304pp, 9780061431234
Tasha Alexander, author of And Only to Deceive, offers readers the novelization of the 2007 motion picture Elizabeth: the Golden Age, sequel to the 1998 Academy Awardwinning film Elizabeth. The novel takes place during the late 16th century, a time of political uncertainty in England, due to the growing threat of the Spanish and King Philip II’s wish to restore England to Catholicism. Adding to the increasing tension at court is the pressure for Elizabeth I to choose a husband.
However, Elizabeth’s life is not all gloom. After several attempts to gain an audience with the queen, adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh is admitted to Elizabeth’s court and brings gifts from the New World. Elizabeth is immediately intrigued by Raleigh, finding his charm and good looks hard to ignore. Also smitten by Raleigh is Elizabeth’s chief lady-in-waiting, Bess. The attraction between Raleigh and Bess becomes difficult to deny, eventually leaving Elizabeth devastated and betrayed.
As Spain’s threats become more pronounced, Elizabeth’s spymaster, Walsingham, warns her about assassination plots and the mounting evidence pointing toward the fact that her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, is involved. This treachery leaves Elizabeth with many difficult decisions ahead.
Laced with treason, betrayal, secrecy, and passion throughout, Alexander does a fine job exploring the complexities of Elizabeth’s nature, taking readers on an emotional ride portraying what she went through in order to hold on to her crown. The novel is extremely entertaining, though it lacks historical accuracy, which Alexander acknowledges in her author’s note. Recommended for those wanting a quick, light read of what Elizabeth might have felt during
Abraham is sombre and solemn. Born in the Jewish Ghetto in Venice, losing his parents to the plague when a babe, and his wife and child during the child’s birth, he has become morose, inward-looking and philosophical. On the journey and in Pegu he writes long letters to his cousin, Joseph, and this is how we read his story. For him Pegu is freedom. No longer forced to live in the Jews’ Ghetto, wear the yellow hat or star, and be home by sunset, he revels in the vivid and very different tropical city life. All traders are strangers and foreigners, and Abraham is just one more, not marked out for his religion. But then he finds that he is expected to initiate selected brides on their wedding night, a blow to this devout man. From that tangle of conscience and duty comes a most unlikely love.
This is a first novel of merit, a quiet and thoughtful read about different kinds of freedoms, about prejudice and about finding oneself, about culture shock and cultural differences. Watching Abraham open out like a flower in the society of Pegu, we too gain insights into what people can become. A book to reread and cherish.
Patrika Salmon
THE REAVERS
George MacDonald Fraser, HarperCollins, 2007, £18.99, hb, 230pp, 9780007253838 / Knopf, April 2008, $24, hb, 288pp, 9780307268105
The Reavers is a saucy fantasy romp in the vein of MacDonald Fraser’s Pyrates. It is set in the border region of Scotland, sometime in the reign of Good Queen Bess, as dastardly Spaniards plot to take over the kingdoms of Scotland and England and introduce beer by the litre. The plot, however, is not the thing as characters are all. A wonderful array of characters comes and goes, sometimes at the most peculiar times. Heroes abound, like Lady Godiva Dacre, wilful, passionate and proud to bursting; and Bonny Gilderoy, Errol Flynn with a Glasgow accent, while villains dazzle, like La Infamosa, the Mata Hari of Manzanilla. Add in a Geordie Dirty Dozen, farthingales, much quivering of bosoms and many bucklings of swash, mix
with language that is part Elizabethan prose and part modern slang, and you have a heady brew. This is a very enjoyable read, but perhaps more for fans of Pyrates than those of the Flashman novels.
Gordon O’Sullivan
A FIRE WITHIN
Kathleen Morgan, Revell, 2007, $12.99, pb, 311pp, 0800759650
In 16th-century Scotland, Caitlin, cherished sister of the head of the Campbell clan, is abducted by Dar, an outcast from an outlawed clan, who hopes to exchange her for his brother whom the Campbells have imprisoned. Dar is the most honorable and attractive of kidnappers, and he and Caitlin fall in love. Can they clear Dar’s name and get Caitlin’s brother to accept them as husband and wife?
The novel has a religious subplot, as Caitlin seeks to deepen her faith when matters look darkest. It gives her character real dimension, but the dialogue does get preachy. Occasionally Morgan’s Highlanders use terminology that could be lifted from a modern business memo. (“No matter that Nara wedding either of us would’ve brought Clan MacNaghten the prestige and influx of additional funds we so desperately needed.”) However, the story is expertly crafted and full of pulse-pounding, unexpected twists, and the main characters are well drawn and likeable. Historical romance fans may willingly overlook any flaws, and just enjoy meeting Caitlin and Dar.
This is Book 3 in Morgan’s These Highland Hills series, but no knowledge of the earlier books is required to follow the story.
Phyllis T. Smith
AS HIGH AS THE HEAVENS
Kathleen Morgan, Revell, 2008, $13.99, pb, 368pp, 9780800758165
It is 1568, and a group of loyalists plan to rescue Mary Queen of Scots from her imprisonment in Lochleven Castle by boldly replacing one of her captors with Duncan Mackenzie, a man who looks exactly like the queen’s jailor. Raised in the highlands as the son of a crofter, Duncan is, in fact, the identical twin brother of Colin Stewart, heir to the Stewart fortunes. Heather Gordon is sent north to train Duncan to act and sound like a nobleman, but she must never let him learn of his true parentage. The attraction between teacher and student is immediate. But when Duncan learns the truth of his birth and, worse, that Heather has been a party to the secrecy, all hopes for their future together are ruined.
There are many charming aspects to this romance, but it was a disappointment that the foundational building block of the story—the transformation of a lout into a nobleman—was given scant attention beyond Heather teaching Duncan to play chess, then handing him a book of manners. Duncan is an appealing hero, however, and Heather overcomes the character
Y THE PRINCIPESSA
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Christie Dickason, Harper, 2007, £6.99, pb, 502pp, 9780007230396
We first met the Firemaster, Francis Quoynt, embroiled in the Gunpowder Plot in the pages of The Firemaster’s Mistress. As this new adventure opens, he is still employed by the wily Robert Cecil but now only as a creator of lavish firework shows to entertain the rich and idle. Kicking his heels in frustration at the diminution of his talents – for he comes from a line of soldiers and explosives experts – he is quick, too quick perhaps, to agree to Cecil’s latest plan: this time to help him wriggle out of a massive and top secret loan extracted from the dying and insane Prince of La Spada, an Italian city state, a hotbed of intrigue and danger where it helps to keep one’s wits honed as sharp as one’s dagger. As usual, Cecil is not telling Francis the whole truth. Once arrived, Francis meets Sofia, the Prince’s daughter, who, although very young, is already well-versed in keeping secrets and disguising her true intentions. Is Cecil to be trusted? Is anyone, especially Sofia? And has our honest and straightforward soldier hero finally bit off more than he can chew?
This is a fabulous read I would recommend to anyone who enjoy historical adventure and intrigue, twists and turns but also to those who revel in a poignant and powerful love story. There’s something for everyone, and it’s beautifully written as well. What more could anyone ask? I cannot for the life of me understand why Christie Dickason’s novels are not better known and appreciated. It’s high time
flaws that keep them apart. Taken altogether, this is an enjoyable Highland romance.
Nancy J. Attwell
N17th CENTURY
nJAMESTOWN WOMAN
Sue Allan, Domtom Publishing, 2007, £6.99, pb, 275pp, 9781906070014
About a year ago I read and enjoyed Mayflower Maid, which told the story of an obscure servant woman’s adventures on the ship and in the New World. Now here is the sequel, and as middle books of trilogies so often tread water I wondered if the high standard would be there. I need not have worried because this is another excellent book, dealing with Bessie’s reunion with her true husband Thomas, their stay in Jamestown and subsequent adventures back in England during the Civil War.
This is another book that manages expertly to get under the skin of 17th century people, what drove them, their everyday lives, mores and concerns. There are probably fewer novels published about this century than any other in the last half millennium, so this is another treat. Even more so are the almost tangible descriptions of the places in the story, and the very real-seeming characters that populate them. No modern folk in historical dress here; this is history without the varnish and idealization, without too much dwelling on dirt and despair. I felt that I had read a long story although this is just a short book, and look forward to the final part with relish. Real historical fiction!
Rachel A Hyde
THE MUSKETEER’S APPRENTICE
Sarah D’Almeida, Berkley Prime Crime, $6.99/
Sally Zigmond
C$9.99, pb, 314pp, 978425217696
Seeking his apprentice’s killer, Musketeer Porthos calls upon his comrades for aid in this plot-twisting historical mystery set during the reign of France’s Louis XIII.
A young boy begs the Musketeer, by plying at his vanity and ineptly attempting blackmail, to teach him the art of the sword. Charmed, Porthos agrees, though he knows little of the young noble. When he turns up dead, the grieved Musketeer gathers his friends D’Artagnan, Athos and Aramis. Together they seek to discover the boy’s identity and murderer as they delve into some harrowing adventures along the way.
The Musketeer’s Apprentice is charming and energetic, and D’Almeida certainly doesn’t do any injustice to these classic characters; quite the opposite, she makes them uniquely her own. Each character is abundantly fleshed out, and their back stories become more than just background as you’re utterly absorbed by them. The atmosphere is intense, and the historical details not forgotten, sprinkled in with good measure and for good reason throughout. This is a highly entertaining, very rollicking, delightful read.
Wendy Zollo
CALLIGRAPHY OF THE WITCH
Alicia Gaspar de Alba, St. Martin’s Press, 2007, $24.95/C$28.95/ £17.99, hb, 370pp, 0312366418
Calligraphy of the Witch explores the horrors of the Salem witch trials through the eyes of a Latina slave. Concepción Benavides spent her early life cloistered in New Spain, learning calligraphy as an indentured servant to a poetic nun. Upon escaping, she’s captured, raped, and sold into slavery by pirates. She is renamed
17th Century
Thankful Seagraves by her new mistress, a Boston merchant’s wife, who is jealous of Concepción’s pregnancy. Concepción fights to preserve her cultural past and her relationship with her daughter, only to watch as both slip away. Before long, Concepción finds herself a target of the witch hunt madness, thanks to a shocking act of betrayal.
Overall, the plot is complex and the characters well drawn, and the time and place (late 17th-century Massachusetts) rendered convincingly although, at the beginning, the details feel somewhat shoe-horned in and a bit contrived. The book gets off to a somewhat rocky start, whipping the reader around with point-of-view shifts and multiple flashbacks, but settles in about 50 pages in and achieves a good, steady pace. The dialog throughout, however, is somewhat stilted, feeling expository rather than natural. Though the themes of fear of the Other and man’s often cruel dominion over women sometimes seem a bit pedantic, Gaspar de Alba did a good job of making me care about Concepción and her story, and offers an intriguing new view of the Salem witch trials.
Julie K. Rose
THE BUTCHER OF SMITHFIELD
Susanna Gregory, Sphere, 2008, £18.99/$24.95, hb, 503pp, 9781847440624
London 1663: Lord Clarendon’s spy Thomas Chaloner returns from a foreign assignment to an unfriendly greeting from his unreasonable paymaster. He has three days to prove how solicitor Newburne died; meanwhile, no back pay. Tom, with sixpence in his pocket, plunges into a city drowning in torrential rain and gales as the Thames rises, river traffic ceases and bridges collapse. London has changed in other ways: with the removal of Cromwell’s iron hand, the streets are dominated by merciless bullies. The most fear-inducing are the Hectors, enforcers of the seldom seen but sinister Butcher of Smithfield.
Tom’s enquiries provoke outbursts of escalating violence as he traipses, increasingly battered and knee-deep in muddy, sewageladen water, faced with mounting unnatural deaths and unanswered questions: How does L’Estrange, ranting editor of governmentcensored, tedious newsbooks, stay in business when the uncensored and lively handwritten newsletters of suave operators, Muddiman and Dury, are enormously popular? Who is writing excruciatingly unmelodious music? Can’t Tom’s best friend, Leybourn, perceive that his bride is one of the most odious women ever to be encountered in fiction? Is anybody what they seem? The author generously scatters clues throughout.
For this first-time reader Tom Chaloner goes straight into the honourable league of fictional investigators: brave, persistent and incorruptible. The dialogue throughout is a delight, especially Tom’s one-liners in exchanges with his tetchy employer. A map would be nice, in addition to
the one half-hidden on the cover of my proof copy.
Nancy Henshaw
THE GOLDEN TULIP
Rosalind Laker, Three Rivers, 2007, $14.95/ C$21.00, pb, 576pp, 9780307352576
Love is in full bloom in this Laker reprint, set against the rich backdrop of 17th-century Holland. Francesca Visser is a talented young artist who longs to become a Master Painter and guild member. Her father, Hendrik Visser, also a painter, is plagued with gambling and drinking problems. Hendrik loses a vast amount of money in a high stakes card game and sees no other choice but to take a loan from Ludolf van Deventer, a ship owner and patron with a shady past. In return for the loan, Hendrik signs a contract authorizing the marriage of Francesca and Ludolf. Francesca is unaware of her impending marriage to Ludolf, a man whom she instinctively distrusts.
Francesca leaves Amsterdam to begin her apprenticeship with the artist Jan Vermeer in Delft. Upon arrival at the boardinghouse, she is presented with a list of strict, uncompromising rules written her in father’s hand. Francesca can not fathom her father’s reasoning since the rules forbid most of the freedoms she enjoyed at home. During her apprenticeship, Francesca falls in love with Pieter van Doorne, a tulip grower whom she had met in Amsterdam. As the relationship between Pieter and Francesca develops, Ludolf shows his true colors and dangerous nature.
Laker provides absorbing detail of both daily life in Holland and the developing political situation of the time. The lives of Francesca’s two younger sisters are woven into the story, producing a rich tapestry filled with family, romance, and light suspense. The story unfolds at a leisurely pace, allowing the reader to savor the details yet anxiously turn the page to find out what happens next. With its mix of history, politics, and painting, this is a thoroughly enjoyable and satisfying read.
Troy Reed
WIFE TO CHARLES II
Hilda Lewis, Tempus, 2007, $12.50/£6.99, pb, 384pp, 0752439480
In this reissue of a novel first published in 1965, author Lewis gamely attempts to relate the story of Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza, destined almost from birth to marry Charles II of England. The era of Restoration England, an exciting, lively and bawdy period marked by such monumental events as the Great Plague, the Great Fire of London, the merry Stuart monarch’s multiple liaisons, and court intrigues between the Catholic and Protestant factions concerning the succession, here provides a pallid and nearly lifeless backdrop to the story. Flamboyant, glittering figures of the day, including the infamous Barbara, Lady Castlemaine, the witty actress Nell Gwyn, the
ambitious Monmouth, the Catholic heir-inwaiting James Duke of York, and the notorious Louise de Kerouaille, stride across the novel’s canvas, but most are underdeveloped, wooden, and frustratingly one-note characters. Villains like the powerful Lord Shaftesbury and Titus Oates fare no better. In fact, the lazy, profligate, and charming Charles II is the only character who seems three-dimensional; even the loyal, loving Catherine, who is portrayed sympathetically and with admiration, and who is supposed to be the novel’s center, never clearly comes into focus Unevenly and sometimes awkwardly written, overlong, and slow-paced and ponderous in style, this novel was a major disappointment. Although they are more romanticized in nature, I’d recommend either With All My Heart by Margaret Campbell Barnes or Jean Plaidy’s The Pleasures of Love instead of this title, for fuller, more interesting chronicles of the life and times of Catherine of Braganza.
Michael I. Shoop
THE DRAGONS OF THE STORM
George Robert Minkoff, McPherson & Co., 2007, $24.95, hb, 352pp, 9780929701813
Captain John Smith, upon his election as president of the Jamestown Colony in the 1620s, wishes to organize the colonists to become self-sufficient and produce their own food to survive the harsh winters of the Virginia coast. Unfortunately, politics and greed play against his desire to make the colony succeed. While on an exploration and trading expedition to the Chesapeake Bay, the ancient mariner Jonas Profit continues his tale of Sir Francis Drake. Several years earlier, Drake was forced by the Spanish in the Pacific to circumnavigate the globe. He returned home to England a hero, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, and then was ordered to lead an English squadron of ships to prevent invasion by the fleet known today as the infamous Spanish Armada.
This novel is volume two in the Land of Whispers Trilogy, continuing the saga of both John Smith and Francis Drake. While each man is faced with fighting enemies of the English empire and contends with others who hold wealth and power, both work toward their own visions of a colonial empire.
This is an extraordinarily well-written series of books. I believe that years from now, critics of fine literature will rank these books with the writings of Patrick O’Brian and Dorothy Dunnett as great historical fiction – thoroughly researched and written with exceptional prose. I am looking forward to reading Mr. Minkoff’s final episode about the Land of Whispers.
Jeff Westerhoff
LOYAL IN LOVE:
Henrietta Maria, Wife of Charles I
Jean Plaidy, Three Rivers, 2007, $14.95, pb, 432pp, 9780307346162
Plaidy’s eighth novel in her Queens of
17th
England series, a reprint of the 1983 title Myself, My Enemy, brings readers the story of Henrietta Maria, the oft-forgotten wife of England’s Charles I.
Henrietta, daughter of King Henry IV of France, was a strong-willed, opinionated young woman when she came to England as the wife of Charles I in 1625. Charles and Henrietta engaged in conflict during their early years of marriage, but soon they found a common ground and fell deeply in love with one another. Throughout their lives together, Henrietta was fiercely loyal to her husband, though they suffered much heartache in the loss of many of their children.
The English people, however, were none too kind to her. She met with suspicion and hatred from the very start because of her religious background as a Catholic, whereas her husband was a Protestant. She was never fully embraced as England’s queen.
Loyal in Love is rich in details, family struggles, and political intrigue, and the rise of Cromwell and the Puritans is skillfully depicted. Henrietta tried to rally support and raise funds to support Charles and the Royalist cause during the English Civil War, but by turning to those she knew well, such as the French and the Pope, Henrietta angered her countrymen even more, putting her husband in even more danger.
Using the first person, Plaidy does a remarkable job of allowing readers insight into Henrietta’s thoughts, feelings, and deep regrets over the course of her long life. Henrietta is portrayed realistically as a woman made somber and introspective over time as she reflects how her own beliefs were used against her, ultimately leading to the downfall and execution of her husband. A riveting must read about one of the most dramatic and turbulent periods in England’s history.
Troy Reed
THE SNOW EMPRESS
Laura Joh Rowland, Minotaur, 2007, $24.95, hb, 304pp, 9780312365424
Sano Ichiro, the Shogun’s favorite detective, finds himself entwined in Japan’s political machinations. The year is 1699, one Sano will not soon forget, for Sano and Reiko’s son has disappeared, and all efforts to discover his whereabouts are futile. Sano is then ordered to investigate why the ruler of Ezogashima in Japan’s Hokkaido region has neither appeared nor communicated the reason for missing his respectful attendance upon the Shogun. Tempted to refuse, Sano is shocked to learn the truth of his son’s kidnapping and thus is forced to agree to what he knows is Lord Matsudaira’s manipulative plot to reduce Sano’s influence on the Shogun.
Sano and Reiko are startled to find Ezogashima’s ruler, Lord Matsumae, has gone mad over the death of his concubine. Sano is told that both the Japanese samurai and the native people believe Matsumae is possessed
by Tekare’s shamanic ghost. At the brink of his own death sentence, Sano shrewdly promises to solve the mystery of Tekare’s murder, knowing he may also be able to find his son in the process. As the investigation begins, Sano and Reiko learn much about this strange, enslaved people who refuse to surrender their pride and dignity to those they view as foreign tyrants.
The Snow Empress is taut with spinning turns, discoveries, loyalty, treachery, threats and truths, leading to a most unexpected ending. Laura Joh Rowland’s twelfth thriller is definitely her best novel in this remarkable series.
Viviane Crystal
TIGER CLAWS: A Novel of India
John Speed, St. Martin’s Press, 2007, $27.95/£17.99, hb, 448pp, 9780312325510
In The Temple Dancer, John Speed immersed the reader in the mid-17th century Mogul Empire and, though that novel can be read as a standalone, it sets up the ambitious story to be told in this sequel, Tiger Claws. A few of the characters from Temple Dancer appear here, but only as subsidiary players (though the end of the novel seems to imply that some will be back in a big way in the final installation in this trilogy). Basant, a highly placed eunuch, provides entrée for the reader into the world of Shah Jahan and his intriguing (in both meanings of the word) children. As the Shah busies himself with drugs and sex (sadly, no rock ‘n roll), two of his sons plot furiously for the throne, aided by a
Y MISTRESS OF THE REVOLUTION
cavalcade of nobles, the military, and eunuchs. Dara is the spoiled favorite, but he’s more than met his match in his clever, dangerous brother Aurangzeb, and while they wrestle for the throne, a Hindu thief, Shivaji, plots to reclaim his rightful place as ruler of his own small kingdom—which ultimately figures in Dara and Aurangzeb’s power struggles.
Like Temple Dancer, the setting in Tiger Claws is immersive—India is drawn with depth and detail, from the customs to the religion to the food, and the characterization is well-realized. While The Temple Dancer focused mainly on two female characters with strong male subsidiary characters, Tiger Claws is just the opposite, so readers expecting a linear continuation of the characterization and storyline from that novel may be a bit surprised. Tiger Claws doesn’t disappoint, however, and the epic, fast-paced storyline, while tying up some loose ends, leaves off rather suddenly— ensuring the reader will eagerly await the next and final installation in the trilogy.
Bethany Latham
N18th CENTURY
ALL FOR LOVE
Amanda Elyot, NAL, 2008, $14.00/C$16.50, pb, 432pp, 9780451222978
Elyot has written three fictional memoirs about women whose passions ruled their lives.
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Catherine Delors, Dutton, 2008, $24.95/C$31.00, hb, 464pp, 9780525950547
Though Gabrielle de Montserrat was born into the minor aristocracy of France’s Auvergne region and conventeducated, she is less concerned with class distinctions than her cruel mother and possessive brother. Her budding love for Pierre-André, a young medical student, rouses her family’s wrath, resulting in a hasty marriage to a wealthy baron. Matrimony teaches Gabrielle harsh lessons in endurance but provides her with a daughter, Aimée. In the aftermath of her husband’s death she hastens to Paris. Her impoverished state is alleviated by her cousin and social patron, a duchess with access to the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.
The perceptive Gabrielle enters society while still retaining the outsider status that ensures acute observations and a critical perspective. Her new life presents many difficult choices, including whether or not to live under the generous protection of the Count de Villers, an aristocrat with republican sympathies who eventually allies himself with the revolutionaries. When love brings danger, she and her little girl are swept up in the events of the day, and with their lives at stake she is forced to turn to her first suitor, Pierre-André—now a judge carrying out the harsh edicts of the revolutionary tribunals. Cast down from the heights of society, an intimate of the architects of change, eventually she, like her friends and foes, is arrested and imprisoned.
From a distance of many years, Gabrielle weaves her tale and exposes her secrets— eminently pragmatic, admirably unsentimental, and consistently sympathetic. Delors, a native Frenchwoman, provides a comprehensive yet intricately detailed portrait of this turbulent era and its characters—from the proud Queen herself to a rapacious, moneygrubbing landlord. A most impressive literary debut, this outstanding novel of the French Revolution is well worth reading.
Margaret Barr
Like Helen of Troy (The Memoirs of Helen of Troy) and Emma Hamilton (Too Great a Lady), her latest heroine, Mary Robinson, was a noted beauty whose adulterous love affair reverberated down through history. Unfortunately, this brief interlude has overshadowed her more noteworthy accomplishments. Readers who know her solely as a royal paramour will learn much from this novel.
We meet Mary Darby as a child in 1765 Bristol, as her merchant father abandons his family to sail to distant Labrador—where he keeps a native mistress. Alas, Mary’s three principal lovers resemble her dashing papa all too well. Her nascent acting gifts encouraged by Garrick himself, Mary becomes the toast of Drury Lane, her every move watched, her every fashion imitated. Yet her marriage at fifteen to womanizing spendthrift Tom Robinson brings her no happiness save a daughter, Maria, and her liaison with the Prince of Wales proves but a passing fancy for His Royal Highness. Mary’s relationship with British cavalryman Ban Tarleton lasts considerably longer; meanwhile, her prolific, celebrated literary efforts pay the bills and distract her from his frequent absences.
The ornate writing style feels authentic, echoing the technique employed by the real Mary in her autobiography. As with all biographical novels that span an entire lifetime, some sections stand out more than others. Here Mary’s early career and amours take precedence, while her later life jumps years with each chapter. Ironically, in this novel about a woman who gave all for love, the moral may be to
Y SOMEONE KNOWS MY NAME
beware of faithless men, yet Mary emerges as a sympathetic and courageous figure, reinventing herself as necessary and making the most of her innate talents. And as a reminder of the fleeting nature of celebrity, Mary’s story, in Elyot’s hands, is heartfelt and believable.
Sarah Johnson
DEATH IN HELLFIRE
Deryn Lake, Allison & Busby, 2007, £19.99/$25.95, hb, 328pp, 9780749080761
This is the latest novel in Deryn Lake’s excellent John Rawlings mystery series. After his adventures in Cornwall, told in Death and the Cornish Fiddler, John Rawlings is back in London, amongst his familiar set of friends – his adopted father, his friend Samuel Swann, and, of course, his mentor Sir John Fielding, who asks him to investigate what he fears is a politically subversive society, known to history as the Hell Fire Club.
Disguised as the son of an Irish peer, John is invited to dine by Sir Francis Dashwood at West Wycombe Park, where he meets his ex-mistress, Coralie Clive, now married, with a ten-year-old daughter. It is her husband who John finds dead in the grounds, after a night of debauchery at Medmenham Abbey, murdered by one of a long list of possible suspects, including his daughter.
Full of descriptions of Georgian London, and with an admirable depiction of a certain set of Georgian aristocrats, Death in Hellfire keeps up the standard set by the very first book in the series, with flashes of humour, a pleasantly sketched love affair for a secondary character, and a well-worked out resolution. Altogether a
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Lawrence Hill, Norton, 2007, $24.95, hb, 512pp, 9780393065787
Aminata Diallo is enslaved as a child in 1745 and lives through six decades by working in the indigo fields of South Carolina, Revolutionary War-torn New York City, and free communities in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone. She survives the kidnapping that kills her parents and terrible losses that invade her life with heart-sick regularity.
Aminata’s hard work and deep intelligence gain her literacy in English. Her life on the plantation is both unspeakably brutal and full of hidden joys she finds with an adoptive mother and the man who will become the love of her life.
After arriving in New York bound to a second master, who uses the accomplishments of her mind, Aminata escapes to live and work her midwifery and correspondence skills in New York City. Here, as the American Revolution is winding down, she participates in setting down an amazing document, The Book of Negroes, a list of Loyalist blacks rewarded with safe passage to Canada (where they faced race riots from their white neighbors).
Later in life, Aminata assists English abolitionist-sponsored repatriation in Africa, where her desire to see her home village almost re-enslaves her. But she achieves her childhood dream of becoming a djeli, an honored storyteller, with the story of her own life as her material.
Astonishing in scope, humanity and beauty, this is one of those very rare novels in which the deep joy of reading transcends its time and place. Like To Kill a Mockingbird, Someone Knows My Name lets readers experience a life, one footstep at a time, beside an unforgettable protagonist. Highly recommended.
Eileen Charbonneau
highly readable story.
TROUBLED WATERS
jay Dixon
Dewey Lambdin, St. Martin’s Press, 2008, $24.95, hb, 320pp, 0312348053
This is the 14th in the Alan Lewrie series, Lewrie now being a captain in His Majesty’s Navy of the late 18th century.
Rollicking is the only appropriate adjective to describe this book – zesty, hearty, and uninhibited in the way of Georgian life before the Regency. The story is a meaty adventure with lots of swordplay and thoughts of sex, a truly hilarious yet horrifying look at the justice (more like injustice) system, and some fascinating insights into a naval gentleman’s life. Captain Lewrie is no saint, but the novel contains a clever explanation of condoms and 18th century wives’ fears of pregnancy and childbirth, so the reader is able to bring greater understanding to Lewrie and his mistresses.
Author Lambdin writes of the sea and the navy with comfortable ease, allowing the reader to believe in his created world. He clearly enjoys the mischief his character gets into and obviously has a large readership eagerly awaiting the next novel. Anyone who likes naval historical novels should enjoy this, and anyone wanting a good introduction to the 18th century couldn’t do better than to read this book. It’s a ripping good read.
Patrika Salmon
THE QUEEN OF BEDLAM
Robert McCammon, Pocket, 2007, $16.00, pb, 645pp, 9781416551119 / also $26.00, hb, 656pp, 9781416552611
Early 18th century New York is a raw and unformed place. Young law clerk Matthew Corbett is trying to make his way, but is unable to let go of his quest to expose the evil doings of Eben Ausley, the director of the orphanage where he spent his youth. He is very quickly distracted from his purpose, though, by the fact that there is a murderer at large who strikes three times in a very distinctive way, carving a pattern around the eyes of his victims so that he earns the nickname “The Masker.”
In the meantime, Matthew’s intelligence and diligence are noticed by his employer, who recommends him to the business of a newcomer to town, Katharine Herrald. Mrs. Herrald’s agency solves problems—in fact, it’s the first private detective agency in New York. Through his association with Mrs. Herrald and her associate, Hudson Greathouse, Matthew begins to learn the arts of self-defense, and becomes further embroiled in a dangerous plot involving a diabolical criminal called Professor Fell. Most mysteriously of all, everything appears to lead to an elderly lady who has remained imprisoned in her own silence in a sanatorium near Philadelphia.
The complicated plot is well developed in this long novel, and the setting is convincingly
authentic. Yet one can’t help but feel disappointed that McCammon opted for easy readability over authenticity. The anachronisms of expression become more and more numerous as the novel continues. Despite all that, the breathtaking ending is effective, and will reward the reader who makes it through all 645 pages. And McCammon leaves us with the distinct impression that there will be sequels.
Susanne Dunlap
BONE RATTLER
Eliot Pattison, Counterpoint, 2008, $26.00/£15.99, hb, 464pp, 9781593761851
It’s the mid-18th century, and young Highland Scot Duncan McCallum is on a convict ship bound for the New World. Most of his family has been slaughtered, and he’s having a hard time with the yoke of British oppression himself. He witnesses a series of murders and suicides among his fellow passengers, and goes diving into the Atlantic to save another. When he reaches New York he finds the French and Indian War in full swing, and his troubles really begin.
Once indentured to empire builder Lord Ramsey as a tutor to his children and connected to his utopian community in the Hudson Valley, Duncan scrambles to understand both his new setting and the continuing series of murders that follow in his wake. The conflicts among armies both private and government-backed, allies and enemies among the Huron, the French and members of the Iroquois Confederacy, and the knowledge that his soldier brother has become a renegade, make a mix to try his soul.
A string of dead people haunts the story, at times seeming more alive than the survivors. Also hauntingly beautiful are the bonds between the cultures of the Scots Highlanders and the Indians, both “true skin” peoples. Dark, complex and compelling in mystery, historical, and spiritual considerations, the reader wonders along with Duncan whether the New World will see oppression extended or explode in a new burst of freedom.
Eileen Charbonneau
UNDER ENEMY COLORS (UK title: UNDER ENEMY COLOURS)
S. Thomas Russell, Putnam, 2007, $25.95/ C$32.50, hb, 486pp, 9780399154430 / Sean Thomas Russell, Michael Joseph, 2008, £12.99, hb, 496pp, 9780718153410
It is 1793, and the French revolutionary wars are just getting underway. France and England battle for control of the seas. Embroiled in this is Lieutenant Charles Hayden of the British Royal Navy. But all is not well. Being of mixed parentage (his father English and his mother French) and having no political connections, he is denied promotion and assigned to the frigate Themis, a ship captained by Josiah Hart, who is well known for both his cowardice in the face of the enemy and his tyrannical command of his ship. He maintains this sorry state of
affairs because he has powerful friends in the Admiralty. Once aboard, Charles discovers that the crew is on the verge of mutiny. He becomes an instant adversary of Hart, but a number of the officers and sailors back Charles. In short order, even before they sail, he impresses them with his seamanship and integrity as a firm but fair officer. Once out to sea, the ship’s physician and Charles take advantage of the captain’s illness so that Charles takes command. He leads the Themis into a successful engagement with the French that Hart would have sailed away from. From here on, adventures on the high seas begin.
