The Traitor’s Wife
by Susan Higginbotham STAFF
PUBLICATIONS
Sourcebooks, 2009, $14.99/C$15.99, pb, 436pp, 9781402217876
At age thirteen young Eleanor de Clare, favorite niece of King Edward II, becomes the wife of Hugh le Despenser. She is installed as a lady in waiting to the equally young Queen Isabella and spends her teenage years coming of age alongside a distant, cold mistress and a restless, ambitious husband. But Eleanor loves Hugh relentlessly, almost as much as she adores her beloved Uncle Edward. She refuses to believe the rumors about either, supporting them through turbulent times with an innocent, naïve trust. But her loyalty comes at a great price. Betrayed by the two men she loves best on earth, Eleanor is caught in a downward spiral of ambition, greed, and politics that leads to the grisly deaths of both her husband and his lover, leaving Eleanor alone to suffer Queen Isabella’s retribution. Eleanor’s trusting nature, seen by many as gullibility, belies a strength that comes to the fore when her world is destroyed over and over again, leaving her to do what she must to survive. Disgraced and abandoned, Eleanor must find the courage to regain her honor, her identity, and a place for herself and her children in a new regime where she is neither royal kin, nor wife, nor lover, but The Traitor’s Wife. Susan Higginbotham’s debut novel brings Eleanor le Despenser to life as a passionate, devoted, if naïve, young woman, telling the complex story of a character often overlooked in the lurid tangles of King Edward II’s reign. So why Eleanor? “I actually never considered writing [the novel] from another point of view,” Susan says. “I became fascinated with the reign of Edward II after rereading Christopher Marlowe’s play Edward the Second, and I began researching the history involved—not originally with the idea of writing a novel, but just out of interest. Along the way, I encountered the story of Eleanor and it intrigued me so much I put aside the project I was working on and began to write her story instead.”
And what of Eleanor’s flaws, whatever they might be? “One of the reasons I was attracted to Eleanor was that she was a flawed character,” Susan says. “Depending on how you interpret the facts, she was either blindly loyal to her husband and to her uncle or a part of their schemes—history doesn’t tell us which. I chose to see her as someone who loved her husband and her uncle deeply and who preferred not to look too closely at their goingson—like the modern-day crime boss’s wife who’s happy to accept her husband’s explanation for their luxurious lifestyle without asking too many questions.”
Originally self-published, The Traitor’s Wife has won several awards, including the 2008 Gold Medal in History/Military Fiction at the Independent Publisher Book Awards as well as Foreword Magazine’s Silver Award for Historical Fiction. Now published by Sourcebooks, Susan’s novel is a poignant story about the many forms of love and the strength to live with them and without them, with a heroine who will linger in the reader’s mind.
Susan Higginbotham is an active HNS member, serving as US membership coordinator and writing many articles and features. She also co-moderates the Historical Fiction Online message boards (http://www.historicalfictiononline.com) and runs her own blog, Medieval Woman (http://susandhigginbotham.blogspot.com). Her second novel, Hugh and Bess, is also being reissued by Sourcebooks in 2009.
Heather Domin, with comments by Susan Higginbotham
Fortunately, her golden-haired sister has begun a liaison with King Edward IV. Isabel takes advantage of the connection to ask for the king’s aid in the new business, which he gives willingly. When she by chance meets again the mysterious dark-haired man of her youth—Dickon—she is sure all of her dreams will come true. But Dickon is no common man: She soon discovers he is Richard of Gloucester, King Edward’s brother, and the man whose ruthlessness will plunge England into chaos one more time.
Ms. Bennett has penned a lovely portrayal of late-medieval London—in particular, the middle-class life of the merchants of the silk trade—with a sharp eye to how changes in leadership have an unsettling effect on all their lives. But Dickon’s early character is portrayed so radically differently from his later self—as Richard III—that the two portraits were difficult to reconcile. This is an unfortunate flaw in what is otherwise a well-researched, emotionally compelling, and sensuously written novel.
Lisa Ann Verge
MAPPAMUNDI
Christopher Harris, Dedalus, 2009, £9.99/$15.99, pb, 304pp, 9781903517772
In the Italian city of Ancona in 1564, Pope Pius II dies. His mostly loyal English servant Thomas Deerham uses this as an opportunity to abscond, stealing a valuable book and a possibly even more valuable new map of the world. Thomas sets off home for England, but along the way, in Paris, he prevents a friar from committing suicide. The friar is not what he seems; indeed, he is the louche poet François Villon. The pair travels to England together. When they are close to death from freezing and starvation, they are rescued by the mysterious Christian Rosenkreutz, who has pursued them for the map.
With the map and with another stolen book, an undecipherable “Tome” known today as the Voynich Manuscript, they charter a ship for a voyage of exploration across the Atlantic.
This novel is a sequel to False Ambassadors, which I have not read, but I didn’t find that an impediment to understanding Mappamundi. I do believe that readers would have benefited from an Author’s Note describing the Voynich Manuscript, which is a real document, because the reason for bringing it in is not clear to those who haven’t heard of it. Christopher Harris appears to be committing an irritating tease over the Tome, and although the novel contains vivid descriptions of the unlovely Europe and England of 1464, it never seems to come to a point. It’s rather like expecting a sneeze that fails to arrive. Worth buying, though.
Alan Fisk
final years of the Wars of the Roses.
After a brief but momentous meeting with a mysterious dark-haired man, young Isabel Lambert agrees to an arranged marriage into the house of Claver, a family of silk merchants. After
she is widowed, Isabel becomes an apprentice to her mother-in-law in the hopes of supporting herself as a free woman. She learns quickly and is soon sharing the Clavers’ impossible dream of setting up a domestic silk weaving business.
I, JACQUELINE
Hilda Lewis, Tempus, 2009 (c1950), $12.95/ C$13.95/£6.99, pb, 352pp, 9780752445649
I, Jacqueline is the story of Countess Jacqueline of Bavaria, daughter of Count
15th Century-16th Century
William VI and sole heir to the throne of Holland. If you have ever dreamed of being a princess, the life of Jacqueline of Hainaut would not be an ideal choice. She was born to a cold, unloving mother who had ambitions far beyond her daughter’s affections. Driven by ambition, power, and money, Margaret of Burgundy has a penchant for deceit that only serves to further her lofty aspirations and those of her brother, the Duke of Burgundy. But Jacqueline’s father adores her, and on his deathbed in 1417, he forewarns her against her mother’s intentions.
Jacqueline learns quickly that she must fight for her property and her right to rule.
Jacqueline comes close to becoming the Queen of France as a result of her first marriage. When her husband dies, she enters into a loveless union with her cousin of Brabant, an impotent, adulterous cad who relishes tormenting her with his concubine. Love evades Jacqueline, and she vows to rule her kingdom as their prince, but her mother and uncle are ready to pounce on any misstep she makes. Her father has one other daughter, Beatrix, who becomes her only real companion and a constant source of love, devotion, and happiness for Jacqueline. Lewis provides many descriptive details for each character, molding them into a colorful cast of personalities that come alive as you read. Lewis provides symmetry between the sensitive historical drama of a tragic heroine and European history as a whole. I, Jacqueline will touch your heart.
Wisteria Leigh
16th CENTURY
TUDOR ROSE
Sue Allan, Domtom Publishing, 2009, £7.99. pb, 305pp, 978190607009
This novel tells the fascinating real-life story of Rose Hickman, née Locke. Nearing the end of her life, she wrote a memoir, only part of which still survives. Having done a considerable amount of research, Sue Allan has reconstructed the ‘missing bits’.
The Lockes and the Hickmans were prosperous London mercers, close to the Crown. They remained steadfast in their Protestantism throughout the turbulent years of the English Reformation. Their beliefs developed into what we would today call Nonconformist, and even when Protestantism was the established religion of England under Elizabeth, the family suffered much hardship because of their faith.
Sue Allan has made this subject her own in her trilogy that includes Mayflower Maid, Jamestown Woman, and Restoration Lady Tudor Rose can be seen as a ‘prequel’. Rose was born during the reign of Henry VIII and died during that of James I at the ripe old age of 87. Sue Allan has put her heart and soul into bringing a long-forgotten lady to wider attention in what is, clearly, a labour of love.
The author is clear that she has written a novel, but the result, I feel, is a curious hybrid, neither
satisfying as biography nor as historical fiction. I do not know how much of the text comprises Rose’s own words or how much is the author’s own, but the effect is more a report than fiction, being deficient in dialogue and dramatic tension. I never felt any sense of Rose’s personality. This is such a pity because the author has uncovered many fascinating historical details.
Indeed, I found the author’s notes and appendices far more readable than the novel itself, and can only wish that she had chosen to write a biography. As a historical novel it never quite catches fire.
Sally Zigmond
KING’S FOOL
Margaret Campbell Barnes, Sourcebooks, 2009, $14.99/C$15.99, pb, 320pp, 9781402219023
Originally published in 1959, King’s Fool tells the story of Will Somers, whose quick wit attracts the attention of Henry VIII, who appoints him court jester on the spot. Stunned and pleased at his sudden advancement, Will nonetheless leaves his employer, prosperous merchant Richard Fermor, with reluctance. Not only has Fermor been a good master, but Will is in love with Fermor’s young daughter, Joanna, who of course is destined for an arranged marriage.
Will joins the king’s court while Catherine of Aragon is queen and outlives his royal master, so we see the whole of Henry VIII’s troubled marital history and growing tyranny through the sympathetic but never uncritical eyes of Will, the narrator. With a fool’s sharp eye for folly, Will is an excellent and lively guide through the royal court. This is not only Henry’s story, however, but Will’s as well. Barnes skillfully blends the homelier tale of Will’s life and loves in with that of his king’s, in the process giving us a touching picture of what becomes a genuine, enduring friendship between Henry and his fool.
In this fifty-year-old novel, devoid of gimmicks, shock value, and heavy breathing, Barnes proves that in the right hands, the tale of life at Henry VIII’s court need not be a stale one.
Susan Higginbotham
SECRETS OF THE TUDOR COURT: The Pleasure Palace
Kate Emerson, Pocket, 2009, $16.00/C$21.00, pb, 361pp, 9781416583202
Jeanne Popyncourt is eight years old in 1498 when she and her mother, a lady-in-waiting to Anne of Brittany, are forced to flee the French court. Unaware of the reasons behind their sudden departure, the innocent child, now referred to as Jane, settles into her new life in England, keeping company with noblemen’s children and tutoring the royal princesses in French. After her mother dies unexpectedly, Jane comes wholly under the protection of King Henry VII. She later becomes a maid of honor and confidante of his youngest daughter, Princess Mary.
After Henry VIII gains the throne, continuing his father’s off-again, on-again war with France, Jane becomes the mistress of the Duc de Longueville, a dashing—and married—French prisoner of war. Some of her longtime friends are suspicious of her close association with the enemy, but by now Jane has grown wise to court machinations. She also quietly begins seeking out answers to mysteries about her past, believing the truth resides in those persons who attended her mother in her final hours.
Emerson’s lively “fictional memoir” of Jane Popyncourt includes many vivid descriptions of the clothing, comportment, and extravagant entertainments at the royal court—tournaments, dances, pageants, and masques—and adds to these lighter moments a subtle undercurrent of mystery and political intrigue. Comparatively little is known of the historical Jane, and Emerson weaves a plausible scenario from the existing fragments of her life, as detailed in an informative author’s note. Unlike other novels in the crowded Tudor market, she focuses not on lurid scandals but on her self-assured, intelligent heroine, a woman who pursues her passions, weighs her available options, and emerges with her head held high. It was also refreshing to read about one of the less documented (in fiction, anyway) parts of Henry VIII’s reign. Thoroughly enjoyable.
Sarah Johnson
THE KING’S DAUGHTER
Barbara Kyle, Kensington, 2009, $15.00/ C$17.95, pb, 489pp, 9780758225450.
While Thomas Wyatt leads a rebellion against Queen Mary Tudor for marrying the Spanish Philip, spunky Isabel Thornleigh and her fiancé, Martin, work to become involved in the scheme. Events go awry when Isabel’s mother’s past as an accused heretic comes to light and a vengeful neighbor rashly shoots her, causing Isabel’s father to kill the attacker. Isabel, left alone as Martin works with Wyatt, desperately begins seeking her father in jails throughout London with the help of escaped convict Carlos Valverde, whose own ties to the man behind her mother’s shooting remain unknown. As time goes quickly forward, Isabel discovers more shocking news about her family and must make hard decisions about where her loyalties lie.
The King’s Daughter is a reprint of Kyle’s 1995 novel A Dangerous Devotion, though it has been reworked for today’s market. Although the events take place over a short time, the story seemed to plod for a large portion of the book as Isabel continuously seeks her father, often just missing him. Isabel’s involvement in the rebellion and her insistence on putting herself in danger felt forced and unbelievable. I wanted to like the relationship between Carlos and Isabel, but it lacked chemistry, and their choices left me feeling bewildered. Most annoyingly, there were several historical inaccuracies that pulled me out of the story: for example, the Duke of Suffolk, Lady Jane Grey’s father, attempts to
lead the rebellion against Queen Mary with his sons, when it is known that he had none living, as evidenced by the fact that he tried to put Lady Jane on the throne. While the action scenes are reasonably well written, overall this is a novel that I can’t recommend to those who are looking for either romance or believable plotting.
Tamela McCann
HERE WAS A MAN: A Novel of Sir Walter Raleigh and Elizabeth I
Norah Lofts, Touchstone, 2009, $15.00, pb, 320pp, 9781416590910 / History Press, 2009, £7.99, pb, 192pp, 9780752448244
Here Was a Man, by bestselling author Norah Lofts, has been reissued, and like all of Lofts’s works, is carefully crafted and beautifully paced. The novel follows the life of Sir Walter Raleigh, the adventurer loved and admired by Queen Elizabeth I. A scene from young Walter’s early life begins the novel, setting the stage for his love of adventure. From there, readers follow his lifelong dream of exploring and settling the New World for his beloved queen. Raleigh makes an impression at court and with the queen, quickly falling into favor with her, but he soon realizes that Elizabeth is not easy to please and would rather have him by her side in England than exploring. Raleigh defies Queen Elizabeth by marrying one of her headstrong ladies-in-waiting without her permission and finds himself the victim of Elizabeth’s wrath as he waits in the Tower of London for her anger to subside. Eventually he is released and settles down with his wife and son to a house in the country. However, he is not content for very long and soon begins to pursue his love of exploration again.
Lofts is a master at depicting the complex relationships that exist between Raleigh, Queen Elizabeth, and Raleigh’s wife. Several period players are present in the book including William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, who kept company with Raleigh. Through Raleigh’s interaction with these men, Lofts successfully shows the two sides of Raleigh’s personality, that of a poet and writer and that of the explorer and adventurer. A tale of great accomplishments and stunning defeats, Here Was a Man takes readers on a journey that traces Raleigh’s rise and fall at courts of Elizabeth I and James I, his expeditions to South America, and his final moments on the executioner’s block. Highly recommended.
Troy
Reed
17th CENTURY
THE KING JAMES CONSPIRACY
Phillip Depoy, St. Martin’s, 2009, $25.95/ C$28.95, hb, 384pp, 9780312377137
In 1604 King James of England declared his desire to have a definitive translation of the Bible, and by 1605 several groups of translators were hard at work, correcting previous versions and researching original texts. Some previously
untranslated documents reveal secrets that could change the Christian belief (and power) system forever, and these issues—religious, philosophical, political—propel Depoy’s fastpaced tale.
The brutal murder of a translator in Cambridge sends Deacon Marbury to hire an investigator, a Brother Timon, who has been recommended by a group of unnamed men who aided him in uncovering the Bye Plot against King James several years earlier. What Marbury doesn’t know is that these men are staunch Catholics, with nefarious plots of their own. Brother Timon is not who he seems: among his skills are a knack for memorization and murder. While Marbury thinks Timon’s job is to find a murderer, Timon’s Catholic bosses have really sent him to Cambridge to stop the translation altogether. As the body count rises and the texts provide revelations about the tenets of Christianity, Timon begins questioning his purpose. His interactions with Marbury and the deacon’s beautiful, intelligent daughter, Anne, spark something in him that he thought long dead; Timon’s internal struggles are mirrored in the other characters, many of whom are hiding their own secrets.
Depoy’s narrative is an intricate blend of historical fact and fiction, with most of the characters based on real participants in the Bible translation. Life in early 17th-century England is shown to be rough-and-tumble, where even the most pious of scholars must know how to fight with weapons as well as words. The characters are well drawn and complex, and for the reader eager to know the details behind the story, Depoy provides a chapter of historical data and resources for further investigation.
Helene Williams
FRENCHMAN’S CREEK
Daphne du Maurier, Sourcebooks, 2009 (c1941), $13.99/C$14.99, pb, 280pp, 9781402217104
/ Virago Modern Classics, 2003, £7.99, pb, 240pp, 9781844080410
Society in Restoration London frustrates and bores Lady Dona St. Columb. In an effort to escape, she takes her two children to the family’s Cornwall estate. But at Navron House, Dona hears stories of vicious pirates raiding the coast and making use of her land and home. Initially outraged, Dona’s impetuous nature sends her straight to the pirates’ ruthless captain. Jean-Benoit de Aubery, however, is not what she expects, and Dona soon agrees to become his newest cabin boy. Escaping at last, Dona follows her Frenchman on a grand adventure full of danger and excitement. The major theme of escape echoes throughout, playing a major part in the ultimate decision Dona must make— to run away forever or return to her family and duties as a wife.
The best romantic suspense novel ever, this has always been my favorite book. Its hidden depths, eloquent language, and philosophical prose linger long after the story ends. Dona’s
transformation from bored society wife to a loving, selfless woman is outstandingly portrayed. Gripping and ever so bittersweet, Frenchman’s Creek is a brilliant novel and by far Du Maurier’s best. The jacket calls this her “lost classic, an electrifying tale”—it is, and yet, it’s so much more.
Rebecca Roberts
THE WESTMINSTER POISONER
Susanna Gregory, Sphere/Trafalgar Square, 2008, £18.99/$24.95, hb, 472pp, 9781847441003
Setting The Westminster Poisoner during the festivities of Christmas and Twelfth Night of 1663-1664 gives Gregory ample opportunity to spin a complicated web of corruption and suspense.
The court appointed “Lord of Misrule” gave the nobles of the time fair excuse for carrying out any number of pranks on their colleagues and acquaintances, without fear of reprisal since it would be deemed unsporting not to enjoy the fun. Lady Castlemaine, the king’s mistress, took advantage of this cover to upset those who she felt obstructed her path, including the queen. While the court was thus distracted, it provided cover for the killing of clerks in the Painted Chamber of the Palace of Westminster. Thomas Chaloner, tasked by the Lord Chancellor to investigate, finds vice and corruption so rife that no one can be excluded from suspicion. Given a time limit to find the culprits for the murders and to recover the Bellini bust stolen from the King’s collection, together with some dubious competition from another spy employed by the Lord Chancellor, Chaloner is under pressure to resolve the mystery.
Following on from the previous Chaloner adventures set in Restoration London, Gregory gives the reader an engaging historical tale with good historical background to allow the imaginary setting to be sufficiently real.
Cathy Kemp
THE LADY AND THE POET
Maeve Haran, Pan, 2009, £6.99, pb, 496pp, 9780330462464
When passionate teenager Ann More is sent by her ambitious father to stay in London with her aunt, Lady Egerton, she is expected either to take a position at the court of the ageing Elizabeth I or to submit to an arranged marriage. When, instead, she becomes fascinated by John Donne—libertine, writer of erotically charged poetry, suspected Catholic and impoverished secretary to her uncle, Lord Keeper— the stage is set for a battle between love and duty in which Ann will have to draw on all her strength, determination and ingenuity to fight for the man she loves.
Maeve Haran is better known for her contemporary women’s fiction, but she has certainly done her research in order to bring the past to life. Indeed, the weight of all this research in the early chapters in particular could have become overwhelming if Ann’s narrative
voice were not so engaging. She is, in many ways, a woman ahead of her time, but in a way that is plausible within the framework of the era in which she lived.
Haran captures the feel of the language of the period so well that the four or five occasions when a more modern phrase slips in are both more noticeable and more forgivable.
If I do have a slight criticism, it is that occasionally Ann seems a little too well placed to overhear significant conversations or witness historically documented incidents, like Queen Elizabeth’s turbulent relationship with her favourite, Essex. Nevertheless, a satisfying read.
Jasmina Svenne
THE HERETIC’S DAUGHTER
Kathleen Kent, Macmillan, 2009, £14.99, hb, 400pp, 9780230704435 / Little, Brown, 2008, $24.99, hb, 352pp, 9780316024488
The year is 1692, two hundred years after Columbus discovered America, and the developing country has degenerated into an enclosed, brutal world. In Salem, Massachusetts, men and women are hanged denying they are witches.
Sarah Carrier is nine years old when her family moves to her maternal grandmother’s homestead for a better life. Unbeknown to them, smallpox accompanies their journey, and they and others soon fall victim to the plague. Sarah and her baby sister are sent in secret to their aunt to escape the disease and discover a love and affection they have never experienced.
In her first novel, The Heretic’s Daughter, Kathleen Kent has based her story on family genealogy, being a tenth-generation descendant in direct line from Sarah. Tracing events and characters from historical documents and bringing them once again into existence relies on accurate research and vivid, imaginative writing, particularly when the protagonists share ties of blood. Ms Kent has brought a period and place to life with skill.
The first half of the story is slow paced, elegantly descriptive but lacks tension, and the pages do not turn fast enough. However, when the Salem witch trials commence, the suspense gains momentum and makes for compulsive reading. The harrowing accounts of the indignities inflicted upon the prisoners, including children, illuminate the author’s deep feeling of involvement.
The reader carries away from the book a sense of recaptured lives echoing down the centuries.
Gwen Sly
A MERCY
Toni Morrison, Chatto & Windus, 2008, £15.99, hb, 165pp, 9780701180454 / Knopf, $23.95/ C$27.95, hb, 176pp, 9780307264237
In the late 17th century, slavery was in its infancy, as was the sugarcane industry. Morrison’s prose is confident and secure, her language masterful. She describes the natural surroundings of the isolated homestead to which
the young girl Florens is taken in lyrical terms (sky “the color of currants,” “leaves that make blood and brass”). The story is told through interweaving strands of narrative by four women— Rebekka, Lina, Sorrow, and Florens— all in some way bonded to Jacob Vaark, a Dutch farmer and small-scale financier and trader. Having arrived from Europe to marry Jacob, Rebekka helplessly watches her babies perish one after the other. Even her surviving sixyear-old daughter is killed in an accident, and Jacob himself later dies of smallpox. Florens, an Angolan slave child, is in some way supposed to replace that lost daughter.
The other women on the farm—Lina, a Native American woman, and Sorrow, a wild orphan— are used by Morrison to create a “Rashomon effect.” Florens struggles to understand why she was abandoned by her Angolan slave mother and “sold” to Jacob Vaark to repay a debt owed to him; she is mothered by Lina, who is unable to stop her falling in love with a travelling blacksmith, a free black, a situation still possible at the time. When Rebekka catches the dreaded pox, Florens travels north to look for this man in the hope that he can cure her mistress, but the journey changes her forever—or perhaps she is merely a pawn in the relentless spread of slavery accompanied by religious and racial intolerance and fear.
The pace of the story quickens as the effects of Vaark’s death on these four women become clear. This is another penetrating and profoundly disquieting view of America’s past, highlighting Morrison’s quest to bear witness to these events.
Lucinda Byatt
ROCAMORA
Donald Michael Platt, Lightning Rider, 2008, $31.99, hb, 404pp, 9780978731885
In the Spain of Felipe IV, Vicente de Rocamora writes love poetry, hears royal confessions, learns the art of Jewish medicine, and still finds time to use his skills as a swordsman to advance the interests of his imperfect Rocamora family in its struggle with the perfectly diabolical Angelsola clan. In an era when washing one’s hands before meals can be seen as an indication that someone is a secret Jew, Rocamora works with the king’s prime minister, Count Olivares, to ease the restrictions on new Christians. The young handsome Dominican Rocamora advances rapidly, winning the love of the Infanta destined to marry the Holy Roman Emperor but confining his desire to the writing of poetry.
Little is known of the real Rocamora, which gives Platt the freedom to invent most of his own plot and to write his own poems. A table at the end of the book separates the historical characters from the fictional and helps to sort out the invented plot from the underlying history. Personally, I found the lead character far too perfect to be interesting, but a reader in quest of a romantic hero might think differently.
James Hawking
N18th CENTURY
MUTINY: A Novel of the Bounty
John Boyne, Thomas Dunne Books, 2009, $25.95, hb, 384 pp, 9780312538569
Fourteen-year-old John Jacob Turnstile enters the Royal Navy in 1787 in the same way as many other 18th-century lower-class English citizens, given the choice between His Majesty’s service and imprisonment. Turnstile is a last-minute replacement aboard the Bounty, as cabin boy to Captain, or actually Lieutenant, Bligh. It is through the young man’s eyes that we witness the journey to Tahiti, the disaffection of the crew of the Bounty, the mutiny, and the incredible over-four-thousand-mile passage of Bligh and those loyal to the king in one of the Bounty’s longboats to the Dutch colony of Timor (present-day Indonesia).
John Boyne has created a brilliant frame for his excellent retelling of the mutiny on the Bounty in the story of his young protagonist. Turnstile experiences kindness from Captain Bligh, and tolerance at best and violence and ill-usage at worst from his crew. But the young man, in his straightforward way—he is nothing of an innocent, but a victim of the streets of Portsmouth—also sees Bligh’s shortcomings: he is not a good manager of men. Though the outcome of the tale is well known, there is still a sense of dread as the slights, both perceived and real, mount and as the desires of Turnstile, Captain Bligh, Mr. Christian, and the men of the Bounty clash with the dictates of the Royal Navy and the English class system. Humorous in many parts and a thoroughly well-told tale, Mutiny works as an adventure and comingof-age story, an historical account, and as an examination of larger issues of duty, loyalty, and decency.
Eva Ulett
CELIA GARTH
Gwen Bristow, Chicago Review Press, 2009, $14.95/C$16.95, pb, 406pp, 9781556527876
Celia Garth is tired of being a poor relation. Determined to make her way as a dressmaker in revolutionary Charleston, South Carolina, she boards as an apprentice in a dress shop. She falls for a young militiaman who finds her a position with a glamorous matron. Engaged to marry the rebel, Celia faces the bombardment of Charleston by the British. Homes are ravaged, her betrothed is murdered, and Celia is asked to become a spy against the British by the matron’s mysterious son. Although at first hesitant, she then sees it as her duty to keep her young country free.
First published in 1959, the novel imbues Celia with a strong sense of herself as a person and a loyal American. She is sassy, intelligent, and rarely submissive, unless it serves a purpose. Ms. Bristow was a native of South Carolina, and it shows in her details. Plantations are burned, women raped, the rebels starved. The famous
Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox, is lauded as a hero to the struggling colonies who fight and suffer to become the United States.
Because of the time period in which it was published, the story “tells” as much as it “shows.” Dialog set-up is awkward, and the point of view slips into various people’s heads without a moment’s notice. But sprinkled with humor, Celia Garth is a rousing tale of a spirited woman who fought for America’s independence.
Diane Scott Lewis
FLINT AND SILVER: A Prequel to Treasure Island
John Drake, Simon & Schuster, 2009, $25.00, hb, 368 pp, 10141659275 / Harper, 2009, £6.99, pb, 432pp, 0007268947
There are writers today who have hitched their wagon to a classical star such as Jane Austen and based their stories on her original works. Some are more successful than others. With that in mind I was anxious to read Flint and Silver, a prequel to the beloved children’s classic Treasure Island
It’s the middle of the 18th century, and piracy flourishes in the South Atlantic and Caribbean. This book explains many of the questions left unanswered in Stevenson’s story. It is entertaining and fast-paced, without too many nautical terms or jargon that can slow down the flow of a story of this kind. We are reminded time and again that there is no honor among thieves, yet honor floats to the surface now and again in the form of Long John Silver and his ship’s articles.
Silver becomes the unlikely friend and shipmate of the reviled pirate, Joe Flint. It’s the story of this strange relationship and much that led up to and away from their connection. We learn how Silver lost his leg, where the parrot came from, why men buried their treasure, and just how hard this life could be. We meet Selena, a beautiful runaway slave accused of murder. She is taken aboard the Walrus as mistress to Joe Flint and causes the first crack in the Flint-Silver friendship, for Silver is clearly smitten with her. The next problem arises when Flint insists they bury their newly acquired treasure on “The Island” and Silver vehemently disagrees. The characters are so rich and well developed that it’s hard to choose a favorite. Joe Flint is so multilayered and complex and Silver is so honest and simplistic—they fail to realize how well they function as a team. Treasure Island was written as a children’s story, but Flint and Silver is clearly for adults.
Susan Zabolotny
TO BEGUILE A BEAST
Elizabeth Hoyt, Forever, 2009, $6.99/C$8.50, pb, 368pp, 9780446406932
After the Battle of Spinner’s Falls in the American colonies, the British survivors and their allies are marched into an Indian camp and brutally tortured. One of these survivors is the
now-reclusive naturalist Sir Alistair Monroe, who returns to his Scottish castle horrifically scared, both mentally and physically.
Helen Fitzwilliam was the mistress of a duke, but found her life intolerable. Taking her two children, she escapes her London townhouse, which has become a gilded cage to her. At the behest of a friend, she takes employment as a housekeeper in Monroe’s castle, all while ignoring two major facts: she knows nothing about housekeeping and her employer does not want her services as such.
This, the third book of the Georgian-set “Four Soldiers” series, is part love story, part history, and part fairy tale. It is a heady mix. Love blossoms despite past tragedies and the self-doubt of the characters. Internal scars mellow from the effects of love. Blend in the politics and happenings of the day and you have a fascinating story. I recommend it and cannot wait for the final book in the series.
Monica Spence
THE WITCHING VOICE
Arnold Johnston, Wings Press, 2009, $18.95, pb, 307pp, 9780916727444
The date of publication for this novel of Robert Burns’s life and work was the 250th anniversary of poet’s birth. Since the 25th of January is already celebrated as a national holiday by Scottish sons and daughters everywhere, it should be plain the sense of esteem with which he is regarded. The novel is written in “Scots” (as were most of Burns’s best works), which I found easy to slip into, although a glossary is included as an appendix to assist the reader.
The many snippets of poetry and song arise naturally as we follow Rab in his early adulthood at home on the struggling farm or with his friends and lady friends, and they become seamless in their setting of 18th-century Scotland. This is quite deliberate on the part of both Burns and Mr. Johnston; in fact, more than once, one of the upper classes advises Burns to drop the dialect and write about subjects of refinement. Burns’s reply is that the dialect and his life experience is how the Muse speaks to him.
Mr. Johnston writes plays as well as novels, and The Witching Voice was first a play which brought Robert Burns to life on the stage. Here on the printed page the same happens, illuminating this formative period in the life of the poet; the allure of the wealthier classes, which he matched in education if not birth; the tyranny and hypocrisy of the church elders; the hounds of poverty that pursued him always; and what a real gentleman he was in his pursuit of the ladies. A wonderful introduction to Robert Burns or a treat for his many admirers.
