Historical Novels Review, Issue 55 (February 2011)

A PUBLICATION OF THE HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY

HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW ISSUE 55, FEBRUARY 2011

B eyond the M arquee Toward a Common History

art as news madame tussaud and the french revolution pure bliss a sportswriter turns to hf regency balls & the beatles an interview with carola dunn whatever happened to roots? reflections 35 years later dieu le veut novels of the crusades harkening back the work of deanna raybourn

IN EVERY ISSUE historical fiction market news | history & film | new voices | how not to write...

Historical Novels R eview

Hamilton, Michael Joseph, Viking); Short Books; Snowbooks; and Transworld (inc. Bantam Press, Black Swan, Corgi, Doubleday)

|

|

ISSN: 1471-7492 | © 2011 The Historical Novel Society

pub lis h er

|

edit o r ial boa r d

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

|

Jane Kessler University Library 119, University at Albany, SUNY 1400 Washington Avenue Albany, NY 12222 USA <jkessler@uamail.albany.edu>

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

Publisher Coverage: Algonquin; FSG; Five Star; IPG; Kensington; and Trafalgar Square

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

Publisher Coverage: Bethany House; HarperCollins; Penguin Putnam; Random House (all imprints); 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>

review s edit o r s , u k

|

Alan Fisk Flat 25, Lancaster Court, Lancaster Avenue London SE27 9HU UK <alanfisk@yahoo.com>

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, E17 3PL UK <osullivangordon@yahoo.co.uk>

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; Houghton Mifflin (inc. Mariner); 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

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

|

|

Steve Donoghue PO Box 15546 Boston, MA 02215 USA <st.donoghue@comcast.net>

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

|

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

Publisher Coverage: Birlinn/Polygon; Bloomsbury; Constable & Robinson; Faber & Faber; The History Press; Macmillan (inc. Pan, Picador, Sidgwick & Jackson); Penguin (inc. Allen Lane, Hamish

Ann Pedtke 38-13 52nd Street Sunnyside, NY 11104 USA

Publisher coverage: US/Canadian children’s publishers (except S&S, HMH)

|

confe re nce s

|

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

|

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

|

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>

|

e d i tori a l pol i cy

Georgine Olson 400 Dark Star Court Fairbanks, AK 99709 USA <georgine@mosquitonet.com>

|

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.

|

copy ri g h t

|

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 EMAIL NEWSLETTER. Read news and reviews: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HNSNewsletter

HNR I

Historical Novels R eview I ssu e 5 5 , Fe br ua ry 2011 | I SSN 1471-7492

| columns |

1

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

2

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

4

histor y & film to e y r e on the side of caution | han n ah s t ernberg

6

n ew voic e s p r of ile of debut his torical f iction authors el i zab e t h l oupa s, mic haela maccoll, s tef an ie pi nto f f & j u dith r oc k | my f anw y cook

8

how no t to. . . b e p o litic a lly inco rrect | s us an hig g in both a m

| features & interviews |

9 B EYOND THE MA RQU E E towa r d a comm on his tor y | by mar y sha rra tt

12 art a s new s ma d a me tussaud & the f ren ch revolut i o n | by michelle mo ra n 14 p u re bl i ss spor tswr iter f ran k def ord turn s to hf | by ken k reckel

16 reg en c y b alls & the bea tl es an inter view with carola dunn | by gillian saunders 1 8 whatever hap pen ed to ro ots? r e fle c tion s 35 years later | b y ken k reckel 20

dieu l e veu t nove ls of the crus ades | by s u e berr y

21 harken in g ba ck an interview with deanna raybourn | by ken kreckel | reviews |

23

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

MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR t’s a new year, and for many, that means New Year’s resolutions. For me, not so much. I’ve never really subscribed to them, and I find that it saves on depression and guilt if you don’t make promises to yourself you know you’re going to renege on in approximately two months. (And following hard on the heels of the holiday depression and guilt splurge, you’ ll need all the savings you can get your hands on.)

I prefer Lent, with its denial instead of promises—I always feel wonderful afterwards, because not only do I get to do or have again what I’ve been denied, but it also provides me with a laundry list of the addictions I still have some control over. Lent taught me that Diet Coke is no longer on that list. And neither is historical fiction.

I have come across some truly delicious HF lately, and I’ve been eating it with a spoon. I would name names, if I didn’t feel it would be unfair, and besides, several of them are covered in the reviews for this issue, so you’ ll be able find them. Our features section will also be a treasure trove: Mary Sharratt examines the current HF industry trend of publishers’ penchant for well-known historical protagonists (get your “ I All Things Tudor” t-shirt here!), and the pros and cons of venturing beyond marquee names. We also have interviews with Carola Dunn, Frank Deford and Deanna Raybourn, as well as a piece on novels of the Crusades by Sue Berry, who started at age 12, has been quite industrious, and still hasn’t managed to read all the fiction on the subject. And lastly, Ken Kreckel looks back at the phenomenon that was Roots, and asks the question of what has happened to the epic, controversial novel. And speaking of controversy, Susan Higginbotham offers some tips on keeping the PC in your HF, while Myfanwy Cook has a bumper crop of new HF authors you’ ll want to explore.

C

CCCCCCCC CCCCCCCC

CC CCCCCCCC

C CC

CC

C CC

CC CCCCCCCC

CC

The

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 55, February 2011 | Columns | 1

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

W

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

Conference News Our 4th North American conference will take place June 17-19, 2011, at the Holiday Inn on the Bay in San Diego, California. Author guests of honor will be Cecelia Holland and Harry Turtledove, with special guest Susan Vreeland. Jennifer Weltz of the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency will give our Saturday lunch keynote. Registration fees of $300 for HNS members include all events/workshops, all meals, and a meeting with an agent or editor, if desired. Join us on an optional dinner cruise on San Diego Bay on Thursday evening, June 16th.

We have a limit of 300 attendees and expect to sell out. See http://hns-conference.org for more details and to sign up!

Longtime reviewer Steve Donoghue is serving as interim editor of Historical Novels Review Online during Andrea Connell’s maternity leave. For review inquiries for the online HNR (e-books and self-published titles), contact Steve at st.donoghue@comcast.net.

Special thanks to Nanette Donohue for copy editing this issue, Troy Reed for magazine distribution, and Sarah Cuthbertson for compiling UK forthcoming titles for the website.

New publishing deals Sources include author and publisher submissions, Publishers Marketplace, Booktrade.info, Publishers Weekly, The Bookseller, and more.

Jill Santopolo, executive editor at Penguin’s Philomel, acquired N American rights in a six-figure acquisition, at auction, to the Dark Waters YA trilogy by debut author Fiona Paul, via Stephen Barbara of Foundry Literary + Media. Set in Renaissance Venice, the books follow a wealthy 15-year-old girl who stumbles on a murder and gets swept up in an underground world of artists and thieves. The first book, Venom, is scheduled for fall 2012.

The Poisoned House by Michael Ford, a Victorian murder mystery about a faked haunting of a crumbling manor house that becomes terrifyingly real, sold to Wendy McClure at Albert Whitman & Company, for Fall 2011 publication, by Sarah Davies at Greenhouse Literary Agency. The UK publisher will be Bloomsbury Children’s.

Anne Easter Smith’s as-yet-untitled fifth novel, about Jane Shore’s rise and fall as the beloved mistress of England’s King Edward IV, sold to Trish Todd at Touchstone by Jennifer Weltz at the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency.

Lloyd Shepherd’s The English Monster, pitched as similar to Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Trilogy, and taking its starting point in a 2 | Columns | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

series of real-life murders in 1811 London, sold to Mike Jones at Simon & Schuster UK by James Gill at United Agents.

Spartacus by Ben Kane, the epic, inspirational story of Spartacus and the mass slave rebellion that he inspired against the might of Rome, sold to Rosie de Courcy at Preface for publication in 2012, by Charlie Viney at The Viney Agency.

The Spanish Bow author Andromeda Romano-Lax’s The Discus Thrower, about a young German art dealer sent to Italy in 1938 to collect a famous statue for the Führer, pitched as compared to Remains of the Day, sold to Juliet Grames at Soho Press, for publication in 2012, by Gail Hochman at Brandt & Hochman.

Jack Whyte’s The Forest Laird, an epic historical about William Wallace, sold to Claire Eddy at Forge for publication in 2012, by Russell Galen at Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary Agency.

Viking Canada published it last Sept.

Sacred Games, the third book in Gary Corby’s Mean Streets of Classical Athens series, sold to Keith Kahla at Minotaur, with Kathleen Conn editing, for publication in 2012, by Janet Reid at FinePrint Literary Management.

Ariana Franklin’s stand-alone medieval novel, set during the chaotic and horrifying years of the war between Stephen and Matilda for the governance of England, sold to Rachel Kahan at Putnam, for publication in 2012, by Helen Heller at Helen Heller Agency. Canadian rights to Adrienne Kerr at Penguin Canada.

Michael Burr’s Chronicles of the Scraeling trilogy, about a young captive’s experiences in royal intrigue, murder and kingmaking as he journeys from the shores of France to Scandinavia, Russia, Byzantium, North Africa and England in the service of the last of Norway’s Viking kings, sold to Dana Celeste Robinson of Knox Robinson Publishing. The first book, Harald Hardrada: The Last Viking, will be published in Spring 2011.

Maxine Hitchcock, fiction editorial director at Simon & Schuster UK, bought world rights to The Captain’s Daughter

by Leah Fleming via Judith Murdoch for publication in early 2012, the centenary of the Titanic’s sinking. Spanning three generations and 80 years, it follows two women of different classes who survive the wreck and become unlikely friends until the past encroaches on the present.

Philippa Gregory’s The Kingmaker’s Daughters, followed by The White Princess and The Last Rose, all continuations of her writing about the women of The War of the Roses, sold again to Trish Todd at Touchstone, with Suzanne Baboneau at Simon & Schuster UK co-editing, in a three-book deal, by Anthony Mason.

Aristocrats author Stella Tillyard’s novel The Tides of War, set between 1812-1815 during the Peninsular Wars, moving between the fighting in Spain and France and those left behind in Regency London, sold to Frances Coady at Holt, in a preempt, by Melanie Jackson on behalf of Gill Coleridge. Chatto & Windus will publish in the UK this May. Kalyan Ray’s literary multi-generational novel, No Country, which winds its way through 19th and 20th century Ireland, America and India, sold to Anjali Singh at Simon & Schuster

In stores soon C.C. Humphreys’ novel Vlad, biographical fiction about Vlad the Impaler, has its US debut from Sourcebooks in May. In addition, his historical fantasy for teens, The Hunt of the Unicorn, is out from Knopf Books for Young Readers in March; and A Place Called Armageddon, about the siege and fall of Constantinople in 1453, appears in the UK and Commonwealth in July from Orion.

Finding Emilie by Laurel Corona, in which the fictional daughter of Emilie du Chatelet grows up amid the dangerous cultural changes of pre-Revolutionary France, is out in April from Gallery.

Geraldine Brooks’s latest historical novel is Caleb’s Crossing, out from Viking US in May. A tale of love, faith, magic, and adventure set on Martha’s Vineyard in the 17th century, it deals with the secret friendship between a Puritan girl and the son of a Wampanoag chieftain.

Bestselling Tales of the Otori series author Lian Hearn’s Blossoms and Shadows, an epic historical novel of love, war and the rise of modern Japan, set in the 1850s, appears from Quercus

in May. It appeared in Oct 2010 from Hachette Australia.

Wickham’s Diary by Amanda Grange, which brings the complex anti-hero from Pride and Prejudice to life, appears in April from Sourcebooks.

Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman’s novel of Civil War intrigue Broken Promises, a previously self-published work (under the title In the Lion’s Den) that garnered a Director’s Mention for the Langum Prize for Historical Fiction, is reissued from Ballantine in April.

New transatlantic editions Elizabeth Chadwick’s To Defy a King, the story of Mahelt Marshal and Hugh Bigod during King John’s reign, appears in March from Sourcebooks ($15.99, pb, 544pp). In her review from last August’s HNR, Sara Wilson wrote: “Elizabeth Chadwick is one of the best practitioners of historical fiction published today.”

Vienna Twilight, the 5th entry in Frank Tallis’s Liebermann Papers psychoanalytic mystery series set in early 20th-c Vienna (Random House, April, $15, pb, 353pp), previously appeared in the UK under the title Deadly Communion. “Intelligently written, with good descriptions, I found the dialogue stilted,” wrote jay Dixon in the Feb. 2010 HNR. Erratum Book 3 in Ben Kane’s Forgotten Legion series is The Road to Rome (p.23 of Nov’s HNR). In addition, it appears in April from St. Martin’s Press ($26.99, hb, 528pp).

For forthcoming titles through August, historicalnovelsociety.org/forthcoming.htm.

C

CCCCCCCC CCCCCCCC

US, with UK rights to Alexandra Pringle at Bloomsbury UK, both by Elizabeth Sheinkman at Curtis Brown UK. The Jewel of Medina author Sherry Jones’s Four Sisters, All Queens, about the four beautiful, accomplished daughters of the Count of Provence who each become queens in 13th-c Europe, sold to Kathy Sagan at Gallery by Natasha Kern at Natasha Kern Literary Agency (World English).

Burleigh Muten’s Miss Em’ly, a children’s story in verse that portrays the playful, mischievous side of Emily Dickinson, sold to Elizabeth Bicknell at Candlewick for publication in 2011, by Jeff Dwyer at Dwyer & O’Grady.

Mario Vargas Llosa’s El Sueno del Celt (The Dream of the Celt), about Irish revolutionary Sir Roger Casement, executed for treason in 1916 after his involvement in the Easter Rising, sold to Lee Brackstone at Faber & Faber, for publication in 2012, by the Carmen Balcells Agency.

The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone Seguin, the story of a young woman in 1920s England who is sent by a temporary agency to be assistant to a ghost hunter, and is drawn into a small-town mystery of an old crime and vengeful ghost, to Ellen Edwards at NAL, in a two book deal, by Pam Hopkins at Hopkins Literary Associates.

Elizabeth Fama’s Syrenka, which intertwines two tragic love stories, in 1872 and the present day, with a ghostly and dangerous twist, sold to Beth Potter at Farrar, Straus Children’s

by Sara Crowe at Harvey Klinger.

Will Atkins, editorial director for fiction at Pan Macmillan, acquired new historical novels from two authors who came to Macmillan through its New Writing scheme. The Master of Bruges author Terence Morgan’s next two novels, including The Last Plantagenet (expected pub. early 2012 in hb), were acquired via Oliver Munson at Blake Friedmann. Deborah Swift’s The Gilded Lily, following her debut The Lady’s Slipper, is due in Pan pb next summer, via the Annette Green Authors’ Agency.

visit

www.

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.

LETTER TO THE EDITORS In November’s HNR, a review of Voices In Our Souls: The DeWolfs, Dakota Sioux and the Little Bighorn states that Dr. James Madison DeWolf was “the surgeon on the march into the Black Hills against the Sioux Indian nation.” This statement is incorrect and does not come from Voices In Our Souls. The 7th Cavalry’s Black Hills expedition took place in 1874, over a year before Dr. DeWolf joined the 7th Cavalry.

It was exploratory and not a march against the Sioux Indian nation. Dr. DeWolf joined the 7th Cavalry in Dakota Territory in November, 1875. He was an Acting Assistant Surgeon and took part in the 1876 Sioux campaign, including the battle near the Little Bighorn River in eastern Montana Territory.

Gene Erb HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Columns | 3

a French dancer, is carefully passed over.

Likewise, in many of the early versions, Rochester’s desperate & attempt at bigamy – his aborted wedding to Jane – is “fixed” to present a more heroic image. In a 1918 silent version, Woman TO EYRE ON THE SIDE OF CAUTION and Wife, Rochester actually believes his first wife to be dead, and it is her brother who has been caring for her in secret; the ew year, new Congress, new Jane Eyre. While that brother attempts to blackmail Rochester, and it is this scheme third item might not have garnered as much space in which reveals the truth to Jane, who flees. Too bad they didn’t the news as the previous two, the upcoming March reuse this plot for the 1934 version; it would have been the release of Focus Features’ new adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s perfect opportunity for Clive to resurrect the most memorable beloved classic is eagerly anticipated by fans. Jane Eyre might line of his career: “IT’S ALIVE!” not be the first novel that springs to mind when one considers A quagmire of sartorial and narrative confusion, 1934’s classic literature that has inspired a proliferation of film Jane Eyre is a typically anachronistic and sugarcoated costume adaptations, but the tale of the independent-minded orphan drama. The period drama’s popularity at this time depended has a formidable film history, averaging at least one adaptation in large part on glamorization, so it’s no surprise that Virginia per decade throughout the entire history of feature films.

Bruce is a far cry from the “poor, obscure, plain and little” Jane “And there is enchantment in the very hour I am now of Brontë’s novel, or that Colin Clive is neither “stern” nor “past spending with you. Who youth.” can tell what a dark, dreary, After viewing the 1934 hopeless life I have dragged Jane Eyre, it is possible to on for months past? conclude that the wealth Doing nothing, expecting of subsequent adaptations nothing; merging night in have all been part of a day...and then a ceaseless collective effort to forget sorrow, and, at times, a that this one had ever very delirium of desire to happened.

Fortunately, behold my Jane again.” its successor was a more These are Edward flattering testament to the Rochester’s words to Jane standards of its own time.

Eyre when she returns The first artistically to him after a year’s accomplished sound film unexplained absence. of the story appeared Readers can echo his in 1944, when Robert sentiments; Rochester’s Stevenson directed a longing for and rediscovery Mia Wasikowska as the title character in Focus Features’ upcoming release of Jane Eyre feature adaptation starring of Jane is a stormier version Joan Fontaine and Orson of a common longing among book lovers: to experience their Welles, and boasting a screenplay by John Houseman and beloved stories and characters beyond the realm of mental novelist Aldous Huxley. Bernard Herrmann, composer for reflection, and to actually participate in the world created by Welles’ most acclaimed films and creator of the iconic music for a cherished book. Film adaptation is the closest that readers in Psycho, contributes a classically sweeping score. The product is the real world can come to this. an atmospheric and sophisticated Gothic fantasy reminiscent While Jane Eyre is a major work critically and thematically, of the 1940 romantic literary thriller Rebecca, a comparison it also remains a popular favorite due to the escapist quality encouraged by producers with the employment of the two films’ of its Gothic romance, making it equally captivating on the common star, Fontaine. intellectual and emotional levels. Each successive generation Though one of the earlier adaptations (as only the second that has adapted the story to film has left the unique stamp of sound film), 1944’s Jane Eyre remains today one of the most its own time on it: both in terms of filmmaking standards, and accomplished, narratively and artistically. Black and white in each film’s treatment of the story’s more controversial details. photography is used expressively, with instances of the The story went through eight silent picture iterations and dramatic camera angles, deep focus and pervasive chiaroscuro its first talkie adaptation (in 1934, starring Virginia Bruce and characteristic of Welles’ work – and this captures the foreboding, Colin “Dr. Frankenstein” Clive) before a team of writers took the Gothic atmosphere of the novel. risk of intimating that Rochester’s ward Adele Varens was the Welles certainly took control of his role, filling it with the product of an illicit affair, a detail made clear in Brontë’s original moodiness, cynical pride and physical power required of novel. In these first nine film adaptations, Brontë’s original (and Rochester. Unlike 1934’s illogical mess, Huxley and Houseman’s unflattering) tale of Rochester’s wild days with Adele’s mother, telescoping of events has a clever symmetry. This adaptation

aHISTORY FILMe

N

4 | Columns | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

dramas of the ’70s and ’80s is their blissful freedom from any kind of redeeming production value. Fans of its faithfulness tend to brush off its “dated” or “theatrical” feel as a minor drawback, but the form (cinematography) becomes a part of the content in the same way that an author’s specific use of language contributes the distinctive tone of a book.

On the other end of the artistic spectrum is Italian director Franco Zeffirelli and his meticulously photographed 1996 feature Jane Eyre, starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and William Hurt. Zeffirelli’s version unfolds quietly, with the expectation that the viewer will follow tacitly down dark and sometimes unexplained corridors. Subtlety and quietness guide the script; that is, until the delicacy is shattered by an unexpectedly contrived moment – as when Jane reminds Adele at her sketchpad that “the shadows are as important as the light,” just as she chases after a conversation with Rochester. At other moments, the simplicity of the dialog is spot-on in establishing both mystery and eventual double-meaning.

While the earliest adaptations sought melodrama and omitted Rochester’s unappealing moral confusion, Zeffirelli’s film trims out coincidence, religion and the supernatural. The result is a story that is physically believable, and possibly more appealing to the crowd that easily tires of romantic stretches of the imagination. Like a difficult book, Zeffirelli’s Jane Eyre takes a couple readings and some thought to become clear, but the visual satisfaction and uniquely non-melodramatic approach to the story are worth the effort, focusing on the story’s aspects of quiet melancholy and nuance of character.

Jane makes her most recent return to the small screen in the BBC’s 2006 “Jane Eyre,” featuring a script, penned by Sandy Welch, that is highly evolved from that network’s previous example. Director Susanna White brings a visual elegance to the miniseries that shows just how far standards for TV production have come in the last several decades, in which time television has proven itself to be a legitimate artform, just like film. But unlike Zeffirelli’s adaptation, this one brings a level of passion and unabashed sexual tension that will thrill any viewer seeking romantic escapism in the tale. Most important of all, however, the filmmakers in this instance did not interpret the available running time (nearly four hours) as an invitation to simply reproduce the book verbatim. If you seek to watch just one adaptation of Jane Eyre (instead of all of them, as I have), let it be this one, which combines the freedom and beauty of Zeffirelli’s approach with the romanticism of the earliest versions.

Then again, if you love Jane Eyre as much as I do, you won’t be able to resist the movie theater’s call to your spirit next month either.

C

CCCCCCCC CCCCCCCC

repeats the device of highlighting “excerpts” from the novel onscreen to broach time transitions, this time accompanied by Joan Fontaine’s first-person voice-over. But like its predecessors, this adaptation capitalizes on the narrative shock value of its source while painting the emotional conflicts that result with comfortingly broad strokes – the movie is meant ultimately to confirm the viewer’s fantasies about stormy passion, rather than to challenge them. The human element of Jane still eludes the screen.

The next widely obtainable (and watchable) adaptation stars George C. Scott and Susannah York, and aired on NBC on March 24, 1971. In 1972, it won an Emmy for Best Achievement in Music Composition with a score by the up and coming composer John Williams. Both stars were also nominated that year for their leading roles.

Both Scott and York are old for their roles. In the book, Jane is 18 and Rochester is recently in his 40s, but York is 30 and Scott a very weathered 44. They use their not-unreasonable ages to their advantage, creating a much quieter and more mature dynamic between Rochester and Jane that reconciles the stormy passion of their courtship with their eventual peaceful end.

Scott’s brusqueness only highlights a masculine tenderness: in one of the most moving scenes, after Jane slips away from Rochester and his mad wife in disgust, he slides down the wall and talks to Bertha in eerily calm tones: “What shall we do tonight? Shall I play for you, and sing? Will you sit with me and tell me the story of your day? Shall you hold my head on your breast whilst I sleep?”

This is an entirely fabricated piece of dialog, but it supplies the same emotional justification for Rochester’s crime that later omitted portions of their parting scene would have made clear, and it does so in an original and chilling way. At last, emotional depth has arrived in Jane Eyre on film.

In the same decade, the BBC made its first miniseries adaptation of the novel, followed ten years later by its second attempt, both of which have inspired the lasting devotion of raging book fanatics. The BBC “Eyre” attempts prove why bringing the book, word-for-word, to the screen can be the least successful way to adapt a classic novel. Just as a feature-length adaptation can crash by trimming too close, a miniseries can fail by becoming mired in a scrupulous recreation of every detail of the original’s plot. This technique appeals to Brontëphiles who only want to reread the book on screen, but the resulting mimicry of “real” Victorian speech and etiquette is about as twee as the local Renaissance Faire, and bears as much resemblance to historical truth. This disturbing trend is evident in the 1983 BBC “Jane Eyre” starring Timothy Dalton (for those who like their Rochester shaken, not stirred) and Zelah Clarke.

Entire dialogs are lifted nearly word-for-word from the text, while the story’s progression is left so rigidly intact that episodes frequently end at awkward moments. This method is surprisingly insensitive both to the subtlety of the original novel’s longer and more methodical story structure, and to the requirements of episodic television storytelling.

Another defining quality of the BBC-produced historical

HANNAH STERNBERG, HNR’s Film Editor, is a writer and filmmaker living in Washington, DC. Her first novel, Queens of All the Earth, will be released by Bancroft Press this year. To learn more about her and her work, visit www.hannahsternberg.com.

HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Columns | 5

NEW VOICES Myfanwy Cook examines the debut historical fiction of Elizabeth Loupas, Michaela MacColl, Stefanie Pintoff, and Judith Rock.

J

udith Rock, author of The Rhetoric of Death (Berkley, 2010), writes that “milestones are often very small from the outside”. What links Elizabeth Loupas, Michaela MacColl, Stefanie Pintoff and Judith Rock together as debut novelists is that they all experienced these milestone moments, moments which shaped or inspired their debut novels.

Rock was “enchanted” by history and threw herself into a project about children in ancient Athens for a fifth grade history assignment, dressing “the children on the cover in scraps of lambswool, having decided that the Athenians went around draped in animal skins — an early experience of the perils of creative history.” It was only later that she experienced her milestone moment: “A high school history teacher told us about a mad nobleman who rode his horse through the marble halls of his mansion; that story lit my developing vision of the past like a floodlight.

People were just as peculiar then as in the twentieth century! So were they like us in other ways? All ways? A few ways?

Hardly at all? Several decades later, after a dance career and various academic degrees, I decided to do a Ph.D., because dance and knees don’t last forever.

While learning baroque dance and preparing a series of lecture performances about the 17th and 18th century Jesuits’ work with ballet, which I had discovered in my reading, a serious knee injury put an end to dancing. So I decided to do a doctorate and make Jesuit ballet my dissertation topic. I did the research in France, living at the then Jesuit Cultural Center in Chantilly, outside Paris, and fell in love with France and French culture.

My dissertation, Terpsichore at Louis le Grand (published

by The Institute of Jesuit Sources in St. Louis), became the research base for The Rhetoric of Death (set in 1686) and the second Charles du Luc novel, The Eloquence of Blood, due out in September 2011.”

Stefanie Pintoff describes her milestone moment:“Inspiration for In the Shadow of Gotham (Minotaur, 2009) came years before I ever thought I would be a writer of historical crime fiction — while I was still in law school. It was there, among the memorable academics and lawyers of Columbia University, that I conceived the character of Alistair Sinclair. He is loosely modelled on one of my professors — from whom I borrowed 6 | Columns | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

a couple of real-life traits to create the turn-of-the-last-century criminologist who is a central character in my novel. Alistair is brilliant, larger than life, and as equally enamored of high-society living as of his academic passion, crime. Almost immediately, the ideas kept coming: what if...there had been a terrible, senseless crime? What if...my criminologist believed he knew the killer responsible — because he had interviewed him, come to know him? What if...he had covered up the killer’s violent history to further his own research? Soon I had conceived not only of the dedicated but self-absorbed criminologist Sinclair, but also Simon Ziele, the pragmatic detective from New York’s Lower East Side who would more than be his match. Detective Ziele, possesses an essential goodness that counter-balances Alistair’s ego and ambition. It was never a question that my book would be set in New York. I’m one of those people who became a New Yorker the moment I set foot here, and the city and its history are endlessly fascinating to me. I love doing the research and I’m lucky that so many resources exist here in NYC — from historic walking tours to the vast resources of the New York Public Library or the New York Historical Society, where I can uncover a treasure trove of early 1900s photographs, subway maps, and restaurant menus. I’m often asked whether the historical research limits my ideas. It’s usually the other way around: the research serves as a springboard for my ideas. I find it impossible to read a news story or even a restaurant menu without imagining characters, conflicts, and story scenarios. The wealth of ideas that inspire me can be daunting, but I decide which ideas best serve my story — and let go of the rest.

They remain, entrenched in my imagination, awaiting another day’s tale.”

Elizabeth Loupas, author of The Second Duchess (NAL, 2011), is able to recall the precise day that she had her milestone moment, the 11th of May, 2001. “I know the exact date because I wrote about it in my journal. The semester was almost over, and I was tutoring a clever but lazy high school senior who was catching up on overdue essays. ‘I’m supposed to write a psychological profile of this duke guy,’ he said, ‘in a poem by Robert Browning called My Last Duchess.’ I’d read the poem hundreds of times, and coached dozens of students through essays. I turned to the page in the textbook, took a deep breath — and it hit me. I was going to write a novel about the duke’s second duchess. ‘I gave commands,’ the duke in the poem says, speaking of his luminous first duchess. ‘And all smiles stopped together.’ For over 150 years, readers and critics have puzzled over what stopped the young duchess’s smiles. The traditional reading of the poem is that the duke himself murdered her, or

had her murdered. But did he? And since the entire narrative of the poem is part of his negotiation to marry a second wife, what would she have thought of the whole business? The student finished his essay and graduated. I am sure he has long since forgotten My Last Duchess. I haven’t. I started with research on the poem itself. What had Browning said about its historical background, and what had critics written about it since its original publication in 1842? I discovered Browning had loosely — very loosely — based his duke on Alfonso II d’Este, the fifth Duke of Ferrara. This Alfonso, and the Estensi are riddled with Alfonsos, which makes it difficult to keep them straight, was a grandson of Lucrezia Borgia. I was delighted. The duke’s first wife, it turned out, was Lucrezia de’ Medici. Both the Borgias and the Medici — better and better. The duke’s second wife

C

For more information about these authors, please see their websites.

MYFANWY COOK is currently an HNR Features editor. She recently published On Historical Fiction Writing, A Practical Guide and Tool Kit, with contributions from Bernard Knight and tips from over 50 proessional historical novelists and experts in the fields of publishing and literature.

CCCCCCCC CCCCCCCC

Left to right from top: Elizabeth Loupas, Judith Rock, Michaela MacColl, and Stefanie Pintoff

was Barbara of Austria, daughter and sister of Holy Roman Emperors. Her portrait shows a tall, thin, no-nonsense woman with reddish-blonde hair, brown eyes, and a Habsburg jaw, a granddaughter of Philip the Fair and Juana la Loca. I had the Borgias, the Medici, and Juana la Loca, all in one family. Who could ask for more? Now all I had to do was tackle a mountain of research to present the city and the people and the culture of the time in an accurate and believable way. And best of all, write the book.”

Michaela MacColl’s Prisoners in the Palace (Chronicle, 2010), with its eye-catching glittery pop-art foil cover was inspired by, as she says, “a chance mention of a maid of Victoria’s who was dismissed for lewd behavior. And then I found a broadsheet newspaper illustration with a girl throwing herself off the London Monument. When I found out that anybody could have a broadsheet printed and sold…I had the plot of the novel.” MacColl has always been fascinated by “delving into the childhoods of famous people. At some point, they made decisions, met people who influenced them, were inspired…and this led them to become who they became. Take the Princess Victoria. We’ve all seen the dowdy pictures of her, dressed in black, hunched over and scowling. Yet she was a teenager once!

A girl who dreamed about boys. Who counted a party successful if she stayed out very, very late. Who measured herself (and how terrifying would this be?) against the great Queens of Great Britain’s past. I loved the idea of meeting Victoria when she was only seventeen. We have her journals from age 12.

However, Victoria wasn’t permitted to use ink in her journals until her mother approved the text, so her voice, although in her own words, is suspect. Part of the fun of writing this novel was deciphering the Teen Queen’s code — when is she really happy and when is she just writing to please her mother? When I found out how limited her social circle was, I began to wonder what she thought of other girls. My protagonist, Liza, began as a foil for Victoria — someone who would call out the future Queen and who would give a modern reader some perspective about how depressing Victoria’s life was. Soon, however, Liza began to interest me. What would you do if you lost everything, and your only lifeline was to be humiliated and degraded as a servant?

How long before your intelligence and passion found a way out of your predicament?”

The milestone moments which inspired these debut novelists have also provided readers with new and significant offerings in the realm of historical fiction.

HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Columns | 7

HOW NOT TO...

FALL PREY TO POLITICAL INCORRECTNESS. To P.C. or not to P.C.? That is the question. You just can’t quite seem to like your characters in your historical novel in progress, and suddenly you realize why: they’re just too — well, historical. Follow these ten tips guaranteed to smooth the rough edges and make them enlightened, humane people.

You know, just like us.

1. Your main character should not go hunting or attend a bearbaiting unless forced, after which he must become violently ill.

(This provides the added bonus of allowing your character to flash back to this traumatic event later in the novel. Not only can this get very literary and symbolic, but it also helps bring up your word count.)

2. Any conquering people must be uniformly vicious, cruel, and corrupt. Any conquered people must be noble, progressive, and enlightened. Any infighting, greed, and betrayal among the conquered people can be attributed to the malign influence of the conquering people.

3. Your heroine can own a slave, but only if her vile, greedy parents give her no choice in the matter. At the earliest feasible moment in the plot, the heroine must free the slave, who in most cases can be made to insist on continuing to serve the heroine anyway.

Hey, someone has to get the heroine dressed in the morning.

Unshackle your historical characters from the mores of their time of your hero’s tolerance. Care must be taken here: if the member of the oppressed group starts developing a personality, and therefore human flaws, you may be going a little too far.

8. Once your hero and heroine become parents (preferably after the local midwife saves the heroine’s life in childbirth by ignoring the advice of the local physician), they must never use corporal punishment on their children, no matter what the child-rearing manuals of the day instruct. The only exception: if the parents see the child mistreating a social inferior or an animal, in which cases the parents are free to go ballistic. Just don’t let them make a habit of it.

7. Your hero must not share the racial or religious prejudices of his day. In fact, if all possible, a member of an oppressed group should be brought into the novel solely to allow a demonstration 8 | Columns | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

CCCCCCCC CCCCCCCC

4. In the rare event that the slave actually leaves the heroine’s service, any employee hired to replace said slave must be paid 9. Your heroine should not only rail against traditional gender at double the minimum wage. And don’t forget the Christmas roles, she should transcend them, which usually necessitates her bonus. dressing up as a man at some point. If she has to fight in a battle, make sure she’s fighting on behalf of an oppressed people.

5. Any clergyman belonging to the established church of the time must be hypocritical and greedy, while any religious female 10. It is a truth universally acknowledged that in historical character will be sexually repressed and emotionally stunted. fiction set in certain eras, your hero must be titled, or at least Goddess worship, however, is entirely acceptable. Besides, it filthy rich. The wise author will not panic here; this is the time gives your characters the chance to dress up and chant a lot. to revel in your creativity! Bring in some poor people for your hero to aid. His benevolence will duly impress the reader and the 6. At some point in your novel a medical crisis should occur, heroine, which in turn will give you the chance to demonstrate pitting your herb-wielding heroine’s knowledge against that of a your hero’s sensitivity as a lover. Just don’t muck things up by physician. If you’re writing genre fiction, your heroine’s remedy having the couple go hunting afterward. will triumph, causing the physician to skulk off in humiliation.

If you’re writing literary fiction, your heroine’s remedy will still triumph, but the heroine will get burned as a witch for it three SUSAN HIGGINBOTHAM’S heroine in her latest chapters later. novel, The Queen of Last Hopes, goes hunting now and then, which probably explains many of her problems.

Toward a Common History

Recorded history is wrong. It’s wrong because the voiceless have no voice in it.

These are the words of the late, great Mary Lee Settle, author of the classic Beulah Land Quintet, published in the 1950s, when both academic history and most historical fiction were narrowly focused on the elite. So many people have been written out of history: not only the vast majority of women, but also people of the peasant and labouring classes, and most people of nonEuropean ancestry. In Settle’s day, a more inclusive history seemed a far off dream.

“There’s a revolution going on out there!”

Sarah Dunant, acclaimed author of The Birth of Venus and In the Company of the Courtesan, remembers this time. Speaking at the Bluecoat School in Liverpool in May 2010, Dunant described how she first fell in love with historical fiction when she was a twelve-year-old in postwar Britain, which she remembers as “a grey, colourless, bleak place” where nobody wanted to talk about the war. On the brink of adolescence, she found a wonderful escape in Jean Plaidy’s novels of the crowned heads of Europe.

These books not only opened up another world that was colourful and glamorous, but they inspired Dunant’s lifelong love affair with history. She went on to study history at Cambridge. “The history I learned,” she recalls, “was the history of great battles, great empires, great men.”

But what inspired Dunant to become a historical novelist were the sweeping developments in academic history that occurred after she left Cambridge in 1972.

This new history embraced people who did not belong to the elite. She cites Joan Kelly-Gadol’s 1977 essay, “Did Women Have a Renaissance?” as one of the turning points in the development of how we look at history.

Sarah Dunant is not only a champion of a more inclusive, non-elitist historical fiction — she also became an international bestseller by writing about people on the margins of history. Her most recent novel, Sacred Hearts, explores the secret world of Benedictine nuns in 1570 Ferrara, Italy — a cloistered “republic of women” where each choir sister had a voice and a vote in the daily chapter house meeting.

C C

C C

B eyond the M arquee

“Modern historians,” Dunant explains, “know that there is a multiplicity of history — there is more than one history, one fact.

The history I’m using has been hard won over the past twenty to thirty years.” And this history allowed her to write novels about a past that simply wasn’t regarded as history even thirty years ago.

For Sacred Hearts, she has drawn on two generations of young historians who examined court records of nuns who got into trouble.

Similarly, I could not have written my most recent novel, Daughters of the Witching Hill, which is based on the true story of the Pendle Witches of 1612, without drawing on groundbreaking social histories, such as Keith Thomas’s Religion and the Decline of Magic; landmark works on Reformation Studies, like Eamon Duffy’s The Stripping of the Altars and Ronald Hutton’s The Rise and Fall of Merry England; as well as recent studies on historical cunning folk.

Is the tide, then, changing? Will this new history open the door to a Renaissance in the historical novel? Will more and more authors draw on this wider window into ordinary people’s lives instead of rehashing the same old tired tales of Tudor royalty?

Dunant believes that historical novelists possess every potential to be on the cutting edge of bringing this new history in an accessible form to a modern audience.

“Wake up, there’s a revolution going on out there in historical fiction!” Dunant told Lucinda Byatt in their May 2010 Solander interview.

Marquee names only, please.

Although the world of academic history has moved on light years since the 1950s, historical fiction often appears to be stuck in a rut. In these recessionary times, an increasingly conservative publishing market urges new and established authors alike to play it safe by writing about famous historical figures, such as Tudor royalty, instead of drawing on a social history of the less privileged.

Speaking at the 2007 Historical Novel Society Conference in Albany, New York, agent Irene Goodman stressed the importance of “marquee names” in finding an audience for one’s historical fiction. In the May 2010 issue of Solander, Goodman cited author Leslie Carroll’s leap from midlist obscurity to major success with

by Mary Sharratt

M odern historians... know that there is a multiplicity of history — there is more than one history, one fact.”

HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Features | 9

the sale of her trilogy of novels about Marie Antoinette. Goodman is not alone in stressing the importance of marquee names.

“The trend simply cannot be denied,” Bethany Latham, Managing Editor of Historical Novels Review, observes. “For better or worse, publishers seem to prefer marquee names right now.

They’re the path of least resistance — easier to market since, in the mind of many publishers, celebrity protagonist equals readymade audience. There’s even a tendency for successful authors who began differently to evolve into something that better fits the prevailing mold — witness Philippa Gregory, who started out with the Wideacre Trilogy but has ended up with the familiar bigname Tudors and Plantagenets, and will be sticking with them for the foreseeable future.”

Popular fascination with historical It Girls like Anne Boleyn helped launch the incredible resurgence in historical fiction within the past decade, most notably through Gregory’s blockbuster, The Other Boleyn Girl. Literary agent Marcy Posner, speaking at the 2010 Historical Novel Society Conference in Manchester, UK, pointed out how Gregory’s glittering evocation of the Tudor Court inspired a large group of female readers to make the leap from historical romance to mainstream historicals. It seems only natural for agents and editors to look for work that contains the same kind of hook that proved so successful for Gregory.

“My experience was that when I sent some of my work to an agent,” says Elizabeth Ashworth, author of The de Lacy Inheritance, “she thought it was an engaging story and she liked my style of writing but she didn’t think she could sell my work to a publisher because it wasn’t about a well-known king or queen. When I mentioned that I was working on another novel set in the reign of Edward II, she replied that if I wrote about Edward and Piers Gaveston, she might be interested. But that story has been written many times before and it was another story I wanted to tell – one about Lady Mabel Bradshaw who lived at that time but is relatively unknown.”

“The marquee name, especially female, has become almost a requirement in historical fiction,” says C.W. Gortner, author of The Confessions of Catherine de Medici. “My novel, The Last Queen, languished unpublished for years, with several of my rejection letters pointing out that Juana [of Spain] was not a ‘known personage’. I persisted and eventually found success, but how many other writers give up?”

The insistence on marquee names was why author Jeri Westerson says she switched to writing historical mysteries. “I preferred to write about the everyman in an historical setting, but year after year, I was told by editors that my medieval stories needed to be about royalty or other noble personages. The kind of historical I wanted to write translated much better to the 10 | Features | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

mystery genre. So now I write medieval mysteries (after some eleven years of peddling historical manuscripts and not selling them).” Her fourth Crispin Guest Medieval Noir, Troubled Bones, will be released in Fall 2011. However, other historical mystery writers embrace the marquee name trend by choosing a well known figure such as Elizabeth I or Oscar Wilde as their sleuth.

Susanne Dunlap, author of Liszt’s Kiss and The Musician’s Daughter, adds that in Young Adult Fiction, the pressure is to write “something that fits into the high school curriculum,” which may well involve including famous personalities.

The bias can sometimes be found among HNS members themselves. Historical Novels Review Book Review Editor Sarah Johnson has noticed that reviewers tend to clamour for books about big names while novels about less familiar characters and settings can be harder to place.

Not even the most elite literary circles are immune to this trend. Hilary Mantel’s Booker Award-winning masterpiece Wolf Hall is set in Henry VIII’s court.

A lack of diversity in the genre?

So does this push to write about marquee names help or hinder historical fiction?

“This is the backwash of celebrity culture,” Dunant states, “and our greed for sensation and scandal. People read about Anne Boleyn when they tire of reading about Paris Hilton.

We’ve gone back to kings and queens, a celebrity history, because we’ve squeezed Paris Hilton dry.”

Must we all write like latter day Jean Plaidys and Georgette Heyers in order to meet our publishers’ sales expectations?

Bethany Latham laments to think that in today’s climate, Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind, the bestselling historical novel of all time, might not be published because Scarlett O’Hara is a nobody.

Alison Weir, speaking at the 2010 HNS Conference in Manchester, presents a different viewpoint, arguing that her novels on figures such as Elizabeth I and Eleanor of Aquitaine are a legitimate way of reclaiming women’s history, even though they are focused on elite women. As Keynote Speaker at the conference, Weir explained how she pitched a nonfiction biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine some years ago only to be told that not enough material existed on her to make her a worthy subject.

“I think many readers gravitate toward the familiar,” Sarah Johnson observes,“and historical fiction readers in particular often choose novels that help them gain insight into a real-life character’s mindset or behavior. In that sense, I can see why marquee names are so popular, and why authors are being encouraged to choose them as subjects. It’s an automatic ‘hook.’”

Johnson added that the industry’s insistence on marquee names

“If I see another book on the Tudors, I’ll scream!”

Which begs the question: are historical fiction readers beginning to reach their saturation point with historical celebrities? Eager to ape Philippa Gregory’s success, many authors have tried to follow her formula, with mixed results. How many more novels about Tudor royalty can the public bear?

“Frankly, if I see another book on the Tudors, I’ll scream,” HNS member Monica Spence admits.

“When I’m book-buying, the Not Anne Boleyn Again Syndrome periodically strikes,” Bethany Latham confesses.

Anne Gilbert says that she tends to shy away from fictional biographies. “No matter how well-written they may be,” says Gilbert, “they tend to concentrate on pretty much the same wellknown historical people.”

“There are only so many ‘ultra famous’ women we can write about, whom publishers find commercial enough,” C.W. Gortner observes. “Take, for example, Eleanor of Aquitaine; as fascinating as she is, how much more can be said about her without it becoming repetitious or whimsical in novelized form?”

A 2009 market research poll conducted by blogger Julianne Douglas on Writing the Renaissance indicates that only 11% of the people she surveyed buy historical fiction based on the appeal of marquee names alone. Readers want so much more out of their fiction: fascinating characters and storylines, arresting and richly realised settings.

Finding an audience Following the Publishers Weekly listings of best-selling historical fiction on her blog, Reading the Past, Sarah Johnson mentions Edward Rutherfurd, Lisa See, and Sandra Dallas as just a few commercially successful authors who have bucked the big name trend. Their novels reached a wide audience because they have additional hooks that attract readers, Johnson points out, such as strong book club potential, and they also appeal to many readers outside the core historical fiction audience. Bethany Latham praises Maggie O’Farrell as a successful author with a fresh, original voice, who is utterly unaffected by the celebrity trend, not to mention Ken Follett, whose blockbuster Fall of Giants saga depicts ordinary people against extraordinary historical backdrops.

However, HNS member Matt Phillips, who is writing a novel based on his ancestors on the Pennsylvania frontier, still feels that not enough historical fiction based on the lives of “real people” is reaching the reading public. “There are so many stories that can shed light on how the ‘average person’ lived, or might have lived, while also entertaining the reader, engaging his or her imagination and emotions authentically with the thrills and fears and hopes and challenges of living in another time. Yet relatively few such stories find their way to the shelves of our bookstores because publishers continue to emphasize the marquee names.”

What happens when new or midlist authors embrace the lives

of people on the margins of history? Gabriella West’s novel Time of Grace (Wolfhound Press, 2002) is a daring work—a womancentered look at a very male period in history, Ireland’s 1916 Easter Rising, and also a romance between two young women.

“It was successfully published but I’m not sure it was published successfully,” West says. “It never really found its audience.”

Joyce Elson Moore has had a happier experience with her new novel, The Tapestry Shop, based on the life of Adam de la Halle, an obscure 13th-century musician. “His secular plays and music are still being performed,” Moore explains, “and he was one of the last and greatest of the trouveres (like troubadours in southern France). He penned the first version of the Robin Hood legend, and I felt like his story had to be told. The book is getting a lot of attention, and I think one reason is that it is different.”

Elizabeth Ashworth reports good sales on her own first novel, The de Lacy Inheritance. “I was lucky that my publisher, Myrmidon Books, was willing to take my novel, although the main character is a leper. It’s selling well and I think that proves the publishers wrong who maintain that readers only want to read about kings and queens.”

“Just give us variety.”

“To be honest, I’m not sure I’d be able to work with the constraints of a documented marquee name,” says Vanitha Sankaran, whose debut novel Watermark explores the life of a woman papermaker in late medieval France. “As a writer, I like the freedom of being able to create my own characters and stories while staying accurate to the era. As a reader, however, I’m interested in reading about all different types of people, from the poor man trying to feed his pregnant wife to the merchant seeing his profits swallowed up by war. I wish publishers would take more risks across the whole genre and not focus on any time, place, or biographical person, but just give us variety.”