S. Thomas Russell has written an engaging novel of life aboard ships at war in the 1790s. In Charles Hayden, he creates a protagonist caught in the turmoil of war, politics, and society at that time. Charles is a character clearly at home at sea and a man of honorable character with a desire to command firmly yet fairly. Comparisons will be made with O’Brian and Forester, but Russell’s adventure into these busy waters stands well. For fans of this genre, this is a must read.
Gerald T. Burke
FASHION’S LADY
Sandra Wilson, Hale, 2007, £18.99, hb, 224pp, 9780709083122
On the death of her mother, Susannah Garland goes to live with her uncle, Lord Devereux, and cousin, Miles, at Sanderby, not far from London, where she is tolerated by her uncle and in love with her cousin. She is therefore devastated to learn that not only is her cousin to marry Lady Agnes Winston, but that she, Susannah, is to be sent away to Ireland. Believing that she has an aunt in London, she leaves Sanderby in order to find her, only to discover that her aunt has died and she is now on her own in the capital, without money or references and with only her abilities as a seamstress to recommend her to any potential employer. To make matters worse, she encounters Sir Jeffrey Stratton, who despises her family.
The story unfolds against the background of 18th century London, its life and commerce, and underlying it are the political undercurrents of the day. I found the book to be a real page turner. The characterisation was good, the life of the beau monde beautifully portrayed and although the final outcome, as with all of this genre, was never in doubt, it made for a fascinating story. This is one I could happily read again.
Marilyn Sherlock
19th CENTURY
A PROPER PURSUIT
Lynn Austin, Bethany House, 2007, $13.99, pb, 432pp, 9780764228919
In 1893, after returning home to Illinois from finishing school, 20-year-old high-spirited Violet Hayes discovers that her mother was not actually recovering in a health sanitarium, but had in fact simply abandoned her family and
filed for divorce. What’s worse is that her father plans to remarry. Reeling from such shocking news, Violet sets off for Chicago under the guise of seeing the World’s Fair, with ulterior motives including finding her mother, stopping her father’s marriage, and finding true love herself. While visiting her grandmother and greataunts, not only does Violet get courted by three very different men, but each of her relatives seems to have a different agenda for her—from finding a rich husband, to joining the suffrage movement, to participating in inner-city good works. While solving her little mysteries, Violet must also discover herself, her faith, and ultimately decide which path—and which man—will be right for her.
With an adventurous heroine, vivid details and memorable characters, this coming-ofage story will delight Christian fiction and romance fans alike. Once again, Austin has presented a heartwarming, engaging story filled with intrigue, humor, and romance. With a satisfying conclusion, A Proper Pursuit pleases immensely.
Rebecca Roberts
FRANKENSTEIN’S BRIDE
Hilary Bailey, Sourcebooks Landmark, 2007, $16.95/£9.99, pb, 236pp, 9781402208706
London, 1826. Jonathan Goodall, a young linguist, befriends a brilliant but pensive scientist named Victor Frankenstein. Together they attempt to restore the speech of a mute opera singer, but Frankenstein’s strange attachment to the girl at first puzzles and then disturbs his new assistant. Friends and family warn Jonathan not to get too involved with the doctor’s work, but no one will explain why. Adding to his disquiet, Jonathan encounters a weird stranger lurking near Frankenstein’s home. Soon tragic events occur, and as Jonathan watches his mentor slide into despair and insanity he begins to wonder if the lurking stranger and the seductive singer are connected, and what key they hold to Frankenstein’s past. Obsessed with solving the mystery, Jonathan becomes entangled in a web of dark confessions, terrible secrets, and retribution for a great wrong committed not once, but twice.
Interpretive fiction is a controversial genre; unlike other works, Frankenstein’s Bride presents its take on a classic while both respecting the original and retaining its own author’s individuality. Bailey takes liberties with characterization and the suspension of disbelief, but the overall result is an intriguing pageturner rather than a watery knockoff. Unlike Mary Shelley’s novel, there is little philosophy, romance, or gothic terror; Bailey’s sequel is not so much a horror story as a mystery with a creepy climax. This is hindered somewhat since the reader already knows the secret, but our attention is held nonetheless. It’s not the original, but it’s no pallid exploitation either. One last note: Frankenstein’s Bride is a short book; the size of the volume is padded N n
Y SCAPEGALLOWS
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Carol Birch, Virago, 2007, £14.99, hb, 435pp, 9781844083909
A ‘scapegallows’ is one who deserves and has narrowly escaped hanging. One such is Margaret Catchpole, born in Suffolk, who lived a double life as a servant to a wealthy local family by day and lover of the free trader Will Laud by night. She was a skilled horsewoman and midwife, by nature both courageous and charming.
Her love for Will eventually led her to steal a horse for which she was sentenced to hang, but she twice evaded the gallows and ended up on a transportation ship bound for Australia. There she gained her freedom and lived an independent life, refusing offers of marriage, but residing in her own cottage with only a young boy for company.
Scapegallows is based on the real life of Margaret Catchpole, and it’s a story on a grand scale. Margaret is neither a bad woman nor a blameless one, but in spite of fear, deprivation and loneliness she remains true to her love for Will and true to herself. This type of novel needs a feisty character to maintain the reader’s interest throughout, and Margaret has feistiness in bucket loads. It’s her courageousness that both redeems and dooms her.
It is a literary novel that wears its research and depth lightly, making it extremely readable. From rural Suffolk, through the bustle of London and the squalor of Newgate, to the sweeping panorama of New South Wales, Carol Birch takes us on an epic journey that never fails to delight.
by including Mary Shelley’s original. Frankly, this is unnecessary. Including the original with a speculative work only magnifies their differences, perhaps doing more harm than good. It would serve the reader best to enjoy both novels separately, which is exactly what this reviewer has done.
Heather Domin
THE FLAW IN THE BLOOD
Stephanie Barron, Bantam, 2008, $24.00/ C$30.00, hb, 304pp, 9780553805246
This is a strange book, a thriller set in Victoria’s Britain of 1861, but one with very high-class villains. It’s based on an idea which has been around for some time, and the arguments for and against the premise continue. In the novel the hero, one Patrick Fitzgerald, is part of a firm of barristers who defended the man who attempted to kill the Queen some twenty years earlier. As Prince Albert lies dying, Fitzgerald is ordered to the Palace by the Queen. Accompanied by the romance interest, Georgianna Armistead, female doctor and niece to John Snow, he makes his way there and finds himself embroiled in a bitter struggle about affairs of state with the Queen. Life is then all downhill for Fitzgerald as he dashes madly around London and the Continent trying to save his and Georgie’s necks and find out why someone wants to kill them both.
I’m not sure how Anglophiles or historians with a detailed knowledge of Victoria’s reign would view the author’s inventions, or her portrayal of the Queen. As pure melodrama, for a reader with a dislike of monarchies and strong Irish sympathies, it will go down well. As historical fiction, well, it’s more fantasy than fiction, and nastily violent with it.
Patrika Salmon
MADAME’S
DECEPTION
Sara Wilson
Renee Bernard, Pocket, 2007, $6.99/C$8.99, pb, 331pp, 9781416524212
This is the middle book in a planned trilogy; the first was A Lady’s Pleasure, and a third is planned for spring 2008. Central to the books is The Crimson Belle, a benign, almost educational brothel run by enlightened souls who nurture girls while allowing them to provide sexual services to the London Regency aristocracy. If this kind of unlikely history bothers you, be warned, but if you enjoy scenes evoked by released repression, the setting works quite well. The innocent Jocelyn hurries from boarding school to her supposedly proper dying mother’s side. There she is persuaded to take over the “Belle,” establishing herself seamlessly as the new madame. The fun begins when the handsome Lord Colwick offers her an exclusive contract and she takes it: she yearns for romance, and he has no idea she is a virgin. There are some mystery elements and other characters make brief appearances, but the main question is: how will this clandestine relationship work out for the lovers?
Mary K. Bird-Guilliams
THE SPYMASTER’S LADY
Joanna Bourne, Berkley, 2008, $7.99/C$10.99, pb, 384pp, 9780425219607
Set in 1802 France and England, this tale of espionage and passion has all the elements of a good historical romance. French spy Annique Villiers has a mission. So does Robert Grey, Head of Section for the British Secret Service. They meet in a dark prison cell and join forces to escape. Little does Annique know that Grey’s mission is to capture her for the information
she holds. Their battle of wills soon becomes a battle of their hearts.
This debut novel is one many readers will enjoy. The heroine is spirited, the hero terse and tough, yet tender. Settings come alive and the action moves at a good pace, while secondary characters add depth without taking away from the protagonists. Various plot twists are incorporated with ease and believability.
All in all, a good read. I only wish I had enjoyed it more. The one element missing for me was any real understanding of the hero’s internal motivation and conflict. I never got a handle on him.
That said, his well-plotted, historically based novel is a nice change from the many Regency stories dominating the market.
Teresa Basinski Eckford
MRS JEFFRIES AND THE FEAST OF ST. STEPHEN
Emily Brightwell, Berkley Prime Crime, 2007, $22.95, hb, 263pp, 9780425217313
As described by the publisher, Mrs Jeffries is the Miss Marple of Victorian mystery. Based on this, I was keen to read the novel, but alas nothing cunning and confusingly complex about the plot can be found here, nor was the acquired knowledge and razor-keen mind of an intelligent woman present either. I missed those acerbic asides and ironic comments. Why will publishers do this comparison business? Any real Miss Marple fan is bound to be disappointed.
The series is about is a group of household servants, led by the housekeeper, Mrs Jeffries, helping out their master, Inspector Witherspoon. However, they do it without his knowledge and have to hint and nudge him into seeing or understanding what they find.
In this novel, a Christmas season poisoning threatens to wreck everyone’s Christmas. The book is, in itself, a pleasant light read, though definitely an American idea of what might happen below stairs in a London kitchen and the servants’ quarters. And it is a shame that in her 23rd novel the author makes basic errors; napkins versus serviettes and a Wensleydale cheese from Somerset are just two.
Patrika Salmon
BLESSED ASSURANCE
Lyn Cote, Avon Inspire, 2007, $9.95, 511pp, pb, 9780061349942
This novel is a compilation of three previous stories that make up the Blessed Assurance series; they follow the lives of three generations. Whispers of Love begins in 1871 when a new man comes to town, disturbing the peaceful life that Civil War widow Jessie Wagstaff finally made for herself in Chicago. The second novel, Lost in His Love, begins in San Francisco in 1906. Linc Wagstaff, a reporter, tries to win heiress Cecilia Jackson’s support in his fight against unmerciful child labor. Echoes of Mercy takes place in New Orleans in 1920, where Delman Dubois, a black man, fights for his life
in jail. Traveling across the country to his aid, Meg Wagstaff, his longtime friend, has to fight Southern prejudice and New Orleans lawyer Gabriel St. Clair to prove Delman’s innocence.
All three of these books show the lives of good, honest people as they struggle against major catastrophes to bring peace to those they love. All three have climactic elements in the plot based on historical events of their times. This series of historical, romantic, inspirational novels holds the reader’s attention with quick pacing. While the plots are not very suspenseful, the stories are interesting reads.
Nan Curnutt
WIZARD’S DAUGHTER
Catherine Coulter, Jove, 2007, $7.99, pb, 368pp, 9780515143942
Catherine Coulter mesmerizes readers with a blend of history, fantasy, and a touch of the paranormal in her tenth book in the Brides series. Rosalind de la Fontaine does not know anything about her past, only that when she was eight years old, she was found beaten in an alleyway. Ryder Sherbrooke rescues her, and his family raises her. She does not speak at first, and when she finally does utter her first words, they are a haunting song that comes from deep inside her.
Ten years later, in 1835, Rosalind meets Nicholas Vail, newly returned to England after a long absence to reclaim his lands. The two are instantly and inexplicably drawn to one another.
The pair happens upon an ancient book written in a code that no one can understand except Rosalind, and they begin to unravel the mystery of the book and its contents. Rosalind realizes that the book, her song, and even she herself are somehow intertwined.
With convincing characters and a sense of foreboding, Coulter constructs a spellbinding tale of passion, love, and magic as Rosalind and Nicholas try to understand their role in an ancient mystery that begs to be solved. A quick read that is sure to delight!
Troy Reed
THE SECRET WAR
M. F. W. Curran, Macmillan New Writing, 2007, £12.99, 407pp, 9780230007468
At the risk of laying myself open to accusations of gender bias, let me say right away, The Secret War is real lads’ stuff. Every page seethes with soldierly camaraderie and willing girls with pert breasts and blood by the bucket load. The plot reads like the latest edition of Final Fantasy and the relentless action combined with gleefully hideous deaths also seems to come straight out of game playing tradition. (Aside for older readers – we have a tradition of computer game playing already?)
For thousands of years a secret war has been waged between Heaven and Hell. Daemons and angels, vampyres (sic) and knights clash for the future of mankind and innocent people like
Captain William Saxon and his lifelong friend, Lieutenant Kieran Harte, both recent veterans of Waterloo, find themselves caught in the crossfire. The Vatican is also – of course – knee deep in the conspiracy, and there is the obligatory wise old man of Oriental descent.
Curran has produced a debut novel that is tremendous fun and just the ticket for reading aloud around a winter fireplace during a power cut. His writing is assured and pacey, though his characterisation tends to be perfunctory – a side effect, no doubt, of the sheer volume and scale of the action packed into these pages. There is also, however, a serious and timely message here, forcefully conveyed at the beginning of the novel about the dehumanising scale of modern warfare and the emotional strain this places on soldiers.
One of MNW’s better offerings. Enjoy with friends and a few cans of Wife Beater.
Sarah Bower
MORE LETTERS FROM PEMBERLEY
Jane Dawkins, Sourcebooks, 2007, $13.95/ C$17.95, pb, 248pp, 9781402209079
When we left Elizabeth Darcy in Letters from Pemberley, she and her husband had been married for a year or so and were expecting their first child. More Letters from Pemberley picks up shortly thereafter and follows the Darcys and their family through 1819, shortly before the end of the Regency period.
Though Letters from Pemberley was an agreeable read, More Letters from Pemberley is a much better novel. The allusions to Austen’s other works, while still present here, are far less abundant than they were in Letters From Pemberley; the result is a novel that feels less like fan fiction and more like a novel that can stand entirely on its own. There’s considerably more focus and dramatic tension here as well, due in large part to the author’s determination to show a maturing Elizabeth and to “include the sometimes unpleasant realities of everyday life,” as Dawkins states in her preface. The result is not grim realism but a touching portrait of how one of fiction’s most beloved couples might have dealt with life’s inevitable reversals of fortune. Even more to her credit, Dawkins accomplishes this task without sacrificing charm and humor and while remaining true to the characters as they were conceived by Austen.
Susan Higginbotham
AVENGING VICTORIO
Dave DeWitt, Rio Grande, 2007, $24.95, hb, 258pp, 1890689261
The New Mexico Territory of the 1880s was a land in transition. American settlers were faced with a hostile country governed by exUnion general Lew Wallace, and inhabited by Apache Indians who fight resettlement on a reservation. The tribe is led by Victorio, a great war chief, but he is killed in an ambush by Mexican soldiers in Mexico. This book tells the story of the elder chief, named Nana,
as he tries to avenge the killing of Victorio by leading raids in New Mexico Territory, killing white settlers in his rampage. Colonel Edward Hatch, leader of the U.S. Army’s Ninth Cavalry, is ordered to capture Nana. Colonel Hatch is looking for advancement and eventual transfer to the East, away from this desolate country. His story becomes as important at times as that of the Apache tribe that fights resettlement.
Mr. DeWitt is famous for his cookbooks, and Avenging Victorio is his first novel since 1979. I thought he did a fine job developing his characters, something not always easy when trying to write about famous people in history, such as Lew Wallace. My only complaint is that his inserting of historical data into the dialog became annoying at times. But the author definitely knows his subject matter, as he weaves the plight of the Apache Indians with that of the cavalry trying to capture them.
Jeff Westerhoff
THE LAST CONCUBINE
Lesley Downer, Bantam, 2008, £12.99, hb, 478pp, 9780593057537
The Last Concubine is set in Japan in the mid1860s at the time of the Civil War, the coming of Westerners and a way of life which ended virtually overnight – for ever. Sachi, brought up as a peasant girl in the Kiso mountains, is taken to the Women’s Palace at Edo when only eleven years old. The supreme being in Japan is the Emperor, a god-like figure who is rarely seen but the power rests with the Shogun, currently Iemochi whom the Princess Kana is to marry. Sachi is trained in the ways of the Palace and then, on the night before Iemochi’s last journey to Kyoto, is given to him as a concubine. While in Kyoto, Iemochi becomes ill and dies, and from then on Sachi’s world begins to change.
This is a powerful story that grips the reader and keeps the pages turning. Although Sachi herself is fictitious, the time in which she lived is very real, as is the Shogun, Iomechi and the Princess Kazu who became his wife. Many of the characters portrayed in the book did inhabit the Women’s Palace at Edo. The story graphically depicts a world which no longer exists but which is very much alive in the pages of this book. Recommended.
Marilyn Sherlock
DEADLY SHOALS
Joan Druett, Minotaur, 2007, $24.95/C$31.00, hb, 288pp, 0312353375.
Off the coast of Patagonia, January 1839: William “Wiki” Coffin, Maori son of a Yankee sea captain, serves as linguist for the U.S. South Seas Exploring Expedition. At the age of twentyfour, he already has an enviable reputation as naval officer and successful detective.
In this, the fourth of Joan Druett’s Wiki Coffin mysteries, Wiki’s orders are to find a stolen ship. Whaling captain Stackpole has paid $1000 for a ship he has yet to see. He and Wiki trek inland along the Rio Negro to find the elusive sales
agent, Adams, who, along with the ship, has disappeared. Each step of the investigation is laid out, chapter by well-constructed chapter, to the surprising and satisfying conclusion.
It’s hard to imagine that the author has not spent years sailing on tall ships, so detailed is her description of the vessels and so fluid her maritime dialogue. She spins a great yarn laced with rich landscape detail, character observations, and a wealth of ethnological information – none of which is intrusive or pedantic. There is also a little sub-mystery to solve in Deadly Shoals: who really is the querulous and fiery first mate of the trading vessel, Osprey? This one will make you smile. Actually, the whole book makes you smile appreciatively.
Lucille Cormier
THE LAST CAVALIER
Alexandre Dumas, Pegasus, 2007, $30, hb, 752pp, 9781933648316 / Fourth Estate, 2008, £20.00, hb, 816pp, 9780007274963
During his lifetime, Alexandre Dumas planned to write a series of novels that would include all of French history from the Renaissance to his own day. The Last Cavalier, a recently discovered, unfinished novel, follows in exquisite detail the Napoleonic era, mostly through the eyes of its death-defying hero, the Count Sainte Hermine.
Strangely, the hero of Dumas’s novel plays only a minimal part in the first half, when the action centers on Napoleon as First Consul, and the intrigues that led to the consolidation of his power. Only in the second half does the narrator travel with the dashing count, who, because of his royalist loyalties, has been cast out of society and forced to work as a lowly seaman. Blood will out, however, and it isn’t long before “Rene”—one of his many aliases— is in the good graces of powerful men, who lift him up, step by step, in the hierarchy. By dint of swashbuckling skill and reckless bravery, the melancholy young hero finds himself always in the middle of the action, fighting the English, of course, but also pirates and tigers and Italian brigands.
Dumas’s attention to detail is brilliant (mindnumbingly so, for he often veers away from the narrative—both a strength and a weakness of the book). He also knows how to entertain. Clearly, the novel had been serialized, for never does a chapter pass without an exciting episode. It’s hard to believe this vibrant work was written while Dumas was on his deathbed, for its energy never flags, and its style never weakens. The Last Cavalier is a prize find, and vintage Dumas.
Lisa
Ann Verge
LIGHT
Margaret Elphinstone, Canongate, 2007, £8.99/$14.99, pb, 421pp, 9781841959849
Off the Isle of Man lies the tiny island of Ellan Bride, an outpost of fabulous isolation, often veiled from the outside world in a shroud of mist like the magical isles in Celtic lore. Ellan Bride is home to colonies of puffins and seals,
Y THE ANATOMY OF DECEPTION
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Lawrence Goldstone, Delacorte, 2008, $24.00, hb, 342pp, 9780385341349 / Bantam, 2008, £12.99, hb, 344pp, 9780593058893
Ephraim Carroll is a young physician in late 19th-century Philadelphia who counts himself lucky to be in the orbit of one of the greatest teachers of the time. But in the theater where they perform autopsies to learn anatomy, a mystery begins to unfold. The mystery involves a labyrinthine network of people, from the most privileged to the basest denizens of the Philadelphia underworld.
Faced with the opportunity of a lifetime—to become one of the founding physicians of the new Johns Hopkins hospital and medical school in Baltimore—Ephraim discovers the evil and deceit that can lurk beneath the surface of ambitious men.
This smart, evocative thriller truly draws the reader into the psyche of a world where modern medicine was at a turning point. Goldstone has done his research, not only into the details of medical study and knowledge and the physiognomy of a 19th-century American city, but on the moral compass of a rightthinking young man, earnestly trying to do his best and coming into contact with forces and influences that take him far from his center. Most courageous and telling of all is Goldstone’s ability to resist giving his hero modern sensibilities in the face of dilemmas that truly would have been thought of very differently at that time.
The Anatomy of Deception is a marvelous, fast-paced, historically true mystery. Highly recommended.
to the odd basking shark, and to two women and their three children. After her brother’s death, Lucy Geddes has manned the lighthouse of Ellan Bride, and her paltry wages are the sole income supporting herself, her widowed sisterin-law, Diya, and the children. The family ekes out a precarious living, eating from Diya’s garden and raising pigs and goats. Used to this lonely existence, the children dream of the sea god Manannan mac Lir and hold secret meetings in the ancient keeil, or hermit’s chapel, once the haunt of Saint Bride who gave the island its name. Lucy, an unwed mother, and Diya, born in a Hindu household in India, are outcasts, and the island is both their prison and refuge, the one place where they will not be judged. But that is all to change irrevocably.
The Commission of the Northern Lights is intent on modernising the lighthouses of Britain. In May 1831, Scottish surveyor Archibald Buchanan and his apprentice Ben Groats arrive in Ellan Bride to map the island and make arrangements for the building of a new lighthouse. Lucy knows the Commission will never employ a woman and thus she will soon lose both her livelihood and her home. As she and Diya struggle to come to terms with their uncertain future, the two men find that they are indelibly changed by the austere island and its proud, independent women.
Set over three days, but spanning 421 pages, this quiet, slow-moving novel is a moving portrait of Ellan Bride in all its haunting beauty.
Mary Sharratt
HER SECRET FANTASY
Gaelen Foley, Ballantine, 2007, $6.99, pb,
Susanne Dunlap
399pp, 9780345496683 / Sphere, 2007, £6.99, pb, 416pp, 9780749938291
This romance begins in 1818 at the funeral for Lily Balfour’s grandfather, Viscount Balfour. Lily’s inheritance, the dilapidated Balfour Manor, needs immediate rehabilitation, but the family funds are long gone. Pragmatically, Lily decides to marry for money, this being the only acceptable method for women to raise capital at the time.
Major Derek Knight is in London to seek the release of previously promised funds for the army in India. Feeling guilty for leaving his men behind, Derek would much rather be fighting. While waiting, he avails himself of the ample pleasures of London society, namely the many married and widowed ladies who have heard of his skills in the Eastern arts of love.
When Lily and Derek meet, sparks fly. But there are obstacles to be overcome, namely that of Edward Lundy, Lily’s chosen bridegroom, who also happens to be a member of the Appropriations Sub-Committee with whom Derek is negotiating.
This novel has all the requirements of a juicy, sensual historical, but the results are hohum. There are long, explanatory passages, but little dialogue. The ending is overlong, as if the author realized that her main character wouldn’t be sympathetic without a sufficiently traumatic childhood.
Alice Logsdon
THE TAILOR’S DAUGHTER
Janice Graham, St. Martin’s Press, 2007, $14.95/ C$17.25, pb, 416pp, 9780312374389
The titular character is Veda Grenfell, daughter of a famed Victorian Savile Row tailor. Veda has
inherited her father’s passion for making clothes that make the man, and after the untimely death of her elder brother and subsequent death of her mother in childbirth, Veda’s father brings her into the family business. Unfortunately, at the age of sixteen, Veda was made deaf from a fever. Not one to retire into silence, she enlists her brother’s former tutor to teach her how to read lips, and through lip-reading, slate-writing, and a Talking Book (a blank book passed back and forth for writing) communicates with her friends, clients, and especially the man she comes to love, Lord Harry Ormelie.
As esteemed a tailor as Veda’s father is, he is still a tradesman, thus she a tradesman’s daughter. As Harry is a lord, their love affair must be conducted in secret. The Talking Book adds to their clandestine romance as they write out their feelings for each other in front of unwitting family and friends. Although there is a sense of inevitability that their union is doomed, what follows comes as a shock. However, to focus solely on Veda and Harry is to do the book an injustice. This rich, multi-layered story delves into age-old class issues (the Grenfells may be permitted to live in a tony neighborhood for the benefit of their clientele but are not encouraged to interact with their neighbors), issues of femininity and a woman’s place, and the relationships between fathers and daughters and fathers and sons. Veda’s deafness becomes a part of her, strengthening her in many ways but not defining her. She is a wholly engaging character; to turn the last page was to feel a sense of loss that her story was over.
Ellen Keith
NOT QUITE DEAD
John MacLachlan Gray, Minotaur, 2007, $24.95/ C$31.00, hb, 304pp, 0312374712
Dr. Chivers is shocked to find his childhood nemesis, Edgar Allan Poe, convulsing outside his Baltimore hospital. Poe pleads with Chivers to steal a body from the morgue and fake Poe’s death so he may hide from the Irish mob. Chivers, a sad widower whose career is declining, reluctantly agrees.
Finn Devlin leaves his impoverished homeland and travels to Philadelphia to rally support for the Irish cause. He detests anything relating to England, the country subjugating his. When Charles Dickens arrives on a scheduled reading tour, Finn and his mob mark him for a kidnapping to raise money. Dickens, mocked by the Americans for his dress and deportment, finds himself snatched from his hotel.
Meanwhile, Poe is sighted in another city, harassing a critic, and the police suspect fraud and intend to dig up his supposed body. Chivers, to save his reputation, must navigate the Irish gangs to contact Poe and runs afoul of the constable searching for Dickens.
In this gritty and eerie tale, the author wastes time on detailed backgrounds of secondary characters. Poe and Dickens meet, but all too briefly. This is an interesting foray into Irish
gangs and two famous authors, but not as effective as it might have been.
Diane Scott Lewis
FANCY PANTS
Cathy Marie Hake, Bethany House, 2007, $13.99, pb, 384pp, 9780764203176
Newly arrived in the United States in 1890, Lady Sydney Hathwell cannot bring herself to enter into a loveless marriage with the man her deceased father had chosen for her. Instead, she determines to stay with her uncle at Forsaken Ranch in Texas until she comes of age and receives her inheritance. Unfortunately, Uncle Fuller, deceived by Sydney’s masculinesounding name, is expecting a nephew, not a niece. Sydney, therefore, dons men’s clothes and heads for Texas, where her uncle’s partner, Tim Creighton, determines to make a man out of Fuller’s foppish English relation.
Though there’s very little doubt about the resolution of this novel, Hake makes getting there an enjoyable journey, complete with Sydney’s first visit to a bordello (where Sydney’s new acquaintances allow her to take bubble baths undetected). With lively dialogue and engaging characters, Fancy Pants is tailormade for fun.
Susan Higginbotham
WHY MERMAIDS SING
C.S. Harris, NAL, 2007, $23.95, hb, 352pp, 9780451222268
In Regency-era England, wealthy, aristocratic young men are being murdered, and the bodies are mutilated in grisly ways that seem to have a significance no one can decipher. Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, is called in by his magistrate friend to help investigate.
This is the third mystery in the St. Cyr series, and Harris maintains the level of suspense and tension she capably conjured in the earlier offerings in this series. St. Cyr is an enigmatic, sexy, and intriguing protagonist, and the secondary characters, such as his love interest, actress Kat Boleyn and his army-surgeon friend, are well-drawn and add depth to the story. There is more backstory in this novel than in the previous offerings, and readers new to the series may be a bit confused by the character development and tangled relationships. The mystery itself is fast-paced, however, and fans who enjoyed the other books in this series can look forward to some shocking personal revelations for St. Cyr. Recommended.
Bethany Latham
BECKY: The Life and Loves of Becky Thatcher
Lenore Hart, St Martin’s Press, 2008, $24.95/ C$31.00, hb, 371pp, 9780312373276
Besides the immediate appeal of visiting again with Mark Twain’s immortal characters, the author has created an adventure story that should satisfy both genders who pick up this treatment of the story from the viewpoint of
Becky Thatcher. Laced through the narrative are many comments on the books, including some rather snide ones regarding the helplessness and lack of fortitude exhibited by the “fictional” Becky Thatcher. Several famous incidents, for example, being lost in the caves, are told through flashbacks.
Locales shift from Missouri to Nevada to California, roughly following the life of Sam Clemens, who appears as a character along with Tom Sawyer, Aunt Polly’s children Sid and Mary, Judge Thatcher, the freed slave Jim, and Huck Finn. The appalling mixed political muddle that was Civil War Missouri is depicted at length and realistically, as Union and Confederate armies and irregulars become indistinguishable in ferocity. Becky’s family flees west to the mining country of Virginia City, where she finds a bit more freedom but rough conditions (Roughing it? Get it?). The book ends with Becky a news reporter in San Francisco with no desire to return to the confining standards of the east. The great love of her life is always Tom Sawyer, as you’ve always suspected, but I’m not giving away the details. Suffice it to say that while the author explores Tom’s character for adult depth, Mr. Sawyer is quite the same rascal we all remember.
Mary K. Bird-Guilliams
THE PILFERED PLUME
Sandra Heath, Hale, 2007, £18.99, hb, 223pp, 9780709080893
The Pilfered Plume is a Regency romance set in London. Linnet Carlisle returns to the capital after spending a year in the Lake District with her Great-Aunt Minton, following a traumatic falling out with Lord Nicholas Fenton. Escorting them back to London are her great friend, Lady Venetia Hartley, and Lady Venetia’s brother, Benedict, of whom she is becoming very fond. The story twists and turns nicely before all misunderstandings are resolved and there is suitable justice for treachery and betrayal.
I found the story entertaining and the characterisation typical of this genre, but there was absolutely nothing there to tie it in with the Regency period except the irritating over-use of a couple of colloquial terms which were only in vogue between 1855 and 1895. However, it would certainly serve to pass away the time on a long flight or in a holiday hotel.
Marilyn Sherlock
AN INFAMOUS ARMY: A Novel of Wellington, Waterloo, Love and War Georgette Heyer, Sourcebooks, 2007, $14.95/ C$19.95, pb, 492pp, 1402210078 / Arrow, 2004, £7.99, pb, 448pp, 0099465760
This is a well-documented account of the Battle of Waterloo from the British army’s point of view. The social events surrounding and leading up to the battle form the background on and provide gossipy color for Regency society. Most of the ton, apparently, was in Brussels at the time. There were soirees and balls,
Y THE BLACK DOVE
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Steve Hockensmith, Minotaur, 2008, $23.95, hb, 412pp, 9780312347826
The long and the short of the Amlingmeyer brothers are back with a roar for their third adventure, this time on the streets of 1893 San Francisco. The Chinese doctor they counted as a friend in On the Wrong Track first greets them with a shot to the scalp and is then himself murdered. Enter the boys: Sherlock Holmes-inspired Gustav (Old Red) and his little big brother and chronicler Otto (Big Red, who sheds his cowboy duds for city-slicker attire which doesn’t seem to want to stay on his body). They set out to get to the bottom of it, though they’ve yet to be formally hired as detectives. They’re soon joined by the mystery woman Diana Corvus, who completes a mismatched but delightful trio. The three are off and running through Chinatown, where the outlaws post the bounty. And they thought Texas was wild.
The key to unlocking the murder seems to revolve around Black Dove, a valuable prostitute from Madame Fong’s house who has gone missing soon after being bought by the ill-fated Dr. Chan. The search for her takes Diana and the brothers through opium dens, over Chinatown’s rooftops, and earns them the enmity of corrupt police officers, tong lords and their hatchet men alike.