Mary
K. Bird-Guilliams
story before the war at a recruitment meeting enables the author to give both sides of the argument and the reasons why some fought for the British while others strove to form America as a country in its own right. The novel focuses on two brothers, Hank and Tom Blanchard, who end up joining the rebel army, and Ben Withers, who joins the British army undercover in an attempt to find a particular soldier in a bid to right an old injustice.
The history is interesting, and I learnt a lot about how the war began and the different battles, but the book is marred in several ways. The awkward rendering of accent does not always work well, and the modern attitudes toward premarital sex and dating are, to say the least, somewhat unlikely in the 1770s. At first I was unconvinced by the concept of falling in love on sight, which is deployed a number of times. However, things do not work out as predicted, and the romances give the novel a counterbalance to the scenes of war and battle.
The enlightened attitude of the brothers toward the slaves and in particular their black friend Jimmy is heartening, but in the context of the time again unlikely, although of course there were always people opposed to slavery and discrimination. Also it allows the author to raise the question of why black people still in the chains of slavery should fight and die for a system that would keep them in servitude and oppression. Race is a key issue, and the exploitation and poor treatment of the slaves are clearly described. The characters are somewhat one-dimensional, and the dialogue is sometimes unconvincing, but the plot rattles along, the battle scenes are well described, and they give a good impression of what war was like at the time.
Ann Northfield
THE NAQIB’S DAUGHTER
Samia Serageldin, Fourth Estate, 2009, £14.99, hb, 309pp, 9780007182176
THE WAY IT WAS
Gerard Mac, Robert Hale, 2008, £18.99, hb, 384pp, 9780709086451
The novel opens on the cusp of the American War of Independence in 1775. Opening the
As in her previous, acclaimed novel, The Cairo House, the setting is Cairo, but now it is the late 18th century. Napoleon has set his sights on conquering Egypt and thereby putting an end to years of Mamluke rule. This novel focuses on the fate of two women. One is Lady Nafisa, the wife of the Mamluke ruler who holds great influence among the people and acts as a bridge between the local population and the French. She is a close friend of Elfi Bey, a loyal supporter of her husband. The other is the young and naïve Zeinab, daughter of a city official who is overly keen to ingratiate himself with the French invaders and offers his daughter to Napoleon in marriage. But Napoleon ignores her totally and she is sidelined, lonely and miserable, unsure of herself and the position into which she has been forced. There she meets Nicolas Conté. As well as a general in the invading army, he is an engineer and scientist, a kind and intelligent man. Inevitably their friendship becomes something more serious. When the
18th
Century-19th Century
French, including Conté, are forced to retreat from the city, it leaves a power vacuum and bitter and bloody reprisals begin against those who cooperated with the French. Zeinab’s fate hangs in the balance. Nafisa steps in and saves her from the worst possible fate. Meanwhile Elfi Bey is negotiating with both the Ottoman Empire and the British to secure Egypt’s future. The final part, in which Zeinab travels to London with Elfi Bey, seems ‘tacked on’ and is less convincing. That aside, the novel is both entertaining and informative, which is exactly what you want from good historical fiction. There are a useful glossary of Arabic words and a note on the history and sources.
Sally Zigmond
THE RED SIREN
M.L. Tyndall, Barbour, 2009, $10.97, pb, 288 pp, 9781602601567
Twenty-four-year-old Faith Westcott leads a double life: By day, she is the obedient daughter of Rear Admiral Westcott in their Charleston home in the Carolinas; by night, the fearsome pirate captain known as the Red Siren. It is 1718 (the same year that Blackbeard terrorized Charleston), and Dajon Waite, a young naval officer, has been ordered to “capture every pirate patrolling these waters and ensure they are hung by their neck until dead.” The Admiral, who must return to Britain for six months, appoints Dajon as guardian of his three daughters. Knowing her days as a pirate are numbered, Faith is determined to seize just one more ship from under the nose of her guardian. This is a bold and unusual plot for an inspirational romance. Although the story is over-written (for example, emotions will jump to various extremes several times on the same page) and the plot details are unbelievable (just how, exactly, does Faith get her treasure trove off the ship and past all the ruffians on the way to her hiding spot in the forest?), these details will not bother those readers who enjoy a good yarn with a spirited heroine and charming hero.
Nancy J. Attwell
19th CENTURY
THE INHERITANCE
Tamera Alexander, Thomas Nelson, 2009, $14.99, pb, 384pp, 9781585546326
In 1877, hoping to make a new start, McKenna Ashford accepts her cousin’s invitation and migrates with her rebellious younger brother to Copper Creek, Colorado. She has always tried to be the parent Robert needs, but his conceit and nose for trouble cause much heartache. An untimely “inheritance” challenges McKenna’s resolve at every turn, and she feels browbeaten and weary as she struggles to make their situation improve. A glimmer of hope appears in U.S. Marshal Wyatt Caradon, who dedicates his life to bringing fugitives to justice. When he meets the Ashfords, Wyatt knows he must
do everything he can to help Robert, and show McKenna what love is all about.
Alexander has once again successfully created a story with several charming characters, lively dialogue, and a delightful end. It will pull you in from the start and keep you engrossed as you learn how McKenna overcomes adversity and learns to trust and love again.
Rebecca Roberts
FIRST COMES MARRIAGE
Mary Balogh, Bantam Dell, 2009, $6.99/C$7.99, pb, 388pp, 9780440244226 THEN COMES SEDUCTION
Mary Balogh, Bantam Dell, 2009, $6.99/C$7.99, pb, 448pp, 9780440244233 AT LAST COMES LOVE
Mary Balogh, Bantam Dell, 2009, $6.00, pb, 386pp, 9780440244240
Best-selling Regency romance author Balogh introduces a delectable series about a quiet country family—siblings Margaret, Vanessa, Kate, and Stephen Huxtable—who are unexpectedly thrown into the social whirl of the ton.
In First Comes Marriage, Elliott Wallace, the charismatic Viscount Lyngate, arrives in the village of Throckbridge with the shocking news that Stephen Huxtable is the new Earl of Merton. As he refuses to leave his three sisters behind, all four Huxtables are suddenly faced with the daunting task of learning to become fashionable. When Elliot decides the best way to help everyone is to marry Meg, widowed sister Vanessa offers herself instead. Vanessa and Elliot seem incompatible, but they agree to make the best of their marriage. This story is the perfect beginning for this new series, sparkling with Balogh’s trademark passion, misunderstandings, and clever wit.
Picking up where the first left off, Then Comes Seduction tells the story of youngest sister Kate. Unbeknownst to her, the Baron Montford has made a wager to seduce her within a fortnight. But this notorious rakehell must claim failure when he realizes he cares for Kate and does not want to hurt her. Three years later the two meet again and neither can deny the attraction they feel for one another. Another wager is struck, this time a double wager – where falling in love is the stakes.
series resounds with honor and love.
As with all her stories, Balogh has impeccably blended history with memorable and vivacious characters to again provide her readers with a stellar Regency romance series. Stephen’s story, Seducing an Angel, will be a June release.
Rebecca Roberts
THE ANTIGALLICAN
Tom Bowling, Oldcastle, 2008, £10.99/$16.95, pb, 285pp, 9781842432761
With its captivating, pungent, and sharply drawn characters, this first installment in a series of sea stories is a welcome addition to the Napoleonic sea story genre. Jean Cotterell, captain of a Jersey fishing vessel, loses his ship and crew to a violent gale off the coast of Nova Scotia. He alone survives, to be plucked from the sea by a French warship. He recognizes the captain of the Hortense as the brutal privateer who murdered his father, an event he witnessed many years ago. Concealing his hatred, his desire for vengeance, and his identity, Jean discovers that the French crew is decimated by illness and left ill-prepared for imminent attack by an English warship.
Battered by cannon and sinking with bilge, the Hortense limps across the ocean, her cruel captain desperately wounded. Cotterell must use all his seafaring skills in an attempt to save the ship, his enemies, and the few friends he’s made on board. At the conclusion of his adventure, he finds himself imprisoned, forced to pay for his freedom with a challenging form of servitude.
The situations depicted are desperate yet lightened by a dry humor and witty exchanges. Bowling takes his reader to the heart of the action, be it a storm, a sea battle, or a shipboard amputation, sparing no detail. The narrative and dialogue are both prosaic and poetic. A rousing, impressive start to the series.
Margaret Barr
OSCAR WILDE AND THE RING OF DEATH (UK) / OSCAR WILDE AND A GAME CALLED MURDER (US)
Gyles Brandreth, John Murray, 2009, £7.99, pb, 430pp, 9870719569609 / Touchstone, 2008, $14.00, pb, 416pp, 9781416534846
One problem for an author using real characters in a murder plot is that readers will know their history, which limits the potential number of culprits, as well as victims, but perhaps this is less important than the portrayal of historical characters in an unusual light. N n
In At Last Comes Love, five years have passed since the Huxtables first came to town. Thirtyyear-old Margaret is ready to settle down now that Stephen is of age and her two sisters are happily married. Uncharacteristically, during a moment of panic, she impulsively agrees to marry the Earl of Sheringford ten seconds after she bumps into him at a ball. Sherry is a renowned scoundrel, having previously jilted a fiancée and run off with her sister-in-law. But he is determined to make this work with Margaret, especially since his grandfather has told him he must find an acceptable bride and marry her within 15 days or lose everything. Despite being full of secrets, lies, and heat, this third in the
This is the second in a series featuring Oscar Wilde as detective. The plot starts as a game at a dinner party where each guest selects someone they would like to murder, then it becomes serious as the victims die, possibly naturally, probably not. Narrated by his friend Robert Sherard, the novel combines copious detail of London life in the 1890s with an intriguing mix of fact and fiction, based on several famous characters including Arthur Conan Doyle and Bram Stoker.
Certainly the author has woven known facts into this ingenious tale, and fans of the characters included will enjoy the imaginary views of them.
Marina Oliver
NO PLACE FOR A LADY
Maggie Brendan, Revell, 2009, $13.99, pb, 304pp, 9780800733353
After settling her recently departed father’s debts, Crystal Clark feels there is now little to keep her in her native Georgia. She accepts an invitation to visit her aunt’s cattle ranch. Although impressed by the beauty of the Colorado mountains, she finds the manners of the locals leave something to be desired. Particularly irksome is her aunt’s foreman, the handsome Luke Weber. She takes pains to point out his lack of polish, and he is equally generous with his opinions of the uselessness of pampered southern belles. Crystal cannot understand why Luke brings out the worst in her. Then a freak storm takes her aunt’s life, and a greedy neighbor tries to claim the ranch. Crystal will rely on her faith in God and her own inner strength to do what her aunt would have wanted. Crystal and Luke must quit squabbling if they are to bring out each other’s best. This is an inspirational romance set against the backdrop of a cattle drive in the summer of 1892. The love story is sweet and the faith references are integral to the story. The scenery is lush. The plot is fairly predictable but an enjoyable, well-paced read nevertheless.
Sue Asher
PAPER ROSES
Amanda Cabot, Revell, 2009, $13.99, pb, 378 pp, 9780800733247
Sarah Dobbs left Philadelphia in 1856 to escape from her troubles. She traveled to Ladreville, Texas, to become a mail-order bride. Although she agreed to marry out of necessity, her fiancé, Austin Canfield, won her heart through the letters he wrote, and she felt hope that they may find love. That hope was crushed when she arrived to find her fiancé dead, and his brother, Clay, anxious to see her leave. Sarah couldn’t leave because she had nowhere else to go.
Paper Roses is the first book in a series called Texas Dreams. Amanda Cabot, pen name for a prolific author, aptly describes the Texas hill country, including snakes, floods, and potential Indian raids. The characters in this book are interesting and the problems of the community are complex, but the plot is not well developed. The story ends leaving some questions unanswered, which may be explained by the author’s promise of sequels.
Nan Curnutt
Y THE GLASS OF TIME
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Michael Cox, Norton, 2008, $24.95, hb, 586pp, 9780393067736 / John Murray, 2008, £17.99, hb, 544pp, 9780719597206
Esperanza Gorst is an orphan, raised in Paris by her guardian, the mysterious Madame de l’Orme. When she is in her teens, Esperanza’s guardian places her in the home of Emily, Lady Tansor, as a lady’s maid, and insists that Esperanza find a way into Lady Tansor’s confidence. Though Esperanza is unsure why, Madame de l’Orme promises to reveal the truth of the escapade through three letters, which she will send periodically. As Esperanza receives the letters and begins to learn the truth about her parentage and her relationship with Lady Tansor, she finds there are numerous questions waiting to be answered— and that she isn’t who she believed she was.
This is a ghost story without ghosts, a tale of family secrets revealed, past cruelties avenged, and a young woman who finds herself coming of age in a way she could never have expected. The epic, neo-Victorian narrative style, reminiscent of classic works of 19th-century literature, made me feel as if I were peeping through a keyhole and sneaking glances at a secret diary as the story unraveled. It helps to have read Cox’s first novel, The Meaning of Night, before beginning The Glass of Time, since the stories are intertwined, and questions left lingering at the end of the earlier book are resolved. All in all, a fantastic, extraordinarily detailed world to lose yourself in, and an essential read.
Virginia City, located in Nevada Territory. He was on assignment for the federal government to inspect the mining operations and to report on the potential wealth of the region, especially how it would help the Union cause during the American Civil War. Because of greedy mine owners who wished to maximize the flow of silver from their operations to promote outside investors, he ran into more trouble then he expected.
Tim Champlin is a prolific writer of historical fiction. This was my first reading of one of his stories, and I found it to be a page turner. He continues to put his protagonist, Gil Ross, into predicaments from which it seemed impossible for him to extricate himself. It was enlightening to discover more about events in the United States during the early 1860s that didn’t directly involve the Civil War. The author displays his knowledge of silver mining in the West and expertly interweaves it throughout his tale. I highly recommend this book for those who enjoy novels of the early West.
Jeff Westerhoff
GINGHAM MOUNTAIN
Mary Connealy, Barbour, 2008, $10.97, pb, 288pp, 9781602601413
Sour Springs, Texas. Last stop for the orphan train. Last hope for two orphans nobody wants. Nobody but Grant, that is. Once an orphan himself, he provides them with shelter, food, and clothes, but the most important thing he gives is love.
WEST OF WASHOE
Tim Champlin, Five Star, 2009, $25.95, hb, 9781594146305
In 1864 mining engineer Gil Ross arrived in
Hannah Cartwright assumes Grant is like other “fathers,” who just want children to work until they drop. When her attempt to keep Grant from adopting the children fails, she takes the
Nanette Donohue
job of schoolmarm to watch over the children. She has a knack for teaching, but not cooking or sewing, so Grant’s children concoct plans to help her and get her to like him. The only problem is that Shirt Lady, another newcomer, has designs on Grant herself, even though she hates children.
Set in 1870, this is a fast-paced, heartwarming story filled with humor and romance. There’s even a bit a mystery woven in, for Shirt Lady isn’t who or what she pretends to be. The only drawback is the occasional intrusion of characters from an earlier story in the “Lassoed in Texas” series, but Connealy eventually ties them into the main story. A delightful, entertaining book you’ll want to read again and again.
Cindy Vallar
SIERRA
RANSOM
Emma Craig, Five Star, 2009, $25.95, hb, 324pp, 9781594147524
Zenobia ”Zee” Gray is the owner of a restaurant catering to rough, untamed miners during the California gold rush. When a handsome man arrives looking for work, Zee is shocked at how different he is from the other men in the camp, who are looking to make fast money by striking gold. Sam Ransom is a hard worker, and when a prospector’s partner dies in childbirth, Zee realizes that he is compassionate as well. However, both Zee and Sam have secrets in their pasts that they keep well hidden, and when people from Sam’s past arrive in Muddy Flats, they both realize that they must admit to their past mistakes in order to move on.
The pacing of the love story in Sierra Ransom is pleasantly realistic. Although Zee and Sam are quickly attracted to each other, they get to
know and respect one another before a physical relationship develops. Several side plots keep the action going, and the secondary characters are diverse and lively enough to hold readers’ interest. Recommended for readers who enjoy Western romances.
Nanette Donohue
ZULU HART
Saul David, Hodder & Stoughton, 2009, £12.99, hb, 376pp, 9780340953624
George Hart is the illegitimate son of a halfIrish, half-Zulu actress and a pillar of the British military establishment. His father refuses to acknowledge him as his son and imposes a set of conditions which George must fulfill in order for him to come into his inheritance. Joining a crack regiment as an officer, he learns the art of war. However, faced with racism and bigotry, he is forced to resign his commission and leaves England for South Africa. Here he soon finds himself back in uniform and takes part in the campaign against the Zulus, where he finds himself involved in both the disastrous battle at Isandlwana and the heroic defence of Rorke’s Drift.
Saul David is the author of several works of military nonfiction, and the book brings to life the politics behind the campaign, the historical characters, and the actual battles fought. If you like your heroes dashing, courageous, outspoken and your enemies self-serving cads, then take out your Martini-Henry carbine and prepare to gallop across the veldt in pursuit of honour and glory. This is Saul David’s first foray into fiction; I look forward to his next account as George Hart continues his exploits. Recommended. Mike Ashworth
WATERLILY
Ella Cara Deloria, Bison Books, 2009, $12.95, pb, 244pp, 9780803265790
Waterlily is the child of Blue Bird. Her mother gives birth to her alone, during a long march. Blue Bird’s unstable young husband has ceremonially “thrown her away,” and because of an earlier raid, her kin are no longer alive to protect her. How Blue Bird makes her way into the safety provided by the intricate lattice of Lakota kinship systems and how Waterlily grows to adulthood are the subjects of this illuminating novel.
The story of the author is as important as the tale she tells. Ella Cara Deloria was born in 1889 on the Yankton reservation to a prominent and proud Lakota family. Raised between two worlds and in two languages, brilliant and curious, she eventually found her way to Columbia University. Fluent in Lakota, she became an important part of the linguistic team assembled under the pioneering ethnologist, Franz Boaz. Perhaps the ultimate fruit of her balancing act as tribeswoman and academic is Waterlily, told entirely from a Lakota woman’s world view. I pleasurably learned more about the Lakota gender systems and Lakota ceremony
and kinship practices from this brief page-turner than from any number of ethnological texts. As I am often disappointed by “historical” novels which deliver no sense of the unique society, place, or time in which they are set, Waterlily was a revelation, perhaps the crowning achievement of a remarkable woman.
Juliet Waldron
THE DAKOTA CIPHER
William Dietrich, HarperCollins, 2009, $26.99, hb, 349pp, 9780061568008
A highly entertaining quest tale, The Dakota Cipher finds American adventurer Ethan Gage on a mission in the Louisiana Territory at the behest of France’s Napoleon and President Thomas Jefferson. The story commences in 1800 at the Convention of Mortefontaine. The opportunistic Gage curtails a romantic interlude with Pauline Bonaparte when an attempt is made on his life, returning to America in company with Norwegian Magnus Bloodhammer, whom Gage describes as a “Viking berserker.” Magnus is seeking Norway’s independence from Denmark as well as Thor’s Hammer, a Norse artifact rumored to control weather and lightning. Gage, a student of electricity under Benjamin Franklin, believes the Norwegian half daft, but encouraged by the leaders of America and France and the possibility of treasure, he accompanies Magnus into the middle of America, past the end of civilization.
One of the greatest pleasures of the novel is Dietrich’s depiction of America’s Great Lakes region, the wildness and extent of which hero Ethan Gage refreshingly admits frightens him. The magnificent setting is populated with a vivid French-Canadian fur trader as an unlikely and colorful ally, and American Indians, both good and bad, who accompany Ethan Gage and Magnus on exciting canoe chases and pursuit by enemies old and new. The Dakota Cipher is a winning thriller and historical adventure novel.
Eva Ulett
THE BRANCH AND THE SCAFFOLD
Loren D. Estleman, Forge, 2009, $24.95/ C$27.95, hb, 272pp, 9780765315991
This novel is based on the true story of the infamous “hanging judge,” Judge Isaac Parker. In 1875 Parker arrives in the western town of Fort Smith, Arkansas, to provide the law for a large territory that also includes the Indian Nation. His first judicial act is to hang six convicted felons on the same day and at the same time. Over the next twenty years, he organizes a law enforcement team of marshals used to apprehend criminals throughout the territory. Because his methods are controversial, even in the 1800s, there are those who would try to oppose him.
Estleman has won many awards for his Western writing. His novel is well researched and well written; it reads almost like a highly crafted non-fiction book with fictionalized dialog added by the author to further the storyline. This
book is not your typical Western novel with cowboys, Indians, and lots of action. Estleman has developed the story around Judge Parker: the type of man he became as he sentenced men to hang, and how his family, especially his wife, was able to live with a man of his reputation. I highly recommend this novel and look forward to reading another fine work from this author.
Jeff Westerhoff
DUST AND SHADOW: An Account of the Ripper Killings by Dr. John H. Watson Lyndsay Faye, Simon & Schuster, 2009, $25, hb, 336pp, 9781416583301
If Sherlock Holmes had been real rather than just a work of fiction, his expertise would have most certainly been requested to solve a case that baffled and embarrassed the denizens of Scotland Yard—the case of Jack the Ripper. Faithful to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s depiction of a master sleuth and his loyal companion, Faye has Watson narrate, chronicling Holmes’s activities as he seeks the person responsible for the increasingly gruesome killings of Whitechapel women before the public, fueled by the tabloid press, convicts Holmes himself of the crimes.
While not an original premise, Faye’s pairing of Sherlock Holmes and the Jack the Ripper case is bolstered by extensive research, and her passion for Conan Doyle’s mysteries is evident. Faye’s Holmes has all expected quirks, and many of the usual characters such as Inspector Lestrade, Mrs. Hudson, and the Baker Street Irregulars make appearances throughout the investigation.
Sherlock Holmes aficionados will either love this book for its authenticity and frequent nods to Conan Doyle’s works or be appalled that anyone dare mimic the original. This reader found Faye’s Holmes a little less likeable, but completely intriguing, and recommends that all Sherlock Holmes fans give Dust and Shadow an opportunity to impress.
Suzanne Sprague
DECISION AND DESTINY
DeVa Gantt, Avon A, 2009, $13.99/C$16.99, pb, 363pp, 9780061578250.
The sisters who co-write as DeVa Gantt have hit their stride with the middle volume of their Colette trilogy (originally self-published as one volume). With its narrower scope, engrossing storyline, and fewer competing viewpoints, Decision and Destiny is much stronger of a novel than A Silent Ocean Away, although it can’t stand on its own. It opens in August 1837 on Charmantes, the West Indies island owned and developed by the Duvoisins, a family involved in international shipping and the export of local crops. Charmaine Ryan, governess to three-yearold Pierre and nine-year-old twins Yvette and Jeannette, has become a substitute mother figure since the death of their beautiful young mother, Colette. Although Charmaine is ostensibly the protagonist, the plot centers on John, the long-
estranged Duvoisin heir, a man whose cynical, sarcastic exterior masks an anguish-filled past. Though strongly attracted to his charming halfbrother, Paul, Charmaine grows intrigued by the enigmatic John, for he clearly adores her young charges. While slowly revealing facets of their personalities, the action steadily builds toward a denouement in which secrets hidden for decades are finally laid bare.
Decision and Destiny is chock full of all the elements saga fans expect: drama, romance, blackmail, family rivalries, a past that hangs over the present, and strong bonds of affection, too. The Gantts have taken special care in developing their younger characters, and it shows. The three Duvoisin children exhibit realistic traits and engage in antics that are delightfully humorous without being precocious. While the tropical island setting feels authentic and tangible, the dialogue is sometimes too modern and the historical backdrop lightly sketched, though this last was a wise decision. It keeps the focus where it belongs, on the Duvoisins themselves. I can’t wait to read the final installment, out in November.
Sarah Johnson
THE INGENIOUS EDGAR JONES
Elizabeth Garner, Crown, 2009. $24.95, hb, 352pp, 9780307408990 / Headline, 2008, £7.99, pb, 352pp, 9780755302543
Picture this: A meteorite spills a shower of stars into the sky one cold February night in 1847 Oxford, England. That same night, Edgar Jones utters his first cry. His father, William, a humble porter at Oxford University, is enchanted by his newborn son, a bright, happy boy. At the age of seven, Edgar dismantles William’s grandfather clock to examine its secrets, the first inkling that the child has the soul of an inventor. A battle enjoined between father and son, William clings to a well-thumbed bible, while Edgar embraces the mysteries of the world. Their struggle mimics the battle between religion and science that rages throughout England.
Escaping the confines of his locked room and his father’s demands, Edgar climbs out his bedroom window and into the world. Apprenticed to a blacksmith, the soot-covered boy questions everything, driven to understand the nature of things. Encouraged by an eccentric Oxford University professor, a bone collector, Edgar’s imagination soars. For every problem set before him, Edgar creates an ingenious solution. But with the world comes disappointment and disillusionment: A third apprenticeship offers opportunity, but delivers danger as well as lifechanging consequences.
Garner’s prose sparkles as brightly as the meteor’s light show the night of the child’s birth, a boy at odds with the restraints of the world and his father’s limitations. For Edgar, life has an urgency all its own, propelling him through uncharted territory, a warrior of the possible. In this poignant and provocative journey, past is pitted against future, a mesmerizing tale
of the utter futility of resistance in the face of discovery.
Luan Gaines
A VISIBLE DARKNESS
Michael Gregorio, Minotaur, $25.95/C$28.95, hb, 464pp, 9780312544355 / Faber & Faber, Aug. 2009, £12.99, hb, 480pp, 9780571237876 Magistrate Hanno Stiffeniis continues to grapple with his duties as a Prussian official in a land under the heel of Napoleon’s occupation army in the author’s ongoing series. The story is set along Prussia’s bleak Baltic coastline and, after a beginning involving a very surprising journey into public health concerns, it finds Stiffeniis obliged to leave his family to pursue finding the answer to the murder of young girls working in the lucrative amber trade. In doing so, the doggedly determined Prussian is required to deal with his arrogant French masters, chief among whom stand the enemy officer charged with procuring the valuable amber, the no-nonsense Colonel Les Halles. Two more incompatible personalities would be difficult to imagine.
Stiffeniis investigates in his usual careful manner and discovers corrupt French soldiers, scheming and mistrustful Prussian civilians, and a baffling series of murders that seem to defy this bright student of the great intellectual, Immanuel Kant. Gregorio (the pen name adopted by Michael J. Jacob and Daniela De Gregorio) offers a finely crafted example of a sincere and patriotic man caught between the need to do his duty as a loyal civil servant while simultaneously attempting to keep his growing family safe from danger. His life is further complicated by the accusations of proFrench sympathies of his fellow citizens. While I did find myself confused at times as the plot unwound, I found that copying the central character’s determination to see it through paid off.
John
R. Vallely
A DUKE TO DIE FOR
Amelia Grey, Sourcebooks, 2009, $6.99/C$7.99, pb, 384pp, 9781402217678
Lucien Trent Blakewell, fifth Duke of Blakewell, Blake to his friends, is surprised to find a beautiful young woman, obviously a proper lady, awaiting him in his home. He is even more surprised when she claims he is her guardian. Henrietta Tweed, on the other hand, is running out of guardians. She is sure she is cursed because each of her guardians has died from unusual accidents when she is in their care. She has only one guardian left. She sets out to convince Blake to end her guardianship so he will be safe. If she fails, she is determined to protect him from harm in any way she can.
This novel is the first in Ms. Grey’s Rogue’s Dynasty series. These stories, set in Regency England, will explore the lives of the three grandsons of Lady Elder. She is a fictitious friend of the real Lord Chesterfield, whose letters to
his son in the 18th century were legendary. Lady Elder quotes and misquotes Lord Chesterfield, much to the vexation of her three grandsons. The endearing characters and lively plot of this story will ensure reader interest in the sequels. An enjoyable read.
Nan Curnutt
THE SÉANCE
John Harwood. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009, $25/C$33.95, hb, 328pp, 9780151012039 / Vintage, 2009, £7.99, pb, 304pp, 9780099516422
John Harwood, the Australian author of The Ghost Writer, won the 2004 International Horror Guild Award for Best First Novel. Professor of English for twenty- five years, he has also published biography, political journalism, satire, and poetry. In the tradition of his first novel, he gives us The Séance, a gothic tale of suspense, mesmerism, and illusion, set in late Victorian England.
Told as a three-person narrative, the novel centers on Wraxford Hall, the wreckage of a once-magnificent Yorkshire mansion, reputedly built at the time of Henry VIII on the site of a former monastery. Surrounded by Monks’ Wood, legend states a ghostly monk haunts the grounds, protected by a pack of savage dogs ready to tear the intruder limb from limb. Wraxford Hall takes on a gritty persona as the setting of mysterious disappearances over the centuries and, in the novel, an eventual murder. The novel features the plight of the visionary Eleanor Unwin, who falls in love with artist Edward Ravenscroft, fond of painting many scenes of Wraxford Hall despite warnings of its menace. After Edward’s mysterious death during a thunderstorm on the grounds, Eleanor Unwin marries mesmerist Magnus Wraxford. Thus Eleanor finds herself and their child, Clara, inextricably bound to the mysterious house. Years later, orphaned Constance Langdon risks her own life at a séance at Wraxford Hall, and in the dramatic climax and denouement, the murderer and hidden identities are revealed.
John Harwood delights with continual suspense, evocative description, and gripping details of supernatural happenings and illusions. His novel unfolds as a tantalizing fan, revealing startling truths only at the very end.
Liz Allenby
A HINT OF WICKED
Jennifer Haymore, Grand Central, 2009, $6.99, pb, 416pp, 9780446540292
Sophie, Duchess of Calton, is widowed at a young age when her husband, Garrett, disappears following the battle at Waterloo. After several years of mourning, she marries her childhood friend, Tristan and starts a new life with him. When Garrett returns to England and demands that his wife’s second marriage be annulled, Sophie is torn between the two men she has loved since her youth. Can Sophie choose between her two husbands, and can the
three weather the scandal?
In her debut Haymore deftly handles several romance novel conventions that a lesser author could easily turn into clichés. Though Sophie’s situation is difficult, there’s a surprising lightness and tenderness to the love story. There is a subplot involving Garrett’s mysterious servant, Mr. Fisk, who manages all of the Calton assets and romances. Garrett’s niece, Becky, adds tension to the plot outside of the love triangle. Recommended for readers who enjoy steamy Regency-era romance.
Nanette Donohue
THE NONESUCH
Georgette Heyer, Sourcebooks Casablanca, 2009, $13.99, 336 pp, 1402217706 / Arrow, 2005, £7.99, pb, 320pp, 0099474387
Georgette Heyer has been called the queen of Regency romance and rightly so. Her substantial research and attention to detail made her one of the most successful writers of her time. The Nonesuch, originally published in 1962, is a wonderful way to visit her writing again. The Nonesuch, Sir Waldo Hawkridge, aged ‘five or six and thirty’, is a confirmed bachelor and very wealthy. He has recently inherited Broom Hall, a run-down estate in Yorkshire. Not long after his much anticipated arrival, he meets and falls in love with Ancilla Trent, educator and chaperone to Charlotte Underhill and the wealthy, spoiled Tiffany Wield, orphaned cousin of the Underhills. Tiffany’s outbursts of temper and constant social improprieties make life difficult for all and sundry. Events come to a head when Tiffany’s plan to run off to London threatens her own reputation as well as Ms. Trent’s livelihood.
