Historical Novels Review, Issue 87 (February 2019)

H I S T O R IC A L

NOV EL S REVIEW

ISSUE 87

FEBRUARY 2019

AUSTRALIAN HF

FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE ...

More on page 8

Black Historical Fiction The dynamic power of geography

Indigenous Origins, Colonialism and Diaspora

Page 10

Unfreezing History Sara Sheridan's latest Page 12

A Search for Peace The poorly-defined middle ground Page 13

Great Expectations Meets Grantchester?

Clarissa Harwood's Bear No Malice Page 14

An Uncomfortable Truth The Hundred Wells of Salaga Page 15

Historical Fiction Market News Page 1

New Voices Page 4

Ask the Agent Page 6

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H I S T O R IC A L

NOV EL S REVIEW ISSN 1471-7492

Issue 87, February 2019 | © 2019 The Historical Novel Society

PUBLISHER Richard Lee

Marine Cottage, The Strand, Starcross, Devon EX6 8NY UK <richard@historicalnovelsociety.org>

EDITORIAL BOARD

Managing Editor: Bethany Latham

Houston Cole Library, Jacksonville State University 700 Pelham Road North, Jacksonville, AL 36265-1602 USA <blatham@jsu.edu> Publisher Coverage: Simon & Schuster US (all imprints)

Book Review Editor: Sarah Johnson

6868 Knollcrest Drive, Charleston, IL 61920 USA <sljohnson2@eiu.edu> Publisher Coverage: Bethany House; Five Star; HarperCollins; Henry Holt; IPG; Penguin Random House (all imprints); Severn House; Australian presses; university presses

Features Editor: Lucinda Byatt 13 Park Road, Edinburgh, EH6 4LE UK <textline13@gmail.com>

New Voices Column Editor: Myfanwy Cook 47 Old Exeter Road, Tavistock, Devon PL19 OJE UK <myfanwyc@btinternet.com>

REVIEWS EDITORS, UK Alan Fisk

<alan.fisk@alanfisk.com> Publisher Coverage: Aardvark Bureau, Black and White, Bonnier Zaffre, Crooked Cat, Freight, Gallic, Honno, Impress, Karnac, Legend, Pushkin, Oldcastle, Quartet, Sandstone, Saraband, Seren, Serpent’s Tail

Edward James

<busywords_ed@yahoo.com> Publisher Coverage: Arcadia; Atlantic Books; Canongate; Head of Zeus; Glagoslav; Hodder Headline (inc. Coronet, Hodder & Stoughton, NEL, Sceptre); John Murray; Pen & Sword; Robert Hale; Alma; The History Press

Doug Kemp

<douglaskemp62@gmail.com> Publisher Coverage: Allison & Busby; Little, Brown; Orion; Penguin Random House UK (Cornerstone, Ebury, Transworld, Vintage, and their imprints); Quercus

Linda Sever

<LSever@uclan.ac.uk> Publisher Coverage: All UK children’s historicals

Karen Warren

<worldwidewriteruk@gmail.com> Publisher Coverage: Accent; Birlinn/Polygon; Bloomsbury; Duckworth Overlook; Faber & Faber; Granta; HarperCollins UK; Hamish Hamilton; Pan Macmillan; Penguin Random House UK (Michael Joseph, Penguin General, Penguin Press, and their imprints); Short Books; Simon & Schuster UK

REVIEWS EDITORS, USA Rebecca Cochran

<CochranR95@gmail.com> Publisher Coverage: Amazon Publishing; Hachette; Hyperion; Pegasus; and WW Norton

Bryan Dumas

<bryanpgdumas@gmail.com> Publisher Coverage: Algonquin; Kensington; Other Press; Overlook; Sourcebooks; Tyndale; and other US/Canadian small presses

Ilysa Magnus

<goodlaw2@optonline.net> Publisher Coverage: Bloomsbury, FSG; Grove/Atlantic; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Minotaur Books; Picador USA; Poisoned Pen Press; Soho Press; St Martin’s Press; and Tor/Forge

Arleigh Ordoyne

<arleigh.johnson@att.net> Publisher Coverage: US/Canadian children’s publishers

REVIEWS EDITOR, INDIE Richard Lee

<richard@historicalnovelsociety.org> Publisher Coverage: all self- and subsidy-published novels

EDITORIAL POLICY & COPYRIGHT 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 Historical Novels Review.

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.

MEMBERSHIP DETAILS THE HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY was formed in 1997 to help promote historical fiction. We are an open society — if you want to get involved, get in touch.

MEMBERSHIP in the Historical Novel Society entitles members to all the year’s publications: four issues of Historical Novels Review, as well as exclusive membership benefits through the Society website. Back issues of Society magazines are also available. For current rates, please see: https://historicalnovelsociety.org/members/join/

TABLE OF CONTENTS

NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE

ISSUE 87 FEBRUARY 2019

Registration now open! Visit http://www.hns-conference.com for details and to register for HNS’s upcoming North American conference this June 20-22 in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on the Potomac River minutes from Washington, DC. Guests of honor are Dolen Perkins-Valdez and Jeff Shaara.

COLUMNS 1

Historical Fiction Market News

Sarah Johnson

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New Voices Profiles of debut historical fiction authors Loretta Goldberg, Kerri Maher, Wayne Ng, and Signe Pike | Myfanwy Cook

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Ask the Agent Kate Nash | Richard Lee

FEATURES AND INTERVIEWS 8

Australian Historical Fiction Indigenous origins, colonialism and diaspora

by Elisabeth Storrs

10 Black Historical Fiction

The dynamic power of geography

by Dolen Perkins-Valdez 12 Unfreezing History

Sara Sheridan on her fascination with writing historical fiction

by Myfanwy Cook 12 A Search for Peace

The poorly-defined middle ground

by Katie Stine 14 Great Expectations Meets Grantchester?

Clarissa Harwood on choosing the 20th century

by Claire Morris 15 An Uncomfortable Truth

Two women’s struggle for agency in precolonial Ghana

by Lucinda Byatt

REVIEWS 16 Book Reviews

Editors’ choice and more

HISTORICAL FICTION MARKET NEWS

HNS NEW NOVEL AWARDS Congratulations to the prize winners in the 2018 HNS New Novel Awards. Top prize went to Warwick Cairns for The Master Thief, second prize to Margaret Skea for Katharina: Deliverance, and third prize to Kay Daly for Wilton House.

NEW BOOKS BY HNS MEMBERS If you’ve written a historical novel or nonfiction work published (or to be published) in November 2018 or after, please send the following details to me at sljohnson2@eiu.edu or @readingthepast by April 7: author, title, publisher, release date, and a blurb of one sentence or less. Details will appear in May’s magazine. Submissions may be edited for space. Congrats to the following authors on their new releases!

In By Sword and Storm by Margaret Skea (Sanderling, Oct. 3rd, 2018), third in her Munro family saga, set in 1598 as the French Wars of Religion draw to a close, the exiled Adam and Kate Munro seek to build a new life in Paris, despite their lingering nostalgia for Scotland and the friendship of the Montgomeries; but religious tensions remain high, and for the Munros and Montgomeries alike.

In Elaine Russell’s In the Company of Like-Minded Women (Belles Histoires, Oct. 14, 2018), “the summer of 1901 in Denver sees the reunion of three sisters in this historical novel that hails the burgeoning independence of women… passionate female characters deliver a valuable message” (Kirkus Reviews).

In Athena’s Champion (Canelo, Nov. 8, 2018), co-written by Cath Mayo and David Hair, Prince Odysseus of Ithaca is about to have his world torn apart; he’s travelled to the oracle at Pytho to be anointed as heir to his island kingdom; but instead the Pythia reveals a terrible secret, one that tears down every pillar of his life, and marks him out for death.

In Holly Green’s Leonora series (Frontline Nurses, Frontline Nurses on Duty, and Secrets of the Frontline Nurses; Penguin UK, Nov. 1), Leo and Victoria are desperate to escape the constraints of Edwardian society, but when they set off for Bulgaria to join the Women’s Sick and Wounded Convoy, to nurse soldiers injured in the First Balkan War, they set in motion a chain of events which will carry them through WWI and bring them danger and romance. (Originally published by Severn House as Daughters of War, Passions of War, and Harvest of War.) The Highlander Who Protected Me by Vanessa Kelly (Kensington

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Zebra, Nov. 2018), is the USA Today bestselling book in the author’s new Clan Kendrick Series of Highlander historical romances.

Workhouse Nightingale by Holly Green (Penguin UK, Nov. 11, 2018), set in 1860s Liverpool, focuses on Dora, half-caste and illegitimate, who is raped by her half-brother, left pregnant, and thrown onto the street by her step-mother; what are her chances of being accepted at the Nightingale School for Nurses?

Sherry Jones’s Josephine Baker’s Last Dance (Gallery/Simon & Schuster, Dec. 4, 2018), a tale of the life and times of the first black superstar, chronicles Ms. Baker’s ascent from a childhood of poverty and abuse to fame, fortune, and activism, including work as a WWII spy for the French Resistance and as a leading civil rights activist in the U.S. Set in mid-18th century England, Nancy Bilyeau’s The Blue (Endeavour Quill, Dec. 3) is a novel of suspense revolving around a young Huguenot painter who becomes a spy at a porcelain factory, seeking the formula for the most beautiful color in the world.

In The Forging of Frost, book two of The Maggie Chronicles by Donna Croy Wright (Moonset Press, Jan.), Maggie Smith is lured by two old texts into New Haven Colony’s puritanical, 17th-century world, where indentured servant John Frost must conquer a malevolent master, political intrigue, and penalty of death to gain his freedom and the chance to marry—that is, if the very real trials found in those old texts, from arson to fornication, don’t get in the way.

Louisa M. Bauman’s Sword of the Prophet (indie, Feb.), book 2 in the Sword of Münster series after Sword of Peace, takes us to the Munster Rebellion in 1535 at the time of the Reformation, when Janneken sets out to find her family, and ends up in Münster, Westphalia, Germany where the Anabaptists overthrow the government.

In When Valleys Bloom Again, a WWII romance by Pat Jeanne Davis (Elk Lake Publishing, Inc., Feb.), after fleeing impending war in England, nineteen-year-old Abby Stapleton works to correct her stammer and to become a teacher in America, only to discover this conflict has no boundaries and that a rejected suitor is intent on destroying her name, fiancé, and fragile faith.

In Janet Hancock’s literary novel Beyond the Samovar (The Conrad Press, Mar.), a young English couple, Livvy and Peter, and their baby leave Baku, capital of newly-independent Azerbaijan, in 1919, cross the border into Russia, and bluff and bribe their way across Bolshevik and White Russian territory to Archangel on the north coast, although only two of them will board a British ship to an England much changed after an absence of more than five years.

A Stranger Here Below (Skyhorse, Mar. 5), by Charles Fergus, takes place in Pennsylvania’s iron-making backcountry in 1835; a young sheriff unearths links among a judge’s suicide, a trial and hanging 30 years ago, and a recent murder; to conduct his investigation, he must relive his own mother’s murder, a crime that remains unsolved.

The adventures of Capt. Peter Wake return in Robert N. Macomber’s newest novel, Honoring the Enemy (USNI Naval Institute Press, Mar. 15), set during the summer of 1898 in the Spanish-American War, the 14th maritime thriller in his award-winning Honor Series.

Rosemary Poole-Carter’s Only Charlotte (Top Publications, Ltd., Apr. 1), set in an atmosphere of misogyny and racism in post-Civil War New Orleans, unwinds a Southern Gothic tale of entanglements, both amorous and murderous.

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The Forgotten Village by Lorna Cook (Avon/HarperCollins UK, Apr.) is a dual-time novel set in the real-life requisitioned village of Tyneham in Dorset in WW2 and the present day.

In Kris Waldherr’s Victorian-set debut novel The Lost History of Dreams (Atria, Apr. 9) a post-mortem photographer unearths dark secrets of the past that may hold the key to his future.

Set in 1880s Arizona Territory, Whispers in the Canyon by Gifford MacShane (Soul Mate, Aug.) is a story of abuse and recovery; damaged almost beyond hope, Jesse Travers inherits a bankrupt ranch, and her survival comes at an inconceivable price: she must learn to trust the man who killed her brother.

As Minnesota becomes a territory, its native inhabitants are met with harrowing tragedy in Colin Mustful’s Resisting Removal: The Sandy Lake Tragedy of 1850 (History Through Fiction, Sept. 30).

NEW PUBLISHING DEALS Sources include authors and publishers, Publishers Weekly, Publishers Marketplace, The Bookseller, and more. Email me at sljohnson2@ eiu.edu or tweet me @readingthepast to have your publishing deal included.

The Almanack by Martine Bailey, a murder mystery about a prophetic almanack containing fifty historical riddles, sold to Kate Lyall Grant at Severn House for the US and UK, via Charlotte Seymour at Andrew Nurnberg Associates.

Kara Cesare at Ballantine acquired Desire and Crowns by NYT bestselling author Allison Pataki, centering on Desiree Clary, Napoleon’s first love, a young woman who gets caught up in the outbreak of the French Revolution and eventually becomes Queen of Sweden, via agent Lacy Lynch at Dupree Miller & Associates.

Frances Brody moves her Kate Shackleton 1920s mystery series to a new publisher, starting with the 10th volume, A Snapshot of Murder, which sees Kate traveling to the opening of a new Bronte Museum, and only six of the seven attending photographers come out alive. it sold in a two-book deal to Jenny Chen at Crooked Lane via Rebecca Winfield at David Luxton Associates on behalf of Judith Murdoch Literary Agency.

A Light of Her Own author Carrie Callaghan’s as-yet-untitled novel, featuring one of the first female war correspondents as she searches for her true calling in life and love amid the global tumult of the 1930s, sold to Dayna Anderson at Amberjack, for fall 2019 publication, via Shannon Hassan at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency (NA).

Bestselling author of Next Year in Havana, Chanel Cleeton’s The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba, set during the Gilded Age, following the true story of a beautiful 19-year-old Cuban revolutionary involved in the independence movement against Spain, and the young female journalist drawn to her tale as her plight becomes front-page news amid a fierce battle between NY newspaper tycoons William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, sold to Kate Seaver at Berkley via Kevan Lyon at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.

Tracy Chevalier’s 10th novel A Single Thread, set in 1932 and focusing on English embroidery, “surplus women” after WWI, and the cathedral city of Winchester, sold to Borough Press via agent Jonny Geller of Curtis Brown, for publication in September. This year also marks the 20th anniversary of Girl with a Pearl Earring.

Meg Waite Clayton returns to Harper with the upcoming The Last Train to London, set just before WWII and focusing on the true story of a Dutchwoman who daringly rescued thousands of children from occupied Vienna; it sold to editor Sara Nelson in a two-book deal, via Marly Rusoff at Marly Rusoff & Associates, for publication this November.

A Crowd of Sorrows, debut novel by Sohan Koonar, an epic spanning the pre-WWII years through the 1960s, pitched as “a Downton Abbey of the Punjab,” sold to Nurjehan Aziz at Mawenzi House, for publication in summer 2019, by Sam Hiyate at The Rights Factory.

Young Artemisia by Linda Lafferty, focusing on accomplished 17th-century Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi, who endured mistreatment and misogyny all her life and prevailed, sold to Danielle Marshall at Lake Union for publication in 2020 (to be launched alongside the National Gallery’s retrospective on her work), by Deborah Schneider at Gelfman Schneider/ICM. A Tender Thing, the debut novel by Viking editorial assistant Emily Neuberger, centering on s (fictional) production of Broadway’s first racially integrated musical in the 1950s, sold to Sally Kim and Gabriella Mongelli at Putnam, in a six-figure deal, by Christy Fletcher and Sarah Fuentes at Fletcher & Company.

Song of a Captive Bird author Jasmin Darznik’s The Bohemians of Telegraph Hill, featuring notable photographer Dorothea Lange, painter Maynard Dixon (her lover), and her assistant/friend Caroline Lee in 1920s San Francisco, sold to Andra Miller at Ballantine by Sandra Dijkstra at Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency.

The Jane Austen Society, the debut from English-born Canadian author Natalie Jenner, about a group of Chawton residents brought together after WWII to discuss and preserve the work of their favorite local author, Jane Austen, sold, at auction, to St. Martin’s Press editor Keith Kahla via Mitchell Waters at Curtis Brown.

Author and transgender activist Alex Myers’ Between Dreams, retelling a medieval legend about a girl raised as a boy, who wants to become a knight, sold to Voyager UK’s Vicky Leech via Ben Fowler at Abner Stein, on behalf of Alison Fargis at Stonesong. Myers is also the author of Revolutionary, a novel about his distant ancestor, Revolutionary war heroine Deborah Sampson.

Max Byrd’s latest historical novel, The Sixth Conspirator, a thriller centering on a secret mission to root out John Wilkes Booth’s possible partners-in-crime, sold to Jacob Hoye at Permuted Press, for Aug. 2019 publication, by BJ Robbins at BJ Robbins Literary Agency.

Annabel Abbs’ The Joyce Girl, a new look at the life of dancer Lucia Joyce, James Joyce’s talented but tragic daughter, sold to Lucia Macro at William Morrow by Claire Anderson-Wheeler at Regal Hoffmann & Associates on behalf of Sharon Galant at Zeitgeist Literary Agency. In an Editors’ Choice review of the Australian edition (HNR 75), Marina Maxwell wrote: “This intimate and absolutely splendid novel must top my recommendations as the best 20th-century fiction of the year.”

The 11th novel in Candace Robb’s Owen Archer medieval mystery series, A Conspiracy of Wolves, sold by Severn House’s Kate Lyall Grant via Jennifer Weltz at Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency, for publication this April.

working in a government job secretly tracks Nazi SS officers and relays the details to London via a newspaper’s cooking column, sold to Rachel Kahan at William Morrow, and to Kimberley Young at Harper UK, via Stephanie Thwaites at Curtis Brown UK. Focusing on a female settler at Jamestown who survived the colony’s early years, including the Starving Time, Denise Heinze’s The Brief and True Report of Temperance Flowerdew sold to Haila Williams at Blackstone by Julia Livshin at Julia Livshin Literary Agency.

By Gaslight author Steven Price’s novel Lampedusa, biographical fiction about the last years of The Leopard author Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa as he struggles to complete his masterpiece in late 1950s Sicily, sold to Ravi Mirchandani at Picador by Claire Roberts at Trident Media Group on behalf of Ellen Levine.

Olivia Hayfield’s Wife After Wife, described as a “blockbuster romance” retelling of Henry VIII’s marital life “with a 21st-century twist,” sold to Emma Beswetherick at Little, Brown UK via Vicki Marsdon at High Spot Literary. Hayfield is the pseudonym for NZ editor and children’s author Sue Copsey.

The Operator by Gretchen Berg, about a Midwestern switchboard operator who eavesdrops on phone conversations and whose life and small-town community begin unraveling following one overheard call, sold to William Morrow’s Jennifer Brehl via Susan Ramer at Don Congdon Associates, with UK rights to Headline UK. The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, the fifth book and first novel by poet Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, a multi-generational saga about a contemporary woman’s coming of age, and her surprising connection to the slaves on a Georgia plantation, sold to Erin Wicks at Harper, at auction, by Sarah Burnes at The Gernert Company.

Debut author Helen Moffett sold her Pride and Prejudice-inspired novel, telling the story of Elizabeth Bennet’s good friend Charlotte Lucas, and exploring her puzzling decision to marry Mr. Collins, to Kate Parkin at Bonnier Zaffre, via Oli Munson at A.M. Heath.

A Hundred Suns, historical suspense by Karin Tanabe about a young American woman who moves with her rubber-plantation-heir husband to French-occupied Vietnam in 1933, sold to Sarah Cantin at St. Martin’s, in a two-book deal, by Bridget Wagner Matzie at Aevitas Creative Management.

For forthcoming novels through late 2019, please see our guides: https://historicalnovelsociety.org/guides/forthcoming-historicalnovels/

COMPILED BY SARAH JOHNSON Sarah Johnson is Book Review Editor of HNR, a librarian, readers’ advisor, and author of reference books. She reviews for Booklist and CHOICE and blogs about historical novels at readingthepast.com. Her latest book is Historical Fiction II: A Guide to the Genre.

Miss Graham’s Cold War Cookbook, a new novel set in post-WWII Germany by YA novelist Celia Rees, in which a young Englishwoman

A publication of the Historical Novel Society | www.historicalnovelsociety.org

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NEW VOICES

Wayne Ng

Kerri Maher

Photo credit: © Peter Su

Loretta Goldberg

Signe Pike

Photo credit: © Tiffany Mizzell

Idealism, intrigue and injustice are explored

by Loretta Goldberg, Kerri Maher, Wayne Ng, and Signe Pike in their debut novels.

Wayne Ng’s novel Finding the Way: A Novel of Lao Tzu (Earnshaw Books, 2018) draws readers into the world of two philosophers, Lao Tzu and Confucius. “Although many people may have heard of yin/ yang, tai chi and kung fu,” Ng explains, “most would not attribute their genesis to Lao Tzu, one of the most revered minds of ancient China and the founder of Taoism.

“I was brought up with a vague fusion of Taoism and Confucianism,” he says. That said, “I didn’t know anything about this philosopher until I read my wife’s favourite book, The Tao of Pooh, an interpretation of Lao Tzu’s seminal work, the Tao De Ching.” It was from this starting point that the silken thread of Ng’s story started to emerge.

“Legend tells us that 2600 years ago China was in constant war and upheaval… A brilliant, yet naïve, romantic emerged, doomed to tragedy and despondent at the world’s moral decay. So much so that he rode off on a water buffalo to die.”

Ng wanted to find out and what left Lao Tzu in such despair. “I devoured the Tao De Ching as a portal into the dreamer that he must have been. I fell in love with the notion of an enlightened idealist, one who dreamt of a better world, a just society, but whose idealism was crushed by a harsh reality. As a social worker I identified with the quiet rebellion he fostered, and his profound sense of social justice.”

What Ng learnt from his study of The Way/Taoism was that “our thirst for sanity and simplicity is a quest that transcends culture and time.

Through imagining his story and the development of his philosophy, I questioned much of how I work, live and play. In essence, I discovered Taoism, and my own way. Ancient China is filled with fascinating stories and riveting characters waiting to be brought to life. I wanted to introduce the west to a time, a place and a legend that has largely

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COLUMNS | ISSUE 87, February 2019

been ignored, but in an entertaining way. The result was a political thriller wrapped in a philosophical bow tie.”

Kerri Maher’s The Kennedy Debutante (Berkley, 2018) is centred around political intrigue of a different kind, but equally as damaging to those caught up in it.

“I was a big Downton Abbey fan,” she says, “so I was happy to watch other shows related to the lush costume drama, like the documentary series Secrets of the Manor House, which started with Highclere Castle, where Downton was filmed. Another episode was about Chatsworth, the seat of the Dukes of Devonshire. I was fascinated by the history of the estate that had been home to Georgiana, the tragic Duchess of Devonshire, as well as the Bachelor Duke, and other important figures of English history.

During that programme, “a few minutes were devoted to … Kathleen ‘Kick’ Kennedy, the fourth child of Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy and JFK’s favorite sister.” Their love, Maher says, was “opposed by both their families, for he was from one of England’s most prominent Protestant families, and she was of course, a Kennedy. IrishAmerican and Catholic.” It was at this point that Maher thought: “There’s a story there.”

“I couldn’t devote myself to it right away, because I was under contract to write This Is Not A Writing Manual for Writer’s Digest, but I did fall down a deep Google rabbit hole chasing Kick. I also started a file on her in my computer that I’d open from time to time until it became clear that her story was demanding to be written.

“I was also attracted to Kick’s story because of two key life experiences we have in common: I, too, was raised Catholic (of an Irish variety); and, I lived in London when I was her age. I, too, fell madly in love with that city, and with England, and it was such a pleasure to be able to share that love in this novel.”

The setting of Maher’s novel, the “Downton-esque season of debutantes and dukes before World War II changed England forever,” would appear on the surface to have little in common with The Reversible Mask by Loretta Goldberg (MadeGlobal, 2018). Yet in both novels, differing religions have a dramatic impact on their main characters.

Goldberg’s “zig zag” into writing, she explains, “is different from many writers. I can’t show you any story I wrote as a child. In fact, my anxious parents insisted that I never make anything up.”

Nonetheless, she taught English literature, “then was a concert pianist and financial advisor. Only later did I un-creak the rusted gears of fantasy.”

What inspired her to write The Reversible Mask was, she says, “a compulsion to bring to life an Elizabethan double agent I’d read about. A letter hooked me. Jailed in France, he was begging his handler to get Elizabeth to tell the French king, her ally, that they’d made a mistake, that they’d jailed her man, not Spain’s. England and France were then fighting Spain. Problem: the spy worked for both Elizabeth and Philip II. “His plight called me. But why? I’m a secular Jew! Sir Anthony Standen was an English Catholic courtier who’d left Protestant Elizabeth’s court in the 1560s over religion and spied for Catholic

Spain against European Protestants. Yet in the 1580s he spied brilliantly for Elizabeth while on Spain’s payroll. His reasons were unstated but seemed to have gone beyond money.”

Goldberg “felt that his conflicts epitomized, in pure form, dilemmas we face in modern life: a tobacco executive pays his children’s college bills with profits from cigarettes he knows are poison. For most of us these conflicts are temporary. For Standen, eternal damnation loomed. What split could be more profound than a Catholic who believed in transubstantiation and a physical hell yet risked his life to protect his heretical birth country?”

“I wanted to wander in his world. Standen was unknowable, so I invented Sir Edward Latham. He goes into the world a callow youth, is battered, but emerges wiser, bringing benefits back to his tribe.

The era is irresistible: the printing press had facilitated outpourings of information and dissent, provoking institutional leaders to clamp down with cruelty. There was a siren call of religious martyrdom.

Alliances were upended because of religion, while new learning and far-off lands generated feverish excitement. The revolutionary notion of companionate marriage arose, and secular social welfare.

This turbulent world is a character in the novel, a lumbering oaf no one can ignore. Latham is the only person torn between God and country, but simpler characters—people he loves, employs, a few he betrays—are also stressed by change. I kept travels attributed to Standen—England to Constantinople and places between—because I wanted to honour the challenge an expanding world posed to everyone from queens, merchants and generals to deckhands.”

Signe Pike’s The Lost Queen (Touchstone, 2018) is a novel that pays tribute to another lost voice. Pike explains: “I first came across Queen Languoreth’s name browsing the shelves of a tiny bookshop in Glastonbury, England. In a non-fiction book called Finding Merlin

by Adam Ardrey, I read some compelling evidence that the legend of Merlin was based on a real man named Lailoken who lived in sixth-century Scotland. He wasn’t a wizard who shot magic from his fingertips. He was a politician and son of a powerful petty king, a warrior and an academic. Later in life, he was known as Myrddin, which means “madman” in Old Welsh. This felt real to me, and I wanted to learn more.

“Ardrey relayed that this man Lailoken had a sister – a twin, and her name was Languoreth. While Myrddin had been relegated to myth, I was intrigued to learn Lailoken’s sister was a historical figure. She was recorded in ancient king lists as the wife of the Brittonic ruler Rhydderch Hael, who scholars agree ruled from Clyde Rock in the

late sixth to early seventh centuries. There are children descended from their union, whose names are recorded in ancient Welsh triads and historic genealogies. She would have been one of the most influential women of her time, yet she’d been slandered by her enemies and almost completely obliterated from the public memory.”

When Pike began to research Languoreth, she says, “I couldn’t stop thinking about the epic times she lived through: the bloody battle that would tear her family apart, the Anglo-Saxon encroachment, the first ever politico-religious acts of violence her people would have experienced. Moreover, in today’s world, when powerful female role models must be brought forth and honored now more than ever, I thought it a travesty that Languoreth had been written out of history, her incredible story never told.”

Right from the start of her research, she continues, “there was a passion that ignited me, but mostly my work was driven by a sadness over the difficult times in which Languoreth lived, and an injustice that her life had been forgotten. But I don’t believe writers find stories. I believe stories find us. And the way in which this story found me, left me with little choice as to whether or not I was going to write it. It was high time Languoreth re-emerged from the mists of history to assume her rightful place in our hearts, minds, and memories.”

Drawing from a wide swathe of periods and places, Goldberg, Maher, Ng, and Pike have illuminated hidden characters and causes through their novels and brought historical injustices to light.

WRITTEN BY MYFANWY COOK Myfanwy Cook is an Associate Fellow at two British Universities and a creative writing workshop designer. Please do email (myfanwyc@btinternet.com) if you discover any debut novels you would like to see showcased.

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ASK THE AGENT Richard Lee talks to Kate Nash I think I can justifiably call Kate Nash a ‘society friendly’ agent. I met her first at a Romantic Novelists’ Association event, and have chatted to her at frequent subsequent ones. She has attended several UK HNS conferences, and has generously offered pitch sessions for us, and one-to-one advice to emerging authors. After our Scottish conference in August 2018, delegates offered feedback on their meetings with her, and these were some of the words they chose: constructive, insightful, on it, not intimidating at all, helpful, encouraging, thoughtful, and valuable.

Kate founded her agency (the Kate Nash Literary Agency) in 2009 and now represents more than 30 authors. She describes herself as a ‘former author, publisher, publicist and marketer.’ Full details of her submissions policy can be found on the agency website (https:// katenashlit.co.uk), but she confirms that her agency is still actively seeking clients who write general or genre historical fiction. Kate only represents stories with a female protagonist, and her tastes are ‘highly commercial’ rather than literary. Fellow agent Lina Langlee also favours commercial fiction ‘with a lot of heart.’ Both agents enjoy crime fiction, with Lina adding a speciality of Young Adult fiction.

The Kate Nash Literary Agency was listed at 20th in the UK for fiction by Publishers Marketplace, based on number of deals made (February 2017). Kate was named a Bookseller Rising Star in 2018, and was runner-up for the Romantic Novelists’ Association Agent of the Year Award in 2018.

Richard Lee: Lovely to get the chance to chat with you at our conference. Did you sign anyone after meeting them there? Have you signed people at other conferences (HNS or RNA or other)?

Kate Nash: I saw some excellent writers at the HNS Conference in Scotland, and did offer representation to one writer but this was based on revisions to the story that the writer did not want to make. Another writer wasn’t quite right for me but has been taken on by another agent who was at the conference. However, not all the writers one meets at a conference have completed novels, so I still have manuscripts I have requested to come in later this year and possibly beyond. Conferences are a good way for writers to make contact with agents, and I do represent two authors I have first met at previous HNS conferences.

As I have a relatively full list I am never looking to take on more than a handful of new clients a year. I took on five new clients in 2018: two from our general submissions, one from a conference, one from our agency open day in Dublin and one from personal recommendation.

Richard Lee: Tell us about your historical fiction authors - the sorts of books they write, why they stand out for you, and what plans you have for them.

Kate Nash: I represent a variety of authors who write novels set in the past. In particular, I am a huge fan of sagas, especially stories that pack an emotional punch because they deal with family drama.

The Lost Daughter by Sylvia Broady (Allison and Busby) is a good example as it follows a mother trying to track down her missing daughter. Or Terri Nixon’s Penhaligon Saga series (Piatkus) that deals with secrets and struggles. I also enjoy historical crime. Anita Davison manages to mix a good murder mystery and family drama in her Flora Maguire series (Aria) set in Edwardian England, and

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Faith Martin’s Ryder and Loveday series pairs two wonderfully drawn characters into an unlikely crime solving duo set in 1960s Oxford (HarperCollins HQ).

Richard Lee: I saw you tweet recently that you enjoyed the drama Mrs Wilson on TV, and would be glad to see manuscripts on a similar theme. Have you had any luck with that? How important is timing/zeitgeist to a pitch?

Kate Nash: Zeitgeist is always important, but because personal taste is so important as an agent I have my own “wish list” of the kinds of things I’d love to see coming in on submission at any particular time. Realism in fiction is my watchword, whether contemporary or historical, and Mrs Wilson was a very special story for being true [actress Ruth Wilson stars in the role of her real-life grandmother] and dealing with bigamy and its emotional consequences, which I haven’t seen in any fiction coming into our submissions inbox. Also on TV in the last year I very much enjoyed Below the Surface, which was a Danish TV drama about a hijacking on the Copenhagen underground. Again, whether historical or contemporary, I don’t see enough of this kind of life or death drama coming in on submission, and I’d love to. I am hoping that historical adventure is due for a comeback.

Richard Lee: At our conference I remember you being cross about the negativity on some of the panels talking about the industry and sales. Why did this annoy you, and how do you stay positive?

Kate Nash: I was very cross to hear some panelists speak negatively about the publishing experience for authors. Authors, publishers and agents all have a common goal in the commercial world of publishing and that is to sell books. Of course there are setbacks, like in any industry where luck or zeitgeist sometimes seems to count for as much as talent. What we do at my agency is make sure that all authors have an agreed strategic direction which I think helps everyone put any short term setbacks into context. And, of course, I can be selective about which publishers to work with, making sure to match the right author and publisher so far as possible, making sure that publishers are committed to, and deliver, proper marketing and publicity plans. Naturally I would recommend that every author aiming for commercial publication should get an agent and don’t rush to sign any contract with a publisher. Agents are there to get authors fair terms, better terms, make sure authors are paid and try and make the publishing experience smoother because even at the best, most author-focussed publishers, something will go awry at some point.

Richard Lee: Your agency seems to be going from strength to strength, and I was delighted to see you shortlisted for an RNA industry award. Do you have a 5 year plan for the business? What is next?

Kate Nash: It is a huge privilege and also slightly daunting to be at the helm of a growing business. At the heart of everything are our authors and so we want success for them individually, and then the business will grow organically from that. Having said that, I am expecting the next few years to have plenty of challenges with the macro-economic climate. So it’s more important than ever for all our authors to be thinking of international opportunities and different formats. UK retail is only a small part of the earnings pie for most authors.

Richard Lee: Tell me about three of your all time favourite novels, and why they mean what they do to you.

Kate Nash: As a fan of realism, I have to mention Anthony Trollope’s

The Way We Live Now with its conflicted, morally ambiguous and realistic characters. For adventure, I always come back to Rogue Male

by Geoffrey Household. Every aspiring thriller writer should read it for the execution of the escape plot. For romance, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice which succeeds because of its characters and their dialogue. Every Austen character, however minor to the story, is fully rounded.

Richard Lee: Do you have any advice to Indie authors who want to find a traditional publisher? How should they position themselves, and what aspects of their success would prove most attractive to traditional publishing?

Kate Nash: It’s always about the story rather than what an Indie author may or may not have done or sold self-publishing wise.

Approach agents in the usual way (up to date submission guidelines can be found on all agents’ websites) and be prepared to possibly have to do editorial work in order to improve your storytelling and/or better position your story to the commercial market.

Many thanks to Kate for her long term support of the HNS. It was good fun and very instructive for me to enjoy time with her and Justin in the bar at the Westerwood Hotel, chewing the cud of the conference.

For more about the Kate Nash Literary Agency, follow Kate and Lina on Twitter: @katenashagent and @linalanglee For more on agents in general, please take a look at our 5-Step Online Guide ‘How to find a literary agent for historical fiction,’ and sign up for our newsletter. We offer the following introductory list to literary agents who have a love of historical fiction, along with recently sold titles. We actively encourage members to write in and help us to extend the list.

Barbara Braun, Barbara Braun & Associates http://www.barbarabraunagency.com Elise Hooper, Learning to See Michelle Brower, Aevitas http://aevitascreative.com Kris Waldherr, The Lost History of Dreams Laura Crockett, TriadaUS Literary Agency http://www.triadaus.com Clarissa Harwood, Impossible Saints Sandra Dijkstra, Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency https://dijkstraagency.com Jasmin Darznik, Song of a Captive Bird Jim Frankel, James Frankel Agency http://jimfrenkel.wixsite.com/jamesfrenkel-assoc Karen Brooks, The Locksmith’s Daughter

Jeff Kleinman, Folio Literary Management http://www.foliolit.com Lara Prescott, We Were Never Here Ellen Levine, Trident Media https://www.tridentmediagroup.com Linda Spalding, A Reckoning Kevan Lyon, Marsal Lyon Literary Agency http://www.marsallyonliteraryagency.com Stephanie Dray, The Women of Chavaniac Michelle Richter, Fuse Literary https://www.fuseliterary.com C. C. Humphreys, Chasing the Wind Annalise Robey, The Jane Rotrosen Agency https://www.janerotrosen.com Karen Harper, American Duchess Fred Tribuzzo, The Rudy Agency http://rudyagency.com Mary Lawrence, The Alchemist of Lost Souls

Josh Getzler, Hannigan Salky Getzler http://www.hsgagency.com Karen Odden, The Piano Girl of Soho

Please note: although all the agents on this list are actively selling historical fiction, not all accept new clients. Our advice is to research each individual carefully.

AGENT LISTING Vicky Bijur, Vicky Bijur Literary Agency http://www.vickybijuragency.com Sujata Massey, The Widows of Malabar Laura Bradford, Bradford Literary Agency http://bradfordlit.com Soraya Lane, Wives of War Isobel Dixon, Blake Friedmann http://blakefriedmann.co.uk David Gilman, Night Flight to Paris Broo Docherty, DHH Literary Agency http://www.dhhliteraryagency.com Sophie Duffy, Betsy and Lilibet James Gill, United Artists https://www.unitedagents.co.uk Toby Clements, A Good Deliverance Jemima Hunt, The Writers’ Practice http://thewriterspractice.com H.B. Lyle, The Irregular: A Different Class of Spy

Caroline Michel, PFD https://www.petersfraserdunlop.com Jessica Fellowes, The Mitford Murders Madeleine Milburn, Madeleine Milburn Agency http://madeleinemilburn.co.uk Elizabeth Macneal, The Doll Factory Juliet Mushens, Caskie Mushens http://www.caskiemushens.com Laura Purcell, The Corset Kate Nash, Kate Nash Literary Agency https://katenashlit.co.uk Terri Nixon, Penhaligon’s Gift Peter Straus, Rogers Coleridge and White https://www.rcwlitagency.com Kevin Powers, A Shout in the Ruins

WRITTEN BY RICHARD LEE

Richard Lee is founder and chairman of the Historical Novel Society. He is writing a novel about the Crusades.

Karolina Sutton, Curtis Brown https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott, Swan Song

A publication of the Historical Novel Society | www.historicalnovelsociety.org

7

AUSTRALIAN HF Indigenous Origins, Colonialism and Diaspora

to celebrate literature unique to “Australian Life in any of its phases.”2 Franklin, author of the Australian classic, My Brilliant Career (William Blackwood & Sons, 1901), and an historical novelist herself with All That Swagger (Angus & Robertson, 1936), stated: “Without an indigenous literature people can remain alien in their own soil. An unsung country does not fully exist or enjoy adequate international exchange of the inner life… a country must be portrayed by those who love it or hate it as their dwelling place…or remain dumb among its contemporaries.”3

Many of the historical novelists mentioned in this article have been winners of the Miles Franklin (and international prizes), making their mark in “world literature” through sharing quintessential Australian stories. Not least of all among these is the inaugural 1957 Miles Franklin winner, Patrick White, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1973. His body of work includes the historical fiction masterpiece Voss (Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1957), in which the disappearance of a doomed colonial explorer evokes the fear of venturing both mentally and physically into a foreboding interior.

My country’s history is one born from indigenous custodianship and diaspora. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history extends back 65,000 years and has been preserved through the oral tradition of its First Peoples and their mythological “Dreamtime.” In comparison to this prehistoric past, Australia’s European history is brief, commencing in 1788 after the British invasion. Since then, successive waves of individuals from diverse birthplaces have arrived as transported convicts, colonists, refugees or immigrants. They and their descendants see this “wide brown land” as their home.4 As a consequence, modern multicultural Australia contains a plethora of tales for historical novelists to chronicle in a distinctive voice that resonates within and beyond its shores.

In 1968, Robert Hughes, Australian expatriate critic and author of The Fatal Shore (Vintage, 1988), wrote a review in The Times of Thomas Keneally’s novel Bring Larks and Heroes (Cassell, 1967) after Keneally won the prestigious Miles Franklin Award. Hughes stated: “The truth is that Australian literature does not exist. There is only world literature, in which few, if any, Australian writers have had a role at all. On the evidence of this book, Keneally yet may.”1 Hughes’ cautious prediction was prescient. Keneally won the Man Booker Prize in 1982 for Schindler’s Ark (Hodder & Stoughton, 1982).

The book garnered both critical acclaim and commercial success in its depiction of a flawed protagonist who, despite being a Nazi Party member, shows heroism and compassion by saving Polish Jews from slaughter during the Holocaust. The novel subsequently was adapted in 1993 into Steven Spielberg’s film, Schindler’s List. Box-office takings and book sales numbered in the millions. Furthermore, prior to Schindler’s Ark winning in 1982, three of Keneally’s novels were shortlisted for the Booker in 1972, 1975 and 1979.

Hughes’ assertion regarding the non-existence of “Australian literature” can be challenged as a case of cultural cringe (i.e. a perception that one’s own culture is inferior to that of other countries). The Miles Franklin Award was inaugurated in 1957, more than a decade before the Booker in 1969, through an endowment from author Stella Miles Franklin,

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The survival of both free and imprisoned occupants of a penal colony thrust into an uncharted landscape is a complex theme often addressed.

This intrusive European presence created a “secret river of blood flowing through Australia’s history”5 due to the massacres, dispossession, spread of disease, and erosion of language and culture inflicted on the First Peoples. Eleanor Dark explored this in The Timeless Land (MacMillan, 1941) with her modernist approach to the first encounter between England’s Captain Arthur Phillip and the Aboriginal leader, Bennelong.

Kate Grenville’s The Secret River (Text, 2005) intensely examines the brutality of the frontier wars and draws attention to how colonialism leaves a bitter legacy when indigenous and white societies possess a shared history. Another novel dealing with the conflict between cultures is David Malouf’s Remembering Babylon (Chatto & Windus, 1993).

More recently, Kim Scott’s That Deadman Dance (Pan Macmillan, 2010) and Lucy Treloar’s Salt Creek (Pan Macmillan, 2015) scrutinised this interaction. Scott is the first Aboriginal Australian to be awarded the Miles Franklin.

It is a bitter fact that the eviction of the Indigenous population provided opportunities for settlers, gaolers and emancipists to acquire land, remake their identities, and potentially find redemption. In effect, an egalitarian European society was created in which pioneers and chancers alike could acquire wealth by means such as the gold rush, wool grazing, or cattle ranching. Ethel Richardson (writing as Henry Handel Richardson) created a character grappling with greed and ambition in this newly minted society in her trilogy The Fortunes of Richard Mahony (Heineman, 1930), as did Roger McDonald in The Ballad of Desmond Kale (Knopf, 2005).

MY COUNTRY'S HISTORY — is one born from indigenous custodianship and diaspora...successive waves of individuals have arrived as transported convicts, colonists, refugees or immigrants.

Peter Carey shares the distinction with Hilary Mantel of winning the Booker twice: in 1998 for Oscar & Lucinda (UQP, 1998), and in 2001 for True History of the Kelly Gang (Vintage, 2001). In a manner peculiar to the Australian psyche, outlaws are often regarded as righteous rebels. The latter novel is an imagined “autobiography” written by Ned Kelly, one of Australia’s most infamous bushrangers. Heated debate continues as to whether Kelly should be revered as an anti-authoritarian champion, or reviled as a murderer.

The “ANZAC” spirit forged in the disastrous but valiant WW1 Gallipoli campaign has instilled an admiration for the courage, larrikinism and suffering of Australian soldiers sent to fight on foreign soil. Kelly Gardiner’s 1917 (Scholastic Australia, 2017) describes the fear and bravery of a young aviator flying above the trenches of the Western Front. In 2014, the Booker was awarded to Richard Flanagan for The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Vintage 2013) with its examination of a returning POW coping with hero status while reflecting on his relationship with his Japanese captors.

Throughout most of the twentieth century the “White Australia Policy” limited immigration to Europeans. Unfortunately, during this period, the harrowing plight of Indigenous Australians worsened due to various Acts of Protection and Assimilation that sanctioned the kidnapping of the “Stolen Generations” of First Nations’ children.6 The aim behind this strategy was to absorb them into white society and ultimately breed out their culture. Aboriginal writer Anita Heiss’ Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms (Simon & Schuster, 2016) and Marie Munkara’s A Most Peculiar Act (Magabala Books, 2014) address this shameful era, while Alex Miller’s The Ancestor Game (Penguin, 1993) reveals the deep vein of prejudice against Asian immigrants who were finally allowed to enter Australia in the 1970s.

nineteenth-century Iceland. As for ancient history, McCullough showed her versatility in the immensely popular Masters of Rome series, as did Brooks in The Secret Chord (Viking, 2015), which recreated the life of the biblical King David.

Kate Forsyth and Sophie Masson have drawn upon fairy tales and myth to weave their own magic. Both authors have written dozens of books for both children and adults dealing with various periods from medieval times to World War 2. Forsyth’s Bitter Greens (Thomas Dunne, 2015) captured attention by weaving the legend of Rapunzel around the life of its creator, the seventeenth-century French writer Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force. In similar fashion, Masson’s Forest of Dreams: Lay Lines Trilogy (Bantam, 2001) conjures fairies and werewolves in a ‘book within a book’ based on the life of the twelfth-century poet Marie de France.

The Historical Novel Society Australasia (HNSA) is delighted that Forsyth, Masson, Munkara, Gardiner and Treloar, together with 60 other authors, will explore the theme of “History Repeats” in Sydney in 2019.

HNSA’s 3rd biennial conference will truly be a celebration of imagination and the history of both this “sunburnt country” and lands far beyond.7

REFERENCES

1. The Canberra Times

“Praise in UK for Keneally,” The Canberra Times, 27 February 1968.

2. Stella Maria Miles Franklin “Will of Stella Maria Miles Franklin,” p.4.

3. Miles Franklin

Laughter, not for a cage (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1956), p. 3.

Refugees’ accounts also factor into our historical fiction, particularly in relation to those who escaped war-torn Europe to find asylum yet are haunted by the suffering of their past. Anna Funder’s All That I Am (HarperCollins, 2012) portrays the genesis of a betrayal in Nazi Germany, while Arnold Zable’s Café Scheherazade (Text, 2003) observes the sense of displacement of East European Holocaust survivors.

4. Dorothea Mackellar

Family sagas spanning decades of the Australian experience have attracted a global readership. Colleen McCullough’s The Thorn Birds (Harper & Rowe, 1977) is one of the best-selling books globally with its depiction of the rigors of living in the Outback. Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet (McPhee Gribble, 1991) is now deemed an Australian classic for casting a spotlight on both the hardships and joys of post-war Australian working class “battlers” who survive or succumb to poverty.

“After the Dreaming”, Boyer Lecture Series, 1968.

Not all our historical novelists concentrate on national themes. Many have exercised their imaginations to create stories that extend across continents and date back centuries. Geraldine Brooks is the first Australian to win the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction in 2006 for March (Viking Press, 2005) by reliving the trauma of the American Civil War through the eyes of the absent father behind Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women.

Other international blockbusters have also evoked worlds beyond our borders. Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief (Alfred A. Knopf, 2005) revealed an orphaned girl’s enlightenment in Nazi Germany. Bryce Courtenay’s Power of One (Heinemann, 1989) addressed a boy’s coming of age in pre-Apartheid South Africa, while Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites (Little, Brown, 2013) questioned the guilt of a condemned woman in

“My Country,” London Spectator Magazine, 1908, p. 16.

5. Australian Institute of Health & Welfare Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Stolen Generations and descendants, 16 August 2018.

6. W.E.H. Stanner

7. Dorothea Mackellar Ibid, p.9.

WRITTEN BY ELISABETH STORRS Elisabeth Storrs is the author of the Tales of Ancient Rome saga. She co-founded Historical Novel Society Australasia and is the program director for its conferences. She has recently joined “The History Girls.”

A publication of the Historical Novel Society | www.historicalnovelsociety.org

9

BLACK HISTORICAL FICTION The Dynamic Power of Geography

I drove my rental car through vast swaths of flat land, the corn newly cut, I was filled with trepidation. Nevertheless, I entered the archive and attempted to make sense of the state’s complicated history.

