Historical Novels Review | Issue 113 (August 2025)

HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW

AUGUST 2025 ISSUE 113

GREECE & ROME

Mythology, Legends, and Novels | More on page 8

FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE

...

Hope & the Happy Land

Two New Post-Civil War Historical Novels

Page 10

For Queen & Country

The Espionage Fiction of C.P. Giuliani

Page 12

Late Bloomer

Karen Cushman's HF for Children & YA

Page 12

The Girl from Greenwich Street

Lauren Willig on the Manhattan Well Murder

Page 14

An Overlooked Story

Linda McQuaig's The Road to Goderich

Page 15

Historical Fiction Market News

Page 1

New Voices

Page 4

History & Film

Page 6

HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW

ISSN 1471-7492

Issue 113, August 2025 | © 2025 The Historical Novel Society

PUBLISHER

Richard Lee

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

EDITORIAL BOARD

Managing Editor: Bethany Latham

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

Book Review Editor: Sarah Johnson

Booth Library, Eastern Illinois University, 600 Lincoln Avenue, Charleston, IL 61920 USA <sljohnson2@eiu.edu>

Publisher Coverage: Bethany House; Bookouture; HarperCollins, IPG; Penguin Random House US; Severn House; Australian presses; university presses

Features Editor: Lucinda Byatt

13 Park Road, Edinburgh, EH6 4LE UK <textline13@gmail.com>

New Voices Column Editor: Myfanwy Cook

47 Old Exeter Road, Tavistock, Devon PL19 OJE UK <myfanwyc@btinternet.com>

REVIEWS EDITORS, UK

Ben Bergonzi

<bergonziben@gmail.com>

Publisher Coverage: Birlinn/Polygon; Bloomsbury UK; Duckworth Overlook; Faber & Faber; Granta; HarperCollins UK; Head of Zeus; Orenda; Pan Macmillan; Simon & Schuster UK; Storm; Swift Press

Alan Fisk

<alan.fisk@alanfisk.com>

Publisher Coverage: Aardvark Bureau; Black and White; Bonnier Zaffre; Crooked Cat; Freight; Gallic; Honno; Karnac; Legend; Pushkin; Oldcastle; Quartet; Saraband; Seren; Serpent’s Tail

Ann Lazim

<annlazim@googlemail.com>

Publisher Coverage: All UK children’s historicals

Aidan Morrissey

<aidankmorrissey@gmail.com>

Publisher Coverage: Allison & Busby; Canelo; Penguin Random House UK; Quercus

Adele Wills

<adele.wills@btinternet.com>

Publisher Coverage: Alma; Atlantic; Canongate; Glagoslav; Hachette UK; Pen & Sword; The History Press

REVIEWS EDITORS, USA

Tracy Barrett

<tracy.t.barrett@gmail.com>

Publisher Coverage: All North American children's historicals

Kate Braithwaite

<kate.braithwaite@gmail.com>

Publisher Coverage: Poisoned Pen Press; Skyhorse; Sourcebooks; and Soho

Bonnie DeMoss

<bonnie@historicalnovelsociety.org>

Publisher Coverage: North American small presses

Peggy Kurkowski

<pegkurkowski@gmail.com>

Publisher Coverage: Bellevue; Blackstone; Bloomsbury; Casemate; Macmillan (all imprints); Grove/Atlantic; and Simon & Schuster (all imprints)

Janice Ottersberg

<jkottersberg@gmail.com>

Publisher Coverage: Amazon Publishing; Europa; Guernica; Hachette; Kensington; Pegasus; and W.W. Norton

REVIEWS EDITORS, INDIE

Karen Bordonaro

<kbordonaro@historicalnovelsociety.org>

Publisher Coverage: all self- and subsidy-published novels

EDITORIAL POLICY & COPYRIGHT

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

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

MEMBERSHIP DETAILS

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

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

Brigitte Dale, Martha Jean

& Emma Pei

HISTORICAL FICTION MARKET NEWS

HNS UPDATES

Indie reviews editor J. Lynn Else is stepping down after four years in the role; HNS extends thanks for her work coordinating the reviews of hundreds of indie-published historical novels and bringing them to readers’ attention. We’re also welcoming Karen Bordonaro as the incoming reviews editor for indie titles. Karen is Librarian Emeritus at Brock University in Canada and has written three nonfiction books and numerous articles. She has been reviewing for HNR since 2023 and has great interest in supporting indie-published historical fiction.

NEW BOOKS BY HNS MEMBERS

Congrats to everyone who sent in details on their new books! If you’ve written a historical novel or nonfiction work published (or to be published) in April 2025 or after, send the following details to me at sljohnson2@eiu.edu by October 7: author, title, publisher, release date, and a blurb of one sentence or less. Please shorten your blurbs down to one sentence, as space is limited. Details will appear in the November 2025 issue of HNR. Submissions may be edited.

Despite its mean title, White Hell by Sean Tyler (Level Best/Historia, Jan. 21) is a love story at heart... though one loosely based on the Donner Party.

In Julie L. Brown’s Bend, Don’t Break (JAB Press, Feb. 4), drawing strength from the memory of their ancestor, Aisha, a slave born free on the west coast of Africa, seven generations of Black women across the sweep of American history will do anything to succeed—and will do even more to protect their daughters.

In The Price of Eyes (Scotland Street Press, Feb. 14), fourth and final book in Janet McGiffin’s historically accurate series about the 8thcentury Byzantine Empress Irini of Athens, the powerful empress tricks her emperor son into releasing her from house arrest and returning her to the throne of Constantinople, where she manipulates him into divorcing and exiling his wife and daughters, leading to civil war and war between mother and son where neither can survive.

Born to Trouble (Independently published, Feb. 27), book 4 in Regan Walker’s The Clan Donald Saga, tells the story of Alexander of Islay, Lord of the Isles and Earl of Ross, who triumphed over a deceitful king to become one of Scotland’s ruling lords in the 15th century.

House of Farrell by Robert M. O’Brien (Amazon, Feb. 27) is a powerful historical novel telling the story of four generations of the Farrell family, from the horrors of the Irish Potato Famine to the violence and corruption of the Greenwich Village waterfront and into the reaches, high and low, of Tammany Hall.

Charlotte Whitney’s A Tiny Piece of Blue (She Writes Press, Feb. 18) is a heartwarming novel following a homeless girl as she struggles to survive during the Great Depression while setting the traditions of rural Michigan against a backdrop of thievery, bribery, and child trafficking—a suspenseful yet tender tale.

Pawnee Prisoner: The Story of Jane Gotcher Crawford (Booklocker. com, Feb. 20) by Vivian McCullough is based on the true story of courage, determination and survival in 1830s Texas when the widow of an Alamo defender is taken captive along with three children.

In 1904 London, as unrest brews and a lord mysteriously vanishes from a gentleman’s club, young Prime Minister Felix Grey must confront buried secrets and mounting conspiracy to save a nation on the brink in Mario Theodorou’s Felix Grey and the Descendant (Neem Tree Press, Mar. 6).

A war-torn country lies between Eloise of Dahlquin, and Roland, the Lord of Ashbury At-March, as they try to make their way back to each other, navigating a political landscape fraught with intrigue and betrayal; one threat is vanquished, but others loom in the shadows in Anne M. Beggs’ By Arrow and Sword, Book Two of the Dahlquin Series (Self-published, Mar. 21).

Lady of the Quay by Amanda Roberts (Independently published, Apr. 22), first in the Isabella Gillhespy Series, takes place in 1560, in Berwick-upon-Tweed, northern England; after the unexpected death of her father, Isabella Gillhespy finds herself facing financial ruin and trying to prove she is innocent of crimes that would threaten her freedom, if not her life.

In his quest to make gold, an alchemist in 1352 London seeks the Key to the Philosopher’s Stone and, ultimately, divinity—a pursuit considered to be blasphemy in the eyes of the Church, in Through the Lion’s Gate, A Medieval Tale of Intrigue and Transmutation by Stuart Balcomb (Amphora Editions, May 1).

Unfamiliar Territory (mks publishing, May 3) by Mary Smathers is the gripping story of one woman’s journey through Gold Rush California to find her son, and herself.

At once an intimate love story and a multigenerational family drama inspired by a trove of politically charged, passionate love letters sent to his mother, Robert Kehlmann’s The Rabbi’s Suitcase (Koëhlerbooks, May 6) recounts his family’s 50-year migration odyssey from 1880s Lithuania to Ottoman, then Mandatory Palestine, to Depression-era America.

Jane Loeb Rubin’s Over There (Level Best/Historia, May 27), the third installment of the Gilded City trilogy, immerses readers in the gripping journey of four family members from Threadbare and In the Hands of Women, all dedicated doctors and nurses facing the daunting realities of The Great War.

Roger Hunt’s first novel, Vindicta (Troubadour, May 28), based closely on events of 1808/9, tells the remarkable story of a Scottish Benedictine monk who is sent on a secret mission to Germany.

A Tiger in the Garden by India Edghill (Talitho Press, June 1) is a sweeping tale of romance and politics set in the splendor of Victorian India.

In December 1971, as the Bangladesh War of Liberation faces its critical final battles, Doctor Meena struggles against the forces that threaten to undermine her commitment to the people she serves, as the full force of an army is unleashed against her and her community in the novel Niramaya: A Female Medic’s War Journey by Sean C. Ward (Troubador, June).

Enter the world of the 16th-century “Border Reivers” and ride with Fingerless Will Nixon as he carves his legend into the hills of

Scotland’s Borderlands in The Legend of Fingerless Will Nixon: The Scottish Borderlands 1508-1509 by Richard Nixon (Amazon KDP, June 5).

In Daughter of Mercia by Julia Ibbotson (Archbury Books, June 6), medievalist Dr Anna Petersen is called to an archaeological dig to investigate mysterious runes on a seax hilt, but becomes fascinated by the strange burial of a 6th-century body alongside that of modern remains, setting off a chain of events where past and present collide.

Set against the backdrop of the French & Indian War, Passion’s Duty (Wheel Horse Press, June 17), by RWA Historical Romance Diamond Heart finalist, Lizzie Jenks, is a tale of duty and desire on New York’s wild frontier.

A Cruel Corpse (Holand Press, June 26), the first published novel of Reviews Editor Ben Bergonzi, takes place in Carlisle, northern England in 1747; a rebellion has been put down, but trouble persists for two soldiers in the government army: Jasper Greatheed is a man with a secret – as a ‘molly’ he could be hanged for sodomy; his friend is also living a lie – and Private Hayden Gray is in fact a woman, Grace Hayden. Their secrets unsuspected until now, they are part of the city garrison; when a vicious sergeant is murdered, Hayden comes under sharp suspicion, for her only alibi will wreck her masquerade, and if she is exposed, as her ‘dresser’ Jasper will also soon be unmasked. They set out to find the sergeant’s real murderer before time runs out – after all, the officer who is leading the official investigation has reason to hate Hayden.

Set in 1957 and 2018 Hollywood and Carmel-by-the-Sea, Meg Waite Clayton’s Typewriter Beach (Harper, July 1) is the story of an unlikely friendship between Leo and Iz—an Oscar-nominated screenwriter and a young actress whose studio intends to make her the new Grace Kelly if she can toe the line—and, sixty years later, a mysterious manuscript Leo’s granddaughter finds in a hidden safe in his Carmel cottage.

In Cathie Hartigan’s The Luthier’s Promise (Independently published, July 9), it’s 1595; Will promises to bring the celebrated, but wayward musician, John Dowland, safely home from Italy, but when love delays them, it is not only Will’s promise that’s in jeopardy, but also their lives.

In Catherine Kullmann’s latest Regency novel, Lord Frederick’s Return (Willow Books, July 22), after 18 years in India, Lord Frederick Danlow returns to England, where his plans to find a wife and make a home for himself and his motherless daughter are disrupted by a huge family scandal.

In Secretary to the Socialite by Amanda McCabe (Oliver Heber Books, July 22), set in the glittering world of mid-century America, Millicent Rogers is a woman ahead of her time—Standard Oil heiress, fashion icon, patron of the arts, wife, mother, lover—but behind the scenes, she harbors secrets of ill health and loneliness that only one person knows: her secretary Violet Redfield.

There’s comedy and tragedy in The Players Act 1: All the World’s a Stage by NYT bestselling author Amy Sparkes (Sword and Fiddle Publishing, July 29), in which a down-on-their-luck troupe of strolling players have one last chance to save their failing theatre company.

In When the Blues Come Calling (Level Best/Historia, Sept.), the fifth in Skye Alexander’s Lizzie Crane Jazz Age mystery series, it’s June 1926 in New York City; jazz singer Lizzie Crane is about to make her first record when the head of the recording company is poisoned by a drug used to treat syphilis, trapping her in a tangled web of music

industry chicanery and hidden agendas.

Julie A. Swanson’s North of Tomboy (SparkPress, Sept. 2) is a middlegrade novel set in 1973 about a child who feels more boy than girl and is frustrated that people act blind to that when—except for her stupid hair and clothes—it should be obvious!

The Nightingale of Bath by Thomas Messel (Aëdon, Sept. 8), set in late 18th-century England, follows the true life of celebrated singer Elizabeth Linley, who scandalises society by eloping with Richard Brinsley Sheridan, but manages to survive a turbulent marriage by championing the radical politics of the Whig party and the Prince of Wales’s Regency bid, before escaping to find love with the Irish revolutionary Lord Edward FitzGerald.

Angela Shupe’s In the Light of the Sun (WaterBrook, Oct. 7) is WWIIera historical fiction that follows the stories of two sisters, one in the Philippines and one in Italy, who find themselves caught up in the secrets, devastation, and intrigues of war – inspired by the true wartime experiences of the author’s mother and aunt, and by the life of her great-grandmother, who performed with Gran Compania de Opera Italiana.

From backstage to centre stage and theatres of war, Dance of the Earth by Anna M. Holmes (The Book Guild, Oct.) is a sweeping family saga set against the backdrops of London’s gilded Alhambra music hall, Diaghilev’s dazzling Ballets Russes, and the upheavals of the First World War, as Rose and her children, Nina and Walter, pursue their ambitions, loves, and dreams.

The Great Forgotten by K. L. Murphy (CamCat Books, Nov. 4) is the gripping tale of a little-known American disaster, the five men whose lives became intertwined that fateful day, and the woman who knew them all.

In Winterfylleth War: The Song of Artemis Book Two by Laura Gwendolyn Hill (Otterbeck Press, Dec.), Artemis is oath sworn to protect a princess; can she keep her safe when conflict between two kings turns their world upside down?

NEW PUBLISHING DEALS

Sources include authors and publishers, Publishers Weekly, Publishers Marketplace, The Bookseller, and more. Email me at sljohnson2@eiu. edu to have your publishing deal included. You may also submit news via the Contact Us form on the HNS website.

Author of Light to the Hills Bonnie Blaylock’s The Water Women, about mothers passing down to their daughters not only the skills of the ancient art of weaving sea silk in Sardinia, but generous love, deep pain of loss, and the freedom to be oneself, sold to Nancy Holmes at Lake Union Publishing for publication in summer 2026.

Songs of the Dead Road by Carolyn Newton, a sweeping saga that takes a shy piano prodigy, Ján Balik, from Polish high society in 1939 to the deprivations of Soviet prisons and the frozen outreaches of Siberia, and who, over decades of loss, composes elegant melodies to heal others’ pain while keeping his own trauma a secret, sold to Bloodhound Books (UK) for publication in February 2026.

The Cleopatra Code by Michelle Moran, a dual-timeline story set in the early 20th century and ancient Egypt, in which a brilliant female codebreaker and archaeologist discovers that Cleopatra’s sister’s writings are key to cracking enemy ciphers nearly 2000 years later, changing the course of World War I, sold to Susanna Porter at

Ballantine by Kevan Lyon at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.

Shreya Ila Anasuya’s debut novel The Poison Palace, which looks at the myth of Alexander the Great through a feminist, Indian, queer lens, in which a young woman trained as a poisoner travels from India with her childhood friend to destroy the man threatening her homeland, sold to Tilda Key, fiction publisher at Sphere.

Rose & Renzo by Carolyn O’Brien, following a genteel and creativeminded young woman in the interwar era who finds herself living in Little Italy in Manchester, England, and gets involved in the antifascist movement there, sold to James Keane at Northodox Press for spring 2026 publication.

Manpreet Grewal, publisher at Juniper, HarperCollins UK’s new literary fiction imprint, acquired UK/Commonwealth (excluding Canada) rights to Fauzia Musa’s The Strangling Fig, a multigenerational saga and ghost story about Partition’s longlasting impact on one Muslim family in India, Pakistan, and the US, via agent Laurie Robertson at PFD.

American Nightmare, post-WWI-set fiction by Kelly McWilliams, about a young Black man, haunted by his best friend’s ghost, and hired by the NAACP to investigate lynchings in the South by passing as a white man, inspired by the life of civil rights activist Walter White, sold to Shannon Criss at Crown for fall 2026 publication by Michael Bourret at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret.

North American rights to Paula McLain’s next novel, Skylark, the intertwined stories of a young female artist seeking independence in 17th-century Paris and a medical student in WWII-era occupied Paris, sold to Peter Borland at Atria via Julie Barer at The Book Group, for publication in 2026.

Sofia Robleda’s The Other Moctezuma Girls, revealing the comingof-age love story about the last Aztec empress’s daughter, who undertakes a journey with two siblings after their mother’s death to discover her true will, sold to Alexandra Torrealba at Amazon Crossing via Johanna Castillo at Writers House.

OTHER NEW & FORTHCOMING TITLES

For forthcoming novels through mid-2026, please see our guides, compiled by Fiona Sheppard:

https://historicalnovelsociety.org/guides/forthcoming-historicalnovels/

COMPILED BY SARAH JOHNSON

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

NEW VOICES

Debut novelists Brigitte Dale, Martha Jean Johnson, Sarah Landenwich, and Emma Pei Yin introduce readers to mysterious and intriguing characters and moments in history.

Brigitte Dale, author of The Good Daughters (Pegasus, 2025), first saw suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst’s name on a list of historical figures her high school teacher provided for an optional research presentation.

Dale explains: “In a crammed AP curriculum that focused almost exclusively on male figures in European history, Pankhurst was one of the few non-royal, regular women I had the chance to learn about. I soon discovered, though, that she was anything but ordinary. A woman who led marches of 250,000 suffragettes through London! Who traveled the world and went to jail and put her life on the line for the right to vote!

“I was so excited to present my research on Pankhurst to my classmates, until a blizzard blew in and school was cancelled. When we returned, the research projects were abandoned; we were racing to finish the AP curriculum, and unfortunately, Emmeline Pankhurst and the suffragettes were among the many women and people of color deemed not a priority by the test-makers. I never got to tell my classmates all I’d learned, and I felt the injustice of this erasure.”

It was a few years later, she says, that “my college class on women’s history reintroduced me to Pankhurst and her Women’s Social and Political Union. By then, I was fascinated with the suffragettes whose motto, ‘Deeds Not Words,’ exemplified their commitment to breaching the traditional bounds of Victorian propriety in order to make their bodies the site of their activism, engaging in public marches, protests, prison sentences, and hunger strikes in their efforts to win the right to vote.”

Dale was in graduate school when she first considered transforming her historical research into fiction. “In prison, women often endured

terrible conditions, lacking the rights of political prisoners, and suffering hunger strikes and forced feedings. I found it compelling that there were women on both sides of the bars—not just the incarcerated suffragettes, but also the women working in the notorious Holloway Prison. I realized I wanted to tell the story of both those groups of women, and how their lives would intersect. This felt like my chance, finally, to tell the suffragettes’ story to a wider audience.”

As Dale points out, “There was significant stigma associated with the word ‘suffragette,’ which was originally an insult to belittle women activists, though later reclaimed as a term of pride. I wanted to explore the lives of women from all different backgrounds for whom associating with the suffragette campaign represented a great risk and also, ultimately, meaningful freedom and empowerment. My characters are aristocrats and working class, ex-pats and students. They represent the real diversity of the movement, and the different kinds of sacrifices these women had to make.”

The academic research she carried out helped her to populate the world of 1910s London with accuracy. “But ultimately, writing this as fiction helped me understand the suffragettes on an emotional level. Their story is not just political—and more relevant than ever— but it’s about friendship, chosen family, and incredible perseverance. Women’s stories should never be relegated to the footnotes of history, and I’m gratified that through fiction, I am able to shine a light on the story of the suffragettes.”

The idea for Sarah Landenwich’s The Fire Concerto (Union Square, 2025) started several years ago. “I had the idea to write a story about three female pianists—one in the 19th century, one in the early 20th, and one in modern times—connected by their pedagogical lineage. I have a background in classical piano. This idea of ‘musical ancestry,’ tracing the line of teachers from which you descend, was familiar to me from the musical world, but I had never seen it explored in literature.”

At its first conception, Landenwich “thought the novel would be a braided narrative,” she relates. However, she “quickly realized that a book with three different time periods and three separate stories would be too long to ever get published. So, I started searching for a different way to tell the story. One of my favorite books is A. S. Byatt’s masterful novel Possession.” She studied Byatt’s structure—the scholars in the present investigating a thrilling mystery of the past through texts and historic artifacts and thought she would write the Possession of classical music.

“I began working on The Fire Concerto in earnest at a time of incredible personal upheaval. I had just become a mother and had also developed some concerning neurological symptoms that led to a difficult year of doctor’s visits and an anxious search for a diagnosis. Holding the desperate love I had for my baby alongside the fear that there may be a future when I couldn’t care for her was heartbreaking. I’m happy to say that I am now completely recovered, but it was an existential time, to say the least. I wrote all of those feelings into the lives of my characters, many of whom suffer from an injury or condition that prevents them from pursuing the life they wish to live.”

For Landenwich there is “an aphorism in writing that you must write the novel only you can write. I don’t know if I necessarily believe in it. But I do think this book is a unique outgrowth of me. I bear no resemblance to the characters or their experiences, but my own passions, interests, heartbreak, and hope are on every page.”

Brigitte Dale

Sarah Landenwich Emma Pei Yin

Martha Jean Johnson

Photo credit: Callalily Studios

Photo credit: Chelsea Mazur

Photo credit: Chelsea Mazur © 2024 Kannika Afonso

Like countless others, Martha Jean Johnson, author of The Queen’s Musician (SparkPress, 2025), has been fascinated by Anne Boleyn since she was young. “Henry VIII adored her, and then, incredibly, she ousted the reigning queen. A few years later—after she ‘fails’ to give birth to a son—the king decides to have her killed.” These events, Johnson stresses, “changed history,” but adds, “There’s also a human mystery here. How did the king’s love turn into hate? Was any other ending possible? Historians and Anne Boleyn’s considerable fan base still wrestle with these questions.”

The Anne Boleyn story is, for Johnson, “one of kings and queens, dynastic families, international rivalries, and powerful, titled individuals. But at the center of the drama was a young man from a poor family, a popular musician but nothing more.

“Mark Smeaton was one of Henry VIII’s favorite players. Historical records document the gifts and honors he received from the king. Anne Boleyn’s brother gave him a book, and the musician wrote his name in it ... Suddenly, he was taken to Thomas Cromwell’s house and accused of being Anne Boleyn’s lover. He confessed—a confession that was almost certainly coerced. Two days before Anne Boleyn’s execution, he was beheaded, probably at the age of twentythree or twenty-four.”

This handful of facts prompted both Johnson’s curiosity and sympathy, “How did this young musician rise to what must have been the height of success in his day? What was he like? How did he become entangled in Henry VIII’s machinations? What is it like to be falsely accused and have no means to defend yourself? What is it like to lose all you have worked for in the space of a single night and day?”

Johnson feels that “compared to others in this saga, Mark Smeaton seems more like most of us.” She explains: “He’s the commoner, the employee, the one who tried to better himself. He wasn’t powerful. No one addressed him as ‘sir’ or ‘my lord’. He was only talented. I wanted to imagine and tell his story.”

When Sleeping Women Wake (Ballantine/Quercus, 2025) by Emma Pei Yin, “began the same way a low tide pulls back before a storm,” says the author. “It started with my grandfather’s voice, matter-offact and unadorned, recounting his childhood during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. I was a child myself then, sitting beside him in the courtyard of our ancestral home in Tai Wo, half-listening as he spoke of soldiers and scarcity, of hunger and hiding, of neighbours who disappeared. I listened, not because I understood, but because I loved him. It wasn’t until much later that I realised the

grief braided into his stories.

“I lived in Hong Kong during high school, and I moved through the city like it was any other modern place—past the pillboxes hidden across the New Territories, past military tunnels half-swallowed by banyan roots. I rode buses through Wanchai, not knowing the same roads once rumbled with army convoys. I walked through Kowloon and Central, past colonial buildings that had once held prisoners. These places, that were folded into daily life, were so ordinary to me then, unremarkable almost.”

But when Yin began writing this novel, “the past came to life. Every street corner became charged with historical memory, and I saw it all differently. I saw what had been endured.

"My grandfather is Hakka and always spoke with pride about the East River Column, where many resistance fighters emerged from villages like ours. But it was the silence of my grandmother that stayed with me. She was a baby during the war, too young to remember, yet she lived in its long shadow. She never told stories, and I began to wonder what her silence held.” It was at that point that, for Yin, “that wondering became a novel.”

When Sleeping Women Wake is Yin’s “attempt to give voice to those who endured quietly,” she says, “especially women whose histories were rarely recorded. I wanted to honour their survival—not through spectacle, but through care, through persistence, through love held amidst fear. Writing this book was not just an act of imagination. It was a homecoming. And a long overdue listening and acknowledging of family stories.”

WRITTEN BY MYFANWY COOK

Myfanwy Cook is an Associate University Fellow. She creates HF writing workshops and is currently engaged in highlighting the 200th anniversary of passenger rail transport in the UK. Contact (myfanwyc@btinternet.com) if you uncover debut novelists you would like to see showcased

HISTORY & FILM

The Devil You (Might) Know: Sinners

I love horror movies, especially the classic Hammer or Universal horror films featuring the likes of Christopher Lee and Bela Lugosi. My Saturday evenings are usually spent watching campy flicks like Dracula’s Daughter or Curse of the Werewolf. For me, the best ones have great origin stories explaining the monster’s motivations.

Horror is such an intriguing genre! Monsters drive the exploration of taboo topics. Vampires serve as a metaphor for sex. Frankenstein deals with science gone awry. Mummies and ghosts speculate on life after death. Werewolves are all about the wild and untamed beasts dwelling within us all. Horror is a safe space to experience these things, which is why I love Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. The movie’s horror flows organically from the historical context in which it is set. Neither overshadows the other. And with a variation of the monster’s motivation, a fresh new take on vampire films emerges.

Horror flicks written, directed, produced, and/or featuring Black actors are gaining traction. Though I’m not a fan of the blaxploitation films of the 1970s, Blackula, starring the late Willam Marshall (who also happens to hail from my hometown of Gary, Indiana) is a horror favorite. Aside from the awe of seeing a Black vampire, the origin story was different: Mamuwalde, an African prince, and his bride visit Count Dracula to stop the slave trade in the 1700s. Dracula, of course, refuses, and turns Mamuwalde into a vampire. The rest of the story takes place in then-contemporary Los Angeles, following the same premise of the vampire eating his way through the populace while seeking to reunite with the reincarnation of his lost love.

Black horror also tends to skew a bit to societal issues affecting Black people that are almost as terrifying as the monsters shown on the screen. Count Dracula in Blackula is not only a vampire, he’s also a slave trader. Sinners uses the vampire genre as the canvas to address both fictional and societal horrors.

Sinners is the story of Elijah and Elias Moore, infamously known as the Smokestack Twins (one is called Smoke; the other is Stack) in their hometown of Clarksdale, Mississippi. It is set in 1932 during Prohibition, the Great Depression, and the Great Migration, the time when many Black Americans left the Jim Crow South to find opportunities in the north and west. My grandparents did the same,

leaving for midwestern steel mills. The Clarksdale depicted in the film, according to friends, is just as their grand- and great-grandparents described: barefoot and pregnant sharecroppers picking cotton under a blazing sun. Blues music and attending church, salves for the farmers’ souls and spirits. Automobiles and horse-drawn wagons crowd the wide dusty road in town. And of course, there’s the Klan. The Smokestack Twins did the opposite, returning south after a stint in Chicago, and laden with a suspiciously large supply of money and booze. Better to be around the devil you know, the twins offer, as the reason why they came back. Their goal: make money using liquor stolen from the Mob to open a juke joint. With a suitcase full of money, the twins purchase a sawmill from a white man (with a promise to shoot any of his Klansmen friends who cross onto their property). Then Smoke and Stack get to work. They employ an ensemble of friends and family to assist with the set up, including their cousin, Preacher Boy, who longs to leave the South for a chance to play the blues on a guitar he believes belonged to the twins’ deceased father.

Both Smoke and Stack are played by Michael B. Jordan (Creed, Black Panther) who successfully delineates the two on the screen through costuming (one is accessorized in red while the other dons blue), demeanor, and speech. Smoke presents as the leader and older brother whose mind is set on business and protecting his foolhardy twin. When some of the sharecroppers in the juke can only pay with wooden nickels, Smoke insists on cold hard cash. Stack, on the other hand, is the slick-talking one with a smile on his face and a ready quip on his lips. He tempers his brother’s anger about the wooden nickels, reminding him that the farmers need this brief respite from the cotton fields.

The twins’ disparate personalities are defined by their interactions with the people they collect for the juke. Smoke demonstrates his business savvy when he teaches a young girl to negotiate over how much he should pay her for watching his truckload of booze. He haggles over prices with the Chows, a Chinese-American family who run a couple of general stores in town. Without a second thought and in full view of onlookers, Smoke shoots two men attempting to steal his truck. His tough exterior cracks just a bit when he reunites with Annie, a Hoodoo practitioner and the mother of his deceased child, who agrees to fry fish at the juke.

In a different part of town, Stack and Preacher Boy secure the labor for transforming the mill. Veteran actor Delroy Lindo plays Delta Slim, a hard-drinking blues musician who agrees to join them in exchange for a bottle of ice cold beer and a promise of more. Stack’s jocular personality and dirty innuendos scare up a few more hands from the fields to clean and set up the place. Stack is also avoiding heartbroken Mary, a married white woman whose half-Black mother cared for the twins after their mother died. Just like with Smoke, Stack’s interaction with Mary shows the audience a different, more serious side of him: he struggles with shunning the woman he loves in order to protect her from those violently opposed to interracial relationships at the time.

A brief interlude between the preparation and opening of the juke joint introduces the audience to Remmick the vampire. As the sun begins to set, his smoldering body drops from the sky like a lead balloon in front of a cabin in the middle of nowhere. He begs the cabin’s inhabitants to save him from a group of Choctaw vampire hunters. When the hunters subsequently arrive at the cabin, their warning to not let the stranger in is too late. With this, some vampire lore

is retained. The vampires can’t be in sunlight. They must be invited inside. Their bite/saliva turns their victims into vampires. The difference in this iteration is that blood is not what draws Remmick and his two new converts to the juke. It’s Preacher Boy.

In what I believe to be the most mesmerizing part of the film, the blues Preacher Boy plays summons the spirits of musical ancestors. Shadows of African drummers, old school hip-hop artists, Chinese folk and Native American tribal dancers appear among the juke’s patrons. But Preacher Boy’s power also summons the vampires. Remmick is a collector of memories and talents. His desire to possess Preacher Boy’s musical gift is a nod to the historical appropriation, and at times outright theft, of Black music. When the twins heed Annie’s warning and refuse entry to the vampires, Remmick uses his Irish background (though there are some hints that he is a much older vampire) to try and convince everyone they are on the same side when it comes to American oppression: the enemy of my enemy is my friend, so to speak. Yet it is one twin’s weakness that ushers the monsters inside.

rubbed elbows with the Chicago Outfit, alluding to the provenance of their suitcase full of money and truckload of quality booze, not the cheap stuff brewed in bathtubs at the time. Their devilish reputation precedes them. But there are reasons for their actions, and the audience feels justified in rooting for their redemption and/ or success, even before the vampires arrive. Much like the George Clooney character from Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Til Dawn, the Smokestack Twins come into the movie with heavy baggage and then become the heroes needed to fight off the actual evil in the movie. Whether or not that evil is solely the vampires is debatable.

Surprisingly– or maybe not– the title of the movie applies to more than just the vampires and the Klan, who make their expected appearance near the end of the film. Preacher Boy eschews joining his father in the pulpit (hence his nickname) for a chance to play at the juke. Delta Slim is an affable alcoholic. Pearline, who caught Preacher Boy’s eye, and Mary cheat on their husbands in the back rooms of the juke. Bo Chow is insinuated as a gambler.

With all that, can the term antihero can be applied to the Smokestack Twins? Antiheroes are deeply flawed main characters we’re supposed to root for. They straddle the line between right and wrong. In their minds, the ends justify the wicked means they are engaged in to accomplish their goal. But the dirt the twins are known for happens off-screen and in their past. The audience is led to believe the twins are bad, that there is an ulterior motive to opening the juke joint. But without spoiling the movie, I wonder whether the ending makes them good or still bad, but justified.

The Smokestack Twins aren’t completely bad, though. The pair served in World War I. Given their actions near the end of the movie, they couldn’t have been cooks or truck drivers, roles Black soldiers were mostly relegated to. Though it’s not mentioned in the film, I like to think the twins were Harlem Hellfighters, the 369th Infantry Regiment of the New York National Guard who spent more time on the front lines than any other American regiment during the war. Henry Johnson, a real-life Harlem Hellfighter, was one of the first African-Americans to earn France’s highest award for valor, and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. I wonder if Smoke’s confrontation with the Klan is an homage to Johnson and the Hellfighters. Or maybe I’m trying to impute some goodness onto them.

But that’s just one bright spot. The twins killed their father. They

Given the time period and setting of Sinners, there is a lot of history and themes to unpack that can’t fit in this space. Even the lyrics in the two musical portions– one by Preacher Boy and the other by Remmick– are metaphors for something much deeper than what’s presented on the screen. This horror movie is not solely a vampire flick touching on the usual vampire tropes and themes. Contrast this to the long-awaited (third?) remake of Nosferatu, which was visually stunning, but basically the same story as its predecessors. One viewing of Sinners isn’t enough to catch everything the film slips to the audience. Though the movie is still fairly new, it should be added to the canon of excellent horror storytelling.

WRITTEN BY MICHELLE MCGILLVARGAS

Michelle serves as the Registration Chair for the HNS North American Conference and is a Board member of Midwest Writers Workshop. Her debut novel, American Ghoul, was released in 2024 by Blackstone Publishing.

GREECE & ROME

Mythology, Legends, and Novels

Why are we so fascinated by the ancient world? Over eight million people climb up to the Parthenon in Athens every year, so many that the Greek government plans to cap visitor numbers. Five and a half million come to stare at the exhibits in the British Museum, where just over half the galleries are devoted to Ancient Greece and Rome, most notably the Elgin Marbles.

Novels about ancient Greece and Rome currently attract considerable attention, perhaps because of the richness and variety that these cultures present. The history of Greece and Rome was recorded by contemporary writers from Herodotus to Tacitus. The ancient world also created its tales and legends, from the Trojan War to the Golden Fleece or the love of Dido and Aeneas. In addition, there is a complex and interlinked mythology that includes stories of gods, goddesses, Titans and heroes from the creation of the world to the love affairs of Zeus, the journey to the underworld, the Labours of Hercules and the founding of Rome. They also provide an important literature that reinterprets and occasionally makes fun of those legends and myths: from the Odyssey to Euripides’ Medea to the Lysistrata of Aristophanes.

All this has been further reinterpreted in our own culture in the works of Shakespeare (Coriolanus, Troilus and Cressida), Marlowe, BulwerLytton, and many others. It now forms the basis for a new round of reimagining.

One tradition draws on history and seeks to engage the reader with the reality of the ancient world, so far as we can access it. A leading author is Conn Iggulden, whose novel Tyrant (Michael Joseph/ Pegasus, 2025), the successor to Nero (2024) was published in June this year. In a recent interview, he compares the timeline of history to the bones of Richard III dug up in a Leicestershire car park in 2013. That is just a starting point; his readers need to engage with the history he recounts, to “feel the breeze in their hair, hear the promises they know will be broken” and grasp what it felt like to see Rome burn. The defining characteristic of people, he believes, is empathy. Modern readers will participate in the experience of real people from the past finding their way in a world alive to them but history to us, and that is what he provides. In his series on the Persian wars against Athens he seeks to make the reader understand what it was like to fight, to be a refugee, to win and to lose in that war.

Marguerite Yourcenar’s Memoirs of Hadrian (1954) takes a major historical figure, the emperor who held to Roman Empire together through some of its most bloody confrontations, and helps us understand what duty meant to him and how his tragic and controversial love affair with Antinous shaped his life.

These novels place us in the world of the Greeks and Romans, assuming that they were people rather like us and had the same beliefs and values, that they would react in the same way as we would if transported to Nero’s court. A different approach imagines the events of the past from the point of view of those directly involved, from the perspective of men who believed that duty and the endless quest for glory should govern men’s lives, while women were incapable of making the choices that men did, and slaves were, as Aristotle puts it, no more than a kind of intelligent animal.

