Historical Novels Review, Issue 51 (February 2010)

A PUBLICATION OF THE HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY

HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW ISSUE 51, FEBRUARY 2010

A Brief History of

Enchantment

Magic Goes Mainstream jane austen & the gothic novel murder, music, psychoanalysis & pastries an interview with frank tallis romance & faith an interview with janette oke breaking new ground jacqueline wilson on branching out into children’s hf severn house a publisher profile IN EVERY ISSUE historical fiction market news | history & film | new voices | how not to write...

Historical Novels R eview

ISSN: 1471-7492 | © 2010 The Historical Novel Society

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pub lis h er

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Richard Lee Marine Cottage, The Strand Starcross, Devon EX6 8NY United Kingdom <richard@historicalnovelsociety.org>

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edit o r ial boa r d

Ellen Keith Milton S. Eisenhower Library, Johns Hopkins University 3400 N Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21218-2683 USA <ekeith@jhu.edu>

Publisher Coverage: Farrar Straus & Giroux; HarperCollins (inc. Avon, Ecco, Regan, William Morrow, Zondervan); Houghton Mifflin (inc. Mariner); and Kensington

Book Review Editor: Sarah Johnson 6868 Knollcrest Drive Charleston, IL 61920 USA <sljohnson2@eiu.edu>

Publisher Coverage: Algonquin; Bethany House; Five Star; MacAdam/Cage; Penguin Putnam; Random House (all imprints); Trafalgar Square; university presses; and any North American presses not mentioned below

Features Editors: Myfanwy Cook 47 Old Exeter Road Tavistock, Devon PL19 OJE UK <myfanwyc@btinternet.com>

Ken Kreckel 3670 Placid Drive Casper, WY 82604 USA <kreckel1@yahoo.com>

Film Editor: Hannah Sternberg 1125 Old Eagle Road Lancaster, PA 17601 USA <hesternberg@gmail.com>

Trudi Jacobson University Library, University at Albany 1400 Washington Avenue Albany, NY 12222 USA <readbks@verizon.net>

Publisher Coverage: Arcade; Crippen & Landru; Hilliard & Harris; HMH Children’s; Hyperion; Little Brown; Medallion; New Directions; Simon & Schuster (inc. Atria, Scribner, Touchstone, Washington Square), Steerforth; Toby; Warner; and WW Norton

Ilysa Magnus 5430 Netherland Avenue #C41 Bronx, NY 10471 USA <goodlaw2@optonline.net>

Publisher Coverage: Dorchester; Grove/Atlantic; Minotaur Books; Picador USA; Poisoned Pen Press; Soho Press; St Martin’s Press; Tor/Forge; and Tyndale

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Alan Fisk Flat 25, Lancaster Court, Lancaster Avenue London SE27 9HU UK <alanfisk5@netscape.net>

Publisher Coverage: Creme de la Crime; Duckworth; HarperCollins UK (inc. Flamingo, Fourth Estate, Voyager); Orion Group (inc. Cassell, Gollancz, Phoenix, Weidenfeld & Nicolson); Piatkus; Picnic Publishing; Quaestor2000; Quercus; Severn House; and all small independent UK publishers not handled by other editors

Edward James 2 Hayman Close Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL53 9FD UK <edward654@btinternet.com>

Publisher Coverage: Arcadia; Canongate; Hodder Headline (inc. Coronet, Hodder & Stoughton, NEL, Sceptre); John Murray; and Robert Hale

Doug Kemp Tulip Lodge, Harrowden Road Wellingborough, Northamptonshire NN8 5BD UK <doug.kemp@lineone.net>

Publisher Coverage: Allison & Busby; Little, Brown & Co (inc. Abacus, Virago, Warner); Random House UK (inc. Arrow, Cape, Century, Chatto & Windus, Harvill, Heinemann, Hutchinson, Pimlico, Secker & Warburg, Vintage), Simon & Schuster (inc. Scribner)

Julie Parker Millbank Cottage, Winson Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 5EW UK <julie.pk@talk21.com> Publisher Coverage: children’s historicals — all UK publishers Gordon O’Sullivan 20 Morgan Avenue London, EH17 3PL UK <osullivangordon@yahoo.co.uk>

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Publisher Coverage: all self-published, subsidy, and electronically published novels

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review s edit o r s , u k

re v i e ws e d i tors , u s a

Andrea Connell 10011 Beacon Pond Lane Burke, VA 22015 USA <hnsonline@verizon.net>

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

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tory Press; Macmillan (inc. Pan, Picador, Sidgwick & Jackson); Penguin (inc. Allen Lane, Hamish Hamilton, Michael Joseph, Viking); Short Books; Snowbooks; and Transworld (inc. Bantam Press, Black Swan, Corgi, Doubleday)

Publisher Coverage: Birlinn/Polygon; Bloomsbury; Constable & Robinson; Faber & Faber; The His-

confe re nce s

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The Society organizes annual conferences in the UK and biennial conferences in the US. Contact Richard Lee (UK) or Sarah Johnson (USA).

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m e m be rs h i p d e ta i l s

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Membership in the Historical Novel Society is by calendar year (January to December) and entitles members to all the year’s publications: two issues of Solander, and four issues of Historical Novels Review. Back issues of society magazines are also available. For current rates, contact: Sue Hyams 56 Ackroyd Road Honor Oak Park, London SE23 1DL UK <sue.hyams@virgin.net>

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e d i tori a l pol i cy

Susan Higginbotham 405 Brierridge Drive Apex, NC 27502, USA <boswellbaxter@bellsouth.net>

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

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copy ri g h t

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

THE HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY was formed in 1997 to help promote historical fiction. All staff and contributors are volunteers and work unpaid. We are an open society — if you want to get involved, get in touch.

HNS WEBSITE: www.historicalnovelsociety.org WEB SUPPORT: sljohnson2@eiu.edu EMAIL NEWSLETTER. Read news and reviews: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HNSNewsletter DISCUSSION GROUP. Join in the discussion: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HistoricalNovelSociety

HNRH

Historical Novels R eview

I s s u e 5 1 , Fe br u a ry 2010 | I SSN 1471-7492

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ed itor ia l b e t ha ny la th a m

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histor ic a l fic tion market n ews s ar a h joh nson

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histor y & film out with the old , in with the n ew : s herlo ck h olm es | h a nna h s tern b erg

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n ew voic e s p r of ile of debut authors chris tin e trent, k a t h a r ine be utne r, j an e b orodale & j am es mc c r e e t | my f anw y cook

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how no t to. . . h a n d le r e v ie ws | sus an hig g in botham

| features & interviews |

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A BRIE F H I STORY OF ENCHANT M E N T ma gic goes main s tream | by mar y sha rra tt

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j an e aus ten an d the g oth ic novel by am an da gra nge

mur de r , mus ic, ps ychoan alys is & pa stries a n inte r view with f ran k tallis | by l i nda ken n edy an d m y f anw y co o k

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rom an ce & f a ith an inte r v ie w wit h j an ette oke | b y mar y f. bu rns

17 b reakin g n ew gro u nd a n inte r view with j acquelin e wilso n | by my f anw y co o k 19 sa tisf yin g s tories , tran s atlantic a ppea l a pr ofile of s evern hous e | by my f anw y co o k | reviews |

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book r e v ie ws e d ito rs’ c h oic e & m ore

MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR istorical fiction enthusiasts are some of the most perceptive readers I’ve ever met, so doubtless you’ve noticed by this point that this issue of the Historical Novels Review seems a bit different. HNR has gotten a new look to go with the new year, and we also have new editorial staff and new content. But don’t worry, we didn’t get rid of any of your old favorites either. How? I refer you to the cover story on the benefits of utilizing magic.

Please allow me to give you a brief tour of the new HNR. What’s that you say? You can find your way around just fine on your own? Well, I know it, but if I don’t use my column space for this, I’d have to actually come up with something substantive, and neither of us wants that. In addition to familiar columns such as Historical Fiction Market News, tips on how not to write historical fiction, and the History & Film column, you’ll want to check out the New Voices column. This column, helmed by features editor Myfanwy Cook, will be profiling debut historical fiction novelists, so look here to see the new and notable faces on the historical fiction scene. Also, though the History & Film column isn’t new, it does have a new editor — Hannah Sternberg. Hannah’s areas of expertise include film production, theory, and criticism, as well as fiction writing.

Hannah’s not the only new face on HNR’s editorial staff. We also welcome Ken Kreckel, who is joining Myfanwy as an additional features editor. Ken teaches at Casper College in Wyoming, has published a novel set during World War II, and is currently working on a follow-up.

There are also some newbies taking over in the reviews department. After many years of service, Ann Oughton is stepping down, and the HNR editorial staff extends many thanks and much gratitude for all the hard and excellent work Ann has put in over the years. Gordon O’Sullivan will be filling her position. Gordon, a food retail consultant and writer, is currently working on a novel set in 17th-century Ireland. He is also coeditor of the HNS Newsletter, as well as serving as an HNR reviewer. We also welcome Julie Parker, who will be stepping in as HNR’s Children’s Reviews Editor. She replaces Mary Moffat, who passed away last fall. Julie, who has worked as both a librarian and in children’s book sales, is a teacher who hails from Gloucestershire. Please join me in giving all of the new editorial staff a warm welcome.

So now I’ll leave you to take a look around the updated HNR; we hope you’ll find the experience an enjoyable one.

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BETHANY LATHAM is a professor, librarian, and Managing Editor of HNR. She publishes in various scholarly and popular journals, as well as writing for the EBSCO NoveList database. She also serves as Internet Editor and a regular reviewer for Reference Reviews.

HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Columns | 1

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ould you like your latest publishing deal to appear here? Email me at sljohnson2@eiu.edu.

New Publishing Deals Sources include author submissions, Publishers Marketplace, Booktrade.info, Publishers Weekly, The Bookseller, and more.

Writing as Christina Courtenay, Pia Tapper Fenton signed with UK publisher Choc Lit for her novel Trade Winds, about a marriage of convenience and a voyage to the Far East, based on the Swedish East India Company’s first journey to China in 1731, for publication in summer 2010.

Gillian Bagwell’s debut novel The Darling Strumpet, the story of Nell Gwynn’s rise from the streets of London to actress and long-time mistress of King Charles II, sold to Kate Seaver at Berkley, for publication in Jan 2011, by Kevan Lyon at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.

US rights to C.C. Humphreys’ Vlad: The Last Confession, about the historical Dracula, went to Peter Lynch of Sourcebooks. Vlad has sold in Spain, Russia, Germany, Poland, Serbia, Brazil, and Turkey. Humphreys also has a new twobook deal with Orion UK, the first being a novel about the siege and fall of Constantinople.

Rights to Brian John’s first three novels from the Angel Mountain series set in 18th-19th century West Wales, originally pub. by Greencroft Books and later by Corgi/Transworld, have reverted back to Greencroft. All six books in the series are now available in the same format and house style. The latest, Sacrifice, in which heroine Martha Morgan deals with a group of men from a mysterious secret society, appeared in November.

Winner of the 2009 Governor General’s Award Kate Pullinger’s The Mistress of Nothing, based on the true-life story of Lady Duff Gordon and her maid in 19th-century Egypt, sold to Danielle Friedman at Touchstone Fireside, via Anne McDermid at Anne McDermid Associates.

Agent Jennifer Weltz sold Sandra Worth’s The Pale Rose of England to Jackie Cantor at Berkley Books. The novel follows Lady Catherine Gordon, who is given over to the king after her husband, pretender to England’s throne, is put away.

Diane Scott Lewis sold her debut novel, The False Light, to Eternal Press for publication in April 2010. Fleeing the French Revolution, Countess Bettina Jonquiere struggles to survive in a remote Cornish village and discover the secret behind her father’s death.

Annabel Lyon’s Writers’ Trust award-winning The Golden Mean, about Aristotle’s relationship with his student, Alexander the Great, sold to Diana Coglianese and Sonny Mehta at Knopf, at auction, by Denise Bukowski at The Bukowski Agency.

Jane Lawson, senior editor at Transworld, has purchased historian Hallie Rubenhold’s rollicking 18th-century trilogy, beginning with The Confessions of Mrs Lightfoot, With Some 2 | Columns | HNR Issue 51, February 2010

Advice for Women in General, from Claire Paterson at Janklow & Nesbit, for publication beginning in 2011.

Brandy Purdy’s Mary & Elizabeth, the story of Mary and Elizabeth’s sibling rivalry and sisterly love, sold to John Scognamiglio at Kensington by Nicholas Croce at The Croce Agency.

Tracy Chevalier’s novel about two families in the 19thcentury US, and a second novel both historical and contemporary, surrounding England’s Winchester Cathedral, sold to Brian Tart at Dutton by Deborah Schneider at Gelfman Schneider.

UK rights are with Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown UK. Justin Hill’s The Conquest series, set in feudal England, sold to Richard Beswick at Abacus in a two-book deal, for publication in 2011 and 2012, by Charlie Viney at The Viney Agency.

Michael Arnold’s Traitor’s Blood, a debut novel of the English Civil Wars, following the adventures of a battle-scarred captain fighting for the Royalist cause, sold to Kate Parkin at John Murray in a three-book deal, by Rupert Heath of the Rupert Heath Literary Agency.

In the Shadow of the Quarter Moon by Eileen Clymer Schwab, in which a plantation mistress’s life unravels when she learns her true mother is a fair-skinned slave, sold to Ellen Edwards at NAL, for Summer 2011 publication, by Kevan Lyon at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.

Giles Kristian sold three books in a new action-adventure series following the fortunes of a family during the English Civil War, beginning with The Bleeding Land, to Simon Taylor at Transworld via Bill Hamilton at A.M. Heath.

For a list of forthcoming titles, visit www.historicalnovelsociety. org/forthcoming.htm.

New Transatlantic Editions Frank Tallis’s Darkness Rising, book 4 in the Liebermann Papers mystery series set in 1903 Vienna, has the US title Vienna Secrets (Random House, Feb 2010, $15.00, trade pb).

Vanora Bennett’s Blood Royal, a novel of Catherine de Valois (widow of England’s Henry V) and Owen Tudor, will be released in the US as The Queen’s Lover (Morrow, Mar 2010, $25.99, hb).

The Silver Eagle by Ben Kane, set in Rome in the first century BC, will appear from St. Martin’s Press in March ($25.99, hb). All three of the above titles were previous Editors’ Choice selections in the HNR. Forge is the US publisher for Carol McCleary’s The Alchemy of Murder, a historical thriller featuring reporter Nellie Bly in 1889 Paris (Mar. 2010, $24.99/C$31.99, hb).

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H I STO R I C AL FICTION MAR K ET NE W S

SARAH JOHNSON, Book Review Editor of HNR, is a librarian, readers’ advisor, and author of reference books.

She reviews for Booklist and CHOICE and writes about fiction for EBSCO’s NoveList database. Her latest book is Historical Fiction II: A Guide to the Genre.

aHISTORY & FILMe OUT WITH THE NEW, IN WITH THE OLD

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uy Ritchie’s 2009 Sherlock Holmes has everything audiences have come to expect and love in adaptations of the classic stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (remember him?). While they might not have anything to do with their originals anymore, most Holmes adaptations in film and television have adhered to a set of recognizable tropes that persist even through works that deliberately try to subvert them.

Guy Ritchie’s film is full of Jolly Old Empire embellishments, extravagantly blown up to Guy Ritchie size. Seedy pawn shops, grimy docks, and noxious fog abound. And despite all his movie’s clever, cunning, and captivating special effects, Guy Ritchie still knows that nothing beats a good old-fashioned caper in a fake nose.

More than just the familiar allusions to Doyle’s world will ring a bell in most viewers’ minds, however. This Holmes’s cynical wisecracks have a more recent inspiration in another readily recognizable Holmesian characterization — Robert Downey Jr’s Sherlock Holmes acts, talks, and even looks a little like a waistcoated Gregory House. His surprising soft spots, his unusual hobbies, his dubious love affair — all probably remind audiences first of the recent television series “House,” and secondarily of Doyle’s master sleuth. In many ways, the most recent film version of Sherlock Holmes capitalizes on the popularity of “House” and the standards it has created for the Holmes myth, as well as the tropes that it has encouraged in the imaginations of mystery lovers who watch the show. After “House” used the Holmes paradigm to create a new model, Sherlock Holmes reclaimed the peculiarities of “House” for the Holmes side.

When the television series “House” premiered in 2004, it was lauded for its style and originality, but mystery readers recognized something familiar. Dr. Gregory House is a misanthropic genius who dulls his boredom with illicit drugs and solves mysteries not to help his fellow man, but for the intellectual thrill: House is a modern Sherlock Holmes. Just like the Sherlock Holmes stories, each episode of “House” is a puzzle, and the only person holding all the pieces is the title character. But there are supporting characters to help the audience out — the research fellows who may not always have the answers, but stumble across important clues, purposefully or inadvertently (like the police in the Holmes stories); and the best friend, Wilson, who, like Dr. Watson of the Sherlock Holmes stories, listens to House’s theories and prompts him to dig deeper, even if Wilson himself can’t see to the bottom.

After more than five seasons, “House” has taken on a life of its own, with side-plots and emotional developments that depart completely from the original Sherlock Holmes premise.

This is by no means a failure — in order to sustain the show’s

momentum and interest, the writers had to confront Holmes more as a launching point than a continuous framework for the show. House undergoes romance, reformation, and selfdoubt alien to most viewer’s memory of Sherlock Holmes. And his fellows, friends, and supervisors play out minor dramas that contribute to the show’s themes about the mutability of modern love, postmodern fears, and medicine’s ambiguous role in human relationships.

By 2009,“House” had already been established as a benchmark of current mystery storytelling. By that time viewers were ready for something new, a movie with a quirky re-envisioning of the television show’s themes and style — Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes.

During this game of tug-of-war, the story’s historical setting has undergone a significant transformation as well. Previous adaptations of the Holmes stories have tended to be more staid, harping on the primness of Victorian life and Holmes’s departure from those strictures. Villains’ seediness tended to be a blot on this Victorian life as well — in the more tame parlor mysteries, even a villain’s state of degradation was somehow picturesque. However, Guy Ritchie’s rendition embraces all the seediness, dirtiness, disorderliness and gothic horror imagined HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Columns | 3

stamps of modern audiences’ expectations and desires. Sherlock Holmes stands out, however, because unlike the frameworks set up by Shakespeare of Austen, his is not often considered a universal story — in most readers’ and viewers’ minds, Holmes is normally firmly attached to his timeperiod. That’s what makes it so fascinating to observe how he has been painstakingly extracted from that setting, made over anew, and placed back into it.

The 2009 Sherlock Holmes is not a towering work of art. It is a fast-paced, humorous, unabashed action movie. But even the most die-hard Sherlock Holmes fan has to admit that the original stories are about as formulaic as an episode of “House” — and that their continuing entertainment value comes, not so much from the mystery itself, as from the audience’s existing knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, the characters solving the mystery. Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes uses that understanding to ignite a characterhumor driven plot, in which the revelation of a London politician’s hidden agenda might not be as memorable as the scene featuring a naked Holmes abandoned, handcuffed to a bed, by his ex-lover — but then again, who really cares? If “House” proved that the timelessness of Holmes is not dependent on his historical setting, then 2009’s Sherlock Holmes proved that a dick joke never gets old.

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of the Victorian era in recent films like Sweeney Todd and The Prestige. With inspiration like this and “House,” Arthur Conan Doyle is barely necessary at all. But his absence doesn’t render the characters any less recognizable — or the movie any less than thoroughly entertaining, belonging securely to the spirit of the original stories.

This historical give-and-take isn’t anything new. Shakespeare and Jane Austen have been punted back and forth in time enough to make anyone dizzy. And each time an historical story returns from the future, it brings back juicy new anachronisms —

Sherlock Holmes (2009) Rating: PG13; Director: Guy Ritchie; Written by: Michael Robert Johnson, Anthony Peckham and Simon Kinberg; Starring: Robert Downey, Jr. (Sherlock Holmes), Jude Law (Dr. John Watson), Rachel McAdams (Irene Adler), Mark Strong (Lord Blackwood); PG-13, Runtime: 128 mins; Released by Warner Brothers Pictures, 2009.

HANNAH STERNBERG, HNR’s Film Editor, is a writer and filmmaker in Washington, DC. To read about her upcoming debut novel, visit http://hannahsternberg.blogspot.com.

NEW VOICES Jane Borodale, Christine Trent, James McCreet and Katharine Beutner talk to Myfanwy Cook about their debut novels.

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ane Borodale found that when she had her first child and “stopped working and being out in the normal world, which is full of distractions,” it led her to carve out “four hours of concentrated writing” a day in between mashing bananas and setting up train tracks. Both Borodale and author James Mc C r e e t ’s novels share something in common.

T h o u g h McCreet was born in Sheffield and taught English abroad before becoming a journalist, so would seem to have little in common with stay-athome mom Borodale, both of their novels Jane Borodale feature fire as a key element.

Borodale’s The Book of Fires and McCreet’s The Incendiary’s Trail both use fire and the devastation and power it can unleash, but in very different ways. McCreet’s novel is the first of a series of historical crime fiction. His protagonist, Noah Dyson, is a cracksman who lives in “a world both modern and ancient,” and is manipulated into helping Sergeant George Williamson track down a violent arsonist. The novel is set in the early Victorian period, says McCreet, “partly because the Metropolitan Police’s Detective force was officially established in 1842, but also because that period before the Great Exhibition was hugely enticing from a writer’s point of view. Murderers were the celebrities of the period. A profusion of newspapers and penny sheets lived for the next outrage, detailing all its gory horror. In the end life was cheap. As soon as the sun went down, one might not know if a trip from home to the public house might end with a blow to the head and the cold embrace of the Thames.”

“I knew from the start I wanted to write about fire,” explains

Borodale. “I’ve always been intrigued by the ancient fire festivals at the quarter-points of the year, particularly Samhaine or All Hallows’ Eve — that time of autumn when the walls between the worlds of the living and the dead are at their thinnest. I loved the idea of fire being the catalyst for change, for strength, magic, danger, then as I wrote further into the story, for healing, and I saw it as a good metaphor for love. It’s rich in symbolism, and I wanted my firework-maker John Blacklock to be enigmatic, dark, with something of the Promethean myth about him.”

Borodale’s novel, about “fire, fortune, and redemption, is set in 18th-century Sussex and London. She chose to write about the 18th century because “it seemed a very interesting, transitional period that offered many contradictions: a largely rural population migrating to the city as the first seeds of industrialisation started up.

Old beliefs in superstition and lack of education for the masses contrasted with a surge in scientific progress and cultural growth.”

Both Borodale and McCreet share with authors Christine Trent and Katharine Beutner a passion for the period and subject they’ve chosen to write about. Trent is a doll collector, which undoubtedly helped when writing The Queen’s Dollmaker. The story is about “a London dollmaker falsely accused of smuggling money and jewels inside fashion dolls to the imprisoned Marie Antoinette. A sequel to this book, about a waxworking apprentice to the great Madame Tussaud, is planned for 2010.”

Beutner graduated with a degree in English literature from the University of Texas and her first novel, Alcestis, will be published this month by Soho press. “The novel retells the story of a Mycenaean queen who chooses to go to the underworld in her husband’s place. I wrote and revised this novel as my master’s thesis for the UTMA program.” Beutner was “...really startled by the ending of the Euripidean play (Alcestis),in which Alcestis is rescued by Heracles and brought back to her husband, silent – basically treated more like a prize than the brave women she clearly was. I wanted to write a version of HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Columns | 5

her story that would not only cover her three days spent in the underworld, but would communicate to readers what it would be like to live in a world in which gods do exist, and do interfere in your daily life. Alcestis is a grandmother of Poseidon and the mother of a Greek warrior who fought at Troy, and is almost always written about as a model wife.

I wanted to invite readers to learn about her, herself.”

These four new authors on the historical writing scene share a desire to capture the spirit of the time and place they are writing about, creating images that haunt their readers with glimpses into the darker aspects of life. However, to have achieved publication of their novels in a highly competitive market demonstrates that they also have a degree of the optimistic determination that is a vital ingredient in the make-up of successful novelists. Trent writes that,“...it took until 2003 for me to work up the nerve to try my hand at James McCreet penning my own novel. I called it a ‘hobby’ at the time, to save myself any embarrassment in case it never went anywhere. But by 2006, I decided that it was time to begin pursuing publication. Ah, the rejection. My very first pitch was at the HNS conference in Albany. I was certain that the nice agent who agreed to look at my partial was positively going to fall over herself to make an offer of representation. I had a lot to learn.

But I continued dusting off my knees until meeting my editor at another conference in 2008.”

After the herculean task of researching, writing, editing and finding a publisher for their novels, it is thrilling to know that we as readers have four new novels to open windows onto different periods of history.

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Katharine Beutner

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For more information about these authors, please see their websites: Jane Borodale: http://www.janeborodale.com James McCreet: http://www.jamesmccreet.co.uk Christine Trent: http://www.christinetrent.com Katharine Beutner: http://blog.katharinebeutner.com/alcestis MYFANWY COOK is currently HNR Features Editor. She is currently working on a project with Bernard Knight and other writers with specialist expertise on How to Write Historical Fiction – A Practical Guide and Tool Kit, which will be published at the end of August 2010 with the aim of helping those who aspire to write historical fiction.

TEN HANDY TIPS FOR HANDLING REVIEWS So you’ve just published a novel, and the reviews are coming in. Some are good, some are — well, some are good. What do you do?

Good Reviews 1. Count your lucky stars. If the reviewer awards your book four out of five stars, demand that missing star. Never mind the fact that the reviewer reserves five stars for the likes of Jane Austen or William Shakespeare, you are fully equal to stand in their company, and it is your duty to your Muse to remind the reviewer of this until he caves in to your demands.

2. Share the love. Got a good review? By no means confine yourself to posting it on your website and blog and telling your close friends and family. Get on every site and every mailing list you belong to, especially the ones on which you never post at any other time, and tell the entire world about that review. People won’t mind at all if they read the same announcement fifteen times. It makes them feel important and gives them something to read when they’re not getting e-mail about Viagra.

3. Get out your magnifying glass. Buried in an otherwise glowing review may be one small reservation: “I wish the author had developed her characterization of Attila the Hun a bit more.”

Do not by any means say to yourself, “Huh, I wonder if he has a point there?” Inform the reviewer that every intelligent person on the planet thinks that you developed Attila brilliantly and that the entire review has been rendered meaningless by this one caveat. Then demand that the reviewer excise the offending sentence like the canker it is.

Bad Reviews 4. Be proactive. By no means receive a bad review with a dignified silence or console yourself with a heaping bowl of ice cream or by indulging in some retail therapy; that’s for wimps, and your mother didn’t raise a wimp. Put that assertiveness training course you took way back when to good use and tell the reviewer what you think, utilizing tips 6-10.

5. One for all, and all for one. Don’t confront your negative reviewer single-handed: get together with your friends and relatives to make him wish he’d never learned to string two words together. The strength of numbers will deeply impress upon your reviewer that you, the Author, are not a force to be trifled with. And it’ll give you and the gang something new to talk about for a change.

6. It’s the economy, stupid. Remind your reviewer that bad reviews can hurt book sales, and poor book sales can hurt the economy: ergo, by giving your book a negative review, the reviewer is doing her level best to single-handedly destroy the global economy. It’s

Tired of recalcitrant reviewers?

Turn this...

Into this!

No messy logic required! not about your single book; it’s about world prosperity.

7. Don’t mess with Mama Bear. Does the reviewer realize that your book is your baby, which gestated for months and months before finally making its triumphant appearance into the world?

What type of people are mean to babies? Mean people. Case closed.

8. Poor, poor pitiful me. There are several tacks you can take here.

One is to inform the reviewer that with your appalling childhood and/or your precarious mental condition, you’re lucky to have written a novel at all and need to be handled gently and tenderly, like the Dead Sea Scrolls. Another is to explain to the reviewer that your entire career, and therefore your economic livelihood and that of your family, depends on getting nothing but positive reviews. With the specter of a straitjacket and/or the poorhouse being evoked, the reviewer is bound to see reason.

9. Writers are from Earth; reviewers are from Uranus. If you are a woman and your reviewer is a man, loftily declare that men just can’t appreciate your book because they are grossly insensitive pigs intent on perpetuating centuries of subjugation of the female sex. If you are a man and your reviewer is a woman, darkly hint that the reviewer must be suffering from PMS or menopause.

10. The Rule of Last Resort. Tell the reviewer that he’s just plain stupid. Or maybe just plain crazy. Or both. It’s your decision.

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HOW NOT TO...

SUSAN HIGGINBOTHAM has had the pleasure of having a reviewer describe her first novel as “sophomoric” and another reviewer describe it as “not worth checking out of the library.” She let Boswell the dog whiz on them.

The reviews, that is.

HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Columns | 7

fiction is hot. Think of the huge popularity P aranormal of the Harry Potter and Twilight series; of adult fantasy/

historical fiction crossovers such as Susanna Clarke’s eccentric doorstopper, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell; not to mention Seth Grahame-Smith’s quirky genre-bender, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

“The publishing world has seen an explosion in fiction featuring a wide array of paranormal elements,” says literary agent Wendy Sherman.“Vampires, zombies, werewolves, and witches. Readers seem to have an unquenchable thirst that publishers, television, and film makers have been quick to respond to. Supernatural themes may once, not that long ago, have been seen as a side line, but today’s urban fantasy is a hugely popular genre all its own. When the rich detail of historical fiction is paired with fantastical elements we can reach an even broader audience of serious readers.”

Barbara Peters, owner of the Poisoned Pen Bookstore, speculates that the paranormal is so popular because it “both taps into ancient tropes offered in folklore and is a way of escaping the terrifying and uncertain world we live in.”

Witches, Wisefolk, and Kabbalists Witches and wizards have long been a fixture in fantasy fiction. Until recently any adult fiction that embraced these themes was regarded as fantasy or horror by default. But a new wave of literary novels, revealing magic and witchcraft through the lens of well-researched history, is blurring the lines of genre and shedding fresh light on how our ancestors’ belief in the otherworldly permeated every aspect of their lives. These novelists take their readers into that lost enchanted world.

Our forbears believed that magic was real. Dr. John Dee, conjurer to Elizabeth I, was a brilliant mathematician, cartographer, and also an alchemist and a necromancer. In Dee’s England, more people relied on traditional cunning folk for healing than on physicians, who were so expensive that

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Magic Goes Mainstream

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A Brief History of Enchantment

only the elite could afford them. Across world cultures, folk healers and other magical practitioners played a key role in their communities. Sometimes they were honored as wise folk, other times condemned as witches.

During the European witch persecutions from 1480 to 1700, an estimated 40,000 to 100,000 people were executed. These witch hunts were not a phenomenon of the Middle Ages, as popularly believed, but of the Renaissance and Reformation, stretching up to the dawn of the Age of Enlightenment. Some of those hanged or burned were actual cunning folk while others, likely the vast majority, were simply maligned victims of the witch-hunting frenzy. Recent titles illuminating the European witch hunts include Erika Mailman’s The Witch’s Trinity, set in 16th century Germany, and my own forthcoming novel, Daughters of the Witching Hill, which tells the true story of cunning woman Elizabeth Southerns, aka Mother Demdike, and her family’s struggle to survive the Pendle witch hunt of 1612.

By 1692, European witch mania had crossed the Atlantic and manifested itself in the infamous Salem Witch Trials which sentenced thirteen women and six men to death. The Salem tragedy provides the backdrop for two recent bestsellers. Kathleen Kent’s critically acclaimed novel, The Heretic’s Daughter, draws on the story of her ancestor, condemned witch Martha Carrier.

Katherine Howe, the descendant of two accused witches, offers a more overtly supernatural slant in her novel, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, which explores the possibility that at least some of the Salem witches may have been cunning folk with real powers. Suzy Witten’s small press debut, The Afflicted Girls, focuses not on the presumed witches but on their perceived victims and tries to solve the mystery underlying their hysteria.

“In writing The Heretic’s Daughter,” author Kathleen Kent states, “I worked to combine fact and fiction to illustrate the courage and fortitude of Martha Carrier, perhaps the only person who not only denied being a confederate of the Devil, but who very vocally confronted her judges, calling them to task

by Mary Sharratt

Any author... hoping to weave supernatural elements into their historical fiction must find a way to make it appear seamless. The magic must arise organically from the historical setting and worldview.”

8 | Features | HNR Issue 51, February 2010

for listening to a group of malicious, accusing girls.”

Reader Anne Gilbert describes her fascination with The Heretic’s Daughter. “Oddly, people of that time and place were both superstitious in the modern sense, and, at the same time, and often in the same communities, there were others who were a bit more skeptical and dared to disagree. As long as there wasn’t a whole lot of tension in these communities, you could just shrug your shoulders at them. But if there were tensions for any reason, such ‘skeptics’ often came under suspicion. The Heretic’s Daughter shows the process beautifully.”

Accused witches were not the only ones to face persecution.

Richard Zimler’s stunning novel, The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon, set in 16th century Portugal, evokes the rich world of Jewish mysticism under fire in an age of inquisition and forced conversion.

Magic, Superstition & Popular Culture Beyond the witch trials, the very real belief in the supernatural shared by rich and poor, educated and illiterate in the Early Modern Period shaped a worldview vastly different from our own.

“Throughout the centuries, magic and the supernatural were considered by the majority of people to be the norm,” says Kim Murphy, author of Whispers from the Grave. “In my upcoming, as of yet untitled timeslip, not only have I shown that Salem wasn’t the only place on the North American continent that had witch trials, but that the 17th-century English were very similar to the Powhatan Indians in their supernatural beliefs. Today, these subjects are often regarded as New Age. In reality, they’re very, very old. I interweave them in my work because it helps me explore what the traditional cultures have been trying to tell us all along.”

Author Sandra Gulland, whose most recent novel, Mistress of the Sun, delves into the world of bone magic and horse whispering, agrees that it would be “historically inaccurate to write about the 17th century (or earlier, for that matter) and not include the mystical or paranormal — at the very least in the minds of your characters. Even the great mathematical genius Descartes believed that bad dreams were put into his head by demons.” Gulland cites Hilary Mantel’s Booker Prize-winning novel of Thomas Cromwell, Wolf Hall, as an excellent example of how subtly layered beliefs in the supernatural can be woven into a narrative that is not explicitly about magic or witchcraft.

“When writing about people from the past, magic, superstition and the supernatural are important elements that we cannot ignore,” says C.W. Gortner, whose upcoming novel, The Confessions of Catherine de Medici, explores Catherine’s relationship with the seer, Nostradamus. “Whether it is the occult menace implicit in Karen Maitland’s superb medieval novels or the struggles of my own Catherine de Medici against the savage fanaticism of her age, belief in the supernatural enriches and informs our work, and the consciousness of the characters we inhabit. It is crucial to the very world we attempt to conjure to life for our reader.”

Moving forward in time, some writers have used the occult as a vehicle for addressing the cynicism and horrors of the modern age. In Jake Arnott’s novel, The Devil’s Paintbrush, set in Paris at the dawning of the 20th century, the notorious Aleister Crowley takes the reader on a tour through a stygian underworld of black masses, hallucinogens, and apocalyptic visions. The devil’s paintbrush of the title refers to the newly invented automatic machine gun, which heralds a violent and godless new epoch.

Priestesses & Seers Some novels draw on a magical history inspired by the polytheistic religions that flourished before the Christian conversions. Judith Lindbergh’s lyrical debut, The Thrall’s Tale, takes us to Viking-age Greenland and presents an arresting portrait of the seidkona, or seeress, Thorbjorg from the Saga of Eirik the Red. Lindbergh says she never really perceived Thorbjorg’s practice as “magic” anymore than she believes Thorbjorg herself did. “To my understanding, magic’s derogatory connotations are mostly the persistent and powerful effects of Christianity’s condemnation of the practices and practitioners of pre-Christian faiths,” the author observes. “I decided to portray the seidkona Thorbjorg in my novel as a priestess deeply committed to her faith.”

Similarly Kathleen Cunningham Guler’s novel, A Land Beyond Ravens, explores the indigenous Celtic religion that still held strong in 5th century Britain when Christianity was struggling to gain a foothold. Guler says her book gives a sense of how spirituality may have been interpreted as magic. “Two of the characters have what I’ve named ‘fire in the head,’ which is a kind of catch-all term for anything from visions and prophecy to the muse a bard or poet draws on for inspiration. One of those characters is Myrddin, aka Merlin. Of course he’s fictional, but it’s my conjecture that his ‘magic’ was his intelligent use of the knowledge gained from ‘fire in the head.’”

Beyond the shores of Europe, Louise Erdrich’s novel, The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, shows how the trickster Nanapush “converts” missionary priest Damien Modeste, who is actually a woman in disguise, by introducing her to the Ojibwe spirit world.

Vampires & Zombies Other writers have taken a completely different route, wedding “straight” historical fiction to the fantastic and bizarre.

In 1819 Lord Byron’s physician, John Polidori published his story “The Vampyre,” initiating the canon of English vampire fiction. The story was a hit, probably because the public assumed that the undead protagonist was modeled after bad boy Byron himself. Soon enough the vampire became a fixture in gothic literature. The late 20th century brought forth a literary vampire renaissance, beginning with Anne Rice’s series of novels, The Vampire Chronicles, first published in the 1970s, which attained cult status. The trend continues. Elizabeth Kostova’s 2005 novel, The Historian, reveals the 15th century prince Vlad Tepes, aka the Impaler of Wallachia, aka the Real Dracula.

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it folk tales, ballads, written sermons, or skaldic poetry. If you write a paranormal send up on a classic novel, know the original text inside out. Paranormal mash-ups such as Seth GrahameSmith’s actually pay great homage to the integrity of Jane Austen’s writing, allowing Elizabeth Bennet and Darcy’s wit to shine through as they battle the zombie hordes.

“The best historical fiction,” Kathleen Kent believes, “is anchored firmly in fact, and so I researched The Heretic’s Daughter for several years, studying maps, court records and contemporary accounts, to give the story and the characters greater authenticity.”

Primary sources such as witch trial transcripts are a great source for discovering stories and characters. My own inspiration to write a novel about Elizabeth Southerns was inspired by the following quote from Thomas Potts’s A Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster: She was a very old woman, about the age of Foure-score yeares, and had been a Witch for fiftie yeares.

Shee dwelt in the Forrest of Pendle, a vast place, fitte for her profession: What shee committed in her time, no man knowes. . . . Shee was a generall agent for the Devill in all these partes: no man escaped her, or her Furies.

Reading against the grain, I was amazed at how Mother Demdike’s strength of character blazed forth in the document written to vilify her.

My research into the Pendle Witches also benefited from new scholarly research on historical cunning folk. Excellent secondary sources include Owen Davies’s Popular Magic: Cunning-folk in English History and Emma Wilby’s Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits, both of which correct many misconceptions about historical magic practitioners. Keith Thomas’s classic, Religion and the Decline of Magic, is perhaps the best introduction to superstition and popular belief in Early Modern Britain.

Don’t chain yourself to your books and computer either. Being on location in places like Salem or the site of Greenland’s Viking settlements or Lisbon’s old Jewish quarter can add a whole other level of depth and authenticity to your writing.

Let the magic begin.

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Folktales of the zombie, a corpse reanimated by a powerful sorcerer, arise from the Vodou belief system of the West African diaspora. WB Seabrook’s 1929 novel, The Magic Island, and Victor Halperin’s 1932 film, White Zombie, starring Bela Lugosi, lifted the zombie from its original cultural context and made it a stock figure of the horror genre.

Vampires and zombies now rival each other for popularity in the current spate of Jane Austen-themed paranormals.

Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies weds the Regency classic with zombie mayhem and armies of ninja zombie-slayers, while the title of Amanda Grange’s Mr. Darcy, Vampyre says it all.

Light years away from the Jane Austen industry, fantasy author Emma Bull has crafted the most unique of twists – a paranormal Western. Set in Tombstone, Arizona in 1881, Bull’s novel, Territory, recasts the famous story of the shoot out at OK Corral as a supernatural battle ground: Wyatt Earp appears as a dark magician fighting over land rights in the mining boomtown.

Has genre-bending gone too far?

Barbara Peters, no fan of the vampireoeuvre, seems to think so. “I expect that like all hot genres it will play out and cycle down and something new will replace it.”

HNR editor Bethany Latham offers a different viewpoint. “Historical fiction provides a way to escape from reality, first and foremost into the past, and what’s more escapist than the supernatural, than fantasy?

There will always be purists when it comes to any genre – those who don’t wish to see adventure taint their literary novels or the paranormal intrude on a prescribed historical setting. But many readers are finding that seamlessly combining the two into a single, wellwritten novel can make for some fascinating, transportive reading. I’m a perfect example; I’m not a fan of ‘fantasy’ per se, and my first reaction if asked would be to say I don’t read it. But then I’d remember how I greatly enjoyed both Kostova’s The Historian and Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, both of which fall into this category, and have to admit myself to be a liar. Works like this have encouraged me to broaden not only the horizons of what I put on my never-ending ‘to read’ list, but also what I consider to be good ‘historical fiction.’”

How to Make it Work As Latham points out, any author hoping to weave supernatural elements into their historical fiction must find a way to make it appear seamless. The magic must arise organically from the historical setting and worldview. It must feel authentic rather than forced or anachronistic. A solid background in research is essential. Familiarize yourself with the literature of your era, be

MARY SHARRATT is an American writer living in England, near Pendle Hill, haunt of the Lancashire Witches of 1612 who feature in her new novel, Daughters of the Witching Hill, to be published in April by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Her novel The Vanishing Point (Houghton Mifflin) was a UK Guardian Readers’ Book of the Year. Visit her website: www.marysharratt.com.

P ride and Prejudice and Zombies? Mr Darcy, Vampyre?

Jane Bites Back? Whatever is the world coming to? Why are the classics suddenly being mashed up with monsters? And why is Austen the author spawning all these monstrous add-ons?

On the surface, she seems an unlikely choice for such treatment.

Her novels are comedies of manners and she herself was the daughter of a clergyman, a spinster who lived with her family in the quiet English countryside during an era of elegance and ease.

But we have only to scratch the surface to find something very different underneath. Her novels are certainly funny and each of them contains a romance, but alongside the drawing-room manners and the comical characters we have a darker strain in her books.

In Sense and Sensibility we see the harsh realities of life for women. The older Eliza is forced into a repugnant marriage, and when she tries to find some happiness in an affair she is cast off by both husband and lover, leading to poverty, illness and early death – a death which, if not for Colonel Brandon’s help, would have taken place in a debtors’ prison.

Her daughter, born to one of her lovers, is cared for by Brandon, but she is seduced, made pregnant and then abandoned by a plausible rogue. Even Bath, a seemingly staid and respectable place, is not safe, for this is where the seduction begins—a place where Brandon was sure she would be safe. It is only through his kindness that she, like her mother, is saved.

Lydia Bennet, if she had not had powerful friends, might have suffered a similar fate when Wickham abandoned her, as, in time, he surely would. Her youth and liveliness might have secured her more lovers and more fun, but what when her youth and looks faded? The long-term future, without Darcy’s interference, did not look bright for Lydia.

Women’s dependent position is not the only darkness in Austen; her men, too, are often dependent. One of the heroes of Sense and Sensibility, Edward Ferrars, is financially dependent upon his mother and subject to her whims and caprices. Frank Churchill, in Austen’s Emma, is also dependent, and risks being

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Jane Austen and the Gothic Novel

disinherited if he does anything to displease Mrs Churchill. Even Mr Collins, the comical clergyman from Pride and Prejudice, has some reason for his obsequiousness: a man with no connections must make himself agreeable if he is to earn a living and avoid the poor house.

Nor is the darker strain merely personal. There is a deepseated political darkness in the books. In Mansfield Park, Austen touches on the subject of slavery and even Pride and Prejudice, Austen’s most sparkling novel, does not escape, as there is the threat of war. The militia are stationed in Meryton to protect the inhabitants should England be invaded, and the removal of the militia to Brighton is to ensure that Napoleon doesn’t land his troops on the coast.

Austen’s life, too, is not as tranquil as it might appear at first glance. Though she never married, she was, according to her sister Cassandra, in love with a young man who died before he had a chance to propose.

It was Cassandra’s belief that, had he lived, Jane would have accepted him. Jane’s tragedy echoes Cassandra’s own tragedy, for when her fiancé went to the West Indies as chaplain to his regiment, he died there of yellow fever.

Early death is a constant feature of Austen’s letters, with illness, childbirth and riding accidents claiming many lives. There are also many early deaths in her novels, for example Benwick’s fiancée in Persuasion, Mr Dashwood’s first wife in Sense and Sensibility and Fanny’s little sister in Mansfield Park.

Politically, Austen was in touch with the turbulent events of the day and well aware of the dangers surrounding her. She had brothers in the Navy, and from them she learnt of the progress of the war; through her cousin, Eliza, she had a personal insight into the horrors of the French Revolution, for Eliza married a French Count who was sent to the guillotine.

