Book Reviews

REVIEWS

PRIESTESS OF POMPEII

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BIBLICAL

MIRIAM’S SONG

Jill Eileen Smith, Revell, 2021, $15.99, pb, 416pp, 9780800734725 1526 BC. After Pharaoh’s decree that all Hebrew boys are to be killed at birth, Miriam must learn to trust God when her mother risks their lives hiding the newly born Moses. Her parents believe Moses is their “tikvah,” their hope, for deliverance. Placed in the waters and discovered by an Egyptian princess, Moses’s story from birth through life in the wilderness is explored through the eyes of his sister, Miriam.

The first word of the prologue floored me: Hatshepsut. Moses’ time in Egypt is regularly ascribed to Seti I or Rameses II, with his life primarily calculated to 1391–1271 BC. I was intrigued by this earlier time period and the unique political tension during Hatshepsut’s reign. The portrayal of Hatshepsut as a woman of strength and determination is brief but well done. However, as often occurs in Biblical fiction, details on Egypt aren’t always accurate. For example, characters travel from “Thebes” (note: Egyptians called it Waset) to a place called “Rameses.” Is this the mortuary temple built by Rameses II, reigning between 1279 to 1213 BC? If so, it’s a mention that’s 300 years too early. Conversely, Hebrew life is extensively researched, and the difficulties they faced are tangible.

As with Hatshepsut, I enjoyed how fleshed out Miriam, Moses, and Zipporah were. They pose faith-challenging questions (Why doesn’t God speak to Miriam as He does Moses? Why does God keep Moses from his family for so long?), and these struggles develop them into complex individuals. Yet, while there’s a strong focus on Miriam’s life in the first half, by the time of the plagues, she’s overshadowed by Moses. Including Moses’s and Zipporah’s voices draws the plot away from our title character. That being said, fans of Biblical fiction will enjoy a feminine retelling of the book of Exodus.

J. Lynn Else

CLASSICAL

Sandra C. Hurt, Hawthorne, 2020, $29.99, hb, 334pp, 9781792334887

Italy, 60 BCE: A baby girl is left exposed to the elements after her mother dies giving the child life. The infant is found and adopted by a loving couple from Pompeii, who name their new daughter Rufilla. Due to her difficult birth, the baby develops seizures but grows and thrives despite this malady. During a visit to the sanctuary of the healing god, Asclepius, a priest predicts that Rufilla possesses unusual powers, including the gift of prophecy. Even as a young child, Rufilla feels intuitive sympathy with the myth of Ariadne and the labyrinth.

As she grows Rufilla participates in the coming-of-age rituals of the goddess Artemis Arktoi with other girls in her community and looks forward to marriage, but her life takes an unexpected turn when her betrothed perishes at sea. Bereft, Rufilla undertakes a different journey, traveling to Greece and experiencing the rituals of the Greek gods and goddesses who inhabit that land. Her new name, Arianna, honors the heroine of her mythos.

Hurt has created an impeccably researched vision of life in the 1st-century BC Roman Empire. Beautiful illustrations, maps, and a gorgeous book design add to the appeal of this volume. Rufilla’s journey to adulthood will resonate with every woman, and the rituals honoring the gods and goddesses of that time still shine brightly and illuminate our own psyches. The author quotes C. G. Jung as saying, “The task is to give birth to the ancient in a new time.” Hurt has succeeded in bringing those past days to life in a novel full of meaning for those who live today.

Susan McDuffie

ARIADNE

Jennifer Saint, Flatiron, 2021, $26.99, hb, 304pp, 9781250773586

You all know the myth. Theseus, Prince of Athens, wins undying fame by penetrating an impregnable Cretan labyrinth and killing the Minotaur, a monster that eats humans. But what happens afterward to Ariadne, the Cretan princess without whose assistance Theseus would have failed, is another story, largely forgotten.

Saint therefore focuses on Ariadne; her younger sister, Phaedra; their mother, Pasiphae; and women everywhere, whether abused wives, daughters forced into grotesque marriages, or victims of war and invasion. With psychological astuteness, Saint also imagines the Minotaur’s effect on the family, both in private and in public opinion, for he’s Ariadne’s half-brother, born of Poseidon’s rape of Pasiphae.

Where Mary Renault portrayed Theseus as the classic hero in The King Must Die, here, he’s charismatic and fearless, all right, but utterly lacking empathy, needing constant adoration. When one trophy loses its luster, he goes off seeking others—much like the gods, who care only for how many worshipers they have and what gifts they receive, which they soon put aside. What a brilliant concept: The heroic ideal is a narcissistic lie.

However, Ariadne falters in the telling. One passage may soar, only for the next to plunge into triteness or the obvious. Many emotional moments depend on barrages of rhetorical questions, a weak, overused device, and Ariadne’s voice and thinking process frequently sound modern. Phaedra, though an intriguing character, changes from child to adult virtually overnight.

I also sense that, in Ariadne’s universe, whatever men touch will invariably crumble, die, or rot, whereas only women may nurture, behave honestly, or remain loyal. This pattern undermines the nuance the author deployed to re-create her two main characters and her otherwise fresh reinterpretation of the myth.

Ariadne, though thought-provoking, is an inconsistent, uneven novel.

Larry Zuckerman

ANCIENT HISTORY

BRIDE OF THE BUDDHA

Barbara McHugh, Monkfish, 2021, $17.95/ C$26.95/£12.99, pb, 374pp, 9781948626231 5th century BCE: Prince Siddhartha abandons his wife and his infant son, departing his palace and his life of royal ease to undertake a quest for supreme wisdom. Siddhartha eventually becomes the Buddha, the Awakened One. That story is well known; certainly, all Buddhist practitioners have heard the tale. But what of those he left behind?

This luminous novel tells the story of Yasodhara, the Buddha’s wife. The story begins with her early girlhood and first confrontation with death, and guilt. The young maiden experiences joy and the sensual pleasures of life upon her marriage to the handsome Prince Siddhartha, and later faces the impermanence of these. Eventually, Yasodhara undertakes her own spiritual pilgrimage. Her quest parallels that of her husband, now known as the enlightened one, the Tathagatha. This re-imagining of how things might have been is skillfully interwoven with other tales and figures from the early Buddhist canon, most particularly the story of Ananda, the Buddha’s faithful companion and attendant.

McHugh envisions a life for Yasodhara that will resonate with spiritual seekers, feminists, and other readers as well. Lovely, poetic

prose illuminates this novel of the historical Buddha, his wife, and his followers. McHugh gives elegant new voice and form to this ancient story, telling the story from a female’s unique perspective, and in doing so creates a fresh tale that will both entertain and inspire readers. Recommended.

Susan McDuffie

1ST CENTURY

FROM THE ASHES

Melissa Addey, Letterpress Publishing, 2021, $12.99, pb, 316pp, 9781910940815 In 79 AD Pompeii, a slave and scribe, Althea, is offered to Marcus, a former soldier, and operator of the amphitheater. Althea’s master makes a gift of her to sweeten a deal with Marcus on behalf of Emperor Titus. As manager of the Colosseum, under construction in Rome, Marcus will arrange its inauguration and create the Games. It’s a challenging appointment, for the Colosseum will be ready in less than a year. Marcus accepts the lucrative assignment since he wishes to retire on a farm. He arrives in Rome with Althea, and she assists Marcus in dealing with construction foremen, painters, animal trainers, the gladiators, and others. Marcus strives to coordinate the work and ensure its timely completion to his exacting details and specifications. However, upon hearing of Mount Vesuvius’s eruption, Marcus rushes back to ash-covered Pompeii in search of his wife and child. Althea covers for Marcus, struggling to continue his work and shield Marcus from the Emperor’s wrath for any delays.

Melissa Addey notes that she based this series while pondering about “the backstage team of the Colosseum.” While the Roman Games of such immense proportion—much like the Olympic Games—would have required a permanent and experienced group, there is hardly any mention of them in history texts. Addey had to imagine most of them, including the intricate details of the Colosseum’s construction. She recounts them with remarkable ingenuity, using her skill as a historical fiction author and her dedicated research and travels. The sections describing the aftereffects of the disastrous eruption of Mount Vesuvius, in Althea’s firstperson voice, make us feel as if we are there with the characters sensing their anguish and pain. Also, the details of that period’s Roman architecture, customs, mannerisms, relationships, and cuisine are a pleasure to read. Readers will eagerly await the sequel. Highly recommended.

Waheed Rabbani

JEWEL OF THE NILE

Tessa Afshar, Tyndale, 2021, $25.99/$34.99, hb, 432pp, 9781496428752

AD 56. Chariline has always been told that her father, the man who spoiled her late Roman mother, is dead. With her morose aunt, she travels to Cush to visit her grandfather, the Roman official for Cush, and grandmother. By chance, she hears her grandfather mention that her father is serving in the Cushite palace. Filled with hope, she propels herself into a quest to find a man she’s never met. Seeking an old friend of her mother’s, Chariline stows away aboard a cargo vessel and soon must trust her life to the ship’s handsome young captain, Theo, as she becomes increasingly ill during the voyage. Her questions will take her from Cush, to Caesarea, and across the Mediterranean Sea, all the way to the city of Rome. What she doesn’t know, however, is that someone from the palace has sent a killer on her trail to put an end to her questions.

Afshar starts with two characters of faith, both of whom experience a deeper understanding of Jesus’s message through various trials. Chariline prays for answers but tends to hear responses she wants, which ends up endangering her life. Despite her desperate need to find her father, Chariline must find a way to trust the Lord’s plan instead of her own. Characters from Afshar’s earlier novels including Thief of Corinth (HNR 85) and Daughter of Rome (HNR 91) assist Chariline in her quest, particularly Theo, who becomes a main character in this storyline. His love of sailing, its techniques, and the crew of his ship provided some of my favorite moments. Rich in emotion and heart, Jewel of the Nile is another example of Afshar’s creative talent in bringing to life great characters, narratives with insightful spiritual depth, and breathtaking historical detail. Recommended.

J. Lynn Else

THE BORDER WOLVES

Damion Hunter, Canelo, 2021, £1.99/$3.99, ebook, 400pp, 9781800322882

This is set in the time of Emperor Domitian’s Dacian Wars. The story flits between Dacia and Rome, following the final story of the house of Appius Julianus. The main protagonist, Correus, has finally achieved his ambition of being in command of a legion, despite his illegitimate lineage that was changed when his father officially adopted him. Correus’s wife, Ygerna, is establishing her role as an effective member of the family, despite her British lineage, and determined to stay with Correus on his travels. Flavius, his half-brother, is navigating the whims of the emperor, mending his relationship with his wife, and thinking of the woman who he longs for. Meanwhile in Rome, domestic matters have come to a head between their father, his lover and his mistress. The story also follows the Dacians, namely the relationship between siblings Decebalus, Diegis and Ziais.

These are only a few of the stories; the author has managed to encompass two different empires, several families, and hundreds of individuals in one novel, while all the while enabling the reader to escape into this period. The novel is action-packed and descriptive at the same time, which lends to the successful scenes that the reader can enjoy.

Clare Lehovsky

A MAN AT ARMS

Steven Pressfield, W. W. Norton, 2021, $27.95, hb, 336pp, 9780393540970

Jerusalem and the Sinai Desert, 55 AD. Two decades have passed since the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, and the fledgling Christian church struggles to survive amidst the brutal fist of the Roman Empire. When a letter from Paul the Apostle makes its way to Corinth, Roman authorities mean to stop it by any means necessary. They choose solitary mercenary Telamon to track down the letter, because he seems impenetrable to any incentive other than money.

Jewish street urchin David attaches himself to Telamon, and it is through his eyes that we learn about the man at arms. A hardened soldier, Telamon has walled himself off from human relationships and refuses even to name his horses, because such an action would give them a wedge into his cold heart.

The man and the boy set off across the desert after their quarry, a mysterious proselyte named Michael. Telamon teaches David the ways of a Roman legionary, and soon enough they reach the man Michael, accompanied by his daughter, who doesn’t speak. Telamon’s goal then switches to save them and the powerful words of Paul the Apostle.

The desert becomes a harsh but glittering world under Pressfield’s deft authorial hands. The relentless chase that occupies much of the book is filled both with wonder and terror, and some parts of the adventure require readers who have strong stomachs. Replete with Roman military terms, the book provides a vivid look into a legionary’s life. Historical research and a deeply human story bring the world to life in this compelling adventure.

Xina Marie Uhl

3RD CENTURY

EMPEROR’S SPEAR

Alex Gough, Canelo, 2021, £8.99, pb, 250pp, 9781800322165

It’s 213 AD, and if Centurion Sergius Gaius Silus thought he’d left behind the “secret service” of the Arcani, he has another thought coming. When spymaster Oclatinius seeks him out, and the latest mission turns out to involve Atius, Silus’s fellow Arcanus and best friend, who has gone missing in the dangerous

lands of Germania while on a secret mission of his own, there is no refusing. So Silus leaves his peaceful new life and his not-quite-ward (it’s complicated…) and is soon plunged back into his former world of danger, violence, and secrecy. Can Silus find his friend in time? And what is Oclatinius hiding, about both Atius’s mission, and unpleasant Emperor Caracalla’s plans for the tribes and lands of Germania?

This is the fourth instalment in a series – but Gough never leaves the reader in doubt, as he tells his stirring tale of espionage, friendship, and derring-do. Silus and Atius are appealing heroes facing mighty dilemmas as best they can. Half-civilised, half-wild Germania makes for an atmospheric setting, and life at the Empire’s edge is portrayed with quick vividness.

Chiara Prezzavento

8TH CENTURY

THE LAST BERSERKER

Angus Donald, Canelo, 2021, £3.39/$5.99, ebook, 360pp, 9781800321861

In a small village on an unremarkable island, Bjarki is saved from being hanged by a secretive merchant, Valtyr. Completely baffled by the turn in his life, and mourning his removal from his sweetheart, the young man – along with the determined and aggressive warrior-woman, Tor – embarks on a journey that he could never have imagined possible. From the farmlands of Jutland to the deep forests of Saxony, Bjarki and Tor fight, learn and experience life itself. It’s the 8th century in Northern Europe and, amid the clashes between pagan and Christian forces, they are bounced from one situation to another until he discovers a talent he never knew existed and is not certain he wants.

Fiction based in fact, The Last Berserker is both entertaining and intriguing. The characters – all of them – are three-dimensional, the setting invokes history, and the action, in all its bloodsoaked glory, is breathtaking. There are twists and turns to satisfy the desire for deep plots; there are historical battles told, almost firsthand. There is even a real honest-to-goodness plot twist near the end.

Alan Cassady-Bishop

THE OATH

A. E. Linden, She Writes, 2021, $17.95, pb, 336pp, 9781647421144

The Oath is a tale of Druids and Saxon Christians in 8th-century Britain. The Mother Goddess-worshipping Druids, executed as witches if discovered, survive in remote, hidden communities. Two of the three protagonists are Druids: Caelyn, a priest and consort of the High Priestess, and Annwr, the Priestess’s sister, captured and enslaved by the Saxons fifteen years before, who’s served as nurse to Aleswina, a Saxon princess. The third is Aleswina, now a novitiate in a convent and about to be married against her will.

Forced by their separate crises to flee together across dangerous Saxon territory, they face constant challenges. Both Druids want to be in charge, and Aleswina seems inept and timid. Their conflicts are both profound and funny. Each grows through confronting dire situations as they try to reach their goals. As his Druid teacher told Caelyn, “Any quest is as much about overcoming flaws within yourself as climbing mountains or slaying dragons.”

The story rolls along at a lively pace, rich with details of the times and a wide cast of characters. What is known about Druids, their worship of Mother Earth and their animistic beliefs, here combines with believable rituals created by Linden. Though she takes liberties with history and Druid religious practices, this doesn’t read like a fantasy novel. Druids never recorded their secret rituals, so an author is free to create the mysterious. Those interested in goddess-worshipping religions will be drawn to the novel. Any reader curious about 8th-century Britain will enjoy Linden’s innovative focus on the little-known Druids as well as early medieval Christians. Her plotting, shifting points of view of the three engaging protagonists, and evocative writing style make The Oath a pleasure to read. Highly recommended!

Jinny Webber

9TH CENTURY

THE RAIDER BRIDE

Johanna Wittenberg, Shellback Studio, 2021, $13.99, pb, 236pp, 9781734566420

Norway, 822 AD. Ragnhild fought a war to avoid being married off by her father like a peace cow to an Irish king. After her father’s killed by the same king, her brother Harald controls the family lands and denies Ragnhild her inheritance. To prove herself, she joins her brother in avenging their father. What her crew never expects is Harald’s betrayal and his plan to follow through with giving Ragnhild to the Irish king for a chest of silver. With Ragnhild stuck in a foreign land and her crew now being pursued by Harald’s, what could the Norns, weavers of fate, possibly have in store for them next?

Wittenberg again delivers a strongly researched, high-stakes story. Ragnhild and her crew take center stage in book three of the Norsewoman series. Sailing scenes aboard Raider Bride are well nuanced as the warriors cross dangerous seas, both as the hunter and the hunted. For this installment, we get to explore a lush Irish landscape as Ragnhild must learn a new way of life. She navigates through differences as small as mounting a horse to larger concerns like learning the language and their strange sailing vessels. I thoroughly enjoyed the cultural depth that permeates Wittenberg’s pages.

My only gripe would be Ragnhild’s treatment of those who offer her kindness as she adapts to her new home. Her stubbornness and hostile attitude went on a bit too long for my liking. That being said, Wittenberg has a talent for bringing this time period to life. This is a great series with strong characters and an immersive setting that I’ve been privileged to share reviews on. Bravo, Ms. Wittenberg!

J. Lynn Else

10TH CENTURY

THE WIDOW QUEEN

Elzbieta Cherezinska (trans. Maya ZakrzewskaPim), Forge, 2021, $22.99, hb, 512pp, 9781250218001

Set mainly in Poland, Denmark, and Sweden from about 984 to 997 AD, The Widow Queen is the story of Swietoslawa, daughter of Duke Mieszko I of Poland, whose lands are constantly under siege. Mieszko is a schemer, and he plans to promise his children in marriage, including Swietoslawa, in order to form alliances. Promises are either kept or broken, depending on what is best for Mieszko. Swietoslawa secretly wants to rule on her own but knows marriage is inevitable. She soon begins to live up to her name, which means “the bold one.” All of the players in Mieszko’s game are present in this book—Swietoslawa, her brother Boleslaw, their sisters, and all the suitors, wives, lovers, and husbands. Mieszko’s formidable wife at the time, Oda, is a threatening presence, constantly scheming to take Poland for her own sons. This the first book in The Bold series.

This is an interesting read. I learned a lot about the rulers and politics of Poland, Denmark, and Sweden at that time. Swietoslawa is either a real person, a legend, or a combination of the two, who may have been married to Eric the Victorious of Sweden and Sweyn (or Sven) Forked Beard of Denmark. She also may have been known as Sigrid Storrada. In The Widow Queen, the author combines legend with fact and fiction to share a tale of war, betrayal, love, hate, and revenge, as thrones change hands, and blood flows in constant quests for power.

This book would have benefited from a cast of characters in the front, as there are many players from different countries and many names to remember. However, I felt instantly transported and learned so much about this time period. Fans of 10th-century historical fiction will enjoy this entertaining but bloody tale.

Bonnie DeMoss

THE WOLF HUNT

Tim Hodkinson, Head of Zeus, 2020, £8.99, pb, 469pp, 9781800246409

The third book in the Whale Road Chronicles has our Viking warrior band despairing, as they believe they have been cursed by a witch. They are now exiled from Norway by King Erik, and as Erik goes to war against his halfbrothers Olaf and Sigrod, The Wolf Coats feel they have no choice but to agree to join their forces against King Erik. However, the battle proves fierce and bloody, and as Erik’s forces close in they capture the Wolf Coats, determined to bring them all to a brutal and bloody end. Taking a chance to escape across the mountains, the Wolf Coats meet with foes

old and new. Before long they must do battle again to get back to their ship and return to Iceland to save Einar’s mother, under threat from his father, Jarl Thorfinn of Orkney.

The adventures, as in previous instalments, come thick and fast, and the occasional gore is leavened by humour, fast-paced storytelling, and excellent character development. The characters are gently (re)introduced in the opening chapter, and while this book could work as a stand-alone title, I recommend reading the entire series, not just for better understanding of the overarching plot and the characters’ backstories but because these books are such stonking good reads. Perfect for fans of Theodore Brun and James Wilde.

Lisa Redmond

12TH CENTURY

THE TRAVELS OF IBN THOMAS

James Hutson-Wiley, New Generation Publishing, 2020, $2.99, ebook, 239pp, B08P522C63

The world at the beginning of the 12th century is a complicated place for a child born of the union between a Christian father and a Muslim mother. It becomes even more complicated when orphaned Thomas is uprooted from his life in Egypt and sent off to England, there to be raised by Christian monks.

The Holy Church (or rather some of the shadier organisations within it) are to play a central role in Thomas’s life. After arranging for him to be trained as a physician at the famous school in Salerno, the Church ensures Thomas ends up with a cushy job in Sicily. In return, he is to spy for the Church and poison the young Ruggerio of Sicily. Our protagonist refuses and is forced to flee for his life. Over the coming years, Thomas will survive pirates, befriend a hashashin, be sent on a secret mission to Damascus and, finally, make it to Jerusalem where he is determined to find out what happened to his father.

Hutson-Wiley is evidently knowledgeable about the complexities of the time, be they the divisions within the Holy Church or the enmity between the Sunni and Shia Muslims. There is a lot of detail in this book: about the texts Thomas studies, about the spices he uses, about how to make soap, about various methods of worship. Sometimes, all this detail causes the pace to drag.

The narrative is well-written with excellent descriptive passages. At times, it reads very much like a memoir, which creates a distance between the reader and the described events. However, for those fascinated by the religious friction in the time of the first crusades, The Travels of Ibn Thomas is an elucidating and recommended read.

Anna Belfrage Ben Kane, Orion, 2021, £14.99, hb, 385pp, 9781409197799

In this sequel to Lionheart, Ben Kane again shows that he knows his new era inside out and can tell a wonderful story. This fast-paced, impeccably researched book is a joy to read – and even better for an author’s note that reveals much of it truly happened! The story opens in 1189, with King Richard newly crowned. Ferdia (known as Rufus) is now established as one of the King’s close companions, and all are eagerly awaiting the promised Crusade to free Jerusalem. But first, both Richard and Rufus have unfinished business to sort out. Eventually, their epic journey across Europe and the Holy Land begins, lengthened by disputes with Philippe of France, the odd local conflict, and the need to meet Joanna and Berengaria, Richard’s sister and wife. Rufus and Joanna’s liaison would be fatal if the King discovered it. Finally, they arrive in the Holy Land, and the work they came for can begin.

The battle for Acre is stirringly described, as are the encounters with Saladin’s forces elsewhere. If battle scenes are your thing, they are here aplenty, with mamluk arrows darkening the sky, and crusader crossbows inflicting terrible damage. But for me, the most interesting parts of the book are the insights you get into both Muslim and Christian politics of the time, and into Richard’s character and decisions.

If you’re a fan of Ben Kane’s Roman work, and/or of the Plantagenets themselves, you will love this book; the history is just as solid, the storyline and characters as engaging, the action as fast-moving as Lionheart. I hope he’s busy with the third!

Nicky Moxey

13TH CENTURY

THE LAST CRUSADE

S. J. A. Turney, Canelo, 2021, £8.99, pb, 280pp, 9781788639033

Northern Spain, 1212. Following victory at the Battle of Navas, three Templar Knights return to their home preceptory of Rourell. But all is not well. Arnau and his friends discover a devious plot to discredit their beloved Preceptrix and deprive Rourell of vital land endowments. The three friends determine to right this wrong. There ensues a chase across the Catalan landscape, interspersing rustling incriminating documents from hilltop fortresses with bloody bandit attacks. As the friends reach each monastery, castle, or cathedral, new layers of conspiracy call their religious vows into question, and when a crusade against Cathar heretics is called, Arnau and his friends must make their own decisions. Turney vividly recreates the medieval world, in which documents are as powerful as swords, and God is always watching. As evil is exposed, Arnau is forced to reconsider his religion, his secular loyalties, and his allegiances.

The book is the sixth in a series, with tantalising memories of Arnau’s previous adventures. The legal conspiracy to destroy Arnau’s beloved Preceptrix is complex – so complex, I thought, this is like real life. And, in an end note, Turney reveals that most of his characters appear in the historical record. Turney writes competently, making a raid on a library as tense as a raid on an enemy encampment. It’s not a book for the squeamish. In these wars of religion, terrible atrocities are committed by both sides, and Turney describes them unflinchingly. The battle scenes are well written, detailed, and compelling. The few female characters are not deeply written, but this is a book about Templar Knights, men sworn to religion, and Arnau’s inner life is with God, not women. Recommended for readers who want to try to understand what it meant to be a Knight of God.

Helen Johnson

14TH CENTURY

MURDER IN THE CLOISTER

Tania Bayard, Severn House, 2021, $28.99/£20.99, hb, 224pp, 9780727889454

This is Book Four of the Christine de Pizan mysteries. In late March 1399, Christine, a scribe for King Charles VI in Paris, is sent to the priory of Poissy, some 15 miles west. A young nun has been murdered. Under the pretext of helping with priory manuscripts, Christine is charged with uncovering the murderer and the motive.

Twisting, complex plot lines hint at sorcery, the supernatural, mental illness, cruelty, and greed. In contrast is the beautiful chanting of the Divine Office—the nuns’ main reason for maintaining the richly appointed priory. Endless rain throughout the story leads to drama later in the book. The intricate plot ends in a simple resolution that by no means answers all the questions raised by the murder. I hope that Book Five is in the pipeline.

Constant feminist remarks are jarring and may seem anachronistic, but Christine was a real historical figure who is considered the first professional woman writer. In real life, she was outspoken in her defense of women. The epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter—many from Christine’s writings—are fascinating and help set the medieval tone.

This story gleams in a rich pageant of late medieval French life. Fans of religious historical mysteries should enjoy this.

Elizabeth Knowles

David Gilman, Head of Zeus, 2021, £18.99, hb, 534pp, 9781788544986

Winter 1364. Once again, war between England and France is coming. Sir Thomas Blackstone, Edward III’s Master of War, is sent to secure Brittany for England. In the throes of battle he rescues a young Castilian boy, Lazaro. The boy carries a deadly secret – he has witnessed the murder of the Queen of Castile. The main suspects are Don Pedro, the King of Castile, and Velasquita Alcon de Lugo, a witch who serves him. When a French army threatens Castile, Blackstone and his men are given the job of rescuing the King and bringing him to the safety of English lands. The stage is set for a tale of battle, murder, assassination attempts and general all-round mayhem. This is the latest instalment in the excellent Master of War series, but can be read and enjoyed as a stand-alone novel. With a strong plot and characters, the story is fast-paced and exciting, full of intrigue, with action sequences which are realistic without being overly graphic. The tension is held right to the end. This is a superb tale – historical fiction at its best. Highly recommended.

Mike Ashworth

A FLIGHT OF ARROWS

A. J. MacKenzie, Canelo, 2021, £9.99, pb, 384pp, 9781800322790

In the summer of 1346, King Edward III is determined to make a breakthrough in the endless war by invading Brittany, where a handful of Norman potentates seem ready to join the English against France. Only things don’t go as planned, with enemies, doubtful allies, and the King’s own squabbling captains all getting in the way. A good thing that Edward can count on Merrivale. Simon Merrivale is a commoner – but, as a herald, he enjoys an unusual degree of freedom and influence. When he sets out to investigate the suspicious death of a young knight, he soon begins to uncover threads that seem to explain why the French are always a step ahead. Is there conspiracy afoot? Was Edmund Bray killed because of it? How does it all tie back to the murder of the King’s father, Edward II, twenty years ago? A. J. MacKenzie’s new series starts with an intricate tale of war and espionage, and a likeable, interesting hero. Although a couple of things failed to convince me (especially Merrivale’s role in the resolution), I very much enjoyed the jaunty pace, vivid descriptions, and interesting characters.

Chiara Prezzavento

15TH CENTURY

ACTS OF HOPE

Martin Elsant, G&M Publishers, 2020, $8.49, pb, 350pp, 9798686990975

In this sequel to Acts of Faith, author and Israeli radiologist Elsant creates a learned, stirring stand-alone novel about the Portuguese Inquisition and its sequels set in the 15th century.

Maria Lopes, the central, but not only significant, figure here, has been a New Christian in her homeland, rejecting her Jewishness to save herself and her family. When she flees to England, she has decided to immerse herself in her Jewish background while maintaining a Protestant facade. There she meets Dr. William Ames, a successful physician and an observant Jew only in the company of other Jews. Maria and William marry, and in so doing, Maria moves beyond her love of Ari, a devout Christian, who remains in her homeland.

As a successful businesswoman, Maria is asked to take on the lead role in transporting Jews out of Spain and Portugal to the new Jewish settlement of Tiberius. Not unpredictably, the paths of Maria and Ari, a pilgrim to the Holy Land, converge. As Maria works to save Jews from the Inquisitors, Ari has been compiling stories of devout Catholics who have escaped Iberia after being labeled as Protestants, their assets seized and their lives threatened. This was a shocking revelation to me—that Jews were not the Inquisitors’ only target.

Elsant’s novel is peopled with fascinating, compelling characters—including a Jewish pirate! Impeccable research about the atrocities of the Inquisition, political realities, and Jewish tradition fill these pages; the Author’s Note also provides some deep background. Other than the fact that I felt Elsant’s presentation often seems pedantic, this is an important read for those interested in the period. I look forward to the third installment.

Ilysa Magnus

BLOOD LIBEL

Michael Lynes, Independently published, 2021, £9.99, pb, 260pp, 9789948258667

Seville, 1495: Three years after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, some remain, having converted, at least publicly, to Catholicism. Isaac Camarino Alvarez is one, attending secret prayer meetings and keeping a ham on view in the window that only the maidservant eats, with the Torah scrolls in a cupboard. He has taken part in Holy Week processions and named his daughter after Queen Isabella, patron of the Grand Inquisitor, Tomás de Torquemada – who has travelled to the city with his catspaw and fellow Dominican Alonso de Hojeda to seek out heretics and crypto-Jews.

The decapitated corpse of a child is discovered, and a hue and cry goes up that this is the work of the Jews, who have murdered the boy to mix his blood into Passover bread – the blood libel. After the death of his childhood friend in the macabre, baroque spectacle of an auto da fé, followed by his wife at the hands of the inquisitors (who favour a precursor of water-boarding), Isaac believes that the only way to halt the persecution of his fellow conversos is to discover the real killer.

Lynes tells his story through the parallel points of view of Isaac, in an edgy thirdperson present tense, and Alonso, writing a confessional diary. Isaac’s reluctance to flee with his family to safer Portugal or Italy until it is too late, and the risk of being denounced to the Inquisition by servants or colleagues, reflect life under later repressive regimes – just as the actions of the sympathetic Fr. Gutierrez recall those of some priests in Nazi-occupied Rome. Lynes knows his history (and provides a helpful bibliography) and tells his story with verve and enthusiasm.

Katherine Mezzacappa

THE QUEEN’S RIVAL

Anne O’Brien, HQ, 2020, £20.00, hb, 544pp, 9780008225544

This book charts a clear-sighted path through the complexities of the Wars of the Roses, shown through the lens of family loyalty. The story is told from the point of view of Cecily, Duchess of York, as her husband, Richard, becomes disaffected with the rule of King Henry VI. When he launches a bid to depose Henry and become king himself, politics becomes personal: are you for Henry, or for Richard? Of course, in the large intermarried families of 15th-century nobility, everybody is connected to everybody else, and the question of Henry or Richard is complicated. Money, patronage, and policy would be likely to influence the decision of who to support. But O’Brien avoids these complications and focusses on Cecily’s adherence to her family. There are wooings, betrayals, turncoats, joys and sorrows.

Cecily’s story is told largely through the medium of letters, communicating with kin spread across the country. O’Brien eschews archaic language to write chatty, gossipy letters with shining personalities. Cecily’s brisk older sister ignores fashion in favour of comfort. The younger sister requests recipes to make eels more palatable. The letters are interspersed with passages from “England’s Chronicle”, as juicy as a modern tabloid newspaper. The historic setting is maintained principally through Cecily and her sisters’ remarks on people’s dress, animating them as much as the person they’re commenting on.

This is not a book to learn the complex politics of the Wars of the Roses. But by homing in on Cecily’s feelings, O’Brien provides an admirably clear view of the twists and turns of power. Recommended for those who like to see politics made personal, and people in “olden days” behaving like us, caring about fashion and recipes.

Helen Johnson

A MYSTERY OF BLOOD AND DUST

Danae Penn, Nichol Press, 2020, $13.95, pb, 328pp, 9791097586041 In 1483, a beautiful young woman is found dead in a chapel when she should have been at her betrothal banquet. Belina Lansac and her husband, Guillaume, investigate in this second volume of a series. The setting is the town of Condom in Gascony on the pilgrimage route to Compostela; we are glad to have in the

author someone who actually lives here, on the present-day border between Spain and France. Otherwise, many difficulties get in the way of a pleasant read, particularly as regards the characters. The first problem must be for the reader who has not become acquainted with a sheaf of personages from previous adventures. A list of characters would help. Better delineation of characters would also help. There are a lot of consuls. I would like to see what consuls do for a living, for starters. It has always been a point of fascination for me that these holdovers from the Roman Empire stood in democratic opposition to the reigns of kings from the north. Belina, whom we are told grew up in this town, is taken by surprise by a lot of things a native would know. And the relationship to France seems a little close. Maybe more was made of the English presence in previous offerings. Guillaume’s diversion that takes him out of the picture is contrived and disappears annoyingly. A Muslim character and Jews add a richness and a reminder of the shattering of society going on across the border, but their reception is a little politically correct.

Ann Chamberlin

REVELATIONS

Mary Sharratt, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021, $26.00, hb, 320pp, 9781328518774

Revelations is the story of the 15th-century English visionary and traveler Margery Kempe. The novel is based on her real life, as recorded in the Book of Margery Kempe, which she dictated to a priest who recorded it. From a mercantile family, Margery marries, bears fourteen children, starts her own business, and endures her husband’s abuse, before having visions of Christ that push her to consult Julian of Norwich and travel on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. She returns to England to find that she is a pariah, which leads her to another pilgrimage to Spain. Finally, she is tried for heresy, specifically Lollardry, which encouraged women to preach.

The historical research necessary to write such a novel is weighty and commendable. The 15th century is not a particularly popular time period for historical novels, and figures such as Kempe and Julian of Norwich do not get much attention, even though they are truly fascinating.

The story does not, however, have much plot, since the book mostly follows Kempe’s travels (“I went here, then there”). The travel to Spain feels anticlimactic, since it occurs after the much longer and more dangerous pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Plus, as a reader, I never felt or saw or sensed Margery’s visions. They feel rote and flat, when in reality visions like these would have been far from flat (see Julian of Norwich’s Revelations, Marguerite Porete’s The Mirror of Simple Souls).

Finally, the publisher has made the puzzling decision to advertise the book as a “fifteenthcentury Eat, Pray, Love,” which diminishes the revolutionary character of Margery and Julian’s decisions and actions.

Jill E. Marshall

THE DIPLOMAT OF FLORENCE

Anthony R. Wildman, Plutus Publishing Australia, 2020, $14.99, pb, 302pp, 9780648945413

In 1494, with a French army sweeping through Italy’s northern kingdoms, Florence’s apocalyptic preacher Savonarola warns that God’s retribution against corrupt priests and evil, greedy rulers is at hand. Like most aristocrats, twenty-five-year-old Niccolò Machiavelli listens to these words with disdain, but his scorn is mixed with jealousy, for the ancient Machiavelli family is equally as qualified to lead Florence as the Medicis, and he’s five years older than Piero Medici, unworthy successor to his father, Lorenzo the Great. Savonarola’s followers are quieted when their renegade priest is burned for treason, and the French occupation is brief, thanks to wily Florentine negotiations. But Renaissance Italy’s peace is easily disturbed; this time it’s Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI (and subject of Machiavelli’s The Prince). Borgia shakes off his cardinal’s robes for a soldier’s armor and begins his meteoric career—with his father’s blessing and support.

Meanwhile, quick-witted Niccolò Machiavelli, whose tact makes him seem not to favor any party over another, is elected Second Secretary of the Florentine Republic. Florence’s leaders have alliances—and enemies—throughout Europe. Bearing official correspondence as Florence’s eyes and ears is the perfect opportunity for the budding diplomat to learn how to play the fox among lions.

Anthony Wildman deftly untangles Renaissance Europe’s complex history and rival families in this intricate novel. Mr. Wildman’s command of his subject is impressive, and he does a terrific job of placing the reader in the middle of Italy’s multiplayer chess game. If you love intrigue and politics, or are agog for the Borgias and Medicis, The Diplomat of Florence is for you.

Jo Ann Butler

16TH CENTURY

MIDNIGHT FIRE

P. K. Adams, Iron Knight Press, 2020, $10.99, pb, 286pp, 9781732361171

In the summer of 1545, Catarina travels to Krakow from her home in Bari, Italy. She is accompanied by her husband and young son, Giulio. Giulio has been ill for most of his life, and Catarina is hopeful of expert medical care that can only be found in a large city. This is not the first time she has made this trip. Twentyfive years earlier, in the first book, Silent Water, Catarina traveled with Lady Bona to Krakow to marry King Zygmunt and became Lady of the Chamber to Queen Bona. Now she hopes to appeal to the Queen for help in finding the best doctor in Krakow.

She finds the court of Wawel a dismal place, quite different from when she left. The King is dying, and Queen Bona is a bitter woman aged beyond her years and trying to hold onto her tenuous power. Their son Zygmunt August is ruling the Duchy of Vilnius and slipping away from the Queen’s influence. His wife has recently died, and he is determined to marry his mistress. In return for helping Catarina get medical help, the Queen requires that Catarina go to the Vilnius court to persuade Zygmunt August not to marry this unsuitable woman.

Catarina is remembered as the woman who helped solve a series of murders in the Wawel court those many years ago. Now when attempted murder and murder stalk the Vilnius court, Catarina gets pulled into the investigation to help find the killer or killers. This novel is steeped in atmosphere, danger, and political intrigue. Adams’ characters, plotting, and unique setting make this a great read. It can be enjoyed without reading the first book, but getting to know the characters and events through both books is rewarding.