Embracing the history of Ohio was not entirely foreign to me since I had always been fascinated by this period of American history — an era of national discord that led to one of the most tragic wars the nation has ever seen. Yet the scope of the transatlantic slave trade reaches far beyond North America. The massive movement of human cargo also touched South America, Central America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe. I marvel at the rich geographic terrain available to the historical novelist who wants to capture the stories of enslavement from around the world.

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan (Serpents Tail, 2018) imaginatively probes the vast geographies of slavery’s reach, stretching from Barbados to Virginia to the Arctic Basin to Canada to England to the Netherlands and, finally, to Morocco. Edugyan uses Wash’s movement through cities as a means of mapping the flows of power as it relates to slavery’s legacy. In the novel, Wash’s geographical location is intimately connected to his power over his own body. His move out of the Barbados and away from the plantation is the first step towards wresting control over his own life. Yet when he arrives in Norfolk, Virginia, he discovers that American laws present a different kind of danger. In the Arctic Basin, the weather is so brutal that enslavement becomes a distant concern. In Nova Scotia, even though Wash lives and moves about freely, he is haunted by his fear of capture. In England, he searches the written records of his former plantation to find what happened to the people he knew. He then travels to Amsterdam and Morocco in search of more answers.

Any cartographer will tell you that maps are decisions. How one draws a map reflects the cartographer’s priorities. Likewise, a series of maps can tell a story, the drawing and redrawing of boundaries suggesting a shift in political power. In historical novels, I am always struck by the geographical decisions of the author. Like a map drawn by the hand of a trained cartographer, a novel’s authorial map reveals much about the character and the story’s intentions.

When I began researching for my first novel Wench (HarperCollins, 2010), I was led into 1850s Ohio by an enigmatic footnote discovered while reading the biography of the late twentieth-century intellectual W.E.B. DuBois. It is not always clear where a curious mind will lead the historical novelist. Like historians, we enter the realm of primary sources with an open mind and a cautious optimism. I just wanted to find out a little more information about this resort where enslaved women vacationed with their owners. I was particularly fascinated by this detail because it was Ohio, a state well-known for its abolitionist views.

I’d always considered the rich terrain of Ohio to be Toni Morrison’s sacred territory. After all, the Nobel Laureate was born in Lorain, Ohio in 1939, and three of her novels are set there. I remember my first trip to Columbus to do research at the Ohio Historical Society. As

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A narrative informed by vast geographic flows such as Washington Black is filled with possibilities. For example, experiencing new places expands Wash’s intellect. He begins as a simple illustrator, but his scientific acumen develops as he travels. His artistic skill becomes shaped by the emotional depth he acquires in these new experiences.

Each of his travel experiences leads to greater understanding.

Edugyan’s novel urged me to rethink how I view geography in the novel. Typically, when the writer thinks of location in a novel, we use words like “place” or “setting.” In some ways, these words are limiting.

The word “place” connotes stasis — both as a singular noun or as a verb meaning to “put” something somewhere. The word “setting” suggests a similar kind of placement. It is certainly not uncommon for a historical novelist to move a character through various settings over the course of a novel. What I am suggesting is that Edugyan’s novel urges me to rethink these movements as something more kinetic and dynamic.

A character’s movement across vast distances entails encounters with histories, customs, and cultures. These encounters are inextricably linked to character development. When writers engage the power of geography, its ability to contain or propel, we understand place as a force acting upon a character or being acted upon by the character. If the protagonist does not move, perhaps geography is a kind of confinement. Or perhaps the narrative is capturing the character’s inability to move away from an emotional entanglement.

If the protagonist does move, it could be interpreted as a rejection of a particular place, or as an acknowledgement that an emotional

A CHARACTER’S MOVEMENT across vast distances entails encounters with histories, customs, and cultures. These encounters are inextricably linked to character development. journey must occur outside of that locale.

The legacy of the transatlantic slave trade is a particularly fertile ground for these kinds of fictional explorations. In her novel-instories Homegoing (Penguin Random House, 2016), Yaa Gyaasi produces a rich cartography that is generational, associating geography with time. The story’s scope of more than two centuries suggests that time and space are inextricably linked. Beginning with the enslavement of an Asante woman in West Africa, the novel traces her descendants through the Middle Passage to plantations in Alabama to Harlem to California and back to Ghana. This generational movement necessarily traces multiple characters rather than the single protagonist of Edugyan’s novel. As the story moves through the branches of seven generations of Africa’s descendants, and as memories are lost and familial ties broken, the story suggests that the connective tissue for these descendants is their connection to place.

Another transatlantic slavery novel that illustrates this concept of dynamic geography is Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes (HarperCollins, 2007). The story follows its main character from her village in Mali to South Carolina to New York to Nova Scotia to London. In this novel, the character’s development is both personal and political, and like Washington Black, her movement across space is a catalyst for her emotional and intellectual development.

Her ability to read and write plays a significant role in her increased mobility, yet her movement is circumscribed by racial hierarchies and her desperate search to find her husband.

in the 1950s could be as long of an emotional journey as the sea voyages of Edugyan’s Washington Black.

Maps have political consequences, and this has been particularly true in the West. When I was in high school in the 1980s, I remember one of my friends pointing to the map on our World History classroom wall and saying, “Africa is actually much bigger than that.” I did not understand what she meant at the time, but later, in college, I learned that it was true. Geert de Kremer, a sixteenth-century European cartographer, produced a world map that dramatically distorted Africa’s size and made it look smaller. European countries, on the other hand, looked much larger than their actual size. It is believed that his intention was not political, as his map was originally intended to be used by ship captains exploring the globe.

Unfortunately, his world map became standard in classrooms in the United States in the early 1900s, and some of the map’s distortions went unacknowledged.

Novel maps also have consequences. Whether characters are moving between nations or within cities, in ships or on horseback, or even if they are remaining in one place, the cartographic decisions of the author are intimately connected to story. Sometimes historical novelists include renderings of visual maps at the beginning of the book. I used to think those maps were included merely to orient the reader to the proximity of locations mentioned within the story.

Now I understand that such maps are more than that. They are an illustration of the story itself, an essential outline of the story’s contours.

While traveling across vast distances does provide an opportunity for the novelist to explore the sweep of geography’s power, the transatlantic trade of human cargo is not the only literary area where one might observe the significance of geography for people of African descent. For enslaved people in the United States, maps were very difficult to come by, and possessing one could spell the difference between enslavement and freedom. Many autobiographical slave narratives tell the story of following “the North Star,” a crude method of finding one’s way north.

The title of Edward P. Jones’ prize-winning historical novel The Known World (HarperCollins, 2003) comes from a sixteenth-century map, and suggests from the outset that place will be central to the story. The enslaved people of this novel know very little beyond their Virginia plantation, but when Alice Night escapes to freedom in Washington DC, she creates an artistic map made from cloth, paint, and clay that represents the entire county where her former plantation was located in Virginia. Jones’ description of this “map” at the end anchors the novel’s themes about madness, freedom, and oppression. It is a powerful symbolic representation of the tyranny of place over the lives of African Americans.

Twentieth-century historical narratives featuring African Americans usually involve the policing of physical spaces. The legal system of segregation in the United States used housing laws to create neighborhoods specifically intended to keep people separated by race. Public spaces were policed by race-specific signs. Even the narrative of a 1950s road trip by African Americans in a car was circumscribed by racial hierarchies, compelling drivers to travel with The Negro Motorist Green Book. In some ways, an American highway

WRITTEN BY DOLEN PERKINSVALDEZ Dolen Perkins-Valdez is a 2019 nominee for a United States Artists Fellowship. She serves on the board of the PEN Faulkner Foundation and is currently Assistant Professor in the Literature Department at American University. She will be guest of honour at HNS 2019.

A publication of the Historical Novel Society | www.historicalnovelsociety.org

11

UNFREEZING HISTORY

BY MYFANWY COOK

Sara Sheridan on her fascination with writing historical fiction Sara Sheridan’s latest novel The Ice Maiden (Severn House, 2018) is set in the nineteenth century, but her career as a novelist began with writing contemporary fiction. The transition to writing historical fiction developed from, she says, “constantly referring back to historical events. Truth or Dare, my first book, was set in Northern Ireland in the 1990s, but everything I had to say was linked to history.”

In her second novel, Ma Polanski’s Pockets, Sheridan notes, “the whole story was really about what had happened after the Second World War, though it is set in contemporary Scotland. So, after The Pleasure Express came out, which was set in Hong Kong at the time of the handover in 1999 and again it reached back far further, I thought I should just start writing stories set in the past.”

While Sheridan was writing these novels, she read some historical fiction that inspired her, including Water Music (Little Brown, 1981)

by TC Boyle. It was and is "a masterclass on how to write a brilliant historical novel,” says Sheridan, who also discovered the story of Robert Fortune: “I began to read around it and knew I’d found my subject. The resulting novel, The Secret Mandarin, tells Fortune’s story as he goes into 1840s China on an industrial espionage mission for the East India Company after the Opium War, but from the viewpoint of his sister-in-law. And I was off!”

Sheridan’s writing includes TV tie-in books for such series as the popular Victoria and the Mirabelle Bevan series set in the 1950s. Her Mirabelle series of novels is set primarily in 1951 Brighton, at a time of postwar austerity when many people were trying to adjust to the deep scars left by their experiences during the Second World War. This crime series is centred around the tenacious ex-Secret Service agent Mirabelle Bevan. In these novels, Vesta Churchill, who assists Mirabelle in her investigations, has provided Sheridan with the opportunity to explore racial tensions in 1950s Britain. Another key character is Detective Superintendent Alan McGregor. He initially displays the prejudices of men working within certain professions during that era, but as the series progresses, the balance of power changes.

Sheridan admits she has two favourite periods in history that she loves to write about: “The 1820s-1850s, which was the point at which the British Empire really took off, and the 1950s when it began to tail away. The Empire is massive in British cultural consciousness.

The current political situation in the UK, with Brexit, is in part fired by nostalgia for empire. So, I always felt drawn to these periods.”

In 2018 Sheridan was working on an overview of Scottish female history, Where are the Women? This non-fiction book will be published in 2019 by Historic Environment Scotland. She found writing this book to be fascinating. It required, she says, “fitting female history around these two periods, which I know well, discovering new facts that impact our culture today.”

Writing about the role of women in the context of the society of the time is “crucial” for Sheridan. However, when writing novels, she is

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not trying to use them as tools to educate readers about the role of women in the past. For Sheridan, it is all about the story, because she says, “I’m a reader as much as I’m a writer, and I’m driven to write books which give other readers the experience I crave of disappearing inside a story.”

This doesn’t mean that she is not stimulated when she spots things that relate directly to, as she describes it, “where we are today – culturally or politically.” She is “a massive feminist” and started a feminist beauty brand with her daughter, as well as making a perfume that commemorates forgotten women from history. She runs a “panfeminist blog called Bitches Unite,” and Sheridan admits, “I’d be lying if I said when I write fiction, I’m not looking at our foremothers and making connections to the lives of present-day women.”

Nonetheless, for Sheridan, this doesn’t mean anything without “the story magic… so it’s story first and the rest is enrichment.”

Her novel, The Ice Maiden, is set in 1842. The central character, Katrina, is stranded on Deception Island in the South Shetlands archipelago after the death of her husband. Katrina takes the bold step of stowing away as a cabin boy on a ship headed further into the Antarctic. Sheridan had read about James Clark Ross’s expedition to Antarctica and was “hooked” by it. The ship Katrina stows away on is Ross’s vessel. “He spent three summers in the Antarctic, never venturing into the interior, simply mapping the exterior of the continent,” Sheridan explains. “It was brave and dangerous and hugely Empire driven.” These are the reasons that convinced Sheridan to write about the impact it had and “to examine those hugely male figures – adventurers and warriors – and the way they related to women.”

Another source of inspiration for this novel came from the almost “mythical” story about Robert Falcon Scott, which she’d heard as a child: “So when I heard about Ross’s early expedition and that Scott used Ross’s maps, well, that was it. There was such glamour to it.

I came up with the female voice from a number of sources. For my book, On Starlit Seas, which is the story of Maria Graham in Brazil, I had read a little about women on whaling stations in the South Atlantic, so that was a natural place to go to as I hadn’t used the material. It seemed like an adventure.”

Sheridan has never visited Antarctica and, as she points out, “in most cases the places I am writing about aren’t there anymore.

British ports in China in 1842 don’t exist these days.”

However, she admits to being a “swot” and works from contemporary papers, art and newsprint to discover these places. Her research consisted of “camping” in the Scott Polar Institute, the National Library of Scotland and the Royal Geographical Society where she “fell headlong into the papers.”

Myfanwy Cook is an associate fellow at two British universities and a creative writing workshop designer. Find her online at www. myfanwycook.com

A SEARCH FOR PEACE

BY KATIE STINE

The poorly-defined middle ground Our world is neither black nor white, which might be why we tell stories about the areas of gray. The Glovemaker is a world full of such in-betweens: neither, but, if only. The story is set in 1887 in the Utah Territory, and the Mormon Church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or LDS for short) is going through upheaval as polygamy is outlawed by the US government.

Author Ann Weisgarber uses the conflict between church and government as monolithic opponents which catch regular people between them, not unlike the geographical canyon walls among which the protagonists of The Glovemaker have settled. Deborah is one of the narrators, a good Mormon woman, waiting for her husband to return from his working travels, but he is overdue. When the first stranger comes knocking on her door seeking help, she hesitates. She is, as is repeatedly commented on, a woman alone.

The subtext is not that she is incapable of caring for herself, but rather, that the men around her – strangers, specifically – might prey upon her while her husband is absent. But as the characters reveal secrets and discuss, men are the center of the conversation, removing agency from the women. This creates a situation in which women are never to blame, and the men seem to assume that part of femininity is a state of perennial, passive victimhood.

Removing the agency and opinion from half of the characters – indeed, half of the world – creates an In-Between place, as the book puts it. This middle ground is where the women are central and vital but lack the standing to make decisions about their own lives with any sort of credibility. This is seen not just in the Mormon world, but also in the Gentile world, and men are losing their lives over it.

The town of Junction, now called Fruita, is a real settlement located in what is now Capitol Reef National Park, where the orchards planted by the Mormon settlers still bloom. Visitors can pick the fruit, look at the Native paintings on the walls of the canyon, and stroll along the boardwalk looking at birds. For her research, Weisgarber was able to look at the historical archives at Capitol Reef, giving her a window into the world of these people.

Weisgarber is not Mormon herself but was initially intrigued by the location of the settlement. She found that the actual settlers there “identified as Mormons, but the historical evidence implied that they didn’t practice their faith as the church expected.” Acknowledging that she knew very little about the LDS beliefs before writing The Glovemaker, she had to research the faith as well as the location. But

culture doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and Weisgarber notes that “LDS history is American history, and any time I look below the surface, there are surprises.”

These surprises found their way into The Glovemaker. One such, “the federal- and state-sanctioned persecution of Mormons,” is the external plotline. While the US is famed for its freedom of religion, in reality, not all religious practices are equal. The Glovemaker does not take on the ethical question of polygamy, keeping a firm stance in the middle. The opening pages of the book cite the Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887, which disincorporated the LDS church, giving the US government the authority to seize its assets, as well as imprison men who practiced polygamy. Three years after this novel is set, the church issued its “1890 Manifesto,” ending the practice of polygamy, and the Utah Territory finally achieved statehood the same year, a reward from the federal government for conforming.

Weisgarber also incorporated the second surprise, that “by the 1880s, approximately only 25% of the men practiced polygamy.”

The married couple in her novel, Samuel and Deborah, seek an InBetween place for their own spiritual practice. While the characters would never publicly distance themselves from the church, they do so physically, both not wanting to engage in polygamy, or in the highly regimented roles dictated by the community in which they were both raised. “In the novel, I made the assumption the characters had doubts but couldn’t bring themselves to completely break away from the church. They were in-between, straddling the narrow, poorlydefined middle ground, not wanting to choose sides.”

We often keep ourselves in this “poorly-defined middle ground,” in order to navigate family relationships, workplace drama, or even small-talk at the grocery store. For those raised in any religious community, to turn away from a part of the church means turning away from family. The risk of personal doubt carries an incredibly high price. But does not picking a side mean that there is a moral weakness? We like picking sides; it gives resolution to our stories, shapes our narratives of Good versus Evil. But not every conflict is so high-handed. And not every protagonist needs to choose one or the other. Indeed, if one lives in an In-Between place, as Deborah’s husband says, “where the mountains ease into hills and where those hills slide into low swells,” what is the point? Neither side has jurisdiction.

Weisgarber writes, “As the writing progressed, it became clear to me that people who are in-between see the world from all angles. It’s a difficult position since they usually don’t belong to one side or

A publication of the Historical Novel Society | www.historicalnovelsociety.org

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the other. They are the people who negotiate, who settle disputes, and who are the peacemakers.”

High-minded moralists can make for good heroes or villains, but regular folk are compelled to stay in the In-Between. So much of this novel is about walking the middle path, that in the end, the meditation on the concept of slushy neutrality becomes a clear thought on the desire for isolation and separation. Ultimately, one can only remain an outsider if sides are not taken. In the end, Wesigarber sees The Glovemaker as “a story about the search for peace.”

Katie Stine lives and writes in the mountains of California. She is at work on a novel set at the turn of the 20th century in North Dakota. You can find her online at www.kjstine.com.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS MEETS GRANTCHESTER

BY CLAIRE MORRIS

Claire Morris talks to author Clarissa Harwood about choosing the 20th century After she completed the first draft of her novel Impossible Saints (Pegasus 2018), Clarissa Harwood wondered what was next. As a writing exercise, she decided to develop the story of Thomas Cross – the nemesis of protagonist Paul.

“In hindsight, I should have guessed it would be more than just a writing exercise,” Harwood says, “because Tom was the one minor character who kept trying to take over the story!”

The result was her second novel, Bear No Malice (Pegasus 2019), set, like Impossible Saints, in the first decade of the 20th century.

Clergyman and reformer Tom has spent years avoiding (and covering up) his past as he hopes for advancement within the Church. But after he is attacked and left for dead in a wooded area outside London, he begins to lose control of the life he’s carefully crafted.

This threatens his work, his position and his new friendship with the enigmatic Miranda, who harbours secrets of her own. Bear No Malice follows Tom and Miranda as they attempt to come to terms with the influence of the past on their present.

In both Harwood’s novels, the characters come across as real, perhaps because they exhibit very human flaws. She shares that at first it was a huge struggle to understand Tom. “It took a long time to stop thinking of [him] as a villain and really inhabit his perspective, but it was a great empathy-building exercise.

“Miranda was much easier. Some characters seem to have always existed in my mind and are just waiting for a story, and Miranda was that for me. I always wanted to write about a Lady of Shalott figure who is (temporarily) isolated from the rest of the world because of

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a secret in her past, and I enjoyed digging deeper to find out what her secret was. Ultimately, it always takes many revisions and a great deal of time and patience to develop a character. It’s very much like getting to know people in real life. You can’t find out everything there is to know about someone in a short time, and even after years of knowing people, they can still surprise us!”

In taking a minor character from one novel and making him the hero of another, Harwood cites the influence of Anthony Trollope and his series The Chronicles of Barsetshire. “I love exploring the same world from different angles this way, both as a reader and a writer,” she says.

To create an authentic picture of London and the surrounding area during the Bear No Malice period, Harwood drew on primary sources: first-person accounts such as newspaper clippings, diaries and autobiographies. During the course of her research for a novel, she also tries to visit the places her characters inhabit.

“Most of the buildings [my characters] work and live in are fictional, though the cathedral where Paul and Tom work as canons is a composite of St. Paul’s in London and Durham Cathedral,” Harwood says. “Every place has a personality or soul of its own, and I don’t think that changes much over the years, so it’s important whenever possible to walk the streets my characters would have walked, smell the air, see the plants and wildlife, and generally get a sense of what it feels like to inhabit that space.”

When I asked Harwood why Edwardian England attracts her, she admitted that she initially planned to set Impossible Saints at the end of the Victorian period but then she realized that Lilia (the female protagonist) needed to be a suffragette.

“My early drafts were set in 1897, but after some friendly prodding from my agent, I moved the setting ten years later to align more accurately with the activities of real-life suffragettes. I had to go back to the research drawing board to find out what other elements of the novel had to change to fit the new timeline, and I learned some interesting things along the way. For example, what changes most in the span of a decade always has been and probably always will be technology!

“My first love in terms of historical periods was the Victorian era, which I was introduced to through literature. I specialized in Nineteenth-Century British Literature for my PhD, and the poetry and fiction of that period have inspired me for as long as I can remember. Both the late Victorian and Edwardian eras are great periods for historical fiction [writers] because they are close enough to modern times that we share many of the same concerns (e.g. the increasingly fast pace of daily life and striving for gender and race equality). At the same time, there are fascinating differences, from fun ones such as fashions to ones we can learn from, such as the worrisome tendency of respected thinkers and leaders believing in eugenics. Those beliefs became more prevalent in the 20th century, culminating in the Holocaust and other atrocities.

“I now find the early 20th century just as fascinating as the 19th and no longer have to be dragged kicking and screaming out of the Victorian period!”

A proud member of the Historical Novel Society, Harwood has several projects in various stages of development, but says she is most excited about a sequel to both Impossible Saints and Bear No Malice, which is set in the 1930s. (It’s important to point out that although these two novels are connected, they can be read as stand-

EVEN AS A CHILD in school in Ghana, I learned mostly about transatlantic slavery, less so about trans-Saharan slavery, but not a word on internal slavery. alones; one memorable scene does appear in both, but told from the perspectives of different characters.) As she marches even deeper into the 20th century, readers will look forward to more of what this author is becoming known for: believable characters, complex storylines and authentic portrayal of an era.

bondage, their roles in the societies they live in, physical attraction and forgiveness.

One of the many things that makes this book fascinating for readers is the variety of languages and cultures. Salaga was multilingual and multicultural. “Everybody else was welcome to stay in Salaga. But to Claire Morris is the HNS web features editor. She served as the Wurche, Salaga was like the soups her grandmother often cooked, bubbling managing editor of the HNS journal, Solander, from 2004 to with meat and fish of all types. It was home to Mossis, Yorubas, Hausas, 2009, and helped to start the HNS North American conferences. Dioulas, Dagombas.” Hausa was the lingua franca, the language of the caravans that wound their way across the desert. Aminah speaks Gurma but also learns a little Twi, the language of the Asante, from her first captor, Wofa Sarpong; Wurche is Gonja. The challenge of recreating these linguistic rhythms in English is one that Attah succeeds in accomplishing, while, she says, “trying not to sound like a textbook.”

AN UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH

BY LUCINDA BYATT

Two women’s struggle for agency in precolonial Ghana The Gurma word “licabili” “was the belief that whatever path you took in life, it would take you where it was supposed to take you.” Aminah and Wurche are from very different social backgrounds – the former a slave, the latter a royal princess – but both face challenges to find their path through life and their agency as women. The Hundred Wells of Salaga by Ayesha Harruna Attah is a highly evocative novel set during the period immediately before and during the war in Salaga in 1892 and its subjugation to the German forces in 1897. It was a time that saw civil war between the three royal families of Salaga, a notorious slave-trading centre in Ghana, but also the growing influence of the British, French, and Germans colonisers, particularly after the British defeated the Asante and finally exiled the Asantehene in 1896.

Attah was inspired to write the story when her father mentioned that “his grandmother’s mother was called the slave. He only knew that she could have come from the region of Mali, Burkina Faso, or Niger, and that she was beautiful. Writing this book was a chance for her to finally speak through me.” The internal slave trade of Salaga is well documented, but it is “an aspect of African history that I think is not talked about enough. Even as a child in school in Ghana, I learned mostly about transatlantic slavery, less so about transSaharan slavery, but not a word on internal slavery.” Attah writes: “I first visited Salaga in 2012. A late uncle of mine guided me through its slave market, now turned into a lorry station; we visited its ponds where slaves were washed before they were sent to be auctioned off in the market.” Internal slavery had begun “centuries before the first Europeans set foot on African shores and continues today.” By the late 1880s, “slavery – both internal and transatlantic – had been legally abolished; however, as the book shows, it was still a thriving business. In my research, I kept coming across the word ‘benign’ used with respect to slavery in Africa.” Yet, Aminah’s family and her home village are destroyed by slavery, and although Wurche is troubled by the concept of owning another human being, other reasons prompt her to buy Aminah in the market at Salaga. The relationship between the two women is complex and multifaceted, an exploration of

Sounds are accompanied by tastes and smells, and the range of foods described in the novel is another highlight. Being from diverse backgrounds, Wurche and Aminah are accustomed to very different foods. Aminah and her sisters prepare tuo, a porridge made from millet and sour cow’s milk, occasionally sweetened with honey, which they sell to the caravan traders: “The family secret was to sprinkle rice flour into the millet paste.” This is better than the green plantain tuo Aminah has to eat with Wofa Sarpong. Local spices also feature, like dawadawa or locust bean, and salt is a precious commodity, used to pay for slaves and even gifted to the chiefs by the British, together with guns and alcohol. Attah says that “A lot of the meals and snacks mentioned in traveller’s accounts of Salaga were names or descriptions I’d encountered visiting my grandmother in the north of Ghana, and in Senegal, where I currently live. It was a refreshing find, because unlike African religions and other ways of living, these foods seemed to have survived the colonial treatment.”

Nature is also central to the book and the different habitats are evocatively described: the “towering Asante forests” around Wofa Sarpong’s house, the plains of Salaga, and the terrifying rivers the slaves are forced to cross, which also act as trade routes to the coast.

The shea trees, the baobabs and the inherited knowledge of many other plants and herbs, also for medicinal purposes, add fascinating detail to this rich picture of the West African landscape.

Asked about other writers, Attah told me that one of her “biggest influences for writing historical fiction was my professor, E. L. Doctorow.

Ragtime [1975] was inventive and showed just the breadth of what could be done with historical material. I also loved the way he brought disparate worlds into a credible whole.” She has certainly “caught the historical fiction bug” and admits that she is especially drawn to Mali, not to focus on the Mali emperors, “but instead on the everyday people.

What did a 20-year-old woman in the Mali Empire dream about?”

There are other projects in the pipeline too, including a book on the fascinating kola nut. “As I was writing The Hundred Wells of Salaga, the kola nut kept coming up. I’d always known it simply as a small bitter nut.

Turns out it was the Cola in Coca Cola!” Kola was a valuable trading commodity, as well as being symbolic and used in rituals all over West Africa. In this novel, Ayesha Harruna Attah has achieved the writer’s goal of melding research and narrative into a compelling and credible whole that will introduce many readers to an unfamiliar world, but also to an uncomfortable truth: slavery was, and is, never “benign.”

Lucinda Byatt is HNR Features Editor. She teaches history and translation at the University of Edinburgh.

A publication of the Historical Novel Society | www.historicalnovelsociety.org

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REVIEWS ONLINE EXCLUSIVES Due to an ever-increasing number of books for review and space constraints within HNR, some selected fiction reviews and all nonfiction reviews are now published as online exclusives. To view these reviews and much more, please visit www.historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews

of fate appear to be the result of human contrivance rather than divine intervention.

This is a novel firmly grounded in the physical world, as its language—sensuous, graphic, and violent—shouts aloud to the reader. The world-building, too, is marvelous—no one who has passed through the gates of Thebes as described here is likely ever to forget the experience. Highly recommended.

Elisabeth Lenckos

ANCIENT EGYPT CLASSICAL

THE CHILDREN OF JOCASTA

Natalie Haynes, Europa, 2018, $17.00, pb, 320pp, 9781609454807 / Picador, 2018, £8.99, pb, 304pp, 9781509836178

Another group of girls break their silence in this brilliant adaptation of the Oedipus myth, told from the perspective of its female protagonists.

Jocasta and her daughter Ismene have little to say in the classic adaptations

by Homer and Sophocles, but they narrate their stories eloquently in this fine novel, providing the reader with intimate insight into the troubled lives of two generations of Theban women. In a city battered by plague, superstition, masculine ambition, wanton cruelty, and heat, irrational beliefs and mistaken assumptions about cause and effect besiege the inhabitants, and they seek supernatural explanations—a curse unleashed by the marriage between Jocasta and her supposed son Oedipus—for the pestilence afflicting their community, when a more likely reason, the contamination of the water source, might be the culprit. In the end, though, not social malaise, but personal hatred and the need for vengeance brings down the House of Thebes, ensuring that the name of Oedipus lives in infamy. Should one cite another name for the fall of a great civilization? Haynes seems to argue strongly for a new take on an ancient tragedy.

Following hard upon the heels of House of Names, Circe, and The Silence of the Girls, The Children of Jocasta represents a fascinating revamping of a classic tale. Protagonists talk— and think—surprisingly like modern people, while the gods are largely absent, and twists 16

DEATH OF AN EYE

Dana Stabenow, Head of Zeus, 2018, £18.99/$29.95, hb, 254pp. 9781788549196

Alexandria, 47 BC. Cleopatra jointly rules Egypt with her brother, Ptolemy, at the behest of her lover, Julius Caesar. Her reign is beset by courtly intrigues, ethnic rivalries and dangerous feuds. Her trusted spymaster, known as The Eye, is murdered, and a vast shipment of newly minted coin is stolen. With her throne teetering on the edge of disaster, Cleopatra asks her childhood friend, Tetisheri Nebenturu, to discreetly investigate, find the missing shipment, and bring the murderer to the Queen’s justice. Tetisheri finds herself plunged into a deadly world of politics, deceit and lies, where no one can be trusted—not even the Queen.

With strong characters and plot, the story is fast-paced and evokes the life and times of Cleopatra’s Egypt. The rivalry and courtly intrigues are effectively portrayed, and the story comes to life as the reader walks the streets of Alexandria. Dana Stabenow is the author of the best-selling Kate Shugak mystery series, and Death of an Eye is her first in what I expect will be a very successful series of historical novels. Fans of the genre will love this.

Mike Ashworth

1ST CENTURY

THE GODS HELP THOSE

Albert A. Bell, Jr., Perseverance, 2018, $15.95, pb, 240pp, 9781564746085

When Pliny the Younger is called to the scene of a collapsed warehouse, multiple bodies are found. One of them, wearing equestrian clothing, appears to have been murdered. Also found in the wreckage is an abandoned baby who he quickly discovers has been circumcised, a practice unusual to Rome.

Examination of the equestrian’s body reveals the victim’s lips have been sewn shut, with thirty pieces of silver left in his mouth. When Pliny learns this references a passage from the Jewish holy book, Pliny and his friend Tacitus are pulled into a murder plot that could have ties to the destruction of Jerusalem’s temple—

REVIEWS | ISSUE 87, February 2019

an event that took place 15 years earlier—and a group of assassins thought to be extinct.

The mystery of who and why unfolds very well. I enjoyed the walks through Rome’s streets and the palpable religious tension bubbling under the surface. Pliny and Tacitus are an enjoyable team to lead readers through the case. The author has a good mix of characters representing the various classes of Roman society. What surprised me, however, was that by the book’s resolution, a few plot threads were dropped like the mysterious box that one of the murder victims claimed to know the location of. Additionally, I didn’t feel that Aurora’s narrative added much value other than one scene between her and another woman. Aurora’s voice comes off as a bit immature and modern-thinking. In one case, she refers to a wet nurse as a cow and “moos” when referring to her. All in all, however, despite a few modern-slanted mindsets sprinkled in, a good mystery with enjoyable setting details.

J. Lynn Else

HAMMER OF ROME

Douglas Jackson, Bantam Press, 2018, £18.99, hb, 450pp, 9780593076170

Hammer of Rome is the final novel of the Gaius Valerius Verrens series, legate of the Ninth legion Hispania and a Hero of Rome.

Valerius is determined to raise his legion’s reputation and win success in Britain against the forces of the Brigantes, in spite of governor Agricola’s quest to achieve sole glory for himself. Valerius is trying to defeat Calgacus, ‘The Swordsman’, otherwise known as King Cathal of the Brigantes. The legate is mindful of the attacks against himself and his family from the new Emperor of Rome, Domitian, who achieved power by having his brother Titus poisoned and is now striking out at his enemies, starting with Gaius Valerius Verrens.

Jackson is successful in bringing both his fictional and true characters to life in his use of public and private life in both Rome and Britain. By doing this, he brings out the real personalities of army officials and tribes people living, working and dying on the Northern frontier of the Roman Empire. The suspense of each skirmish or battle is palpable; the author helps us understand what is at stake for King Cathal’s people if the formidable swordsman loses: complete subjugation under foreign leaders who are determined to take away their power, culture and identity.

Clare Lehovsky

FISHER OF WOMEN

Catherine Magia, CreateSpace, 2018, $14.99, pb, 305pp, 9781725508156

The attentive young mother of a newborn and wife to Simon Peter narrates this tale of Jesus of Nazareth and his disciples. She tends to her child, navigates uncertain emotional terrain with her husband, and experiences the demands and delights of life in ancient Galilee. While Jesus has compassion for the suffering masses in need of hope and healing, she realizes that he suffers from such healing

as well, physically and emotionally. The wildeyed sorceress Helen seems to offer a promise of relief for Jesus, but whether this comes from a place of darkness or light is a crucial question.

Unlike most Christian fiction, this tale does not dwell overmuch on questions of faith and belief. Instead, it opens the door to a refreshingly different interpretation of the welltrod ground of 1st-century Galilee. As with the title, which puts a twist on Jesus’s words that his apostles would be “fishers of men,” this novel expands the spare words of the primary sources for Jesus’s life, the Gospels. Here, you will find living, breathing characters in Simon Peter, Judas Iscariot, Mary Magdalene, and of course Jesus of Nazareth. Each person has their own distinctive personality, physical traits, occupations, and family ties. The characters live in a well-fleshed out world of vivid sights, rich smells, and other accurately researched details.

The Jesus portrayed here is prone to ill health and physical agony in a way that emphasizes his humanity while at the same time acknowledging his divinity. The narrator’s compassion, concerns, and emotional arc are key to a tale that turns old, rehashed events into a satisfying, beautifully written, wellresearched, and ultimately enjoyable read.

Xina Marie Uhl

on the edge of society in Israel at the time of Jesus. Roman soldiers search for newborns in Bethlehem—to kill them; random travelers mingle with cut-throat thieves; brutalized women and lepers struggle for a bit of peace or acceptance; the spirit of a dead woman hovers with insects in the earth as if still alive; a mysterious blind man in a cave spreads his message of evil. All hear of, some see, and even talk to the imposing son of God. Simon Peter and Judas have minor roles.

Sveen does not flinch from the grim lives of abject poverty, incurable diseases, lifelong scars and wounds, mean treatment of the vulnerable, and the numbing oppression coming out of Rome. Yet many of these downcast characters hope for a better tomorrow, retaining some faith in human kindness. Something akin to modern versions of love creep in. The prose is literary (“their voices like insects in a jar”), often powerful, and always clear. Unfortunately, several lapses into current jargon (“I know the score,”) are jolting.

Viewed as a collection of short stories, Children of God is a compelling and thoughtprovoking treatment of the origins and nature of human good and evil set at a place and time that spawned one of the world’s great religions. Readers looking for a traditional novel arc with fully-developed heroes and a neat ending may be disappointed.

G. J. Berger

THE BLOOD OF ROME

Simon Scarrow, Headline, 2018, £20.00, hb, 369pp, 9781472258366

AD 55. When King Rhadamistus, ambitious, ruthless, cruel, and an ally of Rome, is ousted from Armenia, General Corbulo is tasked by the Emperor to restore him to his throne. Cato and Macro, with their elite cohort of Praetorian Guards, recently arrived in the Roman province of Cilicia, are charged with the mission. Cato and Macro find themselves facing not only determined opposition from the Parthian military, but also treachery much closer to home. When King Rhadamistus’s brutality towards those who have ousted him sparks an uprising, the Roman Cohort find themselves pawns in a deadly game of regional politics, where failure will result in ignominious disgrace at best, and death the most likely outcome.

This is the latest instalment in the bestselling Eagles of the Empire series, featuring Cato and Macro. The author’s legion of fans will know what to expect: a fast-paced, taut plot, strong characters, exciting, flowing action scenes, and writing which brings alive both the culture and the deadly politics of the time. This is historical fiction at its very best.

Highly recommended.

Mike Ashworth

CHILDREN OF GOD

Lars Petter Sveen (trans. Guy Puzey), Graywolf, 2018, $16.00, pb, 240pp, 9781555978204

Translated from Norwegian, thirteen somewhat interlocking vignettes portray life

VITELLIUS’ FEAST

L.J. Trafford, Sphinx, 2018, £9.99, pb, 464pp, 9781912573073

AD 69 in Rome, and Nero is dead. He had most of the vices, but at least he had style and aspirations. Vitellius is something else, and licentiousness reigns in Rome as the new Emperor’s pastimes demand the infliction of ever more degradation and cruelty. This odious slob is even incapable of feeding himself and slaves, mostly unclothed, must place delicious morsels between his lips. In a Rome seething with plots and betrayal, Sporus is a talented entertainer who delights in wearing pretty dresses. When commanded to perform acts degrading beyond bearing, this gentle creature puts on his (her) grandest dress and hangs him/herself. In a Rome now seething with plots and betrayal the example of this dignified and courageous action leads Philo, a freedman who has terrifying memories of his own experiences in slavery, to head a conspiracy. From the East, allconquering Vespasian approaches, and if the timing is right, there will be the chance of a peaceful takeover of Rome where Vespasian’s young son Domitian lies low, protected by experienced and manipulative women who are well aware that the innocent lad may one day be Emperor.

This outrageous romp is the final volume of a quartet, and it would be helpful to read the others first. If not, simply enjoy a tale told in coarse language in which the women can be as tough as the men.

Nancy Henshaw

4TH CENTURY

FROM THE REALM OF TIME

Scott Douglas Prill, Scott Douglas Prill, 2018, $17.00, pb, 532pp, 9780990860419

Late in the 4th century CE, Rome faces many enemies on its northern frontiers and is losing too many battles. General Marcus Augustus Valerias, a Roman general with an illustrious career, is starting to feel his age, although others still rely on his strength and wisdom.

His victories have brought him an estate in northern Italy, wealth and respect. He has a beautiful wife, Claire, who is a princess from a tribe in Britannia.

Yet Valerias is depressed, thinking his useful life fighting for Rome is almost at an end.

Events, however, prove otherwise. He is called to demonstrate his leadership again in an effort to destroy an enemy that threatens not only the Roman Empire, but his own beloved family.

This novel is a sequel to Into the Realm of Time and is fiction set against a background of historical facts. At times it reads more like a series of interlinked short stories as more characters are introduced and their backstories related. Each tale is individually engrossing, as is the novel as a whole. Maps and a glossary are included, together with a cast of characters. These are a useful reference for keeping track of characters and unfamiliar place names.

From the Realm of Time reads like a labour of love. Prill has an immense knowledge of and dedication to this period of Roman history.

He presents telling details of battles and skirmishes together with excruciating detail of the torture of prisoners unlucky enough to have survived the fighting.

There is perhaps too much narrative – too much telling rather than showing – which could be an effort to include additional detail and motivation. But for those looking for an honest and thoroughly detailed look at the later days of the Roman Empire, this book will be a treat.

Valerie Adolph

DARK AGE

James Wilde, Bantam Press, 2018, £18.99, hb, 340pp, 9780593076071

Later 4th-century Britannia is not a safe place. The well-ordered world of Rome’s rule is crumbling fast, and the “old ways” are coming back with a vengeance, in the form of witches, druids – and, most of all, the tribes from across Hadrian’s Wall, thirsty for blood, loot, and power. In the midst of the destruction, Lucanus, a former scout on the Wall and now the crowned Pendragon, is trying to lead his band of survivors all the way to Londinium where, rumour has it, safety is still to be found in the form of Roman legions.

While wary of the wood-priest Myrrdin, with his prophecies of old gods and saviourkings to come, Lucanus finds that the stories bring with them power, hope, and maybe a

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chance to recover his beloved Catia, stolen by the Scoti… And indeed, myths, legends and prophecies are very much at the core of this atmospheric retelling of the Arthurian legend: all through the stirring adventure, Wilde explores the enduring strength of stories, and the way the right words can define identity and shape history. A thrilling, and moody read with a deeper layer.

Chiara Prezzavento

6TH CENTURY

MISTRESS OF LEGEND

Nicole Evelina, Lawson Gartner, 2018, $14.99, pb, 408pp, 9780996763257

From 518 to 524 AD, the aftermath of the Arthur-Guinevere-Lancelot debacle continues. Readers familiar with the legend realize that after the breakup of Guinevere’s marriage to Arthur, little is known about what happened to Guinevere. Nicole Evelina does a fine job of depicting her life, beginning with scenes showing how Arthur supposedly condemned her to burn at the stake. Almost dead, she spends months being nursed, an act Arthur claims is carried out by his bishop and stops before its completion. When the family meets months later, it is clear that Arthur’s next wife and Arthur’s son, Mordred, have treachery in mind. Arthur takes off to battle encroaching enemies and Guinevere leaves to live in Scotland. During that journey, she has one of her many “visions” and sees the Battle of Camlann between Arthur and Mordred, in which they are both killed. Heart-rent, Guinevere leaves the convent where she was resting and finds Lancelot. Unfortunately, numerous battles and deaths are to follow as rebel groups claim Guinevere’s leadership to unite Britain again. The fact that Guinevere and others like her possess the magical powers of the Old Ways compels further visions and fights. Other leaders belonging to different tribes are also vying against each other.

Evelina makes it very clear that few have the good of Britain in mind. The lust for power and war is a natural part of 6th-century living, which says volumes for what King Arthur had accomplished but could not seal forever. This novel is plot-centered, full of riveting action and surrealistic scenes of ancient lore. Guinevere is characterized as a peacemaker who is forced to do battle to hopefully unify the opposing tribes in the land she loves. Deftly crafted and highly recommended historical fiction!

Viviane Crystal

AN EMPIRE FOR RAVENS

Mary Reed and Eric Mayer, Poisoned Pen Press, 2018, $15.95, pb, 260pp, 9781464210655

This twelfth book in the John the Lord Chamberlain Mystery series follows the sixthcentury Byzantium sleuth as he illegally breaks his exile from Constantinople to help his friend Felix in Goth-besieged Rome. Picking up Felix’s abandoned life, John soon finds his friend murdered in the city’s catacombs. A treasure 18

hunt turns into a hunt for a killer as Totila and his Goths assault Rome’s crumbling walls.

My favorite parts of the novel were the believable descriptions of an imperial city in collapse, depopulated, demoralized, in contrast to John’s usual haunts of rising Greek Constantinople. Senator’s daughters masquerade as their servants, hoping to avoid kidnapping. A former beggar is now pope. A remnant of chariot racing provides sporting types with a sad compulsion, a way to feel good about themselves and a way to lighten their purses with fruitless betting.

Householders can no longer afford to pay the guards to protect what they no longer own.

Orphans live in abandoned buildings, creeping out at night to steal food. The stumps of forests chopped down for firewood now serve as display counters for those who have a trapped rabbit or two to sell at outlandish prices. Dare I say it? Those finding themselves in a modern empire on the verge of collapse keep looking for instructive parallels.

The story itself I did not always find compelling. Scenes seemed missing that could have heightened tension and helped to a clearer understanding of the characters. But it’s definitely worth the read for followers of John the Lord Chamberlain or those interested in the collapse of Rome.

Ann Chamberlin

9TH CENTURY

CONRAD MONK AND THE GREAT HEATHEN ARMY

Edoardo Albert, Endeavour Quill, 2018, £7.99, pb, 208pp, 9781911445609

Following in the tradition of unreliable and unpleasant narrators such as Flashman, the main character, the Conrad of the title, is a thoroughly unashamedly self-serving and selfish man. To a reader accustomed to more heroic characters, or at least those who try to give a good impression of themselves and a positive spin on their actions, Conrad is certainly unusual.

The reader expects him to reveal a nicer side at the last minute, particularly in his treatment of his sidekick, the sweet, innocent and very naïve Brother Odo who accompanies Conrad through the trials and tribulations of being captured by the Danes, among other adventures.

It doesn’t happen. Although a monk, Conrad makes no attempt to follow the precepts of religion, although he is not averse to “becoming” a bishop if the Lord gives him an opportunity to take advantage of.

This is a picaresque romp through the Daneravished countryside and is entertaining, memorable and often very funny. Despite the tongue-in-cheek nature of the story at times, the author conveys the atmosphere and dangers of the time, and the book is true to the historical background in many ways. A pleasant and amusing alternative to the more

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usual serious weighty historical epics written about this era.

Ann Northfield

SAINT MICHAEL’S SWORD: Tip of the Blade

Cris Harding, All Things That Matter Press, 2018, $16.99, pb, 254pp, 9780999524398

Saint Michael’s Sword: Tip of the Blade by Cris Harding is set in 9th-century France during an era undergoing tumultuous change with the decline of Charlemagne’s empire and the upheaval of Viking invasions. The tale begins when Brother Anatole listens to the confession of Madelyn, an insane woman haunted with images of Satan fighting for her soul. To heal and find grace with God, she must unburden herself of the past. A quote that best describes Madelyn’s story is: “Destiny is a river we voyage.

Once choices are made, our fortunes depend on the ability to survive dangerous waters and which fork we follow when the river divides.”

Madelyn’s confession begins with the family history of her Christian father and druidic mother, who fall madly in love with each other and marry. We follow Madelyn from childhood to coming of age when she wrestles with her romantic feelings for an orphan raised by the Friars, whom she promises to wed. However, her destiny takes a fork when she is forced to marry an older man, and she faces the terror of Viking plundering.

Cris Harding’s narrative style is poetic, like a bard retelling a tragic story from the Middle Ages. Although the book cover depicts a whimsical childhood tale, the elements of the story are darker with adult themes. The strife caused by the different religious beliefs and rituals between the pagans and Christians are explored through Madelyn’s experiences.

Historical fiction readers interested in the conflicting cultures and tragic tales from the medieval period will find this novel fascinating and unique.

Linnea Tanner

11TH CENTURY THE CUP

Melissa Addey, Letterpress, 2018, $5.99, pb, 123pp, 9781910940457

Hela, a perceptive girl trained to be a healer in the 11th-century North African city of Kairouan, is given a red wooden cup with mysterious power. After she uses it to mix a love elixir to attract a boy she fancies, he dies, and she pledges herself to help his sister, Djalila, flee her father’s house. What then unfolds through Hela’s reminiscence in Melissa Addey’s prequel novella The Cup is a spare, lyrical rendering of the tangle of intense relationships she arranges, which are marked by her own ambivalence about the cup, Djalila’s pain, and only fleeting snatches of happiness for anyone.

Addey evokes her setting in key details of a few words. Confining her story to the households of a few of the city’s more prominent merchants, she is able to delve deep into the

interior worlds of her characters without having to describe Kairouan itself in anything but the most general terms: the city in The Cup is its souks and slave market. Given this focus, Hela is not the most reliable of narrators, caught as she is in self-recrimination. It’s a vivid and illuminating perspective, but can be repetitive through the novella’s middle acts.

Overall, Addey handles her narrative pacing well, ultimately moving across two decades of Hela’s early life. As either a standalone work or a reader’s first stop before Addey’s trilogy on the medieval Maghreb, The Cup provides a rare chance to see into the hopes, flaws, and compromises of people brushed over in most Western history books.

Irene Colthurst

12TH CENTURY

THE GREENEST BRANCH

P.K. Adams, Iron Knight Press, 2017, £8.99, pb, 308pp, 9781732361119

Thisisawell-written,impressiveimaginingof the early years of Hildegard von Bermersheim, later von Bingen, about whose formative years as a young nun very little is known. While P.K. Adams takes full advantage of this to freely imagine the challenges Hildegard was confronted with and the choices she had to make, her suppositions are firmly grounded in a well-researched medieval world, referencing the ongoing conflicts between the Empire and the Papacy, the different movements in the monastic world, and the situation of women forced to choose between ‘Eve’s lot’ (i.e., childbearing) or monastic chastity in a patriarchal society. This is all described without any hint of presentism, which makes it easy for readers to immerse themselves in this world.

