Historical Novels Review, Issue 57 (August 2011)

A PUBLICATION OF THE HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY

HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW ISSUE 57, AUGUST 2011

Dancing through History

An Interview with Louis Bayard a different dragon karen maitland on the medieval period a damned serious business the 200th anniversary of the battle of waterloo does anybody know anything? ebooks & the fiction market pick up a penguin a profile of the penguin group heart of a zulu an interview with saul david hns north american conference a recap of events in san diego

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

Historical Novels R eview

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Jessica Brockmole 14413 Worthington Drive Granger, IN 46530 USA <jabrockmole@hotmail.com>

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

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

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edit o r ial boa r d

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

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

Publisher Coverage: Bethany House; HarperCollins; Penguin Putnam; Random House (all imprints); university presses; and any North American presses not mentioned below

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

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

Tamela McCann 5265 Village Terrace Nashville, TN 37211 USA <jjmmccann@aol.com>

Publisher coverage: UK children’s publishers

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

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

review s edit o r s , u k

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Publisher Coverage: Hachette Book Group, Hyperion, W.W. Norton

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

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

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

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Kate Atherton 92 Wilsdon Way Kidlington, Oxfordshire OX5 1TX UK <kate.atherton@googlemail.com>

Publisher Coverage: Birlinn/Polygon; Bloomsbury; Constable & Robinson; Faber & Faber; The History Press; Macmillan (inc. Pan, Picador, Sidgwick & Jackson); Penguin (inc. Allen Lane, Hamish Hamilton, Michael Joseph, Viking); Short Books; Snowbooks; and Transworld (inc. Bantam Press, Black Swan, Corgi, Doubleday)

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; Atlantic Books; 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)

Publisher Coverage: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Simon & Schuster, including children’s divisions of both

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

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

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confe re nce s

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

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

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

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e d i tori a l pol i cy

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

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

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copy ri g h t

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

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

HNS WEBSITE: www.historicalnovelsociety.org EMAIL NEWSLETTER. Read news and reviews: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HNSNewsletter

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Historical Novels R eview I s s u e 5 7 , A u g us t 2011 | I SSN 1471-7492

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ed itor ia l r ich a rd le e

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

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histor y & film a b ove & be low stairs | b ethan y latham

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n ew voic e s p r of ile s of debut his torical f iction authors so ni a ge n s ler , gold ie go ldb loom, reb ecca hunt, how a rd a . j one s & we ndy k. perriman | my f anw y co o k

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8 DANCI NG THROUGH HISTORY an inte r v ie w with louis b ayard | by ken k reckel 10

a dif f erent dra go n the me dieval p eriod | b y karen m a itl a nd

11 a dam n ed s erious bu si ness the 200 th an n ivers ar y of waterl o o | by m y f anw y co o k 13

does an yb ody kn ow an y thi ng? eb ook s a nd the f iction m arket | by ken k reckel

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p ick up a p eng u i n a p r o f ile of the pen g uin g roup | by my f anw y co o k

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heart o f a zu l u the fic tio n of s aul david | by ken k reckel

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4th a nnual n orth am erican conf erence cove r a ge of the hn s m eetin g in s an diego | by mic h ael dis chiavi an d mar yka bi a ggi o

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

MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR he Historical Novel Society is fundamentally changing.

Fifteen years ago, the plan for the society was UK-based, print-based, and aimed at readers primarily (not writers).

Some founder members are still members today. You will remember hand-written letters, free book give-aways, a desire to establish a canon of historical fiction, and the fervent wish to change the negative attitudes of the press and industry towards the genre.

From this summer, the Society will be web-based. We are already an international community, and the Internet enables that. News and reviews will be published on the website on a daily basis. There will be twitter feeds, facebook links, email newsletters. Above all, there will be masses of content online. In time, with your help, all our reviews will be online, properly searchable, and available to readers anywhere to view. To date, our reach and impact has been limited by the print-run of our magazines: 1200.

When the new site goes live, we’re expecting to reach that number of unique viewers daily.

If anyone reading this wants to help or get involved, please email me at the address on the masthead (or tweet me — @histnovel).

We will keep the print magazines. Our magazines are a different way of reading, and represent the best tangible assertion of what historical fiction is today. Showing just how many historical novels are being published has been the most effective way of proving the genre’s perennial popularity and viability.

We’re also hoping to form many more regional chapters of the Society. Visit the website to see where we have established chapters so far — and if there isn’t one near you, help us set one up.

I love the changes. I think — fifteen years on — the Society will finally be the kind of hub that I first envisaged.

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RICHARD LEE subverted a promising academic career by choosing to write a thesis about John Buchan when given a research bursary at Merton College, Oxford. Since then, he has spent many years as a bookseller, founded the HNS, and has established a successful property business near his home in Devon.

HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Columns | 1

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

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

HNS updates Welcome to the largest issue of HNR to date, with over 300 reviews, many other articles and features, plus reports on our 4th North American conference. We’re moving forward with our goal of being as comprehensive as possible in the review arena, so we’re putting out a call for more reviewers. Please email me for the guidelines.

Historical Novels Review Online, which covers self-published titles and e-books, needs reviewers from North America and the UK. If interested, email managing editor Andrea Connell at hnsonline@verizon.net.

Special thanks to Kim Rendfeld for copy editing this issue, Troy Reed and Nela Leja for magazine distribution, and to Sarah Cuthbertson for compiling a list of forthcoming UK titles for the website.

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

Elizabeth Loupas’ The Flower Reader, about a young ladyin-waiting to Mary Queen of Scots who can read the future in flowers, and who must fight to solve her husband’s murder, sold to Ellen Edwards at NAL by Diana Fox at Fox Literary.

C.W. Gortner’s new novel on the notorious Italian Renaissance family, the Borgias, sold to Ballantine by Jennifer Weltz at the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency.

Author of The Queen’s Pawn and To Be Queen Christy English’s The Taming, a re-imagining of The Taming of the Shrew set in Regency England, the first in the “Shakespeare in Love” series, sold to Leah Hultenschmidt at Sourcebooks Casablanca, in a three-book deal for publication beginning July 2012, by Margaret O’Connor at Innisfree Literary.

Kathryn Johnson’s The Fourth Princess, based on the life of Princess Louise, Queen Victoria’s “wild-child” daughter, sold to Tessa Woodward at William Morrow by Kevan Lyon at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.

Donna Russo Morin’s The King’s Agent, in which two people follow clues to finding a relic intended for the King of France which could change the balance of supremacy in Renaissance Europe, sold to Audrey LaFehr at Kensington, for publication in 2012, by Irene Kraas at Kraas Literary Agency.

Erika Robuck’s Hemingway’s Girl, set in Key West in 1935, beginning when a young woman takes a job as a housekeeper 2 | Columns | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

for Ernest Hemingway and his second wife, Pauline, sold to Claire Zion and Ellen Edwards at NAL, in a pre-empt, in a two-book deal, by Kevan Lyon at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.

Jacqueline Winspear’s The Mapping of Love and Death and A Lesson in Secrets, part of her Maisie Dobbs post-WWI mystery series, sold to Susie Dunlop at Allison & Busby, by Jenny Meyer on behalf of Amy Rennert at the Amy Rennert Agency. Both are out from HarperCollins US. Eleanor Kuhns’ debut historical mystery Hands to Murder, set in a Shaker village, and winner of the 2011 St. Martin’s Minotaur/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel competition, will appear from Macmillan in spring 2012.

Francesca Main, senior commissioning editor at Simon & Schuster UK, acquired Catherine Jones’ debut novel Wonder Girls, a multi-period story centering on a Welsh girl who becomes the first woman to swim the Bristol Channel in 1928, from Sarah Lutyens at Lutyens & Rubinstein, in a two-book deal, for summer 2012 publication.

David Fickling has bought UK and Commonwealth rights to three young adult titles about Robin Hood by debut author Tim Hall, set in Sherwood Forest in medieval England, beginning with Shadow of the Wolf.

Kate Harvey, editorial director at Picador UK, acquired Emma Straub’s Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures, an inquiry into the nature of celebrity in 1930s Hollywood, from Penguin USA. The US edition will appear under the Riverhead imprint.

Michael Boccacino’s Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling, a Victorian gothic tale in which a feisty young governess at a dilapidated manor falls in love with her widower employer and discovers a dark alternate world, sold to Maya Ziv at HarperPerennial, for publication in July 2012, by Sandy Lu at L. Perkins Agency.

British historian Hallie Rubenhold’s Mistress of My Fate (reviewed this issue) and The French Lesson, the first two installments in a new series recounting the rollicking adventures of a 17-year-old aristocrat in 18th-century England, sold to Deb Futter at Grand Central by Tina Bennett at Janklow & Nesbit, on behalf of Claire Paterson at Janklow & Nesbit UK. Paula McLain’s (The Paris Wife) as-yet-untitled novel in the voice of Marie Curie, set in war-torn Poland and turn-of-thecentury Paris as she rises out of poverty to become one of the most important scientific minds the world has ever known, sold to Susanna Porter at Ballantine by Julie Barer of Barer Literary.

The Imposter Bride by Nancy Richler, about a woman who moves country after WWII, and, rejected by the man who promised to marry her, marries his brother, has a baby daughter, then disappears, leaving no clues to her true identity but a journal and a large uncut diamond, sold to Iris Tupholme at Harper Canada by Dean Cooke of The Cooke Agency, and to Jennifer Weis at St. Martin’s by Ron Eckel at Cooke Agency International on behalf of Dean Cooke.

Jane Nickerson’s debut Strands of Bronze and Gold, pitched

Publishing, by Harvey Klinger.

Sadie Jones’ The Uninvited Guests, set in a grand old house in the remote English countryside early in the 20th century, the story of an appealing though troubled family who host a dinner party which takes a completely unexpected turn, sold to Terry Karten at Harper, for publication in May 2012, by Stephanie Cabot at The Gernert Company. Vintage will publish in the UK next March.

Granddaughter of Vita Sackville-West and historian Juliet Nicolson’s Abdication, a debut novel set in 1936 London that centers on newly-crowned King Edward VIII’s abdication of the throne, sold to Sarah Branham at Atria by William Clark at William Clark Associates in collaboration with Ed Victor.

Joanna Campbell Slan’s The Jane Eyre Chronicles, the first of two books in a literary mystery series surrounding Jane Eyre, amateur detective, sold to Shannon Jamieson Vazquez at Berkley by Paige Wheeler of Folio Literary Management.

Other new titles Four of Helen Hollick’s novels are back in print in trade pb in the UK from SilverWood Books: Harold the King, about King Harold II; Sea Witch, pirate adventure about the first voyage of Captain Jesamiah Acorne; and its two sequels, Pirate Code and Bring It Close.

Linda Root’s epic historical The First Marie and the Queen of Scots, about Marie Fleming, first cousin of Queen Mary, is out May 3rd from CreateSpace.

Knox Robinson Publishing will publish Literally Dead, James Conroy’s debut murder mystery set in 1930s Chicago, in September..

New transatlantic edition Elizabeth Speller’s The Return of Captain John Emmett was published in July by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ($26.00, hb, 384pp). In HNR Aug ’10, Doug Kemp called it “a well-plotted novel that is narrated with expertise and urges the reader on to uncover the truth.”

Erratum In the review of Robert Kresge’s Murder for Greenhorns (HNR May ’11, p.35), the heroine’s name is Kate Shaw, not Upshaw.

For forthcoming titles through early 2012, visit www. historicalnovelsociety.org/forthcoming.htm.

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as based on Grimms’ “Bluebeard” and set in pre-Civil War Mississippi, in which a 17-year-old girl goes to live with her charming but mysterious guardian in the lavish Wyndriven Abbey, sold to Allison Wortche at Knopf Children’s by Wendy Schmalz at Wendy Schmalz Agency.

Simon Taylor at Transworld has bought two historical novels by 21-year-old debut author Henry Venmore-Rowland, beginning with The Last Caesar, about the brutal “Year of Four Emperors” following Nero’s death, as recalled by Aulus Caecina Severus, Susanna Calkins’ Monster at the Gate, set in mid 17thcentury England during the Plague and the Great Fire of London in which a chambermaid serving in the household of a local magistrate investigates the murder of a fellow servant, to Kelley Ragland at Minotaur, in a two-book deal, for Fall 2012 publication, by David Hale Smith at Inkwell Management.

Interfaith minister Elizabeth Cunningham’s The Red-Robed Priestess, concluding the story of the Celtic Magdalen as she returns to the Holy Isles on the eve of a Roman assault, sold to Paul Cohen at Monkfish for publication in Fall 2011, by Deirdre Mullane at Mullane Literary Associates.

Kathleen Kent’s Middle Bayou, set in 19th-century Texas, about the legend of a pirate’s buried treasure, a killer on the run, and a woman determined to make a new life for herself at any cost, sold to Reagan Arthur at Reagan Arthur Books, by Julie Barer at Barer Literary.

PEN Discovery Award winner Rosie Sultan’s Helen Keller in Love, exploring a documented but little-known episode in Keller’s life when, in 1916, she fell in love with and almost married her secretary and aide, sold to Carole DeSanti at Viking, for publication in Summer 2012, by Stuart Bernstein at Stuart Bernstein Representation.

Iris Anthony’s Twist and Cross, set in the French court of Louis XIII, in which a woman has but one goal: to atone for a childhood mistake which has cost her family everything by obtaining a length of very expensive, illegal lace, sold to Shana Drehs at Sourcebooks by Natasha Kern at Natasha Kern Literary Agency.

Alex Grecian’s debut novel The Yard and its sequel, The Black Country, set in Victorian London in the wake of Jack the Ripper, featuring the Scotland Yard detectives known as “the Murder Squad,” sold to Marysue Rucci at Putnam by Seth Fishman at The Gernert Company, in association with Ken F. Levin at Nightsky Entertainment.

Adam McOmber’s Empyrean, about a young woman in Victorian England whose peculiar ability to see the souls of objects sends her down a dark path, sold to Sally Kim for Touchstone, at auction, by Eleanor Jackson at Markson Thoma.

The Divining by veteran novelist Barbara Wood, taking place 20 years after the Crucifixion and revolving around a young woman of Germanic-Roman descent with a gift of second sight, sold to Diane Gedymin in her first fiction buy for Turner

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.

HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Columns | 3

aHISTORY & FILMe ABOVE & BELOW STAIRS

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he law of primogeniture (literally “first born”) and its outgrowth, the entail, is a concept unfamiliar to many, especially Americans who have no historical foundation for the inheritance of ancestral estates. Another factor that may largely figure into this is an element almost impossible to untangle from the American mindset: success not by birth, but by ability — the idea that each makes his own way in the world, based upon his respective merits. For those with this worldview, entailing everything upon the first-born male, favoring him by virtue of his gender and birth order, to the exclusion of all others, is a puzzling notion. Just how confusing this concept is to some modern viewers of period pieces was vividly illustrated to me when my sister, after watching Pride and Prejudice for the fifth time, suddenly asked me, “But why do they want Lizzie to marry Mr. Collins?” I tried to explain the idea of aristocratic power being historically land-based, an estate that must be kept intact, undivided, to preserve that wealth and power, thus the process of entail. My pedagogical success was evident in her reply: “Hunh.”

Equally confusing is the idea of pride in domestic service, a uniquely British concept. Despite the fact that the majority of America’s Founding Fathers were wealthy landowners with their own “servant class” (ie, slaves), for centuries, Americans have seen themselves as “self-made” — one strives for success, defined narrowly in material terms, which brings with it society’s respect. Society is fluid, its barriers permeable. If one occupies a lower financial or societal rung, it’s due to one’s lack of ability, persistence, drive: in short, a personal failing of some sort, easily rectified by the application of vertical bootstrap thrust. The idea of choosing, as a vocation, to subordinate to one’s “betters” (individuals so designated by birth rather than ability) with no desire for upward mobility, and to take pride in this servitude — this is a foreign concept to many in modern audiences, and as such, one whose novelty fascinates.

Thus, it’s not difficult to understand why films and television series which explore these concepts, from The Remains of the 4 | Columns | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

Day to Upstairs, Downstairs, have managed to become sleeper successes with very little outside promotion. The latest offering in this vein, Masterpiece Theatre’s Downton Abbey, is equally engaging. Written by Julian Fellowes, it shares common elements with Upstairs, Downstairs especially, but Fellowes (who mined the country estate as setting for his Oscar-winning Gosford Park) has chosen the English countryside over fashionable London.

Downton Abbey provides an appealing examination of the last days of the strictly delineated hierarchical English society, the above/below stairs dynamic at its zenith, immediately before collapse. Robert, Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) has dedicated his life to the preservation of his ancestral estate, Downton Abbey. To this end, he married Cora (Elizabeth McGovern), a nouveau riche American heiress, using her wealth to bolster the floundering estate — a mercenary transaction that evolved into a love match. With Cora’s fortune irrevocably tied to the estate and three daughters but no sons later, the family turns to that most familiar of consolations, which Mrs. Bennet so ardently wished for her Lizzie: inheritance by marriage.

The oldest daughter, Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery), is slated to wed the son of the heir upon whom the estate is entailed. When both he and his father are lost with the sinking of the Titanic, the title of heir presumptive falls to Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens), an unknown, distant cousin — and more horrific still, a solicitor.

Below stairs, a tight ship is run by the butler, Mr. Carson ( Jim Carter) with the help of the housekeeper, Mrs. Hughes (Phyllis Logan). They must balance the malign influences of sour lady’s maid O’Brien (Siobhan Finneran) and conniving first footman Thomas (Rob James-Collier) with the more sympathetic head housemaid Anna ( Joanne Froggart) and the disabled veteran and new valet, Mr. Bates (Brendan Coyle). Even among the servants, hierarchy is maintained, with the valets and ladies’ maids occupying a higher position than housemaids and second footmen, and the poor, constantly excoriated scullery maid (Sophie McShera) at the very bottom of the pile. The jockeying for position and conspiracies it fosters among the less scrupulous of the staff is strongly reminiscent of the atmosphere of intrigue to be found in many films revolving around royalty and their courts.

One of the major themes of Downton Abbey is that of the old transitioning to, but also melding with, the new. As Fellowes describes it, it is a world “in which everything is very ordered

The Earl and Countess of Grantham stroll the grounds of Downton Abbey

the imperious Dowager Countess of Grantham, consummately played by Maggie Smith. She combines biting sarcasm (the Dowager Countess caustically comments to a rival that she’s “never seen such reforming zeal”, and when the rival graciously says she’ll take that as a compliment, the Dowager Countess retorts “I must’ve said it wrong”) with the astonished ignorance born of her class — when Crawley intimates he’ll continue to work and take care of Downton on weekends, she replies, “What is a weekend?” There is also the relationship between the enigmatic Mr. Bates and the head housemaid, Anna, which provides elements of mystery while warming with its kindness.

In addition, there’s a strong sense of what period pieces, done well, can use to immerse: a well-constructed historical atmosphere. The costuming will provide more than enough fodder for those addicted to what has been called a subgenre of the historical drama — textile porn. The setting used for Downton Abbey, Highclere Castle, also adds to a robust visual palette, creating an overall experience that is engaging as well as fascinating.

Downton Abbey was released last year in the UK, and in the US just this year. It was so vastly popular (over nine million viewers in the UK alone), that a second series is in the works.

The first series ends just as World War I has been declared, and doubtless the second will explore how this changed the political and social landscape of England forever, using the Granthams and their coterie to give a human face to this momentously devastating event. I, for one, look forward to seeing it.

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References 1. Fellowes, Julian. “Julian Fellows Q&A.” PBS website. http://www. pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/downtonabbey/fellowes.html

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and everyone knows their place,” and that formality brings with it security. On the other hand, with the First World War looming, it’s also the beginning of our modern world, “a world that the modern audience can understand.”1 With its Edwardian setting, the series showcases the introduction of technological innovation in amusing manner — the installation of such unknowns as electricity and the telephone cause excitement and consternation both above and below stairs. Societal elements are also shown in this state of transition. The below stairs old guard, represented by Mr. Carson and Mrs. Hughes, refer to the Granthams as “our” family, and though offered opportunities for very different lives, they choose service, and find both purpose and contentment in it. By contrast, the younger generation has different ideas — one of the housemaids aspires to be a secretary, and the chauffeur, with his burgeoning political ideologies, also cherishes grander plans for the course of his life.

The dynamic is almost reversed above stairs, as the thoroughly modern Matthew Crawley, reluctantly catapulted into a different lifestyle from his middle-class origins, initially scoffs at the ways of the aristocracy, but slowly comes to realize that even their idleness is necessary. The oblivious Crawley has continually disconcerted his valet by ignoring him and taking care of things himself, leaving the valet with a prospect he finds terrifying: uncertainty of his place. When Crawley offhands that he thinks waiting around to dress someone is “a very silly occupation for a grown man”, watching the valet’s face illustrates the terrible mistake Crawley has made — his valet takes pride in his work, an occupation he has always considered noble. No denigration was intended, but Crawley’s comment cuts to the quick. Later, in conversation with Lord Grantham, Crawley is made aware of his middle-class mistake: without Downton Abbey, the lifestyle its owners live and the outgrowth of that lifestyle, men like Crawley’s valet, good and capable men who have held the same position for generations and neither know no desire anything else, would be turned out into a world with no place for them. Crawley comes to understand the great responsibility of having so many people’s livelihoods dependent upon him, and with this understanding comes an embracing of a role he did not choose, but can now see as vital, a force for good.

When Crawley asks his valet’s assistance in selecting cufflinks and then stands idle, allowing the man to dress him, the valet’s relief and happiness are palpable, and the viewer shares them.

Order has been restored.

But this series is so much more than just a treatise on Edwardian social structure. The relationships are realistically presented and the characters three-dimensional, flawed enough to be believable (and some, completely distasteful). This is not to say the series is perfect: all the back-stabbing can add a soap opera effect, some aspects of the plotting are highly contrived, and some are recognizable as borrowed from other sources. However, overall, the series delivers what audiences have come to expect from Masterpiece Theatre — a well-done and thoroughly enjoyable viewing experience. The dialogue is often a delight, and there’s a hearty dose of humor to contrast the more serious elements. One of the pleasures of the series is

BETHANY LATHAM is a professor, librarian, and Managing Editor of HNR. She publishes in various scholarly and popular journals, as well as EBSCO’s NoveList database. Her new book, Elizabeth I in Film and Television, was published by McFarland & Co. in 2011.

HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Columns | 5

NEW VOICES Sonia Gensler, Goldie Goldbloom, Rebecca Hunt, Howard A. Jones, and Wendy K. Perriman explain the inspiration that lies at the heart of their debut novels.

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his issue’s New Voices novelists’ writing styles and subjects are startlingly different, but they were all inspired by echoes of past voices beckoning through visual images, places, gaps in history and untold stories.

Sonia Gensler shares that the inspiration for her young adult novel, The Revenant (Knopf, 2011), “came from a somewhat unlikely place — an old building on a sleepy campus in rural, northeast Oklahoma. I’ve long loved stories set in girls’ boarding schools because of their potential for ardent friendships, closely-held secrets and social intrigue.”

“Then, in the summer of 2008, I visited friends in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. During a casual tour of the town, my friend Martha pointed out Seminary Hall, a stately building at the center of the Northeastern State University campus. ‘That used to be a school for Cherokee girls,’ she said. This took me aback. I’d studied Indian schools as a grad student, and I remembered them as one-room schoolhouses or gloomy, prison-like institutions founded through the ‘charity’ of religious leaders or the U.S. government. I couldn’t recall any that resembled a Victorian castle, nor any that housed wealthy, fashionable Cherokee girls. Contrary to my expectations, the Cherokee Nation, after rebounding from the devastation of the Trail of Tears, had established an elite female academy to rival the finest eastern schools. Not many people knew about it, even in Oklahoma.

It seemed the perfect setting for a coming-of-age historical mystery.”

Gensler’s novel, inspired by a place, incorporates hints of the paranormal and reflects her interest in gothic tales. It also whispers unspoken stories, as does Wendy K. Perriman’s Fire on Dark Water (Berkley, 2011). Perriman’s inspiration also started with a visit to a particular place: “The Pirates of Nassau Museum in the Bahamas. I am fascinated by those gaps in history where the female voice has traditionally been muted, and was intrigued by the limited knowledge available about female buccaneers during The Golden Age of Piracy. We know of Anne Bonny and Mary Read because of extant trial records, but what seems most remarkable is that of all the ships, on all the seas, the only two female swashbucklers should end up together on the same sloop! This made me ask: how many other women might have also been cruising among the Caribbean Islands disguised as males?”

“I was more interested in finding the women we knew were on-board ships, but of whom we have little detail. Some of these 6 | Columns | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

anonymous characters apparently sailed with the Terror of the Seas – the infamous Blackbeard (Captain Edward Teach), who reputedly ‘married’ several of his fourteen wives offshore.

What type of woman would willingly sail with such a monster?

And what unconscionable deeds might she have to perform to survive and tell her tale?”

“Most historical sources indicate that Blackbeard’s women were prostitutes. Further research suggests that Teach abandoned his first English wife when he went on the account; one mistress was supposedly strangled at the Hammock House in the Carolinas at Beaufort; another was reportedly marooned on the Isle of Shoals; and the fourteenth unfortunate was taken to a remote place, given to his crew, and never heard from thereafter. But the unnamed thirteenth wife is a mystery character that I developed into the fictional Lola Blaise — a heroine who speaks for all the anonymous female buccaneers of the 18th century.”

Ripples of the past and the unwritten lives of the pioneers of Western Australia stimulated Goldie Goldbloom’s imagination, as she explains: “Emen and Tony were features of bedtime stories from my mother. She told me about the Italians she’d grown up with on her pioneer Western Australian farm. She told me about the toys they’d made for her and her siblings, the funny way they pronounced things, the noodles that the Italians called ‘worms’ (vermicelli). They didn’t sound like anyone I knew, and I couldn’t imagine them in the tiny pub or the post office near the farm. I couldn’t imagine them talking with my very proper grandmother, or dipping sheep with my elegant grandfather. I couldn’t imagine the reaction of rural farmers to these men from overseas. Actually, I couldn’t imagine the prisoners of war as real people at all.”

“It was only when I started to research The Paperbark Shoe (Picador, 2011), and got the work documents for the Italian men who had been on my grandparents’ farm during World War II, that I was capable of holding some part of the reality of those men in my hands. They had wives and children. They had scars.

They had jobs and home towns and skills and ways of talking and political beliefs…and pain I had no clue about, and none of those things had the slightest thing to do with my mother or the other small children on the farm or their memories of the Italians. This, the reality of another human being’s life, was what brought me to write The Paperbark Shoe.”

Howard A. Jones explains that he drew the inspiration for his historical adventure novel, The Desert of Souls (Thomas Dunne, 2011), from fiction: “I read and re-read the historical fiction of Harold Lamb and Robert E. Howard until one day a brave Arabian warrior stalked out of my subconscious with stories to tell. I blame my interest in ancient Baghdad, in part, on Neil Gaiman’s 50th issue of Sandman, ‘Ramadan.’ The more I read about the key figures alive at the end of the 8th century — a

Photo credit: Brian McConkey Photo credit: Angus Muir

Left to right from top: Sonia Gensler, Goldie Goldbloom, Howard A. Jones, and Rebecca Hunt

watchful presence.”

“Although the term ‘Black Dog’ is synonymous with Churchill, I was keen to explore the possibilities of casting depression as an individual who would then be free to ‘belong’ just as much to someone else. Turning depression into a character also meant I could translate a highly personal and isolating affliction into dialogue, converting emotion into conversation. I felt it would allow me greater access to the characters affected by depression, as in this case it’s sat in the room with them, talking. As the idea developed, I felt it offered me an interesting way of discussing depression, as well as looking at the redemptive qualities of hope, fortitude, love and courage.”

Each of these debut novelists has managed to shine a different spotlight on their chosen period. The voices of the past that are reflected in their characters are powerful, and to use the words of Perriman describing her heroine, often “neither sentimental nor pretty!”

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MYFANWY COOK is currently an HNR Features editor. She recently published How to Write Historical Fiction—A Practical Guide and Tool Kit, which contains contributions from more than 50 authors and experts, and is aimed at providing those who aspire to write historical fiction with an activity-based guide book.

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golden age of science, literature, and trade — the more I wanted to write stories set there.”

“I didn’t immediately embark on a novel, though. I wrote short stories about Dabir and Asim off and on for about ten years, seeing publication in various markets. Not only did that give me time to hone my craft, it gave me a lot longer to know the characters and research the era. I could claim that it was all a clever plan to wait until I was ready, but the truth is that I was leery of trying to publish a historical novel. It was only when I received rejection letters for other novels I’d been writing that, since nothing was working anyway, I just decided to draft the one that most interested me. Thank goodness it worked!”

Rebecca Hunt’s novel, Mr Chartwell (Fig Tree, 2010), takes the unique approach of transforming an emotion, depression, into a character. This emotion is one which has plagued many famous, as well as forgotten, people whose voices have played a part in shaping history. Hunt writes that, “the central premise for Mr Chartwell — that Winston Churchill’s ‘black dog’ of depression is realised as the dangerous and darkly charismatic Black Pat — appeared unexpectedly when I was walking home from work. One moment I was thinking about a looming deadline, and the next it was replaced by an equally looming but far more intriguing dog. Black Pat arrived fully formed, and I could almost hear his low, awful voice and his heavy, thudding steps as he climbed the stairs. Whilst writing Mr Chartwell I sometimes felt that if I turned round in my chair I would find him standing behind me in the doorway, an enormous and

HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Columns | 7

through

an interview with Louis Bayard

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f author Louis Bayard was a dancer, he’d deftly step through everything from tap to tango. He teaches creative writing at George Washington University, and as an essayist and critic, his words have appeared in such publications as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Huffington Post. He has contributed to the anthologies The Worst Noël and Maybe Baby (HarperCollins) and 101 Damnations (St. Martin’s).

His career as a novelist began with two romantic comedies, Fool’s Errand and Endangered Species (Alyson).

He then moved on to Mr. Timothy, a Victorian mystery featuring none other than Tiny Tim as its hero. The Pale Blue Eye followed, another murder mystery, set this time at West Point, with Edgar Allan Poe as an unlikely plebe. Next up was a genuine mystery of history, The Black Tower, dealing with the fate of LouisCharles, the lost son of Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI. Bayard’s latest work, The School of Night, also features some unanswered questions of history, this time in the world of William Shakespeare, Walter Ralegh and Christopher Marlowe. This novel is more thriller than historical, in the mode of The Da Vinci Code, with a quick pace and complex plot. The multiperiod mystery unravels in the present day, when discredited Elizabethan scholar Henry Cavendish is tasked by a ruthless antiquities collector to recover a missing letter stolen by Henry’s friend Alonzo Wax. The letter dates to the 1600s and concerns the aforementioned group of brilliant men who comprised the secret School of Night, and one of the school’s members in particular, scientist Thomas Harriot. When Alonzo Wax turns up dead, a search for the letter ensues, which leads Henry through a labyrinth of deception and death, and right up to the ancient home of Harriot himself.

One may well gain the impression that Mr. Bayard’s approach to history is a bit playful, but it would be wrong to assume the writing itself is so. His prose is masterful, whether employed

You have this...

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in the pulse-pounding, page-turning aspects of his work, or in describing precisely what living in the Elizabethan Age might be like. But one has to wonder, why change to writing a historical thriller? Could the current market have anything to do with it?

Bayard responds, “Actually, my first two books (now out of print) were thoroughly modern romantic comedies. So I liked the idea of entwining those two sides of myself — the historical and the modern — and seeing what happened. As for expanding readership, that remains to be seen, but I have yet to crack the NYT list, so I think I can be safely categorized as ‘midlist.’”

So I wondered, why the Elizabethan Era? “Well, to be excruciatingly correct, it’s post-Elizabethan — i.e., most of the Harriot narrative takes place in the days following Elizabeth’s death. And there’s a reason for that. I’m always intrigued by transfers of power. My previous book, for instance, The Black Tower, was set during the French Restoration, this weird interregnum between the fall of Napoleon and the fall of the Bourbon monarchy.

“In The School of Night, you have this extremely unsettled moment in English history where a Scottish monarch is sweeping down from the north, full of very different opinions about church and state, and the whole balance of favor and power is shifting radically. Who’s going to survive?”

Hitchcock used the term “MacGuffin” for a plot element that drives the action, especially in thrillers and mysteries. Often the characters will do almost anything for or because of it, regardless of how important it really is. A post-Elizabethan letter is the important element in The School of Night, its MacGuffin. I thought the choice was curious, considering that much of the general public may know next to nothing about the letter or the School itself.

Bayard disagrees. “Actually, I think readers are pretty boned up on their Tudors. You look at the success of authors like

by Ken Kreckel

extremely unsettled moment in English history...and the whole balance of favor and power is shifting radically. Who’s going to survive?”

8 | Features | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

the story often has two main features. One is a particular talent that sets him apart — be it his intellect, like Sherlock Holmes, or his expertise, like Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon, or perhaps a moral code, in the tradition of the noir novels. The other is a flaw, either in character, like the hard-drinking private eye, or in circumstance, such as a handicap. Bayard’s protagonist has a bit of all of that, and misfortune as well, in that he is a disgraced academic. I wondered just how the author came to build him and why?

“That’s an astute analysis, and it may help explain why I don’t care for Robert Langdon (although I enjoy Brown’s novels).

There’s nothing wrong with him. He’s a star Harvard professor, and he’s brilliant and handsome, and he knows everything, and he gets every woman he wants. I guess I like detectives who are fallible and bruised and have some mileage on them. Give me Lew Archer or Precious Ramotswe.

“In the case of Henry Cavendish, I wanted someone close to my age (47) and someone who was emphatically not Robert Langdon. That’s why, in the very first chapter, I have him trying to hit on a woman in the middle of his best friend’s funeral. I didn’t want him to be this golden boy; I wanted him to be struggling back to grace.”

Although Henry is unique, the work itself seems to share some similarities with a previous work with the same title written by Alan Wall. It, too, was a thriller concerning the theft of two Elizabethan-era tomes, the Harriot notebooks. There have been a few other novels written about the School of Night as well. Could Bayard have been influenced by these works?

“I knew of Wall’s book, but I deliberately didn’t read it because I didn’t want to be influenced. I also declined to read Michael Gruber’s The Book of Air and Shadows, because I figured everything I read there would be something I couldn’t do in my own book. But I’m sure there’s some crossover among all these books because we’re all working within the constraints of a time and place.”

Looking over the body of his work, my overall impression of Louis Bayard is that he is not one to get stuck in any particular rut in his writing. So, I wondered, what’s next?

“Yeah, the rut is my fear. I have to keep dancing, or I die.

The next book is a horror story about Teddy Roosevelt in the Brazilian jungle. ‘Teddy’s Heart of Darkness,’ I like to call it. I’m still wondering how the hell I’m going to pull it off.”

For someone who “dances” as well as Bayard does, I have little doubt he’ll manage it with aplomb.

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Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir and Antonia Fraser, as well as shows like The Tudors. Not to mention Shakespeare! One way or another, we all carry around a bit of medieval England in our heads.”

Perhaps, but I recalled Bayard had been previously quoted that historical novels should not be about educating people or showing off research. “I find that deathly,” he said. Yet in this novel, there was much material that might be considered “educational.”

Bayard reacts, to my mind channeling Claude Rains’ character in Casablanca: “Oh, cripes, did I educate someone? Well, as a historical novelist, I could never object to research; I love it too much. I only object when it’s larded on with no concern for the story. ‘Look! I spent a month researching Parisian sanitation practices, and you’re going to get all of it....’ I call it merit-badge fiction.”

“There’s a lot of information in The School of Night, but to my mind, most of it is advancing the story or explaining the characters. So if the book ends up being educational, that’s something of an accident. I guess what I’m saying is: I consider myself more an entertainer than educator.”

The School of Night itself, of course, does have some historical underpinnings. I wondered about its basis in fact.

“The factual basis is elusive, as any scholar would tell you. We know that these men — Ralegh, Marlowe, Northumberland, Harriot — knew each other. We know that, in some cases, they had very strong ties. We know that, at various times, they were charged with atheism or treason. What we don’t know is whether they ever met as a formal school. That part of the puzzle will always be a mystery, but it’s the purview of the historical novelist to come up with solutions, whether or not there are facts to support them. The historian’s dead end is the novelist’s green light.”

The “green light” was certainly on for this novel, as the payoff for the MacGuffin is what the letter says about Harriot, and more importantly, Shakespeare. I had to ask, without disclosing the secret of the Harriot letter, was there any historical evidence for the interpretation of the contents of the letter presented in the book?

“No, none at all. I think the idea was first suggested to me

by Rene Weis’s Shakespeare Unbound, but it’s pure speculation.

Maybe provocation is the better word.”

Indeed, but I wondered. Given that early in his career Bayard messed about with Tiny Tim, was he messing with Shakespeare with this ending?

“I certainly am. But he can take it. And it’s worth pointing out that Shakespeare left us a very complex and equivocal autobiography in the form of his own work. The sonnets, for instance, are written variously to a dark lady and a beautiful young man. When it comes down to it, Shakespeare is hard to lock into any box.”

The main character, Henry Cavendish, is hard to lock into any box as well. In thrillers and mysteries, the protagonist of

KEN KRECKEL is a features editor for HNR. Besides writing historical fiction, he is a faculty member in the Earth Science Department at Casper College.

HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Features | 9

Fifty years ago, many people admitted they read medieval

fiction to escape into the fantasy of gallant knights, chivalrous deeds and chaste love among the battlements, but there is nothing romantically escapist about the blood, brutality and darkness of the current crop of medieval novels. So, has the medieval period become popular again because we still yearn for stories of battle and mystery, or are we on a quest to slay a different dragon?

One of the reasons for the resurgence of interest in medieval novels may be because it has become apparent that the seeds of many of the poisonous weeds we are struggling to destroy today were sown in the Middle Ages. The enmity between the Muslim and Christian cultures is rooted deeply not only in the Crusades, but in the medieval hunger for land and resources.

And though newspapers analyse the historical background to modern conflicts, it’s through well-drawn fictional characters, not textbook facts, that we come to understand and empathise with the beliefs and hopes of people on all sides. And we do want to understand. We want to know why this is happening to us and our country.

But I think the main reason for the popularity is that we have become aware of the striking parallels between the medieval period and our own time. One such parallel is the role of women in medieval society. Now that contemporary historical novelists have dispelled the myth of fair damsels wafting their handkerchiefs at departing knights, we recognise that the Middle Ages was a time when women had the kind of power and influence they were never to enjoy again until our own time. They controlled estates the size of modern national companies. Women fought in wars, including the Crusades. They ran their own businesses, trained as physicians, and there are even incidences of them taking on the role of Catholic priest in the Mass.

The Middle Ages were tormented by many of our modern problems — resentment of immigration, people-trafficking, violence, pandemic diseases, earthquakes and terrifyingly swift

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what gives the Middle Ages such resonance for modern readers?

climate change causing devastating droughts and floods, not to mention economic disaster. Nothing could be relied upon with any certainty. One day you had a home, the next you’d lost everything. People felt powerless, and recent events, such as a world-wide recession, terrorism and natural disasters have induced that same feeling of helplessness in many of us. The horror and destruction of modern warfare is brought right into our homes through TV and we see war now just as close-up and bloody as any pike-man would have known it in the Middle Ages.

And our response to the chaos of the modern world is very similar to that of our medieval forebears. We feel besieged.

Like them, we long to shut the town gates against the enemy. Like them, we’d do anything to gain a measure of control over our world. In the Middle Ages they turned to magic and the supernatural.

And we, too, have seen a resurgence of interest in the supernatural in the last few years with films and novels about ghosts, vampires, angels and werewolves.

Like our medieval ancestors, we want to believe there is something out there with the power to control events.

Medieval fiction reassures us that the human race has experienced all this before — and survived. The medieval characters won through and so will we. We identify with them because, unlike the selfassured Victorians in their expanding empire, we know what it feels like when the world is not under our control. The Middle Ages have ceased to become a remote episode in our past; we are living it.

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A Different Dragon

KAREN MAITLAND’s latest solo endeavour is The Gallows Curse, set during the reign of King John.

She has also contributed to the latest Medieval Murderers offering, Hill of Bones, published in July 2011. For more information on Karen and her works, please see www.karenmaitland.com.

by Karen Maitland

Has the medieval... period become popular again because we still yearn for stories of battle and mystery, or are we on a quest to slay a different dragon?”

10 | Features | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo

Duke of Wellington told Thomas Creevey, the first civilian to interview him at his headquarters after the Battle of Waterloo, that it was “a damned serious business …Blücher and I have lost 30,000 men it has been a damned nice thing — the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life.” This remark is often quoted as, “It was a near run thing. The nearest run thing you ever saw in your life” or paraphrased as “A damn close-run thing.” 1 & 2 However it is cited, its meaning remains clear: that the outcome of this battle was far from certain.

The famous, decisive battle on Sunday, June 19, 1815, was part of a three-day campaign, and its 200th anniversary, marked by various re-enactments, is approaching.

The fascination this battle holds for writers has been constant, and both the battle and its time period, the Age of Sail, are popular subjects for historical novelists to feature in their works. Perhaps this was because Waterloo was fought in the very heart of Europe and involved so many countries in coalition against the Emperor Napoleon. The intricate detail with which this battle was recorded for posterity, through the first-hand accounts of so many who were involved, both military and civilians, may be another factor in its popularity with historical novelists. These anecdotes, featured in sources as varied as Stanhope’s Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington (1886)3 to letters both military and personal, bring to life those who took part.

This information about all the ranks involved and accounts from all sides transforms the battle into a banquet for historical novelists. Wellington explained to Stanhope in one of his conversations about British conscripts, “A French army is composed very differently from ours. The conscription calls out a share of every class — no matter whether your son or my son — all must march; but our friends — I may say it in this room — are the very scum of the earth. People talk of their enlisting from their fine military feeling — all stuff — no such

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A Damned Serious Business

thing. Some of our men enlist from having got bastard children — some for minor offences — many more for drink; but you can hardly conceive such a set brought together, and it really is wonderful that we should have made them the fine fellows they are.” 4 What writer of military fiction could not find inspiration for their characters in such statements?

In Sharpe’s Waterloo (1990), Bernard Cornwell manages to capture this very human element of the campaign and its aftermath, the human toll: “Somewhere in the valley a woman screamed and screamed, paused to take breath and screamed again because her husband was dead. Behind the battle line in the farm at Mont-St-Jean the pile of amputated limbs grew higher than the dung heap …the rotund bandmaster of the Prince of Wales’s Own Volunteers launched his few musicians into a ragged version of ‘Over the Hills and Far Away’.

Sharpe ordered the colours that had been restored to the battalion to be unfurled and planted above the deepening grave so that the shadows of the silk flags would caress the dead.”5 Cornwell is not alone in his choice of setting: Cynthia HarrodEagles’ The Campaigner, volume 14 (1991) of The Moreland Dynasty series; Allan Mallinson’s A Close Run Thing (1999); Iain Gale’s Four Days in June (2006); and Simon Scarrow’s The Fields of Death (2010) are all set around the Battle of Waterloo.

Part of the allure may be that, as Wellington summed it up, “The history of a battle is not unlike the history of a ball. Some individuals may recollect all the little events of which the great result is the battle won or lost, but no individual can recollect the order in which, or the exact moment at which they occurred, which makes all the difference as to their value or importance...”6 Whatever the roots of its appeal, Waterloo has sparked the imagination of writers as well-known and diverse as William Makepeace Thackeray (Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero first published in 1847–48) and Victor Hugo. For Hugo it was

by Myfanwy Cook

The Battle of Waterloo... was fought in the very heart of Europe and involved so many countries in coalition against the Emperor Napoleon.”

HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Features | 11

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alternate historical fantasy novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (2004) and also with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories set during the Battle of Waterloo featuring Étienne Gerard, a French Hussar. The first one, The Adventure of the Forest Inn (1902) finds Brigadier Gerard trapped in enemy territory on June 18, 1815, and the second. The Prussian Horsemen (1902) is set on the same day during Napoleon’s retreat. Both of these offerings were part of a humourous series of stories published in The Strand magazine.

Professor Richard Holmes, who died recently, wrote in his forward to The Waterloo Collection, an anthology of short stories written about the battle, that it was “good to see that, for all one’s occasional despair at the teaching of history (originating, it must be said, far more in the nature of the syllabus than in the efforts of so many dedicated teachers) historical imagination remains vigorous and unfettered.”7 If this is the case, then hopefully the “infamous” battle will, in the lead up to its anniversary, inspire new and established authors alike to write novels which explore not just the slaughter of the battle, but also the comradeship it fostered.

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London: J. Murray.

References 1. Creevey, Thomas. (1904) The Creevey Papers: A Selection from the Correspondence and Diaries of Thomas Creevey, M.P. London: J. Murray, p. 236.

2. “Thomas Creevey.” http://en.wikipedia. org/Thomas_Creevey 3. Stanhope, Philip Henry. (1888) Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington.

4. Ibid.

5. Cornwall, B. (1990) Sharpes’ Waterloo, New York: Harper Collins: p. 426.

6. Letter to John Croker (8 August 1815). As quoted in Macaulay, Thomas Babington. (1848) The History of England from the Accession of James II ; and in Siborne, H.T. (1891) The Waterloo Letters.

7. Holmes, Richard. (2011) The Waterloo Collection: An Anthology of Short Stories. Tavistock: Active Sprite Press.

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about the carnage of both men and ideas that he perceived were consequences of Waterloo. He encapsulated his feelings about the battle in his poem “L’Expiation”, from Les Châtiments (1853), Book V: “Waterloo!

Waterloo!

Waterloo!

Dismal plain!

Pale death swirled together the sombre batallions In your theatre of woods, hillocks and valleys, Like a current bubbling up into an overfull urn.

Europe on one side, France on the other.

Carnage! from heroes God took away all hope…”

Hugo expressed his feeling about the battle once again in Les Misérables, which was published in Brussels in 1862. In Chapter X, The Plateau of Mont-Saint-Jean, Hugo wrote: “There are moments in battles in which the soul hardens the man until the soldier is changed into a statue, and when all this flesh turns into granite. The English battalions, desperately assaulted, did not stir. Then it was terrible. All the faces of the English squares were attacked at once.

A frenzied whirl enveloped them. That cold infantry remained impassive. The first rank knelt and received the cuirassiers on their bayonets, the second ranks shot them down; behind the second rank the cannoneers charged their guns, the front of the square parted, permitted the passage of an eruption of grape-shot, and closed again. The cuirassiers replied by crushing them. Their great horses reared, strode across the ranks, leaped over the bayonets and fell, gigantic, in the midst of these four living wells. The cannon-balls ploughed furrows in these cuirassiers; the cuirassiers made breaches in the squares. Files of men disappeared, ground to dust under the horses. The bayonets plunged into the bellies of these centaurs; hence a hideousness of wounds which has probably never been seen anywhere else. The squares, wasted by this mad cavalry, closed up their ranks without flinching.

Inexhaustible in the matter of grape-shot, they created explosions in their assailants’ midst. The form of this combat was monstrous. These squares were no longer battalions, they were craters; those cuirassiers were no longer cavalry, they were a tempest. Each square was a volcano attacked by a cloud; lava contended with lightning.”

Scenes such as this made Waterloo an “infamous battle”, one that Georgette Heyer captured in accurate and moving detail in An Infamous Army (1937). Heyer was passionate about historical detail and went to extraordinary lengths to make certain that her research was as errorless as possible. She even bought a letter written by the Duke of Wellington in order to replicate his style of writing, and the second half of the novel is devoted almost entirely to the Battle of Waterloo.

Heyer’s novel contrasts sharply with Susanna Clarke’s

MYFANWY COOK is currently an HNR Features editor. She is an avid reader of historical fiction and is passionate about the role of historical fiction in helping to create a sense of community identity and belonging.

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an exploration of e-books & the fiction market

For some time I’ve been wanting to do an article about ebooks.

Not that I had a clue what to write, mind you, just the gnawing idea that I should write...something. It’s much like ereaders themselves. Every time I see a Nook, or a Kindle, or even an iPad, a little voice in my brain says, “You ought to have that.”

But then the other side of my brain, the practical, boring one, counters with a single question, “Why?” “Because it’s cool,” I immediately reply to myself, “and because it’s a great piece of technology.

I’m a modern techie sort of guy,” the dialog goes, “and just imagine, all those books, on that one little device.” True, and practical as well. If I still traveled a lot for my job, I’d already have one. Of course, I felt the same way about XM radio, but since I’m not a long-haul truck driver, I didn’t buy one of those either.

My practical side pointed out that much of what I read isn’t on Kindle, or anything else. You see, I’m the type that haunts second-hand book stores and library book sales for much of my reading material. My children think that’s just a manifestation of my innate cheapness; after all, they don’t call me “Save-a-buckdad” for nothing. But I’m actually motivated by the fact that I prize reading first-hand accounts written at the time of, or closely after, a historical event — and the longer out-of-print, the better.

So if people like me don’t do ebooks, who does? In my circle of friends and family, it’s mostly the voracious readers, especially the ones who gobble up the latest offerings from well-known authors. If this is true in general, then there must be a lot of these, because ebook sales continue to increase like a nuclear chain reaction. Sales of ereaders continue to climb as well, even in the face of our recent recession. At the 2011 Digital Book

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Does Anyone Know Anything?

World conference, James McQuivey, with Forrester Research, reported that “10.5m people in the US now owned a dedicated ereader, and were continuing to buy them in 2011, while there were 10m tablets sold — primarily iPads.” He said that “$1bn had been spent on ebooks in 2010, and expected $1.3bn to be spent in 2011.”1 All this prompts many to declare print media terminally ill, and libraries and book stores to soon go the way of the fiveand-dime. At the same conference, another futurist, Mike Shatzkin, proclaimed, “The fact is that as reading shifts to digital and print purchasing moves online, you cannot run brick and mortar stores, and they will decline and eventually disappear, and publishers need to realize that.”2 This is possible, though I doubt it. Still, I confess to feeling a certain unease about the subject. I can’t shake that image from the old movie version of H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine [the original, not the remake]. You know, the film where Rod Taylor goes into the future, encountering the idyllic but vapid Eloi. Trying to find out what happened to human-kind, he visits one of their libraries — thank God, they still do exist — only to find the books on the shelves crumble to dust at his first touch. Of course, it’s hard to blame the poor Eloi. They had bigger worries, like becoming a Morlock’s after-dinner snack.

Most book publishers don’t seem as worried, if for no other reason than the fact that ebooks are still a small percentage of their overall business, representing only 9% of total consumer book sales, according to the Association of American Publishers.

On the other hand, ebooks’ market share nearly tripled in the past year.3 Shana Drehs, Editorial Manager at Sourcebooks,

by Ken Kreckel

Ebook sales... are absolutely increasing, and they have been doing so every month for some time... fiction is the leader in this space.”

HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Features | 13

comments: “Ebook sales are absolutely increasing, and they have been doing so every month for some time. For example, at Sourcebooks, January 2011 ebook dollars equaled 35% of dollars sold. And fiction is the leader in this space. Ebooks make up a larger percentage of fiction sales than they do other categories.”

That growth is enough to get publishers’ attention, even if they cannot discern where, exactly, all this is going.

Perhaps the most glaring characteristic of ebooks is their lower price. A recent NYT article stated: “In negotiations with Apple, five of the six largest publishers of trade books have said they would price most digital editions of new fiction and nonfiction books from $12.99 to $14.99 on the forthcoming iPad tablet — significantly lower than the average $26 price for a hardcover book.” With little of the overhead associated with traditional publishers, Amazon was shooting for an even lower average price of $9.99. Plainly obvious is that ebooks are simply cheaper to produce, “about 50 cents to convert the text to a digital file, typeset it in digital form and copy-edit it”, as opposed to about $3.25 to handle a traditional book.4 So how does a publisher set a price? At Sourcebooks, Drehs explains, “Our strategy in pricing is completely evolutionary. So our answer at this point is that we’re experimenting with a little of everything. We need to be sensitive to consumers’ pricing concerns, and we need to protect authors’ ability to make money on their work. At the end of the day, we think it all comes down to value — where price, consumer expectation and consumer experience meet equals value.”

This puts increasing pressure on revenue. The cheaper costs and relative ease in producing an ebook have resulted in increased competition as well, and not just from authors by-passing the traditional agent-publisher route. As a result, in this new lower-price environment created by low overhead distributors (typified by Amazon), publishers are seeking to support prices at some level, arguing that there is overhead to ebooks as well as traditional print. Drehs sees traditional publishing as “a business in transition. So while we don’t have the print-paper-binding costs, some of those expenses shift to other jobs (QA, account management, metadata, etc.) and in many cases where ebook sales are rising, that means you’re printing fewer books, which means the price-per-book of that printing rises, sometimes dramatically.” Marketing is a key area, says Drehs: “Overall, where the big challenge lies (and I’d suggest the costs should, too) is on the marketing front. The bookstore seems to be an under respected aspect of what marketing physical books included, and that’s not simply replicated by online bookstores. Yes, it’s great that the book has a page in retailers’ ebook stores, but how do I get readers there in the first place? As difficult as it was to pick up sales from browsers in a bookstore carrying 80,000 titles, digital takes that challenge to the Nth degree. So what you’re seeing is publishers rapidly expanding digital marketing and publicity groups, hiring metadata and SEO gurus, building communities/clubs/affinity groups for authors and groups of authors, experimenting with formats and styles that often don’t take, and on and on. So for the moment, at least, unfortunately 14 | Features | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

we publishers haven’t stumbled into a giant pile of profit.”

Not that this is necessarily a problem for authors. Slash an ebook’s price, cutting out the cost of the printing and distribution, the author will still make his buck a copy. Quite a few authors have even gone the route of giving away ebook versions of their back issues, in hopes of stimulating demand for their most recent offerings. This is obviously a self-limiting strategy — it can only work while ebook sales are relatively low — and there’s the issue of admitting to the world that your work is worth nothing, not the best message to send to your readers.

So what should one do about one’s back issues? For the better selling authors, this isn’t a problem. It’s already been done.

Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing, notes, “Ninety-five percent of the books that generate 99 percent of the revenue are available for sale today in all the major e-formats.”5 For everyone else, it can be a headache.

Actually defining who owns the rights can be daunting. Many titles have been transferred to other publishers, sometimes over and over again. Add in Europe, where copyrights generally do not continue indefinitely, but are re-negotiated frequently, and there’s a much larger problem. So far, book distributors have been successful at defending their regional territories, but for how long? After all, the internet is very good at breaking down barriers.

In many cases, such as with books published before ebooks were even a twinkle in anyone’s eye, the rights have never been assigned at all. Case in point is Ian Fleming’s 007 series.

The fourteen original titles were recently released as ebooks via Amazon and Waterstone by Ian Fleming Publications, completely by-passing Penguin, its long-time publisher. If the sale of a decades-old series seems irrelevant, consider this: J.K. Rowling retains her e-rights as well.6 The pure mechanics of getting books converted to e-formats is relatively trivial. Amazon has a DIY method, dubbed Digital Text Platform, which is just one of many available. But if it’s a trivial exercise in computing, it’s not so much for the author.

Consider Shari Anton’s experience with another service: “What I paid for: the ISBN through Smashwords is $10.00, and my cover cost $114.00. What it cost me: Time. Lots and lots of time.

I have to admit that I learned a lot, but the learning curve — for me — was brutal. That said, the next time around — which will probably be years — I’ll have a clue about what needs doing and it won’t take so long. Then again, by the time I get the rights back to some of my other books, the whole system will have changed and I’ll have more learning to do.”

Michelle Black’s experience was more positive, if unexpected: “Last August I re-published my 2001 novel, An Uncommon Enemy, on Kindle, and this gave me my first claim to a ‘bestseller’.

I had the good fortune to have the book reviewed on a popular Kindle blog and the book started selling within hours. By the next day, it had reached #7 on Amazon’s historical novel rankings in the Kindle store and #1 for Western novels across all formats, paper or pixel. I called it my ‘overnight success’, if by overnight you mean nine years. Besides the giddy thrill of watching my

comprising almost infinite choices.

Ultimately, there may be an even a larger threat. If one looks at other media, music for example, the future is not so heartening.

The music industry has gone through one technical revolution after another, from 78s to albums to 8-tracks to cassettes to CDs and now digital downloads — only to see the industry decline overall. All this innovation resulted in a fractionalization which saw prices fall, led by such Internet sources as Napster (who, in its first iteration, effectively set the price of music at zero), resulting in a revenue crash. Forrester Research reports: “Recorded music revenues declined by more than half in the past decade.”8 I’m not surprised; my last music purchase involved The Beatles.

But books are not pieces of music, and Drehs perceives a counter-trend forming: “Initial reports and some unscientific studies and polls suggest, at this point, that readers who buy ebooks are buying more books than they might in print, which is a great thing.”

So what does the future hold? Will the print on paper world simply vanish? Like Wells’s Eloi, will we eventually stop reading altogether? Or will ebooks actually expand the number of books read? It is, of course, largely up to us. As long as there is a demand for books, whatever the delivery system, the supply will surely be there. If not…watch out for those Morlocks.

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References 1. Jones, Phillip; “Digital may “overtake” print sales by 2014”; Bookseller.com, Jan 25, 2011 http://www.thebookseller.com/news/ digital-may-overtake-print-sales-2014.html 2. Ibid.

3. MacManus, Richard, “Top Trends of 2010: Growth of ebooks & eReaders”; Readwriteweb.com; November 21, 2010 7:15 PM http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/ebooks_ereaders_top_ trends_2010.php 4. Rich, Motoko; “Math of Publishing Meets the Ebook”; New York Times; February 28, 2010 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/ business/media/01ebooks.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 5. Hyatt, Thomas; “Four Reasons Why the Sales Growth of ebooks Will Be Slower Than Industry Executives Think”; Michael Hyatt.com http://michaelhyatt.com/four-reasons-why-the-sales-growth-ofebooks-will-be-slower-than-industry-executives-think.html 6. Wallop, Harry; “James Bond novels go digital, cutting out Penguin”; The Daily Telegraph; Nov. 3, 2010 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ culture/books/8105789/James-Bond-novels-go-digital-cutting-outPenguin.html 7. Backlist ebooks website http://backlistebooks.com/ 8. Ghandi, Sonal ; “US Music Forecast, 2009 To 2014”; Forrester Research, Jan 13, 2010 http://www.forrester.com/rb/Research/us_ music_forecast,_2009_to_2014/q/id/55347/t/2

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‘baby’ rise up the Amazon rankings, the 70% royalty offered by Kindle brought me an unexpected little windfall, even from a modest $2.99 list price. In short, a project I began as a lark ended up giving me one of the best moments in my writing career.”

There was one negative, “the slightly weird phenomenon of competing against my own publisher, who released the third novel in the same series as both a Kindle and a paperback the same month.”

Another great moment was experienced by Barbara Monajem, whose first award for a published work came from an ebook version of her romance, Notorious Eliza, which captured an EPIC (Electronically Published Internet Coalition) Award this year for historical novels. As her publisher, Harlequin/Mills & Boon did the work, and the whole process was largely invisible to the author: “I don’t know about the conversion process, but from what I’ve read, it’s time-consuming, but not particularly difficult.”

Lest one think these are isolated incidents, Drehs reports: “In April the strength of ebook sales helped propel Jill Mansell, one of our authors, to the New York Times ebook fiction bestseller list, as well as the USA Today bestseller list. Ebooks are creating new opportunities for us and our authors in a way that’s truly exciting.”

So if ebooks present an opportunity for authors — larger royalties, more control, and more exposure — there are also opportunities for individual publishers. Neff Rotter, for example, created Belgrave House to take previously published books into the ebook world. Although she contacts authors directly, more often they seek her out: “…we form a partnership where I simply make the 10 formats, the cover art and offer them on my websites and through distributors.” True to the ebook world, these editions are priced to sell. Says Rotter: “Almost all of our ebooks are priced at $5, though the distributors frequently discount them by 20%.”

Another option for many authors is to take a sort of coop approach. According to their website, “Backlist Ebooks is comprised of print-published authors who have re-released our out-of-print backlist titles as reasonably priced ebooks.”7 The site boasts a number of historical novelists, such as Shari Anton, Patricia Ryan, and Patricia Rice, among others.

These low prices and the ease of the process change the rules.

Anyone who chooses to can publish a book at next to no cost.

An optimist might see this as a good thing, a portal to bring unrecognized talent to the forefront; the flipside is simply transferring the slush pile from the editor’s or agent’s desk directly to the public, a situation not at all to the good. Rotter sees this problem as one the major values to be found in her service: “Because there’s so much self-published work out there, I think readers find it valuable to know that an ebook has been previously published by a major publisher. I always include the tag line: originally published by Signet (or whoever).” In addition, this may increase the value of publications like HNR and its online ebook covering counterpart, HNR Online, as a means to more easily discover just what you might like and what you clearly wouldn’t — a little guidance in a world now

KEN KRECKEL is a features editor with HNR, a former exploration manager with a major oil company, and currently a college instructor and consultant. He has published a historical novel, as well as several short stories, articles, and op-ed pieces.

HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Features | 15

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a historical profile of the Penguin Group

o British readers, the catch phrase “pick up a penguin” is T associated with an advertising campaign for a type of chocolate

biscuit. It is, however, equally as appropriate for Penguin Books, which is now the Penguin Group UK and has divisions worldwide, including the Penguin Group USA. Penguin founder Allen Lane, as part of his marketing strategy, wanted to provide readers with the opportunity to pick up pocket-sized books in places that previously would not have sold books at all.

Lane was not the inventor of the paperback; lurid penny dreadfuls (dime novels) were popular during the 19th century, and by late 1893 publishing magnate Alfred Harmsworth had begun issuing quality story papers. His achievement lay in democratising reading, making it possible for ordinary people to buy high quality fiction and classic works cheaply and easily. The route he used was straightforward: he sold books in Woolworth shops. Building on this model, the Penguin Company was launched on July 30, 1935, and by March 1936 over a million books had been printed, with more than 63,000 sold to Woolworth.

Folklore has it that this revolution sprang in part from Lane’s own frustration at not being able to buy anything to read. Returning from a visit to Agatha Christie in 1934, he found himself waiting at Exeter for his train to London and unable to find anything worth reading. He conceived the idea of distributing cheap but quality literature through vending machines.

Albatross Books (founded in 1932) in Hamburg and also the Tauchitz (Leipzig) paperback books had already demonstrated the possibilities of the mass market for paperbacks, and Lane’s wait at Exeter acted as catalyst. He took things one step further with his creation of vending machines which sold books, dubbed “Penguincubators”. The first was installed in Charing Cross Road outside Collet’s bookshop in 1937.

Lane was a lover of quality fiction, but he was also an entrepreneur — buying up publishing rights cheaply, selling books for 6d (which was about the price of a packet of cigarettes), and taking risks. He wanted a “dignified but flippant” symbol for his new venture, and his secretary suggested a penguin. A young graphic designer was sent to London Zoo to draw penguins, and a logo and brand were soon created. Penguin faced fierce competition in the 1950s from Pan Books, but it was not until

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Pick up a Penguin

six weeks after the death of Lane in 1970 that it was bought out

by Pearson Longman.