Sarah Johnson agrees that “those who stick narrowly to celebrity characters are missing out on some wonderful stories!

In particular, the Editors’ Choice selections in Historical Novels Review demonstrate that historical fiction readers’ most highly recommended books don’t follow trends or fit into neat categories.”

N. Gemini Sasson sums it up beautifully: “There are less well known historical figures that have stories worth telling, every bit as compelling and dramatic as those whose stories have been told a hundred ways already. Sharing their lives would do nothing but enrich our view of the past.”

Perhaps we are indeed ready for a revolution in historical fiction.

C

References:

“Time to Change the Marquee” by Julianne Douglas. Available via internet at: http://writingren.blogspot.com/2009/02/time-tochange-marquee.html “Bestselling Historical Novels of 2009” by Sarah Johnson. Available via internet at: http://readingthepast.blogspot.com/2010/04/ bestselling-historical-novels-of-2009.html

CCCCCCCC CCCCCCCC

has the unfortunate drawback of creating a “lack of diversity in the genre.”

“The push for ‘big names’ is primarily about name recognition,” states N. Gemini Sasson, author of The Crown in the Heather.

“The casual historical fiction reader scanning the shelves at the local Target store is more likely to linger over a name she recognizes, pick up the book and buy it, than an unknown. I do wonder though when a saturation point for some of these historical persons will be reached and the scales tip the other way.”

MARY SHARRATT’S acclaimed novel, Daughters of the Witching Hill, was released in Mariner paperback in January 2011. Her forthcoming novel, Know the Ways, based on the life of 12th century visionary abbess and polymath Hildegard von Bingen, will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in Spring 2012. Visit her website at www. marysharratt.com.

HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Features | 11

Madame Tussaud and the French Revolution

W

ithout promotion something terrible happens...nothing!”

Although P. T. Barnum would utter these words long after the French Revolution, nothing could better encapsulate Marie Tussaud’s philosophy towards running her extraordinary exhibition in 18th-century France. While most people know the name “Madame Tussaud” from her famous museum in London, it was in France, on the humble Boulevard du Temple, where Marie first got her start as an apprentice in her uncle’s wax museum, the Salon de Cire. At the time, the Boulevard was crowded with exhibits of every kind. For a pocket full of sous a passerby might attend the opera, hire a prostitute, watch a puppet show, or visit Henri Charles’ mystifying show The Invisible Girl. The Boulevard was a difficult place to distinguish oneself as an artist, but as Marie’s talent grew for both sculpting and public relations, the Salon de Cire became one of the most popular attractions around. Suddenly, no one could compete with Marie or her uncle for ingenious publicity stunts, and when the royal family supposedly visited their museum, this only solidified what most showmen in Paris already knew — the Salon was an exhibition to watch out for.

But as the Salon’s popularity grew, so did the unusual requests. Noblemen came asking for nude sculptures of their mistresses, women wanted models of their newborn infants, and no less a personage than the king’s sister wanted Marie to come to Versailles to be her wax tutor. While this was, in many ways, a dream come true, it was also a dangerous time to be associated with the royal family. Men such as Robespierre, Marat, and Desmoulins were meeting at Marie’s house to discuss the future of the monarchy, and when the Revolution began, Marie found herself in a precarious position. Should she remain loyal to the royal family, or cast her lot with the revolutionaries?

Ultimately, Marie did both. She remained a tutor to the king’s sister while, at the same time, her family attended meetings at the radical Jacobin Club. It was actually ideal, for as the

C C

C

C

Art as News

political upheaval in France began, the citizens of Paris were desperate for news. They wanted to know what the king and queen looked like, how lavishly they dined, and in what sort of accommodations they lived. Most Parisians had never seen the queen in person, and very few people had the means to visit the king’s Palace of Versailles themselves. While newspapers could describe the royals and their extravagant way of life, only Marie could show it all in the “flesh”. It was also a clever piece of publicity that the signs inside the exhibition changed as frequently as the wax figures. “His Highness King Louis XVI” became “Citizen Capet” as soon as the king was stripped of his title, while the criminal, the Marquis de Sade, became “Assemblyman” the day he was voted into office.

By 1790, Marie’s Salon was just as valid a news source as any of the printed papers circulating in Paris at the time.

When Parisians wanted to know what anti-royalists were wearing, they visited her exhibition to see how the figures of prominent revolutionaries were dressed.

And when the monarchy was abolished, they returned to see what the members of their new government looked like. It was in the Salon de Cire that Parisians learned what the inside of the Bastille had been like before it was stormed and destroyed.

And it was Marie’s museum which kept up with the ever-changing fashions of the Revolution. By 1793, it was a matter of life or death to know which colors to wear and what type of pants were acceptable on the streets. In the anti-royalist hysteria that gripped Paris, citizens were thrown into prison for looking too bourgeois, and anyone who dared to powder their hair or wear culottes (the knee-breeches still sported by the king) could find themselves being sentenced to the guillotine as a traitor. Women abandoned Marie’s Antoinette’s elaborate robes à la française and adopted simple chemise gowns instead, while men began wearing long pants and “liberty” caps. Fashions were changing so rapidly that Marie was sometimes forced to redress her models

by Michelle Moran

It was actually ideal...for as the political upheaval in France began, the citizens of Paris were desperate for news...only Marie could show it all in the ‘flesh’.”

12 | Features | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

no promotion was needed. All Marie had to do was feature a single head in the window of her exhibition, and immediately passersby would know what they could find inside. Anyone who had missed the spectacle of the king’s execution could see the scene recreated in wax. And if Parisians ever wondered what the guillotine felt like, they even could touch a replica of it in the Salon de Cire (later, Madame Tussaud would claim to have purchased the original blade that killed Marie Antoinette. It’s in the London museum today).

My fourth book, Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution, is the story of Marie’s life during one of the most tumultuous times in human history. Her survival was nothing less than astonishing, and how she endured makes for what I hope is a compelling read. Few Parisians in the French Revolution were able to remain friends with both royals and revolutionaries — and live to tell the tale. But not only did Marie survive, she went on to turn her artistry into a lasting empire. Today, there are twelve Madame Tussauds Wax Museums around the world, many of which still feature the death masks Marie created in the 1790s.

C

CCCCCCCC CCCCCCCC

each month. It was imperative that every good “patriot” keep up with the times, particularly artists with the power to influence the public.

In fact, as soon as the monarchy was abolished, the revolutionary leaders of France called upon Paris’s best artists to help create a new vision for the future. The painter and sculptor Jacques-Louis David was asked to create nationalistic images which could be used as propaganda. He was also put in charge of arranging the state funerals of important leaders, complete with city-wide processions that featured sculptures of the deceased. The government recognized the power of art, so it comes as no surprise that the next person on their list to call was Marie. What they asked of her, however, would change her life.

The government wanted proof that the famous “criminals” who were sentenced to die by guillotine had actually been executed.

In a time before photography, it was the only way of proving someone had died. Moreover, the wax masks that she created would be useful in various public displays. The real head of King Louis XVI, for example, would have an expiration date. A wax recreation of his head, however, could be used again and again in demonstrations and celebratory processions through the streets.

It must have been a difficult choice for Marie — to give in to the revolutionary leaders’ demands to make death masks of people she knew, or face the guillotine herself — but she showed no outward sign of her feelings. As with all things involving her art, Marie excelled. If the Salon de Cire had been popular before, it was absolutely thriving once the death masks of the guillotine’s victims were put on display. And with death masks,

MICHELLE MORAN has traveled around the world, and her experiences at archaeological sites inspired her to write historical fiction. Author of Cleopatra’s Daughter, The Heretic Queen, and Nefertiti, Moran’s latest novel, Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution, was released this month.

HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Features | 13

sportswriter Frank Deford turns to historical fiction

familiar with the world of sports, Frank Deford is T onoanyone stranger. Many know him from Sports Illustrated, where,

after decades writing for the periodical, he now serves as Senior Contributing Writer. Others will no doubt recognize him as a senior correspondent on the HBO show “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel”. Still others have listened to his commentary on NPR’s “Morning Edition”. He has won numerous accolades, including being elected no less than six times as U.S. Sportswriter of the Year, and ultimately rising to the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters. For his work in broadcasting, Deford has won both an Emmy and a George Foster Peabody Award. He has penned many books, two of which have been filmed. His writing is so highly regarded that his biography on ESPN was titled “You Write Better than You Play.”

So what brings this consummate sportswriter to the pages of HNR? Because he has penned a remarkable and utterly charming historical novel, that’s why.

Bliss Remembered is the story of Sydney Stringfellow, a teenage girl living an unremarkable life in the Eastern Shore area of Maryland — until she finds her passion in swimming. She is so good, in fact, that she joins the U.S. Olympic team in Berlin in 1936. Once there, she discovers another overwhelming passion in the form of Horst Gerhardt, a handsome, decent German immensely proud of his new nation. But after a whirlwind romance where she meets the likes of director Leni Riefenstahl and even Joseph Goebbels, the two lovers are parted. Though they swear their undying love, world events conspire to make their separation permanent, and Horst eventually sends her a letter ending their relationship.

Only after her marriage to another does Sydney find out the truth of why Horst cast her aside. And like her first meeting with Horst, this truth threatens to change her life once more.

C C

C C

Pure Bliss

Interesting story, surely. But why did this award-winning sportswriter write it? And why the Depression and pre-war Germany?

“Here was the way I chose the time and place. I wanted to write a love story, and love stories are really not about the love itself but about the impediments to the romance, viz. most classically Romeo and Juliet. Today there are not as many impediments to two people falling in love as there used to be, so I think the past offers more plot opportunities for lovers struggling to get together. It happened to be the summer of ‘08 when I was starting to think about this, and since that was an Olympic summer it occurred to me that the Olympics are a perfect vehicle for bringing different people together — and, even better, nobody had ever used this vehicle before. The ‘36 Games were an obvious consideration — probably the most famous Olympics of all — and when it occurred to me that I’d interviewed two of the people most associated with those Games [the German director who filmed the games, Leni Riefenstahl, and the swimmer, Eleanor Holm], it encouraged me all the more to choose ‘36. So Leni and Eleanor didn’t ‘inspire’ me, but they certainly lighted the way to ‘36. And, of course, Germany before the war is, simply, a most fascinating time, Olympics or otherwise.”

But still, swimming? Except for once every four years, this is a sport largely off the public’s radar screen. The answer, it turns out, is similar to why the author chose to make his main character a woman: “Swimming came from a process of elimination. I’m hardly any authority. Once I settled on the Olympics, it had to be an Olympic sport, and once Eleanor Holm came into my consciousness, it seemed logical to have my heroine also be a swimmer. The sport really didn’t matter. It was just a vehicle for getting the main character to Berlin. For that matter, when I

by Ken Kreckel

Bliss Remembered... has the best ending I’ve ever conjured up, but I didn’t know how the book was going to come out when I started.”

14 | Features | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

have changed, and I just did my damnedest to make sure my characters had the feelings and ideas — and yes, prejudices — of that time. Otherwise it would’ve been dishonest.”

This sense of honesty pervades the book, and is one of the reasons for its success. Another is its utter charm, especially in the form of the protagonist, Sydney. The character of the elderly Sydney is so well drawn that it seems certain she was taken from life. Deford denies this, sort of: “Sydney is not based on any one person. In fact, I think much of the fun in writing fiction is making characters up. I simply wouldn’t want to use a roman à clef. Having said that, my late mother was born in 1912 and Sydney in 1918, so Mom and her friends were of the same generation, and I certainly drew some on these women — especially Mom — that I had grown up with.”

Perhaps much of this charm comes from the author himself.

The man is, after all, beloved by his peers, as much for his humanity as for his abilities. Deford served as national chairman of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for sixteen years, and he remains chairman emeritus. This work stems from the loss of his daughter, who died of the disease. His memoir of this time in his life, Alex: The Life of a Child, has been made into a movie.

We got a glimpse into the man himself when he was interviewed by Matt Lauer for a segment of “Today’s Hot Summer Read”. Fending off some good natured chiding about becoming the next Jackie Collins, Frank Deford seemed every inch a modest, even humble, but nevertheless strong man of his times, not unlike his Sydney. Afterwards, displaying the same aw shucks charm that leaps off the pages of Bliss Remembered, he commented: “It’s always fun to have anything you write fussed over — but I’m flattered all the more when people compliment me on my fiction, because that’s so based on imagination.”

So is there another historical novel lurking in that imagination?

Deford seems unsure: “I enjoy historical fiction and would love to write more. Ah, but the trick is coming up with the story. I’ve tried for years to write a novel based on Agnes Sorel, the beautiful and wise mistress to a French king of the 15h century, but I’ve never been able to make it work. America in the ‘30s is easier, I guess.”

Easy? Perhaps for him, or possibly it’s just his self-deprecating manner. What is easy is reading Bliss Remembered. We can only hope there is more to come from this consummate author.

C

CCCCCCCC CCCCCCCC

started out I didn’t know whether my American athlete would be male or female. I just sort of followed the lines of least resistance in becoming a woman and a swimmer.”

The book is told in memoir form, as the now aged and dying Sydney relates the story to her middle-aged son. In this way, the author sucks the reader into a tale that seems disarmingly innocent. But as the story unfolds, one becomes more and more privy to secrets held and promises kept. The ending is not only surprising, but satisfying as well. What seemed like intricate plotting to me, was just how it all came together, according to the author: “Bliss, Remembered has the best ending I’ve ever conjured up, but I didn’t know how the book was going to come out when I started. I had a broad outline of where I wanted to go, but I like to get into a story and then let my characters carry me along.

They did a great job here!”

The daily life of those living in the Depression comes through loud and clear, and again, seems very real. Few books set during this period seem to hit the right note on this — avoiding cliché while remaining true to the age. Deford manages it well, though he reports his research was minimal: “I was born in December 1938, so while I have no memories of the Depression, it had left such a stark impression on my parents and other people that, while I was growing up, I had a clear sense of what we’d gone through in the ‘30s. To buttress that, I researched it some, but not in any systematic way. That sort of poverty and despair is not hard to imagine.”

Somehow that explanation fails to satisfy. He goes on to explain: “I grew up in Baltimore and knew the Eastern Shore. Friends live in Chestertown. That was sort of living research. I had seen the documentary Olympia and already researched Leni. I had also written a long article on Max Schmeling, the boxing champion, and his autobiography was candid and revealing about how a non-Nazi German thought at that time. Most of the reading I did was from contemporary sources — newspapers of that time. There is so much material at your fingertips for that recent time. It was certainly not a hard book to research. I wrote another novel about that era twenty years ago — Love and Infamy. That was about Japan before the war, and that required much more research.”

One of the remarkable aspects of the work is that the flavor of the places and times seem authentic. The characters seem real.

Getting attitudes right for the times is rarely done well. Too often in historical novels, the main character is a 21st-century person with modern attitudes somehow transported into an earlier time. Yet in Bliss, the reader gets a rather unapologetic depiction of how people actually thought at the time, without taking pains to interject modern sensibilities. This was no accident, as Deford has strong thoughts on the issue: “I get so angry when I read historical novels where modern attitudes are impressed on the characters. Our attitudes

KEN KRECKEL remains fascinated with 20th century history. Besides penning a World War II novel, his writing has appeared in HNR and Mensa Bulletin, among other publications. He currently consults and teaches at Casper College.

HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Features | 15

an interview with Carola Dunn

illian Saunders talks with British author Carola Dunn, G who lives in Oregon, about her regency novels, Daisy Dalrymple mysteries set in 1920s London, and her latest, a new series of crime fiction set in Cornwall in the 1960s.

GS: At what age did your imagination tell you that you wanted to be a writer?

CD: It wasn’t my imagination, it was my husband suggesting it was time I got a proper job. I was 33, and my son was 9, and more to the point, we had settled down in a house of our own after 10 years of constant moving. Writing a book seemed like a good way to postpone the evil day.

C C

C C

Regency Balls & the Beatles

30 years ago.) But I’ve had fun changing genres and periods, so in the end it was a good thing when both the publishers I was writing for stopped publishing Regencies almost simultaneously.

GS: In Manna from Hades you describe the atmosphere and scenery of Cornwall half a century ago very accurately and pleasingly. Do you like the way Cornwall has changed over the years and would you ever write a Cornish mystery about contemporary life in the county?

CD: Cornwall, like most places, has lost a lot of its individuality over the years. Chain stores and roads built for speed make life more convenient but less charming. Even regional accents fade with the ubiquitous influence of wireless and the telly. Which is not to say Cornwall is not still a very special place, with lots of out of the way corners that haven’t been messed up. But I have no interest in writing contemporary fiction set there or anywhere else.

GS: Some writers of regency novels (e.g.

Stephanie Laurens and Julia Quinn) include a lot of explicit sex in their stories, whereas Georgette Heyer conveyed the essence of romance without torrid sexual scenes. What are your views on this?

GS: Do you have a disciplined writing CD: I haven’t read either of those authors, routine you could describe to aspiring partly because I find graphic sex scenes writers to encourage them to persevere with both boring and as distasteful as graphic their ambition? violence. More important, I try to be true CD: Writing is my full-time job, so it to the period: any unmarried young lady wouldn’t be practical for most aspiring who indulged in sex was in deep trouble writers to follow my schedule. I write 6 and unlikely to find a respectable husband, days a week — about 6 hours a day at even if she didn’t get pregnant. If the main the computer, but that doesn’t include a characters are married, the conflict in the lot of research, nor the fact that whatever story has to be based on marital discord, I’m working on is present in my mind 24 which I don’t find romantic in the least. hours a day. I get ideas at 2 a.m., not to So call me old-fashioned, but I think mention while walking the dog. plenty of sexual as well as romantic tension can be generated The best advice I can come up with is: it takes three qualities without any physical contact at all. to be a writer, talent, luck, and persistence. You can get away with two of the three, but the only one you control is persistence.

GS: Which is your favourite genre — Regencies, Daisy Dalrymple mysteries or Cornish mysteries?

GS: Did you find it difficult to get your first novel published?

CD: I enjoy them all. If Regencies paid enough to live on, I CD: Not really. I knew nothing whatsoever about the publishing might still be writing them. (They’re all now available as ebooks industry, but a friend of mine who was considering a writing at www.RegencyReads.com, so I’m still earning on books I wrote career had a book about how to get published. It said to send

by Gillian Saunders

It takes... three qualities to be a writer: talent, luck and persistence. You can get away with two of the three, but the only one you control is persistence.”

16 | Features | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

GS: Are any of your characters based on people you know?

CD: The only character I have deliberately modelled on someone personally known to me is Sid in Fall Of A Philanderer.

He is based on a beachcomber we often met in Crackington Haven, Cornwall, when I was a child. The real Sid was mentally challenged (I think that’s the current PC phrase, in the US at least) rather than mute, but might as well have been mute for all we could understand of his thick Cornish speech.

On the other hand, I deliberately killed a dentist in Die Laughing after having a lot of painful and very expensive dental work done. When I mentioned it to my current dentist, she said, “Oh, not a female dentist called Terri?” I reassured her, but decided I’d better dedicate the book to her. (She was thrilled and bought copies for everyone in her office.)

GS: Who or what has been your greatest inspiration as a writer?

CD: In the end, the answer to that is: my readers. It’s very inspiring to know one is giving pleasure to thousands of people, many of whom take the trouble to write and say so. This applies particularly to Daisy. I can’t count the number of readers who have told me they think of Daisy as a friend, someone with whom they enjoy spending time. (A recent Facebook post: “Just finished Sheer Folly — feel like a friend has gone away: can’t wait for the next book in the series!!!!”) Most inspiring of all are the letters/emails from people who say reading and re-reading Daisy’s adventures has helped them through difficult times.

On a more cynical note — it doesn’t hurt that writing has paid my bills for the past twenty years.

GS: Do you write in longhand or directly onto computer?

CD: I wrote my first five (?) books longhand and then typed

them. In 1986 I took a computer class to see if I wanted to buy a computer — in those days, it was a serious question. The answer was: yes, this is heaven! For $3,500 I got a 256K RAM computer with a 10 MB hard drive, a floppy floppy drive (5¼”, not 3½”), a green on black screen, a daisy-wheel printer, and a word processing program called Volkswriter.

That’s history now!

GS: Do you ever get bored or frustrated with a story you have started?

CD: In the early days, I’d usually reach a point about two-thirds of the way through when I’d think: why am I doing this? What makes me think I can write a book? I’m never going to finish this one. Then I’d remind myself that I’d done it before, so of course I could go on.

I don’t remember ever being bored with a story. I managed quite a bit of variety in my Regencies: The Actress And The Rake is a ghost story; Byron’s Child is time travel; the novellas now collected as an ebook titled The Magic Of Love are fairytales retold (with twists) in a Regency setting, magic and all. I wrote drawing-room comedies/comedies of manners, adventure, spies, smugglers, even attempted murders. At times I veered towards mystery even while writing romance.

With a long-running series such as the Daisy mysteries, it becomes a challenge to find new ways of bumping people off and new motives for a new cast of characters, and to manage to get both Daisy and Alec involved. I started the 20th last spring, and decided after 3 chapters that it was just getting too complicated.

So I started all over again with a different story, Gone West, but I hope to finish the complicated one sometime.

In the meantime, the 19th in the series, Anthem For Doomed Youth, will be out in both US and UK in April 2011. All those that haven’t yet been published in the UK will also come out in 2011.

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying exploring a new period — if that’s the right way to talk about the 1960s, which I lived through. However, I must point out that, in the forewords to Manna From Hades and A Colourful Death, I make a point of saying they’re set at a time “somewhere between my childhood memories of Cornwall and the present reality.” After decades of taking great care over historical detail, I decided to allow myself a little slack, so I hope historically-minded readers won’t expect every detail to fit any particular year, though the series seems to have settled somewhere in the late ‘60s.

For further information: http://caroladunn.weebly.com

C

CCCCCCCC CCCCCCCC

out a query letter, three chapters, and a synopsis to each of four publishers (It didn’t mention that they should be the first three chapters, so I sent out the ones I thought were best!), and each time you receive a rejection, send to another publisher. Of the first four, I got two rejections, one request for the rest of the ms, and one for the chapters connecting the three I had sent.

I submitted to two more publishers before I heard from Warner that they wanted to buy Toblethorpe Manor. I checked the contract they offered against the model in my friend’s book and it looked ok, so I signed. The next day, another of the publishers who had requested the whole ms called to say they wanted it. Too late for a bidding war, alas!

My editor at Warner told me the ms was 20,000 words longer than they wanted and they’d have to cut it. I was too ignorant to tell her I’d rather do it myself. In fact, the story was so closely woven that she could find only one page that wouldn’t be missed.

They brought it out for $1 more than the usual price.

By the time I finished writing the second book, The Miser’s Sister, Warner had stopped publishing Regencies. That was the one I had trouble selling. In fact, Walker put out the third and fourth Regencies I wrote before buying The Miser’s Sister.

GILLIAN SAUNDERS lives in a small village on the edge of Dartmoor with her husband and black Labrador, Rosie. Having retired from a busy teaching career she can now enjoy the company of children and grand-children, and pursue her favourite occupation of writing for pleasure and reading historical fiction.

HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Features | 17

C

C

reflections on a blockbuster 35 years later

of us old enough to remember such things as race Friots,or those marches, and sit-ins, perhaps nothing so rocked our world as the telecast of Alex Haley’s blockbuster book, Roots.

Whole families sat night after night, transfixed by the trials and tribulations of Kunta Kinte and his progeny, awed by the sheer inhumanity of the slave trade and the reality of just how many black people came to our country, in the holds of a slaver, to be put up on an auction block, torn from friend and family just as they were previously torn from their homeland. It brought us into the back rooms of the fine Southern homes of Gone with the Wind to witness for ourselves not only the reality behind the illusion of the genteel lives of the Old South, but our own shortcomings and prejudices as well.

Roots is the story of Kunta Kinte, born in a small village in the present West African nation of Gambia, and his American descendants. It imagines the life of Haley’s ancestor in Africa and his capture into slavery in Virginia in 1676. Kunta was a heroic figure, refusing to abandon his African heritage and trying to escape slavery, efforts that ended when his foot was severed by a slave-catcher. He eventually marries and fathers a daughter to carry on the memory of his African home. The book goes on to chronicle subsequent generations, including a grandson born of his mother’s rape by her master, with the geneaology finally reaching the author himself.

Although told through the framework of his ancestors, the novel’s real impact was its description of the violence and degradation experienced by slaves. Never flinching from the outright brutality of their lives, Roots also speaks to the quiet dignity of a people persevering, of generations patiently preserving the memories of the past while making slow progress towards freedom.

The book sold over one million copies in its first year; it won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.1 The miniseries was watched by an astonishing 130 million people; 85% of all homes with a television saw all or part of it. 2 Within two years of its publication, more than eight million copies of the book had been printed in 26 languages, and Roots had won 271 additional awards. Praise for the book and mini-series was effusive, and is perhaps best summed up by Vernon Jordan, former president of the Urban League, who called it “the single most spectacular educational experience in race relations in

C

C

Whatever Happened to Roots?

America.” 2 It’s impact is not only measured in awards and numbers. As impressive as they are, this work affected people on a visceral level. As a young man growing up in white suburbia, it hit me and my family like a tidal wave, sweeping away many of our preconceptions and prejudices like so much flotsam, and replacing them with an appreciation of just what “those people” went through, “those people” who we heretofore saw as the butt of jokes, or feared as they marched into our neighborhoods. Roots made it personal. It was in-your-face, unavoidable, yet told with such dignity that you didn’t turn away. Unsettling? Sure. With just a little imagination, it was easy to see our own part in it all.

The casual, generally assumed right to be just a little bigoted was now a bit unseemly, suddenly too close to the overseer’s whip.

The connections became clearer, the truth a bit more evident. It was the beginning of understanding. We never looked at a black person the same way again.

However, Roots proved to be a singular phenomenon, never to be repeated. Yes, there were other important works, such as The Color Purple or The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Barbara Chase-Riboud’s Sally Hemings (1979), which fictionalized the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and his slave mistress, caused a minor stir. The Chaneysville Incident (1981) by David Bradley and Quakertown (2001) by Lee Martin were important works on the subject. The novels of Toni Morrison also come to mind, especially Beloved (1987), memorable for its epigraph of “sixty million and more,” placing the black experience in America on par with the Holocaust. Although impactful, none of these novels ever attained the status of Roots.

Not that Roots was universally accepted. There were grumblings that it was somehow a fraud. As in many wildly successful works (Harry Potter and The Da Vinci Code come to mind), allegations of plagiarism arose. Although Mr. Haley eventually “admitted that he unknowingly lifted three paragraphs from Courlander’s The African (1968)”, 3 one wonders what all the fuss was about.

After all, whoever heard of Courlander’s book? Not to be left out, other critics charged that some of the “facts” in the story were simply “made up”. A minor fuss ensued, which persists to this day, especially over the rape of his ancestor. Recently, DNA testing was done which proved Haley’s white Scottish lineage. 4 At the time, Haley countered that his novel was not intended to

by Ken Kreckel

I fear that... without works like Roots...we will accept the comfort of the myth, the lie, and see history as what we want it to be, not what it truly is.”

18 | Features | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

their historical, and need I add hysterical, nonsense. Still, the Holocaust included in its numbers many non-Jews. American slavery, on the other hand, did not include many non-blacks.

Of course, race is still a viable concern these days. Prejudice is still very much with us. The nerve remains exposed in a way many other historical subjects do not. Often this nerve will signal pain when touched, regardless of the intent of the person doing the touching. It takes a certain courage on the part of the serious author, or recklessness in the case of a provocative one, to tread into this territory, where the wounds are so horrendous they still have not healed. Perhaps that’s why we haven’t seen the likes of Roots since. Or perhaps another is simply not needed. Haley may have told the story so well there’s no aspiring to surpass it. The blockbuster historical novel itself may have passed into history.

Or is it in the nature of ourselves? Have we as Americans lost the ability for self-examination? As the economy sinks and we mark the passage of wars in decades rather than years, do we no longer have the will to take an honest look at ourselves? I wonder if we are not in a sort of a group denial, kidding ourselves that we are still number one, even as an anxious glance in the rear view mirror shows that the rest of the world has not only caught up, but may be passing us by.

Napoleon famously opined “History is a set of lies agreed upon.” I fear that without works like Roots, which not only tell the truth but mark it indelibly upon our souls by forcing us to look at an ugly truth and live through it, we will accept the comfort of the myth, the lie, and see history as what we want it to be, not what it truly is. Alex Haley would not permit this. As self-professed lovers of history, neither should we.

C

References:

1. Roots: The 30th Anniversary Edition [webpage]; Vanguard Press, http://www.rootsthebook.com 2. Bird, J.B.; “Roots”, Museum of Broadcast Communications [webpage], http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=roots 3. Pavlovski, L. (ed), “Roots: The Saga of an American Family, Alex Haley Introduction.” Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Vol. 147.

Gale Cengage, 2004. http://www.enotes.com/twentieth-centurycriticism/roots-saga-an-american-family-alex-haley 4. Sawyer, P.; “DNA proves author Alex Haley had Scottish roots”; The Telegraph; Feb. 28, 2009 5. Kathryn Stockett webpage, http://www.kathrynstockett.com/ 6. Kelley, P.; “The Help author addresses criticism in talk at Queens”; Charlotte Observer; Mar. 10,2010 7. “The Help author says criticism makes her ‘cringe’”; NPR webpage Author Interviews, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story. php?storyId=120966815

CCCCCCCC CCCCCCCC

be wholly factual, calling it a work of “faction”, 2 essentially filling in the gaps of his genealogical research with fiction. How this differs from a historical novel was never made clear, but to many, it simply didn’t matter. In the words of Newsweek: “Instead of writing a scholarly monograph of little social impact, Haley has written a blockbuster in the best sense — a book that is bold in concept and ardent in execution, one that will reach millions of people and alter the way we see ourselves.” 3 So what’s happened in the meantime? Where has the blockbuster historical novel gone? While there are many excellent works in the genre, none of them come close to the impact of Roots. Most don’t even aspire to such heights. Why? Recently, one book came the closest yet to achieving this, at least for its white readership — The Help (2009) by Kathryn Stockett. The author’s debut novel deals with the relationships between black domestics and their white employers 1960s Mississippi. Like Roots, it reached a huge audience, spent a full year on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list, and has sold 1.7 million copies and counting. Its translation into a motion picture promises to reach a much larger group., and it won numerous awards. 5 Like Roots, Ms. Stockett’s work was not immune to criticism.

Much of it focused on her use of dialect for the black characters.

Stockett defended this, simply saying, “I wrote it like I remember hearing it.” Stockett reports that others attacked her for writing about black characters at all, criticism that struck a nerve: “Part of me thinks, ‘How dare I presume to know what Demetrie felt and what she thought about us?’” She rightly goes on, “But isn’t it the job of writers to wonder what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes?” 6 I have to wonder myself: why the controversy? Isn’t this what historical novelists do every day? Few have a problem with imagining how a Roman soldier spoke, or what a Tudor lady-inwaiting might have thought. So why the problem with this? Is it what has always bedeviled race relations, namely keeping one in one’s place? Perhaps it’s fine for the quaint little books about people who lived so long ago there simply isn’t any room for controversy, but write about something important, something closer to home, where the author is no longer in his or her place, and watch out. Stockett herself seems uncomfortable with this: “I’m a Southerner — I never take satisfaction in touching a nerve,” she says. “I guess if I’m forced to find a good side, I’m glad that people are talking about an issue that hasn’t really been discussed all that much. I’m glad that people are talking about it from the black perspective and the white perspective.” 7 Perhaps there is something else going on here: ownership. If you’re not a victim yourself, or at least belong to that group of victims, you have no right to opine on the subject. You haven’t suffered yourself, you’re not related to those that have, so your take is of lesser importance, perhaps of no importance. This view may be legitimate, or maybe not. The question is, does an author, even one writing fiction, have a right to appropriate these stories? Jews are sensitive on the issue of the Holocaust, perhaps rightfully so, considering the number of deniers still spouting

KEN KRECKEL, features editor for HNR, is especially interested in the 20th century. He grew up in a suburb of Milwaukee, witnessing first-hand marches protesting de facto segregation.

HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Features | 19

etween 1095 and 1291 there were nine crusades by B “Frankish” armies to the Near East to reclaim the holy places

of the Christian religion. Though the term “crusade” has also been used for campaigns against followers of Greek Orthodox Christianity, the Cathars in France, the pagans of the Baltic region, and the Hohenstaufen dynasty of Sicily and Southern Italy, amongst others, the “Holy Land” crusades are a perenially popular subject for historical novelists.

Sir Steven Runciman said ‘war was the background to life in Outremer’, and the majority of novelists concentrate on the fighting between Franks and Muslims. Unless an author needs a “love interest”, women have only minor roles in most crusading novels. An exception is Judith Tarr’s Queen of Swords, the story of Queen Melisande, widow of King Fulk and mother of Baldwin III. It includes the campaign of Louis VII and has an interesting and unusual view of his Queen, Eleanor, later wife of England’s Henry II. Alan Gordon’s The Widow of Jerusalem also tells the story of a Queen of Jerusalem, Isabelle, half sister of King Baldwin IV. The earliest novel set during the Crusades appears to be Sir Walter Scott’s The Talisman. Although this is now considered a romanticized view of the events it describes, it established the idea, which lingers today, of honour and mutual respect between the leaders on both sides, Richard the Lionheart and Saladin.

Saladin’s reputation in novels has worn well; both Tariq Ali’s The Book of Saladin and Sarah Bryant’s Sand Daughter depict him as a skilled general and a reasonable man. Ali’s novel is interesting, not only for being one of the few novels on this subject written by a Muslim author, but also for its account of the infighting between both Muslims and Franks and for the willingness on both sides to deal with the “enemy” to gain power.

Richard’s reputation as a prieux chevalier has suffered more than Saladin’s. Jay Williams’ Tomorrow’s Fire and Jack Whyte’s Standard of Honour emphasize his cruelty and short temper.

Williams’ protagonist Denys the troubadour’s description of the conditions at the siege of Acre is hard to beat. Doris Sutcliffe Adams’ No Man’s Son also concentrates on this siege; in this work Richard plays only a minor part, although her view of his character leans more towards Scott’s than Williams’.

The majority of older novels have protagonists drawn from what is now Britain or France, but a few more modern ones use characters from other countries. Jan Guillou, in his Crusader

C C

novels of the Crusades

C

C

Dieu le Veut

Trilogy, has a Swedish hero and Michael Alexander Eisner’s The Crusader tells the story of a allegedly possessed Spanish nobleman on his return from the 7th crusade – the story is his examination by an Inquisitor. Tom Harper’s novels of the 1st Crusade, Knights of the Cross and Siege of Heaven, use Demetrious Askiates, a Byzantine, as main character at the siege of Antioch in 1098 and the taking of Jerusalem in 1099. Robert Shea’s twovolume work, The Saracen, has as one of its central characters a Mamluk member of Sultan Baybars’ army.

The order of the Knights Templar is a popular subject, and unfortunately some authors let their imaginations run riot with it. One exception is Cecelia Holland; her novel, Jerusalem (MIRA), is an excellent account of events leading up to the Battle of Hattin, with its virtual wiping out of the military orders in Outremer. The Knights Hospitaller get less attention than the Templars, although Joseph Lessard’s recent novel Hospitaller is set in the 3rd Crusade.

So many crusading novels are set at the time of either the 1st or 3rd crusades that inevitably the same historical events and characters occur in them and the views of the authors concerning the historical characters are often the same, based on their reading of the same contemporary or near contemporary sources such as William of Tyre. For example, Reynold de Chatillon and Gerard de Ridefort, with King Guy of Lusignan as their puppet, are perenially blamed for the events leading up to the disastrous Battle of Hattim in 1187, while Raymond of Tripoli is seen as the voice of experience and sanity. Modern authors have easier access to primary sources than earlier writers, and Evan S. Connell, in Deus Lo Volt!, has his narrator citing contemporary historians like Albert of Aix and Fulcher of Chartres. However, one earlier novelist, Alfred Duggan, used meticulous research in his novel about the 1st Crusade, Knight With Armour, as long ago as 1946. His other crusading novel, Count Bohemond, is equally good. Graham Shelby’s The Kings of Vain Intent unusually has as his “villain” Conrad of Montferrat. He has also written two other crusading novels, The Knights of Dark Renown and The Edge of the Blade.

There are still many crusade novels out there I haven’t yet read, but my local library’s interlibrary loan service is working overtime on my behalf. Let’s hope different authors are prepared to go on writing about this fascinating topic for a long time to come.

C

by Sue Berry

It established... the idea, which lingers today, of honour and mutual respect between the leaders on both sides, Richard the Lionheart and Saladin.”

20 | Features | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

C

C C

an interview with Deanna Raybourn

An American author harkens back to the Golden Age of Mysteries.

Deanna Raybourn writes mysteries, not contemporary mysteries, mind you, the ones with the flawed characters and the mean streets, but rather the more classic type, the stories you remember from the Golden Age of Mysteries. You know them — the Agatha Christie, G. K. Chesterton, Dorothy L. Sayerstype yarns, the memorable characters, the terrific closed settings, and most of all, the intelligent, intricate plots. Deanna Raybourn writes these types of mysteries, and writes them very well.

Her debut novel, Silent in the Grave, published in January 2007, finds her heroine, Lady Julia Grey, investigating the untimely death of her husband with the help of a rather rough hewn private detective, Nicholas Brisbane. Within its pages her readers get their first glimpse into the author’s depiction of Victorian England, as well as the tantalizing interplay between the lady and her detective. The next two, Silent in the Sanctuary ( January 2008) and Silent on the Moor (March 2009), advance the budding relationship between the two as they are embroiled in classic English manor house murder mysteries.1 Her most recent in the series, Dark Road to Darjeeling (October 2010), is a departure, both in abandoning the “Silent” in the title as well as placing the manor house in a more exotic location. Clearly moving on from the previous novels, Lady Julia must now negotiate a marriage with Brisbane while trying to solve a murder that may not even be one.

So just who is this new author writing in a clearly classic style?

Her bio states she is a sixth generation Texan who grew up in San Antonio. San Antonio? No way. I’ve lived both in Texas and England, and the two places couldn’t be further apart in every imaginable way. A Texan crafting a classic English mystery?

I imagined the author was more likely an older lady, someone

C

Harkening Back who learned the craft firsthand, most certainly an “80-year old Englishwoman”. While confessing there is such a person “lurking deep within her”, someone who’s “idea of a great vacation is stately homes and cream teas”, Deanna Raybourn insists she is nothing of the sort.

Only into the first few pages of her latest novel, I thought I had the answer. I was struck by the similarities between the Lady Julia Grey series and the Charles Lenox series written by another American, Charles Finch. Both series have much the same charm about them. Moreover, both are Victorian cozies set in England, featuring a couple eventually adjusting to a relationship made the more problematic by one party’s amateur detecting. Even Lenox’s wife is named Lady Jane Grey. That was it, they must be from the same family. Trouble is, Finch is from the East Coast and educated at Oxford. Seemingly close in age, perhaps they are actually twins, separated at birth.

As much as I liked my solution to the apparent mystery, Ms. Raybourn disabused me of that notion, stating she does know Finch, but only through their careers: “We published our first novels the same year. In fact we were nominated against each other for best first book at the Agatha Awards. It’s really just coincidence that we write in such a similar vein.”

Moreover, she mentioned she’s actually twelve years older than Charlie. Really?

I’m still skeptical. I’ve seen her picture.

And I’m not the only doubter. One of her readers was convinced she was actually Elizabeth Peters. The author’s reaction? “I don’t know how Ms. Peters would feel about that, but I was hugely complimented.”

Indeed, but does someone who writes like Elizabeth Peters really come from Texas? If I had trouble believing it, so did her publisher: “My English publisher refused to believe I was American until he heard me speak….”

It turns out Deanna Raybourn actually is, or was, a Texan.

(She now lives in Virginia.) Commenting on her ability to seem

by Ken Kreckel

I needed... a setting that was not so bright and sparkling; I needed fog-bound streets and gaslights.

HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Features | 21

22 | Features | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

tremendously happy at the way it turned out. Those fourteen years of rejections were brutal, but I look back at the writing I was turning out and it was so much less than what I am writing now. It lacked a voice, my voice, and it took me quite awhile — and the guidance of a fabulous agent — to be able to develop it.”

Develop it she has, while avoiding one of the pitfalls of other mystery writers, that of turning their works into thrillers. For Ms. Raybourn, that was not a problem: “Thrillers terrify me. I adore JT Ellison as a person, but I can’t read her books because she is far too good at creating an atmosphere! I would have to keep peeping under the bed and behind the shower curtain.”

While she’s avoided that pitfall, she nevertheless seeks to keep the series fresh: “I wanted to move the series out of England. Aside from a brief opening scene in the second book, the whole of the series had been set in England, and I wanted something new. India sort of suggested itself because of some events in the previous books, and when I thought about India, I hit upon the idea of a tea plantation. That narrowed the field because most of India is unsuited for growing tea. I was left with just a few regions, and Sikkim is by far the least known and most exotic. I loved the notion of putting my characters right at the top of the world, where Sikkim is surrounded by Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet.

It’s very much a crossroads, with several different religions and ethnic groups coexisting, so I had a great deal to work with.”

This fresh approach continues in the next addition to the series: “I am busily researching the fifth Julia Grey book.

So I am very happy indeed. My reading includes books on séances, mediums, the late-Victorian spiritualist movement and nineteenth-century technology. I cannot wait to see where this book takes me!” 2 Neither, I am sure, can her readers.

C

References: 1. Deanna Raybourn website; http://www.deannaraybourn. com 2. Raybourn, Deanna; Dark Road to Darjeeling [endnotes], Mira 2010.

CCCCCCCC CCCCCCCC

English: “I have a good ear for the rhythm of language and for syntax, so when I’m watching British television or films, and I do that a lot, I am able to absorb a lot of the subtleties.”

There is also a family connection to England, from her grandmother on her father’s side, who is actually English. She also reports: “As a reader I cut my teeth on classic Golden Age mysteries and that is my default as a writer.”

But she didn’t set out write Victorian mysteries. “When I sat down to write the first book in the series, I actually set it in 1816, right in the middle of the Regency. I wrote about 50 pages before I realized it was wrong. I needed a setting that was not so bright and sparkling; I needed fog-bound streets and gaslights. So I sniffed around the rest of the nineteenth-century and hit on 1886 as the perfect year for the first book. Naturally, that entailed a huge amount of extra research because the changes that occurred in that time are just mind-numbing, but I absolutely think it was worth it. It was a period of incredible change and people were learning to adapt, much as we are doing today. They were wrestling with a lot of the same social and political questions too, so it makes for very interesting research.”

As well as interesting, her research is impeccable. An illustration will suffice. I lived in London for some years and had an office on Chapel Street, which was the same street mentioned in her Darjeeling novel. I asked her about it: “The Chapel Street where Nicholas Brisbane has his consulting rooms was actually renamed. It is now Aldford Street, just off of Park Lane. The new Chapel Street is a bit to the south. If I had realized that at the time, I would have chosen another name! But it’s too late now, so I hope readers will realize that when I describe the geography of the area, it is as the area was in 1889, not the present.”

It’s the sort of research that seems to come easy to her, much like her writing, but that is simply not the case. Success came only after a long, hard slog: “I was rejected, repeatedly and not always with tact, for fourteen years. I think I wrote seven books in that time, all of which live in my attic now, and it’s best they stay there. They were not good, but they were useful, tremendously so. I learned how to write simply by doing it, and I got better with each book.”

In the end, it was the usual story of hard work, persistence, confidence, and just a bit of good fortune: “Getting published is like a chemistry experiment. You have to have all the right factors, put together in just the right way, at the right time. My writing needed a lot of work, which I was perfectly willing to put in. My publisher happened to be looking for an author of historical fiction who was capable of writing a series just when my manuscript landed in the office. And I am

KEN KRECKEL is a features editor for HNR and a fellow fan of the Golden Age of Mysteries. He writes and teaches in Casper Wyoming.

Reviews |

ancient egypt

|

THE DOUBLE CROWN Marié Heese, Human & Rousseau, 2009, R220/$29.95, pb, 384pp, 9780798150361 Following coincidentally upon the recent republication of Pauline Gedge’s Child of the Morning (see HNR, Aug. 2010, p.19), this is another novel about the female Pharaoh Hatshepsut.

Hatshepsut’s father Thutmose I trains her in the art of ruling, relying more upon her as he grows older and physically weaker. His successor, Hatshepsut’s brother and husband Thutmose II, is afflicted by chronic illness and once again Hatshepsut has to take on much of the burden of government.

The Double Crown consists of a series of scrolls, commented upon by the scribe Mahu to whom they are entrusted, that are being written by Hatshepsut to justify her taking the throne herself upon her brother/husband’s death, instead of letting it pass to his son.

Hatshepsut has been convinced since childhood that she has been chosen and nurtured by the gods, and that it is her duty to rule Egypt as that unheard-of thing, a woman Pharaoh. Her rule is successful for many years, but Hatshepsut is always aware of the threat from her resentful nephew/ stepson Thutmose, whom the priests have also crowned as joint Pharaoh, but whom she keeps from power. A year comes, however, when more signs indicate to Hatshepsut that the favour of the gods may have been withdrawn from her.

This is a compelling and lyrical novel, with a narrator who sees the world within the frame of the beliefs of her own time and society. The Double Crown won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for the Best Book in Africa 2010, as it well deserved to do. (Available for purchase through kalahari. net – ed.)

Alan Fisk

|

classical

|

DEN OF WOLVES Luke Devenish, Bantam Australia/Trafalgar Square, 2010, AU$24.95/$16.95, pb, 624pp, 9781863256223 The modern historical novel tends to stay within the bounds of known facts, confining its invention to the areas where history remains silent.

No such limitation restrains Australian novelist Luke Devenish, who rearranges family history and known facts to achieve his purpose, which seems to Ancient Egypt — Classical

be to blacken the character of the women of Roman history. In his Claudius novels, Robert Graves accuses Augustus’s spouse of countless murders of family members and others who happened to be in the way. Her infamous reputation in popular culture can be seen in the decision of the writers of The Sopranos to use her name for the malevolent mob widow who authorizes the whacking of her own son. Most modern historians dismiss the theory of a murderous Livia, but Devenish goes Graves one better and assigns countless new evil acts to Augustus’s wife in her effort to bring about the prophecy that she will be the ancestor of four kings.

The prologue by a slave narrator is dated 65 A.D., but the action begins in 44 B.C. The book is identified as Book One in the Empress of Rome series. If you read historical fiction to learn more about the past, this book will only confuse and misinform you. If you don’t care about the history, it is an exciting and well-constructed melodrama.

If you happen to be a pedant who enjoys spotting historical inaccuracies in a “What’s Wrong with this Picture” fashion, this might be the book for you. In spite of myself, I am looking forward to Nest of Vipers, the next installment in the series, a sample of which is included in this edition.

Conditionally recommended.