The consciousness of Greeks and Romans was shaped by legends and myths very different from our traditions. What if you believed that your world was inextricably enmeshed with the supernatural, your life was ordered by gods and goddesses with overwhelming power but the lusts and desires of squabbling teenagers, or that you owed it to your parents or your city to revenge yourself on another people who had never done you any harm?

This is the world of Mary Renault, who wrote pioneering novels telling, for example, the tale of Theseus and his rise to the throne of Athens (The King Must Die, 1958 and The Bull from the Sea, 1962). Similarly, Pat Barker’s powerful retelling of the Trojan Wars from the point of view of the women who are bit players in the originals imagines how Briseis, sex-slave of Achilles; Electra; Clytemnestra; Cassandra; and her servant Ritsa (The Silence of the Girls, The Women of Troy and The Voyage Home, Hamish Hamilton, 2019-2024) might have understood their role in a war started by men, how they were victims in that war but succeeded in changing the outcomes in radical ways. My novel The Immigrant Queen (Troubador, 2024) portrays the rise of Aspasia, lover of Pericles, from her inferior status as a woman and an immigrant, to her triumph as the only woman invited to join Socrates’ circle, the founder of the first academy for women in the

WHAT DID these people value and fear? When we engage with voices from the past, we connect to our shared human history.

city, a respected and widely-quoted author and as a celebrated wit.

A third approach takes mythology seriously as more than legend and uses it as a resource, alongside history to include goddesses and gods among the characters and as central to the plot. This enables the author to use the supernatural to involve the reader in what might have been the experience of people in that world so close to and so very different from ours.

One example is Lauren J. A. Bear’s recent second novel, Mother of Rome (Titan/Ace, 2025), which tells the story of the foundation of Rome from the viewpoint of Rhea Silvia, the mother of Romulus and Remus, but imagines that Rhea survives when her father is forced from the throne. She becomes half-spiritual herself, watching over her children and the creation of a great city with the help of her cousin Antho. The novel interweaves mythology (is it really the god Mars whom Rhea makes love to in defiance when her uncle compels her to become a Vestal Virgin? Is the god of the Tiber ever-present in her life?).

Lauren explains how she understands the importance of the stories of former civilisations: “Of course, they entertain, and that’s important, and sometimes they teach a moral, but perhaps most essentially, they also reveal the soul of our ancestors. What did these people value and fear? When we engage with voices from the past, we connect to our shared human history. We get this magnificent opportunity to commune over time and place.”

This is an opportunity she takes up with great success. But she and many of the authors who write about the ancient world seek to do more: She agrees with Conn Iggulden: “Any time a reader can connect to what a fictional woman feels thousands of years ago is a good thing. The ultimate goal of fiction, after all, is to foster empathy across humanity.”

The problem lies in creating “a character for a modern reader that still feels authentic to the novel’s setting ... There’s a scene early in the book in which Numitor invites Rhea into his room, but she must stand to the side while the men discuss business. Every woman can relate to that feeling of not being invited to the table. Antho is forced into a marriage she does not want out of filial duty. I think many modern readers can relate to a life under oppressive parental expectations.”

“The magic of retellings … lies in the manipulation of point of view. Modern readers care about perspective. They want to know what women did, how the enslaved felt, what the villains thought, etc… Writers today get to subvert the tales we have been told, to fill in the gaps and cracks.”

It is this subversion of the dominant traditions in the culture of the ancient world that is at the heart of what many of those who seek to reimagine the ancient world are doing. In Mother of Rome, Lauren wanted to give the women character and agency, but to do so in ways that felt authentic. She wanted to “honour the setting…” For example, “neither of these women are trained in warfare, so how can they demonstrate their strength? ... They utilize what they have available. For Antho, it’s her docile reputation. She performs her Latin duties perfectly as a cover for her rebellion. Rhea embraces her primal, essential energy – the animal within. Neither of them

has to deny their femininity to achieve their goals; instead, they expand the definition of what it means to be a woman. I find that more compelling than just giving them a sword.”

And then there are the universal experiences: love and death. “Rhea mourns. She lusts and longs. She struggles against a patriarchal system that would tell her what she can and cannot do with her body. These are ancient struggles; they are modern struggles.”

The ancient world offers a richness to reader and writer because we know that it embraces mythology and legend alongside history. Different authors approach the challenge of connecting the reader with people who lived by different rules in a different time from several directions: an immediate engagement with the choices and experiences that are contained in history as Conn Iggulden and others pursue; an enriching of that world with myth and legend from the character’s point of view as Mary Renault and I have; or a full-blown interweaving of myth, legend and history as in the world created by Lauren Bear. The past is a distant country and people lived differently then, but there are many ways in which it can inform and enhance our own reality.

REFERENCES

1. Conn Iggulden

Q&A Facebook Interview, 30 April 2025.

WRITTEN

BY PETER TAYLORGOOBY

Peter is an academic, social commentator and author of The Immigrant Queen (Troubador, 2024), the true story of Aspasia ,who rose to become the only woman in Socrates’ circle, the founder of Athens’ first academy for women, a philosopher in her own right and the lover of Pericles.

HOPE & THE HAPPY LAND

Two novels have recently been published which highlight an important event in history that has been lost and forgotten with time: The American Queen by Vanessa Miller (Thomas Nelson, 2024) and Happy Land by Dolen Perkins-Valdez (Berkley, 2025). Both novels tell of a group of former slaves who established their own kingdom – the Kingdom of the Happy Land. These remarkable people had dreams of a life of peace and happiness away from the violence and upheaval brought on by Reconstruction following the American Civil War. Much like Moses leading his people to the promised land in the Bible, William Montgomery, a freed man with a vision, led the group into the Appalachian Mountains of North and South Carolina to establish a community with a motto of “one for all, and all for one,” one modeled after their African tribal heritage. This kingdom was also distinguished in their choice to designate a king and queen as their rulers.1

Historians differ in opinions as to where these freed people originated – Mississippi or South Carolina – with each origin represented in each novel. In Miller’s The American Queen , the group of about 50 set out from the Montgomery family plantation

in Mississippi, with their number swelling to 150-200 by the time they settled on land in Henderson County on the North and South Carolina border.2 The group had no set destination in mind in which to settle; by faith they would find their home. In PerkinsValdez’s Happy Land , a handful leave South Carolina to make the shorter journey of about 60 miles to their promised land. William Montgomery apparently had knowledge of where they were headed since he seemed familiar with the area, possibly from his days as a drover.3

In The American Queen the Montgomery Plantation owner, William’s father, moved his household and slaves from South Carolina to Mississippi before the war, so the freed men left from Mississippi. Miller states, “I do believe they once lived in South Carolina. The evidence for that is that we know Robert Montgomery’s daughter, Elmira, was born in South Carolina. However, the Happy Landers themselves informed the community around them that they had arrived from Mississippi.” Sadie Smathers Patton, a local historian, provides the first written account in 1957 in a pamphlet, The Kingdom of the Happy Land, where she interviewed Happy Land descendants. Patton asserts they were from Mississippi.1

Perkins-Valdez addresses this origin discrepancy. Sadie Smathers Patton’s account “went largely uncontested for over sixty years. Some of her assertions were well-researched. She interviewed kingdom descendants and those who remembered the settlement. Other assertions in her pamphlet were imaginative, such as her insistence that the Kingdom folk traveled to North Carolina from Mississippi. I was surprised that for decades no one checked the archives to verify her account. Working collaboratively with Hendersonville residents Suzanne Hale and Ronnie Pepper, we found the archival documents that clearly confirm the early Kingdom inhabitants originated in Spartanburg County, South Carolina.”

Whether they came from Mississippi or South Carolina, they had one goal in mind – to find a place where they were welcome and they could live in relative peace, safety, and obscurity – a refuge from the Reconstruction Era violence and persecution. Miller says, “When I drove into the Appalachian Mountains to see this land… we had to drive on this one lane, unpaved road. On either side there was nothing but trees for a mile or more… Then there was this whole expanse of land before our eyes. So, I think the Happy Landers intentionally left that plot of land as you drive into their land undeveloped so they could stay safe in their hidden gem.”

Both novels portray the kingdom around the core historical facts. William and Louella were appointed king and queen; later Robert steps in as king after William’s death. The group settled on the lands of Oakland Plantation owned by Colonel John Davis, who died in 1859. Following the war, John’s widow, Serepta, was left with a deserted plantation, derelict slave quarters, a crumbling mansion, and a struggling stagecoach inn. When the group arrived, they made an agreement with the penniless widow to provide the manpower to restore and maintain her buildings and property, and help operate the inn in exchange for land to set up their community. They also cleared the trees on Serepta’s land, and were allowed to sell and use that lumber in the building of their homes. Each member was assigned a plot of land to build their own home; meanwhile, they lived in the former slave quarters. Some of the members worked for wages in the local area, while many had

I WAS FASCINATED by the fact that after being enslaved, William could still see the king in himself and a Queen in his wife, Louella.

specialized skills such as shoe making, masonry, carpentry, sewing, etc., that provided services and products inside and outside the community. Their popular Happy Land Liniment was produced and sold. Everyone contributed to the good of all in this socialistic society. The earnings of everyone were deposited in a treasury and distributed according to the needs of each of the Happy Landers, even saving enough money to eventually buy the land they settled on from Serepta.1

Miller and Perkins-Valdez each build their own fictional stories to fill in the missing pieces and flesh out characters lost to time. They imagine the roles differently that the Montgomery brothers play in Louella’s/Luella’s life, but Queen Louella/Luella is the one who exerts a defining influence. This is her story of her vision for her people, and her leadership stands out as instrumental and invaluable in building and leading her community.

The American Queen begins in 1864 after Emancipation. Through Louella’s eyes, Miller lays a foundation for the story, showing the violence, hardships, and the obstacles they faced in Mississippi and what instigates their odyssey. Louella’s father, Samual Bobo, instilled in her his vision of freedom. She still feels the smothering bonds of slavery and wants desperately to make a new life beyond the plantation. She marries Reverend William Montgomery. William, although the son of the plantation owner and his slave, was fortunate to receive an education. William’s brother Robert could pass as white. He lived as a free man and owned his own land, including slaves; he joins the Happy Landers. William and Louella are the driving force in leaving Mississippi and establishing the Happy Land.

Happy Land is told in a dual timeline in which Nikki, a 40-year-old woman, is the main character in the contemporary storyline. She is summoned to visit her grandmother, Mama Rita, who lives on the land of the former Happy Land Kingdom and wants to impart that legacy to Nikki before she dies. Perkins-Valdez says she wanted the contemporary story to show why this story matters now and how it impacts Nikki’s life today. Nikki is the descendant of a queen, and knowing the story of where she came from changes her.3 In answer to why Perkins-Valdez chose a dual timeline to tell her story, she says, “I wanted to ask this question: why is it important that we know about this little-known history? Why does the kingdom matter in 2025? I created a contemporary storyline to probe that question, to understand the significance of this lineage and history. Once I started writing Nikki’s story, I fell in love with her. She reminded me so much of myself.”

Researching Black history is challenging because it was primarily oral tradition that kept their histories alive. The only documentation during this time was through various public records. When I asked Vanessa Miller her barriers to research, she said, “anyone who understands history in America knows that Black people were not thought of as whole humans during slavery, and therefore most of the information you would traditionally find on other people, is not readily available for most enslaved people. So, I was not able to trace down certain information on the people who lived in the Happy Land before slavery ended.” Miller goes on to say, “I was fascinated by the fact that after being enslaved, William could still see the king in himself and a Queen in his wife, Louella. The simple fact that they thought to build a kingdom rather than a community was beautiful to me.” Also, she was surprised by “the amount of

tragedy Queen Louella Bobo Montgomery dealt with in her lifetime, but still was able to lead a group who needed her to be everything she was for them.”

Dolen Perkins-Valdez “was fascinated by the audacity and sheer ambition of the kingdomfolk,” she says. “They walked up that mountain and boldly proclaimed themselves royalty while building a new life. Louella was especially remarkable because she led at a time when it was uncommon for women to lead, own land, and develop a successful product, the Happy Land Liniment.” It was important to her to show the positive aspects of their story. “In my work, I tried to focus less on the violence they encountered and more on the brilliance of their communal strategizing and desire for land ownership… This is about a community of people intent on rebuilding their families, accumulating wealth, educating their children and creating a space of safety and refuge. When we think of the lives of Black folks during Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction, we often only see them through the lens of white mob violence… But there was so much more to the story than that.”

The Kingdom of the Happy Land survived until the turn of the 20th century, and today very little physical evidence remains. It has been local historians who have worked to keep the Happy Land story alive, and now we have the remarkable novels The American Queen and Happy Land to spread the word through fiction.

REFERENCES

1. Izard, M. Craver (2021, February 6). African-American history in Henderson County, Part One.

2. Brown Girl Collective. (2024, March 4). Interview with Vanessa Miller [video]. YouTube.

3. Brown Girl Collective. (2024, May 19). Interview with Dolen Perkins-Valdez [video]. YouTube.

WRITTEN BY JANICE OTTERSBERG

Janice Ottersberg is an HNR Reviews Editor and a long-time reviewer for the magazine.

FOR QUEEN & COUNTRY

BY DOUGLAS KEMP

The espionage fiction of C.P. Giuliani

Clara Giuliani, or C.P., is very much the Renaissance woman, which is perhaps appropriate as she is Italian, living in the delightful city of Mantova. In addition to being a writer of historical fiction, she is a playwright, teacher, translator, editor and longstanding reviewer for the HNS. Her latest novel in the Tom Walsingham series, A Matter of Blood, was published earlier this year (Sapere, 2025). They are set in 1580s England and mainland Europe. Tom is cousin to Sir Francis Walsingham, principal secretary and spymaster to Queen Elizabeth, and acts as his confidential investigator.

Clara spoke about how she became fascinated with the arcane world of espionage in the Elizabethan court: “I think I can lay the blame at Christopher Marlowe’s door. Some twenty-five years ago I became the tiniest bit obsessed with Marlowe’s work and discovered what an interesting life he had (perhaps) led before coming to a gruesome end at the age of twenty-nine. I read a good deal about him – both fiction and non-fiction – and two books in particular made me want to fictionally explore his life and world. One was Anthony Burgess’s A Dead Man in Deptford, with its gorgeous language and vivid telling. That is where I first came across Sir Francis’s young cousin, Thomas. The other was Charles Nicholl’s The Reckoning, an intricate, detailed study following Marlowe’s traces in the espionage world. I can’t say that I agree with all of Nicholl’s conclusions, but he sparked off my fascination with Sir Francis and his work. I find the field [of espionage] fascinating, with its combination of painstaking work, deceit, happenstance and danger. Rather like chess with frightfully high stakes, a certain amount of cheating, and a sense that the rules can change at any moment – or, at least, this is the impression of 16th century intelligence I gathered from reading authors like Nicholl, Stephen Alford, John Bossy.”

Clara 's novels contain a wealth of research and have a reliable sense of authenticity for the reader, with a sound historical background. She spoke about her research, sources, and methods: “All I can say is, blessed be the Internet! I started writing Tom’s books right before the pandemic happened. At first I relied on the rather extensive research I had done for another novel set in Elizabethan London. By the time I was ready to delve into more specific espionage-related research, the world had all but shut down. Fortunately, the Internet offers a wealth of resources. As I started to dig, I was overjoyed to discover how much digitized material is available. Sites like British History Online, JSTOR, and the Map of Early Modern London are a few of the more obvious mines –but there is much more! It was an unexpected joy to delve into almost anything, from the Calendar of State Papers to parish records. And if something is missing, there is always the possibility of reaching out and asking. Historians, archivists, museum curators, librarians, experts in several fields… I’ve got in touch with knowledgeable and generous people all over the UK and the US, happy to share their knowledge. As for print books, the Biblioteca Baratta in Mantova has grown used to my outlandish requests. And finally, there is the more practical side of research, like pestering medical friends for gruesome detail, or enlisting the help of a provost-at-arms specializing in historical fencing.”

One of the perennial issues facing the historical novelist is the degree to which the writer maintains fidelity to the historical record whilst creating a narrative that satisfies the reader. Clara spoke about how

she approaches the matter. “Thomas Walsingham was an ideal choice as a character in many ways: enough is known about him to place him firmly in Sir Francis’s network of spies and at the courts of both Elizabeth and James, on the one hand; on the other, what is known leaves ample leeway for me to insert fictional murders, events, and people. I like to think that, when telling a story, the historical novelist’s job is to imagine what we don’t know on the ground, and within the bounds of what we do. My primary rule is that I try very hard to avoid contradicting documented facts, and I’ll put a good deal of effort in the research. When there are holes in the facts, I’ll make up what my story needs through guesswork or extrapolation, trying to stay true to what is known, and to the mindset of the time; when there are contradicting versions, I’ll choose the one that better serves my story. After all, these holes and contradictions are the bread and butter of historical fiction, the spaces where the novelist can work. That said, I’m not always entirely rigorous. Take Book Four [A Deadly Complot, 2024], for example, and the Babington Plot: we do know, from another agent’s report, that young Thomas was present at a certain house just before a certain important arrest –and this is all we have about his involvement in the operation. Out of this I’ve spun a whole novel.”

Clara told us about the Tudor period historical fiction that has inspired her and her favourite historical fiction writers. “The early days of my Marlowe obsession, Anthony Burgess pushed me down the fictional rabbit-hole. Then there was Rodney Bolt’s History Play, a rather hard-to-describe novel, half-academic parody, halfuchronia. I loved Patricia Finney’s Becket and Ames series, and her Carey Mysteries under the name of P. F. Chisholm. Other favourites are Bryher’s melancholy The Player’s Boy; that strange, scintillating book that is George Garrett’s Entered from the Sun, Robin Chapman’s Christoferus, and Ros Barber’s The Marlowe Papers. When it comes to other periods, Dumas Père and Walter Scott presided over my childhood, making me an avid reader of historical fiction very early. In their wake, here is a handful of favourites in no particular order: Ronald Blythe, Barry Unsworth, Rudyard Kipling’s historical short stories, Rosemary Sutcliff, Ellis Peters, James Atcheson, Robin Blake.”

Happily, Clara has signed on with Sapere Books for three more instalments, bringing Tom to 1590, with ideas for more stories bubbling away in her fertile mind.

Douglas Kemp was an HNS reviews editor from 2008 to 2024.

LATE BLOOMER

BY TRACY BARRETT

Karen Cushman's historical fiction for children and young adults

Known for her portrayals of spunky girls (and one boy) from the past who forge their own paths in defiance of convention, Karen Cushman came late to writing historical fiction. As a child, she churned out poems, plays, and stories, but as is the case with many enthusiastic young readers, it didn’t occur to her that she could actually be a writer herself one day. Her interest in the past, too, was evident early in her life. She majored in Greek and English at Stanford University and holds two master’s degrees, in Museum Studies and Human Behavior. She taught Museum Studies at John F. Kennedy University for eleven years. But despite her interest in history and writing, Cushman’s first novel wasn’t published until she was 52 years old.

It started after she began researching the material culture of children

from the past. She woke one morning hearing a child calling her. She listened, and that child’s story turned into her first novel, Catherine, Called Birdy. She doesn’t consider the years she spent in other pursuits wasted time, however. She wasn’t ready to write until she had experienced more of life, she says, and by the time that child called to her, Cushman had developed the necessary confidence. She explains, “I got old enough to realize there were things I wanted to say, despite fear or reluctance.”

And she started off with a bang—Catherine, Called Birdy, published in 1994, was awarded a Newbery Honor and also a Golden Kite Award from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, among other accolades. Soon after the novel’s publication, Cushman resigned from teaching to become a full-time writer.

Her second novel, The Midwife’s Apprentice, won the 1996 Newbery Medal, and both Catherine, Called Birdy and Cushman’s third book, The Ballad of Lucy Whipple, have been made into films. She has since published a regular stream of well-received and popular historical fiction for younger readers, leading to a total (for now, anyway!) of eleven books, most recently When Sally O’Malley Discovered the Sea (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2025), reviewed in this issue.

This latest novel is an odyssey of sorts. An orphan with no friends, who has been “chucked out” of her job at a mineral springs hotel, Sally is intrigued by what she has overheard people say about the sea. She decides to walk west from central Oregon to see it for herself. Encounters with wild animals, sometimes wild people, and the elements threaten to cut her trip—if not her life—short. Then Sally meets up with a woman called Major, an itinerant peddler who seems just fine traveling alone, with only a dog and a mule for company. When Major is tasked with transporting another orphan—this one a bratty little boy—to relatives further west, she asks Sally to join them and help out. Seizing this opportunity for companionship and shelter on her quest, Sally accepts the invitation. Along the way, not only does she learn to trust others, but she discovers that she herself is worthy of trust, and even love. Despite the grim situations the characters frequently find themselves in, the text is full of humor and warmth.

Cushman credits much of her success to her late husband, Philip. When she started writing Catherine, Called Birdy, she recalls, he “encouraged and supported me, but he wouldn’t listen to [Catherine’s] story. He would read it, he said, if I wrote it down. So I did. Once I had words on paper, I was committed.” She and Philip continued to encourage other later-in-life aspiring authors. In 2013 they established the Karen and Philip Cushman Late Bloomer Award in conjunction with the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, which annually awards a

prize to “authors over the age of fifty who have not been traditionally published in the children’s literature field.”

She doesn’t regret her own late debut, saying, “I couldn’t have written the books I wrote any sooner. I didn’t know enough about the world or myself. What I write comes from who I am, what I’ve seen, and what I’ve experienced.”

Regarding her creative process, Cushman says that she starts with a short first draft—typically under 80 pages—and then gets to work adding text: “I have to add details like a sculptor adds clay to a wire armature to bring a statue to life. It’s my favorite part of the writing process.” Working this way allows her to create whole new scenes as well as to enrich existing text, around material she uncovers. Some dramatic episodes in When Sally O’Malley Discovered the Sea, for example, were a result of Cushman’s coming across newspaper accounts of a disastrous 1861 flood in Portland.

From her vantage point of more than thirty years of writing for publication, Cushman reflects on the state of the publishing industry today. She says, “I think publishing has changed both for the better and not. Positive changes in society as a whole means more voices, more experiences, more viewpoints are welcome. The internet and social media introduced new ways to reach readers. New technologies have brought us ebooks, audio books, and print on demand.

“Not positive changes include the fact that so very many books are published each year. It’s easy for books and writers to get lost in the crowd. Over-busy editors and agents are hard to reach and need extra time to respond. Plus there is a major influence of marketing departments on what is published, how it’s publicized, what it looks like. I’ve had disagreements about book jackets and covers, only to be told ‘marketing likes it’ and they win.”

Readers are fortunate that despite these challenges, Karen Cushman continues to write beautifully crafted accounts of young people standing up for themselves and finding their inner courage. Sally O’Malley is a worthy descendant of Birdy, Brat, Lucy Whipple, and Cushman’s other brave and compassionate characters.

Tracy Barrett is an HNR US Reviews Editor and author of numerous books for young readers, both historical fiction and other genres.

References:

1. https://cynthialeitichsmith.com/2021/05/author-interview-karencushman-on-what-sparks-her-inspiration/

2. https://www.hbook.com/story/karen-cushman-talks-with-

roger-2025

3. https://voiceofvashon.org/episode/realtalk-karencushman-on-writing/

4. https://www.scbwi.org/awards-and-grants/for-writers/karencushman-late-bloomer-award

GIRL FROM GREENWICH ST

BY ILYSA MAGNUS

Admired creator of the Pink Carnation series, collaborative historicals and stand-alones – and NYC litigator turned career novelist – Willig has focused her talent on the 1800 Manhattan Well Murder trial. I had the great pleasure of reading The Girl from Greenwich Street (William Morrow, 2025) and interviewing Willig about her process in recreating this historic event.

When did you first learn about the Manhattan Well Murder? What drew you to the story? Seven years ago, I was scrolling through social media and stopped short at a post about the Manhattan Well Murder of 1800, an unsolved true crime in which a young woman was found dead—and Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton teamed up to defend the young carpenter accused of her murder.

Like most people, I was drawn to this case for the wrong reasons: Hamilton and Burr. How wonderful and strange, I thought, the two of them joining forces to save a man from the gallows just four years before the fatal duel and mere weeks before the hotly contested New York elections of 1800. It turned out that wasn’t wonderful at all; they were frequently co-counsel.

But you know what is wonderful about this case? The trial transcript. The Levi Weeks case is America’s first fully recorded murder trial. The clerk of the court took down the testimony verbatim through two electrifying days of trial that played out the way trials often do on television, but seldom in real life. Lies, secrets, adultery, unexpected twists…. Once I read that transcript, I was hooked. It was Law and Order: 1800!

How long did it take from inception to publication? What was the most difficult thing about writing the book? The thing about being a career author is that no matter how exciting an idea is, it has to wait in the queue behind the books you’re already contracted to write. I stumbled on the Manhattan Well Murder when I was researching Band of Sisters. It wasn’t until January 2022, when I’d finished that book, its sequel, and two Team W books [co-authored with Karen White and Beatriz Williams], that I was finally able to start digging into the research on the Manhattan Well Murder—and discovered that nothing was what it seemed.

That was the hardest thing about writing this book: untangling fact from myth. So much of what “everyone knows” about this case turned out to be wrong. Instead of the six months of research I had envisioned, I wound up on a two-year archival deep dive ranging from letters in the New-York Historical Society to the collections of the New York Law Institute to census records in Cornwall, New York to biographies of obscure Quaker preachers. I felt like I was back in my history grad school days!

How did you make the transition from “romantic” historicals to one featuring Hamilton and Burr? Believe it or not, it’s been a decade since the last Pink Carnation book was published! I’ve written eight standalone historicals and five Team W books since those Pink days, so it’s been a long, gradual transition. Having grown up on M. M. Kaye and Karleen Koen, I’d always wanted to write sweeping historical sagas set in all sorts of places, and those stand alones let me wander from 1920s Kenya to Colonial Barbados to Gilded Age New York.

But it was really Band of Sisters that made this book possible. Until then, my books had involved fictional characters living out fictional stories in the context of real events. Band of Sisters was based on thousands of letters written by Smith College alumnae who went to the front in World War I. That archival deep dive, building up a book based on the real experiences of real people, paved the way for researching and writing The Girl from Greenwich Street

Is there one character who you believe is focal to how GFGS evolves? The most important—and the most elusive— character in this case is Elma Sands, the woman in the well. She gets trampled over by authors in their eagerness to get to Hamilton and Burr, used as a pretext to get them into the courtroom, flattened into an innocent woman seduced or a melancholy nymphomaniac laudanum addict, Madonna or whore, with no attempt to get to the real woman underneath. I don’t believe you can understand this case without trying to understand Elma Sands. It is her actions and relationships, and, ultimately, her character, which are crucial to making sense of what happened the night she left the boarding house at 208 Greenwich Street and never came back.

Hamilton and Burr have central roles in the book. We all know that their relationship ended in a duel. To what extent did you fictionalize them? Duel? What duel? Writing this book, I could only know what had happened, not what was to come. In 1800, as far as we know, Hamilton and Burr are going to go on driving each other bonkers for decades to come—because that’s what they do. There are so many beautiful examples in this case of the ways their personalities clash: Hamilton’s conviction that he’s the smartest person in the room and his micro-managing irritate Burr while Hamilton froths at the mouth every time Burr pulls a fast one on him.

I think it’s impossible not to fictionalize your characters, no matter how hard you try to portray them faithfully. I read all the biographies I could get my hands on and spent months immersed in their letters, to get a sense of their modes of thought and the rhythms of their voices. But there are gaps and guesses no matter how much research you do. I only hope the two of them realize I tried!

Do you have a next project lined up? Funny story: I was going to write another archival deep-dive historical novel based on a real 18th-century American trial. But over lunch with my agent, I made a throwaway comment about a random idea I’d had about a contemporary paranormal romance set at Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. To my utter shock, she said, “Drop everything and write that.” So I did. What Happens at Nightfall is headed your way September 2026!

OVERLOOKED STORY

BY CLAIRE MORRIS

Lauren Willig on the Manhattan Well Murder of 1799 and the trial of Levi Weeks

CANADA IS OFTEN depicted as a sedate and docile country, so it’s good to know that dreams of democracy and overthrowing despotic rulers stirred the citizenry here, too.

Claire Morris talks to Linda McQuaig about The Road to Goderich

One summer about ten years ago, I found myself in the town of Goderich, Ontario, which sits on a bluff overlooking Lake Huron. Something about the place charmed me, and I’ve returned a number of times. Its main streets contain a number of older buildings, and it’s clearly got a history that dates back to previous centuries. What I didn’t know until very recently is that this small town was the centre of the settlement of the Huron Tract, overseen by the Canada Company in the early 1800s.

The novel The Road to Goderich (Dundurn Press, 2025) brought this to my attention. As author Linda McQuaig describes it: “The Canada Company was the powerful land development firm that was closely connected to colonial authorities, and became a key target of angry farmers rising in rebellion.”

Her declaration reminded me that one of the reasons I love historical fiction is because novels set in the past teach me details I might never have learned otherwise – despite living not far from a place and visiting it often.

The Road to Goderich tells the story of Callandra, a Scottish woman who marries Norbert, a well-to-do Presbyterian clergyman. The couple ends up emigrating to Canada, along with their servant Lottie and a carpenter, Sam. The plan is for Norbert to become the minister in Goderich and Sam to build the church there. They take ship to Toronto and get organized for the trip to Goderich, then not an easy place to access. Upper Canada, as the current-day province of Ontario was then known, presented challenges they did not foresee. As McQuaig puts it in a note to readers: “When they finally reach Goderich—sick, cold and hungry—the carpenter is mistaken for the clergyman. They don’t correct the mistake, and are soon living in a world of duplicity, even as an uprising against the authorities is brewing in Goderich.”

The 1830s were a time of social and political turmoil in Upper Canada, which McQuaig likens to the better-known American Revolution.

“I’ve long been intrigued by the 1837 rebellion in Upper Canada,” she says. “Although the rebellion failed, leaving Canada under colonial rule for another thirty years, it was basically an attempt by struggling farmers to overthrow “the Family Compact” and establish a democracy. Canada is often depicted as a sedate and docile country, so it’s good to know that dreams of democracy and overthrowing despotic rulers stirred the citizenry here, too.”

The Scottish-born William Lyon MacKenzie led the rebellion in an attempt to push back against the Family Compact, the elite group who held power in the colony, essentially replicating the British class system and tradition of patronage. As the Canadian Encyclopedia puts it: “About 1,000 men . . . gathered for four days in December at Montgomery’s Tavern on Yonge Street in Toronto. On 5 December, several hundred poorly armed and organized rebels marched south on Yonge Street. They exchanged gunfire with a smaller group of militia loyal to the Crown. The bulk of the rebel force fled in a state of confusion once the firing started.”1

The rebels were later dispersed by those loyal to the British crown. Another skirmish took place in Brantford, south of Toronto, and

MacKenzie and his followers continued to cause trouble for the colonial authorities into the following year. But ultimately he had to flee into exile and a number of his followers were executed. McQuaig draws on this piece of history for the novel, which culminates in a trial and hanging in Goderich.

McQuaig, who is a well-known investigative journalist and nonfiction writer, explains that she was able to draw on the wealth of material that exists in literary and historical accounts about life in the early 1800s in Upper Canada in order to create an accurate picture of life at that time.

“However, it was still a challenge to depict how early settlers lived,” she adds, “and how they would have dealt with extremely challenging situations – like the grueling trek through the dense forest between Toronto and Goderich and the scramble to survive after their carriage plunged into a river far from any settlement.”

She also spent many hours in the archives of Knox College, which is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church and located at the University of Toronto. “[The college] has extensive material about tensions between Anglicans and Presbyterians in the colonial days. The British colonial authorities greatly favoured the British-based Anglican Church over the Scottish-based Presbyterian Church, bestowing large benefits on the Anglican clergy and leaving Presbyterian clergy impoverished. This favouritism became a source of immense resentment among the Scottish, stirring up further anger against the authorities.”

The power struggle between the two churches contributes to the setting in this novel, with Anglican clergy affiliated to the Canada Company. McQuaig mentions that the early rise of the women’s movement was another reason she was drawn to this period of history. “Writer Mary Wollstonecraft had stirred considerable controversy by suggesting that women’s inferior status was due to social convention and that women should have the same freedoms and privileges as men,” she points out. “Wollstonecraft becomes a source of inspiration for the novel’s lead character, Callandra.”

We see young Callandra excelling in school and dreaming of becoming a writer. But her station in life makes that difficult and marrying a Presbyterian clergyman and moving to Canada doesn’t improve her chances.

The Road to Goderich is McQuaig’s first novel. “Fiction was my first love,” she says, “but I got sidetracked by the seeming urgency of political issues and my interest in writing about them. However, I’ve been working on this novel for twenty-five years! I worked on it in chunks of time, whenever I had the chance. I always had a clear idea of the story I wanted to tell (although it evolved) and a desire to tell it. It ended up being the most demanding writing project I’ve undertaken -- but also ultimately the most satisfying.”

Claire Morris is Web Features Editor for the Historical Novel Society.

References: 1. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/rebellionsof-1837

REVIEWS

SERPENT VISIONS

ONLINE EXCLUSIVES

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

ANCIENT EGYPT

ABDUCTION OF A SLAVE

Dana Stabenow, Head of Zeus, 2025, £20.00/$28.99, hb, 272pp, 9781035910069

Set against the turbulent backdrop of 47 - 46 BCE, Abduction of a Slave delivers an engrossing tale of intrigue, power, and survival through the eyes of Tetisheri, a slave whose fate intertwines with the legendary Cleopatra. More than a servant, Tetisheri emerges as Cleopatra’s trusted confidante, spy, and messenger, bearing witness to pivotal moments in history, including the fateful Battle of Thapsus and the blossoming romance between Cleopatra and Julius Caesar.

Abduction of a Slave is the fourth book in The Eye of Isis series. It would be beneficial to read the previous novels before embarking on this one

This is a hand-held walk through the time period, which is well researched but lacks the power and passion that the era deserves. The historical backdrop is rich, and most of the fictional liberties taken with Tetisheri’s role are quite plausible. There are some annoying anachronisms, such as Tetisheri’s uncle, Neb, securing a ‘generous suite of rooms at the Waterfront Inn, a clean, commodious establishment with a good kitchen and a decent cellar. Four comfortably furnished bedrooms were arranged around a central parlor with doors opening onto a balcony.’ Such establishments did not exist in 47 BCE.

The depiction of the pivotal Battle of Thapsus is dealt with in a very perfunctory manner, and the extreme violence of that battle is evaded with Caesar falling from his horse due to illness, described in some detail, followed by ‘after that it was butchery on a massive scale.’ The maniacal massacre that took place after the battle won by the victorious Romans is reduced to ‘The battle was won by noon but the killing went on until nightfall.’

For fans of Stabenow this book will not disappoint, but it is not a novel for those wishing a gritty, realistic story of the time.

Aidan K. Morrissey

Jinny Webber, Bluetide Books, 2025, $18.99, pb, 308pp, 9780998698052

While most can recall the Greek heroes Odysseus and Oedipus, most (including me) would not remember the name of the blinded seer who appears as a side character in both stories. Teiresias, that hobbling old man who is the deus ex machina in stories stuffed

with “deus,” has an extraordinary story himself. In Bronze Age Greece, generations before Odysseus, Teiresias is a young courtier to the king of Thebes. Like many a young man, he is full of self-importance and does not consider the lives of his wife and daughters. But when his wife dies in childbirth, Teiresias is struck by the loss. He stumbles into the forest where he strikes apart two mating serpents, and his life is changed: he is transformed into a beautiful young woman, Teira.

In this new guise, Teira sees the world anew and quickly sheds the self-identity of a man. She travels to Corinth and becomes a priestess of Aphrodite. The world becomes larger than ever before: she understands the old goddesses have been supplanted by the new Greek pantheon; she sees context of political machinations; and, for the first time, Teira knows love. But Teira does not last. Again transformed, now back into a much older body of Teiresias, his eyesight is taken, and his second sight is granted.

Told as an oral history, like the Iliad or the Odyssey, Teiresias relays his story to his eldest daughter, Manto. The author does an excellent job of pacing and character development in a challenging structure. Manto, despite having a passive role as listener, is still very much a character with resentments, preferences, and agency. Webber intertwines aspects of multiple religions while also sprinkling familiar myths and characters amongst the adventures of Teira. Highly recommended.

Katie Stine

1ST CENTURY

THERE WILL BE BODIES

Lindsey Davis, Hodder & Stoughton, 2025, £22.00, hb, 386pp, 9781399719636 / Minotaur, 2025, $30.00, hb, 368pp, 9781250906731

CLASSICAL

90 AD. In the latest in her Flavia Albia series, Lindsey Davis takes us to the Bay of Naples some ten years after Vesuvius. While much of

the disaster area remains buried in volcanic debris, on the outskirts, things are slowly improving.

Tullius Icilius, parsimonious uncle of Albia’s husband, Tiberius Manlius, has bought a villa in Stabiae and commissioned his builder nephew to clear and restore it, and identify any discovered human remains. Leaving their two foster sons with Tullius, Albia and Tiberius, together with their household staff and workmen, head south. It isn’t long before the first skeletons, those of three slaves, are uncovered, followed by the remains of a man who was carefully laid out in a shed before the ash started to fall. Albia is tasked with discovering the truth behind these deaths, which she does with her usual verve.