This darker strain is to be found more markedly in the novels Austen read. In the early nineteenth century, the Gothic novel was flourishing. The “horrid novels” so beloved by Catherine Morland, the heroine of Northanger Abbey, contained gloomy castles, mercenaries, banditti, kidnappings, murder and more.

by Amanda Grange

The Current wave... of monster mash-ups, with their darker themes, echo the darker themes in Austen’s life, novels and world...”

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adventure to match the Gothic novels of Austen’s era.

With the idea of a gloomy castle, came the final what if? What if Darcy had a secret? What if there was a reason for his reserved behaviour in Pride and Prejudice, beyond the reasons given on the surface? What if he was a vampyre?

Immediately I was intrigued. How would that affect his relationship with Elizabeth? How would it colour their wedding tour? And how would she find out?

As I turned the ideas over in my mind, I began to realise that casting Darcy as a vampyre not only took the sequel into the Gothic realm, it also made a statement about the the deathless nature of Pride and Prejudice – and, by extension, literature – and the eternal freshness of its characters. Mr Darcy is over 200 years old and yet he is forever young and handsome and he still has the power to attract women. I also realised that it made a comment on the relationship between novel and reader.

A novel does not exist by itself, it only truly lives when a reader gives up some of their lifeforce in order to vitalise it. Often this is a willing gift, when a reader is seduced by the cover or the synopsis, but there is also a moment when a book takes over. It glues itself to the fingers and sucks the lifeforce from the reader, refusing to let go.

The idea proved irresistible to me and Mr Darcy, Vampyre was born.

So what are we to make of the new strain of Austeninspired novels? Are they a natural progression from the earlier Austen-inspired novels? Or are they a new strain which, like Frankinstein’s monster, have run amok, refusing to be contained in the day-to-day world?

Whatever the case, there is something for everyone. Those wanting a parody including zombies, mayhem and brains will find them in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Those wanting a brooding mood piece filled with extraordinary adventures will find it in Mr Darcy, Vampyre. And those wanting an even more quirky read will find it in Jane Bites Back.

And for those who want none of them I will end by quoting, not Austen, but Shakespeare: “If we shadows have offended, Think but this and all is mended: That you have but slumbered here While these visions did appear.

And this weak and idle theme, No more yielding but a dream, Gentles, do not reprehend.

If you pardon, we will mend...”

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The decade which saw the publication of Austen’s novels also saw the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Polidori’s The Vampyre, both of which introduced new monster prototypes which were to endure for two hundred years (and undoubtedly more).

Which brings us back to today, and the current wave of monster mash-ups, which, with their darker themes, echo the darker themes in Austen’s life, novels and world.

But, as with Austen and her world, scratch the surface of the monster mash-ups and it will be seen that, although there are similarities, there are also great differences between the individual books. Together they form a trend in publishing, but they each approach the idea from a different angle and with very different results.

Quirk’s editorial director, Jason Rekulak, who dreamed up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ concept, is quoted as saying, “I just thought it would be funny to desecrate a classic work of literature.” The Seth Grahame-Smith novel, published by Quirk, is a parody which uses 85% of Austen’s novel but adds scenes of zombie mayhem.

Mr Darcy, Vampyre, my own novel, published by Sourcebooks, came from quite a different place. It was woven of many strands which had been gathering inside my imagination over a period of years. The seed was sewn when I was watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I found myself wishing they would do an episode where Buffy and the gang were sent into the world of Pride and Prejudice. It never happened, but the idea of Darcy as a vampire stayed with me.

In the meantime I wrote a series of heroes’ diaries which looked at Austen’s novels from the heroes’ points of view. All the time I was writing them, at the back of my mind, another idea was growing. I wanted to write a novel which would set Austen’s characters in their wider historical context, against a background of the Grand Tour and the Napoleonic wars. I also wanted to write a Gothic novel in the tradition of the Gothics that Austen herself read. And most of all I wanted to write a sequel to Pride and Prejudice.

To put myself in the right frame of mind, I re-read The Mysteries of Udolpho, and all the ideas that had been floating round in my head came together.

What if, for my sequel to Pride and Prejudice, I eschewed the oft-written story of Lizzy and Darcy settling into Pemberley, and instead sent them to the continent on their wedding tour?

The background to the book would then be some of the great European cities such as Paris and Venice, caught up in an unsettling time of transition.

And what if I paid homage to The Mysteries of Udolpho by sending Lizzy and Darcy over the Alps, then down into Piedmont and along the Brenta to Venice, echoing the journey in that novel?

At once I saw the possibilities for a very different kind of sequel, with many of the glittering things I wanted to read about on the Darcys’ wedding tour – but also a darker side: a gloomy castle in the Alps, ancient retainers, portents of doom and an

AMANDA GRANGE is a lifelong Austen fan and author of five Austen retellings: Mr Darcy’s Diary, Captain Wentworth’s Diary, Mr Knightley’s Diary, Edmund Bertram’s Diary and Colonel Brandon’s Diary, as well as many Regency romances. Her latest release is Mr Darcy, Vampyre. You can learn more about her books on her website: www.amandagrange.com.

an interview with Frank Tallis

Tallis talks to Linda Kennedy and Myfanwy Cook F rank about his Liebermann books and their fin de siècle Viennese setting.

MC: Have you always been interested in writing historical crime fiction?

FT: I have always been interested in writing fiction — both historical and contemporary. In fact, my first two novels were very ‘trendy’ urban thrillers.

LK: Your readers love your evocative descriptions of Vienna in the early 20th century. Why did you select Vienna as the setting for your novels?

FT: Vienna in 1900 was an extremely exciting place. Revolutionary ideas were emerging in all areas of human endeavour: art, literature, philosophy, science, and most notably, psychiatry.

One could also argue that Vienna in 1900 was the birthplace of modernism — and I think that although I write historical novels, I am a modernist at heart. Also, if you are going to write a psychoanalytic thriller, Freud’s Vienna obviously suggests itself as a setting.

LK: How important has your background as a clinical psychologist been in shaping your characters and the crimes that are committed in your novels?

FT: My background in clinical psychology is enormously important and affects virtually every aspect of my writing. I usually have something very close to ‘case study’ at the back of my mind when I am creating a character. This is particularly true with respect to my serial killers. I must have a clear idea of the psychological (and biological) causes of their behaviour to make them believable. If I — as a professional — am persuaded of their plausibility, then I assume that most of my readers will be too.

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Murder, Music, Psychoanalysis & Pastries

MC: In Vienna Blood you focus on Vienna as a city of sphinxes, and as home to Freud’s secret society, and in Fatal Lies St. Florian’s school is the setting for murder. How do you carry out the research for the themes and settings for your novels?

FT: My research consists of two activities. Firstly, spending time in Vienna and visiting all of the locations that feature in the Liebermann books, and secondly, reading a mountain of literature related to fin de siècle and early 20th-century Vienna. This research reading is not just academic. I also read Viennese authors such as Arthur Schnitzler, Stefan Zweig and Robert Musil. They are wonderful writers who have been sadly underrated by the English-speaking literary world.

Schnitzler (not Joyce) was probably the first writer ever to experiment with ‘stream of consciousness’ in a story called Lieutenant Gustl, and Musil’s The Confusions of Young Torless — set in a military academy — has provided the template for many subsequent novels, films and plays that explore adolescent angst in a closed society setting.

MC: Part of the fascination of your novels for your growing band of fans is the way in which you intertwine major political issues, such as anti-semitism in Darkness Rising, with psychology and forensics. When you are planning your novels, do you select a political theme

first?

FT: When I started writing the Liebermann books, I intended them to be straightforward detective fiction — albeit detective fiction incorporating psychoanalytic ideas; however, the more I read about fin de siècle Vienna, the more I realised that I would have to make some reference to contemporary politics. Adolf Hitler was a struggling artist in Vienna before the First World War, and was very much influenced by the political thinkers he was surrounded by. In fact, he modelled his public persona on

by Linda Kennedy & Myfanwy Cook

thriller, Freud’s Vienna obviously suggests itself If you are... going to write a psychoanalytic as a setting.”

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MC: Dr. Max Liebermann has already become a firm favourite with your readers. Do you feel that the character you have created is your own early 20th-century doppelgänger?

FT: Max Liebermann is taller than me, younger than me, and considerably more athletic; however, we have in common

LINDA KENNEDY teaches English for OISE in Oxford. She has taught for the British Council in Senegal and worked as an English language teacher in Paris and Algeria.

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LK: Which are the writers who have influenced you the most?

FT: In no particular order: Arthur Conan Doyle, Christopher Priest, John Fowles, Robert Irwin, Susanna Clarke, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Anthony Burgess, C.S. Lewis, John Wyndham, Mervyn Peake, Oscar Wilde, Emily Bronte, J. Meade Falkner, Martin Amis, Ian McEwan, P.G. Wodehouse, Robert Musil, Douglas Adams, H.G. Wells, Laurie Lee, J.G. Ballard, D.M. Thomas, C h a r l e s Dickens, William Hope Hodgson, A r t h u r S c h n i t z l e r, Franz Kafka, Jonathan Swift, Thomas De Quincey, D e n n i s W h e a t l e y, Shirley Jackson, Daphne Du Mau rier, Barbara Vine, Sigmund Freud, and Stefan Zweig. To name but a few!

LK: Your next novel in the Liebermann Papers series will be published in 2010. Could you tell is a little bit about it?

FT: A sexual predator is at large on the streets of Imperial Vienna and Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt calls on Dr. Max Liebermann for assistance. Early signs indicate that the predator is no ordinary ‘lust murderer’ but an entirely new phenomenon, his unique deviance dramatising the erotic and morbid preoccupations of the age. To explain his behaviour, Liebermann must utilise the very latest developments in psychoanalysis and journey into uncharted regions of the human mind …

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MYFANWY COOK is currently one of the Historical Novels Review features editors. She loves writing short historical fiction. For her latest short story see: www. scribd.com/Margins-Magazine-issue-5-The-AutumnHarvest-Issue.

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LK: Is your knowledge of the music of the period a result of meticulous research, or ‘hands on’ experience?

FT: About thirty years ago I was quite a good pianist — although I haven’t practised for so long now I can barely knock out a simple tune. When I was a teenager I was music mad.

I played in rock bands, released records, and s t u d i e d orchestration a n d co mp o s i t i o n .

Actually, in a storage box in my garage is a Frank Tallis ‘Nocturne’ for Harpsichord, Strings, and Tubular Bells, written when I was about twenty. I haven’t looked at it for a while, but I suspect it wouldn’t be too bad. Needless to say, I love the music of early 20th-century Vienna, particularly Mahler, whose slow movements and songs I find deeply moving.

psychology, music, and unfortunately for my waistline, a weakness for certain Viennese pastries.

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the mayor of Vienna, Karl Lueger, and borrowed many of his ‘original’ ideas from the Pan German Nationalists. Even Nazi iconography can be traced back to early 20th-century Vienna.

The swastika, for example, was a favourite ‘rune’ of the Viennese writer Guido von List. Liebermann’s Vienna is so rich politically, I don’t have to choose particular themes — they just emerge naturally from Liebermann’s world.

an interview with Janette Oke

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Romance & Faith

anette Oke’s novels explore romance and faith from the North American prairie to ancient Jerusalem. She is the author of several series: Canadian West, Prairie Legacy, Love Comes Softly, Seasons of the Heart, Song of Acadia and Women of the West.

Drawing from her childhood growing up during the Great Depression on the Canadian prairie, Ms. Oke started writing only after her children were in their teens, although she had always possessed the desire to write. Her first characters — Marty and Clark — come to life on the North American frontier in the 1800s in her first book, Love Comes Softly, which was published by Bethany House in 1979. Although Ms. Oke never intended to start a series, the outpouring of delight from readers wanting more led her to create seven more books with these characters, and ultimately, more than 75 books that span several generations historical eras. All eight of the Love Comes Softly series have been made into Hallmark Channel movies with the help of producer/writer Michael Landon, Jr. Ms. Oke received the 1992 President’s Award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association for her significant contribution to Christian fiction, more than one Christy Award, the 1999 CBA Life Impact Award, and has been awarded the Gold Medallion Award for fiction.

good sons. It bothered me that women didn’t have what I would call a “safe, quick grab” of a romance novel — all the ones I saw presented the main characters in exotic places but fighting each other throughout the book until the last two pages, when they can’t keep their hands off each other. This to me is not a realistic view of marriage or love.

MFB: You’re credited with beginning the “inspirational/Christian” genre of fiction with your first book — can you tell us what you were thinking when you began writing?

JO: I’ve always been a fiction reader, but even back then I found that, at least for the Christian community, the only fiction available was not in keeping with my own worldview — there were few stories of strong women and good men who were committed to each other in a realistic marriage. I was blessed with a lot of strong women and men in my background: a wonderful grandfather and Dad (I was definitely a Daddy’s girl), a brother who took care of me, a very good husband, and three

MFB: You’re an incredibly prolific writer, with more than 75 books published in thirty years. Any tips you can pass on to writers about how to be so productive?

JO: I think it’s a very personal thing, you have to find what works for you. In my writing, I like a lot of thinking time, pre-writing time — Marty and Clark, for instance, in my first book, were in my mind for years before I started writing their story — and then, what works for me is when, beginning my first draft, I go off by myself and just write — in bunches, all day long, maybe two weeks at a stretch. I find this keeps me in the book and in tune with the characters, but that may not fit well for other writers.

MFB: How did you come to choose the prairie — the Canadian frontier — as your setting for so many of your books?

JO: I’ve always loved the stories and spirit of the people who “opened” the West, but most of the books I found were about the United States, which was a very different experience from what happened in Canada. The Province of Alberta, where I grew up, was still fairly “new” in 1905 when my grandparents moved there from Minnesota. But there weren’t wagon trains like in the U.S.; people came in by rail, whole little communities, and started towns as a group. The Northwest Mounted Police were there already, ahead of the settlers, so there was law established as they came — very different from the “wild West” in the U.S. Where we lived, there were still original settlers there who had come before us, and I loved their spirit, their courage, and the way they had learned to prioritize the important things in life.

by Mary F. Burns

The only fiction... available was not in keeping with my own worldview — there were few stories of strong women and good men who were committed to each other in a realistic marriage.”

HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Features | 15

MFB: After all those years of “prairie” books, how does it feel to be writing about a completely different time and place and set of characters — especially biblical characters, specifically the New Testament?

JO: Well, I have always felt very hesitant to do fictional writing on biblical characters, as I have never really enjoyed mixing fact and fiction. I think it’s harder to connect when there are biblical characters you have grown used to and pictured in your own mind. For example, I’ve always pictured the Centurion as an older man, more settled, one who had been there for a long time — and the picture that Davis presented didn’t fit my image, so I had to do a reversal there, although his character was very good. I don’t like to mess with other people’s concepts of biblical characters — it’s hard for people to sort out what is actual and what is portrayal. So this has been a stretch for me. We’ve been able to stick to the story in the bible, with our primary source being the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament, but there is still a lot to flesh out from the biblical text. And it complicates it even more with two authors.

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MFB: It seems to me that one of the challenges of writing about early New Te s t a m e n t times is depicting the miracles that are described there — how do you feel about that?

JO: Well, in many ways we still see miracles in our day — there are people within our congregation, for instance, who have been healed in ways medicine cannot explain. But in our book, miracles seem a little more astounding because we make it slow down and look at it in a new way. I don’t think I’ll ever again read the bible in the same way — it has all come to life, the depth has just sort of exploded in my thinking — they were all real life people with emotions — and I can’t skip over all the feeling that comes up now when I read the text, which can seem so bare and sparse until you slow down and really let it sink in. It has been a spiritual eye-opener for me.

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MFB: I understand you “retired” for a while—what coaxed you back into writing again?

JO: I had retired from writing when my husband retired as a college professor. I didn’t want to be driven by deadlines, and so I had a few years of catching up on many good things I’d been missing.

Then, a former editor of mine, Carol Johnson, presented me with a concept from Bethany House for both me and Davis Bunn to co-write. And although we started only with the idea of writing The C e n t u r i o n ’s Wife story, it turned out to be a far bigger project than anyone had expected. So then there was a second one, The Hidden Flame, and now we’re working on a third book.

MFB: This Acts of Faith series is a co-writing effort between you and Davis Bunn, who lives in England. How’s that been working out?

JO: Davis has pretty much been writing the male characters, while I write the female characters, and that’s been working out very well. I’m used to outlining my books in advance and sketching out the characters, and that has worked for us, too. The manuscript has to go back and forth a lot, of course, so we can blend the writing. Davis works on his section, then sends it to me and I fill in with mine. Our backgrounds are very different, and our writing styles are different too — it’s amazing to me that it works, but it does! Davis is a historian and a more “te ch n i c a l ” writer, while I’m more on the emotional and feeling side of things.

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Then, after the first draft, it’s easier to work with interruptions and taking care of other responsibilities. I usually write four or five drafts per book.

MARY F. BURNS is an HNS member and reviewer.

Her debut historical novel, J–The Woman Who Wrote the Bible, is due out in July 2010, published by O-Books.

an interview with Jacqueline Wilson

Jacqueline Wilson, winner of the Smarties Prize and D ame the Carnegie Medal in Literature, talks to Myfanwy Cook about her first full length children’s historical novel.

MC: According to a recent Mori poll English children voted you their favourite author. Your characters, such as Tracy Beaker, appeal to young readers worldwide and your book sales in the UK alone stand at over 25 million. What has motivated you to take a new direction and to set a whole novel in the Victorian period?

JW: I’m still so surprised and thrilled that I’ve become a best-selling author. For years publishers used to say to me that they liked my books, but it was a shame that I’d never be a really popular author. I think The Story of Tracy Beaker was my ‘breakthrough’ book - and for the last twenty years I’ve been extremely lucky. However, I’m always eager to break new ground and try something different. I have a dread of someone saying that I’m churning out the same old book again and again. I want to intrigue and interest my readers with every single new book! I was inspired to write Hetty Feather because I was made a Coram Fellow of the Foundling Museum. I was very pleased and proud to be involved with this delightful small museum, and very eager to work with them. We had several interesting discussions and I discovered that top of their wish list was a new children’s novel about a foundling. I knew Jamilla Gavin had written her highly praised and successful Coram Boy - but that was an action-packed adventure book set in the eighteenth century. I immediately started visualising a 19th-century domestic novel about a late Victorian foundling girl. I love the Victorian age, and very much wanted to write this novel - though initially I had to say no, as I had so many other commitments. I was doing so many talks and book-signings that I knew I simply couldn’t manage to take time off to do serious research. I said I might be able to manage a short story, but that was about my limit. However, with extraordinary

I’m always...

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Breaking New Ground

timing, I then immediately became very ill with a heart condition.

I ended up in hospital having a serious operation, and was told I needed to take at least three months off. I was given a little brochure which suggested I needn’t be too depressed: I could still do a little cooking, potter in the garden, and play with my grandchildren. Well, I find cooking very boring, ditto gardening, and I don’t have any grandchildren, so I knew exactly how I was going to fill my three month’s convalescence: doing some serious Victorian research! I didn’t just read social history books, plus some Mayhew - I read many marvellous novels published in the 1870s and 1880s. George Gissing was particularly rewarding, though he had some very strange ideas. I also re-read my collection of Mrs Molesworth’s children’s books. Within a week Hetty Feather sprang into my mind fully-formed,and I started writing her story.

MC: Was The Lottie Project the inspiration for Hetty Feather?

JW: I enjoyed writing The Lottie Project but it was a much more light-hearted book. In the past I made many school visits, and was delighted to see lots of Victorian projects.

I’d always loved the Victorians, and my daughter Emma did too. When she was little we used to play imaginary Victorian games: Emma was the lady of the house, and I was the servant girl. This was very clever of Emma, because she could boss me about, and I simply had to curtsey and say ‘Yes, Miss Emma,’ and do exactly as she said! However, most of the children I met in Primary School seemed amazed that anyone could love the Victorian age. They screwed up their faces in horror, and insisted that the Victorians were ‘dead boring!’ So this gave me the idea for a modern girl, Charlie, who was forced to do a Victorian project for school. I helped her invent a Victorian alter ego, going through very similar troubling situations, so that my readers could find themselves doing a ‘compare and contrast’ exercise, without quite realising it. I’m always delighted when readers tell me that The Lottie Project is their favourite out of

by Myfanwy Cook

eager to break new ground and try something different. I have a dread of someone saying that I’m churning out the same old book again and again.”

HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Features | 17

my books - and I was delighted when playwright Vicky Ireland adapted my novel into a very popular stage play.

MC: Did you find it more challenging to write a full-length historical novel than your contemporary ones?

JW: I suppose I did find it more challenging, because obviously I didn’t want to make any historical howlers and I needed to check all my facts. I read several excellent books about the Foundling

MC: Is reading historical fiction one of your personal interests, and if so have you any favourite novelists or novels?

JW: When I was a teenager I loved reading historical fiction when I was fourteen I read many books about the Elizabethans, and Young Bess was one of my favourite novels. Nowadays I love Sarah Waters’ Victorian books - and I’m delighted that Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall has won the Booker prize.

Jacqueline Wilson

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MC: Do you think that because of the problems that face the younger readers today historical fiction might provide a source of escapism from their everyday lives?

JW: I can see that lots of historical fiction could be a very welcome escapist read - but not my book Hetty Feather - it’s about a very troubled child, fretting in an institution, facing many trials and cruelties. It’s a gripping but disturbing read - though I promise it has a very happy ending!

MC: Are you planning to write any more novels that are set in the past?

JW: Hetty Feather has only been published a couple of months, and yet already I’ve been inundated with letters longing to know what happens next. I’d love to write a sequel so that I can find out!

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museum, including an autobiographical account by an actual Victorian foundling. When I’d finished Hetty Feather I sent it to the Head of Education at the museum, Annette McCartney, and she very kindly checked the content for me, and made several suggestions.

MYFANWY COOK is currently one of the Historical Novels Review features editors. She loves writing short historical fiction. For her latest short story see: www. scribd.com/Margins-Magazine-issue-5-The-AutumnHarvest-Issue.

a profile of publisher Severn House

yfanwy Cook investigates Severn House’s association M with historical fiction.

The hallmark of Severn House is that it is primarily a publishing house that supplies quality hardback fiction to libraries, publishing over half its titles in large print editions.

Severn House was founded in 1974 by Edwin Buckhalter and his then business partner, Judy Piatkus.

In 1975 they published their first titles, and after four years Judy Piatkus went on to found her own separate publishing house. Although Severn House wasn’t a family business, Buckhalter says his father“was a bookseller in London whose small shops supplied the local libraries on a regular and efficient basis, and thus where I cut my teeth. An order would come in the post in the morning—most publishers had ‘trade counters’ keeping the latest stock that could be collected by car—and would deliver to the library that afternoon. Good service.”

Buckhalter believes that a publisher should always be a publishing “house” and so using his surname would have meant that they would have had “to publish very long books just to get the name on the spine...So, sitting at a concert in London’s Royal Festival Hall one night, I realised that the British composer Elgar lived in ‘Severn House’ in Hampstead, reminding him of his beloved Worcestershire and the river where he grew up. I have roots there too and my wife comes from there, so Severn House it was.”

Severn House published historical novels almost from the beginning, but “original historical manuscripts only in the last 15 years or so. A trend that has increased dramatically in the last 5-7 years.” They’ve published all genres of historical fiction, from romantic sagas to crime. The first authors published included Christopher Nicole and Jean Saunders/Rowena Summers.

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Satisfying Stories, Transatlantic Appeal

Recent novelists who have proved popular include Simon Beaufort, Gillian Bradshaw, Alys Clare, Anne Douglas, Cora Harrison, Ian Morson, Pamela Oldfield, Kate Sedley and June Tate.

Buckhalter doesn’t think that their readership has changed dramatically over the years because “a good story is a good story and will find an audience. I’d like to think that parents have introduced their children to some of these authors, so a new generation is appreciating their storytelling.”

However, he does think that there has been a shift in the popularity of certain periods, particularly novels set in the run up to the First War, the “end of Empire period” and the Second World War. He also pointed out that there are always exceptions.

Some of their contemporary crime and thriller writers also write historical series for them, including the popular Graham Ison’s Hardcastle series set either side of the First World War. Sally Spencer, with “his” Blackstone historical series, is another example of an author writing both historical and contemporary novels for Severn House.

At the moment, early and late medieval fiction is in demand as is 16th and 17th century, with authors such as Simon Beaufort, Gillian Bradshaw, Alys Clare, Ian Morson and Kate Sedley currently writing novels set in these periods.

Book covers are important for Severn House and they design in house, but most of the illustrations come from respected picture agencies. For their market, Buckhalter believes that “...it is the author’s name that counts first and foremost, and then the jacket should at least give the flavour of the book. However, to get the book on the library or bookstore shelves, we have to get past the buyer—as opposed to the reader or end user—and they may have a different viewpoint.

Then again, USA and UK cover styles are different…we tend to

by Myfanwy Cook

A good story... is a good story and will find an audience. I’d like to think that parents have introduced their children to some of these authors, so a new generation is appreciating their storytelling.”

HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Features | 19

have to compromise.”

It isn’t just covers that have more appeal on one side of the Atlantic than the other, but also authors. “Most of our (British) crime writers travel well; ‘romance’ writers less so, though we have had some success.” American and Canadian authors writing for Severn house can also attract a wide audience. “Again, many are crime writers and several really big ‘romance’, or women’s writers such as Barbara Delinksy or Fern Michaels. They are not necessarily historical, though may write 19th-century material interspersed with their contemporary novels.”

The American arm of Severn House doesn’t publish different titles, “...but of course the same title/author will have different popularity and sales on the other side of the Atlantic. So some of our USA authors travel well over here; others enjoy minimal sales in the UK but impressive ones in the USA. It’s probably a defect in our sales/marketing ability coupled with the way books are acquired by UK libraries today, that we cannot persuade more UK libraries to stock some really good and accurate historical writing from USA authors…whilst the USA in turn is dramatically more receptive to names new to them from the UK.” Readers associate Severn House with hardback books, but

it has always been possible to buy trade paperback editions in bookshops/bookstores, though until recently you have usually had to order them. However, during the last 3-4 years they have seen an enormous growth in orders: “Our titles are available from Amazon and the like. And short run printing with more developments in 2010, which means that we can keep our titles available for longer as long as there is a steady demand.”

Severn House may not be a family business with a long history in the world of publishing, but it gives the impression of being one. It steadily publishes novels that are read and appreciated by the general public on both sides of the Atlantic through the library services. The authors it publishes may not be new “brand names”, but they are often well-established authors who are writing in a different genre from the one we would normally associate them with. What is apparent is that, headed by Edwin Buckhalter, this publishing house is concerned with good service, and above all publishing satisfying stories that are accessible to a wide-readership.

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MYFANWY COOK is currently HNR Features Editor. She is currently working on a project with Bernard Knight and other writers with specialist expertise on How to Write Historical Fiction – A Practical Guide and Tool Kit, which will be published at the end of August 2010 with the aim of helping those who aspire to write historical fiction.

Reviews |

prehistory

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DAUGHTER OF KURA Debra Austin, Touchstone, 2009, $25/C$32, hb, 310pp, 9781439112663 Over half a million years ago on the plains of Africa, the ancient ancestors of humans—the species known today as homo erectus—band together in small groups to survive as best they can amid constant danger from predators, injury, and starvation. Each miniature society is run by a Mother, who ensures winter supplies are gathered and oversees mating rituals and domestic disputes.

In one of these clans, a young female named Snap comes of age as granddaughter of the current Mother. Her own mother, mourning the loss of her mate, welcomes a stranger into their caves, a man with new and strange ideas that at first seem eccentric but soon prove dangerously divisive.

When Snap refuses to abandon the old ways, she is ostracized, left to fend for herself in an environment where solitude equals certain death.

Weakened and alone, she must draw on all her courage, determination, and strength to find a way not only to survive but to rescue those she loves from oppression and violence before it’s too late.

The author brings a forgotten time and place to vivid life in her first novel. Her characters are both human and animal, and through her storytelling their lives run parallel to our own—naked hairy creatures who lick each other’s wounds are also men and women who question authority and deal with political and religious turmoil. Some readers may have trouble adjusting to the modern dialogue; keep in mind that the characters communicate via sign language and non-verbal sounds, so the dialogue is a translation of meaning rather than words. Once the reader acclimatizes to this style, the story and characters make the chapters fly by. A unique and exciting adventure. Recommended.

Heather Domin

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ancient egypt

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THE SPIES OF SOBECK P. C. Doherty, St. Martin’s, 2010, $24.99, hb, 320 pp, 9780312272876 / Headline, 2009, £7.99, pb, 340pp, 9780755338474 Pharaoh Hatshepsut, or Hatusu as she is called in this novel, is facing the toppling of her throne in Egypt of 1477 BC. A secret sect of warrior murderers known as the Nubian Arites wishes to rule all Egypt. Is their current campaign successful because the Pharaoh is a woman? Is she strong enough to deal with the mysterious disappearances and strangulations of her best court officials?

After a failed assassination attempt on Hatusu’s Prehistory — Biblical

life following her return to Thebes, her Chief Investigator, Amerotke, is ordered to find the leader of these killers immediately. The task is complex, especially as two of the murders occur in rooms where there was absolutely no access other than through one door, locked and barred in both instances. The symbolic Arites red cloth, appearing on both victims’ necks and on bedposts of those being warned of their impending doom, is spreading fear and chaos throughout the kingdom. The Arites consider these deaths a satisfying sacrifice to their demon god. Their leader is the mysterious Sgeru, never seen but very clearly coercing and directing multiple attacks at the same time.

As Amerotke wends his way to a surprising conclusion, the reader is treated to ample descriptions of the stunning architecture, paintings, decorations, jewelry, food, spices, smells, dress and fragrances common to this rich, exotic land. The Spies of Sobeck is a magnificent Egyptian mystery tale of one very smart and savvy investigator racing against time to save a nation from a larger, more devastating war.

Viviane Crystal

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E D I TORS’ CH OICE RANSOM David Malouf, Chatto & Windus, 2009, £14.00, hb, 224pp, 9780701184155 / Pantheon, 2010, $24.00, hb, 240pp, 9780307378774 Ransom is a diamond of a novel, tiny but flawless, prose so pared away and carefully constructed that however many times you read it, it persists in revealing new meanings and unfolding new images to the mind’s eye.

It begins with the tragic consequences of the anger of Achilles, the deaths of Patroclus and Hector and Achilles’ desecration of Hector’s body. But fatherhood is its real subject matter.

Priam mourns his son, but also reflects on his own fatherless upbringing. Achilles, who thought the war was going to be ‘over by Christmas’, misses his own son. When Priam decides he will go to intercede with Achilles for Hector’s body, he goes not as a king but as a father, plainly dressed and travelling in an ordinary mule-cart, whose driver is himself no stranger to the grief of losing a child.

As with Homer, so with Malouf; when heroes step away from their public image and allow themselves to be mortal, miracles of empathy and reconciliation can happen, beautifully represented here by small details – the feel of water running over bare feet in the heat of the day, a shared meal, sleeping in the open air under a good blanket. These are also the things which, by contrast, warn us about the consequences of heroism and its inflexibility. Cassandra-like, Malouf spares the reader nothing in his sickening account of the inevitable slaughter of Priam by Neoptolemus.

In his afterword, he recounts first encountering The Iliad as a boy in Brisbane during World War Two. He, like Priam and Achilles, was suspended in the middle of a war with no end in sight. I assume it is no accident that he has come back to the subject now, and I wish fiction like this was taken more seriously by politicians.

This book is, quite simply, a masterpiece.

Sarah Bower HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Reviews | 21

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ROME, THE EMPEROR’S SPY M.C. Scott, Bantam Press, 2010, £12.99, hb, 493pp, 9780593055724 This is a spy thriller which opens in Jerusalem in the reign of Tiberius where a young man, Math, watches as a body is removed surreptitiously from a tomb. The story then moves on to Gaul in the reign of Nero. It is here that Sebastos Abdes Pantera (the Leopard) becomes involved with Math, dock thief and apprentice charioteer, Ajax, his trainer and Hannah, a physician who was reared by the Sybils. The Emperor Nero, hearing a prophecy that Rome will burn, charges Pantera with stopping the impending catastrophe. Math, Ajax and Hannah are drawn into a deadly game where death is the price of failure.

This book takes off like a rocket from the opening sentence and does not let up until the final paragraph. The characters stride across the pages with colour and vibrancy, backed by compelling descriptions which bring alive the people and the cities. The action sequences, especially the chariot races are vivid, exciting and gripping. I could feel the sand on my face racing chariots in Alexandria and the heat from the fire as parts of Rome burned. Superb writing from a master story-teller, this is a book to keep and savour. Highly recommended.

Mike Ashworth ABIGAIL Jill Eileen Smith, Revell, 2010, $14.99/£8.99, pb, 368pp, 9780800733216 As the second wife of the soon-to-be-king David of ancient biblical times, Abigail must contend with hardships and inner turmoil that she thinks she’s ready to manage, but which cause her to think again… and again. It gets worse as David starts accumulating wives, all of them struggling to attract—and keep—his attention, in between battles and politicking with other rulers. But Abigail is the only one who shares his deep love and trust in God (Adonai), so she has a stronger hold on his heart even though she isn’t often convinced that’s the case.

The age-old story of King David and his tumultuous reign has given rise recently to numerous novels presenting his wives with a wide variety of interesting personalities as their own stories are teased out of the spare mention of them in the Old Testament. Ms. Smith has already published the first in this series (Michal), and presumably there’s a third on the way (I’m guessing Bathsheba, given the chronology). Abigail is very much in the genre of inspirational Christian fiction, despite the Old Testament setting, with its focus on trust and faith in God amidst the daily striving for marital/ domestic/personal happiness. While the storyline is reasonably interesting in itself, Smith’s writing is unremarkable and even pedestrian—far too much “telling” in long descriptive passages and bland 22 | Reviews | HNR Issue 51, February 2010

dialogue that never quite rises above a plodding pace to inspire real interest in the characters.

Mary F. Burns

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classical

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THE IDES OF MARCH Valerio Massimo Manfredi (trans. Christine Feddersen-Manfredi), Macmillan, 2009, £16.99, hb, 400pp, 9780230714564 The Ides of March concentrates on the eight days leading up to and including Julius Caesar’s assassination. While Caesar is in Rome putting together his plans for a campaign against the Parthians, centurion Publius Sextus is in Modena where he receives evidence of the plot to kill Caesar.

Knowing that he has only a few days he embarks on a race against unknown enemies whose sole aim is to kill him to stop the information getting to Caesar in time. At the same time, Silius Salvidenus and Amtistius are frantically trying to find evidence of the plot in Rome that they can give to a sceptical Caesar who refuses to believe that members of the Senate are plotting against him.

There have been many novels written about Julius Caesar and his assassination, but this approach comes from a fresh angle with the race to uncover the plot taking centre stage. Fictional and historical characters mingle together seamlessly

while the deadly politics of the time are effectively portrayed. Enjoyable and easy to read.

Mike Ashworth CUTTER’S ISLAND: Caesar in Captivity Vincent Panella, Academy Chicago, 2009 (c2000), $14.95, pb, 192pp, 978087334846 On the way to Rhodes to further his study of rhetoric, Julius Caesar is captured by pirates and held for ransom. At this time he is a young nobleman with well-lined pockets but of no particular importance. This novella tells the story of his imprisonment, ransom, release, and ultimate revenge.

The pirate Cutter is a sharply drawn antagonist, a ferocious worldly philosopher who, we quickly see, will be of far greater importance to Caesar’s education than all the scholars of Rhodes. For forty days the young man must negotiate, improvise, feint and parry from a position of absolute weakness in order to preserve himself.

Cutter’s Island has a cover blurb from the eminent classical scholar Robert Fagles, and it has earned the honor. Mr. Panella never sets a foot wrong in classical setting, dialogue or characterization. The language is spare, swift and intensely lyrical. I read it at one sitting, transported to a world as bright, vibrant and fleshy as a Pompeian mosaic.

Juliet Waldron SPQR XIII: The Year of Confusion John Maddox Roberts, Minotaur, 2010, $24.99, hb, 277pp, 9780312595074 The year of confusion in the subtitle refers to the year that Caesar introduced his new calendar, and the dictator has assigned our recurring protagonist Decius Caecilius Metellus (back for the thirteenth time) to deal with the innumerable legal and religious problems which the change has created.

When an astronomer involved with the project is murdered by a mysterious method, Decius begins to seek the malefactor. His investigations lead him through the feminine side of late republican Roman politics with Cleopatra and Servilia among the historical characters involved. A group of senators seems to be forming around Brutus and Cassius, but it is not clear what, if anything, they are plotting. One of the most amusing characters is the poet Cinna, later the victim of a case of mistaken identity immortalized by Shakespeare.

Decius regards the growth of Caesar’s power as a problem, but he sees the senate opposition as even more oppressive.

In the Author’s Note, Roberts confesses that he has “for dramatic purposes compressed two years into one,” meaning essentially that he has used the events of 45 B.C.E. even though the year of the change was actually 46 B.C.E. Since all of his best characters were not in Rome that year, Roberts needed this compression to tell his story.

Notwithstanding this use of poetic license, the novel is recommended.

James Hawking

Biblical — Classical

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5th century

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BRIGID OF KILDARE Heather Terrell, Ballantine, 2010, $15.00/C$18.95, pb, 238pp, 9780345505125 Brigid is a king’s daughter and warrior-trained, but reading The Gospel of Mary the Mother influences her to reject the marriage her parents arranged and instead choose a religious life. She establishes an abbey at Cill Dara, to which Roman scribe Decius is sent by the Church, charged with investigating Brigid’s heresies: she ignores Church hierarchy, keeps forbidden texts, performs masses herself, and has even been consecrated bishop. Brigid tells Decius that Roman ways will not succeed in Gael and manages to draw Decius into her circle by persuading him to help create an illustrated manuscript and a history of the abbey. The two develop a relationship which, while still platonic, could easily develop into one which would conflict with their religious vows. Then a messenger arrives from Rome to collect Decius’s heretical evidence.

Should Decius obey Rome by betraying Brigid?

Alternating with the 5th-century story is that of modern-day Alex Patterson, a medieval art evaluator. She is summoned to Ireland to assess relics associated with Brigid before the owning convent sells them. Alex discovers a secret compartment in the reliquary, which hides a gorgeous illuminated manuscript. Could it be the lost Book of Kildare?

I knew little about Ireland of this period, and appreciated learning about it via period detail.

The 5th-century sections are more compelling in both setting and characterization, although Brigid is close to being an almost too-good-to-be-true character: kind, wise, caring, and a proto-feminist.

Terrell’s story postulates a direct link between Brigid’s views of women’s roles and the Church’s growing veneration of Mary. Decius is the most rounded character, with the reader being privy to his thoughts in letters to his brother. Fans of early Celtic history and of strong female characters who defy convention will enjoy the story.

B.J. Sedlock

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6th century

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KING ARTHUR: Warrior of the West M.K. Hume, Headline, 2009, £12.99, hb, 493pp, 9780755348688 This is the second volume in the King Arthur trilogy. The book opens twelve years after Artor (Arthur) has been crowned High King. However peace remains unstable while Glamdring Ironfist, a fierce Saxon leader continues to attack Artor’s domain. A bloody battle and a swift, successful siege remove the threat to the kingdom, and the King and his people settle down to a time of tranquillity.

Artor is advised by Myrddion Merlinus, his chief counselor, to take a wife in order to beget an heir.

5th Century — 11th Century

Recognising the strategic need he agrees to marry Wenhaver. Their marriage is a disaster from the outset. Wenhaver is a spoilt, vindictive and cruel young woman who quickly alienates Artor. They become estranged, with Artor spending all his time on his kingly duties, while Wenhaver deliberately seduces Gawayne, a young knight in Artor’s household At the same time, Merlinus has fallen for Nimue and as the book closes they leave Artor and the strained atmosphere of the royal court, thus fulfilling part of the prophecy about the end of Artor’s reign.

Arthur is no idealized king – he is ruthlessly pragmatic, doing whatever is necessary to ensure the survival of his kingdom. Arthurian purists may raise their eyebrows at the portrayal of Guinevere – sorry, Wenhaver (I must admit that before the book was over I wanted to have her executed), but she is a victim of her upbringing. Throw in a mass murderer, well written battle scenes and crisp dialogue and you have an entertaining, pacey read.

I enjoyed it and am looking forward to the next instalment – even if it is just to see Wenhaver get her comeuppance!

Mike Ashworth

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10th century

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THE WHITE RAVEN Robert Low, Harper UK/Trafalgar Square, 2009, $12.95/£7.99, pb, 352pp, 9780007287987 Viking lord Orm Bearslayer has spent the last six years seeking fortune, and now he wants to settle down on his farm. But his enemies have heard of a fantastic treasure buried across the steppes, and only Orm knows its exact location. In the race to save members of the Oathsworn who have been taken captive and tortured for information, Orm and his men encounter a nine-year-old prince with the mind of a sage, a band of warrior women sworn to protect Attila’s grave, and a host of greedy men who will do anything to claim the treasure.

The White Raven is the third in a series of Viking adventure tales but stands alone as an entertaining story. I found the beginning of the novel tough, as I had little previous knowledge of the setting and had not read the first two novels. Also, the number of foreign terms, names and idioms to master is daunting. That being said, the effort I made was well worth it.

It is clear that an incredible amount of research has gone into the writing of this series. Mr. Low’s historical note at the end is quite thorough. He also has a comprehensive glossary on his website, and his blog is full of interesting bits about Viking life. Many of the details in The White Raven are so specific that all of my senses were engaged in each scene.

The best parts, however, are the stories within the story, particularly those told by Olaf Crowbone, the young prince rescued by the Oathsworn. With them, Low weaves Viking folklore into the novel.

Not only do they give it an authentic feel, they are

wonderful tales.

Patricia O’Sullivan

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11th century

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THE PARISIAN PRODIGAL Alan Gordon, Minotaur, 2010, $25.99/C$32.99, hb, 336pp, 9780312384142 Alan Gordon sets the sixth of his Theophilus the Jester mysteries in the city of Toulouse, ruled

by Count Raimon in the year 1205. Theophilus, his jester wife, Claudia, their child, Portia, and apprentice jester, Helga, are newly arrived in the city where Theophilus takes on the post of Head Jester.

To those familiar with the series, it will come as no surprise that the international Fools’ Guild, a clandestine peace-keeping network of spies and confidants, was instrumental in placing Count Raimon on the throne and maintains an interest in keeping him there. As local Head Jester, Theophilus has the Count’s ear and trust. Thus, when a certain Baudoin arrives from Paris claiming to be Count Raimon’s younger brother, Theophilus is placed at the center of the investigation to determine his legitimacy. The investigation grows more complex and urgent when Baudoin is arrested for killing the prostitute he was still in bed with!

True to the Theophilus tradition, the dialogue is pat, quick banter; the characters are a motley crew of jesters, soldiers, nobility, whores, lepers, and wily gambling sharks; and the historical detail is woven in seamlessly. The only detracting feature of the story is the author’s change of voice midway through the book – from Theophilus’ to Claudia’s – which is somewhat disorienting.

But this is a fun read. The conclusion is surprising and satisfying. There is also a sentimental side story involving the orphan apprentice, Helga, which I will not spoil. All told, it’s a fine book to curl up with on a winter weekend.

Lucille Cormier WARRIORS Jack Ludlow, Allison & Busby, 2009, £19.99, hb, 351pp, 9780749007553 11th century. Apulia in southern Italy is part of a declining Byzantine Empire and increasingly under attack from the Lombards, who hold much of northern Italy. The papacy, too, wants Apulia under its control. The Lombard Arduin of Fassano wants to wrest the strategically key city of Melfi from the Byzantines and hold it himself. He seeks the help of the Norman mercenary William de Hauteville.

The land-hungry William, however, has a different agenda: he and his warrior brothers want land, and Apulia will be the place to get it. Arduin may think he holds all the cards, but William has both military experience and political nous. If Apulia is up for grabs, William is determined that the de Hautevilles will be first in the queue.

Ludlow plainly knows his stuff – he captures the shifting allegiances of the different warring factions well. Unfortunately, Warriors is less convincing as a HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Reviews | 23

novel. For a start, there is virtually no plot. There are plenty of battles, sieges and military manoeuvrings, but that is not the same thing. Plots need emotional conflict with something at stake on a personal level.

Ludlow doesn’t offer that. In Bernard Cornwell’s books (to which Ludlow is aspiring) there is a brave but vulnerable main protagonist, a crossbowman with a price on his head as in Azincourt, say, whose adventures we follow and with whom we become involved. Warriors has William de Hauteville, but he is too distant a character for us to empathize with and, besides, has little at stake emotionally.