Janice Ottersberg

CITY OF VENGEANCE

D. V. Bishop, Macmillan, 2021, £14.99/$24.95, hb, 416pp, 9781529038774

Winter, 1536. Cesare Aldo, a former soldier, is now employed by the “Otto”, the most feared criminal court in Florence, currently ruled by Alessandro de’ Medici. His task is to escort a prominent Jewish moneylender from Bologna back to Florence, a notorious road for ambushes by bandits. The moneylender feigns death and the bandits flee, thinking they have succeeded. However, the man is subsequently murdered in his own home, and his death has major repercussions throughout this city where money means everything. Cesare Aldo is given a mere four days to solve the murder: catch the killer before the feast of Epiphany – or suffer the consequences.

The wheels of power begin to grind furiously, and even more so when the bloody body of a gaudily dressed prostitute is discovered. On closer examination, the “prostitute” is a man. Why should this second murder have anything to do with the first? During his investigations Aldo uncovers a plot to overthrow Alessandro de’ Medici. If the Duke falls, it will endanger the whole city. But a rival officer of the court is determined to expose details about Aldo’s private life that could lead to his ruin. Can Aldo stop the conspiracy before anyone else dies, or will his own secrets destroy him first?

D. V. Bishop, an acclaimed screen writer and TV dramatist, has hit the ground running by introducing us to Cesare Aldo, a “hero” we can all root for as he continues to seek justice in this beautiful, rich but corrupt medieval city. City of Vengeance, the first novel in this series, is a terrific historical thriller that held me gripped from start to finish.

Sally Zigmond

Wendy J. Dunn, Poesy Quill, 2021, $26.00, pb, 596pp, 9780648715221

All Manner of Things is based on the life of Katherine of Aragon. Narrated by Maria de Salinas, a friend and confidante of Katherine’s since childhood, the novel follows Katherine (Catalina) on her journey from young Castilian princess to her marriage and ultimate tragic divorce from the Tudor king of England, Henry VIII.

It is not an unfamiliar story. Women of the upper classes were abused by their male counterparts in ways that made life an arduous undertaking. Not only were they pawns in the political machinations of their male relatives, their bodies were often the object of the physical pleasure of men to be used and discarded. Babies died in childbirth. Surviving daughters followed their mothers on the same predestined pilgrimage.

In many ways, author Dunn stands alongside rival authors of Tudor England, Jean Plaidy and Philippa Gregory. You immediately feel part of Catalina’s inner court, suffer with them, and share their joys and sorrows, pain, and fear. Dunn sets you into that world with great skill. But is the story Catalina’s, or is it Maria’s?

We readers aren’t royals. Neither is Maria. She suffers the same villainies as Catalina and must make the ultimate sacrifice in regards her own daughter. It is this parental nightmare that is unfamiliar territory. It is here where the true drama lies. And yet Maria’s daughter isn’t even a character in the novel, just the recipient of letters Maria writes to her. Had this mother-daughter story been intertwined with Catalina’s stark yet familiar history, All Manner of Things, for me, would have been more powerful. Maria’s introspections are too frequent and too repetitious. Fiery and emotional interactions between Maria and her daughter, intermingled and paralleling Catalina’s trials, would have lifted this novel to another level.

Peter Clenott

A FINE MADNESS

Alan Judd, Simon & Schuster, 2021, £14.99, hb, 240pp, 9781471180217

At the beginning of the reign of King James I, the ageing Thomas Phelippes, a talented decipherer once employed by Sir Francis Walsingham, lives in a cell in the King’s Bench Prison. Here he is visited by an emissary of the new king, eager to know all that Thomas can remember of the life, and violent death, of his friend Christopher Marlowe, playwright and spy. Thomas tells all he can in the hope of release, though he cannot fathom why the king is so interested.

It is not an easy task to write a fictional account of real events and maintain a sense of tension when the reader already knows how the story must end. Judd succeeds because of the quality of his language and his vivid portrait of the mercurial, enigmatic and reckless Marlowe. What motivates him to betray Catholic priests to certain death? It is not religious zeal, for Thomas warns his friend more than once of the risks he runs in voicing beliefs amounting to heresy (amongst other things, the playwright calmly compares himself to Judas, justifying Judas’s actions).

Judd describes the startling sophistication of the Elizabethan government’s network of informers, of false trails and planted evidence. At the centre of it is Walsingham, who lives in a house “like himself, of plain and modest demeanour, or front, with an interior of so many secret chambers that none could know them well”. A lesser writer might have dealt with the punishment of the regime’s enemies as bloodthirsty theatre. Instead, the racking of Fr Ballard in a near silent dungeon is described with a clinical precision that delivers real horror.

Katherine Mezzacappa

SHAKE LOOSE THE BORDER

Robert Low, Canelo, 2021, £9.99, pb, 229pp, 9781800322134

This is the third in the Border Reivers series. It is 1548, and Batty Coalhouse is considering his future. As England’s war in Scotland is ending, there are few options for a veteran mercenary and explosives expert. Coming from the Scottish-English border, where raiding against other “named” families was the norm, he could return to bounty-hunting – even though his family and friends are diminishing and his enemies increasing. He’s tasked with the recovery of one of his old comrades, carrying a ransom if needed. Nothing is simple, though, for the old soldier. The feuds and rivalries among the violent raider-families makes his travelling in the region dangerous.

Low manages to run a thread through the chaos of the region and period. His aging yet canny protagonist is likeable yet saddening: Batty is beginning to wonder if someone as steeped in blood as himself can ever retire before he dies. He is good at what he does, but so many people want him dead. This book is well-written, and descriptive of both the country and the characters which made up the region’s violent past.

Alan Cassady-Bishop

THE IMPORTANCE OF PAWNS

Keira J. Morgan, French Renaissance Fiction, 2021, £10.99/$14.99, pb, 380pp, 9781777397418

In 1514, Anne of Brittany, wife of Louis XII of France, is dying. Louise d’Angoulȇme, mother of the king’s cousin, François, maneuvers to marry her son to the King’s daughter Claude and so smooth his path to the throne. Soon after Anne’s death, the ailing king marries the much younger Marie, sister of Henry VIII, but the pregnancy Louise fears would displace her son does not materialize. The story is told through the eyes of Louise, Claude, and Michelle de Saubonne, governess to Claude’s younger sister, Renée, drawn as a lively and attractive character who probably deserves a novel to herself.

Morgan provides a list of dramatis personae and historical notes. She is particularly good on pageantry and ceremony (notably Anne’s funeral arrangements), and food so rich it made this reader feel bilious, let alone the frail Louis. The political machinations around dynastic allegiances, in which the women to be married are in effect pawns, are got across particularly well through convincing dialogue. There are some historical stumbles: Louise admires Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, though that painting seems never to have left Italian hands. Michelle de Saubonne, a Protestant, ponders her sins of omission and commission, evokes Our Lady, and kisses her rosary. And why does the cover design feature an image from a full century later when there are contemporary depictions of so many of the players in this novel? Morgan, however, writes as someone who is utterly fascinated by her subject.

Katherine Mezzacappa

THE HERETIC’S MARK

S. W. Perry, Corvus, 2021, £14.99, hb, 448pp, 9781786499035

This is the third Jackdaw novel which I have reviewed for the HNS, and which I enjoyed as much as ever. S. W. Perry has an easy style and good plots. He has also obviously done his research, both historical and geographical.

Set in Elizabethan England and Europe, this fourth novel in the series starts with the execution of the Queen’s physician, a Jew, for treason. This is fact. Nicholas Shelby, also accused of treason, is fiction, but is the mainspring of the story. As a result of his denunciation, he and his new wife, Bianca, flee England and arrive at Den Bosch in the Netherlands (the home town of Hieronymus Bosch), where they meet the mysterious Beguine Hella Maas, who accompanies them on their journey down the Via Francigena, an old pilgrim route from France to Rome, though they leave it at Padua, where Bianca’s family lives.

Afraid they have been followed by spies, they experience constant tension, even once they have arrived safely at Bianca’s uncle’s home. But it is murder which seems to have followed them, and Nicholas needs to find out who the murderer is before he and his wife can be safe. Written in the first person, with multiple points of view, this novel keeps the tension going throughout, and I recommend both it and the series as a whole.

jay Dixon

THE DEVIL’S PAWN

Oliver Pötzsch (trans. Lisa Reinhardt), AmazonCrossing, 2021, $14.95, pb, 539pp, 9781542014595

It’s 1518 in Europe, a time when kings are made, and the church wields spiritual as well as economic power. Johann Faust is a renowned magician, alchemist, astrologer, necromancer, and scholar who became the best and achieved fame because of a pact made with the devil, his former master, Tonio del Moravia. But all pacts made with the devil are paid with one’s soul, and Faust’s time to pay

up may be approaching. Faust suffers from incurable seizures and paralysis but isn’t ready to pay his debt. Thus, he begins his journey for the cure by visiting powerful friends, including Leonardo da Vinci. However, his journey is thwarted by those who need him for their own gain: Pope Leo X, who needs him in Rome to use alchemy to turn the church’s drained coffers to gold; his faithful servant Karl and his daughter Greta, who have reservations and thwart him; and, more importantly, the devil, who appears in many shapes along with his various loyal subjects.

The Devil’s Pawn is, as the subtitle states, book two of the retelling of the Faust legend. It is dark and chilling and made me squeamish. Kudos to Oliver Pötzsch, who unflinchingly conveys the gruesome tale while delivering a work steeped in history and rich in description. I was given a colorful history lesson and had no problem envisioning the time and the conditions. The novel’s structure is also reminiscent of the epic journey of heroes, who go in search of redemption, are confronted by one conflict after another over a long period of time, and may or may not find their ultimate goal.

Franca Pelaccia

MANDU: The Romance of Roopmati and Baz Bahadur

Malathi Ramachandran, Niyogi, 2020, $9.50, pb, 260pp, 9789389136548

Mandu is an Indian take on the travails of lovers from different backgrounds. It is a fictionalised version of the true story of Baz Bahadur, Muslim ruler of Malwa (Mandu is the capital) and the Hindu peasant woman, Roopmati (the beautiful one).

A great strength of the novel is the extensive research, which is evident throughout. The story is embedded in recorded historical events in 16th-century India, such as the attack on Mandu by the Mughal Emperor Akbar’s general Adham Khan, who lusts after Roopmati. The reader is kept guessing as to how the story will spin out with conspiracies galore within and outside the palace walls.

The plot structure is tight and the language beautiful and lyrical, with the author bringing alive the sights and sounds of Mandu. The author is particularly adept at drawing characters who are multi-layered and who develop through the story. Baz Bahadur is ruthless but humanised by his love of music and poetry and devotion to Roopmati. Roopmati is not a passive object of desire like Helen of Troy, preferring her music to love and life in the harem. Her evolving relationship with Baz is complemented by her affection and compassion for the dwarf servant Sadiya and Mandu’s poorer citizens.

The evolution of Baz’s wife from neglected wife and bullied daughter to a woman who creates a life for herself outside the harem is equally enthralling. The servants Sadiya, Nasi and Panna are also strong characters and make their presence felt throughout the book

Overall, a wonderful book that will enthrall readers from all cultures till the very end.

Indrani Ganguly

KATHARINE PARR: The Sixth Wife

Alison Weir, Headline, 2021, £20.00, hb, 528pp, 9781472227829 / Ballantine, 2021, $28.99, hb, 544pp, 9781101966631

Chronicling Katharine Parr’s life from her first marriage through to the end of her fourth is a huge accomplishment. Through Katharine’s eyes we observe life with her first husband, a compromise overshadowed by an unpleasant father-in-law; her second marriage to Lord Latimer, one of mutual respect; her third to King Henry (despite her secret and mutual love for Thomas Seymour), which was suffused with danger; and her fourth marriage, which provided a brief period of joy as well as moments of unhappiness. Each marriage is well explored, each with dangers to keep the reader on edge. Her second union brought Katharine into the orbit of the Northern Rebellion, a danger for herself and her husband. Her domestic life and family loyalties are fascinating. Weir portrays Katharine as a fully rounded, mature woman, particularly as she begins, unknown to Catholic Latimer, to embrace the reformed religion, a further jeopardy once she becomes the King’s wife.

Weir delivers engaging historical characters, filling the white spaces of their lives with believable interests, convincing motivation, and realistic daily routines. Katharine, who was never pregnant until her fourth marriage, is presented as an attractive woman, likeable, kind, determined, sensible yet capable of a romantic love that places her in danger; this as well as her reformist convictions. Secondary characters such as Katharine’s mother and siblings are vivid. You will anxiously watch them all, at Snape, Henry’s private gardens, Katharine’s home at Blackfriars, the King’s private rooms, or visiting her brother at court.

The conversations are sparkling, gripping and word-perfect. As King Henry ages, the machinations of his vicious court are never far away. This masterly novel seamlessly blends history into the story’s fabric. A superb read and a remarkable end to a brilliant series.

Carol McGrath

17TH CENTURY

THE MANNINGTREE WITCHES

A. K. Blakemore, Granta, 2021, £12.99, hb, 295pp, 9781783786435 / Catapult, 2021, $26.00, hb, 320pp, 9781646220649

Set in England in 1643, The Manningtree Witches is based on the activities of Matthew Hopkins, the self-styled Witchfinder General. Told through the eyes of Rebecca, one of the women later accused of witchcraft, the story begins with the arrival of Hopkins in the remote Essex village of Manningtree. It is the height of the Civil War and most of the men are away fighting. Hopkins takes over the village tavern, and is soon established as one of the local worthies. When a boy has a fit, and subsequently dies, after an altercation with a local woman, the accusations begin and Hopkins becomes involved. The “witches” are mostly unmarried women or widows, automatic objects of suspicion. They are removed to Colchester jail to wait, powerless, for whatever lies ahead.

The novel places the witch hunts of the 17th century within their sociological context. It shows how tensions are inflamed by petty rivalries, deprivation and boredom. The fear and ignorance of the poorly educated villagers contrasts with the sophistry of Hopkins and his associates. The author’s previous work as a poet is evident in her exquisite prose, evoking the minutiae of everyday life and the bleak Essex landscape.

The Manningtree Witches paints a picture of “an upside-down time”, when the Devil makes work for idle hands. In the end the person the Devil makes the most work for seems to be Hopkins himself, chillingly portrayed as a troubled ascetic who struggles to contain an almost visceral excitement at the arrest and examination of “all the souls under [his] power”. Thoroughly recommended.

Karen Warren

HOUR OF THE WITCH

Chris Bohjalian, Doubleday, 2021, $27.99, hb, 416pp, 9780385542432

How far will a woman go to escape an abusive husband? In Puritan Boston in 1662, divorces are rarely granted, but Mary Deerfield, a beautiful 24-year-old goodwife, sees no alternative. Barren after five years of marriage to Thomas, a prosperous miller in his mid-forties, Mary conceals bruises beneath her coif and brushes off concerns from her adult stepdaughter. Thomas has a pattern of returning “drink-drunk” from the tavern, taking his anger out on Mary, and apologizing

the next morning. Their indentured servant, who admires Thomas, never sees any violence, only a husband properly correcting his wife. Then comes the evening when Thomas attacks Mary’s left hand with a fork. Mary has allies, most notably her caring, wealthy parents. But in a culture that views women as subservient helpmeets, and with no witnesses to Thomas’s cruelty, Mary’s petition has slim chances. She must also tread carefully: the Hartford witchhunts weigh on people’s minds, some of her behavior appears suspicious, and Satan’s temptations lurk everywhere.

Themes of women’s agency in a patriarchal society are common in historical novels, but this fast-moving, darkly suspenseful novel stands out with Bohjalian’s extraordinary world-building skills. From speech patterns to the detailed re-creation of colonial households to the religious mindset, the historical setting is very credible. The rich have finer options— Mary’s mother wears vivid colors, for instance— but her father struggles to get across that the three-pronged forks he imports from abroad are just utensils, not the “Devil’s tines.” Mary isn’t an outspoken iconoclast but a product of her era, and readers will worry for her—for many reasons, which become clear as the story progresses. The quotes opening each chapter, taken from court proceedings occurring later on, diminish some of the novel’s surprises. Nonetheless, the plot moves with increasing urgency that will have readers racing toward the ending.

Sarah Johnson

THE SHADOWS OF VERSAILLES

Cathie Dunn, Ocelot Press, 2020, $9.99/£7.99, pb, 277pp, 9782957570119

The Shadows of Versailles is set during the reign of Louis XIV in the 17th century. Seventeen-year-old Blanchefleur de La Fontaine is seduced by a minor nobleman, whilst her vindictive mother does little to aid her naivete. When she realizes she is with child, she is bustled off to a convent where she is harshly treated by the nuns. Jacques de Montagnac is a police spy investigating the disappearance of babies and possible connections with Black Masses. While Jacques is making enquiries at the convent regarding the missing babies, he crosses paths with Fleur and rescues her, but her baby has been forcibly taken away. Her subsequent desire for revenge becomes the guiding force in her life and, after their paths diverge, Jacques suspects that Fleur is not the naïve innocent he once thought.

The ‘Affair of the Poisons’ was a scandalous time in French history, occurring between 1677 and 1682, when members of the aristocracy were implicated in nefarious dealings, reaching as high as Louis’ court. Dunn mixes her fictional characters with historical figures, creating an authenticity of time and place. Unfortunately, most of the characters are quite despicable, and it is hard to connect with them or fathom their reasoning. They are vengeful, remorseless and unrelentingly cruel, and there are few redeeming features to be found. Some fairly key characters peter out without a sense of completion, and the ending is somewhat predictable, if only because there can be no other. Motivations for those who support Fleur’s return to aristocratic life aren’t fully fleshed out, giving a sense of incompleteness to the story. Some of these loose ends may be tidied up in the second book, which continues Jacques’ pursuit of justice.

Fiona Alison

EVERYONE KNOWS YOUR MOTHER IS A WITCH

Rivka Galchen, Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2021, $27.00, hb, 288pp, 9780374280468

In Württemberg, Germany, in 1618, a neighbor accuses 72-year-old Katherina Kepler, mother of famed astronomer Johannes Kepler, of witchcraft. In a society wracked by war and Plague, such accusations against an eccentric, superstitious widow take hold all too easily, and Katharina’s famous son must come to his mother’s defense.

Based on Katharina Kepler’s real life, the often bitingly funny narration comes primarily from Katharina herself as she unspools her story to her friend Simon. Juxtaposing this with court interviews with Katharina’s acquaintances, Galchen weaves a whip-smart feminist tale of a woman who is prosecuted and persecuted to save a man’s reputation. Along the way, she makes sharp and still relevant observations about society’s willingness to cast aside women when they’re no longer young and beautiful. Considered both expendable and incompetent, Katharina is prohibited from defending herself or even from appearing before the authorities without a male guardian. Her knowledge of herbal medicines reinforces her community’s beliefs that she is a witch and should be executed. In light of all this, it’s little wonder that the fictional Katharina’s favorite companion is her old milk cow.

Though the plot at times feels meandering, Galchen does eventually get to the point, and Katharina’s insights, as well as those of the large, colorful cast of secondary characters, keeps the novel entertaining. Readers who can forgive an abrupt ending will find much to enjoy.

Sarah Hendess

THE DROWNED CITY

K. J. Maitland, Headline Review, 2021, £16.99, hb, 448pp, 9781472235947

This novel, set in 1606, opens with an excellent description of the Bristol tsunami of that year, in which a body of a woman is revealed. The next chapter, written in the first person, jumps to Newgate Prison in London, where the hero, Daniel Pursglove, awaits his punishment. He is saved by Charles FitzAlan, advisor to King James I, who wants him to go to Bristol, a hotbed of Roman Catholic spies, and investigate whether or not the tsunami is God’s vengeance and to uncover a spy ring.

Once there Daniel finds himself caught up in a Jesuit conspiracy and in pursuit of a killer. Daniel is an inexperienced investigator and searches Bristol for people he thinks can give him information. In doing so, he upsets some powerful people but always manages to land on his feet, either due to the help he receives from a boy named Myles and a woman called Rachel, or through his own exertions, often escaping what looks to be certain death.

The main part of the novel stays with Daniel in Bristol, but there are the occasional chapters in the third person, in London, when Robert Cecil is shown weaving his plots. It is too complex to summarise briefly, and at first the reader wonders where the story is going, but in the end all the threads are resolved, except one which, according to the author’s endnote, will be a continuous thread throughout the series.

For me, although the period and place are well drawn, the novel is too descriptive, but I can recommend it to those who like a wellplotted, atmospheric historical novel, which is a leisurely read and has a satisfying conclusion.

jay Dixon

THE PULSE OF HIS SOUL

Ora Smith, Lighten Press, 2020, $12.99, pb, 377pp, 9780998041032

Genealogist Smith novelizes the life of John Lothropp, a Separatist minister who broke with the Anglican Church and became a forgotten Founding Father: he is the ancestor of six U.S. Presidents and dozens of major figures in American politics, religion, and the arts.

The novel covers Lothropp’s experiences in England before he emigrates. John is a perpetual curate in the Anglican Church when he marries Hannah Howse in 1610. Childhood trauma causes John to have trouble showing love, which creates conflict in their relationship. Hannah is a fervent Anglican, but John grows doubtful over the years that a church controlled by the government is the true path. John rebels against the king dictating what he can say in the pulpit, and in 1622 he renounces his Church of England’s orders, and they move the family to London. Hannah worries that Bishop Laud’s men will learn of John’s Separatist ways and imprison him; the congregation he now leads in Southwark must worship in each other’s homes and keep watch for Laud’s men. Eventually John is able to hide no longer, and he is caught, tortured and imprisoned, leaving Hannah with a large family of children to support.

Smith gives the reader a very impressive fifty-plus pages of supporting material, such as an extensive bibliography, a timeline, and a glossary. I applaud her scholarship; Lothropp deserves to be better known. Smith’s depiction of John and Hannah’s relationship is both contentious and touching. The religious content of the story is necessarily heavy. Even if theological discussions aren’t your cup of tea, Lothropp’s story will bring new insight to American readers who learned about the Pilgrims and Puritans in school but may not have really understood why they left England. Recommended to those interested in religious

history, 17th- century England, and early American history.

B. J. Sedlock

THE KING’S SPY

Mark Turnbull, Sharpe Books, 2021, £4.99, pb, 125pp, 9798708055095

The King’s Spy by Mark Turnbull is a fastpaced novella set during the aftermath of King Charles’s final battle of the English Civil War at Naseby. The battle itself is stunningly and graphically depicted, reminding me of how Scott described Prestonpans in Waverley: superb writing and accurate yet incorporating strong emotions of anxiety, fear, duty and courage. The story belongs to Turnbull’s extremely interesting and likeable royalist hero, Maxwell. His escape following Naseby takes him to Wistow Hall owned by Sir Richard Halford but soon occupied by Cromwellian Colonel Hopkins and his troop. All are most unpleasant.

Maxwell is placed in serious jeopardy as he infiltrates Parliamentary trust whilst posing as an estate blacksmith. The crux of this plot concerns the King’s papers and ciphers hidden in the country house, items which he and another royalist seek. Maxwell’s deception enables him to acquire important information for the King, but will he retrieve the threatened ciphers and papers?

This is a tight and brilliantly plotted novella. It is thoroughly researched with precise detail. Turnbull is, importantly, a master of characterisation. I cared deeply about Maxwell’s fortunes and misfortunes. I was there, riding ghost-like at his heels, heart thumping at every plot twist and turn. The King’s Spy, equally, incorporates excellent scene setting and atmosphere. Although I was disappointed that it was not a full-length novel, I was filled with admiration for the author’s use of precise language throughout and easily became lost in the story. I look forward to reading its continuation in the next book of the series.

Carol McGrath

18TH CENTURY

THE PROPHET

Martine Bailey, Severn House, 2021, $29.99/£20.99, hb, 288pp, 9780727891037

The story of Tabitha and Nathaniel de Vallory, which began in The Almanack, continues in this mystery set in the Cheshire countryside. It is May 1753 when Nathaniel, heir to Bold Hall and its vast estate, sets out, along with a pregnant Tabitha, to see the ancient, giant oak tree in their forest. They encounter two things: a dead woman under the oak tree and a mysterious cult led by Baptist Gunn. Superstitious beliefs cast a shadow over the lives of the characters, especially Tabitha’s pregnancy. Nat wants to “call upon the tree spirit [to] ask for a safe childbirth,” and Tabitha puts her unborn baby in jeopardy when she looks upon the dead body. She recognizes the young, pregnant victim from her past, but tells no one. The couple then meets the strange Baptist Gunn and his followers encamped on de Vallory land. This begins Tabitha’s and Nat’s inquiry into the woman’s death and the untangling of the mystery of the suspicious Baptist Gunn, a sinister yet charismatic man preaching disturbing prophecies.

Tabitha and Nathaniel have a true-tolife marriage. They love each other, yet keep secrets from one another. Now and then their love and trust falters; they argue and make up. Woven into the story is the disruption created by Britain’s change to the Gregorian calendar in 1752. This leap forward by eleven days creates arguments and confusion among the villagers. It causes Tabitha’s calculations to prevent conception to fail, and the old timers don’t take well to the change, especially when it comes to events dictated by the moon such as hunting and harvesting.

This is a standout mystery with impressive research and convincing characters. Although it is not necessary to read The Almanack first, getting to know the characters through both novels provides a richer reading experience.

Janice Ottersberg

SECRET MISCHIEF

Robin Blake, Severn House, 2021, $25.99/£20.99, hb, 247pp, 9780727890702

Blake’s seventh Titus Cragg novel (after Death and the Chevalier, HNR 92) starts in a hog pen and ends on a cricket pitch near Lancaster’s hangman’s hill. Being set in 1746 in the north of England, it also notes the defeat at Culloden of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s army. But the heart of this mystery concerns the legal document known as a “tontine” signed thirty years earlier by seven friends to invest their shadily-gained winnings. The goal of a tontine is to ensure that the winner is the last one taken by death, assuming death is a natural occurrence. Unfortunately, murder is anything but natural, and the tontine provides the perfect motive to eliminate one’s former friends to gain the prize.

Coroner Cragg and his friend, Dr. Luke Fidelis, investigate what appears to be the accidental death of the fourth member of the tontine to perish. This one meets his maker at his pig farm in Ormskirk two days after his prize hog is shot. Cragg concludes the hog’s death was an accident and Giggleswick was the intended victim both times; he suspects two strangers in town on unexplained business. When another member of the tontine turns up dead, the noose tightens on the two remaining members – one of whom must surely be the perpetrator. Only a cricket ball can knock sense into the key witness and reveal the depth of the deception in this case.

Blake’s characters are always well-drawn, and this story’s cast is especially deep in both period nuances and intriguing backstories. The struggle between the haves and havenots puts Cragg’s faith in the law to the test, but his zeal never flags. This series keeps getting better, and mystery fans should relish this adventure.

Tom Vallar

CHAINS ACROSS THE RIVER

Bevis Longstreth, Honeycomb Publishers, 2021, $29.00, hb, 278pp, 9780578750507

This is the story of Thomas Machin, an engineer of somewhat flawed character who enlisted in the British Army and was posted to Boston, where he saw action at Breed’s Hill before deserting to join the Rebels. George Washington then ordered Machin to the Hudson River in order to envision and design ways to block the British Armada gathering in New York Harbor, an important strategic position.

This well-researched novel will introduce many to Machin, a lesser-known revolutionary war hero and brilliant engineer. Machin’s friendship with William Knox plays a large part in the novel and is instrumental to the plot. General George Washington figures prominently in this story as well. There are occasionally some paragraphs that read more like a history book than a novel, but the information provided is compelling and has been meticulously researched.

The characters, real and fictional, blend well together in a fascinating tale based on true events. Life as a British enlisted man in the 1770s and the class system in Britain at that time are described in depressing detail, and the reader gets some idea of why Machin decided to desert. There are two women in this novel who figure prominently in the outcome of events. There are also some sexual situations that suggest that women of that time were more adventurous and in control than one might think. Recommended for fans of fiction and history books about the American Revolutionary War.

Bonnie DeMoss

DAUGHTERS OF NIGHT

Laura Shepherd-Robinson, Mantle, 2021, £14.99, hb, 565pp, 9781509880829

Laura Shepherd-Robinson’s first novel Blood and Sugar won the Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award and the Historical Writers’ Association’s Debut Crown, and was nominated for a range of other awards. The follow-up revisits Georgian London with some of the same characters. Caroline Corsham discovers a mortally wounded young woman in Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, and the Bow Street Constables do not seem inclined to

seek her killer when they discover that she is a prostitute. Caroline seeks out her husband Harry’s old friend, Peregrine Child, to try and find justice for the murdered woman. As they begin to investigate the young woman’s life, they are drawn into the dark underbelly of Georgian society, the world of the daughters of night. For a high society woman with a reputation to maintain, Caro must tread very carefully, as she discovers the reality of life for the women who trade sex for money and the duplicity of the men who visit them.

The author has already proven herself adept at creating great characters and intriguing mysteries, and she does so once again in this book. Shepherd-Robinson also holds up a microscope to the setting of her fiction, having examined the men who profited from the horrors of the slave trade in her first book, and the often-horrific realities of 18th-century sex work in Daughters of Night. This is an impeccably well researched and page-turning novel of the nameless, faceless women from history and a stonkingly good mystery novel to boot. I will be snapping up the next instalment as soon as I can. Perfect for fans of Andrew Taylor, Antonia Hodgson and Robin Blake.

Lisa Redmond

LOVE AND FURY

Samantha Silva, Flatiron, 2021, $26.99, hb, 288pp, 9781250159113

On August 30, 1797, midwife Parthenia Blenkinsop arrives at a house in North London to deliver Mary Wollstonecraft’s baby. She’s expecting another routine birth but finds the woman now renowned as the world’s first feminist philosophizer anything but ordinary. When Wollstonecraft fails to deliver her placenta, her husband, against Blenkinsop’s better judgment, calls for a male doctor, who performs a procedure that will ultimately lead to Wollstonecraft’s death by septicemia.

During the eleven days Wollstonecraft clings to life, she tells her new baby girl, the future Mary Shelley, her life story. She fears the fragile infant will not survive, so she tells her the tale to “bind (her) to this world.” In alternating chapters, the reader hears Wollstonecraft’s story, from her upbringing under an abusive father to her development of her feminist ideas, as well as Blenkinsop’s account of Mary’s agonizing final days.

In her previous novel, Mr. Dickens and His Carol, Silva proved herself a master at illuminating the lives and struggles of a famous author, and Love and Fury shows she will not be a one-hit wonder. Wollstonecraft’s account of her life, written in first person, draws the reader into the time period and the struggles and limitations women faced, while Blenkinsop’s third-person chapters give a broader perspective on Wollstonecraft’s life and ideas. Both characters are fully fleshed out and beautifully human. Even readers typically uninterested in this time period will find themselves sucked into Silva’s lyrical prose. Highly recommended.

Sarah Hendess

LORDS OF THE NILE

Jonathan Spencer, Canelo, 2020, £8.99, pb, 384pp, 9781800322905

Mata, 1798. This is a tale filled with tension, spurred on by the violence, tragedy and love of the times. In this second book in a series, the story follows Marine Lieutenant William Hazzard, who is desperately trying to prevent Napoleon Bonaparte’s conquest of Egypt and the eventual invasion of India. Thousands of years of culture and history, as well as the lives of innocent citizens, hang in the balance as the French fight against the Mamluk cavalry. Meanwhile, the everlasting ancient monuments observe all, as a constant reminder that they will always remain.

Spencer’s plot is breathtakingly paced, although he has time for character development too. The rivalry between Hazzard and nemesis, Derrien, is particularly good in this novel as it creates an effective story arc. Despite the tensions of the plot, Spencer is able to weave in aspects of ancient and modern Egyptian, Mamluk, French and even English culture using wonderful descriptive techniques and different points of view. By the end of this novel, you are invested in all of the characters, even the antagonists Bonaparte and Derrien, and the heart-wrenching ending of this novel puts the whole story into perspective and leaves you wanting to read more.

Clare Lehovsky

19TH CENTURY

EARL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

Jane Ashford, Sourcebooks Casablanca, 2020, $7.99/C$11.99, pb, 286pp, 9781492663478

In this sweet second-chance Regency romance, Arthur Shelton, Earl of Macklin, is a widower who has been a matchmaker for others. Just north of fifty, Macklin is finally ready to embark on love again. Señora Teresa Alvarez, however, has had it with men of privilege and their assumptions. Fleeing warravaged Spain, Teresa works at a theatre, putting her aristocratic education in painting to good use on scenery. When Lord Macklin visits the theatre, he takes an interest in Teresa, though she has a hard time believing his intentions are good. When dancers from the theatre disappear after trysts with aristocratic men, Macklin steps in to use his privilege for good, and Teresa is forced to spend time with him if she wants to aid the young women with whom she identifies.

This book is the fifth in a series but can be read as a standalone. The ubiquitous discussion of previous plots can make a reader feel like they are new to a friend group. But it is refreshing to read a Regency where both characters are older, the hero with not just sexual experience but relationship experience, and the heroine who is not just a wide-eyed virgin.

Katie Stine

A FAMILY SECRET

Libby Ashworth, Arrow, 2021, £7.99, pb, 400pp, 9781787463585

This the third book in the Mill Town Lasses series following The Cotton Spinner and A Lancashire Lass. Although it can be read as a standalone novel, I recommend they be read in order to fully appreciate them. It is now 1842. Titus Eastwood is still passionate about workers’ rights and the new Chartist movement. Most evenings, on returning from working one of the cotton mills (often on shorttime), he attends local meetings and takes part in the long walk to the Houses of Parliament. His wife Jennet takes in laundry; their eldest daughter, Peggy, works as a trainee teacher and is studying for a place in teacher-training college; and their younger, Bessie, works at the same mill as Titus. Although Bessie is a kind, obedient lass, Titus has no kind words for her but spoils Peggy. Memories are long in industrial Blackburn, so when Titus finds out that Peggy is walking out with John Sharples, he forbids it just because John is a member of the Sharples family. But time is moving on, and people change, so when two faces from the past return to Blackburn from the United States, both Peggy’s and Bessie’s lives totally change. Even Jennet begins to wonder whether she married the right man.

With its perfectly pitched historical background underlying the story of how mistakes made in the past catch up with present-day concerns, A Family Secret promises a happy conclusion. But does it? This read wants more of this engrossing saga.

Sally Zigmond

SOMEDAY MY DUKE WILL COME

Christina Britton, Forever, 2021, $8.99, pb, 352pp, 9781538717509

Though beautiful and the daughter of a duke, Lady Clara has resigned herself to spinsterhood after a youthful indiscretion. Her determination is undermined, however, when Mr. Quincy Nesbitt calls to see her cousin Peter, the current duke, and the old attraction between the two stirs into life. Quince intends only a short visit, but his plans to travel are disrupted when he discovers, to his horror, that he has inherited an impoverished dukedom. Then the pair find themselves entangled in a false engagement. Might it become the real thing?

This, the second in the Isle of Synne series, is full of coincidences and other elements

of melodrama: dark secrets and hidden documents, unexpected inheritances and staunch friends, dissolute half-brothers and cruel stepmothers (Lady Tesh is a great-aunt, not a stepmother, and imperious rather than cruel; but she does put a lot of pressure on Clara; and Quince’s stepmother is ghastly). Lovers of Regency romance will appreciate this story of two attractive people who triumph over adversity.

Ray Thompson

THE BOXER AND THE BLACKSMITH

Edie Cay, ScarabSkin Books, 2021, $13.99, pb, 341pp, 9781734439731

“The best lady boxer in London” is an odd accolade to see in Regency-era England (18111820). Yet, one of the protagonists of Edie Cay’s second of a planned trilogy is exactly that. Following upon her successful initial novel, A Lady’s Revenge, this tale centers on two “misfit” characters who—much like fighters in a ring—are bobbing, grappling, and weaving to arrive at a satisfactory outcome.

The reader follows the adventures of a blacksmith named Os Worley (noted to be a “person of color”) along with notable champion female boxer Bess Abbott. This is not a simple “who-done-it”; rather, the author twists a complex and layered narrative with a host of supporting individuals often struggling on the fringe of contemporary society.

Drawn together, both Bess and Os are searching for personal resolution to a basic human need: Os desires to find his long-lost mother in a teeming London, while Bess questions her very existence and what might the future hold for a woman such as herself.

The author provides an enthralling story that illustrates life in Regency London. Her dialogue is crisp and pointed and not overly complicated. Life is hard for those not of the social elite, and everyday trials and tribulations are explored, often in exquisite detail. Cay embraces the linguistic oddities of the period and highlights specific words and terms to emphasize reality: bosky, chit, doxy, kinchin, nugging-house, pugilist, and whapper, along with a plethora of other past and lost linguistic curiosities that add an authentic tone to many descriptions.

This is not a straightforward tale. Numerous twists and turns engage the reader and offer insight into the lives of Londoners of the time. There is indeed a somewhat satisfactory resolution, but storm clouds are foreshadowed.

Jon G. Bradley

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN CUBA

Chanel Cleeton, Berkley, 2021, $17.00, pb, 320pp, 9780593197813

This is a well-written historical novel with strong female characters linked by Cuba’s fight for freedom in the late 19th century. It was inspired by the true story of one of Cuba’s most famous revolutionaries, Evangelina Cisneros. It also draws on the bitter, real-life rivalry between two powerful newspaper tycoons, William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. Both men vie to exploit a fictionalised character, Grace Harrington (based on Nellie Bly), who is determined to establish herself as a journalist in a very male world. Her opportunity for a big break comes when Hearst declares Evangelina to be ‘The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba’ and assigns Grace to cover her story. The two are assisted by the fictional laundress Marina Perez, who is also a courier for the Cuban revolutionaries in Havana.

Cleeton provides vivid descriptions of the reconcentration camps set up by the Spanish General Weyler, the prison where Evangelina spends a while before being rescued, and the real-life events which prompted American intervention. Evangelina’s unease at being catapulted into the role of media star in the United States and well-founded cynicism about American motives for assisting the revolutionaries are well depicted.

The romantic angle is less well handled in parts. Evangelina’s love story is based on real life, and Marina’s struggles after marriage to a poor man are moving. However, Grace’s relationship feels a bit clichéd (beautiful/ spirited women eventually linking with handsome, wealthy, worldlier men), and the scenes of intimacy are sometimes clunky.