The journey revives unhappy memories for Albia of coming here ten years ago with her father in search of family members who had been working in the area and who never were found, and of her childhood in Britannia after Boudicca’s revolt. There Will Be Bodies explores the price of survival: not only of the all-encompassing natural disaster, but also of violent deeds conveniently covered up by the ash and which are only now coming to light.

Although we know Albia from the Falco series, her own series starts in 89 AD, after her first husband’s death. Here she reminds us that she and Tiberius have been married for only six months. Her time in Stabiae is one of personal growth. Readers who have visited the towns and sites of the Bay of Naples will enjoy the vivid descriptions of the challenges faced by a population gradually getting back to some sort of normalcy. Overall, a very fine historical detective novel.

Catherine Kullmann

BOUDICCA’S DAUGHTER

Elodie Harper, Head of Zeus/Apollo, 2025, £18.99, hb, 496pp, 9781804544631 / Union Square, 2025, $19.99, pb, 440pp, 9781454955368 Britain, AD 60: History has not preserved the names of Boudicca’s two daughters, gangraped by Roman soldiers and their mother flogged (as recorded by Tacitus), when, under the terms of Boudicca’s husband’s will, the Iceni queen laid claim to his East Anglian kingdom. In revenge, Boudicca’s army sacks and burns Camulodunum (Colchester) and then London, only to be vanquished by the Romans at Verulamium (St Albans) whereupon Boudicca commits suicide.

This is the imagined story of Solina, the elder daughter, told in alternating voices, hers in first person, the other dramatis personae in third person. Though compellingly written, the first third of the novel is paradoxically the

least immersive (for this reader) even though it deals with recorded events, for we already know what is going to happen. Then Solina is captured by Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, the Roman governor of Britain, and a relationship gradually develops, of a kind that we would now refer to as Stockholm Syndrome. It is here that the story really gains pace. All of this might be invented historically, but the novel does not read that way. It convinces; these events were possible in that time and place.

Boudicca’s Daughter is a compelling account of what happens in the red mist of vendetta; innocents die in their thousands. As the action moves to Rome, where against Paulinus’s will, Solina is forced to become a slave to Poppaea, wife of the notorious Nero, the nature of tyranny is portrayed in a way that would be recognisable to a student of modern history, or indeed an observer of contemporary geopolitics. The emperor is mercurial, sexually deviant, self-enriching and wantonly cruel, because there is no one to stop him – but he is not a lurid caricature. He is terrifyingly real. I thoroughly recommend this novel, and its heroine.

Katherine Mezzacappa

5TH CENTURY

ROME

Ben Kane, Orion, 2025, £20.00/$25.00, hb, 384pp, 9781398714656

Ben Kane’s writing career has ranged over a number of historical periods and figures: Hannibal, Spartacus, Napoleon, Richard the Lionheart. In his latest novel, he turns his attention to a woman, Galla Placidia, daughter of the Roman emperor Theodosius I, and mother and regent to the later emperor, Valentinian III. In between, Galla’s life is recreated in all its fascinating detail, Kane transporting readers to a less well-known period of Roman history in the fifth century AD.

Galla lives a relatively quiet life in Rome while her half-brother, Honorius, holds sway over the imperial court in Ravenna. When Rome is besieged by Alaric the Visigoth, Galla is taken as a valuable hostage to aid Alaric’s negotiations with Honorius. And so Galla’s path to power starts to unfold.

The narrative perspective moves between Galla and the fictional Vadomar, a Goth soldier who fights for the Romans. At first, Galla and Vadomar lead separate lives until their paths cross and Vadomar becomes Galla’s most loyal ally and protector. Kane manages this admirably, and I was impressed with the way he captures a female perspective, albeit through an unusually ambitious woman. Kane also negotiates some complicated historical events: shifting allegiances, betrayals, vengeance and surprise assassinations, but never losing the reader – the sign of a master storyteller. The sense of the Roman Empire poised on the precipice of its demise is fascinating, and I was

interested to learn how many of the Germanic tribes served Rome as well as attacked it.

This is a totally immersive and enjoyable read. My only small criticism is that, after the events with Athaulf later in the novel, the story seemed to race towards its conclusion. Many of the loose ends are tied up in an epilogue, but I, for one, would very much welcome a sequel! Highly recommended.

Adele Wills

7TH CENTURY

GRAVE OF THE LAWGIVER

Peter Tremayne, Headline, 2025, £24.99, hb, 368pp, 9781035423125 / Severn House, 2025, $29.99, hb, 368pp, 9781448315109

Peter Tremayne’s long-running series of Celtic mysteries has now reached the 36th book. It is AD 673, and Sister Fidelma accompanies her husband, Eadulf, back to his hometown of Seaxmund’s Ham. He hopes to visit his pagan family to build bridges after his conversion to Christianity. Although Eadulf has been settled in Ireland, he cannot ignore this yearning to return to visit the landscapes of his youth.

However, in true Tremayne style, they arrive in East Anglia to find Eadulf’s uncle, Athelnoth, the lawgiver of the title, murdered, his house burned to the ground and Eadulf’s sister, Wulfrun, missing. Eadulf must solve the murder, assisted by Fidelma and both helped and thwarted by a cast of pagan and Christian locals. The investigation takes our intrepid pair across the marshy, bleak landscape of East Anglia.

Against this domestic backdrop, bigger events are unfolding. Following the Synod of Whitby ten years earlier, a meeting of all the Anglo-Saxon kings and bishops is taking place under a new Archbishop of Canterbury, Theodorus, whose aim is to unite the kingdoms under one Christian creed. Theodorus has been appointed by Vitalian, the bishop of Rome, so it is not difficult to predict which creed he will suggest. If accepted, this would mean the end of Hibernian Christianity in Britain.

As always with Tremayne’s novels, I really enjoyed the richness of information about the historical context: the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, the conflict between Roman and Hibernian Christianity, the survival of paganism. We see growing tensions between Fidelma and Eadulf, and we wonder if their relationship will withstand the test of this new challenge. The murder mystery itself was somehow less satisfying, which is unusual in Tremayne’s work. However, I thoroughly enjoyed my romp through East Anglia, and Tremayne’s skilful handling of a complicated historical time of unsettling change.

Adele Wills

THE WANDERER AND THE WAY

G. M. Baker, Stories All the Way Down, 2025, $19.99, pb, 257pp, 9781069212900

Set mainly in ninth-century Spain, the subject of this book is a man named Theodemir, a historical bishop who helped found the pilgrimage route Camino de Santiago de Compostela. The author’s historical note informs us that nothing much is known about Theodemir before he became a bishop. The story takes place in that unknown time of his life. The author gives Theodemir very human failings, particularly in his dealings with women. Influenced in his early life by his cruel uncle, he has never considered the inner lives of the sex slaves his uncle keeps. It isn’t until he meets Agnes, a beautiful, chaste woman with whom he falls immediately in love, that he learns to think more about the needs of others. He wants to marry Agnes, but it seems she may never consent to marry him. Nevertheless, he must protect her from his uncle, which necessitates taking her on a dangerous journey on foot to fulfill a political mission.

Although this is part of the larger series Cuthbert’s People, it’s not necessary to read the books in order. Some characters also appeared in earlier installments, but when their backstories are alluded to, the author helpfully includes footnotes informing the reader which books contain the relevant backstory. The parts of the book involving sex slaves may turn some readers off, but in general, readers interested in medieval Spain, Christian history, or (for the series as a whole) medieval England will enjoy this for its elegant prose, compelling characters, and vividly imagined historical settings.

Elizabeth

Crachiolo

RÁN’S DAUGHTERS

Kaitlin Felix, Outland Entertainment, 2025, $22.95/C$30.95, pb, 364pp, 9781964735016

Fierce Norsewoman Gyda lives life on her own terms, adventuring as a trader across stormy seas in the Viking Age with an allwoman crew. Sheer bravado on her part, accompanied by large doses of her own taunting and trickery, fuel her vengeancedriven pursuit of what was stolen from her as readers follow her non-stop exploits throughout the Northern seas. Cunning schemes, plotted retaliation, and violenceladen perils fill the action-packed pages to the brim.

The multiple characters that she encounters or stalks, offer a panorama of the Norse world in the years following the reign of Alfred the Great. These characters include her original six equally fearsome crewmembers (the Daughters), a peace loving Irish/Norse trader, a brave Spanish mother and daughter duo from Córdoba, the greedy and willfully blind Norse ruler of Dublin, and the cynically shrewd and formidable Norse king of Northumbria in York.

9TH CENTURY

Often down but never out, Gyda’s strength

and resolve are to be admired. Her singlemindedness comes with a price, however, as she often leaves unintended devastation in her wake. And while her own pride and honor direct her actions, which do often include protecting the innocent and the weak along the way, her mark is most strongly felt in the world of fighting, drinking, raiding, and sailing. Sure to mightily entertain Viking aficionados, this is a rousing tale indeed!

Karen Bordonaro

THE VIKING SWORD

Elizabeth Springer, Independently published, 2024, £13.99/$15.99, pb, 365pp, 9798985285130

This novel is set in 9th-century Wessex during the reign of King Alfred. Edwin’s Christmas festivities are interrupted by a series of troubling mysteries. As the royal reeve for Wimborne in Dorset, it is his duty to investigate when dead bodies are discovered and valuable artefacts disappear. In this he is ably assisted by his new wife, Molly, and her brother, who lost a leg in the Viking wars. A pair of boisterous teenage boys, foisted upon Edwin by the king, are sometimes more of a hindrance than a help, but they provide plenty of amusement for us readers.

To weave an intricate multi-stranded narrative like this, including a classic lockedroom conundrum, requires consummate skill, and Springer proves herself more than capable. She keeps us keen to find out more as the plot progresses, pace and drama building towards a very satisfying conclusion. Period detail is accurate and unobtrusive, always emerging naturally from context. Characterisation too seems effortless, clearly delineating an extensive cast, even its minor members.

My only slight quibble is the stolid character of Edwin himself that I feel would benefit from a little more colour. For instance, this is his second outing, and yet there is barely any mention of the first investigation from A Council of Wolves, which I haven’t read yet myself. Perhaps if I had done so, it would have given me greater depth. In any case, I will eagerly seek it out now and also look forward to further mysteries appearing in due course. Thoroughly recommended.

Nigel Willits

11TH CENTURY RAVENS HILL

Garth Pettersen, Tirgearr Publishing, 2025, $11.99, pb, 336pp, 9798285991519

If you wish there were more cozy mysteries set in Anglo-Saxon England, this is the novel for you. Harald Atheling and his witty wife Selia, like an eleventh-century “Nick and Nora,” sleuth their way through a leisurely snoop around the manor and village they’ve just been awarded by Harald’s father, King Cnute. As they interview sly stewards, scheming abbesses, doughty serfs, and rebellious teens, they begin to suspect this is not the sleepy Mercian village it appears to be.

Harald, a principled man more comfortable on the battlefield than in the “tún-lord’s” office, must learn how to manage unruly, competing citizens in peacetime.

This is the fifth novel in Pettersen’s Atheling Chronicles series, but readers will find it easy to understand Harald’s situation and how the Viking noble ended up in an ordinary village. The narrative alternates between Harald’s first-person point of view and thirdperson descriptions of other characters, so that Harald’s investigation is more of a “howdunnit” than a “who-dunnit;” the multiple voices effectively create a sense of real life and intimacy in the story. A firmer editing hand is needed as there is a lot of over-explaining; most distracting is the insistence on italicizing any word that is even remotely connected to Anglo-Saxon. But Pettersen has handled his appealing characters and tightly constructed plot well, and fans will look forward to seeing how a more settled Harald builds his growing community.

Kristen McDermott

KINGS OF STONE AND ICE

S. J. A. Turney, Canelo, 2025, £10.99, pb, 384pp, 9781835980460

S. J. A. Turney delivers another rousing saga of blood, honour, and destiny in Kings of Stone and Ice, a gripping Viking adventure that brings the Wolves of Odin full circle. After years of plundering and voyaging across distant shores, the seasoned warband led by Jarl Halfdan Loki-Born returns to familiar waters— not for rest, but for revenge.

Their mission: to hunt down the last man responsible for Halfdan’s father’s murder, the treacherous Christian priest Hjalmvigi. But fate, in true Norse fashion, has other plans. Upon docking, the Wolves are greeted by a much-missed memory from their past, Sea Wolf, their stolen ship, now back in the harbour. With it comes Harald Hardrada, last seen in Constantinople’s glittering chaos.

Hardrada, never one to rest quietly, is now plotting to seize the Norwegian throne. To do so, he needs allies with sharp blades and sharper reputations—and the Wolves of Odin fit the bill.

Turney masterfully blends gritty historical realism with high-stakes political drama. His battle scenes are raw and kinetic, steeped in the mud, steel, and fury of Norse warfare. But beyond the axe-swinging action, there’s a sharp focus on loyalty, legacy, and the burdens of leadership.

Rich in detail and brimming with intrigue, Kings of Stone and Ice captures the turbulent spirit of an age where alliances were fragile, kings were made by the sword, and legends were carved into saga. Turney chooses one character to focus on in each novel, and this is Leif’s turn.

As with his previous books, some of the prose is a little lazy; that was an adventure ‘to say the least’ is not one the book’s finer moments. A thunderous tale of vengeance and ambition, this novel cements the Wolves of Odin as one

of the most compelling Viking war-bands in historical fiction.

Aidan

12TH CENTURY

K. Morrissey

HUNTING THE SUN

Jean Gill, The 13th Sign, 2025, $17.99/£12.99, pb, 350pp, 9791096459483

Third in Gill’s The Midwinter Dragon series of Viking adventures set in 12th-century Orkney and beyond, this volume takes us far beyond: to Sicilia, Ifriqiya and eventually Jórsalaheim, as they are spelled. In this fast-moving warrior adventure tale, the independent-minded Hlif joins her husband Skarfr’s travels, if not his battles. Exiled from Orkney, he’s military advisor to the Sicilians, while she, as a trader, can enter places women are ordinarily denied. Only a Sicilian crone is more powerful than she until Hlif employs her supernatural gifts as a völva. Hilf is a risk-taker, so her ventures are no less suspenseful than Skarfr’s. Through the map maker al Idrisi, Skarfr, and later Hlif, learn about the political realms to the east, essential information. Religious tolerance seems to be practiced in Sicilia: King Roger is Christian, most of the population is Muslim, and Skarfr and Hlif follow the gods Óðinn, Thor, and Freya. As long as all give credence to the White Christ, apparently they may believe as they please—yet the accusation of apostasy threatens.

The cast of characters is huge, with alliances and vengeance playing out back in Orkney while Skarfr and Hlif are away. Those who’ve not read the earlier books can pick up on the relationships and backstories, and the wideranging primary plots are fresh in the moment. Female characters besides Hlif add their perspectives and reactions to the man’s world: the Orkney women Inge and Margaret; Brigid, an Irish thrall; Rachel, a Jewish slave who works in the Sicilian silkworks cum brothel; and two deaf African girls Hlif rescues from slavery, among others. Jean Gill’s research fills the book with striking, memorable details, and her artful maps are helpful. A fourth volume will complete the compelling saga of Skarfr and Hlif.

Jinny Webber

THE QUEEN’S COMPANION

Lucy Pick, Cuidono Press, 2025, $18.00, pb, 278pp, 9781944453268

12th century. Lady Aude is returning to her home outside of Jerusalem when misfortune waylays her at the Port of Antioch, where Eleanor of Aquitaine is in transit to Jerusalem. Eleanor is married to France’s King Louis when they both take the cross. They have two daughters. Louis needs a male heir, though here we find him practicing celibacy as part of his pilgrimage. Aude is recruited into a tight-knit group of ladies serving Eleanor. Her ticket is to tell her story, which spans three decades, from youth in Jerusalem to married life in Flanders, including a mysterious period in Lisbon. Aude’s

own story is inspiring, as she never lets events override her goals. The royal couple, Aude in tow, visit Eleanor’s Uncle Raymond. Court politics, rumors, and rivalries drive events.

Lucy Pick uses the embedded narrative as her framing device. Aude tells Eleanor and her ladies fifteen stories over the journey to and during the time spent in Jerusalem. Pick’s professional academic career at the university level focuses on medieval Spain. This is her second novel, a tangential story to her first, Pilgrimage. Pick exploits the scant historical record for Eleanor in these years and her knowledge of the Crusades to enrich the tale. Yet the truly life-altering event, a good fictional device, is both unlikely and not even hinted at in historical records.

The Queen’s Companion is a well-paced, pleasant read. Aude’s story is emblematic of the time: left an orphan, she endures a forced marriage, the responsibilities of running a noble household, widowhood with a young son, the dangers of rebellions, and the challenges of travel. Pick’s Eleanor is more compelling than the Eleanor we all think we know.

Catherine Mathis

14TH CENTURY

THUS WITH A KISS I DIE

Christina Dodd, Kensington/John Scognamiglio, 2025, $28.00/C$37.99/£26.00, hb, 352pp, 9781496750198

Paranormal romance expert Christina Dodd is back in Renaissance Verona with Rosaline Montague, one of several daughters of Romeo and Juliet. Yes, that Romeo and Juliet. In Dodd’s world, the couple survived and went on to create a prodigious family of mostly girls and one son. Rosie Montague isn’t fond of the idea of marriage and spends her time directing suitors towards her sisters, but her plan is foiled by young Prince Escalus (Cal), who distracts Rosie’s beau, Lysander My One True Love, and takes his place for a garden rendezvous, although it’s not Rosie’s fault she couldn’t tell the difference between Cal and her one true love in the dark. Her maidenly reputation now in tatters, Rosie is none too pleased that she has to marry Cal along with his family, which includes his extremely tetchy grandmother, Nonna Ursula.

Things take a turn for the better when Cal’s dead father, Escalus the Elder (Elder for short), appears to Rosie (think Hamlet here), and orders her to discover who killed him. In exchange, Rosie will be given her most ardent wish — Lysander My One True Love. Sounds like a good deal, but, as in many of Shakespeare’s comedies, things get quite complicated. Firstly, Rosie grows fond of Cal— he’s more amusing than melancholy and quite a nice chap; secondly, Ursula’s séance to ferret out the killer puts her in danger; Cal and his men are injured fighting the disciplinati; and someone’s after Rosie. Verona is a dangerous place, apparently!

Dodd’s romantic comedy lived up to

my expectations for a prolific writer with a flair for characterisation and strategic wit, which is on display in spades. The banter is crisp and catchy, and Elder is much more fun than Hamlet’s father ever was. Highly recommended if you like a bit of romance served with a huge bowlful of irony.

Fiona Alison

LION HEARTS

Dan Jones, Head of Zeus, 2025, £18.99, hb, 363pp, 9781838973904 / Viking, 2025, $30.00, hb, 448pp, 9780593653807

When I was a schoolboy we learnt about the Hundred Years’ War as a series of great battles which the English usually won, although surprisingly they lost the war. Closer inspection showed that the battles occurred at long intervals, sometimes decades apart, so what happened in between? In truth the Hundred Years’ War is itself an historical fiction, an historian’s name applied to a series of wars and truces, some lasting 20 years, including two treaties designed to end the conflict. With equal justice one might call the two World Wars the second Thirty Years’ War.

Lion Hearts, the last of Dan Jones’ Essex Dogs trilogy, is set in one of these in-between years, in 1350. This was three years after the siege of Calais, the setting for the previous book, Wolves of Winter, and two years after the Black Death, which carried off perhaps 40% of Europe’s population. The first third of the book is set in the Sussex port of Winchelsea, where Loveday, a survivor of Crecy and Calais, is trying to set up a new life as an innkeeper. Circumstances, however, reunite him with his former comrades who fought alongside him in France and draw him into fresh battles. This time the enemy are the Castilian pirates who are harassing the south coast.

As with his earlier books, Jones is adept at giving us a worm’s eye view of the war as seen by the men-at-arms and the archers, although we also have scenes of courtly life at Windsor. Though the campaigns in France are in abeyance, there is plenty of action, told with Jones’s usual verve and scholarly accuracy. A worthy conclusion to a fine trilogy.

Edward James

THE HERB KNOT

Jane Loftus, HQ, 2025, £9.99, pb, 336pp, 9780008755270

In the aftermath of the battle of Crecy in 1346, five-year-old Rafi loses his mother and his young cousin, both brutally killed by a marauding English soldier. Another English soldier tries to defend the innocent victims and is mortally wounded. With his dying breath, he gives the small boy half a seal and a promised task to fulfil in Winchester. Fifteen years later, after an education as a monastery orphan and then a cloth merchant’s apprentice in Ghent, Rafi sets off for England to fulfil his promise and discover the identity of the dead soldier.

This is a wonderfully fleshed-out and plotted story of apprentices, wool merchants, unhappy wives and customs men. The wool

and textile trade between England and Flanders is vividly depicted. The medieval town of Winchester and the everyday lives of its occupants are drawn with painstaking and sensuous detail. From the Cathedral to Shite Alley, from the abbey to the castle, this medieval world comes alive as we accompany Rafi in his hunt for the owner of the seal. Rafi engages with a series of well-drawn characters, including his rumbustious friend Adam; Edith, a young, abused wife and mother who Rafi falls in love with; Serlo, the kindly innkeeper and piemaker; and Roger, the glowering steward. Rafi’s skill at drawing plays a part in his developing adventure. The mystery he gradually unravels involves an abducted nun, three brothers, and a beautiful abbey orphan, who is about to come of age and have to choose between taking the veil or marriage. Rafi is robbed and beaten but is not deterred from his mission as he works to identify the soldier who owned the seal. Jane Loftus’ The Herb Knot is an impressive, unputdownable debut novel.

Tracey Warr

THE WHITE FORTRESS

Boyd and Beth Morrison, Head of Zeus, 2025, £20.00/$29.99, hb, 419pp, 9781035902095

It is unusual for a brother and sister to co-author a novel, but this is the Morrison siblings’ third book in their Lawless Land series, following the adventures of English knight Gerard and his wife Willa across 14thcentury Europe. Their wanderings have now brought them to Croatia. I had assumed that the White Fortress was Dubrovnik, but although much of the story is set there, the White Fortress in the title is a smaller city to the north, Ston. The plot centres on a Serbian attempt to capture Ston and its valuable salt works from the Venetians. It is a convoluted tale of betrayal and intrigue, kidnap and murder, so complex that the characters have to keep explaining it to each other.

Even Marco Polo gets involved, although he is long dead. It seems that he has left two unpublished journals at his supposed birthplace of Korkula, possession of which will give the finder a distinct economic and military advantage. Amongst other things, they contain the formula for making rocketpropelled missiles. The story is wildly farfetched and extremely violent. The Morrisons’ forte is their battle scenes, whether single combat or mass assaults. If you want a fast-moving adventure set in the beautiful landscape of the eastern shore of the Adriatic, this is your book.

Edward James

THEN HE SENT PROPHETS

Mohamed Seif El Nasr, Daraja Press, 2024, $20.00, pb, 252pp, 9781998309122

In 1359, Zakaria is an earnest scholar living in Morocco with a devoted wife, complaining mother-in-law, and a wide circle of friends and associates with diverse points of view. He

tries to live up to his own honest moral code amidst interfamilial strife and palace intrigue in the sultan’s court. He becomes conflicted when he loses faith in his own sultan for being involved in unsavory behavior. When his wife bears a sickly daughter, who is well-tended by a Jewish physician, Zakaria takes the opportunity to join the exiled king of Muslim Granada in returning to Iberia to regain his crown. Along the way, he endures even more political and personal challenges, and these seem to become even more disturbing when Zakaria grows exceedingly attracted to the exiled king’s beautiful sister.

Readers seeking the thunder of charging steeds and clashes of swords must look elsewhere, as this is an interesting characterand emotion-driven novel of a time, place and events not widely covered in Western literature. There are numerous characters, and a glossary would have been helpful in keeping up with them, though there is a simple and very useful map provided. Still, the characters, notwithstanding the long names, are one of the book’s most attractive aspects. Surprisingly, there are a number of genuinely humorous scenes, most featuring Zakaria’s good friend, Musa; Shaybah, an odd old beggar; and Zakaria’s wise grandmother, Tamima. Just as appealing as these and some other characters are, the “bad” ones are truly duplicitous villains. Though not what I anticipated from the short description, this book happily exceeded my expectations. Prepare to take part in the gamut of emotions from joy to excitement, tragedy and love. Recommended.

Thomas J. Howley

15TH CENTURY

TO BE WORTHY IN HONOR

Liz Sevchuk Armstrong, BWL Publishing, 2025, $19.99, pb, 317pp, 9780228635079

To Be Worthy in Honor is the second in a trilogy that chronicles several years in the life of Sir Harry Percy, nicknamed Hotspur for his swift action along the unruly Anglo-Scots border. It’s November 1400. King Henry IV has been in power for only a year when tensions between Harry and the king begin to simmer. Although Harry is building a life for himself in Northumberland with his newfound lady-love, the king heaps increasingly erratic demands on him—keep the raiding Scots in check, quell a Welsh uprising, mentor Prince Hal (destined to become King Henry V), attend the Great Council in London. The list goes on. Yet, the king refuses to pay the wages of Harry’s fighting men as required by law, claiming the Exchequer is empty, and commands that Harry betray a treaty signed in good faith. With his honor at stake, amidst cutthroat political maneuvering at court and a personal tragedy in Northumberland, Sir Harry confronts conflict on all sides.

An impressive mix of deep historical research, character development, and writing craft is woven into Armstrong’s powerful tale of honor, royal vanity, and military action in 15th-century Britain. After a rather slow-burn

first chapter, where Sir Harry is reintroduced to readers as an honorable, if financially strapped and lovestruck warrior knight, the pace hurtles along at breakneck speed. There’s a castle siege, Scottish reiver attacks, and military diplomacy that all figure into the storytelling, with the often harsh reality of medieval life and warfare described in vivid scenes of utter despair and hard-won triumph. Period details abound—from lances, swords, and other weaponry to the exquisite floor tiles of Westminster. Historical notes and an extensive bibliography conclude this emotionally moving novel that had me glued to the story from start to finish.

Deborah Cay Wilding

A PACT WITH THE DEVIL

Anna Legat, Sharpe Books, 2025, £8.99, pb, 196pp, 9798314163436

Cracow, Poland, 1491, in the 44th year of the reign of King Casimir Jagiellon. Two orphaned young men, the serious Nicolaus Copernicus and his dissolute but utterly charming elder brother, Andreas, are students at the university, sponsored by their uncle. At nineteen, Nicolaus is not yet the polymath and polyglot that we know he becomes, but his inquisitive mind and his desire for truth is already evident. He does not accept that Doctor Faustus, a scholar, royal apothecary and suspected alchemist and dabbler in the dark arts, was killed by demonic agency, despite Faustus’s body hanging upside down over a pot of boiling tar, with a rough pentagon carved into his naked chest.

Nicolaus refuses to succumb to superstition and is determined to prove that the murderer is human, though not the poor college porter, who is suspected of consorting with the Devil and imprisoned. Nicolaus’ resolve is tested when his friend is murdered, his body desecrated in the same demonic way, but Nicolaus continues to seek justice and the truth, and in so doing, uncovers a plot that threatens the stability of the whole kingdom.

This is an exciting and very readable book with some wonderful descriptions that will make the reader extremely glad that they don’t live in Cracow in 1491! The politics are complicated, but Legat tells enough for the reader to understand the motivations and manoeuverings without getting bogged down in it. The characters are believable, and Nicolaus and his brother and friends are particularly engaging. Legat has obviously done a lot of research into the period, and the reader becomes totally immersed in the lives and beliefs of the different characters.

This is the first of the Nicolaus Copernicus mystery series, and I am pleased to recommend it. I certainly look forward to reading the next books.

Marilyn Pemberton

novel presents three important figures of the Italian Renaissance: Lorenzo de’ Medici, Leonardo da Vinci, and Francesco Salviati. The years 1471-1479 are fateful ones, not just for the characters but for the dazzling Republic of Florence itself, and these three men are intimately involved in the shifting cultural and political tides that bring an end to Florence’s ascendancy in the complex history of Italy.

Leonardo is the “Florenzer” of the title, a slur at the time for gay men. He knows he has talent, but struggles with the self-loathing instilled in him by his family and his city. Lorenzo is the powerful head of the banking family that controls Florence but learns that financial power has limits in the face of the open corruption of Church and state. Francesco is an illegitimate mixed-race priest hoping to rise in the service of Pope Sixtus IV. Like Leonardo, he shares the low opinion his family and the world have of him and like Lorenzo, he finds the demands of money and religion are seldom compatible. All three find themselves at the mercy of the greed and capriciousness of Rome’s domination of Italian identity.

Melanson has found an effective way to create a rich portrait of Florence. Like Leonardo, his technique is to focus in on small details of character and everyday life to create a panoramic vision. The three protagonists can be frustrating in their self-absorption and indecision, and the pace of the novel is very slow, but the insights Melanson offers into the complex relationships between morality, money, and art are well worth the effort.

Kristen McDermott

BORN TO TROUBLE

Regan Walker, Independently published, 2025, $15.75, pb, 593pp, 9781735438160

Born to Trouble (Book 4 of the Clan Donald Saga) delivers a fierce and heartfelt finale to Alexander of Islay’s journey. Set in tumultuous 15th-century Scotland, the novel opens with Alexander welcoming King James home only to find himself betrayed, imprisoned in Tantallon Castle, and under threat from Lowland lords. Yet loyal Highland clans rise to his defense, and amid political storms Alexander’s heart becomes entwined with three women—only one will be his true match.

FLORENZER

Phil Melanson, Liveright, 2025, $29.99/ C$39.99, hb, 368pp, 9781324095033

This thoughtful, triple-point-of-view debut

Regan Walker excels at weaving sweeping historical drama with deeply intimate moments. We’re not just spectators to battle plans and power plays; we’re guests at candlelit feasts, Christmas gatherings, and strategic counsel in great halls. The result is a Scotland alive with culture, ceremony, and clan loyalty—not just a backdrop for intrigue. Alexander himself is compelling, a leader torn between legacy and desire. The women is Alexander’s life are also depicted vibrantly, not just side notes to his political journey but essential threads in the tapestry of the story. And while there were moments when I longed for the plot to pick up speed, these women kept me invested.

Underneath it all, you feel the heart of the saga: questions of faith, family, and loyalty quietly anchor the story. It’s more than crowns

and schemes—it’s about belonging, and the people who give us a home. This novel is for readers who don’t mind taking the long road—who enjoy getting deep into legacy and lineage. Born to Trouble doesn’t race, but it leaves its mark.

Williamaye Jones

16TH CENTURY

SHACKLED TO A GHOST

C. F. Kirkham-Sandy, Independently published, 2025, £1.99, ebook, 503pp, B0DV5F6585

Set in the years that were pregnant with, and gave birth to, the European Reformation, Shackled to a Ghost fields the familiar names and critical players of the time. Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas Cromwell, and the Boleyn family all play their parts; even Henry VIII appears – in his early years at least – as a strikingly promising human being, but the hub of this story is formed by the intense relationship between Thomas More and Desiderius Erasmus.

More is a lawyer, a judge, and, ultimately, Henry’s Lord High Chancellor. Erasmus is a Dutch theologian and the illegitimate son of a priest. Introduced to each other on the cusp of the Reformation, they instantly form a friendship which endures as the worldquaking events of that era revolve around them.

In the face of Henry’s determination to obtain a divorce and a separation from Rome, Thomas More battles to keep both the king and the kingdom within the Catholic Church. ‘I swear to defend the Church from her enemies, to love justice, to serve the king. Those three duties must be as one… or the state totters.’ This impossible endeavour challenges More’s own moral convictions.

Inevitably, the quieter sub-plot of More’s daughter, Meg – her writing and her struggle with her own conscience – is overwhelmed by the magnitude of the bigger picture, but her story and other cameos in the book are absorbing. I would have loved to see more of the formidable Dame Alice, More’s second wife and the acknowledged foundation of his temporal world.

The narrative of Shackled to a Ghost seems fragmented at first, but the moral, ethical, and theological struggles are gripping, and it soon becomes clear why GK Chesterton believed that Thomas More “may come to be counted the greatest Englishman, or at least the greatest historical character in English History.”

Nicola Belluomo

beautiful young Countess Margaretha as her lady-in-waiting, and Margaretha hopes that her new position will give her the influence she needs to get her POW brother released from prison. She also has another motive for joining the queen’s court: to absolve herself from something terrible she did in the past.

Huntsman Friedrich is drawn into Margaretha’s plan, agreeing to teach her to hunt in return for her teaching him French for reasons that are revealed later in the book. The two are drawn to each other despite the gulf between their social classes, and they are both appealing, fully realized characters with believable faults and ethical dilemmas. Occasionally Margaretha’s tendency to dissolve in tears becomes cloying, and Friedrich sometimes behaves unrealistically as if he is her social equal. But the reader can’t help rooting for them both.

The plight of Margaretha’s people and their fight for freedom from the Catholic church is sympathetically depicted, especially in the chapel services where they can’t understand the Latin words of the liturgy while grieving for fallen family members. On a lighter note, the cameo appearance of Andreas Vesalius, the great anatomist, is memorable.

There are a few clever twists that this reader didn’t see coming, and the author skillfully blends the Snow White fairytale with the true story of the historical Countess Margaretha von Waldeck. The theme of forgiveness, of others and of oneself, is beautifully depicted.

Clarissa Harwood

THE SHAKESPEARE SECRET

D. J. Nix, Alcove Press, 2025, $29.99/C$39.99, hb, 336pp, 9798892421522

HEART OF SNOW

Rachel Grow Law, Covenant, 2025, $17.99, pb, 296pp, 9781524427733

It’s 1547 in the German territory of the Holy Roman Empire. The Reformation is in full swing, and the Kaiser is trying to quash rebels who are fighting for independence from the Catholic church. Queen Mary chooses

The year is 1591. Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, has returned to court, bristling at the empty flattery and pageantry of Queen Elizabeth’s inner circle. But when a chance conversation with fellow outsider Emilia Bassano—and an unlikely spark of inspiration from seamstress Jane Daggett—leads the women to cowrite a play, something dangerous and exhilarating takes root. What begins as a subversive act of creativity soon becomes a covert collaboration, one that requires a public front. Enter a young and eager actor, Will Shakespeare.

The Shakespeare Secret offers a clever reimagining of the Bard’s beginnings through the eyes of three women bold enough to claim the stage for themselves. There’s real charm in the banter, and the language strikes a nice

balance: rooted in the time period without sounding stiff. Each woman is conceived with care and given her own arc, and their bond— built on shared risk and quiet rebellion—feels earned.

Things take a dark turn when their private meetings catch the eye of one of Queen Elizabeth’s spies who reports directly to William Cecil, the Queen’s advisor. Cecil brands them traitors and endeavors to catch them in the act. So what started as a creative outlet for the three women now becomes a matter of survival. A couple of twists require a bit of leeway from the reader, though the story moves at a fast pace and the ending is tense and satisfying.

This engaging novel plays well with literary history. The Shakespeare Secret gives voice to the three women who could never sign their own names and does it deftly with wit and a great sense of timing. A recommended read.

Williamaye Jones

LADY OF THE QUAY

Amanda Roberts, Hickory Press, 2025, £8.99, pb, 256pp, 9781036917104

After the sudden death of her father, Isabella Gillhespy is faced with the duty of taking over his shipping business in Elizabethan Berwickupon-Tweed, but before she can begin, she’s subjected to a series of revelations that threaten everything she thought she knew. Isabella discovers that nearly everyone has been concealing information and each divulgence seems to be accompanied by another level of complication and threat. The graveside appearance of an unexpected cousin, and the underhanded mechanisms of the town’s businessmen, the perfidy of her betrothed are only the beginning. Being repeatedly called to the Tolbooth as an investigation by Sir William Cecil’s agent throws suspicions on those around her, shows Isabella that she can’t trust anyone. The reader is swept alongside her as we tumble through the troubles left by her father with detailed descriptions of Berwick and life in the Elizabethan age.

Amanda Roberts’ dedication to description and her strong writing enrich the plot. Although Isabella Gillhespy’s determined character prevails even as everything appears to collapse, the relentless string of misfortune gets a bit weary. By the time the many strands of the mystery have been tidied, the reader is relieved to find that Isabella does have a few loyal friends. And that she has been charged with a new responsibility that will carry her into future stories.

Amy Turner

FROM THE GROUND UP

Katherine J. Scott, Glowing Log Books, 2024, $14.99, pb, 323pp, 9798991126717

Scott’s enjoyable debut mystery features Robert Smythson, the architect renowned for building impressive manor houses throughout Elizabethan England. In the

year 1568, however, he’s a mere stonemason, young and lacking self-confidence, at the outset of the commission that will jump-start his career. Sir John Thynne has hired Robert to rebuild Longleat in rural Wiltshire after a mysterious fire, but his well-known impatience and controlling nature make Robert despair he’ll ever convince his patron to adopt his own visions. Robert also must contend with his talented predecessor, who’s still hanging around nearby, while desperately missing his ladylove, the gently raised Anne Palmer, since he doesn’t feel worthy of her yet. After persuading Sir John to start afresh by tearing down Longleat’s half-built north wall, with the goal of achieving stability and symmetric balance, Robert is devastated to uncover a body buried in the rubble. The victim’s identity soon becomes known. Robert feels compelled to seek justice and doesn’t understand why he’s discouraged at every turn.

