Book Reviews

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

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Thank you for the opportunity to challenge the review of Prisoner from Penang in the last issue (HNR 93).

All reviews are subjective, and I’ve never ever made a complaint anywhere before. My rationale now is that the review is misleading about the nature of the book and trivialises the experiences of women POWs.

Described as “a chatty historical romance” by the reviewer, it’s not a romance and has never been classified as such. Currently it’s listed by the leading retailer under Historical Asian fiction, Historical Japanese fiction, Military Historical fiction and British and Irish Historical Literature. Eighty percent of the book has no men at all, other than Japanese prison guards whose relationship with the women is anything but romantic. It would be more accurately described as being about female friendship.

I am at a loss as to why he’d describe a book about torture, starvation, beating, lack of medication, rape and savage treatment of women (drawing on real life testimonies) as “a pleasant afternoon’s read” and “chatty”. Other reviewers have described it in terms such as “harrowing”. I’d expected higher standards of the HNS. Clare Flynn

As a reviewer, I liked Prisoner from Penang but I did not find it particularly engaging or deep, hence my description of it as “a pleasant afternoon’s read.” I thought other readers might enjoy the book, but I wanted to signal them not to expect War and Peace.

The writer’s complaint about my calling it a “chatty historical romance” is likely centered on my use of the word “chatty”.

The word “romance” can be used either to describe an adventure story, as in the novels of Sir Walter Scott, or in the Harlequin sense as a love story with a happy ending. This book is an adventure story. It might also be called a romance in the sense that the heroine loses two boyfriends early on, and the book ends with a traditional love story ending.

I used the word “chatty” because the book’s tone struck me as loose and conversational, almost like a diary. Perhaps my choice of words was inept. I do not intend to trivialize abuse or torture. I would advise interested readers to sample Prisoner from Penang and judge for themselves. David Drum

ANCIENT EGYPT

PHARAOH’S SHADOW

Tasha Madison, Author Academy Elite, 2020, $14.99, pb, 307pp, 9781647462420

In 2012, an investigation led by Dr. Zahi Hawass, former Egyptian Minister of Antiquities, discovered that the mummy of Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses III (r. 1187/6- 1155/4 BCE) showed signs that his throat had been slit. Before then, it had been debated whether this warrior king had actually been killed in the so-called harem conspiracy. Madison imagines the plotting behind the assassination, led here by Queen Teye, one of Pharaoh’s three wives, who hopes to put her weak son Pentawere on the throne.

The chapters, all told from a different point of view, begin with the princess Duatentopet’s premonitions of danger while Pharaoh smugly surveys his domain. Some chapters show how key figures are drawn into the plot, including military commander Peyes, high priest Huy, physician Iroi, and the court magician Perekamenef. Others touch on the external events destabilizing Ramesses III’s reign, from the invasion of the Sea Peoples to the riots by workmen deprived of rations. Together, the varied perspectives provide a fascinating crosssection of Egyptian life during this fabled time.

Though in some places the prose is as stiff and ornamented as a tomb painting—and Queen Teye in particular never develops more than one dimension—the book is for the most part engagingly fluid and readable, with lively dialogue. Its most alluring aspects are the vivid picture it builds of daily, material life in the New Kingdom and its understanding of the invisible world that surrounded and structured Egyptian life, a culture with an advanced grasp of medicine, a firm belief in magic, and an utterly unique spiritual paradigm. Madison, whose debut novel was the YA time-travel fantasy Fabric of a Generation, proves an author of far-ranging interests and depth.

Misty Urban

1ST CENTURY

DAUGHTER OF BLACK LAKE

Cathy Marie Buchanan, Riverhead, 2020, $28.99, hb, 320pp, 9780735216167

Britain, first century AD. Hobble lives in a secluded community. Years ago, her grandfather and uncles went off to battle the invading Romans, and they never returned. So when a druid priest arrives stirring up ideas of rebellion, Hobble’s family lives in fear. Hobble was born with a disability, making her the most likely to be sacrificed for the gods’ favor. But she possesses a rare gift, the ability to see visions. When she foresees the slaughter of their people, the priest becomes even more zealous in his call to arms and accuses Hobble of deceit. Additionally, Hobble’s mother hides a secret, one that could shatter their family more swiftly than any Roman sword.

The age of the druids comes alive as told through the eyes of a mother, named Devout, and her daughter, Hobble. The narratives poignantly recount how each woman’s generation has been affected by Roman rule. Perception heavily influences character choices. Named for her limp from a birth deformity, Hobble is never ashamed of who she is but instead finds ways to prove herself capable, including in the healing arts. While there are horrible stories of what Romans have done enslaving their people, the actions of a few are not the sole narrative. Romans bring with them sturdy roads, new business, stone construction, and written language. The old ways would sacrifice Hobble for being a runt, causing her family to re-evaluate what the druids fight to preserve. Impactful themes about the power of change enrich the novel.

At times, the non-linear writing style gets confusing. Flashbacks occur in the midst of active conversations before circling back in the following section. However, the characters and their community truly shine. This is a story of a culture finding ways to preserve what’s most important while facing an uncertain future. Recommended. J. Lynn Else

INTO THE UNBOUNDED NIGHT

Mitchell James Kaplan, Regal House, 2020, $16.95, pb, 252pp, 9781646030026 Rome is falling from the edges inward and from the core out. The moral lessons for our own time of a falling empire are not lost on the reader, down to a gold-painted Nero who fiddles while the capital burns. So much for the plot, which is mostly our characters reacting as meaningless devastation hits their various homes. A story for our times.

For much of this reading, I found the multiple point-of-view characters sketchily drawn and hastily abandoned, a hindrance to enjoyment. We have Aislin from one corner of the empire— Albion—and Yohanan from the other—Judea. And Vespasian and a Septimus who seems more of a mule to carry Aislin closer to where she has to end up in Galilee with little purpose of her own. Josephus the historian is dragged in there, too. I would have liked a lot more about him. If I missed one or two characters, it’s because it was easy to do without the grappling hooks of character and purpose. I wanted to see more fleshing out, more arc. We even have a disembodied spirit living in the desert, a brief first-person “I,” which is interesting—but the other characters seemed no more substantial. We are told too much, not

shown, and pivotal events not prepared with anticipation, attempts to thwart them again adding to the aimless feeling.

All of this I finally found worth the struggle in a final chapter when Yohanan and the refugees discuss what the new Judean world will look like with the Temple in Jerusalem gone. “If we are to survive, perhaps we must never be too sure of anything.” That I found compelling, with the first purpose of the book. If only that lack of sureness could have been made clear as a purpose before. Ann Chamberlin

2ND CENTURY

THE WALL AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD

Damion Hunter, Canelo Adventure, 2020, £8.99, pb, 352pp, 9781800320260

When surgeon Postumus Justinius Corvus performs an act of bravery and gallantry, he is awarded an honour, a promotion, and a reassignment from Syria to his home in Britannia. But this is a bittersweet assignment, as it looks like he will be forced to confront family ghosts and personal emotional conflicts. Transferred to the northern reaches of the province, he is on the frontline of the Eagles – the last Wall between the Empire and the North has been left to rot. A new, capable and practical Governor is commanding, and he’s intent on obeying the Emperor. A new wall, from East Coast to West, will happen. And Corvus, only intent on treating casualties, is torn; he’s a Briton but he’s also Roman. In fact, his family honour is based on being in the Eagles. So which way can he turn?

This novel is a fine mix of story and history, and the author manages to shed light on a period when the Roman Empire flexed its muscles at the edge of the world.

Alan Cassady-Bishop

4TH CENTURY

THE CONQUEROR

Bryan Litfin, Revell, 2020, $26.99/£18.99, hb, 496pp, 9780800738174

In the early 4th century AD, Rome is ruled by the Tetrarchy or “rule by four.” The empire is divided into geographic quadrants with four key figures, called caesars, and the augustus sharing leadership. Obviously, this makes for tumult and uncertainty. A young German son of a “barbarian” king trains to become a speculator in the ranks of the Roman army. A speculator combines the skills of special forces warrior, scout, spy and thief in a single soldier. Called Rex, he must navigate his way through rigorous martial education, Roman customs, and encountering people of the Christian faith who are just starting to be tolerated at this point by the Romans. One of the four rulers, Constantine, who becomes a mentor and sponsor for Rex, is himself on the verge of adopting Christianity.

Rex is inserted on an espionage mission into Rome which is under the control of another ruler of the Tetrarchy to pave the way for Constantine’s army. There he rescues a young Roman noblewoman who has run afoul of the anti-Christian ruling elite of the city. While protecting her, Rex must also continue his mission and enable Constantine to succeed in taking Rome.

At just under 500 pages, this is a long book. There are a few modernisms like “sleaze” and “Saddle up, soldiers.” But those are petty niggles. Conqueror is a superb account of a time of intense importance in the very early Christian era in Europe. Ironically it is also a story of innocent romance, political intrigue, dark espionage and violent combat. Helpful maps, a gazetteer of place names, and a glossary of terms attest to the professionalism of the author. The writing is fast-paced with unexpected twists and occasional flashes of humor. An enjoyable and historically worthwhile read.

Thomas J. Howley

5TH CENTURY

DAWN EMPRESS

Faith L. Justice, Raggedy Moon, 2020, $12.99, pb, 356pp, 9780917053269

In 404 AD in Constantinople’s imperial palace, Emperor Arcadius of the Eastern Roman Empire pulls his five-year-old daughter, Pulcheria, into her dead mother’s chamber. Although Pulcheria struggles to free herself, Arcadius brings her to the foot of the bed and whispers, “You will be first lady of the land. Show me how an Augusta behaves.” Pulcheria agrees to her father’s wishes, and he responds, “That’s my girl. You’ve got a backbone, unlike your sniveling brother [Theodosius].”

When Arcadius dies, Prefect Anthemius is appointed regent until the seven-yearold Theodosius reaches his majority. However, nine-year-old Pulcheria recognizes Anthemius’s incompetence. She does a remarkable job as Theodosius’s advisor by keeping him safe from conniving eunuchs and assassins, and the Eastern Empire—using indirect means and help from the church— unharmed by rebellions, conflicts, and wars with its enemies. Theodosius is happy, and when Anthemius dies, Theodosius appoints fifteen-year-old Pulcheria as augusta and regent during his minority. Nevertheless, when Theodosius marries, conflicts arise between brother and sister, and Pulcheria struggles to maintain her role.

Faith Justice has penned another outstanding novel, the second in her Theodosian Women series. It recounts the life and times of the 5th-century Princess Pulcheria, who later rose to become empress and helped to advance the Eastern Roman Empire. She seems to have acquired her fortitude at a very young age, and Justice brings this out masterfully in the opening scene. She skillfully senses others’ ulterior motives and manages to outmaneuver them, although sometimes her stubbornness brings her unhappiness. The role of the Christian church and its relationship with other religions in shaping the empire during that period are narrated in a fluid, nontextbook style. This novel is a useful addition into the insights and workings of the Eastern Roman Empire. Highly recommended.

Waheed Rabbani

6TH CENTURY

THE FORGOTTEN KINGDOM

Signe Pike, Atria, 2020, $28.00, hb, 480pp, 9781501191459

Set in the south of Scotland in the 6th century, the second book in a series continues the story of Languoreth, twin sister of Lailoken, whom many researchers identify as the historical figure on whom Merlin is based. It opens with the Battle of Arderydd (573 AD) and concludes with the Battle of the Caledonian Wood (580 AD). The narrative point of view shifts between Languoreth, her brother, and her daughter Angharad as they struggle to cope with the terrors of the battlefield and the psychological toll they exact: though a princess, the impetuous Languoreth is confined and unable to help as those she loves face deadly dangers; as battle rages, Lailoken is torn between anger against his foes and fear for his niece and nephew; eightyear-old Angharad flees from the battlefield, desperately struggling to escape predatory foemen.

The opening section is very dark, as sadistic men mercilessly pursue refugees, warriors and their families both, torturing, raping, and slaughtering unchecked; but the survivors endure and begin the slow, painful progress towards healing and recovery. Among the lessons they must learn is to lay aside old enmities and resentments if they are to drive back new threats to the hard-won security of those who depend upon them: Languoreth at the court of Strathclyde, Lailoken in the wilds of the Caledonian Wood, Angharad amongst the Picts, where she trains to be a priestess.

And to find unlikely allies. Like Prince Artur of Dalriada.

Though Pike laments the scarcity of reliable sources, she creates a very plausible picture of Scotland in the 6th century. She excels too at conveying the fears and anxieties of her narrators and involving readers in their fate. It is, nonetheless, a relief to end on a more optimistic note than in The Lost Queen.

Impressive historical fiction. Highly recommended.

Ray Thompson

9TH CENTURY

IN THE SHADOW OF THE BEAST

C.J. Adrien, Runestone Books, 2020, $19.99, pb, 337pp, 9798646959158

Around the 840s AD, an island called Vindreyland off the coast of Amorica, the part of Gaul between the Seine and Loire rivers, is ruled by a Viking named Hasting. Challenging his rule is Ragnar, a powerful Danish warlord. Hasting, born in Jutland, was raised by the Celts, sworn enemies of the Danes, in Ireland as their slave. Ragnar is defeated in a one-onone clash and vows revenge.

Hasting must then leave Vindreyland to obtain slaves to mine the salt on the island, and to find Renard, a Frank Count of Nantes, who he blames for the death of his beloved. His venture takes him down the Seine and into the land of the Franks, where he is captured and imprisoned.

This novel is the second book in the Saga of Hasting the Avenger. I will try to find and read the first book to obtain more background about the main characters, especially those of Hasting and Renard and the loss of Hasting’s beloved at Renard’s hand. This entertaining novel can be read as a stand-alone. The author places the reader into the thick of the tale, sharing the pain and grief of the main character. A must-read for those who enjoy Viking stories.

Jeff Westerhoff

10TH CENTURY

THE EVENING AND THE MORNING

Ken Follett, Viking, 2020, $36.00, hb, 928pp, 9780525954989 / Macmillan, 2020, £25.00, hb, 832pp, 9781447278788

Over a century before The Pillars of the Earth, the future English cathedral town of Kingsbridge is a mere hamlet with a stone church, ferry, alehouse, and a scattering of humble buildings. Follett’s supremely entertaining prequel centers on the locale known then as Dreng’s Ferry – named after a surly business owner – and the city of Shiring, while dramatizing their inhabitants’ interactions around the first millennium CE.

Three plucky protagonists have ambitious dreams that set them apart. Edgar, an illiterate boatbuilder with an engineer’s mind, loses his lover to a brutal Viking raid and works to raise his family out of poverty. Lady Ragna, the Count of Cherbourg’s daughter, leaves Normandy to marry her wealthy betrothed but is dismayed by her new life’s reality. And a monk, Brother Aldred, seeks to develop his abbey’s scriptorium and library into an educational beacon. However, with political influence held by a trio of wily brothers and their relatives, anyone stepping outside their societal role risks having their hopes, indeed their very lives, crushed. Wynstan, Bishop of Shiring, is a notably formidable nemesis.

Bursting with personality and detailed re-creations of daily life in historic England, this story is vintage Follett. Anyone who loved Pillars will want to scoop it right up. The characters, while belonging to their era, are recognizable types that make it easy to identify with or hiss at them. The momentum never flags, an impressive achievement in a tome that sprawls in length but not setting or time. Two pervasive themes are the corruption of power, and how average people have few choices. King Ethelred is a distant presence, and justice depends on leaders’ personalities and whims. Slave girls suffer particularly violent fates. It is frustrating to see our heroes’ plans so frequently thwarted, but one can’t help but read on, hoping for a better future – as the evocative title signifies. Sarah Johnson

FORGED BY IRON

Eric Schumacher, Legionary, 2020, $12.99, pb, 297pp, 9798627636924

“Oaths are like iron, Torgil,” whispered my father… “You cannot break them. To do so is to bring shame to you and your name. See that you keep it.”

Norway, AD 960. Torgil has sworn an oath to protect Prince Olaf. But after Olaf’s father is killed and their home is attacked, 12-yearold Torgil and 8-year-old Olaf find themselves on the run. Their last hope is to reach the home of Olaf’s uncle, but the journey is long. Accompanying the boys are Torgil’s father, Olaf’s mother, and two female servants. As they race across land and sea, powerful enemies are never far behind. And with each harrowing step, Torgil’s oath becomes more and more difficult to keep.

Based on the Saga of King Olaf, the landscape and culture come alive with Schumacher’s strong imagery and fine details. Young Torgil isn’t happy by how the fates have tied him to Olaf and is constantly challenged (both emotionally and physically) by the oath made to their fathers. The two are often at odds, Torgil being more thoughtful and patient while Olaf is brash and impulsive. The tumultuous relationship adds an additional layer of tension to an already fast-paced plot. The boys live within a brutal society, particularly when the slavers come into play. However, elements are recounted in a way that isn’t overwhelming for readers. With the stakes constantly on high, Forged by Iron is a story that’s hard to put down. I look forward to more from this series. Schumacher has a talent

J. Lynn Else

11TH CENTURY

THE COMING OF THE WOLF

Elizabeth Chadwick, Sphere, 2020, £20.00, hb, 284pp, 9780751577662

This book comes heralded as “The prequel to the bestselling and beloved novel The Wild Hunt” for which the author won a Betty Trask Award, and which I have also read, and totally agree with the sentiment. It begins on the Welsh Marches in August 1069, almost three years after the Battle of Hastings, and goes on to relate the lives of the Norman conquerors, the English lords and the Welsh who then populated this area of Britain. In the opening chapter, Lyulph, an English thegn, lives with his wife Christen at Ashdyke Manor. Christen’s brother, Osric, runs with the Welsh borderers. Suddenly the keep is overrun by a band of Normans, Lyulph is killed and Osric taken prisoner by the Norman leader Miles le Gallois, who is half-Norman and half-Welsh himself, his father being a Norman who had settled in the area and married a Welsh girl. Thus we have links with all three factions.

As always, Elizabeth Chadwick’s research of both the actual history of the period and the social habits and expectations is immaculate. Her attention to detail serves to add all the colour needed to bring it all to life, and her characters leap off the pages, which keep turning relentlessly until the reader reaches the final words. The glossary of who’s who at the beginning – and there are many of them – and the author’s notes at the end both help to set the scene so that the reader is totally involved from beginning to end. I think I have read all of Elizabeth Chadwick’s historical novels and have yet to be disappointed. I look forward to the next one. Highly recommended.

Marilyn Sherlock

WOLF OF CLONTARF

Thomas J. Howley, Moonshine Cove, 2020, $15.99, pb, 280pp, 9781945181825

Thomas J. Howley brings the Irish hero, Wolf the Quarrelsome, to life in the medieval Nordic saga, Wolf of Clontarf. The tale begins in a chaotic battle on the east coast of Ireland in 1006 AD but then reverts back seven years when Irish warriors find a blood-soaked, gangly boy who has just slain his Viking masters in Dublin. The High King of Ireland, Brian, calls the scarfaced boy Faolan—Wolf—and proclaims he is his foster son. King Brian arranges for Wolf to be educated by monks and to be trained with weapons by an older warrior. Epic tales from military history resonate with Wolf, and he envisions the Irish throwing the Vikings out of their country as the Spartans did with the Persians. Wolf’s story spans over fifteen years as he recruits a special force of warriors with varying skills and a young woman, Aoife, with

a vast network of spies. Unlikely alliances with rival kings, Scots, and Norsemen forge the Irish army into a formidable force that overcomes the Vikings at the battle at Clontarf in 1014 AD.

Author Howley narrates the legendary tale from an omniscient point of view. Told in rich oral tradition, the story focuses on how Wolf forms his special operations based on his knowledge of historical military tactics. Landscapes on which battles are fought and weapons the warriors wield are meticulously described. The tale is action-packed but lean on Wolf’s character development and his relationship with Aoife and others in the story.

Wolf of Clontarf will appeal to readers who enjoy reading fast-paced Nordic tales with emphasis on historical background, battle strategy, and weaponry.

Linnea Tanner

THE COLD HEARTH

Garth Pettersen, Tirgearr, 2020, $4.99, ebook, 235pp, B084PZR3WW

The Cold Hearth (The Atheling Chronicles, #3) by Garth Pettersen is an enthralling medieval Norse tale that continues the adventure of the little-known historical figure, Harold Harefoot—the second son of King Cnute. Although the book can be read as a standalone, reading the entire series would be advantageous. In 1029 C.E. Harold seeks a peaceful life as a farmer alongside his Frisian wife, Selia, in England, away from the infighting of potential heirs to the Viking empire. As Harold rebuilds the hall on his farm, his hopes for a fresh start are shaken with news that his older brother, Sweyn was almost killed in an assassination attempt. Further, he learns the previous occupants were brutally murdered and grows suspicious of his servants and neighbors. He seeks out unknown enemies that not only threaten his life but pose danger to all of the athelings (princes) in line for King Cnute’s throne.

Pettersen masterfully weaves fast-paced action into a heartfelt tale about a wise, formidable warrior with a heart of gold. As told by Harold in first-person and by other characters in third-person, the story brings the large cast of characters to life. Each of them is distinct and relatable. Harold’s oldest brother, Sweyn, is a reckless drunkard whereas Harthacnute is their pompous, impulsive half-brother. Pettersen seamlessly merges various words from the middle ages (defined in a glossary) into the dialogue. Poignant moments of everyday life and touching relationships are juxtaposed with gripping scenes of suspense and action.

The Cold Hearth has everything you could want in a Viking saga—memorable characters, realistic depiction of middle age lifestyles, riveting fight scenes, and dashes of romance. Highly recommended.

Linnea Tanner Clara Dupont-Monod (trans. Ruth Diver), Quercus, 2020, £14.99, hb, 188pp, 9781529402889

Listen to the inner voices of Richard the Lionheart and his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, resounding down the centuries, courtesy of the powerful imagination of the French novelist Clara DupontMonod. Live through the turbulent decades in the company of the medieval world’s most dysfunctional family, in a time when a mother sets her sons against their father (scathingly referred to as ‘The Plantagenet’) out of revenge for his broken promises and betrayals. We have met Eleanor before, in biographies, fiction, and drama but never like this. Historical authenticity is guaranteed through all the well-known stories of the era, but it is the fascinating psychology of the mother/son relationship that takes centre stage. Eleanor tries to arm her sons and daughters to face the stark realities of the game of power that is 12th-century Europe, but at a cost. Tenderness seems non-existent; in its place swirl passion, anger and storms. The revolt fails, leaving Eleanor a prisoner and Richard forced to obey his father, but real strength lies in their endurance and unspoken love.

The translation by Ruth Diver is impeccable; you rarely even consider it. The intricate, baton-passing narrative is delivered in elegant, sometimes austere but often lyrical prose, sure to please readers who like their history conveyed in style. We travel with the characters through the poetry-rich lands of south-west France, across the sea to rainsoaked England and on to the ochre dust of the Holy Land where Richard confronts his destiny, shaped for him by Eleanor. This is a cut above your average historical novel. It’s a short read but reflects an epic story.

Jan Middleton

THE PRIEST’S SON

Nicky Moxey, Dodnash, 2019, $10.99, pb, 382pp, 9781999783242

Early 12th century: When Jean’s father leaves France for the Levant, he sends his young son to Dodnash Priory in England, to stay with his old friend Father Wimer. Over the next few years Jean grows to manhood under Wimer’s care and guidance. Despite his attraction to the pretty Edeva, Jean becomes a postulant at Dodnash, and Edeva marries William, a local landowner. When Father Wimer dies, William attempts, through forged charters, to steal lands given to the Priory, as well as land left to Jean. The prior asks Jean to investigate the tangle. His search lasts many years and will bring him into contact with the highest in the land.

Moxey’s novel, her second based on the history of Dodnash Priory, is based on fact. Moxey recounts in an afterword that the Priory was relocated in the early 1200s due to a papal order, and this book attempts to answer the “why” of that move. The novel moves along at a fast clip, covering many years almost too quickly—I grew confused as to the timeline, and how much time had passed since the previous scene. Moxey writes well-researched medieval characters, but I wanted more emotional involvement and development; I felt that, unfortunately, depth of characterization was often subordinated to the tale of lengthy legal battles faced by the priory. Still, The Priest’s Son is a lively medieval novel that should interest fans of this time period, and certainly those readers with an interest in medieval religious houses.

Susan McDuffie

13TH CENTURY

HEART OF THE WORLD

Cecelia Holland, Ring of Fire, 2020, $14.99, pb, 259pp, 9781953034069

A disillusioned Templar knight, an orphaned Arab boy, and a traumatized Jewish woman make up the core characters in this actionoriented saga. While the characters share a beginning in the same 13th-century Baghdad household, they are soon torn apart when the Mongols sack the city. The knight and the boy stay together for a brief time, but the woman is captured by the Mongols, who spare her because they believe her to be a Christian. The title refers to the novel’s location, in the Middle East, where the crossroads of civilizations meet, and includes cities like Baghdad, Acre, Damascus, and Aleppo. Here occurs a collision of peoples: Franks, Mongols, Mameluke warriors, Venetian tradesmen, and others. Surprisingly, the Mongols of this period practiced Christianity, a fact that works its way into the plot nicely.

Holland is a well-known historical fiction author, having written thirty novels. Her talent shines through each page, steeped in atmosphere, brutal and compelling action scenes, and political machinations. Side characters who appear in history books fill out the narrative to a satisfying degree as they interact with the protagonists.

Read this novel to immerse yourself in a skillfully created world where conquerors

brandish their swords against hapless peasants and nomads wander through vivid lands. The protagonists are richly portrayed and defined by their behavior, making them relatable if not entirely likable. Highly recommended for those who appreciate a fast-paced story that celebrates the past without restricting it to modern mores.

Xina Marie Uhl

LIONHEARTS

Nathan Makaryk, Forge, 2020, $27.99, hb, 560pp, 9781250195852

Nathan Makaryk’s sophomore novel picks up some months after the shocking conclusion of his first, Nottingham. In this Game-ofThrones-like treatment of the Robin Hood myth, Makaryk shakes everything we thought we knew about the characters of legend and scatters those preconceptions like dice rolling across a scarred betting table.

Will Scarlet, Arthur à Bland, and David of Doncaster leave the Sherwood Forest to sneak back into Nottingham in an effort to strengthen Robin Hood’s band. Meanwhile, Marion and Little John also abandon the forest, leading a bedraggled group of peasants across England in search of safe harbor.

Neither team finds exactly what they want, encountering instead complications that are bloody, convoluted, and, mostly, entertaining. The Red Lion gang in Nottingham is led by an old friend of Will’s and his merciless lover. Marion’s safe harbor proves to be both more frivolous and more treacherous than she had imagined. All this while, England strains under the weight of the chancellor’s demand that every person provide a quarter of his or her wealth to pay the kidnapped King Richard’s ransom.

This isn’t a book for sticklers of historical accuracy: The characters swear with modern words, the women are unusually conscious of their gendered state, and history has been tweaked. But for readers looking for a memorable story, characters to both love and hate, and ethical quandaries, this is an enjoyable read.

Carrie Callaghan

THE REBEL HEIRESS AND THE KNIGHT

Melissa Oliver, Harlequin, 2020, $6.50, pb, 281pp, 9781335505620

In the spring of 1215, an incompetent and mercurial tyrant rules England, and Northumberland is a hotbed of ferment. The rebellious barons are abetted by outlaws led by the enigmatic Le Renard. Sir Hugh de Villiers is sent north to capture the thieves and deliver a royal missive to the widow of Tallany Castle. When he learns the contents of the royal letter, he is as stunned as Lady Tallany, but he adeptly heeds his liege’s command in spite of her reticence to do the same.

After years of abuse, Eleanor Tallany follows a treacherous path to protect her people. Never will she marry another king’s man. Doing so imperils them and herself, yet she has never had any say in her own destiny. The kindnesses Sir Hugh shows rekindle feelings long thought dead. Then a covetous and vengeful suitor threatens to crush all that she holds dear.

Reminiscent of Robin Hood, Oliver’s debut novel is fast-paced. Hair-raising, poignant, humorous, and romantic segments are deftly woven into a tapestry that brings to life the tumultuous past and devious stratagems of medieval England, while her feisty characters vividly capture the imagination from first page to last.

Cindy Vallar

14TH CENTURY

THE LACQUERED TALISMAN

Laurie Dennis, Earnshaw Books, 2020, $19.99/ C$26.99/£18.99, pb, 330pp, 9789888552467

Epic in scope, this novel of 1300s China is absolutely fascinating. Set at a time when the Mongol-ruled Yuan dynasty is foundering, clearly losing the “Mandate of Heaven,” The Lacquered Talisman is the story of the beancurd seller’s son who, after many trials and tribulations, became the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 BCE). First known as “Fortune,” Zhu Yuanzhang isn’t even the eldest son in his family, but the youngest. Smart, filially pious, and—although Fortune doesn’t yet realize it—ambitious, Fortune determinedly makes his way in a ruthless world. Goat-herder, Buddhist monk, wandering beggar—Fortune is all these and more. He never gives up and does his best to improve himself. This first book in a series about Zhu Yuanzhang takes him from toddler to neophyte soldier and holds the reader’s interest from beginning to end.

Poor peasant boy rises to become emperor— it sounds like a fairy tale, but it’s real history, and this book illuminates an extraordinary time and place. It was a grim delight to read (people frequently have a thoroughly lousy time, what with all the famines and plagues), and Dennis makes the characters and action clear even if you’re not at all familiar with Chinese history. I look forward to the sequel.

India Edghill

KEMP: Riders of Fury

Jonathan Lunn, Canelo Adventure, 2020, £2.99, ebook, 228pp, B087J92FZS

In 1352 the Hundred Years’ War is in full blaze, and England and France are playing tug-of-war over the Duchy of Brittany. In the midst of it all, freebooter Martin Kemp, de facto leader of a small band of English archers, has fallen foul of his latest French captain, and now must find a new lord for himself and his friends. Kemp also has trouble of his own, in the shape of a Gascon knight seeking revenge, a lovely Breton noblewoman who doesn’t especially want to be protected and, most inconveniently, a prickly conscience. Can he manage it all, with a growing number of foes out to get him, and war raging all around?

This is the fourth instalment in a series and, while the reader is left in no confusion as to who wants what, there is a certain feeling of transition to the whole story, as Kemp deals with the aftermath of previous battles, ends fighting the next at Mauron, and the stage is set for further adventures… Still, plenty happens in between, and – even with the occasionally stiff quasi-period dialogues – Riders of Fury is a gripping and fast-paced read, filled with engaging characters.

Chiara Prezzavento

THE MORTIMER AFFAIR

Alice Mitchell, YouCaxton, 2020, £12.99, pb, 364pp, 9781913425241

A marriage is arranged between Joan de Joinville, a young and wealthy heiress, and Roger, a member of the powerful Mortimer family. Unusually, the marriage begins well and twelve children are born.

However, Roger’s wilful ambitions result in a fallout with his king, Edward II. He leads a failed rebellion and ends up in the Tower, leaving Joan and his vulnerable family to the mercy of his enemies, who deprive Joan of her wealth and her status. Escaping to Spain, Roger soon becomes a favourite of Queen Isabella, returning to England loyal to her ambitions and neglectful of Joan, who suffers many years of isolation and humiliation as she tries to ensure the wellbeing of her children.

Joan’s sad history continues as Roger’s unbridled ambitions lead him into acts of blatant depravity and cruelty, eventually delivering him to a place in history which he would not have chosen.

All this is chronicled, sometimes in Joan’s own words, but always in the same detached tone, almost seeming to amount to indifference to the violent and tragic events which overtake so many of the wider cast of characters in this harsh drama.

Although this novel is in danger of failing to connect with its readers, it is a diligent account of a rather nasty piece of history. It tells us, concisely, who does what to whom and why as well as where. For this reason, it should find a welcome home on a great many bookshelves.

Julia Stoneham

A CHOIR OF CROWS

Candace Robb, Crème de la Crime, 2020, $29.99, hb, 288pp, 9781780291260

Set in York in December, 1374, this is Robb’s twelfth Owen Archer mystery. On a snowy evening, three men are murdered, one of whom, Ronan, is a vicar despised by many. But whether Ronan was the actual target of the murderer is at the crux of Owen’s investigation as captain of the City and Prince Edward’s man.

An entangled web of mysteries proceeds from that one crime: who is the young woman, dressed as a man, singing angelically in the minster that night? How is Ambrose Coates, a

court musician from the French court involved, and is he, indeed, a French spy? Added to these local issues is the looming enthronement of the detestable Alexander Neville to replace Owen’s now-deceased friend, Archbishop Thoresby. As York becomes the focus of Neville and Percy politics, Owen, his wife, healer Dame Lucie, their children and friends must weed their way through a complex maze of subplots featuring spies, murderers and hangers on to the powerful families.

As always, the characters are fully fleshed out by Robb and the plots and subplots carefully intertwined. One-eyed Owen listens carefully to that frisson in his lost eye, recognizing who is trustworthy and who is not. An intricate and delightful entry—but as Robb advises in her Note, one that is better read after other installments.

Ilysa Magnus

THE WARRIOR’S PRINCESS PRIZE

Carol Townend, Harlequin, 2020, $6.50, pb, 288pp, 9781335505682 Alhambra, 1399. The Warrior’s Princess Prize follows the story of Zorahaida, princess and quasi-captive to her father’s violent whims. When a tournament champion names her as his desired prize, Zorahaida must battle her conflicting emotions. Torn between anger at the presumption of the man who threatens to tear her from the causes she’s devoted to and excitement at the prospect of leaving her gilded cage, the princess embarks on a book-long struggle to come to terms with her feelings and desires. Jasim ibn Ismail, knight of famed chivalry and unwitting cause of this conflict, likewise struggles between his initial motivations for the proposal and the feelings that develop as they begin to know one another. Can they come together to find a mutual understanding of happiness? This is the third in a three-part series but can be read independently. It was written based on “The Legend of the Three Beautiful Princesses,” and each book explores one of the three sisters. Although the story was intriguing, I struggled at times with the prose (over-use of names in dialogue, awkward phrasing) and character-building (Zorahaida mourns that Jasim doesn’t trust her, then continues to work against him), but Townend provides great historical details and delivers on scene-setting minutiae.

Anna Bennett

THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS

S.J.A. Turney, Canelo, 2020, £8.99, pb, 296 pp, 9798668841998

The 5th in Simon Turney’s Knights Templar series, this book deals with the start of the campaign to win Iberia back from the Moors. The Caliph is leading a huge, smoothly-oiled war machine; the Christians are splintered, each minor King, and the leaders of the three great Templar houses, vying for supremacy. On one side of the mountain chain, the Caliph is massing his armies for conquest. On the other, the Christians, expecting just another Crusade, are about to walk into the jaws of a trap… Against this background, the Templar knight Arnau and his impetuous, untested squire are sent on an almost suicidal journey far behind enemy lines to rescue a captured Brother – who turns out to be a fanatical convert to the Islam of the Almohads. They must not only break the “brainwashing” that has been forced on him, but race back through territory which has soldiers pouring into it to warn the Christian leaders of the forces awaiting them.

Turney is known for his brutal, realistic battle scenes, and this first, hugely important blow in the reconquest of Spain is no exception. We see both the tactical manoeuvres unfold, then we are in the guts of the battle with Arnau; then he supports King Sancho of Navarre in a brilliant surprise move. On the way, he earns the hatred of a Frankish knight, who might just feature in the next thrilling tale. For me, a key part of my enjoyment of a good historical novel is the Author’s Note. Turney walks us through the facts and fiction in a way that is just as readable as the story itself. Assuming you can cope with a fair amount of blood – thoroughly recommended!

Nicky Moxey

SPITEFUL BONES

Jeri Westerson, Severn House, 2020, $28.99/£20.99, hb, 185pp, 9780727889997

The Tracker of London, Crispin Guest, must solve a 20-year-old murder in his 14th adventure, set in 1398. Lawyer Nigellus (Nigel) Cobmartin has just inherited the family home upon the death of his lazy older brother. In making long-overdue repairs, his workmen discover a skeleton plastered behind a wall – clutching the family relic, a lock of St. Elmo’s hair, that everyone believed had been stolen by a trusted servant.

At the urging of Nigel’s wife, Crispin enlists his assistant Jack Tucker to tackle the case, and Crispin’s 14-year-old illegitimate son Christopher begs to view the skeleton as well. The man had been murdered, his hands and feet bound, but the appointed sheriff of London has no interest in this crime. Crispin must apply his considerable skills to ferret out what happened to Wilfrid Roke. Few members of the household staff who knew him remain alive, but all are suspects until proven innocent. Then the family records for the month of the theft disappear, and Roke’s son is murdered.

Westerson expertly reveals Crispin’s backstory for those unfamiliar with the series, and his complex life and the connections he has made enable him to uncover the truth. The historical detailing is precise, and the characters are richly drawn and immensely likable. Fans will be saddened to learn that Crispin’s arc is nearing its end, yet this is a fine installment about a fascinating detective,

Tom Vallar

15TH CENTURY

THE COLOUR OF SHADOWS

Toni Mount, MadeGlobal, 2020, $17.99/£11.99, pb, 388pp, 9788412232509

A young white-haired boy is found dead in the workshop behind Sebastian Foxley’s home and scrivener’s establishment in 1479 London. Days later the white-haired young son of a neighbor is kidnapped, sending Foxley and his cousin Adam Armitage on the hunt.

Foxley is no stranger to crime and its unraveling; The Colour of Shadows is eighth in Mount’s medieval mystery series. As a result, Foxley has long-standing relationships with criminal investigators. He has worked with bailiff Thaddeus Turner to piece together clues and their ramifications and irked Master Fyssher, the overseer of unexplained deaths, by outwitting and solving crimes Fyssher didn’t realize had happened in the first place.

The Colour of Shadows is a satisfying mystery, with well-plotted yet unexpected twists and turns from start to finish. Characters are vivid. Readers meet members of Foxley’s household, including his wife, cousin, apprentices, and house staff, as well as “men of substance,” beggars, prostitutes, and henchmen. Dialogue and description resonate with idiom and feudal turns of phrase. Scenes are evocative, revealing the details of tradesmen’s lives, the perils posed by tides and marshes, the dangers associated with childbirth, and the mournfulness of dementia. The Colour of Shadows is painted in many different shades.

K. M. Sandrick

16TH CENTURY

THE TESTIMONY OF ALYS TWIST

Suzannah Dunn, Little, Brown, 2020, £18.99, hb, 274pp, 9781408707203

This is very much a novel which demonstrates the experience and perspective of history from below. Royalty, in this case Queen Mary the First and her dangerously positioned half-sister, the Lady, sometime Princess Elizabeth, create and react to grand events on the world stage. These are the happenings written about in the history books and analysed and discussed even today. Here in this novel, however, we are focused on the effects of those big decisions on the ordinary people on the ground.