The author’s note at the end is useful, as it details the research behind this historical novel, including which characters were based on real people and what she drew on to create other characters.

Indrani Ganguly

THE DRESSMAKER’S SECRET

Karen Dickson, Simon & Schuster, 2021, £7.99, pb, 456pp, 9781471185519

Born to an unmarried mother, Lily Hayter has never lacked for love from her adopted parents and her brother Charlie. When she is orphaned at the age of nine, however, she is forced to live with her embittered Aunt Doris and her cruel son Jez, who treat her as a skivvy. She escapes by being apprenticed to kindly dressmaker Violet Upshall. It’s only then that she discovers her father is Sir Frederick Copperfield and that she has a younger halfsister, Eleanor. The two girls become friends when Lily is engaged to make Eleanor’s clothes, but Lily doesn’t dare tell her secret – especially as, even in her new life, Jez remains a menace…

I had no great expectations of this lateVictorian saga, but actually it’s better written than many books in this genre. The dialogue is naturalistic and rarely seems too modern for its era, and Dickson manages to avoid one of the commonest failings of sagas by not reducing her villains to one-dimensional stereotypes, allowing them some redeeming features and explaining why they have turned out the way they have. Lily is a likeable and resourceful heroine (despite one questionable decision she makes), which makes it a tiny bit disappointing that at the end other characters solve her problems for her. (I know women had limited power in that era, but surely she could have played some small part in the downfall of her Nemesis?)

I was a little surprised to find skylarks singing in the centre of Blandford Forum (I thought they were exclusively rural birds?), and a local servant in Weymouth speaking with a Cornish rather than a Dorset accent (I’m sure there are subtle differences), but these are minor quibbles. On the whole, this is a pleasant read if you like Cinderella stories with a happy ending.

Jasmina Svenne

A TAPESTRY OF LIGHT

Kimberly Duffy, Bethany House, 2021, $15.99, pb, 432pp, 9780764235641

Calcutta, 1885. The accidental death of twenty-year-old Ottilie’s half-Indian mother means she must support her Indian maternal grandmother and six-year-old brother, Thaddeus. Her late English father had been a museum superintendent, yet the family is relegated to an impoverished district of Calcutta. Ignored by British society, Ottilie is barely able to make ends meet. Thankfully, her dressmaking and beetlewing embroidery skills are in high demand by British ladies. The Indian public also disdains the family, associating them with colonialists. A young Englishman, Everett, arrives with the astounding news that following deaths in their English family, Thaddeus, the last surviving male heir, is now Baron Sanderson and required back “home.” Ottilie retorts, “He is home.” She refuses to let Thaddeus leave and spurns Everett’s amorous advances. However, when another tragedy strikes, Ottilie is forced to accompany Thaddeus and Everett to England. There, Ottilie deals with not only discrimination but also betrayal and loss.

In her author’s note, Kimberly Duffy mentions that this second novel, like her first (A Mosaic of Wings), is based on her visit to India, particularly Calcutta. Hence, the narrative feels realistic. The relationships between the Indians and the British, and those in-between, the Eurasians, are captured precisely. The novel is written lucidly in Ottilie’s third-person point of view, and we feel her mental anguish at her mistreatments by the British in India and later in England. The skillful creation of Ottilie, who looks very Indian, and Thaddeus, who appears English, adds to the novel’s conflict. The Indian and English characters are well developed into several subplots. The 1857 Indian Rebellion/Mutiny is cited, and although its consequence on the characters is a part of the story, its coverage is brief. While the novel has a slow, lengthy start, the ending feels a bit rushed. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting and informative read.

Waheed Rabbani

HIDEOUS PROGENY: Mary Shelley and Her Monster

Vaughn Entwistle, Masque Publishing, 2020, $26.00, hb, 313pp, 9780982883099

Have you ever taken a romantic trip with friends—to Lake Geneva, Switzerland, perhaps—only to be kept inside by rain? In 1818, you amuse yourselves with shocking news, like the report of spontaneous life wrought from chemicals and electricity by England’s Dr. Andrew Crosse. You discover ancient myths of werewolves and vampires in the house’s library. Drink, then-legal drugs like heroin, and even riskier moral explorations add zest to candlelit evenings. How about storytelling? If your host, the acclaimed poet Lord Byron, challenges you to a ghost story contest with the equally famed Percy Bysshe Shelley, you might be daunted. However, Shelley’s lover and future wife, seventeen-year-old Mary Godwin, trounces them both. Inspired by a night of cataclysmic thunderstorms, Mary writes of a hulk stitched together from human corpses and animated by lightning.

Frankenstein makes Mary Shelley a household name, but fame brings her no joy. She is haunted by ghosts of her beloved husband, children, and friends, all carried to early graves. At age forty-four, tortured by headaches and nightmares, Mary consults Dr. Crosse about an undiagnosed brain tumor which will eventually take her life.

Vaughn Entwistle takes a delicious dive into Shelley’s tragic life with his novel, cradling it in his own tale of creation and destruction, steeped in hallucination. He writes à la Shelley, but with a light touch which lets Hideous Progeny careen along with manic energy as Mary’s past reverberates into the present, and forward into the unknown. Dopple- (and triple) gängers, heady draughts of forbidden science and passion, murder, afterlife and rebirth – Vaughn Entwistle delivers them all in Hideous Progeny; a great read for a dark and stormy night.

Jo Ann Butler

THE ANGEL OF WATERLOO

Jackie French, HarperCollins Australia, 2020, A$29.99, pb, 432pp, 9781460757918

The Battle of Waterloo has spawned many historical novels, but few can have such an appealing female protagonist as Henrietta (Hen) Gilbert. The daughter of an army surgeon, she has acted as her father’s assistant across the blood-soaked battlefields of Europe. Undeterred by the horrors around her, she saves the life of Lieutenant Max Bartlett. They form an instant emotional bond that culminates in a hasty wedding before coming under cannon fire and losing sight of one another in the ensuing chaos.

Hen seeks to find out what happened to Max. She arrives in the convict colony of New South Wales, where the fortune bequeathed to her by her father enables her to start a new life in which her medical skills complement her ambitions to be a property owner. As “Auntie Love”, she tends the ill and poor and, as the rich widow of a Waterloo hero, she is equally welcome in the higher ranks of Sydney society.

Although fiercely independent, Hen must deal with unreliable convicts and others of unscrupulous intent, only learning whom she can trust through trial and error. She also risks censure when she develops a special bond with a group of Aboriginal women. Following a chain of violent events and a disturbing encounter with her past, Hen has to confront her illusions about love and truth.

This could be classified as a romantic novel, yet the romance component is less important when set against the dynamic story of this lone woman making tough decisions in a pioneering environment. The sunset ending is not at all what the reader might be expecting yet is an honest conclusion in keeping with its pragmatic sweep of early Australian history.

A vivid and engrossing novel from one of Australia’s best historical fiction writers.

Marina Maxwell

THE FRENCH HOUSE

Helen Fripp, Bookouture, 2021, $0.99, ebook, 288pp, 9781800193055

After falling in love and marrying François, the scion of the Clicquot champagne estate in 1798, 21-year-old Nicole Ponsardin schools herself in the science and poetry of winemaking. After François’s death, from typhoid or selfinflicted rat poison, Nicole is Veuve Cliquot, the widow who revolutionizes the production and sale of French champagne.

A remarkable woman, the actual Veuve Cliquot was one of the first international businesswomen. She is credited with the production of the legendary 1811 champagne vintage and the riddling technique which eliminated the sediment that spoiled countless bottles of wine at the time.

Fripp’s story takes considerable license with historical fact. Her Veuve Cliquot embarks on a series of adventures: She disguises a shipment of champagne as coffee and guides it across the French and Belgian countryside to circumvent Napoleonic War trade blockades and transport the wine for sale in Russia, faces murderous border guards and henchmen who think nothing of pushing a young woman into icy barge waters, engages in a lesbian relationship with a glamourous Parisienne, and circumvents threats and pressure from a rival vintner. But as Fripp acknowledges, The French House is escapist fare.

The novel’s bouquet is enhanced by undertones of wine-tasting—the essence of almond blossoms, summer strawberries and hay, Black Sea salt—and small changes in daily life that came after the Revolution, including the system of taking measurements and naming the months. Dialogue is crisp; plot development is smooth and silky. All in all, bubbly and refreshing.

K. M. Sandrick

HOLD FAST

J. H. Gelernter, W. W. Norton, 2021, $25.95, hb, 256pp, 9780393867046

Picture this: James Bond in a red coat, tight white breeches, and a powdered wig topped off with an odd mésalliance between a top hat and a cowboy hat.

But the year is 1803, the Napoleonic Wars are grinding along, and the name is Grey, Thomas Grey, a captain in the Royal Marines (seagoing British soldiers in the age of fighting sail.) As this rip-roaring novel speeds thrillingly along, however, we rarely see Grey in uniform, first because, as a grieving widower, he decides to start life over as a lumber merchant in Boston, Massachusetts; and second because the Marines are his cover, and he’s really a secret agent in the forerunner of MI6.

Of course he’d be wasted on wood. He’s barely set sail for Boston when adventures overtake him, beginning with a flaming battle at sea that first reveals his superpowers, which include swordsmanship, marksmanship, fistfighting, swimming, climbing, and bombmaking, as well as military tactics, seamanship, and advanced social skills. Under cover in France, he soon shows other talents as a double agent, gambler, and master of the risqué new dance called the waltz. He charms lovely ladies and foils highway robbers. Challenged by both a duel and a newfangled air rifle, he triumphs.

In his debut novel, J. H. Gelernter engagingly acknowledges the influences of Ian Fleming, Bernard Cornwell, and above all, Patrick O’Brian. His publishers also point to O’Brian by using the same book design for Hold Fast as for their hugely successful Aubrey-Maturin novels. Gelernter is slightly less adept at handling dialogue and period manners than O’Brian, but the only real disappointment is the book’s brevity. And yet, although constantly wounded, Grey is clearly almost immortal, so we can hope for more.

Susan Lowell

SHADOWS OF THE WHITE CITY

Jocelyn Green, Bethany House, 2021, $15.99, pb, 382pp, 9780764233319

This novel is set against the dazzling backdrop of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Sylvie Townsend’s life had taken an unexpected turn back in 1880 when she stood outside a Chicago orphanage. She was approached by a man down on his luck. He asked for help dropping his daughter off at the orphanage because he could no longer provide for her. Sylvie made a snap judgment and agreed to care for the little girl, Rozalia, until the father got back on his feet.

Thirteen years later, Rose, now 17, is still

living with Sylvie. For Sylvie, a single woman who has always wanted a child, Rose is her dream come true. At the Fair, Sylvie becomes a tour guide, meets Kristof, a musician, and enjoys life. But Rose longs to find out about her parents and her family back in Poland.

Then Rose meets a Polish actress named Jozefa, who befriends her with ulterior motives. A week later, Rose disappears. Sylvie and Kristof search for her in vain, both fearing that she has become a victim of the white slave market operating in Chicago.

This superbly told story offers tension throughout and many unexpected plot twists. The descriptions of the 1893 World’s Fair and the excellent map at the beginning help readers orient themselves within the Fair. A well-paced story with credible characters; highly recommended.

Linda Harris Sittig

LIBERTIE

Kaitlyn Greenidge, Algonquin, 2021, $26.95, hb, 336pp, 9781616207014

On the surface, Libertie is a coming-ofage novel. Libertie Sampson, free-born, dark Black daughter of the much lighter and more self-assured Dr. Catherine Sampson, relates her adolescence and young adulthood in Civil War-era Kings County, New York, and her time as a college student in Ohio, as well as her marriage to Emmanuel Chase, her mother’s Haitian-born apprentice. Her journey to his country takes her search for autonomy in another direction. However, Kaitlyn Greenidge’s absorbing second novel has a broader scope than one fictionalized life, although Libertie’s often detached recollections provide an ideal perspective for working through the psychic aftereffects of slavery and emancipation on an entire Black community and its connections to the wider diaspora.

Unfolding over about a decade and a half (the late 1850s to early 1870s pass by in the background), Libertie moves from Catherine Sampson’s house in the small New York free Black community to Ohio and then to Haiti, as Libertie tries to move from her mother’s shadow. There is a great sense of claustrophobia in Libertie’s perspective as she learns what she is drawn to and what she cannot bear, without a great revelation. Greenidge renders it all superbly.

Recommended for all who want to read about the Reconstruction era in US history and everyone who is willing to reckon with the

Irene Colthurst

CAPTAIN PUTNAM FOR THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS

James L. Haley, Putnam, 2021, $28.00/ C$37.00, hb, 353pp, 9780593085110 It is 1834, and a 47-year-old Captain Putnam—in the fourth instalment of the Bliven Putnam Naval Adventures—travels homeward from the Caribbean on board his battle-weary, sloop-of-war, Rappahannock. Suffering bouts of malarial fever, our hero longs to settle down on his Connecticut farm with his novel-writing wife, Clarity. Such is not to be, just yet. Trouble at sea forces Putnam first to St. Augustine, on Florida’s coast, and then to Charlestown, Massachusetts. There, he witnesses an anti-Catholic, book-burning mob. Is Clarity’s friend the Reverend Lyman Beecher to blame? Far to the west, other troubles brew. Texas has rebelled against its Mexican government. Yet unbeknownst to Putnam, Andrew Jackson’s United States government has enlisted our Captain secretly to assist the Texans. Commanding his nowrepaired ship—renamed Gonzales and flying a flag with a lone, yellow star on a blue field— Putnam enters the fray for the Navy of the fledgling Republic of Texas. Readers expecting nautical action will not be disappointed. Alongside seafaring escapades, though, major themes of American history unfold. Putnam, for instance, “perceived that, everywhere he turned, he was confronted by matters of slavery and religion.” And, while Texan rebels present themselves as latter-day American Revolutionaries, was that merely rhetoric? Captain Putnam is unsure. Sam Bandy, Putnam’s old friend, is back. So are others from his earlier adventures, now joined by some of nineteenth-century America’s most colorful figures. Author James Haley aptly draws on his non-fiction research. He has published several volumes on Texas history and an award-winning biography of Sam Houston (2002). In Captain Putnam for the Republic of Texas we meet the Fabiusquoting and buckskin-donned Houston; a knife-wielding James Bowie; “the Great Impresario,” General Stephen F. Austin; Mexico’s infamous General Santa Anna; and “Old Hickory” himself, President Andrew Jackson, whose character Putnam endeavors to measure.

Mark Spencer

A PROPER SCOUNDREL

Esther Hatch, Covenant, 2021, $15.99, pb, 244pp, 9781524416980

During the 19th-century British railroad boom, Everton, Lord Bryant, is propositioned on his doorstep by Diana Barton. She hopes his scandalous reputation will ruin her own, an act she believes will repel the businessmen trying to woo her in order to acquire by marriage the rail line she partially controls. With guilt about his dead wife on his conscience, Everton is reluctant to agree to even a sham courtship. But romantic sparks begin to fly when he obligingly kisses Diana in order to discourage her most persistent suitor. I enjoy will-they-won’t-they banter and sexual tension in a good romance but felt there was an uneven balance here, too much banter and not enough action. I wanted something to happen beyond the couple accidentally meeting in a bookshop or conversing in the rail office. Hatch is excellent at depicting sexual sparking in a “clean” romance with no bedroom scenes, but I’m afraid there wasn’t enough conflict in the plot to hold my interest.

B. J. Sedlock

BEYOND THE RIO GILA

Scott G. Hibbard, Five Star, 2021, $25.95, hb, 373pp, 9781432866136

Tired of being beaten by his father, 17-yearold Moses Cole leaves his farm in the fall of 1844 and walks 18 days to Carlisle, Pennsylvania and joins the First Dragoons. After traveling west to Kansas, the Dragoons arrive at Fort Leavenworth. Moses befriends young Abner Black, who has the ability to put together clever sentences when he speaks. When war breaks out with Mexico, the Dragoons head for New Mexico in 1846 to join the Army of the West, commanded by General Kearney. Their orders are to march across the desert to fight the Mexicans settled in California.

A Mormon battalion also arrives in New Mexico in 1846. They are untrained and without uniforms. Captain Cook is reluctantly assigned by General Kearny to lead these men to California.

This tale of two battalions of men as they cross the deserts of New Mexico into southern California provides an exciting story of survival. In this well-researched novel of a little-known episode of the Mexican War, the historical characters blend in easily with the fictional soldiers. The extensive research tends to slow the pacing at times, but I still found this character-driven novel an easy read.

Jeff Westerhoff

MY DEAR MISS DUPRÉ

Grace Hitchcock, Bethany House, 2021, $15.99/ C$19.99, pb, 368pp, 9780764237973

Willow Dupré, a wealthy heiress from one of the foremost families on Fifth Avenue, is the most sought-after lady in New York society. With her father retiring, she has no time for anything else, let alone a man, because she is far too busy overseeing the family business. Despite the fact that she is a devoted businesswoman, the board of shareholders holds the fact that she is a woman against her and will not stand behind her. Not long after, her parents announce that she must find a husband who can help her maintain power among those who would try to take it away. When she learns that her parents have entered her into a competition where she

must choose from among some of the premier suitors in society, she is reluctant, to say the least. Willow must use caution and wit as she assesses the motives of those who want to be the king of her sugar empire.

To the modern reader, the plot of this book is reminiscent of the popular reality show, The Bachelorette. In what is a unique take, author Grace Hitchcock has combined the modern with the old fashioned by setting her book at the height of America’s Gilded Age. As a professional businesswoman, Willow Dupré is no shrinking violet but a largely unconventional heroine who goes against the grain of polite society. In short, she is a woman before her time.

Overall, the book is amusing and entertaining, a relatively quick read. The characters are interesting and possess great depth. It is apparent by her knowledge and word use that Hitchcock did considerable research when writing this book.

Elizabeth K. Corbett

BREATH LIKE THE WIND AT DAWN

Devin Jacobsen, Sagging Meniscus Press, 2020, $19.95, pb, 208pp, 9781944697938

This tale covers 20 years, from the Civil War forward, and the Tamplin family—three brothers, Quinn, Irving, and Edward; father Les; and finally mother Annora—are the centerpiece of the novel. Quinn and Irving are twins who are outlaws and rob banks; Edward, the youngest brother, has a dark past; Les is a serial killer, while Annora remains at their homestead in Utica alone.

Les is definitely the most violent of the family. After serving in the Civil War, he never returns home but heads West. He becomes an Indian fighter, but because of his violent behavior, he must leave the military. Les continues his violent ways wherever he travels: relief for him is instant, pure, and essential. After he is almost caught in a killing spree, Les escapes and finally returns to Utica where he becomes sheriff. He enjoys killing prisoners in his jail cell by smothering them to death, making the deaths look like a suicide.

Sagging Meniscus publishes “nonconformist fiction.” This is Jacobsen’s debut novel, and the author’s style may make the story difficult for some readers. His writing skills show enormous depth, using language demanding interpretation, requiring slow and steady reading from the first page to the last. There is also not a single false note in the characters’ dialogue.

Jeff Westerhoff

THE PHANTOM IN THE FOG

Richard James, Sharpe Books, 2020, £6.99, pb, 248pp, 9798565816174

London, 1892. This book, the fourth in the Bowman of the Yard series, starts where the third book, The Body in the Trees (HNR 95) left off: with the very endearing but damaged Detective Inspector George Bowman in a lunatic asylum. This is where he stays for the duration of the book, leaving his trusty and capable subordinate, Sergeant Graves, having to work with Bowman’s antithesis, the lazy, greedy and incompetent Detective Inspector Hicks.

Newly promoted Detective Superintendent Callaghan, who is well organised, officious and ambitious, assigns Graves to a fraud case and leaves a series of gruesome murders to the useless Hicks. A witness to one of these murders visits Bowman and tells him that the perpetrator was a fiend, who had green, glowing eyes and escaped by jumping over an impossibly high wall. The details remind Bowman of a case he had worked on ten years previously, and he contacts Graves to ask him to do some investigating on his behalf. Although Callaghan has explicitly ordered him not to, Graves manages to involve himself in the murder investigations.

Bowman’s nervous symptoms are successfully eased by a revolutionary method of applying an electrical current to the brain, and with the buried memories that come to the fore he is able to provide invaluable clues to Graves.

I found the chapters which describe Bowman’s mental state and his recovery extremely wellwritten, as are those of Victorian London and the police procedures, or lack thereof. Hicks is a truly unlikeable character, whereas the reader roots for Graves from start to finish. Readers interested in a good whodunnit, Victorian society or who are fans of Bowman and Graves will enjoy this book either as a standalone or as part of the series. Recommended.

Marilyn Pemberton

A FATAL FIRST NIGHT

Kathleen Marple Kalb, Kensington, 2021, $26.00/C$35.00/£21.00, hb, 309pp, 9781496727244 This is the second book in Kalb’s series of mysteries set in 1890s New York, featuring opera singer Ella Shane, a mezzo-soprano who sings male roles. Ella’s company is performing the opera The Princes in the Tower when, on opening night, a dead body is found in the dressing room of the bass-baritone playing Richard III. The singer, Albert Reuter, is the prime suspect, but Ella has her doubts about his guilt. While Albert is in jail, a series of accidents happen to members of the company, both on and off stage, and Ella wonders if someone means harm to the company. Or is there a killer among the cast and crew?

Meanwhile, Gilbert Saint Aubyn, Duke of Leith, the British aristocrat with whom Ella has an understanding, returns to New York, but not just to see her. Gil cannot talk about his reasons for his visit, but Ella suspects it may have something to do with a murder case her reporter friend Hetty is covering, in which a society lady is accused of murdering her husband. Hetty is glad to write about a murder case because it means a welcome break from the fashion pages.

This is a well-written, suspenseful series with extremely likable characters. Ella, in particular, is very admirable. Not only does she have a wonderful voice, but she is a master swordswoman, and she’s passionate about her career. She’s conflicted about whether to marry Gil, because she’s afraid she would have to give up her career, and she is not about to do that, no matter how much she loves him. You learn much about the musical world of the time, and also about social issues, especially women’s rights. I highly recommend this book and the first in the series, A Fatal Finale.

Vicki Kondelik

SUNFLOWER SISTERS

Martha Hall Kelly, Ballantine, 2021, $28.00, hb, 528pp, 9781524796419

This epic story, set prior to and during the American Civil War, is inspired by the lives of Georgeanna “Georgy” Woolsey and her six sisters, mother, and brother, drawing on the Woolsey family archive. An exceptional opening scene gives insight into the deep moral convictions of the Woolseys. Then the Civil War approaches, with a sense of pageantry and excitement that gives way to grim realities of war.

Georgy becomes a Union nurse and experiences the human tragedy of inadequate and rudimentary medical resources to treat an unimaginable number of casualties. At the same time, Georgy must contend with male prejudices against female nurses. The other two protagonists, enslaved Jemma and heartless, self-absorbed plantation owner Anne-May, face economic hardships and family losses brought on by the war. Jemma’s craving for freedom for her family seems hopeless in the face of Anne-May’s human cruelties, which are presented as an unsparingly harsh indictment on slavery. The ravages of war, to Gettysburg and beyond, threaten to tear the country apart and are vividly portrayed not only through military medicine but also through political rebellion, social prejudices, and public health challenges in the Woolseys’ home city of New York.

As the Union begins to gain the upper hand, the strength of Georgy’s and her family’s moral values are tested to the limit when their lives intersect with Jemma and Anne-May. The courage, strength and endurance of Georgy and Jemma as they pursue their dreams and loves, and confront challenges and dangers, are the memorable heart of the story. Deeply researched period detail, rooted in Woolsey family letters, transports us to the time of hoop skirts, havelocks, bombazine dresses, minié balls, and pink satin snoods.

The Woolseys are the ancestors of Caroline

Ferriday, the heroine in author Martha Hall Kelly’s mega-hit Lilac Girls, and she has done it again with another historically authentic story of inspiring women.

Brodie Curtis

IN THE SHADOW OF THE FIRE

Hervé Le Corre (trans. Tina Kover), Europa, 2021, $27.00/C$36.00/£16.99, hb, 480pp, 9781609456177

This elegant novel details both the mundane and horrific details of revolution and war. Nicolas, Red, and Adrian are three soldiers in the Paris Commune’s National Guard, holding Paris from the French Armed Forces in the spring of 1871, in hopes of creating a more equitable life for all citizens. Meanwhile, on these idealistic streets in Paris, the seedy underbelly of conflict finds a face in Henry Pujols, who scours the city to kidnap unsuspecting women for his profit. Investigator Roques navigates the chaos to locate Nicolas’s sweetheart, Caroline, held by Pujols in the city, while the French Armed Forces attack.

Le Corre’s writing and Kover’s translation are beautifully written and create a sensational portrait of life in Paris while illustrating the positive and negative experiences of the siege. The inclusion of both large, philosophical discussions and daily details—a song, a drink, a neighbor—work well: this Paris is a city still reeling from the Franco-Prussian war, hopeful to build something better, while simultaneously admiring small and simple pleasures as danger looms. Readers are warned that some content, especially concerning crimes against women, may be upsetting but do work to show the opportunistic and lawless side of war. This is a powerful novel, evoking the chaos and mundaneness of a military siege, and is recommended for fans of French history or any readers interested in a new perspective on armed conflict.

Ellen Jaquette

FLOWERS BY NIGHT

Lucy May Lennox, Independently published, 2020, $12.99, pb, 298pp, 9780578819839

Flowers by Night is a legitimately fascinating novel. In 19th-century Japan, samurai Tomonosuke is living a prescribed life: dutiful to family, married to a wealthy woman, performing accounting for his lord. One day, while at his local teahouse, a blind man enters, hoping to be served as any man might. But as a non-person, a member of the Todoza guild for blind men, the young man Ichi is unwelcome. The Todoza are skilled masseuses, musicians, and money-lenders, and it is for the latter they are despised. When the teahouse rejects the blind man, Tomonosuke defends Ichi and hires him.

Subsequently, when Tomonosuke and his family are summoned to Edo, Ichi follows. That Tomonosuke may pledge himself to be Ichi’s “older brother”—an accepted formalized status for male homosexual lovers—dangles as both unthinkable due to Ichi’s non-person status and as possible, given Tomonosuke’s passion for Ichi. But when Tomonosuke is framed and jailed for embezzlement, his association with non-persons becomes evidence of his low character.

This is a romance about found family, queer relationships, androgynous performers, and in some ways, the ethics of sex work. Within the framework of caste society, these individuals find a path to happiness.

Lennox does a masterful job of laying out the importance of status and hierarchy in a feudal society without sounding professorial or losing sight of the plot. She includes a pronunciation guide, a glossary, and an extensive historical note at the end. The complex workings of samurai culture, Todoza culture, and the role of women are contextualized in the slow-burn romance of Tomonosuke and Ichi. I highly recommend Flowers by Night for readers interested in Japanese history, queer history, and those who just want to read something a little different.

Katie Stine

THE CAPE DOCTOR

E. J. Levy, Little, Brown, 2021, $28.00, hb, 352pp, 9780316536585

Levy’s dreamlike debut fictionalizes the life of 19th-century Dr. James Miranda Barry, the Irish-born military surgeon who advocated for medical reforms, performed a successful Caesarean section, and was found post-mortem to have been assigned female at birth. In the novel, the dead narrator, named Jonathan Perry, reflects on formative life events, which include early mentorship by General Mirandus, medical school in Edinburgh, and his posting in Cape Town, South Africa, which focuses on Perry’s growing intimacy and ultimately doomed affair with the colony’s governor, here named Lord Charles Somerset.

The liquid, luscious prose is only rarely overwrought, and Perry’s objections to the era’s crude medicine, and the horrors endured by enslaved Africans, are palatable to the modern taste. The novel grapples convincingly with identity themes, but Levy’s ultimate stance on gender doesn’t do full justice to this complex, fascinating figure.

Historians and biographers vary on whether they read Barry as a woman, a trans man, or possibly intersex. The early sections beautifully explore Perry’s gender nonconformity: the death of Margaret Brackley so Jonathan might live; the freedom and authority granted Perry by male garb and manner, and the perplexities of having to hide soiled monthly linens and female breasts. But once Somerset is introduced, the narrator speaks of Perry as a masquerade, a “secret” hidden in plain sight, a disguise of the hidden “truth” of female sex, and a “name” for which the character gives up love, marriage, and maternity. By the end, Levy’s character has become conventional even by 19th-century standards of womanhood.

To some readers, including this one, the choice feels like one more erasure of trans and gender-nonconforming bodies from contemporary view and the historical record. But the novel is still an enchanting story of ambition and loss, a struggle between liberty and convention, and other authors may take up the opportunity that Levy declined.

Misty Urban

CIRCUS OF WONDERS

Elizabeth Macneal, Picador, 2021, £14.99, hb, 376pp, 9781529002539

Set in the 1860s, when the craze for circuses, and particularly “human wonders”, was booming, Macneal’s second novel explores this glamorous, tawdry and exploitative world. Nell is a young woman who can never have what her brother has: a normal life. Set apart by the birthmarks which speckle her skin, she keeps to the edges of village life. But when her father sells her to a visiting circus, a new life begins with Jasper, Toby and their community of performers. Nell moves from shame at having been sold as though she were an object, to the thrills of performance and fame. Yet even her greatest moments – such as meeting Queen Victoria herself – are tinged with indignity, and her fall from prominence is as precipitous as was her rise.

Jasper and Toby have dreamed of owning a circus since they were children together. The brothers’ experiences in the Crimean War bind them even more closely, although also prove to be a fault line in their relationship. Nell’s arrival proves to be the wedge which drives them further apart. Jasper takes financial risks with their future, hoping that “Nellie Moon” will bring him fame and glory, while Jasper deals with the emotional and practical fallout of his love for Nell. All three must grapple with the question of how far they put their personal relationships ahead of the glamour and brilliance of the circus.

Macneal’s second novel is a convincing depiction of a world which offers both great opportunity and extremes of degradation. Her main characters are all driven by conflicted loyalties, and these emotional tensions drive much of the drama. It is an enjoyable and engrossing novel, which captivates from beginning to end.

Charlotte Wightwick

Gifford MacShane, Independently published, 2020, $2.99, ebook, 102pp, B08P54FVBL

The famine of the 1840s has decimated Ireland, and young Molly O’Brien has replaced her father, working a 16-hour day breaking rocks on the road gang. But even with her constant labor, she cannot even afford bread to bring to her two younger brothers, lying sick in the family’s tiny cottage. Finally, Molly decides there is no other alternative but to offer her body to the first man who will promise her a loaf of bread.

As Molly resolutely stares out at the River Shannon, John Patrick Donovan watches her. He believes she is about to commit suicide. When he approaches Molly, she quickly assures him that she will give her body to him if he can first give her a loaf of bread for her two brothers.

The plot quickly ensues with John Patrick proposing marriage instead. He explains to Molly that his family had entrusted him to travel to County Clare to procure a shipment of oats and is now needed at the family’s store back in Wexford.

As John Patrick takes Molly and her two brothers with him on the return journey to Wexford, they see unspeakable starvation throughout the land, and tragedy strikes their small trio. Although this is a relatively short book, it is well-paced, and the characters are believable. The details concerning the Irish Famine are made real by the descriptive writing. I did have a bit of trouble though, believing a man would marry a poor girl he has just met to save her from starvation. Recommended.

Linda Harris Sittig

FROM THIS DAY FORWARD

Beryl Matthews, Allison & Busby, 2021, £8.99, pb, 352pp, 9780749025380

London, 1880. Jane Roberts’ no-good husband runs off with another woman and leaves her in the slums in poverty. She resolves to divorce the man she ran away with 16 years ago and build a new life for herself and her children, Helen, Charlie and Joe. They must do what they can to make money to pay the rent and feed themselves. But it is a struggle. They are helped by neighbour Granny Dora Jarvis, whom Joe has befriended. But there is more to Granny Dora than meets the eye, and she is not the only one keeping secrets. Jane turns to lawyer Ian Preston to help her with her divorce, but there is much to her background that she has kept hidden. Will she reveal who she is, and where she really comes from, to all those close to her to get the divorce she so badly wants?

Beryl Matthews’ family saga is an easy read. It describes the family’s journey in their bid to better themselves with lots of almost unbelievable luck along the way. Jane and her children come across as almost too good to be true, and her quest for a divorce seems anachronistic, but if you want escapism and a feel-good story, this is the book for you.

Kate Pettigrew Derville Murphy, Poolbeg, 2021, £13.99, pb, 398pp, 9781781994177

Dublin, 1872: Julia Benson, an attractive and talented artist and photographer from a Unionist family, is in love with Donal O’Keefe. Though she shares his Nationalist sympathies, Julia is unaware of just how close his links are to Fenian acts of violence. By contrast, her sister Harriet is moralistic, tractable and sensible, engaged to the unscrupulous but outwardly upstanding Edward. Julia is punished for her “unsuitable” attachment and the fact that as an artist she does not want to be restricted to painting feminine subjects like flowers or fairies; she is disinherited by her father.

Her choices narrowing, she follows Harriet and her husband to Manchester, where she tries to establish herself as an artist, whilst Donal goes to America to work with Clan na Gael for the cause of Home Rule. Arriving in England later, Donal is caught and imprisoned in Manchester’s Strangeways prison, and Julia, in trying to help him, is drawn into a plot so terrible she must act to prevent it, but in doing so risks Donal’s life. But just who is manipulating whom in this web of spies and informers?

Murphy has an enviable gift for detail. Julia’s politically charged paintings are described so clearly they can be visualised (one of her teachers was Erskine Nicol, and this reallife painter has a cameo role). When Julia is unwillingly put into a corset, the reader can sense how uncomfortable a restraint it is, both physically and symbolically. The minutiae of Victorian photographic techniques and the practice of dentistry (Edward’s profession) convince utterly, yet the author wears her expertise lightly, enriching her narrative rather than instructing. This compelling book is both a love story (but not a romance) and a thriller.

Katherine Mezzacappa

THE LINCOLN MOON

Michael Price Nelson, Six Swans Press, 2020, $12.99, pb, 308pp, 9781735029702

In 1857, young Truman “Scrump” Armstrong is living a contented existence on his family’s Illinois farm. His parents, Jack and Hannah, are willing to indulge his love of reading, and his older brother, William “Duff” Armstrong, whom Scrump idolizes, good-naturedly lets Scrump tag along on at least some of his adventures. When a grisly discovery convinces the Armstrongs to offer their home as a station on the Underground Railroad, life takes an adventurous turn for Scrump.

Then Duff is found unconscious in a ditch, with little memory of how he got there—and in hours finds himself in jail, charged with the murder of the loutish, wealthy Preston Metzker. With everyone in their community convinced that Duff is guilty, the Armstrongs turn in desperation to an old friend—Abraham Lincoln, a lawyer and politician whom Jack and Hannah first met as a poor nobody in New Salem, Illinois—to defend Duff.

Taking the form of a memoir written by the aged Scrump, The Lincoln Moon is based on a famous 1858 trial in which Lincoln persuaded the judge to accept an almanac as evidence to contradict eyewitness testimony. While Nelson takes a number of historical liberties with his material, including the existence of Scrump, the divergences, duly pointed out in the author’s note, probably won’t bother most readers. The writing is sharp and Scrump and his family, including their farm animals, are vividly rendered, making this novel a pleasure to read.

Susan Higginbotham

SHADOWS OF LIONS

Scarlette Pike, Sweetwater Books, 2021, $16.99, pb, 219pp, 9781462138586

This is Book 2 of the In Spite of Lions series set in 1840s Africa and England. It can be read as a standalone. Catherine Kensington, an unmarried heiress, has been manipulated back to England from Africa by her abusive and violent mother, Lady Kensington. After her mother’s scheming caused great harm to Catherine’s friends in an African village, Catherine has gone back to deal with her and find her missing twin brother. She knows that sometimes to survive a lion attack, you must run straight at the lion.

This Victorian-era adventure is much more than a romance. It becomes almost a psychological thriller as Catherine engages in a long game of deception to outsmart her mother while her friend/protector, Mebalwe, searches for her brother. They are also trying to find a stolen child, Motsasi. Catherine’s love, Captain Ashmore, is desperate to protect her from the evil Lady Kensington, who has no qualms about harming her children to get what she wants. The characters are complex, and the battle of wits between Catherine and Lady Kensington is mesmerizing. I truly enjoyed this book and will definitely read Book 1 and any others to come in this series. Highly recommended.

Bonnie DeMoss

IN THE PALACE OF FLOWERS

Victoria Princewill, Cassava Republic Press, 2021, $15.95/£11.99, pb, 322pp, 9781911115755 In Iran in 1895, Jamila, an Abyssinian slave of one of Shah Nasser al-Din Qajar’s numerous wives, lives in the Golestan (flowery) Palace. Nosrat, a prince, likes Jamila as a concubine, but he prefers his young eunuch, Abimelech, another Abyssinian. Although he’s a slave, Abimelech is worldly and wise, and the Shah

often confers with him in private. Nosrat takes Abimelech to Council meetings. The Shah permits Abimelech to express his opinions on political matters concerning dealings with the British and the Russians, particularly due to Tsar Alexander III’s recent death. The older princes and senior members of the Council are disturbed by this. Furthermore, because of economic conditions, the presence of a Cossack Brigade in Tehran, and other issues, the citizens are unhappy with the Shah’s regime. The two Abyssinian slaves become engulfed in the struggle for power within the palace, politics, and terrorism by rebellious factions.

Victoria Princewill has based her novel on a brief letter written in 1905 by an Abyssinian woman, Jamila Habashi, in Iran. It’s the only known record written by a slave during that period. Using the real Jamila’s first name for her protagonist, Princewill has injected considerable realism into the story in imagining what Jamila would have experienced. While providing readers with vivid details of the exquisite Persian palace and the Shah’s opulent court, Princewell doesn’t hold back while narrating the lavish life within, including heterosexual and gay intimacies. Jamila desires more than freedom. She is tortured for her treachery, which is also recounted in detail; some readers might want to skip those passages. As this is Jamila’s story, the historical aspects, such as the BritishRussian Great Game, are appropriately light. The novel’s theme is stated at the beginning in Jamila’s thoughts: “We shall be forgotten.” Princewell has masterfully brought to light the real Jamila, lest she is forgotten. Highly recommended.

Waheed Rabbani

AN UNEXPECTED PERIL

Deanna Raybourn, Berkley, 2021, $26.00, hb, 352pp, 9780593197264

I am always thrilled when I learn of a new installment in the Veronica Speedwell series— and this one was well worth the wait!