Ms. Heyer’s cast of colorful characters and the strict moral code of the times delightfully collide on every page of this book. I am grateful to Sourcebooks for the beautiful reprints of Ms. Heyer’s charming stories.
Susan Zabolotny
REGENCY BUCK
Georgette Heyer, Sourcebooks, 2009, $13.95, pb, 392pp, 9781402213496 / Arrow, 2004, £7.99, pb, 352pp, 0099465582
Judith Taverner and her brother, Peregrine, find themselves under the guardianship of the mysterious Lord Worth following their father’s untimely death. They assume that Worth is a stodgy old gentleman and are shocked to find that he’s a young man who is as disinterested in serving as their guardian as they are in being his wards and who actively discourages the two from venturing to London. Judith and Peregrine ignore Worth’s advice, and arrive in London ready to make a splash and travel in the highest circles of Polite Society. Ward quickly finds himself in a tug-of-war with Judith Taverner, and the battle of wits is timeless.
Though the novel was first published in 1935, Judith Taverner continues to serve as a model for any of a number of contemporary Regency
Y THE BOOK OF NIGHT WOMEN
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Marlon James, Riverhead, 2009, $26.95, 432pp, 9781594488573
The Book of Night Women is a beautifully written, sweeping tale of Jamaican slavery set in the early 19th century. The story centers on Lilith, a slave born on the Montpelier Estate, a large sugar plantation, where life is ruled by danger and fear. Lilith comes of age and kills a black slave driver who attempts to rape her. This event marks Lilith from the other slaves, who begin to both fear and revere her for they sense that she possess a dark power hidden within. Members of a group which calls itself the Night Women keep their eye on Lilith and bring her into their secret circle. At their meetings, Lilith learns they are plotting a slave revolt of massive proportion that involves several plantations. She hesitates to participate, but the Night Women see her as a force that could really help their cause, and Lilith is torn between her feelings.
James portrays his dynamic and flawed characters in a complex, stratified society where many boundaries, some known and some unspoken, exist between slaves and their masters as well as among the slaves themselves. The authentic voice of the narrator, who remains a mystery until the end, moves the story along at a brisk pace. Strong language abounds, and the entire novel is written in a slave dialect which adds to the story, making it a realistic, engaging read. James portrays the violence as it really was, absolutely horrific, and does not hold back. One of the most satisfying parts of the novel is James’s exploration of the power of love to transform one’s thinking. This tale of freedom, hope, survival, and unlikely love is unique and will continue to make readers think. Marlon James is an extremely gifted writer whose next book I eagerly anticipate.
heroines determined to break the mold of the traditional femininity of the era and make their way in society on their own terms. Heyer’s gift for witty dialogue and lavish description are in full force in Regency Buck. Readers who know and love Heyer will find much to enjoy here, and readers new to the queen of the Regency romance are in for a treat.
Nanette Donohue
THE TALISMAN RING
Georgette Heyer, Sourcebooks, 2009, $13.99/ C$14.99, pb, 303 pp, 9781402217715 / Arrow, 2005, £7.99, pb, 320pp, 0099474395
Miss Thane, the sensible female in Georgette Heyer’s The Talisman Ring, sums up the problem for her rather thick brother, Sir Hugh, ‘This boy lost a valuable ring at play there (the CocoaTree), and was afterwards accused of having shot the man he played against’ [p. 82]. The boy in question is Ludovic, heir to Sylvester, ninth Baron Lavenham. Before dying, the crusty old Lord arranges the marriage of his granddaughter Eustacia de Vauban to Sir Tristram Shield, a grandnephew and executor of Sylvester’s estate. Sylvester meant Eustacie for his son Ludovic, but Ludovic fled the country and cannot inherit unless the actual murderer and possessor of the Talisman ring can be discovered.
Yet just as Eustacie is pledged to Sir Tristam, she discovers Ludovic—her ‘romantic cousin’— is very much upon the scene. The action in this fast-paced narrative centers in the Red Lion Inn, a public house near the residence of the ‘Beau’ Basil Lavenham, a cousin who stands to inherit
Troy Reed
in Ludovic’s stead. This is one of the very best of Georgette Heyer’s Regency romances in a handsome new edition from Sourcebooks. It is hard to imagine more fun than The Talisman Ring.
Eva Ulett
AMBUSH AT MUSTANG CANYON
Mike Kearby, Leisure, 2009, $5.99/C$7.99/£5.99/ AU$14.95, pb, 209pp, 9780843961843
Free Anderson, a former slave, and Parks Scott are partners in a business selling tamed mustangs to the Army in 1870s Texas. After helping an Army scout friend lands them in the Battle of Adobe Walls, they want to avoid taking sides in future Indian conflicts. But the Army seems determined to endanger them again, forcing them to lead troops to a hidden encampment of gathered tribes. If Free and Parks refuse, they will be shunned as “Indian lovers” and lose their main market for horses. If they do help find the camp, then the Kiowa, who have given Free a valued spirit pony, will believe he’s betrayed them.
While numerous chapters give the Native American point of view, it’s still a traditional Western, concentrating on Free and Parks’ story. This volume, the third in a series aimed at young adults, emphasizes action over characterization. Reading the three in sequence might provide more character insight than is contained in this volume alone. Still, the exciting action was enough to keep me interested. An author’s note tells what happened to the real people after the story ends, and a glossary explains Native
American and Spanish expressions.
B.J. Sedlock
Y GALWAY BAY
TWELVE
Jasper Kent, Bantam, 2008, £12.99, pb, 480pp, 9780593060643
Set in 1812, this book tells the story of Napoleon’s assault on Moscow. Russian city after Russian city has fallen to the French, and it is only a matter of time before Moscow goes the same way. Captain Aleksei Ivanovich Danilov and a small group of fellow soldiers have been given the commission by General Barclay to work out a way to defeat the French. Dmity Fetyukovich said he ‘knew some people who can help. People who understand that there’s more than one way to skin a cat. Or to kill Frenchmen.’
These people turn out to be twelve strangers calling themselves the Oprichniki, each using the name of one of the apostles who can work behind enemy lines with devastating results – but who are they?
In his book, Jasper Kent weaves a tale of historical fact with a much darker, horrific story bordering on the supernatural. The bitter cold of the winter of 1812 and the privations and hardships of the people are well portrayed, and the characters are well drawn.
I cannot really say that I enjoyed this book but, having started it, it became compulsive reading and, in spite of myself, I had to read to the end.
Marilyn Sherlock
This book is described in the publicity as ‘genre breaking’ and the ‘first Napoleonic historical vampire novel’. I do not propose to discuss the question of genre here, a topic fraught with danger. Let it suffice to say that the premise of the novel, that a special unit of vampires was recruited by Russia in 1812 to fight the invading French is, to say the least, intriguing. ‘They’re like cannon,’ says one of the main characters, ‘all you have to do is point them at the enemy’. Add to this the fact that there are twelve of them, called after the twelve apostles, and we know that we must suspend our disbelief. Yet preposterous as all this may sound, Jasper Kent draws us into the world he creates, and by the end of the book he succeeds in turning the whole vampire myth inside out.
First there is a question about the morality of war and whether any weapon is justified in defeating the enemy, even if that weapon is a vampire. Forget about depleted uranium shells, forget about biological warfare; vampires can be even more deadly. It seems they not only drink blood in order to stay alive, or rather, undead, they also need flesh— human of course. ‘Well, we have to eat’, one of them informs us with unassailable logic. And when there are no Frenchmen available, Russians will do.
The book explores the deepest and darkest aspects of the myth. What exactly is the attraction of vampirism? And why would some
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Mary Pat Kelly, Grand Central, 2009, hb, $26.99US/C$29.99/£18.99, 567pp, 0446579009 Ireland, 1848: Blight has killed the potato crop for the third time in four years, there’s no work or food, the rents are due, and you are being turned out of your home. Just as you decide you must escape to America, your beloved husband dies, leaving you with four young children and another on the way. So what do you do? If you are Honora Kelly and her sister Maire, you forge ahead, doing what you must to survive and give your children a better life.
Mary Pat Kelly’s Galway Bay is based on her greatgreat-grandmother’s life, and what a tale it is. Honora Kelly not only sailed to America with her unconventional sister and their eight children, but she determinedly dragged them all to Chicago in hopes of locating her late husband’s brother, Patrick. Once there, Honora and her sister find work and watch as their sons grow strong in the shadow of the upcoming Civil War, all the while trying to maintain a sense of their Irish heritage.
Initially, I wasn’t sure that I would enjoy Galway Bay; the author spends the first few chapters being what I thought of as “too Irish”: repeating Irish folklore and using Irish words so often that it became distracting rather than illuminating. However, as the story continued, her characters took over the narration and led me into their lives and hearts; I surprised myself after fifty pages or so at how drawn into the story I’d become. Kelly does an admirable job of giving the grim details of The Great Starvation, and her characters’ desperation for survival literally swept me away. By the end I was cheering them all on proudly and willing the story never to end. This is not a pretty tale, but it is ultimately an uplifting one. Highly recommended.
people willingly become vampires? Though the dialogue lacks period flavour and sounds at times a little bit too modern, the historical background is good, and the story keeps moving and is full of surprises. The biggest surprise of all comes at the end. And that is how it should be in both the vampire and the historical genres. All in all, a very good read.
Neville Firman
THE APOTHECARY’S DAUGHTER
Julie Klassen, Bethany House, 2008, $13.99, pb, 415pp, 9780764204807.
Lilly Haswell, an apothecary’s daughter from the village of Bedsley Priors, feels her luck has turned when her previously unknown aunt and uncle arrive and decide to take her to London with them for a season. Lilly, still reeling from her mother’s sudden disappearance a few years earlier, soon finds herself delightedly caught up in the social whirl of 1813, hopeful of finding a prosperous husband. But her newfound circumstances come to an abrupt halt when she is called back home to tend her ailing father and to attempt to revive her family’s once-thriving apothecary shop. Will all her dreams come to naught, or will Dr. Graves, who has followed her home, become the answer to her prayers?
Julie Klassen’s second novel is an engaging tale of loss and redemption, and the discovery that perhaps what you thought you wanted most isn’t precisely what will bring you happiness. Lilly is a hard-working young woman who occasionally oversteps her society’s boundaries
Tamela McCann
for a lady; even though she’s bright and thoughtful, she often seems to overlook the people who should be most dear to her. As the story progresses, Lilly must make decisions not only for herself but for those she loves, and she must also face the disturbing facts surrounding her mother’s departure. Klassen has written a well-crafted Christian novel that will have you cheering Lilly on as she ultimately comes to realize that there’s no place like home.
Tamela McCann
REMITTANCE MAN
Nara Lake, Robert Hale, 2008, £18.99, hb, 224pp, 9780709085836
Set in Melbourne in 1885, this novel centres on Maude Hanford, “short, not quite pretty” and seeming to be as mousy as her hair. Maude is married to Walker J. Hanford, a banker twenty years her senior. The marriage is far from happy and Hanford is something of a brute. Her husband claims to be a gentleman but James Newling, whose business Hanford solicits, thinks otherwise. Maude’s attraction to James Newling complicates matters, as does her personal wealth, acquired from her family’s successful building firm. James also doubts Hanford’s claims to gentility and does some discreet probing. When Maude’s involvement with Newling becomes clear to Hanford, he plans to ensure that he keeps custody of their child and of Maude’s wealth. Subplots emerge, centring on the murder of a man on the goldfields and the subsequent investigation by journalist
Adam Bailey. As the novel reaches its climax, Hanford’s and Maude’s plans go awry with the collapse of Hanford’s bank—a rather familiar tale in these times (plus ça change!). This leads to a galloping finish as the tale unravels.
The book draws on several historical themes, not least of which is the tension between the ‘well born’ and the ‘self-made’ in colonial Melbourne, particularly when there were some very wealthy and prominent citizens who preferred their convict or shady pasts to remain hidden. Although the narrative gathers pace well into the book, the early chapters are rather plodding and could do with less telling and more showing via dialogue. There is far too much self-conscious scene-setting at the start that could have been more happily woven through the early pages.
If you can overlook the laughably bad 1970sstyle dust jacket, you may enjoy the distinctive storyline and its well-researched background.
Geraldine Perriam
MR. & MRS. FITZWILLIAM DARCY: Two Shall Become One
Sharon Lathan, Sourcebooks, 2009, $14.99/ C$15.99/£7.99, pb, 295pp, 9781402215230
Mr. & Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy depicts the first months of matrimony of the famous couple from Pride and Prejudice. The story commences the day of Lizzy and Darcy’s wedding, and though there is no plot, nor problem to be solved, there is enjoyment: Christmas at Pemberley, a Twelfth Night ball, Lizzy’s introduction to Derbyshire society and the ill-intentioned Lord Orman. This Pride and Prejudice sequel is firmly in the territory of romance, for overriding all else in the story is the dynamic sexual relationship of the former Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy: shown trysting in Pemberley’s many gorgeous rooms, before the fire on a bear-skin rug, and in the manse’s secret grotto.
In the foreword, Sharon Lathan describes being inspired to write Mr. & Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy: Two Shall Become One after seeing a film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Fans of films based on Jane Austen’s novels may be better pleased with Lathan’s work than those who love her incomparable fiction.
Eva Ulett
TEMPTATION AND SURRENDER
Stephanie Laurens, Morrow, 2009, $29.99/ C$33.99, hb, 400pp, 9780061243400
In this sixteenth Cynster novel, Lucifer’s brother-in-law, Jonas Tallent, is the hero. In 1825 Jonas’s father is away, and Jonas is managing the family’s property in Devon, including the local village inn which had been badly managed and fell into disrepair and disrepute. Desperate to find a new manager, Jonas agrees to hire Emily Beauregard and subsequently falls deeply in love with her. He suspects her resume is not entirely truthful, but she does such a great job with improving the inn that he and the whole village of Colyton accept her at face
value. Emily’s ulterior motive for wanting the job in Colyton is that she is secretly a Colyton (Beauregard is her middle name), and she is there to find a family treasure hidden several centuries earlier. Guided by an esoteric rhyme, Em and her brother and sisters search diligently without result and contend with a selfish, abusive uncle hindering their search. Finally, she enlists Jonas’s help, confessing the truth to him and enlisting his help.
Stephanie Laurens’ legion of fans will not be disappointed. Temptation and Surrender is standard Laurens fare, encompassing her strengths as a storyteller including love, sex, and mystery.
Audrey Braver
THE NAKED BARON
Sally MacKenzie, Kensington, 2009, $6.99/ C$8.49, pb, 352pp, 9781420102536
When Grace Belmont went to London for her season accompanied by her aunt, Lady Oxbury, it was for one reason only—she wanted to experience London and the ton before she settled for marriage with her neighbor, a botanist, who cared more about roses than he did about Grace. As for her aunt Kate, she hoped that Grace would find a better match than the botanist. Prettier and older, Grace was also taller than the average girl, which meant most men danced face to bosom with her. The one exception was David, Baron Dawson, nephew of Alex Wilton, her aunt’s one true love. Being taller and a bit older himself, David was instantly smitten with Grace, imagining how well their bodies would fit together when making love. In order to get close to Grace, David enlists her in a scheme to reunite his uncle and her now-widowed aunt. The rest is pure Regency fun.
This is another in Sally MacKenzie’s “Naked” series, and this sort of Regency romp is her forte. Her characters are more complex than those of the average Regency romance, which gives The Naked Baron more depth. An easy, enjoyable book.
Audrey
Braver
THE
SOUND OF BUILDING COFFINS
Louis Maistros, Toby, 2009, $24.95/ C$24.95/£14.99, hb, 358pp, 139781592642557
In 1891 New Orleans, a black preacher named Noonday Morningstar, with the help of his son Typhus, saves the infant child of a Sicilian immigrant from the clutches of a demonic demon. Or do they? Noonday dies in the heroic attempt, and the lives of his son, as well as his other improbably named children—Diphtheria, Malaria, and Dropsy—are forever changed. The “saved” baby becomes an evil teenager under the alias Jimmy Jam Jump, a young con man with a murderous streak.
The novel follows the lives of the Morningstar children, notably Typhus, a midget who brings aborted fetuses to the river to be “rebirthed” as catfish; his sister Diphtheria, a high-class whore; and their brother Dropsy, a kindly but
slow-witted boy. The novel spans the time from 1891 to 1906, and a host of colorful characters reel through it, including an abortionist, a noseless gravedigger, a prison guard, whores, jazz musicians, grifters, ghosts, bogeymen, and voodoo queens. Each of them seems to be affected in various ways by the evil in Jimmy, although their individual stories do not always come together in a satisfying manner.
Maistros’s language is lyrical and rhythmic, an appropriate vehicle for this early jazz-age story, and he paints some lovely and mysterious images of a bygone New Orleans. He also has a great ear for the dialects of the time and place, bringing authenticity to the dialogue.
Still, the novel reads like a Greek tragedy, with death and mayhem everywhere in abundance. Regretfully, there is so much going on in this ambitious novel that, by the time it concludes, the reader is uncertain as to what it was all about.
John Kachuba
THE LAST PRINCE OF THE MEXICAN EMPIRE
C.M. Mayo, Unbridled, 2009, $26.95/C$32.95, hb, 448pp, 9781932961645
This sprawling tale isn’t so much about Agustin de Iturbide y Green, the grandson of the first Mexican Emperor, Agustin de Iturbide, who reigned briefly from 1822-23, as it is about the empire itself: the geopolitical, economic, and religious struggles of a country fighting to be free of European masters. Most of the story takes place in the 1860s, when the United States was in the upheaval and aftermath of civil war and presidential assassination and when Habsburg control over Europe was crumbling.
In Washington, D.C. Angelo de Iturbide, second son of the exiled, then executed, emperor, marries Alice Green, a beautiful and intelligent debutante who longs to see the world. They travel to French-occupied Mexico, where Angelo’s family has given up any claims to royalty, though his spinster sister, Pepa, still has aspirations. They are political outsiders watching as Maximilian von Habsburg and his wife Charlotte are installed as emperor and empress.
Their uncertain political position becomes more precarious when they agree to let the childless Maximilian and Charlotte adopt and educate their son so he may take his rightful place as heir to the Mexican throne. The despair of a mother who has given up her child unfolds alongside religious, military, and political intrigue. Add to this the instability of Maximilian (who would rather study beetles or orchids) and Charlotte (who, as a woman, cannot implement her vision for a long-lived Mexican Empire), their strained family ties in Europe, the dozens of secondary characters and their stories, and there are more than enough ingredients for a multi-layered saga.
Mayo’s fact-based novel evokes both the salons of Paris and the dusty streets of Mexico
City, providing this reader with more history of the period—and all centered on an innocent toddler—than was ever discussed in an American classroom.
Helene Williams
THE ALCHEMY OF MURDER
Carol McCleary, Hodder & Stoughton, 2009, £6.99, pb, 563pp, 9780340978412
Set in Paris during the Exposition of 1889, this historical crime novel takes the well-known American journalist Nellie Bly as its heroine, and brings in all the names of the time—Oscar Wilde, Louis Pasteur, Jules Verne, Toulouse Lautrec, Guy de Maupassant, etc., etc.
I am sure McCleary has done her homework, and all these people were in Paris in 1889, but were they really all likely to meet? I realise there has to be an element of suspension of disbelief, but I personally dislike novels that seem to need to bring in famous people of the time, in order to—what? Give a flavour of the times? Show the author has done her research? Give a reason for reading the book, to see how many famous people you can spot? Or just for the fun of it?
That said, this is an interesting example of the subgenre, with an editorial preamble, footnotes, and a postscript advertising the next novel in the series, set during Bly’s round-theworld trip. This novel, however, describes her early life and her ten days undercover at the insane asylum on Blackwell’s Island in New York (true event), where Nellie discovers that a man, posing as a doctor, is murdering some of the inmates (presumably not true). She follows him to Paris where she enlists the aid of Jules Verne who introduces her to Pasteur, who is trying to uncover both the reason for the spread of a disease killing the poor of Paris and exactly what the disease is.
Jumping between Nellie’s first-person, present-tense account, and other third-person accounts, often told in the past tense, this novel has a feisty heroine, an intriguing plot, and shows the reader something of 19th-century Paris.
jay Dixon
THE ROSE OF SEBASTOPOL
Katharine McMahon, Putnam, 2009, $24.95, hb, 384pp, 9780399155468 / Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2007, £12.99, hb, 394pp, 9780297850922
In The Rose of Sebastopol the horrors of the Crimean War are described by a most unlikely narrator—Mariella Lingwood, a young English girl forced out of her Victorian parlor and into a grand, terrible adventure.
The catalyst for this uncharacteristic boldness is Mariella’s beloved cousin, Rose, a freethinking young woman determined to become a doctor, if possible—a nurse, otherwise. To this end she pesters two people: Mariella’s fiancé, a promising doctor tasked with preparing the Crimean hospitals for English wounded; and Florence Nightingale, who refuses to allow such
a lovely and inexperienced woman to join her in the war. Rose finds a way to go, anyway—and it is not long before she is declared missing. This spurs the ever-sewing Mariella into traveling far beyond the confines of her comfortable world where she swiftly discovers heartbreaking secrets about those she loves. These secrets compel her to follow Rose’s path, right through the Crimean hospitals and into the trenches of Sebastopol in an effort to learn the truth of her cousin’s fate.
The Rose of Sebastopol is a touching portrait of a woman much more capable than she believes herself to be and who gives an unusual perspective on the war. In her novel written with great attention to detail and obvious affection for her characters and the time period, Katharine McMahon has penned a deeply affecting piece of historical fiction.
Lisa Ann Verge
PEMBERLEY MANOR
Kathryn L. Nelson, Sourcebooks, 2009, $16.99/ C$18.99, pb, 400pp, 9781402218251
Why is Mr. Darcy so difficult? Elizabeth Bennet, now wife to the aforementioned Fitzwilliam Darcy, finds herself wedded to a stranger. Though she loves Darcy, she realizes on their nuptial night that there is more to this man than she ever guessed. Being the stubborn, intelligent, and loving woman she is, Lizzie makes it her mission to discover the root of the dark evils that haunt her husband. Of course, seeing the happiness of her sister, Jane, now wed to Mr. Darcy’s good friend Charles
Y THE LAST DICKENS
Bingley, makes a happy resolution all the more imperative.
This story is a “continuation” of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. There is a happy ending and love triumphs, but the darker side of Pemberley is uncovered in the meantime. There are surprises and twists, which may come as a shock to readers expecting a Regency drawing room comedy of manners. This is no comedy.
Nelson is an excellent storyteller. Readers will enjoy the quiet psychological drama of these two familiar characters and how they find love even through heartbreak and loss. I recommend Pemberley Manor to anyone looking for a great read.
Monica Spence
DARWIN: A Life in Poems
Ruth Padel, Chatto & Windus, 2009, £12.99, hb, 140pp, 9780701183851
As part of the two anniversary events in 2009—two hundred years since the birth of Charles Darwin and 150 years after the publication of The Origin of Species, Ruth Padel has written an absorbing verse-novel of the life of the scientist, his work, and his family life. The structure is chronological, with extracts from correspondence interspersed with some more conventional verse, and there is a marginal commentary running alongside the poems to identify sources and times and to fill in the background for those not immediately familiar with Darwin’s life and times.
This approach succeeds. Not only does the author provide an intelligent, if necessarily
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Matthew Pearl, Random House, 2009, $25.00, hb, 381pp, 9781400066568 / Harvill Secker, 2009, £12.99, hb, 384pp, 9781846550843
If you love reading Charles Dickens, this novel will be heaven-sent. If you’re not a big fan of Dickens, you will be after reading this novel. It’s that good and that much fun. This erudite literary mystery has action and colorful characters galore, both historical and fictional, and includes flashbacks to Dickens’s tour of America in 1867 that demonstrate his extreme fame, the public’s love for him, and the protective love his confidants and entourage had for him as well. It’s a rousing story of murder, the opium trade, and the cutthroat 19th-century publishing business. With action taking place in India, England, Boston, and other U.S. sites, the author maintains seemingly distinct storylines. Just when you think they will never gel and make sense, Pearl brilliantly links them together.
The book revolves around Dickens’s unfinished last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. After Dickens’s death in 1870, his Boston publisher, James R. Osgood, sets off on a journey to England to find if rumored additional chapters really existed. He fights off opium dealers and thugs hired by rival publishers, gains the trust of Dickens’s family members, and tangles with a villain of mythic proportions. All this action might sound overblown, but it’s a literary romp through 19th century culture and its seamiest sides, not unlike much of Dickens’s work. It’s well written and chock full of details on Dickens and his times. This reviewer might question why the character of Osgood’s companion and love interest is relatively undeveloped, but this is a minor quibble. Highly recommended.
Pamela Ortega
brief, analysis of the key elements of Darwin’s thought, but there is a beautifully portrayed and imaginative, though firmly based upon sources, picture of Darwin’s private life and the loving relationship with his wife Emma and their children.
There is an occasional rather clunky but presumably deliberate modern phrase such as “OK”, but I enjoyed this new way of retelling this story and understanding through art such a secularly miraculous tale of one man’s intellectual enlightenment.
Doug Kemp
EXECUTION DOCK
Anne Perry, Ballantine, 2009, $25.00/C$30.00, hb, 320pp, 9780345469335 / Headline, 2009, £18.99, hb, 352pp, 9780755320622
William Monk, hero of a series of Victorian crime novels by Anne Perry, is a favorite of mine because he is an unusually complex fictional detective: proud, vulnerable, and painfully aware of his own flaws. His marriage to Hester, who tested her mettle nursing in the Crimea, has smoothed some of his rough edges. In Execution Dock, Monk arrests a child pornographer named Phillips who he believes has murdered a young boy, and then finds apprehending a criminal is not the same as convicting him.
Will the man go free and kill again because of Monk’s own carelessness? Is the man really a murderer at all? It doesn’t help Monk’s situation when Rathbone, another continuing character in the series—Hester’s former suitor—becomes Phillips’ criminal defense attorney. What rich patron has hired the brilliant Rathbone to defend a denizen of the gutter? And why did he take the case? All becomes clear in the course of this deftly plotted mystery. As always, Perry brings Victorian London vividly to life. Fans of the series will find this novel especially enjoyable, but new readers will have no difficulty immersing themselves in Monk’s world.
Phyllis T. Smith
WOODSBURNER
John Pipkin, Nan A. Talese, 2009, $24.95/ C$28.95, hb, 367pp, 9780385528658
In this novel based on a true story, Henry David Thoreau accidentally sets fire to three hundred acres of woods near Concord, Massachusetts, a year before he will build his cabin on Walden Pond. The fire illuminates the desires and ambitions of three local citizens who join forces with Thoreau to fight the blaze: Odd, a lovesick farmhand; Eliot, an ambitious bookseller; and Caleb, an ardent preacher obsessed with damnation.
After leaving New York and settling in Concord to help his father run the pencil factory, Thoreau plans a fish bake in the woods with his friend, Edward Sherman Hoar. An accomplished woodsman, Henry lights the fateful match; the fire is caught by the wind, which carries it into the trees. As it creeps toward town, various observers remark on its progress. Oddmund
Y SILENT ON THE MOOR
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Deanna Raybourn, Mira, 2009, $13.95/C$13.95, pb, 544pp, 978077832614 / Mira, 2009, £6.99, pb, 558pp, 9780778303046
Widowed Lady Julia Grey returns in this third outing to openly pursue Nicholas Brisbane, a private investigator she first encountered over her husband’s corpse. Her pursuit takes her to Yorkshire, where Brisbane has been gifted an estate. A book set in the 19th century on the Yorkshire moors begs for a hero as brooding as Heathcliff, and Brisbane is that. He is as determined to rebuff Julia as she is to make him admit his feelings for her. All manner of obstacles conspire against the couple: Brisbane’s half-Gypsy side and his renunciation of the Sight (which comes with punishing headaches), the widowed mother and daughters who have lost their family home to him and are dependent on his charity, and Lady Julia’s gruesome discovery among their dead brother’s Egyptian artifacts.
This third installment is eminently satisfying. It departs from the first two in that although narrated by Julia again, the focus is on Brisbane returning to his roots. He shares a past with the family he has dispossessed, and Julia learns even more about him; neither of these things affects her love for him. As with the first two books, plot points abound and yet nothing gets short shrift. I feel inadequate to the task of conveying how completely engrossing this was. Suffice it to say, I’m praying Raybourn continues!
Has, a Norwegian immigrant in unrequited love with his master’s voluptuous wife, Emma, fights his passionate urges as he watches the fire take hold in the distance. Eliot, a newly arrived bookseller from Boston, wishes to escape the bondage of his wife’s father’s money and desires to found a new bookstore in Concord. Caleb observes the fire from the spot where he plans to build his new anti-Transcendentalist church. At the culmination of the narrative, all characters converge at the scene of the fire, and all are forever changed by the event.
I enjoyed the pace and style of the narrative and the interactions between the characters, the fire, and the world of Thoreau’s Concord. This novel entices with nonstop action, historical detail, and accuracy of setting. Having recently been to Concord and Walden Pond, I think Pipkin’s research into the history of Thoreau’s Concord is accurate and thought provoking. The reader can almost smell the fire burning through the pages of this tale.
Liz Allenby
RIFLING PARADISE
Jem Poster, Overlook, 2009, $25.95, hb, 336pp, 9781590200483
Charles Redbourne, a minor middle-aged English landholder, is forced by a series of unsavory circumstances to flee to Australia in order to make his name as a naturalist. Living with his uncle’s business protégé, Vane, on his grand estate just outside Sydney, Redbourne meets Vane’s artistic and headstrong daughter, Eleanor and the boorish Bullen, his guide for his specimen-seeking journeys.
Just as Redbourne and Eleanor begin to understand each other’s strange creative impulses and dark secrets, he is encouraged by her father
Ellen Keith
to depart for his prearranged expedition. Bullen and Redbourne venture into the Blue Mountains to seek more rare and valuable specimens for Redbourne’s collection and for Bullen’s sadistic pleasure. Their guide, the half-Aboriginal boy Billy, leads them far into the wilderness, where both men are faced with the dark and wild places in their own hearts—with disastrous results.
Poster does an excellent job of conveying the codes of Victorian social mores and the ways each of the characters adapted—or not—to the very real restrictions. His descriptions, both of the strange new landscape and the people in it, are vivid and elegant.
This book is beautifully paced and the characters, for the most part, well realized, particularly Redbourne. His personal journey as he comes into contact with the beautiful, vast, unknowable wildness of Australia— and Eleanor—is believable, frustrating, and moving. Poster deftly weaves in themes of environmentalism, love, and the psychological effects of upbringing and family with interesting action and characters.
Thoughtful, vivid, and well written, this is a very engaging read. Recommended.