What relevance do Penguin books and Lane have to historical fiction? Lane holds the distinction of being one of the first publishers to introduce works of historical fiction to a wide readership. One of the first titles published by Penguin in 1936 was The Spanish Farm by Ralph Hale Mottram, which centres around a battlefield in Flanders. Penguin also mass-marketed The Happy Return by C.S. Forester. This Hornblower novel was originally published in 1937 by Michael Joseph, and then Penguin took up the title in 1952. Works of gothic horror fiction were also published, including the oeuvre of Marjorie Bowen (née Campbell) and classic works such as Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (Penguin Classic).

The tradition of introducing quality historical fiction to a mass market still continues today. Tracy Chevalier’s Remarkable Creatures, based on the life of Mary Anning, has been distributed and popularised through Penguin US’s book club. The Night Watch, a novel by Sarah Waters set in 1940s London, is another example. At the moment, Penguin/ Michael Joseph are gathering together an impressive waddle of historical novelists, including Karen Maitland, Harry Sidebottom, and A.L. Berridge. The group also continues to promote classic historical fiction from around the world, including the work of Sigrid Undset. Born in Denmark, she won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1928, and her contribution to historical fiction includes Kristen Lavransdatter, a trilogy about life in Scandinavia during the Middle Ages, originally published between 1920-1922 and now available in the Penguin Classics series.

Penguin books, first created by Lane 76 years ago, are now known worldwide, and it is a brand recognizable in even the most unexpected of places. When hostage negotiator Terry Waite was himself taken captive in Lebanon in 1987, his captors recognised the Penguin logo he drew in the sand and brought him novels to read as a consequence.

Lane’s publishing vision was characterised by a fearless approach, and this is fortunate for historical novelists, as it has helped this specialist niche to find a prominent place in the world of quality mass-market popular fiction.

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by Myfanwy Cook

Lane was... a lover of quality fiction, but he was also an entrepreneur — buying up publishing rights cheaply, selling books for 6d (which was about the price of a packet of cigarettes), and taking risks.”

16 | Features | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

a few moments with historian and media personality Saul David

Saul David likely needs no introduction to those of the British

persuasion, but he’s less well-known to the average American.

An accomplished historian, currently Professor of War Studies at the University of Buckingham, he has written extensively on military history, especially the wars of the Victorian Age. One work of nonfiction, Military Blunders, Zulu: the Heroism and Tragedy of the Zulu War of 1879 was named Waterstone’s Military History Book of the Year. Not your average academic, he has appeared frequently on BBC television, and more than one of his books has been produced as a documentary. It would not be inaccurate to describe him as today’s most recognizable expert on military history in the British Isles.

Recently, David has delved into the world of historical fiction, penning two of a three-book series set in the late Victorian period, featuring his half-British, halfZulu hero, George Hart. The first of these, Zulu Hart, garnered praise from no less than Bernard Cornwell, and was named Waterstone’s New Talent in Fiction. The subsequent title, Hart of Empire, was released in the summer of this year.

As a well-known historian and accomplished author of nonfiction works, it may seem surprising that David decided to move into the realm of historical fiction. Although the idea was always lurking in his head, it took an external stimulus to bring it to fruition: “I’d always toyed with the idea of writing historical fiction, having enjoyed the Flashman novels as a boy, but when I first tried it in the late 1990s my then-agent told me ‘not to give up the day job’. So I didn’t until two odd coincidences: first I got to interview my long-time literary hero, George MacDonald Fraser, the creator of Flashman, who told me that he wasn’t planning to write a whole novel set in the Zulu War of 1879 (which made me think that maybe I should); then I was approached by Hodder (rather than the other way around)

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Heart of a Zulu

to see if I was interested in writing a historical novel, and if so in what period. I immediately said, ‘the Zulu War’, and was told to write a synopsis. The outcome was a three-book deal before I’d written a word of fiction, as opposed to the outline. It wouldn’t happen today.”

A savvy individual with a sense of the practical, David has been quoted as advising his students to “Choose an original subject —but one that you can also sell as a book.” David comments on how important marketing considerations were to him: “Very. You have to be realistic. If your intention is live by your pen, it’s best to write books that people want to read; and there’s no more popular 19th-century war (for the British at least) than the Zulu War, the subject of a very successful motion picture and many books. Which is why I’ve used it for both nonfiction and fiction works. But it helps if you also say something new.”

The “something new” occurs right off in his choice of the main character, George Hart. Making him half-British and half-Zulu provides instant conflict in David’s novels, as well as making racism a prominent theme. David comments on why he made his protagonist so: “Chiefly because I knew that if George had mixed blood he would view Empire from the perspective of both the ruler and ruled, which in turn would make his character more sympathetic to the modern reader. Given the unpopularity of recent wars of aggression, particularly in Iraq, I don’t think it would any longer be possible to set a Flashman-type anti-hero in the wars of the 19th century, because such wars of aggression have painful modern resonances (Iraq and Afghanistan). Also, there’s a personal connection in that my Armenian great-grandfather was taunted at his English public school for having dark skin.”

It would seem there is a lesson for his readers, one that the popular author embraces: “The chief lesson is that the presence

by Ken Kreckel

If your intention... is to live by your pen, it’s best to write books that people want to read...

But it helps if you also say something new.”

HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Features | 17

18 | Features | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

fear you’ll want to pack in too much detail, and neglect pace, plot and character (which may also be true). The trick, I think, is to use the history to provide authenticity and atmosphere, but not allow it to direct the story (which, ideally, should work in almost any period). As for the assumption that a historian won’t make schoolboy errors of fact, that’s also not necessarily true!”

Given that there is an undeniable adventure aspect to the Hart books, they raise the question of tension between history and entertainment in historical novels — the twin demands of a good story and good history. David comments: “You have to accept, as a novelist, that the story comes first; or it will never work. And yet readers also want to learn something, which is where good history comes into the equation. The trick, I think, is to minimize the liberties you take with the historical record, and always point them out in the Author’s Note.”

It seems Saul David has mastered that trick. As a historian, his works offer much to the average reader in the way of historical fact, yet they are both readable and enjoyable. But what does the future hold for his fiction? Will he branch out to other historical periods?

“Yes, I’ve just finished a book on the history of the British soldier from the Restoration to Waterloo, out in February 2012. So I may set a future novel in that period, or possibly as late as the Second World War. But, apart from future George Hart books, I think I’m done with the Victorians!”

Will he concentrate on nonfiction or fiction?

“A bit of both, which isn’t easy — as I also have teaching and TV commitments.

But I can’t complain. It’s a great privilege to be able to write novels and history.”

Indeed, and judging from his success to date, a great privilege for his readers as well.

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of foreign troops in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, for whatever reason (and the ones stated are rarely genuine), will always cause more problems (chiefly bad feeling among the local population) than solutions. So if you do have to intervene, you must do so with the backing of the UN, an effective post-conflict plan, and a realistic timetable for withdrawal. Simply saying you won’t leave until the security situation is stable is not good enough. My fear for Afghanistan is that the war will never be ‘won’, and the troops will leave having done far more harm than good. We should talk to the Taliban, and any other power brokers, before it’s too late.”

David’s George Hart novels have been very successful, prompting comparisons between him and Bernard Cornwell: “Of course I’m delighted with the comparison, but no, if I’m honest, it’s not justified — not yet. But then Bernard wrote five or six Sharpe novels before he began to gain a decent-sized following, so I haven’t done too badly so far. He also told me he looked on his early novels with something akin to horror, and I’m sure I will, too. You’re bound to improve with experience.”

So which does he think he does better, nonfiction or fiction? “I’m a much more experienced nonfiction writer, so as things stand am probably better at it; but I’m beginning to get fiction — the second novel was certainly much less of a struggle to write than the first — so the jury may be out in the long-term. I certainly enjoy both, though they pose very different problems.”

At heart, he seems more of an author of nonfiction as well: “I think I prefer to write nonfiction because it comes more naturally to me. Having said that, fiction affords the historian much more latitude when it comes to assigning motive to real historical figures like Lord Chelmsford, the British commander during the Zulu War. You’re encouraged to get inside a character’s head and, as a result, may sometimes get closer to that elusive will o’ the wisp known as ‘historical truth’. But fiction is much tougher to construct from a technical point of view, and I’m happy if I nail down 1,500 words a day (as opposed to 2,500 for nonfiction).”

In addition, there may be a downside to a historian writing fiction, especially one as well known as David: “People either assume that you only got the opportunity to write fiction because you’re an established historian (which may be true); and/or they

KEN KRECKEL is a features editor with HNR, with an abiding interest in military history.

a recap of the recent HNS North American conference

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CONFERENCE 2011: SAN DIEGO

ttendees Michael DiSchiavi and Maryka Biaggio share their Athoughts about the 2011 Historical Novel Society Conference,

my first novel and am starting to outline a second. It can be a bit intimidating to be around someone who is publishing her held 17-19 June in San Diego, California. eighth book while you have yet to sell your first. The panels I attended were all very informative and quite interesting. Panels Michael DiSchiavi writes... covered many diverse topics, including selling historical fiction, I attended the Fourth Annual North American Conference making the most out of the writer and editor relationship, of the Historical Novel Society at the suggestion of Stephanie writing gay characters, and a host of other topics. There was Cowell (Claude & Camille) and Susanne Dunlap (In the also a Blue Pencil writing workshop where writers could have Shadow of the Lamp). I had their work critiqued. Being no idea what to expect and somewhat self-conscious was unsure if I was willing to about my work (while at the spend the sizeable amount same time being proud of it), I of money for the conference somewhat foolishly opted not fee, bicoastal airfare, and twoto attend that workshop. With night hotel stay. Trusting my regard to panel discussions, friends’ judgment, however, I special kudos must go to moved forward and made my Jennifer Weltz, vice-president reservations. It was exactly the of the Jean A. Naggar Literary correct move for me.

Agency, for her inexhaustible The conference kicked off efforts at this conference. with registration, immediately Jennifer served as the keynote followed by a cocktail mixer. speaker at Saturday’s lunch, The tone of the weekend followed by immediately was set at registration. Each moderating a panel on editors participant was given a name and authors, in addition to tag which featured the first the at least three other panels name in capital letters and she either moderated or The HMS Rose (used as the HMS Surprise in the film Master and Commander) large font, emphasizing the in San Diego harbor. Photo credit: Chris Cevasco participated in, all the while collegiality and familiarity that with a smile. All this was in HNS wanted to foster; the full name was placed underneath in addition to seeing prospective clients in groups of eight at a time a smaller font. At the mixer, I was delighted that the first person and spending a half hour with each group.

I met was Emma Campion, author of The King’s Mistress, one of As wonderful and worthwhile as the conference was, no event the best novels I have read this year. I told Emma my true story of is without its flaws, and the scheduling of Susan Vreeland’s talk having almost missed a job interview because I was so engrossed was inopportune. A tremendous admirer of her work, especially in her book that I lost track of time. At dinner, I found myself her latest novel, Clara and Mr. Tiffany, I had looked forward to sitting at a table with Laurel Corona (Finding Emilie), Michelle hearing what she had to say. Unfortunately, it was scheduled Cameron (The Fruit of Her Hands), and Susanne Dunlap, all directly opposite the panel on the relationship between authors writers I have read and thoroughly enjoyed. I felt a special sense and editors. As someone new to writing novels, I felt I needed to of camaraderie for Michelle, since she has thus far published her attend that panel while I sorely wanted to hear Susan Vreeland. first novel and is shopping around a second and I am pitching Fortunately, I was able to chat with her at the book signing.

by Michael DiSchiavi & Maryka Biaggio

It provided... the perfect opportunity to meet colleagues, find out other people’s interests, and put one’s finger more firmly on the market’s pulse.”

HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Features | 19

Another issue was the insufficient spacing of time between and its delights abounded. panel discussions. Since some events, including agent pitch The conference, although primarily attended by writers of sessions, were scheduled in remote areas of the hotel and some historical fiction, offered something for everyone. Readers (and panels quite naturally ran overtime, it was quite possible to miss writers) of historical fiction found a bookstore filled with a something. I showed up at my appointment for a pitch session cornucopia of offerings; unpublished writers had opportunities with an agent three minutes late due to scheduling conflicts, to pitch their projects to agents and brainstorm with their peers; and I was told that agents and editors my appointment conversed with their was given away to colleagues about all someone else. things historical fiction The Holiday Inn on (and who knows what the Bay was an ideal else!); and published setting for the HNS writers met their conference. The hotel readers and discussed was spacious and their work on panels. very pleasant. Every The conference was room had a terrace; quite a democratic mine overlooked the affair, tapping many of bay. The staff was its own members for the very accommodating; sessions. Panels were there was not one staff formed as a function member who did not of interest among go out of her or his registrants and staffed way to make us feel by authors, agents, and welcome. editors planning to Overall, the attend (as well as some experience was honored invited guests). entirely worthwhile Why, a registrant who and one I would had joined only six recommend to others months earlier and as well as repeat never before attended myself. It provided the a conference (yours perfect opportunity truly) was even offered a to meet colleagues, chance to report on the find out other people’s conference. interests, and put Such things I learned! one’s finger more For instance, in the 14th firmly on the market’s to 17th centuries the pulse. Thanks to all Left to right from top: C.C. Humphreys at the Saturday Night Sex Readings; Karlee Turner Etter amount and quality of at her session “19th Century Fashion: From the Inside Out”; and attendees mingle at the Friday who made it happen! models the fabric making up the night reception. Photo credits: Chris Cevasco, Kris Tualla, and Adelaida Lucena-Lower billowed sleeves of lady’s Maryka Biaggio writes... dresses was an indicator of social status. And did you know that How many writing conferences have you attended that there are more novels about Tudors than there are Tudors — and featured evening readings of fight scenes and sex scenes? Or a that includes the illegitimate ones? According to a blogger who period costume fashion show? The Historical Novel Society’s surveyed her readers, the focus on marquee names as subjects of Fourth North American Conference offered surprises galore, historical novels may be driven more by publishers — who want starting with a tote bag stuffed not only with bookmarks and a sure thing — than readers, who are more interested in great flyers about new releases, but also books (eight of them!). There plots and settings. And if you’re interested in attending any of were nametags demarcated by century and even an in-session the many Civil War re-enactments taking place over the War’s raffle to win books authored by the panelists. I’ve attended my sesquicentennial, you can find them listed in the Camp Chase fair share of writing conferences over the last dozen-some years, Gazette. but never before had I had occasion to play maid to a 13th century One of my favorite things to do at conferences is to pick up lady! This was my first conference focused on a particular genre, little gems of wisdom, and I garnered quite a few jewels in San 20 | Features | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

Left to right from top: Susan Vreeland discusses her writing process; Cecelia Holland delivers an inspiring keynote speech; and Diana Gabaldon, Margaret George, and C.W. Gortner at their book signings. Photo credit: Chris Cevasco

MICHAEL DISCHIAVI hails from New York, and is

MARYKA BIAGGIO just completed her historical

a member of the Historical Novel Society, as well as a

novel, A Most Dangerous Woman, which is based on the

frequent reviewer for the Historical Novels Review. This is

true story of a small-town Michigan woman who rose

his first time attending an HNS conference.

from first-class courtesan to world-class blackmailer.

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Diego: publishing these days is like living in the Wild West; what editors call “content” we writers call “truth”; when agents are pressed to describe the novels they represent, they often steal descriptions from their authors; it doesn’t sell until it sells (apropos of anyone’s ability to predict the market); and if you’re

going to write anything about the Civil War, you better know your details, down to the wallpaper in rooms where meetings were held, or your readers will promptly inform you of your lapses.

And then there were the precious tidbits from overheard conversations or panel presentations: I’m way too tired to stay up for the sex scenes. I’ve murdered so many of my little darlings, Lucifer has asked me to do a workshop. I haven’t lied in my writing but I’ve made up things when the probable version was inconvenient; I call it fiction. The world of publishing moves at the pace of medieval molasses. I don’t find it terribly difficult to get inside a character’s head; one of my protagonists once orchestrated a massacre for revenge — I’ve wanted to do that.

This is a conference that seems to have come up with the right mix of ingredients. The number of attendees was manageable. All meals were included with the registration fee, which facilitated mingling and networking. Keynote speakers were all informative and interesting. Hallway exchanges and fun scheduled activities combined with stimulating panels to provide just the right spice.

As for me, I’m already busy concocting a sex scene I might read at the next conference!

HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Features | 21

Reviews |

ancient egypt

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THE KING’S MAN Pauline Gedge, Penguin Canada, 2011, C$24.00, pb, 480pp, 9780143170778 With The King’s Man, Pauline Gedge concludes her trilogy begun in The Twice Born and Seer of Egypt about enigmatic Huy, son of Hapu, who became one of ancient Egypt’s most respected and influential figures. In this final chapter, Huy is now revered for guiding the impulsive young king Amunhotep III, together with the king’s mother, Queen Mutemwia. But privately Huy struggles with both his fame at court and his addiction to opium, the only relief for the blinding headaches that accompany his prophetic visions. After having been enslaved all his life to the gods’ capricious will, sacrificing his own capacity for erotic intimacy in exchange for knowledge, power, and longevity, Huy now faces the gradual erosion of the life he has built, as old friends succumb to mortality and the past becomes more alluring than the present.

But he has a final mission to accomplish after he experiences a terrifying vision of a future when apostasy reigns – a vision that sets him on a quest to rectify his own mistakes as well as discover the last tantalizing fragment of the Book of Thoth.

Fans of Pauline Gedge’s astonishing recreations of a world both intensely foreign yet also immediately familiar will find much to enjoy in this novel; her peerless evocation of Egypt’s splendor is on ample display, as is her capacity to transform mere hieroglyphs on crumpling pillars into flesh-and-blood beings. Those who have read her magnificent The Twelfth Transforming will especially thrill to her portrayal of young Tiye’s evolution from fledgling royal bride to vigorous queen. However, readers are strongly advised to delve into the first two books in the trilogy before this one; while The King’s Man can stand on its own, to be properly savored, the complex plotlines of Huy’s story should be read in order.

C.W. Gortner

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biblical

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LOVE AMID THE ASHES Mesu Andrews, Revell, 2010, $14.99, pb, 401pp, 9780800734077 Mesu Andrews’ debut novel is ambitious; she sets herself the task of retelling the story of Job, the “good” man over whom God and Satan have a bet.

In the fable-like Bible story, Satan says if Job wasn’t so blessed, if he had hard times, he would curse 22 | Reviews | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

God. God suggests Satan try Job, do anything Satan wishes, but spare Job’s life. Thus begins the trial of Job: he loses his wealth, his children, his wife, his friends and is plagued with sores all over his body.

Unfortunately, what reads like a fable in the Bible becomes more difficult to accept in novel form. By sticking faithfully to the story, Andrews creates what is, basically, an unbelievable tale. In this retelling, the story is told from the points of view of two women: Job’s wife, Sitis, and his future daughter-in-law, Dinah. In an effort to re-create a story thousands of years old, using many names for Yahweh in a way that is confusing and bringing Sitis’ pagan beliefs under scrutiny, Andrews fails to breathe humanity into her characters, though she gives it a good effort. Her purpose here seems more didactic: she is more concerned with converting her characters to the “true” faith than with the story and the story’s ramifications. The book has promising moments and, hopefully, Andrews will feel more free next time to veer into her own story.

Anne Barnhill PETRA: City of Stone T. L. Higley, B & H, 2010, $14.99, pb, 344pp, 9781433668562 Our story begins with Julian suffering deep anguish because he has been unable to prevent the death of his fiancée, Vita. For the Roman crowds await entertainment at the huge Flavian Amphitheatre, where those who follow the Jewish Messiah Jesus are to be fed to the lions. Julian flees Rome to protect all he knows and escape his own demise at the hands of Emperor Trajan.

In Damascus, Syria, Cassia and her son, Alexander, have finally escaped the abuse of Aretas, now dead because of his own dishonesty. Cassia and Alexander arrive in Petra, modern Jordan, seeking the protection of Aretas’ estranged royal family.

Instead, Alexander is taken by the queen, a woman obsessed with demonic power and determined to become regent for the next king of Petra.

Devastated by her loss, Cassia finds shelter with a group of men and women who worship the Godman, Jesus. There she meets Julian, the Roman expected to take on the mantle of leadership of the Christians from Malik. Their involvement in Cassia’s quest to save Alexander from death evolves into a mighty battle between the powers of heaven and hell. Each character in this remarkable story evolves into a new creation, people reflecting the figurative meaning of the “Rock” inherent in the name of the city they inhabit, Petra. In spite of a great deal of repetition, this story is gripping, touching, and cinematic in scope.

Viviane Crystal

BATHSHEBA Jill Eileen Smith, Revell, 2011, $14.99, pb, 346pp, 9780800733223 Married to Uriah, a loyal and pious soldier who is often away serving King David, the beautiful Bathsheba frequently finds herself bored and lonely. When the king, still grieving for the loss of his favorite wife, spies Bathsheba bathing, he determines to have her – and the attraction is mutual. What follows, of course, is one of the best known episodes from the Old Testament.

Smith writes well and fills her story with interesting historical detail, but I found this novel to be unsatisfying. Most of the characters, especially David’s children by his other wives, are mere sketches. David himself never truly becomes three-dimensional. Though much of the last part of the novel deals with his difficulties with his various children, his relationship with them is never fleshed out: It’s typical of the novel that when David hears the news that Tamar has been raped, a full page passes before we realize that Tamar is David’s daughter and that her assailant is one of David’s sons.

My chief disappointment, however, was with Bathsheba herself. Aside from her beauty, Bathsheba is such a colorless character that it’s difficult to understand David’s devotion to her.

Worse, she has a curious lack of an inner life and scarcely grows spiritually. Once the novel’s main emotional crisis has passed, she troubles herself not at all with the fate of Uriah. When her grandfather rebels against her husband and meets a tragic end, she hardly blinks. Bathsheba’s main concern, in fact, seems to be retaining her and her children’s preeminence over David’s other wives and children.

As a result, when I closed this book, I did not feel that I had read a story about redemption and forgiveness, as the author seems to have intended; I felt that I read a story about a trophy wife who beats back the competition.

Susan Higginbotham THE WAY Kristen Wolf, Crown, 2011, $25.00, hb, 288pp, 9780307717696 In a debut certain to spark conversation, Kristen Wolf takes the story of Christianity and spins it in an entirely different direction – think The Mists of Avalon for the story of Jesus.

In 1st-century Judea, Anna has been an oddity all her short life, different in body and mind from everyone around her. When her mother dies giving birth to a stillborn boy, Anna is sold to shepherds by her father, who passes her off as a boy. To keep her secret, Anna assumes the identity of her doomed brother: Jesus. After a decade with his adopted family, Jesus is again uprooted when he discovers a group of women who preserve Goddess Ancient Egypt — Biblical

worship in an era when the male God rules all. In their idyllic commune, Jesus resumes life as Anna and comes to terms with her gender fluidity; but when her world is destroyed for the third time, she again becomes Jesus to bring the message of what he has learned to a people who will kill him for it.

Some readers will find The Way an interesting reimagining of history; some will see it as denigrating one religion to promote another; and others will simply enjoy it as a myth told in a different way.

As historical fantasy, it’s well constructed and well written; the setting is thoroughly researched and richly described, and the pace flows quickly, though many of the characters lack complexity. Regardless of personal opinion, it can’t be denied that The Way is a daring and passionate debut from an author to watch in the future.

Heather Domin

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classical

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CONSPIRATA (US) / LUSTRUM (UK) Robert Harris, Simon & Schuster, 2011, $16.00, pb, 384pp, 9780743266116 / Arrow, 2010, £7.99, pb, 452pp, 9780099406327 In Imperium, we saw Cicero rise from humble origins to achieve the highest office of Rome. Now, in the second book of the trilogy, Robert Harris gives us the dramatic narrative of the Catilinarian Conspiracy, the series of events that made Cicero famous for the ages.

As Cicero prepares to take the consulship, the republic is as turbulent as ever. A slave boy is discovered with his throat slit and his organs removed, an apparent victim of human sacrifice. A venerable elderly senator is charged with murder, throwing the patricians and the plebs once again into violent conflict. A wealthy young upstart appears in women’s clothing and profanes one of Rome’s most sacred ceremonies. And behind the scenes, Catiline and the young Julius Caesar plot Cicero’s destruction – and the destruction of the Republic.

As Cicero juggles loyalties in an attempt to keep the country standing, Tiro, his faithful secretary and slave, looks on. As in Imperium, Tiro serves not so much as a character in his own right, but as a pair of eyes through which to see Cicero shine.

Harris attempts to enliven Tiro’s character by introducing an element of romance, but really it is Cicero in the spotlight – the Sherlock Holmes, the inscrutable genius with the world on his shoulders.

Harris deftly weaves the actual words of Cicero’s famed speeches into the novel, showing an aweinspiring grasp on the complex politics of the time.

If we always see Cicero at an emotional remove, this distanced perspective does nothing to detract from this muscular political thriller.

Ann Pedtke LAST SEEN IN MASSILIA Steven Saylor, Minotaur, 2011 (c2001), $14.99/ C$16.99, pb, 242pp, 9780312582432 / Robinson, Classical — 2nd Century

2005, £6.99, pb, 320pp, 9781845292430 This seventh installment of the Roma Sub Rosa series finds Gordianus the Finder bound for Massilia, an independent city-state under siege by Caesar’s troops. It is in Massilia that Gordianus’ son Meto was last seen – after purportedly turning traitor to Caesar’s cause. Gordianus and his sonin-law Davus must find their way into the besieged city to learn Meto’s true fate, all while avoiding Caesar’s soldiers, negotiating the sticky politics of Massilia, and investigating a strange murder to which they are the only witnesses.

Though Steven Saylor’s well-loved Roman detective is now past 60, this book has all the vigor of the earlier titles in the series. Saylor once again proves a competent guide to the Roman world; readers will learn about the politics of the late republic, of course, but also about siege warfare, ancient engineering, and provincial social customs.

The (quite literal) unveiling at the end caught me pleasantly off-guard, adding one more twist just when I thought that all had been revealed. The only sour note was the uncharacteristically spiteful – dare I say petty? – decision made by Gordianus at the conclusion of the book. I will be anxious to see the repercussions of this choice in the next novel.

Ann Pedtke

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1st century

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ROME: THE COMING OF THE KING M.C. Scott, Bantam Press, 2011, £12.99, hb, 411pp, 9780593065426 Sebastos Pantera, spy for the Emperor Nero, is hunting Saulos, a dangerous and ruthless adversary.

After his failure to burn down Rome in Rome: The Emperor’s Spy, Saulos is determined to bring about the destruction of Jerusalem by provoking rebellion against the Roman occupation. Brilliantly clever and totally ruthless, he seeks the destruction of the whole of Judea in order to provide opportunities for his own aggrandisement. The action races from Caesarea to Masada before culminating in an enthralling climax in Jerusalem.

The action is exciting and unrelenting, racing along with the speed of a hunting cheetah. The politics of the region, both civil and religious provide a deadly incendiary backdrop to a tale of hatred, psychotic madness and a naked bid for power. The characters are vibrant and totally convincing, while the battle scenes are dramatic and exciting. Manda Scott brings alive a fascinating period of history.

This is a superb novel from an author at the top of her game. Quite simply brilliant, this is one to read and keep. More please!

Mike Ashworth ROMA VICTRIX Russell Whitfield, Myrmidon, 2011, £7.99, pb, 442pp, 9781905802418 This is the second novel of a trilogy, following on from Gladiatrix (HNR 49, pp. 9-10). Lysandra, brought up in the Spartan caste of warrior-

priestesses (no, me neither), is now living in wealth and comfort in the city of Halicarnassus, with her own stable of young female gladiators, one of whom is soon to rebel against her.

Realising that she has let herself go, having become too fond of wine, Lysandra resolves to train herself back to fitness; but then it becomes a necessity when the Emperor Domitian summons her to Rome to fight the Gladiatrix Prima, Illeana, known as the Midnight Falcon.

Meanwhile, the Tribune Gaius Minervina Valerian is one of the few survivors of a lost battle against the Dacians, in what is now Romania. He returns to Rome in shame and disgrace and is forced to take menial employment.

This is a fast-paced, colourful, exciting story, with strong (if not subtle) characters. What more could one ask? Well, for some proofreading and editing, for one thing. I counted 40 errors, so many that I actually checked to see whether I had been sent an uncorrected proof copy. The meaning of some of the large number of untranslated Latin words is not immediately obvious from their context, and they are not always correctly used: a member of the equestrian order was an eques, not an “equites”, which is the plural.

That won’t stop me buying the next book in the series. Roma Victrix has plenty of action, violence, and sex of most kinds. If you want a ripping yarn in which all sorts of things get ripped, I recommend Roma Victrix to you.

Alan Fisk

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2nd century

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VESPASIAN: Tribune of Rome Robert Fabbri, Corvus, 2011, £12.99, hb, 384pp, 9781848879102 At the age of 16, Vespasian leaves the family home along with his brother, Sabinus, to journey to Rome with a view to finding a patron to facilitate him joining the army. The aging Emperor Tiberius is gradually retiring from public life, leaving power effectively in the hands of Sejanus, commander of the Praetorian Guard. It is not long before Vespasian finds himself involved in the deadly game of Roman politics. With his life threatened, Vespasian flees the city for a post as tribune with the Ninth Legion in Pannonia. However, rebellion is in the air, and Vespasian finds himself fighting hostile tribesmen while watching for Sejanus’ agents who are hot on his trail.

This is the first novel in a series by Robert Fabbri charting the rise of Vespasian from obscurity to emperor. His passion for the Roman Empire shows throughout the book in the quality of the research and the writing. The action scenes are graphic without being gratuitous. All the characters are convincing, while the lethal politics of Roman life is effectively portrayed. This is an exciting addition to a very popular genre. More please!

Mike Ashworth HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Reviews | 23

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THE WORDSMITH’S TALE

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E

Stephen Edden, Beautiful Books, 2011, £8.99, pb, 371pp, 9781907616969 In 1087, Thomas the Piper recounts the heartwarming, spellbinding hundred-year history of his family. He comes from a long line of story-weavers and wants to capture their personal stories for posterity. They were serfs but somehow got by against the odds. His young scribe – lovesick and distracted – writes it all down.

The history covers several generations of this West Country family, from the reign of King Edgar to the Battle of Hastings. They are linked by one recurring theme: the gift of storytelling. The original Tom, the bard of King Edgar’s court, takes twelve years to find the woman he loves, Fleda. He saves Fleda’s life, and despite her age, she bears him a son, Bas, who becomes a legend by gaining a ferocious reputation as a warrior fighting the armies of King Cnut. Bas’ son Harry, a storyteller like his aunt, passes the gift on to his own son Thomas, who is forced to make use of the first of the three wishes endowed upon the wishing penny given to his grandfather by King Edgar.

This is Stephen Edden’s debut novel, and it is an outstanding book. The historical detail is exceptional; I could smell, taste and feel the grinding poverty. I was gripped from the opening page, transported back to a time when life was hard and death ever present. The grimness was lightened by wit and brilliant dialogue. It is a remarkable, powerful and hugely enjoyable novel. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Fenella Miller EMPIRE: Fortress of Spears Anthony Riches, Hodder & Stoughton, 2011, £12.99, hb, 340pp, 9780340920367 Young Marcus Aquila (calling himself Centurion Corvus) has hidden himself in the Roman Army and is serving in one of Rome’s most far-flung outposts: the northern frontier in Britannia. But the emperor’s assassins are closing in, wanting to kill Marcus. Meanwhile, he’s fighting a hard and nasty campaign against the Caledonian tribes. Will Marcus survive the dirty war and will the assassins catch up with him?

This is the third outing for Riches’ Empire series set in the late 2nd century. The author chooses, for the most part, to use translations of the Roman names of places, so that those of us who have learnt the Latin names are left wondering which fort is being referred to. There is a map in the front of the book, fortunately, but it doesn’t include the Roman name of, for example, White Strength, so we need to be certain of our geography.

Riches subscribes to the Scarrow School of Roman Swearing, so readers of a delicate disposition be warned. The harsh realities of war are to the fore, and this novel is firmly in the historical adventure genre. Madcap heroic deeds, violence, intrigue and mayhem all make this a perfect book for fans of tales of the Roman Army.

S Garside-Neville

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3rd century

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AGENT OF ROME: The Siege 24 | Reviews | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

Nick Brown, Hodder & Stoughton, 2011, £12.99, hb, 388pp, 9781444714852 Its eastern provinces are being gobbled up by the aggressive (and suspiciously Arabesque) Palmyrans, and the Roman Empire, shown as rather decadent, seems incapable of stopping them. Flushed with easy success, the Palmyrans will seal total victory by seizing the key garrison town of Antioch. Both armies need the deep well at Roman-held Alauran to campaign effectively in the area. The only Roman commander available is Cassius Corbulo, an officer candidate so inept at the physical side of soldiering that he was palmed off to the ill thought of Imperial Security Service before completing his training.

Alauran turns out to be a dilapidated fort manned by a motley collection of undisciplined legionaries and native auxiliaries. Worse yet, there is a spy in the camp. So, can the unlikely hero Cassius somehow hold the fort until reinforcements arrive?

The “underdogs re-finding themselves through fighting overwhelming odds” plot is as old as the hills, and for good reason – it makes for drama that works at just about every level. Unfortunately, this example isn’t realised very well. There isn’t enough description, of either the surroundings or the characters, and what there is, is very unfocused.

This makes it hard to follow what is happening, and even harder to care about whom it is happening to.

The storyline is developed too slowly, and the subplots are wasted with trivial resolutions.

The realistic fight scenes compensate a little.

In most novels and films you wonder why anyone bothers to wear armour, but in this book the stuff

actually works! Soldiers get wounded (admittedly often nastily) more than killed, and everyone gets scared. Really though, these are scant rewards for your time investment.

Martin Bourne

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6th century

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QUEEN OF THE SUMMER STARS: Book Two of the Guinevere Trilogy Persia Woolley, Sourcebooks Landmark, 2011, $16.99/C$19.99, pb, 512pp, 9781402246401 Woolley gives fair warning that her vision of King Arthur’s world is in the realistic tradition.

The book’s first sentence, therefore, should come as no surprise: “I Guinevere, wife of King Arthur and High Queen of Britain, dashed around the corner of the chicken coop, arms flying, war whoop filling my throat.” It put me off, nonetheless, as did Guinevere’s endless grinning and even the anachronistic description of her being a “tomboy.”

But Woolley’s three Guinevere books – Child of the Northern Spring, Queen of the Summer Stars, and Guinevere: The Legend in Autumn – were first published from 1987 to 1993. Sourcebooks wouldn’t be republishing them if they weren’t good, I thought. What’s more, the hallowed Geoffrey Ashe, modern Merlin of Arthur’s legend, praises Woolley, saying her “re-creation of the legend… [is] far better than anything else I’ve read.” So I plugged on.

On page 54, when Lancelot comes on the scene, I began to see the light, and within a dozen pages of that I was thoroughly enjoying the book. The long back story, delivered in clunky conversations, was over, and Woolley relaxes into a marvelous rhythm of storytelling for the next 450-some pages. At the book’s end, I was surprised at how little action there’d been – this is a character-driven romance and, as Ashe says, a re-creation of a lost world – and yet it’s a page-turner. Morgan le Fey, Morgause, and Agravain are all appropriately despicable; Arthur is a flawed hero; Nimue, Isolde, and Tristan all hold their own; but it’s Guinevere and Lancelot who really come to life and spring off the pages.

Fans of Rosemary Sutcliff ’s Sword at Sunset, Jack Whyte’s Camulod Chronicles, and, of course, Mary Stewart’s take on Arthurian romance will likely enjoy Woolley as well.

Kristen Hannum

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11th century

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SWORN SWORD James Aitcheson, Preface, 2011, £12.99, hb, 416pp, 9781848093249 Two years after the Battle of Hastings, Northumbria is the last English province to hold out against Norman rule. Tancred a Dinant, oath-sworn knight in the household of Robert de Commines, earl of Northumbria, returns to 2nd Century — 11th Century

Durham from hunting English rebels to find that the town is being attacked by a Northumbrian army. In the ensuing battle, the earl is killed, and Tancred barely escapes with his life. Determined to avenge their lord’s death, he and his surviving conroi take service with Guillaume Malet, vicomte of York, who is preparing to face an army led by Prince Eadgar, the last of the English royal line. Tancred and his men are tasked with conducting Malet’s wife and daughter to safety in London before going on to Wilton with Malet’s English chaplain, who is to deliver a secret message from Malet to someone at the abbey. Missions accomplished, Tancred will join the William the Conqueror’s army marching north to York. However, in the tradition of all good adventure tales, events don’t go as planned, and Tancred is caught up in treacherous dealings which threaten to destroy the gains of the Norman Conquest.

This first novel is a fine example of good, oldfashioned storytelling. The tale itself is a welljudged mix of action, intrigue and thoughtfulness, laced with a little romance, and told in lucid, lively prose that sets scenes vividly and carries the plot forward without drawing attention to itself either by self-conscious literary tics or amateur-hour clunkiness. In Tancred a Dinant, the author has boldly chosen a Norman knight of the Conquest period as his hero and has given him enough depth to make the reader care about him. I look forward to Tancred’s further adventures in this turbulent and rather neglected period.

Sarah Cuthbertson

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12th century

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LADY OF THE ENGLISH Elizabeth Chadwick, Sphere, 2011, £14.99, pb, 521pp, 9781847442376 / Sourcebooks, 2011, $14.99, pb, 544pp, 9781402250927 Maud, or Matilda, is the dowager empress of Germany and the only surviving legitimate child of Henry I, his son having drowned when the White Ship sank off the Normandy coast.

Brought back to England on the death of her husband, she is forced to marry Geoffrey of Anjou as a means of ensuring that the French possessions remain under the control of the English crown.

When Henry suddenly dies after eating a supper of lampreys, the whole balance shifts. Matilda, having been acknowledged as Henry’s heir to the English throne, finds that her cousin, Stephen of Blois, has beaten her to it, made a hasty journey to Winchester, secured the treasury and had himself crowned as king of England. Anarchy follows.

This is not the first time Elizabeth Chadwick has dealt with this period in English history, but here she tells the story with the relationship between Matilda and her stepmother, Adeliza, at its centre. As a result it gives a different slant on 12th-century England. I have always enjoyed Elizabeth Chadwick’s books since I opened my first one. Her characters live and breathe and leap out 12th Century

of the pages in much the same way as newspapers recount the lives of the people of today: we know them, we see them on our television screens and cannot doubt their existence, and so it is with Elizabeth Chadwick’s characters. Even the totally fictitious ones who provide a link to events are as real as the historical characters they support.

The author’s previous novel, To Defy a King, won the 2011 RNA Historical Novel prize, and deservedly so. Her newest book is also highly recommended.

Marilyn Sherlock THE LEOPARD UNLEASHED Elizabeth Chadwick, Sphere, 2010 (c1992), £7.99, pb, 376pp, 9780751541366 This is Elizabeth Chadwick’s third book and follows on where The Running Vixen left off, continuing the story of Guyon, lord of Ledworth on the Welsh marches and his wife, Judith of Ravenstow, which began in 1098. Time has moved on now to 1139, and Renard, one of Guyon and Judith’s sons, returns from the Crusades bringing with him a half-Welsh dancing girl called Olwen, whom he met in Outremer. But Renard is already betrothed to Elene. There is also Ranulf of Chester to deal with, a near neighbour who has designs on acquiring more land and doesn’t mind how he gets it.

Set against the turbulent times of the 12th

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BIRTH OF THE KINGDOM

century, the story is fast and furious, with real history retold in story form which only serves to enthral the reader and whet the appetite for more.

The fictional characters blend in so smoothly with the time that the join is seamless, and they are as believable as the real characters portrayed.

Elizabeth Chadwick is a master historical novelist whose immaculate research never fails to produce a gripping story where the pages simply have to be kept turning. Highly recommended.

Marilyn Sherlock TO BE QUEEN Christy English, NAL, 2011, $15.00, pb, 380pp, 9780451232304 Few women in the High Middle Ages have proven as complex, powerful, and enigmatic as Eleanor of Aquitaine. Through sheer will, she carved out a place for herself in history that remains unmatched. During the 80 years of her life, she was queen first of France, then of England (a feat never repeated by another), as well as Duchess of Aquitaine. She was a patroness of the arts, participated in the Second Crusade, served as regent for her son Richard the Lionheart and saw her younger son John take over the throne of England after his brother’s death. But it is Eleanor’s early years that author Christy English focuses on in her new novel, To Be Queen.

Young Eleanor isn’t easy to like, but English

E D I TORS’ CH OICE

Jan Guillou, Harper, 2011, $25.99/C33.99, hb, 496pp, 9780061688638 / Harper, 2010, £7.99, pb, 512pp, 9780007285877 It is the year 1192 when the legendary crusader, Sir Arn Magnusson, returns from Outremer with a string of Arabian horses, builders, engineers, and physicians from the East as well as a fortune in gold – a gift from Saladin. He arrives with a vision of a united kingdom, where the Nordic clans may live in harmony, safe from foreign invasion. Sir Arn will set about building walled cities and training young warriors to fight using techniques learned from his Arab opponents. When the inevitable invasions from Denmark come, Sir Arn’s fighting force performs brilliantly and his vision is near to being realized.

Birth of the Kingdom is also a love story, for Arn’s return from Outremer is also the termination of 20 years of penance imposed on him and his betrothed, Cecilia, who, as young lovers in a moment of passion, conceived a son. Thus, while Arn fought Saracens, Cecilia, banished to a convent, learned to use the abacus and manage accounts. Over the years Arn and Cecilia’s love never faltered, and in spite of political pressures to marry out of their clan, they are finally united. The union flourishes in every way.

Birth of the Kingdom should be read as one of Sweden’s founding myths. Arn Magnusson is a hero worthy of the role – a strong, noble warrior, bigger than life, prudent, wise, faithful, and pious who pours his fortune – literally and metaphorically – into building the new nation. The author covers an immense field of historical information in this epic but maintains a steady pace, keeping the reader’s interest all the while. Ancient folk customs are woven seamlessly into descriptions of clan rivalries, gripping battle scenes, and moments of quiet humor. Truly an excellent read.

Lucille Cormier HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Reviews | 25

draws the reader into her world. The queen leaves her daughters behind as part of the bargain to gain her freedom from her first husband, King Louis VII. The author does a laudable job of weaving together research with Eleanor’s imagined motivation and actions. Vivid historical details enhance the young queen’s first-person narrative, but the writing style is often spare, almost journalistic. We’re more often aware of Eleanor’s stated political and private goals than of her deep emotional character. Her shift in loyalty from one husband to the next is less dependent upon romance, as hinted at in the cover blurb, than upon calculation to ensure her future power and retention of her beloved Aquitaine. But after all, isn’t this far more believable, given the times? Love was rarely an issue when arranging royal marriages until recently.

Read and enjoy this novel for its gem-like glimpses into the cold realities of royal life and its luscious historical flavor, not for the love story implied by the cover blurb.

Kathryn Johnson THE GALLOWS CURSE Karen Maitland, Michael Joseph, 2011, £12.99, pb, 564pp, 9780718156350 Elena acts as a maid for Lady Anne, but strange dreams begin to plague Elena’s sleep. In desperation, she visits the local cunning woman, who has been waiting for an opportunity to fulfil an ancient curse conjured at the gallows. Haunted by this curse and accused of a murder she did not commit, Elena flees her village, but her past comes back to haunt her.

This historical crime novel is steeped in curses, folklore and superstition. King John and the whole of England have been excommunicated, and priests

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are few and far between. The brutality and fear of 12th-century England comes alive under this writer’s hand, and this is described in minute and visceral detail. The book is well written and rich in metaphorical language and prose. As the tale is narrated by a mandrake, this adds to its originality.

The two central characters are well depicted, and it is fascinating reading the short pieces from The Mandrake’s Herbal which graces each chapter. They really add to the atmosphere of witchcraft and base brutality which Maitland weaves in and around the main story, that of Elena and the Steward Raffe.

A much-needed glossary is contained at the back because of all the unusual terms you learn as you go along. There are plenty of twists to this yarn, and this makes for a great story.

Karen Wintle DEVIL’S CONSORT (UK) / QUEEN DEFIANT (US) Anne O’Brien, Mira, 2011, £7.99, pb, 603pp, 9780778304272 / NAL, 2011, $15.00/C$17.00, pb, 411pp, 9780451234117 The story arc of Devil’s Consort takes Eleanor of Aquitaine from her marriage to Louis Capet, future King of France, to her coronation as Queen of England. As such, it makes an unusual ‘romance’ story. Henry, when Eleanor first meets him, is a youth – extraordinary, but outshone by his father. At the end, when they marry, it is already a relationship burdened with infidelity and several other skeletons. For the fifteen years that are the heart of this novel, Eleanor is trapped in an unhappy marriage. Anne O’Brien’s Eleanor is a warm, intelligent beauty longing for the freedom to be herself, but emotionally and sexually frustrated.

I found a good deal to enjoy. O’Brien writes

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E

Cecelia Holland, Berkley, 2011, $15.00, pb, 320pp, 9780425241301 It’s hard these days to find a writer who doesn’t let you down. Who delivers, time and again, an exciting and original yarn, well conceived and even better told.

Holland does this and more. In The King’s Witch, she once again, after more than 30 novels to her credit, hands over to readers a story true to its moment in history, beautifully crafted, peopled with convincing characters who capture our hearts and beg to live there long after the book closes.

Holland’s strong, spare writing highlights the historical details by dropping them seamlessly into her scenes. We feel we are there, in the time of Richard the Lionheart, along for the danger and adventure of the Third Crusade. Eleanor of Aquitaine has sent a young and mysterious healer, Edythe, to protect her son.

Suspected at first of spying on the Crusaders, she will use her medical skills to save the young king. Edythe may not be a spy, but she does have secrets. And the revelation of one of them would be enough to cause her demise.

Lose yourself in this marvelous novel then pick up another of her titles … and another. Then hope that the mistress of history never stops weaving her magic. Highly recommended.

Kathryn Johnson 26 | Reviews | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

with transparent, spare prose. She sets up her scenes very well, extracts full value from them.

Her Plantagenets crackle with energy, and her Louis disgusts with his asceticism. She charts for the reader a clear sense of the accepted political rivalries of the time, and of the complex power shifts as the Norman empire becomes superseded by the Angevins.

The problem with any book about Eleanor is that the history is uncertain. There are fierce academic debates about her ‘reputation’ – what was true, what malicious fabrication. There is also quite an Eleanor cult going. By whatever standard, she was remarkable.

Novelists can choose the elements that best fit the story and the character they wish to depict.

O’Brien’s choices are not always mine, which is why I don’t give this unreserved praise. But it’s a full throttle, well researched and satisfying read – and I preferred it to Alison Weir’s recent Captive Queen (too sexed-up for me), and to Pamela Kaufman’s Book of Eleanor.

Richard Lee

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A TRAIL OF INK Mel Starr, Monarch Books, 2011, $14.99, pb, 224pp, 9781854249746 The affable hero of Mel Starr’s A Trail of Ink tells the reader that “he had come to Oxford on that October day, Monday, the twentieth, in the year of our Lord 1365, to see what progress [he] might make to remedy [his] solitary estate.” His intention was to seek the hand of Kate Caxton in marriage.

Said hero, Hugh de Singleton, is bailiff to Lord Gilbert Talbot. Plus he is a surgeon who has made a reputation for himself as a crime solver as well.

After gaining permission to court Kate from her father, the stationer, Robert Caxton, Hugh visits his former teacher, John Wyclif, and learns that someone has stolen several of Wyclif ’s valuable books. Wyclif entreats Hugh to solve the theft.

Lord Gilbert gives leave for Hugh to take on the job and assigns his squire, the large and stalwart Arthur, to assist him. The quest for Kate’s hand should go on the back burner for awhile, but Kate makes herself an active partner in Hugh’s hunt for the thief; thus courting and crime-solving are accomplished together.

The story moves at a good pace with the murder of an impoverished scholar added to the inquiry.

The loutish knight, Sir Simon Trillowe, proves a formidable obstacle to solving the crimes and to Hugh’s romantic efforts. In the end Hugh’s wit and Arthur’s strength – with some help from Kate – bring the miscreants to justice.

A Trail of Ink is a lighthearted story with stock characters and a simple plot and dialogue. It has good historical detail about 14th-century cuisine and social customs. The author avoids the political and religious complexities surrounding John Wyclif ’s teaching, which makes the story perhaps 12th Century — 14th Century

too simple for some readers of historical fiction.

Recommended more as a young adult novel – and an excellent one at that.

Lucille Cormier

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THE MAID Kimberly Cutter, Bloomsbury, 2011, £12.99, pb, 278pp, 9781408807620 / Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011, $26, hb, 304pp, 9780547427522 The Hundred Years War and the story of Joan of Arc are inextricably linked in the pages of history, and her story is well known. Born in Domrémy around 1412, she grew up as a simple peasant girl but at the age of 17 raised the siege of Orléans and had Charles VII crowned as king of France at Rheims Cathedral. Deeply religious, she maintained that she was an instrument of God and was guided by her ‘voices’ – those of St. Michael, St. Catherine and St. Margaret. At 19, she was burned at the stake in Rouen for heresy and her ashes thrown into the river Seine to prevent anyone collecting them up and using them as relics. In 1455, Pope Callixtus III ordered a retrial, and she was found innocent of all charges and recognised as a martyr. She was canonised in 1929 and is the patron saint of France.

I found that this book followed her life very closely and more or less accurately described the events of those two years in particular. However, there were times when I thought the characters did not really come across as living people but simply as characters in a story, and I found it rather ponderous and wooden at times. I also doubt if, in the 15th century, whether or not her ‘voices’ were real, they would have addressed her as ‘darling’, but for anyone who wants to read the story of Joan of Arc, this is as good a version as any.

Marilyn Sherlock THE ANGEL OF BLYTHE HALL Darci Hannah, Ballantine, 2011, $15.00, pb, 495pp, 9780345520562 This story begins and ends in the border region of Scotland in 1492. Eighteen-year-old Isabeau Blythe has returned home to Blythe Hall after an absence of five years. With no family to help her, she is ill-prepared to take up the reins of managing her childhood estate. Her mother died when Isabeau was born, and at the age of five, she had an ethereal experience in her mother’s chamber, which was witnessed by her father and drove him to the brink of insanity. He is convinced that his wife was an angel – literally – and he leaves home on a quest to prove that angels really do exist.

Isabeau’s brother, Julius, has been a fugitive from the law for many years after a botched attempt to kidnap King James. His reasons for doing this do not become clear until much later in the story. But for now he has returned to Blythe Hall demanding that Isabeau help him find “his angel.”

She fights him every step of the way, and her life 15th Century — 16th Century

is further complicated by the sudden appearance of handsome Sir George Kilwylie, a sexy and powerful knight determined to win her hand and take control of her estate. Sir George and Julius are bitter enemies, yet George wants something from Julius and will stop at nothing to get it. Isabeau’s dreams, day and night, are filled with the image of a beautiful angel, and when she reaches the pinnacle of a crisis, he suddenly appears to help her.

This book is chock full of romance, intrigue, adventure, and otherworldly elements. Although it’s not a quick read I would still recommend it, but be forewarned that sometimes it takes the author a long time to get from Point A to Point B in her story.

Susan Zabolotny THE COUNTERFEIT MADAM: A Gil Cunningham Murder Mystery Pat McIntosh, Soho Constable, 2011, $25.00, pb, 304pp, 9781569479490 / Constable, 2011, £18.99, hb, 320pp, 9781849014786 Pat McIntosh presents a tightly-wrapped tale of murder in 15th-century Glasgow. When shrewish Dame Isabella is found dead with a nail pounded in her ear, Gil Cunningham his wife, Alys, investigate, plunging into a community of prostitution and counterfeit coin. Against a background of Scottish customs and family rivalry for wealth and property, Gil and Alys encounter physical danger as they pursue the murderer.

The author has interwoven a tale of murder

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THE GROUND IS BURNING

with lively characters, such as the prostitute Madam Xanthe, who takes Gil in and nurses him after he receives a nasty blow on the head. Even the victim, Dame Isabella, is a presence in the novel with her mean-spirited commentary and tendency to invective. The shady John Sempill and his regal wife, Lady Magdalen, provide distraction mixed with suspicion as Gil interviews them to ferret out how the trail of counterfeit silver connects to the suspects and the corpse. Alys overcomes fear of the devil and witches as she investigates a silver mine at the edge of Glasgow.

McIntosh has set her novel within the confines of a small Scottish community, using Gaelic and Scottish dialect throughout the dialogue. Unless familiar with Scots, the reader must be prepared for a challenging read. In addition to the convoluted storyline with its many red herrings, the dialect requires much rereading for clarity. McIntosh deserves applause, however, for her description of setting, locale, and use of period detail. The novel provides its share of surprises and suspects within the environs of old Glasgow.

Liz Allenby

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TO DIE FOR Sandra Byrd, Howard Books, 2011, $14.99, pb, 325pp, 9781439183113

E D I TORS’ CH OICE

Samuel Black, Faber & Faber, 2011, £12.99, pb, 406pp, 9780571269402 In the autumn of 1502, Cesare Borgia is at the height of his power and notoriety. Leonardo da Vinci works for him as a military engineer. Florence’s ambassador to his court is Niccolo Machiavelli. His favoured mistress is the enigmatic Dorotea Caracciolo, who is not all that she pretends to be. His army commanders, led by Vitelozzo Vitelli, are nervous of his military successes and are plotting his downfall. Time is running out for Cesare, who knows that, like Achilles, if he chooses the path of glory he is destined to die young.

This is a vivacious and accomplished debut. Told in the voices of the five protagonists, it is meticulously researched yet moves at a cracking pace. The voices of Leonardo and Machiavelli are, inevitably, sometimes predictable. Both men left extensive written records of their lives and thoughts, which results in the reader having a sort of tickbox in her head. Ah yes, here is the mechanical bow and the flying cannon, and here Messer Niccolo tells us the end always justifies the means.

Cesare Borgia, by contrast, left virtually no written records behind him, and it is his narrative voice which really brings the novel to life. Brutal, witty, paranoid and pathological, he speaks to us in short, explosive sentences, bursting with a life that is continually under threat. When he is on the page, the ground is most certainly burning.

The novel examines big questions about the nature of love and war, art and ambition. It is also a terrific read. Having read most of the fiction inspired by the Borgias, I feel I can say with some assurance that this is the best in years. Highly recommended.

Sarah Bower HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Reviews | 27

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PRINCE

Rory Clements, John Murray, 2011, £12.99, hb, 420pp, 9781848544253.

It is the year 1593, and England is a powder-keg of rumour and fear. Plague threatens London, famine is rife and the aged queen (known to her enemies as the basilisk) is surrounded by scheming courtiers.

As the novel opens, London’s Dutch community is threatened by bomb attacks from those jealous of the Dutch immigrant population, and Christopher Marlowe is mysteriously murdered in Deptford. Rory Clements’ investigator, John Shakespeare, older brother to Will, steps in to become entangled in a challenging investigation, one which has a seismic effect on his personal life. He enters the opulent chambers of Black Luce, the torture chambers of priest hunter Richard Topcliffe, the elegant offices of his employer, Robert Cecil, country houses, a horse race, the torrid streets of London and a terrifying desolate island situated in the mouth of the Thames. These are the physical settings for Clements’ Elizabethan thriller.

Prince is action packed, and its pages are filled with intricate layers of deception. The late Elizabethan world is brilliantly portrayed with exciting narrative twists. As one character says, ‘Who is what they seem in this world we inhabit, John?’ Historical detail is expertly integrated into sophisticated plot strands to create a seamless whole, inclusive of the investigation into the attacks on the Dutch community, Marlowe’s death, Spanish plots, witchcraft and James I, and a thrilling ship explosion on the Thames. John Shakespeare is a very sympathetic hero. Clements’ subsidiary characters are excellently portrayed, reaching beyond the page to haunt the reader. As for the prince of the title, reader, read on and all will be revealed. Importantly, this novel is extremely intelligent and exceptionally well written. I could not put it down until I reached its final startling denouements. Prince is the third in a series involving John Shakespeare by this Silver Dagger award-winning writer.

Carol McGrath

Sandra Byrd explores the familiar story of the rise and fall of Anne Boleyn, infamous second wife of Henry VIII, in her new novel, To Die For. Told from the point of view of Anne’s friend, Meg, sister of the poet Sir Thomas Wyatt, the story begins when Meg and Anne are girls playing together, declaring their friendship in a sort of “best-friendsforever” sort of way.

Meg is also friends with Will Ogilvy, who understands her brutal home situation and becomes her love interest. In the meantime, Anne’s star has begun to rise, and soon Meg finds herself summoned to court to serve the new queen as she begins her reign. Neither of them can foresee the dark turn of events the future holds. Amid the danger and intrigue of the court, Meg rediscovers her faith in God, a faith she lost when she lost Will to the priesthood. As the danger to Anne and her friends grows, Meg must decide if she will honor her pledge to stand by Anne’s side, no matter what.

Byrd evokes the rich feel of Tudor life through detailed and accurate descriptions. However, her use of antiquated language in the first person narrative detracts rather than adds to the sense of authenticity.

Anne Clinard Barnhill THE SKY’S DARK LABYRINTH Stuart Clark, Polygon, 2011, £12.99, hb, 284 pp, 9781846971747 28 | Reviews | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

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The Sky’s Dark Labyrinth follows the lives of Johannes Kepler, a German Lutheran who was the first man to mathematically prove how the stars and planets moved, and Galileo Galilei.

Kepler finds that the pursuit of knowledge can be a dangerous undertaking when it contradicts the teachings of the Catholic Church, while Galileo, an Italian Catholic, tries to claim Kepler’s success for his own church. Even within the Vatican, there is conflict between theologians, represented by the Jesuits, and the progressive scientific minds of some members of the hierarchy. Excommunication, or worse – burning at the stake – is the fate that awaits anyone who challenges the teachings of the church.

This is the first of a trilogy that dramatises pivotal moments in the history of astronomy through the lives of some of the scientists and thinkers whose work came to shape the modern world. The author’s passion for astronomy permeates the novel, providing a foundation for this story of the struggle against human ignorance and irrational terror in a turbulent period of European history. Recommended.

Mike Ashworth THE QUEEN’S JEWELS David Glenn, Fireship Press, 2010, $19.95, pb, 257pp, 9781935585817 THE QUEEN’S SWORD David Glenn, Fireship Press, 2010, $19.95, pb, 257pp, 9781935585800 David Glenn’s two new novels, both mysteries,

E D I TORS’ CH OICE

Ildefonso Falcones (trans. Nick Caistor), Doubleday, 2010, £20.00, hb, 887pp, 9780385618335 In 1564, after years of Christian oppression, the Moors of Grenada exact a terrible revenge against their masters: after the ensuing bloodbath, the white houses of the Christians are daubed with their blood.

Hernando is a Moor torn between two cultures, his blue eyes a constant reminder of the disgrace of his birth after his mother was raped by a Christian priest. Constantly referred to as the ‘Nazarine’ by his stepfather, he is forced to sleep in the stables with the mules.

When Hernando meets a black-eyed beauty, Fatima, she becomes the love of his life. Driven by hatred and jealousy, his stepfather condemns Hernando to slavery and steals Fatima for himself. When Hernando hears that Fatima is dead he is stricken by grief and immerses himself in study, believing that he can be instrumental in bringing the two faiths, Christianity and Muslim together; after all, they worship the same God, and the Virgin Mary is sacred to both. Hernando’s struggle for enlightenment determines his every action.

Shunned by the Moors as a Christian sympathiser and seen as a heretic by the Christians, beset by trials and betrayal, his determination never wavers.

In an engrossing story of epic proportions, scrupulous historical detail and memorable characters that remain with the reader long after the book is closed, Ildefonso Falcones has produced a true work of art.

Ann Oughton 16th Century

take place in the later years of Queen Elizabeth I’s court as the main detective, Sir Michael de Subermore, along with his sidekick, George Monty, endeavor to solve cases assigned to them by Sir Robert Cecil, main advisor to the queen and son of the famous Lord Burghley. In The Queen’s Jewels, Subermore is summoned because one of Elizabeth’s ladies-in-waiting has been strangled in the castle.

Oddly, there are two sets of hand prints around the victim’s throat. Could two different people have murdered the same woman? The queen is appalled and afraid, given the crime has been committed so close to the royal person. Then, it is discovered that some of the queen’s jewels are missing, and the two events converge, muddying the way to the truth.

In the second book, The Queen’s Sword, these sleuths team up again in a prequel to the other story. Here, we see how Sir Subermore and Master Monty meet when they are called to London to investigate a plot to assassinate the queen.

Subermore must infiltrate the rebels and uncover their plans. As he deals with plots and counterplots, he finds time to fall in love with the lady Amelia.

Both books are action-packed but, unfortunately, the writer uses different dialects in the dialogue, making the reading a tough go for those unfamiliar with Elizabethan expressions and Cockney accents.

It is a bit like reading Mark Twain – possible, but the language seems dated and thus, the books lose some of their effect. However, if you like mysteries and you like the Tudor world, you may find these your cup of tea exactly.

Anne Barnhill THE QUEEN’S RIVAL Diane Haeger, NAL, 2011, $15.00/C$18.50, pb, 416pp, 9780451232205 Elizabeth “Bessie” Blount, through the connections of her uncle, Lord Mountjoy, is given the opportunity to serve Katherine of Aragon as a maid of honor in King Henry VIII’s court. She is bedazzled, a naive 14-year-old with unabashed enthusiasm and visions of endless possibilities. She was granted the covetous position as a family favor.

Her appearance at court is not as she expected: she begins to feel unwanted and quickly realizes the allure of court life is a double-edged sword. Gossip, innuendo, and the quest for individual favor and power permeate the atmosphere, and life is quiet and dull.

When King Henry is in residence, his love and lustful pursuit of all pleasures make the court bloom with joy. His pursuit of beautiful women is legendary, as are his inevitable callous breakups as he casts aside his lovers. But Bessie Blount is different, and Haeger portrays the vulnerability of the king as he struggles with his desire and need to be with this lover. From the moment he meets her, his passion is stirred with unique desperation.

History will show that Bessie Blount did become King Henry’s mistress and their union produced his son.

Haeger has a remarkable sense for creating believable characters. Although historical fiction, the story is teeming with facts. The Queen’s Rival 16th Century

is fascinating to read as most characters are pulled from history, sparking the curious mind to research further. Haeger’s story is imaginative, seductive, and spellbinding. The Queen’s Rival is less about the scheming and struggle for power that defined the Tudor court as it is about Henry’s fairy-tale love for Bessie Blount.

Wisteria Leigh LORD JAMES Catherine Hermary-Vieille, Luath Press, 2011, £20, hb, 411pp, 9781906817541 This outstanding, enthralling biography of James Hepburn, fourth earl of Bothwell, lieutenant of Borders and keeper of Hermitage Castle, has been masterfully researched and novelised, allowing the author to convey the experiences, motivations, thoughts, and emotions of the Protestant whose fate was linked from boyhood to the history of Mary Stuart, queen of Scots.

In his final days, imprisoned in a Danish dungeon, he looks back on every aspect of his life.

Growing up in the border regions at Hermitage and Crichton, he was acutely aware of the old allegiances and blood feuds which the regent, Marie de Guise, tried to contain while preventing England and France from subjugating Scotland to their rule. James pledges his service, loyalty and devotion to her and her daughter Mary, but is warned that being in her service would bring him little glory and much enmity.