Veronica is convinced that medaled mountaineer Alice Baker-Greene was murdered on the highest peak in the Alpenwald. But why? And by whom? Stoker, now not merely her partner in crime but her partner in love, is not so convinced. And frankly he’s exhausted by their investigative exploits and just wants to work on his museum pieces and live a quiet domestic life. Obviously, Stoker doesn’t have a chance of winning that argument, and he is won over by Veronica’s logical explication of the case. He also knows that Veronica isn’t able to settle down and cash in her chips. But then the pair has to convince Princess Gisela of Alpenwald and her coterie that Baker-Greene’s death was murder.

Which brings us to Gisela’s disappearance and Veronica’s impersonation of her. It’s a wonderful romp! Ultimately, of course, the murderer is unmasked after a couple of other bodies join the pile. It’s certainly not a denouement that I expected, but it makes perfect sense.

Once you start reading this series, you can’t stop. Veronica and Stoker are sort of the literary version of Hepburn and Tracy, and their adventures just keep getting better and better as their relationship evolves and matures. My favorite Speedwell yet—but I’m already waiting for the next!

Ilysa Magnus

THE MIRRORED PALACE

David Rich, Adelaide Books, 2020, $19.60, pb, 289pp, 9781953510778

In the last decade of the 19th century, American Lieutenant Reynolds is given the task of turning long-time British spy, Colonel Hodgson, to acquire crucial naval information. Everyone expects Reynolds to fail; he is unpopular with the senior officers, which is why he’s been handed this impossible task. He does get one word of advice: never mention Richard Francis Burton, as Hodgson refuses to talk of his relationship with this famous explorer, author—and spy.

Prior to reading The Mirrored Palace, all I knew of Burton was that he translated A Thousand and One Nights into English. Rich presents us with a Burton who is much more, a man so knowledgeable about the Arab world he can pass himself off as a Muslim on pilgrimage to Mecca. He is also a man who suffers excruciating loss when the Persian girl he falls in love with is killed by her family to stop her from seeing him.

Rich’s understanding of the political complexities in the Arab world in the late 19th century is evident throughout. The various threads—Hodgson’s desire to unburden himself to someone about what he did to Burton, Reynolds’ desire to turn Hodgson while fighting his fascination to find out more about the Hodgson-Burton relationship, the recently widowed Mrs. Burton’s determination to burn parts of her husband’s work—are all intriguing. However, pace and engagement are affected negatively by Rich’s choice to depict the events primarily through reminiscences or long italicized passages from Burton’s book about his Hajj. Only in the last third of the narrative, when we are purportedly reading Burton’s own private narrative of what really happened, does the story become truly gripping and, ultimately, utterly heartwrenching.

Anna Belfrage

AN EARL, THE GIRL, AND A TODDLER

Vanessa Riley, Zebra, 2021, $15.95/ C$21.95/£12.99, pb, 384pp, 9781420152258

Jemina St. Maur and her infant daughter are the sole survivors of a shipwreck, but she suffers from complete amnesia, and her mixed-race child is not recognized as hers. The mother is sent to an insane asylum, the daughter given to Daniel Thackery, a mixed-race barrister, and an earl. Two years later, Jemina and Daniel fall in love, but her determination to learn the truth of her background proves to be an obstacle. Then she meets Hope, Daniel’s adopted daughter.

This is the second in the Rogues and Remarkable Women series, and the plot is rather convoluted, particularly at the outset when the backstory is unfolded. This creates some confusion, especially since part of the story is narrated by Jemina herself, and her state of mind is volatile. As the mysteries are gradually resolved, however, the plot becomes more involving, and the insights into the social context are illuminating. Since it deals with not only more common issues like aristocratic privilege and the vulnerability of women and children but also racial discrimination and the mistreatment of those confined in insane asylums, this is a darker tale than one usually encounters in Regency romance. Recommended.

Ray Thompson

FINDING NAPOLEON

Margaret Rodenberg, She Writes, 2021, $16.95, pb, 374pp, 9781647420178

By 1815, Napoleon has lost everything and surrenders to Britain in the hope the Brits will treat him well. They banish him and his remaining servants and last hangers-on to the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic.

Bored and confined, members of Napoleon’s entourage engage in constant mischief. They scheme to get sent home, spy on each other, and sell information to the British Lord Hudson Lowe. He, with the help of a garrison of soldiers, must govern the island and assure Napoleon does not rile up the locals, manage to escape, or send improper messages back to Europe. Poison, stilettos, and pistols find their uses. Through all the scheming, Napoleon comes across as a devoted father, a romantic charmer, and a clever judge of others. He treats commoners, children, and even slaves with respect.

In real life, Napoleon had penned his own never-finished novel about love and war. Like Napoleon, its main character was born on Corsica and from an early age yearned for battle and sought revenge against the dissolute French rulers. Rodenberg completes Napoleon’s novella and layers her own version, chapter by chapter, into the main story.

Rodenberg’s knowledge of Napoleon and those close to him shows through on every page. Her sub-tropical, rat-infested St. Helena with its soldiers, shop-keeps, British settlers, and African slaves feels true. Her often engaging prose (“When a boy has been born into war, childhood goes missing”) helps carry the many intricate storylines played out by dozens of characters. The whole work presents a new and interesting exploration into the last years of one of history’s giants.

G. J. Berger

Edward Rutherfurd, Doubleday, 2021, $35.00, hb, 784pp, 9780385538930 / Hodder & Stoughton, 2021, £20.00, hb, 784pp, 9781444787832

Rutherfurd stumbles uncharacteristically in this tepid outing, his first set outside of a Western culture.

In 1839, John Trader comes to China from England, hoping to make his fortune in the opium trade. He arrives just as the First Opium War breaks out, and Rutherfurd spends long chapters detailing the British and Chinese military maneuvers and how these affect the Chinese and British economies and, consequently, Trader’s fortune. Along the way, Rutherfurd introduces a number of Chinese characters, including a pirate named Nio, and a eunuch in the emperor’s palace who goes by the pseudonym “Lacquer Nail” because he is the manicurist for the emperor’s favorite concubine. Rutherfurd follows the fortunes and misfortunes of his cast of characters for nearly seventy years, ending in 1902, just after the Boxer Rebellion.

With China’s long history, it makes sense that Rutherfurd would choose a relatively small time period, but seventy years is hardly a blink of an eye for Rutherfurd, whose previous works have spanned as many as two thousand years. Additionally, while much of the book is written from the point of view of Chinese characters, just as much, including the story’s climax, is told from the British characters’ point of view. Rutherfurd instead often shows the Chinese perspective via musings by oddly woke British characters, but these attempts lack power. And though the British characters’ storylines are neatly wound up by the end of the novel, many of the Chinese characters’ stories are left unresolved. As a result, this doesn’t feel much like a book about China at all but rather British imperialism.

Nonetheless, Rutherfurd’s historical detail is, as always, impeccable. Readers who enjoy military history or who want to know more about the Opium Wars will be rewarded, though many Rutherfurd fans may be disappointed.

Sarah Hendess

DANCE WITH DEATH

Will Thomas, Minotaur, 2021, $27.99, hb, 320pp, 9781250624772

A delicious romp through Victorian London’s high society as well as its criminal underworld, this book, the thirteenth in the Barker & Llewelyn series, will appeal to Anglophiles and fans of suspense. It’s 1893, and in the manner of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Cyrus Barker and his assistant, Thomas Llewelyn, run a private enquiry service. Their client is the future tsar of Russia, the Tsarevich Nicholas, in London for a royal wedding, and Barker and Llewelyn must protect him from a mysterious assassin known only as “La Sylphide.” A suffragette adept at disguises aids them in their race with time before the wedding.

The plot involves a colorful cast of characters: a besotted Polish ballerina, scheming grand dukes, the Russian security forces, and a beautiful Russian anarchist who may or may not be La Sylphide. The investigative skills of Barker and Llewelyn must unravel the assassination plot before the royal wedding ends in tragedy.

The book is impressively researched and provides an insider’s look at the lives of 19th century royalty as well as new techniques of policing developed during the reign of Queen Victoria. Thomas has a deft hand for mixing history and suspense. The story is tightly plotted and combines history, subtle humor and a cliffhanger ending that leaves the reader hungry for a sequel.

Anne Leighton

REFINING THE DEBUTANTE

Anneka R. Walker, Covenant, 2021, $15.99, pb, 264pp, 9781524416942

Ethan Roderick and Miranda Bartley are about to cement their courtship when he suddenly calls it off, on grounds that Miranda is frivolous and vain. A genuine philanthropist, Ethan dedicates his time to society’s unseen and unheard. He needs a like-minded wife who will support him in his endeavours. Everyone agrees! Meanwhile, Miranda finds herself on the bottom rung when she is forced to work as a servant in her estranged uncle’s house and is only saved from despair by her maid, Sarah, who teaches her humility and how to say ‘please.’ After a chance encounter, Ethan intervenes in Miranda’s fate, putting her forward as a companion to the elderly Lady Callister.

The scene is well set for a quick-paced riches-to-rags-to-riches story, and it shows in the growth and maturity of the characters. It’s easy to picture Darcy in Ethan’s conundrum— his need to marry equal to his station; his inability to deny his heart. Miranda’s vanity morphs into a new understanding of those less privileged, who she has previously ignored. Lady Callister’s shrewd mentorship proves exceedingly useful, and she’s a delightful addition to the story. Motivations both good and bad are slowly uncovered. A pleasant afternoon’s read.

Fiona Alison

TO LOVE AND TO LOATHE

Martha Waters, Atria, 2021, $16.99/C$22.99, pb, 344pp, 9781982160876

Regency-era England. Diana and Jeremy have been trading barbs since their youth, but beneath the banter lies attraction, and not just physical. When he jestingly suggests they marry, she points out that among other drawbacks he, though a marquess, is impoverished, whereas she, with a meagre dowry, needs to make a good (i.e., wealthy) match. She does.

Five years later, she is a wealthy widow, he has restored the fortunes of his estate, and the banter continues until she bets him that he will marry within a year. Not to her, of course: she prefers the freedom of affluent widowhood. She plans, rather, to plague him with hopeful debutantes, and he to frustrate her scheme, another phase in their long-running game, but their hopes for gratifying entertainment run into difficulties when Jeremy’s redoubtable grandmother decides to take a hand. And she knows exactly whom they should wed. The situation is further complicated by a second agreement: Jeremy wants Diana’s opinion of his prowess in the bedroom; in return, word of their affair will encourage other potential lovers for the young widow.

It is all rather convoluted, but that is to be expected in a witty ironic romance, and Waters carries it off well. The marriage that readers of the genre anticipate does take place, but not before various amusing plot complications. What distinguishes the romance, however, is the characterization. Diana, Lady Templeton, is not only highly intelligent, but refreshingly clear-sighted about the situation of women in the aristocracy; and despite his roguish lifestyle, Jeremy, Marquess of Willingham, is really a considerate and decent chap. The minor characters, especially Diana’s close friends, provide a strong supporting cast. And beneath the humor, there are penetrating insights into the predicament of women in the Regency era. Strongly recommended.

Ray Thompson

20TH CENTURY

OLD SINS

Jane A. Adams, Severn House, 2021, $28.99/£20.99, hb, 232pp, 9780727892447

It is 1929 in England, and two retired police officers are dead. Suicide is suspected since both men had been experiencing financial difficulties in the midst of the global economic collapse, but their deaths appear staged. Also, one man has left a note with two words: “Old Sins.” After Detective Chief Inspector Henry Johnstone learns of the suspicious deaths, he attends his sister’s Halloween party, where a flamenco dancer approaches him with a note containing yet another name. Is this a warning?

The deaths force Henry Johnstone back to his early days of policing, when he worked with these policemen on a difficult case; although the police were successful at catching and imprisoning the villain responsible, he has just been released. With his two colleagues dead, Henry believes his life in danger. Will he be the

next victim of a revenge killing to punish him for his past mistakes?

Intent on solving the mystery before he loses his life, Henry works with his sidekick, Sgt Mickey Hitchens—a fun contrast to Henry’s seriousness—in this enjoyable police procedural. Although I wasn’t entirely engaged with the characters in what I feel is a stand-alone Johnstone mystery, Adams does deal with some important societal issues, particularly that of the haves and have nots at a time in history where the loss of fortunes drove people to suicide. But because Adams is such a talented writer, and captures the time so atmospherically, this installment is still definitely worth the read.

Ilysa Magnus

CHASING SHADOWS

Lynn Austin, Tyndale, 2021, $16.99, pb, 432pp, 9781496437358

Chasing Shadows alternates narratives between several women throughout the duration of WWII. What makes this such a unique story is that Austin focuses on the personal experiences, changes, and fallout the war brings upon each of their lives, in the less-written-about Netherlands. She does not shy away from the horror, but she also weaves themes of family and faith that overshadow the sadness and terror of war.

Lena, housewife and farmer, must bravely face facts: her husband is away defending the border; her daughter, Ans, has joined the Resistance; and her son might get taken away from her. Lena always lives by her faith, no easy task when her country gets overrun by Nazis and her family is torn apart. Bravely, she begins to take in Jewish refugees, hiding them in all sorts of places at the farm, including inside her precious piano. Miriam, a young Jewish violinist, manages to escape Germany to the Netherlands only to find that even there, she and her family are not safe. Miriam must give her daughter away for safe keeping as she and her husband go into hiding, separately. The anguish, terror, and reality of this resonates.

Ans, Lena, and Miriam all face tragedy, heartache, and horror, but each finds solace in their faith and hope for a better future. As always, Austin has penned a moving, intricate, and lovely work of Christian fiction that is excellently researched with an underlying message of hope. Highly recommended.

Rebecca Cochran

A GAMBLING MAN

David Baldacci, Grand Central, 2021, $29.00/C$37.00, hb, 448pp, 9781538719671 / Macmillan, 2021, £16.00, hb, 448pp, 9781529061772

After a near-fatal stay in Poca City (in One Good Deed), Aloysius Archer is headed west to become a Private Investigator. He hopes to hang his shingle in Bay Town, California working for a former FBI agent-turned PI, Willie Dash. A stop in Reno introduces Archer to Liberty Callahan, a cabaret singer with her eyes on Hollywood, and lady luck fills his pockets. After rescuing a debt-laden gambler from mobsters, Archer is repaid with a flashy 1939 Delahaye 165 imported from France. With Liberty at his side, Archer drives on to Bay Town, but Reno won’t leave them alone. Trouble follows, and Archer learns that Liberty has a past as ominous as his own.

In Bay Town, Archer finds a community divided by the haves and have nots. When a mayoral candidate comes to Dash and Archer with claims of an affair and blackmail, the duo sets out to find the culprit. When the alleged mistress is found dead in the town’s burlesque club, everyone becomes a suspect. As the bodies pile up, Archer is forced to dig deep into Bay Town’s secrets before he winds up a victim himself.

This sequel hits all the right notes. Archer is a perfect anti-hero—kind to women, leery of others, a gentleman in a less than gentlemanly world. Baldacci keeps the pace moving with just the right balance of history and action. Liberty is a wonderful foil to Archer, and I hope this duo continues in future installments. Small town politics, the roles of women, and the struggles that some people fought against the attitudes and prejudices of America in the 1940s are deftly woven throughout. Baldacci evokes the golden age of detective noir in this highly entertaining murder mystery.

Bryan Dumas

COURAGE, MY LOVE

Kristin Beck, Berkley, 2021, $17.00/C$23.00, pb, 384pp, 9780593101568

Lucia and Francesca join the unsung women of history as their story of deep personal conviction and courage, born out of fear and love, comes to the forefront in Kristin Beck’s stunning debut novel, Courage, My Love.

Readers will be swept along the banks of the Tiber, across piazzas, and darting into the alleyways of Rome as the spine-tingling story of Nazi invasion, Partisan missions, and espionage unfolds beginning in July 1943. Lucia Colombo, the single mother of Matteo, is the only daughter in a family of strong Fascist supporters who has already lost one son in the war. Her family ties to the government are a constant worry, and eventually Lucia must face and overcome the political dangers involved with protecting her son. Francesca Gallo, a polio survivor and very unlikely messenger, is the eventual counterpart in Partisan activities with her fiancé, Giacomo, and Lucia. Just as Lucia and Francesca sense Germans around every corner, readers will feel equally anxious for the survival of the Partisans and Jewish families being hidden in convents and hospitals with “Syndrome K.” Each page is turned in suspense to find out if the Allies are indeed arriving to force the Germans out of Rome. Kristin Beck’s characters are developed with equal amounts of childhood background, family strife, and political alignments. The secondary characters, Partisans, Nazi sympathizers, and German officers are written with such depth and personal detail that readers will find much to admire or despise, as appropriate.

Lucia and Francesca find themselves many times “in bocca al lupo,” a wolf at the heels. But despite their fears and uncertainty, they keep on going. Readers will also feel “in bocca al lupo,” but keep reading. Courage is rewarded!

Dorothy Schwab

THE PERSONAL LIBRARIAN

Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, Berkley, 2021, $27.00, hb, 352pp, 9780593101537

Marie Benedict’s historical novels have been entertaining and educating historical fiction readers for years, and award-winning author Victoria Christopher Murray has penned more than thirty novels, many of them bestsellers. These two wellregarded writers have joined forces to tell the important and timely story of J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian, an African American woman who passes as a white woman in order to fulfill her potential.

Belle da Costa Greene is actually Belle Marion Greener. Her mother wants her five children to have all the opportunities that white children have in the early 20th century, so she lies to the census taker, listing herself and her children as white and changes Belle’s name. Belle’s adored and adoring father—an ardent activist for Black empowerment—is enraged by his wife’s determination to hide her identity and leaves the family to fend for themselves. When Belle is hired by J. P. Morgan to maintain and develop his collection of rare books, she is given the opportunity of a lifetime. While negotiating with “murderous skill” in a variety of sumptuous settings, she must also protect her family secret at all costs.

This is a fabulous story about a woman who took her destiny into her own hands and found respect, power, and love. She lived her life with boldness and panache. The writing is terrific and feels deeply authentic thanks to Benedict’s partnership with Murray, whose own grandmother also sometimes had to pass for white to survive. There are those

who might fault Greene for the choices she made, but Murray and Benedict help us to understand and admire her. In these strange and troubled times, we need these reminders of resourcefulness and courage in the face of intractable racism.

Trish MacEnulty

THE INHERITANCE OF LION HALL

Corina Bomann (trans. Michael Meigs), AmazonCrossing, 2021, $14.95, pb, 527pp, 9781542016841

One of the pleasures of Bomann’s wellcrafted book is the setting in Sweden, 19131915. Readers learn about Swedish society, including differences between rural and urban life, in a time of rapid change. The protagonist, Agneta Lejongård, has left her family’s estate to enroll in art school in Stockholm. There she meets the first of her lovers. That affair is short-lived because Agneta returns to her estate when her father and brother are killed in a fire. Reluctantly, as the only surviving child of her aristocratic family, she takes charge of the estate, a rare role for a woman. She hires an estate manager who becomes her second lover. He, too, abandons her. She must decide whether to marry a childhood friend, also of the nobility. Throughout the novel, Agneta has one foot in bohemian culture, represented by her love of art, her attitudes toward sex, and her activities as a suffragette, and one foot in conventional culture, represented by her sense of obligation to the estate and her stern mother.

Bomann writes well, judging from this smooth translation. The novel is well-paced, and even minor characters exhibit distinct personalities. Three mysteries sit at the heart of the novel: What caused the fire that killed Agneta’s brother and father? Why did her second lover abandon her? What secrets does her mother hide? Most of these secrets are wrapped up, but not all—a wise choice. A few red herrings add to the mystery. Bomann, however, is not at her best with sex scenes, which she writes formulaically, and occasionally she gives characters an illogical moment. Scenes of a young woman wondering why she feels ill in the morning, when the reader knows, stretch credulity. However, these are minor matters in an overall compelling read.

Marlie Wasserman

FORGET RUSSIA

L. Bordetsky-Williams, Tailwinds, 2021, $14.00, pb, 296pp, 9781732848047

Forget Russia is a luminous look at Russia in the 20th century through the lens of one Jewish woman and her granddaughter. The lyrical language, the complex characters, and the detailed settings create an enthralling story. When Anna, the granddaughter, embarks on a college trip to the Soviet Union in the 1980s, she can’t understand why her mother and her grandmother don’t want her to go. Anna, it seems, is cursed (or blessed) with a Russian soul that compels her to visit the country that has had such an influence on her family. While Anna finds America “soulless” compared to the Russia she encounters, she also realizes that

life there is “impossible.”

Anna’s quest is intriguing, but the early accounts of the grandmother’s travails from 1915 to 1931 are what make this book a truly gripping read. Sarah is just a girl when her father leaves her mother to go to America with promises that he will send for them. After a while, the letters stop coming until, finally, he sends divorce papers. The betrayed mother and Sarah struggle to survive with the help of Sarah’s kindly uncle. But life is hard in the small Jewish village, and during a pogrom, Sarah’s beloved mother is abducted and thrown into a river. This event haunts Sarah, her daughters, and her granddaughter, Anna, who shortly after her arrival in Russia is sexually assaulted by one of her peers.

When Sarah and her husband and two children return to Russia in 1931, we are witnesses to the shattered dreams of the Russian revolutionaries in the face of Stalin’s reign of terror. What a heartbreaking glimpse into a world of idealism betrayed. This is a beautiful and fascinating story you will not want to put down.

Trish MacEnulty

TRIO

William Boyd, Knopf, 2021, $27.95, hb, 336pp, 9780593318232 / Viking, 2020, £18.99, hb, 352pp, 9780241295953

Part of the initial pleasure of Trio, set in Brighton, England and Paris in 1968, is puzzling out the title’s significance. Boyd may have in mind the many triangular relationships among lovers and partners. Or he may signal his focus on the three most central characters—Elfrida Wing, an alcoholic novelist with a serious writing block who obsesses over Virginia Woolf’s death; Anny Vicklund, an American actress with a drug habit who decides to aid her fugitive ex-husband; and aristocratic film producer Talbot Kydd, who contemplates leaving behind his life as a straight man. In many ways, Kydd is the central and most fully developed character, with the others revolving around him as he produces a film, Ladder to the Moon. One problem after another threatens to derail the film. Stars fuss about their roles, they disappear, they refuse to work with each other. Agents demand bigger parts for their clients. A new writer changes the script in the midst of filming. A thief steals valuables from the set. Everyone is either threatened or finds someone to threaten. Each crisis follows closely on the heels of the previous crisis, with breakneck pace.

The action in the novel occurs against the backdrop of protest movements in the U.S. and in Paris. Boyd evokes the late 1960s deftly and quickly with references to cars, typewriters, paper maps, film stock, music, and the increasing visibility of gay bars. He crafts his interlocking stories well, with wit and unpredictable endings. Each of the central characters, facing real or imagined crises of meaning, creates a different solution. Scenes focusing on excessive alcohol use become tedious, but nothing else slows down this rollicking and unforgettable romp.

Marlie Wasserman

FIND ME IN HAVANA

Serena Burdick, Park Row, 2021, $16.99, pb, 320pp, 9780778389361

Actress Estelita Rodriguez lived the American dream. Her young daughter called John Wayne “Uncle Duke.” Her smile and voice captivated audiences on stage and screen, and her lighthearted laugh and beauty made her a member of Hollywood’s elite. But what was the price of that dream? Serena Burdick’s stunning and heartbreaking novel answers that question.

The starlet navigated revolution, kidnapping, and violence while sprinting towards a dream she had been chasing since she first sang in a Cuban nightclub at the age of nine. Shortly after, she left behind family and country for the Copacabana Nightclub, only to find a world dominated by men and their desires. As Burdick explores the deep scars of this journey, she conjures breathtaking images of Hollywood’s Golden Age while exploring the devastating impact of sexual violence perpetrated by husbands, fathers, and soldiers alike.

The author built this story from interviews with Nina Lopez, Estelita’s daughter. Burdick carefully works her way through the decades that defined this mother and daughter. Each chapter alternates between the two voices and layers love, confusion, and longing as the pair work to overcome the forces that keep them apart.

Estelita’s tragic story captures the most beautiful and most painful moments of motherhood, artistic drive, and limitless ambition. More importantly, it explores the ceaseless destruction of sexual violence and finds hope in unexpected places. I highly recommend it.

Melissa Warren

Mary Casanova, Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2021, $22.95, pb, 264pp, 9781517901745 1922, Minnesota. Trinity Baird has just been released from Oak Hills Asylum, to which her well-meaning parents committed her for nearly two years. She and her family and friends converge at Baird Island up near Canada, where her wealthy family has summered for years. Trinity’s mission: to avoid getting put away again and to return to her art studies in Paris. Will she succeed?

I won’t answer that, of course, though spoilers are beside the point when a plot runs along predictable lines, as Waterfall’s does. A handful of issues—racism, anti-Semitism, alcoholism and mental illness, suppression of women and control over their sexuality— provides some friction. Yet they never quite spark engagement, maybe because of how they’re handled in the narrative.

“Be empowered,” a man coaches Trinity. A woman friend smoking a cigarette says, “When we push boundaries, we’re considered a threat.” Trinity thinks of her mental crisis as “her meltdown.”

Men encouraged women in the 1920s; women understood the danger of unconventional behavior; people had selfawareness of their mental states. When a historical novel couches its issues in today’s terms, though, the sense is that while its characters wear period clothes in period settings, they are no more period people than the actors in a soft period drama.

Waterfall is most compelling in its portrait of the Baird family, especially the relationships of the mother and the two adult daughters/ sisters. Without milking the reader’s sympathy, Casanova shows each woman’s emotional status in the family, their jealousies and traumas, and the repressive social conventions that have soured their time together. The connections the women manage to make with each other aren’t tied up in pretty bows, but are left tentative and conditional.

Jean Huets

VALENTINO WILL DIE

Donis Casey, Poisoned Pen Press, 2021, $15.99, pb, 201pp, 9781464213502

Hollywood has finally paired the gorgeous Bianca LaBelle, star of the silent film series The Adventures of Bianca Dangereuse, opposite legendary heartthrob Rudolph Valentino. Despite being two of the most desirable people on screen, the pair have never been romantically involved but are very close friends. Bianca knows something has been troubling Rudy, and it isn’t just the mysterious illness that has been bothering him for weeks. He confides in her that he has been receiving anonymous death threats. While in New York promoting a movie, Rudy is rushed to the hospital and is gravely ill. He suspects he has been poisoned and pleads with Bianca to find the culprit.

Casey’s second in the Bianca Dangereuse Hollywood Mystery series immediately transports the reader to 1920s Hollywood glamour while also showing the gritty reality. The descriptions of film scenes are full of dramatic body language and fast action, making them easy to envision as films from the era. The nod to silent films is represented graphically, too, with each chapter beginning with a short bit of text in an elaborately decorated black box, reminiscent of title cards used at the time. Stars of the day like Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and Charlie Chaplin make appearances. I hadn’t read the first book in the series, but I had no trouble getting caught up in this fast-paced and fun read. There is a brief allusion to Bianca’s past, but it didn’t impair my understanding of the story. I’m looking forward to the next installment.

Janice M. Derr

A SPLENDID RUIN

Megan Chance, Lake Union, 2021, $14.95/£8.99, pb, 347pp, 9781542022392

Set shortly before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, this highly recommended and immersive novel reminds us to be careful what we wish for. Arriving destitute in San Francisco, into the welcoming arms of family, May Kimble is star-struck by her ‘golden’ cousin and her aristocratic uncle, and falls headfirst into the luxurious opulence of their world, of which she has only ever dreamed. As weeks turn into months, she finds herself increasingly enmeshed in her new family’s crushing kindness. Though alarm bells ring in her head, May doesn’t want to think this jackpot she has stumbled upon is anything but real, but her wilful ignorance robs her of a great deal and at great personal cost.

Ostracised by society, May has nothing but time to think on her revenge, after she discovers the true reason for her uncle and cousin’s duplicity. She spends her days practising patience, storing away every piece of information she can glean – anything she can use to clear her name – with the help of the only two people she can trust. As her determination and strength grow alongside her hatred, will she abandon her moral fibre and use that hate to bad ends?

I first encountered Megan Chance with her book A Drop of Ink and have been hooked ever since, reading all of her previous novels. I have yet to be disappointed. Her subjects vary but have a similar sense of the creepy unknown, conjuring a wonderful sense of menace: duplicitous characters, family secrets and cliff-hanger chapter endings. I read A Splendid Ruin in one sitting, unable to put the book down. This is about trust and recognising that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Fiona Alison

REMOTE SYMPATHY

Catherine Chidgey, Europa, 2021, $26.00/ C$38.95/£16.99, hb, 464pp, 9781609456276

Germany, 1943. Hitler’s racial laws are fully enforced. Lenard Weber is a physician married to a Jewish wife, Anna, and they have a daughter named Lotte. Marriage to a non-Aryan results in the loss of his hospital job and deportation to a concentration camp along with his wife and daughter. For 10 years Weber worked on a machine—a “visualizer”—that might cure cancer. When Weber is deported to Buchenwald, he meets Nazi administrator Dietrich Hahn and his wife, Greta. Tensions rise when Greta develops ovarian cancer. Hahn enlists Weber to treat Greta with his visualizer. Making a devil’s bargain, Weber agrees knowing there’s no guarantee that he can help Greta, but he hopes to use this arrangement to discover the fate of his wife and daughter. As Greta’s condition worsens, she and Weber develop a friendship. This poignant friendship becomes a race against time. With Germany losing the war, will they both survive? Will Hahn adhere to his side of the bargain?

Despite being on the long side, this book is a quick read. Chidgey divides the book into separate “novellas” where each principal character speaks eloquently. This approach creates multi-dimensional characters rather than stock figures. Filled with inherent drama— survival amid war and imprisonment—Remote Sympathy is an engrossing tale. It is first and foremost a story of hope, friendship, and endurance. I highly recommend this book as an insightful account of human nature set against the chaos of war. It is a moving examination of the human condition and well worth serious attention.

Anne Leighton

IN THE DARK

Anamaría Crowe Serrano, Turas Press, €14.00, pb, 300pp, 9781913598167

In the winter of 1937, the ancient city of Teruel is buffeted by snowstorms and war, as the changing fronts of the Spanish Civil War cause the city to change hands repeatedly. War has thrust two very different sisters together, and one of them, María, has a

dangerous secret: a man living in the dark under her stairs.

As the war rages, filling María’s small house with more people, the secret becomes more difficult to sustain, while people find surprising comfort and danger in their found family. Meanwhile, the man under the stairs watches, fearful yet in some ways more profoundly happy than he has ever been.

The author is a poet, and In the Dark often feels like a prose poem. Each section is no more than two pages, often less, showing fractured snatches of consciousness of the various characters whose lives intersect (often to tragic effect) in this novel. At first, these fragments can be confusing or disorienting, especially as characters’ identities remain obfuscated. But as the novel progresses, both the characters and the stakes stabilize, and the novel sinks its teeth into you – addressing the blinding nature of ideology, the tensions between sisters, and the weight of forbidden love.

Carrie Callaghan

KOKOSCHKA’S DOLL

Afonso Cruz (trans. Angel Gurria-Quintana and Rahul Bery), MacLehose Press, 2021, £10.00, pb, 280pp, 9781529402698

Dresden, 1945. A city devastated by bombing. Take two families, their lives splintered into a kaleidoscope. Twist the tube, the glass fragments shift. Twist again. To add to the dislocating nature of the story, it turns out to be partially based on a true and weird tale – the doll in the title was a life-sized one commissioned by the artist Oskar Kokoschka to remember his lost lover, and the characters’ narratives revolve around this image. The main protagonist is Isaac Dresner, whom we meet as a young boy sheltering from the Nazis in the cellar of a bird shop belonging to simple-minded Boniface Vogel, who thinks the voice from under the floorboards is the voice of God – which demands water and food offerings to be left. We follow their shifting relationship and dislocations in time and place until Dresner is an adult, caring for Boniface as a father. Linked is the story of Mathias Popa and his relations, one of whom is swept into the Dresner/Boniface relationship. Popa narrates a story-within-the-story, of the doll; its fate is linked to this family and its retainers. This story then dictates the final twist of the kaleidoscope…

Not an easy read, this, but if you can follow the fractured narratives, interesting. I found myself admiring the author’s skill at writing vignettes rather than being drawn to any of the characters. This book is a winner of the European Prize for Literature, so if you enjoy vivid imagery, tight writing, and ambiguity, it may be for you.

Nicky Moxey

HELL GATE

Jeff Dawson, Canelo Adventure, 2020, £1.99, ebook, 255pp, B08FMJ3JZ2

This novel opens in New York in 1904, with the sinking of PS General Slocum. Over a thousand members of a Lutheran church drowned, scarring New York’s German community. Despite this tragedy, and the dark forces uncovered by British agent Ingo Finch, this book is an entertaining romp through the exuberance of early 20th-century New York. When the film is made – and it would make a great movie – think James Bond meets Downton Abbey, in New York. Finch, unlike Bond, is reluctant to work for British Intelligence, and must be persuaded. However, like Bond, he escapes multiple perils, using all sorts of vehicles and weapons. Fans of vintage cars – and guns – will appreciate the marques. Fans of whisky will enjoy the tasting notes as Finch is forced to forgo his favourite Talisker and try American brands. Finch’s many chases lead him through a teeming, vibrant city. There are old fishing quays, Georgian mansions, brandnew ocean liner terminals, and skyscrapers and bridges under construction. The exhilaration of the chase is matched by the energy of the fast-growing city.

When I stop to think, it stretches credibility that a veteran army medic with a limp and a drink habit could effect so many escapes. But this is not that sort of book. There is no time to stop and think, as Finch cheats death yet again, only to land in even more trouble. Hell Gate is Finch’s third story; I enjoyed it alone, but Finch’s Boer war memories whetted my appetite for his other adventures. To reveal the nature of Finch’s enemies would be a spoiler, but they are right on today’s zeitgeist. Their web is complex, but unravelled by the end.

Helen Johnson

OUR LAST GOODBYE

Shirley Dickson, Forever, 2020, $12.99/C$16.99, pb, 346pp, 9781538703731

Set in northern England during the Second World War, this novel explores the many aspects of loss that come to the forefront during a time of large-scale conflict. The novel opens with the death of May Robinson’s mother, hit by a trolley bus whose driver’s ability to see ahead was limited by fog and the blackout. A victim of war? Possibly, but worse is to come. May’s family and friends are beset by violent death by sea, by air and by land combat. May herself becomes a student nurse and, after two spectacularly bad choices of boyfriends, she falls in love with a conscientious objector – a man whose principles were at that time seen as completely objectionable. Pregnant with his child, she feels deserted when he leaves abruptly to join the medical corps. Later, he is reported missing after landing at Dunkirk and she believes him to be dead.

Throughout the novel runs the thread of support of friends and sometimes of strangers who lighten the load of grief. Grief is ever present, arriving often unexpectedly.

May Robinson is forced to find the physical, emotional, and mental strength she thought she lacked as she faces the demands of nursing and of a boyfriend who is considered a coward.

The novel is realistic about the wartime era with well-researched, accurate detail. The author is able to portray the deeply felt and often raw emotions of the time. The protagonist is relatable, and supporting characters are carefully drawn. Throughout the novel death and despair are always close by, but May, like most of us in difficult moments, finds strength in her family and her friends.

Valerie Adolph

COMING HOME TO THE FOUR STREETS

Nadine Dorries, Head of Zeus, 2021, £12.00, hb, 432pp, 9781838939069

Warmer days are coming to Liverpool’s Four Streets. Summer is nearly here, and the Dock Queen Carnival is only weeks away, but organising it when there is a shortage of money may cause a problem.

The tramp ship, with its illicit cargo to be lifted off secretly by the dockers ‘in the know’, has still not arrived. Many families on the Streets have reached financial rock bottom, especially Peggy Nolan, a hard-working woman with seven boys and a lazy, good-fornothing husband. She knows of one thing she could do to make money, and her son, known as Little Paddy, may help. He would do anything for his Mother, but can he stop her and save her from a potential lifetime of regrets?

If only Maura and Tommy Doherty were here, they would help anyone in need, especially Peggy, but they have moved away to Ireland and are running an almost empty pub. Could they make a living at the pub and start to make ends meet or would they have to accept that it had been a mistake and return to the Four Streets. If they do come home, where would they live? What about the corrupt cop Frank the Skank, who is moving into their old house?

This a delightful and long-awaited, moving continuation of the Four Streets saga, a charming insight into the lives of these entertaining characters. They share their hopes, dreams and pain with the reader in a colourful and engaging way. A real pageturner.

Rachel Jones

AN ACT OF LOVE

Carol Drinkwater, Penguin, 2021, £7.99, pb, 435pp, 9781405933360

Inspired by an extraordinary true story, An Act of Love follows Sara who, with her parents, finds refuge in a lovely but dilapidated house in the Lower French Alps in 1943. After fleeing war-torn Poland, the village is the blissful backdrop to a blossoming romance between the protagonist, who is on the verge of womanhood, and local villager Alain. But something happens to threaten not only their future happiness but Sara’s freedom.

Carol Drinkwater certainly knows how to spin a good yarn. This latest novel by the author of The Lost Girl, The Forgotten Summer, and the non-fiction bestseller The Olive Farm, is a rattling good read, with short, page-turning chapters and deceptively simple prose. Her

easy descriptions, detailed research and vivid characters bring an emotional depth to a novel that depicts poignantly a remarkable period of history in which ordinary people helped shelter Jewish families during the horrors of Nazi-occupied France.

Drinkwater dedicates the book to the “many girls” she has encountered on her travels whose stories are not so different from Sara’s. She commends them for “the courage it takes to face the world when the world does not accept you”. She first came across the story on which the novel is based at a museum in the Alpes-Maritimes in 1996. She writes: “This buried corner and its inhabitants, Italian and French, would not let me be, and I felt the need to come back to their history”. An Act of Love is an emotional and compelling novel about the power of first love and friendship. It is a warm, moving story that could be Drinkwater’s best novel yet.