An enforced stay in the Tower of London for Elizabeth is a political act by Queen Mary, but we see the impact of this on laundresses Bel and Alys among others. No one is immune or distanced from the political and religious upheavals of the time. Alys herself is an orphan with secrets of her own, but she is pressed into spying on Elizabeth and is unable

to resist or reject the commands of those above her. The atmosphere is one of suspicion and uncertainty, and this comes across very clearly. In the aftermath of the execution of the tragic Lady Jane Grey, it is clear that anything can and will happen.

If you have read and enjoyed other novels by Dunn, this will be no exception. It does help to have a background knowledge of the key happenings and issues of the time, as often the reader gets as much information as Alys, which works well as a narrative device to really see the tumult of history through the eyes of those who lived it without deciding or controlling anything to any extent.

Ann Northfield

THE GIANT

Laura Morelli, The Scriptorium, 2020, $16.99, pb, 349pp, 9781942467366

Laura Morelli’s novel transports readers to early 16th-century Florence. The Italian Renaissance is in full swing, and the cathedral has sponsored a competition for sculpting a figure of the biblical hero David out of a gigantic, unruly block of marble that has been left uncarved for a century. Michelangelo is drawn back to his hometown of Florence to enter the competition, which he wins. Morelli’s book, though, focuses not on Michelangelo but on his childhood friend and fellow artist, Jacopo Torni, a real-life but little-known historical figure. A struggling painter, Torni is affectionately nicknamed L’Indaco, and he is relentlessly envious of Michelangelo’s success. Sometimes L’Indaco loves Michelangelo, sometimes he hates him – but L’Indaco always wants to be Michelangelo. In his shadow, L’Indaco struggles to find satisfying work that will gain him the immortality he craves. Adding to L’Indaco’s troubles: he is a horrible gambler and owes money all over town, which prevents his beloved sister, Lucia, from marrying and having a life of her own.

Morelli’s book is described as “a novel of Michelangelo’s David,” but it is not that, as both Michelangelo and the David sit in the background. Most of the story is about L’Indaco’s jealousy, gambling, and constantly disappointing his sister. In between, Michelangelo occasionally makes an appearance, and L’Indaco checks on the progress of the famous sculpture. Readers who are expecting more about Michelangelo and his David will be disappointed. But if you’re okay with that, you will enjoy the vivid setting Morelli has created. Through her colorful descriptions, you can smell the tanneries on the Ponte Vecchio, crave Lucia’s stews, and hear the arriccio being scraped across the wall in preparation for fresco painting.

Julia C. Fischer

HAMNET

Maggie O’Farrell, Tinder Press, 2020, £20.00, hb, 372pp, 9781472223791 / Knopf, 2020, $26.95, hb, 320pp, 9780525657606

This is the passionate love story of a glovemaker’s son and Agnes, a wise-woman. It is the tale of an absentee father, living and working at the playhouse in the city. Meanwhile an errant flea hops from monkey to human, cat, rat and into a cargo, ship-bound for England. Now here’s young Hamnet desperately searching for his family to help his twin sister, abed with fever. And now the story turns to the wise-woman, renowned for her knowledge and foresight, who fails to recognise that it is her son she will lose, not her sickly daughter, sickly since birth. This mistake will haunt her for the rest of her days.

Years on the father writes a ‘tragedie’, which, when Agnes sees her son’s name displayed on the playbill, compels her to discover why her husband has so misused Hamnet’s memory. Her anger is palpable. His constant absence means that he has forgotten his son; that she alone bears their grief. Where is he when she needs him, this unnamed playwright, this glovemaker’s son, this absent father, this husband who loves her? As a mother to a family with an eerily similar makeup and circumstance, sadly, I found O’Farrell’s intuitive perceptions on losing a child heartwrenching and yet comforting to me.

This extraordinary novel, written almost entirely in the present tense, has lilting, rhythmic phrasing: “Every life has its kernel, its hub, its epicentre”; “She releases his hand which feels raw, peeled, ravaged.” There is an in-the-moment immediacy, an urgency for the reader to discover what comes next; a vivid description of first lovemaking as the drying apples bounce on their racks. Dialogue is sparing. Each and every word must be savoured, even as we feel compelled to hurry on. A spectacular tribute to a young boy whose name would be erased from history but for this anonymous playwright, his epic play and O’Farrell’s brilliance. Breathtaking!

Fiona Alison

THE WAR OF THE POOR

Éric Vuillard (trans. Mark Polizzotti), Other, 2020, $17.99/C$23.99/£9.99, hb, 96pp, 9781635420081 / Picador, 2021, £9.99, hb, 80pp, 9781529038538

It is fair to say that in Germany, Thomas Müntzer is a hero of sorts. The 16th-century reformist has been the subject of nearly two thousand essays, plays, books, poems, articles, and films. How much influence he had on fomenting the masses into an uprising known as the Peasants’ War is controversial; however, he did help the rebel masses voice their grievances. He supported a social and religious revolution that would grant legal and social rights to the suppressed lower class. And toward the end of the conflict, he did take up a leadership role as “God’s Servant” leading what he believed must be an apocalyptic revolt against the “Godless” clergy and aristocracy. Unfortunately, the Peasants’ War ended badly with the slaughter of nearly 100,000 peasants and farmers.

The War of the Poor by Vuillard is a breezy, interpretive essay of Thomas Müntzer’s life and influence on the Peasants’ War in Germany. Vuillard romanticizes the Protestant reformist’s influence while ignoring details that would substantiate his interpretation. There is no bibliography, and one example that would have benefited from scholastic evidence is Vuillard’s insinuation that Müntzer’s father was hanged by feudal authorities. Friedrich Engels’ research in The Peasant War in Germany (1850) runs counter to this claim.

However, these quibbles detract from the intended purpose of this slim volume— which can only be surmised, since there is no introduction or author statement. Perhaps Vuillard hopes to draw a parallel to our presentday circumstances where democracies and governments have digressed into oligarchies that no longer serve the masses. There is no discussion or drawn conclusion in Vuillard’s work linking the comparison. Unfortunately, The War of the Poor does little to incite change— even on a cerebral plane.

Mary Lawrence

THE BOY KING

Janet Wertman, Independently published, 2020, $13.99, pb, 374pp, 9780997133875

Edward Tudor is nine years old when his father, King Henry VIII, dies and he assumes the throne of England in 1547. In the next six years, until his death, King Edward VI oversees a kingdom beset by conflict within—landlords vs. peasants, religious reformers vs. followers of the traditional Catholic Church—external threats from France and Spain, and war with Scotland.

In the Council of Regency, named by King Henry in his will to assist the young king, are rivalries between Edward’s uncles, Thomas Seymour and Edward, Duke of Somerset. Within his family is opposition from half-sister Mary, daughter of Catherine of Aragon and fierce proponent of Catholicism.

The Boy King is third in author Wertman’s Seymour Saga. Reflecting Wertman’s passion for the Tudors, the book is layered in detail. Each chapter captures a day in the king’s reign, revealing the actions of those who seek influence over his decisions and exploring his own reactions. It presents the dilemmas faced by a boy thrust into a role few could hope to fill, providing glimpses of youthful impatience with ritual, uncertainties and trepidations about making decisions that affect the lives of the people the king rules as well as the men and women who serve him, small triumphs in acquiring skills in pastimes he enjoys, such as falconry, and the isolation and loneliness that comes with power.

Heavy with facts, the narrative is sometimes

overwhelming. The focus on specific days in the king’s life interferes with dropping seeds of dramatic plotting that propel readers along. The overall effect is nonetheless impressive.

K. M. Sandrick

17TH CENTURY

THE BEE AND THE ORANGE TREE

Melissa Ashley, Affirm Press, 2019, A$35.00, hb, 369pp, 9781925972672

This bustling book is set in Paris in 1699, under the reign of Louis XIV. It explores the lives of a group of female characters who are struggling to gain their independence in a social climate where the Catholic Church is repealing women’s liberties. The historically underexplored figure, Baroness Marie Catherine D’Alunoy, is one of these women. Her coping mechanism, and act of resistance, is penning subversive fairy tales.

The plot is driven forward by two key events. Marie Catherine’s close friend Nicola Tiquet narrowly escapes from her abusive husband, who she is then accused of murdering. Alongside this, Marie Catherine’s daughter, Angelina, arrives in Paris after being reared in the heady conservatism of a convent. She enters the narrative eager to be swept up in the glitz and glamour of Paris’s avant-garde literary salons with their progressive social codes. The novel’s momentum is carried forward by shifting among the perspectives of Nicola, Angelina, and Marie Catherine in the race to save Nicola from the allegations she faces.

Ashley’s greatest achievement is the way she captures the characters’ struggles for independence by illuminating the difficulty for women of the time to exist outside not just the church but also the institution of marriage. The book possesses an interesting mix of anachronistic dialogue that mingles with the characters’ strikingly contemporary clarity of the nature of their struggle. Ashley’s creation of historical space and time is highly detailed and immersive; however, it at times threatens to detract from the natural flow of the narrative. I particularly enjoyed its whimsical air, which is reminiscent of the fairy tale that inspired its title.

The Bee and the Orange Tree is Melissa Ashley’s second novel. She previously published the bestselling and critically acclaimed novel, The Birdman’s Wife, which followed the same path of exploring an underrepresented female historical figure.

Georgia Rose Phillips

THE HONEY AND THE STING

E. C. Fremantle, Michael Joseph, 2020, £14.99, hb, 350pp, 9780718180508

Set in England in 1628, this book presents the lives of three sisters living on their own with the small son of the eldest girl. When in service, Hester had been raped by George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, then was cast aside and left to raise her son, Rafe, alone. The second sister, Melis, claims to see visions. The youngest one is Hope, and their father is the local doctor who had left home one morning to visit a patient, taking the groom with him. Melis predicts his death, and this prediction is proved true when the groom returns with the doctor’s body. The years pass, and then George Villiers decides to claim his son. This is something Hester must prevent and, with the help of a friendly neighbour, she takes Rafe and her sisters north to a lonely house in the woods in Shropshire. What follows is George’s attempts to regain his son and Hester’s attempts to stop him.

The story is full of action, and the pages turn easily. The characterisation is good, and readers will become fully involved. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which gives an excellent account of social life in the early 17th century. In real life, George Villiers had also led several failed military campaigns; he was unpopular with those he was supposed to lead and was eventually assassinated in Portsmouth. Readers unfamiliar with his life will find it well worth reading the author’s notes before picking up the book. It is a very good read, and I thoroughly recommend it.

Marilyn Sherlock

THE BRIEF AND TRUE REPORT OF TEMPERANCE FLOWERDEW

Denise Heinze, Blackstone, 2020, $24.99, hb, 204pp, 9781982598631

A historical woman with the delightful name of Temperance Flowerdew played a crucial role in the early colony of Jamestown, Virginia. She married three times in her life, twice to governors of Virginia. Unlike 90 percent of the inhabitants of the winter of 1609/1610, she survived.

The novel traces Temperance’s journey from England to America in the company of her devoted maid, Lily. While Temperance knows how to read and perform the duties of a lady, she’s incompetent when it comes to pioneer existence. She relies on Lily’s friendship, knowledge, and ingenuity to survive. Lily’s psychic gifts caused her to run from home, but they also help her and Temperance navigate terrible storms at sea and the unrelenting harshness of the approaching winter. Dangerous Indian attacks and starvation loom over the colony and the lives of the two protagonists as winter unfolds.

While told mainly in narrative, Temperance’s diary entries compose part of the book. She is determined to unveil Lily’s remarkable life to future generations. The novel celebrates the power and worth of women with beautiful writing, vivid scene-setting, and a compelling, bittersweet tale. Women’s experiences in early America have yet to be fully explored, and this work is a worthy attempt to fill that gap.

Lily’s character is almost superhumanly prescient and self-sacrificing. Temperance treats her as an equal, a state of affairs that seems unlikely due to their class differences. Despite these minor complaints, the story author Heinze weaves here is as important as it is haunting.

Xina Marie Uhl

MAGIC LESSONS

Alice Hoffman, Simon & Schuster, 2020, $27.99, hb, 416pp, 9781982108847

Hoffman previously revisited the beloved world and characters she created for the blockbuster hit Practical Magic when she gave readers the life stories of the Owens witches’ charismatic aunts in The Rules of Magic, set in the 1960s. She reaches further back in time for Magic Lessons, telling the tale of the originator of the witchy Owens bloodline, Maria, a foundling in 17th-century England, who makes her way to Salem, Massachusetts. Generations of Owens witches struggle with the curse originally laid by Maria on the men they love; fans of the novels will enjoy the clues appearing in this prequel to the adventures they have already enjoyed in the first two books.

Hoffman’s style is, as always, a unique mixture of fairy tale and domestic detail; she often interrupts the narrative with lists of herbal charms and cures as her characters develop their skills over time. Her descriptions of the landscapes of England, Curaçao, and Massachusetts are lovely, making up for the fact that in this novel, her characters can be hard to feel close to. Maria is presciently aware of the harmful consequences of her choices and makes them anyway, which gets a bit frustrating with repetition. Hoffman’s intrusive narrative voice instructing us to see her misadventures as a grand pattern of fate makes sense in the context of the other two novels, but can be emotionally distancing.

Still, it’s an entertaining story, and impressively researched, particularly the evocation of 17th-century New York. Along with intriguing details about the origins of the various boroughs and landmarks of the city, Hoffman includes massive amounts of period plant and animal folklore, and also entangles in the Owens’ women’s history John Hathorne, one of the real-life Salem Witch Trial judges and the great-grandfather of author Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hoffman’s expert blend of magic and realism makes for a satisfying read.

Kristen McDermott

THE THREE IMPOSTORS

Ursula Janssen (trans. Brian Rohan), Independently published, 2020, $10.99, pb, 208pp, 9798648166974

It is 1688, and Achim Müller is travelling to Kiel together with the utterly unlikeable Pastor Mayer. For a while, I suspected the story would escalate to foul murder—that of a frustrated Achim whacking Mayer.

Instead, in the next chapter we are thrown back to 1647 to meet Hieronymus Bender, a young and impoverished man who is given a

secret mission: he is to scour war-torn Europe for a book called De Tribus Impostoribus or The Three Impostors, a heretical treatise that depicts Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed as impostors who trick humanity into believing in God.

With Hieronymus, we go on a veritable road trip. We visit Münster, Prague, Innsbruck, Milan, Venice and then, finally Rome. Janssen offers a vivid depiction of a devastated continent. People starve, witches are burned, anecdotal tales of people like Jan Hus or Jan van Leiden are seamlessly introduced—all of it testament to Janssen’s thorough research. There are, however, liberties that detract from the overall credibility: the Swedish army did not ransack Prague after the signing of the peace treaty in 1648 – they did so before. Likewise, Queen Christina’s plans to abdicate and convert to Catholicism were kept very secret, as the queen preferred not to be tried for heresy.

Hieronymus is a wonderful character, and as a book-lover I am entranced by the descriptions of libraries and manuscripts, but ultimately this reads more like a ramble than a novel. When the story switches back to the frustrated Achim, this reader is as frustrated, because Hieronymus’ mission has no ending— it just fritters out. Despite the above, I would still recommend this book for those eager to read an impressive account of the destruction wrought on Europe by the Thirty Years’ War.

Anna Belfrage

18TH CENTURY

MOUNTAIN LAUREL

Lori Benton, Tyndale House, 2020, $15.99, pb, 424pp, 9781496444325 / $25.99, hb, 464pp, 9781496444318

It is 1793, and Ian Cameron has returned to Mountain Laurel, his uncle’s plantation in North Carolina, where he spent time as a boy. Now a grown man, he is being groomed as his uncle’s heir. When Ian sees Seona for the first time, he is immediately captivated by her green eyes and does not realize she is enslaved to his kin. When he learns of Seona’s hidden talent as an artist, he encourages it and finds ways for her to hide it from his cruel step-aunt, Lucinda. Lucinda does not believe slaves should read, write, or do anything to take time away from their chores. The story is told from the alternating viewpoints of Ian and Seona, who has hidden her art all her life. “Every slave has a secret. This one is mine.” As time progresses, Ian finds himself conflicted between his growing feelings for Seona, his loyalty to his family, and his responsibility to all the slaves on the plantation.

This heart-rending book from Benton shows us all the horrors of slavery. In addition to the beatings, rapes, terror, and torture, it shows the true effects of taking away someone’s will and refusing to let them have any dreams or desires. It shows how some people of that time watched slaves being paraded down the road in chains, did nothing, and then went to church on Sunday. Benton writes about this as if she were there, laying bare the pain of someone else owning your body and your soul. However, faith and the desire for redemption are also present, especially in the quiet faith of the slave Lily and the redemption Ian desperately seeks.

This is the first book in the Kindred series, and I cannot wait to see these characters return.

Bonnie DeMoss

THE INTOXICATING MR LAVELLE

Neil Blackmore, Hutchinson, 2020, £12.99, hb, 312pp, 9781786332028

London 1763, and brothers Edgar and Benjamin Bowen are to embark upon The Grand Tour to mainland Europe. They are close in age, around twenty, and come from a stifling, cultured, mercantile family, with their mother, Rachel, putting her faith in the refined benefits to be obtained from education and the social connections her sons will gain abroad with fellow British travellers. Both men are excited by the prospect of seven months’ unprecedented freedom, but Benjamin, the younger brother and the story’s first-person narrator, has a more complicated perspective: he is gay, a highly dangerous proclivity, as “sodomites,” as they were then generally known, could well be hanged. Entirely understandably, no-one else knows of Benjamin’s. While in Paris their commercial background makes them figures of fun when they endeavour to enter the higher echelons of Parisian society, and they learn some hitherto unknown and unwelcome facts about their mother.

In Italy, Benjamin meets the eponymous Horace Lavelle. Benjamin is captivated by Horace’s lèse-majesté and iconoclastic views. Lavelle is a force of nature, willing to upturn polite society’s mores, and he drives a deep wedge between the two brothers – Edgar is shocked by Lavelle, while Benjamin is excited by his permissive and promiscuous attitude. Lavelle is a fascinating and quite repulsive character; he claims to see the unpleasant reality underneath the shabby veneer of European culture, and delights in shocking Benjamin and challenging his received shibboleths. His influence changes the trajectory of Benjamin’s life completely, and he can be seen as a harbinger of the revolutionary views that will sweep France later in the 18th century

At times, the language seems a little modern, but in his afterword Neil Blackmore freely admits to an anachronism or two, so no real complaint! This is a wonderfully

Douglas Kemp

THE CANDLELIT MENAGERIE

Caraline Brown, Arcade, 2020, $25.99, hb, 312pp, 9781950691555

London, late 18th century. The roar of a lion calls to her, so Lillian follows the sound to a menagerie full of exquisite animals. When she’s offered a job, Lillian does everything possible to make the animals’ lives better. As an abnormally tall woman who prefers short hair and breeches, Lillian believes she’s found the place where she fits in. She meets a young veterinarian apprentice and soon starts a family. But as she plunges into danger attempting to save an animal from death, the price she pays is the life of her unborn child. To rouse Lillian from her mourning bed, the menagerie owner gives her a baby chimpanzee. Lillian finds a new purpose in raising the chimp despite her husband’s misgivings and the risk of social disgrace. This is a story about lost souls and the healing power of love.

Because of the times, there’s animal indifference and cruelty. While this is most likely period-accurate, it may sit uncomfortably with readers. The atmosphere is engrossing. That said, most setting observations are smells, which aren’t appealing and illustrate the unsanitary menagerie conditions. There are some random chapters that seem merely fluff rather than actual plot development, shifting the focus away from animals to unnecessary background characters. It took me almost half the novel to figure out what the plot was actually moving toward. I enjoyed the second half as Lillian comes into her own, fighting for better treatment of animals as well as acceptance as she mothers the orphan chimp. The first section could have used a tighter focus with a bit more time spent on the wonder the menagerie gives Lillian instead of its fetid conditions. Overall, while well-researched and full of unconventional characters, I don’t think the book quite reached its potential.

J. Lynn Else

THE PARIS AFFAIR

Susanne Dunlap, Independently published, 2020, $12.95, pb, 248pp, 9781734919103

The year is 1783, and Viennese violinist Theresa Schurman has been asked to go to Paris to help discover who is writing and printing pamphlets that slander Queen Marie Antoinette.

This is the time of vast extravagance of the French court as well as hostilities between the two branches of the royal family. Theresa’s adventures take her into the rich court life of the time, thanks to her friendship with the enigmatic Sophie. It also takes her into a well-run brothel and to working in the back room of the queen’s milliner. But her two most interesting contacts are musician and fencer the Chevalier de Saint-George and

the dangerously unpredictable Captain von Bauer. She is never sure whether either of them is a friend or an enemy.

The novel has widely varied settings, vivid with well-chosen detail, and even more interesting characters, from Marie Antoinette herself to the girls in the brothel and the milliner’s workroom.

Throughout the novel runs the theme of music and Theresa’s love of her violin. Her meetings with the Chevalier de Saint-George, a character taken from the pages of history, show great feeling and depth, especially in the scenes where she is able to play her violin along with him.

As her previous novels show, the author is an experienced researcher and writer of historical novels, which often have an undertone of music and musicians. This strong background enriches this mystery novel and enhances the plot twists and tension. From the first paragraph, the reader is drawn into an unfamiliar word-world, safe in the hands of an accomplished author and historian. A very enjoyable read.

Valerie Adolph

THE GOLDEN MAID

Evie Grace, Arrow, 2020, £6.99, pb, 380pp, 9781787464414

This book takes us back to the Napoleonic Wars of the 18th century together with the coastal trades of smuggling, particularly in Kent and the West Country. Times were hard and wages very low, and there was money to be made from the bringing in of goods from France on the quiet. Winnie is an unmarried mother of a baby girl and lives in Deal in Kent with her sisters. The baby’s father is away, having been pressganged into the navy. Winnie hates the ‘free trade’ and longs to be able to be totally uninvolved in it but she has to support her child and help her sisters.

From the publicity, this book is said to appeal to those who enjoyed Poldark, and up to a point this is true, but it is not in the same league. There is not the same intensity of drama, and the characters do not jump out of the page in the same way. Evie Grace has obviously done her homework with regard to local dialect but does nothing to explain what the words mean – e.g. Huffkins, which is a kind of bread roll. This is the second book in a trilogy, so maybe there was a glossary in the first book, but as I had not read it, I had to keep looking these words up, which interrupted the text. This is a capable historical romance.

Marilyn Sherlock

A REVOLUTION OF HEARTS

Ronda Gibb Hinrichsen, Covenant, 2020, $16.99, pb, 272pp, 9781524413095

Aristocrat Mademoiselle Dacia de Prideaux faces the challenge of her life when in April 1789, her political activist brother is murdered. She is accused of the crime and, forced to leave home and country, she flees to England with the help of Sir Percy Blakeney, known as the Scarlet Pimpernel, who founded an organization to save French aristos from Madame La Guillotine. Secreted within the country home of Blakeney’s friend, Sir Richard Harris, she assumes the role of a maid to avoid detection by Commissioner Jeret, her brother’s murderer. Dacia must guard her feelings and her safety amidst threats Jeret will find her in England.

The historical portrayal of France in 1789 seems a bit off-base. Though Hinrichsen uses a myriad of details to describe the setting, aspects of French culture at the time of the revolution appear sketchy. The English chapters contain much more historical realism, and the author’s portrayal of the interchanges between Dacia, Richard, and the servants are believable and lively. The scenes depicting the growing relationship between Dacia and Master Richard are well-played, and the ending is satisfying to the reader.

Gini Grossenbacher

THE SILVER COLLAR

Antonia Hodgson, Hodder & Stoughton, 2020, £14.99, hb, 322pp, 9781473615137

The Silver Collar is the fourth in Antonia Hodgson’s series about Thomas Hawkins and Kitty Sparks. I had read the first – The Devil in the Marshalsea – and found it rather dark, so did not continue with the series. This novel is not as dark. I had no difficulty in following the story nor understanding the parts of the backstory I didn’t know about.

In this novel Tom discovers there is a price on his head, and with the help of Kitty and Sam Fleet, his ward, sets out to discover why. The story takes place over a year and is wellwritten, gripping, with enough incidents to keep you reading. It is set in Georgian England and deals with slavery, as well as murder, class and female subordination. It is historically accurate, with good descriptions of place and time, and uses historical characters (as the Author’s Note explains) in minor roles. I liked Tom – a believable rogue – and Kitty, the young owner of a bookshop in London and obviously business-savvy, and thought both they and the other characters were credible.

I do not usually like books with multiple viewpoints, but in The Silver Collar it works, and I did not find it intrusive. Indeed, I found the letter written by the stuttering ex-slave poignant and became angry about the way both he and women were treated in that period.

The author has done her research and knows Georgian London well. It is nice to read a book by an author you trust! I look forward to the next in the series and have already ordered the ones I haven’t read.

BREAKING BARRIERS: A Novel Based on the Life of Laura Bassi

Jule Selbo, Barbera Foundation, 2020, $14.99, pb, 314pp, 9781947431294

Laura Bassi (1711-1778) broke new ground in many ways. She was the second woman in Europe to earn a doctorate in philosophy, the first female professor at a European university, and the first woman elected to a European academy of science. She was celebrated in her hometown of Bologna, corresponded with intellectuals across the Continent, and happily married fellow doctor Veratti, with whom she raised five children to adulthood. Long denied teaching privileges at the University of Bologna, at age 65 she was made Chair of the Department of Experimental Physics and finally allowed in the classroom.

Selbo’s novel does justice to this fascinating woman, though the book’s aim to educate the reader about Bassi’s interests and the intellectual world in which she moved at times supersedes its effort to be a historical drama. There is much expository dialogue as Laura lectures on Newtonian physics, converses about the latest discoveries and publications, and self-consciously positions herself as a proponent of the Enlightenment. The action reads like a biography in its knitting together of factual events, such as Laura’s rigorous defense of her thesis in 1732 or her efforts to persuade Pope Benedict XIV to appoint her to his elite Benedettini.

That said, the prose is readable and the secondary characters add liveliness. Standouts are the crusty Dottore Salti, who stubbornly insists a woman will never teach on his campus; Laura’s forward-thinking father, who pays for her tutoring; gentle Veratti, truly a feminist husband; and the rivals Volta and Galvani, whom Laura aids in their experiments with electricity. Selbo portrays Laura as disciplined, modest, sweet of nature, and voracious of intellect, a woman who forges ahead with her education, experiments, and ambitions despite the resistance of powerful men. An enjoyable and edifying read.

Misty Urban

NAPOLEON’S RUN

Jonathan Spencer, Canelo Adventure, 2020, £1.99, ebook, 209pp, B08BNPMWFZ

This is a Napoleonic spy story set against the background of Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt. Our hero, William Hazzard, is sent to find the French fleet before it arrives at its secret destination. The details of how he is to achieve this are conveniently vague, but fortunately the French leave a trail of agents, whom he kills one by one until he catches up with Napoleon in Malta.

The plot is fiendishly complicated, but the story keeps moving along with lots of dramatic action and a steadily increasing body count. It’s a heap of fun, and I was enjoying it, not least because I was fascinated to see how the various threads of the story could be tied

together into a neat resolution. Sadly, there is no neat resolution, but this is not a standalone novel but the first episode in a serial. If you enjoy reading books in a series that haven’t got a neat ending, then this won’t bother you. This lack of conclusion, for me, detracts a little from the narrative, which is unfortunate because if you like action-adventure, this book has much to commend it.

Tom Williams

19TH CENTURY

A RUSSIAN SISTER

Caroline Adderson, HarperCollins Canada, 2020, C$24.99, pb, 365pp, 9781443426817

It’s winter 1889, and Masha C., a Moscow schoolteacher, fears for her brother, Antosha, a famous short-story writer and physician, whose depression tears at her heart. Hoping to lift his spirits—and bring him love—Masha introduces him to her colleague Lika, a beautiful, vivacious young woman. The devoted sister will have cause to regret it.

We’re talking about Anton Chekhov and his family (though, for some reason, neither the jacket flap nor the narrative says so). As a Chekhov admirer, I appreciate homage to the master, as with the sly, even slapstick humor that punctuates a largely painful tale. Adderson’s prose also follows the Chekhovian model somewhat, relying on sparse, wellchosen physical details: “Lika sidled up to the coat stand as if it were her chaperone”; or “The Borzois were dozing under the piano as Georgi played, their wavy coats spread out like silken mats.” Less to my taste, Adderson often explains these moments’ emotional meanings, undermining their effect.

Little happens in A Russian Sister, and there’s no central event or climax, only evidence that Anton Chekhov, though kind and generous toward humanity, tortured his intimates, especially women, often in passive-aggressive ways. I never knew that dismaying fact, but once I learned it, early on, I kept waiting for further developments. The characters, including Masha as protagonist, move from A to B and back multiple times, and though that’s true to certain lives—and the Chekhovian worldview—I wanted to feel the pathos in their self-imprisonment, yet somehow never got there.

Readers of literary fiction will enjoy the prose, and those curious about 19th-century Russian society will find vivid angles and corners. But overall, I think the novel misses the mark.

Larry Zuckerman

COLORS OF TRUTH

Tamera Alexander, Fountain Creek Press, 2020, $15.00, pb, 520pp, 9781735758800

Tennessee, 1866. With funds sent by her brother, Ryan, and her seven-year-old sister in tow, Catriona O’Toole journeys from Ireland to Franklin, Tennessee to find Ryan and reunite their family. But this is the postwar South, and Franklin, site of the deadliest battle of the Civil War less than two years previous, is the hotbed of a counterfeiting ring. Enter Wade Cunningham, a former Federal Army officer and present United States Secret Service agent assigned to expose the conmen.

Catriona and Wade meet at Carnton Plantation, where she means to confront its owner, John McGavock, about land she believes the McGavocks stole from her family years ago. Perhaps, too, McGavock knows Ryan’s whereabouts; a conscripted Confederate soldier dispatched to Franklin, Ryan had planned to ask McGavock about the theft. Meanwhile, in deep undercover as a former Confederate soldier, Wade has come for employment as Carnton’s overseer to investigate McGavock, whose name has surfaced in connection with the fake bills.

This is a narrative whose rich prose speaks eloquently of people coming together despite passionately opposing beliefs. Although attracted to Wade, Catriona believes he fought for the South, and she abhors slavery. Equally drawn to her, Wade questions her business with John McGavock, a former slave owner who represents everything Wade fought a war to destroy.

What is truth, if not elusive? The McGavock family offers Irish immigrant Catriona shelter at a time when she is suddenly penniless in a foreign—and sometimes hostile—land. Despite his contempt for John McGavock, Wade finds him a compassionate man, one who wants the country to put dividedness behind it and move forward as one. In the end, this insightful and entertaining second entry in the author’s popular Carnton series goes straight to the heart: we must never ignore history or pretend it didn’t happen, lest we make the same mistakes again.

Alana White

LARCUM MUDGE

Philip K. Allan, Independently published, 2020, $19.50, pb, 280pp, 9798638972721

In 1800, mutinous plans are being hatched on the Royal Naval Sloop Peregrine as she plies the balmy waters of the Caribbean. What follows is a particularly vicious and violent event on the ship targeting its cruel and sadistic captain. But the rebellious crew members go too far, murdering all the officers, Royal Marines and even the teenaged midshipmen. They then plan to turn the ship over to the French and scatter to the four winds.

The Royal Navy cannot abide such a crime, and Captain Alexander Clay, commanding the Frigate Griffin, is sent to retrieve the sloop and punish the offenders if feasible. Thus begins a mission which will entail intrigue, mystery and maritime combat.

This is a physically pleasing and well-edited book of naval historical fiction. I’ve reviewed several novels about the infant U.S. Navy from the same era, and it was interesting to get the perspective from the “enemy” side. The characters, seamen and officers, drive the dialogue, and the plot drives the action in a splendid manner. The jargon of the time is entertaining, with some delightful phrases such as “gawking like damned nuns in a bawdy house.” Some of the intricate naval technical and tactical terms from the period may intimidate readers, but this career Army reviewer enjoyed the challenge. A map of the area of operations would have been helpful, and there is a bit of stereotyping associated with the French and Irish characters, but those are minor quibbles. Though this is book eight in a series, it reads just fine as a stand-alone. Recommended especially for fans of military and naval historical fiction.

Thomas J. Howley

SOMEONE TO ROMANCE

Mary Balogh, Berkley, 2020, $7.99/C$10.99, pb, 416pp, 9781984802392

When Gabriel Thorne, newly returned from America, encounters Lady Jessica Archer at an inn, his response is resentment at one who represents the class system he dislikes. He does, however, need a wife, and her qualifications are perfect. For her part, at the age of twentyfive Jessica has grown weary of her privileged, but unfulfilling, life and is ready to wed at last. She is not, however, overjoyed when Gabriel tells her he intends to marry her. Though a love match might be too much to hope for, she would prefer someone willing to look beyond her social credentials, someone to ‘romance’ her. Might he be the one?

This is a variant of the Sleeping Beauty story (roses and thorns proliferate), and it adds depth to this Regency romance. As seventh in the Westcott series, it is crowded with Jessica’s relatives we met in earlier books, and it can be difficult to keep track of them all. They are, fortunately, a likeable brood; the challenges of clearing Gabriel of criminal accusations and punishing the real villain are satisfactorily overcome; but romance? Love, possibly? Not an easy path, but Balogh steers them through the perils with heart-warming skill.

Highly recommended.

Ray Thompson

CUYAHOGA

Pete Beatty, Scribner, 2020, $27.00/C$36.00, hb, 272pp, 9781982155551

In 1837, a twenty-four-year old young man known as Big Son is primarily known for the development of the small town of Ohio City, across the Cuyahoga River from the larger town of Cleveland. Meed, also nicknamed Medium Son, tells the tale of how Big Son cut down the trees and opened the area for development.

According to Meed, Big Son “whipped a lake, hogtied panthers, drained jugs, was stung by one thousand hornets, cut roads, drained twenty swamps, and rescued one hundred widows” in accomplishing his feat. As Meed relates in his tale, Big was not satisfied with his accomplishments, but wished for the hand in marriage of Cloe, who has rejected his advances. So Big Son tries to earn enough

money to propose marriage. Meanwhile, Clark’s Bridge is built between the towns of Ohio City and Cleveland. Owned by Cleveland, it is a toll bridge, and its existence is threatened.

As Meed attempts to write his almanac about his brother’s accomplishments, misdeeds and unrequited love interest as a folk tale, the story about the rivalry between the two growing cities is really the focal point. As we know, Cleveland is much larger and has become a major city, while Ohio City is one of many neighborhoods of Cleveland. I found the tale well-written; it included several minor characters with unusual habits, including the bridge between the towns that several wished to destroy (and made several attempts to accomplish this task). I cannot say I found the characters either sympathetic or likeable, but if you are from this part of the United States, you may find the novel funny and enjoyable.

Jeff Westerhoff

THE CAUSE OF DARKNESS

John W. Bebout, Independently Published, 2020, $11.99, pb, 200pp, 9798640243062

Simple farmers or radical guerillas? Political loyalties aren’t as clear-cut as one expects in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley in May 1864. At sixteen, Teddy Miller plans to enlist in the Confederate army once his next birthday comes around. The inconstancy of war annihilates that plan.

In spite of Union forces passing their farm during the night, his father heads into town the next day, leaving Teddy and his younger brother Jed to tend to chores. When battle erupts in the midst of their land, they barely escape with their lives, but what of their father? With their home decimated, Teddy seeks out Malcolm Davies – a man his father trusts – even though he overheard Davies and another man discussing a murder. Davies imparts news that Yankee soldiers captured three men; two were hanged as guerillas and the other, a possible spy, has been arrested. Teddy embarks on a perilous quest to find his father, and the one person who offers help is Pinkerton agent Mrs. Kate Warne. But she has her own agenda, and the price she exacts requires a high price from Teddy.

Each chapter of this debut novel begins with a poignant epigraph, many of which are from the author himself. There are some formatting issues with the layout, such as a lack of pagination, and less compelling chapters near the end of the tale. One incongruity missed in editing concerns the placement – behind or in front – of the murdered man’s hands.

Even so, this is an engrossing coming-ofage tale, set during the American Civil War, that adroitly depicts the moral dilemmas faced in war and the unforeseen consequences of decisions made. Teddy goes from naïve teenager to resourceful young man with regrets and determination. Equally striking is the author’s ability to show the complexities of war and family relationships.

LOVE’S MOUNTAIN QUEST

Misty M. Beller, Bethany House, 2020, $15.99, pb, 294pp, 9780764233470

Love’s Mountain Quest is the second book in the Hearts of Montana Series. It is 1867 in Settler’s Fort, Montana. Joanna Watson’s son Samuel and Laura, the woman caring for him, are missing, and the sheriff is dead. In order to find them, Joanna enlists the help of the reluctant Isaac Bowen, a man who would prefer to stay in the shadows. Joanna and Isaac pursue the kidnappers on horseback, dealing with dangers from wildlife and the rugged terrain as well as from the kidnappers they are chasing.

This book has a positive message of God’s forgiveness, no matter how grievous the sin. The description of the Montana wilderness is beautiful. However, there are some unrealistic situations. For instance, Joanna is distracted by romance and desire, which seems improbable for a mother trying to rescue her kidnapped son. On another occasion, an injured horse is left to bleed temporarily while two characters share a kiss.

There is a strong message in the novel’s overall theme, which is that you can start over, no matter the circumstances. If you enjoy Christian romances with a bit of adventure, you may want to read this novel.