James Hawking LILY OF THE NILE Stephanie Dray, Berkley, 2011, $15, pb, 368pp, 9780425238554 After unwittingly helping her mother commit suicide, Cleopatra Selene, daughter of Egypt’s Queen Cleopatra and Mark Antony, is taken from her homeland in captivity. Selene and her brothers, Helios and Philadelphus, are delivered to Rome, where they live in the royal court at the mercy of Octavian. Raised in her mother’s Egyptian court, Selene is no stranger to politics and intrigue, and she quickly realizes that the survival of the remaining members of her family depends largely on her ability to scheme, manipulate, and turn royal favor in her direction. It’s a lot of responsibility for a young woman, but Selene is a Ptolemy, and she takes her legacy seriously. Adapting to Roman customs, she carries herself with dignity, presenting herself as an ambassador for her people and for the Isiac faith.

Dray’s debut, the first in a projected trilogy about Cleopatra Selene, is a fine addition to the growing body of fiction and nonfiction about Cleopatra and her descendants. Selene is believable as both a historical figure and as a teenage girl – there’s the gravitas one expects of a Ptolemy princess, but there are also slumber-party type conversations with her contemporaries. She’s a survivor, and survival isn’t always pretty, especially

if you’re a woman in a male-dominated world. I look forward to the second volume in the trilogy, which will focus on the newly-wed Selene’s journey to the kingdom of Mauritania, where she will rule as queen.

Nanette Donohue THE RAGE OF ACHILLES Terence Hawkins, Casperian, 2009, $13.50, pb, 197pp, 9781934081204 From its opening pages in which a young servant girl (who may or may not be Achilles’s mother) in the house of Peleus meets with a terrifyingly sudden and violent death, Hawkins’s tale moves with the force of a cyclone. Using the classic Iliad as his base, Hawkins’s retelling focuses on Achilles from the time he is forced to give High King Agamemnon the captured maiden Briseis to his avenging, rage-filled confrontation with the Trojan prince Hector and its aftermath.

This version of the monumental struggle between the Achaeans and Trojans over the abduction of the fabulously beautiful Helen has the reader feeling the pain and horror of spears and swords slicing flesh, hearing the terrible sounds of battle and cries of agonizing death, and seeing the utter destruction that a decade-long war brings.

His use of contemporary and explicit language lends a sense of immediacy to the saga that engulfs the reader and pulls him along. Hawkins’s portrayal of Achilles as a tortured god-like monster with human flaws seeking ultimate glory is fascinating; Odysseus, Diomedes, Patroclus, Hector, Paris, etc. are compellingly written, his depiction of the few female characters (including Helen) less so.

Even though the characters and their fates may be quite familiar, it will be impossible not to be entertained and moved by this rendering of the age-old story. Not for the faint of heart, the narrative abounds with scenes of graphic brutality and sex. For all fans of the Trojan War, but it may especially appeal to the male audience who enjoyed the films Troy and 300.

Michael I. Shoop THE GOLDEN MEAN: A Novel of Alexander the Great Annabel Lyon, Knopf, 2010, $24.95, hb, 288pp, 9780307593993 / Atlantic, 2010, £14.99, hb, 320pp, 9781848875296 Lyon’s debut historical novel is actually more about Aristotle than Alexander, although their lives were intimately entwined for a considerable period of time. This is no hagiography of either a great philosopher or a magnificent king, however: the flesh and blood reality of life in 3rd-century BCE Macedonia is evident in the offhand cruelty, the misogynistic culture, the plagues and illnesses, and the death-dealing wounds of battle that both HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Reviews | 23

protagonists face, with unequal amounts of courage and fortitude. The dialogue is quirkily modern at times but seems to fit. Aristotle is a very strange man who clearly suffers from bipolar syndrome, with the “depressive” part more present than the “manic” part, to his dismay. He wants nothing more than to be alone with his books, or out collecting specimens he can cut up and document, yet he’s always being driven into situations that require human contact, such as marriage and teaching.

Alexander, on the other hand, knows he will be king one day, and chafes at any restraint; he wants to be with the army, at war. The prince who will be the conqueror of a huge part of the ancient world is passing strange, almost but not quite sociopathic, but also, as a boy, vulnerable and lonely.

The “philosophical” musings in the book are, in my opinion, cursory and not well developed, despite what the book jacket says.

There are recognizable Aristotelian ideas, mainly as they contrast with Plato’s teachings, and I think the author tries to connect them to the reality of her characters’ world, but not always successfully.

I have to say that the reading was hard going — at times the atmosphere was crude and unpleasant, and overall, it was not an enjoyable book, but it was very interesting and ultimately, I found it worthwhile.

Mary F. Burns

THE WEDDING SHROUD: A Tale of Early Rome Elisabeth Storrs, Pier 9, 2010, AU$32.95, pb, 478pp, 9781741967906 Born of a patrician mother and a wealthy plebeian father, Caecilia is no ordinary Roman citizen, but a product of two conflicting worlds.

After losing both her parents, Caecilia finds a tenuous place in her uncle’s household. There she is strengthened by her cousin Marcus’s friendship and the first love of a young Roman soldier, Drusus.

Yet she is never quite at home.

When Caecilia is wedded to an Etruscan nobleman, Vel Mastarna, a treaty is signed. Caecilia is to be a symbol, her marriage a link between Vel and the fledgling Republic of Rome. Though Caecilia’s place in her uncle’s household seemed fragile, it is nothing compared to the uncertainty she faces in her new Etruscan home – a place where gods, customs, loves and loyalties are strange and conflicting. Who can she trust? How does she love?

Where does she really belong?

In The Wedding Shroud, Elizabeth Storrs gives us a complex heroine, grappling with issues of spirituality and culture in ways that are noncliché and refreshing; a hero who is battle-scarred and unattractive yet somehow compelling; and a glimpse of two ancient cultures with their delicate balance of gender, religion and morality. If at times this reader struggled to empathise with the heroine’s loyalty to Rome or to fully comprehend the influence of her belief system, it is not so much a fault of the novel but a mark of its ambitious scope – the difficulty of portraying deeply held religious belief in a post-modern world. Yet, Storrs 24 | Reviews | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

somehow manages to pull it off.

From the moment I stepped under the orange veil to the last roll of the dice, I found myself wanting more of her world, to walk with her characters and to immerse myself in their lives, if only for a time.

Elizabeth Jane

|

1st century

|

ROMAN GAMES Bruce Macbain, Poisoned Pen, 2010, $24.95, hb, 261pp, 9781590587751 Often the suspect in Roman mystery novels is a slave, so the detective must work to prove someone else did it, or the law will demand that the entire household be executed. Here the investigator is Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, known to posterity as Pliny the Younger. Pliny receives aid from another figure from Roman literature, Marcus Valerius Maritalis, whose connections on the seamy side of Roman life complement Pliny’s access in high places. Martial has few concerns beyond finding a source for his next free meal, a source which turns out to be Pliny. Pliny works on finding the murderer, but he is also involved in impregnating his young wife and maintaining his integrity in a corrupt system. The mysterious presence of a steward named Stephanus with his arm in a sling signals a connection the household of Domitian where an assassination plot is unfolding.

Latin words such as pica (a morbid condition thought to accompany pregnancy) or thermae (large public baths) are sprinkled throughout the text and defined in a glossary. The social background is authentic, and the fictional events are consistent with the known historical framework. Solving the murder is only incidental in this debut novel subtitled “A Plinius Secundus Mystery.” It will be interesting to see what other corpses turn up and what steps Pliny takes to solve their murders.

Recommended.

James Hawking THE CURSE-MAKER Kelli Stanley, Minotaur, 2011, $24.99US/C28.99, hb, 300pp, 9780312654191 Roman Britain, Bath, Aquae Sulis where the goddess sends forth warm, healing waters. Our sleuth, former legionary and doctor Arcturus, whom readers met in Stanley’s award-winning Nox Dormienda, and his lovely wife Gwyna are having marital problems Arcturus is helpless to explain. They travel from their home in Londinium to Aquae Sulis for a vacation. They haven’t even descended from their horses when they are greeted by a body floating in the curative waters – quite dead. The chase is afoot.

PR material makes no secret that The CurseMaker is Hammett’s Red Harvest, a tale of Western U.S. small-town corruption “in an ancient setting,” a “Roman noir.” I cannot agree that this is as dark or as powerful as Hammett’s 1929 classic.

Sympathetic women and their problems, for one thing, will make this more palatable for the female pleasure reader. Hammett’s hard-boiled language often scalds, and Stanley’s voice does not reach his levels. Some gaps in logic, too, seem to have been created by cutting to attain a publisher’s word limit.

But reaching for the classic (in both the 1929 and 1st-century senses) works well in other ways. We’re treated to riveting, spot-on images page after page by an author who clearly knows her stuff.

Ann Chamberlin

|

2nd century

|

CAVEAT EMPTOR (US) / RUSO AND THE RIVER OF DARKNESS (UK) Ruth Downie, Bloomsbury USA, 2011, $25.00/ C$31.00, hb, 352pp, 9781596916081 / Penguin, 2011, £8.99, pb, 464pp, 9780141036946 The fourth novel in a series of historical mysteries set in the second century A.D., Caveat Emptor takes place in Roman Britain. The hero of the series, physician Gaius Petreius Ruso, is recently married. Seeking only a peaceful life, he becomes embroiled in the search for a tax collector who has gone missing, and then the plot thickens. Ruso is a good-hearted man but not extraordinarily brave.

But though the situation becomes increasingly treacherous he is unable to extricate himself, and the suspense mounts.

The background and historical detail seem authentic. There is a good deal of dry humor.

The characters are vividly drawn, though some of them may strike the reader as a bit too modern in outlook. The dialogue often has a contemporary flavor which personally I found jarring. All and all, I often had a difficult time believing I was in Roman Britain, but I still enjoyed the story.

Phyllis T. Smith THE LEGION Simon Scarrow, Headline, 2010, £18.99, hb, 369pp, 9780755353743 Egypt. A group of renegade gladiators led by the psychotic Ajax, posing as Roman soldiers, are causing dissent and stirring rebellion, threatening the stability of the whole Roman Empire. Acting Prefect Cato and Centurion Macro are charged by the Governor of Egypt with tracking and defeating the renegade before the whole province erupts into revolt. Before they can complete their task, a rebel Nubian army invades. The renegade gladiators join forces with the rebels Cato and Macro, finding themselves joining the Twenty Second Legion, an untried and inexperienced force to face the combined enemy forces who are hell-bent on the destruction of everything Roman.

This is the latest in the successful Roman series featuring Cato and Macro. The story thunders along, taking the reader on a rollercoaster ride of revenge, military incompetence, betrayal and heatsapping physical and mental endurance. It is wellresearched, with totally believable characters, and Classical — 2nd Century

the author brings alive the period, the people and the culture. Simon Scarrow is a top writer in the genre, and this latest offering is from an author at the top of his game. Recommended.

Mike Ashworth

|

7th century

|

MUHAMMAD: A Story of the Last Prophet Deepak Chopra, HarperOne, 2010, $25.99, hb, 267pp, 9780061782428 “I didn’t write this book to make Muhammad holy. I wrote it to show that holiness was just as confusing, terrifying, and exalting in the seventh century as it would be today,” Deepak Chopra explains in his foreword to his third novel about religious leaders (Buddha and Jesus are the other two). It is an extraordinary undertaking to fictionalize the story of a person admired above all others by more than a quarter of the world’s population, but Chopra’s purpose in the end is not fiction. Instead, he produces an imaginative, evocative rendition of what it must have been like to be in the company of such an individual, making his way in an environment in many ways so alien to our own.

Chopra tells the story through twenty narrators, a different one for each of the nineteen chapters, plus the Angel Gabriel narrating the prelude.

Muhammad is not one of the narrators, although

C

THE PROW BEAST

he is the thread that runs through each story. We hear from his wives, his relatives, his neighbors, his enemies, all in turn, presenting their individual perspectives in chronological order, making this easy-to-follow story offer a much broader picture of the prophet and his world than could otherwise be achieved in a scant 250 pages. It’s far more than just Muhammad’s story, for each one of the chapters is like a short story, with a protagonist and plot interesting in their own right.

Some knowledge of Muhammad’s biography would be helpful before starting this novel, and for those not familiar with Islam, an advance look at Chopra’s afterword, explaining key aspects of the faith, will be clarifying. Even without such background, the reader is likely to enjoy the economy and lucidity of style Chopra brings to his fiction.

Laurel Corona

|

11th century

|

QUEEN HEREAFTER: A Novel of Margaret of Scotland Susan Fraser King, Crown, 2010, $25.99, hb, 352pp, 9780307452795 Margaret is a young Saxon princess shipwrecked on the shores of Scotland. The only way that she, her mother, sister and brother, Edgar, once thought to be the next in line for the English throne, will

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E

Robert Low, HarperCollins UK/Trafalgar Square, 2011, $12.95, pb, 368pp, 9780007298570 In the latest volume of the Oathsworn series, young Viking Orm has become leader of his own hall, resting on his laurels with his loyal band of warriors before starting up another successful season of raiding. But fate has something else in store for Orm and his Oathsworn, something they have never known until now: a tragic and humiliating defeat. Now Orm is called to a different kind of battle, this time not as raider but as rescuer: guarding the safety of a queen, an heir, a foster-son, and the lives of the few surviving Oathsworn. Orm finds himself pondering the meaning of his blood-soaked fate even as he is helpless to avoid it.

The story starts out in the best way – with a battle – and the action never flags for a moment all the way to a jarring end that leaves the reader exhausted yet wanting more. The writing is sharp and blunt, filled with wonderful meaty turns of phrase but not overwrought with them, creating a feeling of authenticity without an ounce of cliché or unnecessary weight. This series is not for the squeamish – blood and gore and brutality permeate every page – but The Prow Beast is more than just a frenzied string of battles. It’s a story both simple and complex, layered with themes of politics, religion, philosophy, revenge, and fate. Orm is a fantastic protagonist, now the hunted instead of the hunter, empathizing with his enemies but still determined to destroy them. Not all the characters are as richly developed, but the story more than makes up for it. Newcomers to the series will have no trouble leaping into the fray, and longtime fans will find this an epic tale worthy of the Oathsworn. Very highly recommended.

Heather Domin 7th Century — 12th Century

survive is to seek sanctuary from the Scottish king, Malcolm Canmore.

Though trained to be a princess in a much more refined court, Margaret must cope with her brother’s decision to marry her off to Malcolm.

Interestingly, what early on is a miserable existence for Margaret becomes her mission – to shape Malcolm into a king respected by foreign princes and governments, to bring Benedictine practices to the Celtic Church and, ultimately, to become beloved queen of her people, the Scots.

The transformation is fascinating, and the reader becomes legitimately enamored of this spirited, yet spiritual woman. Although King frankly admits playing with some dates and some characters, most notably Eva, the young bard who is Macbeth’s granddaughter, sent from Moray by her grandmother, Gruadh (who we know as the cursed Lady Macbeth), the story works well. And, indeed, Margaret does become beloved and ultimately sanctified for her beauty of spirit, love for Malcolm and their children and beatific good deeds. I am still trying to figure out, though, whether King’s decision to focus solely on Margaret’s early years, up to the birth of the third child, is the best telling of Margaret’s tale. Considering that much is known of Margaret’s life and that annals of her deeds were maintained contemporaneously, I concur that there was much more to tell of the earlier part of Margaret’s life, the part that shaped her into the remarkable woman she became.

I enjoyed this book immensely and recommend it.

Ilysa Magnus

|

12th century

|

A DEAD MAN’S SECRET Simon Beaufort, Severn House, 2011, £19.99/$28.95, hb, 256pp, 9781847513038 In Simon Beaufort’s sixth foray into 12thcentury England, the king we know as Henry I orders Sir Geoffrey Mappestone to go to Wales to deliver five letters, evaluate two clerics, and solve a seven-year-old murder. Ever wary of Henry’s motives, Sir Geoffrey is a trifle reluctant, especially when several travel companions, none completely trustworthy, are thrust upon him.

After a series of attacks while on the road, Sir Geoffrey knows someone is trying to keep him from following orders. But who? Sir Geoffrey becomes embroiled in Welsh politics, clerical rivalries, and family disputes as well as royal plotting. As always, his intuition and intelligence allow him to thwart the villains – and satisfy the King’s demands.

The action is exciting but, with a few stylistic changes, it could have taken place almost any time in history. Don’t expect period detail. Sir Geoffrey and his wife are both clever, however, and, in spite of their arranged marriage, they make a good team.

Read the Mappestone mysteries for intricate plots and interesting protagonists (who may yet fall in love).

HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Reviews | 25

Jeanne Greene

|

13th century

|

THE VALCOURT HEIRESS Catherine Coulter, Putnam, 2010, $25.95/ C$32.50, hb, 356pp, 0399156755 England, 1278: Marianna de Luce de Mornay is running away from her mother — a real witch — and an unwelcome suitor. She meets the stalwart Garron of Kersey, newly endowed with his dead brother’s estate and all its problems. These include a traumatized household, a ruined castle, enemies of several varieties, and a treasure trove that may or may not exist. The lively, kind, intelligent “Merry,” as she is called, soon puts Garron’s castle to rights and becomes a favorite of the castle folk.

King Edward is helpful, too, through his secretary, Robert Burnell. Love grows between Merry and Garron as they try to discover the identity of the threatening Black Demon.

Fast-paced and humorous, with a fairly mild sensuality level, the story makes a quick, entertaining read. This unpretentious romp is history lite, with huge dollops of magick and fantasy. There is a hugely surprising twist ending, which mystery fans may find contrived. This is a romance, however, as well as a mystery, and there is a satisfying happily ever after ending. A fun, fast, light read, useful by the fireside, on an airplane, or at the beach.

Elizabeth Knowles KHAN: Empire of Silver Conn Iggulden, Delacorte, 2010, $26.00, hb, 400pp, 9780385339544 / HarperCollins UK, 2010, £18.99, hb, 448pp, 9780007201808 Blind obedience to the Khan is no longer taken for granted in this fourth novel of the Mongol empire saga. As the sons and grandsons of Genghis Khan yield in obedience to Ogedai, about to become the current Khan, they secretly plot to overthrow Ogedai through assassination, attack and other disloyal plans. Each believes he would be a better ruler.

Their story begins with the son of a traitor restored to the tribe’s favor by Ogedai Khan.

Shamed by association, Batu never understands the reason for his elevation to the status of a soldier in training. That gratefulness evolves by hard work and obedience to shape a man who is highly capable but who fails to understand that he still does not possess one iota of the military strategy skills possessed by his elders. Ogedai’s brother, Chagatai, attempts to seize power by attack the night before Ogedai is to receive the loyalty oaths of every Mongol leader. Foiling the attack, Ogedai sends his brothers to conquer distant lands. But peace is not to prevail, for Ogedai is haunted by his weakening heart and a malaise sucking the life out of him after a significant battle against the Chinese that made him face his own mortality head-on. As his brothers travel and conquer the far-off lands 26 | Reviews | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

of Russia and elsewhere, it is two women who restore the Khan to better health, contemplating their position of power and the likelihood of their children ascending to the throne after Ogedai’s death.

The intrigues and action are nonstop, with a glimpse into an ever-changing world where intrigue attempts to overthrow tradition. Conn Iggulden has written another blockbuster story for old and new readers alike, a noteworthy addition to the world of excellent historical novels.

Viviane Crystal FALCONER AND THE DEATH OF KINGS Ian Morson, Severn House, 2011, £19.99/$28.95, hb, 224pp, 9781847513106 William Falconer, cleric and regent master at Oxford University, is called to Paris to learn about the Church’s condemnations of Aristotle while secretly meeting with his old friend, Roger Bacon, whose own teachings have been judged suspicious by Church officials. But while in Paris, Falconer and his assistant, Thomas, are drawn into the mystery of a series of strange deaths among medical students while also being requested by the new king of England to investigate the death of his young son and an attempt on his own life. Falconer and Thomas have their hands full investigating the two cases, and things get even more complicated when the killer targets Falconer himself.

Ian Morson’s eighth installment in his Falconer series is a lively page-turner full of intellectual tidbits and details of everyday life that are sure to please new readers and those already committed to the series. The frequent references to previous titles in the series made me wish I’d read them all before reading this installment as sometimes I found them a distraction to the story at hand. Also, Morson’s tendency to switch the narrative point of view in the middle of a scene and even sometimes in the middle of a paragraph sometimes threw me off, but overall this was an enjoyable read.

Patricia O’Sullivan VALLEY OF DRY BONES Priscilla Royal, Poisoned Pen Press, 2010, $24.95, hb, 231pp, 9781590587638 In 1274, in the aftermath of the Barons’ War, a group of travelers arrives at Tyndal Priory, where the quick-witted Eleanor is prioress over a diverse little monastic community. Everybody in the cast list falls out on one side or another of the recent unpleasantness, in which people did things like hang, castrate and exile each other; however, everybody agrees on hating one of the travelers, who turns up dead. It falls to Eleanor to descry the villain, which she does with a neat turn of mind.

The novel begins with a dizzying number of characters; a few emerge: a well-drawn sinister smiling priest, Eleanor herself, the requisite hermit, who seems awfully in the thick of things for one piously withdrawn from the world. A detailed description of the Daniel play, performed in the priory for the visitors, is artfully done and probably the most interesting part of the book.

The rest of it seems oddly perfunctory. This is Royal’s seventh book; one problem with any series is the necessity for each successive book to catch up on the backstory. The more books, the more backstory. In the end, this novel is all backstory.

Cecelia Holland

|

14th century

|

THE OATH Michael Jecks, Simon & Schuster UK/Trafalgar Square, 2010, £19.99/$24.95, hb, 400pp, 9781847379009 In 1326, King Edward II of England was faced with civil war. His wife, Queen Isabella, had returned from France and demanded the jailing of his advisor, Sir Hugh, because she felt the advice he was providing the king was ruining the country and their relationship. In order to protect his advisor, the king mobilized his nobles to defeat an army led by the queen and her exceptional general, Sir Roger Mortimer. Both armies converged on Bristol, near the border with Wales. Torn between their loyalties to both monarchs, our protagonists – Sir Baldwin and his friend Simon Puttock – become involved in the investigation of the murder of an entire family in Bristol. Were these murders related to the ongoing conflict, and who is responsible for the senseless killings that took place under the backdrop of the ensuing civil war?

Michael Jecks is a prolific writer of 14th-century English mysteries. I have read other novels in his series of medieval mysteries and have found them enjoyable. His knowledge of this time period and the customs and history of England is commendable and adds realism to the plot.

The period and characters come to life and are well thought out; his writing is exceptional in the various twists and turns required to pull off a firstrate mystery while writing of the conflict between the two monarchs. I highly recommend this novel to those who enjoy reading about this time period and also enjoy a good mystery.

Jeff Westerhoff

|

15th century

|

THE QUEEN OF LAST HOPES: The Story of Margaret of Anjou Susan Higginbotham, Sourcebooks, 2011, $14.99/ C$17.99/£9.99, pb, 368pp, 97814022428161 In her latest novel, Susan Higginbotham takes on the task of redeeming yet another maligned historical figure: Margaret of Anjou, wife of the ineffective King Henry VI and mother of the doomed Edward of Lancaster. Told in multiple first-person accounts (including a few from the grave), the story follows Margaret from her marriage to Henry as a sprightly girl of 14, through a few short happy years of marriage, to the decades 13th Century — 15th Century

of conflict and heartbreak that would later be known as The Wars of the Roses and led to her ignominious end. Rather than an evil, heartless manipulator, Margaret is portrayed as a regular woman who loves her eccentric husband dearly; as he grows more distant and her son comes of age, that love is transformed into a determination to save her family from ruin. Instead of an emotionless monk or raving lunatic, Henry is shown as a loving husband, pious and mild-mannered but not completely useless. Their love is sweetly comfortable, even after separation and madness.

The prose stays within the parameters of this genre; there’s plenty of exposition, but it never feels unnecessarily packed in. Readers unfamiliar with the Wars of the Roses might be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information, but that’s par for the course with this time period. A more balanced view of Margaret might have been more convincing; it could be argued she’s been redeemed so much that she has few (if any) flaws left. Otherwise, however, the historical research is impeccable as always, the characters endearing, and the storytelling as engaging and entertaining as this author’s fans have come to expect. Another fine volume of biographical fiction from Susan Higginbotham.

Heather Domin QUEEN OF CITIES Andrew Novo, Coffeetown, 2010, $18.95, pb, 318pp, 9781603810760 The year is 1453, and the army of Turkish Sultan Mehmed is camped outside the walls of Constantinople while the Emperor Constantine and his Christian allies desperately try to fight back against the siege. Though each believes God

C

A PLAY OF PIETY

to be on their side, the fate of Constantinople will be determined by the secret dealings of politicians, the skill of generals, and the bravery of common soldiers and citizens.

I have mixed feelings about this novel. Novo does an excellent job maintaining suspense, though readers may already know the outcome of the siege.

Several times I found myself caught up in the hopes of the losing side. Novo also skillfully shows how fractures on the Christian side were far more damaging to Constantinople than its crumbling ancient walls. Finally, Novo’s amazing details of the weaponry and war tactics employed in the siege are impressive. In these ways Novo’s storytelling skills shine.

However, I found the constant switching of perspective unsettling, especially when many of the characters were used in just one short vignette and not throughout the entire narrative. This made it hard to care about the fate of any one character. In addition, Novo’s representation of the Christians as mostly pious and well-meaning and the Muslims as moral hypocrites driven only by political ambition, characterizations based in part on contemporary Christian accounts of the siege, felt biased. This is most clearly seen in Novo’s portrayal of Sultan Mehmed as unreasonable and sexually depraved while Emperor Constantine is conciliatory and self-sacrificing. For these reasons it felt that Novo was more interested in relating the history of Constantinople than telling a great story.

Patricia O’Sullivan PALE ROSE OF ENGLAND Sandra Worth, Berkley, 2011, $15.00/C$18.50, pb, 464 pp, 9780425238776 Sandra Worth’s Pale Rose of England focuses

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E

Margaret Frazer, Berkley Prime Crime, 2010, $14.00/C$17.50, pb, 304pp, 9780425237090 I have been a fan of Margaret Frazer’s medieval mysteries about Dame Frevisse. This novel is the sixth of another series she has authored, a spin off of the earlier one, and it entranced me just as her books about Dame Frevisse did. The story here takes place in 15th-century England. The central character, Joliffe, is a member of a troupe of players, that is, traveling actors. The leader of the troupe falls ill and the players must work in a charity hospital to earn their keep. Ensconced in the hospital, to no one’s delight, is a widow whose family’s financial patronage has kept the hospital going. Her unpleasant personality and demands do not endear her to anyone at the hospital, but does someone hate her enough to want to kill her? When other residents are poisoned, she is convinced she is the intended victim. Joliffe takes on the task of finding out who the murderer is.

This book abounds in authentic detail and intriguing, vividly fleshed-out characters. It gave me a sense of being carried back to medieval times. The precarious existence of traveling performers is realistically portrayed, and Joliffe is an engaging and resourceful protagonist. Without being archaic, the dialogue somehow rings true. The plot builds to a satisfying ending. All in all, this is a superb historical mystery.

Phyllis T. Smith 15th Century — 16th Century

on one of British history’s more obscure heroines: Lady Catherine Gordon, the highborn Scottish bride of Perkin Warbeck, the possible second son of King Edward IV. Though she’s not as well known as other women of her era, Lady Catherine’s life certainly rivals that of many of them; her status as wife to the “Pretender to the Throne” places her directly amid court intrigues and personal devastations. Worth’s book sheds light on this fascinating figure by giving her a voice seldom heard before.

As the book opens, we are thrust immediately into the lives of Catherine and her “Richard” (Perkin) as he arrives in England ready to lead a force against Henry VII. Catherine believes wholeheartedly in Richard’s claims, and their marriage is one of passion and love. Though events do not go well for the couple, we gain insight into motivations as we follow the doomed lovers through capture and ultimate sacrifice.

Catherine’s story continues on after her great loss into other marriages; Worth even provides us with an excellent author’s note to explain the history further at the end.

Pale Rose of England is generally well-told, and the fictional retelling of Catherine’s story is quite intriguing, with Worth bringing new dimensions to familiar historical characters. My biggest complaints lie with Worth’s overly dramatic use of language; her overuse of similes grows thin after a while. At times the dialogue became so flowery that I found myself skimming to get past it to the much more realistic action sequences. However, this story of the unsung Lady Catherine is engaging and illuminating, and I quite enjoyed it.

Tamela McCann

|

16th century

|

BY ROYAL DECREE Kate Emerson, Gallery, 2010, $16.00, pb, 384pp, 9781439177815

By Royal Decree, the third novel in Kate Emerson’s Secrets of the Tudor Court series (The Pleasure Palace, Between Two Queens) focuses on the behind-the-scenes 16th-century romance between young noblewoman Elizabeth “Bess” Brooke and William Parr, the brother of Henry VIII’s sixth wife, Kathryn Parr. Bess is afraid of King Henry, who seems to have his lustful eye turned on her.

Will, who loves Bess, is married and wants a divorce, but Henry is particularly dangerous on that point.

Emerson wields a sure pen when it comes to Tudor England and laces the story with just the right amount of period detail. Presenting the tempestuous and often scandalous court through the eyes of Bess Brooke, when Henry VIII is older and fat with a putrid leg sore, the author paints a confident, realistic picture of the king. Readers acquainted with this remarkable period in English history will welcome a cast of familiar players: Jane Grey, Tom Seymour, and Thomas Wyatt, to name HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Reviews | 27

C

THE TUDOR SECRET

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E

C.W. Gortner, St. Martin’s Griffin, 2011, $14.99, pb, 327pp, 9780312658502 / Hodder & Stoughton, 2011, £19.99, hb, 336pp, 9781444720822 / also pb, Jun. 2011, £7.99, 9781444720846 During the last days of King Edward VI, in the year 1553, Squire Brandon Prescott finds himself immersed in the complicated lives of the Tudors and those who would serve or betray them (and sometimes both). Prescott, an orphan seeking his roots, is pressed into service for Lord Robert Dudley, ardent admirer of the Princess Elizabeth and childhood acquaintance of Prescott. In Brendan’s mind, the reunion is less than appealing.

From the moment he is introduced to the Princess Elizabeth, Brendan is enchanted by her, as though connected on some level. He pledges himself almost immediately to her service, with total disregard to the fact that his service is already pledged to Lord Dudley. Yet, Brendan embraces the danger to satisfy what he can only describe as a moral imperative.

Unlike his previous two novels, The Confessions of Catherine De Medici and The Last Queen, this novel has as its protagonist not only a man, but a mere squire. Additionally, this book, while it contains a brilliantly executed plot and three-dimensional characters, takes great liberties with historical fact and widely-held assumptions. For example, Princess Elizabeth (who would become Queen Elizabeth I) is portrayed as being much more tender-hearted (especially towards Mary Tudor) than history would have us believe. Additionally, Elizabeth would never have gone to visit her dying brother as the author has her do. But, as the author’s notes remind us, this is historical fiction, and very well done at that; very highly recommended.

Michael DiSchiavi but a few. All in all, this is a valuable addition to the current popular interest in all things Tudor England, moving as it does from the death of Henry VIII, through his heir, Edward VI (who never ruled), the short reign of Lady Jane Grey, Queen Mary, and then... Elizabeth.

Alana White THE IRISH PRINCESS Karen Harper, NAL, 2011, US$15.00/C$18.50, 400pp, 9780451232823 She says she is sometimes mistaken for the English princess, Anne Boleyn’s daughter Elizabeth, with whom she shares a given name and the red hair, the heroine of this first-person addition to the Tudor industry. Born in Ireland claimed by Henry VIII, royal on both sides, daughter of the Earl of Kildare, Elizabeth Fitzgerald sees her home destroyed, her father dead in London’s Tower, her brothers in rebellious hiding, her whole family under interdict. Is it refuge or a state of hostage she finds in the English court? Here she brushes shoulders with a string of well-known figures: Lady Jane Grey, Catherine Howard, the princesses Mary and Elizabeth, Dudley. Married first to an old man much her senior, she is finally able to find a fairytale life, complete with pirate raid, with Edward Clinton, the English navy’s dashing admiral.

Seeing the well-known characters from this perspective is interesting, and Harper has certainly done her research. Perhaps because the time 28 | Reviews | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

period is so well worn, I felt even a rebel princess in this treatment did not arise above the lackluster and contrived. She feels herself avenged on the impossible Henry VIII; I do not. Prozac might have been helpful to survive as a woman in this bloodthirsty time, but I did not think it helped this novel. Perhaps real life into old age requires acceptance and real events defuse.

Ann Chamberlin THE QUEEN’S CAPTIVE Barbara Kyle, Kensington, 2010, $15/C$17.95, pb, 404pp, 9780758238559 The third installment of the Thornleigh Saga depicts the many conflicts of Mary Tudor’s reign, illustrated by family ambition as well as individual and collective loyalties. Honor Thornleigh, who came of age in Sir Thomas More’s household, is wife to the exiled Richard Thornleigh and mother to two grown children. Summoned from Antwerp back to England by Sir William Cecil, they reclaim their country property. In so doing they confront their near neighbors, the Catholic Grenvilles.

Posing as a humble servant, Honor gains entrance to the captive Princess Elizabeth’s household to advise the willful heiress presumptive to the throne, and must also frequent Queen Mary’s court.

The threats of rebellion, Her Majesty’s reprisals against suspected Protestant conspirators — imprisonments, burnings at the stake — destroy the Thornleighs’ friends and threaten their own

survival.

Son Adam, enamored of the captive princess, stirs the passions of the predatory Frances Grenville, who does not share her brother’s determination to exact harsh vengeance against Richard and Honor. Facing the choice of a loveless marriage and his parents’ lives, he makes the only possible decision — but he cannot stave off the disaster that ultimately descends upon their household. The brutality of the era, the intricate plots, secret treachery and constant fears, are well depicted, as are the political and religious divisions.

A lively pace and interesting, conflicted characters result in a worthwhile read for devotees of Tudor period historical fiction.

Margaret Barr

|

17th century

|

THE DARLING STRUMPET Gillian Bagwell, Berkley, 2011, $15, pb, 384pp, 9780425238592 First-time author Bagwell’s presentation of a familiar and popular Restoration-era character brings to life the players, wits, wenches, and mistresses who populated the court of King Charles II. Living in a London slum, avoiding her mother’s blows, little Nell Gwynn accepts her hardships but soon learns that bartering her body is more lucrative than selling oysters. Voluntarily joining her sister Rose in a brothel, she becomes popular with the clientele, and on leaving moves up a rung in the underworld as an orange-seller at the theatre. Her timing is impeccable — females are now permitted on the stage. Her flair for witty repartee and her beauty secure her a place in the company and a mentor in Charles Hart.

Aristocratic rogues soon flock to her side — and some to her bed — but when she becomes the king’s mistress she proves loyal and affectionate, outwardly brave when confronting rivals for his attentions, privately suffering pangs of jealousy. Her motherly devotion to their two sons, her support of her sister Rose, and her heartfelt mourning for the losses she endures, renders Nell a sympathetic as well as an entertaining heroine.

Bagwell provides rich period flavor through dialogue, scene setting, verses, and quotations from plays in which Nell appeared to such acclaim. It was a bawdy age, and the sex scenes are numerous and extremely graphic, which might unsettle some readers. The novel covers many years, and the exposition of relationships and political developments is efficient and skillful. Slight liberties are taken with the factual record but none that jar, and overall this is a highly readable debut.

Margaret Barr GENTLEMAN CAPTAIN J. D. Davies, HMH, 2009, $25.00, hb, 320pp, 9780547382616 / Old Street, 2010, £6.99, pb, 388pp, 9781906964290 Fictional accounts of the Royal Navy in the Age 16th Century — 17th Century

C

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E

THE SECOND DUCHESS

Elizabeth Loupas, NAL, 2011, $15.00/C$18.50, pb, 368pp, 9780451232151 Have you ever read a book that you wish you had written? Have you ever read a book that you wish did not end? For me, The Second Duchess is that book.

The author’s debut novel, based on Robert Browning’s famous poem “My Last Duchess,” focuses on Barbara of Austria, daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I. From the start of her marriage to Duke Alfonso d’Este, Barbara is obsessed with curiosity about Alfonso’s late first wife, Lucrezia de Medici.

Barbara is drawn with depth and compassion. She is a clever, ugly duckling princess who must come to grips with being a stranger in a strange land, a foreigner in her new home. Her deepest fear, that she may be the bride of a murderer, drives her to solve the mystery of the death of her predecessor — at risk of her own life.

Alfonso, brooding, dark and powerful, lives with his own ghosts—that of his father and his dead wife.

He walls himself away from his new wife and tries to brutalize her into submission, but he finds he cannot break Barbara’s spirit.

The ghost of Lucrezia de Medici is the linking character throughout the story. Her spirit, awaiting her eternal fate, is neither saintly nor idealized. Her voice is very different from that of the determined and driven Barbara. The Medici princess comes across as a willful and spoiled child who is unable to see her mistakes until it is too late.

The wonderful research and the setting of 16th-century Ferrara serve to flesh out the plot into a fascinating historical mystery. I thoroughly enjoyed The Second Duchess and recommend it to all who love a good historical mystery with a well-developed romantic component. I look forward to Elizabeth Loupas’s next book.

Monica E. Spence of Sail, while exciting, tend to follow a predictable storyline of a tough and resilient junior officer working his way upwards in rank while heroically leading his crew to victory over Napoleon’s finest.

A reader may be excused for thinking the genre to be little more than spinoffs of the life and career of the great naval hero Admiral Horatio Nelson. J.D. Davies has shaken things up a bit with his tale of Captain Matthew Quinton. Young Quinton serves in the fleet of Charles II and is as far from a highly skilled Nelson clone as is possible. In these times of governmental uncertainty, captains were rated more for their political reliability than professional experience or competence. Indeed, the novel begins with Quinton sinking his own ship!

Instead of being cashiered from the service, our hero is assigned command of H.M.S. Jupiter, a warship whose previous captain may have been murdered by the crew. Quinton is determined to prove himself worthy and accepts the challenge of taking his ship in harm’s way in the face of a potential Scottish rebellion while simultaneously being instructed in seamanship by a trusted sailor.

While it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Quinton will prove worthy of command, the process by which he interacts with a very colorful set of officers and sailors and a well-drawn political and military situation in Scotland make the voyage both enjoyable and interesting. Davies, a recognized authority on sea life in the 17th century, demonstrates he is as capable of spinning a good 17th Century

naval yarn as he is of dissecting the particulars of naval history.

John R. Vallely THE AMOROUS NIGHTINGALE Edward Marston, Allison & Busby, 2010 (2000),

C

THE PREACHER’S BRIDE

£7.99, pb, 375pp, 9780749008031 In this, the second outing for Christopher Redmayne and Jonathon Bale, the architect and the constable are tasked by Charles II to locate his latest amour, Harriet Gow. Mrs Gow, a noted actress and singer, has been kidnapped by persons unknown and a huge ransom demanded – a ransom which the king is either unwilling or unable to pay.

Matters do not seem too serious until her missing maid is discovered beaten to death and the search takes on a deadly urgency. Suspects abound, lies are told and the redoubtable duo have several brushes with violence before the culprit is revealed.

Set against the backdrop of London post 1666, The Amorous Nightingale invokes all the licentiousness and dissipation so often associated with the period. Fops and fools jostle with Puritans and thinking men and the newly restored theatres are a hotbed of sin and frivolity. Redmayne and Bale are an unlikely pairing, but their friendship, trust and differing outlooks form the bedrock for this enjoyable Restoration romp.

Sara Wilson THE KING’S EVIL Edward Marston, Allison & Busby, 2010 (1999), £7.99, pb, 378 pp, 9781905026708 The King’s Evil is a reprint of the first of the Christopher Redmayne novels published in 1999, a historical mystery series set in Restoration England. This is one of Edward Marston’s five historical series and each series has a devoted readership. Marston has a solid grip on his craft and all his books are well-written, well-researched and a most enjoyable read.

The King’s Evil sets the Redmayne series off with a cracking plot and two main characters who are delightfully mismatched. The novel begins with the Fire of London slowly taking hold, and Jonathon Bale, the strong minded, monarch-disapproving

E D I TORS’ CH OICE

Jody Hedlund, Bethany House, 2010, $14.99, pb, 379pp, 9780764208324 Elizabeth Whitbread is a young Puritan woman living in Anglican England during the year 1659. At the opening of the novel, Elizabeth is attending the “laying out” of a young preacher’s wife who has died in childbirth. As Elizabeth infiltrates herself into the life of this grief-stricken family, out of altruistic concern for their welfare, she unknowingly finds herself allowing the widower into her heart.

The narrative combines memorable scenes of poignancy with intense moments of conflict. Set amidst the political turmoil of England during the exile of Charles II and the struggle for political and religious power, the book powerfully depicts the dangers of religious intolerance and overzealous governance.

The Preacher’s Bride blends historical details with an engaging plotline. Hedlund’s story, at its simplest level, is one of a woman fighting against the odds to achieve the dreams of her heart. It is highly recommended.

Michael DiSchiavi HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Reviews | 29

Puritan constable, at work defending his area from its ravages. Christopher Redmayne, the Dean of Oxford’s son, newly qualified architect, and supporter of the restored monarchy, arrives after the fire and hopes to rebuild a better, more beautiful London. The pair meet when hunting thieves stealing building materials from the house Redmayne designed, and when Redmayne’s employer is murdered they work together to catch the murderer.

It’s a nicely convoluted plot, guessing whodunit or whydunnit is not easy, and the ending leaves the reader looking for the next in the series, if only to see how poor Jonathon Bale copes now he has to work for the King. One of the joys of Marston’s novels is the light touch of humour and Bale and Redmayne reacting to each other can make a reader laugh out loud. Highly recommended. pdr lindsay-salmon THE REPENTANT RAKE Edward Marston, Allison & Busby, 2010, £7.99, pb, 410pp, 9780749008086 In a London still recovering from the Great Fire, Christopher Redmayne is busy pursuing his architect’s career when his rakehell brother Henry seeks his help to deal with blackmail and a death threat. Before he knows it, Christopher finds himself working along with his reluctant friend, constable Jonathon Bale, on a murder case linked to Henry’s plight. And just what ties the whole tangle to Christopher’s latest clients, the choleric Sir Julius Cheever – late of Cromwell’s Army – and his charming daughter? Marston tells a lively whodunit, brimming with damsels in distress, Puritans, Cavaliers, dissolute men about town, midnight ambushes, card games, danger, romance, and quite a few twists and turns. I had a few quibbles with the portrayal of Restoration social niceties (would an unmarried young lady go unchaperoned to an unrelated bachelor’s lodgings?

Would all these rakes be so unacquainted with the very notion of blackmail?), but if you are not after copious historical detail, this third offering in the Restoration Series provides an entertaining, wellpaced, and engaging read.

Chiara Prezzavento THE LEAVES OF FATE George Robert Minkoff, McPherson & Co., 2010, $24.95, hb, 427pp, 9780929701820 Between 1610 and 1630, the Jamestown settlement in the English colonies began to take shape – the colonists left the safe confines of the walled-in town and established farms nearby, growing the popular cash crop, tobacco. Infringing on the lands held by the local Native Americans would cause many deaths between the white settlers and the local tribes. John Smith, banished from the community upon threat of death, is isolated in England writing his stories of his experiences settling Jamestown. Intermingled with these current events is his remembrance of his discussions with Jonas Profit, an alchemist 30 | Reviews | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

and a sailing mate of Sir Francis Drake. Drake’s encounters with the Spanish and his attack on the Spanish mainland are also revealed.

This novel is the third installment of the fictional account of the Land of Whispers. The language the author employs to tell his tale mimics the speech of the 17th century. At times, it was difficult to follow the story without rereading sentences, but because I have read the first two installments of this trilogy, I knew what to expect. Mr. Minkoff is a very talented writer whose use of English is similar to that of Shakespeare’s sonnets – you must read and concentrate on the significance of his choice of words to fully comprehend the novel while you follow the plot of the story. If you are looking for a novel that is fast-paced and full of action, this book is not for you. If you value the tone and construction of the English language in sentences that are poetic in nature and add refinement to the ordinary novel, you will enjoy and savor this book. Highly recommended for readers with sophisticated literary tastes.

Jeff Westerhoff THE VENETIAN SECRET: 1620 Giulia Morosini, Morosini Press, 2010, £15.00, pb, 297pp, 9788799299003 This is the debut novel of Annemette Fogh, who has carried out research on primary documents, as well as drawing on more recent academic studies.

The plot is intriguing and the characterisation vivid: like so many of the city’s well-born girls, Marietta Morosini is forced to become a nun against her will, since, by tradition – and in order to pay the exorbitant dowries – only one daughter from each family can marry.

There is a wealth of detailed information about the lives of the nuns and the younger girls who board in the convent. Above all, the novel highlights the strong ties that bind the convent of San Zaccaria to the very heart of Venetian political affairs: the Doge himself is fêted there with choral music and food every Easter. Embellished with the finest art and architecture, the convent also conceals a dark secret, a wicked abuse of trust.

Marietta’s great-aunt, Rosalba, was one of the few nuns ever to escape from the convent, and Marietta is determined to discover her secret from a mysterious painting and then follow in her steps.

The story lays bare the connivance and corruption that festered at the roots of Venice’s greatness and spins a ripping yarn about one young woman’s determination to outwit the system and to pursue her dreams. Two further books are planned, and the series would also appeal to younger readers, although more careful proofreading will be needed to eliminate a series of annoying typographical errors. This is one for a dark winter’s evening, or better still, a spring visit to Venice.

Lucinda Byatt KILLER OF CRYING DEER William Orem, Kitsune, 2010, $15.00, pb, 249pp, 9780981949550 In 1669, an abducted youth is shipwrecked

in the Florida Keys. Readers entering Henry’s world will encounter an unrelentingly detailed envisioning of the moods and moments of tropical life. It is hard to imagine a more finely crafted lens into 17th- century Florida.

In his ordeal of survival and character growth, Henry becomes the central figure in both a visceral pirate plot, and a more cosmic, if arduous, period of education and romance among the Calusa tribe.

Henry is an abducted aristocrat who interacts with indigenes, Spaniards, and other less tangible forces. Through his observant eyes, Orem creates a stunning tableau, and it is hard to imagine any lover of pirate adventure or crystalline prose who wouldn’t appreciate this book. Chiseled though its style might be, the narrative is far too rich to be pigeonholed as an Indian-friendly Treasure Island. In its central sequence of short chapters, the novel is kaleidoscopic in its representations of indigenous life, and adept at articulating Henry’s spiritual journey through them. Much of the interior narrative is devoted to Henry’s romance with a girl called Speaking Owl, and Orem gives us much to admire in the sure-handed strokes with which he develops this amity.

Readers should be prepared for possible impressions of formlessness. Chapters begin to shift points of view freely, unpredictably, in an evergrowing series of related events. The vividness of the world he describes, however, and the continuously building significance of Henry’s experiences easily carry the reader along. Just when we couldn’t be any further out in this early Floridian dreamscape, the narrative reverts to the pirate plot with tremendous momentum and drama. This type of return of the very bad guys places the previous sequence in sharply contrasting perspective. This clash is the book’s most impressive scene. When a book reinvents its genre like this, it is certain to reward close attention.

Dwight Brooks EXIT THE ACTRESS Priya Parmar, Touchstone, 2011, $16.00, pb, 448pp, 9781439171172 Nell Gwynn has been enjoying a revival in historical fiction of late, and it is no wonder.