His brothers are all more or less ruthless, brutal and duplicitous and it’s difficult to care much about them either. If you enjoy blood and clashes of arms, fine; this is the book for you. If you prefer a proper story with your bloodshed, go for Cornwell.

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Elizabeth Hawksley THE CONVICT’S SWORD: A Mystery of Eleventh-Century Japan I. J. Parker, Penguin, 2009, $15.00, pb, 416pp, 9780143115793 I. J. Parker continues her series of medieval Japanese mysteries featuring nobleman Sugawara Akitada. This latest installment finds Akitada living in the capital city of Heian Kyo, where he is bored and languishing in his government position as secretary in the department of justice. Still haunted by his unfulfilled promises to his dying friend, Haseo, in Island of Exiles, he determines to use the resources of the government’s archives to look for evidence to clear Haseo’s name and to search for Haseo’s surviving family.

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E THE TEMPLAR MAGICIAN Paul Doherty, Headline, 2009, £19.99, hb, 299pp, 9780755354542 The Templar Magician is an action-packed historical adventure set in 1152 during the civil war between King Stephen and Matilda’s son Henry Fitzempress, later to become Henry II. The fifty-year-old Templar Order is a wealthy power, glittering with riches. Jerusalem is controlled by the Crusaders, although, five decades after the first Crusade, idealism is replaced by subtle power-play. Against this background, Edmund de Payens, Crusader and Templar, is caught up in murderous intrigue after the brutal assassination of Raymond, Count of Tripoli. Edmund and Philip Mayele, as envoys for the Templars, are sent to negotiate with The Assassins, a sect believed responsible for the murder. It appears, however, that this assassination may be connected to a rogue coven within the Templar Order itself. The narrative now becomes a thrilling pursuit that moves from the Crusading kingdoms to England.

Here terrifying mysteries are revealed and a dark plot which surrounds the English court during the turbulent 12th century is exposed.

This excellent novel is to be commended in particular for its character development. The mystery will keep the reader guessing to the final chapter because the story is inhabited by complex characters and no one is who they appear to be. Paul Doherty is also to be praised for his period authenticity. 12thcentury London is resurrected through gritty sensual descriptions of streets, inns, wharves, monasteries and palaces. Details of the people who inhabit London create a vibrant world. People throng these streets and alleyways, ‘beggars, drunks, the importunate apprenticeships with their mantles lined with dormouse fur’.

Enemies lurk amongst the shadows. Equally well realised, atmospherically depicted desolate country manors, priories and abbeys haunt Doherty’s pages. Scenes set in the Crusading lands are also authentically created to reveal colour, cruelty and the darkly exotic. Finally, this novel shows Paul Doherty as a storyteller who weaves a fast moving tale of intrigue; one which speculates but also posits a horrible and possible truth.

Carol McGrath 24 | Reviews | HNR Issue 51, February 2010

The ingenious plot unfolds with several seemingly unrelated characters and subplots. The action develops more slowly than it did in the exciting previous book, but Akitada faces more intense, personal challenges. His marriage falters, and he confronts personal tragedy and the dangers of a smallpox outbreak in the capital.

In spite of the slower plot development and its more cerebral approach, fans of the series will enjoy the new insights into Akitada’s character and marriage.

Pamela Ortega

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12th century

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THE GREATEST KNIGHT Elizabeth Chadwick, Sourcebooks, 2009, $14.99, pb, 550pp, 9781402225185 / Sphere, 2006, £7.99, pb, 560pp, 9780751536607 The life of William Marshal is remarkably well documented for a less-than-royal contemporary of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Richard Lionheart and John Lackland. Chadwick undertakes the earlier half of Marshal’s long and eventful career in this first of two thick novels. A younger son his father did not think worth keeping his troth over, William must earn his own way from that point on by tournament feats, by hiring out his sword and by swearing allegiance even when the object of his loyalty hardly deserves it. Plantagenet internecine wars, a penitentiary trip to the Holy Land, the well-known disappearance of Richard Lionheart, chivalric love for Eleanor of Aquitaine and the hero’s final attainment of enough status to marry a much younger heiress comprise the historical high points of the story.

Portrayal of the marriage and the practicalities that make it work for both husband and wife I thought particularly well drawn and realistic for this medieval period (if not for our own). Questions for discussion at the end of the book will be of interest to book groups. A desire to hit all the historically attested events despite imposing length no doubt led to the scenes I felt received frustratingly short shrift. Publicity material suggests The Greatest Knight will do for the Plantagenet period what the “Tudor industry” does for the Tudors; any character of that later time period, it seems, can make a bestseller. Well, there’s so much more scandal to work with later. There would have been here, too, if somebody else had been chosen as protagonist. This is the biggest hurdle Marshal has to leap. Chivalric knight he may have been, but good behavior doesn’t always keep the pages turning. Still, this solid effort will do workhorse duty for those who like to learn accurate history of the period through fiction.

Ann Chamberlin

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13th century

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11th Century — 13th Century

SCOUNDREL’S KISS Carrie Lofty, Zebra, 2010, $5.99, pb, 361pp, 9781420104769 Ada of Keyworth is unusual for a medieval woman. Educated by her family, she’s adventurous, headstrong, and strikingly beautiful—but she’s also addicted to opium and on the run from debtors.

Gavriel de Marqueda has plenty of his own problems, but when he finds Ada being auctioned as a slave, he liberates her, and in the process makes her problems his own. As the pair journey across Spain, they find that they have more in common than they expected, and they also find that their chemistry is undeniable.

Throughout the novel, Lofty avoids the easy clichés of the genre in favor of the original.

The 13th-century Spanish setting is unique for historical romance, and Lofty makes good use of the history of the era. Struggles between royal houses, tension between Spaniards and Moors, and monastic history figure prominently. But like any good historical romance, the love story eclipses all else, and it’s a scorcher. Both characters are damaged, but their love for each other helps them heal their wounds. Scoundrel’s Kiss is thoroughly enjoyable, and I look forward to reading Lofty’s future historicals.

Nanette Donohue

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14th century

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THE WHALER’S FORGE Christine Echeverria Bender, Caxton, 2009, $16.95, pb, 201pp, 9780870044748 Over a century before Columbus “discovered” the New World, Basque whalers were already hunting whales and setting up whaling camps in what are today Canada’s Atlantic maritime provinces. In this well-researched novel set in 1364, Bender tells the story of Kepa de Mendieta, a harpooner who is presumed drowned after his boat is capsized by a whale; his shipmates return to Spain without him, leaving only a gravestone on the beach in his memory.

He is rescued by Achaku, a beautiful Indian healer, with the help of a friendly whale. Kepa, who is himself practiced in the medical arts, is entranced

by Achaku’s beauty and kindness as well as the savage beauty of a strange new land. As the days pass, Kepa forges close bonds with Achaku and her community, realizing all the while that he would return to Spain when the whaling fleet came back in the spring. Or would he? Would the love that is undeniably growing between him and Achaku hold him there forever?

Bender’s research in writing this novel was meticulous—including joining a Smithsonian Institution archaeological dig at a Basque whaling site in Canada—and it shows, not only in her depiction of Basque whalers and their whaling methods but in the customs and culture of the native people as well. The Whaler’s Forge is an entertaining and informative read for anyone 13th Century — 14th Century

interested in knowing more about pre-Columbian explorations of North America and its native people.

John Kachuba THE HIGHLANDER’S SWORD Amanda Forester, Sourcebooks Casablanca, 2010, $6.99/C$8.99/£3.99, pb, 337pp, 9781402229480 Destined for life in a convent, Lady Aila Graham finds herself exchanging marriage vows with Sir Padyen MacClaren. Facing devastation wrought when their crops are torched in 1347, her father needs strong warriors to defend Graham lands. With Padyen’s people destitute after his long absence fighting in France, marriage is the only way to save them. A previous woman’s betrayal, however, results in a misunderstanding on his wedding night.

This rift between the couple permits a traitor within the Graham clan to set a trap that eventually leads to Aila’s imprisonment and possible destruction of the Grahams and Padyen. Only love and trust will stop the impending evil, but are the tenuous ties between Aila and Padyen strong enough to bring them together and protect those they love?

This is a typical historical romance, set

predominately in the Lowlands, albeit with a few missteps in the historical research, like the wearing of a belted plaid and calling the two-handed great sword a claymore. In spite of this, readers in search of a story that transports them to medieval Scotland where men and women, who prize honor and duty, face evil villains should enjoy this tale.

Cindy Vallar NO LAW IN THE LAND Michael Jecks, Headline/Trafalgar Square, 2009, £19.99/$24.95, hb, 384pp, 9780755344185 Make no mistake about it: in Michael Jecks’s latest Knights Templar Mystery, No Law in the Land, there is no law and precious little justice for anyone. Set in October 1325, the story centers on Bailiff Simon Puttock and Sir Baldwin de Furnshill, Keeper of the King’s Peace, and the lawlessness they encounter upon their return to England after escorting Queen Isabella to France. When Simon and Sir Baldwin inform King Edward II that the queen has no intention of ever returning to England, Edward is furious and dismisses Simon and Baldwin from court.

Meanwhile, Osbert, a villain worthy of any

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E D I TORS’ CH OICE O, JULIET Robin Maxwell, NAL, 2010, $15.00, pb, 352pp, 9780451229151 Maxwell delivers a mesmerizing retelling of the famous star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet, in her latest novel, set in Italy at the beginning of the Renaissance. Juliet Capelletti is a headstrong, intelligent young lady who is facing an arranged marriage to Jacopo Strozzi, her father’s new business partner. She does not look forward to her match but knows that it will make her parents happy. Juliet’s entire future is forever changed one night at the engagement party of her best friend, Lucrezia, when she meets the handsome Romeo Monticecco. Romeo is at the party to seek reconciliation between his family and the Capelettis, who have been feuding and retaliating against each other for years.

Juliet and Romeo find a chance to talk together alone under the stars, and their destiny unfolds. Both are surprised by the other’s passion for poetry and shared interest in Dante Alighieri’s Vita Nuova.

After their first meeting, Juliet is determined to find a way out of her upcoming marriage to Jacopo, even though this means defying her family’s wishes for her and possibly destroying the business between her father and her betrothed.

What unfolds is a beautiful love story between the soul mates Romeo and Juliet.

Maxwell realistically portrays the torment with which Juliet is faced as she wonders what her future holds. The things I enjoyed the most about the novel were how Maxwell drew parallels between Dante and his love, Beatrice, and Romeo and Juliet, and her use of poetry and quotes from Dante throughout the novel. Readers will savor this exquisite and magical love story.

Troy Reed HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Reviews | 25

contemporary thriller, is wreaking havoc in the countryside at the behest of a cruel, rogue knight, Sir Robert de Traci, and Robert’s vile son, Basil.

We know exactly how bad Osbert (in particular) is when he snaps a puppy’s neck and then knifes its mother. As one fellow tells himself, these are not good times for a man to travel. This becomes gruesomely clear when a group of travelling men, women, and children is slaughtered and a chest of silver meant for King Edward disappears. And then Simon’s beloved, newly-wed and now pregnant daughter, Edith, is kidnapped and held prisoner at the behest of Sir Hugh le Despenser, who is King Edward’s despicable right-hand-man, and who means to keep both the king and Simon under his control using any means at his disposal.

This is number twenty-seven in Jecks’s medieval West Country mystery series. No doubt fans of Simon and Sir Baldwin will welcome them back in this installment. A cast of characters helps keep everyone straight.

Alana White

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16th century

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THE DEVIL & MARIA D’AVALOS Victoria Hammond, Allen & Unwin, 2009, $17.95/AU$29.95, pb, 321pp, 9781741146851 The year is 1590; the setting rich with art, magnificent architecture, lavish costumes. Yet all is not right in Denmark… or, as it so happens, in Naples. We are invited into the sensual, dangerous love triangle formed by the famous Italian beauty Maria d’Avalos, her third husband and great composer Carlo Gesualdo, and Maria’s aristocratic lover, Fabrizio Carafa. We will follow the doomed relationship to its cruel and bloody end.

This novel succeeds on more than one level.

As a realistic and lush representation of 16thcentury Naples and its environs, it fascinates. As an imaginatively dramatized representation of a historically documented event, it is vivid and believable. And the quality of writing is more than proficient. The story is also an inspired piece of true crime fiction, drawing from written evidence of Maria’s murder and the circumstances leading to it.

For lovers of that mystery genre, those who enjoy delving into the dark lives and darker minds of murderers, their motives, and the violence they perpetrate, the story will satisfy. But because we know from the very start of the book how the story will end (since the author makes this very clear in the lengthy preface), something is taken away from the suspense Hammond works so hard to build. I found myself wanting not to have been told the ending. And even more so, I itched to rewrite Maria’s fate, wishing someone, anyone might rush in and save her at the last moment. Frustrating?

Yes. But we do become invested in this beautiful woman’s fate, even though we know we can’t look forward to a happy ending. The author neither promises nor provides cheerful relief. And I guess 26 | Reviews | HNR Issue 51, February 2010

that’s a lot like real life.

Kathryn Kimball Johnson THE QUEEN’S GOVERNESS Karen Harper, Putnam, 2010, $25.95/C$32.50, hb, 368pp, 9780399156182 Kat Ashley, who looked after Elizabeth I through much of her childhood and adolescence, and kept her love and loyalty ever after, seems like a fascinating central character for a historical novel. For one thing, she was accused of fostering Elizabeth’s first romantic entanglement—with Thomas Seymour—and spent some time in the Tower as a result. She stepped in when the young queen seemed to be dangerously falling for another married man, Robert Dudley, warning her in extraordinarily blunt language that she was endangering her reputation. Her impact on

Elizabeth, as her first tutor and an important mother surrogate, was extraordinary.

It may be that I am not the best reader for this particular novel, because Elizabeth I exerts a special fascination for me; I’ve read just about every biography of her that is out there. I was hoping for a new perspective on the queen, but the novel went over well- charted territory. Kat Ashley did not come alive for me. The sense of her as a unique individual, one brilliant enough to school a young princess in everything from mathematics to history to embroidery, was lacking. But those who are less familiar with the basic storyline of Elizabeth’s early years may find this an interesting read.

Phyllis T. Smith HER HIGHNESS’ FIRST MURDER Peg Herring, Five Star, 2010, hb, $25.95/C$27.69,

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E D I TORS’ CH OICE WOLF HALL Hilary Mantel, Henry Holt, 2009, $27.00, hb, 532pp, 9780805080681 / Fourth Estate, 2009, £18.99, hb, 560pp, 9780007230181 The story of the courtship and marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn is the stuff of legend. I could not imagine it being done again, and done with indescribable talent, until I read Hilary Mantel’s version.

Thomas Cromwell, Putney-born and a blacksmith’s son, has the brilliance, wit and savvy of the most enlightened man of his age, exceeding even that of his rival, Sir Thomas More. Where Cromwell’s life is full of energy, love and learning, More is circumscribed by his warped religious intolerance, culminating in the torturing of heretics right under his family’s noses at Chelsea. Cromwell has seen plenty of death and loss since childhood and has carried those memories into adulthood, utterly rejecting this earlier deprivation yet hardening him to the reality of Tudor life.

Cromwell is a pragmatic man, charming and astute. A consummate politician, he knows the follies and foibles of court politics – and how to keep his head on his shoulders while all around him are losing theirs. As Cromwell’s fortunes improve, and his political aspirations are met and exceeded, he becomes Henry’s closest ally and supporter. It is by Cromwell’s maneuverings that Henry marries and crowns his heart’s desire – Anne Boleyn. It is also Cromwell who breaks the logjam of opposition to Henry and Anne’s marriage – by defeating the power of More, Queen Katherine and Princess Mary, all of whom Mantel paints as full-blown people, not simply caricatures. Even they can’t help liking this fellow.

The recipient of the 2009 Booker Prize, this is a remarkable book told in a unique and compelling voice. The reader experiences Cromwell on the most intensely personal level, his humor, equanimity and brilliance shining through. Mantel’s use of language is almost musical, and I found myself rereading passages just for the lyrical enjoyment of the words. An amazing journey that must be experienced.

Ilysa Magnus 15th Century — 16th Century

345pp, 9781594148422 This mystery, set in 1546, features thirteen-yearold Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII, as a detective out to find a killer who is stalking young women and leaving their headless bodies in nun’s clothes. Are the murders somehow related to the death of Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth’s mother? Is the killer motivated by the religious conflicts in Tudor England? When one of Elizabeth’s ladies-inwaiting is beheaded, the threat hits close to home, and there is the suggestion that Elizabeth herself is in danger. With the help of Simon, the young son of a village physician, and Hugh Bellows, a captain in the Welsh Guard—and an assist from her own sharp intelligence—Elizabeth searches for the killer. The novel builds to a suspenseful and satisfying conclusion.

It’s a bit of a reach to imagine the young princess taking matters into her own hands the way she does in this novel. But what I truly loved about the book—and what absolutely rings true—is the characterization of Elizabeth Tudor. She comes across as royal in manner yet touching vulnerable.

Her father has killed her mother. Her stepmother, Katherine Howard, has also been beheaded. Her father recognizes her as more like him than either of his other children but can hardly bear to look at her because of the history between them. Despite this unpromising set of family circumstances, she digs deep and finds an extraordinary courage.

Phyllis T. Smith HER MOTHER’S DAUGHTER Julianne Lee, Berkley, 2009, $15.00, pb, 336pp, 978045230084 “Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary.” A children’s scary game recalls the history of the 16th-century queen, Mary Tudor. Daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, half-sister to Anne Boleyn’s Elizabeth and Jane Seymour’s Edward VI, Mary is dwarfed by the reigns of her flamboyant father and sister, Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen. Indeed, Mary is “her mother’s daughter,” clinging to the True Faith for solace and strength, following the example of her devout mother when assailed by Henry for a divorce. Raised in ignominy—her right to the throne denied in Henry’s quest for a male heir—Mary knows little affection, gaining the throne by virtue of her place in history.

Lee puts a human face on an unhappy woman determined to restore moral integrity to her country. Unfortunately, Mary’s brutal reforms only exacerbate the tension between rival factions in England. As queen, Mary zealously initiates public burnings to root out Reformist heresy. As dour and unhappy as her mother, Mary has a rigid nature. She yearns for marriage, finally wed in her late thirties to Philip II of Spain, aged twenty-six.

Queen Mary nearly enjoys the state of matrimony, but a false pregnancy puts dreams of motherhood to rest. Nor do Philip’s constant entreaties to share the crown win him favor with his wife. In the end, Philip sails away, Mary barren and abandoned, God her only comfort.

We follow Mary’s sad trajectory through life, 16th Century — 17th Century

from unwilling stepchild of Anne Boleyn to lonely wife who expires without husband or issue. Her mission to restore England to the Church, Mary’s is a somber legacy, a queen without vision or nuance stubbornly clinging to the rigors of faith, sacrificing her subjects in the name of God. Luan Gaines SNARES AND NETS Catriona McCuaig, Robert Hale, 2009, £18.99, hb, 224pp, 9780709089032 When Nesta Davies moves from bustling Oxford to sleepy Hollyhill to look after her son’s wife, Joan, she expects to spend her time quietly tending an invalid and using her midwifery skills to bring in some extra pennies. Instead she finds herself in the middle of a series of mysterious attacks and deaths: a fellow midwife, young goodwife and the local constable are all targeted by an unknown assassin.

Then a young noblewoman, Blanche Bellefleur, goes missing after fleeing the church during her own wedding, and her naturally curious nature leads Nesta to investigate the crimes. Using her medical knowledge and a good nose for gossip, Nesta sets out to unmask the perpetrator and so restore peace to the community.

Snares and Nets is set during Henry VIII’s relationship with Anne Boleyn, and her need to produce a male heir is paralleled time and again within its plot. It’s an effective device that helps to add period flavour to the narrative. The actual mystery is not so hard to solve, but the characters and settings are so nicely drawn that it doesn’t detract from the novel’s charm.

Nesta is an engaging character who carries the story well, and it is to be hoped that this is the first of a series of novels featuring the feisty midwife.

Sara Wilson THE BOLEYN WIFE (US) / THE TUDOR WIFE (UK) Brandy Purdy, Kensington, 2010, $15/C$17.95, pb, 384pp, 9780758238443 / Emily Purdy, Avon, 2010, £6.99, pb, 384pp, 9781847561947 Though many books have been written about Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, relatively few have surfaced about the elusive figure who knew them both intimately, Jane Boleyn. In The Boleyn Wife, Brandy Purdy has brought Jane to the forefront of the sordid tales, giving her a seldom heard voice to relay the events as only an insider could. Whether or not she is a reliable narrator for those events is something the reader will have to decide.

Painted as an obsessed wife to George Boleyn, Jane is eager to divulge the backstabbing and sexual romps taking place around both Anne and Katherine. Jane clearly longs for her husband’s love and attention, and she sees Anne as a rival for his affections; it is this rivalry that brings Jane to play the scorned wife in that doomed relationship.

Indeed, in both the tragic events of Anne and Katherine, Jane’s erratic need to not only belong, but to matter, to those around her showcase the decisions that ultimately cost her her own life as

well as the lives of those she loves most.

Purdy has written an interesting novel from the point of view of a lesser publicized figure in the dramas surrounding two of Henry VIII’s wives. I could sympathize with poor Jane and her outcast status, yet I wanted to like her more than I did. A large distraction for me was Jane’s repeated hiding in cabinets to view the sexual escapades of others; I felt that these scenes were unnecessary when there was already so much rich story to tell. Ultimately I was left feeling that many of the stereotypes of the people involved had been reinforced when I was hoping for a new take on the tale.

Tamela McCann

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17th century

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PIRATE LATITUDES Michael Crichton, HarperCollins, 2009, $27.99, hb, 320pp, 978006192937 / HarperCollins UK, 2009, £19.99, hb, 320pp, 9780007329083 The year is 1665, and a Spanish treasure ship sits alone in a fortified Caribbean cove. It is as if the fates have placed it there, for only one man has the skill and daring to try to capture it: Captain Charles Hunter, a Puritan-born scholar from Boston turned Caribbean privateer. He gathers a crew like no other: a far-sighted female pirate, a mute Moor, a French assassin, an English barbersurgeon, and a Sephardic Jew skilled in explosives.

Together they set out from Jamaica on an epic adventure battling a sea monster, the weather, the dreaded Spanish commander, Cazalla, and each other for both riches and their very lives.

The late Michael Crichton had thirteen of his novels made into films; Pirate Latitudes is no exception, with Steven Spielberg already committed to direct it. The novel is a great read, with plenty of adventure and humor, but fewer of the fantastical elements from Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Yes, there is a kraken, but no cursed gold or living dead. Also, Crichton’s portrayal of Port Royal and its inhabitants is far more grounded in reality than Disney’s portrayal. Crichton does not gloss over the slavery, addiction and brutality of colonial Jamaica, nor does he endow his characters with abilities beyond their training or station in life. Finally, while the conclusion to the first Pirates of the Caribbean film is both predictable and campy, the ending chapters of Pirate Latitudes are sure to surprise readers.

Patricia O’Sullivan A WOMAN OF SEVILLE Sallie Muirden, Fourth Estate, 2009, AU$27.99, pb, 258pp, 9780732290597 At noon each day, Paula Sanchez, a courtesan in the city of Seville, enters the Mercedarian convent along with the handsome Father Rastro, a horse, and the young monk Victor Maria, to sit for a painting of The Penitent Magdalen,. By night she escapes the unwelcome attentions of her stout benefactor, Bishop Rizi, for the arms of the HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Reviews | 27

mysterious ladder man. As Paula dances, climbs, and makes love on the rooftops of Seville, she rediscovers balance, the love and security of her childhood, and her untapped desires.

Apprentice painter, Diego Velasquez, climbs the church tower to spy on the curious party, along with his master Pacheco and a telescope. Why do they enter the convent? What keeps them occupied? Will the inquisitor Carlos Zamorana approve of their activities? As Diego’s investigations uncover the true nature of their visits, he becomes reacquainted with his first love Paula, and the desperate plight of the young Moorish boys held within the convent.

He and Paula conspire to help the imprisoned children. But the church is determined they will not escape.

A Woman of Seville is a lush, sensory experience of food, art, 17th-century couture, and the allpervasive fear of the Spanish Inquisition. At the same time, it is a magical fable, not quite fantasy, not quite reality: an intelligent story in which the author explores themes of love and redemption

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in a rich symbolic style. This novel is not for the fainthearted but demands the careful attention of its reader. It will appeal to those who love a lyrical, poetic voice and a high literary style.

Elizabeth Jane

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18th century

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LADY NOTORIOUS (UK) / MY LADY NOTORIOUS (US) Jo Beverley, Everlyn, 2009, £6.99, pb, 338pp, 9781849670012 / Signet, 2002 (c1993), $7.99, pb, 384pp, 9780451206442 The year is 1761. Captain Lord Cynric Malloren, on leave from the army recovering from a fever (not war wounds, as stated in the blurb), is waylaid by a brash young highwayman who, he quickly realises, is a woman in disguise!

Lady Chastity Ware is determined to help her newly-widowed sister and infant nephew escape

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E THE BOOK OF FIRES Jane Borodale, Pamela Dorman/Viking, 2010, $26.95, hb, 368pp, 9780670021062 / HarperPress, 2009, £14.99, hb, 400pp, 9780007305728 Jane Borodale’s stunning debut novel begins with that classic element of suspense, a countdown to an explosion—not so much of the pyrotechnics that fascinate and draw together the two main characters, but the birth of a bastard child. Agnes Trussel’s Sussex family ekes out a living in tough times. Rather than confess her shameful pregnancy, she runs away to London with a cache of stolen coins.

Along the way she meets a helpful stranger, but by her own efforts she finds employment in the household of John Blacklock, maker of fireworks—not merely as a servant, but as his assistant.

For a variety of reasons Agnes walks in guilt.

She lives with constant fear that her theft and her pregnancy will be discovered. She must conceal both from Blacklock’s other servants as well as from neighborhood merchants and strives to hide the truth of her past—even her family’s existence.

The slightest mistake while filling the containers could result in destruction and instant death. Her hands may be deft, but her mind is uneasy. All the while she grows expert in her master’s most dangerous trade, and more hopeful of helping him produce rockets capable of colored fire.

Agnes is the plaything of fate, alternately enjoying good luck and bad as her swelling belly threatens both her livelihood and her life. The climactic scenes do not disappoint.

Through Agnes the author thrusts her readers into 1750s London, with atmospheric descriptions, impeccable dialogue, and gripping uncertainties. An exceptionally well-crafted novel, beautifully written.

Margaret Barr 28 | Reviews | HNR Issue 51, February 2010

a man they both know to be a ruthless foe. Cyn’s coach is a means to this end. Her male attire also shields her from the scandal that has ruined her name and reputation.

This sexy Georgian romance is a real pageturning read. It fizzes along with chases, hair’sbreadth escapes, outrageous disguises and a shockingly decadent house-party, as Cyn, eager for an adventure, willingly throws in his lot with the two “damsels in distress”. It soon becomes clear, however, that there is something even more dangerous at stake.

Chastity is a complex, strong heroine – damaged by her experiences, but determined to fight back against those who have wronged her and to defend her beloved sister. Of course, it is no surprise that the dashing, handsome Cyn falls in love with a woman who has just the same sense of adventure as himself.

Mary Seeley SAVAGE LANDS Clare Clark, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010, $25/C$33.95, hb, 416pp, 9780151014736 / Harvill Secker, 2010, £12.99, pb, 384pp, 9781846553516 It is 1704. There are fewer than 200 people in Louisiana, the newest French colony. Craftsmen and soldiers have sent a request for virtuous, marriageable girls. “Casket girls,” their trousseau provided by the King, are duly sent. Unhappy, welleducated Elisabeth is among them. The “promised land” proves to be a wilderness; their new homes are windowless shacks perched upon quaking, disease-ridden swamp. Elisabeth, who has expected only misery, falls deeply in love with the soldier who marries her, the ambitious, hardnosed JeanClaude.

The story is told from two viewpoints, a technique which the author handles artfully, although it is not always satisfying to the reader. Auguste is a penniless cabin-boy with a talent for observation and drawing. Dispatched to a distant Indian village, he is tasked with learning the language and spying for the French—if he can manage to survive.

Both Auguste and Elisabeth come to worship the handsome, faithless Jean-Claude, and their shared passion binds them tragically together.

The author writes brilliantly. Her images of riotous growth and decay, her descriptions of the shifting delta beneath the characters’ feet, evoke both the “Savage Land” and the shattering experience of the heat-stunned colonists. I relished Auguste’s story but never connected with Elisabeth, perhaps because we are not shown the development of her obsessive, destructive love.

Recommended for anyone who wants a genuine, if frequently painful, look into 18th-century colonial life and character.

Juliet Waldron AN ILL WIND David Donachie, Allison & Busby, 2009, £19.99/$29.95, pb, 319pp, 9780749007652 It is always awkward when you start reading a 17th Century — 18th Century

series several books in, and it took me some time to work out what was going on in An Ill Wind, set around the Royal Navy’s withdrawal from Toulon in 1793. Lieutenant John Pearce and his three companions, ‘the pelicans’, have been illegally press-ganged into the Navy, drawn into the rivalry between two leading admirals and threatened by the machinations of the villainous Captain Ralph Barclay. Where Horatio Hornblower’s superiors were generally decent men, and Hornblower managed to remain on reasonable terms with them, senior officers in An Ill Wind are sharply divided between goodies and baddies, and Barclay and his dubious adherents are determined to rid the Navy of the troublesome pelicans.

Mr Donachie has clearly done his research, and his action scenes read well, as do his depictions of a storm at sea and fire on board a wooden ship. However, I found myself unconvinced by the villainy of the villains, and, more seriously, by Pearce’s being a Lieutenant without having served the normal six years at sea and passed a demanding examination and when it must be only too obvious to his brother officers that he has very little idea what he’s doing. But I’ll look out for the earlier books in the series to fill the gaps, and it is obvious that Mr Donachie has another volume on the stocks.

Ann Lyon WHEN THE DUKE RETURNS Eloisa James, Hodder and Stoughton, 2009, £6.99, pb, 375 pp, 9780340961100 I find James’s work difficult to fathom. She is a Professor of Shakespeare studies, yet she uses such modern phrases as ‘you must be joking’ and such modern American words as ‘smarter’ meaning ‘cleverer’, and ‘figure out’ for ‘work out’, in a novel set in 18th-century England. In the Acknowledgements she thanks four people, including a research assistant and a fact checker. Then why does a duke have his offices in the Inns of Court? And why does the Duke of Buckingham have a ‘royal carriage’?

This is the fourth book in the Desperate Duchesses series, and concerns the Duke of Cosway and his bride Isidore, married by proxy when she was a child. Now an adult, she longs for his return.

But when he does arrive, she is surprised; surprised by his arrival, surprised by his unconventionality, surprised by his adherence to an Eastern mystic religion and surprised by his virginity.

James talks about writing as ‘fun’, and most of the reviews of her novels refer to them as ‘romps’. But the only way I can read them is as a postmodern comment on the Georgian and Regency novel.

Why else would she call a character ‘Lord Piddle?’ jay Dixon DRUMS OF WAR Edward Marston, Allison & Busby, 2009, £7.99/$16.95, pb, 378pp, 9780749007904 This novel is the second in a series following the adventures of Captain Daniel Rawson, soldier, spy, translator and all-round hero type. It is set in 1705 in a war- ravaged Europe and features Marlborough 18th Century

at the head of the coalition forces against the French.

The story is exciting enough with dramatic escapes, battle scenes, derring-do and cunning plans; Rawson must rescue the imprisoned spy and get him and his beautiful daughter to safety. Nothing is too difficult for this super hero as he swashes his buckle through all manner of close shaves uttering immortal phrases such as ‘Gathering intelligence behind enemy lines is an adventure but it will never compete with the exhilaration of combat.’

And that is as complex as it gets. In very repetitive syntax, we are told lots of things like this rather than working it out by the character’s actions or behaviour, but it is good to know that Rawson never puts himself first just like a real hero. After all: ‘His personal safety was never a concern. What he had to ensure was the security of other people.’

Marston is a bestselling writer with years of success and experience, so clearly he is popular with many readers, although on this example I am a little

mystified as to why. I think you will be able to tell from the quotes whether it is a book for you, and certainly the tale rattles along pleasantly enough, but not for this reviewer, I’m sorry to say.

Ann Northfield FIRE AND SWORD Edward Marston, Allison and Busby, 2009, £19.99/$29.95, hb, 318pp, 9780749007713 The story is about Captain Daniel Rawson of the 24th Foot who frequently disguises himself as a Frenchmen and slips behind enemy lines to collect intelligence. The period is 1707-08, with Britain and France at war. The political situation in England threatens Marlborough as Commanderin-Chief of the British Army. Rawson once again is behind enemy lines at the behest of Marlborough.

Returning to camp, Daniel is pursued by the French, has his horse shot out beneath him and takes refuge in a farm. Returning days later with a

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E D I TORS’ CH OICE EYE OF THE RAVEN Eliot Pattison, Counterpoint, 2010, $26.00, hb, 400pp, 9781582435664 In the second installment of his colonial mystery series, Edgar Award winner Pattison provides an absorbing tale firmly and effectively grounded in the history of early America. Traveling a wilderness road with his Indian comrade and mentor Conawago, Scots medic Duncan McCallum comes upon a grisly murder scene. Not only is the victim—a land surveyor—nailed to a tree, his heart has been replaced by a metal gear. Together the Scotsman and the Indian strive to solve the mystery of this and other identical murders that connect Virginia planters, a mulatto slave family seeking freedom, a French-born former Jesuit, Quakers, and Philadelphia grandees eager to expand their holdings in the Pennsylvania Territory.

The ritual killings coincide with the negotiation of a treaty between the natives and the land companies, with representatives from Virginia and Pennsylvania competing for advantage. A false confession by a respected Iroquois chief sends McCallum on a dangerous and enlightening investigation across the disputed territory. In Indian settlements along the way, he witnesses the upheaval and devastation imposed by European encroachment. By the time he and Conawago reach Philadelphia, where the outcome of both treaty and the murder trial will be simultaneously determined, his identity as a runaway bondsman imperils his life.

For in that city he encounters the aristocratic and vengeful enemy who professes to hold his indenture.

Scientific advances in mechanics and electricity, and the ancient Indian traditions alternately aid and hamper McCallum’s quest for truth, and he meets with widely divergent methods of justice. Their divergent methods of justice are also factors.

Throughout the novel Pattinson superbly builds tension and explores a period of shifting and uncertain alliances and loyalties. A thoroughly gripping read.

Margaret Barr HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Reviews | 29

cavalry detachment and his friend Sergeant Henry Wellbeck, he finds the place ablaze, all inhabitants but the farmer brutally killed; the farmer blames the British. Marlborough orders the perpetrators be found and punished.

On the French side there are differences between the inexperienced Duc de Burgundy and the volatile but militarily experienced Duc de Vendome.

Rawson’s mission is to discover who is behind the farm burnings; this is brought to Vendome’s attention, and he is determined to capture Rawson and win the forthcoming campaigns. The scene is set and meetings between the French and the British are cleverly and prolifically peppered with military skirmishes. The culminating chapters skilfully blend the battle scenes, and wrap up the outcome of the campaign to determine the identity of the individuals responsible for the brutal killings, rapes and arsons.

This is an entertaining yarn from a prolific author with a flowing comfortable style, the storyline flows with no loose ends to leave the reader wondering at the outcome. Marston’s Rawson is akin to Cornwell’s Sharpe and the adventures follow similar themes. This is Marston’s third book about Rawson, and his character, like that of Sharpe, could continue in further books that would be equally readable.

Vivien Cringle HER DEADLY MISCHIEF Beverle Graves Myers, Poisoned Pen Press, 2009, $24.95/C$31.95, hb, 277pp, 9781590582336 Tito Amato is the primo uomo (first man) in the Venetian state opera house in the mid-1700s. In the middle of one of the famous castrato’s opening night arias, a beautiful courtesan falls from a fourth tier box. But she was dying even as she fell, stabbed in the heart. Tito alone glimpsed the masked murderer.

Along with his beautiful wife and the chameleonlike Messer Grande, Tito searches the duplicitous streets of Venice and a glass factory in Murano for the killer of the beautiful young courtesan. Was her death the result of a scandalous wager gone awry or were there others who wished her dead? When the trail leads into the Jewish ghetto, Tito hopes for reconciliation between his apostate Jewish wife, her kindly father, and her regimented mother. But can he keep his wife and adopted son safe as they row through canals filled with family strife and a ruthless killer?

Myers evokes a strong sense of place and time as Tito strolls and floats through La Serenissima with a plot that keeps you guessing until the final reveal in the Basilica of San Marco.

Rebecca Cantrell THE FIRE KIMONO Laura Joh Rowland, Minotaur, 2009, $14.99/ C$18.99, pb, 207pp, 978031258886 Tokyo, March, 1700: a storm uproots a huge tree near a Shinto shrine, nearly injuring an elderly priest and uncovering a royal corpse. The corpse is identified as the Shogun’s cousin, Tadatoshi, who 30 | Reviews | HNR Issue 51, February 2010

disappeared during the great fire that destroyed one-fifth of Tokyo in 1657. It appears that Tadatoshi did not die as a result of the fire. There is evidence that he was murdered.

The Shogun orders Ichiro Sano, a former detective who has risen to become Chamberlain, to find his cousin’s murderer. Meanwhile, Sano has been enduring attacks on his person, his wife, and his household, all apparently the work of his archenemy, Lord Matsudaira – who, coincidentally or not, has been enduring similar attacks that he believes are the work of Sano. This ongoing feud impedes Sano’s efforts in the investigation of Tadatoshi’s death. While Sano is dealing with his problems, an ex-lover of his mother accuses her of Tadatoshi’s murder. Sano’s mother is arrested and sentenced to death. The indecisive Shogun grants Sano a few days to prove his mother’s innocence.

Ms. Rowland has written another exciting mystery. She has a knack for weaving together historical facts into the tapestry of her plot, which both educates and entertains the reader. This fastpaced story is not easy to put down, and it has a surprise ending.

Audrey Braver THE FIELDS OF FORTUNE Jessica Stirling, Hodder & Stoughton/Trafalgar Square, 2010 (c2008), $13.95/£6.99, pb, 452pp, 0340834935 The Fields of Fortune is the latest work of the prolific Jessica Stirling. The book’s theme is not uncommon, but Ms. Stirling is a masterful storyteller, and her portrayal of the pursuit of young women of fortune by men of ambition is well done.

She gives us a good glimpse into society in 18thcentury Edinburgh, both urban and rural. On the verge of the modern age, it is a world where young woman demand to determine their own future and yet are hobbled by the old laws of inheritance.

Our heroine, Nicola Templeton, is a likeable young woman who has risked her father’s displeasure by refusing to marry a man so old, he all but promises to leave her a widow soon.

Her sister Charlotte is also estranged from their father after marrying a man without her father’s approval. Although each possesses a different temperament, both sisters are steadfast in charting their own destinies until they fall under the influence of the Peters brothers. Grant Peters is a man of considerable ambition who has cleverly married the daughter of Lord Craigiehall. Once Charlotte gives birth to a male heir, he will control Lord Craigiehall’s estates and secure his place in Edinburgh society. Gillon Grant is no less desirous of finding a suitable heiress, but his poverty and reputation are serious impediments. The last Peters brother is Roderick, who has remained on the family’s farm. Although he is a less gallant and ambitious figure, Nicola falls in love with Roderick, but hints of a family secret doom the romance.

The story becomes more complicated when Lord Craigiehall, who has remained a widower and fears his new son-in-law’s ambitions, embarks on a search for a young bride.

The corkscrew plot is guaranteed to surprise and satisfy.

Veronika Pelka THE QUEEN’S DOLLMAKER Christine Trent, Kensington, 2009, $15.00, pb, 342pp, 9780758238573 Trent marries the story of a talented dollmaker to the fate of the French queen, Marie Antoinette, who will eventually lose her head to the Revolution, set in Paris and London from 1765 to 1795. In the aftermath of a fire that destroys the family doll shop, Claudette’s parents die tragically. The young woman boards a ship to London, leaving her fiancé, Jean-Philippe, behind. Barely escaping the menacing demands of an opportunistic man, Claudette forms a fast friendship with fellow passenger Beatrice du Georges and her daughter, Marguerite. Penniless, the friends manage to gain employment in a wealthy home, Claudette industriously making extra money with the skills she has learned at her father’s side.

Eventually, Claudette’s talent as a dollmaker enables the two women to support themselves with a small shop, as Claudette’s fashionable dolls gain in popularity. When the Queen of France beckons, Claudette sails for Paris, returning to her home and her past, leaving behind a devoted man unaware that Laurent has unfinished business with her first love, Jean-Philippe. Much has changed, revolution stirring the rage of a starving public. While a delighted queen places an order with Laurent, Jean-Philippe has plans of his own, certain that Claudette still belongs to him. Caught between two countries and two men, Claudette is in terrible danger as anarchy breaks out.

Alternating between Claudette’s personal dilemmas and the unfolding tragedy of MarieAntoinette’s reign in France, the author paints a vivid picture of pre-Revolutionary Paris, Claudette’s challenges of in London and her protagonist’s ambition to create her extraordinary dolls, the art of dollmaking adding another layer to the novel.

Claudette survives great danger, learning that while her history is in Paris, her heart is in London.

Luan Gaines NEW BERN: 1710 in the Carolinas Jimmy C. Waters, Currahee, 2009, $11.95, pb, 324pp, 9780615281315 This novel, dealing with the early settlers of New Bern in the Carolinas, some of whom include the author’s ancestors, is plainly a labor of love. Waters has a great affection for the state of North Carolina and its people, and he has a disarming sense of humor, as when he expounds upon the mosquito who took down a governor.

Unfortunately, New Bern doesn’t quite work as a novel. Too often, the author hijacks his own novel by adding commentary in his own voice, sometimes to expand upon the history behind the story he’s telling, other times to tell us a bit about his family history. This can be charming in a way, but it constantly takes the reader out of the story, as when the author interrupts his characters in mid18th Century

conversation to explain the background of the term “Jolly Roger.” Sometimes the digressions go on for so long that the reader forgets that he or she is reading a novel.

One almost wishes that instead of attempting to shape his material into a novel, Waters had simply presented it as a book of historical anecdotes. That being said, those interested in local history, and North Carolina history in particular, will find a great deal to enjoy here; for its historical tidbits, this novel would be a pleasant companion for a trip to the North Carolina coast.

Susan Higginbotham

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19th century

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TEARS OF PEARL Tasha Alexander, Minotaur, 2009, $24.99/ C$31.99, hb, 306pp, 9780312383701 This fourth mystery starring Lady Emily Ashton begins in 1892, after her marriage to Colin Hargreaves. The newlyweds’ plan for a honeymoon trip to Turkey inevitably becomes more than they’d anticipated. As they travel from Paris to Istanbul on the Orient Express, they meet Sir Richard St. Clare, an English diplomat with a tragic past. So commences another intriguing and intricately plotted mystery, smoothly combining smoldering romance, an exotic setting, and murder.

I am hooked on this series. What does the wellbred woman do with her intelligence and inquiring personality? Is there nothing more for her than marriage, endless, social engagements and children?

In the first three books, Lady Emily discovers that she is far more capable than anyone has ever given her credit for and revels in the freedom of widowhood to pursue her own interests. Along the way, she experiences desire and emotional love for the first time. I look forward to the next installment.

Alice Logsdon MR. DARCY’S GREAT ESCAPE Marsha Altman, Sourcebooks Landmark, 2010, $14.99/C$18.99/£7.99, pb, 489pp, 9781402224300 Mr. Darcy’s Great Escape, a new sequel to Pride and Prejudice, opens some years after Elizabeth Bennet has married her beloved Mr. Darcy.

Enjoying their two children, Elizabeth and Darcy are ready to continue a busy life at Pemberley.

Napoleon is rampaging through Europe, and the Prince Regent is a familiar caller to the house.

Darcy’s half-brother Gregoire, a monk, visits and sets off to Berlin in order to find his order, which may have been destroyed by Napoleon. When Darcy receives word that Gregoire’s life may be in jeopardy, he and Dr. Maddox set off to rescue him. Waylaid by kidnappers in Europe, Darcy and Maddox are thrown into prison, suspected of aiding Brian Maddox in the secreting away of his wife, Nadezhda, from the evil Count Vladimir of Transylvania. Horrified that Darcy and Maddox 18th Century — 19th Century

are at risk, Elizabeth, newly pregnant, and Caroline Bingley set off on a rollicking adventure through Europe in quest of their husbands, despite warnings and the trepidation of their respective families.

Anachronisms and clichéd writing blur the effectiveness of this fast-paced tale of grand adventure and gripping discoveries. At times the reader becomes thoroughly confused by the onslaught of characters introduced against sketchy settings and oddly inserted historical references.