Bonnie DeMoss

IN THE LION’S DEN

Barbara Taylor Bradford, St. Martin’s, 2020, $28.99, hb, 352pp, 9781250187420 / HarperCollins, 2020, £7.99, pb, 320pp, 9780008242497

In the Lion’s Den, Book Two of the House of Falconer series, opens in London, 1889, with James Lionel Falconer about to face his employer, Percy Malvern, with documents newly arrived from Paris: the results of the investigation of thefts in the French wine division of Malvern’s shipping company. This is the cliff which master storyteller Barbara Taylor Bradford left her readers clinging to at the conclusion of Book One. The news is bad. A disgrace. It could kill the already ailing Malvern. And it’s exactly the opening Bradford’s readers count on. Confident in the hands of this skilled storyteller, they know they can now sit back and devour this tale. Book One, Master of His Fate, introduced the dazzling array of characters who will now mingle, fall in love, build empires, and, it appears, try to kill one other. When Malvern’s daughter, Alexis, abdicated as his successor after a sudden, devastating loss, Malvern came to increasingly rely on Falconer. Now, moving between 1890s London, Kent, and Paris, Falconer solidifies his position with Malvern while taking his first steps as a merchant in bustling Kent, always keeping his eye on the prize: becoming a merchant prince, his own man. But when Alexis emerges from her grief, shedding pounds and stepping out of her selfimposed exile in style, it appears she is ready to take the reins. And, possibly, to steal a heart. Book Two is meaty and skillfully enough crafted to stand alone. But Book One provides the background that brings the myriad characters and locations to life. It serves as the delicious, hearty base for this literary stew. So, while Taylor’s fans may be tempted to eat In the Lion’s Den up with a fork, I’d suggest starting with Master of His Fate and using a spoon. Savor every drop. Recommended. Rebecca Kightlinger

THE TRUTH ABOUT DUKES

Grace Burrowes, Forever, 2020, $7.99/ C$10.99, pb, 400pp, 9781538700334

Robert, Duke of Rothhaven, is in a fragile state. No surprise, really, considering his horrific ‘treatment’ as a child in a hospital for the insane. Not that he was insane; rather he suffered from epilepsy, the falling sickness as it was known, but society was harsh in its judgements. Constance Wentworth too has a difficult past that she tries to keep hidden, but now that her sister is marrying his brother, can this deeply wounded pair help each other to heal and find happiness?

Like earlier books in the Rogues to Riches series, this Regency explores the injustices of an intolerant society, attitudes shaped not only by ignorance and prejudice, but by the greed and self-interest of those hoping to benefit from the misfortune of others. The insights into the psychological state of the victims and those who care for them are, moreover, persuasive.

As is often the case for books in a series, there is a considerable backstory to be filled in, but Burrowes is equal to the challenge, disclosing information while building suspense. And the progress of romance is as heart-warming as is the frustration of the villains. Highly recommended.

Ray Thompson

THE COPPER ROAD

Richard Buxton, Ocoee Publishing, 2020, $14.99, pb, 421pp, 9780995769342

Sherman’s advance on Atlanta in 1864 is the backdrop for a sweeping tale that converges on Shire, an Englishman who fights for the Yankees; Clara, an Englishwoman of noble birth whom Shire has followed to America; and Tod, a Confederate captain. Shire is wounded when his Ohio regiment fights south of Chattanooga and is taken

to Comrie, Clara’s plantation in Tennessee, to convalesce, where old feelings begin to awaken. Meanwhile, Tod has been taken prisoner, escapes in Pennsylvania, and begins a roundabout journey south, marveling along the way at the might of the northern war machine. Tod returns to the johnny rebs and learns that Confederate resources are dwindling, and much rides on the mission when he is assigned to the Copper Road, behind the Union lines and not far from Comrie. Tod has had separate chance encounters with Shire and Clara, and the fates lead towards their inevitable reckoning.

Characters are memorable, both admirable and flawed in various ways, and have their convictions tested by relationships and wartime experiences. The prose sometimes evokes the grandeur of America’s defining conflict: “Cannon-fire roared in front and behind, their thunder intruding from some greater world.” Many battle scenes are drawn with grit that might bring to mind one of the author’s declared writing influences, Bernard Cornwell. Sherman’s Atlanta Civil War campaign is wellchronicled, and officer characters are shaped by real historical figures.

The Copper Road is the second book in the author’s Civil War trilogy, and the final installment promises to provide a satisfying resolution to the fates of Clara, Shire and Tod.

Brodie Curtis

SLEEPING EVIE

Jessica Cale, Independently published, 2020, $7.99, pb, 169pp, 9798633167979

This installment in Lady Goosebury’s Tales enfolds the reader in the lush aesthetic of the pre-Raphaelites: dream-steeped, detailed, wildly romantic, and swirling with dark underlayers of myth. Evie Henshawe, who lately lost her job in a dress shop, is starving and sleeping in an empty mausoleum in Highgate Cemetery when she attends an artist’s party in hopes of finding work. Hiding under a table eating sugared almonds, she meets the intensely beautiful and distracted Marquess of Ashcombe; Evie agrees to model for him, and hopes he wants more. But Ash, who’s often lost in his work and has built himself a castle evoking a highly romanticized Middle Ages, is loyal to his tenacious and hard-hearted fiancée, Perdita. Evie has to cross a great class divide and survive a vicious rival if she hopes to win him in the end.

Swinburne and Dante Gabriel Rosetti make appearances in this world mixing the Gothic, the Romantic, and the Decadent, and the dangers of opium, poverty, and arsenic in the world of London art and industry, circa 1872, balance the passionate love story and fabulous prose with a texture many historical romances lack. Sleeping Evie is a delicious treat.

HAMILTON’S CHOICE

Jack Casey, Diamonds Big as Radishes, 2020, $16.99, pb, 356pp, 9781734366693

On the Fourth of July of 1801 in New York City, young Philip Hamilton, hearing a speaker insult his father, Alexander, aches for a fight. Soon enough, he gets it—with a well-known result that inexorably leads to an even more famous encounter.

In Hamilton’s Choice, attorney Jack Casey asks us to consider why, with his political future never more promising, a new home just built and a loving family of eight to support, would Alexander Hamilton choose to face Aaron Burr’s pistol at ten paces? In doing so, he offers his own, quite plausible theory as to what brought Alexander Hamilton to his famous, fatal encounter at Weehawken. (It’s no spoiler to say it wasn’t honor, as the backcover copy trumpets this.) The characters are vivid, as is Casey’s portrayal of the tensions within the Hamiltons’ marriage. The dialogue is sharp, and while the language may strike some as overly modern, this appears to have been a conscious choice on the author’s part rather than sloppiness. The present-tense narration, which can be bothersome in some novels, seems appropriate to the story here.

In his acknowledgments, Casey informs us that this novel was started 37 years before its publication. I’d say it was worth the time.

Susan Higginbotham

MERCIES OF THE FALLEN

Eileen Charbonneau, BWL, 2020, $16.99, pb, 240pp, 9780228613107

In the wake of the Battle of Antietam in 1862, blinded soldier Rowan Buckley, grouped with the wounded not expected to live, is being nursed by volunteers Ursula and her half-brother Jonathan. Rowan improves under their care and begins having feelings for Ursula, but she informs him that she is “not free.” As he recovers some of his eyesight, he realizes she’s wearing a nun’s habit. Rowan’s superiors arrange to have him transferred to Washington along with Ursula and Jonathan, and ask Rowan to pretend to remain blind and watch them, as they are suspected of spying for the Confederacy.

Rowan’s foster mother, French Canadian Marie Madeline, comes to visit. Jonathan tells Marie about Ursula’s past: being sent to the convent by her stepfather when she refused to marry a cousin, in order to keep her inherited estate and its income in the family.

To save Ursula from an assault by a Confederate soldier in the hospital, Rowan shoots the man. Ursula is arrested as a spy. The best way to help her is for Rowan to marry her and send her to Canada with Marie for the duration. But an overheard threat to murder Ursula on the journey leads her to depart secretly in the night, bound for New York instead.

I liked how the author let Ursula’s past unfold gradually, keeping me guessing in the early sections about her actions and motives. A touching subplot involves Ursula’s Black servant Miriam finding lost family members and a potential love interest in New York. The relationship between Ursula and Rowan is satisfying. Famous people of the era such as Edwin and John Wilkes Booth make cameo appearances.

Recommended for romance fans, though war story aficionados expecting battle scenes will find very few in volume 2 of the American Civil War Brides series.

B. J. Sedlock

THE SWORD AND THE SPEAR

Mia Couto (trans. David Brookshaw), Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2020, $27.00, hb, 288pp, 9780374256890 / World Editions, 2020, £12.99, pb, 304pp, 9781912987122

This tale of star-crossed lovers begins in Mozambique in 1895, in a boat on the Inharrime River with 15-year-old Imani Nsambe, her father, and her brother of the VaChopi people; and two whites—an Italian madam and 24-year-old Germano de Melo, a Portuguese soldier who has lost fingers on both hands in a battle. They are taking Germano, Imani’s lover, to the outpost of a Swiss medical missionary but are stranded at a broken-down church with an Indian priest from Goa who wishes to be what he is not, and a traditional healer from the VaNdau people.

The VaNdau, like the VaChopi, have entered into an uneasy alliance with the Portuguese colonizers against the VaNguni and their leader Ngungunyane (Gungunhane) who have terrorized other peoples of the Gaza region and made inroads against the whites as well. Germano writes letters to his mentor that reveal the conflicts within Portugal that have led him to this remote and dangerous outpost, while Imani struggles to stay with him, fending off the Italian hoping to recruit her into prostitution in the capital city of Lourenço Marques (now Maputo), and her father, who hopes to marry her off to Ngungunyane, so she can assassinate him.

Though the second in a series, this is a gripping stand-alone with two complex, sympathetic characters who would sacrifice everything for each other. Their love across race contrasts with the racism of the whites around them and the willingness of all sides in this prolonged war to dehumanize, exploit, and kill. The multiple racist terms for Mozambique’s Black population may put off readers, and Couto, a white Mozambican, has more convincingly portrayed Germano and his mentor than the young Black woman who also narrates the story.

Lyn Miller-Lachmann

OLD ABE

John Cribb, Republic Book Publishers, 2020, $28.00/C$38.00/£28.99, hb, 400pp, 9781645720164

Set in the early 1860s, Old Abe chronicles the ascendency of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency of the United States of America,

through the turbulence of the Civil War and his ultimate assassination from the perspective of Lincoln himself. Beginning in 1860, the reader is immersed in the life of Abraham Lincoln from a personal viewpoint that brings the man to life in a very human manner. Through arguments with his wife Mary, the tragic death of his young son Willie, the joy of victories on the battlefield, and the countless mundane interactions that make up everyday life, Cribb details Lincoln’s thought process as accurately as possible through the copious usage of primary and secondary sources.

Old Abe does many things well and engages the reader from start to finish. Cribb’s extremely thorough research ensures that the book is historically accurate and that the customs of the time are appropriately detailed. While there are certain historical decisions that Lincoln made that the author glosses over, such as Lincoln’s choices of Vice Presidential candidates, which are hardly mentioned, by and large these omissions are not detrimental to the flow of the book, which moves along at a steady clip. Overall, this is a fantastic novel that immediately grips the imagination and makes the reader feel as if they have journeyed through the peaks and valleys of his presidential life and have come to know this historical great on a personal level.

Chris Booth

SOFTLY BLOWS THE BUGLE

Jan Drexler, Revell, 2020, $15.99, pb, 320pp, 9780800729332

This is the third book in The Amish of Weaver’s Creek series, set in Holmes county, Ohio, just after the Civil War. A sweet Amish romance, it follows widow Elizabeth Kaufman and wounded Confederate veteran Aaron Zook as they come to terms with their unhappy backgrounds and learn to love each other and rely on God.

Elizabeth had been married for thirteen years to an abusive, non-Amish man before his death in Mississippi during the war. Aaron, a native of Tennessee with his home destroyed and family dead, has accompanied Elizabeth’s brother home. He becomes more and more a part of the Amish community as he recovers his health and adapts to his disability. Socalled Amish Pennsylvanian Solomon Mast is also a newcomer to the community, although Aaron, and later Elizabeth, have doubts about him. As this inspiring story with its many characters unfolds, it is hard to keep track of who everyone is. Elizabeth, who suffered a miscarriage in the past, wants a family, and worries whether Solomon is the right man for her. Aaron, left isolated by the violence of war, wonders if new neighbors bearing his surname can be long-lost relatives. Subplots involve a younger couple’s romance, an abused ex-slave, and an engaging child who turns up late in the story. As Solomon becomes more threatening, the community must work together for the safety and well-being of all.

This is a pleasant read for the most part, although the villain is over-drawn and cartoonish. It was nice to visit the scenic, peaceful farms of Holmes county again. (As a native Ohioan, I’ve been there.) Fans of Amish fiction should like this book.

Elizabeth Knowles

THE GENTLEMAN AND THE THIEF

Sarah M. Eden, Shadow Mountain, 2020, $15.99, pb, 368pp, 9781629727905 1865. Hollis Darby is a gentleman, but lacking an independent income, he must support himself: in the past by gambling, currently by writing penny dreadful novels under a pseudonym. Ana Newport is a music teacher by day, but at night dons the guise of the ‘Phantom Fox’ to steal from the wealthy. Though attracted to each other, they are understandably anxious to preserve the secret of their disreputable activities, but when Hollis’s brother is drawn into the clutches of an illegal gambling ring, they combine their respective talents to foil the criminals.

Interspersed within the main plot are extracts from two of the penny dreadfuls, and although it does slow the plot, this device allows Eden to reinforce important themes, like practicing deception to help those in trouble and appreciating people on their merits, not class.

This is very much a struggle between good and evil and it looks like the start of a series: Hollis belongs to the Dread Penny Society, dedicated to saving street children and other victims from the criminals who exploit them; Ana steals only items previously purloined from her family by predatory creditors. It should appeal to readers seeking an inspirational romance.

Ray Thompson

MURDER AT THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM

Jim Eldridge, Allison & Busby, 2020, £19.99/$25.00, hb, 352pp, 9780749025977

London in August 1895, and Daniel Wilson and Abigail Fenton return in their fifth adventure in the murder mystery series, all of which are set in the nation’s museums. After their excitement in Manchester, Daniel and Abigail are back in London, and are asked to investigate the destruction of one of the dinosaur exhibits, an iguanodon, at the Natural History Museum by the female curator Miss Scott. Their success in solving previous crimes has seen our detective duo achieving a degree of national recognition, and are now known by the press as the ‘Museum Detectives’. And when the body of one of the attendants is discovered in a small exhibition room in the Museum, our detectives are once again on familiar ground, investigating the wilful murder. Suspects emerge, as well as motivations and lots of fairly obnoxious behaviour including murder and blackmail. They work closely with Scotland Yard, as in previous novels set in London, with the positive and mutual assistance of Daniel’s friend Inspector Feather, while Superintendent Armstrong continues to be aggressive and difficult.

Occasionally the characters use language which seems a little too contemporary and there is some rather clunky explanatory historical dialogue to provide background for the reader, which doesn’t ring true as authentic conversation. The plot breezes along pleasantly, with all the mysteries neatly solved and tied up at the end of the story, even if the conclusion was just a little too melodramatic! An enjoyable, undemanding read, nonetheless.

Douglas Kemp

INTERVIEWING THE DEAD

David Field, Sapere, 2020, $7.99/£6.50, pb, 209pp, 9781913518714

London, 1892. After a popular spiritualist predicts revenge upon the city for disturbing a 1665 mass grave, people begin seeing vengeful spirits appear at night. Hysteria spreads quickly through London’s East End as its residents begin dying from mysterious causes. Wesleyan minister Matthew West and surgeon Dr. James Carlyle, though at odds religiously, will find themselves working together to determine the cause of these supernatural incidents. It’s going to take both their realms of expertise to stop the curse before it’s too late for the citizens of London.

The author is comfortable bringing to life Victorian-era society and its nuances. It’s easy to slip into the narration. There are captivating Sherlock-esque examinations of the victims, too. However, this is a dialogue-heavy read that approaches the plot very clinically. It’s light emotionally with little character development. Dr Carlyle’s daughter, Adelaide Carlyle, wants to carve a place for women in a man’s world, but she’s constantly spewing vitriol at everyone. Some subtle wit and careful thought to her arguments would have given her credibility. Instead, she comes across as hot-headed, always on the defensive, and showing little compassion for those around her. I didn’t buy into the potential romance between her and Matthew, either. In terms of mystery elements, the characters are often far removed from the incidents, so the stakes are low. The mentalist aspects are quite intriguing, but key solutions came about more by accident than from investigative work. While I’m not sure if I’d continue with the series, there’s a lot of potential here for future sleuthing adventures, with Field’s differing character viewpoints and well-defined setting.

J. Lynn Else

THE ORPHAN OF CEMETERY HILL

Hester Fox, Graydon House, 2020, $17.99, pb, 345pp, 9781525804571

Orphans Alice and Tabby flee to Boston in

1844 to escape their aunt and uncle, charlatans who prey on the bereaved, claiming to be able to contact the spirits of the dead. While the aunt and uncle are true hucksters, Tabby is not. Ten-year-old Tabby has a gift, or perhaps a curse, of being able to communicate with the recently dead. When Tabby is separated from Alice, she finds refuge in old cemetery, where she has a chance meeting with an older boy “— no, this young man.”

The story continues twelve years later: Tabby is now twenty-two, works with her adoptive father, Eli, the cemetery’s caretaker, and has managed to keep her gift a secret. After a series of grave robberies, Tabby finds herself, and the young man she met years ago, caught in the middle of a deadly plot of men who call themselves “Resurrection Men.” Tabby must choose whether or not to use her gift to save herself, the cemetery, and the man she loves.

The gothic setting of this book is exquisite. One can feel themselves in the dark old cemetery and walking the streets of 19th century Boston. The atmosphere is ripe for a character who can speak with the dead. The plot is exciting, building on the séance craze of the times. What is lacking, however, is belief in the romance. Caleb Bishop is a privileged spoiled brat. No doubt, likeable female characters fall for unlikeable male characters all the time, but it feels like a trope, especially since his epiphany is not shown in scene. The racially diverse characters add depth to the story, and the lesbian character, a welcome addition to a historical novel, is presented subtly, which certainly fits the times.

Meg Wiviott

HOUSE OF THE PATRIARCH

Barbara Hambly, Severn House, 2020, $28.99/£20.99, hb, 266pp, 9781448304530

Benjamin January is a Black physician in antebellum New Orleans who must moonlight as a detective-for-hire to make ends meet. His latest case, in Barbara Hambly’s House of the Patriarch, is the disappearance of a young English lady, Eve Russell, who, he learns, was interested in spiritual questions. Acting on clues pointing to one new religious community, January travels to western New York State, known by 1840 as the “Burned over District” for its fervor. Posing as a runaway slave seeking to be conducted safely to freedom in Canada, he enters the community in search of Eve. The community, also known as the Children of Light, is led by Rev. Serapis Broadax, who promises mesmerizing revelations to his followers through his medium to the angels, the Shining Herald. All the while, January is under threat from slave catchers.

January’s sensible and skeptical nature is the moral core of the novel. He is a keen observer of white American society at this point in history, and these observations dot the narrative. As is common in mysteries, January’s own arc remains flat as he investigates the Children of Light. He is a wonderful character, though.

The secondary characters and the general aesthetic are where House of the Patriarch really shines. The maze-like nature of the house in question is described so well the reader can feel January’s claustrophobia. Phineas T. Barnum appears as an essential ally of January’s, and is depicted with great sympathetic nuance. The same is true of Eve herself, and even Broadax gets his due.

If you would like a glimpse at the Second Great Awakening, a lesser-known chapter in antebellum US history, House of the Patriarch gives a good sense of the atmosphere.

Irene Colthurst

A BRIDE OF CONVENIENCE

Jody Hedlund, Bethany House, 2020, $15.99, pb, 347pp, 9780764232978

A Bride of Convenience, set in 1863, is the third book in the Bride Ships series. Zoe Hart is one of many unemployed mill workers on the Robert Lowe, a “bride ship” which carried single women to Vancouver Island to be married to the available men there. Zoe is also in search of her brother Zeke, who fled to Vancouver Island after he was accused of a crime. Upon arrival, Zoe encounters Abe, a pastor who has discovered an abandoned child. Taken with the child immediately, Zoe is determined to be married quickly to anyone who will take her and the baby. When Zoe is about to marry an evil man, Abe, recently jilted, steps in and marries her himself.

There are many ups and downs in this journey, as Abe and Zoe realize the impact of marrying a stranger. As they try to get to know each other, obstacles arise from misunderstandings, evil people, and even the Church. Through it all, Jody Hedlund pens a message of faith, forgiveness, and the true meaning of family. For fans of Christian romance and anyone who would like to learn more about the “bride ships.”

Bonnie DeMoss

THE SILK MERCHANT’S CONVENIENT WIFE

Elisabeth Hobbes, Harlequin, 2020, $6.50/ C$7.50, pb, 288pp, 9781335505736

Scarred by his parents’ arguments, Jonathan Harcourt vows never to marry, but when Sir Robert Upford insists that he will part with the land needed to expand the silk mill Jonathan co-owns only if he weds one of his daughters, he reluctantly agrees. Aurelia Upton is equally reluctant, not at the prospect of marrying below the gentry class, but because she has sworn off men after an unfortunate experience. Nevertheless, both recognize the practical advantages, he proposes, and she accepts. They also share a mutual attraction, but can it develop into love?

There are insights into class attitudes, the treatment of child labor, and the situation of women in the Victorian era, but this romance focuses primarily upon the relationship between Jonathan and Aurelia as they struggle to adjust to each other’s needs during the first year of marriage. The challenges that confront a couple, who know so little about each other and are reluctant to be honest about their true feelings, are intensified when secrets are revealed. Fortunately, both are sensible and fair-minded, and increasingly they have come to care for one another and to build trust. Strongly recommended. Ray Thompson

THE DEVIL IN THE DOCK

Richard James, Sharpe Books, 2019, £6.99, pb, 206pp, 9798649522281

On the London docks in 1892, Detective Inspector George Bowman investigates an apparent Fenian plot, but in a world of suborned policemen, spies, illegal bareknuckle fights and extortion rackets, nothing is quite what it seems. Bowman is a troubled man, not long released from a lunatic asylum following a breakdown after the death of his wife (for which he blames himself); he is still subject to hallucinations.

James paints a vivid picture of late Victorian London, especially of teeming Dockland, yet the story he tells has also a modern resonance. How common it still is to wrongly ascribe terrorist acts to the scapegoat of the moment, or to blame “foreign anarchists” who “shouldn’t have been allowed in”.

James recounts an exciting plot with a satisfying twist, though he is occasionally prone to over-writing (as in “his moustache twitched at his mouth”), and alongside compelling descriptions such as that of travellers in the long-closed London Subway, there are some anachronisms. Nurses would not have worn crinolines by this date, and the Sisters of Mercy convent could not have been built 50 years earlier without running up against the penal laws then in force against Catholics. A judge muses about sending a habitual thief to the gallows, though a law to prevent him had been in force for 60 years.

These quibbles aside, this is an engaging read with a strong sense of place in which the reader roots for an honest policeman prepared to risk all to get at the truth.

Katherine Mezzacappa

PARIS SAVAGES

Katherine Johnson, Allison & Busby, 2020, £12.99/$22.95, hb, 416pp, 9780749026028

The story follows the plight of Aborigines through the eyes of German girl Hilda Müller. While Hilda is fictional, her father is a real historical figure alongside other characters in the book. Johnson describes the lengths that Victorian scientists took to understand a race of people different to them. Ironically, they used methods that showed the people who they were studying were more civilised than they were. She blends fact with fiction to create an atmosphere where anything could happen, that all depended on one decision that would impact the lives of many. She also describes the history of showmanship, mentioning P.T. Barnum but also other showmen who took advantage of the curiosity of their tribes in

order to turn them into sensational performers for the public.

The author successfully contrasts the beautiful rugged lands of Australia in the 1800s with the bustling cities of Hamburg, Berlin, Paris and London. Johnson also introduces another protagonist who watches over Hilda and the other Aborigines whose presence is unknown in the story. She also holds up to the readers the question of forgiveness which is a prevalent theme throughout the novel. Overall, Johnson weaves a tale of acceptance, love, loyalty and friendship against the backdrop of an age where being different is dangerous.

Clare Lehovsky

THE EDGE OF HELL

S. K. Keogh, Leighlin House Publishing, 2020, $12.99, pb, 398pp, 9781735050614

Nate Calhoun and James Keenan can’t help egging each other on. At a dance in their hometown of Burr Oak, Michigan, James makes a point of asking Nate’s girl Katie to dance. Nate gets the better of James, embarrassing him in front of his father in the mercantile the Keenans own and operate.

After joining the 11th Michigan regiment of the Union Army in 1863, the two soon become fast friends, their relationship forged in the drudgery of infantry life and the dangers of battle. The two see action in battles at Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and the march to Atlanta. Then Nate is captured by Confederate rebels and sent to Camp Sumter in Andersonville, Georgia, and James does everything he can, risking a charge of desertion, to free him.

S. K. Keogh is author of three novels involving the swashbuckling Jack Mallory as well as a novel of plantation life and love. In The Edge of Hell she takes readers to the front lines of battle and the trenches where combatants huddle in mud, awash in seas of rain water, pulling meager rations from their packs. She recounts the horrors of the prison camp where prisoners fight one another for rations and sticks from portions of old stockade walls to use as firewood.

“Edge of hell” is the only way to describe where the Civil War took James and Nate and the men of the 11th Michigan.

K. M. Sandrick

SOMETHING WORTH DOING

Jane Kirkpatrick, Revell, 2020, $15.99, pb, 320pp, 9780800736118

In 19th-century Oregon, Abigail Scott Duniway was a wife, mother, sister and aunt but also a pioneering suffragist deserving of the same recognition for her work which we bestow upon Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She was married at 19 to Ben Duniway, with whom she had six children. We follow the family through great loss, tragedy and triumph. Abigail didn’t always appreciate the unwavering support shown by her husband, and her increasing travel and public speaking, at a time when women didn’t have a voice, would have strained any marriage. She was outspoken, opinionated and sharp-tongued, pouring boundless energy into her fight for women’s right to vote, to own property and to retain custody of their children. She didn’t connect herself with Temperance and Prohibition as most suffragist groups did, believing in an individual’s right to choose, and she was frequently accused of being in the pocket of the liquor industry. Kirkpatrick doesn’t dwell on the hostilities of the various rights’ movements and Christian associations, but concentrates on Abigail’s many achievements, which allows us to see her more intimately in her many roles.

This is a moving account of a formidable woman – a teacher, milliner, businesswoman, public speaker, reformer and activist who wrote novels and articles and owned her own newspaper. Almost all the characters are drawn from real people, and the author has skillfully represented them here. Her detail about Oregon life in the latter half of the 19th century is testament to her long hours of research and will no doubt bring Abigail Scott Duniway’s name greater recognition. This is the first of Kirkpatrick’s novels that I have come across, and I found it both fascinating and inspiring and a joy to read.

Fiona Alison

THE EXILES

Christina Baker Kline, Custom House, 2020, $27.99/C$34.99, hb, 384pp, 9780062356345 / Allison & Busby, 2020, £16.99, hb, 382pp, 9780749026493

In London, 1840, Evangeline, a governess to a wealthy family, finds herself in dire straits. Having been led astray by the couple’s older son, Evangeline finds herself with child, and worse, accused of theft and attempted murder. When she is sentenced to fourteen years in an Australian prison camp, it seems as though there is no hope left. But, aboard the ship to Australia, Evangeline meets Hazel and Dr. Dunne, two kindred spirits. Hazel is just sixteen and has had a rough life. She quickly makes friends with Dr. Dunne and is able to help with his many patients. But life aboard a prison ship is not easy, and many shocking events quickly turn this story upside down.

Meanwhile, in Australia, Aboriginal native Mathinna is adopted by a rich English couple as a novelty. Lady Jane Franklin is fascinated with “training a wild” and finds it fun to dress Mathinna up in proper clothes. Mathinna misses the wilderness and the people she has left behind. She finds solace in her pet possum and dreams of escape. Like Evangeline and Hazel, Mathinna is a prisoner with little hope for a bright future.

This is a moving, descriptive, and engaging story. Kline captures the essence of women’s prison life remarkably well, painting vivid scenes of the harsh and cruel world. With several shocking twists and turns, the story speeds along at a rapid pace. Mathinna’s story, however, seems a bit out of place. Kline never provides her with a conclusion, leaving readers wondering about her fate. Nonetheless, The Exiles haunts readers long after the last page with its grim picture of prison life in Australia, and the fates of those women, if they were lucky enough to make it back alive.

Rebecca Cochran

SCATTERED

Nola Lorraine, Breath of Fresh Air Press, 2020, A$24.20/$14.99, pb, 252pp, 9781922135506

Scattered is the first novel by Australian, Nola Lorraine, author of many published short stories. A Victorian-era historical novel, Scattered will also appeal to lovers of mystery, romance and young adult coming-of-age novels. Setting her story in Nova Scotia in the 1880s, Lorraine immerses us in the disturbing world of the British-Canadian Home Children Migrant Scheme, with scenes evocative of a Dickens novel.

Nineteen-year-old Englishwoman Maggie O’Loughlin is on a life-and-death quest to find her missing younger siblings. The recently orphaned children have been sent to Canada from a workhouse, and she will stop at nothing to find them. The search tests Maggie in ways she didn’t anticipate and yields some unexpected outcomes.

For the reader, Scattered illustrates the similarities and differences between our modern-day experiences and that of the 19th century, not least of which are the challenges of finding a lost loved one in an age that didn’t have fast transport, mobile phones and the Internet.

Before pursuing her passion for creative writing, Lorraine was an academic whose research included the topic of children and adoption, so she is well-versed in the fractured family aspect of her novel. Scattered bears no resemblance to an academic text, however. Lorraine’s writing is simple and a pleasure to read. The historical scenes are both well researched and a feast for the senses.

The protagonist, Maggie, is loveable in her naivety, whereas the antagonists are complex, dark individuals. The characters stayed with me long after I’d finished reading. The narrative is fast-paced and packed with action, featuring many twists and turns. Scattered extracts a range of human emotions; loss, sadness, fear, hope, love, faith and trust, as you travel with Maggie on her desperate mission to reunite her family.

Christine Childs

THE TIGRESS OF MYSORE

Allan Mallinson, Bantam Press, 2020, £20.00, hb, 368pp, 9781787632950

The novel opens with Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Hervey happy indeed with his situation in India, both martial and marital. His prospects for advancement seem bright and his 6th Light Dragoons regiment is filled with both top class officers and NCOs. His

personal life is equally rosy, with his wife Kezia pregnant and his daughter Georgiana on an extended visit. What more could Hervey want? A mission. Soon he is sent by the East India Company to suppress the ferocious ‘thuggee’ bandits pillaging and killing without restraint. But he also has a secret mission to dethrone the supposed leader of these brigands in Chintal, the Tigress of Mysore herself, the Ranee Syneyla. Cavalry élan, strategic deception and astute diplomacy are all called for. Not a job for any soldier, but a job only this soldier can do.

In The Tigress of Mysore Allan Mallinson adds compelling descriptions of a colonial India in the midst of a transition into the British Raj to his authoritative knowledge of British cavalry regiments. The reader is enveloped by Indian culture and buffeted by British contemporary attitudes towards the native population. Mallinson’s characterisations, honed by such a long-running series, are equally impressive. Hervey’s interactions with his closest companions, Somerville, Fairbrother, Private Johnson and Sergeant Major Armstrong, are as entertaining as always, but the novel provides a window too into both the reflective and the dashing sides of the main character. The reappearance of the Ranee Syneyla from one of Hervey’s earlier tales allows Mallinson to show real character development for his hero, a nuanced progression not often witnessed in a series like this. We have seen Hervey evolving through each book and each mission, and we can now look forward to seeing him ride on to his next adventure.

Gordon O’Sullivan

MURDER IN OLD BOMBAY

Nev March, Minotaur, 2020, $26.99/C$36.50, hb, 400pp, 9781250269546

It’s 1892. As Captain Jim Agnihotri lies in a Bombay hospital slowly recovering from serious injuries, he reads that two young women fell to their deaths from the university clock tower. In a letter to the editor, Adi, the husband of one and brother of the other, rejects the verdict of suicide and concludes, “They are gone but I remain.” This inspires Jim to unravel the mystery, in a long and tortuous journey that probes not only their deaths but his own difficult past.

The murder mystery, interesting in itself, serves also as a frame within which the author ranges widely. The attraction between Jim and Diana Framji, the sister of Adi, the bereaved husband, blossoms into romance; but he is Anglo-Indian and illegitimate, whereas she belongs to a wealthy, aristocratic Parsee family. Jim’s enquiries take him to the Northern Frontier during an outbreak of raiding by hostile tribes, and he rescues several child refugees and a party of soldiers cut off in enemy territory. Later, he leads the rescue of a group of captives, mainly women, who have been abducted into slavery. Inspired by Conan Doyle’s fiction, Jim strives to emulate Sherlock Holmes’s techniques of logical deduction, close observation, and the use of disguise.

Jim’s achievements mark him as a hero in the epic mode, but this is balanced by the realistic portrayal of the context in which he functions: strict social divisions based on race, class, and caste; patriarchal attitudes and rigid adherence to convention; conflict caused by external raids, nationalist movements, and political manoeuvring; exploitation of the vulnerable; and widespread pain and suffering, which he shares. Though the plot meanders somewhat, this is an insightful account of life in India on the cusp of the 20th century. Highly recommended.

Ray Thompson

SLAUGHTER IN THE SAPPERTON TUNNEL

Edward Marston, Allison & Busby, 2020, £19.99, hb, 352pp, 9780749026714

When a goods train is derailed in a tunnel, causing carnage and disruption, Inspector Colbeck and his sergeant Leeming are sent for. Why the special attention? The crash was on the land of one Stephen Rydall, landowner and director of the train company Great Western Railway. And it involved the mutilation of seven sheep, penned into place. A bizarre crime. Rydell’s shepherd has disappeared, his family desperate. Rydell himself is involved in the physical recovery operation, leaving his wife fearful of his health. And so many suspects … the local canal magnate who is “known” to the local police; the cleric in charge of a prestigious agricultural college. And, perhaps, Rydell has close family who wish for his hurt and destruction? Colbeck, assisted by stout Leeming, must dig into the case deeper than a tunnel. This is a great crime and mystery story that requires no interest in the railway… but intrigues enough for one to get caught up in the real-time conflict.

Alan Cassady-Bishop

HOW TO START A SCANDAL

Madeline Martin, Harlequin, 2020, $6.50/ C$7.50, pb, 288pp, 9781335505668

Lady Violet Lavell’s father confronts her with two unappetizing options. Either marry before the season ends, or retire to the country to serve as governess to her sister’s four ‘unruly, spoiled’ children. Meanwhile Seth Sinclair, her neighbor next door, has returned from the Napoleonic Wars as the new Earl of Dalton after the death of his older brother. He would have preferred to remain a soldier, but cannot avoid his unexpected responsibilities, one of which is to marry and produce heirs. Might they not solve each other’s problem? Especially since they were friends, even as children?

There are, unfortunately, obstacles. He suffers from panic attacks after the Battle of Waterloo, while she is plump and has a dark secret. Both feel unworthy of each other.

The novel demonstrates the damage caused by low self-esteem and unforgiving social attitudes: as a soldier, Seth is ashamed of his PTSD and his struggles to conceal its symptoms; though attractive, Violet feels ashamed of her body and hearty appetite. Unkind mothers don’t help, nor the reluctance of everyone to be honest about their feelings. Interesting material here, but the elements are less well integrated than they might have been.

Ray Thompson

THE EMPRESS

Laura Martinez-Belli (trans. Simon Bruni), AmazonCrossing, 2020, $14.95, pb, 493pp, 9781542004800

Wanting to establish Mexico as a part of France, in 1863 Napoleon appoints Archduke Maximilian of Austria as emperor. Maximilian and his wife, Charlotte, a Belgian princess, travel to a world unlike any they have ever known before. The emperor knows his new role comes with very little actual power, and devotes his time to decorating his palace and having affairs. Neglected by her husband, the empress, now known as Carlota, puts all her energy into trying to run the country. Keeping up with quickly changing political alliances is challenging enough for her, but things become even more complicated when she falls in love with an army commander.

Despite being on the longer side, this book is a quick read. Filled with backstabbing, deception, secrets, and rumors of illegitimate children, the subject matter is pretty juicy. Also enticing are the author’s vivid descriptions of Mexico’s lush jungles and sumptuous food, which transport the reader to another time and place. One drawback is the overly large cast of characters. The author does provide a two-page list of who’s who, but it doesn’t cover everyone, and I had to refer to it frequently while reading to keep from getting confused. Unfortunately, despite being the title character, the empress gets lost in the shuffle, and I found it hard to connect with her. Fewer characters and a more chronological story structure may have helped make Carlota the star of the novel. Despite some issues, this book will appeal to those who love sweeping royal sagas.

Janice Derr

GENTLEMAN JIM

Mimi Matthews, Perfectly Proper Press, 2020, $16.00, pb, 376pp, 9781733056991

It’s the early 19th century, and squire’s daughter Maggie Honeywell loves bastard stableboy Nicholas Seaton, and for that reason she helps him escape the hangman’s noose on spurious charges of theft brought by the baronet’s son, Fred Burton-Smythe. Ten years later, after a long period of illness and mourning, a worn-down Maggie contemplates whether she can stand to marry Fred, her ostensible guardian, in order to inherit Beasley Park, her family estate. When Fred gets himself embroiled in a matter of honor, Maggie approaches his challenger to plead for Fred’s life and falls into a dead faint: the Viscount St.

Clare, newly returned from the Continent, is Nicholas Seaton to the life.

St. Clare, heir to the Earl of Allendale, is being pressured to marry and produce an heir. He’s drawn to Maggie, but to win her, he must convince her to see him, St. Clare, instead of the lost love she wants him to be.

The question of who St. Clare really is produces the novel’s driving tension, and to answer it once and for all, Maggie sets out to find out the truth about Gentleman Jim, the rogue who fathered Nicholas Seaton and the prodigal son who brought Allendale nothing but shame.

This is Regency romance at its most charming: Maggie is a spirited heroine, St. Clare is the epitome of the dashing beau, and the connection between them evolves through poignant moments staged amid scenes of balls and duels, drives and visits, highway robberies and tavern brawls, mistaken identity and lasting love. Matthews demonstrates that even a frothy Regency romp can carry rewarding emotional heft. Gentleman Jim is an utter delight.

Misty Urban

A MOST ENGLISH PRINCESS

Clare McHugh, William Morrow, 2020, $16.99/£10.99, pb, 512pp, 9780062997609

Starting with her childhood in 1847, this novel covers the life of Queen Victoria’s oldest daughter, also called Victoria (nicknamed Vicky), until 1871. From being a much-loved princess in England, Vicky marries Fritz, oldest son of Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, and moves to a drafty, dark, inconvenient castle in Berlin. This turns out to be the least of her worries. She is slighted by all the Prussian royal family. Worse still, her ideas about implementing a less autocratic style of government, learned from her father Prince Albert, are sneered at. It is an attitude that will pursue her throughout her life.

Fortunately, her marriage to the handsome, gentle prince is a happy one. Eight children are born to them, including Siggy, whose death in infancy devastates Vicky. She delights in her children, although the inconsistent and aggressive behavior of their oldest son, Wilhelm, causes her great concern.