I enjoyed the lyrical descriptions of the Rhineland landscape, but Ms Adams does not ignore the sometimes desperate situation of its inhabitants—this world is no superficial picture-postcard, but has real depth. The Greenest Branch sheds light on a little-known time and place and, although not a mystery story, has much that will appeal to lovers of Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael. It brings to life one of the greatest women of the Middle Ages whose thoughts and music still speak to us today. The tone of the first-person narrative by an older Hildegard is more contemplative than passionate and includes the occasional hint at future renown. I look forward to reading the conclusion of Hildegard’s story as told by Ms Adams.

Catherine Kullmann

SWORDS OF THE KING

Charlene Newcomb, Charlene Newcomb, 2018, $13.99, ebook, 447pp, B07CG3KWK3

In 1196 in England, King Richard I, the Lionheart, has his eyes focused in several directions. The first is to watch his brother John carefully, as John had tried to take over the kingdom while Richard was on Crusade and was then imprisoned. John has repented, but Richard cannot trust him again; John is

always spying on Richard, waiting for the right moment to reassume control of the kingdom.

From another side, his former sister-in-law, Constance, has been kidnapped by her estranged husband. The goal is to capture her son, Duke Arthur. Richard wants to see if Arthur has the stuff to be shaped into a king, and he especially wants to keep him from King Louis of France. Louis knows that if he captures Arthur, he will see former French lands restored. All of this particularly involves two knights, Henry de Grey and Stephan l’Aigle, who are loyal to Richard but are keeping their love secret; they are also loyal to Duke Arthur for all the right reasons, rather than those of jealous kings.

Third in the Battle Scars series, Swords of the King is a novel with plenty of explicit sex and battling with enemies. Every scene contributes to its depiction of the turbulent years of King Richard. Although Richard’s mother, Eleanor (of Aquitaine), had been imprisoned by Henry II for many years, she still wields considerable influence. Loyalty and love forge unbreakable bonds between Henry and Stephan and their service to the King, despite challenges from every corner and a heart-wrenching ending.

Swords of the King is well-researched, complex and enjoyable historical fiction!

Viviane Crystal

14TH CENTURY

THE TURN OF MIDNIGHT

Minette Walters, Allen & Unwin, 2018, £18.99, hb, 448pp, 9781760632168 / MIRA, 2019, $27.99, hb, 464pp, 9780778308836

The sequel to Minette Walters’ thrilling and suspenseful The Last Hours proves a wonderful conclusion to her enthralling tale of a Dorset village and its people during the Black Death. Walters made her first foray into historical fiction with her tale of Lady Anne and her people, and in this second volume she continues the tale as the people of Develish face the winter of 1348 and spring of 1349 with dwindling stores. Lady Anne has sent Thaddeus in search of food and information, along with a group of young men from the village, and together they have come up with a plan that could help to ensure a safe and prosperous future for the demesne and its people. But they have an enemy in their midst, and they will have to outwit him if their plan is to work.

Walters paints a compelling portrait of medieval life and its structures as the devastation of the plague takes hold and throws the social order into disarray. Despite a growing cast of characters and a complex plot, the pace never flags. The time the author puts into developing the variety of minor characters only serves to enrich the overall narrative, making a compelling and enthralling read. A must for fans of Kate Mosse, C.J. Sansom, and Sarah Dunant.

Lisa Redmond

15TH CENTURY

FORTUNE’S LAMENT

John D. Cressler, Milford House, 2018, $19.95/ C$24.95, pb, 576pp, 9781620063729

Set during the twilight days of Muslim Spain, this tale begins in 1488 CE; I’m immediately concerned that no nod is given to the Islamic calendar, not in character’s minds, nor in Eid celebrations. We have all the characters we would hope for: Ferdinand and Isabella, inquisitors, Christopher Columbus, Boabdil, lots of battles, masterful Grenadian physicians, a love story. The threads play out pretty much as you would expect: lovers meet; the course of true love does not run smooth. Young woman (fictional) faces prejudice but excels in a man’s world, in this case medicine. The glories of Islamic medicine are well elucidated; traditional magic, not so well. Militarized religion starts Reconquista; each side wins a few, loses a few, and rapidly evolving weaponry is smuggled, experimented with, used with devastating effect.

The unexpected comes when, after 576 pages, we learn that all is to be continued in the next installment; our plotlines do not reach satisfying conclusions.

Page breaks are erratic. Sometimes we get a heading listing time and place, sometimes a hiatus symbol. Sometimes just a space. It doesn’t help, especially with so many pointof-view characters, to start a new section with “he” or “she” without a name. Historical authors should eschew email punctuation for historicals set before the year 2000 CE: Periods. After. Every. Word. ALL CAPS. Also, recent American colloquialisms like “cute.”

The scene where Isabel’s Jewish councilors wonder if Columbus is a secret Jew was a highlight; more would help.

We are told that Andalusian culture is heavy on the protocol, never shown. Sufiism is really insulted by dumbing it down to—sex? And I was given no understanding as to how our fictitious hero and heroine can find “Great Love” in one furtive glance while the sultan’s love for his nimble concubine doesn’t rate.

Ann Chamberlin

ANNE AND LOUIS

Rozsa Gaston, Renaissance Editions, 2018, $2.99, ebook, 315pp, B07GZY6K9X

This second in a trilogy on the life of Anne of Brittany covers 1498-1500, years in which Anne loses her husband Charles VIII, King of France; marries Louis XII, the next King of France; and schemes to keep independent control over her inheritance, the duchy of Brittany. The book bristles with research, but its main interest lies in the romance between two powerful royals. Anne is a beautiful, proud, self-possessed woman driven to be an admired ruler; her one difficulty is in having children. For all her pregnancies, Anne in this book bears only one living child, whom she intends to inherit Brittany. Louis is a slightly more engaging character, with foibles and flaws; he puts aside his first wife, Jeanne of

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France, to pursue Anne, then turns from her to ambitious plans of conquest in Italy.

While Anne sees that her world is evolving from the feudal hierarchies of medieval Europe to the mercantile economies of the Renaissance, international politics and the burdens of rule occupy her less than the domestic concerns of child-bearing, training her ladies, and keeping her husband in line.

Other characters are similarly absorbed with their love lives, including Anne’s assorted ladies-in-waiting, who learn courtly love from the provocative poetry of Marie de France and Christine de Pizan. The history of Brittany is particularly well rendered, and fans of the period will appreciate the guest appearances by Niccolò Machiavelli, Cesare Borgia, and the famed unicorn tapestries now at the Metropolitan Museum of New York. The characters and their dialogue can feel as stiff and ornamented as a heavy court gown in places, but the abundance of detail animates this unique and engaging time, and it’s a treat to see a historical woman brought so richly to life.

Misty Urban

16TH CENTURY LADY IN ERMINE

Donna DiGiuseppe, Bagwyn, 2018, $19.95, pb, 375pp, 9780866988216

What reader could not fall in love with a heroine—a female Renaissance painter, no less—as she strives to preserve the artistic integrity and honesty of her work? In her debut biographical novel, Donna DiGiuseppe features the travails of the fascinatingly prodigious Sofonisba Anguissola, a portraitist praised by Leonardo and Vasari, who rose from obscure beginnings in Cremona, Lombardy to portray King Phillip II, his wife, and other notorious personages of her 16thcentury world. The story shines especially bright and warm in the first half, as we get to know Sofi, called so lovingly by her family, struggling to pursue her calling in the home of a doting father, who educates his daughter and promotes her genius regardless of the contemporary disregard for female creativity.

The plot turns menacing when Sofonisba joins the Spanish court as lady-in-waiting to Queen Isabella and makes an enemy of the Cardinal of Burgos, who threatens to ruin her reputation and to cut short her career before it has begun.

Through her strength of character, Sofonisba prevails and eventually returns to Italy, where she marries and dies in her eighties, the art world of Europe and an adoring Anthony van Dyck at her feet.

Lady in Ermine is an ambitious work of literature, spanning seven decades and various countries. It includes a cast of characters, an author’s note, historical research, and, conveniently, a list of paintings referenced in the story, enabling the reader visually to celebrate Sofonisba’s oeuvre. The second half of the 20

book would have benefited from more editorial attention, but the overall reading experience is both satisfactory and illuminating.

Elisabeth Lenckos

THE CHEF’S SECRET

Crystal King, Atria, 2019, $28.99/C$37.00, hb, 284pp, 9781501196430

Renaissance Italy, 1577. Bartolomeo Scappi has died. The famed chef of several popes and orchestrator of the most lavish banquets known to Rome, Scappi has left his fortune to his protégé and nephew, Giovanni. Stunned, Giovanni soon finds his uncle’s journals.

Written in cypher, Giovanni painstakingly works to unlock the code of Scappi’s past.

As he does, he learns soul-shattering secrets about the man he thought he knew—secrets which could jeopardize Giovanni’s future if discovered by the wrong people. All the while, there are men who plot to steal Scappi’s famed recipes and will stop at nothing to get them.

Unlike King’s first novel, Feast of Sorrow, in which somewhat unlikeable characters are trying to make up for the mistakes of their pasts, this book dishes out the opposite character issues. These characters, instead of learning from their mistakes, keep committing them.

They are then forced to take drastic steps to keep their secrets safe, making the characters less likeable as the story progresses.

Plot-wise, King twists in romance, mystery, cultural richness, and some zesty research.

Scappi’s secrets are unveiled at a pace that simmers with intrigue. The romance is quite steamy. Mixed together with decadent banquets and sweeping historical detail, King has a recipe that entices the senses.

While I didn’t connect with a few characters, Giovanni’s world is vibrant in both visual and flavorful detail.

J. Lynn Else

THE GOLDEN LYNX

C. P. Lesley, Five Directions, 2018, $16.99, pb, 400pp, 9781947044203

In 1534 Russia, Nasan, the 16-year-old daughter of a Tatar khan, witnesses the vendetta murder of her brother, only to be married into the rival family to end the feud.

Baptized with the new name Irina, Nasan must convert to Orthodox Christianity and take on traditional wifely roles in her Russian husband’s family home in Moscow. But in private she does not leave behind her traditions, including a religion that seamlessly blends Islam and tribal ancestor observances.

Her new husband, Daniil, takes off the day after the wedding to investigate his own brother’s role in Nasan’s brother’s death. He wants to talk to the reported witness to the murder, not realizing that that person is his wife. Meanwhile, Nasan must navigate the complex relationships of her new extended family and surroundings on her own. Skillful with a bow and used to bucking expectations, she slips out at night and takes on the Zorrotype role of the Golden Lynx, helping the

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common people and victims of crime. As a plot thickens to undermine the regent of Russia, Nasan learns information on her night rambles that concerns both her own family and the country’s rulers.

Cultural clashes between Russian and Tatar on matters of religion, family, women’s roles, and food provide a rich background for the storylines. There’s a bit of tension between genres of romance, adventure, political intrigue, and the almost mythological sense that introduces the book. In addition, Nasan’s quick attachment to her husband and her almost immediate jealousy and anxiety about him leaving seem a little too convenient for the plot, as is her success as the Golden Lynx.

Nonetheless, it’s a good read with compelling main characters and a lively story.

While this book is the first in a series, it does very well as a standalone.

Martha Hoffman

THE INQUISITOR’S NIECE

Erika Rummel, D.X. Varos, 2018, $17.95, pb, 384pp, 9781941072424

Alonso Malki is a convert to Christianity whose father has been condemned by the Inquisition for relapsing into Judaism. Fearful that his father’s sentence will ruin his career, as well as bring the attention of the authorities to his own studies, he leaves Seville to go directly into the lion’s den and petition Cardinal Cisneros.

Luisa, the daughter of a minor noble and Cisneros’s cousin, is being married off to one of the Cardinal’s protégés, an illegitimately born scholar. She initially admires her husband’s eloquent writing, but their marriage is doomed by his hidden desires. When Luisa falls into melancholy, she is visited by the learned doctor Alonso, and promptly falls in love.

The back cover description presents the story as lovers pitted against the obstacles— and never mind that the title character is the Inquisitor’s cousin rather than niece and that the book presents him primarily as a statesman and patron of literature—but in fact the novel doesn’t seem to know whether it is romance or political intrigue or possibly an exploration of the early 16th-century literary scene. Major themes and figures of this fascinating era are reduced to type, including prophetic dreams, a self-flagellating priest, and an isolated Queen Juana the Mad licking herself in imitation of her beloved cats.

While readers may care about the characters in a generic way, it’s hard to get inside their experiences. The major actors do all have one thing in common, however: each one is vulnerable to blackmail. Enter Natale, a disgruntled Franciscan who serves as an informer for the Inquisition but plays every bit of knowledge he has to his own advantage.

The main themes of the book turn out to be guilt, betrayal, fear, and suspicion under the shadow of the Inquisition.

Martha Hoffman

BY SWORD AND STORM

Margaret Skea, Sanderling, 2018, £10.99, hb, 528pp, 9780993333187

This is the third volume in the Munro series, set in 1598, with many strands featuring the exiled Munros now living in France, and the feuding Montgomeries and Cunninghames in Scotland. When Adam Munro, now a Scots Garde, saves Henri IV from an assassination attempt, the Munro family is invited to Paris, where Kate becomes friendly with Henri’s mistress Gabrielle, and Maggie Munro begins to study medicine. Young Robbie, also in the Scots Gardes, has both financial problems due to a crooked gambler and an impecunious friend, and romantic ones when he meets a young Protestant girl. Protestants are forbidden to practise their religion in Paris.

In Scotland Hugh Montgomerie and William Cunninghame clash.

It is always a dilemma in a sequel of how much to explain for new readers about what happened previously, and the relationships between characters, while not boring those who have read the earlier books. As someone not familiar with these, I found the many unexplained references to people or events, throughout the novel, irritating and not always comprehensible, especially as the events in the earlier volumes had importance now. I had the impression it was rather a continuation instead of a separate story. I was grateful for the lists of characters, frequently consulted.

The novel is well written, the language poetic at times, and the several strands woven in seamlessly, but I do recommend readers who have not done so to read the earlier volumes before this one.

Marina Oliver

KATHARINA: Deliverance

Margaret Skea, Sanderling, 2017, £9.99, pb, 372pp, 9780993333149

This is an engrossing tale about the life of Katharina von Bora, the wife of Martin Luther, the controversial priest who defied the authority of the Catholic Church and sought to reform Christian religious practice as his contemporaries knew it. We begin with fiveyear-old Katharina, who is thrust mercilessly into a convent because of her father’s remarriage. From the start, Skea encourages sympathy for Katharina as she quickly learns to adapt from being an energetic young girl to a woman aware of the changing religious scene of Germany and beyond, begun by Martin Luther’s act of nailing his 95 theses in Wittenberg. With an effective plot that focuses on the personal rather than hard facts, the author takes us through the religious events catalysed in Wittenberg with a quick pace, all the while keeping us grounded in Katharina’s thoughts and emotions. Her other characters, both fictional and real, are presented with sensitivity and are the results of clearly meticulous research. This novel brings the German Reformation to life in both an exciting and different way, as we experience the town of Wittenberg and its people, who

are struggling to cope with these religious changes that will impact the rest of the world, for ourselves.

Clare Lehovsky

THE PATH TO SOMERSET

Janet Wertman, Janet Wertman, 2018, $6.99, ebook, 379pp, 9780997133838

The Path to Somerset is the second book in the Seymour Saga. The novel covers the career of Edward Seymour, starting in March 1539, when Queen Jane has been dead for a year and a half and King Henry VIII is considering a foreign bride. Edward, the eldest brother of Queen Jane, must outmaneuver the unfolding schemes of his formidable rivals—the Duke of Norfolk and Stephen Gardiner, the Bishop of Winchester—who want to advance themselves and to return England to Catholic traditions.

Edward, with the aid of his devoted wife, must survive the political upheaval after Chancellor Cromwell is executed for his ill-fated plot for King Henry to marry the German Protestant princess, Anne of Cleves. Edward cleverly plays his hand through two more queens until he brings down Bishop Gardiner and the Duke of Norfolk and becomes the Lord Protector of England upon King Henry’s death.

Author Wertman masterfully weaves the political intrigue of the Tudor court by using the points of view of both Edward Seymour and Bishop Gardiner. Headers highlighting the date and setting before each scene provide a roadmap of tumultuous events during the final days of King Henry’s reign. The narrative is engaging, and characters come to life on the page. Edward is presented in a favorable light as a devoted husband with high ideals.

To ensure his family’s survival and legacy, he must embrace ruthlessness to overcome his foes and to claim victory as the Lord Protector to guide his young nephew, King Edward, until his adulthood.

Readers interested in political machinations during the Tudor dynasty will find the novel engaging from the perspectives of two rivals.

Highly recommended.

Linnea Tanner

17TH CENTURY

A LIGHT OF HER OWN

Carrie Callaghan, Amberjack, 2018, $24.99/ C$27.99, hb, 306pp, 9781944995898

Although we associate Holland as the land of master painters Rembrandt and Vermeer, few people realize that women of that day were discouraged to become artists. This absorbing novel centers around two such would-be painters—Judith Leyster and Maria de Grebber.

While the author admits to some historical embellishments, the story is well-plotted, and all the characters are very believable. Judith has been apprenticed to Frans de Grebber’s workshop in Haarlem in the early 1600s. At the workshop, she meets Maria, the master’s daughter. The two young women begin a

friendship and share their aspirations of becoming master painters.

But the Dutch world of the early 1600s means that unless an artist is invited to join the art guild, one cannot sell their own paintings.

Competition is stiff, and the male painters are not thrilled that Judith has been able to join. Complications and treachery arise when the town’s supply of linseed oil, critical to all the artists for mixing their paints, suddenly vanishes. It will be Judith and her brother Abraham who finally solve the mystery, but not before tragedy strikes.

I enjoyed learning about the painters of 17th-century Holland, and the historical details of how oil paints were mixed and applied.

However, I did feel at times that the pace of the story slowed a bit when Maria’s story was interspersed in the plot.

Linda Harris Sittig

BLOOD’S REVOLUTION

Angus Donald, Zaffre, 2018, £20.00, hb, 362pp, 9781785764042

Set in the turbulent years of the 1680s, Blood’s Revolution follows Holcroft Blood, a brilliant gunnery officer in His Majesty’s Ordnance, as he negotiates the shifting loyalties of battlefields, spies, treason, rebellion and religious controversy.

Returned from France, where he had spied for the English, at the start of the book Blood is a gunnery officer based in the Tower of London, called upon to play a significant role at the battle of Sedgemoor. His past cannot entirely escape him, however, and in investigating what seems to be a case of simple theft, he discovers an intricate web of French spies, organised crime and Papist plots to affect the succession (fans of royal mythology will be glad to know that the story of the ‘baby in the bed-pan’ makes an appearance).

Flitting between the seedy “Liberty of the Savoy”, the royal court, and gore-drenched battlefields, Donald’s writing is never less than atmospheric. Blood is an unusual, yet engaging protagonist, and the novel also contains an entertaining cast of secondary characters, including a military Bishop, a whole series of villainous foes (a mysterious French spy, the King of the London underworld and a grudge-bearing senior officer) and a loud, yet charming, love interest.

Blood’s Rebellion is an enjoyable adventure of a book.

Charlotte Wightwick

THE JACOBITE’S WIFE

Morag Edwards, Hookline, 2018, $14.99/£8.99, pb, 214pp, 9780995623569

This absorbing debut creates a fictional biography for the legendary Countess of Nithsdale (c.1680-1749), best known for helping her husband, accused Jacobite sympathizer William Maxwell, escape execution in the Tower of London. Born to a high-ranking Catholic family, Winifred Herbert sees her mother, father, and brother

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all thrown in the Tower before she escapes to a sheltered and pampered life of leisure at the court of the exiled James II and Mary Beatrice at Saint-Germain-en-Laye in France.

When she marries the young and charming Earl of Nithsdale and runs away with him to Scotland, Winifred matures quickly through the challenges of being a new mother, manager and farmhand, and wife of a frivolous spendthrift more dedicated to political causes than his struggling estate.

Edwards adeptly frames the political tumult following the Glorious Revolution, portraying the hostility and suspicion toward Catholics, the secret veins of Jacobite rebellion, and the brutal violence of the righteous mobs that more than once attack Winifred’s home. Though as a girl she is surprisingly immature and as a matron interested in little beyond her husband and pregnancies, Edwards’ heroine emerges as a practical, principled woman learning self-reliance and strength, and her audacious rescue of her husband provides a sequence of thrilling suspense. After her triumph, it’s almost a disappointment that the book ends without following this remarkable woman to the end of her life. Though the characters are somewhat transparent—Winifred’s family seem onedimensional, and her lifelong handmaiden, Grace, has no inner life the reader can see—Edwards’ prose is sharp and clean, the dialogue very often pitch-perfect, and the descriptions of physical settings float off the page. This is an impressive, lively narrative of a memorable woman who, aside from her one daring exploit, is lamentably little-known.

Misty Urban

CRADLE

James Jackson, Zaffre, 2017, £7.99, pb, 288pp, 9781785761195

It is 1607, and King James I of England is courting favour with the Spanish king, Philip III, to avoid another war. However, King James’s son Henry is more adventurous and supports the establishment of a permanent colony in North America against the Spanish king’s wishes. The king’s spymaster, the dwarf hunchback Robert Cecil, conspires with the Spanish ambassador to destroy Henry’s plans.

Christian Hardy is an intelligence officer working for Prince Henry. He served the Crown under the reign of Queen Elizabeth and thwarted a Spanish-backed murder attempt against her by his arch-enemy, Realm, an Englishman working for the Spanish king.

Hardy pitted his wits against Realm again when he uncovered the Gunpowder Plot.

The new intrigue begins in the dark alleys of London as the Spanish ambassador sends his assassins to kill Hardy before he can leave for America. Hardy survives this and further cloakand-dagger encounters.

Hardy sails for America with the settlers, but is followed by Realm, whose task is to destroy the colony. They both employ the Native Americans to achieve their ends, but the struggle is a bloody one, and famine is never far away as they try to gain a foothold in the new 22

lands. John Smith is President of the colony for a while, and his relationship with the natives, especially the chief’s daughter Pocahontas, is a help for the settlers, but the battle for survival becomes a personal vendetta between the two agents as they wrestle for supremacy.

Cradle is a gripping story set in the horrific, but true, conditions endured by the first English settlers in America. The outcome, though known, is never taken for granted, and the intrigue is set as much in the corridors of Westminster as in the pine forests of Virginia.

Alan Pearson

THE OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE OF ABEL MORGAN

Cynthia Jeffries, Allison & Busby, 2018, £19.99/$25.00, hb, 350pp, 9780749023294

The book opens with Abel’s mother lying dead in childbirth. Half-mad with grief, his father Christopher takes what he believes is the baby’s corpse to an inn he’s bought to provide a home for his young family. To everyone’s surprise, the boy lives – but Christopher finds himself in conflict with the local smuggler chief, and young Abel is kidnapped…

Moving between 17th-century rustic Cornwall, the slave culture of Constantinople, and pirate-infested Jamaica, this is a rollicking tale in two parts. We follow the separate lives of both Christopher and Abel, both of whom are gripping, engaging characters, with plenty going on to entertain us. Beautifully set in the last years of the Stuarts, with descriptions redolent of the exotic and familiar locations, Cynthia Jeffries’ first adult novel shows all the skill in story-telling that has made her name in children’s literature. Particularly in the boyto-adult journey of Abel she gives us a depth of character development and cracking pace that sucks the reader right in. It’s not until the very last page that Abel, by now a man at the height of his chosen career and with a son of his own, manages that last, unusual step to fully realised adulthood. I enjoyed this book very much, and am going to re-read it to see if I can spot the story-telling skills that make it so smooth. Thoroughly recommended.

Nicky Moxey

CANTICLE

Liz McSkeane, Turas Press, 2018, €15.00/£13.00, pb, 311pp, 9780995791633

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In 17th-century Spain, Fray Martin de Sepulveda is living in relative obscurity after a scandal nearly brought him unwanted attention from the Inquisition. Now, the Dominican friar and former University of

Salamanca professor has been tasked with the job of investigating the life of San Juan de la Cruz (Saint John of the Cross), the 16th-century visionary and mystic. Fray Martin is expected to carry out his task in utmost secrecy, which is reinforced when Inquisition officials begin to take interest in his findings. Fray Martin begins to understand that his role is not simply to research the life of San Juan, but to uncover hidden secrets that go back centuries, winding a tangled web of carefully constructed propaganda and lies that threaten the very foundation of Fray Martin’s beliefs.

I cannot believe Canticle is a debut novel.

It is stunning! The characters, every one of them, have depth and life. The scenery and descriptions jump off the page and create a synthesis of Renaissance life that is so vivid that coming back to 21st-century life is jarring. The central theme of what truth is, both in politics and within the Church, remains so relevant today that this is a difficult novel to put down, though it is not a quick read. The complexity of the politics involved, the careful layering of the plot and the unfolding events, make this a novel that you will want to savor, not rip through in one or two sittings. Interestingly, though the setting and times are different, I was often reminded while reading of Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, in part because of the intricate ways the plot twists around itself, and partly because of the beauty of McSkeane’s prose. Quite simply, she writes beautiful words.

Very highly recommended.

Kristen McQuinn

SOUTHERN RAIN

Harry Miller, Earnshaw, 2019, C$24.99, pb, 284pp, 9789888273379

$18.99/

“Then we take both of them/And break them into pieces/And mix the pieces with water/And mold again a figure of you/And a figure of me/I am in your clay/You are in my clay.” Readers are told that Nanyu, the male protagonist, delivered these lyrics with neither melodrama, pathos nor romance.

This novel tells the story of two seekers of wisdominthephilosophies ofmen like Confucius and Mencius, believers in compassion, loyalty and justice. Seventeenth-century China is a time of turmoil and revolution, when the continuity of tradition is roaring toward change. The injustices of courtly ministers meet the rage of the lower classes. At this time, Ouyang Nanyu, a carpenter’s son, seeks his own intellectual destiny. He falls in love with a Buddhist nun, Daosheng, who possesses profound wisdom and a lofty intelligence. As they travel away from the capital of Nanjing after it is overthrown by the Manchus from the North, they meet many rebel leaders who are suspiciously cautious about leadership, and other leaders, like Wei Su, who are implacably corrupt.

Southern Rain is an action-packed novel of battles, escapes from enemies, and scenes of peoples’ vigilante justice. But it is also replete with numerous scenes in which philosophy and poetry are shared, contemplated, and

celebrated. There is a curious consideration shown but not explained, that of the attachment and detachment that the two main characters practice when appropriate.

The ability to completely listen and speak from a contemplative stance bears attention and results in readers’ awe and respect, even if the outcome of each scene is not what readers wants. Southern Rain is truly wonderful historical fiction!

Viviane Crystal

MRS. COX

Jan Moore, narrated by Jilly Bond, Audible Studios, 2019, $14.99/£14.99, digital audiobook, 9781721372041

Tensions over the failed gunpowder plot of 1605 are still fresh in the minds of the people of London. So when an elderly woman is discovered murdered in her home, one rumored to have a hidden fortune stashed away, her friends are determined that her death will not be brushed aside as an accident. Quickly, heat rises against wealthy businessmen, so a rumor is concocted about a runaway stranger who stole from the dead woman. As women who fit the description are brought forth, the friends, led by Mrs. Cox, are determined to root out the real culprit and not let innocent women hang to protect scheming men hiding behind their wealth.

The reader, Jilly Bond, is extremely talented.

She is one of the best audible narrators I’ve heard who can do believable female and male voices. Though there were a few accents that were difficult to understand, overall, I was impressed. Her vocal cadence, along with a historically potent dialogue, helps the time period and locale come to life.

Unfortunately, the plot is immensely and unnecessarily dense. It is easy to get lost, particularly with the circular use of time. For example, a character in the present would think about a past incident and suddenly would be reliving that specific event, without noticeable transition. It happens so often, past and present written interchangeably, that for a long while the plot progression is deadlocked. Many scenes are unnecessary and forgettable, and the narrative is filled with a multitude of character tropes. Additionally, the main women are unfriendly, stubborn, and often fight against each other. By the end of the story, while the author is trying to illustrate the amount of influence women could effect in this time, it isn’t a substantial and satisfying moment, as it is surrounded by too many superfluous plot devices.

J. Lynn Else

BLACK LILY

Philippa Stockley, Pimpernel Press, 2018, $14.95/£8.99, pb, 240pp, 9781910258095

Black Lily is the tale of Zenobia, born into poverty but who married into wealth, and Lily, who was brought to London from the Caribbean on a sugar and slave ship as a toy

for a rich lord. Their lives intertwine in intricate, often horrific, ways, and each woman has to discover how to help herself when her value is entirely decided by the men who control them.

Lily is a driving force throughout Zenobia’s entire adult life in ways she never understands.

Another woman, Lily’s maidservant, Agatha, is yet another link between the three women, forging connections and bonds that will be strong enough to keep the darkest secrets they all hide from society and the men around them.

Set in the late 17th century, this novel has a lot of great potential. It started out really strong, with an outbreak of the plague, which is always a good hook for me. However, the novel frequently jumps between times, going from Zenobia’s earlier childhood to her married adult life, with no indication as to when this happens, such as giving a date with a chapter heading. It was quite difficult to keep track of the times, as well as shifting points of view, since this also changes from Zenobia to Lily. It takes a moment to figure out who is speaking at times because, for as different as their lives have been, Lily and Zenobia have very similar voices. However, the plot and how their lives continue intertwining with one another are truly intriguing. It shows how small the world is and how much our lives connect with others’, whether we like it or not. Though it was a bit disjointed, I would recommend this for readers who enjoy strong women surviving in a world that is very much biased against them.

Kristen McQuinn

A FAR HORIZON

Brenda Rickman Vantrease, House, 2019, $28.99/£20.99, hb, 9780727888402

Severn 256pp,

This is the sequel to Vantrease’s The Queen’s Promise, a narrative of King Charles I, Queen Henrietta Maria, and the English Civil War. Readers who have not read the first volume will find that Vantrease begins this volume very much in media res; most of the main characters are suspended between the losses they have suffered so far and their determination to survive the disasters to come. The feeling of regrouping, unfortunately, carries through most of the novel, as the large cast of pointof-view characters waits, quite literally, for the axe to fall. The impending demise of England’s monarchy eliminates any kind of suspense in the plots that concern the Queen or her children’s loyal protector, Lucy Hay, the brave and passionate Countess of Carlisle. The only characters with choices to make are her fictional ones, James Whittier and Caroline Pendleton, a dashing gambler-turned-printer and a determined street vendor-turned-titled widow, whose affection for each other is obvious to everyone except Caroline.

Vantrease, while a master at evoking the everyday challenges of living in war-torn London, is less adept at romantic tension, and unfortunately, there’s little else to give this narrative any kind of forward motion. The

military and political turmoil of the 1640s was astounding, but in this novel it only serves as a muted backdrop to the wary courtship of two frustratingly reserved lovers.

Kristen McDermott

18TH CENTURY THE BLUE

Nancy Bilyeau, Endeavour Quill, 2018, $15.50/£7.99, pb, 448pp, 9781911445623

Genevieve Planché, granddaughter of French Huguenots, desperately wants to escape her stifling existence in Spitalfields to be a “history painter” in the fashion of Reynolds and Hogarth. In 18thcentury England, however, the likelihood of that eventuality is virtually nil because she is a woman. Perhaps in Venice?

W h e n Genevieve meets Sir Gabriel Courtenay, he makes her an offer that she can’t refuse: in trade for Courtenay’s underwriting of her escape from England, she must go undercover to learn how a new color blue is being developed for use on porcelain.

As mundane as that may sound, the reality is that, in a world where Sèvres porcelain rules and Derby porcelain is vying for that ethereal color blue, nothing is taken for granted, particularly when France and England are at war.

As distasteful as it is for Genevieve to spy, she is quite successful. Her work as an artist at the Derby Porcelain Works is also admirable.

Yet she recognizes her mission as a means to an end and quickly locates chemist Thomas Sturbridge—but he is not merely brilliant at color creation. At a chance encounter, Genevieve and Thomas immediately find a physical chemistry that evolves into much more.

Bilyeau takes us on a rollercoaster ride through the history of porcelain making and through the world of 18th-century French and British espionage. On that ride, we meet Madame Pompadour at Versailles, walk the halls of the British Museum, and stroll the streets of 18th-century London. On that journey, too, Bilyeau introduces us to a memorable cast: Genevieve, who is faced with seemingly impossible choices which test her resolve and her faith; slick and despicable Courtenay; Sturbridge, clever, funny and always with something up his sleeve. Bilyeau’s research is impeccable, taking what might have been a dreary industrial novel and making it into a living, breathing drama.

Kudos and highly recommended!

Ilysa Magnus

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A LAWLESS PLACE

David Donachie, Allison & Busby, 2018, £19.99/$25.00, hb, 318pp, 9780749021702

The sequel to Donachie’s The Contraband Shore (2017), this novel is set in and around Deal (where the author lives) in 1787. Naval captain Edward Brazier is fighting smugglers on the East Kent coast, whilst trying desperately to rescue Betsey Langridge, the woman he loves, from the forced marriage into which she has been tricked by her brother— himself a smuggler. In the characterisation of both Brazier’s loyal band and his quarry, this novel nods respectfully towards Jamaica Inn, in that sometimes some of the outwardly most upstanding members of society are the least honest.

This is a rip-roaring read, thoroughly researched, in which Brazier’s struggles against the odds and against his own misgivings (‘it was common knowledge [that smuggling] supported communities that might otherwise have struggled to exist’) are set against a wider context (a newly-independent America, the slave trade, Britain’s relationship with France). Yet the novel never reads like a history lesson; history is told through the memories of the characters and their shared experiences.

Sometimes idiosyncrasies of sentence structure made for a less smooth read for this reviewer: ‘No one would, of course, tell him, to his face, such a thing’ could instead have been rendered: ‘Of course no one would tell him such a thing to his face’, but the dialogue convinces utterly and is free of anachronisms.

In common with other novels written as part of a series, this one is not quite self-contained; a challenge described early in the book is not fully resolved by the end, so the reader must wait for the next volume.

Katherine Mezzacappa

A BOUND HEART

Laura Frantz, Revell, 2019, $15.99, pb, 416pp, 9780800726645

In 1752, on a small Scottish island, Lark MacLeish lives a stark and simple but comfortable life with her granny. She is a keeper of herbs and bees in the employ of the island’s Laird, with whom she has grown up.

She is also close with another neighbor who becomes a daring smuggling ship’s captain. Several decades after the failed Jacobite rebellion against the English, the past tragically comes back to haunt them all. After a sham trial, all three are found guilty and transported to the new world as indentured servants.

Much more than a simple romance, this superlative novel is not only lavishly written 24

but historically informative. Full of pathos and non-stop excitement, the characters ensnare the reader’s interest, especially the lovable orphaned infant “red-headed stepchild.”

We feel the pain and degradation many indentured experienced on the transportation ships. Convicted of wearing a kilt, the Laird keeps his dignity, and Lark perseveres through it all through faith and pluck. One doesn’t have to be a romance fan to love this book. A splendid and uplifting read.

Thomas J. Howley

THE GENERAL’S COOK

Ramin Ganeshram, Arcade, 2018, $24.99, hb, 336pp, 9781628729771

It’s no mystery why so many historical novels have featured cooks as protagonists – food is one of the most vivid windows into a culture, and culinary artists are granted privileged access to the rich and powerful of their worlds.

The General’s Cook is a worthy entry into this sub-genre. Ganeshram, a celebrated food journalist, has concocted a feast of sensual storytelling in this depiction of Hercules, President George Washington’s chef.

Brilliant, perceptive, ambitious, and passionate, Hercules occupies a fascinating social niche in 18th-century Philadelphia. An African-American slave owned by Washington but granted rare privileges due to his master’s esteem for him, he commands a small army in the kitchen and benefits from lucrative side deals with his food suppliers. The City of Brotherly Love is both a haven and a hell for him, however, surrounded as he is by free people of color, including his lover, a refugee from Sainte-Domingue who is passing as white. When his master moves into his final years, Hercules struggles to secure a future for himself.

Fans of culinary art will adore the detailed descriptions of cookery, all based on historical documents, and there is plenty of drama in Hercules’ attempts to resist his fate by learning to read and making contact with the Philadelphia Abolitionist Society. As the net tightens over Hercules and the fellow slaves he tries to protect, readers will not be able to put down this entertaining adventure.

Kristen McDermott

THE SHAKER MURDERS

Eleanor Kuhns, Severn House, 2019, $28.99/£20.99, hb, 240pp, 9780727888372

Will Rees and his family are hiding in Zion, a Shaker community in Maine, and hoping to find safety, but what Will discovers is a secretive sect and two murders that threaten the security of his family in Kuhns’ sixth Will Rees Murder series. Will, his pregnant wife, Lydia, and their children fled their hometown of Dugard and are in Zion because of an accusation of witchcraft against Lydia, and Will’s own murder charges—from which he cleared his own name (The Devil’s Cold Dish, 2016). Shortly after arriving in Zion, Brother Jabez is found dead in the laundry. Will is certain it was murder, but Elders Solomon and Jonathan push it off as an

REVIEWS | ISSUE 87, February 2019

accident. After Will finds the murder weapon, and a second Shaker—a simple-minded young man—is killed Will is certain that the murderer is one of the Shakers themselves. Complicating matters is the matter of Lydia’s former farm, which the Shaker community believes belongs to them but Will hopes to take for his family.

While this is a murder mystery, what really sets this book apart are the descriptions of daily life and expectations for 18th-century Shakers and their community—including guests that they welcome with open arms, if only because they hope these people will sign the Covenant and join. As in any whodunit, there are plenty of shady characters, from hired farm boys to newcomers to the community up through the elders themselves, all lending to throw Will, and the reader, off course. Though there are many references to previous books, first-time readers to this series will have no trouble jumping in. Ultimately, Kuhns uses the Shaker beliefs to craft an interesting and suspenseful ending to this delightful story.

Bryan Dumas

THE SONG PEDDLER OF THE PONT NEUF

Laura Lebow, Settecento Press, 2018, $17.95, pb, 410pp, 9781732497207

Paul Gastebois, a “confidential inquirer” in Paris of 1788, usually avoids taking on missing person cases. “People in Paris are lost all the time, sometimes on purpose,” he says. Still, he can’t resist the challenge of finding Gaspard Bricon, an elderly man who spent his days singing and selling copies of his songs on the Pont Neuf, the city’s oldest bridge. One of Gaspard’s good friends is worried, and Paul feels touched by his concern. Besides, Paul’s well-paying gig of tailing a rich young Austrian diplomat around Paris for the police is pretty dull, and this new case fires up his curiosity. His search takes him to Gaspard’s lodgings, where a piece of crumpled parchment leads him to assume the song peddler was involved in highlevel political blackmail.

The author’s skillful plotting keeps readers guessing as the mystery expands and transforms during Paul’s investigations through many Parisian neighborhoods. Our detective’s background is equally interesting; his younger sister Aimée is an apprentice seamstress, his brother is a churchman, and Paul had evaded his late father’s plans for him to join the butcher’s trade, preferring a career independent of the guilds (and smelly animal carcasses).

Lebow sets her series opener not in the popular French Revolutionary era but the less familiar time beforehand, and she incorporates the details to good effect. Louis XVI has agreed to convene the Estates General for the first time in over 170 years, and the commoners—who have grown more numerous and prosperous—place their hopes in finance minister Jacques Necker for fair representation and tax reform. Despite some people’s guarded optimism, there’s a fierce underground trade in scurrilous pamphlets, and Paul gets enmeshed

in learning more about that risky business, too. Multifaceted characters, abundant local color, and dashes of wit (one of Paul’s disguises is laugh-out-loud funny) add to the appeal of this diverting mystery.

Sarah Johnson

THE WOLF AND THE WATCHMAN

Niklas Natt och Dag, Atria, 2019, $27.00/ C$35.00, hb, 373pp, 9781501196775 / John Murray, 2019, £12.99, hb, 416pp, 9781473682122

The year is 1793. In Stockholm, Sweden, a body is discovered in Larder Lake.

Cecil Winge, a former prosecuting a t t o r n e y suffering from consumption and living on borrowed time, is called into police headquarters by Police Chief John Norlin to examine an unusual victim. All that remains of the body is the torso and its unidentifiable face. Torture is definitely a possibility. Told to solve this gruesome crime quickly, Winge asks assistance from Jean Mickel Cardell. Crippled in a recent war, Cardell was the watchman who pulled the body from the lake. A large man with one arm, he can provide a little muscle in the search for the killer.

A best-seller in its original publication in Sweden in 2017, this book has now been published world-wide. A dark novel, it draws the reader into the atmosphere of the story: the cold and bleak climate, its unusual characters, the immersive culture and politics of the city of Stockholm. This is a masterpiece of a novel – be prepared for a great reading experience while the plot steadily unravels.

Although clues are discovered throughout the investigation, the reader must wait until the final chapter to discover the cause of this horrific crime.

Jeff Westerhoff

THE SEAMSTRESS

Allison Pittman, Tyndale, 2019, $14.99/ C$20.99, pb, 480pp, 9781414390468 / $25.99, hb, 480pp, 9781496440181

In 1788 in Mouton Blanc in France, 16-yearold Renée and her older cousin Laurette are helping at Émile’s sheep farm and sleeping in the hayloft. Both were recently orphaned and had been taken in by Émile, himself an orphan and widower. Meanwhile, Paris is engulfed in turmoil, and the chaos is spreading into the countryside. Disenchantment with the reigning monarch and the nobility is being felt even in tranquil Mouton Blanc, particularly in its tavern and market. Marcel, a young man-

about-town but a radical at heart, has an eye for both the cousins and occasionally sleeps in the barn.

Renée is a gifted needleworker, and by chance, a lady from Ve r s a i l l e s recognizing Renée’s talent brings her to live in grandeur at the palace as the queen’s seamstress. Renée cannot forget the improvised life led by Laurette and Émile. She devises a scheme to get money out to them, while Marcel marches with the revolutionaries.

Allison Pittman acknowledges that she contrived the plot of this novel while reading A Tale of Two Cities, in which Dickens mentioned a seamstress and her cousin. While the similarity with that novel ends there, this novel is also superb. The harsh life in the quiet French countryside on a sheep farm and in a quaint market town is described vividly, and the magnificent and opulent life in Versailles plays out before our eyes. The readers will feel and care for the well-drawn characters’ struggles and joys as they live out their lives and loves. The factors that led to the French Revolution, particularly the hunger of the peasant population and the unsympathetic treatment by the aristocracy, are skillfully blended into the storyline. Furthermore, the undemanding writing style, using both firstand second-person points of view, makes for a pleasurable read. Highly recommended.

Waheed Rabbani

THE OTHER MISS BRIDGERTON

Julia Quinn, Avon, 2018, $7.99/C$9.99, pb, 400pp, 9780062388209

Summer, 1786, and Poppy Bridgerton is feeling a little bored. Suiters have been disappointingly dull, and her visit with an old friend is a bit tedious. That, however, changes radically when she stumbles across a cave on her walk by the shore.

During the next two months she is kidnapped, not once but twice; and, of course, falls in love with an unexpectedly suitable gentleman. That she falls in love with the handsome captain of the ship in which she is confined comes as no surprise to readers of romance. Not only does he treat her well (under the circumstances), but they soon learn to enjoy one another’s company; and although she does not know it, he is actually her cousin’s brother-in-law, serving his country on a secret mission. The second abduction, at the hands of Portuguese brigands, is, however, much more dangerous.

The scenario, albeit unlikely, does allow the pair to spend more time alone together

than conventions of the era allow, and to learn to appreciate each other’s admirable qualities. Quinn develops their relationship with her trademark wit and humor, though mood darkens in the latter part of the romance, appropriately enough. Strongly recommended.

Ray Thompson

PRESERVATION

Jock Serong, Text Publishing, 2018, A$29.99, pb, 368pp, 9781925773125

In 1797, the ship Sydney Cove is wrecked north of Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania).

Its speculative cargo includes valuable rum.

On board are William Clark, partner in the Calcutta trading house that owns the vessel; John Figge, a tea merchant; and Srinivas, a young lascar. These individuals provide three of the five narrations, the other two being Lieutenant Joshua Grayling and his wife, Charlotte, who relate subsequent events.

Leaving behind the rest of the crew, seventeen men take the ship’s longboat, intending to sail it to Sydney and seek rescue.

Unfortunately, this vessel too is wrecked on the Australian mainland and the men decide to walk, following the coastline. Along the way they are both helped and hindered by their encounters with Aborigines. Only three make it, and Governor Hunter sends Grayling to interrogate them to find out what happened to the others. It is soon apparent that each individual is hiding something. The cruel Figge is not who he says he is; Clark’s written journal may be deliberately veiled; Srinivas is assumed not to speak English, yet is the key witness to what really happened.

All viewpoints flow smoothly, helped by distinguishing icons on each page, plus there are useful maps. The historical detail can’t be faulted, but there are unsettling sadistic and confrontational passages. The dialogue is mostly convincing, except for the exchanges between Charlotte and Srinivas as it is doubtful a young Bengali seafarer of that era would be quite so erudite. Also, some readers may be left with questions at the conclusion and it is recommended they pursue their own research. The author is clearly prepared for any controversy with provisos in his notes: “… some parts of this story are ‘truer’ than others…” and “Perhaps all of this is history, or none of it.”

Marina Maxwell

BLACKBERRY & WILD ROSE

Sonia Velton, Quercus, 2019, £14.99, hb, 400pp, 9781787470750 / Blackstone, 2019, $27.99, hb, 300pp, 9781538507759

This debut novel by Sonia Velton is set in Spitalfields, London, in the late 18th century when the Huguenots had brought the silk industry to England after fleeing from religious persecution in France. Esther Thorel is married to a master silk weaver; she paints and has an ambition to see one of her paintings translated

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into silk, which is the material from which most clothes for the wealthy are made, but harder times are coming. Esther also takes on a young girl called Sarah Kemp as her lady’s maid. In the kitchen, Moll is the kitchen maid, and working on a silk loom at the top of the house is Bisby Lambert, a journeyman silk weaver who wishes to be admitted to the Weavers’ Company. It is around these characters that the novel is written. Life is hard, men rule in every aspect, and women are regarded as worth nothing more than to keep an orderly house and produce the next generation.

The story is based on real people and real events. Esther herself is based on Anna Maria Garthwaite, the foremost designer of silks in London at the time, and many of her designs can still be seen in the Victoria & Albert Museum. The silk riots took place when cheaper Indian calico threatened the trade and men were hanged for taking part in them. The story is well written, and I empathised easily with the women concerned. I knew nothing about this period in our history and found it to be a totally fascinating read. The author’s note at the end is well worth reading before you read the novel itself, as it explains much.

Marilyn Sherlock

OF LOVE AND DUTY

S. R. Whitehead, Ashmount, 2018, £8.99, pb, 382pp, 9780955283567

The Napoleonic period saw many European aristocrats, as expatriates, reduced to living off the hospitality of more prosperous members of their class, moving from court to court in order to avoid the embarrassment of being seen as permanent hangers-on. Such is the unenviable state of Miss Cornelia Knight and her aged but feisty mother. Forced by the French to flee from Rome, they find refuge in the neutral Kingdom of Naples. Here they enjoy the patronage and friendship of British diplomat Sir William Hamilton and suffer under the cruel tongue of his haughty younger wife, Emma.

Cornelia, at forty-one, lives with the likelihood of permanent spinsterhood—that is, until the handsome and noble Neapolitan Admiral Francesco Caracciolo takes a loving interest in her. Larger forces are at work, however, as the conflict between Napoleon and Britain threatens to force Naples to take a strong stand for one side or the other. The situation deteriorates further with the arrival of Admiral Horatio Nelson, fresh from the British victory over the French at the Battle of the Nile.

Nelson begins a scandalous affair with Emma that will put all of Cornelia’s fervent hopes for a future with Francesco in grave jeopardy.

Although the story begins in the fashion of many a romance novel, it grows into something more substantial. Shortage of description at the beginning may give readers a false impression of Cornelia’s age and appearance. Her character comes out more and more, however, as her first-person narrative skillfully reveals 26

strengths, doubts, and regrets that make her a sympathetic and believable protagonist. This is an engaging tale that shows the power of both love and noble character.