Indeed, despite the Pride and Prejudice link, the reader finds little of the restrained passions of the original—instead of a tale of manners, this novel has little subtlety, and the reader struggles with thin characterization and inconsistent setting. For the patient reader who likes plenty of action and fast dialogue somewhat related to Austen, this will suffice. A true Austen fan expecting an accurate sequel will find this novel distracting.

Liz Allenby A DEDICATED SCOUNDREL Anne Barbour, Robert Hale/Trafalgar Square, 2009 (c2008), $24.95/£18.99, hb, 222pp, 9780709083481 Lord Justin Belforte is a disgraced soldier accused of treasonously helping a captured French general escape from Wellington’s troops. Catherine Meade is a disgraced ex-debutante, self-exiled in the countryside after acquiring a loose reputation following an aborted runaway marriage. Their paths cross when passerby Justin heeds her cry for help, whereupon a collapsing building robs him of his memory. Catherine naturally takes her unknown savior in until he recovers. But once memory returns, Justin realizes that pretending amnesia will be an ideal way to conceal his identity while he searches for a way to refute the treason charge.

The growing attraction between the two protagonists is well done, creating effective romantic tension by giving them plausible reasons for not acting upon their yearnings. The reconciliation scene is particularly good. However, Barbour makes a few missteps. A character says, “Robbie, not being the son of a peer, has no private income.”

The implication that only sons of peers had private incomes is faulty; wealthy non-peers existed in Regency times. Also, there were several incorrect uses of titles of nobility, plus some Americanisms and 21st century expressions which jerk the reader out of the Regency atmosphere.

B.J. Sedlock DEVIL’S DREAM Madison Smartt Bell, Pantheon, 2009, $26.00, hb, 352pp, 9780375424885 Certainly one of the most curious events in historical fiction in decades is the decision by a writer to pen a trilogy about the Haitian Toussaint Louverture and the blood-soaked slave rebellion he led, and another novel on Nathan Bedford Forrest, a slave-owning Confederate cavalry officer who helped found the Ku Klux Klan after he hung up his uniform. I simply cannot imagine who Madison

Smartt Bell will write about next!

Forrest was a man seemingly born for war. A selfmade man who acquired his fortune through slaves and land, he followed his native Tennessee into the Confederate States. After killing two Union soldiers in his first engagement, the charismatic Forrest goes on to glory at Fort Donelson and Brice’s Cross Road, and infamy at the murder of white and black Union prisoners at Fort Pillow.

Bell manages to keep pace with this tarnished cavalier as “The Wizard of the Saddle” sires children from his slave mistress, rushes from battle to battle against heavy odds, quarrels with seemingly every higher ranking officer in Confederate service, and ends the war as a man who has given his all to the cause. Curiously, Bell does not include the postwar years and the KKK in the story. Filled with regional gems such as “we got ginrals don’t know when they’re a-winnen,” Devil’s Dream will find its audience.

John R. Vallely THE JEWEL OF HIS HEART Maggie Brendan, Revell, 2009, $13.99, pb, 330pp 9780800733506 In the 1890s, Juliana Brady and her sickly mother live in a run-down cabin in a Montana mining town while her father is out discovering gold. Juliana has been helping out by cooking and cleaning, the only jobs available. While tending his sheep ranch, Josh McBride, who has been essentially disinherited by his cattle baron father, comes upon some blue pebbles in a stream. Little does he know how much these stones will change his life. Coming into town one day, Josh finds Juliana’s dying mother and takes her to the doctor. He is stunned when he meets the lovely young woman whose blue eyes are the same shade as the stones. Juliana knows Josh looks familiar: where has she seen those eyes before?

The Jewel of His Heart is based on true events, and Brendan has researched her subject well.

Her descriptions of western life are spot-on. The second in Brendan’s “Heart of the West” series, this Christian romance will appeal to genre fans, but its overwhelming religious references may be uncomfortable for others. While it stands on its own, it might be beneficial to read the books in order. Recommended for readers who enjoy Janette Oke, this is a story to savor.

Maudeen Wachsmith SUNFLOWERS Sheramy Bundrick, Avon A, 2009, $14.95/ C$18.99, pb, 432pp, 9780061765279 “I’d heard about him but never seen him,” Rachel Courteau says in the opening line of Sheramy Bundrick’s debut novel, Sunflowers. The reader is likely to be familiar with the images that follow (the lunatic muttering to himself as he wanders the countryside painting, the confused soul haunting the bordellos of Arles) but in Bundrick’s hands a fuller picture of Vincent van Gogh emerges through an imagined love relationship between Vincent and Rachel, the real-life prostitute for whom he famously mutilated his ear. The book HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Reviews | 31

covers the two years van Gogh spent in and out of mental hospitals in Arles, Saint-Remy, and Auvers before his suicide in 1890.

Bundrick’s empathy for the painter and his art is abundant, and it is comforting to imagine that he did indeed have someone who loved him as deeply as Bundrick’s Rachel does. The settings are richly imagined—the yellow house in Arles, the asylum in Saint Remy, the bordello where Rachel lives and works. Portraits of others in the painter’s life give Bundrick the opportunity to add doctors, saloon keepers, and other factual characters to the tale.

The result is a compelling novel, written with grace and assurance unusual for a debut. It probably helps to know something about this period of Van Gogh’s life already, so that the character studies of Van Gogh and Rachel will predominate over plot, as presumably the author intends. With a bit of biographical knowledge (which most readers will have), the story moves with admirable tension toward the sad, inevitable conclusion.

Laurel Corona THE COUNTRY HOUSE COURTSHIP Linore Rose Burkard, Harvest House, 2010, $13.99, pb, 297pp, 9780736927994 It’s 1818, and Miss Beatrice Forsythe wants to go to London. She wants to marry a man like the rich, titled brother-in-law she is visiting, and she wants to have fun. She does not want to settle down in the country in genteel poverty like her parents.

Mr. Peter O’Brien is forced into the position of asking his former enemy, Mr. Mornay, for the position of Vicar. The last thing he wants is to lose his heart to another woman in Mr. Mornay’s protection, but he finds himself, against his will, attracted to Beatrice.

Mr. Tristan Barton has come to the country to talk Mr. Mornay into doing the Prince’s bidding.

When he meets Beatrice, the purpose of his visit begins to alter. This innocent country interlude begins to grow complicated.

At last! A truly entertaining inspirational novel written in the style of Jane Austen. Linore Rose Burkard is at home in the Regency period. Her writing has authentic period details, including details about the Church of England. Although Austenian in style, Ms. Burkard’s novel is more quickly paced and more suited to the readers of this century. A very good read!

Nan Curnutt MEMORY OF FLAMES Armand Cabasson (trans. Isabel Reid), Gallic Books, 2009, £7.99, pb, 338pp, 9781906040130 When Lieutenant Colonel Margont is ordered

by Joseph Bonaparte to investigate the murder of a colonel charged with drawing up plans to defend Paris, he has no choice but to obey. Despite his republican convictions, Margont is forced to infiltrate a group of royalists whose symbol was found on the mutilated body. It is March 1814, and not even Napoleon can stave off the massive Allied armies for long. With the fall of Paris imminent, Margont has to work fast to uncover the murder 32 | Reviews | HNR Issue 51, February 2010

– or even to stay alive.

Memory of Flames is the third Margont novel, but there is enough information to allow someone new to the series to grasp how the central characters have been shaped by their experiences.

This complex characterisation extends to the plotters, each of whom has his or her motives for their actions.

I have a few minor quibbles. I wish the translator had found a more old-fashioned phrase instead of ‘cheated on’ to refer to the sole female character’s unfaithful husband. While the impersonal tone in the chapters detailing the advance of the Allies seems fitting the same detachment comes as an anticlimax in the epilogue.

That said, I imagine Cabasson’s fans will be delighted by the hint that we have not heard the last Napoleon or Morgont.

Jasmina Svenne CAPTIVE OF SIN Anna Campbell, Avon, 2009, $6.99/C$9.50, pb, 372pp, 9780061684289 On a cold February night in 1821, Sir Gideon Trevithick finds an exhausted, ragged, dirty girl hiding in his horse’s stall at an inn in Winchester.

She says she’s Sarah Watson and had been set upon by highwaymen. Gideon sees through her lies, but Sarah, or rather, Lady Charis Weston, England’s richest heiress, thinks he believes her and accepts a lift with Gideon to Portsmouth where she means to hide. She desperately needs to escape Winchester before her evil stepbrothers catch her.

Charis tries to escape in Portsmouth, but Gideon is too quick for her. In the end, she accompanies him to his home in Cornwall. In a place so remote, she is bound to be safe, but she isn’t. Gideon’s solution is to elope with Charis to Jersey in the Channel, and return only after she reaches her majority, in three weeks. Charis has her secrets; Gideon, his demons.

She thinks her love can save him; he knows his love will destroy her.

Ms Campbell has done an excellent job of building suspense. The first two-thirds of the book are enthralling. One character disappears in the beginning and reappears at the end without explanation. Otherwise, Captive of Sin is a terrific read.

Audrey Braver PRIMA DONNA Megan Chance, Three Rivers, 2009, $15/C$18.95, pb, 432pp, 9780307461018 Prima Donna is the story of 19th-century opera singer Sabine Conrad and how she went from stardom in New York City to life in rough-andtumble Seattle as Marguerite Olson, a bar girl with a scar on her face. Chance alternates Marguerite’s world-weary narration of her hardscrabble life in Seattle with excerpts from Sabine’s journal, filled with artless chatter about her growing fame as well as her growing attraction to her sister’s boyfriend, another member of the company. How Sabine transforms into Marguerite propels the story.

Although an opera singer’s life may seem

glamorous, in reality Sabine has to jockey for position within the company while her lover subtly pimps her out to wealthy patrons. One such encounter goes badly, and Sabine reemerges as Marguerite in Seattle. Her new identity is threatened when a figure from her past life finds her, tempting her with the music she loves so much.

Much of what makes this book so compelling is discovering how Sabine became Marguerite (taken from Faust, a nod to her old life), as both personas are fascinating in their own way. The book almost begs to be read in one sitting, and Chance had me right until the end, when the final act undermines the gritty realism that precedes it. Nevertheless, an absorbing read.

Ellen Keith THE SECRET LIFE OF EMILY DICKINSON Jerome Charyn, Norton, 2010, $24.95/C$31.00, hb, 352pp, 9780393333954 There can be few challenges more daunting for a writer than attempting to take on the voice of another writer, particularly one known for the distinctiveness of her own voice. In The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, Jerome Charyn, aided, as he tells us, by studying Dickinson’s letters, succeeds in the audacious task that he has appointed himself.

Using a blend of historical and purely fictional characters, he imagines Dickinson’s life from her short time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in 1848 through her last reclusive days. In doing so, he illuminates the emotional life of a woman whose poetry is much better known to us than her persona.

Beautifully written with some lovely turns of phrases, as befits its subject, this is a clever literary novel by an author who has a palpable respect and admiration for Dickinson and her writing. Though the author’s sheer cleverness at times distanced me emotionally from the heroine and the other characters, I nonetheless found the novel as a whole to be a moving and fascinating depiction of Dickinson’s relationships, the milieu in which she moved, and her rich inner life.

Susan Higginbotham THE PRESIDENT’S DAUGHTER Barbara Chase-Riboud, Chicago Review, 2009 (c1994), $14.95, pb, 477pp, 9781556529443 Harriet Hemings Jefferson, the secret daughter of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson, lives a shadowed life best summarized by a quote from Voltaire within this novel, “There is no history, only fictions of various degrees of plausibility.” In his elder years, Thomas Jefferson gives Harriet permission to leave the South and travel to Philadelphia to live as a free white woman, but he refuses to give her manumission papers. For to place such a statement in writing would be a certified acknowledgment of not only her freedom but also his paternity. Harriet therefore lives a fictional life as a free, wealthy white woman, defining the remaining, haunting narrative.

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Harriet’s search for truth and justice for the entire slave population, which she cannot deny is the larger part of her heritage, spans pre-Civil War to post-Reconstruction history in a style rivaling the best nonfiction accounts of this period. Thus, the reader learns of the infamous scandal caused by the revelations of Jefferson’s journalist nemesis, Thomas Callendar, as well as the horrific fighting with accompanying political plotting causing devastating fatalities for both the North and South during the Civil War. Exposure to the Northern abolitionist movement introduces Harriet to the rampant racism underlying those who claim they are fighting for freedom and equality for the Southern slaves. The loss of two husbands and two sons, the threat of exposure by a secret deliverer of messages, and a final confession rejected as dementia are just a few of the poignant moments lacing this novel with constantly overlapping, tense and deeply sad conflicts tearing apart Harriet’s mind and emotions in this memorable, magnificent novel. The President’s Daughter is the best novel this reviewer has read in years. Lovers of historical fiction, this is a must read!

Viviane Crystal REMARKABLE CREATURES Tracy Chevalier, Dutton, 2010, $26.95, hb, 299pp, 9780525951452 / HarperCollins, 2009, £15.99, hb, 9780007178377 The author of Girl with a Pearl Earring returns with the story of an unlikely friendship between two unlikely 19th-century Englishwomen.

Surviving a lightning strike is only one of Mary Anning’s noteworthy attributes: from girlhood on she achieves international renown as a fossil hunter in the shore village of Lyme Regis, discovering and restoring the first skeletons of ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs (among other things). Elizabeth Philpot, a London spinster brought to Lyme by reduced circumstances, shares Mary’s strange passion for hunting fossils and mentors her through years of triumph, tragedy, heartbreak, and scandal.

The chapters alternate in the voices of each of the protagonists, as each tells her own version of the people and events they share in their lives.

Chevalier does an admirable job of depicting just how radical the concepts of extinction and changing species were to pre-Darwinian minds, though at times Elizabeth’s religious philosophizing gets a bit heavy-handed. Mary’s West Dorset dialect, rendered accurately, may be jarring to those not familiar with seeing it in print. The romantic subplot seems a bit forced, though it provides Mary with an opportunity to show her growth into a strong, spirited heroine. An enjoyable restoration of two women excluded from the scientific community in their own time by the dividing lines of gender and class.

Val Perry POSTSCRIPT FROM PEMBERLEY Rebecca Ann Collins, Sourcebooks, 2009, $13.99/ C$18.99/£7.99, pb, 336pp, 9781402224324 Postscript from Pemberley is the seventh book in 19th Century

the highly acclaimed Pemberley Chronicles Series, which has followed the characters of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice through subsequent generations.

It is now 1866, and readers are introduced to two romances: The first is between Julian Darcy (son of Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet Darcy) and Jessica Courtney (daughter of James Courtney and Emily Gardiner Courtney); the second is between Darcy Gardiner (grandson of Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth Darcy) and Kathryn O’Hare, daughter of an Irish immigrant.

The leading characters in Postscript from Pemberley are intelligent, interesting and morally upstanding. The Victorian era is brought to life through a focus on issues of the day. Darcy Gardiner is politically active and desirous of reform, throwing his support behind Mr. Gladstone. Julian Gardiner is a scientist studying bacteria in Africa, and Kathryn and Jessica discuss the ideas of Mr. Darwin.

Nothing untoward happens to Julian in Africa,

and the slight scandal that attaches itself to Kathryn is easily brushed away. Other minor misadventures are also quickly and smoothly resolved. When problems arise, a character comes forth with a solution that is immediately and successfully implemented. There is little to anticipate and a decided lack of suspense in the story. Nevertheless, the characters are easy to like, and one can enjoy their happy lives.

Elizabeth Caulfield Felt RECOLLECTIONS OF ROSINGS Rebecca Ann Collins, Sourcebooks Landmark, 2010, $14.99/$C17.99/£7.99, pb, 336pp, 9781402224508 Nothing has prepared Catherine or her daughter Lillian to see a black and smoldering ruin where an elegant house once stood. “Catherine gasped. She could hardly breathe, and beside her Lillian was weeping…” Rosings Park, the de Bourgh estate, once a second home to Catherine, has been largely

C

E D I TORS’ CH OICE THE ENDLESS FOREST Sara Donati, Delacorte, 2010, hb, $27.00/C$33.00, hb, 640pp, 9780553805260 With The Endless Forest, Sara Donati’s sweeping saga of the Bonner family comes to a close, and what a magnificent ending it is!

The story that began in Paradise, New York with Into the Wilderness comes full circle as Nathaniel and Elizabeth’s children return to their mountain home in 1824 to raise their families and face the past and the future. This final book in the series settles old scores and ties up loose threads while giving us fevered action and romance in the bargain.

Opening with a springtime flood that manages to devastate Paradise both physically and spiritually, The Endless Forest brings daughter Lily home in hopes of beginning her own family. Her twin Daniel, still affected by his disabling accident years earlier, keeps to himself until the arrival of young Martha Kirby sparks a reawakening. When town nemesis (and Martha’s mother) Jemima Kuick returns, old wounds resurface that force the hand of not just Daniel and Martha, but also other Bonners and townspeople. Jemima’s still out for blood, and the family must draw together in order to keep what’s rightfully theirs.

All the characters we’ve grown to know and love are present: Nathaniel and Elizabeth, now grandparents, are still lovingly guiding their families; Hannah, Luke, and Gabriel are raising children along with their spouses; and Curiosity is still dispensing advice. Most delightful is the presence of Birdie, youngest child of Nathaniel and Elizabeth, who manages to insert herself in the thick of things and always has an opinion to share.

Donati supplies us with an epilogue that lets us know what happens next in the lives of the Bonner clan. I will miss these stories, and yet I find that Donati has given this saga a most gratifying finale. Highly recommended.

Tamela McCann HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Reviews | 33

destroyed by fire. Memories of Rosings past, long buried, rise with the smoke.

While a protégé of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Catherine fell in love with Frank Burnett, the Rosings librarian—but Frank left suddenly and Catherine married someone else. Now a widow with a grown daughter, Catherine is considered too old for romance. Then Frank returns to assist with conservation efforts at Rosings. Secrets emerge.

Everything changes.

Recollections of Rosings is the eighth in a series of Jane Austen look-alikes, The Pemberley Chronicles, written under the pen name of Rebecca Ann Collins. The characters are connected to the cast of Pride and Prejudice—but this is not the Darbys’ story any more. Time has passed, a war was won.

There is a woman on the throne of England now.

The social and legal issues of Victorian England touch Collins’s well-to-do characters, but lightly.

Catherine and her sister have money of their own.

They speak of women’s emancipation; but they are optimists, not suffragists. Catherine’s social conscience—she will help educate the poor—is typical of her class at mid-century.

Although one misses Austen’s trenchant wit, Collins writes well and wisely. Fans of the series will enjoy the unfolding story. Others may simply enjoy Recollections of Rosings as a mature romance. (Note to Rebecca Ann Collins: perhaps it’s time to break away from Pemberley altogether.) Recommended.

Jeanne Greene BELLFIELD HALL (US) / A MOMENT OF SILENCE (UK) Anna Dean, Minotaur, 2010, $23.99/C$28.99, hb, 304pp, 9780312562946 / Allison & Busby, 2009, £7.99, pb, 288pp, 9780749079949 Spinster Dido Kent rushes to grand Bellfield Hall to help her niece solve the mystery of the latter’s fiancé, who has thrown her over and vanished. What Dido finds is a group of disparate people who all have secrets to hide—especially the missing young man’s wealthy parents. A woman’s body discovered in the estate’s shrubbery complicates the situation. Dido is hindered in her quest by the restrictions imposed on a single woman in 1805. She manages to use this to her advantage to delve into the houseguests’ darkest fears. What she discovers makes her wonder if the fiancé is a victim or a murderer.

Sharp and resourceful Dido’s investigation is partially revealed in amusing and bemused letters to her sister. Dido comments on the other houseguests and their foibles and her growing attraction to a colonel who may also be a suspect.

Her astute remarks on the era and people’s behavior adds flavor to the story. With period detail, and clues that twist and turn, the novel will keep historical mystery fans guessing and engaged. Dido Kent is a Miss Marple of the Regency era. This is the beginning of a clever new series.

Diane Scott Lewis THE SEALED LETTER Emma Donoghue, Mariner, 2009, $14.95, pb, 34 | Reviews | HNR Issue 51, February 2010

416pp, 9780547247762 Based upon the events surrounding an actual, scandalous, and well-documented 1864 London divorce trial, Donoghue’s newest novel explores the disparate worlds of the newly emancipated working women of the Victorian age and the isolation and economic dependence of women trapped in loveless marriages.

Emily (Fido) Faithfull is an independent young businesswoman – cigarette-smoking and single, having sworn off marriage and, apparently, men.

Her concern is her press and how to fund it, her goal to educate the public on the issues most relevant to women. By coincidence, she runs into her old friend, Helen Codrington, who is accompanied by a young military man, not her husband. The old friendship is rekindled, and Fido rediscovers longburied feelings for Helen.

But as Fido later learns, she is merely another pawn in Helen’s chess game. Even after Helen uses Fido’s parlor for a sexual assignation with the young man, infuriating Fido, she remains unwilling to recognize how heartless and manipulative Helen can be – even to her purported best friend.

Helen’s husband finally accepts the fact that Helen is and has been unfaithful to him, and asks the Court for a divorce and full custody of the two children – who Helen is forbidden to see. During the buildup toward the trial, it is revealed that there is a sealed letter, the contents of which will only remain sealed if the proceedings successfully conclude for Henry Codrington. Although Donoghue never reveals what the content of that letter is, the insinuation is clear.

Donoghue beautifully captures the dilemma of women in a society whose very foundation is shifting like sand under their feet. Her characters are impeccably drawn, the plot fast-paced and engrossing. Fido Faithfull is finally faithful to herself, while Helen is a chimera and a sprite, her most basic instincts corrupted. Highly recommended.

Ilysa Magnus EMERALD EMBRACE Shannon Drake, illus. Yevgeniya Yeretskaya, Medallion, 2010 (c1991), $7.95, pb, 464pp, 9781605420820 Originally published in 1991, Drake’s tale set in Scotland in 1865 delivers a gothic feel and an element of suspense. When Lady Martise St. James learns that her friend, Mary, has suddenly died, she travels from America to Scotland to investigate her friend’s death. As soon as Martise arrives at Castle Creeghan in the Scottish Highlands, she is met with a sense of foreboding. The lord of the castle and the late Mary’s husband, Bruce Creeghan, is a mysterious and attractive man, but there is something about him that Martise does not trust though she immediately feels the passion developing between them despite her better judgment. Martise’s goal is to uncover the mystery behind her friend’s death, retrieve a missing emerald that she knows must be hidden somewhere in the castle, and escape the clutches of the castle alive.

Though the novel is fast-paced and packed with steamy love scenes, readers may get a sense of déjà vu because the dialogue between the two main characters is very repetitive. Drake does keep the reader guessing as to who is behind the mystery and deception at the castle, but the best quality of the book is the atmospheric descriptions of the castle and its surroundings.

Troy Reed THE BOOK OF MURDOCK Loren D. Estleman, Forge, 2010, $23.99/C$30.50, hb, 272pp, 9780765316004 In 1884, in Helena, Montana, 43-year-old Deputy U.S. Marshal Page Murdock is ordered to travel south and capture bandits responsible for terrorizing the residents of Owen, Texas. A middleaged gunman, he must disguise himself as Brother Sebastian of the Church of Evangelical Truth.

Never a religious man, he must learn passages from the Bible, preach sermons and provide inspiration to his congregation while looking for the leader of the outlaws.

I enjoyed the story of Page Murdock and his transformation from gunman to preacher. Mr. Estleman has the ability to write a story that allows you to picture both the action and dialogue between the characters. As a reader, you become immersed in the educational process of Murdock and wonder if he can pull it off. When he arrives in Owen, he is faced with situations where his disguise is almost impossible to maintain, but he still is able to convince the town of his vocation. Murdock’s true identity becomes especially difficult to hide when he meets a woman from his past who could destroy his mission if she chooses to reveal it.

The novel is character-driven, containing excellent dialogue. I highly recommend it to those who like their Western heroes imperfect.

Jeff Westerhoff JOURNEYING Barbara Fleming, Five Star, 2009, $25.95, hb, 262pp, 9781594147906 Hannah Morris had fallen in love with Lucas Bowman, but their union would not be accepted in Ohio in 1872 due to his biracial heritage. She lives in constant fear of her stepfather, who raped her and dominates the household. She decides to escape with Lucas and join a wagon train to California, feeling that racial tension and prejudice will be less restrictive out West. Lucas, although raised in France and trained as a physician, must travel alongside Hannah as her slave. Before they reach the high mountains, they are forced to disengage from the train and continue on alone.

They stumble upon an abandoned sod house in Colorado. They also meet the neighbors, who explain the process of becoming a homesteader/ landowner. Hannah is so tired that she can’t imagine traveling on. She and Lucas are married by the local minister but soon learn that life as farmers on the plains of Colorado is anything but fun and racial equality is still a long way off. This is their story.

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Using a first-person journal format, Fleming narrates a story of Hannah’s life, dreams, disappointments, challenges and aspirations.

Hannah’s disillusionment with prairie life and her need for more than family and children lead her to town, where she becomes involved in various social reform movements of the day. Fleming highlights the emotional struggles of Hannah, who despite living in a different century speaks to her sisters today when she writes in a letter to her mother, “Why should women be held back from accomplishing whatever we are capable of in life?”

Journeying is a sensitive novel interspersed with snippets of historical events, medical practices, states rights, women’s rights and other social developments that shaped the time period.

Wisteria Leigh ROY BEAN’S GOLD W. R. Garwood, Five Star, 2010, $25.95, hb, 250pp, 9781594148392 Before Roy Bean became the famous hanging judge, he had a passion for finding gold. This novel, set in California in the 1850s, tells the story of a young man that befriended a robber who knew of the existence of a hidden payroll stolen from the U.S. Army in California. When the outlaw is killed

by Comanches, he leaves behind some of the stolen coins, a map and a mysterious person’s name. Roy continues his trip to California, trying to discover the existence of the gold cache and dreaming of becoming rich.

This is a well-written Western novel with a surprise ending. Interesting characters are interwoven into this tale, such as a missing young girl who disappears from an attack on a wagon train, Spanish settlers who have to deal with American gold-hunters, a Mexican bandit who eludes capture, and Roy’s brother Joshua, the local mayor of a small town. Mr. Garwood was able to provide this reader with an interesting mystery of lost treasure and the search for its existence while presenting a unique perspective of life in California during the 1850s, where the land’s Mexican heritage conflicted with American settlers and their attempts to rule the territory. Highly recommended to those who enjoy Westerns.

Jeff Westerhoff PUSHING THE BEAR: After the Trail of Tears Diane Glancy, Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2009, $14.95, pb, 197pp, 9780806140698 The Trail of Tears is over, but the Cherokee who survived the punishing winter march from North Carolina to Oklahoma must now face the grueling task of resettlement in Indian Territory. The land is inhospitable, the promised government rations are slow to come, and resentment still runs deep.

Each member of the tribe has private demons to battle, as well: Knobowtee and Maritole must find a way to understand one another again after the death of their infant daughter. O-ga-na-ya must overcome his rage against the men who drove him from his lands. Reverend Bushyhead must chart 19th Century

a path within a new faith, uniting a congregation still spiritually broken after the hardships of the march.

Diane Glancy at last brings us the sequel to her acclaimed 1996 novel Pushing the Bear: A Novel of the Trail of Tears. As usual, Glancy’s research is impeccable, and her deep connection to her own Cherokee heritage finds beautiful expression in this work. Her lyrical account is interwoven with myth and tradition, at times slipping almost into verse. However, while her earlier Trail of Tears novel used the rhythm of the march to pace the many disparate narratives, the sequel threatens to stagnate. While the characters battle their own emotions, the plot lacks physical action. Readers familiar with the first-person viewpoint in the first book may find that the sequel’s shift to the third person has a distancing effect – and readers coming to the characters for the first time may be puzzled by some of the emotional scars of the trail that remain unexplained. Nonetheless, this book is an affecting tribute to Cherokee resettlement after the Trail of Tears, and a beautiful portrait of a downtrodden but resilient people.

Ann Pedtke DESERT HERITAGE Zane Grey, Five Star, 2010, $25.95, hb, 282pp, 9781594148354 This is a revision of Grey’s first Western novel, altered by the publisher when it was released in 1910 as Heritage of the Desert. The present edition restores Grey’s original manuscript version, which had been thought lost but recently resurfaced.

Jack Hare is rescued from a desert death by Mormon patriarch August Naab. Hare grows fond of the old man and his family and wishes to repay them for their kindness. He stays on to herd sheep with Naab’s adopted part-Navajo daughter Mescal, and feels the clan’s distress when cattle rustlers steal stock and try to ruin Naab’s watering holes.

Naab cites his religion as the reason he is unwilling to take action against the rustlers. Then eldest son Snap, to whom Naab has promised Mescal as his second wife, turns on his family and takes up with the rustlers. Hare realizes he’s in love with Mescal himself. Can he save her from being forced to marry Snap? And can he repay his debt to Naab by taking on the rustlers single-handedly?

As virtual father of the Western novel, Grey is just about critic-proof, so his fans probably won’t heed any carping of mine. Characterization is not Grey’s strong point. Most women are mere stick figures: Naab’s daughters-in-law are glossed over as “stalwart women, fit to make homes and rear children.” The Navajo and Mormons are portrayed sympathetically, which I didn’t expect in such an early Western. Grey does evoke beautiful images of the landscape: “The winding columns of snow merged into straight lines of leaden rain; the rain flowed into vapory mist, and the mist cleared in the gold-red glare of endless level and slope.” If adventure and setting are more appealing than complex characters, then this reissue of Grey’s seminal Western will please.

B.J. Sedlock

THAT CERTAIN SPARK Cathy Marie Hake, Bethany House, 2009, $13.99, pb, 348pp, 9780764203206 In 1892, twins Enoch and Taylor Bestman arrive in Gooding, Texas with signed contracts to serve as local veterinarian and medical doctor. The twins aim to rescue Gooding from a shortage of decent medical care. Instead of a warm welcoming, though, they are met with a great deal of prejudice and small-mindedness when it’s discovered that Taylor is a woman. Karl Van der Vort, local blacksmith, is no exception, and he fights her tooth and nail when he unwillingly becomes her first patient. Used to the stubbornness of men who do not accept her work, Taylor must prove that medicine is her calling, and she is in fact a competent doctor. It surprises Karl to no end when he realizes just how skilled she is, and that he has fallen in love with this brazen woman.

Some parts of the story seemed too simplistic, like the romance between Enoch and the local widow. I was hoping for a bit more tension and drama in the story, but overall, it’s a lovely story filled with good resounding morals. With her usual wit and amicable prose, Hake delivers a pleasant Christian romance that also delves into deeper issues such as anti-feminine sentiments.

Rebecca Roberts A COUNTRY COTILLION Sandra Heath, Robert Hale/Trafalgar Square, 2010 (c2008), £18.99/$24.95/C$27.95, hb, 230pp, 9780709086598 A young widow, Elizabeth French, is just getting her life back on track as she prepares to announce her engagement to Alexander Norrington, a handsome young lord whom the young girls of the ton, including Elizabeth’s cousin Isobel, often compare to Lord Byron’s popular hero Childe Harold. Despite the lack of passion in their relationship, Elizabeth is satisfied with Alex. Her first marriage had plenty of dash and passion, which led to betrayal and disillusionment.

However, her pragmatic plans are shattered when she meets Marcus Sheridan, Duke of Arlington, who reminds her of her first husband and their initial passions. A snowstorm strands Elizabeth, Alexander and Isobel at Marcus’ estate. This leads to a “country cotillion” of mistaken identity, misunderstandings and changing partners with a happy ending for all.

Sandra Heath has written a delightful Regency romp with a strong, determined, but also vulnerable heroine. The hero is handsome, dashing and mysterious but doesn’t connect with the heroine until halfway through the story. Ms Heath provides lush descriptions of costumes, and settings that, at times, dominate the scenes.

Audrey Braver THE DEBONAIR DUKE Emily Hendrickson, Robert Hale, 2010, £18.99, hb, 223 pp, 9780709082897 On her website, Emily Hendrickson says: ‘[T]oo many of the peers we encounter in HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Reviews | 35

Regency novels sound more American than British.

A true aristocrat should have the accent that comes from attending the exclusive schools, [and] the words used…’

If she knows this, why does she use such Americanisms as: ‘outsmarted’ instead of ‘outwitted’ and ‘figure out’ for ‘work out’? Indeed, why does Hale allow her to? Perhaps because this is a reprint of a Signet Regency Romance of 1996 and they took it over wholesale.

Lady Pamela Taylor, who is in London for her first Season, is sent a necklace of sapphires and diamonds by mistake. She seeks the help of the Duke of Wexford to try and discover who sent it.

To this end she wears it to every evening event she attends, and she and the Duke have to ‘figure out’ who is the villain of the piece. Personally, I ‘worked out’ who it was from their first entrance.

This novel won the Colorado Romance Writers Award of Excellence 1997, which may be a recommendation for some, but I found the characters flat, the emotion lacking, and the novel boring. jay Dixon

C

THE ROGUISH MISS PENN Emily Hendrickson, Robert Hale/Trafalgar Square, 2010 (c2008), £18.99/$24.95, hb, 0709082614 The Roguish Miss Penn is a delightful Regency romp through the fields of Cambridge and along the banks of the River Cam. Despite some odd word usages, repetitive phrases, and a slightly improbable storyline, the author leads us with a sure hand through the tried-and-true catalogue of vicissitudes during the heroine Katherine’s romantic journey. The story is peopled with interesting, amiable characters: the plucky, smart but slightly naïve heroine; her scholarly, prudish father; her happy-go-lucky younger brother; and, of course, the devilishly handsome viscount, who is the hero who captures Katherine’s heart.

Hendrickson adds whimsical touches such as a pet goose, a favored donkey, a plain-spoken aunt and a nasty-tongued, gossipy girlfriend to round out the actors and provide diversions and frustrations for Katherine and her hero. The author sets up the desire of Katherine’s heart—to see the play she has written be acted on the stage at the annual market fair, while keeping her authorship a secret—to

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E REQUIEM IN VIENNA J. Sydney Jones, Minotaur, 2010, $24.99/C$31.99, hb, 293pp, 9780312383909 In 1899 Vienna, the director of the Court Opera, conductor-composer Gustav Mahler, appears to be the intended victim of a series of accidents: first a singer dies when the fire curtain falls on her during a rehearsal, then Mahler’s podium collapses under him. Alma Schindler, who is in love with Mahler, approaches lawyer Karl Werthen to find out who is trying to kill the composer. At first Mahler doesn’t believe the incidents are any more than accidents, but the murder—made to look like suicide—of a violinist who saw the singer killed convinces him that something much more serious is going on.

Werthen, with the assistance of his new wife Berthe and the great criminologist Hans Gross (a real person, said to be one of Conan Doyle’s models for Sherlock Holmes), investigates the case and finds there are many people with reasons to kill Mahler. Then, when Werthen receives an anonymous letter suggesting that the supposedly natural deaths of Brahms, Bruckner, and Johann Strauss may not have been natural after all, he realizes a murderer may be plotting to kill the great composers of Vienna.

Jones, who has lived in Vienna for twenty years, brings late 19th-century Vienna—its opera house, cafes, and food—brilliantly to life and made me feel as if I were living there. Werthen and Berthe are wonderfully sympathetic characters, and Gross, while not as immediately appealing, clearly possesses a brilliant mind.

I would highly recommend this book to music lovers and anyone interested in Vienna.

Vicki Kondelik 36 | Reviews | HNR Issue 51, February 2010

good effect as the MacGuffin around which love and danger swirl. A fun, quick read.

Mary F. Burns SAGE CANE’S HOUSE OF GRACE AND FAVOR Christy Hubbard, Five Star, 2009, $25.95, hb, 311pp, 9781594147739 1859 Fairplay Creek, Colorado is no place for a lady, yet Sage Cane, penniless and in debt, arrives to claim her inheritance from her Aunt Hannah “Honey” Wild. Assuming her aunt’s establishment is a respectable hotel, Sage is shocked to find that it is in fact, a bordello called Wild Mountain Honey.

Her immediate plan to close it down is met with resistance from Bridger Norwood, the stubborn town marshal. Bridger believes the only way to keep the streets safe is to keep the men off them. Sage agrees, but begins to change the town’s attitude by opening a charm school to teach wives and female minors how to keep their men home. She also slowly changes the bordello into a respectable meeting place for all the townspeople.

Hubbard successfully depicts the hardships and dangers women faced in rugged frontier towns that catered to men. Her storytelling, however, leaves a bit to be desired. The characters are a bit too fictional, the climax a bit too predictable, and any action a bit too staged. I was unable to connect with any of the characters, and I felt as though the plot was rushed and everything tied up too nicely at the end. Overall, it was an okay western romance, but by no means a must read.

Rebecca Roberts THE DISAPPEARANCE AT PÈRELACHAISE (US) / THE PÈRE-LACHAISE MYSTERY (UK) Claude Izner (trans. Lorenza Garcia and Isabel Reid), Minotaur, 2009, $24.95, hb, 316pp, 9780312383756 / Gallic, 2007, £7.99, pb, 306pp, 9781906040048 Fin-de-siècle Paris was a macrocosm of art, literature, dancers in the Moulin Rouge and lovers walking along the Seine. However, a microcosm dwells quietly within the borders of the City of Light. The cemetery of Père-Lachaise, the resting place of such permanent Parisians as Héloïse and Abelard, Molière and Musset was kept in order by such old soldiers as Père Moscue, who cashed in on cemetery detritus with his shopping basket, unknowingly collecting a body or two.

Victor Legris, bookshop owner and serial paramour, was ex-lover to Odette, who disappears while visiting her husband’s grave, leaving her maid, Denise, alone in the silent city. With nowhere else to go, she reports the disappearance to Victor who, fresh from solving a murder on the new Eiffel Tower, eagerly senses a mystery despite objections from his current paramour. Also, Victor’s partner Kenji objects to his running after danger when there’s a bookstore to run.

Sweeping the reader through labyrinthine Paris, revealing habits and inhabitants with grim yet amusing realism, Victor’s story rings true. It is 19th Century

woven with real events of the day, adding richness to a complex tale of murder, deceit and a coveted piece of art.

Tess Heckel LORD DANCY’S DELIGHT Emily Johnson, Robert Hale, 2009, £18.99, hb, 224pp, 9780709086284 Amelia Longworth is travelling to England from Macao via Portugal when she encounters Lord Dancy, returning from military duties on the Peninsula. He saves her from being hurt in an accident. On landing in England, Geoffrey Dancy saves her from a fire. After a third time of being saved, Amelia, and her nurse/companion, Chen Mei, decide Amelia belongs to Geoffrey. Amelia then sees it as her duty to protect him. Someone wants Geoffrey dead so Amelia has plenty of opportunity to annoy him and generally get in his road while she and Chen Mei watch over him.

All of which allows for plenty of action and a number of crises, all of which would be good fun for Regency devotees if the plotting of events were better structured: less frequent, less abruptly resolved, better written. Amelia’s and Geoffrey’s relationship never really convinces, with Geoffrey’s inexplicable mood swings and a lack of sexual tension between the two characters. Chen Mei is a more convincing character, even if she does speak with a stereotypical (and slightly offensive) ‘Chinee’ vocabulary. A pity, too, that the cover is mawkish and insipid.

Geraldine Perriam FORTUNATE WAGER Jan Jones, Robert Hale, 2010, £18.99, hb, 223pp, 9780709089230 Caroline Fortune is a spirited young lady who nevertheless knows that she has to live within the conventions of Newmarket society. Her brother, Harry, runs a racing stable, but Caroline is the brains behind the outfit and with his collusion, helps to not only train their horses, but occasionally rides them on the sly. She is also a dab hand at spotting winners, and thus makes money on betting wagers. Lord Alexander Rothwell arrives in Newmarket and is asked to sort out some dubious goings on in the betting stakes. He also has an issue with Caroline’s brother that involves a wager over a supposedly unrideable horse. When Alex is badly injured in the Fortune’s stable yard, it falls to Caroline to nurse him, an inconvenience they could both do without, but which has interesting consequences.

This is a fast-paced, well-researched read with a well rounded heroine readers will root for and a complex hero with just the right amount of cantankerousness and arrogance to make him interesting and difficult without turning him into a boor. Indeed, discovering the vulnerable areas in his personality while he is Caroline’s unwanted patient is part of the enjoyment of the novel.

The author lives close to Newmarket and makes excellent use of her local knowledge to create the background details to this delightful, entertaining 19th Century

novel.

Susan Hicks LESSONS IN FRENCH Laura Kinsale, Sourcebooks Casablanca, 2010, $7.99/C$8.99, pb, 446pp, 9781402237010 At age twenty-seven, having been jilted by three different fiancés, Callista Taillefaire believes her chances for love and marriage are past. Into her life steps Trevelyn Davis d’Augustin, Duc de Monceaux, whose family had escaped from France just before the Revolution. As a child, Callie had received French lessons from Trev’s mother and sister, and lessons of a different sort from Trev, the man she counts as her first love. Having been in France trying to reacquire his family’s estate and wealth after the fall of Napoleon, Trev is back in England to care for his ill mother. Trev’s shadowy past follows him to Callie’s quiet village, bringing adventure, intrigue and romance to all who care for him.

Callie is a delightful heroine: quirky and clever and fun. Trevelyn is the perfect gentleman-rascal.

To accompany the bevy of strong and interesting characters, Kinsale has written witty banter, spoton historical references, and complications to the romance that seem nearly irresolvable. This is a charming novel certain to please every reader.

Elizabeth Caulfield Felt STARLIGHT AND PROMISES Cat Lindler, Medallion, 2010, $7.95/C$8.95, pb, 464pp, 9781605420936 In 1891, British botanist Richard Colchester and his friend James Truett come across a smilodon (saber-tooth tiger) while visiting an island near Tasmania. Richard sends a letter to his niece, Samantha Colchester, asking her to arrange a secret expedition to verify the finding. Samantha invites the handsome and arrogant American scientist Christian Badia. The loathing between Samantha and Christian is matched only by their physical attraction to one another. The two travel across the world to find the extinct cat and the now-missing Richard and James, who have been kidnapped by pirates as part of a revenge scheme.

The sex between Samantha and Christian is erotic, but the plot struggles. The story takes a long time to get to the intrigue and adventure in Tasmania, focusing instead on the conflict between Sam and Christian. Samantha is independent and strong-willed, but she is also stupid, making identification with her character difficult. The wealthy aristocrats happily act as servants on board ship, and Sam’s strict aunt allows Sam and Christian to take a three-day hike, alone, through the wilderness. Some readers of historical romance may be able to disregard these problems, but they were hard for me to ignore.

Elizabeth Caulfield Felt THE TICK OF DEATH Peter Lovesey, Soho Constable, 2009, $14.00, pb, 209pp, 9781569475966 A CASE OF SPIRITS

Peter Lovesey, Soho Constable, 2009, $14.00, pb, 218pp, 9781569475973 Peter Lovesey richly deserves the many awards and honors bestowed upon him since his premier novel, the extravagantly titled Wobble to Death, in 1970. Two characters introduced in this Victorian period crime novel, Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackeray of Scotland Yard, would live on as principles in the seven follow-up Sergeant Cribb books. Sadly, the series came to an end when Lovesey turned his attention to writing for a television series starring Cribb and Thackeray.

These novels had been long out of print, but Soho Constable has done us all a favor by bringing our indefatigable protectors of law and order back.

Tick of Death, the fifth in the series and first published as Invitation to a Dynamite Party, came out in 1974 while A Case of Spirits, the sixth, was first published in 1975. Tick of Death is based on bombings in 1884 London by Irish revolutionaries.

The forthright Constable Thackeray, of all people, is at first suspected of playing a part in the outrages.

Sergeant Cribb takes on the burden of solving the crimes while simultaneously removing the stain on Thackeray’s record. To do so, he must first take a course in bomb-making so as to pass himself off as an amoral mercenary skilled in explosives. Cribb’s education in the arcane world of bombs is held at Woolwich Arsenal. The learning curve is a steep one, and Cribb’s exposure to the bomb makers and the bombs themselves was, to this reader, easily the most enjoyable part of the novel. The now “expert” bomber goes on to thwart the attempted bombing of the Prince of Wales while using one of John Holland’s early submarines. His reward? Being sent back to Woolwich Arsenal for additional training in a field he loathes!

A Case of Spirits brings the good sergeant and the loyal constable into a London caught up in a spiritualism fad prompted by attempts by the naïve wealthy to communicate with the dead.

The authorities are first called in when art thieves strike homes of rich Londoners attending séances.