Julie Rose
A PROMISE FOR SPRING
Kim Vogel Sawyer, Bethany House, 2009, $13.99, pb, 329pp, 9780764205071
In 1874 a tearful Emmaline Bradford traveled from her home in England to the plains of Kansas to meet her intended husband, Geoffrey Garrett. To her, the plains are a barren, unforgiving wasteland, and the man she used to love is a cold, harsh stranger.
Emmaline refuses to marry Geoffrey and begs to return to England, but he proposes a
compromise. If she will stay until spring, he will let her choose to marry him or return to England. Emmaline, having no other choice, agrees. Emmaline struggles against each new situation in her life until she meets Tildy, a former slave, who wisely teaches her acceptance and humility and dependence on God.
This novel presents two pictures of the plains of Kansas: one of barrenness and harsh realities and another of beauty and fruitfulness. These diverse images are representative of the hearts of the main characters as they struggle to make a life in this new land. Ms. Sawyer’s story shows how the seeds of humility and self-sacrifice in a barren place will bear fruit in due season.
Nan Curnutt
FIRE AND SWORD
Simon Scarrow, Headline, 2009, £12.99, hb, 518pp, 9780755324378
Paris, December 1804. Napoleon Bonaparte is about to enter the Cathedral of Notre Dame for his coronation as Emperor of France. The revolution is a thing of the past, and, following his victories in other parts of Europe, the people appear to be delighted to have him lead them. But Bonaparte’s ambition to rule not just France but the whole of Europe soon leads the nation into wars in which, on land, he is always the victor. We move on to September 1805 and Sir Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, returns to England after nine years’ service with the British army in India, in which he rose from the rank of colonel to that of major-general. From thereon the book charts Bonaparte’s dream of becoming the emperor of Europe, his campaigns over the next few years to realise that dream and Britain’s response culminating in the defeat of the French forces at Oporto in 1809.
Simon Scarrow is a born storyteller of history. His research is impeccable, and the events he portrays come alive. The reader is there with his characters, whether it be conniving with Bonaparte in his council chamber, sympathising with Wellesley in his frustrations to persuade the British Government to take the war to Bonaparte if there is to be any hope of finally defeating him, or smelling the smoke of the gunfire or feeling the cold snow covered land.
This is the third of a quartet of novels on this period. I look forward to the fourth.
Marilyn Sherlock
THE EDGE OF LIGHT
Ann Shorey, Revell, 2009, $13.99, pb, 318pp, 9780800733308
“No matter what I prepare for, life sends me something else.” Fate is not kind to Molly McGarvie in 1838 Missouri. She is heavily pregnant, her husband dies unexpectedly from cholera, and her unscrupulous brother-in-law steals their brickyard business out from under her. He forces Molly and the children out of their home, and claims her servant, Betsy, as his own. Molly has nowhere else to go but her brother’s home in Illinois. On the road, disaster
visits again when one of the children is missing after a tricky river crossing. Despite everyone’s assumption he must be dead, Molly is determined to find her son. And she is also determined to find a way for a single mother on the frontier to make a living and feed her family.
The religious content is on the light side in this first volume of the At Home in Beldon Grove series. Shorey finds a believable way to create tension in the romance, as Molly’s eventual suitor, Dr. Karl, was in charge of the boys at the river crossing. Shorey’s dialogue flows smoothly, and she handles the slaves’ dialect well. I plan to watch for the next volume in the series.
B.J. Sedlock
LADY ANNE AND THE HOWL IN THE DARK
Donna Lea Simpson, Sourcebooks, 2009, $6.99, pb, 384pp, 9781402217913
When Lady Anne Addison receives a distressing letter from Lady Lydia Bestwick, she rushes to her close friend’s side—and is dismayed to find that Lydia is unaware of any letter. What Anne does find is a strange mystery plaguing her friend’s estate. Young women have been found murdered by what seems to be a werewolf, and Anne is determined to get to the bottom of the situation. Unfortunately, the handsome and obstinate Marquess of Darkefell is standing in her way. Does Darkefell have
Y DROOD
something to hide, or is he looking for the culprit as well?
Lady Anne is a typically modern Regency heroine—a bit too intelligent and curious for the tastes of the men who surround her. Darkefell is aptly named, since he’s dark, brooding, and difficult, yet handsome and sensual. Simpson includes an African character, Osei Boatin, who escaped from a slave ship, and addresses the morality of the slave trade, but she does so without being preachy or heavy-handed, choosing instead to let Boatin’s actions speak for themselves. Deftly plotted and abundantly witty, Lady Anne combines mystery, romance, and a touch of the supernatural into one entertaining package. Highly recommended.
Nanette Donohue
AN INVITATION TO DANCE
Marion Urch, Brandon, 2009, £16.99, 288pp, hb, 9780863223839
An Invitation to Dance is a well-written and well-researched fictional biography of Lola Montez, an Irish-born woman who posed as a Spanish dancer and entertained kings (she was the mistress of Ludwig of Bavaria at one point), the Parisian glitterati, and American and Australian miners. In chapters named after the bindings of the diaries they are supposedly written in, Urch traces Montez’s life from her parents’ meeting in Ireland in 1820 to her death in 1861 at the age of just 41, as she develops
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Dan Simmons, Little, Brown, 2009, $26.99/C$29.99, hb, 784pp, 9780316007023 / Quercus, 2009, £14.99, pb, 800pp, 9781847247957
In 1865, Charles Dickens, returning from a holiday with his mistress and her mother, is involved in the disastrous railway accident at Staplehurst. As Dickens wanders through the carnage, helping to tend the injured and dying, he encounters a strange figure, calling himself “Drood.” But who is Drood? Is he a figment of Dickens’s imagination? Or that of the narrator, Dickens’s friend and literary rival, the opium-addicted Wilkie Collins? Or that of Inspector Field, the detective who claims that Drood is a master criminal who must be brought to justice?
Normally, I prefer my fiction straightforward, with a reliable narrator bringing us smoothly from point A to point B, but Drood was a delightful exception for me. Reliable or not, Collins is a vastly entertaining narrator, who, when he is not fretting about Drood and the ever-present Inspector Field, is shuttling between his rival mistresses, gulping copious amounts of laudanum, and grousing about his friend Dickens’s greater success as a novelist (though, as Collins never tires of reminding us, his last effort outsold Dickens’).
As befits a novel with Dickens as a major character, Drood is a doorstopper of a book, with a vast number of characters, most of them historical. Though the novel by no means feels top-heavy with historical facts, Simmons appears to have omitted no detail of Dickens’s last years, with even a doomed dog of Dickens making several appearances. The dialogue is sharp, with each character having a distinct voice, and the descriptive writing is vivid, with the grisly Staplehurst scenes being particularly memorable.
Familiarity with Dickens and his works isn’t a prerequisite for enjoying Drood, though it certainly adds to the reader’s pleasure. Those wanting a thoroughly original, deftly written novel should make haste to read this one.
Susan Higginbotham
from a willful young girl (she eloped at the age of 17) to an imperious ‘Spanish’ dancer, to a mature woman looking back on her life.
There are some nice touches—the boredom suffered by wives in the small outposts of India; the claustrophobia of long sea-voyages—along with some vivid descriptions of India, London, and Spain, as Urch charts not just how a young woman of the Victorian period survives without a father or husband to protect her, but also her relationship with a mother who did not have a maternal bone in her body.
This is not written as a tale of triumph heaped on triumph, but is ultimately, to my mind, a rather sad story, as the emphasis seems to be on what goes wrong in Montez’s life, and how she has to overcome one setback after another. But it is both an interesting story and is organised in an unusual way, bookended by chapters in the authorial voice, with the main story being recounted as if by Montez as she remembers her past, and the occasional aside written in the third person, as she sets a scene.
jay Dixon
CALL ME CHARLIE
Larry Wood, Goldmines, 2009, $15.95, pb, 9781930584204
Prior to the onset of the American Civil War, Kansas Jayhawkers attacked proslavery farms in Missouri. When the war began, men organized guerrilla units on both sides of the slavery issue, which resulted in acts of murder and destruction. A major leader of the Southern cause was William “Charley” Quantrill. This novel tells the story of Ben Riddle, a young man who befriends Charlie and, eventually, is faced with the moral dilemma of following a cause about which he feels very strongly, and who then becomes disenchanted with the extreme methods the guerrilla army used in accomplishing its mission.
How does a young man cope with murder and mayhem disguised as military actions? At first, Ben feels that the harsh treatment of northern sympathizers is warranted, especially after his brother is killed in a raid. After the attack on Lawrence, Kansas, that left innocent bystanders killed and raped and the town pillaged, his attitude about guerrilla activities begins to change.
In his novel based on true events and actual characters, such as William Quantrill, Cole Younger, the James brothers, and Bill Anderson, the author tells an intriguing story of the Civil War, one that is seldom told. The story is historically accurate and character driven, particularly about how Ben Riddle changed as the war progressed. My only reservation was the “kind” treatment given to Quantrill, who has gone down in history as an outlaw and a tyrant, ordering unarmed men killed and small farms and towns destroyed, along with the infamous massacre of innocent citizens in Lawrence, Kansas. I recommend this book for those who enjoy stories written about the Civil War.
Jeff Westerhoff
20th CENTURY
DEVIL’S GARDEN
Ace Atkins, Putnam, 2009, $24.95/C$27.50, hb, 368pp, 9780399155369
With the rash of mysteries featuring famous people as amateur detectives, I tend to sigh when I see another one, but this one is actually based in fact—and the detective was no amateur. In 1921 silent screen star Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was accused of the rape and murder of starlet Virginia Rappe, and author Dashiell Hammett (then known as Sam) was a Pinkerton detective hired by the defense team. Atkins artfully recreates California in the 1920s: Hearst was building San Simeon and building up the career of Marion Davies, the movie business could forgive all manner of sins except bad publicity, and the booze flowed like water.
The laconic Hammett suffers from tuberculosis and makes for an unlikely but effective private investigator. Suspects are plentiful and include the con woman and her partner who brought Rappe to Arbuckle’s party, as well as the powerful Hearst himself. Atkins doesn’t make the mistake of writing in Hammett’s style but instead provides insight into the man, warts and all, before his fame. Only in the end is a hint of what’s to come telegraphed to the reader. An utterly engrossing mystery in which the getting there is as satisfying, if not more so, than the reveal.
Ellen Keith
TO PLAY THE FOX: A Novel of Fighter Pilots in World War Two
Frank Barnard, Headline Review, 2008, £19.99, hb, 370pp, 9780755338900
The fighter pilots in question are an urbane Englishman, a licentious American, and a cynical German. We follow their wayward paths separately, but at the back of our minds we just know that they will all meet up at some point.
This is not just a “shoot-em-up” novel. Our heroes (realistically) do a lot of non-combat duty— PR work, aircraft ferrying, and photoreconnaissance. Unfortunately, there are numerous true-life biographies that illustrate the more humdrum aspects of a fighter pilot’s life much better than a work of fiction can. This wouldn’t matter so much, except that the conflict scenes in this novel also lack emotional punch. I found the history side convincing, but I also felt curiously detached from it all.
Martin Bourne
IN A GILDED CAGE
Rhys Bowen, Minotaur, 2009, hb, $24.95/ C$27.95, 320pp, 9780312385347
Molly Murphy joins her unconventional neighbors Sid and Gus, as well as other Vassar graduates, at a march for women’s suffrage during the Easter parade in New York City. It is the turn of the 20th century, and a number of people, male and female, feel distinctly
uncomfortable with the idea of women voting. The women’s participation soon attracts the attention of onlookers, and the situation becomes ugly. The police arrest the women for disturbing the peace. Only the intervention of Molly’s beau, a police captain, enables the women to go free. Molly’s acquaintance with the Vassar alumni provides her next two cases: one would like to look into her family history, and the second would like to find out if her husband is cheating on her. However, deaths begin to mount—deaths that are written off as illnesses. Molly isn’t quite sure that illness is the real culprit, particularly since the two cases seem to converge, centering on Emily Boswell, who hired Molly to find out more about her longdead parents. As Molly throws herself into these dangerous cases, she and Daniel try to work out their differences of opinion about the suitability of the work she is doing. This is the eighth book in a most enjoyable and atmospheric series.
Trudi E. Jacobson
BLOOD MONEY
Tom Bradby, Bantam, 2008, £9.99, hb, 393pp, 9780593054635
Blood Money is set in America during the Wall Street crash of 1929. Joe Quinn is a young detective who has just been drafted in to the headquarters of the NYPD. On a Monday morning a corpse lies on the ground on his back, presumably having thrown himself off the roof of a nearby building. The instructions from those in authority are clear—it is no more than the suicide of a desperate man in desperate times. But, when Joe discovers two sets of footprints on the roof, one pointing backwards, he is convinced that the dead man was pushed, meaning murder, not suicide, and this becomes even more convincing when a plug of cotton wool soaked in chloroform is found stuck in his throat at the autopsy.
What follows is a fast-moving story involving Joe’s family as well as the politics of the day. Everyone wants to play the event down, but why?
Not having read many American thrillers, I found the dialogue distracting at first, but the tale moved along at a great pace with enough twists and turns to suit the most jaded critic. Marilyn Sherlock
THE CREATOR’S MAP
Emilio Calderón (trans. Katherine Silver), John Murray, 2008, £6.99, pb, 314pp, 9780719596506
For the first few chapters, this is a Da Vinci Code-style thriller. Rival groups of unscrupulous men from sinister organisations (Himmler’s SS, the Vatican Secret Service, and others) are hunting a mystic document which will give them mastery of the world, and a naive young couple stumbles into the midst of the mayhem. But The Creator’s Map— the cartographic equivalent of the Holy Grail—is soon discovered and shipped off to the SS, where it turns out to be a hoax and
disappears from the story.
The rest of the novel mainly concerns the young couple’s life, in wartime Rome, engaged in low-level espionage. The background is well researched and feels authentic, but it is not a thriller. The book ends with a long epilogue consisting mainly of a posthumous letter (i.e., posted after the writer’s death) from one of the earlier protagonists, an Italian prince, explaining all the loose ends in the plot, after which the heroine is murdered in the street.
Emilio Calderón is a Spanish author of children’s stories, and this is his first adult novel, published in Spain in 2006. I find the book an uncomfortable fusion of genre fantasy and realistic historical fiction. It is well written and well translated, although with a few historical errors. I look forward to his next work in the hopes it might have a stronger and more coherent plot.
Edward James
A TRACE OF SMOKE
Rebecca Cantrell, Forge, 2009, $24.95/C$27.95, hb, 304pp, 9780765320445
Trolling for a story at Berlin’s Hall of the Unnamed Dead, crime reporter Hannah Vogel is shocked to find a photograph of her younger brother Ernst posted among the dead. The discovery launches Hannah on a mission to find his killer. However, this quest is complicated by Ernst’s cross-dressing homosexual lifestyle, and she soon finds herself immersed in the wild and dark nightlife of pre-Nazi Germany Berlin. Hannah’s life is further complicated by the arrival of an orphaned boy who insists she is his mother. As her investigation unfolds, she finds that Ernst is a man of many secrets and even more lovers, one of whom leads her into the highest circles of the up-and-coming Nazi party.
Ms. Cantrell’s story is told with competence and style. The plot is complicated, intelligent, and well crafted. As a mystery, it is first rate. On the historical side, she certainly knows a great deal about the Berlin of 1931 and displays this knowledge at every opportunity. However, it seems that her Fraulein Vogel is a woman of 21stcentury American sensibilities plunked down into pre-Nazi Germany. Free of the prejudices of her time and place, she is remarkably unfettered by the ambiguities that led many of the Germans of her time to embrace the Nazi promise of a better tomorrow. Thus this historical novel stands as a very good mystery, entertaining and satisfying, but if one is searching for insight into the Germany of the early ´30s, it might be best to look elsewhere.
Ken Kreckel
adventure. The story opens in Crete in 1928 where Laetitia is undertaking her first assignment to excavate the island’s fabled tomb of the King of the Gods. However, all is not as it seems. A young woman is found hanged—but is it suicide or murder? Laetitia determines to find the truth and unearths a tangled web of deceit and lies.
As someone whose knowledge of archaeology is limited to the occasional programme on television, I found the archaeological references and the actual excavation interesting without being overpowering, making a plausible framework on which to base the story. The death and the events which led up to it I found less plausible, and I found some of the characters would not have been out of place in a Mills & Boon romance. This, for me, is where the book falls down. It was a mixture of crime and romance with a touch of Brideshead Revisited, which does not quite come off. However, Laetitia Talbot has promise which I am sure will develop in further books.
Mike Ashworth
THE LUMINOUS LIFE OF LILLY APHRODITE (UK) / THE GLIMMER PALACE (US)
Beatrice Colin, John Murray, 2008, £16.99, hb, 404pp, 9780719520716 / Riverhead, 2008, $24.95, hb, 402pp, 9781594489853
Born to a cabaret singer but orphaned in scandalous circumstances, Lilly is alone in the world. She is brought up at St. Xavier’s orphanage where she meets two women who will change the course of her life: Sister August and her close friend Hanne Schmitt. She is destined to become Lidi, a silent screen actress, and this is the story of her life outside the orphanage and the hard choices she must make.
We travel in time from the Kaiser’s Berlin to the rise of National Socialism, and we become fascinated by the social history that is related as a backdrop to the story of Lilly’s life. It is an essential part of understanding the motion picture industry that the story portrays. There is a seductive feel to this book, and not only with its alluring cover jacket. We are lured into it by a figure whose life we become engrossed with.
A gripping read.
MADEWELL BROWN
THE TOMB OF ZEUS
Barbara Cleverly, Constable, 2008, £18.99, hb, 288pp, 9781845296964 / Delta, 2007, $13.00, pb, 353pp, 9780385339902
The Tomb of Zeus introduces Laetitia Talbot, an aspiring archaeologist with a passion for
Karen Wintle
Rick Collignon, Unbridled, 2009, $23.95, hb, 224pp, 9781932961652
When Obie Poole, a retired Negro League baseball player from the ´20s, met Rachael Poole, he knew this orphan girl had to be the granddaughter of his old friend and baseball teammate, Madewell Brown. Rachael enjoyed the stories the old man told her of her supposed grandfather and his team, but she didn’t really believe them. The stories kept changing. Nevertheless, she was drawn to this old man and his tales of past glory days.
Ruffino Trujillo called his estranged son, Cipriano, to his deathbed to tell him the story
of a black man, Madewell Brown, who visited their small town when Ruffino was a boy. After Ruffino died, Cipriano found an unmailed letter in his belongings. He decided to mail it unopened. The recollections of these two men would change the lives of those they loved.
Set in the 1990s, this is the fourth novel in Collignon’s Guadalupe series. His descriptive, clear prose propels the reader into the midst of each setting. For example, he describes how the splatter of chicken grease jumps from a boiling pot to burn a hand, or how a soft breeze, like a breath, moves across sage. Collignon places his audience in the minds of many of the story’s characters, allowing them to see the complexity within. Each character is human and imperfect, but even the worst are compelling in their own way. This story of love and redemption shows how the smallest acts can alter many lives. Highly recommended.
Nan Curnutt
LONDON BELONGS TO ME
Norman Collins, Penguin Modern Classics, 2009, £10.99/C$19.00, 732pp, 9780141442334
It is Christmas 1938 with the prospect of war ever present, but daily life must go on. The setting is a lodging house, number 10 Dulcimer Street, occupied by a variety of characters under the supervision of the widowed Mrs Vizzard. Here is Mr Josser, returning with the clock he has received as a retirement present; Connie, a faded actress desperate for work, any type of work; Mr Puddy, making his weekly shopping list including tinned salmon, peaches, and tongue; and Percy Boon, a mechanic dealing in stolen cars and worse. They are all the sort of people that may populate any major city: the neighbours that cause net curtains to twitch, leading quite ordinary lives that are of enduring fascination to others, as actors in a soap opera. However, the mundane aspect changes when a murder and subsequent trial quickens the pace
This is a character-driven story of séances, shabby gentility, and smoke-filled pubs. First published in 1945 and made into a successful film of the same name in 1948 starring Richard Attenborough in the role of Percy Boon, this latest edition is a welcome reminder of a novel where much happens, too much to summarise without spoiling the effect of the whole. A reminder of a bygone age, a great city, worldchanging events, and the people who lived through it all.
Ann Oughton
THE SOLDIER’S WIFE
Alexandra Connor, Headline, 2009, £5.99, pb, 570pp, 9780755341146
Orphaned at a young age, Faith and James are raised by their aunt and grandparents, living on the profits of the family photography business. James finds love young but loses it when he suffers a dreadful accident. Faith falls for easygoing Samuel but finds his character irrevocably altered by his experiences in the
First World War.
Fortune follows misfortune as the family fights financial hardship. Then into their lives come the spectres of the past in the shape of malevolent Lennie Hellier and the mysterious French widow, Leonie Bonnard. Both are determined to pull the family apart for their own ends.
If there is one word that sums up Alexandra Connor’s writing it would be heartwarming. It’s the type of writing that sees you through a cold winter evening and keeps you snug in your chair, hot drink at hand. She writes in the tradition of Catherine Cookson, but she is not simply a poor imitation but talented in her own right. The Soldier’s Woman is a regional saga of the highest order.
Sara
Wilson
WITHOUT CONSCIENCE
David Stuart Davies, St. Martin’s Press, 2008, $23.95, hb, 224pp, 9780312382100
This is the second of Davies’ mysteries set in 1942 London featuring the one-eyed musteredout-of-service detective Johnny Hawke. The reader immediately wonders at the judgment of the Army as Johnny is left trolling blitzed London for work, while a certain Harryboy Jenkins is out on extended leave and wreaking havoc. Soon Harryboy has picked up and seduced a dispirited Welsh innocent, Rachel Howells, as his moll, and is robbing and killing to his own delight.
Meanwhile Johnny has been hired to find a
Y THE GREAT LOVER
Y PALACE CIRCLE
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Rebecca Dean, Broadway, 2009, $14.00, pb, 415pp, 9780767930550 / Harper, 2009, £6.99, pb, 608pp, 9780007268436
It’s been a long time since I was as caught up in a novel as I was in Palace Circle. The action sweeps from London’s glittering debutante balls to the crowded streets of World War II Cairo, with seamless transitions between scenes and viewpoints and never a dull moment throughout. In 1911, eighteen-year-old Delia Chandler marries Viscount Ivor Conisborough, twenty-two years her elder, exchanging carefree days at her beloved Virginia home for a life of privilege at the Windsor court. She adjusts quickly, captivating aristocrats and politicians alike with her Southern charm and outgoing personality. Despite the casual acceptance of love affairs among members of her circle, Delia believes her marriage to be an exception to the rule—until she comes face to face with Ivor’s gorgeous long-time mistress.
After the births of her children, Delia finds happiness in her own extramarital liaison until her husband’s posting to Cairo separates her from her lover. Ivor’s role as advisor to King Fuad and tutor to his son, Prince Farouk, becomes critical to British interests as Egyptian revolutionaries gain ground and the Nazis rise in power. The two Conisborough daughters, Petra and Davina, grow up in an ethnically diverse prewar Egypt but pursue different paths in life. Their romantic entanglements are complicated by their father’s politics and secrets from their mother’s past.
Dean writes with a light touch that reflects the freewheeling spirit of the era; notables like Margot Asquith, Wallis Simpson, and Winston Churchill breeze through the narrative as they briefly interact with the fictional characters. Although the pacing is brisk, Dean doesn’t neglect the smaller details that add so much vibrancy to her settings. In all, Palace Circle is a saga both intellectually lively and emotionally satisfying. Its four hundred-plus pages passed by much too quickly; I wouldn’t have minded four hundred more.
cheating husband and unearths a cross-dressing villain and his henchman instead. Adding a
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Jill Dawson, Sceptre, 2009, £12.99, hb, 310pp, 9780340935651
The island of Tahiti holds a fascination for troubled souls. Gauguin lived there in the 1890s. So too, in the early months of 1914, did poet Rupert Brooke, the subject of this vivid novel. He died in the east Mediterranean the following year of septicaemia, at the age of twenty-seven. Author Jill Dawson has delved into the darkness of his life, at odds with the romantic, lyrical poet of popular imagination.
The book begins in 1982 with a letter from Arlice Rapoto, Brooke’s daughter in Tahiti. The recipient is ninety-year-old Nell Golightly, formerly maid at the Orchard Tea Gardens, Grantchester, where Brooke stayed before WW1. Arlice wants to know about the famous father she never met: how he smelled and sounded, what it felt like to ‘wrap arms around him’. The main part of the novel takes us back to 1909, the story of Brooke and Nell—an intelligent, practical girl who keeps bees—up to 1914, told in alternating firstperson narrative.
The fictional Nell, inspired by a postcard the author bought when visiting the Orchard House, is a brilliant creation. She is attracted to Brooke, struck by his beauty. He is a seamless fusion of his poetry, letters, travel writings, essays, photographs, and the author’s imagination. He is confused about his sexuality, worried about his sanity and his ‘burdensome virginity’, which he eventually loses to a school friend. He has lots of visitors: Lytton Strachey, Virginia Stephen (Woolf), and other literati. The constraints of social position ensure his relationship with Nell develops at a distance: much observation, musing—she becomes in his imagination ‘a sumptuous nymph … unearthly creature— bolstered by snatched conversations and a naked bathe in Byron’s Pool.
A touching, engrossing story of a love affair and of a damaged man unable to allow others to reach him.
Janet Hancock
Sarah Johnson
poignant note, ten-year-old orphan Peter from his last adventure shows up in London after running away from his foster care.
Told in the typical hard-boiled crime novel first-person viewpoint of Johnny, and also the third-person sights of Rachel, Peter, and the vengeful Harryboy, plus a sprinkling of his soon-to-be victims, the novel offers many perspectives on a time when violence can come by land, sea, or air and from enemies within and without. The action is taut, gritty, and engaging, but the story is marred by a too-stupid-to-live heroine in Rachel, whose obsession with a thug is unconvincing. Excepting Johnny and his very young sidekick, almost all the characters behave so inconsistently that the plot, not the characters, seems to be directing the progression of the story.
Eileen Charbonneau
SHANNON
Frank Delaney, Random House, 2009, $26.00/ C$30.00, hb, 432pp, 9781400065257
Father Robert Shannon of Boston is a young priest suffering from severe periodic mental instability caused by memories of his service as a U.S. Marine chaplain in the maelstrom of the World War I trenches. He returned to parish work at home at war’s end but was judged incapable of properly fulfilling his pastoral duties by the church hierarchy. His archbishop sends him on a long holiday to Ireland in the hope that the time
alone will settle his mind. But the Ireland Father Shannon finds is in the midst of the bloody civil war that followed the winning of independence from Britain. Shannon’s travels through his ancestors’ homeland finds him confronted by the violence he hoped never to see again The trauma is eased somewhat as he adapts to the land and people that represent both the Ireland of myth and legend along with that of brutality and war. As the tale develops, the reader slowly becomes aware that Shannon is also grappling with the illegal actions he had observed within the Catholic establishment back in Boston and that his archbishop’s sending him to Ireland is far from an altruistic act.
Shannon’s struggles with nightmares of the trenches and his duty to stand for truth and honor in Boston, while adjusting to a young nation split apart by civil war, make him both a sympathetic character and a pitiful one.
John R. Vallely
WINSTON’S WAR: A Novel of Deception
Michael Dobbs, Sourcebooks, 2009, $14.99, pb, 592pp, 9781402217746 / HarperCollins, 2003, £6.99, pb, 704pp, 0006498000
Following upon the success of Never Surrender, this is another of Michael Dobbs’s previously published novels centering on pivotal moments in the public life of Winston Churchill. Less than a year before the outbreak of the war, we find Winston in the political wilderness, banished under Chamberlain’s seemingly brilliant and wildly popular policy of appeasement with Hitler. The Prime Minister attempts to cement his advantage by hatching political intrigues designed to keep him there. The full fury of the mid-20th century version of spin doctors and political tricks is employed, hence the subtitle. However, Adolph Hitler, interpreting appeasement as weakness, has his own ideas, and Chamberlain’s politically expedient guarantee to Poland collapses in the horror predicted by Winston all along.
Michael Dobbs produces compelling historical novels, breathing life into what seems a familiar history. Instead of the slightly rumpled, wing-collared, hopelessly outdated Neville Chamberlain of the newsreels, we have a fiercely competitive Prime Minister, one who doesn’t hesitate to use all the power at his disposal to defeat his rival Churchill. Dobbs presents his political characters as real human beings, with all the frailties and vices that infect our modern politicians. The reader will not soon forget the womanizing Joseph Kennedy showing off portraits of his actress conquests to an appalled Brendan Bracken, who himself is trying to seduce the diplomat’s niece. But it is in the politics itself than Dobbs shines. The notion that many of the events leading up to the war were born more out of political expediency than any strategic plan speaks volumes on how the tragedy of World War II came about. Dobbs gives us a sober reminder that pettiness and selfinterest have a far larger role in the formation of
world events than we would like to think. Then, at least, there was a Winston Churchill to make it right.
Ken Kreckel
A MOTHER’S HOPE
Katie Flynn, Arrow Books, 2009, £9.99, hb, 468pp, 9780099521747
Rose and Martin make a mismatched pair—a single pregnant girl, an albino boy, and their stray greyhound, Don. But from the moment they meet on a rain-soaked road, their destinies are entwined forever. Romance is not on the cards but friendship is, and when Rose discovers she is in danger of having her baby removed from her care, Martin is the one she turns to for help. Fleeing from Liverpool, the runaways take their chances in Wales looking for work and a settled future. Events conspire against them, but, given a chance, friendship might just deepen into love.
Katie Flynn’s Liverpool sagas are always such a joy to read, and once you open the covers it is very hard to close them again. Without fail her heroes and heroines come to life within the pages—warts and all. Best of all, her sagas give the reader a good dollop of nostalgia without overdosing with melodrama. A Mother’s Hope is an accomplished and satisfying read.
Sara Wilson
A
QUESTION OF
DEATH:
An Illustrated Phryne Fisher Treasury
Kerry Greenwood, Poisoned Pen Press, 2008, $34.95/C$43.95, hb, 258pp, 9781590585344
Fans of the inimitable Phryne Fisher will rejoice in this cornucopia of short stories, recipes, lists of Phryne’s favorite things, and other tidbits about the life of this female James Bond. For those readers who have yet to experience Greenwood’s fearless bon vivant detective, this volume is a great introduction to many of the characters who inhabit the Phryne Fisher series. Uppermost in that character list is Melbourne, Australia, in the 1920s: both sophisticated and seedy, it provides the backdrop to Phryne’s adventures. It also reflects the class struggles which are at the heart of many of the stories, from dock workers to the wealthy elite.
Greenwood notes that she uses short stories as tryouts for cast members, to decide whether she wants to live with them for a whole novel; included in this volume is “Carnival,” which is the basis for the full-length Blood and Circuses The volume is colorfully illustrated in great style by Beth Norling and is a treat to browse for the drawings in the margins as well as the full-page depictions of the glamorous Phryne.