She’s the quintessential heroine, her meteoric rise from impoverished orange seller to actress to one of Charles II’s lovers enshrining her in our imagination as that plucky girl who achieved fame and fortune yet never lost her common sense. In Priya Parmar’s exuberant Exit the Actress, Nell is brought to life through fictional diary entries, interspersed with letters between members of the royal family, scandalous broadsheets, and occasional recipes. Here, Nell narrowly sidesteps her sister’s downslide into prostitution when she catches the attention of the proprietors of a popular theatre. Despite her unfashionably slim build and red-head coloring, Nell’s vocal talent and comedic flair eventually steer her toward leading roles; it is during her time on stage that she captures the randy king’s attention and becomes, according to the novel, his most beloved, if short-lived, mistress.

17th Century

Parmar’s enthusiasm for her subject is evident in a keen feel for the period’s tragedy and frivolity, sweeping the reader from London’s seedy brothels to the raucous glamour of Covent Garden and backbiting galleries of Whitehall, as well as touching upon the major events of the time, such as the horrific plague epidemic and Great Fire.

Parmar also shows a deft hand with her supporting cast, recreating the eccentric camaraderie and foibles of a 17th-century theatre troupe. While Nell’s tittle-tattle air limits her introspection, Exit the Actress offers a playful recreation of a woman whose spirited optimism helped her survive a tumultuous age.

C.W. Gortner

|

18th century

|

PALACE OF JUSTICE Susanne Alleyn, Minotaur, 2010, $25.99/C$29.99, hb, 320pp, 9780312379896 October 1793, Paris: Marie Antoinette is on her way to the guillotine, and police investigator Aristide Ravel realizes that a headless body found by the Palais-Égalité (that was and is the PalaisRoyal, across from the Louvre), is only one of many beheaded corpses being deposited around the city.

A freelance decapitator is at work, “barbarity, ruining any chance of credibility we might have,” according to Ravel’s powerful protector Georges Jacques Danton, a primary architect of the Republique Française. Ravel is also grappling with the impending political trial of his closest childhood friend, an idealistic bourgeois politician whose life is at risk as radical governmental factions begin their mob-pleasing, deadly attacks on moderates.

This is a complicated story, bursting with politics and many characters. Author Susanne Alleyn is justly praised for her intricate plotting, and she shows that off to good effect with Palace of Justice, a textbook example of a plot-driven mystery. Alleyn also clearly knows revolutionary Paris, its hunger, hatreds, and hopes; its Jacobins and Girondins; and also its streets, no-longer-used administrative sections, and landmarks. A map would have made those dozens of references more fun for this reader.

The book does include an appreciated glossary, bibliography and historical notes.

Kristen Hannum BLOWN OFF COURSE David Donachie, Allison & Busby, 2010, £19.99, hb, 382 pp, 9780749008277 Blown Off Course is the seventh in David Donachie’s adventures of John Pearce, radical, press-ganged man, and reluctant Navy officer. John has an enemy in Captain Ralph Barclay, who is responsible for his illegal enforcement into naval service. He has a love interest in Ralph’s wife, Emily. He has money troubles because his war prizes are trapped in labyrinthine administrative processes. And he has some compelling missions: to bring Ralph to book for his crimes, release Emily 18th Century

C

E D I TORS’ CH OICE

MADAME TUSSAUD: A Novel of the French Revolution

Michelle Moran, Crown, 2011, $25.00/C$28.95, hb, 464pp, 9780307588654 / Quercus, 2011, £12.99, pb, 432pp, 9781849161374 Everyone knows Madame Tussaud’s; the name conjures photo ops of smiling celebrities standing next to perfect likenesses of themselves in wax. Moran explores the origins of the phenomenon, and in the process sculpts an unlikely heroine.

Tussaud, born Marie Grosholtz, is the daughter of a Swiss émigré who has become housekeeper and more to the kind Dr. Curtius in Paris. Under Curtius’s tutelage, Marie models wax faces with uncanny realism, a talent that, when combined with her keen business sense, allows the two of them to run a successful salon. Curtius’s home is a hotbed of revolutionary personalities: Marat, Robespierre, Danton and more air their ideas about the need for radical change. The mix grows even more unstable when Marie becomes tutor to Princess Elisabeth, the king’s sister, at Versailles.

This allows the novel to explore both sides of the coin: the fatal ignorance of the royal family, painted with infinite sympathy, and the equally devastating rhetoric of the revolutionaries, who find themselves destroyed by the very anarchy they created.

The idea of Marie’s wax tableaux being a news source as important as any newspaper is an intriguing one; Marie must be at the forefront of events so she can keep her wax figures (and the public clamoring to see them) up to date — out goes Marie Antoinette at her toilette, in comes the hulking Danton. Moran’s forte is the ability to show the volatility of the French Revolution, conveying the horror of mob rule and ever-shifting political tides that see men and women at the pinnacle of power one day and dismembered the next, a situation that threatens to sweep away Marie and her entire family. As Marie herself asks, “What are we? Royalists? Revolutionaries?” and there is only one reply, “Survivalists.”

Moran’s latest is an excellent and entertaining novel steeped in the zeitgeist of the period.

Highly recommended.

Bethany Latham from her brutal husband, and obtain freedom for his three friends and fellow press-gangees.

John is in a briny pickle, and a reader starting mid-series might have found it impossible to grasp the situation if the author hadn’t provided plenty of exposition, making it easy to get into the story.

It’s a pity that the awkward prose style gets in the way of the action. Long, rambling sentences, oddly punctuated by colons and dashes, occasionally lose their way: “Charlie and Rufus, debarred from going ashore themselves – they could not just hang about in the dockyard without being attached to a vessel and there had been nowhere else for them to reside.” Characters are often “sat” instead of “sitting”.

In the clumsy love scenes between John and Emily one can only wonder what parts of the heroine tingle when her “extremities” give her sensation, and note that the same organs tingle for John when he shakes hands with his new employer.

But for lovers of a sea-yarn there’s plenty of salty business, both aship and ashore. The “blue-water” adventure in this installment doesn’t start till over halfway through, when John accepts a lucrative commission to sail a cargo of contraband from Gravelines to Sandwich. The author knows his 18th-century sea lore, and it’s on the ocean that the book is strongest.

Lucienne Boyce

THE PIRATE’S BASTARD Laura S. Wharton, Second Wind, 2010, $11.95, pb, 168pp, 9781935171201 This short mid-18th century novel is awash in seafaring legal and piratical, secrets, courtship, blackmail and colonial history of North Carolina and the Caribbean. It tells the story of the orphaned son of the “gentleman” pirate Stede Bonnet and his French mistress, both dead before Edward remembers either. He is raised by a kindly man of the cloth, but that does not keep the young man from being tormented by his peers as a child.

When he decides to escape his heritage with an immigration to the fledgling community of Brunswick, Carolina, it comes back to haunt him in the initial marriage refusal of the lovely Sarah, and the blackmail attempts of Ignatius Pell, boatswain to Edward’s father, who wants to return to old haunts to dig for treasure. But Sarah relents and accompanies Edward, now a captain of his own trading ship, on a quest to return to his past and meet the family he left behind on Barbados.

Although Pell is only out for the treasure, he proves an able seaman and witness to the pirate father’s life and motives.

While rife with incident and knowledgeable about shipbuilding and other details of colonial life, The Pirate’s Bastard suffers from too much “telling” HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Reviews | 31

and too little showing of motivation of characters that don’t quite come to life. The conflicts and momentum are blunted; the dialogue is wooden and sometimes anachronistic, as are details like mention of Christmas trees and pot-bellied stoves.

And the story suffers from a much-needed line edit for repeated words.

Eileen Charbonneau

|

19th century

|

DEATH AND THE RUNNING PATTERER Robin Adair, Berkley Prime Crime, 2010, $15.00/ C$18.50, pb, 322pp, 9780425237038 Nicodemus Dunne, formerly a Bow Street Runner, or policeman, is now a good-behavior convict in Sydney, Australia, making his living as a running patterer: he recites news items and advertisements to those who can pay for the service. In 1828, his audience runs the gamut from illiterate soldiers guarding the convict-filled colony to rich immigrants and investors. His status in the community is unusual, since he’s not a completely free man, yet he’s not one of the “Exclusives” who willingly came to settle in this new untamed land. However, his job allows him access to every level of society, which is handy when it comes to investigating a series of murders.

Men with connections to King George IV’s 57th regiment are being violently slain, with the killer leaving mysterious clues. Police superintendent Francis de Rossi brings Dunne into the case with the hope that Dunne’s ability to circulate unnoticed among the locals, along with his previous police experience, will help solve the puzzle and stop the body count.

A cast of colorful and suspect characters flows through this fast-paced adventure. Many customs of the time are explained — such as the use of cannabis twigs to prevent bedbugs — as are dozens of word origins. At times the wordplay digressions are forced and distracting, but overall they provide good context for Adair’s descriptions of life in early 19th-century Australia. His characters have the making of a good investigative team, able to work through numerous plot twists while demonstrating their human failings.

Adair has set up a strong foundation for a series involving Dunne and his cohorts, and he’s also foreshadowed plenty of situations of crime and intrigue which can presumably be tackled in future volumes.

Helene Williams WITHIN MY HEART Tamera Alexander, Bethany House, 2010, $14.99, pb, 384pp, 9780764203916 Rachel Boyd, a widow with two sons, is trying to make a success of her late husband’s dream of a ranch in Colorado’s high country in the 1870s.

Rand Brookston, the town’s physician, is in love with her. The two are sympathetic characters, as 32 | Reviews | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

are the dying shopkeep and his wife, who provide a model of married love and faith. Although this is an inspirational romance, author Alexander doesn’t beat her readers over the head with religion. Faith is rather part of the story, as necessary as time and place in its telling.

For better or worse, Alexander gives her rural town setting and its people such a nostalgic luster that it feels a bit like a Thomas Kinkade painting. Her writing can be clichéd – “gnarled hand,” “reverent distance,” and “patiently waiting” just in the first paragraph – and her hero is impossibly gallant, her heroine stubbornly blind.

Even so, the last quarter of this novel offers an undeniable emotional pull (technically a threehanky emotional pull), providing, as the Romance Writers of America stipulates, an “emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending.”

Kristen Hannum DANGEROUS TO KNOW Tasha Alexander, Minotaur, 2010, $24.99/ C$28.99, hb, 306pp, 9780312383794 In her latest book, set in Normandy, France in the late 1800s, Tasha Alexander has placed her previously successful heroine, Lady Emily, in another mystery requiring her sharp wit and observant eye. Returning from her honeymoon and a near brush with death in Constantinople, Emily convalesces at her mother-in-law’s comfortable estate. Her calm is shattered as she discovers a brutally murdered woman’s body in the woods.

With the help of her husband Colin and an intriguing thief named Sebastian, she follows a path of clues leading to the woman’s identity: the daughter of a high-born French aristocratic family committed to an insane asylum. While there, the daughter had given birth to an illegitimate child who was spirited away and may even be dead.

And so the many clues unravel. Lady Emily persists in her search to find the perpetrator of this hideous crime, following the trail to the medieval city of Rouen and a crumbling chateau in the country. Hearing cries of a child in distress, she becomes increasingly disturbed. This may or may not be the ghost of the murdered child. When the doctor who had treated the murdered woman in the asylum is found dead, and the body of the child’s father is found hidden behind a wall in a cottage by the sea, Emily is forced to match wits with a brilliant killer who conducts scientific shock experiments on the living. Only her courage and keen instincts can help her escape becoming his next victim.

The author succeeds in bringing the late 19thcentury society of English émigrés in France to light. Although authentic in historical detail, Ms. Alexander adds freshness to the dialogue and description as she leads the reader deftly through twists and turns. This was a very entertaining novel.

Liz Allenby JANE AND THE MADNESS OF LORD BYRON: Being a Jane Austen Mystery Stephanie Barron, Bantam, 2010, $15.00/

C$17.00, pb, 332pp, 9780553386707 Jane Austen is getting old. In Barron’s tenth mystery featuring the author of Pride and Prejudice as amateur sleuth, Miss Austen is almost 40, too old to find a husband. Traveling with her newly widowed brother to Brighton, she feels particularly dowdy – black is not her best color. Mourners are conspicuous among the fashionable at the Regency vacation spot; and Jane’s presence is soon noted.

When a young woman she recently rescued from Lord Byron’s clutches is found dead, Jane is called upon to find the killer.

Lord Byron is a womanizer. His behavior is execrable. But Jane, stunned by the man’s charisma, doesn‘t think he‘s capable of murder. With the help of influential friends and clever manipulation of contacts, Jane tracks down the real murderer, a man with a very ugly motive.

Jane’s maturity is an asset when moving among the rich and corrupt; her observations are both revealing and wise. Look for the same sly wit.

Readers may miss the optimism and hope of the younger Jane – she says she‘s “on the shelf ” – but age has not dulled her eye for attractive men. There could still be romance in her future.

For those who never tire of Jane Austen in all her permutations, this is an excellent series. For others, Barron has written two fine historical novels, both standalones, A Flaw in the Blood (2009), and The White Garden (2008). Readers will enjoy both and hope for more.

Jeanne Greene MAY 1812 M.M. Bennetts, Dragon International Independent Arts, 2009, £13.99, pb, 581pp, 9781907386015 This novel is set in 1812 against the backdrop of fear and conspiracy that are rife in England and Europe, and are a consequence of the Napoleonic Wars. The Earl of Myddelton, the rakish central character, is one of the élite code breakers trying to crack the Grand Chiffre, and so prevent loss of men on the battlefields. The assassination of the Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, in May 1812 ensures that Myddelton is sent to France on a secret mission. This complicates his tangled personal life, which includes his recent marriage of convenience to Jane Heron, a family friend, who is far from charmed by his reputation or by the man himself.

Bennetts’s novel is crammed full of action and factual details and clearly demonstrates a passion for the period she is writing about. Personally, I found the scenes involving the work on the deciphering of the code the most intriguing. The story is a long one, over five hundred pages, and the narrative lurches from crisis to crisis but ends on an optimistic note. It has all the ingredients that may appeal to readers interested in this period.

Myfanwy Cook OF HONEST FAME M. M. Bennetts, Dragon International Independent Arts, 2010, £11.99 (pb) £15.99 (hb), 400pp, 9781907386237 (pb), 9781907386244 (hb) Set during the Napoleonic Wars, this story 19th Century

concerns the secretive Boy Tirrell, a talented child with a phenomenal memory, who is employed by Lord Castlereagh as an espionage agent. After escaping from an attic prison in Paris, Boy returns to England where he is brutally attacked by one John Brown, who is systematically killing English agents.

The Marquis Dunphail of Abriachan, a Jacobite, rescues the boy and returns him to London. From Boy’s reports, Castlereagh suspects that the French Secret Service is behind the attacks and is regularly receiving information from an informant. He orders Captain George Shuster and Thomas Jesuadon to find the traitors and stop Brown.

Castlereagh sends Shuster to investigate Dunphail, and while in Edinburgh he is captivated

by Ailie, Dunphail’s relative. Castlereagh blackmails Dunphail into educating and introducing Boy into polite society. While he is being taught to ride, shoot and gamble, Shuster’s and Jesuadon’s enquiries lead them to suspect George Waley, Lord Wilmot’s lover, who visits France frequently.

Wilmot’s abused wife appeals to Jesuadon for help and he falls in love with her as he takes her to his aunt’s home for her own safety, and acquires a personal and a professional reason for denouncing Wilmot.

After finding evidence of Wilmot’s guilt, Boy disappears, intent on trailing Bonaparte’s Grande Armée as it pushes towards Russia, leaving dead and dying French troops in its wake.

Boy returns to report to Castlereagh, but is intercepted and wounded by Brown. Boy is nursed back to health after revealing his findings, but with his own secret kept safe.

I enjoyed this but would have appreciated a glossary of slang.

Janet Williamson SETTLEMENT Ann Birch, Rendezvous, 2010, $22.95/ C$22.95/£19.50, pb, 328pp, 9781926607047 Settlement tells the story of Anne Jameson, an English writer who comes to Toronto in 1836 to reunite with her estranged husband, the Attorney General. He wants his wife to lend him respectability, and she wants material for her latest book as well as money to support her family. A love match it is not. But Anne finds a kindred spirit in Sam Jarvis. Depending on whom you ask, Sam is a murderer or a charmer; a murderer for having bested a foe in a duel and a charmer for dressing well, living well (beyond his means, in fact) and being appealing to women.

The book alternates between Anne’s and Sam’s perspectives. Sam is attracted to Anne, but married.

Anne is unhappily married and friends with Sam’s wife. Lest this sound too much like a soap opera, Birch paints a fascinating picture of Toronto and other parts of Canada in the early 19th century.

As Anne arrives in winter, I felt the cold as much as she did, but she’s an adventurous sort and goes sleigh riding and scandalizes the other housewives by expressing opinions at dinner parties. Sam is 19th Century

the Governor’s liaison to the Indians, and Birch provides a history lesson, but not in a preachy way, of Indian-Canadian relations. An Indian acquaintance of Sam’s falls into alcoholism after being swindled by a local shopkeeper. Anne is all for boycotting the shop and while Sam agrees with her in principle, he is reluctant to rock the boat and all too aware of his own debts to the man. Each disappoints the other while struggling with their attraction. The cold eventually thaws both literally and metaphorically, and Sam and Anne achieve détente.

Birch not only brings 19th-century Canada to life (were it possible to time travel, I would go there) but its characters as well. Gossipy women, pompous politicians, and a flawed hero and heroine are vividly described. Settlement is a first novel; I await the second.

Ellen Keith TRADES OF THE FLESH Faye L. Booth, Forge, 2011, $14.99, pb, 304pp, 9780765327840 / Macmillan New Writing, 2009, £6.99/C$9.99, pb, 293pp, 9780230743410 Lydia Ketch has been blessed with extraordinary beauty, and cursed by the circumstances of her birth. Born poor, Lydia assumes responsibility for her intelligent and innocent younger sister when their mother dies. Opportunities are few, and Lydia chooses what she believes to be the easiest to tolerate: working as a prostitute in a brothel. The madam is willing to allow Lydia’s sister to live in the brothel and earn her keep as a maid, and the working conditions are superior to plying the trade on the streets.

Lydia’s beauty attracts a number of clients, among them a young man named Henry Shadwell.

Henry is a surgeon, but his hobby is taking nude photographs of women for the underground papers. Henry sees potential in Lydia and invites her to model for him, and their relationship becomes something beyond prostitute and client.

As they begin to trust each other, Henry reveals a darker secret: he often procures corpses for medical experimentation and surgical training.

It’s not as tawdry as it sounds. Though Booth isn’t afraid to delve into the dark underbelly of Victorian society, she’s not doing it to be sensationalist or titillating, but to describe the grim reality of life for a young woman of little means left to fend for herself. This isn’t an uplifting book, but it’s interesting, and Booth’s exploration of the relationship between two outsiders is fascinating to read.

Nanette Donohue THE FORBIDDEN ROSE Joanna Bourne, Berkley Sensation, 2010, $7.99, pb, 400pp, 9780425235614 Joanna Bourne’s knowledge of the characters and events of the French Revolution are well-grounded, making The Forbidden Rose nicely authentic. The story is set a few years before the Spymaster’s Lady and My Lord and Spymaster. Not unlike the Scarlet Pimpernel, Marguerite de Fleurignac has

been running a secret network helping endangered aristocrats escape to Britain. With Robespierre at the height of his power and her organization suddenly compromised, she is now in real danger.

As the story opens, Marguerite’s country home has been set ablaze deliberately and she barely escapes unharmed.

Fans of the author already know William Doyle, but here we meet the English spy in the role of an itinerant book peddler. He has crossed the Channel to find Marguerite de Fleurignac’s father and, finding her instead, offers to help her reach Paris. There are multiple plot lines to follow, and the identity of story’s villain is no surprise to the reader.

Ms. Bourke uses the well-worn device of false identities to frame her story, which allows the aristocratic Marguerite some license in her behavior as the English governess Maggie Duncan.

In his disguise as Guillaume LeBreton, Doyle’s false identity provides him little true protection heightening the story’s tension. The plot has a sufficient amount of twisting and turning and this being a prequel, we already know how it all ends.

Veronika Pelka THE EMPEROR’S BODY Peter Brooks, Norton, 2011, $23.95/ C$30.00/£19.99, hb, 288pp, 9780393079586 Even in his lonely tomb in far away St. Helena, Napoleon and the empire he created played a critical role in French political life in 1840. Bringing the emperor home to rest in honor in Les Invalides is the story that Peter Brooks presents. Three characters occupy center stage in a fascinating tale of monarchy, revolution, and personal quests for love and peace of mind. The enigmatic Stendhal (Henri Beyle), the beautiful Amelia Curial, and the impressionable diplomat Philippe de RohanChabot all become caught up in the political and personal machinations involved in returning the fallen emperor to his capital. All three see their lives transformed by their decisions on the voyage from St. Helena. France is also a central character as Peter Brooks clearly demonstrates his awareness of the complicated life of society under LouisPhilippe. It is a pleasure to encounter a novelist that captures so vividly the essence of the time period of which he/she writes.

John R. Vallely INDIA BLACK: A Madam of Espionage Mystery Carol K. Carr, Berkley Prime Crime, 2011, $14.00, hb, 296pp, 978042538660 Madam India Black spends most of her time keeping her prostitutes from spending too lavishly to satisfy her upper-end British customers and keeping at bay a young, do-gooder minister who would like all of India’s girls or “bints” to convert to Christianity. But Reverend Calthorp fails to realize India’s girls make triple or more than they would as cleaners, governesses or shop assistants.

India’s narrative voice is full of raucous humor that will delight the reader throughout the entire novel.

HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Reviews | 33

That feistiness is about to be tested, however, when one of the customers dies after his usual night of titillating behavior dressed up in female lacy dresses with an extra zesty device. Knowing this death could finish her lucrative business, India plans to have the dead “Bowser” secretly spirited away to a different scene, a shady plot tough to carry out undetected in London’s seedier quarter in 1876. But everything goes awry from this point forward, as it turns out that Bowser was really a War Office representative carrying very secret papers in his case which seem to have disappeared.

The race is on to recover those sensitive documents; higher powers determine that India is just the person for the task. In the wrong hands, those papers most certainly could cause an international war involving Russia, England and Turkey. The stakes and pressure are high, and the novel now becomes a thriller as India and French, a British spy, infiltrate the Russian embassy and hit other storms all the way to and along the English Channel. Murder and mayhem abound as the stakes get higher and those attempting the same goal rush to the finish line. India Black is one very funny, spicy, and smart sleuth who hopefully will appear again in another delightful espionage mystery.

Viviane Crystal THE UNION QUILTERS Jennifer Chiaverini, Dutton, 2011, $24.95, hb, 352pp, 9780525952039.

The Union Quilters, set in Water’s Ford, Pennsylvania in 1862 and continuing through the Civil War, is the latest in bestselling author Chiaverini’s Elm Creek Quilts series. The men of Water’s Ford answer President Lincoln’s call and report for service for the Union cause, and while the women are proud and supportive of their men, they are also apprehensive about what the future holds. They meet once a week to share the letters received from the front lines and support each other when it seems as if all hope is lost. Readers are able to get the men’s perspective of the war as well through their powerful letters relaying the atrocities of their experiences. The Elm Creek Valley’s quilting circle is propelled into action to help their loved ones, and they work together to form a lucrative business to help raise funds for the troops and veterans.

There are four strong central characters, each with unique circumstances. Dorothea Granger is the core strength of the group whose husband takes their beloved Dove in the Window quilt with him to war. Anneke Bergstrom’s husband holds to his beliefs in nonviolence and chooses not to serve, and his choice drives Anneke to prove to the town that they are indeed loyal to the Union.

Her sister-in-law, Gerda Bergstrom, proves to be a powerful voice in the war effort. Constance Wright is a beacon of comfort to her husband, Abel, who is repeatedly refused by the Army because of his skin color.

The Union Quilters unfolds at a leisurely pace and is a gentle read that is sure to please fans of the 34 | Reviews | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

series and make some new ones. The most appealing aspect of the book is seeing the community come together in tough social and political times.

Troy Reed A WOMAN OF CONSEQUENCE Anna Dean, Allison & Busby, 2011, £19.99, 383pp, hb, 2010 9780749008192 Impoverished spinster Dido Kent is back for a third case in this entertaining series. She has now had to give up her comfortable cottage due to lack of family funds and is living with her clergyman brother and his less-than-welcoming wife. While visiting local ruin Madderstone Abbey in company with some friends, young Penelope Lambe falls from the steps and is knocked unconscious. Before succumbing, everybody hears her say that she had seen somebody – surely this must be a sighting of the Grey Nun, the ghost who haunts the abbey in proper “Gothick” fashion. When a skeleton is found at the bottom of a pond drained for landscaping, the plot thickens and Dido must turn sleuth again.

This series can run for many volumes if they are all as entertaining as the first three. Think of a delicious mixture of Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer and a good example of a typical historical mystery and you have a description of this book. Dido tells her viewpoint on events through her letters to her sister, and the rest is told in the third person which works admirably well, giving the reader the best of both worlds. There is a good teasing plot involving ghosts, old sins casting some long shadows, the identity of the skeleton and the romantic entanglements of various people, including Dido herself. As somebody who reads quite a few novels set in this period, I was impressed by the ambience, which reveals itself in small details, as well as the plot and the overall tone of the book, immersing the reader effectively in 1805. If you are looking for a quality historical crime series to get stuck into, then you have just found it.

Rachel A Hyde HOW TO MARRY A DUKE Vicky Dreiling, Forever, 2011, $7.99, pb, 432pp, 9780446565370 The Bachelor meets the ton in Dreiling’s sparkling debut. Tristan, Duke of Shelbourne is the marriage mart’s most eligible man, and the ladies of the ton have resorted to silly tricks to catch his eye. When Tristan accidentally steps on Tessa Mansfield’s fan at a crowded ball, he thinks she’s yet another silly miss trying to capture his attention, but she’s independently wealthy and has no desire to marry. Tessa does, however, enjoy making matches for others, and she agrees to help Tristan find the woman of his dreams. Her methods are unorthodox for the era — she invites twenty-four young women to participate in a group courtship, and the Duke eliminates the ladies who are not right for him at the end of each stage. Just like The Bachelor, there’s plenty of backstabbing and flirting, but unlike The Bachelor, the creator of the scene finds herself falling for the man at the center of it all.

The story is a bit far-fetched — it’s hard to imagine the upwardly mobile ladies of the Regency beau monde cooperating with Tessa’s plan — but the charming dialogue and likable characters make it work. Fans of Regencies with a dash of humor will appreciate Dreiling’s fresh take on the genre.

Nanette Donohue THE NEWGATE JIG Ann Featherstone, John Murray, 2010, £17.99, hb, 280pp, 9781848542037 “There is nothing more dreadful, surely, than seeing one’s own father hung.” But that’s just what young Barney Kevill does. Afterwards, he vows revenge on the people who he believes set his father up, but in the meantime it is vital he avoids the sinister Nasty Man whilst gathering the evidence he needs.

Bob Chapman is unaware of these events and the terrible toll they will take on his life and livelihood.

He is a small time entertainer along with his two dogs, Brutus and Nero. His childhood has been ravaged by grinding poverty and sorrow, but with his dogs and his theatre friends he has found a safe niche. But then it all goes awry with the arrival of the Nasty Man and the dark and awful secrets he hides.

Fans of Sarah Waters will immediately be attracted to this latest offering from Ann Featherstone with her sordid and melancholy depiction of Victorian London life. This is not a London full of diamond geezers, but a place rife with poverty, perversion and peril. Bob Chapman is the good and true heart of the novel, but even he is not immune to sorrow and is dogged by an aching loneliness only alleviated by the bond he shares with his beloved dogs. The Newgate Jig is a dark novel with little in the way of hope offered in the closing pages. Beautifully written, highly literate but terribly sad.

Sara Wilson MAJOR LORD DAVID Sherry Lynn Ferguson, Avalon, 2010, $23.95, hb, 185pp, 9780803477865 Napoleon is exiled to Elba, which means Major Lord David Trent, second son of the Duke of Braughton, can return to England. But the homecoming contains a drawback: his father has selected a bride for him. To David’s surprise, the beautiful lady he is attracted to at a costume ball turns out to be the girl his father chose, a childhood acquaintance, Wilhelmina (Billie) Caswell. Billie has secretly admired David for years, but she doesn’t want him on forced terms. She leaves for her London season with their proposed engagement unresolved. Then Napoleon escapes from Elba, forcing David to hurry to Belgium to rejoin his regiment. Will he survive Waterloo and return to win Billie’s hand?

David and Billie are likeable characters, and Ferguson does a good job giving a sense of period through expressions and dialogue. However, a few modernisms slip in now and then, such as “a block away” describing a nearby location in a city. And I 19th Century

found the now-it’s-on, now-it’s-off again attraction between the protagonists a bit forced. But the positives outweigh those minor points. Traditional Regency fans will love it.

B.J. Sedlock TRUE SOLDIER GENTLEMEN Adrian Goldsworthy, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2011, £12.99, hb, 364pp, 9780297860358 (hb) / 9780297860365 (export trade pb) This book is to be the first in a series following a group of young British officers through the Peninsular War to Waterloo.

The prologue is vivid and violent, as would-be artist William Hanley escapes the May massacres in Madrid in 1808 and returns home to take up his commission in the 106th Grenadiers, where his fellow officers include the raffish Billy Pringle, the “gentleman volunteer” Hamish Williams, and one Lieutenant Wickham, who has strayed in from the pages of Pride and Prejudice.

The action then seems to stall. We are introduced to a multitude of subsidiary characters and historical figures, and get to know almost everyone’s backstory. Viewpoint and locations shift wildly. The details of drill, kit and training are meticulous – the author clearly knows and loves his subject – but the amount of detail tends to bog down plot development.

Finally, our heroes are deployed to Portugal and the action takes off with a proper tale of derringdo as they battle the French and encounter the ruthless Russian, Count Denilov, and Maria, a feisty Portuguese courtesan. Love interest is also provided in the shape of Jane MacAndrews, their CO’s daughter.

The slow start was a great shame and the shifts in viewpoint and location hampered the main thrust of the story. Of our heroes, the devout, maladroit Williams was the most unusual and appealing. The presence of Wickham I found a distraction. I must admit I prefer Jane Austen’s characters to remain within the confines of the original novels.

Mary Seeley AN UNCOMMON BEQUEST Emily Harland, Hale, 2010, £18.99, hb, 222pp, 9780709090083 Set in Regency England, the story follows the ups and downs of Sophie Garnet, a poor relation, due to her father’s debts, to members of the minor aristocracy. She survives as a paid travelling companion to Lady Mary Croscombe. On the death of her uncle, she is summoned to attend the reading of his will at the family home of Lowell Hall, near Cheltenham, where she discovers that she has been left the entire contents of her uncle’s library. Whilst there she is reacquainted with Jonathan Garnett, a distant cousin, and now heir to the estate.

The usual misinformation, misunderstandings, etc, follow in quick succession, as one expects in a Regency novel, and the reader can never be in doubt as to the final outcome. I found the language used somewhat too stylised and repetitive which slowed 19th Century

up the story and the characterisation is totally predictable. The social historical background followed the well-trodden path of the 19th-century debutante and, again, there are no surprises.

I find these books reasonably acceptable for very light holiday reading or to pass away the hours on a long haul flight, and this one is no exception.

Marilyn Sherlock WORLD’S GREATEST SLEUTH! A Holmes on the Range Mystery Steve Hockensmith, Minotaur, 2011, $24.99, hb, 336pp, 9780312379438 It’s the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and the Holmes on the Range cowboy detective team of Gustav (“Old Red”) and Otto (“Big Red”) Amlingmeyer are on the job. Does life get any better than this? Called upon by their editor to make spectacles of themselves (along with international competition) in a very public scavenger hunt to bestow the title of The World’s Greatest Sleuth, a murder is soon committed. The boys are up and running. Well, fumbling, much of the time, if truth be told, as train travel, big cities, and even the electric lights of the “White City” are as foreign as the feminine heart of Diana Corvus, this time teamed with her foster father and in competition with our boys.

As the contest continues without the death of its organizer even being acknowledged as anything but an unfortunate accident, the brothers keep amassing clues and bearded men who follow them all over the Columbian Exhibition. When the competitors decide to team up, the final breathless confrontation is all the spectacle an audience (and reader) might desire from these fish-out-of water turned heroes.

Moving from the increasingly hackneyed contest into the thick of the investigation was a good idea of both writer and detectives. So was the brotherly affection demonstrated during Gustav’s black moment. A second possible female in the boys’ orbit (journalist Lucille Larson) is a welcome addition, but the heart of Diana remains stubbornly elusive.

Eileen Charbonneau WHEN BEAUTY TAMED THE BEAST Eloisa James, Avon, 2011, $7.99, pb, 384pp, 9780062021274 / To be pub by Piatkus in Sept.

2011, £7.99, pb, 9780749956967 Linnet Berry Thrynne is lovely, enchanting – and ruined. Her innocent flirtation with a charming but fickle duke has turned into the scandal of the season, and the gossipmongers are spreading rumors that Linnet is expecting the duke’s bastard.

What’s an innocent beauty to do?

Linnet’s scheming aunt comes up with a plan: send Linnet to Wales, where Piers Yelverton, Earl of Marchand, is looking for a wife. Except Piers isn’t really looking for a wife – he has no desire to marry and is content with his medical practice.

His father, however, wants an heir to the family dukedom. A tragic childhood accident may have left Piers without the ability to father an heir, so

a duke’s bastard might be just the thing. Piers isn’t happy to see Linnet, but Linnet is determined to melt Piers’s heart with her charm and beauty.

James still has the irritating tendency to interject contemporary phrases into the story, ripping this reader right out of the moment, and Linnet can be a little too perfect for words sometimes. This is an entertaining, intelligent love story of the prettygirl-meets-damaged-hero variety, and fans of loveand-laughter Regencies are bound to enjoy it.

Nanette Donohue THE DUKE’S AGENT Rebecca Jenkins, Quercus/Trafalgar Square, 2010, £6.99/$12.95, pb, 296pp, 9781847247889 Wounded in the Peninsular War, army officer Raif Jarrett returns to England in 1811 to recuperate. From his relative the Duke of Penrith, Raif obtains the position of the Duke’s Agent and is sent to the village of Woolbridge in Durham.

Raif is tasked with holding an audit on the Duke’s estates in the region after the recent death of his local steward. Raif discovers dilapidated properties and corruption that point to a powerful magistrate.

When a village girl is found murdered near Raif ’s temporary residence, the magistrate uses his influence to turn all suspicion on the Duke’s Agent.

Raif now must clear his name, solve the murder and stop the corruption.

Told in omniscient point of view, the characters are realistic and compelling in their physical descriptions and quirks. Village life is portrayed in all its grit, with local customs and superstitions of the early 19th-century. Raif is an interesting character with secrets of his own, and there’s a hint of romance with a village lady. I highly recommend this novel.

Diane Scott Lewis THE EVOLUTION OF INANIMATE OBJECTS Harry Karlinsky, Insomniac Press, 2010, $16.95/ C$19.95, pb, 231pp, 9781897415313 The premise of this delightfully imaginative book is worthy of A.S. Byatt: a psychiatrist comes across the name “Thomas Darwin” while researching the history of Canadian asylums of the 19th century, and wonders if, by chance, the documentation refers to a relative of the great Charles Darwin.

Further investigation reveals that indeed, Thomas Darwin was the heretofore mostly-unknown eleventh son of the famous English naturalist; the book chronicles Thomas’s brief life, and collects all extant documents by or about him. Of central importance are the young Darwin’s writings about natural selection as it pertains to inanimate objects, specifically silverware. Thomas is particularly interested in the evolution of the pastry fork, and one of the essays documents his scientific efforts at proving that it and other artifacts evolved along the lines of his father’s famously controversial precepts.

A young man of sensitive disposition, the 21-yearold Thomas leaves England for Canada, where the last records of him are of his admission and treatment at the asylum.

HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Reviews | 35

Before readers rush off to the Dictionary of National Biography to see if Thomas Darwin existed, let me reassure you that no, he didn’t.

Karlinsky openly admits that his tale is purely imaginative, although some of his documentation is based on historical materials about the Darwin family. His fictional contributions are in keeping with Victorian style and substance, providing both authentic context as well as some sly parodying of the mores and culture of the time. The book is a quick, entertaining read for fans of 19th century history, and a fun, manageable introduction to the writing style of the thinkers of Victorian England.

Helene Williams TEXAS STANDOFF Elmer Kelton, St. Martin’s, 2010, $24.99/C$29.99, hb, 288pp, 9780765325792 Andy Pickard and Logan Daggett are two Texas Rangers sent to investigate a series of killings and cattle thefts in Central Texas. Two of the biggest cattlemen families, the Teals and the McIntoshes, have been enemies since the American Civil War, when both family patriarchs fought for opposing sides. The ranchers are being blamed for cattle rustling that has been occurring over a period of months. To complicate the problem, the town is controlled by a group of men called the “regulators,” former vigilantes who originally kept the law in the community, but have grown to include influential community leaders, and, at times, crossed over the legal line.

This is the ninth and final book in the Texas Ranger series by Elmer Kelton. The author passed away in 2009. A native Texan, he was well-known and respected for his novels on early Texas life.

Each book in this series can stand alone, because Mr. Kelton introduces new protagonists and storylines to his series. The novels are well-written, with fascinating Western characters. Mr. Kelton’s background and knowledge of the history of Texas means the stories are well-researched. One of the greatest and most gifted of Western writers, his presence in the genre will be sadly missed. I highly recommend this novel to all readers of Western novels.

Jeff Westerhoff UNDER THE POPPY Kathe Koja, Small Beer Press, 2010, $24.00/ C$24.20, hb, 360pp, 9781931520706 A book that’s all show and no tell, Kathe Koja’s Under the Poppy is a weird whirl of lewd theatrical romps, flashbacks to orphaned childhoods, and masterful shifting from one damaged character’s perspective to another. The book’s plot, which comes into focus with oh-so-much effort on the part of the reader, comes down to a love story: the brothel’s owner, Decca, is in love with Rupert, who loves her brother Istvan, a puppeteer. These three and the supporting cast of vividly drawn characters – most notably stout-hearted, clever Lucy, one of many whores, and kindly, Chopin-playing Jonathan, whose tongue was cut out long ago – each take their turn in the spotlight. Syncopated, 36 | Reviews | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

sophisticated language adds to the book’s demands, as do Istvan’s puppets, as they engage in unnatural acts in the brothel.

Koja, author of literary horror and young adult novels, calls this book her version of historical fiction. Hmmm. The book may well be a sepiatoned tour de force, hand-tinted with S&M, about the ultimately comedic nature of love and reality, about the scrabble for meaning from the thin margins of a society (as Istvan says to Lucy, “We are so much alike, you and I … Both of us vendors of the art of the moment, the impermanent pleasure, the will-o’-the-wisp that lifts a man from the prison of time, and for just that moment sets him free-”), but it is hardly a historical novel, in which the historical setting is the crucial literary element.

There may be laudanum and hired barouches in Under the Poppy, but its world is the brothel, not an identifiable 1800s Europe.

Kristen Hannum THE INVASION YEAR Dewey Lambdin, Thomas Dunne, 2011, $25.99/ C$29.99, hb, 368pp, 9780312551858 Captain Alan Lewrie sets sail for the seventeenth time as part of Britain’s war against Napoleon. Lewrie is a stunning contrast to the stoic Hornblower of historical fiction’s past. He is a less than perfect father, an adventurous seeker of female companionship, and a man continually looking out for promotion and financial security.

That said, Lewrie is not a naval Flashman, for he is both a skilled seaman and a bold combat officer.

This mixture of the noble hero and the profane “man on the make” is a major part of the success of what promises to be a lengthy series.

The invasion year of the title is 1803, but Lewrie first grapples with a slave revolt against France in Haiti and an exacting escort detail for a home-bound convoy. One comes to expect, even anticipate, the unexpected with this officer, and the reader will enjoy experiencing it with an awards ceremony featuring a George III who is more than a bit confused regarding Captain Lewrie. The now socially prominent officer returns to work charged with testing an innovative weapon of war—the torpedo. Lewrie leads a small Channel force against French forces being assembled for the feared invasion. The naval action is dramatic, and Lewrie’s powers of leadership and command prove themselves yet again.

John R. Vallely THE RECKLESS BRIDE Stephanie Laurens, Avon, 2010, $7.99/C$10.99, pb, 441pp, 9780061795190 / Piatkus, 2010, £7.99, pb, 464pp, 9780349400051 The Reckless Bride completes the Black Cobra Quartet. In 1822, four members of a special British military outfit in India set out for a rendezvous in England, each carrying a letter identifying the leader of the Cult of the Black Cobra, an enemy of the British government. Only one letter is genuine, the others are decoys. Members and assassins of the Black Cobra Cult follow each man

to intercept and destroy the letters and kill their couriers. Despite their dangerous and hazardous voyages, each man arrives home safely having also encountered a female along the way who embodies his ideal woman. Each book is an erotic as well as adventurous saga.

While the plot in each of the four novels is basically the same, Ms. Laurens has created different details, twists and turns for each one.

While the four men arrive at their destinations at various times, The Reckless Bride pulls the ending together and reveals the surprising identity of the villain.

Audrey Braver TAKE ME HOME Brian Leung, Harper, 2010, $24.99/C$28.99, hb, 293pp, 9780061769078 Young Addie Maine travels alone from Kentucky to Wyoming in the 1880s; she walks, hitches rides on wagons, and hops the train from Cheyenne to Rock Springs to meet her brother Tommy. Their parents are dead, and Addie’s best hope of making her way in the world is to team up with Tommy, who is trying to homestead just outside the mining camp of Dire.

The land is unworkable, and Tommy ends up taking a job at the coal mine. Here, white men compete with Chinese laborers for the few jobs, all of which are dangerous to both body and soul.

Not one to conform to the usual roles relegated to women, Adele helps Tommy by hunting for meat to sell to the miners. She enlists the assistance of one of the Chinese workers, Wing Lee, who, Addie senses, is not like the other coolies. Their partnership, and growing friendship, is frowned upon and dangerous, and despite their attempts to prove that much more can be achieved through unity than hatred, they suffer through a series of violent events that change the camp forever.

The main narrative is framed by the story of an older, but still feisty, Addie returning to Dire, looking to find some answers about exactly what happened that day the riots broke out in Dire and Rock Springs forty years earlier. She’s also coming back to confront her husband, Muuk, a lugubrious Finn, whom she married after Tommy’s death: she hasn’t spoken to or heard from him since the day she left. Brian Leung captures the haunting landscape, harsh conditions, and abundant racism of late 19th century Wyoming, and he also leaves the reader with the hope that, while amends can never be made for past cruelties, the future may be somewhat brighter.

Helene Williams THE BALLAD OF JOHN CLARE Hugh Lupton, Dedalus, 2010, £9.99/$15.99, pb, 280pp, 9781907650000 Very little is known about the early life of John Clare, the ‘peasant poet’ who was a contemporary of Keats and Shelley. But he was born into the poverty of the life of an agricultural labourer, and his life, filled with disappointment, ended in insanity.

19th Century

Hugh Lupton uses his deep knowledge of traditional English country life, with reference to Clare’s poetry and from what little is known about his early life, to pen a sensitive and lyrical novel.

His style is poetic and, once one falls in with the deliberate archaism of the style, it sweeps one along.

Lupton follows the church and farming calendar of one single year. It begins on Rogation Day 1811 and ends on the same day the following year.

Although the regular cycle of events and customs seem eternal, beneath the surface lies disruption and hardship. The common lands are being enclosed which, as we now know, marked the end of this way of life. Those who already own land— from the landed gentry down to the comfortable yeomen farmers—were able to acquire more, and those who had little or nothing were made poorer, displaced and moved on, many to the new factories: part of the Industrial Revolution that changed England for ever.

This novel has the feel of early Thomas Hardy about it. Despite the harsh weather, hardships and hunger, the depictions of the country life, its festivals and customs, are just a little bit too rosy for me. And although it isn’t all maypoles and harvest suppers (for instance, a gypsy lad is falsely accused of attempted murder) the overall tone is one where the farming poor are noble and the landowners weak and grasping. I’m sure the reality was somewhat more complex.

Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed this engaging novel.

Sally Zigmond DANIEL Henning Mankell (trans. Steven T. Murray), Harvill Secker, 2010 (2000), £12.99, hb, 279pp, 9781843432227 Sweden in the 1870s. Hans Bengler, a dilettante permanent student, decides almost on a whim that he wants to travel to Africa to discover hitherto unclassified insects that will bear his name. And so he goes on a difficult journey to the Kalahari Desert. There he comes upon a young nomadic orphan child, whom he names Daniel. Bengler decides to take him back to Sweden with him, to put him on display along with his insect discoveries.

But as with everything else in his life, Bengler has not really thought out the full implications of what he is doing, and when the narrative switches to Daniel’s perspective, we see just what a dreadful thing Bengler has done by uprooting the young child from everything that is familiar to him, to a harsh and wholly different environment, one that is mostly hostile and at best suspicious towards the “black devil.”

Both as a child and non-westerner, Daniel’s view of life is very different from that of the reader, and Mankell draws out the huge dichotomy between the two. Daniel’s sole aim is to learn how to walk upon the water so that he can return to his home and his parents, believing that they visit him in his dreams and are alive in some ethereal dimension, waiting for him to come home. Bengler hurriedly deposits Daniel with an old farming couple after 19th Century

he commits a sexual indiscretion with a female reporter. It is then that matters come to a head for Daniel and his only friend, the retarded Sanna. It all ends, as Mankell’s novel often do, rather bleakly.

But this is good historical fiction, immersed in the mores and times of late 19th-century Swedish society.

Doug Kemp REBELLION James McGee, HarperCollins, 2011, £14.99, hb, 529pp, 9780007320240 In October 1812, the Russian winter closes in on Napoleon and his army as they reach the outskirts of Moscow. Supplies cannot reach them.

Back in France, food is also in short supply, and with the poverty‑stricken country almost bankrupt, the Emperor’s reputation is rapidly diminishing.

Across the Channel, England waits and prepares to defeat Napoleon, whilst in London Matthew Hawkwood, a ruthless and dangerous ex-soldier, is seconded to a department of the Home Office. His superiors believe him to be the ideal man for such a hazardous mission. In Paris the British have an undercover agent whose daring plan relies entirely on the expertise of Hawkwood.

The plan is to spread false information that the Emperor has been killed in Russia and then stage a coup d’état in Paris, taking over the military, the

C

gendarmerie and offices of state, but the plan is put at risk by drunkards and double-crossing agents.

The story is thoroughly researched and historically accurate and will have a huge appeal to everyone who enjoys the Napoleonic period.

Jane E. Hill MORE THAN WORDS Judith Miller, Bethany House, 2010, $14.99, pb, 361pp, 9780764206436 The second volume of Daughters of Amana is set in 1885. Gretchen Kohler’s family is assigned to run an Amana Colony town’s general store, a difficult task since the death of her mother.

Gretchen must also keep an eye on her younger brother and their often senile grandmother. To escape, she secretly keeps a journal, and writes poetry and stories. When a visiting outsider salesman praises her writing, Gretchen can’t resist basking in his approval. But this raises jealousy in her potential suitor, Conrad, the town barber.