Charlatans and their trusting victims quickly have to adjust to the cold eye of the skeptical and thoroughly practical sergeant. The investigation takes a turn when one séance features the electrocution of a participant. Cribb and Thackeray solve the mystery and test their readers’ intelligence by an elaborate reenactment scene at the novel’s conclusion. Be forewarned, you will suffer in Scotland Yard’s eyes if the solution catches you off guard.

John R. Vallely A QUIET ADJUSTMENT Benjamin Markovits, Norton, 2009 (c2008), $14.95/C$18.50, pb, 341pp, 9780393330229 In this deft and powerfully emotional novel set in early 19th-century England, Benjamin Markovits portrays Annabella Milbanke, the wife of the infamous Lord Byron.

Annabella is a lovely, self-possessed, and dignified young woman who surprises society by quite deliberately refusing Lord Byron’s offer of marriage. Instead, she begins a carefully calculated HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Reviews | 37

correspondence with the infamous man that ends, two years later, with a change of heart. They marry, and the young woman finds herself instantly out of her depth. Byron is famously tormented, and in his baffling and unpredictable moods he treats her with casual cruelty. She endures this, in the hopes of winning his love and “correcting his character.” But, after the couple spends a fortnight at the house of Byron’s sister, Annabella realizes the depth of her husband’s sins. The young Lady Byron feels she has no choice but to demand a marital separation—and the moral right, as she calls it, to save her vulnerable sister-in-law from Byron’s depravity.

Benjamin Markovits has characterized Annabella as a well-controlled, deep-thinking, and somewhat self-deceiving young strategist. Love for Byron is her undoing—for a while. When she finally emerges from the wreck of her marriage, she becomes a General of Parlor Warfare, capable of discreetly marshalling society to her cause. A Quiet Adjustment is a masterfully complex depiction of a cloistered—but certainly not powerless—19thcentury woman.

Lisa Ann Verge JACOB’S LADDER: A Story of Virginia During the Civil War Donald McCaig, Norton, 2009 (c1998), $14.95/ C$18.50, pb, 525pp, 9780393337105 The American Civil War has always served as an irresistible magnet for fictional accounts of families struggling with questions of basic survival in a landscape torn asunder. Jacob’s Ladder invites the reader to examine war’s horror and uncertainty through the eyes of the Gatewood family of Stratford Plantation, Virginia.

The pre-war plantation is where the reader first encounters young Duncan Gatewood and his equally young and innocent lover, a light-skinned slave named Maggie. The two fall in love and Maggie soon gives birth to a son. Duncan’s father is thrown into a rage at this (an attitude which clashes with a great deal of historical literature on white male relations with slave women) and sells Maggie and baby while sending Duncan off to Virginia Military Institute.

This unsettled domestic life is shortly interrupted by the Civil War. Duncan and his brother-in-law, the delightfully named Catesby Byrd, both join Robert E. Lee’s army. The two men experience battle in all of its horrors. Duncan loses an arm and Catesby, deeply affected by the savagery that was war in Virginia’s Wilderness Campaign of 1864, kills himself. Jesse, a young Gatewood slave madly in love with Maggie, seizes his chance and escapes to freedom. Jesse then follows the path of Duncan and Catesby by joining the army, in his case an allblack regiment in the Union forces. Adding to the drama, Maggie marries a daring blockade runner, joins him on his adventures, and passes herself to others as a white woman.

The tale begins and ends with a now very old Maggie narrating her life story to uncomprehending residents on a world on the cusp of Hitler’s war.

Still in love with the Duncan of long ago, she sees 38 | Reviews | HNR Issue 51, February 2010

her son Jacob as his living spirit. Gracefully written by a talented craftsman and one of the betterresearched novels I’ve seen in some time, the tale of Maggie and Duncan awaits new readers.

John R. Vallely TWO GENTLEMEN FROM LONDON Fenella Jane Miller, Robert Hale, 2009, £18.99, hb, 222pp, 9780709088967 This light romantic novel is set during Regency times, with the appropriate flavouring of language, customs, etiquette and behaviour, but there is little reference to world or British events so an exact year is impossible to pinpoint. The focus is on the characters. The plot is flimsy but serves to set up a series of scenes bringing the hero (manly soldier with a troubled past) and the heroine (innocent, beautiful but feisty) together to let the sexual tension simmer.

Annabel and her mother are hiding away from her depraved and evil stepfather, a pantomime villain who even treats servants badly (gasp!). The eponymous two gentlemen inadvertently end up discovering the two women and I don’t suppose that what ensues will shock anybody. For those who enjoy a merry canter through a light read with stock but quite endearing characters with the prospect of a happy ending, except for the villain, this is the book for you. Fun escapism to keep you entertained to the end.

Ann Northfield THE CAROUSEL PAINTER Judith Miller, Bethany House, 2009, $13.99, pb, 336pp, 9780764202797 Orphaned artist Carrington (Carrie) Brouwer intends to find a job and live independently, something “not done” in 1890 small-town Ohio society. Arriving on the doorstep of Augusta Galloway, her father’s former art student, she finds Augusta’s social-climbing mother very unwelcoming. Carrie uses this animosity to persuade Mr. Galloway to hire her in his carousel factory when there is a job opening as a painter of the carved animals, since it would mean independence. But the male factory workers, their wives, and especially Josef Kaestner, her supervisor, are displeased to have a woman worker thrust upon them. But will Josef ’s hostility remain once he and Carrie begin developing feelings of attraction?

The details on how carousels were made are interesting, as are the problems of early women factory workers. Miller makes the right choice in using first-person point of view, but such passages as, “Shoulders slumped, I donned a mantle of rejection and returned to my duties” don’t ring true for Carrie’s voice. She overcomes the wives’ animosity rather patly. Readers must decide for themselves whether Carrie’s habit of giggling at inappropriate moments is annoying or endearing.

Still, it’s an agreeable Christian romance, with an ending primed for a sequel.

B.J. Sedlock THE CONDOR’S FEATHER

Margaret Muir, Robert Hale, 2009, £18.99. hb, 224pp, 97807908226 The Condor’s Feather is set in Patagonia in the 1880s, after the Indians had been subdued but while it was still lawless. A young English woman from the landed aristocracy decides on a whim to take a two-month holiday there and sets out with herself, two servants, her father, her brother, a family friend and a mountain of baggage. With guides, remounts and so on they leave Punta Arenas with a convoy of 40 horses. Unlikely as it is, this part of the story is based on a real tour undertaken in 1878.

I presume that in real life the heroine did not track down a group of escaped convicts or fall in love with a mysterious Welshman. The plot is slight and improbable and is largely an excuse for a ride across the pampas at a time when it was even more desolate than today. The heroine’s big love affair is not so much with her Welshman as with the wild landscape which the author describes so well.

Edward James CHOICES Pamela Nowak, Five Star, 2009, $25.95, hb, 327pp, 9781594148101 1876: Miriam Longstreet is unhappy to leave school and join her parents at her father’s post at Fort Randall, Dakota Territory. She is hemmed in by society’s expectations of an officer’s daughter and by her mother Harriet’s erratic behavior, made worse by a fondness for laudanum. Miriam becomes attracted to Private Jake Deakins, assigned to be the family’s cook. But her social-climbing mother promotes the courtship of Lt. Robert Wood, an ambitious officer who believes that wooing his superior’s daughter will help his career. Harriet also discourages the friendship between Miriam and Jake’s sister Carrie, a post laundress, since it means consorting with the lower classes. Wood uses his power to have Jake assigned to a hazardous duty, hoping his death will leave a clear field for Wood’s chances with Miriam.

This is a frontier romance with substance. The serious themes of addiction and class differences provide more depth than usual in a romance.

Other characters besides the main couple are multifaceted, with understandable motives for their actions. Nowak researched life at Ft. Randall in the National Archives, and weaves the results seamlessly into the story without forcing facts down the reader’s throat. I’m looking forward to her next book.

B.J. Sedlock CATCHING THE CURRENT Jenny Pattrick, Scribe, 2009, AU$29.95, pb, 390pp, 97819215315 Catching the Current is a companion to Jenny Pattrick’s earlier “Denniston” novels. It tells the story of Conrad Rasmussen, the enigmatic and absent father of Rose.

Having fled the Faroe Islands after an unfortunate indiscretion, the young Conrad (now styled Enok) is tracked down by a boyhood friend, Napoleon Haraldsen. The family seeks his 19th Century

return to the Faroe Islands. Although he is deeply attached to the Faroes, being a gifted teller of their traditional tales, this news does not please Enok.

He has formed an attachment to the Maori woman Anahuia. Enok’s escape plan backfires. Enok has no alternative but to carry the tragic news of Napoleon’s untimely death home to his family, leaving Anahuia alone and pregnant in New Zealand.

Catching the Current is told in Pattrick’s lively present-tense narrative voice. Starting in mid-19th century New Zealand, the story takes us across the sea to Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Sydney.

The telling is non-linear and sophisticated, the characterisation lively and astute. In each location a vivid sense of community, with its inherent tensions, is created. The narrative is set against a backdrop of the New Zealand Land Wars and the Second War of Schleswig. Pattrick uses wider political and racial conflict to grapple with deeper, personal issues such as tradition versus innovation, freedom as opposed to constraint, and the doubleedged plights of coloniser and colonised.

If you have not encountered Pattrick’s earlier works, I encourage you not to stop at Catching the Current. Denniston Rose and Heart of Coal are also worth reading.

Elizabeth Jane WENCH Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Amistad, 2010, $24.99, hb, 288pp, 9780061706547 Three black slave women—Lizzie, Sweet and Reenie—have achieved a certain social status in the complex world of American antebellum plantation society: they are “mistresses” of their owners, with attitudes toward them ranging from deep hatred to what verges on love. They meet yearly in the free state of Ohio at the summer resort Tawawa House. One year a spirited and angry newcomer who calls herself Mawu joins them. She wants her freedom and plants seeds in the others, who begin to question their own acceptance of their deeply compromised lives.

Free black men and women are employed at the hotel. There is even a nearby resort for more prosperous blacks. In the summer of 1852, the summer friends and a trusted slave, Philip, meet a Quaker woman and talk together about escaping.

Lizzie betrays them, with disastrous results. The middle of the novel looks back on Lizzie’s life and the circumstances that brought her and her two children into the ever-changing dynamic of her slaveholder’s household. The final third sends her back to Ohio to face the possibility of her own freedom one last time.

The complex and tragic lives of these “wenches” of their masters is well-explored. Although only Lizzie is brought to life in the fullest sense, the others are intriguing, even in their mystery. The unfortunate cover art places the setting in a later time period, and the writing sometimes has clarity problems that a better edit may have helped. But the compelling story soars above its limitations, illuminating a deeply sad and flawed part of America’s history.

19th Century

Eileen Charbonneau DAWN’S PRELUDE Tracie Peterson, Bethany House, 2009, $13.99, pb, 335pp, 9780764201516 Recent widow Lydia Gray, who had married her older, abusive husband as a part of a business deal, is relieved that he is dead. Her adult stepchildren, who have never welcomed her into the family, just want to see her gone, believing that she likely inherited nothing from their father. Instead they are shocked when it appears that Lydia has inherited her husband’s entire estate (most of which she could care less about). Still wishing to get out of Kansas City, she leaves decisions about the legality of her husband’s will in the hands of her attorney, and makes arrangements to go to Sitka, Alaska, where her aunt lives.

Meanwhile, her stepchildren are scheming away, trying to figure out how they can get the inheritance they believe should rightfully be theirs.

They will stop at nothing, including lies, paying off officials, kidnapping, and even murder in their devious quest for money and power. Lydia tries her best to start over in Sitka, but it isn’t long before her past catches up with her. Will Lydia ever find the happiness she deserves?

Dawn’s Prelude is the first in Peterson’s Song of Alaska trilogy. I can’t imagine anyone reading the first and not wanting to grab the others as soon as they are released. Readers should not let the fact that this is a Christian romance scare them away. It was a pleasant surprise to find that Dawn’s Prelude was not at all preachy as I had expected but instead was a good solid story sure to appeal to anyone who enjoys novels set in the late 19th century wilderness.

Maudeen Wachsmith FALLEN ANGEL (UK) / THUNDER AND ROSES (US) Mary Jo Putney, Everlyn, 2009, £6.99, pb, 355pp, 9781849670005 / Topaz, 1993, out of print This Regency romance set in Wales and London opens with the Demon Earl, Nicolas the Gypsy Earl of Aberdare, being confronted by the prim Methodist schoolmistress, Clare Morgan. The inhabitants of Penreith are suffering, and Clare is determined to do something to ensure the safety of the local mine, even at the cost of her unblemished reputation. She is 26 years old, and convinced that the handsome rakish Nicolas’ charm will have no impact on her moral code. Clare agrees to a bet, which shocks some of the local community, but which takes her into the glittering, debauched Regency world, and which also introduces her to Nicolas’ friends. However, one of them bears a deep grudge against Nicolas, and is determined to seek revenge. His hatred, combined with the determination of Madoc, the unscrupulous local mine manager, to ensure that his illegal activities remain undiscovered, both contribute to a dramatic confrontation at the end of the novel.

All the main characters are engaging, and the story is entertaining. The author has managed to

incorporate historical facts about the development of the slate mining industry alongside the development of billiard tables in a very creative way. One of my favourite characters in this novel is Lucien. He is a spymaster and is distant, dispassionate and intriguing, and could easily merit his own novel. This is definitely a “comfort” novel to curl up and read on a dark, rainswept night.

Myfanwy Cook BECOMING LUCY Martha Rogers, Realms, 2010, $10.99, pb, 295 pp, 9781599799124 In 1896, sixteen-year-old Lucinda Bishop, a wealthy Bostonian, lost her parents in a tragic accident. Fearing her own life is threatened, she travels to the Oklahoma frontier to live with her aunt and uncle. Lucinda must quickly adjust to a more primitive life than she has known. One of her uncle’s ranch hands, Jake Starnes, is immediately attracted to Lucinda, and she feels her heart responding to him. She knows she can’t marry him, though, because he’s not a Christian like she is. Jake also has a mysterious past he will not discuss. He seems as wild as the frontier.

This is the first book of the author’s Winds Across the Prairie series set in Barton Creek, Oklahoma. Author Martha Rogers is especially descriptive of the household chores the women face each day, highlighting the difficulties of frontier life.

She vividly describes the harsh weather conditions of the prairie and some of their devastating effects.

Although this story has a typical, comfortable plot of growing love and faith overcoming adversity, the complex personalities of the people of Barton Creek and descriptions of frontier life set it apart.

Readers of inspirational prairie romances will adore this new series.

Nan Curnutt FIELDS OF GRACE Kim Vogel Sawyer, Bethany House, 2009, $13.99, pb, 352 pp, 9780764205088 Kim Vogel Sawyer’s emotionally rich Fields of Grace begins with Reinhardt and Lillian Vogt preparing to travel to America. Lillian and her three sons are reluctant to leave, but Reinhardt is adamant that only America can offer them the freedom they no longer have in Russia. He fears for the future of his sons, especially Henrik who will be eighteen soon and subject to military conscription.

The Vogts are one of the first families to leave, and Reinhardt has convinced his adopted brother Eli to accompany them. A prosperous farmer, Eli was orphaned as a child and still has no family of his own. A man of deep faith, he is hoping for a new future for himself as well. Henrik Vogt, angry at being forced to leave the young woman he loves, evolves to become the story’s critical character.

When both her husband and one of her sons die before the ship docks in New York, Lillian’s hopeful optimism is shattered. Realizing she can not return to Russia, she reluctantly accepts Eli’s proposal of marriage.

While Eli and Lillian’s love and faith are at the HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Reviews | 39

heart of the story, the roles her sons play add a rich depth of emotion. The characters are warm, caring and likeable even at their worst. We admire Eli and his steadfast ways, daily demonstrating his love for his new family and retaining his faith in God. Although Lillian readily accepts the hardships of making a home on an unsettled prairie, she struggles with guilt and sorrow as she begins to love her new husband.

Ms. Sawyer’s novel was deftly enhanced by research and gives us a compelling picture of Mennonite family life on the 19th-century prairie.

The story is also meant to be inspirational, and at that it succeeds very well.

Veronika Pelka BATH BELLES Joan Smith, Robert Hale, 2009, £18.99, hb, 223pp, 9780709079262 Belle Haley travels with her mother and younger sister from Bath to London to inspect the house her murdered fiancé, Graham, left her in his will. The house has been ransacked and the mystery deepens when Desmond Maitland, an insurance broker, takes an interest in both the house and Belle. Belle also constitutes herself moral guardian for her mother and sister when Graham’s aunt introduces them to some less than genteel male companions.

Graham’s cousin, Eliot, is suspicious of Maitland’s motives and it is up to the resourceful Belle to try and solve the mystery.

The plotting is handled with assurance and there are some deft touches of historical colour. The dialogue between Belle and Desmond has the right amount of flirtation, suspicion and rapport. The romantic passages are less convincing with Belle turning to a “quivering blancmange” in Desmond’s arms. Closer attention at the editing stage should have amended expressions such as New Year’s and other North Americanisms, but these do not detract unduly from a good tale, generally well told.

Geraldine Perriam A CIVIL GENERAL David Stinebeck & Scannell Gill, Sunstone Press, 2009, $20.95, pb, 159pp, 9780865346635 George Thomas, a Union General during the American Civil War, is a Virginian who decides to remain loyal to his country. His exploits are told by a young Union colonel who believes that General Thomas has been treated disrespectfully, especially

by General Grant, commander of the Union forces. Never recognized as the great leader the narrator feels was his due, General Thomas falls into obscurity after the war, although his funeral five years later is attended by more than 10,000 mourners, including President Grant.

I found this book very boring. The characters, other than Thomas, were flat and uninteresting.

The main problem with this book is that it lacks a story; eventually it turns into a nonfiction account of the General’s war experiences. Based on a diary

by Mr. Stinebeck’s great-grandfather, it would have been much better if written as a history of George 40 | Reviews | HNR Issue 51, February 2010

Thomas as experienced by his descendant. Instead, the book is told from the viewpoint of a nondescript colonel, an aide to the General. I found the battle scenes confusing and the occasional switching from present to past tense even more annoying. Even an American Civil War buff like me has a difficult time recommending this book.

Jeff Westerhoff MEGGIE’S REMAINS Joanne Sundell, Five Star, 2009, $25.95, hb, 299pp, 9781594147883 In 1874 Meggie McMurphy changes her name to Rose Rochester (after the Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre) and flees Boston to Colorado to escape her past and take up a teaching position in a remote mountain down outside Denver. Like the heroine of the Bronte classic, Meggie/Rose is an ill-used orphan. Meggie holds her connection to her favorite story as a lifeline to her sanity, for she is still being stalked by the rapist who left her for dead in Boston, and now knows she’s alive.

Into her life comes Ethan Rourke, a successful westerner with scars of his own—he has closed himself up since the death of his birth family and a sweetheart years before. He and Rose meet during one of her sanity lapsed episodes, and she continues to be a puzzle to him, but one he both admires and seeks to protect. A business associate is determined to take his life at about the same time Rose’s rapist descends.

Although admirably seeking to breathe life into the seduced and murdered victims of many a 19th-century penny dreadful, in this novel Meggie faints, falls down and forgets way more often than seems credible before she mysteriously finds her spine. Suffering from endless introductions and repetitions, Meggie’s Remains could have used a rescue of its own: from a good editor.

Eileen Charbonneau CHURCHYARD AND HAWKE E.V. Thompson, Robert Hale, 2009, £11.99, pb, 256pp, 9780709088691 Set in Cornwall, this novel follows the adventures of Amos Hawke, senior policeman, in his attempts to foil a major plot devised by London criminals. The chosen moment is the social event of the season, a perfect opportunity for the villains to burgle the empty houses of the aristocracy, who will all be at the ball, and for fraudsters to do their work at the ball itself. Aided by London policeman Tom Churchyard, Hawke must not only prevent the robberies but also solve more than one murder.

The plot is interesting without being riveting.

There are twists and turns, and a romantic subplot involving Churchyard and the main plot unfolds logically enough, although the ending, while a surprise, is not very convincing. The novel conjures up the atmosphere of a big country house with its servant hierarchy and is engaging with its descriptions of the police procedures of the time, which seem accurate as far as I can tell. The historical details add flavour without overwhelming the tale. A pleasant tale to while

away an afternoon.

Ann Northfield THE GOOD THIEF Hannah Tinti, Dial, 2009, $15.00/C$18.95, pb, 327pp, 9780385337465 / Headline Review, 2009, £7.99, pb, 352pp, 9780755307470 Twelve year-old Ren does not have much hope of being adopted from St. Anthony’s orphanage at which he was abandoned by persons unknown when just a baby; who would want a boy that is missing his left hand? But when a young man named Benjamin Nab appears at the orphanage claiming to be Ren’s older brother, the boy’s sheltered life is turned upside down.

As Benjamin and Ren wander through the farms and whaling towns of 19th-century New England, the boy is tutored by Benjamin in thievery and the art of the con, all the while trying to solve the mysteries of how he came to lose his hand, who his parents are, and why they abandoned him at the orphanage.

Through his association with Benjamin, Ren is introduced to a rogue’s gallery of petty thieves, scam artists, grave robbers, hired thugs and murderers.

It’s a macabre and dangerous world, and Ren is torn between staying in it, and becoming one of these misfits, or leaving, only to be alone in the world again. Making his choice even more difficult is his suspicion that Benjamin may hold the keys not only to his future, but to his past as well.

Tinti’s debut novel is tightly plotted and compelling, and the author’s native New England is richly imagined. Reminiscent of Dickens in its gothic narrative and sinister, yet bewitching characters, one adventure follows another in a breathless chase. At turns dark and grim, at others comedic, The Good Thief is the kind of book that grabs the reader by the throat and won’t let go until the end. It should not be missed.

John Kachuba SEDUCED BY HIS TOUCH Tracy Anne Warren, Avon, 2009, $7.99/C$10.99, pb, 358pp, 9780061673412 Grace Danvers, the daughter of a wealthy businessman, is a bluestocking spinster, left on the shelf by society at the ripe old age of twenty-five.

Lord Jack Byron (no relation to George Gordon, Lord Byron) is a rake, perennial bachelor, and gambler who is deep in debt to Grace’s father.

Grace’s father proposes a solution to Jack’s omnipresent financial problems: marry Grace. The debt will be forgiven, plus a huge dowry is added to make the match all the sweeter. Of course, there is a catch: Jack must convince Grace that theirs is a love match. Such temptation! When Jack meets Grace, he discovers no stone-faced spinster, but a statuesque beauty with a brain. He is more than happy to agree to the bargain. Naturally, Grace and Jack fall madly in love, but when the circumstances of his proposal are revealed, she is more than slightly miffed.

This Regency is a romp filled with misunderstandings, humor and attractive 19th Century

characters. Love triumphs—was there ever a question? Seduced by His Touch is a fun read, perfect for that occasional rainy day when there are no demands on your time.

Monica Spence THE WINTER THIEF Jenny White, Norton, 2010, $24.95/C $31.00, hb, 384pp, 9780393070170 This third novel in the series that began with The Sultan’s Seal features sleuth Kamil Pasha in the final days of the Ottoman Empire. What begins with a clandestine attempt to publish The Communist Manifesto in Sultan Abdulhamid’s Istanbul quickly escalates to include gun running, bank robbery, an explosion that causes the disappearance of Kamil Pasha’s brother-in-law along with suspicions of his unfaithfulness, seriously perverse secret police, and the uprising of whole provinces.

White’s command of the time period and every historical detail is economical, just the right amount, with never a false step. Her way with words and imagery is a pleasure to read. My few quibbles come with broader technicalities. Vahid, Kamil’s “most ruthless adversary to date,” was obsessive to the point of stereotype. And I haven’t read the previous books, but moving to the broad canvas of Armenian/socialist rebellion was a bit jarring in a book that starts out with the cozy miniatures of intimate family concerns. Followers of this series must already have come to know these characters and be anxious to pursue them. This change of scope made me lose the important moment when Kamil’s sister finds her missing husband and even distracted from the consummation of Kamil and Elif ’s love. Such pitfalls accumulate as many series progress. Not that I regret the broader focus exactly.

Stories that help us understand the precursors to genocide from both sides are always instructive.

Ann Chamberlin RICH GIRL-POOR GIRL Val Wood, Bantam Press, 2009, £17.99, hb, 349pp, 9780503060223 Two girls, one rich and one poor, lose their mothers in similar circumstances on the same day.

Polly takes a job as a scullery maid in Rosalie’s lonely house and they both strike up an unlikely friendship. Travelling to the North Yorkshire Moors, they discover a new kind of life and find both tragedy and joy in equal measure.

I felt so sad when I first started this book as it was a bit too close to home. However, the author has handled a difficult concept well, and I soon became absorbed in the story rather than dwell on the sad parts. Val Wood has such an easy style of writing, it sort of flows along without much happening in the plot itself, and you can guess the eventual ending but still read on despite that. An enjoyable and relaxing read.

Karen Wintle This saga is set in 1860 and follows the lives of two young women who both experience the same tragedy on the same day – the death of their 19th Century — 20th Century

mothers. However, their circumstances could not be more different. Polly exists in poverty, and it takes two wages to pay their rent, hers and her mothers. Left on her own she has not only lost her mother, Ida, but her home. A friend of Ida, the mysterious Sonny Blake, suggests a way for her to find a life away from the streets. Rosalie is used to an affluent lifestyle with her mother on the other side of the same town.

Polly is restricted by ignorance and poverty, but has the freedom to express herself openly; Rosalie has been educated, but sheltered from the world by her mother and is bound by the expectations society and her position places upon her. When Polly takes a position as a scullery maid in Rosalie’s family home the two share a new and different path, yet they would never normally have met.

They go to live in Rosalie’s uncle’s house on the North Yorkshire Moors.

This novel is packed with period detail, from society’s expectations to the harsh reality of life for the poor. Two young women, discover the world anew as they are exposed to the darkness that jealousy and lust bring, but also the joy of

compassion and love. Once again, Valerie Wood has graphically portrayed the harsh contrasts of regional life within this period, in a skilfully woven novel.

Valerie Loh

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THE AFFAIR OF THE THIRTY-NINE CUFFLINKS James Anderson, Allison & Busby, 2009, pb, £7.99, 413pp, 97780749007423 / Poisoned Pen Press, 2006, $14.95, pb, 320pp, 9781590582916 This is the third and final instalment (the author died in 2007) of the 1930s Golden Age murder mystery series, all set in the 12th Earl of Burford’s Alderley House. As with the previous books both of which have been reviewed in the HNR, this is a highly entertaining and well-plotted murder mystery, steeped in the conventions and form of 1930s crime fiction. Following the death of a distant relative, the family descends upon Alderley to attend the funeral and to learn of the contents

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E D I TORS’ CH OICE THOUGH WATERS ROAR Lynn Austin, Bethany House, 2009, $13.99, pb, 430pp, 9780764204968 Once again, Lynn Austin has created an intense, thought-provoking and thoroughly satisfying historical Christian fiction tale.

The story spans the life of four generations of women, each struggling with society and marriage, but ultimately fighting for justice and a better life. It begins in 1920 in Roseton, Pennsylvania, as twenty-year-old Harriet Sherwood sits in jail for transporting bootleg liquor.

As Harriet contemplates her current predicament, she confesses her feelings of inadequacy – she comes from a long line of heroines, but somehow ends up in jail for something she does not even believe in. Harriet tells the story of her great-grandmother, Hannah, who participated in the Underground Railroad; her Grandma Bebe who fought for Prohibition; and her mother, Lucy, a suffragist who fought for women’s right to vote. As Harriet reminisces about the irony of her current state, her story unfolds through her recollection of her family’s history.

As always, Austin’s characters are flawed, realistic, and completely lovable.

Harriet’s narration was riveting, and I anxiously turned the pages to find out what happened next. The flashbacks kept each of the women’s stories alive through the pages and helped to complete Harriet’s own tale. The book’s powerful message of trusting in God during times of trial helps give it a particularly satisfying conclusion, when each character learns from her mistakes. With its precise historical detail, intricate storyline, and a consistent theme of faith and love, this is yet another of Austin’s masterpieces.

Rebecca Roberts HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Reviews | 41

of the will. There are surprises, recriminations and then the not entirely unexpected murder of the unpleasant Clara the same night. A combination of the deceptively astute Detective Chief Inspector Wilkins and Lady Geraldine solve the murder, after negotiating all manner of red herrings and distracting sub-plots. A delightful read.

Doug Kemp TREASURE OF THE GOLDEN CHEETAH Suzanne Arruda, NAL, 2009, $24.95/C$31, hb, 358pp, 9780451227898 1920s heroine Jade del Cameron returns in her fifth mystery set in Africa. Independent Jade is mulling over a marriage proposal from her beau Sam Featherstone. She’s got time to think because she’ll be helping her unwelcome suitor Harry Hascombe lead actors on a movie shoot to Mt. Kilimanjaro while Sam stays in Kenya.

The expedition is threatened before it even begins when the movie’s producer is stabbed to death by an African who then takes the knife to his own chest. Against all odds, the shoot proceeds but continues to be plagued with bad luck, with Jade once again cursed by a native (this seems to happen in every book).

I have been a huge fan of this series and was looking forward to Jade’s response to Sam’s proposal, which occurred at the end of the last book, but I felt curiously let down in this latest installment.

Jade and Sam are vividly drawn, but the rest of the characters, especially the movie people, failed to come to life and seemed interchangeable. Sam’s continually thwarted attempts to reach Jade at the end were contrived—realistic, given Africa, but definitely contrived. I hope in the next installment Arruda decides what she wants to do with these two characters.

Ellen Keith THE EDGE OF EDEN Helen Benedict, Soho, 2009, $25, hb, 336pp, 9781569476024 The Edge of Eden is rich in contrasts: the Seychelles Islands and fog-shrouded London; wellto-do British colonists and the poverty of natives; religious faith and rampant superstition; and two little girls, one dark-skinned and impish, the other dimpled and blonde, curly-haired. Zara, eight, and Chloe, three, are the daughters of Rupert and Penelope Weston, arriving from England to the islands in 1960 for Rupert’s new assignment for the British government. Another contrast: Rupert is excited, Penelope resentful, homesick and filled with despair. Rupert embraces island life as his seductive native secretary embraces him, while Penelope loses days in a deep depression, falling into a foolish, short-lived affair and drinking too much. Meanwhile, Zara follows the servants, learning the secret spells of the bonhomme du bois, anxious to develop the power to cast away the “devil worm” that has overtaken her mother and return her straying father’s attentions to his family.

Benedict artfully captures it all: the painful history of slavery, French and British colonialism, 42 | Reviews | HNR Issue 51, February 2010

and the deep superstitions of islanders to ward off the evil deeds of others. When a powerful spell is discovered in the Westons’ house, the cook disappears, the nanny, Marguerite, ever more concerned for the safety of the children and Zara’s unnatural predisposition for concocting spells of her own. As the islands—and his mistress—claim Rupert, Penelope awakens like Sleeping Beauty to find that her children are in danger. But it is too late: a price has been exacted, innocence forfeit, a family shattered and the spirits disturbed as one woman demands what another possesses. A lush Eden becomes a false paradise as fate claims its victim.

Luan Gaines ALICE I HAVE BEEN Melanie Benjamin, Delacorte, 2010, $25.00, hb, 269pp, 9780385344135 This literary novel, set in the early 20th century with flashbacks to the mid-19th century,

is the fictionalized life story of the real Alice in Wonderland, Alice Pleasance Liddell Hargreaves.

It is also the tale of her relationship with Charles Dodgson, the author known to us as Lewis Carroll.

The scene opens with the eighty-year-old Alice reflecting upon two recent occurrences: the selling of the original handwritten copy of Alice in Wonderland and the receipt of her honorary doctorate from Columbia University. In flashbacks, she describes her privileged childhood as the daughter of the dean of Oxford University, reminisces about her relationship with her parents and siblings, tells the story of her relationship with Prince Leopold, and speaks of her marriage and children. Every element, either directly or indirectly, intersects with the man who was a great part of her life: Charles Dodgson, a professor at Oxford.

Whereas Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are considered children’s stories, the novel Alice I Have Been is

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E D I TORS’ CH OICE THE POSTMISTRESS Sarah Blake, Putnam/Amy Einhorn, 2009, $25.95/C$32.50, hb, 336pp, 9780399156199 / Viking, May 2010, £12.99, hb, 336pp, 9780670918683 This atmospheric novel follows the intersecting lives of three American women during 1940 and 1941. Iris James is the postmaster (she doesn’t believe in the term postmistress) of Franklin, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod. Emma Trask is a new arrival in town: she has just married Franklin’s doctor.

And Frankie Bard is in London, broadcasting about the Blitz with Edward R. Murrow.

Iris takes very seriously her role as the government representative who acts as a conduit in making sure that people receive their mail. Emma, who has no one else in the world, is delighted to be cherished by her new husband. And Frankie, despite the terrifying conditions, is energized by being able to observe and report on the fortitude of Londoners. But things soon start to unravel. Emma’s husband’s life changes course after a tragedy with a patient, and Iris breaks her code of ethics by failing to deliver a letter. Frankie heads off to the Continent to witness and to record the voices of those who have been dispossessed, those who find their very lives at risk. Frankie’s broadcasts both intrigue and repel Iris and Emma, and then Frankie appears in person in Franklin to deliver devastating news.

The author successfully paints a portrait of small town America; many don’t want to acknowledge that what is happening in Europe may soon affect them, despite their paranoia about their supposed enemies. A few realize what is coming but make little headway in convincing others. The scenes set in London vividly mix the people’s determination with tragedy. Across the Channel, the desperation of the Jews that Frankie interviews is palpable. The plot presents a time often written about in a fresh and most engaging manner. Highly recommended.

Trudi E. Jacobson 20th Century

anything but a children’s novel. I found the scenes describing a sexual attack on Alice by a family friend and those involving the strange relationship between her and Dodgson to be troubling. There is an underlying sense of creepiness, creating a disturbing atmosphere and feeling of discomfort throughout the book.

I imagine that this story would be a difficult one to write. It was a difficult one to read. Though well written and superbly researched, I found the topic and characters off-putting.

To borrow a phrase: Alice doesn’t live here any more. How I wish she did.

Monica E. Spence SPIES IN THE GARDEN Bob Bergin, Impact, 2009, $14.95, pb, 368pp, 9781570233067 Just before America’s entry into World War II, young journalist Harry Ross is sent to Burma by Wild Bill Donovan of the fledgling OSS to keep tabs on the American Volunteer Group known as the “Flying Tigers.” He also sets up a rudimentary network of spies in the path of oncoming Japanese.

When Burma is overrun, Ross moves to China, becoming more deeply involved in the enigmatic world of espionage and the country’s classically inscrutable politics. In this universe of Asian gangsters, corrupt politicians, self-serving generals, and sexy spies, Ross has a ringside seat to this little understood corner of the war and many of its leading figures, people as diverse as Chou Enlai and John Birch, ‘Vinegar Joe’ Stillwell and Claire Chennault.

Although structured as fiction, this novel has the unmistakable ring of non-fiction. Harry Ross is a spy, but mostly events just happen to him, rather than he initiating them. Many of the exploits of the Flying Tigers, for instance, are related over barroom discussions, rather than shown. Even his seductive Asian spies always take the lead in their lovemaking. Nearly all of the important personages of the time make their appearance, and again, Ross just stumbles into them. Harry is mostly an observer, relating to us what went on during the first year of the China-Burma-India theatre of operations. That being said, it remains a worthwhile read, because the history is just so darn good. The description of the many groups competing for power, the all encompassing corruption, and the ever-present vision of the coming post-war world, are fascinating. A former specialist in southeast Asia for the U.S. Foreign Service, the author obviously knows his subject well, and provides much insight to the events and outcomes of those times.

Those who like their historical fiction with a heavy accent on history will not be disappointed.

Ken Kreckel THE LAST ILLUSION Rhys Bowen, Minotaur, 2010, $24.99/C$31.99, hb, 288pp, 9780312385408 It is a hot, muggy July in 1903. Molly Murphy, private investigator, is lamenting her lack of new cases. She and Daniel, her police captain fiancé, 20th Century

attend the theater one evening to see the famed Houdini. However, when the illusionist preceding Houdini on the billing presents the amazing feat of sawing his assistant in half, things go horribly wrong, and Daniel springs into action to investigate. Molly joins him onstage where she calms Bess, Houdini’s wife, who is shattered by the accident. Bess feels Houdini himself is at risk and hires Molly to keep watch over him. In the meantime, the illusionist and the dying assistant have mysteriously disappeared.

Of course, Molly feels compelled to find out more, to see if this has anything to do with Houdini. And who is after him, if anyone?

Molly and Daniel are moving closer to marriage.

However, Molly is resisting the limits that Daniel wants to impose on her—he refuses to let her continue as an investigator (not only does she put herself at risk, but think of the taunts he may endure from fellow police officers!), and he also doesn’t approve of some of her more flamboyant friends. Readers will have to wait for a future installment to find out if they will find accord. In the meantime, join Molly in hot and sticky New York City during her ever-so-engaging most recent adventure.

Trudi E. Jacobson RAINWATER Sandra Brown, Simon & Schuster, 2009, $23.99/ C$27.99, hb, 247pp, 9781439172773 Ella Barron meets David Rainwater in the midst of the Depression in the summer of 1934.

She is busy running her boardinghouse in Texas with efficiency and precision. She also cares for her special needs son, Solly. People tell Ella that Solly needs to be institutionalized, but she wants to keep him close; she wants to find a way to connect with him. Dr. Kincaid brings David Rainwater to Ella’s boardinghouse. He understands she has a room available, and Mr. Rainwater needs a place to stay.

Mr. Rainwater immediately accepts the empty room. Dr. Kincaid tells Ella privately that Mr. Rainwater is dying, with only a short time to live.

Mr. Rainwater is interested in Ella and the other people in the boardinghouse and quickly becomes a part of their lives, though Ella tries to hold herself apart. Soon, Mr. Rainwater is helping the poor and oppressed in town. He also begins working with Solly. His kindness and concern for those around him starts to soften Ella’s well-protected heart. The town bully, Conrad Ellis, does not approve of Mr. Rainwater’s engagement in community affairs. As romantic tension between Ella and David grow, tension of a more sinister kind begins to develop in the community. Ella starts to fear for the people she loves.

Rainwater, a captivating novel of love and redemption, is completely different from Sandra Brown’s previous works. It was inspired by her grandfather’s experiences in the 1930s. Ms. Brown’s gift of catching the reader up in the actions and feelings of her characters is alive and well in Rainwater. If this novel doesn’t become a movie, this reviewer will be surprised.

Nan Curnutt

REQUIEM BY FIRE Wayne Caldwell, Random House, 2010, $25, hb, 352pp, 9781400063444 Set in 1928 North Carolina, in Requiem by Fire Caldwell returns to the Appalachia of his first novel, Cataloochee. The National Park Commission needs a half- million acres of private property to hand over to the federal government. Attorney Oliver Babcock, Jr., presents two options: sell their land for the creation of a national park or lease back their own land at a lower price and, with new rules, stay behind. Change is coming, and the village of Cataloochee faces it with attitudes as diverse as the inhabitants.

Some are ready to go, like Jim Hawkins, now working for the Parks commission, although his wife Nell is not as sanguine about the changes in store for their family. Others set in their rural traditions, like Silas Wright, resist selling or following the new rules for those who remain.

Wright thinks a lawsuit against the commission might stop the lease-back rules. Willie McPeters threatens those who have decided to stay put. And a town fire-starter, who once burned down a school house with the best of motives, thinks of playing by his own rules.

Requiem by Fire explores another American time of change and stress with solutions that are as complex as the problems that created them.

The characterizations and details of time and place effectively transport readers to this closeknit community that honors its traditions, but the dialogue is sometimes a bit too molasses-laden, and the pace might prove too leisurely.

Eileen Charbonneau CROSSERS Philip Caputo, Knopf, 2009, $26.95, 448p, 9780375411670 Crossers is a very satisfying read that follows three generations of a family while exposing the realities of border issues and the influence of the past upon the present.

The novel begins in 1903 when teenager Ben Erskine is faced with a brutal event on the border that quickly turns him from a boy into a man. Flash forward to the aftermath of 9/11, where Erskine’s grandson, Gil Castle, has lost his wife in the Twin Towers tragedy and is struggling to pull his life back together. In a desperate attempt to save himself from his grief, he decides to visit distant relatives who live on a cattle ranch in Arizona. Soon after arriving, Gil rescues Miguel, a dying smuggler who reveals that his friends were murdered in a drug deal turned sour. Gil soon learns that he is in over his head and that he cannot escape his family’s history.

Caputo’s setting comes across as very authentic; his descriptions of the Arizona border clearly show that he has spent time there. He conveys that the lawlessness of the Wild West of long ago is still alive and thriving along the U.S./Mexican border. The characters are very well drawn, multidimensional and interesting; one feels as though these are real people with real problems. The past HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Reviews | 43

and present have been woven together with oral transcripts inserted throughout the narrative.

With complex characters and a setting of rugged contrasts, Crossers is an excellent read.

Troy Reed THE PUZZLE KING Betsy Carter, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2009, $23.95, hb, 344pp, 9781565125940 Simon Phelps emigrated to the United States as a nine-year-old boy, making the journey from Latvia to New York City on his own. During the journey, Simon discovers his unique talent for making people happy through his artwork—a talent that helps him make his name during the early years of advertising in America. As a young man, Simon meets the vivacious Flora Grossman, a fellow European Jew whose family sent her to America with her sister, Seema, in hopes of a better life. Simon and Flora are an unexpected couple— Flora is as lighthearted as Simon is serious—but they complement one another perfectly. As an adult, Simon has lost track of his family, and he yearns for news of home. Flora is still in contact with her mother and sister in Germany, and as

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Hitler rises to power in her home country, she recognizes the imminent threat to her family and longs to help them escape.

Carter based her novel on family legends—her ancestors were saved from the Nazis by Simon and Flora Phelps. The struggles of Jewish Americans during the pre-war years are fully explored.

Simon faces bigotry on the job, Seema’s desire to assimilate estranges her from her family, and Flora desperately wants to save the people she loves from the rising tide of anti-Semitism that is sweeping her hometown of Kaiserslautern. Simon and Flora’s unwavering love for one another is sweet but never mawkish, and Carter does an exceptional job capturing the extraordinary heroics of two ordinary people.

Nanette Donohue DREAM OF REASON Rosa Chacel (trans. Carol Maier), Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2009, $29.95, hb, 718pp, 9780803263642 Rosa Chacel is a Spanish modernist writer whose novel explores the meaning of thought, language, reason, and the emotions as they stream together in an existentialist style. Santiago Hernandez lives

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E THE JEWEL BOX Anna Davis, Black Swan, 2009, £7.99, pb, 413pp, 9780552773393 / Pocket, 2009, $15.00, pb, 384pp, 9781416537366 Grace Rutherford is a pioneer. By day she is the first female copywriter at a stuffy advertising agency. By night, she is Diamond Sharp, gossip columnist, arbiter of fashion and good taste and all round flapper.

Soon, she finds herself having to choose between two very different men – American playboy novelist, Dexter O’Connel, who has never quite recovered his form since his scandalous first novel, and the quiet, intense John Cramer, whose past is inextricably linked with O’Connell’s and whose future might lie with Grace’s younger sister, Nancy, a widow with two small children.

It is a stroke of genius on Davis’s part to reinvent chick-lit for the London of the 1920s.

The hedonistic era is perfect for the more daring or frivolous aspects of the genre but, like all the best chick-lit, this is a book with dark undercurrents beneath its glittering surface.

The Great War is still within living memory and continues to haunt the central characters. Grace might appear to have a party lifestyle, but she is working so hard in order to support her family as well as trying to assuage the guilt she feels at the secret injury she has inflicted on her beloved sister. Like the book itself, she is far deeper than might appear from an initial glance.

The novel is cleverly plotted, the characters satisfyingly complex and only one phrase, ‘does what it says on the tin’ is far too modern for the period in which the story is set. In short, I loved it.

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most of his life in Buenos Aires before and during the Spanish Civil War. While there is little history recounted herein, his connections to those who directed and were manipulated by the Spanish Civil War are powerful. His world, it appears from his philosophical musings, is a microcosm of that devastating event. Writing about his relationship to three very different women, Herminia, Elfriede (a famous ballet dancer) and Quitina, Santiago realizes how love becomes misunderstood and transformed by possessiveness. The past overlaps the present and future, desire and will become entangled and diminish dreams, deception evokes hatred of the deceived, fidelity haunts infidelity to the point of annihilation. The latter is only saved by introspection: “The first part of my life was totally paralyzed by wanting and being able, by power. The second, slacker, easier, has led me into the labyrinth from which the only exit is understanding.”