Beguiling details on Elizabethan architecture—not just the tools and designs, but also the thoughtful reasoning behind them—are proficiently woven into a very human story about ambition, rivalry, friendship, jealousy, and love. Robert is an inspired choice for protagonist, and it’s encouraging to see him develop the diplomatic skills to handle Sir John as they pursue their shared dream of structural perfection. The construction of Longleat draws in a large group of interesting secondary characters with varied motivations, from a social-climbing wife to an overt Catholic sympathizer. While Robert’s lack of poise is understandable—he has a traumatic past—his frequent stammering and bumbling feels overplayed, and he doesn’t always choose conversations wisely. Future adventures for Robert are planned, so readers can look forward to seeing his personal growth alongside the rise of Longleat.

Sarah Johnson

PARADISE ONCE

Oliver Senior, Akashic, 2025, $29.95/$39.95, hb, 352pp, 9781636142272

On the cusp of “discovery,” a handful of Caribbean Taíno people must flee a Spanish massacre to start anew in Olive Senior’s captivating novel, Paradise Once.

In 1513, a village in Cuba is home to a community of Indigenous called the Taíno. Rumors of “hard shelled” men from another land encroaching on their islands feed fears that the Taíno have displeased their spiritual guides, the cemíes. Upon the eve of a meeting with the foreigners, Night Orchid sits apart on the edge of the village as she goes through a ritual of womanhood alone in an isolated hut. Flint is the son of a woman who traces her ancestry, and healing arts, to the Old Ones— the island’s first peoples. Heart of Palm is a naive follower of the menacing Shark Tooth, a stranger to the island who seeks to take over the Taíno. When the Spanish arrive, an African American servant in their employ, named Sekou, turns heads with his never-before-seen hue.

When the Spanish suddenly attack the

village, a massacre ensues. Candlewood, the behike (shaman) of the Taíno, manages to round up these four survivors to maintain the lifeblood of their people. This nucleus of pure and mixed Taino, as well as Sekou, the African American who runs away to join them, are the progenitors of the future resistance fighters known as the Cimarrones or Maroons.

Senior populates her story with Caribbean myths and legends based on her deep knowledge, and while the story takes some supernatural turns, its appeal lies in the portrayal of this matrilineal society and its fascinating rituals. A glossary of Taíno words is also a helpful addition for readers. A bittersweet ode to a paradise lost and a people forced to transform to survive, Paradise Once returns the legendary Taíno people to the forefront of “New World” historical fiction.

Peggy Kurkowski

THE CARDINAL

Alison Weir, Headline Review, 2025, £25.00, hb, 465pp, 9781035416196 / Ballantine, 2025, $32.00/C$42.00, hb, 464pp, 9780593974704 The Cardinal is Alison Weir’s most impressive novel to date. This reviewer has read them all. In it, Weir explores Cardinal Wolsey’s life, staying close to the historical record but speculating where information within the historical narrative is sparse. For example, Weir speculates and dramatizes Joan Larke’s life with Wolsey, creating a touching, emotional theme within the novel. She also presents a detailed consideration of the Cardinal’s early life as a gifted Oxford student. Wolsey was funded by his ambitious family, who were in trade. As told by Weir, his ambition, his entry to court and his recognition by Henry VIII as a talented administrator and a personable new man are both fascinating and convincing.

As well as exploring successfully Wolsey’s impossible romance, Weir investigates and dramatizes his devotion and service to the king and their close friendship. This lasts until Wolsey fails to achieve the king’s Great Matter, Henry’s divorce. When Wolsey falls from grace, it is clear in the novel that his real enemy is ‘the night crow’ Anne Boleyn and her faction. We see how these factions operate to influence a suggestable king and how Wolsey’s own pragmatism creates his downfall.

This is a gripping novel. The prose is wordperfect. Weir admirably achieves exceptional depth of character within the book. A reader will enter King Henry’s court, perceive its brilliance, poetry and music as well as its dangers.

Weir does for Cardinal Wolsey what Hilary

Mantel does for Thomas Cromwell. She humanises her protagonist and paints his world in vivid colour. This is a wonderfully engrossing novel, both rich and convincing. A reader will leave its pages considering Thomas Wolsey to be basically an honourable, good and loyal man, albeit a man who adored luxury. The Cardinal is incredibly moving and a must read for Tudor fans.

Carol McGrath

17TH CENTURY

THE BRAMPTON WITCH MURDERS

Ellis Blackwood, Vintage Mystery Press, 2024, £8.99, pb, 242pp, 9781068702709

England, September 1666, and the diarist and naval officer Samuel Pepys has two immediate and serious problems to contend with. Not only has a fire taken hold in parts of London’s City, but Pepys’ sister Paulina has been accused of witchcraft in his family home in the village of Brampton in Cambridgeshire. Even though the main tide of witchcraft accusations has now declined, Paulina’s challenger is Simon Hopkins, son of the notorious Matthew Hopkins, self-termed witch-finder general, who terrorised the eastern counties of England 25 years ago or so in seeking out witchcraft and ensuring the so-called perpetrators were subject to trial and harshly punished. Pepys sends two of his trusted staff to investigate the accusations, associate and employer Jacob Standish and, oddly enough, a housemaid Abigail Harcourt. But Abigail has abilities well beyond her lowly servant status. In Brampton, the two investigators find all sorts of threats, deceptions and murder as they attempt to discover the cause of these baseless accusations before the arrival of the feared witch-finder.

The historical content is well researched and presented, and the writer goes to great pains to ensure the authenticity of names and to attempt an approximate imitation of 17th-century speech. However, the narrative is often rather naïve and lacking that essential degree of capability and credibility to allow the reader to become wholly immersed in the story. In short, it is not terribly well written and would certainly benefit from some editorial assistance.

Douglas Kemp

CASTAWAY ON THE ISLE OF DEVILS

Elisabeth Carson-Williams, Independently published, 2025, $15.99, pb, 254pp, 9798991860901

Alice Drinkard is a spoiled sixteen-yearold who has little patience—or affection—for her parents. She is constantly rude to her mother, something I suspect would not have been tolerated in the first decades of the 17th century, whom she blames for everything–as sixteen-year-old girls often do. But whatever her thoughts about her parents, Alice is looking

forward to their adventure: the Drinkards are to cross the sea and join the settlers in Jamestown.

Crossing the oceans is hazardous, and when Sea Venture is hit by a hurricane, things quickly deteriorate into a vividly described nightmare. Fortunately, the ship has a capable captain in Admiral Somers who manages to run the ship aground on the Isle of Devils (present-day Bermuda).

Ms. Carson-Williams has forged a tight and gripping narrative around the real-life story of the wreck of Sea Venture. The castaways have landed on their feet in that the Isle of Devils is something of a misnomer: there is plenty of food and water. But there is discord between the future Lieutenant Governor of Jamestown, Sir Thomas Gates, and Admiral Somers, things further complicated by the deeply dislikeable Ms Strachey, who eagerly fans the flames of mistrust.

For those familiar with the early years in Jamestown, it will not come as a surprise to learn life is much better on the Isle of Devils. But Sir Thomas insists the survivors push on, stating they are all contracted to the Virginia Company and are expected to fulfill said contracts.

Castaway on the Isle of Devils is a wellresearched read, populated by a number of vivid characters. Principal among them is Alice who emerges from the experiences as a substantially wiser and more compassionate person. Warmly recommended.

Anna Belfrage

THE FIRST WITCH OF BOSTON

Andrea Catalano, Lake Union, 2025, $16.99/£8.99, pb, 326pp, 9781662525995

It’s 1646, and Thomas Jones and his wife Maggie, having left London under something of a cloud, are trying to build a new life in Massachusetts. Thomas is a skilled carpenter and furniture-maker, and Maggie is a gifted herbalist and midwife. She’s also an outspoken character, however, and that doesn’t win her many friends in Puritan Charlestown. She has the uncanny knack of reading people’s characters and spotting signs of health issues – a pregnancy for example – before the person even knows of it themselves. People have their suspicions about Maggie Jones. When a young widow takes a liking to Thomas, and isn’t above a trick or two to snare a married man, serious trouble is just around the corner.

While the title and a prologue confirm Maggie’s fate long before we watch it all unfold, there are still many tensions and questions to be resolved. The bald facts of witch-hunts can seem unimaginable to a modern-day audience, but Catalano’s character and world-building ably bring to life an era fuelled by superstition, repression, and intolerance. Thomas and Maggie’s marriage is complex and believable. Moments of tenderness and great grief are sensitively handled. I can see this book appealing to the many fans of Ariel Lawhon’s The Frozen River

and Chris Bohjalian’s Hour of the Witch, and eagerly look forward to reading whatever Catalano writes next.

Kate Braithwaite

THE WANTON ROAD

J. C. Harvey, Allen & Unwin, 2025, £20.00, hb, 541pp, 9781838953485

The completion of a trilogy recounting the journey of Jack Fiskardo, a tough soldier but a compassionate man, through the Thirty Years’ War and into the English Civil War. Harvey as author is prominent, her voice at its best combining Hilary Mantel with George Macdonald Fraser. Following a very poignant description of Jack’s bereavement, the story proper starts with the fourth siege of Breda (1637), where he is reunited with his company of international fighting men, but we are also introduced to a really compelling leading lady, Pris Holland, raised in a bawdy house controlled by a South London crime family.

Murderous villain Carlo Fantom also stalks the pages, almost invincible as he follows Fiskardo to England. Fiskardo fights for the King, enjoying victory at Roundway Down (1643) but by 1645 suffering cruel imprisonment by Parliamentarians. Although the world building in terms of narration and description is excellent – I particularly liked details of the nuisances of war, such as the need to pass through a checkpoint at High Wycombe when travelling between Oxford and London – there are also a few historical slips: mentions of enamelled tobacco tins and of cordite. With vast ambition, at least 80 named characters and a span of 25 years, this book does at times squeeze a little too much in. Occasionally, characters have knowledge from unknown sources. There is one surprisingly obvious deus ex machina plot resolution. I am not sure that other authors such as Eleanor Swift-Hook don’t handle similar material more concisely and with more plot logic.

If not quite up to the high standard of its predecessors, this book still has a lot going for it: Harvey is able to spin a web in which we lose ourselves.

Ben Bergonzi

THIS HERE IS LOVE

Princess Joy L. Perry, W. W. Norton, 2025, $29.99/C$39.99/£22.99, hb, 384pp, 9781324105978

Perry, an award-winning author, has created an unforgettable set of characters in a multi-point of view story tracing the lives and struggles of enslaved and indentured people in the Virginia colony at the turn of the 18th century. Andrew Cabarrus is a free, land-owning Black man whose wife and children are still enslaved and whose desperate desire to free them has predictably disastrous consequences. His son David becomes the property of Jack Dane, an Irish émigré who inherits the farm his indentured master contracted him to help work. David’s enslavement is lightened by Jack’s purchase

of Bless, a young woman Jack hopes will produce human capital in the form of enslaved children. Perry follows these characters, each one with a unique and sympathetic voice, deeply and intimately, creating a moving study of the emotional damage wrought by slavery on both those who suffer it and those who profit from it. But the novel is far from depressing. Perry writes about the lives of people who live close to the land with gorgeous detail and allows her characters their hard-won moments of joy and fulfillment. Ultimately, the novel celebrates this capacity for joy as the key to survival for a people who were tragically treated as property. By setting her narrative at the time when the American laws enabling chattel slavery were being created, the reader gets a vivid, moving depiction of the many varied ways humans both exploit one another and form communities to resist such exploitation.

Kristen McDermott

THESE WICKED DEVICES

Matthew Plampin, The Borough Press, 2025, £18.99, hb, 384pp, 9780008163662

Rome in the abysmal summer heat of 1650. Donna Olimpia Maidalchini, Princess of San Martino, is the overbearing, scheming and manipulative matriarch sister-in-law of Pope Innocent X and is widely acknowledged to wield undue influence over the Pope. But matters in Rome are not stable, and a power struggle erupts which threatens Donna Olimpia’s pre-eminent position. At the same time, an assistant to the Spanish artist Diego Velázquez is drawn into a dangerous conspiracy in Rome, and two desperate nuns, Sisters Orsola and Serafina, also arrive in the eternal city, bearing a deadly secret. Rome is a tinderbox of treachery, duplicity, overweening ambition and betrayal.

The historical background is excellently researched and full of intriguing details and context. While the writing is capable and the plot interesting, it is a little pedestrian at times and somehow needs a little more zest and bite to aid the drive of the narrative. There is a useful dramatis personae at the start of the book, as most of the real-life characters were not known to me before reading, and so this was a good device to allow me to keep track of who was who. This is an entertaining read, but not one that would necessarily persuade me to go out and read the writer’s previous historical fiction.

Douglas Kemp

18TH CENTURY

UNDEFEATED

Gillie Basson, Whitefox, 2024, $13.99, pb, 328pp, 9781916797604

Basson has created a fine novel around the shadowy 1720s historical figure Elizabeth Wilkinson-Stokes, set in the rookeries of London. She is a female bare-knuckle prizefighter called the Championess. Early in the story, she witnesses her husband-cumhandler being hanged and is glad to see her abuser go. But now she has no income and a gin habit to support. A sympathetic constable and a disabled boy pickpocket, Halfinch, who idolizes her for her fighting abilities, come into her orbit. The constable steers her (reluctantly) into a job sewing stays in a haberdasher’s shop alongside Alice, whose husband is increasingly violent towards her. At first, Elizabeth cares for no one but herself, but she begins to have sympathy for Alice and Halfinch. Elizabeth’s star begins to rise when James Figg, a noted fight promoter, offers to house and train her for future fights if she will quit drinking. But Elizabeth runs afoul of brothel owner Vincent and crooked magistrate Trelawny, which sets off a chain of events that results in both Alice and Halfinch being accused of murder. How much is likeability critical to a novel’s main character? Elizabeth is not easy to identify with: she is a drunk, has a lot of hatred, is hairtrigger violent, and is her own worst enemy. But Basson is skilled at gradually pulling Elizabeth out of herself in interacting with the well-rounded secondary characters, making her more relatable as the story advances. Supplemental materials include a period map of London, explanations of what little is known of the real Elizabeth, how criminal justice functioned in the 1720s, and a list of additional historical figures incorporated into the story. The novel will please women’s and sport history fans, especially given a period and topic that haven’t been overused in the genre.

B. J. Sedlock

FOUL PLAYERS

Pamela Belle, Independently published, 2025, $14.22, pb, 413pp, 9781068678455 1700s, London. When Polly Paradice, Covent Garden coffee house proprietor, ex-courtesan, and singer, reunites with Mattie, her estranged sister and rising starlet of the London stage, mysterious, alarming events follow. From famous city landmarks to bustling boulevards and labyrinthine alleyways, mischief, mayhem, and murder are plotted against Polly, her family, and friends. As horrifying secrets from the past are exposed, she and her companions find themselves in grave danger. Will she, Andre Dark, her confidante and lover, Gin, her loyal maid, and others find the perpetrator and bring him or her to justice before it’s too late?

Prolific author Belle’s masterfully crafted novel vividly portrays 18th-century England and Jacobean society and culture. Her setting of the tale in London’s exciting, often dangerous theatre district is meticulously researched and seamlessly woven into the structure of the

story. Her expert world-building provides the perfect backdrop for the harrowing, intriguing twists and turns experienced by heroine Polly, fellow sleuth Andre Dark, her sister, and friends. Belle deftly recreates the stories of reallife stage personalities with actual dramatic events, giving the plot a continuous flow of mystery and suspense. Her in-depth research provides authentic, immersive insights into this significant culture and period of English history. Based on this engaging and entertaining third novel in the Paradice & Dark series, readers will surely enjoy Belle’s first two books. Captivating, memorable characters and a rousing, heartwarming, and adventurous novel!

Marcy McNally

THE TAROT READER OF VERSAILLES

Anya Bergman, Manilla Press, 2025, £16.99, hb, 480pp, 9781786582560

Passion is a temperamental quality shared by both the French and Irish, so it is entirely appropriate that Anya Bergman should set her novel in two related trouble spots: one, Paris, deep in the throes of its own passionate revolution; and the other, Dublin, at the time when the groundswell of its own engagement with independence is beginning to be felt and will lead it, eventually, into its own agonising “troubles”.

This author certainly begins as she means to go on. The opening scene in the novel is a very lengthy and detailed one, in which a leading character gives a card reading to two young army officers keen to learn the future of their military careers. This is followed by the same device, when, in copious ensuing card readings and in numerous subsequent storylines, the same device is used. This initial card-reading format also establishes the tone of the entire novel, which proceeds to build the storylines into the tarot reading process at the expense of a more naturalistic and appealing process.

While the storylines are potentially engaging, as the characters struggle to evolve within a complex plot which, we are told, is based on fact, I found the intrusion of the tarot device hugely and increasingly distracting. Clearly this author is overwhelmingly intrigued by the history and effect of this element of her novel, but in my view, she has overindulged her own interest at the expense of developing the engagement of a potential readership which may not share her view.

If the history and application of the reading of tarot cards is your meat, then this is the novel for you. If not, look elsewhere.

Julia Stoneham

THE VERSAILLES FORMULA

Nancy Bilyeau, Lume, 2025, $17.99/£15.99, pb, 354pp, 9781839016028

This is the third book in Nancy Bilyeau’s series of historical thrillers about Huguenot artist Genevieve Planché, set in 1760s England and France. Genevieve and her husband, chemist Thomas Sturbridge, are living a quiet life in the

English countryside when Genevieve receives an invitation to Horace Walpole’s Gothic mansion, where she finds a forged Fragonard painting with a brilliant blue pigment invented by her husband. Genevieve had been involved in espionage to obtain the formula for this color, which is so rare that people have killed for it, and it is the subject of a treaty between England and France, in which both sides have agreed not to produce the pigment. When two murders occur which are linked to the painting, British spymaster Sir Humphrey Willoughby sends Genevieve to Paris to discover who is making the blue pigment. She travels in the company of Captain Howard, an arrogant Army officer. He and Genevieve take an instant dislike to each other, but they must learn to work together to uncover a nest of spies, murderers, and traitors.

This is a wonderful novel, and Genevieve is an engaging protagonist. She is talented in both art and intrigue, but she is also vulnerable and makes mistakes. She can be impulsive and stubborn, which gets her into trouble a number of times, but she uses her intelligence to get herself, and those she loves, out of danger. I loved the settings in 18th-century France, including a porcelain factory near Versailles, Madame du Deffand’s salon, and a masked ball where the guests dress as nuns, monks, and friars. I enjoyed the development of Genevieve’s relationship with Captain Howard as they overcome their initial dislike. Highly recommended.

Vicki Kondelik

VIPER IN THE NEST

Georgina Clarke, Verve Books, 2025, £10.99, pb, 336pp, 9780857308955

London, 1759: a sex worker leaves the frowsty camaraderie of her Soho brothel to become the established mistress of a dull but wealthy man, in one of the finer districts of the city. But her success soon ends in tragedy, with a suicide in a locked library. How did her protector, a man from a modest background, come by his riches?

This is the third of Clarke’s Lizzie Hardwicke series, narrated in the first person by a resourceful and intelligent prostitute who has a sideline as a magistrate’s informer. For the sake of her former colleague, Lizzie is determined to get an explanation for the man’s death. Then suicide is followed by murder, of a particularly sadistic kind, this time of the manager of a ‘gambling hell’ patronised by rich and well-connected politicians. With her clients, Lizzie pretends not to be as educated or well-informed as she really is, though she’s the daughter of a vicar and the niece of a Member of Parliament, who if she didn’t understand classical Greek would not be able to solve her case.

Viper in the Nest teems with period details, a Hogarth painting on the page, with its brothel parlours, card tables and street fights, with dire poverty juxtaposed with silk gowns. It’s also a story of female solidarity and companionship in a world where men wield the power and

profit from the very work they despise these girls for doing, men whose true nature, for all they think of themselves as gentlemen, is revealed in how they treat the women they buy.

The plot neatly interweaves actual events, like the scapegoating and subsequent execution of Admiral Byng, in a novel that, though it is a standalone, leaves the door open to another Lizzie Hardwicke adventure.

Katherine Mezzacappa

TWO INCHES OF IVORY

Malcolm Day, Troubador, 2025, £12.99, pb, 456 pp, 9781836280453

This book is based on the author’s meticulous research into the family and times of Jane Austen, for which he must be applauded. His sources are contemporary letters between family members and other documents, and he weaves a story to link what is factually known of the Austens with imagined dialogue and descriptive prose. Throughout the book, which is set during Jane Austen’s lifetime, the reader is also made aware of what is going on in the wider world – the madness of King George, the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, catastrophic harvests. It was good to discover more about Jane’s wider family and their peripatetic life and how two of her brothers left home so early (one to India one to Oxford) and how another, who had learning difficulties, was placed elsewhere and seemingly forgotten. And who knew that Jane made the first edits to her books on little slivers of ivory (paper being so expensive)?

There is much to admire in the book, but it has a bewildering cast of characters, and in order to describe every aspect of Georgian life, the author frequently changes venues and dates, making it a rather disjointed read. Also, to my ear, some of the language used seems modern. For example, would Georgians really say ‘she’s having a ball,’ ‘a real hoot,’ ‘giving it their best shot,’ and ‘right now’? The author is understandably keen for his readers to benefit from his extensive research, but I did feel that he needed to concentrate more on fleshing out the main characters (through body language and natural dialogue) so that they were more relatable.

R. Hayes

PRINCE GEORGE & MASTER FREDERICK

Rosalind Freeborn, Alliance Press, 2025, $19.00, pb, 366pp, 9781838259853

Freeborn brings to light the intriguing story of Frederick Blomberg. As a four-year-old orphan, Frederick was taken into the royal household of George III to be a playmate for the prince, the future George IV. It’s highly likely that Frederick was the natural son of George III and that the King had persuaded his equerry and friend, Frederick Blomberg senior, to marry the girl in question to prevent a scandal and give the child an inheritance.

Young Frederick’s mother had died in childbirth and Frederick senior died on active service in the West Indies. The author has done meticulous research, and it seems that Master Frederick was frequently at the heart of royal events with Prince George, and there are accounts of them performing violin or cello duets at royal residences.

Prince George’s character is well fleshed out, displaying his petulance, insecurity, and self-indulgence from an early age, yet with moments of true generosity particularly towards Frederick. Freeborn portrays Frederick as the sensible, studious boy who often took the blame for George’s extravagant ways, was grateful for his excellent education, both academic and musical, but always a bit on edge, feeling his position never truly secure within the royal household.

In real life, Frederick became a clergyman, studying divinity at Cambridge, and, once ordained in 1787, he returned to his royal family as chaplain at Windsor and also private secretary to Prince George.

There’s no doubt that Frederick was a support to Prince George throughout his life, but so little is known of him. Freeborn has created a backstory for him which is perfectly credible and also gives the reader some welcome insights into Georgian society. My only criticism is that Frederick’s character is saintly in his forbearance. I should like him to have had a few flaws!

R. Hayes

THE BRIDE STONE

Sally Gardner, Head of Zeus, 2025, £20.00, hb, 339pp, 9781804541845

When Duval is released from La Force, the infamous political prison in Revolutionary Paris, he returns to London to discover that his father, Lord Harlington, has died and left him two days to fulfil the conditions of his inheritance: he must marry. A rival heir is at his heels, and Duval’s mission seems hopeless until his servant leads him to a customary, but illegal, wife sale at Thetford market. Not knowing quite why, Duval buys the beaten and bruised widow of Samuel Hyde, an aptly named parson. Duval learns about his new wife Edmée – another survivor of the French Revolution – by secretly reading her diary; but even as he falls in love, her identity remains mysterious, as does the meaning of a book locked in her handbox, her only possession. He arranges a ball to persuade polite society of the legitimacy of their union, but the ball drags other émigrés into Edmée’s new life, including the enigmatic Marquis de Soule. She fears that the secrets of her past will now unravel her present happiness. When Edmée suddenly disappears, Duval enlists the services of Joseph Quinn of the Bow Street Runners to investigate and finally solve the mystery of his wife.

Gardner has previously written Revolutionary stories and retold fairy tales, and this work combines the two: the hero must complete an impossible quest and break

his beloved’s curse so they can live happily ever after. She shows us vividly the end of the ancien régime through the past lives of its émigrés, and this book shares some engineering magic with her last 18th-century novel, The Weather Woman. Gardner acknowledges that this was a difficult novel to write, and readers may notice some of those difficulties. That said, this is definitely one for lovers of mystery and Georgian romance.

Louise Tree

THE CASE OF THE MAD DOCTOR

P. D. Lennon, Canelo, 2025, £9.99, pb, 313pp, 9781835980873

England, 1772. A law clerk and an insurance agent travel from Bristol to Jamaica to investigate those suspected of committing a missing-presumed-dead insurance scam. Nothing unusual, perhaps, but the apprentice barrister is Black, British-born professional Isaiah Ollenu, long accustomed to tolerating conflicts of attitude and acceptance, much as now but more so. Fellow voyager Ruben Ashby is pious, white, somewhat reserved and initially sceptical about Ollenu’s usefulness, becoming less so as the story progresses. The relationship between the colleagues illustrates, through the eyes of one Black man and one white, the ubiquitous racial divide, this book being as much about the Black experience as it is the white reactions to it.

They sail on an ex-slave ship, triggering, in Ollenu, the first of several random mystical episodes and introducing us to the grim realities of that horrendous trade and its consequences. Lennon avoids overpreaching by letting Ollenu voice the outrages and truths for all the unwilling who have ever been dragged from their natural homeland to be enslaved elsewhere, in scenes somehow understated yet simultaneously screaming from the rooftops: this was and still is wrong, and this is how and why.

Her unfussy writing is engaging, entirely redolent of the era, giving authenticity to the descriptions of Jamaica’s towns, landscapes, coast and climate; moreover, aided by eclectic and realistic support characters, particularly the ‘Mad Doctor’ himself, she offers genuine insights into the establishment’s masterslave divisions, providing overall an excellent socially aware murder-mystery with a powerful, unmistakable message.

Simon Rickman

SOLITARY WALKER

N. J. Mastro, Black Rose Writing, 2025, $16.95, pb, 321pp, 9781685135614

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), novelist, journalist, and philosopher, authored the seminal A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and was a fierce advocate of equal education for girls and boys. Her history of the French Revolution, book reviews, and travel writing on Scandinavia were widely read. She was

one of the first English women supporting herself, however precariously, by writing.

Mastro’s fictionalized biography is enhanced by imagined conversations and illustrations of Mary’s presumed inner dialogue, revealing the frequent, fascinating disjunction between theory and practice. For example, after fervent support of the principles of the French Revolution, once in Paris, she is shocked and surprised that the king will actually be guillotined. An ardent proponent of celibacy, she was deeply sensual, allowing herself to be seduced by Gilbert Imlay, American playboy and profiteer, involved in his smuggling operations, and dismayed when he blithely abandons her and their infant daughter.

Yet nothing if not resilient, once lured to Scandinavia to salvage Imlay’s smuggling scheme, Mary parlays the disaster into a lively, successful travel book and social critique. Mastro writes with compassionate tenderness of her happy, tragically short marriage to William Godwin, a fine man fully her equal. Their daughter, the future Mary Shelley, would pen the immortal Frankenstein

The novel is marred by sometimes awkward asides. Dramatic scenes, for example, might be interrupted by detailed descriptions of women’s dresses. However, short excerpts from Wollstonecraft’s voluminous writings give readers a sense of her voice, careful reasoning, unique vantage on the French Revolution, and 18th-century life in Scandinavia. Mastro’s sympathetic novel may inspire readers to delve into the work of this troubled woman, who was a fierce and fearless defender of women’s equity in every sphere of private and public life.

Pamela Schoenewaldt

THE HOUNDING

Xenobe Purvis, Henry Holt, 2025, $26.99/ C$37.99, hb, 240pp, 9781250366399 / Hutchinson Heinemann, 2025, £16.99, hb, 272pp, 9781529154504

In the 18th-century village of Little Nettlebed – an uncomfortably named place if ever there was one – five sisters are the cause of much interest. The Mansfield girls live with their nearly blind grandfather and are grieving the recent loss of their grandmother, having been orphaned some years before. The sisters are a source of particular fascination for Pete Darling, the ferryman, who feels slighted when the sisters ignore him. When Pete believes he sees them transform into dogs, his accusations - despite his drunkenness and generally sullen nature – take hold in a village where life is hard, gossip is cheap, and the long dry summer drought has frayed tempers to breaking point. Told from a range of points of view, the story simmers with atmosphere and foreboding. The sisters are unknowable, enigmatic, and different; and difference – demonstrated in several ways through the novel – can be a problem in a small town where petty grievance and unhappiness are part of everyday life. Although the story is about the Mansfield sisters, it unfolds through others’ eyes, and so it’s hard to parse the truth about the girls.

Are they shapeshifters, as the local vicar might like them to be? Are the older girls victims of violence? Or are they simply threatening because they are women, a sisterhood, and happy in their own company? The Hounding is a beautifully written, absorbing book, full of atmosphere and rich imagery. Uncertainty and anxiety run through every page, and it’s appropriately billed as a cross between The Crucible and The Virgin Suicides

Kate Braithwaite

SAILING TOWARD THE TEMPEST

Kent M. Schwendy, Black Rose Writing, 2025, $19.95, pb, 391pp, 9781685135676

Kent Schwendy’s debut novel, inspired by his military background, is set at the dawn of the French Revolution and follows Joseph Duncan, a 22-year-old junior fourth lieutenant on the British frigate Fidelity. When the respected captain dies suddenly, Duncan is unexpectedly promoted four ranks and thrust into command. Despite his inexperience, he must win over a crew accustomed to harsh discipline and wary of mutiny. Duncan’s compassionate and lenient leadership style sets him apart, offering a fresh perspective during a time known for brutality, though his success remains uncertain and suspenseful.

Patrolling the Caribbean, where the French navy is ever-present, Duncan repeatedly defies the British admiral’s orders by taking the offensive against French ships. His insubordination attracts the attention of political factions in England, who conspire to bring him before a court-martial. The novel keeps readers engaged as Duncan strives to outmaneuver his adversaries, with his fate hanging in the balance.

Amidst these challenges and long absences at sea, Duncan pursues a daring romantic relationship, adding a personal and enchanting dimension to his journey. The novel is filled with gripping naval battles and political intrigue, though the pacing occasionally slows during detailed accounts of sea voyages and shore leave.

As the story unfolds, Duncan becomes entangled in espionage and high-level political maneuvering, eventually taking on a covert mission to unmask traitors aiding the enemy. For the best experience, the print edition is recommended. I also bought the audio version, but it does not capture the novel’s tension. Despite some slower sections, Schwendy’s compelling storyline and actionpacked battles are sure to captivate readers, especially those who enjoy character-driven naval adventures.

Alan Collenette

OF SHIPS AND SEALING WAX

Suzanne Shaw, Meryton Press, 2024, $19.95, pb, 368pp, 9781681311005

Suzanne Shaw’s first romance novel

unfolds in the late 18th century, centering on a passionate and forbidden love affair that threatens the stability of a marriage. The novel does not dwell on the battles and hardships typical of naval fiction, but instead explores the emotional entanglements and personal struggles of its characters.

The story follows Captain Edward Trewin as he advances from captain in the Royal Navy to knighthood. Set during the turbulent years of conflict between France and Britain, the narrative revolves around a love triangle involving Trewin, his wife Julia, and his mistress, Caroline Haywood. The novel examines how the demands of naval duty and prolonged separations impact Trewin’s marriage.

The heightened emotion, reminiscent of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind, features dialogue that borders on melodrama, such as, “The sun highlighted the curve of her neck. He felt an unexpected welling up of tenderness towards her, along with a small and desperate sort of hope for something he could not yet name,” and “I want to make him happy. Could we not make each other happy? Would that be so wrong?” Some of us will blush when reading Shaw’s steamy lead-up to the many explicitly erotic scenes.

The author’s period details—seen in descriptions of clothing, food, and language— add authenticity, with terms like “kickshaw,” “lutestring dress,” “potboy,” and “tosspot” evoking the era. The novel vividly portrays the social life of the time, with elegant balls and dances providing a backdrop for the charged encounters between Captain Trewin and Caroline Haywood, adding further intrigue and romance.

Although this is not a book tailored for those interested in naval history, fans of classic romantic novels will find much to enjoy in Shaw’s evocative depiction of passion and high society at the turn of the 19th century.

Alan Collenette

THE ART OF A LIE

Laura Shepherd-Robinson, Mantle, 2025, £18.99, hb, 298pp, 9781529053722 / Atria, 2025, $28.00/C$37.00, hb, 304pp, 9781668083093

Ice cream, murder, impersonation and deception – a lot of deception.

June 1749. Hannah Cole, proprietor of a cake shop in Picadilly, is newly widowed and anxious about paying her bills. William Devereux, investor and stock jobber, comes into her shop with stories of having known her husband, financial advice for her, and recipes for ice cream. Whilst the author’s wellresearched account of the invention of ‘iced cream’ proceeds through logical stages, on the other hand her two main characters turn out to be very far from what they seem. The book progresses with alternate first-person narration from each of their points of view. Each emerges as a sinner but a believable one. This variation in perspective is compelling as they jockey for position, trying to win the goodwill of a magistrate – who happens to be

the novelist Henry Fielding – investigating the murder of Hannah’s husband.

I have enjoyed all of Shepherd-Robinson’s previous three novels set in the 18th century: this book is shorter than its predecessors but is the first with a real person in a major role. Whilst the Columbo-style plot is extremely clever, we do feel the absence of sympathetic characters. An opportunity to rectify this was potentially available through the inclusion of Fielding. A little more of his ingenuity and insight, so obvious from his writing, would have lightened the book’s tone. As it is, this depiction of him as a detective shows someone without the mental agility of his two adversaries. A long author’s note, if informative, does confuse what Jane Austen termed ‘the tell-tale compression of the pages’, thus making the reader suspect yet another plot twist.

With fascinating, timeless insights into the psychology of tricksters, this is as sure-footed a thriller as any, contemporary or historical. Recommended.

Ben Bergonzi

THE JOURNEY OF THE SNAKE

Adam Smith, Milford House, 2025, $22.95, pb, 263pp, 9798888192597

In 1780, the American Revolutionary War against the Brits roils on land and water. Twenty-three-year-old Charlotte Savatier travels from Quebec to Charleston, where she grew up. Charlotte’s husband, Emile, an attorney in the British army, is already in Charleston investigating the murder of a French prisoner. On arrival, Charlotte learns Emile died just days before. Now the Charleston Head of Police, who reports only to the King of England, wants Charlotte to take over Emile’s investigation. Charlotte had been a legal assistant to Emile in Quebec. Motivated by revenge, Charlotte accepts the assignment.

Ten years before, wealthy Charleston citizen and now police major Don Pawsworthy had framed Charlotte’s parents for crimes they did not commit. After she watched them hang, her Uncle George grabbed her and fled to Quebec. Charlotte’s other uncle, Gabriel, is now the lead doctor in Charleston treating rampant pox diseases, but he also experiments with home-brewed inoculations. She and her uncles are part of the local Wacataw Indian tribe with its different views of people and the world. Brilliant, fluent in multiple languages, persistent, and a keen judge of people, Charlotte navigates around additional murders, traitors, smallpox deaths, and Pawsworthy.

The way people lived, worked and traveled, their hygiene, housing, and food all ring true. Many descriptions of war’s carnage, nudity, sexuality, and tortures are not for the faint of heart. Stinger plants and electric shocks through Leyden jars play important roles in this intricate crime thriller. Readers can easily visualize the main characters, though the

loyalties of some remain hidden until near the end. Unfortunately, modern-day words take us out of the story settings: “boobs,” “look how cute you are,” hair in a “high updo.” Overall, this is an intense cross-cultural immersion in a conflicted time and place.

G. J. Berger

THE GOVERNOR, HIS WIFE AND HIS MISTRESS

Sue Williams, Allen & Unwin, 2025, A$34.99, pb, 416pp, 9781761471049

Widowed dressmaker Ann Inett struggles to support two children. When she has difficulty collecting a debt, she feels justified in breaking into her customer’s home and retrieving the unpaid-for dress. This results in her arrest and becoming one of the first British women convicts to land in Australia in 1788. Her children are left with their grandparents, and Ann knows she may never see them again.

Soon after the First Fleet arrives at Sydney, the Governor of New South Wales despatches his protegee, Philip Gidley King, to establish a second settlement on remote Norfolk Island. Ann is one of several women included in this venture. She becomes King’s housekeeper, then mistress. She bears him two sons and naively believes eventually they’ll marry but is in for a shock when he returns from a voyage to England accompanied by a younger and pregnant wife, Anna Josepha.

Keen to further his career, King must face the reality that not only would his English family and friends not approve of his relationship with a convict woman, neither would the Admiralty, and thus he needs a more suitable wife. Although the stage appears set for conflict, Anna Josepha is determined to find a resolution.