Helene Williams
trying to put together a way to return to India, where she lived as a young girl. She is the only surviving member of her immediate family, and she has been told that a family friend in Simla has possession of a trunk of her mother’s things. She arranges to escort two younger women; one of them, Rose, is to be married, while the other, Victoria, her best friend, is to be the maid of honor. And then, to Viva’s great relief, she is hired to chaperone a sixteen-year-old boy, who has been asked to leave his boarding school, back to his parents. His parents will pay her passage, leaving Viva enough money to live on for a time upon her arrival in India. The voyage on the Kaisar-I-Hind allows us time to get acquainted with the characters and to encounter events that will have dramatic outcomes once the passengers arrive in India, where tension is rife between those who follow Gandhi and those who favor less peaceful means of ousting the British.
The author situates her characters well—the sense of the setting and the period mesh well with the story line. However, some of the main characters never truly coalesced for me. Their actions, thoughts, and motivations didn’t always add up, and while this is often the case with real-life people, it was somewhat jarring in an otherwise enjoyable reading experience.
Trudi E. Jacobson
THE GERMAN WOMAN
Paul Griner, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009, $25/C$33.95, hb, 320pp, 9780547055220
EAST OF THE SUN
Julia Gregson, Touchstone, 2009, $16.00, pb, 506pp, 9781439101124 / Orion, 2008, £7.99, pb, 480pp, 9781409102519
The start of this novel, set in 1928, finds Viva Hollaway, a young woman in her mid-twenties,
The German woman of the title is an English woman, Kate Zweig, a trained nurse married to a German surgeon, Horst Zweig. It is 1918 during World War I and together they work, healing injured soldiers from the battles in East Prussia. Fast forward twenty-six years, and Kate is now in London in the summer of 1944. Bombings, air raids, skeletal frameworks of oncemagnificent structures, and massive casualties are part of everyday life. Kate, now widowed, meets Claus at a political rally. The speaker at the gathering is spewing propaganda to the crowd. Incensed by the disinformation, Kate steps forward and rebuts him with razor-sharp barbs. Claus notices Kate and, attracted to her spirit, introduces himself. An exiled American of German heritage, he makes propaganda films for the Ministry of Information. He also happens to be a spy supplying valuable information to the German military, information not always as accurate as it should be. He knows his life depends on secrecy and, trusting no one, he meets Kate—and romance turns to unexpected love. At some point, he becomes suspicious of Kate, and his dual loyalties shake his resolve. Kate is almost a silent, passive participant as the action is seen through Claus and his struggle.
Paul Griner shows a natural talent for subterfuge as he carefully creates a complex wall of mirrors that cause a magician’s illusion for the audience to solve. Passages of lyrical prose heightened my enjoyment of this book. Wisteria Leigh
THE TURTLE CATCHER
Nicole Helget, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009, $24/C$32.95, hb, 256pp, 9780618753123
It opens with a shocking scene in 1920s Minnesota, in which the title character, Lester Sutter, a mentally handicapped man skilled at catching snapping turtles for meat, is being forced by the three Richter brothers to drown himself because they believe he raped their sister. The narrative then jumps back and forth in time, revealing how the characters arrived at this dramatic moment.
Maggie, the boys’ mother, had emigrated from the old country, concealing from her new husband Wilhelm that she is already pregnant with another man’s baby. After a later child, Liesel, is born a hermaphrodite, Maggie sees it as a sign that her family is cursed. In the meantime, Wilhelm has bought up surrounding farms when times were bad, creating hostility among his neighbors. Worse, he refuses to let his sons join the Army and fight against their German cousins in the Great War. The neighbors take revenge, which sets off a string of events leading to Liesel’s accusation of rape. But does Lester really drown? There is a touch of magical realism to the conclusion.
Still darker, more violent events deepen the somber tone of this Gothic novel. Liesel is probably the most memorable character, but while the others are well drawn and had believable motives, I didn’t particularly like them. The book’s setting is vivid and the historical elements well done. Helget makes the wartime conflict between Anglo and German immigrants understandable in ways I never got out of a history textbook. If you are a fan of nonlinear storytelling and plots that tread on the dark side of the line, you will enjoy this first novel.
B.J. Sedlock
PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION
Sara Houghteling, Knopf, 2009, $24.95, hb, 253pp, 9780307266859
A young man’s attempts to please a father he perceives as disparaging and indifferent form the core of this debut novel. The setting is World War II Paris. Max Berenzon, the son of an eminent gallery owner, has grown up reciting, with his eyes shut, the intricate details of the paintings hanging in each room, and trying without success to demonstrate that he has his father’s business sense and eye. After the war, with their gallery and home looted and in ruins, Max sets about to recover as much as he can of his father’s collection, in another attempt to earn approval. When the Berenzons, who are Jewish, fled Paris at the time of the occupation, Rose, the gallery assistant, had gotten a job in the Jeu de Paume, where art looted from vanished Jews, including the Berenzons, was housed. Viewed by many as a collaborator, Rose (based on a real person) was actually documenting the thefts for the Resistance, and for the rightful owners. Back in postwar Paris, Max searches not only
for the art stolen from his family, but for Rose, with whom he has long been infatuated. In the process, he comes to a deeper understanding of love, loyalty, and survival.
Houghteling is at her best describing the nightmarish world of Paris in this grim era, where everyone, Jew or Gentile, seems as fragmented as figures in a painting by Picasso. Though this is a well-crafted, smart read, Houghteling occasionally weakens the narrative in her desire to share the Fulbright research she did on the subject of Nazi-purloined art. This results in passages that occasionally seem more like an essay than a fictional treatment. Still, a strong debut overall.
Laurel Corona
RUBIES IN THE SNOW
Kate Hubbard, Short Books, 2009, £6.99, pb, 188pp, 9781906021641
This is the fictionalised diary of ten-yearold Anastasia, youngest daughter of Nicholas II, Tsar of Russia. In the straightforward style of a young girl each daily entry describes her life, her relationships with her sisters and her younger brother, Alexis. The daily routine hardly changes; Dr Botkin arrives first thing to give the children their daily examination. Cold baths, tea parties, and piano lessons fill every hour, and during play there is the ever-present worry that Alexis, who suffers from haemophilia, might sustain a serious injury, one that may have fatal consequences.
As any ten-year-old might, Anastasia offers her opinions of the adults who dominate her world—Father Vasilev, the children’s confessor, was like, ‘a great black crow’. Rasputin is seen as a smelly old man. The minutiae of their daily lives as well as the dramatic events that overtook the family as the revolution swept all order aside are faithfully documented. The history of this ill-fated family is well documented, having been told many times, but in this little journal, simply told from the point of view of one of the tragic participants, the reader is offered an intimate view of one of the most tragic events in modern history.
Ann Oughton
THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING
Paulette Jiles, Morrow, 2009, $25.95/C$26.95, hb, 368pp, 9780061690440
Freedman Britt Johnson, his wife, and their three children left their home in Kentucky to homestead on the North Texas plains at the end of the Civil War. Soon after they arrived in Texas, Britt lost his family in a Kiowa and Comanche raid. His oldest son was killed and his wife and two other children were taken captive. Britt set out across an unknown wilderness alone to bring back what was left of his family. He was aided in this quest by Tissoyo, a young, mischievous Comanche whom he befriended along the way. Samuel Hammond, a young Quaker, was sent to Oklahoma to be the Indian agent to the tribes of the Plains. He became increasingly frustrated
while trying to teach both the U.S. Army and the fierce Plains Indians the value of peace. The United States did not understand the needs of the Plains Indians. The Kiowa and Comanche people did not understand the value of farming the land. Neither side was satisfied with the peaceful coexistence which Samuel Hammond felt was their only answer.
Paulette Jiles’ extensive research is evident in this novelization of the life of Britt Johnson. She populates her tale with historical figures such as Quanah Parker, Esa Havey, and Hears the Dawn, to name a few. She provides vivid descriptions of the lifestyle of the Plains Indians, including how they tortured some of their captives and adopted others and the real reluctance of many adopted captives to return to their original families. Jiles colors these historical facts in prose that captures the imagination, allowing her audience to understand the diverse cultures struggling to coexist in this seemingly harsh land.
Nan Curnutt
THE KING OF RAGTIME
Larry Karp, Poisoned Pen Press, 2009, $24.95, hb, 296pp, 9781590585269
The King of Ragtime is Karp’s second mystery featuring Scott Joplin. Following The Ragtime Kid, set in 1899 in Sedalia, Missouri, after the publication of “The Maple Leaf Rag,” this new book finds a very different Joplin in New York City in 1916. His mind ravaged by syphilis, Joplin has one goal—to get Irving Berlin to publish his musical drama “If.” Martin Niederhoffer, his piano student and the music publisher’s bookkeeper, promises to help him but finds himself on the run with his teacher when he discovers Joplin in his office standing over the body of Martin’s friend Sid. Afraid that the police won’t look for another suspect, the men go into hiding and enlist the help of Joplin’s former music publisher, John Stark, and his daughter, Nell.
I got lost in the rough and tumble, as well as musical, world of The Ragtime Kid but found this book kept me at a distance. Karp has no trouble conjuring up a hot NYC summer with its threatening undercurrents of racism, but the Scott Joplin in this book is too far gone to be a protagonist about whom the reader can care. Only a faint regret remains at the talent that is lost.
Ellen Keith
A FLICKERING LIGHT
Jane Kirkpatrick, WaterBrook, 2009, $13.99/ C$15.99, pb, 400pp, 9781578569809
Fifteen-year-old Jessie Gaebele lives for opportunities to photograph her beloved Minnesota landscape. When she is hired as a photographer’s studio assistant in 1907, she thinks her career in the field is ensured. Her employer, F.J. Bauer, doesn’t always appreciate Jessie’s new-fangled innovations, but her work ethic and unaffected charm eventually win him over. Over time the two form an unspoken
Y A QUIET FLAME
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Philip Kerr, Putnam, 2009, $26.95, hb, 389pp, 9780399155307 / Quercus, 2008, £7.99, pb, 448pp, 9781847245588
Framed as a war criminal, ex-SS officer Bernie Gunther is forced to flee to Argentina with the likes of Adolph Eichmann for company. He finds that his reputation gained before the war as a Berlin police detective has preceded him. Bernie is instantly drafted into Peron’s secret police with a mission to find a missing girl. The clues lead him to link the disappearance with a murdered girl in 1932, a case he nearly solved before his investigation was terminated by the rise of Hitler. Before long he finds evidence that the old nightmares of his Nazi days have been reborn in the new world. Linking up with a beautiful, young Jewess, he launches an investigation that puts him in deadly conflict with both the Peron regime and the Nazi war criminals that the president so warmly embraced.
Fifth in a series, this entry loses nothing of the grit and realism that made its predecessors so entertaining and satisfying. There is still the wisecracking, sardonic Bernie, fighting for what is right despite the many ambiguities forced upon him. The sharply drawn sinister foes are here, too, only this time a plethora of them, from a veritable who’s-who of escaped Nazi war criminals to the Perons themselves, including the fabulous Evita.
This is a thinking man’s sort of fiction, one that transcends its noir genre. The big questions—life and death, guilt or innocence—are handled in an almost philosophical way. Punishment and justice are especially elusive and ambiguous, especially when applied to Bernie himself, who, despite all his efforts to the contrary, finds himself indelibly tainted by the very bacillus he fights against.
Philip Kerr has crafted a series of books that are at once entertaining, informative, and vaguely disturbing. This latest offering is perhaps the best of all, and it also stands as a remarkable read on its own. Highly recommended.
romantic attachment. This becomes a source of conflict for Jessie both at work and home, threatening her future in the profession and ultimately forcing her to face the consequences of her attraction to a married man.
Jessie Gaebele was the author’s grandmother, and her story was undoubtedly crafted with love. However, Kirkpatrick seems determined to include every detail she knew or learned about her grandmother and the world she lived in. At times, excessive exposition and extraneous details slow the narrative down. The beginning of the central conflict—Jessie’s realization of her attraction to her employer—doesn’t even begin until nearly halfway through the novel.
Furthermore, the passion between Jessie and Mr. Bauer is less than convincing. We know their romantic feelings are inappropriate, but their attraction should nevertheless be palpable to the reader. When Mr. Bauer and Jessie draw close over a photo retouching lesson, one isn’t inspired to swoon when the author writes “She smelled the cigar on his breath and it wasn’t offensive” (162).
Though I wished for a more streamlined story with stronger romantic tension, fans of gently paced inspirational fiction saturated in historical detail will find much to savor. The story affirms the power of faith without being preachy, and readers will sympathize with Jessie’s struggle to gain a foothold in a male-dominated profession. Those who enjoy A Flickering Light will be
Ken Kreckel
pleased to learn that Jessie’s story continues in Shimmering Grasses, forthcoming from WaterBrook in 2010.
Sonia Gensler
OH, JOHNNY
Jim Lehrer, Random House, 2009, $25.00, hb, 221pp, 9781400067626
In the opening scene of Jim Lehrer’s Oh, Johnny, we encounter nineteen-year-old Johnny Wrigley aboard a marine troop train bound for California during the last year of World War II. Johnny’s eagerness for action finds an outlet when the train stops briefly in Kansas: he meets a beautiful volunteer named Betsy who shares a few passionate moments with him in a supply room. Instantly smitten, Johnny keeps his vision of Betsy close to his heart as he faces fierce fighting, death, and destruction in the coming months, determined to find her once the war is over. The need to find Betsy even overtakes his passion for baseball, the only thing he’s ever really wanted to do.
Despite a bit of a clunky beginning, Oh, Johnny turned out to be an intriguing book with the poignant message that a soldier’s life will be irretrievably altered after war. As the story progresses, the characterizations gain depth, and we can begin to see the motivations for Johnny’s actions. In fact, the entire style of writing gains depth as Johnny’s relationships with his mother, boss, and doctor all help him to learn
to deal with the horrific carnage he’s witnessed. Johnny’s feelings of being at loose ends after the war is probably very accurate to how many men found themselves. There’s a definite comingof-age element within the story, and you’ll be left thinking of Johnny and his comrades long after you finish this book.
Tamela McCann
THE STALIN EPIGRAM
Robert Littell, Simon & Schuster, 2009, $26, hb, 366pp, 9781416598640
The author of The Stalin Epigram is an American who has lived abroad for many years and written spy thrillers set in the old Soviet Union (his son Jonathan is the author of the controversial novel The Kindly Ones). In this novel multiple narrators tell the story of how a poem about Stalin by Osip Mandelstam results in the poet’s downfall. The idea was that his wife and fellow poet Nadezhda would memorize the poem, obviating the need to commit it to paper. The poem calls Stalin a peasant-murderer with fat fingers and, even worse, an Ossete rather than a Georgian. Before long the poem comes to the dictator’s attention, and poets like Boris Pasternak and Anna Akhmatova are pleading with Mandelstam to relent and with Stalin to spare the poet. Many sections are narrated by Mandelstam’s wife and the actress they are both involved with, separately and together. A weightlifter eventually confesses to being a follower of Trotsky and cheerfully involves others out of loyalty to the Party. My personal favorite among the narrators is Nikolai Vlasik, Stalin’s loyal bodyguard who worries that his boss is too soft, especially with coffeehouse intellectuals. At a luncheon for Stalin at Gorky’s house, Vlasik makes the host exclude certain invited writers as a matter of security. As the novel moves from 1934 to 1938 we see a small part of the terror that gripped the Soviet Union. The story follows the outlines of the history as it is known and speculates on the dark events at the gulag. The novel portrays the heroism, the foolishness, and the consequences of standing up to Stalin.
James Hawking
CAST THE FIRST STONE
Rebbie Macintyre, Five Star, 2009, $25.95, hc, 286, 9781594147463
Trinidad (Trini) Bates is a dowser, which means that she uses either a crystal pendulum or a divining rod to find things that are hidden from view, such as water, minerals, and people. When Trini’s brother, Parnell, is arrested for murder (after she dowses for a missing man and finds his body in a canyon just outside their town of Ludlin, Colorado), Trini is determined to use her gift to prove his innocence. Sheriff Mallis, who hates Parnell, does all he can to prevent Trini from pursuing the case, but Deputy Roy Eastman is willing to help Trini, even though he doubts Parnell’s innocence.
It would be hard to find a work of historical
fiction with less period detail than this one. We are told that the year is 1932, that people are losing their jobs, and that the bootlegging industry is thriving, but beyond that we must draw on our own knowledge to imagine the clothing, furnishings, and architecture. We are also told that Trini is a compassionate person but, for the most part, she says and does exactly what she wants without consideration for others. All in all, despite some good writing, this book is a disappointing read.
Nancy J. Attwell
JACK LONDON IN PARADISE
Paul Malmont, Simon & Schuster, 2009, $25.00, hb, 387pp, 978141657228
A reimagining of the last year of Jack London’s life (1915-16), Jack London in Paradise follows filmmaker and aging matinee idol Hobart Bosworth as he searches out his former friend to convince London to get involved in a movie-making venture. Trickery at competing studios has convinced London and his second wife Charmian that they have been cheated. Bosworth gets to London’s Beauty Ranch and finds the spectacular Wolf House in ruins after a fire, and the couple gone to Hawaii. Bosworth sails off to find them there, and tries to salvage both their friendship and their linked careers. He finds his friend chronically ill with a variety of physical ailments and being nursed by his wife’s various mysterious concoctions. Jack seeks help from native sources as well, and tries to live with his life-long zest, imagination, and appetite—fighting, drinking, surfing, sailing, and questing for male progeny. The mystery of the burning of Wolf House remains, as well as a larger, more crucial struggle for London’s sanity and life.
Rich and textured with period details and concepts, from surfing to Jungian analysis, the novel presents Jack London first tantalizing in his absence, then perplexing in his complexity. Malmont weaves his tale from the perspectives of movieman Bosworth, Charmian London, and the introspective London himself as he ponders the course of his own life. After the strong opening, the point-of-view character of Bosworth is largely missing from the middle of the book. The dramatic push flags as London and the ever-focused-on-her-Mate-Man Charmian take over. A gathering of eccentrics and set pieces entertains, but the novel does not pick up narrative thrust until Bosworth takes it home.
Eileen Charbonneau
THE SACRED WELL
Antoinette May, Harper, 2009, $14.95/C$16.25, pb, 400pp, 9780061695551
The Sacred Well is the story of two strong women: Sage Sanborn, a fictitious travel reporter in the present day, and Alma Reed, a pioneering woman journalist from early 20th-century history. Antoinette May tells a story within a story with a sense of mirrored coincidences between two women who live over eight decades apart.
Sent to the Yucatán in 1922 by her editor, Alma is a part of a group of archeologists whose destination is the lost city of the Mayans. Her ticket of acceptance is a phony Ph.D. and credentials supplied by her boss. She knows the team will be her news source, but she quickly has the opportunity to interview the new governor, Felipe Carrillo Puerto, who is considered a man of the people. She is drawn to the charismatic leader, finding him impossible to resist.
Alma is given information which enables her to write an article for the New York Times exposing the theft of artifacts worth over two million dollars from the Temple of Kukulkan in Chichen Itza. Known as Mouth of the Well, this was a deep sacrificial well with a macabre history.
Sage is also on her way to the Yucatán sometime in the present. Her fascination with the legendary Alma Reed is somewhat monomaniacal. The romance that sparked between Alma and Felipe was renowned in its time; their love was fiery and passionate until tragic events separated them.
Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula is a mysterious place that brings deep love and broken hearts to both Sage and Alma. May describes the landscapes of the Mayan ruins and Mexican countryside much as painter Frida Kahlo would have filled her canvases. Her rich historical novel should be savored slowly.
Wisteria Leigh
AN HONORABLE GERMAN
Charles McCain, Grand Central, 2009, $24.99/ C$27.99, hb, 370pp, 9780446538985
Charles McCain’s maiden voyage as a novelist follows a young German naval officer, Max Brekendorf, through his varied assignments in the Second World War. Young Max begins the conflict as a well-trained and highly professional officer on the celebrated “pocket battleship” Admiral Graf Spee Overwhelmed by an instinctive dislike for his British enemy, Max is astonished at the benign treatment accorded British POWs by the ship’s captain, Hans Langsdorff. Max is marooned in pro-German Argentina when the Graf Spee is scuttled in the face of Royal Navy strength. He signs on as an officer on a merchant ship commerce raider and, after the vessel is sunk, returns to Germany. Reunited with his beloved Mareth, Max begins to see a different Germany as the Nazis persecution of his father and others slowly begins to remove the blinders from his eyes. The author does a serviceable job in portraying the idealistic and patriotic Max as a “good German” confronted with the challenging knowledge that a moral patriot finds when he is serving an evil cause. He continues to answer his country’s call as a submarine commander in the elite U-boat service but his idealism will not permit him to carry on in the manner expected by the Nazis surrounding him.
Max’s basic humanity triumphs when he refuses to leave torpedoed civilian survivors in
the water. After rescuing the terrified civilians, Max calmly waits for Allied warships to come to his aid. The helpless civilians are indeed rescued but Max’s U-boat is sunk and he ends up in a POW camp in Mississippi. At this point, Max’s war enters a less believable realm as he escapes, is recaptured, and then sent to a second camp in New Mexico, and escapes again to join Mareth in Mexico.
John R. Vallely
THE WINTER GROUND
Catriona McPherson, Hodder, 2008, £6.99, pb, 294pp, 9780340935354
The latest Dandy Gilver mystery is set in Perthshire in 1925/26 on the estate of Albert Wilson, a wealthy brickmaker (“the name tells you all you need to know,” Dandy writes in her characteristically waspish tone). Albert and his wife, Ina, have lost their only child to the influenza epidemic of 1918, which also left Ina weak. Albert has instituted a bizarre set of rules to stop Ina contracting another illness. Visitors must keep their distance from Ina, rather in the style of a royal audience, and the servants have a complicated ritual to follow to keep the house as germ-free as possible. On their estate, Cooke’s family circus is using part of the grounds as their winter standing. Unknown to Albert, Ina has taken to sneaking down there when he is away at work.
Ina introduces Dandy to the Cookes and their circus, but it is not long before Dandy is asked by Ma Cooke to investigate some odd events. The investigation centres on Ana, the beautiful bareback rider who is causing some tension among the various performers. While investigating, Dandy is bemused by the presence of Robin Laurie, a man-about-town who seems to have ‘taken up’ Albert Wilson as an amusement. She is intrigued by Ina’s cold attitude to Laurie as well. When Ana falls from her horse and is killed with them all present, Dandy sets about proving that it was murder.
There is much here that is fascinating, not least the circus world. Dandy’s wry and sometimes acid tongue provides amusement, as does her detached air concerning her husband and children. The middle of the book seems bogged down in red herrings, and the pace falters a little but the period detail is fascinating and well written. As a Dandy fan, I am reluctant to say that the denouement is a bit thin and patchy, but there is still plenty to enjoy.
Geraldine Perriam
LARK & TERMITE
Jayne Anne Phillips, Knopf, 2009, $24.00/ C$28.00, hb, 254pp, 9780375401954 / Jonathan Cape, 2009, £16.99, hb, 272pp, 9780224059763
It’s July 1950, and as Corporal Robert Leavitt commands a platoon in the Korean countryside, his thoughts wander to his wife, Lola, and their unborn child, the link between them uncanny. “I am carrying high and round, tight as a drum full
Y A BEAUTIFUL PLACE TO DIE
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Malla Nunn, Picador, 2009, £12.99, pb, 399pp, 9780230711211 / Atria, 2009, $25.00, hb, 384pp, 9781416586203
South Africa, 1952. Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper is sent to investigate the murder of Afrikaner police officer Captain Willem Pretorius in the remote town of Jacob’s Rest. As Emmanuel digs deeper into Pretorius’s double life, he must also stay one step ahead of the dead man’s thuggish sons and Security Branch officers intent on pinning the murder on black political activists.
Although this novel is gritty and hard-hitting (sometimes literally), there is a seam of dry humour running through which prevents it from becoming too grim. This is most obvious in the characterisation of Hansie Hepple, the white teenage constable whose complete indoctrination in the idea of white supremacy makes him blind to where the evidence is pointing. Yet, according to the absurd race laws, he outranks the black constable, Shabalala, despite the latter’s greater experience and phenomenal observational and tracking skills.
This may be Nunn’s first novel, but her experience as an award-winning screenwriter is obvious in the confident way she creates characters, evokes the setting, and structures the plot so that there is no letup in the tension until the very last page. I’ll definitely keep my eye open for her next book.
of water,” Phillips writes, “I know it’s a boy—he turns like a fish and he sees and hears for you, every sound, every thought I haven’t written.” Leavitt comes across evacuating refugees little before American pilots mistake them for the enemy and strafe them. Trying to help a young girl and her little brother, Leavitt is seriously wounded. The action shifts to another July, nine years later, in Winfield, West Virginia, where Lark, Lola’s older daughter, an adolescent, is taking care of her half-brother, nicknamed Termite, Leavitt’s son, a boy who can’t talk or walk. Both have been raised by their aunt Nonie, a no-nonsense woman who waits at a local diner. How Lola’s children end up with Nonie is only one of the harrowing twists of this novel, an unusual tale that moves back and forth between two summers, in vastly different landscapes, on days that start ordinarily and end cataclysmically in the historical tragedy at No Gun Ri and in a terrifying flood.
The fourth of Phillips’ novels, Lark and Termite is written from the point of view of the main characters, the voice reflecting Leavitt’s struggle, Nonie’s realism, Lark’s complete dedication, and Termite’s mysterious connection with the natural world and with his father. All the way through however, the prose is intimate, hypnotic, even erotic, with haunting, numinous episodes that unswervingly convey the author’s message about the universal significance of devotion and compassion. The world, Phillips asserts, is much more than what we see.
Adelaida Lower
IN THE SHADOW OF GOTHAM
Stefanie Pintoff, Minotaur, 2009, $24.95, hb, 400 pp, 0312544901
In the Shadow of Gotham opens with a brutal
Jasmine
Svenne
murder in the wealthy but quiet neighborhood of Dobson, New York, in the beginning years of the 20th century. Sarah Wingate, mathematics major at Columbia University, is visiting her aunt for the weekend when her stabbed and battered body is found in an upstairs bedroom. The Wingates’ maid, Stella, also disappeared on the day of the crime.
Heading up the investigation is Detective Simon Ziele, who has been on the force for only a few months. He left the city after his betrothed died in the General Slocum tragedy. Soon after the investigation begins, he meets Columbia University criminologist Alistair Sinclair and his beautiful widowed daughter-in-law and assistant, Isabella Sinclair. Dr. Sinclair believes that “criminals are best understood through their crimes” and has been working closely with patient Michael Fromley, a sociopath with a history of violence and an arrest for the stabbing of a prostitute. By having regular sessions Alistair hopes to rehabilitate Michael before a more serious crime occurs, but Michael has gone missing two weeks prior to the murder, and Sinclair fears the worst. Just when they’re convinced that finding Michael will solve the crime and prevent further violence, he is found dead in the Hudson River—a victim of foul play. According to an autopsy, he was dead before Sarah’s murder was committed. Simon struggles with what he feels are Sinclair’s unorthodox methods, and Sinclair will do anything to preserve his work at the university.
Written in the first person, this novel clips along at a steady pace. Ms. Pintoff received the Mystery Writers of American/Minotaur Books Best First Crime Novel Award for her work.
Susan Zabolotny
THE RESCUE MAN
Anthony Quinn, Jonathan Cape, 2009, £12.99, hb, 311pp, 9780224087278
This is first novel of Anthony Quinn, film critic of The Independent, and a most impressive debut it is. Liverpool 1939 and Tom Baines, an architectural historian, waits for the world to stumble into another ruinous conflict. Baines, who is a natural prevaricator and has delayed writing his book on the architectural heritage of Liverpool, is plunged into the horrors of the bombing raids on the city when he volunteers as a rescuer—someone who burrows into often dangerously teetering bombed buildings in an attempt to retrieve buried people from the rubble. He is certainly not unique in discovering that the war gives his life an immediate meaning and value that he has hitherto not appreciated. It is not just the exposure to daily danger, but he also embarks on a clandestine love affair with his best friend’s wife, Bella. Interspersed with this narrative are lengthy extracts from a manuscript diary of Peter Eames, a visionary Liverpool architect of the 1860s. Tom investigates his life and makes a surprising discovery at the conclusion of the book, which acts as an appropriate coda to his life and struggles. In the midst of the war, Tom is faced with the deaths of close colleagues and friends—some of which are perhaps just a little too obviously flagged up in advance. This is an intelligent and wellpaced novel, however, and Quinn has a fine ear for language and penning original and shining similes. There are many, many novels written about the Second World War— this is a very good one.
Doug Kemp
SHADOW AND LIGHT
Jonathan Rabb, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2009, $13/C$26, hb, 384pp, 9780374261948 / Orion, 2009, £10.99, pb, 384pp, 9781905559138
Hard-boiled chief inspector Nikolai Hoffner thinks he has seen all the dirt that 1927 Berlin has to offer until he is called to investigate a film executive’s apparent suicide in his office bathtub. The body leads to a missing actress and a cache of unusual films. His uncertain allies are a beautiful American talent scout named Leni, his youngest son who has dropped out of school to work at the studio, and crime syndicate boss Alby Pimm. But are they any match for the rising Nazi party, led by Joseph Goebbels and his assistant—Hoffner’s other son? The trail leads to a dead accountant, a frightened electrical engineer, a powerful industrialist, director Fritz Lang, his wife Thea von Harbou, and a few secrets that are worth killing anyone for—including a police inspector with no one left to trust.
Hoffner’s emotional remoteness makes his eventual attachments even more heartbreaking. Fans of Philip Kerr will love another hard-boiled look at a meticulously researched and densely plotted book that shows the chaotic world of
Berlin near the end of the Weimar Republic. Rebecca Cantrell
SOUTH OF THE BORDER
James Ryan, Lilliput, 2008, £12, pb, 233pp, 9781843511342
Ireland 1942. Matt Duggan, fresh out of college, starts his first post as a teacher at the boys’ school in the small town of Rathisland in the Irish Midlands. He lodges with a genteel widow, Mrs Sheridan, and is adept at learning first lessons in independence, loyalty, and politics as an adult. Matt starts a love affair with Madelene Coll, a girl from London staying with her relatives, ostensibly to escape the war. The consequences of this relationship reverberate down the years. The novel, like so many Irish tales, is about memory and the legacy of the past, about deception and the histories and interpretations that are available. But Ryan also takes a rational and hard look at the Second World War and Ireland—the highly ambiguous and paradoxical views held about the war and the role of Ireland and its perceived erstwhile oppressor, England. It is refreshingly clear of some of the worst aspects of naïve Irish romanticism and is an honest appraisal, narrated in a clear, limpid prose. Not a complex or difficult book to read, but thought provoking and intelligent nevertheless.
Doug Kemp
FOLLOW ME
Joanna Scott, Little, Brown, 2009, $24.99/ C$27.99, hb, 400pp, 9780316051651
If you enjoy family sagas layered with secrets and betrayal, stories which contain a host of entangled relationships and that expertly engage your attention until the end, why wouldn’t you want to read Follow Me?