He had enemies among neighbours, the border reivers he repelled, and the duplicitous Catholic lords bent on their own advancement, or that of their cause, and Anna, his Danish host’s daughter.

Mary had married the sickly dauphin of France, François, but after his death the Lords of the Congregation of Scotland invite her to become their queen. Though married, Bothwell loves the queen. She marries Lord Darnley, but he plots against her and is killed by his coconspirators. In her unhappiness, she and Bothwell become lovers and marry. Within the unruly cut and thrust of the Scottish court, the rival factions tear the country apart. Captured, Mary is separated from Bothwell and forced to abdicate. From his Danish prison cell he faces death, haunted by his undying love for Scotland and her queen.

Janet Williamson ELIZABETH AND THE PRINCE OF SPAIN Margaret Irwin, Sourcebooks Landmark, 2011, $14.99, pb, 336pp, 9781402229985 Margaret Irwin’s third book in a trilogy about the young Elizabeth I was first published in the early 1950s. This reissue of Irwin’s work shows how popular well-researched novels about Tudor England continue to be. This volume finds the Princess Elizabeth in grave danger from her halfsister, Queen Mary, or Bloody Mary, as she is better known. Though Mary tries to fight the hatred she feels toward Elizabeth, a loathing that began when Elizabeth’s mother, Anne Boleyn, stole Henry VIII from Mary’s own mother, Queen Catherine

of Aragon, she cannot. Elizabeth is everything Mary is not: young, attractive, filled with life and a crackling intelligence. Worst of all, Elizabeth is a Protestant. For this, Mary is convinced that Elizabeth must die.

However, Mary’s decision to act against her sister is stopped by her persuasive and attractive husband, Philip of Spain. Against the will of her people, Mary marries the foreigner and reinstitutes the Catholic religion. When Philip finally observes Elizabeth from behind a tapestry, he is taken with her beauty and spirit. He convinces his wife to spare Elizabeth and treat her more according to her position as next in line to the throne. As events unfurl, Philip falls more and more under Elizabeth’s spell. This attraction is noticed by the pregnant Queen Mary, who overlooks it while she waits for the birth of the son for whom she prays daily. Meanwhile, Philip tries to woo the elusive Elizabeth at every opportunity.

This novel is filled with authenticity and insightful psychological analysis of the love triangle. Modern readers will notice a difference in narrative style; after all, the book was written sixty years ago. However, the attention to detail, the accuracy of events, and the incisive understanding of the complex relationships among the queen, her consort, her sister, and her court work to make this a compelling and satisfying read.

Anne Barnhill THE GUARDIAN Margaret Mallory, Hachette, 2011, $7.99/£6.99, pb, 400pp, 9780446575164 Award-winning author Margaret Mallory enters the realm of Scottish historical romances with The Guardian, the first book in a new series, The Return of the Highlanders. In 16th-century Scotland on the Isle of Skye, Ian MacDonald returns home with his three cousins after five years of fighting in France to find his clan in danger and without a leader. Before he can help his clan, Ian must take care of his family and begin to live the life he has long resisted. Before leaving for France, Ian was forced to marry a childhood friend, Sileas MacKinnon, against his wishes, because of an unfortunate misunderstanding that put Sileas’ reputation at risk. Sileas had always loved Ian and thought of him as her protector. Now that Sileas has grown into a beautiful young woman, Ian is ready to take her as his bride, but Sileas will not give in so easily and wants Ian to prove his love to her. Packed with action, adventure, romance, and passion, Mallory has created the start to another great series that leaves the reader wanting more.

Troy Reed THE TUDOR THRONE (US) / MARY AND ELIZABETH (UK) Brandy Purdy, Kensington, 2011, $15/C$17.95, pb, 384pp, 9780758255747 / Emily Purdy, Avon, 2011, £7.99, pb, 384pp, 9781847562371 Beginning with the two sisters sitting at King Henry VIII’s deathbed, Purdy writes a pas de deux between the maturing Elizabeth and the steadily HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Reviews | 29

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PROPHECY

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E

S.J. Parris, Doubleday, 2011, $25.95, hb, 384pp, 9780385531306 / Harper, 2011, £7.99, pb, 400pp, 9780007317738 Take a devious plot, a clutch of spies, a dash of counterspies, and set the story in Elizabethan England where politics and religion daily clash with deadly results. What do you have? A recipe for a gripping and sophisticated historical thriller that will challenge both the reader and repudiated monk Giordano Bruno to uncover the traitor. In Prophecy, the puzzle that Bruno (undercover agent for Elizabeth’s spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham) must initially solve is: who has done in one of Queen Elizabeth’s young maids, while she was mysteriously dressed as a boy and within the seemingly safe walls of the castle? But the tangled web involves more than what first appears to be a murder of passion.

Astrological symbols have been carved into the victim’s flesh, and rumors of black magic swirl within the stone walls of the queen’s home. The ingenious Bruno has his own theories – which include a conspiracy to replace the queen with her rival Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, an event foretold in a mysterious prophecy. But he lacks the proof he needs to convince the queen she needs protection from a menace within her own court.

This is an impressive second novel in the historical thriller genre from Parris (the first being an equally fine effort in Heresy). The author subtly invokes the complex visual and tense emotional atmosphere of 1583. Historical figures walk alongside fictional characters, and all are exquisitely and believably defined. It’s easy for the reader to feel transported into this dangerous world. Parris’ crisp dialogue and brilliant observations create a highly readable tale that will hold readers in suspense until the very last page. This novel is, so far, my favorite of all I’ve read this year. It’s just that good.

Kathryn Johnson disintegrating Mary, both of whom would take their turns as queen of England. Purdy’s story revolves around Elizabeth’s journey, as she learns through bitter experience that the thrill of romance, for her, must always carry a threat not just to her heart but also to her country, and Mary’s sad decline.

Purdy wonderfully reimagines the behind-thescenes lives of the two, both of whom speak in the first person. The language has an Elizabethan flavor yet goes down smoothly, with an exceptional attention to sumptuously described jewels, dresses, and sex. Here, for example, is Mary set to meet her husband-to-be, the king of Spain: “In a highcollared black velvet gown with a kirtle and plump padded under-sleeves of rich sapphire and silver brocade, with icy diamonds and sapphires dark as midnight adorning the crucifix at my breast and bordering my hood, I awaited my beloved…

I know it was rather vain of me, but I arranged to be attended by my four oldest and plainest ladies...”

And here is Elizabeth, accused of having had a secret lover and baby: “‘How dare you! How do you dare!’ I leapt to my feet and boldly gathered the loose folds of my full, shapeless white nightgown behind me, drawing the fabric taut against my slender body to outline my flat belly and small firm breasts. ‘Do I have the look of a woman who has ever borne a child, My Lord?’”

This is an old-fashioned read with florid action in which to revel and long flourishes of description 30 | Reviews | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

that can either be savored or skipped, depending on a reader’s predilection. We know, after all, how the story turns out.

Kristen Hannum THE MIDWIFE OF VENICE Roberta Rich, Doubleday Canada, 2011, C$22.95, pb, 329pp, 9780385668279 In this beautifully conceived debut novel, Hannah, a young Jewish midwife living in the ghetto of Venice, has her late night disturbed by the pleas of a Christian nobleman. When he begs her to attend his wife, who is close to death while birthing the conte’s first child, Hannah knows full well the risks – a Jewish woman does not midwife a Christian child. There are simply too many implications for the easily targeted Jewish community in Venice. Indeed, Hannah goes against every instinct and the rabbi’s strict denouncement of the plan, and she brings little Matteo into the world with the birthing spoons she has invented.

Why? The conte has offered her 200 ducats of gold, money which Hannah intends to use to free her imprisoned husband, Isaac, who is held somewhere in Malta. What follows is not merely a paean to deeply felt love, on many levels, but a finely drawn plot with well-developed characters to whom the reader feels a deep connection.

This is a richly painted portrayal of life in 16thcentury Venice and Malta – places where Jews

are despised and easily targeted, enslaved and brutalized. The sights and smells, many of them malodorous and pungent, the sense of alienation between Christians and Jews, the political and social implications of that alienation are all succinctly captured by Rich. Historical fact is well preserved in the fictional story, and it seems clear that Rich herself feels an abiding connection with that story and her characters. The pages fly by as we too connect deeply with Hannah and Isaac. A highly recommended novel.

Ilysa Magnus EMPIRE OF THE MOGHUL: Ruler of the World Alex Rutherford, Headline, 2011, £19.99, hb, 401pp, 9780755347575 This is the third in the Moghul quintet. The story opens in 1556. Akbar is the third ruler of the dynasty, ascending the throne on the unexpected death of his father. Although young, he proves himself a capable and ruthless ruler, crushing all opposition to his rule and expanding his empire.

However, as with previous novels the most dangerous threats often come from within – Salim, Akbar’s eldest son, falls for Akbar’s voluptuous concubine, leads a rebellion, and discovers that his father does not forgive easily.

As with the two previous books, this is well researched, while the deadly intrigues and the sight and sounds of the Moghul court are colourfully and effectively portrayed. The battle scenes are exciting and well written. Although written by a husband and wife team, the writing is seamless.

This series has developed into a fascinating insight into the rise and fall of a great and glorious dynasty.

Bloody battles, brutal killings and treachery – what more could you ask for? This book can be read in isolation, but your enjoyment will be enhanced if you have read the previous two books in the series.

Recommended.

Mike Ashworth THE KING’S DIAMOND Will Whitaker, HarperPress, 2011, £12.99, pb, 348pp, 9780007410293 Richard Dansey, of a London merchant family, longs to escape from his domineering mother. He is obsessed with gems and wants to deal in them on his own behalf. When he hears rumours that King Henry VIII has a new mistress, he sets out to acquire jewels fit for a king to bestow upon his love. In Venice, he starts his collection, but he needs a superlative craftsman to cut and set them as they deserve. He sees a design by Benvenuto Cellini and follows him to Rome. There he encounters Hannah, a girl he has longed for since he was very young, whose father, a courtier, is in Rome on secret business which involves frequent audiences with the pope. Richard is frustrated by not knowing who the king’s new love is, and what jewels would become her.

This is the time when the great European powers are at war, and the Imperial army is heading for Rome. Richard is torn between the wish to make 16th Century

his fortune by having his gems set so that Henry cannot resist them, fear of the approaching armies, and a passionate desire to buy a fabulous diamond from a dying man.

This is one of the best first novels I have read this year. (The author has published three YA novels, but this is his first historical.) Whether describing the marvels of the various gems, Richard’s obsessive love of them, the excesses of Carnival, or the horrors of the sack of Rome, the author commands attention. The characters are real, perhaps a little flawed, but one wants them to succeed. There is a vast amount of historical detail, but it never obtrudes on the story and is itself fascinating. I’ll bet this becomes a bestseller.

Marina Oliver SHAKESPEARE’S WILL Meredith Whitford, Bewrite, 2010, $14.20, pb, 306pp, 9781905202577 “For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings,/That then I scorn to change my state with kings.” These words might apply to different phases of “Will Shakspere’s” life in 16th-century England; but in Meredith Whitford’s depiction, they are the words of a repentant husband come home to his one true love.

Will, a penniless glover’s son initially, seeks a connection to Anne Hathaway because she is the only one infatuated by his poems and person.

When Will fortuitously receives an apprenticeship in London, with the financial backing of his father, he knows not that Anne is pregnant. So follows a pattern of Will traveling back and forth to London, while Anne stays home struggling to feed and care for a daughter and then twins.

As Will’s skills are honed with time and acknowledged, he struggles with his passions.

For in this author’s hands, the great playwright strays with both sexes and only long afterward is racked by guilt. Indeed it is suggested that such wanton excess and lustful pleasures actually fuel his writings. A relationship with Will’s first patron, Harry Wriothesley, the earl of Southampton, is artfully portrayed with passionate abandon, one that will consume Will until he is devastated by an unexpected betrayal. Intertwined with this enticing tale are snippets of lines from Will’s plays, sonnets, and poems. The reader will also be intrigued by the spies rampant from Queen Elizabeth of England and Kings James of Scotland’s courts, never knowing what could change the world of politics and play writing at a moment’s notice.

Shakespeare’s Will is an intelligent, literate, fascinating foray into the world so many attempt to imagine regarding the life, love, and creativity of this oh-so-famous playwright, “Will Shakspere.”

This is a must-read, terrific novel!

Viviane Crystal MY FAIR HIGHLANDER Mary Wine, Brava, 2011, $14.00/C$16.95, pb, 288pp, 9780758242075 Jemma Ramsden is the sister of an English border lord who is grieving over her father’s 16th Century — 17th Century

death. In order to escape her feelings, she rides her horse for hours. One evening, she rides from her brother’s castle at dusk, but she is attacked by a band of rogue English soldiers. Scots border lord Gordon Dwyre, Laird Barras, watches her ride and is intrigued, so asks her brother for permission to court her. He removes her to his castle after he rescues Jemma from her attackers.

And court her he does. While the two people find love, it is not without pitfalls – including several attempts on Jemma’s life. Gordon and Jemma find that affection has no national or religious allegiance.

The background of this romance is the “rough wooing” set on the Scots-English borderlands. The English wish to force the infant Mary, queen of Scots, into a marriage with the dying Henry VIII’s son, Edward. Henry would have been horrified to be called a Protestant. Though he set himself as head of the Church of England, Henry considered himself a good Catholic until his dying day.

The story is intriguing and kept me reading, though the faulty history is annoying. The author might have intended the comments about the English “Protestants” to be yet another barrier between the Scots and the English characters.

Monica E. Spence

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DEVIL’S CHARGE Michael Arnold, John Murray, £12.99, pb, 467pp, 9781848544062 When I was at school our history books gave the impression that the English Civil War was a rather gentlemanly affair between romantic Royalists and righteous Roundheads. Since then historians and historical novelists have worked hard to disabuse us of such ideas. Michael Arnold is the latest novelist to rub our faces in the blood and butchery of the war itself and the massive ‘collateral damage’ wrought among the civilian population. It was much the worst thing to happen to the British Isles since the Black Death. There may have been longterm benefits, as there were from the Black Death, but at a terrible price.

Devil’s Charge is the second book in Arnold’s series which follows the career of mercenary soldier Innocent Stryker and his two companions, Forrester and Skellen, as they carve their way through the war in the Royalist cause. The first book, Traitor’s Blood, covered the first year of the war, and we are now in the second year. The body count among just the named characters is impressive, and their deaths are described in graphic detail.

The plot is complex and largely irrelevant, and the romantic interest (Lissette, the queen’s ladyin-waiting and special agent) is perfunctory. What matters are the fights, both the skirmishes and the set piece battles and sieges. Arnold is at his best describing real events, the sacking of Cirencester, the siege of Lichfield and the battle of Hopton

Heath. As it says on the blurb, if you like Cornwell you will like Arnold.

Edward James A CORRUPTIBLE CROWN Gillian Bradshaw, Severn House, 2011, £19.99/$28.95, hb, 256pp, 9780727880215 The title is a quote from Charles II’s last speech, though the king makes no appearance in the story. Chapters alternate between Lucy, heroine of Bradshaw’s previous novel London in Chains, and her husband, Jamie Hudson. It is 1648, and the Civil War has been resurrected by a king still determined to be an absolute ruler and by a parliament unable to agree how to govern without him. Blacksmith Jamie Hudson, weary and disillusioned, is forced to re-enlist, leaving his wife, Lucy, to struggle on alone in London: printing newsbooks, dodging the censors, and all the while supporting the Leveller demands for democracy and freedom, and hoping for a peace that will finally allow the two of them to be together again.

Lucy receives news of Jamie’s imminent death and immediately sets off to be with him in Colchester. From there, the believable adventures and evenly paced story roll on, bringing home to the reader along the way the privations of both soldiers and civilians in a country at war.

The writing is simple and clear, the style thoughtful rather than dramatic. The emphasis is firmly on family, friends and relationships, and even the minor characters are fully formed and a delight to read.

Jen Black DELIVERANCE FROM EVIL Frances Hill, Overlook/Peter Mayer, 2011, $25.95/ C$32.50, 320pp, 9781590204702 / Duckworth, 2011, £8.99, pb, 352pp, 9780715640876 The witch hysteria in Salem Village is familiar territory for fiction, but Frances Hill informs her novel with her own historical scholarship on these incidents, their origins, and their impact on the community. When the young girls in the household of the aggrieved Reverend Parris and the ambitious Thomas Putnam accuse neighbors and enemies of bewitching them and being Satan’s tools, religious and local divisions erupt.

The central character in this well-told and absorbing account is the darkly impressive widower George Burroughs, who transplanted himself from Salem to Maine. Unexpectedly, in the aftermath of an Indian raid, he finds a loving and devoted young wife, Mary, and through her, hopefulness and renewal.

On being accused as the devil’s agent, he finds himself back in Salem to defend himself against the charges – to no avail. His and Mary’s connection sustains them both through their ordeal, as they confront corrupt and colluding magistrates, selfimportant ministers, and their own frailties. As the village’s leading citizens and lowliest residents make their lonely march to Gallows Hill, the reader’s recognition of the horrors and senselessness of the campaign against supposed witches and wizards HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Reviews | 31

C

BEFORE VERSAILLES

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E

Karleen Koen, Crown, 2011, $26.00/C$31.00, hb, 458pp, 9780307716576 In Koen’s fourth fine novel (after Dark Angels, 2009), Louis XIV’s reign as French monarch is unique in unpredictable ways. He grows up during the Fronde, a series of violent uprisings. He inherits a government master-planned by powerful men (Richelieu, Mazarin), seemingly content to be a rubber stamp – until Mazarin dies in 1661.

The king, now 22, resides at Fontainebleau, a royal chalet surrounded by forest and, given modes of travel, remote from Paris. When he makes plans to deprive certain overambitious subjects of the means to undermine him, he consults his advisor, Colbert, but the king is making his own decisions now. Success builds on success. As the king’s reach and power grow, so does his self-confidence. So also, his attractiveness to women, including his brother’s wife.

Then the most desirable (married) man in Europe falls in love with a 16-year-old girl. Louise de la Vallière is, by court standards, beautiful and innocent when she becomes the king’s mistress. Koen treats their love story with respect and warns it will not last, but Louise remains at Louis’ side long enough to make her fascinating.

It’s risky to speak for a girl who lived in the 17th century – hopes and fears had a different shape then – and to pinpoint a change in a man’s self-image. It’s especially risky to fictionalize a well-documented life. Other than the appearance of the man in the iron mask, however, which is overused in fiction, there are few false notes in Before Versailles. Koen’s intimate portraits of the powerful young king and the lovely maid of honor, set amid the cruel elegance of a secluded court, are both touching and convincing. Before Versailles is highly recommended.

Jeanne Greene builds.

With her admirable gift for dialogue and her ability to depict a time and place with telling incident, Hill is a welcome recruit to the ranks of historical novelists. Those with a particular interest in the witch trials or who enjoy books infused with detail of early colonial life should seek out this version of the tragic events.

Margaret Barr MIST OVER PENDLE Robert Neill, Arrow, 2011 (c1951), £6.99, pb, 405pp, 97800990557036 This is a new edition of Robert Neill’s classic 1951 tale of the notorious 1611 Pendle witch trials. Young orphan Margery Whitaker is viewed as a ‘cuckoo in the nest’ by her strict Puritan siblings. They pack her off to live with her elderly cousin, Roger Nowell, who, they hope, will curb her worldly tendencies. Nowell is one of the king’s justices in Lancashire, an important man. Margery has been well educated, and she becomes Nowell’s amanuensis. And there is much to do. The abandoned Malkin tower is home to old mother Demdike; her malevolent daughter, Squinting Lizzie; and her granddaughter, the sly Alizon, all known to be witches. The locals are terrified, for those they ill-wish have a habit of dying unpleasantly. Margery, like Nowell, is sceptical of accusations of witchcraft and against 32 | Reviews | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

the use of torture to extract ‘confessions’. Then she meets Alice Nutter. Handsome but ice-cold, she is not a woman to cross. But how far would she go to satisfy her social ambitions? Suddenly, there is a lot more at stake than the rantings of the Demdike brood.

I first came across Mist over Pendle many years ago and found it a cracking good read with a wonderfully brooding atmosphere. That still holds. All the same, although Robert Neill is far too skilful to use what R.L. Stevenson called ‘tushery’, he does go for more formal language than is common nowadays in an historical novel. Take Margery’s stern brother: ‘How,’ he demanded, ‘may such a girl as you, undutiful and undevout, be wedded to a godly man?’ I got used to the language very quickly, and it certainly felt appropriate. Although some readers might find such language irritating, in my view, it’s worth persevering. Mist over Pendle remains a terrific story, told by a master storyteller.

Elizabeth Hawksley VENGEANCE THWARTED Prue Phillipson, Knox Robinson, 2011, £9.99, pb, 328pp, 9780956790132 Daniel Wilson leads his sick brother away from the battlefield against the Scots and goes in search of food, just as Arabella (Bel) Horden slips back home across the fields wearing breeches which give her the appearance of a fat boy. She ignites

a haystack fire for which slow-witted Daniel is blamed and hanged. Nathaniel returns home to break the news to his parents, whereupon his distraught mother places a curse on the Horden family.

Bel is guilty for her behaviour but can tell no one. She feels unwanted by her Catholic mother and sister, who harbour a lustful Catholic priest within the Hall. Impulsively, she commits another transgression against her sister and is promptly despatched to Cranmore House, a Yorkshire school to which the family priest has been appointed.

Bel finds a new friend and ally, but more conflict and tragedy ensue, which leads Bel to a new understanding of herself and to a new direction for her life.

The principal characters were likeable, but although the incidental ones were less credible, the setting and historical facts were skilfully exposed.

Janet Williamson TAMED BY A HIGHLANDER Paula Quinn, Forever, 2011, $7.99/C$8.99/£6.99, pb, 400pp, 9780446552363 1685: Highlander Connor Grant has served in the king’s army since he was no more than a lad.

Now he is a member of the inner circle of King James II, not only because he is a respected army captain, but also because he is the king’s cousin.

However, no matter how long he has been away from home, no matter how many battles he’s fought, nor how many women he’s bedded, Connor’s heart belongs to Mairi MacGregor, his childhood friend and sweetheart. Mairi MacGregor hates Connor, the man who abandoned her seven years prior to join the army. She has gone on with her life and has joined an alliance that seeks information to aid the Catholics in Scotland. Mairi and Connor put aside their differences and join forces to uncover the traitor in their midst. At the same time, they discover their true feelings.

The story interweaves history with romance.

By using the atypical setting of the court of James II and Mary of Modena, Paula Quinn adds a new dimension to this enjoyable historical romance.

Recommended.

Monica E. Spence

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THE DAUGHTER OF SIENA Marina Fiorato, St. Martin’s Griffin, 2011, $14.99, pb, 368pp, 9780312609580 / John Murray, 2011, £6.99, pb, 400pp, 9781848545625 According to legend, Sienese noblewoman Pia Tolomei is a descendant of Egypt’s Ptolemy line, her beauty inviting comparisons to Queen Cleopatra. As daughter of the Civetta contrada, she must be matched to an eligible man from another city ward, but she does not expect betrothal to Vicenzo Caprimulgo, son of the Eagle contrada, a family known for brutality. No matter, since the marriage will take place following the Palio, Siena’s 17th Century — 18th Century

famous horse race, which Vicenzo is expected to win.

During the race, Vicenzo is hit in the face with a horsewhip, and he is unseated. A horseman from the Tower contrada leaps from his horse to tend to Vicenzo. The mysterious horseman’s heroism and good looks captivate Pia. Although Vicenzo dies, the Eagle contrada wants to keep Pia in the family. She is quickly married to Vicenzo’s brother Nello, but her heart is with the horseman, Riccardo Bruni. Riccardo’s efforts to save Vicenzo earn him the respect of the Caprimulgo family, and Pia is often in situations where she is close to Riccardo –fanning the flames of Nello’s jealousy.

Pia and Riccardo soon realize that there is a plot afoot to overthrow Duchess Violante de’Medici, widow of Ferdinand de’Medici and one of Italy’s last Medici rulers. Despite her best efforts, the duchess’ rule has been uneven, and the leaders of several of the contrade want to seize the Sienese throne. Riccardo joins the duchess to thwart the plot.

Few readers will be familiar with 18th-century Sienese politics, but Fiorato gives us the necessary information without lengthy explication. The unusual setting and strong female characters are enjoyable; there’s plenty of suspense, both political and romantic. Fiorato’s understanding of Sienese history and politics is extensive, and the blend of action, political machination, and romance makes for a fast-paced read.

Nanette Donohue THE SON OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT Christian Jacq, Simon & Schuster, 2011, £12.99, pb, 434pp, 9780743295222 1779-1785. Autocrat Empress Maria Theresa is succeeded by Joseph II, liberal and tolerant up to a point. Thamos, count of Thebes, keeper of ancient secrets, believes that in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart he has found the Great Magician. As mentor to this dedicated young musician, he intends to take him through the stages of Freemasonry to be recognised at last as the saviour of humanity.

This novel brought me initially to the point of despair. There were so many people with very long names that it was hopeless trying to remember who everyone was. The only way to proceed was to stop trying, and eventually the major characters impinged, although characterisation was mainly sketchy. My next feeling was resentment: who did they all think they were, with the certainty of their right to make such demands on Mozart, the world’s wonder? This applies to family, friends and enemies. One instance: even as the young genius wrestles with the technique of counterpoint perfected by JS Bach, he patiently deals with often whingeing demands while his own reasonable requests are refused.

Towards the end, it must be admitted that Mozart is not being pressed or persuaded towards initiation into the complexities of Freemasonry. He desires it with all the strength of his ardent nature.

Thus I look forward to reading the next instalment in this series.

18th Century

Nancy Henshaw THE BROTHER OF FIRE Christian Jacq, Simon & Schuster UK, 2011, £12.99, pb, 424pp, 9780743295246 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart seems well established in Vienna. In his late twenties, he and his work are sought after and respected. Life in a large and comfortable apartment brings him contentment with his wife, Constanze, and their son, while the songs of his little comrade, Star the starling, are a comfort and inspiration. The dual mainsprings of his life are music and Freemasonry.

But the Masonic lodges are in disarray throughout Europe. Many of their members want nothing but pillows for their timid souls; Mozart’s fierce dedication is not for them. Emperor Josef ’s tolerance has been replaced by censorship, and at this unpromising juncture, Mozart is determined to combine music and Freemasonry in The Marriage of Figaro, followed by Don Giovanni. These works are received with bafflement and hostility or – even worse – mild praise. The deaths of his baby daughter, his father and even Star the delightful starling bring him direst grief, while commissions for new work dry up and poverty threatens his little family. Among his enemies, interestingly the triumphantly successful Salieri is the one who truly understands, values and fears his genius. Christian Jacq’s dissection of Figaro and Giovanni in the light of Freemasonry is fascinating. Witnessing performances of either in future will never be the same.

Europe is falling apart: the Turkish army is on the march, France is in political turmoil. In 1788, Mozart is 32, and readers must try and abandon hindsight until they can read the next, presumably final volume in this series.

Nancy Henshaw FIRE ON DARK WATER Wendy K. Perriman, Berkley, 2011, $15.00, pb, 336pp, 9780425241042 Pirates, it seems, are in! The latest Pirates of the Caribbean film has just been released, a Pirates & Wenches festival has sprung up near where I live and appears to have become an annual event each summer, and now we have a new novel that’s steeped in pirate-dom: Fire on Dark Water. Maybe we love pirates, despite their violent, lusting, lawless ways, because they touch a chord of romanticism in us. Who doesn’t wish to leave behind the boredom of civilization for an unfettered life at sea? And if we find hidden treasure or a new love along the way – more’s the better!

In Perriman’s debut novel, we meet Lola Blaise, gypsy by birth, despised by the civilized world. She is forced into prostitution to survive. How could life possibly get harder for her? Well, she could run into the infamous Anne Bonny and Blackbeard.

Lola relates the story of how she met and lived among these infamous pirates to an unnamed listener in the “dingy light of the tavern.”

Perriman’s tale is most effective when she attacks the tale with fully realized scenes, showing

her fictional heroine interacting with the historical characters. These episodes spring to life on the page, and suddenly we’re on the ship with her. Other portions of the story slip into lengthy narration that is less imaginative but no less interesting.

The author’s grasp of setting and period is well supported by research. Lola feels quite believable, and although she isn’t your typical virtuous heroine, she shines in comparison to the rogues who surround her. This is a unique and appealing debut – a daydreamy beach read or adventure to curl up with on a rainy afternoon.

Kathryn Johnson ISLAND OF BONES Imogen Robertson, Headline Review, 2011, £19.99, hb, 376pp, 9780755372027 In 1783, the excavation of an old family tomb in the Lake District reveals a bloody mystery.

Called to investigate a murder, Gabriel Crowther is forced to confront his own family history as well as more recent skulduggery. His companion, the redoubtable Harriet Westerman, on the run from her own personal tragedy, is drawn by her young son’s friendship with the local cunning man into the conflict between ancient superstition and modern justice.

This is the third in Imogen Robertson’s series of historical crime mysteries featuring the ascetic Crowther and his spirited companion, but the first I have read. It certainly won’t be my last. Imagine the love child of Arthur Conan Doyle and Jane Austen, throw in the fact that Robertson is also a poet and writes about the landscape of the Lakes with all the passion and acuity of vision of a true Romantic, and you will begin to form an impression of this novel. It is a delight on every level – witty, ingeniously plotted and full of atmosphere, with a cast of engaging characters who are far from the stereotypes of lesser crime fiction. The analytical Crowther and the more intuitive Mrs. Westerman make a formidable team whose history together through the earlier novels is made clear with a light touch that whets this reader’s appetite for more.

Highly recommended, especially if you’re having a staycation in the Lakes this summer. A clever, moving and thoroughly enjoyable read.

Sarah Bower MISTRESS OF MY FATE Hallie Rubenhold, Doubleday, 2011, £12.99, pb, 431pp, 9780385618854 In October 1789, fearing for her life, 17-yearold Henrietta Ingerton makes the fateful decision to flee from the only home she has ever known. But her sheltered upbringing is no preparation for what she will encounter in the Georgian demimonde as she sets off in quest for her true love.

Billed as the first of the confessions of Henrietta Lightfoot, Mistress of My Fate is narrated by an elderly Henrietta, a device that has inherent dangers because it places the reader at a distance from the youthful Hetty, making it harder to empathise with her.

This is a perfectly readable book, though HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Reviews | 33

occasionally I felt as if the plot was dictated more by the author’s research than by character development. Rubenhold, a historian with two nonfiction books under her belt, populates the novel with 18th-century personages, from the prince of Wales and prominent politicians to demimondaines and their keepers. She manages the delicate balancing act of making the language sound Georgian without lapsing into obscurity or introducing obtrusive modernisms. The ending too is neat enough to be satisfying, while offering tantalising hints of what it to follow in the second volume.

It’s unfortunate, however, that with 20 years of experience of early dance, I can spot when an author is bluffing in a ballroom scene. Among other things, a gentleman should always offer his hand, not his arm, to lead a lady to the dance floor; there is the usual confusion over the word ‘reel’, which has changed its meaning since the 18th century; minuets should only ever be performed at the beginning of a ball (never in the middle) and anyone caught ‘bouncing’ rather than gliding in a minuet ought to be taken out and shot. But I’m sure that’s of no importance to anyone but myself.

Jasmina Svenne THE LADDER DANCER Roz Southey, Severn House, 2011, £19.99/$28.95, hb, 240pp, 9781780290034 It is a foggy night in the port of Newcastleupon-Tyne, 1736. Charles Patterson, musician, sees a horseman ride down a woman and baby, pushing them into the sea, and is convinced it was no accident. The woman is rescued by sailors, but the baby she was carrying dies. The only clue is a saddlebag with the monogram CR, and Patterson is the only witness close enough to see even the shape of the horseman.

Patterson is involved with a visit by Richard Nightingale, a London ladder dancer, come to perform at the local theatre. This distraction, together with the antics of the loutish Cuthbert Ridley, and the demands of a slum child, Kate, to be taken on as Patterson’s apprentice to learn playing the violin, interfere with his attempts to discover the identity of the horseman. Then Nightingale is attacked.

This is an intriguing mystery, and the author makes good use of her expertise in researching the lives of musicians of the 18th century, and her local knowledge of Newcastle. Kate, insisting against all convention that she will perform in public, is a delightfully refreshing character. Patterson’s guilt at having money through marrying a wealthy woman rings true. I was not so convinced by the presence of the ‘spirits’ of the dead, who aid Patterson in his researches, or his and Kate’s ability to step through into a parallel world, which enables them to evade problems. It may be amusing, but it makes the detection easier than it might be.

Marina Oliver

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34 | Reviews | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

A TRICK OF THE LIGHT David Ashton, Polygon, 2011, £8.99, pb, 340pp, 9781846972027 I came to the particular delights of James McLevy, inspector of police in the Edinburgh district of Leith during the 1880s, through David Ashton’s radio dramatisations for the BBC, starring Brian Cox (no, not that one, the other one). Ashton has now produced novelisations of three of his plays, of which A Trick of the Light is the latest.

It is Halloween 1881, and McLevy is investigating a series of crimes from a breakin at the home of a genteel widow to the grisly murder of a prosperous ship-owner. They are apparently unconnected, yet all enquiries seem to lead inexorably towards Sophia Adler, a young and beautiful American spiritualist whose séances are currently captivating Edinburgh society. McLevy is assisted in his investigations by his loyal sidekick, Constable Mulholland; the brothel madam, Jean Brash, with whom he enjoys an unfathomable but erotically charged relationship; and, on this occasion, an enthusiastic young doctor, a friend of the genteel widow and fan of Miss Adler, called Arthur Conan Doyle.

This is a blissful gothic romp, ingeniously plotted and written in the flamboyant style that will be familiar to fans of the radio plays, full of clever intertextual allusion, deep irony and witty double entendre. For relief from the baking heat of Mediterranean beaches this summer, why not plunge into a dreich Edinburgh autumn and follow McLevy’s trail through the dark wynds and simmering drawing rooms of the city which is without doubt the Capital of Crime? Tremendous fun.

Sarah Bower THE MURDER IN WHIRLIGIG LANE Sam Benady and Mary Chiappe, Calpe Press, 2010, £12.50, pb, 284pp, 9781919655009 In October 1813, Gibraltar is now safe from Napoleon, thanks to Nelson and Wellington, but an older and merciless enemy is now attacking the people of the Rock: yellow fever. Army Sergeant Miles is supervising the carts that are carrying away the dead. When he enters a house to remove a victim he finds that the beautiful Spanish woman within has died, not from fever, but by murder.

Sergeant Miles immediately informs District Health Officer and amateur detective Giovanni Bresciano, a native Gibraltarian, part of a community that was multicultural long before the term was coined.

With the aid of Sergeant Miles, who has been assigned by the town major to help him, Bresciano soon comes up with a long list of suspects, civilian, naval, and military, male and female. Who was the late Magdalena Guzman de Forsdyke in reality, and what was her relationship with her self-important uncle?

The plot has more turns than the narrow streets of Gibraltar itself and is complicated further when the lonely widower Bresciano finds himself being attracted to one of the female suspects. There is

even a touch of postmodernism, when one of the characters, a Captain Wentworth RN, receives a copy of a novel called Sense and Sensibility by A Lady.

The Murder in Whirligig Lane passes the Good Mystery Test, because the dénouement is unforeseeable, in spite of a generous supply of clues, and yet plausible. I read it at one sitting, and look forward to Bresciano’s next case. It also made me want to pay another visit to Gibraltar. (Available from http://www.calpepress.com.)

Alan Fisk THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MRS. TOM THUMB Melanie Benjamin, Delacorte, 2011, $25.00, hb, 422pp, 9780385344159 Mercy Lavinia Warren Bump – better known to the Victorian world as Mrs. General Tom Thumb – stood only thirty-two inches tall, but she is no small character. Married to General Tom Thumb, P. T. Barnum’s star and one of the biggest celebrities of the day, Vinnie never lets her size define her. Intelligent, resourceful, and self-assured, she travels the globe, charming queens and farmers alike, rather than stay at home with her quiet sister Minnie. But when Minnie, “little” like her sister, also turns to the theater, Vinnie vows to protect her from the dangers of a normal-sized world, even if doing so forces her to face her own limitations.

Although the toast of Gilded Age society, Vinnie is a little-known figure today, a classic example of a woman overshadowed in history by her husband. It was interesting to read not only about her life and escapades, but about how 19th-century America regarded the differently abled. The little people working for Barnum were celebrities, but always as oddities, as people to look at rather than people to get to know. Vinnie never accepted this; she wanted to be seen not as Barnum’s “perfect woman in miniature,” but simply as a woman. Hers is a fascinating point-of-view – a little person who refuses to see herself as disadvantaged in a big world.

This is an enjoyable read that reminds us all that, no matter what our size, our dreams are always within reach.

Jessica Brockmole AN INVITATION TO SIN Jo Beverley, Sally MacKenzie, Vanessa Kelly, and Kaitlin O’Riley, Zebra, 2011, $6.99/C$8.99, pb, 391pp, 9781420112382 An Invitation to Sin is a series of four historical romance novellas, unrelated by anything but the Regency time period.

In Forbidden Affections ( Jo Beverley), the mysterious earl of Carne returns home and moves into his house, which ajoins that of Anna Featherstone’s family. A hidden doorway, a young woman’s curiosity, and an unsolved murder make this gothic story of a young woman’s love for an older man a bit unusual for the genre.

The Pleasure of a Younger Lover (Vanessa Kelly) reverses the age issue and makes the gentleman 18th Century — 19th Century

younger than the lady. Clarissa Middleton and Captain Christian Archer, childhood friends, find happiness in each other’s arms as adults. However, their age difference risks censure from the ton.

The Naked Prince (Sally MacKenzie) is a romp set at a Valentine’s Day/Saturnalia house party.

Studious Josephine Atworthy is invited to fill out the guest list that includes known roués and questionable ladies, both married and single. Will she and Damien Weston find love? Will they be able to prevent Damien’s friend from being trapped into marriage by a scheming widow? Doesn’t love conquer all?

A Summer Love Affair (Kaitlin O’Riley) finds Charlotte Wilson visiting a family friend. Gavin Ellsworth occupies the rooms below hers. The staircase connecting the two suites stands as an invitation to spend time together. Being asked to pose for a painting by their hostess adds to the temptations of a glorious summer in Spain.

Together they discover freedom, the source of true happiness, and love.

Monica E. Spence JAMRACH’S MENAGERIE Carol Birch, Doubleday, 2011, $25.95, hb, 304pp, 9780385534406 / Canongate, 2011, £12.99, hb, 348pp, 9781847676566 Sometimes a novel comes along that one reads simply for the pleasure of enjoying the skill (or is it magic?) with which the author selects and arranges her words and images across the page. These days, it has become a rare pleasure to find such a book.

Carol Birch has already become a respected novelist in her native UK, having written ten books, won awards and been long-listed for a Booker. But Jamrach’s Menagerie is her first full-length work of fiction to be published in the United States. Those of us who live on this (the western) side of the pond are in for a rare and long-awaited treat.

Jamrach’s Menagerie is the dramatic story of a 19th-century street urchin named Jaffy Brown. He is recruited, along with another boy and a roughand-tumble crew, by a famed importer of exotic animals. On board Mr. Charles Jamrach’s ship, Jaffy experiences the brutal hunting of whales as they search for the vicious, fabled sea dragon that is the reason for the three-year expedition. The story flows hauntingly through scenes of deftly blended realism and fantasy. Birch’s mastery of the language and the art of fiction are breathtaking, and we are swept away as if on the same seas as those traveled

by Jaffy, unable to put down the book for such trivial needs as sleep or a meal. When we reach the final page, we understand a little more about the power of friendship, the meaning of sacrifice, and the remarkable gifts of survival in a harsh and unpredictable world populated by very real monsters. Highly recommended.

Kathryn Johnson THE SOLDIER Grace Burrowes, Sourcebooks, 2011, $6.99/£4.99, pb, 416pp, 9781402245671 Devlin St. Just, the eldest though illegitimate 19th Century

son of the duke of Moreland, returns from years of war on the Spanish peninsula and the Battle of Waterloo suffering from what today is named posttraumatic stress disorder. Through his family’s influence, he becomes the earl of Rosecroft and retires to a Yorkshire estate. Along with his new title and property, St. Just has inherited Bronwyn “Winnie” Farnum, the late earl’s six-year-old natural daughter. St. Just feels doubly responsible for the child, having killed her father in a duel. He is relieved when Emmaline Farnum appears from the neighboring property, claiming cousinship to Winnie and demonstrating a fierce protectiveness of the orphan girl. St. Just and Emmie become “united in the cause of Winnie’s welfare.” And the ex-cavalry commander discovers capable, flawed Emmie somehow eases his transition into civilian life.

The Soldier is a tender and sensuous romance with serious underlying themes of recovery, reconciliation, and forgiveness. Beautifully told, with well-rounded characters and story, Grace Burrowes’ second book in the Duke’s Obsession series should be welcomed by fans of Regency romance.

Eva Ulett

their fortune. Harriet believed this town of French and German immigrants offered them a fresh start.

She took the job of schoolmistress, which offered a home big enough for her family. Ms. Kirk soon found that her dreams for a peaceful existence were being cut up by the temporary sheriff of Ladreville, ex-Texas ranger Lawrence Wood.

This is the third and final book in the Texas Dreams series by prolific author Amanda Cabot.

It is a simple story of hope and love renewed.

Although the plot is lackluster, and the reader may find it hard to warm up to Ms. Kirk, the minor characters in Ms. Cabot’s story, most of whom are familiar from the past two books, are charming.

A reader interested in character development and inspirational principles over plot would enjoy this gentle read.

Nan Curnutt

RAPTURE BECOMES HER Shirley Busbee, Zebra, 2011, $14.00/C$16.95, pb, 400pp, 9781420118421 Born and bred on a Virginia plantation, Barnaby Joslyn migrates to England and is installed as the new viscount on his family’s Sussex estate, where he is opposed by his envious cousin, Matthew.

One night Barnaby finds himself washed ashore after a yacht voyage, suffering from a head wound.

Suspecting foul play but unable to remember recent events, Barnaby is housed at a nearby inn, where Emily Townsend ministers to his injuries.

Emily, a headstrong young woman, is embroiled in a secret ring of smugglers at odds with another ring, the Nolles Gang. As she and Barnaby fall in love, and Barnaby is attacked again, they suspect his cousin wishes him dead. Barnaby and Emily are drawn closer together through a series of dangerous exploits involving underground passages and mistaken identities.

Shirley Busbee captivates the reader with the historical detail of the Regency period while providing sensual passion and heat between Barnaby and Emily. Although at times the dialogue seems a bit too current, that flaw is balanced by the strong and consistent characterization throughout the novel. The characters convey humor, passion, and zest as they continue solving the mystery of Barnaby’s assailant. This novel is a fast and fun summer read.

Liz Allenby

CITY OF ASH Megan Chance, Broadway, 2011, $15.00, pb, 448pp, 9780307461032 The latest novel from seasoned writer Megan Chance is a story of two women at opposite ends of the social spectrum. Geneva “Ginny” Stratford is the willful daughter of a nouveau riche mining tycoon in 1880s Chicago. She has thrown off the moral constraints of Victorian society for a somewhat bohemian lifestyle. Nathan Langley, a man smart enough to run Stratford Mining and handsome enough to win her heart, pursues her, and they marry. She devotes herself to him, but his ardor fades, and she longs for the past when she was free to hold salons and promote her artistic and literary friends. Posing nude in an effort to secure a divorce fails miserably, and she’s offered a choice: Seattle or the asylum. After a few days in the cultural black hole of Seattle, she begins to wonder about her decision.

Enter Beatrice Wilkes, an actress with a local theatre company, who begins an affair with Nathan in the hope that his patronage will bring her financial security and the leading role in a new play.

When Nathan also gives Ginny permission to take to the stage and buys the lead role for her instead of Beatrice, the sparks fly. As the two women lock horns, the city begins to burn, and they must help each other survive.

A shocking revelation about Nathan forces Ginny to ask for Bea’s help in beating him at his own game and saving her from a terrible fate. But Bea’s incessant victimization by Nathan grows as tiresome as her excuses for accepting it, while Ginny makes one bad decision after another. I found this book to be implausible and contrived.

I didn’t like any of the characters save one, and at times, I found myself rooting for the fire.

Susan Zabolotny

TOMORROW’S GARDEN Amanda Cabot, Revell, 2011, $14.99, pb, 387pp, 9780800733261 Harriet Kirk moved her five younger siblings to Ladreville, Texas, in 1857 to escape the shame that followed them after loss of their parents and

WHISPER OF SCANDAL Nicola Cornick, MIRA, 2011, £6.99, pb, 362p., 9780778304647 / HQN, 2010, $7.99, pb, 368pp, 9780373774401 May 1811. Commodore David Ware has left his widow, society belle Lady Joanna, and his HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Reviews | 35

closest friend, Alexander, Lord Grant, a legacy – the guardianship of his illegitimate daughter – on the condition that Lady Joanna, from whom he was long estranged, travel to Spitsbergen to claim the child, currently lodged at the monastery of Bellsund.

Jo has longed for a child and nothing will stop her from voyaging to the Arctic - not even Alex and the inconvenient attraction they both feel for the other.

The author admits that there was no permanent settlement, let alone a monastery, on Spitsbergen in the early 19th century, but then this is the sort of story where belief can be happily suspended.

However, while I enjoyed Jo and Alex’s sparring and later, their deepening relationship, and the author’s sly parallels between celebrity culture and the power of the popular press “then” and “now”, I initially found Jo flighty and inconsistent as a character, and her erstwhile friend Lottie was just wrong. It was as if Sex and the City’s Samantha had donned an Empire-line gown!

I was unconvinced by the Arctic setting of the second part of the book, although the plot rattles along to a dramatic climax as both Jo and Alex find their emotions stripped as raw as the landscape.

I found more empathy with Jo’s character in these last chapters, and, in Alex Grant, the author has given us the perfect romantic hero – handsome, dashing, brave, yet emotionally vulnerable.

Mary Seeley A MOTHER’S SECRET Dilly Court, Arrow, 2011, £5.99, pb, 474pp, 9780099538837 If you like books with a pretty girl on the front dressed in period costume looking meaningful and mysterious, perhaps Mills & Boon, then maybe this bodice-heaving saga type book is for you. It wasn’t for me.

Seventeen-year-old Belinda Phillips in India falls in love with a handsome Anglo-Indian officer and ends up having his illegitimate daughter.

Believing him to be killed in action, she marries a rich widower and reluctantly gives her child to a foster mother in a rough area of London. She cannot keep the child as her husband would be angry and she would lose her place in society. The child, Cassy, survives her brutal and neglected upbringing and is reunited with her mother, only to suffer further troubles and tribulations when her mother becomes poor.

The cardboard characters and hard-to-believe plot were not the worst things about this novel.

Reading sentences such as ‘She knew for a certainty that Cade loved her mother truly and deeply, and their love would last for eternity. Tears flowed down her cheeks but they were tears of joy’ made it difficult to keep going at times. My tears reading it were not those of joy. This author has written about twelve other novels and also writes under the name of Lily Baxter, so clearly there is a market for these novels. Strictly for fans of this genre only, I’m afraid.

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STARS OF FIRE Mary Ellen Dennis, Five Star, 2010, $25.95, hb, 399pp, 9781594149252 This historical romance ranges between 1820 and 1860. Young James Coleman has a memorable meeting with the child Jenny McAllister in Pennsylvania. They stay in touch through letters over the years while he travels, prizefighting. Their paths finally cross again after Jenny has moved West with her cruel husband and is captured in an attack by the Miwok tribe in California. Cole rescues her by buying her at a slave auction and escorts her to her brother’s Pony Express station. Their time together leads to mutual attraction, but Cole is afraid to fall in love with her because every woman he’s ever loved has died, and Jenny feels unworthy.

This book didn’t measure up for me. I didn’t find the romantic tension believable – their reasons for not bedding each other seem to exist merely to extend the conflict. The plot seems overcrowded: Jenny lives with Native Americans twice, rides for the Pony Express, is heiress to a foundry, survives being shot by an arrow, has psychic powers, attends art school, etc. A less busy story would have made room for better character development. There’s some good elements (Miwok culture is treated with respect), but it needs reworking.

B.J. Sedlock A PLACE OF MEADOWS AND TALL TREES

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THE SISTERS BROTHERS

Clare Dudman, Seren, 2011, £8.99/$14.95, pb, 276pp, 9781854115188 The Welsh heritage of Patagonia is one of the more celebrated quirks of colonial history which first came to my attention, and, I suspect, that of many others through Bruce Chatwin’s curious and beautiful In Patagonia.

This novel is inspired by, and closely based on, the history of the settlement of Rawson, on Patagonia’s Atlantic coast, in the 1860s. It follows the fortunes of Silas and Megan Jones and their family and fellow colonists from their arrival in Argentina, but also makes good use of flashbacks to show their courtship and marriage, their sufferings en route to the new colony and their reasons for undertaking the journey. Silas’ complex and confrontational relationship with Edwyn Lloyd, the charismatic founder of the colony, powers the narrative and provides much of its dramatic tension, although the catalogue of droughts, floods and illnesses which dog the colony mean this tension rarely lets up.

Dudman writes beautifully, not just about the colonists but about the land in which they find themselves and the indigenous Tehuelche people with whom they share it. Running alongside the narrative of colonisation are lyrical passages in the voice of Yeluc, a Tehuelche shaman who befriends the settlers and helps them to survive. Ironically, just as the Welsh leave Wales in order to preserve their language and culture from the English,

E D I TORS’ CH OICE

Patrick deWitt, Ecco, 2011, $24.99/C$29.95/£12.99, hb, 336pp, 9780062041265 Speaking as someone who won’t read Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove because it’s a Western, won’t see the evidently delicious Coen brothers’ remake of True Grit – I don’t like Westerns! – I didn’t expect to enjoy The Sisters Brothers. I was wrong. This is a stunning book, a darkly comic Western noir slyly and elegantly written in blood and longing.

It’s the picaresque tale of Charlie and Eli Sisters, brother assassins, making their way to California Gold Rush country to murder their latest assignment.

Charlie has less hesitation in killing people than most of us do in knocking off that trout we just reeled in.

The reflexively loyal Eli has issues with the work, but someone needs to watch Charlie’s back. Plus, as Eli confesses, the two “have an aptitude for killing.” Eli’s yearning for nonlethal connection with others, whether with a horse, a woman, or just the non-psychopathic population in general, is likeable and winning, even as he goes along by default with Charlie’s mayhem. Along the way, they meet a dentist (who introduces Eli to the marvelous new practice of tooth brushing), other equally vicious (but not as talented) outlaws, prostitutes, and a witch.

The Sisters Brothers left me thinking about its themes of goodness, loyalty, greed, capitalism, and testosterone, but also about what makes a book literary, as this one has been rightly labeled. It’s an easy read – it even boasts short chapters. So is it the depth of its characters? Its meaningful insights into life? The sparkle of the writing or the plot’s simple brilliance? I don’t know the answer, but I know it when I read it, and The Sisters Brothers is classic literature. Even if it is a Western.

Kristen Hannum 19th Century

their eventual success in Patagonia wiped out the Tehuelche language and culture completely, a point which Dudman makes subtly in the way she constructs her novel.

A thought-provoking book, driven by powerful characterisation and profound reflection on the process of colonisation.

Sarah Bower DISASTER WAS MY GOD: A Novel of the Outlaw Life of Arthur Rimbaud Bruce Duffy, Doubleday, 2011, $27.95/C$32.00, hb, 384pp, 9780385534369 / Clerkenwell, Nov. 2011, £14.99, hb, 356pp, 9781846685279 While most readers can probably identify Rimbaud as a decadent French poet and many will be aware of his scandalous sexual behavior, it’s likely that only a few know about his life as a gunrunner in late 19th-century Africa. Bruce Duffy’s portrait of this complex man brings together the wide-ranging lives of Rimbaud.

From the farm in Ardennes, where he was raised by a mother in equal parts domineering, penurious, and religious, to the streets of Paris and London, where he was both the toast and the scourge of the town, to the treacherous deserts of Yemen and Ethiopia, we meet Rimbaud at several stages of his life. The structure of the novel is notable: sections within chapters are written through the lens of several timelines, each of which shows Rimbaud at a moment of transformation, and all of which converge at his death at the age of 37 from cancer.

Many segments are written from the perspective of those influential in Rimbaud’s life, including his mother, his married lover Paul Verlaine, and his sister Isabelle, who became his biographer.

Interspersed throughout the fiction are snippets of verse from Rimbaud and Verlaine; Duffy does a superb job of creating context for the poems, providing some welcome explication. Rimbaud gave up writing poetry at the age of 21, so his entire oeuvre spans only a few years, yet it influenced artists and literary movements well into the 20th century. That influence can be seen here through Duffy’s fine prose, in the nearly-but-not-quite repentant Rimbaud being carried through the desert by highly-paid servant-protectors, and in the mischievous teen pilfering valuables from Verlaine’s pretentious mother-in-law.

This wide-ranging novel provides an evocative picture of not just an individual, but an entire era.

Helene Williams FAIRER THAN MORNING Rosslyn Elliott, Thomas Nelson, 2011, $15.99, pb, 400pp, 9781595547859 You can give your soul away, but no one can take it. These are wise words spoken at a pivotal moment in this first novel of a series entitled “The Saddler’s Legacy.” We begin with Ann Miller, a young woman living on a small farm in Ohio. She is unsure about whether to say yes or no to her beau, Eli, and she has been severely stressed out about being left alone when her father goes out on his circuit ministry.

19th Century

In 1826, however, she and her sisters have the opportunity to travel with their father to Pittsburgh on saddlery business. While there, she hopes to return a set of letters to someone named Will, letters obviously written from his mother, who was dying. The reader is then introduced to that same Will, who has been apprenticed to a different saddler, one who verbally and physically abuses Will on a horrifyingly regular basis.

While the plot has been steadily mounting, it now takes off at a gallop, with secrets revealed about those who would protect escaping slaves and assist them on their harrowing journey northward.

A duel will be fought, and death ensues after a graceful lady is viciously attacked. An animal will be killed, causing a trial in which Will’s responses earn him a brush with death. During this time, we learn of the rising of Unitarianism, the role of many abolitionists in freeing runaway slaves, and a new church called the United Brethren whose believers radiate and display the fiery love of the divine.

Fairer than Morning is a moving Christian, romantic, and historical novel that starts up slowly, speeds ahead, and totally enraptures the reader with love of this well-told tale based on real people.

Viviane Crystal THE SOMNAMBULIST Essie Fox, Orion, 2011, £12.99, hb, 379pp, 9781409123316 This assured debut novel tells the story of Phoebe Turner, a young girl who lives in the East End of London with Maud, her widowed mother and Maud’s younger sister, Cissy. Maud is a member of a group of religious activists similar to the Salvation Army. Cissy has given up on the stage, much to Maud’s relief, but leaves retirement briefly to perform the lead role in a production of Handel’s Acis & Galatea at Wilton’s Music Hall. It is there that Phoebe’s life begins to change.

After Cissy’s sudden death, a grief-stricken Phoebe is employed by the mysterious entrepreneur Nathaniel Samuels as a companion for his reclusive and invalid wife at his country home, Dinwood Court. Slowly and inexorably, Phoebe learns the dark secrets of the household, of the Samuels family and its chilling connection with her own.

And what has any of it to do with Millais’ famous painting The Somnambulist?

Essie Fox is an expert on all things Victorian.

Her blog, www.virtualvictorian.blogspot.com, is a must for any one who shares her passion. The Somnambulist is a classic Gothic novel. Although more sexually explicit than it would be had it been written at the time in which it is set, everything else is a perfect fit: A mysterious house, a child’s grave, dark woods, sleepwalking, madness, hypocrisy and religion. There is also huge wealth and East End poverty, the raucous Music Hall and an innocent young woman in peril. And like many a Victorian novel, melodrama is never too far away.

But it matters not. This is a gutsy, page-turning novel with a delightful heroine. Although not as chilling or dark as Fingersmith it shares its largerthan-life Dickensian characters and generous

supply of plot twists and turns. But it is no pastiche.

It is an affectionate and knowledgeable homage to the genre and a thumping good read.

Sally Zigmond PERHAPS TOMORROW Jean Fullerton, Orion, 2011, £9.99, pb, 277pp, 9781409122913 Life has not been easy for Mattie Maguire. Since her husband died, she has struggled to keep the family’s business solvent, as well as raise her young son. Maguire’s house is in the path of the proposed railway, and Amos Stebbins intends to have the deeds.

Nathaniel Tate understands how ruthless Amos can be. Tracking Amos down to Maguire’s, Nathaniel meets Mattie, who offers him work.

When his true identity is revealed, he has to prove his innocence, expose Amos, and win back Mattie.

Nathaniel Tate is Jean Fullerton’s best hero to date. He lights up the page; he’s tough, resourceful, intelligent and totally scrumptious. He is an escaped convict (having been sent to Botany Bay), and this experience has made him the man he is now.

Amos Stebbins is everything a villain should be: on the outside a pillar of society but actually totally corrupt. He crawls across the pages trailing his evil behind him.

Mattie Maguire is the perfect match for Nathaniel. Nathaniel helps her turn round the fortunes of her business and the two of them fall in love.

I have been eagerly awaiting this third book by the very talented Jean Fullerton. I loved her first two books, No Cure For Love and A Glimpse at Happiness, and this one is even better.

It has all the ingredients of a bestseller. A cracking story, wonderful characters, and a totally authentic and historically accurate setting. I was captivated from the very first page.

Fenella Miller A WOMAN’S WAY Sofia Diana Gabel, Piraeus, 2011, $18.98, pb, 243 pp, 9780983185338 Every action and every utterance of the heroine, Marie Desraismes, show her to be generous, selfeffacing and idealistic. During the chaos of the Paris Commune in 1870-71, everything she does serves to promote equality between the sexes and social justice for the underclass in a way that the reader cannot help admiring. Un f o r t u n a t e l y, what makes a fine person does not necessarily make an interesting story. Other historical figures, such as the feminist anarchist Louise Michel and the reactionary cartoonist Honoré Daumier, make appearances. Marie attempts to moderate Louise’s radical impulsiveness, usually without success.

Daumier appears to be what today would be called a male chauvinist, but he shows occasional human impulses. Marie’s exceptional courage in the face of government-led violence contrasts with the cowardice of some of the male revolutionary leaders.

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Marie has the fixed idea that the key to social justice involves persuading the Masons to use their power to overcome the evil unleashed by the Thiers government. As the daughter of a Mason, she dreams of the day when she and other women can don the apron that is their symbol. Her quest to achieve female equality by opening up the Freemasons frames the story both before and after the bloody days of the Commune. She eventually achieves a limited success in this effort, but it is hard for the reader to grasp its importance. Not recommended.

James Hawking A PORT IN THE STORM Judy Genandt, Five Star, 2011, $25.95, hb, 409pp, 9781594149511 Boston socialite Margaret Ward jounces over the Wyoming landscape in a stagecoach in 1885.

A scandal has led her father to send Margaret to his friend’s remote ranch to teach school. But the Randalls, unconcerned with Eastern gossip, welcome her as another family member. Margaret grows to enjoy the frontier: eldest son David Randall courts her, and Tee Spencer, the ranch foreman, also shows interest. And there’s that wonderful man Phil she left behind in Boston.

But Margaret’s new life is interrupted when the ranchers pursue cattle rustlers, and Tee disappears during the conflict. As months go by, Margaret discovers the depth of her feelings for him. Is he dead? If not, why is there no word?

Genandt includes some welcome humor and some colorful descriptions, such as Margaret’s view of the homey ranch house. But the author goes overboard in other passages: “emerald jade green crystal eyes sparkling…” Does the reader need that many words to understand she has green eyes?

Margaret’s transition from socialite to frontier woman is awfully facile. But the book’s biggest problem is that an important fact about a character is revealed only in final pages, in a way that left this reader feeling cheated.

B.J. Sedlock BEAT THE DRUMS SLOWLY Adrian Goldsworthy, Weidenfield & Nicolson, 2011, £12,99,hb, 336pp, 9780297860389 Set in Spain during the Peninsular War, the story follows the 106th regiment, led by Sir John Moore, as the regiment takes part in the Corunna campaign. Adrian Goldsworthy’s research sets the scene of the life of the officers, men and the camp followers in the rugged, winter countryside of northern Spain. Soldiers’ wives were a tough breed.

They helped to look after their own men and were paid to clean the regimental clothing. Many were prone to drunkenness as were their menfolk. No time was allowed, nor was consideration given, to the many young women who were often giving birth in the open air without medical assistance.

The Corunna campaign was a grim business, and although the Hussar regiments performed well, their horses were woefully unsatisfactory and there was a serious lack of horseshoes and the nails 38 | Reviews | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

required to fit them.

Although the details of regimental life are accurate and the speech and behaviour of the characters reflect the reality of the period, I felt that more facts were needed about the historical background. I was also disappointed that the death of Sir John Moore was described in such a brief manner. It would have been accorded greater importance by his soldiers. He is still venerated by the British Army.

Jane Hill AN EVIL EYE Jason Goodwin, FSG, 2011, $26.00, hb, 286pp, 9780374110406 / Faber & Faber, 2011, £14.99, hb, 304pp, 9780571239870 The history of the Ottoman Empire is an endlessly fascinating one, stretching across centuries and populated by a diverse set of people and an equally complicated number of political and social stresses. The Ottoman period, in short, is a perfect setting for historical novelists to ply their trade.

Jason Goodwin provides Yashim, a eunuch previously employed in the sultan’s harem, with a case involving dangers to the harem as the youthful Abdulmecid assumes power following Sultan Mahmut’s death. The mid-19th century was a time of decline for the Ottoman state, and Yashim’s travails in searching for an admiral’s treachery leads him to a series of baffling deaths among musicians in the sultan’s harem.

An Evil Eye is my first encounter with Yashim, and I quickly discovered the need to have read the previous three novels to fully understand the author’s tale. As it stands, I had limited success. I also found the number of subplots and characters to be far too numerous for even the most ambitious reader to digest. I still wish to stand with Yashim as he searches for truth, but reading the series in sequence may be required.

John R. Vallely INTO THE BLUE Christina Green, Robert Hale, 2010, £18.99, hb, 223pp, 9780709091172 In late 19th-century Devon, vicar’s daughter Hester Redding longs to experience all the exciting challenges that the approaching new century will bring, but she feels trapped by family responsibilities and the prospect of an arranged marriage. She longs to break out of the confinement of social conventions and pursue a new life as an artist.

With two potential suitors and a few hidden secrets, this is a well written and interesting read with an appropriate title which refers both to the spirit of adventure and the liberating feeling of art which lies at the heart of this work. You really get the sense of the confinement young women like Hester might have felt and the sense of adventure as she sets off into the blue, the turning point in the story.

Karen Wintle

THE TEA LORDS Hella S. Haasse, trans. Ina Rilke, Portobello, 2010, £15.99, hb, 341pp, 9781846271700 Haasse’s books have achieved classic status in her native Netherlands, and this is the first to be translated for 15 years. The Tea Lords is a novel, she writes, “but it is not fiction”. Instead, the material “has been chosen and arranged to meet the demands of a novel”.