Through modern-day eyes, it would be easy to condemn King for such duplicity, but the novel displays sympathy for a good man trapped within the standards of his time. The growing, if often edgy, relationship between the gentle, kind-hearted Anna Josepha and the determined, spirited Ann is beautifully conveyed, with loyalty and forgiveness at its heart. The afterword provides added details about these real-life characters. This is history presented in an immensely readable style that skilfully complements the author’s excellent earlier works, Elizabeth & Elizabeth and That Bligh Girl, about Australia’s foundation years.

Marina Maxwell

19TH CENTURY

THE RAREST FRUIT

Gaëlle Bélem, trans. Hildegarde Serle, Europa, 2025, $24.00, hb, 192pp, 9798889660996

In 1829, a boy is born into enslavement on the French island of Bourbon. His mistress gifts him to her brother Ferréol, a widowed botanist and orchid enthusiast. The boy, named Edmond, grows up amid Ferréol’s greenhouses and is treated as a son and protégé despite his enslavement. One of Ferréol’s dreams is

to find the secret to pollinating the finicky and fragile vanilla orchid, a plant that only produces vanilla beans in its native Mexico. Young Edmond experiments in secret until he discovers, at the age of twelve, an easy and reliable method to handpollinate vanilla orchids. The botanical world is shocked to learn that this centuries-old mystery was cracked by an enslaved boy. Ferréol’s pride in Edmond’s accomplishment and his determination to share this knowledge brings Edmond to international attention at a time of political and economic upheaval. This is a stunning and assured novel. One of the truly fascinating and impressive things about it is that it hangs on a visible framework of research. As a celebrity, Edmond Albius appears in the writings and correspondence of contemporary botanists and horticulturists. But as someone born into slavery, he appears little in the historical record. Bélem does not shy away from these gaps but rather weaves them beautifully into the text with a narration that keeps its distance from the characters but still manages to humanize and empathize. When musing about Edmond’s relationship to Ferréol, Bélem admits that “there’s a resounding silencing, reminding us that all that we know of their story fits onto just one leaf. Not of paper, that’s too big. The leaf of a vanilla plant,” a line that made me stop and ponder the absence of so many voices in the historical record and the sometimeschallenging job historical novelists have in bringing those voices to life. At this, Bélem succeeds.

Jessica Brockmole

SIX WEEKS BY THE SEA

Paula Byrne, William Collins, 2025, £16.99, hb, 241pp, 9780008753221 / Pegasus, 2025, $28.95, hb, 256pp, 9781639369256

In the summer of 1801, Jane Austen, her parents and sister Cassandra decamp to Sidmouth in Devon while their Bath lodgings are being renovated, to meet up with one of her naval brothers, Frank. Two rivals appear for Jane’s affections – Frank’s friend Captain Parker and idealistic lawyer and abolitionist Samuel Rose – one of whom could prove to be the love of her life.

Having enjoyed Byrne’s biography of Mary ‘Perdita’ Robinson, I had high hopes for this novel, which is inspired by a story recorded by an Austen niece as being told to her by Cassandra. The research is (mostly) of a high standard, though there is an odd reference to Cousin Eliza’s son Hastings, suggesting he was a toddler when in fact he was 15, and the occasional breach of etiquette.

(Any gentleman worth his salt would escort his partner back to her friends and family at a public ball, before seeking out his next partner.) In her endnotes, the author also admits to tweaking historical facts to suit her purposes in one instance.

Unfortunately, Byrne hasn’t allowed herself to fully inhabit any of her characters. We are told what they feel and think, but never shown them from inside, keeping the reader at a distance. Constant head-hopping isn’t helpful either. The plot is exceedingly slight, which wouldn’t matter if it were executed with more panache. One of the subplots fizzles out halfway through the novel, thus undermining its dramatic potential.

I was moderately entertained spotting direct quotations from the novels and letters (though I’m not sure why Byrne lifted a scene and a character – one of Austen’s trademark charming rogues – straight out of The Watsons, and then failed to make any further use of him). I had, frankly, hoped the book would be wittier and more romantic. Disappointing.

Jasmina Svenne

THE REBEL DAUGHTERS

Cecil Cameron, HarperNorth, 2025, £16.99, hb, 320pp, 9780008540906

The Rebel Daughters is an ambitious romantic novel set in 19th-century Tsarist Russia, which sweeps in scope from the high society of St. Petersburg to the deprivation of a Siberian prison camp. The novel opens on a summer’s day in 1823 during the season of the Beliye Nochi, or The White Nights, when the sun never sets.

Events unfold through the eyes of Anna, our wilful teenage protagonist, whose eyes are ‘eager, rebellious and passionate’. She has the sharp tongue and impetuousness of Elizabeth Bennet, but she’s also a hopeless romantic, dreams of becoming a painter, and falls in love with the first dashing captain to come her way. Anna has led a charmed life in St. Petersburg, stifled by her overbearing parents and largely hidden from the simmering tensions, which will erupt into the Decembrist revolt, the failed liberal coup d’état against the Russian Empire.

The Rebel Daughters is the second novel from Cecil Cameron, who says she was inspired by a visit to the Decembrist museum in Russia and by holding the chains worn by prisoners in Siberia. Cameron’s description of Tsarist Russia in the 1820s is rich in detail and vast in scope, from the costumes, customs and cuisine of city life to the horrors of the camps. The novel came to life for me when the failed revolt turns Anna’s life upside down and sets her on a journey of defiant self-discovery.

A sweeping story of love and loss set against a finely observed pivotal moment in the history of Russia. Recommended for lovers of classic Russian literature such as Pasternak and Tolstoy.

Pete Sherlock

THE SURGEON’S HOUSE

Jody Cooksley, Allison & Busby, 2025, £22.00, hb, 317pp, 9780749031725

The Surgeon’s House is a chilling and evocative gothic mystery that pulls readers deep into the haunted heart of Evergreen House, a women’s refuge that becomes the stage for a series of unsettling events. When Rose Parmiter, the cherished cook and moral anchor of the home, is brutally murdered, the crime appears random, senseless and tragic. But Jody Cooksley peels back the layers with a deft hand, revealing a darkness that has long festered beneath the surface.

Rebecca Harris, the compassionate yet troubled proprietor of Evergreen, finds herself at the centre of the unravelling. As more deaths follow and strange occurrences unsettle the house’s fragile peace, Rebecca becomes increasingly convinced that the past— particularly the sinister legacy of the Everley family, former inhabitants of the house—is bleeding into the present.

Cooksley’s prose is taut and atmospheric, steeped in foreboding. She masterfully balances psychological suspense with lyrical introspection, giving the reader access not only to the mystery but also to the emotional toll it takes on those left behind. Rebecca is a compelling protagonist: haunted, morally grounded, yet forced to confront uncomfortable truths as she attempts to cleanse the sanctuary she has built.

The strength of The Surgeon’s House lies not just in its whodunit appeal, but in its exploration of trauma—how violence, especially against women, leaves residue that ripples through generations. As Rebecca digs into the past to excise its poison, the novel becomes a meditation on healing and accountability.

For fans of Daphne du Maurier and Laura Purcell, Cooksley delivers a gripping, intelligent gothic novel that lingers well beyond its final page. The Surgeon’s House is a shadowy, emotionally rich thriller that asks whether peace is truly possible without first facing the ghosts that shape us.

Aidan

K. Morrissey

A MERCIFUL SEA

Katie Daysh, Canelo, 2025, £18.99, hb, 326pp, 9781804366912

A Merciful Sea is the third book to tell the lives of Hiram Nightingale, a retired post-captain, and Arthur Courtney, who is working his way up the ranks of the Royal Navy. Occasional references to events in the previous volumes, Leeward and The Devil to Pay, add depth to the story. The men are in love at a time, 1804-5, when society is, to put it mildly, intolerant of homosexuality.

Nightingale stays on the Isle of Wight, where Courtney has a cottage. There are problems: smugglers, threatening messages and a visit to a prison ship. His only contact with his lover is by letter. Courtney is criss-crossing the oceans under harsh naval discipline as Napoleon wages war in Europe.

The author demonstrates considerable

technical knowledge of the ships of that time. She skilfully conveys the sense of being under canvas on three creaking layers of wood and surrounded by unpredictable elements. They did not have the support of weather forecasts, satellite navigation or contact with fellow mariners. The language is elegant. Even when conveying the blood and terror of battle it is suitable for its era. ‘The ship was so close to her adversaries now that it was impossible to elevate the upper guns high enough to blast the enemy rigging.’ Jane Austen, who lived at that time, would approve.

Jane Stubbs

GABRIELA AND HIS GRACE

Liana De la Rosa, Berkley, 2025, $19.00, pb, 384pp, 9780593440926

Fans of the Luna sisters will cheer to see Gaby win her duke at long last. Whitfield, whom Gaby despises as a rake and a boor, is nothing but attentive on their voyage to Mexico to visit her parents and sister Isabel, who support President Juárez’s return to rule. While saucy Gaby can hold her own with a smitten duke, her confidence is shaken by her father’s refusal to see her as anything more than a pawn for marriage. When Gabriela flees Mexico for London, a shortage of first-class cabins leaves her bunking with Whitfield, and things quickly turn steamy. Whitfield’s inexplicable choice not to reveal an important component of his household leads to some marital conflict near the end, but fear not, dear reader—there’s a happy ending for the whole Luna familia.

De la Rosa’s confidence with this world and its characters shines in assured prose and wonderful detail. And what a delight to trade well-trod Victorian London for vibrant San Luis Potosí. The bonds of sisterhood remain strong, and Gaby’s interest in the political climate of both Britain and Mexico makes for well-grounded historical texture. I’m looking forward to more fiery heroines from this author.

Misty

Urban

THE LADIE UPSTAIRS

Jessie Elland, Baskerville, 2025, £16.99, hb, 320pp, 9781399817769

The north-east of England, most likely sometime towards the end of the 19th century. Ropner Hall is a large country house and estate, with a stable of servants that serve just two aristocratic women. But this is definitely no costume drama Downton Abbey or Upstairs, Downstairs. Indeed, actor Jessie Elland’s first novel careers along in a most disturbing and intriguing manner.

Ann, a lowly scullery maid, has a torrid time at Ropner Hall, fighting off the sexually violent attacks from other male servants as well as enduring the foul and brutal life amongst the female staff. She seems to have an acute hygiene OCD, as well as being deluded, fantasist and disturbed (as well as being rather disturbing). She is obsessed with the perfection and elegance of the duchess’s niece, for whom all the servants toil each miserable day. When

a chance meeting allows her to speak to Lady Charlotte, this allows Ann to venture into the hallowed regions of the house as a personal maid, entering and indulging her compulsive fantasies.

This is a visceral gothic, macabre story in which Ropner Hall is host both to great wealth and privilege from a scion of the aristocracy combined with the vicious competitiveness, lust and greed of the dreadful servants’ quarters, with hate, misogyny and nastiness, and ultimately ending in a sort of Alice in Wonderland-like psychotic madness. The historical element is not very much to the fore, though the wholly unjustified disparity in wealth and privilege between the servants and the obscenely wealthy aristocracy is well delineated, as well as the terrible drudgery of the life of the ill-treated domestic in semifeudal Britain. This is an always engaging and decidedly singular novel.

Douglas Kemp

LIZZIE

Diane Fanning, Level Best/Historia, 2025, $19.95/£15.99, pb, 358pp, 9781685128821

August 4, 1892, began like any ordinary day for businessman Andrew Borden, but culminated in two brutal murders which rocked the town of Fall River, Massachusetts, and left an indelibly ugly imprint on the town’s history. Fanning takes her readers through a story of family disharmony, jealousy and revenge, which apparently left 32-year-old daughter, Lizzie, no choice but to axe her father and stepmother to death. The trial of June 1893 and subsequent result is well laid out, but this is not a whodunit, but a whydunit.

The Borden murder spree, known to most Americans, is a grim, laboured read. Fanning, best known for her excellence in true crime nonfiction, might have served Lizzie better by sticking to that genre. The awkward slowness of the story does not endear readers to character, time, or place. Emma, Lizzie’s long-suffering sister, is the most sympathetic player. Lizzie’s rejection of the patriarchy is the prominent theme; hatred of her stepmother and irritation at her father a close second. Neither of these seemed a reason for such brutality, but we don’t get into Lizzie’s head, which is where we need to be, and the double murder does not improve Miss Borden’s resentful and entitled character. I looked forward to an informative and enlightening read, but admit to struggling with, and almost giving up on, this book. Questions remained open-ended – blood? clothing? weapon? – all a bit unsatisfactory, so perhaps the real-life case was, in itself, unsatisfactory. I didn’t get a convincing answer to ‘why,’ and that seems, at least speculatively, to be the point of the novel.

Fiona Alison

his brother, Jo’s husband Theo, died in quick succession in 1890 and 1891, Jo became the heir to Vincent’s vast body of work. In the decades that followed, she worked doggedly to introduce van Gogh’s pioneering work to the world.

Joan Fernandez set herself the task of fictionalizing Johanna. The challenge is that most of the problems Jo encountered were business and marketing problems. And she solved them mostly by being extremely persevering—not exactly the kind of drama that usually makes for good fiction. But Fernandez has met that challenge well. She created a fictional villain in the art dealer Georges Raulf. Raulf is an extreme conservative who also has a personal reason to hate van Gogh. He will stop at nothing to deny van Gogh’s art the recognition it deserves. In Fernandez’s telling, Raulf stands in for the general prejudice that Jo faced, against both her as a female art dealer and against Vincent as an innovative artist. She also humanizes Jo by touchingly portraying her self-doubt, her grief at Theo’s death, her tenderness toward their young son, and her ardent love affairs and deep friendships.

The first few chapters are a bit of a muddle, but the author soon finds her footing. This book is a well-done introduction to a woman who deserves more recognition for preserving van Gogh’s magnificent body of work.

Kathryn Bashaar

A LADY’S GUIDE TO MURDER

Felicity George, Orion, 2025, £10.99/$17.99, pb, 327pp, 9781398722224

Judging from the front cover of Felicity George’s new novel, I was expecting a cosy Regency romance, with a touch of lighthearted murder mystery, set in comfortable middle-England. Well, this novel is all of that – but it is also so much more.

The novel spans the time period from 1815 to 1820. Henrietta Percy has married Edmund, the Duke of Severn, but all is not entirely secure in their marriage. When the Duke is murdered with Henrietta as his only companion, she becomes the main suspect, and so ensues an utterly engaging story of detection with Henrietta pursuing the evidence that will clear her name and establish the truth. She is assisted by Theo Hawke, a journalist seeking the next sensational story for his newspaper.

is developed through a tantalising and welljudged narrative arc, the reader always rooting for them. Their moments of passion are described in a sexually explicit way –some readers may find these descriptions too explicit. But they are well-written and never simply gratuitous. And there is also plenty of character development. I liked the way that, in the style of Austen’s masterly character observations, early judgements are often flawed.

In all, this is a lively, engaging, thoughtful and totally enjoyable read.

Adele Wills

THE WORDSWORTH KEY

Julia Golding, One More Chapter, 2025, £9.99, pb, 334pp, 9780008770822 / $0.99, ebook, 334pp, B0DSZ94PDW

SAVING VINCENT

Joan Fernandez, She Writes, 2025, $17.99/ C$24.99, pb, 384pp, 9781647428709

Johanna van Gogh-Bonger was Vincent van Gogh’s sister-in-law. When Vincent and

So why is this ‘so much more’? Well, because the historical setting is developed with such knowledge and insight. 1815 marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars, a time of joyful rejoicing, but by 1820 this had turned to a reality of unemployment, poverty and disillusionment with a Tory government and a frivolous king. The murdered Duke of Severn was a Whig politician, dedicated to evolving political reform although at odds with the more radical thinkers of the day. The plot is underpinned by the working through of these ideas.

The romance between the main characters

England, 1812. Set predominantly in the Lake District, this third in series presents seasoned ex-military doctor Jacob Sandys and fellow ‘investigator’, ballsy ex-actress Dora Fitz-Pennington, called upon to recover some important missing manuscripts, presumed stolen, the property of poet William Wordsworth himself. There are sufficient suspects in the area, privileged posh people, ‘tourists’ and local yokels, to create a fine guessing game as to the perpetrator’s identity and, when other more vicious incidents occur, the intriguing chase is truly on. Supporting characters are many and varied, adding grit and menace, not to mention flirting and, more importantly, dissembling. Threaded throughout is a nice juxtaposition with the twisting, well-paced whodunit alongside the ‘how-can-they-explain-it’, i.e., the central couple’s scandalous unmarried-yetliving-together relationship, clarified as professional colleagues ‘holidaying’ at Jacob’s rural cottage. Hmm, okay, but is it true love? Another woman puts them to the test. Windermere and its surrounds are well detailed by a writer who evidently knows and loves the area. Her kempt narrative strides along with measured steps fully reflective of the intellectual involvement of the romantic poets. Interesting also to witness the gentry slumming it in the countryside, Jacob’s eldest brother being a viscount, as the family gathers following their father’s demise nearby. Plenty of scope for argument, indeed humour and excitement, all of which Golding brings expertly to the fore throughout. What did the Actress say to the Doctor? Read and discover. If it were a TV series it might be called ‘Decorum and Sass’. I’d watch it.

Simon Rickman

MURDER IN THE TREMBLING LANDS

Barbara Hambly, Severn House, 2025, $30.99/£21.99, hb, 272pp, 9781448314867

An insulting accusation at a masked ball during Carnival season in antebellum New Orleans progresses to a lethal duel. Free man of color Benjamin January, who is Paris-

educated and an accomplished musician and surgeon, attends the duel and finds the outcome is not as it seems. Independently, January assists the daughter of a deceased plantation owner’s effort to recover property lost during Andrew Jackson’s defense of New Orleans nearly three decades earlier. Events unfurl in a whirlwind fashion that leads January back to the duel.

Plentiful historical background renders a fascinating depiction of New Orleans as a melting pot of races and cultures with intricate social hierarchies. Care is given to portraying period backdrop, such as architecture and agriculture. Flashbacks to January’s service during “Mr. Madison’s” War of 1812 provide insights on conflict politics and battle tactics, as well as on a slave rebellion that had some bearing on the battle. Characters are drawn with impressive depth, especially protagonist January, but also his colleagues and family members. Plot intrigue is sometimes illuminated by the recollection of matrons in January’s extended family that proves more detailed and accurate than government records.

The prose has a pleasing panache in the form of classicist references in dialogue, and other times in narrative scene settings or explanations of character motives. Murder in the Trembling Lands is the 21st installment of the author’s Benjamin January series that features him as an intelligent, multi-layered problem solver. An excellent read for fans of historical mysteries and those seeking a better understanding of the complicated racial dynamics and historical backdrop of antebellum New Orleans, a place like no other.

Brodie Curtis

AMITY

Nathan Harris, Tinder Press, 2025, £20.00, hb, 320pp, 9781035404681 / Little, Brown, 2025, $29.00/C$38.00, hb, 320pp, 9780316456241

New Orleans, 1866. Coleman is a self-educated and polite young Black man who has remained in the service of the Harper family for want of somewhere else to go. His lack of confidence, together with his fear of the unknown, stopped him from joining his sister June two years ago, when Mr Harper took her with him to Mexico on a money-making expedition.

But Coleman’s safe daily routine is shattered when Amos Turlow arrives in town, bearing a letter from Mr Harper. Mrs Harper declares that her husband is finally requesting that she and their daughter Florence join him in Mexico. Coleman and his beloved companion Oliver the dog, Florence, Mrs Harper and her

shoes, and Amos Turlow depart New Orleans on a steamboat – the aptly-named Jubilee. The brief and doomed voyage forces Coleman to face his fears and marks the end of life as he knew it.

This is a classic quest story – Coleman’s wish is to be reunited with his sister, and Florence’s goal is to find her father. Their trek across the desert, encountering people and places the likes of which they’ve never seen before, means they both need to dig deep to discover who they truly are when stripped of the normal structure and order of their lives and what they need to do to survive and, ultimately, to find their own kind of freedom.

Meanwhile, June has endured trials of her own, living with Mr Harper, and it is an encounter with a man named Isaac that finally gives her the courage she needs to escape.

The book contains themes common to Western fiction, including freedom, justice, and wilderness versus civilisation. Nathan Harris is an exceptionally skilful storyteller. This novel will take its rightful place on my bookshelf alongside other classic Southern literature. Outstanding.

Sarah Dronfield

THE PECCAVI PLOT

Frank Hurst, The Book Guild, 2025, £9.99, pb, 349pp, 9781835740576

In 1876 London, Henry Gough drives his cab through foggy streets, trying to make a decent living. He owns his own cab company; however, supporting his wife as well as a mistress and a multitude of children isn’t easy. So Henry slides into the illicit whiskey trade to supplement his income. However, Scotland Yard catches him in its net. In exchange for clemency, Henry agrees to work with the police to catch other bootleggers. When he witnesses a murder, Henry becomes enmeshed in a plot that endangers the highest in the land. He’ll need all of his knowledge of London and its dangerous streets to unravel the deadly plot and save the endangered target.

The Peccavi Plot’s core is an intriguing mystery, and the characters and setting are interesting, but I had a few problems with the book. First is the pacing: the first 125 pages tells us all about Henry from age three to his midforties. This background isn’t necessary.

A more serious problem: the plot hinges on a telegram supposedly sent by Charles Napier in 1843. According to popular belief, Napier announced the annexation of the Indian state of Sindh by sending his superiors a telegram that read simply “Peccavi” – Latin for “I have sinned” (Sindh). But Napier never sent such a witty message. It comes from Punch magazine; the actual originator of that clever phrase was Catherine Winkworth. This fallacy quickly became embedded in popular culture, and Hurst’s book treats it as fact. If any character had corrected the others about it, this would have covered the problem.

Readers should know that despite the book’s writeup, the entire novel takes place in London. Those expecting to travel the plains

of the Indian Raj and the grand estates of Tsarist Russia won’t find themselves there. While The Peccavi Plot offers an entertaining plot and an exciting race against time to stop an assassination, readers may find it disappointing.

India

Edghill

AUSTEN AT SEA

Natalie Jenner, St. Martin’s, 2025, $29.00, hb, 320pp, 9781250349590

In 1865, Henrietta and Charlotte Stevenson, daughters of a member of Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court, begin corresponding with Jane Austen’s last surviving sibling, Admiral Sir Francis Austen, to learn more about their favorite authoress. At the same time, the Nelson brothers, who run an antiquarian bookstore in Philly, write to Sir Francis to make him aware of an unexpected U.S. edition of Emma. The esteemed admiral, aged ninety-one and eager to share family memories, invites all four Americans to visit him in Portsmouth, England, with secret matchmaking schemes worthy of his beloved late sister’s heroine. Events don’t run to plan.

With a stimulating premise, Jenner’s fourth book takes inspiration from a nugget of truth: the real Sir Francis did reply to two bold young American women who sent him a letter about his sister Jane. This novel is fan fiction in the most loving sense, since it features many Austen fans discussing her works for the benefit of readers who share their adoration. The Stevenson sisters, the Nelson brothers, the court justices with their literary book club: all are Austen devotees. Their language, including their letters, suits the period.

But much about the novel doesn’t hang together well. During the transatlantic voyage, the ladies, including fellow passenger Louisa May Alcott, organize a dramatic production based on Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. The extended planning pulls the plot off course. The ostensible female protagonists feel opaque and make impulsive and odd romantic choices. One subplot culminates in a court case that goes on too long and has a puzzling ending. The most memorable figures, interestingly, are historical ones. Sir Francis charms with his wistful reminiscences and strength of will, and Louisa’s passionate spirit shines brightly (if briefly). Jenner has written smoother novels, though anyone interested in Austen’s works and family may want to check it out.

Sarah Johnson

THE BITTER AND THE SWEET

Beth Kanell, All Things That Matter Press, 2024, $16.99, pb, 228pp, 9798989451395

Almyra Alexander lives with her aunt and uncle in North Upton, Vermont, in 1854. She wants to be a preacher like her father and uncle – an unusual ambition for a young woman at the time. And, like her aunt and uncle, she is an avid abolitionist. When someone appears to be passing counterfeit currency to the abolition movement to discredit them, and

bankrupt the banks that serve them, Almyra finds herself carrying messages back and forth between Vermont and Canada, where Black people are already ostensibly free. But, when abolitionists from North Upton head north to try to stop the counterfeiting, Almyra is left behind.

This book is the third in a series and desperately needs a synopsis of the first two books, or at least a cast of characters, at the beginning to help readers who had not read books one and two. The author introduces too many characters in the first fifty pages, and doesn’t make clear who they are, what their relationships to each other are, who is important, and who isn’t.

The plot is also unfocused and lacks urgency. Almyra cares very much about abstract causes, but there’s never anything personally at stake for her. The main plot thread is the counterfeiting, but there are many distractions. And, in the end, the counterfeiting plot fades away and a whole new problem is introduced: premature births among mothers working in a copper mine.

Recommended only for readers who enjoyed the first two books in this series. It does not stand well alone.

Kathryn Bashaar

THE FORT

Christy K. Lee, Rising Action, 2025, $17.99/ C$24.99, pb, 304pp, 9781998076413

Fort Edmonton, a fur trading outpost for the Hudson’s Bay Company, is not an easy refuge in 1806 for Abby Williams. Having fled England with her ailing father and her young son, this single mother is the only English woman at this fort in which British, French, and Indigenous people interact. Abby is here because her father obtained a job as a blacksmith, a trade in which he taught her some skills so that she could work as a farrier, shoeing horses alongside him. With her arrival, however, comes both wanted and unwanted male attention, forcing her to make necessary decisions about her own future. These decisions then become further complicated when situations arise with other members at the fort in which she gets involved simply by trying to help out. Her kind heart leads to consequences which force her once again to move, first to a nearby French fort, and then on a long and arduous trip back to the eastern part of Canada. She experiences many life-threatening dangers on this perilous journey but is often aided by people she encounters and befriends.

Strong but also vulnerable, Abby is a very sympathetic character who will earn the respect of readers as she moves from one harrowing episode to another. Her boldness in protecting others, as she exerts herself to her utmost, borders on the heroic in the dark circumstances in which she often finds herself. The will to survive, the need to hope, and the ability to forgive both yourself and others figure strongly in this novel, making it both a riveting and thought-provoking read.

Recommend for all historical fiction readers interested in Canadian history.

Karen Bordonaro

THE SILVERSMITH’S PUZZLE

Nev March, Minotaur, 2025, $29.00, hb, 320pp, 9781250348043

This is the fourth installment in Nev March’s series featuring Captain Jim and Lady Diana in this late-Victorian mystery set mostly in India. Jim is a detective; his wife helps him in this case by using her social connections, even though they are humiliated and ostracized because Lady Diana married outside her caste. No need to read the earlier books in the series, as the author reviews what came before for the first eighty-seven pages. Lady Diana’s brother Adi is accused of murdering his business partner, Sayta, who was stabbed at their artisanal factory where they produced surgical instruments. Adi found him and Sayta died in his arms after a cryptic remark that has to do with gold.

The book depicts India in rich sensual and sensory detail. Jim tells the story in first person, which makes it easier for him to unpack the subtle and not so subtle signs of class differences and their impact; for example, Lady Diana’s family might lose their livelihood because of her marriage. A British colleague of Captain Jim casually assumes that Indians do not suffer from the heat. The yoke of colonization is expertly depicted in precise details, i.e., no one wants to buy the surgical instruments Adi’s company produces because they are not made in Britain. Occasional and humorous scenes like Adi dressing up as a woman to get the wanted man from America to India lighten the narrative.

The historical texturing is wonderful, but there is so much of it that it slows the plot, especially because Jim keeps stopping his investigations to eat elaborate meals. Though he is in love with his wife, he does not include her enough in his investigation, and she passively accepts her subordinate role.

Alison McMahan

NAPOLEON’S SHADOW WIFE

James Conroyd Martin, Hussar Quill Press, 2025, $25.99, hb, 466pp, 9781734004359 1803: Warsaw, partitioned Poland. Young and pretty Marie returns home from convent school to find her widowed mother distraught and her estate in disarray. Marie’s father had died earlier in the Battle of Maciejowice, which Poland had lost and led to its partitioning between Russia, Prussia, and Austria. Soon, her mother compels eighteenyear-old Marie into an arranged marriage with the prosperous Count Walewski, albeit some fifty years her senior. Although having come into wealth, Marie does not sway from her patriotism and longs for Poland to be independent again. During her school days, she became enamored with Napoleon and his

exploits. Upon learning that Napoleon would be passing through Warsaw, seeking support for his campaign to conquer Russia, Marie seizes the opportunity to meet him to express her appreciation for his efforts. She hopes it will lead to Poland’s independence. However, Napoleon is impressed with Marie’s loveliness and fervor for a free Poland. He is determined to win Marie’s heart.

This is James Conroyd Martin’s fifth historical novel set in Poland. It bears evidence of his in-depth knowledge of that region’s history, people, and culture. Marie, Napoleon, and the cast of fictionalized characters’ interactions, mannerisms, and dialogue feel authentic. Descriptions of that period’s cuisine, communities’ attire, edifices, modes of travel, villages, cities, and landscapes are skillfully woven into the narrative. Martin has superbly used his writing skills to transport us into the novel’s scenes. The story takes us on a whirlwind tour across Europe as we follow Napoleon and Marie from Poland to Austria, France, Italy, and Elba. We see both Napoleon’s imperialistic and humanistic sides, along with his rise and fall. Marie is well-represented as not just a royal mistress but one with desires, exalted aims, and objectives; she may well have been instrumental in Poland’s eventual independence. Highly recommended.

Waheed Rabbani

THE ROAD TO GODERICH

Linda McQuaig, Dundurn, 2025, C$23.99/$19.99, pb, 368pp, 9781459754898

Callandra’s family is destitute following the death of her father in Scotland in 1832. When Norbert Scott, an awkward and inept Glasgow clergyman, requests her hand in marriage, she accepts only because he is wealthy and promises to take care of her family. This means a better life for them, but Callandra’s life is difficult under the cruelties and contempt of Norbert and his mother. Frowned upon is the solace she finds in her friendship with Lottie, the family’s servant. Norbert, intending to prove himself a capable man, accepts a clergy position in Upper Canada. Lottie and her brother Sam, who is to help build Norbert’s church, join the Scotts on their journey.

Arriving in Canada, the Scotts, their daughter Emma, and Sam leave a sick Lottie in Toronto to make the treacherous winter journey to the remote village of Goderich. But Norbert’s unrealistic, selfish demands lead to a terrible accident on that stormy night. It is Sam, Callandra, and Emma who arrive in Goderich. The villagers assume Sam is their new minister, and five-year-old Emma, wishing Sam were her father, plays along. The moment passes to right that wrong; Sam and Callandra are now a family living a lie. The personable Sam, now Norbert, is an atypical minister, quickly fitting into village life and avoiding his ministerial duties. But lies will out, and this lie has devastating consequences. Behind the personal dramas taking place is the 1837 rebellion in Upper Canada, while

dissent over colonial authority and conflicts between the Anglican and Presbyterian clergy add another layer of historical interest. Callandra, finally having found happiness and love, finds her strength and resilience tested as deceit upon deceit, not just her own, shatter her world. It is an adult Emma in 1862 who frames the story in the prologue and epilogue, satisfyingly wrapping a well-told story.

Janice Ottersberg

AN UNLADYLIKE SECRET

Amita Murray, Avon, 2025, $19.99, pb, 432pp, 9780063296565

Under the guise of companion to her friend Lady Ursula, Mira Marleigh keenly observes the aristocracy whose antics she reports under a pseudonym in her popular Regency society circulars. When she learns that one of her reports has persuaded everyone that Finnegan Underwood murdered his halfbrother Stephen, she reluctantly agrees to help prove his innocence. Her investigation proves to be unexpectedly dangerous, however, and not only to her heart.

The mystery plot advances slowly. Although entertaining, particularly Ursula’s sardonic observations, the involvement of Mira’s friends is a distraction; the steamy relationship between Mira and Finn, which cycles through periods of intense passion and deep anxiety, is protracted; and for the pair to be knocked out, bound hand and foot, and threatened with death by drowning, not once but twice, leads one to wonder whether their misadventures might not be an ironic parody of melodramatic behavior in romances, like Lucretia’s swoons.

The effect of pregnancy upon Mira’s selfcontrol and ability to concentrate is a useful reminder of the challenges women face, though in this case, might it too be considered an ironic exaggeration?

Confusing, but maybe that is the point? Third in the Marleigh Sisters series.

Ray Thompson

ELIZA AND THE DUKE

Harper St. George, Berkley, 2025, $19.00, 336pp, 9780593441022

American heiress Eliza Dove wants a last taste of freedom in late Victorian London before she marries. When a sexy prizefighter named Simon Cavell, also known as the Duke, is hired to protect her family, Eliza decides this Whitechapel foundling turned club manager is the man to show her a forbidden night on the town. It only takes one night for Eliza to fall in love. To rescue his niece from the criminal overlord who raised him, Simon needs to stage one last big fight. But as Eliza pursues him, Simon finds their class differences more and more easy to bridge—though the bounty on his head, after the fight goes wrong, is certainly an obstacle.

Fans will enjoy appearances from several characters in St. George’s Gilded Age Heiresses series, who are accomplices and abetters. Eliza’s alluring actress mother and

songstress sister Jenny are the most well-drawn characters, sharp and funny. Eliza entertains in her propensity to show up where she’s not supposed to be—she becomes dependable for it. Simon is surprisingly soft for a man who grew up in such conditions, a tender and devoted lover. There’s lust and love in equal measure here.

Misty Urban

BLOOD CASTE

Shylashri Shankar, Canelo, 2025, £18.99, hb, 320pp, 9781835982020 / Canelo, 2025, $7.99/ C$9.99, ebook, 379pp, 9781835981955

Hyderabad, 1895, and the complex society of the city of one of the largest states in India is shaken by a brutal killing of two women, one poor and one wealthy. The bodies are investigated initially by Chief Inspector Soobramania of the City Police, but the situation is complicated by politics and religion. He is forced to cooperate with the British Residency Police Inspector Wilberforce, a man with his own ‘ghosts’ and drives, which make him despise and compete with the Brahmin outcast policeman.

The presence of several very powerful nobles in the city, the tricky balance between the Nizam, the ruler of the Deccan region, the British-appointed Resident of the city, and the local (and very wealthy) nobles create a tension that threatens stability. This is not helped by the deep, black-velvet shadow of Jack the Ripper, whose killings seem echoed in the Hyderabad outrages. Both Wilberforce and Soobramania have connections to the London slaughters – they both have axes to grind against the famous killer! Can they overcome their personal differences to capture a killer both want stopped?

A fine debut novel. In setting, Shankar has thrown open a period of history that is often overlooked or misunderstood. The characters are well-fleshed-out – no cardboard cutouts here – and the exotic setting is given in a detail that is enthralling. The plot? Logical and complete. Motive, means, opportunity –they’re all in full, with the presence of some red herrings. There are twists – both in the whole and at the end that keep the reader interested. There are personal relationships that have impact and interest.

Alan Cassady-Bishop

MRS BURKE & MRS HARE

Michelle Sloan, Polygon, 2025, £9.99, pb, 340pp, 9781846976803

The names of 19th-century body-snatchers Burke and Hare are well known, but Sloan’s fascinating and page-turning novel looks at the women behind them – their wives.

William Hare’s wife, Lucky, realises there’s money to be made in the trade of corpses being dug up in Edinburgh’s cemeteries, to meet the unquenchable needs of doctors studying the new science of anatomy. Lucky runs a boarding house, and when a lodger dies of natural causes, she, her husband and his friend William Burke decide to supply the corpse to surgeon Robert Knox. Knox is delighted with

their delivery – the body is far less decomposed than those that have been buried – and hopes for more. This leads the trio, and then Burke’s reluctant wife, Nelly, to become embroiled in murder. After all, who will miss the drifting lowlifes of Edinburgh’s backstreets when they are lured to Lucky’s boarding house and plied with whisky?

After at least sixteen murders the group make a mistake and are caught. The trial is dramatic, but the women go free. Years later, journalist Duncan Fletcher hears that Lucky and Nelly have been seen and decides to pursue the story.

Sloan has a gripping and logical theory about what happened to the women, in a novel that focuses on poverty, greed and the dark side of humanity. The degrees of guilt felt by the killers are well explored, and there are a couple of breathtaking and ironical moments around their fate. Touchingly, the novel is dedicated to the forgotten victims of Burke and Hare. A violent, chilling and absorbing read from the author of The Edinburgh Skating Club.

Kate Pettigrew

THE ORIGINAL

Nell Stevens, Scribner UK, 2025, £16.99, hb, 400pp, 9781398533387 / W. W. Norton, 2025, $28.99/C$38.99, hb, 336pp, 9781324110699 Set at the end of the 19th century, The Original is the story of Grace Inderwick, who lives with rich relatives in Oxfordshire. A lonely misfit, she sleeps in a box room along with other ‘unwanted belongings’ and is ignored by all except her cousin Charles.

Grace develops a love of art and a talent for forgery, but can see no future for herself, a penniless orphan with no social graces. Life looks even bleaker after Charles is reported lost at sea. But, surprisingly, a letter arrives purporting to be from Charles. Grace must travel to Italy with her aunt to meet the man who claims to be her cousin, and she sees an opportunity to improve her own situation.