But most of the novel recreates the military and political maneuverings of the Prussian court during the years 1858 – 1871. Vicky, loved by the Prussian people, is despised by the court, especially by Otto von Bismarck, principal advisor to the court. Her efforts to argue for a more liberal style of government are mocked or ignored.

McHugh presents a complex and detailed account of Prussian politics during much of the 19th century. She shows how the prevailing beliefs and decisions taken during this time underpin the development of Germany as a nation emerging from several smaller states. It also shows the basis of Kaiser Wilhelm’s militaristic focus that led to WW1.

The novel gives the reader a broad, sweeping view of the dysfunctional Prussian royal court, but also a deeper look at the influences shaping Germany even today. This is a tour de force illuminating a seldom understood corner of European history.

Valerie Adolph

THE MYSTERY OF LOVE

Andrew Meehan, Head of Zeus, 2020, £18.99, hb, 247pp, 9781789544886

In this strikingly original and ambitious book, Andrew Meehan gives us an account of the marriage of Constance and Oscar Wilde seen through Constance’s eyes. Her inner life from their first association to their wedding, the birth of two sons, separation and Oscar’s public downfall are imagined in affecting and absorbing detail. Occasional responses to Constance’s narrative come from Oscar in footnotes.

‘…If you’re here to propose marriage, let’s get on with it’ says the unconventional Constance, who describes her wedding dress as ‘a handful of slimy satin’. Her motive for accepting the proposal? To leave home. His for making it? ‘Free passage for life in the disguise of a respectable man’. They are matched in unpredictability, wilfulness and complexity of character. Constance understands her famous husband and his favourite pastime of ‘smoking, reading and being looked at’, but struggles with his neglect, extravagance and long absences, always aware of the relentless public gaze. Despite the eccentricity of the marriage, they show some more familiar responses: the exhaustion and concern of new parents, the quarrels which begin with ‘why do you always...’

This story of their lives is excellently and wittily written, with many memorable descriptions. Constance is amazed at the fanatical and ornate detail with which Oscar approaches the furnishing of their house in Tite Street. She dreads living in ‘an extrovert house...’ in which ‘the room was just as important as what happened there’.

The end of Oscar Wilde’s outwardly glittering life is described by his estranged wife reflecting on their time together as she travels across Europe to visit him in Reading Gaol. Still she loves him as deeply as he does her – the mystery of love.

Imogen Varney

A FEIGNED MADNESS

Tonya Mitchell, Cennan Books, 2020, $21.00, pb, 393pp, 9781947976207

The legendary journalist Nellie Bly pretended to be insane so she could expose the horrific world of Blackwell’s Asylum, a place filled with incompetence, cruelty and malice. In successfully completing the assignment, she opened the door for other women journalists to write about more than teas and petticoats. This fictionalized account by Tonya Mitchell alternates between 1887 New York, where Bly convinces the editor of the New York World to give her the assignment, and 1885 Pittsburgh, where she begins her journalism career writing about women’s issues and meets the handsome, but already married, George McCain.

Alternating between the two storylines keeps the reader from becoming mired in the bleak circumstances of Bly’s assignment. Elizabeth Cochrane (Bly’s real name) has already seen her share of injustice after being fleeced of her small inheritance and witnessing her mother terrorized by a drunken husband. Her pseudonym was chosen by her male colleagues because women writers were required to use a pen name to protect their “reputations.”

In order to get committed to the asylum, Bly finds lodging at a Temporary Home for Women, behaves strangely, and pretends to have no memory. After a cursory examination at Bellevue, she is committed to the notorious Blackwell’s Asylum, a gothic structure on an island in the middle of the East River. Upon arrival she looks up at the windows and sees “faces so ravaged they looked almost skeletal.” She tries to remain objective and not get her emotions involved in the story but as she gets to know the women, she realizes some aren’t mad at all: “it seemed that our circumstances, not a diagnosis of madness, were what brought us here.”

A Feigned Madness is a gorgeously written, powerful story of a courageous and remarkable woman.

Trish MacEnulty

LADY ROSAMUND AND THE POISON PEN

Barbara Monajem, Dames of Detection, Inc., 2020, $16.95, pb, 244pp, 9781947915275

One night while going down the staircase of her London mansion for a cup of warm milk, Lady Rosamund is shocked to find her footman lying dead on the landing. Her husband, Albert, had just slunk home after visiting his mistress, Rosamund’s best friend. Rosamund accepts her husband’s dalliance, for she has no interest in “carnal pleasures,” and theirs is a marriage of convenience. Albert had saved her “from a fate worse than death.” Rosamund suffers from an attention disorder for which, in these Regency times, patients were often condemned to an asylum. Albert’s marriage to Rosamund is to his advantage, for through her connections, he has become a Member of Parliament and aspires to be the Prime Minister. However, Rosamund’s life is about to be upended. First, an anonymous caricaturist incriminates her in a series of scandalous prints. Then, anonymous poisonpen letters indicate someone knows her secret. Rosamund plays a detective to identify the perpetrators and save her sanity.

Barbara Monajem has penned this unique and delightful murder mystery, which looks to be the first of a series. The Regency-era setting captures the norms, social practices, and class distinctions of that era impeccably. The author agreeably blends several mysteries into a murder scenario in a way that holds readers’

interest. We feel Rosamund’s eccentricity, fears, apprehensions, and anguish, especially through her first-person voice. The cast of characters is fittingly chosen and well developed. In particular, each has a unique accent that sets them apart. The novel critically examines the subservient roles that Regency society required of women. The folly of such practice is, at times, presented humorously to illustrate its ridiculousness. However, the way Rosamund overcomes these obstacles, despite her mental condition, is applaudable.

Waheed Rabbani

MURDER AT QUEEN’S LANDING

Andrea Penrose, Kensington, 2020, $26.00/ C$35.00, hb, 304pp, 9781496722843

Amateur detectives in early 19th-century London, Lady Charlotte Sloane and the Earl of Wrexford are faced with locating their friends, Lady Cordelia and her brother Lord Woodbridge. After investigating the murder of an East India Company clerk at Queen’s Landing, clues indicate the possibility that Lord Woodbridge may have been involved. As the case unfolds, the two discover the existence of a secret consortium that may affect the banking world and international arbitrage where funds are being bought and sold on the international market. They must now try to locate the mastermind behind the international plot and prevent economic and personal disasters that may affect the two missing friends.

This novel is the fourth installment of the Wexford and Sloane mystery series. I have not read the previous novels, and it isn’t necessary to do so first. I enjoy 19th-century mysteries, and this story did not disappoint. The international and mathematical conversations can be confusing. I had to reread the paragraphs that mentioned these issues, which tended to interrupt the narrative. By the end of the novel, though, the plot is uncovered, and these complicated subjects are explained. The author provides interesting characters, including those who support the protagonists.

Jeff Westerhoff

A CHRISTMAS RESOLUTION

Anne Perry, Ballantine, 2020, $21.00, hb, 192pp, 9780593129586 / Headline, 2020, £16.99, hb, 208pp, 9781472275097 1872 London. Newly married Celia Hooper is concerned when she learns that her good friend Clementine Appleby has accepted the marriage proposal of Seth Marlowe, a hard, judgmental man that Celia has never liked. Marlowe tells Celia to stay away from his fiancée, warning her that he will expose secrets about her and her husband. He also accuses her of writing a poisonous letter, though the letter was anonymous. Celia’s husband, a Thames River policeman, investigates Marlowe and discovers that his first wife died under mysterious circumstances and Marlowe’s daughter is now living on the streets. Should the Hoopers listen to the vicar and forgive Marlowe his transgressions and hope for the best in the imminent marriage?

Familiar with Perry’s Charlotte and Thomas Pitt mysteries, but never having read any of her many Christmas novels, I was surprised by this story’s strong moralism. The themes of sin, forgiveness and repentance are handled with a heavy hand, the characters pondering these issues over and over. The final lesson is a good one, but the tone could have been less preachy. As for the mystery of the writer of the anonymous poison letter, the culprit is obvious but the characters seem strangely unaware. Despite these criticisms, I found the plot suspenseful and wanted to see how the story would turn out. As with all her novels, Perry again brings the setting of Victorian England marvelously to life. Elizabeth Caulfield Felt

THE WAY OF LOVE

Tracie Peterson, Bethany House, 2020, $16.99, pb, 316pp, 9780764232282

Faith Kenner, 30, is a rare female medical student in Oregon in 1879, but one with a secret. She is the child of a mother raped during an Indian raid, and is “passing” as white. Oregon’s laws include a “whites only” clause, so she risks getting expelled. Faith tends to riverboat captain Andrew Gratton’s injuries after a scuffle, and they find a tug of attraction between them. When Faith gives a lecture to raise money to buy medicine for the Indians, influential men on the medical school board get her expelled just before graduation. Matters are further complicated when the same men tangle Andrew and his riverboat in a gun-running plot.

Racial issues figure into the story in multiple ways, as Faith struggles over whether “passing” is morally justified, and a lady at her boarding house is hiding her Black companion due to the “whites only” law. Faith’s background makes her an especially interesting character. The religious content is on the heavy side in volume 2 of the Willamette Brides series. Recommended with one reservation: the ending has an element of deus ex machina that wraps up the novel too patly.

B. J. Sedlock

PROMISES TO THE DEAD

D. M. Pirrone, Allium Press of Chicago, 2020, $18.99/C$24.99/£14.99, pb, 328pp, 9780999698259

Chicago detective Frank Hanley is investigating the death of railway clerk Lawrence O’Shea, who disappeared shortly after receiving a letter from his son Michael, a member of the Freedman’s Bureau in post-Civil War Louisiana. Michael had been gathering evidence about plantation owners waylaying recently freed slaves and forcing them to work in sugar cane fields.

Promises to the Dead is rich in historical Chicago detail as it takes Hanley to rail yards, along city streets, and into ethnic neighborhoods populated by immigrants, mixed-race couples, free-born versus recently emancipated slaves. It forms a backdrop for little-known, at least to this reader, locales from 1870s Chicago, such as Hairtrigger Block near Wells Street, and the work of the Bureau for Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands that sought to help former slaves and poor whites after the war.

The novel is third in the Hanley and Rivka mystery series, continuing the barely spoken, budding romance between Hanley and Rivka Kelmansky and its opposition by her brother Aaron as well as a frayed friendship between Hanley and coroner Will Rushton. It strains, however, in keeping overall continuity. Connections between characters are too coincidental and convenient. Plot twists create bottlenecks, and action is unnecessarily contrived. Hanley identifies a suspect with little to go on, leading to repetitious surmises, investigative shortcuts, and foolhardy attempts to find proof. The Chicago of Promises to the Dead nonetheless is multi-layered and nuanced, and despite drawbacks, readers will be eager to follow Hanley and Rivka as their paths cross and diverge.

K. M. Sandrick

THE LOVE NOTE

Joanna Davidson Politano, Revell, 2020, $15.99, pb, 384pp, 9780800736897

After Willa Duvall declines her fourth offer of marriage, she takes a position nursing Golda Gresham, matriarch of the British manor of Crestwicke. Crestwicke intrigues Willa because of its mention in an anonymous but deeply moving love letter she finds in her desk and because Gabe Gresham, second son of the house, was a dear childhood friend. Willa hopes to deliver the letter to its intended recipient while proving herself worthy of admission to medical school; her plans don’t include a husband.

As the letter travels through the house, it sets afire the imagination of everyone who reads it, bringing to light hidden longings and festering wounds; Crestwicke’s inhabitants are hiding a storied past, painful secrets, and unrequited dreams. The book moves from Gothic mystery and domestic drama to romance and family saga as Willa learns the truth about her patient and the many mysteries Crestwicke shelters. Willa’s deepening relationship with God and her evolving understanding of the women of the house prove the most wellcrafted of the love stories, though in 1859, with Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell having recently established their infirmary in New York, Willa’s passion for doctoring feels convincing as well. A pleasurable read.

Misty Urban

THE RESIDENCE

Andrew Pyper, Skybound, 2020, $26.00, hb, 352pp, 9781982149055

Jane Pierce, wife of Franklin Pierce, is submerged in grief. Clever but always

melancholic and unstable, Jane never wished to be First Lady; she resents her husband’s successful bid for the presidency. When her last surviving child, Bennie, is the sole casualty of a train accident on the way to take up residence in Washington, DC, the first couple’s relationship and Jane’s tenuous grip on her emotions further degrades. In a desperate bid for some kind of contact with Bennie, Jane employs the Fox sisters to conduct a séance, and their farce somehow turns into something real – a malevolent presence, lurking in the background, is now fully released into the White House. Yet this presence is not unfamiliar to Jane…

This is a deliciously creepy horror story that occasionally loses its way when it strays from its central triad. For the most part, Pyper excels in creating a Gothic atmosphere for the White House, especially in the way he manages to isolate Jane and Franklin by eliminating the effect of a house full of servants, bureaucrats, etc. His depiction of the form and relationship utilized by the malign presence to influence Jane and Franklin (namely a sinister version of their dead child) is chillingly effective. There is imagery here, conveyed through the capable prose, which will resonate and linger. Fans of horror and suspense will find much that appeals in Pyper’s take on the Franklins’ tragedy.

Bethany Latham

HER NIGHT WITH THE DUKE

Diana Quincy, Avon, 2020, $7.99, pb, 384pp, 9780062986801

In this diverse Regency romance, Leela, the widowed Lady Devon, is stranded at an inn near her former estate one stormy evening. She’s been travelling since her husband’s death, staying with her mother’s people in the Middle East, and writing bestselling travelogues. She has returned to attend a house party for her beloved stepdaughter, who is about to become engaged to the Duke of Huntington. But the inn is full and its occupants surly. Leela brandishes a knife, but a man steps in to aid her, offering her use of his parlor overnight.

In the aftermath, Leela and her hero, Elliot Townsend, have a one-night stand. When Leela wakes the morning, Townsend is gone. Soon, Leela is at her former estate, avoiding her stepson, the new Lord Devon, and gossiping with her beloved stepdaughter. When Leela is introduced to the Duke, it is none other than Elliot Townsend.

This steamy romance starts with the steam. Leela’s travels are interesting, and it is refreshing to encounter cultures not related to the ton. My one complaint is that while I enjoyed all the subplots, they are not all seamlessly intertwined. Overall, it’s an engaging read and a breath of fresh air.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL MURDER

Heather Redmond, Kensington, 2020, $26.00/ C$35.00/£19.99, hb, 320pp, 9781496717177

This is the third book in the A Dickens of a Crime mystery series. It is 1835, and a young Charles Dickens is working as a journalist for a paper belonging to his fiancée’s father. While covering a devastating fire, he is approached by a young girl who says her sister is dead, and that Dickens is the father of her sister’s baby. She hands him the baby and departs, leaving him to try and find the real father. He also decides to hide this shocking turn of events from his fiancée, Catherine “Kate” Hogarth. At the same time, a death has occurred at the house of the miserly Mr. Screws. His partner, Mr. Harley, has plummeted from a window, chained at the neck. Was he murdered, or was this a suicide?

A Dickens of a Crime is a fascinating cozy mystery series that takes events and characters from the novels of Charles Dickens and uses them differently. While this is the third book, it can be read as a standalone novel. In this third installment, A Christmas Carol is retold as a murder mystery. The reader will take delight in finding the many references to the classic Christmas novella, re-imagined, and with names slightly changed. The mysteries are well-thought-out, and there are plenty of twists and turns. What I enjoyed most was the fact that the characters created by Dickens interacted with Dickens himself, and with people from his actual life. It becomes a fusion of both mystery and biography of the early life of this great writer. Recommended for fans of murder mysteries, classic literature, and Charles Dickens. Bonnie DeMoss

A DAUGHTER’S PROMISE

Lynette Rees, Quercus, 2020, £8.99, pb, 368pp, 9781529403879 1888. Jack the Ripper is at large. Like most local people, Kathryn Flynn, who lives in Whitechapel, London, has no time to think of him. She is not a prostitute, but would it be worth the risk? After all, she works all hours in the clothing trade to pay the rent to a wicked landlord, and buy coal and food for her bed-ridden widowed mother and her younger brothers and sisters. Her best friend is Jimmy. He loves her but finds work on a ship bound for Africa and back to earn money to win her back when she rejects his proposal of marriage. When her landlord demands even more rent and work dries up, there is one solution – prostitution. She gives it a try and fortunately for her, she meets a rich, kind and generous gentleman called Squire. But is he what he seems, and was she a fool to reject Jimmy? Has she stepped from the frying pan into the fire?

This is a Victorian saga with twists, turns and changes in fortune along the way. Many saga lovers will not mind the fact that the author’s vision of Victorian Whitechapel is somewhat skew-whiff. For instance, although Jack the Ripper was indeed at large in 1888, children were no longer sent up chimneys and the novelist Charles Dickens’ works, with their gangs of child pick-pockets, were set in earlier days. However, if you love Victorian sagas set in the smoggy streets of the East End, this page-turning novel with its happy ending is for you.

Sally Zigmond

VINDICATED: A Novel of Mary Shelley

Kathleen Williams Renk, Cuidono, 2020, $16.00/C$22.00/£15.99, pb, 202pp, 9781944453107

Written as a series of diary entries, Vindicated spans the years between Mary’s life as an idealistic teenager to a woman of nearly 40 who has been hardened by many misfortunes. Mary’s mother, feminist pioneer Mary Wollstonecraft, died when Mary was only a few days old. Wanting to feel some connection to her mother, and needing to sort out her feelings about life, Mary begins to keep a journal. Highly intelligent and raised to be a free thinker, she is also romantic and naïve and quickly falls under the spell of Percy Shelley. Despite already being married, the charismatic, up-and-coming poet convinces her to run away with him and live a bohemian lifestyle. The couple spends the summer with Lord Byron and enters into a storytelling competition that ends up birthing one of the most terrifying novels of all time, Frankenstein.

There are many fictionalized accounts of Mary Shelley’s life, but what makes this one feel so unique and fresh is how deeply it probes into her psyche. The reader can feel Mary’s ache from never knowing her mother, and her yearning to connect with her. The scenes where Mary visits her mother’s grave and imagines talking to her are simultaneously touching and chilling. Also impressive for such a short book is how much Mary changes. Her voice matures from a young woman to a wife in a frustrating marriage, to a mother who faces multiple tragedies. Appropriately, the language in the diary entries dances between poetic, philosophical, and occasionally frightening. This is a beautifully written, engaging novel that will stay with the reader for a long time.

Janice Derr

Lori Rohda, She Writes Press, 2020, $16.95, pb, 408pp, 9781631527197

The immigrants and disadvantaged who worked in the mills in 19th-century America faced long hours and difficult working conditions. Troy Mill in Fall River, Massachusetts, is where each of the characters pursues a new and better life. Guido and Angelina emigrate from Italy, young Miranda and Francois flee oppression in Canada, newly orphaned twins Phoebe and Charles arrive from Ireland, and Annie, orphaned at birth, escapes the convent where she was raised.

The harsh life in the mill, especially for the children, isn’t obvious in the characters’ lives, however. There is mention of Guido developing lung disease, but eleven-year-old Annie is given a desk job when she is hired, and the hard work life of the thirteen-year-old twins isn’t shown. When Troy Mill burns down and lives are lost, people’s grief is very evident, but the oppressive working conditions that contributed to that fire aren’t expanded upon. The focus is more on the characters than historical details.

These well-developed characters are the strength of this novel. For example, Guido’s son, Samuel, makes some selfish and bad choices along with good ones, which shows him as very real and human. The child Annie is a favorite, with lots of spirit and determination in making her way alone in the world. After the fire, Samuel buys and rebuilds the mill, and when Annie is hired, the friendship that develops between them is heart-warming. The pursuit of dreams and the sorrow when those dreams are lost are the themes throughout. I recommend this well-written book for its engaging plot and wonderful characters.

Janice Ottersberg

THE DAY LINCOLN LOST

Charles Rosenberg, Hanover Square Press, 2020, $27.99, hb, 432pp, 9781335145222

In the summer of 1860, a twelve-year-old slave girl, Lucy Battelle, escapes a brutal Kentucky plantation. Alone, she heads north for the Underground Railroad to Canada and freedom. A “kindly” slave catcher rescues her and, for a fee, turns her over to the federal court in Springfield, Illinois. Her owner arrives, proves his ownership, and she is back in his clutches.

Larger dramas are playing out in Springfield. Abe Lincoln, nominee for President, lives there. Fiery abolitionist Abby Foster gives a big speech at the main church. Immediately after, the riled-up attendees rush out to save Lucy, who is already in the carriage that will take her away. The mob turns the carriage over, and she escapes.

The U.S. Attorney prosecutes Abby for inciting the mayhem. Reluctantly, Lincoln agrees to defend her. Brilliant trial lawyer Lincoln must carefully weigh every step, every spoken word, and their impact on not only judge and jury but also on voters and states preparing to leave the Union. Behind the scenes, sitting President Buchanan pulls strings to sully Lincoln in any way he can.

Rosenberg vividly portrays the pre-trial and trial proceedings and the larger forces buffeting the country. Several secondary characters (such as Lucy and Buchanan) are so well drawn readers will want more of them. Despite the title, this story is not an alternative history after Lincoln loses the election. Rather, at the end, it explores what might have happened under complex rules when none of the four candidates has enough electoral votes to win outright. This novel will appeal to anyone interested in Lincoln, the lawyer and the statesman, in the run-up to the Civil War.

G. J. Berger

BILLINGS BETTER BOOKSTORE AND BRASSERIE

Fin J. Ross, Clan Destine Press, 2020, $4.99, ebook, 278pp, 9780648848721

In Melbourne, Australia, in 1875, a nineyear-old girl, Fidelia Knight, is harried off a boat from England, suddenly orphaned during the voyage. She is deposited at an asylum, with her only possession being a single volume of Samuel Johnson’s 1775 dictionary. She is told that her mother died in childbirth, and her father, in his grief, jumped overboard. While she accepts her mother’s demise, her father’s suicide seems unlikely, but there is no proof, nor does she ever investigate. As one may expect, she runs away from the asylum, displays her cleverness, and ultimately gets adopted by an unlikely employee of Billings Better Bookstore. Adventures ensue, including meeting up with other orphans, opening a school, and writing alliterative abecedarian texts.

In addition to Fidelia’s almost absurd vocabulary, she displays an emotional maturity well beyond her years. The only childlike thing I could find was an aversion to green vegetables. Most of the book centers around the other characters’ adulation of Fidelia. She is generous, she is wise, and once she gets to the age of fourteen, she is uncommonly pretty. Most of the book seemed to be a picaresque adventure of a girl with an impressive command of 18th-century language and a tendency to condescend.

In the last quarter, we find the conflict, with much work from the deus ex machina: the mystery of her lost parents, which we were told was not a mystery, and there is very little development until a chance encounter with a little girl who looks like Fidelia’s long-dead sister.

This reader was not a fan, but for those in search of a low-stakes novel where orphans pull off stunningly unlikely successes while also finding families, this novel might be the answer.

NOTHING SHORT OF WONDROUS

Regina Scott, Revell, 2020, $15.99, pb, 336pp, 9780800736408

In 1886, the U.S. Cavalry helps to protect the visitors and wildlife of America’s first National Park: Yellowstone. Cavalry Lieutenant William Prescott meets hotel owner and widower Kate Tremaine at the end of a gun when she catches him standing too close to a paint pot. After sorting out their misunderstanding, they come to an agreement. The cavalry needs a guide to the park, and Kate needs someone to make repairs on her hotel. But dangers lurk close by, and Will and Kate must rely on each other if they’re to keep both man and beast safe.

It’s not necessary to read book 1 of the American Wonders Collection series, as each book focuses on a different national park. This story truly captures the beauty of Yellowstone. The wilderness is its own character, and its creation is breathtaking. Scott has done great research on how the park looked in the late 1800s. The romance builds slowly and sweetly. However, the overall pace is languid. A few reveals are drawn out a bit too long, as readers can easily figure out who the culprit is. This is a gentle Christian romance with a captivating historical setting that will sweep readers away.

J. Lynn Else

DEATH, DIAMONDS, AND DECEPTION

Rosemary Simpson, Kensington, 2020, $26.00/ C$35.00/£21.00, hb, 304pp, 9781496722126

Death, Diamonds, and Deception is the fifth installment of the Gilded Age Mystery series. It is a wonderful combination of historical fiction and cozy mystery. It is 1885, and New York heiress Prudence MacKenzie and former Pinkerton Geoffrey Hunter are on the case once again as they hunt for rare stolen diamonds. These diamonds may have once been destined for a necklace designed for Marie Antionette.

Prudence is a reluctant part of the upper class in a society dripping with gold, jewels, and privilege. It is a time when marriage, and the right marriage, is expected of young women of her station. Prudence, however, continues to conduct investigations and tries to avoid attempts by her formidable aunt, the Lady Rotherton, to set her up in an advantageous match. At the same time, she is struggling with feelings of love that may threaten her independence. In their search for the diamonds, Prudence and Geoffrey immerse themselves in the decadent world of the elite, and it is so well described that the reader feels as if they have entered this society as well.

The characters are well written, especially Lady Rotherton, an American who married into an English title, whose dynamic and forceful personality grabs the reader’s attention. The mystery is well developed, and the author continually keeps the reader guessing as to the identity of the villain or villains. Interesting anecdotes from history abound, and the reader will learn a lot about 1880s New York

and about the customs and practices of the elite and their household staff. Recommended if you like mysteries, the history of the Gilded Age in New York, or historical novels with a touch of romance.

Bonnie DeMoss

MARIA II

Isabel Stilwell (trans. Martha Stilwell D’Andrade), Livros Horizonte, 2019, £20.00, pb, 730pp, 9789722419260

Not many English-speaking readers will have heard of Dona Maria II, Queen of Portugal – and to add her full title “Portugal and the Algarves, Here and Overseas in Africa, Lady of Guinea and the Conquest, Navigation and Commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and India, etc. etc.” Her reign began when she was still a child, and living in Rio de Janeiro where her father, Dom Pedro, was Emperor of Brazil.

Through the Habsburg connections of her mother, Leopoldina, Maria was eventually sent to London, where she met Alexandrina Victoria, future queen of England. Their lifelong friendship was cemented by the fact that they married two cousins, Albert and Fernando of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Stilwell has brought Maria to life through letters, based on original correspondence, which tell her story through different voices. This is a major work of research, running to over 700 pages. It focuses on a period of Portuguese history, the first half of the 19th century, which is probably not familiar to many readers. We experience first-hand the court intrigues and the politics, but also the spectacle of Lisbon – and the palaces of Necessidades, the enormous complex of Mafra, the convent of Tomar, and many other settings – at the height of their splendour before the disastrous earthquake later that century. Stilwell’s series of fictional biographies of Portuguese queens are a welcome addition to a genre that has been popular among readers, and this is no exception.

Lucinda Byatt

COMING HOME TO BELLINGHAM

Katie Stewart Stone, Covenant, 2020, $15.99, pb, 224pp, 9781524413170

While visiting a friend, Anabelle Milton receives the shattering news that both her parents have died suddenly, a distant cousin has inherited the estate, and she is now an impoverished orphan. Fortunately, her aunt offers her a home with her and her husband, the manager of the Bellingham Estate in Northamptonshire. Not only does the aunt turn out to be kind and welcoming, but so does the Earl of Bellingham’s entire family. The second son, Nathan, makes unwelcome advances, but it is to his older brother, Lord Alexander, that she feels drawn. Despite the family’s friendliness, Anabelle remains uncomfortably conscious of the social gap. Is a match possible?

This Regency romance demonstrates the psychological impact of personal loss and the value of kindness to others, whatever their station in life; but though promising, it is a first novel and it shows. Since the story is narrated by Anabelle in the first person, it is not always clear why the hero is attracted to her, her antipathy to unemotional men is unexplained, and awkward expression can be distracting: characters grin and smirk rather frequently, and terms like ‘negative feelings’ and the ‘path toward self-discovery’ feel inappropriate in this historical era.

Ray Thompson

MURDER ON COLD STREET

Sherry Thomas, Berkley, 2020, $16.00, pb, 352pp, 9780451492494

Will we ever tire of variations on a Sherlock Holmes theme? Not likely. In the Lady Sherlock series by bestselling author Sherry Thomas, the famous sleuth is recast as a woman, who presents herself to the world as the sister of the great (but reclusive) detective. Acting as his eyes and ears, Charlotte Holmes solves murders all the while giving credit to this nonexistent brother.

In this fifth book of the series, Holmes must solve the case of a London inspector who refuses to explain himself when found in a locked room with a gun and two dead bodies. She looks for clues, makes deductions, and dons disguises as we have come to expect from any Holmesian character, but she is just as much a psychological huntress, parsing the truth from things people say and, more importantly, what they don’t say. In the process, she finds the villains (Moriarty makes an appearance) and exposes the ways racism and patriarchy in Victorian England stifle and oppress women, from a mixed-race scientist to the female heir of a major company. However, not all the men are bullying misogynists. Her friend Lord Ingram happily defers to Holmes’ expertise and at the same time tempts her with a romance that has been simmering and sometimes boiling over since their first kiss when she was thirteen. Holmes’s admiration for him has also not diminished, especially as she watches him move through a room with the “lightness and muscularity of a thoroughbred.” Thomas’s skillful writing delivers many such deft observations, creating a satisfying story that entertains us while also revealing a world in which a remarkable woman must hide her talents behind a man’s name.

Trish MacEnulty

THE DUKE MEETS HIS MATCH

Karen Tuft, Covenant, 2020, $15.99, pb, 218pp, 9781524414559

George Kendall, Duke of Aylesham, and Miss Susan Jennings part from an accidental encounter enraged at each other, and the second meeting, at a ball a year later, between ‘His Loftiness’ and ‘the harpy’ confirms their intense dislike of each other. Yet a couple of days later he asks her to be his wife. Susan, unsurprisingly aghast, refuses; but when he offers to explain his motives, her curiosity is sufficiently aroused to listen: he seeks to avoid the Prince Regent’s insistence that he marry a German princess. She agrees to consider his offer.

Susan is a highly intelligent bluestocking who values her independence and at twenty-nine looks forward to spinsterhood. She remains, however, practical enough to consider the advantages of marriage. Hesitatingly, she agrees.

The challenge is to make the transition from antipathy to love believable, but Tuft succeeds magnificently: the political context is interesting, the intriguing plot moves at a brisk pace, Susan’s lingering misgivings generate suspense, the supporting cast (especially Susan’s ‘fairy godmother’) are entertaining, and, most crucially, the honorable hero and defiant heroine are both willing to learn from their mistakes. Plus, some delicious irony, with echoes of both Jane Austen and Shakespearian comedy. Highly recommended.

Ray Thompson

AGAINST THE MACHINE: Luddites

Brian Van Norman, Guernica Editions, 2020, $25.00/C$25.00, pb, 397pp, 9781771834797 1812. England faces Bonaparte and a war in America. Novels from this period like Jane Austen’s can ignore this darker side as ladies stroll through the grounds in floating empire gowns and meet dashing soldiers. On the other hand, in novels like this one, you can learn what those soldiers stationed on English ground—more of them there than were actually fighting France—were really up to as the Industrial Revolution took hold in Yorkshire and other counties in the north. The human cost upon which the likes of Charles Bingley made their fortunes initiated untold human suffering.

I found the first couple of chapters daunting as we were introduced to numerous characters in clumps: one group, the impoverished Luddites, who were trying to save their livelihoods against machines concentrating the means of production into fewer and fewer hands. On the other side amassed the owners of those machines and the mills they ran on water or coal power. These introductions were made in a way that made it difficult to sort one common English name from another.

After that, the more important characters came quickly to life, in scenes of debased cruelty as well as elevating heroism. I found the whole saga very engaging, particularly so as we come to understand that these are real historical characters, drawn from court records and lists of wanted and condemned men. Their descendants—including me—walk among us today. The research and style are

commendable for accuracy and their ability to evoke the time period.

Parallels to technology’s stranglehold on lives and livelihoods today are seamlessly but not anachronistically drawn.

Ann Chamberlin

PROSPECTS OF A WOMAN

Wendy Voorsanger, She Writes, 2020, $16.95, pb, 352pp, 9781631527814

Elisabeth Parker and her husband Nate leave Concord, Massachusetts for Gold Rushera California in search of her estranged father, who the newlyweds hope will help them get established on his claim. Finding him gives Elisabeth the first in a succession of disappointments that she must endure in Wendy Voorsanger’s Prospects of a Woman. She and Nate attempt to work the claim, but grow apart as she discovers her own capacity for entrepreneurship and the hard labor of frontier life, as well as Nate’s true sexuality. As her marriage unravels, she looks elsewhere for passion, finding work, friends, and a local man for a lover. The narrative is interspersed with letters Elisabeth writes back to her friend, Louisa May Alcott.

From 1850 to 1853, Elisabeth’s story moves between the gold country on the American River, two boomtowns on the edge of the hills, and the San Francisco of the rush, where new enterprises like the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company have just been established. Elisabeth comes into her own over the course of the novel, and overall this is handled well. The strength of Prospects of a Woman lies in its descriptions of the physical beauty of the gold country and early San Francisco.

As a Californian descended from Gold Rush immigrants and raised on family stories of early 20th-century San Francisco, I was eager to read this novel, and all the more disappointed in its significant flaws. I found the novel’s pacing to be rather off, with important characters introduced very late. Voorsanger constantly turns adverbs into adjectives, which she places after nouns (“Come Monday morning, he always made a pot of thistle tea and kissed her passionate”). The sexual content in the novel is poorly handled, veering from ethereal yet plotand-character-relevant, to overly graphic and gratuitous. I advise readers interested in Gold Rush California or 19th-century women to look elsewhere.

Irene Colthurst

A HOPEFUL CHRISTMAS

Anneka R. Walker, Sian Ann Bessey, Carla Kelly, Krista Lynne Jensen, Covenant, 2020, $17.99, pb, 376pp, 9781524413620

In this anthology of four Regency novellas set at Christmas, the protagonists all find unexpected happiness, despite adverse circumstances. In “Lord Blakely’s Gift” by Walker, Miss Ivy Hunt meets Lord Blakely and the two fall in love, but their families have been enemies for years; in Bessey’s “A Season of Hope” Amelia’s family faces destitution; and in Jensen’s “Expectations at Canterwood” the first meeting between the insecure Marina Rowley and war-weary Lieutenant Richard Stanhope gets off to a poor start. In Kelly’s “Christmas by the Sea” the couple are already married and have three children, but Royal Navy surgeon Will Crenshaw returns from a long voyage to be faced with discord between his wife and his disapproving and controlling siblings.

In each tale the qualities of kindness, patience, and forgiveness are richly rewarded; and although this involves the intervention of a benevolent outside agent, most noticeably in Kelly’s rather magical story, that intervention is earned by the conduct of the protagonists. As the title promises, these are hopeful tales, which should please those looking for the comfort offered by inspirational romances during the Christmas season.

Ray Thompson

THE OPIUM LORD’S DAUGHTER

Robert Wang, Opium Lord’s Daughter LLC, 2019, $12.99, pb, 306p, 9780578502922

Lee Su-Mei is an unconventional guan (nobleman’s) daughter: she refuses to let her feet be bound, and she drives her father to despair with her lack of filial piety. Sent to a Catholic convent in the Portuguese colony of Macau, Su-Mei eagerly studies the language of the “foreign devils” and makes a friend of Pai Chu, a young novice. When the emperor’s push to end the illegal opium trade results in the arrest of her father and a sentence of execution for her family, Su-Mei enlists the help of British naval officer Travers Higgins, who is smitten with her, to take her brother Da Ping out of the country. But the weak-willed Da Ping, a reluctant soldier and opium addict, refuses to leave, and when the British retaliate for the Chinese envoy’s seizure of several thousand tons of opium with a declaration of war, everyone Su-Mei loves will come in the line of fire.

Wang vividly depicts the First Opium War (1839-1842) with enlightening and easy-toread exposition that explains how the British pushed illegal Indian-grown opium into China in return for silver then used to buy tea, spices, and porcelain for British markets. If the omniscient point of view is less than seamless and the characters are rather one-note, these small flaws are made up for with the detailed immersion into the cultural attitudes of the time, from British imperialism to the intricate Chinese system of patronage, loyalty, face, and reverence for the emperor. Wang foregoes easy resolutions to emphasize the destructiveness of the opium crisis and Britain’s ruthless insistence on “opening” Chinese ports for trade, illuminating this shadowed piece of history with a compelling narrative and smooth, engaging prose.

Misty Urban

1888: The Dead & the Desperate

A.E. Wasserman, Archway, 2019, $7.99, ebook, 333pp, B07XRWSTTD / $22.99, pb, 370pp, 9781480880061

When the bloodied body of a man is discovered in one of the seedier districts of London, Inspector Abberline takes measures to protect the dignity of the corpse. After all, it is patently obvious the dead man belongs in the circles of the wealthy, so why on earth he ended up murdered in the London docks is quite the mystery.

When Lord Langsford is informed one of his best friends, Edwin Percy, has been brutally murdered, he is distraught—even more so when it seems everything points to him being the murderer.

To add a further twist, Langsford has for some time self-medicated his ennui and darker thoughts by smoking opium, which has affected his memory. On the evening Percy died, Langford remembers taking Percy to his favourite opium den, but has no recollection whatsoever of what happened afterwards. As Abberline draws the net tighter, time starts to run out. Fortunately, Langsford has loyal servants and the unexpected support of Grace Westfield, fiancée to the murdered man.

Wasserman knows the time period, breathing life into late 19th-century London. Modern advances such as electricity and water closets contrast with abject poverty and a society where “equality” is determined by your wealth and social standing. Further to an excellent depiction of the historical setting, Wasserman delivers complex and layered characters, people it is surprisingly easy to relate to. I was especially impressed by how elegantly Wasserman described the budding relationship between Grace and Langsford, adding just a whiff of romance to an otherwise gritty story about death, vice, and betrayal.

Anna Belfrage

A LADY COMPROMISED

Darcie Wilde, Kensington, 2020, $26.00/ C$35.00/£21.00, 304pp, 9781496720870 When her brother’s duel ends in death before all participants have arrived, Helen Corbyn refuses to back down from her pursuit of the truth, regardless of assurances from the local duke, Lord Casselmaine, and constabulary that it was a terrible accident. Enter Rosalind Thorne: a woman with a track record of providing help to women in difficult situations and, coincidentally, the former flame of that same lord.