The Kerkhoven family were one of many Dutch families to emigrate to Java in the 19th century where, in the 1860s, they leased a tea plantation in the Preanger Highlands. The book focuses on Rudolf, whom we meet as a new graduate in Delft before he rejoins his parents and leases his own plantation on which he settles with his wife, Jenny.

What follows is an extraordinary account of their life based on actual letters and diaries: we learn of Jenny’s pregnancies and frequent miscarriages, and her deteriorating mental health; and of Rudolf ’s entrepreneurial attempts to expand the tea and quinine plantations, and the rivalry with his younger brother that fuels family quarrels.

Apart from occasional lighthearted moments, the overall impression is that, as in other outposts, these families struggled to come to terms with a foreign culture and to make a livelihood from the alien jungle, especially since trade was frequently disrupted by international politics. With scant luxuries to make life more bearable – the telephone finally arrives in 1896 – the ruthless dominance of nature is epitomised by the eruption of Krakatau in 1883 and the resulting tsunami. An interesting book written with firsthand knowledge.

Lucinda Byatt THE RAVEN’S BRIDE Lenore Hart, St. Martin’s Griffin, 2011, $15.99, pb, 356pp, 9780312567231 We all know how sad and dreary Edgar Allan Poe’s life was, in real life and in his stories and poems. Charming and alcoholic, raised to be a gentleman but always living on the edge of dire poverty, hypersensitive and in poor health, Poe was at best a difficult man to be with and at worst, an impossibly difficult man to be in love with.

Hart’s story of Virginia “Sissy” Clemm, Edgar’s much younger cousin and eventual wife, is at times painfully realistic. Told from the first-person point of view of Sissy, we experience her joys, hopes, disappointments and fears as they come to her – and sadly, the joys and hopes disappear fairly quickly, while the disappointments pile up.

While I appreciated the excellent writing and the deep emotional presence of this novel, I found it hard to read, mainly due to the relentless misfortune that visited these poor creatures who truly found relief only in death. In truth, they loved each other dearly, but their lives were so filled with poverty and despair it is hard to say if their love helped them overcome adversity or made it more difficult to bear. It would have been easier, I think, to read a straightforward biography than to suffer through the heartache that the author has told only too well. It’s a grimly rewarding book, and certainly 19th Century

sheds a little sunlight on the formerly unsung heroine who was the inspiration for many of Poe’s late, lamented maidens in his poetry and stories.

Mary F. Burns BLOSSOMS AND SHADOWS Lian Hearn, Quercus, 2011, £12.99, pb, 480pp, 9780857382979.

The arrival of the Western powers in Japan in the 1850s forced decades of simmering unrest into the open: a weak shogunate, the rivalries and ambitions of the powerful clans, and the frustrations of the samurai and merchant classes. Tsuru, a doctor’s daughter who longs to practise medicine herself, has dutifully accepted her role as a traditional wife.

But when her clan, the Chôshû, take the lead in the rebellion against the shogun, Tsuru is drawn into the conflict and her life is radically changed.

I have myself researched and written about this confusing Japanese period, and I bow in admiration to Hearn’s achievement. Using medicine as the means, she guides us through the political and social complexities of the civil wars while at the same time, in Tsuru and others, she creates rounded, believable characters. The women, especially, are convincingly Japanese and not just Europeans or Americans dressed in kimonos as so often occurs in novels dealing with Japan.

Descriptions of nature, weather and landscapes – as well as the little details of everyday life – add to the full flavour of Chôshû emerging from the Middle Ages.

There are problems. Difficult Japanese names fly thick and fast, too often of irrelevant figures we rarely or never meet, and that can become irritating.

A map would be very useful. This is not a book for the beach, but it is a fascinating, frequently moving novel and a must-read for anyone interested in Japan.

Lynn Guest BROKEN PROMISES: A Novel of the Civil War Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman, Ballantine, 2011, $15.00/C$17.00, pb, 287pp, 9780345524553 In 1861, Charles Francis Adams, son of President John Quincy Adams, is sent by the new president, Abraham Lincoln, to serve as America’s ambassador to the Court of St. James. Charles has a delicate mission: to prevent England from supporting the Confederate cause. Meanwhile, Charles’s son Henry, accompanying his father to London, is reunited with an old classmate, Baxter Sams, a Southern medical student whose travels in London society bring him in contact with the strong-minded Julia Birch. All will find their loyalties torn as a divided America goes to war.

Blending historical and purely fictional characters with ease, Broken Promises tells the story of an aspect of the American Civil War that’s relatively neglected in historical fiction: the battle for support abroad. The characters are three-dimensional beings who feel true to their time, and Hoffman even manages the Spirited Heroine – a pitfall for many novelists – with ease 19th Century

and without wandering into anachronism. The love story between Baxter and Julia adds romance to the story without overwhelming the other elements.

Hoffman’s dialogue is witty and apt, and she turns a lively phrase.

Broken Promises was originally self-published as In the Lion’s Den. It’s good to see that Hoffman’s talent has found the wide audience it deserves.

Susan Higginbotham THAT PERFECT SOMEONE Johanna Lindsey, Corgi, 2011, £7.99, pb, 475pp, 9780552160858 / Gallery, 2010, $25.49, hb, 384pp, 1439101078 Richard and Julia, betrothed as children, loathed one another, so Richard ran away to sea. Back in England they meet, not initially knowing the other’s identity. Richard is infatuated with recently married Georgina Mallory. Julia wants to break the betrothal contract, but her father is incapacitated after an accident and unable to help. She sets out to find and destroy it and persuades Richard to join her, but his despicable father turns the tables on them.

The characters are distinctive and most, in particular the women, show some attractive qualities. Julia is feisty, Richard initially consumed with hopeless adoration of Georgina. Since several characters have featured in previous books a family tree would have been useful.

I like to know when stories are set, but this supposedly historical romance offers few clues. A sailing ship on the cover, pirates in the Caribbean.

Otherwise the novel floats in an amorphous oldie worldly cloud. On page fifty seven there is mention of transportation to Australia (post1787); on page 247, transportation has been going on for ‘a few years’. Julia visits France on business, unlikely before 1815. There are no mentions of contemporary happenings, and the only detailed reference to clothing is the inaccurate description of a domino as a face mask.

Attitudes are modern, ‘We are trying to have our first child’, as is the language (apart from gadzookery such as ‘repair to your cabin’ or ‘Fie on you.’). ‘Bloody’ comes on almost every other page.

There is ‘arse’ (frequently), ‘darn’ (exclamation), ‘roadblock’ and ‘our interaction’. Five brothers have ‘Lady Mallorys’ as wives and a duke’s daughter’s son is his only male heir. Julia, married against her will, talks of getting a quick divorce.

Do readers (or authors) care about historical veracity? If you do, this book will irritate you.

Otherwise, it’s a pleasant romance.

Marina Oliver THE NAKED KING Sally MacKenzie, Zebra, 2011, $6.99/C$8.99, pb, 373pp, 9781420102550 Stephen Parker-Roth, nicknamed the King of Hearts, is a wealthy man-about-town, with a reputation with the ladies. Lady Anne Marston is a red-haired bluestocking. Firmly on the shelf at age 27, she has no prospects and no hope of a home or family of her own. Worse, she is relegated to the role

of caregiver for her half-siblings. Scandal brews when the biggest gossip in London discovers a very drunk Steven sprawled on the ground with Ann due to an altercation with a large and overlyenthusiastic dog. Steven does the gentlemanly thing and proposes marriage to Anne. Anne, though attracted to Stephen, considers the engagement a sham and expects him to cry off at the Season’s end. However, Steven wants Anne, not only in his bed, but as his wife.

This funny and fabulous Regency romp has a serious side with the discussion of rape. During a youthful indiscretion in a garden, the sweet and trusting Anne is violently accosted by the evil Lord Brentwood. She carries deep guilt and blames herself for the incident. Stephen helps her sort out the facts as well as her feelings. In the end the villain gets his just desserts, and love conquers all.

Recommended.

Monica E. Spence ON HIS MAJESTY’S SERVICE Allan Mallinson, Bantam Press, 2011, £18.99, hb, 368pp, 9780593058169 Matthew Hervey is back in the saddle after a three-year absence. The eleventh novel in the series, On His Majesty’s Service sees Lieutenant-Colonel Hervey newly returned to London from the Cape.

He is soon summoned to Horse Guards, and as he walks to his headquarters through the streets paved with snow, he looks forward to the command of his beloved regiment, the 6th Light Dragoons.

But this is January 1829, and even with his old commander, Wellington, as the prime minister, the benefits of long-term peace for civilians mean the army itself is in the cold. Hervey is told that the Sixth are to be reduced to a single squadron and are no longer suitable for his command.

With his long-term ambitions now seemingly set at nought, he undertakes instead a six-month assignment as an observer with the Russian army.

Soon Hervey, accompanied by his brother officer, Edward Fairbrother and his faithful groom, Private Johnson, is sailing north to the Eastern Balkans, battleground of the vicious war between Russia and the Turks. While Hervey is supposed to be an impartial spectator in the campaign, soon circumstances and his own nature propel him into a highly dangerous role.

On His Majesty’s Service is perhaps more slowburning than some of the previous Hervey novels, and certainly this is a book of quiet pleasures, describing a time of relative quiet for military men. As always however, it is well written and well researched; the dialogue in particular is wonderful.

While there are also excellently rendered battle scenes during his time in the Balkans, the concentration here is more on Hervey’s relationship and growing friendship with Fairbrother while his relationship with his new wife shows no signs of becoming more intimate.

Gordon O’Sullivan TIGER HILLS Sarita Mandanna, Grand Central, 2011, $24.99, HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Reviews | 39

hb, 468pp, 9780446564106 / Phoenix, 2011, £7.99, pb, 624pp, 9780753827796 This story follows the life of Devi, who was born in Coorg in southern India in 1878, the first girl to be born into her family in more than sixty years.

Her family is a loving one, and they are soon joined by young Devanna, following his mother’s suicide.

Devi and Devanna, who is a budding scholar, become inseparable. That is, until Devi sets eyes on Machu, who is known far and wide for his bravery in killing a tiger. Despite her young age, Devi knows that this is the man she’ll marry. Yet Devi’s and Devanna’s lives are tragically intertwined, and their relationship affects the future of a number of key characters. Devi is headstrong and often blind to her own motivations and actions, yet she is a character for whom the reader will mostly have sympathy, even while lamenting her effect on those around her.

Coorg and its customs are lovingly described by Mandanna, who herself was born there. Readers can see how mores changed from the time of Devi’s birth to the period between the world wars, when we follow more closely the lives of Devi’s sons, Nanju and Appu. In her author’s note, Mandanna lists the primary and secondary sources she drew upon to paint a picture true to her native Coorg, but this research sits gracefully within the book.

A glossary of terms is provided to help readers understand less familiar terms. Because such terms will vary from reader to reader, the glossary is extensive in its coverage.

I found myself thinking frequently of Devi and her family even when I wasn’t reading the book – an excellent sign of its hold upon me.

Trudi E. Jacobson THE THIEVES’ LABYRINTH James McCreet, Macmillan, 2011, £14.99, pb, 392pp, 9780230747975 One foggy night a man is murdered on Waterloo Bridge, when the toll keepers insist no one else was on the bridge. A body, legs inadequately weighed down with chains, is pulled from the Thames near Wapping. Then a ship with a valuable cargo of silks goes missing. Several investigators compete to solve the mysteries, which are gradually converging.

There are the aggrieved Inspector Newsome, demoted from the detective force to the River Police; Mr Williamson, retired former detective; the escaped transporteee Noah Dyson with his friend, the dumb ex-slave; and the one they all want to defeat, Eldritch Batchem, who blatantly self-promotes as ‘By Royal Appointment’, and challenges the police to solve the crimes.

Then the murders become even more gruesome, and the plot more involved as the investigators follow different trails. The action is confined almost exclusively to London’s murky, malodorous river and port. London in the 1840s is depicted with all its gory squalor. The river carries filth of all kinds, the sewers spew their burden, unsavoury denizens of the waterfront can provide information, there are rumours of a ‘beast’ inhabiting the sewers. The investigators must penetrate this world to discover 40 | Reviews | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

the truth. Then another crime is planned and a trap laid.

McCreet knows his Victorian London and portrays it unflinchingly, warts and all. I even had the impression he enjoys showing this putrid underbelly which most historical novelists treat with scanty detail. The action is fast-paced, the plot convoluted, though the authorial interjections echoing Victorian novelists jarred somewhat. Try not to read this while eating!

Marina Oliver JOURNEY TO RIVERBEND Henry McLaughlin, Tyndale, 2011, $12.99, pb, 384pp, 9781414339429 Sam Carstairs, founder of the town of Riverbend, has been kidnapped. Although many of the townsfolk actively dislike Sam, the sheriff has no difficulty forming a posse of volunteers eager to head out into the wilderness to rescue him. Two strangers, Michael Archer, a preacher who has come to Riverbend bearing a message for Sam, and Jeremiah Turner, a gunslinger hired to protect the stagecoach, also join the search. As the violence escalates, Michael grows increasingly fearful that the darkness within his own soul may be unleashed. Back in town, beautiful Rachel Stone struggles to come to terms with her feelings for Michael, and surly Adam Carstairs, one of Sam’s sons, takes advantage of the absence of the lawmakers to wreak some havoc of his own.

Set in 1878, Journey to Riverbend is a Western adventure spiced with a hefty dose of the Bible and a touch of romance. Short punchy chapters at the beginning of the novel introduce us to multiple characters and their colorful pasts. The setting is never clearly identified but, based on the length of the journey from San Francisco to Riverbend, both California and Nevada would be reasonable guesses. An assortment of scoundrels highlight the theme that sin destroys but Christ heals. Readers who like the “pray, breathe, and shoot” message will thoroughly enjoy this book, but those who do not may feel betrayed by the explicit violence which erupts as the story nears its conclusion.

Nancy J. Attwell DEATH AT PULLMAN Frances McNamara, Allium Press of Chicago, 2011, $14.99, pb, 262pp, 9780984067695 In this third mystery in the series, set in Chicago in 1894, we find Emily Cabot working at Hull House for Jane Addams and planning to resume her graduate studies in sociology at the University of Chicago in the fall. When she accompanies Ms. Addams to Pullman to investigate a disagreement between the Pullman Palace Car Company and its workers, a young man is found murdered. Emily is later dispatched by Ms. Addams to distribute food supplies to the striking workers and their families.

She is accompanied by Dr. Stephen Chapman, whose marriage proposal she has previously turned down.

While this is a mystery, the mystery doesn’t really take center stage in the story, and it isn’t so

much solved as it unfolds. This did not, however, detract one bit from my enjoyment of the story.

The history of the Pullman Palace Car Company, the strike and the Pullman town was a fascinating story in its own right. The novel really has two villains, the murderer and George Pullman, who built an ideal town for his workers and then by his avarice, kept them too poor to enjoy it. An excellent installment in this series.

Jane Kessler THE WIDOW MAKERS - STRIFE Jean Mead, Gwasg Y Bwthyn, 2011, £11.95, pb, 360pp, 9781907424144 Strife is the second book in the Widow Makers trilogy. It is a well‑paced, very readable novel in the same successful style of the Widow Makers. It continues the saga of the Standish family who live and work in the Slate mines of North Wales in the 19th century, having moved from the coalfields of Lancashire.

The parents, Joe and Emily, have a very ambitious hard‑nosed son Tommy, who becomes manager of the Garddryn quarry and who will do anything in his pursuit of power. Tommy has little feelings or thoughts about his wife, Henrietta, an opium user who suffers depression and about his young son, Edward. His treatment is the same for his father, Joe, and his brother Frank, who are both quarrymen. Joe fights for better pay and fairer working conditions for the quarrymen, and Tommy fights to get every last bit of work out of them to make himself wealthier. Tommy would also let his quarry workers and their families starve in his quest for power.

It is a very well‑written book with colourful, believable characters and vivid descriptions. The author is a wonderful storyteller who uses authentic well‑written language. It is a real page‑turner but also a relaxed read that really transports its reader into the time and place. It takes you through highs and lows and makes you feel real anger at the treatment of the workers by Tommy, and its story stays with you after the book is finished.

A great read, well recommended even for readers who have not read the first book as it stands alone as a separate story.

Barbara Goldie JUST ONE SEASON IN LONDON Leigh Michaels, Sourcebooks Casablanca, 2011, $7.99, pb, 384pp, 9781402244209 The Ryecrofts, a noble family in a dire financial situation, are pinning all of their hopes on daughter Sophie making a good marriage. But in order for Sophie to meet the right (wealthy) man, she’ll need a season in London. When a London banker offers to rent the family’s country manor for the summer, the three Ryecrofts make their way to the home of Lady Stone, an eccentric widow who sees Sophie’s potential as a great beauty, as well as Rye’s potential as a fine catch for an heiress with enough money to fix the Ryecroft family home.

Michaels cleverly balances three love stories – Sophie’s, Rye’s, and their mother’s – in one 19th Century

novel. Each is a little different, and there are some surprising twists, especially in Sophie’s story.

Because there’s so much going on, the ending seems a bit tidy and quick, and the relationship between Sophie and her future husband doesn’t have a whole lot behind it. However, Michaels manages to avoid the expected, and her characters are a lot of fun. Fans of steamy Regency romances will enjoy this one.

Nanette Donohue A HEART DIVIDED Kathleen Morgan, Revell, 2011, $14.99, pb, 329pp, 9780800718848 In 1878 Colorado, everyone knows of the decades-old feud between the Caldwells and the Wainwrights. Sarah Caldwell’s father is obsessed with revenge, so much so that he begins cattle rustling the Wainwrights’ herd. When Sarah reluctantly agrees to help out in his latest scheme, she meets Cord Wainwright, who is determined to put a stop to her father once and for all. Cord makes a citizen’s arrest, and Sarah winds up being held prisoner at the Wainwright ranch. As time passes, Sarah realizes she is on her own. She begins to make a home with the Wainwrights, and when she inadvertently falls in love with Cord, she finds herself in more trouble than ever.

Torn between her newfound love and her family loyalties, Sarah struggles to find understanding, forgiveness, and the strength to start a new life.

This gentle story focuses on family binds, loyalty, love, and faith. With subtle Christian undertones and a Western flair, the first in Morgan’s new “Heart of the Rockies” series is a pleasant, albeit slightly predictable read.

Rebecca Cochran THE CLEANSING FLAMES R N Morris, Faber & Faber, 2011, £7.99, pb, 384pp, 9780571259151 The Cleansing Flames is the fourth and final book in this St Petersburg historical crime series. It is Easter 1872, and fires are burning all over the city as portents of the revolutionary turmoil that will shake Russia forty years later. As the springtime’s welcome thaw arrives, the surface of the Winter Canal brings forth a body, and magistrate Porfiry Petrovich, the detective from Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, is quickly drawn into an investigation of the radical intellectuals who seek to fan these flames of revolution. Meanwhile his colleague, junior magistrate Pavel Pavlovich Virginsky, is drawn into a dangerous game of his own. Following a chance meeting with a suspected anarchist, Virginsky volunteers to infiltrate this man’s terrorist cell. But he soon has cause to doubt his own loyalties. Will he finally do his duty and bring these killers to justice, or instead further a cause with which he sympathises? And will his friend and mentor, Porfiry Petrovich, get in his way? The issue comes to a head in a shocking and violent conclusion.

The relationship between Porfiry and Virginsky has always been at the core of the St. Petersburg 19th Century

series, and in this book mirrors the clash of generations that is going on in the city itself. The Cleansing Flames sees the student overtaking the master and concentrates mostly on Virginsky with well-timed guest appearances from Porfiry Petrovich. This is a novel that unfolds strictly at its own pace. While still fulfilling all the requirements of the historical crime novel, it is strongest in its wonderful sense of place, atmosphere and historical detail and the memorable characters that people this landscape.

Gordon O’Sullivan NORAH: The Making of an Irish-American Woman in 19th-Century New York Cynthia G. Neale, Lucky Press, LLC, 2011, $18.95, pb, 328pp, 9780984631711 Norah tells the story of Norah McCabe, an Irish immigrant living in Five Points, a notorious Manhattan slum in the mid-19th century. Norah is determined to rise above her status, and with her used clothing shop, she thinks she is well on her way. However, an accusation of theft and murder and near-rape by a corrupt police commissioner awaken her social activism. She takes a job as a reporter for the Irish-American, but her stories are watered down by the editor, fearful of stirring the pot. She finds another outlet in joining Thomas Murray, a fellow Five Pointer, in working for Irish nationalist John Mitchel. After a far too long interlude in which Norah is kidnapped and drugged in a bordello, from which an abolitionist priest attempts to free her, she escapes and joins Murray and Mitchel on a ship to Liverpool and then to Ireland, for a purpose which eludes me still.

In fact, the abolitionist priest in a bordello sounds like the set-up for a joke.

Norah is dense book that wishes to communicate the Irish immigrant’s experience in the 19th century, but the end result is just … dense.

Norah herself is quixotic and flighty. Her everchanging fancies make her difficult to grasp and to sympathize with. Is she against abolition, or does she even understand the meaning of the word? Is she an Irish nationalist or just in love with one?

Her elusiveness as a character is not helped by the tortured prose. Her friend Mary has “flaming ginger hair and [an] erotic chest” – of drawers?

Awkward similes abound as well: “The wooden ship was like a bitter old woman who doesn’t want life to dwell in her any longer, but she can’t quit.” I wanted to quit.

Ellen Keith SWEET REVENGE: A Lady Hadley Regency Mystery Andrea Penrose, Obsidian, 2011, $6.99/C$8.50, pb, 325pp, 9780451233035 In 1812, Lady Arianna Hadley, the daughter of a disgraced earl, returns to England from exile in the West Indies to take revenge on the men responsible for her father’s murder. Arianna, an expert on chocolate, disguises herself as a male French chef in the household of Lady Spencer, the prince regent’s latest mistress. When the prince

falls ill after eating Arianna’s chocolate dessert, Arianna is immediately suspected of trying to poison him. Lord Grentham, a senior government minister, sends the earl of Saybrook, a wounded, opium-addicted veteran of the Peninsular War, to investigate the prince’s poisoning. As soon as Saybrook begins to question Arianna, he realizes she is a woman, and then someone tries to kill both of them. Although each distrusts the other, Arianna and Saybrook decide they must join forces to solve the crime if they both wish to stay alive.

Sweet Revenge is an absolute delight for lovers of mysteries, Regency romances, and chocolate.

Arianna is not a typical heroine; at first she is cynical and motivated by revenge, and is not afraid to use violence. But she gains the reader’s sympathy as the book goes on and the story of her father’s exile and murder is gradually revealed. The morose, brooding Saybrook makes an excellent counterpart to the fiery Arianna. As the two are drawn to each other, each becomes more sympathetic.

Each chapter begins with a fact about chocolate and a recipe, supposedly from the notebooks of Saybrook’s Spanish grandmother. The recipes look mouth-wateringly delicious, and even though I’m no cook, I would love to try them. The history is fascinating as well, and you learn that solid chocolate, although quite a rarity in Regency England, was not unheard-of at the time. I am looking forward to more adventures of Arianna and Saybrook.

Vicki Kondelik ACCEPTABLE LOSS Anne Perry, Headline, 2011, £19.99, hb, 340pp, 9780755376841 / Ballantine, 2011, $26.00, hb, 320pp, 9780345510600 This mystery is set in 1864 London, when homeless children combed the banks and mudflats of the Thames for whatever they could find and were prey to every kind of danger. Inspector William Monk and his wife, Hester, have taken in such a boy after rescuing him from the hands of one Jericho Phillips. Phillips is now dead, but the abuse of the children hasn’t stopped, and Monk is determined to discover who was funding Phillips and is behind the activities still taking place on another boat moored further up the river. When the body of a small-time crook is found washed up on the bank at Mortlake, strangled with a silk scarf whose owner could only have been of the aristocracy, Monk sets out to solve the mystery.

After taking some time to sort out the characters and who was related to whom, I found this a book I couldn’t put down. I was soon caught up in it and found myself wanting Monk to succeed, to stop the terrible abuse of the children and bring the perpetrators responsible for it to justice, whoever and however well-born or connected they may be. This is a dark story, well told, but not for the squeamish.

Marilyn Sherlock BETRAYAL AT LISSON GROVE (UK) / TREASON AT LISSON GROVE (US) HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Reviews | 41

C

THE DARK ENQUIRY

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E

Deanna Raybourn, MIRA, 2011, $14.95, pb, 392pp, 9780778312376 After her eldest brother, Viscount Bellmont, secretly visits her husband, Lady Julia Brisbane ponders why since the two don’t particularly like each other. Her curiosity piqued, she follows Nicholas to the Spirit Club but then loses him. Determined to get to the bottom of things, she attends a séance given by Madame Séraphine. Since Nicholas is as skeptical as she is about spiritualism, Julia can’t see how the medium fits into his latest private enquiry investigation.

After the séance ends but before Julia departs, Nicholas reveals his presence and the reason for being at the Spirit Club. They search Madame’s room, but before they find her brother’s letters, the medium’s return forces them into hiding. From this vantage point, they watch her die from poisoning. Although they make a hasty retreat before the police arrive, they continue the hunt for Bellmont’s letters, which can topple the present government should they fall into the wrong hands. In doing so, the Brisbanes soon find themselves the target of the murderer and others who search for the letters.

International intrigue, arson, locked mausoleums, and secret identities abound in this spellbinding historical mystery, the fifth in the series. Raybourn’s characters are multifaceted, and she expertly weaves their back stories into this tale so readers unfamiliar with previous books are easily drawn into the current investigation. The intricate plot unravels with twists and turns that challenge us but keep us guessing until the end. Raybourn expertly spins a tale that transports us back to 1889 London, allowing us to observe Julia’s scientific experiments firsthand, to meet the members of her quirky family, or to enter the mysterious world of the gypsy. This riveting mystery will soon make readers fans who will eagerly await Lady Julia and Nicholas Brisbane’s next adventure.

Cindy Vallar Anne Perry, Headline, 2010, pb, £7.99, 438pp, 9780755376827 / Ballantine, 2011, $26.00, hb, 320pp, 9780345510587 It is 1895, a time of political upheaval in various parts of Europe. Inspector Pitt of Scotland Yard Special Branch witnesses a murder and, in pursuing the murderer, ends up in France. Realising that there is more to it than just apprehension of a criminal, Pitt takes his first steps towards uncovering a big conspiracy that has its roots back in the Special Branch itself.

The betrayal of the title refers to Pitt’s certainty that there must be someone evil working to undermine the system from within. Meanwhile Pitt’s wife, Charlotte, has gone away with Narraway, Pitt’s disgraced boss, to Ireland to work on an old case and find out who engineered Narraway’s fall from grace and why. This is complicated by Narraway’s secret love for his employee’s wife.

The scenes in Ireland are some of the strongest of the novel, with intrigue and painful secrets all interwoven with Ireland’s past and present struggles.

The period details, plot and characterisation are clear, but the pace is somewhat slow and events seem to be repeated endlessly. The event happens, then someone thinks about it and then they tell someone else about it – all of which meant that this reader became a little bored at times. Perry is an 42 | Reviews | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

established author with many books to her credit, so clearly she has many fans who will no doubt enjoy this more than I. Ann Northfield HEARTS AGLOW: Striking a Match, Book 2 Tracie Peterson, Bethany House, 2011, $14, pb, 352pp, 978076206139 Angelina County, Texas, in 1886, is a troubled stew of resentments, but Deborah Vandermark, heroine of Tracie Peterson’s new novel, seems to have her life well in hand – she is studying medicine with handsome doctor Christopher Caldwell, with whom a deepening relationship promises a good life ahead. Devout and calm, Deborah is deeply involved in the spiritual and social life of her community, her thoughts about God a constant comfort at difficult moments.

Things go wrong, of course, but in the end, things go right. All this is very reassuring. Still, novels are made of characters, and characters, to be interesting, have to have flaws – even, dare I say it, be a little bad now and then. There are engaged and engaging novels about the Christian life – Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead comes immediately to mind – but Hearts Aglow is not one of them.

Cecelia Holland

NOWHERE NEAR RESPECTABLE Mary Jo Putney, Zebra, 2011, $6.99/C$8.99, pb, 373pp, 9781420117226 Part of the Lost Lords series, Nowhere Near Respectable mixes romance and Regency history in equal measure and produces a riveting story. Lady Kiri Lawford, like her brother the duke of Ashton, is of English and Indian blood, fitting into both worlds – and neither. Damian “Mac” Mackenzie is the owner of an exclusive gambling establishment and the son an English lord, albeit one born on the wrong side of the blanket. When Kiri is captured by smugglers, Mac buys her freedom from them – the same men who supply spirits to his club. But Kiri is no wilting flower; she is a woman trained in the fighting arts of India and an expert perfumier with a nose for trouble.

The attempted kidnapping from Mac’s club of Princess Charlotte, the prince regent’s only child, sets off a string of adventures that end in the hallowed halls of Westminster. Mac and Kiri team up to investigate a plot against the royal family.

Can Mac and Kiri prevent the assassination of the royals and the peers of the realm? Will Mac be found worthy of Kiri’s hand? Will true love prevail?

To discover the answers to those questions read Nowhere Near Respectable. You’ll enjoy the wild ride.

Monica Spence THE DEVILISH MONTAGUE Patricia Rice, Signet Eclipse, 2011, $7.99/C$8.99, pb, 384pp, 9780451234056 Blake Montague is the brilliant, but socially challenged, third son of a wealthy aristocratic family. He wants to buy his colors as an officer in the British army, which will give him the opportunity to crack a mysterious code that will help defeat Napoleon. His parents refuse him the money because they fear he’ll be killed on the Peninsula. Blake’s father offers him a house, the old Carrington estate, an incentive to wed. Blake offers a marriage of convenience to Jocelyn Carrington, the beautiful, well-dowered, youngest daughter of an aristocratic family.

Jocelyn agrees to the marriage in order to reacquire her family home and the stability so lacking in her life and that of her parrot-obsessed younger brother. A series of accidents, a stolen pair of parrots, Jocelyn’s mother, her despicable older brother, and his pushy French wife add to the confusion and the merriment during a masquerade ball. Can Blake break the code without returning to the army? Will he and Jocelyn find happiness and permanence in their marriage? Of course, this is a romance, after all.

The Devilish Montague is a Regency story of love, loyalty and unexpected happiness. I recommend it.

Monica E. Spence CONQUISTADORA Esmeralda Santiago, Knopf, 2011, $26.95, hb, 416pp, 9780307268327 Ana, the only child of a proud Spanish family, was raised for one thing: to marry well. But 19th Century

Ana hates the constricted life of Spanish ladies and dreams of being a conquistador like her ancestors. When she is eighteen, Ana seizes the opportunity to marry Ramón, who has inherited a sugar plantation in Puerto Rico. Along with Ramón’s twin brother, Inocente, the couple travel to a remote part of Puerto Rico to manage the plantation. However, life as a patrón is not what they’d expected. The plantation’s buildings are in disrepair, labor is scarce, and slave rebellions are a constant threat. The twins become discouraged, but Ana is determined to make the plantation a success even if she has to harden her conscience to do so.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Ana is bad enough to be interesting but good enough to root for. In addition to Ana, several of Santiago’s characters have a complexity that forces the reader to see them as sympathetic even when they are behaving in ways considered despicable in a modern context. This complexity of the entire cast of characters is achieved through the author’s frequent switching of the narrative perspective, faddishly discouraged by American agents as a literary no-no but brilliantly executed in this novel. But Conquistadora is ultimately about Ana. Though she comes to understand the horrific conditions of the African slaves and how her way of life perpetuates these conditions, Ana also knows that the plantation is all that has kept her from the particular slavery of gender endured by women of

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Dominic Smith, Washington Square Press, 2011, $15.00, pb, 468pp, 9781439198865 Set in 1890s Chicago and the South Pacific, Smith’s third novel begins when an insurance tycoon sponsors the world’s tallest skyscraper. On the night it opens, he hires trader Owen Graves to mount an expedition to the South Seas. Graves is charged with bringing back artifacts judged precious as well as an indigenous family to display on the building’s rooftop gardens. He’s also charged with the care and well-being of another member of the expedition – the tycoon’s only son.

Meanwhile, in the South Seas, Argus Niu, a houseboy for a Scottish missionary, strikes out on his own one morning when he discovers his employer dead. Soon, Owen’s expedition and Argus’ life intersect, and each man becomes essential to the other. Owen wants to return home to his fiancée with enough money to start life together. Argus becomes the means to that end as he deftly negotiates with island tribes and when he and his sister agree to pose as the native “family” high atop the skyscraper.

Bright and Distant Shores is told in a fulsome style that teems with both thoughtful substance and picturesque coarseness. Graves and Niu are the perfect guides to Chicago and the South Seas. Of his employer’s mentally unbalanced son, Graves speculates that he seems the kind who “spent his life walking out of rooms in the middle of arguments.” But it is Argus Niu who steals every scene he’s in, as he navigates between worlds and forges his own philosophy, trying to combine his new religion while respecting his family and culture. Historical fiction as its best, Smith’s novel illuminates contradictions of both the valor and lunacy of an era.

Eileen Charbonneau all classes in the 19th century.

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Patricia O’Sullivan

Eileen Clymer Schwab, NAL, 2011, $15.00, pb, 373pp, 9780451233288 This story takes place in northeastern North Carolina and many points north on the Underground Railroad in the summer and fall of 1839. Jacy Lane lives on a prosperous horse plantation with her devoted father and loving grandmother, but her mother has never shown any sign of caring for her.

The story begins with Jacy’s betrothal to Garrison Yob, a repulsive fortune hunter whose nasty behavior finally gets him banished by her father with orders never to return. When tragedy strikes and her father is no longer there to protect her or his slaves, Garrison returns to pursue her once more. She refuses him again, and her enraged mother blurts out a secret that changes the course of Jacy’s life forever. She is the daughter of her father and Jerlinda, the house slave.

When Jacy recovers from the shock and an attempted suicide, Jerlinda tells her of the deep love her parents have shared since childhood. Jerlinda’s crippled son, Axel, is also Jacy’s brother, and Rafe, a slave and gifted horseman, has always held a special place in her heart. When her mother plans to sell them, Jacy begins a journey that will transform her from the sheltered daughter of privilege to a fugitive fighting for her life and the lives of the family she has come to love.

The author does a wonderful job describing Jacy’s journey and her amazing transformation.

The passage to freedom and family is a perilous one. Through the treacherous Dismal Swamp, the cruelty of slave hunters, and relentless pursuit by Garrison, she encounters the kindness of many strangers determined to aid her in her quest. Eileen Clymer Schwab’s pre-Civil War novel is a delight on every level. The characters are well developed, and her thorough research shows on every page. I highly recommend this book.

Susan Zabolotny

THE DAWN OF A DREAM Ann Shorey, Revell, 2011, $14.99, pb, 352pp, 9780800733346 In 1857, after only a month of marriage, 23-yearold Luellen O’Connell’s dreams of romance are shattered when she learns that her husband is a bigamist. Refusing to bow to the pressure to return to her parents’ home in Beldon Grove, Illinois, she moves two hundred miles away to attend the Allenwood Normal School and become a teacher.

Both gutsy and stubborn, Luellen pushes toward her goal while isolating herself from those who love her most, even when she learns she is to have a child. When finally forced to choose between her family and her career, the decision Luellen makes opens her heart to love once more.

I grew up hearing stories about “normal school,” “model school,” and the rules that prevented married women from teaching, but did not really understand the historical process of teacher education until reading this book. One of Shorey’s particular talents is her ability to create characters who resist behaving as one would typically expect.

Although Luellen learns and grows, like most of us in the real world she retains the same delightfully flawed personality right to the end. Dawn of a Dream is an enjoyable addition to Shorey’s Beldon Grove series.

Nancy J. Attwell

SHADOW OF A QUARTER MOON

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HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Reviews | 43

CONQUEST Julian Stockwin, Hodder & Stoughton, 2011, £18.99, hb, 340pp, 9781444711967 / McBooks, Oct. 2011, $24.00, hb, 320pp, 9781590136263 The Battle of Trafalgar has been won, but even before Nelson’s body has been interred, Captain Thomas Kydd finds himself at sea once more. Being secure from the threat of invasion, the government wastes no time in putting into putting into action a plan to expand the empire. Kydd finds himself as part of a fleet whose orders are to take control of Cape Town from the Dutch, to secure the rich trade route to India. While the initial objective is successfully achieved, retaining the newly conquered possession against French troops, native warriors and Boer insurgents is another matter.

This is the latest offering in the Kydd series from Julian Stockwin. As with all previous offerings, it is well researched and character-driven and paints a vivid picture of naval life. Although essentially a naval novel, much of the action takes place on dry land as both Kydd and his friend Nicholas Renzi become involved in the military and political campaigns. An excellent, exciting, fast paced read.

Stockwin’s many fans will relish this latest offering, while those readers not familiar with his work will find this an appealing introduction. Recommended.

Mike Ashworth THE RESERVOIR John Milliken Thompson, Other Press, 2011, $15.95, pb, 368pp, 9781590514443 Based upon an old Richmond, Virginia court

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case, The Reservoir is a complex first novel that is a simmering blend of Southern tragedy, a love triangle, coming-of-age story, and crime saga. In post-Reconstruction Richmond, the body of a young, pregnant woman is discovered in the town reservoir. An investigation ensues and inevitably focuses on an ambitious young lawyer, Tommie Cluverius, one of two men (the other being his brother Willie) who loved the murdered Lillie.

To the author’s credit, Thompson handily captures the lush and steamy sense of dark secrets kept by families of the South. This is a chilling study of imperfect personalities, human frailty, and crime, circa 1885. One can’t help being drawn to the promises offered by such a tale. However, a wandering omniscient perspective often feels out of control, forcing the reader to filter information through dozens of characters, some of whom are such minor actors in the drama that they distract from and slow down the development of the main plot. In addition, the author alternates between third and first person, and employs both present and past tenses in telling the story, resulting in a confusing narrative style and action that’s sometimes difficult to follow. One longs for a single strong and appealing character with whom to share the journey and a little better handling of narrative skills.

Kathryn Johnson TIDES OF WAR: A Novel of the Peninsular War Stella Tillyard, Chatto & Windus, 2011, £12.99,

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Mary Volmer, Soho, 2011, $24.00/C$29.50, hb, 274pp, 9781569478615 / Harper, 2006, £6.99, pb, 448pp, 9780007205776 The tiny mining town of Motherlode isn’t just another place to try one’s luck in Gold Rush California.

It’s also a place to escape. Emaline, proprietress of the town’s only inn, knows most of the secrets. The only woman in Motherlode, she’s lover, mother, and confidante to the miners who drift through. The newest, Alex, is different from the other rough-andready miners. Emaline takes Alex under her wing, not knowing that the quiet, reclusive “boy” is really a young girl fleeing from her past. Alex carries her secrets tucked beneath her shapeless clothes, alongside the gold nugget she accidentally found one day. A gold nugget that brings unwanted attention to both Alex and Motherlode. As Emaline struggles to hold tight to the town she’s built, Alex struggles to hold tight to her new identity, that of a person strong enough to stop running and stand on her own two feet.

This is beautifully and unabashedly a characterdriven novel. Through Alex and Emaline, we feel what it is to be a woman in the rough-and-ready man’s world of the Gold Rush. So alive are the miners that they threaten to swagger right off the page, knees caked with red dust, picks over their shoulders. In such a leisurely novel, details are savored and back stories are trickled in teasingly. But it never drags. Despite the simplicity of the prose and the starkness of the setting, the author has crafted a gorgeous debut, and I look forward to future novels.

Jessica Brockmole 44 | Reviews | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

hb, 368pp, 9780701183172 / Henry Holt, Nov. 2011, $26.00, hb, 384pp, 9780805094572 Set in Regency London and Spain 1812-1815, this novel recounts in short scenes, or vignettes, the key points in the lives of people brought together by the requirements of the Peninsular War. It is beautifully written, but there are things that may deter those looking for a typical Regency read.

Over sixty characters are introduced before page 62, with the result that it is initially hard to grasp who is a leading player and who has only a bit part.

Gradually the main players become clear, and their individual stories are engaging. The plot contrasts the women, left alone in London to go about their business with a growing sense of freedom and independence, with the men enduring the brutal realities of the Spanish battlefield. The characters are well-drawn, from Lady Wellington, who deals with her husband’s many bastards, to the enigmatic Heaton, who takes his dog to war with him.

Many will enjoy this book, and others will find, as I did, the endlessly changing viewpoints grow irritating. More than once I clicked my tongue in annoyance because the author had ‘closed’ the vignette and moved to another character, or set of characters, often in a different country, and with a different set of problems. The historical detail, of gas lighting, blood transfusions, and entrepreneurs, is accurate and impressive but could become intrusive for some readers.

Jen Black MADAME BOVARY’S DAUGHTER Linda Urbach, Bantam, 2011, $15.00, pb, 468pp, 9780385343879 Picking up in 1852, a year after the shattering end of Flaubert’s famous novel, young Berthe is burying her father. She learns she is penniless, due to her notorious mother who “always wanted what she couldn’t have.” Her paternal grandmother takes her in, demanding that she earn her keep as a farm worker in the French countryside. Here Berthe meets the Impressionist Millet, who delights in using her as a model in his rural scenes.

But when her grandmother dies, Berthe is left again without resources. She begins her life as a cotton mill worker, under conditions that try her resilient spirit. When plucked from the line to work in Paris as a lady’s maid to the mill owner’s wife, a new life begins, fraught with sexual intrigue and debasement. But also a career in the silk fashion trade begins once Berthe meets and becomes indispensable to Charles Worth. She finds love too, with a painter, Armand, who also struggles with a childhood marred and loveless.

In a novel written in the clean Gallic style of the original, Madame Bovary’s daughter is a wonderful character, struggling to overcome her mother’s legacy and the expectations of her own fantasies. Berthe comes of age in a cruel world, haunted by memories of her mother. But she embraces her Armand in wonderfully rendered love scenes, and does not fear to be kind, either to fellow mill workers, or an ill boardinghouse guest who happens to be Levi Strauss on his way 19th Century

to the California gold fields. Through it all, Berthe expresses joie de vivre, never losing heart or hope as she forms her own destiny.

Eileen Charbonneau THE DEVIL’S MASK Christopher Wakling, Faber & Faber, 2011, £12.99, pb, 312pp, 9780571239221 Two years after the slave trade has been made illegal, the port of Bristol is thriving. Merchants are making themselves rich with the profits gained from trade with a growing empire. When mutilated bodies are found in the city, the city’s leaders move swiftly to prevent panic in the streets. At the same time, when Inigo Bright, a lowly legal clerk with a taste for coffee, is charged with investigating the payment of customs fees in the port, a routine investigation, he is totally unprepared for the verbal and physical violent backlash against his probing.

Are the two connected? Are the city fathers trying to protect their investments, or are there darker motives at work?

This is an interesting tale which brings alive the life and times of Bristol just after the abolition of the slave trade. The plot is taut and well paced, while the characters are well drawn and vibrant.

The twist at the end of the story is very satisfying, if a little predictable. Fans of the genre will enjoy this. If you are looking for a satisfying summer read try this. Recommended.

Mike Ashworth THE DEEPEST WATERS Dan Walsh, Revell, 2011, $14.99, pb, 297pp, 9780800719807 This poignant novel, inspired by the true story of a steamship that sank in a hurricane off the Carolinas in 1857, begins with a scene reminiscent of the ending of the Titanic movie. As the S.S. Vandervere founders, the women and children have been rescued, but the men are left to either go down with the ship or drift in the ocean with little hope of survival. John and Laura Foster are honeymooners who were traveling from San Francisco to New York so that Laura could meet her new in-laws.

Most of the women carry a small sack of gold, all that will be salvaged of the incredible wealth from the gold fields that sinks with their ship, but Laura also bears a note containing a secret, which John begs her to read only if she knows he has died.

As men slip one-by-one to their deaths in the water, and a thief steals from the women the last of their worldly goods, there are moments of both cowardliness and courage among the survivors.

The multiple subplots, scene changes, and glimpses of the back story are deftly woven together.

Both heartrending and inspiring, this is a grand adventure of the sea.

Nancy J. Attwell THE HOUSE OF WOMEN Anne Whitfield, Knox Robinson, 2011, £12.99, pb, 381pp, 9780956790187 The House of Women is a poignant, very readable novel of life in Victorian England, which 19th Century

is set in Leeds at the height of the Victorian era in 1870. The moving story follows the life of Grace Woodruff, the eldest of seven daughters, who has to assume responsibility for her sisters and their vast estate.

Grace has put aside her own broken heart, as she is rejected by her first love, in order to keep the family together. Her mother has withdrawn to her rooms, and Grace becomes the buffer between her sisters and their violent, tyrannical father. Grace struggles to keep the family together through a compelling story which is woven with violence, alcoholism and out-of-wedlock pregnancies, rejection, illness and impoverishment.

Although there is betrayal, hatred and lies, there is also love. The rich, colourful, complex characters bring this family saga to life. It is beautifully written with a very strong heroine who, even when the rest of the family are pulling her in many ways, tries to stay strong, although there is the odd slip along the way. As the story unfolds we meet an admirer for Grace, the butler, and a shift foreman is also smitten with her. Grace really wants to have her own family, and when the possibility of love comes along, Grace must decide if she should give up the responsibility of the House of Women and take her own chance of happiness.

The challenges Grace faces with twists and turns along the way make this book a great read.

It has the reader hooked from page one, keeps the reader guessing and is difficult to put down once started. An excellent book, highly recommended.

Barbara Goldie THE EMPEROR’S GOLD Robert Wilton, Corvus, £16.99, hb, 432pp, 9781848878372 This is a promising debut. Robert Wilton has used his knowledge of government to concoct a story of betrayal and deceit set in 1805, when Napoleon was massing his troops at Boulogne and the English awaited invasion.

In July of that year, a seaman is plucked from the sea off Cornwall, only survivor of a shipwreck.

He is told that his name is now ‘Tom Roscarrock’.

The mysterious Scotsman who gives him this information insists that with this name he has a future aiding his country against her enemies, foreign and domestic; without it he has none.

The Scotsman is Sir Keith Kinnaird, senior official at the ‘Comptrollerate-General for Scrutiny and Survey’, responsible for the nation’s intelligence and espionage. He has chosen Roscarrock as his newest agent, and after a short indoctrination, he is sent to London to join the staff of the head of the Comptrollerate-General, Admiral Lord Hugo Bellamy.

There follows a complicated and lively tale of deceit and subterfuge, with episodes of extreme violence and passionate love-making, both frequently shared with the nubile blonde spy, Lady Virginia Strong. Through all his adventures, Tom displays such an extraordinary level of competence that the reader strains to accept the veracity of the story, although Wilton claims it is based on actual

records.

Perhaps this does not matter. This lively, intricate tale will satisfy many, especially those who enjoy riddles and puzzles. One riddle mystifies me, though: Wilton launches the character ‘Robert Fulton’ into the story and then drops him entirely.

Fulton was the American engineer who at that time was experimenting with steam-driven boats and even submarines. One would have thought he could have played an important part in a story much dependent on the rumours of a ‘mystery fleet’ Napoleon has created to sweep the Channel free of the Royal Navy. But not so.

Peter Prince A HUNDRED LITTLE LIES Jon Wilson, Cheyenne, 2011, $13.99, pb, 211 pp, 9780982826751 The quiet late 19th-century American Western town of Bodey, Colorado, is the setting for this gay romance. Widower Jack Tulle’s wife visits in a dream, urging him to wake up and shed the lies that rule his present life. For the very proper owner of the town’s general store and doting father of sprightly seven-year-old Abigail, this will take some unravelling.

Jack has been working in political circles to block a local saloon from hosting a grand prize poker tournament, knowing it might bring Tom (his former lover and partner in crime) back into his life. When Jack fails, it does, and sparks between the two are quickly reignited. But some ugly truths about Jack’s past, including a blinding tendency towards violence, are unearthed before the two can find their happy ending in a new family.

By turns homespun and gritty, with some hot and tender love scenes, A Hundred Little Lies has a promising start. But Jack is particularly dense about both his own and others’ secrets and motivations.

And by the time the pasts of both Tom and Jack, fellow townspeople and old associates are revealed, the story dissolves under the weight of a hundred little plot points.

Eileen Charbonneau THE LONG HITCH Michael Zimmer, Five Star, 2011, $25.95, hb, 364pp, 9781432825249 If you want to know about managing mule trains in the Old West, this is the book for you. In 1874, Buck McCready becomes wagon master of a mule caravan hauling freight from Utah to Montana in a race with several other outfits to win a valuable contract, and the book is packed with descriptions of hitches and harness, how to fix a broken wheel and bridge a deep ravine.

Evil competitors are out to steal the contract, and Buck battles sabotage as well as the harsh but beautiful country. Besides the race, the novel follows a mystery (who killed Buck’s predecessor and mentor?) and a love story (the country girl and the city girl). The local flavor is strong, with a lot of jargon, but Michael Zimmer has no narrative sense, and, worse, his hero Buck is one of these new, sensitive, self-doubting Western heroes, more HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Reviews | 45

J. Alfred Prufrock than the Montana Kid. Frankly I preferred the Montana Kid. Cecelia Holland

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MORNINGS IN JENIN Susan Abulhawa, Bloomsbury, 2011, £7.99, pb, 327pp, 9781408809488 / Bloomsbury USA, 2010, $15, 352pp, 9781608190461 The novel opens with the olive harvest of 1941 in the Palestinian village of Ein Hod. The pastoral idyll is all the more poignant because, of course, the reader knows what is coming – the Nakba, the establishment and expansion of the state of Israel, the enclosure, today, of the Palestinians behind a steel fence. The ambitious scope of this novel, about three generations of a Palestinian family, embraces the whole of the tragedy of the Palestinians since the Second World War. There is no doubt a novel on this subject needs to be written, and Mornings in Jenin is already an international success, proving there is an appetite for the story, for which we must be grateful. A pity, therefore, that it has to be this novel. It is written

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with unmistakable passion by an author who was herself born to parents who were refugees from the Six Day War, but it is technically so inadequate as to be almost unreadable. I was particularly irritated by the author’s tendency to use a future conditional tense to tell us what was going to happen to her characters in future. Tell me this on page ten, and why am I going to carry on reading?

This edition includes a set of suggested questions for book groups, as well as a list of further reading. I suspect it will go down well with reading groups because, however poorly written, it does raise strong debating points, and it certainly sets out the history of Middle Eastern conflict in an easily digestible form. For this misanthropic reader, however, it was a bitter disappointment.

Sarah Bower WHO SHOT THE WATER BUFFALO? Ken Babbs, Overlook, 2011, $25.95, hb, 320pp, 9781590204443 This is the story of a man who wasn’t all that strange – at least until after his Vietnam experience. Tomas, the narrator, was born into a family whose men customarily went into the military as a final rite of passage. Breaking the family’s Army tradition, though, he chooses the

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Leila Aboulela, Grove, 2011, $24.00, hb, 310pp, 9780802119513 / Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2010, £12.99, hb, 310pp, 9780297860099 The Abuzeids are one of the most prominent families in 1950s Sudan. The patriarch, Mahmoud Bey, amassed the family fortune through shrewd business deals and is a supporter of both a modern Sudan and of the British rule that has helped Sudan modernize. Mahmoud’s eldest son, Nassir, should inherit the family business, but the younger son, Nur, is the more likely candidate.

Nassir is dissolute and lazy, while Nur is bright and handsome. Nur’s life is irrevocably changed when he is paralyzed in a swimming accident, and the impact of Nur’s injury on the sprawling Abuzeid family is the focus of the novel.

While the entire family is affected in some way, individual differences are striking. Soraya, Nur’s cousin and intended bride, loves Nur deeply and wishes to stand by him, even if he will never be the vibrant, athletic man she was expecting to marry. Nur’s mother, Waheeba, sees caring for her son as a way back into her estranged husband’s heart, and Nur’s second wife, Nabilah, sees an “in” for her own children as well as a potential ticket back to her Egyptian homeland. Stripped of his ability to care for himself, Nur finds that he is drawn to the intellectual world, and begins writing poetry – an act that becomes his reason to live.

This isn’t a setting often seen in English-language fiction, but the rich plot and colorful characters allow the necessary historical information to pass as part of the narrative. In light of current events in the Middle East, it’s also a timely novel and may help some Westerners understand the historical context behind the contemporary struggles. The point of view alternates between chapters, and each of the many characters has a distinctive voice, which makes for an engrossing tale. Aboulela has captured the essence of what it means to be a family: the shared joys and suffering, the daily monotony and the grand events that change our lives.

This is a fine novel, poetic and passionate, and it should be read and savored.

Nanette Donohue 46 | Reviews | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

USMC, where he learns to fly helicopters. (He’s candid about being mostly “left seated.”) His closest buddy, “Gorilla” Cochran, is a natural born pilot – and a natural born anarchist. The young soldiers hit Vietnam cold, and both “the country” and the military system are equal conundrums.

Tomas relates stories about big wigs Vietnamese and American, about his superiors and his peers, about R&R binges, and even one about how a sergeant saves a dog from becoming the Thit Cho course when they visit a village – all familiar fare.

There wasn’t much about the flights or flying, as I’d expected from a guy who’d made pilot, although a nearly fatal crash ends the book. As a reader I was engulfed by a feeling of disassociation, as if I watched puppets in some dire, meaningless and occasionally terrifying play. The feeling seems to convey exactly what this particular Marine is able to say about his 1960s “dirty little war.”

If Vietnam is an interest, or if you just plain like war stories, I’d certainly take a look at Who Shot the Water Buffalo? It’s a strongly individualistic tale of wartime experience from a man who served there.

You’ll know right away whether it’s your cup of tea.

Juliet Waldron I GAVE MY HEART TO KNOW THIS Ellen Baker, Random House, 2011, $26, hb, 336pp, 9781400066360 This multigenerational saga takes us from the female shipbuilding welders of Rosie the Riveter fame during World War II to the greatgranddaughter of one of them. Three women, Grace, Lena, and Lena’s mother, Violet, meet and become fast friends at a Superior, Wisconsin, shipyard where they have been trained as welders.

The beautiful Grace, nicknamed “Hollywood,” already has a sweetheart, Alex, fighting in the war, but Lena is determined that Grace correspond with Lena’s twin, Derrick, also in the war.

Although they never actually meet, Grace and Derrick fall in love. Alas, Alex is killed, and Derrick is listed MIA. Lena refuses to believe he’s dead, and her continuing obsession with her missing brother leads to psychosis, possible murder, and longstanding discord and treachery to both Violet and Grace.

Fast forward to 1999 and enter Julia, the great-granddaughter of Violet. Beset by her own personal problems, Julia is house-sitting for her aunt at the same farmhouse where Violet lived and gave birth to Lena and Derrick in the 1920s.

The novel intersperses Julia’s life with her finding old letters from the war years and unraveling the mysteries of the three women’s lives during the years surrounding World War II. It’s a somber read, well written, but complicated with many characters, several of whom who were “lost,” but who unrealistically turn up again as happy senior citizens – all leading to a very convenient happy ending.

Pamela Ferrell Ortega THE GOLDSMITH’S SECRET Elia Barceló, Quercus, 2011, £10, hb, 93pp, 20th Century

9780857050052 “Love is short, forgetting is so long” wrote the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda in poem XX of Twenty Songs of Love and a Song of Despair. This verse condenses the life and longings of the protagonist of this new romantic novel by Elia Barceló.

The opening scene is a snowy night in the city of New York: the echoes of the songs of Leonard Cohen fade away, giving way to nostalgic recollections. We are presented with a pensive man, a goldsmith, who has excelled at his craft because he has turned it into an act of remembrance of Celia, his lost love, thus hoping to fill the vacuum that she left in his life. The rest of the novel is a reflection upon how the memories of love often confuse past with present, and influence the future.

Yet Barceló is not simply content to make a point of a love-infused nostalgia that afflicts us all, but actually plays with time and chronology in order to present us with a story that is both credible and incredible, amidst snapshots of Spain in the Fifties, Seventies and the last year of the 20th century. The prose is concise and lyrical, even deceptively simple, as the poetic sentences hide a complex and playful structure built with the intention of showing how the goldsmith’s present and past selves influence his views on love, his way of loving Celia.

Taking into account the unforgiving nature of time and the rapid changes in landscape, it is finally up to the reader to decide whether the goldsmith’s love was kept alive because it was impossible or because it gave way to a journey of self-discovery.

Andrea Acle PATTERN OF SHADOWS Judith Barrow, Honno, 2010, £8.99, pb, 384pp, 9781906784058 Mary is a nursing sister at a Lancashire prison for the housing and treatment of German POWs; although her work is hard, she enjoys it. However it’s quite different at home. Here, there are constant arguments between her bad-tempered father and brother Patrick. Many of these fights are prompted by her flighty sister, Ellen. Frank Shuttleworth, a guard at the camp, turns up and won’t leave until Mary agrees to walk out with him. Her half‑brother, Tom, is a conscientious objector and has spent the last few years being mistreated in prison. Her mother is worn down, bullied by her husband, and finds solace in alcohol.

Mary soon realises Frank is a violent and dangerous man and she sends him away. She is drawn to the new German doctor, Dr Peter Pensch, but any hint of fraternisation with the enemy will see her imprisoned and Peter shipped to Canada.

The characters are well drawn and believable, particularly Mary and Peter. Judith Barrow has not written an ordinary romance but a book that deals with important issues which are still relevant today.

The history is accurate and the setting authentic.

However, the prologue is confusing and unnecessary and would have been better omitted.

Also Judith Barrow has a disconcerting tendency to change viewpoint and time without indication.

That said, this is an excellent debut novel and 20th Century

one I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

Fenella Miller WE’LL MEET AGAIN Lily Baxter, Arrow, 2011, £5.99, pb, 451pp, 9780099551027 At seventeen, Meg Colivet is living a privileged life with her wealthy family at Colivet Manor in Guernsey. In April 1939, Meg and her sister visit their aunt in Oxford, where Meg falls in love with undergraduate Rayner Weiss, but with war looming, she returns home hoping, but not expecting, to see Rayner again. Then the German army occupies the Channel Islands, Colivet Manor is requisitioned and Meg’s cosy world is turned upside down. As life becomes harder for both the islanders and their oppressors, Meg is faced with many problems. She is forced to question her feelings for Rayner, now a German officer, and also to look again at her own family, as old secrets are revealed. This is something of a coming-ofage book as Meg’s innocent and rather pampered childhood swiftly ends, and she becomes the strong focal point for her family and employees at the manor.

Lily Baxter is a natural storyteller, weaving in just enough detail of the progress of the war to inform but not overwhelm the reader, and creating some wonderfully realistic secondary characters who help to bring the story to life. Her knowledge and love of Guernsey shines through this book as she examines the difficulties of an island under occupation. Lily Baxter also writes as Dilly Court, and her many fans will not be disappointed.

Melinda Hammond THE STORM AT THE DOOR Stefan Merrill Block, Random House, 2011, $25.00/C$28.95, hb, 368pp, 9781400069453 Frederick Merrill is smart, witty, and loves to talk, but he’s also plagued by dark moods and the temptations of alcohol and women. After years of soaring high then plunging low, he leaves a party wearing nothing but a raincoat, and proceeds to flash drivers along the rural New Hampshire roadway. When confronted with this latest outrageous behavior, his wife, Katharine, decides to have him committed to the Mayflower Home in Belmont, Massachusetts.

The story is based on the author’s grandparents, who had a loving but unstable relationship; while today Frederick might be diagnosed with bipolar disorder, in the early 1960s the medical community’s response was not as well-informed, and Frederick did indeed end up in McLean Hospital, fictionalized as Mayflower for the novel. His time there was one of great change for the facility, as it transformed from a quiet, restful sanctuary for the mentally ill, with individual cottages and even some cows, to a more “modern” hospital with dormitories and the increased use of drugs and therapies such as electroconvulsive shock treatment to keep the patients catatonic and manageable.

Ultimately, Block and his mirror-image

protagonist are searching to find out the truth behind what happened to Frederick during his time at Mayflower. He’s also searching for his grandmother’s version of the truth, much of the evidence of which she destroyed years after Frederick’s death. Readers will see that while many of the patients at Mayflower, including poet Robert Lowell, do need treatment for various mental illnesses, those who run the hospital are often in need of it themselves. Through these flawed characters, both real and fictionalized, readers get a glimpse of the American mental health system in the 1960s, and the profound effects a wife’s decision can have on a family for generations.

Helene Williams CATFISH ALLEY Lynne Bryant, NAL, 2011, $14.00/C$17.50, pb, 312pp, 9780451232281 Roxanne Reeves worked hard to hide her Cajun roots and rise in the ranks of Clarksville, Mississippi’s high society. She became the head of the prestigious Pilgrimage Committee, a group that conducts tours of antebellum homes in town. When a new, Northern-bred member of the committee suggests that an AfricanAmerican tour be added, Roxanne feels pressured to make sure it happens. Therefore, she makes an appointment to meet Grace Clark, a retired black schoolteacher who mysteriously owns one of the largest antebellum mansions in Clarksville. Grace is surprised when Roxanne asks for her help. She agrees, even though she can tell Roxanne is hesitant around black people.

Grace introduces Roxanne to the black community of the 1920s and ´30s, taking her to visit places such as Catfish Alley, a run-down hotel where Louis Armstrong once played, a Baptist church that stood the test of time, and the first African-American school in Clarksville. These places become alive to Roxanne as Grace and her friends share their histories. Roxanne learns the joy of true friendship as she builds relationships with these extraordinary women. As she learns about their lives, she begins to value her own beginnings.

Lynne Bryant’s outstanding debut was set in a fictional town modeled after Columbus, Mississippi, which was near the farm where she grew up. The events described in the novel resemble events from the history of Columbus.

One example is her description of a photographer who took pictures of lynchings and made them into postcards. There was such a photographer, a Mr. O. N. Pruitt, who made these postcards in the 1930s.

Catfish Alley is a poignant, moving novel, rich with historical detail of the Old South.

Nan Curnutt A GAME OF LIES Rebecca Cantrell, Forge, 2011, $24.99/C$28.99, hb, 320pp, 9780765327338 In this third book in a series, journalist Hannah Vogel, wanted by the Nazis, returns to Berlin, ostensibly to cover the 1936 Olympic Games but HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Reviews | 47

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THE ABSOLUTIST

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E

John Boyne, Doubleday, 2011, £16.99, hb, 309pp, 978038561604 John Boyne is a consummate storyteller, and in his new novel he doesn’t disappoint. You might think there was little more to be said about the First World War, and in many ways you would be right.

Everything we have come to expect of the First World War novel is here – the unpreparedness of the young soldiers, the appalling conditions of the trenches and incomprehensible loss of life, the apparent aimlessness of the conflict, the way in which the civilian world moves on and leaves its former soldiers stranded in their traumatic past.

Not only, however, does Boyne make all this anew by the power of his beautifully nuanced and perfectly controlled narrative, he also manages to add a perspective which has hitherto been underrepresented in the fiction of the war. He writes about conscientious objectors among enlisted men, the feather men, those who became stretcher bearers with a life expectancy even shorter than an infantryman’s, who endured vicious bullying and persecution from NCOs and did not, like officers, have the protection of rank or education to help them.

First and foremost, however, The Absolutist is not a war story but a love story, and an agonising one at that. I defy anyone who has been involved in a love affair gone bad not to squirm with painful recognition at the cruelties, both intentional and unwitting, the lovers at the centre of this novel inflict on each other. Except that, for most of us, in the world bequeathed us by the men who fought this dreadful war, it isn’t, literally, a matter of life and death.