When the salesman submits a story Gretchen wrote about the colony to a magazine without her permission, Amana’s ruling elders are shocked. Is Gretchen’s writing career over even as it begins?

Fans of inspirational “bonnet” novels will like this story. Instead of the usual Amish setting, it provides an alternative: an Iowa communal living colony. The romance is sweet, and Gretchen’s pull

E D I TORS’ CH OICE

DAKOTA, OR WHAT’S A HEAVEN FOR

Brenda K. Marshall, North Dakota Institute for Regional Studies, 2010, $24.95, pb, 474pp, 9780911042726 This dense, splendid novel, set in the Dakota Territory in the 1870s and ‘80s, rests on the shoulders of two extraordinary women. Frances, well-bred, educated, burning with intelligence and frustrated ambitions, marries a man to stay close to his sister, her real love. They all move to a farm outside Fargo when the Dakota Territory is still wild and Indian, and from this vantage she witnesses and works in the enormous breaking of this land, the Americanization of the high plains, to this day incomplete.

Part of Marshall’s considerable skill is to give equal weight to the land’s transformative influence on Frances. She is a wonderful character, willful and fierce, too clever to be good, but it’s Kirsten Knudsen, child of Norwegian immigrants, whose appearances I waited for.

Kirsten grows up in a sod house, starved and desperate, and on the wave of frontier energy she thrives and triumphs. Her voice is terrific, funny and wise and full of vigor; her sentences blossom out like a wild prairie rose, vining in a dozen directions, studded with bursts of color.

The lives of these two people carried me through the book, but there are other delights.

Marshall presents a picture of frontier politics that makes our current public sphere look pretty dull. She has a huge amount of research to hand, but her craft is to present it entirely in its human terms; I learned a lot without noticing. Her landscapes are riveting: the sweep of the land, the extreme weather, culminating in the description of a terrible blizzard that nobody should read without a cup of hot cocoa in hand. Nice job.

Cecelia Holland HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Reviews | 37

C

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E

THE MISTRESS OF NOTHING

Kate Pullinger, Touchstone, 2011, $24.00, hb, 256pp, 9781439193860 / Serpent’s Tail, 2010, £7.99, pb, 256pp, 9781846687112 Sally Naldrett is lady’s maid to Lady Duff Gordon, who suffers from terrible fits of coughing. Sally and her mistress spend the winter of 1860 on the Isle of Wight, on the doctor’s recommendation. It is not a success, so the following year they sail for the southern tip of Africa, seeking drier air for Lady Duff Gordon’s lungs.

Sally had never expected to see so much of the world; prior to this, her biggest expeditions were to London where she would visit the British Museum to indulge her fascination with Egyptian antiquities.

When Lady Duff Gordon makes the wrenching decision to leave her family once more in an attempt to improve her health, this time for Egypt, Sally is delighted. She and Lady Duff Gordon are initially shocked at what they find upon their arrival, and are fairly helpless at obtaining the necessities of life. But once Omar Abu Halaweh is hired as cook, shopper, and arranger of all sorts of things, the situation improves.

Sally and Lady Duff Gordon thrive in Egypt, throwing off English proprieties, learning the language, and adopting the dress of the natives. The two women become companions more than mistress and servant. But when Sally, lulled by the change in their relationship, tries to take more control of her own life, she finds, as the book’s title says, that she is not even mistress of that.

The author has embellished the truth of Lady Duff Gordon’s trip to Egypt to create a rich, compelling novel. The story is told by Sally, who tells readers “I am a plain-speaking woman and I’ll tell my story plainly.” Plainly, perhaps, but also so engagingly that I felt a great loss when I reached the end of the book.

Trudi E. Jacobson between wanting to write and the colony’s rules makes good conflict. A subplot about a nearby camp of Gypsies might be one too many, however, as there are passages where Gretchen careens from one crisis to another. Overall, though, the communal living twist produces an above-average Christian prairie novel.

B.J. Sedlock MASQUERADE Nancy Moser, Bethany House, 2010, $14.99, pb, 368pp, 9780764207518 In 1886, Charlotte Gleason leaves her comfortable home in England and sets sail for New York to marry one of America’s wealthiest heirs – a man she has never met. When her doubts gain the upper hand, she swaps identities with her maid, Dora. She wants a chance at “real life,” even if it means giving up financial security; however, what begins as the whim of a rich girl becomes a test of survival beyond her blackest nightmare.

For Dora, it’s the chance of a lifetime. She is thrust into a fairytale amid ball gowns and lavish mansions, yet she is tormented by the possibility of discovery – and humiliation. And what of the man who believes she is indeed his intended? Is this what her heart truly longs for?

The idea that we all have a unique purpose is the theme of Masquerade, as it is for all Nancy Moser’s novels. Finding that purpose is the challenge, which sees rich and spoiled Charlotte confronting 38 | Reviews | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

C

setbacks for the first time in her young life as she experiences, firsthand, the poverty and hardships of New York’s immigrants. Dora is her maid and friend, but, nevertheless, the poor girl lacks confidence in her own gifts.

This inspirational novel upholds the notion of friendship, bridging the gap between the lavish lifestyle of the New York City rich and life in the slums. Charlotte’s circumstances force her to make moral decisions she’d never previously have made, resulting in a page-turner as we follow the ups and downs and ultimate transformation of Moser’s two engaging heroines.

Beverley Eikli MISTER DARCY’S SECRET Jane Odiwe, Sourcebooks, 2010, $14.99/£9.99, pb, 349pp, 9781402245275 Continuing a novel like Pride and Prejudice is a daring enterprise, and Jane Odiwe comes to it steeped in Austen, in all her renditions; Odiwe’s sentences often glint with reflections of the great Jane, and she has a full command of all the connections of the new Mr. and Mrs. Darcy as they begin married life at Pemberley.

All seems wonderful between them, and Lizzie renews her affectionate friendship with Darcy’s sister Georgiana, whose shy and sheltered demeanor does not keep her from yet another frisky amorous adventure. And Lizzie accidentally runs into disquieting evidence about Darcy himself raising questions even as his ardent lovemaking seals her more perfectly to him.

By chance, Elizabeth’s racy younger sister Lydia,

WHEN WE WERE STRANGERS

E D I TORS’ CH OICE

Pamela Schoenewaldt, Harper, 2010, $14.99, pb, 328pp, 9780062003997 When Irma Vitale leaves her Italian mountain village with her sewing box and a dream to become a dressmaker in the late 19th century, she never doubts it will come true. America is the land of opportunity, everyone says. But she’s greeted with prejudice, poverty and the violence of the streets. Irma struggles in a sweatshop while searching for the brother who came before her. Unable to find him, she stitches together a surrogate family from the immigrants she meets in Chicago – an Irish maid, an Alsatian dressmaker, a Polish ragman – and slowly achieves her dream, making dresses for the elite of the city. When an act of brutality one night threatens to unravel all that Irma has worked for, an Italian midwife teaches her that the same patient hands which sew for the wealthy can also doctor the poor in the immigrant tenements.

With the midwife’s encouragement, Irma applies to a nursing school in San Francisco. It would mean leaving her Chicago “family,” but it would also mean pursuing a new dream. In America, the opportunities aren’t always what you expect.

This book is beautifully wrought and rich in detail. I had trouble putting it down. The author lived for many years in Italy, and her love of the country and its people are evident.

Small sensations that remind Irma of home – an accent, the tang of crusty bread, the sunset wreathing the mountains – are written with a sure hand. Irma’s character is very real, full of doubt, fear, and finally hesitant satisfaction as she finds her place in the world. This novel is an excellent slice of the immigrant life, from decision to journey, settlement to achievement. Highly recommended.

Jessica Brockmole 19th Century

now Mrs. Wickham, is staying nearby, and other friends from the seminal novel of all romance literature make their appearance, along with the balls and the landscapes and the sharp dialog. Fans of the original will enjoy especially the send-ups of Lady Catherine and Caroline Bingley. I wanted more detail of the clothes and settings, and the little mystery throughout rather fizzles at the end, but all in all an enjoyable read.

Cecelia Holland THE SEA CAPTAIN’S WIFE Beth Powning, Plume, 2011, $15, pb, 384pp, 9780452296954 / Vintage Canada, 2010, $22.00, pb, 384pp, 9780307397119 Azuba Galloway, the daughter of a ship-builder in Nova Scotia, has always wanted to go to sea.

When she falls in love with sea captain Nathaniel Bradstock, they plan to spend their married life together aboard his ship, Traveller. After their marriage and the birth of a daughter, Nathaniel changes his mind and Azuba remains at home.

She chafes at being left behind and never settles into the usual pursuits of a sea captain’s wife, but continues to yearn for travel and adventure. After she commits an indiscretion, Nathaniel changes his mind and decides to let her and their young daughter accompany him, albeit reluctantly. At this time in the mid-19th century, many seamen believed it was bad luck to have a woman on a voyage.

At first, Azuba is thrilled to have achieved her dream and be on board her husband’s ship. But she soon learns that life at sea sometimes brings with it unimaginable hardships. They face storms, pirates, illness, starvation, fatal accidents, and potential mutinies. At times, Azuba cannot believe she has put her child in such a perilous situation, and longs to be home safe. But the hardships are tempered by her joy in the exciting ports of call, periods of luxurious living in European cities, the joy of being together as a family and having their daughter grow up knowing her father.

Full of adventure, romance and historical details of life on board a ship during the 19th century, this was a beautifully written, engrossing story that I highly recommend. A glossary of nautical terms is included for landlubbers.

Jane Kessler THE LADY MOST LIKELY… Julia Quinn, Eloisa James and Connie Brockway, Avon, 2010, $7.99/C$10.99, pb, 384pp, 9780061247828 Subtitled “A Novel in Three Parts,” The Lady Most Likely is a triplet of novellas written by three of the best-loved writers of historical romance.

Each story interweaves a background tale of matchmaking by the sister of the Earl of Briarly.

Lady Carolyn Finchley is convinced that her horse-mad brother will never find a suitable wife, so she plans a lavish house party at her country house to solve the problem. She invites the most eligible ladies of her acquaintance, as well as some attractive gentlemen to act as escorts. Never let never be said that Lady Carolyn did not have the 19th Century

C

A MAN IN UNIFORM

E D I TORS’ CH OICE

Kate Taylor, Crown, 2011, $25.00, hb, 336pp, 9780307885197 / Doubleday Canada, 2010, C$32.95, hb, 432pp, 9780385667999 Maître Dubon, a civil lawyer in Paris, is visited by the mysterious Madame Duhamel, who says she is looking out for the interests of a friend, the wife of Captain Dreyfus. It has been two years since Dreyfus had been tried for treason in 1894, convicted, and deported, but Madame Duhamel and the family believe that he is innocent. Dubon is puzzled as to why he has been approached. A detective seems to be called for, or at least a criminal lawyer. True, as a junior lawyer, Dubon had represented Communards following the FrancoPrussian War, but that was long in the past.

Madame Duhamel and her request for assistance turn Dubon’s life inside out. He finds himself less inclined to visit his mistress, an integral part of his daily routine, and after he manages to infiltrate the office from which the evidence against Dreyfus was produced, he even shows up at his own office far less often. His wife feels that any work Dubon undertakes should reflect well in the eyes of society, so he experiences tensions at home as well.

Taylor, who wrote the superb Mme Proust and the Kosher Kitchen, with its own story set during the time of the Dreyfus affair, transports readers into late 19th-century Paris, allowing us to see the machinations behind Dreyfus’s denunciation. Two of Mme. Dubon’s brothers are in the Army, and they help to provide a context for the case, as does Maître Dubon’s work in an office responsible for spying. My only quibble is the lack of a historical note at the end of the book: I would have loved to know what was real and what was created. Regardless, I recommend this book very highly.

Trudi E. Jacobson best intentions at heart for all of her single friends!

With three single gentlemen and three single ladies at hand, each of the authors tells the story of a specific pair and how they find love. But who gets together with whom? As in all romance novels, there is a happy ending—actually, three happy endings.

The idea of three related stories in the same book is a fun concept. The individual stories stand alone, and yet are support for one another in the full story arc. Surprisingly, the voice of each storyteller is distinctive and draws the reader in without being jarring. I recommend it and hope there will be similar anthologies planned for the future.

Monica Spence MAKING WAVES Lorna Seilstad, Revell, 2010, $14.99, pb, 363pp, 9780800734459 When Marguerite Westing discovers that her wealthy family will be spending the summer of 1895 at Lake Manawa, Iowa, she is thrilled, believing it will be the perfect opportunity to rid herself of her unwanted suitor, Roger Gordon.

Once there, however, she stumbles on the fact that her father has allowed his gambling habit to ruin the family finances and a marriage to the boring, controlling Roger may be all that will protect her mother and younger brother. Heartsick over her circumstances, Marguerite’s emotions are tossed

about further when she meets the handsome Trip Andrews, a boating instructor who agrees to teach her brother (and in actuality, Marguerite) how to sail. Will she be able to go through with a loveless marriage or will Marguerite follow her heart (and her God)? When is it all right to think of yourself first?

Making Waves is a delightful Christian novel that doesn’t hit you over the head with its messages.

Marguerite is a spunky heroine whose loyalty to her family is boundless, but finds compromise a hard pill to swallow. Roger is as despicable as Trip is good, and the story’s ultimate outcome is easy to predict. However, the setting of wealthy families on a lake in Iowa is unique, and Marguerite’s love of sailing gives the story a fun dimension. I did find a few of the twists a bit convenient and one of them (the issue with Trip’s mother) decidedly odd, but overall this was a fun novel that makes me sure I will be seeking out more in the series as they are released. A great debut novel from an author bringing a new voice to the Christian historical market.

Tamela McCann THE LOVEDAY VENDETTA Kate Tremayne, Headline, 2010, £19.99, hb, 342pp, 9780755347681 From start to finish The Loveday Vendetta, one in a series concerning the fictitious 18th and early HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Reviews | 39

19th century exploits of the Loveday family, is a fast-paced adventure. The action takes place in Cornwall after Alexander dramatically escapes from his cruel stepfather Carforth. He is adopted

by Adam Loveday and renamed Bryn. Growing up, Bryn comes into the circuit of the often fraught Loveday family fortunes. The adult Bryn discovers his true identity and pursues the truth about his mother’s murder and the recovery of his estate.

Bryn’s is a journey fraught with danger, twists and turnings, dubious characters and many surprises en route. A well-formed, courageous and upright hero, he is also fascinated by, yet not in thrall to, Adam’s niece, the beautiful, troubled and headstrong Rowena Loveday.

The various strands in this saga all engage and are all are ultimately resolved. There is, for instance, Lady Alys, who has operated as a spy in France and whom Adam Loveday saves from disaster and for whom he designs an aviary to house her collection of exotic birds. Equally engaging is the storyline concerning Rowena, who has lived in the shadow of her mother’s tarnished reputation.

After her father takes his own life, Rowena finds herself in situations which make her vulnerable as she quests to reconcile her personal demons and achieve happiness. She has various suitors, but will she and Bryn overcome obstacles to find happiness together? Equally interesting are the peripheral characters in this novel, such as the formidable aged Aunt Elspeth and an assorted gallery of relatives young and old.

The Loveday Vendetta possesses a strong sense of period. In Hardyesque style, Tremayne embraces the country life of the times. Her narrative drive is reminiscent of that of Daphne du Maurier’s Cornwall novels. It is indeed a tale for admirers of well-written historical sagas.

Carol McGrath CLARA AND MR. TIFFANY Susan Vreeland, Random House, 2011, $26.00/ C$30.00, hb, 405pp, 9781400068166 This book was inspired by the recent revelation that employee Clara Driscoll was responsible for the design and creation of many of the spectacular windows and lamps once attributed to Louis Comfort Tiffany. Vreeland uses this discovery to create a fascinating portrait of the New York art world at the turn of the 20th century.

Tiffany employed women in his studio, though only unmarried ones, because he believed that they were more color-sensitive than men.

Newly-widowed Clara asks for her old job back, and Tiffany puts her in charge of the women’s department. She struggles with Tiffany’s business managers, who want her department to sacrifice art in order to cut expenses. She develops an almost love-hate relationship with Tiffany, resentful that he doesn’t give her credit for her creations, yet experiencing jealousy when he discusses art and design with other employees besides herself. Clara also battles rancor from the male employees, who claim that women take work away from them. She labors for years in obscurity because the artistic 40 | Reviews | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

part of the job satisfies her, but then Clara receives an offer of marriage. Accepting would mean having to quit Tiffany’s.

Art lovers, cultural historians, and feminists will be drawn in by Vreeland’s world-creation. Glass selection techniques, boarding house etiquette, Bohemianism, the struggle between art and commerce, and bicycling as a feminist statement are just some of the details Vreeland brings to life.

But characterizations take something of a back seat to the history. I admired Clara’s independence in a difficult era for women, but felt I really didn’t get to know her. Her character is more of a vehicle to tell the true story of how Tiffany’s masterpieces were created. Tiffany and most minor characters remain enigmatic. Yet this book is still well worth reading for the fascinating cultural history.

B.J. Sedlock DARCY AND FITZWILLIAM: A Tale of a Gentleman and an Officer Karen V. Wasylowski, Sourcebooks Landmark, 2011, $14.99/£9.99, pb, 496pp, 9781402245947 Pride and Prejudice has given contemporary writers of historical fiction an endless source of ideas. Many of these novels of possibilities are very good and honor the original classic, while others are wastebasket material. Karen V. Wasylowski has turned out one of the former, a charming and believable rendering that offers the reader a look at the men in Pride and Prejudice.

Fitzwilliam Darcy, true to the Austen image, is prideful and arrogant, yet exceedingly charming, a handsome gentleman. His cousin Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam, two years older, is described in the novel as barrel-chested, slightly rougher looking in an unkempt uniform, a decorated officer.

Darcy marries Elizabeth and reconciles with his Aunt Catherine as Elizabeth and he wait the arrival of their child. Darcy is obsessed with keeping her safe as the reality of his own mother’s death during childbirth haunts him with increasing stress.

Colonel Fitzwilliam refuses to settle down, and his life of promiscuity and love of alcohol continue to alarm Aunt Catherine. The Colonel is envious of the life that his younger cousin lives and dreams of a wife and family. One day he becomes bedazzled

by Amanda, an American, who has a young son.

Desperately in love, he is undone when his future plans with her appear hopeless.

More than not you will chuckle and giggle reading the tête-à-tête that takes place among the characters. Elizabeth has a contemporary tongue for a 19th-century wife and during many tempestuous tiffs, boldly stands up to Darcy. Fitzwilliam and Darcy are a comic pair as well, always trying to outmaneuver the other. The cagey Aunt Catherine is embraceable as she shows clever wisdom in her astute handling of all situations. Austen would no doubt welcome Darcy and Fitzwilliam, an amusing and witty interpretation.

Wisteria Leigh THE WRONG MISS RICHMOND Sandra Wilson, Hale, 2010, £18.99, hb, 224pp,

9780709090007 Henry Richmond is a crusty patriarch widower with two daughters by separate marriages. He has brought the family to Bath to take the renowned water cures for his gout and to finalise the arranged marriage of the younger of his offspring, Jane.

She is not averse to the match, but has a willful adventurous streak. Coming into contact with one of the new-fangled balloons, Jane recklessly accepts the attentions of its dashing pilot, William Grenfell, risking her standing in society and therefore her advantageous marriage. Older sister Christina, sensible, bookish, and unmoved by the intricacies of the society circuit, desperately attempts to moderate her sisters’ impulsiveness, but finds her own dormant heart stirring when she meets Jane’s betrothed Robert.

This might sound very formulaic, but in fact there are some intriguing little kinks in the narrative. It might be a bit too sweet for some palates – there’s not a lot of conflict and certainly not many surprises in the plot, but this rather misses the point. Much of the enjoyment derived from this sub-genre of historical romance comes from our inward rooting for true love to triumph over the excessively formal and exacting social mores of the period. Perhaps, in our overly permissive society, we secretly long not only for romance, but also for proper rules to kick against!

Anyway, I found this is a beautifully written and charming little tale. It totally captured my imagination.

Martin Bourne HEAD IN THE CLOUDS Karen Witemeyer, Bethany House, 2010, $14.99, pb, 352pp, 9780764207563 In the 1880s, Adelaide Proctor works as a teacher in a rural Texas town. Having lost her mother as an infant and lost her father recently, Adelaide wants another family in the worst way.

When she doesn’t think God is listening, she takes her future into her own hands and makes a mess of it.

Alone and without her teaching job, Adelaide finds a position as a governess. Five-year-old Isabella has been mute since the sudden deaths of her mother and father. Her guardian, Gideon Westcott, is a British man starting up a Texas sheep ranch.

Gideon and Adelaide are immediately attracted to one another, and their relationship develops without the frustrating miscommunication that happens in many romances. The conflict in this story comes from Isabella’s evil uncle, Reginald Petchey. Petchey is after Isabella’s inheritance and will do anything to acquire it.

Head in the Clouds is a fun Christian romance.

Adelaide, Gideon and Isabella are appealing characters. Their relationships are realistic and heart-warming, and their devotion to God is solid but not over-written.

Elizabeth Caulfield Felt

|

20th century

|

19th Century

C

PANORAMA

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E

H. G. Adler (trans. Peter Filkins), Random House, 2010, $26.00/C$30.00, 480pp, hb, 9781400068517 Originally published in German in 1968, and now finally (and finely) translated into English, Panorama is Prague author H. G. Adler’s stunning “novel saturated with autobiography” of growing up a Bohemian Jew at the close of the Great War through the end of World War II. In the first of ten segments, young protagonist Josef Kramer goes to the panorama with his grandmother. There, in a darkened room the viewers sit close to a backlit box, eyes tight to the viewing holes; scenes of history both ancient and modern pass by, beautiful to see but impossible to grasp.

This attempt to describe the world going by is the structure of the following segments: we see Josef at various intervals, from an awkward birthday party to boarding school to the Langenstein work camp (standing in for Adler’s experiences in Theresienstadt and Auschwitz), to a life, and decisions, briefly glimpsed after his release. Each segment, rather than being a chapter, is more like a scene from a short story, with few connections between each of Josef ’s experiences. The characters, settings, activities, and politics change, becoming progressively darker as the book proceeds; Josef is the one constant, reporting and thinking about, not engaging in, the action.

Only at the very end of the book do we begin to get a deeper sense of Josef, as he finally begins to open up. What is clear throughout is the pain of the familiar and the loved being wrenched away—a country (Bohemia and Czechoslovakia), a family, a society, an entire way of life.

Adler’s stream-of-consciousness style is adeptly translated by Peter Filkins, and the reader is easily swept into the flow of Josef ’s thoughts. Panorama is no Joycean maelstrom of words and not-words, but instead a beautiful, accessible, story of a young man’s life.

Helene Williams HE LOVER OF DEATH Boris Akunin, Orion, 2010, £16.99 hb, 279pp, 9780297860631 In the latest Erast Fandorin mystery, the resourceful orphan, Senka, a sort of Muscovite Artful Dodger, has his life changed irrevocably when he falls in love with Death, mistress of The Prince, the most feared bandit in Khitrovka, and so named because every man who loves her goes to an early grave. He joins The Prince’s gang to get close to her, but finds himself involved in a series of gruesome murders and a hunt for a legendary treasure. Enter Fandorin and Masa to unravel the mysteries and save Senka from a grisly end.

This is my first Fandorin mystery, and I could have done with a potted biography of the great investigator and his Oriental sidekick to help with the many allusions to their earlier cases. This is a minor quibble, however, and hardly affected my huge enjoyment of this romp through the underworld of early 20th-century Moscow which mixes elements of Conan Doyle, Ian Fleming and Quentin Tarantino into a flaming Molotov cocktail of romance, violence and black comedy.

Tremendous fun, but not recommended as bedtime reading as it will have you tossing and turning all night wondering how the ingenious Fandorin will recover the treasure, save the ingénue Senka from The Prince and his own heart from the ultimate femme fatale. Oh, and he has to win an 20th Century

automobile race from Moscow to Paris as well.

Sarah Bower THE LAST BROTHER Nathacha Appanah, Graywolf Press, 2011, pp.

164, pb $15.00, 9781555975753 After a mudslide kills his two brothers, nineyear-old Raj and his parents leave the cane fields of Mauritius for the city of Beau-Bassin, and the family settles into their new life, Raj going to school, his mother tending house, and his father with a new job as a prison guard. But when Raj begins to spy on his father at work to learn more about the man who regularly beats him and his mother, he meets a prisoner weeping by the fence, a young Jewish orphan named David. Raj and David become great friends, and one day, after a cyclone destroys the prison’s fence, David escapes and goes home with Raj, where Raj’s mother welcomes David and helps to hide the boy from her husband.

But Raj’s father suspects, so Raj and David escape to the wilderness where they endure test after test of their friendship and their survival.Based on the real story of 1500 European Jews refused entry to Palestine in 1939 and interred in a prison in Mauritius until 1945, Appanah poignantly brings a forgotten bit of WWII history alive through the character of young David. The story is told from the perspective of Raj, now seventy, but still haunted with guilt and grief over the loss of

David. Raj’s memories of his brothers’ loyalty, David’s sorrowful singing in Yiddish, his father’s rage, and his mother’s gentle touch in trying to heal Raj after one of his father’s beatings are written so expressively that the reader is bound to be drawn in just by the beauty of the writing. This is a very sad story, but told by Raj as an older man who’s had a good life after all, it offers a glimmer of hope that people can survive even the worst of tragedies.

Patricia O’Sullivan WHILE WE’RE FAR APART Lynn Austin, Bethany House, 2010, $14.99, pb, 408pp, 978764204975 Austin has once again penned a delightful, heartwarming, yet wrenching story about World War II and the life-altering effects war causes. In 1943 New York City, grieving for his deceased wife, Eddie Shaffer announces to his family that he has enlisted and will soon be departing for war. His children, Peter and Esther, are heartbroken and unreasonably angry with plain Penny Goodrich, who agrees to watch the children while he’s gone.

Penny has long harbored a secret crush on Eddie and hopes that by watching his kids, he’ll fall in love with her. Nothing could be farther from the truth as Penny deals with her demanding parents, the resentful Shaffer children, and learning to assert her own independence. When Peter stops talking, and Esther begins hanging out in the apartment of her neighbor, Jacob Mendel—a scary old Jewish man—Penny fears she will never make headway.

Austin not only describes the difficulties facing women workers and the transformations that took place on the home front, but the religious prejudices and racism of the times. Readers not only see Penny’s viewpoint, but also gain insight and perspective from Jacob Mendel, a Jew who finds hatred and prejudice everywhere he goes.

Readers will be drawn immediately into this eloquent story that explores the beliefs, struggles, and dearest wishes of both Christians and Jews.

The pages turn quickly as each character finds out what it means to be in the midst of war, how to rely each other, and how to overcome religious differences and unfounded hatred.

Rebecca Cochran THE VAULTS Toby Ball, St. Martin’s, 2010, $24.99/C$29.99, hb, 320pp, 9780312580735 If The Vaults were a movie, it would be a film noir in black-and-white, with all the men wearing fedoras and the women with pageboy hairstyles and seamed stockings and everyone smoking. Set in an unnamed American city in the 1930s, the Vaults of the title refer to the collective memory of the city.

Arthur Puskis, archivist for the past 27 years, is the keeper of the files that document every court record. The certainty of this world is questioned when he discovers a duplicate file, which would be an impossibility. Puskis feels compelled to probe further and he, reporter Frank Frings, and private investigator Ethan Poole find themselves in parallel investigations of missing children, institutionalized HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Reviews | 41

women, and convicted criminals who never went to jail. Their questions draw the ire of the corrupt mayor and his henchmen, and Puskis fears the truth will be erased when the records from the Vaults are transcribed into a primitive computer.

The Vaults is a compelling read for the atmosphere it creates; the plot actually becomes minor compared to the dystopian world evoked.

Ball creates a community of haves and have-nots, where the principled men sometimes have feet of clay and the unscrupulous men are truly evil. The women are no doormats, but they are secondary characters at best. This feels like quite the man’s world — an observation rather than a criticism. I can’t help but picture the book in cinematic form with Robert Mitchum and Richard Widmark.

Does that convey the hardboiled nature of this world?

Ellen Keith CHURCHILL’S SECRET AGENT Max and Linda Ciampoli, Berkley, 2010, $9.95/£7.99, pb, 474pp, 9780425229750 This “novel based on the true story” recounts the exploits of Max Ciampoli, who spent much of the war as “Churchill’s secret agent.” An 18-year-old serving with the French Army, he comes to England after the fall of France. He presents himself to the new Prime Minister, whom he first met as a child when Mr. Churchill came to the Cote d’Azur to paint. After a short stay at Churchill’s country home, he is asked to go on a secret mission. What follows is a series of missions directed personally by Churchill which bring the young man into virtually every sphere of the war, from rescuing Jews to acquiring the Enigma machine; from frustrating the Germans’ development of rockets and the atomic bomb to helping Patton’s invasion of North Africa. There is little, it seems, that the young Max would not attempt, and invariably succeed at.

This novel is written in a mostly narrative form in the manner of a memoir. Notwithstanding its billing as based on a true story, one must wonder just how much of this account is actually true. There is the persuasive vagueness as to critical identities of people and places. There are frequent mistakes of fact, such as the smuggling of an Enigma machine during the war which actually occurred before the war, events regarding Joseph Kennedy in London when in fact he had been recalled a year previously, and so on. Although some portions are rather good, overall the novel reads much more like a tall tale than a serious work. Skip this one in favor of any number of books on the subject that either succeeds as straightforward nonfiction or compelling historical fiction.

Ken Kreckel THE GREEN CORN REBELLION William Cunningham, intro. Nigel Anthony Sellars, Univ. of Oklahoma, 2010, $19.95, pb, 236pp, 9780806140575 Rural Oklahoma before 1920: the crop prices are depressed, tenants run most of the farms, and land speculation is rampant. With twenty percent 42 | Reviews | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

interest rate on loans a common occurrence and the banks refusing to lend to farmers who have voted for socialists, what does the future hold? For Jim Tetley, a young farmer barely making ends meet, there is little hope. His brother is better off, but he works in the city, another world. Where Jim is, there is only work and poverty. Work and poverty have worn out his wife, Jeannie. Jim feels bad about lusting for Jeannie’s little sister, Happy. But such is life, or such is life as Jim sees it. Only Mack, his father-in-law, is able to discern better prospects.

The only way out of misery, the only possible way of avoiding the eviction notice, or the draft notice, which will send Jim to fight the rich man’s war against poor German workers, is revolution. It is up to the poor to rise up.

This is the background for The Green Corn Rebellion, a gritty, impassioned novel first published in 1935, based on real events. The author, William Cunningham (1901-67), was a journalist and college teacher who interviewed the people that took part in the night-riding and barn-burning.

He was fascinated by what he found. The rebellion gathered Native Americans, blacks, and white farmers. Although the introduction points out that Cunningham “is unhampered by real events,” this interest in secondary characters breaks up the thrust of the novel, but it does not detract from making it a fascinating depiction of a downtrodden America.

Adelaida Lower THE WRONG BLOOD Manuel de Lope (trans. John Cullen), Chatto & Windus, 2010, £12.99, hb, 288pp, 9780701185565 / Other Press, 2010, $14.95, pb, 304pp, 9781590513095 After reading this book, I found myself agreeing with the blurb on the dust jacket – a rare event.

In essence, it is about the lives of two women from completely different backgrounds, initially brought together as mistress and servant. The author constantly interweaves events from the early years of the Spanish Civil War with the situation some sixty years later. The story is set in the Basque country, close to the town of Hondarribia, on the Bidasoa river estuary, not far from the French border and Biarritz. The river and the ocean are constantly in the background, silent witnesses to the passage of time, soldiers, life and death. Two houses overlook the estuary: the first is still lived in by Maria Antonia, formerly the servant but now the mistress; the other belongs to the doctor, a Quixotic figure who has played a crucial role in the women’s lives and is the only surviving witness to the events that took place in the house opposite.

In her old age Maria Antonia draws comfort from repetitive, humdrum acts, but this routine is interrupted by the arrival of Manuel Goitia, her late mistress’s grandson, who decides to spend a few weeks at the house studying for his notarial exams. His presence is a catalyst that threatens to open doors which have been tightly locked for years.

The prosody of the original language has

been retained in John Cullen’s translation, which captures the mesmerising quality of the author’s descriptions of nature, the bluntness with which he recounts brute violence, and the shattering pain of grief. All this, and the exquisite exploration of memory and old age make this a book that stays with you, inviting you to read it again.

Lucinda Byatt THE GOLDEN PRINCE Rebecca Dean, Broadway, 2010, $14.99/C$16.99, pb, 400pp, 9780767930567 / Harper, 2010, £7.99, pb, 448pp, 9780007315727 A boy of seventeen, driving too fast on an English country road, clips a girl on a bicycle; he drives her home and meets her sisters. Granddaughters of an earl, they recognize the heir to the throne. When they welcome him into their warm, informal world, he ignores protocol and has them call him David.

David was born into an austere environment to parents unsuited for the role. Longing for love, he quickly falls for the youngest sister. To his father the king, a royal marriage is a political act; he will not consent to their marriage. If he cannot marry for love, David vows he will never wed. In this way, we may infer, the man is set upon the path to abdication and, 25 years hence, will become the Duke of Windsor.

Dean’s intimate knowledge of regalia, ceremony, and management of the court is fascinating, but unfortunately, the sisters are not. Their lives unfold as predictably as if they had never met a prince.

Read The Golden Prince for David’s touching story and the backstage view of royal rituals.

Jeanne Greene PACIFIC GLORY P. T. Deutermann, St. Martin’s, 2011, $26.99/ C$29.99, hb, 336pp, 9780312599447 P. T. Deutermann, a retired U.S. Navy officer, offers a memorial to his late father and other American veterans of the 1944 Battle of Leyte Gulf. The action at Leyte Gulf was the last gasp of the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II as it was soundly defeated by a much larger and infinitely more skilled American force. There was only one episode in this struggle where the U.S. Navy was placed in jeopardy, and this engagement saw Japanese battleships and heavy cruisers driven off by an absurdly overmatched group of American warships and aircraft. This relatively unknown drama of Samar is the core of the accounts of the war of a Navy nurse, Glory Hawthorne, and naval officers Marsh Vincent and Mick O’Connor. The Pacific War is unfolded through their eyes as a war-widowed nurse, a ship’s officer, and a fighter pilot endure the stress of war, the heartache of separation, and the sometimes fearful agony of self-discovery.

Those interested in the genre of sea warfare will not be disappointed, as Deutermann has sailed these waters before in two previous naval action novels. Yet this reader can’t help but wonder at the strait jacket sea novelists have imposed on themselves. The overwhelming majority of 20th Century

published works deal with the Royal Navy in the Age of Sail, English buccaneers in the Caribbean, or Americans in World War II. When will the novels arrive that treat the sailors of Napoleon’s fleet, the combatants of Yamamoto’s forces, or the “Jack Tars” from Rome, Spain, the Barbary States, and a host of other ignored naval sagas?

John R. Vallely BEING POLITE TO HITLER Robb Forman Dew, Little, Brown, $24.99/ C$24.99/£18.99, hb, 304pp, 978031688950 Agnes Scofield, a widowed teacher, lives a comfortable, albeit frugal life in Washburn, Ohio in 1953. She reevaluates her life after a health scare and accepts a marriage proposal from a family friend. Her grown children are unhappy, namely because her intended is younger than she is (her daughter used to have a crush on him) and in their minds, she will always be their late father’s wife.

Agnes navigates their hurt feelings with aplomb, and she and Sam divide their time between Maine and Ohio.

Being Polite to Hitler quite subtly and wonderfully evokes small town life in the 1950s and the encroaching suburbs. Agnes and her neighbors still live in the historic downtown while her son Claytor and daughter-in-law Lavinia live in a brand new subdivision outside of town, unhappily and beyond their means. Agnes and her friends and family are the focus of the book, but Dew inserts historical interludes such as the space race with the Soviets in the late 1950s and school desegregation in Little Rock. Although placing the novel in the context of the times, these interludes had the effect of taking me away from Agnes’s story, and I felt as though some character development was sacrificed. Agnes and Lavinia are clearly drawn characters but Sam, Claytor, and Agnes’s other children remained ciphers. Still, with just a few paragraphs, Dew put me in the middle of a stultifying dinner party where too much alcohol causes couples to say things they’ll regret.

Should Dew wish to revisit the Scofield clan in another book, I’d happily pick it up to see if it answered my questions—how was Agnes’s brother Dwight raised as her son; what happened to Claytor and Lavinia’s marriage; what was Agnes’s first marriage like? So Dew has piqued my interest even if she hasn’t entirely satisfied it.

Ellen Keith THE BLINDNESS OF THE HEART Julia Franck, Grove, 2010, $24.95, hb, 416pp, 9780802119674 The story opens with a woman and a child caught in the nightmare of Germany’s defeat. After enduring devastating bombings, the ever-present hunger and the inevitable rapes at the hands of the invading Soviets, she flees westward, only to leave her boy on a railway platform and disappear. What follows is the story leading up to this moment, beginning with a flashback to the mother’s childhood in rural Germany, deeply affected by the First World War and its aftermath. Upon the 20th Century

deaths of her parents, she moves to Berlin with her sister and finds herself in love with a philosophy student. When that relationship ends with his untimely death, she marries an ambitious Nazi engineer. Ultimately a mistake, it is the event which leads to the little boy’s birth.

Many books seek to uplift, some to simply entertain, still others to educate. The Blindness of the Heart possibly succeeds at the latter in its look at ordinary people living through a morally challenging time. An award winning international bestseller, this book is also a dark, brooding look at a woman in extremis, scarred by her lover’s death, two world wars and a disastrous marriage. The writing is introspective, heavily scented with sexuality, dripping with emotional detail and psychological description. Said to have been inspired by the author’s own father’s abandonment by his mother, Ms. Franck sets out to explore a reason for such a tragedy. What results is perhaps cathartic for the author. While insightful in its depiction of life in the Germany of the past, it is a depressing exercise for the reader.

Ken Kreckel HEIDEGGER’S GLASSES Thaisa Frank, Counterpoint, 2010, $25.00, hb, 336pp, 978158243719 4 Toward the end of World War II, a secret operation in Germany called Operation Mail flourishes in an abandoned mine shaft called the Scribe’s Compound. Multilingual persons chosen from the camp queues have been sent to an underground artificial city, which includes rose cobblestones, benches and a mechanical contraption changing the artificial sky from daytime to night displaying constellations present at Hitler’s birth. The Third Reich, having a secret interest in the occult, believes that the dead are often suspended on the astral plane while they await responses to unanswered letters. Hence letters written to concentration camp victims must be answered, and in their native language: “Like answers like.”

The Scribes are an eclectic group administered

by Gerhardt Lodenstein and fed and clothed by Elie Schacten, who shares quarters with him.

Minimal supervision is necessary, as letters to the dead are hardly a threat to the Reich. That is, until a particular letter arrives from philosopher Martin Heidegger to his optometrist, who has been sent to Auschwitz. Heidegger demands his new glasses, which had not yet been delivered.

Goebbels panics because an unanswered letter from a live and famous philosopher could cause very uncomfortable questions, so a special Scribe must be chosen. But the plan devised by Elie will send suspicion through the compound and change everyone’s lives.

Frank’s novel is unique, often surreal, yet unclear regarding the letters. Allegedly written to the dead, the samples throughout the book, very chilling in their naïveté, appear to be written from the “dead” (i.e., Scribes) to reassure their families.

Ambiguities notwithstanding, Heidegger’s Glasses is

a rich, worthwhile read.

Tess Heckel DESTINY AND DESIRE Carlos Fuentes (trans. Edith Grossman), Random House, 2011, $27.00, hb, 432pp, 9781400068807 It is difficult not to be drawn into a novel that begins with the severed head of the protagonist telling his tale. So opens Destiny and Desire with the violent death of Josué Nadal, who then narrates his story from where his head rolls in the surf of the Pacific Ocean. Growing up in unusual circumstances in late 20th-century Mexico City, Josué is looked after by paid caretakers. He forms an early attachment to Jericó, a boy a year older who shields Josué from schoolyard bullies. The two youngsters share a mutual bond as orphans; charismatic Jericó has no last name. The tie of friendship, of something more than friendship is strained in adulthood as the young men’s lives diverge; Josué enters the business world under communications magnate Max Monroy, and Jericó that of politics as an aide to President Carrera. Their destinies, mysteriously directed by lawyer Antonio Sanginés, the provider of the monthly stipends that maintained Josué and Jericó in childhood, rush up to meet them. The cipher of the past is explained; Josué and Jericó’s true relationship to one another and their powerful mentors is revealed.

The central question of the novel, “And what is … destiny?” is answered by the learned Father Filopáter, intellectual mentor to the young protagonists: “It isn’t fate. It is simply disguised will. The final desire.” The unique narrative features the dead and the living; from the grave, Antigua Concepción, the mother of Max Monroy, figures heavily in Josué’s ultimate fate. Mexico City itself, “the great devouring capital city,” is yet another character in this story of betrayal, revenge, and the ties that bind. Carlos Fuentes explores the themes of destiny and desire in a unique, challenging, and ultimately rewarding tale.

Eva Ulett THE JEWEL OF ST PETERSBURG Kate Furnivall, Sphere, 2010, £6.99, pb, 455pp, 9780751543308 / Berkley, 2010, $15.00, pb, 432pp, 9780425234235 A dramatic and exciting opening in the forest sets the political scene for a pre-revolutionary Russia in upheaval as the main character, Valentina, escapes from mysterious armed men only to witness the blowing up of her family home. Her sister Katja is crippled in the explosion. Valentina is a talented pianist, and during her performance for the Tsar, she sees and is attracted to Danish engineer Jens Friis, who later on becomes the love of her life.

Bored with the life of a well-bred daughter paraded on the marriage market, Valentina pleads instead to be allowed to study nursing.

This novel is the prequel to the very successful The Russian Concubine and is destined to be just as popular. Readers who enjoyed that will certainly enjoy this, and fans will be blissfully content with this latest prequel installment The love scenes are HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Reviews | 43

somewhat overdone – how often can a man stare at his lover’s ‘delicate bones’ and the ‘curve of her spine’ etc., but the historical element, particularly the plight of the peasants and factory workers, is well done. The reader gets a powerful and atmospheric insight into the lives of the rich and the poor, and the two are contrasted vividly to demonstrate the reasons for the growing demand for change in Russia. The plot is at times unbelievable, but it is difficult to care as the reader is swept along with the feisty Valentina and her handsome Viking.

Literary merit: well, not the best. Page-turningly compelling: oh yes, most definitely. Very enjoyable.

Ann Northfield SAD STORIES OF THE DEATH OF KINGS Barry Gifford, Seven Stories Press, 2010, $16.95, pb, 201pp, 9781583229224 Gifford has strung together a set of vignettes and moments-in-time about Roy, a kid who lives in Chicago, at various points in Roy’s life – from when he’s about nine to when he’s nineteen, and everything in between. But it’s not chronological; Gifford has thrown the stories up in the air and the reader gets them as they’ve landed, presenting an interesting space-time discontinuum that provides perspective and dissonance, epiphany and revelation. Roy navigates the icy, windy backstreets of Chicago in the 1950s like a modern-day Huck on the river. It’s almost always bleak winter, or end of autumn, or just before the spring—the weather

C

AMAZIR

is a palpable presence, and it’s not particularly friendly.

I think that thoughtful, introspective teenagers would find this book speaks to them; I know as an introspective adult, it really spoke to me. Of course, being from Chicago myself made it an extra special treat, but that’s not a requirement. Gifford’s Roy sees the world with calm and wondering eyes, very nearly innocent, which of course changes as he grows, but he’s very likeable and interesting. He has a weary mother and a pragmatic, wise grandfather, and lots of goofy friends who drag him into questionable activities. But we see Chicago as Roy sees it, with all its harsh city life, public school day angst, and a young man’s dreams, through a filter of curiosity and compassion that helps us read life itself more thoughtfully.

Mary F. Burns THE VILLA TRISTE Lucretia Grindle, Mantle, 2010, £12.99, pb, 546pp, 9780230744776 It is 1943 in Florence and sisters Caterina and Isabella (Issa) Cammaccio are delighted to hear the news that Italy has signed the armistice. Their dreams of peace are soon shattered as Germany becomes an occupying force, the Allies continually bombard the North and the Fascists return to power.

Bands of Partisans, many of them young women, rise up, determined to oust the Fascists and confound the Nazis. Caterina and Issa become

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E

Tom Gamble, Beautiful Books, 2010, £8.99, pb, 535pp, 9781905636976 Harry Summerfield and Jim Wilding first meet by accident in Gibraltar in 1938, neither realising that this chance encounter will shape their lives to an extraordinary extent. The friendship takes them to Morocco, where Harry is given a curious task by a mysterious local man known only as Abrach – he is to write love letters to Jeanne, the young daughter of the French Administrator. During the course of his task he falls in love with Jeanne himself, and it becomes imperative to Abrach’s plans that Jim is removed from the picture. Matters are even further complicated by the love affair and engagement that ensues between Jeanne and Jim. So begins a harrowing tale of betrayal, kidnapping, murder and love, set against the backdrop of the fall of France to Germany and the subsequent chaos that breaks out in Morocco. With action that begins in the labyrinthine passages of Marrakech and continues into the isolated foothills of the Atlas Mountains, danger dogs the steps of Harry all the way, but he remains constant throughout in his independence of spirit and his loyalty to his greatest friends.

Amazir is a beautifully evocative novel, full of the colours, smells, and atmosphere of Morocco.

It is a story with love at its heart – love that changes, shifts, ebbs and flows, but that is all the more real for that. The love of a man for a woman, for a country, for a dear friend, for life itself.

It is also story of revenge and how that revenge can corrupt a true heart, making the victim into the aggressor and destroying him in the process.

Tom Gamble has written a brilliant first novel – the first of many, one hopes.

Sara Wilson 44 | Reviews | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

embroiled in the conflict. With limited weaponry, they have only their determination and courage to carry them forward. It is dangerous work that not only places the sisters in peril but also their family.

Fear of discovery is ever present, as is the shadow of the Villa Triste, where no one who enters ever leaves – alive. In stolen moments, Caterina records her experiences in a small red bound book.

Fast forward to 2006 and Alessandro Pallioti, one of Florence’s most senior policemen, is called to the apartment of Giovanni Trantamento to investigate his brutal murder: shot in the back of the head after being forced to eat salt, a particular punishment reserved for those who betrayed the Partisans. Soon, another identical murder is discovered and Pallioti realises that the war and its repercussions are far from over. Most puzzling perhaps is the question why it took so long for the murderer to act. His discovery of Caterina’s journal provides a vital connection to past events as he embarks on one of the most taxing investigations of his career.

This is an engrossing thriller with believable characters highlighting the role of the unsung heroes, the Partisans. Many twists and turns keep the reader enthralled until the last page.

Ann Oughton THE DANCING YEARS Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, Sphere, 2010, £19.99, hb, 504pp, 9781847441232 Writers of huge family sagas seldom stint on their research. Now on its 33rd fat volume, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles’ Morland Dynasty series is bigger than most, and the fruits of the research show. The Dancing Years begins in 1919. We are in territory familiar from family stories for those of us of a certain age – my maternal grandparents married in August 1919, my grandfather, a 1914 volunteer, began civilian life as a dog biscuit salesman.