Never sure if the narrator has arrived at any total understanding, the reader infers that the journey of being and “observing” is what merits attentive focus, a process very well learned from Proust, James Joyce, and other similar writers. For Santiago and Chacel, life is about the “movement of response” and one’s ability to live out of that mode rather than in retrospect. While Dream of Reason is not light reading, it is filled with beautiful, starkly confessional, and pure segments that address the visions beyond a linear, logical existence. Upon finishing this lengthy but brilliantly written novel, one knows one has left the world of a Spanish writer whose philosophical thoughts has created a new form of Spanish literature.

Viviane Crystal MURDER ON THE CLIFFS Joanna Challis, Minotaur, 2009, $24.99/C$31.99, hb, 304pp, 9780312367145 In 1921, aspiring novelist Daphne du Maurier undertakes a holiday in Cornwall to explore ancient records in an abbey. What she finds is a body on the beach. The dead woman, though only a former house servant, was on the verge of marrying the area’s wealthy landowner, David Hartley. The apparent drowning turns out to be murder, and Daphne is drawn into a web of deceit with the secretive Hartleys and their mysterious Elizabethan mansion. Daphne is determined to find the killer, use these events for a future novel, and resist her attraction to the handsome David— one of the prime suspects.

The mystery is handled well, and Daphne is an interesting character, based on the real novelist, of course. The story structure is choppy with abrupt shifts in time and place, and the dialog is melodramatic in places. The spare style with little nuance makes it seem written for young adults. But it’s a fast, fun read. This debut is the beginning of a series.

Diane Scott Lewis VENETIA KELLY’S TRAVELING SHOW Frank Delaney, Random House, 2010, $26.00, hb, 427pp, 9781400067831 20th Century

Venetia Kelly is talented and beguiling. With and without her ventriloquist’s dummy, Blarney, she charms audiences across the Irish countryside as part of a theatrical traveling troupe. Unknowingly, she enchants the middle-aged farmer father of 18year-old Ben MacCarthy, who decides to leave his family to join Venetia’s troupe. Ben’s mother asks him to find his father and bring him home—a quest that demands courage and persistence, and forces the young country boy to grow up quickly.

At the same time, political changes are afoot in Ireland, and Venetia’s grandfather, King Kelly, is making his best attempt at becoming part of the new Irish government. King is a self-made man, and he has made his fortune unscrupulously.

Ben MacCarthy narrates the story, which includes numerous digressions on topics ranging from Irish history and folklore to ventriloquism.

A number of entertaining secondary characters, including a foul-mouthed farmhand, Venetia’s glamorous stage mother, and a folklore collector, round the story out. Delaney’s juxtaposition of the newly-independent Ireland with the story of a shy, awkward young man coming of age works well.

The novel isn’t always straightforward, and readers must be tolerant of a lot of meandering to get to the action, but Ben’s story is enjoyable, engaging, and entertaining.

Nanette Donohue SPOONER Pete Dexter, Grand Central, 2009, $26.99/ C$32.99, hb, 480pp, 9780446540728 / Atlantic, Apr. 2010, £12.99, hb, 480pp, 9781848873391 A thin line separates oddity from craziness!

Spooner is a young boy and later man who follows the dictates of his thoughts and feelings, albeit with very few of the latter, in a knee-jerk manner that threatens not only other human beings but sometimes even his own life. Imagine sneaking into your neighbor’s house, putting the father’s shoes in the fridge after urinating thoroughly and evenly in both shoes. Meditating on that deed thrills Spooner and is the origin of an increasingly strange pattern.

Expelled for showing how sexually stimulated the kindergarten teacher makes him, Spooner is not one iota embarrassed but just sorry he won’t get to again smell the exciting shampoo in her hair.

It turns out Spooner is a phenomenal baseball player, but one who refuses to be trained or modify his pitches based on his coach’s instructions.

So Spooner eventually loses a major league opportunity and thereafter moves through innumerable jobs, always rebelling and moving onto the next adventure. He finally seems to find his forte in journalism but lacks the emotional connection with the victims of the stories he covers. Ultimately he finds his calling in being a country novelist in Texas. What brought him to this point? His stepfather, Calmer Otosson, stands by him and always arrives in the nick of time before disaster’s irrevocable curse hits Spooner. Both share a propensity to violence, yet it is Calmer whose influence finally quiets Spooner into realizing there is another way to deal with conflict.

20th Century

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E D I TORS’ CH OICE DAY AFTER NIGHT Anita Diamant, Scribner, 2009, $27.00/C$32.00, hb, 294pp, 9780743299848 / Simon & Schuster, 2009, £12.99, pb, 304pp, 9781847377074 Welcome to Atlit. Meet Tedi, from Holland, who lost her sense of smell during the war, but who has regained it with a vengeance.

Meet Zorah, from Poland, though she would probably rather not meet you. And Shayndel, also from Poland, a natural leader and very brave. And there is Leonie, a French beauty, who is great friends with Shayndel. All have managed to get to Palestine after the war. All are Jewish, and their experiences during the war are better left unstated for now, though you will read about them in Day After Night.

But these young women are unable to start new lives yet in Palestine, for Atlit is an internment camp. Tedi and Zorah and Shayndel and Leonie are not free to leave it, as they do not have sponsors. So they wait, struggling to learn Hebrew, trying to envision communal life on a kibbutz, and slowly opening up to those around them.

Anita Diamant’s compelling new novel introduces us to these and many other memorable characters, all of whom have gripping tales. The tensions between the survivors of the Holocaust who are trying to rebuild their shattered lives and the British who are strictly controlling those who can freely enter the country are made vividly clear. The Palmach, the unofficial Jewish fighting unit, is active on behalf of new arrivals, coming into conflict with the British.

I was truly sorry to see this book end. I wanted to spend much more time with all these brave women about whom I had come to care so much. As the author brings us up to date on their lives, it came as a shock to realize that I wouldn’t be able to eavesdrop on their experiences post-Atlit, that their lives have already been lived. This caused a profound regret. Ms. Diamant, might you not go back and fill in some of the blanks?

Trudi E. Jacobson Pete Dexter writes superbly about the tensions and thrills of the late 1980s in a broad span of America, including Georgia, Florida, Texas, Puget Sound and other locations reflecting Southern devil-may-care individualism in a world insisting on conformity. Humor and pathos pervade these pages of brilliant writing. Pete Dexter previously received the National Book Award for his earlier novel, Paris Trout.

Viviane Crystal HOMER & LANGLEY E. L. Doctorow, Random House, 2009, $26.00/ C$32.00, hb, 208pp, 9781400064946 / Little, Brown, 2010, £11.99, hb, 224pp, 9781408702154 For a review suited to this journal, it is well to begin by pointing out that the novel is not, and does not claim to be, an entirely factual biography of the Collyer brothers, who lived out their lives in a dark

and decaying New York mansion surrounded by 130 tons of junk and old newspapers. (Interested readers may consult Wikipedia and other Google citations for the authentic background. For instance, the brothers, in fact, died in 1947 although Doctorow has them living on into the 1970s.)

But departures from fact should deter no one from relishing this fascinating meditation on the human condition. The story is narrated by Homer, the blind brother—appropriately a blind singer of tales, although his canvas is not epic but miniature.

Through his words, we see the two young men, popular and sociable in the beginning, gradually retreat into eccentricity, reclusiveness, misanthropy, turning their parents’ luxurious home into a rat’s nest, a lonely fortress, and ultimately into a tomb.

Homer and Langley have been diagnosed posthumously as victims of obsessive-compulsive disorder, but Doctorow invests their condition HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Reviews | 45

with the trappings of a cockeyed philosophy.

Thus, Langley collects newspapers by the ton in an effort to reduce all the world’s news items to their Platonic forms, which he will publish in a universal newspaper valid for all time. And Homer’s narrative voice, ever tolerant, sensitive, and affectionate, works a kind of magic on this craziness, drawing us into their solipsistic world until the abnormal begins to seem eerily normal.

Unlike the author’s Ragtime or The March, this small book tells a very small story, but one that is wonderfully imagined, deeply felt, and wise.

Bruce Macbain BLACK SHIP Carola Dunn, Minotaur, 2009, $13.99, pb, 294pp, 9780312598655 In this 17th book in the Daisy Dalrymple series of mysteries, the always curious wife of Scotland Yard detective Alec Fletcher delves into a murder when a body shows up in the garden of her new home on the outskirts of London. The appearance of bootleggers (1925 being American Prohibition), gangsters, and talk of Irish Republican bombs complicate the investigation. Daisy bravely tackles all challenges that come her way, whether tracking down a killer or getting her family settled into their larger, though in slight disrepair, new abode.

Dunn’s heroine is a complex and fascinating character. She fusses over the pressure of having to choose room colors and seems helpless without servants to run her life, yet wants to be “the modern mother” despite Nurse’s disapproval. When she decides to take a bold leap and read a newspaper, her affectionate husband humors her by leaving it at table for her. How the world has changed!

Although Dunn’s treatment of London’s upper middle class in the 1920s rings fairly true, I couldn’t help wondering if all servants were as content with their lots in life as they seem to be in Daisy’s world.

Some of the very best scenes in the book appear in a series of dramatic “Sea Interludes” that involve a young smuggler, at one point being chased through a stormy night by the Coast Guard. These episodes show off an entirely different set of the writer’s talents. Dunn handles realism as deftly as her lighthearted comedy.

Kathryn Kimball Johnson LAST NOCTURNE Marjorie Eccles, Minotaur, 2009, $24.99, pb, 416pp, 9780312577933 / Allison & Busby, 2008, £19.99, hb, 288pp, 9780749080792 A young artist on the verge of success throws himself out of his window, to be impaled on the iron fence below. An established art gallery owner and happily married family man inexplicably shoots himself. Apparent suicides both, but the results of an autopsy points Chief Inspector Lamb and his sergeant, Cogan, in quite another direction. Their investigation begins with the one fact that links the victims, an encounter in Vienna. Mysterious letters and a possible extortion attempt complicate their task, as do the political and artistic intrigues centering in the Austrian capital.

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Ms. Eccles is first a storyteller. Much of this novel is written in that form, as if you are listening at the knee of your great-grandmother. However at times the prose seems deliberately obtuse, the mystery in the story coming as much from how it is told, rather than the plot itself. Set in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, the story is agonizingly true to that time. Like an old Victorian mansion, decoration and ornamentation abound.

Words are used like gingerbread, trimming each portion of the story with complex and elaborate design. Thus the entire first half of the book is needed to simply provide the exposition. The second half, where the story really starts, is more satisfying. But like an overdone Victorian manor, I fear there is simply too much extraneous detail in this for many readers.

Ken Kreckel THE BIBLE SALESMAN Clyde Edgerton, Back Bay, 2009, $13.99/C$16.99, pb, 241pp, 9780316117579 Southern writer Edgerton has never disappointed me with his stories of gentle humor about the South. His latest novel takes place during the post-World War II era, with some flashbacks to the Depression. In 1950, Preston Clearwater, a Clark Gable lookalike (sans mustache) and lifelong criminal who is involved in a car theft ring, picks up Henry Dampier, an affable and innocent looking twenty-year-old Bible salesman who is hitchhiking across North Carolina. Sharp-eyed Clearwater recognizes that the somewhat naive country boy is smart but rather gullible, and since he needs such an associate in his current assignments, he convinces Henry to join him. Henry, believing that he is doing undercover work for the federal government, is willing and able, hungry for adventure and food.

However, as more is revealed about Clearwater and his business dealings and as Henry pieces things together and realizes he is involved in something shady and even dangerous, the story takes a somewhat dark turn.

With wonderful storytelling skills and a great ear for dialogue, Edgerton once again gives the reader believable characters and situations; standouts include the “burial tuck” episode, and the elderly woman who throws her voice to make her cats talk. But it is the character of Henry Dampier who really makes the story, with his doubts concerning the Bible’s accuracy, his unshakeable love for his extended family, his meeting and falling in love with the totally captivating Marleen Green, and his concerns about the fundamental issues of loyalty, honesty, love, and honor. A nostalgic and satisfying romp for anyone who enjoys poignant and funny coming of age tales set in the South.

Michael I. Shoop DANCING FOR THE HANGMAN Martin Edwards, Five Star, 2009, $25.95, hb, 344 pp, 9781594148484 / Flambard, 2008, £8.99, pb, 327pp, 9781906601003 In 1910, Dr. Hawley Crippen was convicted of killing his wife Cora. This novel is a fictitious

account of Crippen’s life, his marriage, his relationships with other women, and his liaisons with his mistress, Ethel Le Neve. Crippen tells his story in the first person while sitting in his cell in London, as he spins the tale of his life, his kinky sexual encounters with Cora, and how he became the man who now sits in prison awaiting his execution.

Basing his novel on a fascinating true murder case, Mr. Edwards uses extensive research to bring his characters to life. Since there were many questions surrounding the murder, the author uses his imagination to fill in the missing pieces to describe in detail how Crippen came to kill his wife.

The book is a page-turner, humorous at times, as the author was able to flesh out this complex main character. I found it hard to believe that Crippen continued to profess his innocence as I learned more about how he committed the murder, but I guess most criminals feel they are not guilty of their crime. I highly recommend this book to those who not only enjoy a good crime novel, but are fascinated with real-life characters that are likeable yet have a dark side.

Jeff Westerhoff BLOOD’S A ROVER James Ellroy, Knopf, 2009, $28.95, hb, 639pp, 9780679403937 / Century, 2009, £18.99, hb, 656pp, 9780712648158 This concludes the Underworld USA Trilogy, which began with American Tabloid and continued through The Cold Six Thousand. Flashbacks and recapitulations permit the reader to begin with this volume and catch up. A brutal armored car heist in the prologue provides a gradually unfolding mystery that unifies a story that takes place in a dizzying variety of locations. (Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, to name a few.) The mob, the CIA, the FBI, the Ku Klux Klan, anti-Castro fanatics, Howard Hughes’s Mormon employees, militant Blacks and others interact to create history and then conspire to cover their tracks. The point of view is often that of a neophyte private detective, usually referred to as the peeper, who becomes obsessed with mysterious beauties with radical left-wing pasts. Many of the characters interact with an increasingly senile J. Edgar Hoover, but he is far from the motivating force of their actions. Once conspiracies are set in motion, they take on a life of their own, with greed, idealism, vengeance and romance all contributing to the course of events.

Ellroy uses casually racist and routinely homophobic language to create an imagined underworld. For example, a “fruit shake” means entrapping and shaking down homosexuals.

Descriptions of shootings are frequent and vivid: “Dwight spat blood in his face. Scotty pulled up his vest and gut-shot him. The air was cloud-thick.

The cordite fumes stung.”

Chapters are short narratives, sometimes mixed with transcripts of wiretaps or newspaper headlines. In this unusual historical novel, we see 20th Century

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THE LAKE WOMAN Alan Gould, Arcadia, 2009, AU$29.95, pb, 296pp, 9781921509346 Alec Dearborn, a thoroughly likeable Australian soldier in the British paratroopers, takes part in the Allied invasion of France. On the eve of the D-Day offensive, he crosses the Channel prepared to fight but still unsure of how he will acquit himself, having developed no personal animosity towards the enemy. When his aircraft is shot down over Normandy, he manages to break free, landing in a lake, and is rescued by an enigmatic French woman. After being revived and hidden, he sets out to join his troops but is unable to erase the impression Mamzelle leaves in his mind. His search, and its eventual conclusion, makes a poignant, mystical and yet utterly believable tale.

In this literary novel, poet Alan Gould catches the voice of the era and renders it beautifully.

Every sentence is worthy of lingering reflection. The narrative starts strongly, with Dearborn plunged into a cold lake, entwined in his parachute, and struggling for breath. He paints the relationship with Mamzelle with a fine brush. Although the protagonist spends only a few hours in her presence, we understand her indelible appeal. Chapter Two is largely back-story, which interrupts the narrative flow briefly. There are also a couple of instances in which the passing of time draws unnecessary attention to itself. But these are minor considerations. The overall work is a thing of beauty, tender, heartfelt and compelling. A meditation on love and morality in a time of war, this story lingers long after its final page is turned.

Elizabeth Jane the basic chronology of public events, but we are let in on the secret story behind the scenes. If you like your fiction hard-boiled and brutal, this is recommended.

James Hawking MY EYES HAVE A COLD NOSE Elizabeth Fackler, Sunstone, 2009, $26.95, pb, 321pp, 9780865346994 The daughter of notorious sheriff Pat Garrett, Elizabeth “Gigi” Garrett has been blind since she was a small child. In 1930s New Mexico, Gigi, a middle-aged former concert pianist, makes a living teaching piano and writing concertos. With her new companion, a seeing-eye dog, she can now maneuver around the town on her own. When a teenaged neighbor girl goes missing, her boyfriend is the obvious suspect, but the young man swears to Gigi that he is innocent.

Gigi believes him and sets out using her “senses” and innate curiosity to find out what happened to the girl. Soon she has several suspects. Even the local sheriff, a man to whom Gigi has become attracted, is under suspicion.

This story is told primarily through the smells and sounds a blind woman experiences and is fascinating because of it. The author takes you 20th Century

into Gigi’s dark world, but you are never in a bleak place. Scents evoke color and voices show character as you are drawn along on her quest.

The prose is so descriptive but never bogs down.

The mystery will have you turning the pages as Gigi faces danger when she comes too close to the truth.

I look forward to reading more from this author.

Diane Scott Lewis THE MAN IN THE WOODEN HAT Jane Gardam, Chatto & Windus, 2009, hb, £14.99, 215pp, 9780701177980 / Europa, 2009, $15.00, pb, 240pp, 9781933372891 This is a companion novel to Old Filth, published in 2005. As I had not read the first book, this may explain why the overall tenor of the story is difficult to grasp – rather like hearing a conversation between two friends about someone you don’t know, and thus failing to understand much of what is said, or indeed omitted. The plot centres on Edward Feathers QC and his wife Elizabeth/Betty. They marry in Hong Kong in the late 1940s, and the somewhat jumpy narrative covers their early married lives and old age. As they are unconventional folk, it is an unusual marriage.

At times, it all seems rather farcical, rather like a slightly sobered-up Tom Sharpe novel. However,

there are hidden depths as the emotions of the two main characters, Betty in particular, are slowly uncovered – Elizabeth is seduced by Feathers’ great barrister rival, the philanderer Terry Veneering immediately after she agrees to marry Edward, and for the rest of her life she loves Veneering from afar whilst stubbornly sticking to her marriage promises to Edward.

There are three clunky and obvious historical errors which somehow dispersed the integrity of the contract between the author and reader to enter and be absorbed into the fictional world of Edward and Elizabeth Feathers. A mildly entertaining book, but not one that fully engaged me.

Doug Kemp ONCE & THEN Morris Gleitzman, Penguin, 2009, £7.99, pb, 245pp, 9780141042794 Once & Then was originally two books, coming together for the first time in this edition. Initially, you feel it is a child’s book, which is not surprising as Morris Gleitzman is primarily such an author.

This, however, is a story about a child having to grow up before his time.

Felix is ten and has spent most of the past four years in a catholic orphanage in the mountains of Poland. It is 1942, and his Jewish parents placed him there for safekeeping. It has been a time of loneliness, his lifeline a copy of the Just William Stories by Richmal Compton. One day the Nazis arrive and burn the books in the library – an unforgivable sin in the eyes of a child brought up in a bookshop. Felix begins to question the ideology preached by the local priest who places Adolph Hitler in the same panoply as Jesus and Mary. Running away, Felix literally walks into the brutality of the holocaust. His belief that one day his mother and father will return mentally protects him from the escalating horrors of the deportation of the Jewish community to the death camps.

This is a crafted and compelling novel of hope in a period of terrible cruelty and uncertainty. There are touches of humour amongst the pathos, as the author writes with the imagination of a child who has a gift for storytelling, and the effect is powerful. The ending is abrupt as Felix, a diverse and motivated character full of charm, intelligence and bravery is deprived of Now – the third story he so richly deserves.

Gwen Sly THE SWISS COURIER Tricia Goyer & Mike Yorkey, Revell, 2009, $13.99, pb, 322pp, 9780800733360 Imagine yourself in 1944 Switzerland, literally surrounded by a bloody war. Hitler’s Gestapo is tracking down enemies of the Reich, and Swiss heroine Gabi Mueller has volunteered for dangerous duty with the new American Office of Strategic Services (later to become the CIA).

She will risk everything by attempting to guide a German scientist involved in developing the atomic bomb out of the Fuehrer’s grasp.

This gritty, no-holds-barred suspense novel HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Reviews | 47

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THE SAFFRON GATE Linda Holeman, Headline Review, 2010, £6.99, pb, 435pp, 978075531130 This book was a delightful surprise. I do not usually review romantic fiction, but this arrived just after I had sent out a batch of books for review, so I took it on for myself. It is most definitely a love story, with a lovelorn heroine on a quest to find her missing amour. But Sidonie O’Shea is no conventional romantic heroine, innocent, beautiful but feisty. She is innocent only because she is a polio victim, the product of an isolated, over-protected childhood in a poor immigrant family in upstate New York.

Feisty she is not. However, she faces a daunting task, for her lover has gone missing in Morocco and she sets out to find him there. It is 1930, and Morocco has only recently been ‘pacified’ by the French: it is exotic and dangerous.

The Saffron Gate is about love and loneliness, betrayal and redemption, and also about culture shock and assimilation, physical handicap, colonialism, and above all about Morocco, its culture and its peoples. It is worth reading just as a travel book, but read it also as a page-turning mystery story with an unusual denouement.

Edward James creates an all-too-believable portrait of what it must have been like to live through the horror of those days of Nazi reign. The writing is solid for the most part, though the pacing feels uneven at times. Multiple viewpoints require the reader to skip from Gabi’s perspective into the heads of a list of other characters, but the transitions are well marked. The most impressive thing about this book is how deftly Goyer and Yorkey move the reader back in time with flawless research and vivid details of everyday life in this wartime era.

On the downside, this novel deserves a much more appropriate cover, if only because it may be misleading to readers who see the pretty blond model and assume this will be a romance with a gentler treatment of the terror and atrocities of wartime Europe. In one scene a distraught Jewish couple, escaping German agents, clutch their baby and leap from a bridge to their deaths in the river below. And this is just a mild taste of the violence we experience. Still, no one can say these scenes aren’t realistic. Writing like this, on a par with some of today’s most popular thrillers, deserves a package that lets readers know this is going to be a thoroughly terrifying ride.

Kathryn Kimball Johnson A COLD SEASON IN SHANGHAI S.P. Hozy, Rendezvous Press, 2009, $19.95, pb, 254pp, 9781894917797 Shanghai, in the years before World War One. Tatiana and her family have escaped Tsarist Russia after the peasant revolt of 1905 and are making a 48 | Reviews | HNR Issue 51, February 2010

new life in the international section of China’s most glamorous city. Making friends among the Chinese elite and the international community, Tatiana and her sister Olga take converging paths—Olga toward the conventional, Tatiana toward Shanghai’s decadent nightlife.

When her unconventional choices lead her to an agonizing moral decision, Tatiana makes a choice which leads to the death of a promising and brilliant young musician, and changes the life of her friends, and her fate, forever.

This is a promising story with interesting characters and good historical detail, but it is marred by uneven pacing, head-jumping points of view, and telling rather than showing. Hozy does a good job evoking the world of Shanghai from 1905 to 1925, but the story did not flow, which is a shame, because the premise and the characters are so promising.

Julie Rose SMALL WARS Sadie Jones, Chatto & Windus, 2009, hb, £12.99, 376pp, 9780701184551 / Harper, 2010, $24.99, hb, 376pp, 9780061929885 Cyprus 1956. The newly promoted Major Hal Treherne is sent to the garrison at Episkopi, where his wife Clara and their young twin girls join him.

It is a time when the Greek Cypriots are seeking union with Greece and resorting to terrorist attacks on the occupying British forces, who respond with belligerence. Hal comes from a family tradition of military service, while Clara’s background is

different. But it is a happy enough marriage, until things begin to go wrong when Hal is involved in some nasty counter-insurgency activities and is unable to prevent British troops’ violence against the terrorists/freedom fighters, as well as seeing the results of terrorist attacks. He begins to question the very meaning of his posting. Clara is also afraid of the violence and a distance grows between them.

It all comes to a head when Hal sends Clara and the twins to a place of greater ostensible safety in Nicosia. Following another attack, Hal makes a fateful decision about his future in the British Army, and they return to England, though not in the circumstances they could have expected. Hal makes a new beginning in the austere surrounding of 1950s England.

This is Sadie Jones’s second novel – her first, The Outcast, also set in the 1950s, was published to wide acclaim in 2008 (and was an Editors’ Choice in the HNR). Small Wars is also a highly impressive work, and the product of a talented writer. The descriptions of both a Cypriot summer and autumn in England are evocatively and beautifully narrated, with precise observations of the minutiae that make up the daily progress of life. The historical context is comprehensively researched and presented. This is another fine achievement, somewhat different in style to her first novel, but engaging and readable.

Doug Kemp THE PEOPLE’S TRAIN Thomas Keneally, Sceptre, 2009, £17.99, hb, 408pp, 9780340951859 This is a fictionalised biography of Artem Sergiev, prisoner in pre-revolutionary Russia who fled to Australia in 1911. In Thomas Keneally’s hands the protagonist is Artem Samsurov, hero of the 1905 uprising, who flees a Siberian camp, settles in Brisbane, becomes a prominent figure in the growing trades union movement and is twice imprisoned in spite of the intervention of wealthy lawyer and Communist sympathiser Hope Mockridge, with whom he has an affair.

Disillusioned by factional in-fighting, government opposition and the realisation that Australia is not a workers’ paradise, Samsurov returns to Russia in 1917 following the abdication of the Tsar.

The first part of the book is narrated by Samsurov, a workmanlike journal detailing Brisbane workers’ partisan disputes, social events and the racism faced by the city’s considerable Russian community. Interleaved with this is his escape from Siberia via Japan and China to Australia, which had me reaching for the atlas, enthralled. In Part 2 the narrator is Paddy Dykes, an Australian journalist who accompanies Samsurov to Russia in time for the heady months culminating in the storming of the Winter Palace in October 1917.

The emotional pull of the book is slight, and I found the absence of speech marks a distraction.

The book’s strength and fascination lies in its integrity and convincing detail, leaving the reader thinking, ‘Yes, this is how it must have been.’ The relationship between Dykes and Samsurov’s 20th Century

sister I found particularly touching; and the few hours before the assault on the Winter Palace: the uncertainty, disagreements, determination not to besmirch the revolution by casual brutality, versus rough justice meted out to people in the wrong place at the wrong time. The author hints he may continue the adventures of Samsurov, Dykes and their comrades through and beyond the civil war.

I hope so.

Janet Hancock THE LACUNA Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, 2009, $26.99, hb, 464pp, 9780060852573 / Faber & Faber, 2009, £18.99, hb, 528pp, 9780571252633 Who was Harrison Shepherd? If we are to believe his journals, preserved for posterity by his loyal stenographer, he was a bestselling novelist of the mid-20th century, ruined by the Red Scare. He is also an enigma, a man who wrote his life story as he lived it, but left out some of the most important parts.

Raised in Mexico, Shepherd mingles with some of the great figures of the era, working first as a plasterer and later as a cook for Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. This association allows him to observe their lives, relationships, and activities from an interested distance. He becomes Frida’s confidant, and, to an extent, her conscience. When Trotsky arrives in Mexico, seeking asylum, Shepherd’s trusted position in the Rivera household grants him acceptance into his inner circle. These friendships not only give Shepherd some of his most exciting and enduring experiences, but they affect his future in unanticipated ways. Being a novelist with ties to known Communists in 1950s America isn’t looked upon kindly.

A lacuna is missing piece, and Kingsolver’s latest combines several narrative formats (journal, letters, newspaper articles, and even a recipe or two) into the story of a man haunted by the things he cannot say and the secrets he forces underground.

There’s also a literal “missing piece” of Shepherd’s journals—a lost journal from a brief period where he attended school in the United States and carried on a formative relationship with a fellow student.

Harrison Shepherd doesn’t invite the reader in easily—we must dive below the surface to realize who he is and what he means. And like the divers who risk their lives to explore the underwater caverns in this novel, we see things that are unexpectedly beautiful. Kingsolver has invented an enduring character who reminds us of the pain that results when we hide the truth about ourselves.

Nanette Donohue SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE AMERICAN YEARS Michael Kurland, Ed., Minotaur, 2009, $24.99, hb, 347pp, 9780312378462 This collection of new short stories is inspired by the premise that Sherlock Holmes, at least once but possibly more frequently, set foot on American soil. As Leslie S. Klinger states in the foreword: “It is definite that Holmes visited America in 1912, in 20th Century

the guise of an Irish American named Altamont, beginning with a stay in Chicago, then moving to Buffalo.” Consequently, ten veteran authors have been challenged by Kurland to each concoct a fresh tale of mystery and adventure for the world’s first consulting detective. And they succeed admirably.

What results is a fascinating variety of plots with Sherlock at various stages of ability and emotional maturation, often linked with real or other fictional characters. It would be impossible to do justice to each pastiche in the collection (I apologize to those authors who go unmentioned here due to lack of space), but I found a few personal favorites.

Richard Lupoff brings us the entire Holmes family in “Inga Sigerson Weds,” including Sherlock’s parents, elder brother Mycroft and sister Elizabeth, making Sherlock the baby of the family who is very much underappreciated by his siblings. In “My Silk Umbrella” Darryl Brock introduces Mark Twain to Holmes, which instigates an amusing battle of wits at an early baseball game in Hartford, Connecticut.

“The Curse of Edwin Booth” by Carole Bugge involves Holmes as protection for Edwin Booth during a production of Hamlet, in the wake of his brother’s assassination of Lincoln. All offer an enjoyable read for Holmes fans who hunger for more of the Great Detective.

Kathryn Kimball Johnson THE SILENT GIFT Michael Landon, Jr. and Cindy Kelley, Bethany House, 2009, $13.99, pb, 362pp, 9780764203633 Hard times filled the lives of 1930s Depression America, soon to get even more difficult for Mary Godwin and her deaf-mute son, Jack. Mary’s husband, Jerry, loved his wife and son for a brief time, until Jerry found out about his son’s handicap.

Escaping from her abusive husband, Mary travels with Jack to Minnesota. The ensuing years bring much suffering and much kindness, some of it from the economy but some of it from a strangely prophetic gift that Jack possesses, one that could be a blessing or a curse depending on the attitude behind its use. Happiness and peace are transitory and a series of events, beginning with Jerry’s return, spin Mary and Jack’s world out of control. What does one do to find peace and security? Why would God grant such a beautiful gift that causes only chaos and disaster? Throughout the journey, the reader gets a brief perspective of 1930s prisons, mental institutions, politics, railroad bums, the traveling circus, and so much more. More questions than answers, about faith, wealth, power, and poverty, abound in this novel that is a riveting and fascinating story of the endurance of unconditional love.

Viviane Crystal THE MESSENGERS OF DEATH Pierre Magnan (trans. Patricia Clancy), Minotaur, 2009, $13.99, pb, 311pp, 9780312387570 / Vintage, 2007, £8.99, pb, 352pp, 9780099470199 If you missed the opportunity to spend a week in rural Provence during the 1960s, don’t despair.

Instead, set a bottle of French wine before the

fire, curl yourself up in an overstuffed chair, and settle in to read this wonderful translation of Pierre Magnan’s literary mystery, The Messengers of Death. You may find it odd, at first, to begin a novel with a description of the postbox on the door of the cemetery in the Basse-Alpes village of Barles.

Relax. You are about to be presented with an entire feast of oddities: A murderer who rides around the countryside dressed as a sapeur of the Grande Armée; a butcher who will only open his shop for privileged customers; a victim who throws a bottomless costume party on the night she expects to die; and a detective who is happier lounging amidst his cats than solving a mystery. On the other hand, maybe you won’t be able to relax, for Magnan’s fascinating details include the macabre as well as the peculiar.

Hours before Mademoiselle Veronique is murdered with a rusty bayonet, the beautiful spinster receives a letter bearing the message, “The measure you give will be the measure you get.” Two days later, Veronique’s alluring cousin, Ambroisine, receives an identical letter and suffers a similar fate. Commissaire Laviolette, the retired superintendent who was first introduced to readers in Death in the Truffle Wood, is certain that the key to the murderer’s motive lies in the history of the Melliflore family. As he races to save the lives of the two remaining cousins, Laviolette’s search takes him through three generations of haughty independence and broken relationships to events that shaped the destiny of a family.

Magnan’s style is eclectic, his characters eccentric, his wit electric, and his ending satisfying. Highly recommended.

Nancy J. Attwell THE MURDERED HOUSE Pierre Magnan, Minotaur, 2009, $24.99, hb, 247pp, 9780312367206 / Vintage, 2003, £8.99, pb, 256pp, 9780099448723 This dense novel bears the weight of tragedy, from the shocking murder of a family in remote upper Provence, France in 1896 to the deliberate destruction of the family home in 1920. Only an infant, Seraphim, is left alive. Returning to the family home in 1920 after the war, Seraphim Monge is determined to learn the truth of that night, the hulking, angel-faced survivor carrying only a rusted key to unlock the door of the past. Isolated in his pain and loneliness, Monge is oblivious to the romantic overtures of two beautiful village women, focused only on tearing down the place of his birth, brick by brick.

Frozen in time by his history, Seraphim is a tragic figure. Somber as the silent woods that surround the house, he knows no joy, seeks only those who remember the crime. But during his demolition, Monge discovers long-buried documents that reveal the real murderer. Obsessed with his mother’s final anguished moments, Seraphim’s mind turns to vengeance. Different characters speak the truth of the murders as they know it, including the deathbed confession of a skeletal monk who has kept his secret for too many years.

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E D I TORS’ C H OI C E

PRINT THE LEGEND Craig McDonald, Minotaur, 2010, $24.99, hb, 342pp, 9780312554378 Since I have never been a Hemingway fan, the plot of Print the Legend only mildly intrigued me. I was willing to be entertained, but I didn’t expect it to be one the best books I’d read in years. I may even go back and give Hemingway another try.

Although the story begins with a Hemingway scholar wanting to prove Mary Hemingway murdered her famous husband, it quickly becomes a multi-layered plot with moving timelines. In the hands of a less skilled writer, the short bursts of text told from different points of view could easily have doomed the story, but McDonald never loses his reader.

The book is labeled a crime novel, but that’s a terrible oversimplification. McDonald uses Hector Lassiter, an old friend of Hemingway’s, as a hero and a literary guide. Through Hector’s musings and actions, we are treated to an intimate view of Hemingway’s writings as well as his life. And as Lassiter tries to protect the woman he loves while pursing a personal enemy, he evolves into a credible romantic figure. Like many writers, McDonald has a not-so-subtle agenda in Print the Legend, but he can be forgiven, since his characters are so well drawn and he brings us along successfully until almost the very end.

There is one thing that I did not like about the book: its menacing cover. It misrepresents what is inside. Not being familiar with the author, I would never have selected to read this book based on the cover art. This book will appeal to readers who read outside the crime genre.

Veronika Pelka The prose is elegant, recalling the essence of Provence in the war years, the insularity of village life and the power of secrets, the novel rife with picturesque characters: Seraphim’s only friend, Patrice Dupin, a returning soldier whose face is horribly disfigured; the emaciated monk at death’s door; a wealthy neighbor who profits from the Monge’s tragedy, an enigmatic figure who follows Seraphim’s every move, death’s shadow. Like a Grimm’s fairy tale come to life, the truth buried beneath stories and suspicions, the message is clear, “Everyone has his own broken face.”

Luan Gaines CAIRO MODERN Naguib Mahfouz, Anchor, 2010, $15.00, pb, 256pp, 9780307473530 Four young men, Mahgub Abd al-Da’im, Ali Taha, Ahmad Badir and Ma’mun Radwan, meet to discuss current events in 1930s Egypt when they are not finishing their university studies. Ma’mun sees everything from an Islamic spiritual point of view, Ali from socialist ideals, and Ahmad finds solace in every situation and challenge through women. Mahgub, however, is an enigma who 50 | Reviews | HNR Issue 51, February 2010

doesn’t fit in at all though he pretends enough to be acceptable.

Poverty is the haunting specter that riddles Mahgub’s life with fear, envy and cynical loathing.

Add to his dilemma that his father suffers a debilitating stroke, leaving Mahgub responsible for financially supporting the family. Graduating from a university is useless for achieving a good job and climbing the ladder of financial and social success unless one has influential connections.

Mahgub has one last chance and so enters a life of false pretences in which he becomes financially and politically renowned but sells his soul for the “good life.”

Before the reader judges too hastily, one immediately perceives that Mahgub’s poverty leaves him no other choice. Such is the dilemma facing thousands of poverty-stricken Egyptian residents, a tortured existence that the other wellto-do three friends blame on lack of faith, lack of equality or obsession with religion rather than materialism and science. Mahgub’s demise into decadence is a microcosmic view of a class of Arab men who are ripe for becoming “easy prey for evil,” or revolutionary possibilities.

Naguib Mahfouz, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, knew and so vividly depicts the phenomenal dichotomy between those who discuss religious, philosophical and political ideas and those whose desperate plans create even more dire circumstances. Cairo Modern is a classic novel depicting history as a repetitive cycle that begs for intellectual, emotional and active response.

Viviane Crystal TOO MANY MURDERS: A Carmine Delmonico Novel Colleen McCullough, Simon & Schuster, 2009, $26.00, hb, 384pp, 9781439177471 / HarperCollins, 2010, £17.99, hb, 9780007271856 With a population of only 150,000, Holloman, Connecticut, isn’t technically large enough to have its own homicide department, but on April 3, 1967, Captain Carmine Delmonico wished he had more than three squads of detectives at his disposal. On that day no less than 12 murders were committed, each killing with a different modus operandi. Surely in a city so small, a dozen murders in one day cannot all be coincidence. Delmonico feels certain that at least some of the killings are connected, and a few may even be red herrings.

This is the second in the Colleen McCullough’s Carmine Delmonico murder mystery series. It finds him perplexed, both by the sheer volume of his case load and because he finds himself somewhat connected to one of his suspects, even if at second hand. Two cases in particular strike him as the most important, the bear-trap murder of a college student and the bizarre poisoning of the head of Cornucopia, a company that supplies armaments to U.S. military. The latter adds further complication in the form of FBI Special Agent Ted Kelly investigating the possible connection between the Cornucopia murder and the mole, code-named Ulysses, within that company who’s been passing top secret technology to the Russians.

Too Many Murders is composed as though it were a novel written in the late 1960s: the prose unflinchingly declares Delmonico’s biases consistent with the day and is well done in that respect. Delmonico, though, is too smart to be believed as merely a small-time police detective.

But would he be able to tackle such a complicated scenario otherwise? The scenario is so much larger than life that the novel leans towards a parody of the genre. It’s an enjoyable book for the most part, but maybe there are too many murders.

Janette King THE SEAMSTRESS OF HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD Erin McGraw, Mariner, 2009, $13.95/C$18.95, pb, 384pp, 9780547237855 There’s little room for creativity in Mercer County, Kansas at the turn of the 20th century.

The stress and hardship of daily life in rural Kansas allows little time for luxury. Still, Nell Plat, a teenage wife and mother, finds time for sewing every day.

Nell does not fit the mold of the ideal frontier wife—she cannot cook, she doesn’t get along with 20th Century

her overbearing mother-in-law, and she longs for a better life in California. Saving the money that she makes sewing, she escapes, abandoning her two difficult children and her moody husband in search of freedom and adventure.

California meets Nell’s expectations, but it also defies them—the work is just as difficult, the living conditions are still poor, and the overbearing mother-in-law is replaced with the snooty customers Nell serves as a shopgirl in a series of department stores. Christening herself Madame Annelle, Nell uses her sewing skills as an escape, making shirtwaists for her fellow shopgirls, and graduating to designing and creating couture dresses. But shedding her old life comes with risks, and her past never fully disappears, even when her dreams of working in Hollywood are finally realized.

What sets McGraw’s novel apart from other stories of reinvention is the intelligent prose and vivid characterizations. Nell spends the bulk of her adult life looking over her shoulder, wondering when the cracks in her personal narrative will cause her carefully-built life to collapse. McGraw captures this tension effectively, while presenting a portrait of Los Angeles as a new American metropolis and the antidote to the ordinary. We now see Hollywood as a place of reinvention—a wonderland where a young woman from the middle of nowhere can become a couturier to the stars. The Seamstress of Hollywood Boulevard gives us a glimpse of how that myth began, and does so with elan.

Nanette Donohue THE CRIMSON ROOMS Katharine McMahon, Putnam, 2010, $25.99, hb, 384pp, 9780399156229 / Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2009, £12.99, hb, 384pp, 9780297855347 In London in 1924, Evelyn Gifford is a young lawyer of thirty, a single woman living at home with her mother, aunt, and grandmother. When her brother was killed in the war, her late father had seen the need to provide her with an education.

Even after she receives her credentials, seeking gainful credible employment proves difficult in this male- dominated profession. Ultimately she is hired by Mr. Breen, of Breen & Balcombe.

Evelyn had worshipped her brother; his memory is vivid, and his death continues to disturb her sleep.

She opens the door one evening and is confronted with a woman who introduces herself as Meredith.

In tow is a small boy whose resemblance to James is striking. When the young woman announces that she knew her brother intimately, and that this is his son, Edmund, Evelyn has no doubt but to believe her. Meredith’s appearance raises more questions about her brother’s past that Evelyn must ultimately face.

While sorting through this turn of events, a young newlywed is murdered, and Evelyn’s firm takes the case. The victim was killed by a bullet through the heart, allegedly by her husband, a veteran. All evidence points to his guilt, but Evelyn, determined to help save his life, searches for evidence to clear him. In the process of the 20th Century

investigation, Evelyn meets someone who alters her life in ways she never imagined. Was it by chance, or was it planned?

Katharine McMahon keeps the adrenaline pumping from beginning to end. Evelyn’s spunk and spirit are endearing, and her disappointments will make you wince. The combination of intense action, love, mystery, and women’s struggles makes this her best novel yet.

Wisteria Leigh THE PROMISE OF RAIN Donna Milner, Quercus, 2010, £12.99, pb, 314pp, 9781847249524 This is a moving novel about family, love and war. It is split between the viewpoint of an 11-yearold girl, Ethie, in 1962, trying to cope with her mother Lucy’s sudden and bizarre death, and that of her father, Howard, as a soldier and POW in Hong Kong twenty years earlier.

Howard’s transformation from innocent young prairie boy to war veteran is convincing and heartbreaking. The sense of foreboding that pervades the soldiers’ triumphant arrival in Hong Kong tinges the initial colourful scenes with irony and sadness. The recounting of the cruelties that the POWs endured is appropriately appalling and upsetting. The different ways in which they suffer when they get home is also poignant.

Howard does not talk about his war experiences; to Ethie he is a silent and absent figure who finds solace in drink. However, when Lucy dies, Howard is forced to confront his past and his responsibilities to his grieving family.

The “mystery” surrounding Lucy’s death and Howard’s “secret” were not what drove the narrative for me. I enjoyed the human relationships: between comrades, lovers and siblings. Although some characters, such as Ethie’s Aunt Mildred, felt a little one‑dimensional, others, such as Gordy and Ah Sam, were original and endearing. Ethie’s brother, Kipper, who has Downs Syndrome, particularly stands out as a unique and strong personality who ties the family and the plot together.

A child’s grief for their mother and the experiences of a POW are weighty and difficult subjects to deal with, but I think Milner succeeds in conveying both believably and affectingly. I cared about the characters, was interested in what had happened to them and wanted to know how things would turn out.

Victoria Lyle IN A DARK WOOD Marcel Möring (trans. Shaun Whiteside), HarperCollins, 2010, $24.99, hb, 447pp, 9780007129669 / Fourth Estate, 2009, £8.99, pb, 464pp, 9780007129669 “The heart of the heart. The midst of the battle.

Midway through our lives, when we find ourselves in a dark wood. In the shit. That’s where we are now.” Readers who enjoy modern writers like James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and Milan Kundera will enjoy Marcel Möring’s haunting prose about the emptiness and guilt felt by Jacob Noah, a

Holocaust survivor led on a strange journey by “the Jew of Assen” and Marcus Kolpa, a young man full of promise who drifts unmoored in postwar Holland. Set in the prosperous and willfully ahistorical Dutch town of Assen, In a Dark Wood reads like a stream of consciousness with a plot, tying together vignettes in the lives of its characters, all trying to find meaning in a world in which tragedy has stripped it away. Shaun Whiteside’s translation captures the beauty of Möring’s writing with his philosophical descriptions of life in Assen and his characters’ dream-like recollections of the war. This is not an easy read, but it’s worth the effort.