An outstanding read, very highly recommended.

Sarah Bower really to meet with her aged mentor. He’s promised to hand over to her evidence that will convince the world that the Nazis must be stopped. Traveling under a pseudonym, she’s staying with her partner in spying, SS officer Lars Lang – who seems to be in love with her and is definitely drinking too much, affecting their working relationship and potentially imperiling their safety.

There are other problems: Her face is well known in the reporting community, and if she’s recognized, she’ll be arrested. Her mentor dies in her arms, seemingly poisoned, minutes after they connect. She doesn’t trust Lars. The complications multiply as Hannah travels from one unwise and exposed rendezvous to another. This provides suspense since Hannah is always so certain of her abilities to discern whether she’s being followed.

This reader doubted it.

Cantrell ties up the story’s loose ends; she has done good research, and her writing is an easy, fluid read. Hannah, however, was an annoying heroine for me. She foolishly needed to be saved by Lars from the start, and yet always insisted on taking the next seemingly unnecessary risk, wisecracking all the way. Her perky defiance felt American, like a mix of Nancy Drew and Scarlett O’Hara. Not bad, but not European.

This is the second book I’ve read in the past months by a talented young American author, featuring a youthful and brash (or perhaps immature and argumentative) heroine fighting the Nazis. For fans of plot-driven World War II 48 | Reviews | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

thrillers and chick lit combined.

Kristen Hannum JERUSALEM MAIDEN Talia Carner, Harper, 2011, $14.99, pb, 464pp, 9780062004376 For Esther Kaminsky, a young ultra-Orthodox woman in Jerusalem, there has never been any doubt that she will grow up a good Jerusalem maiden, preparing herself to be a wife and mother according to God’s dictates. But an influential teacher and a newfound passion for art threaten those plans for the future. Drawing and painting are forbidden and put not only her future in jeopardy, but also her soul. Still, she can’t help but think that her skill with pencil and brush is a gift from God. When a series of tragedies befall the Kaminsky family, Esther is sure she’s at fault for secretly disobeying the rules of her people. She throws away thoughts of art school and devotes herself to being a perfect Jerusalem maiden. Years later, married and a mother to three, a chance trip to Paris reawakens her to art, and Esther finds herself confronting the same questions of faith and passion she pushed aside as a girl.

Unsurprisingly, this is a book steeped in religion.

I expected that, given that it’s about reconciling faith, tradition, and family with a modern world, but the book reminds the reader of that religion on every page, and Esther’s crisis of faith lasts the majority of the book. She takes us through many chapters of repetitive questioning before she finds

acceptance. And, in the end, all her hesitant growth is negated by an unsatisfying conclusion. Although well-written, this book just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Jessica Brockmole CRYING BLOOD Donis Casey, Poisoned Pen Press, 2011, $14.95, pb, 250pp, 9781590588338 Set in 1915 on a thriving Oklahoma farm, the Tucker family is embroiled in another mystery when a decade-old skeleton is unearthed on a hunting expedition. The deceased was a murder victim. Although local police have little hope of solving the crime, both an avenging teen calling himself Crying Blood and a ghostly figure who keeps following Shaw have other ideas. Snakes, who “knock all the logic out of the situation” on him, keep appearing, too.

Although beloved wife, Alafair, and their wonderful clan are on hand in full force (including daughter Martha, who shares her mother’s lively sleuthing curiosity), Crying Blood is largely Shaw’s story, from the time a cherished memory of his long-dead father turns into a haunting call for justice. As Shaw confronts the killer, Alafair is waylaid by an early automobile trip rich in detail.

Consequences of well-meaning laws that disrupted Cherokee family life are a heartrending part of the story.

The series continues to be enriched by deep affection for family, as the investigation is halted by seasonal hog butchering and the discovery of herbs “still lusty in November.” Highly recommended.

Eileen Charbonneau MONSIEUR LINH AND HIS CHILD Philippe Claudel, trans. Euan Cameron, Maclehose, 2011, £12.00, hb, 130pp, 9781906694999 Monsieur Linh flees his war-torn country, all his family dead but with a child in his arms whom he must protect at all costs in a foreign land where he does not speak the language and does not understand its customs. Traumatised and bewildered, Monsieur Linh struggles with his new life until he meets Monsieur Bark. Though neither man speaks the other’s language, a poignant friendship develops out of mutual loneliness.

This is an extraordinary, powerful and moving novel of the refugee experience, not just from the viewpoint of those who become refugees but also exploring what is best, and worst, in the way in which refugees are welcomed and looked after in their destination countries. In a deceptively simple story, lucidly translated into English by Euan Cameron, Claudel examines the nature of friendship, the inhumanity of states and the manifestations of trauma with acute insight and economy of expression. Another outstanding novel by the winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2010 for Brodeck’s Report. Highly recommended.

Sarah Bower THE LIGHTKEEPER’S BALL Colleen Coble, Thomas Nelson, 2011, $14.99, pb, 20th Century

304pp, 9781595542687 Misfortune is stalking Olivia Stewart’s family.

Six months previously, her father was killed by a cave-in in his diamond mine, the family’s wealth disappeared, and now, Olivia’s sister, Eleanor, has drowned. It is 1910, and if the Stewart family wishes to retain its place in the Four Hundred, the highest echelon of New York society, Olivia must be willing to set aside her fears and travel to Mercy Falls, California, to marry her sister’s fiancé, Harrison Bennet. When someone attempts to kill her before she arrives in Mercy Falls, Olivia decides to conceal her true identity while she searches for the would-be-murderer.

Setting aside the distraction of the hiddenidentity ploy, which seems both contrived and unnecessary, The Lightkeeper’s Ball is a delightful historical romance mixed with healthy doses of both thriller and mystery. Several surprising twists in the plot sustain the tension and keep the momentum moving. Coble increases the feel of authenticity by weaving several historical events into her story, including the San Francisco earthquake and the passing of Halley’s Comet.

Readers who have already discovered the Mercy Falls series will also be delighted that several characters from the earlier books make cameo appearances.

Nancy J. Attwell DAUGHTERS OF THE REVOLUTION Carolyn Cooke, Knopf, 2011, $23.95, hb, 192pp, 9780307594730 “Disaster is genius, lurking. Be careful. Don’t die.” These are the words of Mei-Mei, the wife of Heck Hellman and mother of EV Hellman, characters who are living through the revolutionary whirlwind of the 1960s in a small New England town. After Heck, a first-year medical student, dies in a drowning accident, he is highly praised as a model Goode School student by his elderly headmaster, Goddard Byrd, the real protagonist of this story full of inconceivable twists and turns.

For God, the nickname for Byrd, wants liberation for his students, which he believes originates from a combination of knowledge of and reflection about literature, history, philosophy, and the Latin classics. But God is a philandering old man who fails to realize the effect of his lustful excesses on his hapless victims, an abuse in so many ways paralleling the world of race, religion, politics, government, war, marriage, etc.

A surrealistic quality pervades the pages of this novel as Mei-Mei educates her daughter to live her life on the sayings and beliefs of Herman Melville in Moby Dick, with the addition of MeiMei’s temporary lover, God, who worships the philosophy of Joseph Conrad in The Heart of Darkness. Their foil appears in the person of Carol Faust, Goode School’s first African-American female student – first female student, for that matter. In attempting to conform to this new world, Carol forges a new identity in which she finds her own authority in this intellectual maze, characterized in her portraits depicting only the 20th Century

heads of masters from George Washington to God himself.

Spanning the years 1963 to 2005, this literate novel celebrates the genius and turmoil of revolution gone awry with occasional glimmers of focus. Genius at some points in history is indeed revolutionary, albeit fraught with life-threatening possibilities.

Viviane Crystal HEIR TO THE EVERLASTING Janice Daugharty, Bell Bridge, 2011, $18.95, pb, 250pp, 9781935661924 Daugharty’s Heir to the Everlasting celebrates strong Southern women and their bonds. A multigenerational tale, it begins at the start of the 20th century in Georgia. Pinkie Alexander takes her seven-year-old motherless granddaughter, May, with her to get her own seven-year-old son, Jack, out of jail. Jack is in prison for killing a sharecropper on Pinkie’s estate, Big Eddy (that’s the estate, not the sharecropper). Pinkie gets Jack out of jail and the murder charges dropped.

Jack does not grow up to be the hero of the story, though; May is the protagonist along with her grandmother, and subsequently her own strongwilled granddaughter.

The narrative spans the entire 20th century, from the flu epidemic of 1918 through Carter’s presidency to the death of Princess Diana. Of all those events, the flu has the biggest impact on Pinkie and May. Otherwise, their lives take on that peculiar insularity, unique to plantations, where

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the land is everything. May marries a deputy sheriff and goes to live with him in Florida, just over the state line, but Big Eddy and Pinkie are always there.

After her husband’s death, May lives out the rest of her life at Big Eddy, being Pinkie to her own granddaughter Sara Ann, the girl’s father Herman being a nonstarter – as many of the men in this story are.

May was born with a caul, giving her the gift of second sight, but that is only a characteristic of hers, not the focus of the story. Rather than a strong narrative line, the novel is made up of a series of vignettes, like May feeding prisoners in her husband’s jail and aiding in their escape.

Ultimately, the story is that Pinkie loved May and Big Eddy, May loved Pinkie and Big Eddy and Sara Ann, and Sara Ann loved May and Big Eddy.

Ellen Keith BIT PLAYER: A Jeri Howard Mystery Janet Dawson, Perseverance Press, 2011, $14.95, pb, 278pp, 97815674494 Browsing through a Hollywood memorabilia shop, private investigator Jeri Howard chats with an elderly man about her grandmother, Jerusha Layne, who worked as a bit player for several movie studios in the 1940s. The man recognizes her grandmother’s name in connection with the unsolved murder of actor Ralph Tarrant. Surprised by this information, Jeri begins investigating her grandmother’s years in Hollywood.

As Jeri reads letters written by her grandmother, we are taken back to pre-World War II Hollywood,

CONSEQUENCES OF THE HEART

E D I TORS’ CH OICE

Peter Cunningham, GemmaMedia, 2011, $16.95, pb, 310pp, 1934848388 “Mine is a tale of great love.” So begins the memoir of Charles “Chud” Church, (1922-1999). Set in the fictional town of Monument, Ireland, it is indeed a tale of love, of a complex ménage à trois involving lifelong friends: wild and impetuous Chud, in love since childhood with Rosa, the beautiful, decisive daughter of the town bookmaker, and Jack, mildtempered heir to the Santry estate. Chud is the third wheel in Jack and Rosa’s relationship. Nonetheless the three are inseparable.

Foul play and certain disgrace curtail the trio’s rendezvous, and each is sent away from Monument.

Time passes and the war with Germany becomes a certainty. Jack and Chud find themselves on the same landing beach on June 6, 1944. Here their lives take yet another momentous turn. After the war, they will return to Monument where Jack will marry Rosa - the result of a coin toss with Chud – and the three take up where they left off, stoking smoldering flames of ire and revenge in certain of the townspeople. The crucible explodes in a hilariously ironic penultimate scene – which I won’t spoil. The ending itself is wonderfully tantalizing.

The characters are the best part of this remarkable story. Nothing is missing in complexity and shading. The three-way relationship is a true study in codependency and narcissism. Still the characters are likeable and worth caring about. Consequences of the Heart is much more than a love story; it is a finely woven and lyrical reflection on human nature.

A great book. Two (or more) thumbs up!

Lucille Cormier HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Reviews | 49

meeting Jerusha Layne, her actress housemates, and two soon-to-be murdered contemporaries. The story moves between the time periods. In modernday California, on the trail of a long-ago murderer, Jeri discovers links to more recent murders. She will have to work carefully to not fall victim herself.

Jeri Howard’s world is full of local flavor (and coffee), and Jerusha Layne’s life comes alive with the name-dropping, film-listing only found in Hollywood. Dawson’s knowledge of movie trivia is extensive, as is her knowledge of investigative skills.

Jeri is a thorough, persistent private investigator, and we follow her as she searches the internet, libraries, police files, and government records. She interviews friends, neighbors, friends of neighbors, relatives, and anyone who might give her a clue that will solve the mystery.

Fans of Jeri Howard will be delighted with her newest mystery, and fans of historical fiction will enjoy the nostalgia of old Hollywood and preWorld War II America.

Elizabeth Caulfield Felt DEATH IN A SCARLET COAT David Dickinson, Constable, 2011, £18.99, hb, 342pp, 9781849014595 / Soho Constable, 2011, $25.00, hb, 304pp, 9781569479124 Death in a Scarlet Coat is set in Lincolnshire at the beginning of the 20th century. The 15th earl of Candlesby is found dead on the morning of the hunt, dressed in his scarlet coat, and wrapped in blankets some way from the bottom of the drive of the decaying ancestral home – Candlesby Hall. His death, is recorded by the local doctor as ‘natural causes’. But the doctor himself is old and ill and on his deathbed, and confesses to Lord Francis Powerscourt that the death certificate was false – that the earl was, in fact, murdered and asks him to investigate. Shortly afterwards another member of the family meets a violent end. Is there a connection?

This is the first book I have read in this series and regret to say that I found it heavy going.

Mention of Lloyd George and his ‘People’s Budget’ of 1909 sets the year of the tale, but other than that I can see no reason for it being classed as an historical novel rather than a general crime one. I found the dialogue slow and ponderous in places, the characters not all that convincing, and with the many errors not picked up in the proofreading, it came over to me as a rather amateur publication.

Death of a Chancellor, the fourth in this Lord Powerscourt series, was long-listed in 2007 for Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year.

Old peculiar sums it up nicely.

Marilyn Sherlock BLOOD OF THE REICH William Dietrich, Harper, 2011, $25.99/C$33.99, hb, 432pp, 9780061989186 Best-selling author Dietrich took a 1938 Nazi expedition to Tibet and changed the names to create a rip-snorting, intricately plotted thriller that never lets up. Zoologist and dastardly SS officer Kurt Raeder is leading a 1938 expedition 50 | Reviews | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

to Tibet in hopes of finding an ancient Tibetan secret that might guarantee preternatural, worldcontrolling source of energy for the Reich. Only a daring American adventurer/scientist (the very vision of Indiana Jones for this reader) has a thread of a chance of stopping Raeder and his band of Nazi SS officers. That story is matched and bettered by a present-day tale woven throughout: Our hero’s great-granddaughter must also contend with deadly, organized Nazis.

My quibbles feel fusty. Did Rominy, the greatgranddaughter and modern heroine, have a passport for all that travel? And when she faces a fate worse than death, she sticks out her tongue at her tormenters. Twice. Even so, Dietrich – a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist – is a great storyteller and, just like with Raiders of the Lost Ark, the deathdefying excitement, exotic locations, love stories, and soaring music (er, writing, that is) carry the day. Here, for instance, is the Nazis’ first view of the Dalai Lama’s winter palace, which “mimicked the majesty of the surrounding mountains. It stacked toward the clouds, tier upon tier of white and red, its walls sloping inward in the Tibetan fashion to give the edifice the firmness of natural cliffs. It was a royal crown the color of snow and dried blood, roofed with gold, and set high atop a hill above the capital of Lhasa.” Nice.

Kristen Hannum THREE MILES Robert Dinsdale, Faber & Faber, 2011, £12.99, pb, 231pp, 9780571260256 1940. During an intense Luftwaffe bombardment of Leeds, Captain Abraham Matthews finally corners Albie Crowe, leader of the gang of teenage thieves and black market racketeers that runs the half-deserted city.

But Abraham knows that word is out, and Albie’s loyal followers will stop at nothing to free their leader. His only chance lies in escorting his charge three miles through the Blitz and the rubble to the police station at the end of Meanwood Road.

But a lot can happen in three miles.

Three Miles is that most difficult thing to pull off successfully, a second novel written in the wake of a well-received debut, with all the pressures of expectation and disruptions caused by proofreading and publicity. It’s an extremely ambitious book, and I like the exploration of the tensions between the two central characters as they vie for dominance. Moreover their shared history gives them more in common than either of them wants to acknowledge. There are parallels and divergences between the ways in which they cope with traumatic past events – Abraham’s harrowing experiences of World War One and Albie’s highly dysfunctional family background.

But occasionally I could not help feeling that overly dramatic twists in the plot (in what would already be a fraught situation) detracted a little from the core drama of the interplay between prey and predator. I was also taken aback by stray Americanisms in the Yorkshire setting, for instance ‘barkeep’ or ‘dove’ as the past tense of ‘dive’. And

would a boy of Albie’s background really use a word like ‘catamite’?

That said, this is an interesting experiment and a writer to look out for in the future.

Jasmina Svenne THE WILD ROSE Jennifer Donnelly, Hyperion, 2011, $25.99, hb, 640pp, 9781401301040 Jennifer Donnelly’s The Wild Rose is the third of her celebrated “Rose” novels, and it is every bit as wonderful as the previous two books. Still following the Finnegan family, The Wild Rose focuses mainly on Seamie and his estranged love, Willa. Deliberately distancing herself from Seamie after a tragic accident, Willa is called home to England after the death of her father and finds that her love for the now-married Seamie cannot be denied. As World War I approaches, however, more than just marriage will separate the lovers as the landscape moves between London, Damascus, and Paris; lies, espionage, imprisonment, drug use, and the horrors of war swirl around all members of the Finnegan clan as Seamie and Willa slowly find their way beyond terrible hurt and crushed expectations.

The Wild Rose is filled with the rich description and heartbreaking circumstances of the previous novels; Donnelly moves deftly through exotic locales and actual historic events. Her gift, however, is in her characterizations. Not only do I feel as though I’m visiting with dear friends; I am experiencing their lives through Donnelly’s vibrant words. In particular, Donnelly’s descriptions of the tragedies of World War I and the emergence of women’s rights as a major source for change were riveting. I cried with Fiona’s heartbreak and I cheered Sid as he once again took on the mob scene, but mostly I just luxuriated in the world and family Donnelly has created. If the final resolution to the espionage thread was a bit too convenient, I can overlook that flaw because this is a novel not to be missed for its strong emotion and its historical detail. Highly recommended.

Tamela McCann POTSDAM STATION David Downing, Soho, 2011, $25, hb, 336pp, 9781569479179 / Old Street, 2011, £7.99, pb, 320pp, 9781906964566 Potsdam Station is the fourth of David Downing’s “Station” series, which covers the very unorthodox World War II experiences of John Russell. Russell had been in Berlin at war’s start and found himself working for Soviet intelligence.

Interested primarily in saving his son, a German soldier from his failed marriage, and his love, Berliner Effi Koenen, Russell becomes a pawn for intelligence services.

After surviving the duplicity and danger of this murky world in the previous novels, Russell is parachuted into Berlin just ahead of Soviet forces.

The Soviets expect Russell to assist them, but he is intent on finding and saving Effi and Paul. The descriptions of Berlin as Götterdämmerung nears 20th Century

are remarkably well done and vividly portray a city and a people in the last stages of a brutal catastrophe.

I actually found Paul’s and Effi’s experiences more finely crafted, and therefore interesting, than that of their savior. The secondary characters, Soviet security agents, German communists, fugitives from Nazi agents, and Berliners awaiting the end, also demonstrate the author’s artistry.

That said and done, I have to admit that I found the concept of an individual locating two people in a city ravaged by bombing, preyed upon by SS murder units, populated by millions living hand to mouth, and with two armies locked in as savage a battle as any in history, hard to digest.

John R. Vallely PECOS VALLEY REVIVAL Alice Duncan, Five Star, 2011, $25.95, hb, 215pp, 9781594149269 Annabelle Blue, age nineteen, lives on a New Mexico ranch in 1923. She dreams of having a few adventures before settling down someday with cowboy beau Phil. The fall cattle drive arrives in town, followed by a rodeo, topped by a traveling revival show. But adventure comes sooner than Annabelle expects. The revival preacher’s sister makes overtures to Phil. Then one of the least liked cowboys in the rodeo is poisoned at a barbecue, followed by the murder of the town gossip. Will Annabelle lose Phil? Can she help discover the murderer?

It’s an ultra-crossover book, having elements of Western, romance, and mystery novels, and

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wouldn’t be out of place in the YA section.

There are some amusing passages, along with an interesting setting and historical content. But it could use some editing. Annabelle’s narration is repetitious, at times relentlessly teenage-streamof-consciousness: “After all, I might be wrong. Fat chance, men being the fickle fiends they were.

Still, you never knew.” I usually enjoy first-person narration, but there were times when I wished Annabelle would shut up and get on with the story. The murderer’s identity is not a big surprise.

There’s good stuff here, but it needs some work.

B.J. Sedlock BEYOND THE BOUGAINVILLEA Dolores Durando, Bell Bridge, 2011, $14.95, pb, 174pp, 9781611940046 Beyond the Bougainvillea is the first novel from ninety-year-old Durando. Basing it in part on her childhood in North Dakota in the 1920s, Durando does her real life one better and imagines first a harrowing and then ultimately triumphant life for her heroine, Marge Reagan. Marge, having lost her mother at eleven, finds herself married off to her drunken father’s equally drunken friend for land in North Dakota when she reaches sixteen. Raped and impregnated by her new husband, she loses the baby, and a kindly neighbour, as well as her doctor, provides the emotional and financial support to relocate her to Los Angeles.

Los Angeles is in the midst of the Great Depression, and the family with whom Marge boards has their own issues, but Durando makes Marge blossom. She goes to school and gains

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Julie Drew, Overlook, 2011, $25.95, hb, 320pp, 9781590204627 The Dodge family was among the first to settle in Rhode Island back when it was a colony, and now, in 1934, they are among one of the most respected families in the seaside town of Milford. But there are secrets in the Dodge family that are too unseemly to discuss – such as why Samuel Dodge’s Portuguese wife left him and her young daughter, Anne, fifteen years ago and why, after all this time, Anne’s half-sister, Maria Cristina, has come to live with the Dodges. But Anne, both discomfited and emboldened by Maria Cristina, is no longer afraid to ask questions even though she knows that their answers will challenge everything she’s been raised to believe about her family.

This is a beautifully written novel rich with descriptive scenes of New England and well-drawn characters who illustrate the clash of cultures and classes at the height of the labor movement there.

Like the hot summer in which it takes place, the story begins in a deliciously languid manner, allowing the reader to enjoy getting to know each character and his or her back story. But then, as summer turns into hurricane season, the narrative becomes stormy and unpredictable. At this point, I could not put the book down. The story ends with a peaceful epilogue that serves to clear away lingering questions about the events of that summer and how they destroyed the Dodge family.

Highly recommended.

Patricia O’Sullivan 20th Century

some independence. When the family with whom she lives is torn apart, she moves into a rooming house and forges an uneasy friendship with Nina, a Native American. With an inheritance received from her doctor in North Dakota, Marge moves to Auburn, Nina in tow, where she buys a bar/ restaurant. A man, the foreman at the mine, finally comes between them.

Dozens of events are crammed into Marge’s young life. With both Nina and the Chinese workers whom Marge employs, Durando explores early 20th-century racism. While the Chinese come off as helpful and compassionate, neither Nina nor the other Native American in the story covers themselves in glory with their behavior. Durando has the tendency to allow characters’ retelling of events to be too detailed and vivid, which has the effect of making them unreal, and she ends the book with quite the coincidence. Nonetheless, I read this in one sitting, a testament to the author’s storytelling skill.

Ellen Keith I’LL NEVER GET OUT OF THIS WORLD ALIVE Steve Earle, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011, $26.00, hb, 256pp, 9870618820962 / Harvill Secker, 2011, £12.99, pb, 256pp, 9781846555084 One doesn’t know quite what to expect when a Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter of rock and country music – who is also an actor (appearing in such television shows as The Wire), and political activist – takes on the task of novel writing. But if this reviewer had any doubt as to Earle’s ability to weave a compelling story, it was soon dispelled. In his second novel, Earle deftly blends his gritty sense of realism with endearing humor and a compassionate view of human nature.

He has plucked an obscure piece of music history as the base for this entertaining and moving novel – that is, Hank Williams’ death as a result of an overdose of morphine.

In I’ll Never Get out of This World Alive, the author chooses Doc Ebersole, the man rumored to have given Williams the final morphine dose that killed him, as his protagonist. The setting is 1963, a decade after the famous singer’s death, and while Doc himself struggles with his own addictions, he is also haunted by the ghost of his former patient. We are taken through the dark and often terrifyingly dangerous streets of San Antonio, where Doc meets Graciela, a young Mexican immigrant who seems to work miracles wherever she goes.

This is a story as grim as it is hopeful and occasionally even charming. Earle’s poignant writing hits the reader in the gut and steals our hearts when we least expect it. Although by no means a conventional historical novel, I highly recommend the novel to the adventurous reader, and to anyone who has ever felt like a lost soul.

Kathryn Johnson THE RED COFFIN Sam Eastland, Faber and Faber, 2011, £12.99, pb, 357pp, 9780571245307 HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Reviews | 51

It is 1939, and the Soviet Union is desperately trying to prepare for an anticipated war against Nazi Germany. When Nagorski, the designer of the top secret T 34 tank, ‘the steel coffin’, is found dead, buried in the mud beneath the body of his creation, Stalin sends Inspector Pekkala to investigate. Was it a tragic accident, or was he murdered by a mysterious group called the White Guild, who are trying to sell the secrets of the tank to Germany? As a former investigator for the tsar, Pekkala has suffered in the notorious gulags, and conscious of the likely cost of failure, he must swiftly find answers.

This is the second in what promises to be a series of Inspector Pekkala novels. The paranoia and terror of the time are effectively invoked, acting as a counterpoint to the steady detective work which leads up to a satisfying dénouement in a forest near the Polish border. The major characters are well formed; the plot is realistic and unfolds naturally.

Fans of the genre will find this an enjoyable read. It will keep you entertained and intrigued to the end.

Recommended.

Mike Ashworth

should not be put off by the dialect in the first few pages. Eccles’ descriptions of Yorkshire in 1909 are vivid and convincing.

After college, Laura Harcourt, 21, agrees to catalogue the library of Ainsley Beaumont, a wealthy Yorkshire man, expecting time to think about her future. The inhabitants of Wainthrope, Beaumont’s manor house, are cordial – for the most part – but the pleasant atmosphere is shattered when Beaumont is found dead.

The complex plot revolves around Laura’s history (unknown to her) plus several cases of hidden identity, young men sewing wild oats, and of course, a cuckoo in the Wainthrope nest. The local detective must follow a convoluted trail in order to catch a killer whose name and motivation may surprise readers.

Although there are gothic elements, The Cuckoo’s Child is a village police procedural, not cozy but not violent either. For those unfamiliar with Eccles’s previous mysteries (Last Nocturne, 2010), her dense prose is a nice surprise. This standalone is a good place to start. Recommended.

Jeanne Greene

THE CUCKOO’S CHILD Marjorie Eccles, Severn House, 2011, £18.99/$28.95, hb, 240pp, 9781847513458 The Cuckoo’s Child is a period murder mystery with an intriguing and complex plot. Readers

THE LINEN QUEEN Patricia Falvey, Center Street, 2011, $21.99/ C$23.99/£18.99, hb, 320pp, 9781599952000 It’s 1941, and Northern Ireland is part of the Allied war effort. Across the bay, the Irish Free

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Ellen Feldman, Spiegel & Grau, 2011, $25.00, hb, 294pp, 9780812992717 / Picador, Oct. 2011, £12.99, pb, 256pp, 9780330544504 Babe, Grace, and Millie are three lifelong friends, living in South Downs. They share more than their hopes and dreams; they also participate in a legacy, that of the Second World War. Each woman is involved with a man who is called to fight. Each relationship brings about its own consequence, forever altering the lives of all concerned.

Unlike many war novels, this one focuses not on the men who fought overseas, but on the women who were left behind, struggling to keep home and hearth together as they waited with bated breath for news of their men. After the war is over, each woman is faced with the task of reconstructing a life, with various degrees of difficulty.

As in the Orange finalist Scottsboro, Ellen Feldman successfully addresses the reigning “isms” of the day: racism and anti-Semitism. In this work, there is also allusion to what would come to be known as feminism.

Working women in 1941, such as Babe, are forced to surrender their jobs to returning vets and told to return “where they belong.”

The narrative is rich and deeply moving, with multiple points of view. The story belongs to the women, with Babe dominating the text. Additionally, there is an attention to the small details of setting, not as closely seen in Feldman’s two previous novels, that creates vivid mental pictures for the reader. An excellent example of this occurs early in the text when something terrible happens to Babe; the author uses Babe’s surroundings to help move the scene along, almost giving the objects life unto themselves.

This is a stunning, extremely well-crafted page turner. I was honored to review it.

Michael DiSchiavi 52 | Reviews | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

State is nominally neutral, but in fact sympathetic with Germany, the enemy of their enemy, Britain.

For the supremely self-centered Sheila McGee, the most beautiful girl in town, it’s meaningless, for neither side offers her a way out of her own misery.

Sheila works without dignity at the linen mill and hands over her measly paycheck to her unpleasant mother. When her mill hosts the annual Linen Queen pageant, Sheila sees her chance to escape, for winning comes with a £200 prize. Other opportunities also present themselves – maybe she can use Joel Solomon, a kind-hearted Jewish American officer, to get herself to America. She is blind to Gavin O’Rourke’s suit, since he’s an old friend and a local, just a nice guy who can’t help her break free. Sheila, of course, must learn that in order to be happy she must love others, must truly care about the people and the world. A young evacuee from Belfast may spur her heart.

The book made me think about how smallminded protagonists can be given plenty of room to grow without annoying readers. Falvey wasn’t completely successful. I didn’t like many of the characters in The Linen Queen, and so sympathized with Sheila’s desire to leave. Then again, I didn’t much like Sheila, and so didn’t care as much as I would have otherwise. During the last third of the book, however, as the spunky Sheila begins to care about the war and to love others, including Gavin, Joel, and the evacuee, I too began to care. By the end of the book I was rooting for her – and wishing I’d cared earlier.

Kristen Hannum THE BRINK OF FAME Irene Fleming, Minotaur, 2011, $25.99/C$29.99, hb, 256pp, 9780312575441 Emily Daggett Weiss dreams about directing silent movies, something she thinks she could do better than her director husband. But when he loses their film company in a poker game and flees to Mexico with a new paramour, she’s left stranded in Flagstaff. Broke and furious, Emily finds a friend in attractive detective Holbert Bruns, who is on the trail of Universal’s missing star. Bruns offers her a sympathetic ear and, more importantly, a job.

Emily doesn’t know a thing about investigating, but is willing to tag along if it means a paycheck and a trip to Hollywood. “Uncle” Carl Laemmle, the head of Universal, is desperate and wants the case wrapped up with a minimum of press.

Despite Emily not having a lick of experience, he offers her a prize directing job if she helps Bruns locate the missing star.

This is a fun, breezy mystery populated with colorful characters. The second in a series set around the early film industry, it reads like a standalone novel. Emily is an interesting character – aspiring-film-director-turned-detective – with a nice mix of spunky and genteel. Fleming has done her research, and creates a lively 1910s Hollywood in which to immerse us. A snappy voice, quick pace, and well-plotted mystery make for an excellent summer read.

Jessica Brockmole 20th Century

IT HAD TO BE YOU June Francis, Allison and Busby, 2011, £19.99, hb, 400pp, 9780749009854 June Francis writes a good saga, and she’s written a good many. Popular with readers, her sagas are easy, comfy books to read at bedtime, telling an engrossing story about ordinary people. It Had to Be You takes place in post-World War II Liverpool and in rural Lancashire in 1952. Emma Booth, brought up by her grandparents and orphaned before she is twenty-one, finds a letter when clearing up after her grandfather’s death. It is from Lizzie Booth in Liverpool telling her grandparents that Emma’s father had married again before his death at Dunkirk and left Emma a half-sister, Betty.

Emma is delighted; she has family, and wonders why her grandparents refused any contact with Lizzie Booth. She determines to find her half-sister and sort out the mystery. As Emma’s search grows, the story expands to include the whole Booth clan in Liverpool, where Emma finds Betty, and Emma’s up-and-down relationships with them all. There’s a villain and some interesting twists and turns to the plot before we end up happily ever after with weddings.

For those who like cosy family sagas this is a must read, and the historical details are neatly slipped in to give colour and a taste of the time. pdr lindsay-salmon WILDFLOWER HILL Kimberley Freeman, Touchstone, 2011, $16.00, pb, 544pp, 9781451623499 Two passionate women tell this multigenerational story that begins in 1929 Glasgow and moves through Australia, London, and home to Glasgow again in the 21st century.

Emma, a present-day prima ballerina, suffers a broken heart followed by an injury that ends her career. She returns to her childhood home in Australia to learn of a legacy – she has inherited Wildflower Hill, a home of her grandmother, Beattie. As Emma readies it for sale, intriguing clues pop up about Beattie’s past. They draw Emma out of her downward spiral.

The second narrative follows Beattie through the hardships of immigration from England to Australia after she becomes pregnant with a married man’s child in 1929. She struggles under the Depression, her lover’s drinking and gambling habits, and the surrounding culture. She provides for herself and her child through hard work and her sewing skills. When more unconventional means to security present themselves, she chooses them, and begins to build a successful business.

But she takes risks in choosing to have a passionate affair with the love of her life, and in trying to gain full custody of her child, leading to twin disasters.

The tragedies of her past get buried but resurface in her middle age, and finally are resolved through her granddaughter’s efforts.

Wildflower Hill’s two protagonists are at a low point when first met and have a much to learn in every aspect of their lives. But this grand, oldfashioned family saga novel with its settings 20th Century

beautifully rendered gives Beattie and Emma time, space and experience to grow on the reader.

By the last satisfying scene, you may find yourself reluctantly parting with old friends who will live on once the cover has closed. Highly recommended.

Eileen Charbonneau ANY SURVIVORS? Martin Freud (trans. Anette Fuhrmeister), History Press, 2010, £9.99, pb, 235pp, 9780752453446 The narrator is a refugee in London in 1939.

Turfed out of his lodgings and finding himself homeless with five pennies in his pocket and a flute his only possession, he wanders the streets until he drifts into a music club where he is approached by a representative of Geheme Macht (Secret Force). He is supplied with a Danish passport and instructions to travel to Kiel. A complex conspiracy unfolds as he lives through it. Playing entirely by ear, he discovers that he has assumed the identity of a U boat sailor who has been awarded the Iron Cross – the reward is a trip to Berghof to meet the Fuhrer himself.

The unpublished manuscript of Any Survivors? was discovered in the attic of one of Martin Freud’s grandchildren. It is a satirical tale of the futility of war in which the hero stumbles from one conflict to another. The fast-paced action and the wry humour make for a uniquely fascinating read.

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Ann Oughton THE PAPERBARK SHOE Goldie Goldbloom, Picador, 2011, $15.00/ C$17.00, pb, 336pp, 9780312674502 Take an albino piano-playing prodigy who has been committed to a mental hospital by her evil stepfather, marry her to a short, ugly, and generally not very nice rural Australian farmer with homosexual tendencies, then throw in a couple of Italian POWs to serve as farmhands, and what do you get? A tale of love, longing, and loss that’s also funny, heartrending, and insightful.

Our increasingly unreliable narrator is Gin Toad (Toad being her husband’s apt moniker), who knows her options for fitting in anywhere in 1940s Australia are slim; she marries Toad because he was her ticket out of the madhouse, and though they don’t love each other, they get along well enough with each other and their community.

They’re seen as outliers, with strange habits – she plays the piano and is disliked by her children, he has a large collection of women’s corsets and reads the dictionary aloud in the outhouse.

The arrival of Antonio and John, Italian POWs, disrupts the dynamic, and also provides the historical context for the novel. During World War II, Australia housed over 18,000 Italian prisoners; when Italy surrendered to the Allies in 1943, these

E D I TORS’ CH OICE

Jamie Ford, Allison & Busby, 2011, hb, £12.99, 396pp, 9780749009199 / Ballantine, 2009, $15.00, pb, 301pp, 9780345505347 The year is 1986, and widower Henry Lee sees items from World War II discovered intact in a local hotel. The hotel has been sealed up since those times, almost like a time capsule. This event and rediscovery of forgotten things prompts flashbacks into his own life in the 1940s, when he was the only Asian child at a white school. His parents are so keen for him to assimilate and make the most of this new American life that they only allow him to speak English, despite the fact their English is nonexistent. His father forces him to wear a badge saying ‘I am Chinese’ to avoid him being mistaken for Japanese – the USA is currently at war with Japan, of course.

Henry meets, befriends and falls in love with a Japanese girl, Keiko Okabe, and is horrified when she, all her family and all the other Japanese in the local area are rounded up and deported into vast concentration camps. This event was a new one for me, as I had no idea this happened. The consequences of this, the experience of being a second generation immigrant and the importance of family relationships, are all explored throughout this touching and interesting novel.

The book has apparently been a big ‘word of mouth’ seller, and it is easy to see why. The reader becomes very embroiled in Henry’s life and experiences and really feels for him as he struggles to come to terms with his family situation, school life and his first love. This is a thoroughly enjoyable novel with strong characters and something important to say. Very much recommended.

Ann Northfield HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Reviews | 53

men were no longer formally considered enemies, but they couldn’t be sent home. Many of them were thus sent to work on farms to help ease the national labor shortage.

The relationships between the not-quite prisoners and the farming families weren’t always based on trust and openness, and Antonio and John’s dealings with Gin and Toad are further troubled by the fact that all four of them are social outcasts. How they try to fit in and how rising emotions and dreams of better lives are sabotaged from within and without make for an engrossing tale.

Helene Williams THE TRAITOR’S EMBLEM Juan Gómez-Jurado, Orion, 2011, £18.99, hb, 298pp, 978409100782 This story, based on fact, opens in 1940 with the captain of a patrol boat in the Straits of Gibraltar being given a gold and diamond emblem for saving the lives of four people from drowning.

In 1919, Paul Reiner and his mother, Ilse, live as servants in the mansion belonging to her sister Brunhilde, and her husband, Baron Otto von Schroeder, who hide away their amputee son, Edouard, when he returns from the war.

At his party, their younger son, Jurgen, and his cronies molest Alys Tannenbaum. Paul rescues her but is chased into Edouard’s room. Edouard asks Paul to retrieve a package for him from his father’s desk. Paul agrees and hands over the package which is revealed to contain a pistol. Edouard shoots himself, and Jurgen blames Paul and becomes his implacable enemy. Paul and his mother are thrown out onto the streets to add to the destitute and starving.

Paul ensures his mother does not starve by grasping work at every opportunity, until accidentally injured by Alys’ brother Manfred.

From then on their fates are inextricably linked despite her father wanting Alys to marry Jurgen.

Herr Tannenbaum conspires with Otto to retrieve an incriminatory letter detailing their involvement in the subvert activities and disappearance of Paul’s father. Through a bookseller, Sebastian Keller, Paul learns of his father’s activities and, while unravelling the mysteries, is initiated into the Free Masons, deepening his ties to Judaism.

Whilst retrieving the letter, Jurgen stabs Ilse.

He is promoted to the SS and tasked with the annihilation of Masons throughout Germany. The enemies confront each other, and Paul unravels all the secrets with Alys beside him. Intricately plotted. Excellent!

Janet Williamson REMEMBER BEN CLAYTON Stephen Harrigan, Knopf, 2011, $26.95, hb, 352pp, 9780375412059 What a thoughtful, psychologically penetrating novel this is. The action begins in a terrifying battle near the end of World War I in the trenches of France. Ben, the son of a wealthy, reclusive Texas rancher, Lamar Clayton, mysteriously loses his 54 | Reviews | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

will to live and impulsively takes rash actions that cost his life on the battlefield. Soon after the armistice, the brilliant and largely unrecognized sculptor Francis Gilheaney receives the offer of a commission from Ben’s father to create a statue of Ben on his Texas ranch. Accompanied by his daughter and assistant, the thirtyish Maureen, also a talented sculptor, Gilheaney travels to meet Ben’s father at his ranch in order to better understand the life of the deceased son. The story unfolds in the meetings of these two strong-willed and controlling, arrogant men, meetings where their clashes reveal more similarities than differences in their personalities and histories.

Maureen Gilheaney is witness to these conflicts.

As the harrowing story unfolds of Lamar’s childhood capture by Indians and its later effect on his family, Maureen also experiences the blow of secrets long kept by her own father. Although the action alternates between a France devastated

by World War I and an isolated ranch in the harsh beauty of central Texas, the novel is less a Western or even a war novel than an exploration of both fathers’ inabilities to admit weakness and deceits and the subsequent loss of their children’s trust and love. Elegantly and powerfully written, Remember Ben Clayton is riveting and remains with the reader long after the last page is read.

Pamela Ferrell Ortega CHILDREN AND FIRE Ursula Hegi, Scribner, 2011, $25/C$28.99, hb, 288pp, 9781451608298 Hegi is a writer I’ve intended to read for some time now. I also intend to finish Madame Bovary some day. So it was with great pleasure that I opened and fell in love with Children and Fire, right from page one. It drew me in like an old friend telling me a story I’d been wanting to hear.

In 1934, Thekla Jansen is the new teacher of a class of fourth-grade boys in the fictional village of Burgdorf, Germany, a position this likeable young woman longed for. Now she must keep her balance in a world where the center isn’t holding.

She’s a gifted, caring educator, teaching her boys to think, to question, to explore their world. Hitler, she reasons, obviously didn’t have good teachers.

She tells the family of a Jewish student that they shouldn’t leave Germany: Hitler can’t last! She goes along with the Heil Hitlers and rationalizes the boys’ pride in their Hitler Youth uniforms. She even briefly, guiltily tastes for herself the obscene power of a nighttime rally. But the tightening of Nazism’s noose and its corrupting fears and hatreds threaten to overcome Thecla’s belief, as she tells her class that we can “reach into fate with both arms and affect the outcome.”

Knitted through the 1934 narrative is the story of Thecla’s unknown past, with chapters taking place in 1900 to 1903. Tension builds until family secrets are revealed at the same time that death touches Thecla’s class – and it becomes clear that goodness and civilized values might not endure over evil and ignorance after all, at least in the townspeople’s individual lives. Hegi’s writing is

magically paced, languid and yet compelling, with vivid, complex characters. This, the fourth novel in Hegi’s Burgdorf cycle, is a treasure, proof that literature doesn’t need to be a chore. Recommended.

Kristen Hannum ESCAPE ARTIST Ed Ifkovic, Poisoned Pen Press, 2011, $24.95, hb, 250pp, 9781590588475 / $14.95, pb, 250pp, 9781590588499 This is the second Edna Ferber mystery, being a prequel to Ifkovic’s Lone Star. In Escape Artist, it is 1904 and Edna is a year out of high school and working as a “girl reporter” for the Appleton, Wisconsin, Crescent newspaper. Relegated to society news, she gets a break when she sees Appleton native Harry Houdini on the street.

Houdini had said he wouldn’t be giving any interviews on this trip home, but changes his mind when he meets Edna, in whom he recognizes something of himself.

Edna’s editor is not impressed with Edna, Houdini, or small-town Appleton. Edna’s troubles with her editor are nothing compared to her battles with her older sister and mother, who cannot understand why Edna wants to work outside the home.

When beautiful Frana Lempke goes missing from high school and is found dead a few days later, everyone tells Edna to stay away from the investigation. But Edna knew Frana and has ideas about the murder, murderer, and Frana’s mysterious escape from a locked storage room in the high school.

There are suspects galore: Frana’s ex-boyfriend, Frana’s false best friend, her crazy uncle and scary brothers, and the mysterious “older man” Frana was allegedly going to run away with. Much to the chagrin of her boss and her family, Edna interviews suspects and becomes deeply involved in solving the crime. With the help of Harry Houdini and using her “imagination and concentration,” Edna uncovers the culprit.

Ifkovic keeps readers guessing, mixing intrigue with enough historical detail to place Edna in the world of early twentieth-century, small-town Wisconsin. This is a fun mystery full of local color.

I look forward to more of Edna’s adventures.

Elizabeth Caulfield Felt CHILD WONDER Roy Jacobsen, trans. Don Bartlett with Don Shaw, MacLehose, 2011, 263pp, £15.99, hb, 9780857050182 / Graywolf, 2011, $15.00, pb, 256pp, 9781555975951 It is 1961, the year of the Berlin Wall and Yuri Gagarin, and eight‑year‑old Finn is living alone with his mother in an apartment in a working class suburb of Oslo. His life is about to be changed by the advent of two new people: the lodger, Kristian, and his half-sister, Linda, whom he has never met before. But this is the beginning of the Sixties, and the first change, which triggers all the rest, is the promise and possibility of hire purchase, which will change relationships, both personal and political, 20th Century

in so many ways. The first thing that happens is that Finn’s mother buys a sofa on the never never.

The need to keep up the instalments causes her to advertise for a lodger, and from this self-exposure, everything else in this pivotal year in Finn’s journey to maturity stems.

Jacobsen’s novel could be a nostalgia‑fest but avoids this fate through the precision and unadorned clarity of its prose, for which the translators should be acknowledged as well as the author. There is nothing cosy or sentimental in this picture of a childhood of barely respectable poverty, in which family tensions are quite literally papered over with fashionable wallpaper. By showing this world through the eyes of a child who is both observant yet uncomprehending, Jacobsen strips away the hypocrisy of the adults, exposing in them exactly the same kind of brutal competitiveness which drives the relationships between the children on the estate. He does this, however, with compassion so that all his characters, however hopeless and misguided, are endearing and enjoyable to be with.

A wonderful coming of age novel by this Norwegian author whom I hope we shall come to know better in English.

Sarah Bower THE THINGS WE CHERISHED Pam Jenoff, Doubleday, 2011, $24.95/C$27.95, hb, 304pp, 9780385534208 / Sphere, Nov. 2011, £6.99, pb, 230pp, 9780751547290 The Things We Cherished is a mesmerizing read in the vein of Geraldine Brooks’ People of the Book. Instead of an iconic haggadah, a clock made by a Bavarian Jew in 1903 holds the key to the defense of Roger Dykmans, an elderly businessman currently charged as a war criminal, accused of betraying his own brother, war hero Hans Dykmans. Charlotte Gold, a public defender in Philadelphia is persuaded by her former boyfriend to go to Germany and defend his client.

In Munich, Charlotte finds herself working with Jack Warrington, her ex-boyfriend Brian’s brother, who has always held her at a distance. Their client refuses to aid in his own defense but does allow that if his lawyers find the clock, it will exonerate him. The narrative alternates between Charlotte and Jack’s investigations in Poland and Italy in 2009, the making of the clock in 1903, a younger Roger’s experiences in Breslau in the 1940s, falling in love with his brother’s wife, and a young woman named Anneke’s attempt to leave East Berlin in the 1960s.

Each narrative is engrossing in its own right.

Charlotte, as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, has personal interest in the case and a gift for this type of investigation, based on slender clues and incomplete records. Roger’s story is heartbreaking, both as he witnesses the rise of the Nazis and erosion of the Jews and as he falls for his brother’s wife, herself a Jew, and must make a difficult choice.

The narrative set in the present serves to remind the reader of devastation that the Third Reich continues to wreak on generations. For all its grave 20th Century

subject matter, Jenoff ends the book on a note of hope, testament to the strength of the human race.

Ellen Keith THE SALT ROAD Jane Johnson, Penguin, 2011, £8.99, hb, 400pp, 9780141040233 In The Salt Road, Jane Johnson creates twin narratives about women from very different cultures who both take the eponymous Salt Road, the trade route followed for centuries by traders across the desert to the urban markets of Morocco.

The first story concerns Isabelle, who lives an intentionally circumscribed life in London, an accountant who lives in a nice house but whose solitary passion is climbing. When her estranged father dies and wills her a mysterious silver amulet, Isabelle quickly finds herself determined to discover its origins and impulsively books a climbing holiday to Morocco. Once there she soon finds herself on the Salt Road, where she will find the answers to the questions that have defined her life.

Decades earlier, the second narrative traces the journey of Mariata, a young Tuareg woman who is in a fight for her life and her identity. She traces her roots back to Tin Hinan, the queen of the Tuareg, who are the legendary Blue Men of the Sahara.

Through her journey in the desert, she meets a young warrior with a tragic history and falls in love, but is further tragedy to strike these young lovers?

The Salt Road is part contemporary and part historic narrative with universal themes of love, identity and betrayal. But it is in the specific and authentic descriptions of the desert and its people that the main strength of this book lies. These descriptive passages, based on the author’s own life’s experience, have an authority that is lacking in the narratives themselves. Mariata’s story, for example, is so much more interesting than Isabelle’s that it unbalances the book. In addition, the ending falls flat in both its contrivance and abruptness.

Gordon O’Sullivan THE MOMENT Douglas Kennedy, Hutchinson, 2011, £9.99, pb, 488pp, 9780091795849 / Atria, 2011, $26.99, hb, 544pp, 9781439180792 Just as writer Thomas Nesbitt’s marriage fades to a close, a package arrives from Germany bearing the name, ‘Dussman’. It is the name of the woman with whom he had a passionate love affair back in the divided Berlin of 1984. He has heard nothing of Petra Dussman since, but he knows that the memory of their time together has undermined all of his subsequent attempts to settle and form relationships.

Fearing what he may find inside the package, Thomas recalls his youthful arrival in Germany.

The story moves back to his superficial attempts to describe an East Berlin that Petra understands so much better than a visiting American ever could. Briefly, despite her fears and in the midst of suspicion and cynicism, they manage to prove that “happiness exists.” But the more Thomas learns, the

more the secrets of Petra’s past and the realities of Cold War politics threaten to entangle them both.

The travel book that Thomas eventually produces is ‘diverting, readable, and just a bit shallow’. This is the ‘true’ story – the emotional centre that is missing from the publicly published version.

I suspect this novel will linger in the mind long after the last page is turned. Through the eyes of his chief narrator, Douglas Kennedy vividly recreates the tense atmosphere of a Berlin cut into two by the Wall. As the book moves between times and narrators, we too can marvel at the changes that have taken place since reunification – and understand the long-lasting effects of the evils that were perpetrated by both sides under the old regime.

Ruth Downie ELLIS ISLAND Kate Kerrigan, Harper, 2011, $13.99, pb, 368pp, 9780062071538 / Pan, 2010, £6.99, pb, 400pp, 9780330507523 Ellie Flaherty was raised by parents who are pious, distant, and haunted by the sins of their ancestors. Her consolation comes from her neighbors, Paud and Maidy Hogan, and their orphaned nephew, John, who care for Ellie as their own and give her love and support. Close in age, John and Ellie become close friends and then childhood sweethearts, only to be separated when John accepts a position as an apprentice to a Dublin cabinet maker. While in Dublin, John joins the Volunteers and is caught up in the revolutionary fervor sweeping Ireland. Ellie, meanwhile, escapes her family by enrolling in a convent school, where she befriends several of her fellow students.

When John returns from Dublin, he and Ellie rekindle their relationship and eventually elope.

John’s commitment to the Volunteers becomes a drain on the newlyweds’ already meager resources, and a devastating injury renders John unable to provide for the family. When Ellie receives a letter from a convent school friend who has made her fortune as a lady’s maid in New York, Ellie sees a way out of the misery of her life – and a way to help her husband get the medical care that he needs.

Against John’s wishes, Ellie travels to New York City, where she works alongside Sheila as lady’s maid to a steel baron’s spoiled, alcoholic wife. On her own in New York, Ellie begins to realize her potential, but she is constantly drawn back to her beloved husband and her homeland.

Kerrigan has written an enjoyable immigrant tale featuring vibrant descriptions of both Ireland and 1920s New York City. Like most novels with similar themes, it can be a bit sentimental, and you’ll pretty much know how it’s going to end as soon as it starts. But Ellie is a charming character, and her irrepressible spirit and zest for life make Ellis Island a comforting read.

Nanette Donohue SPRINGTIME OF THE SPIRIT Maureen Lang, Tyndale House, 2011, $12.99, pb, 370pp, 9781414324371 HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Reviews | 55

Christophe Brecht, a German sniper, has returned from war to find his country in ruins.

Eager for work, he accepts an offer from the wealthy weapons manufacturer, Herr Düray.

But when Christophe learns that his job entails finding Herr Düray’s runaway teenage daughter, he refuses payment, believing it is his duty to help bring the girl back to her parents’ country mansion. Christophe easily finds Annaliese but is disturbed to discover that the girl has become a socialist activist. Christophe joins the socialists to be near Annaliese, and the two fall for each other as Christophe tries to convince Annaliese that socialism is not God’s way. At first, Annaliese resists Christophe, but when communists try to take over Germany by force, she realizes she loves God and Christophe.

This novel is historically and theologically problematic. Lang unapologetically aligns Christian theology with capitalist ideology, promoting voluntary sharing over government safeguards for the poor as truer to Christian teachings. The desperate conditions of the German working class born of the industrial revolution, the war, and the deaths of nearly one million civilians in 1918 due to malnutrition and influenza hardly figure into this story. Christophe admits the churches pushed for war, but maintains that God should not be blamed for what churches wrongly teach.

In addition, he argues that some men are more talented and hard-working than others and should not be forced to share with those who are not.

Christophe sympathizes with the Dürays despite their war profiteering, food hoarding, and plans to abandon Germany for better opportunities in America because they are believers. The socialists,

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on the other hand, he sees as misguided do-gooders willing to resort to force to impose “sharing” on the people.

Patricia O’Sullivan

disappointed. Although the novel was predictable in places, it was well-written and the characters’ stories interesting. I enjoyed it very much.

Jessica Brockmole

THE SOLDIER’S WIFE (US) / THE COLLABORATOR (UK) Margaret Leroy, Hyperion, 2011, $14.99, pb, 416pp, 9781401341701 / MIRA, 2011, £7.99, pb, 480pp, 9780778304593 When Guernsey is occupied in 1940, the islanders think it’s the beginning of the end. The Germans requisition houses for themselves, set up curfews, and cut off boats to the mainland. They bring in work gangs of Eastern European prisoners to build fortifications. Although a few islanders plot secret resistance, most just carry on, making do and mending.

Vivienne de la Mare is making do, caring for her two daughters and elderly mother-in-law, and wishing she missed her estranged husband. She doesn’t expect to fall in love with a German officer next door, and when the two start a tender affair, she has to go to great lengths to hide it from both her family and her neighbors. When Vivienne befriends a prisoner from a work gang and sees the grim conditions of the camps, she is torn. By following her conscience, she’s betraying her lover.

But following her heart betrays her beloved island.

The Soldier’s Wife unfurls as leisurely as a summer on Guernsey. Leroy paints the island, all its flora and fauna, all its changeable weather, so beautifully that it almost becomes another character. Yes, I did root for Vivienne, but really, I was rooting for Guernsey to pull through in the end. And neither the island nor the author

A MAN OF PARTS: A Novel David Lodge, Harvill and Secker, 2011, £18.99, hb, 565pp, 9781846554964 / Random House, 2011, $26.95, hb, 565pp, 9780670022984 As I read this lengthy novel, I often needed to remind myself that it is a work of fiction and not biography. The author has produced such a wellsourced account of the life, times, loves, lusts and writings of H.G. Wells that it covers much of the ground that a biographical narrative would. David Lodge has used letters, memories and history to develop a life of Wells that shows the brilliance, complications and paradoxes of the then most renowned English writer in the early years of the 20th century.

There are many events and dialogue which can have come only from Lodge’s imagination, but he has endeavoured to ensure that all the fictional elements are commensurate with known events. It is fascinating account of a mostly well-known story, secured in the historical context of England in the late 19th and early-to-mid 20th centuries. Wells’ early struggles, his burgeoning literary reputation, battles with the Fabians, and most notoriously, his serial philandering, sexual appetite and highly unconventional marital arrangements are the essence of the tale. It is an absorbing read, divided between the omniscient biographical narrator, and sections where as an old and dying man, what seems to be Wells’ conscience is interrogating and asking him to justify his life and works. On balance, it works excellently, though some readers may find the style a little too grounded in a biographical progression to make it a truly soaring work of imaginative fiction.

Doug Kemp

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E

John Lawton, Grove Press, 2011, £16.99, hb, 381pp, 978161185019 / Atlantic Monthly, 2010, $24.00, hb, 400pp, 9780802119568 This is another of John Lawton’s Inspector Troy series of detective novels, but do not be deceived; this is no ordinary murder/mystery. Inspector Troy does not appear until a third of the way through the book, and the murder does not take place until halfway through, twelve years after the opening chapter.

Nor is there any real mystery about whodunnit. The book is much more than that. The heart of the story is the life history of the murderess, from her childhood in pre-war Vienna, through her stay in Auschwitz as a member of the camp orchestra to her career as a Soviet spy in London and the murder she commits on the Northern Line (Warren Street station). The tension comes from finding how Troy unravels the truth and what he does about it.

‘This is the story of a musical genius and the talented circle of refugees from Nazi Germany in which she moves. Most are Jewish, although she is not. She is sent to Auschwitz as a ‘political’ after being caught sitting next to a dissident on a Vienna tram. So, if you prefer a murder/mystery that is not just an intellectual puzzle and which has a powerful sense of person, place and history, this is for you.

Edward James 56 | Reviews | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

THE BEAUTY CHORUS Kate Lord Brown, Corvus, 2011, £12.99, hb, 430pp, 9781848878716 The title is a slang term for the female volunteers of the ATA (Air Transport Auxiliary) who in World War II moved aircraft around the country by the quickest possible method – flying them.

The novel starts with some odd soliloquies from beyond the grave by the ATA’s most famous member, the aviation pioneer Amy Johnson. The real story follows three ladies through the reasons they decide to volunteer for the ATA and what happens when they train together and finally become active pilots. One is a spoiled rich kid asserting her independence, the second is striving to come to terms with a failed marriage, and the third is a bouncy youngster looking for adventure.

This is not Top Gun. Ferrying aircraft around is a tough job mainly because it is time-consuming and tedious. Detailed descriptions of long hours on planes and trains are wisely avoided. All you get is a few paragraphs about soaring in the sky and intermittent reminders of how tired the girls are.

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Instead, the novel concentrates on the heroines’ tangled personal lives. Surrounded as they are by dashing fighter pilots, widely acknowledged to be prime examples of desirable manhood, this soon involves plenty of spiffy adventures, furtive romance, and even some sex. Essentially The Beauty Chorus is a kind of “jolly hockey sticks” novel for adults, with flying instead of gymkhana and RAF White Waltham as the boarding school. Period feel is pretty good, but some situations come over as laboured, and many are very casually resolved.

It’s entertaining enough, in a frothy soap opera way.

Martin Bourne PARTITIONS Amit Majmudar, Metropolitan, 2011, $25.00, hb, 224pp, 9780805093957 / Oneworld, 2011, £12.99, hb, 224pp, 9781851688319 1947, the year British India is partitioned into the independent nations of India and Pakistan.

As the country is torn in two and tension between ethnic groups explodes, we follow the stories of four people thrown into the midst of the chaos. Eightyear-old Hindu twin boys, Shankar and Keshav, are separated from their mother at the train station and set off alone to search for her. Sixteen-year-old Simran, a Sikh girl, flees a father who would rather kill his wife and children than have them fall prey to Muslim marauders. Ibrahim, a shy, stammering, middle-aged Muslim doctor whose practice is destroyed, joins the wave of itinerants moving toward the Pakistani border. Watching over all four as their lives move toward convergence is the narrator, the spirit of the twins’ dead father.

The word “lyrical” can be a euphemism for “no real plot,” but that is not the case with this novel.

The story is a compelling narrative that moves with cadence, sometimes tender, sometimes terrifying, beginning in confusion, but ultimately hopeful. It is about people finding – and giving – humanity, faith and love in a world where all these virtues seem to have been shattered along with a nation.

I would probably not have selected this book for myself, but I found myself hooked after the first few pages, and finished it in a little over a day. A commendable debut, and recommended reading.

Susan Cook THE WAR ROOM Bryan Malessa, Fourth Estate, 2011, £14.99, pb, 538pp, 9780007241071 Born in the 1980s, in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, the adopted home of his East Prussian baker father, Sam is the eldest of three children to be born to his initially loving mother. His brother Carl is psychologically terrorised by their father, whilst Sam is the only one to be physically hit.

His innate curiosity about his father’s life during the war in Europe unearths some unpalatable facts, which Sam does not understand the implications of. His father gives him a book and Sam reads of his involvement in the Hitler Youth, which he cannot forget or forgive himself for. He disappears and the mother turns cold towards Sam, who no longer conforms. He truants and turns to drugs to 20th Century

clear his mind of his ambivalent feelings towards his father, and steals to fuel his habits.

Sam eventually finds Carl again, and each helps to heal the other’s wounds.

Sam’s reunion with Carl is eventually followed by a reunion with their father. Their intimate conversations help Sam to re-evaluate his father’s history and resolves their conflicts, enabling Sam to accept who he is.

Janet Williamson THE SOMME STATIONS Andrew Martin, Faber & Faber, 2011, £12.99, hb, 287pp, 9780571249602 It is 1914, and the First World War has started.

When a notice is pinned up in the railway police office in York announcing the formation of the North Eastern Railway Battalion, Detective Sergeant Jim Stringer feels he must do his patriotic duty and enlist in what would become known as The Railway Pals. Both friendships and enmities have been born among the supposed pals, and even before they have departed for France, a member of Jim’s unit has been found dead, the body horribly battered.

This is a book both about life at the front in the Somme and a mystery surrounding the death of one of Jim’s fellow soldiers. The author, who obviously has a great love of trains and train driving, weaves both together with the odd touch of wry humour. It is written in the first person, so immediately you feel yourself involved and with the conversational tone of Jim Stringer this moves the book along at a good pace.

The Railway Pals are modelled on historical record, and the vision of war, mud and the pining for cigarettes while stuck in the trenches must be grounded in reality too. What I liked about this book, and I’m not a great lover of trains, was the way the mystery story kept pace with the action of war. It simmers on the back burner for a while, and then the pace is cranked up and it keeps your attention, following the little clues laid all along as to who killed one of the friends. A good read.

Karen Wintle PARADISE DOGS Man Martin, St. Martin’s, 2011, $25.99/C$29.99, hb, 310pp, 9780312662561 “Adam only felt comfortable pretending to be someone he was not.” Not that the hapless, alcoholic businessman sets out to deceive people; it just happens and he rides along. He owns land in central Florida in the mid-1960s and stumbles upon evidence that a faceless corporation is secretly buying up property.

Are Commies behind it? It’s only been a couple of years since the Cuba business. What does a paperwork reference to an “experimental prototype” mean? Adam also longs to reunite with his exwife, Evelyn, though there’s a small obstacle in the form of his fiancée, Lily, to be gotten around. He borrows some loose diamonds to stage a dramatic scene for Evelyn to persuade her to take him back.

But when the diamonds get misplaced, Adam and

son Addison go on a chase that lets Adam’s talent for impersonation (doctor, priest, reporter) solve everyone’s problems but his own.

The author has been compared to Carl Hiaasen, and some readers may view Paradise Dogs as a slapstick romp through pre-Disney central Florida. A description of Lily’s space-age repast made me laugh: “Her breakfast contained nothing unsanctified by modern chemistry.” And of an angry Evelyn, “Seldom had coffee been poured in a manner of such unspoken rebuke.” The minor characters were colorful, and I learned something about old Orlando, on the verge of being steamrollered by the Disney behemoth.