Its pages detail arrangements for the Victory Parade and the burial of the Unknown Warrior.

Characters give other characters little lectures on birth control, the problems of ex-servicemen and the need for council houses. The extended Morland family has been thinned out by the war – three are dead, one missing in Russia. But the survivors are fully involved in events. Jack goes into civil aviation, but recession means he has to find work as a motor mechanic; Emma launches herself on the London social scene. Polly takes up fashion design. Violet becomes an intimate of the Prince of Wales.

In America, Cousin Lennie sets up in business making wireless sets. There is a rush of marriages and a mini baby boom. Meanwhile, the problems of returning ex-servicemen lead to tragedy.

After 33 volumes, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles has refined her technique to a nicety, and her readers know they can expect the prose version of Downton Abbey; something to curl up with on a wet Sunday evening. However, some usages grate. Outside the Morland family, no man seems to have a Christian name – surely Emma would think of her late fiancé as John, not Fenniman? And I doubt whether the person selling her a flat near Hyde Park would 20th Century

enthuse over its ‘ample closets.’

Ann Lyon SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE Libby Fischer Hellmann, Allium Press of Chicago, 2010, $24.99, hb, 360pp, 780984067657; $14.99, pb, 9780984067657 Lila Hilliard is devastated when a suspicious accident kills her father and her brother. What she doesn’t expect is that the person who caused the accident is after her as well. After a few close scrapes, she is saved by a man named Dar, who happens to be an old friend of her father’s. Dar, along with Casey Hilliard, was a student activist in the late 1960s, and everyone in their circle of friends shares a secret that someone would like to keep quiet. Lila, unaware of her parents’ past, is shocked, but as Dar explains their strong anti-war beliefs, she learns more about her family than she could have imagined.

The thriller (set in the present day) is enjoyable and often exciting, and the 1960s-set backstory is compelling. Dar, Casey, and the other young activists are passionate about their beliefs, and their passion leads to their downfall and disillusionment.

Lila finds out that much of what she believed about her parents and her family is wrong, and has to reconcile her newfound knowledge of who she is with her grief over the tragic incidents that have claimed the lives of those closest to her. Some of the plot twists are predictable, but overall, this is an exciting book for readers who enjoy an actionpacked thriller mixed with their historical facts.

Nanette Donohue STRANGER HERE BELOW Joyce Hinnefeld, Unbridled, 2010, $24.95/ C$28.95, hb, 288pp, 9781609530044 This is a novel about friendship, motherhood and community. Amazing Grace Jansen, or Maze, was raised in Appalachia by a single mother who struggled with poverty, just as her mother did before her. Mary Elizabeth Cox, daughter of a southern black preacher, has been raised by a mother with severe emotional scars stemming from traumatic events experienced in childhood. When they meet at Berea College in 1961, it seems, at first glance, that the roommates have little in common upon which to build a friendship. But a shared love of the outdoors, a similar work ethic, and Maze’s sheer persistence pays off.

The secondary plot involves Sister Georgia, one of the last Shakers left at the tiny community near Harrodsburg, Kentucky. Before joining the Shakers, Georginea Ward had been a teacher at Berea, but a doomed romance led her down a different path. She takes Maze under her wing at a time when she most needs a guiding hand, and that guidance leads to a surprising outcome.

I enjoyed the how the author used landscape as metaphor, and how she gave voice to her characters, particularly Maze. While I usually enjoy non-linear storytelling, especially in multigenerational stories when it is often an effective method for joining and comparing separate storylines, in this instance, the 20th Century

jumping back and forth threw me off.

Alice Logsdon HARBOUR Paul House, Dragon International Independent Arts, 2009, £11.99, pb, 387pp, 9781907386022 As war breaks out in Europe, and Japanese troops advance towards Hong Kong, Molly Russell, daughter of the wheelchair‑bound Willard, and her Chinese mother are travelling to Nanchang, an important logistical centre for the Chinese Nationalists, when the train they are on is sabotaged. They are forced to walk towards Hong Kong, but coolies have to carry her mother, who is dying of cholera. Upon arrival they are refused entry, but when Willard hears of their plight, he goes to meet them and pays an exorbitant fee to have them allowed in. When informed of a woman’s death, he misunderstands what he was told and his response causes Molly, who in turn misinterprets his action as callousness, to dissociate herself from him. Shortly afterwards, Molly, who can pass for Chinese, is chosen to be the companion to Tung Nien, the beautiful new bride of Chien Liew, a wealthy, elderly Triad leader, who manipulates events from behind the scenes and is secretly dealing with the Japanese invasion forces.

Tung Nien and Molly are invited into the society of the Westerners, who are aware of the approaching invasion but continue their lives

C

in a cultural inertia. One of them falls in love with Tung Nien, and they begin a clandestine relationship whilst the lives of those around them fragment as the Japanese army draws nearer. Molly in turn is in love with Wu Tang, and they both face an uncertain future in the coming conflict.

House interweaves the impact of a changing society in this meticulously‑researched novel, and captures the strengths and flaws of the Chinese and European cultures and characters with immense skill.

Janet Williamson THE HAT Babette Hughes, Sunstone, 2011, $26.95, hb, 188pp, 9780865347847 The murder of a bootlegger occurs in the first few pages of the book. Then, in a flashback, we meet Kate Brady, an 18-year-old girl who has just lost her job at Shapiro’s bakery, taking away her hopes of attending college in the fall. Now jobless in the depths of the Great Depression, she has little hope of escaping her alcoholic mother and her squalid Cleveland neighborhood, until a chance meeting with a rich dreamboat named Ben Gold.

She is so taken with him that she scarcely sees the hints of a darker side – until, that is, after their marriage. Then she begins to notice things, like the hit man constantly at her husband’s side, and the late night disappearances. But she also notices

THE DETROIT ELECTRIC SCHEME

E D I TORS’ CH OICE

D. E. Johnson, Minotaur, 2010, $24.99, hb, 312pp, 9780312644567 Disguised by its uninspiring cover and prosaic title as niche non-fiction, The Detroit Electric Scheme is in reality an action-packed historical mystery propelled forward by intriguing characters, thought-provoking moral conundrums, and a gripping plot. Detroit in 1910 is “vibrant, powerful, and full of optimism.” The automobile industry is in its infancy, and businessmen, inventors, politicians, and union bosses are all jockeying for positions of dominance. Head-cracking is a regular occurrence, but it could just as easily be the police wielding the clubs as the strike-breakers or criminals.

Will Anderson, 22-year-old son of the owner of Detroit Electric, the leading electric automobile manufacturer, is jolted from his drunken haze when he finds the crushed body of his one-time friend, John Cooper, in a hydraulic press in his father’s factory.

The gruesome murder scene is traumatic enough, but it is the realization that he will certainly be the prime suspect that causes Will to panic and flee. Soon he is charged with murder. Desperate to protect those he loves, as well as to avoid spending the rest of his life in jail, Will launches his own investigation.

Will Anderson is as flawed as the city he inhabits, and his stumbling missteps soon lead him into the seamy underworld of Vito Adamo, Detroit’s first crime boss. If he is to survive long enough to prove his innocence, Will must first confront the addictions and regrets that have already imprisoned him in a life of mediocrity.

Johnson is so skilled a writer that the race for supremacy between the manufacturers of electric and gasoline-powered automobiles is every bit as exciting as the chase through the streets of Detroit to find a ruthless killer. This remarkable debut novel will give you a thrilling ride, and leave you wanting more.

Nancy J. Attwell HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Reviews | 45

something, or rather someone else, her husband’s handsome bookkeeper Bobby Keane. What’s more, he notices her.

This is a deceptively simple tale told in a straightforward, spare manner. Although the plot is rather standard, the characterizations are not.

The author is particularly good at drawing the blithe lack of self-awareness of an inexperienced young woman, as well as pointing out the selfcenteredness of youth. Indeed, it is the first awakenings of knowledge of themselves and their actions that drives the budding love affair between Kate and Bobby, which inevitably becomes their undoing. Boardwalk Empire it’s not, but it doesn’t aspire to be. Instead it is a simple romance between star-crossed lovers, one with a predictable, but nevertheless satisfying end.

Ken Kreckel THE SECRET CROWN Chris Kuzneski, Penguin, 2010, £6.99, pb, 469pp, 9780241952122 King Ludwig II of Bavaria was a unique ruler and a solitary figure, choosing to live by night and shun society. Obsessed with the music of Wagner, he spent fortunes on building castles, each one more splendid than the last, sumptuously furnished and decorated with scenes from his favourite composer’s operas. In 1886, fearing that the king’s excesses were leading to bankruptcy, the government had Ludwig declared insane and then removed from power. Shortly afterwards, Ludwig’s body was discovered in a lake together with that of his doctor. Ludwig did not drown, and the mystery of his death remains to the present day.

In present-day Germany, a chance discovery of a secret bunker containing crates of gold bars and the promise of further treasure leads to Jonathon Payne and David Jones being called in to assist in the search. Payne and Jones are former leaders of Marines, Army, Navy, Intelligence, Air Force and Coast Guard or MANIACS, the best of the best, and are ready for action. On investigation, the pair discovers more crates stuffed with documents bearing a crest of a black swan – the personal insignia of Ludwig II. The duo sets out on a quest that leads them to the heart of Ludwig’s secret world, facing death at every turn as rival fortune seekers join the hunt.

This is not a true historical novel. The story of King Ludwig and his passion for Wagner and spending money is a ploy to give two of Kuzneski’s characters another airing. Nevertheless it is a good story if action-packed gun-play is your bag.

Ann Oughton WHISPER ON THE WIND: The Great War Series No. 2 Maureen Lang, Tyndale, 2010, $12.99, pb, 432pp, 9781414324364 Lang’s second novel set during the 1914-18 war (after Look to the East, 2009) provides inspirational romance and adventure. When the Germans invade Belgium in 1914, Isa Lassone gets out safely, but she cannot forget those left behind. She raises the 46 | Reviews | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

money and goes back to rescue Edward, the man she loves, and his mother, Genny – but nothing turns out as she expects.

Edward, who is involved in an underground newspaper, refuses to leave, so Genny and Isa stay on. Life in German-occupied Brussels is grim and, for anyone who challenges German authority, perilous. Edward has lost his faith in God and he denies his feelings for Isa, but she helps him with the newspaper. Then Genny falls in love with a German officer, which inadvertently leads to Isa’s discovery. Found guilty of treason, sentenced to death, Isa turns to God for strength.

In spite of simmering romance and eminent danger, the plot moves slowly until the last chapters.

Readers of inspirational fiction will find examples of courage, morality, and faith throughout, however, and a satisfactory ending.

Jeanne Greene SUSPICIOUS MINDS Mary Larkin, Sphere, 2010, £18.99, hb, 310pp, 9781847443557 Belfast 1960s. Maura Brady thinks she has it all: her gorgeous little son, Danny; her handsome landscape gardener husband, Adam; and a comfortable home. She has almost forgotten that Adam was once engaged to the beautiful and sophisticated Evelyn, who threw him over for a rich, elderly husband. He turned to Maura on the rebound and, when she became pregnant, married her.

Then Maura hears that Evelyn and her wealthy husband are back and their large, neglected garden is being expensively restored – by Adam; a fact that Adam himself has conveniently forgotten to mention. Soon the news is all over the neighbourhood. Who can Maura turn to? The last thing she wants is to be the subject of malicious gossip. Her old sweetheart, Francie, is only too pleased to comfort her, but does Maura really want to re-kindle an old flame? And how far can she trust Adam’s protestations of innocence? As young Danny’s birthday party draws near, the future of Maura and Adam’s marriage is on a knife edge.

Mary Larkin is good at getting across the tangled web of community relationships, where gossip can spread like wildfire and highly-coloured assumptions can, all too easily, be taken as gospel truth. The zeitgeist of the 1960s is nicely caught; it is a world where few people have private telephones and some don’t even have indoor plumbing. On the minus side, there are a number of anachronistic phrases, like ‘in the loop,’ ‘a different ball game,’ ‘don’t give up the day job’ and so on, which broke my suspension of disbelief.

Mary Larkin has been described as ‘Belfast’s answer to Catherine Cookson.’ If this sounds like your sort of book, then I’m sure that you won’t be disappointed.

Elizabeth Hawksley BAKER STREET IRREGULAR Jon Lellenberg, Arkham House, 2010, $39.95, hb, 408pp, 9781552469224

Woody Hazelbaker, a transplanted Kansan, is a lawyer in Depression-era New York City. He combines a love of the works of Arthur Conan Doyle with a flair for working just inside the law as he is given the secret assignment of helping a mobster liquidate his holdings. Woody finds kindred spirits when he is invited to join the Baker Street Irregulars, a group of Sherlock Holmes devotees comprised of writers, newspapermen, and booksellers. His career is aided by a chance meeting at a nightclub with a debutante; taking a fancy to him, she persuades her father to request Woody as his lawyer. Naturally, the debutante and Woody end up married, but his personal life is perhaps the least interesting aspect of the book.

Lellenberg, a Conan Doyle and Baker Street Irregulars historian, adroitly mixes fact and fiction.

Woody rubs shoulders with real-life personages like Franklin Roosevelt, Alexander Woollcott, and Vincent Starrett. The author’s conceit is that Woody and the Irregulars played an influential part in aiding Britain while the U.S. government’s official stance was isolationist; Woody using the skills he honed helping his mobster client and the Irregulars lending their oratorical gifts to the cause.

Lovers of code-cracking, military history with an overlay of Sherlockiana will warm to Woody and his friends. Lellenberg is adept at bringing both pre-war New York City and London during the Blitz to vivid life. Woody may be too good to be true, but doesn’t every wartime story need a hero?

Ellen Keith THE WAKE OF FORGIVENESS Bruce Machart, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010, $26.00, hb, 320pp, 9780151014439 Bruce Machart’s powerful and moving story begins with a woman’s death in childbirth, a common-enough event in Texas in 1895, which will shape the life of the child and harden the heart of the father. Vaclav Skala once knew the meaning of love, but it is not something he will teach Karel, his youngest son. Vaclav’s priorities are clear; so are his weaknesses. A gambler and a drinker, he hitches his sons to the plow and saves his horses for racing. When Karel becomes a superb rider, Vaclev puts the boy atop his own stallion to run against neighboring horse owners. The stakes: land by the acre. Karel wins repeatedly. The Skala holdings grow.

When a wealthy Spaniard with three daughters in need of husbands challenges the Skalas to a race, Vaclav risks everything, including the fate of his three older sons. As the youngest, Karel must win the race to keep the girl he loves. His brothers want Karel to lose and free them from their father.

It would be unfair to reveal the results of the race; suffice it to say that a family, never close, is ripped in half. As an adult, Karel does not relate his bittersweet memories or his feelings of loss to the presence of love in his heart, or to its absence in his life. Only when a crisis forces him to reconnect with his brothers does he open his mind to possibilities of forgiveness and reconciliation.

The author not only knows horses and Texas, 20th Century

he knows how hungry is the human heart. Bruce Machart is an author worth watching. The Wake of Forgiveness is highly recommended.

Jeanne Greene THE STRAY SOD COUNTRY Patrick McCabe, Bloomsbury USA, 2010, $15.00, pb, 352pp, 9781608192748 / Bloomsbury, 2010, £17.99, hb, 352pp, 9781408803790 The Stray Sod Country sounds like a vast wasteland, but nothing is farther from the truth in 1950s Cullymore, Ireland. In this border town with Protestants and Catholics, they decide to get along in spite of it. Society is changing: Television is new and in the news, the Soviets have launched the Sputnik, its sole passenger a mere dog, Laika.

This lonely animal in his goldfish bowl helmet provokes sadness in Golly Murray, the barber’s wife. Sensitivity for the creature makes future sudden animal deaths in the story sadly shocking.

The local priest, Father Hand, vows to put Cullymore on the map with an outstanding Easter play. He also secretly hopes this will also give a black eye to his nemesis, Fr. Patrick Peyton, the “celebrity priest of Hollywood, America.” Gossip, jealousy and pompous social climbers keep things buzzing despite an invisible shadow forming over Cullymore. An omniscient narrator with a mean streak propels the story forward with all-tooknowing details and wicked predictions about the town’s denizens, the ultimate curse being exile to “the stray sod country.” A more tangible evil is James A. Reilly, disgraced schoolteacher, in a hovel with his gun and his pet fox, planning revenge against the unwitting village priest who ruined his life.

As the invisible “puppet master” narrator continues to pull strings behind the villagers’ backs, he takes over most of the novel. McCabe’s story is a zany journey into Irish weirdness at its funniest, saddest and most lively. Despite occasional, sudden leaps into the future and flashbacks pulling readers out of the “now,” the story compels. Is he saying that Time doesn’t matter? That human nature is basically the same across the decades and around the globe? And yet, because there are surprises throughout his bizarre and entertaining novel, perhaps the message is that individuals can change the future.

Tess Heckel ONE TRUE SENTENCE Craig McDonald, Minotaur, 2011, $24.99/ C$29.99, hb, 336pp, 9780312554385 Nihilism beckoned to “the lost generation” of young, dissolute American writers adrift in 1920s Paris. Author McDonald takes that scene and ramps it up. Our hero, Hector Lassiter, a crime writer, along with his faithful sidekick Ernest Hemingway, finds himself tripping over dead prostitutes and literary magazine editors’ corpses so thick on the ground that they were hard for this reader to keep track of. Knocked out with morphine, wine, and Alice B. Toklas’ brownies, Lassiter is impressively functioning throughout 20th Century

a notable threesome sex scene. He also still finds time to write in various cafés, to fall in love, to give Satanist Aleister Crowley a comeuppance, all while trying to save a lovely, depressed poet – who may be behind the murders.

It’s hard to find A Moveable Feast within these pages, despite appearances by Sylvia Beach, William Carlos Williams, Ford Maddox Ford, Gertrude Stein, Toklas and others. Even so, the comic-book-like action is nonstop fun.

Kristen Hannum THE DISTANT HOURS Kate Morton, Atria, 2010, $26.00/C$29.99, hb, 560pp, 9781439152782 / Mantle, 2010, £16.99, hb, 620pp, 9780230748323 Edie Burchill works at a small publishing firm in London. Edie, a reader and a dreamer, has always had a distant relationship with her practical mother. One day in 1992, Edie’s mother receives a letter originally posted in 1941, which reduces her to tears. The letter came from Milderhurst Castle, where her mother stayed during World War II when she was evacuated from London. Milderhurst was the home of writer Raymond Blythe, the author of Edie’s favorite book, The True History of the Mud Man. Edie is consumed with curiosity about this period of her mother’s life and her reluctance to speak of it. When she happens by the castle on a

C

THE PARIS WIFE

business trip, she jumps at the opportunity to take a tour and meet the inhabitants, Raymond Blythe’s three elderly daughters.

The story of the tragic events of the distant hours of the past is slowly revealed in flashbacks from each sister’s perspective. Kate Morton’s wonderful story contains gothic elements aplenty (a castle, a monster, madness, storms, and family secrets), which she weaves into an engrossing and suspenseful tale. I particularly enjoyed how the castle itself has a real presence in this book. To some it is a welcoming shelter from the world and a symbol of family from which they draw their strength. To others, it is a prison and a tool by which they are controlled. Much to my delight, the ending was a surprise. Highly recommended.

Jane Kessler DARK MATTER Michelle Paver, Orion, 2010, £12.99, hb, 246pp, 9781409123781 In January 1937, physics graduate and amateur radio buff Jack Miller is living a lonely life as an office clerk in London. When he is offered the chance to join an expedition to Spitsbergen in the Arctic, he accepts it, although the giant chip that he carries on his lower-middle-class shoulder makes him initially hostile to the public school types who are the other members.

E D I TORS’ CH OICE

Paula McLain, Ballantine, 2011, $25.00, hb, 324pp, 9780345521309 / Virago, 2011, £12.99, hb, 288pp, 9780345521309 Post-World War I, life is grand, and a new breed of writers is just beginning to connect to the muse of creativity that will result in the majority of the 20th century’s greatest novels. For now, though, it seems the world has ended, and the remaining ghosts will grasp every possible experience as only survivors can. Coming from families where mothers are domineering, belittling, and destructive forces, Ernest Hemingway and Hadley Richardson are seeking fulfillment from emptiness and despair. Initially leery of misinterpreting the other person’s interest, they eventually marry after a courtship where neither holds back anything.

Their most daring move to Paris follows; this is where Hemingway plans to write, write, and talk about writing with the likes of Sherwood Anderson, Gertrude Stein, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. While each vow to totally trust and inspire the other, it often seems that Ernest is the spouse who needs more approval and affirmation from “Hash” or “Tatie.”

Their story is a delightful and tense journey from the highs of love, dependency and ascendancy to a gradual decline of those same qualities and ideals. But this is a story that has never been told in quite this way. Its essence fluctuates between nonstop tension comprised of loving intimacy and fearful depression consistently rearing its head in this turbulent relationship. Scenes in which advice is given or discussions are held about what new forms are being created in the fiction of the times are the peaceful counterparts to the other roller coaster-style scenes. Family, jealousy, callousness, success, and passion drive their marriage to a horrific demise but posthumous renown.

The Paris Wife is a lyrical novel that is beautifully written on every single page. Paula McLain is as talented as the writer and his wife depicted herein. Stunning!

Viviane Crystal HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Reviews | 47

C

THE CYCLIST

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E

Fred Nath, Fingerpress Ltd, 2010, £12.99, pb, 304pp, 9780956492517 In Vichy, France, the French police continue to operate and to uphold the law within limitations placed upon them by their German occupiers. Auguste Ran has accepted the situation and has followed orders as best he can in the belief that he is serving the good of France. This blind acceptance is challenged and finally destroyed when a young French student is found raped and murdered. Sure the culprit is Helmut Brunner, a German Security Police major, Auguste is nonetheless thwarted at every level in his attempts to indict him.

The scales fall from Auguste’s eyes and he realises that he has been complicit in the Nazi atrocities and crimes against the Jewish locals. Determined to make amends, he agrees to hide the daughter of his greatest childhood friend, Pierre, a freedom fighter and a Jew. In doing so he risks not only his life, but those of his wife and daughter. Yet once started, he will do all in his power to keep his promise to Pierre and also to prevent Brunner from striking again. It is a pledge that will cleanse Auguste’s soul but cost him dearly.

The Cyclist examines what it was like to live under an aggressive victor and highlights just how easy it is for even a good man to become deaf and blind to genocide and to keep his head down and simply “follow orders.” There is a palpable sense of fear pervading the pages, where every knock at the door can signal death and disaster. At the conclusion, there is a breath of redemption and then an aftertaste of bitterness, because the greater good can so easily be won only at the cost of personal sorrow and loss.

This is a haunting and bittersweet novel that stays with you long after the final chapter – always the sign of a really well-written and praiseworthy story. It would also make an excellent screenplay.

Sara Wilson Nevertheless, Jack signs on as the expedition’s wireless operator. When they reach Spitsbergen, the master of their chartered ship is reluctant to take them all the way to their destination, the lonely headland of Gruhuken, but he will not explain why.

Misadventures follow upon misfortunes, until Jack is left at Gruhuken with only the sled dogs for company; but is he really alone?

I took this novel for review because my father had often told me stories of a voyage that he had made to Spitsbergen in 1931 as a hand on a sailing ship. The descriptions in the book certainly match his account of a dark, icy, and menacing place.

To describe the story further would be to give it away, but nobody will be surprised to learn that Jack experiences ever more sinister and terrifying events, with only his dogs and wireless set to talk to.

As an aside, nobody ever called a gramophone a “gramophone player.”

I put down this novel admitting that it had delivered a chilly Arctic ghost story as promised, but it didn’t really scare the long johns off me.

Alan Fisk THE SECOND SON Jonathan Rabb, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2011, $26.00, pb, 294pp, 9780374299132 / Orion, 2011, £9.99, pb, 304pp, 9781905559220 In this final installment of the author’s Berlin trilogy, Chief Inspector Nikolai Hoffner, a 48 | Reviews | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

Jew, is at last removed from his post with the Kriminalpolizei. Before getting used to this misfortune, he is confronted with the fact that his son Georg has gone missing in a Spain on the verge of civil war. After consulting Georg’s boss, the head of the Berlin office of a British newsreel company, the elder Hoffner travels to Barcelona. Armed with nothing but a list of names and a vague notion of his last known whereabouts, the former detective soon finds himself teamed up with a beautiful Spanish doctor. Together they set out on an odyssey across a war-ravaged land, treading an uneasy line between fascists on one hand and communists on the other.

As the investigation unfolds, Nikolai suspects his son may be involved with running guns to Franco’s forces, but what he eventually discovers hits him much closer to home, with tragic results.

Although expertly written, the well-crafted plot of The Second Son unwinds only slowly, failing to pick up steam until the latter third of the work. Not a lot happens here, and when it does, it is often told rather than shown. This is book of conversations, many often long, and sometimes inscrutable. It is so atmospheric that the author seems bent on sucking all the oxygen out of the tale, leaving the reader gasping for breath as much from the sheer labor of reading as the incredible tension of the story itself. This is hardly necessary for a novel in the thriving subgenre of Nazi Berlin mysteries, where atmosphere is as ubiquitous as a Berlin fog.

It must be admitted it might suit some readers’

tastes, especially those given to whiling away their time in cafes and coffee shops. Good thing, because it may take a great deal of coffee to get to the clever twist at the end.

Ken Kreckel FINDING BECKY Martha Rogers, Realms, 2010, $12.99, pb, 304pp, 9781616380243 In 1905, after four years at Wellesley College, Rebecca Haynes returns to her hometown of Barton Creek, Oklahoma Territory, filled with enthusiasm for the liberating ideals of the suffragette movement. Rebecca informs her family and friends that she is now an independent woman who intends to pursue a career as a journalist.

Although Rebecca knows she would like to marry one day, she rejects the romantic overtures of her longtime friend, Rob Frankston, and welcomes the flirtations of newcomer Geoff Kensington.

There is very little tension in Finding Becky, beyond a young woman’s struggle with her faith and identity, but the prose flows so easily that the lack is not a serious problem. Oklahoma stands on the brink of statehood, and the pulse of excitement as the frontier town emerges into the modernity of the 20th century provides the main thrust of the story. Dinner reservations can be made by telegraph, town planning must take into account the new horseless carriages, and oil is becoming as valuable a commodity for the cattle ranchers as their herds. Readers of inspirational fiction, especially those who love a tale set in the American West, will thoroughly enjoy this novel.

Nancy J. Attwell NEMESIS Philip Roth, Jonathan Cape, 2010, hb, £16.99, 280, 9780224089531 / Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010, $26.00, hb, 304pp, 9780547318356 A stifling hot summer in Newark, New Jersey 1944. Eugene “Bucky” Cantor is the playground director for his mainly Jewish neighbourhood when the scourge of polio strikes. Bucky is in his early 20s, and lives with his grandmother – his mother having died while giving birth to him. He is a conscientious, athletic and thoroughly decent fellow, if rather humourless and overly intense.

The outbreak of polio and the deaths of some of the boys he has been looking after prompt him to question the very nature, morality and existence of a God who could allow this to happen, and even seem to encourage it.

Bucky takes the opportunity to join his fiancée, Marcia, daughter of the wealthy Dr. Steinberg, in a summer camp in the hills of Pennsylvania, blissfully away from the disease and dirt of Newark. But, as with so many of Philip Roth’s characters, Bucky suffers from crippling guilt, as he accuses himself of having run away from the polio epidemic and those he has responsibility for. Given the title of the book and the subject, it does not take a genius to work out that bad things will catch up with Bucky, to wreck his life once more. The final part of the novel is narrated some years later in 1971, by one 20th Century

of Bucky’s former playground pupils, who meets his erstwhile teacher and finds out his terrible story – one which has left Cantor physically and emotionally crippled.

Roth is a superb narrator, and the pace and balance of this fairly short work is excellent. The Newark of 1944 as well as the idyllic nostalgic summer camp of Indian Hill is evoked with feeling and emotion.

Doug Kemp IN EVERY HEARTBEAT Kim Vogel Sawyer, Bethany House, 2010, $14.99, pb, 352pp, 9780764205101 On the brink of World War I, three orphans, Libby Conley, Pete Leidig and Bennett Martin, enter college together, each longing for something different: Libby wants to become a journalist, Pete is called to the ministry and Bennett just wants to belong and have fun. Libby soon learns that being a woman and wanting to become a journalist is difficult, as journalism isn’t an acceptable profession for women in society. Pete soon learns about his parents and wishes to find them, even though they abandoned him as a child and left him in an orphanage. Bennett, although gregarious and fun-loving, has difficulty fitting in with the other college students because he was raised in an orphanage.

This is a novel filled with inspirational messages of faith and the belief that God will see the major characters through their problems with prayer.

Ms. Vogel’s novels have won many awards in the

C

Christian community. I thought the novel told a good story, especially of Peter’s plight to connect with his family. It is a well-written book, although predictable in its outcome. Although the main characters held a strong Christian faith, I didn’t find the story too “preachy” but presented the fact that faith in God can help one to overcome life’s ups and downs. If you enjoy a feel-good story of human drama with interesting main characters, you will enjoy this book.

Jeff Westerhoff 13, RUE THÉRÈSE Elena Mauli Shapiro, Reagan Arthur, 2011, $23.99, hb, 277pp, 9780316083287 / Headline, 2011, £16.99, hb, 256pp, 9780755374229 The box that author ­­­­­­Elena Mauli Shapiro inherited contains more than just mementos of Louise Brunet’s life; it contains a story. Not knowing Louise beyond the photos and letters in the box, Shapiro creates one of her own. The fictional Louise is wildly in love with her cousin, but married instead to a staid jeweler. She teaches piano and entertains herself by giving false confessions to the parish priest while contemplating real things worthy of confession with the attractive new neighbor downstairs.

The novel flits through time, from one artifact to another, as each is pulled from the box. Postcards, photos, handkerchiefs, gloves, coins, letters, all gorgeously scanned onto the pages from the reallife counterparts in the author’s collection. Each shows another relationship in Louise Brunet’s

THE TRUE MEMOIRS OF LITTLE K

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E

Adrienne Sharp, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2010, $25.00, hb, 378pp, 9780374207304 Mathilde Kschessinska, called Little K by Nicholas II, was at one time prima ballerina assoluta in the Russian Imperial Ballet and mistress to Nicholas II. These fictional memoirs, based on historical fact, describe the lavish lives of the Russian imperial family and the theatrical personalities of St. Petersburg’s ballerinas who served at their pleasure in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Little K was vain, ambitious and determined. She let nothing get in her way. At 17 years of age, she became mistress to the future Tsar, Nicholas Romanov, even though this brought disgrace to her Polish Catholic family. She pursued her high ranking status with equal determination, doing anything possible to defeat her rivals, including blackening their reputation or using her imperial connections to maintain her position.

This story is written in the voice of Mathilde Kschessinska, now 99 years old, from her apartment in Paris. She is enjoying the superiority of outsmarting and outliving the very families that looked down upon her.

Adrienne Sharp understands the devotion to perfection that drives successful dancers because she was a ballerina herself. The True Memoirs of Little K is an example of her attention to detail, shown by her extensive research and grasp of the history of this period. This book is highly recommended to anyone with an interest in Tsar Nicholas II, the decline of the Russian empire or the history of Russian ballet, as well as lovers of historical fiction.

Nan Curnutt 20th Century

fictional life. Her cousin, dead in the mud of the Western Front. Her father, crushed by a secret that pushed his daughter away. Her piano student, talented beyond Louise’s teaching abilities. Her neighbor, wishing for the boldness of a fighter pilot.

Despite the nonlinear narrative, the author never loses control of her story. Early 20th-century Paris is crisp, and the characters are charged with the restlessness and uncertainty of the interwar years.

I thoroughly enjoyed Louise’s story, but the ending, coming in a poetic rush, left me breathless and rereading to be sure I didn’t miss anything. This is a novel to be savored, not skimmed. Recommended.

Jessica Brockmole THE PARADISE WALTZ Jessica Stirling, Hodder, 2010, £5.99, pb, 374pp, 9780340980583 Set in rural Stirlingshire in a small gossip-ridden village between the two world wars, this book contains intriguing characters and centres around the tangled affections of two women, both for the same man – there is the well-brought up school teacher, Christine Summers, and the passionate pony-breeder Beatty McCall who have both set their sights on the lonely widower Alan Kelso.

At times poignant and more than a little sad, this is a well-written story which combines love and beautiful descriptions of a life where the wireless and the cinema were the central pastimes and the motor car is a big event. I especially liked the story line of the country school in the 1930s and the short-sighted education board who think they know better than the teachers on the ‘shop floor.’ It all manages to blend in with the central story of star-crossed love, and ‘heart warming’ as the blurb says, is for once a good description. On the whole the book is well-paced and a pleasant read.

Karen Wintle A MEMORY BETWEEN US Sarah Sundin, Revell, 2010, $14.99, pb, 439pp, 9780800734220 Set in England during World War II, A Memory Between Us finds Major Jack Novak falling in love with his nurse, Lieutenant Ruth Doherty, after he takes a bullet in the backside during a mission over Germany. But Ruth is a tough nut to crack; she fends off all suitors with a heavy hand and isolates herself while working hard to support her orphaned brothers and sisters in the States. Jack’s a determined man, however, and his winning ways at least gain Ruth’s friendship over time; her heart is another story entirely.

Jack and Ruth are both wounded soldiers, though it’s a wounding of the soul rather than a physical one that keeps both from being honest with themselves. Ruth’s desire to help her penniless family once drove her to do things that she now finds shameful, and she cannot believe God will ever forgive her past. Jack has studied to become a pastor like his father and brother, but while he’s religious, he’s not sure preaching is his true calling.

Both Jack and Ruth allow hurt and pride to dictate the present, and both will have to learn to forgive in HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Reviews | 49

order to move forward.

This book is well-written, though at times I had a hard time following the motivations of the main characters. While the courtship takes place over a year, there were times when the story moved slowly. But when the action kicked in, it more than made up for the slow parts; Ms. Sundin’s technical knowledge of B17s and the 8th Air Force was outstanding, and the climax is riveting. This is book two of a series, and I will be looking for the others because of my overall enjoyment of this one.

Tamela McCann A LONELY DEATH Charles Todd, Morrow, 2011, $24.99/C$27.99, hb, 352pp, 9780061726194 Todd’s first Inspector Ian Rutledge book was published in 1996 and set in 1919, following the Great War. The latest, A Lonely Death, is set in 1920. War wounds are still fresh. Rutledge, a Scotland Yard inspector, returned from the war with shell shock, which he must keep from his superiors, and a companion, the voice of Hamish MacLeod, a soldier executed on his orders, in his head. A hallmark of the series is that Rutledge is forever being sent out of London on lonely investigations where the locals are suspicious of Scotland Yard.

This case takes him to the village of Eastfield in Sussex, where local men are found garroted, and identity disks (not their own) from the war left in their mouths. As the men had all served in the war, Rutledge starts with that as the connection, but the motives go back even further, to the men’s childhood.

Although the thirteenth in the series, Rutledge’s struggles with Hamish and his conscience (or are they one and the same?) are as engrossing as ever.

A Lonely Death even provides a brief hope for Rutledge’s romantic life, but that is extinguished.

I realize I don’t mind the inevitability of Rutledge being alone as Todd makes me see that Rutledge surviving is accomplishment enough.

Ellen Keith CATCHING MOONDROPS Jennifer Erin Valent, Tyndale, 2010, $13.99, pb, 384pp, 9781414333274 According to Noah Jarvis, “Slaves was freed decades ago,” but in Calloway, Virginia, the rights of colored folk are anything but equal. Gemma Teague came to live with Jessilyn Lassiter when her parents died. They are like sisters; Gemma is colored, and when she first moved in, the Ku Klux Klan made life difficult for the Lassiter family. It is now 1938. Jim Crow laws are in place, and the lines of race are separate and clearly delineated.

One day Tal Pritchett, a colored doctor, opens a practice in town, and it is expected his presence will stir the ire of the KKK. When Jessilyn stumbles upon the swinging corpse of a friend, the horrific deed tests her spiritual beliefs. With rage and reckless disregard for her welfare, she decides to confront those responsible. Her journey will prompt doubt in her own ability to love until she 50 | Reviews | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

witnesses a miracle of forgiveness between two unlikely women, one white and one colored.

Catching Moondrops is a serious and haunting historical fiction novel. Valent’s story of racial prejudice is soul-searchingly moving and sadly still relevant today, as we continue to face the enormity of the evil ingrained in our nation’s past.

Wisteria Leigh THE ATTENBURY EMERALDS Jill Paton Walsh, Hodder & Stoughton, 2010, hb, £18.99, 338pp, 9780340995723 / Minotaur, 2011, $25.99, hb, 352pp, 9780340995723 This is the third novel written by Paton Walsh featuring characters from the Lord Peter Wimsey series, originally by Dorothy L. Sayers. Never having read the originals or the previous two continuations, I can only judge on what I found within the covers of this novel.

The story centres around the eponymous emeralds with confusions, twists, suspicious deaths and disappearances cleverly linking Lord Wimsey’s first case, which launched his career as a detective in 1921, with his later life in the 1950s when he is happily married and well-established. The need for Lord Attenbury to sell the emeralds to pay estate duty throws up a problem with their provenance, which Wimsey must solve to save the Attenbury estate. The secrets of his novelist wife Harriet are also dredged up during the course of the novel, giving a whole new dimension to the characters.

The back story is woven in so seamlessly that it can work just as well as a stand-alone novel, although I suspect that, like me, readers will be looking forward to reading the first two and discovering (or rediscovering) the original Dorothy Sayers novels. Paton’s book conjures up a sense of time and place wonderfully well and deals with more than just the central story, giving us a clear picture of life after the war, how the lives of the characters have been affected by it, and also showing subtly and powerfully the relationship between master and servant: Lord Wimsey and the capable and intelligent Bunter. A crime puzzle with deeper layers which makes for an entertaining and satisfying read.

Ann Northfield THE PROPHET OF SORROW Mark Van Aken Williams, Lucky Press, 2010, $26.00, hb, 153 pp, 9780984462704 In this debut novella Williams writes about an important historical event that is rarely fictionalized—the 1940 assassination in Mexico of exiled Bolshevik Leon Trotsky by a Spaniard named Ramon Mercader, who was working as a Soviet agent. Williams is clearly knowledgeable about Marxism and Communism and the volatile period of Russian history from the Russian Revolution to the rise of Stalin.

The epistolary novella is told through letters, journal entries, and official reports of Trotsky, Lenin, Stalin, Mercader, Mercader’s mother Caridad, NKVD agent Leonid Eitingon, and a few other minor characters. This is an interesting

device that might allow the characters to express themselves perhaps more fully than they would in dialogue, but it also flattens their individuality.

The entries are all written in the same complex, overblown language; no one character speaks in a different voice or a manner unique to his character.

It is implausible to propose that Spaniards and Russians would speak in the same voice, or that uneducated characters would sound the same as more intellectual ones and, yet, that is how the entries are presented.

The epistolary format also means that there is precious little action in the novel, other than the first attempted assassination on Trotsky and Mercader’s final success with an ice-axe; both events are covered in only a few pages.

Williams exhibits an impressive vocabulary, but the reader is overwhelmed and often confused by sentences, such as: “Art holds the decipherment to the questions of our lives, because in it, the antipodal points which can confuse us are made conspiratorial.”

In the end, the reader wishes Williams had developed a more thorough, more complex narrative to help support the various verbose epistles.

John Kachuba

|

multi-period

|

LIVING IN HOPE Sue Allan, Domtom, 2010, £7.99, pb, 318pp, 9781906070144 This novel, which is divided into three related stories, was prompted by research into the author’s own family history and from a recurring nightmare.

Mary’s story begins in the poverty of Ballinderry, County Antrim, 1793, when she lost her heart to John Weatherup, who enlists as a soldier in the Royal Artillery after witnessing the Ulster Uprising. He leaves her behind, but returns after four years, during which time he served and was wounded in the Peninsular War. He marries Mary and brings her to England to live in the Woolwich Barracks. Whilst sharing the communal quarters with the other married couples, she realises that the army rules her as unfairly and unreasonably as it does her husband.

Despatched to the Sugar Isles, they travel on the ship Enmity, in cramped, insanitary conditions and arrive in Barbados, but are moved to the volcanic St. Vincent Isle, where Mary is discriminated against because she is Irish. When La Soufriėre volcano erupts, the couple are admitted into Fort Charlotte for their own safety, but grieve for those who were not saved.

Their son, Robert, dies and John commutes his army pension to buy a tract of land in Ontario, Canada. Their given land is boggy, untillable and near a sinister forest. Striving for survival affects their health, and Mary dies.

The following two stories concern their descendants: Mary Anne, who briefly finds 20th Century — Multi-period

happiness but is tried for infanticide, and Edith May, the abandoned wife and mother in London of 1915.

I found this an absorbing read. The stories are packed with information that conveys the conventions and attitudes affecting the characters, and portray realistic and at times harrowing details, which leave a lasting impression on the reader.

Janet Williamson SONG OF SLAVES IN THE DESERT Alan Cheuse, Sourcebooks Landmark, 2011, $25.99/£17.99, hb, 528pp, 9781402242991 It’s hard to imagine that descendants of slaves from Egypt and Babylon, Jews who struggled to break the chains of bondage, would one day forget their ancestors’ struggle for freedom. Whether they forgot the past, or felt justified that owning slaves was an economic necessity, they did indeed trade in and purchase human flesh. The slaves of the past who broke through the chains now held the key to their own shackled servants.

Jonathan Pereira is a descendant of these freed people. He is the son of a plantation owner, and he awaits the arrival of his cousin Nathaniel. The cousins share a heritage, but having grown up in the North, their philosophical views on slavery are in opposition. The son of a merchant, Nathaniel has been sent to Charleston by his father to glean information and learn whether investing in his uncle’s operation would be a viable investment.

This complex multigenerational story of slavery begins in 1500 and takes the reader up to the Civil War. The slaves who work the plantation are the descendants of slaves from Timbuktu who were captured and brought to America via the Middle Passage, barely surviving the wretched inhuman conditions of the journey.

The author gains voice through the eyes of Nathaniel and the son of the slave Eliza. In her eyes “without love you cannot be free, without freedom you cannot love.” Even the slave master, Jonathan’s father, believes that “freedom comes to those who take it, never to those who lie back and wait for it.”

Nathaniel comes to understand that freedom is not a commodity that can be bought.

This is a brilliantly imagined story that will take the reader on a fascinating, meandering journey that leads to a confluence of two families from different cultures and religions, both experiencing bondage, determined to be free. Songs of Slaves in the Desert is an intoxicating piece of literature destined to achieve well-deserved acclaim.

Wisteria Leigh SOLO Rana Dasgupta, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011, $25, hb, 352pp, 9780547397085 / Fourth Estate, 2010, £8,99, pb, 368pp, 9780007182152 Elderly, blind Ulrich lives in a run-down apartment near the train station in Sofia, Bulgaria, where the roof leaks and the cacophony of people passing through disturbs his sleep. As seen from the outside, he leads a lonely existence, tended to by his neighbors who dutifully visit his apartment Multi-period

to deliver meals and groceries. As Ulrich nears his hundredth birthday, his interior life begins to take flight. Ulrich reveals memories of his youth in Sofia, his young adulthood and education in Weimar Berlin, and his return to Sofia. In his mind’s eye, he also sees fantasies of his spiritual children — products of post-communist Bulgaria and Georgia who struggle with the changes in their society as Ulrich struggled with the rise of communism in his youth.

The themes of the novel seem pedestrian on their own — the power of art and science to transform lives, connection and loneliness, ways that society shapes its inhabitants. In Dasgupta’s gifted hands, however, these themes are transformed into a meditation on the human condition as manifested through the life of one sadly ordinary man. Ulrich had opportunities, but was unable to grasp them fully. In the latter portions of the book, we meet several other characters who are given opportunities that Ulrich could not have imagined.

They succeed where Ulrich has failed — or do they succeed because Ulrich has failed? Dasgupta does not give the reader easy answers, only suggestions that the reader must connect and interpret.

Solo is thought-provoking and well-written. I’ll be looking for it on critics’ lists of the best novels of 2011.

Nanette Donohue WEST OF HERE Jonathan Evison, Algonquin, 2011, $24.95, hb, 496pp, 9781615731169 During the 1890s, pioneers carved towns out of the wilderness of the Washington State coastline.

One of those towns, Port Bonita, was founded by a rogues’ gallery of radicals, petty criminals, eccentrics, and ambitious outsiders who had no idea what they were getting into.

In 2006, their descendants are cleaning up the physical and psychological mess that is their ancestors’ legacy to them. The physical representation of this mess: the dam on the Elwha River, which runs through Port Bonita. The dam is the symbol of the town and the bane of its existence, and much of the plot centers around its building in the 1890s and the present-day debate over its potential destruction.

There are a lot of characters and a lot of activity, and it takes about 100 pages to figure out who’s who and what motivates them. Evison draws entertaining parallels between the characters who inhabit 1890s Port Bonita and the characters who inhabit the present-day town. And they are characters – early Port Bonita settler Jacob Thornburgh, whose vision of a dam on the Elwha River drives his ambitions, and his sadsack descendant, Jared, an underachiever trapped by his family legacy. There’s Dalton Krigstadt, an 1890s version of a slacker who “hauls things” for a living, and his descendant Dave, a Bigfoot-obsessed modern slacker of an age where it’s no longer clever or cool to be a slacker, just pathetic. There’s also one character who somehow manages to transcend time in a very unusual way.

At turns rowdy, raucous, and provocative, West of Here is an excellent choice for readers who like a long, character-driven novel with a wry sense of humor, plenty of action, and a surprising amount of heart.

Nanette Donohue THE METROPOLIS CASE Matthew Gallaway, Crown, 2010, $25.00/ C$28.95, hb, 374pp, 9780307463425 The Metropolis Case follows three characters: Lucien, a young, mid-19th century Frenchman who wants to be an opera singer; Maria, a young girl in 1970s Pittsburgh who also wants to be an opera singer; and Martin, a forty-one-year-old homosexual living in 21st-century New York City.

Although the reader does not at first understand their connection, it is easy to see the similarity in the characters: Lucien and Martin are both homosexuals who spend a lot of time questioning life and death, love and sex, and their personal existence. Maria and Lucien both become opera stars, experiencing clarity only when they are singing. For all their differences in time period, gender and sexual orientation, the three characters seem like one character. Their thoughts follow the same patterns; their lives mirror one another; each isolates him or herself from the larger world.

The Metropolis Case is a cerebral novel, spending most of its time in the heads of its characters.

The reader follows Lucien and Maria as they become adults, have relationships, and mature as artists. Martin’s life is told through flashback memories. The story unfolds to reveal the oddly magical relationship between Lucien, Maria and Martin, but all plotlines fall secondary to their philosophical ponderings.

Elizabeth Caulfield Felt THE RED GARDEN Alice Hoffman, Crown, 2011, $25.00/C$28.95, hb, 288pp, 9780307393876 Each tale in The Red Garden, a running story of residents of a small New England village, begins with someone coming to town or someone leaving.

For 300 years, ordinary people find themselves in Blackwell, Massachusetts, and stay on, or leave, as if by chance – or magic.