This series just keeps getting better. The pace is breakneck and action-packed, but there’s always time for a wisecrack, even as characterizations deepen. The scene of the brothers applying at the Pinkerton Agency is a both a wonderfully funny and poignant tour de force. Mysteries, including a few hidden in the hearts of Big Red, Old Red and Diana, are revealed along with the sad truths of Chinatown. A great, rollicking tale, firmly set in its time and place.
and debutantes with their marriage-minded mothers; officers even brought their wives and children. The hero, Charles Audley, an adjutant to Wellington, attends one of the balls and is immediately struck down by Cupid’s arrow at the sight of the ton’s leading femme fatale, Barbara Childe—much to the chagrin of his sister-inlaw, who has her own favorite candidate for his hand. Social life and courtships follow the same course they have in past seasons in London right up to the Countess of Richmond’s ball, when a courier from the front rides in and announces that, at last, Napoleon has pounced. Naturally, Wellington is featured and is quoted from a letter he wrote in May, 1815, as saying that he has “…got an infamous army…”
Miss Heyer, who died in 1974, is probably best known for her Regency novels. She was, however, also an accredited author of historical novels. Her research was impeccable for its accuracy. She wrote with a well-developed sense of humor that has made her immensely popular, and she had an encyclopedic knowledge of the Regency period. An Infamous Army, first published in 1937, stands up well among today’s historical novels.
Audrey Braver
COTILLION
Georgette Heyer, Sourcebooks, 2007, $7.99, pb, 482pp, 9781402211256 / Arrow, 2005, £7.99, pb, 320pp, 0099474379
This story, by the woman credited with establishing the Regency romance subgenre, was originally published in 1953. Young Kitty Charing has been brought up in the country by a miserly guardian with a large fortune. The
Eileen Charbonneau
old man draws up his will and decides to leave his fortune to Kitty, on the condition that she marries one of his great-nephews. He invites the
Y THE EXPEDITIONS
great-nephews for the weekend to inform them of his decision and encourage them to propose to Kitty. Kitty, in a fit of pique because her favorite, the dashing and handsome Jack, does not show up, convinces her cousin Freddy to pretend to be engaged to her. Good natured Freddy agrees, and the fun begins. Kitty then hatches a plan to go to London and stay with Freddy’s family in the hopes of making Jack jealous. You can guess where this is going: eventually, Freddy and Kitty discover that they love one another, but the journey to that realization is delightful reading. Heyer has remained popular because of her thoroughly researched and expert depiction of Regency England, including Regency cant, dress and social customs, as well as her sparkling characters—all evident in this engaging story.
Jane Kessler
THE LOST
MEMOIRS OF JANE AUSTEN Syrie James, Avon A, 2007, $13.95, pb, 352pp, 0061443695
Imagine for a moment being an impassioned writer who is young but mature for your age. You have abundant skill in writing a popular, engaging story, but are outside the realm of possibilities in the publishing world. Perhaps you could pay to have it published, but that wouldn’t carry the merit of a novel accepted by a firm willing to sponsor the costs of publication and marketing. So for now literary esteem comes from your family and friends, along with your financial dependency on more well-to-do
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Karl Iagnemma, Dial, 2008, $24.00/C$30.00, hb, 320pp, 9780385335959
Sixteen-year-old Elisha Stone is elated after joining a scientific expedition that is to explore Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It is the spring of 1844, and three years have passed since he ran away from home. Missing his mother, he decides to write her a letter. Back in Newell, Massachusetts, the Reverend William Edward Stone, Elisha’s father, reads this letter. Grieving his wife’s death and compelled by guilt, the minister leaves his congregation and sets out to find his son.
What comes after is an extraordinary first novel, an absolutely engaging narrative of passage, populated by intriguing characters. There are the two competing heads of the Michigan expedition: Silas Brush, a bigoted scientist and speculator, and Professor Tiffin, who is determined to find Native image stones that will prove the unity of mankind. There is Susette Morel, a beautiful and enigmatic “half-breed,” the team’s guide, and Jonah Crawley, an itinerant salesman traveling with the girl-woman Adele, who can talk to the dead. The Expeditions presents a world of heartless frontier cities and uncharted wilderness. It is a dangerous landscape that, in the fashion of Joseph Conrad, is cruel, beautiful, and a metaphor for the parallel voyage Elisha and Reverend Stone undertake, an inner journey toward one another, an exploration of their own hearts.
Composed even when violent, evocative, perceptive, and unfailingly elegant, The Expeditions is unforgettable reading. The language is breathtaking: “He lingered over the memories, like fingertips drawn to a bruise,” and the descriptions memorable: “They paddled through mornings of damp heat and high, tissuey clouds. Their course skirted the shoreline, which varied from stony breakwaters to pocked sandstone faces to belts of smooth, sugar-white sand. Beach grass riffled like whitecaps in the breeze.”
Altogether a stunning work, one of the best novels I have read in years Adelaida Lower
male siblings for home, clothing and food. You are, after all, just an ordinary woman living in England’s middle-class world of the early 1800s.
Such is the milieu of the now famous but then unknown writer, Jane Austen, whose life is about to undergo a miraculous and devastating change. In this fictional tale written as Jane’s supposedly lost memoirs, Jane meets a man at a seaside resort, a gentleman of like mind, integrity, and taste in novels and music. Expecting nothing, the writer is smitten by the evolving connection that quickly develops into a deep love. Mr. Frederick Ashford encourages her to seek a publisher for her writing. Indeed, while she is living this vividly romantic relationship, the reader gets to see how Jane creates, edits and rewrites her stories, a fascinating process as enjoyable as the evolving romance.
What could challenge that devotion? Twists and turns involving the demands of social class and finance make this story an exhilarating, page-turning delight with the most poignant and memorable scenes imaginable. The Lost Memoirs… is a very well-written, engaging novel worthy of the memorable tales of Jane Austen herself. Syrie James is a literate, highly skilled author to watch and remember, one who will give readers hours of memorable pleasure.
Viviane Crystal
WHERE THE HEART LEADS
Stephanie Laurens, Morrow, 2008, $24.95/
Y NOT YET DROWN’D
C$26.95, hb, 416pp, 9780061243394
Late one November night in 1835, Penelope Ashford, twin sister of Portia, wife of Simon Cynster, pushes her way into Barnaby Adair’s study asking for his help in locating some kidnapped orphan boys who were bound for her Foundling Home. Thus begins a most unusual partnership, considering they are both well-respected members of the haut ton with marriage-minded mothers. Barnaby, third son of the powerful Earl of Cothelstone, and a confirmed bachelor, has spent most of his adult life investigating crimes with Scotland Yard which effectively keeps him out of ballrooms and, therefore, off the matchmaking mamas’ radar. Penelope is just as adamant against marriage and its restrictions. With her attitude in mind, Barnaby agrees to help her, and that is the beginning of a romantic adventure.
Where the Heart Leads is an adventurous “whodunit” as well as a vintage historical romance of which Ms. Laurens is mistress par excellence. Both Barnaby, the hero, and Penelope, the heroine, have appeared in previous Cynster novels. As in some of her previous novels, Ms. Laurens brings a social awareness of the time to the reader.
Audrey
Braver
LOVING LIZA JANE
Sharlene MacLaren, Whitaker House, 2007, $6.97, pb, 337pp, 9780883688168 Bostonian Liza Merriwether arrives in 1895
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Peg Kingman, Norton, 2007, $24.95/C$31.00, hb, 428pp, 9780393065466
Catherine MacDonald, a young Scottish widow who has temporarily settled into the Edinburgh home of her older brother, finds her quiet life suddenly turned around by two events that happen in quick succession: she receives a parcel from her twin brother in India, who had been reported drowned in monsoon floods the previous year, and an American relation of her young stepdaughter tries to take Grace away from Catherine and home to America. Catherine will not allow Grace to go with this unloving woman, but has to resort to subterfuge to keep her safe. When removal to her native Skye becomes impossible, Catherine and Grace find themselves, accompanied by a runaway American slave, a mysterious Indian woman, and Catherine’s older, engineer brother, on a ship bound for India by way of Antwerp. Catherine, intrigued by a piece of music enigmatically entitled “Not Yet Drown’d” within the collection of pieces included in her twin brother’s parcel, decides not to disembark in the Netherlands.
The year is 1822, when the East India Company is deeply involved in the opium/ tea trade, finding ways to propel ships more quickly and more surely than with sail is absolutely critical, and there is unrest in the hills of Assam. All of these absorbing historical events form the bedrock of a novel that is rich is characterization and suspense. Grace, Catherine’s stepdaughter, and Sharada, the Indian woman who appears at critical junctures before accompanying Catherine on her journey, are both particularly captivating creations. The British commercial and political interests are reflected through minor characters we meet along the journey, but the shock of some of their values is not diminished by the fleeting glimpses we get.
It is a wonder that this assured and supremely engaging novel is Peg Kingman’s first. I will wait with bated breath for her second. Extremely highly recommended.
Trudi E. Jacobson
Little Hickman, Kentucky, to become the new schoolteacher. The school board’s rules forbid “inappropriate contact with anyone of the opposite gender,” which creates a problem when Liza begins to have feelings for Ben Broughton, a recently widowed man trying to raise two very young daughters. Since her house is on his property, it’s difficult for them to keep from seeing one another. Further obstacles to their relationship arise because Ben has a mailorder bride on the way, and a handsome young preacher seems attracted to Liza. Things come to a head when a troublesome former student physically attacks Liza, who had protected his stepmother from his abuse.
Liza is a feisty character, and Ben sympathetic, even though they both do silly things that keep them apart, such as Liza neglecting to explain her teaching contract terms to Ben, and his assumptions about Liza and the preacher. The religious content is heavy, with Biblical quotes emphasized by boldface print. This is the first in the Little Hickman Creek series; the second volume, about the mail-order bride, is promoted with an excerpt. Fans of Christy and the Little House books and TV programs will lap this up.
B.J. Sedlock
SARAH, MY BELOVED
Sharlene MacLaren, Whitaker House, 2007, $12.99, pb, 334pp, 9780883684252
Sarah Woodward believes God led her to answer an ad for a bride through the Marriage Made in Heaven Agency, in 1896. When she disembarks from the stagecoach in Little Hickman Creek, Kentucky, and learns that her intended has married another, she decides to stay and seek God’s purpose for her life. Soon she receives another proposal: Rocky Callahan wants her to marry him, in name only, and look after his recently orphaned niece and nephew. Willing to serve God by loving the two motherless children–if not their uncle–Sarah accepts Rocky’s offer. Thrown together by their various tragedies, the four members of this newly created family must learn to trust each other before they can find happiness.
This is a charming story that resonates with the realities of many modern-day blended families, but the plot is somewhat marred by the delayed revelation that Rocky’s five-year-old son died only a few months before. Although this information goes a long way to explaining Rocky’s gruff behavior, it still jars with his obvious lack of parenting skills. Nevertheless, this second book in the Little Hickman Creek series is a well-written and sweet inspirational romance that will please MacLaren’s many fans.
Nancy J. Attwell
A DIFFERENT KIND OF HONOR
Robert N. Macomber, Pineapple Press, 2007, $21.95, hb, 382 pp, 9781561643981
In 1879, Lt. Commander Peter Wake of the United States Navy is sent on special assignment
to observe the forthcoming war between Peru, Chile and Bolivia over the rights to bird droppings (guano) and the nitrate-rich sand on the coast of Chile. This little-known War of the Pacific causes France and Great Britain to become interested in the conflict in order to protect their interests in South America. At the same time, France is also planning to dig a canal through Panama similar to the Suez Canal that linked the Mediterranean with Asia.
This novel is the sixth book in the Honor series featuring Peter Wake and the fledging U.S. Navy. While Peter is away from home for months, the story sometimes shifts to events that affect his wife while she tries to raise their family alone.
A Different Kind of Honor is a different kind of nautical adventure, as very little of the action occurs aboard ship. Peter Wake is portrayed as a loving husband, torn between his duty to his wife and that of the life he enjoys: as a naval officer who must constantly leave home when duty calls. This novel is well researched, and I empathized with the characters. This is an exceptional series recommended to anyone interested in reading about American history near the turn of the 20th century.
Jeff Westerhoff
THE NIGHT BIRDS
Thomas Maltman, Soho, 2007, $24.00/£14.99, hb, 370pp, 9781569474624
American history, the natives versus the new settlers, does not make pretty reading. The Night Birds is a fictional telling of the Great Sioux War, the Dakota people’s conflict and the Mankato hangings of 1862 in Minnesota. It is a grim topic and a classic illustration of what will happen if one culture, regarding itself as superior, moves in on another.
Well written and well told, the novel looks back from 1876 to the incidents that became the massacre of German settlers in 1862, and their retaliation. Narrated by young Asa, whose father and mother were involved and don’t want to talk about it, the story reaches from the locustplagued present to the past of 1862; a skillful weaving by a writer who cares to write more than a polemic or an excuse.
Asa struggles to create a good relationship with his mother, Cassie, and understand his father’s behaviour. When an unknown aunt turns up, secrets come tumbling out. For Aunt Hazel is the key, the link to the past, that opens all the locked minds and memories. They are not pretty ones, as Asa’s mother and father—indeed, many in the community—have much to hide. The epilogue gives a final, if somewhat rosy-tinted, perspective to Asa’s story.
This is a book to read slowly and thoughtfully. Follow the Biblical clues and Aunt Hazel’s tales of what happened, and wonder if we’d do any better today.
Patrika Salmon
Y SONG YET SUNG
EDITORS’ CHOICE
James McBride, Riverhead, 2008, $25.95/C$31.00/£16.99, hb, 368pp, 1594489723
Written by the author of the bestselling memoir The Color of Water, this novel is set in the 1850s. Liz, a runaway slave, is hunted by slave-catchers. She has been shot and her situation seems hopeless, but she meets and is aided by a man who loves and wishes to save her. Also, she has a rare psychic gift. Not only does she anticipate the kidnapping of two children, one black and one white, that will shortly plunge the Maryland shore community where she is hiding into chaos, but she has visions of a time when there are no masters and no slaves.
It’s hard to review this novel without resorting to superlatives. The writing is so beautiful and true that it gives you goose bumps. Liz’s dreams of the future exquisitely convey, through the eyes of a time traveler, the wonder and tribulations of contemporary African American life. The characters transcend stereotypes and come alive. Even Patty, a female-slave catcher who embodies absolute evil, is unique, individual, and fascinating. The interactions between the desperate young slave who loves Liz, and his struggling, widowed female owner, decent people trapped in an inhuman situation, are full of nuance and complexity. You care about both of them
Suspense builds, reaching a terrifying, violent climax that feels inevitable, in which the characters’ ultimate choices are expressions of who they are. The theme of slavery, the paranormal element, and the sheer brilliance of the writing reminded me of Toni Morrison’s Beloved, but there is nothing derivative here. James McBride creates a complete world on the edge of the Maryland swamps, inhabited by slaves and plantation owners, lost souls, heroes, and dreamers. It is a book to read and re-read, a work of literature to savor. Phyllis T. Smith
$24.95, hb, 328pp, 9780972638340
El Tigre is the tale of Johann Heinrich von Manfred, born of Prussian parents during the Napoleonic Wars in 1813. After fighting with classmates in a Prussian military school and seriously injuring one of the students, he is forced to leave Prussia. Johann travels to Spain, where he fights in their civil war. He eventually immigrates to the United States, traveling to Texas and fighting against Santa Anna and the Mexican army for Texan independence. He moves on to California, where he fights for their independence from Mexico. While in Texas, he becomes known as El Tigre because of his reputation for fighting like a tiger when defeating an enemy while the odds were strongly against him.
Although this was advertised as a fastmoving story, I became restless because the author regularly ended each scene with a little historical background. This became annoying, and at times I would have to put the book down because my eyes would glaze over after reading yet another historical insight. Mr. Manhold could have written a more interesting nonfiction biography of Manfred and left the dialog out of the book. I had a difficult time finishing this novel because I lost interest in the main character and the story.
Jeff Westerhoff
HUNDRED IN THE HAND
Joseph M. Marshall III, Fulcrum, 2007, $16.95, pb, 395pp, 9781555916534
the events leading up to the 1866 battle known as the Hundred in the Hand by the Lakota, and the Fetterman Battle or Massacre by the U.S. Army. It’s both a victory for the Lakota and a turning point for both sides in the Indian Wars of the 19th century.
The warrior Cloud, confederate of a young Crazy Horse, is the story’s main protagonist, but the story abounds with good characterizations and viewpoints throughout: from Rabbit, a loner who becomes a cold killer, to Hornsby, a misplaced New Englander, obsessed and manipulated once he views Sweetwater, Cloud’s wife, whose red hair betrays her as Lakota in all ways except blood heritage.
Marshall’s spare, lyrical style lends itself well to the story. The talk Cloud has with Black Shield about the journey toward manhood is both profound and moving. With its inevitable sadness and misunderstandings, this is a history that belongs to all of us. And with its latest foray into fiction, the highly respected Fulcrum Publishing has taken a sure step indeed. This Western transcends its genre. Highly recommended.
Eileen Charbonneau
RHETT BUTLER’S PEOPLE
Donald McCaig, Macmillan, 2007, £17.99, hb, 498pp, 9780230703957 / St. Martin’s Press, 2007, $27.95, hb, 512pp, 9780312262518
EL TIGRE
John H. Manhold, Shoot Magazine Corp., 2007,
First in a series of novels about the American West from the Lakota perspective, Marshall tells
Donald McCaig’s prequel/sequel to Margaret Mitchell’s novel, Gone With the Wind, covers the years from 1843 until 1874. Even though he was requested by the trustees of Mitchell’s estate to write it, it is a brave man indeed who
aspires to enlarge upon what has been described as the greatest love story ever told.
The reader first meets Rhett Butler on his way to a duel with Shad Watling. The scene is brilliantly set, as is the introduction to Rhett’s background: his father’s rice plantation and Rhett’s sympathy towards the Negro slaves. From the outset, Rhett is a rebel, and there is no love lost between him and his father, who constantly tries to force the young Rhett to conform to his ideals.
The story is peopled by the many characters who play a part in Rhett’s life, and all are convincing and interesting in their own right except for Scarlett. For me McCaig fails to capture Mitchell’s fiery heroine. What he does supremely well is to capture the atmosphere of the Civil War and the social mores of the time, gritty and honest; he is never afraid to use the ‘n’ word.
In penetrating the mystery that was Mitchell’s enigmatic hero, McCaig has dispelled much of the magic that held us in thrall to Rhett Butler. Like Max DeWinter and Mr Darcy we require our romantic heroes to be mysterious, unlike anyone we have ever met or are ever likely to meet. The story concludes rather gently, all passion spent as Scarlett whimsically opines, ‘Mercy, Mr. Butler. Isn’t life surprising?’
This novel is a captivating read in its own right, but I wonder if it will satisfy the many fans of the original, Gone With the Wind.
Ann Oughton
THE MOST GLORIFIED STRIP OF BUNTING
John McGill, Two Ravens Press, 2007, £9.99, pb, 239pp, 9781906120122
In 1871, the United States North Polar Expedition set sail in the Polaris, a converted river tug. Under the command of Charles Francis Hall, whose passionate goal was to plant the Stars and Stripes at the northernmost point of the world, an assortment of scientists, sailors and Inuit make up the ship’s company. From the outset, Commander Hall’s enthusiasm is not universally shared, and when the Polaris becomes embedded in ice, loyalty is stretched to the limit. During a storm, nineteen of the crew together with the Inuit families are marooned on an ice floe, and their six-month ordeal highlights how thin the veneer of civilisation is when put to the test. The lack of food and warmth, instead of uniting them in the struggle to survive, drive each against the other. Racial prejudice and thoughts of murder, rape and cannibalism are ever-present as their conditions worsen and survival seems impossible.
Each chapter is interspersed with transcripts of the United States Navy Board of Enquiry into the disaster. John McGill tells this story of human endurance with such realism that the reader can almost feel the frostbite nipping the toes. Through the pages the characters loom large against their background of desolation, victims of circumstance. An enthralling read.
Ann Oughton
STRANGELY WONDERFUL
Karen Mercury, Medallion, 2007, $15.95/ C$19.95, pb, 436pp, 9781933836027
Reading the first page of this novel, I knew I was in for something completely different. I admit to feeling wary. However, by the end of the third chapter, I was hooked. This tale, which begins in Madagascar in 1827 and ends in Rio de Janeiro in 1833, is adventurous, literate, and wickedly humorous from start to finish.
Count Tomaj Balashazy rescues a drowning, somewhat robust, damsel, Dagny Ravenhurst, from the lagoon at Mavasarona, his home port. Tomaj is a pirate (picture Jack Sparrow, cleaned up slightly) and local entrepreneur. Dagny is an American naturalist, come to Madagascar to study the exotic flora and fauna found nowhere else on earth. She has two “brothers” and a jealous patron. He has a crew of loyal eccentrics and a broken heart. Their attraction is immediate, and intense. But various emotional and political roadblocks take time to surmount.
Mercury has an outstanding vocabulary and knows how to use it. She conveys volumes with a few well-chosen words of dialogue, but is equally skilled at making longer, descriptive passages seem brilliant. Her characters gesture, move, and ultimately leap off the page and into the imagination. The sexual content verges on the pornographic, but it suits both the exotic locale and the unconventional characters. This is not your mother’s historical romance.
Alice Logsdon
WHISPERS ALONG THE RAILS
Judith Miller, Bethany House, 2007, $13.99, pb, 384pp, 9780764202773
In this, Miller’s second novel set in the 1890’s “company town” of Pullman, Illinois, Olivia Mott is not only working as an assistant chef at the Hotel Florence but riding the rails incognito, checking to see how Pullman’s services can be improved—or does her enigmatic boss, Mr. Howard, have another goal in mind? Meanwhile, Olivia’s former suitor, Fred, finds himself becoming involved in the labor movement, while lack of money causes Charlotte, daughter of an earl and mother to an out-of-wedlock child, to move into a settlement house in Chicago and take a job at the Marshall Field department store.
Whispers Along the Rails is well researched, well plotted, and peopled with sympathetic, three-dimensional characters who must make increasingly complicated—and risky—decisions as their situations become firmly intertwined. As was the case with its predecessor, In the Company of Secrets, Miller leaves the reader hanging and eagerly awaiting the next installment. (Fortunately, the recipes that Miller includes in the back matter can be enjoyed straightaway— allowing, of course, time for cooking.)
Susan Higginbotham
ONCE UPON A TIME TO DIE FOR Rosemary Miner, Hilliard & Harris, 2007,
$16.95/£10.99, pb, 174pp, 1591332036
It is 1873 in the small Adirondack village of Wevertown. Gracie Wickham has assumed her deceased father’s role as town physician. A well-liked and respected spinster, Gracie is so integral to the community that when one of the co-owners of the local tannery is discovered upside-down in a vat of chemicals late one evening, the manager fetches her before raising the alarm. After the coroner determines the death was no accident, he asks Gracie to try to solve the murder before he must report it to the constable, an unjust man who will simply arrest the most convenient suspect.
Clues mount as Gracie interviews and cares for her fellow townspeople with compassion and respect. There is no true sense of danger, not even after a second body is discovered. The coroner has no qualms about sending a lone woman sniffing after a murderer. The suspense comes from the fear that the wrong community member might be accused of the crime. The story unfolds logically so the reader can solve the case along with Gracie. This is a short, rather sweet book that should appeal to those looking for a mystery without blood and gore.
Sue Asher
JUST JANE
Nancy Moser, Bethany House, 2007, $13.99, pb, 367pp, 9780764203565
This fictional biography of Jane Austen, published by a house better known for Christian fiction, spans the period of her life from Tom Lefroy to the publication of Emma. Jane writes in first person, as if setting down her private thoughts in a journal, on the events Austen fans know well, such as their poverty while living in Bath after her father’s death, visiting siblings and their children, and the trials of becoming a published author.
Moser uses Austen’s own words where possible, imagination coming into play mainly when she tries to decipher Jane’s feelings, according to an appendix explaining what was fact and what fiction. Other supplemental materials include a cast of characters, what happened after the book ends, and a book club discussion guide. The target audience seems to be the general readers who may have seen film and TV adaptations of Austen’s work, but don’t know much about her life. Austen scholars and fervent Janeites might object (e.g., some Americanisms creep into the text), but it’s a good introduction to Austen’s life for that audience, and ought to spark enough interest to lead readers to try Austen’s letters or a straight biography.
B.J. Sedlock
THE STRAW HALTER
Joan M. Moules, Hale, 2007, £18.99, hb, 223pp, 9780709082767
Betsy Salden was eleven years old when she was sent into service with Mrs. Wallasey, who taught her to read and write. At fifteen she was
married to George Hatton and three years later, wearing a straw halter, was taken to the market and sold to Daniel Forrester, a local farmer. She had never got on with her own family, always being made to feel an outcast and outsider, but on the death of her mother, she finally learns the reason why she was so unwanted and why her Aunt Agnes so clearly hates her.
This is a moving story set around a custom that was quite common in the 18th and 19th centuries. Divorce was difficult enough for the aristocracy and virtually impossible for the ordinary people. To solve this problem, unwanted wives were sold in the marketplace with a straw halter around their necks. The same practice was the theme of Thomas Hardy’s classic novel, The Mayor of Casterbridge. The custom was finally abolished during the Victorian age.
I enjoyed this book very much. The plot moved at a good pace, the final outcome was never obvious and the characters were well drawn. Recommended
Marilyn Sherlock
THE RULES OF GENTILITY
Janet Mullany, Avon, 2007, $13.95/ C$17.50/£8.99, pb, 279pp, 9780061229831
The heroine is Philomena Wellesley-Clegg. Not those Wellesleys, as Philly always adds to her introductions. Her entrance into the ton would be easier if she really were related to the Duke of Wellington instead of being the daughter of a nouveau riche industrialist, her 5,000-pound dowry notwithstanding. Despite her “trade” lineage, Philly is pursued by a few eligible, if unsuitable, men. Inigo Linsley, the hero, is an outspoken, ungentlemanly younger son who was asked to resign his commission in disgrace a few weeks before Waterloo. He proposes a sham engagement to get both of their matchmaking mamas off their backs. Philly agrees, as it will allow more time for shopping for bonnets to cover her wiry red hair, which spirals into uncontrollable curly spikes if not confined.
Miss Mullany has created a lovable, ditzy heroine, probably more typical of the Regencyera marriage mart than is usual. Written with first-person narration, this is a Regency romance with a twist that makes it a lot of fun to read.
Audrey Braver
involved in her husband’s lucrative affairs, refusing to have his partners decide for her. What she learns is not only unsavory but proves dangerous as people start dying around her. However, she is strong and determined, while remaining a woman of her time, and eventually finds out the true goings-on and her own value. Newman’s smooth writing plunges us without a ripple in that young and thriving city, its pioneer spirit confronted by the stricter codes of the eastern U.S. and to the mores of a growing Chinese population. Cleverly avoiding all stereotypes, her characters are human, believable and stir emotions in the reader. The plot, based on a sordid but unfortunate reality, is engrossing. Whether you enjoy mysteries or not, Newman’s books have something for everyone and should not be missed.
Nicole Leclerc
HARRIET AND ISABELLA
Patricia O’Brien, Touchstone, 2008, $25.00/ C$28.99, 352pp, hb, 9781416552208
The adultery trial of world-famous preacher Henry Ward Beecher was front-page news and tabloid fodder in the 1870s, and Patricia O’Brien brings to life the divided family that suffered for years after Henry’s acquittal. The Beechers were the 19th-century equivalent of the Kennedys: outspoken, influential, and living in the public eye, they were the closest America came to having royalty. Henry’s sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, was famous in her own right for Uncle Tom’s Cabin, though she shunned the spotlight. She was the main emotional support for her half-sister Isabella until Isabella became an outspoken suffragist and then a supporter of one of Henry’s accusers. Their rift mirrored the division in the American public, between loyalty to the family and honesty towards one’s beliefs.
DEATH AT DAWN (US title: A FOREIGN AFFAIR)
Caro Peacock, HarperCollins, 2008, £7.99, pb, 432 pp, 9780007244171 / Avon A, 2008, $13.95, pb, 384pp, 9780061445897
Liberty Lane has been brought up to believe in liberty, fraternity and equality by her freethinking father, but it seems to have brought him to a sad end. After he is shot while fighting a duel in Calais, it is the sad duty of Liberty to escape from her frosty aunt and cross the channel to see him buried. But Thomas abhorred the very idea of fighting duels, and his final letter sounded as though he was mixed up in some very odd business.
I have always enjoyed historical adventures, and this one with its lively heroine, sinister spies, plots concerning folk in high places and general skulduggery is right up my dark alley. It is a fun read, narrated by Liberty, and delightfully colourful. You might also expect it to be fast-paced but it does not hurtle along, rather stopping for observations and some quite tactile descriptions. Rather to its detriment it gets a little breathless towards the end in the manner of a vehicle with faulty brakes going down a hill. When the last page is turned there are rather more questions than answers, which I guess is supposed to whet the reader’s appetite for more; I would have preferred a better finish.
Rachel A Hyde
A CHRISTMAS BEGINNING
Anne Perry, Headline, 2007, £14.99, hb, 135pp, 9780755334308 / Ballantine, 2007, $17.95, hb, 208pp, 9780345485823
THE SHANGHAI TUNNEL
Sharan Newman, Forge, 2008, $24.95/C$31.00, 331pp, 0765313006
This is the first in Sharan Newman’s Emily Stratton series. Newman always possesses the special key to a portal that transports her readers to other places and times completely.
Leaving Europe behind, she explores her native Portland in 1868. In this novel partly based on real ordinary citizens of that era, she gives them a new life and story. Emily Stratton, China born and recently widowed, arrives in Portland with her sixteen-year-old son to settle in her late husband’s house. She decides to get
The main narrative takes place in 1887 New York, as Henry Beecher lies dying. His siblings gather to say their farewells and to comfort each other, including Isabella, who is turned away by Henry’s wife Eunice and by Harriet as well. Each scene prompts a flashback, both to happier family times and to the trial, and in this interweaving of past and present O’Brien reveals the complicated relationship between the family members, especially the two women. Harriet’s unswerving loyalty to Henry allows for no inner questioning of his possible guilt, and her strong beliefs lead the other siblings to ostracize Isabella as well. Over time, however, some of the siblings relent, and while outwardly supporting the Beecher name, they reveal to Isabella their own thoughts about Henry’s actions.
O’Brien’s fictionalized account of the postscandal family turmoil paints a vivid picture of the issues and morality of the time, and lets today’s readers peek into what may well have been the real thoughts and emotions connecting two very different famous women.
Helene Williams
Superintendent Runcorn of the Metropolitan Police has come to Anglesey to escape the loneliness of the Christmas season and his memories of Melisande, with whom he fell desperately in love the previous year. His efforts are in vain as he immediately meets Melisande’s brother John Barclay and learns of Melisande’s presence in Anglesey—she is now engaged to another man. When the Vicar of Anglesey’s sister is found murdered and Barclay is implicated in the crime, Melisande asks Runcorn to help clear her brother’s name.
This is one of Anne Perry’s Christmas novellas and features characters from her other mystery novels. While it helps to have some background in her previous characters and stories, this need not deter a new reader from her books. We learn enough about Runcorn to make him a well-rounded character. The detailed descriptions of the weather, people, and landscape evoke just the right atmosphere for a Christmas murder mystery. This is not so much nail-biting suspense as a story of love and hope set against a background of death and deceit. Well worth reading.
Karen Wintle
THE SCENT OF JASMINE
Maureen Peters, Hale, 2007, £18.99, hb, 224pp, 9780709083511
Melody Craven is a poor relation, orphaned by a cholera epidemic in India and given refuge by her Uncle Frederick and Aunt Laura, who bring her up alongside her cousin Mary. Dashing Captain Roger Hallet comes on the scene, on leave from India, first making a play for Melody, then becoming engaged to Mary.
But they must wait three years before Mary is of sufficient age to travel to India, and in that time she realises that her heart belongs to another. Melody, believing that Hallet loves her after all, takes her place, and arrives in Bengal en route for a garrison town in the vicinity of Cawnpore in the spring of 1857. Tension is apparent on the journey; there are reports of bandits operating in the area, and Melody is relieved to have the support of mission schooleducated Indian Ram Singh and enigmatic army officer Captain Adam Channing as she travels to Parakesh by palanquin. As mutiny erupts and the British population of Parakesh faces deadly danger, Hallet displays feet of clay and Melody discovers her growing love for Channing.