The story begins in 1946 as Sally Werner, a naïve and recalcitrant farmer’s daughter from Pennsylvania, heads out with her cousin Daniel one afternoon. She realizes too late that her motorcycle ride with Daniel and subsequent actions have left her pregnant. Unwilling to face the daily barrage of religious ramblings or the feelings of guilt caused by her parents’ pious gaze, she abandons her son and runs away. When looking for somewhere to settle, Sally falls in love with a boy named Mole. After Mole is killed in a car accident, Sally learns she is pregnant once again. Her daughter, Penny Mole, grows up to become a successful lawyer and lives with her own daughter, another Sally, whose father left without provocation before her birth.
Sally’s granddaughter and namesake is the keeper of the secrets and chronicler of her muddled, multigenerational heritage of deception. Scott crafts a cadence of consequences as the pieces of the puzzle are joined, but there is always some part missing, making the truth difficult to visualize.
Scott’s writing is pure magic. Her plot weaves an intricate pattern that keeps you guessing until
the entire picture is uncovered. Follow Me is a celebration of life you will not want to end.
Wisteria Leigh
BURNT SHADOWS
Kamila Shamsie, Bloomsbury, 2009, £14.99, hb, 363pp, 9780747597070
Nagasaki, 9 August 1945. Hiroko Tanaka, daughter of a traitor, stands on her balcony watching the man she is to marry walk into infinity as her world turns upside down at the explosion of the second atomic bomb. Her souvenir: the three black cranes of the wedding kimono forever burnt onto her back.
Delhi, 1947. James Burton, an English colonialist, awaits the end of Empire.
Pakistan, 1982. Hiroko, now married to a Muslim Indian, has a son who, unable to complete his high school exams, starts playing with fire.
New York, 11 September 2001. James’s American granddaughter, a structural engineer, starts the process of rebuilding.
Worlds sway as these people from different nations and sensibilities are tied by a familial connection evolving from Hiroko, whose German fiancé was half-brother to James’s wife. They cross each other’s lives in love and adversity, leaving lasting impressions as bodies eradicated leave burnt shadows on stone.
Kamila Shamsie has written a compelling story which encompasses the past sixty years of major world events, showing how divided a place our planet has become. Nations are suspicious of each other’s motives when terror and betrayal give limited hope for a peaceful future.
The author has richly defined her characters, showing all their traits and foibles. With imagination she blends them into the historical background as the individual lives unfold down the decades but, although there is a sense of historical time, Burnt Shadows has more the feel of an elegant and well-crafted modern novel.
Gwen Sly
ASSEGAI
Wilbur Smith, St. Martin’s, 2009, $27.95, hb, 480pp, 9780312567248 / Macmillan, £18.99, hb, 478pp, 9780230529205
Popular adventure novelist Smith sets his latest tale of the sprawling, ambitious Courtney family in British East Africa as the world gears up for World War I. After a dramatic trial-by-fire while on duty almost puts him before a firing squad, young boy wonder Leon Courtney trades a confining army experience for undercover work via his uncle. Courtney becomes a professional hunter and tour guide for the rich and well connected of the world, including sadistic European royalty and Teddy Roosevelt and son Kermit. The young guide’s spy duty is to gather information on clients, including Count Otto Von Meerbach, a German weapons manufacturer who is also plotting to raise a rebellion against British survivors of the
Boer War.
Leon Courtney performs tasks in his dual life well, thanks in large part to his close association with the Batman and Robin of Masai warriors, Manyoro and Loikot, and Manyoro’s mystical mother, Lusima. Then Leon falls hard for the mysterious mistress of Meerbach who is also working undercover. Together they must foil a scheme the German hopes will put the continent of Africa in his country’s power.
Long on plot, adventure, and passionate knowledge of the flora and fauna of Africa but short on character development, the reader of Assegai will learn much about how to give “fair chase” and “humane kill” to elephants, lions, crocodiles, and buffalo but will need to be told that our hero’s “empathy with horses was intense.” Bones crunch and blood flows, but prim curtains are drawn before sex scenes and love is reduced to cloying cliché. Family conflicts are largely of the very familiar father/ son variety while the press corps is once again in for a predictable drubbing.
Eileen Charbonneau
BY GEORGE
Wesley Stace, Vintage, 2009, 383pp, £7.99, pb, 9780099516156 / Back Bay, 2008, $14.99, pb, 400pp, 9780316018685
Ventriloquists’ dummies can seem rather macabre and a little disturbing, and this novel has an element of the bizarre about it. It is set in the 1930-1940s and the mid-1970s in the charismatic Fisher family—four generations of ventriloquists and popular stage artistes. The main eponymous character is named after his grandfather’s successful 1940s dummy, who achieved fame in entertaining the Allied troops during the Second World War. George is growing up while developing his interest in the ventriloquist’s art and stage magic. He begins to uncover a series of secrets and hidden histories in his family, surrounded in apparent mystery like the tricks of magic that he assiduously studies. The story is one of family loyalty, relationships that go wrong and human imperfections, with some shocking surprises for George along the way about his family and their identity. The slightly seedy and shabby entertainers’ world of the 1930s is well presented, as is the private school where George reluctantly attends in 1973 and where he begins to uncover some of the hidden stories of his background and which then explain to the reader just what is going on and why he is there. This is the second novel of the author, who is more widely known as the music performer John Wesley Harding. It is a finely narrated and curiously moving tale.
Doug Kemp
ANGEL OF VILCABAMBA
David E. Stuart, University of New Mexico Press, 2009, $24.95, hb, 319pp, 9780826344984 Angel of Vilcabamba begins as human rights investigator John Alexander (JA) has volunteered to rescue Andalucía Gonzáles-
Y THE HELP
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Kathryn Stockett, Putnam, 2009, $24.95/C$27.50, hb, 464pp, 9780399155345 / Fig Tree, 2009, £12.99, hb, 464pp, 9781905490431
In 1962 in Jackson, Mississippi, Skeeter, a young white aspiring journalist, comes home from Ole Miss and decides to document the struggles of African-American maids. The clandestine project becomes a catalyst for change and impacts the lives of many women, black and white. Not only Jim Crow laws and racial bias, but class prejudice and gender roles are exposed in all their ugliness.
The story is told in three first-person voices, that of Skeeter and of two of the maids she interviews, Minny and Aibileen. Talking honestly to Skeeter about their struggles is an act of courage on the part of Minny, Aibileen, and the other women they recruit for the project. Skeeter herself must re-examine the relationship she had with the maid who helped to raise her, and look at her own position in society. As Skeeter grows into an independent woman and a brave journalist, it becomes increasingly clear to her that the lines that divide people are artificial. Minny and Aibileen, who risk far more than Skeeter does, find deep inner resources and evolve as people. The characters’ internal struggles and the external danger from white supremacists charge this novel with enormous dramatic tension and make it practically impossible to put down.
The Help abounds in vividly drawn female characters. Skeeter, Minny, and Aibileen’s voices ring true. The maids’ employers emerge as fully believable people. Some are petty tyrants, but Stockett draws a touching, humorous portrait of Miss Celia, Minny’s boss, decent at the core but adrift from her poor, country roots and floundering. This brilliantly written novel has wonderful comic moments as well as heartbreak. I’d put it on the top of my bookshelf, next to To Kill A Mockingbird. It is that extraordinary.
Chuca of Cueca, Ecuador, an orphaned twelveyear-old girl who has been kidnapped to Peru over testimony in a case before the Commission of Human Rights. He is to present Ms. Gonzáles (Andy) before the High Commissioner in New York City on or before January 13, 1972. Of course the assignment is personal on a number of levels. If successful, he might adopt the child, for he loved her mother, but this will only be possible if he can get over his own emotionally crippled past, which includes the knowledge that everyone he’s ever cared about has died. And if he can convince the hot United Nations Vice Commissioner, Cristiana Tanassé, that he’s not too screwed up to be a proper parent.
The bulk of the novel takes place in various locales from Peru to Mexico. Andy is a delightfully quirky character who has set her sights on having JA for a father. Though perilous, their travels become her chance to bond with the man she hopes will become her father. For JA, it’s a trespass through his own dubious, womanizing past. Precocious as Andy is, it’s sometimes difficult to remember that it’s JA doing the supervising... at least until gunplay erupts.
This third in a series of JA’s adventures is as entertaining a journey through the relationship between the two principle characters as it is a suspenseful exercise in keeping the child from harm. It was sad to let JA and Andy go on the last page but maybe not completely necessary if the series continues.
Janette King
LAND OF MARVELS
Phyllis T. Smith
Barry Unsworth, Nan. A. Talese/Doubleday, 2009, $26.00/C$30.00, hb, 288pp, 9780385520072 / Hutchinson, 2009, £18.99, hb, 304pp, 9780091926175
Somerville, a British archaeologist, is spending his third season working on Tell Erdek in Mesopotamia just months before the start of the Great War. His funds are running out, and he is terribly afraid that the railroad the Germans are building will destroy his site even if he’s able to continue to pay his workers. In fact, representatives of the three key nations that will be involved in the coming war all play a role: Great Britain, Germany, and the United States. While the land and resources they are concerned with are ruled by Turkey, there seems to be little regard for that country’s role or rights. While the central focus is on the situation at Tell Erdek, where the wider political situation is seen in microcosm, there is an engaging side story involving Jehar, whom Somerville is paying for information about the encroaching railroad line, and the young woman whom Jehar woos through increasingly fantasized tales of an idyllic locale they can repair to together.
Long, long ago, the area encompassed by this novel was Assyrian. Unsworth describes that empire: “A lust for power had inspired them from the first, an energy of conquest that had taken them… to domination of practically all the world they knew and to the development of a ruthless militarism that made their army the most feared and efficient fighting machine
that the world had so far seen.” The land is also a portion of a large territory that became Iraq following the war, leading to possible comparisons between Assyria and a modern power. This engaging novel can be read on several levels. Some will find the archaeological details and the history of the Assyrians to be extremely interesting. Readers who are intrigued by the political machinations of the period will also find much to savor. With all its facets taken together, it is a ripping good story.
Trudi E. Jacobson
CUTTING FOR STONE
Abraham Verghese, Knopf, 2009, $26.95/ C$32.00, hb, 534pp, 9780375414497 / Chatto & Windus, 2009, £17.99, hb, 560pp, 9780701173838
Born in 1954 to an Indian Carmelite nun and a promising British surgeon in an Ethiopian hospital, Marion Stone narrates the story of his life and the life of his twin brother, Shiva, in this heartfelt chronicle of a cobbled family of unusual, and unusually talented, doctors.
After their mother’s death in childbirth and their father’s swift abandonment, Marion—or “ShivaMarion,” as he likes to call himself and his brother—comes under the guardianship of the two remaining physicians in the shoestring hospital: A barren Indian obstetrician and the kindhearted internist who adores her. Bound in an annually renewable marriage, they do their best to raise the twins as well as Genet, the illegitimate daughter of one of their servants. Through several waves of political upheaval and the more volcanic instability of adolescence, the three children grow strong and mostly happy—which make later acts of betrayal all the more difficult to fathom. One particular act of terrorism forces Marion to flee the country. He lands an internship in a New York City hospital where fate brings him in contact with his longmissing biological father.
Cutting for Stone is an intensely emotional book written by a man whose reverence for the medical profession and respect for the dedication necessary to master the work shines through. There is a lovely intermingling of cultures—Indian, Ethiopian, Eritrean, Italian— and an unflinching glimpse into the real world of third-world medicine. As is probably inevitable in a story fundamentally about birth, death, and human frailty, there are a few overwrought moments—all the more noticeable against the naked honesty of the writing, and the efforts the writer has made to hew close to the realities of this world. It’s a heartbreakingly lovely world, for all its sickness and troubles, and that, perhaps, is the author’s greatest triumph.
Lisa Ann Verge
THE LIE
Fredrica Wagman, Steerforth, 2009, $13.95/ C$15.95, pb, 224pp, 9781586421571
The Lie takes place in the late 1940s through the 1950s. It begins in the rain on a park bench
in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square when Solomon Columbus joins Ramona Smollens. She is in mourning and dealing with her father’s recent death. Although they have just met, she takes Solomon home and hides with him in the attic of her mother’s house for four days, after which they marry. As a girl, Ramona emulated Rita Hayworth, dyeing her hair red and wearing it in her style. After her marriage she becomes obsessed with the thought that her husband is having an affair with Miss Hayworth, who Ramona believes is hiding in their apartment. Ramona dwells on the imagined affair between Solomon and Miss Hayworth so much that we learn only in passing that Solomon and Ramona have a son. This obsession is clearly destructive.
Ms. Wagman has written The Lie from Ramona’s point of view. In fact, until the last chapter, the story is related entirely in Ramona’s head in a stream-of-consciousness style. Although Ramona’s life before her father’s death was a horror of fear and abuse, it is difficult to feel sympathy for her since we only see her as she sees herself, which is a totally unrealistic viewpoint.
Audrey Braver
VIENNA TRIANGLE
Brenda Webster, Wings Press, 2009, $16.95, pb, 240pp, 978-0916727505
Vienna Triangle is not a mathematical puzzle but a complex human one. The novel opens in 1968 with Helene Deutsch, the first female psychotherapist and one of the last survivors of Freud’s circle, meeting a new neighbor literally by accident. Emily Berg stumbles to the ground while walking, and Helene helps her home and meets Kate, Emily’s budding feminist daughter and an earnest psychology student researching women in early psychotherapy. Meeting her idol, Helene, in the flesh, Kate begs a chance to mine Helene’s memories of the early Freudian circle. A modern triangle forms, as Kate delves into her own past against her mother’s wishes and uncovers a diary which, paired with Helene’s remembrances, gives her myriad insights that no span of psychotherapy treatment could have unearthed. Helen confirms events in the diary of the various triangles of influence involving Freud, Helene, and the ubiquitous intellectual temptress, Lou-Andreas Salomé, and their effect on intense, star-crossed acolyte Viktor Tausk, the diary’s author. Were there enough neuroses in the Freud “family” alone to supply the annals of psychotherapy? Did each work out their jealousies and fears on one another, eventually leading to dissent and disaster?
This is a compelling read for those who crave insights into human behavior and early psychotherapy, but also an enjoyable read as Webster blends fact with her seamless fiction to create a satisfying portrait of two major upheavals in 20th-century history: the human timeline of Freudian “bombshells” and the
social revolution of the turbulent
Sixties. Tess Allegra
A MAD DESIRE TO DANCE
Elie Wiesel, Knopf, 2009, $25.00/C$28.00, hc, 274 pp, 9780307266507
This elegiac novel follows Doriel, a man who fears he is either mad or possessed by a dybukk, and Dr. Therese Goldschmidt, the wealthy and remote psychoanalyst trying to heal him. Doriel searches for a redemptive love with the “smile of a frightened child” through the labyrinth of his madness while the doctor struggles to weave together a past from the disparate stories he tells, but she is unsure of the truth of his stories or of his dybukk. Slowly he reveals events that shake the doctor from her professional detachment. He recounts a childhood spent in hiding during the war with his father and younger brother. His mother and sister were in the Polish resistance, so he rarely saw them. But when the family members that survive the war die in a simple accident, Doriel is left alone. He searches for meaning in his past in his initially deep Jewish faith, but when another dies in his place, his guilt and his dybukk consume him. Doriel’s demons invade even the doctor’s carefully ordered and remote life. The two work to save themselves and to bring Doriel to a hopeful denouement and a chance to liberate himself from the burden of his past. A haunting and redemptive novel that shines light into the darkness of one man’s tortured and lonely soul.
Rebecca Cantrell
THE INTERROGATOR
Andrew Williams, John Murray, 2009, £17.99, hb, 375pp, 9780719523618
We all know that the British managed to break the German ‘Enigma’ code during World War II, but what of the other side of the coin? In the worst period of the Battle of the Atlantic, the winter of 1940-41, had the Germans broken the Royal Navy’s codes so that U-boat commanders knew where British merchant ships would be?
Lieutenant Douglas Lindsay RNVR, employed to interrogate captured U-boat men, becomes convinced that the enemy have broken the codes. But, in the best tradition of the thriller, his superiors don’t want to know. Indeed, they believe Lindsay a security risk— not surprisingly, since he has a German mother and a first cousin who is a U-boat captain. Lindsay’s ally is Mary Henderson, an academic working in the Admiralty’s Submarine Tracking Room, but most of his information comes from his questioning prisoners, in particular as he tries to ‘break’ leading U-boat ‘ace’ Kapitan Jurgen Mohr.
Mr. Williams previously produced a bestselling history of the Battle of the Atlantic, so it is a pity that some careless errors have crept in. No ship of the White Star Line would be Imperial Star –White Star names all ended in-ic (Titanic, Laurentic, there was even a Ceramic), and Lindsay could not have heard
the bells of Westminster Abbey pealing in the spring of 1941. The ringing of church bells was prohibited on 13 June 1940 except to signal a German invasion. The next time any bells were rung was on 8 November 1942 to mark the victory of El Alamein.
Ann Lyon
AN INCOMPLETE REVENGE
Jacqueline Winspear, John Murray, 2009, £7.99, pb, 342pp, 9780719569616 / Picador, 2008, $14.00, pb, 352pp, 9780312428181
As a Maisie Dobbs newcomer, for me this book was a revelation. It is fresh, unpretentious, and totally gripping. Unlike her other books— this is the fifth in the series, and a sixth is already out--An Incomplete Revenge is set in a rural environment, in Kent where London’s “East Enders” and other seasonal labourers come every September to pick the hops. Winspear knows Kent well—she grew up there –and she not only reflects the claustrophobia of a small community but also the strength of human relationships, especially when they close ranks against a common threat.
The story is set in 1931, but the Great War still casts a long shadow over the village and its inhabitants—many of the village boys were killed when their Kent regiment was annihilated, and the village is full of other secrets. Maisie herself also faces renewed personal loss which forces her to come to terms with her past, especially with the help of a mysterious stranger, Aunt Beulah Webb, a gypsy matriarch who is portrayed with extraordinary humanity and insight. The rich detail surrounding Kentish life, hop-picking, and the visiting gypsies is skillfully woven together in this compelling story of a community forced to come to terms with its shameful past. Winspear writes about age-old themes— discrimination, prejudice, and self-discovery—with clarity and a heart-felt love of period and place.
Lucinda Byatt
NMULTI-PERIOD
SHAMAN WINTER
Rudolfo Anaya, Univ. of New Mexico Press, 2009, $17.95, pb, 384pp, 9780826344649
In the late 1990s Albuquerque resident and private investigator Sonny Baca is recovering from his latest run-in with his nemesis, a sadistic nihilist who goes by the name Raven. When Raven returns and begins kidnapping young girls around New Mexico—while at the same time invading Sonny’s dreams and kidnapping his grandmothers throughout history—the very fabric of Sonny’s past and present is threatened.
The third in the series of Sonny Baca’s adventures, Anaya’s story is rich with the culture of New Mexico past and present, but the book overall is marred by substandard writing. From the head-jumping point-of-view shifts, to stilted dialog, to the frankly silly plot points in the late1990s sections, this is a very promising story
with fascinating mystical and spiritual elements undone by its awkward writing. A stronger editing hand would have been very welcome. The quality is surprising, given his many awards for his books, including Albuquerque and Bless Me Ultima
Originally published in 1999, this paperback reissue has some truly fascinating things to say about New Mexico and its peoples throughout history, but only if you can overlook some eyeroll-inducing plotting and surprisingly bad dialog.
Julie Rose
THE CHARLEMAGNE PURSUIT
Steve Berry, Hodder & Stoughton, 2008, £11.99, pb, 503pp, 9780340933473 / Ballantine, 2008, $26.00, hb, 528pp, 9780345485793
This is the seventh novel from this American author and the fourth in the Cotton Malone series. The book does refer to previous events in the life of the protagonist but is very much stand alone. On the back are endorsements from Dan Brown and Clive Cussler, and this novel is definitely in Da Vinci Code territory. Fans of these two authors and also John Grisham and David Baldacci would certainly find this book interesting.
The novel opens in 1971 with a dramatic scene in a top-secret submarine and then switches to a thrilling fight in a cable car in the snowy Alps. From then on, it is a rollercoaster ride involving conspiracies, gunfights, a hitman, a ruthless politician who will stop at nothing to achieve his ambitions, and dead bodies. All of this is wrapped up in a tale involving Charlemagne, ancient myths and legends, and even the Nazis. The main character is Cotton Malone, and part of the novel is concerned with his quest to find his father, missing along with the submarine. There are plenty of twists and turns, cover ups, crossing and double crossing. The constant switching between places and people can be a little confusing but also adds to the sense of the hectic nature of events. This novel won`t be winning any literary prizes anytime soon, but it is fast paced and action packed and would make a great holiday read.
Ann Northfield
TAINTED TREE
Jacquelynn Luben, Goldenford, 2008, £9.99, pb, 367pp, 9780953161386
This rambling book, which was sent to me for review as a historical novel, is set in 1991 and the ‘60s. It contains no major historical reference in the backstory, such as the Suez Crisis, Macmillan’s ‘never had it so good’ speech, or the Bay of Pigs threat of world war. Only Kennedy’s murder appears.
An American girl, Addie, with a tragic but fascinating ancestry is left a big house in Surrey by a man she’s never met. In trying to find her antecedents she is bedded by three witnesses and endures attempted rape.
There are good characterisations of likeable
people showing firm distinctions between middle class and country yokel types. Some of their names confused me. There was the heroine, Addie (purporting to be short for Adrienne, though Addie is a nickname for Adelaide, my mother’s name, and far too old for a girl in her late twenties in 1991); Ada, which is another shortening of Adelaide; Adrienne, Addie’s mother; and finally Adele. Confused? There are 26 initial letters to choose from.
This book has some excellent family dialogue, which races along most satisfyingly, but there are long, ponderous letters about university life, the tracing of family history, and endless diary entries written by Addie’s mother.
Writing-wise, it lacks polish and could do with a good edit to eliminate clichés and excessive adjectives and to link characters’ thoughts and actions to their spoken words.
This strikes me, in many ways, as an amateur novel, printed and published by an amateur book printer. I was irritated by the curly, laminated cover, poor design with tiny margins at top and sides, author’s chapter titles and bad pagination with blank pages.
Geoffrey Harfield
NAMBE YEAR ONE
Orlando Romero, University of New Mexico Press, 2009, $19.95, pb, 184pp, 9780826346322
Out of print for many years since its publication in 1976, Romero’s luminous and mystical novel is once again available to a new
generation of readers. The author, a former librarian, sculptor, and santero (an artisan who creates santos, statues of saints), weaves a magical tale of northern New Mexico that spans generations of his family and the people that inhabit Nambe.
Starting with the legends of Gypsies and Payasos (clowns) that wandered the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Romero spins a spider web of stories about the beautiful and perhaps metaphorical Gypsy that enchanted his father, grandfather, great-grandfather and, ultimately, himself. But to call this novel a love story would be simplistic. Romero’s prose reads more like poetry, and the work takes on the shape of a metaphysical self-exploration of faith, heritage, and humanity.
There are warm and finely drawn characters here, as in Romero’s mother, his grandfather and son, and a cast of others typical of New Mexico such as the secretive and suffering Penitentes and the clowns and magicians who entrance the villagers. Combining into one narrative the old ways and worldviews of the Hispanic, Anglo, and Native American cultures of the people of Nambe, Romero’s novel transcends all cultures. It is a wonderful read, enriching anyone seeking self-awareness.
John Kachuba
N n
TIMESLIP
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Y THE PHYSICK BOOK OF DELIVERANCE DANE (US) / THE LOST BOOK OF SALEM (UK)
Katherine Howe, Voice, 2009, $25.95/C$31.95, hb, 384pp, 9781401340902 / Penguin, 2009, £6.99, pb, 480pp, 9780141038117
This is a story that’s easy to lose yourself in. It alternates between the early 1990s, when Connie Goodwin is working on her doctorate in American colonial history at Harvard, and the colonial Salem area, mostly in the early 1690s. Connie has passed her oral exams, and when asked by her mother to ready Connie’s grandmother’s long vacant house outside of Salem for possible sale, she decides she can spend the summer fixing up the house while finding a topic for her dissertation, which she needs to start soon. She has never seen her grandmother’s house before and is amazed to find it is centuries old, hidden by overgrowth. Shortly after she arrives, she finds an ancient key containing an equally old slip of paper with the words “Deliverance Dane” written upon it. Connie is not one to ignore a historical mystery, one which plays out for the reader in the Interlude sections, in which we get glimpses of the life of Deliverance Dane, her daughter, and granddaughter. Goody Dane has the misfortune to live at the time of the Salem witch trials. But what was her role? Why is she not mentioned in the records of that time?
The alternating time periods do not distract but rather interplay neatly. The Interludes, while shorter than the 1990s story, give an atmospheric glimpse into that fraught time and some of its lingering consequences. In Connie’s sections, the research undertaken by the chair of the history department, the story of her grandmother’s house, and the mystery of what happens to the men connected to this house, all interweave with Connie’s search for Deliverance Dane to create a book that is impossible to put down.
Trudi E. Jacobson
Timeslip-Children & YA
WHAT WOULD JANE AUSTEN DO?
Laurie Brown, Sourcebooks, 2009, $6.99/ C$7.99, pb, 384pp, 9781402218316
Eleanor Pottinger has traveled to England for a Jane Austen convention. Rather than giving her costume history lecture as she’d planned, she time-travels back to the Regency era at the behest of two ghostly sisters. Charged with preventing a duel, Eleanor finds herself embroiled in tracking an English spy who is working for Napoleon. Is the spy the brother of the two sisters, or the ne’er-do-well Lord Shermont who captures Eleanor’s fancy? There is a traitor in the midst of their party and if he is not found, many lives will be affected. More than once Eleanor wonders, “what would Jane Austen do?” when pitted against a challenging situation.
Brown is an excellent storyteller and keeps her tongue firmly in her cheek throughout this Regency ghost-time-travel-spy-mystery romp. This is romantic fiction at its most enjoyable and one that does not take itself too seriously. I recommend What Would Jane Austen Do? to lovers of the Regency who are looking for something lighthearted, fresh, and fun.
Monica Spence
HISTORICAL FANTASY
THE HOARD OF MHORRER
M.F.W. Curran, Macmillan New Writing, 2009, £14.99, hb, 469pp, 9780230709805
Although not a straight historical novel, The Hoard of Mhorrer effectively blends fantasy with real historical events. This is a struggle of light and dark, good and evil, set against the backdrop of Egypt in 1822 and continues the action begun in the author’s first novel, The Secret War.
Captain William Saxon is on a mission to find and destroy a stockpile of great evil before it can fall into the hands of the evil Count Ordrane. Vampyres, daemons, and other mythical creatures rally against the Captain and his men, determined to plunge mankind into the pits of Hell.
Hand on heart I have to admit to not being a huge fan of fantasy, but this novel did grip my imagination and proved to me once again that I should never judge a book before opening its pages. The whole concept of a secret Vatican army fighting against the armies of darkness is an intriguing one, and one that the author writes about with graphic description and much panache.
A novel that is just a little bit different and all the better for it.
Sara Wilson
would be the story of Deirdre: a woman of pure beauty and light, but whose very existence is prophesied to be the ruin of the kingdom. Conor, the king of the Ulaid, defies the prophecy: instead of banishing Deirdre at birth, he plots that she will become his priestess-wife, and thus sends her to be raised in the forest by a druid teacher. Conor is not a warrior king; rather, he has ruled for thirty years by his shrewd wits. His downfall is his lust for Deirdre, who, when we first encounter her at eighteen, wants nothing to do with him, preferring her life among the animals, plants, and spirits of the forest.
To gain her freedom, Deirdre enlists the assistance of the three sons of Usnech—Naisi, Ardan, and Ainnle—brave, proud warriors who have antagonized the king by hunting on his land. All four of them are now relentlessly hunted by Conor and his spies, and they flee Erin for Alba (Scotland). Naisi and Deirdre’s attraction builds into a deep love, which causes a rift between the brothers. Life in Alba isn’t easy, and the brothers are drawn into battles between warring factions with Deirdre unwittingly becoming an object of desire of another unscrupulous king.
The journey through the forests, mountains, and seas is both poetic and heartrending. Watson weaves the story of Deirdre’s deepening understanding of her druid side and her powers to bridge the human and spirit worlds together with history and a powerful love story in this page-turning retelling of one of the Ulster Cycle tales.
Helene Williams
CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULT
THE OTHER HALF OF LIFE
Kim Ablon Whitney, Knopf, 2009, $16.99/ C$18.99, hb, 256pp, 9780375852190
Everyone tells fifteen-year-old Thomas Werkmann that he’s finally escaping Nazi Germany on the MS St. Francis, bound for Cuba, but the gifted chess player can see too many moves in advance to believe them. His father is in a concentration camp and he had to leave his mother in Germany. He does not trust his luck. His worries are initially not shared by his new best friend, the adventurous fourteen-year-old Priska Affeldt. After a chance overheard conversation, the two friends embark on a dangerous investigation, shadowing an unsavory Nazi crew member, a friendly young purser also attracted to Priska, and a captain who acts suspiciously tolerant. As they dig deeper, they discover that their shipmates hide dangerous secrets. What will happen to the passengers when they reach Cuba, freedom, a return to an increasingly dangerous Europe or something else entirely?
THE SWAN MAIDEN
Jules Watson, Bantam, 2009, $12.00/C$14.00, pb, 540pp, 9780553384642
Every civilization has its Helen of Troy legend, and for Ireland during the Iron Age, that
After a slow start, the novel picks up when Thomas and Priska start searching for answers. The twists and turns of the investigation are echoed in Thomas’s beautifully described chess games. Life on board the ship is aptly described, and the passengers’ hope and doubt is palpable.
Knowing that the voyage itself and the historical outcome actually happened lends the narrative a sense of urgency and inevitability as the novel heads into its endgame.
Rebecca Cantrell
BACKTRACKED
Pedro de Alcantara, Delacorte, 2009, $15.99/ C$17.99, hb, 272pp, 9780385904196
In Backtracked the author makes use of the popularity of time travel in fiction to drive home lessons for everyone on individual worth and self-reliance. It’s 2006 in New York and Tommy, 15, has fallen into depression and despair from being compared to his older brother Jimmy, a firefighter killed in 9/11. He loves riding the subways and knows them well, tagging the subway lines at night and letting his schoolwork fall off until a confrontation with parents and school authorities takes place. He resolves to flee to Las Vegas and, before he goes, plays a dreadful prank in the subway station. Just when he realizes that setting off a fake bomb has led to disaster, he is sent back in time: first to 1918, then to 1932, and then to 1942. Each episode has its trials, and he meets people whose reality he now shares, when before these situations were only vaguely understood history lessons. The evolving New York railway system is used to good effect, even after young Thomas returns to his proper era and visits a subway museum which eerily includes him in old film clips.
Mary K. Bird-Guilliams
THE NOSTRADAMUS PROPHECY
Theresa Breslin, Doubleday, 2008, £12.99, hb, 470pp, 9780385613088
Sixteenth-century France, a country divided by sectarian hatred: Protestant Huguenots versus Catholics. The weak King Charles is ruled by his mother, the formidable Catherine de Medici. Catherine is greatly influenced by the seer, Nostradamus, whose predictions of bloodshed make her even more suspicious and ruthless. Twelve-year-old Mélisande, the court minstrel’s daughter, is too young to understand political complexities and takes little notice of Nostradamus’s unexpected interest in her. Then she crosses the powerful Count de Ferignay, and things become dangerous. When tragedy strikes, Mélisande flees for her life and Nostradamus is the only person she can trust.