But is he her cousin or is he a fake? And can Grace gain her independence by selling her forged paintings? The novel asks these questions, and more. It leads us to question why an original is better than a copy, and how you tell the difference. As Grace struggles to know whether this is the ‘real’ Charles, she is also trying to get at the essence of a painting –its colours, its brushstrokes, its moods…

Neither Charles nor Grace are precisely what they seem. Charles has the sensation of having ‘wandered into another man’s life’, and Grace fantasises about an alternative existence. Her own life is a copy, a template sketched out by

others. It remains to be seen whether she can break free and forge her own destiny.

The author uses the image of an autostereogram, a confused pattern which resolves itself if you look at it the right way. That is the pattern of this novel: it is tantalisingly hard to work out what is going on until your perspective changes. A real treat to read!

Karen Warren

THE PEACOCK’S LEGACY (UK) / THE PEACOCK’S HERITAGE (US)

Sasha M. Stevens, UK Book Publishing, 2024, £9.99/$15.40, pb, 430pp, 9781836635666

Rural Ireland, mid-19th century: Brigid’s childhood is blighted by poverty, famine and abusive men. She escapes to Dublin, establishes a living for herself, and becomes involved in the Irish Nationalist movement. When her second husband has to flee to America, Brigid follows with the children and faces the challenge of adapting to Bostonian society. Their past catches up with them more than once and she finds herself in Barbados with another husband, then back in Ireland to settle unexpected circumstances.

Sadly, the novel’s text is riddled with editorial issues that continually undermined my absorption in the wide-ranging plot. A simple spell/grammar check could have eliminated many of these. Stilted dialogue provided another obstacle to my enjoyment, as did a reliance on too many barely credible coincidences. Moreover, the author chose to restrict her third person narrative exclusively to Brigid’s point of view, and I am unconvinced the character is given enough depth to carry that burden. It also means we learn about many dramatic events only through secondhand reports, losing the immediacy of direct experience. An exception is the opening childhood section in which we come face-toface with the grinding hardship of Brigid’s youth. It is a shame that her surviving siblings feature so little in the rest of the book, having got to know and care about them. I feel Ms. Stevens may have been better served by keeping us apprised of their fortunes, rather than dissipating our emotional investment with a plethora of new characters in the final few chapters.

Nigel Willits

AN UNHAPPY COUNTRY

Loretta Miles Tollefson, Palo Flechado Press, 2025, $18.99, pb, 332pp, 9781952026126

Young and pretty Jessie Milbank finds herself in the uncomfortable position of being an American in New Mexico when that Mexican state is invaded by U.S. troops at the start of the Mexican-American War. Her Mexican friends now question her loyalty while the newly arrived U.S. authorities don’t look kindly on Jessie’s sympathy with the natives. Insurrection and murder follow soon after, stirring irrepressible curiosity and

determination in Jessie—curiosity about the crimes, and determination to right the wrongs she sees being perpetrated before her eyes. With the help and friendship of a few select Americans and New Mexicans, she must navigate a treacherous path of investigation to get at the truth while avoiding the sinister powers that have already caused at least two deaths.

Prolific author Loretta Miles Tollefson weaves a story that is part mystery, part romance, and part commentary on racial antagonism and national pride. She captures the chaos and uncertainty of the abrupt change Santa Fe underwent, going from an established part of northern Mexico to a frontier outpost of the expanding United States, virtually overnight. The story ends rather abruptly, and a more fully developed conclusion would have been beneficial. That criticism aside, An Unhappy Country is an enjoyable, well-paced mystery, rich in historical ambience and strong on characterization.

Loyd Uglow

LEY LINES

Tim Welsh, Guernica, 2025, $18.95/ C$25.00/£12.95, pb, 311pp, 9781771839563

Ley Lines is not your typical historical novel. It reads more like a psychedelic journey through the late 1890s Yukon Territory –Jack London meets Timothy Leary, and they journal their trip through the Klondike Valley together on Ken Kesey’s magic bus with Neal Cassady behind the wheel. This strange, offbeat story is set in Sawdust City, a fictional town on the banks of Yukon River, at the end of the Klondike Gold Rush. Among many boomtowns that popped up after the discovery of gold in 1896, Sawdust City was on the decline by the end of that decade. As the introductory chapter explains, “Just three years later, the wave that was the rush had broken, and the madness had passed into the middle-distance of recent memory.”

When a down-and-out gold prospector teams up with a local con man to conquer the peak of an unexplored nearby mountain (after hatching their plan at the Dog Dick Inn, the local pub and social nexus of Sawdust City), they make an astonishing discovery –a mysterious floating seven-foot-tall ear that follows the men back to town. News of the Ear spreads fast and puts Sawdust City back on the map, launching renewed hope and spirit in the dying town. But after the Ear is shot and the Nose is unearthed, the town is ruined, and a ragtag group of locals navigate the wake of its destruction while their lives are upturned.

The story takes place during a chaotic time in the cold wild depths of the Yukon Territory – when the land and nature, and lives and fortunes of many are upended with unpredictable, funny, and often catastrophic results. Coupled with the darkness is a sense of boundless hope and energy that makes this an intriguing read.

Nate Mancuso

THE MISPLACED PHYSICIAN

Jeri Westerson, Severn House, 2025, $29.99/£21.99, hb, 218pp, 9781448314812

“Dr. Watson has been kidnapped!” shrieks Mrs. Hudson. Thus begins an amazing case for the Badger and Watson Detecting Agency, composed of the former street urchin/pickpocket Tim (now Timothy) Badger and his self-taught, Black, scientific partner Benjamin Watson. Their exploits have been neither as numerous nor as stunning as those of their benefactor Sherlock Holmes, but they have their own writer in Ellsie Littleton of the Daily Chronicle.

When the pair survey the crime scene at 221B Baker Street, they deduce that Dr. Watson attempted to leave some clues to the identity of his kidnapper: an opened page of The Strand Magazine and a single evening slipper. They enlist their own set of street urchins (the “Dean Street Irregulars”) to scour the city searching for the getaway coach an eyewitness spotted. When the ransom notes arrive stressing not to involve the police, and with Holmes still out of the country, the duo know this case will either skyrocket them to glory or run them out of business. They also allow Miss Littleton to assist in much more than writing.

Westerson is at the top of her game in choosing nuggets from the Conan Doyle canon to drop as morsels to move her plot forward or serve as red herrings for her heroes. The urgency of the situation comes through, the action scenes are convincing, and the two budding romances in the midst of the action complicate yet still ring true. All the characters are well-drawn and fit the time period. This third case could have been their last, but mystery fans should cheer that another adventure awaits these promising newcomers.

Tom Vallar

THE UNRAVELLING OF MARY REDDISH

David Whitfield, Legend Press, 2025, £9.99, pb, 288pp, 9781917163507

Mary Reddish was the daughter of a poor working-class family living in the village of Woodborough, just outside Nottingham. To supplement her family’s meagre income, as soon as she was old enough, she left home and went to work in a Nottingham lace factory and then as a cook/housekeeper for Mr and Mrs Barwick in the village of Halloughton. The job was mundane, but things went well until Mrs Barwick went away to visit a relative, leaving Mary alone with her husband. One night he came into her room and climbed into bed beside her. She rejected his advances, and from this arose a chain of events which culminated in him having Mary committed to the General Lunatic Asylum near the city.

The asylum was the first of its kind in the country, overseen by the Director Thomas Morris, with his wife Ann acting as matron

for the women’s section. They had hoped to run an establishment based on kindness and humanity, but these hopes were continually thwarted by the physician, who had the final say on the patients’ treatment so that they were subjected to a regime which was little short of torture.

The first section of the novel alternates between the circumstances leading up to Mary’s committal and the establishment and running of the asylum. The second section covers Mary’s struggles to prove her sanity and the Morrises’ part in this. The book is based on fact: the asylum took its first patients in February 1812, and Mary was committed in June 1827. It will appeal to anyone interested in the social history of the period or the treatment of mental health. It will also appeal to anyone who enjoys a good story well told. This is Whitfield’s first novel. I look forward to his next.

David Northover

MADAME SOREL’S LODGER

Tracy Wise, Type Eighteen Books, 2025, $15.00, pb, 165pp, 9798990803046 1880s, southern France. A troubled, impoverished painter embarks on a journey from Paris to southern France, seeking the tranquil countryside for artistic inspiration. He finds lodging with Madame Sorel, an intimidating widow who manages a strict boarding house in the provincial village. Madame Sorel, initially appearing as a detached and unyielding figure, becomes a significant presence in the artist’s life, offering the stability and structure he needs to focus on his art. During his stay, the eccentric painter bonds with Gretchen, Madame Sorel’s housekeeper, and Luc, a local farmer, both fascinated by the artist’s unique talents and supportive of his creative struggles. As the artist’s mental state deteriorates, his puzzling and bizarre behaviors lead to dramatic events, culminating in a shocking outcome that reverberates throughout the entire community.

Based on the life of Vincent van Gogh, Wise’s masterfully crafted novel is an intense, nuanced story that immerses the reader in the artist’s strange, tormented, yet beautiful mindset through exceptional world-building and exquisite prose. Rural life is vividly portrayed through sensual scenes that capture the area’s natural, dramatic color, light, flora, and fauna. The author’s skilled use of language brings the story to life on the page, at times with bold, broad strokes, then switching to delicate, soft shadows, much like the techniques the artist employs in his paintings. Rarely has a book conveyed such intimate glimpses into the creative process, mental illness demons, and the power of friendship. This captivating tale, short and bittersweet, is emotionally layered and thought-provoking, subtle, and poignant from beginning to end. A memorable read!

Marcy McNally

THE RELUCTANT PIONEER

Julie McDonald Zander, St. Helens Press, 2024, $16.95, pb, 354pp, 9781963467000

Missouri, 1847. Matilda Koontz is persuaded by her husband, Nicholas, that to give their four young sons a better future they should undertake an epic journey west to the Willamette Valley in Oregon Territory.

This would, of course, be a perilous and arduous journey under any circumstances, but even more so because Matilda has just discovered she is expecting their fifth child. She walks alongside their wagon for much of the journey of over two thousand miles along the Oregon Trail. She and her family witness and experience all the hardship, danger, tragedy, and heartbreak that you would expect from such a novel. It is all the more moving for being based on a true story.

They join a wagon train led by a young man named Captain Magone, who does everything he can to make sure they safely reach their destination. It is not just the harsh environment that presents challenges but also having to live alongside other people as they travel – in particular, one unsavoury character named Jim Rawlins, who is always lurking close by. Even family members cause friction; her nephew’s young wife seems happy to leave all the work of cooking and cleaning up to Matilda.

Matilda is a sympathetic character: a loving and faithful wife, a good and kind mother and friend. Her faith in God is tested at times, but it is this, together with her own strength and determination, that helps her persevere. This could be a flawless novel were it not for a few minor issues – to be expected from a debut novelist – such as a couple of continuity errors, some repetition, and some awkward rendering of the character’s thoughts. In spite of these, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and would most definitely recommend it.

Sarah Dronfield

20TH CENTURY

A GRANITE SILENCE

Nina Allan, riverrun, 2025, £20.00, hb, 352pp, 9781529435573

Nina Allan is known as a writer of speculative and science fiction; A Granite Silence marks her first foray into historical fiction. She begins by describing in detail a police photograph of a seemingly ordinary room in a house. This is a surviving piece of the history of an actual crime which took place in Aberdeen, in 1934, and which is the focus of the book. A child was killed and the body left in the hallway of a tenement building. The perpetrator was quickly apprehended, but while Allan sets out the unfolding investigation and subsequent trial, she intersperses this with several imagined scenarios and back-stories, moving in time and exploring different perspectives, past and present.

This becomes the basis of Allan’s selfconscious interrogation of how ‘history’ takes form, both in the way that facts are established and in how they come to be understood. The

case itself is disturbing, but Allan is concerned with how it stands to be represented as a piece of historical ‘fiction’ and what it means to discover the ‘truth’.

All of this is tackled in a creative and thought-provoking account of the crime. Allan expresses both an emotional and cerebral response, exploring futures withheld and pasts destroyed by the choices her characters make, and through what is visited upon them. There is a strong sense of place in Allan’s descriptions of Aberdeen (the granite of the title) and the characters are credibly drawn. The style of writing is simple and personal while at the same time alert to the way in which meanings and symbols interact and repeat. It is a real-life case, and Allan addresses some of the ethical concerns that arise in seeking to fictionalise such a terrible crime. Overall, this is a thoughtful, original and compelling read.

Adele Wills

LONE WOLF

Philip K. Allan, Independently published, 2025, $19.50, pb, 322pp, 9798314714942

At the beginning of 1942, the United States is logistically unprepared to participate in another world war. In an example reflecting the themes of Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror, its industrial and manufacturing capabilities have yet to be restructured to meet the challenges ahead. Taking advantage, German submarines find easy pickings along the US east coast and in the Caribbean. Their British allies at first lead the way in forming escort convoys to protect the vital supply convoys. The small HMS Protea escort craft, described as being “like a tug boat,” and the Kriegsmarine U-127, along with their crews, find themselves pitted against each other in unfamiliar waters. The allies, though, have a distinct advantage through the dedicated enigma communications codebreakers back in Bletchley Park in the UK. The seaborne combat, however, remains complex and deadly for many.

Remember when classic military novels not only provided fascinating historical details but were also fiercely exciting? Author Allan gives us both in this superb novel. As with the best tales of combat, Lone Wolf is delivered from the perspectives of both combatants and shows the “hunter and prey” roles can be rapidly reversed based on a number of variables. He also provides interestingly detailed, understandable insight into the workings of cryptography. The stressful tension and sudden explosive impact of fighting at sea ring throughout, along with the dark humor that frequently accompanies

dangerous operations. There is, ironically, a wee bit of a romance tale included between two of the boffins back at Bletchley Park. This is the third in a series but reads very well on its own without any gaps in context. Naval historical fiction doesn’t get much better than this fantastic book.

Thomas J. Howley

THE FEELING OF IRON

Giaime Alonge, trans. Clarissa Botsford, Europa, 2025, $19.00/C$26.00, pb, 448pp, 9798889661283

Revenge is a common theme in fiction. In The Feeling of Iron author Alonge explores the dark side of revenge as a tool of personal delusion and national self-destruction. Shlomo Libowitz and Anton Epstein survived the Holocaust and the brutal and demeaning experiments of SS scientist Hans Lichtblau. Twenty-seven years later, they reunite on a mission that takes them across the Atlantic to the jungles of Central America where Lichtblau, a CIA asset, has carved out his own small empire through the lucrative drug trade. Libowitz, now an Israeli, leaves behind his wife. Epstein, a Czech physician, is recruited by the Russian secret service and is partnered with a beautiful Soviet agent, Natalya Yakovchenko, to eliminate Lichtblau.

The Feeling of Iron alternates between the events during the Holocaust and the early 1980s hunt for the ex-Nazi. The horrors of the Holocaust are coldly evocative and honest, the rationale for the revenge clearly laid out, and the action of the hunt certainly heartpounding. But I get the feeling that this is two novels in one – an action novel needs to set a fast pace; a political novel with an important point to make needs to dig in deeper. The latter can slow down and disrupt the former.

There are whole scenes in the novel that could have been edited out without doing harm to the story. One scene recounts the infamous Wannsee Conference that instigated the Final Solution. A moment of historic importance well described but unnecessary to this story. Other scenes and minor characters could be cut with the same result.

Fascism is alive today. Revenge is being used to legitimize it. The author’s point is essential but could have been made more powerful by deleting the non-essential while emphasizing the destructive nature on both the individuals seeking revenge and upon the governments that thrive on it.

Peter Clenott

IN THE FAMILY WAY

Laney Katz Becker, Harper, 2025, $30.00/ C$37.00, hb, 304pp, 9780063423244

It’s 1965, and suburban Ohio housewife Lily Berg is pregnant with her second child. Although she keeps busy with housework, childcare, and her weekly canasta game, Lily is restless as a homemaker. Like Betty Friedan, she begins asking herself if this is all there is to life, a question that grows along with her pregnant belly. To help out in the

house, Lily takes in a pregnant teenager from the local home for unwed mothers, a naïve and quiet girl named Betsy. Lily and Betsy aren’t the only women in the neighborhood focused on fertility. At her Tuesday canasta games, mother-of-three, Becca, struggles with an unexpected pregnancy, while Sarah desperately wishes for one of her own. And in the midst of a troubled relationship, Lily’s sister Rose is trying to balance her career with her desire to start a family. Narrated by Lily, Betsy, and Rose, In the Family Way is a novel about womanhood, friendship, and choice.

This is a straightforward and unsophisticated novel about the reasons women might need or want to end a pregnancy. The history of women’s reproductive rights is one that I am deeply interested in, and the topic is certainly timely. I liked that we saw a variety of women who all had different yearnings and worries, and I do think that Becker wrote sympathetically about their choices. Still, the book was not as developed or as thought-provoking as I had hoped. A simplistic and almost juvenile narrative voice distanced me from the characters and lessened the emotional impact of their decisions. I appreciate what Becker was trying to do and think that other readers will find value in her argument, but, for me, this novel was too heavy-handed to be heartfelt.

Jessica Brockmole

OBJECTS OF DESIRE

Neil Blackmore, Hutchinson Heinemann, 2025, £18.99, hb, 368pp, 9781529153910

Neil Blackmore’s Objects of Desire is like a rich cake you can’t help devouring too quickly. Writing in the first person and jumping between two main periods of Hugo Hunter’s life in the post-war period and the 1980s, the book is part literary tableau, part thriller, as we wonder not only what Hugo Hunter did next, but also which 20th-century literati (queer or otherwise) will be drawn, however briefly, into his orbit to be devoured and spat out. The name-dropping is as endemic as Gore Vidal’s romp through Creation – and indeed, Gore himself makes an appearance alongside many another mid-century literary sensation from George Orwell to Truman Capote. Biographers of the writers who make cameos may find details to criticise in their portrayals, but the book is well-researched, and one might just as easily put any errors down to the grandiosity of the very flawed central character for whom, despite his pathologies, we cannot help but hold out hope for some form of redemption.

Blackmore’s central character is a gay man who shockingly steals the voice of a woman to become famous, and chases fame as a salve for the psychological injuries of his youth. Perhaps the trope of the queer man as an impostor who resorts to unexpected violence is well worn, but set against this is the sensitivity and authenticity of some other queer characters who try to help him. The times and people he writes about are not

long gone, so the settings and characters are familiar to many. So too are the concerns with fame at all costs and the struggles over authenticity and identity. The simultaneously elevating but claustrophobic world of a midcentury literary circle comes to life and is torn apart in its pages. Despite the fact that the cake was too rich, one longs for another bite.

Aron Paul

MRS. ENDICOTT’S SPLENDID ADVENTURE

Rhys Bowen, Lake Union, 2025, $16.99/£8.99, pb, 399pp, 9781662527197

Mrs. Ellie Endicott, long settled in a loveless marriage, lives in the comfort of an English village with rounds of church work and gardening. One evening in 1938 her husband announces that Ellie must leave to make room for a young and pregnant future Mrs. Endicott. Stunned, Ellie soon makes the first decision in her new life – to go to the south of France despite the threat of war.

She then decides two more things –negotiate a lucrative divorce settlement and take two wounded friends with her: Mavis, her housekeeper and victim of domestic abuse; and the formidable Dora, an elderly neighbor begging to go despite a terminal illness. Audaciously, she steals her husband’s Bentley to drive them all to Provence. The car breaks down in a small fishing village in the middle of the beautiful Calanques where they settle.

The novel is indeed a splendid adventure as the three women blossom and enjoy the beautiful setting of their new lives, vividly described. The storyline of a troubled pregnant girl, who Ellie rescues, disrupts the flow and leads nowhere. As the story moves into 1942-1944, the adventure becomes less splendid and more hair-raising, especially after German troops move into the village. The tone changes appropriately, particularly in the descriptions of the villagers’ interactions with the Germans and with each other as their hardships deepen, causing betrayals and retaliations. However, the epilogue reads as a hasty afterthought, one in which the main characters seem without trauma from their war experiences or memory of those loved who perished, which does not serve the novel well.

Constance Emmett

A LETHAL COCKTAIL

Ciar Byrne, Headline Accent, 2025, £10.99, pb, 328pp, 9781035413959

This is the second of Byrne’s Woolf and Bell mysteries in which he imagines Virginia Woolf and her sister Vanessa Bell as investigators helping the less than brilliant Sussex police with their murder inquiries. It is not the sort of book Virginia Woolf would have written, but it is a good pastiche of a book that Agatha Christie or Dorothy Sayers might have written.

A Lethal Cocktail is classic Golden Age cosy crime set in 1929 in Rottingdean, one of the brash new housing developments which

sprang up along the south coast of England after WW1. Victim number one is the brideto-be at a wedding party in a posh new mockTudor hotel, who is poisoned by one of the pre-nuptial drinks (actually orange juice, not a cocktail). All the guests have motives for murder, giving us the familiar closed circle of suspects.

Naturally there is a further murder, lots of red herrings, a dramatic denouement in a derelict mill, and the villain is unmasked – and I was completely fooled. If you like Golden Age detective stories, you will enjoy this well-made retake.

Edward James

THE SILENT FILM STAR MURDERS

Melodie Campbell, Cormorant, 2025, $24.95/ C$24.95, pb, 288pp, 9781770867833

Book two of The Merry Widow Murders is set in 1928, on the Victoriana, a luxury liner owned by wealthy young widow, Lucy Revelstoke, who is taking the trip to New York to chair the Empire Line board meeting. Nearing departure time, Lucy and her maid-confidante-friend-sleuth, Elf, are at the deck railing watching the crowd below, when Elf, ever an ardent movie fan, excitedly points to film star Renata Harwood, with her husband and dowdy sister Meg, ascending the gangplank. That evening in the glamour of the dining salon with the gathered hobnobs sparkling under crystal chandeliers, Meg is in absentia, supposedly with a migraine. But lo and behold, she disappears the next day. And an admirer of Meg’s materializes out of the blue and accuses Renata’s husband of dirty deeds.

Amongst other dubious talents, Elf is pretty nifty with locks, and she and Lucy stalk the corridors in search of the missing Meg, armed with a list of empty cabins from ship’s purser, Lucy’s current heartthrob, Gray. It’s amazing what turns up in unoccupied rooms! With Meg still missing, her Renata-lookalike steward is murdered, pointing to Renata being the intended victim all along.

I enjoy mysteries on ocean liners because there are so many places to hide within a relatively confined area, and you can’t help bumping into people you don’t want to see. So, if the victim hasn’t been thrown overboard, the hunt and chase make for fun reading. Details of the luxurious Victoriana are expertly woven in, putting readers amongst the silks and satins and heady Hollywood vibe, and dining upon the chef’s sumptuous creations. Campbell’s writing displays talent and wit, and her cozy mystery is an absolute delight from England to New York, along with Elf, who is quite unforgettable!

Fiona Alison

RAYMOND CHANDLER’S TROUBLE IS MY BUSINESS

Raymond Chandler, Arvind Ethan David, Ilias Kyriazis (illus.), Cris Peter (color), Taylor Esposito (lettering), Pantheon Graphic Library, 2025, $29.00, hb, 128pp, 9780553387599

“Trouble is my Business” (1939) was Raymond Chandler’s 21st mystery story. Chandler first wrote stories about knights of derring-do. He served in WWI, then returned to the US to work for an oil company. Let go during the Great Depression, he started writing pulp detective fiction.

Reading Chandler ninety years later is challenging. His poetically hard-boiled slang is so strange to us that the re-release of his first novel, The Big Sleep, has footnotes. In this graphic novel adaptation, Arvind David and his gifted artists make it easy: you see “shill” when Harriet Huntress uses her wiles to keep a man at the gambling table, and a “pretty hip draw” when George the chauffeur executes an attacking thug with a balletic arm motion.

The original story is opaque with shorthand references to the war, the struggle to find work, and the power of mobsters. Here is where the graphic novel format shines: fullcolor flashbacks have been added to the nearly monochromatic story, starting with the wealthy Mr. Jeeter defrauding Harriet’s father, causing his suicide, and Harriet’s plan for revenge, starting with seducing Jeeter’s stepson. Honorable but world-weary Detective Philip Marlowe is hired to get rid of her, the nice way or the hard way.

Plot points that in the original required explaining are simply illustrated, such as the moment where George and Marlowe drive past Jeeter’s son right before their shooting match with thugs. Los Angeles’s postwar noir atmosphere is conveyed by cigarette smoke writhing around the shadowed characters, a metaphor for the dimming, killing fog of the literal and economic warfare they’ve barely survived.

Purists should be warned that Arvind changes the ending, making it as romantic as Chandler’s early knight-errant stories, though Marlowe himself gets little more than a bottle of scotch out of the deal.

Alison McMahan

ONE OF US

Dan Chaon, Henry Holt, 2025, $28.99/C$40.99, hb, 288pp, 9781250175236

Read this novel in a well-lit place and with friendly people around you. One of Us by Dan Chaon is a masterpiece of macabre storytelling set in the midwestern U.S. of 1915.

The story is about a pair of thirteen-yearold twins, Bolt and Eleanor, who are unlucky enough to have lost both parents and their home, as well. A man who claims to be their uncle then suspiciously arrives on the scene. Charlie is no savior. He is a mad psychopath who enjoys killing people. And he demands

total submission from the twins whom he believes have powers to prophesize.

Fortunately (or unfortunately), the twins are rescued by another intellectually aberrant character, Mr. Jengling, who owns a circus of intellectually and physically disabled people who are put on display for money in different towns. There is sweet Rosalie, for example, who has the head of a boy poking from the back of her head.

The plot has many shocking twists and frightening events. The dialogue is twisted, yet compelling at times. The unfortunate circus characters are appealing in their attempts to live their existence with some dignity. But the heart of the novel is the twins: as small children, they are very close, but, as they mature and interact with others in their challenging environments, their different responses to these people pull them apart. Chaon traces this journey with delicate pathos.

Joanne

Vickers

MARIA LA DIVINA

Jerome Charyn, Bellevue Literary Press, 2025, $17.99/C$27.95, pb, 336pp, 9781954276482

This fictionalized biography of opera diva Maria Callas (1923-1977) follows her life beginning with her difficult childhood in Astoria, New York. Her mother, Litsa, wanted a boy and preferred Maria’s older sister. When Maria was thirteen, Litsa ran off to Athens with her two daughters. There a former opera star, now tutor for aspiring singers, took Maria on. Soon Athens was overrun by Nazis, Greek patriots, and Italians, but Maria found paying performances. After WWII, she moved back to the U.S. and went wherever great opera roles took her. She cut best-selling albums, and all who collaborated with her admired her voice, appearance, and stage command.

Maria wrestled with a tormented spirit. From girlhood on, she was chubby and struggled with a love for rich foods. Nearsightedness plagued her so badly that she had to memorize stage sets to not trip or fall. Yet she easily read musical scores and rehearsed to perfection. Her husband managed her but also stole from her until she divorced him. The love of her life, Aristotle Onassis, left her for Jackie Kennedy.

Charyn impressively covers events, places, and people (even an older Winston Churchill) with a solid pace that never stalls. The main and secondary characters all feel real. However, the book could benefit from a glossary of the many names and nicknames of people in the story. Charyn’s prose fits with Maria’s genius and turmoil. “Her silences were as powerful as her songs.” His details allow readers to “see” her costumes and movements and “hear” her rehearsals and grand arias. “[H]er hands were like wild animals.” We suffer through her ailments, bad choices in men, and the inevitable ravages of time. “The tigress had turned into a cub.” The complex genius of the Divine Diva will stay with any reader of this work.

G.J. Berger

THE SHOW WOMAN

Emma Cowing, Hodder & Stoughton, 2025, £16.99, hb, 321pp, 9781399737395

The Show Woman takes place in Scotland, in 1910-11, and charts the tribulations faced by a circus of female performers. When her father dies, Lena Loveridge is forced to sell their carousel ride as she can’t run it on her own, and with her friend Violet Weaver sets up a circus of ladies. They advertise for acts and are joined by Rosie (a bareback horse rider) and Carmen (a Spanish acrobat), both of whom want to escape their difficult lives. Violet is a famous trapeze artist, but she has antagonised the influential Serena Linden, who runs the biggest and most famous circus in Scotland: a woman who will do anything she can to undermine the competition. In addition, Lena needs to carry out her father’s dying wish to find out what happened to her mother, who disappeared when she was ten.

The narrative is evocative and immerses the reader in the world of Edwardian fairgrounds. It demonstrates the cyclical and precarious nature of life for the performers who travelled around Scotland during the summer months and wintered in the Vinegarhill Showground, Glasgow. The Show Woman is a wellplotted novel, which gathers pace as the story progresses. The various strands and subplots all combine to reach a satisfactory resolution. The characters of Lena, Violet, Rosie and Carmen are well developed and each is distinct, with her own story woven seamlessly into the main plot of the novel. A very enjoyable read.

Serena Heath

BYE BYE BLACKBIRD

Elizabeth Crowens, Level Best/Historia, 2025, $16.95, pb, 294pp, 9781685128401

In this sequel to the well-received Hounds of the Hollywood Baskervilles, PI Babs Norman and her reluctant partner Guy Brandt are drawn into another adventure in Golden Age Hollywood, when a dead woman tumbles into their office with a dead bird beneath her coat. At the same time, Humphrey Bogart receives an Egyptian artifact containing a mummified dead bird just as he has begun filming The Maltese Falcon.

When Bogart hires Babs and Guy to investigate, more dead birds begin to appear across Hollywood. Starting with the silhouette on the frosted glass window that introduces the dead woman, Elizabeth Crowens pays affectionate homage to The Maltese Falcon with her central mystery involving the black bird that was the origin of the term “MacGuffin.” And the rest of the story is seeded with many other knowing nods to Hollywood legend. Crowens delves into the combative relationship between Humphrey Bogart and his third wife, Mayo Methot – as well as sketching backstage portraits of Bogart’s costars like Peter Lorre and the legendary John Huston. The antics of the rescue animals, which B. Norman Investigations accumulates more quickly than they do mysteries, provide

a fun counterpoint to the equally entertaining antics of the humans. However, delightful as such details are, they threaten to overwhelm the mystery at every twist and turn. But this is an ideal romp for readers looking to enjoy a nostalgic trip through old Hollywood.

Erica F. Obey

AMERICAN SKY

Carolyn Dasher, Lake Union, 2025, $16.99/£8.99, pb, 475pp, 9781662526435

In Oklahoma in 1908, young Adele wears overalls with no interest in ladylike activities. By World War I, she’s repairing farm machinery and earns money raising steers. When Adele purchases a car by herself, county gossip surges until she marries an oil prospector who promises he’ll never expect domestic skills from her. Adele’s daughter, Georgeanne, also enjoys tinkering with engines. At fifteen, George is smitten with airplanes, and by World War II she is recruited as a Women’s Airforce Service Pilot (WASP). While training in Texas, George meets like-minded Vivian, and they excel at flying complex military aircraft. When assigned to pilot planes for antiaircraft artillery training, they are inseparable until George marries Tom.

George and Tom raise their girls, Ruth and Ivy, in Oklahoma, but George feels incomplete and no longer flies. Her selfsoothing choices prompt rumors. Vivian works odd jobs, scraping together enough money to continue flying, and visits George, but each woman wishes for what the other has. When Ruth and Ivy overhear George and Vivian’s drunken talk of a shocking secret, the girls begin a downward emotional spiral that fractures their relationships. Ivy runs away, and Ruth becomes an Army nurse. They both find escape in the Vietnam War where they patch together a semblance of a relationship, but the shocking secret still looms over them.

Dasher’s debut novel showcases loyalty and lasting friendships through challenging experiences. Her writing comes alive during the sensational flying scenes. More than a focus on indomitable women, American Sky gives voice to the pain of longing, jealousy, and depression that triggers characters to harm themselves and others. The successful pathway of women becoming pilots in a man’s world gets lost in the shuffle.

Genetta

Adair

THE SEASIDE MURDERS

Helena Dixon, Bookouture, 2025, $3.99/ C$4.99, ebook, 312pp, B0DW4JNLP6 England, October 1941. When a naked body found on a beach in Kent is identified as an Italian prisoner of war, Whitehall sends Jane Treen, Arthur Cilento, and his resourceful manservant Benson to investigate and discover if it is connected to the epidemic of black marketeering in the area. Since Jane owns a house nearby, inherited upon the death of her father, she is known to most of the

villagers and can provide a convenient base of operations.

This is the second book in The Secret Detective Agency series set in the darkest days of the Second World War, and it provides further insights into conditions that made life such a struggle: ordinary people stoically endure food rationing and nightly bombing, the privileged grumble about the loss of luxuries and conveniences, officials face manpower shortages, and criminals take ruthless advantage of the situation for personal gain.

The plot is satisfying, the characters convincing, and the children remind us how unsupervised play used to be common. As Jane and Arthur work together, they grow increasingly to care for one another, despite very different personalities. The characters’ willingness to help others wins our sympathy, just as selfishness loses it. Recommended.

Ray Thompson

DEATH OF AN OFFICER

Mark Ellis, Headline Accent, 2025, £10.99/$17.99/C$23.99, pb, 327pp, 9781035427024

Death of an Officer opens on 19 May 1943 with DCI Frank Merlin getting a phone call about a murder. The deceased is an Indian gynaecologist, Dr Dev Sinha, who has been killed in his own home. Merlin and his metropolitan police team then embark on investigating the case, following various leads in order to find out who killed Sinha and why. This is complicated when an anonymous dead body is found on a bomb site in Limehouse. Merlin and the team then need to figure out who the deceased is and whether or not the two cases are connected.

This book is intricately plotted, with a lot of subplots that all seamlessly fit together by the end. The historical setting is well portrayed, showing the difficulties faced by the London Metropolitan Police during the Second World War; having to contend with internal corruption and the malign presence of organised crime, the shortage of manpower, as well as the influence of the upper echelons of society, all of which hindered their investigations.

Death of an Officer is the sixth Frank Merlin book. As a result, for those new to the series (including myself), there is a large number of characters introduced at the beginning (most of whom would be familiar to those who’ve read other books), and initially it was difficult to keep track of who’s who. However, it is worth persevering; the novel can be enjoyed as a standalone book, and is a satisfying read for anyone who likes a World War Two whodunit.

Serena Heath

THE HARVEY GIRLS

Juliette Fay, Gallery, 2025, $18.99, pb, 384pp, 9781668095065

In The Harvey Girls, Juliette Fay (The Tumbling Turner Sisters) gives a nod to the 1942 novel of the same title by Samuel Hopkins Adams,

which inspired the MGM musical starring Judy Garland. Harvey Houses were a chain of restaurant/inns at train stops all along the American Southwest when the West was still wild. Before Fred Harvey founded the chain it was difficult to get decent food on train rides that could last several days. The waitresses, or Harvey Girls, worked twelve hours a day to serve elegant meals in between train whistles. They dressed soberly and had to follow strict behavior codes. Still, the job enabled them to travel, make money, and meet eligible men.

Like the Adams book, Fay’s book features two women with big secrets (one is a socialite escaping an abusive husband, the other is hiding her true age to keep her family from starvation), who end up as Harvey Girls and roommates on the Grand Canyon Rim. Fay’s book is expertly paced, carefully researched, and does not shirk from illustrating the suffering of Mexican dishwashers at the hands of the KKK or the expulsion of the Native Americans that lived in and around the Grand Canyon to make room for a white, bourgeois tourist experience. But the real focus is on the two women coming into their own and finding love.

Like the musical, this book still idealizes Harvey Houses as second families for the young women that worked there. Left out are the other Harvey Girls, the ones who kept the hotel rooms clean. Two of my great-aunts were Harvey Girls at the Harvey House in Barstow, California, which is now a museum on Route 66. Not so much fun for them, as one of my aunts contracted polio after cleaning out the chamber pots.

Alison McMahan

FINDING FLORA

Elinor Florence, Simon & Schuster, 2025, $17.99/C$24.99, pb, 384pp, 9781668058916

For anyone wanting to lose themselves in a big-hearted historical novel, this is your book. The pace never flags from the first sentence, as Flora Craigie leaps from a train chugging past the darkened Alberta landscape in 1905, in a desperate attempt to escape the husband who turned violent after their recent marriage. An emigrant from the Scottish Highlands, with the accent to prove it, Flora has few possessions save a small valise, identification papers, her savings, and “secret treasure” sewn into her petticoat. She also has inner know-how and gumption, and in this gorgeous yet harsh country, that counts for a lot.

At first, she catches a lucky break. In Canada, unlike the United States, most single women are disallowed from claiming homesteads, but Flora manages to purchase a land scrip coupon from a sympathetic female veteran. With no knowledge of farming, and condescension—if not outright hostility—from local men (and one snooty woman), Flora has a tough row to hoe. She holds the reader’s sympathy as she struggles with breaking the land, planting crops, and surviving the intensely frigid winter alone in her small cabin. Her closest neighbors are, coincidentally, also

female, all with interesting backstories: a Welsh coal miner’s widow with three children, two former Boston schoolteachers seeking a secluded life together, and an aloof Métis horse trainer. More established settlers derisively call their small community “Ladyville.” Flora has doubts about their commonalities, though the five women reclaim the term as they help each other endure. Then Flora learns her husband is on her trail.