In 1750, the first settlers, lost and starving, hunker down to wait for death, but one young woman has the will to survive. Hallie Brady ventures out to search for food but finds far more – a unique connection to man and beast. When tragedy follows Hallie to the new settlement, turning her garden red with blood, she returns to the wilds alone.

The tales that follow build on ones before, not necessarily along family lines. Years pass, three centuries, measured in births and deaths.

Each successive personality, vividly brought to live, reflects the prevailing social environment, in mostly subtle ways. Language evolves to keeps up with the changing world. An American town emerges, shaped by individuals and forces largely unknown to current residents. Connections to past HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Reviews | 51

generations, mostly invisible, are buried in time.

The site of the original Brady garden now lies in the center of town. Anything planted there grows tinged with red. When all attempts to explain the phenomenon fail, there’s nothing left to do but what people always do – shrug and say, “It’s always been that way.”

The Red Garden is recommended to readers who enjoy, in addition to beautiful prose, magical realism and different narrators over time. If this is not to your taste, read the 1999 success, Here on Earth, or see the author’s varied backlist. Alice Hoffman is an author not to be missed.

Jeanne Greene THE TEMPLAR SALVATION Raymond Khoury, Dutton, 2010, $26.95/ C$33.50, hb, 405pp, 9780525951841 / Orion, 2011, £12.99, hb, 416pp, 9781409114024 This thriller, which parallels the modernday adventures of FBI agent Sean Reilly and archeologist Tess Chaykin with events from the early 13th century, involves religious secrets, longlost documents, and the mystery of the annihilation of the Templars. Reilly and Chaykin try to locate three missing chests that were secretly stored in Constantinople centuries ago. Several Templars had gained control of those chests, removed them from Constantinople, and then attempted to learn the secrets they contained. Hot on the trail of the lost chests and competing with Reilly and Chaykin in recovering them is an Iranian terrorist who wishes to recover the lost documents and disrupt the Western world as their hidden secrets become known to the Christian population.

This novel is a sequel to The Last Templar, in which the same two present-day adventurers attempted to locate another related document that could rock the Christian world. The novel is fastpaced, and all of the major and minor characters are well drawn and contribute to the plot. The historical parts of the story are accurate and well researched. If you enjoy suspenseful and gripping stories that keep you on the edge of your seat, I recommend this book and its prequel. You don’t need to read the first novel to follow this story, although reading the first novel will help you better identify with the characters. A great read!

Jeff Westerhoff SOME SING, SOME CRY Ntozake Shange and Ifa Bayeza, St Martin’s, 2010, $26.99/£18.99, hb, 576pp, 9780312198992 This fierce and ambitious novel hits the mark on so many counts you forgive its flaws. Following a single African-American family from the end of slavery, when they are driven from their plantation, to the modern day, the book overflows with dense, uncompromising scenes, with characters who are immediately real people.

Ma Bette, the matriarch, is a shrewdly drawn figure, powerful and proud and strong, who carries the opening of the book; the middle belongs largely to her great-granddaughter Lizzie, loosely based on Josephine Baker, who storms the heights of the 52 | Reviews | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

Jazz world in New York like a hurricane. When she goes to Paris, and the book does not follow, the energy drops.

The settings also are wonderful. Charleston after the civil war, caught in the flux of race relations, New York in the Harlem Renaissance, even France in 1917 are more vivid than photographs, dense experiences of place and time. Jazz – the binding thread of the novel – bursts off the page, described so well you can hear it, feel it, exulting.

Nonetheless, the writing is uneven, often – especially with Ma Bette and Lizzie – sure and incisive, taut, rhythmic, but elsewhere flat and tuneless. The huge scale of the work begins to wear on it after a while; it speeds up, loses focus and intensity. But this is still a wonderful book. The sure hand of a master shows in scene after scene.

I hope it gets the readership it deserves, black and white.

Cecelia Holland LEGACY Danielle Steel, Delacorte, 2010, $28.00, hb, 336pp, 9780385343138 / Bantam, 2010, £18.99, hb, 336pp, 9780593063026 A spark has the power to transform darkness and dullness to brilliant light and dynamic purpose; and security isn’t always the warm, cozy blanket one imagines. Brigitte Nicholson works in a Boston college admissions office and has a steady, uncommitted boyfriend. So she fluctuates between amusement and annoyance as her best friend, Amy, repeatedly urges Brigitte to break out of the comfort zone where she’s imprisoned.

But Brigitte’s world is about to come undone, when her boyfriend, Ted, announces he’s got the archeological dig overseas for which he’s yearned for years. The only problem is Brigitte’s not part of his future dream. Within twenty-four hours, she loses Ted and is laid off from her secure job, practically replaced by a computer. Her own academic writing about women’s suffrage is as dry as dead bones, and she wonders what she can do beyond moping about these devastating losses.

Sound like a spoiler? No, for Brigitte is about to embark on an adventurous research journey, connecting her to her family heritage in the person of an athletic, romantic, strong, beautiful Sioux Indian woman, Wachiwi. Three memorable men will become part of Wachiwi’s life in America and Revolutionary France, including the little- known nobles, called Les Chouans, who fought back at the French Revolutionary merchant and peasant masses waging mayhem and death throughout Paris and other larger cities. Embracing the bravery of Wachiwi’s life gives Brigitte the incentive to do something previously unimagined, something to possibly share with a French writer/teacher who shares her passion for history and historical fiction.

It’s been a long time since this reviewer read a Danielle Steel novel, but Legacy is an amazing story that is a light but fascinating work of historical fiction.

Viviane Crystal

THE ORCHID AFFAIR Lauren Willig, Dutton, 2011, $25.95/C$32.50, hb, 416pp, 9780525951995 I am a huge fan of Willig’s Pink Carnation series. Alternating between the past and present, the series’ conceit is present-day academic Eloise Kelly’s research into English spies of the Scarlet Pimpernel’s ilk during and after the French Revolution. The Orchid Affair is the eighth in the series (spies have flower monikers), and it falls into the type I like best of Willig’s books—slightly darker with a damaged hero and heroine who are more wary of each other rather than naive and romantic. The orchid of the title is Laura Gray, a governess trained at the Selwick Spy School to infiltrate the house of widower Andre Jaouen, highly placed in the Minister of Police’s office. Both Laura and Andre have secrets but must rely on one another when they end up on the run with Andre’s children and an elderly friend. Will they fall in love? Was Bonaparte short?

Willig ably evokes the menace directed at Royalists during the First French Empire as well as the uneasy alliance between the English and the French. I usually enjoy Eloise’s story as much as the historical lovers, and this time was no exception as we learn more about her boyfriend Colin’s fractured family and see their relationship evolve. As always, I anxiously await the next floral installment.

Ellen Keith

|

timeslip

|

THE EXILE Diana Gabaldon, illus. Hoang Nguyen, Del Rey, 2010, $25.00, hb, 224pp, 9780345505385 To say I approached The Exile with trepidation is an understatement, since Outlander by Diana Gabaldon is one of my favorite novels. I was afraid that a graphic novel might interfere with my mental images of Jamie and Claire and that it might not be able to do justice to the story. But from the first pages, The Exile brought the characters to life and gave a new dimension to my enjoyment of my favorite literary supercouple. If anything, The Exile reminded me of why I fell in love with Outlander so many years ago.

The Exile gives us a bit of background on Jamie’s early life and shows us his first encounters with the time-traveling Claire. As with any graphic novel, the pictures are the main attraction, but the dialogue and thought bubbles provide even a newcomer with plenty of substance to keep the story flowing. The illustrator, Hoang Nguyen, does a terrific job giving visuals to the story, and while Claire is often shown as more buxom than I’d imagined, all the characters are very similar to those living in my imagination. Nguyen captures Jamie’s delightful sense of humor in his features while managing to keep him realistic. The author also includes a chatty section at the end that describes the journey of The Exile into print, all of which adds to the enjoyment.

Multi-period — Timeslip

The book stays true to the story of Outlander, though it ends with Claire’s decision to stay with Jamie rather than returning to her own time.

Overall, while adding no additional insight to the series, this is a fun supplement and can be highly recommended from this fan.

Tamela McCann THE WINTER GHOSTS Kate Mosse, Putnam, 2011, $24.95, hb, 288pp, 9780399157158 / Orion, 2010, £7.99, pb, 304pp, 9781409103394 The Winter Ghosts is a thrilling mystery and fantasy. Ten years after the end of World War I, Freddie Watson is unable to shake off the deep depression and survivor’s guilt he has struggled with since the death of his adored older brother in a French battlefield. To recover from a physical and emotional breakdown, he takes a winter road trip in the French Pyrenees. When his car slides off an isolated road, he stumbles upon an ancient village in preparation for its annual medieval saint’s feast, honoring the village’s tragic past. It is at this feast that he meets the lovely, hauntingly perceptive Fabrissa, whose sadness surpasses even his.

This is the point where the novel and Freddie come alive with the energy of the medieval celebration and with the mysteries and tragedies of the past. The area was the home of the surviving, persecuted Cathar populations in the 13th and 14th centuries, before the last worshippers of this heretical Christian sect were finally murdered either individually in the Inquisition or en masse.

As Freddie’s life becomes enmeshed for one night with Fabrissa’s, so do the horrible tragedies of their different centuries, leading to a startling conclusion.

Although the novel begins slowly in the miasma of Freddie’s depression, its story quickly grabs hold of the reader and does not disappoint. Highly recommended.

Pamela Ferrell Ortega SMOULDERING FIRES Anya Seton, Chicago Review Press, 2010 (c1975), $12.95/C$13.95, pb, 159pp, 9781569763476 Amy Delatour, a shy, awkward high school senior, lives an unhappy life in Greenwich, Connecticut in the 1970s. Her mother is cold and distant, and only her French-Canadian grandfather gives her any love. For several years, Amy has been experiencing “true dreams” about her distant ancestor, Ange-Marie, separated from her beloved Paul during the forced expulsion of the French Acadians from Nova Scotia in 1755. Amy’s phobia of fire somehow relates to Ange-Marie’s experiences. When Amy tells Martin Stone, her English teacher who is studying psychology, about these visions, he decides to try hypnotizing her to discover what is causing her dreams, and what really happened to Ange-Marie.

But Amy’s nightmares become increasingly vivid. One day, as she leaves Martin’s apartment, she sees the city as it looked in the 18th century. And during a visit to an old colonial house, she becomes Timeslip — Paranormal & Historical Fantasy

certain that this is where Ange-Marie worked as a servant after her exile. After one particularly frightening experience, Amy’s face and hands are covered with burns, even though she has not been touched by fire. What is happening to Amy? Is it time travel? Reincarnation? Genetic memory?

Martin is determined to find out, or Amy’s life may be in danger.

I have long enjoyed Seton’s novels – in fact, Katherine is one of my all-time favorites.

Smouldering Fires is certainly compelling and suspenseful, but I wish that there had been more of an explanation of Amy’s visions/nightmares. The ending seemed rushed and ultimately unsatisfying.

I found the historical sections about Ange-Marie and Paul and the French Acadians fascinating, but I would like to have seen them come alive a bit more, and perhaps a whole section of the book could have been devoted to the historical characters, who appear only in Amy’s dreams.

Vicki Kondelik

|

paranormal & | historical fantasy

A STAR SHALL FALL Marie Brennan, Tor, 2010, $15.99/C$18.50, pb, 494pp, 9780765325365 In this story, the Great Fire of 1666 that burned most of London to the ground was actually caused by an elemental beast of flame which the fae called a dragon. Unable to destroy the dragon, which was more powerful than their magic, the fae instead managed to banish it to a comet. Now, in 1759, Halley’s Comet is returning. Living in a secret city below London, the fae begin a race against time to discover a way to slay the dragon once and for all. It will take magic and science, mortal and immortal, to save London.

Galen St. Clair is a typical gentleman of his time, hunting for a wealthy bride to please his father. However, Galen also presides as the Prince of Onyx Court: a mortal man who knows the secrets of the fae, and who serves his Queen Lune. Galen, with the assistance of a sprite named Irrith, undertakes the seemingly impossible task of finding a way to slay the dragon. Devoted to his Queen, but struggling with his life outside of the fae, Galen hunts for answers all around London— from drawing rooms and observation towers, to secreted chambers and gardens.

Brennan’s historical research is impressive and the interweaving of the two worlds intriguing.

While the story was slow to pick up, and the climatic encounter with the dragon over in just a few pages, the mystery, scientific discovery and philosophical thinking that resounded throughout make it a fine read for any fans of historical fantasy.

Rebecca Cochran BURTON AND SWINBURNE IN THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF SPRING-HEELED

JACK Mark Hodder, Pyr, 2010, $16.00, pb, 373pp, 9781616142407 / Snowbooks, 2010, £7.99, pb, 540pp, 9781906727208 Spring Heeled Jack is the best book I’ve read in this quirky genre of ghouls, gears and goggles, steampunk: smart, brazen, quick and thoughtprovoking. Other attempts fail to catch the anthropology of the period, not this one of peasoup fog and canny chimney sweeps. It’s not for every taste that craves historical accuracy, but I could not resist a pseudo-Victorian world where no one understands why time travelers would call them Victorian: The young queen, pregnant with her first child, did not get saved by her consort during that attempt on her life in 1840.

The world Hodder has created includes such wonders as Darwin hastening his own evolution by grafting on a second brain, famine-refugee Oscar Wilde peddling papers and foul-mouthed messenger parakeets. The delightful romp of our sleuthing pair — poet and follower of the Marquis de Sade Algernon Swinburne teaming up with my perennial favorite, swordsman Sir Richard Burton, denied his chances for world exploration by this bizarre turn of events, seems poised for a series. I can’t imagine a plot more full of twists and turns and delights, but I’m pretty sure Hodder’s is the mind to pull it off.

Ann Chamberlin LADY LAZARUS Michele Lang, Tor, 2010, $14.99/C16.99, pb, 320pp, 9780765323170 On the eve of World War II, in Budapest, Magda, the last in a line of Jewish witches, is managing to survive in the employ of a vampire.

Her sister Gisele has had a horrific vision of coming death and destruction. Magda wishes to save her sister and herself, as well as the Jewish people and ultimately the world, from approaching evil. To do this she must use her supernatural abilities, and commune with the dead and also with the angel Raziel. She must prevent Nazi demons from seizing a legendary book that will give them supernatural power.

This novel could easily have descended into farce and tastelessness, mixing at it does occult fantasy and the facts of one of history’s greatest tragedies which are still in living people’s memories.

But it does justice to history. It draws on Jewish and Hungarian folklore in a fascinating way. The characters are believable, and the historical setting rings absolutely true. The reader gets a sense of what it was like to live in Eastern Europe just before the German army marched into Poland.

There is no exploitation of suffering, no violence for its own sake. The book contains a clear-eyed moral vision, and reading this novel we sense the author meant to pen more than an entertainment.

But Lady Lazarus is very entertaining – full of suspense, vampires, witches, and things that go bump in the night. There is even a restrained but touching love story.

The prose is simple and clear. The style does HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Reviews | 53

not call attention to itself but is a pleasure to read.

All in all, this is a beautiful and powerful novel. It requires a bit of a suspension of disbelief but is worth the leap.

Phyllis T. Smith JANE AND THE DAMNED Janet Mullany, Avon A, 2010, $13.99/£8.99, pb, 320pp, 9780061958304 At age 21, Jane Austen suspects that a local party will not alleviate the disappointment of her rejected manuscript, but her family insists that she attend.

In Georgian England, vampires are accepted as a novelty, although they are feared as evil by some.

Jane succumbs to a flirtatious vampire and becomes one herself. The condition is reversible, but when the French invade, she feels obliged to use her new strength and viciousness to help reclaim the city.

The charming vampire Mr. Venning, who becomes her bearleader, is also incentive to stay undead.

Mullany’s contribution to the growing canon of historical-figure-turned-supernatural-being pairs two popular topics: Jane Austen and vampires.

Her vampires, although debaucherous and deadly, coexist with humans and can rid themselves of the vampiric condition, if desired, by drinking the waters at Bath. Jane must decide if she wants to stay with her new family of sensuous beings or return to her old family and regain her writing ability, which has been extinguished by her vampirism.

This amusing indulgence will be enjoyed by Jane Austen fans who like to see Ms. Austen in fantasy situations. Alternate history fans will find interest in France’s successful invasion of England.

Suzanne J. Sprague OF LOVE AND EVIL Anne Rice, Chatto & Windus, 2010, £12.99, hb, 172pp, 9780701178154 / Knopf, 2010, $24.95, hb, 192pp, 9781400043545 For ten years Toby O’Dare has been a hired assassin, submerged in evil. Before he can hope for happiness with his beloved Liona and their son he must expiate his gross sins by attempting to put right ancient wrongs. Guided by Malchiah and Shmarya, his guardian spirits, from present-day California he finds himself in Renaissance Italy.

There Niccolo, son of wealthy Signore Antonio, is near death and all the family are plagued by a vicious and destructive being, thought to be a dybbuk. Toby achieves peace for this unhappy creature but cannot prevent Niccolo’s attempted murderer – his own brother Lodovico – from dying, a suicide, in mortal sin. Toby must soon face another venture into the past, but Ankanoc, a beguiling demon, strives to seduce him again into evil and further dangers are to be encountered in the present day.

There is an exciting story to be told here, but at first the writing is pedestrian and the characters lack appeal. The Italian section is well researched with some lively changes of scene. Then at last, when Toby confronts the so-called dybbuk, Of Love and Evil truly bursts into life.

A strong Christian element makes Toby an 54 | Reviews | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

unusual hero. The author’s note is well worth reading, particularly about music.

Nancy Henshaw GRANDVILLE MON AMOUR: A FANTASY Bryan Talbot, Jonathan Cape, 2010, £16.99, hb, 102pp, 9780224090001 This is the second in the graphic novel series, set in a steampunk fin de siècle London and Paris (known as Grandville). LeBrock has now left the police, but he gets himself involved in capturing the evil Mad Dog Mastock, who has mysteriously escaped from prison just before his execution and then goes to Grandville to murder a group of prostitutes. LeBrock, with his faithful sidekick Ratzi, makes the link between Mad Dog’s work for the English resistance against France before independence was won, and an enigma that goes to the very top of the English political establishment.

It is good, wonderfully violent comic-book stuff.

Doug Kemp THE SECRET HISTORY OF ELIZABETH TUDOR, VAMPIRE SLAYER Lucy Weston, Gallery, 2011, $15, pb, 304pp, 9781439190333 Mash-ups — trendy combinations of two seemingly-disparate ideas — are everywhere, including historical fiction. The blending of Queen Elizabeth and vampires, both popular subjects in fiction, was bound to happen. Like most mash-ups, this one takes a little from truth and a lot from imagination.

In the days before her coronation, Elizabeth meets the centuries-old vampire Mordred, bastard son of the legendary King Arthur. Mordred offers the new queen infinite power over her enemies — a tempting proposition for a young queen whose reign is tenuous, at best. As Elizabeth learns more about the vampires of England, she learns how they helped destroy her mother, Anne Boleyn.

Elizabeth realizes that slaying the vampires is her only choice, even if it means risking her life and the lives of her most trusted advisors. The ending is open enough that an entire coven of vampires could crawl through and wreak havoc, meaning that there’s almost certainly going to be a sequel.

Will this be popular? Given the subject matter, quite possibly. Should you read it? That depends on your tolerance for campy/cheesy vampires, a wishy-washy young Elizabeth, and surprisingly slow pacing for an action-based plot.

Nanette Donohue

|

alternate history

|

THE AFRIKA REICH Guy Saville, Hodder & Stoughton, 2011, £12.99, 433pp, hb, 9781444710649 Let me begin with a recipe for a literary cocktail.

Take a slug of Robert Harris and an equal measure of Len Deighton, add a splash of Conrad and

a twist of Fleming, flame with spirit of Evelyn Waugh, and what you end up with is something close to Guy Saville’s intoxicating debut.

It’s 1952, but not as we know it, and a treaty negotiated in the wake of British defeat by the Nazis at Dunkirk has divided Africa between the Third Reich and her former colonial masters. But Walter Hochburg, governor of Germany’s Afrika Reich, is getting too big for his jackboots and people in high places want him out of the way.

Enter Burton Cole, mercenary and aspiring fruit farmer, persuaded out of retirement to do one last job. He has a score to settle with Hochburg. This is the set-up for a glorious, exhaustingly energetic and preposterously violent romp through an Africa which wasn’t, but might have been.

Except, of course, that it is, and this is the true strength of Saville’s novel. Long after you have finished reading it, when the airport-lounge entertainment has run its course, you are left with an adhesive residue of uncomfortable truths. Black Africans have not been herded into concentration camps by white supremacists. But they have been excluded from economic and political influence, burdened by AIDS and deprived of the means of fighting it, condemned to fight out the consequences of empire in civil wars whose vast and imaginative violence make Saville’s book look like child’s play.

Written with style, verve and startling lyricism, The Afrika Reich makes serious points as it entertains. Oh, and it gives a whole new meaning to chili con carne. Brilliant.

Sarah Bower

|

children & young adult

|

JACK O’BEANS Robert Aston, Pen Press, 2010, £6.99, pb, 117pp, 9781907499029 14th century, Dudley Castle, England. Jack O’Beans comprises three loosely-connected stories.

In the opening story, For Four Silver Pennies, we meet young Jacob, who lives with his grandmother who bakes and sells delicious pies. Jacob’s supposed to be learning the baker’s trade but all he dreams of is becoming a soldier. Selling pies bores him and, somehow, whenever he goes to market with Uncle James, he gets into trouble.

Today is no different. His inattention nearly causes the wagon to overturn. However, he manages to sell the pies for four silver pennies, the price his grandmother wanted. Then he’s cozened out of them by a wily stranger calling himself ‘Merlin’ who steals his purse, leaving him with a bag of worthless beans. He whispers a password into Jacob’s ear which, he promises, will get him into the presence of the baron of Dudley Castle who will pay him well for the beans.

Jacob and his uncle reach the castle and Jacob whispers the password…but the baron’s reaction Paranormal & Historical Fantasy — Children & YA

is far from what Merlin foretold and Jacob and his uncle soon find themselves in serious trouble.

The Arrows of Doom continues Jacob’s adventures. Here he comes face to face with an assassin. Can he warn his new friend the Forester in time? In Jacob and the Undercurrents, Jacob is pursued by the murderer; if he’s caught, he’ll die.

These stories are obviously aimed at small boys of seven plus. I agree with George Orwell’s dictum that the best writing keeps it simple, and I found myself wondering how many boys of seven or eight would understand Latinate phrases like, ‘unaccustomed undulations’, or, ‘demoted to a subordinate position.’ Why use a word like vacated instead of the simpler left? Furthermore, disinterested is not a synonym for uninterested.

Whatever happened to editing?

Elizabeth Hawksley FINDING FAMILY Tonya Bolden, Bloomsbury USA, 2010, $15.99, hb, 182pp, 9781599903187 Growing up an orphan in 1905 Charleston, West Virginia, Delana needs something, anything, to bring sense to her world. Her life is dominated by her Aunt Tilley, who feeds Delana stories of her past during “visit the family” times. But the events Aunt Tilley shares are often distorted to fit the moral lessons in what she calls “The Book of Bewares”: a warning of the disaster that will follow if Delana does what her shameful relatives did with men, money, and more. Only after Aunt Tilley’s sudden death – when Delana’s grandfather begins to share a different side of the family’s story, and when a mysterious relative appears – does Delana begin the journey to discover the truth behind her Aunt Tilley’s fabrications.

As Delana searches for her true past, she comes to realize how much her mother deeply loved her, and the real origin of her name. The book is filled with pictures of trinkets and jewelry, each of which carries a familial story of African-American heritage in turn-of-the-century Charleston. Delana grows from a fearful child to a proud woman, one who evolves to celebrate her new identity of strength and honor. Dreams do become real! Lovely!

Viviane Crystal SPARTICUS Tony Bradman, A & C Black, 2010, £5.99, pb, 80pp, 9781408113356 One of a newly published series of non-fiction for primary age children called Lives in Action, this title tells the story of Sparticus, a young Thracian boy taken as a slave by the Romans after a battle in which his father was killed. Sparticus is bought by a rich Roman who hosts gladiatorial combat for his fellow Romans. The young slave is trained up as a gladiator, but his thoughts soon turn to rebellion.

This title would be useful for teachers of Key Stage Two history looking at the lives of famous people. The book includes an index which would give children the experience of “looking up” and conducting their own research. The real life events are made exciting enough to encourage reading.

Children & YA

C

E D I TORS’ CH OICE

DEADLY: How Do You Catch an Invisible Killer?

Julie Chibbaro, Atheneum, 2011, 16.99, hb, 304pp, 9780689857386 How much do you know about Typhoid Mary? Like many of us, you may believe the myth that Mary went around in New York City, purposely killing people with the typhoid virus. Julie Chibbaro presents a more historic view of Typhoid Mary and, more importantly, the scientific mystery that was solved by Mr. George Soper, Sanitary Engineer with the city’s Department of Health and Sanitation.

It’s a fascinating look at the puzzle, and Chibbaro lets us work through it with her character, 16-year-old Prudence Galewski. Through Prudence’s eyes we get a glimpse of the issues facing women and immigrants and science in 1907. Prudence bucks the system and quits her finishing school to become Mr. Soper’s assistant. A victim herself of discrimination, she becomes caught up in the accusation of Mary Mallon, an Irish immigrant, who hasn’t been sick a day in her life and is claiming her own victimization.

Readers who love novels in diary form will thoroughly enjoy Chibbaro’s novelization complete with sketches. Chibbaro does a great job of presenting the science, which will fascinate readers who also enjoyed The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate and Charles and Emma.

Nancy Castaldo Other titles in the series covering the ancient world are Alexander the Great and Cleopatra.

Julie Parker FINAL VICTORY Herbie Brennan, A & C Black, 2010 (2000), £4.99, pb, 103pp, 9781408115046 Re-issued as a paperback is a title in A & C Black’s series Flashbacks (originally published in 2000), a welcome addition to the school library or teacher’s bookshelf. The series aims to give the reader “strong characters and thrilling plots set during key moments in history.” This particular story takes place during the last days of the Second World War in 1945, but from the perspective of Jurgen, a 12-year-old boy about to join the Hitler Youth and help fight against the approaching Russians. He witnesses key events, such as the bombing of Berlin and the destruction of the Hitler Youth Headquarters, even coming face to face with Goebbels and Hitler themselves. This is an unusual take on the Second World War and tries to explain how young boys were caught up in the patriotic fervour of the time, but were forced to realise the true nature of the Nazi regime. At the end of the book are a glossary of terms and two pages of historical notes. Other stories in the series are: Blitz Boys (1940 London) by Linda Newbery; A Candle in the Dark (1938, Germany) by Adele Geras; Doodlebug Summer (1944 England) by Alison Prince; Across the Roman Wall (397, Roman Britain) by Theresa Breslin; Mission to Marathon (490BC, Greece) by Geoffrey Trease; A GhostLight in the Attic (1650s Civil War England) by Pat Thomson and Casting the Gods Adrift (1351 BC Egypt) by Geraldine McCaughrean.

Julie Parker HENRY VIII Harriet Castor, A & C Black, 2010, £5.99, pb, 160pp, 9781408113233 Another title in the series Lives in Action, Henry VIII begins with Henry’s brother, Arthur, set to inherit the crown from his father, Henry VII. In an arranged marriage, he weds Catherine of Aragon, a Spanish princess. However, Arthur is to die before his coronation and Henry becomes the king. The story of Henry is well known and a popular choice for Key Stage 2 history in primary schools. This book describes his six wives: Catherine; Anne Boleyn; Jane Seymour; Anne of Cleves; Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr and their rather perilous relationships with Henry. Also included are England’s diplomatic relationships with France and Spain and their rulers Francis and Charles, nephew of Catherine; the disagreement with the Pope and the establishment of the Church of England. Key figures in Tudor England were Wolsey, Cromwell and Cranmer, all of whom play their part here. The book includes a six-page index.

Julie Parker LADY JANE GREY: Queen for Sale Caroline Corby, Walker Books, 2010, £5.99, pb, 192pp, 9781406312553 One of the series Before They Were Famous from Walker Books, this title by Caroline Corby is surprisingly readable. Often fictionalised biographies can be old-fashioned, pedantic and dry in approach, but this book is lively and packed with incident. There is much historical detail in the notes at the end of the book, but it could easily HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Reviews | 55

cross the boundary between nonfiction and fiction.

There is much to be said about in the short life of Lady Jane Grey, queen for only a few days: her mother’s constant cruelty and beatings; her forced marriage; the use made of any friends she had to blackmail her and the sale of her as a child to the unscrupulous Thomas Seymour. Her character is finely drawn with a sympathetic hand, we feel hope for the spirited girl even though we know the outcome to be a tragic one. The story is based on her own writings and those of her contemporaries and a glossary is provided to explain unfamiliar terms. We also learn something about the young Elizabeth, future Queen; Katherine Parr, the last wife of Henry VIII and her second husband, Thomas Seymour. The politics of the day are explained clearly as are the different attitudes to childhood held by the Tudors.

Other titles in the series include: Pocahontas: The Prophecy of Doom, William the Conqueror: Nowhere to Hide and Boudica: The Secrets of the Druids.

Julie Parker CONTAGION Joanne Dahme, Running Press Teens, 2010, $12.95/C$16.50/£7.99, pb, 399pp, 9780762437382.

If you’ve never thought much about typhoid epidemics, you’re not alone; I certainly hadn’t until I read Contagion, which is set in Philadelphia during the late autumn epidemic of 1895. With such an unlikely scenario, Dahme introduces us to young Rose Dugan, married to financier Patrick Dugan.

Rose’s purpose in life seems to be as an ornament to her powerful husband, who is determined to force city officials to hire his company for water filtration in order to prevent more typhoid outbreaks. When events start to take a deadly turn, Rose begins to question her husband’s involvements, both politically and socially, and it is to Sean Parker, an engineer with the Water Works, she turns to help her learn the truth.

Told in chapters alternating the points of view of Rose and Sean, Contagion follows the dealings of Dugan as he attempts to secure the filtration rights, and the ominous situations in which Rose finds herself. Though she wants to believe her husband is a good man, the evidence keeps stacking against him; Sean knows Patrick is underhanded, and his interest in Rose grows as he sees her struggling to admit Patrick’s flaws. There is deceit on many levels, and Rose begins to wonder when she beholds the magnificent mausoleum her husband has built whether or not it’s for her own early demise.

There is a lot of technical jargon in Contagion, which focuses on the intricacies of the water supply in the late 1800s. The typhoid epidemic is almost secondary; the title could apply to several different types of contagion, including greed and subterfuge.

I never quite warmed up to the naive Rose, and felt the characters were sometimes one-dimensional.

Still, it’s an interesting plot with enough twists to keep the reader fully engaged.

Tamela McCann 56 | Reviews | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

TERRY DEARY’S VIKING TALES: The Battle of the Viking Woman Terry Deary, A & C Black, 2010, £4.99, pb, 62pp, 9781408122389 A well-written tale, as one would expect from Terry Deary, from his series Terry Deary’s Viking Tales. This story takes place in the town of Whitby on the Yorkshire coast in the year 867, when Viking raids were prevalent. Two young novices play a trick on the old monk, Brother James, by dropping a blob of candle wax on his bald head.

Brother James somehow knows who did it and punishes the instigator, Edwin, by making him go without food and pick rocks from the hillside for a day. Taking pity on the boy’s bruised and cut hands, Brother James bandages them and tells him a Viking story which he learnt in his previous life as a soldier, fighting the Vikings. It is the story of The Battle of the Viking Woman in which an old woman, Elli (meaning old age), battles the strongest warrior but he cannot defeat her, the moral being that you cannot defeat old age. Brother James uses this story to his advantage when Viking warriors attack the monastery. Another excellent tale in the series is The Eye of the Viking God which tells of the life of a young English girl taken as a slave on one of the Viking raids. The stories include tales of Viking gods, as well as giving a taste of daily life in those times. Each story includes a page of factual explanation in the form of an epilogue.

Recommended for age 6+. Also published by A & C Black are others in the series: Terry Deary’s Greek Tales; Terry Deary’s Roman Tales, Terry Deary’s Egyptian Tales and Terry Deary’s Knights’ Tales, featuring four titles in each.

Julie Parker THE PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF JOAN OF ARC Tony DiGerolamo (adapter), Mark Twain (author), Rajesh Nagulakonda (illustrator), Campfire, 2010, $9.99, pb, 72pp, 9788190732628 Lest there be confusion, this is not Mark Twain’s Joan of Arc—it’s a graphic novel adaptation.

Twain spent 12 years researching his version, and it’s accounted by many to be one of his best “unknown” novels, since it often receives short shrift when compared to Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. It’s decidedly different in tone — less snarky trademark Twain and more (surprisingly) reverent history of a Catholic saint. This basic element is preserved in the graphic novel — reverence for Joan as a person combined with a storyline greatly simplified from Twain’s original.

Narrated by Louis de Contes, a childhood friend of Joan’s, this is the story of her rise from simple peasant lass in the village of Domremy to savior of France, and her ultimate betrayal by the king and execution for witchcraft and heresy.

The language is simple, and events/concepts that the adapters feel require greater elucidation are starred and footnoted. Despite the simplification, all the important bases are covered here, and the adapter even delves shallowly but capably into the political situation in England and France in

the 1400s. This is but one in a series of classics that Campfire has converted into graphic novels, with the stated goal of making literature “more approachable.” This novel will accomplish that for a younger demographic while still sticking fairly close to Twain’s original storyline. The illustrations themselves are competently executed and the production value is relatively high, though one could wish for a bit more vitality and detail in certain places. Overall, this graphic novel will appeal to young adults, and would also be a good addition for school or public libraries.

Bethany Latham THE STORY OF BRITAIN Patrick Dillon, illus. P J Lynch, Walker, 2010, £18.99, hb, 350pp, 9781406311921 Starting from the very beginning of known British history in the Bronze Age and moving swiftly on to the Roman invasion, The Story of Britain takes the reader on a journey of changing beliefs and culture right up until the end of the 20th century and the attacks on the World Trade Center.

Short chapters take topics of history and present them in a readable style with colour vignettes of key figures. Each section is followed by a timeline indicating significant events of the century. Of course, everyone will have their favourite parts of history which may not be represented, but the book is aimed at upper primary school pupils of 9+, studying Key Stage 2 history and should be able to provide background reading to most topics.

For example, the chapter on the Victorians is illustrated by pictures of Daniel O’Connell, Mary Seacole, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Queen Victoria, Benjamin Disraeli, William Gladstone and Emmeline Pankhurst. The chapters include: the Peterloo massacre, Daniel O’Connell, the Great Reform Act, the industrial revolution, railways, factory life, unions, the Greta Exhibition, the Charge of the Light Brigade, Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole, the Indian Mutiny, the Irish famine, home rule for Ireland, chartists and communists, and suffragettes. A six-page index and list of kings and queens completes the book.

Julie Parker ANNEXED Sharon Dogar, Andersen Press, 2010, £12.99, hb, 320pp, 9781845391245 / Houghton Mifflin, 2010, $17.00, hb, 341pp, 9780547501956 Amsterdam is under Nazi occupation. For most teenagers, the idea of being stuck in a few small rooms with your family for months on end is unbearable. Add another family with a teenage son, a middle-aged man, and the possibility of discovery by the Nazis at any moment and you have a story.

A story that was tragically true for Anne Frank and many other Jews like her living under Nazi rule. In Annexed, Dogar offers a different insight into the Anne Frank story.

Written as a series of diary entries from the teenage Peter Van Pels’ perspective, Annexed looks at the possible emotions that may have plagued a teenage boy first in hiding and then faced with life Children & YA

and death in the concentration camps. Those who have read Anne Frank’s diary may feel that they already know Peter, one of Anne’s fellow prisoners, but what was he actually thinking? Annexed offers a possible answer.

Dogar has tried to get across the emotions of an ordinary boy coming of age in extraordinary circumstances. She has researched Peter Van Pels and his fellow captors’ backgrounds and stories extensively, using memoirs and interviews with survivors to add dimension and colour to the narrative.

Where Anne Frank’s diaries end, Annexed carries on. Here the book is in its element, culminating, as it does, in an emotionally moving end. Significantly, the author also refers to the Anne Frank House and Foundation, which researches into modern genocide, thus making the story’s impact even more relevant today. Dogar wants the new generation of readers to take on the responsibility of preventing these horrors from ever recurring. It is clear that Dogar has written this book ‘lest we forget’ and it is books like Annexed that are crucial in ensuring that we never will.

Rachel Chetwynd-Stapylton WILDTHORN Jane Eagland, Houghton Mifflin, 2010, $16.00, hb, 350pp, 9780547370170 / Young Picador, 2009, £6.99, 368pp, 978-0330458160 Insane asylums of the 19th century were a bad place to be locked up, particularly for those unfortunate women who were sane when they were committed. Moreover, men (that is, wealthy or well-connected men) were seemingly allowed to define “crazy” in whatever way was convenient.

Wildthorn by Jane Eagland joins a strong tradition of novels that deal with these issues.

Louisa Cosgrove is an intelligent and headstrong young woman living in 19th-century England. Her father is a physician, her mother is a physician’s wife and a conformist, and her older brother is her intellectual inferior and a bully.

Louisa has never been a “normal” girl. She wants to follow in her father’s footsteps and, despite her mother’s attempts to squeeze this square peg into a round hole, her father encourages her to follow her dreams. But after he dies, Louisa finds herself committed to an insane asylum. At first she is convinced it was a mistake; after all, they think she is “Lucy Childs.” Then she realizes with horror that someone has put her there. Louisa struggles with an impossible conundrum — the more she argues with the authorities, insists upon her true identity and sanity, or suggests that there must be a plot against her, the more she confirms their opinion that she is mad. As expected, if she fights, it only makes her situation worse. Physicians are incompetent (or corrupt) and the staff is either indifferent or sadistic.

Along with Louisa, the reader searches for a way out, hoping for intervention from a caring relative from outside — if only they could be made aware of her plight. But who can be trusted if someone she loves put her there?

Children & YA

Sue Asher PIMPERNELLES: The Traitor’s Smile (Book 2) Patricia Elliott, Hodder, 2010, £6.99, pb, 419pp, 9780340956779 1793. The French king has been guillotined and the Reign of Terror is just beginning. Eugénie de Boncoeur and the wounded Julien de Fontin escape Paris and reach safety with Eugénie’s English relations in the port of Deal. Eugénie is desperately concerned about her brother, Armand, left behind in an increasingly dangerous Paris. He’s in hiding, but will he be safe?

Meanwhile, her English cousin, the idealistic Hetta, is up to her ears promoting the cause of liberté, fraternité, and égalité in which she so passionately believes. She takes an instant dislike to her stuck-up cousin Eugénie, an antipathy fully returned by Eugénie, who is devastated to find that Julien seems very taken with Hetta. In her misery, Eugénie turns to an old admirer, the charismatic Guy Deschamps. But Guy is not all he seems, and

C

soon Hetta and Eugénie find that treachery can lurk in the most unexpected places…

I enjoyed this action-packed story. It whooshes along at a cracking pace, leaving the reader desperate to know what will happen next. The danger of life on the edge in a blood-soaked Paris during the Terror is very well caught. I particularly enjoyed the contrast between the straight-forward courage of the high-minded Hetta and the wilfulness of the more worldly-wise, occasionally spoilt, Eugénie.

The two cousins must learn to trust each other’s strengths if they are to survive.

I have one caveat. Surgeons in the late 18th century were seen as little better than barbers. It is inconceivable that Hetta’s father, a lowly surgeon, would have come from the sort of family who did the Grand Tour and have aristocratic relations.

Still, teenage girls, who enjoy a thrilling romantic adventure with an authentically terrifying Paris during the Terror, need look no further. This is the book for them.

Elizabeth Hawksley

E D I TORS’ CH OICE

HELL’S UNDERGROUND SERIES: SCARED TO DEATH; THE DEMON ASSASSIN; RENEGADE; WITCH BREED

Alan Gibbons, Orion, 2009-2010, £5.99; £6.99; £7.99; £7.99, pb; hb; hb; hb, 347pp; 364pp; 359pp; 311pp; 9781444001433; 9781842551806; 9781842551813; 9781842557808 Paul Rector is a well-behaved school boy who rarely breaks the rules. His only immediate family is his very protective mother, who inwardly pines for the loss of his brother. However, the truth of his genetic inheritance is about to be revealed as his life is changed irrevocably. This is a magnificent quest of good against evil. Paul follows his destiny in time-slip fashion as the underground provides access to various eras of London’s troubled history. Brilliantly told and skilfully written, these books will delight, horrify, entice and mystify the unsuspecting reader as the ultimate evil of the satanic King Lud threatens.

The series starts with Scared to Death. The prologue shows sibling rivalry and bullying taking on a sinister depth. Paul meets the enigmatic John Redman. His new ‘friend’ shows him a night of teenage revelry, uncharacteristic for Paul. He soon realises there is a link between Redman, himself, Jack the Ripper and a spate of murders where the victims appear to have died of fear. Paul has to overcome Redman’s power and purpose and nurture his own. The ending is gripping as Paul’s lonely quest continues.

In the The Demon Assassin Paul finds himself in 1941, saving Winston Churchill from a murder plot. With the influence of Hitler’s evil Nazis and the Blitz as a backdrop, Paul discovers the depth of love, loyalty and sacrifice which friends will make for good.

The depth of the battles intensifies when Paul meets another ancestor, Samuel Rector and the Rat Boys, in Victorian London. In Renegade Paul’s quest intensifies. The sadism of the heartless demonic powers is matched by human endurance.

When Paul finds himself in 1645, Witch Breed adds a new dimension to the journey. The history of cruelty administered by those breathing ignorance, superstition and fear adds to the evil presence. The sinister intentions are used to build tension and pace.

King Lud is held by four seals, but one by one they are being broken. Paul’s journey continues.

The darkness has deepened, the threat grows. His battle within is ongoing as he fights to take control, defeat Lud and return home.

Excellent reading for young adults and adults alike.

Val Loh HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Reviews | 57

C

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E

THE GHOST OF CRUTCHFIELD HALL

Mary Downing Hahn, Clarion, 2010, $17.00, hb, 160pp, 9780547385600 When 12-year-old Florence boards the horsedrawn coach in London that will take her from the orphanage where she’s spent the past seven years to the home of her newly discovered uncle at Crutchfield Hall, she is filled with hope and excitement. However, all is not what it seems at Crutchfield Hall. Florence’s imaginings of a happy home life are shattered as the ghost of her 12-year-old cousin, Sophia, seeks to recreate the scene of her death, causing someone else to die in her place so that she will be restored to life.

In this beautifully told ghost story, Mary Downing Hahn masterfully combines a gripping and evocative mystery with a tender portrayal of a young girl trying to adapt to the kind of life of which she’s always dreamed.

While it’s a tale that will send shivers down your spine, it is also a tale of friendship and redemption.

I thoroughly enjoyed this exciting, mysterious, and ultimately satisfying story, as did my nine-year-old daughter who read it in just two days and declared it “absolutely awesome.”

Beverley Eikli THREADS AND FLAMES Esther Friesner, Viking, 2010, $17.99/C$22.50, hb, 400pp, 9780670012459 After recovering from an illness in 1910, 13-year-old Raisa emigrates from Poland to New York. Instead of a happy reunion with her sister, Raisa learns that Henda believes she’s dead, and has disappeared. Determined to find her sister and succeed in her new country, and with the unexpected charge of caring for a motherless child named Brina, Raisa struggles to locate a job and a place to live. Gavrel, who’s studying to become a rabbi, takes them home, and his parents offer the girls a place to stay. Raisa eventually finds work at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, but a horrible fires sweeps through the factory in 1911, trapping Raisa, Gavrel, and several friends. In the terrible aftermath, no one remains unscathed.

Written for readers ten and older, Threads and Flames is a compelling account of an immigrant’s experiences. Raisa copes with feelings of isolation – being away from the village and those she’s known all her life, the loss of her sister, the inability to communicate because she doesn’t speak English – while encountering prejudice and tenement life in a strange, new place. Readers experience all this, the fire, and its consequences through her eyes in this deftly woven and not-soon-forgotten tale of hardship, romance, and hope.

Cindy Vallar

went sour, and the children all landed in the early 21st century where they were adopted by regular people. At the age of thirteen, the children were contacted by time travelers who needed their help fixing the time that the kidnappers had corrupted.

In Sabotaged, Andrea must return to her life as Virginia Dare. Jonah and Katherine and a dog named Dare are enlisted to go back in time with Andrea because a projectionist can tell that this grouping has the best chance for a successful mission. However, the children’s trip through time is sabotaged, and they find themselves alone, unsure where or when they are. They also don’t know what their mission was supposed to be, and they have lost the device that let them communicate with the mission’s leader.

Although a great deal goes wrong at the start of the book, action and suspense are slow to follow — extremely surprising in a Margaret Peterson Haddix book. Jonah, Katherine and Andrea wander and worry, but not much else happens.

Jonah’s obtuseness, which was endearing in the previous books, becomes frustrating and finally obnoxious. Andrea’s character is also hard to relate to. Still, as the plot develops, and more characters are added to the mix, the action and suspense build, and the book builds into the excitement Haddix fans expect. The ending is gripping and leaves many questions unanswered.

Elizabeth Caulfield Felt

SABOTAGED Margaret Peterson Haddix, Simon & Schuster, 2010, $16.99/C$21.99, hb, 377pp, 9781442406469 Sabotaged is the third book in The Missing series, about famous children from the past who were kidnapped to be adopted by paying parents in the future. In the first book, Found, the kidnapping

In the first book of this series, a boy, Jonah, and several other children mysteriously turn up on an airplane at the end of the 20th century as babies. They were famous children from the past who had been kidnapped by evil time travelers.

Thirteen years later good time travelers rescue the children and try to fix time. In this, the third book, the good time travelers are sending Andrea back to

58 | Reviews | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

her original life as Virginia Dare with Jonah and his sister Katherine and a dog to help. Something gets messed up with their time traveling and they end up in an unknown time. Somebody is messing with them and he calls himself “Second.” Who is he? And how will they get back to the twenty-first century?

I thought this book was really interesting and suspenseful. It gave me brain-pounding confusion that made me want to keep reading to know what was going on. I really liked it except that Jonah didn’t seem to understand what was obvious. For example, he was so obsessed about not trusting Second that he chose to go hungry rather than eat the food that Second provided. All in all, it was an 8 out of 10 book.

Tom Felt REQUIEM: Poems of the Terezin Ghetto Paul B. Janeczko, Candlewick, 2011, $16.99/ C$19.00, hb, 112pp, 9780763647278 In 1941, the town of Terezin, Czechoslovakia was commandeered by the Nazis to form a collection and transport camp for Jews. In publicly circulated propaganda, the Nazis promoted the camp as a cultural retreat, designed to nurture Jewish artists and musicians. Lectures, concerts, and even operas were regularly performed under the watchful eye of the Kommandant, with foreign inspectors in attendance. But the prodigies who performed one day faced the prospect of being transported to the death camps the next. The Nazis allowed music and drama to be practiced only as a diversion, a means of keeping the Jews safely occupied until they could be disposed of.