But Nostradamus’s home town of Salon has its own dangers, and soon more than one person is looking for Mélisande. In the six years leading up to the 1572 massacre of Huguenots on St. Bartholomew’s Eve, Mélisande must learn what destiny wants from her—but will she have the wisdom and strength to carry it out?
This book is certainly a rip-roaring read, but I confess I found Mélisande something of a pain. Her father asks her not to go somewhere—she goes; he begs her to keep silent—she talks; her safety requires that she covers her face—she locks eyes with the villain. And she rarely learns from her mistakes. She comes across as a 21st century teenager in 16th century costume. Would a virtuous 16th century girl of good family really make love to a young man who, however sexy and courageous, is beneath her in rank and who, by the conventions of the age, she could never marry? An act which would destroy her reputation and render her unmarriageable. I N n N n
think not.
However, the book is unquestionably well-researched, and the author brings out the turbulence and danger of the times and illuminates the main protagonists brilliantly. For girls, 12 plus.
Elizabeth Hawksley
At the turn of the first page you are immediately thrust straight into the hustle and bustle of 16th-century France, and I think that this is where the true beauty of the book lies. Really, it is an ideal backdrop for any story, with the rivalry for status that went on in courts at that time. However, I felt that the exciting and adventurous plot was somewhat let down by the style of the writing, which, although good in parts, did not have the consistency that I craved. Indeed, I found that although it was easy to follow it was sometimes too basic. Providing, in my opinion, a slight mismatch between the simplistic style of the writing and the plot –which I believe is far better suited to older readers. On a brighter note the book is almost entirely historically accurate and so provides an interesting yet enjoyable portal into 16th-century France.
Rachel Chetwynd-Stapylton, Age 16
THE MARK OF EDAIN
Pauline Chandler, Oxford, 2008, £5.99, pb, 171pp, 9780192720894
History for animal lovers.
Aoife, the niece of Caradoc the chieftain leading the struggle against the Romans in Britain, is captured in a raid and taken to be a slave in Rome. She is also the daughter of a druid, and she has special gifts, one of which is an affinity with animals. She is the only person who can control a particularly wild elephant— the actual elephant which the soothsayer says is the one which the Emperor Claudius must ride in his triumph when he has conquered Britain. Aoife is put in charge of the elephant. She is going home, but she is still a prisoner. After the triumph the elephant will be killed in the arena, and Aoife will also be put to death.
But she discovers she has many secret helpers—like Justinius, a member of the Praetorian Guard, who was born in Gaul, where his true allegiance lies. There is also the Celtic horse trader Galen who acts as a messenger. Then Justinius’ treachery is revealed, and Claudius condemns him to death by crucifixion. But Aoife is now near her tribal homeland. Can Galen and her tribe free both her and Aoife?
The story moves to a satisfactory resolution, but for some readers it will seem rather unfinished. Right at the end a young Boudicca is introduced. To those readers who know what happened to Caradoc and Boudicca this will seem like the beginning of a new book. Cues for a sequel?
This is a fast-paced story which illuminates the early invasion of Britain by the Romans and which also reveals their inherent cruelty. But at the very heart of the story is the bond between Aoife and the elephant. Animal lovers will understand. The Romano-British conflict from a new perspective, for ages 11+.
Mary Moffat
Y WILD ORCHID
EDITORS’ CHOICE
Cameron Dokey, Simon & Schuster, 2009, $6.99, pb, 200pp, 9781416971689
In this retelling of “The Ballad of Mulan” for the young adult reader, told in the first person, Cameron Dokey breathes fresh life into an archetypal story of a cross-dressing young woman who goes to war in defense of her beloved China and in place of her father. We are quickly won to the side of its heroine, who came into the world as the blossom of an unconventional love match. Her grief-stricken father does not come home to meet her until Mulan is a teenager, and he’s forced into retirement by war injuries and an angry emperor. He discovers a daughter who loves climbing trees and learning forbidden skills from her friend, Li Po. Father and daughter struggle through their new relationship, but soon a new, very feminine wife joins the household. She becomes pregnant just as the Huns advance again on China and the Emperor sends out his call. Mulan takes up her father’s armor and warhorse and joins Li Po’s archers. Her skills bring her to the attention of the emperor’s youngest son, and she joins him in a daring attempt to turn the tide of the invasion.
Elegant in its simplicity, Wild Orchid is also deep in its exploration of conventions associated with culture—from expected obedience of children, to the power of a motherin-law, to gender and class divisions. The novel’s heroine discovers that she is not the only one struggling against expectations. For Mulan, courage is key in facing the emperor, the enemy, or a father, as she asks for the right to live a life based on love. Highly recommended. Ages 10 and up.
Eileen Charbonneau
BETRAYING SEASON
Marissa Doyle, Henry Holt, 2009, $16.99, hb, 336pp, 9780805082524
Betraying Season, the second entry in Marissa Doyle’s entertaining series featuring 19thcentury English twin sisters Penelope and Persy Leland, takes readers to Cork, Ireland, where eighteen-year-old Penelope travels to study magic and improve her skills as a witch. A good witch, that is. But from the moment of Pen’s arrival, she is courted by Lady Nuala Keating, a sorceress of the first order, who immediately spots Pen’s extraordinary powers. Add to the mix Lady Keating’s handsome son, Niall, a handsome and charming fellow who, through some tricky maneuvering on the author’s part, convinces himself it is all right to follow his mother’s orders and make Pen fall in love with him so Pen will do anything for him.
“Why?” he asks his mother. Told that in good time all will be revealed, Niall decides flirting with a beautiful young woman can’t be all bad. Although we know where this is going, getting there is highly entertaining, due in great part to the author’s skillful and imaginative handling of the story details. There are surprises along the way. Magic abounds, both light and dark, as Pen is drawn into Lady Keating’s evil plan to use Pen’s powers to kill young Queen Victoria. Readers might like to begin with the first book in the series, Bewitching Season, Doyle’s debut novel, featuring Pen’s sister, Persy, as Persy and Pen save Victoria from an evil enchantment. Young adult and up.
Alana White
THE MUSICIAN’S DAUGHTER
Susanne Dunlap, Bloomsbury USA, 2009, $16.99, hb, 322pp, 9781599903323
Christmas Eve in Vienna isn’t a time for
celebration. Rather it is a time to mourn, for Theresa’s father is dead. Her only solace comes from playing the viola Papa gave her, but it is soon sold to provide food for the family. Desolate, she seeks help from her godfather, Franz Joseph Haydn. His eyesight is failing, so he employs her as his copyist, for he must deliver musical scores to a publisher soon or forfeit his advance.
Since Papa’s violin disappeared the night he was murdered, she also sets out to find it. Her only clue is a mysterious pendant. With the help of Zóltan, one of the musicians in Haydn’s orchestra, and a determination to uncover the truth no matter what, Theresa discovers that her father was attempting to help the persecuted gypsies.
To complicate matters, her mother seeks Councilor Wolkenstein’s assistance in finding a suitable husband for Theresa. He, however, has other plans for his niece’s future. In trying to avoid his clutches, Theresa soon finds herself caught up in the midst of a dangerous plot orchestrated by powerful men determined to enslave the gypsies.
The Austrian world Dunlap creates is wonderfully captured and peopled with fascinating characters. The story’s pace mirrors that of a sedate, melodic score—perhaps for longer than it should—but those who stick around are eventually rewarded with a crescendo of suspense and intrigue. As I read this book, I wondered why a young adult, its intended audience, would want to read it. It seemed as if it would interest adults more than children, perhaps because this is Dunlap’s first for this age group; her previous novels were written for adults. Those interested in orchestral music, the Romany, and subtle mystery, though, will enjoy The Musician’s Daughter
Cindy Vallar
IMPERFECTIONS
Lynda Durrant, Clarion, 2008, $16.00, hb, 172pp, 9780547003573
In 1862 fourteen-year-old Rosemary Elizabeth Godfrey, her brother Isaac, and baby sister Anne are taken by their mother to the Shaker village in Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, to escape their alcoholic father’s violent rages. What Rosemary and her siblings do not know at first is that their mother is leaving them at Pleasant Hill alone. While Isaac and Baby Anne adjust to Shaker life without too much difficulty, Rosemary, now called Sister Bess, has more trouble being perfect. She tries, but imperfections keep creeping into her life. She enjoys the pure Shaker food and clean, healthy surroundings, but she also has many questions. For example, she doesn’t understand why she should always start walking with the right foot or why she isn’t allowed to have a cat for a pet. She also doesn’t understand why her mother is not coming back.
As the Civil War rages around them, the community of Pleasant Hill manages to stay neutral and mostly uninvolved, except for the occasional visit by soldiers from both sides of the conflict. When the soldiers do come, the Shakers make them feel welcome. They feed the men and their horses then allow them to rest before going on. As Sister Bess continues to learn about the Shaker community, she comes to the realization that everyone has imperfections, even Shakers, and their imperfections help shape who they are.
Lynda Durant’s coming-of-age novel is well researched. She shares details about everyday life in Pleasant Hill, giving the reader a closeup, nonjudgmental look at Shaker life while celebrating the value of differences. Ms. Durant includes interesting historical details as well, including a visit from John Hunt Morgan and his raiders to Pleasant Hill in 1862. Nan Curnutt
A WORLD AWAY
Pauline Francis, Usborne, 2008, £5.99, pb, 272pp, 9780746081129
Set in the 1580s in England and Virginia, this is the love story of Nadie, a Native American girl from Secota, near Roanoke, and Tom, a young Plymouth blacksmith. It is told in short, alternating first-person chapters, which create a gripping narrative.
Nadie is captured in a raid by settlers from the English colony of Roanoke and taken to England as an exhibit for Sir Walter Raleigh. Abandoned in Plymouth, bewildered and afraid, she encounters both hostility and friendship. Tom is fascinated by her from the start. He defends her from her tormentors, and gradually the two fall in love.
Nadie is desperate to return to Secota to be reunited with her father and to honour her murdered mother’s grave—but when the chance comes she also wants to stay with Tom. In the end it is Tom who gives up his life in Plymouth and sails with her, joining the second expedition to colonize Roanoke. But neither Tom nor Nadie find what they were expecting. The colonists suffer escalating horrors, and Tom and Nadie are separated. Will they ever find each other again?
Told in vivid, poetic style, this story springs from the page in colours as bright as a Virginia fall. Images of fire recur throughout: the smithy, the fires of purgatory, the fires of love, of destruction, of a forest fire. The narrative unfolds in a series of dramatic scenes, with no unnecessary detail. This is a beautifully written book that brings to life the clash of cultures in the New World.
Ann Turnbull
THE CAMEL WHO CROSSED AUSTRALIA
Jackie French, Angus and Robertson, 2008, AU$14.99, pb, 208pp, 9780732285432 In 1861 Burke and Wills became the first white men to cross the Australian continent from the south to its north coast. Neither man returned alive. This novel, the third in Jackie French’s Animal Stars series, tells the story of their disastrous expedition. It is suitable for students in their upper primary school years.
The novel is written in a shifting first-person point of view. The main protagonist is Bell Sing, a camel transported to Australia from the region of present-day Pakistan. Bell Sing’s voice is wise, witty, and compelling. He is the strongest camel in the caravan. We sense that he should have been the leader of the expedition.
The second protagonist is Dost Mahomet, a young man brought from Lahore on the North West Indian frontier to care for the camels. We see the bigotry and foolishness of the expedition leaders from his viewpoint and are given the advantage of his differing world view and desert experience.
The remaining viewpoint character is John King, a young British soldier of Irish origin. King’s health has suffered during his military service in India. He had also grown wary of people from other races. King’s is the only British viewpoint in the story, but he is not an expedition leader. As a soldier, he faces the dilemma being loyal to men whom he finds incompetent. He must also learn to trust the local indigenous people who offer him succour.
This is not a light book. Neither is it morbid or frightening. Tragic outcomes are seen to be the result of foolish and, for the most part, avoidable decisions. Through the kindness of Dost Mahomet, Bell Sing escapes and makes his home in the Australian outback. His story carries the narrative beyond despair and gives the reader a satisfying conclusion.
Elizabeth Jane
RUMOURS (UK) / RUMORS (US)
Anna Godbersen, Penguin, 2009, £6.99, pb, 423pp, 9780141323374 / HarperTeen, 2009, $9.99, pb, 448pp, 9780061345715
Manhattan 1899 is the setting for Rumours, the sequel to The Luxe. The name aptly reflects the tone of the society about which the book is written. When the beautiful, leading socialite, Miss Elizabeth Holland, is reported to have died in a terrible accident, speculation is rife. No body has been found, giving rise to rumours that she may have been abducted or even captured by white slave traders.
This novel engages the reader from the onset, drawing you into a thoroughly researched world where ‘nothing is more precious than a secret...
or more dangerous than a scandal’.
Lives are governed by rules and ethics. Morals are thin but have to be seen to be strong, and naivety is soon lost to the reality of a world where etiquette and material wealth can count for little if scandal is linked to a family’s good name. Following one’s heart to experience genuine love is no rival to the importance of forming a suitable match. Breaking the rules can have disastrous consequences for the individuals and the families of those who dare.
The novel explores the fickleness of human nature in a world where choosing your friends wisely is an important lesson to learn early. Gossip is a currency in itself, which can be used to improve your standing or wealth.
We follow the believable characters of the naive Elizabeth and her lover Will, her mischievous sister Diana, the devious and seductive Penelope, and Henry, a reformed cad, on a journey which intertwines and delights with increasing pace.
The ending is unpredictable, leaving the reader wanting more—very enjoyable. For young adults.
Val Loh
CAT O’NINE TAILS
Julia Golding, Egmont, 2007, £8.99, hb, 384pp, 9781405230469
1791. In this fourth Cat Royal adventure, Cat, dressed as a boy, is kidnapped and taken on board HMS Courageous under the vicious and manic Captain ‘Barmy’ Barton. With her are her friends Pedro, ex-slave and brilliant musician, and Frank, the heir to a dukedom. Something smells fishy to Cat. She suspects that they were lured there to rescue their press-ganged boxer friend, Syd. But why? It’s possible that someone wants the wealthy Frank out of the way. But who? And who has had Cat framed for the murder of Frank’s gentlemanly cousin, William Dixon?
Cat must learn the ropes—literally—and not only survive in this hell on earth but also protect her friends. The purser, Mr Maclean, who has discovered the secret of her disguise, has sworn to kill her if Syd, Frank, or Pedro stirs up trouble. If Cat can escape without implicating them, their position should be safer. When the ship lands in Georgia to repair a broken mast, Cat seizes her opportunity and escapes, only to find herself taken by Creek Indians. Will they hand her back to Mr Maclean—or do they have other plans for her?…
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The pace is fast and furious, and the glimpses into the various worlds Cat passes through—elegant 18th-century Bath, the horrors of life on board ship, and the traditional ways in an Indian tribe—all have a ring of truth without, as is so often the case, the author ramming her research down the readers’ throats. Cat has things to learn from each world. The supposedly savage Creek Indians, for example, are far more civilized than the white men who have taken their land, and courage and kindness can be found in unexpected places.
For boys and girls of 10 plus.
Elizabeth Hawksley
In this—the latest Cat Royal adventure— there is a change of setting from the back streets of London to a Royal Navy ship bound for America. We’re introduced to some new characters, including some treacherous sailors Cat Royal has several very tight scrapes to escape from, and all is not what it seems with her friends and allies…
The book is fast paced and fairly gripping, but I found the writing in this, the fourth book in the series, a little repetitive despite lots of new settings including Cat’s temporary life amongst Native American Indians. Julia Golding could have made this book better by introducing new main characters and perhaps changing Cat’s attitude to certain things, like people she knows, etc.
It would be interesting to see what Cat’s original home, the Theatre Royal, which was being rebuilt in 1791 and is not featured in this book, is now like.
Ella McNulty, aged 13
BLOWN AWAY
Joan Hiatt Harlow, Aladdin, 2008, $5.99/ C$6.99, pb, 248pp, 9781416907824
Midway along the Florida Keys lies the island village of Islamorada. The original community was present in the early 1900s, but as described dramatically in this novel, it was completely rearranged, buildings destroyed, and several hundred people killed in 1935 during a hurricane. Young Jake is content with his island life, fishing and earning a little money to help out his family by working with a mean old man rumored to have a stash of salvage treasure. He befriends a new immigrant to the island, a girl with no parents left and a gift for rhyme, and promises to teach her to fish if she helps with his babysitting duty for his little sister, Star. The storm sneaks up on the characters, as weather does in real life, scary low barometer readings and mixed forecasts from the weather authorities about the storm’s path. In fact, Islamorada was landfall for the storm and even the rescue train may not be a way to safety. An exciting story with real history for 10 and up.
Mary K. Bird-Guilliams
NEWES FROM THE DEAD
Mary Hooper, Bodley Head, 2008, £8.99, hb, 301pp, 9780370329482 / Roaring Brook Press, 2008, $16.95, hb, 272pp, 9781596433557 1650. This is based on the true story of Anne Green, a young, naïve maidservant who is taken in by a young gentleman, Geoffrey Reade. She believes his promises of marriage, allows herself to be seduced, becomes pregnant and gives birth to a premature, stillborn child. She is charged with infanticide by Geoffrey’s furious grandfather, Sir Thomas, (Anne dares to name Geoffrey as her child’s father) and is sentenced to hang at Oxford and her body given up for dissection.
But as Anne’s corpse lies on the table awaiting dissection, a strange rattle is heard in her throat. Can she still be alive? And, if so, is this God’s way of proclaiming her innocence?
Anne has her own entry in The Dictionary of National Biography, and there is plenty of documentary evidence about her case, mainly from the medical point of view.
Mary Hooper wanted to tell Anne’s own
story, and she does it in a split first- person narrative. Anne tells us about life as a scullery maid in Sir Thomas’s house and how she meets the seductive Geoffrey. Naïvety and youthful vanity lead her to spurn her other honest suitor, the blacksmith John Taylor. Then she finds herself pregnant and tragedy swiftly follows, ending on the gallows. Her story is intertwined with dream-like sequences as Anne struggles back from oblivion and wonders if she is alive or dead. Her between-life-and-death state gives her time to reflect and come to a more mature understanding of what happened.
I enjoyed this book. The subject matter—sex and violent death—is not easy to write about for young teenagers, but Mary Hooper does so honestly and unsensationally. I am sure that most girls of 12 plus will find it as gripping and poignant as I did.
Elizabeth Hawksley
For the first three chapters of the book, I didn’t think it was particularly interesting. I put off reading it for as long as possible because I thought it made no sense. When I eventually got round to reading it, I could barely put it down. The plot is so good because the author has put so much detail into it. She explains the feelings of Anne very well; you can really feel for her. What interests me most is that it is a true story, and I think it’s very clever how Mary Hooper has put herself into the shoes of all the characters so you really feel as if they are talking. She hasn’t overloaded it with description, so your own imagination can get going, which is something I like in a book. I like the first part of the book where it flickers between the present and the past. It makes you want to find out what happens in each part of the story.
I think the book is suitable for mature 12 year olds up. If you have read any of Mary Hooper’s previous books it is very different but up to the same great standard. I thought it was an excellent book and well worth reading.
Rachel Beggs, age 13
A NEST OF VIPERS
Catherine Johnson, Corgi, 2008, £5.99, pb, 211pp, 9780522557627
London, 1712. Mother Hopkins is the fearsome matriarch of a young criminal gang based in the Nest of Vipers pub. There is Sam, a runaway black slave whom she rescued. Cato, also black, was bought by Mother Hopkins when a baby from his destitute mother; the Nest of Vipers is the only home he knows. Addy and Bella have other roles. Bella, the beauty, is skilled at extracting money from susceptible rich young men, and Addy plays a very convincing boy when needed. Lastly, there is Jack, famous for his muscles.
Mother Hopkins wants to retire and plans one last, huge scam involving a fictitious ship, its cargo of jewels and silks, and the very real Stapleton diamonds, acquired by Captain Walker’s haughty daughter, Elizabeth, on her marriage into the nobility. Mother Hopkins prides herself on never ruining anyone who doesn’t deserve it, and Captain Walker, she believes, richly deserves punishment. Not only is he a cruel Jamaican plantation owner who enslaved Sam, his own son, but he also reneged
on his promise to free Sam’s mother. Her trick is to use her victims’ own greed to draw them in, and she believes that the Stapleton diamond scam is foolproof—but is it? If it goes wrong, Cato, who plays a major role, could hang.
Eighteenth-century prints of London life not infrequently depict black people, and it’s good to see some of them coming to life in this wellresearched and exciting book. I enjoyed the skill and audacity with which the various scams were carried out. There is one minor error: Sir John Stapleton’s title. The eldest son of a marquess uses one of his father’s lesser titles as a courtesy title, usually earl. He would never be ‘Sir John’.
It is a terrific read and children of 11 plus should enjoy it.
Elizabeth Hawksley
This book is set in the early 1700s when Cato, a young boy belonging to a gang, ends up imprisoned and facing the gallows. So he tells his tale to the prison vicar. This story becomes the rest of the book. Cato is surrounded by his gang who are also his non-blood family. A Nest of Vipers is a great book because it is somewhat amusing that Cato and the many other children of his age are too young to be in a gang of this calibre. It reminded me of Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist, although it’s very different partly because the children in that book are mostly pickpockets, but the gang in A Nest of Vipers plot many schemes apart from pickpocketing. The book is very fast paced and the action changes a lot during just one page. I greatly enjoyed it.
Hal McNulty, aged 11
T4: A Novel
Ann Clare LeZotte, Houghton Mifflin, 2008, $14.00, hb, 108pp, 9780547046846
The title refers to the Nazi plan, hatched at Tiergartenstrasse 4 in Berlin, to eliminate the disabled in the name of racial purity. While it was officially cancelled in 1941 in reaction to public unrest and church protest, the killings went on in a less centralized form in individual hospitals and institutions. LeZotte casts Paula Becker, 13 and deaf from a childhood illness, as her protagonist, who lives a relatively normal life in Germany with her family in the late 1930s. Then a priest comes to tell the Beckers that because of Aktion T4, the government may seize Paula and put her in an institution. He arranges to hide her with a retired teacher, but when the Nazis become suspicious, Paula is forced to move on to a church-run homeless shelter. An attempt to escape from the constant fear leads her to a forest hut inhabited by a Jewish family in hiding. Paula endangers everyone by returning to the shelter to try to persuade the priests to take the Jews in, as well.
I usually don’t care for novels in free verse, but this one grabbed me early on because I wasn’t very familiar with this lesser-known aspect of the Holocaust. LeZotte is deaf herself, which gives Paula’s condition a real ring of truth. That outweighs a couple of small negatives: the lean text prevents extensive character development, and one part of the denouement is rather pat. An author’s note provides references for further reading, and explains that the characters were
inspired by real-life people. The large amount of white space on the pages and Paula’s compelling story should tempt reluctant readers, while the subject matter would make T4 an excellent discussion starter for a school unit on the Holocaust or disability studies.
B.J. Sedlock
THE KING’S ROSE
Alisa M. Libby, Dutton, 2009, $17.99, hb, 304pp, 9780525479703
As The King’s Rose opens, fifteen-year-old Catherine Howard has a new suitor—Henry VIII, who soon plans to make her his queen. It is a role Catherine’s fiercely ambitious Howard relations have been grooming her to fill, her dubious past notwithstanding. Dutifully, Catherine follows their lead, despite her own misgivings and the haunting example of her doomed, glamorous cousin, Anne Boleyn.
In this novel, narrated by Catherine, Libby takes on several challenges, and succeeds admirably in all of them. First, she tells the story in the first-person present tense, a device which, in the hands of the wrong writer, can quickly become tedious or unintentionally comical. Here, however, it works, helping to build an atmosphere of tension and growing menace. Second, Libby presents the more salacious aspects of Catherine’s story to young adult readers in a manner that is neither prurient nor unrealistic. Third, Libby tells an oft-told story in a way that makes it seem fresh to those who have heard it often; at the same time, she gives enough background detail so that those who are less familiar with Henry VIII’s wives will not be at a loss. Finally, her Catherine is a sympathetic figure, yet Libby gives her a certain amount of edge and does not fall into the easy trap of making her wholly the victim of her scheming elders. As a result, this is a novel that will be staying on my crowded Tudor shelf. Ages 14 and up.
Susan Higginbotham
THE DEVIL’S PAINTBOX
Victoria McKernan, Knopf, 2009, $16.99/ C$18.99, hb, 368pp, 9780375837500
Orphaned and starving, sixteen-year-old Aiden Lynch and his younger sister Maddy struggle to survive on their family’s dried up Kansas farm. In the spring of 1865, Jefferson J. Jackson rides onto their land looking for men to work the Seattle lumber camps. Desperate to keep his sister alive, Aiden pledges more than a year’s wages to pay the cost of traveling in Jackson’s wagon train.
Thus begins an odyssey of adventure, danger, and terrible loss along the Oregon Trail and beyond. During the journey, Aiden forges a friendship with a trio of Nez Perce Indians who save him from drowning. He bonds most closely with Tupic, a boy who learned English at a missionary school and translates for the others. When smallpox—the “devil’s paint”—threatens Tupic’s people, Aiden must decide how far he’s willing to go to help them. After all, he is one of the few non-Indians to feel the native tribes are worth saving.
One might think the hardships of the Oregon Trail combined with the horrors of a smallpox epidemic would make for a very dark read, but
Mckernan has crafted a tale that seamlessly weaves in historical detail while maintaining a momentum that keeps the reader glued to the page. Gritty scenes of hardship abound, yet the author balances them with moments of suspense and humor. Though her plot hinges on an extensive cast of supporting players, her deft characterization ensures that each person Aiden encounters is a complex and discrete individual. Mckernan’s prose is both straightforward and lyrical, and the poignant character arc she creates for Aiden commands our sympathy. Savvy adolescents, teens, and adults will enjoy the novel, though parents should keep in mind that it contains strong language, violence, and references to sexual situations.
Sonia Gensler
ALLIGATOR BAYOU
Donna Jo Napoli, Wendy Lamb, 2009, $16.99/ C$18.99, hb, 288pp, 9780385908917
Alligator Bayou recounts an overlooked but disturbing episode of American history: the persecution and lynching of Italians immigrants. Calogero arrives from Sicily at the end of the 19th century to join extended family in their grocery business in Tallulah, Louisiana. His uncles and cousins have moved to a small town to escape the resentment that falls on large groups of immigrants in cities such as New Orleans. But in Tallulah, the Sicilians find themselves caught up in the tensions between the white and Negro communities. They are shunned as ‘colored’ by white inhabitants yet attacked by these same people when they try to make friends within the Negro population. As economic times worsen, the Sicilians’ very success in striving for the American Dream only adds to the antipathy of the white townspeople. Prejudice and misunderstandings fester until they erupt in the violence of mob rule.
In telling the story from Calogero’s point of view, and in the present tense, Napoli gives an immediate, detailed, and often painful picture of the South in the Reconstruction period. The aching loneliness of the immigrant adults and the struggle of the younger generation to honor their heritage yet fit in as Americans (and simply as children) are rendered acutely. Napoli also shows with terrifying clarity how, once one group of people is dehumanized, it is but a small step to dehumanize anyone else who threatens to upset the status quo.
My one small criticism of the novel is that Napoli herself gives in to stereotypes by giving little voice to Southern whites who object to segregation and lynching while making unprejudiced Northerners prominent. However, in Alligator Bayou, she brings to life a lesson in history well worth learning.
Susan Cook
Alligator Bayou is written very realistically, and it shows the horrible truth about lynchings. Immigrants from Italy were not welcomed to say the least. The book seemed to be about boundaries, such as those between black and white people. Italians were the unfortunate people caught between the ‘line’. The book was not all negative, though. In having a romance with an African-American, Calo breaks these boundaries. I would recommend Alligator
Bayou to anyone above 5th grade, because it shows segregation on a different level than younger children are familiar with. I very much enjoyed reading this book.
Magdalen Dobson, age 12
THE SMILE
Donna Jo Napoli, Dutton, 2008, 17.99, hb, 260pp, 9780525479994
The Smile is the next title in Donna Jo Napoli’s growing list of young adult novels. Many of her previous retellings offered complex stories of many well-known fairy/folktales, such as Zel, a retelling of Rapunzel; Beast, a retelling of Beauty and the Beast; Bound, a retelling of Cinderella; and Breath, a retelling of The Tale of the Pied Piper. This one is different. Rather than enter the fairytale world, Napoli returns to Italy and tells the tale of the famous painting, the Mona Lisa.
Readers are introduced to a young Elisabetta, the daughter of a silk merchant. Even though she does not feel she is a beauty, Elisabetta catches the eye of the famous painter, Leonardo and a young Medici prince. It is the young Guiliano de’Medici who calls Elisabetta Monna Lisa and remembers her smile. Although he is the heir to the most powerful family in Florence and the two fall in love, Elisabetta’s father finds a more suitable match for his daughter in his new wife’s brother-in-law, another silk merchant.
Donna Jo Napoli once again offers a complex story, combining history with a wonderfully imagined tale complete with rich characters and deep emotions. Napoli’s fans will happily add this tale to their growing list of favorites. In addition, lovers of art history and adult readers who have enjoyed Girl with a Pearl Earring will also relish The Smile. Ages 12 and up.
Nancy Castaldo
MAGIC TREE HOUSE: A Wild West Ride
Mary Pope Osborne, Red Fox, 2009, £3.99, pb, 80pp, 9781862305717
1880s: the American Wild West. In their tenth adventure, Jack and Annie find themselves in Rattlesnake Flats, once a prosperous town on the stagecoach route to Texas but now deserted. The children explore the old General Store— now covered in cobwebs—and the hotel, where a spooky piano plays by itself. But before they can go home, a gang of horse raiders gallop in with their booty, including a red mustang mare, whose foal has been abandoned because it can’t keep up.
Annie is horrified by the cruelty and, when the frightened foal turns up, she is determined to reunite it with its mother. But they are stopped by cowboy Slim, who thinks they are horse thieves themselves! Will he believe them and help to free the red mustang from the horse raiders? And how can Slim and the two children beat a hardened gang of armed men?
I found the story complicated (Louis, plainly, got confused—see below) and somewhat disjointed, and the riddle the children must solve is irrelevant. Fortunately, Philippe Masson’s splendid drawings bring the Wild West to life and his pictures give us a bit of everything: cowboys, the General Store, the Saloon bar with the honky-tonk piano, mustangs, rattlesnakes, and cowboy boots. The drawings alone should
hold the children’s interest.
Elizabeth Hawksley
It was about Annie and Jack going to the ghost town. Ghosts were still drifting around in it. People were still alive. There was just one ghost. Slim Cooley is a cowboy, who looks after horses. They help him to rescue some stolen horses. I think Annie and Jack should have told him who they really were. I got quite annoyed at Slim calling Jack ‘Shorty’. I think it was a good story but it should have had more ghosts in it. That would have been more exciting. But the horses were really cool. I thought it was really funny when Jack wrote down in his notebook, ‘Cowboy’s breakfast—hard biscuits and bitter coffee’.