Loyd Uglow

19TH CENTURY

WITH THIS PLEDGE

Tamera Alexander, Thomas Nelson, 2019, $16.99, pb, 422pp, 9780718081836

Lizzie Clouston is 28 and a governess on the McGovern estate. Already believing herself an old maid, and desperately wanting children of her own, Lizzie accepts a proposal from her best friend. Despite lacking romantic feelings for him, she is content, until one December day when the Civil War is brought to her doorstep. With very little warning Lizzie goes from governess to surgical assistant, which is when she meets Roland Jones of the Mississippi sharpshooters. About to go under the knife, Roland convinces Lizzie to intervene on his behalf if the doctor tries to take his leg.

Roland is determined to walk again, return to his Mississippi estate, support his female relatives, and uphold the memory of his dead wife. He is a gentleman of upright standing and finds at the end of the day he only wants what is best for Lizzie. Meanwhile, Lizzie has ambitions of her own, including showing the house slaves how to read, and finding the family of a young soldier who died in her arms.

The attraction between Lizzie and Roland is palpable, but so is the tension in their differing views. Between her fiancé, abolitionist views, and determination for a family, could they ever make it work?

With This Pledge is a hard-to-put-down book with relatable characters and plenty of adventures. Roland’s attitude and determination are especially striking. Although the ending seems to abruptly fall together with a major disagreement overlooked, it still leaves the reader satisfied. Overall, With This Pledge is a wonderful read with pages that fly by.

Recommended to anyone who is prepared to spend a weekend glued to its pages.

Alice Cochran

THE LADY TRAVELERS GUIDE TO DECEPTION WITH AN UNLIKELY EARL

Victoria Alexander, HQN, 2018, $7.99/C$9.99, pb, 384pp, 9780373804061

Convinced that Mrs. Gordon’s popular novels based on her adventures in Egypt are total fiction written by someone who has never even been to the country, the Earl of Brenton challenges her to travel there to prove she knows what she is writing about. Unfortunately, the author, Miss Sidney Honeywell, only finds out later that the challenge has been accepted on her behalf by her (honorary) aunts. Yielding to their persuasions and pressure from her

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publisher, she reluctantly agrees to make the trip along with the three elderly aunts and the earl’s nephew. Since she based her novels on her grandmother’s journals and her own diligent studies of Egyptian archeology, she is knowledgeable, but can she deceive the nephew? As readers of Victorian romances might expect, they fall in love, but will their burgeoning relationship survive revelations on both sides?

This is a light-hearted adventure tale of the type popular in the era (Rider Haggard?), but its appeal benefits from the humorous literary subtext: the need for romance novels to heighten an often-pedestrian reality, in order to entertain as well as inspire readers.

Recommended to those who enjoy a playful approach to the genre.

Ray Thompson

THE INVITATION

Belinda Alexandra, Harper Collins Australia, 2018, A$32.99, pb, 416pp, 9780732296452,

Writer and harpist Emma Ducasse was raised by her grandmother in Paris. Her elder sister Caroline is married to American tycoon Oliver Hopper. While Caroline revels in a life of luxury, Emma struggles to make ends meet and is deeply worried about how she will repay her many debts. Caroline has never shown any affection towards her, but when she eventually discovers Emma’s plight she offers her an invitation to travel to New York. In exchange for payment of her debts, Emma must work to improve the prospects of a suitable marriage for Caroline’s daughter, Isadora, after her debut. Although reluctant to leave her lover Claude, Emma feels she has no choice but to accept the offer.

On the ship, Emma makes friends with an artist, Florence, who later introduces her to others helping poorer families at the mercy of the rich landlords like Hopper. Emma is conflicted. A friend warns her: “The more you associate with the fashionable crowd, the more alienated from your soul you will become…” and she also discovers that “here in New York society whether you liked or disliked a person had no meaning. Associations and social events were about power; gaining it or protecting it.”

Caroline’s vile schemes and manipulation are well-handled, and Emma is a likeable character, as is Isadora. The historical background research is thorough, but the excessive detail slows the pace and even risks smothering the true heart of this story. The closing chapters are more energetic as they move towards a rather predictable conclusion.

Readers who can never get enough description of clothes, interiors, balls, and the superficial doings of the idle rich in America’s Gilded Age are going to adore this book; others may wish its empathy hadn’t been swamped by quite so much bling.

Marina Maxwell

THE HUNDRED WELLS OF SALAGA

Ayesha Harruna Attah, Other Press, 2018, $16.99/C$22.99, pb, 231pp, 9781590519950 / Cassava Republic, 2018, £9.99, pb, 234pp, 9781911115519

Near the end of the 19th century, as transatlantic slavery has been essentially abolished, internal slavery persists in Ghana.

Two quite different young Ghanaian women have lives which come to intersect amidst indigenous turmoil and the attempts of competing pre-colonial European powers to establish a presence among the local people. Aminah is happy in the arms of her family and the people of her simple little village. In contrast, Wurche is a princess and daughter of a powerful clan chief. Yet neither of them is destined for anything resembling a tranquil life.

In a terrifying raid in the middle of the night, Aminah’s village is set upon by slavers. Close family members are either killed outright or taken away separately. Wurche is forced to marry another chief, which will reflect well on her father. But internal squabbling among the various clan lines causes Wurche’s life to take a desperate and negative turn. As the story progresses, Wurche gives birth to a baby boy with the delightful name of Wumpini, and the affable Aminah becomes her slave, and ironically, confidant and savior.

I selected this book to review because it’s a narrative of a time, place, and events which are little-known among westerners. The gifted author did not disappoint. I suspect this great little novel reflects the stark reality of daily life that transpired not just in Africa but across the globe for millennia until quite recently.

Horridly, it continues in some areas still.

Wurche’s desire for her people to maintain unity and disdain internal rivalry in the face of threats from outsiders is cautionary still today.

With a style that’s neither pretentious nor preachy, the author is a fabulous storyteller who provides unique insight into fascinating history. Strongly recommended.

Thomas J. Howley

LEGACY OF MERCY

Lynn Austin, Bethany House, 2018, $15.99, pb, 393pp, 9780764217630

When I reviewed Waves of Mercy back in the February 2017 HNR issue, I mentioned the need for a sequel, and Austin has finally granted that wish with Legacy of Mercy. In 1897, Anna Nicholson returns home from Michigan, where she had discovered the circumstances surrounding her adoption, met her biological

Dutch grandmother, Geesje, and found a new faith in God. Anna is meant to now focus on her upcoming wedding to William. However, she remains focused on finding out the fate of her birth mother, hiring Pinkerton agents to get the job done. Anna begins to doubt her future in Chicago, and when she becomes the center of some gossip, she flees back to her grandmother, who can give her good advice.

Meanwhile, Geesje also faces tribulations of her own, helping some immigrants try to find a new life in Michigan, and becoming enmeshed in their drama.

I’m glad Austin finished the story, but I am also a tad disappointed. Anna does not have the usual character development that Austin is so good at; instead a severe illness changes her situation and solves her problems for her. The budding romance that began in the first book, too, is a bit softened here, and readers don’t get the full swell of love between Derk and Anna. The ending is also a little abrupt, with everything coming a little too tidily together. William, the betrothed, disappears from the story; his father is the one who eventually breaks the engagement!

Nevertheless, the story wraps up nicely and Anna finally discovers her true identity and true purpose in life. Geesje’s story is the better read, and the people she helps include some excellent intrigue with a heart-rending backstory.

Rebecca Cochran

THAT CHURCHILL WOMAN

Stephanie Barron, Ballantine, 2019, $28.00, hb, 400pp, 9781524799564

Luminous, passionate, rebellious Jennie Churchill, Winston’s glamorous mother, has inspired many biographies and novels. The latest, by Stephanie Barron, author of the wildly successful Jane Austen mystery series, is a delicious blend of Victoria, Downton Abbey, and Gossip Girls. Barron skips back and forth in time to give us a sense of Jennie’s memories and interior life and includes a few point-ofview chapters featuring the men who she loved best— her son Winston and her longtime lover, Prince Karl Kinsky. “She had known love was a terrible thing. Love destroyed families and happiness,” Jennie Jerome reflects early in her story, and her sympathetic intelligence allows her to view her privileged world in Gilded Age America and England with a realism that never degrades into cynicism.

Barron captures her devotion to the arts, her sons, and her tormented, syphilitic husband, Lord Randolph Churchill, wisely focusing on these qualities more than on her sexual liaisons with a large portion of the great and near-great in England’s upper crust. The exception is her on-again, off-again affair with Kinsky, and Barron depicts them as intensely principled people whose romance the reader can’t help but root for.

This is a wonderful vacation read, never too ponderous, and full of satisfying details about clothing, art, music, and social

gamesmanship. It’s a deep dive into the pleasures of the upper crust, but by the end of the novel, it’s impossible not to think of Jennie as a friend, and as an exception to the cliché that the privileged Victorians were selfabsorbed snobs.

Kristen McDermott

A SINNER WITHOUT A SAINT

Bliss Bennet, Bliss Bennet Books, 2018, $4.99, ebook, 298pp, B07DZ2CVK9

In this stand-alone Regency romance novel, fourth in the Pennington Series, the world of the art collector is explored. The sparkling protagonist, Lord Dulcie, is a Regency anti-hero: manipulative and flippant, but sartorially forward. His one goal, since he will not be siring any heirs, is to become London’s next artistic tastemaker, collecting the best paintings Europe can offer. A schoolboy crush, Pennington, has other ideas: a public collection of paintings for the betterment of all. But is there more to Art than just the Masters?

The author does an excellent job of describing art during a period of change, as Romanticism takes the stage. Also of note in this novel is the spot-on depiction of cattiness, infighting, and the scrabbling for rank that can happen in any small, opinionated bunch. What I most appreciated in reading this was that the central conflict was not the homosexuality of the characters, but rather the question of loyalty; loyalty to one’s own opinions, loyalty to family, and loyalty to a lover. Of those, which comes first?

Katie Stine

THE LAKE ON FIRE

Rosellen Brown, Sarabande, 2018, $17.95/ C$26.95, pb, 312pp, 9781946448231

Sixteen-year-old Chaya-Libbe Shaderowsky and her family escaped the anti-Jewish pogroms in Ukraine by emigrating to America, where infertile land and a lack of farming skills have led to destitution. By 1892, Chaya has learned what she can at the local school and sees no future in her drab rural setting, so she plots another escape, this time to Chicago. She and her young brother Asher discover that squalor reigns in much of the city, and that work is hard to come by.

She persists, however, working double shifts in cigar factories and showing off Asher’s memory skills at parties for the elite. They both glimpse other possibilities in the city, Asher through his pickpocketing travels and his interest in the ongoing construction of the World’s Columbian Exposition site, and Chaya in her growing attraction to Gregory, a gentleman of social standing who claims allegiance to Chaya’s principles of socialism.

Brown layers her characters with multiple, complex, and at times conflicting identities: Chaya and Asher both want to be secure, yet they also fight against their individual needs by disrupting current norms. Disruption

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is part of both their identities, and readers get fascinating glimpses into their thought processes. Asher’s riotously chaotic mind swirls with facts, interesting-sounding words, numbers, rhymes, and questions, illustrating his attempts to make sense of the overstimulating world by creating systems of order.

Chaya struggles to balance her desire for freedom with her longing to be needed and to belong. At the center of the story is the World’s Fair, also a model of disruption and deception; like Chaya and Asher, the city has multiple identities. Brown’s integration of historical events into the narrative shows Chicago in all its enticing glory, and also its grim reality. All told, this is a deeply rich read.

Helene Williams

BEYOND THE BAY

Rebecca Burns, Odyssey Books, 2018, A$24.95/$14.95, pb, 244pp, 9781925652482

Isobel and her husband Brendan left England to make a new life in New Zealand, but after ten years of struggling they have nothing to show for it. It is now the early 1890s, and Isobel’s sister, Esther, arrives with expectations of comfort in a beautiful townhouse, as her sister portrayed in her letters home.

The reality is a run-down shack with old newspapers glued to the walls to keep the wind and weather out. The women of the community are bound together by their lives of hardship and poverty.

They gather around the water pump each day in the common yard to wash the dishes, do the laundry, and drink tea together. Brendan cannot keep a job, so Isobel takes in mending from the wealthier households. When the landlord, Jack Bellamy, shows up to collect the rent, Esther pays the family’s back rent from money she had inexplicably acquired and brought from England. Jack is a kind, handsome man who becomes a friend in the sisters’ lives.

This is a story of the love, jealousies, and conflicts between two sisters trying to find fulfillment in a restrictive society. Isobel is trapped in an unhappy, childless marriage, and Esther has fled England with her own secrets to escape the judgements and condemnations of that society. She convinces Isobel to reach for a new life in this new country of possibilities.

Women are fighting for the right to vote in New Zealand, and they become part of the movement. Rebecca Burns writes with wellcrafted, carefully chosen words. She skillfully drops in missing pieces of the story throughout the progression of the narrative. As the puzzle 28

comes together, the full picture is revealed.

This is a wonderful read.

Janice Ottersberg

TO BUILD A FIRE

Chabouté (trans. Laura Waters), Gallery13, 2018, $14.99/C$19.99, pb, 62pp, 9781982100827

Jack London’s spare, elemental story is a perfect fit for the exceptional talents of Chabouté. Set in the gold rush of 1896 in northern Canada, it follows an inexperienced prospector and his dog on their last trek together.

They are breaking the first commandment of their dangerous terrain: never travel alone. But the man’s hubris and the dog’s need for the warmth of one who can start a fire keep them bonded.

The artist’s linear, largely monochromatic palette helps the reader feel the cold and desperation descending. The dense, bleak and beautiful landscape is ignored by the human protagonist except when trailblazing or in danger, but the reader can appreciate its stark beauty. When the fire is achieved, the pages roar to life with flaming oranges, reds, and yellows. The dog becomes a vibrant and compelling character beside his human companion, thanks to the artist’s skill. Canine adaptability provides a great contrast to the man, who thinks he can lord over nature. The narrative moves with power and pathos through word and art. A tour de force. Highly recommended.

Eileen Charbonneau

THE PERILOUS ADVENTURES OF THE COWBOY KING

Jerome Charyn, Liveright, 2019, $26.95/ C$35.95/£18.99, hb, 320pp, 9781631493874

In 1862, little Teddy Roosevelt is a sickly child whose medical prognosis is dire. Yet he will go on to become one of America’s most robust and certainly her most interesting president.

Born into a wealthy New York City family, his father a powerful and beloved patriarch, Teddy has a fierce intellect and iron will to overcome his physical disadvantages. He grows up surrounded by a colorful cast of characters among his family, friends and enemies—some of whom later become trusted allies.

As he seemingly stumbles into a series of interesting occupations, including NYC assemblyman, police commissioner, author, deputy sheriff in the Western Badlands, Civil Service Commissioner, US Navy Assistant Secretary and Lieutenant Colonel in the Regiment of Rough Riders, TR seems to face

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persistent challenges. He incessantly must strive to “drain the swamp” of his day: embedded politicians of both parties, corrupt government agencies, large monopolistic corporations and a sycophantic and toxic press. Joseph Pulitzer is presented as a particularly vile Roosevelt enemy. Teddy, who is called a “buccaneer of the Republican party” here, is portrayed as a sometimes-tortured hero who is not above using violence against his political enemies.

From page one, this is an almost non-stop action-adventure novel whose veteran author undoubtedly takes some liberties with TR’s genuinely fascinating story. Characters spring to life as the reader discovers a sympathetic protagonist who is surrounded by strong women, most notably his sister, “Bamie,” formidable and memorable comrades, and even a lovable pet cougar. The writing style is almost lyrical and certainly unique: the work of a master. The book ends as TR becomes president, and hopefully there will be a sequel.

I’ve already enthusiastically recommended it to friends.

Thomas J. Howley

BLOOD MOON: A Captive’s Tale

Ruth Hull Chatlien, Amika Press, 2017, $17.95, pb, 423pp, 9781937484460

In 1862 Minnesota, Sarah Wakefield’s peaceful life with her husband and two young children is about to change radically.

The food and money the U.S. government owes the Sioux in exchange for the tribes living on a reservation is late, and the Sioux, no longer able to range the miles needed to hunt, are starving. Fearful that the anger may turn to violence, Sarah’s husband sends her and the children away, thinking they’ll be out of danger. But on the road, Sioux warriors attack, killing the driver and taking Sarah and her children captive. Sarah is saved from death by the Sioux warrior Chaska, and she and her children live with Chaska’s family as the Sioux try to elude government troops.

Constantly in danger and always on the move in search of safety, Sarah uses all her strength and intelligence to keep herself and her children alive in a beautiful but harsh land.

Based on Sarah Wakefield’s Six Weeks in the Sioux Tepees, Chatlien has written a truly gripping book. Blood Moon is a very immediate novel. It is vivid, earthy, and compelling: you feel you’re there in the choking dust and burning heat, in the mud and rain and cold.

It brilliantly evokes life in an evanescent time and place (the American frontier lasted for a very short time), while being respectful of both

sides in the epic struggle for possession of the American West.

India Edghill

A MOST DANGEROUS WOMAN

Brenda W. Clough, Serial Box, $4.99, ebook, 335pp, 9781682105368

2018,

This entertaining collection proves the enduring appeal of two 19th-century classics, the Victorian serial novel and Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White. In nine installments or “episodes” (available for purchase as the complete “season”), Clough picks up after the ending of Collins’ beloved sensation novel with Laura happily married to Walter Hartright, bouncing Baby Walter on her knee and reassuring her clever and underutilized half-sister, Marian Halcombe, that she too might find love. This Marian promptly does in the person of the mild-mannered scholarly publisher Theo Camlet, who comes with two children after his first wife died in Italy.

While the opening episodes plot a charming and conventional love story, the book splashes into lurid and welcome sensation-slashmystery territory when the first Mrs. Camlet shows up alive, well, and up to something.

An enceinte Marian flees north while Theo is tossed in jail for bigamy, but worse follows when the enigmatic Mrs. Camlet dies under mysterious circumstances. With her beloved Theo behind bars for murder and Walter assisting as an amateur sleuth, and thus able to narrate parts of the story from places no woman would have been allowed to go, Marian uncovers the shocking truth of just how dangerous the original Mrs. Camlet really was.

Clough makes the characters uniquely her own, no easy feat given that Collins’ intelligent, interesting Marian ranks among the most admired literary heroines. Her language and detail evoke the period, while her plotting is fast enough to suit modern sensibilities, and she litters her cliff-hangers with references and literary in-jokes that will delight Collins fans and literature buffs. Amid gunplay, sudden deaths, startling revelations, and incipient childbirth, Marian traverses the perils of Victorian wifehood, motherhood, and domesticity with as much aplomb as she faces down anarchists and murderers. It’s smashing good fun.

Misty Urban

ALL THAT GLITTERS

Paul Colt, Five Star, 2019, $25.95, hb, 305pp, 9781432849559

As a title in the Great Western Detective League Case series, this tale pairs up the experienced duo of Briscoe Cane and Beau Longstreet to handle a case rife with jewel heists, criminal syndicates, diamond mines, Cajun criminals, sly henchmen, beautiful thieves, and if that’s not enough, jailbreak, bribery, murder, and double-crosses. Whew!

If you doubt the author’s ability to include all this derring-do in 305 measly pages, let me assure you that he does so with a distinctive style.

This tale is heavy on the plot and light as a feather on character. Readers risk whiplash from jumping back and forth between the first and third person. The dialogue is short and clipped, providing limited information on the setting and characters (even the main ones). If you seek emotional depth from your characters, go elsewhere.

Once you adjust to the author’s style—if you can manage to do so—you’ll enjoy the action, reaction, and explosions of this Old West era adventure by an experienced author.

The historical detail is accurate and helps transport you into the hard-driving world of days gone by.

Xina Marie Uhl

MURDER AT THE FITZWILLIAM

Jim Eldridge, Allison & Busby, 2018, £19.99/$25.00, hb, 324pp, 9780749023669

Cambridge 1894, and Daniel Wilson, formerly a detective inspector with London’s Metropolitan Police, is now working as a private investigator after the leaving the employment of his former boss, Frederick Abberline – both of whom worked on the notorious, but failed Jack the Ripper investigation. Abberline’s agency has been asked to investigate the circumstances surrounding the discovery of man’s body in an Egyptian sarcophagus in a display room of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

The local police, notably in the form of the acerbic Inspector Drabble, are initially very much opposed to what they perceive as meddling outsiders, especially when they are former police officers and therefore know their stuff. Wilson teams up with an archaeologist working at the Museum, Abigail Fenton, who discovered the first body. As the investigation proceeds, there is soon another body and more events to complicate the case. Suspects and possible motives are adroitly assembled with a denouement that ties up the loose ends neatly.

It is an easy and enjoyable book to read, with the narrative rollicking along. There are a few errors and oddities – occasionally the dialogue seems a bit stilted and actions of the characters are sometimes rather unrealistic for the times in which the book is set. There are two further adventures for Daniel Wilson (and one presumes) Abigail Fenton planned for publication in 2019.

Douglas Kemp

WILD JUSTICE

Loren D. Estleman, Forge, 2018, $26.99/ C$31.00, hb, 224pp, 9781250197092

Author of ten previous Page Murdock books, Estleman now brings Murdock into 1896, feeling his age and saddened by the

sudden death of his friend and mentor, Judge Harlan A. Blackthorne.

Blackthorne had been the law in Montana for 30 years, legendary for bringing the land from untamed wilderness to more-or-less a law-abiding territory, and Murdock tells us that Blackthorne had been said to have out-foxed the entire outlaw population of Montana. Despite Murdock’s grudging respect for Blackthorne, he did not expect to be commanded from beyond the grave to accompany the coffin and the widow on Blackthorne’s final train journey from Helena eastward to St. Paul, Minnesota.

As the beautifully decorated but tiny train chugs eastward, it is joined by reporter Howard Rossleigh who, while being annoying with his questions, seems genuine enough until Murdock finds blood in the caboose of the train. The conductor has disappeared, and despite a thorough search, he cannot be found. From then on, the story twists and turns, featuring a hot air balloon, a beautiful young female reporter, and Murdock’s growing friendship with the widow Blackthorne. The final surprise awaits in the lawyer’s office in St. Paul.

The language is powerful, with some of the best metaphors west of the Dakotas.

The many characters met along the way are incisively and memorably drawn. The weapons they carry and draw with deadly accuracy are detailed, too. Murdock and Judge Blackthorne are unforgettable: men of their time, or perhaps men who have outlived their time as the American West becomes governable.

This is a gloriously vivid tale made up in part of a number of shorter tales of the Wild West. It’s a story that could be told around a crackling campfire surrounded by darkness and, if possible, by the howling of wolves.

Valerie Adolph

THE SLUM REAPER

David Field, Sapere, 2018, $6.99, pb, 171pp, 9781912546770

The fourth in the series of seven Esther and Jack Enright mysteries finds familiar characters in the midst of nefarious plots in Victorian London. Constable Jack has been hobbled by a broken leg administered by a runaway horse as he stepped in to save children from certain trampling. His impairment relegates him to the records room of the Metropolitan Police, where he proves to be an invaluable assistant to Scotland Yard Sgt. Percy Enright, his uncle.

Jack’s wife, Esther, after enjoying a short-lived reprieve from Percy’s requests for amateur

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sleuthing, is again pressed into service as an undercover operative.

In this installment, the pair helps Percy find the perpetrators, and the motive, behind a series of murders in London’s East End. Laborers and former residents of the squalid Old Nichol have been sledgehammered to death, their bodies dumped in the river or the slums that are being razed to make way for new housing. The novel is based on the 1891 actions of the London County Council, which decided to rebuild Old Nichol’s more than 600 slum dwellings and relocate nearly 7000 residents.

It fictionally spans the spectrum of crime from political corruption to fraud, kidnapping, assault and battery as well as murder.

A particular joy of the Enright mysteries is the dialogue. Author Field has a good ear for argot and idiom and a quick wit. His familiarity with legal machinations between prosecutors and investigators lends authenticity to plotlines.

This novel has little for Jack and Esther to do, but it makes up for that by relishing Percy’s attributes. As one character noted: “you know how to break rules, you have a talent for getting up official noses, and you don’t stand for any nonsense.” A spirited and fun read.

K. M. Sandrick

THE VANISHING MAN

Charles Finch, Minotaur, 2019, $26.99/$34.99, hb, 269pp, 9781250311368

In this second in a prequel trilogy to the Charles Lenox detective series (after The Woman in the Water), our protagonist, aged twenty-six, has had some success but struggles to be taken seriously as a private investigator— by his social circle and Scotland Yard, both.

It’s June 1853, and Lenox knows solving a case for the Duke of Dorset could make his career. His Grace wants Lenox to discover who stole a painting of his great-grandfather, the 14th duke, one in a series of portraits in his private study. Oddly, as the duke confides, the portrait alongside the missing one is the real treasure: it’s an oil painting of Shakespeare, done from life. Maybe the thief got it wrong.

Getting entangled in the duke’s business leads to social disgrace—high-ranking noblemen are temperamental—and, eventually, to a much more serious case involving murder.

There’s something comforting about stepping into the viewpoint of a cultured Victorian gentleman who observes social niceties and feels a deep sense of integrity.

If these values come into conflict, Lenox’s personal honor and justice regularly prevail.

To hone his craft, Lenox becomes a student of life, visiting Bedlam to understand the criminal mind, and enlisting the help of an old sailor (a terrific character) with an aptitude for finding things. His dedication is admirable, since many of his peers look down on his pursuit of a vocation in “trade.” The novel is simultaneously a rich evocation of the Victorian class structure and a trenchant critique of it.

Historical crime novels with Shakespearean themes are hardly uncommon, and though the plot turns madcap in places, there’s enough 30

novelty about this case to keep Lenox and readers on their toes. Amidst everything else going on, Lenox’s young cousin Lancelot is staying with him; while he’s an annoying little brat, some of his actions are comedy gold.

Sarah Johnson

THE MURDER PIT

Marilyn Sherlock

Mick Finlay, MIRA, 2019, $15.99/C$19.99, pb, 400pp, 9780778369301 / HQ, 2019, £8.99, pb, 448pp, 9780008214791

London, 1896: Private detective William Arrowood detests his famous contemporary, Sherlock Holmes. Unlike the upper-class society that favors Holmes, Arrowood’s turf is the grittier underbelly of Victorian London.

A Mr. and Mrs. Barclay engage Arrowood to contact their mentally defective daughter, Birdie, who has married and now lives on a farm outside the city. They claim Birdie has not communicated with them since her marriage, and they fear she is held at the Ockwood farm against her will. Arrowood and his partner, Norman Barnett, visit the farm but are abruptly turned away. They meet with an old tinker woman, who then vanishes, and Arrowood fears the worst. The local police are sympathetic to the Ockwoods and uninterested in the woman’s disappearance, but Arrowood and Barnett doggedly pursue the grim leads they find, while continuing to try to contact Birdie. The case eventually takes them to the Caterham Asylum for Safe Lunatics and Imbeciles, leading not only to murder, but also to fraud on a grand scale.

This book, the second in the series, vividly portrays a darker parallel universe to the world of Holmes and Watson. Arrowood’s London is far more visceral, sensual, and less cerebral.

Arrowhead and Barnett are both complex men, each facing their own demons. Fists fly, copious amounts of gin and Vin Mariani (a potent mixture of Bordeaux and cocaine) are downed, and all the many varied characters ring true to their times and circumstances.

Finlay masterfully brings this Victorian world to life, and the book is a compelling read.

Recommended.

Susan McDuffie

SARAH’S STORY

Lynne Francis, Avon, 2018, £8.99, pb, 363pp, 9780008290672

This is a heart-warming story of a young girl, set in the Manchester area. Sarah meets Joe Bancroft when she is in her late teens and falls in love with him. They marry, and she is soon the mother of a baby girl. Joe works on the narrow boats on the canal while Sarah lives with her grandmother, her mother and two sisters having moved to Manchester. The story follows Sarah’s life in the village of Northwaite where her grandmother is the local herbalist.

The book is well-written, and it is easy to empathise with the characters. However, apart from the dates, set between 1874 and 1890, there is nothing to define it as an historical novel. It is set against no historical events nor does it feature any historical figures, and

REVIEWS | ISSUE 87, February 2019

I can see no reason at all for it being cast in this particular genre. It would fit better as a romance. It does refer to the Lancashire cotton mills from time to time, but it could be set any time anywhere. I enjoyed the book and would recommend it as a tale of the ups and downs of the life of one family.

THE EULOGIST

Terry Gamble, William Morrow, 2019, $26.00, hb, 310pp, 9780062839893

Having lost claim to their holdings in Northern Ireland, the previously landed Givens family makes their way to the United States in 1819.

Things start off poorly and spiral steadfastly downward. The daughter, Olivia, narrates throughout from her quite opinionated point of view. Arriving in Cincinnati, their mother tragically dies after losing a stillborn infant and their father leaves them to make his own way elsewhere. Older brother James tries to provide for his sister and younger brother Erasmus by working at trivial jobs. Eventually, through entrepreneurship, he marries well, enabling a relatively comfortable lifestyle. Erasmus, handsome, undependable and a womanizer, tries his hand as a traveling preacher. Olivia, seemingly destined for solitude, surprisingly weds an eccentric homespun doctor and scientist who she appreciates more for his intellect than anything like love. She finds her true purpose in assisting slaves in escape to freedom in the north.

Billed as “emotionally resonant” and the “endeavors of one Irish American Family,” the novel is certainly emotional. However, the narrator herself says “we were Scots” and Calvinists and eschews anything to do with the native Irish and Ireland, calling it a “boggy land from the past.” Not for the fainthearted, the book features graphic dissection of stolen corpses, a terrible rape, and an equally disgusting botched abortion. The reader is continuously informed that slavery was hideous, Southern slave-owning families were awful, and fundamentalist Protestant sects were… well, fundamentalist. None of the main characters was particularly admirable or attractive to me, but some of the slaves and a German Jewish spectacle maker were fleetingly appealing.

Still, the book reads quickly with no dull chapters nor meandering, a tribute to the author’s masterful way with words. It also features a surprise ending which must be deciphered through discerning a challenging convolution of illicit relationships. Not my preference, but I’m sure there is an audience for this style of historical novel.

Thomas J. Howley

THE PARTING GLASS

Gina Marie Guadagnino, Touchstone, 2019, $26.00/C$35.00, hb, 320pp, 9781501198410

In the mucky streets of New York in 1837, fraternal twins Maire and Seanin O’Farren have carved out a tenacious but unsteady place

for themselves as hired help in the posh and visible Walden family. While Seanin cannot hide his Irishness and works with the horses, Maire hides her name and accent as the avid and careful lady’s maid to young debutante Charlotte Walden. Maire also hides her deep attraction to Charlotte, which is all the more painful when Charlotte requests midnight visits from Seanin. These visits slowly evolve into an ever more dangerous game between the three players, made particularly contentious when Charlotte must choose a husband among the glittering suitors her mother parades through the Walden home. Everyone is caught in the mechanisms of society that feel unstoppable.

The slow unfolding of Maire’s story is welldone as Guadagnino reveals details morsel by morsel. Several implications about the supporting characters are left for the reader to wonder about after the book ends, which is always an excellent way to allow us to mull after the book closes. The careful explanations of life in the Walden house are well-drawn, and anyone who has watched Downton Abbey will feel right at home. The love triangle is refreshing and unusual, though at times it was surrounded by a novel that felt like it was trying to do too much at once. I was never sure what about Charlotte’s character made her so desirable, other than her looks and smell.

And the villain who seals everyone’s fates is a bit convenient. Still, Guadagnino should be commended for tackling a much-ignored piece of our past and giving voice to those who didn’t have one in 1837.

Sara Dahmen

GOVERNESS GONE ROGUE

Laura Lee Guhrke, Avon, 2019, $7.99/C$9.99, pb, 384pp, 9780062853691

James St. Clair, heir to the Marquess of Rolleston, is a widower with twin tenyear-old sons who are adept at driving off governesses. Nor is he having better luck with male tutors, until Mr. Seton arrives.

Despite his youth, he wins over the boys with his spirited determination and stimulating teaching methods. But then James discovers that he is really a she in disguise: the notorious Amanda Leighton, who lost her teaching post and reputation after being caught naked in the arms of her lover by the headmistress. He fires her immediately, but the boys rally to her defence, and he really needs help. Reluctantly, he rehires her as a governess. Even more reluctantly, they find themselves drawn to each other. Prospects of a happy marriage are looking bright, but then a figure from Amanda’s past finds her.

The author offers timely insights into the impact of the male-female double standard and the economic pressures on women in the Victorian era; and though the happy ending seems implausible, this is a romance, after all, and the characters do earn the right by learning to care for each other, despite the cost involved.

Ray Thompson

AMERICAN DUCHESS

Karen Harper, William Morrow, 2019, $15.99, pb, 368pp, 9780062748331

Before Meghan Markle, another American woman became a duchess: Consuelo Vanderbilt. Born in 1877 to Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt, Consuelo led a life of rarefied privilege, though she felt trapped in a gilded cage, unable to make her own decisions.

Alva, an overbearing and manipulative mother, forces Consuelo, at only eighteen, to marry the Duke of Marlborough so that her daughter will gain an esteemed title and live in the stately Blenheim Palace in England.

Desperately unhappy, Consuelo tries to make the best of her marriage, using her status as duchess to help those less fortunate. Trapped in a loveless marriage, Consuelo yearns for more in her life as she fights for women’s right to vote and to divorce – all the while hoping to find real love. Covering Consuelo’s life from her teenage years through World War II, the book is populated with many historical figures, including Winston and Clementine Churchill, Edith Wharton, Queen Victoria, and Alexandra of Denmark.

Harper’s book is a natural pendant to Therese Anne Fowler’s A Well-Behaved Woman (2018), which focuses on the life of Alva.

When paired together, with Harper’s book read second, the reader gets a well-rounded view of the famous Vanderbilt women and the motivations and desires of both Consuelo and Alva. But Harper’s book can also be enjoyed on its own. With the themes of women’s rights and independence, the reader roots for Consuelo to make a difference and break free from her marriage. In addition, the evolution of Consuelo’s relationship with her mother was touching, as the battleax Alva slowly realizes her role in her daughter’s unhappiness and tries to make amends. Fans of Daisy Goodwin and C.W. Gortner are sure to love this book!

Julia C. Fischer

THE GIRL FROM PIT LANE

Gracie Hart, Random House, 2018, £6.99, pb, 312pp, 9781785038075

Though set in a different geographical setting (a pit village near Leeds), Gracie Hart’s story follows Catherine Cookson’s lead, describing two young Victorian seamstresses surviving against the odds; the book’s cover is badged ‘A Yorkshire Maggie Hope’, referring to the prolific County Durham author. MaryAnne and Eliza’s widowed mother Sarah has remarried, but her miner husband drinks and beats her; she has unwillingly become the mistress of the pit-owner in lieu of rent, but dies procuring an abortion. The pit-owner then moves onto Mary-Anne, impregnating her too.

For this reviewer this novel needed much tighter editing. Reading the draft aloud might have picked up many of the repetitions, malapropisms, and shaky grammar: for example, phrases like ‘being a miner’ appear twice in one short sentence, along with ‘they would be as bigger hypocrites as us’, and ‘a

twang of jealousy’ (a twinge, surely?). There is some clunky ‘telling’ as when one sister mentions to the other: ‘old Lewis the landlord at the Boot and Shoe’ when presumably they have known old Lewis and where he works all their lives. Elsewhere there is no explanation where there needs to be: the pit-owner is a former miner, a not impossible but unlikely circumstance in 1857, but we are simply told he is a self-made man with no clues as to how he moved up in the world, clues that might have rounded out a character who is otherwise a bit ‘hiss-the-villain’. Hart evokes well the sounds and smells of her settings, and the cheek-byjowl way in which her characters live, with every argument audible to the neighbours and every unusual incident (like washing sheets other than on a Monday) noted. The plot is also attractive, so it is a great pity that this novel reads as though it had been rushed into print.

Katherine Mezzacappa

THE MURDER OF HARRIET MONCKTON

Elizabeth Haynes, Myriad Editions, 2018, £14.99, hb, 384pp, 9781912408030

This classic tale drops you straight into 1843, the early Victorian era, when unmarried women evidently became pregnant on their own. Men, even the most rapacious employers, felt themselves no more than aggrieved bystanders when the maid or acquaintance they’d shared sex with became pregnant. The author makes this attitude a living character in the novel, a malevolent force partly responsible for Harriet’s real murder.

The author, Elizabeth Haynes, writes contemporary procedural mystery/thrillers that garner good reviews for their realism and plotting. She reveals in her afterword that, while researching another book, she had stumbled upon a couple documents about Harriet Monckton, a pregnant 23-year-old murdered in Bromley, on the outskirts of London, in 1843. It’s hard to imagine another author better suited to write this convincing, atmospheric, frustrating, and compelling story. It’s written from the alternating points of view of the men that the investigators suspect: Harriet’s seductive former London landlord; the pompous, self-righteous and adulterous minister of the chapel where Harriet attended services; and the naïve, tongue-tied young townsman who fell in love with her. There’s also, thankfully, the clear-thinking voice of Frances Williams, Harriet’s friend and fellow teacher, who prefers the company of women.

And yet the reader is drawn to suspect even Frances because of her unrequited love for Harriet.

Haynes brilliantly allows the reader into the innermost thoughts of all these characters, each guilty in their own way, and yet keeps the satisfying secret of who the poisoner was unrevealed until the very end. Recommended.

Kristen Hannum

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THE HEALER’S DAUGHTER

Charlotte Hinger, Five Star, 2019, $25.95, hb, 411pp, 9781432849665.

Bethany Herbert, the daughter of a famous healer named Queen Bee, leaves Kentucky for Nicodemus, Kansas, a town formed so that only black people can settle there. It’s 1877, not so many years after the Civil War, and the initial hardships are all-consuming, as there is literally nothing on the land they are being allowed to settle. Bethany helps to increase the population by writing handbills advertising the “freedom” of Nicodemus. Ever so gradually, trust begins to form as their dreams become reality. Bethany also opens a school to teach children how to read and write. Little by little she also begins to accumulate plants that will be used for healing.

The depiction of this story is fashioned so realistically that readers are revved up for these strong, determined people to succeed. Beth will fall in love with one of the settlers, Jed, who is a smart lawyer and savvy about the documents they will need to be legally considered part of the state. However, the arrival of Beth’s mother, Queen Bee, almost undoes all that the community has achieved because of the vicious, searing hate she bears every white person in the world. This final conflict forged by neighboring white people is both heated and cathartic for many who need to unload their memories and their own prejudices.

Beth is more than a healer of diseased bodies; indeed, her speaking truth is healing balm to the mind and spirit. See how this gift moves even her own mother. The Healer’s Daughter is remarkable, moving historical fiction on a topic given little attention, the settlement of free African-Americans in alarmingly hostile territory.

Viviane Crystal

MOLLYFAR

Bonnie Hobbs, Five Star, 2019, $25.95, hb, 400pp, 9781432847258

Her name was Molly. “Just Molly. The other name is Pa’s and I don’t want it.”

She lies on a bed in a brothel talking to young Wade Devlin, son of a cattle rancher in 1886 Texas. Wade has been sent there by his father to get his first experience of sex. It would have been Molly’s first experience of sex, too, except that Wade’s father bursts in saying Wade was taking too long.

Before Molly can lose her virtue, the brothel is bought by Heeshi, a kindly older madam who has enough money to retire from an ordinary brothel and set up one where the girls are kindly treated. Heeshi, herself sexually ambiguous, mothers Molly like the daughter she never had. It is from Heeshi’s faro table that Molly adds ‘far’ to her name.

The novel follows the tempestuous love affair between Mollyfar and Wade, with the addition of a pseudo-preacher seeking to wreak revenge on Heeshi.

The author reveals the raw realities of life – especially a woman’s life – in the early days of rural Texas. There is nothing comfortable 32

about the events or the characters described.

The dialogue, and there is a lot of it, tends to avoid many terms that would have been common in brothels back then. And the premise – that two attractive young people have sex only with each other for years while one works in a brothel and the other is married for part of the time – tests one’s credulity.

Still, the author succeeds in giving the reader a clear picture of life in the early days of Texas ranch country and its people. We gain an understanding of a vanished way of life. Her research has been extensive, and her enthusiasm for the time and place is clearly demonstrated.

Valerie Adolph

A BAD PLACE TO DIE

Easy Jackson, Pinnacle, 2018, $7.99/C$8.99, pb, 346pp, 9780786042548

Life for Tennessee Smith (‘Tennie’) has more than its share of pitfalls. Orphaned at a young age, she manages to escape an attempted abduction and seeks refuge at a church; but the women in the wagon train she joins are not missionaries, as she naively assumes, but mailorder brides headed for Texas. Her husbandto-be seems surprisingly decent, but after a quick marriage ceremony, he introduces her to his three rambunctious young sons and drops dead on their wedding night. Lacking the skills to run a ranch, she allows herself to be pressured into becoming the town marshal in the wild Texas town of Ring Bit. Not that she knows anything about law-keeping, but it does pay a salary. If she survives to collect.

As one might expect in a novel about a lawkeeper, there are a number of mysteries: who is responsible for the spate of cattle rustling?

Why does the helpful and attractive Wash Jones keep disappearing? And most crucially, why does the town council want her for the job anyway? There is romance, too, but the focus is upon Tennie herself and her struggles to cope with the day-to-day challenges of caring for the boys, dealing with drunken prisoners, and enduring the scorn of the upright citizens.

Jackson resists the temptation to turn her into a female gun-slinger who can face down villains.

In fact, she prides herself on her cooking, and she certainly deserves a medal for cleaning up after prisoners and enduring their angry profanity. Despite her inexperience, she takes her responsibilities seriously and makes the best of the situations in which she unexpectedly finds herself. The account does grow repetitive, but readers looking for a glimpse of life in the raw Texas frontier in the 19th century will find much to appreciate.

Ray Thompson

SUMMER OF SCANDAL

Syrie James, Avon Impulse, 2018, $6.99/ C$8.99, pb, 416pp, 9780062849694

Like her sister, Madeleine Atherton is a Vassar-educated American heiress, whose mother is determined she marry an English lord. A duke’s heir has offered, but she is

REVIEWS | ISSUE 87, February 2019

unsure and travels to Cornwall to consult with her sister. There she meets Charles Grayson, the Earl of Saunders, who shares both her passionate nature and creative mind: she is an author, he an inventor. Unsurprisingly, they fall in love, but he is expected to marry his cousin.

Can these two find happiness together despite the expectations of their families?

The challenge is to find a convincing solution to the dilemma, while retaining sympathy for the lovers, and this the author manages reasonably well. The circumstances which keep throwing them together, despite their efforts to resist their mutual attraction, do begin to seem contrived, especially when rain necessitates the removal of wet clothes.

It does, however, rain a lot in England. The conflict between the lovers’ desire to pursue their vocation and find love with a compatible partner, on the one hand, and reluctance to cause pain to those they care about, on the other, will appeal to many readers of romance.

Set in the late Victorian era.

Ray Thompson

MARY ANN SATE, IMBECILE

Alice Jolly, Unbound, 2018, £25.00, hb, 640pp, 9781783525492

In 1938, during a house restoration, hundreds of pages of a “dusty and battered” manuscript were discovered and miraculously preserved. The story is told in the first person by Mary Ann, consistently using her own limited vocabulary and idiosyncratic grammar. The prose is lyrical, and the construction of her long and complex narrative is astonishingly sophisticated. She moves the action dramatically, almost cinematically, vividly constructing scenes that engage and hold the reader’s attention. All is set in the valleys surrounding Stroud at the time when the uprisings caused by the Industrial Revolution were fuelling discontent and adding to the poverty of local mill workers and agricultural labourers.

Mary Ann’s account begins with her arrival in the valleys, when, disfigured by a hare-lip, she is delivered on a carrier’s cart and left, in the darkness at the roadside. A succession of families takes her in, exploiting her domestic labour in return for a roof over head and minimum sustenance. As the years pass, Mary Ann’s personality develops. She is a diligent, compassionate, perceptive and intelligent girl who, confronted by the eccentric, selfish and often negligent families that exploit her, almost inadvertently, makes small but positive connections with them. One repairs her harelip, and another teaches her the rudiments of reading and writing. She accepts her place in this strange society without resentment but in an endearing, unassuming way.

There comes a time when, threatened by the now dangerous politics of the valleys, together with complex relationships within the families with which her history is now entwined, she leaves Stroud, returning as an old woman

to fulfil what she now sees as an obligation.

When this is done her account ends.

The only record of Mary Ann’s existence is her death in the Stroud Workhouse: “Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile, 9th October 1887”.

the dark heart of this tale, with explicit scenes (graphic memories) described throughout.

Julia Stoneham

Catherine Lloyd, Kensington, 2018, $26.00/$35.00, hb, 304pp, 9781496702128

THE HIGHLANDER WHO PROTECTED ME

Vanessa Kelly, Zebra, 2018, $7.99/C$8.99, pb, 352pp, 9781420141153

1816. Lady Ainsley Matthews, pregnant and running from a marriage to her sadistic betrothed, takes refuge with the only man she can turn to: her old friend, Royal Kendrick, the man that got away years ago. While at his family’s isolated Scottish estate, Royal tries to heal in body and mind following the battle of Waterloo, but he finds himself without a challenge or a goal. When Ainsley arrives, he discovers his purpose: to care for the woman that got away and her newborn baby who he loves like his own.

Though thrust together, can Ainsley and Royal find the true love that eluded them, care for the child, and elude the vicious man who terrorized Ainsley for so long? Stay tuned. In this long Regency romance, Kelly continues the story of the honorable Kendrick men, who fight to protect the women they love. While Ainsley fights her attraction to Royal with sarcasm, Royal quietly builds a fire in her that neither can resist. Enjoyable.

Monica E. Spence

EDINBURGH DUSK

Carole Lawrence, Thomas & Mercer, 2018, $15.95, pb, 398pp, 9781503903906

Edinburgh, 1880. In this, the second Ian Hamilton mystery, Detective Inspector Hamilton investigates the death of a married railroad lineman from the effects of arsenic poisoning and then the death of a prominent banker in a prostitute’s bed from strychnine poisoning. The link in the two cases appears to be sexual transgressions on the part of both men.

Several characters from the first book, Edinburgh Twilight, walk through these pages, including Hamilton’s brother, Donald (an alcoholic presently “on the wagon”) and Hamilton’s likable aunt, Lillian Grey, a talented photographer who in this story assists her beloved nephew as a crime scene photographer. Interesting new additions are medical student Arthur Conan Doyle and pioneering physician Sophia Jex-Blake, the first practicing female doctor in Scotland, and one of the first in the wider United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, who reports the first death.

As in Edinburgh Twilight, the author casts readers into the killer’s point-of-view. Soon enough, we suspect the killer is female. Deaths are piling up—and she is watching Ian. The author’s description of Edinburgh in wintery November is evocative. Prospective readers should be aware that child sexual abuse forms

Alana White

DEATH COMES TO BATH

Sir Robert Kurland and his wife, Lucy, are visiting Bath in 1822 so that Sir Robert, wounded at Waterloo, can take the waters.

Bath is no longer fashionable, but it is hoped that the waters will speed his recovery. With the couple are their doctor and his pregnant wife, Penelope, a young relative, and a few servants. As they settle into their large rented house, they greet new neighbours, the Benson family.

Robert enjoys the company of the outspoken and eccentric Sir William Benson, but the rest of the Benson family—the selfabsorbed second wife, William’s three adult sons, and his wife’s two sons—are a different matter. When William is found, apparently drowned in the healing pool at Bath, each one of his family can be suspected along with their doctor. Out of respect for William, Sir Robert and Lucy decide to try to discover the killer.

It does not help them to find that William frequently changed his will and that no will can be found. Yet all six of his family members seem to have great need of his money, and they make a complex assortment of unpleasant suspects.

Lloyd manages to combine serious research with a light narrative touch. Sir Robert Kurland and his family seem less like ‘characters’ and more like acquaintances with whom it is a pleasure to spend time. The mystery is unique, not least in the location of the body.

The family of suspects are all wholeheartedly nasty, each in their own way. And there is a twist to the ending. What more could anyone ask for? This was a pleasant easy read. I’ll go looking for more Kurland St Mary books.