The author’s fluid narration moves along swiftly as it explores the rewards and difficulties of pioneer life on the Canadian prairie, but the descriptions of the land as it reawakens in green every spring are worth lingering over. This #1 Canadian fiction bestseller is joyously recommended.

Sarah Johnson

EVERYTHING I HOPE FOR

Cinda Gault, Grey Goose Press, 2025, $20.99/ C$23.99, pb, 240pp, 9781777794736

In Canada in 1972, Belinda Pompey is dealing with the news of her parents’ divorce when she meets John, whose long hair and lack of a job cause her mother to forbid Belinda to see him. As she continues to see John on the sly, Belinda’s eyes become open to the extreme selfishness of her mother, who begins the start of a series of new relationships, always focusing on herself instead of her children. When Belinda finally admits to still seeing John, she is thrown out of the home. Even while trying to survive, Belinda still keeps her eyes on her dream of a college education.

This is a coming-of-age story, as Belinda goes from a homeless teenager to a college student at Guelph University and then beyond. The realizations she comes to about her relationships and the choices she makes to change them reflect the evolving landscape of the 1970s. Some of the challenges Belinda faces in her journey involve estrangement, abortion, birth control, and dealing with a controlling and abusive relationship. Her decision to choose to set the parameters of future relationships and chart her own course is something that would have been harder to do in earlier decades. I did not agree with all of the choices Belinda made, for example, when she was stalked and essentially kidnapped but did not report the offender to the police. Overall, this is a realistic story of the 1970s, when women slowly began to gain more rights and choices.

Bonnie DeMoss

BEFORE DOROTHY

Hazel Gaynor, Berkley, 2025, $19.00/C$25.99, pb, 368pp, 9780593440339

Spanning the years 1924 to 1937, Before Dorothy fleshes out the life of a woman mentioned very briefly in L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: Auntie Em. In Gaynor’s novel, a young, in love, and newly married Emily Gale leaves Chicago behind to begin a new life in Kansas. Yet she’s already keeping secrets from her new husband, one which involves the

birth of their newborn niece, Dorothy. Once as close as two siblings can be, Emily and her sister Annie have painfully drifted apart. Through years darkened by the stock market crash, dust storms, and barrenness, Emily will need to turn her naivety into resilience if she hopes to finally find a place to call home.

Gaynor’s eloquent prose creates magic within the mundane. From golden stalks of wheat dancing in the breeze to the shimmering emerald prairie fields, the setting is brought to life with a sense of wonder and awe. Gaynor makes use of skillfully crafted allusions within the narrative, which allow readers to feel as if both Dorothy’s and Auntie Em’s stories are living and breathing symbiotically, perhaps somewhere over or nearby that wondrous rainbow. The Oz references feel natural and are clever in their real-life interpretations. Even without the tie-in to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, this book is an engaging and heartfelt work of fiction that brings to life the gritty reality of Depression-era hardships upon one family. It weaves a tale of complex family struggles, personal endurance through devastating trials, and opening of the heart to discover unexpected joys in everyday life. Recommended, oh my!

J. Lynn Else

THE LAST AMERICAN HEIRESSES

Stephen Greco, Kensington/John Scognamiglio, 2025, $18.95/C$24.95/£16.99, pb, 496pp, 9781496746511

This book explores the deep friendship between two of America’s most celebrated wealthy women. One is Doris Duke, heir to the successful Duke Tobacco and Energy fortune, and the other is Barbara Hutton, heir to the vast Woolworths & Co. fortune. Born just days apart in 1912 to two of the richest families in elite New York, Doris and Barbara lived only blocks away and became childhood friends with a lifelong bond.

Both women inherited vast fortunes, and by their 18th birthdays, they were already dazzling the world with their jewels, ball gowns, parties, and travel. Over the years, they often engaged in a game of supposed one-upmanship for the press, even marrying the same man in separate marriages. The biggest difference seems to be that Doris Duke used much of her wealth to benefit several charities and trusts, while Barbara Hutton spent nearly every penny on her lavish lifestyle. The author brilliantly depicts the jet-set lifestyle of these two famous women through the perspective of Oliver Shaw, an interior decorator and close friend of Doris. As the plot unfolds, Emma Radetsky, a young filmmaker eager to chronicle the jewels of ultra-wealthy women, seeks Oliver’s assistance in uncovering untold narratives about these women and gaining access to their jewelry for her film.

The plot offers a cumulative narrative of their tabloid-rich lifestyles, giving readers glimpses into the lives of two complex women whose unshakeable bond enables them to

navigate the upper echelons of high society. It is well-researched with flawless details and makes for an interesting read.

Linda Harris Sittig

THE WOMEN OF ARLINGTON HALL

Jane Healey, Lake Union, 2025, $16.99/£8.99, pb, 335pp, 9781662526503

In 1947, Radcliffe graduate Catherine (Cat) Killeen begins her career as a cryptologist and codebreaker at Arlington Hall with a supervisor’s solemn warning: “Discussing your activities here with anyone on the outside opens you up to prosecution under the Espionage Act … And, yes, the punishment for treason is execution.”

After fleeing her own wedding, Cat wonders if she has made the right choice, i.e., career over marriage. But once she has signed the oath, she is excited to commit to being part of the “biggest top-secret intelligence project in America,” known as the Venona Project. Cat soon makes good friends and is surprised to encounter her former Harvard rival, Jonathan Dardis, now working for the FBI. Despite firm intentions otherwise, she is increasingly drawn to him.

Cat’s work escalates as she delves deeper into years of intercepted Russian communications, trying to find the identities of spies and moles, perhaps even within their unit. When the Soviet Union starts its own nuclear tests, the race is on to uncover the traitors who leaked details of the Manhattan Project. As suspicions turn to her, Cat is forced to make a dangerous decision to seek out answers from her own past.

Naturally, Cat and her companions need to let off steam as a counterbalance to the dramatic intensity of their work via their social life with parties and romantic liaisons, but some of these lengthier diversions can dilute the taut principal narrative. The author’s notes provide excellent background into the history and the real individuals involved. A satisfying novel and definite recommendation for fans of Bletchley Park, Cold War spy stories, and similar novels.

Marina Maxwell

DAYS OF LIGHT

Megan Hunter, Grove, 2025, $28.00, hb, 274pp, 9780802164773

The days of light are April Easter holidays over decades, beginning in 1938. Ivy, the daughter of Cressingdon, an idyllic country house in Sussex, is nineteen when the story begins. She is on the cusp of adulthood, but the models of her bohemian parents daunt her. Her mother, Marina, and companion, Angus, are renowned painters; her father, Gilbert, who lives elsewhere with a string of other women, is a noted scholar. Ivy considers herself a dilettante in comparison, dabbling in painting and writing and dance, with no idea what will come next but hoping for something grand. She possesses a sensitivity

to the beauties of the natural world and the rich imagination of a poet, but for the most part, her perceptions play out in her head.

All the family gathers at Easter for a traditional lunch, though Marina is proud that they, and Cressingdon itself, are secular. Ivy’s cherished older brother Joseph is home from Oxford, looking forward to presenting his sweetheart Frances to the family. The dramatic climax of that Easter leads to a second April day in 1938: the aftereffects of the crisis on everyone at the lunch, which continue one way and another until the end of the story. We see Ivy going about her life on April days of 1944, 1956, 1965, and 1999. Throughout, she reflects on the complexities she has faced and her changes of heart.

Springtime rebirth loosely holds these six days together through Ivy’s musings. The first line is “When Ivy looked back, this is what she remembered,” creating a dreamlike feel from the beginning. Megan Hunter’s beautifully descriptive style gives the novel a lyrical quality and weaves a spell around this unusual family and Ivy’s luminous life. Highly recommended.

Jinny Webber

THE MERCY STEP

Marcia Hutchinson, Cassava Republic, 2025, £16.99, hb, 274pp, 9781913175740

In 1960s Bradford, England, Mercy is daughter number seven. When her dad left Jamaica, he left his wife and four daughters behind. When her mum arrives later, she’s minus the four daughters. Mercy figures she can handle her two older sisters (numbers five and six), but then along comes girl number eight and a coveted boy! Dad is overjoyed. Mercy is ignored. She ponders which tubes Mummy had to get tied. There’s so much she doesn’t understand.

We meet Mercy in the womb, moments before her premature birth. Not particularly enamoured of this disruption and now stuck in the outside world, she stretches and contracts her figurative umbilical connection, twanging messages along the cord to her mum. The first year she’s in hospital with New Monya (pneumonia), soaking up the world like a sponge, while perfectly enunciating petroleum jelly and Mississippi, before she’s even taken a step.

From a uniquely perceptive child’s eye view, Mercy searches through eleven years of childhood for where she fits, encompassing family, school, books and frequent retreats to ancient Athens, Rome and Troy. Her refuge is the library and her only friend, her Dolly, agrees with Mercy about everything. Barely

acknowledged by her abusive dad, except when he slaps her (or worse), it’s her job to offer protection to her mum from Daddy’s assaults. Time and again, Mercy sees Mummy’s resolve collapse. Mercy does not understand Big People at all!

It took me a little while to find the cadence of Mercy’s voice, and I never fully translated her dad’s heavy patois, but it didn’t spoil an immersive reading experience. Hutchinson’s glowing achievement is Mercy’s observant voice—at one year, two, three, and more— and her rendition of 1960s England through dozens of details, things I’d forgotten which precisely replicate that era. Mercy’s battle with family dysfunction, violence, and a fanatically religious mum is a literary triumph.

Fiona Alison

THE COLONY OF LOST SOULS

Kelsey James, Kensington/John Scognamiglio, 2025, $18.95/C$24.95/£16.99, pb, 304pp, 9781496742957

True to its title, James’s new novel is a psychological suspense drama peopled with lost souls, those who have reached the end of the road in their lives and dream of something more. May Anderson is one such soul: dissatisfied with her marriage, her inability to have children, and desperately missing her sister June. In 1932, a note arrives from June, with whom May has long been out of touch; it bears a return address of the Kinima Theosophical Society. June begs May to join her at this ‘place of miracles’ which will change her life forever, and it doesn’t take May much thought to leave her husband and her life behind.

The colony is an elaborate mansion perched on a secluded bluff above the roaring Pacific, its massive balcony affording a panoramic view of the ocean and private beach. June is away, ostensibly on a mission to recruit new members, which is painful for May because it was her dearest wish to reconnect straightaway with her sister. The people at the colony welcome May, and she gradually falls in with their daily routines. As she watches impatiently for June’s arrival, she becomes caught up in the ceremonies performed by the master, Rex, whose fervent belief is that he can return drifting souls back into living bodies.

From the misty environs of the isolated mansion, to the strange mirrored walls, the followers’ shapeless garments, tedious work and servile behaviour, and the mysticism which surrounds Rex, James’ manifestation of the cultish aura is captured in exactly the right tone, both frightening and enticing. She draws her readers into the allure which surrounds all charismatic leaders, as Rex’s seductive glamour turns to sinister control once May realises what his wish really entails. A well-wrought, atmospheric, and unsettlingly creepy read.

Fiona Alison

UNDER DARKENING SKIES

Hilary Jones, Mountain Leopard, 2025, £20.00, hb, 368pp, 9781035421794

Will Burnett is a surgeon at the Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. He is angry about the differences in health care for the rich and poor and frustrated that so many of his patients die after he has operated on them. His wife, Grace, works at the Dunn Institute in the city where the potential of penicillin has recently been established, and efforts are now concentrated on synthesising sufficient quantities to make it available.

Kitty, Will’s sister, is a beautiful, idealistic and athletic young woman. A nurse by profession, she has gone to Spain to fight against the Fascist rebels. There she meets and loses the love of her life. Grace and Will’s daughter Emily, named after Emmeline Pankhurst – they are that sort of family – is a talented mechanic with aspirations to become a pilot. Daniel, their son, is a budding psychiatrist.

We follow them through the Spanish Civil War and the growing threat of Fascism. We are present when Neville Chamberlain announces that Britain is at war with Germany, at Dunkirk, the start of the Blitz, Pearl Harbour, D-Day and beyond.

This is the final book in a trilogy, but it stands alone with no requirement to have read the previous two, although you may (or may not) choose to do so. It is a series of adventure stories: Kitty’s dangerous exploits in Spain and her hunt for her lost lover, Emily’s attempts to break into a man’s world, and Will and Grace’s struggle to save lives. It will certainly appeal to lovers of adventure stories. Hilary Jones is a doctor, and his elucidation of the state of health care in the mid-20th century is one of the book’s strengths.

David Northover

DIRTY LITTLE WAR

Dietrich Kalteis, ECW Press, 2025, $21.95/ C$26.95, pb, 488pp, 9781770417960

When young Huck Waller hops a train in 1920, leaving his home in Louisiana to head for Chicago, he has no idea he will spend the next decade in the middle of the city’s violence. He finds a job protecting Yellow Cab drivers, who are challenged by Checker Cab drivers in a vicious feud. At the same time, he provides security for the North Side bootlegging gang in their turf war as they fight other neighborhood gangs. Huck is not averse to switching sides when he can enlarge his take. Along the way, he cares for a lovable orphan and courts upstanding nurse-turned-dancer Karla. Huck’s chances of surviving either the taxi war or the gang war seem slim. He ends up in countless dangerous situations, killing when necessary and facing challenges to his developing moral code.

Kalteis does a superb job of recreating the slang and geography of 1920s Chicago. His irregular sentence structures and fragments propel the plot. He also does a superb job of sprinkling in historical context, including the aftermath of the 1919 race riots and the coming

of the Great Depression. But readers who want to follow the nuances of the complex, lengthy story must stay extremely attentive to changing loyalties. Also, Kalteis is not at his best in characterizing the one woman of the novel—love interest Karla. The short chapter written from Karla’s point of view is not sufficient to illuminate her choices. Finally, this book improves greatly after the opening chapters that focus on Huck’s career as a bare knuckles boxer and are overloaded with terminology from those fights. I urge readers impatient with the length of those scenes to stick with this impressive historical novel.

Marlie Wasserman

THE DIRECTOR

Daniel Kehlmann, trans. Ross Benjamin, riverrun, 2025, £22.00, hb, 352pp, 9781529435115 / Summit, 2025, $28.99/ C$38.99, hb, 352pp, 9781668087794

Frail, old Franz Wilzek is driven from his Vienna sanatorium to the TV studios and interviewed for a magazine show about his career as a film director. He’s questioned about his mentor, G. W. Pabst. But Franz is confused. His memory is slippery, elusive: it plays tricks on him. Who was there? What happened? What did not happen?

It sets the tone of a story focused upon the award-winning 20th-century film director, G. W. Pabst who, before the war, worked across Europe and America, and during the 1939-45 War, made movies in Nazi Germany.

Like a movie itself, Pabst’s story unfolds in vivid scenes, narrated from the points of view of a large cast of both fictional and historic characters. Each one closely observes Pabst, illuminating the man, his work, and their political context. I’m not an expert on Pabst, so can’t comment on the historical accuracy. But I can say that the writing is masterly, as it explores what happens when a man, driven by creative art, becomes entrapped by forces that, unlike his art, he is unable to control.

As Pabst drives actors and camera operators to reveal the emotional truths of the script, the truths of the world around them shift and evade. While the prose of the book is lasersharp, the minds of the characters are anything but. People are befuddled by age; by drink; by concussion; by vertigo; by sleep deprivation: by the mind’s inability to comprehend what it has just seen.

Some readers may find the powerful themes – and some events – distressing. But with suspense, vivid characters, and the added bonus of a mystery with a twist, this is a strong read.

Helen Johnson

CONFESSIONS OF A GRAMMAR QUEEN

Eliza Knight, Sourcebooks, 2025, $17.99, pb, 400pp, 9781464238239

Bernadette Swift’s dream of becoming the first female CEO in publishing is off to a rocky start. Despite being outstanding at her job,

she is called the Grammarian and doesn’t seem to have any chance of moving beyond an entry-level copy editor position at a New York publishing company. Her sexist boss heaps mountains of manuscripts on her desk while constantly criticizing her and demanding she make him a cup of coffee. Her fellow copy editors, all men, play immature pranks on her and treat her like a joke. Fortunately, outside of the office, she has a close group of like-minded friends from her feminist book club. Emboldened by her friends’ unwavering support, she makes a daring move to stand up for herself at work. Her courage inspires a wave of activism among her friends and members of the neighborhood.

Knight’s novel deals with serious topics from the early 1960s, like the fight for gender equality and sexual harassment in the workplace, yet maintains a light-hearted tone. She balances Bernadette’s obstacles with humor and even a little romance, making for an engaging and fun read. The chapters alternate between Bernadette’s point of view and Frank’s, her genial and loyal

Harlequin Great Dane. Frank’s antics and observations add an additional layer of heart and levity. Knight has created a strong cast of female characters who demonstrate the power of friendship, and the publishing industry setting allows the author to show her creative flair with language. Fans of Knight’s previous books will be pleased, and new readers are in for a treat.

Janice M. Derr

ANGEL DOWN

Daniel Kraus, Atria, 2025, $28.99/C$38.99, hb, 304pp, 9781668068458

World War I is hideously miserable for all its combatants, but even worse for Private Cyril Bagger and his four woebegone junior enlisted U.S. Army comrades. Though they are certainly not medics, their continuous task is to deal with the dead and wounded from both sides in the aftermath of battles. They are given this job because they are guileful and slovenly soldiers not to be trusted in genuine combat. Bagger’s father was a hell-and-brimstone bishop, and the rebellious son has turned into a duplicitous conman in and out of uniform. When they are sent to “help” a wailing soldier, screaming and caught in the post-battle detritus of No Man’s Land, they are stunned to find an apparent angel struck down and entangled. Perhaps they can somehow actually save this miracle worker and end the war, Bagger thinks. But this group of rescuers may have too many of their own demons to be successful.

The author has a successful and storied career in books, cinema, and television. The novel is written in a non-standard format consisting of mostly repetitive short paragraphs, each beginning with the same word (“and”). The narrative is at times weird, viscerally intense, and often filled with physically gruesome violence. Perhaps that is the author’s intent, as the horror of the Great War is presented in all its rawness. The

soldiers’ senior commander, Major General Reis, leading the “Butcher Birds” Division, is cartoonishly awful, although Bagger’s four grunt squad members are interesting despite their frequently mendacious idiosyncrasies. I expect the author’s fans will enjoy Angel Down. Other readers will just have to take their chances.

Thomas J. Howley

CHEESECAKE

Mark Kurlansky, Bloomsbury, 2025, $26.99/ C$35.99/£16.99, hb, 240pp, 9781639735723

In the 1970s, the cheesemaking Katsikas family leaves Greece for New York, opening a diner in the shabby and crime-ridden Upper West Side. The diner attracts regulars from among the characters who populate the neighborhood. When gentrification begins to creep into the area in the Eighties and Nineties, the Katsikases’ fortunes rise, and they renovate the diner into an upscale restaurant, hoping to attract wealthier New Yorkers moving into the neighborhood.

The planned centerpiece of their new menu is a cheesecake to beat all the city’s cheesecakes—the oldest written cheesecake recipe, recorded by Cato in 60 BCE. The trouble is, Cato’s translated instructions are vague and unhelpful, leaving much up to interpretation. Adara Katsikas makes Cato’s cheesecake the way she makes her usual Greek pastries, making sure to use her homemade goat cheese. The dish is a hit and inspires imitators, all bringing their own personal histories and cultural touches into interpreting Cato’s ancient cheesecake.

This is a novel unsurprisingly and unabashedly about cheesecake. Kurlansky even adds a 30-page appendix oozing with cheesecake recipes from history. But it is also about people and how food—especially in the melting pot of New York City—can traverse the boundaries between culture. But most of all, Cheesecake is about gentrification and urban change. Although the Katsikases are central to the novel, the fingers of the plot radiate into the neighborhood and into the lives of the diner’s denizens. An aging artist’s muse. A retired reporter. A Jewish television producer. An out-of-work luftmensch. A Haitian artist. A pigeon-feeding widow. An art collector and bon vivant. Through each character and their connection to cheesecake, Kurlansky tells a history of a changing city, and the people caught in its currents.

Jessica Brockmole

I REMEMBER LIGHTS

Ben Ladouceur, Book*hug Press, 2025, $21.00, pb, 275pp, 9781771669351

In this dual-timeline novel, a young man explores gay life against the backdrop of Montreal’s Expo ’67 and his involvement in the 1977 police raid on the gay bar, Truxx, ten years later. As both stories unfold, the unnamed protagonist questions his life, lifestyle, feelings, and future through the

lenses of the men he meets – friends, workmates and lovers.

I Remember Lights is written almost flawlessly. The inner dialogue of the main character is so realistic and evokes deep feelings of empathy, disgust, confusion, hope, and ultimately resignation for the man’s choices and impact. You like and dislike him at the same time. Ladouceur does this with a captivating elegance.

Experiencing the sights and sounds of 1967, particularly through music, brings the backdrop to life. The reader is always aware of the dangers of being a gay man in the ´60s and ´70s, knowing that it can’t end well for this rather aimless but intriguing character. You root for him, knowing all the while that he will make poor choices, and that even true love can’t save him.

I found the dual timeline a little confusing – a better delineation between the swerves back and forth would be helpful. Overall, it is a lyrical read and a profound examination of the human condition through one man’s eyes.

Deb Stratas

THE MYSTIC

Dawn Reno Langley, Black Rose Writing, 2025, $17.95, pb, 309pp, 9781685136017

Jack Robbins is a no-good drunk. One night in 1957, on the outskirts of Boston, he is dead drunk on the floor of a bar, and his wife has to drag him home. But she doesn’t know how to drive. A high school dropout, Beth has been controlled and abused by Jack during their three-year marriage. On the way home, their truck hits a little girl and speeds away. But who was driving? Who is responsible?

The answer comes eventually, but due to a severe lack of editing, this reader no longer cared. The writing is satisfactory; however, the tense shifts, name changes, mischaracterizations, and mis-ordered events made this a book to skip. The character’s interior monologue shifts halfway through, going from a high school dropout who is good at drawing to a suddenly educated and philosophical color-adept artist. The best part of the novel is the portrayal of the older sisters who live next door to Beth and Jack, and even they become tiresome and repetitive in the end. The novel takes place over the course of one month, in which she goes from comfort to pennilessness. There are a few historical issues, but minor enough that had the novel been better put together, I wouldn’t have minded.

This author’s work is decent, and I would read her books in the future, if they receive better editing.

Katie Stine

THE SILENCE AND THE RAGE

Pierre Lemaitre, trans. Frank Wynne, Tinder Press, 2025, £25.00, hb, 512pp, 9781035412655 / Little, Brown, 2025, $30.00, hb, 512pp, 9780316576154

The French call this type of book a roman fleuve, likening it to a great river rolling majestically to the sea. I prefer to think of it as a delta, which is much more interesting, flowing through a maze of interconnecting channels each teeming with life. The Silence and the Rage is the second book in Lemaitre’s trilogy following the lives of the Pelletier family. Louis Pelletier is the founder of the family’s fortune with a soap factory in Beirut, but his children, Jean, François and Hélène, all now live in Paris. The youngest, Etienne, died tragically in the earlier book, The Wide World

The trilogy is set during the trente glorieuses, the thirty years of continuous economic growth which followed the Second World War, transforming France from a rather quaint semi-peasant economy to an advanced postindustrial society. The conflicts this generated are illustrated in one of the main strands of the second book, as a village fights to block the construction of a huge hydro-electric dam which will flood their valley. Not that the book is focused solely on great events; it is a closely interwoven story of private lives and very personal struggles.

Almost every aspect of life is here, except for the war scenes which featured in the earlier book. Much of what happens is grossly unfair; the good suffer, and the unworthy prosper. Lemaitre has a witty hard-boiled style, which can make you cry as well as laugh. Even the most minor characters are sharply drawn. This is a beautifully crafted saga of a family holding itself together in a fast-changing world.

Edward James

EROSHENKO

Lucy May Lennox, Independently published, 2025, $14.99, pb, 336pp, 9798218588359

Vasili Eroshenko was born near the Russia/ Ukraine border in 1890. He went blind at the age of four and spent time at blind schools in Moscow and London, and as an adult tried to improve the education of the blind as well as advocating for the equality of all humans. He traveled to many parts of the world as a writer, speaker, socialist, and Esperanto enthusiast. For several years, in the mid-1910s, he was a part of the Japanese socialist, literary, quasi-

revolutionary, free love. and bluestocking interconnected circles in Tokyo.

Eroshenko’s time in Japan is shown from the perspective of female journalist and women’s rights advocate Kamichika Ichiko, who transcribed for Eroshenko and was his friend and sometimes lover.

Every character in this novel was a real person. These were the individuals fighting against the militaristic nationalism that would soon overtake Japan. They are shown as idealistic and imperfect, competitive and kind, generous, and jealous. We get to know Eroshenko and Ichiko the most, and they are fascinating people: Eroshenko, bold and brave and loving, but placed in the box of being blind by the rest of the world; Ichiko, who is never as strong as she wants to be, lets an unrequited love embitter her life. The setting is a character as well; every facet of this Tokyo is brought to life for us to experience. This isn’t a time and place well represented in historical fiction, but any lover of this genre will be entranced. A truly remarkable novel. Highly recommended.

Elizabeth Caulfield Felt

THE BRATINSKY AFFAIR

Jim Loughran, Sharpe Books, 2025, £9.99, pb, 272pp, 9798311396493

Tom O’Brien is a journalist for The Wicklow Herald. He is gay but is yet to come to terms with the fact. He has ambitions to become an investigative journalist but is stuck reporting on local affairs, council meetings, and cattle markets.

When Irina Bratinsky is murdered in a nearby village, Tom sees an opportunity for a bigger story. While searching through the ruins of her house, he meets her granddaughter, Olga, and they decide to work together to solve the mystery, on which the police appear to be making no progress.

Irina was, in fact, Countess Irina O’Rourke de Breffny, daughter of a diplomat. Her family lost everything in the Russian Revolution but managed to escape to France, where she grew up to become a dealer and expert in Russian antiques, particularly Fabergé. By these means she became very rich and mixed with influential people, not all of whom operated within the law. Following her murder, all her properties are broken into and ransacked, but nothing is taken; the perpetrators are clearly searching for something but neither Tom nor Olga know what.

The novel follows their investigation from Ireland to France and Russia, in all of which the police forces and intelligence agencies are involved. Chapters alternate between Irina’s past, of which Olga has no idea, and their

investigation. It moves briskly with scenes of high drama interspersed with the unravelling of the mystery, at considerable risk to themselves.

The novel will appeal to lovers of action and mystery stories. Although it is a novel, the O’Rourke de Breffny family did exist in Russia, and the object for which everyone is searching is real, though its provenance is not. A thoroughly good read.

David Northover

THE GREAT MANN

Kyra Davis Lurie, Crown, 2025, $28.00/ C$37.99/£23.00, hb, 320pp, 9780593800867

In October 1945, Charlie Trammell comes back to the US after harrowing years as a medic in WWII. Charlie, a 25-year-old Black man who from boyhood read classic authors and worked to enhance his vocabulary, narrates this novel. His beautiful storytelling comes out of a hard family background in brutally racist Virginia, and his own keen observations and deep thinking.

Charlie’s cousin, Margie, has invited him to her Sugar Hill neighborhood of Los Angeles. Prominent Black entertainers, doctors, landowners live in Sugar Hill mansions. Relatively new to the neighborhood, James Mann owns one of the grandest estates and frequently hosts the most lavish parties. No one knows much about Mann or the source of his wealth. The characters and events parallel The Great Gatsby, set two decades before.

On the surface, Sugar Hill has the look and feel of a wealthy white community, and a few whites still live there. But, as Charlie tells us, “Everybody here is sleeping through the racism.” Racism lurks in many forms—police ignoring, even encouraging, violence on African Americans; the unchecked nastiness of white neighbors; a lawsuit and pending trial that could evict all Black people from their Sugar Hill homes.

Through Charlie’s telling, Lurie masterfully presents the emotions and lives of Black people “born into quicksand” and trying “to get out the best way they could” with their “choices determined more by… dark pigment than… bright intellect.” Lurie adds subplots of romance and friendship. Mann does all he can to find the girl he loved as a teenager. Margie’s marriage to an insurance executive is a rollercoaster. Charlie falls for a strong publicist. Page-turning storylines combine with strong characters struggling to find a decent life in an ugly time and place. Author Notes

summarize the real anti-Black eviction case and Sugar Hill’s history. Highly recommended.

G. J. Berger

WORLD PACIFIC

Peter Mann, Harper, 2025, $27.99/C$34.99, hb, 400pp, 9780063375345

“All lines eventually converge.” When writer-adventurer Richard Halifax disappears during a plucky jaunt on a Chinese junk across the Pacific to attend the1939 Golden Gate World’s Fair, seemingly disparate schemes and secrets begin to unfold and merge. The reputation of a world-renowned anti-fascist writer (loosely modeled on Thomas Mann) is threatened by scandal. A mysterious American agent washes ashore, suggesting joint German and Japanese jiggery pokery. Arms dealing in China, smuggled military plans, Stalinist skullduggery, blackmail, cannibalism, and shipwreck are all connected in a plot that plays out across the Pacific rim, from a Japanese POW camp to a failed utopian colony in New Guinea to a Californian nude ranch.

Three stories braid into one. There are Halifax’s letters to his boy readers, packed with “breezy bravado,” including comically inappropriate and bizarre sexual frolics. There are the monologues of a distraught sister speaking to her dissident émigré twin while he lies in a coma, as she discovers his multi-layered ties to Halifax. And there is the enraged testimony of a British agent, dupe of the “Bangkok Cock-up,” who is tasked with helping bring the U.S. into the war, but whose hunt for Nazi spies is repeatedly thwarted by the self-serving, boyish hijinks of his nemesis— the very same “Herr Dickee-san” Halifax.

Mann brilliantly captures the betrayed ideals of the period of US neutrality as a boys’ adventure. In the spirit of Halifax’s tall yarns, the great moral stakes of the era become a stage for political privateering and wild hubris. There’s a touch of Chandleresque noir thrown in for good measure as well. For anyone willing to suspend disbelief in the vein of a boy storylover, enthralled by a tale of doublecrossing and improbable daring and enlivened with Chaucerian ribaldry, this is a rollicking good read.

Anna Neill

THESE HEATHENS

Mia McKenzie, Random House, 2025, $29.00/ C$39.00/£24.00, hb, 272pp, 9780593596944

The narrator’s voice grabs hold immediately, and what a tale she has to tell! In smalltown Georgia in 1960, Doris Steele, a Black seventeen-year-old, had dropped out of school two years ago to care for her family after her Ma got sick. She’s pregnant and can’t support a baby, but the local midwives who perform abortions know her parents, so she turns to her former teacher, Mrs. Lucas, for help. Mrs. Lucas has a rich childhood friend in Atlanta who offers to arrange for the procedure, and what Doris sees there takes this Bible-raised teenager way out of her comfort zone. At Mrs. Sylvia

Broussard’s home, Doris hardly knows what to think.

Mrs. Broussard wears pants and red lipstick and talks frankly about sex. She’s also an atheist.

Mrs. Lucas appears to be a non-believer, too, which Doris can’t fathom; Doris knows she goes to church!

Speaking with honesty and cheeky humor –she crafts witty phrases she jots in a notebook – Doris is irresistibly appealing. She’s not wholly innocent, but not worldly either, and over the course of one whirlwind weekend, she socializes with Mrs. Broussard’s friends (including Coretta Scott King and her cousin Julia, a famous singer) and attends a student workshop on nonviolent activism. With her medical appointment weighing on her mind, Doris gets introduced to a secret community of queer women, and although she’s not gay, she has many curious questions about how that all works. She also starts pondering her relationship with God, who created a more interesting world than she ever realized, and how much she owes to her upbringing versus her own desires. With its well-crafted historical atmosphere that emphasizes Black women’s choices in the Civil Rights-era South and the importance of joyful spaces in a repressive world, this is a winning coming-of-age story full of personality and zing.

Sarah Johnson

JOY STREET JAIL MURDER IN A NUTSHELL

Frances McNamara, Level Best/Historia, 2025, $16.95, pb, 238pp, 9781685128487

1920. Patrolman Peter Attwood deposits a man found passed out on a Boston street into the Joy Street Jail to sober up. In the morning, the man is dead. When the death is found to be a result of morphine poisoning, a local politician and his Jewish constituents protest that he was a respected member of their community, and the corrupt head of detectives attempts to blame Attwood. This is the third book in the Nutshell Murder Mysteries, all based on the historical work of Frances Glessner Lee’s “Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death”—detailed miniature crime scenes used to train homicide detectives.

McNamara’s setting of Boston’s West End feels authentic, and the mystery itself has lots of twists and turns. The large cast of characters represents the varied population of Boston at the time, but the prejudices towards minorities, while historically accurate, may grate on a modern reader.

Of greater offense is the inaccurate portrayal of Jewish religious practices. First,

a character states that the Jewish family in mourning is “sitting Seder,” which is completely inaccurate. Jews sit shiva for seven days after a burial. A seder, which means “order,” is a ritual service and ceremonial dinner on the first and second nights of Passover. More egregious, however, is McNamara’s portrayal of autopsies performed on two Jewish men. There is a general prohibition against autopsies, especially among Orthodox Jews. If an autopsy were to be performed, it would only be with the consent of the family and in the presence of a rabbi or an halakhically trained physician. While McNamara has representatives of the Jewish community complain that one of their members is being portrayed as a drug fiend, they would actually have been complaining over the lack of respect shown to the dead. These errors, for which writer and publisher are equally responsible, are sloppy and inexcusable given current access to sensitivity readers.

Meg Wiviott

THE HOUSE AT DEVIL’S NECK

Tom Mead, Mysterious Press, 2025, $26.95/ C$35.95/£20.00, hb, 320pp, 9781613166505 / Head of Zeus, 2025, £20.00, hb, 288pp, 9781837932627

In this largely entertaining continuation of Tom Mead’s well-liked series of locked-room mysteries, sleuth and retired magician Joseph Spector accepts an invitation to a séance in a remote house that is said to be haunted by the alchemist who built it. Even more haunting is the house’s more recent past, when it was used as a rehabilitation facility for grievously injured veterans of the Great War.

The distraught mother of a patient who killed himself has invited Spector to expose a medium who claims to be in contact with her dead son. During the séance, another guest goes missing and is later found dead, apparently having hanged himself. At the same time, Spector’s ongoing foil in the series, DI George Flint, investigates a different, equally macabre suicide. Both Flint and Spector uncover evidence that neither crime can be a suicide. When the house where Spector is staying is cut off by a storm and a third impossible crime follows, the tale settles comfortably into the familiar cadences of a classic country house mystery.

Mead demonstrates his customary expertise at debunking fraudulent mediums’ tricks, but mystery purists may balk at his overly detailed attention to such mechanics at the expense of more artful misdirection. Readers may also grow frustrated at Mead’s tacking on several twists at the end, as if he was dissatisfied with his original solution. Still, The House at Devil’s Neck remains a solidly constructed Golden Age pastiche.

Erica F. Obey

JULIA

Heather B. Moore, Shadow Mountain, 2025, $27.99, hb, 384pp, 9781639934256

Julia is biographical fiction that follows Julia Child from the 1940s until after her cooking show begins in 1963. An afterword describes the remainder of her life. The novel starts with wealthy Julia McWilliams, long graduated from Smith College, deciding what to do with her life. She tries to get into the WAC and the WAVES, but finds out that at 6’2”, she is too tall. She then ends up with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which would later become the CIA. She starts out in Washington D.C., but is eventually transferred to India, and then Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where she meets Paul Child, her future husband. After the war, Paul is working in Paris, where the food adventures of Julia Child begin.

This is lovely historical fiction that draws us into Julia’s world. While everyone knows about her cooking, the details of her life in the OSS, trusted with America’s secrets during WWII, are lesser known and very intriguing. The wealthy daughter of a real estate mogul and an heiress, Julia did not have to go to work during the war, but she wanted to serve her country. She grew up with a cook, and she and Paul frequented the restaurants of Paris. She did not have to learn to cook, especially at a prestigious French cooking school. She did the things she did out of passion, not necessity, and her warm, passionate personality comes alive in this book, as does her close, loving relationship with her husband, Paul. After the war, we follow Julia from the first days of cooking school to writing a cookbook and then hosting a television show. The book is well-researched, but it manages to stay warm and inviting, just as she was. Highly recommended.

Bonnie DeMoss

LOVE AND CONDUCTIVITY

Erin Nieto, Köehler Books, 2025, $19.95, pb, 338pp, 9798888246023

In 1917, Eleanor Morgan and her friend Helen are enjoying the independence offered by war. They teach at Oklahoma University doing work normally reserved for men. In their shared room, they proudly display two photographs – of Eleanor’s brother Lawrence and Helen’s brother Erwin. They convince themselves that daily conversations with the photographs will guarantee their brothers’ safe return.