Louis McNulty, age 5
NO TURNING BACK
K.M. Peyton, Usborne, 2008, £5.99, pb, 207pp, 9780746083956
This is the second in KM Peyton’s Roman pony story series featuring Minna, the daughter of the blacksmith at the Roman fort of Othona on the coast of Essex. Minna is now working in the kitchen of the commander’s villa, helping her mother with her sewing and riding Silva whenever possible. (Silva is the horse which Minna rescued as a foal). Minna is now fourteen which is old enough to be married. She is desperately in love with Theo, the commander, although she knows that marriage to him is impossible.
When Theo is sent to Camolodumun to run the citadel, Minna is devastated. Then, when her parents try to force her into a hated marriage, she takes Silva and rides to Camolodunum where Theo finds her a position as a lady’s maid. But Minna’s mind is still on horses––and Theo.
On the way to Camolodumun, Minna had seen a magnificent horse which had been stolen from the Romans by a band of brigands. She persuades Theo to try to steal it back. This results in great danger for both Theo and Minna.
This book shows clearly how even wealthy Romans like Theo were living under obedience. This applies even more to Minna.
This book is certainly not a stand alone. The end reads like the beginning of another book. There is plenty of scope for romantic development in further books in the series. Despite her hopeless love for Theo, she is attracted to both Stuf, the beachcomber, and Draco, the son of the leader of the brigands. Also she is beginning to look more kindly on Benoc, Theo’s slave. Readers will look forward to the next book in the series.
Comes with a map and a glossary. For teenage girls.
Mary Moffat
SCARPER JACK and the Bloodstained Room
Christopher Russell, Puffin, 2008, £4.99, pb, 196pp, 9780141322582
London, 1860s. Eleven-year-old chimney sweep, Jack Tolchard, is inside the well-to-do Shorey family’s chimney. The walls are thin in places, and he overhears two men next door plotting a murder in Nunwell Street. Then, after a disastrous twelfth birthday celebration forced on
him by his ne’er-do-well father, he finds himself drunk in a prison cell, where he meets April, a girl his own age who scavenges illegally in sewers. Later, they both meet schoolboy Rupert Shorey. Jack tells them what he overheard in the chimney of Rupert’s parents’ house.
When the newspapers announce Henry Featherstone’s murder in Nunwell Street, the unlikely trio decides to try and find the murderer. But who will believe a chimneysweep, an illiterate guttersnipe and a schoolboy?
I enjoyed this; it would make an excellent introduction to the 19th-century city, particularly the criminal underbelly. The depiction of midVictorian London is splendidly authentic, with railway cuttings gouging out huge tracts of land, and all the dirt, squalor and lawlessness of the world’s biggest city. Colonel Radcliffe, the assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police, keen to use the new forensic technique of fingerprinting, might well have known Dickens’ friend, Inspector Field.
I particularly liked the way the children were portrayed-their role is realistically limited: Rupert, for example, must be home for tea, otherwise his mother will worry; April can’t read but she knows all about the London underworld, including how to close and lock a window from the outside; and Jack is expert at climbing. They gradually unravel the mystery piecemeal and they make mistakes, some of which prove to be dangerous. They also have to learn to understand and accept each other and to discard their different prejudices.
I think both boys and girls of 11 plus will enjoy this book.
Elizabeth Hawksley
Scarper Jack is an interesting book about a sweep’s boy who hears a murder being planned. So he then tried to figure out who did it. I like Scarper Jack because Christopher Russell wrote it with many twists and you don’t know what’s going to happen next, so it’s very surprising.
It’s set in Victorian times and the main character (who is called Jack), is very secretive and likes to keep himself to himself. The book has quite a lot of action. It’s interesting to find out how people of that time lived, and what it was like being a chimney boy.
The book though does not describe as much as it could and so I didn’t get a very clear picture in my head of the way the story unravelled. I didn’t quite understand some parts. I would recommend it to people of eleven and over.
Hal McNulty, aged 11
OUT OF THE SHADOWS
Sarah Singleton, Clarion, 2008, $16.00, hb, 252pp, 9780618927227
As Catholics in the time of Protestant Queen Elizabeth I, Elizabeth Dyer and her family are shunned and suffer for their religion while they attempt to keep up the nearby abbey ruined by Henry VIII. Then Elizabeth’s brother returns from Oxford with a priest wanted by the authorities. The family must increase their danger to hide him. Running parallel to these events is the story of Isabella Leland from the 13th century, a time when there was only one sort of Christian, but her mother can also suffer for her skills as a midwife—-and for having
a child by a dark crow man from the land of faerie. Isabella took her little brother to faerie for their protection and awakes 300 years later in Elizabeth’s world, where the two girls meet and help one another.
I see that Out of the Shadows is one in a series of books set in this world of dark crow faery people, the earlier Heresy, which I have not read, being another. This will no doubt help to flesh out the other world Singleton has imagined, which otherwise I felt was distinctly lacking. Also, without more context than these pages can provide, the interface between the two worlds did not work for me. Priest hunting and religious persecution in a time we like to think of as civilized is, for me, too real and serious an issue to provide a mere vehicle for imagined worlds, no matter how visceral the author may make them (in tantalizingly, frustratingly brief glimpses).
In all other respects, this is a compelling and interesting read for young adults.
Ann Chamberlin
AFTER THE TRAIN
Gloria Whelan, HarperCollins, 2008, $15.99/ C$17.25, hb, 152pp, 9780060295967
In the summer of 1955, thirteen-year-old Peter Liebig is excited about helping his father, an architect, rebuild the bombed-out church in Rolfen, West Germany, a town on the East German border. He is tired of his teacher’s lectures, making the children feel guilty about the country’s Nazi past, even though Peter was only a small child when the war ended, and he cannot wait to get out of school and play soccer with his friends Hans and Kurt (a refugee from East Germany). One day Peter’s father hints that he has a secret in his past, and Peter, trying to find out what the secret might be, reads his parents’ wartime correspondence, only to discover the photograph of a young woman who has haunted his nightmares for years. Soon he realizes the truth: that his parents aren’t really his parents, and the young woman in the photo is his real mother—a Jewish woman who gave Peter to his adopted mother before being herded onto a train to Dachau. Peter’s whole world is turned upside down as he begins to learn about his Jewish heritage from Herr Schafer, the bricklayer whose parents were killed in a concentration camp, and discovers the extent of the anti-Semitism in his supposedly peaceful town.
After the Train is a compelling, thoughtful story of a boy’s quest for his identity and a poignant tale of life in postwar West Germany, where the towns are slowly being rebuilt, refugees from the East are resented for taking hard-to-find jobs away from the Westerners, and anti-Semitism continues to run rampant. Children who are looking for a lot of action will not find it here, but this is a beautifully told coming-of-age story and portrayal of life in the aftermath of the Holocaust, and I highly recommend it. Ages 8-12.
Vicki Kondelik
NONFICTION
1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History
Charles Bracelen Flood, Simon & Schuster, 2009,
$30.00/C$39.99, hb, 521pp, 9781416552284
Students of the American Civil War have been blessed over the years by an astonishing number of truly talented scholarly and popular writers on the politics, personalities, and military affairs of this dynamic period. Charles Bracelen Flood has published Grant and Sherman and Lee: The Last Years to critical acclaim, and adds to his credentials with this account of the military and political events of 1864. This year featured the continued rise of Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman, the ascendancy of the Union in the western theater of war, the challenges of dealing with Lee in the horrors of the wilderness, as well as the intricate maneuvers of a Northern presidential campaign in the midst of war. Lincoln serves as Flood’s centerpiece and his critical role in events, coupled with accounts of other major and minor players, place the author in the front row of the flood of works commemorating Lincoln’s birth in 1809.
John R. Vallely
SEARCHING FOR TAMSEN DONNER
Gabrielle Burton, Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2009, $26.95, hb, 314pp, 9780803222854
In 1846 Tamsen Donner and her family left Springfield, Illinois, in search of a new life in California. In 1977 Gabrielle Burton and her family spent a summer vacation tracing the path of the Donner Party, attempting to honor Tamsen’s legacy and to separate the facts from the sensational stories of the ill-fated Donner voyage. Burton tells both her personal story and Tamsen Donner’s in intertwining segments, and the result is occasionally muddled. The passages recounting the pioneers’ journey are vivid, and Burton’s passion for her subject is apparent. Unfortunately, she tries too hard to identify with her subject, and outside of superficial similarities, anything else is a stretch. Readers who enjoy a blend of contemporary personal narrative with their history may like Burton’s memoir; readers who prefer their historians to remain distant from their subject should pass on this one.
Nanette Donohue
ARCHIBALD WAVELL: The Life and Times of an Imperial Servant
Adrian Fort, Jonathan Cape, 2009, £25, hb, 498pp, 9780224076784
I first came across Archibald, Lord Wavell (1883-1950), through his popular poetry anthology Other Men’s Flowers. I knew little of his distinguished military career which began in the Boer War. He took part in skirmishes on the Northwest Frontier, fought in France in World War I, and was later with Allenby in Palestine.
From 1939-41 he was in command in the Middle East, which he conducted on several fronts with intelligence, tenacity, and a flair for deception, although hampered by inadequate supplies and government interference. In 1941 he became Commander-in-Chief in India and found himself not only trying to defend Burma, Malaya, and Singapore from the Japanese threat, but also coping with increasing Indian demands for independence. His dogged patience and persistent attempts to bring about a peaceful solution led to his appointment as Viceroy in 1943. He was a highly esteemed and popular general and, when he died in 1950, thousands
lined the streets of London for his funeral cortège.
Adrian Fort offers his readers a clear and perceptive account of Wavell’s life, enlivened by touches of irony and wit. A well-judged reassessment of a brilliant soldier.
Elizabeth Hawksley
PATRICK BRONTË: Father of Genius Dudley Green, Nonsuch/The History Press, 2008, $27.95/£20.00, hb, 384pp, 978184586257
Father of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, as well as their wastrel brother Branwell, Patrick Brontë had the misfortune to outlive all of his children, three of whom died within an eightmonth period. Worse, with the publication of Elizabeth Gaskell’s biography of the recently dead Charlotte, Patrick acquired a reputation as a half-mad eccentric that he has found hard to live down.
In this biography, Green, who previously published an edition of Patrick’s letters, presents a much more balanced and appealing picture of Patrick, whose abilities allowed him to make the extraordinary social leap from Irish schoolmaster to Cambridge graduate before beginning his long career as perpetual curate of Haworth. A published author himself, he was a keen letter writer on issues of the day. Even in the midst of family tragedy and old age, he was active in parish and local affairs. An affectionate father, he was most concerned about correcting the misconception that he had denied his children meat for their meals (a charge of which Green also clears him).
Green has researched his subject meticulously and has an obvious respect for him. The result is a thorough, well-written, absorbing, and sympathetic biography of the patriarch of one of the most important, and surely one of the most unlikely, literary families of Victorian England.
Susan Higginbotham
THE GAOL: The Story of Newgate, London’s Most Notorious Prison
Kelly Grovier, John Murray, 2009, hb, £25, 332pp, 9780719561320
Forget Alcatraz, the Bastille, or the Black Hole of Calcutta: the most notorious prison in history was surely Newgate. For over a century successive editions of The Newgate Calendar rivalled the Bible as a bestseller. Not all the grim histories in The Calendar concerned the inmates of Newgate, but the name sold the book.
This was partly because the prison had such a long history. It was first built in 1188, was rebuilt twice and not demolished until 1903. Over 1000 inmates were hanged in the gaol or on the scaffold outside during the 19th century and countless thousands were taken from there to die at Tyburn in the centuries before; even more perished of ‘gaol fever’. Grovier retells several of their stories, but unlike The Calendar he also tells us about the executioners and gaolers and the prison reformers, notably Elizabeth Fry and, in his own way, Charles Dickens.
The book is very readable, and we learn a great deal about how English society treated its offenders over 700 years. My only cavil is that £25 seems a high price for quite a short book which is interestingly but not lavishly illustrated. Perhaps the fact that it was broadcast on Radio 4
inflates the price.
Edward James
A VOYAGE LONG AND STRANGE
Tony Horowitz, John Murray, 2009, pb, £9.99, 445pp, 9780719566370 / Henry Holt, 2008, $27.50, hb, 464pp, 9780805076035
This is a travelogue rather than a history book, written by a journalist, not an historian. The Voyage Long and Strange is a reference to Columbus’s first voyage, but it applies equally to the author’s journey as he follows the footsteps of the early explorers of North America, starting with the Vikings and ending with the Pilgrim Fathers. There is much more about the author’s adventures and the people he meets than about the explorers, but it is all very enjoyable and aimed explicitly at readers who know nothing about the history of North America between 1492 and 1620.
The first two chapters, on the Vikings and Columbus, are rather superficial, but Horowitz gets into his stride with the expeditions of Coronado and De Soto in the 1540s. If you really don’t know anything about these and those that followed, then start here. If you already know a little you will find the Note on Sources an excellent critical guide for print sources and the internet, and there is a very good bibliography. It could be the beginning of your own voyage long and strange.
Edward James
THE SECRET LIFE OF WORDS: How English Became English Henry Hutchings, John Murray, 2009, hb, £16.99, 440pp, 978071956453
This is not a history of the English language, despite the subtitle. There is little about grammar and syntax and nothing at all about pronunciation. As the main title indicates, this is a history of English vocabulary, although what is secret about it is difficult to tell. Ours is a young language whose development is exceptionally well documented, as shown by the copious notes and bibliography at the end of the book.
The book is arranged in roughly chronological order with a running historical narrative. The narrative is often inaccurate and overgeneralises wildly and is best ignored. As a history of words (current words, not archaic words), the work is superb. Each chapter begins with a word typical of a particular era or a particular source; for instance ‘saffron’ introduces a chapter on words derived from Arabic (mainly mediaeval) and ‘ethos’ describes words taken from Greek (mainly 19th century), noting their first use and changes in meaning. There is a good index, so that the book can be used as a reference text to look up words. Having read this you will never read English in the same way again.
Edward James
LENINGRAD: State of Siege
Michael Jones, John Murray, £20.00, hb, 324pp, 9780719569227
The city that was Leningrad for seventy years is St Petersburg again, and trades mainly on its imperial past. But an eternal flame still burns for the siege of 1941-44. Michael Jones concentrates mainly on the civilian experience of the siege. He highlights the inadequacy of the infrastructure, in particular in relation to
food supplies—by 11 September 1941, less than a month into the siege, the bread ration for civilians not in employment was 250 grammes a day, about six thin slices. Matters were made worse by the German policy of targeting food depots, water supplies, and power stations for artillery bombardment, and the corruption and inefficiency of the Russian authorities. By February 1942 there were outbreaks of cannibalism.
But there was heroism, too. As a piece of defiance of huge symbolic importance, an orchestra assembled from the few professional musicians available played Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony, dedicated by the composer to his native city, in the Philharmonic Hall on 9 August 1942, the day the German High Command had earlier announced that they would take Leningrad. And as with all terrible events, the best of the human spirit showed itself alongside the worst. Recommended.
Ann Lyon
TIGHTROPE: Six Centuries of a Jewish Dynasty
Michael Karpin, John Wiley & Sons, 2008, $35.00/C$39.00/£23.99, hb, 432pp, 9780470173732
Twenty years ago, journalist Michael Karpin began to write the life story of a successful Brazilian businessman who was a Holocaust survivor. He became fascinated with Israel Kahane’s genealogical background and traced his family, the Backenroth clan, back to their migration from Germany to Poland in 1350. Here Karpin tells the story of this one family and in so doing paints a portrait of much of Jewish life since the Middle Ages.
In the course of the book, the Backenroths thrive and become rich, then suffer reversals of fortune. Somehow they rise again. Pogroms and persecutions, the beginning of the Hasidic movement, Nazi genocide, and the triumph of Zionism impact their lives. Tavern owners, oil tycoons, scholars, dreamers, and heroes of the anti-Nazi resistance all have places in the Backenroth family tree. The book’s many photographs and maps add an extra visual dimension to the Backenroths’ journey through history. Not every family member is admirable, but the best of them have extraordinary courage and resilience and carry on in face of obstacles so daunting that survival is an achievement. They walk across a metaphorical tightrope, and their true story makes for an engrossing saga.
Phyllis T. Smith
QUEENS AND POWER IN MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ENGLAND
Carole Levin and Robert Bucholz, eds., Univ. of Nebraska, 2009, $35.00/C$38.50, pb, 362pp, 9780803229686
Queens and Power is a collection of academic essays dealing with a variety of queens consort and queens regnant, mostly from the early modern period: the Empress Matilda, Catherine of Aragon, Mary I, Elisabeth de Valois, Catherine de Medici, Henrietta Maria, Anne, and, above all, Elizabeth I, the subject of several of these essays and even of two modern poems that appear here. There are also pieces on Shakespeare’s depiction of Cleopatra and on early modern representations of the biblical
Queen Esther. In addition to contributions by the editors, the collection includes articles by Charles Beem, Timothy Elston, Sarah Duncan, John Watkins, Linda Shenk, Elaine Kruse, Michele Osherow, Anna Riehl, Richardine Woodall, Michelle White, and Marjorie Swann, and poems by Amber Leichner.
There’s a little bit for everyone here, especially for those interested in Elizabeth I, whose acts of mercy, travels, international relations, and representations in various guises all are covered, among other topics. I found Robert Bucholz’s essay on the way in which Queen Anne has been neglected by historians— and the role that her obesity might play in that neglect—to be particularly thought-provoking. Those interested in any of the queens here will find this a rewarding read.
Susan Higginbotham
BOSS OF BOSSES
Clare Longrigg, John Murray, 2009, £20, hb, 300pp, 9780719568480
This is the story of Bernardo Provenzano, Italy’s most notorious criminal. Provenzano was initiated into the Mafia in the 1950s when, for many young men, it was the only way to climb the social ladder out of endemic poverty. Carefully and quietly he worked his way up the criminal hierarchy. After a bloody but ultimately futile campaign against the state, the Cosa Nostra was on its knees and Provenzano seized his opportunity and took over the leadership. He restored its power by infiltrating business, law, and politics at all levels of Italian society.
The book follows Provenzano’s rise to power from his criminal beginnings as a cattle rustler through to his arrest by a crack police team who, on 11 April 2006, found him hiding in a tiny shepherd’s hut. Highly detailed and researched, Clare Longrigg has produced a fascinating and eye-opening book on the shadowy figure who was the head of the Cosa Nostra. Well balanced, it is neither a sympathetic portrayal nor a condemnation of the man and the organisation. Instead the author allows the character of Provenzano to emerge through his actions, and the culture both political and personal in which he operated. Those with an interest in the Mafia will find this a welcome addition to their bookshelf.
Mike Ashworth
WEDLOCK
Wendy Moore, Crown, 2009, $25.95/C $30.00, hb, 352pp, 9780307383365 / Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2009, £18.99, hb, 392pp, 9780297853312
When Mary Eleanor Bowes’ father dies, she’s left one of the richest heiresses in mid-18thcentury England. She cultivates her interests in botany and marries a family friend, Count Strathmore. He’s indifferent to her, and when he dies, she’s left a young, rich widow with five children. Mary, always a poor judge of character, embarks on several affairs, writes poetry, and advances her botanical knowledge. Andrew
Stoney, a dashing officer, fights a duel in her honor and begs her to marry him before he dies of his wound. Mary does so, and thus begins the nightmare of her life. Stoney is a debt-ridden scoundrel who beats her and squanders her fortune. After eight years of abuse, Mary finds the courage to escape and demands a divorce in a law system where men have all the power.
Stoney would be a caricature of a scoundrel if he hadn’t actually existed. Mary’s submission at first made me cringe, but she had few resources in her day. I couldn’t put this book down, knowing it a true story of a woman who fought an uphill battle in the courts for her rights and to be free of a brutal man.
Diane Scott Lewis
THE LAST DIVINE OFFICE:
Henry VIII and the Dissolution of the Monasteries Geoffrey Moorhouse, BlueBridge, 2008, $24.95/C$27.95, hb, 304pp, 9781933346182
Beginning in 1536, claiming the loftiest motives, Henry VIII began the dissolution of the monasteries of England. As Geoffrey Moorhouse makes plain in this history, the king’s actions sprang far less from piety than from his desire to seize the religious house’s wealth at a time when he nearly had run through his existing revenues. The king and his henchmen said that monks’ and nuns’ failures to live perfect religious lives justified their zeal for what was called reform. But the institutions that Henry attacked played important spiritual and economic roles in society, and their destruction caused great hardship, detailed in this book.
Nothing in the events Moorhouse recounts reflects well on Henry as a moral actor, but they reinforce our image of him as a ruthless and formidable king. The administrative apparatus he set in motion to investigate and pillage the religious houses was systematic in a way that strikes the reader as almost modern. Moorhouse makes use of new historical sources found in what was once a great Benedictine priory at Durham. The detailed portrait of monastic life is the most fascinating part of the book.
Phyllis T. Smith
MARIE-THERESE: The Fate of Marie Antoinette’s Daughter (UK) / MARIETHERESE, CHILD OF TERROR: The Fate of Marie Antoinette’s Daughter (US) Susan Nagel, Bloomsbury, 2008, £25.00, hb, 418pp, 9780747581598 / Bloomsbury USA, 2008, $39.99, hb, 448pp, 9781596910577
Marie-Therese was the sole member of the Bourbon royal family to survive the French Revolution. She was just seventeen in early 1796 when her Hapsburg relatives secured her release from the Temple prison in Paris in return for French prisoners of war held in Vienna. Her ten-year-old brother, Louis Charles, had died six months earlier as a result of the atrocious conditions and brutal maltreatment he received in the notorious jail. Both Marie-Therese and her ill-fated mother, Marie Antoinette, had been forced to listen to his screams. Marie-Therese’s
reappearance quickly became the focus for inaccurate reports and a process of mythification that fuelled the rumours of ‘switched’ identities. She could easily have become a pawn in the hands of the two powerful warring factions, the supporters of the Austrian Hapsburgs and the exiled Louis XVIII, but instead, she proved astute in managing her own affairs, and her loyalties always lay first and foremost with France. Had she married the Archduke Karl instead of the Duc d’Angouleme, Louis XVIII’s chances of becoming king would have been dashed. In 1815 she was the only member of the newly reinstated Bourbon regime to remain in France after Napoleon’s escape from Elba and resurgence. The courage she showed when she remained in Bordeaux during the standoff with General Clauzel caused Napoleon to remark, ‘She is the only man in the family’. Nagel provides a fascinating afterword, which uses handwriting analysis to prove MarieTherese’s identity beyond doubt, quashing the rumours of switched identity focused on her rival claimant, the ‘Dark Countess’. This is a vivid and highly readable biography.
Lucinda Byatt
RED ORCHESTRA: The Story of the Berlin Underground and the Circle of Friends Who Resisted Hitler Anne Nelson, Random House, 2009, $27.00/ C$32.00, hb, 432pp, 9781400060009
While book shops and libraries remain choked with works on the Nazis and the military aspects of the Second World War, a surprisingly small number of publications deal with German resistance to Hitler and his henchmen. Those few that do chiefly concentrate on the July 20, 1944, attempted assassination of Hitler by Colonel von Stauffenberg and his fellow conspirators. This volume takes up the story of the “Red Orchestra” (Rote Kapelle), a resistance network with a sizeable number of German women serving in important positions. These valiant and, of course, doomed, Germans were outraged at the manner in which their nation’s moral, ethical, and legal traditions had been replaced by National Socialist zeal and blood lust. Where most Germans adopted a “my country, right or wrong” stance, this diverse assortment of women and men transmitted military secrets to Moscow and worked in other ways to undermine Germany’s strategic position and the normal person’s faith in the state. The author insists the Rote Kapelle was not a creature of Soviet Intelligence but rather a courageous group of German patriots. Active mostly for only a short period after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the Rote Kapelle’s membership was decimated by 118 arrests, 49 executions, and two suicides. A successful, albeit shortlived, example of a Germany rarely spoken of, the names of Mildred and Arvid Harnack, Lisa Egler-Gervai, Katja Casella, and Greta Lorke Kuckhoff have earned their place in the history of Germany between 1933 and 1945.
John R. Vallely
“THEY HAVE KILLED PAPA DEAD!”: The Road to Ford’s Theatre, Abraham Lincoln’s Murder, and the Rage for Vengeance Anthony S. Pitch, Steerforth, 2008, $29.95/ C$33.00/£21.99, hb, 493pp, 9781586421588
The assassination of Abraham Lincoln by the noted actor John Wilkes Booth served as an appropriately murderous conclusion to the most savage and divisive war in American history. Journalist Anthony Pitch is the latest of a large and diverse group of authors to write about the events at Ford’s Theatre. Pitch is also one of the best. He does a masterful job in placing the reader in the chaotic developments of the final days of the Civil War. The group of conspirators led by Booth, a firm Confederate supporter who nonetheless spent the war in the United States pursuing his acting career rather than joining the Confederate Army, plays a central and critical role in the tale. The author places Booth and his fellow conspirators lurking in the background as he outlines the political and social life in the wartime American capital. A substantial number of figures are introduced, and the writer shows himself to be an accomplished artisan as he allows Booth, Lincoln, Mary Surratt, Lewis Payne, Edwin Stanton, William Seward, and numerous others play their roles in the tragic tale. Many will find the discussion of the conspirators’ trial and executions especially captivating, as this part of the assassination remains the least known to most readers.
John R. Vallely
THE LAST DAYS OF THE ROMANOVS
Helen Rappaport, St. Martin’s, 2008, $25.95/ C28.95, hb, 254pp, 9780312379766
On 17 July 1918, in Ekaterinburg, Bolsheviks brutally murdered Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, and their children: Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexey. While this book focuses primarily on the events and players during the time the family lived at the “House of Special Purpose,” Rappoport explores the responses of various leaders – Woodrow Wilson, George V, Kaiser Wilhelm, and Vladimir Lenin. She captures the time, place, politics, and events through the use of Russian and English primary sources, many rarely consulted in previous works. Although there are no footnotes, this is an absorbing account from personal perspectives that puts the reader in the midst of it all, from the boredom of inactivity to the horror of what happened in the cellar of the Ipatiev House that night.
Cindy Vallar
THE ROAD TO BOSWORTH FIELD (UK) / LANCASTER AGAINST YORK: The Wars of the Roses and the Foundation of Modern Britain (US)
Trevor Royle, Little Brown, 2009, £25.00, hb, 496 pages, 9780316727679 / Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, $29.95, hb, 368pp, 9781403966728
The Wars of the Roses always confused me. So many people, with so many variations of
their names, all killing each other. Rarely were the reasons for all the conflict explained, and the whys of peoples’ actions were left blank. This book answers those why questions nicely, in good plain English and in readable style.
Trevor Royle has chosen not just to write the history of the Wars, but to fill in the social and religious contexts, detail the political context, and also give the reader a good sense of the world these people lived in. It’s a dense, concentrated read, which left this reader highly satisfied and much less confused. Royle is not afraid to give his opinion, but is not biased; he balances his opinions against others. He believes that in order to understand what happened you need to begin with Richard II and the actions that led to his deposition and death. That was the stone tossed into the pool, and the violent ripples from it stretched over one hundred years. Royle finishes not at Bosworth Field, but with a summary of the Tudor dynasty’s achievements and the stability they brought.
There is a most helpful appendix of all the major players, including their name variants, an excellent bibliography and a charming prologue on Shakespeare and his Wars of the Roses plays. Not a quick or light read, this book should be savoured slowly and frequently taken off the reference shelf. I hope it finds its way into every school library
PDR LindsaySsalmon
KIYO’S STORY: A Memoir
Kiyo Sato, Soho, 2008, $25.00, hb, 352pp, 9781569475690
“Last year, my winning essay, ‘What America Means to Me,’ placed in our school’s finals. This year I am branded a ‘non-alien,’ no longer a citizen, and banished. To where?” Kiyo Sato, the daughter of John and Tomomi Sato, skillfully charts the lives of Japanese immigrants and Japanese-American children from 1911 to 1980 in western America. Yes, this is the story of another Japanese family forced into interment camps during the World War II years, but it’s so much more. The tale begins with John and Tomomi raising their nine American-born children in what becomes a successful farm and loving home in California. The dream seems to crash on February 19, 1942, when FDR signs Executive Order 9066, banishing over 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry into internment camps, but the Sato family continues to flourish with their courageous attitude in dealing with the inescapable and working with the deplorable camp conditions. Kiyo’s narrative account transcends the expected and understandable bitterness of other accounts of these horrendous years for Japanese-Americans. Kiyo’s Story is moving, triumphant, and graceful, deserving wide recognition as the superb JapaneseAmerican historical memoir it is.
Viviane Crystal
WRITER’S MARKET UK & IRELAND 2010
Caroline Taggart (ed.), David and Charles, 2009, £12.99, pb, 976pp, 9780715332856
This market directory contains, as you would expect, a large number of listings of publishers, as well as many other categories of information such as broadcasters, specialist libraries, and organisations, including the Historical Novel Society. There are also several articles offering information on writing both as an art and as a business.
The book has its own website: http://www. writersmarket.co.uk.
Concentrating on the sections that would be of particular interest to historical novelists, the listing of UK and foreign publishers is very comprehensive. Unfortunately, unlike its competitors, this directory does not include an index of fiction publishers by category, so there is no quick way to find publishers with an interest in historical novels. The list of literary agencies is equally comprehensive. I’m pleased to see that most of the vanity publishers that appeared in previous editions have been purged, but a couple are still there. It is a good idea to do an Internet search on the name of any publisher with which you’re not familiar.
This directory is well worth its price, which you can offset as an expense against your income tax anyway, although it still hasn’t established a unique selling point to differentiate it from its competition.
Alan Fisk
BRIGHT YOUNG PEOPLE: The Lost Generation of London’s Jazz Age (US) / BRIGHT YOUNG PEOPLE: The Rise and Fall of a Generation, 1918-1940 (UK)
D.J. Taylor, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2009, $27/ C$33.95, hb, 364pp, 9780374116835 / Vintage, 2008, £9.99, pb, 336pp, 9780099474470
For American readers, the phrase “lost generation” conjures up the names Hemingway and Fitzgerald and other arty types who spent the 1920s in an alcohol-fueled haze in Paris. England had its own lost generation of “young bright people,” who exemplified post-World War I hedonism among the young and (mostly) wealthy. Its denizens included some names readily recognized today (Nancy Mitford, Cecil Beaton), but D.J. Taylor’s well-documented account of the period includes many names unfamiliar to the nonhistorian, as it should.
The young bright people of London’s jazz age are in most cases the equivalent of the socialites and media personalities of today (Paris Hilton, anyone?)—those who seek the limelight but who provide no lasting contributions, cultural or otherwise, to keep them in the public eye after their youth has faded. Photos of the participants and events (“The Bottle and Bath Party,” “The Impersonation Party,”) supplement the real strength of this book, which is Taylor’s tracing of the connections between the people: who was related to whom, who was spurned when, who corresponded about what. Flighty adventures, fast-changing sexual mores, and parodies in