Margery Hookings

MURDER AT THE RITZ

Jim Eldridge, Allison & Busby, 2021, £19.99, hb, 384pp, 9780749025137

The author is a prolific writer and has embarked upon another themed historical murder-mystery series. While his Museum series volumes have been regularly reviewed in the HNR, we now have a series that feature murders set in famous hotels. It is a promising premise. This story is set in London in August 1940, while the Battle of Britain rages for the dominance of the skies over Britain. In the plush Ritz hotel in London’s West End, a body of an unknown man is found murdered in a suite of rooms occupied by the displaced King Zog of Albania and his extensive retinue. The Hon. Detective Chief Inspector Edgar Saxe-Coburg, who is a younger brother of the Duke of Dawlish, investigates the death, alongside his trusted assistant Detective Sergeant Ted Lampson. They are chalk and cheese – the elegant, patrician Coburg and the rough and ready Lampson, a Londoner from Somers Town. But they make a good and effective pairing, and respect and like each other.

The body of the murdered man is quickly and illegally spirited away from the morgue, and Coburg and Lampson get themselves engaged in a tricky maelstrom of crime, international politics and espionage. And then more bodies are found – in the Ritz and dragged from the Thames, there is a gangland killing or two, and to make matters worse, Germany starts to bomb London and other urban settlements in England. Coburg has a growing relationship with a talented and attractive entertainer Rosa Weeks, to provide a little diversion from the relentless battle against murder and other crimes in wartime London. It is a great story, that breezes along, and the characters are engaging and well-developed. I will look forward to the subsequent books in this series.

Douglas Kemp

THE TITANIC SISTERS

Patricia Falvey, Kensington, 2021, $15.95/ C$21.95, pb, 320pp, 9781496732569 / Corvus, 2019, £7.99, pb, 384pp, 9781786490643 1912. Sisters Nora and Delia board the Titanic to start their new lives, one as a governess and one as a maid. But when disaster strikes the illfated ship, the two become separated. Delia is picked up by the Carpathia, but her sister’s name isn’t on the list of survivors. Believing her sister dead, she steps into the governess job and introduces herself as Nora. Meanwhile, after falling out of a lifeboat and hitting her head, Nora wakes up in a hospital with no memory of who she is. The wealthy woman who found her unconscious on the Carpathia takes her under her wing and shows her how to care for someone without strings attached. Alternating narration between Delia and Nora, the story follows the sisters as they begin journeys of self-discovery in America.

For a book with “Titanic” in its name, there’s little of the ship other than generalizations. Nora’s and Delia’s observations mainly involve the menus and the fancy-dressed women. While Delia has craved adventure all her life, she sure avoids experiencing anything on the ship. Falvey never hits a strong emotional chord as the sinking begins. Thus, if you’ve had an interest in the Titanic since its discovery, like me, this book disappoints.

Nora often uses the word craic. I enjoyed seeing her roots come out, but that’s pretty much the only cultural word sprinkled in. Characters-wise, the sisters are extremely passive and switch from being likable to unlikeable rather quickly. They are largely inactive in plot movement while things change around them. Setting-wise, there are a few moments in Texas that hint at beauty, otherwise, I felt largely disconnected from it. Admittedly, I had high expectations with the “Titanic” tease in the title; however, this is a light read about second chances with a satisfying ending.

J. Lynn Else

DEATH OF A SHOWMAN

Mariah Fredericks, Minotaur, 2021, $26.99, hb, 288pp, 9781250210906

This fun, well-written cozy historical mystery, the fourth in the Jane Prescott series, takes us right to the heart of Broadway. It can be read as a standalone, but events from previous books are discussed, so reading the first three books would be beneficial.

In 1914 New York City, Jane, lady’s maid to the wealthy Louise Tyler, is back in New York after a trip to Europe. Louise has invested in a Broadway musical, and Jane begins accompanying her to events and rehearsals as a chaperone. Leo Hirschfeld, Jane’s romance from the previous summer, has written the musical, as it happens. He has also made some choices that are hard for Jane to accept. Then a well-known producer is killed in a bathroom of the famous Rector’s restaurant, and tabloid reporter Michael Behan is on the case. Will Jane help him find the killer?

Mariah Fredericks takes us on a sometimes hilarious journey into the world of Broadway and the elite circles of 1914 New York City. The author’s wry humor will keep you chuckling as we uncover more secrets and clues, and we learn that especially in show business, things aren’t always as they seem. Jane is an engaging protagonist. Her shrewd mind, adventurous spirit, and clever wit will definitely keep the reader entertained. She’s perfectly imperfect and stumbles frequently into mishaps and mayhem, taking us along for the ride. The mystery is multifaceted and compelling, and the characters all shine. Historical people, places, and events from Gilded Age New York are shown in vivid detail.

This is an enjoyable read from start to finish. Highly recommended.

Bonnie DeMoss

RED CORONA

Tim Glister, Point Blank, 2021, £14.99, hb, 282pp, 9781786077790

The core of the story is the quotidian relevance of the humble radio wave and how our every move can be watched via satellite, CCTV, and compliant or indeed remote use of the portable camera into which you’re currently smiling. As Mr Glister writes, “the power to spy on anyone, anywhere, any time… if we’re lucky it’ll be a friendly face watching over us… but what if it isn’t?”

Sixty years ago, the first rough cobblestones were being laid for what is today’s stellar infohighway. This debut novel, although pertinent, isn’t about the space race and first man to the moon as such, but rather the painstaking

pioneering work bravely undertaken prior to that by physicists striving to solve the problems of earth to space communication – but don’t fret, the important technical information is clearly imparted. Intrigue, thrills, fights and killings occur in the race to cross that line first, and cracking drama it is with well-observed MI5, CIA and KGB characters in realistic settings surrounded by many authentic contemporary touches, particularly in the small visual details of 1960 London’s Soho street- and night-life (with gentle nods to the then-illegal gay scene), or the desperate bleakness of the Russian-Finnish borderlands or the leafiness and popularity of Stockholm’s central public park; all this so naturally written that you’re actually there also.

The well-paced short-chaptered narrative presents cinematic-style scenes as we follow the half dozen main characters, each with interesting and plausible back-stories, each attempting to thwart the others to establish their own “secure global communications network”. I was reminded of Frederick Forsyth’s Day of the Jackal with its similarly relentless motivations. A great read.

Simon Rickman

THE ABDUCTION OF PRETTY PENNY

Leonard Goldberg, Minotaur, 2021, $26.99/ C$36.99, hb, 352pp, 9781250224224 This is the fifth book in Leonard Goldberg’s mystery series featuring Joanna Blalock Watson, the daughter of Sherlock Holmes; her husband, Dr. John Watson, Jr.; and his father, the original Dr. Watson. In 1917, Joanna and the two Watsons investigate the disappearance of Pretty Penny, a young actress at the Whitechapel Playhouse. At first it seems that Penny may have eloped with her secret lover, but when several prostitutes are murdered in the same way as the victims of Jack the Ripper, Joanna realizes that the killer has taken Pretty Penny and means to make her the next victim.

Has the original Jack the Ripper returned, or is this a copycat killer? The three prime suspects, two pathologists and a surgeon, all work at the same hospital as Watson, Jr., and are amateur actors at the Whitechapel Playhouse. Which of them is an extremely clever killer? When the murderer sends Joanna a letter threatening her son, Johnny, she knows she must act quickly or Pretty Penny and her son will both be brutally murdered.

The Abduction of Pretty Penny is darker in tone than the other books in the series and contains gruesome descriptions of mutilated corpses, which are definitely not for the squeamish. But like the others in the series, this one is very well written, with clever dialogue between Joanna, her husband, and her father-in-law. Joanna has Holmes’s brilliant, logical mind and deductive genius, but she is more emotional, especially when her son is threatened. Her son does not make as lengthy an appearance as he has in other books, but he plays a pivotal role and shows signs of following in the great detective’s footsteps. I highly recommend this latest in an excellent series, but I suggest reading the others first.

Vicki Kondelik

A LEAP OF FAITH

Mel Gough, Red Dog Press, 2021, $10.99/ C$13.99, pb, 266pp, 9781913331757

In apartheid South Africa of the early 1950s, two men meet at a hospital mission: Father Daniel Blakemore, an Episcopal priest, and Dr. Eddie Raleigh. The two men are instantly drawn to each other, but their romance is impeded by the illegality of and attitudes toward homosexuality, and both of their careers could be ruined by any ensuing involvement. The book switches between a first-person narrative by Blakemore and a third-person close from Raleigh’s point of view, keeping the two distinct while allowing the reader more information about each character. The South African political situation is merely a backdrop, and the book mostly focuses on the budding romance between the two men. Both are veterans of WWII, but only Blakemore served in a combat situation, and the depiction of PTSD (“shell shock,” as it was known then) is both sensitive and compelling. The characters are likable, and it’s easy to root for their romance. It’s slightly graphic, and there is limited cursing, but those scenes effectively address the internal conflict of those taught that their sexual orientation (indeed, sexuality generally) is sinful. An enjoyable m/m romance with insight into gay romance in the postwar period.

Jodi McMaster

THE LENGTHENING SHADOW

Liz Harris, Heywood, 2021, $12.25/£8.99, pb, 380pp, 9781913687069

The title of this fast-paced and memorable saga, spanning from 1914 through 1934 in England and Germany, reflects the historical atmosphere: the darkness spreading across the land as the Nazis rise in power and influence, and its chilling effect on the people living beneath it. Each volume in the Linford series focuses on different characters. In this third entry, the protagonists are Dorothy Linford, eldest daughter of Joseph, chairman of a prominent London-based building company; and her troubled younger cousin, Louisa. Although some material overlaps with the previous two books, they can all be read independently, and readers familiar with the saga will appreciate how Harris has avoided spoilers for The Dark Horizon (book one) and The Flame Within (book two) – this is very skillfully done!

Serving as a nurse with the Voluntary Aid Detachment during WWI, Dorothy meets and falls in love with one of her hospital patients, Franz Hartmann, a German internee. Disowned by her parents after their marriage, Dorothy moves with Franz to Germany, where they raise two children. Although she misses England dreadfully, she loves the friendliness and religious amity in their small town, Rundheim. Through the experiences of the Hartmanns and their neighbors, the novel shows the subtle and, later, overt pressures that ordinary German citizens felt to support Hitler, even against their better judgment. One scene set in 1933, where the view from a mountain hike sweeps from the beauteous natural backdrop to the swastika flags flying from windows below, evokes an unsettling contrast. As her worry and fear grow, Dorothy has painful decisions to make. Back in England, Louisa, a surly teenager, must reassess her priorities after a major wrongdoing. The characters realistically grow and change, and readers will turn the pages eagerly, hoping for optimistic endings for them all.

Sarah Johnson

CHURCHILL’S SECRET MESSENGER

Alan Hlad, Kensington, 2021, $15.95/C$21.95, pb, 304pp, 9781496728418

Rose Teasdale is a typist in Room 60 deep beneath the Treasury building in London. When her supervisor comes to the room with a last-minute request, Rose volunteers. Her job: translating for the French delegation in a meeting between Churchill and De Gaulle and Commandant Martel. When she is summoned to a clandestine interview for Churchill’s SOE, Rose is certain that her future is in occupied France fighting for the memories of her family— her parents dead from German bombing, and her brother lost over the Channel as an RAF pilot.

Lazare Aron, a Frenchman of Polish-Jewish ancestry, is busy posting anti-Nazi posters throughout Paris. Because of an accident as a child which took his thumb and forefinger, Lazare could only watch as his friends went off to war. As he steps up his subterfuge from posters to bombs, Lazare attracts the attention of Claudius, a leader in the French Resistance.

Rose’s covert team—Conjurer—parachutes into France and is met by Lazare and the resistance. Rose is assigned as a courier, and Lazare shows her all the dead drops. But before the team can do any work in France, the network is exposed, and all but Rose and a few resistance fighters are captured. What follows is the remarkable story of how Rose eludes capture, plans the rescue of her team from prison, and her eventual capture and imprisonment in Ravensbrück Concentration Camp.

In a field crowded with SOE stories, Hlad dives deep into the history and pulls together several remarkable stories and fashions them into Rose and her role in Operation Jericho. This makes for an exciting, tense story with life-or-death drama unfolding on each page. Hope and love resonating between the characters and Hlad’s evocative writing make this a don’t-miss book.

Bryan Dumas

THE CUSTOM HOUSE MURDER

Mike Hollow, Allison & Busby, 2020, £8.99, pb, 352pp, 9780749026929

This is the third in the Blitz Detective series. It’s September 1940, and the body of a mid-twenties schoolteacher, Paul Ramsey, is discovered in an public air-raid shelter in London’s East End, just after the all-clear early on a Sunday morning. Detective Inspector John Jago is called in as the murder is on his patch, and so begins another case for him and his young sidekick, Detective Constable Peter Cradock. There are some puzzling elements to the case: while Ramsey was a pacifist, he was found with a pistol issued to officers in the Great War and was generally not liked. Jago uncovers a complicated mess of professional rivalry and jealousy and has to unravel the quagmire of the victim’s personal relations. There’s also an issue about financial abuse in the local authority in West Ham awarding planning contracts to local builders. When Jago uncovers a possible link between the two cases, the investigation really takes off. Jago is a likeable character, a bachelor, and with the trauma of his experience in The Great War still affecting him, his solitary life and passion for culture with his intelligent approach to policing lend him a definite Inspector Morse-like aspect.

As with the previous books in the series, the historical background is excellent, with accurate topography and contextual details of life in war-torn London demonstrating the painstaking research that Mike Hollow has undertaken. The US journalist Dorothy Appleton is still on the scene, but the elements in the story that deal with the relationship between her and Jago do not seem to add much to the narrative and are progressing little more than at a lazy snail’s-pace.

Douglas Kemp

GONE MISSING IN HARLEM

Karla FC Holloway, TriQuarterly/Northwestern Univ. Press, 2021, $18.95, pb, 232pp, 9780810143531

Historical novels attempt to do two things: entertain and teach. Holloway’s story of the Mosby family is not one of great Tudor battles or sweeping political movements, but rather the methodical unraveling of a truth: that the horrors that people experience can happen on a daily basis in sometimes the most mundane of ways.

The Mosby family is composed of mother DeLilah, husband Iredell, son Percy, daughter Selma and baby Chloe. They are forced to flee their home in North Carolina in a scene that will make your skin crawl, not because guns are drawn or blood is shed, but because in a casual moment of daily routine a childish mistake is made.

The Mosbys escape to Harlem where, if you think things will get easier, they don’t. Gone Missing in Harlem revolves around the kidnapping of Selma’s baby, Chloe. The Great Depression has struck. Famed aviator Charles Lindbergh’s baby has been kidnapped. Iredell has come down with the flu. Percy is hanging out with the wrong crowd. And Selma is slipping into insanity. Harlem, itself, is a character, a community of people pulled into the vortex of a missing Black child.

Sometimes the teacher in Holloway (she is the James B. Duke Distinguished Professor Emerita of English at Duke University) overcomes the author when she psychoanalyzes her characters. The internalizing can slow the fiction down, deflect the high drama just when it needs building. She is such an evocative writer that the dialogue and action are more than sufficient.

If DeLilah Mosby were alive today, what might she think of the world? Gone Missing in Harlem is Holloway’s door to the past, present, and, unless we come to appreciate the sacrifices that parents like DeLilah still have to make on behalf of their children, the future.

Peter Clenott

WHEN STARS RAIN DOWN

Angela Jackson-Brown, Thomas Nelson, 2021, $17.99, pb, 368pp, 9780785240440

Opal is seventeen and innocent in so many ways, but she’s about to learn some terrible lessons about what it means to be Black in small-town 1936 Georgia. Deserted by her mother as an infant, Opal has grown up with her Granny, a fiercely religious woman with whom she works as a servant in the home of a white family she has known all her life, including Jimmy Earl, her childhood playmate, who’s returning home from college as the book begins. The son of her mistress’s developmentally disabled daughter and an alcoholic, Jimmy Earl is a good man with a blind spot: his nasty cousin, Skeeter, a member of the Ku Klux Klan who has threatened Opal but who has defended Jimmy Earl against slurs about his father, earning Jimmy Earl’s loyalty.

Wise beyond her years, Opal forgives Jimmy Earl because can see the complexities of human nature and behaviors, but even her prescience can’t save her.

She also begins a relationship with one of the most sought-after boys in Colored Town, Cedric, who’s handsome and intelligent and athletic – a very talented baseball player with a dream of making it to the Negro League. But white supremacy’s raison d’être is tearing down the hopes, dreams, and ambitions of people of color, which Opal discovers in devastating ways.

When Stars Rain Down is a book with religious themes, but if that’s not your preference, don’t let that stop you. The writing is beautiful, the story compelling, the characters vividly drawn, and religion is a backdrop, not the main story. Opal’s voice is pitch-perfect, and the plot has enough surprises to keep you turning pages late into the night. I give this book a wholehearted thumbs up.

Sherry Jones

THE WOMAN WITH THE BLUE STAR

Pam Jenoff, Park Row, 2021, $17.99/C$22.99, pb, 324pp, 9780778389385

In March 1943, Krakow, Poland is a cold, unforgiving city under increasingly brutal occupation by the Nazis. Eighteen-yearold Sadie has escaped the ‘aktions’ before, but during a much bigger raid designed to clear the ghetto permanently of all its Jewish inhabitants, she and her parents’ one hope is to escape into the sewers. Only Sadie and her pregnant mother survive this dangerous journey.

Pam Jenoff offers us another atmospheric and accomplished treasure, paying tribute to the small group of Jews who managed, against all odds, to survive World War II in the sewers of Lviv, Poland (now Ukraine). This riveting story is told in alternating chapters by Ella, a privileged girl, and Sadie, her Jewish counterpart, living (and I use the word hesitantly!) in the sewers with her mother and an orthodox Jewish family. To leave their fetid, stinking home is to invite certain death.

Although the girls’ backgrounds are markedly different, Ella, an orphan, suffers her own deprivations and humiliation at the hands of her hated stepmother. This characterdriven novel plays out against the growing companionship of these two unlikely friends, who catch sight of each other through a sewer grate but might barely have noticed each other in a different life. The pace is unrelenting due, in part, to the hardship and cruelty it invokes and the constant terror of being seen or heard. Starvation looms large every day, and the stink is all-pervading. Though the story is at times terrifying, Jenoff gives us some light at the end of the tunnel in her prologue.

As 2020 fades behind us, we can perhaps look back compassionately at our complaints about being sequestered during a pandemic, because novels like this one help us to understand the resilience with which people have withstood the very worst of times and survived.

Fiona Alison

BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME

Julia Claiborne Johnson, Custom House, 2021, $28.99, hb, 274pp, 9780062916365

This clever evocation of Hollywood screwball comedies has “soon to be a major motion picture” written all over it, and if Tom Hanks isn’t angling to direct the film and play the role of the folksy narrator looking back on his glory days in Depression-era Reno, I’ll eat my hat. As to the casting of Ward himself, a Yale-educated ranch hand with a heart of gold

and the masculine beauty of Cary Grant, I’ll leave that to the imaginations of the readers who will fall in love with this wisecracking, heart-tugging novel.

Ward introduces us to a group of glamorous yet disillusioned clients of a guest ranch that has been carefully designed to distract and comfort them during their enforced six-week stay prior to obtaining divorces. The divorcéesto-be are rich and world-weary, but their regrets and fears are treated with sympathy by Ward and the other hosts of the Flying Leap Dude Ranch. The reader sees young Ward through the eyes of his sadder-but-wiser future self, and in comparing the romantic innocent he was in 1939 with the empathetic doctor he becomes, Johnson creates a remarkably real and lovable narrator. The other characters – the women he befriends and cares for – are equally vivid and well-drawn, especially Nina, a raucous aviatrix who upends the usual routines of the ranch with wry observations gained in the course of three failed marriages.

Johnson writes with economy and humor, and it’s a treat just to spend time with these witty, attractive young people. Their experiences are given a poignant context by the narrator’s voice, and Johnson achieves a perfect balance between the comic and the nostalgic that will make the reader want to start re-reading this novel as soon as it’s finished, just to see how she pulled it off so well.

Kristen McDermott

WARTIME WITH THE TRAM GIRLS

Lynn Johnson, Hera Books, 2021, £8.99, pb, 348pp, 9781800324008

Constance Copeland is a well-off young woman from the Potteries in Staffordshire. For her nineteenth birthday in 1913 her parents arrange a day at the Derby. It is a day that will change her life. Suffragette Emily Davison throws herself at the King’s horse and dies.

The death leads to Constance’s political awakening, but her father is more concerned that she makes a good match. She meets Matthew Roundswell while handing out suffragette leaflets and feels he is “the one”. It will be a quick marriage, as war has broken out, but Constance is keeping a big secret from Matthew about her suffragette activities, which could change how he feels about her. Should she tell him or go into marriage with a lie?

Constance’s decision to get a job during the war as a clippie – a lady conductor – on the trams (streetcars) and how it changes her are the focus of Lynn Johnson’s lively saga. The novel is based around Johnson’s home town of Stoke-on-Trent and is a love letter to the Potteries.

Connie, as she now calls herself, to make her sound less posh, makes friends with clippies Jean and Betty and Inspector Robert Caldwell. She also meets up again with Ginnie and Sam, the subjects of Johnson’s first book in the series, The Girl from The Workhouse (HNR 93). Their loves, life and work intertwine in this novel, which looks at how war changed expectations of class and gender – for Connie especially. Johnson does not take us to the battlefield but looks touchingly at the effects of war on men and their families when those men did, or didn’t, come home.

Kate Pettigrew

RHAPSODY

Mitchell James Kaplan, Gallery, 2021, $27.00, hb, 352pp, 9781982104009

On a fateful evening in 1924, Kay Warburg reluctantly attends a concert to hear a piano concerto composed and played by songwriter George Gershwin. Kay’s perfect pitch, impressive memory, and classical education have made her a music snob. All she knows of Gershwin is that he writes popular music, which she finds “predictable and trite, boring really.” She scoffs at his concerto’s title, “Rhapsody in Blue,” which doesn’t hide the liberties he’s taken with the structure of a classical concerto. Even his posture and fingering offend her purist sensibilities. But when she closes her eyes, stops thinking, and truly listens to the music, its sadness and beauty shake her to the core.

With meticulous attention to historical details, Kaplan plunges readers into the world of early 20th-century New York through Kay’s eyes and especially her ears. A musician of her caliber would indeed hear the bustling city as “hundreds, thousands, millions of individual trajectories: melodic lines. Harmony. Dissonance. Counterpoint. Zigzag rhythms against the unheard ticking of the universal metronome.”

Kay has risen from poverty to marry wealthy banker Jimmy Warburg. Surrounded by the elite of New York society, she tires of the superficiality and the witty banter they wield against friends and foes alike. She can play their social games, but she isn’t satisfied until she meets the charismatic Gershwin and becomes his musical and romantic partner.

A dizzying array of real-life celebrities appear in cameos (Fred Astaire, Harpo Marx, and Maurice Ravel are just a few). Unfortunately, the last third of the novel loses momentum and its focus on Kay’s internal world, becoming a series of vignettes of her encounters with these celebrities. Recommended for music lovers and readers who like a wide-angle view of the era.

Clarissa Harwood

THE LAWYER FROM LYCHAKIV STREET

Andriy Kokotiukha (trans. Yuri Tkacz), Glagoslav, 2020, £19.99, pb, 247pp, 9781912894963

This Ukrainian crime novel requires at least some knowledge of the time and place in which it is set, so it is worth perhaps looking into the background. It is set in 1908 and is the story of a young lawyer, Klymentiy Nazarovich Koshovy (luckily for the reader known throughout as Klym) who comes from Kyiv (Kiev), at that time part of the Russian Empire. Many young people there were rebelling against Russian domination, and Klym belonged to an antigovernment group, was arrested, jailed and beaten. His father has some influence and manages to get his son released. Klym decides that he needs to get away and sets off for Lviv, at that time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He plans to visit an old acquaintance, Genyk Soyka, the eponymous lawyer from Lychakiv Street.

Before he arrives, we meet Genyk in his apartment, where he seems to be protecting a mysterious package whilst being watched over by a bodyguard, whom he unwisely dismisses. Klym finally arrives at the apartment only to find Genyk dead. Suicide or murder? Klym is certain it is murder but, when he reports the death, finds himself under suspicion and arrested. This is where the plot thickens, and I say no more. It is complicated, with various twists and turns, numerous red herrings and a fair sprinkling of dead bodies. Klym’s search for the truth leads him into all sorts of dangers and adventures, facing pickpockets, the Lviv underworld and even terrorists. I found it an atmospheric and compelling novel and, in spite of its unfamiliar landscape and convoluted narrative, a really satisfying read.

Mandy Jenkinson

IN A FAR-OFF LAND

Stephanie Landsem, Tyndale, 2021, $15.99, pb, 302pp, 9781496450432

When the Great Depression strikes the United States, it seems no one is spared, not even the superstars of early cinema. But Minerva Zimmerman from Odessa, South Dakota, knows she can save her family and their failing farm if she can just get to Hollywood and become the next great Tinseltown actress. She takes what she thinks she needs to get by in California and sneaks off, leaving her diligent sister, Penny, and her loving and hard-working father to struggle on at home.

Minnie tells herself she just needs to become a star, and then she can return home with enough money to salvage the farm and take care of her family. But she finds that most of the Hollywood elite she always looked up to are not only decadent but dangerous as well. With luck, she manages to find an experienced agent named Max to represent her. Max seems serious, honest, and protective, but she wants to make it big quickly. Ignoring her agent’s advice, Minnie wakes up one morning to find herself entwined in a murder case. Things seem to spin out of control, and she is protected by an unlikely family of Mexican immigrants. Somehow she must make it all right once more.

Part John Steinbeck and part Mickey Spillane, this well-researched historical novel is a tale of inspiration and hope. The historical Hollywood characters and venues were so interesting I found myself looking them up online to learn more about them. The pompous and mendacious Hollywood personalities are contrasted with the devout local Catholic Mexican community and the simple and poor farm families back in South

Dakota, all of whom look out for each other. Highly recommended.

Thomas J. Howley

LOVING MODIGLIANI: The Afterlife of Jeanne Hébuterne

Linda Lappin, Serving House Books, 2020, $15.99, pb, 344pp, 9781947175303

On January 26, 1920, 21-year-old painter and artist’s model, Jeanne Hébuterne, fell backwards from a window, killing herself and her unborn child two days after her commonlaw husband, Amedeo Modigliani (Modi), died of meningitis. Her suicide was the supreme statement of her commitment and devotion.

Jeanne’s ghostly form wanders the studio she shared with Modi, watching herself readied for burial, reminiscent of the beetling shop scene in A Christmas Carol. She roams the ash-grey, rotting streets of an alternatereality-Paris in search of Modi. She is tried and convicted of suicide and infanticide by a dead court. Slipping through a portal into Nazi Paris, she sees her lover’s nudes labelled as degenerate filth. She sits by an inky-black ‘gelatinous sea’ awaiting passage to the land of the Immortals where Modi is waiting, if he is equally ardent about her.

In 1981, an art history scholar comes across Jeanne’s diaries describing her early life, her renouncement of her family and her tempestuous relationship with Modi— perpetually intoxicated, volatile, outrageous, often unfaithful, and irresistible to all. In moments of sanity and sobriety, however, their love is profound, enviable and touchingly observed.

The novel lacks cohesiveness in places— the Gaugin interlude seems superfluous, and the chase to Rome for the missing painting becomes frenetic. That said, the zeitgeist is superbly captured; the Montparnasse artists’ clique and their Bohemian lifestyle is both exciting and repellent. The protagonists are lovingly sketched—Jeanne, a sultry beauty with lustrous hair worthy of a Rossetti painting, and exceptionally talented—is doomed to love a man fractured by his conflicted and complex nature. Jeanne’s search for Modi is heartfelt, her diaries intimate and emotional, but what stands out in such a young girl is her passion—for Modi, for art, for life. A ghost story full of mystery and intrigue, art thieves and forgeries, and a fine tribute to an artist forgotten for 100 years.

Fiona Alison

THE METAL HEART

Caroline Lea, Michael Joseph, 2021, £14.99, hb, 392pp, 9780241423301 / Harper, 2021, $26.99, hb, 400pp, 9780063092747

When war unexpectedly makes itself felt in Orkney in 1941, the authorities decide to send a group of Italian POWs to build barriers to protect the islands. Among them is Cesare, an artist caught up in the machinery of war against his will. The arrival of the foreigners on Selkie Holm causes shockwaves among the locals, particularly twins Dot and Con, who have sought the isolation of the smaller island to help Con come to terms with a traumatic incident in her recent past. Dot wants nothing more than to protect her sister – but from the moment she and Cesare meet, she is irresistibly drawn to him. However as external threats gather round them, Dot is forced to make the heartbreaking choice between two different types of love. Caroline Lea’s evocative second novel about the fragility of love blossoming between two people who have only met because of exceptional circumstances is inspired by the story of the building of the Italian chapel on Lamb Holm. The central characters are all well drawn, and she has even managed to create an antagonist who, as well as being menacing, has a measure of pathos about him because he is genuinely incapable of understanding what he is doing wrong in his quest for love.

As a native of Jersey, Lea clearly understands the effects on individuals of living in a closed community, whose way of life is at the mercy of tides and weather. The rugged landscape is evoked in poetic language, and the use of local myths leaves the impression that this is a place where anything might be possible. I haven’t read her first novel, The Glass Woman, but I had heard good things about it, even before reading this book. I will be definitely seeking it out now.

Jasmina Svenne

THE ROSE KEEPER

Jennifer Lamont Leo, Mountain Majesty Media, 2021, $14.99, pb, 296pp, 9781733705875

Clara Janacek travels from the nearby suburb of Cicero to the Clark Street Bridge over the Chicago River in July 1944. Accompanied by her friend Jerry Stevenson, Clara unwraps a single rose she has clipped from one of her rose bushes and folded in a water-soaked cloth, then drops it into the cold, black water. She is reminiscing and mourning the loss of her sister in 1915, drowned with many others when the ferryboat Eastland capsized.

The SS Eastland was a passenger liner that regularly ferried workers from Western Electric Company to a retreat across Lake Michigan in Michigan City, Indiana. On July 24, 1915, the ship listed and eventually rolled over on its side, trapping many of its 2,500 passengers under water. Despite efforts to retrieve passengers and crew, 844 individuals died.

Considered one of the deadliest shipwrecks in American history, the Eastland is largely forgotten; according to some historians because the ship capsized in only 20 feet of water. According to others, it’s been ignored because, unlike the Titanic, the dead were not among the wealthy class.

The Rose Keeper acquaints readers with the Eastland incident but does little to capture the terror of the passengers trapped within the walls of the vessel with water rising around them.

The novel focuses on Clara’s path from grief to resolution and acceptance by means of Operation Red Rose, a plan by new neighbors Laurie Lucas and her daughter Rosalie to be extra kind and bombard Clara “with blessings” as well as the pressures faced by new-to-the-workplace women like Laurie who staffed war-time assembly lines. It is warm, inspirational, and romantic.

K. M. Sandrick

HUNTING THE HANGMAN

Howard Linskey, Pinnacle, 2021, $8.99, pb, 368pp, 9780786047024 / No Exit, 2017, £7.99 , pb, 352pp, 9781843449508 In the realm of historical fiction, getting the facts correct is critical. But so is spinning a story the reader cannot put down. In Hunting the Hangman, Howard Linskey does both and with seemingly effortless aplomb.

In 1941-42, Nazi Germany is almost unstoppable in its march of conquest. Next to Hitler, one of its most fierce and diabolical soldiers is the high-ranking SS officer Reinhard Heydrich. The Deputy/Acting Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, Heydrich brought a reign of terror to the Czechoslovakian people under his iron hand. His participation in the controversial Wannsee Conference in 1942 confirms him as one of the main architects of the Final Solution, which slaughtered millions of Jews across Europe. Hunting the Hangman details the extraordinary real-life plot to assassinate Heydrich by the Czechoslovakian government-in-exile through two of its willing soldiers: Jan Kubiš and Jozef Gabčík. From their British Special Operations training to their death-defying infiltration of Prague and analysis of Heydrich’s movements, Linskey keeps the pedal firmly to the floor as the climactic moment of ambush arrives on May 27, 1942. The aftermath is detailed in breathtaking sequences as the net closes on Kubiš, Gabčík, and other resistance members as they desperately seek to escape the city. The historical truths of Operation Anthropoid’s conclusion are realistically and touchingly portrayed by Linskey. In particular, the author’s imagined meditation of Heydrich’s final moments, along with a very creepy hospital bedside visit by Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler, are indelibly inked into the reader’s mind.

Hunting the Hangman is a high-powered WWII thriller that works more effectively than most of its genre simply for being true. Fans of WWII espionage history will want to take Linskey’s heartstopper of a novel for a fast ride.

Peggy Kurkowski

Posy Lovell, Putnam, 2021, $16.00, pb, 320pp, 9780593328231 / Trapeze, 2021, £8.99, pb, 304pp, 9781409193289

Ivy and Louisa must hide their silver hammer brooches when working at Kew Gardens in London or they might be fired. The tiny symbols would identify them as Suffragettes, a women’s rights group that had previously damaged two Kew buildings in their fight to gain the vote. As the first females hired as gardeners, they have to prove they are as capable as the males they replaced who left to fight in WWI. Secrets from their personal lives might also jeopardize their jobs or expose them to danger. Soon they are joined by Win, whose husband is away on military duty.

Despite their diverse backgrounds, the three women bond as they weed and water flower beds, borders, and bushes to keep Kew Gardens blooming during the war. Yet their efforts seem doomed: One of them can’t read, another has never been a gardener, and the third is hiding out from her family. The gardens are their haven until they discover an injustice that infuriates them. As Suffragettes, they must protest, but will they lose their jobs? The women find fault with each other’s beliefs and struggle to accept their differences. Topsyturvy relationships with the men in their lives add tension and plot twists, tantalizing the reader about the outcomes.

Based on historical events, the novel humanizes three fictional women in the suffrage movement and the turbulent social changes affecting them. The supporting stars of this heartwarming story are the famous gardens, orchid house, palm house, and rose beds. The author has seeded the novel with phrases such as peonies representing happy marriage and nasturtiums meaning patriotism. Even nongardeners will be inspired to browse flower catalogues and grow a garden as a tribute to courageous characters like Ivy, Louisa, and Win.

Susan Sandberg

THE FAR AWAY GIRL

Sharon Maas, Bookouture, 2021, $10.99/£8.99, pb, 416pp, 9781800192386

In 1976, five-year-old Rita is ripped away from the only family she has ever known and taken to Georgetown, Guyana, to live with her father, Jitty Miraj. A wild child, she surrounds herself with animals and books, and shares everything with her diary, a gift from her father. Her father becomes her world, and she forgets her past. When Doomsday comes, and she meets Jitty’s new wife, Chandra, Rita is told that she is not good enough. Chandra is embarrassed by Rita’s African and Amerindian roots, her curly hair, and the fact that her parents weren’t married. Rita is quickly set off to the side. Then a chance to visit her mother’s family presents itself. Will Rita finally learn the truth her father will never tell? How did her mother die? This is the coming-of-age story of Rita Miraj, from five years old to adulthood.

This is an absolutely gorgeous, soultouching book that I could not put down. We are immediately drawn into Rita’s life and grow up with her as she learns to cope with a weak but manipulative father and his empty promises. Words are her gift, and we are gifted with her poems and diary entries. Music, movies, and political/historical events of the 1970s and 1980s are relayed through Rita, Jitty, and flashbacks to Rita’s mother, Cassie. The lush beauty, diverse wildlife, and rich history of the Pomeroon River area are described in vivid detail. Rita has a deeply moving and soulchanging moment on Shell Beach watching a turtle lay her eggs, and I was drawn into her overwhelming wonder and joy. The evolution of Rita’s heart, mind, and goals as she grows and learns is so well captured here. This book is an unforgettable, magical pleasure to read. Highly recommended.

Bonnie DeMoss

DEATH IN THE TIME OF PANCHO VILLA

Sandra Marshall, Level Best Books, 2020, $16.95/£12.99, pb, 216pp, 9781947915268

On a spring evening in 1911, young Rose Westmoreland, with her luggage and a camera named Caroline, steps off a train in El Paso for some husband-hunting—literally. Her accountant spouse Leonard has fallen off the map, weeks after coming to the Texas city to audit a local petroleum firm. Rose takes a room at a boardinghouse, where the pleasant owner named Marty and a young tenant named Luisa provide her with a made-toorder support group. Between indulging their reading habit and eating good home-cooked meals, the three women plan Rose’s efforts to track down Leonard.

Being at the center of Mexico’s brewing revolution, El Paso introduces Rose to some colorful characters. High on the list are Pancho Villa and his frightening lieutenant Rodolfo Fierro, as well as Timothy Turner and other members of the press corps, who mix freely with the revolutionaries they write about. While those men open up to her, she finds her husband’s business associates much less talkative. In fact, they act as if they hardly know Leonard. Rose has her detective work cut out for her, as she follows one disappointing lead after another, slowly forming a picture of what happened to her husband and, more significantly, what kind of a man he really was.

Marshall puts the reader in an enjoyable position—a comfortable domestic situation at the boardinghouse, in the midst of building violence just across the river, and the mystery of Leonard Westmoreland’s disappearance. Put another way, it’s an exciting story that the reader can relax in. Characters are realistic and well developed. It’s altogether a satisfying experience.

Loyd Uglow

THE LAST BOOKSHOP IN LONDON

Madeline Martin, Hanover Square, 2021, $16.99/C$21.99, pb, 306pp, 9781335284808

This novel set in London covers the full period of the Second World War. Young Grace Bennett has escaped a miserable home life in a small village with her friend Viv. Together they expect London to be their ideal of an exciting and glamorous new home.

Outgoing Viv soon finds a job at Harrod’s, but quieter Grace only finds a temporary job in a musty overstocked bookshop whose crusty owner does not appreciate her help. Grace proves herself useful despite the owner’s crotchetiness and remains in the job throughout the struggles of a city under siege from frequent bombings.

Sustaining her throughout is the memory of a young man she met briefly at the bookshop, but who left to join the RAF. The wellmaintained tension in the story comes from the constant fear of loss – of many foodstuffs, landmarks, jobs and homes, light on a dark night and, worst of all, the loss of loved ones.

Grace struggles to keep the bookshop going despite the danger of bombing and, despite her fears for the young man in the RAF, becomes the strength of her neighborhood with her storytelling and her readings from the classics of literature. The author offers the benefit of extremely thorough research, beautifully disguised in a well-paced story. This novel has the feel-good warmth of virtue overcoming evil, with well-intentioned people doing their best to survive and help others throughout the horrors of war.