Patricia O’Sullivan THE MANY DEATHS OF THE FIREFLY BROTHERS Thomas Mullen, Random House, 2010, $26.00, hb, 416pp, 9781400067534 / Fourth Estate, Apr. 2010, £12.99, hb, 400pp, 9780007340828 The 1930s changed the lives of millions of Americans. Dreams and hope disappeared for the majority of the laid-off, financially ruined and starving victims of the Depression. In the midst of this devastation, notorious criminals began to acquire an almost heroic status because they beat the system that no longer guaranteed financial security for honest, hard-working people.

So begins Thomas Mullen’s story of the notorious Fireson brothers, Jason and Whit, who were allegedly killed and survived death three times during their bank robber capers. Reports of these daring ventures were accompanied by sensational descriptions of the police and innocent bystanders accidentally or deliberately murdered in each burglary attempt. The Fireson brothers’ background story is starkly depicted, portraying a father who may or may not have been forced into a devastating criminal act because of a failed attempt into his first entrepreneurial effort at expansion.

Such efforts were representative of the essence of the American Dream put on a definite hiatus during this difficult historical period.

The tale includes many other fascinating elements, such as a kidnapping with a shocking origin and the mythology that grew exponentially with each resurrection of the Fireson brothers.

Did Jason and Whit’s foray into crime begin before or after their father’s demise? Was their choice of career actually a “survival” of the terrible Depression rather than just a criminal decision? The latter is a rather unique perspective suggested with subtlety in the latter portion of this riveting, very wellwritten novel. The story is familiar, yet Thomas Mullen’s writing style is so engaging, one can’t put this novel down until its most unexpected end.

Viviane Crystal THE WITCH DOCTOR’S WIFE Tamar Myers, Avon A, 2009, $13.99, pb, 307pp, 9780061727832 Myers, known for her light contemporary mysteries, switches gears for this charactercentered historical thriller based on her childhood HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Reviews | 51

experiences in the Belgian Congo. It’s 1958, and colonial rulers are extracting as much wealth as possible from the land before turning it over to the native people, who anxiously await independence.

The powerful Consortium controls the diamond trade, prompting some workers to conceal their lucrative finds at considerable risk to themselves.

In the small tribal village of Belle Vue, sitting atop the Kasai River gorge, the whites and Africans live apart, intercultural disputes occasionally stirring within and between both groups.

When young South Carolina native Amanda Brown arrives in the Congo to run a missionary guesthouse, she is enraptured by the landscape, but her intensive cultural training doesn’t prepare her for its people’s peculiar names and odd customs.

Although she already has a housekeeper, she can’t resist offering employment to the clever first wife of Their Death, the local witch doctor. Their Death, already contending with two squabbling spouses and his second job as a yardman – he isn’t an especially successful witch doctor – seizes his opportunity when he discovers an enormous uncut gem in his infant son’s possession. Thus begins an upward-moving chain of greed, misplaced trust, and betrayal, all for a diamond hardly anyone has even seen.

The author’s informative asides on geography, fauna, and Bantu culture begin each chapter.

Multiple viewpoints enhance the experience, as does the characters’ melodic, picturesque speech. Their dry wit counterbalances the many dark moments.

It would have been easy to make Amanda merely a straitlaced counterpart for the more colorful Congolese, but Myers endows her with warmth, intelligent curiosity, a good sense of humor, and a difficult past. Adventure-seeking readers shouldn’t miss this memorable tale, a vibrant evocation of an enchanting yet dangerous place.

Sarah Johnson THE DOGS AND THE WOLVES Irène Némirovsky, Chatto & Windus, 2009, £16.99, hb, 216pp, 9780701181307 Irène Némirovsky was born in Kiev in 1903, the daughter of a Jewish banker. In 1918, the family fled the revolution, settling in France, where she published several novels before perishing in Auschwitz. Many of her books are now being published in English, including this tale of doomed love. Translator Sandra Smith explains: the French title Les Chiens et les Loups derives from the expression entre chien et loup meaning dusk, difficult to distinguish between similar shapes; dogs and wolves belong to the same family, one domesticated the other savage. This theme recurs through the book, exploring the immoveable strata of Jewish society.

The novel opens in a Ukrainian city resembling pre-revolutionary Kiev. Ada lives with her father in the ghetto. On the hill are their rich cousins including Harry, by whom Ada is captivated when, as a child, she first sees him through his gate. After a pogrom, both families move to Paris in 1914.

Ada becomes an artist, marries Ben, a cousin from 52 | Reviews | HNR Issue 51, February 2010

the ghetto, but never forgets Harry. One day he buys two of her paintings because they remind him of his past …

In spite of the author’s eye for detail: Jewish matrons with ‘scornful pout and hard implacable eyes’, I found the characters shadowy, the dislocation of the immigrant experience reflected in the book’s structure. There is little feel of Paris, the Great War, the 1920s, and gaps of years between some chapters. There is coy reference to a ‘financial crisis’, from which Ada hopes to save Harry, and a ‘small town in Eastern Europe’ where she moves a few days after ‘civil war had broken out’. This lack of anchorage gives the quality of a fable to the novel.

Nevertheless, there are lyrical descriptive passages as if an artist is using words instead of paint.

Janet Hancock RUBY’S SPOON Anna Lawrence Pietroni, Spiegel & Grau, 2010, $26.00, hb, 384pp, 9781400068685 / Chatto & Windus, 2010, £12.99, hb, 384pp, 9780701184360 Small, landlocked, and economically depressed in 1933, the English town of Cradle Cross isn’t a place one goes for an adventure. The main industry, a factory specializing in buttons made of horn, is in decline due to the rise of artificial materials, the populace is poor and dissatisfied, and oldfashioned beliefs die hard. When the mysterious Isa Fly appears at a Cradle Cross chip shop, 13year-old Ruby Tailor is immediately captivated.

Orphaned at a young age and raised by her distant (and occasionally cruel) grandmother, Ruby longs for a mother figure, and Isa seems willing to indulge her need. Isa is searching for her longlost sister on behalf of her father, Moonie Fly—a man who, at one time, supposedly lived in Cradle Cross, although nobody has a memory of him. Isa’s bizarre physical appearance, combined with her seemingly fruitless quest, provokes curiosity and then suspicion in the townsfolk, with the exception of Ruby and Truda Blick, the remaining heir to the town’s button factory.

The mystery at the core of Ruby’s Spoon is complex and layered, and the underlying themes of familial love and betrayal, cultural and industrial change, and fear of the unknown are timeless.

Much of the dialogue is written in the unique dialect of England’s Black Country and begs to be read aloud. Ruby is caught between childhood and adulthood—she has the curiosity and innate trust of a child, but is sophisticated enough to understand adult emotion and motivation. Pietroni keeps Isa Fly a mystery to both the townsfolk and the reader throughout the book, saving the big reveal for a very satisfying ending. In turns modern and folkloric, this is an ambitious and unique debut.

Nanette Donohue GRINDING OF THE SOUL Naum Prifti (trans. Peter R. Prifti), East European Monographs/Columbia University Press, $55, hb, 306pp, 9780880336413 Prifti’s book is a collection of short stories about

life under strict Marxist-Leninist communism in the 20th century. The stories have a casual tone, like a relative or old neighbor telling you stories of their life. The tone underscores the absurdity of life under a totalitarian regime and how easily the soul can be ground down into pettiness, greed, hopelessness. The characters are drawn very well in a few short sentences, and the emotional impact of each story is immediate.

Though set in Enver Hoxha’s Albania from World War II through the 1980s, the stories have a timeless quality, modern folktales about all the ways people can lose their moral center. The translation did not do this book service, however.

One gets the sense that reading these stories in the original language would have increased both the sense of immediacy and the feeling of folktale.

Unfortunately, as it is, the translation is clunky and inelegant.

Grinding of the Soul is definitely not a comfortable book to read, but worthwhile nonetheless.

Julie Rose THE YARD DOG Sheldon Russell, Minotaur, 2009, $24.99/ C$31.99, hb, 292pp, 9780312566708 Hook Runyon is a railroad agent, a yard dog.

His name is a nickname he inherited after an unfortunate accident left him without one arm.

His job is to protect the railroad from hobos, pickpockets and other criminals. He works at the yard that is situated near Camp Alva, a POW camp in Oklahoma. He lives in a caboose, bulging with his collection of rare books, a passion which is second only to his love of shine. One day Spark Dugan is found dead underneath one of the railroad cars. He is a coal picker who keeps Hook’s bin full, and this day when Hook wakes up his box is empty.

When called to investigate, he is in a quandary as he immediately notices that nothing appears right.

His boss wants a quick wrap-up, seeing the death as an accident caused when Spark Dugan carelessly fell asleep while drunk. But when it comes time to file the paperwork for the railroad, Hook labels the cause of death a homicide. Along with his buddy and moonshine supplier Runt, he will attempt to find out what happened to Spark. He knows one thing for sure: Spark Dugan would have never picked a railroad car to sleep under. In another puzzlement, his face in death showed no fear.

The setting inside and amid the countryside of a POW camp surrounding the railroad offers unique, fresh material supported by accurate historical elements. Unforgettable characters captivate the emotions with Hook Runyan as a possible future series protagonist. World War II is brought chillingly close to home in this action-packed mystery that is a white-knuckle achievement.

Wisteria Leigh NO LESS THAN VICTORY Jeff Shaara, Ballantine, 2009, $28.00/C$35.00, hb, 449pp, 9780345467925 The final novel in this three book series starts in 20th Century

November 1944 in the middle of a B-17 bombing mission over Berlin that goes terribly wrong. The pace never slows from there, as it rolls along with the German offensive which became known as the Battle of the Bulge. Once again the reader lives with the fear of the infantrymen as German tanks blast past and leave them to find their way back to friendly lines; lines which are in complete disarray and constantly moving away from them.

The reader will also grapple with the tactical and strategic decisions made by those in command of the opposing forces. Eisenhower, with his two prima donna generals, Patton and Montgomery, must not only fight the war but also placate the egos of these two commanders. On the German side, Von Rundstedt, who knows defeat is at hand, tries to convince Hitler and his sycophants that a well-coordinated assault could pressure the Allies into seeking an armistice and possibly sparing what is left of Germany. But Hitler will have no part of it.

Despite knowing the history of World War II and this battle in particular, I still felt compelled to spend hours at a time engrossed in this story. Such is Shaara’s gift for bringing history to life as if it is being told for the first time.

Mark F. Johnson THE TAILOR’S NEEDLE Lakshmi Raj Sharma, Picnic, 2009, £9.99, pb, 328pp, 9780956037046 Set in India in the 1930s, this novel follows the fortunes of Sir Saraswati and his three children, Yogendra, Maneka and Sita, who have all been brought up in Western style of education by British governesses. The novel examines pre‑independence India, the feeling of different people towards the British, and the movement towards autonomy.

It slyly pokes fun at many aspects of British and Indian culture with a gently sarcastic style, as Sir Saraswati struggles to reconcile his admiration for the British with the ideals of Gandhi and the development of independent India.

The novel also looks at the role and status of women, contrasting the feisty and strong-willed Maneka with her more traditional mother and sister. The concept of caste and its role in the new India that is emerging is also considered.

The title refers to the belief of Sir Saraswati that his children should be like the needle of a tailor, passing through all kinds of cloth without discriminating, and this is a central metaphor throughout the book. The style is interesting and quite different. The dialogue is rather stilted, yet somehow this seems to suit the characters and the time well. It is something that the reader can adjust to quickly and it does not affect the enjoyment.

This is an unusual novel that carries the flavour of its time and setting. Anyone who enjoys books about India would find this worth a read.

Ann Northfield SEARCHING FOR PEMBERLEY Mary Lydon Simonsen, Sourcebooks, 2009, $14.99/C$18.99, pb, 496pp, 9781402224393 20th Century

Searching for Pemberley is a historical romance and mystery of a sort, set in the aftermath of World War II. While living in London, American Maggie Joyce “stumbles upon a rumor that Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was based on the lives of a real couple.” Maggie meets the couple’s relatives and over time, through correspondence and longforgotten diaries and letters that are shared with her, Maggie learns the history that is so similar to that in Jane Austen’s novel. At the same time, Maggie describes her life in England as the wartorn and battle-weary nation struggles to cope with the consequences. Her own Austen-like romances and struggles intertwine with her discoveries about the origin of the book, adding an element of complexity to the well-designed plot.

I wanted to adore this book, and I appreciate the fact that this was not just another Austen remake.

However, I struggled to get past the monotonous lecturing tone of the writing. The amount of telling and explaining caused me to disengage from the plot and characters, as much as I wanted to be engaged and connected. I felt as though I was looking on from the outside, being kept at bay, rather than being drawn into the heart of the story.

I would still recommend Searching for Pemberley

to ardent Austen fans who will hopefully be able to look past this complaint of mine and enjoy this well-thought-out story.

Andrea Connell THE EINSTEIN GIRL Philip Sington, Harvill Secker, 2009, £12.99, pb, 388pp, 9781846552908 Although this novel begins in Germany two months before Hitler came to power, at first we hardly feel the presence of the Nazis. The characters are preoccupied with their own lives, and National Socialism is merely a growing menace in the background. A young woman, evidently the victim of an assault, is found near death in the woods outside Berlin. When she awakes from her coma, she has lost her memory and the only clue to her identity is a handbill advertising a public lecture by Albert Einstein on the ‘Present State of Quantum Theory’.

Martin Kirsch, a psychiatrist deeply troubled by his experiences in the First World War, takes an interest in her. She is both beautiful and extremely intelligent, and he begins to fall in love with her. He discovers that she is highly gifted in mathematics, and what little he can find out

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E D I TORS’ CH OICE THE ANARCHIST John Smolens, Three Rivers, 2009, $15.00/C$18.95, pb, 320pp, 9780307351890 This novel is a fictitious account of Leon Czolgosz, who, on September 6, 1901, in Buffalo, New York, shot and mortally wounded President McKinley. It is primarily a story of the months leading up to the assassination.

It’s also the story of the men who tried to stop him.

Czolgosz was an anarchist who followed the teachings of Emma Goldman, a radical labor leader, preaching an overthrow of big business and government. A weak, timid man, Czolgosz was driven by a sense of duty to the cause of anarchy.

This is a suspense-filled novel featuring many characters affected by the assassination: European immigrants who are treated unkindly and must work hard to earn a living; the Pinkerton detectives who take advantage of their power; corrupt politicians; women forced into prostitution to survive; and, finally, Moses Hyde, who befriends Czolgosz and is forced by the police to spy on him.

Mr. Smolens has written an exceptional book of America around the turn of the 20th century – one which covers the entire breadth of the conflict between the working man (and woman) and the American political machine. The major characters – Czolgosz, Hyde, the nasty detective, and the Russian prostitute – are interesting and add depth to the story. The author stays true to the facts and develops a fictional storyline that held this reader’s interest, as I quickly turned the pages to read the next chapter. Highly recommended.

Jeff Westerhoff HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Reviews | 53

about her background leads him to believe that she has a personal link with Albert Einstein. As the threat from the Nazis grows and the new order in Germany begins to impinge on the lives of the characters, he investigates further and is led first to Switzerland and then to Serbia. But he also goes on a journey into the strange intricacies of Einstein’s own life. Kirsch knows that he carries a disease which in the end will doom him, but as the mystery is resolved in a wholly unexpected way, he finds a kind of salvation.

There is much science in this book, yet it should not put off the reader with no understanding of Einstein’s theories. They serve to enhance the emotional background, the dilemma in which Kirsch finds himself, and the growing menace of the Nazis. Well worth reading.

Neville Firman THE CARNIVORE Mark Sinnett, ECW Press, 2009, $26.95/C$29.95, hb, 253, 9781550228984 On October 15, 1954, Hurricane Hazel pounded Toronto with high winds and torrential rains. When the swollen rivers flooded their banks, bridges were swept off their moorings, houses were

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washed into Lake Ontario, and 81 lives were lost.

Once the storm abates, Ray Townes, a young police officer whose wife, Mary, is expecting their first child, is hailed as a hero. His picture is splashed across the front pages of several newspapers, and reporters clamor to interview him about the details of his dramatic rescues. Shattered by the events of the evening, Ray shuns the publicity. As time passes, his marriage disintegrates and he becomes a shadow of the man he once was. Fifty years later, when Ray is 84 and dying of emphysema, he decides it is time to reveal the truth. Writing in a journal, which he hides from his wife and daughter, Ray recounts the untold story of the hurricane that swept away his plans and dreams that night.

I was predisposed to enjoy this book: Not only are the premise and title intriguing, but Hurricane Hazel was a frequent topic of adult conversation during my childhood. I was, however, disappointed.

The storyline shifts chapter-by-chapter between Ray and Mary; and also jumps, within chapters, between 1954 and 2004. This style could work, if it added to the suspense, but hints about what we are about to learn are so blatant that there are few surprises. Ray and Mary’s relationship is as laborious and boring as Ray’s constant effort to

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E A DISTANT MELODY Sarah Sundin, Revell, 2010, $14.99, pb, 432pp, 9780800734213 In 1942, plain Allie Miller travels to northern California for her best friend’s wedding. There, she meets pilot Lt. Walter Novak on his last furlough home before being shipped overseas.

The two, usually both social misfits, hit it off and quickly form a deep bond, prompting them to correspond after the weekend is over.

As letters fly between Walt’s bomber base in England and Allie’s upper-class home, their friendship binds them together, but lies soon tear them apart. Walt falls in love with Allie only to discover that she already has a boyfriend.

And Allie has agreed to marry J. Baxter Hicks just to please her parents. In reality her deepest desire is to obey God, who is telling her to follow a much different path. Allie must choose between her faith and her family, and Walt must come to grips with the pain and sorrow of war.

Debut novelist Sundin delivers an impressive World War II romance full of courage, sacrifice, and lessons learned. The time Sundin has put into researching aviation during the war is evident, and she does an excellent job weaving these details into the story. Walt’s relationships with his crewmen and his struggles to fit it in are as intriguing as Allie’s fights against her parents for freedom and independence.

Perfectly plotted, dramatic and full of tension, this is an excellent start to the new Wings of Glory series, which will feature each of the Novak brothers. Highly recommended.

Rebecca Roberts 54 | Reviews | HNR Issue 51, February 2010

intake his next breath. While this may be the whole point, it does not create interesting characters. That being said, Sinnett’s descriptions of the human drama amidst the storm-ravaged city are powerful and worth the read for anyone interested in learning more about this portion of Canadian history.

Nancy J. Attwell A MEASURE OF MERCY Lauraine Snelling, Bethany House, 2009, $13.99, pb, 368pp, 9780764206092 In A Measure of Mercy, author Lauraine Snelling introduces a young woman who wants to be a doctor. Nothing unusual about that— today—but this is 1903, when ninety-five percent of U.S. physicians are men. Female physicians are not welcome in some hospitals; some male doctors will not work with them. A woman must be very determined to succeed in medicine.

Although lady doctors are scarcer than hen’s teeth in 1903 North Dakota, Astrid Bjorklund, an intelligent and ambitious eighteen-year-old, has one in her family. Her sister-in-law, a medical doctor, trains Astrid and wants the girl to join her local practice. But Astrid wants to be a surgeon, which requires formal training. When an opportunity arises for study in Chicago, she is thrilled—until she hears how badly her skills are needed in Africa.

With Joshua, the man she loves, out of her life, Astrid makes a difficult decision, but does she have the determination to carry it through?

A Measure of Mercy, billed as first of a new series, “Home to Blessings,” is neither a standalone nor a new beginning. The novel ends in a cliffhanger to up a sequel and, throughout, draws on personalities and story lines from Snelling’s previous inspirational novels. Adults new to her work are unlikely to find A Measure of Mercy challenging enough to try and catch up. Young adults and fans may enjoy the sweet if incomplete story enough to keep reading.

Jeanne Greene CITY OF DRAGONS Kelli Stanley, Minotaur, 2010, $24.99/C$31.99, hb, 352pp, 9780312603601 Readers searching for a hard-drinking, chainsmoking, smart-mouthing female version of the classic Sam Spade private detective need look no further than Stanley’s debut crime thriller – Miranda Corbie fits the bill completely.

On the eve of World War II, this former escort service professional is now making her living in San Francisco as a private investigator, complete with license, gun, and good looks. After a young Japanese boy collapses onto her during a Chinatown parade, fatally shot by an unknown assailant, Miranda finds that the police don’t want to look into the incident, the neighborhood gangs won’t talk about it, and even his family is hiding something. In spite of multiple warnings, Miranda is driven to investigate, and every step takes her deeper into the city, gang, and international politics of the time. Of course she has allies along the way, including Inspector Gonzales of the SFPD and 20th Century

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A DUTY TO THE DEAD Charles Todd, Morrow, 2009, $24.99/C$32.99, hb, 330pp, 978061791765 Todd (the pseudonym for a mother-son writing team) departs from the Inspector Ian Rutledge series in this engrossing mystery featuring World War I nurse Bess Crawford.

Injured in the sinking of the hospital ship Britannic, Bess uses her leave to fulfill a promise to a dying patient: deliver a mysterious message to his brother, “Tell Jonathan I lied.” The Graham family is singularly uninterested in Arthur’s last words, and Bess finds her curiosity piqued and her nursing skills in demand in their small town in Kent. Through a series of events, she finds herself investigating an event that occurred fifteen years ago, stonewalled at every turn.

As with the Inspector Rutledge series, the effects of World War I permeate the lives of the characters. Bess, with her front seat at the theatre of war, has more compassion than most when she encounters a shell-shocked patient. She also encounters family secrets that include adultery and an attempt to thwart primogeniture. I absolutely devoured this mystery. Unlike the Rutledge books, it is told in the first person, and Bess’s voice is a compelling one. Some threads are dropped, but that is a minor complaint. If this is the first in the Bess Crawford series, it is an excellent debut.

Ellen Keith Rick Sanders, writer for the San Francisco News.

She’s also accompanied by the ghost of her lover, Johnny, a reporter who died while covering the Spanish Civil War several years earlier.

Although the cigarette-after-cigarette description (Chesterfields, please) gets quite old, as does the flood of liquor, Stanley does a great job of putting the reader in pre-WWII San Francisco: the fog, the cars (cable and auto), and the clothes are all right on target, and her tying together international incidents with local events is well done. This reader looks forward to learning more about Miranda Corbie’s secrets and skills in future volumes.

Helene Williams

crime reader will see the final twist coming from the point the obvious clue is given.

Frank Tallis obviously does his research, but despite that, and despite Lieberman wondering, ‘We Viennese. What will become of us?’ throughout the book, I did not get the feeling of hysterical gaiety I associate with Vienna at the finde-siècle. The book is more solemn than that, with few, if any, light touches. Intelligently written, with good descriptions, I found the dialogue stilted.

However, the BBC have bought the film rights to the previous novel, and I imagine this whole series would make very good viewing. jay Dixon

DEADLY COMMUNION Frank Tallis, Century, 2010, £12.99, hb, 344pp, 9781846053580 This is the fifth book in Frank Tallis’ detective series, set at the beginning of the 20th century.

Someone is preying on women, leaving their bodies in the parks and gardens of Vienna.

Detective Inspector Rheinhardt and Dr Max Liebermann investigate in their different ways, one using laborious police work, the other psychology, to uncover the perpetrator.

Written mainly in the third person, there is the occasional chapter in the first person, written as a diary, and thus an explanation of his actions, by the murderer himself. But anyone who is an avid

AT THE CHIME OF A CITY CLOCK D.J. Taylor, Constable, 2010, £12.99, hb, 242pp, 9781849010245 In 1931 Britain is deep in financial crisis, and coming off the Gold Standard seems inevitable.

That summer in a seedy part of London erstwhile writer and poet, James Ross, is unable to find a market for most of his literary work. Reduced to taking a job as a door-to-door salesman he makes half-a-crown commission on every bottle of carpet cleaner he is able to persuade old ladies to purchase.

This way he can afford to buy a drink but not pay his landlady the overdue rent.

One day in Kensal Green, James meets Suzi Chamberlain, a glamorous secretary to a dubious

20th Century

boss. Their relationship is fraught with unanswered questions and he finds himself drawn into a situation he would rather not be in. Discovering the truth about his girlfriend comes as a shock to James – alas, not to D.J. Taylor’s readers.

At the Chime of a City Clock starts with all the hallmarks of a book version of a Thirties blackand-white movie thriller. The pace is racy; it flicks in and out as scenes and characters are introduced but slows and soon becomes mired in slang. An aroma of cigarette smoke rises from the pages, and there is a distinct period feel with twopenny bus rides and a night out with change from ten shillings. But, the read is short and the story lacks suspense and tension.

Gwen Sly UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN Margaret Thornton, Allison & Busby, 2009, £19.99, hb, 335pp, 9780749007485 In the summer of 1914, there were rumblings of the war to come and the devastating effect it would have. This book follows the fortunes of the Moon family who were living in Scarborough. The boys were still at school but it soon became apparent that they would have to abandon any idea of going on to university in order to ‘do their bit’.

Historically, I thought the story gave a good insight into the way the war affected the lives of ordinary people wrapped up in the triumphs and tragedies of the one family. However, I was not so impressed with the style of writing. The author may have been trying to recapture the prose of the early 20th century, but I found the frequent subclauses explaining or enlarging on things which had already been explained very off-putting and slowed down the pace of the action. This is the first book I have read by this writer, who has had seventeen novels published.

Marilyn Sherlock COLONY Hugo Wilcken, Trafalgar Square/Harper Perennial, 2010 (c2007), $14.95/£7.99, 336pp, pb, 9780007106486 From the mid-19th century until World War II, French criminals were often deported to penal colonies in South America, such as Devil’s Island or other parts of French Guiana. Little more than slave encampments, these settlements didn’t include immigrants seeking to build a new country, as happened in Australia. Pretty much everyone at Saint-Laurent and the other sites were either criminals, guards, or prison administrators.

In 1928, this included Sabir, a small-time criminal who, thanks to some eavesdropping and quick thinking upon his arrival, is sent to a work camp upriver to be the gardener for an idealistic commandant with dreams of replicating the French countryside in the tropical jungle. In spite of this relatively easy assignment, however, Sabir has only dreams of escape. Tales abound about how few inmates survive the treacherous journey through the jungle, and most of those are returned by neighboring countries upon discovery, yet Sabir HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Reviews | 55

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THE SWAN THIEVES Elizabeth Kostova, Little, Brown, 2010, $26.99/C$32.99, hb, 576pp, 9780316065788 / Sphere, 2010, £16.99, hb, 576pp, 978-1847442406 An enchanting story and a deeply human experience. At the end of it, one feels compelled to paint, or write, sing or make music, or simply live with greater intensity. The crisis of mind— and soul—of a famous artist that begins the story leads the narrator, psychiatrist Andrew Marlow, on the reluctant hero’s journey as he unravels the haunting obsession that has caused his patient to attack a painting with a knife. Kostova deftly weaves two stories of love and art from the Impressionist era in Paris to contemporary rural Maine and New York.

The larger-than-life figure of Robert Oliver, the artist-patient, looms over the narratives of the women who have loved him and the doctor who is determined to free him from the silent cage he has chosen to inhabit.

Kostova’s writing is always good, and sometimes exquisite. Here’s a sentence describing how Andrew feels upon seeing his 90-year-old father for the first time in a few years: “When I saw him waiting for me in his good summer clothes…I felt as always both his reality and the thin air that would one day replace him.” She uses letters, narrative, dialogue, and exposition with ease. The story is weighty, and moves slowly, thoughtfully—not a book to rush through, but to savor and ponder as you read it.

There is a little unsteadiness in the plot. The fortuitous connections seem just a touch too easy, and the last chapters almost rush to the conclusion. But these are minor issues compared to the overarching quality of the writing and the humanity of the characters. The Swan Thieves is a deeply involving story, one that will resonate for a long time after you’ve closed the book, like the sound of a very old church bell at dusk.

Mary F. Burns persists in his plans.

Colony is divided into three parts: each tells a part of the main story from a variant viewpoint. What the three parts share is the sense of how the lushness of the jungle actually causes everything imported into it (buildings, equipment, phonograph records, as well as people) to decay. Everyone there is trying to escape, from themselves if not from others; the tropical heat and humidity speed up the mental and physical breakdown, leaving the reader unsure of what is real and what is hallucination. Flashbacks to French battles in the Great War are interspersed with tales of the South American natives, making for a swirling, chaotic, and mesmerizing collage of identities and realities.

Helene Williams

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CALL ME AHAB Anne Finger, Bison Books, 2009, $17.95/C$15.72, pb, 205pp, 9780803225336 These nine short stories mix fact and fiction, and most of them concern historical characters with physical disabilities. One of the best invites us to imagine a half mad Vincent Van Gogh struggling to survive in 20th-century New York while he waits to receive Social Security benefits. Van Gogh’s predicament feels so vividly real that it is possible to suspend disbelief and hope he and his art will survive this time around. In another story, our hero is Goliath, mocked by his fellow Philistines for his huge size. Unfortunately, the reader is led to expect that we will see Goliath confront David, and this tale fizzles out in a disappointing way. Historically, we are all over the place. Rosa Luxembourg turns up in New York in the 1990s. Shakespeare’s Gloucester makes a visit in roughly the same time period. Helen Keller tries to break free of being a

desexualized role model. The question of how the disabled person relates to society and is regarded by others recurs. When one is different from those around one, how is it possible to avoid being treated with either subtle or blunt dehumanization?

Winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction, this collection brings together works that are more thought experiments than conventional fictions. Nobody fits easily into society, but each character has a certain resilience. The stories are written in a clear and graceful prose style, laden with irony, occasionally including historical quotations.

Call Me Ahab does not deliver much conventional, linear storytelling, but it is thought provoking.

Phyllis T. Smith THE CEMETERY OF SECRETS David Hewson, Pan, 2009, £6.99, pb, 516pp, 9780330508766 In the cemetery of San Michele a corpse is exhumed. Rizzo has been paid to supervise this grisly task and remove from the coffin an item of great importance to a certain rich Englishman. At the same time a young Englishman, Daniel Forster arrives in Venice to work for the ancient printing firm of Scacchi.

The story travels back in time to 1733 and the Venice of Vivaldi and Canaletto. Lorenzo Scacchi has fallen in love with a gifted violinist, Rebecca Levi. Rebecca is a Jewess, confined to the ghetto but Lorenzo smuggles her out in the evenings in order to perform, incognito, for Vivaldi at La Pieta.

As Daniel’s story unfolds, so Lorenzo and Rebecca’s story continues in alternating chapters: parallel tales of mystery, murder and betrayal in which the suspense continues to build. 18th-century Venice seethes with life; the perfect setting for such nefarious deeds. It is a nostalgic journey for those who already know the city, a magical revelation for those who have yet to discover it. A real pageturner.

Ann Oughton SWORDS FROM THE DESERT Harold Lamb, Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2009, $21.95/C$30.50/£16.99, pb, 328pp, 9780803225169 Collected in Swords from the Desert are seven exciting stories set during the crusades and in 17th-century India and the Middle East, featuring the adventures of Arab, Mongol and Hindu warriors. “The Guest of Karadak” and “The Road to Kandahar” follow 58-year-old Arab physician Daril Ibn Athir, in his youth a swordsmen of the Nejd tribe, as he journeys to the Mogol court. In the caravans and frontier outposts of the journey Ibn Athir becomes embroiled in political intrigue, feuds and matters of honor, and the movements of armies. Beautiful women, even the favorite wife of the Mogol in the story “The Light of the Palace,” cross Ibn Athir’s path.

Men and women from different sides of conflict are thrown together in the stories “The Shield” and “The Way of the Girl.” In “The Shield,” dashing Khali el Khadr protects one of the enemy’s women, 20th Century — Multi-period

a Frank or western European, when Constantinople is besieged. After the city falls to the Christian hordes, El Khadr (the Valiant) delivers the maiden into her countrymen’s hands and makes off with a surprising reward. A young Arab woman stumbles into the hunting party of a Christian knight in “The Way of the Girl,” and must look to her own wit and the attachment of her tribesmen for rescue.

All of the stories collected in Swords from the Desert are excellent adventure tales brilliantly told, and they offer a wonderful glimpse of the culture and landscape where the Crusades were fought.

Author Harold Lamb was considered a Middle Eastern expert by the State Department, and these stories reflect his scholarship in fascinating settings and detail. Essays by the author are collected in an Appendix where Lamb discusses the Arab traditions, tactics, and sense of chivalry from the time of the crusades.

Eva Ulett THE BETRAYAL OF THE BLOOD LILY Lauren Willig, Dutton, 2010, $25.95/C$32.50, hb, 416pp, 9780525951506 Sixth in Willig’s series featuring present day academic Eloise Kelly researching the exploits of aristocratic English spies in the Napoleonic era, this latest installment moves to India, where intrigue abounds between the British, the French, and the Indians. Penelope Deveraux, a character introduced in the previous book, has been hastily married off to Lord Frederick Staines, who compromised her (with her willing participation), and both are shipped off to India where Freddy will be the special envoy to the Governor General.

By now, this series follows a formula—the heroine, sometimes spunky, sometimes prickly, spars with the hero until they admit their love for each other, while in the present day, American Eloise advances her relationship with British Colin, descendant of the ring of flower-named spies.

I’ve found the mysteries have more depth when the heroine is prickly, and Penelope is that, plus unhappily married. Her hero is Captain Alex Reid, as straitlaced as she is reckless. They are caught up in the tension between the Governor General and the Resident, to whom Alex reports, who is suspect for having married an Indian woman.

Willig masterfully captures India and its allure at the beginning of the 19th century.

Ellen Keith

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WHERE EAGLES FLY Lisa Norato, Five Star, 2009, $25.95, hb, 298pp, 9781594147630.

Shelby McCoy has reached the age of 40 without finding that special someone but finds life full anyway with her music, teaching, and grumpy Pomeranian, Jorge. Still, she hasn’t given up hope that there’s a man out there for her somewhere, though it’s safe to say she didn’t expect to find him Multi-period — Paranormal & Historical Fantasy

over 100 years in the past. But that’s exactly what happens when her SUV breaks down on the way to her sister’s dude ranch in Wyoming; one minute she’s in 2009 and the next she finds herself meeting Ruckert St. Cloud and his family, original owners of the ranch, in 1886.

Lisa Norato’s time traveling novel is a light, fun tale of finding your soul mate, regardless of time, space, and age. Taking modern-day Shelby and making her vulnerable as she finds herself alone in an old-fashioned world, Norato opens her heroine up to the possibility of love with a much younger man with issues of his own. Shelby’s initial resistance to the shy, stuttering Ruckert gives way to real, intense feelings as she learns to cope with her new surroundings, and the ultimate resolution to this ill-fated love story is both charming and satisfying. Filled with action, emotion, and unique twists of fate, Where Eagles Fly is a perfect distraction for a cold winter day.

Tamela McCann

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ALCESTIS Katharine Beutner, Soho, 2010, $23.00, hb, 304pp, 9781569476178 Those familiar with Greek mythology may recall Alcestis as the symbol of an ideal wife, a woman who so loved her husband, Admetus, that she gave her life in exchange for his when his hour came. She is also often known as the silent woman who was rescued from the underworld by Herakles and returned to her husband without speaking of what had happened to her. Little is known of her life before her famous death and return from death; was Alcestis’s sacrifice truly altruistic? How was she returned from Hades?

In Alcestis, Beutner has recreated a history for this model wife and her time spent in the underworld.

Beutner painstakingly describes everyday life in ancient Greece, sometimes perhaps in too detailed a fashion. It is clear that she has done her research, but the information occasionally disrupts the flow of the story as she initially sets the scene for her tale. However, once Alcestis enters the underworld (and the fantastical, exiting the realm of the strictly historical), the story comes alive. Alcestis’s time spent in the underworld is intriguingly imagined, with prose both lyrical and engaging. This is not a slim volume, but from the moment Alcestis dies, her story moves quickly.

A warning to those looking for historical accuracy: deities come to dine at palaces and are very real entities in this book. Beutner offers a look at loss, love, and duty that is no less poignant for this fantastical element.

L.K. Mason THE DEMON REDCOAT C. C. Finlay, Ballantine/Del Rey, 2009, $7.99/ C$9.99, pb, 391pp, 9780345503923

In this third book in the Traitor to the Crown series, Proctor Brown is still fighting the Covenant, the slippery organization that is working to defeat the bid for freedom by the American colonies.

Proctor and Lydia, an ex-slave who also has powers, leave for the Continent, where the leader of the Covenant is reputed to be, at the request of General Washington. They attach themselves to John Adams’s party for the journey but are considered most unwelcome travelling companions, as Proctor is forced to pretend that Lydia is his slave. After spending time with Benjamin Franklin at his house outside Paris, they make their way to London, which seems to be the locus of the Covenant’s power. There, they align themselves with Lord Gordon, who is fighting the Covenant in order to protect the king, only to find that this has unfortunate consequences for Proctor.

Learning more about the real characters and some of the true forces at work during the tail end of the Revolution was interesting, and it was easy to separate the actual from the fantastic. Deborah, Proctor’s wife, stays home on the farm during his travels and is much less in evidence during this book’s adventures. This last entry in the series tended to move more slowly than the first two, but those who have read the earlier entries will want to know how everything turns out.

Trudi E. Jacobson GWENHWYFAR: The White Spirit Mercedes Lackey, DAW, 2009. $25.95, hb, 404pp, 9780756405854 To reconcile the confusion in historical sources, Mercedes Lackey gives King Arthur three wives— all named Gwen. The third and last defines her own destiny via the path of a warrior.

Gwen’s affinity with horses and weapons made her different from the other women, and with her father’s blessing, she becomes a leader of men and proves herself their equal. The idea that a woman can be more than traditions allow appeals to us and makes us want to hear her story. Unfortunately, the early pages are heavy in description, and the exposition between action, which should enrich the story with context and motivation, often distracts instead. As the Princess of Pywill tells her tale, we see her as strong and fearless, yet capable of intense hatred even for a child. At times, she rambles and comes across as smug, congratulating herself way too often. Although such traits reinforce her success in the story, they lessen her appeal to us.

Gwen is chosen to become Arthur’s third wife to assist in the fight against the influence of the Christ priests and to keep the evil Medraut from power. No longer a young girl, Gwen understands that duty must come before her own dreams. Yet, as the story unfolds, we see she fights her enemies with the code of a warrior. As would be expected, the story has a large cast of characters and an intricate plot.

For those interested in a different interpretation of the Arthurian legend, Gwenhwyfar may satisfy.

Certainly, the second half of the book reads much better than the first. But the book has one HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Reviews | 57

overarching shortcoming—the text is riddled with contemporary phrases. Like bad punctuation or awkward grammar, these words repeatedly jolted me right out of the story.

Ms. Lackey is a skillful and successful author, but Gwenhwyfar is not her best work.

Veronika Pelka QUEEN VICTORIA: DEMON HUNTER A.E. Moorat, Hodder & Stoughton, 2009, £7.99, pb, 374pp, 97814447009268 / Eos, 2010, $14.99, pb, 384pp, 9780061976018 This purports to be the story of Queen Victoria’s reign and historically it is reasonably well told but is so mixed up with zombies and other gothic horrors that I could not take it seriously. Inside the front cover it states – A.E. Moorat weaves a seamlessly lurid tapestry of royal biography, gothic horror and fist-gnawing comedy as he lifts the veil on what really took place on the dark cobbled streets of 19th-century England.

I really couldn’t have put it better myself except for the ‘fist-gnawing comedy’. I found this book to be so far fetched that, with apologies to the author, did not find it at all funny. This is another novel which attaches itself to the apron strings of the historical novel genre but would be more at home under the heading of ‘gothic’ or general reading.

Not recommended unless you are into all things Vampire.

Marilyn Sherlock ANGEL TIME: The Songs of the Seraphim Anne Rice, Knopf, 2009, $25.95, hb, 268pp, 9781400043538 / Chatto & Windus, 2009, £17.99, hb, 266pp, 9780701178147 This is historical fiction split between 13thcentury England and 21st-century America.

Anne Rice, known for her Vampire Chronicles and her series on the life of Christ, has penned a multilayered, interesting and well-written work that falls somewhere between the paranormal and the religious.

Toby O’Dare, youthful guardian to his family and a talented musician, falls apart emotionally when his sister and brother are murdered by their unstable alcoholic mother. He becomes a contract killer, though he has an ongoing argument with God, whom he blames for the disaster. Though Toby hates his life, he feels is locked into it by fate.

Though he lost his faith, he still prays. Though emotionally dead, he still thinks of the what-havebeens.

Enter Malchiah, a Seraph, one of God’s angels sent to save human souls on the brink of damnation. Toby accepts a chance for redemption, and Malchiah brings Toby to the 13th century in order to defend a pair of Jews accused of murder.

This is not your average paranormal because it brings in all kinds of religious (Catholic) overtones—unusual since the biblical quotes are from the King James Bible. Although I am unsure if a non-Catholic would get some of the references, the story is ecumenical enough that it has universal appeal.

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Angel Time is different from Anne Rice’s “commercial” books. There are no vampires, sexual overtones, or blood. The complex story forces the reader to think beyond the obvious and consider the spiritual.

If this is a series, I look forward to the next book.

I highly recommend it.

Monica Spence Gothic, brooding novels with tense plotlines are what we have come to expect from Rice, author of the Vampire Chronicles. Still Gothic but with an angelic twist, we meet Toby O’ Dare, aka assassin Lucky the Fox, a soulless individual working for The Right Man. Lucky is on the brink of a kill at the only place he values in this world, the Mission Inn. After the kill Malchiah, Lucky’s guardian angel, offers him redemption from his sins if he agrees to work on earth for the angels saving lives.

O’Dare’s first mission would be to help save the Jews in 13th-century Norwich.

The book reads like a novella set over three distinct and almost unrelated scenes; Lucky the Assassin; his transformation from Toby O’Dare; his seeming redemption. Rice fails to encourage the reader to warm to Toby, even when on his mission.

Lead characters bathe in the light of beauty and godliness such as Godwin and Rosa, but have limited substance.

Living in Norwich, I was looking forward to details of the ancient city, but there was fleeting reference to the Castle and Cathedral and little scene-setting in this part of the novel. The plight of the Jews in Norwich was marginalised by Toby’s return to faith. Critics have commented that this new series coincides with Rice’s return to the church. Although this was a likeable novel and I was interested to see what happened to the characters, it lacked the sweeping historical prose we have been treated to in other books.

Explanations were convenient but failed to answer questions. Angel Time didn’t deliver the ‘suspense about assassins and angels’ promised on the cover. Overall, the book was likeable for the scant historical fact but not as enjoyable as the previous supernatural romps.

Kathryn Downes WOLFBREED S.A. Swann, Spectra, 2009, $15.00/C$18.95, pb, 384pp, 9780553807387 In 13th-century Eastern Europe, a place of dark forests and darker mysteries, a young man named Udolf finds a strange girl in the wilderness, naked and injured. He takes the unconscious young woman to his adopted family, where they nurse her back to health. She seems grateful, yet speaks little and appears constantly terrified of some unknown danger. The family, and Udolf in particular, feel affection for this seemingly innocent girl, but they are unaware of her secret: she is one of the wolfbreed, creatures kept hidden by the local German monks and used to terrorize and eliminate those who cling to the old religion. Now free from their brutal slavery, the young woman—Lilly—

experiences kindness and joy for the first time in her life. But Lilly brings terrible dangers to her new family: danger from the outside, as those from whom she escaped stop at nothing to hunt her down; and danger from within, as she desperately tries to suppress the savage thing inside her. It is a creature trained from birth to kill without thought, and it could emerge at any moment to destroy those she loves and any chance for a human life.

A blend of romance, fantasy, and adventure, Wolfbreed is a dark, earthy tale tinged with the supernatural yet retaining a detailed sense of historical realism. The prose flows like a magic spell, drawing the reader into a well-researched medieval world of knights and monks, heroes and monsters, filled with sympathetic characters you will root for from the moment you meet them. Even if historical fantasy/romance isn’t your regular genre, don’t overlook this finely crafted story. Recommended.

Heather Domin GRANDVILLE Bryan Talbot, Jonathan Cape, 2009, hb, £16.99, 101pp, 9780224084888 This is a sumptuously illustrated graphic novel, by an author-artist who received wide acclaim for his 2007 book Alice in Sunderland. Grandville, according to the author, is “an anthropomorphic steampunk detective-thriller”. It is set in an alternative Belle Époque Paris, where humans are minions (known as dough-faces) under the rule of animals, in a time when Napoleon beat the British at Waterloo and Europe is under French dominion. Technology is steam-based and has developed along arcane and wondrous lines.

Detective-Inspector LeBrock (yes, a badger!) of Scotland Yard investigates a series of crimes in Paris, which seem to implicate England in a plot against the French Empire. With nods towards modern-day conspiracy theories, the superhero LeBrock reveals a despicable plot that goes to the very top of the French political ruling class. The graphics are inspired by the 19th-century French illustrator Gerard, with references also to the Tintin books by Herge. Tremendous fun!