To use the Indian Mutiny as the setting for a romance is scarcely new—M. M. Kaye did it with Shadow of the Moon as long ago as 1957—but for readers whose interest in historical novels is primarily in the history there is too great an emphasis in this book on what is formulaic romance. Indeed, Maureen Peters appears to forget that the Indian Mutiny took place at the hottest time of the year, as Melody several times gathers warm clothes against the night-time chill, and the hardships her heroine undergoes are almost insignificant compared with the realities recorded in such magisterial works as William Dalrymple’s recent The Last Mughal. Still, in the best romantic tradition, all ends happily.
Ann Lyon
A LADY OF HIGH REGARD
Tracie Peterson, Bethany House, 2007, $13.99, pb, 336pp, 9780764227776
Mia Stanley considers herself a matchmaker. She’s also a writer for Godey’s Lady’s Book For a young woman in Philadelphia in 1852, being a matchmaker is acceptable, but being an author is questionable. Mia has set herself two tasks that cause her great difficulties. The first is to find a match for her longtime friend and neighbor, Garrett Wilson, but Garrett has quite another match in mind. Mia’s second task is to write an article to help the plight of seamen’s wives who are being unfairly taken advantage of by rent collectors. Mia’s tasks land her in many different kinds of trouble throughout the book. Mia is in so much trouble, in fact, that her book might better have been entitled “A Lady of No Regard.”
Ms. Peterson has crafted a troublesome handful in her character, Mia Stanley. While Mia’s intentions do seem to be good, her constant thwarting of authority and doing things her own way can get annoying. Whether this is very clever writing or just repetition is not certain.
Although the book is discussing serious, violent issues, the lighthearted writing style robs them of some of their intensity.
Nan Curnutt
SEDUCED BY A SPY
Andrea Pickens, Forever, 2008, $6.99/C$8.50, pb, 368pp, 0466617997
It’s 1812, and England is at war with Napoleon. Mrs. Merlin’s Academy for Select Young Ladies, disguised as a finishing school, is secretly training specially selected orphaned girls from the slums of London as spies. These women learn to use every weapon available to them, including their own bodies, to protect England from Napoleon’s forces. Shannon is the most daring of all Merlin’s Maidens. In this, her first assignment, she is paired with her former nemesis, Russian spy Alexandr Orlov. Sparks fly as they work together to bring down the most dangerous assassin in Napoleon’s army.
This novel is not your average period romance. Full of riveting adventure and sexual tension and peopled with intelligent and lovable characters, it holds the reader’s attention to the final page. This is the second book in the Merlin’s Maidens series, after The Spy Who Wore Silk. While each book can stand alone, there are elements of the story that carry over, making it worthwhile to read them as a series.
Nan Curnutt
WOMEN OF MAGDALENE
Rosemary Poole-Carter, Kunati, 2007, $24.95, hb, 280pp, 978160164014
Robert Mallory is a young doctor who saw three years of horrifying medical service in the Civil War. Estranged from his family, he is hired by a family friend, Dr. Kingston, to be the general practitioner of the Magdalene Ladies’ Lunatic Asylum near Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In route to the asylum, he finds the body of a woman who he learns was an inmate trying to escape. He gradually learns of other unexplained deaths at the asylum, although the asylum’s misogynistic and racist director is unconcerned about them or any of his inmates, except in their potential for his own pleasure and monetary enrichment. The novel’s atmosphere is thick with sensuality reminiscent of Anne Rice’s novels. Here, the sensuality is not supernatural but latent in the yearning Mallory develops for the asylum’s young, mute laundress/patient, and also expressed through the lurid makeup and garish gowns of the director’s favorite inmates. It can’t be accidental that the author chose “Magdalene” for the asylum’s name. Just as the Magdalene laundries of Catholic Ireland were the forced homes of fallen women, women in 19th-century America were sometimes institutionalized by their male family members if these women suffered from wayward behavior, independent thought, or perhaps just the burden of wealth. Dr. Kingston profited greatly from these discarded women, only some of whom actually suffered from any real mental illness.
The action is often seen through the miasma of Mallory’s attacks of malaria, often accompanied by the guilt he carried for his role in the death of his sister. His need for redemption and his determination to right the wrongs perpetrated at Magdalene carry the novel’s intense drive and growing horror. With its principled, haunted hero, this is a well-written, dark gothic novel that doesn’t go over the top. It is highly recommended.
Pamela Ortega
SILENT IN THE SANCTUARY Deanna Raybourn, Mira, 2008, $13.95/C$16.95, pb, 560pp, 9780778324928
Silent in the Sanctuary reacquaints the readers of Silent in the Grave with widowed Lady Julia Grey and the inscrutable Nicholas Brisbane. Summoned back to Sussex for Christmas following a six-month stay in Italy with two of her brothers, Lady Julia finds herself in the midst of what could only be termed as the house party from hell. Brisbane, who aided Lady Julia in finding her husband’s murderer in the first book, is in attendance, inexplicably engaged to a vapid, simpering woman (meaning not Lady Julia). Also present are two poor relations, a light-fingered, less-than-pious curate, and other assorted family members. When one of the poor relations is found clutching a bloodied candelabra over the curate’s body, she invokes her right to sanctuary, and Lady Julia’s father orders Julia and Brisbane to work together to determine what actually happened.
Although over 500 pages long, this book begs to be read in one sitting. Not only are Lady Julia and Brisbane exasperating, captivating, all-too-human characters, but the March family is equally bewitching. Raybourn may strain the bounds of Victorian credibility with the degree of freedom accorded Lady Julia and her sister Portia, an out and proud lesbian, but she adroitly slips in so many other concerns—earned wealth, inherited wealth and lack thereof, the demands of propriety, and even prejudice towards the Romany—that the book has true bite. Plus, the chemistry between Lady Julia and Brisbane is palpable. A third installment, please!
Ellen Keith
VEIL OF FIRE
Marlo Schalesky, River Oak, 2007, $13.99, pb, 306pp, 9781589190771
The first section of this novel follows what happens to a handful of residents during a firestorm of 1894 that destroyed six towns and 400 square miles. The fire is totally historical. Hinckley, Minnesota, survives as a tourist town and commemorates the fire with a museum. Existing memorial writings are a rich source, and the author draws upon these to relate very realistic details not for the fainthearted or the arson-phobic.
Part of the legend surrounding this fire is a mysterious personage, scarred beyond recognition, who appeared like a phantom to
townspeople following the fire. The survivors and the mystery figure form the basis for this Christian novel of redemption as they rebuild the town and their lives. The fire is not retribution or punishment, but the matrix for their spiritual growth.
Mary K. Bird-Guilliams
MY THEODOSIA
Anya Seton, Chicago Review Press, 2007 (c1941), $14.95, pb, 432pp, 9781556527272
This novel is one in a series of reprints Chicago Review Press is publishing of the work of the great Anya Seton. In Seton’s canon, My Theodosia is a lesser star; though it was her first published novel, it has always languished in the shadow of works such as the phenomenally received Katherine and The Winthrop Woman But My Theodosia, like these other offerings, is an exquisite work of historical fiction. Many historical fiction authors manage either strong period ambience or strong characterization, but not both. Seton is one of the few that has mastered it all—My Theodosia submerges the reader in the historical period and also provides meticulous characterization that leaves the reader feeling as if she now knows the characters personally.
These characters are Theodosia Burr and her somewhat infamous father, Aaron (as well as a parade of famous Americans, from Meriwether Lewis to Dolley Madison). This fictional biography begins with Theodosia’s seventeenth birthday, and follows her life through her marriage to Joseph Alston and eventually her fateful sail out of Georgetown harbor. Though the novel is the story of Theodosia’s life (and Seton’s version of her historically unknown doom), the main feature here is Theodosia’s intense relationship with her father. The novel begins with a letter from the real Theo, as she was known, where she actually states that she’s tempted to worship her father as a god. Using historical documentation and her very vivid imagination, Seton provides a fascinating window into the relationship between Theo and Aaron during pivotal moments in history, from his tenure as vice-president to the murder of Alexander Hamilton in a duel to his planning to set himself up as a sort of king in Mexico. My Theodosia is an immersive, historically detailed read that provides the reader a convincing glimpse into the life of this fascinating woman and her relationship with the flawed father she adored.
Bethany Latham
THE CLIFF HOUSE STRANGLER
Shirley Tallman, Minotaur, 2007, $24.95, hb, 320pp, 0312357567
In this, Tallman’s third Sarah Woolson mystery, the spunky late 19th-century attorney deals with the titled investigation while working to establish her own practice, having recently left one of the most prestigious of San Francisco law firms.
Who killed the despicable, universally
despised journalist, Darien Moss—especially when it is realized that almost everyone at Madame Karpova’s séance had a motive? Sarah is not convinced that the solution is an easy one, and she ultimately discovers that she has been correct all along.
On the way, Sarah takes on a couple of new clients, one of whom is a woman going through a divorce whose abusive husband is attempting to wrest custody of the children from her. As a family law attorney, I was immediately drawn to Sarah’s determination to do right by her client and as appalled as is Sarah by the wretchedness of the male-property centered custody statutes on the books at that time.
It is this kind of detail about late 19th-century life and law that made this an enjoyable read for me. Not a literary or intellectual exercise, but a great fireplace or beach read.
Ilysa Magnus
THOUGH THE HEAVENS MAY FALL
E V Thompson, Sphere, 2007, £19.99, hb, 374pp, 9781847440570
Amos Hawke, a Scotland Yard detective, is given the opportunity to return to his native Cornwall supposedly to trace his absent father. However, it is 1856, and finding the murderer(s) of two Excise men and the latest, a respected teacher, is his real mission. Discovering if a link exists between the deaths is just one question he has to answer. Amos takes lodgings in the home of the grieving widow and daughter, Talwyn, of the deceased teacher; an arrangement that has an unfortunate and uncomfortable beginning; despite this it is Talwyn who plays a crucial role in his mission and life.
Amos discovers far more than he had ever hoped for as he completes his task. His path crosses with evil men, with scant regard for life beyond their own, yet his determination and professionalism to see justice done bring their own rewards.
Life in the city of London is carefully portrayed in stark contrast to that of the scenery and style of life in Cornwall. The sense of community in the latter is shown in its strongest light as families work together to survive a hard existence, mistrusting any foreigners who visit their towns and villages. This is paralleled with the weakness of how this loyalty can be controlled by evil men. The story sweeps along in short chapters as the mystery deepens and the characters’ lives become closely entwined. Heartfelt moments contrast with the gritty, harsh reality of life in 19th-century Cornwall. The novel successfully encompasses mystery, murder and romance; a very enjoyable read.
Valerie Loh
BLACK CREEK: The Taking of Florida
Paul Varnes, Pineapple Press, 2007, $19.95, hb, 288pp, 9781561642717
Many novels have been written about the resettling of the Native American population onto reservations. Paul Varnes tells the story, based upon the lives of his ancestors, of how
the American government forced various tribes from Georgia through Florida to relocate west of the Mississippi after 1820. Several Seminole Wars were fought to accomplish this task. Black Creek follows a family who moved from Georgia into northern Florida after its purchase from Spain. Although Isaac Jr. and his father trade with the native population and befriend several local tribes, they must take sides and fight for the American government to defeat those tribes who refuse to leave.
Looking back, it is hard to understand why the white settlers, and the U.S. government in particular, could treat a race of people in such a cold-hearted way. This was definitely a low point in American history.
The story is told from the viewpoint of the young son, Isaac Jr. The book is well-written from a historical perspective, but I found the characters uninteresting. In the beginning the author uses speech and colloquialisms appropriate to the 1820s, but as the book progresses, the main character speaks more as a 20th-century writer would talk. If your interests in American history revolve around the struggles of the Native Americans, you may be disappointed, because you will get the impression that relocating the Indians was a great idea: it solved the settlers’ problems of new land to own, and provided the promise of a new start for the Indians. This could have been a better novel if the author had shown more compassion for the Indian tribes.
Jeff Westerhoff
A NOBLE PLACE
Anne Whitfield, Hale, 2007, £18.99, hb, 224pp, 9780709083658
Australia, 1850. The Noble family have recently arrived from England to begin their new life Down Under, where they hope to put their tainted past behind them. Pippa Noble wants to forget the unrequited love she felt for a distant cousin, and she is determined that her family’s horse stud will be the finest in the land. But can one really escape the past? Pippa must undergo many trials before she can find true happiness. The near loss of one of her dearest friends makes her realise that true contentment lies within and not on the goldfields.
I enjoyed this book. I liked the pioneering spirit of the heroine fighting to be accepted in a masculine world. The author’s descriptions of the Australian bush were so vivid, I could almost feel the heat. If there is a downside, it’s the way it all fits too neatly into place at the end with the inevitable handsome hero. Pippa has her wild adventures, then is ready to hang up her bonnet and settle down to be a good wife. An interesting story, nonetheless, with enough adventures to keep you going until the end.
Karen Wintle
THE SEDUCTION OF THE CRIMSON ROSE
Lauren Willig, Dutton, 2008, $24.95/C$31, hb, 400pp, 9780525950332
19th Century-20th Century
Fourth in Willig’s mystery series featuring the exploits of English spies in the Napoleonic era, The Seduction of the Crimson Rose is the darkest to date in this otherwise lighthearted series. Framed by present-day academic Eloise Kelly’s search for the elusive Pink Carnation, each tale has featured a man and woman overcoming obstacles, be it secret identities or misunderstandings, to realize their love for one another while furthering the cause of British resistance against Napoleon Bonaparte. The same cast of characters populates each tale, with a different couple taking center stage in each. The couple of the moment is Lord Sebastian Vaughn and Miss Mary Alsworthy, both more cynical and jaded than the couples of earlier books, which adds some bite and weight to their inevitable union.
Prompted by the Pink Carnation, Lord Vaughn enlists Miss Alsworthy’s aid in setting a seductive trap for the dastardly Black Tulip. Miss Alsworthy, loath to be dependent on her younger married sister, agrees—for a price. Their business arrangement soon becomes much more, yet each fears rejection and hides behind a brittle wit. That wit is all of a piece with the languid façade of such spies as the Scarlet Pimpernel, and with her quartet of books so far, Willig skillfully evokes that style of adventure novel. What will the fifth flower be?
Ellen Keith
20th CENTURY
THE TALE OF HAWTHORN HOUSE
Susan Wittig Albert, Berkley Prime Crime, 2007, $23.95/C$30.00, hb, 322pp, 9780425216552
This fourth volume in Albert’s series featuring children’s author Beatrix Potter and her friends, both human and animal, takes place in 1908, when Beatrix finds a baby on the doorstep of her house in the English village of Sawrey. The only clues to the baby’s identity are a note, a ring, and a hawthorn sprig. She quickly finds a home for the baby with Captain Miles Woodcock, the justice of the peace, and his sister Dimity. Miles finds a connection to Hawthorn House, which is supposedly haunted. Does the baby belong to one of the gypsies camped near the house? Or to a servant girl who has gone off to London? As Beatrix attempts to solve the mystery, rumors fly around the village that she is engaged to Miles This is a delightful series. I’m sure that some people will find the talking animals too cutesy, but the animal subplots are definitely in the spirit of Beatrix Potter’s books. The village setting is enjoyable, and if you have been following the series, this book is like a visit with old friends. I recommend that you begin with the first volume, The Tale of Hill Top Farm.
Vicki Kondelik
THE ANGEL OF HISTORY
Bruno Arpaia, Canongate, 2007, £7.99/$15.95, pb, 344pp, 9781841959832
Walter Benjamin leaves Berlin to escape Nazi persecution and begins a new life in Paris. Ignoring the impending signs of war and invasion, he uses the local library as his sanctuary and his defence against the outside world. Forced to leave Paris for Marseille, he finds himself with a visa for the U.S., but no legal way of leaving France. Despite his physical frailty, he decides, in a rare moment of decisiveness, to cross the Pyrenees into Spain, then on to Portugal. In a parallel story, Laureano Mahojo survives the civil war in Spain but finds himself a prisoner in France. The collapse of the French army gives him the opportunity to return to Spain, where he is forced to remain undercover: he becomes a smuggler in order to survive. The two men come together for one night on a hillside in the Pyrenees.
The book is superbly written, with the use of both first and third person narrative providing a sharp contrast between the two men and their attitudes to life. The characters are subtly drawn, but they come out of the page as vibrant, annoying and alive. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and will read it again.
Mike Ashworth
LIFE CLASS
Pat Barker, Hamish Hamilton, 2007, £16.99, hb, 248pp, 9780241142974 / Doubleday, 2008, $23.95, hb, 320pp, 9780385524353
In early 1914, Paul Tarrant and Elinor Brooke are students at the Slade School of Art’s lifedrawing class run by the formidable Professor Tonks. Paul, a working-class Northerner with the traditional chip on his shoulder, is uncertain about the value of his work. Lovely Elinor is much more calmly convinced of her own worth. Paul is attracted to Elinor but, there is a complication in the shape of Kit Neville, not long out of the Slade himself and already a successful artist. In the face of this competition Paul turns to Teresa, an artist’s model, an interesting character who leaves the plot rather too early.
The Great War breaks out and re-orders our protagonists’ lives. Paul and Kit join the Red Cross in Belgium while Elinor, though wishing to rise above the conflict and think of nothing but art, fights her own little war back in England as the defender of a German girl she has befriended against the prejudice and thuggery of the locals. Under the stresses, sometimes horrific, of his ambulance work, Paul reaches out again to Elinor. She joins him in Belgium for a stolen weekend but, by the end of the book, when Paul is on leave in London, it is by no means certain that their love for each other will last much longer.
that this was the novelist’s intention. As it is it looks as if she just ran out of steam.
Peter Prince
ON WINGS OF THE MORNING
Marie Bostwick, Kensington, 2007, $14.00/ C$17.50, pb, 384pp, 9780758222565
Georgia Carter and Morgan Glennon have something in common: both grew up as outof-wedlock children. They have another thing in common as well: both have a passion for flying airplanes. World War II gives both the opportunity to serve their country by doing so, Georgia as a member of the now little-known Women’s Air Service Pilots.
Morgan (whose mother is the heroine of Bostwick’s first novel, Fields of Gold) and Georgia recount their own experiences, which eventually intersect to form a love story. Just as important as the romance between Morgan and Georgia, however, is the manner in which both characters come to terms with their backgrounds and with the harsh realities of war and sexism.
The characters here, major and minor alike, are rendered vividly and sympathetically, and Bostwick makes 1940s America come alive. The dialogue is natural, with a nice period flavor to it, as are Georgia and Morgan’s narrative voices. Spending time in these people’s company was a pleasure.
For those wishing to learn more about the history behind the novel, Bostwick has included an informative author’s note in which she discusses the Women’s Air Service Pilots and Charles Lindbergh (an important character in this novel).
THE
In Life Class, Pat Barker again shows her remarkable empathy for the generation of the First World War. Some of the writing in the hospital scenes is profoundly harrowing. If the novel falls down at all, it is the inconclusiveness with which it ends. It may mirror the emptiness and confusion felt by many people at the time, but it would have helped if it had been clearer
Susan Higginbotham
HEIR (UK title: HEIRS OF RAVENSCAR)
Barbara Taylor Bradford, St. Martin’s Press, 2007, $25.95, hb, 496pp, 0312354622 / HarperCollins, 2007, £17.99, hb, 507pp, 9780007197637
The Heir is the second book in Bradford’s series about the Deravenel family, yet it stands alone very well. There were some “as you know” moments that this reader thought were not necessary, but on the whole, this novel delivers what readers expect from Barbara Taylor Bradford: a large canvas featuring numerous characters intriguing over power and wealth in upscale restaurants and boardrooms and indulging their passions in grand houses and dramatic settings.
The story opens in 1918. English business tycoon Edward Deravenel is troubled by his loose-cannon brother George and his critical wife Elizabeth so turns to the soothing Jane Shaw and the wise counsel of close friend Will and brother-in-law Anthony. Meanwhile, his youngest brother Richard is competently handling affairs in the north.
If this summary sounds suspiciously familiar, that is because Bradford has lifted her plot from the reign of Edward IV. I thought her modern-day N n
retelling of the War of the Roses’ machinations worked reasonably well – but then she made a jump across nearly fifty years to when Harry (i.e., Henry VIII) was managing the Deravenel empire. Although the connections with the earlier story are clearly made, I felt this section would have worked better as the beginning of a new novel.
The Heir is a page-turner, if only to count the number of times the characters nibbled Scottish smoked salmon or shopped at Harrods. Actually I was quite interested to learn how Bradford would treat the “Princes in the Tower” mystery and Henry’s split with Katherine!
Claire Morris
THE WORLD IN PANCHO’S EYES
J. P. S. Brown, Univ. of New Mexico Press, 2007, $24.95, hb, 286pp, 9780826341907
When Mikey is born in August of 1930, his father, Paul Summers, is working hard as a cowboy. He is also spending on whiskey the legacy of the family of Mikey’s mother, Maggie. Maggie knows this, but is “too wild and volatile to stop it.” These are the hard days of the Great Depression. In Arizona’s cattle country, the ranches are struggling with the drought. Children grow up in the great outdoors, on their own. Mikey has what he needs: his best buddy, daredevil Billy Shane, his dog Baxter, and, especially, Pancho, his horse. Young Mikey finds in Pancho’s gaze everything that is “good about fathers, mothers, horses, dirt, dogs, cows, trees, grass, bosom pals…” Mikey’s world, however, is anything but easy, and there are plenty of heartaches as he grows older.
When a novel mirrors the author’s early life, a certain degree of finger-pointing is almost expected, but you won’t find it here. J.P.S. Brown, cattleman and fiction writer, looks back realistically, without anger or regret. The World in Pancho’s Eyes, his newest novel, is above all a loving portrait of the Southwest of his childhood. Brown’s depiction of the harsh beauty of the country and its multi-ethnic characters is rich in detail. But he is nothing short of wonderful when the subject is horses, cattle, or the dangerous work of cowboys. A delight to read.
Adelaida Lower
FOLLY DU JOUR
Barbara Cleverly, Constable, 2007, £18.99, hb, 320pp, 9781845295288 / Soho, Aug. 2008, $25.95, hb, 288pp, 9781569475133 Paris, 21 May 1927. Commander Joe Sandilands DSO of Scotland Yard lands at Le Bourget airport seconds before Charles Lindbergh completes his historic transatlantic flight in The Spirit of St Louis. At approximately the same time in the same city, Sir George Jardeine, late of the India Army, is arriving at the music hall to watch the scandalous performance of Josephine Baker. It is here that a murder will be committed of which Sir George will stand accused.
Y WHITETHORN
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Bryce Courtenay, Penguin, 2007, £7.99, pb, 692pp, 9780143004844
Do not be misled by the blurb on the back cover of Bryce Courtenay’s new novel. The Second World War does indeed form a backdrop to the action, but it is a dim and distant one. As the sub-title indicates, this is a novel of Africa, and what makes its protagonist, Tom Fitzsaxby, an outsider – as a South African of English rather than Afrikaans origin – is England’s association with an earlier war. It is the Boer War that defines relationships in this novel and causes many Afrikaners to sympathise with the Nazis. Although the novel begins in 1939, it follows Tom through to the 1960s, to apartheid and resistance to it. Whitethorn is not an original story – lonely outsider redeemed by his intellect and love of books – but the voice in which Courtenay tells it is unique and beautifully crafted. Tom’s plain language, larded with snatches of Afrikaans and with a strong South African ‘accent’, works as an effective counterpoint to the many horrors he recounts. He makes no moral judgements – he is an orphan, he belongs to The Government and The Government does not expect its possessions to have opinions – he merely tells his life as it happens. His casual, unadorned account of the cruelties he encounters makes them all the more shocking to readers from a more liberal age.
A fine novel, whose message is embedded in gripping storytelling – just as it should be. A word of warning – Whitethorn does require a strong stomach.
Barbara Cleverly sets the seventh title in her murder mystery series involving Joe Sandilands in the City of Light. but the novel does not capture the atmosphere of the roaring twenties. The dialogue, when it is often supposedly conducted in French, uses many English colloquialisms that are out of period and sit awkwardly on the French tongue.
There are a lot of facts in this book held together by words in short sentences, and names are dropped frequently. It is at times difficult for the reader not to envisage a list of these known facts that must be inserted at every available opportunity in the prose.
A continuing thread from the earlier books can leave new readers slightly bewildered, but the story is nevertheless constructed well, even if the dialogue is underwhelming and lacks tension at times. The author misplaces characters when they become tiresome and introduces new ones. However, with the exception of those who are murdered, there is a predictable happy ending for those remaining.
Gwen
Sly
THE CHASE
Clive Cussler, Putnam, 2007, hb, $26.95/C$33.50, 416pp, 9780399154386 / Michael Joseph, 2007, £18.99, hb, 416pp, 9780718152796
In 1950, Montana’s Flathead Lake gives up a dark secret: the remains of a steam locomotive (plus boxcar) and its dead, lost since the early 1900s with fortune on board. A cover-up by the railroad prevented the true story from being widely known, though the identities of the victims are on record. But what exactly happened?
Rewind to 1906, when agent Isaac Bell is put
Sarah Bower
onto the case of the ruthless Butcher Bandit, a bank robber noted for killing all witnesses to his crimes. The cunning and imaginative thief plans his jobs down to the final detail, but Bell is an equally resourceful adversary. With the help of others at the Van Dorn Detective Agency, Bell manages to trace the Butcher Bandit, but encounters difficulty amassing enough evidence to secure a conviction.
The Chase is Clive Cussler’s only book in a quasi-western genre and his first novel in several years without a co-author. Written in an omnipotent style, the pace of the novel is good throughout, but overall it felt a little too lightweight, more like the novelization of a film – Bell comes off like a James Bond for his time. Most of the action seems highly unlikely for the early 1900s even if technically possible. Pure adventure that happens to be set in the past: it’s a story better suited to the big screen than the page.
Janette King
COWARD ON THE BEACH
James Delingpole, Bloomsbury 2007, £12.99, hb, 326pp, 9780747590705
Dick Coward might be a coward by name but not by nature. He is a bona fide hero; unfortunately, no one else sees it that way. Every heroic deed he commits seems destined for misinterpretation and denigration, which is a problem because Coward’s father has decreed that the family estate will be inherited by whichever of his sons acquits themselves with the most credit on the battlefield. To date, Dick’s awful brother, James, is leading the race.
Volume I of this adventure sees Coward on the Normandy Beaches, outnumbered and
apparently destined for death and honour or life and disgrace. With the help of his put-upon batman, Price, Dick struggles to stay alive and ahead of the game.
To say that Coward is a Second World War Flashman really seems to damn him with faint praise, because James Delingpole’s character is no mere pale imitation but a fully fleshed hero in his own right. Coward on the Beach is a great read, exciting, exuberant and perceptive.
Sara Wilson
NEVER SURRENDER
Michael Dobbs, Sourcebooks, 2007, $14.95, pb, 336pp, 9781402210440 / HarperCollins, 2004, £6.99, pb, 448pp, 0007107277
Of all the iconic images of the Second World War, none is more etched in the public mind than the picture of a defiant Winston Churchill, leading his nation alone against the Nazi hordes. Yet before the speeches about fighting on the beaches and the landing grounds, there was the first month of Churchill’s premiership, a time of great uncertainty, a time when it was by no means clear that Britain had the will, let alone the means, to stand up when all around them the old, great nations of Europe were falling.
Michael Dobbs presents this time in crystal clarity. We have a doubting Churchill, not at all convinced of his ability to shoulder the immense burden of a devastating military defeat which began on the very day he gained power. There is his War Cabinet, dedicated more to the notion of a negotiated peace than a continuation of a war already lost. The only hope, an early American intervention, is dashed on the defeatism of a duplicitous Joseph Kennedy. And there is the
Y THE MAYTREES
British Army, beaten almost before it entered the fight, facing a choice of surrender or fighting to the last bullet.
This is a remarkable book, written with an immediacy seldom seen in works about the war. It is a work of fiction, but one that, thanks to superb research and excellent writing skills, illuminates a time largely forgotten in the flush of the deliverance of Dunkirk and the subsequent victory over Germany. It serves as a reminder that the history of the world could have quite easily taken a different turn in that pivotal May of 1940, one that would have darkened the lives of all the subsequent generations.
Ken Kreckel
THE WINTER ROSE
Jennifer Donnelly, Hyperion, 2008, $23.95/ C$32.95, hb, 720pp, 9781401301033 / HarperCollins, 2006, £6.99, pb, 736pp, 0007191324
This sequel to Ms. Donnelly’s first novel continues the story and fills in details of what happened to Charlie Finnegan, brother of Fiona (heroine of The Tea Rose). Set in early 20th century London, it also tells the story of aristocratic India Selwyn Jones, who defies her family and fiancé to pursue a career in medicine and practise in the slums of Whitechapel. Charlie has become known as the notorious gangster Sid Malone, and though he plays the part with alacrity, deep down inside, he longs to escape the life. Circumstances bring Sid and India together, sparking a romance that will force each of them to make changes in their lives neither ever imagined. Though it’s the second in a proposed trilogy, it also stands alone.
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Annie Dillard, HarperCollins, 2007, $24.95/C$29.95, hb, 216pp, 9780061239534 / Hesperus, 2007, £12.99, 224pp, 9781843917106
The novel opens in Provincetown, Massachusetts, just after the Second World War. Toby Maytree, a thirty-yearold poet and part-time house-mover, meets Lou Bigelow, a recent college graduate, who dabbles in painting. After a short courtship, they fall in love and settle into Provincetown, which will be the center of the rest of their lives. They quickly adapt to a bohemian lifestyle, surrounded by an array of offbeat characters. Like most of their friends, they are too fond of their free time to settle for steady jobs. Before long, a son, Petie, arrives. Their free-spirited neighbor, Deary, a deeply maternal soul, spends a good deal of time caring for Petie. After fourteen idyllic years together, Toby becomes disillusioned and runs away to Maine with Deary. Lou recovers from the devastating emotional and psychological shock and stays the course in Provincetown raising Petie. When he reaches young adulthood, he finds solace working as a fisherman, the one thing his father dreaded he would do. Finally, after decades, Toby returns to beg Lou for a special favor that only she can manage.
Dillard’s intimate knowledge of nature shines in the outstandingly written novel. Through a style that is as consistently expressive as it is transparent, she details the inner and outer journey through life of the Maytrees and their satellite of friends. She wraps it all up with two brilliantly written death scenes that describe, in context, a lyrical balance of life and death. This is a truly exceptional novel of people in and out of time.
Gerald T.
Burke
Fiona and Joe from The Tea Rose also appear frequently as Fiona continues her quest to reunite with her brother, over Joe’s strenuous objections.
Rich in period detail, social history and remarkable characterization, Ms. Donnelly’s fast-paced and engrossing book will have you turning the pages late into the night. Politics, love, hate and passion clash and carry the tale forward as Sid and India struggle to find a way to be together.
East London’s notorious streets and grinding poverty are characters in their own right, taking the reader deep into the lives of those who ground out a life and living there. Quality historical fiction that both entertains and informs is what every reader of the genre craves, and this novel does both.
My one quibble is that India, like Fiona in the first book, is a little too perfect, which gets tiresome from time to time. However, the other strengths noted above more than make up for this, and I highly recommend The Winter Rose to anyone who loves losing themselves in a book.
Teresa Basinski Eckford
THE BLOODY TOWER
Carola Dunn, St. Martin’s Press, 2007, $23.95, hb, 259 pp, 0312363060
Intrepid freelance writer Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher, a viscount’s daughter married to a Scotland Yard officer, ventures into the garrison of Her Majesty’s Tower of London to research a magazine series.
In 1925, the long and violent history of the Tower is belied by the cozy tea she enjoys with the Resident Governor and his eccentric family. Having left her new-born twins at home with a proper nanny, Daisy finds time to develop new friendships and discover the petty feuds of the military garrison and the Yeoman Warders (aka Beefeaters). Note-taking on historical spots like Raleigh’s Walk and Traitor’s Gate is interrupted by her discovery of a murdered Yeoman at the base of steps to the Bloody Tower. A man with no enemies, or so she is told. Scotland Yard is called in—Daisy’s husband Alec of course. While the garrison officers flirt with their commander’s daughters, Daisy assists in the investigation by gossiping and listening. Such interference with her husband’s work may seem likely or impermissible, but Dunn’s humorous touch and period details provide an enjoyable read in this, the sixteenth installment in the series.