Rosalind’s invitation to Cassel House has been issued ostensibly for her to assist her dear friend, Louisa Winterbourne, to prepare

for her wedding. It has the added bonus, however, of providing a plausible reason for her to be in proximity to Devon, the new Duke of Casselmaine. The two have agreed to see if their relationship can pick up where it left off, however navigating the politics of country neighborhoods and the frequent crises of a duchy in transition may be more than they bargained for. Rosalind’s investigation threatens to unveil dark secrets long-kept, and she must fight to keep balance on all fronts. The truth has become her main objective, and even her potential relationship with Devon will not hold her back from uncovering what really happened.

A Lady Compromised is the fourth in the Rosalind Thorne mystery series, but can easily be read independently. Wilde delivers an intriguing, well-researched novel that sweeps readers into the not-so-quiet hills of the 19thcentury English countryside.

Anna Bennett

20TH CENTURY

THE FORCES’ SWEETHEARTS

Rosie Archer, Quercus, 2020, £6.99, pb, 326pp, 9781787474093

Lighter than a feather-duster and as wholesome as a Grant loaf, if it were a movie this third-in-series novel’s mild threat and hushed sex would hardly warrant even a PG rating. Nevertheless, it opens with several hooks dangling, the shortened first page alone displaying a pair of “full breasts” and the menace of nefarious intent. Soon afterwards we have “the sound of distant gunfire” as the girls of The Bluebirds singing trio entertain five hundred squaddies from the back of a 3-ton army truck near Libya’s frontline in 1942. Fortunately, there’s no fire-fight interruption, and soon we’re all safely back in Blighty with only constant air-raids and a surfeit of unrationed emotions to concern us. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, as does a bun in the oven, prompting two of the three chanteuses to decide that rather than be The Forces’ Sweethearts they’ll plump (intended) for being local sweethearts to their respective blokes instead.

This scenario provides the bulk of the book; worries, decisions, will-they-won’t-they and so on. Love, pregnancy, marriage and tragic death due to “Hitler’s ministrations [sic]” present an engaging skip-along narrative, but it lacks the depth given by, for example, the sub-plot found in the previous book with its exciting German prisoner-of-war escape attempt. The third Bluebird, Bea, decides to go it alone but must overcome Mr Nefarious’s pressing interest if she wants to further her career. This intrigue prompts anticipation as to whether she’ll use what she’s been given to parry his thrusts and reach the future goals she hopes will be as glittery as her stage dresses. Eventually all the loose ends are cleverly if

Simon Rickman

FILTHY SUGAR

Heather Babcock, Inanna, 2020, $22.95, pb, 232 pp, 9781771337175

It is the 1930s, and Wanda Whittle’s father has passed away. She lives behind the marketplace with her mother and sister and dreams of a more interesting life. Always the pretty one, she goes from modeling coats in a department store to mesmerizing crowds of men at burlesque shows with her considerable assets. As Wanda Wiggles, she uses her body for pleasure and profit and makes no apologies. But who is using who? Faced with the manipulations and expectations of others, will she reach for what she wants despite the men who want to control her body and her soul? And who really has her heart?

This is an extremely sensual work of art with very mature themes exquisitely written by Heather Babcock. The characters are real and raw. Wanda’s loves and losses are palpable and so clearly mirrored in the choices she makes. Babcock’s writing skill is evident, and the way she uses ordinary objects, such as a billboard or a bottle of milk, to express extreme emotions or the desperation of the time is very effective.

The 1930s come alive in this novel, but the helplessness of the Depression era is cut through with a slight thread of hope. Show business is represented mainly through the burlesque shows, but hidden gems throughout pay homage to the 1930s pre-Code movies. There is also a glossary of 1930s terms like “masher” and “tomato” that will help you navigate through this world.

Recommended for anyone interested in Depression-era history or wanting to read the first novel by a very talented writer.

Bonnie DeMoss

THE YOUNG SURVIVORS

Debra Barnes, Duckworth, 2020, £8.99, pb, 304pp, 9780715653555

Even before the outbreak of World War II, the Laskowski children’s lives aren’t easy. Their parents are Polish Jews who have fled to France to escape persecution. When all the adults of their extended family are arrested after the German Occupation, it’s up to teenage Pierre to try to keep his siblings together or, failing that, to make difficult decisions to keep his brothers and twin sisters safe. Based on the true stories of the author’s family and other Holocaust survivors, this novel deals with some aspects of World War II that are rarely mentioned, like the role of Jewish-run orphanages, the Scout Movement and the Catholic church in rescuing endangered children.

There is, however, a flaw at the heart of the book, which is told from the perspective of three of the siblings. All three voices are identical, despite the fact that Georgette is only five when she begins her narrative, while Pierre and Samuel are both teenagers by the end of the book. There’s a tendency to state facts and emotions (“I was happy/sad/ frightened”), which is what a child might write in a school essay, but not necessarily how they would experience events. There’s also a tendency to overuse exclamation marks, and frequent uses of “I” where “me” would be grammatically correct.

Some characters leap off the page – the children’s strong-willed Bubbe (grandmother); orphanage director’s daughter Michele, who is both spoilt and lonely, but discouraged by her parents from playing with the other children; and the permanently bickering Kohn brothers – but, unfortunately, these are all minor characters. The central narrators seem curiously flat by contrast. I can’t help feeling that the author’s journalistic background means that this novel would have worked better as a non-fiction book, compiling all the information and eyewitness testimony she has clearly amassed about a subject that deserves to be better known.

Jasmina Svenne

THE OPS ROOM GIRLS

Vicky Beeby, Canelo, 2020, £8.99, pb, 310pp, 9781800320888

This story is about a working-class girl called Evie Bishop, who, supported by the sacrifices that her parents made for her, wins a scholarship to Oxford University to study mathematics. A dreaded event comes to pass, however, and her dreams are shattered by one decision. Determined to get away from home, Evie makes an impulsive choice to join the WAAF as an Ops Room plotter. Little does she know that she will find friendship, love and danger during her time at Amberton Air Base.

In a world of war where the Germans are seeking to invade Britain, the author creates a wonderful air of suspense beginning at the start of the novel when Evie realises how vital her work is to the survival of their pilots. Beeby then tells the other side of the story through the life of the pilots too, using Evie’s love interest – Alex. Beeby also conveys the inner workings of the RAF base through Evie’s two friends Jess and May, who are also from different social backgrounds. Because of this, we are aware of how all types of lives were affected by the Second World War and that, although it was war, the times were also an opportunity for many to make new lives for themselves.

Clare Lehovsky

A SHOPGIRL AT SEA

Rachel Brimble, Aria, 2020, £10.99, pb, 340pp, 9781788546539

Not another book about the Titanic? Well, not really. The eponymous shopgirl, Amelia, who works at a department store in Bath, does not board the doomed liner until chapter 9 and by chapter 27 it has sunk, leaving another 26 chapters to complete the book. Given that there are two stories told in parallel, the other

concerning Amelia’s colleague, Ruby, Amelia spends only 10 of the 53 chapters at sea, including two on the rescue ship Carpathia. The sinking is principally a narrative device to bring Amelia and her lover together, while Ruby’s lesbian romance is entirely landlocked.

The theme in both stories is love versus duty, and as you would expect, love wins. The stories are well-crafted, and it is refreshing to have a romance (or two romances) centred on the protagonists’ working lives. We are used to hospital dramas, but here we have a shop. My only reservations are first that the emotional conflicts are resolved rather too easily without anybody getting hurt, other than those who richly deserve it (apart from the Titanic passengers of course), and second that the main characters always seem to be in a state of high emotion. But then it is difficult for us to relate to the intense sense of shame surrounding issues such as illegitimacy and homosexuality in Edwardian England, so perhaps they had reason to be overwrought.

This is the fifth in Brimble’s Shopgirl series set mainly in the Pennington department store in Bath, so if you like this book, there is more to choose from.

Edward James

BIX

Scott Chantler, Gallery 13, 2020, $29.99/C39.99, hb, 254pp, 9781501190780

Canadian artist Scott Chantler’s new graphic novel follows a legendary American musician’s rise and fall during the Jazz Age.

Born in Davenport, Iowa, Leon Bismark “Bix” Beiderbecke was a musical prodigy and indifferent student who made his way to the cities early, and played for several well-known dance bands. Beiderbecke gained fame as a coronet player whose improvisations merited comparison with Louis Armstrong, and he was also an accomplished pianist and composer. Beiderbecke’s fame peaked in his mid-twenties. He died near the onset of the Great Depression, at the age of 28. His life is a template for the familiar tale of a great but flawed artist who dies young. The movie Young Man with a Horn, starring Kirk Douglas, is also loosely based on Beiderbecke’s life.

Chantler’s Bix is a sad and strangely musical tale, employing a somber palette of greenish blues and grays. His hero isn’t good with people, and his moments of joy are almost all associated with listening to or playing music. The story resembles a good silent movie. It hits emotional peaks and depths with almost no word balloons at all. Five sections cover the artist’s early years, his romantic life, his rising musical star, his peak with the Paul Whiteman orchestra, and his sad losing battle with the booze. Each section bears the title of one of Bix’s compositions.

Bix contains many memorable and poignant moments. Panels dance across the page like bursts of orchestral music, or in strings of images haunting as an instrumental solo. The book’s final sequence is a sad and masterful thing, mixing panels of Bix on his deathbed with panels containing images of people who loved him, and his memories of moments of happiness and joy. Lovers of music and jazz will very likely love this book.

David Drum

EVEN AS WE BREATHE

Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, Univ. Press of Kentucky, 2020, $24.95, hb, 240pp, 9781950564064

Clapsaddle’s debut, the first novel by an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, is an impressive work of literary historical fiction. Her protagonist’s journey of first love and coming-of-age is embedded in an Appalachian setting that feels both mysterious and tangibly real. She also pens a moving ode to the many conduits of human history – people’s memories, writings, bones, the very ground under our feet – and how we learn what they teach us.

In 1942, nineteen-year-old Cowney Sequoyah, eager to escape his overbearing uncle and his home on the Cherokee reservation in the Smoky Mountains, takes a job with the grounds crew at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, two hours away. Accompanying him on the drive is Essie Stamper, a young woman whose beauty, sophistication, and selfconfidence unsettle him.

Born with a twisted foot, Cowney is ineligible for military service, but he gets entangled in wartime intrigue, nonetheless. The inn is being used by the U.S. Army to house highranking POWs, including foreign envoys and their families. While Cowney’s immediate supervisor treats him well, others on site exhibit racist attitudes towards Indians. He and Essie become good friends and frequently meet in an unoccupied hotel room to talk and play dominos, but Essie is keeping a secret from him, and the disappearance of a Japanese diplomat’s daughter threatens to destroy his freedom. As Cowney struggles to prove his good name, he gradually learns the truth about his late father’s death in WWI.

Through Cowney, Clapsaddle presents warm, lyrical observations of Cherokee family life and traditions, such as the comfort of his grandmother Lishie’s quilts and the holiness of “ladies in boldly colored headscarves [who] sang ‘Amazing Grace’ in our language.” The concluding message about the characters’ ties to their homeland is also beautifully affecting.

Sarah Johnson

VALHALLA

Alan Robert Clark, Fairlight, 2020, £14.99, hb, 336pp, 9781912054169

Born in 1867, cousin of Queen Victoria, and known within royal circles as “May,” Princess Mary of Teck was one of the crop of young royals traditionally used as currency by their parents in their power games within the noble houses of Europe.

May was intelligent and better educated than her “silly” cousins. Attractive rather than pretty, and well-versed in royal protocol, May so impressed Queen Victoria that she encouraged a match between her and Albert (known as Eddie), then Prince of Wales. Happily, the young couple not only liked one another but, rarely for arranged marriages, fell in love. Sadly, Eddie suddenly died just before the wedding ceremony was to have been celebrated.

Worse was to follow. Still grieving for Eddie, May was faced with a second marriage, this time to Prince George, Eddie’s younger brother, now an unwilling future king. George’s failings as a man and, in consequence, as a husband have been well documented, and the author of this novel does no more than present them in the context of their effect on May.

So she stood, stolid and elegant, beside this cruel, indifferent man, bore him his heirs, her face expressing, as the years passed, a curious, clenched detachment. Her whole appearance a sort of fashionable carapace, concealing the pain, the disappointments, including much later, the worst one, when her son Edward, who should have been the VIIIth and briefly was, forsook his vows, to marry that American woman.

Alan Robert Clark raises many captivating issues in his novel. It is notoriously difficult to use historical fact to explore characters whose actual histories are well-known or assumed to be. If this book was less “good” I wouldn’t be left wanting more. But it is good. And I do want more.

Julia Stoneham

THE SPY WHO INSPIRED ME

Stephen Clarke, PAF, 2020, £7.99, pb, 232pp, 9782952163859

April 1944. Naval officer Ian Lemming works for Naval Intelligence at the Admiralty. Suave, sophisticated and a totally unreconstructed chauvinist and womaniser, he is coasting through the war. Unfortunately, he finds himself accidentally beached in Nazi-occupied Normandy, stranded without a razor, clean underwear, and – most importantly – his cigarettes, with a very experienced female agent called Margaux Lynd. Margaux is on a mission to unmask traitors in the Resistance network. Lemming receives a crash course in spycraft as she bullies him across France.

Stephen Clarke is a best-selling author who has been translated into more than 20 languages. This is a comedy spy story, and the author’s affectionate salute to Ian Fleming and the whole genre of spy thrillers involving very non-PC agents in the 20th century. With a strong streak of humour running through it and a taut, plausible plot and strong characters, the story races along. This is an entertaining and thrilling read. Will Lemming survive? Will he be a changed man? You’ll have to read it to find out – no spoilers here! Recommended.

THE GLASS HOUSE

Beatrice Colin, Flatiron, 2020, $26.99/C$36.50, hb, 272pp, 9781250152503

Cicely Pick, with her daughter Kitty in tow, arrives in Argyll, Scotland, in 1912, having traveled from Darjeeling, India, on a mission for her botanical adventurer husband, George. She’s headed to Balmarra House, where her sisterin-law Antonia and her husband Malcolm are very much not expecting them and their many trunks of clothing. Everything is unfamiliar and off by half a beat: the weather, the landscape, the food, the lack of a glad welcome. Even those who live at Balmarra don’t seem comfortable in their surroundings; the old house hasn’t been maintained, and its inhabitants suffer from the same feeling of being outdated and misused.

The expansive greenhouse on the grounds was clearly the priority for deceased scion Edward Pick. His collection of exotic plants is internationally known, and most of his time and funds went into acquiring and growing specimens—not an easy feat in cool, damp Scotland. Kier Lorimer, a newly rich industrialist who lives down the road, complicates Cicely’s task as well as the lives of Antonia and Malcolm; despite class differences and longheld resentments, these disparate characters begin to form connections that reveal their hidden humanity.

Colin expertly describes the land and the lives of those in Argyll and George in India, allowing readers to see and feel the estrangement as well as the attraction between the two worlds and their vastly different approaches to living. With some false starts and many misgivings, the characters begin to show their true selves, peeling away layers of time and mistrust. A bittersweet takeaway from this, Colin’s final book (she passed away in 2019), is that we can all learn to be true to ourselves and vulnerable to others; and that growth doesn’t require a fancy, glassed-in, controlled environment.

Helene Williams

CHAMPION

Stephen Deutsch, Universe, 2020, £10.00, pb, 256pp, 9781913491123

It would be a mistake to dismiss this novel on the grounds that it ploughs a familiar furrow. The incorporation of the parallel histories of the boxer Max Schmeling and of Herschel Grynszpan, a young Jewish boy – both of them experiencing in different ways the effect of the increasingly powerful Nazi regime, which was rapidly brutalising the Jewish community in Berlin – makes clever use of both of their storylines.

Stephen Deutsch writes with great skill here, managing to balance his obviously strong feelings of empathy toward his Jewish characters with a laudable ability to resort to a steely tone, which comprehensively conveys his contempt for the soulless cruelty endemic in Hitler’s followers and which triggers an act that moves Kristallnacht and the pogroms into closer and more aggressive focus.

Starkly shocking events are nicely contrasted with softer, but always telling, domestic situations which fill out the characters of the main protagonists in skilfully written sections, making them (even in some cases, the Nazis) almost endearing.

This novel very subtly explores an aspect of WW2 which defines mankind’s age-old capacity for cruelty set against the unlikely expectation that we shall ever get things right.

Champion is a compelling and rewarding read.

Julia Stoneham

AT NIGHT ALL BLOOD IS BLACK

David Diop (trans. Anna Moschovakis), Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2020, $25.00, hb, 160pp, 9780374266974 / Pushkin, 2020, £14.99, hb, 192pp, 9781782275862

Alfa, a Senegalese soldier, delivers a harrowing confession from the Western Front of WWI France. (Senegal, then a French colony, contributed thousands of men to the French war effort.) His narrative teeters between two transgressions. The first was not killing his childhood friend, disemboweled in battle, condemning him to a slow, agonizing death. In denying his “more-than-brother” a mercy killing, “I had been inhuman by obeying duty’s voice.” After his friend dies, he is free of “the voice of duty, the voice that commands, the voice that leads the way.” His atrocious vengeance on the “blue-eyed” enemy—whose blood, at night, is as black as his own—takes a lesser role in his conscience, even as it consumes his life.

Alfa’s rhythmic, repetitive oaths and laments; his pleas for understanding and forgiveness; his description of the trench as “open like the sex of an enormous woman, a woman the size of the earth,” out of which men leap screaming to kill: all give the narrative both a suffocating intimacy and a sense of a nightmare too vast to escape.

While the physical setting is circumscribed— trenches bracketing no man’s land, with flashbacks to a village life that seems infinitely far away and long ago—the moral scope is immense. Battle hollows out “human law,” that which dictates we not kill our fellow humans, and in doing so turns its ranks inside out, sometimes literally, physically, and always psychologically.

I want to say it’s our human duty to read this book, which students across France chose to win a scholastic version of the Prix Goncourt. Listen to this voice that takes us into the madness of massive violence—with the warning that its vision of human duty offers no closure and much soul-searching. Jean Huets

THE PULL OF THE STARS

Emma Donoghue, Picador, 2020, £16.99, hb, 262pp, 9781529046151 / Little, Brown, 2020, $28.00, hb, 304pp, 9780316499019

This novel is set in Dublin during the Halloween of 1918. Nurse Julia Power finds herself solely in charge of a temporary ward in which maternity patients suffering from the socalled Spanish flu are isolated from other patients. Help comes in the unexpected form of Bridie Sweeney, an untrained but cheerful volunteer, prepared to turn her hand to anything, and Dr Kathleen Lynn, whose actions during the 1916 Easter Rising have made her a target for the police. But the disease is new and unpredictable, and not everyone will make it out of the hospital alive.

Set over the course of just three days, Emma Donoghue’s latest novel is an intense snapshot of a small nucleus of characters battling not only against disease, but also against natal complications and poverty. What struck me, however, given how long it usually takes to research and write a novel (albeit a short one in this case) is how prescient this book is and how close the parallels are with the Covid-19 pandemic. We see everything from passengers flinching from someone coughing on the tram to the discussions about the efficacy of wearing masks to the impact of the disease (and the ongoing war) on the economy. Shops and schools are shut and supplies are running short in the hospital, but munitionettes are still making shells.

Donoghue also highlights the grinding poverty that affects most of Julia’s patients, putting them at an even greater disadvantage, and the way the most vulnerable are at the mercy of the implacable Catholic Church. This is exemplified by Bridie, probably the most vivid in a multifaceted cast of characters. Possibly not the most comfortable reading for first-time mothers or anyone a bit squeamish, this is nonetheless a life-affirming book about finding joy, friendship and love even in the bleakest of circumstances.

Jasmina Svenne

AN ARTIFICIAL LIGHT

Petra Durst-Benning (trans. Edwin Miles), AmazonCrossing, 2020, $14.95, pb, 344pp, 9781542008624

This is the sequel to The Photographer, continuing Mimi Reventlow’s story as a

photographer in 1911 Laichingen, Germany. Mimi is on cloud nine, having successfully sold her postcards at the Pentecost market, and renewing her acquaintance with union organizer Hannes, or Johann as he asks her to call him now. Linen-weaving mill owner Gehringer is feeling the pinch with workers who slack off, customers who demand lower prices, and Mimi’s reluctance to sell him her studio. Eveline, a dirt-poor weaver’s wife, has a son Alex with artistic talent, and Mimi uses her connections to get Alex an audition for an art school scholarship. But Mimi doesn’t know that Eveline and Johann had a past together and Eveline is still in love with him. A series of accidents and a suicide set off a chain of events that untangle some problems and further tangle others for Mimi. As with the first volume, it ends on a cliffhanger.

Once again, multiple rounded characters kept my interest, though I would recommend reading the first volume before this one. There’s an additional subplot with Anton, the innkeeper’s son, wanting to escape Laichingen with his sweetheart Christel that contributes to the cliffhanger. Mimi’s struggles to be accepted as an outsider in the provincial town and as a female photographer in the 1910s are compelling. The depiction of life in a part of rural Germany I know nothing about was interesting. Mimi is a believable, independent woman in an era when that was difficult to achieve. I highly recommend this series. DurstBenning left me wanting more.

B.J. Sedlock

MORTMAIN HALL

Martin Edwards, Poisoned Pen Press, 2020, $15.99, pb, 340pp, 9781464214059

Mortmain Hall is a brilliantly scripted mystery, captivating from start to finish. The second in Edwards’ Rachel Savernake Golden Age Mystery series, it follows Rachel Savernake and Jacob Flint in pursuit of the truth through murder, acquittal, and the age-old battle of vice and virtue in London, 1930.

Mysterious heiress and amateur sleuth Rachel Savernake prefers her privacy, much to the chagrin of crime reporter and admirer Jacob Flint. When a chance encounter with a stranger reconnects the two, Flint finds himself once more woven into Savernake’s web of few clues and manifold expectations. As they work through the seemingly disconnected tales of murders past, each examines the justice—or lack thereof—that brings four perfect strangers to a house party in the remote reaches of North Yorkshire, and the questionable motives of the one woman who has connected them all. Murder abounds, and no one is off-limits.

Edwards’ Mortmain Hall is a triumph of intrigue, touring Whitehall, latenight Soho, the justice system, and the psychology of murder. Readers will be entranced by Savernake as the mysterious leading lady, although the jury is still out on whether “heroine” is the appropriate term to use. While readers get a peek into Savernake’s reclusive life and mysterious background, plenty of information is yet to be revealed in anticipated sequels to come.

The promising series opens with Gallows Court; however, Mortmain Hall can easily and enjoyably stand alone for readers too eager to begin at the start. Run, don’t walk, to pick up your copy!

Anna Bennett

OF DARKNESS AND LIGHT

Heidi Eljarbo, Independently published, 2020, $12.99, pb, 248pp, 9798639681653

A cleaning woman is found dead behind an art dealer’s shop, a piece of paper bearing the word “chiaroscuro” in her hand. A group of Resistance fighters enlists the expertise of the art dealer’s assistant, Soli Hansen. A nondescript painting hides a priceless work by Caravaggio, known as the father of chiaroscuro, the treatment of light and shadow in painting.

Of Darkness and Light is set in 1944 Norway, while the country is occupied by Nazi Germany and operatives are actively seeking and confiscating artworks for Hitler’s planned Leader’s Museum in Austria. The plot flashes back to 1608 when master painter Caravaggio becomes infatuated with the subject of a portrait, Fabiola Ruber, a Jewess.

The novel is the first in a planned series of Soli Hansen historical mysteries. Eljarbo is author of two historical novels featuring Clara Dahl, follower of witchcraft and witch hunting in 1660s Norway.

Of Darkness and Light is brisk and straightforward. Soli moves quickly from murder investigation to initiation in a Norwegian underground group that ironically meets in a crypt. She interacts with a mysterious police investigator, Nikolai Lange, and German officer and art collector Heinz Walter, and anxiously seeks information about her missing brother Sverre.

The plot lacks nuance and atmosphere, however. Few bottlenecks stand in Soli’s way; opportunities appear to fall in her lap. Except for curfews, life in Oslo appears ordinary, with none of the layers of intrigue or paranoia one might expect under occupation by a foreign power. As a result, the palette leans too much toward the light, leaving little in the way of shadow.

K. M. Sandrick

AMERICAN GOSPEL

Lin Enger, Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2020, $24.95, hb, 248pp, 9781517910549

In American Gospel, the biblically named Enoch has a near-death experience and a vision of the Rapture, an event in which Christians believe that God will snatch them up into heaven before destroying the earth. Following the vision, Enoch announces on the radio the precise day it will happen, so that pilgrims and media will stream to his farm and religious compound in Minnesota. Three people, in particular, he seeks out because he saw them in the vision and wants them to be raptured along with him: his unbelieving son Peter, a journalist in New York; the believing hometown girl turned Hollywood actress, Melanie; and their son, Willie, born when Peter and Melanie were teenagers and adopted by another family.

The novel takes place in the 1970s, and Peter’s journalism gives thin glimpses of the politics and culture of the time. For example, Peter is supposed to report on Nixon’s imminent resignation, but instead he travels to Minnesota to report on his father and the commune’s activity. The history is a backdrop, and if you excised the few references to Nixon, you wouldn’t know when the book takes place. I would have liked more exploration of how the political and cultural environment in the United States, and in the Midwest in particular, influenced cults or movements like Enoch’s.

The driving question of the book is: Will the Rapture happen as Enoch predicts? The movement to the culmination was slow, but the end was surprisingly satisfying. The novel probes how much one can be certain of an experience of the divine or supernatural, where one can place faith, and how interpretation enters any religious belief or act.

Jill E. Marshall

REMEMBER ME

Mario Escobar, Thomas Nelson, 2020, $26.99, hb, 384pp, 9780785236580

Mario Escobar, author of WWII historical novels Auschwitz Lullaby and Children of the Stars, returns with an original tale exploring a little-known sidenote to the brutal and bloody Spanish Civil War.

In the summer of 1936, a military uprising of Spanish Nationalists against the standing Republican government precipitated the devasting Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939. This three-year conflagration divided Spanish society, ripping families apart with none so vulnerable as the children. Remember Me fictionalizes the “Children of Morelia,” a historical event during which some 460 children were sent from Spain to Mexico to wait out the war in safety. The novel follows the

heartrending experiences of thirteen-yearold Marco Alcalde and his younger sisters, Isabel and Ana, after their Leftist parents send them off to Morelia, to escape the ravages of Franco’s fascist soldiers.

Marco is a sensitive and dutiful young boy thrust into the role of protecting his sisters in a foreign land at turns both welcoming and violent. However, Escobar fails to do justice to Isabel and Ana, as they come off as mere wards of their heroic brother with no agency of their own. But Escobar paces the story well as the children encounter increasing hardships and wrenching twists of fate, eventually returning to a war-scarred homeland they barely recognize. Will the Alcalde family be reunited after three years of interminable separation and suffering?

Remember Me is a bittersweet story with saccharine overtones, penned with obvious regard for the memory of the Children of Morelia. However, one wishes for more three-dimensional characterizations of all three Alcalde children, as well as the other children they befriend along the way. This quibble aside, Escobar’s latest novel is sure to delight fans of his previous books, which all shine a light on the heroism and endurance of children in wartime.

Peggy Kurkowski

SEA OF SPIES

Alex Gerlis, Canelo, 2020, £0.99, ebook, 338pp, 9781788639026

This is another in a series of spy novels revolving around Richard Prince, a police officer seconded to British Intelligence. He has recently returned from a long dangerous mission in Nazi Germany, but there is no time to rest. The British desperately need to prove that chromium, an essential material for war industries, is being smuggled into the Third Reich from neutral Turkey. To make matters worse, his only son has gone missing.

This is a nicely crafted tale of espionage that goes into great detail of how agents are trained and operate. The social geography is also formidable – you get a really good feel for the various places Prince journeys to: Istanbul, Prague, Cairo. Unfortunately, Prince doesn’t actually do very much, and what he does attempt is uniformly disastrous. It is largely the various useful people who he very fortunately meets up with who carry the plot, so much so that I came to wonder why SOE bothered to send Prince. It would have been far better to use the various resistance groups to find out what they needed to know! There are other niggles. The sub-plot of missing children is an irrelevance that doesn’t achieve much. There’s no real urgency to the story and no mention at all of what was happening elsewhere at the time. I was getting the feeling that the war might end before Prince gets the information!

GERMANIA

Harald Gilbers (trans. Alexandra Roesch), St. Martin’s, 2020, $28.99, hb, 352pp, 9781250246936 Richard Oppenheimer is a rarity—a Jew living and working in Berlin in the waning days of World War II. His marriage to a Gentile has protected him from deportation to a concentration or death camp, relegating him to a residence in the Jewish House and a job in menial labor. After a woman’s body is found strangled, mutilated, and suggestively positioned in front of a World War I monument, SS Hauptsturmführers enlist Oppenheimer’s aid in investigation because of his reputation and previous experience as one of the best inspectors on Berlin’s crime squad.

First published in German in 2013, Germania received the Friedrich Glausner Prize for best crime fiction debut. It is an effective police procedural, following Oppenheimer as he pieces clues together and creates a psychological profile of the killer. It is atmospheric and moody, taking readers to the brothels and cemeteries of Berlin, over and around debris in bombed-out neighborhoods. Plot lines raise questions: Can Oppenheimer trust the SS men for whom he is gathering evidence? Are witnesses hiding crucial facts? How much can Oppenheimer, as a Jew, push Nazi high brass to get the information he needs?

Undergirding it all: Oppenheimer’s inner conflict. Should he finish tracking down the killer or take advantage of an opportunity to get his wife and himself out of the country and the war?

More than a page-turner, Germania explores power—the ways it is used by those who have it and the effects on those who don’t.

K. M. Sandrick

WHERE CROWS WOULD DIE

Mary Griese, Y Lolfa, 2020, £8.99, pb, 336 pp, 9781784618285

Set in 1960s and 1970s Cwmgwrach (‘Valley of the Witch’), near Port Talbot in Wales, Griese’s novel details the coming of age of Bethan Pritchard, daughter of an eccentric headmaster, in an isolated sheep-farming community. The story is rich in period detail: ‘plastic daffodils free with Daz’, a beehive hairdo as high as a top hat, and Lindsay Anderson’s if… shown in a second-floor cinema. Bethan’s life at the Plas, where her mother rearranges wire and papier-mâché figures in conversation pieces in the untended garden, is contrasted with that of the Heathcliffian Morgan Williams, an apparently semi-feral farmworker who survived a pitifully dreadful start in life, and who obsesses about the loss of his inheritance – a field – and also about Bethan.

The book’s cover describes it as a noir, but it is rather more than that. The signs are there: a cat toying with a bird, a heap of rotting sheep carcasses, a hat and coat in a barn resembling a hanged man. There is nothing bucolic in this landscape; sheep-farming is depicted as hard, lonely, and often squalid, yet it is the life Bethan ultimately chooses. It’s a tale of the fear of being watched: there is a terrifying sequence in which Bethan scuttles into rooms and closes curtains before she turns on lights, but Griese relieves the sombre mood with hilarious moments: Bethan’s father, ‘when called for supper… took a toothbrush from his top pocket and brushed his eyebrows.’ I hope to read more of Griese’s prose.

Katherine Mezzacappa

BEFORE THE CROWN

Flora Harding, One More Chapter, 2020, £8.99, pb, 400pp, 9780008387549

It is 1943, and the future Queen Elizabeth II of England is cooped up in Windsor Castle. She is frustrated at her inability to make a meaningful contribution to the war effort, bored with her enforced inactivity, and uncomfortably aware that she is shielded from the dangers that face the rest of the country. So she awaits the arrival of her cousin Philip – exotic, unconventional and not quite approved of by her parents – with excitement. Before the Crown is the story of the developing relationship between Elizabeth and Philip, leading to their marriage in 1947.

The book alternates between the viewpoints of the two protagonists, trying to uncover the private people beneath the public personas. It cannot be easy to ascribe thoughts and feelings to real people who are still living, but Flora Harding manages to make the story credible, showing how few choices were available to her characters. Elizabeth has her future mapped out for her: a suitable marriage and eventual succession to the throne. Whereas Philip is a displaced member of the Greek royal family with no inheritance to look forward to, and he may be unable to continue his naval career if he cannot become a British citizen. As others continue to remind him, marrying Elizabeth is his best – perhaps his only – option.

I enjoyed the contrast between Philip’s world (for instance the exoticism of wartime Egypt) and the stultifying dullness of Elizabeth’s life. I was also struck by the theme of duty. Elizabeth is haunted by the image of her Uncle David (King Edward VIII), who “chose love over duty”. She has no such choice, and must put aside any dreams of her own. A very interesting read.

THE FLAME WITHIN

Liz Harris, Heywood Press, 2020, £8.99, pb, 360pp, 9781913687052

The pages turn swiftly in The Flame Within, second in Liz Harris’s Linford Saga. Rather than a sequel to The Dark Horizon, it works as a companion volume, revealing the full story of a secondary character: Alice Foster Linford, aunt-by-marriage of the first book’s protagonists.

In the prologue, set in Belsize Park, London, in 1923, Alice takes a new position as companion to an elderly woman while debating how to win back her estranged husband, Thomas Linford, whom she had somehow wronged. The scene then reverts to 1904, with young Alice growing up in the small Lancashire town of Waterfoot. Wanting a future beyond mill or factory work, Alice aims to lose her local accent and improve her education. Life interferes with her plans, though, until her training with the British Red Cross, and the outbreak of war, introduce her to Thomas, youngest son of a prominent family of suburban London builders. After suffering injuries in France, Thomas, who uses a wheelchair and prosthetic leg, has difficulty adjusting to life at home. A patient, caring woman, Alice becomes worn down by her formerly cheerful husband’s moodiness and jealousy and the restrictions he imposes on her.

For readers of The Dark Horizon, some of the plot in the middle will be familiar, but the new angle enhances the earlier picture. (The book will also read well on its own.) Joseph Linford, head of the family firm, remains a daunting figure, but because he likes and approves of Alice, his nefarious side doesn’t emerge here. Harris deftly interweaves many social issues of the day, including how wartime trauma can affect a marriage, legal issues affecting women, and the difficulties of crossing class lines. Alice is a sympathetic heroine who makes realistic choices for a woman in her position. Without giving spoilers, the conclusion is very satisfying.

Sarah Johnson

V2

Robert Harris, Hutchinson, 2020, £20.00, hb, 312pp, 9781786331403 / Knopf, 2020, $28.95, hb, 320pp, 9780525656715

Set in 1944, with the war in Europe going badly for Hitler, this new historical thriller by Robert Harris follows two main characters. Rudi Graf is a young German scientist who, before the war, dreamed of sending rockets to the moon. His friend and mentor, Wernher von Braun, persuaded him that the military would fund their passion, but instead he found himself trapped, developing the terrifying ‘V2’ bombs for the Nazi regime. Kay Caton-Walsh is an officer in the WAAF. Caught up in a V2 attack herself, she volunteers to help locate and destroy the mobile launch sites used by the Germans.

Harris’ novel explores the horrors of war, on both sides: the devastation of a V2 attack is eloquently laid before us, as are the bloody and indiscriminate effects of a British bombing raid. It also explores the moral ambiguities of wartime: Graf is presented, not as a fundamentally evil man, but as a naïve one: trusting his friend, trapped by circumstance and the threat of death at the Nazis’ hands; hating the regime and what he is doing yet half-believing some of their propaganda, and grieving for his civilian lover, killed by British bombs. As one would expect, V2 is fast-paced and compelling, despite containing a significant amount of technical information about the V2 rocket-bombs. One of the most interesting elements for me was the glimpse into the work of the WAAF officers, carrying out the painstaking and specialised intelligence work which greatly assisted the war effort. However, that is what the book feels like: a series of glimpses, vignettes, into simultaneously fascinating and appalling aspects of the war, without a truly satisfying conclusion. That said, it is still a gripping and absorbing book, and one which fans of Harris’s work will no doubt enjoy.

Charlotte Wightwick

THE NARROW LAND

Christine Dwyer Hickey, Atlantic, 2020, £8.99, pb, 370pp, 9781786496744

This literary novel takes place on Cape Cod in 1950. While the setting is idyllic, Mr. and Mrs. Aitch’s marriage is far from it. He has painted nothing of interest for some time and is lacking a muse. Overshadowed by her famous husband, Mrs. Aitch experiences jealous rages and tantrums, making her an easy target to mock.

Into this tranquil oceanfront setting comes Michael, a troubled German war orphan, adopted by a New York couple who is imminently pregnant. Shipped off for the summer to the wealthy Mrs. Kaplan, he is tasked with befriending her fatherless grandson, Richie, while awaiting the arrival of his sibling. Michael is a loner, however. He lives in his imagination and collects remembrances in a hidey-hole at the beach, sometimes ‘borrowing’ things of interest from others. He behaves unexpectedly and doesn’t quite fit in. Everyone is haunted by the war, as is Michael, who copes with his scant memories by reinventing himself. A fortuitous meeting with Mrs. Aitch begins a tentative friendship and they nurture a mutual understanding and affection, while Mr. Aitch takes fondly to Richie.

The novel contains a quirky, eccentric group of characters, none more so than Mrs. Aitch with her outspoken opinions and uncomfortable honesty. The story is of a childless marriage and its new manifestations as the couple becomes fond of the boys. It’s also about loss. Hickey does not divulge that Mr. Aitch is Edward Hopper, the realist artist who lost favour in the 1950s. I would not have known had I not seen it mentioned elsewhere, but I’m not sure it matters. This is a slow-paced examination of relationships, primarily that of two lonely people, and how that affects those around them. The novel encouraged me to

Fiona Alison

THE CANNING TOWN MURDER

Mike Hollow, Allison & Busby, 2020, £8.99, pb, 352pp, 9780749026820

Detective Inspector John Jago is back (the second in the series) in another wartime murder investigation in London’s East End. The body of a 30-year-old woman, Mary Watkins, is found on a new bomb site, though the evidence strongly suggests she was murdered rather than killed in the night’s air raid. Jago is called in to lead the case, again with the assistance of young Detective Constable Cradock. Investigations are hampered by the near-nightly air raids, and the disruption to both sleep and the physical damage to the streets that this causes. Mary Watkins had been working for a local engineering firm that was engaged with some highly classified war work, and there are indications that her death may be involved with her work there; the American reporter Dorothy Appleton is still on the scene, causing some emotional turmoil in Jago, an established bachelor, and she is interested in reports of the fifth column activities working against the British war effort. There are indications of the dissatisfaction with the war amongst elements of the population in that part of London and some sympathy with the stability and economic success that Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime have seemingly brought to Germany, with questions as to why the country is involved in another ruinous war so soon after the disasters of the 1914-18 conflict. Jago uncovers a mare’s nest of deceit and duplicity, where the war conditions provide opportunities for those so-minded to take advantage of the conditions for their own profit.