Doug Kemp ICE LAND Betsy Tobin, Plume, 2009, $15, pb, 374pp, 9780452295698 / Short Books, 2009, £7.99, pb, 368pp, 9781906021344 Iceland, at the dawn of a new millennium. King Olaf ’s Christian missionaries are attempting to convert the fiercely independent landholders and laborers of the island, but many still cling to the old ways, their reverence for the Aesir, the gods and goddesses of Scandinavia. The Aesir live among them, (mostly) unbeknownst to the people, as well as in their enclave in the far heights of Iceland, known as Asgard. The story follows the intertwining tales of Freya, goddess of love and fertility, and her quest for the Brisingamen, and Fulla, granddaughter of a wealthy landowner and her quest for love and independence. Their stories play out against the very real landscape of Iceland, Paranormal & Historical Fantasy

itself a strong personality throughout the book.

Tobin introduces us to winning, well-drawn characters (Dvalin in particular) with personalities and stories that make you care deeply about their fates. The stories are told in the present tense like the Norse sagas – as Freya explains at the start, “My tale starts and ends with Hekla, and I will tell it as it happens, in the manner of the bards.” This gives the book a sense of intimacy, and urgency, which works very well.

Beautifully plotted, the stories weave together in surprising and very satisfying ways, supported by excellent pacing and lovely language. The author calls it her love letter to Iceland and her people, and you can feel it in every chapter. You don’t need to have any knowledge of Norse myths or of the sagas, but I expect it would make this book even more compelling. All around, a thoroughly enjoyable book. Highly recommended.

Julie Rose

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alternative history

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HITLER’S WAR: September 1938 – War is declared Harry Turtledove, Hodder & Stoughton, 2009, £19.99, hb, 496pp, 9780340921814 / Del Rey, 2009, $27.00/C$32.00, hb, 512pp, 9780345491824 Many people regard alternative history as neither legitimate history nor legitimate historical fiction. Yet the past has meaning only in the light of what might have been and I find ‘what if ’ history both fascinating and provocative.

World War II very nearly started in the Munich Crisis of October 1938. Indeed it was much more likely to have started then than a year later, so what would a 1938 war have been like? Harry Turtledove realises that history is overdetermined: there are usually several reasons behind anything, so changing one factor seldom changes everything.

The 1938 war unfolds much as the 1939 war did, but this time the French make a fighting retreat to Paris, Russia is in the war on the Allied side from the outset and is attacked by Japan while the Spanish Civil War is still unresolved.

The book takes us only to the Spring of 1939, so I presume there is a sequel in the offing. It is well researched and believable, told at a fast pace (no phoney war here) in the voices of a dozen participants, each on a different front. It was spoilt for me by being written throughout in highly colloquial American, such as might have been used by an American infantryman, irrespective of the nationally of the protagonist. Turtledove sets himself a difficult task in telling the story through such a diverse set of narrators and it does not fully succeed. Also after a while one tank battle becomes very like another. Some maps would have been useful.

Edward James Paranormal & Historical Fantasy — Children & YA

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children & young adult

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ON VINEY’S MOUNTAIN Joan Donaldson, Holiday House, 2009, $16.95, hb, 224pp, 9780823421299 Viney Walker’s world is changing, and she doesn’t like it one bit. Orphaned along with her older brother and sister as a young girl, Viney, now sixteen, loves running barefoot around her mountain home in Tennessee, loves weaving woolen coverlets with homemade designs, and loves her independence. But when English settlers come and build a town in the middle of the forest, everything Viney loves is threatened. The settlers don’t respect the mountain as Viney does, Viney’s sister, Lizzie, starts taking on the uppity foreign ways of the English, and Viney herself begins to fall for a young Englishman. Set in the late 19th century, On Viney’s Mountain expertly weaves together the upheaval of industrialization in England, the founding of the utopian agricultural community of Rugby in the hills of Tennessee, and the coming of age of a spirited young woman.

Joan Donaldson’s writing is a pleasure to read for her engaging similes, “like a great white moth the preacher raised his arms in prayer” and “leaves fluttered and swirled about the men, sifting through branches like yellow and red snowflakes.”

In addition, the characters are well defined and the historical details are spot on. The plot, however, gave me a little trouble. Viney’s indecisiveness, while natural in a teenager, seemed to reflect that of the entire book, which wavered between the tale of a woman who represents a threatened culture and a romance. Even at the end, there is no conclusion to the primary conflict in the story, and thus I finished feeling unsatisfied, like hearing a cadence without the final note.

Patricia O’Sullivan

On Viney’s Mountain is a charming story about how an independent 16-year-old girl, Lavinia Walker, tries to drive foreign settlers from her mountain home in Tennessee. However, one of the settlers, Charlie Breckenridge, makes her reconsider her plan. As Viney falls for Charlie, she is afraid that loving him would mean giving up her beloved forest and the weaving she loves.

The way Joan Donaldson describes Viney’s feelings makes me feel close to her. Viney is a likeable character even though she is judgmental towards other people. The plot was romantic and kept my attention although the end was confusing.

I would definitely recommend this book to my friends.

Marion O’Sullivan, age 11 THE PALE ASSASSIN Patricia Elliott, Holiday House, 2009, $17.95, hb, 336pp, 9780823422500 Eugenie de Boncoeur is a typical 14-year-old aristocrat in France during its Revolution: unaware

and frivolous. Although her portrayal is historically accurate, modern teen readers might find it difficult to relate to her in Part One of Patricia Elliott’s The Pale Assassin. Eugenie doesn’t realize her guardian has promised her in marriage to the renowned cold-hearted revolutionary, Le Fantome. Her brother, Armand, must protect her, although he is caught up in the revolution himself. Elliott does a great job of fleshing out Armand’s character in Part One, and readers might even find themselves more invested in him than they are with Eugenie.

Part Two brings about a change for Eugenie as she escapes France for England and is pursued by Le Fantome. Without her brother beside her, she becomes courageous and quick-witted. The pace quickens, and Eugenie awakens into a character readers will care about as she is chased across the countryside. Elliott does a terrific job of introducing readers to Revolutionary-era France from the point of view of the aristocrat. She follows up the story with a historical note and timeline. A great read for students of global studies.

Nancy Castaldo SENT: The Missing Margaret Peterson Haddix, Simon & Schuster, 2009, $15.99/C$19.99, hb, 313pp, 9781416954224 / Hodder Children’s, 2010, £5.99, pb, 978-0340970683 In this sequel to Found, four 21st-century teens find themselves transported to the 15th century.

Two of the boys, Chip and Alex, discover that they are actually the famous “little princes,” Edward V of England and Richard, Duke of York. The little princes were locked in the Tower of London, and history does not know what became of them. In Found, the first novel of the series, the princes were “rescued” by time travelers to be adopted by parents in the distant future. In Sent, Chip and Alex, with the help of Jonah and Katherine, must “fix” the history that the earlier time travelers corrupted.

To do this, Chip and Alex must take on their roles as the princes of England up until the time when nobody knows what happened to them. There is a small window of opportunity between when Jonah and Katherine can save them and when they will be killed.

Haddix is a master of the young adult novel, and Sent is another of her thoughtful thrillers.

With its compelling storyline and realistic teenage characters, Sent will keep readers on the edges of their seats while forcing them to think through the way history is written. The 15th century comes to life with the novel attraction that it is seen, in all its dirty, smelly, violent glory, through the eyes of modern teens.

This reader eagerly awaits the next installment in The Missing series.

Elizabeth Caulfield Felt In Found, Sent’s prequel, Jonah, Katherine, and Chip discover that time travel is real. Jonah and Chip are kidnapped by evil time travelers from the future to be sold as famous adopted children from the past. Something goes wrong and about HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Reviews | 59

fifty kidnapped children are stranded in the 21st century. When a time agent tries to return Chip and another boy, Alex, to their actual time period, Jonah and Katherine grab Chip’s arm, and are sent into the past with him. That is where Found ends and Sent begins.

Chip is really Edward the Fifth, King of England and France, and Alex is really Prince Richard. They are being held in the Tower of London by their evil uncle, Richard the Third, who wants the throne for himself. Can Katherine and Jonah save Chip and Alex and bring them back to the future? Or, will Chip and Alex be trapped in the 15th century for their whole lives? Also, if Jonah and Katherine make things happen differently than they happened in real history, they could release a time wave that would change things in the future, like Katherine and Jonah not even being born!

Sent is a great book with unexpected twists and turns and excitement the whole way through.

Sometimes I read good books with great beginnings and great endings, but they drag a bit in the middle.

Sent is not one of those books.

I preferred the way time travel was handled in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox without the possibility of time waves. In those stories, if you go back in time and do something, it doesn’t change anything because you already went back and did it. Although Haddix’s time wave theory is cool, I prefer the “I already did it” theory. Still, the idea of time travel is fascinating and makes for a good story.

Craig Felt, age 13 I WAS JANE AUSTEN’S BEST FRIEND Cora Harrison, Macmillan, 2010, £9.99, hb, 320pp, 9780230743526 This is a very readable “journal” which covers the period from February to April 1791 as written

by Jane Austen’s cousin, Jane Cooper. Though the characters described are real, the journal is fictitious, but the idea is very successful and immediately the reader is drawn into the world of Regency life.

Most of the events revolve around family life in the Austen household: amateur dramatics; visits to and from relatives and neighbours; society balls; news from the Austen brothers; walks to the village, and, as the main characters are young girls, romance and flirtation. There are some more serious events, such as the life-threatening fever epidemic with which the book begins and an attack by highwaymen, which serve to remind us that everyday life in those days was always tinged with danger.

The journal is illustrated with delightful drawings by Susan Hellard, supposedly by Jane Cooper herself. Some liberties with the truth have been taken, such as changing the main character’s name from Jane to Jenny, making her nearer in age to Jane Austen and altering the year in which they were both at school in Southampton. This is a very entertaining and engaging book by Cora Harrison and should be greatly enjoyed by girls of 12 and above.

Julie Parker 60 | Reviews | HNR Issue 51, February 2010

THE BETRAYAL Mary Hooper, Bloomsbury, 2009, £6.99, pb, 284pp, 9780747599104 As the novel begins we are straight away in the world of Elizabethan London as Lucy waits with her two young charges, Beth and Meryl, by the side of the road for Elizabeth I and her retinue to pass by on the way from Richmond Palace to the Palace of Whitehall. Lucy works in the household of Dr Dee, a real Elizabethan personage, who dabbles in magic. A staunch supporter of Elizabeth, she is also a part-time spy for Tomas, the Queen’s fool.

The household of Dr Dee is to move to London to be nearer the lucrative court of the Queen.

Lucy experiences many of the sights and sounds of London: the street traders with their wares; a theatrical troupe of players; the funeral of a young nobleman; the dismal Christ’s Hospital for foundlings; the hubbub of the Palace itself.

Thinking to explore London more easily she disguises herself as a boy and soon finds that she is taken on as an extra with the theatrical troupe to play a woman. The players are to stage a new play

by William Shakespeare. Tomas asks her to be his eyes and ears because supporters of Mary, Queen of Scots, are threatening to stage an uprising. The title refers to the possible betrayal of the Queen by Mary and her supporters, but also hints at a more personal story for Lucy and her friend Tomas.

The fast pace of the narrative encourages the reader to find out what happens next. Mary Hooper is a natural storyteller, and this book is the third in a trilogy which began with At the House of the Magician and By Royal Command. The book also contains some historical notes about the real-life characters and locations, a glossary and bibliography for further reading. Recommended novel for the young adult category.

Julie Parker ELI THE GOOD Silas House, Candlewick, 2009, $16.99, pb, 304pp, 9780763643416 Eli Book is living through the post-Vietnam War frenzy of 1976. His father fought nobly for his country, only to return and be spit on by those who opposed the war and hadn’t learned to separate hatred of war from honoring those who served honorably. His father and Eli’s Aunt Nell have been at loggerheads ever since, especially since she took part in an anti-war protest in New York City, leaving behind a photo that became symbolic of the entire peace movement shattering American tranquility. Eli’s best friend is the victim of a domestic war that leaves her devastated and almost inconsolable after Eli’s thoughtless betrayal of their bond. Josie learns of a secret that elicits the rage pervading that generation and threatening to destroy them all.

It seems like a totally bleak picture, yet Silas House manages to infuse this tragic, historical period with a magical, Faulkner-like experience of Southern beauty. Nature is experienced as so much more than a pleasant friend; the notable Bob Dylan, Bob Seger, and other vivacious singers compel the

country to sing and believe in something noble and higher. Eli’s parents, Loretta and Stanton Book, model the precious and fragile love that binds, forgives and enables one to forge into a hopeful future. Silas House writes beautifully and makes the reader want to enter the celebrations, happening side by side with a country reeling from the causes and effects of its recent history, in true bicentennial style!

Viviane Crystal THE CRIMSON CAP Ellen Howard, Holiday House, 2009, $16.95, hb, 177pp, 978082342152 Pierre’s father is missing. His mother is ill and his siblings are starving. And though he is just ten, he joins an expedition to find help for the failing French settlement on the Gulf Coast where he has lived for the last two years. But the expedition becomes lost, the leader is murdered by his own men, and Pierre falls deathly ill. Only through the goodness of the Hasinai tribe does Pierre survive.

For three years he lives with the Hasinai, and he comes to love them though he never forgets his family. When Spanish explorers find him living with the natives, they offer to help him find his sister and younger brothers, but this means giving up his life with the Hasinai and allying himself with an enemy of France.

Based on a true story, The Crimson Cap is a finely executed piece of historical fiction for middle-grade readers. The pacing is quick and the characters are morally complex. Howard weaves in enough detail about daily life in the late 17th century to make the story interesting, but does not overload the tale with it. I enjoyed reading the book even if sometimes I found the writing awkward, especially the action sequences.

Patricia O’Sullivan

The Crimson Cap by Ellen Howard is a story about how a young French boy, Pierre Talon, fights for the survival of his ill mother and starving siblings.

Pierre is offered a position on an expedition with a man named Sieur de la Salle and his men because of Pierre’s knowledge of Indian languages.

The expedition goes wrong and Pierre becomes deadly ill. He is nursed to health by a Hasinai woman and lives with her tribe for many years. He learns to love her like a mother but never forgets his true family.

When Spanish explorers discover Pierre living with the Hasinai, they offer to help him find his true family. Pierre realizes it’s a choice between his family and the Hasinai. He allies himself with the Spanish, an enemy of France, and sets off to find his family.

This book was hard to finish. It didn’t hold my interest and was difficult to understand at times.

The writing was very good even though the story was disturbing. I would not recommend this book to my friends.

Marion O’Sullivan, age 11 LADY MACBETH’S DAUGHTER Children & YA

Lisa Klein, Bloomsbury USA, 2009, $16.99, hb, 291pp, 9781599903477 In her third historical for teens, Lisa Klein offers a new take on Macbeth’s bloody rise to power through the alternating narratives of his wife and daughter. Klein takes inspiration from the line Shakespeare wrote for Lady Macbeth – “I have given suck, and know / How tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me . . .” (I, vii, 54-55) – and gives us Albia, a child destined for death by exposure because she isn’t the son Macbeth craves.

Rather than dying, Albia is raised by three sisters (yes, those sisters). In Klein’s version, one of them is Lady Macbeth’s handmaiden, and she facilitates Albia’s fosterage in Wychelm Wood. As a child Albia witnesses the sisters’ prophecy that Macbeth will be king, but it is much later, when she is fostered in the house of Banquo, that she learns Macbeth is her father. Through visions she sees a terrible future for Scotland at his hands and must decide whether to let this future unfold or to take part in reshaping it.

Klein transports the reader to 11th-century Scotland with her vivid descriptions of ancient landscapes, belief systems, and conflicts. Albia is a sympathetic child who matures into a compelling heroine. The plot, which moves along at a good clip, is packed with suspense. Occasionally the momentum falters during Lady Macbeth’s narratives. Klein encourages sympathy by connecting the woman’s instability to maternal grief, but I often wished her narratives would end so that we could return to Albia. The interactions between Albia and Fleance feature some crackling chemistry, but their leap from animosity to love could have been more convincing. Nevertheless, the story oozes atmosphere and tension, and it’s sure to entertain readers 14 and up, especially if they have some familiarity with Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Sonia Gensler THE GOLDSMITH’S DAUGHTER Tanya Landman, Candlewick, 2009, $16.99, hb, 286pp, 9780763642198 This young adult novel follows 15-year old Itacate through a life at the heart of the Aztec Empire on the cusp of change at the time of Spanish contact.

At the births of Itacate and her twin brother a very different fate for each is foretold: that her brother would “honor the gods and bring fame to his family,” while Itacate was deemed worthless and destined “to bring ill-fortune to all those closest.”

After a childhood bonded to her nurse and beloved brother, Itacate comes of age realizing that she has no gift for acceptable woman’s arts, but is drawn to her father’s craft, forbidden to women. She becomes her father’s hidden apprentice and soon is brought to the court of Montezuma himself. Her brother chooses his fated role as a sacrificial victim after a year of enjoying the court’s splendor. But it is the year of the arrival of Cortez, and will be like no other for the entire empire.

When Cortez and his entourage arrive, Itacate meets and falls in love with a Spanish soldier and interpreter sent to oversee her latest commission, a Children & YA

Madonna and child cast in gold. Their star-crossed love endures through warfare, disease, and the beginnings of the end of a civilization.

In Landman’s capable hands this strange world ruled by portent, prophecy and its priesthood is made human through her protagonist and the bonds she forms despite crippling strictures.

Highly recommended.

Eileen Charbonneau THE PROPHET FROM EPHESUS Caroline Lawrence, Orion, 2009, £6.99, pb, 212pp, 9781842556061 I was sad to learn, on doing the research for this review, that there is only one book in Lawrence’s Roman mysteries series left to come. However, she is starting a new series, which will include some of the now-teenage characters from this one.

In this sequel to The Scribes from Alexandria, we pick up the four friends in hiding in Alexandria, wanted by the authorities for treason. They are trying to get back home, only to discover they are wanted there as well. Joined by the tutor Aristo, they learn from him that children have been kidnapped in Ostia. Escaping from Alexandria, they follow the trail to Halicarnassus, where the children meet up with old friends and old enemies, and the leaders of a new Jewish sect, who are followers of a crucified man called Jesus of Nazareth. And as they track down the kidnappers, one of them is having visions of the future.

Lawrence may be classed as a children’s writer, but this adult enjoys her work and learns something each time she reads a new book in this very enjoyable series. jay Dixon TIME OF THE WITCHES Anna Myers, Walker, 2009, $16.99, hb, 208pp, 9780802798206 Salem Village, 1692. Family quarrels and neighbor rivalries promise trouble in the Salem community, but 14-year-old Drucilla is blind to the building tension. An orphan who has long been shuttled between households, Dru cares only that the well-respected Putnam family has taken her in and given her the loving home she has never known. Better still, her friend Gabe, the only steady presence in her shifting childhood, has moved in with a family just down the road. As Dru adjusts to her new life, however, she finds that all is not as it seems within the Putnam household. Mistress Putnam may treat Dru as a beloved daughter, but she soon makes demands that compromise Dru’s sense of integrity. When accusations of witchcraft begin to break out, Dru must play a dangerous game, choosing sides between her new family and her oldest friends.

Anna Myers brings a new angle to the Salem witch trials, and confronts the dark psychology of the witch hunts with surprising directness for a young adult novel. Unobtrusive period details and natural dialogue immerse the reader in the life and mentality of 17th-century Massachusetts.

Although Dru is a timid character all too easily

influenced by the opinions of others, her loyalties run deep, and she ultimately proves herself a worthy heroine – one whom teen readers and older historical fiction fans alike can cheer along to the triumphant yet unsettling finish.

Ann Pedtke TASSIE AND THE BLACK BARON Katie Roy, Egmont, 2010, £5.99, pb, 278pp, 9781405242318 In this lively time-slip story (think Monty Python and the Holy Grail meets the dysfunctional family from hell) tearaway Tassie goes on a family outing to Huffington Castle.When Tassie is suddenly catapulted back to the 13th century, she meets young Prince William of Huffington who has a problem on his hands. Prince Billy must fight a duel to the death with his huge war-like cousin, the Baron of Badspite. Billy is a tender-hearted chap with a penchant for writing poetry and in love with Princess Violetzka of Mazovia. However, the baron is bad, brutal and determined to seize the kingdom for himself over Billy’s dead body. The king does not want to interfere – it’s a question of honour – and the court wizard has gone missing. So it will be up to Tassie to come up with a plan.

Frankly, Tassie and the Black Baron only just scrapes into the historical novel category by the skin of its teeth. We are in a 13th century that owes more to Disney than historical reality. If there are garde robes, dungeons, armour and mediaeval kitchens a-plenty, there are also, strangely, potatoes, and decidedly anachronistic casting of runes as well.

However, the story zips along very satisfactorily and we, too, want Prince Billy to develop some fighting spirit and come good and the bad baron to get his comeuppance. If Katie Roy offers little with regard to historical accuracy, she certainly gets across the notion that mediaeval history (or what passes for it) can be fun.

For boys and girls of nine plus.

Elizabeth Hawksley ALICE IN LOVE AND WAR Ann Turnbull, Walker, 2009, £6.99, pb, 304pp, 9781406302448 It is 1644: the English Civil War. Orphaned Alice Newcome, age sixteen, is living with her uncle’s family in Devon. When Royalist soldiers are billeted on the farm, Alice is delighted to have some respite from her uncle’s lecherous attentions and her aunt’s cruelty. When the handsome corporal, Robin Hillier, makes his interest plain, she is thrilled and persuades him to take her along when the regiment leaves. She is sure he loves her and that they will be married one day…

Reality is sadly different. Alice gradually realizes that she is just one of many women in the army baggage train – women who are regarded as little more than prostitutes. Alice has much to learn about men, love and, above all, the realities of war.

I enjoyed this book. Ann Turnbull, as always, writes a gripping story with intelligence and honesty. She is interested in how war affects ordinary people, especially women. A woman HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Reviews | 61

on her own, without a man, was in an especially vulnerable position in the 17th century. The author shows us the problems Alice faces when she rescues a friend’s baby daughter and makes herself responsible for the baby’s safety and survival. We are both admiring of Alice’s bravery and determination as well as deeply concerned for her as she rides through a countryside full of marauding soldiers who are happy to plunder, rape and murder. She also has to contend with hostile villagers who are reluctant to help a woman from the baggage train whom they regard as ‘vermin’.

Ann Turnbull does not pull her punches about the horrors of war but she also shows us the small acts of kindness from ordinary people. Alice in Love and War would be an excellent introduction to the domestic impact of the English Civil War. Aimed at girls 12 plus.

Elizabeth Hawksley

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nonfiction

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NOTORIOUS ROYAL MARRIAGES Leslie Carroll, New American Library, 2009, $15.00/C$18.50, pb, 528pp, 9780451229014 Sex! Intrigue! Scandal! Carroll’s newest offering chronicles well-known matrimonial pairings among European royals during the last 900 years.

With a breezy and lively narrative, she gives the dirt on a parade of often mismatched couples, beginning with Eleanor of Aquitaine’s marital experiences with France’s Louis VII and England’s Henry II. Other notable alliances profiled include: Henry VIII and his flock of wives, George IV and Caroline of Brunswick, Francis Joseph and Elisabeth of Austria, Nicholas and Alexandra of Russia, Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier, concluding with Prince Charles and his respective spouses, Lady Diana Spencer and Camilla Parker Bowles.

For those already familiar with these couples, there is little new information here, but novices will appreciate this entertaining and very readable collection. Although Carroll has done her research, this is “history lite,” and readers should be on guard for errors; an especially jarring one involves the identity of Lord Guildford Dudley’s father. Also, the year of Napoleon’s march into the Council of Five Hundred is given incorrectly. No notes or index; selected list of sources is appended.

Michael I. Shoop THE HISTORICAL NOVEL Jerome de Groot, Routledge, 2009, £12.99/$22.95, pb, 200pp, 9780415426626 The New Critical Idiom is a series of short introductory guides to literary criticism published

by Routledge. There are over 50 titles in the series, ranging from Allegory through Irony to The Unconscious. If they are all as good as The Historical Novel, I must read some more. de Groot’s book is only 200 pages – 182 excluding the paratext of Glossary, Bibliography, etc.

Even so it is amazingly comprehensive, covering the history of the historical novel since Walter Scott, 62 | Reviews | HNR Issue 51, February 2010

genre fiction, literary fiction, postmodernism and the different varieties of alternative and revisionist history and conspiracy fiction. The bibliography lists over 250 authors. Obviously it is a highly condensed work which merits reading more than once. Fortunately there is a useful glossary.

The main theme is the paradox of historical fiction, fictional but striving to be authentic, even if it challenges our certainties about the past. You may not agree with all de Groot’s ideas, but anybody who is interested enough to read Historical Novels Review will enjoy and profit from reading this guide.

Edward James COACH TOMMY THOMPSON AND THE BOYS OF SEQUOYAH Patti Dickinson, Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2009, $19.95, pb, 282pp, 9780806140704 A joint biography of both a famed advisor, coach and surrogate father, and nineteen of his students, spans the lifetime of Coach Thompson from 1904 to 1958. All shared a boarding school, which for Tommy Thompson was a governmentrun orphanage that was a place of last resort for devastated families who could no longer support their children. He returned in mid life to a vocational school named in honor of the creator of the Cherokee alphabet. At Sequoyah, Coach Thompson was known by a generation of students as Ah-sky-uh – “the man,” a term of deep respect.

Faced with a cold, neglectful father and harsh school regimen, Thompson heeded the advice of an aunt to “make the best of things” all his life.

Once freed of his first school’s confines, he went on to gridiron fame at Northeastern State College, where he met wife Dorothy and they began a life dedicated to helping others. After a series of government jobs in Indian communities, he landed back at Sequoyah, where his story begins to intertwine with several of the thousand young men who came under his care. Through football, he taught skills and values he had learned, and became a treasured teacher despite battles with his own alcoholism. Through the Great Depression, and World War II and Korean War’s tragedies to Christmas celebrations and the antics of Boots, the dog, the community thrives.

Created with firsthand accounts of his family and students, Patti Dickinson has re-created, a half century after his death, a vibrant story of a remarkable man, whose deeds reverberate through all the lives of people he touched.

Eileen Charbonneau DANCING IN THE DARK: A Cultural History of the Great Depression Morris Dickstein, Norton, 2009, $29.95/C$37.50, 598pp, hb, 9780393072259 The phrase “the Great Depression” brings to mind black-and-white photographs of tired men in worn clothes standing in bread lines, scenes from The Grapes of Wrath (book or film, your choice), and perhaps a glimpse of a Busby Berkeley musical number. Morris Dickstein takes

these iconic images and fleshes out the truth and history behind them in a series of essays that are both literary criticism and cultural commentary of the United States from the late 1920s to the early 1940s. With history and economics as a backdrop, Dickstein looks at the Depression through the prism of the popular culture of the time, showing the divide between the poverty depicted in the newsreels and the glamorous life represented in movies and musicals. Although the 1930s were a golden age for literature, with luminaries such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Zora Neale Hurston, and Richard Wright producing some of their best work during this decade, it was also a time of repression, with various international, and at times, local, governments discouraging freedom of thought and action. The work is well documented, with notes and a bibliography; photographs provide further insight into the schism between the multiple fantasies and realities of the era.

Helene Williams 1492: The Year the World Began (US) / 1492: The Year Our World Began (UK) Felipe Ferńandez-Armesto, HarperCollins, 2009, $25.99, hb, 352pp, 9780061132278 / Bloomsbury, 2010, £25.00, hb, 352pp, 9781408800706 Felipe Ferńandez-Armesto’s contention in 1492: The Year the World Began is that in the titular year events occurred that shaped the global community we live in today. 1492 may seem a date both too distant and too specific to bear the claim of being the year in which the world began to shrink, to experience a convergence of peoples and cultures, but Ferńandez-Armesto presents a fascinating case.

In separate chapters the events of the late 15th century in Europe, Africa, Asia, and America are examined. For Europe, 1492 was the year when “the resources of the Americas began to be accessible to Westerners.” The documenting of Atlantic wind patterns that resulted from Columbus’s voyages helped change the perception of the globe. In Africa the division of the continent into regions adhering to Christianity or Islam is detailed as having been established in the decades around 1492. Events in Russia, China, India, Japan, and the Americas are also covered. Whether or not Felipe FerńandezArmesto convinces with his argument that 1492 was a pivotal year in history, this is a book full of insight into the world and events of the late 15th century.

Eva Ulett TRAVELLING HEROES, Greeks and Their Myths in the Epic Age of Homer Robin Lane Fox, Penguin 2009, £10.99, pb, 514pp, 978014024499 Travelling Heroes takes the reader on a journey through the Mediterranean world of 8th-century BC following in the footsteps of groups of merchants and adventurers from the Greek island of Euboea. Early Greek myth is inextricably linked to the attempts by these daring Euboeans to make sense of the alien world in which they travelled.

Children & YA — Nonfiction

Portrayed as traders, colonists and even pirates, they took the stories from the diverse peoples with whom they came into contact and wove them into the myths and legends we know today. Daily reminders of gods and monsters in the shape of dinosaur bones.

Over sixty pages of notes and fifty pages of bibliography, this erudite book provides food for thought for both scholars and those with a serious interest in this period.

Mike Ashworth CHURCHILL’S GERMAN ARMY Helen Fry, The History Press, 2009, £12.99, pb, 240pp, 9780750947015 Some 10,000 German and Austrian refugees, many of whom were Jews, enlisted in the British army, navy and air force to fight their Nazi persecutors.

Treated suspiciously at first and interned, some in Australia, “the King’s most loyal enemy aliens” went on to serve with distinction in all the theatres of the Second World War. Despite this shaky start, many of the people documented in this book mention how they felt British even though most would not receive British nationality until 1947. In fact, they usually changed their names, for example, Friedrich Berliner to Michael O’Hara, as they were proud to fight for Britain .

And fight they did, perhaps most effectively as SOE operatives behind the German lines. Their bravery was incredible, considering that they would have been shot as traitors if captured by the Germans. Many also performed important tasks as interpreters in Germany at the end of the war, with some coming face to face with the men responsible for the deaths of their close relatives in concentration camps.

Helen Fry has performed a real service in documenting the stories of these amazing men and women, many of whom had up to now been reticent to speak about their experiences.

As the number of stories is legion, inevitably, individual stories are condensed and there is little room for contextualizing their service. What Churchill’s German Army does do however is open a door to a fascinating story of the Second World War for historians and historical novelists alike to explore more fully.

Gordon O’Sullivan TO HELL ON A FAST HORSE: Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett, and the Epic Chase to Justice in the Old West Mark Lee Gardner, Morrow, 2010, $26.99/ C$34.99, hb, 336pp, 9780061945694 The saga of William Bonney, better known as Billy the Kid, began in 1877 when he was just 17 and killed a man in a barroom brawl. By 1880, Pat Garrett, the newly-elected sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico, made it his mission to track down and kill this notorious outlaw; Mark Lee Gardner’s action-packed volume details the multiple manhunts, captures, escapes, and final encounter between these two men, all of which Nonfiction

took place in a mere 18 months. The politics and personalities of the time are well-researched and integrated into the telling, providing readers with a wealth of context and vivid description.

Photographs and reproductions add more layers of detail. The last third of the book is devoted to Pat Garrett’s post-Billy the Kid life, which has been neglected in some biographies. In the years between 1881 and 1908 Garrett was seen alternately as a hero and a villain, but whatever his label, he was always on the hunt for outlaws, business deals, and political appointments. Gardner’s inclusion of correspondence and other documentation make for a well-rounded picture of the whole man.

Extensive notes and a lengthy resource list round out this eminently readable book.

Helene Williams MR. LANGSHAW’S SQUARE PIANO Madeline Goold, BlueBridge, 2009, $24.95/ C$27.95, hb, 288pp, 9781933346212 / Corvo, 2008, £13.99, hb, 364pp, 9780954325596 The author’s search for a second-hand harpsichord on which to play early music led her on a journey that will fascinate the reader. Not finding a harpsichord, she tracked down a square piano at an antique auction (the same auction at which there was another piano turned into a chicken incubator), Broadwood #10651, made in the early 1800s. The Broadwood Company, a leading British piano manufacturer, left extensive company records about the pianos and their international distribution. The piano found by the author was ordered by Mr. John Langshaw, organist and music master in Lancaster, one of Broadwood’s distributors. The subtitle of this volume is “The Story of the First Pianos and How They Caused a Cultural Revolution,” which certainly explains the content but does not convey the absolute delights of reading it. The Broadwood archive and the many surviving documents connected to the Langshaw family allow the author to flesh out her tale far more than might be expected. The Langshaws were connected to the family of Charles Wesley, brother of the founder of Methodism, another engrossing angle to the story. This is a riveting glimpse into a musical and social world, all thanks to Broadwood square piano #10651.

Trudi E. Jacobson PARIS UNDER WATER: How the City of Light Survived the Great Flood of 1910 Jeffrey H. Jackson, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, $27.00/C$32.00/£20.00, hb, 262pp, 9780230617063 When I first encountered this book, I was intrigued, but a bit embarrassed: I’d never heard of the Paris flood of 1910. I felt much comforted when I read in the author’s end note that he, an associate professor of history and Director of the Environmental Studies Program at Rhodes College in Memphis, hadn’t heard of it either until 2005. Coincidentally, this was the year of Hurricane Katrina and the devastating flood in New Orleans, and the author compares the

two floods in his epilogue. Jackson has written an engaging account of the Paris flood, from the climatic, environmental, and manmade factors that precipitated it, to descriptions of how Parisians and those in the nearby suburbs reacted and coped, to lessons learned from the devastation and how some changes were made. The author refers to Parisians’ belief in Système D—the sense that they could overcome difficult circumstances—and this is borne out through the glimpses of residents of the city going through their everyday activities as the waters continue to rise. The book includes selected vivid photographs, while more are available at the accompanying website, www.parisunderwater.com.

Trudi E. Jacobson MIDDLING FOLK: Three Seas, Three Centuries, One Scots-Irish Family Linda H. Matthews, Chicago Review Press, 2010, $24.95, hb, 364pp, 9781556529696 The author has dedicated this publication to her father, and rightly so. His desire to research and record his family history laid the groundwork for Middling Folk. Ms. Matthews has done a commendable job of expanding that research to include the Scottish and Northern Irish origins of the Hammill family. Her notes at the end of the book will show just how much research was involved. This book covers their earliest beginnings in Scotland, their migration to the Chesapeake Bay area in 1725, and the final settlement of her greatgrandparents, Lucretia and William Hammill, in Washington State in 1880. She ties each generation to their time in history and shows how current events impacted their lives and those of future generations. More importantly, she has given us an excellent look at the middle class and its invaluable role in American history. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about one family’s march through time as well as a study of the unpretentious, hardworking middling folk who remain the backbone of America to this day.

Susan Zabolotny THE TUDORS: The Complete Story of England’s Most Notorious Dynasty G.J. Meyer, Delacorte Press, 2010, $30.00/ C$37.00, hb, 640pp, 9780385340762 “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” These words from Ecclesiastes seem particularly germane when it comes to the Tudors. Usually we see them in nonfiction as individual biographies, but The Tudors is billed as a “single-volume history of this fascinating dynasty.”

This, and the subtitle’s “complete story” may give the impression that you’re going to get more than the usual fare, a balanced narrative—maybe even equal shrift for “lesser” Tudors such as Henry VII and Edward VI? Nope, sorry.

One can learn a lot from a subtitle; the use of the word “notorious” spells it out—Meyer isn’t an admirer. A glance at his adjectives is enlightening: Henry VIII and Elizabeth, who make up the majority of this work, are “a pair whose characters HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Reviews | 63

were dominated by cold and ruthless egotism… studded with acts of atrocious cruelty and false dealing…stonily indifferent to the well-being of the people they ruled.” This is the positive part (Henry is later described as a “homicidal monster”). There is certainly no danger of Meyer unjustly glorifying his subjects.

What he does provide is a well-written history with interspersed “background” chapters (eg, “The Origins of the Tudors”, “Parliament”, etc.) that add understanding with more in-depth information—in effect, “forcing” readers to pay attention to what would be footnotes. This is useful knowledge, though at times it makes the narrative seem to backtrack. Meyer also offers some fresh perspectives on certain key players (eg, Clement VII) and new interpretations of oft-related events.

Overall, these features make this history stand out, and it’s well worth the reading—a worthy addition to the pervasive Tudor canon.

Bethany Latham HENRY V’s YEAR OF GLORY Ian Mortimer, Bodley Head, 2009, £20.00, 551pp, hb, 9780224079921 Although this is not a novel, it certainly reads like one. Written in diary form, it covers the events of the year of 1415; the lead-up to the battle of Agincourt and its aftermath. This was, indeed, the glory year of Henry V and the Battle of Agincourt is one of those events which everyone must have heard of, read about, read Shakespeare’s play or seen Kenneth Branagh’s memorable film or even Sir Lawrence Olivier’s. ‘Once more unto the breach’, from the Cry God for Harry, England and St. George speech from Act III is one of those quotes which is still used today. We all know well the twofingered gesture first used by the archers, I have always understood, to show the enemy that they were still in possession of their most vital fingers and could still fire an arrow.

Ian Mortimer is a most thorough and painstaking researcher, and this book not only tells of the dramatic events of that year but also goes into the background of what else was happening in Europe at the time. A ‘must have’ for the medieval enthusiast. What a treat!

Marilyn Sherlock JUNGLE SOLDIER Brian Moynahan, Quercus, 2009, £18.99, hb, 338pp, 9781849160766 Lieutenant-Colonel Freddy Spencer Chapman was an infantry officer who survived for more than three years in the jungles of occupied Malaya from 1942 to 1945. He told his own version of the story in his memoir The Jungle is Neutral, but this new biography adds many fascinating details of his upbringing and previous adventures.

A solitary and somewhat rebellious boy who developed a love of nature during his schooling in the north of England, Freddy Spencer Chapman first became noted for his qualities of character during the 1930s. He became a mountaineer, and also took part in gruelling expeditions to Greenland 64 | Reviews | HNR Issue 51, February 2010

and Tibet.

Although most of his combat successes took place in a single “Mad Fortnight”, Freddy Spencer Chapman laid the foundations for several postwar campaigns by developing his expertise in jungle bushcraft and in co-operating with local guerrilla forces, including the Communists under Chin Peng, who would later lead the Communist forces in the Malayan Emergency from 1948 until 1960.

(I remember Malaya during the Emergency, and this book is much too friendly to Chin Peng.)

One could probably not use this book as the basis for a novel, because Freddy Spencer Chapman’s life is too well recorded, but it is a valuable source for background on Malaya during the Japanese occupation. While I can’t help wondering whether Spencer Chapman’s victories justify the many casualties among the local Malays, Chinese, and Indians who were killed in reprisals by the Japanese, his life is an absorbing and often uncomfortable study in how strength of will can enable a man to survive suffering and privations almost beyond belief.

Alan Fisk BLUESTOCKINGS, The Remarkable Story of the First Women to Fight for an Education Jane Robinson, Viking, 2009, £20, hb, 257pp, 9780670916849 This remarkable story is about opportunities that the developed world generally now takes for granted. It serves as a timely reminder of how ‘some of history’s most determined and diplomatic pioneers’ succeeded in opening the way to women’s education and enabling the brightest to reach the pinnacles of academe. These‘bluestockings’ may have formed an academic elite, but Robinson repeatedly stresses how socially, culturally, religiously and politically diverse they were. Robinson traces the very earliest advocates of women’s education – from Hild in the 17th century up to Mary Wollstonecraft and later, the awesome headmistresses, Misses Buss and Beale. By 1869 a group of five women, the nucleus of what would become Girton College, were studying at Cambridge. They were rapidly followed by other pioneers who battled against prejudice and antagonism, often at great personal cost. Encouraged by family and teachers these young women ‘caught fire’ intellectually and by the 1920s and 30s it had become ‘a duty, a right, for the good of society, not to extinguish the spark but to fan the flames’. This is a marvellous social history, rich in detail and an inspirational read.

Lucinda Byatt GOD’S BATTALIONS: The Case for the Crusades Rodney Stark, HarperOne, 2009, $24.99, hb, 288pp, 9780061582615 Fed up by Western views of the Crusades as episodes featuring European greed, racism, and religious bigotry unleashed upon an innocent and progressive Islamic world, noted historian and religion scholar Rodney Stark has set out to restore balance to the history of this clash between

Muslim and Christian. He does this rather well in a brief survey which seems to be aimed at the average reader rather than his fellow academics. Ranging from Urban II’s call for crusade at Clermont in 1095 to the final struggles in the early 1300s, Stark presents a compelling view of a Europe engaged in a series of counteroffensives in response to years of Muslim aggression. He steadfastly rejects any whitewashing of Christian outrages but is equally determined to present a survey of the Crusades and the Europe of the time based on a rational and factbased worldview untouched by inappropriate guilt at alleged European imperialism. This is an account certain to raise eyebrows and stimulate arguments in student seminars and coffeehouses in wide areas of both West and East.

John R. Vallely THE LADY IN THE TOWER Alison Weir, Jonathan Cape, 2009, hb, £20, 431pp, 9780224063197 / Ballantine, 2010, $28.00, hb, 464pp, 9780345453211 The demand for the Tudors seems inexorable.

This is a detailed study of the closing days of the life of Anne Boleyn by one of our most popular and successful writers of the period. Alison Weir makes a thorough and engaging study of all the sources that cover Anne’s fall from supremacy and her subsequent imprisonment and execution, confirming that the charges laid against her were indeed false, as well as challenging conventional historical beliefs about her execution and place of burial. A fascinating and informative read.

Doug Kemp THE GOOD TIMES ARE ALL GONE NOW: Life, Death, and Rebirth in an Idaho Mining Town Julie Whitesel Weston, Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2009, $19.95, pb, 248pp, 9780806140759 As the narrator returns to her hometown of Kellogg, Idaho, she has flashbacks of life as she knew it growing up there, with a little of the town’s colorful history thrown in. Her father is the town doctor, a saint in the eyes of his many patients. In reality he is also a frustrated drummer who opted for a “safe” future and drowns his regrets in alcohol and abuse. Her mother is an elegant woman, perhaps the prettiest woman in Kellogg. Many of the residents of Kellogg who appear, including friends, and teachers, are shown “as is,” virtues and warts intact.

Ms Weston’s descriptions of place, time and people are vivid—a true portrait of small town America. This book has universal appeal. However, early Baby Boomers who, regardless of whether they grew up in mining towns in the West, farming villages in the Middle states, or industrial towns of the East, will recognize themselves, their friends, and their homes. This is truly a delightful story filled with coming-of-age nostalgia.

Audrey Braver PETER THE GREAT Derek Wilson, St. Martin’s, 2009, $29.99, hb, Nonfiction

256pp, 9780312550998 Biographer and novelist Derek Wilson isn’t new to the game of whisking readers off to distant times to focus on famous historical figures. He’s been doing it for thirty years. Readers who have tasted his bestselling and highly readable Charlemagne and In the Lion’s Court will find it hard to imagine how he might top them until they pick up Peter the Great.

Here, Wilson shows off his amazing knack for presenting the reader with detailed, well-researched facts while inviting us into the mind and emotions of a man who brought Russia into Europe and created a stunning new international power to be reckoned with. Most amazing is his portrayal of the fragility of Peter Romanov’s early years, when his brother and sister, and the powerful factions supporting them, threatened his very existence. This was a man who calculatingly remained under the radar until the time was right, spending his restless temperament traveling Europe, gathering experts who would eventually help him build a grand city, go to war with Sweden to provide Russia with a seaport, and create a Navy to rival that of the British Empire. He was ruthless and dangerous, intelligent and single-minded in his purpose, unpredictable to his enemies and loyal to those he loved. Peter, like anyone, had good days and bad, and Wilson makes him breathe on the page.

This is what good biographies should be, an intimate glimpse into the life of a person whose impact on the world is still felt.

Kathryn Kimball Johnson OSCAR’S BOOKS Thomas Wright, Vintage, 2009, £8.99, pb, 384pp, 9780099502722 This is a wonderfully well-written biography of Oscar Wilde, and one which takes a very different approach, for it covers the great writer’s life purely from a literary perspective, i.e. from the books that he read, owned, loved and those he despised. It is a particularly apt method for the study of this great writer and wit, for if any man can be said to have lived a life through books and reading, it was Wilde. They shaped his very existence and he relied them on completely as inspiration and as constant personal touchstones, especially during his prison sentence in the late 1890s. He often claimed that books had more of a reality for him than mundane, non-literary life.

This biography absorbs the tenor and essence of the late 19th-century society in which Wilde moved and the times are vivid and alive for the reader. Both as an original way of looking at Oscar Wilde, and a source of the historical experience of his times and society, this is very much worth reading.

Doug Kemp

Nonfiction

HNR Issue 51, February 2010 | Reviews | 65

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