Yet possibly due to a personal distaste for alcoholic heroes, the end result for me was the story of a deluded sad-sack of a man I couldn’t identify with. Still, I finished the story desiring to know more about Adam and Evelyn’s younger days running their titular hot dog stand. If the measure of a book’s success is leaving the reader wanting more, then Paradise Dogs succeeds.

B.J. Sedlock THE GIRL IN THE BLUE BERET Bobbie Ann Mason, Random House, 2011, $26.00, hb, 345pp, 9781400067183 By 1944, Lt. Marshall Stone, 23, has participated in nine successful bombing missions as co-pilot of a B-17. On his tenth and final run over Germanoccupied territory, the bomber is shot down. Stone avoids capture with the help of the local Resistance.

Years later, Capt. Marshall Stone, airline pilot, reaches the mandatory retirement age. Still fit at 60, still a good pilot, he loses the job he loves not long after losing his wife. At loose ends, Stone decides to go back to Europe to reconnect with those who aided him in 1944, including a fearless young girl who guided him across Paris.

Stone locates most of his rescuers, not without difficulty. Members of the Resistance led many fallen aviators to safety, in some cases at great personal cost, and each person remembers the rescue operation differently. As the American reexamines his experience from a different perspective, he learns to appreciate the courage of men and women who endured the long years of war on the ground.

His one-time guide, now a lovely, mature woman, leads a comfortable life – but one shaped by memories of a privation unknown to Stone.

They enjoy being together. Are they falling in love?

Can he understand her without having shared her past? Can Stone match her courage by re-creating himself so late in life? Before committing herself, she has to know.

The Girl in the Blue Beret is an impressive novel.

Mason writes with confidence about integrity, memory, love, the war in Europe – and a likeable man. Her prose is straightforward, sometimes graceless but, except for some slangy diary excerpts, it suits Marshall Stone. Recommended for all historical fiction readers.

Jeanne Greene HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Reviews | 57

MOTHERS & DAUGHTERS Rae Meadows, Henry Holt, 2011, $25.00, hb, 258pp, 9780805093834 This intergenerational novel focuses on three women: Violet, an eleven-year-old girl struggling to survive in turn-of-the-century New York; Iris, Violet’s daughter, who is dying of cancer, and Samantha, a new mother struggling to come to terms with her mother’s death. The chapters alternate among the three narrators, and all three protagonists’ lives are interconnected both by blood and by a small box of recipes and mementos kept by Violet and passed on to her daughter and granddaughter. Each woman struggles with a different set of challenges: Violet faces poverty and a drug-addicted mother; Iris is coping with her husband’s infidelity and her own end-of-life issues; and Samantha is managing the stress of finding balance between motherhood and her professional identity.

The modern sections of the novel read like problem-of-the-week women’s fiction, where everything that could possibly go wrong in a woman’s life is going wrong. The historical section, which focuses on Samantha’s grandmother Violet and her rough-and-tumble childhood in turn-ofthe-century New York City and her escape to the rural Midwest on an orphan train, is much stronger and more original. Meadows is a skillful writer, and Mothers & Daughters will be enjoyed by readers of women’s fiction. It is also a good choice for book clubs.

Nanette Donohue TODAY David Miller, Atlantic, 2011, £12.99, hb, 160pp, 9781848876057 Here’s one for Conrad aficionados, because the author - a London literary agent – makes no concession to readers unfamiliar with the patriarch’s life. A reference to the Paris Olympics on page 76 fixes the year as 1924. However, readers new to JC, as he was known, can be moved by this gentle, subtle debut novel. It feels as if it should be part of something more, yet is nonetheless profound in its psychological insight. Most of the enormous cast of characters are listed over several pages at the front of the book. The reader is given a glimpse into the week surrounding the death of Conrad. Family and friends have gathered at his house on the outskirts of Canterbury for the August bank holiday to celebrate the 18th birthday of his younger son, through whose eyes much of the narrative unfolds.

JC collapses and dies. The book excels as a study in relationships; and in bereavement, restrained prose showing the dreamlike feeling of unreality as those who loved Conrad – his secretary, dissimilar sons, ailing wife, friends, servants – try to absorb the truth of death.

A tribute to Conrad; a window on a family’s grief.

Janet Hancock A BOND NEVER BROKEN Judith Miller, Bethany House, 2011, $14.99, pb, 58 | Reviews | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

376pp, 9780764206443 When the US enters the Great War in 1917, anti-German sentiment runs high. The Amana colonies in Iowa, with their set-apart nature, antiwar religious stance, and German background fall under particular suspicion. Although they left the colonies to enter the “world” and start their own bakery nearby, Jutta Schmitt and her family are not spared. Men from the Iowa Council of National Defense threaten them with jail and worse if Jutta does not agree to go back to the colonies and to spy out un-American activities. She finds work and then friendship among the family of Ilsa Redlich, who run the colonies’ hotel. Will she betray her new family to save that of her origins?

“Bonnet books” branch out into places other than Pennsylvania, to serious topics such as prejudice and the conflict conservative religion should have with patriotism. In none of this is the necessary attraction of the faithful for retreat, the safety of the like-minded and pious elders to obey without question disturbed. This book presents, therefore, a good retreat for the like-minded trapped in modernity, a tale cushioned by the safety of belief in an undisturbing style.

Ann Chamberlin A HEART MOST WORTHY Siri Mitchell, Bethany House, 2011, $14.99, pb, 384pp, 9780764207952 Siri Mitchell successfully tackles an unusual time period and subject in A Heart Most Worthy.

In the Italian area of North Boston during World War I, three poor, Italian immigrant women work in the upscale dress shop of Madame Fortier.

Julietta, Annamaria and Luciana each have a handwork sewing specialty that makes her valuable to her employer. Each of the girls has a secret. Each of the girls is attracted to a man – sometimes the wrong man. Each holds dreams to better herself.

But this is America, where the streets are supposed to be paved with gold and one’s heart’s desire can be found if you work hard enough. Or can it?

Mitchell, an excellent storyteller, uses a light hand in terms of religious beliefs and faith. Her choice of Italian Catholic immigrant girls as her heroines is refreshing. She shows the depth of her research in her familiarity with Italian and Catholic traditions and the domestic and Italian history of the period. I felt completely immersed in the story.

No greater accolade can be given to an author who makes you want more as you read the last word of a novel. Mitchell does this. I recommend A Heart Most Worthy to lovers of inspirational romance looking for a sweet, sincere, “happily-ever-after” story.

Monica Spence THE MERMAID GARDEN Santa Montefiore, Touchstone, 2011, $24.99, hb, 418pp, 9781451624304 Heartache and romance wing their way from a palazzo in Italy to an old hotel in Devon-bythe-Sea in England – and the story unravels in suspenseful and amusing ways before we get to the

satisfying conclusion. The Italian beginning of the novel provides an interesting backdrop of an Italy still recovering from World War II (well into the ´60s) and the ages-old gulf between the rich and the poor, which seems to be the same story no matter what era or nationality.

A tragic ending to a pair of star-crossed lovers turns abruptly to the present day at a seaside hotel, a renovated mansion with old family retainers still pottering about the place. We assume there’s a connection, but it doesn’t surface for a while.

The charming and determined owner, Marina, is desperate to make the place work financially and aesthetically, fulfilling a life-long dream of being hostess of an elegant artistic retreat by the sea. As the “second wife” of a gentleman-architect, she does battle with a resentful, spoiled stepdaughter in her early twenties and a stepson who doesn’t seem to realize the meaning of “dire financial troubles.”

Enter a mysterious South American artistin-residence who charms all the ladies (and some gents) off their feet with one look from his smoldering brown eyes, and you’ve got a fullfledged romantic mystery-suspense story on your hands. An excellent summer read for the beach, the poolside, or the sofa on a rainy day.

Mary F. Burns STEALING MONA LISA Carson Morton, Minotaur, 2011, $24.99, hb, 304pp, 9780312621711 Few people know that 2011 is the centennial of one of the greatest art heists in history: the theft of Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” from the wall of the Louvre in Paris. Stealing Mona Lisa is a fictional account of the crime.

The book opens in 1925. Marquis Eduardo de Valfierno, the mastermind of the theft, is dying as the book opens. Well-experienced in fleecing the gullible and greedy nouveau riche, he tells his story to a young newspaper reporter in order to “confess” to his crime. The story is then told as a flashback, opening in 1910 Buenos Aires, where the Marquis has successfully sold yet another painting to longtime customer Mr. Joshua Hart, an American multimillionaire. The Marquis finds himself drawn to Ellen, Hart’s young and lovely wife. Though the relationship is folly, his life and Mrs. Hart’s intertwine, until she decides to leave her husband.

In his novel, Morton brings together an odd cast of characters: an accomplished con artist, a man who started life as a Parisian street orphan, a Spanish forger, a beautiful American woman with a penchant for picking pockets, and an unloved wife of a robber baron. Valfierno’s insane plan of stealing the world’s most famous painting succeeds, but hot on the trail is a French detective looking for a promotion.

Throw in a devastating flood, the Paris sewers, multiple copies of the painting, and more twists than the Seine, and you have an enjoyable novel from a talented debut author. The book will be released in August, the anniversary of the theft. I recommend it.

Monica E. Spence 20th Century

INCOGNITO Gregory Murphy, Berkley, 2011, $15, pb, 320pp, 9780425241035 Usually creating suspense means making the reader wonder what will happen next, but in this story of New York circa 1911, we wonder about what has happened before. William Dysart is an attorney representing Lydia Billings, a wealthy and powerful widow trying to buy a piece of Long Island property belonging to Sybil Curtis, a mysterious Englishwoman who refuses to sell at any price. The New York Tribune has called Dysart’s wife, Arabella, one of the two most beautiful women in the city, along with Maxine Eliot (sic).

Arabella’s materialism and snobbery justify Dysart, who is falling in love with Miss Curtis, leading him to extraordinary ethical violations in his duty to his firm and his client. The cause of the enmity between the client and Miss Curtis reveals itself gradually. At the same time, we learn more about Dysart’s deceased mother and the circumstances of her leaving his wealthy father. Arabella urges him to accept the father’s gift of a mansion, a disagreement that will obviously lead to the end of their marriage.

Personally, I might be inclined to make allowances for a woman as beautiful as Maxine Elliott, but Dysart is busy falling in love with the mysterious Englishwoman. Set against the last days of gaslight New York and the height of the suffragist movement, this novel is more of a romance than an historical novel, but the characters are original, and watching their back story unfold in

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surprising twists makes it a worthwhile experience.

James Hawking

boredoms of suburbia as can be imagined.

Kristen Hannum

THE HEADHUNTER’S DAUGHTER Tamar Myers, Morrow, 2011, $13.99/C$15.99, pb, 256pp, 9780061997648 A baby disappears in the Belgian Congo in 1945, and 13 years later a young white girl is “rescued” from the headhunting Bashilele tribe that raised her. This quirky historical mystery has more to do with painting a picture of colonial realities in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo than with solving puzzles of who done it. Or rather, the puzzles here involve far bigger questions than simple problems like murder or kidnapping.

Myers, the daughter of missionaries and author of more than 30 other mysteries, writes with dark humor about the place and times of her childhood.

This book is the second of a new series for Myers and features several ongoing characters, including likable Amanda Brown, a young missionary new to the Congo, and her servant, the quick-thinking Cripple, first wife of a nearby witch doctor. The two must cope with hypocritical racist missionaries, pragmatic racist Belgians, and revolutionary houseboys awaiting independence.

Myers describes with a sure hand the dozens of tribes whose scorn for Americans and Europeans is exceeded only by their contempt for other African tribes. Humans aren’t the only danger here: deadly mambas, the spirits of the dead, and voracious driver ants all create a world that is as wonderfully, colorfully, and sometimes horribly far from the

A GOOD HARD LOOK Ann Napolitano, Penguin Press, 2011, $25.95, hb, 326pp, 9781594202926 Flannery O’Connor is one of the great figures of 20th-century American literature, an icon of Southern fiction whose life was cut tragically short.

Napolitano takes readers inside O’Connor’s smalltown life in Milledgeville, Georgia, introducing us to a circle of fictional characters who populate the author’s world.

Cookie Himmel is Milledgeville’s golden girl – a kind-hearted beauty who dreams of life beyond the confines of her hometown. She moves to New York City after her high school graduation and quickly finds herself lost in the shuffle of the big city. Cookie is at a particularly low point when she meets Melvin Whiteson, a wealthy banker’s son and native Manhattanite, and Cookie’s vulnerability awakens a protectiveness in Melvin. They marry and return to Milledgeville to raise their family.

Melvin soon finds himself pulled into O’Connor’s tight-knit circle, a fact that he hides from Cookie, whose run-ins with the author left her emotionally bruised. Cookie, meanwhile, throws herself into small-town life, joining every committee and decorating and re-decorating her home. But this sleepy Southern town will be shaken to the core by infidelity, a murder, and a sudden and devastating death.

Napolitano does a masterful job blending real people with fictional characters – it’s difficult to tell where fact ends and fiction begins. She captures the fierce spirit and sharp wit of Flannery O’Connor, creating a fictionalized version of her life in Milledgeville that is believable and entertaining.

Throughout the novel, the characters grow and change, their lives shifting as the events happening around them alter their lives. Readers who enjoy Southern fiction will appreciate Napolitano’s observant and intelligent novel.

Nanette Donohue

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E

Manuel Muñoz, Algonquin, 2011, $23.95, hb, 251pp, 9781565125339 The scene opens on a diner in Bakersfield, California.

A young couple – he, the popular boy in town, she, the shy Mexican girl who works in the shoe store – are quietly falling in love. He works at his mother’s hotel, a lonely place off the old highway. She wants to be a singer; he just wants to be with her. Their dreams are cut short with a brutal murder. Bakersfield, focused on the crime, overlooks the visit of a famous director and actress, scouting locations for a low-budget movie whose plot eerily echoes local events.

With scenes as subtle and deliberate as Hitchcock’s, the aftermath of the murder unfolds against the making of Psycho. As The Actress (never named in the novel) emotionally prepares herself to film the pivotal shower scene, unsure of whether or not the audience is ready to see that kind of violence, accusations fly in Bakersfield, and people flock to catch a glimpse of the bloodsplattered staircase where the real murder took place.

What You See in the Dark is not a detective story.

Muñoz explores human reaction to violence, the desensitization that started for cinema audiences with Psycho and its shower scene. The story is stark, wrenching, terrifying by how little Bakersfield is bothered by the crime. Unfurling like a Hitchcock film, you can almost hear Psycho’s familiar soundtrack through the novel, a reminder that beneath the most mundane of events runs an undercurrent of tension. Muñoz beautifully captures film noir on the page, a cinematography of words and paragraphs. I was riveted by this debut novel and thoroughly recommend it.

Jessica Brockmole 20th Century

FAR TO GO Alison Pick, HarperPerennial, 2011, $14.99, pb, 368pp, 9780062034625 / Headline Review, 2011, £12.99, hb, 320pp, 9780755379415 In 1938, Czechoslovakia is in crisis, as is all of Europe, but at the home of Pavel and Anneliese Bauer in a small Bohemian town, care is taken to assure that everything appears normal. Pavel is a successful factory owner and Czech nationalist who is aware of the political and military rumblings but who is also sure that as an assimilated Jew he and his family are not in any danger. His wife continues to paint her nails, smoke cigarettes, and visit her friends. Marta, the nanny, dotes on young Pepik as he plays with his toy train and soldiers under the table. Marta also continues to sneak out of the Bauer home at night to see Ernst, the married foreman at Pavel’s factory, even after she figures out that Ernst is pro-Nazi and planning to undermine the Bauers.

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Only after the factory is seized, neighbors disappear, and observant Jews are beaten in the street does Pavel act, and it is then that the reader sees the true feelings and alliances of the characters.

Alison Pick’s quiet, spare prose creates a tension reflecting the enormity of the events playing out both in the world and on the local playground.

A second narrative runs throughout the novel, in which the present-day protagonist seeks to help those who survived the war, all the while looking for closure around her own wartime losses. The story, inspired by Pick’s family history, brings to life the tragedy of betrayal, as well as the hope of love, through multiple generations.

Helene Williams HALF OF THE HUMAN RACE Anthony Quinn, Jonathan Cape, 2011, £12.99, hb, 348pp, 9780224087292 The title refers to women, who for much of this book are without the vote. In summer 1911, Connie Callaway, would-be surgeon and daughter of a middle class Islington family, supports the suffrage movement but since her father’s death has had to abandon dreams of a career. On holiday, she meets Will Maitland, rising county cricket star, who is attracted by her warmth and beauty yet – son of his age and class – repelled by her outspokenness and quest for independence. The novel shows their enduring attraction deepening to love over the following nine years, notwithstanding years of separation, Connie’s imprisonment in Holloway and surveillance by Special Branch thereafter, Will’s war service on the Somme and lengthy betrothal to another girl, Connie nursing in London and her perception that he is attracted more to the idea of having a wife than loving her for herself.

Despite the author’s overuse – for this reader – of adjectives and adverbs, and penchant for reporting conversations instead of showing them and for abrupt shifts of viewpoint, I warmed to the integrity of this book, its emotional insight and honesty, combining national drama and private tragedy. Here is a writer not striving for effect or genre but introducing us to characters of whom he is fond and for whom one comes to care, too: ordinary people of my grandparents’ era, defined by the extraordinary years of turmoil in which they lived. There is, arguably, a reliance on coincidence but, hey, life is like that sometimes. Connie and Will come across as real people, as do Tam the brilliant but tragic cricketer, raffish artist Dab Brigstock, and Connie’s loyal brother Fred. Until the final pages, the reader is kept wondering if Connie and Will can overcome their differences. The ending is beautifully done. A moving, satisfying read.

Janet Hancock HOTHOUSE FLOWER Lucinda Riley, Penguin, 2011, £7.99, pb, 576pp, 9780141049373 Julia Forrester, a concert pianist, has high cheekbones, almond eyes and a dark exotic beauty.

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seeking comfort from her surroundings, her most vivid memory is of Wharton Park, the house where her grandfather was gardener to the Crawford family.

Seventy years earlier, on the cusp of the Second World War, Olivia Drew-Morris was invited with her parents for a weekend house party at Wharton Park. Olivia had arrived from India only two months earlier into a damp and dismal England.

She missed the noise and colours of the land where she had been born and always lived, but was fated never to return when she fell in love with Harry Crawford.

Our two heroines are thus placed in this saga of large houses, frivolous parties, servants and flirtations, and Lucinda Riley gives us a blockbuster novel of families entwined forever by undisclosed secrets. The beginning of the book is a little shaky. The dialogue and mannerisms of the characters from the late 1930s reflect an earlier period. It is as if monochrome pictures gleaned from periodicals have been grafted onto episodes and events. However the defeat of the Japanese in Singapore and the aftermath in the Far East are well told. Thailand and its people are gently observed, and the atmosphere lovingly described.

When the present day is entwined within the story, the author is on much firmer ground.

Hothouse Flower gives us tears and angst, secrets to unravel and several romantic stories.

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Imaginative, but more a modern novel embroidered in fancy costume than historical fiction. The book ends more confidently than it began.

Gwen Sly FEAR ITSELF Andrew Rosenheim, Hutchinson, 2011, £14.99, hb, 423pp, 9780091796068 In 1937 Milwaukee, young FBI agent Jimmy Nessheim comes across several odd bits of information (and a murder) leading to the German American Bund, a powerful association with proNazi leanings. To his surprise, no one in the bureau wants to pursue the matter. It is only a few years later, when the US find themselves hovering on the brink of a war that looks both alarming, and awfully far away, that Jimmy is whisked to Washington and sent undercover to infiltrate the Bund. Is there really a conspiracy afoot? And to what end? And just what has German intelligence to do with it?

Fear Itself has very much the feel of a film noir, with plenty of post-Depression grit, intrigue, FBI politics, scheming socialites, eleventh-hour escapes, red herrings, dubious characters, and a general sense that nobody can be trusted.

And if Nessheim is clueless at crucial times, if coincidences tend to happen, if a few threads are left hanging – still the vividly detailed setting, a tight pace, and well-researched glimpses of Hoover and William Stephenson provide an atmospheric

E D I TORS’ CH OICE

Nina Revoyr, Akashic, 2011, $15.95, pb, 250pp, 9781936070718 Every once in a while, a book reminds me that literature is more than plot and character, sentences and words. Some are raw emotion packed between two covers and a spine. Wingshooters is this kind of book.

Nine-year-old Michelle LeBeau, product of a tempestuous marriage between a Japanese woman and American man, is left in her grandparents’ care in the all-white town of Deerhorn. Things aren’t easy for a biracial child in 1974, but Charlie, Michelle’s beloved grandfather, looks past his own deep-seated racism when it comes to his non-white granddaughter.

Charlie teaches her to fight, to hunt, and to not let anyone exclude her. But when a new clinic opens in Deerhorn, it ushers in change to the conservative town. The Garretts, a young black couple, move in: she to nurse at the clinic, he to teach at the elementary school. Deerhorn is offended by their education and professionalism as much as by the color of their skin. Michelle is drawn to the resilient couple, yet frightened by what that association may bring, especially after Mr. Garrett levels a controversial accusation against a respected town leader.

Revoyr absolutely made the right choice in telling this story from the point-of-view of a young Japanese-American girl. On the fringes enough to empathize, but not old enough to really understand, she gives the reader room to view the story through more experienced eyes. The book is at once compelling and disturbing, haunting and terrifying. It calls to question what we are willing to overlook for those we love. Charlie is able to ignore Michelle’s “different” half, but she can’t ignore the fact that her grandfather sees her only as half of who she is. Wingshooters will stay with you long after the last page. Unreservedly recommended to read and pass on.

Jessica Brockmole 20th Century

and entertaining read.

Chiara Prezzavento THE HEART SPECIALIST Claire Holden Rothman, Soho, 2011, $25, hb, 304pp, 9781569479452 Agnes White, a character based on one of Canada’s first female doctors, is determined to follow in the footsteps of the father, a doctor who had deserted his family under a cloud when Agnes was five years old. Her Anglophone grandmother changes her French name Bourret to White and discourages her use of her absent father’s equipment to experiment with dead squirrels, but Agnes stubbornly overcomes obstacles to finish medical school and become a pioneer female doctor. Most of the male physicians oppose her efforts, and even those who purportedly support her treat her as an inferior.

Agnes is sidetracked into a career as something like a medical museum curator, but this gives her an opportunity to conduct the research that eventually makes her a distinguished heart specialist. There is some use of Keats’s poem “The Eve of St. Agnes” and the legend that a virgin will see her eventual husband on January 20, but what is refreshing is that this is a heroine for whom love is not a primary interest, at least not until she has achieved her professional goals.

Most of the actions are set in Montreal before and after World War I, but the main emphasis is not on historical events. When the author does attempt to introduce history, there are clumsy mistakes, such as misdating the French recapture of Calais by thirty years and the presumably unintentional anachronism of having a character reading Le Monde long before that newspaper was established, near the end of World War II. James Hawking A GREAT CATCH Lorna Seilstad, Revell, 2011, $14.00, pb, 368pp, 9780800734466 1901. Lake Manawa, Iowa. In the beautiful little lakeside resort, summer has arrived along with favorites such as roller-skating, picnicking, baseball games, and speeches by the suffragists.

Enter 22-year-old suffragist Emily Graham, whose plan is to educate the women of Lake Manawa to their equal status as men and their voting rights. In her private life, Emily tries to live her life independently, free from her meddling aunts who love to chaperone her dates. Suddenly, in a roller-skating incident, Emily collides with Carter Stockton, a recent college graduate and pitcher for the Manawa Owls baseball team. Although Emily is attracted to Carter, she prefers to pursue her main goals of spreading the message of suffragists and arranging a baseball game between the Bloomer Girls All-Women baseball team and the All-Men Manawa Owls, on whose side she must play. Carter professes his love to Emily, but she believes a vicious story circulating about him, and this love affair takes many twists and turns.

Seilstad provides a continual flow of 20th Century

entertainment and humor as she takes the reader back to the turn of the 20th century in small-town Iowa. She adds a spiritual bent to the story in framing Emily’s and Carter’s growth through their relationship with God. This is an endearing book, best read on a hot summer day with a pitcher of lemonade.

Liz Allenby THE FINAL STORM Jeff Shaara, Ballantine, 2011, $28.00/C$33.00, hb, 446pp, 9780345497949 This last novel in Shaara’s World War II series begins late in the war in February 1945. War in the Pacific Theatre is still raging, and the fighting that moves from island to island is increasingly ferocious. The Japanese have had years to prepare their defenses by digging networks of tunnels and bunkers through the hills of each island. The Allied casualty toll is staggering. The fighting continues on the island of Okinawa, where most of this story takes place. It’s the last big step before an invasion of the Japanese homeland. Only the timely completion of the Manhattan Project prevents the almost certain bloodbath which would have resulted from a direct assault on Japan.

In his “to the reader” section, Shaara explains that the motivation to write this novel came from Marines, who felt their side of the story still needed

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to be told. To that end, a large part of this story is seen through the eyes of his fictional character, Private Clay Adams. Adams has missed most of the war while recovering from a bad infection suffered early on and is now itching to get into the fight. Shaara uses Adams to relate the day-today misery that the Marines (and Army) suffered through in these brutal island fights. But in his attempt to press home this misery, Shaara spends a great deal of time in the mud with Adams and less time with the real figures of the war and the high-level decision making; decisions which, minus the privilege of insight, don’t always make sense to us. It is in that role that Shaara’s past works have always proven their worth. They are the backstage pass to the halls of leadership. Understanding what really happened behind closed doors brings clarity and closure to lingering questions of why something was done.

Mark F. Johnson SMUGGLED Christina Shea, Black Cat, 2011, $14.00, pb, 256pp, 9780802170866 Éva Farkas is only five when her Jewish mother ties her in a flour sack and smuggles her across the border to an aunt in Romania in the midst of the Second World War. There she is renamed “Anca” and, with a quick course in Romanian and

E D I TORS’ CH OICE

Lisa See, Random House, 2011, $26.00, hb, 368pp, 978140006712X / Bloomsbury, 2011, £11.99, pb, 368pp, 9781408822296 “Just remember, a person is his – or her – history…

What is your history and what are you going to be?”

Continuing from the story told in Shanghai Girls, Pearl and Joy journey back to China to hopefully heal the past and forge a deeper connection for the future.

Joy has just discovered that the one she called Mom is really her aunt, and vice versa. Devastated by her stepfather’s suicide, she believes in China she will escape her overwhelming guilt and immerse herself in the communist way in Green Dragon Village.

Mao Tse-Tung’s New Society of China is supposedly thriving in the year 1957, but that is all about to drastically change. In the ensuing years, Joy will meet her real father, Z.G. Li, an artist who creates paintings and posters for Communist Party propaganda, fall in love, marry, and have a child. Her idealism, however, is about to undergo a startling and devastating metamorphosis as the dream of utopia devolves into the devastating poverty and brutality manifest during the years of the Great Leap Forward. Pearl, her aunt who raised Joy, follows her to China and maintains a tenuous connection with the ferocious, unconditional love of a true mother during this fragile historical period when progress jettisons long-revered tradition.

Lisa See has clearly done remarkable research as she depicts the range of confusing thoughts, misspoken and carefully crafted words, and unpredictable deeds constantly in heartrending flux for this broken family and nation. The full range of vicissitudes of romantic love, familial love, and love of country carry the reader through breathtaking pages in which our hope, despair and joy parallel these remarkable characters’ experiences all the way to a realistic, endearing conclusion. Lisa See has once again penned an astonishing historical novel.

Viviane Crystal HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Reviews | 61

Catholicism, taught to forget her Hungarian and Jewish roots. Confused, terrified, and missing her mother, she stays close to home rather than slip up in front of the neighbors.

After the war, she longs to find her mother but can’t ask questions in the newly-Communist country without revealing her true identity.

From college, where she discovers first love with a childhood friend from Hungary, to adulthood, where she becomes a competitive Ping-Pong player, she is under scrutiny from the Communist League.

At a time when everyone watches their neighbors, she continues to hide her Hungarian identity, papers tucked within an equally forbidden Bible. It isn’t until the Iron Curtain falls that she works up the courage to return to Hungary and reclaim Éva.

Smuggled surprised me. As a story, it meandered from one episode in Anca’s life to another, most of them dramatic, but few particularly life-changing.

But as a novel it was arresting: a character study, but of a character so lost and searching that you can’t help but be caught up in the search along with her. Wrought with careful and sometimes unusual turns of phrase, it was an enjoyable read, despite the often-sad events Anca stumbles past. Without realizing it, I flew through this book, crossing my fingers for a satisfying end to Anca’s story. A wellwritten and absorbing novel.

Jessica Brockmole THE STORY OF BEAUTIFUL GIRL Rachel Simon, Grand Central, 2011, $24.99/ C$27.99, hb, 352pp, 9780446574464 / Preface, 2011, £11.99, pb, 352pp, 9781848093393 One night two residents of the School for the Incurable and Feebleminded escape. The year is 1968, and conditions in the institution are deplorable. It is a place where families can send the unwanted. However, even a developmentally disabled white woman with speech difficulties and a deaf African American have sense enough to recognize their wretched existence, and so they flee. They need shelter, as Lynnie has just given birth to a baby girl. When she sees a lighthouse, she knows she has found safety. It points the way to the home of Martha, a retired teacher. Shortly after she explains their circumstances, the authorities from the school surround them. Homan slips away into the woods, while Lynnie slips the baby into Martha’s arms and whispers, “Hide her.” Of the three who escape the school that night, only one returns.

This story takes place during a period of history when institutions were the norm. The nation had not been exposed to the horrors that emerged on television by Geraldo Rivera in the ’70s. As this story portrays, a journalist exposed the abuse, neglect and squalid conditions in these living tombs for the disabled. It is hard to fathom their existence. Inspired by factual events, Rachel Simon shares this warm and emotionally moving story of a woman whose life is a lamentable struggle. The author makes this a beguiling story that evokes strong passions. Through her strong characters, the author captures the power of love and the 62 | Reviews | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

indomitable determination to live. Readers won’t forget Lynnie. Her embraceable spirit will make you want to hug her.

Simon also reminds us all about protecting the basic human rights of everyone. The Story of Beautiful Girl is globally relevant, with promise of high praise from all who take heed to read it.

Wisteria Leigh THE SUMMER GARDEN: A Love Story Paullina Simons, Morrow, 2011, $16.99, pb, 752pp, 9780061988226 / Harper, 2008, £8.99, pb, 750pp, 9780007162499 The final volume in Simons’ epic trilogy follows Tatiana Metanova and Alexander Barrington from the early years of their marriage to the end of their lives – a scope of 50+ years. Tatiana and Alexander have escaped to the United States from Russia and are struggling to live together after having been separated by war. With their son, Anthony, the couple travels across the U.S., searching for a place where they will fit in. They eventually settle outside of the booming city of Phoenix, Arizona, on the land that Tatiana purchased with the money that Alexander’s mother left to him. As they adjust to their new, postwar life, experiences from their past continue to haunt them. Alexander is both psychologically and physically scarred by his experiences in a Soviet work camp, and while his love for Tatiana helps him heal, there are some ghosts that will haunt him forever.

Simons touches on some of the major stories of the mid-to-late 20th century, including women entering the work force, the Vietnam War, and the economic and baby booms following World War II. There’s also plenty of family drama as Tatiana and Alexander’s marriage grows and changes. They were young when they met and young when they married, and as they mature, their outlook on life and their feelings for one another grow and change.

The Summer Garden does suffer from the same flaws as earlier books in the trilogy: some of the plot twists are implausible, and when Tatiana and Alexander are in a cycle of fighting/making up/ making love, it can get tiresome and repetitive.

However, when there’s action – and there often is – it’s an excellent saga, full of all of the elements that readers of the genre most enjoy. It’s not always a realistic portrait of a marriage, and it’s certainly not idealistic, but it’s dramatic and powerful and often romantic.

Nanette Donohue THE ELOQUENCE OF DESIRE Amanda Sington-Williams, Sparkling Books, 2010, £9.99, pb, 303pp, 9781907230165 Set in the 1950s, the book begins with George travelling home on the tube and wondering how he is going to give his wife Dorothy some bad news. As a punishment for his affair with the boss’s daughter, Emma, he has been transferred to Malaya, which is at the moment experiencing upheavals with communist rebels. She does not take the news well.

The scene is set for a slow breakdown of marriage throughout the sea voyage and the heat

filled days in Malaya. The couple’s only daughter, Susan, is originally left behind at boarding school but later comes over to Malaya, and we see events of overt violence but also observations of secrets and unspoken feelings through her eyes. The worlds of England and Malaysia are contrasted effectively, and there are strong evocative descriptions of Malaya. The sights, sounds, smells and the alien nature of it for Dorothy means she is increasingly unhappy.

The title was a little confusing, however, as it seems to suggest some great love affair, but I gained little sense of any overwhelming love. George misses Emma and writes her letters but still has time and some emotion left for another affair with someone else. More themes of self‑harm and lesbianism also appear somewhat unheralded at the end of the novel and didn’t fully coalesce with the rest of the novel for me. The plot explores states of mind and the internal life of characters rather than being action‑packed, and several parts of the novel were very interesting. It isn’t as cohesive as it could have been, therefore, but nevertheless offers some illuminating and engaging moments.

Ann Northfield A HEART FOR HOME Lauraine Snelling, Bethany House, 2011, $14.99, pb, 367pp, 9780764206115 In 1904, an epidemic rages through the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Dr. Astrid Bjorklund travels from her beloved Blessing, North Dakota, at the behest of her colleague, Dr. Red Hawk, to minister to his people. While there she befriends two women, who eventually return with her to Blessing to learn additional nursing skills.

Joshua Landsverk eagerly awaits Astrid’s return, but he can’t reconcile himself to her devotion to her physician’s practice or her willingness to aid the Indians. This forces Astrid to break off their relationship. Heartbroken, she immerses herself in tending to her family, friends, and strangers, but those who love her contrive to widen her horizons and find her a new beau, while also reminding her of the importance of faith.

Readers familiar with Snelling’s previous books about Blessing will find this a heartwarming tale, but I felt like an outsider looking in. The blurb touts it as Astrid’s story, but the constant shifting of viewpoints among four characters and the myriad subplots that have little to do with Astrid make it difficult to connect with any of them.

Cindy Vallar CHARLES JESSOLD, CONSIDERED AS A MURDERER Wesley Stace, Picador, 2011, $15.00/C$17.00, pb, 389pp, 9780312680107 / Vintage, 2011, £7.99, pb, 352pp, 9780099546573 Allow me to admit something to you up front: I may not have been the right audience to properly appreciate this book. Do I possess a working knowledge of music theory and a basic historical understanding of major composers and movements? Sure. Did I want detailed education 20th Century

through a treatise on these things in the guise of what I’d thought was a murder mystery with literary pretensions? Nope.

Opening in 1923 and told as a memoir after the fact by fictional music critic Leslie Shepherd, this is ostensibly the “macabre story” of fictional composer Charles Jessold, who kills his wife, her lover, and then himself on the eve of his greatest triumph — the premiere of his opera. In actuality, through Shepherd’s affected narration, it reads as combination biography and discourse on the advent of modernism and atonal composition in Edwardian England. (Yep, you heard me right.)

Even World War I can neither coax nor beat forward the dragging plot, used as it is only to further discussion of this momentous event’s effect... on Jessold’s composition. Part of the problem may be that Shepherd, as narrator, is too pretentious to be appealing and also evinces a board-flat sense of humor; Jessold, while more dynamic, likewise fails to fascinate. Another issue may be that Stace, as a musician, has not separated what engrosses him (and I’ve spent enough time around jazz musicians to witness this in extreme form) from what 98% of the population doesn’t wish to listen to, unrelieved, for hours on end.

I wanted to like this book, for I could tell a great deal of effort and also some imagination went into it – but I simply could not, for, in short, it bored me.

Bethany Latham ALICE’S GIRLS Julia Stoneham, Allison & Busby, 2011, £19.99, hb, 303pp, 9780749008987 A World War II British land girls’ story by one of the script writers of the excellent House of Elliot, it is a pity her novel writing fails to match that.

This third book of a trilogy surprises as the author shows little grasp of simple, rapid, modern book form. It is written in a learned and complex way yet deals with the most basic of working-class farming matters. This is a longwinded record of the lives of a group of land girls, their minders and employers.

Alice of the title looks after and feeds the girls.

On page 82, there is the beginning of a story, but while the author shows a consummate use of the English language, the host of characters, unconnected events, and overbearingly long sentences, with innumerable clauses, make it a difficult read. A good book should be clear in structure as well as revealing something of human relationships. When not engaged in the brilliance of her complex English, the writer can tell stories in an immaculate way. But not with a sentence of 124 words with eight internal clauses, as on page 89. Or chapters of 30 pages, where the blackness of type is off-putting.

Despite all, there are some exquisite moments as at a wedding. Fat, smelly Mabel (just given birth to twins) marries lame Ferdie whom she’s ‘taken up with’. She notices damp patches on her borrowed white wedding dress. ‘Whoops,’ she says. ‘It’s me milk fer me babies! I’d best go feed the little brutes’ fore it ruins me frock!’

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There is conflict, romance with GIs, one or two weddings and lots of smelly wellies too. As might be expected from a script writer, Julia handles dialogue very well. A truly delightful cover belies its somewhat stodgy content.

Geoffrey Harfield BIG WHEAT Richard A. Thompson, Poisoned Pen Press, 2011, $14.99, pb, 235pp, 9781590588222 Charlie Kreuger doesn’t think twice about the mysterious stranger in the wheat field on a dark night in late August 1919. After Maybel breaks his heart and a bloody confrontation with his abusive father, Charlie leaves his North Dakota home. He works with traveling threshing crews and meets George Ravenwing, who convinces him to change his surname to Bacon and seek his future. That leads him to James Avery, who welcomes Charlie into the Ark, a traveling group of men and women skilled at doing various tasks.

When Maybel’s body is discovered in the wheat field, everyone assumes Charlie murdered her. The mysterious stranger knows otherwise, for he killed Maybel, just as he’s killed others. His only regret is not killing Charlie that night, and he sets out to remedy this.

Thompson crafts a gripping tale of a time past, when threshing operations were an annual high point in farming life. Although Big Wheat begins slowly, readers who persevere won’t be disappointed. Once the hunt for Charlie begins

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in earnest, the pace quickens, and readers are compelled to turn the page to discover who reaches him first and whether Charlie will find his place with the people of the Ark. Cindy Vallar THE PRICE OF ESCAPE David Unger, Akashic, 2011, $15.95, pb, 250pp, 978193607923 Samuel Berkow’s life has been completely overturned. Once a successful businessman in Hamburg, middle-aged Samuel flees to Guatemala to escape the Nazi regime. Immersed in a culture of bribes, coarse manners, and raw survival, Samuel loses his bearing in just days, becoming with one act of violence the kind of man he’d always despised and feared. But as Samuel contemplates his life as he waits for the train that will take him from a rough port town to the capital city, he realizes that he has never really liked his life or understood the people in it. When he loses his passport in a rainstorm, Samuel wonders if by changing his identity he can change his life.

This novel reminded me a great deal of The Stranger by Albert Camus because it evokes the same sense of disorientation and isolation of a man who has just suffered a great loss. I wasn’t sure if I liked Samuel, but then, I’m not sure if Samuel likes himself. At the same time, I found myself liking more and more the despicable Alfred Lewis, the American middle manager for the United Fruit Company who befriends Samuel, saving him more

E D I TORS’ CH OICE

Amor Towles, Viking, 2011, $26.95, hb, 335pp, 9780670022694 / Sceptre, 2011, £12.99, hb, 384pp, 9781444708844 As a debut novel, Rules of Civility is a tour de force. Breathtaking in its capture of 1938 New York City, both its wealthy gentry and nouveau riche, and its evocation of two unusually intelligent secretaries who find themselves swept up into the rarefied world of Wall Street bankers, elite publishing houses, jazz clubs and Long Island house parties, it takes the reader into a world that most of us have only glimpsed in old black and white movies. This removal to a world long disappeared is seamless and elegantly told. The writing has already been compared to that of Fitzgerald, Capote and Edith Wharton. Given the wealth of period details and the depth of characterization of New York society at its best and worst, I’d have to make the comparison with Wharton, had she lived a generation later.

One of the remarkable aspects of this hugely successful novel is the fact that it’s told in the voice of one of the two main characters, a young woman, Katey Kontent, the daughter of Russian immigrants. What makes that so remarkable? The author, Amor Towles, is a man. He has created and told his story through the voice of one of the most intriguingly thoughtful and believable heroines in recent years. The understated portrayal of these years of Katey’s life and loves and of the impact of choices she and others make is mesmerizing, resonating long after I’d finished reading. Towles will be hard-pressed to equal his debut achievement, but let’s hope he tries.

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than once from his naiveté and indecisiveness.

Though I enjoyed the book, I remain unsure if the price of Samuel’s escape is losing his life or getting a chance to remake it.

Patricia O’Sullivan THE SEVEN CHURCHES: A Gothic Novel of Prague Milos Urban, Peter Owen, 2011, $29.95, pb, 300pp, 9780720613117 This unusual, almost-science-fiction novel plays with the historical sense of time and culture and poses some questions: Is humanity “better” now than say, 600 years ago? Have we really progressed, or are our technological advances just window-dressing and makeup that cover a growing inhumanity? It doesn’t take long to see on which side of this question our protagonist – who calls himself “K” – comes down, especially when he is taken up by a mysterious, modern Knight to help him in a private quest.

K is, in modern terms, a loser. He is a disappointment to his long-divorced parents, he’s too shy to approach women, he dropped out of school, he’s been fired from his police job – but he’s smart and perceptive, and in love with all things medieval. But even K cannot foresee the pivotal role he will play, and the consequences to himself and his beloved city, when he discovers his supernatural ability to access the reality of past times by merely putting his hand on the ancient stone wall of an historic church.

The writing is lyrical and literary, the plot is nearly as convoluted as a Kafka story (Kafka was a native of Prague), and the names are well-nigh unpronounceable (to non-Europeans, at least), but Urban has a fresh, intriguing style and an interesting point of view about modern times that are well worth the labor of reading this book. I wish there could have been a little more description and time spent in the past than we’re given, to provide an even better contrast with the hellish modern world that K and the Knight dislike so much, and that rings all too familiar a bell.

Radio Prague calls Urban the “Czech Republic’s answer to Umberto Eco,” and while I would give that a slight nod, my own experience with Eco leads me to say that Urban is definitely more readable and entertaining.

Mary F. Burns THE SECRET HISTORY OF COSTAGUANA Juan Gabriel Vásquez, trans. Anne McLean, Riverhead, 2011, $26.95, hb, 304pp, 9781594488030 Growing up during France’s disastrous attempt to construct a canal across Panama, José Altamirano’s young life is shaped by the business, politics, disease, and warfare associated with the project. Years later, however, his life becomes a quest to reclaim the life he feels he lost after telling his story to Joseph Conrad, who incorporates Altamirano’s experiences into his novel, Nostromo, set in the fictional South American country of 64 | Reviews | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

Costaguana. “I disappeared from history by magic,” Altamirano writes.

Altamirano’s first-person narration is steeped in cynicism about historical truth. His parents tell different stories about his conception, his mother celebrates his birthday on three different days, and his father writes propaganda about the progress of the canal. In addition, Altamirano watches battling political factions in his country spin ideas and events to their version of the truth.

Even Joseph Conrad has spun the truth of his early years to cover up a suicide attempt and now as a writer makes “a profitable profession out of lying.”

Altamirano learns that the truth is simply what one person writes and others accept. It is not magic, but the writing of an alternative version of events that has made him disappear, and so The Secret History of Costaguana is Altamirano’s attempt to write himself back into history. This novel is an intellectual treat that asks the reader to consider the ethics of writing, civil revolution, and the building of the Panama Canal.

Patricia O’Sullivan THE CAMELOT CONSPIRACY: The Kennedys, the Castros, and the CIA E. Duke Vincent, Overlook, 2011, $24.95, hb, 328pp, 9781590206393 Jimmy Hoffa said one kills a snake by cutting off its head, referring to the need to remove John F. Kennedy from the office of President in order to get to the source of opposition in Bobby Kennedy, attorney general during his brother’s presidency in the 1960s. But the trouble begins long before then, when Fidel Castro is solidifying his power in Cuba and seeking the complete support of the Soviet Union via Nikita Khrushchev. The Mafia has lost access to Cuban casinos and thereby a huge source of income. Growing in number, Cuban exiles are fomenting a revolutionary coup and are not beyond appropriating the support of the Kennedy Administration, FBI, CIA, and the Mob. The Kennedy Administration, on the other hand, wants this threat to its national security removed in a manner that doesn’t implicate its leaders.

Sound like a recipe for disaster? That it is.

Beginning with mobster Dante Amato and Cuban aristocrat Marissa Del Valle, whose parents were murdered in the Castro takeover, a conspiracy grows to assassinate Castro and invade Cuba.

Readers will be flipping the pages as each plan goes awry. Turncoats, policy opponents, and sheer stupidity fail to correctly estimate Castro’s intelligence net. The Mob’s target changes and again is foiled because of leaks. Was Lee Harvey Oswald the sole killer of John F. Kennedy? Read this novel, based on a combination of all available evidence, and decide as you jettison through as much appalling fact and fiction about the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis and Kennedy’s assassination. Did no one person know what the other was doing? E. Duke Vincent through this work of historical fiction invites the reader to make the call.

Viviane Crystal

THE QUIET TWIN Dan Vyleta, Bloomsbury, 2011, £11.99, pb, 277pp, 9781408807422 Set in an apartment block in Vienna at the beginning of World War II, this is a story of murder and mayhem, people with mysterious illnesses and neighbours spying on each other with the general fear and suspicion thus engendered. Professor Speckstein persuades Dr. Anton Beer, a medic who holds general surgeries in his apartment, to look into several local murders, including the brutal killing of his own dog. One of Dr. Beer’s patients is Zuzka, who lives with her uncle and from her apartment looks into the neighbours’ windows.

How will it all end?

The characters are all social misfits – a mimeartist and his paralysed twin-sister, a humpbacked girl with a drunken father; even Professor Speckstein has something to hide. Add to this the rest of the motley characters and the everencroaching rise of the Nazis and you have a dark story indeed.

It is the sort of book which might go down well with a reading group as there is much to discuss.

For instance, who is the quiet twin of the title? The reader seems to be left to work this out for himself, but I tend to think it was Austria, gradually being drawn into Hitler’s regime and quietly going along with his ideas of the perfect ‘Aryan’ race and world domination.

I read this book but have to confess that I did not enjoy it.

Marilyn Sherlock BLACK ORCHID BLUES Persia Walker, Akashic, 2011, $15.95, pb, 270pp, 9781936070909 The title says it all. Black Orchid Blues is the sad, sweet sound of a mellow saxophone wafting around the tables of the smoky Cinnamon Club, the jazz blues venue in the heart of Harlem where Persia Walker begins her third mystery story set in Harlem’s Roaring ’20s free-for-all.

Lanie Price, society columnist, tells the story – her story, actually. It begins with her interview of the Cinnamon Club’s star performer, the glamorous transvestite billed as the Black Orchid.

The interview literally explodes as a trench-coated, machine-gun toting thug shoots up the Cinnamon Club and drags the Orchid away. And this is just for starters. Lanie has a bent for investigative reporting, and when the kidnapper fails to demand a ransom, she takes on the investigation, wading through Harlem’s demimonde to piece the crime together. The kaleidoscope clicks, but too late for Lanie to escape the kidnapper’s trap – which propels her into the perfect climax: surprising, exciting, and logical.

What I liked most about this book was its mood: sassy and sexy, kind of sensitive, not unlike the blues at all. The story itself is classic crime fiction with well-placed clues for readers to follow and whose characters are drawn with a dexterous hand. Black Orchid Blues is never slow moving, but behind its rapid beat, you always hear the strains of 20th Century

a sad, sweet story. This is a winner.

Lucille Cormier THE GERMAN BOY Patricia Wastvedt, Viking, 2011, £12.99, pb, 357pp, 9780670919420 Elisabeth Mander’s life is in turmoil. It’s 1947, and her dead sister’s teenage son, Stefan Landau, is coming to live with her family. Traumatised by his experiences as a member of the Hitler Youth in war-torn Germany, Stefan brings with him only a few possessions salvaged from the wreckage of his former home.

These include a painting of a girl with flamecoloured hair, signed by the artist Michael Ross – a name Elisabeth is only too familiar with. Stefan’s presence in England evokes poignant memories in her and threatens to uncover the secret and lies on which her family life is based.

This novel is not entirely what I expected from the blurb. It is not primarily about the problems Stefan has as a result of growing up in an increasingly socialist Germany, nor is it purely the story of Elisabeth’s tenuous relationship with Michael, though both these elements play a part.

At its heart, it is a story of sibling rivalry between Elisabeth and her wayward older sister, Karen – a relationship that encompasses love, jealousy, misunderstandings, resentment, self-sacrifice and betrayal.

The characterisation is complex and

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contradictory, which is what makes the central characters so real. For instance, there is the contrast between the letters Karen writes, apparently toeing the party line and claiming to be happily married, and the reality of the oppressive atmosphere that actually surrounds her. Add to that Elisabeth’s reactions to Karen’s letters, coloured by her own experiences, past and present, and you end up with something truly multi-faceted.

This is the sort of book that had me turning back to the beginning even before I had finished it, to see how all the elements fitted together. I also intend to seek out Wastvedt’s Orange Prize longlisted first novel, The River.

Highly recommended.

Jasmina Svenne THE WOUNDED HEART David Witshire, Robert Hale, 2011, £18.99, hb, 223pp, 9780709092056 Oh joy! A properly constructed and satisfying story of devotion through the tribulations of war and illness. Though a beautifully presented book, one has to wait until page four to find who it is about and seven pages before we know what he looks like. But it is an easy reading wartime romance and a tender falling-in-love story.

Disturbingly the book flashes forwards and back; starting today it goes back to World War II. Maybe its complexity would put readers off, but not me. I roared through it quickly with all senses

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E

Jenny Wingfield, Random House, 2011, $25.00, hb, 328pp, 9780385344081 Samuel Lake and his family are used to moving to a different town every year. Samuel is a preacher, and though he is passionate about his calling, his opinions sometimes rub his parishoners the wrong way. For the first time in his career, Samuel has not received an assignment, and he returns to his childhood home in Columbia County, Arkansas to live with his wife Willadee’s family. Their return coincides with the shocking suicide of Willadee’s father, the Moses family patriarch, leaving the family to regroup and determine what to do next. Samuel’s return sets off a series of events with unusual and unexpected consequences for the Moses family and the community at large.

Despite the title, this novel is less about Samuel Lake than about the sprawling Moses family that he married into. Wingfield’s characters, both children and adults, are vivid and believable. There’s a darkness to this novel that is almost Faulknerian, a sinister undercurrent lurking just below the surface. Wingfield captures the atmosphere of rural Arkansas in the late 1950s – when she describes the Lake children playing in the summer heat, or Samuel’s tent revival, it’s easy to feel that you are there. There is a villain who is spectacular in his villainy, and a lot of other characters who inhabit a moral middle ground, neither wholly good nor wholly bad, but owners of their personal destiny.

It’s rare that I read a novel in one sitting, but I did with this one. The Homecoming of Samuel Lake is a marvelous debut from a strong new voice in American fiction.

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alert. Though it has short chapters of about five pages, it has long sentences to reveal an excellent story of an awakening romance.

Mike Gibson is an officer recruit in the RAMC. David Wiltshire has remarkable recall of the events of the first D-Day attempt on 5th June 1944.

The book is a good example of parallel action as young lovers endure two separate war situations. It spans the heights and depths of human emotions, seeing them through the hell of separation and the desperate horrors of war. Unusually, on rare occasions they are able to enjoy each other in Normandy.

This is a tremendous story of devotion through the worst of war to Alzheimer’s and cancer and a terrifying yet loving decision at the very spot in France where they had enjoyed each other briefly 60 years earlier.

This story will bring tears and hope to the most jaded of older readers still enjoying life. It did to me. Anyone of advanced years in a love marriage cannot fail to be moved.

Geoffrey Harfield THE ROCK HOLE Reavis Z. Wortham, Poisoned Pen Press, 2011, $24.95, hb, 292pp, 9781590588840 / $14.95, pb, 292pp, 9781590588864 In 1964, ten-year-old Top arrives in a small Texas town to live with his grandfather, the county constable. Tagging after his grandfather, Top spends his first hours in Center Springs examining a dog who has been tortured. Before long, a killer is stalking Top, and his grandfather is struggling to find the murderer and to understand the changes in the world around him.

The mystery, developing in a long string of horrific brutalities, threads through the novel, connecting a prodigious amount of country storytelling on the way. In spite of its rough surfaces, this is an absorbing book, laying out a world just barely over the horizon from 2011, when there was a black side of town and a white side and Indians were lucky to live anywhere at all, when a man could ponder “whether the world would go to hell before all the cotton was in.” This is a white man’s world, but the cracks are showing.

Throughout, scenes of hunting, farming, and family life sizzle with detail and immediacy. The dialog is spicy with country humor and color, and Wortham knows how to keep his story moving.

The Rock Hole is an unnerving but fascinating read, and the recent history it brings us is a caution to our own times both about the distance we’ve come in some areas and the perils of complacency.

Cecelia Holland THE WARSAW ANAGRAMS Richard Zimler, Corsair, 2011, £7.99, pb, 320pp, 9781849013697 / Overlook, 2011, $25.95, hb, 336pp, 9781590200889 The Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Warsaw 1940, a world of almost half a million living dead, is the setting for Richard Zimler’s latest book.

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quarter were the ‘first deniers’ and therefore unable to comprehend that the situation into which they were being forced was the first stage towards ethnic cleansing.

Erik Cohen did not interpret the exile correctly, did not live cautiously, did not leave the city, did not leave Poland. The elderly psychiatrist moved into his niece’s apartment in the Jewish quarter before being ordered to do so, living there with her and his nine-year-old great-nephew, Adam. One day in the winter of 1941, Adam, restless from staying indoors in a freezing flat, ventured outside; he did not return. The following morning his mutilated body was discovered entwined within the barbed wire near the crossing point. His great uncle Erik was determined to find the killer and the reason for Adam’s death.

To set such a dark subject into an already midnight black situation makes for a vivid if depressing read, particularly when it is revealed early on that Erik has already died. The author describes with clarity of observation the atmosphere of human degradation and chronicles the loss of hope eventually experienced by those incarcerated within the walls.

Zimler writes within the narrative of The Warsaw Anagrams that ‘when you finish the last page of a detective novel a door locks and therefore you cannot get stuck inside.’ One hopes he is correct in this instance.

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THE SCHOOL OF NIGHT Louis Bayard, Henry Holt, 2011, $25.00, pb, 320pp, 9780805090697 / John Murray, 2011, £17.99, hb, 352pp, 9781848542181 Discredited Elizabethan scholar Henry Cavendish is tasked by a ruthless antiquities collector to recover a missing letter which was stolen by Henry’s friend Alonzo Wax. The letter dates to the 1600s and concerns a group of brilliant men who comprise the secret School of Night. We learn of the group, which counts among its members such notables as Walter Raleigh and Christopher Marlowe, in flashback through the actions of Thomas Harriot, who has secrets of his own. When Alonzo Wax turns up apparently dead, a search for the letter ensues, which leads Henry through a labyrinth of deception and death right up to the ancient home of Harriot himself.

More thriller than historical novel, in the mode of The Da Vinci Code, the pace is quick and the plot complex, with turns and twists aplenty. It’s a classic page turner, exceedingly well written, with sharply drawn characters and intelligent prose.

The historical aspects, although a relatively minor portion of the work, are interesting, especially suited for those already drawn to the Elizabethan period. Common to this genre, there is a payoff at the end, which may leave the reader either fascinated or incredulous.

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Ken Kreckel THE LIFE OF POLYCRATES AND OTHER STORIES FOR ANTIQUATED CHILDREN Brendan Connell, Chomu, 2011, $14.00/£11.00, pb, 266pp, 9781907681042 Eleven tales are collected in The Life of Polycrates and other Stories for Antiquated Children, ranging in period from ancient Greece to the 20th century.

The stories take place in Germany, Italy, and the Mediterranean, each detailing the human condition, or more particularly, a human frailty. These run the gamut from mundane (a shoe fetish in “Maledict Michela,” a quietly desperate motorcycle stuntman in “Peter Payne”) to the outright violent (“The Life of Captain Gareth Caernarvon,” “Molton Rage,” “The Life of Polycrates”). Weird happenings occur in foreign cities in “The Chymical Wedding of Des Esseintes,” and the strange life of a truly pious medieval holy man is detailed in “Brother of the Holy Ghost.”

“The Life of Polycrates” is the central piece of the collection, and the tale of the Greek ruler is a chronicle of lust for power, vanity, and pride, but also of nobility. The story is cunningly told in straight narration, epistles or letters, graffito and song; “Said Anacreon: Love, like a smith, hits with a huge hammer.” Many of Brendan Connell’s bizarre and intriguing tales were previously published in journals and anthologies. These are brought together with “The Life of Polycrates” and other stories original to this collection.

Eva Ulett THE BRIDE’S HOUSE Sandra Dallas, St. Martin’s, 2011, $24.99/C$28.99 hb, 352pp, 9780312600167 The only way to get rich in a Colorado mining town in 1880 is to strike gold or marry a rich man, like Nealie’s lover, Will; but he’s already married.

Charlie, who is as poor as Nealie is, wants to marry her – even after she gets pregnant by Will. Nealie has no choice; she accepts. Then Charlie buys the Bride’s House for her, the handsome Victorian she used to dream of living in with Will. Where does Charlie get the money?

The Bride’s House proves to be an unhappy home. Charlie becomes a controlling, secretive father to Pearl, refusing to allow her to marry a man not of his choosing. Eventually Pearl does marry, however, and she has a daughter, Susan.

After Charlie’s death, Pearl stumbles on documents he had hidden in the Bride’s House.

She is shocked by the revelations but when fate deals Susan a difficult hand, Pearl knows what is at stake. Should she tell Susan everything or take a chance on her daughter’s wisdom? The wrong decision can ruin Susan’s – and Pearl’s – life.

As often happens in generational stories, the first character, Nealie, is more vivid than the others. The rough life of a mining camp makes Nealie’s dilemma especially poignant. We are told less about the secretive Pearl, by design, and Susan’s problems are predictable. Excitement lags

until, late in the book, Pearl plays a wild card that gives the plot meaning. Fans of Sandra Dallas and readers who enjoy multigenerational stories with shocking family secrets will be entertained.

Jeanne Greene THE LITTLE WOMEN LETTERS Gabrielle Donnelly, Touchstone, 2011, $25/ C$28.99, hb, 368pp, 9781451617184 / Michael Joseph, 2011, £6.99, pb, 448pp, 9780718156589 As much as I wanted to enjoy and enthusiastically recommend this book (being a great lover of this American classic), I’m afraid it left me a bit cold.

I suppose anyone who attempts to connect a contemporary story with an old classic sets him- or herself up for quite a challenge. In this case, the plot revolves around the imagined American-British descendants of the Little Women’s March family discovering Jo March’s letters in their attic.

Lulu, the rebellious middle sister, finds her great-great-grandmother’s letters when her mother sends her to the attic in search of some old family recipes, and while slowly savoring them, comes to find that she shares many traits with her ancestor.

The letters, written as Jo meets her beloved husband and shares her observations on love and life with her sisters, take both Lulu and the reader back to the original story.

The book’s chatty, informal dialogue in the form of good-natured, flippant bickering between the sisters would have been an effective storytelling device had it not been overused. The connection between the rebellious middle Atwater sister and the unconventional and tomboyish Jo March, as well as those between the other sisters of the two stories, seemed contrived. Each was too stereotyped to connect with: Emma, the downto-earth, sensible eldest child; Lulu, of course, the sarcastic, ungrounded, middle child; and Sophie, the outspoken, attention-grabbing youngest.

I realize that connections to the original (through contemporary eyes) were being made through the relationships between the sisters and their outgoing American mother, Fee – and among each other – however, these connections were not subtle enough to engage this reader.

Other reviewers have enjoyed this book, and I do recommend that fans of Little Women give it a try; perhaps you will feel differently than I. Andrea Connell CENTURIES OF JUNE Keith Donohue, Crown, 2011, $24.00, hb, 352pp, 9780307450289 Bestselling author Keith Donohue (Angels of Destruction) delivers a new spellbinding tale with Centuries of June, a perfect blend of historical fiction and magical realism. The story begins with the narrator waking to find himself lying in the doorway of his bathroom with a blow to the head. He comes to and realizes there is an older gentleman present, sitting at the edge of the bathtub. As he tries to recall what happened, the narrator is visited by eight female storytellers, each relating her life story, each from a different time 20th Century — Multi-period

period in American history.

The novel is based around Gustav Klimt’s painting “The Virgin,” which depicts several beautiful women entangled with one another in a colorful quilt. Donohue is gifted at bringing each character to life and drawing the reader into the different stories through his use of historical detail, word choice, and wittiness. The women’s stories include such topics as Native American folklore, the slave trade, and New York. Readers are taken on a journey through American history and across the American landscape by embarking on a wild ride through the narrator’s mind, without actually leaving the bathroom of his home.

The novel has a dreamlike quality that truly captivates, making the reader wonder what direction the author will take and how everything will come together. Centuries of June is an unusual and engrossing novel that I wholeheartedly recommend.

Troy Reed THIS NEW AND POISONOUS AIR Adam McOmber, BOA Editions Ltd., 2011, $14.00, pb, 180pp, 9781934414514 McOmber’s collection of short stories has been likened to the writings of Edgar Allan Poe and Isak Dinesen. Although, for me, McOmber’s stories never reached the gothic macabre of these authors, they were tinged with the bizarre enough that the comparison was apt.

There are ten stories, ranging in time and setting from 18th-century France to late 20th-century America. Some, like “There Are No Bodies Such as This,” a short account of Madame Tussaud’s early career, are fairly straightforward historical fiction. Others, like the curious “Fall, Orpheum,” told in first person plural, border more on the fantastic. When the lost and lonely stumble into the Orpheum, they literally become part of the small theater.

McOmber does an excellent job of creating multilayered characters, all somehow ill-at-ease in the situations in which they find themselves thrust.

I did feel that some of the stories sacrifice character arc for the sake of deeper characterization, though I suspect this was a frustration on my part in wanting to follow the characters further than the pages allowed. The stories themselves aren’t as dark or grim as I would have thought, given the comparisons to Poe, but beneath each runs a subtext that a darkness resides in us all.

As Madame Tussaud says about the Chamber of Horrors, “There is no fantasy about it ... It is an embryo, a showing of what is to come.” Those who like literary, slipstream fiction will enjoy this collection.

Jessica Brockmole CHILDISH LOVES Benjamin Markovits, W. W. Norton, 2011, $14.95/£10.99, pb, 288pp, 9780393330236 A writer sits down to write poetry or a novel.

The thoughts and emotions swirling through this process are actually miscellaneous experiences, Multi-period

thinking, memories (real and imagined), relationship interactions, dreams, and more from the immediate and far past, the present, and even the future.

In this fiction, Ben Markovits learns a teaching colleague and old friend, Peter Sullivan, has died, leaving behind two novels about the renowned poet Byron: Imposture and A Quiet Adjustment.