Jago & Cradock are developing into the model of the classic detective duo – the youthful Cradock trying to make sense of the loose ends and coming up with all sorts of possibilities that the reader may well generate, while the more experienced John Jago provides context and the voice of reason. As with the first book in the series, the narrative is excellent with plotting tight – a delight to read.

Douglas Kemp

NIGHTSHADE

M. L. Huie, Crooked Lane, 2020, $26.99/ C$35.99, hb, 311pp, 9781643854564

England, 1947; it’s two years since WWII ended, but the world seems to be gearing up

for another war, this time a cold one. The Soviet Union and the Western countries face off over the Iron Curtain. In a secret room in England, an information monitor receives a wireless message: NIGHTSHADE, and SOS. NIGHTSHADE is the call sign of an SOE operative who never made it home from the war—Livy Nash’s dear friend, Margot Dupont. But is it really Margot at the other end of the message? Livy takes on the task of trying to find out; the only hint of a clue is that a Russian agent, Yuri Kostin, may have some information about Margot. Livy’s boss, Ian Fleming, sends her to Washington, DC and an encounter with her old flame, Yuri. Livy must walk a dangerous path as she pretends to Yuri that she wants to defect, hoping to lure him into telling her about Margot. But few things go as planned, and Livy discovers she must pay a high price for Margot’s freedom.

The second book in the Livy Nash series, this sophomore effort overall lacks the energy and verve of the previous book, Spitfire; Nightshade’s an adequate book, but not an inspired one. Still, it’s an enjoyable read, and Livy Nash is a great character. The novel ends on one of the world’s best cliffhangers, and I’m looking forward to the next book in the series.

India Edghill

TALLAND HOUSE

Maggie Humm, She Writes, 2020, $16.95, pb, 356pp, 9781631527296

This first novel by internationally known Virginia Woolf scholar Maggie Humm expands the vision of Woolf’s novel To the Lighthouse. Humm presents the life of Lily Briscoe between 1900 and 1919, with settings including London during World War One and the village of St. Ives in Cornwall.

The author appears to have set herself three major objectives: to write a work of historical fiction, to continue the story of To the Lighthouse while resolving some themes left unexplained, and to explore some of the tensions in young women’s lives both now and a century ago.

This work, part romance and part mystery, struggles as the author tries to follow Woolf’s writing style and to maintain an artist’s perspective on each scene, especially those set in St Ives. However, as an extension of To the Lighthouse, Talland House takes an intriguing look at what might have happened in the lives of Woolf’s characters and at the possible cause of Mrs Ramsay’s death.

As an examination of the tensions experienced by young women, the novel touches on many obvious issues: the difficulty of women having their work taken seriously, caring for an aging parent, and the desire for independence. The subservience of female nurses to male doctors and the suffragette scene underline these themes.

But this is fiction. Important, artistically significant, and socially relevant, it stands on its own as a novel, and to accomplish this, Humm faced many issues and challenges. Inheriting characters rather than developing them independently is difficult and limiting, and the author also inherited settings and themes. She has remained very true to these, giving us a work of detailed research and academic rigor imbued with her own love of the work of Virginia Woolf.

Valerie Adolph

THE GYPSY BRIDE

Katie Hutton, Zaffre, 2020, £7.99, pb, 512pp, 9781838770259

In 1917 Ellen Quainton says goodbye to the man she is to marry. He’s off to war, never to return. Devastated by his death, Ellen swears she’ll never love again until she falls, literally, in front of a tall, “swarthy,” black-haired Gypsy. Sampson Loveridge, the man who helps Ellen to her feet, has rotten luck. When we first meet him, he’s in jail, being brutally beaten because he’s a conscientious objector during a time of war. He’s eventually released back to his family where it turns out, he is “spoken for” by a hard-hearted woman he doesn’t love.

After their happenstance meeting, Ellen and Sam fall for each other, and it’s not long before Ellen becomes pregnant. Before she can tell Sam the news, he is tricked into taking the blame for a crime he hasn’t committed and winds up in prison where his luck goes from bad to worse. His attempts to communicate his situation to Ellen fail miserably. To escape dishonor in her tight-knit religious community of Primitive Methodists, Ellen is pressured to marry an older widower. Neither Ellen nor Sam know what has happened to the other and yet neither is willing to give up on their love.

The Gypsy Bride is more than just a tale of star-crossed lovers. The authentic details— horse meat, rose-scented face powder, a ball made of rags stuffed with sawdust—bring the rural world of the Chiltern Hills to life in this moving and well-wrought tale.

Trish MacEnulty

PATCHWORK SOCIETY

Sharon Johnston, Dundurn, 2020, $24.99/ C$24.99, pb, 280pp, 9781459737051 In 1932, leaving her problems behind in Lethbridge, Alberta, Carla Durling and her teenage daughter Ivy relocate to the Northern Ontario town of Sault Ste. Marie (called “the Soo”). Having few options, Carla becomes the head nurse at the poorly managed and dilapidated Shingwauk Residential School for Indigenous children torn from their families in nearby and distant reserves. Carla manages to perform her duties efficiently, despite the crumbling buildings, water leakages, blocked toilets, and frightened and demoralized children. She also deals with the older children’s sexual dalliances. Carla settles in a respectable neighborhood, but with the Depression taking its toll, there is considerable unemployment and discord among the multiethnic residents. However, Carla does provide social opportunities for Ivy to mingle with other teenagers by renting a cottage during the summers at a picturesque nearby lake. Although Ivy has a brush with the law, on account of a bootlegging girlfriend, she is befriended by the son of a wealthy family. It seems Carla’s wishes for a serene life are materializing, but WWII and other events splinter her dreams.

This book is the second of a series by Her Excellency Sharon Johnston, wife of Canada’s former Governor General. The novel’s intimately detailed settings, in and around the Soo, and the description of the Residential School and the students feels very realistic. Indeed Ms. Johnston grew up in that part of Northern Ontario, and her grandmother was the head nurse of the same school. This personal knowledge, coupled with extensive research, enabled her to pen a brilliant novel of life, politics, treatment of Indigenous children, and systemic racism of that era, some of which is still prevalent today. Apart from exquisite descriptions of the region, the novel has some lighthearted moments – such as the prank played on the former Prime Minister Lester Pearson during a dinner party, which didn’t dupe the PM. Highly recommended.

Waheed Rabbani

THE GHOST TREE

M.R.C. Kasasian, Head of Zeus, 2020, £18.99/$29.95, hb, 489pp, 9781788546430

This is the third in Kasasian’s Betty Church murder mystery series. The not-so-sleepy Suffolk village of Sackwater during World War II is a place of long-buried crime, hilariously aslant characters, a police station run in a lackadaisical manner by locals without much benefit of education, and overseen by the much tried, astute, one-armed detective inspector Betty Church. The plot grippingly demonstrates that the good old-fashioned detective story still has mileage.

Betty herself is a brilliant character: sharp, sassy, endearing, and beleaguered by fate in the backwater/Sackwater of her hometown. That she got away to a good boarding school is to her advantage when it comes to parsing through the dialect of the ones she left behind. The intricacies of their cunning match their speech, and each one is instantly recognisable in ways that consistently surprise and delight. That she manages to herd her underlings into something like a police force without murdering the lot shows a strength of character that eventually brings the murderer to book.

It is easy to recount the plot, but it would be a spoiler. Suffice to say that book three gives the backstory to Betty Church herself when her friend, Etterly Utter, goes missing during a childhood game of rounders. Eventually she is presumed dead, and schoolgirl Betty has to come to terms with the terrible mystery of Etterly’s disappearance.

The sheer joy of Kasasian’s writing lies in the dialogue as well as Betty’s sceptical take on events. Some short chapters read like poetry, and he writes comic dialogue to die for. You may laugh out loud but enough

Cassandra Clark

THE CHILDREN’S BLOCK

Otto Kraus, Pegasus, 2020, $25.95, hb, 288pp, 9781643133287 / Ebury, 2019, £7.99, pb, 288pp, 9781529105568

September 1943 brings another trainload of prisoners from the Czech ghetto to AuschwitzBirkenau. Some of the Jews are gassed immediately; others are placed in slave labor camps, some become patients of Dr. Mengele, and a few older teens and young adults are selected as teachers and counselors to a group of children. This autobiographical novel tells the true story of nine precious months of survival of the fittest, told through the eyes of Alex Ehren, who keeps a journal that is hidden away in oilskin every night.

We now know the horrid living conditions in the concentration camps, and this book doesn’t shy away from showing them. However, it emphasizes the hope that keeps both the children and their teachers alive through unlikely friendships and dogged determination. Realistically they should all die soon, though many secretly stash supplies for an escape.

“The Children’s Block was run like a summer camp, a game, an illusion, an island.” The children stage puppet shows for the guards and sing with all their hearts on special days. We learn to respect Lisa Pomnenko as she paints nature scenes on the walls of their barracks, even as she volunteers to draw family trees for Dr. Mengele. We admire the philosopher Marta Felix as she teaches the children despite their meager education, and we fear the feral Adam Landau who curries favor with the SS guards.

“Poignant” describes most first-person Holocaust survival stories, and this fictional one is no different. The uneven storytelling is stream of consciousness, but is mostly chronological. The late author was one of the instructors and married a fellow survivor. This work exposes the world to another side of the Holocaust, and readers are better for being able to experience it.

Tom Vallar

THE LAST CORRESPONDENT

Soraya M. Lane, Lake Union, 2020, $14.95, pb, 335pp, 9781542023573

As World War II rages in 1943, aspiring journalist Ella Franks writes news stories in Illinois under a male pseudonym; Danni Bradford parachutes into the middle of combat in Europe to photograph the war; and Chloe, a former model living in London, runs off to Paris to be with her lover—never mind that Paris is occupied by Nazis. Each of them yearns to pursue her dreams, and each of them must confront the discrimination against women that stands in the way of achieving those dreams.

After Ella’s story about women wartime volunteers is published, she travels to London to write more stories about the war work of women, this time under her own name. However, she doesn’t want to be confined to “powder-puff pieces.” So, she follows Danni’s lead and starts breaking rules to get to the action. Danni’s a brilliant photographer beset by demons ever since she abandoned two refugees in Poland. Now, she’s willing to do whatever is necessary to show the world the truth about the war, including to stow away on a medical ship to Normandy. Chloe discovers that her trip to Paris is no lark. When the man she loves is too busy saving his country to give her the love she desires, she assumes a new powerful role as a helper to the resistance.

This fast-paced narrative is packed with subterfuge, action, and romance. The descriptions of battle are especially vivid—the sky coming “violently to life, raining bombs” down on the soldiers below. These intrepid women risk their lives and make heartbreaking choices. They encounter terrible tragedies, but because of their resilience and their dedication to each other, they prove their mettle, not just to the men in their lives but to themselves.

Trish MacEnulty

FIFTY WORDS FOR RAIN

Asha Lemmie, Dutton, 2020, $26.00, hb, 464pp, 9781524746360

With her first novel, Asha Lemmie proves herself a talented writer unafraid to take chances. Her heroine’s situation is unique, and her journey to adulthood is one that won’t leave the mind quickly. Noriko “Nori” Kamiza is only eight when her beautiful mother brings her to her family home in Kyoto in 1948 and abandons her at the gates, making her promise to obey and keep silent. We soon learn why: Nori is illegitimate, the product of her aristocratic mother’s affair with a Black American GI, and her appearance and very existence are a deep source of shame.

For two years, Nori remains isolated in the mansion’s attic, cared for by her stern grandmother’s maid and educated well, but she’s subject to regular beatings and attempts to bleach her almond-colored skin. Her life changes when her teenage half-brother Akira arrives at the house to live after his father’s death. The dynamic that forms between them – the beloved heir and the accursed bastard – is mesmerizing. After being hidden away for so long, Nori is hungry for attention but afraid to misstep. She worships Akira for easing her restrictions and standing up for her, which nobody has done before. For his part, Akira clearly cares for his little sister, but he’s a brilliant violinist with plans of his own; she isn’t his entire world, like he is hers.

This is literary fiction with many quotable lines and a cinematic, fast-moving plot. Nori’s path to maturity is unorthodox and beset by dramatic, often shocking shifts in circumstance. Nori is bright, curious, and – understandably – not in good control of her emotions. Readers may struggle with some of her choices. They also won’t fail to empathize with her as she learns self-acceptance, overcomes prejudice, and emerges as a powerful force of her own.

Sarah Johnson

COMRADE KOBA

Robert Littell, Overlook, 2020, $22.00/ C$28.00/£15.99, hb, 176pp, 9781419748325

Ten-and-a-half-and two days-old Leon Rozental and his friends are on their own, scrounging for rubles to pay for meals, exploring tunnels between the House on the Embankment where they live and the city streets of 1953 Moscow, after their parents are killed or arrested for subversive activities by the Soviet secret police.

On one of his forays, Leon meets reclusive Comrade Koba, who characterizes himself as a leader of the Great Patriotic War, a member of the Politburo, and someone who could be said to actually know Stalin. Enjoying “the kid’s” direct and often pointed questions, Koba meets the boy regularly and allows him to listen to his musings so Leon can one day author the man’s autobiography.

Told from “the kid’s” perspective, Comrade Koba focuses fresh eyes on Soviet history, allowing Koba to speak candidly about capitalist peasants, Catholicism and the Pope, and the characteristics of Marx, Lenin, and other leaders. Unencumbered by the trappings of power and notoriety, Leon can ask questions that challenge the man behind the image. As a result, Koba can drop the pretense and reveal small but important details about his life to a new friend. Comrade Koba balances youthful innocence against infirmity and worldweariness with warmth, humor, and insight.

K. M. Sandrick

THE TAINTED

Cauvery Madhavan, Hope Road, 2020, £9.99/$16.95, pb, 332pp, 9781916467187

Madhavan describes an era long gone which continues to make an impact. An Indian-born writer who has lived in Ireland for over thirty years, she conveys her extensive familiarity with both countries’ histories and how they intersected. The first half of this thoughtprovoking novel opens in 1920, as Private Michael Flaherty settles into life in the Indian hill town of Nandagiri along with his regiment, the Royal Irish Kildare Rangers.

While assisting the local priest with Sunday Mass preparations, Michael meets Rose Twomey, a pretty Anglo-Indian who serves as the lady’s maid to the wife of his commanding officer, Colonel Aylmer. In her diary, Rose shares her feelings about Michael, her role in the Aylmer family, and her longing for Ireland, which she considers her true homeland. Her naivete is heartbreaking, for readers know that even with her elegant handwriting, fair skin, and her utter rejection of her Indian heritage, she’ll never be accepted into Irish society. When Michael and his fellow soldiers

get word about the atrocities committed by the Black and Tans during the Irish war for independence, they take drastic action that affects his relationship with Rose.

The novel’s second half is even better. In 1982, Richard Aylmer, the colonel’s grandson, travels to Nandagiri for a photography project, and the friendships he establishes allow for open cross-cultural dialogue about the region’s complicated history. A key contributor to the discourse, May Twomey, Rose’s granddaughter, wryly observes AngloIndians’ misplaced sense of nostalgia for the days of the Raj: “We’re tainted – we were never white enough then and will never be brown enough now.” She’s a terrific character, a woman with a clear-eyed view of the past and present. The story offers a lot to unpack about colonialism and social belonging and is recommended for its insights and thoughtful writing.

Sarah Johnson

THE FORGER AND THE THIEF

Kirsten McKenzie, Squabbling Sparrows Press, 2020, $17.99/£12.49, pb, 312pp, 9780995136915

Five people in Florence, Italy, November, 1966.

The Guest: Richard Carstone invited to the city to attend the wedding of his former sister-in-law, whom he loved even before she married his brother.

The Wife: Rhonda Devlyn escaping from her abusive husband and hoping the sale of one of his purloined artworks will provide enough money for her to disappear.

The Student: Helena Stolar receiving instructions from art conservation tutors but also searching for a masterpiece stolen from her father during WWII.

The Cleaner: Stefano Mazzi, invisible to security guards and tourists as he cleans and spirits away priceless artworks from the museum where he works.

The Policeman: Antonio Pisani, plagued by headaches, trapped in a dead-end job, on the trail of a hotel sneak thief.

On her way to join them: The River, engorged by relentless rain, powered by the sudden release of water from the burst dam in the Valley of the Inferno, bent, as she admits, on exacting her revenge.

The third thriller by Auckland, New Zealand, author McKenzie is dark and devastating, recalling the Arno River flooding of Florence that killed 101 people and destroyed an estimated 14,000 artworks and up to four million rare books. The pieces of characters’ lives are peeled back, layer by layer, revealing troubled, endangered, driven men and women. Action moves from dingy hotel to exquisite art museum and studio; plot lines take unexpected turns. Running through it all—The River, rising steadily with surges more than ten feet high, pushing 2.5 billion

K. M. Sandrick

THE LONDON RESTORATION

Rachel McMillan, Thomas Nelson, 2020, $16.99, pb, 336pp, 9780785235026

Diana Foyle and Brent Somerville have been married four years but have never really lived together. They said their vows during World War II, in a beloved London church damaged by bombs, and then parted, he to the Front and she to work as a translator of German radio transmissions.

Now the war is over and he has returned, only to find her mysteriously gone. Five weeks later, she is back, but married life isn’t simple: Brent has wounds he won’t talk about, and Diana has secrets she isn’t allowed to talk about. She drags him to her favorite churches, which have become meeting sites for a clandestine group following a pattern that only she, with her extensive knowledge about churches built by Christopher Wren, can decode.

As they struggle to trust each other again, and Diana puzzles out what’s happening at the churches, the narrative jumps back and forth in time. We see their courtship, glimpse his trauma, and watch her friendships develop in the secretive huts where translation activities seep into intelligence gathering and possibly espionage. We are told repeatedly how much she loves churches – indeed she is somewhat a savant in her obsession – and about Brent’s brilliance as an interpreter of St. Paul’s writings.

For all that’s going on, the novel can’t quite decide if it’s a romance of re-marriage or a thriller. It wants to be both and more, but comes up short. There are hints Diana had a colleague who was more than a friend, but no details. Another colleague has disappeared, but with so little context that it isn’t even a central mystery. The reader feels little of her joy at the churches’ beauty or her pain at their loss. We are told from the start that she is already thinking about their future, with very little sense of how she got there.

Martha Hoffman

THE INVISIBLE LAND

Hubert Mingarelli (trans. Sam Taylor), Granta, 2020, £12.99, hb, 140pp, 9781783786022

In the immediate aftermath of World War II, an unnamed British war photographer sets out on a random road trip northward across Germany, accompanied by his driver O’Leary, a young signaller he has only just met. His aim is to photograph ordinary German civilians standing outside their homes, though he himself seems unsure why this compulsion has gripped him. But the further they travel, the more obvious it becomes that both men have been scarred by events from their past that neither wants to speak of.

This French literary novel is billed as the third part of a loose trilogy, but that shouldn’t put anyone off from reading it as a standalone book, since I gather the links with the other books are more in terms of themes than characters or plot. This slim novel – almost a novella – is a deceptively easy read. On the face of it, nothing much happens, until nearly the end, but little glimpses are offered of the nameless narrator’s experiences during the later stages of the war and the nightmares he has about the unnamed camp whose liberation he witnessed. Both he and O’Leary try to break through one another’s reserve, to discover where the urge for this road trip comes from or why O’Leary preferred to sleep on the sand dunes of Lowestoft rather than in his own home. However, neither of them quite succeeds.

The writing style is very pared back, reminiscent of Hemingway, so it will depend on individual readers’ tastes how far they are drawn in by this novel. Personally I found it interesting on an intellectual level without engaging my emotions. It’s the sort of book that leaves you at the end with more questions than answers.

Jasmina Svenne

GILDED DREAMS

Donna Russo Morin, Independently published, 2020, $12.99, pb, 328pp, 9780578699790

Even the most feminist among us (me) could stand to learn a lot more about the history of the women’s rights movement in the U.S., starting with the fight for the right to vote, a term appropriately referred to as “suffrage,” evoking the suffering of an entire group denied even the most basic of rights.

Women, as Donna Russo Morin’s important novel Gilded Dreams points out, not only could not vote in U.S. elections but could not own property or even money. Neither did the children they bore belong to them but were wholly dependent, as they were, on the beneficence of men. Women weren’t legal citizens; we were little more than chattel. The suffrage movement was about the vote, yes, and about so much more.

In the wake of the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a pioneering legal advocate for equality, and the attacks on women’s reproductive rights that will surely follow, we would all do well to read Morin’s novel.

Her tale of Ginevra, an Italian immigrant, and Pearl, a wealthy socialite, is as much about the women’s friendship as about their activism in the women’s suffrage movement in the early 20th century, but the devotion of the women to their cause brings the book to life.

Morin places us squarely amid the passion, heartbreak, persecution, and determination that characterized the so-called “suffragettes,” and reminds us more than once that the fight for equality didn’t end with the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and it is still ongoing. It’s a prescient message for our time, as the overturning of Roe v. Wade looms large, access to birth control becomes

endangered as the Affordable Care Act hangs in the balance, the Violence Against Women Act remains in limbo and equal pay for equal work remains elusive. A woman’s work truly is never done.

Sherry Jones

MIDNIGHT ATLANTA

Thomas Mullen, Little, Brown, 2020, £19.99, hb, 400pp, 9781408713105

This is a revelatory historical novel that speaks directly to the language of today. We follow Tommy Smith, an ex-cop turned reporter, who is finding out who killed his boss and why. We see how the 1950s American South has challenged the desegregation laws that have been implemented elsewhere and the corrupt nature of the police force, FBI, schools and corporations alike that are working together to resist orders from Washington on ending segregation of blacks and whites. We get a snapshot of what life must have been like for African-Americans during that time. Mullen’s characters are rich and diverse, with their own internal struggles that impact the ongoing investigation led by both police forces. For example, while Sergeant McInnis is trying to decide about his future career in the force, he stumbles on a big lead in the investigation. Throughout the novel Mullen keeps the pace quick, packed with suspense at the end of each chapter. He brings to life 1950s America with such intensity that you begin to feel like the characters do, and imagine yourself in their situations. Although Midnight Atlanta is primarily a crime story, it is enriched with the historical and cultural events of the era that play a part in the novel as well.

Clare Lehovsky

WOLF DEN HOLLOW

Donna Murray, She Writes Press, 2020, $16.95, pb, 319pp, 9781631527654

In the Ozarks, around the turn of the 20th century, a young Cherokee woman, Sila, is fleeing her abusive husband, desperate enough to leave him in the dead of winter and try to live off the land. She finds an empty cabin for shelter and asks for a job at a nearby logging/lumber mill operation. Owner Charley Barclay says he has no job for her (thinking a woman would distract his male workers), but out of pity and a feeling of attraction, buys her some supplies and helps improve her cabin. Charley, trapped in a loveless marriage, begins an affair with Sila. The story follows their fortunes as Charley’s business expands, they begin having children, divorce their respective spouses and marry, and Sila resists Charley’s urgings to learn to read, write, and drive a car. But consequences of wars, the flu pandemic, Charley’s illness, and the Depression cause Sila to take drastic steps to save her family.

The author’s note explains that the story is Murray’s adaptation of her grandparents’ lives, which had an element of mystery: her grandmother’s “name was never spoken in our house.” I wonder how much was factual and what Murray had to invent. Different chapters are written from Charley’s and Sila’s points of view. Arcs of person-to-person conflict are mainly limited to two occasions when other men proposition Sila; the second has serious consequences. Because of the limited conflict, I found the story pleasant but not exactly compelling. Yet Charley and Sila’s relationship is romantic, spiced with steamy bedroom scenes. Subplots of Sila’s connection with animals and medicinal plant knowledge are interesting. If you are looking for can’t-put-itdown action or suspense, this isn’t for you, but if you like a romance based on real-life events, you will enjoy Wolf Den Hollow.

B. J. Sedlock

THE GILDED CAGE ON THE BOSPHORUS

Ayşe Osmanoğlu, Hanedan Press, 2020, £14.99, pb, 501pp, 9781916361409

Set in the Çırağan Palace in Istanbul in 1903-1905, this novel, written by a direct descendant, chronicles the lengthy gilded imprisonment and aftermath of the death of the deposed Sultan Murad V, an urbane, enlightened, and cultured man usurped by his conservative younger brother. Beyond the palace’s walls the Ottoman empire gradually crumbles, encroached on by Imperial Russia.

A highly ritualised life, especially around the birth of a child, co-exists with an interest in Paris fashions on the part of the ladies of Murad’s extended family, and the reading of the latest Sherlock Holmes story. Murad reflects on world events like the signing of the Entente Cordiale, the oddity of a British monarchy that is anything but British, and recalls dancing a quadrille with a daughter of Queen Victoria. He treats a nervous breakdown with Veuve Clicquot. The novel is also thronged with faithful retainers; one elderly eunuch is a particularly intriguing character who probably deserves a novel to himself.

We learn more about the characters’ roles in history than we do about them as individual people, which can sometimes make them hard to distinguish one from the other, making the family tree provided useful and necessary. Osmanoğlu says in her preface that what she has written is ‘neither an historical novel, nor an academic study – it seems to me to sit somewhere in between!’ This is a richly woven carpet of a book but sometimes, due to extended explicatory passages, it does indeed read more like a history book than a novel.

Katherine Mezzacappa

THE ROAD TO SUGAR LOAF

Eric T. Reynolds, Hadley Rille, 2020, $14.50, pb, 268pp, 9781735093826

Kathryn Wolfe lives in the fictional town of Sycamore Falls, Kansas, where she runs a bookstore with her friend Mary Dodd and tries to foment interest in women’s suffrage. In addition to helping women get the right to vote, she longs to climb a rocky promontory called Sugar Loaf. Unfortunately, an injury makes hiking difficult for her. George Fielding, a local high school teacher, sympathizes with the movement and is an avid climber of Sugar Loaf Hill. The town also has a fair share of men (and a few women) adamantly opposed to the idea of suffrage for women. One of them owns the property where the hill, which serves as a metaphor for the journey toward suffrage, is located, and when George attempts to take the women up the hill, the anti-suffrage owner tells them it’s off limits. It’s bad enough the suffragists don’t have local support. When they go to Washington, DC to protest, Kathryn and Mary wind up in jail, where they are badly mistreated and go on a hunger strike.

Although the book relates important and dramatic events, the novel suffers from a lack of character development and from the inclusion of too many points of view. The stilted dialogue doesn’t help: “With Women’s Suffrage picking up, I will form a Women’s Club and will affiliate it with the National Federation of Women’s Clubs.” Readers will find a more powerful and comprehensive depiction of the hunger strike in the film Iron-Jawed Angels. Unfortunately, this book doesn’t quite hold up the weight of its material.

Trish MacEnulty

THE FLAPPER’S BABY SCANDAL

Lauri Robinson, Harlequin, 2020, $6.50, pb, 283pp, 9781335505606

The Dryer sisters’ father has raised them to be sweet, obedient daughters who will someday be sweet, obedient wives to the richest men their father can find. However, these three young women have no intention of playing by anyone’s rules but their own. Betty, the oldest sister, sneaks out to a speakeasy with her sisters and meets Henry Randall, an FBI agent on the lookout for a bootlegger. His unique blue eyes have her forsaking all propriety— even though she’s already engaged to a man she barely knows. Henry is just as attracted to her even though he’s trained himself not to trust women. Set in 1920s Hollywood, the plot delves into the shady world of real estate deals and Prohibition, with realistic descriptions of both clothing and settings. The snappy dialogue especially captures the era. Romance lovers will find themselves immersed in another time and place with these fun, feisty sisters and the handsome, conflicted Henry.

Trish MacEnulty

JACK

Marilynne Robinson, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2020, $27.00, hb, 320pp, 9780374279301

A very few novelists create worlds—palpable, mappable, 3-D, unique as a scent. Marilynne Robinson’s fictional Gilead, Iowa, is such a world, and her latest novel, Jack, extends its boundaries in more ways than one. As Archibald MacLeish said of poetry, Gilead is “equal to: not true.” Like Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County or Trollope’s Barsetshire, Robinson’s town, or world, of Gilead is firmly connected

to the “true” nonfictional world, upon which her fiction brilliantly, poignantly comments. Robinson first introduced Gilead in her eponymous, award-winning novel of 2004. Since then she has won many more prizes as she developed its characters and explored their relationships from generation to generation in Home (2008), Lila (2014), and now Jack. While constructed of humble Midwestern American materials, these characters nevertheless manage to attain the grand mythological stature of poetic figures in the Bible, Shakespeare, and Milton. (And Dunbar.)

For Jack, infused with poetry and Scripture, is the story of an interracial love affair between a prodigal son and a prodigal daughter. Set in St. Louis in the postwar Forties, it traces the star-crossed romance between sweet Della Miles and wayward Jack Boughten. The son of a Presbyterian minister, Jack is a charming liar and thief, a wastrel, a “turbulent soul” who has deeply troubled his family (and himself) since the day of his birth in Gilead. Also a minister’s child, Della is an impeccable young English teacher who unaccountably falls in love with “an old white bum.” In segregated mid-century America, their odd relationship is also illegal.

As she tells their story, Marilynne Robinson progresses from microcosm to cosmos, evoking Aristotelian pity and terror, but she also makes us laugh.

Ne plus ultra! BLM! Read it! Susan Lowell

STORIES FROM SUFFRAGETTE CITY

M. J. Rose and Fiona Davis, eds., Henry Holt, 2020, $25.99, hb, 272pp, 9781250241320

This collection of short stories, written by an array of accomplished historical fiction writers, centers around the famous Women’s March for Suffrage in New York City on October 23, 1915. With the one-hundredth anniversary of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment this year, it feels a fitting time to read and reflect on a specific moment in the fight for suffrage, and to see what it meant for women across the United States at the time. This collection succeeds in doing just that, providing a glimpse of the march through the eyes of a variety of people, including students, immigrants, refugees, and the famous suffragists Ida B. Wells and Alva Vanderbilt, among others.

Some consistent threads or moments unite a number of stories, while others stand on their own and provide a wholly separate view of the events. It feels a fitting combination, since the long fight for suffrage was both a collaborative and isolated one, as some did not join in the movement, whether by choice, circumstance, or target exclusion by white suffragists.

Collectively, the stories paint a larger picture of what it felt to breathe and walk the streets on the day of the march, as well as what the struggle meant on an individual scale. The variety in voices and authors guarantees readers will connect with at least a few stories, if not all, and perhaps discover new authors and backlists to explore. With the United States facing a presidential election this year, an opportunity to reflect on this historic and ongoing fight for universal suffrage feels especially apt. Recommended.

Ellen Jaquette

THE LAST TRAIN

Arnaud Rykner (trans. Sue Boswell), Snuggly Books, 2020, $14.00, pb, 143pp, 9781645250371

On July 2, 1944, French police acting for the Gestapo loaded 2,066 men into freight cars bound for the Dachau concentration camp. The prisoners were Resistance fighters, informers, Jews, and those simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Jammed together in the blazing heat, without food, water, sanitation, and adequate air, a quarter would die before they reached Dachau. Many who survived the train would perish at Dachau before it was liberated on April 29, 1945.

Arnaud Rykner discovered by chance that a family member was on that train. This short book is his imagined memoir, told with precision, deep heart, and searing intensity. The struggle wasn’t merely physical survival. Desperate men had to take turns for time at the single window. The soul had to endure, the mind and heart, even a fragile sense of humor. Our speaker knows this and we feel his struggle. We cheer with him when, crammed next to a schoolteacher, they use the single fact of knowing how far apart the electric power poles might be to calculate the speed of the train. We ache as the narrator struggles to balance the necessity of hope against the logical improbability of survival.

At 143 pages, The Last Train is a quick read, but it will pierce the reader and stay forever as a testament to the depths of human cruelty and the incredible power of human resistance, the preservation of humanity against all odds. Skillfully translated from French, this imagined memoir is recommended for all, including middle and high school readers.

Pamela Schoenewaldt

THE LIBRARIAN OF BOONE’S HOLLOW

Kim Vogel Sawyer, WaterBrook, 2020, $17.00, pb, 368pp, 9780525653721

This is a sweet tale of three main characters, during the beginning of the Great Depression, drawn together by their work at a tiny library. Bettina, a local, thrives on her job as a packhorse librarian. That and her plan to marry the handsome Emmet Tharp are the bright spots in her otherwise sad life. Addie Cowherd dreams of being a published author, but when the Great Depression intervenes, she must drop out of college and find employment instead. She winds up as a traveling librarian in Boone’s Hollow. Addie encounters distrust and old-fashioned superstitions in the townspeople, but she does not let this deter her plans to succeed. Emmet Tharp is the first person to graduate college from his hometown in Boone’s Hollow. But with limited career opportunities, he returns home and considers joining his father in the coal mine. Then a sudden opening at the local library gives him a chance at success. However, he must contend with an overly affectionate Bettina, the prejudices of the town, and the disappointment of his father, not to mention a mysterious break-in that causes an upheaval at the library.

The narrative switches among Bettina, Addie, and Emmet, creating a nice snapshot of three very different perspectives of Boone’s Hollow. One gains a sense that the townsfolk are tightknit, close-minded, and suspicious of strangers. While Bettina is a little overthe-top dramatic, and Addie just a little too sweet, there is still much to appreciate with these three heroes. There is some mystery and good historical elements, but I was slightly disappointed with the lack of romance. The ending is a bit abrupt, and the epilogue not quite conclusive. Nevertheless, this is a delightful, cozy novel with some Christian elements.

Rebecca Cochran

JEEVES AND THE LEAP OF FAITH

Ben Schott, Hutchinson, 2020, £18.99, hb, 352pp, 9781786331939

Writing a sequel can be a difficult exercise, more than seems obvious from a cursory consideration of the issue; the writer needs to be creative as any fiction author, but also has to work within the straitjacket imposed by

the characters and milieu of the original. And because the Jeeves and Wooster series is so well known, unless it’s pitch perfect any story featuring these two much-loved creations of the genius of P.G. Wodehouse will be jarring and lacking authenticity. Ben Schott’s second sequel volume continues after the first (Jeeves and the King of Clubs), reviewed in HNR 88. There we learnt that Jeeves’ club, The Junior Ganymede, is a front for British intelligence in the mid-1930s as Europe slips into another global war, and ludicrously enough the archchump Bertram Wooster has been recruited to participate in intelligence operations, with the more cerebral involvement of Jeeves, of course. There is a myriad of subplots, which makes for a bit of a challenge when reading, including more romantic interest for Bertie with Iona, who appeared in the first volume, and it would seem that he may be moving to an engagement that he doesn’t need to enlist Jeeves’ assistance to extricate him from.

A range of familiar characters appear, including Gussie Fink-Nottle, the dreadful Roderick Spode (ludicrously the seventh Earl of Sidcup) and the formidable Aunt Agatha Gregson. While the bumbling fascist Spode is spot-on, I’m not sure Schott’s Aunt Agatha is quite in line with the “real” Wodehousian Aunt Agatha. It’s a complicated and busy plot for a light-hearted humorous story, and the ending is abrupt and unresolved, with a third episode in the series clearly flagged. Nevertheless, this is wonderfully entertaining, clever and an irresistible read for Wodehouse’s countless admirers. The detailed endnotes demonstrate the dependable historical and cultural context in which Ben Schott places his inspired narrative.

Douglas Kemp

BACK TO SCHOOL

Jack Sheffield, Bantam Press, 2020, £12.99, pb, 338pp, 9781787632974

Education at the end of the 1960s saw most classes still taught in rows, facing forwards and with the teacher holding the children’s attention, aided by the threat of corporal punishment. As a newly qualified teacher, Jack looks at other ways of encouraging an enthusiasm for learning, especially for the disadvantaged children in his year group. The thirteenth book in this series is set in Jack’s early days of teaching. This is his second post as a qualified Primary teacher and Jack is thrilled when he gets the position ahead of 28 others being interviewed. Eagerly anticipating the new academic year, Jack arrives at Heather View Primary two days ahead of the start of term. Little does he realise at the time, that the lack of leadership and encouragement from the Headmaster as well as the severe budget constraints imposed by him, will be such an enormous barrier to implementing the improvements that he hopes can engage his pupils with their learning.

Outside of the classroom, Jack is an enthusiastic rugby player and is hopeful, that at the age of 24, he will find a companion to welcome into his life. There is one potential candidate but there are complications. This is a gentle stroll through the diary Jack Sheffield recorded from his earlier career, interspersed with humour and the warmth of companionship associated with a simpler era. It is an engaging story, and though the characters are in some ways very much of either good or bad character, they have a realism to which the reader can relate. Cathy Kemp

UNDER THE TULIP TREE

Michelle Shocklee, Tyndale, 2020, $15.99/£12.99, pb, 400pp, 9781496446077

In racist Jim Crow Nashville, 1936, 23-yearold Lorena Leland’s family is in trouble. They still live in a grand house in a good part of town, but their honor is gone because her father’s bank, one of the largest in Tennessee, went bankrupt, in part because of the Stock Market Crash and in part because of his dishonesty.

He turned to drink. Her mother works at a sewing shop and Lorena at a city newspaper. It is barely enough, and then Lorena is laid off.

When her former editor tells her about the possibility of getting hired for a Federal Writers’ Project, part of the Works Progress Administration, she hesitates. The work is interviewing elderly Black people who were once enslaved. But after Lorena meets Frankie Washington, aged 101, her fears dissipate. For her part, Frankie generously shares the story of her life and wisdom with the young white woman. Lorena keeps secret whom she is interviewing from her family. And then she learns that her connection to the injustices that beset Frankie are personal.

I loved this story. It’s a page-turner, with likable characters and a hopeful view of what is possible when white people actually listen to Black people. Ironically, that hopeful view was my only quibble. While I had fleeting doubts about Lorena’s sudden lack of racism, a few paragraphs, at the book’s end, suggested Lorena’s writing was, possibly, changing Nashville’s brutal race relations, with white women “discussing an initiative” to help. Not so. Brutal injustices continued. Even with that reality-based caveat, Under the Tulip Tree is a great read with an inspirational message of love and connection between individuals and between communities.

Kristen Hannum

THE PIANO STUDENT

Lea Singer (trans. Elisabeth Lauffer), New Vessel, 2020, $16.95/£12.99, pb, 232pp, 9781939931863

In Lea Singer’s biographical novel, The Piano Student, an elderly man, Nico Kaufmann, brings a younger man on a guided tour of his turbulent love affair with the great pianist Vladimir Horowitz. Together, they visit the places, mostly hotels, mostly in Zurich, where the lovers snatched hours and sometimes days with each other, in a time when the most compassionate mainstream attitude toward homosexuality branded it a mental disorder and when being outed could destroy even the most illustrious career, or even end in prison and death. Singer drew the book, which spans from the late 1930s to 1986, from Kaufmann’s partial memoir and Horowitz’s letters to him.