Valerie Adolph

KILLIN’ FLOOR BLUES

Paul Martin, Historia, 2020, $18.95/£15.99, pb, 373pp, 9781947915985

From 1929 to 1942, real-life father and son John and Alan Lomax journey through the American South to search out and record blues artists. During the worst of the Great Depression and recovery into WWII, the Lomax team visits cotton plantations, prison yards, booze joints, and big city performance venues. The Library of Congress eventually puts John under contract, and the Lomax family becomes America’s preserver of Black folk music.

This book features many trailblazing blues performers, their brutal treatment by the law, by whites in general, and even by their record producers. Too many die young from drinking, car wrecks, fights, and other misfortunes.

Martin invents new causes for the deaths of ten artists. How they die remains true to the actual events. Why they die turns into a

fictional serial killer mystery. So, a car wreck results not from mere drunken speeding but from a tampered brake line. In those days and places, the police don’t care about dead Black men and women. Hence, in the murder mystery story thread, the Lomaxes become amateur sleuths and potential next victims.

Martin’s knowledge of and admiration for the talented, mostly self-taught musicians earning a few dollars against great odds shows through. The details of places, instruments, voices, and physical appearance are very well done. Whether the artists perform on a street corner or in a recording studio, readers can almost see them and hear their voices. The serial murder theme does not match the richness of the real-life stories, but it does build to an honest page-turner. All together Killin’ Floor Blues works well as an unusual mystery folded into a powerful fact-based blues historical.

G. J. Berger

GAME OF THE GODS

Paolo Maurensig, World Editions, 2021, $15.99, pb, 148pp, 9781642860436

Inspired by the real life of the great Indian chess master, Malik Mir Sultan Khan, this literary historical novel set in the early-tomid-20th century plays out like an intriguing chess game. Sultan, an uneducated youth in the Punjab, becomes a servant to a maharaja, studies chess, and wins the national Indian Chess Championship. He is terrified when his master takes him to England to compete in the national British Chess Championship.

Overwhelmed by the language, cold climate, and Western chess rules, he is scorned as an idiot savant. Although Sultan performs a crucial deed for Britain during WWII, he is still mistrusted and mistreated. Disillusioned by his experiences, he calls himself a “freak of nature, rather than a genuine chess master.” Fleeing England, he discovers pleasures and perils in New York City.

The novel is structured as an interview between a reporter and Sultan about his adventurous life. In a first-person voice, he captivates the reader with his personal stories. An early chapter about a killer tiger in his rural village describes the poverty, fear, and death of his childhood. Later, Sultan explains that chaturanga, the ancient Eastern ancestor of chess, was “much more than just a simple war game, it was also a rule to live by.” Readers also get a clear picture of the political tension between Britain and India and race and class discrimination.

He accepts his destiny. “Our religion teaches us that concealed behind every victory or defeat on the chessboard—and in life as well—lies the indelible design of karma.” Even readers who have never played chess will be enchanted by this tale, which is less about chess and more about survival. The author has successfully developed a chess genius’s underrated history into a fascinating novel.

Susan Sandberg Catriona McPherson, Hodder & Stoughton, 2021, £21.99, hb, 279pp, 9781529337921

The Mirror Dance is the 15th of Catriona McPherson’s Dandy Gilver novels. Dandy is a middle-aged mother from the minor nobility who runs a private detective agency with her younger business partner, Alec, with whom she has an ambiguous relationship. Two of her domestic servants double as her investigators.

The novels are set in Scotland in the 1930s. They are a gentle satire on the detective stories of the Golden Age: improbable plots about unlikely murders to create a guessing game for the reader. Dandy’s dry wit mocks the genre, but nevertheless these are wellcrafted works which follow all the rules – finite lists of colourful suspects, clues shared with the reader, and a denouement which reveals all. McPherson gives a great deal of attention to the inter-war Scottish background, and one feels that this is truly how Scotland felt at the time.

The Mirror Dance is set in Dundee and the victim is a Punch and Judy man murdered in his own kiosk during a performance in the park. If this intrigues you, read on.

Edward James

MARGREETE’S HARBOR

Eleanor Morse, St. Martin’s, 2021, $27.99, hb, 384pp, 9781250271549

One day in 1955, Liddie Bright gets the phone call she’s long dreaded: Her mother, Margreete, has set fire to her kitchen, final proof that she can no longer live alone. Someone needs to care for her, and Liddie’s elected.

Trouble is, Liddie, her husband, Harry, and their two kids have a settled, more or less happy life in Michigan, while Margreete lives in Burnt Harbor, Maine. But the family does move, perhaps with too little marital conflict. As the years progress, each character grapples with internal changes and those around them, and since we’re talking mostly about the Sixties, that means the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, and feminism, for starters, all rendered in highly personal terms. Morse gives you characters as deep as the Maine harbor on which they live, contradictory, sometimes cranky, secretive, and altogether real, depicted in gorgeous prose. She’s not afraid to show you their faults, to the extent that I sometimes have the urge to bang Harry’s and Liddie’s heads together—he, for his preaching and inability to admit mistakes; and she, for her self-pity. Yet their struggle redeems them, for they want to understand what happened to their dreams and their marriage, which, at times, feels like an increasingly leaky vessel. I particularly love the way Morse portrays the kids, who battle for parental attention, reach for or push one another away, and try to find out who they are.

If I have one complaint, I wish the narrative opened wider at moments, particularly to reveal Burnt Harbor. But if you like literary fiction, you’ll be swept away, and if you wish to discover (or rediscover) the Sixties as ordinary people lived then, here’s your chance.

Larry Zuckerman

HUNTERS IN THE STREAM

Terry Mort, McBooks, 2021, $26.95, hb, 232pp, 9781493058365

Going from a private investigator in Los Angeles to a naval officer in 1942 doesn’t seem to be much of a jump to Riley Fitzhugh. He’s very familiar with tough guys, intrigue, and violence, the same ingredients present onboard the sub chaser PC 475, aka USS Nameless to her crew. It’s a heavily armed little ship, captained by a crusty former enlisted man, Lieutenant Ted Ford, and its main mission is patrolling the waters around Cuba and the Bahamas for German U-boats.

Riley learns quickly as Executive Officer on the Nameless and fits in well under the competent, wise-cracking Ford. He also feels at home in the local bars in Havana, where he quickly encounters Marty Hemingway, young wife of the famous author. The electricity between her and Riley is a growing distraction from his main duties as his ship searches for a secret German supply base on Cuba’s sparsely inhabited coast.

Author Mort’s terse style is similar to some of Ernest Hemingway’s stories, especially in frequent long stretches of dialog between Riley and Captain Ford or Marty. The exchanges with Ford tend to dominate portions of the book, and with little advance of the story other than establishing the wit of Riley and the captain. The novel as a whole is heavy on dialog, with a corresponding shortage of description in places.

Mort has done an excellent job with shipboard routine, giving the reader an accurate feel for life aboard ship. On the other hand, characters and important plot elements lack full development, and suspense is often underplayed. It’s an interesting story, but something seems to be missing.

Loyd Uglow

THE GIRLS IN THE STILT HOUSE

Kelly Mustian, Sourcebooks Landmark, 2021, $16.99, pb, 384pp, 9781728217710

Ada Morgan begrudgingly returns home to her stilt house deep in the swamps of the Mississippi Natchez Trace, and to a father, Virgil, a trapper, who is less than kind. Pregnant, Ada does what she can to appease Virgil, but his anger knows no bounds. Matilda

Patterson is the daughter of a sharecropper bound to the land by a bootlegger who is also using Virgil. Matilda has grown to distrust Virgil, and she begins lurking around the stilt house. When Virgil threatens Ada, Matilda does the unthinkable, forever binding the two girls.

Told in parts, moving between Ada’s and Matilda’s stories and back and forth in time, Mustian delves into the darker side of the Prohibition era. Ada struggles to raise a baby, with Matilda’s often cold detachment, in the depths of the Trace, and her hopes of becoming a seamstress appear just out of reach. Matilda lives under the harsh yolk of racism and is witness to multiple crimes against Black people. She takes to writing these stories down, and they eventually become published under a pseudonym in Ohio, where she hopes to escape. Ada and Matilda’s relationship is often tenuous, but there are tender moments interspersed.

Mustian envelops the reader in the heat and humidity of the Trace. Slowly unraveling secrets, Mustian holds the reader’s attention, though careful attention should be paid to the chapter headings, especially the dates. This is more than a story about American racism; kinship and survival, when all hope seems lost, remind the reader of the struggles of Americans in the 1920s Deep South. With a wonderful cast of secondary characters, some despicable and others genuinely wonderful, this is an emotional tour de force that will linger with readers long after the last page is read.

Bryan Dumas

GREAT LONESOME

John D. Nesbitt, Five Star, 2020, $25.95, hb, 242pp, 9781432868321

Reese Hartley is an Easterner who, like thousands of others, has moved to the West to escape expanding technology and systems and find his own way on his own land. He starts as a ranch hand working for an amiable but calculating owner who looks to expand his holdings by having his employees purchase land claims and turn the titles over to him. Opposing him are the homesteader farmers who aim to grow wheat. These “nesters” most of whom are cousins are also trying to monopolize land and control in the hands of a few.

Reese wants no part of either group, which earns him the suspicion of both factions. As bodies of murder victims rise, he must find out who is responsible to prove his innocence. Along the way Reese meets Muriel, a kindred spirit, who provides him solace and inspiration. Rich with interesting accounts of cowboy life, descriptions of the rugged Wyoming terrain and challenges awaiting newcomers, the novel also is part detective story. An easy and enjoyable read.

Thomas J. Howley

MURDER AT WEDGEFIELD MANOR

Erica Ruth Neubauer, Kensington, 2021, $26.00/C$35.00, hb, 304pp, 9781496725882

Murder at Wedgefield Manor has an intriguing plot reminiscent of Agatha Christie. In 1926, the cast of characters is gathered in a remote English country manor house owned by the mysterious Lord Hughes. One of his residents has been murdered, and he is the major suspect. Jane, an American widow, and her moody aunt Millie, a former lover of their host, are visitors. His relatives and their friends plus estate employees, including veterans from WWI, are also on site. As an amateur detective, Jane questions if Lord Hughes was actually the intended victim since several of his poor relatives would inherit money from his death. And might she be a potential murder victim herself?

The novel takes off on a flying start with Jane at the controls of a biplane and never slows down. She investigates the murder along with handsome Mr. Redvers, her detecting partner and love interest from the first book, Murder at the Mena House. The lively dialogue flows smoothly among Jane and her suspects, creating a tense drawing-room atmosphere charged with secrets. The story is told by Jane in first-person voice as she explores clues in solving the mystery and reveals why she resists being in love with Redvers.

The unconventional female characters have distinct personalities, such as Lord Hughes’s daughter, who is more interested in being a professional golfer than in marriage. American readers who have visited the UK will enjoy the contrasts between British and American culture, food, drink, language, and social customs as observed by Jane with a Yankee sense of humor. Like all exciting murder mysteries, the novel has surprise twists as it careens towards a nerve-jangling but satisfying conclusion.

Susan Sandberg

LETTERS FROM JOHNNY

Wayne Ng, Guernica Editions, $17.95/£15.99, pb, 130pp, 9781771835770

In 1970, 11-year-old Johnny Wong lives in a Toronto tenement with his Chinese mother. Mother speaks little English and at times works two jobs, but drinks and gambles. Dad left years before and has not been back. Johnny’s fifth-grade teacher assigns the class a pen-pal project. The story plays out entirely in those letters, first to the intended pen pal student and then to Johnny’s hockey hero. A friendly hippie, who lives next to Mom and Johnny, gives Johnny a dictionary and a nickel for every word he looks up. Johnny’s spelling does improve.

The murder of a neighbor woman throws everything into turmoil. Another neighbor, the hippie, and even Mom become suspects. Police and child protective services swoop in. Suddenly Johnny’s unemployed father returns, along with a young girl who might be Johnny’s half-sister. The girl is pretty, instantly becomes popular at school, but steals matches and starts fires. The hippie vanishes but soon sneaks a meeting to ask Johnny to retrieve a small box hidden in Johnny’s flat. If Johnny refuses, the hippie will implicate Mom in the murder. These family tribulations play out against Free-Quebec kidnappers and killers who dominate the wider news.

Told entirely in Johnny’s voice, with phonetic spellings (“diplowmat”), incorrect punctuation, and strike-outs, the letters are riveting. They take us deep into Johnny’s humorous, feisty, always questioning 11-yearold head. The details of time and place nicely evoke the early Seventies and the Chinese immigrant culture. The simple cover, Johnny’s age, the tone of his letters, and the low page count suggest the genre as mid-grade to YA. But the tragic family saga, the murder, and resolution, coupled with Johnny’s often wise insights, make this an unusual cross-over that will appeal to anyone from eleven to adult.

G. J. Berger

HIGH TREASON AT THE GRAND HOTEL

Kelly Oliver, Historia, 2021, $18.95/£14.99, pb, 276pp, 9781947915909

Fiona Figg, a file clerk working at the London War Office during WWI, is sent to Paris to spy on the suspected spy Fredrick Fredricks. En route she meets Lady Gresha MacLeod, aka another suspected spy, Mata Hari, and, once at the hotel, she discovers that both Lady MacLeod and Fredrick Fredricks have rooms there. Sternly warned by her boss not to masquerade as anyone, she disguises herself as Harold the helpful bellboy soon after checking in. This allows her (him) to overhear conversations, pick room locks, search for clues, hide in closets, and be sent hither and thither by the grumpy desk clerk. Meanwhile, she (he) poses as a wine waiter, discovers a murdered countess, gets hit on by a voluptuous maid, and chases a serial murderer, all while trying to report in at the British Embassy during its slim daily opening hours of 1 pm to 3 pm! Also along from the War Office is Captain Clifford Douglas, who Fiona tries to avoid, but she’s always grateful when he seems to conjure himself out of thin air exactly when needed.

Second in the Fiona Figg mystery series, this standalone is full of intrigue and adventure,

with a motley cast of characters, a healthy dose of wry humour, and some downright laugh-out-loud bits. Fiona is quite disarming in her clever bumbling way, and you can’t help but wonder what she will do next. Fiona narrates the story, so we’re alongside on her mission, caught up in her amusing asides. The conversational banter is witty and slick, and our intrepid heroine/hero sometimes confuses herself with her disguises. She’s daring, brave, savvy, and often sassy, much to Clifford’s very British chagrin. And who knew hats were so vital to spy-craft? A delightfully diversionary read!

Fiona Alison

TOO MANY WOLVES IN THE LOCAL WOODS

Marina Osipova, Independently published, 2020, $14.99, pb, 380pp, 9798663118064

Born of a Russian mother and a German father, Ursula “Ulya” Franzevna Kriegshammer graduates from university, eager to begin her new job. Her father’s arrest for treason slams the door on that dream. Instead, she is offered employment as a spy since her knowledge of Russian and German is invaluable. When the Nazis break the nonaggression treaty and invade her country, she secures a job as a translator for German intelligence. Ulya walks a tightrope between life and death. Eventually, the line between friend and enemy blurs and her actions forever alter her destiny.

Natasha Ivanova has the chance to evacuate when the Germans invade, but she can’t leave her aunt alone and works for the Reich’s railroad repair shop. When a man from her past shows up on her doorstep, she surmises that he works with the Resistance. She wants to help and, even as their love rekindles, she becomes a go-between. She pretends to be the girlfriend of a Nazi who is being blackmailed to provide vital information. The hangings of partisans and the hatred for collaborators are daily reminders of the dangerous work she does, especially when she becomes pregnant.

Subtitled “A Novel of Love and Fate,” this book is also a story of atonement. Although it opens in 1971 in Moscow, the majority of the book takes place elsewhere in the Soviet Socialist Republic between 1938 and 1945. Loneliness is felt on many levels, but the emotional impact on readers could be stronger. The author vividly recreates life in Russia under Stalin and during the German occupation. This tale of the grim realities of war deftly demonstrates how cascading events intertwine and misinterpretation leads to sacrifice.

Cindy Vallar

YOUR STORY, MY STORY

Connie Palmen (trans. Eileen J. Stevens and Anna Asbury), AmazonCrossing, 2021, $24.95/£19.99, hb, 206pp, 9781542022408

With the outcome known from the start, it’s the path we follow to get there that makes this beautifully written ode to Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath so engrossing and emotional: a love story of euphoric joy and acute sorrow. Filled with literary references and written like a daily journal, its private intimacy is like being inside Hughes’s head, with all notion of a story, written and translated by strangers, forgotten.

Ted meets Sylvia in 1956, both writers on the path to fame, a reserved Englishman and a vivacious American. He describes her addictive personality, their noisy athletic sex, their fatal attraction—like Cathy and Heathcliff, two halves of one soul. He writes of her insane jealousy, her pathological neediness, her fear of abandonment, her invented stories of his infidelities, her flamboyance, her yearning for recognition, whereas he wants to conceal himself quietly in the English countryside with her, and write.

The use of the word ‘bride’ seems carefully chosen here, as though using it throughout the journal allows Ted to step back over the threshold at any moment, to start the story over, to correct what’s gone wrong. In the final days, when mired in the lies, the distortions, the misrepresentations, the turncoat friends, a private life thrown open to public scrutiny and judgement, and the martyrdom of his brilliant muse, he speaks of his ‘wife’ as though enfolding her in a soft and safe cocoon as he seeks his own redemption. Writing exclusively from a one-sided viewpoint, while allowing the reader to decide for themselves where the truth lies, presents a difficult literary challenge, but Palmen uses discretion and respect. At no point did I doubt the enduring devotion Ted Hughes had for his wife until the end of his life. Readers who remember Plath’s suicide may be challenged to rethink the media hype.

Fiona Alison

TOKYO REDUX

David Peace, Faber & Faber, 2021, £16.99, hb, 480pp, 9780571232000 / Knopf, 2021, $28.00, hb, 464pp, 9780307263766

Tokyo Redux centers around the mysterious death of Sadanori Shimoyama, President of Japanese National Railways, on July 5, 1949—when the beleaguered bureaucrat disappeared. He later reappeared, in a variety of little pieces, on the railroad tracks of the Jōban Line near Tokyo. The one point of agreement is that Shimoyama was hit by a train, but was it suicide, or murder? Harry Sweeney, an investigator with the American occupying forces’ Public Safety Division, attempts to solve the case. He’s hampered by various players that include intelligence operatives, both American and Communist, as well as the Japanese police and gangsters.

This novel is the last in Peace’s Japanese crime trilogy (Tokyo Year Zero, Occupied City), and might be better appreciated in that context. One has the feeling lesser characters that are given a passing, pinpoint scrutiny here probably appear only because they’re characters in other novels in this triad. Taken singly, this is an engrossing look at occupied Japan in the years immediately following its WWII surrender, a crime thriller that ultimately fails due to its unchecked literary pretensions. The prose reads like Hemingway on the manic side of a meth binge: there is seemingly endless examination and repetition of minute mundane actions, offered through clipped, reiterated sentences (how many times can a man look at a broken watch face, or mop his sweaty neck with a handkerchief?), no quotation marks to denote dialogue, and occasional jarring lapses into full-on surrealism. This presentation provides a cadence that adds to atmosphere and has its moments of beauty. It also works to build suspense—the plot cannot move forward when the author is so busy repeating himself— but it is, ultimately, an approach overplayed to the point of annoying the reader.

Bethany Latham

DEATH WITH A DOUBLE EDGE

Anne Perry, Ballantine, 2021, $28.00, hb, 352pp, 9780593159330 / Headline, 2020, £20.99, hb, 336pp, 9781472275158

In Anne Perry’s latest mystery, solving murders is a family affair. Daniel Pitt, a junior barrister in a respected London law firm, is the son of Special Branch head Thomas Pitt and his wife, Charlotte, the sleuths in another of Perry’s mystery series. When police ask Daniel to identify a murder victim, he discovers that the corpse belonged to a distinguished colleague in the same law firm. Brutally stabbed with a double-edged blade in Mile End—a notoriously dangerous London slum— Jonah Drake performed legal miracles in the courtroom, but he led a lonely personal life. Daniel’s parents offer advice and support as Daniel combs through Drake’s earlier cases in the hunt for clues to his death. His father joins in the investigation when the son of a powerful shipping tycoon, whom the dead lawyer once proved innocent of murder, is also slain.

The story takes place during the run-up to World War I, when Britain must maintain its naval superiority at all costs. The government is anxious to protect the shipping magnate from scandal even though he is “a frightful man,” and this dilemma adds a fascinating historical aspect to the novel. While Sir Thomas Pitt tries to steer Daniel clear of political trouble, the costs of compromise prove too steep when villains threaten Charlotte’s life. Then father and son must work together quickly to save her.

The book gets bogged down in legal minutiae in the early chapters, but once the investigation gets underway, the pace picks up, turning into a veritable page-turner as we get close to the finish line. Perry is a skilled craftsperson, and she delivers an exciting and satisfying resolution.

Trish MacEnulty

Karen Powell, Europa, 2020, $24.00/ C$35.95/£16.99, hb, 272pp, 9781609456153

There’s something rotten in North Yorkshire in 1955, and it’s not just the bloated corpse of Danny Masters, which floats to the surface of the river near the village where he grew up. The river also flows through the Richmond estate, but the heir to the estate, Alexander, isn’t interested in becoming one of the dying breed of English landowners. What he is interested in, aside from ancient Greek, isn’t clear. His remoteness puzzles his mother, Venetia, and his sweetheart, Lennie (Helena).

The novel is focalized through Danny, Venetia, and Lennie in alternating chapters. Danny’s perspective is narrated entirely through flashbacks, offering clues about the mystery of his death. Lennie’s and Venetia’s perspectives present a female-centered version of the Hamlet story, suggesting that women’s lives were just as cramped and circumscribed in the early 20th century as they were in Shakespeare’s time.

Among all the Hamlet retellings both in print and on-screen, this one’s strength lies in the depth of Venetia’s character and her believable struggles, from her ambivalent feelings towards her son since his babyhood to her complex romantic relationships with the rival brothers who vie for her love. She is as rich and fully realized as Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, with a polished, calm surface but an anxious inner life. However, Lennie is a rather two-dimensional character (rather like Shakespeare’s Ophelia), and I couldn’t help wishing Powell had taken more creative license with her. But the restraint of this novel is part of its charm, as is its strong sense of place.

Clarissa Harwood

THE ROSE CODE

Kate Quinn, HarperCollins, 2021, £14.99, hb, 626pp, 9780008455842 / William Morrow, 2021, $17.99, pb, 656pp, 9780062943477

The Rose Code is the story of an unlikely friendship between three very different women working at the Bletchley Park intelligence centre in the Second World War. Osla is a debutante who is romantically involved with Prince Philip of Greece; Mab is a steely and determined East Ender; and Beth, dominated by her bullying mother, turns out to be fiendishly good at puzzles. They are all involved in breaking the German Enigma code, but they are cogs in the machine, each knowing a small part of the riddle, not the whole. A parallel storyline sees the women meeting again in 1947, in a desperate race against time to uncover a traitor. This part of the novel is set against the country’s feverish preparations for the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip.

I found this a fast-paced, enjoyable book. It showed the pressures the codebreakers were under, perfectly capturing the tension, secrecy and paranoia of wartime intelligence. And the characters were well drawn: I found myself rooting for them, despite their flaws. However, I did wonder whether too much space had been given to the Royal Wedding. I could see its relevance (the character of Osla is clearly based on Osla Benning, a one-time girlfriend of Prince Philip), but I didn’t feel it added very much to the story. But this is a minor criticism. The Rose Code is a page-turning mystery, and I couldn’t put it down.

Karen Warren

MAUD’S CIRCUS

Michelle Rene, Primedia eLaunch LLC, 2020, $18.99, pb, 344pp, 9781637320761

At age 16, Maud Stevens slips away from her Kansas home and an abusive family member to join the Great Barlow Show in 1893. After learning acrobatics and contortions, she becomes a regular performer on the circuit. But her love of art and skill in drawing lead her to tattooing. Teaming with and later marrying Gus Wagner, Maud not only displays elaborate hand-inked designs on her body, she skillfully draws them. Over the next 50-plus years, she applies tattoos to circus-goers who need to disguise or eliminate a physical scar, heal an emotional wound, reveal a hidden personality, remove a stigma, or recognize and revere a loss.

Maud’s Circus is based on the life of Maud Wagner, the first known female tattooist in North America. As author Rene points out, many incidents are facts, including Maud’s and Gus’s meeting at the World’s Fair in St. Louis in 1904 and Gus’s death by lightning strike in 1949. Rene also presents factual details about circuses and tattooing, noting Victorians’ fascination with tattoos and the use of Native American symbols in their designs.

The novel centers on relationships: the family Maud develops with her circus friends Dora and Walter, her marriage and daughter Lovetta who also becomes a circus performer. Characters are complex and multi-faceted. The storyline traverses the country much like circus trains moved across the country from the fields of the Midwest to the streets of San Francisco and leads readers through landmarks of history: Prohibition, the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, the beginning of World War II, and the aftermath.

Maud’s Circus is moving and insightful. It is finely etched and beautifully drawn.

K. M. Sandrick

THE SOCIAL GRACES

Renée Rosen, Berkley, 2021, $17.00, pb, 416pp, 9781984802811

Do we really need another novel about society during the Gilded Age? In the case of The Social Graces, the answer is an unequivocal and resounding yes. Rosen has written a fascinating and delicious account of the famous rivalry between Caroline Astor and Alva Vanderbilt. The book not only describes their rivalry but also brilliantly renders these two extraordinary socialites as three-dimensional women with worries, heartbreaks, and ambitions that—had they not been hamstrung by the limitations placed on their gender—would have propelled them into running corporations or countries. Instead they ran society. At the beginning of the era, Carolina Astor is the anointed queen of society, but Alva has designs on the crown. As the front guard of the new money, Alva breaks through barriers not only for herself but for all the wealthy newcomers who have been shut out of society by the Knickerbockers. “Alva watched those women sitting just a bit higher in their plush seats, shoulders back, heads held high. They were no longer second best; now they were right where they’d always wanted to be.” But life is not always kind to these two women, and eventually their rivalry becomes an alliance out of sheer necessity.

The book is structured with alternating chapters from the two women’s points of view with the occasional Greek chorus of “society ladies” thrown in to shed some light on the larger social spectrum. Fans of Therese Anne Fowler’s A Well-Behaved Woman, an earlier novel about Alva Vanderbilt Belmont, will find this added perspective on Alva’s life enthralling. So, bring a spoon to devour this story and hankie to dry your tears for the sadder events. It’s high time we had our own American versions of Downton Abbey and Bridgerton. Netflix and Hulu should take note.

Trish MacEnulty

PIPPO AND CLARA

Diana Rosie, Mantle, 2021, £13.99, pb, 325pp, 9781447293064

In an unnamed Italian city in 1938, Clara wakes up to find her mother has not returned home since the previous evening. She leaves her younger brother Pippo behind to search for her Mamma, turning right as she steps outside. Sometime later, seven-year-old Pippo wakes up and decides to search for his mother and sister, turning left outside the house. This leads to the siblings’ long separation and vastly different experiences in a country on the brink of revolution and war.

The two protagonists are taken in by people on opposite sides – fascist and communist – and the upheavals, uncertainties and tragedies of struggling families across these divides are related in a deeply affecting way. As World War II drags on, lives get harder and more fragile, with danger at every turn: loss and tragedy lead to hatred and vindictiveness, with the road to the siblings’ possible reunion strewn with many obstacles.

This is an enjoyable, fast-paced and emotionally engaging story that portrays the ideological divides of wartime Italy from different childhood perspectives. The point of view alternates between Clara and Pippo, who

never forget about each other nor lose sight of the powerful bond encouraged and nurtured by their lost mother. Issues of race, heritage, and prejudice are important, especially since the siblings are Romani, people who were outlawed and persecuted by Fascist Italy from the early years of the regime. Due to this, Clara’s growing friendship with an elderly Jewish librarian and academic (a development relayed to a reader intensely aware of the approaching German occupation) has even greater impact. Overall, Rosie’s rather clichéd choice of the right-hand turn leading to life among Fascists and the left-hand turn leading to life among Communists does little to detract from the overall quality of this book.

Ingibjörg Ágústsdóttir

YOU BELONG HERE NOW

Dianna Rostad, William Morrow, 2021, $16.99/ C$21.00, pb, 368pp, 9780063027893

Three orphans from New York have travelled to Montana, unselected by any family at the stopping points along the way. Charles says he is sixteen; Patrick is Irish and therefore faces prejudice; Opal is three, adorable but far too young to be useful on a ranch.

It is spring 1925, and Montana is a land of ranches and small towns, welcoming automobiles but still remembering Custer and the Indian Wars. Men work the ranches and women belong in the kitchen, except for Nara Stewart, unmarried and as tough as any man. She seems like the last person to extend a hand to three orphans, but circumstances and her sense of fairness and justice intervene.

The three orphans bring both help and danger to Nara and her family. Charles is strong enough to provide much-needed help on the ranch, Patrick is a natural with the horses, and wee Opal brings great pleasure to Nara’s mother. But they also bring danger: Charles is too ready to fight viciously; Patrick is too soft-hearted; Opal’s abusive mother shows up to take her away. The sheriff arrives, bringing the full weight of the law down on Nara’s family.

The author maintains a high level of tension throughout as the three orphans face challenges for which city life has not prepared them. They bring with them behaviours that create problems for those who would help them. All of this is presented vividly and with unsentimental empathy. The ranchland itself is portrayed in all its dimensions – its harshness, its cruelty, its beauty. The people, both ranch families and city orphans, carry the action and tension through their reactions to each other and the land. This novel is deeply felt and beautifully portrayed.

Valerie Adolph

BLACKOUT

Simon Scarrow, Headline, 2021, £20.00, hb, 422pp, 9781472258540

Berlin, December 1939. The Second World War is in its very early stage. The Nazis are tightening their ruthless grip on the German people. The city is paranoid, fuelled by a strict blackout which every night throws the city into a maelstrom of dark deeds and lawlessness as the population shivers in an icy winter and a fuel shortage. When a young woman is found brutally murdered, Criminal Inspector Horst Schenke is ordered to drop his current investigations and find the murderer. Quickly and discreetly. As he stubbornly refuses to join the Nazi Party, he is regarded with suspicion by his superiors – disloyalty is deadly, and failure not an option. Inspector Schenke finds himself enmeshed in a web of deceit, doubledealing and deadly internal politics, while the murderer strikes again.

With a taut plot and strong characterization which evokes the quite literally dark times of the war, the story races along, piling on the tension. This is a combination of detective story and political thriller. Simon Scarrow is a best-selling author at the top of his game, a maestro of historical fiction, and once again he has produced another taut, exciting story. This is one to keep. Highly recommended.

Mike Ashworth

TEARS OF AMBER

Sofía Segovia (trans. Simon Bruni), AmazonCrossing, 2021, $14.95, pb, 493pp, 9781542027915

On 25 March 1938 in the East Prussian city of Königsberg, Adolf Hitler makes a vital speech about Austria’s annexation, but little Ilse Hahlbrock and Arno Schipper don’t hear it. Yet, the events that follow affect their lives severely. Soon Germany invades neighboring Poland, and a Polish prisoner, teenaged Janusz, is assigned to work on Ilse’s family farm. Both Ilse’s and Arno’s fathers are conscripted by the Germans and sent off to war. Their wives are left alone to care for their children. Later, when the Russian army starts attacking Poland, putting the Germans in retreat, Ilse and Arno’s families flee for their safety. Janusz decides to accompany Ilse and her family on their trek. They escape into the forest. Janusz tells Ilse fairy tales of a Baltic queen whose tears had turned into amber to ease Ilse’s mind. Both families face appalling hardships during the war. Janusz’s stories prove to be prophetic.

In the author’s note, Sofía Segovia mentions that this story is “inspired by real events” as told to her by Germans in her hometown of Monterrey, Mexico. Segovia also notes that she attaches more importance to the experiences of people who “don’t feature in history books.” Hence, the characters of this novel are mostly women and children. Since it was initially written for Spanish readers, there is much telling of the characters’ thoughts and actions, typical in European literature. The novel provides thought-provoking information on the demise of the Prussian state. The numerous flashbacks and even flash-forwards require careful reading to stay with the storyline. Interestingly, the famous real-life Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, who was imprisoned for criticizing the violence against Prussian civilians, makes an appearance in the novel. The story continues after the ending of WWII for, as Segovia says, history never ends.

Waheed Rabbani

AN UNLIKELY SPY (US) / THE IMITATOR (AU)

Rebecca Starford, Ecco, 2021, $27.99, hb, 352pp, 9780063037885 / Allen & Unwin, 2021, A$29.99, pb, 352pp, 9781760529796

A chance encounter with a former friend in London in March 1948 whipsaws Evelyn Varley, reminding her of the work she had told family and friends she was doing in the War Office and forcing her to acknowledge the ramifications of the work she actually had done as a newly recruited MI5 agent in the late 1930s.

Starford’s debut novel is based on the writings of a young woman who joined MI5 in her twenties and infiltrated a subversive organization that used its links with White Russians, UK Cabinet members, and the American Embassy to undermine rising British antiwar sentiment and foster alliance with the Third Reich.

An Unlikely Spy imagines the kind of woman who would be willing to engage in deception, pretend obeisance to an authoritarian and nationalistic world view, and maintain some semblance of a normal life. The result is Evelyn, a bright, yet aloof, young woman with a chameleon-like ability to blend in.

The novel brings to light the stresses associated with a double life—the physical manifestations of trepidation and uncertain first steps, the conflicts between duty and friendship, the burdens of maintaining secrecy, and the effects of lingering guilt.

Some relationships and plot lines are not fully plumbed. Actions and their consequences are sometimes truncated. Evelyn’s nature is not fully revealed. Yet An Unlikely Spy sheds light on the everyday routines of counterintelligence. No shaken martinis, sleek motorcars, or highspeed action sequences here. This is a world of paperwork, coding and couriers, and quiet conversations. Intriguing.

K. M. Sandrick

THE ART OF THE ASSASSIN

Kevin Sullivan, Allison & Busby, 2021, £16.99, hb, 320pp, 9780749025410

This is the second novel by Kevin Sullivan about Juan Cameron, his half-Scottish, halfSpanish photographer hero. After the death of his father and his cousins in Cuba during the revolution of 1899, Juan had travelled to Glasgow, where his mother had lived but had since disappeared. His automatic camera repeat device had helped him catch a serial killer in the Gorbals, and he had also met Jane, a relative of some friends back in Cuba, with whom he had fallen in love and become engaged.

In this second novel, the romance of Juan and Jane continues as they become embroiled in a plot concerning Jane’s Uncle Alan and

some Eastern European representatives. Without his timer device, which is away being mended, Juan is asked to take photographs of a murder victim and the room where he was killed by a policeman known to him from the previous book. Again, all the descriptions are forensic in their detail, especially of the interior and exterior architecture. It is another photograph taken at the previous residence of Mr Sullivan (of Gilbert & Sullivan fame) which launches him into danger.

There are exciting scenes at the Theatre Royal, an opera singer and a variety of entertainers whom Juan is persuaded to photograph. Juan’s emotions and ingenuity are tested as the ending of the story sees his future completely altered.

Julie Parker

THE LIFELINE

Deborah Swift, Sapere, 2021, $9.99/£9.99, pb, 340pp, 9781800551473

“I never wear my paperclip now,” Astrid replied, “it’s just asking for trouble.” A complex narrative, this story takes place during the early years of World War II in Nazi-occupied Norway. Embedded in this well-written, engaging tale are intrigue, betrayal, love, double dealings, lost opportunities, adventure, sacrifice, and daring deeds, along with the omnipresent possibilities of internment, torture, and death.

While not necessarily central to the specific activities of the protagonists, the overarching sub-theme of betrayal permeates the entire volume. How do some citizens accept and support an invader while others struggle? A paperclip worn on the lapel, for example, demonstrates silent but observable resistance.

Through the eyes of the two main characters – a schoolteacher and her boyfriend – the reader witnesses firsthand the human strains as this society is ravaged by occupation.

Norway has been conquered, existing societal structures remodeled, and the school curriculum revised to showcase a new reality. The majority of Norwegian teachers refuse to teach this imposed pro-Nazi curriculum and engage in numerous disruptive techniques to thwart the initiative. Ultimately partially successful, the Norwegian Teachers’ Strike does indeed force concessions from the authorities.

Parallel to these societal upheavals, an active Resistance is emerging. Supported by the British, agents and supplies are moving in and out of the country via the “lifeline” called the Shetland Bus. In this highly dangerous clandestine operation, beset by weather and German forces, small craft silently traverse the 300 or so kilometers between the Shetland Islands and Norway to deliver Resistance personnel and supplies but, also, to bring to safety those who had been compromised or who are fleeing possible imprisonment for actions or religious beliefs.

Interestingly, Swift does not conclude her narrative with a neat bow. All is not settled. Further intrigues are foreshadowed.

Jon G. Bradley

THE RAILWAY GIRLS IN LOVE

Maisie Thomas, Arrow, 2021, £6.99, pb, 372pp, 9781787463981

February 1939. War is looming, but Mabel and her best friend Althea are thinking about parties, not war. For Mabel, the agonies of being presented at court loom large. Althea, meanwhile, has fallen in love with the delectable Gil, only to feel a fool when she realizes that he doesn’t feel the same way. Then Gil falls for Mabel… Meanwhile, Herr Hitler’s bombers plan to destroy Britain’s infrastructure.

In April 1941, the story moves to Manchester, one of Britain’s most important industrial cities, and, as the Blitz gathers pace, it becomes obvious that the railway’s Victoria Station is a major Luftwaffe target. We follow a group of women of all ages and backgrounds who take on railway jobs, once reserved for men – while still being responsible for the housework, cooking, and children. Joan, for example, is a railway porter, carrying travellers’ luggage and manoeuvring heavy goods wherever they are needed. It’s a tough, back-breaking job. Dot, a married woman in her forties, finds herself on a goods train escorting dummy tanks, built to fool the Germans into believing that Britain has an endless supply of military hardware. Doing men’s work is empowering and exciting, but it can also be dirty and exhausting.