Valerie Adolph

A DUEL FOR CHRISTMAS

Rosanne E. Lortz, Madison Street, 2018, $13.95, pb, 324pp, 9780996264877

Blending a witty, charming Regency romance with a whodunit, this sparkling, polished tale finds newly widowed Lady Maud Worlington sharing a kiss under the mistletoe with the glowingly attractive Duke of Tilbury, some years younger than she. While their indiscreet encounter prompts interest on both sides, Maud is contending with the unwanted attentions of her obsequious cousin, blackmail from her oily stepson, an ailing father, and her madcap brother Will, betrothed to the Duke’s guileless sister. Then a shocking death brings Bow Street Runner Jacob Pevensey on the scene to sort through the coils of deception, menace, and murder, and the clever inspector’s investigation casts the various romances into the shade. As is typical for the genre, all of Maud’s problems will be solved by securing marriage to an eligible man, but the scenes are consistently

enlivened by endearing secondary characters, including Maud’s reliable brother Ralph and a droll French marquis. The writing thrums with precise detail and period speech, and the many subplots move briskly toward a tense conclusion involving the promised duel. One needn’t have read the two previous Pevensey books to enjoy this accomplished holiday romance and its dash of mayhem.

Misty Urban

DARK WATER

Elizabeth Lowry, riverrun, 2018, £16.99, hb, 468pp, 9781786485625

B o s t o n , 1883.

Hiram Carver, a callow, pampered youth, takes up his first position as assistant surgeon on board USS Orbis.

Aged 21, and never having been to sea before, he struggles to adapt to life afloat. On board he encounters William Borden, a member of the crew. Borden has a reputation in the seafaring world as the “hero of the Providence”. Years before, aboard the Providence, Borden negotiated with a group of mutineers for the life of the captain and crew and led them to safety across the Pacific. Yet a violent episode on the Orbis reveals hidden troubled depths. They go on to meet years later when Borden is admitted to a mental asylum under the care of Carver, who resolves to cure Borden using a new technique he has developed. However, memory and truth are uncomfortable bedfellows, and perhaps bringing deep memories to the surface is not a good idea.

Carver is a complex character. Often weak, he is also totally ruthless, perceptive and sharp, yet incredibly naïve. This is a wonderfully dark, gothic and atmospheric novel which explores the dark waters of insanity. If you like your books psychologically dark and gothic, this is for you.

Mike Ashworth

WOMAN 99

Greer Macallister, Sourcebooks Landmark, 2019, $25.99, hb, 368pp, 9781492665335 / HarperCollins, 2019, C$24.99, pb, 352pp, 9781443458146

When Charlotte Smith’s bipolar sister Phoebe is committed by their parents to the Goldengrove Home for the Curable Insane because of something Charlotte feels responsible for, she takes audacious action.

Using a planned six-week trip to visit an aunt as cover, she feigns a suicide attempt which sends her to Goldengrove, where she becomes an inmate assigned the number 99.

Behind the asylum’s high stone walls, miles

A publication of the Historical Novel Society | www.historicalnovelsociety.org

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away from the Smith home in San Francisco, Charlotte quickly finds that many women have been shut away not because of mental illness, but because they no longer—or never did— comport with late 1800s familial or societal demands: one woman dared to have an affair; another tried simply to get an education.

Woman 99 reveals what little was known about mental illness; how treatments, such as immersion water therapy, the Darkness, and the Tranquility Box, often were misguided and indiscriminately performed; and how inmates were starved and forced to work in fields and soap-making to increase profits for investors.

Even more than the setting and the times, the book unmasks the strictures and attitudes toward women in American society: the narrow role they were allowed to play, the limited skills they could acquire, the path to a planned marriage that would secure financial security for a father’s failing business or the political success of an ambitious husband.

It creates a resilient and innovative character who learns from more experienced inmates how to navigate byzantine confines and bypass locked doors in the search for her sister, and who builds on core inner strength to challenge norms in- and outside Goldengrove.

It also illustrates how little one can understand about another, even a sister, who has mental disease. Woman 99 is thrilling and thoughtprovoking.

K. M. Sandrick

A MARRIAGE OF ATTACHMENT

Lona Manning, Amazon, 2018, $10.99/C$14.40, pb, 356pp, 9781983255021

In this variation on Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, a sequel to Manning’s A Contrary Wind, Edmund Bertram has separated from his wife, Mary Crawford, following a scandal, and is living with his sister Julia, who is still unmarried. Mary’s brother Henry has been killed in a carriage accident. Sir Thomas Bertram has lost his fortune and left Mansfield Park. He and his wife and daughter Maria live in reduced circumstances in Norfolk. Fanny Price has moved to London, where a kindly widow, Mrs. Butters, has befriended her and given her a position as a sewing instructor at a charitable establishment for poor girls. She finds a new suitor in writer William Gibson, but can she forget her love for Edmund? Meanwhile, Fanny’s sailor brother William fights slavery in West Africa and has fallen in love with Julia Bertram.

A Marriage of Attachment is one of the better Jane Austen sequels. I particularly enjoyed the way Manning has developed Fanny’s character.

She is still shy, but being forced to earn a living has given her more self-confidence. I do feel that I missed something by not having read A Contrary Wind. It makes me want to go back and read the previous book.

Vicki Kondelik

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FELICITY CARROL AND THE PERILOUS PURSUIT

Patricia Marcantonio, Crooked Lane, 2019, $26.99/C$40.50, hb, 320pp, 9781683318965

Felicity Carrol is brilliant, resourceful, and university-educated in a Victorian era when these were considered the prerogative of men. Ladies were expected to marry well and stay at home. In fact, when she insists upon investigating the murder of her favorite professor and mentor, her outraged father is so incensed at her defiance of his wishes that he dies of a heart attack. Which is quite convenient, really, as it guarantees her independence and wealth.

The mystery is interesting, and the Arthurian elements will appeal to Arthurian scholars, particularly how the figure of the Lady of the Lake is used. The author provides considerable background historical information on not only Arthurian legend, but the places visited and scientific developments in the 19th century.

While this may be excused as a reflection of Felicity’s own wide-ranging interests, it does become intrusive and slow down the plot.

The main focus, however, is upon Felicity herself. A polymath with a logical mind, photographic memory, and physical courage, she is a combination of Sherlock Holmes and Indiana Jones. Since she is also good-hearted and kind to the less fortunate, her ability to outmanoeuvre men who underestimate all women will gratify anyone who has suffered from prejudice. Since she decides at the end of the novel that her goal in life will be ‘to seek justice for the murdered and damaged,’ this is clearly the start of a series.

Recommended to those looking for a female superhero out to right wrongs and defy convention to do so.

Ray Thompson

POINTS OF DANGER

Edward Marston, Allison & Busby, 2018, £19.99, hb, 352pp, 9780749023522

In 1861 there shouldn’t really be a “highwayman” who can hold up a train, rob and cold-bloodedly kill a first-class passenger!

Of course, Inspector Colbeck is called upon to investigate; he’s experienced with railway crime, he’s effective and he’s of the “right class” to solve the heinous murder – the victim being a prominent M.P. and director of the self-same board that runs the train he was killed on. His wife is called to look into a mystery of her own; who is the person commissioning her to paint a railway landscape? Is Colbeck’s superior, the redoubtable Superintendent Tallis, really breaking up after a personal, physical attack on himself? Colbeck, accompanied by his hardpressed yet resourceful Sergeant Leeming, goes into the political and financial world of Norwich and digs deep into the mystery, willing to go anywhere to solve the crime.

Once again, Marston combines excellent research and period detail with a cracking plot, deep characterisations and intriguing mystery.

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An excellent addition to a fine, atmospheric series.

Alan Cassady-Bishop

THE SHINING FRAGMENTS

Robin Blackburn McBride, Guernica Editions, 2018, $25.00/C$25.00, pb, 280pp, 9781771832663

Eight-year-old Joe Conlon’s dear Mam dies on their ship’s passage from Ireland to Canada in 1882.

A grandmotherly passenger takes Joe and his baby sister by train from Montreal to Toronto, where their uncle is supposed to meet them. No uncle appears.

The grandma absconds with the little girl for her childless daughter and leaves Joe, starved and scared, on a train station bench.

Joe is placed in an orphanage. He graduates to peddling newspapers and shining shoes, then labors at a flour mill. He learns to gamble and drink (both well), learns about women and heartache, emptiness, regret. Joe’s special talent for sketching, drawing, and painting becomes his anchor, eventually leading him to design stained-glass windows.

At the orphanage, Joe befriends a wispy girl, called Deary by the nuns. She walks on her hands for minutes at a time, cartwheels like a gymnast, and swims underwater. A wealthy couple takes Deary away to become their household servant. Joe’s yearning to find her again never eases, not through a marriage to a lovely seamstress, not through whiskey binges and round-the-clock deadlines to finish glorious windows.

McBride deftly takes us into Toronto of that rapidly-changing time (1882-1904), to the way people talked and moved and how they lived. The prose is spare but interesting (“Mrs. Roach, while not a cornerstone, was certainly a sizeable brick.”) and fits the emotions of each moment (“Joseph’s words blew loose with the snow, and he couldn’t take them back.”). The plot lines, some with jaw-dropping surprises, all work. Tales about orphans left to find their way in the New World are many, but few are as engaging as this story. Recommended.

G. J. Berger

THE LILY OF THE WEST

Kathleen Morris, Five Star, 2019, $25.95, hb, 341pp, 9781432847333

Kathleen Morris attempts to fill a gap in Old West lore with her novel of Mary Katherine Haroney, better known as “Big Nose Kate,” the common-law wife of Dr. John Henry “Doc” Holliday. The Lily of the West traces Haroney’s

life from her early teens through Doc Holliday’s death in 1887 in an attempt to flesh out a woman whom most historians have treated as a side note. Unfortunately, this novel does little to bring Haroney to life.

Throughout the novel, the exciting events of Haroney’s life are related in emotionless summary. From the family’s flight from Mexico to the death of Haroney’s baby to the shootout in Tombstone, Morris misses chance after chance to show the reader Haroney’s suffering. Annoyingly, every time Haroney escapes danger—which is often—Morris jumps ahead a month or even a year in time and has Haroney, now safe and secure in a new place, summarize what happened, often using anachronistic phrases.

My biggest complaint, however, is that the novel lacks a focal point. The first third of the book traces Haroney’s life from her early teens to her mid-twenties. The next twothirds of the book tell of her relationship with Holliday. When Morris ends the novel with Holliday’s death, I felt as if the first 125 pages of the book had been pointless. Why start so early in Haroney’s life if the intent was to detail her relationship with Holliday? On the other hand, if the novel truly were intended to recount Haroney’s entire life, why end with Holliday’s death? Haroney lived another fiftythree years. It’s insulting to suggest that a woman’s story ends when her man dies. The Western genre deserves a good book about Kate Haroney. Unfortunately, The Lily of the West is not it.

Sarah Hendess

THE HANGING PSALM

Chris Nickson, Severn House, 2019, $28.99/£20.99, hb, 224pp, 9780727888310

This novel debuts a new series, returning again to Nickson’s ubiquitous Leeds. This time it’s the Georgian period; instead of an official investigator (like Tom Harper or Richard Nottingham), we have a thief-taker, Simon Westow. Shaped by the hardship of a childhood in the workhouse, Westow now recovers stolen property – in this case a wealthy factory owner’s daughter. A villain from Westow’s past resurfaces, endangering his life and that of his young family.

As will be expected from Nickson, characterization is strong, and it’s the main driver of this procedural mystery. Westow has his own infallible moral compass and structured pursuit of justice; wildcards such as sidekick Jane (think deadly ninja waif) add color. There are multiple action scenes and a cast of subsidiary characters, doubtless introduced to be revisited in future novels. Leeds’ social echelons, especially its underworld, and the unfortunate consequences of industrialization will be familiar to readers of the Harper mysteries. In fact, this debut feels familiar in most respects (despite the different time periods, I pictured Westow stopping in at Sheepscar to shoot the breeze with Harper), so fans of Nickson’s

earlier series will want to add this latest to their to-read piles.

Bethany Latham

THE HOUSE ON VESPER SANDS

Paraic O’Donnell, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2018, £14.99, hb, 378pp, 9781474600392

London in the cold winter of 1893, and there have been puzzling reports of the souls of young women of the teeming capital having been stolen by mysterious entities, known as the Spiriters. The story is pursued by two main storylines and characters: Gideon Bliss & Octavia Hillingdon. Bliss is an impoverished student at Cambridge, reading Divinity in advance of becoming a clergyman. He is an orphan and is supported by a distant uncle, Herbert Neuilly. When he is summoned to London to see his uncle, he finds he has disappeared. Gideon forms an unlikely working partnership with Inspector Cutter of Scotland Yard’s CID, a superbly-delineated gruff personality who, intentionally or not on the part of the author, steals the show as the best character in the novel. Meanwhile, Octavia is a privileged young woman, with access to the upper echelons of London society, but she works, unusually for her sex, as a reporter on a newspaper The Mayfair Gazette. Their stories merge over the sudden disappearance of Lord Strythe and the continuing disappearances of young females, one of whom is especially close to Gideon’s heart. A sinister plot is gradually unveiled that goes to the upper echelons of London society.

The reader is only allowed to understand elements of the plot as the narrative unfolds; the story does seem a little fragmented at times, with this reviewer having to consciously recall what had happened to the main characters in previous chapters, and it took a long while before I was fully absorbed into the story.

Nevertheless it is a splendid historical gothic fantasy and very well told, with characters that resonate with life and humour. Some of the phrases the characters use appear a little too contemporary for 19th-century London—a minor quibble.

Douglas Kemp

A DANGEROUS DUET

Karen Odden, William Morrow, 2018, $15.95, pb, 416pp, 9780062796967

Nell Hallam, an aspiring classical pianist, has dressed herself as a man and is playing the piano in a disreputable London music hall in order to afford the fees at the Royal Academy of Music. The year is 1875, and Nell knows that discovery of her deception would scandalize not only her employer and society in general but especially her brother Matthew, a Scotland Yard detective with whom she lives.

To be accepted at the Academy, Nell must first audition. Preparing for this is her focus until she comes upon one of the other music hall performers badly beaten in an alley. This leads her to discover a widespread conspiracy

to rob the homes of the wealthy in London using nimble small boys to gain entry. As she struggles to stay safe while investigating the many tentacles of this crime ring, she looks for help from two very different young men at the music hall. But one of them must be lying.

Nell’s brother Matthew is also investigating the case, and it is leading him closer to the music hall, its links with the underworld, and the possible involvement of Nell’s friends.

This is an intricately plotted book, wellresearched and fast moving. The characters are generally well drawn. However, the large number of plots and subplots make it confusing to try to keep track of all that is going on. Also, a superfluity of characters makes it difficult to maintain connection with any of them. The latter part of the book has Nell dashing around London so frenetically that this reader felt quite exhausted.

Valerie Adolph

THE CRUMPLED LETTER

Alice Quinn (trans. Alexandra MaldwynDavis), AmazonCrossing, 2018, $10.99, pb, 366pp, 9781503904361

This Belle Époque mystery, first published in France, is now translated and available through AmazonCrossing. It features the dual protagonists, Lola Deslys, a courtesan, and her assistant, Miss Fletcher, a disgraced English governess. Early in the novel, they discover the lifeless body of an Italian chambermaid, Clara Campo. They find her under a bush in the gardens of the Hotel Beau Rivage in Cannes.

She reeks of absinthe. Lola knows the girl, and she convinces Miss Fletcher and her friend, author Guy de Maupassant, that this must be murder. The plot thickens when the autopsy discovers the chambermaid was pregnant, and she had been poisoned. Despite their early suspicions of Amedée, her boyfriend, a much more lethal suspect emerges.

The novel succeeds in its lovely rendering of Cannes in 1884. The author captures the class struggle between the gentrified and those who have fallen from grace. Anna, the little orphan who comes to live with Lola and Miss Fletcher, exemplifies the people landing on the bottom rung of society, those who are ill, young, or defamed. Women like Lola and Miss Fletcher have to struggle day to day in order to survive, never knowing if the house they are living in will be repossessed, causing all in their employ to fear losing their status along with them. On the other hand, the novel tends to lose the thread of the mystery within all the side plots that occur. I found myself having to reread portions of the book to figure out where the mystery itself was hiding. Despite that, the book’s merits reside in the depiction of the ways in which the classes mixed with one another.

Gini Grossenbacher

HANGING FIRE

Eric Red, Pinnacle, 2019, $7.99/C$10.99, pb, 313pp, 9780786042982

Bess Sugarland is Marshal of Jackson Hole,

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Wyoming in 1888. In her jail is outlaw and gang leader Bonnie Kate Valance, found guilty and sentenced to hang in Victor, Idaho, located about 16 miles across the Talon Pass.

Because Bess is suffering from a gunshot wound, her friend and bounty hunter, Joe Noose, volunteers to take the prisoner to Victor. Noose is soon followed across the Pass

by Sheriff Bojack and his five deputies. They want to take Valance from Noose and return to Arizona and try the woman for another murder. Unbeknownst to Noose, gunfighter Johnny Cisco is waiting to ambush Noose in the Pass and rescue Valance. Then there is Bill Tuggle and his gang, awaiting Noose’s arrival in Victor. The gang will stop at nothing to free Valance.

This is an edge-of-your-seat novel with plenty of action from start to finish. You wonder how Noose will escape each trial he is faced. It’s well-written, with great characterization throughout. This book is a Western lover’s dream read. Even though it’s a sequel to Noose, I just had to go out and purchase the first book. A writer of several blockbuster films, Eric Red is a welcome addition to the Western genre.

Jeff Westerhoff

THE CALIFORNIA RUN

Mark A. Rimmer, Penmore, 2018, $19.95, pb, 405pp, 9781946409546

In 1850, a good deal of the population of Europe and North America would love to get to the gold rush boom town of San Francisco to seek their fortune. However, the vast distances involved, and the state of transportation technology at the time, make the trip inordinately difficult and expensive.

The California Run is the exciting story of the two stately clipper ships, “the greyhounds of the sea,” racing to see which will reach San Francisco from New York City first.

The Achilles is brand new with an international crew of “pack rats” who sign on just to get to the gold fields, unfortunates who have been shanghaied by “crimpers,” including a group of Swedes who have just arrived in America, volatile officers, and exotic female passengers. Sapphire is an experienced ship financed by an unscrupulous tycoon. The first to arrive will gain incredible profits and a $50,000 prize for her owner. However, a saboteur has been embedded on the Achilles to assure she loses. The book focuses on the daunting nautical and personal dynamics aboard the Achilles.

I’ve no doubt the attentive reader will qualify as at least an apprentice seaman or navigator on a sailing ship after finishing this masterful novel. The nautical lore imparted is impressive and complements the intrigue, betrayal, violence, romance and humor superbly. There is murder and mayhem and a mysterious spy orchestrating it all within the wooden confines of a sleek sailing ship. A fascinating detail is that the ship’s lookout is 175 feet above the waterline, and most of the crew works topsides. As the author no doubt intended, the 36

reader gets caught up in the excitement as the Achilles’ speed becomes increasingly swifter through astute seamanship by an unlikely source. A thrilling and satisfying adventure which I happily recommend.

Thomas J. Howley

DUCHESS BY DESIGN

Maya Rodale, Avon, 2018, $7.99, pb, 384pp, 9780062838803

Women’s lib gets sexy in this bright, saucy tale set in Gilded Age New York City. The Duke of Kingston requires an American dollar princess to restore his decaying estates, and Adeline Black does not fit his requirements; she’s a scrappy seamstress—or rather, dressmaker—with designs on her own shop and high-class clients, which leaves her no time for an interfering Duke. That is, unless helping said Duke with his heiress hunting will showcase her unique gowns that allow a woman freedom, allure, and—most daring of all—pockets. The very ducal Kingston needs an education in how to treat an ambitious, independent, luscious lady, which Adeline is glad to provide in between championing the working girl and trying to protect herself from gossip and her clients’ handsy husbands. The more Adeline makes him see the error of his traditional ways, however, the more Kingston wonders whether this dashing American might be the duchess of his dreams. It’s chick lit set in 1895, bouncy and playing for laughs, but the glitz doesn’t hide the starker hints of just how limited women’s options could be in Adeline’s world.

Misty Urban

ONCE UPON A RIVER

Diane Setterfield, Atria, 2018, $28.00/C$34.00, hb, 480pp, 9780743298070 / Doubleday, 2019, £12.99, hb, 432pp, 9780857525659

In the dead of winter in 1887, the regulars at the Swan, a pub on the Thames, sit around telling their stories, when the latest and most exciting story bursts into the room – a severely injured man holding a dead child collapses on the threshold, victims of the icy river. The child, a girl, is put in a storage shed while the unconscious man’s wounds are tended. When the nurse finally has time to examine the body, it shocks her by proving to come, incredibly, to life. Were they all simply mistaken in thinking her dead? The girl is strange – melancholy and mute – and has an odd effect on all who meet her. Is she the child of an abandoned wife, who recently committed suicide? The kidnapped daughter of a wealthy local couple? The sister of a much-abused, solitary housekeeper?

It turns out more than one nearby family is missing a four-year-old girl. All attempt to claim her as the mystery of her identity and provenance deepens.

Setterfield, like her regulars at the Swan, is quite a storyteller. This particular one is reminiscent of campfire ghost stories – convenient coincidences and pat endings suffused throughout with eeriness. Yet this story has an incredible depth provided by

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Setterfield’s wonderful characterization, which extends to every single player in this novel’s substantial cast. From the nurse to a kindly farmer and his wife to even the animals, all are crafted with a skill that allows them to step off the page, weaving the myriad strands of this tale into something both immersive and fascinating. Setterfield’s storytelling voice is lyrical and mysterious, the plotline is tinged with the supernatural, and the evocation of atmosphere is perfect in this slowly unspooling tale of love, loss, and reunion.

Bethany Latham

WHEN WINTER COMES V.A. Shannon, Kensington, 2018, C$17.95, pb, 344pp, 9781496716507

$15.95/

A narrator known as Mrs. Jacob Klein attempts to set the record straight about the illfated Donner Party, which left Independence, Missouri, to make the westward trek to California in 1846. The novel is told by Klein as a teenaged girl, who, fleeing an abusive childhood in Cincinnati, joined up with the settlers on their journey by becoming attached to the family of the German Louis Keseberg as a servant. Interspersed throughout are italicized sections that she relates as an adult looking back on the events; this shift in narration can be a bit jarring and confusing at first.

From the very beginning of the journey, the wagon train was fraught with troubles, and when the Donner group decides to break away from the larger train and take a proposed shortcut across the Sierras to California, the Kesebergs go along. The author provides a good account of the trip’s events, descriptions of both the beauty and harshness of the landscape and of the various arguments, jealousies, and violence among the travelers.

The grueling passage through the wilderness is portrayed very realistically: of the settlers being stranded due to the early snowstorms, living in rude shelters, starving, praying for rescue, dying. What occurred when the food ran out and dead bodies were available is related, but downplayed.

At times the narrative seemed slow and a trifle overblown with too much backstory and unnecessary detail, and I never felt truly engaged. However, the author has done her research and manages to capture the drama with accuracy, using a strong heroine who endures dreadful trials and survives to tell the tale.

Michael I. Shoop

SECRETS IN A HOUSE DIVIDED

Clara Silverstein, Mercer Univ. Press, 2018, $25.00, hb, 224pp, 9780881466690.

During the summer of 1864, young wife and mother Amanda Ayers Carter is struggling to survive with her daughter Nell in their Richmond home while her husband Edwin is off fighting for the Confederacy. Having lived in the shadow of Edwin’s first wife, and alone due to her husband’s military service,

the lonely Amanda becomes enamored of a soldier she nurses at a local hospital. Finding herself pregnant, she contrives to hide it for a while, but when discovered, she’s harshly dismissed from the hospital and given little support by the baby’s father, who reveals he is already both married and a father. With little money, the city in crisis, and in her condition, Amanda realizes her only support is from her enslaved maid, Cassie, and the two devise a desperate plan. But Cassie has a plan of her own: she wants to leave the Carters and become free, free to discover the whereabouts of her husband and her children and possibly to make a new life with them.

Silverstein deftly weaves together the stories of two women in conflict with the times they live in, with each other, and within themselves. Their situations show that life’s choices aren’t always clear-cut, and there are often hard sacrifices to be made. The novel is smoothly written, with good use of period detail and the atmosphere of a city in turmoil, and with humanly flawed characters facing extreme circumstances. She shows a fine grasp of local Richmond geography and her use of place names like Church Hill and Shockoe Valley add authenticity to her narrative (only one quibble: Monroe Square wasn’t named as such until 1869). Overall, a satisfying read.

Michael I. Shoop

IN THE FAR PASHMINA MOUNTAINS

Janet MacLeod Trotter, Lake Union, 2018, $14.95, pb, 544pp, 9781503903166

In 1810, a North Sea storm affects two lives.

Alice is born in a Northumberland lighthouse and abandoned by her mother. On the Isle of Skye, an uprooted tree kills the father of five-year-old John. Alice is brought up by the lighthouse keepers, but George, the local schoolmaster, tutors her. John learns a lot from the laird, MacAskill, and his Afghan manservant. In 1827, John is accepted by the East India Company. Sailing for London, John’s ship capsizes near the Northumberland lighthouse. Fortunately, Alice manages to rescue John and nurses him. In love, they agree to marry and travel to India. John travels first, promising to write, but Alice doesn’t receive his letters, nor he hers. Although Alice learns that she is an heiress and moves to her father’s estate, she cannot get over John. When Alice receives George’s letter from Calcutta, proposing and inviting her there, she accepts and books a passage to India. However, fate has other plans for her.

Janet Trotter has penned this lengthy saga based on her ancestors’ experiences in India, but also on her intensive research and travels, which show in the details. The earlier part of the novel set in Northumberland and on the Isle of Skye is a pleasurable read containing much information about life in the lighthouses, farming estates and so on. Similarly, the later portions of the novel, set in India and Afghanistan, are vividly presented. These

will interest to readers unfamiliar with those regions. The British Army’s disastrous retreat from Kabul is covered with some fictional elements added. Although coincidences abound, a certain amount of suspension of disbelief is needed. However, the masterful plotting of the storyline with its interesting characters, both heroes and villains, holds our interest to the end, which centers around the First Anglo-Afghan War. Waheed Rabbani

THE GLOVEMAKER

Ann Weisgarber, Skyhorse, 2019, $24.99, hb, 312pp, 9781510737839 / Mantle, 2019, £16.99, hb, 304pp, 9780230745773

A n n We i s g a r b e r excels at the slowly unfurling tale, where the characters’ waiting and indecision build tension as deftly as any action sequence. The Glovemaker, a quiet story set in a small canyon-bound community of Latter-Day Saints, is no exception.

It’s deep in the winter of 1888, and Deborah Tyler waits for her husband, Samuel, a traveling wheelwright who is late returning from his seasonal circuit. Though he promised he’d be home by the first of December, it’s January, and Deborah misses him immensely.

A knock on her door one snowy night brings not Samuel nor one of the months-old letters still trickling in from the hinterlands, but a stranger—a polygamist on the run from the U.S. marshals. She reluctantly offers him shelter, like Samuel and his brother Nels had done for other fugitive polygamists before escorting them to the next point of refuge. But, unlike the other frightened men, this stranger brings trouble with him, trouble that threatens the peaceful isolation of their community and tests the fragile trust that Deborah and Nels hold for one another. As Deborah continues to watch the horizon for Samuel’s return, she also warily watches it for the danger she’s sure is coming.

Though this is not a book without violence, much of its disquiet comes from what the characters can’t see or feel, from their nervous anticipation of what threats—to their lives, their souls, and their isolation—might lie just beyond the horizon. With Deborah we hold our breath, we pace, we feel the bite of the winter air. Her patience is not passivity; rather she’s fierce in her quiet determination. The plot holds few surprises, but the characters balance secrets, both from each other and from the reader. A skillful read, beautifully evocative of time and place. Highly recommended.

Jessica Brockmole

20TH CENTURY

THE LIEUTENANT’S NURSE

Sara Ackerman, MIRA, 2019, $16.99, pb, 352pp, 9780778307914

Eva Cassidy climbs aboard the steamship SS Lurline with a new name and plans for a fresh start. Recently enlisted as an Army Corps nurse, she is going to join her boyfriend Billy, who is stationed at Pearl Harbor.

Hoping to put her troubled past in Michigan behind her, Hawaii seems like the perfect place to start over.

Crossing the ocean on a steamship is not what she expected. The food is sumptuous, the views glorious, and the passengers, including some fellow nurses, are warm and friendly. The most unexpected, however, is the instant connection she feels to the mysterious Lt. Clark Spencer. A friendship quickly turns into something more profound, and Clark confides that he fears an attack on American soil is likely.

Upon landing, Eva tries to forget about Clark but is unable to keep her thoughts from returning to him and their time on the ship.

Also troubling her is his warning of a Japanese attack; everyone else says it would never happen, but could they be wrong?

Ackerman has a real talent for writing vivid descriptions and compelling characters. The reader is drawn in alongside Eva on the SS Lurline and experiences her wonder at seeing Hawaii for the first time. These beautiful scenes are sliced through as the attack begins, with the unflinching descriptions of falling bombs and wounded soldiers in the military hospital. Eva is a complex heroine, and even briefly mentioned characters are engaging and add to the story. I’m usually not a fan of romances, but I couldn’t put this one down.

Highly recommended.

Janice Derr

BITTERSWEET BROOKLYN

Thelma Adams, Lake Union, 2018, $14.95, pb, 352pp, 9781503904606

The story of a Jewish mobster and the rippling effects on his family is at the heart of this compelling novel set in Brooklyn in the early 1900s. The inspiration for the story came from the author’s own family, as Abie “Little Yiddle” Lorber was the author’s great-uncle.

The majority is told from the perspective of Abie’s younger sister, Thelma, who is based on the author’s grandmother. Soon after Thelma is born, her father dies, leaving her immigrant mother practically incapacitated and poverty-

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stricken. Thelma’s older sister Annie takes over raising all the children, but she and the mother form an alliance against Thelma and her two older brothers. In fact, Abie and his brother Louis are sent to an orphanage for two years, while the women struggle to stay afloat financially.

Growing up without love takes its toll on Thelma, who, while close with her brothers, can never please her mother and her sister.

In fact, they are downright cruel to her, which affects her whole life. She tries desperately to find love elsewhere, be it through her Italian friend’s large family or through marrying a mentally ill man.

The novel is an atmospheric one, as it conjures up realistic imagery of the underbelly of the Brooklyn mob as well as the poverty and desperation of many people in the preand post-World War I era. It is less about the mob and more about a family affected. The themes of family loyalty and the lasting impact of childhood neglect are told with compassion and authenticity. I was a bit disappointed in the ending, as it is far from uplifting; nor does it have the resolution that I was hoping for, but ultimately the book is well-executed.

Hilary Daninhirsch

SHADOWED BY DEATH

Mary Adler, Dancing Dogs Books, 2018, $14.95, pb, 282pp, 9781732009707

Shadowed by Death is Adler’s second World War II mystery featuring Lieutenant Oliver Wright. Wright is a homicide detective and a Marine, invalided out of the war with a leg injury.

As both a Marine and a detective, he’s charged with investigating the attempted murder of a Jane Doe in the Presidio in 1944. In addition to that case, he’s also tasked with protecting Sophia Nirenska, a Polish resistance worker intent on exposing the Russian massacre of Poles in the Katyn forest. Throughout the book there are several attempts on her life.

Animals figure heavily into the plot. Wright’s constant companion is his German shepherd, Harley, who was in Guam with him. A young girl named Rosie has an affinity for them as well, rescuing a dog named Blue from the husband of her missing friend. The villains are telegraphed by the way they treat these animals.

Adler has written a melancholy, atmospheric mystery with a number of threads. Some could have been unraveled earlier had characters just talked to each other, so I grew a bit impatient. Wright and supporting characters are well-drawn, touched by war, trying not to be consumed by it. I look forward to the next in the series.

Ellen Keith

UNEASY LIES THE CROWN

Tasha Alexander, Minotaur, 2018, $27.99/ C$36.50, hb, 304pp, 9781250164704

Set in London in 1901 as Queen Victoria lies dying and the monarchy passes to Edward VII, this novel is predicated on the possibility of an 38

attack on the new king. Lady Emily Hargreave’s husband, Colin, has been asked by the Queen shortly before her death to protect the new king. The Queen passes him a paper which contains neither hints nor instructions, but rather some apparently meaningless words.

Colin and Emily, assisted by their friend Jeremy in his new motor car, follow clues that lead them into the slums of London, where men have been killed and their bodies dressed to represent an English king of past times. The manner of death also represents the death of that monarch.

Regularly throughout the main narrative, a subplot switches the reader back to the time of King Henry V and his battles in France, including the victory at Agincourt. The main character of this period is William Hargrave, later knighted for his exceptional bravery in battle and his protection of the king. His wife, Cecily, the model of a perfect stay-at-home-inthe-castle-while-your-husband-goes-off-towar wife, has her own troubles with a licentious cousin trying to bring her into disrepute.

Despite the choppiness of the transitions between the two narratives, Alexander manages to link them with the thoroughness of her research and her knowledge of English history. The extent of this research appears all too often, slowing the action and adding to the tedium of stereotypical characters that have flashing eyes and clenched teeth.

Contrasting the wealth of the nobility with the poverty of the London slums is a trope with many facets and possibilities. The patronage of Colin and his wife demonstrates tasteless elitism rather than the nobility that is implied in the opening of the novel.

Valerie Adolph

A MOMENT IN CRIME

Amanda Allen, Crooked Lane, 2018, $26.99/ C$40.50, hb, 288pp, 9781683318811

A Moment in Crime is the second in Allen’s Santa Fe Revival mystery series. War widow and painter Maddie Alwin, enjoying a party at the Museum of Fine Arts, with her paintings on display, is startled by the arrival of her distraught cousin, Gwen. This book’s prologue establishes that Gwen and Maddie, daughters of New York society, were as close as sisters and uninterested in the plans their parents had for them. Maddie dreams of studying painting in Paris while Gwen wants to be an actress.

By 1922, Maddie has settled in Santa Fe, and Gwen has gone on to California to act. Gwen’s latest movie, a Western, is on location in Santa Fe, and she’s had an unhappy love affair with the film’s married director. Of course, his wife is the leading lady. When the director, Luther Bishop, is discovered dead by hanging, Gwen is the prime suspect.

I felt a bit of a sophomore slump with this one. Maddie remains an interesting character, breaking the mold her parents wished to put her in, but she spends much of the book playing “what if I had stayed in New York?”

The presence of her cousin and another childhood friend who’s the writer on the film

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prompt these musings, and they don’t advance the plot or her relationship with David, the handsome British doctor she met in the first book. The movie set means there are a wealth of characters that have their own motives for wishing Bishop dead, but none stand out.

The result is a denouement that I greeted with a shrug. What does stand out is the beauty and history of Santa Fe. Allen writes Santa Fe as Maddie paints it, with vivid blue skies and sunlight. So, yes, I’ll come back for the third.

Ellen Keith

TONIC AND BALM

Stephanie Allen, Shade Mountain Press, 2019, $22.95, pb, 208pp, 9780998463438

In 1919 medicine shows have lost their popularity, but Doc Bell’s Miracles and Mirth Medicine Show is still hanging on by a shoestring. The ever-changing assortment of entertainers travels from one rural Pennsylvania town to the next, staging acts from song and dance and acrobatics to sword-swallowing.

After a sufficient crowd fills the seats, Doc Bell peddles alcohol-laced “miracle cures” to gullible buyers. Oscar Sauer (an actual doctor) oversees the sales to weed out the truly ill and refer them for authentic medical help—when he isn’t dreaming of his next bottle of whiskey.

Stephanie Allen’s Tonic and Balm presents fortunate readers with a fascinating look at the itinerant troupe and their hardscrabble world. Black, white, hetero, gay—about the only thing the performers share in common is their poverty, a trait which also marks their audiences. The troupers form shifting relationships, haze newcomers, punish the lazy or stubborn, and sullenly look after Antoinette, a young woman deformed by hydrocephaly, who is taken from a home for “incurable children,” only to be pressed into service as a sideshow freak.

Ms. Allen’s performers narrate chapters in turn, providing cross-hatched character studies which I particularly enjoyed. However, we never hear from Doc Bell himself, that charlatan who knowingly sells useless remedies and exploits the desperation of his poverty-stricken minions, and I would have enjoyed that too. However, Ms. Allen’s cast of performers is so diverse and complex that I don’t mind the omission—let Doc Bell keep his secrets. Highly recommended.

Jo Ann Butler

THE ONLY WOMAN IN THE ROOM

Marie Benedict, Sourcebooks Landmark, 2019, $25.99/C$36.00, hb, 288pp, 9781492666868 / $16.99/C$25.99, pb, 288pp, 9781492666899

Vienna, 1933. Hedy Kiesler stands on stage embracing the accolades she receives for her performance as Bavarian Empress Elizabeth. During her performance, a man sits in the audience who, during a brief courtship, soon becomes her first husband: munitions manufacturer Friedrich “Fritz” Mandl. It quickly becomes apparent that Mandl wants the beautiful Hedy to be the

glorious object of his desire, rather than an equal partner, or acknowledged for her brilliance or any other attributes outside of the physical. After their relationship becomes physically as well as emotionally abusive, Hedy stages a fantastic and secret effort to remove herself from the marriage.

Hedy’s escape takes her to America, where she makes her way to the sound-stages of Hollywood. It is there that she meets famed film producer Louis Mayer, and soon the relatively unknown young woman known as Hedy Kiesler becomes the famed actress, Hedy Lamarr—the woman all women wanted to be, and the woman all men wanted.

Throughout Lamarr’s life, she struggled to be known for more than her looks. She was a highly intelligent woman who helped create the concept of frequency hopping, which could have helped war efforts in the 1940s and saved many lives from being lost.

Benedict’s story brings Lamarr to life on the page and shows that she was, in fact, more than the only woman in the room.

Recommended for readers interested in Hedy Lamarr’s life, though some may be disappointed that the story does not stray far from the same information included in the 2017 documentary, Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story.

Elicia Parkinson

TEMPTATION RAG

Elizabeth Hutchison Bernard, Belle Époque Publishing, 2018, $14.95, pb, 410pp, 9780998440644

Bernard weaves a tale of real and fictional characters set during the rise and fall of ragtime music in the U.S., between 1895 and 1929. The two central figures are the author’s husband’s grandfather, pianist Mike Bernard, and Mike’s first wife. Little is known about May Convery, so the author creates a fictional life for her.

May, a wealthy young New Yorker, falls in love with Mike after her family hires him to be her piano teacher. But May’s society suitor Teddy threatens Mike and he loses his job. After learning how to play ragtime from genre pioneer Ben Harney, Mike is hired as musical director for the impresario Tony Pastor. May runs off to marry Mike, but Teddy and May’s father catch up with her. During the confrontation, Mike’s actions convince May that he never really loved her, so she leaves him to marry Teddy.

Mike wins a contest that proclaims him the “Ragtime King of the World,” and parlays that into celebrity. May despises Mike and won’t tell him that her oldest child is actually his.

She finds distraction in writing poetry and as an activist in the women’s suffrage movement.

By 1912, there are hints that the musical scene is evolving: ragtime is on the way out and jazz in. The characters must all cope with a fastchanging world.

Historical African-American ragtime musicians, such as Will Marion Cook, J. Rosamond Johnson, and Abbie Mitchell, appear as minor characters. Their plight of

struggling for recognition in mainstream white America is touched upon in several passages.

Mike is something of a cad; May is an easier character to like. I learned some things about the early music business and enjoyed the story, though it doesn’t surpass Doctorow’s Ragtime as a portrait of the era.

B. J. Sedlock

THE VICTORY GARDEN

Rhys Bowen, Lake Union, 2019, $24.95, hb, 381pp, 9781542040129

Set in England during the final stretch of the First World War, The Victory Garden focuses on Emily Bryce, a naïve but headstrong, upperclass woman who is determined to do more for the war effort than her stifling, snobbish parents will permit. A handsome Australian flyer both prods her into action and wins her heart. Emily signs up to work as a “land girl” to help the farmers produce enough food to feed the nation while the men are away fighting.

But this is wartime, and nothing will be easy— not the job nor the course of true love.

Bowen adds a fascinating layer to this tale of wartime love and rebellion. Emily discovers journals from a long-ago medicine woman and feels a growing connection to her and to another woman who found and used the journals. Through applying the journals’ insights and recipes for herbal cures, she finds a more meaningful place for herself in the world, but also grave danger. Superstitions against women healers, often identified in the past as witches, haven’t gone away, even if the terminology and excuses for accusations against them have changed. But if women must endure male suspicions, they also share bonding and strength in female friendships.

Bowen has created subtle depth of theme and character by layering in women from multiple generations, ranging from the far past to the novel’s present moment in WWI. The echoes in their stories give the novel an enjoyable fairy tale or allegorical feel towards the end as the plot strands fall into place.

Bowen’s masterful weaving of these tales builds a nuanced, thematic portrayal of the inherent strengths of women and the male hackles such power can raise.

Judith Starkston

BENEATH A FROSTY MOON

Rita Bradshaw, Pan, 2018, £6.99, pb, 482pp, 9781509829248

It’s 1940 and teenager Cora Stubbs is not happy about being evacuated from Sunderland to the Northumbrian countryside with her four younger siblings. She almost instantly crosses swords with the sinister Farmer Burns and his repressed wife Rachel, unaware that a second, more subtle menace lurks much closer…

In my experience, World War II sagas tend to fall into two categories – “We’re all jolly Cockneys/Brummies/Scousers/Geordies laughing our way through the Blitz” or “Eeh bah

gum, it’s bleak Up North”. This book definitely falls into the latter category, with hardly any light relief between the dramas that Cora, and her mother Nancy, face. Bradshaw’s tendency to head-hop throughout each scene means she deprives herself of two of the most potent weapons in a writer’s armoury: ambiguity and suspense. The reader is never left in any doubt who the goodies and baddies are, and while the latter all have deeply troubled childhoods, none has a single redeeming feature. In fact, as story arcs go, the most interesting character is not Cora (who pretty much stays the same) but Rachel, who is changed radically by the evacuees and by Cora in particular.

There are some clunky info dumps to show the progress of the war and a few minor errors: haymaking should take place around June, rather than August; pheasants physically can’t fly very high or very far; and most farmers sell their best produce and eat cheaper alternatives, rather than consuming their own profits. I’m also not convinced by the forensics of a death near the end of the book but can’t say more for fear of spoilers.

That said, Cora is a sparky heroine that saga readers are bound to warm to, and there are some lyrical descriptions of the countryside.

Jasmina Svenne

DAUGHTER OF MOLOKA’I

Alan Brennert, St. Martin’s, 2019, $27.99, hb, 320pp, 9781250137661

Ruth (Watanabe) Harada is a survivor of not one, but two forced internments. When her parents were infected with leprosy, they were exiled to an isolated peninsula on the Hawai’ian island of Moloka’i.

Born free of the disease in 1917, Ruth is given up for adoption, but the baby is stigmatized by her parents’ illness and her half-Japanese, half-Hawai’ian heritage. It takes a few years for the little girl to find a loving home with the Watanabe family of Oahu.

A few years later, the Watanabes move to Sacramento, California, and become successful farmers.

Twenty years later, one of America’s bleakest events occurs – the internment of mainland Japanese residents, even those born in the U.S., after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Ruth’s extended family is forced to sell their prospering farm for a tenth of its worth, to endure winter’s frigid grip and desert heat at the Manzanar relocation center – a polite name for a concentration camp. Ironically, if the Watanabes had stayed in Hawai’i, they would have been unmolested, for the island’s

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Japanese residents were vital to Hawai’i’s agricultural economy. That sad irony also tears at the Watanabe family.

Alan Brennert is delighting readers who enjoyed his highly popular novel, Moloka’i, with a long-awaited sequel, Daughter of Moloka’i. I haven’t seen the first book, but Daughter is a perfect stand-alone story, with a profoundly touching twist as the story unfolds.

It’s a powerful study of societal and personal prejudice, of redemption on many levels, and of the rich relationship between mother and daughter. Daughter of Moloka’i is also a cracking good story, and I loved it.

Jo Ann Butler

THE YEARNING HEART

Sylvia Broady, Allison and Busby, 2018, £8.99/$12.95, pb, 320pp, 9780749023690

This novel is a curl-up-on-the-sofa read for lovers of historical romance. In war-time Britain, sixteen-year old Frances is forced into an intimate one-night encounter by her brother-in-law and becomes pregnant. As was usual then, the girl was blamed, rather than the man, and Frances is banished to a farm to give birth far away from home. As she goes into labour, her mother Agnes books her in under her sister’s name. After her twins are born, Agnes takes them away. Frances is told not to go near the family and then, chillingly, that her daughter, Christine, has died. Eventually, after years of living alone and missing her child, she sets out to reclaim her lost son, Michael, who has been given to her sister, Isabel. The story does not end there in its multiple cruelties, including her child being sent to Australia and Isabel refusing to acknowledge Frances’s claims. On receiving a letter from Frances, her sister reacts instinctively. “Isabel’s face hardened. She had no intention of replying to Frances. And never would she tell Michael anything. She tore the letter to shreds.”

The novel has pace, and Broady places relatively realistic obstacles in the way of the mother finding her lost child, although some coincidences are a little far-fetched. The East Yorkshire setting is well drawn, and there are some good descriptions of landscape. The historical period is also well conjured. This is a book to read on a rainy day with a full pot of tea. I found the heartless grandmother and bitter adoptive sister a little thin as characters, but Broady deftly unpicks some of society’s feelings about adoption and illegitimacy, tropes that still retain great power today.

Katharine Quarmby

THE WEIGHT OF A PIANO

Chris Cander, Knopf, 2019, $26.95, hb, 336pp, 9780525654674

At the turn of the 20th century, Julius Blüthner listens for the music hidden in the trees as he searches the Romanian forests for the timber that will form the Blüthner No. 66, 825 piano.

After residing with a blind German who 40

had escaped Nazi Germany for Russia in 1941, the piano passes to eightyear-old Katya, who senses in her eyes and ears, hands and feet the stories the instrument expresses through its keys and hammers and strings.

The piano later finds a home in southern California with 26-year-old Clara. Though never able to actually play the upright, she can’t part with it, transporting it from apartment to apartment as she moves from lover to lover; following it as a photographer takes the instrument on a week’s long photo shoot in Las Vegas and Death Valley; holding on to what she remembers of her father and his own attachment to the piano.

From the first note of its birth, the Blüthner serves as a conduit for fantasy, bereavement, jealousy, remembrance, sorrow, emptiness, and understanding. It is a substitute for lost connections and a link to new ones. It lives even when it stands silent.

The Weight of a Piano is deeply moving.

It will resonate with anyone who has been shattered by loss, anyone who is frozen in time or place, unwilling to open themselves to others or unable to overcome the anger that accompanies the absence of love. The life of the piano—and its presence in the lives of Katya and Clara—lingers in the music of the mind and heart.

K. M. Sandrick

LEADING MEN

Christopher Castellani, Viking, 2019, $27.00, hb, 356pp, 9780525559054

Leading Men achieves what historical fiction does best. Taking the spotlight from the famous protagonists in history, the novel projects its luminous beam onto the supporting cast and proves that the role played by lovers, partners—enablers and disablers—is infinitely more significant and complicated than we might think. Thus, a man, whose role in life is to sustain a mentally unstable author, could turn out to be his murderer, while another self-destructs when he is unable to reconcile his desire for fame with his role as muse to a world-renown playwright.

The story opens at one of Truman Capote’s

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1953 Portofino parties, where Frank Merlo and his lover Tennessee Williams form a friendship with Anja Blomgren, a young Swedish actress, who harbors a secret passion for Merlo. The threesome are joined by Jack Burns and Sandro Nancini, whose troubled relationship—Burns is an abusive alcoholic, while Nancini takes care of him—uncannily mirrors the twisted tie that binds Merlo and Williams. After a gruesome attack interrupts their sunny sojourn, and one member of their group suffers a fateful injury, their happy summer comes to an abrupt end.

Fast forward to 1963, when Frank Merlo, estranged from Williams, lies in a hospital bed, dying and waiting to reconcile with his lover.

Years later, Blomgren receives a visit from Nancini’s college-age son, who persuades her to mount the play Williams dedicated to her before his death. As she relinquishes her part in the drama to his friend, she breaks a lifelong habit of selfishness and isolation.