Nina de Angeli
THE TEA HOUSE
Paul Elwork, Casperian, 2007, $13.50, pb, 172pp, 1934081078
During the summer of 1925, to entertain themselves and their friends, Michael and Emily Stewart, thirteen-year-old fraternal twins, dabble in spiritualism. These secret sessions take place in the tea house on the grounds of the
this mule, which he names Valentina.
Y THE BLOODSTONE PAPERS
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Glen Duncan, Ecco, 2007, $25.95, hb, 416pp, 9780061239663 / Pocket, 2007, £7.99, pb, 416pp, 9781416522775
This story about an Anglo-Indian family, and the bloodstone ring that was stolen from them during the last days of the British Raj, is a multi-faceted gem that should firmly establish Glen Duncan as one of the foremost novelists of our time. Ross Monroe, an Anglo-Indian boxer—who comes of age in the 1940s, amidst the political chaos of pre-partitioned India––dreams of three things: England, Kate Lyle, and Olympic glory. But Skinner, an Englishman who treats Ross as if “the haze of color and class had evaporated,” deceives Ross and, in so doing, changes the course of his life. Sixty years later, Ross’s British-born son, Owen, frustrated by his father’s naïveté, is proud that he, himself, has not fallen for the “the old scams–God, purpose, fate, design.” When Owen stumbles across a novel entitled Raj Rogue, which he believes was written by Skinner, he sets out to find the thief and force a confrontation between the two old men. Owen’s quest takes him on a journey that eventually leads him not only to the truth of his father’s past but also into the depths of his own soul.
Ross and Owen are both likeable characters who must confront the political and social realities of their mixed-race heritage. Despite hardships, tragedy, and abuse, the Monroe family, as a whole, is endearingly functional (although Owen nearly becomes a significant exception). The story transitions smoothly between mid-twentieth-century India and present-day England. Vivid prose aside, much of the pleasure of reading The Bloodstone Papers is contemplating the many allegorical meanings of the stolen jewel. Certainly, the bloodstone symbolizes the future that was lost to the Anglo-Indians when the British Raj ended in 1947, but one can find many other delicious possibilities. This is a book to read and savor. Highly recommended.
Stewart’s estate. Using the ghost of an ancestor who drowned when she was a teenager, Emily convinces the neighborhood children that she can communicate with the dead. One friend tells her grandmother, who invites the twins to her house for a session. Then another asks Emily to visit his father, who has never recovered from the loss of a son in World War I. Emily’s conscience eventually prompts her to confess their hoax, with dire consequences.
Paul Elwork has written vivid descriptions in a lucid, literate style. As this ghost story unfolds, however, the plot wanders, and although filled with many interesting characters, it somehow loses focus. Another hundred pages filling in the gap between 1926 and the last chapter set in 1939 would further enrich the story.
Audrey Braver
THE KIND ONE
Tom Epperson, Five Star, 2007, $25.95, hb, 377pp, 9781594146176
Danny Landon knows his hoodlum acquaintances call him Two Gun Danny, but that is about all he knows about himself. His memory erased in some unknown incident, Danny works for a mobster nicknamed the Kind One, but something just isn’t right. He simply doesn’t feel like a gangster.
Nevertheless, he is ordered to keep an eye on the boss’s beautiful and irresistible girlfriend, Darla. Seeing Danny as her ticket away from the brutal boss, Darla tries to entice him to help. Add in an abused eleven-year-old neighbor girl also in need of rescuing, and Danny has more
Nancy J. Attwell
than he can handle, especially since he needs to find himself before he can possibly help anyone else.
Although this hardboiled mystery is set in 1930s Los Angeles, it reads more like a modern gangster story, with the setting being more of a veneer than providing a solid base. The voice, too, rings more true to this century than the last. The heaps of violence saturating the story feel much more like this age as well. Even so, the plot takes a long time to gather steam, like a locomotive laboring up a mountain pass. The reader should persevere, however, because about midway through the novel, the storyline picks up, and speeds to a satisfying conclusion. Danny at last finds out the truth about himself, but rather than putting him at ease, the knowledge places him, and his friends, in great danger.
Ken Kreckel
THE MULE
Juan Eslava Galán (trans. Lisa Dillman), Bantam, 2008, $12.00/C$15.00, pb, 304pp, 9780553385083
It is September of 1938, the Spanish Civil War is winding down, and Juan Castro Pérez, corporal muleteer, is hunting for wild asparagus when he finds a stray mule. Castro is not an ideologue. He was drafted by the ‘Reds’ and changed sides. He is an uncultured ‘right-winger,’ the son of a sharecropper. Other soldiers, such as his old friend Churri fighting for the Republicans, or Lt. Estrella, a covert Socialist sympathizer, see Castro as living in blissful ignorance. But Castro knows what he wants; he wants to go home with
The Mule is a man’s journey from delusion to enlightenment, a story written with humor and delightful irony. Eslava Galán, an essayist and award-winning Spanish novelist, has a delicate touch, and a deceptively carefree style that allows him to sneak up and, very often, clobber the reader with a heartrending revelation. Translated in a perfect register, The Mule preserves the soldiers’ piquant slang, the ridiculously bombastic wartime propaganda, and the formal address of the times. You can almost hear the soldiers’ songs. Castro is a familiar character in Spanish letters; a simpleton ostensibly, he bungles through life lackadaisically, making egregious mistakes. But he has great hopes, aspirations, curiosity, and an innate down-to-earth wisdom that sets him apart. You know Castro’s world will change when our hero remembers the time he was herding goats and a zeppelin floated over his narrow landscape. No one thought him smart enough to deserve an answer, but Castro endeavored until he got it. Faced with class struggle and prejudice, or with his clumsy attempts at love, Castro still struggles, but, in the end, thanks to Eslava Galán’s talents, he has our respect and complete affection. When culling your bookshelf, you will keep this one.
Adelaida Lower
FORGOTTEN DREAMS
Katie Flynn, Arrow, 2007, £6.99, pb, 500pp, 9780099503149
Even though Lottie is only six years old, she has no knowledge of her early life, her memory apparently erased by an accident. Even so she is happy enough working as part of her mother Louella’s song and dance act at the Gaiety Theatre until she meets a young boy who manages to throw her life into turmoil. Disturbed by dreams of another life where her name is Sassy and she cared for by a loving grandmother, Lottie needs to find out the truth about herself, her mother and her past.
Open the pages of Forgotten Dreams and the reader enters typical saga territory – an array of interesting characters, atmospheric plot and a vibrant regional setting. It is a tale full of the typical warmth and nostalgia expected of Katie Flynn. A well-written, comfortable read.
Sara Wilson
THE BLUE DOOR
David Fulmer, Harcourt, 2008, $25.00/£17.99, hb, 325pp, 0151011810
Eddie Cero is an unlikely private investigator. He has been making a living as a welterweight boxer, but his career shows little promise beyond simply surviving until his next fight. Philadelphia in 1962 is caught up in the social and racial tensions of the early days of the Civil Rights movement and the concurrent rise of African Americans in the popular music business. Eddie stumbles upon a mugging victim named Sal Giambroni, an
ex-Philadelphia policeman and head of a small private investigation firm. In helping Sal escape the muggers, Eddie finds himself thrust into the world of private eyes and an unsolved murder of a popular black singer. Eddie falls in love with the singer’s sister just as he begins his search for the killer, and this interracial affair is met with disapproval from both sides. The now exboxer is a quick learner and adapts well to the gritty realities of Philadelphia ghetto life and the amoral world of popular music management. From a boxer drifting through life to a man faced with ethical and legal issues involving many different people, the reader watches as a new Eddie Cero emerges.
John R. Vallely
A WEEK FROM SUNDAY
Dorothy Garlock, Grand Central, 2007, 384pp, $12.99, pb, 9780446695336 / also $22.99, hb, 9780446577922
Set in the 1930s American heartland, young and sheltered Adrianna Moore receives a double shock when her father dies and leaves his estate not to her, but to his lawyer. When the unpleasantin-the-extreme man promises to share his new inheritance as long as she marries him a week from Sunday, she bolts. Soon her car collides with lumberjack and bar owner Quinn Baxter’s truck, and her adventure is off and running to its tumultuous and romantic conclusion.
Adrianna must recover under the gentle hand of the town’s female doctor, work off her debt to Quinn by playing the piano at his bar, and hide from her suitor. She must also compete for Quinn’s affections with his housekeeper, the twofaced Lola. As Adrianna flourishes in her new community, she helps Quinn’s younger brother get over his own self-pity after an accident has left the young man without the use of his legs. She watches a romance begin between Quinn’s French-Canadian friend Gabe and Dr. Bordeaux. She participates in town picnics and a rescue effort at a fire once her suitor finally finds her and demands her hand.
Beginning with the well-worn cliché of the heroine catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror, to the Snidley Whiplash nature of her antagonist (who actually says: “soon you will be mine!”), to distancing and distracting headhopping viewpoints, this novel disappoints. There’s more to a feel for period than injecting details. A Week From Sunday is more costumed melodrama, complete with a violent hero, delusional rival, and too-stupid-to-live heroine… aw, come on now, DON’T go up those attic stairs!!!
Eileen Charbonneau
BLOOD AND CIRCUSES
Kerry Greenwood, Poisoned Pen Press, 2006, $24.95, hb, 208pp, 9781590582350
This is the 6th in a series of sixteen mysteries Kerry Greenwood has written featuring the Honourable Phryne Fisher, a young, beautiful, rich, smart and free-spirited private investigator
living in Melbourne, Australia, in the 1920s. Phryne is feeling rather bored with her wellordered life of luxury when she is visited by an old friend, Alan Lee, who operates a carousel in the carnival that travels with Farrell’s Circus and Wild Beast Show. All is not well at Farrell’s. Animals have died mysteriously, recently replaced tightropes have broken, fires have broken out during performances, and performers have been attacked by thugs. Alan wants Phryne to go undercover and investigate. Stung by Alan’s criticism that she’s gone soft, she says yes. Meanwhile, Phryne’s old friend, Detective Robinson, is busy investigating the brutal boarding house murder of Mr. Christopher, a hermaphrodite who was part of Farrell’s circus.
The charm of this highly entertaining series lies not so much in the mysteries, which are not terribly complex, but in the characterization of Phryne and whatever milieu she finds herself in. In this story, Greenwood wonderfully captures life in the circus, with its unique social order and customs. A fun read.
Jane Kessler
COLOR OF THE SEA
John Hamamura, Anchor, 2007, $13.95, pb, 336pp, 9780307386076
This is a novel everyone should read, not just because it’s a nicely-layered book with depth and meaning, beautifully written and well balanced, but because it deals with a topic which many people still don’t understand.
John Hamamura, the author, is part of the reason why it’s a must-read book. He is a Japanese American and he knows, from the inside, what it feels like to be torn between cultures. This honesty is reflected in his writing, and no, it’s not a book about cultural angst; it’s about being a Japanese American at the outbreak of World War II. Other novels have taken a “wicked Americans” or “wicked Japanese” position. This novel simply relates what it was like for Sam Hamada to be a Japanese American, go between relatives in Japan and home in Hawaii, attend university in California, fall in love, plan his life, and then be treated as a criminal—until his bilingual fluency and unarmed combat skills are discovered and used by the FBI and the American army.
There are no polemics, taking sides or positions. This book, based on the author’s own experiences, tells an excellent story, and readers can learn much from it. It’s difficult to imagine what it was like being part of the American forces arriving in Japan when the war was over, knowing that your relatives live in Hiroshima. This novel gives those of us who did not experience it some idea, and leaves us with the understanding that it is our individual choices which can make our lives.
Patrika Salmon
saga, the euphoria of the early war years is evaporating. There is stalemate in the trenches of Flanders, and war-time privations are affecting everyone on the home front. The old certainties of the importance of social rank and the proper role of women are also eroding – and this allows new opportunities for women.
Jessie Morland, whose husband is missing, believed dead, comes to London to work in a military hospital as a VAD nurse. Venetia, Lady Overton, is given government help to pursue the development of the new X-ray machines, help which has previously been denied her. Her daughter, Violet, is initially cocooned from the war, wrapped up in her affair with the brilliant artist Octavian Laidislaw. But when his intimate portrait of her goes on public show, scandal erupts. Violet’s husband, cuckolded so publicly, will stop at nothing to destroy Laidislaw – and he has friends in high places.
As the British Army gets ready for ‘the big push’ in 1916, all the women know that when they say good-bye to their loved ones it might be for the last time…
The author has written an engrossing story, historically accurate and with well-rounded characters. She has also captured that difficult thing, the zeitgeist of the time. Chaperonage is still an issue for unmarried women, and even the recently-widowed Jessie has to get permission to meet an officer who is not related to her, on her afternoon off. The soldiers still subscribe to the ‘must do our duty and fight for our country’ ethos, but a new cynicism is creeping in as shortages of vital supplies, together with military incompetence lead to increasing casualties. If you enjoy sagas, this is one of the best.
Elizabeth Hawksley
BEATING THE DEVIL
W.C. Jameson, Univ. of New Mexico, 2007, $24.95, hb, 210pp, 9780826340399
In the 1930s near the Texas town of El Paso, young Carlos has grown to become a toughminded fighter. He dreams of crossing the Rio Grande into Mexico to begin a new life away from a place where he feels trapped, so he earns money with his fists against larger opponents in the ring. After arriving in Mexico, he hears of the legendary guerilla fighter named Chavez, called the Mexican Robin Hood by the peasant population. Curious and looking for a little adventure, Carlos joins his band and becomes an important member of this rag-tag group of desperados as they fight against the injustice perpetrated by Mexico’s large ranch owners.
THE MEASURE OF DAYS
Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, Sphere, 2007, £19.99/$36.95, hb, 545pp, 9781847441515
In this, the 30th book in the Morland family
This is an interesting story about the Mexican peasant population who were exploited by the rich during the ´30s. The author exposes the inequality that existed for many years in this primarily poor country. I enjoyed this book. It was well written, the characters—especially Carlos, the dwarf, and Chavez—were engaging, and the story was a real page-turner. If you enjoy fast-paced westerns, this book is well worth reading.
Jeff Westerhoff
THE SEEKER
Sudhir Kakar, Shambhala, 2008, $14.00, pb, 275pp, 9781590305256
The Seeker is the story of the unusual relationship between Madeleine Slade, a British woman, and Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi believes the time for India’s independence is not right because its people need to be purified. It is 1925, a time when the majority of Indian revolutionaries seek a violent overthrow of England’s rule. Gandhi, however, withdraws from the forefront of politics to create several ashrams dedicated to self-discipline and tolerance for all, including India’s untouchable caste.
Madeleine is a visionary person who easily falls in love with ideas and their inherent power. A solitary individual, Madeline is raised in a liberal family who encourage her dreams of living a meaningful life in faraway India. Before carrying out this desire, however, Madeleine struggles with falling in love, first with the brilliant musician Lamond. She communicates this and more in her poignant, impassioned letters to the biographer Romain Rolland. It is he who suggests she read his recent biography of Mahatma Gandhi, an experience that begins her communication with Gandhi and her eventual move to his main community, the Sabarmati ashram. Gandhi’s ashrams are places with inspired but flawed residents whose impurities Gandhi takes on as further need for fasting, prayer and teaching. His life-threatening fasts are searing, painful events to those closest to him. His lengthy periods of silence are defined as the “all-encompassing silence of the inner self that is the attribute of the saint.”
Within this moving novel, Madeleine’s descriptions of nature, musical vision, political conflict and the essence of man’s truest noble mission are lyrical, sensual and provocative. Finally, she realizes the personal and political implications of what Gandhi has always taught about conquering dominance: “the willing sacrifice of the innocent is the most powerful retort to insolent tyranny” in whatever form it manifests.
Viviane Crystal
TILL MORNING IS NIGH
Leisha Kelly, Revell, 2007, $14.99, pb, 160pp, 9780800718879
December 1932. Money is scarce, the children are sick, and memories are raw. Christmas approaches, but so does the anniversary of the death of Mrs. Hammond. Her children must cope with that, as well as their father’s drinking and inability to cope with her loss. The children often spend their time with the Worthams, who have also taken in a waif whose mother abandoned her for a singing career. When Mr. Hammond disappears, the Hammonds fear he’s dead, too, until a mysterious “angel” intervenes.
Kelly superbly recreates life during the Great Depression. This inspirational and compelling holiday story doesn’t tie everything up with a neat little bow, but it will warm your heart and
bring to mind traditions of Christmases past. She includes several holiday recipes for readers to enjoy. What gave me pause was my uncertainty of the audience for this book, but the magic of Christmas makes this a tale to treasure.
Cindy Vallar
TOUCHSTONE
Laurie R. King, Bantam, 2008, $24.00/C$30.00, hb, 548pp, 9780553803556
Laurie R. King gave us the brilliant recreation of Sherlock Holmes with more depth than Conan Doyle ever mustered in her Mary Russell novels. Now, in Bennett Grey, she has created her own tortured sleuth for this story set during Britain’s Great Strike of 1926. In the trenches of the Great War, a shell killed the old Grey. It replaced him with a man who has preternaturally heightened senses, including an ability to tell, through what he calls “dissonance,” when someone is lying. Such dissonance has rendered him incapable of living among his fellow men and driven him to Cornwall, where he frequently considers stepping off Land’s End altogether.
An agent for the fledgling FBI appears as Grey’s Watson. Harris Stuyvesant draws Grey into his hunt for a union agitator who may be responsible for a number of stateside bombings. And the game’s afoot.
King’s ear is so good, we can tell from the first sentence whether a chapter is in the American’s or the Brit’s point of view. The country house weekend party, which Agatha Christie used for its neatly limited slate of suspects, also receives new life here. We get so many more luscious, spot-on details, something historical fiction gives us that the writer of the period, even a Christie, ignores because they are daily bread and butter to her. And just when we thought we’d read every description of the horrors of the trenches, and they could only begin to repeat, in two or three short pages King brings new life— er, death—to this as well. By no means finally, Touchstone’s musings on terrorism remind us that this is not our own personal latter-day affliction and very wisely comments on its base causes.
Ann Chamberlin
SHROUDS OF HOLLY
Kate Kingsbury, Berkley Prime Crime, 2007, $14.00, pb, 296pp, 9780425218495
This latest installment in the popular Pennyfoot Hotel series continues the often bumbling efforts of heroine Cecily Sinclair Baxter to solve the latest crime taking place at the pre-World War I Pennyfoot Hotel, now converted into a country club. During a search for Christmas holly boughs in nearby woods, Cecily’s beloved husband, Hugh, and their stable manager, Samuel, go missing, and a man’s murdered corpse returns in Hugh’s carriage. The crime is further complicated when the battered Samuel later returns alone, but with amnesia blocking most memory of what happened.
Cecily sets out to discover Hugh’s
whereabouts. The author plants plenty of red herrings: was the dead man, Hartridge, murdered by a London crime syndicate for his unpaid gambling debts? Or was the nephew who inherited Hartridge’s fortune responsible for his murder, or his creepy butler who eavesdropped on every conversation? And what of the belligerent, perhaps crazy, gardener, whose wife most likely had an affair with the murdered Hartridge? Did he murder his wife’s lover?
Cecily’s investigations take her from gypsy encampments to several clandestine searches of Hartridge’s palatial home, often with the stalwart but hapless stable manager, Samuel, in tow, in spite of his serious head injury. Clues abound with help sometimes coming from often clueless friends.
This is a mildly amusing cozy with its heroine determinedly interrogating most possible suspects and occasionally resorting to breaking and entering in order to rescue her husband. It’s a bit improbable, all that she gets away with, but this is a cozy, after all.
Pamela Ortega
THE ROWING LESSON
Anne Landsman, Soho, 2007, $23.00, 288pp, hb, 9781569474693 / Granta, 2008, £12.00, hb, 224pp, 9781862079892
Harold Klein was a skinny Jewish South African kid with a hard-working general store proprietor father and a high-strung mother. He wants to be a doctor, and he thinks about sex—a lot. At the end of his long life he’s in the hospital, unconscious, surrounded by machines and tubes. We witness the review of his life, including his years as a doctor, and a lot of thoughts about sex, through the mind of his estranged, pregnant daughter, Betsy, who flies from New York City to Johannesburg to say goodbye. Betsy’s memories of childhood are interspersed with the story of Harold’s life, and the two weave a story of growing up and maturing in the changing cultural landscape of South Africa, from the 1940s to, presumably, the present.
Many of the reveries take place on or in the water, driving home the theme of motion, change, and often, one’s lack of control. While the language is languid and the images dreamlike, it also serves to confuse; rarely are names used, with the pronoun “you” serving as both the subject and the audience for the memories. This makes it difficult to track whose story is being told—Betsy’s or Harold’s—with the “you” changing even within single paragraphs. Near-death experiences, or the thoughts of those watching a loved one die, may well have influenced this confusing flow of emotions and non-linear narratives, but reading page after page of memories with no road map, or (to stay with the aquatic theme) with no oar, becomes taxing. Anne Landsman does a wonderful job of evoking the times, places, and people of Harold Klein’s life, and, if one can fall into the lulling voice of Betsy’s stream of consciousness, it’s a beautiful story.
Helene Williams
SWAY
Zachary Lazar, Little, Brown, 2008, $23.99/ C$29.99, hb, 224pp, 0316113093 / Jonathan Cape, 2008, £11.99, pb, 272pp, 0224080881
As I stood on the outside and watched the careers of musical groups like The Beatles and The Stones, I didn’t see that time as “the heart of darkness,” simply a startling new way of seeing the world, a truer, grittier way, than the sanitized ’50s. In a dream-like, often nightmarish, fashion, Sway carries the reader into the early years of the Rolling Stones, complete with juicy bits, the rise to fame and self-destruction of Brian Jones and the affair between glamorous Anita Pallenberg and the less-than-glamorous Keith Richards.
Sway’s real subject, however, is the strange intersection where the legendary rock band, the gay avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger, his object of desire, Bobby Beausoleil, and the Manson Family all came together. The novel moves between points of view, sometimes less than seamlessly, although the writing is always beautiful. Lazar’s characterizations don’t always come off, perhaps because it’s difficult to convey numbness and emotional isolation, not to mention the drug-induced haze in which this group of artistic narcissists lived. Playing with the idea of evil might bring notoriety to Anger and cash to The Stones, but a genuine “sympathy for the Devil” led Bobby Beausoleil to follow his psychotic mentor to torture and murder. Lazar understands it’s no longer a matter of free will, when, as Jagger sings: “That Evil Eye has got you in its sway.”
Juliet Waldron
A PASSION MOST PURE
Julie Lessman, Revell, 2008, $13.99, pb, 480pp, 9780800732110
In 1916, the Great War is raging overseas, and a smaller war is brewing in the Boston
Y BURY HER DEEP
O’Connor household. Two completely different sisters, both vying for the same man, can only lead to trouble and heartache. In the center of this sisterly rivalry is the roguish Collin McGuire, who finds himself besotted with both Faith and Charity. Faith refuses to settle for anything less than a romantic relationship that pleases God, but when Collin tries to win her sister’s hand, Faith isn’t sure she can handle the jealousy she feels.
From the stylish streets of Boston to the green hills of Ireland, as men go off to war and women wait for their return, this Christian romance contains all the elements for an enchanting read. Full of romance, humor, rivalry, and betrayal, A Passion Most Pure will captivate readers from the first page. This is Book 1 of the Daughters of Boston series.
Rebecca Roberts
THE LAST TRAIN TO KAZAN
Stephen Miller, HarperCollins, 2007, £7.99, pb, 420pp, 9780007191239
Ryzhkov, a former Tsarist agent who appeared in A Game of Soldiers, returns to Moscow only to be picked up by the Bolshevik secret police. In return for his life, a former Okhrana comrade but now Cheka official Zezulin sends him on a secret mission to discover the fate of the Romanovs. By July 1918, the Revolution and the war in Europe had reached a crucial turning point, one that pivoted on a crucial question: what to do with the Romanovs? Ryzhkov arrives in Yekaterinburg, where they are rumoured to have been imprisoned, just as the hardline Ural Soviet collapses before the advance of the White Army and their Czech allies. In the shambles, rumours abound, as do foreign spies and journalists. This is a game of whose knife is in whose back. The Kaiser himself may be willing to pay for the Romanovs’ safety, but thousands of miles away on the western front
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Catriona McPherson, Hodder & Stoughton, 2008, £6.99, pb, 313pp, 9780340950968
Captivating and beautifully written, this third book in the Dandy Gilver mystery series is set in 1920s Scotland. Our heroine, a respectable matron who keeps her sleuthing secret from her uptight husband, motors down to Luckenlaw, a village in Fife, to investigate a series of eldritch events. Every full moon, a dark stranger attacks women and girls on their way home from the Scottish Woman’s Rural Institute meetings. Maddeningly, the victims refuse to speak against their assailant, and somehow these occurrences are related to a centuries-old female corpse being removed from the ancient burial mound, which towers over the village and is at the centre of its enduring folklore. Is the local equivalent to the Women’s Institute secretly a cover for a witches’ coven? Even the vicar seems half-pagan. Joined by Bunty, her stalwart Dalmatian, and her sidekick Alec, who hilariously poses as an effete landscape artiste, Dandy is determined to get to the heart of the mystery. Reminiscent of a wittier and less savage reworking of The Wicker Man, this book is alternately funny and chilling and works on a number of levels. A most original mystery novel.
Mary Sharratt
the tide is turning against Germany. Yekaterinburg is virtually cut off, and the railway is the only escape route. Cryptic telegrams from one foreign spy, the aptly named Todmann, request instructions for the delivery of the “furs,” but when he receives no answer, events start to move of their own accord. In the flux of war, Ryzhkov has to work with a motley cast of extraordinary characters, piecing together the shreds of evidence to track down the Tsar and his family. This extraordinary account is compulsive reading, melding the latest research and vivid period detail into a story that is all the more horrific because the truth will never be known.
Lucinda Byatt
SIGNED, MATA HARI
Yannick Murphy, Little, Brown, 2007, $23.99/ C$29.99, hb, 288pp, 9780316112642 / Abacus, 2007, £9.99, pb, 288pp, 034912082X
In October 1917, Margaretha Zelle, better known as Mata Hari, sits in a prison cell in Paris, accused of being a spy for Germany. As she awaits trial, Mata Hari weaves stories from her life. Shifting time and point of view between the prison cell and her prior life in its many manifestations, Murphy recreates the story of Mata Hari. From her early childhood in the late 19th century Netherlands, to her years in Java as a caring mother, and eventually to her glamorous career as a dancer and courtesan, the episodic and lyrical prose will have readers riveted until Mata Hari’s tragic end by firing squad.
This seductive, poetic tale of a legendary woman, whose exploits are still a matter of historical debate, mesmerizes. Mata Hari’s voice is powerful as she reinvents herself, and while the novel is vague on facts and is more prose poem than historical novel, its intense emotions and insight into her life makes for an intriguing read. Murphy has creatively imagined the life of Mata Hari, and whether she was rightfully executed or not matters little in this powerful portrait of one of the most notorious people of all time.
Rebecca Roberts
A DEAD MAN IN TANGIER
Michael Pearce, Constable, 2007, £18.99, hb, 223pp, 9781845295301 / Carroll & Graf, 2007, $25.95, hb, 256pp, 9780786720453
In Tangiers of 1912, pig-sticking is a popular recreation, albeit a dangerous one, and is enjoyed by Monsieur Bossu – until he is stuck himself. Given Bossu’s position on the new and important international committee, Sandor Seymour of Scotland Yard is sent in to investigate.
This is the fourth outing for Seymour and, like his previous escapades, detection and diplomacy go hand in hand. His strengths are quiet observation and skilful questioning and by employing both he comes to the truth behind Bossu’s untimely death.
Perhaps better known for his Mamur Zapt novels, Michael Pearce’s Seymour of Scotland Yard is shaping up to rival his earlier series.
Subtle characterisation, an ingenious plot and a powder keg political situation combine to create a complex and satisfying detective story.
Sara Wilson
DEATH WAS THE OTHER WOMAN
Linda L. Richards, Minotaur, 2008, $23.95/ C$29.95, hb, 288pp, 0312377703
Reading a good noir detective novel is like watching an old movie on a sleepless, rainy night. One is actually glad to be an insomniac. This book is virtually guaranteed to keep you up into the wee hours. Moody and atmospheric, it has just the right mix of sympathetic but flawed protagonists, mysterious, sexy clients and lumbering bad guys, coming together in a wonderfully complex plot, all set against the backdrop of Depression-era LA.
But Linda Richards’ hard-boiled tale has a twist. Rather than told by the handsome and brooding detective, the story is seen through the eyes of Kitty Pangborn, his perky and naïve secretary, a gal who fits the bill of a Girl Friday as if she had been born to it. Like a classic Chandler, the plot poses more questions than it answers at first, presenting one mystery after another, leading up to the inevitable unpredictable resolution at its end.
While remaining true to the tradition of LA crime fiction, Richards’ novel is a delight to read. But its defining feature is its characters. These are people who we want to know more about. One can only look forward to discovering more of Kitty’s adventures.
Ken Kreckel
THE BETRAYAL GAME
David L. Robbins, Bantam, 2008, $25, hb, 384pp, 9780553804423
Robbins’s Professor Mikhal Lammeck travels to Cuba in 1961 at the opening of this novel by the author of The Assassins’ Gallery. Letting you know that, along with the nugget that Lammeck is an authority on the history and weapons of assassins, and you might be able to figure out the plot of this thriller. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Bay of Pigs, Fidel Castro, Mafia, Operation Mongoose, JFK assassination.
Robbins populates this novel with enough facts, and a detailed appendix with the real-life incidents which inspired the action. The only problem I found in digesting this book, which flows well with good description and setting, is that I felt I had read it all before; many times before, in fact, given the circumstances. I’m sure some of Robbins’s strategy banks on just that, and hopes the characters and the twists he provides, which are numerous, will be enough to carry the day. There’s a lot of mileage still left in Caribbean beaches and bearded, cigarsmoking revolutionaries. But this book runs into the same problem that virtually any story wandering into this historical snake pit of rumor and speculation has: the ground is so wellplowed, barely any new swath is bound to look
familiar. Still, for students of the period, and they are notably legion, this is a good take on a period which continues to astound – in both fact, and what could be fact.
William Thornton
SOMETHING WICKED
David Roberts, Constable, 2007, £18.99, hb, 275pp, 9781845293185 / Carroll & Graf, 2007, $24.99, hb, 256pp, 9780786720484
This is the ninth book in the Lord Edward Corinth and Verity Browne Golden Age of Detection murder mystery series. It is the summer of 1938, and Verity has returned from her intrepid reporting of the deteriorating political crisis in Prague with tuberculosis. She is sent to recuperate in a clinic near Henleyon-Thames. There Verity is perfectly placed for her fiancé, Lord Edward, to both visit her and investigate a series of three deaths in the area. The local police are assuming them to be unconnected events, but Edward has good reason to see them as murders committed by the same person. Both Edward and Verity face the machinations of the ruthless killer during the Henley Regatta as well as designs on their lives from a Nazi SS agent, Major Stille, whom they have encountered in anger in previous books. Thrilling times indeed, for both our heroes as England is sucked back into war.
This is an entertaining and capable murder mystery, thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the late 1930s.
Doug Kemp
WINTER IN MADRID
C.J. Sansom, Viking, 2008, $25.95, 352pp, hb, 9780670018482 / Pan, 2006, £7.99, pb, 200pp, 0330411985
A bestseller in the United Kingdom, C.J. Sansom’s thriller is now available in the U.S. Readers may recognize Sansom for his Matthew Shardlake Tudor mystery series, but the intrigue in Winter in Madrid happens far from the British courts.
Harry Brett, recently rehabilitated from being shell-shocked at Dunkirk, is recruited by the British Secret Service in September 1940. He’s asked to infiltrate the world of the Royalists and Falangists in post-Civil War Spain to spy on Sandy Forsyth, a wily friend from Harry’s school days. Franco’s politics, the British blockade, and Hitler’s troops on parade at the Spanish border don’t make his job easy. It’s a time of historic identity-seeking, for Spain and Harry alike, and his world is further complicated when he finds Sandy Forsyth living with a mutual friend, Barbara Clare, a nurse who is, for her part, using Sandy to look for her former lover, Bernie Piper, who disappeared while fighting with the British Battalion in the battle of Jarama three years earlier. Harry must keep his stories straight so as not to blow his cover, and he finds himself living several lives, and many lies, as he tries to integrate into Spanish society. The experiences which end up touching him the most are those
with a poverty-stricken family scraping by in a bombed-out barrio.