Lovers of classical music, especially piano repertoire, will find much to mine in Horowitz’s and Kaufmann’s comments on various compositions. While that may sound a bit dry, the story also packs in plenty of Sturm und Drang. Beauty and the loftiest ideals collide with the hypocrisy, shame, self-hatred, cruelty, betrayal, fear, reckless lust, and, perhaps worst of all, the thwarted love inherent in an affair walled in by the mortal dangers of social and familial ostracism. Artistic ambition, too, exacts a devastating toll on the two men, as individuals, and as lovers.

The shifts in time and lack of quotation marks in the prose reward reading, even while they sometimes confuse. As memory blurs into the present moment, Singer masterfully erodes Kaufmann’s somewhat detached air to reveal a grand passion that never died, or even approached resolution, a passion he’s still trying to work out.

Kaufmann’s confession/auto narrative reflects the inevitable sordidness of a concealed love affair. Yet throughout its telling, Singer maintains an elegance and depth that will leave the reader pondering the nature of personal courage and how—or whether—life and maturity can ever bring into harmony art, ambition, and love.

Jean Huets

THE ELECTRIC HOTEL

Dominic Smith, Allen & Unwin, 2020, £8.99, pb, 464pp, 9781911630296 / Picador, 2020, $18.00, pb, 352pp, 9781250619679

The Electric Hotel is a story within a story, with the main narrative set within a poignant outer frame. It is 1963, and a young graduate student researching the early history of the cinema discovers that a once famous film director, a pioneer of the silent movies, is eking out his reclusive old age in a run-down hotel in Los Angeles. He finds him in a hotel suite stacked with reels of decaying film, including his lost masterpiece, and in return for an offer to preserve the film (and avert a catastrophic fire) coaxes him to share the story of his life.

The main narrative is told in short takes, like a silent film, with the same slightly unreal quality. The director, Claude, sees his past life through a lens. The main characters are fictional, but the Lumiere brothers are there, and so too is Edison, and the technical detail is convincing. It is a story of stifled ambition and frustrated love, redeemed in part by the young researcher who resurrects and rescreens the lost film, The Electric Hotel.

A strange and haunting story which is difficult to forget.

THE ART FIASCO

Fiona Veitch Smith, Lion Fiction, 2020, £9.99/$12.95, pb, 352pp, 9781782643197

In 1924 Poppy Denby, star reporter of London’s Daily Globe, travels to Northumberland to celebrate her father’s 60th birthday. She stops off to spend time in Newcastle with her aunt, Dot. Also staying there is Agnes Robson, a famous artist who is another Northumberland girl. She is here because the Laing Gallery is staging an exhibition of her paintings. Circumstances force Poppy to deputise for the artist’s press secretary, who is indisposed. While up north, she hears of a local scandal about the death in the mining village of Ashington, 27 years earlier, of an art teacher who taught Agnes, herself a miner’s daughter. But was theirs more than a teacher-pupil relationship and was his death more than a tragic accident? Then when Agnes herself is murdered in the middle of the opening night of her exhibition, Poppy starts to investigate. She is both helped and hindered by the police inspector in charge of the case with whom she finds herself reluctantly falling in love.

This is the first of the Poppy Denby’s adventures I have read. It will not be my last. Poppy is a delightful, modern girl who believes that women have a right to a career rather than domestic drudgery. Her best friend, Delilah, is a celebrated West End actress who adds all the fashion details and whose fun makes a perfect foil to Polly’s seriousness. Highly recommended for cosy-crime lovers.

Sally Zigmond

THE NIGHT OF THE FLOOD

Zoe Somerville, Head of Zeus, 2020, £18.99, hb, 350pp, 9781838934606

Norfolk, 1952. The war is over, but its shadow is still very much in evidence. The nearby airbase and the mysterious American soldier, Jack, add to the febrile atmosphere of suspicion and secrets. Verity Frost is stuck on her family farm, and although she has the devotion and comradeship of her childhood friend Arthur, she yearns for something more. The glamorous and charismatic Jack causes her to fall in love and risk everything. More than one person is in love with Jack, however, which adds to the secrecy and passions. Is Jack who he says he is? Can he be trusted?

The strong feelings are reflected in the weather – events are woven into the real-life North Sea flood of 1953, which provides the climax. This is a literary novel with the focus more on the characters and their emotions than action. The reader comes to care about the characters and can see how obsession and passion can make someone behave in unusual ways. This is a debut novel, and it will be interesting to see what Somerville produces next.

FORTUNE FAVORS THE DEAD

Stephen Spotswood, Doubleday, 2020, $26.95, hb, 336pp, 9780385546553

It’s the early 1940s in New York, and private investigator Lillian Pentecost and her assistant Willowjean (Will) Parker are hired to investigate the murder of socialite Abigail Collins. She was found dead in the same chair as her wealthy husband, who took his life the previous year. The room was locked from the inside, so rumors abound that she was killed by the spirit of her dead husband. While the police focus on the family’s financial records, Lillian and Will question potential suspects: the beautiful but cold daughter, the angry and resentful son, the secretive godfather, a spooky spiritualist, and a large cast of factory workers with their own stories about the Collinses.

Fortune Favors the Dead is a fast-paced, lightweight, and engaging whodunit. I felt I was watching film noir and reading an old hard-boiled detective novel, written in a breezy chick-lit voice. Both women are ahead of their time. Lillian is a smart no-nonsense woman from the upper crust. She makes a good living investigating and solving crimes the police can’t, commands her own life, but opens her doors to help abused women. Will is a streetsmart young woman who isn’t afraid to stand up to anyone, either verbally or physically, or express her own sexuality in an era that wasn’t tolerant.

The mystery of who killed Abigail and why is sustained throughout the novel as the plot thickens, weaving in the characters, suspects, and their connection to the Collinses. The ending is satisfying and hints at a sequel with another female character as a possible nemesis or Moriarty-type figure to Lillian and Will. Overall, the novel gives only passing references to the war or the moral and cultural norms of the day but is fun to read.

Franca Pelaccia

WE GERMANS

Alexander Starritt, Little, Brown, 2020, $27.00, hb, 208pp, 9780316429801

This novella comprises a long letter written by a German grandfather, Meissner, to his Scottish grandson, Callum. On a visit, seventeen months in the past, Callum asked Meissner to answer a series of questions about his service in World War II on the Eastern Front. At that time, Meissner chose to provide unsatisfactory answers, ones that gave Callum very little detail of his activities or the feelings that went along with them. Upon Meissner’s death, however, his heirs discover a long letter to Callum, describing Meissner’s last few months in the war. The letter constitutes the majority of the book, interrupted from time to time by Callum, who inserts explanations of a phrase or wartime operation that he feels deserves more detail. The story that unfolds is one about the courage it takes a soldier to continue when he knows the war is lost, and his mixed-up feelings of guilt, shame, and responsibility.

We Germans stands out among WWII novels in its focus on the experiences of a German soldier following through on his “duty,” a point-of-view enhanced by the pithy commentary of his British grandson trying to understand the old man. It is also one of the few to describe a piece of the action in Poland and Ukraine in the last months of the war. The letter’s text is like a stream of consciousness, sometimes painting clear pictures of a crisis facing Meissner’s small search party, and at other times suggesting the internal struggle of Meissner himself to figure out what he’s doing there and whether the struggle is worth continuing. It’s a quick and compelling read.

Lorelei Brush

REVENGE IN RUBIES

A. M. Stuart, Berkley Prime Crime, 2020, $16.00, pb, 368 pp, 9781984802668

The second installment in the Harriet Gordon series follows the aforementioned intelligent and energetic police transcriptionist all over Singapore in her efforts to solve a new mystery. This time, the crimes entangle the local British military presence when a military officer’s young bride is murdered. With regiment nuances clouding the investigation, both Gordon and her colleague, the Inspector Robert Curran, must uncover what is truly happening despite pressure to rely on the most expedient answer. Of course, there is more to this crime than meets the eye.

Harriet is an engaging and sympathetic character, and it is easy to ride along as she flies all over the city in her personal quest to get to the bottom of the case. Her investigation offers a glimpse into the complex and diverse demographics of Singapore under British rule, and readers interested in this time or location will delight in some of Stuart’s descriptive and vivid imagery. While this mystery is an easy and entertaining escape, Stuart hints at the racist and classist tensions permeating all aspects of life in the colony, painting a complex portrait of Singapore in 1910 while still entertaining and endearing the reader to Harriet and her friends and family. One hopes that future installments will continue to explore the diverse perspectives in Harriet’s world, as future mysteries inevitably arise, so that intriguing secondary characters can see more of the limelight and share in the (hopefully upcoming) escapades of Harriet and Inspector Curran.

Ellen Jaquette

HERE WE ARE

Graham Swift, Knopf, 2020, $22.95, hb, 208pp, 9780525658054 / Scribner, 2020, hb, £14.99, 208pp, 9781471188930

Set during the summer of 1959 in the seaside town of Brighton, England, this novel tells the story of three main characters. Jack Robinson is a compère, the man who introduces different acts in a variety show;

Ronnie Deane is a fledgling magician; and Evie White is the magician’s assistant.

The story unravels to include important backstory for each of the three characters’ previous lives. The plot, however, centers on two things: the magic act performed by Ronnie and Evie nightly at the seaside theatre, and the tight-knit friendship of the three characters. Hints are dropped along the way that for Ronnie, the magic is real, and his greatest desires include marrying Evie and performing one last sensational illusion when the show concludes at the end of summer.

All would have gone well, except that when Ronnie returns home for his mother’s funeral, one pivotal decision spins the plot off into an unavoidable conclusion.

The characters are believable, and the descriptive details of the theater in Brighton help to cement the setting. I would categorize the genre as historical fantasy due to the ending. The beginning was a tad slow for me, and the book is divided only by scenes, not chapters, which threw me a bit. Recommended. Linda Harris Sittig

ETIQUETTE FOR RUNAWAYS

Liza Nash Taylor, Blackstone, 2020, $27.99, hb, 384pp, 9781982603946

Taylor chooses two iconic Jazz-Age settings—New York and Paris—for this rollercoaster of a historical novel. May Valentine Marshall is a girl who always finds herself on the outside looking in wherever she goes, whether the cotillion society of Virginia, the hectic world of New York’s “black-and-tan” nightclub scene, or the dreamlike environment of Montmartre. Abandoned by her mother at an early age, May depends on her childhood friend, Byrd, and her housekeeper Delphine for emotional support—but a scandal that results in her expulsion from Mary Baldwin College in 1924 distances her from her family and friends and propels her to the Big City.

Taylor is notable for publishing her debut novel at the age of 60, and the wealth of her own experiences living in all three settings comes through in her sparkling descriptions of the two glamorous cities. The third setting, northern Virginia, is rendered so lovingly and beautifully that readers will wonder why May ever wanted to leave.

Taylor keeps piling on poor May’s misfortunes: her father is a moonshiner in trouble with the feds; her New York adventure turns to disaster when her ne’er-do-well roommate gets her addicted to cocaine, and her dream job in Paris as a costume designer for the scandalous Les Folies Noires show is snatched away by medieval union rules. All this happens in a single eventful year, and the narrative begins to creak under the weight of all the trauma that Taylor loads on a frustratingly passive heroine. May’s kindheartedness and progressive attitudes toward race are often at odds with her naivete and humorlessness. She manages to be both obstinate and impetuous in the same moments, obsessing over small details in a way that makes the pace drag a little despite the fascinating supporting characters (one of which is modeled on Josephine Baker) that she befriends in her adventures.

Kristen McDermott

THE CHILD ON PLATFORM ONE

Gill Thompson, Headline/Mobius, 2020, $12.99/ C$15.99/£7.99, pb, 432pp, 9781472258014

In this harrowing novel, we follow two storylines, one in Czechoslovakia, where Eva Novak is a sixteen-yearold piano prodigy in 1930. On her way home from lessons, she is assaulted by the Hitler Youth. When we see her again, she is married to a much older widower. She becomes pregnant, but they enjoy only a few years as a family before Hitler invades Czechoslovakia and Eva makes the terrible decision to send her child to England.

The other storyline is of Pamela Denison, the wife of a Foreign Office minister in the British government. Too comfortable for her Quaker upbringing, Pamela is snug in Hampstead, her son at private school, and a maid to care for the house. When the war breaks out, the family is thrown into disarray. Through her charity work and rare ability to speak Czech, thanks to an earlier convalescence in a Czech hospital, she ends up shepherding a trainload of children from Prague back to England, taking Eva’s daughter home with her.

The book draws on numerous true events, including the Kindertransport, where Jewish children were transferred to England. The narrative also shows the disbelief of the cruelty occurring, from the Czech Jews who would ultimately be transported to the camps, to the rest of the world when they learned of it. There are numerous coincidences in this book, all for narrative effect. Normally I’m not a fan of such happenchance, but in this novel, it was a relief. Writing with the backdrop of such overwhelming brutality, I was happy the author gave me those meetups of old friends to hold onto. This is an engrossing and heartbreaking read. Highly recommended.

Katie Stine

CITY OF SPIES

Mara Timon, Zaffre, 2020, £8.99, pb, 440pp, 9781838770709

This debut novel opens in Paris in June of 1943 when we meet Elisabeth de Mornay, an Englishwoman employed by the Special Operations Executive as a spy. Her Resistance group has been compromised; she cannot return to her lodgings, so she exits Paris on a bicycle to find other fighters up north. But her contact in Rouen has been compromised as well, and she must kill two German soldiers to escape and continue her search. Through a host of harrowing moments, she makes her way to Lisbon which, at this point in the war, is a city full of spies. She assumes a new name and identity as an elegant Parisian woman to probe this spy network and answer problematic questions for her handlers.

Every page of this book is filled with tension. On page 1, Elisabeth is in a small restaurant and sees a compatriot with his right hand deep in his pocket, signaling that he’s been compromised. From that page on, this young, pretty woman is challenged at every turn. The tension continues on a trajectory upward, as the reader wonders how she is going to make her way out of her current conundrum. The writing is crisp and descriptive, aiding in that rising suspense. The characters are well drawn, and we readers are on her side through each adventure. My only issue with the novel is the author’s choice to begin in Paris and switch to Lisbon when the latter story would have made a complete novel on its own. I couldn’t see points made in the Paris section as critical to the rest of the story—unless she is planning a prequel or a sequel in Paris.

Lorelei Brush

A QUIET CADENCE

Mark Treanor, Naval Institute Press, 2020, $29.95, hb, 392pp, 9781682475065 Marty McClure is a retired teacher with a loving wife and two kids who know him as a kind and peaceful man. But deep in his youth, he was marked by a violence that would haunt his dreams and waking life. “My family and friends know me as a man whose most violent moments generated fast tennis serves. How do I explain that when I was very young, I plumbed the depths of depravity without knowing if I’d find my way back to sanity’s surface?”

So begins one of the most beautifully written and utterly unflinching Vietnam war novels to come along in decades. The novel introduces a fresh-faced 19-year-old Marty McClure who steps off a helicopter in Vietnam in 1969, joining his Marine unit as a machine gunner’s assistant. He is called “Mick” by his fellow soldiers. Their unit steps off deep into the jungle to search for an enemy maddening in its ability to dissipate wraith-like into the forest. More than half the novel is a relentless barrage of ambush and booby trap carnage, leaving the reader wide-eyed and rooted to the page. After being wounded, Marty returns

to the States, where his journey of healing is only the beginning. Over the years, he builds a family and career while trying to confront both the ghosts of his past and the galling compromises of the present, leaning on the love of his wife and the shared understanding of former comrades-in-arms.

Mark Treanor has penned an instant classic of war fiction, one whose images do not go gently into that good night but force us to confront the searing psychological scars many former wartime soldiers suffer with silently. A must read.

Peggy Kurkowski

MURDER BY MILK BOTTLE

Lynne Truss, Bloomsbury, 2020, $17.00, pb, 316pp, 9781635575972 / Raven, 2020, £14.99, hb, 320pp, 9781526609793 Three murder victims over the three-day August Bank Holiday in 1957 Brighton. Each coshed with a milk bottle, then stabbed to death with shards of the broken glass. Not to be ignored: a cow stampede and ice cream sabotaged with broken glass, a gathering of high-level London gangsters, the grand opening of the new West Pier milk bar highlighted by the Brighton Evening Argus Knickerbocker Glories ice cream competition, and a bogus barbers’ contest.

Three Brighton police in the thick of things: astute, if easily manipulated and delightfully dense at times Constable Peregrine Twitten; “always on the back foot” Sgt. Jim Brunswick; and ice cream aficionado and competition judge Inspector Geof Steine. Joining them is police station charlady and leader of organized crime Palmeira Groynes.

The trio—and Mrs. Groynes—are no strangers to crime. In the two previous Constable Twitten mysteries, they have been involved in a series of shootings—on the railway, in the theatre, on the hippodrome stage--plus knife and sword-wielding incidents. In particular, they’re known for solving the case of the Middle Street Massacre.

Murder by Milk Bottle is cleverly plotted, leading readers on a merry chase with links to an unsuspected past crime, rigged beauty contests, and chicanery at an ice show. Scenes celebrate characters’ quirks. There’s a memorable heart-to-heart in a Punch-andJudy tent between Twitten and Brunswick and a movie-theater reprise of the celebrated Middle Street Massacre, with only two people in the audience—Steine, who reveres the actor playing his role as inspector, and a newspaper reporter set to reveal that Steine could have caught 45 villains but took his men for ice cream instead.

Witty and whimsical, Murder by Milk Bottle is frothy and fun.

K. M. Sandrick

THE SKYLARK’S SECRET

Fiona Valpy, Lake Union, 2020, $14.95, pb, 319pp, 9781542005159

In the late 1970s, Lexie Gordon returns home with her daughter, Daisy, to Aultbea, a small fishing village on Loch Ewe in the Scottish Highlands. She has come to live in her family’s cottage after a vocal cord injury ended her singing career in London. Embarrassed at first that the town gossipers might judge her for her lost career or single parenthood, Lexie slowly begins to reconnect with her town. She also begins to discover, through the townspeople, secrets of her family’s past.

In 1939, Flora Gordon lives with her family in the Keeper’s Cottage in Aultbea. Her father is the gamekeeper for the Laird, a surly and imposing man. Aultbea is suddenly tapped as the location for the Royal Navy’s Arctic convoys and is turned into a military base virtually overnight. At the same time, Flora finds herself falling in love with the Laird’s son.

Valpy paints a gorgeous word picture of the beauty of Scotland, both before and after the war, as well as the scars left behind in Loch Ewe when the war is over. I also enjoyed the description of everyday life in a fishing village and how that is suddenly changed by a military presence. The characters are well developed. The love between Flora and her family, and the love Lexie has for her daughter, is palpable. I was often furious at the cruel tactics of the well-crafted and despicable Laird. The town comes alive through its people and their connection to each other. This is a well written novel involving WWII fiction, Scottish history, and family dynamics with a touch of romance.

Bonnie DeMoss

THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE DAY

Eleanor Wasserberg, Fourth Estate, 2020, C$22.99/£14.99, pb, 416pp, 9780008164140

In 1937 Krakow, Poland, Adam Oderfeldt, a wealthy Jewish entrepreneur, commissions a portrait of his younger daughter, Alicia, as her present for her 12th birthday. The artist, Jozef, begins painting Alicia by a window to catch the natural light in the Oderfeldts’ well-appointed apartment. However, it’s her seventeenyear-old sister, Karolina, who catches Jozef’s eye, and they fall in love. The Oderfeldts believe that money can buy happiness and live a lavish lifestyle. Adam keeps a mistress with the knowledge of his wife, Anna. Unfortunately, their opulent world collapses in 1939 when the Germans invade Poland. The Oderfeldts, having ignored the warnings, flee Krakow belatedly. The Germans stop their overloaded automobile. Fortunately, in the confusion, Anna manages to escape with the two daughters in tow. Adam is arrested, and all their belongings, including Alicia’s painting, are seized. Anna and her daughters are transported across Europe. They long to see Adam again, and Karolina pines for Jozef, but most of all, Alicia cries for her painting.

Eleanor Wasserberg has penned this nostalgic novel in a style which reads much like a biography. Indeed, the narrative is based partly on the history of Wasserberg’s own family. The use of Alicia’s portrait, which resembles that of Wasserberg’s great-aunt, helps to accentuate the story. The novel recounts the somewhat obscure details about the Polish Jews who had fled to Ukraine expecting better treatment by the Russians, but were tricked into boarding trains that carried them to Russian work camps. The novel is a bit light on aspects of Karolina’s and Josef’s courtship and details on Adam’s affair with his French mistress. The novel’s characters are shrewdly drawn, and each is given an individual voice, quirks, preferences, and mannerisms that set them apart. A disturbing scene shows, surprisingly, that in pre-war Poland even affluent Jews could be attacked. An interesting and informative novel. Waheed Rabbani

A DECEPTION AT THORNECREST

Ashley Weaver, Minotaur, 2020, $27.99/ C$37.99, hb, 288pp, 9781250159793

Weaver’s latest in the Amory Ames mystery series takes readers to Amory and Milo Ames’s English country home, Thornecrest, in the spring of 1934, where they are awaiting the birth of their first child. Amory is focusing on the domestic side of life, glad to be knitting baby clothes rather than solving murders, at least for a bit. However, there’s plenty of mystery to be had right at home, as a young woman shows up one day claiming to be Milo’s wife. Given Milo’s past romantic escapades, it is not completely out of the question that Imogen might be telling the truth, though Milo’s been nothing but supportive and happy about becoming a father.

Amory’s efforts to get at the facts behind Imogen’s story are complicated by preparations for the Springtide Festival, which is not without its own intrigues. Lady Alma Bedford, owner of Bedford Priory where the festival is held, is known to be an eccentric, perhaps caring more for her horses than for people.

Weaver’s rendering of the village and countryside, complete with the usual characters of a vicar, his wife, young lovers, and, yes, some horses, is detailed and believable. Each person’s role is vital to this multi-layered mystery, and description goes beyond stereotype; it is clear that these are complex creatures with lives beyond what Amory sees. Class distinctions are appropriate for the time, with the aristocracy losing its control over land and certain income, and those on the lower rungs of society striving

to move upward. The multiple mysteries for Amory to solve are gripping and intertwined with an admirable level of sophistication. The added bonus of seeing Amory and Milo prepare for parenthood adds another level of fascination for readers enamored with the exploits of this crime-solving team.

Helene Williams

TOWARD THAT WHICH IS BEAUTIFUL

Marian O’Shea Wernicke, She Writes, 2020, $16.95, pb, 262pp, 9781631527593

In 1964 a surprising number of American Catholic girls decide to go into the convent to become missionary nuns. Mary Katherine “Kate” O’Neill is one of them, while her high school classmate “Gracie Gilmartin who swore a lot” never gets the calling. Now Kate is “Sister Mary Katherine” and finds herself in the highlands of Peru. These American missionaries’ stated mission is “to work themselves out of a job” by enabling their Peruvian parishioners to become self-reliant and independent.

Kate comes to love the local people she works with and the clerical members of her team. But that is also the problem, as she falls deeply in love with an Irish priest, Father Tom and, worse yet, her feelings are reciprocated. Torn by doubt about breaking her vows and ruining her own and Tom’s lives, she makes a bizarre decision to run away from the convent into the Peruvian countryside. As she travels from place to place, she meets a host of new characters, most of them good and a very few bad. She ultimately makes her final decision.

The author, a former nun, has written a stellar novel, no doubt calling on her own experiences. Having spent many years myself as an elementary school pupil with the Sisters of Saint Joseph, the book addresses a myriad of questions we youngsters had about our muchrespected nuns. What was their training? What were their living conditions? What did they wear under their habits? Turns out these new young nuns’ first years of training were like my own Army boot camp, but on steroids. Part romance, part exposition of 1960s Peru, and above all a tale of personal doubt and perseverance, this superb book succeeds on all accounts. Strongly recommended.

Thomas J. Howley

MIDNIGHT TRAIN TO PRAGUE

Carol Windley, Atlantic Monthly, 2020, $26.00, hb, 352p, 9780802119735 / HarperCollins Canada, 2020, C$24.99, pb, 352pp, 9781443461023

This is a wonderful book filled with vibrant characters in Central Europe during World War II, with infinite possibilities for drama and conflict. Windley spins tale after tale of love and loss around her protagonist, Natalia. She’s an intelligent, thoughtful young woman who, on a train journey to Prague with her wealthy, beautiful, eccentric mother, Beatriz, meets her father for the first time—but only after he has died of a heart attack. The doctor who tries to revive him, and the handsome driver of a car that Natalia watches as it passes the train, will have pivotal roles in the saga that unfolds.

Sweeping, beautifully told, and supremely entertaining, Midnight Train to Prague explores the human cost of war, the dark side of human nature that permits fascism and cruelty to exist, and the amazing resilience of the human spirit. Its characters are mostly aristocrats and bourgeoisie, living in castles and mansions and stoically enduring when deprived or driven out of their cushy lives. Reading about people with money is fun. Even as they lose their possessions and the people they love, however, Windley’s characters refuse to give up: Miklos, Natalia’s journalist husband; Rozalia, his tough-as-nails mother (and a countess); Magdalena, the doctor on the train; her son, Franz, who captures Natalia’s heart that day; and daughter Anna, who will help Natalia to survive the concentration camp where they both end up.

Midnight Train to Prague shows us that resilience comes from the heart, and how that happens.

Sherry Jones

A SINGLE SWALLOW

Zhang Ling (trans. Shelly Bryant), AmazonCrossing, 2020, $14.95, pb, 291pp, 9780761456957

On the day the Japanese emperor announces his nation’s surrender to the Allied forces, three quite different men, in the unbridled exaltation of the moment, make a pact for their souls to return to a small Chinese village each year on that same day. This otherwise inconsequential location is the base of operations for the three men as they support the Chinese resistance against the occupiers. They are Pastor Billy, a missionary; Ian Ferguson, US Navy gunner’s mate; and local Chinese patriot, Liu Zhaohu. As the story evolves over the next seventy years, these men, both ghostly and mortal, realize the centrality of the key figure in their lives – a tragic but noble girl named Ah Yan or Swallow.

This book sounded intriguing because of its unique premise of ghostly rendezvous among soldiers, combined with first loves for all three men. The result was all that and more. The gifted author captures the hideous atrocities of the Japanese against non-combatants along with the subsequent horror of Chinese Communist savagery against its own people. It is a literary work suffused with prodigious and descriptive exposition. The novel charmingly includes sweet little stories ironically embedded in an often violent milieu. An unlikely but quite enjoyable example is the discussion between two beloved dogs who love each other and the main characters they serve – from the dogs’ perspective.

Clever use of newspaper accounts, military reports and letters to loved ones advance the plot and complement the dialogue effectively and interestingly. The Chinese culture of the time seems sometimes primitive and sometimes highly advanced in the eyes of the Westerners. There is one graphic example of celebrating VJ day by snaring and roasting a giant rat. This superb novel greatly exceeded my expectations and comes highly recommended.

Thomas J. Howley

MULTI-PERIOD

THE RISING PLACE

David Armstrong, The Wild Rose Press, 2020, $13.99, pb, 198pp, 9781509230655

Young lawyer David moves from New York to his wife’s hometown of Hamilton, Mississippi. His first assignment is to prepare the will of an elderly lady, Emily Hodge. Though the only child of important citizens of her town, she has no friends or surviving family.

Emily shows David a photo taken when she was young and a striking beauty. She says nothing after David remarks, “You were a lovely girl.” At Emily’s death, David collects and disposes of her few remaining belongings. The most intriguing of these is a box of letters, and David reads them all.

After a short introductory chapter, the letters tell Emily’s story from 1941-49 and take readers deep into the ugly racism at that place and time—beatings, lynching, horrid injustice. Emily’s first love, Harry, was an aviator. Soon after their hot romance, he left to join the Air Corps. Harry was one-quarter Black. She became pregnant and gave birth to their son, but her parents and the entire white community shunned her. Emily’s only friends back then were other African Americans.

Telling a story through letters only is a daunting challenge. Too much dialogue makes letters read more like a reporter’s transcript. Too many details of setting and background will read more like a journal or passages from a novel. Emily’s letters suffer from both flaws. However, the plot and core facts all ring true and tug at the emotions. We feel for Emily. Readers interested in a strong character coping with small-town Mississippi life during America’s WWII awakening will enjoy this short novel.

G. J. Berger

THE LINES BETWEEN US

Rebecca D’Harlingue, She Writes, 2020, $16.95, pb, 341pp, 9781631527432

The Lines Between Us is a multi-period debut, beginning in Madrid in 1660 and partly told in epistolary form through diaries and letters. The novel is Juliana’s story, a young girl who flees to

Seville to escape violence and retribution. She is followed by Tia Ana, a loving aunt who fails in her quest to find her niece. Juliana has little choice but to enter a convent and makes that decision prior to finding out she is pregnant. Taking a ship from Seville to Vera Cruz, she entrusts her newborn daughter to a friend and helpmeet, with the proviso that the daughter be brought to the convent and left in the nuns’ care after Juliana is settled. From this difficult beginning, the story spreads itself through the generations to Missouri in 1992, where Rachel finds Juliana’s diary and various letters amongst her recently deceased mother’s belongings.

The premise for this novel is excellent, but it doesn’t hold up its end of the bargain, partly due to some questions it raises. I couldn’t be sure why the earlier part of the book describes Ana finding her recently deceased husband’s diary, or why those entries were relevant to the subsequent action. It also seems Tia Ana gives up too easily on finding her niece, and even when Juliana becomes the convent Madre Superior, why does it take her eight years to attempt contact with her aunt?

The novel raises some interesting thoughts about how we allow our own fears to be visited upon our children, and how we judge the choices of others without having walked a moment in their shoes. This is a very wellwritten debut, even if the story line falls a little short, and a fitting title incorporating the idea of generations of stories surviving within families.

Fiona Alison

SET THE STARS ALIGHT

Amanda Dykes, Bethany House, 2020, $15.99, pb, 363pp, 978076423267-1 Set the Stars Alight is a beautiful, intricately woven story of friendship. In London in 2000, Lucy and Dash meet as children and grow up together, listening to the spellbinding stories of Lucy’s father, a watchmaker. Some of the stories are make believe, and some are based in truth. Lucy has long researched one of the tales, about the lost ship Jubilee, and she is determined to find out if this fable is real. Many years later, Dash joins her in her search for the legendary vessel.

In 1805, Frederick Hanford and Elias Flint, bitter enemies, bond over shared circumstances. Frederick, the son of a cruel and calculating admiral, comes to see Elias, a shepherd, as his only true family. Mistakes, betrayal, and sacrifice put Frederick’s life and reputation in peril. Will he gain redemption?

This captivating and inspirational book is about the kind of friendship that time and distance, and even betrayal, can never destroy. The past and present are beautifully spun together in a story of love, secrets, and sacrifice. The magical writing of Amanda Dykes will keep you as spellbound as were Lucy and Dash, sitting at the watchmaker’s knee.

Bonnie DeMoss

THE CROLLALANZAS

Jayne Fresina, Twisted E Publishing, 2020, $13.99/£11.99, pb, 530pp, 9798633066739

In Renaissance Venice, the Crollalanzas, a mother and her three daughters, are herbalists and midwives. Viola, the eldest twin, paints portraits on commission. Cesca, the younger twin, is prone to fits, but is pretty and hopes to attract a handsome and rich suitor. Truzia, the younger sister, is clumsy, tactless, and an embarrassment. Happy to be left alone, she scribbles her observations in a secret diary. She also has flashes of clairvoyance and one day ‘sees’ her own death.

When the sisters leave for England, Truzia is horrified to meet Rory Denham, the man who will murder her, on the London docks. She’s rude to him, but when the eccentric Marquess of Abbingford, Rory’s grandfather, invites the family to his rambling ancestral home, Truzia becomes fascinated with the ghosts that haunt the library at Threavewode, many of whom seem to be from the future.

In the present day, Ms. Draper enters a charity raffle and wins a holiday at Threavewode house on Otter Island. She’s thankful for a chance to rest and relax, but she finds the library haunted by the playful and teasing Truzia, and random pages of an old diary are scattered about the shelves. There are also visions of Briar Lockwood, a modernist 19th-century painter, who is said to have stayed at Threavewode and whose family considered her insane. She also may have been haunted by Truzia.

The novel is long and convoluted in the manner of Tristram Shandy, but it is also witty, intelligent, and humorous, and offers a romantic love story. The jumps from the present to the various periods of the past require time for readers to come to grips with the story, but once achieved, the pages keep turning with increasing pleasure. I thoroughly recommend it and didn’t want it to end.

Sally Zigmond

PAYBACK

Mary Gordon, Pantheon, 2020, $27.95, hb, 352pp, 9781524749224

Author/memoirist Gordon’s awardwinning fiction often focuses on generational tensions and damage, and particularly the fraught relationships between mothers and daughters. She ramps up the conflict in this exploration of a reality-TV star’s plot to expose and punish her high school art teacher for a thoughtless comment 40 years before. Heidi Stolz/ Quin Archer is a thinly veiled Trump avatar (the 2016 election is mentioned frequently as a watershed event); she’s a child of privilege and emotional abuse, a devotee of Ayn Rand, who sees all relationships as transactional, and who believes what most would call virtue is actually weakness. Her carefully curated appearance, her cruelty, her self-serving interior monologues, are designed to cause revulsion in most readers. The art teacher, Agnes Vaughan di Pietro, seems at first to be Heidi’s mirror image: she’s empathetic, sensitive, and intensely moral. Gordon alternates the two protagonists carefully, allowing each a long narration of her life story before bringing them into collision, so that the reader can fully appreciate Agnes’s intense, lifelong guilt over the wrong she did Heidi (the novel’s action spans the years 1972-2018). The contrasting points of view invite the reader to compare one character who is everything we’re supposed to value — art, love, introspection — to another who is everything we’re supposed to reject — narcissism, vindictiveness, greed. But is Agnes’ self-absorption in her own guilt any less narcissistic? And is Heidi’s version of reality TV any less art? The conclusion is as surprising as it is suspenseful.

Gordon’s masterful structure and sense of voice create an intensely moving meditation on the relationship of the past self and its deeds to the present, as well as a brilliant evocation of the emotional impact of aging on women’s lives and identities.

Kristen McDermott

THE GREEN LACE CORSET

Jill G. Hall, She Writes Press, 2020, $16.95, pb, 329pp, 9781631527692

Told in parallel narratives, this is the story of two women, one an artist in modernday San Francisco and the other a hostage in the late 19th-century Old West, who are confronted with choices that will determine their independence. Anne, an artist and art teacher struggling to make ends meet, travels to Flagstaff on holiday to shake off lingering emotions from her broken engagement. She is enthralled by her shopping find of a green lace corset from yesteryear. Nearly a century and a half before, Sally Sue winters at an isolated farmstead near Flagstaff, held as a kidnapping victim after experiencing a harrowing bank robbery in Kansas City.

Anne wrestles with contemporary issues like workplace politics, uncertain paternity when

she becomes pregnant, and undependable childcare resources as a single mother in San Francisco, the place where she feels most at home. Nuanced descriptions of Anne’s mosaic art techniques and gardening knowledge help define her as a central character.

Sally Sue comes to see the admirable qualities in her roguish kidnapper as he teaches her frontier ways far from her humdrum life in Missouri under the thumb of her overbearing mother. Should she embrace her rogue captor, his ways, and his past, or make a break for it? Scenes are described vividly, especially those set in Arizona’s northern mountains. Sally Sue’s new frontier life is rendered with period detail like buckshot and the hay loft, her willow cup and washboard, and a comforting doe and her family of deer that live in the meadow.

The Green Lace Corset is the author’s third book in a series of stories of women generations apart whose lives intersect through vintage items.

Brodie Curtis

THE DEADLY HOURS

Susanna Kearsley, C.S. Harris, Anna Lee Huber, Christine Trent, Poisoned Pen, 2020, $16.99, pb, 352pp, 9781492664444

The four novellas that comprise The Deadly Hours span the years 1733 to 1945. A fabulous gold pocket watch, La Sirène, made with cursed gold from the sack of Cartagena in 1697, brings evil to its possessor, and can only be destroyed by passing through the four elements: water, earth, air, and fire. The novellas recount tales of some of the people affected by the watch over the years.

“Weapon of Choice,” by Kearsley, opens off the coast of Italy in 1733. An unexpected storm interrupts the travels of newlyweds Hugh and Mary MacPherson. Forced to stay in Portofino, they meet other Jacobite expatriates, and learn of a plot to assassinate the Duke of Ormonde. Huber’s contribution, “In a Fevered Hour,” finds Lady Darby and her husband Sebastian Gage searching for the cursed timepiece, which could be at the root of a mysterious illness claiming lives in 1800s Edinburgh. Some years later Christine Trent’s Victorian undertaker Violet Harper carries the rediscovered watch to London in “A Pocketful of Death,” and murder quickly follows. Harris’s “Siren’s Call” takes us to WWII, and the part La Sirène plays in this worldwide conflict.

The authors’ collaboration tells four distinct yet related stories, tantalizing glimpses into the different worlds and people La Sirène impacts as the curse plays out. Three of the novellas refer to characters the authors established in previous works, while C. S. Harris’s offering introduces completely new players. The four tales combine to create one riveting read, a wonderful diversion to pleasantly while away your own hours. Recommended.

Susan McDuffie

THE PARIS SECRET

Natasha Lester, Forever, 2020, $16.99, pb, 496pp, 9781538717288

Lester’s passion for fashion drew her to Catherine Dior, fashion icon Christian Dior’s sister, a littleknown heroine of the French Resistance. Lester weaves manifold themes: love, men and women’s roles in WWII, daring female pilots, post-war fashion, friendship, and survival. She deftly intersperses historical characters with richly developed fictional ones over multiple timelines.

Lester’s prologue opens with Dior’s 1947 glamorous debut: Margaux Jourdan modelling his New Look subtly foreshadows the horrors and heartache to come. We jump to 1928 and idyllic Cornwall, England. It’s a slow burn, like a Dickens novel that explodes into a suspenseful, character-driven, can’t-put-down read.