An artist’s novel that contains heart-stirring contemplations on the nature of love, volatility, and responsibility, Leading Men is highly recommended.

Elisabeth Lenckos

THE HIDDEN

Mary Chamberlain, Point Blank, 2019, £14.99, hb, 332pp, 9781786075055

Jersey under German occupation in the Second World War. Dora Simon is a German-Jewish refugee in her mid-20s, working as a midwife on the island. She has to be very careful to hide her true identity from bureaucratic investigations by the Nazis’ islander administrative minions and the Nazis themselves. When she starts a love affair with the widowed father of one of her young patients who had been carrying the child of a soldier of the invading force, it has immense consequences for both of them. Meanwhile, Joe McClarty is a young Irish priest living on Jersey. They all get themselves enmeshed in a web of deceit, abysmal horror and treachery.

While the narrative is centred on wartime Jersey, elements are from Dora and Joe looking back on those eventful, dreadful days in 1985.

Both are once more forced to confront the awful events of wartime Jersey, when a revenant from those days tracks them down. The structure of the first part of the book only gives the back story to the reader en passant with hints and oblique references, so the reader has to spend a large element of the book in working out what is going on and relating it to the situation in 1985, as the reader understands it. Otherwise it’s an easy and enjoyable book to read, and at most times I felt that this story is just that—a story, highly entertaining, but not one that resonates with the essential and credible truth of human behaviour. Possibly there were just too many familiar and even clichéd situations to allow one to become utterly immersed in the narrative—perhaps the difference between competent and excellent fiction. Nevertheless, it is well-researched historical fiction that tells

a tale from terrible times that still needs to be told.

Douglas Kemp

THE NIGHT TIGER

Yangsze Choo, Flatiron, 2019, $26.99, hb, 384pp, 9781250175458.

In the 1930s, Malaya is a British colony.

British culture and technology are everywhere, but local customs, legends, and superstitions often prevail. This novel tells the story of two people and a weretiger, or tiger-man, which fills the native residents of Kamunting, Ipoh, Batu Gajah and the surrounding area with fear.

Ji Lin is an apprentice dressmaker who moonlights as a local dance hall performer.

After lifting a vial holding a finger from the pants pocket of one of her guest dancers, Ji Lin obsesses about its origins. In another story, eleven-year-old Ren is a houseboy, the faithful servant of Dr. MacFarlane, who is on his deathbed. He begs Ren to find his lost finger and bury it before 49 days elapse after his death. By the end of that time, if this finger is not buried with the doctor, his soul will remain a wandering ghost, unable to rest in peace.

The two threads crisscross and coincide.

During these precious 49 days, there are unexplained deaths and local claims about fragments of human and tiger-patterned skin.

The mystery will partially be solved, but in an unexpected fashion. Ren also discovers a train that carries the dead to their final resting place, but why is his dead brother, Yi, still appearing on this train?

This coming-of-age mystery is beautifully written with lush descriptions, characters suffused with the surreal, and a multilayered plot. Choo explores class differences, sacred beliefs, family interconnections, the effects of domestic abuse, and regional diseases. Highly recommended historical fiction!

Viviane Crystal

THE RIVER WIDOW

Ann Howard Creel, Lake Union, 2018, $14.95, pb, 256pp, 9781503903340

Adah Branch and her family are caught up in the disastrous 1937 flood in Paducah, Kentucky. Rescuing items from their farm, Adah’s husband Lester becomes furious that she isn’t following his commands and punches her in the face. She lands in the mud. Fed up with his abuse, she grabs a shovel and whacks him in the head. To her horror, she realizes she’s killed him. Adah, afraid no one will believe it was an accident, drags his body to the rushing, rising Ohio River, and dumps it in. Swept away in the river herself, she’s rescued and has no one to turn to but Lester’s cruel family. Reunited with the stepdaughter she’s raised, Adah must accept their reluctant charity, but plans her escape with the child she failed to legally adopt. The sinister Branches have other ideas—they instantly accuse her of murder—and Adah fears for her life. Adah also has a second chance at love, but will the

child’s safety, away from her nasty relatives, come first?

This is a compelling, complex tale, told in fluid, descriptive prose. The Branch family are near-caricatures of evil, yet their machinations kept me on edge. The details of tobacco farming are interesting and never bog down the story. Adah can be naïve, especially for one of her background. The choices she must make are heartbreaking. Creel’s description of the setting, and Adah’s struggle in the river, is breathtaking. I could sure use a sequel to this book. Recommended.

Diane Scott Lewis

BETSY AND LILIBET

Sophie Duffy, Legend Press, 2018, £8.99/$15.95, pb, 288pp, 9781787198708

London, 1926: two baby girls are born in London.

One becomes Queen Elizabeth II. The other girl is the daughter of an undertaker south of the river. Both Betsy Sunshine and young Lilibet, as her family calls her, have younger sisters called Margaret known for their glamour and flightiness.

Both Betsy and Lilibet develop into strong and faithful women when the world plunges into World War II. As Betsy grows older, we see through her eyes the country changing through the decades. This makes for fascinating social history, full of both humour and tragedy such as rationing, rock’n’roll and the changing attitudes to samesex relationships. Then there are the major national and international events like the death of John Kennedy, the premiership of Margaret Thatcher and the scourge of AIDS. Closer to home, we see Betsy marry, have children and grandchildren, make and lose friends, many of whom she prepares for burial in her vital work as an undertaker. I found this thread that runs throughout the novel both informative and fascinating. I don’t think I’ve ever come across it treated so compassionately.

Despite Betsy’s fair-mindedness and acuity, she makes one bad decision which haunts her throughout her adult life. A lively but thoughtful read where Betsy’s compelling voice (“I should coco”) shines through. Highly recommended.

Sally Zigmond

THE WITCHES OF SAINT PETERSBURG

Imogen Edwards-Jones, Harper, 2019, $16.99, pb, 464pp, 9780062848512 / Head of Zeus, 2019, £8.99, pb, 416pp, 9781788544047

Romanov fans rejoice! At long last, a novel about the two “Black Princesses” (so called because of their black eyes) of Montenegro, whose claim to historical fame is that they

introduced Rasputin to Tsarina Alexandra.

Militza and Anastasia are royal, but Montenegro is backward and poor, so marrying its princesses into the Russian royal family is a major step upward for them. Regarded as outsiders, the Black Princesses plot to move up in the Russian court. To become close to the Tsarina, Militza and Stana dabble in black magic, sure of success. For by 1903, the Tsarina has produced four daughters – but a woman can’t inherit the throne. Alexandra’s desperate to produce a male heir and will try anything to gain a son. Militza and Stana use magic to summon a wizard…and Rasputin arrives.

The Tsarina becomes passionately reliant on Rasputin, especially after the long-desired son is born in 1904 – a hemophiliac. Rasputin can stop Tsarevich Alexi’s bleeding, so despite Rasputin’s riotously scandalous life, the Tsarina refuses to banish him from court. However, the more reliant on Rasputin the Tsarina grows, the less he needs the Black Princesses’ help.

Their friendship becomes toxic, and eventually Militza concocts a deadly plan to get rid of Rasputin. But she’s not the only one fed up with the extravagant “holy man”…

While far from a super-accurate historical novel (to say more would involve many spoilers), its perfervid mixture of historical gossip, wild historical rumors, sex, drugs, and black magic produce a bizarrely addictive tale.

File this one under “I’ll be up til three a.m. reading this”!

India Edghill

THE FORGIVING KIND

Donna Everhart, Kensington, 2019, $15.95/ C$21.95, pb, 351pp, 9781496717009

Sonny Creech can divine water, but more than that, she can divine the storm that’s coming in Everhart’s coming-of-age story set in 1950s North Carolina. Twelve-year-old Sonny lives on the family’s cotton farm with her parents and two older brothers. When her father dies from a snake bite, ruin seems inevitable. That is, until their peculiar neighbor, Frank Fowler, offers his help—and money— for just a little something in return. Sonny’s friend, Daniel, immediately senses that Frank has ulterior motives and warns Sonny. Frank is a truly ugly character, one that isn’t mean spirited for fun, but because some people are just born that way. His venom is directed at Daniel, who isn’t like the other boys in town, and Sonny and her brothers soon learn about Frank’s darker secret. Under his overwhelming yoke, Sonny learns about resilience, the power of friendship, and, ultimately, the sacrifices people make for family.

Everhart is quickly establishing her place in the coming-of-age genre. With Sonny and Daniel, she has created two kids who are not wise-cracking or philosophical adults in children’s bodies, but youngsters who are doing everything they can to understand an ever-changing world and their own place in it. Equally rich are Everhart’s depictions of the South, in this case, the dry cotton fields of a North Carolina farm. There’s a saying

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for North Carolinians: They may not do it better, but they sure do it slower. The pacing of the story lingers, but it is true to the slower nature of North Carolina, and it winds up to a dramatic, heart-wrenching finish. Everhart has certainly “done it better.” With a diverse cast and layered themes, The Forgiving Kind may be Everhart’s best yet.

Bryan Dumas

BRIGHT YOUNG DEAD

Jessica Fellowes, Minotaur, 2018, $26.99/ C$32.99, hb, 400pp, 9781250170811 / Sphere, 2018, £12.99, hb, 400pp, 9780751567199

Louisa Cannon, reformed criminal, nursery maid, and erstwhile chaperone for the Mitford girls, befriends another maid, Dulcie Long.

Dulcie claims she needs to speak to one of the Mitfords’ guests, Adrian Curtis, and begs Louisa to allow her access to the family bedrooms during a party. A short time later that night Dulcie is discovered next to a very dead Adrian Curtis, her pockets full of stolen jewels. The police quickly arrest Dulcie for theft and murder.

Louisa, convinced Dulcie is innocent, investigates, aided at times by Nancy and Pamela Mitford. Meanwhile in London Louisa’s friend, Policeman Guy Sullivan, investigates a renowned ring of female burglars. In time the two investigations converge—but will Guy and Louisa uncover the truth in time to save Dulcie from hanging?

This book, the second of the series, could better be called a “Louisa Cannon” mystery than a Mitford mystery. However, the settings of 1920s London and English country life ring true, and the illustrious Mitford family provides a pleasant backdrop. Fans of Downton Abbey and Golden Age mysteries should enjoy this read.

Susan McDuffie

CHRISTMAS AT TUPPENNY CORNER

Katie Flynn, Arrow, 2018, £6.99, pb, 392pp, 9781784755249

1939, and 15-year-old Rosie O’Leary and her irascible mother, Maggie, work on a horsedrawn barge on the Leeds and Liverpool canal.

It’s a hard life, moving sacks of foodstuffs, and Rosie is lonely. She knows that her mother doesn’t much like her but, however difficult things are, she just has to get on with it. When she meets Tim Bradley, another canal worker, she feels she’s found a friend. He invites her to Liverpool to see the sights and she’s thrilled. But the Second World War changes everything.

Rosie and Maggie move to the Kingfisher, a barge with an engine which Rosie learns to drive. When Maggie leaves to become a Land Girl, Rosie, now eighteen, finds herself in sole charge of the Kingfisher with only two girl rookies to help. One evening, she overhears some men whispering about stealing from the barges. Who are they? Who should she tell?

And who can she trust? Then Tim joins the RAF and their precious friendship is threatened.

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Rosie doesn’t know it, but the glamorous Patsy also has her eye on Tim, and she’s not above misleading Tim about Rosie’s feelings, if it gets her what she wants.

Katie Flynn is a well-known author whose depiction of working-class life in and around Liverpool is absolutely believable. She’s good at atmosphere and at getting across that difficult thing, the zeitgeist of the times. Rosie and Tim never behave anachronistically out of period, for example. Christmas at Tuppenny Corner pulls the reader into Rosie’s world: the wartime privations with food running low; few creature comforts but also the fun of the occasional knees up, not to mention the everpresent danger of a bombing raid. If you enjoy wartime sagas with plucky heroines, handsome and brave heroes, and dodgy villains, this is the book for you.

Elizabeth Hawksley

Douglas Kemp

NIGHT FLIGHT TO PARIS

THE PRAGUE COUP

Jean-Luc Fromental and Hyman Miles (trans.

Lara Vergnaud), Hard Case Crime, 2018, $24.99/£21.99, hb, 96pp, 9781785868870

Former debutante, aspiring actress, and intelligence officer Elizabeth Montagu, now working for Alexander Korda films, is in snowy and gloomy postwar Vienna in 1948. Korda has assigned Elizabeth to guide the author Graham Greene, who is planning to write the script for a film set in Vienna.

In this environment, sinister characters are everywhere, such as Bud Boots, formerly of the OSS, but now working for Life magazine, and possibly also as an agent for the new CIA. Several of these shady types are interested in Greene, following him and spying on him.

Greene is seeking a suitable criminal activity for the main character in his planned film script.

After expert local advice, Greene settles on the trade in adulterated and outdated penicillin, a big and deadly business at the time. After a series of deaths and other complications, the main characters move on to Prague, a city about to fall under a Communist coup.

The story seems to end in a dramatic and fatal confrontation, but revelations in later years lead Elizabeth to see the whole episode in a different light. Meanwhile, of course, The Third Man becomes a successful film. The Prague Coup is a fast-moving, absorbing story.

If you’ve never read a graphic novel, this might be a good one to start with, but be warned: it’s not a “comic book”, and it’s not for children.

Alan Fisk

THE COAL MINER’S WIFE

Elizabeth Gill, Quercus, 2018, £20.99, hb, 298pp, 9781787474628

This is the second in the Deerness series, set in the industrial north-east of England. It is the turn of the century in the small cathedral city of Durham. Vinia is a spirited and intelligent lass, but against her better judgment agrees to marry Joe. Joe owns the local coal pit and is thus a man of comparative wealth and position.

While Vinia knows she does not love him and doubts she ever can, the marriage brings her

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stability and the assurance of a good standard of living. Unfortunately, Vinia has always held a candle for the local ne’er-do-well, Dryden, and matters reach a crisis point when Dryden’s wife dies. He decides that he needs to make up for lost time and reignite the passion that he and Vinia hold for each other. Dryden is rather like a north-eastern Heathcliff in his emotions and irresistible passion, and while Vinia is no Catherine Linton, the regard they have for each other threatens all manner of problems for the main protagonists.

Elizabeth Gill’s fiction is easy to read and the plots zip along. This is not profound, literary fiction, but is eminently suitable to beguile an hour or so and the reader can enjoy the problems surrounding this love triangle, providing that you can suspend disbelief and just immerse yourself in the narrative.

David Gilman, Head of Zeus, 2018, £14.99, hb, 486pp, 9781788544900

David Gilman is best known as the author of the Master of War series, following the blooddrenched adventures of an English mercenary soldier in the 14th century. Occasionally his publishers let him off the leash to write a standalone novel, of which this is the second.

Gilman’s readers will know that his novels are not for the squeamish. This tale of catand-mouse between the Resistance and the Gestapo and others in occupied France in 1943 (the hero does not reach Paris until chapter 30) provides plenty of opportunity for extreme violence. It begins with a Gestapo torture session. However, there is much more to the book than this. Gilman expertly creates the cloying atmosphere of fear and suspicion which blanketed occupied France, where nobody trusts anybody and everyone is a potential informer. Even the Germans do not trust each other.

My problem with this book is that I cannot believe that the British would risk sending one of their codebreakers from the ultra-secret Bletchley Park centre on a dangerous mission into enemy-occupied territory, even to rescue his daughter. I imagine Gilman knows this as well, but the hero’s code-breaking skills are useful to the plot.

A fast-moving atmospheric thriller.

Edward James

A THOUSAND DEVILS

Frank Goldammer (trans. Steve Anderson), AmazonCrossing, 2018, $15.99, pb, 311pp, 9781503904323

Two years after the Dresden firebombing and his investigation of the Fright Man, German police detective Max Heller must solve a series of grisly murders: a Russian officer is stabbed to death, a severed head is found in a backpack nearby. These are followed by dismemberments of other men linked to black marketeering and prostitution.

A Thousand Devils is the second Max Heller Dresden Detective novel, following quickly

after the release of The Air Raid Killer in the US in 2018. Heller is one of only a few experienced German investigators in the war-ravaged city of Dresden. His ability to track evidence and find perpetrators is complicated by murky and conflicting lines of authority and his superiors’ own special interests: How much can he rely on the former Nazi special public prosecutor on the case? How much can he trust the supervising lieutenant general of the Soviet Military Administration?

This carefully crafted police procedural is augmented by political sentiments still smoldering despite the war’s end, and resentments of an outside military authority that confiscates things large and small— factories, machines, cars, even bicycles—and yet proclaims progress and unity and power to the people.

The narrative description of post-war Dresden is relentless. The February cold is felt

by Heller as if “the planet has renounced its sun.” A tent city houses orphans who sip thin broth from old tin cans, scratch at lice and skin rashes, and hold a twig covered by a grimy cloth as a doll.

A Thousand Devils is compelling as a crime drama and insightful as a record of everyday life in one of the most heavily damaged cities in World War II. Its realism reminds readers that wars may end but their consequences endure.

K. M. Sandrick

THE LINES WE LEAVE BEHIND

Eliza Graham, Lake Union, 2018, $24.95, hb, 304pp, 9781503903838

The Lines We Leave Behind tells a rare story, that of a female operative in Yugoslavia during World War II. She tells her story postwar, in 1947, from the Woodlands Asylum in the English countryside. Working with her psychiatrist, Dr. Rosenstein, she attempts to piece together her past. In 1943, she was Maud, a young woman working in London, enjoying the nightlife despite the war, when she was recruited by Robert. Maud may seem unprepossessing, but she’s got a keen memory and a facility with Serbo-Croatian, as her mother is Croatian. After training in Cairo, where she is renamed Amber, she parachutes into Yugoslavia, where she is tasked with joining the Partisans. Everything that can go wrong, does. Graham paints a grim picture of the horrors of war visited on women. But Maud performs her mission well. It’s peacetime that is difficult. Bound by the Official Secrets Act, Maud can’t share any of her experiences with her parents. Marriage to Robert, with whom she had an affair while training in Cairo, turns out to be confining as well.

This is a powerful book, in part because its female characters are so memorable.

Besides Maud, there is Ana, a doctor with the Partisans who distinguishes clearly between

her political and family loyalties. When Maud is an elderly woman, she helps Bosnian refugee women who help her in turn. Maud’s isolation is poignant. What she accomplished as Amber can’t be acknowledged, and therefore what is clearly PTSD in her postwar life goes untreated. A breakthrough in therapy is followed by a major setback. I was grateful for the conclusion of the book, which fast-forwards to 1992, affording Maud a measure of peace and satisfaction.

Ellen Keith

FRONTLINE NURSES

Holly Green, Ebury, 2018, £6.98, pb, 375pp, 9781785039577

Leonora Malham Brown and her friend Victoria, members of FANY (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry), travel to Bulgaria in the midst of the First Balkan War to join a convoy of fellow Englishwomen carrying wounded from the battlefield. Working alone at the frontlines, Leo cuts her hair and forgoes her skirt to cope with the mud and lice, leading a dashing Serbian Colonel to mistake her for a man—a fact which complicates their friendship and Leo’s attraction to him. Meanwhile, Victoria has her own ill-fated romance, and Leo’s almost-fiancé Tom embarks on a reluctant mission to “rescue” Leo which becomes a journey of self-discovery and sparks an accidental career as a war artist. Although the unequal point-of-view splits make the narrative somewhat disorganised, the development of these characters is compelling and adds to the appeal.

It is an unusual setting for a novel and vividly told, with the horrors of war laid bare for both characters and readers. The action is fast-paced, sometimes abruptly so, and though the story is rather predictable, the novel is clearly well-researched. A few clichés, improbabilities, and minor inaccuracies (such as anachronistic use of passports and “art deco”) should not get in the way of an enjoyable read.

Rachel Richardson

THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY

W.E.B. Griffin and William E. Butterworth, IV, Putnam, 2018, $29.00/C$39.00, hb, 400pp, 9780735213067

Captain Jim Cronley is recalled from his safe house in Argentina to once again hunt down former Nazis in Griffin’s latest Clandestine Operations novel. While awaiting trial at Nuremburg, two former Nazi SS leaders— Franz von Dietelburg and Wilhelm Burgdorf— escape. Fearing that these two are tied to Odessa and, possibly, an occult religion that Heinrich Himmler was forming during the war, Cronley is ordered to capture them by all means possible. Along with his team, Cronley finds that hunting escaped Nazis and the whereabouts of Odessa’s vast sums of money leads to strange allies, and, ultimately, that

the enemy of my enemy is my friend may not mean exactly what it says.

Following a similar formula from the previous four installments in the series, Griffin tends toward long summaries of history while eschewing action. For example, a hit on Cronley’s Berlin safehouse happens behind the pages, as does a kidnapping of a Catholic priest by the NKGB. Fortunately, these narrative tellings are fewer and more interspersed than in previous books, lending to a tighter and quicker story. A great deal of history regarding Himmler, the SS, and the possible cult activities engaged in at Wewelsburg Castle is given via long lectures or discussions. Even the role the Vatican played in the ratlines of post-war Europe is exposed.

Fans of Griffin will be pleased with this latest offering, and new readers to the series will be just fine.

Bryan Dumas

THE RECKONING

John Grisham, Doubleday, 2018, $29.95, hb, 432pp, 9780385544153 / Hodder & Stoughton, 2018, £20.00, hb, 432pp, 9781473684386

John Grisham returns to Clanton, Mississippi in his latest novel. In 1946, a World War II veteran and war hero, Pete Banning, walks into a church, shoots the beloved pastor point blank, and then goes home to wait for his inevitable arrest. He never reveals why he shoots the pastor, not to the sheriff, his sister, his attorneys, nor his children. In fact, he thwarts his attorneys’ efforts to mount his defense. He knows that he will likely be found guilty and get the electric chair, but he remains tight-lipped until the very end, leaving everyone wondering: why?

Although a new John Grisham book is usually something I anticipate, the book is unfortunately not up to the caliber of his previous novels. There is no suspenseful buildup but more of a slow crawl. The plot moves along at a snail’s pace, and the book could have been at least 100 pages shorter. The middle section of the book detailing Pete’s time in the war in the Philippines drags on and is unnecessary to advance the plot.

The main character is frustrating and onedimensional; the idea that a sane person would kill another person without revealing his reasons, knowing that it would devastate and ruin the lives of his children, just seems preposterous. The strongest sections of the book are the legal elements and the trademark courtroom scenes, at which Grisham is at his best.

A small twist at the end is a minor saving grace, but it is not enough to deliver the book entirely from its extreme tedium. Although I did not enjoy this book, I would nonetheless have no hesitation picking up any future Grisham novels, as he has proven over the past 30 years to be a consummate and skilled writer; this one simply misses the mark.

Hilary Daninhirsch

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THE MYSTERY OF THREE QUARTERS

Sophie Hannah, William Morrow, 2018, $27.99/C$34.99, hb, 344pp, 9780062792341 / HarperCollins, 2018, £18.99, hb, 400pp, 9780008264451

When

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seemingly unconnected individuals receive letters claiming to be from Hercule Poirot and accusing them of murdering the same person, it gets the Belgian sleuth’s immediate attention. Adding to the mystery, the coroner has already ruled the death to be accidental.

Helping Poirot sort out the clues and track down sparse leads are the amiable Scotland Yard Inspector Edward Catchpool and, to a lesser extent, solicitor Rowland “Rope” McCrodden, a defense attorney somewhat surprisingly noted for his advocacy of the death penalty. What began as no apparent crime at all slowly develops into a web of jealousy, greed, and murder that touches each of the many characters.

The setting and cast are vintage Christie, with a great country house in the late 1920s, and individuals who turn out to be far more connected than is apparent at first. Old and hidden relationships, a changed will, dysfunctional families, and a scattering of insecure or eccentric characters give the novel the distinctive feel of a work by Christie herself.

Despite the obvious efforts to follow Christie’s style and her characters—Poirot and the others—author Sophie Hannah has not produced a mere knock-off. Instead, this work deserves to stand on its own merits of excellent plotting and interesting characterization. It seems more like a continuation of the Poirot novels rather than simply an imitation. If there is a weakness, it is probably the lengthy denouement, which explains, in perhaps too great detail, most every unresolved question the reader could have. For many readers, however, that will be more plus than problem.

I highly recommend this novel to all lovers of Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie, and good mysteries.

Loyd Uglow

MURDER AT THE QUEEN’S OLD CASTLE

Cora Harrison, Severn House, 2019, $28.99/£20.99, hb, 240pp, 9780727888307

Harrison returns us to 1920s Cork, Ireland in this mystery starring Reverend Mother Aquinas.

Reverend Mother is invited to the Queen’s Old Castle—regal sounding, but in reality, a lowend department store near the waterfront.

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The store has sustained a terrible flood, and the management has opened it to the general public for a fire sale of damaged merchandise.

Reverend Mother, always conscious of the needs of her impoverished students, decides to accept the store’s invitation to acquire muchneeded dry goods for the children and begins to put together quite a bundle. As she browses, Reverend Mother notices a strong smell of gas.

When the store owner—much-feared, controlling and very unpopular Joseph Fitzwilliam—staggers out of his office perch high above the floor and plunges to his death, Reverend Mother is there to witness.

In Fitzwilliam’s hand is a canister in which was contained a lethal dose of gas. Immediately, Reverend Mother begins to consider: Who had reason to kill him? The plot thickens when Fitzwilliam’s will is read and almost everyone in the family becomes suspect.

Harrison’s regular cast of characters— Eileen, Patrick and Dr. Scher—all play crucial roles in investigating. Although the Reverend Mother’s body is aging, her mind is still sharp, and she can investigate with the best of them.

A truly engaging entry in a beloved series.

Ilysa Magnus

BEAR NO MALICE

Clarissa Harwood, Pegasus, 2019, $25.95, hb, 368pp, 9781643130521

Harwood has followed up her much-praised debut, Impossible Saints, with a companion novel in which the antagonist of the first book has become the protagonist of Bear No Malice.

The result is an intriguing study of a flawed man, Thomas Cross, who finds new meaning in his life when he meets Miranda, a sensitive, talented young woman as damaged by grief and guilt as he is. Both characters struggle with painful pasts and chafe against the rigid Edwardian social restrictions that have forced them to keep secret their deepest fears and regrets. In spite of this, their basic decency and undeniable affection for one another move them slowly but inexorably into a plot that is both a romance and a critique of the snobbery and misogyny of the time. Miranda in particular is an unforgettable character, and a rare example of a heroine who battles anxiety and mental illness but is not defined by it, nor in need of rescue.

All the characters in this novel, even the minor ones, are complex and surprising, and Harwood deftly blends social realism with fairytale lyricism in a way that is moving without being sentimental. The dialogue is a bit stilted—the characters tend to make speeches rather than banter—but the patient reader will

REVIEWS | ISSUE 87, February 2019

overlook that after the first few chapters as the powerful emotional journey Thomas and Miranda experience, both together and apart, takes over.

Kristen McDermott

THE RAGGED EDGE OF NIGHT

Olivia Hawker, Lake Union, 2018, $24.95, hb, 340pp, 9781503900905

In 1942 Germany, the Nazis force Anton Starzmann, a former Franciscan monk, to leave his monastery and return to the life of a layperson. Desperate to atone for not doing enough to save the children under his tutelage at the monastery, Anton answers an advertisement and marries Elisabeth Herter, a widow with three young children in a small German village; she needs help and wants her family to somehow survive the war. Once married, Anton has difficulty supporting his family through his music lessons alone and he begins to work for the German Resistance, shuttling important messages between towns.

As World War II progresses, Anton’s acts grow more daring and he is suspected of treason.

How far will he go to atone for his sins and will he risk the lives of the family he now has?

In The Ragged Edge of Night, Olivia Hawker tells the true story of her husband’s grandfather, Anton. She brings to life a small German town during World War II and the acts of resistance that the villagers hope will help bring the Reich to an end. In the midst of this, Anton and Elisabeth slowly fall in love. Hawker’s book has received rave advance praise from notable authors but unfortunately, I found the writing style too wordy and in need of editing. This is clearly a personal preference, and there will be others that praise Hawker for her lyrical and poetic writing style. I also found that the plot was thin and that the book moved slowly.

This book was about the German Resistance in World War II, but there was not enough suspense or drama for me.

Julia C. Fischer

THE BEANTOWN GIRLS

Jane Healey, Lake Union, 2019, $14.99, pb, 404pp, 9781542044623

Jane Healey’s latest book is about the World War II Red Cross Clubmobile Girls, who risked their lives to boost the morale of Allied soldiers.

Providing a taste of home with coffee and donuts, these women, like the men they served, risked their lives every day. The Beantown Girls focuses on three young women from Boston.

The best of friends, Fiona, Dottie, and Viviana each have their own reasons for volunteering.

Fiona, the narrator of the book, is desperate to find out what happened to Danny, her fiancé, who is missing in action. She joins the Red Cross to discover what happened to him, but then she falls for another soldier. Dottie, a talented musician and singer, wants to break out of her shell. And Viv wants to leave an unsatisfying job behind in order to find more meaning in her life. Through their time in England and on

the front in France, the Beantown Girls find camaraderie with the other women, forging lifelong friendships and romances. Ultimately, all the women’s lives will be changed by their time serving.

Healey reveals the inspiring and unsung heroines of World War II, the Clubmobile Girls, through the moving stories of Fiona, Dottie, and Viv. While the characters are fictional, Healey meticulously researched these women and based much of the book on historical events and information gathered from primary sources, thus giving the reader the fullest sense of what these women accomplished.

An especially poignant scene, based on an actual event, occurs on Christmas Eve during the Battle of the Bulge, when the three women are stuck on the front, reminding us that even during a war, we are not all that different. This book is highly recommended for fans of Aimie K. Runyan and Jennifer Robson.

Julia C. Fischer

THE VALENTINE HOUSE

Emma Henderson, Sphere, 2018, £8.99/$15.99, pb, 338pp, 9781444704044

The Valentine house, a wooden chalet overlooking the valley of Hext in the French Alps, is given the Greek name “Arete” (meaning excellence or virtue) by its owner, Sir Anthony Valentine, who built it in the 19th century. Sir Anthony loves the classics, and he also loves the Haute-Savoie region with a near-erotic passion evoked in his private journals. He and his large family travel to Arete to spend their summers, and local farmers greet their British eccentricities with a mix of fascination and resentment.

Their exploits are recounted through the eyes of a French teenager, Mathilde, who becomes a servant at Arete in 1914. A bright peasant girl, her narrative voice is sharp and self-aware. She knows she owes her position to her unattractiveness – Sir Anthony’s wife only hires “uglies,” supposedly to deter his wandering eye – but Mathilde cares “not a jot.” She’s a delight to spend time with, as she observes the Valentines, befriending their granddaughter, Daisy, and accompanying them on hikes. During her duties, she comes upon a peculiar love letter whose impact she doesn’t recognize until six decades later.

The chapters set in 1976, told in the third person from the viewpoint of George, Daisy’s grandson, lack the liveliness of the earlier sections, but Mathilde carries the story there also. Now a stubborn widow in her seventies, she faces a tough decision. American developers seek a foothold in the region, and Mathilde’s son, Luc, takes their side – but Mathilde holds a secret that may deter his plan. The two timelines eventually join.

The family saga aspect is entertaining, if somewhat drawn out, but it’s a treat to spend time in these remote, beautiful area of France.

Mathilde is a real cracker, and Francophiles will applaud when she cheekily carves a circumflex (arête means “sharp mountain

ridge”) into the Valentine house’s written name.

Sarah Johnson

GOODBYE FOR NOW

M. J. Hollows, HQ Digital, 2018, £2.99, ebook, 384pp, 9780008287962

It’s 1914, and Europe is being torn apart as World War One gains momentum. The novel is written from the perspectives of two brothers, Joe and George Abbott, as they experience the war in differing and opposite ways.

George, at 16, views war as an adventure, a chance to go beyond his home in Liverpool and prove his heroic mettle to himself and his father. His brother Joe, a few years older, refuses to enlist and stays behind as a passivist and objective observer. He is a reporter for the local newspaper who, through his writing, tries to expose the agony and tragedy of war.

Joe is eventually imprisoned as a coward but stays firm to his beliefs while his brother suffers in the trenches. Despite the stoic resolution of both brothers, the war begins to take its toll on their physical and mental well-being, and uncertainly looms as to whether either will survive it.

While the novel tackles deep issues, the characters and their family dynamic fall a bit flat, at times seeming little more than a metaphor for the global effects and human cost of war itself. We learn that there are different forms of heroism and courage.

Although it is clear that their father had fought in South Africa and been injured during battle, we learn little of what lies behind each boy’s choice, and the novel never really delves into the minds of the main characters. We get a generalized sense that past history plays a role in the decision of each brother, but the specifics are never truly explored. The book rings true in its philosophy, but seems a bit lacking in personal empathy. Nonetheless, a readable story for fans of the era.

Jackie Drohan

LEARNING TO SEE

Elise Hooper, William Morrow, 2019, $15.99/ C$19.99, pb, 384pp, 9780062686534

Dorothea Lange, most famous for her Depression-era portraits taken for the federal government, is a complex and pioneering figure with a story worth telling. Hooper’s fictionalized look at this life covers both Lange’s personal life and long career. We watch her arrive in San Francisco, achieve commercial success, fall in love, and lose it all in the Great Depression. While this would be enough to fill an entire book, Hooper’s story does not end there. Dorothea continues her photography work during World War II and beyond, most notably by photographing the Japanese internment camps on the West Coast, all while juggling family responsibilities and friendships. Famous artists from the time make cameos throughout the story, adding interest and breathing life into this depiction

of the creative community in San Francisco at that time.

Hooper does an admirable job at condensing a multitude of decades and careers into an immensely entertaining and page-turning novel. Tension underlying Lange’s life, such as the societal expectations on a working woman and mother of the time, are there, but subtly illustrated in lieu of hitting the reader over the head. One does wonder about the emotional impact of some of Lange’s choices, such as to place her children in foster care to pursue work during the Great Depression, but while we do not see the full weight of her decisions internally, we see the aftermath. A troubled relationship with her son Dan looms large over the second half of the novel, and it is only at the end, when the threads of her personal and professional life weave together, that the two stories in this novel—the artist’s journey and the home and romantic life of Lange reveal themselves as one.

Ellen Jaquette

A DAUGHTER’S GIFT

Maggie Hope, Penguin, 2018, £6.99, pb, 406pp 9780091949174

Set in the northeast of England at the start of 1910, this dramatic saga reveals the struggles of strong and desperate ten-yearold Elizabeth to try and protect her siblings after the death of her mother, when the family is split up. Elizabeth and her brother are sent away to a children’s home, her younger sister is placed in the care of an abusive farmer, and her baby brother is left to the care of her aunt. Eventually finding purpose as a nurse, Elizabeth falls in love with wounded officer Jack Benson who is from a different social standing. However, her true sacrifice is made when she tries to protect her sister Jenny.

This is a heartrending tale of hardship, emotional cruelty and physical abuse; not only of Elizabeth, but of other females who have not been able to make a stand and escape from their drudgery and circumstances.

However, Elizabeth’s character is appealing, steadfast, loyal and strong. She works hard, is honest and never loses sight of her goal to reunite her family. This fast-paced tale of survival is embellished with a tender romance that seems beyond Elizabeth’s original station in life, yet proves to be her greatest reward.

The historical background is skilfully woven through the fiction. The ending delivers some level of justice for past wrongs and is uplifting and promising for the future of both Elizabeth and her young family.

Valerie Loh

FOREVER AND A DAY

Anthony Horowitz, Harper, 2018, $26.99, hb, 304pp, 9780062872807 / Jonathan Cape, 2018, £18.99, hb, 304pp, 9781911214779

World War II has ended, the Korean War has just begun, and British agent 007 turns up dead off a quay by Marseilles. The young James Bond is recruited to take the dead

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agent’s place—his desk, his number, his license to kill— and to find out what happened.

When Bond arrives in Marseilles, it seems the local good guys (CIA) and bad guys (Corsican heroin producers) already know who he is, where he’ll be snooping, and what he wants. They all warn him to go back to his little island before the Brits will need to find a third 007.

But Bond keeps plugging and soon runs into horrific predicaments, two beautiful women connected to his search, and a plot to destroy America from the inside out.

Horowitz gives us more than the usual elements of a Bond novel. Three main villains are truly horrible, though we don’t learn the whole truth about one until the very last pages.

Bond’s love interest is smart and beautiful, but ruthless and enigmatic. One huge chase scene is both credible and head-spinning. The maiden voyage of a lavish but almost empty passenger ship, built and owned by one of the villains, becomes a prison for torture and other mayhem.

Through it all, the characters remain very real; each has depth, displays true feelings—or an inability to feel anything. Bond himself is at once brash and insecure as he grows into the 007 role. Solid prose enhances the riveting plot lines and keeps readers engrossed (“The sun has always been a little in love with the south of France”). Horowitz’s writing mastery is fully realized in this page-turning thriller.

Highly recommended.

G. J. Berger

THE GIRL IN THE PINK RAINCOAT

Alrene Hughes, Head of Zeus, 2018, $27.95/ C$37.95/£18.99, hb, 360pp, 9781788543965

Life for factory girls was uneventful in Manchester, an industrial city in northwest England in 1939. For Gracie Earnshaw, working in a factory making raincoats, the only bright spot was her developing relationship with Jacob, nephew of the German-Jewish owner of the company who shows her a world of theatre and music that she had never imagined.

When Gracie and Jacob fall in love and decide to marry, they face opposition because of the difference in religion. But this is nothing compared to the opposition on their wedding day when Jacob is arrested because World War 2 is beginning, and he is German. The wedding does not take place, and Gracie spends weeks searching for the internment camp where Jacob might be held. Finding it, they are able to connect very briefly before he is deported 46

with many other Germans in the direction of Canada.

When his ship is torpedoed, Gracie is inconsolable. Her mother seems too distracted to offer support, so she finds some support with a man she works with, a man who has his own problems. Meanwhile Gracie’s mother rocks her world again by revealing a shocking secret that leaves Gracie her increasingly vulnerable. The war is starting in earnest with heavy bombing across the city, but Gracie has rediscovered theatre and the magic that Jacob showed her… and perhaps more.

This book is difficult to put down. The characters drew me in, especially Gracie, who seems to epitomize the women battered not only physically but emotionally by war and the events surrounding it, ones over which she has no control. The detail of Manchester in that period is precise, the dialect is minimal but accurate, and the attitudes of the time are realistically portrayed. All this adds depth and colour to a strong and riveting story.

Valerie Adolph

PAPER WIFE

Laila Ibrahim, Lake Union, 2018, $14.95, pb, 298pp, 9781503904576

Think about having to leave your country with a different identity. Your success or failure on entering a new nation depends on a paper book full of a biography and details about your former home, right down to whether an oven was built into a wall or as a separate unit. This is the future of Mei Ling in 1923 Canton, China.

Her older sister was meant to be the paper wife, but sudden illness mandated her replacement.

On the ship to America, Mei Ling becomes familiar with her new husband and his son, Bo, as well as a young girl named Siew. Mei Ling or Wong Lew She, as she is called in America, constantly fears failure, only calmed by her deep faith in Quan Yin, the Chinese goddess, and her growing trust in her husband, Kai Li. Husband and wife have multiple secrets from each other that are gradually revealed, but not until many troubles threaten their growing closeness. Kai Li will sacrifice himself many times for this wife he has come to love. Other Chinese men and women try to cheat the couple out of self-interest, but many come to their aid just at the point when despair is about to overwhelm them.

Paper Wife is a lovely novel that shows a unique perspective of life for Chinese immigrants. One scene is so horrific that it takes some time for the reader to adjust.

However, that scene is immediately followed by such sacrifice and forgiveness; some might think it’s breathtaking, while others might think it’s outrageous. Laila Ibrahim restores one’s faith that most people live good and generous lives. Highly recommended historical fiction!

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Viviane Crystal

THE LOST GIRLS OF PARIS

Pam Jenoff, Park Row, 2018, $16.99/C$21.99, pb, 368pp, 9780778330271

The Lost Girls of Paris is uniquely told in alternating voices and timelines between 1946 and 1943. In 1946, Grace Healey is passing through Grand Central Station when she discovers an abandoned suitcase. Curiosity overcomes her, and she opens the suitcase, discovering a folder with a dozen pictures of different women. Grace investigates the owner of the suitcase and photographs. She discovers they belonged to a woman named Eleanor Trigg, who had that same morning been tragically killed in a motor car accident. She also finds out that Eleanor had been the leader of an elite group of women spies, sent to France during the war.

Grace becomes determined to find out what happened to the women, as no trace can now be found, and their secret mission seems most intriguing.

In 1943, Eleanor Trigg is in charge of a group of women, determined to help win the war and do their bit. Training her women to become couriers and radio operators is no easy task, especially as each woman has her own worries and issues. One of these women is Marie, who is sent to France to infiltrate and spy on the enemy.

Occupied France becomes a real place, with real people and real dangers as Jenoff weaves fact with the historical fiction. Different chapters trace the path of these women, intricately detailing their backgrounds and circumstances that lead readers, and Grace, to their final fates. Mystery fans will appreciate the finely woven intrigue; adventurers will love the daring deeds of these women; history fans will appreciate the war-torn countryside and historical accuracy; romance fans will also not be disappointed. This really is a book for all.

Highly recommended.

Rebecca Cochran

BLACK CAMP 21

Bill Jones, Polygon, 2018, £8.99, pb, 374pp, 9781846974601

In the wake of the D-Day landings, thousands of Germans are taken prisoner, including SS officer Max Hartmann. But while Hartmann broods on the whereabouts of the wife he barely knows and the child she was pregnant with when they parted, other more dangerous SS prisoners are plotting to continue the war, even from the wrong side of the Channel—men who are a threat to anyone

even suspected of not thinking the same way. This tightly-plotted thriller is based on little-known real-life events that culminated in December 1944. We know from the first page that five men were executed, but not the nature of their crime or their identities.

Hartmann is a likeable hero, who has retained his humanity despite his training and his wartime experiences: a member of the SS not from conviction, but because, a natural loner, he hoped it might integrate him with others of his generation. What is striking is the extreme youth of the more fanatical POWs— almost too young to remember a time before Hitler seized power and products of years of indoctrination. Even when all the evidence points to the contrary, they simply cannot allow themselves to believe they’ve lost.

Some, like ringleader Goltz, are clearly too damaged to be redeemable, but Hartmann cannot help hoping that there is a chance of saving his childhood friend Koenig. And in the midst of this there is the ambiguous figure of Rosterg—older than the other “Category Black” prisoners, intellectual, multilingual and apparently able to bridge the gulf between POWs and guards.

I was hesitant about accepting this review book, but it is a compulsive read, even— perhaps especially—when you know things are unlikely to turn out well. A must for historical thriller fans, but be warned: the climax is very, very dark.

Jasmina Svenne

JOSEPHINE BAKER’S LAST DANCE

Sherry Jones, Gallery, 2018, $16.00/C$22.00, pb, 384pp, 9781501102443

Josephine Baker may not be as well-known as some other movie stars of her era, but her rags to riches story is one of the most fascinating. Josephine was born in St. Louis to a poverty-stricken family; her mother saw her as just an extra mouth to feed, so she “sold” her child as a laborer to a few different families. But Josephine always knew that she was destined for something more, and ultimately clawed, crawled, and fought her way out of her circumstances.

A combination of fortuitousness and luck and perseverance and connecting with the right people landed her opportunities to become a star in France. She came back to the United States on and off but quickly learned that Europe was more accepting of her, her vaudeville act, and her trademark banana skirt.

The author paints Josephine as a free spirit, one who was uninhibited and took risks in her personal and professional life. Josephine created her own persona and made her own rules, both on and off the stage. She fought injustice and racism around every corner, helping with the French Resistance during World War II and later supporting the American Civil Rights movement.

It is evident that the author conducted meticulous research before writing this book,

as she has brought Josephine Baker fully to life in its pages. Baker’s roller coaster of a life was filled with adventure, conflict, love, heartbreak, and success, and the author tells her story with gusto.

Hilary Daninhirsch

A PICTURE OF MURDER

T. E. Kinsey, Thomas & Mercer, 2018, $15.95, pb, 317pp, 9781542046022

In 1909, life is relatively quiet in England, the clouds of global warfare still a few years in the future. Lady Hardcastle and her trusted lady’s maid, Florence, live a pleasantly unruffled life in the bucolic village of Littleton Cotterell. But that simple life is rudely interrupted when a troupe of actors comes to the village with their spooky moving picture, The Witch’s Downfall, and one by one, the actors are murdered in ways eerily similar to their “death scenes” in the movie. With the local police flummoxed by the murders, Lady Hardcastle summons up her amateur sleuthing skills to try and solve the case.

This genteel murder mystery evokes nostalgia for a time and place and a manner of living that is long gone. It depicts English country life in all its fine detail, especially regarding society and class. But the novel is not at all stuffy and abounds with humor.

The witty repartee between Lady Hardcastle and Flo breaks with proper social etiquette of the time, adding nice touches of humor throughout the novel. This is a thoroughly enjoyable read and is highly recommended.

John Kachuba

FLIGHT OF A MAORI GODDESS

Sarah Lark (trans.

D. W. Lovett), AmazonCrossing, 2018, $14.95, pb, 556pp, 9781503904231

This is the third in the Sea of Freedom trilogy, translated from German by D.W. Lovett. It’s the turn of the 20th century, when manned flight is on the horizon. Atamarie Turei is of mixed white and Maori ancestry, an engineering student at a New Zealand university who longs to fly. Her friend Roberta Fence is infatuated with Kevin Drury, a doctor escaping pregnant lover Juliet by joining the forces going to the Boer War in South Africa.

Roberta signs up to be a teacher in the Boer prisoner camps so that she can be near Kevin. Kevin is quartered on the van Stout family, whose daughter Doortje is raped and becomes pregnant; Kevin offers to marry her in order to save her from the only other fate she can imagine, suicide. Back home, Atamarie encounters real-life N.Z. flight pioneer Richard Pearse, whose experiments with flying may have predated the Wright Brothers.

It took me a long time to get into this novel, but the fault is not Lark’s; it’s part of a lengthy family saga stretching over decades, and not having read the first two volumes, I was missing background information. I

had to flip back to the genealogical chart multiple times, trying to keep the characters’ relationships straight. But once I figured those out, I enjoyed the story very much. I am in awe of the large amount of research Lark must have done, from a vast distance (she lives in Spain): Maori customs, New Zealand culture and history, the Boer War, early manned flight, Southern Hemisphere natural history, etc. Lark’s afterword tells which incidents were real and which she made up. I heartily recommend Lark’s book to family saga fans, but for maximum enjoyment, start with the first volume, Toward the Sea of Freedom.

B.J. Sedlock

WE MUST BE BRAVE

Frances Liardet, Putnam, 2019, $27.00, hb, 452pp, 9780735218864 / Fourth Estate, 2019, £14.99, hb, 432pp, 9780008280130

This novel opens with one of the loveliest images in World War II literature: a small girl, “curled up, thumb in mouth,” and fast asleep on the bus that has evacuated her from Southampton during the December Blitz of 1940. But little Pamela is not an easy child, as Ellen Parr, the young married woman who takes the foundling into her home, quickly discovers. As the war rages on, she and Pamela fight countless battles and endure many rapprochements, until Ellen realizes that she has come to care deeply for her charge. However, the end of the war brings an unwelcome surprise, and their makeshift family is cruelly separated. Will Ellen and Pamela see each other again? As the century wears on, and Ellen reaches middle and finally old age, another child enters her life, and a friend delivers the miracle that might make a reunion possible.

A story that begins at Christmas, We Must be Brave is beautifully written. Its scope is ambitious, as it seeks to portray the longtime ravages that the war and its attendant upheavals perpetrated upon the home front.

Through her relationship with Pamela—and later, Penny—we get to intimately know Ellen, whose story becomes inextricably intertwined with the fates of the girls for whom she takes responsibility. Historical war novels often feature romantic entanglements between men and women, or they depict male friendships, but this tale of a woman falling in love with a child at the height of the conflict, and recovering that love many years later, is different and original. Although 1940 was England’s darkest hour, the fact that a woman who has lost everything is willing to mother a child wanted by no one else bodes well for the future.