Ben is immediately struck by the similarity in their stories; both had subtle but well-known reputations for sexual proclivities toward boys. At the time Byron lived in England, being convicted of such a crime could lead to a death sentence. Ben’s own writing career has been so successful that he takes some time off to research both the novelist and the poet. Why he is so intrigued with what causes these tendencies and how they manage to leak into writing?

Peter’s works depict how Byron mixed love with women with “attractions” toward boys, struggling to appear normal. However, Byron’s early poetry had allusions and symbols that revealed his true desires. Eventually, Byron leaves behind a child and broken hearts of both sexes as he flees England for Europe, where he publishes the two cantos that mark him as a famous poet, “Childe Harold” and “The Prisoner of Chillon.” There he also meets other famous, intelligent, and tragic authors.

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Success and failure, childhood and adulthood, desire and suppression of sexual urges, friendship and betrayal, and more abound herein. For those wanting an in-depth look at the intimate, inner life of a bohemian writer, Childish Loves is an intriguing, carefully plotted, revealing historical portrait.

Viviane Crystal THE BOOK OF CROWS Sam Meekings, Polygon, 2011, £14.99, pb, 365pp, 9781846971723 In ancient China of 2000 years ago, a young girl, Jade, is kidnapped and sold to the Whorehouse of a Thousand Sighs. Having no means of escape, she finds friendship with the other girls and settles in to this new life. When an injured soldier arrives at the brothel, Jade takes care of him, intrigued by a box that the soldier jealously guards. It is rumoured that there is a book containing all the secrets of the world, everything that has happened or is about to happen.

In the 20th century, a suspicious landslide near Lanzhou and the disappearance of a bureaucrat’s friend sets him on a mission to discover the truth about the suspicious dealings of the Black Light Mining Company. Obstacles are set in his path at every turn; at the heart of the mystery is the Book

E D I TORS’ CH OICE

Michael Parker, Algonquin, 2011, $23.95, hb, 272pp, 9781565126824 Although she is one of the best-educated and most brilliant women of her time, the history books are silent on the ultimate fate of Theodosia Burr Alston, daughter of infamous Vice President Aaron Burr. On December 31, 1812, she set sail from South Carolina for a reunion with her beloved father in New York and was never heard from again. Parker picks up where history left off with his version of Theo’s story.

This is not just Theo’s story, however. The timeline switches between the early 19th century and the late 20th with one element tethering both: Yaupon Island.

A hundred and fifty years after fate tosses Theo upon the shores of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, her descendants, polar opposite sisters Maggie and Whaley, are the last vestiges of human civilization on the once-populous island. They have a strangely symbiotic (perhaps parasitic) relationship with the island’s only other occupant, Woodrow Thornton, descendant of Theo’s freed slave.

Parker has an undeniable gift for characterization, offering convincing personalities and inner lives through spot-on dialogue and expressive prose.

Maggie, Whaley, and Woodrow provide unique perspectives on the same events, each colored by a different worldview, melded only by the prism of the island, a place none of them can ever see their way to leaving. Though theirs is the majority of the story, I found myself much more drawn to Theo’s tale than that of her descendants. Maggie, Whaley, and Woodrow’s relationships are absorbing, but they’re extremely unpleasant to behold – failures, cruelty, and terrible loneliness make up their lives, lives seldom relieved by sympathy from those sharing their island isolation.

That island is almost like a character in itself; the immersive atmosphere Parker crafts is perfect, and the island is as unwelcoming as its last inhabitants. Highly recommended; just don’t expect to feel like clicking your heels together after reading.

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of Crows.

A Franciscan monk travelling the Silk Road relates his deathbed confession to a young colleague.

He has for years searched the 5th gospel, aka The Book of Crows. To know the future, to have total knowledge, he believes must benefit mankind.

A grieving Chinese poet is summoned to the emperor’s palace. Dare he tell the emperor that the mythical Book of Crows is just a myth?

This is an allegorical tale featuring a disparate group of people connected by the mythical Book of Crows. A book spanning the millennia and told in instalments but not in chronological order makes for a tedious read, with the reader having to return to previous sections to refresh the memory where the last one finished. Any one of the individual stories could be a self-contained book.

Ann Oughton THE SANDALWOOD TREE Elle Newmark, Atria, 2011, $25.99, hb, 368pp, 9781416590590 / Doubleday, 2011, £12.99, pb, 416pp, 9780385615426 It’s 1947, and Americans Martin and Evie Mitchell and their five-year-old son are in India.

Martin is one of the first recipients of the Fulbright scholarship. His project is to document the end of the British Raj and India’s division into Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India. Evie sees their time in India as an adventure and hopes to restore her marriage to its happier state, before Martin returned from his service in World War II. He is scarred by the brutality he saw during the war and won’t talk about it with Evie. He goes out every day to work, and Evie stays home in their little bungalow and cleans obsessively.

During her cleaning, Evie stumbles upon a cache of hidden letters that tell part of the story of a forbidden love between a Victorian Englishwoman and an Indian man in 1857. Evie is fascinated and curious about this woman, the previous occupant of her house, who was determined to live life on her own terms, and she searches out more information about her. Along the way, she comes to understand more about the Indian attitude towards life, which helps her deal with the problems in her own life.

Newmark does a wonderful job depicting life in India during two very different time periods, the British Raj and the British withdrawal. The main characters, Martin and Evie, are interesting and likeable, albeit stressed. In addition, the supporting characters are richly drawn and add an element of humor. A very enjoyable story.

Jane Kessler BEFORE EVER AFTER Samantha Sotto, Crown, 2011, $23.00/C$25.95, hb, 294pp, 9780307719874 Get ready for the unexpected when you pick up this offbeat, incredibly enjoyable novel, which will transport you on a memorable journey through Europe old and new. American expat Shelley Gallus had put her life on hold after her husband, Max, was killed in a Madrid train bombing three years earlier. When a man who is his spitting 68 | Reviews | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

image rings her doorbell in London, claiming to be Max’s grandson, Paolo, Shelley refuses to believe this time-bending impossibility. That is, until the similarities between Max and Paolo’s beloved and seemingly ageless “Nonno” become too profound to ignore.

She and Paolo board a plane for the Philippines, where he believes Max has resurfaced. Shelley’s reminiscences about how she and Max first met form the heart of the novel, and although its structure jumps around a lot, the story is easy to follow. Max had been her guide on a laid-back package tour through the back roads of Europe that Shelley joined on impulse.

As the group’s VW van rumbles along from the steps of Montmartre to Switzerland’s Emmental Valley, and from the red-roofed skyline of Slovenia’s capital to the shadow of Mt. Vesuvius, Max recounts folkloric vignettes from history, each one set further back in time. Each is a perfect little slice of the past featuring ordinary people, their difficult times, and how they fought to save their loved ones. Back on the plane with Paolo, Shelley realizes that perhaps Max’s stories were more than that. Perhaps they were his way of telling the truth about himself.

Sotto’s deceptively slim debut is as rich and satisfying as one of Max’s famous baked egg and cheese breakfasts, minus the calories and cholesterol. Its tone moves from zany to thoughtful to painfully sad and back again, all the while

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evoking the lengths people travel for love.

Sarah Johnson MY WIFE’S AFFAIR Nancy Woodruff, Berkley, 2011, $15.00, pb, 304pp, 9780425239025 Peter, a financial writer and failed novelist, takes his wife and three sons from New Jersey to modernday London for his new job. His wife, Georgie, a once-actress now restless homemaker, is excited to be in the historic city. Through friends she lands an acting part, since her children will be in school all day. She thrives again in the exciting world of the theater she’d enjoyed before becoming the mother of three rambunctious boys. She plunges into her role as the 18th-century actress Dora Jordan, the longtime mistress of the future King William IV. Peter supports her endeavors, wishing to make her happy, but Georgie’s role starts to consume her.

Piers, the older, debonair writer of the one-woman show, seduces her attention. She is torn between her love for her children and husband and the thrill of her new fulfilling life.

Narrated by Peter, the story unfolds as seen from hindsight, his understandable anger at the affair, and his terrible guilt for the outcome which cumulates in tragedy. Peter seems too omniscient at times, but the beautiful prose and engrossing emotion will make you overlook this fault. He’s sympathetic as a laid-back Midwesterner who still can’t believe this beautiful New York woman

E D I TORS’ CH OICE

Alex Epstein, Tradewind, 2011, $12.95/£8.95, pb, 300pp, 9781896580630 In the beginning she is Anna. Her father is Gorlois, lord of Trigos, and her mother is Ygraine, the beautiful Roman from Brittany. When Uter Pendragon kills Gorlois and takes Ygraine as his wife, 11-year-old Anna must flee Britannia for her life. Her mother sends her to Ireland and gives her a new name: Morgan, born from the sea.

In Ireland, Morgan becomes many people. First, she is the cousin of a minor chieftain, then she is a slave, then a Christian, then a queen. But in her center, she is always Anna/Morgan, daughter of the murdered Gorlois, hungry for vengeance. Morgan bides her time in Ireland, learning from each of her incarnations and gaining power. The land speaks to her, and she to it, and Morgan grows a magical relationship with the elements, a relationship she will need if she is ever to return to Britannia, slay Uter, and reclaim her inheritance of Din Tagell.

In The Circle Cast, Epstein skillfully blends the coming-of-age, the fairy, the revenge, and the legend.

Through the poetry of Epstein’s writing, I could feel the power of the old magic that Morgan evokes when she goes “between the worlds,” and I could taste the salt sea air as she sails between her two lands.

Revenge is the sustaining force in Morgan’s lost years, and success in battle and magic are what give her power. Epstein holds true to the legendary woman Morgan le Fay in creating this story of the Anna/Morgan child. Fans of Arthurian legend will love this book, and so will everyone else. Great characters, great writing, great story.

Elizabeth Caulfield Felt Multi-period— Paranormal & Historical Fantasy

married him, and her betrayal nearly destroys him. The story is not really historical, though Mrs. Jordan’s speeches as her career soars, her affair deepens with the duke, and then unravels mimic the turbulent emotions Georgie is suffering. I found the novel difficult to put down.

Diane Scott Lewis

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alternate history

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WHEN ANGELS WEPT: A What-If History of the Cuban Missile Crisis Eric G. Swedin, Potomac Books, 2010, $27.50, hb, 307pp, 9781597975179 I’m told the author of this book would like to see this volume shelved in history rather than science fiction/alternate history. And it is difficult to call this a novel. It reads like the true history it pretends to be, footnoted and full of the technical (and accurate) lists of weaponry that so delight military history buffs. Except for a vignette or two – a housewife who hand digs a shelter in her back yard to the derision of her neighbors only to have it save her family; the vignettes of the antagonists, Khrushchev and Kennedy, are particularly well drawn – we do not follow characters in a novelistic fashion. The closest we come to this may be the

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persona of the author, coincidentally the same name as that on the cover, whose family has fled to Australia in the less-damaged southern hemisphere after the dreaded Fire.

None of this leads to dull reading, however.

What if the flight that had discovered the Soviet arms on our close Caribbean neighbor in late 1962 had flown two weeks later, when the missiles were already armed? What if a Dr. Strangelove-like Russian had persisted, all communication with his superiors down, in his suicide mission to destroy New Orleans long before Katrina did so? Imagine life in a world where Kennedy’s dream of a man on the moon never materialized, the world far too busy dealing with the – literal – fallout and millions dead. Sobering.

Ann Chamberlin

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timeslip

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THE MAP OF TIME Felix J. Palma, Atria, 2011, $26.00, hb, 624pp, 9781439167397 / HarperCollins, 2011, £12.99, pb, 528pp, 9780007344123 Time in this novel seems to spin in spiral patterns, weaving past, present, and future.

Innocently enough, the first part of these interconnected events begins with the aristocrat Andrew Harrington seeing a painting of a beautiful

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E

Maria Dahvana Headley, Dutton, 2011, $25.95/C$30.00, hb, 416pp, 9780525952176 / Bantam Press, 2011, £12.99, pb, 448pp, 9780593067048 The passionate, tangled, and tragic story of Cleopatra and Marc Antony receives a new and surprising twist in this engrossing novel. Did Cleopatra really take her own life – her weapon a poisonous asp – while Alexandria lay under siege by the forces of Octavian, as history records? Or did the queen somehow manage to elude death’s sting in order to be with her one true love, Marc Antony?

Novelist Headley blends a well-detailed history of the early days of the Roman Empire and its conquest of Egypt with fantasy, romance, and the supernatural to imagine what could really have happened to Cleopatra.

After learning that her husband, Marc Antony, has killed himself, thinking she was already dead, Cleopatra makes a pact with the ancient bloodthirsty goddess Sekhmet that she hopes will save his soul. But what price will she pay? She could never have imagined the immortal, savage killing machine that she would become as she takes her vengeance upon those that have murdered her family.

Her quest for retribution takes her through Egypt to Rome, and even to the Underworld, and it triggers events that tie witches and sorcerers, ghosts, gods and goddesses to her fate. All she hungers for is to be reunited, soul to soul, with her beloved Antony, but the very fate of the world is at risk.

This is a spellbinding, highly entertaining novel, a wonderful feat of the imagination not to be missed.

John Kachuba Alternate History — Paranormal & Historical Fantasy

woman. Although he discovers she is a common whore, he is so star-struck he must find her. Very quickly they fall passionately in love. Andrew’s love opens up suppressed feelings in Marie Kelly she had forgotten existed.

But that doesn’t stop the horrific event that shortly follows. It is only through the interference of a caring friend that brings Marie back to life for Andrew, a scheme involving the time travel made so popular in H.G. Wells’ famous novel, The Time Machine. Andrew moves from suicidal intent to sheer bliss!

Elsewhere, a phenomenon occurring in Africa creates a new peaceful world. Later on we meet a British character who will claim he can actually convey the people of the 1800s into the year 2000.

But the trip for one female character, who intends to journey on “Murray’s Time Travel” machine, includes wooing the famous Captain Shackleton, a warrior who defeats the warlike automaton.

Readers will be astonished as this portion of conflict unfolds with murder and mayhem for some but passionate love for others. Finally, the conflict involves the inventor of the time machine plotting with the renowned authors H.G. Wells, Henry James, and Bram Stoker. They learn that gifted individuals are transported to past or future in climactic times. This plot is complex in a way that displays this author’s very literate talents, causing the reader to race through the pages to discover just how important time, escape, and change is – or isn’t. Astounding, and sure to be a bestseller!

Viviane Crystal

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paranormal & | historical fantasy

IMMORTAL WITH A KISS Jacqueline Lepore, William Morrow, 2011, $13.99, pb, 346pp, 9780061878152 In 1862, Emma Andrews has recently discovered that she is Damphir, vampire hunter.

Following Descent into Dust, this second novel in the series focuses on Emma’s adventures in the Lake District, attempting to uncover mystifying events involving rumors about a Cyprian Queen.

While helpful for back story, it is not necessary to read the first before tackling this novel. This time, Emma poses as a teacher at the girls’ school her mother once attended. Eager to investigate possible vampire activity but also anxious to learn more about her mother, Emma quickly discovers much more going on. She soon gains assistance from old friends Sebastian, Father Luke, and love-interest Valerian Fox to help solve the mystery.

Fabulously gothic, this story provides a unique and new twist to vampire legends. Lepore has obviously spent many hours researching lore, and the creativity in which she presents these ideas is intriguing. However, the characters in the story are a bit stilted. Emma does not seem to be your typical vampire slayer – she is somewhat liable HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Reviews | 69

to swooning, leans heavily on her friends for help, and seems to be a bit of a simpering miss.

Recommended for the lore and a plot filled with dark secrets, but not recommended for those looking for a strong and admirable heroine.

Rebecca Cochran AN EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Tor, 2011, $29.99, hb, 400pp, 9780765331038 The 24th volume of Yarbro’s Saint-Germain series is sure to please her fans, but it’s also likely to lure in new readers (as it did this reviewer). This slice of the count’s millennia-long life finds him in 13th-century Bohemia, exiled by Konig Bela of Hungary to protect his native land. Known here as Rakoczy Ferancsi, he is sent to use his alchemy skills to provide jewels to Konige Kunigunde while Konig Otakar is away. The supernaturally charming Rakoczy is unable to avoid attracting the konige’s love-starved ladies, who soon seek his private attentions. Giving in to their advances provides him with the sustenance he needs, but it also brings danger. Rakoczy is watched by many, and the penalty for such liaison is burning at the stake, a death to which even a vampire is susceptible.

Those who don’t enjoy vampire novels shouldn’t be too quick to dismiss this one; Saint-Germain’s

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immortality is not the focus but the catalyst through which the reader experiences life in medieval Prague. Slow in both pace and plot, this is a novel of observation rather than action; through the count’s ageless eyes the reader sees a vivid picture of the setting and the people in it. This includes lengthy passages on everyday activities and constant descriptions of clothing, food, and decor; some will find this tedious, but to others it will be a feast of historical detail.

Recommended if you’re looking for something a little different in a setting not often explored.

Heather Domin

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children & young adult

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ANYA’S WAR Andrea Alban, Feiwel & Friends, 2011, $16.99/ C$19.50, hb, 188pp, 9780312370930 In the summer of 1937, Anya Rosen and her family have settled into life in colonial Shanghai.

The year before, in a terrifying scene with a Communist official, her father, a well-to-do Odessa businessman, refused to become a member

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E

Louise Marley, Kensington, 2011, $15.00/C$17.95, pb, 288pp, 9780758265678 Kristian North is a handsome, talented, and perpetually broke pianist who has lost everything important to him: his Julliard scholarship, his Ph.D. candidacy, and his beautiful girlfriend. Following months of preparation, someone grabs his spot in the Remote Research Foundation’s “transfer process,” a time-travel experiment that would allow him to observe the great 19th-century romantic composer, Johannes Brahms. Now, he is just another displaced musician earning a living in a bar and dreaming of what-mighthave-beens.

At a young age Frederica Bannister, the homely, spoiled daughter of wealthy parents, discovered money cannot buy love. Reacting to rejection, Frederica becomes obsessed with Brahms. When her father buys Frederica a place in the transfer experiment, she assures her place in music history.

Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms are internationally famous musicians, dear friends and keepers of her late husband Robert’s musical legacy.

But Clara and Hannes are in love; they plan a tryst in Italy. Frederica is shocked to discover Clara with Brahms and coldly usurps Clara’s body, intending to remain forever with Brahms.

Desperate to hold off a lawsuit, the Remote Research Foundation flies Kris to Italy. He watches Frederica take over the body of his muse, Clara Schumann. Alone, he must reverse Frederica’s plot.

This finely researched tale speculates on Brahms and Schumann’s relationship. The characters, setting and plot convince the reader of the veracity of the unfolding story. Unexpected plots and subplots and memorable characters keep the reader hooked from the opening sentence.

The Brahms Deception is one of the best books I have read in long time, and I recommend it very highly. I am looking forward to reading Mozart’s Blood, Marley’s previous novel.

Monica E. Spence 70 | Reviews | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

of the party. Afterward, flight was the only option.

Even in exile, Anya lives an upper-middleclass life in this busy Jewish enclave. She has a new bicycle, and bravely pedals everywhere, an expression of freedom dedicated to her heroine, Amelia Earhart. But although the Rosens are comfortable, no one is really happy. Anya’s opera star mother remains upset after her forced retirement, while Anya’s grandparents cling to their old-fashioned ways and present a constant challenge to the rest of the family. As Anya goes to school, develops crushes, and struggles to adapt to her exotic surroundings, she finds comfort in her new community – including Li Mei, the strongminded family servant. There is a unique and interesting “village” helping Anya grow up.

Although I never entirely warmed to the characters, Anya’s War was an intriguing look at three generations as seen through the eyes of a young teen during a dangerous time.

Juliet Waldron THE RABBIT GIRL M Arrigan, Frances Lincoln, 2011, £6.99, pb, 206pp, 9781847802 World War II. London is being blitzed nightly.

Ten-year-old Tony, a timid, reclusive child, has already moved to London from Ireland when his mother died, and now he’s being evacuated to a farm in the Lake District. He doesn’t want to go.

He wants to live quietly with his dad and keep rabbits. Instead, he must muck in (literally) on the farm.

Alice, however, an orphan and another evacuee, is delighted to be leaving ‘Aunty Bee’, who treats her like a skivvy. She meets Tony on the train, and they strike up an unlikely friendship. Later, they both meet Mrs H., an old lady with a passion for rabbits, who will have much to teach them.

Woven through Tony and Alice’s story is that of 21st-century Mallie, whose mum is out of work. Mallie works in a pet shop after school which enables her to buy her depressed mum a watercolour of a girl with a rabbit. How does the painting bring Tony’s past and Mallie’s present together? And what connection does it have with the famous children’s author, Beatrix Potter?

Mary Arrigan never goes for the obvious. She doesn’t pull her punches about the effects of war.

It’s frightening, dangerous and people get killed; and farming is hard and dirty work. Even though Tony moves on, he is still withdrawn and socially awkward. Mallie tries to engineer a romance between her mum and Steve from the pet shop, but, as in real life, her machinations go awry. This is no cosy story.

It is, however, a story of hope and change. There are a number of challenges for Tony and Mallie, and it is up to them to face them and move on. I think that children of nine plus, who like a good story with substance, should enjoy it.

Elizabeth Hawksley AFTERSHOCK Bernard Ashley, Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, Paranormal & Historical Fantasy — Children & YA

2011, £6.99, pb, 139pp, 9781847800558 In the 1950s, Makis, a young Greek boy, is brought to London by his mother after their home is destroyed by an earthquake. He faces problems of fitting into a community which is alien to his Greek home and helping his mother adjust to this new life. Although he struggles at first, he discovers that he can play football and is picked for the school team. When Makis is forced to make a choice between his mother and his team, he learns how difficult life can be.

The author has clearly researched the background to the story, both in Kefalonia at the time of the 1953 earthquake and Camden Town, London. Simple dialogue and descriptions of school life, playing football, and Greek culture are interwoven, capturing the period without distracting from the plot. The main character appears perceptive yet strong, capable of compassion and kindness but prepared to go to great lengths to achieve his objectives. The action is moving and explores the dilemmas faced by a young person who is struggling to achieve his own goals in an unfamiliar land.

Helen Papworth YOUR FRIEND IN FASHION, ABBY SHAPIRO Amy Axelrod, Holiday House, 2011, $17.95, hb, 251pp, 9780823423408 Abby’s mother tells her that she needs to use her own money to buy a Barbie doll, so Abby decides to go into business designing clothes. Aiming high, Abby solicits Jackie Kennedy, the fashionable wife of Senator Kennedy, as her first customer. But Abby’s letters to Jackie contain more than just drawings of outfits. Abby pours her heart out to Jackie about how she’s being teased at school for not being allowed to wear a bra, how her parents fight all the time, and how she is burdened by a terrible thing she did to two old ladies who live in her neighborhood.

Because the publisher tried to make Abby’s letters look as if they’d been handwritten in cursive, I found them difficult to read. I was also taken aback at the mean-spirited way Abby’s parents often spoke to her, especially her father. Overall, though, this was an engaging story with historical depth, interesting characters, wonderful comingof-age moments, and important lessons about inclusiveness and forgiveness.

Patricia O’Sullivan STRINGS ATTACHED Judy Blundell, Scholastic, 2011, $17.99, hb, 310pp, 9780545221269 Kit Corrigan lives to dance, hoping to become a Broadway star. Rejecting her family and her boyfriend Billy, Kit leaves Providence, Rhode Island, and moves to New York City. Eating only apples to survive, she’s stunned when Billy’s dad, Nate Benedict, a fancy trial lawyer, shows up with a key to an apartment that Kit can use. It’s not too long before Kit finds out what he wants in return: she is to be the link that will restore Nate and Paranormal & Historical Fantasy — Children & YA

Billy’s broken relationship. In the meantime, she is given the chance of a lifetime to step into the famous position of a Lido chorus dancer. All she has to do is comply by granting Nate increasingly frequent “favors.”

Kit’s insecurity, rooted in the death of her mother and her aunt’s disappearance, leads her into a thickening web of misunderstandings and betrayals. Tensions increase with the growing menace of the McCarthy hearings and the looming Korean War. Secrets are revealed, producing arguments, threats, murder, and unexpected deaths that hold the reader’s attention nonstop. Strings Attached is a gripping YA historical novel that is a riveting read for adults as well as teens.

Viviane Crystal THE PIRATE CAPTAIN’S DAUGHTER Eve Bunting, Sleeping Bear Press, 2011, $15.95, hb, 208pp, 9781585365265 In the late 1880s, Catherine lives respectably with her mother, letting friends and neighbors believe that her father is a navy captain. But Catherine’s father is really the captain of a pirate ship. Catherine has romantic notions of joining him one day. When her mother dies, her childhood dreams take on a life of their own. Catherine begs her father to let her dress as a boy and join his pirate crew. He helps her disguise herself as Charlie, a young sailor who can play pirate shanties. Once on board, she discovers the pirate life is brutal and

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dirty. To preserve his own authority, her father can’t protect her. In fact, both their lives are forfeit if her gender is discovered – girls are bad omens on pirate ships. Catherine/Charlie finds friends among the crew, particularly a handsome cabin boy. But she and her father also have enemies on the ship: two brothers who want a secret treasure belonging to her father.

Bunting has written a rollicking pirate yarn filled with action and delicious pirate details.

Catherine’s transformation from young miss to ship’s musician was reasonably credible. Bunting wasn’t afraid to answer those questions that all readers ask themselves (where will Catherine pee?). Catherine’s romantic interest in William the cabin boy was handled deftly and was believable.

Occasionally Catherine’s motivations and emotions did seem slightly off-kilter, but this did not detract from my enjoyment of this page-turner.

Michaela MacColl A TANGLE OF MAGICKS (UK) / RENEGADE MAGIC (US) Stephanie Burgis, Templar, 2011, £6.99, pb, 304pp, 9781848774704 / Atheneum, Apr. 2012, $16.99, hb, 336pp, 9781416994497 Bath, 1803. Twelve-year-old Kat Stephenson has inherited a talent for magic from her mother.

It’s dangerous stuff and, several times, Kat’s hot temper had led her to try spells with disastrous consequences. As a result, the Order of the

E D I TORS’ CH OICE

Jules Watson, Spectra, 2011, $15/C$17, pb, 544pp, 9780553384659 Other writers have tackled Ireland’s Iron Age legends and their compelling magic, a magic thoroughly mixed with the earthy business of cattle raids and ale.

But no one has done it better than Jules Watson in The Raven Queen. This novel brings Maeve, a goddess and perhaps a historical battle queen of Iron Age Ireland, so convincingly to life that she lingers long after the last page is turned and the book finished.

Raven Queen begins with the young queen fleeing her third husband, King Conor of Ulaid, whose greed has corrupted him. Now he threatens not only Maeve but all of Ireland. Conor was number three for Maeve because her father, the king of Connacht (Connaught), serially married her off to various Irish kings as power politics demanded. Maeve, in response, hardened her heart against the hurt of a world that never stopped using her. Promiscuous by necessity, she doesn’t trust anyone, and few trust her. Neither her ailing father nor her brutal brother welcomes her home. She’ll fight her brother in order to rule Connacht, for she believes she’ll better protect her people than he could.

In between her political maneuverings and bloody, harsh, yet mystical battles, Maeve stumbles upon friendship and then love with a blinded druid, Ruán, who is wrestling with how his hubris caused the death of a child. The Sídhe, spirits or fairies – who describe themselves as a bridge between “Thisworld” and the world beyond – help him. Ruán, in turn, urges Maeve to surrender to love and to find a softer part of her own nature, loving rather than striving.

Watson masterfully lures the reader into Ruán and Maeve’s world, a world that is real and magical at the same time: brutal, grand, and lovely. I loved it.

Kristen Hannum HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Reviews | 71

Guardians, who monitor magic for safety, has banned Kat from practicing. Things are made worse by Kat’s sister Angeline being forcibly parted from her betrothed, Carlyle, and dragged to Bath by their stepmother to contract a suitable marriage. Angeline quarrels with Carlyle and seems determined to ruin herself by eloping with the vicious Viscount Scarwood.

Meanwhile, Bath, unbeknown to most of its inhabitants, fizzes with wild magic centred on the old Roman baths and its once-powerful goddess, Sulis Minerva. When Kat’s brother Charles unwittingly becomes involved with a dangerous set of young men who want, for a jest, to summon up the goddess, Kat swiftly realizes that it’s no joking matter. But how can Kat help? Her training in magic is very limited, and if she disobeys the Guardians and tries to help her brother and sister, she risks losing her magic forever.

Although this is really a fantasy story with fairytale elements, it is set in a recognisable, wellresearched, early 19th-century Bath. Stephanie Burgis obviously knows her stuff. The background of the Bath season, the houses to let in the elegant Circus, the fashionable shops etc., are all there.

Jane Austen’s Anne Elliot would recognize the Pump Room with its evil smelling spa water, or the invalids bathing in the iron-rich baths – as Anne’s friend Mrs Smith did, and so on.

The blurb calls A Tangle of Magicks, ‘What Katy Did meets Pride and Prejudice’, which about sums it up. A light, fun read for girls of 10 plus who enjoy a bit of magic with their history.

Elizabeth Hawksley TREASON Berlie Doherty, Andersen, 2011, £5.99, pb, 265pp, 9781849391214 1539, England. When William Montague’s elder brother is accidentally drowned, his life changes.

His distraught father leaves, and his aunt, the cold, ambitious Lady Carew, arrives, determined to use William to further her husband’s political ambitions.

Her husband finds him a position at court, as page to Henry VIII’s infant son, Prince Edward. At first William is delighted, but these are dangerous times. The king’s hot temper is notorious, and if he knew that William came from a Catholic background, he’d imprison him as a traitor – if not worse. And then there’s Lord Percy Howard, who resents William’s holding a position he feels should be his. Just how far will he go to discredit William? In the back-stabbing atmosphere of the court, whom can William trust?

This galloped along very pleasantly, but I confess I found the storyline difficult to credit. Would the Carews really risk their own staunchly Protestant position by promoting William falsely as ‘William Carew’ and hide his Catholic background?

William’s father’s absence from much of the story struck me as more of a plot device that being psychologically credible. And William’s character didn’t entirely convince me either. He seemed to lurch from being pleasant to his social inferiors at 72 | Reviews | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

home to being snobbish once at court. Given that he thoroughly disliked his aunt, it seems unlikely that he’d swallow her strictures on despising those beneath him.

With regard to forms of address, Tudor monarchs were addressed as ‘Your Grace’, not ‘Your Majesty’, which came in with the Stuarts.

Having said all this, Berlie Doherty conveys the perils of being a favourite at Henry VIII’s court very well. William must learn fast how best to please the king if he wants to keep his head. Aimed at boys of 9 plus, but girls should enjoy it, too.

Elizabeth Hawksley BELLADONNA Mary Finn, Candlewick, 2011, $16.99/C$19.00, hb, 384pp, 9780763651060 In the 18th century, 14-year-old Thomas Rose has failed at school and has no love for his father’s profession, either. But when he finds and befriends a French circus performer huddled in a ditch at the edge of Horkstow village, Thomas’s life begins to fill with purpose. The circus has disbanded, but pretty Hélène is determined to find her performance partner, a beautiful horse named Belladonna, who was sold to a family living in Thomas’ village. In helping Hélène find Belladonna, Thomas comes to work for Mr. George Stubbs, called the butcher of Horkstow because he dissects horses and makes anatomical drawings based on his work. Thomas discovers that he is a fair artist while working for Mr. Stubbs. Meanwhile, Hélène is working for the family who owns Belladonna, offering riding lessons to their young son in exchange for room and board. Thomas is satisfied with their new circumstances, but when Hélène takes Belladonna away from Horkstow, Thomas feels as if he’s lost a piece of himself.

While I enjoyed some of the minor characters in the story, little Nan and Mr. Stubbs in particular, neither of the two main characters captured my interest. Even Thomas’ misunderstood dyslexia, Hélène’s storytelling, and the author’s solid writing were not enough to spark the dull plot.

Patricia O’Sullivan FORGIVEN Janet Fox, Speak, 2011, $8.99, pb, 288pp, 9780142414149 Kula Baker has spent most of her short life traveling from place to place with her father and his band of outlaws. When a villainous marshal frames Nat Baker for murder, Kula learns that a mysterious box holds the key to clearing his name.

To find the box, Kula must journey from her home in Montana to San Francisco, a decadent boomtown still enjoying the fruits of the Gold Rush.

Turn-of-the-century San Francisco is a city of diverse neighborhoods, the wealthy mansions on high hills contrasting (and even clashing) with the teeming criminal underworld of the Barbary Coast and the exotic streets of Chinatown. Kula quickly learns the truth about the man who framed her father: he is involved in human trafficking, selling

Chinese girls into slavery. Her new benefactor, Phillipa Everts, seems to be involved, but Kula isn’t sure how, and Will Henderson, a handsome banker’s son, may also be part of the scheme. The only person Kula is certain about is David Wong, a young Chinese man who helps Kula find her way and who continues to appear whenever she needs him most. As expected, the 1906 earthquake changes everyone’s lives and provides the story’s climax.

The love story, while pleasant, is superficial.

Kula meets David, they’re attracted to each other, they realize a relationship between a Chinese man and a non-Chinese woman is taboo, and they fall in love anyway. The ramifications of their relationship aren’t explored at any length, and it happens quickly and without any depth of feeling, adding little to the plot. What is enjoyable is Kula’s heroism in the face of serious danger, and her developing sense of social justice. Teens 12 and up may enjoy Kula’s adventures in this quintessential New American metropolis.

Nanette Donohue THE LAST MUSKETEER Stuart Gibbs, Harper, 2011, $16.99, hb, 250pp, 9780062048387 This is the first in a series of time-travel adventures inspired by Dumas’ classic novel The Three Musketeers. When 14-year-old Greg’s parents lose their fortune, the family travels to Paris to sell their antique furniture to the Louvre.

A sinister museum official, Michel Dinicoeur, uses a crystal belonging to Greg’s mother to send the family back in time to 1615, when the Louvre was the king’s palace, and immediately accuses them of trying to assassinate the king. As it turns out, Dinicoeur has another identity in 1615: Dominic Richelieu, captain of the king’s guard and brother of the powerful cardinal. While his parents are imprisoned in the fortress of La Mort Triste, from which no prisoner has emerged alive, Greg escapes and meets three boys named Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, who will grow up to become the Three Musketeers. Greg himself takes on the role of D’Artagnan. Together they come up with a plan to break into the prison and rescue Greg’s parents, who are scheduled to be executed in three days.

While adjusting to life in the 17th century, Greg comes to realize the value of friendship as he and the Musketeers race against time to defeat the evil Richelieu and the scheming Milady de Winter.

I enjoyed this fast-paced story, and the parts where Greg is trying to adjust to life without electricity, air-conditioning, and indoor plumbing are cleverly written. The book should appeal to fans of the Dumas novel or any of its film adaptations, and it serves as a good introduction to the story of the Three Musketeers for anyone who is unfamiliar with it. Unfortunately, it contains several mistakes that lessened my enjoyment of the book. For example, there are a few mentions of the guillotine, which was not invented until the French Revolution.

Vicki Kondelik Children & YA

RUBY RED Kerstin Gier, Henry Holt, 2011, $16.99/C$18.99, hb, 330pp, 9780805092523 Originally published in Germany in 2009, Ruby Red is the first in a trilogy about a rather odd family whose lineage includes several time travelers. The story centers on Gwyneth, whose cousin Charlotte is the expected final traveler in the family and has been trained almost from birth to assume the role. Unfortunately for Charlotte, Gwyneth’s mother somehow managed to keep the actual date of her birth a secret, which means that Gwyneth is in reality the true time traveler. Unprepared and nervous, Gwyneth finds herself facing harsh, demanding members of a Time Traveling Society, who expect her to be able to travel back in history alongside her fellow traveler, the handsome and arrogant Gideon. All of this seems like good fun at first: the dressing of the part, the details of the era, the excitement of meeting people from the past.

Good fun, that is, until Gwyneth is attacked and someone ends up dead.

Ruby Red is well written, if at times a bit confusing with all the time-traveling jargon and the mysteries of the Time Traveling Society. Gwyneth is a typical modern teen, thrust into an unbelievable circumstance, and Gideon admittedly doesn’t make things easy on her when she replaces Charlotte as his partner. The family dynamics are odd to say the least, but Gwyneth’s ability to adjust keeps everything from being too overwhelming. This is a fast, absorbing mystery, with innocent romantic interaction, likely to appeal most to the younger end of the young adult spectrum. I can definitely recommend this fun novel for the attraction of its spunky heroine, and the methodical set-up for the unveiling of more family secrets in future books in the series.

Tamela McCann BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS Anna Godbersen, Razorbill Penguin, 2011, £7.99, pb, 389pp, 9780141335346 / HarperCollins, 2010, $17.99, hb, 400pp, 006196266X 1929 New York. Prohibition and the Jazz Age are in full swing, and three young girls meet.

Eighteen-year-old Cordelia longs for glamour and sophistication. Her friend Letty can’t wait to escape from her repressively religious family. Both girls are determined to escape their dull Midwestern home town for the bright lights of New York. Letty has dreams of becoming a famous singer; Cordelia is determined to find her long-lost father, a powerful man whose business career is decidedly shady.

Then there is Astrid, the poor little rich girl, whose flapper façade hides many secrets.

Outwardly sophisticated, Astrid has to cope with an uncaring mother who is concerned only with her latest lover and sees Astrid as a tool for her own social advancement.

How will the three girls cope with the speakeasies; the louche men whose promises of work are not all they seem; the hard, sophisticated women in their slinky dresses; the cocktails which are stronger than they look; and the gangsters and Children & YA

bootleggers who rule this dangerous city? Cordelia, Letty and Astrid must grow up fast if they are to survive.

Anna Godbersen nicely captures the frenetic dancing on the edge of a volcano quality of the Roaring Twenties. Our hearts go out to Cordelia and Letty, so eager for the delights on offer but both alarmingly naïve in a city which holds many dangers for innocent girls.

Bright Young Things has much in common with the febrile world of Scott Fitzgerald, but Anna Godbersen is also concerned with how Cordelia, Letty and Astrid learn to see past the meretricious glitter and develop the ability to judge moral worth for themselves. Girls of 14 plus who are longing for a bit of glamour will find it challenges assumptions as well as being a fun read.

Elizabeth Hawksley At first, I was excited about reading Bright Young Things; the 1920s New York setting seemed to promise glamour and class. However, despite the book’s fast pace, it took at least seven chapters to grab my interest. I found the speed of events unrealistic, which may have been why it didn’t engage me at the start. After that, the plot got a lot better and was quite exciting.

Godbersen explores the city of New York from the perspective of girls from different classes, which gave me a broad image of the city and how fantastic or punishing it can be. I felt she could have built up some of the characters more, for example, Cordelia’s father, Darius Grey; we didn’t get to know him enough and this took away from the impact of later events.

After a generally enjoyable read, I found the ending disappointing. There was no real climax.

Astrid’s behaviour did not reflect her ‘independent girl’ persona, and the plot didn’t feel complete.

However, this did make room for a possible sequel.

I would recommend the book for teenagers age 1316.

Rachel Beggs, age 16 THE SECRET JOURNEYS OF JACK LONDON: The Wild Christopher Golden & Tim Lebbon, Harper, 2011, $15.99, hb, 353pp, 9780061863172 This book is the first in a series reimagining the youth of the writer Jack London. At age 17, Jack makes his first foray into the wilderness, traveling to the Yukon with his brother-in-law to join the Klondike Gold Rush. However, his partner soon drops out of the running, and Jack is left to make his own way in the rough frontier town of Dawson. He quickly makes both friends and enemies, but humans are not the Yukon’s only inhabitants. When Jack strikes out from Dawson, he encounters a series of supernatural creatures of the north, including a mysterious wolf protector, a shape-shifting woodland enchantress, and the insatiable Wendigo.

The narrative keeps up a breakneck pace, catapulting the young hero from one confrontation to the next; whether facing blizzards, monsters, or

human slavers, Jack is never quite out of danger.

Nonetheless, Jack’s character is a little too naïve and single-minded to be believable. The real-life Jack London was already in his 20s when the Klondike Gold Rush began (as the author acknowledges in a historical note), and the 17-year-old Jack in the book seems strangely caught between ages – he has the simplistic, self-centered outlook of a child, paired with the confidence and physical prowess of a much older man. This disjunct, combined with the characters’ continually spouted clichés and awestruck references to “the Wild,” made the narrative grow stale for me. The action may be intoxicating, and the supernatural elements intriguing. But without any character growth on the part of the protagonist – and without the original language to make the setting come to life – this book didn’t follow through on its potential.

Ann Pedtke Jack London, as a young man, journeys to the Yukon in search of gold and adventure. What he finds is desperation, greed, and many strange and supernatural beings, the majority of them malicious. He does find gold, but not in the way he intended.

We all know Jack London as a writer, but this tale was far too eerie for him to write down. Only when Jack passes the tale along to someone else does the story come to be written.

This exciting and well-written book contains legend interwoven with truth. If you like strictly factual stories, this may not be the book for you.

But if you enjoy the strange and mysterious, I would recommend this book. Although it takes a while to get going, the story then takes off, making the book hard to put down.

Thomas Q. Pedtke, age 12 CAT’S CRADLE Julia Golding, Egmont, 2011, £5.99, pb, 381pp, 9781405243056 1792. Cat Royal, of the Theatre Royal, London, embarks on her seventh adventure. A mysterious letter has arrived from a Mrs Moir from New Lanark in Scotland, purporting to know about Cat’s parentage. Cat is suspicious but she still yearns to know the truth. Is Mrs Moir her mother?

She decides to track Mrs Moir down and do some investigations before she meets her. Her new friend, Bridgit O’Riley, who has her own reasons for wanting to leave London, agrees to accompany her.

Richard Arkwright’s revolutionary cotton mills at New Lanark are one of the wonders of the age.

Famous for their innovative machinery, they also demonstrate Arkwright’s determination to improve his workers’ lives with decent housing, proper sanitation and schools. Cat and Bridgit decide to seek work there and see what they can find out.

But there are unexpected problems. Cat encounters prejudice against her as a ‘sassenach’, a southerner. Then she learns of a half-brother, Rabbie Bruce, who is a cattle-thief. And the Bruces don’t take kindly to strangers.

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The problem with Cat’s Cradle is that it doesn’t really stand alone. The first hundred or so pages are spent introducing characters from the previous books who tell each other what’s happened in the past. We meet a number of people, like Cat’s archenemy, the crime lord Billy Shepherd; her mentor, the playwright Richard Sheridan; her old friend Frank, a.k.a. the earl of Arden, and so on, who all have a scene or two and then vanish from the story – or reappear at the end like a deus ex machina.

It feels as if the author is either marking time or has run out of steam. Still, I’m sure that those who are already fans will enjoy Cat’s new adventure, even if it takes a while to get going. For 10+.

Elizabeth Hawksley BELLE’S SONG K.M. Grant, Quercus, 2010, £6.99, pb, 296pp, 9781849164085 I love Katie Grant’s writing. Her characters are very real, flawed, humorous – likeable. In this novel, she gives herself the joy of creating a fictional Chaucer in all his warmth and cleverness. She also cameos several of the characters on the Canterbury pilgrimage. Her heroin, Belle, is a lovely concoction of innocence and vulnerability, sparked with guilt but also with an irrepressible zest for excitement.

Belle’s Song is part intrigue, part romance. Its best bits for me are some beautifully drawn vignettes: Chaucer with his writing box of quills, ink and parchment; or flighty Belle, escaping into her own world of Arthurian dreams and romance. It really packs a lot in: scenes turn quickly, and while not all of them are entirely believable, you’re quickly beyond them and enjoying the next.

But – for me a big problem – is that this is also a story about self-harm, and, at the denouement, sexual misdemeanors. These are sensitively dealt with, and the OCD element gives Belle another level of interest. They’re just not what I want my 9-year-old girl to be reading about yet: despite the fact that she’s been very drawn to the lovely cover of the book.

Richard Lee HAUNTING VIOLET Alyxandra Harvey, Walker, 2011, $17.99, hb, 344pp, 9780820798398 / Bloomsbury, 2011, £6.99, pb, 352pp, 9781408811313 Violet Willoughby is the 16-year-old daughter of a medium in late Victorian England in the 1870s.

Violet is a girl with scruples, and hates deceiving her mother’s clients during faked séances. She has two consolations for the life she detests: books and her mother’s young handyman, Colin. When Mrs. Willoughby takes Violet and Colin to Lord Jasper’s estate for a reading, Violet is stunned to discover that she can see real ghosts, particularly the ghost of a teenage girl, Rowena, who drowned the previous year. Rowena haunts Violet until Violet accepts her own powers and the responsibility of solving the mystery surrounding Rowena’s death.

Haunting Violet is an engaging historical fantasy.

Harvey moves with ease between fraudulent séances and Violet’s terrifying encounters with real 74 | Reviews | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

ghosts. The historical details are accurate, although occasionally heavy-handed. In her quest to solve Rowena’s murder, Violet tries various methods of detection, including that new-fangled invention, the Ouija board. The mystery is competently done, and young adult readers will be guessing until the end. The inevitable romance is charming and avoids being too saccharine. Violet’s characterization is not the strongest, but the robust plotting and action scenes make up for it.

Michaela MacColl ME & JACK Danette Haworth, Walker, 2011, $16.99/C$21.00, pb, 240pp, 9780802794536 New town, new school – 11-year-old Joshua Reed has seen it all before. His dad is a recruiter for the US Army, so moving has become old hat.

But this time, in this small Pennsylvania town, Joshua is suddenly allowed to have a dog. Why now, he isn’t too sure. Maybe because his mom passed away two years ago; maybe because his dad isn’t likely to be popular with fathers whose sons might find themselves Vietnam-bound after a single conversation.

Me & Jack is a highly readable point-of-view tale about the need to achieve (and maintain) acceptance, sometimes against nearly impossible odds. For kids who are “new,” the very personable Joshua – a boy who successfully adapts to new situations countless times – is a potential lifeline. ( Joshua is even self-aware enough to pass on tips to readers!) But author Danette Haworth also explores the hopeless side of being different through various characters: Joshua’s dog, Jack; the socially inept Alan Prater; and a young Vietnam vet, newly returned home.

Haworth does a remarkable job with Jack, the unlikely shelter dog. Throughout the book Jack is true to himself (as real dogs always are!), even though he is clearly different and so easily miscast by the casual observer know-it-alls in the story. Of course, Jack never feels like a social pariah – but Joshua sure does on Jack’s behalf!

Danette Haworth has delivered a simple yet highly effective story about an important subject.

While written for a young adult market, Me & Jack appeals to readers of all ages. It’s the sort of book young readers would – I hope – come back to reread from an adult perspective.

Janette King WALK THE WILD ROAD Nigel Hinton, Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 2011, $8.99/C$9.99, pb, 288pp, 9781402243776 When 10-year-old Leo finds two abandoned lambs in a ditch by the road, he knows the danger in rescuing them. Feudalism still holds sway in 1870s Prussia (now Poland) and the lambs belong to Leo’s impoverished family’s landlord, the baron.

But his family’s straits are dire, and so Leo risks trying to take them home. He’s caught, whipped, imprisoned, and then surreptitiously freed by a kindly servant to the baron. Now wanted by the law, Leo must flee his home and all he loves.

The baron’s servant has advised Leo to go to America, where he can make his fortune and send back money to help his family. So Leo’s journey begins, a journey that teaches the brave boy about friendship and loss, about the kindness of strangers, the capriciousness of fate, and about how you should absolutely pay attention when your dog won’t have anything to do with a seemingly kindly new friend. My only complaint, a petty one, is a final loss on the last pages of the book, one that in retrospect teaches a good lesson. It hurt, despite being realistic and a good twist, and it left me finishing the book with a philosophical sigh rather than pure Disney-esque uplift. (If they adapt this book for the screen, I guarantee that sentimental American test audiences will not stand for it!)

Hinton is an accomplished and award-winning writer, and this book feels like a classic hero’s tale – a linear, solid, and yet compelling story told completely from Leo’s point of view. We’ve all heard about how difficult it is to get boys to read, but this book should capture their affections. It did mine.

Kristen Hannum DAVID Mary Hoffman, Bloomsbury, 2011, £10.99, pb, 252pp, 9781408800522 / Bloomsbury USA, Oct. 2011, $17.99, hb, 272pp, 9781599907000 In 1501 Gabriele, a country boy, arrives in Florence and is immediately robbed. He believes that his older ‘milk’ brother, the artist Michelangelo, might help him but, before he can seek his support, a wealthy widow wines, dines and sleeps with him. So from the outset Gabriele emerges as a handsome, easily infatuated and quite naïve young man. As his story unfolds he shares his aspirations with the reader and admits his weaknesses as he tries to please the women in his life, the family of Michelangelo (Angelo) and those whose political aspirations he eventually shares. Gabriele’s good looks not only make him desirable but enable him to serve as a model for Angelo’s David. Through Angelo he meets other contemporary artists and becomes aware of their views. As he learns more about the exiled de’Medici family and the opposing supporters of the republic, he is drawn into a web of deceit and his involvement with politics eventually spells danger for him and those he learns to care for.

Hoffman paints a graphic picture of Florence at the turn of the 16th century as seen through the eyes of the fictional Gabriele, who reminisces about his part in the city politics during this eventful period. Although the narrative is easy to follow and chatty, the research is thorough so facts mingle with fiction to make a compelling read. If the different characters are confusing or the Italian phrases become too complicated to understand, there is a glossary and list of characters which can be referred to so the plot is not lost.

This engaging book, by the author of The Stravaganza Sequence, will satisfy many readers of historical fiction and should appeal to Renaissance art lovers and those with an interest in Italy and its turbulent history.

Children & YA

Helen Papworth THE TROUBLE WITH MAY AMELIA Jennifer I. Holm, Simon and Schuster, 2011, $15.99, hb, 206pp, 9781416913733 This sequel to Newbery Honor-winning Our Only May Amelia (2000) is worth the wait. The only daughter on a 1900 Washington State farm where her father proclaims “girls are useless,” May Amelia’s adventures continue at full bore.

The Finnish immigrant Jackson family endures hardships that include wayward cougars and bulls, a barn burning, helping a murder-haunted cousin, and the loss of a treasured sister to death and teacher to marriage.

Through May Amelia’s first-person, present tense viewpoint, the family and community glow with wonder. Uncle Arno keeps figuring creative ways to die, Mr. Clayton woos with a pie, and brother Ivan needs a hand to bury. The Jacksons begin to dream of a better life when May Amelia’s father goes for a real estate scheme. The consequences break up the family and community.

Our heroine must dig deep into the reserves of her sisu – Finnish for “guts” – to persevere, forgive, and help her family to heal.

By turns funny, warm-hearted and gothic, Babymouse author Holm has crafted a robust and unforgettable place, heroine, and story, brimming with the life of its time, while remaining timeless.

Highly recommended.

Eileen Charbonneau CHENGLI AND THE SILK ROAD CARAVAN Hildi Kang, Tanglewood, 2011, $14.95, hb, 200pp, 9781933718545 630 CE, the fifth year in the reign of the Emperor Taizong, is believed to be a year lucky for merchants’ businesses. Chengli, an orphaned Chinese boy in Chang’an city, and Little Limp have been partners since they were five or six years old, working for the wealthy silk merchant, Yan. Only Chengli, however, constantly hears the ghost wind or desert demon from the far, far north and wonders if it’s time to follow the spirit wind to find out what it wants from him.

Chengli joins Master Fong’s caravan, which has been ordered by the emperor to convey Princess Meiling to marry King Galdan, ruler of a nomad tribe in the mountains north of Kashgar.

The journey begins with much grumbling and occasional combative scenes until the travelers enter the oasis city, Dunhuang, where Chengli and his friend manage to get tickets to the party at Singing Sand Dunes. There he learns of a theft that turns a friend into an enemy and forms a friendship with the princess who formerly treated him as an adversary.

From here begins an exciting and intriguing mystery, wherein Chengli enters Kucha, a city famous for its music. A kidnapping, several unexpected murders, revelations about Chengli’s father and a formidable trial follow. Chengli learns the adept horsemanship skills that his father was Children & YA

renowned for. Chengli also behaves consistently with his father’s exceptional sense of integrity.

Hilda Kang has written a young adult historical fiction novel that will thrill every reader who loves stories about young, heroic characters living in exotic lands of long ago. Delightful!

Viviane Crystal TEXAS TALES ILLUSTRATED: “The Revolution” Mike Kearby, illustrated by Mack White, TCU Press, 2011, $6.95, pb, 32pp, 9780875654393 Two-thirds graphic novel and one-third background material, “The Revolution” tells the story of events between October 1835 and December 1836 in the struggle to form the Republic of Texas. The battle at the Alamo is told through the viewpoint of eight-year-old Enrique Esparza, taking refuge, and fifteen-year-old William King, who fights alongside its defenders. Warfare rages on as young Dilue Rose molds bullets for her uncle.

Francisca Alavez, the wife of a Mexican officer, saves a young man from a massacre. Sam Houston overcomes setbacks to defeat the Mexican army, and the Treaties of Velasco conclude the account.

The storytelling in both word and image is vivid, stark, and compelling. It neither romanticizes nor glosses over this violent road of Texas history. But there’s so much incident in this single illustrated volume, it may lead to a crammed-in reading experience. The supplemental section includes a timeline, battlefield map, account of the Texas

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Independence Convention and content of the Treaties of Velasco. The narratives here seem to be written for an older audience. (Ages 8 to 12) Eileen Charbonneau THE FRIENDSHIP DOLL Kirby Larson, Delacorte, 2011, $15.99, hb, 208pp, 9780385737456 In 1927, Japan sent 58 dolls to the United States to be displayed around the country as Ambassadors of Friendship. One of them, Miss Kanagawa, has the power to communicate with humans. Over the course of 14 years, four girls are moved by Miss Kanagawa to make choices that help them to become better people. The Friendship Doll contains short stories about four different girls, connected by the first person observations of Miss Kanagawa.

Although Kirby Larson won a Newbery Honor award for Hattie Big Sky, this novel disappointed me. The main premise of the story, a doll who shares wisdom with girls about friendship, is never fully developed. We don’t find out how or why this doll possesses the power to communicate. Also, the doll’s wisdom has no grounding, as she has no friends among the other dolls, and often speaks of them with disdain. She is not even friends with most of the girls, seeing them only for a few moments as they stare at her in her display case.

The stories of the girls are sweet, but the historical details seem forced, the characters are formulaic, and the narratives are ones we’ve read before – the cranky rich old lady charmed by

E D I TORS’ CH OICE

Trilby Kent, Tundra Books, 2011, $19.95/C$21.99, hb, 200pp, 9781770492523 Corlie has grown up on the Transvaal of South Africa, living with her mother and brothers on a small farm where she learns to appreciate both the harshness and the splendor of the African landscape.

As part of a Boer family, Corlie struggles against the strictures of her society – customs which declare that sons hold a higher place than daughters and that the Boers are superior to the African natives. When the British invade her home and drive her family from their farm, Corlie escapes to the bush and joins up with the laager, a caravan of Boer refugees. But in the face of such threats, the elders’ rules are more strictly enforced than ever. As Corlie tries to bridge the divide – to protect her brothers, to save her African friend Sipho, to reach out to a British soldier who shows her compassion – she walks a dangerous path.

In trying to make peace between the two worlds, she risks being disowned by both.

This is the first young adult novel I have ever encountered that centers on the Boer Wars – and it rises to the challenge splendidly. In choosing to tell the story from the perspective of the Dutch settlers – a group who endured horrible treatment from the British, to be sure, but who also played the role of invaders themselves – the author gives insight into the complexities of the conflict. Corlie’s conflicting loyalties are authentic and believable, and the secret she learns of her own past comes as a surprising but fitting twist. This slim volume is a beautiful evocation of South Africa – of a time, a culture, a geography – and it is also a human story that offers no clear-cut heroes and villains, but instead a range of wholly complex people.

Ann Pedtke HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Reviews | 75

the refreshing honesty of a poor young girl; the recently widowed man who tries to make a new life for himself and his young daughter in a different place; and the children who sneak around an elderly relative’s attic only to discover there is much more to that relative than they had ever known.

Patricia O’Sullivan The Friendship Doll is a novel divided into four short stories, all strung together by Miss Kanagawa, a doll that acts as a Japanese ambassador to the United States to promote good feelings between the two countries in the 1920s. Miss Kanagawa enters the lives of Bunny, Lois, Willie Mae, and Lucy, changing the way they see the world.

The Friendship Doll was not one of my favorites.

Overall, the short stories were good, but cliché. I didn’t like the character of Miss Kanagawa. She was full of herself and conceited, and the way she communicated with Bunny, Lois, Willie Mae, and Lucy was strange and confusing at first. The book wasn’t bad; it’s just something I wouldn’t read again.

Marion O’Sullivan, age 13 EXCALIBUR: The Legend of King Arthur Tony Lee, illus. Sam Hart, Candlewick Press, 2011, $21.99/C$25.00, pb, 144pp, 9780763646431 This is not your grandmother’s King Arthur.

From the man who turned Pride and Prejudice and Zombies into a graphic novel (Tony Lee) and comic book artist and illustrator Sam Hart comes an imaginative retelling of the Arthurian legend that seems to blend several large- and smallscreen versions of the story with some completely new plotlines. Not that it’s not interesting, but it

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does strain credulity just a bit, with a love story between King Arthur and the Lady of the Lake that provides a happy ending – yes, I said “happy ending” – for Arthur and Camelot. Guinevere is a warrior queen to whom the knights pledge their fealty after Arthur’s death – she will then rule in his place. Merlin and Morgan le Fey are enemies but also work together at times for common ends.

There is a very interesting interpolation of ancient Irish mythology, with Bran the Blessed as the ruler of the mystical Avalon – a realm of “fey folk” called the Seelie Court, to which Arthur is spirited by Merlin in order to learn how to fight and become a leader of men. He is “gone” overnight from the earthly world, but it’s a span of two years in the Seelie Court of Avalon.

Sam Hart’s artwork has a certain violent strength, and varies from sketchy to detailed, with lots of black swashes. Different segments of the story are washed in shades of the same color, mostly reds and oranges and browns, with some purples and blues for night scenes. The dialogue is choppy at best, clichéd at worst, but it tells the story. I’m just not sure how a regular fan of graphic novels would view this; the story is told in all seriousness, and is certainly true to the Arthurian themes of idealism, loyalty, betrayal, and hope. But to an adult addicted to works of good literature, reading this is like eating vanilla yogurt when what you really want is a triple banana split with all the trimmings.

Mary Burns THE GLORIOUS ADVENTURES OF THE SUNSHINE QUEEN Geraldine McCaughrean, HarperCollins, 2011,

E D I TORS’ C H OI C E

Donna Jo Napoli, HarperCollins, 2011, $16.99, hb, 288pp, 9780061667930 Lights on the Nile is the newest title in Donna Jo Napoli’s growing list of fairy tale retellings. Many of her previous novels offered complex young adult takes on well-known fairy/folktales, such as Zel, a retelling of Rapunzel, Spinners, a retelling of Rumplestilskin, and Bound, a retelling of Cinderella. However, this story is much less familiar to most readers. Napoli has moved into the middle grade arena (ages 8-12) to revisit fairyland and explain the origin of fairies themselves.

Lights on the Nile follows the adventures of Kepi, a young girl growing up in the countryside of 2530 BCE Egypt. After Kepi’s father is crippled in the construction of a pyramid, Kepi works diligently to help her family by gathering herbs for her father’s bread – until she and her pet baboon are kidnapped and taken by boat far away toward Egypt’s capital.

Readers will find themselves swept away by Napoli’s beautiful writing, rich setting, and fast-moving plot.

The author’s research shines through, creating a rich world for readers to lose themselves in. We can taste the goat cheese given to Kepi, smell the odors of the Egyptian streets, and see the red sand of the desert. Napoli has melded this strong setting with a well-paced plot full of tension. Fans of Donna Jo Napoli will happily add this tale to their growing list of favorites.

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$16.99, hb, 336pp, 9780062008060 In this Junior Library Guild selection, Geraldine McCaughrean brings to life the showboats of the Missouri River. Twelve-year-old Cissy Sissney and her classmates head out of town when a diphtheria epidemic closes their school. They travel with their teacher to the Bright Lights Theater Company, where one of their former teachers is now performing. They find the theater company inhabiting a foundered steamship. There the great adventures begin!

The Glorious Adventures of the Sunshine Queen is a rip-roaring middle grade adventure story complete with pirates, gamblers, lawmen, and a host of unique performers. Their unpredictable journey downriver will surprise and captivate.

McCaughrean’s colloquial and historic language will challenge young readers, who will add words like “spackfacious” and “obdurately” to their vocabulary. Readers will undoubtedly find themselves comparing the rich, well-developed characters of Cissy, Kookie Warboys, and Miss Loucien with Twain’s Huck Finn and Becky Thatcher.

Nancy Castaldo HOW HUGE THE NIGHT Heather Munn and Lydia Munn, Kregel, 2011, $14.99, pb, 300pp, 9780825433108 Julien Losier knows war is coming, but he does not like living in the countryside, and he especially does not like the Jewish boy his parents have taken in. Julien misses Paris and his friends there, and he hates how the boys at his new school rally around a blockheaded bully named Henri. Meanwhile, Nika and Gustav, two Jewish teens from Austria, travel in secret, often going for days without food. By the time Nika and Gustav cross over to France, the Vichy government is in control. Julien’s family and several others in their village agree to protect the Jews, but Henri and his family are drawn in by the Vichy government’s promises of restored pride in France. Can Julien convince Henri to do the right thing?

While I enjoyed the first sixty pages of this book, the subsequent evangelical Christian tone was offputting. The publisher states on its website that it is a Christian publisher, but someone reading the back cover of the book would not know this. The Christian message might have been successful had it been more subtle. Instead, the authors wield it as a bludgeon that crushes an otherwise interesting story. For example, Henri’s transformation validates Julien’s faith, but would Julien’s conviction have survived had Henri made a different choice? It all seemed too easy, too neatly tied up.

I did appreciate the tension between those who did not agree with the Vichy or Nazi policies and those who did, because most literature about occupied France tends to paint all the French as sympathetic to or working for the resistance. The Munns’ description of occupied France was honest, even if their back cover was not.

Patricia O’Sullivan Children & YA

ESCAPE BY NIGHT Laurie Myers, illus. Amy June Bates, Henry Holt, 2011, $14.99, pb, 128pp, 9780805088250 This generously illustrated early chapter book is set in Augusta, Georgia, in 1863. Young Tommy McKnight feels the effects of the American Civil War firsthand as wagons of wounded soldiers plow through town, headed for the church turned hospital. Tommy and his sister Annie witness a one-armed soldier’s notebook fall to the ground.

When they send their dog Sampson to retrieve it, the action ignites an adventure.

The soldier is reserved and speaks only to Tommy, Sampson, and a slave named Henry. The contents of the notebook are also mysterious and troubling to Tommy. He slowly realizes that the wounded man is a Yankee who wants to escape behind Union lines with the abused Henry. And he asks Tommy to help them.

Myers and Bates raise the tight format of a short chapter book to new heights, as not a word or illustration is wasted in this beautifully crafted story. Escape by Night mixes suspense and adventure with real moral dilemmas involving loyalty, love of family, and slavery. Sampson the wonder dog is a great bonus! Highly recommended.