The descriptions of the pain, suffering, and devastation of war—internal and international— are spine-chilling, and one feels as if one is there in the cold devastation of Madrid in 1940. There are moments of happiness and light, as well, as Harry learns to trust and to love, though those qualities may be the very ones which his superiors warn will keep him from accomplishing his mission. This is a page-turner right to the end, with several twists along the way!
Helene Williams
THE COMMONER
John Burnham Schwartz, Doubleday, 2008, $24.95/C$29.95, hb, 320pp, 9780385515719
In 1959, lovely young Haruko becomes the first commoner to marry into the Japanese imperial family when she weds the young crown prince. This elegantly written novel chronicles her increasingly restricted life as a royal wife and brood mare, a soul-killing existence that eventually results in Haruko literally losing her voice. She eventually recovers the ability to speak, but never the ability to act for herself. Later, as Empress, she even persuades dedicated career-woman Reiko to marry her son, trapping another talented, spirited commoner in the stranglehold of the imperial household. Not until many years later does Haruko find the courage to act for herself, and free her daughter-in-law and granddaughter from the luxurious, stifling prison of imperial life.
Although The Commoner is a thoughtprovoking and compelling read, since the time period runs from 1959 to the present, and since it’s written in a very personal voice by Haruko and lacks much outside detail, it really doesn’t read like a historical novel. As a picture of an almost invisible world, however, it’s fascinating. The author has done immense research into the Japanese imperial family and its life; from the notes, apparently changing the names of the major characters is the main fictionalization in this intriguing look behind palace walls.
India Edghill
THE MEDIUM
Noelle Sickels, Five Star, 2007, $26.95, hb, 427pp, 9781594146183
The Medium begins in 1937, as Helen Schneider is nearing the end of her childhood and entering adolescence. It is at this point in her life that Helen begins to have visions. Although her grandmother is a medium, Helen is frightened by these occurrences; the first two deal with her neighbors. It is the second vision, in which she sees the boy next door being hit by a car and at the next moment hears the squealing of car brakes, that prompts Helen to tell her experiences to her grandmother. Immediately, her grandmother schedules séances, with remarkable results. As Helen matures and America enters World War II, she uses the séances as a means to bring
comfort to the living relatives of deceased soldiers. As the war grinds on, it touches Helen in very personal ways: her best school friend, Rosie, joins the WAACs; Lloyd, the boy next door, lies about his age and joins up; his brother, Billy, Helen’s boyfriend, has a protected job in an aircraft factory. When Helen sees a vision of the D-Day landings and notifies the Army of potential danger, she is detained and her powers put to use in the interests of “national security.”
Ms. Sickels writes excellent descriptions of daily life at the end of the Depression and through World War II. American readers who have lived through this time will be nodding heads and smiling as their own childhood memories surface. The characters and situations are believable, and even if the reader is skeptical of the validity of séances, everything else rings true.
Audrey Braver
SOPHIE’S DILEMMA
Lauraine Snelling, Bethany House, 2007, $13.99, pb, 334pp, 9780764228100
The story opens in autumn of 1901 in the small immigrant community of Blessing, North Dakota. Norwegian settlers there have become successful farmers and builders. In Blessing all the necessities of life are homemade and home-grown. The community is strongly knit by family ties and friendships and sealed by common religious beliefs. Praying and praising in Blessing are as much a part of the conversation as talk about the weather.
But Blessing seems small and boring to Sophie Knutson. She has yearned for travel and adventure as long as she can remember. Her dream turns to misadventure as she elopes to Seattle with a handsome young fisherman.
Sophie’s Dilemma is a coming-of-age story where the hard lessons of adolescence are learned and resolved in a Christian environment. All ends well for Sophie as she prays and asks forgiveness for the heartache she has caused.
From a historical perspective, the story is rich in period detail. From a religious perspective it provides a model of life in a community where God is the most important member. From a literary point of view, the story and its characters are as flat and predictable as Blessing itself. No wonder Sophie wanted to escape!
Lucille Cormier
THE SECRET EVER KEEPS
Art Tirrell, Kunati, 2007, $24.95, hb, 343pp, 9781601640048
On the same day that Laurel Kingsford is passed over for promotion in what is obviously an act of sex discrimination, her live-in boyfriend moves out of her apartment, taking everything of value as well as cleaning out her bank account. In a state of depression, Laurel retreats to a resort on Lake Ontario where she spent her childhood summers. There she meets Jake Eastland, the resort’s reclusive, ninety-threeyear-old, year-round resident. Jake befriends
Y VIENNA BLOOD
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Frank Tallis, Random House, 2008, $15.00/C$24.95, pb, 485pp, 9780812977639
In this, the second installment of the Liebermann Papers, Tallis, a practicing clinical psychologist, beautifully evokes the upheaval in the highest echelons of Viennese society at the turn of the 20th century.
Max Liebermann is a clinical psychologist, a protégé of sorts of Freud, and the closest friend and confidant of Detective Oscar Rheinhardt. When Rheinhardt is asked to investigate a grisly quadruple homicide reminiscent of Jack the Ripper, he calls upon Max to assist in the investigation and to develop a psychological profile of the killer. What kind of mind is driven to such unspeakable acts of horror, Rheinhardt wants to know, and can he be stopped before committing additional atrocities?
Before the pair is able to figure out the pattern, other murders are committed – but what is the underlying cohesive connector here? Max and Oscar, both also trying to live their own lives and sort out their priorities, are thrust into the world of secret societies that threatens the very underpinnings of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
This is not one of those breezy mysteries, but a disturbing, dark voyage into the Vienna of 100 years ago, a world on the brink of dramatic change. Tallis is impressive in his ability to develop what sometimes becomes a complex plotline, and the subtexts and super-texts add to the drama. Max and Oscar are a terrific pair, playing off one another with dexterity. Vienna becomes a virtual character in this book – a place with a soul, peopled by angels and demons.
I enjoyed this book immensely and highly recommend it. Ilysa Magnus
Laurel, winning her confidence with tales of a British ship carrying a load of gold that was lost on the lake in a storm during the American Revolution. In an effort to draw Laurel out, Jake, whom she calls “Grandpa Jake,” tells her some of his history. Through flashbacks, we learn how Jake built a fortune first by smuggling whiskey during Prohibition and after the repeal by dealing in scrap metal. We also learn of his enemies and of two women, one whom he loved and the other whom he married. There is a mystery about Jake and his connection to Laurel, the treasure of gold, and the threats to Laurel’s life that is slowly revealed.
Mr. Tirrell has written an interesting and intriguing novel with colorful and welldeveloped characters. His knowledge of Lake Ontario, sailing, and marine biology are related in the course of the story in a way that adds to the momentum. His portrayal of Jake as a man who rises from poverty to a position of wealth, the power wealth can buy, and the self-destruction it causes is superb.
Audrey Braver
THE STAR GARDEN
Nancy E. Turner, St. Martin’s Press, 2007, $24.95, hb, 320pp, 0312363168
Turner shares with us another episode in the life of Sarah Prine, a widow living in the Arizona Territory in 1906. Based on the tales told by the author’s great-grandmother, the book shows the staggering difficulties and the simple joys of being a pioneer. Knowing something of this history of my own country, it was interesting to learn what a difference a hostile climate makes to the ease of pioneering.
Poor Sarah now faces bankruptcy, having survived drought, severe storms and the loss of her cattle to rustlers, who included her own nephew. Struggling to put food on the table, she goes out shooting quail and rescues the passengers from the Wells Fargo stagecoach, which had gone over a cliff. This rescue and the people she saves come as aid later in the story, but at the beginning they are just more mouths to feed. The daily grind, violent neighbours, the dicey weather, and her own personal worry about marrying or not marrying that helpful, kind man, Udell Hanna, put Sarah under great strain. When her son marries the violent neighbour’s daughter, her troubles multiply tenfold. Pioneer life in Arizona Territory is obviously never dull, and, although violent, is full of happy episodes with family and friends.
For me, knowing little about American pioneers in the Southwest, it was an interesting read. I did find the laconic dialogue trying at times, but this seems to have been a trait of all the characters, and perhaps people did have to bottle up feelings and words when the elements were so against them. For those who have followed Sarah’s experiences in the previous books, this will be a must read.
Patrika Salmon
HOTEL DE DREAM: A New York Novel
Edmund White, Ecco, 2007, $23.95/C$29.95, hb, 228pp, 9780060852252 / Bloomsbury, 2007, £14.99, hb, 240pp, 9780747590590
Edmund White uses the life of Stephen Crane, author of The Red Badge of Courage, to present this interesting novel-within-a-novel. Crane is in Europe, dying by inches of tuberculosis with
his wife Cora watching over him. As Crane’s writer friends—Joseph Conrad, Henry James— dart in and out of his life, he begins to dictate a strange story, “The Painted Boy.” It is the flip side of Crane’s novel, Maggie, A Girl of the Streets, and tells the story of a teenage newsboy who falls into prostitution in turn-of-the-century New York.
Perspective alternates in this novel between Crane and his wife and then with the introduction of the fictional Crane novel, which White renders in Crane’s spartan, protoHemingway prose style. When White inhabits Crane’s consciousness, the effect is a little too artificial—the real life biographical details are made more conspicuous. The same is true for White’s rendering of Crane as the heterosexual man bewitched by a boy of confused and confusing gender traits. At times, he makes the hair on Crane’s chest stand out a little too much rather than employing a subtle clash of sexualities. And by playing off Cora’s career as a prostitute, he introduces an interesting if not too original play on the American proclivity for creating surrogate identities, and the possibilities within them.
William Thornton
AN INCOMPLETE REVENGE
Jacqueline Winspear, Holt, 2008, $24.00, hb, 303pp, 9780805082159 / Hodder Murray, June 2008, £14.99, hb, 320pp, 9780719569517
Wandering gypsies and East Enders from London converge in 1931 for the traditional September hops-picking by migrant workers, in the village of Heronsdene in Kent. Londonbred Billy Beale, undercover agent for private investigator Maisie Dobbs, joins the workers to scope out the truth about a mysterious series of fires centered on a local estate. When the debtladen landowner accuses two London boys of burglary, their friends blame the gypsies. The village of Heronsdene, mistrusting both outsider groups, becomes a character itself, haunted by the secret of a tragic wartime fire after a Zeppelin bombing. No one, not the vicar, not the pub owner, not the blacksmith, will talk about the tragedy.
Maisie drives down from London to stay in the village, seeking the truth with the help of her psychological training and flashes of uncanny intuition. Along the way she confronts her own secret Romany heritage and works at healing the emotional scars of her wartime nursing experience. In this book Winspear once again demonstrates high standards of style and historical detail, with a subtle twist on the English village mystery genre. Fifth in series.
Nina de Angeli
Y PEOPLE OF THE BOOK
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Geraldine Brooks, Viking, 2008, $25.95/C$32.50, hb, 372pp, 9780670018215 / Fourth Estate, 2008, £16.99, hb, 356pp, 9780007177431
This wonderful gem has convinced me to put Geraldine Brooks’s other novels on my to-be-read list. Set both in the mid-1990s and during various other points in history (1940s Sarajevo, 19th-century Vienna, 17th-century Venice, 15th-century Tarragona, and 15th-century Seville), it tells the tale of a Haggadah saved by a Muslim librarian in Sarajevo during the Bosnian War, and is based on an actual event.
Hanna Heath is the conservation expert sent to Sarajevo to restore the precious book. During her work she discovers artifacts caught in its pages and binding, sending her on a mission to discover its past. Interwoven with her quest are historical vignettes that illustrate how each of the recovered artifacts came to be part of the Haggadah.
While Hanna’s story is interesting, the lives from the past that we glimpse are the heart of this novel. Each one pulls us in, involves us and adds depth to the Haggadah’s history. From the young Jewish Sarajevan freedom fighter to the enslaved African painter, the characters and their stories come alive. As the book’s principal heroine, Hanna grows and changes, learning about her own past while uncovering the mysteries of the artifacts.
The historical details are plentiful and specific to each period, both enlightening and enriching. I learned so much reading this book, and it is clear Ms. Brooks did a great deal of research. The one slight quibble I had was that at times the scientific and technical details pulled me out of the narrative.
Delightful to read, Ms. Brooks’s prose will appeal to all readers with its easily accessible literary voice, employing period language that doesn’t overwhelm. She moves from first to third point of view, depending on the characters, yet the shifts are so effortless the reader barely notices.
An emotionally absorbing read, very highly recommended for all.
one Liesel Meminger, a small girl growing up in a small town near Munich in Nazi Germany in the late 1930s and early ´40s. Liesel is sent to live with hitherto unknown foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann, as her own mother and father are Communist activists or sympathisers – and the fate of such people in Hitler’s Germany is known by all. She is taught to read by Hans and quickly develops a passion for books, even though the family is desperately poor and books can only be got by theft or happenstance. Matters become complicated when the family hides a young Jewish man in their basement.
The Second World War is a busy time for Death. It comes to Liesel’s town in all its horror and turns her world upside down. Death tells the tale in a casual, off-hand, postmodern manner which does take a little getting used to. It is an intensely moving story, despite the unconventional narrative technique, showing in telling detail what life was like in an average German town when Nazism infected and imposed itself upon the German people.
Doug Kemp
THE BOOK THIEF
Markus Zusak, Black Swan, 2007, £7.99, pb, 554pp, 9780552773898 / Knopf, 2006, $16.95, 560pp, 0375831002
This is a tale narrated by Death, or the Grim Reaper. He (or she or indeed it) tells the story of
MULTI-PERIOD
THE BONE GARDEN
Tess Gerritsen, Ballantine, 2007, $25.95, hb, 370pp, 9780345497604 / Bantam, 2008, £14.99, hb, 384pp, 9780593057773
Teresa Basinski Eckford
This story begins in present-day Boston, where Julia Hamill is newly divorced. While working in the overgrown garden of her new home, she discovers a body, which turns out to be that of a woman who had been murdered long ago.
The story then switches to 1830s Boston. At that time, medical schools were in need of bodies to use for dissection and the study of anatomy. Because none were legally available, a lucrative black market in cadavers developed, supplied by men (resurrectionists) who stole the bodies of the newly deceased from their graves. Young Norris Marshall, a poor farmer’s son, is attending medical school and supporting himself by working as a resurrectionist. A series of brutal murders has taken place, and the police think they could have been committed by a medical student. Suspicion falls on Norris. He teams up with Rose Connelly, a young Irish seamstress whose sister recently died of childbed fever after giving birth at the medical school. Norris and Rose have both seen the killer. Rose is also desperate to keep her infant niece and solve the mystery of the baby’s paternity. They are aided in their efforts by young Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., who is also attending medical school.
Back in the present, Julia, who is disturbed by her discovery, receives a call from the cousin of the woman who previously owned the house. He has boxes of his cousin’s papers and thinks they may contain some clues to the mystery of
the bones.
I enjoyed the descriptions of the state of the medical profession at the time and the insight into Holmes’s development of his theory of the contagiousness of puerperal fever. The story is very suspenseful, if somewhat grisly.
Jane Kessler
SANCTUARY (US title: THE SANCTUARY)
Raymond Khoury, Orion, 2007, £12.99, hb, 429pp, 9780752875880 / Dutton, 2007, $25.95, 448pp, 9780525950295
The Knights Templar again, with another secret they have guarded across the centuries: the elixir of life, no less. However, the Templars seem to have many more ancient relics and recipes to discover, which must be good news for thriller writers.
Sanctuary is The Da Vinci Code with multiple plot-lines, time-slips and immortal (or at least ageless) protagonists. It is all absurd, but if the pseudo-history and pseudo-science is left aside, one has a fast-moving thriller set in present-day Beirut (don’t be deceived by the blurb which speaks of Naples and Baghdad, which get scant attention) in which a kidnapped American is rescued from a band of Middle Eastern terrorists.
The Beirut setting is very authentic, as it should be, as this is the author’s home town; and the characters are convincing, apart from the nagging thought that people so hell-bent on finding the elixir of life really should not be so careless of their personal safety. Predictably, most of them meet violent ends by being shot or killed in helicopter crashes.
Edward James
THE MELANCHOLY FATE OF CAPT. LEWIS
Michael Pritchett, Unbridled, 2007, $24.95, hb, 416pp, 1932961416
This is a story about Meriwether Lewis, who embarked in 1804 on his famous expedition with William Clark. He died, presumably by suicide, a few years later. This is also the story of Bill Lewis, told in the present day, as he contemplates his troubled life while trying to determine why Meriwether Lewis would kill himself. Bill must come to grips with depression, family problems, and his own mortality.
Bill Lewis is facing a midlife crisis; he is unhappy in his marriage, he doesn’t enjoy a good relationship with his wife or young son, and he finds himself befriending a pregnant student. While faced with his personal problems, he tries to write a biography about Meriwether Lewis, knowing that the explorer will take his own life after living a life of failed relationships, drugs and alcohol.
The viewpoint switches between the lives of both men. Because Bill is writing about the life of Meriwether Lewis, he describes what will happen to Meriwether, after which the Meriwether character would go through the
motions of the story. The novel would have been more compelling if the men’s stories were told in separate chapters to enable readers to differentiate more easily between their points of view. The characters and the story itself are interesting, however, and I would recommend this book if you enjoy reading about people in crisis.
Jeff Westerhoff
THE CHRYSALIS
Heather Terrell, Ballantine, $21.99/C$27.95, 2007, hb, 225pp, 9780345494665
Attorney Mara Coyne’s firm is hired by artauction-house Beazley’s to defend the ownership of The Chrysalis, a 17th-century Dutch painting. But Hilda Baum, whose parents died in the Holocaust, says the Nazis stole the painting from her family, and she is the rightful owner. Up for partnership and ready to win this case, Mara finds that her contact at the auction house is the dashing Michael, an old college crush. She and Michael begin a secret affair while she works with Beazley’s expert, Lillian, to prove the painting’s unblemished provenance.
The painting actively links three separate storylines, presented in alternating chapters from present-day New York to 17th century Netherlands and 1940s Berlin, as Terrell retells the story of the painting and Mara’s quest for the true ownership. A lawyer herself, Terrell earnestly focuses on questions of morality and betrayal, but her artless writing frustrates. While filled with great imagery and details, this
Y RESISTANCE
substandard debut lacks imagination, creative plot, and a climactic resolution. Petering off towards the end, Terrell’s storytelling disappoints as the story winds down in a feeble conclusion. What could have been a great story ends up being a mediocre mystery at best.
Rebecca Roberts
TIMESLIP
HUNDREDS OF YEARS TO REFORM A RAKE
Laurie Brown, Sourcebooks, 2007, $6.99/ C$8.99, pb, 391pp, 9781402210136
Josie Drummond, professional paranormal researcher (aka ghostbuster), is working in England in modern times when she meets the resident ghost of Castle Waite, Deverell Thornton, the ninth Earl of Waite. The ghost drags Josie back to 1815 to help prevent the swindle that impoverished the Earl, and which threatens to turn his castle into an undignified modern-day tourist attraction.
Contending with being a modern career woman navigating the complex social scene of the Regency period, Josie has to make sure no one discovers her real identity, prevent the swindle, discover the villain, and resist the irresistible attraction she feels towards Dev.
Even with suspending disbelief, accepting time travel with a ghost, and two versions of the same man, this story is absurd. I kept reading, thinking that it had to get better, but alas, it
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Owen Sheers, Doubleday, 2008, $23.95, 304pp, hb, 978038552210X / Faber and Faber, 2007, 14.99, hb, 420pp, 9780571229635
What if… the Germans had bested the Allies in the Normandy Invasion? What if… the Germans had then crossed the English Channel, marching into and through England and Wales as conquerors?
Owen Sheers makes this alternate history scenario seem all too real in his wonderful debut novel. In it, Sarah Lewis and the other women of the isolated Olchon Valley in Wales awaken one morning in September of 1944 to find the men gone—their husbands, their sons, all are missing without a trace except for one tantalizing clue as to why they left. The women team up to keep their farms going, to continue their lives as if the men were away at the market in the next valley.
But as winter comes, so do the Germans. A small patrol arrives led by Albrecht Wolfram, who, beyond securing the valley, is on a secret mission. The soldiers and the women are understandably wary of each other, but as the occupiers relax now that they are off the front lines, and as winter deepens and the women need help with their livestock that only the men can provide, both sides open up… slightly, tentatively, and not without missteps as they learn that everyone has lost much in this war. Albrecht’s sensibilities change over the winter, and with the hardening of the landscape come reinvigorating thoughts and emotions. He finds himself drawn towards Sarah, the youngest wife of the group, who is herself struggling with her emotions towards her missing husband.
This is a beautifully written, haunting story; the reader can feel the women’s heartbreak and sorrow and can see the striking Olchon Valley, which is alternately threatening and heavenly. Sheers has won awards for his poetry and non-fiction, and more plaudits are in his future for this astounding novel. Helene Williams
Timeslip-Children & YA
didn’t. Flat characters, a predictable villain, and historical errors such as English Regency people using modern American words created a weak novel. One wishes Brown could have better conveyed her interesting idea of imagining a modern woman transported back to the Regency period. Read this book if you are looking for pure fluff, but avoid it if you’re looking for quality Regency romance.
Rebecca Roberts
HISTORICAL FANTASY
TERRITORY
Emma Bull, Tor, 2007, $24.95/C$31.00, hb, 336pp, 0312857357
Territory is a western murder mystery with magic at its core. Jesse Fox left his Eastern college to travel West, where he meets the physician Chow Lung, who insists that Jesse has a talent for magic. In Tombstone, Jesse meets and falls for Mildred Benjamin, a young widow and newspaper reporter, and also meets Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp, whose talents and power seem to be an echo of his own. When a failed stagecoach holdup results in two dead, Tombstone explodes with speculation about the attempted robbery: the truth could destroy Earp’s plans for wealth and glory. The sources of power in the Territory court Jesse as an ally as they struggle for control – by the barrel of a gun, and by means more supernatural.
The real strengths of this book are the strong, direct style and the little historical details that make you feel as though you’re walking the busy streets of Tombstone. Both Jesse and Mildred are engaging, likeable protagonists and the fantasy and magical elements are appealing, if at some points maddeningly vague.
However, the story feels somewhat disjointed, and the convoluted plot and full cast of characters served to keep me from following the story closely. This can make for either an exhilarating gallop or a frustrating meander. Though the ending was disappointingly abrupt, especially given the many well-drawn characters, it does leave the door open for a sequel. Overall, the story is unique, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys an unusual take on historical events.
Julie K. Rose
THE BROKEN KINGS: Book Three of the Merlin Codex
Robert Holdstock, Tor, 2007, $27.95, hb, 368pp, 0765311097 / Gollancz, 2008, £7.99, pb, 320pp, 9780575081550
In pre-Arthurian times, Merlin watches the fortress of Taurovinda become the focus of devastating change. For the dead world of Greek mythology has come alive in the persons of Jason and his dead Argonaut warriors lying within the decaying ship, Argo. A dark, secret mission propels forces of vengeance to appear
through strange new hostels which are actually gateways between the living and the dead. The Dead and the Unborn are crossing between worlds to prepare to combat the living.
High King Urtha Pendragon of Cornovidi wants peace, but his blood-lusting son Prince Kymon aches to do battle with the Shadows of Heroes returned to claim Urtha’s land. What will free the Pendragon’s future realm from its rampant corruption already evident in changing seasons, shadows, storms and aberrant spiritanimal movements? In the midst of this looming war appears Medea, who asks Merlin’s help to achieve two reconciliations. Niiv, Merlin’s testy lover, wants his power as much as his passion. And so the quest and the hunt begin!
Robert Holdstock brilliantly brings Merlin’s past role into this mythological mix. For Merlin is the one who innocently built Jason’s ship, Argo, a boat crafted with Merlin’s spiritual elements of fish eyes for safety, hawk eyes for soaring flight and a charm to travel unseen under and through the world. Though multiple character names sometimes confuse the reader, a close reading yields understanding and entry into Holdstock’s enticing and mysteriously memorable fantasy world. The Broken Kings is great for those who know mythology, and fascinating for those who just love a good fantasy novel.
Viviane Crystal
DOCUMENTS CONCERNING RUBASHOV THE GAMBLER
Carl-Johan Vallgren (trans. Sarah Death), Harvill Secker, 2007, £12.99, hb, 300pp, 9781846550027
Josef Nikolai Rubashov, the eponymous inveterate gambler, plays a somewhat dangerous game of poker with the Devil on New Year’s Eve 1899 in St Petersburg. Not surprisingly, he loses, but Rubashov is given an odd bonus prize of immortality and then spends the whole of the 20th century in finding ways to end or mitigate this poisoned legacy. Rubashov finds himself in most of the worst episodes of the last century, and indeed witnesses many atrocious acts of mankind. He meets fellow immortals along the way, who include Paracelsus and Gilles de Rais, and then loses the only true love in his life to the whim of his Satanic controllers, who emerge regularly throughout the novel to tease and tantalise poor Rubashov – but their role is very different to that of the traditional Devil in literature. Life without end or ultimate purpose would be intolerable – it is the limited time element in our lives that gives us drive, shape and destiny. Despite being a work of pure fantasy, the novel is unsettling and provides a challenging insight into being a human.
Doug Kemp
CHILDREN’S & YOUNG ADULT
CASSANDRA’S SISTER
Veronica Bennett, Candlewick, 2007, $15.99/ C$20.50, hb, 230pp, 9780763634643
Cassandra’s Sister opens in revolutionary Paris as a young man is guillotined. In due time, his English widow, Eliza, makes her way to an English rectory, where her glamorous, tragic marriage and pragmatic outlook on life make a deep impression on one of her country cousins—the young Jane Austen, called Jenny by her family.
This quiet, often gently humorous, and elegantly written biographical novel tells the story of Jane Austen’s coming of age, both as a woman and as a writer. As Jane and her sister Cassandra go about their daily lives of social calls and occasional visits, suitors come and go for the sisters. Jane’s novels are started, completed, rejected, put away, and revised. As in a Jane Austen novel, a great deal happens without much seeming to happen at all. Jane Austen’s life influences her art—and, at a crucial moment, Jane Austen’s art will influence her life.
Intended for young adults, this novel doesn’t require a familiarity with Jane Austen’s own novels, but those who know at least some of them will probably find Cassandra’s Sister more enjoyable than those who are strangers to Austen. Older readers, Janeites and non-Janeites alike, are likely to find this novel to be a pleasant tea or cocoa companion as well.
Susan Higginbotham
TENNYSON
Lesley M. M. Blume, Knopf, 2008, $15.99/ C$24.99, hb, 256pp, 9780375847035
In 1932 Louisiana, Emery Fontaine leaves daughters Tennyson and Hattie on the decaying ancestral doorstep while he searches for their runaway mother, a frustrated writer. The girls find life at Aigredoux difficult. Aunt Henrietta clings to the family’s glamorous pre-Civil War past, even as she sells marble ripped from the staircase to put food on the table. Since the girls are the last of the Fontaines, she insists they must be trained up to be proper Southern ladies and rescue the family fortunes by marrying well. Tennyson copes by writing stories based on the dreams Aigredoux inspires about the family’s dark past, a lost fortune built on the miseries of slavery. She hopes that if her stories are published in The Sophisticate magazine, her mother, who never misses an issue, will get the message and come home. Tennyson’s hopes are raised when Bartholomew Prentiss, a Sophisticate editor, also arrives on Aigredoux’s doorstep, seeking his newly-discovered author. I didn’t know how to take this book. The chapters at Aigredoux are necessarily gloomy, with the girls missing their parents and the sad family past. The chapters about Prentiss seem to be intended as comic relief: “And then he marched straight back to his office to steer the fate of American literature away from the rocks of disaster.” Those parts are humorous, but I found the large disparity of tone between the
sections jarring. Plus, I doubt that a New Yorkertype magazine would publish a story by an 11year-old, handwritten on the backs of pages of sheet music, and apparently not requiring any editing. But perhaps Blume intended an element of fantasy? I did like the way she juxtaposed Aunt Henrietta’s ideas about the glamorous past with servant Zulma’s tart anecdotes of what it was like from her slave ancestors’ point of view. Ages 8-12.
B.J. Sedlock
RINGSIDE, 1925: Views from the Scopes Trial
Jen Bryant, Knopf, 2007, $15.99, hb, 240pp, 0375840478
How many of us remember learning about the Scopes Trail in our social studies class? It was one of the most controversial trials in American history; J.T. Scopes, a high school teacher, was arrested for teaching evolution in his classroom. I must admit, I didn’t remember much else about the trial.
Now enters author Jen Bryant, who not only decided to present this trial for young adult readers, but also courageously set out to write it in verse. Ringside effectively informs readers while holding its own as a great read. Bryant’s verses provide perspectives of the trial from students, townspeople and reporters. She gives us a taste of 1925 America, specifically Dayton, Tennessee.
Bryant’s verses show us the circus-like atmosphere that surrounded the trial, but also the soda fountain plot that led to the arrest and the disintegration of the friendship between attorneys Charles Darrow and William J. Bryan.
I’m not sure how many teens will grab this heady title off the shelves themselves, but they’ll be happy if they do. By the time readers reach the middle of Ringside, they’ll put everything aside they learned in the classroom and will anxiously await the trial’s outcome as if they’ve never heard it before. Ages 12 and up.
Nancy Castaldo
THE LADY GRACE MYSTERIES: Haunted
Grace Cavendish, Doubleday, 2006, £6.99, hb, 239pp, 9780385608534
1570. Queen Elizabeth is on her summer Royal Progress and the court is staying with Reynold Waldegrave, 5th Earl of Medenham, who is in the throes of building a magnificent new house. He plans various spectacular entertainments to prove his loyalty – his new house will be E-shaped in honour of the queen. But things are not going according to plan. The half-demolished old manor is rumoured to be haunted by the ghost of the murdered 1st earl and the workmen are threatening to down tools.
The queen can ignore mere rumour, but when, during a terrifying storm, the spectre is seen by all, pointing at the earl and then vanishing, leaving the word ‘traitor’ in blood on the
window, things turn more serious. If Elizabeth decides to leave Medenham Manor, the earl’s reputation will be in shreds. But Grace has her suspicions about the so-called ghost. Would a 200-year-old ghost really wear an Elizabethan ruff? Or is somebody trying to ruin the earl’s reputation and, if so, who and why? Grace and her friends, the tumbler Masou and the put-upon laundry maid Ellie, must uncover the mystery – fast.
I enjoyed this. I like the glimpses behind stage which illuminate the Elizabethan world: the kitchens’ frantic preparations for a feast, for example, or Grace needing a maid to tie on her sleeves, which were separate from the bodice.
One minor caveat. The earl is correctly Lord Medenham, not Lord Reynold. He would only be Lord Reynold if he were the second or subsequent son of a duke or marquess. (Lord Robert Dudley, a minor character in the book, was the 5th son of the Duke of Northumberland, which outranked his earldom.) Still, the book gallops along at a tremendous pace and is a great read.
For girls age 10+.
Elizabeth Hawksley
I liked this book because there was excitement around every corner. It also puts you onto false leads, making you want to read on and find out everything.
I thought the imagery was effective and the characters believable. I also really liked the happy ending and I am going to enjoy reading the next book and see what adventures are in store.
My favourite part of the book is when Ellie and Masou save the day because they are, in my opinion, the two most likeable characters in the whole book.
I think this book is aimed at girls around the age of 11-13.
Rachel Beggs, age 12
ECLIPSE
Andrea Cheng, Front Street, 2006, $16.95, hb, 129pp, 9781032425245
The problems of a Hungarian immigrant family in Cincinnati in 1952 as seen through the eyes of an eight-year-old boy.
Peti’s aunt, uncle and older cousin finally get visas and come to stay with Peti and his parents until his uncle can get a job. This means that the apartment is overcrowded. To make matters worse Peti’s cousin, Gabor, bullies him. But Peti finds a refuge. He spends all his time in the library. Peti is interested in everything from the solar system to pinhole cameras.
The librarian takes an interest in Peti. She tells him about the Underground Railroad and Peti is interested. He compares the plight of the slaves to that of his own grandfather. He has heard his parents saying he has been sent to a farm. But his grandfather cannot escape from Hungary because there are too many soldiers at the border. Mrs Malone, the librarian, takes
Peti on a visit to a station on the Underground Railroad which is now a museum.