Elisabeth Lenckos

THE WARTIME SISTERS

Lynda Cohen Loigman, St. Martin’s, 2019, $27.99, hb, 304pp, 9781250140708

Growing up in Brooklyn in the 1920s and ‘30s, Ruth and Millie are as opposite as sisters can be. While Ruth is plain, Millie is beautiful.

Ruth is the sensible one, while Millie is the

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spontaneous one. Ruth is an excellent student, while Millie only gets by in school. Even their husbands are as different as night and day: Millie marries a handsome but shady and unreliable man, while Ruth’s husband is not as attractive but is a good provider. Underlying their relationship is a current of jealousy and a mutual feeling of never measuring up to the other.

When Millie’s husband goes off to fight in World War II, leaving her to raise her child alone, she is forced to move in with Ruth’s family in Massachusetts, where Ruth helps her obtain employment with the Springfield Armory.

Buried childhood resentments reemerge, as Millie becomes the darling of Ruth’s social circle. Both women are hiding secrets that could prove devastating.

Other colorful characters get a voice, which adds depth to the story and highlights how wartime circumstances have different effects on people. There is Arietta, the Armory chef who doubles as a talented singer, and Lillian, another Springfield resident whose standing in the community is elevated due to her husband’s high rank within the Armory.

The story drew me in from the very beginning, though I did have high expectations, having previously read Loigman’s first, equally stellar novel, The Two-Family House. The heartfelt and utterly engrossing story tackles such issues as sex discrimination, unequal treatment of children, and the repercussions of keeping secrets and holding grudges. Ultimately, the book is a triumphant tale of healing and is a fine addition to literature set in the World War II era.

Hilary Daninhirsch

THE BEST OF INTENTIONS

Susan Anne Mason, Bethany House, 2018, $15.99, pb, 352pp, 9780764219832

In 1919, Grace arrives in Toronto, Canada, from England, having received letters pleading for help from her widowed sister, Rose, who has a young child. Grace is also there to convince Rose to come home to see their sick mother.

Five years ago, Rose had married a Canadian, Frank Easton, the son of the wealthy owners of the hotel where she’d worked. Grace knew that Frank had died during WWI but is devastated upon learning from the local parson that Rose has succumbed to the rampaging Spanish flu. Grace learns that Rose’s baby, Christian, has been adopted by the very Eastons who’d disowned Frank and shunned Rose, considering her below their class. Although the parson assures her that Christian is being 48

well looked after in the Eastons’ mansion, she is concerned for his well-being. Following anonymous chance encounters with both Frank’s sister and brother, and upon learning about their advertising for a nanny, Grace concocts a devious scheme to secure the job.

This opening novel in Susan Mason’s Canadian Crossings series, set on an estate with a large manor house, conservatory, and numerous servants (including an amorous chauffeur), provides delightful glimpses of scenes like those from Downton Abbey. The Toronto location is fitting, as it has similar properties. The descriptions of the area and the nearby lake island are very appealing.

Mr. Easton is typically rigid, but his wife and their daughter and son aren’t. They let the nanny dine with them. Hence, it’s perplexing that Grace, herself of modest means, would consider the prosperous Eastons inappropriate guardians for Christian, and abhors the proposal that he might be sent to a boarding school in Europe. For a devout Christian, some of her actions seem uncharacteristic and uninspirational. We might ponder whether it’s appropriate to lie and misrepresent oneself, even if it is with the best of intentions.

Waheed Rabbani

A MURDEROUS MARRIAGE

Alyssa Maxwell, Kensington, 2019, $26.00/ C$35.00, hb, 307pp, 9781496717399

Photo-beautiful Julia Renshaw is set to wed businessman Gilbert Townsend on the Isle of Wight in the spring of 1920. Julia’s family estate holdings can no longer cover expenses, and they push her into this loveless union. Gil, forty years her senior, won’t last long, and she’ll soon be free and wealthy. Immediately after the wedding, Gil plans to swoop Julia onto his yacht and then far away for their honeymoon.

Gil disappears on the wedding night, the yacht remains anchored, and Gil’s body washes ashore. Julia admits they had a fight leading to a broken mirror and a nasty cut on her hand. Blood smears the yacht’s railing. The local police arrest her for murder and order all wedding guests to stay put.

Julia, in the local jail, can’t help herself. But her maid, Eva, and younger sister Phoebe get to work. They talk to everyone they can, secretly follow some, sneak back onto the yacht for clues, check Gil’s past, and find enough loose ends to throw many under suspicion. There’s Gil’s old war-time friend, an avaricious cousin, Gil’s sister, his personal secretary, Julia’s former suitor, even the wedding photographer.

This cozy mystery moves at a nice pace once the reader gets through the wedding (and becomes familiar with the many characters, including their royal titles). The dialogue rings true. The details of the clothes, food, the yacht and local hotel, the town and shore are wellpresented but do not bog the story down. Plot surprises unfold to the last few pages. Fans of Maxwell will enjoy this fourth in the series and will look for the next one.

REVIEWS | ISSUE 87, February 2019

G. J. Berger

BOWLAWAY

Elizabeth McCracken, Ecco, 2019, $27.99/ C$34.99, hb, 380pp, 9780062862853 / Jonathan Cape, 2019, £16.99, hb, 384pp, 9780224087117

Bertha Truitt is found in a New England cemetery one cold day early in the 20th century. She is not dead but unconscious. The young watchman who finds her is thankful that she is not a deceased soul breaking out of her sepulchre. His cries for help bring to the scene a doctor named Leviticus Sprague. Returning to consciousness in business-like fashion, Truitt is uncertain of her name but quite clear that she is the inventor of candlepin bowling. Soon she is recovered enough to build a bowling alley.

She appoints Weir, the watchman who found her, to be its manager.

She meets Leviticus Sprague from the cemetery again, and as a phrenology devotee, she reads his splendid black head with her white hands. Then his hands read her head.

Together they build an octagonal house with one interior staircase and one on the exterior, and they embark on life together.

From this unusual start, the novel follows the history of the bowling alley through the events of the 20th century, Truitt’s death, and succeeding generations. It covers the story of small-town America and pastimes like bowling that formed an important part of the social fabric.

McCracken discards the stereotypes of people in a small town, indeed all their usual characteristics in fiction. Her characters, like the bowling alley itself and the octagonal house, are inimitable.

I found the novel itself unlike most I have read.

The characters, while unique in themselves, are presented objectively with little relatability.

Like puppets on a stage they behave as the writer dictates. While Bertha Truitt and her legacy pervade this book the writer’s objectivity seems to work best in her depiction of a small town full of awkward prejudices, rumours and self-righteousness. Reading this novel was, for me, a struggle.

Valerie Adolph

THE CYPHER BUREAU

Eilidh McGinness, Book Guild, 2018, $12.95, pb, 291pp, 9781912362226

This book is on based on the life of Marian Rejewski, Polish patriot and mathematician, who is credited with heading up the team that solved Enigma. While the author points out that the book is ‘entirely a work of fiction,’ her research on World War II and the men she writes about is detailed, with factual places, incidents and even some photographs.

The story opens with Marian as a young boy, a bright student with an aptitude for mathematics. While attending university, he and other similarly talented students are co-opted to work on Enigma. We are privy to the unrelenting secrecy of their work, their successes and frustrations, fascination with mathematics and cryptography. Throughout, Marian’s love for his family and the agony of

being separated from them battles with his obsession with cryptography.

Operating in top secret, the code-breaking team at Poland’s Cypher Bureau decodes encrypted messages from Germany, finally passing their work to Bletchley Park in the UK. With the outbreak of the Second World War, the team are forced to flee Poland, for a while operating undercover in France, keeping just ahead of Gestapo agents trying to track them down. During a last desperate bid to escape to Switzerland their guide double-crosses, robs, and leaves them. They are captured, starved and tortured, but stoically they remain tight-lipped.

My reservation about this compelling read is that it is ill-served by its editing. Marketed as fiction, there is the lack of emotion throughout.

Under-developed characters and some tooshort, jerky incidents cry out for amplification.

More showing rather than telling, ironing out repetition, and a check on punctuation would have lifted this story to another level.

Patricia O’Reilly

THE LADY OF TARPON SPRINGS

Judith Miller, Bethany House, 2018, $15.99, pb, 320pp, 9780764231063

Zanna Krykos comes from a traditional Greek family that only wants to see her marry a Greek man and have babies. However, Zanna prides herself on making her own choices, an anomaly in the early 1900s when this story takes place. Now she’s got a huge problem. Her friend, Lucy, is a doctor whose father recently passed away and left her with a contract to fulfill, that of letting a Greek manager and his crew come to Florida to begin diving for valuable sponges. There’s no loophole in the contract, and so she agrees to manage the arriving men for her friend.

Nico Kalos, the man in charge, treats Zanna like a “know nothing” female, even though she is an accomplished lawyer. There’s also a mystery as to why a couple of men get mortally sick after staying underwater too long. Finally, an interfering businessman seems to bring trouble with him whenever he appears. To reduce the sometimes-irksome, continuous tension in these problems, an intriguing romance heightens Zanna’s life and the reader’s appreciation. The Lady of Tarpon Springs is a nice read related to the actual deep-sea diving for sponges in Florida’s history.

Viviane Crystal

A MEAL IN WINTER

Hubert Mingarelli (trans. Sam Taylor), New Press, 2018, $15.00, pb, 144pp, 9781620974841 / Portobello, 2014, £7.99, pb, 144pp, 9781846275364

One brutal Polish winter in an unspecified year during World War II, three German soldiers go hunting one of “them,” meaning a Jew. If they succeed in bringing their quarry

back to camp, they’ll be spared having to participate in mass executions, a duty that disturbs them. But that means sacrificing anyone they find, even if they need not pull the trigger themselves.

The understated prose conveys the frigid, barren winter landscape, the trio’s attempts to pull through their hardships together, and, from the outset, having to choose between unpalatable alternatives. Such is their state of mind that when they capture a Jew and find an empty house in which to warm up, that counts as a special occasion.

With no attempt at adornment, A Meal in Winter is a razor-sharp moral tale that attempts to explain how men caught up in a heinous crime contribute their share of it. The characters never soapbox; like most soldiers, they’re largely inarticulate, especially about feelings, and, to make the moral case even more cold-blooded, bear no particular malice toward Jews. Also like most soldiers, these three concentrate on how to stay warm, eat enough, and get safely through another day—but that program requires them to murder innocents. By their actions, therefore, they’re innately unsympathetic, but I doubt Mingarelli cares; rather, he wants the reader to ask, “What would I do in this situation?”

In that, the author succeeds, which is why this slim novel packs a punch and will satisfy readers of literary fiction in particular. But if you’re looking for hope, compassion, or escape from a moral box, you won’t find them here.

Larry Zuckerman

THE WIDOWS

Jess Montgomery, Minotaur, 2019, $26.99, hb, 336pp, 9781250184528

It is 1925 when we meet Lily Ross as she is cleaning out a jail cell in preparation for the new prisoner her husband Daniel, the sheriff, is bringing to Kinship, Ohio. Her life is turned upside down when Daniel’s uncle arrives with the news that he was shot and killed, and the prisoner has escaped.

Marvena Whitcomb, Daniel’s friend and former lover, comes into the story as a widow who has recently lost her husband in a mining accident. Her 16-year-old daughter is missing, and Daniel had promised to help find her. Still grieving her loss, Lily is asked to act as interim sheriff until an election can be held. She steps into her husband’s shoes and investigates the suspicious circumstances surrounding his death while searching for Marvena’s daughter.

Bronwyn County, Ohio, is mining country in the Appalachians. Crushing poverty and the death of loved ones in mining accidents mark every miner’s family. Attempts to unionize the workers gain momentum in the effort to bring about change. The mine owner, Luther Ross, Daniel’s brother, brings in the Pinkertons to suppress unionizing activities and control the workers, but their tactics are strong-armed and criminal. This creates more challenges

for Lily in her investigations and in keeping the peace.

The stories of the two widows, Lily and Marvena, are told in alternating chapters.

Jess Montgomery has based the character of Lily on a real-life sheriff of Vinton County, Ohio, during that time. I enjoyed the way she told the story through the eyes of both widows. Despite a plot inconsistency where Marvena discovers a small diamond among her daughter’s possessions at two different times, this is a well-written novel with suspense and mystery deftly woven into the history and struggles of an Appalachian mining community. The result is a gripping narrative with a vivid historical setting.

Janice Ottersberg

SMOKE AND ASHES

Abir Mukherjee, Harvill Secker, 2018, £12.99, hb, 328pp, 9781911215141 / Pegasus, 2019, $25.95, hb, 352pp, 9781643130149

The Christmas of 1921 is approaching in Calcutta, and Captain Sam Wyndham of the Imperial Police Force could hardly care less. A shell-shocked war veteran, grieving widower, and opium addict, he has trouble enough keeping his career together under the worried scrutiny of his high-caste native aide and friend, Sergeant “Surrender-not” Banerjee. To make things worse, the city is rife with unrest, thanks to Gandhi’s independence movement and an impending (and ill-judged) visit by the Prince of Wales. Then, while visiting an opium den, Wyndham stumbles on an odd murder – that proves the first in a string of weirdly similar crimes. Torn between protecting the secret of his addiction and investigating, Wyndham will find himself racing against time as he clashes with the all-powerful secret Section H to uncover old and dangerous secrets. The third in a series, this is a clever whodunit, well served by smart writing, a dry-witted narrator, and a vividly recreated, rich, and colourful setting.

Chiara Prezzavento

FLAME IN THE NIGHT

Heather Munn, Kregel, 2018, $15.99, pb, 320pp, 9780825445545

Teenagers face challenges that no one should experience in Vichy France, 1942. Julian is the son of the assistant pastor of a pacifist philosophy Christian church. Benjamin is his friend, whose life is now in danger because he is Jewish. Elisa is abruptly put in charge of her siblings when her parents are deported.

Together they strive to survive and help others to hide or escape into nearby Switzerland.

A budding and impossible romance ensues between Julian and Elisa. Julian’s father is detained; his mother has a psychotic episode as a result of the stress. There is an informer in the town, and so are German soldiers convalescing from war wounds. When Elisa saves one of them from drowning, she wonders if her act will condemn some of her own people. When she is deported, Julian leans on

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the German soldier for help, a move that takes him into the heart of the Nazi machine.

Dense, atmospheric, and sometimes too convoluted in style for its own good, this beautifully rendered novel delves into both border life during World War II, and the moral and philosophic conflicts good people of faith confronted in those tumultuous times.

Eileen Charbonneau

DEATH AT THE WYCHBOURNE FOLLIES

Amy Myers, Severn House, 2019, $28.99/£20.99, hb, 224pp, 9780727888051.

Welcome to the lovely mansion of the Ansley family, Wychbourne, where Lady Ansley is about to host a reunion of all her friends with whom she sang and danced in the theater.

This is meant to be a reenactment of The Wychbourne Follies, and a lively, fun-filled time. On the first night of this 1926 gathering, Lady Ansley inadvertently introduces a mystery in everyone’s mind: the disappearance and perhaps even death of a fellow actress, Mary Ann Darling. The mood of every person in the room instantly changes. Another guest, Toblas St. John Rocke, is known as the peacemaker or comforter, but he’s also known as the keeper of secrets. Nell Drury, the talented Head Chef of Wychbourne, is also a peacemaker, smoothing the way over dangerous conflicts that loom over the household. She’s also a skilled sleuth, repeatedly conferring with her friend Alex Malbray of Scotland Yard. The death of Toblas Rocke stuns all the actors and actresses, and the participants in the Follies cannot escape during different parts of the investigation. As Nell and Alex proceed with their investigation, two more murders occur.

Amy Myers has penned an intriguing and delightful mystery that contains multiple layers of storytelling. Numerous clues are gradually introduced which both help and hinder the detectives, who have another hidden agenda in their meetings. Passions of romance and fear ooze from every character in this perfectly paced plot, which draws the reader to root for and against certain characters. The end is totally unexpected! The second in the Nell Drury series, this is the first historical mystery this reviewer has read and raves about—fine writing and reading for all.

Viviane Crystal

ELLA MAUD

Nicholas Nicastro, Endeavour Media, 2018, $0.99, ebook, 309pp, B07H9D5NLK

A beautiful young woman vanishes; her body is later found. The press runs wild, evidence is irrelevant in the glare of rampant media speculation and popular outrage, and a suspect is tried in the court of public opinion. The disappearance of Ella Maud “Nell” Cropsey, occurring in 1901, has the distinction of being a historical exemplar of this now familiar pattern. Nell went missing off her own front porch after a breakup with her long-time beau, Jim Wilcox. Acknowledged as 50

a paragon of innocent womanhood, the furor was immediate, rising to fever pitch when Nell’s body, curiously well preserved, was discovered over a month later in the Pasquotank River, mere yards from the Cropsey home.

Using the known facts, media and trial accounts, Nicastro has crafted a compelling novel that is so much more than a murder mystery. Character development is strong, adding dimensionality to the cardboard cutouts created by media accounts. While the plotting could be tighter, its nonlinear structure maintains tension while exploring multiple perspectives with equal competency. Nell, her sister Ollie, and Wilcox are vivid, and the entire town of Elizabeth City, North Carolina, is brought to life. Family and social dynamics are effortlessly conveyed, as is a world on the cusp of modernity, and what that forward momentum means for a family transplanted from Brooklyn to rural North Carolina.

Nicastro’s prose is simple and fluid, with frequent moments of figurative elegance: “To preserve the big lie, she was obliged to hatch other, smaller deceptions that multiplied, each demanding its own care and feeding.” The result is a well-written, absorbing fictional take on an already fascinating true-crime story.

Bethany Latham

PENHALIGON’S GIFT

Terri Nixon, Little, Brown, 2018, £8.99, pb, 370pp, 9780349418797

The third part of the Penhaligon saga is set in Cornwall in 1911 and is a family saga concerning Anna Garvey and her daughter, Mairead from Ireland, and the Penhaligons, Matthew and his daughter Freya, and his ex-wife, Isabel. In this book, Anna and Matthew are married and Anna is expecting their child. Penhaligon’s Attic is a bookshop which has been recently run by Mairead after the death of Robert Penhaligon, Matthew’s father. The story tells of the love affairs of the next generation: Freya and Tristan (a local historian), James Fry and Nancy, and Lucy Batten and Teddy. The Battens are another family in the local area, whereas James Fry shares a history with Matthew. Tristan has been researching the town where they live and his discoveries about its dark history may impact upon several of the families still living there. The trials and tribulations of the younger generation form the main part of this third story. There is a useful character list at the beginning to give the newcomer to the trilogy an idea of what is going on.

The characters in Penhaligon’s Gift are well-delineated, especially the female ones, and the reader becomes engaged with their exploits and relationships. The back story which involves the local historian, Tristan Mackenzie, and which concerns mysterious papers and books in Charles Batten’s library at Pencarrick, is less convincing. The reader is expected to believe in tales of smuggling, piracy and mysterious name changes that occurred in the past and which lead to the tragic denouement. The story of the Batten family doesn’t have the same immediacy as the

REVIEWS | ISSUE 87, February 2019

story of the Penhaligons, and the characters are less rounded. However, on the whole, the book is entertaining and readable.

Julie Parker

IN DREAMS FORGOTTEN

Tracie Peterson, Bethany House, 2018, $15.99, pb, 336pp, 9780764219009

February 1906, San Francisco. Judith is residing in the house of a friend, Camrianne; she’d met her on the train from Denver.

Judith’s parents had died, leaving her with few possessions and no information about her relatives. However, an old letter—without a return address—to her mother indicated the presence of an aunt in San Francisco.

Camrianne’s brother, Caleb, a lawyer, manages to locate Judith’s family. Judith is surprised that they are the wealthy Whitleys, and the matriarch wants her to dwell in their Knob Hill mansion. Judith, although enamored with Caleb, reluctantly complies. It seems Judith’s forgotten dreams are coming to fruition, but when a series of life-threatening events occurs, she faces not only a rogue but also a catastrophic natural disaster.

This second novel of the Golden Gate Secrets series continues the story of one of the three women who met on a train bound for San Francisco, and each wants to resolve issues from their past. Written in Peterson’s fluid style, the novel brings 1900s ‘Frisco before our eyes.

While this is an inspirational romance, with characters at times seeking God’s assistance during their difficult times, these prayers occur as part of the story and do not seem forced.

Waheed Rabbani

BEAUTIFUL INVENTION

Margaret Porter, Gallica, 2018, $14.95, pb, 368pp, 9780990742036

Spanning the years from 1932 (Extasy) to 1949 (Samson and Delilah), this is the story of Hedy Lamarr: actress, inventor (if you use a cell phone, thank – or blame – Hedy), the most beautiful woman in the world (according to MGM’s publicity department). A sensation and a scandal by the time she was eighteen, by her death in 2000, her invention had changed the world.

Most people know a few things about Hedy Lamarr – if only because of the character “Hedly Lamarr” in Blazing Saddles. They may have seen her most famous role as Delilah in the 1949 MGM extravaganza Samson and Delilah.

But she didn’t intend to become an erotic icon.

Born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, she grew up in pre-WW2 Austria. Her first movie, Extasy, was the first film to display full nudity and the first to show an orgasm on screen (if you want to see that scandalous scene and some incredible acting, you can find it on YouTube).

At 19, she married Friedrich Mandl, aged 33.

Mandl was an arms merchant, and listening to him sparked Hedy’s interest in science and technology. He was a controlling husband, so Hedy fled to London, where she met Louis B. Mayer. He turned her into the glamorous Hedy Lamarr, who enchanted movie-goers. Hedy

herself was more concerned with war-torn Europe and trying to bring her family safely to America. Her invention of alternating frequency to block torpedo signals (there were whole pages where I took the invention stuff on faith, as it made my head spin) was the basis for cell phone technology.

Beautiful Invention deftly weaves Hedwig Kiesler’s life as an intelligent, daring woman with the seductive, exotic Hedy Lamarr MGM invented and displayed to a fascinated public. It’s fast, fun, fascinating, enjoyable, intriguing, and recommended.

India Edghill

AT THE WOLF’S TABLE

Rosella Postorino (trans. Leah Janeczko), Flatiron, 2019, $26.99, hb, 272pp, 9781250179142

Rosa Sauer, a 26-year-old German secretary living in Berlin, has been hired for an unusual position.

Though women were unable to fight in the war, their services were mandated in other ways.

Rosa, along with a handful of other women, has been assigned to serve as a food taster for Adolf Hitler.

Their frightful job involves spending each day in Wolfsschanze, the Wolf’s Lair. Three meals a day are placed before them, and they must eat the food to ensure that it is not compromised or poisoned before the same food is served to Hitler. It is not a comforting job, and Rosa, whose husband Gregor has been taken captive in the war, struggles with the belief that she and the other women are Nazis because of the work that they were enlisted to do. Through the span of their work, the women create and change alliances with one another and the guards hired to watch them as an added protection to Hitler.

Postorino has brought 1940s Germany alive by telling a story of a job that truly existed though was relatively unknown until the 21st century when a woman in her 90s, Margot Wolk, talked to newspapers about her experience as Hitler’s food taster during World War II. Her story served as Postorino’s inspiration to write At the Wolf’s Table, though sadly she was unable to speak to the original source before Wolk’s death. Postorino has written an engrossing novel with all of the complexities of friendship, war, and romance.

The ending of the novel itself feels rushed as if to tie up loose ends, but the story as a whole is a rich and fascinating look at a nearly forgotten aspect of history.

Highly recommended.

Elicia Parkinson

THE HUNTRESS

Kate Quinn, William Morrow, 2019, $16.99, pb, 560pp, 9780062740373

Ian Graham and Nina Markova are different from other people in their post-WWII world. In her words: “You – in war you hunt stories, in peace you hunt men like him…Me – in war I hunt Nazi to bomb, in peace I hunt Nazis to make pay.” During the war, Nina was a Soviet night bomber who, with her sisters, the Night Witches, completed sixteen hundred sorties over German territory. Ian’s brother, Seb, was murdered by a Nazi huntress, the woman both Ian and Nina are now pursuing.

This novel’s complex plot, spanning from 1937 through the end of 1950, is about the challenges riddling the hunters and hunted in Russia, England and America before, during and after WWII. All the characters are deftly depicted personalities. Ian, a war correspondent, had participated in every battle and conflict he covered. He’s a man with a conscience, carefully cognizant of not becoming as violent as the “enemy.” Nina is a wolverine and spitfire, breathing and fighting with determination, fierceness and a wild sense of humor. Jordan McBride is a relentlessly curious person whose questions break open their investigation.

Every character is superbly talented in assuming disguises and formulating dialogues that are deceptively captivating.

Children experience beyond what their minds and souls can bear, but healing moments, like learning to play a violin and making new friends, partially heal the horrific mental remnants of war. Justice takes on different meanings to different people, but readers cannot help rooting for these characters that alternatively suffer and celebrate, in a strange way shaping unexpected futures. The Huntress is an awesome, must-read historical novel created by a supremely skilled author.

Viviane Crystal

THE G.I. BRIDE

Eileen Ramsay, Zaffre, 2018, £6.99, pb, 402pp, 9781785762437

London, 1941. Trainee nurse April Harvey is devastated by the death of her widower father in an air raid, and uncertain about the intentions of her former childhood sweetheart, Theo. To escape the city, she applies for a transfer to the Royal Cornwall Infirmary in Truro, close to where her mother grew up.

April slowly recovers from her grief, thanks in a large part to the care of her generoushearted landlady, Mrs Teague, and makes

new friends—and enemies. American troops are stationed nearby, and April finds herself falling in love with Major Crawford Dunbar, on whom one of her fellow nurses would seem to have staked a prior claim. Other love stories are woven in, involving two of April’s friends and a pair of African-American G.I.s, which creates tension in families and the community.

The title leaves us in little doubt that there will be a happy ending for April, and Eileen Ramsay has just the right mix of wartime sentiment and heartache: the tragedies of conflict that could so easily shatter a family, tempered with the spirit to win through and the simple pleasures of a dance, some offration treats and friendship.

However, one reason I chose to review this book was that much of the story was set in Truro, a city I know fairly well. The author gives us a detailed description of the August 1942 air raid on the city, but otherwise, apart from passing references to the hospital and the cathedral, and a few street names, there is no sense of Truro as a place.

I would also say that Truro is surrounded by gentle hills, farmland and wooded river valleys rather than the moorland that is referred to on several occasions.

Mary Fisk

FATAL INHERITANCE

Rachel Rhys, Doubleday, 2018, £16.99, hb, 394pp, 9780857524720 / Washington Square, 2019, $17.00, pb, 400pp, 9781982111571

England in the dull spring of 1948. Eve Forrester is a bored suburban housewife in south London, married to the fastidious and tedious Clifford – a self-styled company director of a struggling small road-haulage business.

The old tried, trusted and rather passé plot device of an unexpected inheritance changes affairs completely. Guy Lester, whom Eve had not known at all, had been a wealthy family man living in the south of France and gave her a legacy in his will. She has to travel to Cannes to learn about this mystery bequest and is delighted to escape a domestic boredom and immerse herself in the scintillating sunshine of the French Riviera, where she learns the nature of the bequest and meets the suspicious and surprised members of the Lester family, who are equally in the dark about the reason for this. It is an inheritance which turns Eve’s world upside-down as she determines to find out more about Guy Lester and his connection to her and uncovers a lifetime of secrets and deception.

The story is fully absorbing, if at times rather melodramatic, and the delineation of the Riviera in the first years after the War, the glamour of the brittle lives of the privileged denizens of society, and the legacy of the German occupation are excellently depicted.

Characters are entertaining and vibrantly defined, if somewhat cliché-laden, with little subtlety or ambiguity in their definition.

Rachel Rhys is a pen name for Tammy Cohen, writer of psychological thrillers.

Douglas Kemp

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THE LATECOMERS

Helen Klein Ross, Little, Brown, 2018, $27.00/ C$35.00, hb, 419pp, 9780316476867

With understated elegance, The Latecomers braids many coming-of-age stories into one.

First, we have Brighid “Bridey” Molloy, an Irish teenager whose fiancé dies on the ship from Liverpool in 1908, leaving her alone, and pregnant, in bustling New York City. Then there’s Sarah Hollingworth, the privileged daughter of a Connecticut brass-works owner, who becomes Bridey’s employer.

Vincent is Sarah’s adopted son, and his view of his world, as he grows from childhood to adolescence and beyond, is realistically evoked as well.

These three lives, and others, are linked over generations through a large house and the two secrets it holds.

The story also brilliantly depicts the comingof-age of the 20th century as new technologies are introduced. The plot moves smoothly across this large swath of time. The book’s first part opens in 1927, at the deathbed of Sarah’s father, Benjamin Hollingworth, as the family doctor quietly drops the late patriarch’s medicine bottle into a hole in the wall of Hollingwood, his elegant estate in small-town northwestern Connecticut. This mysterious act has shocking ramifications that come to light much later.

The novel is a stellar example of how deep, carefully woven research can re-create the world of yesteryear. From old-fashioned pastimes like marbles and Lionel trains, to the wonders of electric lighting, to Vincent’s terrified reaction to seeing Birth of a Nation, the early 20th-century setting feels utterly real. The social mores of each era, such as American-style upstairs-downstairs relations and anti-Irish prejudice, are presented through the characters’ actions and inner lives. And all this without any famous names in the cast (President Taft nearly visits Hollingwood, but his plans take a last-minute detour).

While The Latecomers fits nicely into the country-house saga mold, it doesn’t focus primarily on the suspenseful revelation of secrets. Instead it explores, with great wisdom, the heartfelt reasons why people choose to keep them.

Sarah Johnson

GIRLS ON THE LINE

Aimie K. Runyan, Lake Union, 2018, $14.95, pb, 380pp, 9781503904569

Girls on the Line brings to light the World War I Hello Girls. These American women served in the U.S. army as switchboard operators, connecting the troops so that they could 52

get important messages while on the battlefield.

Aimie K. Runyan focuses her story on Ruby, a young Philadelphia socialite, who longs for more than just marriage, c h i l d r e n , and social engagements.

In 1917, after working for the Bell Telephone Company, Ruby applies to be an army switchboard operator and goes to France to do her part, much to the chagrin of her mother. In France, Ruby finds her true calling as a supervisor, but she faces many obstacles, including the challenges of being a woman in a man’s world along with her burgeoning feelings toward Andrew, an army medic (Ruby already has a fiancé, Nathaniel).

Runyan’s book represents the best of historical fiction. First, Runyan introduces readers to the little-known Hello Girls and their instrumental role in helping to win the war. Second, Runyan brings WWI France to life, with its battlefields, hospitals, and switchboard rooms. Within this vivid historical setting, the reader is caught up in the story of Ruby, a strong woman who has one foot in the past and one foot in the modern world, which is not only represented by her desire for a career but also in the love triangle in which she finds herself entangled. Furthermore, the book is about the power of female friendship and feminism, as these women fight for equal rights and recognition. The pages crackle with history, the story of the unsung heroines of WWI, comradery, and finding the courage to be your true self.

Julia C. Fischer

THE DEVIL ASPECT

Craig Russell, Doubleday, 2018, $26.95, hb, 432pp, 9780385544368 / Constable, 2019, £16.99, hb, 496pp, 9781472128355

Prague, 1935. Hrad Orlu Asylum, an ancient hilltop fortress reputedly built to plug the mouth of Hell, once imprisoned the demonic Jan of the Black Heart but now serves as a maximumsecurity psychiatric hospital confining the Devil’s Six, Czechoslovakia’s most notorious murderers. Because the inmates believe that the Devil either coerced them to kill or eviscerated their victims himself, psychiatrist Viktor Kosárek sets out to determine whether their psychopathy confirms his “Devil’s Aspect” theory: that evil resides in the psyche and can therefore be excised, or at least contained.

After administering drugs that “strip away the ego,” Kosárek interviews The Vegetarian, The Woodcutter, The Sciomancer, The Glass Collector, The Clown, and The Demon, who recount both their crimes and the factors that induced them to kill. But only when those drugs bring his patients to the brink of death does

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Kosárek begin to find answers. Meanwhile, just outside the fortress walls, women are still being murdered in Jack-the-Ripper style, and police investigator Lukáš Smolák has arrested a suspect who claims the Devil committed the murders.

The book’s setting and premise make for engrossing reading until the author’s hand begins to show. Egosyntonic and egodystonic behavior, coupled with theories of transdimensional resonances (ghosts), collide with myriad Slavic demon myths including Černobog, the Black God; Veles, the Dark Lord of the Underworld; and Kostej the Deathless.

Countless iterations of shadow, darkness, and forest metaphors fill the remaining spaces in this dense narrative, which also provides a lukewarm romantic subplot and brooding backstories of suicide, animal slaughter, and child rape.

Throw in dreams foreshadowing Nazi occupation, and by Chapter 65, story is eclipsed by device. Twenty-two chapters later, what began as a promising thriller ends in a wild yet somehow laborious ride, its twochapter epilogue dead weight despite an elegant twist.

Rebecca Kightlinger

ANOTHER TIME AND PLACE

Brad Schaeffer, Post Hill Press, 2018, $28.00, hb, 374pp, 9781682616635

After World War I, Harmon Becker studies classical piano under his beloved Jewish mentor. Another Time and Place follows Harmon as he is seduced by the Third Reich, repudiates his mentor, joins the Luftwaffe as a fighter pilot, and has the honor of being awarded the Knight’s Cross by Hitler for bringing down scores of Allied planes. As the war progresses, however, Harmon becomes painfully aware that he is being led by a madman, and that the Nazi cause is doomed. Harmon’s innate humanity ultimately dictates a course of stupendous risk and redemption to escape Nazi Germany and save the woman he loves, and the Jewish family he once betrayed.

Readers interested in air warfare will appreciate author Brad Schaeffer’s scrupulously researched details of the Luftwaffe in action. General readers will be fascinated by the way Schaeffer puts us in the cockpit, hunting and being hunted. We see the skill, courage, split-second timing, and uncanny anticipation of an enemy that define a crack fighter pilot and feel, despite ourselves, the thrill of watching Allied fighters downed.

An affecting love story threads through the novel, and Harmon’s transformation is credible. While the final scenes are pageturners, there are numerous convenient coincidences, and the surrounding story of a reporter interviewing an aging Becker feels a bit forced.

However, by humanizing a recruit to the Nazi cause, Another Time and Place shows how a totalitarian cause can radicalize a fundamentally decent young man, turning

him into a skilled war machine. This novel is a valuable read at a time when despotism and authoritarian rule is on the rise everywhere, reminding us that a single committed, courageous person can defy a vast evil.

Pamela Schoenewaldt

THE AGE OF LIGHT

Whitney Scharer, Little, Brown, 2019, $28.00/ C$36.50, hb, 384pp, 9780316524087 / Picador, 2019, £12.99, hb, 320pp, 9781509889136

I love learning about women whom history has downplayed or ignored, such as Lee Miller, American fashion model-turnedphotographer. The novel begins with Lee in her sixties hiding her alcohol consumption in the kitchen while she prepares an impressive dinner and worries about seeing her editor, with whom she’s had a tense relationship.

Even though I knew the novel would focus mainly on Lee’s younger years, the dinnerparty scene was so well drawn that I was disappointed to leave it, wanting to know more about Lee’s later life.

Most of the novel indeed follows Lee as a young woman in Paris in the late ‘20s and early ‘30s. She has walked away from a career as a successful fashion model and wants to explore her potential as a photographer.

When she meets artist Man Ray, the two begin an intense working partnership that turns into a love affair. Scharer portrays the stomachchurning complexities of obsessive love as vividly and deftly as she does the decadence of 1920s Paris.

The WWII sections when Lee works as a war photographer are fascinating but too brief, and too much time is spent on Lee’s earlier years, when she was least self-aware and least likeable: her constant awareness of her own beauty and sexual power over men became grating to this reader.

Scharer is a skilled writer, and I’d love to see what she would do with a more sympathetic protagonist. I found this novel realistic but bleak: Lee doesn’t know who she is apart from the men in her life, and her hopeful moments of self-discovery are few. Recommended for readers who enjoy literary novels and the art world of 1920s Paris.

Clarissa Harwood

BURNING FIELDS

Alli Sinclair, Lyrical Press, 2018, $15.00, pb, 257pp, 9781516109173 / Harlequin Australia, 2018, A$29.99, pb, 9781489256591

After helping with the war effort in Brisbane, in 1948 Rosie Stanton returns to her family’s struggling sugar cane farm in rural Queensland, Australia. Rosie’s family is broken in the aftermath of World War II as they deal with the loss of two sons. Escaping her own secret, Rosie is desperate to help the farm succeed and bring her family back together, but she is constantly rebuked by her father, who has an old-fashioned view of women’s roles. In the midst of this, Rosie falls for Tomas Conti, a newly arrived Italian immigrant working on his family’s neighboring farm.

But Tomas has his own secrets and heartache from World War II that impede his budding relationship with Rosie. In addition, Rosie’s father harbors an intense bias toward Italians, creating more problems in her romance with Tomas. Through it all, Rosie does not let anyone stand in her way as she challenges her father in his prejudiced views and fights to understand Tomas’s complicated past, all against the backdrop of the burning sugar cane fields of Queensland, from whose ashes life springs again.

Fans of Barbara Hannay will love Sinclair’s book, with its mix of history, romance, and family secrets. With its dual time periods of post-war Queensland and World War II Italy, the reader is drawn into the unfolding family drama, including alcoholism, PTSD, racism, and feminism. The book is especially brought to life by the memorable character of Rosie Stanton, an independent woman who represents the new modern age. While the book is predictable at times, with some melodramatic dialogue, Burning Fields is ultimately an entertaining, easy read, especially for readers who like historical novels set in Australia.

Julia C. Fischer

A GREATER GOD

Brian Stoddart, Selkirk Books, 2018, $9.50, pb, 362pp, 9780648393801

Superintendent Le Fanu is returning to 1920s Madras in India from Chinese Penang to his newest love interest, Jenlin Koh. For now, racial tensions between Muslims and Hindus are ratcheting up to massive unrest. At first individual Muslims are being murdered, but then almost an entire village is discovered beaten and then murdered. His friends and subordinate associates, Mohammad Habibullah and Jackson Caldicott, are extremely upset but fear their officials are not taking them seriously. Add to the mess that the highest authorities, the insane Inspector General Jepson or “Jockey,” and his assistant are messing up every investigation because they are openly hateful racists. Le Fanu doesn’t initially respond well, as his former Indian love, Roisin McPhedrin, is very ill and possibly dying from typhoid. As Le Fanu is a man of integrity, he worries how to handle these personal and public troubles. Gandhi’s drive for Indian independence is on the wane, and Hindus who are unhappy with British reforms are following the teachings of a Hindu revolutionary, Savarkar, who in summary insists that Hindus must rule India.

Besides being a ripping great mystery, Stoddart has masterfully depicted the political

and cultural problems as part of the history of India at this time. Even architecture is described as symbolizing the conflict between British rule and India with its Gothic and IndoSaracenic features, a mixture pinpointing the idea that democracy would be a “complicated beast.” The prevailing Muslim League is another revolutionary group confounding the mess. This reviewer highly commends this mix of history and mystery as a page-turning novel, with a complex yet quite understandable plot, full of heart, passion and fury. A great read!

Viviane Crystal

THE SKY ABOVE US

Sarah Sundin, Revell, 2019, $15.99, pb, 384pp, 9780800727987

This is Book Two of Sundin’s Sunrise at Normandy series. Set mostly in England just before the D-Day invasion of 1944, it is the story of Adler Paxton, a P-51 fighter pilot, and Violet Lindstrom, a Red Cross volunteer.

Adler is fighting demons of his own past as well as battling the Germans. Violet wants to help him resolve his tangled family problems and to progress on her own path to be a missionary. They both struggle with Christian issues as they try to work through their sins and discern what God really wants them to do.

The social and military history is deeply researched. There is a wealth of material about a World War II pilot’s life and how a Red Cross support facility functioned. The multilayered story moves forward quickly toward June 6, 1944. It should keep readers riveted as they wait for the resolution of several plot lines. The story stands alone just barely. Adler and Violet’s romance seems headed in the right direction, and some of their past conflicts are resolved. The fate of Adler’s brother Clay is left hanging. Readers will have to wait for the next book, due in 2020.

Elizabeth Knowles

THE BLACK ASCOT

Charles Todd, William Morrow, 2019, $26.99/ C$33.50, hb, 352pp, 9780062678744

For ten years, Alan Barrington, wanted for a murder committed at the 1910 royal horse race called the Black Ascot, has eluded capture by Scotland Yard and is believed to have left the country. Inspector Ian Rutledge receives a tip from a questionable source concerning the whereabouts of Barrington, who appears to have been seen in England. He is advised by his superiors to quietly proceed with the investigation without notifying the newspapers. His investigation takes him through local villages and the city of London as he follows the trail of the missing person, based on tips provided by people familiar with the case.

This is the latest Inspector Ian Rutledge mystery set in the early 20th century. Although it’s a well-written mystery novel, I found the pace was rather slow while the Inspector attempted to find the location of the killer.

There is very little suspense during much of

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the story, although I did enjoy reading about the historical outlay of the villages and towns around London as the Inspector moved from location to location searching for the missing Barrington. Because of the exceptional research and interesting characters the Inspector meets during his investigation, I would probably read another of these mysteries.

Jeff Westerhoff

THE LAST DAYS OF THE ROMANOV DANCERS

Kerri Turner, Harlequin, 2019, A$29.99, pb, 320pp, 9781489256713

The title says it all: this is a novel about the fading glory of the famous Imperial Ballet of Russia. You can anticipate drama and tragedy but also glimpses into that lost world of opulence and dissipation that hallmarked the downfall of the Romanov dynasty.

1914. Enter stage Luka Zhirkov, a recent ballet school graduate, son of a factory worker, brother of a soldier fighting at the front. He is thrilled to be in the corps de ballet, although his father Vladimir calls him a coward and is ashamed of him and his “precious ballet slippers and dancing feet” that let him “hide away in his borrowed, gilded life”. Already basking in the limelight is ballerina, Valentina Yershova, who also has humble beginnings but the benefit of a protector, the cruel art critic, Maxim Illyn, who controls her life both on and off the stage. When Luka and Valentina begin an affair, they know the risks they are taking.

Real individuals have their own roles: the Grand Dukes and Duchesses, Grigori Rasputin, and former mistress of the Tsar, prima ballerina Mathilde Kschessinska. The historical background is exceptionally well-researched, with the rich sumptuousness of the privileged classes contrasting with the desperation of the starving proletariat. In spite of growing unrest in the streets, the ballet goes on as if nothing will ever change; the champagne flows and although bread is scarce the caviar remains plentiful. Finally comes the reckoning, and the last chapters make for particularly exciting reading.

Also for any balletomane, this book will bring added pleasure in its descriptions of choreography and librettos and the subtle analogy in the rivalry between Mathilde and Valentina as to who is best suited to dance Odette or Odile. A bravura debut from Australian author Kerri Turner.

Marina Maxwell

MAJOR TOM’S WAR

Vee Walker, Kashi House, 2018, £19.99, hb, 380pp, 9781911271147

The story begins with disparate characters and countries. The Tom of the title is in India but on his way back to a Europe which is about to be engulfed in war. The novel moves from him to the French town of Bavay and what happens to the Mayor during the German occupation and from there, to friends of his dead wife, particularly Evie, who are in England and themselves preparing for the 54

deadly campaign. Evie volunteers to train as nurse.

The battle scenes are vividly described and bring the destruction and wanton loss of men to life – a fitting publication for the marking of a century since this dreadful conflict in many ways. While Tom is in the trenches, Evie is seeing and enduring sights she could never imagine as a nurse. The paths of the two meet and their correspondence is an important element of the novel. Their different experiences and that of the Indian troops which Tom commands are essential ingredients.

Another aspect of the novel is the story of Lochdubh, not the officer you would want to have in charge – of anything. The different strands and characters coalesce into a powerful narrative which is made even more so by the personal history behind the novel.

Much of this is based on the author’s real family and diaries left behind, as is borne out by the fascinating notes and photos at the end.

What an incredible history to have to draw on, and it is sensitively written up as a novel which draws the reader in and makes the characters live long in the memory. Such an enjoyable and thought-provoking novel, and very much recommended.

Ann Northfield

DEATH OF A SNAKE CATCHER

Ak Welsapar, Glagoslav, 2018, £16.60, pb,136pp, 9781911414810

This recent translation into English of some of Ak Welsapar’s short stories is a rare and welcome opportunity to read a work of fiction from Turkmenistan. Welsapar was born in what was then the Soviet Republic of Turkmenistan in 1956 but fell afoul of the authorities in the 1990s and was condemned as a “public enemy”. He has lived in Sweden since 1994 where he has continued to write, although his work is still banned in Turkmenistan.

The stories collected here were composed over decades and the subject matter is very different in each one, yet all demonstrate a concern for tradition and modernity, totalitarianism, and the powerlessness of individuals. Some stories are very down-toearth whilst others have a fable-like quality to them. Most of them are set in Turkmenistan but although firmly rooted in a specific time and place nevertheless have a universal resonance, especially those which deal with state repression.

My personal favourite is ‘Love in Lilac’, in which a young Soviet university student falls in love with a visiting Swedish girl and is hauled in for a chilling interview with the NKVD. In another a group of harvesters encounter a NKVD patrol which has been tasked with rounding up ten “enemies of the people”. They need one more, and guilt is not an issue. Only the quota counts. A magic realist element comes to play in ‘Love Story’ in which a young man’s beloved demands he prove his love by bringing the still beating heart of his mother.

Welsapar’s style is measured and low-key,

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but his deceptively straightforward language admirably conveys a profound sense of menace and dislocation, underpinned by great humanity and compassion. It’s a powerful collection, very well translated, and one which offers the reader a window into another world.

Mandy Jenkinson

THE MARSHAL AND THE SINISTER STILL

C. M. Wendelboe, Five Star, 2019, $25.95, hb, 259pp, 9781432849504

The Marshal and the Sinister Still returns readers to Depression-era Wyoming, where federal Marshall Nelson Lane is asked by a tribal policeman to find a young girl who has gone missing from the Wind River reservation.

Lane’s investigation leads him to a local moonshiner, found hanged in his barn, and a bootlegger from back East whose sprawling ranch hides more than a still.

C. M. Wendelboe is a retired law enforcement professional and author of the Spirit Road and the Bitter Wind Western mysteries. The Marshal and the Sinister Still is the second in the Nelson Lane series. The narrative is action-packed and well-plotted, and the characters are vivid and memorable. The novel is written exclusively from Lane’s perspective, which sometimes seems confining and procedurally repetitive.

Another voice, such as Lane’s deputy Maris, would not only provide greater depth to an intriguing character but also offer a female take on the times and the territory.

This is my first Wendelboe mystery; it won’t be my last.

K. M. Sandrick

AN HOUR UNSPENT

Roseanna M. White, Bethany House, 2018, $15.99, pb, 409pp, 9780764219283

Barclay Pierce is an unlikely hero in this 1915 tale, set in London. His family is extensive with several “adopted” siblings he has rescued over the years, and his history is interesting, if a little disreputable. A reformed thief, Barclay now aids the government, using his special skill set to aid the war effort. He works for a mysterious man known only as V, and his work at first seems dubious. Sent to study (and perhaps steal?) the work of a local clockmaker, Barclay gets more than he bargains for. Evelina Manning, on the other hand, is looking for a little adventure and independence. This does not, however, include being rescued by Barclay on the night she is mugged outside their home.

The mugging, and a subsequent break in at the Manning household seem a bit mysterious, and together, Evelina and Barclay set out to figure it out. Then, when her father is kidnapped, they become even more determined to solve the mystery and rescue Mr. Manning.

This is the third in White’s inspirational Shadows Over England series, with several of the characters from previous novels popping up. However, while fans of the series will appreciate these cameos, newcomers to the series may get a little overwhelmed by the many characters that come and go throughout.

It is sometimes a little hard to keep track of everyone. One small disappointment, too, is that the war only plays in the background; the story focuses more on character development and plotline. Even when Evelina and Barclay travel to war-torn France, the scenery is not as well described as it could have been. The storyline itself is intriguing, though, with just the right amount of tension, romance, and mystery. While earmarked as an inspirational romance, the Christian elements are light and work well with the character development.