Eileen Charbonneau SILVER RAIN Lois Peterson, Orca, 2010, $9.95, pb, 181pp, 9781554692804 After losing her house and her father to the Depression, 11-year-old Elsie moves into the garage behind their Vancouver house with her mom, grandmother, and out-of-work uncle. Times are tight, but Elsie keeps busy with her best friend Scoop, exploring hobo shantytowns and trying to find out what the big deal is with the local dance marathon. When her mother and uncle disappear, too, Elsie and Scoop have a bigger mystery than the dance marathon on their hands.

It was interesting to read a Depression-era book set in Canada, especially one involving the controversial dance marathons popular at the time.

Although dance marathons seem an unlikely topic for a middle grade book, Peterson makes it work, keeping the history interesting and personal to Elsie. Her attention to detail in even the smallest actions – games, snacks, secret handshakes – bring her characters to life in a way that young readers will identify with. Elsie and Scoop are kids, regardless of the time, and easily carry the story along, despite the serious topics.

Jessica Brockmole SPIRIT OF THE TITANIC Nicola Pierce, O’Brien Press, 2011, £6.99, pb, 233pp, 9781847171900 1912. The Titanic is on her maiden voyage to New York. Travelling with her is the ghost of 15-year-old Sam Scott, who had fallen to his death while at work building the world’s largest and most famous ship.

We follow Sam around the ship and witness various small dramas. In the third class are the two Children & YA

runaway Murphy sisters, looking for a better life.

Also sailing are Jim and Isobel and their children from Belfast. Jim is Catholic and Isobel Protestant, and they married against furious family opposition.

They want a life free from religious bigotry. We eavesdrop on the telegraphist Jack Phillips in the Marconi room as he frantically tries to summon help for the sinking ship. We gawk with Sam at the splendours of the first class deck where no expense has been spared (apart from the small point of too few lifeboats).

This is a lively account of a famous and tragic voyage, and Nicola Pierce has obviously done her homework. Apart from Jim and Isobel’s family, all the other characters existed – even the narrator Sam, whose grave in Belfast provided the author’s

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THE GRASSHOPPER’S RUN

inspiration for the book. The stories Sam relates: the orchestra playing as the ship went down, the selflessness of various passengers, the drunkenness of the chief baker, and so on, are well-documented and the author skilfully weaves them into the book.

However, it doesn’t really work as fiction. For a start, fiction demands that something be at stake.

What can possibly be at stake for Sam when he’s already dead? The only fictional characters, Jim and Isobel, have just a few small scenes on stage, and their fates pale into insignificance when so many other real tragedies are imminent. Still, it is certainly an interesting read and I enjoyed it. For 10 plus.

Elizabeth Hawksley

E D I TORS’ CH OICE

Siddhartha Sarma, Bloomsbury, 2011, £6.99, pb, 199pp, 9781408809402 1944, Assam. World War II is raging, and the Japanese have swept through Burma towards India.

The psychopathic Japanese general, Moti, has ordered the massacre of everyone in a small Ao Naga hill village. Among the victims is the chief ’s grandson, Uti. Gojen, Uti’s best friend, is at a British school in Calcutta when he hears the news from his kinsman, Meren, who shows him a piece of bloodstained paper with Japanese writing. Gojen takes it to his headmaster, who shows it to the wily Kenneally of the Intelligence Corps. A name comes up: General Moti. Now that he knows the perpetrator, Gojen’s one thought is to avenge Uti’s murder, and he absconds. Together with a small group of Naga tribesmen, he embarks on a gruelling and perilous journey into the jungles of Assam.

I found it impossible to put this book down. Sarma writes with a terse but elegant simplicity which pulls no emotional punches. We are right inside Gojen’s head as he combats fear and danger and finally comes face to face with the sadistic, power-crazy Moti. But Sarma is equally good at getting inside the heads of the bluff headmaster or Colonel Kenneally, both alert to the ramifications of the Great Game; or the worried Japanese General Sato, powerless to control Moti who has the ear of the top brass. There are no black and white stereotypes here; all the characters are fully three-dimensional.

The Grasshopper’s Run has the depth and punch of John Boyle’s The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, but there are also several nods to Kipling’s Kim, a book I much admire. It’s as if Sarma has taken Kipling’s baton, made it his own, and run with it. Bloomsbury has found a top quality writer here, and I cannot recommend the book too highly.

Elizabeth Hawksley At first, I had mixed feelings about The Grasshopper’s Run. Set in the height of World War II, it is a very interesting and gripping time. Writing about an unfamiliar culture can be difficult get across, but Sarma did an excellent job of it.

The first two chapters were confusing as he kept switching from calling the characters (mainly the protagonist) by either their first or their last names; however, after a while, I cottoned on.

The book was incredibly detailed about everything, and he’d obviously done a lot of research. I thought the characters were built very well. Oddly enough, I didn’t get very attached to Gojen, the main character, but I don’t think I was supposed to. Surprisingly, I understood Mori the most because the details of his past life made him very realistic, and I certainly understood why he behaved as he did.

I was confused by the use of technical words, e.g., parts of guns that I had never heard of before. However, it did educate me in a lot of ways about tribal Indian lives. The plot was very exciting and compelling, it really got me hooked. Suitable for 14+.

Rachel Beggs, age 16 HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Reviews | 77

MILAGRO OF THE SPANISH BEAN POT Emerita Romero-Anderson, Texas Tech Univ.

Press, 2011, $18.95, hb, 107pp, 978089676819Set in 1790 in a Spanish colonial village, this young adult novel tells the story of 11-year-old Raymundo, who tries to keep his family together when his mother is ill and his father has been killed

by Comanches. This includes learning to make pots from a Christianized Indian when his family’s bean pot cracks.

The pictures by Randall Pijoan are delightful.

Reading teachers across the nation, desperate for engaging material of Hispanic interest once And Now, Miguel has been read, will no doubt jump on this. I found the story disappointing, however, with little depth so we could feel the events. Raymundo learns to makes pots far too quickly, which denigrates the craftsmanship involved. His escape from Comanches seems too pat.

And, lacking an ox, he pulls the plow himself – a common trope of desperate times but a physical impossibility without someone following him to hold the handles upright. I guess that accounts for the icon of St. Francis smiling on the horizon in the picture. The magical realism of the pictures is part of their delight. Nothing is said about that miracle in the text, however.

Ann Chamberlin CHASING THE NIGHTBIRD Krista Russell, Peachtree, 2011, $15.95, hb, 192pp, 9781561455973 Set in 1851 New Bedford, Massachusetts, the center of the whaling industry and a haven for fugitive slaves, Chasing the Nightbird follows plucky 14-year-old Lucky Valera, “a colored boy of Cape Verdean,” and his quest to sail with the whaling ship Nightbird. An orphan since the death of his seafaring father and an experienced sailor himself, Lucky is shanghaied before he can board the Nightbird by his hostile brother, Fernando Fortuna, who puts him to work in a textile mill. There Lucky is befriended by a runaway slave from Alabama named Daniel; together, with the help of the young daughter of a Quaker ship captain, Lucky and Daniel not only free themselves but also thwart the leaders of a slaver outfitted as a whaling ship, men who mean to kidnap fugitive slaves and sell them back into bondage.

The author’s knowledge of the whaling industry and the workings of New Bedford’s textile mills is impressive and nicely writ into the story. While I found the figurative language peppered throughout annoying – “He tried to smile but there was flotsam doing a jig in his belly” – others may not. Overall, focusing as it does on whaling, the abolitionist movement, and the antislavery Quakers of New Bedford, this is a valuable addition to children’s literature. An informative author’s note and source list are included. Ages 9-12.

Alana White GLADIATOR – FIGHT FOR FREEDOM Simon Scarrow, Puffin, 2011, £12.99, hb, 330pp, 78 | Reviews | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

9780141333632 61 BC, Greece. When 10-year-old Marcus’ father is killed, Marcus and his mother are sold into slavery. Marcus is determined to escape and seek justice from his father’s old commander, General Pompeius. He stows away on a ship bound for Italy.

Inevitably, he is discovered and sold to Porcina, who owns a gladiator training school. Marcus’ new life is tough and brutal, governed by strict rules and savage punishments. Fortunately, he is befriended by the old slave, Brixus, who has some thrilling stories to tell of the Spartacan revolt – the revolt in which Marcus’ father saved General Pompeius’ life. But Brixus’ account does not tally with what Marcus’ father told him. Furthermore, it becomes obvious that Brixus knows something about Marcus which Marcus himself doesn’t know and which he’s reluctant to divulge. It’s a secret which would cost Marcus his life, if the Romans should hear of it.

Much as I enjoyed Simon Scarrow’s Roman Eagle books, I confess I was disappointed in Gladiator. I found the young hero two-dimensional and the plot, alas, is pretty predictable. It reads as if there are a number of boxes to be ticked: the fellow captive who hates Marcus’ guts; the punch up where Marcus gets done over; the stitch up to get him into trouble; the savage (and unjust) punishment where he’s rescued at the last minute; the moment of glory in the arena and so on. There’s also an elementary writer’s mistake: too many characters with names beginning with the same letter, in this case P: Porcino, Piso, Pelleneus, Phyrus, Patroclus, General Pompeius, not to mention a V.I.P’s niece whom Marcus rescues, called … Portia.

The book is dedicated to Rosemary Sutcliff – whose surname is misspelt as ‘Sutcliffe’ – which seemed to me to be the last straw. Aimed at boys of 10 plus.

Elizabeth Hawksley THE BERLIN BOXING CLUB Robert Sharenow, HarperTeen, 2011, $17.99/ C$19.99, hb, 416pp, 9780061579684 BIRD IN A BOX Andrea Davis Pinkney, Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 2011, $16.99/C$18.50, hb, 288pp, 9780316074032 Joe Louis, the first African-American world heavyweight champion (from 1937 to 1949), is a faraway and yet pivotal figure in both these novels, each set in the mid-1930s. Both books show the inspiration that young people, in particular young men, can draw from sports and sports heroes, especially when their own lives are difficult.

The Berlin Boxing Club tells the story of a secular Jewish 14-year-old’s struggles in 1930s Germany.

Neither his Aryan looks, his own dislike of Jews, his gentile grandmother, nor the fact that his family isn’t observant can save Karl Stern – or his family.

That becomes clear when Karl becomes a target for Hitler Youth bullying at school. So when an old friend of his father’s, Max Schmeling, Germany’s boxing hero, offers to give the bloodied Karl boxing lessons, Karl grabs at the chance. He reinvents

himself at the Berlin Boxing Club and also discovers that both Jews and blacks are champion boxers in America – a fact completely at odds with what the Nazis teach about the “mongrel races.” But Karl is living in an escalating inferno of violence against Jews, and he soon finds himself responsible for safeguarding and then saving his family. Karl is also an aspiring cartoonist, and his cartoons, which are believable and funny, are scatter-shot through the book’s pages.

Andrea Pinkney’s Bird in a Box, although targeted toward younger children, is far less linear.

Its chapters take turns between the present-tense viewpoints of three children in upstate New York.

Sassy Hibernia, a motherless preacher’s daughter, dreams of being a singer (her mother skipped off to Harlem to do just that); Otis, an orphan at the Mercy Home for Negro Orphans, lost his parents in a car crash and copes with the world via the riddles his father used to ask; and Willie, also at the orphanage, has already seen the end of his own dreams of a boxing career, for his mother’s abusive boyfriend mutilated his hands. This is hardly the set-up for an uplifting and even warmly humorous story, but Pinkney is a gifted writer and no doubt a wise woman. Each child comes alive, each of them finding the hope to believe in a better future – through their friendship, the caring adults in their lives, their own spunk, and their pride in “the Brown Bomber,” Joe Louis.

Both these first-person books bring the mid1930s into vivid focus through the perspectives of their young protagonists. Both books tell stories in which adults fail children who depend upon them, and in which society fails minorities. Both books also show, however, that there are hidden heroes among us, and that we can aspire to dreams and heroism ourselves. The sprightly Bird in a Box, written for 9- to 12-year-olds, will probably find its fans among children who are already dedicated readers. The Berlin Boxing Club, on the other hand, with its cartoons and straightforward tale of danger, yet written for the 12 and over crowd, should be able to win over even those reluctant readers we all know and love.

Kristen Hannum ANXIOUS HEARTS Tucker Shaw, Amulet, 2011, $6.95, pb, 242pp, 9780810997110 In 1755, newly married Gabriel and Evangeline are separated when British soldiers forcibly remove the Acadians from Canada. Evangeline is told that Gabriel is dead, but he is not. After suffering imprisonment, sickness, and a near-drowning, Gabriel finds Evangeline on the eve of her wedding to another man. Fast forward to the present day, where high school students Gabe and Eva rekindle a childhood friendship that quickly turns to romance. Eva is willing to follow Gabe anywhere, even deep into the Maine woods where they spend the night together. But when Gabe disappears following a family tragedy, Eva despairs of ever seeing him again.

This is a wistful and melancholy time-slip Children & YA

novel based loosely on Longfellow’s narrative poem Evangeline. Shaw’s vivid descriptions of the landscape evoke Longfellow, while Eva’s teenaged voice keeps the story grounded (sort of ) in reality.

While the two story lines gripped me at first, I began to lose interest when I realized that the author was not going to develop the characters any further. Gabriel’s single-minded search for Evangeline made him seem more like an automaton than a man in love. Likewise, Eva’s quick and thoughtless giving of herself to the unstable and uncommunicative Gabe made me cringe for every teenage girl who would read her story and think it romantic for a boy to disappear the morning after.

Patricia O’Sullivan THE JEWEL AND THE KEY Louise Spiegler, Clarion, 2011, $16.99, hb, 464pp, 9780547148793 Addie MacNeal loves the theater. The only person who might understand is her best friend, Whaley, but he’s busy enlisting in a war she doesn’t agree with. After losing a prime role in the high school production of Peer Gynt, she takes solace in a trunk of old costumes and props that belonged to her landlady’s great-aunt, a well-known stage director. But when she puts on one of the antique dresses and looks into an engraved silver mirror, something strange happens. She’s suddenly surrounded by people in similar clothes, talking about a different war with a kaiser and a world in which Model Ts and jazz music are the latest thing.

Addie scarcely notices once she’s invited to join a professional theater company. Reg, a handsome young actor, captures her attention, but he’s looking to enlist too and go over to the trenches of World War One. With the help of her magical mirror, Addie must keep both boys – one in her own time and one in 1917 – safe from war.

Addie is painted as a very perceptive, intelligent girl, yet it took her an astonishingly long time to realize the vintage mirror that makes her feel dizzy and see people in inexplicably old-fashioned clothing just might be a time-traveling mirror.

More than a hundred and thirty pages. Not only did I have the urge to smack her with a history book, but this undermined her character. Later in the book, when everyone else depended on her to pull off the clever rescue, I had my doubts.

This was my biggest complaint in an otherwise well-researched teen romance. Once Addie figured out what was going on and began falling in love, the story flew, and Spiegler did an admirable job of tying together all the threads in the end.

Jessica Brockmole THE RING OF SOLOMON Jonathan Stroud, Doubleday, 2011, £7.99, pb, 405pp, 9780385619165 The Ring of Solomon is a prequel to the fantasy trilogy about the wise and wisecracking demon, Bartimaeus. The series is aimed for children from eight upwards.

Set during the reign of King Solomon, the premise is that magicians summon demons to do Children & YA

their work. The story centres on Bartimaeus, a demon summoned to Earth, very much against his will, by Solomon, to help build his Temple. He’s a brilliant narrator, and each page is drenched with cynical charm. The other main character is a young woman, Asmira, an assassin sent to kill Solomon.

She lacks Bartimaeus’ charisma but is a great foil, even if we’re wary of her blind fanaticism.

This story is an Arabian Nights adventure, full of sorcerers, djinni, flying carpets and magic rings.

Bartimaeus, for all his power, is a slave. Slavery and the corrupting effect of power are the main themes of the book and are well-handled.

Sarwat Chadda THE TIME-TRAVELING FASHIONISTA Bianca Turetsky, Poppy, 2011, $17.99/C$19.99, pb, 258pp, 9780316105422 Present-day Connecticut finds vintage-clothesloving seventh-grader Louise Lambert desperate to find a dress for her upcoming formal dance.

When a mysterious invitation to a vintage fashion sale arrives, Louise believes it to be destiny. She quickly becomes enamored of a gorgeous rosecolored dress from 1912, and tries it on. As soon as she does, however, Louise is transported into the body of Alice Baxter and finds herself aboard the Titanic. In her usual plucky manner, Louise quickly adapts to this sudden time travel and body-switch, taking everything in stride. She relishes becoming a fashionista and famous actress, but having just learned about the Titanic in her history class, Louise realizes that tragedy will soon strike. She and her new maid, Anna, must figure out how to help her fellow travelers avoid certain death, while finding a way to get herself back to her own time before it’s too late.

This cute, fun read is a first-rate escapism novel.

Turetsky does an excellent job intertwining fashion and history, and even includes over 20 illustrations that reflect the styles of the era. Louise’s spunk and spirit keep the story alive, and the historical events are well explained to young readers. I am already anxiously awaiting Louise’s next adventure. Highly recommended.

Rebecca Cochran STEEL Carrie Vaughn, HarperTeen, 2011, $16.99, hb, 294pp, 9780061547911 Sixteen-year-old Jill has devoted years of her life to fencing, but a tournament defeat leaves her doubting her future in the sport. Trying to forget her troubles on a family vacation in the Bahamas, she finds a piece of an antique blade on the beach.

A seemingly chance accident follows, and Jill is catapulted back in time to the golden age of piracy and the crew of pirate queen Marjory Cooper.

Forced to sign on as a crew member, she is drawn into Cooper’s deadly pursuit of the man who still possesses the rest of the blade he forged in dark magic – and who is in turn searching for the piece he has summoned back to his time.

Using a time-traveling heroine is an effective way to demonstrate to teens the difference between

the romance and the reality of history, as well as to introduce the reader to details of life on an 18th-century ship. Vaughn also does a good job of holding the action, romance, and magic in balance; there’s something for everyone in this novel. Her breezy (dare I say “swashbuckling”?) style leads to the occasional stretch of credibility, but since the book is part fantasy, I suppose she can be forgiven.

I would agree with my daughter’s assessment that this is a good crossover novel for girls who might not otherwise choose historical fiction.

Susan Cook Steel by Carrie Vaughn is an exciting tale full of action, magic, and suspense. It seems to be targeted much more towards the mainstream YA market than the market for historical fiction, and because of that it has received much more publicity. Unlike other books I have reviewed, I had seen Steel advertised before I received my copy. Another thing that sets it apart from regular historical fiction is that its depiction of 18th-century life is from a modern teenager’s perspective. The historical details about living on a pirate ship are accurate and interesting, and I especially liked the large part fencing played in it. Also, even though there was a romance, it didn’t play a pivotal part in the plot, which was a refreshing deviation from the “norm” of books like it. All in all, Steel was a seamless, satisfying blend of paranormal and historical; I would highly recommend it for fans of either genre.

Magdalen Dobson, age 14 THE CROWFIELD DEMON Pat Walsh, Chicken House, 2011, £6.99, pb, 389pp, 9781906427634 Set in an abbey in 1348, with a glossary explaining such terms as ‘triforium’ and ‘shawm’, there’s plenty of history here, but also magic.

There are ‘fays’, ‘mound elves’ and a ‘Dark King’ – and though these could have been written in an historical context of folklore and superstition, or as magic realism, they are presented here more as straightforward fantasy.

I don’t have a problem with that per se, but I think it undermines the threat and the history in this book. The plotline repeatedly makes clear that the 14th century has no answer to the supernatural powers – which is certainly not what they would have felt then. The abbey is revealed as a Christian building on an ancient pagan site, and demonic powers are beginning to awake; so again, though much of the historical detail is well done, it is built upon a revisionist 21st-century viewpoint.

So: doesn’t quite work for me, though I like all the themes. It will probably read very well as a simple adventure story for a younger reader.

Richard Lee BETWEEN TWO ENDS David Ward, Amulet, 2011, $16.95, hb, 288pp, 9780810997141 Yeats knows that something is deeply wrong with his father, William. He visits his grandmother’s spooky house and inadvertently HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Reviews | 79

reunites two pirate-shaped bookends with the ability to grant wishes. However, their magic only extends to books. Yeats discovers that William’s malaise began when he was trapped in the story of The Arabian Nights twenty years before. William barely escaped, but he had to abandon his friend, Shari. To save his father, Yeats returns to the story to rescue his father’s childhood friend, now known as Shaharazad.

Ward’s story is fun fantasy, rich in atmosphere out of The Arabian Nights. The action is constant and full of physical details that keep the reader right there with Yeats. The prologue is effective, and the plot holds together nicely. The interaction between Shaharazad and Yeats is charming and believable in a storybook kind of way. Yeats’ character felt very wooden until Yeats took control of his own story.

Readers who enjoyed The Chronicles of Narnia and Inkspell will enjoy Between Two Ends.

Michaela MacColl ON THE BLUE COMET Rosemary Wells, illus. Bagram Ibatoulline, Walker Books, 2010, £10.99, hb, 329pp, 9781406330144 / Candlewick, 2010, $16.99, hb, 336pp, 9780763637224 Oscar Ogilvie lives with his father in Cairo, Illinois, at the end of Lucifer Street. He is an 11-year-old boy who shares a love of model trains with his dad. This mutual pastime occupies them as they work together building up their collection after Oscar’s mother died in an explosion where she worked. When the great stock market crash happens, leading to a time of countrywide depression, their happiness is destroyed once more.

His father loses his job, their house and has to sell the trains. The care of Oscar falls to his Aunt Carmen as his father heads west in search of work.

Life changes for Oscar, becoming more serious and studious, until he is caught up in a robbery and is almost killed, but he manages to jump through time, saved by his beloved trains.

This is a very sensitively written novel which will entice train lovers, young and adult alike. It describes the situation in America after the crash of the markets, showing the impact the situation had on ordinary families. We follow Oscar as he faces the harsh reality of life, but who also discovers, through a friend, how he can achieve despite everything.

Oscar’s journey really picks up pace when he jumps to escape being shot and finds he has landed in the future. Here he meets historical characters who help him to return to his present with the knowledge that could help solve a robbery and a murder.

The beautiful retro-illustrations (by Bagram Ibatoulline) of key moments within the story, add to the books overall appeal.

Val Loh SMALL ACTS OF AMAZING COURAGE Gloria Whelan, Simon & Schuster, 2011, $15.99/ C$18.99, hb, 217pp, 9781442409316 In 1918, India is under British rule, and 15-year80 | Reviews | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

old Rosalind is the darling of a privileged class.

Most British children are sent back to England for their schooling at an early age, but with her father away at war and her mother in delicate health, Rosalind is free to soak up all that India has to offer – the bustling streets, the lively bazaar, the tastes and sounds and colors of her home. But in her wanderings she hears rumors of a movement to win India’s independence – led by a man named Gandhi. Should she abide by the unspoken rules of her own class, or should she try to help the less fortunate and face the consequences? Rosalind gradually begins to realize that doing the right thing is not always as simple as her parents would have her believe.

Gloria Whelan’s love for India shines through in her gorgeous descriptions, and her characters are warm and believable. However, the plot line quickly loses thrust. The chapters set in England seem almost completely disconnected from those set in India, and the black-and-white personalities of the two spinster aunts bored me. I would have liked to see Rosalind encounter some real danger – if only once – to account for her change in perspective. Instead, she remains ever the darling of Fortune, with more than one deus ex machina to pull her out of her predicaments and smooth over her mistakes.

Ann Pedtke RAVEN SPEAK Diane Lee Wilson, Simon & Schuster Teen, 2011, $8.99, pb, 252pp, 9781416986546 In 854 Norway, Asa Coppermane watches her Viking chieftain father and most of the clan’s men sail off at the end of a starving winter to find food.

The sick and the weak remain in Asa’s care, and the burden is a heavy one for a 14-year-old. Her mother’s health deteriorates, and Asa surmises that Jorgen, the clan’s storyteller, has been manipulating her people to seize power. When the next part of his plan includes the sacrifice of Asa’s beloved horse, she flees on his back, beyond the fiord territory that is her clan’s domain. There she meets Wenda, a one-eyed Solitary who communicates with ravens and offers shelter and food. Wenda knows much about both the past and future, and hints that Asa will be called to make a great sacrifice. Soon Asa goes into battle with Jorgen and the harsh landscape and finds the strength to lead.

Asa’s grim journey is eloquently told and touched with wonder. The depiction of the harsh realities of the terrible winter, the bond between Asa and her horse, and the troubled young mind seeking clarity are this novel’s strengths.

Eileen Charbonneau WRITTEN IN BLOOD John Wilson, Orca, 2010, $12.95, pb, 157pp, 9781554692705 It is 1877, and 16-year-old Jim Doolen has set out to find the father he hasn’t seen in ten years.

Jim travels alone from Yale, British Columbia, to Chihuahua, Mexico, encountering an array of interesting fellow-travelers along the way: a

suspicious man who offers to travel with Jim, a storytelling hermit who gives Jim a new name, an Apache warrior, and a Mexican diplomat. As Jim collects stories from these men, he begins to piece together what happened to his father and gets caught up in the violent family drama his father had hoped to leave behind.

This is a fast-paced tale that is hard to put down. Jim’s youthful naiveté makes him a likable character, and Jim’s determination and courage make this an interesting story. Though this is a middle grade novel, the author does not whitewash the violence of the period and neither does he insulate Jim from it. In addition, the author does a nice job weaving into the narrative the historical conflicts that plagued the American Southwest and linger there today.

Patricia O’Sullivan ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE: A Novel in Five Acts Gretchen Woelfle, illus. Thomas Cox, Holiday House, 2011, $16.95, hb, 163pp, 9780823422814 When 12-year-old Kit is caught pick-pocketing at the Theatre playhouse in London, he is given a choice: he can go to prison for his crime, or he can work for the Lord Chamberlain’s Men until he has paid back the money he stole. Kit chooses to work and quickly finds himself immersed in the politics of the Elizabethan theatre world.

As Kit is introduced to such figures as Richard Burbage, Will Kemp, and William Shakespeare, new possibilities open out before him. Instead of a mere orphan on the street, could he be an apprenticed stagehand? A master carpenter? Even a player himself? Whatever his future holds, Kit knows that he belongs with his new theatre friends, and will do anything to support them. When the landlord evicts the company from the playhouse, Kit joins the dangerous plot to dismantle the theatre under the cover of darkness, and carry the timbers across the river to lay the foundations for what will become the world-famous Globe.

With simple, pleasant prose, Woelfle tells a classic coming-of-age story against the colorful backdrop of 1590s London. While the storyline is predictable, and the dialogue straightforward, I found such simplicity easy to forgive in a book so neatly constructed. The five “acts” of Kit’s emotional journey fit nicely with the theatre theme, as does the Dramatis Personae at the opening of the novel.

Thomas Cox’s quirky illustrations also complement the theme beautifully. The world of Woelfle’s novel is a benevolent one, where mistakes are made but forgiven, and where camaraderie among the players always triumphs over adversity. Each character gets his or her just desserts, and each finds a special place to belong.

Ann Pedtke

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JEDEDIAH SMITH: No Ordinary Mountain Man Barton H. Barbour, Univ. of Oklahoma, 2011, $19.95, pb, 304pp, 9780806141961 The term “mountain man” conjures up visions of doggedly independent and fiercely combative men more than capable of adapting and thriving in areas of the West where few whites had ever traveled and where the Indian reigned supreme.

Legends, of course, usually clash with reality, but Jedediah Smith (1799-1831) seems to accurately fit the stereotype. Our hero was a fascinating and colorful individual who was bedazzled as a young boy by first person accounts of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Smith was soon famous for being the first white man to travel to California through the Southwest. Subsequent journeys took him literally all over the West. His end came when he volunteered to go alone in search of water to save comrades from the dreaded Comanche. Reading Barbour’s biography should provide fertile soil for historical novelists seeking background for their Western writings.

John R. Vallely THE FLOOR OF HEAVEN: A True Tale of the Last Frontier and the Yukon Gold Rush Howard Blum, Crown, 2011, $26.00/C$30.00, hb, 448pp, 9780307461728 One of the underappreciated joys of studying history lies in tapping into the lives and times of some of the very curious people who fill in the personal backgrounds of well-known events.

Discovering the facts surrounding the 1896 Yukon Gold Rush is of use in and of itself, but living it through the eyes of men like Charlie Siringo, Jefferson “Soapy” Smith, and George Carmack opens up a world few lovers of history will ever regret entering. Carmack, a man who deserted the U.S. Marines for the lure of treasure, and Siringo, a Pinkerton detective faced with finding and arresting gold thieves, are confronted with “Soapy” Smith and his plans to grab as much money as possible through theft, intimidation, violence, and sheer audacity. Howard Blum presents the reader with a time period that is well worth booking passage to experience.

John R. Vallely THE OMNIPOTENT MAGICIAN: Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, 1716-1783 Jane Brown, Chatto & Windus, 2011, 400pp, £20, 9780701182120 The author has written an impressive number of books on gardening in England, and she now turns to look at the country’s most renowned landscape visionary. Visit any of England’s large houses, and there is a good chance that at some point they received advice and visits (often numerous) from Lancelot Brown; indeed the amount of work he did was prodigious, and Jane Brown narrates his peripatetic life on the road as he goes from wealthy patron to wealthy patron, transforming the grounds of England’s largest houses. Starting from modest circumstances in the isolated north of the Nonfiction

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STA F F P U B LI C AT IONS HISTORICAL FICTION WRITING: A Practical Guide and Tool-Kit

Myfanwy Cook’s Historical Fiction Writing: A Practical Guide and Tool-Kit delivers what the title promises and more. Its 360-plus pages are bursting with activities, examples, and encouragement both for new writers and experienced practitioners wishing to hone their skills. In 21 chapters plus a glossary, Cook takes readers step by step through the process of crafting enjoyable historical fiction.

Its readers will want to keep a notebook close at hand. The many tips from Cook and 50 other experts such as Bernard Knight, Tania Crosse, C.C. Humphreys, Ann Parker, and Karen Maitland add even more heft to this thorough guide, which is based on the author’s experiences as a writing tutor. In addition to serving as HNR’s features editor, Cook has spent the last 15 years teaching workshops to aspiring historical fiction writers.

“Teaching English in places as varied as Algeria and Aberdeen laid the foundations for my professional interest in language and teaching methods,” she says in an interview. After joining HNS, publishing stories, and winning competitions, she set up a local writers’ group with a friend at a library’s request. Discouraged by the lack of methodology, guidance, and spirit of fun in the classes she took, she began designing her own workshops.

“Those starting out had ideas but no framework, or they were lacking in a skill in one particular area, such as writing dialogue. I’d had many of these problems myself, and so I set out to create activities based on my own difficulties and observations as a teacher,” she explains. Using an approachable style, Cook provides realistic advice on the basics of historical writing – from developing settings, characters, and mood to ensuring accuracy and avoiding pitfalls such as anachronisms, clichés, and “not letting your reader use their imagination.”

For Cook, the reader sits at the heart of the writing process. One of the book’s first activities asks people to read and analyze three historical novels for appeal and marketability. “If you want to develop your skill as a writer, personally I feel that you need to read as much fiction in your chosen genre as you can,” she says.

While historical novels share certain commonalities – engaging plots, realistic characters, wellrendered settings – Cook recognizes that the genre comes in many flavors, and the diversity of the contributor list reflects this. “I believed that it was important to invite writers with very different viewpoints, writing styles, periods and stages in their careers to contribute,” she says. “Also, historical fiction is written and has resonance all over the world.”

Cook’s own favorite period is late 18th to early 19th-century England and France. However, she continues, “When writing historical fiction it is personal stories, quests and locations that inspire me. I’ve uncovered wonderful stories while researching miners and their families who emigrated to Australia in search of gold in the 19th century, but also in events on the edge of Dartmoor, where I live… It’s the characters, and how the period, place and events of that time affect them as people that intrigue me, and that I hope will interest the reader.”

With Cook’s passion for historical writing coming through so strongly in her work, it can’t fail to inspire other writers as well.

by Sarah Johnson, with input from Myfanwy Cook Myfanwy Cook’s Historical Fiction Writing: A Practical Guide and Tool-Kit is published by ActiveSprite Press in 2011 (£9.50 UK/£16.50 worldwide, postpaid). For details and to order, see www. myfanwycook.com. country, his reputation grew until he was courted by monarchs and nobility for his advice and the enjoyment of his congenial company.

Lancelot did not leave a mass of documentary material, and so most of the book is devoted to the evidence as it exists on the ground – with his lakes, undulating lands and patterns of planting.

He was at the forefront of the movement away

from strict formalism in gardens to the sweeping, romantic approach, with occasional Gothic decoration features, to landscape design. This is an impressively comprehensive and knowledgeable work on Lancelot Brown and ends with the surprising assessment that the devoted family man may also have fathered a child out of marriage.

Doug Kemp HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Reviews | 81

THE PERFECT NAZI Martin Davidson, Penguin, 2011, £8.99, pb, 336pp, 9780141024998 / Putnam, 2011, $26.95, hb, 384pp, 9780399157011 Throughout his childhood, television producer Martin Davidson thought his grandfather was simply a retired German dentist, a dominant and sometimes domineering personality. But when Bruno Langbehn died, the truth that Davidson uncovered was worse than he or his family could have imagined. Bruno had in fact been a member of the Nazi party, but not just any member; he had worn the Gold Party Badge, a sign of early and devoted adherence to Hitler. Even more disturbing was the further discovery that his grandfather had been an officer in the dreaded SS. This book retraces Bruno’s journey from disillusioned adolescent to a man at the heart of the Nazi regime and finally to the dentist who settled in Britain as Davidson attempts to piece together how his grandfather and millions of fellow Germans were seduced by Hitler.

While The Perfect Nazi does suffer somewhat from a lack of original source material – as the author admits, much of Bruno’s past lies out of reach – this is a fascinating book that highlights the difficulty in reconciling personal memories with the truths of the past.

Gordon O’Sullivan VENETIAN NAVIGATORS: The Voyages of the Zen Brothers to the Far North Andrea di Robilant, Faber & Faber, 2011, £14.99, hb, 244pp, 9780571243778 Strands of serendipity weave through the various levels on which this book is written: to start with di Robilant’s chance encounter with an American in Venice which prompted him to investigate two 14th-century Venetian brothers, Nicolò and Antonio Zen, whose travel records were finally printed – with a map – a century and a half later by another Nicolò Zen (the Younger). The account even includes a description of Antonio Zen’s journey to what may have been Newfoundland.

Di Robilant’s own travels to the Faeroes, Orkney, Iceland and Greenland as he retraces the Venetians’ voyage, and attempts to unravel truth from fiction, also have their fair share of chance discoveries and meetings. When the account was printed in the 16th century, Nicolò the Younger resorted to ‘padding generously’ and including bizarre details, which resulted in the journey being discredited as a hoax by later critics. Nonetheless, the Zen map retained a long-lasting influence and was used by Mercator and John Dee, among others. Much of the material is intriguing – how Augustine monasteries benefited from thermal springs in Iceland, for instance – but I found the whole marred by the difficulty of balancing the possibly authentic Venetian account, the 16thcentury fabrications and the modern travelogue.

Lucinda Byatt

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BEHIND THE PALACE DOORS Michael Farquhar, Random House, 2011, $15.00/C $17.00 pb, 307pp, 9780812979046 “Five centuries of sex, adventure, vice, treachery, and folly from royal Britain.” The tribulations of the Tudors are well known, thanks to numerous books and TV programs. Farquhar’s exposé also delves into their descendants: the crude Scottish Stuarts, the grumpy Hanoverians, down through Queen Victoria’s long reign to the present Queen Elizabeth II. You’ll cringe at the reckless spending of various monarchs, which ran the country into debt, and the grisly desecration of Charles I’s corpse. Yet young Queen Victoria’s disaster-prone coronation and her graceful demeanor throughout will bring a smile. An interesting side-story is the fate of King George III’s sister, Caroline Matilda, after her marriage to mad King Christian of Denmark. Another less publicized scandal is a gruesome murder mystery surrounding George III’s son, the Duke of Cumberland.

The book may not uncover too many shocking secrets, but it’s a great introduction for the neophyte to the seamier side of royal British history.

Diane Scott Lewis THE CRIMEAN WAR: A History (US) / CRIMEA (UK) Orlando Figes, Metropolitan, 2011, $35.00/ C$40.00, hb, 608pp, 9780805074604 / Allen Lane, 2010, £30.00, hb, 608pp, 9780713997040 When asked about the Crimean War, many readers may be able to recall only the barest of details, such as Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade” or images of Florence Nightingale nursing soldiers. Orlando Figes seeks to rectify this lack of understanding in his marvelous new book. A noted historian, Figes draws on a wide array of sources – British, French, Russian, and Ottoman – to document the political, geographic, and religious complexity of the mid-19th century conflict, the consequences of which are still felt today in both Europe and the Middle East.

This narrative history provides the context necessary to understand the impact of this first modern war, in which the West sided with the Turks against Russia’s attempts at political and religious expansion. Tools such as the telegraph and railways, along with on-site photographers and reporters, changed the way battles were fought; the Crimean War also saw the beginnings of the middle-class soldier and the end of the aristocratic management of the military. The background and the battles are well-documented and accompanied by maps and plates. This eminently readable volume connects events and individual voices, and reinforces the adage that those who don’t understand history are doomed to repeat it.

Helene Williams 1861: The Civil War Awakening Adam Goodheart, Knopf, 2011, $28.95/C$33.00, hb, 460pp, 9781400040155 The 150th anniversary of the American Civil War is certain to contribute an avalanche of histories and biographies to bookshelves already groaning under the weight of the most analyzed period in U.S. history. Adam Goodheart offers a brilliant and lively account of the pivotal beginnings of the conflict in 1861: The Civil War Awakening. He is

an eloquent writer and a gifted storyteller in the tradition of Bruce Catton and Shelby Foote. His Civil War is no reworking of battles and political debates but rather an arresting depiction of a nation and a people teetering on the edge of disaster.

From Union farm boys in their colorful uniforms gazing at the Capitol’s rotunda, to John and Jessie Fremont seeking fame and political influence, to a tired and depressed Major Robert Anderson hoping beyond hope that war will not begin at his post at Fort Sumter, to the two rival presidents desperately seeking solutions, Goodheart provides an exemplary look at the first year of the war.

John R. Vallely THE PRIVATE WORLD OF GEORGETTE HEYER Jane Aiken Hodge, Sourcebooks, 2011, $14.99, pb, 256pp, 9781402251924 Georgette Heyer loved to write about class, the relationships between men and women, appealing fiends, morals of the Regency era, and comedies of manners. Surprisingly, she was born into a family of modest means and nurtured by a father who treated her more like a companion than a daughter. His openness to education enabled her to read anything she wished, developing a lifelong curiosity about fiction and essays that easily transformed into her own substantial literary works.

Jane Aiken Hodge charts the progress of Heyer’s novels and one short story, allowing glimpses of how her skill and talent evolved. Early in her career, she was more interested in the “marriage of minds rather than the marriage of four legs in a bed,” a focus that she managed with success. We also learn that Heyer’s real love was the medieval period. An Infamous Army was her favorite book, a romance leading up to the famous Battle of Waterloo, an account that was used at Sandhurst to teach military strategy. Financial pressures caused her to focus more on the elements of her stories and what the public wanted. Hodge’s explanations and analyses of Heyer’s fiction introduce the reader to a new examination of this notable author, one sure to fascinate lovers of Regency romances, thrillers, and historical fiction.

Viviane Crystal THE STONES OF LONDON Leo Hollis, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2011, £25, hb, 454pp, 9780297850823 This is the story of twelve London buildings and the men who left their imprint on the fabric of the capital.

In 1245, Henry III rebuilt the Saxon church close by his palace at Westminster. His son Edward I continued the work. He built the coronation chair on which every British monarch has been crowned.

Westminster Abbey has been the site of royal rituals for over 800 years.

In 1558, Thomas Gresham built the Royal Exchange and transformed London into a major trading capital.

Since the 15th century, there had been a palace at Greenwich which fell into decay. Following the Restoration, the king commissioned an astronomical observatory and appointed Christopher Wren as architect. At Greenwich, Wren’s passion for science, architecture and astronomy combined in the creation of the Royal Observatory.

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In 1812, John Nash began work on Regent Street.

Sir Charles Barry and A W N Pugin designed the Houses of Parliament in 1835. The passion for Gothic architecture had become widespread and the riverfront façade proved a magnificent challenge.

Sir Joseph Bazalgette solved London’s cholera outbreak and ended the continual stench from the foul quagmire of the Thames. The solution was to build sewer pipes to carry the city’s waste outside the metropolis through a system of embankments so that the water supply was not contaminated, hence the beauty of the Victoria Embankment.

Highly recommended.

Jane Hill CHILD OF THE FIGHTING TENTH Forrestine C. Hooker, Univ of Oklahoma Press, 2011, $19.95, pb, 296pp, 9780806140803 This re-released memoir recounts the early life of author Forrestine “Birdie” Cooper Hooker, growing up in the frontier West. The daughter of an officer of the Tenth U.S. Cavalry, she witnessed firsthand the depredations, the beauty, and the savagery of the Indian campaigns and the settling of the West.

As the Tenth was composed of black troops, she describes the life of the Buffalo soldiers, as well as the many prominent characters of the time, from Leonard Wood and Custer to Geronimo and Lone Wolf. Along the way we become acquainted with iconic figures of the Old West such as the ruthless gunman, the corrupt Indian agent, and many others.

The book is a sort of Little House on the Prairie meets Fort Apache, to be treasured as much for its descriptions of the minutia of daily life with a cavalry troop, as its depictions of the famous and infamous. Perhaps its value can best be summed up by a news columnist who commented in an interview with the author just before her death in 1931, “Many a historical novelist of the future will study Mrs. Hooker’s books to get true pictures of the West that was.”

Ken Kreckel MEDICAL MUSES: Hysteria in NineteenthCentury Paris Asti Hustvedt, W.W. Norton & Company, 2011, $26.95/C$33.50, hb, 336pp, 9780393025606 Hysteria was a very real fear up until the late 19th century, and never studied more than at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, run by famed neurologist Jean-Pierre Charcot. Hysteric patients suffered specific symptoms, like seizures, hallucinations, paralysis, and catalepsy, and were easily hypnotized. Charcot was known for using patients to dramatize public lectures. This book examines three of the women exploited in Charcot’s lectures, and Hustvedt does an admirable job of humanizing them.

The author’s background is in French literature, and it is from this perspective that she approaches the topic. Although she raises some truly fascinating questions about the influence of culture and era on disorder, she doesn’t provide the evidence to answer these. It’s a straightforward presentation of an obsolete syndrome, without connection to modern medicine. As a sketch of three hysterics within the very specific culture of 19th century Paris, this book succeeds. But as a discussion of hysteria in a medical or a historical context, it falls short.

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Jessica Brockmole YOUNG HENRY: The Rise of Henry VIII Robert Hutchinson, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2011, £20.00, hb, 356pp, 9780297859529 This new biography concentrates on Henry VIII’s life up until the triumphant coronation of the pregnant Anne Boleyn in 1533. The first chapters chart the accession to the throne of Henry’s father and his urgent need to establish the legitimacy of the Tudor dynasty. The first half of the 16th century is riddled with “what ifs”, which this book highlights to great effect. What if Prince Arthur had not died in 1502? What then for Henry, duke of York, or even, as it has been suggested his father intended, Henry, archbishop of Canterbury? What if Henry’s marriage to Katherine of Aragon had produced the longed-for heir?

The book is well researched, drawing copiously on original resources to show a world of breathtaking luxury and extravagance, of pomp and pageantry, scheming, political chicanery, brutality and personal tragedy.

However, it does not give us anything new, and the truncated time-frame makes it feel inconclusive.

Much about Henry’s childhood among his adoring nursemaids and the effect of this on the character of the adult ruler can only be speculation. I know it was the author’s intention to show us Henry VIII before he morphed from Renaissance prince into the obese tyrant of popular legend, but by leaving us at the high point of 1533, we only witness the devastating fall-out of the king’s desperation for an heir in an epilogue and character biographies sketching the events of the next 14 years and the fate of the people we have encountered in these pages.

Nevertheless, this would be an interesting addition to the library of anyone interested in the Tudor era.

Mary Seeley AMERICAN DREAMERS: How the Left Changed a Nation Michael Kazin, Knopf, 2011, $27.95, hb, 352pp, 9780307266286 American Dreamers surveys the creative contributions of the lately much-reviled American Left, from the 1820s to the election of President Obama. It concludes that far from malice or irrelevance, the Left has been the keystone of America’s successful democracy. The earliest heroes of the movement are not household names, and are often passed over in high school texts. (Personally, this “filling in the blanks” was a particularly enjoyable experience.) Unknowns like Reverend David Walker (abolitionist), Albert Parsons (labor organizer) and Ernestine Rose (women’s rights) were, in their day, outspoken champions of human liberation who had a substantial following. Michael Kazin asserts that the Left, whose leaders dared to ask for such once “un-American” things as an end to slavery, the right to unionize, for safety on the job, and the vote for women, were striving for a better world, the kind which includes all races and creeds – and income levels.

If Kazin sometimes overstates a case, he says he “means to.” He hopes his book will provoke debate and get his readers thinking about the past as it actually was, not as it has been reimagined of so many of today’s pundits and politicians. There are

shades of gray here, leaders that modern readers can’t entirely embrace, but American Dreamers is history warts and all, the narrative backed, as you’d expect, with copious notes. The author is a respected professor of history at Georgetown University and has received honors which include two Fulbrights.

I’d recommend this work highly, particularly to any serious student of American history.

Juliet Waldron WALTZING WITH THE ENEMY Rasia Kliot and Helen Mitsios, Penina Press, 2011, $19.95, pb, 287pp, 9781936068210 This is another memoir from a survivor of the Holocaust, but one with some crucial differences.

First off, it is written by both the survivor, who relates the facts, and her daughter, who must come to terms with the reality of her mother’s life against her own sheltered upbringing. In this sense it is a dual journey, which mirrors how we relate to the enormity of the historical event. Another difference is Rasia Kliot herself, who grew up in a upper middle class home, and, when the Holocaust hit, was exceedingly resourceful in surviving it. Not your typical death camp story, it is instead a celebration of the human spirit, but one that reveals a hidden, and perhaps unexpected, cost.

As Kliot and Mitsios are hardly accomplished authors, the book at first reads as a cold matter-offact recitation of events. But what intially feels like somewhat shallow writing begins to be something more. The story itself reveals the emotional cost for the survivor, the burying of emotion, the denial of her essence, as if in denying her very Jewishness she can spare her daughter any possibility of being exposed to such danger. The daughter’s narrative then becomes a journey of discovery in understanding her own middle class non-Jewish childhood and her mother’s motives in building such a life. It is a complex story, one that is thoughtprovoking and universal in appeal. Only when we come to understand our parents as people are we able to fully take our place in the world as fully functioning adults.

Ken Kreckel IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS Erik Larson, Crown, 2011, $26.00, hb, 448pp, 9780307408846 / Doubleday, 2011, £20.00, hb, 464pp, 9780857520425 “Once, at the dawn of a very dark time, an American father and daughter found themselves suddenly transported from their snug home in Chicago to the heart of Hitler’s Berlin.” So begins Erik Larson’s biographical study of William Dodd, U. S. ambassador to Germany from 1933 to 1936, and his flamboyant, impulsive daughter, Martha.

Dodd was Roosevelt’s fifth choice for the post and ill-suited to it. A mild-mannered history professor raised in a poor Southern family, he lacked the wealth, the pedigree, and the political connections of his State Department colleagues. (He also lacked their bent toward anti-Semitism and isolationism.)

They eventually brought him down.

But the real interest in this book is Martha.

An attractive 24-year-old, she was ready for adventure, and Berlin thrilled her. Larson (The Devil in the White City) vividly evokes the city’s glitter, excitement, and spreading violence. Martha plunged into a whirlwind of parties, night life, and HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Reviews | 83

astonishingly risky love affairs: first with Gestapo chief Rudolph Dielsand, then, as her enthusiasm for the Nazis cooled, with a handsome Russian NKVD agent. To all of this, her overworked father remained oblivious. Dodd died in 1940, all but forgotten on his little Appalachian farm. Martha lived until 1990, an exile in Prague, a woman without a country.

Both as political history and as a study in human nature, Larson’s book is well worth reading.

Bruce Macbain THE FAVOURITE: Sir Walter Ralegh in Elizabeth I’s Court Matthew Lyons, Constable, 2011, £14.99, hb, 354pp, 9781845296797 Lyons’ account of Ralegh, a “self-seeking, selfpublicizing butterfly”, his early life and meteoric rise to become Elizabeth’s favourite also offers a detailed insight into Tudor politics and court life.

Lyons explores Ralegh’s fatal attraction to power, albeit constantly undermined by self-doubt, and examines “the personal and political compulsions” that drew the archetypal courtier, made famous by the legendary episode of the cloak, to the Virgin Queen during the darkest years of her reign. Lyons attempts to throw light on the complexity of this attraction – driven, he argues, by much more than just money, sex and power – and tries to pierce the myths surrounding both figures. He emphasises Elizabeth’s own struggle for personal liberty and her horror of confinement: she faced a “very modern dilemma” of trying to continue with the routine of daily life “while living with the terror of an unspecific but real threat”. Lyons also pieces together the minute complexity of the multiple plots and convincingly presents circumstantial evidence, at least, of Ralegh’s intimate involvement in the intelligence network spanning England, France and Spain. Culminating at the height of Ralegh’s power in 1587, this book offers an intriguing and perceptive understanding of a relationship that continues to fascinate down the centuries.

Lucinda Byatt THE NINE LIVES OF OTTO KATZ Jonathan Miles, Bantam Press, 2011, £8.99, pb, 409pp, 9780553820188 Otto Katz was never a man to hide his light under a bushel, enthralling Hollywood in the Thirties with his tales of heroism in the fight against Fascism. But behind the showy front, Katz was a gifted propagandist and one of the most effective agents ever to work for Soviet Russia. With the Communist party as a support but using his own peculiar set of skills, for the first half of the 20th century Katz was omnipresent. At one moment, he was seducing Marlene Dietrich in decadent 1920s Germany, then fighting a propaganda war against the Nazis in Paris, then thrilling film stars in Hollywood and inspiring the character of Victor Lazlo in Casablanca. He was in the thick of it on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War and organised effective Communist insurgencies in Latin America before his terminal return to Czechoslovakia.

Using recently released secret files, Jonathan Miles has produced an intriguing story of the nine lives of what has to be one of the world’s most influential secret agents. This is an excellent book; managing to keep the bewildering number of secret 84 | Reviews | HNR Issue 57, August 2011

affairs Katz was involved in clear in a literally actionpacked 400 pages.

Gordon O’Sullivan THE POPES: A History (UK) / ABSOLUTE MONARCHS: The Papacy (US) John Julius Norwich, Chatto & Windus, 2011, £25, hb, 505pp, 9780701182908 / Random House, 2011, $30.00, hb, 528pp, 9781400067152 Anyone with a passing interest in church history – and that really means European, indeed world history – will be fascinated by this overview of an institution which has played a colossal role on the world stage. More than the institution itself, Lord Norwich focuses on the men (and, legend has it, one woman) who have worn the triple crown, their weaknesses and strengths, and on the ability of the curial machine to administer the Patrimony of St Peter.

While my primary interest is the Renaissance and Counter-Reformation papacy, I confess that it was the earliest and later parts of the book that I found most enthralling. The author makes no claim to offer in-depth analysis of any single pope, although the role of such influential figures as Gregory the Great and Gregory VII is described with superb clarity. Pio IX and his successor Leo XIII – popes during and soon after the Unification of Italy, whose anniversary is now being celebrated – certainly merit further study. In a world where history sadly repeats itself, with cycles of religious fanaticism, war and poverty, the words of Gregory the Great were striking: “To speak of God we need a mind thoroughly at peace and free from care”. From start to finish, the book provides a lucid and eloquent panorama of nearly two millennia of church history.

Lucinda Byatt MRS. ADAMS IN WINTER: A Journey in the Last Days of Napoleon Michael O’Brien, Picador, 2011, $16.00, pb, 364pp, 9780312681142 Louisa Catherine Adams, best known in history as the wife of President John Quincy Adams, is the main character in this book, which takes place in 1815 when John is the first American minister to Russia. He has been ordered to Paris to oversee the Treaty of Ghent and has been gone for nearly a year when she receives word that she is to join him there.

It has been six years since Mrs. Adams left her home in Boston, and she has mixed feelings about leaving St. Petersburg, where she has gained the respect of the higher echelon of society, ran interference for her somewhat misanthropic husband, and endured a harsh climate and the heartbreaking loss of a baby girl. In a fine display of independence she sells her furniture, alerts her creditors, secures all the paperwork, and is ready to travel in three weeks’ time. Except for her young son, Charles, and French nurse Madame Babet, she would make the 40-day journey among strangers, yet her bravery and determination are to be admired.

Louisa is well prepared for this trip with passport, letters of introduction, and money, but it is still a harrowing, exhausting time for her, as she witnesses firsthand the devastation the Napoleonic Wars have caused. This book gives wonderful insight into the people and history of Russia and the major stopping points on her journey west, but the story of Louisa’s early life and her challenging marriage were

most appealing to me. This book is a biography/ travelogue based on her memoir written many years after the fact, and much is supposition by Michael O’Brien, but it’s interesting, and I enjoyed learning about Louisa Adams and travel in early 19th-century Europe.

Susan Zabolotny THE PAPER GARDEN Molly Peacock, Bloomsbury, 2011, £20.00, hb, 397pp, 9781408821015 This is the story of an 18th century English lady who in old age takes up composing pictures of flowers from coloured paper. Interesting?

American poet, Molly Peacock, is surely the only person who could have made this into a fascinating book. She herself became fascinated with Mrs Delany’s life and work, echoing her own youthful disappointments and late age fulfilment. So we have two life stories in parallel, Mrs Delany’s biography and Mrs Peacock’s autobiography, the one set in England and Ireland and the other in the USA and Canada, which vie for our interest.

But the greatest beauty of the book is the pictures.

Delany invented collage, although she called it ‘mosaicks’, and the book reproduces 14 of the almost 1000 compositions she made in the last decade of her life. They are botanically accurate to the tiniest detail, pieces of superb craftsmanship with the feeling of a fine artist. Peacock uses a different picture to illustrate each chapter, and her discussion of each adds greatly to our understanding. Mrs Delany’s fragile work still survives in the British Museum. In every sense a beautiful book.

Edward James DEATH IN FLORENCE Paul Strathern, Jonathan Cape, 2011, £25, hb, 428pp, 9780224089784 / Ba This book, subtitled The Medici, Savonarola and the Battle for the Soul of the Renaissance City, examines a period which helped to change the course of European history. Florence was the Renaissance city par excellence. Originally set up as a democracy, by the mid-15th century the powerful Medici family was effectively in control, and Lorenzo de Medici championed a progressive humanism expounded by such thinkers as Mirandola and patronized artists like Michelangelo and Botticelli.

It is a complex story. Italy comprised many states, all jostling for power. Militarily, Florence was weak, and it needed all Lorenzo’s diplomatic skill to keep the city one step ahead of its neighbours on the look out for any weakness. And not all Florence’s citizens were happy about being politically sidelined. When the fanatical monk, Savonarola, began to preach against the meretricious glitter of the court, the disenfranchised populace listened. Savonarola wanted to establish a ‘City of God’, to reform the corrupt papacy from within, and to eschew worldly vanities. Inevitably, this clashed with Medici secular humanism and the resulting conflict led to invasion

by France and a war which threatened to engulf not only Florence but also the papacy and many of the Italian states.

This eminently readable and well-researched book not only brilliantly illuminates the complexities of the period, its sweep encompassing the history, culture, religion, and even the psychology of Renaissance Florence, it also includes Nonfiction

a subtle awareness of similar 21st-century ideological conflicts. The author provides the reader with a map of Florence and a Medici family tree and a cast list.

Highly recommended.

Elizabeth Hawksley THE JANE AUSTEN HANDBOOK Margaret Sullivan, Quirk Books, 2011, $16.95, hb, 224pp, 9781594745058 The Jane Austen Handbook is a charming little book. The cream cover and pages, and delightful illustrations, are perfect for the subject matter.

The book is written with a similar dry wit to that of Jane Austen herself. Within its pages one can discover “Proper Life Skills from Regency England”.

Margaret Sullivan certainly knows her Regency and Jane Austen.

Everything you ever wanted to know from what is needed to be an accomplished lady, how to recognise The Quality, and how to ride side-saddle is covered in the first section. In the second, there are chapters on keeping house, planning a dinner party, raising your children, and how to buy clothing. In the third, misleadingly entitled “Making Love”, Margaret Sullivan covers various topics including: the best way to choose a prospective husband, decline unwanted proposals of marriage, and carry on a secret engagement.

The appendix gives a short biography of Jane Austen plus interesting information about her novels including the lesser-known works. There is also an excellent glossary.

I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in either Jane Austen or Regency England. It’s a must have for anyone considering writing a Regency romance for themselves.

Fenella Miller BLOOD WORK: A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution Holly Tucker, Norton, 2011, $25.95/C$32.50, hb, 304pp, 9780393070552 Who would have guessed that the earliest human blood transfusion was in 1667? Or that it transfused a dog’s blood into the patient? Or that the man survived! This history tells the story of early French and English physician/scientists racing to discover blood’s secrets. They had much to learn: medical schools still taught the ancient theory that blood made a one-way trip from the stomach to the heart to be burned as fuel. Respiration, they believed, just let off steam from the heart engine. Transfusions also bumped up against the Church’s teaching that there was a unity between body and soul. Transfusing a dog’s soulless blood into a human being was very dangerous business indeed.

The author is an associate professor at Vanderbilt University’s Center for Medicine, Health, and Society. That academic weight shows only in the references, however, where it becomes clear that she’s used an enormous number of primary sources.

The narrative reveals simply a good writer with a feel for suspense. Tucker tells her story as simply as possible considering its complexities of medicine, science, philosophy, religion, and law. I was, however, overwhelmed for a couple chapters by all of the dog deaths. Blood Work isn’t for sissies.

Kristen Hannum Nonfiction

THE BAND THAT PLAYED ON Steve Turner, Thomas Nelson, 2011, $24.99, hb, 259pp, 9781595552198 Love it or hate it, who can forget the scenes from the movie Titanic of the valiant musicians playing on deck as the liner sank? As a Titanic buff, the idea of these men spending their final moments attempting to give comfort amid chaos has always intrigued me.

At last a new book has brought to light the lives and deaths of these dedicated men who bravely faced death as they had life: through music.

The Band That Played On showcases each of the eight musicians, giving what known details are available about their lives before being hired onto the Titanic as well as information about the night of the sinking. There is much debate among enthusiasts as to which musicians actually performed as the waters rose and which song was the last one played by the band, and Steve Turner explores this fully.

Also included are details about what became of the musicians’ bodies and what the effect of their deaths was on their families. I was particularly fascinated by the tantalizing rumor of the survival of bandleader Wallace Hartley’s precious violin; the author promises to follow up on this possibility as the 100th anniversary of the sinking approaches.

This book is quite well written and illuminates the individual unsung heroes of the most famous band of the early 20th century. It’s obvious Turner has done extensive research, and his reverence for all things Titanic is evident as he gives us the still unbelievable story of the men who provided background music to the tragedy. Recommended reading for those especially who want a closer look at the true faces of courage aboard the Titanic.

Tamela McCann BEHIND CLOSED DOORS: The Untold, Tragic Story of the Duchess of Windsor Hugo Vickers, Hutchinson, 2011, £25, hb, 470pp, 9780091931551 The author is a well known historian of mostly 20th-century monarchy and British society, including the duke and duchess of Windsor. This book is a rather curious amalgam of personal memoir, a sort of legal deposition and a conventional narrative history and life of the Windsors.

Vickers makes a case with substantial evidence to show how, after the death of the duke of Windsor in 1972, the ailing duchess came under the control of Maitre Suzanne Blum, her scheming lawyer, and other members of her staff in Paris. They isolated the duchess from most of her friends, sold off possessions with a possibly forged letter granting Blum power of attorney, and then earned large sums of money in publishing love letters between Edward and Wallis, after the duchess’s death in 1986. Blum is also accused of ignoring elements of both Edward’s and Wallis’ wills. This part of the book is a steadfast accumulation of evidence, in conjunction with a narrative of the duchess’s latter life. The second part of the book looks at the lives of Edward and Wallis and refutes many of the conventional myths about them – that Wallis was a sexually rapacious harpy; that Edward had Nazi sympathies and also that Wallis inveigled herself into Edward’s affection in order to be queen. Vickers makes a good case to show that a dilettantish Edward, even as prince of Wales, never wanted the responsibilities of the monarchy well before Mrs Simpson came along.

It is an entertaining and informative book, imbued in the mores of British 20th-century high society.

Doug Kemp HITLER IN THE CROSSHAIRS John Woodbridge and Maurice Possley, Zondervan, 2011, $24.99, hb, 336pp, 9780310325871 In December 2005, the author John Woodbridge was watching television when he saw a newscast featuring a gold-plated Walther gun reputedly taken from Adolf Hitler’s bunker in Bavaria. Woodbridge remembered that his father had shown this gun to him at the age of six, and that it had been a gift from a young soldier named Teen Palm, just returned from the European theater in World War II. Woodbridge and Possley conducted extensive research for the story of Teen Palm and the finding of Hitler’s gun.

The book is based on historical facts and interviews with Palm’s descendants, and the narrative includes excerpts from many of the 200 letters that Palm and his wife, Helen, wrote to each other during the war.

The story catches fire when the authors provide meticulous historical background of Hitler’s leadup to the war and the moment when Teen Palm’s life as a young officer begins. Teen’s service starts in Britain; he crosses the Channel and then enters France on Omaha Beach after Paris falls to the Allies. The authors then trace Palm’s nail-biting military exploits as he battles across France, fights his way through Germany, and discovers Hitler’s gun. Although the author’s continual reference to his immediate family bogs down the narration, Teen Palm emerges as a young hero imbued with faith and dedicated to the eradication of Hitler’s evil presence in the world.

Liz Allenby IF WALLS COULD TALK: An Intimate History of the Home Lucy Worsley, Faber & Faber, 2011, £20, hb, 368pp, 9780571259526 The chief curator at Historic Royal Palaces, Lucy Worsley, has written this book to tie in with her television series for the BBC. However it stands firmly on its own two feet, as this perfect tour guide discusses a range of subjects; from what British people ate to their sexual attitudes while guiding the reader adroitly through each room of the home.

Worsley covers the architectural evolutions of the bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen but concerns herself more with what people actually did in those rooms and why. Why did the flushing toilet take two centuries to catch on? Why did medieval people sleep sitting up? Why, for centuries, did people fear fruit?

Although she is especially strong on the 16th and 17th centuries, If Walls Could Talk spans 600 years of British history and touches on the experiences of all social classes. While this book has the natural broad strokes of a guided tour, it is written in a chatty and accessible style with short chapters to dip into. This is a work of popular history, finely balanced between historical insight and anecdote which will make you see your home anew.

Gordon O’Sullivan

HNR Issue 57, August 2011 | Reviews | 85

© 2011, The Historical Novel Society ISSN: 1471-7492 | Issue 57, August 2011