One of the things I most enjoyed about this book was the vivid glimpse into ordinary working women’s lives in wartime. Take telephones: most people didn’t own one. They queued up outside a phone box, waiting for the operator to connect them with the phone number they wanted. Most people couldn’t afford the electrical white goods we take for granted nowadays. The book has a huge cast of characters, and I confess that I frequently lost track of who was who, and what was going on. Still, I’m sure that lovers of wartime sagas will enjoy this book.

Elizabeth Hawksley

THE RIGHT KIND OF FOOL

Sarah Loudin Thomas, Bethany House, 2020, $15.99, pb, 311pp, 9780764234019

Rural, mountainous West Virginia in the 1930s is the setting for this historical mystery centered around thirteen-year-old Loyal, who became deaf following a childhood illness, and is the key to solving a murder of a somewhat shady, out-of-town land developer.

Loyal has lived with constant tension, between his desire to assimilate with the “talking people” and his mother Delphy’s efforts to protect him from dangers he can’t hear and from social harassment. Loyal’s father, Creed, is a former lawman, and his skills come in handy as he is called on to assist with the small-town murder investigation. As the case unfolds, Loyal’s many previously unrecognized, admirable qualities come to the surface, along with his desires for more social freedoms and friendships.

Loyal senses the need to assist his parents’ slow progress towards reconciliation, after years of distance between them that started after Loyal became deaf, when Creed began to spend time away from the family at his remote mountain cabin. Delphy struggles with Creed’s role in the illness that brought on Loyal’s deafness. Creed must forge a relationship with his son and his new way of communicating to have any chance of convincing Delphy to allow him to reenter the family unit. Characters are drawn with an authenticity that seems well-suited to the Mountain State during the Depression era, without excessive colloquialism. An easy camaraderie develops between Creed and his friend, the local sheriff, and there is much to admire in their approach to pursue justice, which is not always by the book.

Author Sarah Loudin Thomas has written a number of books that are set in Appalachia and in particular in her home state of West Virginia.

Brodie Curtis

CHILD BRIDE

Jennifer Smith Turner, SparkPress, 2020, $16.95, pb, 252pp, 9781684630387

Turner, a poet, has written a lovely comingof-age novel centered on Nell Jones, 16, the youngest child of twelve in an impoverished African American farming family in mid-1950s Louisiana. She witnesses her father being ordered out of the local store by the white owner, when race relations are agitated just after the murder of Emmett Till. Nell’s teacher reluctantly tells her about the night her own father was lynched. But warm family relationships and her love of reading and school sustain Nell.

Henry Bight, about ten years older, courts Nell, with her parents’ encouragement. She is both excited and scared about the prospect of leaving home for Boston, and in the end agrees to marry him. She is astonished at the differences up north, like being able to use the same public restroom as whites, and hopes to continue her studies and maybe become a teacher. But Henry suppresses Nell’s spirit, expecting her to stay home and have babies, not allowing her to go anywhere without him. She finally persuades him to let her attend church. While helping in the kitchen, she meets Charles, a college-educated church member, and they form an instant attraction. Disaster strikes when she realizes she is pregnant: Henry will know this fourth child is not his.

Turner excels at description: “Our house had been built by hand; the wood shingles were uneven, the doors never closed completely, and the window frames were crooked. Ninety-

degree angles didn’t find a home in this house.” Those passages and Nell’s emotional journey from child to woman, drawing on support from her community and learning to stand up for herself, are powerful. I had trouble putting the book down. The potent characterizations and vivid descriptions make this story stand out; I strongly recommend it.

B. J. Sedlock

THE ELEPHANT OF BELFAST (US) / THE ZOOKEEPER OF BELFAST (UK)

S. Kirk Walsh, Counterpoint, 2021, $27.00, hb, 336pp, 9781640094000 / Hodder, 2021, £7.99, pb, 336pp, 9781529345544

Violet, a three-year-old Ceylonese elephant, meets and enchants Hettie Quin immediately after disembarking at the Belfast harbor and making her lumbering way to the Bellevue Zoo in 1940. Grieving after the death of her sister, relocation of her brother-in-law and newborn niece, and abandonment and estrangement by her parents, Hettie absorbs herself in zoo work, staying after hours to groom and bond with Violet in her enclosure and learning all she can about pachyderms, until she becomes the elephant’s primary keeper. As war comes to Belfast, Hettie makes Violet her priority, rushing to the elephant’s aid during air raids and afterward freeing and hiding the animal to protect her from death by constables worried that bombing runs will release dangerous wildlife on city streets.

The Elephant of Belfast is deeply emotive. Readers see the explosions in the night sky through Hettie’s eyes. They tremble with her fear as she runs from her home, down blackedout streets, to reach Violet’s side in the zoo. Readers note the songs of the zoo animals she hears as they communicate their own fears to one another. Readers mourn Hettie’s losses and share her confusion, anxiety, and terror as she confronts everyday realities of war.

Action is hard-pounding; the imagery vivid; the message universal: connections and friendships among living creatures, both animal and human, offer solace, support, and strength in the darkest times.

K. M. Sandrick

A PECULIAR COMBINATION

Ashley Weaver, Minotaur, 2021, $26.99, hb, 304pp, 9781250780485

This is the first book in the new Electra McDonnell series, which is set in World War II England. Electra (Ellie) belongs to a family of thieves. Her Uncle Mick is a master safecracker, and she and her cousins, Toby and Colm, have learned everything they know from him. With Toby and Colm off fighting in the war, it is up to Ellie and Uncle Mick to keep supporting the family. When a house robbery goes wrong, Ellie finds herself working for a government official, Major Ramsey, in order to keep herself and Uncle Mick out of jail. Their first mission leads to more as it becomes clear a traitor is at work, and German spies are involved. This is an engaging and addictive historical thriller with a touch of romance. I immediately connected with these characters, especially Ellie and Uncle Mick. Ellie is an intriguing and complex individual. She is a thief and safecracker, but she has also been to finishing school. She can operate in any level of society, which makes her a perfect thief and a perfect spy. Uncle Mick is a locksmith by day and safecracker by night, but he has a moral code, even as a thief, that he will not break. He has passed that code onto Ellie.

Ellie’s missions into high society with the major are thrilling and fun to read. They are a reminder that World War II was also fought silently by spies on both sides. Fans of historical thrillers and strong female characters are going to love this World War II spy adventure. Highly recommended.

Bonnie DeMoss

SISTERS OF THE RESISTANCE

Christine Wells, William Morrow, 2021, $16.99, pb, 416pp, 9780063055445

If it wasn’t for her work during World War II in Paris, Catherine Dior might only be remembered as the sister of the famous designer, Christian Dior. But Wells’ new novel, Sisters of the Resistance, brings to light the heroic efforts by Dior to help save her countrymen in the waning days of the war. Told primarily through the eyes of fictional sisters Yvette and Gabby, the story can be seen as an homage to the women whose brave actions were integral to the underground French resistance.

Yvette and her sister live in Paris during World War II. Due to Yvette’s work and where they live, the sisters become embroiled in an intricate operation in the French resistance, spearheaded by Catherine Dior. But when the war is over, Yvette flees to New York City.

In 1947, Yvette is summoned to France to give testimony in a legal case involving a woman accused of being a spy. Yvette is hesitant to see her sister and mother after she fled Paris several years earlier. Gabby is now living a modest life as the caretaker of apartments in Paris. She is mourning a lost love and misses her sister, who has failed to keep in touch from America. When Gabby attends a Christian Dior fashion show and spots someone who looks exactly like her sister on the runway, she is shocked.

The book has it all: high fashion, spies, romance, loss, healing, mystery, sisterhood, friendship, and strong female protagonists. The two timelines can be a little confusing to keep track of, particularly as they take place only a couple of years apart, but in general, it is a fast-paced, well-told story that transports the reader to a memorable time in world history.

Hilary Daninhirsch

THE CONSEQUENCES OF FEAR

Jacqueline Winspear, Harper, 2021, $27.99, hb, 352pp, 9780062868022

Although the intensity of the Blitz is past, German airplanes still drop bombs on London nightly, and the United States has yet to enter the war. Maisie Dobbs has turned much of her work over to assistant Billy Beale, so she can spend more time in the country with her newly adopted daughter and aging father. However, when a young boy witnesses a murder—a murder that both Scotland Yard and the SOE refuse to believe happened, as no body was found—Maisie takes the case. The boy, who is a runner for the SOE, is regularly beaten by his father and traumatized by his nightly races through London carrying messages while bombs fall. When a body is dragged from the Thames, Maisie’s suspicions and the boy’s testimony seem confirmed. She suspects involvement by members of the Free French, which causes former colleagues MacFarlane and Caldwell to ask her to drop her investigation. Meanwhile, Maisie struggles to balance her work with her new romantic relationship and her time in the country with her daughter.

This is the seventeenth book in the Maisie Dobbs series. I have read them all. Winspear is a brilliant writer, mixing the history and the mystery with the psychology of criminals and victims. This volume is one of her best. Maisie’s life is filled with more responsibility than she can manage. Winspear has elevated the suspense, and the reader can feel the stress on Maisie and the other characters. The war seems never-ending, bombs continue to fall, a murderer is on the loose. No one and nowhere seem safe. Although the author does catch up readers with important information from past books, I recommend reading the series in order. Maisie’s personal life is worth following as it happens. Highly recommended.

Elizabeth Caulfield Felt

THE SECRET LIVES OF DENTISTS

W. A. Winter, Seventh Street, 2021, $17.95, pb, 240pp, 9781645060246

In this hard-boiled crime novel set in 1955 Minneapolis, Minnesota, a young woman from North Dakota is murdered and left on abandoned trolley tracks.

I had a hard time with this book. Looking back, the opening chapter tries to be a lyrical portrait of the players in this story, but with nothing to anchor the reader, it’s disjointed and confusing. The omniscient narrator uses inconsistent ethnic slurs and misogynistic language, I think in an effort to seem tough, but reads as a ten-year-old using the F-word for the first time. The vulgarity feels put-on, unreal, and not germane.

The plot lines don’t seem to converge, just happen near one another. The cast includes the skinny blonde nymphomaniac who winds up dead, a Jewish dentist as the main suspect, and several male police officers and male journalists who seem interchangeable due to the random extramarital affairs everyone is having. The most complete physical description in the entire book is of the dentist, Dr. Rose, while naked. We don’t get half the character description of anyone else.

Yet, when the author gets into the procedural aspects, this crime novel comes into clear focus. His prose tightens up, and we get a precise picture and pacing of a whodunit. But then we wander back into lust-fueled longings that go nowhere. I wish the author had forgotten the hard-boiled vocabulary and stuck with a procedural crime drama, because that was where things got good.

By the end, where the plotlines are supposed to resolve, it felt instead like a series of coincidences, and I’m still not sure who killed Teresa Hickman from Dollar, North Dakota. Which is too bad. Even skinny blonde nymphomaniacs deserve justice.

Katie Stine

WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD THIS COULD BE

Lee Zacharias, Madville Publishing, 2021, $19.95, pb, 302pp, 9781948692502

This deeply realistic and affecting novel spans the life of Alex, a teacher at an art college, beginning in the U.S in the early 1960s. The story illuminates in intimate detail the chaotic process by which idealism can bear unexpected and destructive consequences.

Alex’s childhood—if ever she had one—ends abruptly in 1960 when, as a teenager, she falls for the older and inspiring photographer Steve Kendrick, and her best friend Jo Ann is left bewildered by Alex’s sudden lack of motivation to frolic with boys at the town pool. Her disinterested artist mother and alcoholic father had left Alex having to weave her own sort of family unit, largely making it up as she goes along.

The novel opens at a later time, however, when in the early 1980s Alex is surprised by media news of her long-estranged husband, onetime civil rights activist and radical fugitive Ted Neal, shot by an unknown assailant while surrendering to federal authorities. Zacharias writes in a breathtakingly sumptuous style with microscopic perspective: every detail is a metaphor; every byte of dialog advances the narrative. Even secondary characters are richly dimensional, with distinctive and disparate voices. We track the evolution of Ted’s mother, Justine, from hippie matriarch of a family of free thinkers and seekers to a lost and disillusioned older woman. Alex’s struggle for resolution of lifelong passions and barriers quickly draws the reader in. Highly recommended.

Jackie Drohan

MULTI-PERIOD

OFF THE WILD COAST OF BRITTANY

Juliet Blackwell, Berkley, 2021, $16.99/C$23.00, pb, 464pp, 9780593097854

A ferry crossing the choppy Atlantic from France’s Wild Coast of Brittany, La Côte Sauvage, shuttles tourists onto the docks along the rocky shore of the island known as Île de Feme. Juliet Blackwell artfully guides readers from the dock on the present-day island, with touristy souvenir shops and pubs with Wi-Fi, to the seaweed-covered steps of the lighthouse guarded by Nazi soldiers in July 1940.

Only a few steps from the dock sits the ancient three-story stone house Natalie Morgen is supposed to be renovating into a quaint guesthouse and restaurant with her famous boyfriend-chef, François-Xavier. However, the pie-in-the-sky plans of Natalie, a bestselling memoir author and social media sensation, have gone awry. The sudden, mysterious arrival of her older sister, Alex, not seen for 10 years, adds to her financial stress and lack of writing oomph. The sisters, raised in a survivalist compound in California, have certainly survived, but with their own set of emotional and physical issues to face.

Juliet Blackwell expertly weaves current issues facing Nat, Alex and women today with the women on the Île de Feme in 1940. Based on Général de Gaulle’s exhortation, all the men of fighting age sailed to England to join the Free French Forces fighting the Nazi invasion of France, while 300 Germans occupied the island. Violette, a young islander, introduces readers to the legend of the Gallizenae, the herbs and cures of the village healer, the German invasion of the island, and how the women survived.

Juliet Blackwell’s Off the Wild Coast of Brittany, presented in dual timeline with three narrators, examines the themes of allegiance to one’s country and family values, life-altering physical conditions, isolation, independence and self-worth. An “island” view of World War II.

Dorothy Schwab

THE PARIS APARTMENT

Kelly Bowen, Forever, 2021, $15.99/C$21.99, pb, 416pp, 9781538718155

Is this an apartment or a museum? This is the question Aurelia asks in the summer of 2017, as she enters the recently inherited property that her grandmother had occupied in Paris over seventy years ago – completely unbeknownst to her. A secret of such magnitude! After wandering through extravagantly furnished rooms filled with paintings by world-renowned artists, discovering a closet packed with shoes, gowns and furs plus a wardrobe that protected exquisitely embroidered silks and satin couture dresses, Lia is astounded to stumble upon photos from German officer Hermann Göring. Lia comes to the nauseating conclusion that her grandmother was a Nazi collaborator.

Just as artists layer paintings with texture and color, Kelly Bowen deftly builds an artistic dual timeline. Underneath the canvas of 2017 lies a 1940s war landscape painted over with battleweary soldiers and newly widowed Sophie Kowalski in the foreground. Bowen’s scene is blended with scared, hungry Jews, Rachel and three-year-old Aviva, and a gorgeous Parisian socialite, Estelle Allard, huddling on the horizon. To complete the picture, Bowen slaps a jarring slash of red and black as the Germans flaunt the Nazi flag over the Ritz Hotel. The mystery of Lia’s newly acquired apartment, filled with a magnificent art collection, couture gowns, and secret identities, unfolds in hidden images blurred by Bletchley Park codes and the Millbrook Hall ancestral estate, but is finally illuminated by Gabriel, an art appraiser and restoration expert.

Readers and lovers of art will lament with Estelle: “How much history will a family or a country lose when they lose the things that unite them? That tells the stories of their pasts?” Kelly Bowen’s The Paris Apartment is a dazzling chandelier for the eyes that also pierces the heart.

Dorothy Schwab

THE VENICE SKETCHBOOK

Rhys Bowen, Lake Union, 2021, $14.95, pb, 392pp, 9781542027113

Bowen’s vivid storytelling style holds readers enrapt. Caroline inherits her beloved greataunt Juliet’s sketchbook, three keys, and hears her final whisper, “mi angelo…you find… Venice.” Meticulously placed clues enable the reader to unravel the mystery, discovering young Juliet’s life of impossible love, loss, and courage. Although it uses a dual timeline, the focus is on Juliet, an Englishwoman, who in

1928 falls into the canal while attempting to rescue kittens and is fished out by handsome Venetian count Leonardo da Rossi. They are star-crossed from the outset, as Leo is betrothed to Bianca from a prominent shipping family – an arranged marriage, a business transaction. Leo and Juliet share a romantic picnic and her first kiss.

In 1938, Juliet returns. By chance or fate, she reconnects with Leo at the Biennale – Venice’s international art festival. As Juliet studies art, she comes to know everyday Venice of blustery winter winds, relentless rain and agua alta (floods), festivals, soirees and tradition – the strongest being family. With so many saints, there are always festivi: Santa Lucia Day putting out straw for her donkey, Saint Martin’s Day with songs and sugar biscuits, Fest of Madonna Della Salute with a bridge of boats built across the canal. With WWII looming, Venetians think they will be safe, even Jewish residents. As Nazis patrol the streets, Juliet, an enemy alien, is in grave danger.

Bowen has written a tender, poignant story balancing dark and light. “The sun was setting across the lagoon, tinging the water with a pink glow. Bells rang out from a distant church. I took a deep breath trying to take it all in – almost wanting to trap it in a bottle.”

Gail M. Murray

WILD WOMEN AND THE BLUES

Denny S. Bryce, Kensington, 2021, $15.95, pb, 384pp, 9781496730084

With her first historical novel, Denny S. Bryce emerges as an exciting new writer of historical fiction. The two timelines in this multi-period story are both gripping. In Chicago in 1925, “The Stroll”—a section of State Street— blazes with the sights and sounds of Black nightlife: live jazz from talented performers, speakeasies with illicit booze, and showgirls with sparkling costumes and hot dance moves. Honoree Dalcour, a sharecropper’s daughter from Mississippi, has a regular gig dancing at Miss Hattie’s but dreams of performing at the Dreamland Café, a prestigious blackand-tan club. When her first love, Ezekiel Bailey, returns to town after a long absence, and her audition at the Dreamland turns unexpectedly risky, Honoree is plunged into dangerous waters in more ways than one.

In 2015, film student Sawyer Hayes pays a visit to Honoree, a supercentenarian in a nursing home whose fragile body holds a stillfeisty spirit. In pursuit of his doctorate, Sawyer hopes Honoree can authenticate a possible lost film by pioneering Black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux showing Honoree dancing in her younger years. His conversations with Honoree, though, are hardly straightforward since she seems unusually guarded about events from 1925.

The stories dance together marvelously: the plot is in constant motion, and the interplay between them results in surprising twists. Bryce skillfully evokes place and period with vibrant descriptions of the glamorous and treacherous sides of Jazz Age Chicago and fun period slang. The subtle characterizations are a high point as well, such as Honoree’s interactions with pianist Lil Hardin Armstrong, whose upscale society party has Honoree seeing herself in a new light, and Sawyer’s slow emergence from intense grief over his sister’s death. An especially impressive debut with a strong voice and very cool historical vibe.

Sarah Johnson

FRIEDA’S SONG

Ellen Prentiss Campbell, Apprentice House, 2021, $18.99, pb, 275pp, 9781627203234

In 1935, Jewish psychiatrist Frieda FrommReichmann fled Nazi Germany and began her innovative work in treating mental illness at Chestnut Lodge Sanitorium in Rockville, Maryland, where she practiced until her death in 1957. Interwoven with Frieda’s story is the tale of an imaginary female psychotherapist, Eliza, and her troubled teenage son, living in Frieda’s historic cottage at the time the empty sanitorium building burned down in 2009.

The chapters on Dr. Fromm-Reichmann are written as fictional diary entries being read by Eliza. As such, they use a style of reflective narration, which highlights the psychologist’s melancholic mood and her personal trauma over the attempted genocide of the Jews in Nazi Germany and the racism in the rest of the world, including the United States in which she has sought sanctuary. She also observes the racism endured by her housekeeper, a Black woman named Sally, and compares it to racism against Jews. This part of the story brings home the often-overlooked traumatic experience of Jewish Americans and refugees living through the war in “safe” countries, terrified for loved ones caught in Germany and occupied Europe.

The “diary” style works well for setting a mood and allowing for a first-person, memoir-like reflection on the events as they are occurring. However, the drawbacks of this manner of telling Frieda’s story are the lack of direct active scenes and the abrupt sentence structure, which make it difficult at times to piece together a full picture of the life and accomplishments of Dr. Fromm-Reichmann, and keep the reader at a distance from the unfolding story. I was left feeling I would have liked to know more about her actual accomplishments during this time and to see her developing her psychoanalytic methods

Jane Ann McLachlan

THE WOMEN OF CHATEAU LAFAYETTE

Stephanie Dray, Berkley, 2021, $27.00, hb, 576pp, 9781984802125

This ambitious saga follows three distinctive women across 150 years and four different wars: the American and French Revolutions and World Wars I and II. Each would have been impressive on its own, but braided together, they create a multifaceted anthem of Franco-American relations and feminine courage. The tales are united across time by a common theme – the tireless pursuit of liberty – and a special place which comes to symbolize it: the Chteau de Chavaniac, a large manor house in the Auvergne region of central France where the Marquis de Lafayette was born.

Marthe Simone had grown up at the orphanage at Chavaniac, and now, in 1940, she teaches the children recuperating from illness at the preventorium there. A talented artist, she accepts a commission to paint portraits of the cteau’s best-known mistress, Adrienne Lafayette, since the Vichy regime may find the 18th-century marquise less objectionable than her famous husband. As times grow darker, and Marthe’s interpersonal relationships shift in surprising ways, she must decide what risks to take, and who to trust.

In July 1914, colorful American socialite Beatrice Chanler debates separating from her estranged millionaire husband as war erupts in Europe. A caring mother who’s aghast at seeing wounded children while traveling through Amiens, Beatrice determines to back the war effort despite President Wilson’s declaration of neutrality. Over a century earlier, Adrienne de Noailles, only a teenager when she marries Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, makes innumerable sacrifices to support her husband while he fights for the American colonists, but her husband’s principles imperil the couple as tides turn during their country’s own revolution.

Based on original research, as explained in the wonderful author’s note, this novel provides satisfying, deep immersion into all three timelines. All three heroines (two are real, one fictional) feel dimensionally real, and their actions are truly inspiring.

Sarah Johnson

THE PARTED EARTH

Anjali Enjeti, Hub City Press, 2021, $26.00/ C$38.95/£18.99, hb, 272pp, 9781938235771

This multi-generational novel begins in New Delhi, India, in June 1947. The Britishadministered partition of India and Pakistan is chaotic and causing severe tension. But in the Catholic St. Magdalene School for Girls, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Christian, and Buddhist students and those of other faiths get along warmly. The deteriorating political situation

soon puts an end to that. A young Hindu woman, Deepa, loses her parents in an attack on their medical facility by extremists, and, as their only child, is distraught, as she feels so alone, with her Muslim boyfriend having fled to Pakistan. And worse; she’s pregnant.

Seven decades later in the United States, Deepa’s granddaughter, Shan, is experiencing her own tragedy, after losing her baby through miscarriage and the dissolution of her failed marriage. More poignantly, Shan, who later finds out her beloved child was a boy, feels additional heartbreak knowing she was earlier even considering abortion. Shan, who knows little about her family, sets out to locate her grandmother and try to get answers about her people and their stories.

This emotional novel takes place over different time periods on three continents with many appealing, interlinked characters and often tragic subplots. The characterdriven aspects of the book are very well done, while it is lean on the geopolitical, military and, historical details of the 1947 partition, which resulted in more than a million deaths and millions more refugees. The theme of intergenerational disruption of families and homes is shared by many current novels, and I am sure readers will treasure this dramatic and well-crafted book.

Thomas J. Howley

SINS AS RED AS SCARLET

Janet Few, Blue Poppy Publishing, 2020, £9.99/$13.09, pb, 232pp, 9781911438731

This novel takes a new approach to the events surrounding the last “witch hangings” in England. Bideford, Devon was a town in turmoil. Civil war, religious intolerance, and plague, ignorance and superstition were rife, the authorities of church and state were harsh, and, as always, the destitute and vulnerable had to find a way to make ends meet. Three women were hanged due to accusations of witchcraft. Who were they, and who were their accusers? Although men were the ones who signed the papers, they relied on rumor and spurious evidence, often lies. This novel painstakingly dissects the historical archives to flesh out the facts. To add perspective, Few sets some of the novel in an alternative 2020. Sixteen-year-old Martha, bright, independent, and indifferent to current music and fashion trends, has no friends. A school history project gives her the incentive to immerse herself into the lives of Bideford’s 17th-century residents. Studying the reasons behind their actions, Martha learns how easy it is to hate but how rewarding it is to understand each other.

I cannot fault the historical aspect of this novel. Few has delved deeply and painstakingly through the local archives to bring the facts to light for modern readers. As a historian, she only daintily steps into people’s psychology although it is a subject that fascinates 21st century Martha. I am particularly fascinated by the possible link between a male church elder in Bideford who also appears in the records of Massachusetts’ Salem; the author only touches on this, though that would be a novel I want to read. Additionally, it’s not clear whether the novel is aimed at young adult readers or a more general audience.

Sally Zigmond

YOU LET ME GO

Eliza Graham, Lake Union, 2021, $14.95, pb, 319pp, 9781542017107

The title of this combination of historical fiction and modern mystery reflects the confusion of Morie, the protagonist, who is angry because her grandmother, Rozenn, cut her out of her will, leaving her Cornwall cottage solely to Morie’s older sister. She is jealous over Gwen’s inheritance, successful career, and happy marriage while her own business and love life are in tatters. Sibling rivalry and family mysteries drive the dual narratives separated by nearly 80 years. The early story begins in 1941 Paris with teenage Rozenn forced to relocate to rural Brittany with her family to flee German occupation and hide family secrets. The locals are suspicious of strangers, the Germans, and each other. A trusting Rozenn falls in love with a local and joins a covert operation intended to help her family, which ends in disaster.

In the contemporary narrative, Morie goes to Brittany to find out more about her grandmother’s mysterious life. The author writes lush descriptions of summer in Brittany with colorful flowers, natural fragrances, and sun sparkling on the sea. These chapters read like a taut, well-crafted detective story. Morie follows clues, unravels her complicated family history in Brittany, and learns sibling rivalry runs in the family. She discovers that mistakes and misunderstandings have been passed from generation to generation, and family stories about relatives were not always true. The older narrative about Rozenn is in third person, and the newer one in first person through Morie. The author smoothly weaves the two stories together into one fascinating family history spanning the decades. Readers might feel inspired to explore their own family histories in hopes of a positive outcome.

Susan Sandberg

THE GIRL AT THE BACK OF THE BUS

Suzette D. Harrison, Bookouture, 2021, $0.99, ebook, 310pp, 9781800191730

Set in Alabama and Georgia, this empowering novel–tender, warm, harsh, heartbreaking–addresses the legacy of slavery, its effect on all future Black generations, and systemic racism which, incomprehensibly, we are still struggling to eradicate. It also speaks to the astonishing bonds between women, family and friends alike.

In 1955, sixteen-year-old Mattie Banks, pregnant by a white boy, has few options. Seated at the back of a bus, she witnesses “Miz Rosa” refuse to give up her seat to a white man. This encounter is life-changing. Mattie’s mother, Dorothy, supports Mattie’s wish to keep her baby. She proudly encourages Mattie’s education and is adamant that being a domestic for a white family, as she is herself, will never be Mattie’s fate. In the present day, thirty-something Ashlee Turner is a Black lawyer passed over for promotion for a white man because the firm has to “strategically position” itself for “upward progression.” Ashlee is about to re-evaluate her life. She goes home, unsure about her future, and risking a relationship with a white man who loves her deeply. Surrounded by parents and grandparents, she finds closure and peace as she unravels her family history and comes to terms with herself.

Harrison’s beautiful family story is fluid and emotional, and whether writing of love or hate, turmoil or happiness, she pulls no punches. Some sections had me involuntarily wincing, but she does not dwell gratuitously on less savoury facts. Her characters extend themselves off the page as they brave the hardships of segregation without understanding what to many of us is the inexplicable. I felt as if Mattie and Ashlee were friends, and their stories are equally engrossing (rare in dual-timeline novels). The overwhelming love and support in both stories, despite many setbacks in Mattie’s, is so uplifting to read. The prose is direct, honest and open. I was and am deeply moved. An exceptional novel for exceptional times.

Fiona Alison

FINDING ITHAKA

Anna Harvey, Independently published, 2020, $2.99, ebook, 538pp, B0872DTD8H

Dr. Thea Sefton returns to the Greek island of Kefalonia as part of an archaeological expedition searching for the palace of Odysseus, regarded here not as a legend but a real person whose journey Thea traces using geographical details from Homer’s poem. On the team is Rob Hughes, an affable climate scientist, but Thea’s developing camaraderie with him is dampened when she discovers that the funds for their expedition come from Dimitri Kampitsis, the smooth-talking local lover who abandoned her twenty years ago.

Between chapters of Thea’s story, the aging king Odysseus, overlooking a peaceful Ithaka with his son Telemachos, reflects on his many adventures. Through his flashbacks, Harvey gives the highlights of the Homeric epics her own twist, from the ploy that brings down mighty Troy to the episodes featuring the Cyclops, the Sirens, the Lotus-eaters, and Kalypso. The most developed and poignant interlude is the hero’s romance with Kirke, the beautiful high priestess of a shrine sacred to the goddess Fredonia. Though Odysseus eventually returns

to his faithful wife, Penelope, Kirke still keeps his heart. The span of the book and its large cast leave little room for character development; many of Thea’s colleagues and Dimitri’s wife Clemmie are little more than broad outlines, and Thea’s several changes of heart over her beaus are abrupt. The flashbacks-within-a-flashback of the Odysseus portions occasionally leaves the reader uncertain of where they are in the narrative. But fans of Homer’s epics will likely enjoy Harvey’s interpretation, and the natural beauty of the Greek isles—along with snippets of Greek dialect, history, and culture—add texture and vibrancy to the contemporary tale. While the separate plots bear little relation to one another and both end without resolution, the story is interesting enough to leave the reader curious for book two.

Misty Urban

RIGHT BACK WHERE WE STARTED FROM

Joy Lanzendorfer, Blackstone, 2021, $27.99, hb, 416pp, 9781094089027

From the 1852 Gold Rush era to 1942 during World War II, this multi-generational novel speaks of regaining what’s lost and which you believe is rightfully yours to begin with. It’s also about dissatisfaction with life, pride, and hubris.

Urged on by his aspiring wife, Vira, Elmer Sanborn makes his fortune brokering mining stocks. Raised with wealth, their daughter Mabel makes a decision that costs her dearly. She marries a successful and doting farmer but is discontented enough that he gives her monetary freedom to build a magnificent mansion that collapses in the 1906 earthquake. She is left widowed and unfulfilled, with a young daughter, Emma.

Reinventing herself in 1932 Hollywood, Sandra (Emma) Sanborn is convinced her genteel bearing and the Sanborn name will make her a starlet, but she is thwarted by the sheer number of tall, thin redheads who have flocked to Hollywood. In 1940 Sandra marries a successful society photographer, but, determined his German heritage will not affect his citizenship, he joins the war effort. Sandra’s society friends, whose friendship relies on seeing their photos in Women’s World, slink off in pursuit of other prey.

Vira, Mabel, and Sandra are ambitious, demanding, convinced they are the driving force behind their husbands’ successes, and live in the belief that they are entitled to more than they have. Vira wants the prestige of a husband on the stock-exchange board and is willing to trade that for her daughter. Mabel covets an unaffordable status symbol and is willing to bankrupt her husband to get it. Sandra spends endless money on meaningless things, racking up bills which her husband cannot pay. There’s a sadness inherent in these stories, perhaps a lesson in humility. Weaving back and forth between the generations, the moral may be to be careful what you wish for.

Fiona Alison

POINT ZERO

Narek Malian (trans. Haykuhi Babajanyan), Glagoslav, 2020, £17.99, pb, 203pp, 9781912894635

Point Zero tells three separate stories concurrently. Although they are intercut with each other, they deal with different people at different times and places. All they have in common is a concern with religious extremism.

We begin with Pope Urban II launching the First Crusade in 1095, and then we cut to Persia at about the same time to follow the career of a young man recruited to the Assassin sect, and then we move to present-day Paris and a young Syrian refugee’s romance with a French girl. The three stories are written in different styles, reflecting their different settings, and Malian draws no moral from any of them. However, there is an obvious moral purpose in setting them out in parallel. I presume that the author wants the reader to compare two discredited episodes from the 11th century (I presume the Crusades are now discredited) with the religious extremism of the present.

A short and entertaining read with a serious purpose.

Edward James

THE VINES

Shelley Nolden, Freiling Publishing, 2021, $26.99, hb, 412pp, 9781950948406

Set on New York’s North Brother Island in multiple timelines, The Vines combines the sad story of Riverside Hospital for Quarantinable Diseases with the fictional Gettler family. The story opens with Finn Gettler in 2007. He is exploring the remains of Riverside Hospital and sees a beautiful but very scarred woman, who almost kills him. Flashing back to 1902, we meet Cora, who has been sent to the facility with her sister. Possessing unique genetic abilities, she eventually becomes a surgical guinea pig. The time periods move back and forth to different years between 1902 and 2007, as Finn begins to uncover the mystery of Cora and the dark secrets of his family.

This is a dark medical/psychological thriller that will keep readers on the edge of their seats. Cora’s story is intertwined with the true history of Riverside Hospital, including its connection to Mary Mallon, or “Typhoid Mary.” Riverside Hospital’s involvement in the rescue and recovery of passengers after the 1904 fire on the steamship General Slocum and its treatment of young drug addicts in the 1950s and 1960s also play a part. The hospital, in some ways, becomes a character itself. The fictional and real characters from the past are well combined and make for a fascinating tale. The history of North and South Brother Islands, so close to New York City, is explored. The structure is sometimes confusing, as each chapter represents a time flash, and sometimes the exact year is not given. The concept of an asymptomatic carrier of disease such as Typhoid Mary is given a new and even crueler twist in the character of Cora. Fans of historical or medical thrillers will be mesmerized by this novel.

Bonnie DeMoss

GREAT CIRCLE

Maggie Shipstead, Knopf, 2021, $28.95, hb, 608pp, 9780525656975 / Doubleday, 2021, £16.99, hb, 608pp, 9780857526809

Great Circle is a richly spacious novel about a bold female pilot who feels simultaneously larger-than-life and intimately real. Marian Graves leaves behind a logbook from her final flight in 1950, when she attempted to circumnavigate the globe longitudinally. “My last descent won’t be the tumbling helpless kind but a sharp gannet plunge,” she writes, just before disappearing over Antarctica. A fictional character, Marian sits alongside historic aviators like Amy Johnson and Elinor Smith, whose tales are highlighted in asides, but her path is her own.

Marian’s early life is similarly dramatic. As infants in 1914, she and twin brother Jamie are saved from a burning ship and sent to Missoula, Montana, to stay with their uncle, an artist with a gambling problem. Two barnstormer pilots ignite Marian’s urge to expand her world, but flying lessons are costly and inappropriate for girls. Seeking direction and funding, she forms a reluctant attachment to Barclay McQueen, a wealthy, controlling bootlegger. Jamie, a vegetarian and pacifist, is equally captivating. Like Marian, he enters into relationships that spur him to confront his values. Their stories run alongside that of Hadley Baxter, a contemporary actress whose messy love life is sabotaging her career. By playing Marian in a new biopic, she hopes to begin anew. Hadley’s account initially feels superficial in comparison, but as she researches her subject, the timelines have an exciting interplay, and missing pieces click into place.

The characters’ journeys encompass many locales – 1920s Montana, wild remote Alaska, WWII England with the Air Transport Auxiliary, a cloud’s opaque, dizzying interior – yet the research feels weightless. The vast black crevasse Marian glimpses while flying over western Canada comes to symbolize life’s darknesses: how do we move past situations that threaten to swallow us whole? Imbued with adventurous spirit and rendered in gorgeous language, this is an epic worth savoring.

Sarah Johnson

THE FINAL REVIVAL OF OPAL AND NEV

Dawnie Walton, 37 Ink, 2021, $27.00, hb, 368pp, 9781982140168 / Quercus, 2021, £14.99, hb, 368pp, 9781529414493

The Final Revival of Opal and Nev is an oral history of a fictional 1970s duo, Opal Jewel and Nev Charles. All the usual rock ‘n’ roll drama is here: wild performances, drug

addictions, love affairs, creative differences. But the real conflict of the book revolves around race. Opal is a Black woman who started performing in churches in Detroit and Alabama. Nev is a British singer-songwriter with roots in folk. Both musicians are larger than life, and their musical visions, worldviews, and egos inevitably clash.

The short-lived duo’s fame stems from a violent, deadly riot during their biggest show in 1971. Opal and Nev were immortalized in a photo that went “viral” in its time, and again years later. In 2016, the editor of the oral history, journalist Sunny Shelton, tries to make sense of this pivotal moment, both for its cultural relevance and its impact upon her own life. The publication of the oral history coincides with a reunion show at a major music festival. The revival is similarly fraught and further reveals rifts between Opal and Nev.

What makes this book shine is its focus on not only the band and how they tell their history but also the fans and how they make meaning of music and the people who create it. As a rock journalist, Sunny embodies the fan’s perspective, and as a successful Black woman in the business, she questions the motives of the gatekeepers, who are mostly white men. Sunny’s voice is the most fluid and compelling of all the characters and brings the oral history into the present.

A recommended nonfiction pairing is Black Diamond Queens: African American Women and Rock and Roll by Maureen Mahon (Duke Univ. Press, 2020).

Jill E. Marshall

ALTERNATE HISTORY

HALF LIFE

Jillian Cantor, HarperPerennial, 2021, $16.99, pb, 416pp, 9780062969897

At age 24, Marya Sklodowska leaves Poland to follow her older sister and study at the Sorbonne. She, now Marie, meets and marries fellow researcher Pierre Curie. They become giants in the new science of radioactive elements. She is the first female Nobel Prize recipient and later the only Nobel winner in two different disciplines. Among other achievements, during WWI she develops and organizes transportable X-ray machines that save many front-line wounded soldiers.

But what if Marya had chosen to stay home? Half Life answers that question. Alternating chapters describe Marya’s fictional life and Marie Curie’s mostly-true grand journey. Marya marries her Polish boyfriend and defers her dream to join her older sister and study at a university. The two versions cover four decades from 1891until Marie and Marya succumb to illnesses in 1934.