In Cornwall, we meet free-spirited tenyear-old Skye Penrose and eleven-year-old American Nicholas Crawford. Though levelheaded, Skye entices him to explore coves, tide pools, and moors and engage in flying lessons in canvas biplanes. After adventurous Skye cartwheels into his life, they become inseparable for four years. Younger sister Liberty sulks, punches, and kicks. Despite her tantrums, Skye takes care of her until adulthood, when they become estranged. Skye, recruited by Pauline Gower for the ATA (Air Transport Auxiliary), flies planes (from Spitfires to Lancasters) from factories to RAF bases, facing prejudice, chauvinism and constant danger. She reconnects with Nicholas, now an RAF pilot.

Fast-forward to 2012: Kat Jourdan, fashion conservator, discovers Dior gowns in her grandmother’s Cornwall cottage. You can view these gowns on Lester’s website. Historian and author Elliot Beaufort contacts Kat. The reader joins in their search for the real Margaux Jourdan – a spy for the Special Operations Executive. This mystery, along with two passionate love stories and a horrendous imprisonment in the Ravensbrück concentration camp, keeps the reader riveted. As seemingly unlinked stories come together, Lester pays tribute to the brave souls of the resistance and the triumph of the human spirit.

Gail M. Murray

ESCAPING DREAMLAND

Charlie Lovett, Blackstone, 2020, $26.99, hb, 352pp, 9781982629403

Lovett’s atmospheric fifth outing is the first set in his native United States and sparkles with all the intrigue and rich historical detail of the previous four.

In New York City in 2010, bestselling author Robert Parrish’s relationship with his girlfriend is deteriorating. Emotionally distant, Robert must confront trauma from his past related to his favorite childhood book series, The Tremendous Trio.

In alternating chapters, Lovett weaves Robert’s quest to solve a mystery surrounding The Tremendous Trio with the stories of the three young adults who wrote the series in Manhattan in the early 1900s.

While Robert’s 21st-century quest to uncover information about the three authors specifically and early 20th-century children’s book series in general is fascinating from a bibliophilic perspective, the historical storyline following the authors shines brightest. As always, Lovett’s extensive research into his setting steeps the reader in the sights, smells, and culture of New York City “in the days of streetcars and shirtwaists,” as one clever chapter title describes. Like Robert, the authors—Magda, Gene, and Tom—each experience trauma of their own. In a masterly parallel to Robert’s 2010 journey, each must find the courage to share their secrets with the people closest to them.

Entwining such seemingly disparate events and themes such as the PS General Slocum disaster, the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, and early 20th-century New York City’s underground gay culture, Lovett has crafted a treasure of a novel for book lovers. Highly recommended.

Sarah Hendess

THE SECRETS OF SAFFRON HALL

Clare Marchant, Avon UK, 2020, £8.99/$14.99, pb, 400pp, 9780008406271

In 1541, in a tower in her home in Norfolk, England, Eleanor pens a shaky note in her prayerbook pleading for aid for her daughter, who did not survive her birth. In the present day, Amber, who’s returned to the family home of Saffron Hall to help her grandfather catalogue books, is captivated when an early modern prayerbook is discovered in the tower. Grieving the loss of an infant daughter herself, Amber is drawn to Eleanor’s mystery and sets to deciphering the coded message and, hopefully, helping Eleanor and the soul of the infant Mary find peace.

Amber’s story is told with warmth and emotional nuance, and her journey toward healing, with the help of her best friend Becky and husband Jonathan, has a satisfying resonance. It’s Eleanor’s story, though, that is gripping. Married at seventeen to a wealthy Norfolk merchant, Eleanor matures into the lady of the manor and becomes a skilled grower of saffron, a spice more costly than gold. Eleanor’s crops enrich her husband, Greville, and encourage his ambitions to be noticed at the court of Henry VIII and his new queen, Catherine Howard. But readers who know the fate of Henry’s short-lived fifth wife can see what’s coming for Greville, and when disaster strikes, Eleanor does what she must to ensure the survival of her household and her remaining children.

The intertwining stories and building suspense are handled well, and the details of medicine making and saffron growing are intriguing. The ongoing dissolution of the monasteries, and Eleanor’s part in helping residents of the nearby priory, lend an especially strong historical grounding as well as a heady dose of drama. The characters are convincingly drawn, the world textured and

Misty Urban

L’ORIGINE

Lilianne Milgrom, Little French Girl Press, 2020, £13.85, pb, 288pp, 9781734867008

An artist encounters Gustave Courbet’s explicit painting ‘L’Origine du monde’ (1866), in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, and feels compelled to copy it. The action then shifts back to the commissioning of the painting by Ottoman-Egyptian diplomat and art collector Khalil Bey; Milgrom accepts the theory (supported by correspondence between Alexandre Dumas and Georges Sand) that the model was probably Bey’s mistress, Constance Quéniaux. The first part of the painting’s story is chiefly told through the points of view of Courbet and Bey, but the unifying thread throughout is the mute voice of ‘L’origine’ itself.

Sometimes the book reads like straight history, yet Baudelaire, Courbet’s mistress Joanna Hiffernan, Edmond de Goncourt and others appear as convincingly alive characters, not distant historical figures. Courbet is imprisoned for his part in the Communard demolition of the Vendôme Column, in an episode reminiscent of this year’s toppling of monuments associated with slavery. In part two, the painting’s fortunes are caught up in the plight of the Jews of wartime Hungary, and in the final part ‘L’origine’ is found in the circle of Picasso, Sartre, and de Beauvoir – and in effect psychoanalysed - for every work of art is inevitably viewed through the lens of the time it finds itself in.

Milgrom’s historical grasp of her subject is impressive; the only lapse is a reference to a ‘Tintoretto altarpiece in Rome’ (Venice, surely?). The book’s structure appropriately reflects Schnitzler’s play, ‘Reigen’, for it brings us (through a century and half) back to where we started from, in a deft blurring of fiction and reality, in which a painting commissioned for strictly private use is now gazed at by thousands.

Katherine Mezzacappa

THE NIGHT PORTRAIT

Laura Morelli, William Morrow, 2020, $16.99, pb, 450pp, 9780062993571

Art historian Morelli immerses us in 15thcentury Renaissance Italy and the mind of young Leonardo da Vinci as he paints Cecilia Gallerani, sixteen-year-old mistress to Ludovico il Moro, Duke of Milan. More enigmatic than the Mona Lisa, this masterpiece, Lady with an Ermine, the first modern portrait, shows the mind and personality of its subject. The portrait’s creation and preservation become the focal point of the story connecting the destinies of two women 500 years apart, and a symbol of hope.

Edith Becker, a Munich museum conservator, is assigned to assess and document valuables looted by the Nazis under Hans Frank, the Butcher of Poland. Hitler is amassing art for his high command and grand museum at Linz. Though disgusted, she keeps her head low, vowing to save this portrait. This novel stands out as a departure from the many WWII books about concentration camps and the Nazi occupation.

Despite dual timelines and four points of view, the story unfolds flawlessly. Richly detailed and well crafted, the chapters are short and tight. So fluid is the writing, we are caught up unawares. Morelli employs a unique device I call “echoing,” ending one chapter with the start of another: “Yes, Cecilia thought. It is time for me to leave this house. And this man [Ludovico il Moro]” and “It is time for me to leave this house, and most of all, this man [Hans Frank], Edith thought.”

American G.I. Dominic Bonelli is appointed to assist the Monuments Men, curators, art historians, and architects recovering art and artifacts plundered by the Nazis. Morelli foreshadows Edith and Dominic’s meeting. As the Allies enter Munich to cheering crowds, Dominic notices an old man (Edith’s father) clutching a stuffed toy dog. Art is the high point of civilization; war the lowest. The end is poignant and uplifting.

Gail M. Murray

THE KISSING FENCE

B. A. Thomas-Peter, Caitlin Press, 2020, $24.95, pb, 288pp, 9781773860237

Following persecution in Russia for their religious beliefs, Doukhobors were granted land in Canada by Queen Victoria. Eventually many traveled west to British Columbia, where their lack of respect for government authority, expressed by public nudity, led to heavyhanded retaliation from 1953 to 1959. Nudity was punishable by three years imprisonment. The RCMP were deployed to arrest the adults and remove all children to a small-town school behind a high wire fence.

The protagonist, young Pavel, suffers along with the other children from misunderstanding, insensitivity, outright cruelty, and abuse. When the school is closed, Pavel joins a radical Doukhobor sect and is imprisoned for planning to blow up a government building. On release he marries the girl he has loved since childhood, but their memories of the school interfere with and destroy their marriage.

Interspersed with this story is a narrative taking place in 2017/18 Vancouver, where a successful businessman, his marriage falling apart, is caught in a web of crime, infidelity and arson. Linking both aspects of the novel is the metaphor of Owl who appears disconcertingly to demand answers to unfathomable questions.

This is a chilling look at the devastating effects of forcibly removing children from family and culture and educating them in a harsh environment complying with the dominant white culture from the Director of Forensic Psychiatry for British Columbia. The legacy of years of abuse and crushing despair is evident decades, even generations later. Thomas-Peter allows for a tiny spark of hope: that with loving care and support redemption might be possible.

The strength of this novel lies in both the painfully accurate descriptions of life in the school and in the depth of understanding of the wide range of effects and reactions that

Valerie Adolph

MILLICENT GLENN’S LAST WISH

Tori Whitaker, Lake Union, 2020, $14.95, pb, 351pp, 9781542023313

Tori Whitaker is an avid reader of novels that juggle past and present-day timelines, highlighting worthy examples on social media and penning a feature article on multiperiod fiction for this magazine (HNR 83). In her debut, she demonstrates mastery of this popular historical fiction format herself. Her heroine is Millicent Glenn, a spry widow of 90 who readers will come to care for right away. Family means everything to Millie, so when her daughter Jane moves back home to Cincinnati in 2015, and granddaughter Kelsey announces her pregnancy, she couldn’t be happier. Millie’s relationship with Jane is strained, and she knows that to repair it, she must find the courage to reveal a traumatic time from the Glenns’ past and hope for Jane’s forgiveness.

Back in mid-century Ohio, Millie is a former tenement girl of German heritage newly married to her sweetheart, Dennis Glenn. Remembering her mother’s admonishment to earn her own income, she’s excited to help Dennis spread the word about his prefab home dealership. When she becomes pregnant after years of trying, they feel their prayers are answered. Millie’s dreams of a large family never materialize, though, for a terrible reason that becomes a secret too painful to reveal.

Both timelines are equally gripping, and the shifts between them keep the suspense level high. Whitaker notices the small details that make the 1950s Midwest feel tangible, such as metal milk-delivery boxes, radio soap operas, and two-tone Chevrolets. In addition to nostalgic elements of vintage décor and pastimes, though, the story illustrates the weight of expectations women faced, pressured to be perfect wives and mothers while seeing their career hopes stifled. Millie can’t even open a savings account without Dennis’s permission (sadly, historically accurate). This tenderly written, fast-moving tale of marriage, women’s friendships, and family reconciliation is satisfying and extremely moving. Sarah Johnson

THE LIAR’S DICTIONARY

Eley Williams, William Heinemann, 2020, £14.99, hb, 288pp, 9781785152047 / Doubleday, 2021, $26.95, hb, 288pp, 9780385546775

Split between the 19th century and present day, this is a delightfully exuberant, playful novel that is difficult to categorise or briefly summarise. Professor Gerolf Swansby embarked upon an ambitious project to produce his own comprehensive English language dictionary and encyclopaedia and set up premises in St James’s Square, London, towards the end of the 19th century. Peter Winceworth, a junior lexicographer in the late

1890s, works in Swansby’s large Scrivenery, tasked with defining words that begin with the letter ‘S’, which is a bit of joke upon him as he affects a lisp, making pronunciation a challenge in the office. Mundane office life with his fellow lexicographers bores Winceworth to distraction, and he feels sidelined and undervalued in his work. He thus decides to invent words, with meanings and definitions that are lacking in the English language. Affairs become more interesting when he meets Sophia, the engaging female companion of the office’s louche and wealthy Fresham, who seems to be there solely for his wealth and contacts.

In the present day, David Swansby is the sole surviving relative, and the project still slowly continues uncompleted. This part is narrated in the first person by the twenty-something female, Mallory, who is the only employee, a seemingly permanent intern. When David Swansby discovers during the long, drawn-out digitalisation process that some of the words in Swansby’s dictionary have indeed been invented, Mallory is given the task of going through all the many thousands of original card index entries to weed out the rogue words, in what was Winceworth’s recognisable handwriting. Thus both Winceworth and Mallory are joined over the years. Definitely a story for logophiles and historical fiction devotees. It is decidedly clever, indeed literary, but it is a fascinating read and strangely amusing and eccentric. The oddest, but one of the best novels I’ve read so far in 2020.

Douglas Kemp

TIMESLIP

THE GARDEN OF PROMISES AND LIES

Paula Brackston, St. Martin’s, 2020, $27.99, hb, 320pp, 9781250072450

The Garden of Promises and Lies is the third book in Paula Brackston’s Found Things time-travel series. In this book, Xanthe, the main character who “spins” through time, moves between her present-day antique shop and a grand English country estate in the 19th century just after the Napoleonic wars. A wedding dress she buys at an estate sale “sings” to Xanthe, cueing her that she must go back in time to solve an unknown problem.

In the present day, she is concerned about hiding her time travel from her mother and her boyfriend, Liam. When her enemy from the past, Fairfax, appears in front of her store and makes vague threats, she realizes he will not leave her in peace and wonders how the dress and Fairfax might be connected.

Brackston’s opening chapters employ extended summaries to fill in the reader on the previous two books. This makes for a gradual start, although the pacing picks up later in the story, when Brackston introduces higher stakes for her characters and more action. There is an exciting twist that brings the book to a cliffhanger ending, setting up the next novel in the series.

SHADOWS IN TIME

Julie McElwain, Pegasus Crime, 2020, $25.95, hb, 384pp, 9781643134741

What’s an FBI agent to do when she finds herself displaced over 200 years in the past? Investigate crime, of course. Shadows in Time is the fifth book in the Kendra Donovan series. Kendra is a 21st-century FBI agent who suddenly found herself displaced in 19th-century London. Now she is a ward of the Duke of Aldridge and accepted into elite circles, where she finds herself dabbling in her old occupation. Kendra is investigating the disappearance of a local brewery employee at the request of the brewery owner, who is, surprisingly, a woman. In addition, the Duke’s long-lost daughter, always presumed dead, has returned. Is she really who she says she is? Kendra, accompanied by Sam Kelly, Bow Street Runner, and Alec, the Marquis of Sutcliffe, fervently pursues both mysteries, using her skills as an FBI agent. Although this is the fifth book in a series, it can be read as a standalone novel.

This is a historical mystery more than a time-travel novel, as the time traveling was done earlier in the series. Kendra seems to have accepted her life in the 1800s, except for occasionally bemoaning the absence of Google and DNA analysis. The characters are well developed and engaging. The investigations are compelling and well-paced, and life in 1815 London is described in interesting detail. We are reminded of the restrictions put on women back then, as Kendra has to have a chaperone everywhere she goes. The two mysteries Kendra is trying to solve are complex and not easily predictable. Wonderful nuggets of history abound in the book, and a romance has developed as well. If you enjoy historical fiction, mysteries, or stories with a dash of romance and time travel, you will like this novel.

Bonnie DeMoss

HISTORICAL FANTASY

THE ONCE AND FUTURE WITCHES

Alix E. Harrow, Redhook, 2020, $28.00/ C$35.00, hb, 513pp, 9780316422048

In her new novel, set in the 1890s, author Harrow gathers witchcraft and suffrage into the same sentence, and the authentic historical fight for women’s rights and equality becomes a natural backdrop. Following the death of their abusive father, sisters Bella, Agnes and Juniper are reunited in an imagined New Salem after a seven-year separation, whilst accidentally conjuring a mysterious tower in the middle of town. Each believes themselves abandoned by the others, and their grievances are deep and contentious, even as their blood ties draw them into a world of magic and mayhem. As tensions rise, the small coven grows, and their opposition to oppression stretches beyond demonstrations in the streets to the highest echelons of town politics, where malice lurks behind every shadow, and the flames of hysteria are being deliberately and furiously fanned.

Harrow populates her wryly humorous, ultra-feminist fantasy with mildly distorted nursery rhymes (“Little Girl Blue”) and fairy tales (“The Sisters Grimm”). She gives the three sisters beautifully wrought, distinctive characteristics, strong yet fallible: James Juniper is antagonistic and recklessly brave, Beatrice Belladonna studious and thoughtful, Agnes Amaranth fearful and uneasy, with good reason.

Many of the coven suffer abuse and imprisonment by Inquisition-like henchmen as events come to an explosive conclusion, after which comes a deeply satisfying epilogue. To say more would be to give away spoilers, of which there are many. Most interesting is the idea that it isn’t witch blood which offers a potential for women’s power, but rather the “will, the way and the words” passed down through the generations. This adds intriguing speculation to the idea that there’s no such thing as witches. “That’s all magic is really: the space between what you have and what you need.” Eagerly recommended to readers of Louisa Morgan, Katherine Howe and Paula Brackston.

Fiona Alison

A WILD WINTER SWAN

Gregory Maguire, William Morrow, 2020, $27.99, hb, 240pp, 9780062980809 Fifteen-yearold Laura is trying to spin a fairytale. The protagonist, herself, is a neglected orphan living in a cold garret—the attic apartment of her Italian grandparents’ Manhattan townhouse. When a onewinged boy blunders out of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Wild Swans” into her room, what follows doesn’t stick to the familiar story line, any more than does Maguire’s willful protagonist. Yuletide gives the story a traditional season for European fairytales, while its snow-dusted 1960s Manhattan setting brings childhood magic to a modern (but smartphone-free) venue familiar from Hollywood movies.

Her brother and father dead, and her mother unable to care for her, Laura herself faces exile to a Canadian boarding school after expulsion from her former school for fighting another girl. Like many troubled children, Laura tries to meld her life into stories she’s read. Her effort is undercut, though, by her own stubborn streak of realism. “She wished her eyes were mossy green, but they were Italian brown, espresso brown.”

Is Laura a pitiful orphan or a self-centered brat—or is she a woman-child struggling to emerge from isolation and grief? In A Wild Winter Swan, Maguire gives us all three, and in doing so achieves something rare: a book that puts a clever adolescent girl into a quasifairytale without being twee or didactic. Another rarity: Laura’s acute observations of her world, the tumult of her emotions, and

her sexual unfolding never stray into rote sentimentality, yet a refreshing gentleness pervades the story.

In a masterful meld of fantasy, longing, and troublesome relationships, Maguire’s A Wild Winter Swan shows us, and its young protagonist, that heartfelt connections with other people—and with animals—can lay for us a bridge between life’s sorrows and its wonder. Jean Huets

THE FACTORY WITCHES OF LOWELL

C. S. Malerich, Tor, 2020, $14.99, pb, 128pp, 9781250756565

Hannah Pickering and Judith Whitaker are the leaders among a group of mill girls fighting back against the intensification of production at their mill in Lowell. When the owners’ representative raises the girls’ boardinghouse rent while cutting their weekly pay, the girls use magic to bind themselves into a union. As they work together, Judith finds that her organizing wisdom and determination fit well with Hannah’s magic Sight. The two are drawn to each other, connecting through magic as they work to hold the union together through a strike.

Unfolding within the eponymous mill town over a few weeks in 1840, The Factory Witches of Lowell is a fast-paced yet characterdriven book; the characters are not deeply established, but the depth of feeling between them is nicely sketched. Neither Hannah nor Judith develops very much over the course of the story. Where the novel really shines is in the portrayals of two supporting characters: the keeper of the girls’ boarding house, Mrs. Hanson, and Mr. Boott, the owners’ agent, whose descriptions and motivations are given their due with some good writing.

The Factory Witches of Lowell is a light, quick afternoon read. It succeeds at that. I did wonder what a story from Mrs. Hanson’s perspective would be like, but that is not this novel. Recommended for those looking for an inspirational novel, and those wanting a peek at the life of the mill girls who powered the U.S.’s industrialization. Anyone really seeking a novel about the territory where deep platonic female friendship crosses into love should look for another book.

Irene Colthurst

THE BRIGHT AND BREAKING SEA

Chloe Neill, Berkley, 2020, $15.99, pb, 384pp, 9781984806680

This, the start of a series, is historical fantasy that reimagines the Napoleonic Wars in an alternate world where magic runs along ley lines, ‘currents of power that feathered through the world’ and can be felt by those who are ‘Aligned’. They can use it, but the effects are dangerous and unpredictable. Society is multi-racial, and names are changed: England becomes the Saxon Isles, ruled by Queen Charlotte; Gerard is the Gallic emperor in exile at Montgraf. Despite lingering prejudice, women have a measure of equality and serve in the military. Kit Brightling, the protagonist, is not only Aligned, but a captain in the Isles’ navy. Though a foundling, she was reared with a group of other talented girls who have become her sisters.

Despite the presence of such familiar Regency motifs as aristocratic snobbery, a wastrel younger brother with gambling debts, and the shift of the protagonists’ initial antagonism to growing affection, this is a fast-paced tale of high adventure, featuring naval battles, the rescue of a prisoner from a pirate stronghold, the hunt for traitors. And heroes, male and female both, with superior talents to get the job done. The writing is taut and witty.

Strongly recommended.

Ray Thompson

THE FALCON QUEEN

Johanna Wittenberg, Shellback Studio, 2020, $13.99, pb, 282pp, 9781734566413

Norway, 9th century. Asa has won back her home, but her warriors are few, and the spring promises raiding parties led by men who would challenge the new queen’s rule. Hearing of Asa’s success, young Ragnhild runs away from her home to pledge herself as a shield maiden. On her journey, she’s captured by Hrolf, a trained berserker who plans to overthrow the queen. When Asa’s people rescue Ragnhild from Hrolf’s clutches, they unwittingly invite more danger to their land. Ragnhild’s father wants to marry his daughter off for Irish silver and his greed will cause him to join forces with Hrolf. Can Asa’s people find victory against the many threats sailing to their shores?

The second novel in The Norsewomen series brings to life the early reign of Queen Asa and the many challenges of the time. The story of Asa and Olaf, her lover and neighboring ruler, deepens while the author introduces new characters to propel the narrative forward. Asa is now the ruler of her father’s lands and must gather forces to survive the coming raiding season. Because the first half is set during the winter months, the urgency is less intense than book one but by no means less nuanced.

Wittenberg has a comfortable grasp on Viking culture, from practices preparing food for winter, weaponry and warcraft, as well as ship construction and repair. The varied women’s roles and their training as shield maidens are some of my favorite aspects of the series. Additionally, Asa and Hrolf both use magic to inhabit the bodies of animals, adding an enjoyable mystical layer to the story. The characters and time period come alive within Wittenberg’s prose, casting a spell on all who enter the halls of the Norsewomen series.

J. Lynn Else

CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULT

NEMESIS AND THE SWAN

Lindsay K. Bandy, Blackstone, 2020, $18.99, hb, 303pp, 9781094059471

Lindsay K. Bandy has written a brilliant young adult novel set during the French Revolution. In 1792, nineteen-yearold aristocrat Hélène d’Aubign is thrown into a prison cell, not knowing who accused her. The prison scenes alternate with chapters set at the beginning of the revolution, in 1789, where Hélène recounts the events that led her to prison. Eventually, the two timelines come together. Hélène’s progressive-minded governess teaches her about science and rationalism, and the importance of independent thinking. Hélène rejects the man her father has chosen for her and falls in love with a jeweler’s apprentice. They plan to run away together, but the revolution separates them. After Hélène’s home is destroyed, she escapes from her family and returns to Paris. But the city is greatly changed, and her lover is married to another. Living under an assumed name, Hélène finds work at a bookshop and is drawn to a painter named Jacques and his circle of revolutionaries. A set of brooches Hélène has brought from her family home contains a clue to a secret that has torn her family apart. How long can she hide her identity? And will Hélène’s search for the truth behind her family lead her to the guillotine?

Nemesis and the Swan is beautifully written, and Hélène is a strong, intelligent heroine readers will care about. The parallel timelines keep up the suspense, making readers wonder why Hélène was sent to prison, and whether she will come out alive. The novel draws readers into the world of the French Revolution, with many details of life in those turbulent times, for both nobles and commoners. The mystery behind Hélène’s family held my attention as well, and it takes several unexpected turns. Highly recommended for readers 12 and up.

Vicki Kondelik

WISHES, DARES, AND HOW TO STAND UP TO A BULLY

Darlene Beck-Jacobson, Creston Books, 2020, $17.99, hb, 285pp, 9781939547620

Eleven-year-old Jack, five-year-old Katy, and their mother are spending the summer living with the children’s paternal grandparents. Jack’s father is MIA in Vietnam, and his mother wanted to get out of their home which everyone agrees feels empty without him. In a new town, Jack makes friends with Jill, whose brother, Cody, has turned into a bully. Cody’s behavior changed when their stepfather moved in and started harassing

and taunting Cody. While fishing together, Jack and Jill discover that a one-eyed fish can grant wishes—and these two kids have some serious things to wish for. Jill goes first, and the friends discover that poorly worded wishes can have dangerous, unintended consequences. Will they be able to fix those consequences? And is there any way Jack can properly wish his father safely home?

This middle-grade novel is written in verse and narrated by Jack. The poetry is clear and concise and perfectly brings to life the emotional turmoil of Jack. Jacobson balances that strong emotion with the normal, fun events of childhood—camping, birthday parties, playing pirates—which keeps the story interesting but not overly intense. The world she builds is so realistic that I was shocked when the fish could truly grant wishes—but even in that Beck-Jacobson holds to reality, showing the reader that wishes are not simple things. It’s more important to give than to take, and being safe may be more important than being together. Highly recommended. Ages 8-13.

Elizabeth Caulfield Felt

LETTERS FROM CUBA

Ruth Behar, Nancy Paulsen Books, 2020, $17.99/C$23.99, hb, 272pp, 9780525516477

In 1937, life is becoming more and more difficult for Polish Jews. Eleven, nearly twelve, year-old Esther boards a steamship to join her father in a small Cuban village, determined to work hard to help raise the money to buy tickets for the rest of the family: her grandmother, mother, younger sister and three younger brothers. Cuba holds many surprises. The warm weather gives Esther physical freedom from long sleeves and wool tights; friendly people, both Cubans and fellow immigrants, welcome her; and new foods offer delightful new tastes. Esther and Papa work as itinerate peddlers. As news of the spread of Nazi Germany and the worsening conditions for Jews in Europe makes its way to Cuba, Esther worries that they will not earn the money to save their family in time. After making a dress for herself and two of her new friends, Esther discovers her designs and skill as a seamstress may be the answer she and Papa have needed.

This middle-grade epistolary novel offers a unique perspective to the typical Holocaust story. Esther is friendly, loyal, and optimistic even when things look dire. Behar provides a diverse cast of friends for Esther and her Papa including their landlords, a white doctor and his wife; a formerly enslaved Black Santeríafollowing woman and her granddaughter; and a Chinese shopkeeper and his nephew. But not all is well in Cuba. Behar also presents characters who are anti-immigrant and proNazi. Esther’s letters to her younger sister are heartfelt, but at times the dialogue feels forced, and in scenes where Esther and her friends confront those against them, it feels didactic. All said, however, this is a perspective that should be added to the canon of Holocaust fiction.

CHASING STARLIGHT

Teri Bailey Black, Tor Teen, 2020, $17.99, hb, 336pp, 9780765399519

Kate Hildebrand is a survivor. At the age of 13, kidnappers associated with her ne’erdo-well father locked her in a dark room for days, and upon her rescue, she learned her parents had not survived. Four years later, her aunt who took her in has remarried and sent her to Hollywood to live with her eccentric grandfather, a washed-up silent film actor. It’s 1938, the industry has changed, and the boarders who pay her grandfather’s expenses dream of stardom. Kate only wants to go to college and study astronomy.

On the day she arrives at her grandfather’s creepy old house, she witnesses a murder that turns out to be staged—the aspiring actors’ rehearsal. Later on, one of the more unpleasant boarders turns up dead under almost identical circumstances, and the leading suspect is 18-year-old Hugo Quick, the youngest boarder, to whom Kate has grown attached. In the meantime, the teenage girl next door, whose star appears to be rising, offers Kate the lucky break in film that she doesn’t want. But perhaps this is her grandfather’s chance to rekindle his career and end his depression.

Black’s writing is stylized and lush, befitting her subject matter. Details of 1930s Hollywood, including names of key figures during this Depression-era golden age of film, will delight fans of film history. Kate is a complex, engaging protagonist as she tries to move beyond her past and attain the life she wants instead of the one offering itself to her. Though it develops slowly, the mystery surrounding the murder holds the reader’s attention, with rippling effects as tabloid reporters prove more persistent than the police and an intertwined network of gangsters and industry bigwigs seek to ensure that justice will not be served.

Lyn Miller-Lachmann

DAUGHTERS OF JUBILATION

Kara Lee Corthron, Simon Pulse, 2020, $18.99/ C$25.99, hb, 352 pp, 9781481459501 In South Carolina in 1962, Jim Crow is king. Evalene Deschamps comes from a lineage of strong Black women, women endowed with a paranormal gift they call Jubilation, but sixteen-year-old Evvie struggles to learn to control this blessing. She gets help from her Grammie Attie and her churchgoing mother, but despite this Evvie’s powers grow stronger and are hard to manage. Meanwhile, handsome Clayton Andrews and Evvie spend time together, and their relationship gets more serious. But true love doesn’t run smoothly in the racist South. An ugly invader from the forgotten past threatens Evvie’s happiness, her family, and her romance. Will Evvie have the strength to overcome this threat, and will her burgeoning powers be enough to protect those she loves?

Kara Lee Corthron takes on difficult topics— racism, white supremacy, and sexual abuse— in her young adult novel, but the dangerous world she describes is also filled with moments of love and beauty. Readers will be inspired as Evvie confronts her demons and grows in strength. The story and setting will resonate with those readers whose own struggles echo Evvie’s. Others may find that this book opens their eyes to new realities, ones they have not directly experienced. In either case Daughters of Jubilation is a compelling read. Recommended.

Susan McDuffie

THE CLOCKWORK CROW

Catherine Fisher, Candlewick, 2020, $16.99, hb, 208pp, 9781536214918

Orphan Seren Rhys longs for a magical Christmas and new home with her godparents in Victorian Wales, but once she arrives, nothing is how she imagined. The family is gone, and Plas-y Fran is a cold, unwelcoming mansion run by a secretive housekeeper and several tightlipped servants. Disheartened and lonely, Seren retreats to her room, where she unwraps a parcel previously entrusted to her by a mysterious man at the rail station. It turns out to be a talking, mechanical crow with attitude, and together, they embark on an adventure to find her godparents’ missing son and bring him home.

There are some wonderfully imaginative moments in this story geared toward readers ages 9-12. Blood and tears are used to escape a snow globe world, and the fairies are menacing enough to impart a real sense of danger in Seren’s quest.

Author Catherine Fisher hits all the marks with a looming, gothic mansion, steampunk mechanical crow, sympathetic orphan, snow globes, Christmas, and fairies in this wintery tale of finding family and a place to call home. This is the first book in the Clockwork Crow Trilogy.

Mary Lawrence

A CEILING MADE OF EGGSHELLS

Gail Carson Levine, HarperCollins, 2020, $17.99/C$21.99, hb, 371pp, 9780062878199

Loma loves taking care of her young nieces and nephews—her “littles.” More than anything else, she wants to be a Mamá with a husband and children of her own. But Loma’s grandfather, Belo, an influential financer and advisor to Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, does not consider what she wants. He wants her to accompany him as he travels throughout Spain helping Jews and conducting royal business. At first, Loma is thrilled; she is seven years old when Belo notices her aptitude with numbers and singles her out from all her siblings. But as the years pass and Belo refuses to find her a husband, Loma resigns herself to having the littles as her only children. After the King and Queen inform Belo and his friend Don

Solomon Bohor, another royal advisor, of their plans to banish all the Jews from Spain, Belo is incapacitated by an illness. Fearing the royal couple may kidnap him and forcibly baptize him, now sixteenyear-old Loma must save her grandfather and herself.

A Ceiling Made of Eggshells is a sweeping story of the leadup to Spain’s expulsion of the Jews in 1492. Writing for middlegrade readers, Gail Carson Levine keeps the historical truth age-appropriate. Loma encounters prejudice and anti-Semitism within the first few chapters. She encounters it more intimately as she grows and the story progresses, learning that life for Jews in Spain is as precarious as a ceiling made of eggshells. Levine deftly inserts historical horrors without gratuitousness. Though the story is a bit slow in the beginning, the pace picks up, and the final chapters are fast-paced and filled with real danger. This is an important contribution to a topic rarely covered in children’s literature. Meg Wiviott

TRAITOR

Amanda McCrina, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2020, $18.99, hb, 368pp, 9780374313524

In the summer of 1944, the Russian army occupies the Polish city of Lwow. There, the novel opens on seventeen-year-old Tolya, a half-Polish, half-Ukrainian soldier in the Soviet Army. He has just shot and killed his own unit’s political officer and must flee. A squad of the still intact Ukrainian insurgent army finds and rescues him. Tolya, an expert rifle shooter, has value to multiple sides.

McCrina then skips back to 1941, as the same city prepares for the German invasion days away. Young Ukrainian Aleksey plots to free his father from the city’s main prison before the Germans arrive and slaughter or cart off all inmates. Alternating sections jump back and forth between Aleksey in 1941 and Tolya in 1944.

Both Ukraine and Poland have their own resistance fighters. The Germans and Russians each embed secret police into the general population, often using Polish and Ukrainian recruits. Blood enemies become allies for convenience or safety but then betray each other. Tolya and Aleksey trust no one. Their days and nights are filled with physical and psychological torture. Each is seriously wounded but must flee cold killers. They scrounge for food, medicine and weapons. Here and there, brutality is flecked with human kindness.

The plot of this YA novel can be summed up in one word: survival. The slices of life in those gruesome times, spawned by the unforgiving nationalism of Germans, Russians, Poles and Ukrainians, all ring true. Two maps and a glossary describe pertinent organizations and the characters. They help readers understand the many foreign names, shifting allegiances, and organizations in this interesting study of a little-known but terrifying and complex conflict. G. J. Berger

ELEANOR, ALICE, AND THE ROOSEVELT GHOSTS

Dianne K. Salerni, Holiday House, 2020, $17.99, hb, 240pp, 9780823446971

Ghosts have been categorized into three types: Unawares, who are unaware of being a ghost and do not bother humans; Friendlies, who interact with humans and are harmless; and Vengefuls, who are violent and murderous. When 12-year-old Alice Roosevelt (daughter of Teddy, who is not yet president) is sent to stay with her pregnant Aunt Bye, a ghost erupts in front of her in the hall. The ghost is incorrectly labeled Friendly by investigators, and Aunt Bye decides they can keep living in the house. Alice invites her 12-year-old cousin Eleanor to help her research the past owners of the house and figure out who the ghost is/was. In their investigations, they discover that a dangerous Vengeful haunts the house in which Alice was born—and erupted only days after her birth and the deaths of her mother and grandmother.

The concept for this story is totally bizarre— but this book is a delight! Alice and Eleanor are sympathetic and charming characters, and Salerni develops their personalities, fashion, and physical attributes so they are easily recognizable to readers of history. Other historical figures, such as Nellie Bly, Nicola Tesla, and a whole gob of Roosevelts including (of course) Franklin, pop in and out of the story. Salerni mixes the real with the not real in a way that related to me as a person currently living through the Covid-19 pandemic: What should be normal isn’t, and what isn’t is, and you just have to roll with it.

A Roosevelt family tree in the front and an Author’s Note at the end help separate fact from fiction. An immensely fun read. Ages 9-12.

Elizabeth Caulfield Felt

JO & LAURIE

Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz, Putnam, 2020, $18.99, hb, 384pp, 9781984812018

I am a forty-year-old English teacher, and I somehow missed the novel and the dozens of film and television adaptations of Louisa May Alcott’s classic, Little Women. The novel Jo & Laurie was my first experience with the March and Laurence families. I am in love! You do not have to be a fan of Little Women to read this book, but you will be after you finish it.

Celebrated young adult fiction authors, Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz’s novel reimagines Jo March’s struggle to create Good Wives, the sequel to Little Women. This skillful retelling blends elements from Little Women and Louisa May Alcott’s life. The narrative explores the pressure Jo March felt to satisfy her readers’ hunger for a sequel. More importantly, the story explores Jo’s struggle to support her family and assert her independence without pushing away the people she loves the most.

This intense love story is a gateway for new readers into a celebrated classic. The authors seamlessly integrate key plot points and effortlessly develop characters from the original work, which allows readers to slide into the world of Orchard House. While this novel reveals many of the key events in Alcott’s original work, this retelling feels so complete that Little Women will serve as a must-read prequel for readers who meet Jo and her sisters through the eyes of Stohl and de La Cruz. As the Marches struggle with poverty, illness, separation, and boredom, their ability to love deeply transcends their pain.

I recommend this novel to any teen or adult searching for a way to navigate the claustrophobic, yet essential nature of love and family. Melissa Warren

THE SNOW FELL THREE GRAVES DEEP

Allan Wolf, Candlewick, 2020, $21.99/C$28.99, hb, 416pp, 9780763663247

Allan Wolf’s fascinating historical novel-inverse graphically retells the story of the Donner Party using the voices of actual characters who lived or died in the snow.

Similar in form to Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology, the book is a collection of short free-verse poems. While Masters portrayed daily life in a small Illinois town, Wolf takes readers through a year of shared horror and suffering in the winter of 1846-47.

The Donner party was a wagon train of 89 people, about half of them children, struggling to cross the Sierra Mountains into California. Trapped by an early winter, almost half the party died of exposure and starvation as men and women ate their dead and sometimes killed to stay alive in the accumulating snow.

Using edited excerpts from letters written by his characters and plausible incidents based on his own research, Wolf’s monologues expose the emotional heart of this tragic expedition.

The book doesn’t shortchange the horror, but it has moments of poignant beauty. It is easy to read and follow, despite the use of what seems like dozens of individualized voices. The reader has the sense of traveling across the western United States with several families and into the mountains as murder, abandonment, brutality, betrayal, love and more occur along the way.

An invented figure Wolf calls “Hunger” appears periodically to provide an overview of events. Particularly effective is a scattershot poetic technique Wolf uses to depict falling snow and the people who die in it, which gives the reader a sense of accumulating tragedy through time. David Drum

CONFERENCES The Society organizes biennial conferences in the UK, North America, and Australasia. Contact Richard Lee <richard@historicalnovelsociety.org> (UK), Jenny Quinlan <jennyq@historicaleditorial.com> (North America), or Elisabeth Storrs <contact@hnsa.org.au> (Australasia).

© 2020, the Historical Novel Society, ISSN: 1471-7492 | Issue 94, November 2020