Rebecca Cochran

THE SATURDAY GIRLS

Elizabeth Woodcraft, Zaffre, 2018, £6.99, pb, 460pp, 9781785764424

On a housing estate in Chelmsford, England in 1964, two teenage girls make decisions for their future: Sandra is desperate to marry bad-boy Danny if he can stay out of gaol long enough, whilst idealistic and likeable Linda, the narrator, is quietly courted by one boy whilst attracted to another who can’t remember her name. Linda marches against the Bomb and dreams of a new life in London. This is Woodcraft’s third novel, but in her postscript she explains that she wrote it, on and off, over a period of thirty years, drawing on her detailed diaries.

Unsurprisingly then, the book does read sometimes like a memoir and is none the worse for it, elegiacally rich as it is in period detail like the songs on the juke-box, the feel and colours of the Mod clothes Linda wears, and the cars the boys drive. Whilst nostalgic for a vanished era, in which teenagers congregated in milk bars and sex was perhaps more wondered about than done, Woodcraft does not avoid the casual cruelties of that time; for example, neighbours cross the road to avoid an unmarried mother.

With an ear for dialogue that brings the reader right alongside a range of vividly-drawn characters, the author writes beautifully about the awakening of love and the awkwardness and hopefulness of being an adolescent girl.

Happily, Woodcraft says she has plenty more material to draw upon, and another novel set in this period is in preparation.

Katherine Mezzacappa

THE FRANGIPANI TREE MYSTERY

Ovidia Yu, Constable, 2017, £8.99/$13.99, pb, 314pp, 9781472125200

In 1936 in Singapore, teenage orphan Su Lin knows that her uncle wants to give her away in marriage to a suitable husband— that is, suitable in his estimation. Su Lin’s mentor from the Mission School, Miss Nessa Palin, is trying to argue him out of it when an unexpected possibility of escape arises: the sudden death of the governess of Miss Nessa’s mentally disabled niece, the daughter of her brother, the Acting Governor of Singapore.

The investigating police officer, Chief Inspector LeFroy, drives with Su Lin to the

Governor’s residence. Su Lin establishes a rapport with the childlike teenage daughter and becomes a temporary replacement for the dead governess. The conflicts within the strained family swirl around Su Lin, and then another death is discovered. Can Su Lin help Chief Inspector LeFroy to work out what has been going on, and, even more importantly, can she get out of this alive herself?

The multicultural atmosphere and hot, steamy climate of Singapore are well evoked, but the editing is a little amiss. For example, a tapir hunt on page 292 becomes a pig hunt on page 304, and tapirs are not even related to pigs.

Recommended by this homesick Singaporean reviewer.

Alan Fisk

MULTI-PERIOD

WE HOPE FOR BETTER THINGS

Erin Bartels, Revell, 2019, $15.99, pb, 400pp, 9781493416431

We Hope for Better Things chronicles the histories of three Balsam women: Elizabeth, a Detroit Free Press journalist who receives a strange request from a black father and son: return a camera and a box of photos to Nora (a relative she doesn’t even know she has) if Nora wants them; Nora, the headstrong daughter of a wellto-do family from the Detroit suburbs who falls for a black man hoping to make a name for himself as a photographer in the 1960s; And Mary, forced to manage the family farm in Lapeer County, Michigan, after her husband enlists in the Union Army, and her relationship with the former slave, George.

Chapter to chapter, the novel gives each woman’s perspective as it shifts from present day to the 1960s and 1860s. While individual scenes are well-developed and advance the narratives, many ended too soon, at least for me. I felt interrupted as I went from one woman and time period to another; the connection was broken each time and it took a while to re-establish.

Both the Civil War era and the Detroit of the late 1960s are scarred by deep racial divides, yet the book often takes a surface approach.

Whites’ attitudes about blacks in Lapeer County are mentioned, but their effects are not shown. Likewise are the causes and terror of the race riots that left much of Detroit barren for decades. This is not to say that I do not appreciate the book. It tackles and addresses difficult subject matter forthrightly.

And it creates memorable characters. I cared about each and couldn’t wait to find out what happened.

An ambitious effort that, unfortunately, misses opportunities to plumb race relations more deeply.

K. M. Sandrick

ELEANOR’S SECRET

Caroline Beecham, Allen & Unwin, 2018, A$29.99, pb, 432pp, 9781760295660

Eleanor’s Secret is British born, Sydneybased writer, Caroline Beecham’s second novel. Her first novel, Maggie’s Kitchen, is the story of a young woman who overcomes numerous challenges to open a restaurant during World War Two. It is currently being made into a ten-part television drama series.

In her second novel, Beecham builds on the wartime restaurant theme to include a government public morale initiative to brighten up the walls of English cafes, by recruiting local artists. Eleanor’s Secret switches back and forth between war-torn London and both Melbourne, Australia and London in 2010, covering five generations of a family and a long-kept secret.

Whilst modern-day Katherine appears as the main protagonist, her grandmother Eleanor is the lynchpin between the two eras. During the war, Eleanor was a young art school graduate recruited by the War Artists Advisory Committee to contract artists for the restaurant art scheme. She falls for an enigmatic young painter, Jack, who demonstrates an annoying pattern of disappearing without trace. They lose contact.

Fast forward nearly seventy years, and Eleanor begs her granddaughter to find out what happened to Jack, before it’s too late.

Despite Katherine’s own domestic troubles, she humors Eleanor and embarks on a trip to England to discover what happened to Jack, hampered by her grandmother’s obsessive privacy and decades of secrecy.

Eleanor’s Secret is an engaging historical fiction, lost-love story with well-crafted, atmospheric descriptions.

Christine Childs

CASTLE ON THE RISE

Kristy Cambron, Thomas Nelson, 2019, $15.99, pb, 373pp, 9780718095499

Castle on the Rise follows three women in Ireland in different time periods. In 1797, Maeve, from English Protestant land-owning nobility, discovers an injured Irish pirate on her family’s land. While her father grieves the deaths of her mother and brother, Maeve heals, hires and falls in love with the rebel. In 1915, English protestant Issy takes her camera into the Easter Uprising in Dublin, joining the Irish insurgents who include her brother and the man she loves. In the present day, American Laine attends her best friend’s wedding and stays in Ireland to help her friend’s brother-inlaw uncover the mysteries in the castle he has newly inherited.

Cambron has chosen settings of fascinating political, religious, and social conflict, yet the stories do not provide enough background or explanation of the complexities of the situations. The characters are interesting on the surface, but do not seem culturally or religiously realistic to their settings, making it difficult (for me) to understand why Protestant

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English landowners side with the Irish rebellion, without seeming to understand what that means to their landowning status. And why do the Irish rebels accept them—and their landowning status? Still, there is much that could please fans of Cambron’s Lost Castle novels.

Moving between the time periods keeps the action steady. The three stories are enlivened with conflict, sweetened with romance, and sprinkled with discussions of faith. This novel succeeds as a historical Christian romance but fails as a serious novel about the Irish struggle for independence.

Elizabeth Caulfield Felt

PERPETUA’S KIN

M. Allen Cunningham, Atelier26, 2018, $17.00, pb, 336pp, 9780997652376

Perpetua’s Kin takes readers on a journey from the western theater of the Civil War to 1940s San Francisco as it traces the fortunes— and misfortunes—of the Lorn family. When twenty-three-year-old Benjamin Lorn’s mother dies in the summer of 1886, she implores him to forgive his father, a resentful Civil War veteran.

As Benjamin explores his family history, he discovers a secret that spurs him to flee his father’s home and head west to work on the telegraphs that have fascinated him since boyhood.

A classic multigenerational family saga, Perpetua’s Kin is lyrically written, a beautiful love letter to the written word. As such, however, the plot moves slowly. This is not a criticism, as this novel is a literary work that rightfully takes its time. It’s merely a caution to anyone who might be looking for a fast-paced thriller.

My only criticism is that I would have liked to know more about Benjamin’s father. It makes sense he would be embittered after the war, but Cunningham never explains why the father was such an angry, violent young man prior to “seeing the elephant.” This feels especially dissonant when we see what a kind man Benjamin’s grandfather is—surely Grandfather Lorn did not raise Benjamin’s father to be abusive.

Overall, this novel is a flowing tale that brings to light lesser-known aspects of generally wellknown time periods. A treat for anyone who enjoys elegant writing.

Sarah Hendess

DOWN TO THE SEA

Sue Lawrence, Saraband, 2019, £8.99, pb, 320pp, 9781912235339

This intriguing historical novel opens in 1981, when Rona and Craig move into a large sandstone mansion, Wardie House, Newhaven, Edinburgh, which they are converting into a small luxury care home. However, Rona hears strange grinding sounds at night whenever there is a dense fog over the Firth of Forth. That the house was once a poorhouse with evidence of barred windows and a dark cellar adds to the sense of doom that hangs over it.

In 1898, young Jessie is dispatched because her mother considers her cursed. Recently 56

her fisherman father and all his crew were killed when their boat sank just because Jessie briefly stepped aboard. Jessie is now known as Winzie—Scots dialect for a cursed person. She even has a birthmark visible on her face.

Rona and Craig soon meet their new neighbour, Martha, who lives in the old lodge cottage. She claims to be from California but later says she is Canadian. Very soon, she is always “popping round” although she never lets Rona step beyond her own front door.

Rona is suspicious and also traumatised by the horrid old pram in the dark cellar, but might that be because she is pregnant?

As the novel progresses, the two timelines alternate, both full of fear and danger, speeding to convergence when we finally learn what happened at Wardie House.

This page-turning historical mystery holds many twists and turns, including dead babies, and diamonds, either paste or real. I felt all this made an already atmospheric novel too melodramatic towards its climax for my liking, and I would also have preferred it if the two timelines hadn’t alternated quite so often. Nevertheless, for cold winter nights, an excellent read which held its interest to the very last page.

Sally Zigmond

THE DROWNED VILLAGE

Kathleen McGurl, HQ, 2018, £7.99, pb, 336pp, 9780008274481

Kathleen McGurl is fast establishing herself as a master of the multi-period novel in which a mystery from the past has implications for the present, and The Drowned Village fits firmly into this mould.

The contemporary story involves a care worker called Laura who, following a bitter break-up, takes a walking and camping holiday in the Lake District. She wants to explore the area where her grandmother grew up, especially as a severe drought has dried out a reservoir exposing the ruins of the village beneath.

The historical tale threaded through with Laura’s is that of her grandmother, Stella.

She is just eleven years old in 1935 when the village where her family has lived and worked for generations is being emptied out in preparation for the new reservoir. Stella hasn’t told her granddaughter much about her childhood, but now she asks her help to find an old tin which had been hidden beneath the floorboards of her childhood home.

As Stella’s story unfolds, the reader comes to realise the secret from her past. Laura meanwhile has met a new friend, but as her new life and her old come head to head, she

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faces a race against time to help discover her gran’s secret and solve the mystery from the past.

McGurl is a fantastic storyteller, weaving the two stories carefully together with enough tension to make both compelling. Her characters feel very real: they have anxieties and flaws and they make mistakes, but at the heart of the story we have two strong and determined heroines that the reader can root for. It’s compelling and romantic; McGurl manages just the right blend of family saga, mystery and romance. Perfect for fans of Hazel Gaynor, Tracy Rees and Lucinda Riley.

Lisa Redmond

A RIVER IN THE TREES

Jacqueline O’Mahony, riverrun, 2019, £16.99, hb, 328pp, 9781787473546

Ireland in 1919. Hannah O’Donovan, aged nineteen, lives on her family’s farm. It is a time of political, nationalist turmoil in Ireland, and her father is a supporter of the nationalist cause, keen to help activists escape from the hated Black and Tans who are hunting them down. When a trio of desperate IRA men arrive at their isolated farmhouse in West Cork, they are given shelter, and the trouble starts for the family.

The story alternates with that of Ellen, in 2019, one hundred years later. Overweight and in a troubled marriage to Simon in London, Ellen travels to Ireland to see the O’Donovan house, which is for sale, the same one that Hannah lived in a century ago. Ellen is a distant relative of Hannah, grieving for her still-born daughter after a series of miscarriages, and is very probably suffering from some form of postnatal depression. When she starts looking into her family’s past, she uncovers some surprises which challenge her own sense of identity This is a novel about Irish and English identities – how you can never really shrug off your beginnings or your origins.

It is wonderfully well written, and Jacqueline O’Mahony has a poetic vision that sees the beauty and the tragedy in all that we do, and a delightful narrative voice. Some of the characters (the men mostly) are perhaps a little too clichéd, such as her high-achieving husband Simon and the philandering estate agent, but both Hannah and Ellen throb with vitality and are excellently delineated – Hannah’s difficult and poor life in rural Ireland, her sparky, feisty character and the suffocating limitation and threats to her settled rural, limited life, are superbly portrayed and dissected. This is the author’s first novel; on the evidence of this book she is a writer with a great future.

Douglas Kemp

THE MOON SISTER

Lucinda Riley, Atria, 2019, $28.00/C$37.00, hb, 530pp, 9781982110611 / Macmillan, 2018, £18.99, hb, 752pp, 9781509840090

This latest installment in Riley’s The Seven Sisters series is set in a hybrid timeframe of modern-day Scotland and WWI-era

Spain. Tiggy D’Aplièse is in search of both her future and her past. The young, degreed zoologist has just started what may be her dream job as a game warden on a sprawling estate in the wild Scottish Highlands. She bonds quickly with the grounds manager, Cal, as well as with the dour housekeeper, Beryl, and the laird’s teenaged daughter, Zara. While Charlie, the handsome laird of the manor, seems quite taken with Tiggy both personally and professionally, his wife is not nearly as friendly.

Zed, a wealthy guest of the estate with a murky past, courts Tiggy aggressively, while events seem to align as Chilly, an elderly Romani living on the estate, recognizes Tiggy as one of his own, and gives her the clues to discover her roots in Spain.

The story then jumps to Granada, Spain in 1913, where the story of Tiggy’s ancestors unfolds. Maria has given birth to a daughter, Lucia, who is destined to be one of the country’s greatest flamenco dancers. In the midst of both family and global strife, Lucia grows to womanhood as she follows her talent first in Spain, and then abroad.

Mystery and emotional conflict are among the author’s strong points, and while overlong in spots, the tension, sweeping descriptions, and multiple subplots catch the reader early and don’t let go. Touches of magical realism and musical culture add to the gorgeous descriptions and historical details, which are accurate without extended exposition. The cast of characters is varied in motive and style, if not so much in voice, and the book leaves the reader wanting more.

Jackie Drohan

THE GOWN

Jennifer Robson, William Morrow, 2019, $16.99/C$21.00, pb, 400pp, 9780062674951

This novel spins the unusual story of how Queen Elizabeth’s wedding gown was embroidered by a group of English workers in 1947. The story alternates between the 1940s and 2016 and is told through the three voices of Ann, Miriam, and Heather.

As the plot unfolds, the reader learns that Ann and Miriam were friends in London in 1947, both working as embroiderers for the prestigious Hartnell House, embroidery workroom to the Royal Family. Both Miriam and Ann have their private secrets, but bond with each other through the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of embroidering the wedding veil for Princess Elizabeth.

Heather enters the story in the present day as Ann’s granddaughter, who knows nothing of her beloved Nan’s English past. As the story progresses, Heather travels to London and is able to piece together the behind-thescenes story of the Royal Wedding in 1947, as well as uncover unknown details about her grandmother’s life. While Ann has passed away, Miriam is still alive and finally brings closure to the family secret.

I thoroughly enjoyed the novel, most probably because of my interest in textiles.

While the author provides a multitude of historical details and a well-paced plot, some readers might become bogged down with the over-abundance of details concerning the embroidery. I believe The Gown will resonate with readers who enjoy reading about the Royal Family. Recommended.

Linda Harris Sittig

THE RECKONING AT GOSSAMER POND

Jaime Jo Wright, Bethany House, 2018, $14.99, pb, 352pp, 9780764232039

Two women separated by 100 years are bound together by their small town’s buried secrets. Gossamer Grove, Wisconsin, in 1907 is shaken up by tent evangelists. In the midst of the religious controversy, Libby, working with her father at the local newspaper, receives an obituary for Deacon Greenwood—a man still alive. Shaken, Libby rushes to the Greenwood home only to discover the deacon’s now lifeless body. In the present day, Annalise Forsythe is shaken to discover her high school boyfriend, Garrett Greenwood, has returned to Gossamer Grove. More alarming, a recluse who’s found dead in his trailer has plastered images of Annalise throughout his home, including photos of Annalise that reveal a painful secret she’s worked years to forget.

This recluse has also been researching Gossamer Grove’s past and the mysterious murder of Deacon Greenwood. So what does a 100-year-old murder have to do with Annalise?

Both stories balance on choice and consequence and their weight on a person’s soul. Wright does a fascinating job of slowly unveiling the painful choices both women must come to accept. There’s also a strong plot thread about faith and forgiveness, which the characters wrestle with. These powerful themes enhance the mysteries surrounding Gossamer Grove’s past. The movements between time periods are perfectly done to heighten the intrigue of each unraveling mystery. Along with engaging characters and a meticulously-realized 1907 time period, I found myself completely engrossed in the narrative. A complex story with sympathetic characters and many surprises.

Recommended!

J. Lynn Else

TIMESLIP

THE WOMAN IN THE LAKE

Nicola Cornick, Graydon House, 2019, $16.99, pb, 320pp, 9781525823558 / HQ, 2019, £7.99, pb, 336pp, 9781848456945

Despite the title, the real subject of this engrossing novel is the spectacular golden gown that travels between two worlds: 1763 England, where Lady Isabella Gerard hopes to free herself from an abusive husband, and present-day England, when Fenella Brightwell finds the historic gown she stole as a teenager coming back to haunt her, literally. Along with the gown, which exerts a lethal power

over anyone who comes in contact with it, other characters straddling the two worlds are the town of Swindon and its mysterious smuggling operation, the Moonrakers. Fen’s story starts quietly, driven by spooky hints that her manipulative ex is stalking her while she’s trying to put her life back together.

Isabella’s portion begins with a beating and the dramatic decision to murder her husband, while conducting a torrid affair and practicing her art in the meantime.

But Fen’s story gains traction when she, like Isabella, discovers the man she trusted has a secret, and the stories of these two women prove connected by a third: Constance, Isabella’s lady’s maid, who proves the most resourceful, wily, and cool-headed among them, though her decisions about the gown risk her life as well as the lives of others. The writing is strong and the twists and surprises enjoyable; the rising danger keeps the pages turning, and the final reveals deliver a satisfying jolt. As difficult as it can be to plot a novel like this one, Cornick does a skillful job planting clues, weaving the worlds together, and making the history of old Swindon come alive in the present, even if the supernatural power of the mysterious golden gown is never satisfactorily explained. That none of these characters are particularly virtuous makes them all the more likeable, engaging, and real.

Misty Urban

HISTORICAL FANTASY THE SPECTRAL CITY

Leanna Renee Hieber, Rebel Base Books, 2018, $15.00, pb, 232pp, 9781635730616

It’s 1899 New York, and the NYPD has just opened up the Ghost Precinct. It is run by psychics and their ghost allies under the direction of nineteen-year-old Eve Whitby.

Their job is to help solve challenging crimes through their psychic gifts. The novel starts when one of Eve’s most trusted ghost allies disappears into the “darkness” and is unreachable. While Eve and her crew try to locate and bring her back, they investigate the kidnapping of a girl only to find that certain houses have managed to ward off ghosts.

When Eve’s grandmother, another psychic, is kidnapped, they discover that someone is doing scientific tests on them. The girl’s kidnapping is solved but the mystery of who is doing the scientific tests and how some houses can ward-off ghosts remains unresolved. The Spectral City is the first book of a series and sets the main mystery in motion.

The Spectral City is dense in psychic phenomena, which is interesting, but heavy in backstories and irrelevant description. The mediums are all women and culturally diverse, too, and the ghosts from all walks of life. This makes for interesting dynamics between them and the non-believing, all-male police force, especially when the author paints an alternative New York City but remains true to the social atmosphere of the Victorian time. The Spectral City will appeal to readers

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who enjoy dark psychic paranormal mysteries Arts series. As a previous NYT bestselling with lots of other-world phenomena thrown in. author of more than thirty books, Mack knows how to keep the pages turning with action Franca Pelaccia and horror. Demonic battles are brilliantly, believably described, pacing with little time for BLACK CITY DRAGON planning or personal relationships. Different Richard A. Knaak, Pyr, 2018, $18.00, pb, 405pp, tastes for different readers. I have to say that 97811633884953 my favorite scene was D-Day, the Normandy There’s a lot more going on in Prohibition- beaches being a zone where magick fireballs era Chicago than just gangsters and G-men. and ice lances do not work, in case you didn’t Private Detective/Ghost Buster, Nick Media, know. Horrific, real details. finds flashy criminals are the least of his Ann Chamberlin problems. Nick has a sixteen-hundred-year past of dealing with otherworldly challenges under many names including a well-known ALTERNATE HISTORY canonized one. He also has his own “demons” to deal with, including an embedded dragon ANNELIES which has paradoxically saved his life on David R. Gillham, Viking, 2019, $26.00, hb, numerous occasions. He strives to protect 416pp, 9780399162589 / Fig Tree, 2019, £14.99, his continuously reincarnated love interest, hb, 416pp, 9780241367643 How we all wish that she had survived. That Claryce; prevent the arrival of hideous Wyld and other elves from the feirie world; combat bright-eyed and brave child diarist, whose his ancient enemy, Emperor Galerius; and candid, wise-beyond-her years journal of her solve paranormal puzzles to ultimately save undercover exile in an Amsterdam house— bearing heartrending testimony to a young the universe.

Black City Dragon is a quite intricate Mickey life cut short by the Holocaust—has become Spillane-type detective novel overlaid with one of most admired autobiographies in the super weird, full-spectrum fantasy. This is western canon. In this novel, David R. Gillham the third in a series, and it would definitely imagines what would have happened, had help to read the first two to fully grasp the Anne Frank not died in Bergen-Belsen, but comprehensive story context. Nevertheless, as returned to the Dutch capital after the war I got further in, the characters, however odd, and reunited with her beloved father in order grew on me. As an Irish wolfhound owner, I to start life anew, albeit without her mother sister, who perished in the camps. Now especially liked the shapeshifting, wisecracking, and a teenager, Anne is determined to fulfill her werewolf-hound hybrid, “Fetch,” who is Nick’s ambition of achieving global fame as a witness sidekick and protector. “Non-stop action” is to Nazi terror—however, the diary she kept in not an exaggeration in describing this novel.

Prinsengracht has gone missing, and while she My fantasy knowledge is via Tolkien, C.S. desperately searches for its whereabouts, the Lewis, and R.E. Howard, so this was a whole ghost of her murdered sister Margot haunts new and ultimately enjoyable experience. her, and she is overcome by an uncontrollable There are also elements of Lovecraft and R.L anger at the agonies she has been forced to Stevenson sprinkled throughout. The writer endure. Will Anne overcome her fury, once she is a best-selling author of many works in this finds her lost journal? In order to survive, she genre. Modern fantasy readers will devour this must recapture her child-like self, which was book. able to love existence despite its attendant Thomas J. Howley horrors.

Although the act of writing is often tantamount to raising the dead, the resurrection THE MIDNIGHT FRONT of Anne Frank in Annelies is a daring feat. The David Mack, Tor, 2018, $27.99/C$36.50, hb, words she wrote as a trusting, precocious 480pp, 9780765383204 child still resound with the reader, and so it In August 1939, an ocean liner carrying is a challenging, and often unbearably sad people fleeing the looming war in Europe for experience to accompany Anne on her journey the U.S. is struck by a German torpedo—and a into adulthood. Her incarceration at Bergenparanormal whirlpool complete with tentacled Belsen is impressively portrayed, as is her sea monster. All passengers die except Cade survivor’s guilt after she escapes the Nazi death Martin who, after watching his parents killed, machine. And although her belated success is saved by Adair Macrae and his assistants, as a writer can heal some of her wounds, her adepts of the art of yoking Hell’s demons to deepest traumas remain unresolved. A tour de do their bidding. Sixteen months later, Cade force. awakes in Adair’s Scottish castle, having been Elisabeth Lenckos healed and ready to train to join this fight against a coven of adepts of similar skills on the THE BATTLE FOR other side of what has now become the London Blitz. The horrors of Auschwitz, Stalingrad, ENGLAND D-Day and the firebombing of Dresden are all Bernard Neeson, Bigpa Publications, 2017, explained as personal—and demonic—events £8.96, pb, 321pp, 9781484996263 of something evil versus good even bigger than I remember when I was a schoolboy reading that of Allies and Axis. a passage from Churchill’s war memoirs in This is the first of what is set to be The Dark which he half-regretted that Hitler had never 58

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launched Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of England. All those defences never tested, the British victory that never happened! During the war many people believed that the invasion had been attempted and that German bodies had been seen washed up on the beaches.

Bernard Neeson read the same passage in the memoirs, and it inspired him to write this alternative history of 1940. In Neeson’s version, Churchill deceives Hitler into underestimating British strength and tempts him to invade. The strategy almost backfires as Rommel makes a surprise breakthrough, but of course the British find a way to save the day.

This is a straightforward alternative history with all the military and political manoeuvres and no romantic sub-plots or other devices.

Operation Sea Lion has been the subject of numerous alternative histories, and this is the best I have read.

Edward James

CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULT

INVENTING VICTORIA

Tonya Bolden, Bloomsbury YA, 2018, $17.99/ C$23.99, hb, 272pp, 9781681198071

Essie’s life with her mother and “aunties” in the saltbox house on Minis Street is tough, with “uncles” coming and going at all hours of the day and night—though nowhere near as tough as the days of slavery. Essie yearns for a different life, a safer life. Momma has little time for Essie and less understanding. It is Ma Clara, the house cleaner, who takes Essie under her wing, encourages Momma to allow Essie to go to school, and who gets Essie a job as a housekeeper at a boardinghouse across town. There Essie meets Dorcas Vashon, a wealthy, prominent black woman who offers to take Essie away and help her earn the life she’s always wanted.

Essie is given a new wardrobe and an education in the classics and mathematics, as well as the rules of etiquette. Transformed, Essie becomes Victoria and is welcomed into black society in Washington, DC. But just as she is on the verge of achieving the life of which she’s always dreamed, she is plagued by the guilt of abandoning her past for her future. Imagining a life and future for a minor character from Crossing Ebenezer Creek, Bolden firmly places readers in 1880s black society in Savannah and Washington DC. Victoria is a strong character with palpable desires and fears. The second half of the novel is littered with significant historic AfricanAmerican figures, deftly showing the success those once enslaved achieved in the years following the Civil War. But not all is pretty in high society. Bolden honestly portrays colorism as well as the pettiness of social climbing. While this is a quieter story than Ebenezer Creek it is no less important and compelling. For readers ages 13-18.

Meg Wiviott

TWO ROADS

Joseph Bruchac, Dial, 2018, $16.99/C$22.99, hb, 320pp, 9780735228863

After losing his farm and his mother to the hard times of the 1930s Depression, twelveyear-old Cal Black and his beloved Pop Will have become “knights of the road” … hobos.

They ride the rails with their own survival skills, network, and creed. Life is hard and dangerous, but they find many moments of grace along the way.

But when Will learns of the Bonus Army of fellow World War I vets forming to march on Washington, he decides he has to join them to try and convince the government to give promised pay, so that he and Cal can start a farm again. Will decides to travel to the Oklahoma boarding school where he himself was raised and enroll Cal. But that means telling him a secret: that he is a Creek Indian.

The double shock leaves Cal reeling, but he faces his new life at school with courage. He’s treated with ignorance, cruelty, or indifference by most of his teachers, but quickly bonds with the Creek gang, and learns much about his paternal heritage and the ways of his own and other Indian nations. Cal has the empathetic gift of Sight, and when he senses his father in mortal danger, he decides to escape the school to warn Will of the coming violence in Washington.

The bond between father and son in this funny, exciting and soulful story is palpable.

In the tradition of Gary Paulson and Paul Zindel, this young adult novel rises above its conventions to tell a story that will touch the heart and stir the soul. Highly recommended.

Eileen Charbonneau

TOM SAWYER’S DARK PLOT

Tim Champlin, Five Star, 2018, $25.95, hb, 251pp, 9781432844752

Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Jim, and their time-traveling friend, Zane Rasmussen, team up once again in this second installment of Champlin’s Adventures in Time series.

Tom, bored after the excitement from the events in Tom and Huck’s Howling Adventure wanes, decides to stir things up by concocting a Bigfoot tale in which he and his friends will once again be pronounced heroes. All goes to plan until, ironically, there’s another sighting unconnected with the scheming youngsters.

They find they must investigate this seemingly true account without blowing the cover on their own “stretcher” story.

In this story told in multiple points of view, one interesting element is that the presumed bad guys aren’t truly evil—just men who have made bad choices. Along with Tom and the gang, readers may almost feel sorry for the unfortunate antagonists who seem riddled with ill luck. While the Bigfoot question is never really answered, the author leaves plenty of clues for both believers and detractors.

Of interest to fans of time-slip stories are conversations about things such as electricity and the upcoming Civil War. Zane’s time

travel is only touched upon in this volume, but the general idea is easy enough to surmise for readers who missed the first book. The dialect of some characters is a bit grating, but necessary for authenticity. Although the story takes a meandering course, it is a satisfying and engaging tale—perfect for middle-grade readers who would enjoy a new spin on Mark Twain’s classics.

Arleigh Ordoyne

DIGGER

Mike Dumbleton, illus. Robin Cowcher, Allen and Unwin, 2018, $19.99, hb, 32pp, 9781760296735

This beautifully-produced picture book tells its story in single sentences and subtle watercolour illustrations. The brief texts are interspersed with one line of dialogue and two pages of facsimile letter, which serve to add immediacy and vulnerability.

In Australia during the First World War, a young girl, Annie, stitches the name “Digger” on her soft toy kangaroo and gives him to her brother, James, to take to war. It is clear that Digger becomes a lucky mascot to James, just as the albatross following the soldiers’ ship from southern to northern waters is seen by him to represent good luck. Digger survives the first accidents of war, as does her brother, but then in the most poignant of images is returned to the soldiers’ French billet by a corporal who passes on James’ last request to the French girl living there to ‘patch him up…. and send him home’. Digger’s homecoming is the one James can never make.

A coda relating this touching story to the real-life inhabitants of the French town of Villers-Bretonneux, who continue to this day to take care of the graves in the adjoining Australian war cemetery, closes the book.

This book stands out for its images, roughly sketched but with outlines emphasised in black ink, and then saturated with lovely watercolour washes – primarily yellows and browns for Annie and the soldiers in their khaki uniforms, and blues and greys for the overseas journey and the skies of France. Most notably, a gorgeous double-page spread of James leaning over the boat-rail as the ship steams on through day and night, from a pale blue morning sky over a cobalt sea, to the inkiest deep blue of night, sprinkled with stars.

Recommended for junior school age children to read as part of their First World War studies.

Jane Burke

SAVING WASHINGTON

Chris Formant, Permuted Press, 2019, $27.00/ C$36.00, hb, 240pp, 9781682618325

At nineteen, Josh Bolton joins the Maryland militia in 1776. His best friend, Ben, a freed black man, joins with him. They soon discover the militia won’t be policing the colony from the invading British, but they’ll be part of the fighting forces assisting General Washington.

Josh and Ben are brave soldiers, intent on freeing America from the horde of redcoats

and abusive British taxes. Undertrained and underfed, the young men are sent to New York where they must help in a decisive escape for Washington and his troops. Will their commander sacrifice the Marylanders in this Battle of Brooklyn so Washington can slip away, across a river, to Manhattan?

This young adult novel explores the part the Maryland militia, or America’s Spartans, also known as the 400, played in an important battle that turned the tide for the American Revolution. The author uses contemporary language—along with four-letter swear words—to make the novel relatable, though there are other anachronisms. Clipper ships and zippers weren’t around in the 18th century.

I’d have liked to know, in this time of slavery, how Ben and his family obtained their freedom. The battle scenes are realistic, the hardships, and the atmosphere of swamp and fog well shown. Told from the British side as well, this is a good introduction to the American Revolution and the sacrifice of the brave men from Maryland.

Diane Scott Lewis

BONE TALK

Candy Gourlay, David Fickling, 2018, £10.99, hb, 248pp, 9781788450171

In this wonderful and unusual novel, Candy Gourlay sets out to give a voice to the people of the Philippines, where she grew up.

It is set in 1899, during the little-documented invasion of the islands by the United States.

Through the gaze of 11-year-old Samkad, we experience his pride in his tribal culture and his despair in seeing his dangerous, axe-wielding father humiliated by invaders with guns.

We are plunged into a vivid and distant world. The Bontok people are headhunters with a duty to kill their rival tribe. Their rice paddies have been carved into vertiginous mountain-sides. They wear breech cloths and tattoos. They believe animals’ souls influence events. However, this is not a novel where the research dominates. Gourlay’s story is involving, tense and emotionally satisfying.

Her characters are nuanced and real. The language is light and pacy but also has an easy poetry that illuminates: “Our little village was draped like a cat over the mountain’s knee.”

The Ancients decree that Samkad and his father must visit the Tree of Bones and offer a chicken to the Spirit world, so he can be admitted to the House of Men. But when Americans arrive in his village, Samkad has to grow up fast and deal with the new conflicts and knowledge. His best friend, Luki, is a delightful, feisty girl, who is a constant challenge to him, as well as to the old ways that limit the role of women. From the moment we meet them both, competitively tossing pebbles into the eye socket of a water-buffalo skull – we are hooked.

Beautifully crafted, this story draws on different spheres – political, social, spiritual and emotional – in the way of a true classic.

A truly brilliant read for boys and girls of 10+.

Marion Rose

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BETWEEN BEFORE & AFTER

Maureen Doyle McQuerry, Blink, 2019, $17.99, hb, 304pp, 9780310767381

This split-narrative novel, set in the 1920s New York and 1950s California, follows a mother and daughter as they each deal with various obstacles of growing up with a difficult family life. Elaine struggles to keep her younger brother housed and fed after their mother dies in the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918-19 and their father takes a downward spiral. Molly, with an absent father and a secretive mother, has trouble fitting in with her peers—especially after her uncle becomes a local celebrity for “miraculously” healing a sick child. Both Elaine and Molly are writers with aspirations, and the culmination of the story is about the ultimate connection of their relationship, with seeming significance on the age of fourteen.

The stories are slow to develop, with Elaine’s of more interest to historical readers, because the 1950s described seems overly modern—almost no different from society today. I checked the date on the chapter headings several times to confirm the era. While it does take overlong for the hook, there is a solid climax and satisfying ending. The world McQuerry describes of New York in the prelude to the Roaring Twenties is engrossing, and the young Elaine is an easily likable character. Molly is less so, possibly because the suburban setting is rather drab and it’s hard to disconnect her from her mother’s character—due to the similarities in age, family role, and personality.

There is an underlying Hansel and Gretel theme which comes to make sense later in the story.

After reading the Author’s Note, I understand that this novel is based on family history and personal experiences, and as a result it holds more significance for some of its audience. It is a solid full-circle, coming-of-age tale if readers can stick with it long enough uncover its sparkle.

Arleigh Ordoyne

LUCKY BUTTON

Michael Morpurgo, illus. Michael Foreman, Walker Books, 2018, £9.99, hb, 169pp, 9781406371680

1970s London: Jonah has always struggled to fit in at school. He’s too busy to make friends, spending his time caring for his mother, who had been paralysed after having been knocked off her bicycle by a lorry. He also has profound shyness he cannot overcome. His one ‘almost’ friend is Valeria, a Russian immigrant who speaks little English, but who sings and plays the clarinet beautifully.

Both are outcasts, loners. Jonah often hides in the school chapel to escape the bullying from the other children, and this is where he finds a button. It soon transpires that the button belongs to Nathaniel, the ghost of a boy from the 18th

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century, and someone who may be able to help Nathaniel through his own story. Both stories become intertwined, especially through music, as Nathaniel was once Mozart’s companion. Can the lucky button work its magic again?

Lucky Button is a beautiful, moving historical timeslip story inspired by The Foundling Museum, which is devoted to telling the story of the Foundling Hospital, Britain’s first home for abandoned children. Morpurgo is a master storyteller, and this book is another amazing piece of writing. It is a story within a story, exquisitely illustrated by award-winning illustrator, Michael Foreman.

Morpurgo brings to life the characters from both centuries and, as with all his writing, brings in social and political events from the time periods, such as attitudes towards foundlings in the 1800s and immigrants in the 1970s. It is a beautiful book in every way and highly recommended. 8+.

Linda Sever

THE KEY TO FLAMBARDS

Linda Newbery, David Fickling Books, 2018, £12.99, hb, 312pp, 9781788450041

When fourteen-year-old Grace Russell reluctantly comes to Flambards, where her great-great-grandparents once lived, she’s still in shock from the accident which left her disabled.

Furthermore, her parents have divorced, which means she’s also lost her home.

Gradually, Grace becomes curious about her forebears, particularly her great-greatgrandmother, the redoubtable Christina, who learnt to fly and was afraid of nothing. But Christina’s life was full of tragedy. Her first husband, Will, died at 22 in a plane crash during the First World War. Later, Christina married his half-brother, Mark, and their son was killed in 1940, aged 18.

Then Grace meets two distant cousins: the friendly Jamie, a passionate naturalist, and the troubled Marcus whose father, the dangerously volatile Adrian, has returned from Afghanistan, suffering from unacknowledged PTSD. Grace comes to understand that, throughout the generations, her forebears tended to hide their emotions, choosing to stay silent rather than talk, and hurting each other. And it is happening again. If she, Jamie and Marcus can’t learn from the family history, they will be doomed to repeat it.

I thought this was a terrific book; it reminded me of Joanna Trollope at her best; awful things happen, but her heroines learn from them, cope and move on. Grace, too, must struggle with problems with age-old roots and have the courage to break old patterns.

As Grace learns, she gradually realises that the past is truly a foreign country. The assumptions, the ways of coping with emotional stress, and the treatments, both medical and psychological, are all different. A hundred years on from Christina’s generation, a more positive future for herself, Jamie and Marcus is now possible.

Linda Newbery is an award-winning author, and The Key to Flambards is one of her best. She certainly gets a gold star from me.

REVIEWS | ISSUE 87, February 2019

Elizabeth Hawksley

STRUTTIN’ WITH SOME BARBECUE

Patricia Hruey Powell, illus. Rachel Himes, Charlesbridge, 2018, $18.99/C$22.99, hb, 96pp, 9781580897402

Lil Hardin is born with music in her fingers and a beat in her step. Coming of age in Memphis at the dawn of the Roaring Twenties, Lil flouts a society that expects her to take a back seat on the bus, and a family that expects her to guard her reputation and behave like a lady. Lil only wants to do one thing: play jazz. And as her journey takes her from the black-and-tan clubs of Chicago to the premier stages of New York and San Francisco, to a fateful meeting with a shy young trumpet player named Louis Armstrong, Lil proves that nothing can stand in the way of a woman following her passion.

This novel in verse could almost be deemed a novel in jazz, as Powell’s jaunty rhythms tumble up and down each page complete with interludes of scatting. With spot illustrations throughout and a comprehensive timeline, glossary, and historical overview at the back, this slim volume is easily accessible to young readers but also a quick and entertaining read for older students.

Powell offers a colorful introduction to jazz music and captures the color and energy–as well as the struggles and prejudices–of the times. While the book stops short of developing the complicated marriage between Lil and Louis Armstrong or addressing the very real violence and segregation they often faced, young readers will walk away with a new view of the era and the upstart music that defined it.

Ann Pedtke

THE BOY WHO DARED

Susan Campbell Scott, Scholastic, 2019, $7.99, pb, 174pp, 9780439680141

Based on a true story, this telling reimagines the life of a young boy who grew up in 1930s Germany, was part of Hitler Youth, and yet went on to resist the Nazi regime. Helmuth Hübener knew from a young age that his thoughts and beliefs were different from those around him.

Though he realized that he should not voice in them in the heated political climate, at times he couldn’t stay silent as his mother recommended.

He watched in horror as his Jewish friends and neighbors were persecuted, dissenters were jailed, and his rights were taken away, one by one. This extraordinary 16-year-old boy risked everything to form a grassroots resistance movement that consisted of copying news from banned British radio broadcasts to pamphlets for public distribution.

For some it is hard to understand how such a horrible thing as the Holocaust could have been allowed to happen. This is the perfect read for young adults to learn about the events that lead to WWII, and how the atrocities were overlooked by the masses. It is also a courageous and inspiring story in spite of the depressing subject matter—Helmuth’s short history contains many valuable lessons and his memory is to be revered. A well-paced chapter book, The Boy Who Dared is the perfect complement to its non-fiction counterpart, Hitler Youth, Growing Up in Hitler’s

Shadow. This printing contains an author’s note, map, timeline, photos and a bibliography.

Arleigh Ordoyne

POET: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton

Don Tate, Peachtree, 2018, $8.95/C$11.95, pb, 36pp, 9781682630624

Winner of the Ezra Jack Keats Award and others, Poet is the story of an enslaved man, George Moses Horton, who labored on a farm in the Chapel Hill area of North Carolina during the 1800s. What makes this a most remarkable story is that George Horton taught himself how to read during a time when African-American slaves were forbidden to learn that skill. George loved poetry above all else and began to compose his own poems. Not knowing how to write, he memorized each poem.

On Sundays George walked the eight miles to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he sold fruit and vegetables from the farm. While there, he would often recite his poems. Students soon paid George to compose poems for them. He saved the money, but the master of the farm refused to allow George to buy his freedom. Disheartened, George was befriended by a professor’s wife who taught him how to write. George then submitted several of his poems to a newspaper up North. The poems protested his enslavement. As time went on George wrote books and finally achieved his freedom when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, ending slavery in America.

This picture book is a wonderful story for children, promoting the message of perseverance and hope.

Linda Harris Sittig

ENCHANTÉE

Gita Trelease, Flatiron, 2019, $18.99/C$24.99, hb, 464pp, 9781250295521

Set in 1789 in Paris and Versailles, Enchantée mixes the French Revolution, a well-developed female main character, and magic to charm readers in this historical fantasy. She places her reader in the known historical world quite vividly, from the perspectives of both aristocrats and the poor. Yet, this familiar court of Marie Antoinette, of the storming of the Bastille, of carriages and gowns, fabulous hats and ludicrous royal diversions has a new, sinister thread running through it: magic, that can be accessed only through collecting sorrow and worse. Trelease does a good job making this fantastical element believable and exciting. She uses rich language to bring alive this world that exists a few degrees away from reality.

Early on in the novel, Camille, the 21-year-old woman whose dangerous tip into poverty and despair motivates the plot, meets an unusual boy in the most unusual of circumstances. She saves him from plunging to his death by grabbing hold of the gondola of his hot air balloon.

This brand-new method of flight—dangerous and experimental—becomes a metaphor for the novel’s theme of rising to new heights, as a society, an individual, a dreamer. Trelease describes this crucial boy thus: “But what was

most striking about him was that his whole face was animated with a kind of light that made him the most alive thing in the landscape, as if an artist, sketching out the scene, had used a gray pencil to draw everything except one figure, on which he’d lavished his richest paints.” This skillful writing combines with an enjoyable plot and love story to make a highly recommended read.

Judith Starkston

EVIE’S WAR

Holly Webb, Scholastic Press, 2018, £7.99, pb, 300pp, 9781407170862

In the ancient whaling port of Whitby in 1914, as World War One is about to begin, all has turned bleak as Evie’s young life is touched by the tragic death of her younger brother Alexander.

Her parents fight their despair and grief at losing one son, whilst their elder son David focuses on the threat of the outbreak of the war, deciding to enlist despite being too young. Evie and her sister Kitty find some comfort and joy in the company of their two dogs, as the girls prepare to attend school for the first time.

This is a very tenderly written novel, which is both heartbreaking and heartwarming. It shows the desperate lengths Evie’s mother goes to in order to communicate with her dead son.

The many issues that touched people’s lives are skilfully interwoven as the plot develops. The family struggles to come to terms with loss; they sacrifice both their son and one of their dogs as it is sent to The War Dog School to be an unwitting messenger at the front. The actual bombing of Whitby, and the effect it had on the inhabitants of this beautiful and vibrant town, are captured well, as are the tragic circumstances of a ship being wrecked in a storm. We feel for Evie’s lost childhood and follow her as she matures.

This moving story highlights the rights, wrongs, ignorance and prejudice of people’s behaviour during a desperate war time situation, yet ultimately it is an uplifting tale.

Suitable for 8+ Valerie Loh

AMERICA’S FORGOTTEN FOUNDING FATHER

Rosanne Welch, Barbera Foundation, 2018, $14.99, pb, 243pp, 9781947431072

“I have never wished anyone to ask, ‘Why is Mazzei here?’ but rather, ‘Why is Mazzei not here?’”

The quote attributed to Filippo Mazzei on the first pages of America’s Forgotten Founding Father is an apt introduction to a man who played an important role in the early days of the American Revolution, yet few know about.

Born in Italy in 1730, Mazzei went on to become a physician, merchant, vintner, and writer. He was first introduced to American colonists in 1767 in London when his purchase of a Benjamin Franklin stove turned out to be a forgery that Franklin himself corrected.

With the encouragement of new friend Thomas Adams from Virginia, Mazzei came to Williamsburg and soon after purchased land near Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. He and

Jefferson became writing partners when they began submitting articles about rebellion under the name Furioso in 1774 to the Virginia Gazette.

The novel is more of a factual presentation than fictional storytelling; the chronology is interspersed with anecdotal conversations with Franklin, Jefferson, and others involved in the emerging American state. Readers learn about Mazzei’s involvement with the Virginia militia and his work advocating for independence from the British Crown in the Second Continental Congress, conducting business for the colonies in France, and writing essays supporting the American Revolution in the European press after he returns to his homeland.

But the book has a larger focus than Mazzei’s place in the American Revolution. It covers his early years, travels in Turkey, and relationships with family as well as discussions of religion, the prerogatives of landed gentry versus the rights of ordinary people, even the proper pronunciation of Italian words.

This is an interesting and informative biographical sketch aimed at young readers.

K. M. Sandrick

MAPPING THE BONES

Jane Yolen, Philomel, 2019, $10.99/C$14.99, pb, 432pp, 9780399546679

To avoid stuttering, Chaim Abromowitz rarely speaks more than five words at a time, and those only twice a day. As young children he and his twin, Gittel, develop a sign language only they understand. In his head, and on paper, Chaim arranges words into beautiful, emotional poetry. In 1940s Poland, Chaim, Gittel and their parents are forced to leave their home and move to the Jewish ghetto in Lodz.

A few weeks after the twins’ fourteenth birthday, another four-person family is squeezed into their modest apartment. The new family doesn’t understand the rules of the ghetto, and soon the father disappears—most likely arrested or killed. Without access to her medicine, the mother succumbs to an unnamed mental illness. The daughter, Sophie, helps as best she can, and the son, Bruno, causes trouble. When Chaim’s family gets notice that they will be moved to a work camp, they decide to escape to the Bialowieza Forest. They take Bruno, Sophie, and their unwell mother with them. The children are separated from the adults, and though they make it to the forest and travel with the partisans, the children are eventually captured and sold as slaves to a German munitions factory. Bruno’s poetry keeps him sane and gives hope and solace to others. Yolen uses the structure of “Hansel and Gretel” to tell this story of the Holocaust: home, woods, house of candy—and it works well. Chaim’s poetry and Gittel’s memories are breathing spaces in the suffocating horrors of the Holocaust. Mapping the Bones is an important addition to young adult fiction on the Holocaust, offering a close look at the Lodz ghetto, the Polish underground, the work children were forced to do, and the horrible medical experiments undertaken by the Nazis.

Elizabeth Caulfield Felt

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CONFERENCES

The Society organizes biennial conferences in the UK, North America, and Australasia.

Contact Richard Lee <richard@historicalnovelsociety.org> (UK), Vanitha Sankaran <info@vanithasankaran.com> (North America), or Elisabeth Storrs <contact@hnsa.org.au> (Australasia).

Š 2019, the Historical Novel Society, ISSN: 1471-7492 | ISSUE 87, February 2019

A publication of the Historical Novel Society | www.historicalnovelsociety.org

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