Marie and Marya are the same person: brilliant, passionate about work, children and lovers, and brutally honest. Each must face their society’s bias against high-achieving, educated women. The same family members and close friends hover in the separate orbits of Marie and Marya and thereby pull readers into how those lives will unfold. Small and large consequences of chances taken (or not) make for interesting outcomes. Cantor’s details of language, customs, and how people interact in those times and places are spot on. Author Notes help sort out the real from imagined events and characters. Both sweeping stories are intense but not forced. Yet, with so much time, so many events, and so many people to cover, the two versions might have worked better in separate, more in-depth books.

G. J. Berger

MR BEETHOVEN

Paul Griffiths, Henningham Family Press, 2020, £12.99, pb, 312pp, 9781999797492

“What?” I asked myself. “Who? When? Where? Boston. USA? Beethoven? A new oratorio?”

Relax! Try running those familiar facts on new lines. And behold! A beguiling concept lies before you. Delicate, witty, passionate and impossible to forget.

Mr Griffiths, to put it bluntly, knows his onions. He respects history as much as he reveres the composer himself, while he evokes his account of a story of Beethoven’s imaginary sojourn in 19th-century Boston.

We meet the movers and shakers (warts and all) of Boston’s emerging musical society and follow the course of relationships between the composer, his hosts, his librettist, young lipreader and of a tender kindred spirit in the form of a widow, a soulmate, soon to be lost to him when the composer sets sail back to Europe.

The structure and writing of this novel are captivating and resonant with properly, imaginatively used facts. It is both subtle and forthright. Paul Griffiths tells his story so endearingly and persuasively that reading it is an unblemished joy.

If Mr Beethoven didn’t go to Boston he should have done. Do I believe in fairies? Yes...

Julia Stoneham

TIMESLIP

ECHOES OF GERMANIA

H. B. Ashman, Timeless Papers, 2021, $15.99, pb, 343pp, 9781734317268

Germania, circa 9 BCE: Roman general Nero Claudius Drusus defeats the Cherusci tribe. He drowns the Cherusci seer’s daughters despite her pleas and curses, and kidnaps the Cherusci leader’s son to raise as a Roman. Germany, present day: Amalia has trained as an Olympic-level judoka, but her true passion is engineering. Running by the lake in which, 2000 years before, a seer’s daughters drowned, Amalia hears a woman scream and dives in. She goes under the water and surfaces in ancient Germania.

Amalia surprises the Roman soldiers guarding the Germania border, including Marius Vincius, his friend Arminius, and the slimy Gnaeus Ahenobarbus. (Marius and Gnaeus are sons of famous men; the families are enemies.) Since she looks Germanic, she’s enslaved by the Romans. Desperate to return home, Amalia’s goal changes when she realizes who Arminius is: the boy kidnapped from the Cherusci who eventually leads the tribes against Rome in the 9 CE Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Is she here to ensure the German tribes win, as they do historically? Her expertise in both judo and engineering helps her gain respect among the Romans, and she and Marius fall in love. However, the path of true love seldom runs smooth for a timetraveler…

This novel blends imperial intrigues, family feuds, culture clashes, and a doozy of a chariot race into a story that’s almost great. Unfortunately, there are pacing problems: for instance, 240 pages into the story, Amalia and Marius fall into each other’s arms – and then four years pass, she’s living happily with Marius, and the fascinating information we should get about her adjusting is left out. I never felt as if I really knew Amalia. Compared to the Roman men and women, she never really springs to life. But despite these flaws, the book’s interesting, and I’m looking forward to reading the next installment of Amalia’s story.

India Edghill

A REMEDY IN TIME

Jennifer Macaire, Headline Accent, 2021, £9.99, pb, 179pp, 9781786157904

Time travel is nonsense, but with Jennifer Macaire it is always entertaining nonsense, and she makes it seem almost credible. Whereas with other time travel authors the act of going back in time is usually instant and painless, something magical and often accidental, Macaire’s characters have to train for it, and it is as traumatic as a major operation, with unpleasant and sometimes fatal side effects.

This time Macaire’s time traveller goes into prehistory, 13,000 years back to the Mesolithic period, when the Earth was emerging from the last Ice Age. She meets plenty of prehistoric megafauna, notably a sabre-toothed tiger, but only one human. The conflict in the narrative is provided by a rival group of time travellers who are seeking a vaccine to combat a modern pandemic. They are working on behalf of a pharmaceutical corporation which has engineered the pandemic in order to market the vaccine (how’s that for a conspiracy theory?). I don’t think I am giving anything away if I say that the heroine survives all her prehistoric perils, vanquishes the baddies and returns to her own time to save humanity.

You’ll enjoy finding out how she does this, and you’ll learn a lot about prehistoric animals.

Edward James

HISTORICAL FANTASY

MASTER OF THE REVELS

Nicole Galland, William Morrow, 2021, $29.99, hb, 560pp, 9780062844873

This multi-period novel is a sequel to the author’s popular The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.

(co-written with Neal Stephenson), opening with the now renegade team of Tristan Lyons, Melisande Stokes, Frank Oda and the rest of their former Department of Diachronic Operations (D.O.D.O.) team seeking to prevent the Irish witch Gráinne from stopping the rise of modern technology by means of magic time travel, à la Terminator.

The series boasts a dizzying array of historical as well as fictional characters, such as Grace O’Malley, Ireland’s notorious pirate queen, and Frederick Fugger of the famous Fugger banking family of Europe. Period color is further enhanced by reference to a host of other historical names relevant to the story, such as 18th-century vaccine pioneer Edward Jenner. One of the novel’s better points is its use of contrasts: Erzsebet Karpathy, a witch originally recruited by Gráinne but who switched allegiances to join the team, spends much time trying to understand modern western culture through media, with often revealing perspectives.

Among the more interesting literary plot points occurs when Robin, Tristan’s somewhat unreliable young sister, travels back to Jacobean London to combat the effects of spell work concealed by Gráinne in the lines of Macbeth. Title character Edmund Tilney, the king’s Master of Revels, bestowed with the management of all London stage plays, becomes an unwitting pawn in the battle.

The action plays out from ancient Rome to Renaissance Florence, and will be delightful to true fans of both history and fantasy. The style is fast-paced and direct, as is necessary with so much complexity of plot and character. The characters are nuanced, and clever use of dialog in a variety of media (epistolary, oral and modern message boards) keeps the pages turning.

Jackie Drohan

THE CONDUCTORS

Nicole Glover, John Joseph Adams/Mariner, 2021, $15.99, pb, 434pp, 9780358197058

In this inventive debut, Nicole Glover mixes historical fiction, mystery, and fantasy to tell the story of Hetty and Benjy Rhodes, magical detectives in post-Civil War Philadelphia. The novel follows a recent trend of using magic or fantasy to reimagine Black history (Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, Coates’ The Water Dancer, Johnson’s Trouble the Saints).

The discovery of the body of Hetty and Benjy’s murdered friend Charlie initiates the mystery and action. A magical star symbol is carved into his body, which raises questions about the use of magic and the role of the Black community in his death. The presenttime scenes of Hetty working as a seamstress and solving the mystery in Philadelphia are interspersed with past scenes of the main character in slavery and then as a conductor on the Underground Railroad.

The beginning is a slow burn, especially for a mystery novel. Hetty is a brilliantly realized character, but the rest of the players are mostly one-dimensional, and I had a difficult time keeping them straight. I didn’t fully understand the magical system, but perhaps readers more fluent in fantasy tropes will. The book appears to be the first in a series, and I look forward to seeing what the sequel adds.

Jill E. Marshall

LADIES OF THE SECRET CIRCUS

Constance Sayers, Redhook, 2021, $28.00, hb, 464pp, 9780316493673 / Piatkus, 2021, £8.99, pb, 464pp, 9780349425962

After Lara Barnes’s fiancé disappears just before the wedding, Lara refuses to believe the worst. But her mother, Audrey, isn’t so sure, and recounts a family curse that she believes may be responsible. As clues slowly emerge, the search leads Lara into the mysterious world of Le Cirque Secret, where her great-grandmother, Cecile, was said to have performed. Armed with Cecile’s journals, a rare painting of the circus, and a touch of magic herself, Lara’s quest for answers directs her to Paris, where Le Cirque Secret is said to have vanished. There, she encounters a hidden world of dark magic, visible only to those who’ve been given a coveted ticket, as she unravels the haunting and desperate truth behind the journals—and makes a startling discovery of her own.

Equal parts reality and fantasy, The Ladies of the Secret Circus eerily twists modern-day with devils and daemons, detective work with time-shifting carousels, and 1920s Parisian cafés with Ouija boards—all with a circus clown and a monkey for a bit of wry humor. The story traces Lara, with brief glimpses into the past via Cecile’s journals, which personally made it feel more like a modern read, as there wasn’t much in the way of historical detail to feel and explore. Lara takes a little while to get going in the right direction, as does learning all the characters’ names, but once she makes it to Paris the story picks up significantly and concludes with a grand finale that will make your spine tingle. Perfect for fans of Supernatural and Good Omens.

Holly Faur

THE CHOSEN AND THE BEAUTIFUL

Nghi Vo, Tor, 2021, $26.99, hb, 272pp, 9781250784780

If you are excited about the release from copyright of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and the literary progeny expected to spring forth from that seed, you will most likely be thrilled with Vo’s version, replete with dark magic and sexual longings. In this telling of the story, Gatsby has dabbled in the infernal arts and quite possibly sold his soul; partygoers drink demon’s blood in their gin; and Gatsby yearns not for Daisy Buchanan but for her cousin, Nick Carraway—at least that’s his initial ruse. This is a world “dripping with money and magic.”

The story is told from Jordan Baker’s point of view. Jordan in the original was Daisy’s partner in lethargy and ennui. Vo’s Jordan is Asian, queer, and a golf pro with the ability to create living things out of paper. She’s the quintessential outsider, an adoptee who is treated as if she were “pet and doll and charmer” by society rather than a bona fide member. “I existed in a kind of borderland of acceptable and not.” As an outsider, she should have much in common with Gatsby, but she understands that he’s taken his magic too far and that without a soul he has little to offer Daisy.

While the fantastical world depicted here has fascinating facets, such as girls who literally sell their bodies so someone else can temporarily occupy them, these elements seem like so much dressing rather than an intrinsic part of the story. The writing is exquisite, but the plot drifts in places, as Vo attempts to make it her own, making me wonder if the association with Gatsby (as with the characters in the original) isn’t as much curse as blessing.

Trish MacEnulty

MARION LANE AND THE MIDNIGHT MURDER

T. A. Willberg, Park Row, 2020, $27.99, hb, 336pp, 9780778389330 / Trapeze, 2021, £14.99, hb, 336pp, 9781409196631

The Investigators at Miss Brickett’s Investigations and Inquiries, located in the underground tunnels of London, are whispered-about sleuths guarding the city, though whether they’re real or myth depends on who you ask. It’s 1958, and Marion Lane lives with her grandmother, who’d rather see Marion married instead of working in a run-down bookstore. In reality, she’s a firstyear apprentice at Miss Brickett’s. When her mentor is accused of murder, she has only ten days to discover the truth before he’s sent to prison. As her investigation uncovers secrets buried since WWII, Marion questions what’s really going on in the shadows of the agency and whom she can trust.

Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder is a captivating murder mystery that keeps readers guessing. The plot is rich with intrigue and no shortage of suspects. Marion is an intelligent young woman with an affinity for gadgetry and mechanics. The story gives off a steampunk/alternate history vibe, so I didn’t really get a late-1950s feel. There are a few period moments, like objections to a girl wearing men’s trousers instead of a skirt; otherwise, it mostly takes place underground in a world of clockwork sunbirds, trick locks, Time Lighters, and alchemy. The mystery unfolds at just the right pace, with clues adding new layers to the mystery. Marion is also struggling for her own independence as she and her grandmother clash on the direction her life should take. Near the end, the story went a bit darker than I expected. Overall, though, it’s a suspenseful murder mystery set in a mechanically-magical world

of hidden rooms, secret underground tunnels, and shadowy characters.

J. Lynn Else

CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULT

A PLACE TO HANG THE MOON

Kate Albus, Holiday House, 2021, $17.99, hb, 320pp, 9780823447053

Orphans William, Edmund, and Anna have recently lost their only living relative, their grandmother. Because it’s 1940 and the Germans are bombing London nightly, they’ve been evacuated to a rural village, three of thousands of evacuees during the war. The children—aged 12, 11, and 9, respectively—are excited about the possibility of having real parents, ones who love them unconditionally and believe they “hang the moon.” As the eldest, William feels responsible for his siblings, while Anna’s sweetness and love of books are what she hopes will charm a new family. Edmund, though, speaks his mind and seems to get into trouble wherever he goes. Their dreams of family life dissipate soon after their arrival when they are billeted with selfish parents who only care about their own children and, after a prank goes bad, with an overwhelmed, impoverished mother of four children whose father is off fighting. The children find refuge in the library, but the librarian is a pariah in the community, an “unsuitable” influence.

The omniscient narration reflects the values and pace of a different place and time, with language and description that immerse the reader in the World War II home front. The books the children read—the classic histories, adventure tales, and fantasies of the era—are the shoulders this novel stands on as Albus pays homage to the authors of the past. Her novel is an outstanding example of a family story that ends up as a community story, drawing in multiple perspectives as the siblings and the villagers come to work together in the face of crisis and loss. Rooted in the past, this is a perfect story for today.

Lyn Miller-Lachmann

PEACEMAKER

Joseph Bruchac, Dial, 2021, $15.99, hb, 160pp, 9781984815378

Peacemaker is set in North America at some point prior to the arrival of European colonists, possibly in the early 1500s. Okwaho is a young Onondagan boy who left his village of Onontaka with his parents and fourteen other families. They turned their backs on the warfighting life of Onontaka and wanted to live in peace. This earned the rage of their former chief, Atatarho, who wore snakes in his hair and routinely ordered murderous raids against other villages. But now Okwaho’s best friend has been captured by a raiding party, and the villagers wonder if they ever can truly escape wars. Then a stranger named Carries visits Okwaho’s village. Carries brings news of an amazing man, The Peacemaker, who will soon visit their territory. The village is excited at the prospect of peace, but Okwaho still harbors anger at the loss of his friend. Is peace possible?

I truly enjoyed this book and the many Iroquois legends it shares. The stories are fascinating, and I was captivated by the Peacemaker. The idea of a man called the Peacemaker, who cannot be destroyed, convincing five tribes, the Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca, and Onondaga, to turn to peace and unite as the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) is inspiring. The author uses a fictional character, the young Okwaho, and intersperses his story with Iroquois legends to bring a true message of peace for all to this time. The story of Hiawatha is also part of this tale. I especially enjoyed the legend of the Twins and the story of the snake and the frog. This book is recommended for everyone, as the message of peace is universal.

Bonnie DeMoss

STRANGER ON THE HOME FRONT

Maya Chhabra, illus. Eric Freebery, Jolly Fish Press, 2021, $8.99, pb, 138pp, 9781631634871

Stranger on the Home Front begins in California in 1916. When the book opens, Margaret Singh is a carefree schoolgirl whose father is Indian and mother is American. She lives in San Francisco, far from the troubles of war. But after the United States enters the Great War, Margaret’s father is suddenly arrested for his association with the Ghadar Party, a group fighting to free India from British rule. Suddenly, Margaret is looked upon with great suspicion at school, even though she is, in fact, an American. Through it all, Margaret learns to stand up for herself and her beliefs.

This is middle-grade historical fiction that explores racial prejudice in America during World War I. It also teaches the reader about the Ghadar party, a group of Indian immigrants on the U.S. West Coast who supported the Indian overthrow of British rule. Because the Indian independence movement had the support of Germany during World War I, members were looked upon with suspicion and arrested. This led to the Hindu-German Conspiracy Trial. We also learn that German Americans were oppressed and discriminated against, at this time through Margaret’s friend Betty. Margaret’s mother represents the many American women who lost their citizenship between 1907 and 1922 simply for marrying foreign-born men. The author’s note and the timeline at the end of the book provide more interesting facts about this period in history.

This book is part of the I Am America series, which teaches children about overlooked, lost, or forgotten stories in history.

Bonnie DeMoss

MALCOLM AND ME

Robin Farmer, SparkPress, 2020, $16.95, pb, 259pp, 9781684630837

In 1974 Philadelphia, thirteen-year-old Roberta Forest calls Thomas Jefferson a hypocrite for being a slaveowner, and her eighth-grade teacher, Sister Elizabeth, retaliates by telling Roberta to “go back to Africa.” An intelligent and budding writer who idolizes Malcolm X, Roberta begins to question her faith. How could a Catholic nun be a racist? As tensions escalate between her and Sister Elizabeth, Roberta, ever headstrong and outspoken, embraces the Black Power movement to empower the few Black students at her school and to fight the racism of Sister Elizabeth. Roberta’s poetry and diary are tools to help shape her thoughts.

As if the tension in school was not enough, Roberta’s parents are not getting along, although Roberta does not know why, and her mother throws Daddy out. Roberta’s conflicting emotions about her parents— sometimes she hates them, sometimes she loves them—combined with her disillusionment about religion and her questioning of God, are all fodder for her writing. She believes winning a national essay contest can put an end to all her problems, but she experiences setbacks all along the way.

This is an engaging and moving novel, full of realistically drawn characters, good people who are still capable of being imperfect and making mistakes. Through her experiences, Roberta learns that truth is not always “black and white” but is often more complex. She also learns the importance of forgiveness which, ultimately, leads her to become an advocate of social justice and helps her to accept the altered realities of her family life.

This novel is highly recommended.

John Kachuba

OPHIE’S GHOSTS

Justina Ireland, Balzer + Bray, 2021, $16.99, hb, 336pp, 9780062915894

In Georgia in 1922, twelve-year-old Ophie is suddenly awakened by her father, who tells her to get her mother and hide. Although questioning, she obeys. Soon evil men descend on their home. They kill her father and burn Ophie’s home to the ground. That was the night Ophie learned that she could see ghosts. With no justice for her father and nowhere to live, Ophie and her mother take the train to Pittsburgh to live with Aunt Rose. Ophie soon begins working at Daffodil Manor as a maid to the old, biased, and angry Mrs. Caruthers. But the ghosts of the manor know that Ophie can see them, and most of them want to be seen. Ophie grows strong as she adapts to her job and to her abilities. When she starts to investigate a mystery in the old house, she questions the ones who would know the most: the ghosts.

This is a well-written and important book because it teaches middle-grade readers about the horrors and history of racism. Through the savage murder of Ophie’s father, the experiences of some of the ghosts, and the cruel privilege of Mrs. Caruthers, America’s tainted past is explained. Ophie herself is a force of hope as she helps the ghosts move on to the afterlife and shows the truth to those who are still living. Every character, ghost

and living, is well developed and has a story to tell. The point of view is mostly Ophie’s, but the old house, Daffodil Manor, also has a voice, as does the city of Pittsburgh. Aunt Rose serves as a helpful guide to the spirit world in a difficult time. This is a beautiful blend of historical fiction and magical realism that is both awakening and intriguing. Highly recommended.

Bonnie DeMoss

LUCK OF THE TITANIC

Stacey Lee, Putnam, 2021, $18.99/C$24.99, hb, 384pp, 9781524740986

Only Stacey Lee could tie together the Chinese Exclusion Act with the Titanic disaster, which she does with aplomb in her most recent young adult novel.

In April 1912, Chinese-British teenager Valora Luck is denied entry to the RMS Titanic because the Chinese Exclusion Act will prevent the newly orphaned young lady from disembarking in New York. Desperate to reunite with her twin brother, Jamie, who is aboard with other Chinese seamen ultimately bound for Cuba, Valora sneaks aboard. Using a veil to hide her Chinese features, she poses as her recently deceased employer, with whom she was supposed to make the journey in first class. Also on board is an American circus owner. If Valora can convince Jamie to show the circus man the acrobatic acts their late father taught them, maybe they can be allowed into the United States to start a new life. But Jamie proves hard to persuade, and, of course, the Titanic is bound for disaster.

By drawing inspiration from the ship’s eight real-life Chinese passengers (of whom an astounding six survived), Lee has provided a fresh take on the Titanic disaster. And in her usual style, she has used historical examples of racism that could have been drawn from the present. Readers will love Valora’s determination and the colorfast cast of secondary characters. The author’s note at the end tells readers what little is known about the Chinese men who survived the disaster, including how they were shipped away within twenty-four hours of arriving in America.

Luck of the Titanic tells a story of family, luck, and how society judges the value of a human being. As Valora says as she tries to board a lifeboat, “I… say a prayer that a woman who looks like me will still be worth saving.” Highly recommended.

Sarah Hendess

THE PEACEMAKERS

Rebecca Suter Lindsay, Shadeland House Modern Press, 2020, $14.95, pb, 332pp, 9781945049088

Not every Virginian is pleased with the 1861 state referendum that allows Virginia to secede from the Union and join the Confederate States of America. There are many Unionists in the state, notably the people in the mountains of northern Virginia, who break away to form West Virginia. Some Unionists, like fourteen-year-old Emanuel “Manny” Weaver’s Mennonite family, living in the Shenandoah Valley, are pacifists and refuse to serve in the rebel army as they take seriously the biblical commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.”

Even though their faith forbids them to kill, the men in Manny’s family know they are subject to conscription, and they must either hide from the army or serve but not shoot their weapons at other men. Grandfather Weaver is too old to serve, but Father and Uncle Davy are not, and they go into hiding to avoid compromising their religious beliefs. When the two men are eventually rounded up by the rebel army, Manny finds himself trying to work the family farm with Grandfather, little brother Swope, and the female members of the family.

Manny’s life becomes more complicated when Uncle Davy deserts the army and hides back on the family farm, his presence known only to Manny. Keeping his uncle’s secret tests Manny’s sense of honesty, justice, loyalty, and judgment.

Author Lindsay has thoroughly researched Mennonite history during the Civil War and provides a fascinating and insightful look into how these pacifists risked everything to preserve their beliefs. This novel for young readers is highly recommended.

John Kachuba

TEDDY

Laurence Luckinbill, adapted and illus. by Eryck Tait, Dead Reckoning, 2021, $24.95, pb, 168pp, 9781682474877

In their appealing young adult graphic novel, Luckinbill and Tait present the facts of President Theodore Roosevelt’s life in compact form, while conveying the spirt of the man and the times. We see an elderly Roosevelt, now frail, hard of hearing, and partly blind. Addressing a crowd in an auditorium, he looks back contemplatively over his life of action and accomplishments. He recounts his childhood, Harvard education, youthful frailties, love of nature, travel, and romances. Readers learn of his succession of jobs, beginning as a cattleman and ending as President. He consistently fights graft and corruption, often losing battles, and advocates for progressive causes.

Luckinbill portrays Roosevelt’s pride and his occasional humility. Many scenes cover his relationships with his six children. When he is no longer in office and World War I breaks out, he boasts that all his sons went off to fight, bravely. Toward the book’s end, Roosevelt learns that his son Quentin has died, shot down by the Germans. The past president becomes increasingly reflective over the course of the book, in the end admonishing Americans to both have a good time and to do something worthwhile.

Luckinbill wisely focuses on exemplary scenes to convey the breadth and depth of Roosevelt’s life. Teen readers may find the policy issues, covered quickly, remain too complex to grasp, and historians may feel the portrayal skims over empire building. But most readers will find the book an excellent introduction to a fascinating president. Tait’s illustrations are superb, showing movement consistent with the subject. He varies his perspective, sometimes zooming out for wide and aerial views, sometimes zooming in for details.

Marlie Wasserman

VIEW FROM PAGODA HILL

Michaela MacColl, Calkins Creek, 2021, $17.99, hb, 360pp, 9781629797823

Shanghai, 1870. When the matchmaker declares 12-year-old Ning unmarriageable (she’s too tall, has “unnatural” green eyes and unbound feet), Ning’s mother writes to the one person Ning never thought she’d meet: her father. Without a place in China, Ning is sent to America. As she’s shipped off to her grandparents’ home in New York state, she’s given new clothes and a new name, Neenah. Desperate to please her new relatives, Ning/Neenah tries her hardest to fit their expectations. There are strong prejudices particularly surrounding Chinese people during this time, and Ning is torn between pleasing her American grandparents and defending her Chinese heritage. If she displeases her grandparents, will they send her away too?

View from Pagoda Hill is a poignant reflection on a young immigrant girl who always seems to be either too American or too Chinese and never just Ning. Her mother sends her away, her father’s always traveling, so Ning struggles with belonging. Her journey is both heartfelt and impactful. Grandparents Sarah and Erastus Hamill, though married, reminded me strongly of Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert from Anne of Green Gables as they adjust to raising an unexpected young girl. The Chinese and American cultures of the late 1900s are vibrantly explored. Ning’s discoveries of cultural differences were some of my favorite moments as well as the visit to her American ancestors. Only one thing sticks out like a sour note: the overuse of the term “foreign devils,” a term almost every single character used. Otherwise, I was captivated by Ning’s journey, a formidable girl who simply wants to belong to a family. Based on the author’s great-great-grandmother’s incredible tale, MacColl has penned a rich story about overcoming prejudice and finding strength in your differences. Recommended.

J. Lynn Else

CUCKOO’S FLIGHT

Wendy Orr, Pajama Press, 2021, $17.95, hb, 288pp, 9781772781908

Bronze Age Greece. Although Clio should be preparing to follow her mother’s trade of potter, Clio’s passion is horses. But a fall from her beloved mare, Gray Girl, has left her with an injured leg. Since she can no longer ride, her father invents a cart for her to ride in while driving Gray Girl. Driving the horse leads to a meeting with Mika, an outcast orphan who is also obsessed with horses, and the two girls

become friends. While evading her job at the kiln to check on Gray Girl, Clio spots the black ship sailing up the coast: A ship that means raiders intent on claiming the riches of the town’s purple dyeworks and destroying Clio’s home. Clio hastens to warn her town, and the high priestess consults the Oracle, who reveals that a maiden sacrifice will be required. Clio is convinced that she will be the sacrifice, but the gods apparently have other plans for Clio and the townspeople. For to fight off the invaders, the villagers must learn to open their minds and hearts and welcome the slaves at the purple works as equals. Will that be enough to keep their land safe? Or will the invaders triumph?

Set in a convincingly rendered Bronze Age, a setting beautifully woven into the story (pointing out, for instance, that at that time, in that location, fifty people was a large number to be attacking your village!), this is a fine addition to any historical fiction fan’s bookshelf. A story of family, faith, and friendship told in elegant, jewel-bright prose with neither a wasted word nor yet too few, Cuckoo’s Flight is excellent. It led me to the author’s other novels, which are also a delight to read. (Written for 10-14-year-olds, but not limited to that age group.)

India Edghill

ANGEL OF GREENWOOD

Randi Pink, Feiwel & Friends, 2021, $18.99, hb, 304pp, 9781250768476

Angel Hill and Isaiah Wilson have grown up in the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma, the prosperous Black community known until summer 1921 as “Black Wall Street.” They are proud to live in this place of love and achievement built by Black hands. Even so, it isn’t paradise. Politics— particularly between the gradualist strategy of Booker T. Washington and the more radical, society-changing vision of W.E.B. Du Bois— have divided friends and family. Angel supports Washington’s strategy, and to Isaiah, she’s a goody-goody, an easy target for his best friend, Muggy. To Angel, Isaiah is trouble because of his support of Du Bois and his longtime role as Muggy’s sidekick. A project to deliver books to children of Greenwood who still live in poverty brings the two together, but their bond and dreams are tested when the white residents of Tulsa loot and burn, “stealing the work of Greenwood’s hands.”

For those who know the history, the story is tinged with grief; we know what was lost in the hours from May 31 to June 2. But our characters do not. Most of this novel celebrates their love as well as finding their place in the community. Isaiah wants the people to see him as more than Muggy’s best friend, as a poet with pride in his home and big dreams of his own. Angel wants to break out from the limits of her strict churchgoing life, not just through dance but also through these strange new feelings for Isaiah. Their family struggles—Isaiah’s father was killed in World War I and Angel’s father is dying of a mysterious illness—create a compelling personal story within the larger forces that will change their lives.

Lyn Miller-Lachmann

WATER SIGHT

Marie Powell, Wood Dragon Books, 2020, $15.99, pb, 317pp, 9781989078297

Powell’s Last of the Gifted series covers a slice of history already immortalized in Sharon Kay Penman’s Welsh Trilogy and Edith Pargeter’s Brothers of Gwynedd Quartet (both of which she lists as inspirations). In this YA treatment of 13th-century Welsh history, Powell relates the end of the reign of “Llywelyn the Last” and the waning days of Wales’s independence through the eyes of a gifted brother and sister, Hyw and Cat. The teens joined forces in the first volume of the series, Spirit Sight, to channel the spirit of the recently-assassinated Prince Llywelyn and resist the attempts by England’s king, Edward I, to claim the rich Welsh landscape for himself. The second volume picks up as Hyw, a shapeshifter, and Cat, an avatar of the prophetic Morrigan of Celtic myth, try to balance their otherworldly powers with their loyalty to their family and friends. Cat is newly betrothed, and Hyw is struggling to master his Gift; Wales is fragmenting under the English invasion. The dual narratives make for a fast-paced adventure as the English and Welsh factions chase each other around the picturesque mountains and castles of the myth-haunted land that Powell obviously loves.

The series clearly intends to introduce teen readers to the complexities of Welsh mythos, culture, and history, and Powell’s research is front and center. Characterization suffers for this a bit; the need to turn frequently to the character list and glossary might discourage some readers from being invested in the relationships that drive Cat and Hyw to ever more audacious acts of bravery. The Welsh are depicted as uniformly enlightened and humane, which somewhat glosses over the real-life ferocity of life in the borderlands. In particular, the universal approval they express about Hyw’s romantic feelings for his English foster-brother James seems a bit modern, no matter how welcome it is to see such representation in YA historical settings.

Kristen McDermott

ROOT MAGIC

Eden Royce, Walden Pond, 2021, $16.99/ C$21.00/£12.30, hb, 352pp, 9780062899576

Root Magic begins with eleven-year-old Jezebel Turner at her grandmother’s burial in 1963 in the marshy South Carolina Lowcountry, along with her twin, Jay, her mother, and her uncle. The Turners are Gullah, keeping alive the root magic their ancestors brought with them from Africa. That’s fine for Jay, who has plenty of friends at school. For Jez, it’s one more source of being teased. Yet both twins are eager to learn the magic: After all, what middle-school student wouldn’t want to learn magic? Jez in particular has a knack, and as her family is threatened by a racist policeman and strange and threatening incidents, it seems she may need the spells her uncle is teaching.

The Gullah Lowcountry is a perfect setting for this excellent middle-school novel of fantasy and history. Royce introduces magical elements bit by bit, each one believably building on the last—so believably, in fact, that I had no problem believing in the ghostly haints or vampirish boo hag. I was slightly skeptical about a non-racist and decent white sheriff, and I wish there hadn’t been any mention of animal sacrifice.

Still, Jez is a strong and smart protagonist, and her relationship with her brother is alive and well drawn. I stayed up late on a work night reading this book to its end and plan to send it to my middle-school grandchildren.

Kristen Hannum

HOLD BACK THE TIDE

Melinda Salisbury, Scholastic, 2021, $18.99, hb, 384pp, 9781338681314

A remote village in Scotland, many years ago. Alva lives with her father in a cottage beside a loch even more remote than the village. Her father, keeper of the loch, terrifies her because she knows he shot her mother: She heard the four shots and her mother disappeared.

But now, years later, Alva is in her teens planning to leave her father and the eerie loneliness of the loch. She knows the level of the loch is dropping because of the excessive use of water drawn off by Giles Stewart’s mill in the village down the hill. Giles refuses to listen to warnings, partly because of jealousy—he had been in love with Alva’s mother.

But in contrast with the petty jealousies of the village, Alva knows that something far more sinister has been let loose by the loch. During her last night in the cottage, she realizes that she is vulnerable to the unearthly forces that she senses around her. Slowly she understands that not only is she vulnerable in this remote place, but so is the village and so, indeed, is the rest of the world. With her friends Ren and Gavan, she devises a trap to capture one specimen. It is not enough. Soon the village is under siege by other-worldly and under-worldly beings.

This is an engrossing novel for teens (and adults too), loosing supernatural forces from the dark corners of the imagination. Suspense is masterfully handled from the first sentence to the final paragraph. The contrast between the village with its petty snobberies and the stark loneliness of the loch and its horribly evil semi-human denizens is vivid and effective. The author has masterfully revealed a complex concept slowly and unexpectedly. The writing is taut, revealing depths of emotion among the growing horror.

Valerie Adolph

Laura Amy Schlitz, illus. Julia Iredale, Candlewick, 2021, $22.99, hb, 544pp, 9781536201222

Ancient Greece. Melisto is the wild, young daughter of an aristocrat, beloved by her father and abused by her mother. Rhaskos is a Thracian slave taken from his mother while a small child, and set to perform the lowest of labors. For much of the book the connection between the two of them is tenuous: only through Thratta, a slave woman who serves Melisto, and the mother of Rhaskos, now lost to her.

Melisto’s life of privilege and difficulty is told in prose. Before becoming a woman, she is sent to Brauron and schooling that involves sacred female duties and the care of a bear cub. Rhaskos’s life as a slave, first to one master, and then others, is told in verse, with lines abbreviated and spacing erratic. Rhaskos performs menial labor, and is often despised by his masters, but in his heart, he dreams of creating art and pursuing philosophy. But how can he possibly rise above his station? Interspersed through these two narrative streams—which eventually meet— are interludes from the gods Hermes and Artemis, and others such as the philosopher Sokrates. Pencil drawings of pottery sherds, urns, vases, and other archaeological finds are also interspersed.

The book, though daunting in length, includes plenty of white space due to the portions of verse. The story weaves effortlessly around Greek history, communicated through art, the form of the narratives, the interludes, characters such as the famous philosopher Sokrates, and the fascinating details of ancient Greek life. The result is a rare, precious work of historical fiction that educates as much as it entertains. Highly recommended.

Xina Marie Uhl

THE AWAKENING OF MALCOLM X

Ilyasah Shabazz and Tiffany D. Jackson, Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2021, $17.99/C$24.50, hb, 336pp, 9780374313296

At the age of twenty, Malcolm Little was imprisoned for stealing. In first-person narration, Malcolm tells of his time in prison, with flashbacks to memories of his childhood in Michigan and his time in Boston and Harlem before his arrest. For seven years, Malcolm was incarcerated, moving between the brutally run Charleston State Prison and the less restrictive Norfolk Prison Colony. When he first arrives in prison, Malcolm puts together his “hussle,” selling reefer, acting as a bookie, and trying to be cool. A few older prisoners caution him about this behavior, and their guidance reminds him of his father. He feels great shame for who he has become, but he doesn’t know what to do. Slowly, with the help of family and friends, he remembers who he was and who he still might be. His conversion to Islam lifts him up. Through religion and extensive reading, he becomes Malcolm X, the leader.

The Awakening of Malcolm X is a well-crafted novel, written by Malcolm’s daughter Ilyasah Shabazz with the aid of young adult author Tiffany D. Jackson to bring Malcolm X’s story to a new generation. Malcolm is a relatable character for young adults: After the murder of his father and the institutionalization of his mother, he hides his anger and confusion by trying to be cool. This leads him down a dangerous path. His awakening is slow and hard found. An instructive and engaging story, this book models a path of strength and redemption for struggling youth. Highly recommended.

Elizabeth Caulfield Felt

BENI’S WAR

Tammar Stein, Kar-Ben, 2020, $9.99, pb, 280pp, 9781541578876

Beni’s moshav is located just three miles from the Syrian border. When a surprise attack occurs on Yom Kippur, his agricultural cooperative is lucky enough to receive word to evacuate, but sadly, that warning does not come quickly enough.

Tammar Stein’s novel chronicles twelveyear-old Beni’s experiences during the 1973 Yom Kippur War in Israel. This rich tale’s themes of community, family, and hope offer a glimpse into the interdependent communities that made it possible for Jewish people to live in the Golan Heights. Stein uses her knowledge of Israel’s people to create rich characters and touching moments to inspire young readers to define strength as service to others.

Through Beni’s eyes, readers experience the trauma of losing a loved one, the hope necessary to save another, and the understanding that all sides suffer in war. Stein works to humanize both Israeli and Arab soldiers as she navigates the fine line between insight and oversimplification for her young readers. While the protagonist’s understanding of the region grows during this story, he remains innocent and relatively unchanged.

Stein’s story is not a coming-of-age story; it is a coming-together story. Enemies, friends, family, and strangers cooperate to protect human life. Beni learns that love and hope are stronger than fear and grief. I highly recommend this novel for middle-grade readers or anyone who longs for a deep sense of community.

Melissa Warren

EVERYTHING THAT BURNS

Gita Trelease, Flatiron, 2021, $18.99, hb, 400pp, 9781250295552

Trelease’s follow up novel to Enchantée (now retitled All That Glitters) continues her portrayal of a Paris during the French Revolution where magic is a force that some people can wield. Camille, an orphaned young woman who must fight to keep her sister and herself safe, is again the main character. She is an appealing hero, and in this second appearance, she grows into her own as a magician and a woman hard-driven by her belief in social justice. Magicians have always been treated with suspicion, but when the French king uses magicians as a scapegoated “other” to distract the French people from his crimes and lack of revolutionary reforms, being known as a magician becomes deadly. Those whom Camille loves most beg her to forsake magic, but she must decide if that means giving up who she is. There’s a well-done romantic thread that reinforces the novel’s theme of nurturing dreams of a better world.

Trelease combines an exciting plot and well-rounded characters with a skillful style that brings Revolutionary France alive. The interweaving of social themes, description, and action is beautifully demonstrated at the beginning when the reader watches an impoverished flower seller navigating a dangerous world. Her flowers, kept fresh on stolen ice, offer an illusion, and in that description, Trelease introduces the novel’s world: “passersby couldn’t help but think of a dewy garden…A place where trouble and striving didn’t exist… there were no bakers strung up from lampposts for the crime of running out of bread… There were no grain shortages or rumors of aristocratic plots…no beggars or bloodthirsty magicians. Amid the revolutionary chaos of Paris, this was no small illusion.” This is a delightful historical fantasy with plenty of food for thought accompanying its fun.

Judith Starkston

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).

© 2021, the Historical Novel Society, ISSN: 1471-7492 | Issue 96, May 2021