The museum makes a deep impression on Peti. Earlier Gabor had made him take money out of his uncle’s suitcase. When this is discovered the grown-ups make excuses for both Peti and Gabor–– Peti because he is so young and Gabor because moving around from country to country has been hard for him. But Peti quietly reminds himself that he still knew it was wrong and Gabor did not have to swim a freezing river.
The story is told in the first person by Peti. This gives a child’s eye picture of the Iron Curtain. When he first hears that his grandfather has been sent to a farm Peti thinks he will like that. He could have a cat and kittens.
A highly original description of the Cold War. The Underground Railroad forms an interesting parallel with the border between the Communist countries and the West. Young adult.
Mary S Moffat
DAWN OF FEAR
Susan Cooper, Harcourt, 2007, $5.95, pb, 160pp, 9780152061067
Susan Cooper always writes well, and this is one of her deceptively simple books. On the face of it, the story is an uncomplicated children’s story, but it is, as the title suggests, about learning what fear really is. For Derek and his friends think the war is, as Derek’s father said of their attitude: “Just a great game.” They continue to build their den, go to school, fight off the neighbouring street’s children who destroy their den, and wonder, for there are undercurrents they sense the grown-ups know about. Even the nightly air raids are adventures, not seriously scary.
Over the nine busy days of the story, Derek changes from the boy who thinks war is exciting, who collects shrapnel and enjoys watching the dog fights, to one who understands war as destruction and death.
Susan Cooper’s skills turn this difficult subject into one any child can understand. It is also a book which would give a youngster an understanding of what it was like during World War II, seen through the eyes of Derek, someone their age and a likeable character. Whilst I’ve made the novel sound like a history text, which it could be used for, in fact it is a cracking good read, as are all Susan Cooper’s books. Ages 10 and up.
Patrika Salmon
FIRE FROM THE ROCK
Sharon M. Draper, Dutton, 2007, $16.99/ C$21.00, hb, 231pp, 9780525477204
Most young people look forward to the growing-up milestone of starting high school. But African American Sylvia Patterson lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957. A good student, she has been nominated to be in the group of young people who will attend the white high school when integration begins in the fall. Her older brother Gary is on fire to join the struggle
to bring equality to his community, but Sylvia would be so much more comfortable staying in the all-Black school, where her friends and new boyfriend Reggie will attend. Yet Gary’s fervor inspires her to want to be able to do something about the harassment she and her siblings have suffered. Through the long summer, Sylvia tries to sort out her mixed feelings, via diary entries and writing poetry. As fall term approaches and racial tension in the city keeps rising, a firebombing helps her make her choice, but not in the way the reader might expect.
The Pattersons are a warm, caring family I would like to visit again. Draper taught me some things I didn’t know about the Civil Rights era. This book would be an excellent introduction for young people to that volatile period. The plot presents different sides of many issues, and readers will learn about the day-to-day realities African Americans faced in the 1950s: not being permitted to try on clothing before purchasing or return it afterwards, condescending articles about Negroes in school books, and a total lack of people of color in the media. The situations presented would spark lively classroom discussions, such as what the reader would have done in Sylvia’s place. An author’s note about what happened after the story’s end is included, as well as a list of websites related to Little Rock’s school integration.
B.J. Sedlock
HOOFBEATS: Silence and Lily, 1773
Kathleen Duey, Dutton, 2007, $15.99/C$20.00, hb, 176pp, 9780525478522
Silence is a typical twelve-year-old colonial girl. Her main concerns are learning tea manners with her friends, her too-numerous chores, and envying her older brother’s freer lifestyle. Her greatest pleasure is the time she can steal away with her mare, Lily. But her mother thinks she spends too much time doting on the horse and should find more serious, ladylike pursuits. It is 1773 in Boston, and the interactions between the colonists and British are becoming increasingly tense, coming to a head with the Boston Tea Party. Silence’s freedoms are also restricted as her Loyalist parents try to keep their family safe. But not everyone in Silence’s household sympathizes with the British. And when Silence learns someone is sneaking out at night and endangering her beloved horse, she has to decide where her own loyalties lie. This is a well-paced book with sympathetic characters written for a middle-grade audience. Fans of American Girltype historical fiction should enjoy this as well.
Sue Asher
THE WINTER WAR
William Durbin, Wendy Lamb, 2008, $15.99/ C$20.99, hb, 240pp, 9780385908894
Solid young adult author (most reviews give the age ranges for his books as upper elementary through middle school) William Durbin is reliable for historically grounded fiction of major world events. The invasion of Finland by Stalin on the eve of World War II is not often chosen
for a subject, but it provides thrills as well as chills (the Finns triumph in pushing back the Soviets was in good measure due to their ability to handle winter warfare) and is a saga worthy of fictional treatment. It was a land grab that didn’t fully succeed, although Finland ceded some land to achieve a ceasefire, but the Soviet losses were astronomical. Young Marko is proud to be a watcher for air raids, especially so since he has one weak leg from polio. When the planes start their raids, he quickly finds an opportunity to serve as a courier, and throughout the war he skis his way through plenty of action.
Mary K. Bird-Guilliams
THE SNOW GOOSE
Paul Gallico, illus. Angela Barrett, Knopf, 2007, $17.99, hb, 48pp, 9780375849787
The Snow Goose, Paul Gallico’s bittersweet story of loneliness and redemption, spans a decade, from 1930 to May 1940, when the British government implored sailors to take their boats across the English Channel to rescue soldiers trapped before the advancing German army at Dunkirk. During these ten years, hunchbacked and shunned by society, Philip Rhayader purchases a lighthouse on the Essex Coast. There he paints birds and maintains a sanctuary for migrating geese and wild ducks. Philip’s solitude ends when a young girl brings him a wounded snow goose to heal. Over the years, as the friendship between Philip and Frith slowly deepens, the snow goose becomes Philip’s constant companion, even following him around his studio as he paints.
Ten years pass, and when the plea for sailors to rescue the men at Dunkirk comes, Philip valiantly sets off in his little boat. Despite his physical deformity, with the snow goose swirling over his sailboat, Philip rescues many men that day, and he and the snow goose become the stuff of legend.
First published in the Saturday Evening Post in 1940 and again as a novel in 1941 for adults, this new edition is evocatively illustrated by Angela Barrett. Highly recommended.
Alana White
RUBY RED
Linzi Glass, Penguin, 2007, £10.99, 218pp, 9780141382807
Handsome boy meets beautiful girl. They discover they are soul mates. Their parents forbid them to see one another. Just like any other love story, except this is where the similarity between Ruby Red and any other teenage novel ends. Set in South Africa during Apartheid, Ruby Winters is like any normal girl at school. She is attractive, popular, clever, and a school prefect. But her home life is far from normal – her mother and father are both defenders of Black rights. If they are discovered, it would mean immediate arrest, and maybe even a death warrant.
When Ruby travels to the rival local Afrikaans school, the blond-haired, blue-eyed captain of rugby, Johann, is pointed out to her
by a friend. It is by chance she is left talking to Loretta, who, like Johann, is from Stuenmakaar, while she waits at the school gates for her father to collect her. For Ruby, the language her new friend speaks does not matter in the slightest, but to her parents, an Afrikaans-speaking visitor to their English home presents immense danger. Over time her friendship with Loretta strengthens, and it turns out that Johann is her brother. A forbidden relationship ensues, resulting in her nearly being expelled from school. But with this new relationship, will she lose the friendship of Julian, the artist from Soweto she has grown so close to? And will she end up paying the ultimate price for her love?
I found the novel powerful, emotional and moving. It is well written, and many teenagers can relate to the theme of forbidden love, and empathise with the loneliness that Ruby feels.
Charlotte Kemp
THE DIAMOND OF DRURY LANE
Julia Golding, Egmont, 2006, £6.99, hb, 424pp, 9781405221498
London, 1780. The playwright and theatre manager Richard Sheridan rescues an abandoned child and brings her to the Theatre Royal. He names her Catherine Royal. Ten years later, Cat is part mascot, part general dogsbody. If anybody knows what’s going on, it’s Cat. She knows that Mr Sheridan is hiding a special diamond in the theatre; that the new prompt, Johnny Smith, is not all he seems (why does he always have inky fingers?); that the authorities are after ‘Captain Sparkler’, the notorious political cartoonist; that Syd Fletcher, leader of the Butcher’s boys gang is to be trusted; and that Billy ‘Boil’ Shepherd, the leader of a rival gang is a dangerous bully. Then she meets Pedro Hawkins, a black boy, who is a virtuoso violinist. It is through Pedro that Cat is taken up by Lord Francis and Lady Elizabeth, children of the Duke of Avon. Francis, who has led a sheltered life, is determined to see an East End boxing match and persuades Cat and Pedro to take him – and who should be there but Billy ‘Boil’. Francis is, so he thinks, in disguise, but the moment he opens his mouth, Billy suspects that he’s not what he’s pretending to be.
Then Cat discovers Johnny Smith’s secret and events threaten to spiral out of control. There are dangers in store for Cat and her friends – dangers which could all too easily lead to the gallows …
I enjoyed this. I loved the realistically chaotic theatre world, complete with audience riots and hazardous stage effects. 18th-century London was a dangerous place with filthy back streets where crime was rife and lawless gangs roamed unchecked. Julia Golding takes us into an authentically smelly and dangerous world and my guess is that confident readers of 10+ will love it. A terrific read.
Elizabeth Hawksley
The Diamond of Drury Lane was at first
hard to get into because the action started off quite slowly, but as the story continued I got immersed in it, and it was very interesting and a good read. The plot has lots of twists and the story is well narrated by the main character, Cat Royal. I liked the descriptions of the theatre and of life the 1790s. I was first drawn to the book because of the interesting front cover and the style in which it’s presented, which is as a theatre programme. I think this book is wellworth reading and, though it might take time to get into, in the end it is very good. I think this book would be good for children between the ages of 9 and 13 and both boys and girls would enjoy it.
Ella McNulty, aged 12
RHIANNON
Vicki Grove, Putnam, 2007, $18.99/C$23.50, hb, 348pp, 9780399236334
In 12th-century England, fourteen-yearold Rhiannon is fascinated by the fate of King Henry’s White Ship, wrecked just months before. After all, many of the passengers who perished were not much older than Rhia herself. Soon, however, Rhia’s thoughts turn in another direction when a man is found murdered in nearby Woethersly. When Jim, one of the kindly locals, is accused of the crime, Rhia determines to clear his name by searching for the real murderer. Her quest will not only put her and her friends in danger, but lead to another question: Did the king’s son survive the wreck of the White Ship?
Rhia is resourceful and endearing, as are the friends, old and new, she enlists in her mission. There’s a large, varied cast of characters, from Rhia’s healer mother to a handsome young oblate to some loutish young aristocrats to Rhia’s aged, noisy, and protective groshawke, Gramp.
Grove’s prose style is highly readable, with turns of phrase that give her narrative a medieval feel. With its blend of mystery, adventure, and romance, and even a dash of the supernatural, this is a novel that young readers should thoroughly enjoy.
Susan Higginbotham
WITHOUT WARNING: Ellen’s Story, 19141918
Dennis Hamley, Candlewick, 2007, $17.99/ C$22.50, hb, 326pp, 9780763633387
Without Warning is narrated by the heroine, Ellen Wilkins, who is almost fifteen at the outbreak of World War I. Her brother, Jack, is one of the first recruits from their small Sussex village. In the course of the next few years Ellen comes of age and begins to expand her world. She takes a job as a domestic servant in the household of the local lord. When she is sacked from that job, Ellen reaches out to Jack, who is now home trying to deal with the emotional problems of combat fatigue and the amputation of his right leg. Jack is on the verge of suicide when Ellen finally breaks through his introversion, helping to restore his emotional
health. It is then that she realizes she wants to be a nurse. After overcoming her mother’s objections, Ellen goes to London to begin her training. She is fortunate to get a job at a hospital in France nursing wounded soldiers. Among her patients is a German soldier whom she befriends and re-encounters after the war.
Hamley writes with insight and compassion about the effects of war on civilians as well as soldiers. His heroine is sensitive, intelligent and typical of a young woman emerging into adulthood in the midst of a war. This is an interesting, fast-paced novel with welldeveloped characters, both good and bad.
Audrey Braver
BLUE
Joyce Moyer Hostetter, Calkins Creek, 2006, $16.95, hb, 197pp, 9781590783894
There are two main themes in this book. The first concerns the polio epidemic in North Carolina in 1944 and the emergency hospital which came to be known as ‘the miracle of Hickory.’ The second is about relations between blacks and whites at that time.
With her father in the army, thirteen-year-old Ann Fay Honeycutt has to look after the house, the large garden, her two young sisters, and also her mother who is distraught at the death of her son from polio. Then Ann Fay gets polio herself. She is rushed to the emergency hospital where she begins her long struggle back to health.
In hospital she is shocked to find a black (or colored as they were known as at the time) girl in the next bed to her. But Imogen, as the black girl is called, soon becomes a very good friend. When the two girls are moved out of the contagious ward they are both devastated to find that they are to be separated. Despite everything they struggle to continue their friendship.
This book has been thoroughly researched, but the historical facts occur naturally in the story. There are details of the painful Kenny packs used to treat polio, and also of the physiotherapy. And then Ann Fay hears the nurses weeping but does not find out until later that Franklin Delano Roosevelt has died.
Despite everything, this is not a sad or harrowing book. This is because Ann Fay is such a courageous and resilient heroine. The story is told by her in the first person and written just as she would speak, and this adds to the authenticity. It comes with a note and a detailed bibliography. A worthy tribute to all those who fought the polio epidemic of 1944, whether doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, hospital orderlies or victims. Young adult.
Mary S Moffat
VENDETTA: The Runestone Saga, Book Two Chris Humphreys, Knopf, 2007, $15.99/ C$21.00, hb, 314pp, 9780375832932
Vendetta follows last year’s The Fetch which began the series, and which centers around the mystical properties of Nordic runestones. It is helpful to have read the first book, but not
strictly necessary. Sky arrives in Corsica to follow a vision and further his efforts to rescue his cousin from the adventures related in the first volume. Instead, he runs into two women who shriek and cry vengeance at the mention of his grandfather’s name. Soon he is caught up in a centuries-old feud, his only escape to learn how to use the destructive power of the runes to heal rather than inflict harm. Shapechanging into animals, some thoughtful moral introspection and a lot of blood-curdling action fill the pages and will be continued in the conclusion, due out next summer. Middle school to high school readers will appreciate this the most.
Mary K. Bird-Guilliams
OPHELIA
Lisa Klein, Bloomsbury, 2006, £5.99, pb, 328pp, 9780747587330 / Bloomsbury USA, 2007, $7.95, pb, 352pp, 9781599902289
Ophelia’s story emanates from the Shakespearian play Hamlet. This is what might have happened to Ophelia if she had survived. Born of tragedy, as her mother died, she is brought up with her father, Polonius, and her brother beyond the palace walls. She lacks a matriarchal figure in her life. Her father has ambition for her, and Ophelia’s life changes when she is accepted as one of Queen Gertrude’s ladies, catching her attention and favour.
Ophelia is less drawn to needlepoint as she is to studying herbs, taught by a wise woman. She falls in love with Hamlet, and secretly becomes his wife. Tragedy follows when his father is murdered. Hamlet changes, his feigned madness becomes real and Ophelia cannot find it in her heart to follow in his desire for revenge. Horatio has been a good friend to them and his love for her grows.
Ophelia devises a plan; she uses her skill and knowledge of herbs to fake her own death and escape.
This story is cleverly woven into the original tale of Hamlet as told by Shakespeare. It is both believable and enjoyable. The language used will challenge some teenagers, as would the words of Shakespeare, which is good. I will be passing it on to my own daughter because it is both a skilful and original novel. Ophelia grows as her life changes dramatically. She learns to live in the day, not haunted by the past or dwelling on a fearful future. This is a very engaging book with a touching and sensitive ending.
Val Loh
GUINEVERE’S GIFT
Nancy McKenzie, Knopf, 2008, $18.99/ C$24.99, hb, 256pp, 0375943455 / $15.99/ C$20.99, pb, 256pp, 0375843450
In modern Arthurian fiction, Arthur’s queen is usually portrayed as either an imperious and wilful manipulator, or a (largely) innocent victim of the plots of others. Nancy McKenzie adopts the latter approach in The Child Queen and The High Queen (1994, 1995; reissued together in 2002 as Queen of Camelot), and again in
Guinevere’s Gift, which returns to Guinevere’s adolescent years as a ward of the king and queen of Gwynedd in this novel for younger readers.
At thirteen, the future high queen is a Cinderella figure: an insecure orphan, she struggles to cope with the jealousy of her aunt Alyse and the bullying of her cousin Elaine, while her indulgent uncle Pellinore is absent, fighting in Arthur’s wars. She loves riding, but her aunt considers this escape from domestic pressure both dangerous and unladylike, evidence of a headstrong nature. Yet it is this riding ability, combined with courage and intelligence, which enable her to prevent a war against the hillmen, who have been unjustly blamed for stealing cattle, and to foil a treasonous plot to seize Pellinore’s castle and kingdom.
McKenzie constructs a credible Dark Age world, and she generates considerable suspense as Guinevere fights desperately to protect not only good friends like her nurse Ailsa and Llyr the hillman, but her unkind aunt and wilful cousin too, from the dangers that threaten. If the characters divide rather too readily into good or bad, they are given credible motivations, and it is, arguably, a perspective that most adolescents share. They will also recognize the sense of vulnerability that people experience when power and ambition are wielded ruthlessly. This is a thought-provoking novel.
Ray Thompson
ANDIE’S MOON
Linda Newbery, Usborne, 2007, £5.99, pb, 205pp, 9780746073100
1969. Twelve-year-old Andie longs to be an artist – she is particularly inspired by the moon – but no-one else understands. Her parents think being an artist is not a ‘proper’ job, her sister Prune is only interested in fashion, and her uninspiring art teacher Miss Temple calls her ‘talented but undisciplined’.
Then her Dad gets a job in London and they borrow a flat in Chelsea as a base for house-hunting. Suddenly, life changes. It is the Swinging Sixties. Prune loves the King’s Road boutiques. Andie is more interested in their new neighbours. A real artist lives in the basement, and Andie longs to show him her paintings – but will he sneer at them as Miss Temple does? Ravi Kapoor, an aspiring astronomer, lives on the first floor. Unbeknown to his parents, he goes up onto the roof to look at the stars and he offers to show Andie.
Soon, Andie’s life is opening out. She goes to the Rolling Stones’ free rock concert in Hyde Park (her mother is horrified), she star-watches with Ravi, and, meanwhile, the whole world watches with bated breath as the Apollo 11 Space Mission blasts off on its historic journey to land people on the moon. And then, she shows Patrick her portfolio of work ….
This is the Swinging Sixties as seen by an intelligent but provincial young girl. I enjoyed watching Andie’s wings gradually unfurl as she explored all the new possibilities.
Unfortunately, at the end, her parents decide that they can’t afford to live in London, so they return to Slough, which is something of a damp squib to say the least! OK, they might not have been able to afford Chelsea but Fulham, say, at that date wasn’t prohibitively expensive. I was disappointed by such a downbeat ending.
Elizabeth Hawksley
This book is about a 12-year-old girl who is a tomboy. She isn’t into girlie stuff and appreciates other things in life such as the moon. I like this because it makes the book interesting to read and unpredictable. I also have read the rest of the Historical House series and like knowing who lived in the house, at what time and what they got up to.
I like the fact that Andie and her sister Prune are so different because this causes conflict between them so that it is true to life.
My favourite part of the book is when Andie goes sky hopping with Ravi for the first time. This is because the author describes the moon and the sky outside so well. It seems so beautiful and calm.
I would say this book is best suited for girls ages 11-13. I would give it an 8/10 rating.
Rachel Beggs, age 12
THE PENALTY
Mal Peet, Candlewick, 2007, $16.99, 262pp, 9780763633998 / Walker, 2006, £6.99, pb, 264pp, 1844280993
A young soccer star from the poorest community of Puerto Rico goes mysteriously missing after performing uncharacteristically badly in an important game. There has been no request for ransom, no body, no clue as to where he might have gone.
But the journalist Faustino is on a leave of absence from his job as a sports reporter for La Nacion, taking time to write a biography of another soccer legend. He resists the impulse to get involved, even when a long-time comrade turns up mysteriously murdered.
Bit by bit, Faustino finds himself inexorably drawn into this strange case, involving ancient religions still practiced by the descendants of slaves, and supernatural forces that eventually turn against the evildoers who try to capitalize on the soccer star’s fervent beliefs.
Peet spins a masterful tale that flows easily from centuries-old Africa, colonial Puerto Rico and modern times. His characters are engaging and believable, and his combination of realism and fantasy produces a very appealing hybrid for this young adult mystery.
Susanne Dunlap
THE CURSE OF THE ROMANOVS
Staton Rabin, McElderry, 2007, $17.99/ C$21.99, hb, 273pp, 9781416902080
In 1916, Alexei, twelve-year-old tsarevich of Russia, records family history in his diary. Russia is in turmoil, and the people are angry with the royal family for their starvation.
Siberian peasant Rasputin keeps a sinister hold on Alexei’s mother through his “magic” cures of the boy’s hemophilia. Alexei’s relatives vow to murder the too-influential Rasputin, and the Mad Monk attacks the young tsarevich in revenge. But through a mind transfer trick learned from Rasputin, Alexei escapes to 2010 New York where he meets his cousin Varda. Varda is working on a cure for hemophilia. When Alexei realizes—through Varda’s history books—that his family will be slaughtered by the Bolsheviks, he and Varda travel back to 1918 to try and save them. Of course, the outcome is inevitable, or is it? This young adult fantasy will have you guessing.
The hints of sex and the bloody violence might make this inappropriate for younger teens, but middle teens will find it a quick, intriguing read. The author gives an invaluable detailed history of the Romanovs and their times at the end of the book. Ages 12 and up.
Diane Scott Lewis
SMUGGLERS
Christopher Russell, Puffin, 2007, £4.99, pb, 191pp, 9780141320953
England, South Coast, post 1815. Twelveyear-old Reuben Hibberd knows that a shipwreck means good pickings. But there is one rule the superstitious fisher-folk all follow: the sea gives them the pickings and, in return, they allow the sea to keep those ship-wrecked. They don’t rescue drowning sailors. When Reuben saves Pin, a stowaway aboard the wrecked ship, the Hibberds refuse to take him in lest he brings them bad luck. Pin is soaked, half-starved, cold and alone in the world. How can he persuade the Hibberds to trust him?
Fishing is chancy, and the villagers bridge the gap with smuggling. During the Napoleonic Wars it was a profitable business, but now coastguard Lieutenant Cade is determined to end it and offers a reward for information. It’s not only smuggling that concerns him. There is a traitor amongst the villagers who is sending messages to France, someone who is determined to bring a revolution along the French model to England. Reuben, too, realizes that someone is betraying them and suspicion falls on first Pin, and then on Reuben himself. It is a race to unmask the traitor before he kills again…
This fast-paced book is a gripping mix of danger, suspense and deceit. The author doesn’t romanticize the smugglers’ lives. The starvation they face if the mackerel fail is ever present –the opening scene has Reuben scaling the chalk cliffs in search of seabirds to eat. The Hibberds’ cottage, built just above the tide-line, will soon collapse into the sea. It’s a desperate life and the temptation to take Cade’s reward is very real. This was how the poor lived in the early 19th century and Christopher Russell doesn’t pull his punches.
I thought it was terrific. Aimed at boys of 9+ but girls who enjoy action-packed adventure will enjoy it, too.
Elizabeth Hawksley
Smugglers is a very enjoyable book, but I did not like the front cover. It was a bit too babyish and had too much going on. If I was looking for a book and I saw that cover, I don’t think I would pick it up or read the blurb. But if I knew what the story was inside it I would most certainly buy it.
The story had an excellent plot. It was very exciting and interesting. The characters and setting were very good, too, and I liked the way everyone seemed to have jobs, even the two main characters, who are children, had jobs. I also like the way Christopher Russell writes because he describes things so you get a very good picture in your head.
Altogether, I think Christopher Russell is a brilliant writer.
Hal McNulty, aged 9
SONG FOR ELOISE
Leigh Sauerwein, Bloomsbury, 2006, £5.99, pb., 133pp, 9780747578130 / Front Street, 2004, $15.95, hb, 133pp, 9781886910904
Eloise’s life in 12th-century France is happy until at fifteen she is married to a man twice her age. Her political match to Robert has nothing to do with love. She is a young girl, whilst he, a hardened warrior, has strived hard to earn his castle and a bride of good breeding. Eloise becomes homesick for her family and home. Despite the birth of her son she still cannot find joy; a fact that Robert is achingly aware of. He employs a young troubadour, Thomas, to cheer her up, unaware that the boy is a childhood friend of Eloise. Robert is no fool and sees the life return to his wife’s eyes when she looks upon Thomas. This is a sad tale of unfulfilled love told in a poetic and imaginative style. Although the book is quite short it is extremely effective.
The novel unfolds in short snapshots, giving the reader a chance to see the story from many perspectives. This works well because of the skill of the writer. It enables the reader to see that characters who appear to be menacing in one viewpoint can have a caring side too. All dimensions of life, culture, characters and plot are revealed through carefully chosen words. None are wasted. Every sentence creates a window into which the reader can look to experience life in this bygone world revealed. This is an excellent book for competent KS3 readers or GCSE students to study and learn how to use language to create an informative and emotive tale.
Val Loh
THE BOMB
Theodore Taylor, Harcourt, 2007, $6.95, pb, 200pp, 9780152061654
This is not an easy book to read, although it is meant for teenagers. Taylor was present at Bikini Atoll for the first atomic bomb test, and he says he found it really difficult to write about
Y THE HOPE CHEST
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Karen Schwabach, Random House, 2008, $16.99/C$21.99, hb, 288pp, 978037584095
Violet is eleven years old, but she has run away in order to find her older sister, Chloe. Chloe has been banished from Violet’s life after she took a nursing degree, and bought a car with the money set aside for her hope chest. It’s 1920, and Violet’s parents are resolved that she will not become one of those brazen, independent women like her sister, who has gone to work in New York. All Violet knows as she gets on a train is that her sister is in the City. The address from a long-ago letter isn’t much to go on, but she must try to find her. When she finds the settlement house where her sister works, however, she learns Chloe has gone to Nashville, Tennessee, to work for the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution—the one that will give American women the right to vote.
Violet begins another journey, this time to Nashville. Dangers and narrow escapes are everywhere along the way. Fortunately, she finds a street-wise traveling companion, an orphaned “colored” girl named Myrtle. Their adventures, in both North and South, involve readers in the pains and shames of the segregated world, as well as what it was like to be part of the fight for voting rights. Packed with historical detail and chock full of plucky and engaging characters of both sexes, The Hope Chest is highly recommended.
it even after fifty years. You can see why as you follow the story of Sorry Rinamu and his family, forced, with their whole village, off their home island, Bikini Atoll. Their attempts to stop being moved and then to prevent the bomb being dropped are heart-wrenching.
The book is simply written, with no sermons or raging speeches by the author; the reader is allowed to see and understand as Sorry sees and understands. This makes their uprooting, and the lying promise about a return in two years, all the more poignant. As a history lesson the book is superb. As a demonstration of the racism, lying, and bullying by large nations of smaller ones in the 1950s, it is shamefully truthful. Whilst it would be a good history text, and is excellent young adult reading, this novel should be recommended reading for anyone who is not old enough to remember the first atomic bomb test and all the people who suffered as a result of it. Ages 12 and up.
Patrika Salmon
BOOTH’S DAUGHTER
Raymond Wemmlinger, Calkins Creek, 2007, $17.95, hb, 212pp, 9781932425864
This book is about family relationships, posing the question about just how much responsibility and sacrifice can reasonably be expected from any one person.
The story starts in 1880 when Edwina Booth is eighteen and has newly left school. It charts her life for the next five years. Her father is an actor, and Edwina devotes herself to looking after him. She supports him by attending his performances in the theatre, she sits beside him at press conferences, and she travels with him on tour and helps with all the arrangements. The most onerous is their German tour because she is the only one in their party who speaks German.
Edwina is concerned about her father as he frequently has fits of depression. This is partly because the whole family bears the burden of Edwina’s uncle, John Wilkes Booth, who shot Lincoln. As Edwina grows up she begins to see her father in a different light. She suddenly realises that her father uses people –– or, as she puts it, crushes people. Then she overhears part of a conversation and discovers that her father hopes that she will continue looking after him all his life. In other words she will not be able to marry and have a family of her own. Is this really what Edwina wants out of life? She thinks of her aunt who has done just that and spent her whole life looking after her mother.
Then Edwina gets the chance to marry a man who is independent enough to stand up to her father. Should she seize this opportunity? True, she has a responsibility to her father, but does she not also have a responsibility to herself?
Told in the first person by Edwina, it comes with a note on the sources and a bibliography. Very thought provoking. Young adult.
Mary S Moffat
ARCHIE’S WAR
Marcia Williams, Candlewick, 2007, $17.99/ C$22.50, hb, 45pp, 9780763635329 / Walker, 2007, £12.99, hb, 48pp, 9781406304275
When World War I broke out in 1914, Archie Albright was ten years old. He had just started his own, private scrapbook. As much diary as scrapbook, this book contains vignettes of his family and their life in London’s East End. Archie loves drawing cartoons and illustrates his scrapbook with his best mate, Tom. There are stories about his school. We meet his suffragette sister, Ethel, their mean grandmother, his older brother Ron, and the bane of Archie’s existence, his nine-month-old brother, Billy. There are
Juliet Waldron
letters pasted in from Archie’s Uncle Ted, who is in the army in France. Archie’s scrapbook continues through the end of the war and shows how the war touched Archie, and all children. Ms. Williams has dedicated this book to “all other children touched by war.” Although written from Archie’s point of view, it is really for young adults or adults. With that in mind, this is a charming, delightful view of lower middle-class life and the unfailing strength that has sustained the English people through two devastating wars.
Audrey Braver
A TALE OF GOLD
Thelma Hatch Wyss, McElderry, 2007, $16.99/ C$19.99, hb, 152pp, 9781416942122
If you want to know about the Alaskan Gold Rush and digging for gold, this is the book to read. Written for young adult readers, it tells the story of James Erikson, fourteen and suddenly an orphan, who watches a boat return from the gold fields and sees men toss gold nuggets to the crowd. They lie all over the ground in Alaska, so men told him, he could just pick them up. Gold fever strikes and not just for James. He leaves San Francisco on one of the gold boats destined for Alaska, along with so many others. In fact he’s lucky to get there alive as everyone is profiteering and the ships are dangerously overloaded. The boat takes the gold-seeking stampeders as far as Skagway, and then the fun begins. To get to the gold fields the stampeders have to cross the Rockies in early winter, wait for the spring ice break, then go down a river and cross a lake. The Canadian Mounties insist that they go properly equipped and provisioned, with a ton of goods. James has to pack it all, bit by bit, like most of the other stampeders, haul it over the mountain passes, and then build a boat. Finally in Alaska James meets Tip, who is not what he seems, and they become partners. But it’s still a fight to get a claim and avoid the profiteers, thieves and con men who have followed the stampeders and cheat, overcharge, and steal from them.
It is these details which make the book so absorbing. The author has done her research and the arduous journey made by the gold-seekers is retold in gory detail. Definitely a book for reluctant boy readers, if they could get the copy back from their sisters. Ages 9-12.
Patrika Salmon
LITTLE KLEIN
Anne Ylvisaker, Candlewick, 2007, $15.99/ C$20.00, hb, 186pp, 9780763633592
This is a book which many children will enjoy. A youngest brother, Little Klein, struggles to catch up with his three older brothers. There’s also a dog of character who adopts Little Klein, and a series of small town adventures, culminating in a whopping adventure that young readers will envy. The writing is tight and the word choices stimulating, and it reads as well aloud as silently.
As an adult reader I did find it a little “soggy with nostalgia” and, for all the excellent writing, rather twee in places. The harking back to the “good old days” and the myth of the perfect paradise of a 1940-50s small town America is laid on with a hand that’s just too heavy at times. And I found nothing “good old days” about young hoodlums shoplifting, joyriding and breaking into houses. Teenagers doing that were regarded as a darned nuisance then, just as they are now. However, for American readers, this seems to be part of the Mark Twain/Tom Sawyer myth/legend and therefore acceptable, in stories, as the roguish behaviour of boys.