In this slim volume of verse, Paul B. Janeczko paints an affecting portrait of life in the Terezin camp, and how the arts kept hope alive under the most devastating circumstances. Each poem is told in the voice of a different prisoner – named by identification number – or, occasionally, in the voice of the Nazi guards. Janecko’s spare verse packs a punch to the gut, while avoiding the trap of cheap sentimentality. His careful research yields poignant details: the 25-word limit for postcards sent home to family members, the practice of assigning a group of prisoners to sort through the belongings of the deceased. The book’s only major fault is its brevity. The story Janeczko offers in 35 brief poems could easily be extended to 100. Clearly, there are hundreds of stories from Terezin still begging to be told.

Ann Pedtke SIGRUN’S SECRET Marie-Louise Jensen, Oxford University Press, 2011, £6.99, pb, 320pp, 9780192728821 Fifteen-year-old Sigrun has grown up happy in the belief that she knows all about her parents, Bjorn and Thora, and how they came to be living at Thorastead in Iceland. But her world is shaken when Halfgrim Bjornsson appears in the settlement claiming that Bjorn is a fugitive – a slave who murdered Halfgrim’s father, stole his name and ships, and took refuge from justice in Iceland.

Children & YA

C

THE MOURNING EMPORIUM

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E

Michelle Lovric, Orion, 2010, £9.99, hb, 406pp, 9781842557013 In this standalone sequel to The Undrowned Child, Michelle Lovric has provided another rip-roaring tale of amazing ingenuity and inventiveness. The date is December 1900, and the villainous real-life Venetian traitor, Bajamonte Tiepolo, has moved his sights from Venice to London, where Queen Victoria is on her deathbed. With Venice in the fatal grip of an icy lagoon of bad magic, the Venetian heroes, Teo(dora) and Renzo, set sail in the Scilla for London, where they are ably abetted by a wonderful cast of mermaids, orphans, Venetian pumpkin-sellers known as the Incogniti, a circus master, ghosts and, best of all, a talking English bulldog, Turtledove.

Lovric’s imaginative characterisation knows no bounds, and her dialogue sparkles with wit. For an adult reader, who unashamedly loved every word of it, the book gives a glimpse of the weird and wonderful Victorian world – the mourning emporium of the title was a reality, and a host of other details – including the quack medicines and contraptions used by the hypochondriac English mermaids – are based on historical fact; for younger readers, it offers a treasure trove of delight, with an action-packed plot spiced by historical events and magic.

Lucinda Byatt Now Halfgrim wants revenge. Bjorn and his family are forced to leave Iceland, leaving behind Sigrun’s injured mother and separating Sigrun from her newfound love, Ingvar, the son of a neighbouring farmer. They sail to Jorvik, where Sigrun has to adapt to city life and where she gradually develops her latent skills as a healer before terrible events overtake the family again.

This story is well-told and has considerable emotional depth. The love between Sigrun and Ingvar is tender and built on trust; it is not the main theme of the story, but underpins it with its emphasis on friendship and the importance of home and family. Although narrated in the first person by Sigrun, the story also involves the reader sympathetically in men’s ideas of honour and the bonds of friendship, and how these can lead to conflict. I particularly liked the way that Sigrun is a ‘strong’ woman, but strong in qualities of caring and compassion. Although we tend to think of Vikings as warlike, this story shows how important was the role of the ‘godi’ or negotiator, and how even the most implacable enemies could eventually accept terms that satisfied them and ensured peace – essential if ancient feuds were not to afflict generations to come.

Marie-Louise Jensen’s extensive research brings this far-off time to life. The story can be read as a sequel to Daughter of Fire and Ice, but also works perfectly as a stand-alone novel. Young girls who enjoy historical romance will love it.

Ann Turnbull INSIDE OUT & BACK AGAIN Thanhha Lai, HarperCollins, 2011, $15.99, hb, 262pp, 9780061962783 Told as an easily read poem, this is the story Children & YA

of Ha` and of her family’s harrowing escape to a refugee camp after the fall of Saigon. Just ten years old, her father MIA, she soon finds herself, with her older brothers and her mother, a stranger in a very strange land – Alabama. Here, struggling with the new language, as well as her color – neither “black” nor “white” – she is taunted, chased, and mocked. Here, eggs and bricks are thrown at her house. Here, her family discovers that it is safer to be baptized at their big-hearted sponsor’s evangelical church than to admit they are Buddhists. So far, this sounds pretty grim, not standard 8- to 12-year-old fare, but I was entirely enthralled by Ha`’s story. Her insights about her new country and the people in it are witty, out-ofthe-mouths-of-babes spot-on, all while remaining utterly true to the heart and mind of her age group.

Funny, heartbreaking, uplifting, melancholy, joyous — it’s all in here. I highly recommend this book. It should be read in schools, placed in libraries, and used by Sunday School teachers, too.

Juliet Waldron YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES: Red Leech Andrew Lane, Macmillan, 2010, £6.99, pb, 339pp, 9780350511995 Possibly better than the first in the Young Sherlock Holmes series, Black Cloud, this second in the series is full of action spanning two continents.

Back with his aunt and uncle at Holmes Manor, Sherlock resumes his studies with his American tutor, Amyus Crowe, but their reunion is short-lived as Sherlock’s government secret service brother, Mycroft, pays a visit. He tells them of a fledgling conspiracy involving several American interlopers for whom a nearby house is temporary home. His story involves the assassin of Abraham Lincoln,

John Wilkes Booth, who is believed to have fled abroad and eventually ended up in London. They believe that there is some connection between the visitors and Booth.

Unable to contain his curiousity, Sherlock recruits his riverboat comrade Matty and they set off to investigate. From then on, the events pile on thick and fast and include several near-death escapes, a sea voyage to New York, a train journey to Richmond, Virginia and encounters with unusual beasts. The complex story deserves to be explored by each individual reader, so suffice it to say that it is well worth the read and there is even a plausible theory about Sherlock’s affinity for the violin.

The details of the American steam railroad are excellent, as are the workings of the steam-assisted paddle boat which takes them to the USA. Early New York and its teeming and dangerous streets are well described, and the explanatory epilogue gives authorial insight into the historical research behind the book. Most suitable for readers of 10+.

Julie Parker THE SECRET OF THE SEALED ROOM: A Mystery of Young Benjamin Franklin Bailey MacDonald, Aladdin, 2010, $16.99/ C$21.99, hb, 224 pp, 9781416997603 Fourteen-year-old Patience Martin is unhappily indentured to the sick and demanding widow Abedela Worth. But when Mrs. Worth dies unexpectedly, instead of freeing Patience, Mrs. Worth’s brother-in-law decides to sell Patience to a harsh master. With little more than her quick wit and the help of a resourceful printer’s apprentice named Benjamin Franklin, Patience runs away and plans to leave town and become a servant for pay in another city. But when Patience’s friend, Moll, is jailed for poisoning Mrs. Worth, Patience decides to stay in Boston to discover how Mrs. Worth died.

Patience and Benjamin must solve the secret of the sealed room before Moll is hanged for murder.

This is a lively and fun read. MacDonald’s characters are well drawn and the plot moves along at a good pace. In addition, the historical detail about pre-Revolutionary Boston, especially concerning the life of young Benjamin Franklin, is woven into the story seamlessly. The story never feels like a history lesson. The mystery is a bit predictable, but readers will appreciate MacDonald’s twist at the end when Patience learns that nice people can do wicked things and mean people are not all they appear.

Patricia O’Sullivan

Patience Martin is fourteen years of age living in 18th-century Boston. She is bound to four years of working for her mistress Abedela Worth. But when the widow falls ill and mysteriously dies, locked in her room, Patience is held responsible for the theft of Ms. Worth’s strongbox. What other choice does she have to flee from the accusation and Ms. Worth’s brother-in law-who swears to bind Patience to several more years working for a wicked man? With the help of a young printer’s apprentice, HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Reviews | 59

Ben Franklin, Patience has to keep hidden in the printing house and disguise herself as a Quaker.

After all, there is a reward for her capture. It only gets worse when Patience’s friend, Moll Bacon, is accused of Ms. Worth’s death and thrown in jail.

Ben can’t keep Patience hidden forever but with a clever mind like his, will they solve the mystery of the Secret of the Sealed Room?

The Secret of the Sealed Room was a wonderful book. Mysteries for me are appealing because I can never put them down due to the idea of what might happen next. I think Ms. MacDonald crafted her characters very well. It was interesting to imagine Ben Franklin as a young boy because many people think of him now as the brilliant mind who found a way to harness electricity. This book is a fantastic read.

Marion O’Sullivan, age 12 SKEETER’S DREAM Candace Manley, La Frontera, 2010, $14.95, pb, 183pp, 9780978563486.

Skeeter Tates lives in a small Texas town in 1867, a particularly painful time for him, as he lost his father four years ago in the Civil War and his mother has remarried a Yankee. Everything comes to a head when Skeeter learns that his stepfather, Rick, is about to sell his father’s cherished horses, an act Skeeter interprets as the ultimate betrayal.

Joined by Ben, his best friend trying to escape drunken beatings from his own father, they decide

C

to run away and begin a series of adventures that will change both of their lives forever. Found and threatened by crooks, a bear, and more, the boys finally meet up with a girl, Angie, and some real criminals. The problem, however, becomes determining who is innocent and who is the criminal. It turns out that a posse is after the runaways. Only after some fearful moments are they freed, and they meet up with an uncle who gives them a totally new perspective on real courage, war and how similarities and care outweigh all the differences in the world. After all of these conflicts, which are thrilling to share as readers, a whole world of possibilities opens for Skeeter. Skeeter’s Dream is a fine first novel showing how a minimum of history produces maximum effects.

Viviane Crystal THE DOUBLE LIFE OF CORA PARRY Angela McAllister, Orion, 2011, £8.99, pb, 9781842256030 When orphan Cora’s brutal guardian dies, she imagines she will be free to do whatever she wants. Instead, she finds she is to be returned to the workhouse – a fate she is determined to resist.

She runs away and plunges into the dangerous underworld of Victorian London. She falls prey to a tough, manipulative girl named Fletch, who trains her to be her accomplice as they pick pockets and break into houses. Cora hates stealing; she knows it is wrong and she feels pity for the victims. But she

THE WAKE OF THE LORELEI LEE

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E

L.A. Meyer, Harcourt, 2010, $17, hb, 554pp, 9780547327686 L. A. Meyer has penned another winner in The Wake of the Lorelei Lee, the eighth installment in the brilliantly entertaining, often madcap 19th-century nautical adventures of Jacky Faber.

Jacky, fresh off her escapades diving for Spanish gold, connects with old friends in the Boston area as she prepares to sail her ship, The Lorelei Lee, to England. There she expects to be exonerated of many crimes as she reunites with her beloved Jamie. Yet upon arrival, she is arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in the newly formed penal colony in Australia.

Bundled onto her own confiscated ship with other women destined to be breeders, Jacky makes the long voyage in what is essentially a merry floating brothel.

Her only comfort comes from knowing that Jamie is making the same trip — albeit on a much harsher convict ship, a fact skillfully displayed through their many hopeful letters.

The long journey past India and into the South Seas gives Jacky plenty of opportunities for new exploits, including meeting a powerful female Chinese pirate. Taking advantage of this unusual connection, Jackie, through wile, skill, determination, and a little luck, arranges things so she and Jamie can be reunited. And here — in the face of the final consummation — Jacky truly matures. No longer the ship’s boy in disguise, she begins to do some serious thinking about what an unconventional young woman like herself really, really, wants out of life.

Juggling seven books worth of beloved characters and adding a full contingent more, L. A. Meyer continues to keep this wonderful series lively and fresh. Jacky Faber is a real prize of a character; this reader cannot wait to see what kind of woman she becomes.

Lisa Ann Verge 60 | Reviews | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

is dependent on Fletch for food and shelter. Her only link with normal life is her friendship with Joe, a pawnbroker’s son. All her other friends are people who have fallen on hard times and become thieves or down-and-outs. Cora longs to escape and not to have to lie to Joe. To distance herself from her crimes she calls her thieving alter ego Carrie – and soon Carrie begins to take on a life of her own.

This novel has lively storytelling, pace, and sympathy for the lives of the London poor.

However, I found the characters rather flat and stereotyped. The most interesting one is Fletch, and I was looking forward to seeing her relationship with Cora develop. Instead, Fletch disappears halfway through the book and in her place comes an element of the supernatural when Cora – by imagining and calling on Carrie – somehow brings the real Carrie to life. I found this aspect of the story unconvincing.

This is a story with fast action, secrets, and many twists and turns, suitable for readers of about nine to twelve.

Ann Turnbull BLOODLINE RISING Katy Moran, Candlewick, 2011, $16.99/C$19.00, hb, 352pp, 9780763645083 / Walker, 2009, £6.99, pb, 320pp, 9781406310238 I recently heard a panel of speakers struggle to define what made a book fit into the “young adult” genre. “Better writing,” they finally hit upon.

Bloodline Rising seems a perfect example of why they came to that conclusion. Forget about sleeping if you begin this book at bedtime. Magical and vivid storytelling quickly transports any reader into the 7th century, feeling the triumphs and terrors of the young protagonist, Cai, whose wits and uncanny stealth are his only weapons.

Cai, called “the ghost,” is master of the guild of young pickpockets and thieves in treacherous, civilized, Christian Constantinople. Brutally taken from his home, he discovers the truth about his feelings for his father, a warrior fighting the Muslim Arabs and now denounced as a traitor. Cai plans revenge on those who betrayed his family back in Constantinople, but first he must survive Britain, the barbaric homeland that his parents abandoned.

Bloodline Rising is a jewel of a book that reminded me why I love to read. It’s comparable to a fast-moving The Lord of the Rings, or The Once and Future King – also thrilling young adult books, come to think of it. All deserve to be read and reread.

Kristen Hannum A SLIP IN TIME Maggie Pearson, A & C Black Flashbacks, 2010 (2001), £4.99, pb, 95pp, 9781408115053 First published in 2001, A & C Black are reissuing this series of strongly written, educationally driven tales under the series heading Flashbacks in paperback format. All are slim novellas which will appeal to teachers and the age group 8-10. This particular story begins in the gloom of a Victorian London pea-souper where crossing sweeper Fadge Children & YA

waits in the hope of a few extra pennies from passers by lost in the fog. The time and setting then switches to contemporary London where Jack lives with his mother and grandpa. Tired of Grandpa’s obsession with old Sherlock Holmes films, Jack goes out on an errand to the shops but, distracted by the sound of a barrel organ and a marmalade cat he is whisked back in time into Fadge’s life.

Julie Parker DOUBLE CROSSING Richard Platt, Walker, 2010, £7.99, pb, 188pp, 9781406314663 Using the format of a diary written by a young Irish boy beginning on the 20th July 1906, this tale begins with the accidental death of a waterman whilst chasing the diarist, David, and his friend, Patrick, who are poaching on the river. David carries the guilt with him and wonders if the death of his father shortly afterwards is his fault.

For a while, David lives with Patrick’s family, but the time comes when he has to travel to New York to stay with his uncle. David is a Catholic, but Patrick’s family is not, and his father’s shop is being vandalised because they are sheltering David.

The political situation in Ireland is explained as a backdrop to the story.

One of the features of this book is the use of accessories which are stuck onto the pages, to create a scrapbook. A reproduction of the Cunard passenger logbook is one of these items, and to accompany this there is some detail about the journey to New York. One of the most interesting sections of the book is David’s arrival at Ellis Island, first stage in the immigrant’s passage to become an American. It is quite a grim experience, made worse by the fact that David’s family have not left word at Ellis Island that they are expecting him. He has no choice but to wait. He eventually discovers that his uncle is in prison and his aunt is distinctly unwelcoming. Life in New York is very hard. Through a series of coincidences and a chance meeting with a young boy that could be his identical twin, the story takes a strange turn.

The author claims that the discovery of the diary in an Irish junk shop is a true story, but the account may have an interest for younger readers whose ancestors made the same perilous journey to the United States.

Julie Parker THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN Leila Rasheed, Scholastic, 2010, £8.99, pb, 130pp, 9780956506405 This novella on the theme “Hidden Stratford,” set partly in 1642 and 2042, was commissioned for the Stratford-upon-Avon Literary Festival 2010 from local author Leila Rasheed. In the 17th-century element of the story, the first chapter shows us Jack’s perspective – a young boy travelling towards Stratford with his dying mother on the eve of the Civil War in 1642. In the second chapter in this part of the story, we meet Mary Campion, whose mother has died and whose father is away.

She lives with a friend of her mother’s family and Children & YA

C

REVOLVER

E D I TORS’ CH OICE

Marcus Sedgwick, Orion, 2009, £9.99, hb, 217pp, 9781842551868 / Roaring Brook, 2010, $16.99, hb, 224pp, 9781596435926 1910: the Scandinavian Arctic. Sixteen-year-old Sig Andersson’s stepmother and sister, Anna, are out. He is alone in the log cabin, save for the corpse of his father, Einar, frozen to death trying to cross the treacherous ice on the river – something long experience should have warned him to avoid. So why did Einar take the risk?

Then a stranger knocks at the door. Gunter Woolf insists that Einar owes him a half share of his hidden gold. Sig knows nothing of any gold but Woolf is not taking ‘no’ for an answer – and he has a gun. Can Sig get Woolf out of the house before his stepmother and Anna return?

This gripping story moves between 1910 and 1899, just after the discovery of gold when men in the thousands poured into the area. Einar, one of the first prospectors, knows that instant wealth is a delusion.

He works in the Assay office, weighing the gold brought in by men desperate to make a fortune. Among them is Gunter Woolf, a man Einar soon realizes is ruthless and determined. Einar is not rich, so why does Woolf think he is?

Marcus Sedgwick’s books have been shortlisted for many children’s book awards, and it shows. Revolver is a meticulously constructed book; the clues are dropped in so skilfully that they are almost imperceptible, yet each one is there, ready to detonate at exactly the right time.

Sedgwick gets across the desolation of the Arctic, a place where life is stripped to the bone and where men, or boys, have nobody to rely on but themselves. It’s about finding your way, even when death stares you in the face, and having the courage to choose the right path. I found it both a nail-biting and a perceptive read.

For boys of 12 plus, though girls should enjoy it as well.

Elizabeth Hawksley I really liked this book. Early on, there is a great description of the process that leads to a bullet leaving the neck of a revolver. The plot of the story attempts to work the same way, with all the elements, all description, from things as small as the use of hair oil, eventually coming together to produce a bloody and satisfying climax, and for the most part it succeeds. All mystery was supposed to be explained, but I thought there were still some gaps at the end, like for instance why the father chose to walk across thin ice, but for the most part, I think this book is well worth reading, to see everything suddenly gel and click, to produce the ending. The book, as the author says, revolves around a revolver and the Arctic Circle. Although all the characters remain very slightly drawn, what follows after the opening scene-setting is fascinating.

Ella McNulty, age 15 seeks disguise as a servant, as she is from a Catholic family, and occasionally carries notes to the local Catholic priest from her father. The battles between the Parliamentarians and the Royalists around Stratford are then described from the point of view of these two young people.

In the 2042 part of the story, Camilla and Darren are set a school project about the Civil War and as part of her research she reads a book

by Mary Campion, the young girl in the older story. However, the world of 2042 is very different to ours and another Civil War is imminent, this time between the established government of King William and the Greens who are supported by the people of East Anglia, flooded out of their homes.

This is an original take on the global problems of today linked to the different world of the seventeenth century through the location of Stratford and Edgehill. Quite a complex plot is deftly accomplished and the whole is very readable.

Recommended for 12+. This book was issued in a limited edition of 200; contact Annie Ashworth via the festival website at www.stratfordliteraryfestival. co.uk for availability.

Julie Parker THE LAST FULL MEASURE Ann Rinaldi, Harcourt, 2010, $17.00, hb, 209pp, 9780547389806 It is 1863, and fourteen-year-old Tacy and her family are caught up in the Battle of Gettysburg, trying to survive the shelling of their town, to save their free black friends from being captured and sold into slavery, and to help wounded soldiers.

I really wanted to like this book as I have enjoyed other Ann Rinaldi novels. But The Last Full Measure was a disappointment. First, the plot was fast-paced, but almost too fast. Important plot events took place one right after another with little commentary in between. Also, the choice of HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Reviews | 61

which events merited Tacy’s reflection seemed odd to me. Tacy commented little on the deaths of family members and friends, but quite a bit on family tensions, her fight with a friend, and her horse being stolen. Then there was the scene in which Tacy begged to go to the battlefield to help bury the dead. I understand that it is hard to do historical fiction with girls as the main character as oftentimes girls’ lives were so restricted. But I just didn’t buy Tacy wanting to see the carnage of Gettysburg, her family letting her go, and her being so little affected by it especially when it was described in Rinaldi’s wonderfully detailed manner as absolutely gruesome.

Also, problematic to me was the climax of the book when Tacy’s brother gives his “last full measure” to the battle. David’s act was described as honorable, but it felt senseless as the battle was over at that point and even Tacy understood David’s motivations as stubbornness rather than principled. Finally, at one point in the story the Sanitation Commission cleans the roads for fear of germs. Given that germ theory was not widely accepted until a generation later, this bit seemed anachronistic.

Patricia O’Sullivan TIME RIDERS: Day of the Predator Alex Scarrow, Penguin, 2010, £6.99, pb, 434pp, 9780141326931 Not just another time travel story, this is the second in the series about Liam, Maddy and Sal, time travellers extraordinaire. Specially recruited at times of imminent danger (Liam on the Titanic in 1912, Maddy on a crashing plane and Sal in a doomed skyscraper) by “the agency,” these three have been chosen to defy the laws of time and put right mistakes of the past, after the discovery of time travel in 2056.

At the start of this story, they must recreate their “support unit,” a meat robot with artificial intelligence, but Bob turns out to be the female Becks with a personality of her own. Part of the story is the intended assassination attempt on Edward Chan, brilliant mathematician, who was partly responsible for developing the theories behind time travel. When something goes wrong the entire school party, Liam, Becks and the assassin are jettisoned back in time to 65 million years B.C., to the time of the dinosaurs, but this time there is a mysterious unknown species which seems to possess some form of intelligence.

Written in three (at least) time narratives: 65 million B.C., 2001 and 2015, the story is very cleverly written and has so many twists and turns the reader just has to keep on reading. Quite grisly in places, with quite a lot of blood and gore, the second part of the book in particular will keep you on the edge of your seat wanting to find out what happens…and there is an unexpected twist at the end. Recommended for 12+ readers.

Julie Parker THE STORM BEFORE ATLANTA Karen Schwabach, Random House, 2010, $16.99/ 62 | Reviews | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

C$18.99, hb, 307pp, 9780375858666 It’s 1863, and young Jeremy DeGroot desperately wants to have his share of the glories of war. Dulcie is a runaway slave hoping to find freedom as Union troop contraband. When the two fall in with the 107th New York Volunteer Regiment – he as a drummer boy and she as a doctor’s assistant – they form an unlikely friendship. This bond is tested, however, by their clandestine encounters with a young Confederate soldier, an affable boy named Charlie who may well be a spy.

Jeremy’s grandiose dreams of dying on the battlefield contrast effectively with Dulcie’s practical desire to maintain her newfound independence.

Young readers will find both characters appealing and are certain to be drawn in by the mystery of Charlie’s true intentions. Also engaging is this novel’s haunting depiction of a soldier’s day-today life. Long periods of waiting – during which the reader gains insight into the perspectives of Jeremy’s messmates – are punctuated by fast-paced scenes of battle. Schwabach provides an unflinching view of the horrors of war without alienating the reader, perhaps because we are right there in the action with Jeremy and Dulcie.

With its appealing characters, rich historical detail and gripping suspense, The Storm Before Atlanta is recommended for readers 9 and up (with a caution for war-related violence).

Sonia Gensler WHITE CROW Marcus Sedgwick, Orion, 2010, £9.99, hb, 262pp, 9781842551875 / Roaring Brook, July 2011, $15.99, hb, 240pp, 9781596435940 White Crow is about man’s obsession with death and the afterlife, and follows the parallel obsessions of two groups of people, one living in the eighteenth century, the other in the twenty-first.

Within the first page, we are introduced to the typical teenage protagonist that haunts the ‘modern gothic thriller’ genre. Young, beautiful and emotionally hurt, Rebecca is a sixteen-year-old Londoner, uprooted and wrenched away from her old life after her ex-policeman father’s reputation is blackened. Hiding away, Rebecca finds herself in the ominously named Winterfold; a town that is slowly being eroded by the sea. Here she meets the abnormal girl, Ferelith, with whom she begins a strange friendship.

The setting is right, the characters are a perfect mix of normality and the mysterious. And, yes, White Crow is nothing if not well presented. Why then did I struggle so much with it?

It seems to me that Sedgwick has almost overcultivated the novel. The complex structure and references give it a sort of clinical feel, as though he has followed the recipe to a good gothic thriller whilst forgetting the crucial ingredient of emotion.

Indeed, the three narrators, approaching the story from different angles and even different centuries, serve more to fragment the story than focus it, making it difficult to form an on-going attachment with any one character.

The message of the novel is drummed into the

reader repeatedly, rather than gently hinted at, so that it gradually loses its impact. Subtle hinting at a theme or message would be far more effective than making it transparent, which Sedgwick’s constant repetition of philosopher William James’s White Crow quote seems to do. In my view, Sedgwick’s fatal mistake is to dumb down the book simply because it is not for the adult market, and what a mistake that is.

Rachel Chetwynd-Stapylton THE RISEN HORSE Karen Taschek, Univ. of New Mexico, 2010, $15.95, pb, 248pp, 9780826348371 Isabel Chavez is a young teenager living on the Mescalero Apache reservation in 1905; her mother has just died, her brother is hanging out with other guys and playing cards all day, and her father literally sits on the town fence, too deep in his grief to notice what his daughter and son are up to. Coping with her own grief, Isabel turns to what she loves most: horses. She has an innate talent for training “un-rideable” horses, and the Indian agent finds her skills valuable and pays her well. Very quickly, though, her life will change drastically: her father is persuaded to send her back East to a Pennsylvania boarding school for Indian children from all the nations to help them adapt better to their new world. Isabel is eager and curious, though wary, and her new life at the Carlisle School while strange at first, begins to grow on her, as do her new girlfriends.

Written with a simple, straightforward style that suits the teenage characters, The Risen Horse is an engaging story with a sympathetic heroine — we start to care very early about what’s going to happen to Isabel, and how she’s going to manage in that strange world of white people back East.

Basically, she does just fine — and when she comes back home to New Mexico for the summer, it gets even better.

This is the second story about the Chavez family; Taschek’s earlier book, Horse of Seven Moons, portrayed Isabel’s father — then known as Bin-daa-dee-nin, now just John Chavez — as he fought the losing battle against the U.S. government and ended up living on the reservation.

Taschek has written thirteen other YA books, all having to do with horses and teenagers — a winning combination!

Mary F. Burns GREASE TOWN Ann Towell, Tundra, 2010, $17.95/C$19.99, hb, 232pp, 9780887769832 What was life like in a mid-19th century oil field?

Dirty and smelly. Young readers will be plunged into that world with Titus Sullivan’s experiences in the Ontario oil boom. Titus stows away on his brother’s wagon headed for the oil fields to find work. He meets a boy from a former slave family, Moses Croucher, and together they earn money guiding tourists around Oil Springs. Titus observes the prejudice that Moses and other black people experience, such as oil workers complaining Children & YA

that blacks are taking jobs away from white men.

Agitators cause a race riot, and witnessing the violence traumatizes Titus into losing his voice.

Will he ever be able to testify in court and help bring the mob leaders to justice?

The oil boom storyline is very interesting.

It is sad to realize that the former slaves who made it across the border did not always escape their troubles once they reached Canada. Titus’s narrative voice is appropriate for the period and for a child his age. A minor qualm: the dust jacket design leads the reader to expect the main focus will be on the blacks’ story, but instead it’s on Titus and his reactions to the world.

B. J. Sedlock THE POISON DIARIES Maryrose Wood, HarperCollins, 2010, $16.99, hb, 288pp, 9780061802362 / HarperCollins, 2010, £6.99, pb, 240pp, 9780007354436 Sixteen-year-old Jessamine lives an isolated existence with her apothecary father in 18thcentury Northumberland, tending the medicine gardens and learning which plants can cure and which can kill. Her father’s greatest dream is to recover the wealth of botanical knowledge lost when England’s monasteries were dissolved. When a mysterious boy called Weed comes to the cottage and shows a strange understanding of plants and their uses, Jessamine welcomes him as a friend and romantic interest – but her father sees him as a tool who must be made to surrender his secrets at any cost.

Commissioned by the Duchess of Northumberland as a companion novel to the modern-day Poison Garden at Alnwick Castle, this book had great potential. Maryrose Wood’s writing is lyrical, and the details of apothecary healing are well researched. Unfortunately, what begins as an intriguing historical novel quickly spirals into a confusing whirlpool of half-developed fantasy elements. Weed’s supernatural powers remain unexplained, and the climactic battle with the villainous “Prince of Poisons” – an antagonist without apparent motive – leaves the reader dazed and confused. The engaging narrative ultimately fades into unconvincing allegory, and the characters see their fates dealt out in seemingly arbitrary fashion. The writing was beautiful, the plot a disappointment. This author is capable of better.

Ann Pedtke CRUSADE Linda Press Wulf, Bloomsbury, 2011, £6.99, pb, 248pp, 9781408804841 This is a worthy addition to the canon of children’s historical literature taking, as it does, for its subject the Children’s Crusade of 1212, which swept through France that year only to end at the southern port of Marseilles. The French Crusade was led by a shepherd boy, called Stephen, handsome and charismatic but proving to be dissolute and flawed. The story is brought close to the reader through the characters of Georgette, a young but devout village girl, and Robert, a brilliant Children & YA — Nonfiction

companion to the Abbot of Blois, plucked from his poor orphaned existence when a small child.

The two main characters do not spring to life as well as could be hoped, and remain more ciphers than recognisable personalities. It is true that is is a leap of faith to put oneself in the medieval mind but, while recognising that their world was very different from our own, the reader could expect to feel more empathy for Georgette and Robert considering the horrors and ultimate betrayal of the journey in which they were involved. The intention was to march on Jerusalem and free the Holy City from the Infidel, which would involve a biblical parting of the Mediterranean to allow them through. The modern reader could also have a problem in understanding how so many young children were allowed on this journey from which most never returned.

Religious fervour is an alien experience to most young people today, but this book would certainly provide clues to the reality of the 13thcentury experience. It is difficult to know which target audience the book would succeed with, but probably both boys and girls of 12+. The writer is South African by birth, but currently lives in California. She provides an impressive list for further reading at the end of the book and five pages of historical notes.

Julie Parker DAUGHTER OF XANADU Dori Jones Yang, Random House, 2011, $17.99, hb, 352pp, 9780385739238 Princess Emmajin, the granddaughter of the Great Khubilai Khan, wants to be a soldier, a dream unheard of for a female in the 13th-century Mongol Empire. She must earn the mission by first completing a task for her father, learning the secrets of the foreigner Marco Polo. The Khan’s goal to conquer Venice and other parts of Europe can only be carried out by discovering the weak points in the foreigners’ defenses. But while pretending friendship to gain information, Emmajin gradually discovers that her feelings for Marco are developing into care. All of the beliefs the Mongols have traditionally held about foreigners and war cause emotional turmoil for Emmajin as she tries to evaluate her loyalties and her future.

When Emmajin at last finds herself on the battlefield, awesome scenes ensue of wild beasts, “dragons,” and elephants. What should be a glorious adventure, however, evolves into a nightmare full of the cruel, cold realities of warfare and betrayal.

Faced with losing those she loves most, Emmajin challenges the Khan with a new way of considering foreign representatives and countries. Daughter of Xanadu is an exciting, tough, and riveting story balanced with tenderness, compassion, and beauty.

Dori Jones Yang is a writer to watch, a talented author who has written a compelling, unique, and enjoyable story worthy of merit as a great YA historical novel.

Viviane Crystal

|

nonfiction

|

THE ENGLISH GHOST: Spectres Through Time Peter Ackroyd, Chatto & Windus, 2010, hb, 276pp, £12.99, 9780701169893 The prolific Peter Ackroyd’s latest book is a collection of supposedly factual reports of supernatural occurrences in England, from the Middle Ages to the mid 20th century. Most are brief eyewitness accounts or newspaper articles that describe these odd events. Sometimes they are placed in context, so that the stories can be “explained” by subsequent events or by some previous cause, but most are left without authorial elucidation. These are essentially anecdotal stories, lazily culled from a collection of books. There is an introduction which rather superficially explains the English fascination with ghostly tales. This is not the most impressive of the author’s non-fiction work.

Doug Kemp BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: Human-Animal Relations as Revealed in Real Photo Postcards, 1905-1935 Arnold Arluke and Robert Bogdan, Syracuse Univ.

Press, 2010, $39.95, hb, 344pp, 9780815609810 The first third of the 20th century was a time of change in America. Industrialization meant greater wealth and more time in the home. Urbanization led people away from the farms and the wilderness.

All of this changed how Americans regarded and interacted with animals. Animals became more common in the home, in the spotlight, in advertisements, and less commonly thought of as food and labor. People’s close relationships with the animals in their lives were captured on the cheap and newly-popular picture postcards.

Illustrated with hundreds of photo postcards, this book examines how early 20th-century Americans regarded animals, whether pets, livestock, entertainers, or symbols. The authors suggest that this book will mainly appeal to scholars of sociology and anthropology, but I found it to be very accessible to a reader outside these areas. The collection of early 20th-century postcards alone make this book worthwhile for the historical novelist, but the accompanying text is fascinating and gives insight into the way historical characters might have interacted with the animals in their lives.

Jessica Brockmole MERCHANT KINGS: When Companies Ruled the World 1600-1900 Stephen R. Boun, St. Martin’s, 2010, $26.99, hb, 320pp, 9780312616113 / Conway, 2010, £16.99, hb, 272pp, 9781844861149 This is a compilation of vignettes detailing how six men explored and exploited new territories for the enrichment of enterprises and their HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Reviews | 63

stockholders. In the 17th century, Jan Pieterzoon Coen and the Dutch East India Company made fortunes in the spice trade, and then Peter Stuyvesant ruled New Amsterdam for the Dutch West India Company. In the mid-18th century, Robert Clive, a clerk and trader for the English East India Company, brought England’s military power to India, ensuring England’s monopoly in the tea trade. In the 18th century, the narrative moves to Alaska and focuses on Aleksandr Andreyevich Baranov, who works for the Russian American Company and dominates the fur trade.

Also in North America, Scottish-born George Simpson, a financial genius, guides the Hudson’s Bay Company’s fur trade for England. The last merchant king is Cecil John Rhodes, whose name will be most familiar to 21st-century readers as the owner of the African Kimberly Diamond Mine and principal owner of De Beers, diamond merchants.

Stephen Boun’s narratives show these men in a clear, dispassionate, not always unsympathetic way. He describes their innate one-sightedness that enabled them to fix on their goals, and the fact that they all had “inconspicuous beginnings.”

The one ability these men have in common is a ruthless, unrelenting drive to succeed at all costs.

An interesting read.

Audrey Braver LATE FOR TEA AT THE DEER PALACE Tamara Chalabi, HarperCollins, 2010, £25, hb, 414pp, 9780007249312 / Harper, 2011, $27.99, hb, 448pp, 9780061240393 In the early 1980s, I was teaching English in the south of England to Iraqi trainee helicopter pilots, who would return straight into the war against Iran. When I learned of Tamara Chalabi’s book I was keen to read an Iraqi take on that country.

She is the daughter of Ahmed Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress during Saddam’s time, dedicated to his overthrow. “As with everything in the Middle East,” she writes in the prologue, “nothing makes sense until you understand the past, and the past is never straightforward.”

Born in exile in Beirut in 1973, she grew up with family stories, creating in her imagination a place of scholars, antiquities, music, poetry, a haven of Arabs, Kurds, Turks, Persians, in a land watered by the Tigris and Euphrates. The reality, her first visit to Baghdad after Saddam’s overthrow in 2003, was a mediaeval country traumatised by misrule and neglect; a people who had lost their voice.

Anger propelled her to write the book, a need to discover the country not through weapons of mass destruction, insurgents, or TV news clips, but from people who have loved it. She begins with her businessman great-grandfather – the deer of the title was a statue, a gift from India to his sister – in 1913, when the provinces of Baghdad, Basra and Mosul were known as Mesopotamia in a teetering Ottoman Empire. Central to the narrative is Tamara’s grandmother Bibi, born in 1900, who married Hadi Chalabi at 16, first meeting him on their wedding day. They had nine children, the 64 | Reviews | HNR Issue 55, February 2011

youngest being Ahmed. Two‑thirds of the book covers years of power, wealth, jasmine-scented gardens, entertaining kings, caring for employees, until 1958 when the royal family was murdered, and the Chalabis imprisoned or fled abroad.

A remarkable book, written with passion and lyricism.

Janet Hancock ECLIPSE Nicholas Clee, Bantam, 2010, £14.99, pb, 344pp, 9780593059845 / Transworld, 2010, $24.95, pb, 352pp, 9780593059845 This is the story of perhaps the greatest racehorse of all time, unbeaten throughout his career and so feared by rivals that finally they simply refused to race against him. While Eclipse was lionised by Georgian society, his future success was not evident from his looks, he was both ‘leggy, and possessed, experts thought, an ugly head.’

But this is not just a story about a horse, it is also a fascinating social history of late 18th-century England where a horse ‘bred as was fitting by a royal duke’ could be owned by ‘an Irish adventurer whose companion was a brothel madam.’ The Irish adventurer was Major Denis O’Kelly who rose from sedan chairman to owner of the greatest stables in England while his companion Charlotte Hayes was one of the most famous brothel keepers of the Georgian age. Together, they ‘were at the summit of two of the most important leisure industries in Britain’, sex and horseracing.

The second part of the book is just as interesting, concentrating on Eclipse the stallion whose bloodline so dominates today’s thoroughbred horses that ninety-five per cent of all racehorses are descended from him.

Even today, it is ‘Eclipse first, the rest nowhere.’

Gordon O’Sullivan LIVIA: Empress of Rome (US) / EMPRESS OF ROME: The Life of Livia (UK) Matthew Dennison, St. Martin’s Press, 2011, $27.99, hb, 336pp, 9780312658649 / Quercus, £20.00, hb, 352pp, 9781849161107 Livia, wife of Augustus Caesar, is one of the most vilified figures in ancient history. Writers from Tacitus to Robert Graves have portrayed her as a bloodthirsty murderess, guilty of poisoning numerous members of the Julian family in her quest to put her son Tiberius on the throne. But the infamous empress has found a worthy defender in Matthew Dennison, who salvages Livia’s reputation with this biography and takes a closer look at the complexities of her character and her times.

Dennison mines the sources to debunk the myths surrounding Livia’s life – pointing out how many of Livia’s “crimes” were recorded only at a remove of generations – and examines the prejudices that have made these myths so widely accepted. The Livia that emerges is a woman of cunning, but not of malice; a woman constricted by a culture that defined women’s greatness only

in their relation to men; a woman who subtly used her religious and domestic influence to guide societal and institutional reform. Dennison has an unsettling habit of jumping ahead in the narrative, then backtracking to fill in the exposition. Overall, though, this is a competent and much-needed biography of a misunderstood but age-defining woman.

Ann Pedtke MONK EASTMAN: The Gangster Who Became a War Hero Neil Hanson, Knopf, 2010, $29.95, hb, 395pp, 9780307266552 At the turn of the last century, New York City was a seething mix of wealth and power, ambition and corruption. The city’s underworld, centered on the Lower East Side, thrived on an intimate connection with Tammany Hall, the Democratic machine, which dominated local politics. Monk Eastman, gang boss of a good part of the Bowery, owed his power more to his ability to supply votes for the machine than his formidable fighting skills. Finally sent “up the river” to Sing Sing in 1904, the resourceful thug emerged five years later to a different world, where his talents were less profitable. Then, astonishingly, in 1917, in his forties, he enlisted in the army, went to France with the Expeditionary Force, and helped us win the war.

This is an extraordinary story, and the data is detailed, but it wanted to be a novel. The story needs a real plot, engaging characters with interior lives, at least somebody to like. Monk doesn’t do it. Even Hanson’s lovingly detailed recitals of his many scars don’t make him endearing. Herbert Asbury’s Gangs of New York is more fun, and faster reading.

Cecelia Holland THE HEMLOCK CUP Bettany Hughes, Jonathan Cape, 2010, 485pp, £25.00, hb, 9780224071789 / Knopf, 2011, $25.00, 428pp, 9781400041794 My copy of Bettany Hughes’ new work arrived bearing the sticker, ‘As read on BBC Radio 4.’ I mention this because, although an undoubtedly erudite work and written in a lucid and vivacious style, The Hemlock Cup reads more like a transcription of a series of short programmes than a unified text. This gives each chapter a refreshing immediacy, the sense that the author is talking directly to you, but it also makes the book seem somewhat jerky and disjointed, better for dipping into at random than reading through from beginning to end. Perhaps this does not matter, but it left this reader a little disappointed. As a devotee of Ann Wroe’s Pilate: The Biography of an Invented Man, I had expected something more ingenious and intuitive. That said, Hughes’ work is accessible and sumptuously illustrated. I didn’t feel I knew Socrates much better after reading it, but my understanding of his Athens, from the viewpoint of both his contemporaries and modern Nonfiction

archaeologists, is certainly greater. I’d say it was a good coffee table book, but the title might give your guests the wrong impression!

Sarah Bower INVENTING GEORGE WASHINGTON Edward C. Lengel, Harper, 2011, $17.95, hb, 272pp, 9780061662584 George Washington, hailed by a modern biographer as “indispensible,” was once a man, but he has become a kind of inkblot, a projection of the times in which we live, a projection of the causes dear to our hearts. This book, written by the editorin-chief of The Washington Papers project, has grown from a lifetime of study. When Washington died in 1799, Americans felt as if they’d lost a father. His death deprived the country of the grand old man a mere decade after the Founding of the Republic, at a time when both political divisions and external threats were running high. After all, he’d been our first president, our greatest general, and a public person for much of his life. By the turn of the 19th century, an image had already begun to separate from the real, human Washington, and death accelerated the process.

With a razor wit and a wealth of source at his fingertips, Mr. Lengel dissects the growth and proliferation of every Washington story you ever heard, from the treacle dispensed by “Parson” Weems to the accusations of revisionists and the outright fabrications of politicians. Creating a multiplicity of Washingtons, as Americans attempt to find the person behind the symbol, continues to be a profitable and politically useful enterprise.

Entertaining and highly recommended.

Juliet Waldron

ANCIENT WORLDS Richard Miles, Allen Lane, 2010, £25.00, hb, 301pp, 9780713997941 In his trailer for the TV series which accompanies this book, Richard Miles describes his work not as the history of other people, made strange to us by the distance of time and place, but of ‘us, then.’ The great achievement of this history of civilisation in its literal sense, of the organisation of communities into cities, is the way in which it brings its subjects to life for the modern reader.

In eminently readable prose, even allowing for the fact that ‘the onward march of civilisation was one that was full of blind alleys, cul-de-sacs and dead ends,’ he draws a clear line connecting us to our ancestors in the cities of Mesopotamia, Greece or Rome. Then, as now, cities were contradictory institutions, full of aspirational architecture and economic vigour, home also to drunks and drug addicts, dropouts from the drive to civilisation yet still under its protection, without whom there is no yardstick for success.

While Miles covers familiar ground, he does it in a refreshing way, shedding light from an unashamedly populist angle that makes his erudition accessible and entertaining.

Sarah Bower Nonfiction

WICKED RIVER: The Mississippi When It Last Ran Wild Lee Sandlin, Pantheon, 2010, $26.95, hb, 304pp, 9780307378514 Lee Sandlin proves with vivid intensity what the Mississippi River was like before the time of Mark Twain: a river that was feared and respected by those who lived and traveled its course. The years from the early 1800s through the Civil War were a turbulent, chaotic, dangerous, frequently sinister and wicked time.

When most of us think of this river, we conjure up the nostalgic era told in Mark Twain’s books.

The author has resurrected a social view of the river that is stimulating to read and shocking at times.

Fascinating stories of a murky, malicious river full of peril and pain are gripping. The contrast to the romantic, alluring grandeur of an iconic symbol of beauty that we have fantasized from reading Twain’s classics is striking.

Within this engaging history, you will read about pirates, revivalists, opportunists, soul drivers who transported slaves and other river merchants.

Brothel boats with prostitutes and gamblers flowed alongside families seeking a better life.

Lee Sandlin has written a sumptuous history that adds another layer to understanding our past through the feelings of the eyewitnesses who lived along the Mississippi in early 19th century. A preeminent book of 2010.

Wisteria Leigh KILLER COLT: Murder, Disgrace, and the Making of an American Legend Harold Schechter, Ballantine, 2010, $28.00/ C$33.00, hb, 381pp, 9780345476814 After their father loses his wealth, brothers John and Sam Colt suffer a dissolute youth in early 19th century America. John, the more volatile brother, settles down to study accounting and produces a successful reference work on that subject. Sam invents the revolver, the gun that will transform the American West. In 1841, the bludgeoned body of John’s printer, Adams, is discovered crammed in a crate on a ship in the New York harbor. John is the last person to see Adams alive, and the two men were quarreling over debt.

John’s subsequent trial becomes a media frenzy with the penny-presses inciting the reading public with grisly details of the murder and the body’s concealment. Such writers as Edgar Allan Poe and Walt Whitman closely follow the case. John’s noble origins, his shady past and the fact he has a pregnant mistress, fuels the hyperbole. Reporters flood the courtroom to write down every facet.

John’s famous brother, Sam, stays by his side throughout. True-crime author Schechter presents the trial through detailed research, letters and newspaper articles of the era.

A compelling exposé on tabloid journalism and a man’s fight for his life.

Diane Scott Lewis

THE KILLER OF LITTLE SHEPHERDS: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science (US) / THE KILLER OF LITTLE SHEPHERDS: The Case of the French Ripper and the Birth of Forensic Science (UK) Douglas Starr, Knopf, 2010, $26.95, hb, 300pp, 9780307266194 / Simon and Schuster, March 2011, £16.99, hb, 320pp, 9780857201669 In the tradition of Larson’s Thunderstruck but with superior narrative focus, Starr examines two men whose lives intersect, resulting in scientific advancement and the capture of a killer. A decade after Jack the Ripper, French army officer turned vagabond Joseph Vacher murdered and mutilated at least 25 people throughout the French countryside.

Criminologist Alexandre Lacassagne, specializing in the nascent science of forensics, is called in to determine Vacher’s method and/or madness.

As is the wont of true-crime fiction, this book is sensational and swift. But its real strength is the ability to show the history and progress of forensic science and its effect on the criminal justice system.

Vacher’s story seems almost a comedy of errors — he kills at will in broad daylight with frequent witnesses, yet with no central identification or communication system in place, his victims numbered in the double-digits before his capture, made by happenstance and hearty peasants rather than policework. Lacassagne fights an uphill battle against ignorance and pseudo-science, with his ultimate goal to use science to unlock the secrets of the “alienated” human mind. This book reads like fiction and fascinates with fact — definitely worth picking up, especially if one is curious about the origins behind today’s CSI craze.

Bethany Latham

HNR Issue 55, February 2011 | Reviews | 65

© 2011, The Historical Novel Society ISSN: 1471-7492 | Issue 55, February 2011