Patrika Salmon
THE ROGUES
Jane Yolen and Robert J. Harris, Philomel, 2007, $18.99,/C$23.50, hb, 277pp, 9780399238987
The Highlands of the 19th century, sometime after 1815, are no longer a safe place for regular folk to live, for the landowners have found something more valuable to them than people – sheep. The estate factor, William Rood, and his henchmen soon come to Roddy Macallan’s village to oust the tenants, burn their farms, and slaughter whatever livestock won’t bring a profit. Roddy and his family flee for their lives. They head for Glasgow in hopes of finding either work or a ship that will take them to America. But that requires precious coin, which they don’t have, until Roddy remembers The Blessing, a gift from Bonnie Prince Charlie. Roddy returns to his demolished family home to search for The Blessing. A sliver of moonlight reveals its location, but his joy is short lived. The laird confiscates The Blessing and orders his factor to silence Roddy. Allan Dunbar, also known as the Rogue, intervenes. He takes Roddy under his wing and soon the two outlaws formulate a plan to recover The Blessing with the help of the laird’s niece, who despises her uncle.
From the Highlands to Glasgow to Cape Fear, this riveting adventure takes the reader back to the days of the Clearances. Shock, despair, anger, and hope are but a few of the emotions this tale evokes. Roddy goes from fun-loving child to mature adult who stops at nothing to be reunited with his family. Written for young adults, this heartrending tale will appeal to readers young and old.
Cindy Vallar
NONFICTION
THE DAY OF BATTLE: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-44
Rick Atkinson, Henry Holt, 2007, $35.00, pb, 816pp, 9780805062892 / Little Brown, 2007, £25.00, hb, 816pp, 9780316725606
This the second of the author’s studies of the US Army’s role in the liberation of Europe during World War II. Its subject is the difficult, and at the time controversial, campaign in Italy. Although the story has been told many times,
the author includes some recently released information which brings a fresh perspective to the account.
Like his previous works, especially Crusade, his definitive study of the First Gulf War, this volume is both authoritative and lively, a rare enough combination in works that are basically serious and scholarly. But the beauty of this book lies in its exceptional detail. Not only are the great battles meticulously recounted, but through diaries, letters and other contemporary sources, the reader will learn what the individual soldier was eating and drinking, the clothes he wore and the songs he sang. Indeed, the many quotations from these participants breathe life into the story. They make these important battles, which are fading from the collective memory through a generation now passing on, vibrant and relevant to readers for whom World War II is distant history.
Especially recommended for the serious student of the period.
Ken Kreckel
SO HELP ME GOD: The Founding
Fathers and the First Great Battle Over Church and State
Forrest Church, Harcourt, 2008, $28.00, hb, 464pp, 9780151011858
Culture wars are nothing new, as Church demonstrates ably in this study of the tenure of America’s first five presidents. Our nation’s relationship between church and state travels from Washington’s “warm” deism through John Adams’s Puritan roots, to Jefferson’s role as “priest of the Enlightenment.” The religious wars peak during Madison’s term and the War of 1812, and moral challenges of American Indian removal (when “faith-based initiative” missionaries received government assistance in their quest to Christianize American Indians) and slavery beset the presidency of James Monroe.
As the new country got to know itself, the Bible and the Declaration of Independence were both viewed as sacred documents and so the question became: could one nation under God also offer liberty and justice for all? Even the celebrations of the Fourth of July were viewed by some pastors as anti-Christian. Often presidents took contradictory stances to their own convictions. The country’s first fifty years as seen in So Help Me God form a rich mix of many battles which will seem very familiar to today’s Americans.
Church provides both able scholarship and readable analysis of his fascinating subject. He demonstrates that in America, when not entangling themselves in each other’s business, both Church and State have flourished.
Eileen Charbonneau
TWILIGHT AT MONTICELLO: The Final Years of Thomas Jefferson
Alan Pell Crawford, Random House, 2008, $26.95/C$32.95, hb, 352pp, 1400060795
At the age of sixty-six, Thomas Jefferson left the presidency and retired to his beloved home
in Monticello. He died, famously on the 4th of July, at the age of eighty-three, and this book, based in part on thousands of family letters, tells the story of this final period of his life. Nothing here contradicts the supposition that he fathered children by his slave, Sally Hemings. The focus is much more, however, on his relationships with his two daughters by his dead wife, and his grandson Jeff Randolph. Jefferson could be generous and loving, and yet, it seems, was mired in denial, particularly in regard to his financial affairs. His family, and his slaves— who were sold to pay the estate’s debts after his death—ultimately paid the price for his inability to deal with mundane obligations. Many readers will come away from this fascinating book saddened by the great man’s limitations. I found it jarring to learn, for example, that in his final years Jefferson took the view that slavery should be allowed to spread to the border states.
Phyllis T. Smith
THE TRUE STORY OF POCAHONTAS: The Other Side of History
Dr. Linwood “Little Bear” Custalow and Angela L. Daniel “Silver Star,” Fulcrum, 2007, $14.95, pb, 138pp, 9781555916329
Pocahontas’s life has reached mythical proportions. How could any book possibly offer new information? The True Story of Pocahontas was written by the Mattaponi, her tribe. After having read many accounts about the legendary woman’s life, I tried to interlock the jigsaw puzzle with the pieces never quite fitting. Not only did this book answer my questions, it filled in the gaping holes.
John Smith wrote the stories about Pocahontas saving his life several years after her death. Other texts admit as much, yet most gloss over why this may have been. Few also question why a woman abducted by what must have seemed like an alien culture would immediately dress like her captors, convert to Christianity, and marry within a year of her captivity. All of those facts, plus another side to Pocahontas’s death, are revealed with shocking clarity. The True Story of Pocahontas should be required reading for every American history class.
Kim Murphy
TUTANKHAMUN’S ARMIES: Battle and Conquest during Ancient Egypt’s Late 18th Dynasty
John Coleman Darnell and Colleen Manassa, Wiley, 2007, £17.99/$25.95, hb, 276pp, 9780471743583
Despite the specific title, this book covers more than the short reign of the boy-king Tutankhamun; it is a complete overview of Egyptian political and military history from the ascension of Akhenaten to the rule of Horemhab at the end of the 18th Dynasty. Beginning with a lengthy background on the area’s history and culture, including those of Egypt’s enemies, each chapter focuses on topics ranging from religion to politics to weapons technology, painting a vivid picture of the Egyptian war machine from the proclamations of pharaohs to the testimonies of common soldiers. The book is written in a straightforward, accessible style,
neither too dry nor too flowery, engaging and personal while remaining concise and scholarly. The illustrations are well-placed and helpful, never filler, and the structure is suitable for both spot reference and cover-to-cover reading. There is an extensive footnote and reference section for further study. Tutankhamun’s Armies is an excellent primer for readers not intimately familiar with the period (like this reviewer), while still offering detailed analysis and insight for the more experienced Egyptologist. A valuable addition to any military history library.
Heather Domin
THE LAST PRINCESS
Matthew Dennison, St. Martin’s Press, 2008, $27.95, hb, 320pp, 0312376987 / Phoenix, 2008, £10.99, pb, 344pp, 9780753823477
The pendulum of public opinion seems to have swung as far as it will go with regard to Queen Victoria and her reign. Perhaps it is time for the return swing.
This book about Princess Beatrice, the youngest of the Queen’s children, is a dense read, solidly researched. Dennison makes a valiant attempt at presenting all sides of an argument, or ways of seeing an action or decision, often using quotes from letters or personal reports to do so.
If you know little of Princess Beatrice, this book is an excellent read, interesting and clearly written in plain English. But (there had to be a “but,” didn’t there?), Mr. Dennison assumes that Queen Victoria’s selfishness – ‘monumental selfishness’ – in keeping Beatrice a child for as long as possible, and in expecting her not to marry but stay at home to look after her, is the monstrous Queen’s selfishness alone. Dennison, who is a young journalist, may be out of step with the old-line historians. Those of us born in the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s will recall “spinster aunts” and “bachelor uncles,” or great-aunts and great-uncles, whose duty was to remain at home to look after their parents. There are Victorian books of sermons on that issue and on the topic of duty. Perhaps Beatrice was not so much a product of upbringing by a uniquely selfish woman, as Dennison believes, but the typical product of her age?
Patrika Salmon
THROUGH A HOWLING WILDERNESS:
Benedict Arnold’s March to Quebec, 1775
Thomas A. Desjardin, St. Martin’s Griffin, 2006, $14.95/C$17.25, pb, 240pp, 0312339054
One of the major ironies of American history is that one of the first policy decisions taken by the American rebels fighting for freedom from British rule was to invade and seize Canada, a colony which never evinced any interest in joining with the mostly Protestant and English Americans. This largely forgotten aspect of the American Revolution saw a number of truly fascinating figures emerge as main characters: Richard Montgomery, Guy Carleton, Daniel Morgan, and, most of all, Benedict Arnold. The young Arnold, as ambitious, courageous, brilliant, and yet deeply flawed as any individual in any nation’s history, was the central driving
force behind the seemingly impossible task. Urged on by the impetuous Arnold, the main American invasion force set off close to the onset of winter to forge a path through the forests and rivers of present-day Maine and on into the equally forbidding wilds of Canada. The march is as remarkable as that of Xenophon, and the American success in even reaching its target was almost entirely owing to Benedict Arnold. Thomas Desjardin does a masterful job in describing the horrors of this brutal march and then continues his mastery of the topic and of his writing skills by bringing the survivors to defeat before Quebec and eventual retreat back to New York.
John R. Vallely
AMERICAN CREATION
Joseph J. Ellis, Knopf, 2007, $25.95/C$34.95, hb, 283 pp, 9780307263698
Joseph Ellis is a well-known writer of popular histories, winner of both the Pulitzer and the National Book Award, so I began American Creation with expectations. Of course, the major players at the Founding have filled countless books. As the author points out, it’s tough to even-handedly write about men who were early cast as heroes or villains in our now almost mythological past. Like Founding Brothers, American Creation is a series of sketches. Each chapter examines the principal actors at a pivotal moment in the history of the Founding. Ellis begins with Adams, subject of his Passionate Sage, then moves to the equally familiar Washington, the subject of His Excellency. Next is James Madison, who was, briefly, during the Constitutional Convention, less Virginian than Nationalist. Failures are also discussed: the treaty-by-treaty betrayal of the Native Americans, and the avoidance of the slavery issue to get the votes for ratification. The evolution of political parties, and the author’s fascination with the brilliant, slippery Jefferson segues into a final chapter on the Louisiana Purchase. In this one stroke, America changed from Republic to Empire. What was missing—and what I expected from any book titled American Creation was the usual—any discussion of the creation of the economic foundation upon which the modern U.S. stands. To any reader interested in this essential topic, I’d suggest Forrest McDonald’s Hamilton Juliet Waldron
JANE BOLEYN: The True Story of the Infamous Lady Rochford
Julia Fox, Ballantine, 2007, $26.95, hb, 400pp, 9780345485410 / Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2007, £20.00, hb, 432pp, 9780297850816
I’ve always been fascinated by the shadowy Jane Boleyn, a court intriguer who went so far as to provide the evidence that helped send her own husband to the scaffold, and who (justly?) ended up there herself. With this biography, the first on Jane, I was hoping to get to know the “real” woman behind the historical villainess. No such luck.
This biography is less about Jane than it is about the royal figures who surrounded her, and Tudor women in general. Though it’s perhaps
understandable given the paucity of historical documentation on many aspects of Jane’s life, the sheer lack of hard facts compared to the mass of speculation presented as such in this biography is nonetheless inexcusable. Much information comes in the form of “many women of her age (fill in the blank), so Jane would have…” or “most court figures were present at (fill in event here), so certainly Jane would have attended…” The words “probably,” “possibly,” and “likely” appear with alarming frequency. Fox is obviously sympathetic to her much maligned subject, trying to depict her as “a courageous spirit, a modern woman forced… to fend for herself in a privileged but vicious world.” Um, right. Pick up this biography because it’s readable and there’s precious little out there about Jane, but expect a lot of spin and little illumination.
Bethany Latham
SCOTLAND: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY:
200 Years of Scottish History by Those Who Saw it Happen
Rosemary Goring (ed.), Viking, 2007, £25.00, hb, 483pp, 9780670916573 / Overlook, July 2008, $35.00, hb, 512pp, 9781590200735
This splendid account presents Scotland’s history in the words of the people who lived it: from the first century until the present day, from the arrival of the Romans to the execution of William Wallace, the Jacobite uprisings, the Highland Clearances to the Clydebank Blitz and, finally, to the opening of the Scottish parliament in 1999.
It includes an assortment of eye-witness accounts from literary greats such as Robert Louis Stevenson and Muriel Spark, and from royal personages such as Mary Queen of Scots, James I, James II and James III, as well as the common man, the crofter, the kitchen maid even the prisoner. With each chapter presented chronologically it is a living, accessible history of Scotland the country as well as the social history of the people who lived it. A first-hand reference tool as well as a fascinating collection of events to interest the expert and general reader alike.
Ann Oughton
HATFIELD’S HERBAL
Gabrielle Hatfield, Allen Lane, 2007, £17.99, hb, 435pp, 9780140515770
To ensure your partner’s fidelity, ladies, sprinkle over his chest a mixture prepared from butterbur, foxglove, royal fern and an old man’s bones. And, if he tolerates your strange behaviour, then he’s clearly worth keeping. If, on the other hand, he snores through the whole process, I wouldn’t bother if I were you.
This charm is one of many similar treasures to be found in Hatfield’s Herbal, a sort of 21st century Culpepper in which the author, who is a distinguished plant historian, wears her learning lightly. The book is an eclectic and fascinating mix of history, botany and myth, with a few recipes thrown in for good measure. A useful source for anyone writing historical fiction and an absorbing read in its own right. It also has comprehensive source notes for those wishing
to take their studies to the next stage. It will never replace my well-thumbed Culpepper but makes an excellent companion to it.
Sarah Bower
DOWN TO THE SEA: An Epic Story Of Naval Disaster And Heroism In World War II
Bruce Henderson, Smithsonian, 2007, $26.95/ C$33.95, hb, 337pp, 9780061173165
Admiral William “Bull” Halsey, USN, remains one of the most revered naval officers of the Second World War. He was a highly skilled professional famous more for his iron will and stubbornness than for any intrinsic genius in strategy and tactics. While he led his battle fleets to numerous victories over the Imperial Japanese Navy he was also responsible for amazing blunders at the Battle of Leyte Gulf and in the face of a typhoon in the Pacific. The former is well known to historians; most are still unaware of the latter. Bruce Henderson has constructed a history of Halsey’s stupidity in leaving his Third Fleet squarely in the face of a deadly typhoon rather than taking the prudent tack of moving to safety. In doing so he has written a long-delayed epitaph for the 756 officers and men from the USS Hull, USS Monaghan, and the USS Spence as well as seamen from the other 28 warships damaged.
John R. Vallely
A BRIEF GUIDE TO THE GREEK MYTHS
Stephen Kershaw, Robinson, 2007, £9.99, pb, 532pp, 9781845295127 / Carroll & Graf, 2007, $14.99, pb, 9780786720699
This is an absorbing hotch potch of a book, more in the tradition of Graves’s Greek Myths than a straightforward encyclopaedia-style guide. Grouping the Greek myths under broad headings such as The Creation of Man and Woman, or The Trojan War, as well as chapters devoted to specific figures such as Oedipus or Achilles, Kershaw looks at versions of the tales, including modern films and the way in which mythological figures have been absorbed into modern language and culture – Achilles’ heel, Trojan viruses etc. There is also a section on different approaches to interpreting the myths and understanding their symbolism.
This is a dense text, not, perhaps as light as the title and packaging would indicate, but a good index makes it easy to use for reference. I found Kershaw’s insistence on spellings which I assume are transcriptions of Greek, rather than the spellings we are used to, irritating. Oidipous, for example, or Great Aias (Ajax). This seems an unnecessary conceit and tends to distract one’s reading.
Sarah Bower
who turned down his proposal of marriage; Elizabeth Moore Walker, a friend’s wife whom Jefferson allegedly tried to seduce; Martha, whom he married; Maria Cosway, whose company Jefferson enjoyed after Martha’s premature death; and Sally Hemings, his slave and his mistress. What Kukla emerges with is a portrait of a man who held thoroughly unenlightened and conventional attitudes about women, and who feared their role in public life. Only Abigail Adams, once a close friend until the two fell out over politics, seems to have come close to softening Jefferson’s views.
As this is apparently the first study of its kind, one wishes that Kukla might have spent more time developing his topic (there are only 187 pages of discussion, with the rest being devoted to appendixes and notes). Still, Mr. Jefferson’s Women makes for interesting reading about a great man’s shortsightedness in a particular area, reminding us yet again how often reality falls short of ideals.
Susan Higginbotham
THE MAN WHO CREATED SHERLOCK
HOLMES: The Life and Times of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Andrew Lycett, Free Press, 2007, $30.00, hb, 557pp, 0743275233 / UK title: Conan Doyle: The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2007, £20.00, hb, 432pp, 0297848526
As the first biographer to gain access to Arthur Conan Doyle’s newly released personal archive, Andrew Lycett draws a captivating picture of the complex man who created the brilliant, egotistical, and scientifically minded Sherlock Holmes. At the heart of Lycett’s work is the central paradox of Doyle’s life, the creation of one of literature’s most popular characters, “the quintessentially rational Sherlock Holmes,” by a man who was part of the spiritualist movement sweeping America and England in the 19th century.
Born in Edinburgh in 1859 into an affluent family of artists and writers, having survived his father’s alcoholism and near poverty, Doyle earned a Bachelor of Medicine degree and eventually had his own family while struggling to publish novels and short stories in the face of countless rejections. Highly entertaining and informative throughout, I found the pages devoted to the genesis of detective stories (Dickens’s Inspector Bucket in Bleak House (1853) and Wilkie Collins’s Sgt. Cuff in The Moonstone (1868)) and the impact of scientific discoveries relative to police work (the use of fingerprints to apprehend criminals, photography at the scene of the crime) and Doyle’s ruminations on how to utilize these in fiction, giving birth to the first Holmes’ story, A Study in Scarlet (published in 1886) especially fascinating. All in all, an excellent work.
MR. JEFFERSON’S WOMEN
Jon Kukla, Knopf, 2007, $26.95/C$34.95, hb, 282pp, 9781400043248
Mr. Jefferson’s Women, as its title implies, examines Thomas Jefferson’s attitude toward women through his relationships with the significant females in his life: Rebecca Burwell,
Alana White
TEMPLES, TOMBS AND HIEROGLYPHS
Barbara Mertz, William Morrow, 2007, $26.95/C$31.95, hb, 324pp, 9780061252761 / Brockhampton Press, 2001, £6.95, pb, 335pp, 1860199100
Publishers used to describe this type of book as one ‘written for the intelligent reader’, and this is exactly what the updated, revised edition of Barbara Mertz’s book is. For people without a degree in Egyptology, but an interest in learning about those fascinating people, Ms. Mertz’s cheerful, chatty and thoroughly knowledgeable writing style is perfect. She takes the reader through the long history of Egypt’s Dynasties, examining the scholarly differences of opinion, talking about personalities and discoveries which affected the way historians look at certain pharaohs. She makes the reader understand how important certain basics are (Petrie and pottery) through well told stories. Her own admiration for the scholars who opened up new avenues of research, or lines of thought, is infectious and imbues her writing with lively excitement. She’s a scholar herself, possessing a Ph.D. in Egyptology from the University of Chicago.
The best teachers are those who love their subject, enthuse about it with knowledge, and impart that knowledge with skill. Ms. Mertz does all this. Readers who want a good general overview of ancient Egyptian history, which will give them a solid foundation of the basics, will find this book exactly what they need. It may come as no surprise to savvy readers that Ms. Mertz writes the Amelia Peabody series as Elizabeth Peters!
Patrika Salmon
THE WRECK OF THE MEDUSA: The Most Famous Sea Disaster of the Nineteenth Century (UK title: MEDUSA: The Shipwreck, The Scandal, The Masterpiece)
Jonathan Miles, Atlantic Monthly, 2007, $25.00/C$31.50, hb, 336pp, 0871139596 / Jonathan Cape, 2007, £17.99, hb, 288pp, 9780224073035
In 1816, the French frigate Medusa, bound for Senegal, hit a reef off the coast of Africa. This book is about the life-and-death struggle of the passengers and crew as they tried to reach safety after the ship sank. Many resorted to murder and cannibalism to survive. In this work set against the backdrop of post-Napoleonic France, we discover that politics played a part in the meaningless deaths of hundreds of crew and passengers.
Miles provides readers with almost fifty pages of endnotes and an extensive bibliography. The author does a fine job describing the travails of the survivors; the best part of the story was how the people who were set adrift on a large makeshift raft fought each other for the remaining food and water. Class struggles and the survival of the strongest ruled. Few survived this ordeal, even after only a few days at sea. I should mention that the disaster inspired several national bestsellers in France, written by survivors, and a famous Western painting (Théodore Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa) depicting a scene of the shipwreck.
Jeff Westerhoff
EVIDENCE EXPLAINED: Citing History
Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace Elizabeth Shown Mills, Genealogical Publishing Company, 2007, $49.95, 885pp, hb, 9780806317816
This citation guide has two goals: first, to provide citation examples for as many types of sources as possible (especially those not covered by standard citation guides); and second, to help researchers identify details of records to aid in interpreting the validity not only of the source but also the researcher’s conclusions. The evidence analysis chapter discusses source types and origins, and introduces some methods of interpretation, including language characteristics and penmanship. The bulk of the book is the citation guide itself, and covers a huge array of source types, from the expected books, journals, microfilm, and census reports to the less standard types of resources, including manuscripts and archival objects, church or business records, scrapbooks, passenger lists, state property documents, and web miscellanea. Each chapter begins with a “Quick Check Model” which gives examples of the same resource in three formats: a source list entry, a full reference note, and a short reference note. A glossary, bibliography, and index round out this very thorough volume.
Helene Williams
THE LODGER: Shakespeare on Silver
Street
Charles Nicholl, Allen Lane, 2007, £20.00, hb, 377pp, 9780713998900 / Viking, 2008, $26.95, hb, 400pp, 9780670018503
In 1612 Shakespeare gave evidence at the Court of Requests in Westminster.
Eight years previously he had lodged with the Mountjoys, a family of French immigrants, in Cripplegate and while there the lady of the house asked Mr Shakespeare to intervene in the courtship of her daughter and one Stephen Belott. He seemed to be getting cold feet about the pending marriage and Shakespeare agreed to persuade the Mountjoy’s daughter and their former apprentice to take the plunge. All went well until the bride’s father refused to pay the promised dowry, hence Shakespeare’s giving evidence in court.
This, until now, neglected period in Shakespeare’s life first came to light in 1909 when a pair of American researchers discovered papers relating to the trial in the Public Record Office. Among these they discovered a sheet of paper with Shakespeare’s deposition and bearing his signature; the only time Shakespeare’s spoken words were recorded. Charles Nicholl has captured the atmosphere of Shakespeare’s time. Here we see the man behind the playwright/ actor, St Olave’s church where he worshipped, his tavern, the Talbot, the multi-storey house where he lodged (no longer there), where he wrote Othello, Measure for Measure, and King Lear and his strange collaboration with low-life, hack-author, George Wilkins. Many books have
been written about Shakespeare but none has succeeded in getting as close to the subject as Charles Nicholl.
Ann Oughton
AN UTTERLY IMPARTIAL HISTORY OF BRITAIN
John O’Farrell, Transworld, 2007, £16.99, hb, 498pp, 9780385611985
This is essentially 1066 and All That for the 21st century. John O’Farrell, who is better known for his Guardian articles and novels of modern life, has written a racy and humorous history of Britain from the pre-Roman Celtic tribes to 1945. This is a great deal of ground to cover in less than 500 pages, and though the content is necessarily somewhat sketchy at times, it is also an entertaining and very funny read, with the style of understated, ironic, Bill Brysontype humour that is now so popular. Most of the old chestnuts of history are covered and a few nuggets of interesting facts are cast around. The author’s political left wing views emerge regularly, and occasionally there is an annoying righteousness and smug superiority that finds easy targets in instances of what seem to us from the vantage point of today to be historical stupidity, cruelty and obtuseness. This is a good book, though, to get a reluctant teenager reading history.
Doug Kemp
THE SLAVE SHIP: A Human History
Marcus Rediker, John Murray, 2007, £25, hb, 434pp, 9780719563027 / Viking, 2007, $27.95, hb, 448pp, 9780670018239
Countless thousands of words have been written about the slave trade and the industries built upon its products. In The Slave Ship, historian Marcus Rediker focuses on the socalled “golden age” of the slave trade when more than six million people were transported out of Africa to New World plantations. He looks at the trade from the point of view of the ships and the individuals who were involved; not only the captains of the ships, but also the unfortunate men and women who were enslaved. Mr Rediker paints a vivid and disturbing picture of the life of brutal discipline and fierce resistance on these “floating dungeons” which were trailed by sharks. He tells the stories of individuals such as John Newton and Olaudah Equiano, as well as the collective experiences of captains, sailors and slaves. Based on thirty years of research in maritime archives, this is a remarkable, disturbing book which made me both angry and depressed. Its power lies in the subtly understated way it is written which seems to heighten the horror and injustice which were the hallmarks of the slave trade. Recommended. Mike Ashworth
DOC HOLLIDAY: The Life and Legend
Gary L. Roberts, Wiley, 2007, $18.95/£12.99, pb, 528 pp, 978047018220
Born John Henry Holliday, Doc Holliday
became a legend in the American West, primarily due to his association with the Earp brothers and the gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, in 1882. Brought up in Georgia, Holliday was reared a “southern gentleman.” Schooled as a dentist, he moved west and soon became enamored with gambling and drinking. His poor health, coughing spells brought on by consumption, and his tendency to always be in trouble would lead him to have many enemies. When he arrived in Tombstone, he and Wyatt Earp became friends, and he inadvertently joined the Earps’ cause to bring law and order to the town.
The townspeople were continuously threatened by the Cow-Boys, led by the likes of the Clanton family and John Ringo, known for stealing horses from across the Mexican border. The Earp brothers’ actions against these men would cause a division in allegiance between the two factions among the citizens of Tombstone.
The author used first-person accounts of the events that took place in the locales where Doc Holliday lived, along with newspaper articles. The book is well-researched and includes 85 pages of notes. If you are interested in the American West and the people who lived and died during those years, this book is a must for your bookshelf.
Jeff Westerhoff
WHITE HEAT: A History of Britain in the Swinging Sixties 1964-1970
Dominic Sandbrook, Abacus, 2007, £12.99, pb, 954pp, 9780349118208
This is a sequel to the author’s Never Had It So Good – a political and social history of Britain from 1956-1963. It is a massive and hugely informative, an entertaining read. For anyone who lived through this period, it provides a coherent and authoritative structure to those brilliant and (occasionally) electrifying times. Britain in the 1960s was a society split between looking back to the days of Empire and economic pre-eminence, whilst also having to look forward to the rise of youth, technology and emancipation throughout society. Fully footnoted and referenced, the book opens up a veritable library of associated reading. A fascinating work.
Doug Kemp
THE LOST FLEET: A Yankee Whaler’s Struggle Against the Confederate Navy and Arctic Disaster
Marc Songini, St. Martin’s Press, 2007, $25.95/ C$31.95, hb, 432pp, 9780312286484
Marc Songini paints a gritty picture of 19thcentury seafaring life in The Lost Fleet, a detailpacked chronicle of the last years of the New England whaling industry.
Roughly following the lives of Captain Thomas Williams of Massachusetts, his wife, Eliza, and their born-at-sea children, the author narrates the slow death of the whaling business. By 1858, the Quakers of New Bedford were re-
considering the profitability of the industry that had built so many fortunes. Decades of overfishing meant that whalers had to ship out for years, and probe ever deeper into the Arctic. By the Civil War, financiers were willing to sell many of the town’s creaky ships to “The Stone Fleet,” a flotilla sent south to be scuttled near Charlestown in order to blockade the port—an act that compelled the Confederates to outfit their own privateers to prey on the Yankee fleets. By the 1870s, petroleum began to overtake whale oil as the fuel of choice. Yet some whalers still probed ever deeper into Artic waters—at a terrible human cost.
The Lost Fleet is a one-stop resource for detail on the whaling life, the whaling ships, the crews, the ports of call, the migration patterns of the whales, and the hunt itself. Marc Songini clearly loves his subject: He’s penned a firstlook book for any period researcher.
Lisa Ann Verge
COURAGE
UNDER FIRE: Profiles in Bravery from the Battlefields of the Civil War
Wiley Sword, St. Martin’s, 2007, $29.95/ C$34.95, hb, 318pp, 0312367414
Wiley Sword (yes, that is the real name of a very fine historian of the American Civil War) offers a view of the Civil War by describing how some of the participants, both known and forgotten, dealt with the stress and rigor of combat and related horrors of total war. Most of the characters behave in a truly heroic manner, and their life stories remind us how war can provide us with inspirational examples of selfless sacrifice. Others behave less admirably and their stories remind us of the fine line between bravery and cowardice. Those covered range from General Patrick Cleburne, General George Thomas, and President Abraham Lincoln to common soldiers like Sullivan Ballou, John Yeates Beall, and Asa Weston. Sword is a talented writer and has provided us with a very different way of looking at 1861-1865.
John R. Vallely
BRIGHT YOUNG PEOPLE
DJ Taylor, Chatto and Windus, 2007, £20, hb, 322pp, 9780701177546
This is a fascinating study of the amorphous body of brittle, peacock-brilliant hedonists who in the 1920s came to be known as the bright young people. There was no intention or planning behind this – it emerged as a reaction to the horrors of the Great War and was quickly seized upon by the media. Its members, thrust into the public eye, became famous and very often notorious. Some, such as Evelyn Waugh and Cecil Beaton, came from relatively modest backgrounds and rode the movement to become highly successful in their fields. Others, like Elizabeth Ponsonby, Stephen Tennant and Brenda Dean Paul used their privileged lifestyles and became celebrated purely for
social excesses. It is instructive to see how in today’s vacuous celebrity-led culture, even in the 1920s the mass media’s obsession with surface and glitz was evident. The literary responses to this phenomenon are covered in an instructive chapter, and as a conclusion, the decline of the leading bright young folk are described – rather a melancholic and nostalgic tale.
Doug Kemp
BABY DOE TABOR
Judy Nolte Temple, Univ. of Oklahoma, 2007, $24.95, hb, 280pp, 9780806138251
Elizabeth McCourt “Baby Doe” Tabor was as famous in her day as any personality gracing the cover of a supermarket tabloid today. A beautiful divorcee, her affair and subsequent marriage with Denver silver magnate Horace Tabor earned her the cold shoulder of Denver’s elite. Their extravagant lifestyle was the stuff of legend. It was largely seen as divine justice when, overnight, the Tabor fortune was gone, leaving Horace and Lizzie destitute. When she died, frozen to the floor of a mining shack in Leadville, Colorado, in 1935, the stories surrounding her life only intensified.
Using previously unpublished excerpts from Lizzie’s own “Dreams and Visions,” author Temple tries to separate the facts of her life from the prevailing legend. Sorting through scraps and bits of paper, deciphering coded messages and illegible scribbles, took undeniable fortitude and dedication. Whether these ramblings prove that Mrs. Tabor was divinely inspired or suffering from mental illness, they do show that the real story was significantly different, and sadder, than the popular myth would allow.
Alice Logsdon
OUT OF THE STORM: The Life and Legacy of Martin Luther
Derek Wilson, St. Martin’s Press, 2008, $29.95, hb, 416pp, 0312375883 / Hutchinson, 2007, £20.00, hb, 416pp, 9780091800017
It is a testament to the enduring legacy of Martin Luther than biographies of this 500year-old figure continue to debate strongly over what his life wrought. Derek Wilson brings lively prose and clever insight to Luther’s life, charting the mystic as well as the political implications of his stormy career. This is not a simple feat, because to do so is to transport the reader into the by-now alien world of European theology and monarchy.
Yet the author never loses sight of how it all began with simple questions about unquestioned doctrines. Over time, the Luther who emerges to lead the Reformation is by turns bombastic, contemplative, reckless, questing – a big figure, unwieldy enough for ten volumes, but Wilson succeeds in packing his life into this book. He also mixes in enough context to show why this German monk’s musings about the nature of God, scripture, and what Christ compels of His followers are still shaking Europe and the world.
William Thornton
Historical Novels Review
ISSN: 1471-7492
© 2008, The Historical Novel Society