Fast forward to December 1918, and Eleanor finally meets Erwin in person. Sparks fly: they understand each other and feel drawn together. But duty and propriety rule, and they part politely with no expectation of meeting again. Eleanor returns to her parents in North Carolina and works as a high school teacher before accepting a post at Mississippi State College for Women, where the clock is firmly set to pre-war days and she’s expected to conform. Eleanor tries to convince herself that she’s satisfied with her independent life, while Erwin struggles to establish himself

as a chemistry student in California. When Erwin writes to Eleanor, they slowly establish a regular correspondence. Between 1919 and 1923, they write many letters, but rarely meet.

Love and Conductivity is based on real letters written by the real Eleanor and Erwin prior to their marriage in 1923. It’s an uplifting story of love and commitment that provides satisfying insights into human nature. It touches on the pressure of family responsibility, problems with overthinking, keeping going in the face of apparent failure, and the prevailing view that women are incapable of serious thought. Eleanor is portrayed as an intelligent, capable young woman who tries to juggle her desire for adventure with the need to fit in. The story is told through Eleanor’s and Erwin’s correspondence, connected by short sections of narrative. The narrative moves the story forward, while I felt that the letters’ protestations of love became a little repetitive.

Judy Gregory

THE WINTER WARRIORS

Olivier Norek, trans. Nick Caistor, Open Borders Press, 2025, £18.99, hb, 352pp, 9781916788763 / Atlantic Monthly, 2026, $28.00, hb, 352pp, 9780802167651

Norek, a popular French crime writer, has produced has a masterly evocation of the conflict between November 1939 and March 1940, when Finland almost fought off an ill-planned Soviet invasion.

With most of the characters and all the incidents factual, this is a ‘novelisation’ of military history, a sub-genre that seems popular with French writers.

Norek takes as his main character Simo Häyhä, a simple countryman who happens to be an unbeatable sniper. He joins the army alongside a group of friends from his village, and the main thrust of the story concerns their experiences as they are forced into evermore brutal battle. The incompetence of the Red Army means that at first Simo has to cope with an existence little different from that of a slaughterman. Later this changes utterly as the Soviets bring explosive bullets and flamethrowers into action. Fighting is exhausting in the endless snow, at temperatures so low that men must hug each other at night so as not to freeze to death.

Details such as the fact that Finland had only existed as an independent country for 20 years when the war began, and that the Russians were so confident as to send bandsmen into battle, have chilling parallels with the current Ukrainian war. With great skill and concision, Norek brings us into the hearts and minds of

frontline soldiers, but also pulls back to include the Finnish Commander in Chief, Mannerheim, the Soviet foreign minister Molotov, and the morally bankrupt Soviet army, whose political officers can shoot their own men at will. All characters are effortlessly brought alive. Knowing that amidst such overwhelming odds not all of the Finns can possibly survive, the suspense gripped me. Grim, funny, poignant, always vivid, this is the best military novel I have read for a long time.

Ben Bergonzi

GHOST WEDDING

David Park, Oneworld, 2025, £16.99/$28.00, hb, 288pp, 9780861549740

County Down, 1920s: an artificial lake is under construction in the grounds of a Victorian manor house, the property of a self-made man who knows that whatever his wealth, he will never quite be accepted by the Ascendancy class, who see themselves as the natural owners of demesnes like his.

George Allenby, the young Belfast architect in charge of the project, is a survivor of the Somme. The churning mud in which his team of resentful but needy workmen toil, and later, the discovery of a tiny skeleton in the excavations, provoke vivid flashbacks of his wartime experiences. He also has to contend with the son of the house, too young for conscription, an entitled boor with a line in latter-day droit de seigneur in the shape of mill-girls brought to the manor house as servants.

With one of these George begins a relationship, but this novel is not a romance, and their differences in class and education wreak devastation. George and Cora’s story is told in parallel with that of present-day Alex and Ellie, who come to the hotel (as the manor house becomes) hopeful of a wedding venue, only to encounter a supercilious wedding planner who tells them there is no room at the inn unless they want Allenby’s boat house, then in the process of renovation; they take it, brushing off rumours of ghosts.

That wedding planner does not appear again, but he is the first of a series of vivid cameos that give this book its truly immersive quality. Others include the presences of which Alex is peculiarly aware of (and they of him), the long-gone occupants of condemned buildings, for though Alex is also an architect, his role is not to construct but to destroy, at his domineering father’s behest. This extraordinary novel will remain long in the memory, its characters always present, just out of sight.

Katherine Mezzacappa

is March 1941, and Joseph Gunner is back from the front, badly damaged but still walking, just about, with the help of morphine to dull the worst of the pain. Luckily, he is from the streets of Glasgow and is tough enough to deal with what the book throws at him – which is quite a bit. He is recalled back to working for the police when mysterious German bodies, disfigured to avoid identification, start turning up. He begins investigating but is hampered throughout by various people – old enemies, false friends, a difficult sibling, secret agents and too many people with a vested interest in some things remaining as they are.

The horrors of war on the front and at home are vividly brought to life with chilling description and visceral imagery. The cruelly random nature of the bombing is also clearly shown and, of course, Glasgow was a particular target due to the shipyards and industry there. Partly connected to real-life events such as Rudolf Hess`s secret mission to discuss appeasement, this is exciting and powerful from the beginning. A brand-new crime series which deserves to gain many fans, and I`m already looking forward to the next instalment.

Ann Northfield

DEAR MISS LAKE

AJ Pearce, Scribner, 2025, $27.99/C$36.99, hb, 304pp, 9781668007747 / Picador, 2025, £16.99, hb, 336pp, 9781035000838

It is July 1944, and the war in Europe is limping towards its inevitable conclusion. The London-based staff of the weekly magazine Woman’s Friend are doing their best to buoy everyone’s spirits and provide practical advice. Journalist Emmy Lake is kept busy writing the “Cheerfully Yours” column and responding to mail from women seeking advice on every topic imaginable. Emmy and her colleagues try hard to align the government’s propaganda requirements with the information they feel women need.

The Woman’s Friend team decides to escape the London bombings and spend the summer working from the relative safety of the countryside. Emmy knows she is lucky, particularly when she achieves a longheld ambition and becomes a Lady War Correspondent, reporting for the magazine on women’s work at home and in Europe. But when her husband is posted back overseas, Emmy suddenly finds herself facing challenges from every corner.

GUNNER

Alan Parks, Baskerville, 2025, £16.99, hb, 278pp, 9781399819664

The setting, characters and issues are dramatically presented to the reader from the start with clear and precise writing which grabs hold immediately and does not let go. It

Dear Miss Lake is a gentle, uplifting story about friendship, working together, and maintaining optimism in challenging times. It is about the experience of being left at home to worry and how it is easy to alternate between coping and not. Emmy is surrounded by good people, and she is well-meaning herself—for me there was too much niceness and care from most characters. There is a nod to the value of progressive thinking and the challenges of being confronted by entrenched stereotypes and power, and the book’s themes seem to link

the 1940s with the concerns modern people face today.

While this is the fourth book in Pearce’s Emmy Lake series, it also works as a standalone novel, although new readers might find it takes time to figure out (and remember) all the characters.

Judy Gregory

A MURDEROUS BUSINESS

Cathy Pegau, Minotaur, 2025, $28.00/ C$39.00, hb, 304pp, 9781250356499

In 1912, Margot Baxter Harriman assumes the helm of B&H Foods, the New York Citybased canning business she inherited from her deceased father. A capable, unmarried woman in her thirties, Margot trained alongside her father and is ready to move the company forward. But then a former employee keels over on the premises, and the note the woman was writing to Margot when she died suggests shady goings-on at B&H that implicate Margot’s father.

Margot prides herself on B&H’s adherence to food safety regulations laid out in the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act. Now, fearing a foodpoisoning scandal and company ruin, she enlists a detective agency to look for misdeeds before they become public. The private eye she hires, Loretta “Rett” Mancini, faces her own problems: her father, the agency owner, is in the throes of dementia, and Rett struggles to hold their business together. As the two women unravel the mystery, they bond over a desire to make their way in businesses traditionally run by men, and because they share a secret: they are both attracted to women.

Pegau paints a delightfully vivid picture of early-20th-century Manhattan, from Madison Avenue to the Lower East Side, with a plethora of historical detail to place readers in the streets, the clubs, and the drawing rooms. Margot and Rett are appealing and nicely contrasted point-of-view characters. The story’s pace drags a little until a vicious murder occurs at the halfway point, and the plot could use other, more credible, fleshedout suspects. But the novel offers promise as the start of a new series about queer lives at a time rarely covered in fiction.

Paula Martinac

CAIRO GAMBIT

S. W. Perry, Corvus, 2025, £18.99, hb, 390pp, 9781805460640

Many of you will know of S. W. Perry as the author of the Jackdaw series of Elizabethan murder/mysteries, but his two latest books have been 20th-century thrillers (Berlin Duet and Cairo Gambit). Both are very good books, and Perry fans will be well rewarded by following him into his new era.

The link between the two books is Harry Taverner, British Secret Service officer. He has all the qualities of a superspy, except perhaps a certain sexual reticence, but he is not the central character in Cairo Gambit. This is Primrose (Prim) Nevenden, whose father,

Archie, an oil company executive, has gone missing in the Middle East. Prim has not seen her father since childhood but nevertheless sets off impulsively to Cairo to search for him. The British Secret Service is also interested in Archie and sends Harry out to Cairo, where he and Prim team up for the quest.

The quest provides a strong story arc as it moves from Cairo to Palestine and then to the Sinai desert, peeling away the complex layers of Archie’s life. The story is set in 1938 when Britain was still the dominant power in the Middle East, although beset with troubles from Jewish and Arab terrorists and Egyptian nationalists. This is a well-crafted thriller building up to a dramatic climax, with a colourful cast of believable characters, both fictional and historical.

Edward James

A FINE PIECE OF JADE

Katy Phoon, The Book Guild, 2025, £9.99, pb, 316pp, 9781835743164

Set in the years leading up to and during the Second Sino-Japanese War, also called the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, and then the rise of Communism in China from 1935 to 1951, author Katy Phoon tells the story of two young girls brought together by events beyond their control, soon determined never to be separated. Yuányuán, the elder by two years, is the treasured youngest child of a man who dreamed of a new China for all. Wāng Qí is the youngest daughter of a judge on the side of the anti-Communist Kuomintang. As war looms, both families send their daughters away to a Catholic boarding school where they face years of isolation and near-starvation but find strength and comfort in the deep friendship between them, as well as the kindness and protection of the nuns who run the school.

Told in omniscient point of view, A Fine Piece of Jade deftly weaves together not only the events in the lives of Yuányuán and Wāng Qí over the decades but also vignettes from the past delivered in a folktale style, which provide clarity and context for the main plot. Through her straightforward prose and Yuányuán’s eternal optimism, Phoon manages to make what could have been very difficult subject matter palatable and intriguing, keeping readers turning the pages right up to the end. As Qí’s father said when he named her, the story is flawless like a fine piece of jade and a lovely tribute to the author’s mother, whose childhood inspired the character of Wāng Qí. Highly recommended.

Rose Prendeville

THE MASTER JEWELER

Weina Dai Randel, Lake Union, 2025, $16.99/£8.99, pb, 349pp, 9781662522536

The sheer artistry of beautifully handcrafted ornamental jewelry infuses itself into this luminous story. Starting in the northeastern corner of China near Siberia, it follows the life course of Anyu, a young woman growing up in difficult circumstances with her

educated but impoverished mother. Nourishment comes in many forms, however, and her mother’s love, combined with her own persistence, bravery, and artistic skill, propels her forward in her quest to become a master jeweler.

This quest begins in earnest when she aids a stateless Russian jeweler in a perilous situation that unexpectedly results in an opportunity for her to pursue her own destiny. And pursue it she does, moving to Shanghai and making good on her exceptional talents while also encountering the dangerous undercurrents that run throughout the city in the 1920s and 1930s. Burgeoning relationships with wealthy expat clients, intrigue and competition among jewelers, and confrontations with both Chinese gang members and Japanese soldiers attempting to take control of the city all swirl around Anyu. Her own stubbornness and youthful passions further complicate her personal circumstances and entangle her in the tides of these ominous currents from which she must extricate herself by willpower and wits.

Filled with incandescent prose that matches the luster of the gems being burnished for jewels, this novel will pull readers into Anyu’s story. Her tumultuous life and times mirror her own work, encompassing moments of dim light and rough textures as well as moments of bright light with many glittering facets. Highly recommended for all readers intrigued by the intersections in an individual life between artistic creation and unfolding history in a momentous time and place.

Karen Bordonaro

THE LAST ASSIGNMENT

Erika Robuck, Sourcebooks, 2025, $17.99, pb, 448pp, 9781728299860

Dickey Chappelle (1919-1965) was America’s first female professional war photographer. This fictionalized account honors her life, devoted to showing the brutal human costs of armed conflicts. “I want to get the picture to end all wars,” she says at a latecareer speaking engagement. Dickey rises above her peers from early on. MIT offers her a full scholarship; she’s one of the first women

admitted there. She quits school to become a pilot, but bad vision blunts that goal. She trains with the US Marines and, though only five feet tall, keeps up with them in most exercises. She is the first American woman to parachute into combat, comes under fire at Iwo Jima and is later imprisoned and tortured by Russians in Hungary. On assignment to Cuba, she meets the young, mesmerizing Fidel Castro at his mountain hide-out and then again after he had turned into a murderous dictator. Many times she risks her own life and career to help victims of war or freedom fighters. On her fifth and last mission to Vietnam, she berates a group of young marines abusing a Viet Cong prisoner.

Robuck takes readers into Dickey’s family life, with a doting mother, devoted aunts, and her husband Tony: overbearing, philandering, and often jealous. A college photography instructor, Tony does help her view and record the world through camera lenses. Dickey remained childless, giving her freedom to go where she pleased and bond with refugee children in many places. Robuck intersperses her own writing with news articles, interview transcripts, and Dickey’s taped recordings. Author notes help sort out where Robuck deviates from verifiable facts. Robuck’s original sources and stunning war settings, combined with prose and dialogue that match Dickey’s intensity, make this a grand must-read. Highly recommended.

G. J. Berger

SILVER ECHOES

Rebecca Rosenberg, Lion Heart Publishing, 2025, $19.99, pb, 374pp, 9781732969964

This dual-timeline novel jumps between daughter Silver Tabor in 1918-1925 and mother Baby Doe Tabor in 1932. Both women experienced incredible wealth from silver mining, which dropped out from beneath them, leaving them destitute and living in a mining camp in Colorado. The story follows the outlandish antics of Silver, a singer and dancer, who seeks fame in order to make up for her family’s fall from fortune. The story never settles for long in one scene or one place, jumping rapidly from one event to the next. While it does serve the chaotic interior of the main character, the reader never gets a firm sense of place.

The second timeline, told by Baby Doe, an elderly woman without contact with the rest of her family, is really the heart of the narrative. She clings to the family’s Matchless Mine, believing that redemption lies within. Years after Silver’s death, a former suitor comes to Baby Doe to write a screenplay about the Tabors, and the two form an unlikely friendship. This is where the narrative shines, not in the complicated assignations and personality switching that appears in Silver’s timeline. Without that heart, Silver’s second personality seems like an unnecessary construct, and the parade of vices—likely factually accurate—seem forced and unreal. Outside of Baby Doe’s timeline, the novel consists of frenetic episodes rather than

a clear narrative arc with building tension. Despite this, many readers will still find Silver Tabor’s life compelling.

Katie Stine

SEEDS OF THE POMEGRANATE

Suzanne Uttaro Samuels, Sibylline, 2025, $22.00, pb, 416pp, 9781960573445

In 1905, Mimi Inglese appears to be on the cusp of achieving her artistic dreams. But tuberculosis and the struggles of her family prevent Mimi from pursuing her ambitions. Her family leaves Sicily to work with her godfather in Manhattan, but it is clear from the moment they arrive in the United States that Mimi’s godfather is much more than an importer. Mimi’s artistic skills are called upon when they become entrenched in a money-laundering scheme.

Mimi finds purpose and a validation of her talent in counterfeiting as well as through her friendship with Stella Frauto. However, the Inglese family sinks deeper into the underworld of gang activity, moving from one disaster to another.

Seeds of the Pomegranate is dense with family dynamics. The narrative is weighed down by an abundance of dialogue. Conversely, when the reader can sink into the detailed description of the world Mimi inhabits, the pages fly by. Sudden time jumps are frequent as the scale of the story takes us across Mimi’s lifetime.

As readers, we journey with Mimi into the underworld, as we would with Persephone, and keep hoping that Mimi will achieve what she envisioned for the mythological figure in the beginning of the novel: power and choice. An entertaining read for those that love sprawling family dramas, and a compelling portrayal of early 20th-century Manhattan.

Amy Turner

THE NIGHT SPARROW

Shelly Sanders, Harper Perennial, 2025, $18.99/ C$25.99, pb, 368pp, 9781443470537

WWII: After the Nazis invade the Soviet Union, Elena Bruskina, a Jewish woman, escapes the Minsk ghetto, determined to seek revenge on the invaders who murdered her family. She eventually enrolls in the Moscow Central Women’s Sniper Training School and becomes a member of an all-female sniper platoon, enduring incredible hardships and forging strong friendships as she and her comrades fight to defeat the Nazis and save the Soviet Motherland. However, after an injury, she is redeployed to serve as an interpreter and, stationed in Berlin while the city falls and the Nazi regime collapses, Elena finds herself on a different, even more compelling mission.

The Night Sparrow shines light on the history of a little-known cadre of female snipers who fought for the Soviet Union during WWII. It is a bit of history that deserves to be better known; after the war these women’s achievements were not celebrated as life returned to the pre-war status quo. The story is told in two

alternating timelines. The first one details Elena’s experiences during the earlier part of the war: her time in the ghetto, her escape and training, and her battlefield experiences. The second narrative describes her deployment to Berlin and the end of the conflict. Elena is a sympathetic heroine who struggles to balance her hatred of Nazis and thirst for revenge with her growing realization of the omnipresent horrors of war, no matter which side wins the victory. The book is extremely well-researched, and the author provides an extensive list of resources for readers seeking to learn more about these valiant women warriors. An excellent read for lovers of WWII fiction.

Susan McDuffie

THOSE WE CARRY

Scott Saxberg, Reimagined Press, 2024, C$18.00, pb, 324pp, 9781068915406

Ardagh Cadieu joins the Canadian army to fight against the Nazis in WWII, but he is also fleeing from a horrific mistake in his past. Can he overcome his guilt and move forward? Koos van den Berg is part of the Danish resistance while the Germans occupy her hometown. Can she stay alive long enough to help her country? Then there is the boy she had liked, who did the unthinkable and joined the Dutch Nazis. When Koos and Ardagh meet, his past and her controlling family seem too much to overcome. Can they beat the odds and stay together?

This is a gritty, realistic look at the casualties of war, and of life. The mistakes and choices we make, and even the people we love, we carry with us as long as we live. Even brief contacts can make lasting impressions: “The fish and chips guy,” Ardagh said. “It’s funny the things you remember of the guys, brief clips or moments, or gestures they made, but if you asked me about a conversation we had, I couldn’t remember a thing.” The descriptions of battle are very detailed and well-researched. The bond between soldiers who fight together and the grief of watching your friends die on the battlefield are brought home over and over. The scene of the padre walking through the aftermath of the Battle of the Gap, speaking to the dead men, is one the reader will carry with them after the book is finished. Even those who are never on the battlefield carry others with them through loss, regret, and even love. Those We Carry shows the powerful connection we all have, and the bond with those who are gone, but never leave us. This deeply emotional book is based on a true story.

Bonnie DeMoss

THE INTERPRETER

David K. Shipler, Green City Books, 2025, $27.99, hb, 350pp, 9781963101072

David K. Shipler was a correspondent for the New York Times in Viet Nam from 1973 to 1975. The Interpreter was inspired by a Vietnamese interpreter who worked for him during that time, although his main characters are primarily fictional. The novel came out two

weeks before the 50th anniversary of the fall of Sài Gòn, which caused two million South Vietnamese to try to escape by any means possible. An estimated 200,000 to 400,000 died, mainly at sea.

In this work, Shipler dwells at length on an ambivalent, almost neurotic character who somewhat implausibly wavered and finally kept himself, his wife, and children from joining the 140,000 Vietnamese who were evacuated out of the country, mainly by air.

Contrast that to the real-life story of Pham Xuan An, who had worked for Time since 1966 and had provided political and military scoops to most of the foreign press in Sài Gòn. In April 1975, An also wavered, but decided to let his wife and four children get on an evacuation flight to the United States. He soon revealed himself to be a Communist Lieutenant Colonel who had been a deepcover North Vietnamese spy for over 50 years. He later sent for his family to return, a decision he regretted.

The Interpreter seems to have been hastily put together. As a tonal language, Vietnamese uses the Roman alphabet and diacritical marks on vowels to indicate different meanings. Shipler makes a halfhearted effort to give Vietnamese names to his characters. But most of the names have no diacritical marks. Then he uses a man’s name, Tuân, to give to his interpreter’s wife. He also spells out the famous Vietnamese fish sauce as nuoc mam, leaving out five diacritical marks! Only a couple more hours of editing would have avoided such simple mistakes.

Hien T. Nguyen

THE WOMEN OF OAK RIDGE

Michelle Shocklee, Tyndale, 2025, $18.99/ C$24.95, pb, 368pp, 9781496484222

The Women of Oak Ridge follows Maebelle Willett, a young woman who travels to the secret city of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to do her part in ending the Second World War and send money home to her family. Decades later, her niece, Laurel, a psychology graduate student, begins researching the psychological toll that keeping secrets and working on the atomic bomb had on Oak Ridge workers for her dissertation. When Laurel decides to spend the summer in Oak Ridge, she discovers that Aunt Mae is reluctant to talk about the past, despite her former colleagues being willing to talk, she sets out to find out why.

Told across dual timelines, the novel weaves together Mae’s experience as a young woman whose roommate mysteriously disappears, and Laurel’s quest to understand what really happened. The book begins as a compelling historical narrative that vividly evokes life in wartime Oak Ridge. As the story progresses, however, the mystery loses momentum. After a few key pieces of information are uncovered, the middle section feels repetitive, revisiting

the same details without advancing the plot, which leads to a rushed resolution.

That said, The Women of Oak Ridge will resonate with readers looking for a faithforward historical fiction with themes of guilt, redemption, and forgiveness. Michelle Shocklee uses Laurel’s background in psychology and the presence of a pastor friend to deliver a message of healing that makes this novel a good fit for fans of inspirational Christian fiction.

Sarah Taylor

AT LAST

Marisa Silver, Simon & Schuster, 2025, $28.00/ C$37.00, hb, 288pp, 9781668078969

Helene Simonauer and Evelyn Turner are two completely different people. Though they have Judaism in common, their attachments to it are as different as their childhoods, upbringings, attitudes towards marriage, childrearing, behavior, and… well, just about everything. Their shared drama begins when their children meet by chance, for which Helene will forever blame herself. The competition, and the story, begins the day before Tom and Ruth’s wedding, peaking years later, over the one thing they have in common—the love of Francie, the granddaughter they share.

At Last is more than a story about two competitive women. It is a generational story about pain. Using third person, Silver shifts in time and place—from Wheeling, West Virginia, and Omaha, Nebraska, in the late 1930s, to Cleveland in the 1960s—to give glimpses into Helene and Evelyn’s pasts and the formative events that shaped their lives. Both women are strong, independent, selfish, and infuriatingly obstinate. Even though one may occasionally want to shake some sense into them, Silver crafts the two so well that one understands they are doing their best. Each struggles to be recognized and accepted for who they are. Other chapters from Tom, Ruth, and Francie’s point of view shed light on inherited wounds. The concluding chapter in Francie’s first-person viewpoint provides a glimmer of hope. Beautifully written, with Judaism lightly woven into the fabric (a pleasure to read), Silver probes into childhood wounds that never heal and continue to weep, causing the characters to alienate (at best) and injure (at worst), those they love. At Last is an unforgettable, beautiful story. Highly recommended, but not if you’re looking for a light read.

Meg Wiviott

THE BOOTLEGGER’S BRIDE

Rick Skwiot, Amphorae, 2025, $18.95, pb, 286pp, 9781943075935

Jan Nowak, the son of Polish immigrants, came of age in Prohibition-era St. Louis. Fiercely independent, confident, and ambitious, Jan is hell-bent on writing his own ticket and forging his own path to the American dream. Jan secures his fortune as a bootlegger and loan shark in the city’s criminal underworld, while also educating himself outside the classroom and on his own terms. Jan is the quintessential self-made man who marches to his own drummer and lets nothing stand in his way.

By 1939, after the end of Prohibition, Jan, still young but with uncommon life experience, has turned to “banking” and become quite wealthy. He meets the beautiful and intelligent Hazel Robinson at a racetrack. They fall deeply in love, marry, and have a son, A.J. The young family lives happily together for several years until Jan is killed in combat in WWII, shortly after the Allies invade Normandy in June 1944. Hazel’s soul is crushed by her husband’s death, and her life spirals down into depression, alcoholism and promiscuity while A.J. is forced to grow up with no father and a troubled mother – all while dark and disturbing events from Jan’s past terrorize his family long after his death. A.J. is forced to confront these demons while protecting himself and pursuing his own dreams.

The Bootlegger’s Bride is an exciting, suspenseful novel set across dual timelines and character viewpoints. It’s well-structured with complex, layered characters and compelling sensory details that develop the characters and plot. Rick Skwiot is a gifted storyteller. I highly recommend this book.

Nate Mancuso

A CASE OF LIFE AND LIMB

Sally Smith, Raven, 2025, £16.99/$28.99, hb, 320pp, 9781526668776

This is an exciting historical whodunit set in 1901-1902, at the Inner Temple, one of the Inns of Court, in London. It is the second book in the trials of Gabriel Ward historical mystery series. I have not read the first book in the series, A Case of Mice and Murder, but I certainly will now; its sequel, A Case of Life and Limb is very enjoyable as a standalone read.

The novel follows Sir Gabriel Ward, KC (Kings Counsel), a highly respected barrister and reluctant detective. Sir Gabriel has to balance his trial case load, with investigating the arrival of a grisly Christmas parcel containing a mummified hand, sent to the Temple Treasurer. More grim packages follow. Someone with a grudge is set on destroying the peace of the Inner Temple. Sir Gabriel has to work out where the macabre specimens are coming from and whether there is a link to the defamation case of a star actress that he is currently working on.

I loved Sir Gabriel as a detective. He is kind, smart and honourable. It is positive to see a detective who would nowadays

be recognised as neurodiverse, beating the baddies and doing so with charm and poise in Edwardian Britain. Police Constable Wright as Sir Gabriel’s sidekick is an excellent foil. They are the Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson of the Inner Temple. This novel is perfectly paced with lots of twists and turns and an intellectually satisfying denouement. I knew nothing about the history of the Inns of Court, so the author has inspired me to read around the subject.

I would highly recommend this novel for all historical murder mystery fans looking to buy their summer holiday reading and I sincerely hope the author continues with this series.

Lizzie Bentham

THE LAST SECRET KEPT

Elaine Stock, Black Rose Writing, 2025, $17.95, pb, 283pp, 9781685135904

This dual-timeline story shifts between wartorn Berlin in 1943 and a small upstate New York town in 1961, at the beginning of the Cold War and construction of the Berlin Wall – which sent fear, anxiety and shockwaves throughout the world, further entrenching post-WWII geopolitical divisions.

In the 1961 timeline, Fanny Stern is a tough, savvy courtroom lawyer who fights for her clients and defies gender stereotypes by thriving in a male-dominated, “good ole boy” legal profession unwelcoming to women. Fanny finds her purpose and shows great empathy in helping the underrepresented, and doesn’t hesitate to jump in when her new friend Gina’s mentally disabled husband, Kenny, is arrested for the murder of an abusive co-worker.

Fanny and Gina form a tight bond as they collaborate to defend Kenny’s innocence with the odds stacked against them in a biased justice system – all while the pregnant teenaged Gina struggles to uncover the truth about her own mysterious family history that her cold, emotionally-detached grandmother, Helene, has kept secret, while raising Gina on her own after leaving (or fleeing?) Nazi Germany many years earlier. As the story unfolds and the plot thickens, however, Helene’s conscience may force her to reveal the dark truth to Gina.

This is a well-crafted narrative woven seamlessly between shifting timelines and viewpoints among the strong, principled women trying to protect Kenny and reconcile their internal conflicts – all within a tumultuous historical context that makes the situational pace and urgency more compelling. After a smooth, entertaining read with well-developed characters who show the strength and resiliency of family, love and friendship, I look forward to the sequel.

Nate Mancuso

of 1944 and the Allies sense a possible, but fragile, path towards victory. There is still all to play for in the war effort, and US Air Force officer Jack Strafford – ‘an American Air Force captain… his hair glossy, his teeth as white and even as a film star’ – is sent to the village of Larkwhistle, ostensibly to tell Jill Metcalfe that her brother, Henry, is dead. Another mission then unfolds, as Henry was murdered after completing an operation in France – and the spy who betrayed him is suspected to be in the village where he and Jill grew up. Identifying the spy will not only bring Henry’s murderer to justice – it could help save many other lives.

Jack and Jill start to investigate together, hoping that Henry’s final last words might lead them to the traitor in their midst. Cue another dead body, and the murder mystery then unfolds in the village.

This is writer Matthew Sweet’s debut crime novel, with a real sense of setting and jeopardy. The two main characters are well-developed, the minor characters are well-drawn and life in a wartime English village in the New Forest deftly evoked. Fear, loss and rationing are wellrendered, giving a real insight into life in the shadow of war. Although it has been compared to cosy crime classics by writers such as Richard Osman, in this reader’s opinion it is nearer to Agatha Christie’s Tommy and Tuppence series or indeed Foyle’s War It is to be hoped that Jack and Jill will appear in another crime novel, where their characters and relationship could be further developed.

Katharine Quarmby

THESE BLUE MOUNTAINS

Sarah Loudin Thomas, Bethany House, 2025, $18.99, pb, 368pp, 9780764242021

This is a well-balanced tale of mystery and romance set in 1930s North Carolina. German pianist Hedda Schlagel travels to America to reclaim and bring home the remains of her fiancé, Fritz, who had disappeared 15 years earlier near Asheville during WWI. Hedda’s arrival and the discovery that Fritz’s casket holds the body of a woman who died under mysterious circumstances set the grisly scene and propel the well-paced plot. The conflict is whether Fritz is alive and why he’s never contacted Hedda.

to Black Mountain add much anticipation to the plot and budding relationships! Loudin’s narrative burgeons with stunning descriptions of the Blue Ridge Mountains, analogies, and foreshadowing, while themes of guilt, acceptance, and jealousy tilt the emotional balance.

Readers of These Blue Mountains, filled with love, tension and heart pounding suspense, will agree with Hedda: “Wunderschönen!” Beautiful! Spectacular!

Dorothy Schwab

THE LILAC PEOPLE

Milo Todd, Counterpoint, $27.00/C$35.00, hb, 280pp, 9781640097032

Bertie, a trans man, and his girlfriend Sophie have survived the Second World War by hiding in plain sight in rural Germany. When a young trans man, Karl, dressed in a concentration camp prisoners’ uniform, collapses in their asparagus patch, they realize that the danger is far from over. The Lilac People tells the story of the life Bertie and Sophie cultivated in 1930s Weimar Germany, the rights they had begun to enjoy before Hitler’s rise to power, and the terror they faced as those rights were stripped away. As the liberating Allies continue to persecute homosexual and transgender people, Bertie and Sophie vow to keep Karl safe.

THE NEW FOREST MURDERS

Matthew Sweet, Simon & Schuster UK, 2025, £18.99, hb, 420pp, 9781398530874

The New Forest Murders is set in the eponymous Hampshire forest as the tide of the Second World War turns in the summer

Appalachian author Sarah Loudin Thomas delves into themes of identity and belonging through multilayered characters that provide Hedda with emotional support as she searches for the truth. Eleanor, a boarder where Hedda lives, becomes a true friend whose insight and encouragement is a new experience for Hedda. As Eleanor helps Hedda explore the possibilities of staying in America, they discover Joseph and Anni, teachers at Black Mountain College. This thread connects readers to Germans brave enough to start a new life in America and provides the perspective and hardships of immigrants. Hedda is faced with the difficult choice: return to Berlin to care for Lotte, Fritz’s dying mother, or stay in Asheville as the search for Fritz continues. Deputy Garland’s investigation, updates, and trips

This is an important novel that sheds light on the progressive environment of the Weimar Republic and offers a stark warning about how societies can turn on their most vulnerable. It also reveals how the Allies continued to oppress those already targeted under the Nazis. Milo Todd portrays Bertie’s emotional turmoil—survivor’s guilt, grief, and hope— with authenticity and care. Rich historical details are woven into the storytelling, and the bond between reader and protagonist feels so genuine that it creates a strong sense of empathy. The Lilac People is a beautiful and sobering story that offers both a compelling narrative and a reminder of the vigilance required to protect human rights.

Sarah Taylor

DEATH AT THE HIGHLAND LOCH

Lydia Travers, Bookouture, 2025, $2.99, ebook, 350pp, B0DTHK3MMZ

It is June 1924, and Lady Persephone (Poppy) Proudfoot is looking forward to a country house week on the estate of Lady Constance Balfour, near the village of Culross. She is accompanied by her dog, Major, and her maid, Elspeth. Poppy and Constance are both widows. Other guests for the week include

Constance’s brother-in-law and his wife, an American movie producer and two of his stars.

Poppy takes Major for a walk and notices the favored footman, Freddy, having a brief but heated exchange with a man in Culross. She thinks nothing further of it until the next day when Freddy bursts into the dining room telling them that there’s a dead man by the loch. Poppy and the guests rush to investigate, and she recognises the man as the one from the village, seizing the opportunity to put her unused law degree to use. When Inspector MacKenzie arrives from Edinburgh, she hopes to team up with him, although it isn’t as easy as she thinks. And then there is a second murder. To confuse the issue further, there’s also the matter of a missing diamond and emerald bracelet.

This is a fun, whimsical cozy crime and, although it has some of the inevitable clichéd hallmarks of the genre, the characterizations and energetic dialogue carry it along in a delightful way. Poppy’s clashes with MacKenzie sparkle with understated flirtation. The maid Elspeth’s snobbishness and the impish qualities of Constance’s precocious young son, Gregor, who is agog at the adult activities, are especially amusing.

A definite charmer, and it is hoped the author has planned further adventures in the Highlands for Lady Poppy and Inspector MacKenzie.

Marina Maxwell

THE PALE FLESH OF WOOD

Elizabeth A. Tucker, She Writes, 2025, $17.99/ C$25.99, pb, 320pp, 9781647428341

In the northern California hills in 1953, seven-year-old Lyla Hawkins nervously climbs her grandmother’s live oak to hang a tire swing from its heavy branches, having been encouraged—then bullied—into the task by her father, Charles, a charming and troubled WWII vet. Three years later, Charles hangs himself from the rope, leaving his family distraught, all wondering what motivated him and whether they bear any blame.

The subject matter admittedly sounds grim. But in her debut novel, a saga spanning a total of fifty years on both sides of the tragedy, Tucker creates such intimacy with her characters to make readers deeply invested in their lives. Each person becomes sympathetic and challenging, in turn, depending on whether we’re seeing them from within or from the outside. Caroline, Lyla’s grandmother, is a tall, imposing woman unforgiving of weakness, which included her son’s decision to go AWOL overseas. Louise, Caroline’s daughter-in-law, misses her late husband desperately, and as Lyla grows up, their relationship becomes fraught. And while Charles adores his daughter, the personal demons spurring his recklessness get in the way.

Tucker is superb at writing scenes that evoke emotion. Charles’s post-Thanksgiving drive with Lyla to the coast on the mountain highway, radio blasting and wind rushing through their hair, starts out exciting but soon

turns terrifying. Always aware of Caroline’s meanness, especially toward her dad, young Lyla knows she’ll be punished for stealing Caroline’s cherished porcelain doll—which provokes considerable suspense about whether she’ll be caught. Because of the close focus on family dynamics, the narrative falters when this connection is broken. We learn about some important life events via offhand comments long after they occurred, which feels disconcerting. Despite these occasional slips, the story mesmerizes, leaving characters that remain with us long after it ends.

Sarah Johnson

SINS OF SURVIVORS

Blair Underwood and Joe McClean, Amistad, 2025, $18.99/C$23.99, pb, 273pp, 9780063316782

Apart from brief flashbacks to the first decade of the 20th century, the novel is set in 1937 Black Bottom and Paradise Valley, historic African American enclaves in Detroit, Michigan. Northern racism and lack of access to low interest loans concentrate the population, many of whom work in the auto factories, into these neighborhoods. The Carter family, led by brothers Jasper and Ben, runs an empire of Black businesses, such as a dry cleaner, printing shop, and a nightclub, where Billie Holiday sometimes performs. Cousin Minnie operates the neighborhood brothel. The brothers have uneasy contacts with white politicians and gangsters, a precarious necessity they must negotiate to protect their assets, using any means necessary to defend their family, including bribery, homicide, and blackmail. These all come into play when Ben’s son Charles, who runs the nightclub and heedlessly falls in love with a Russian sex worker from Minnie’s establishment, is suspected of murder.

The title page states the novel is “based on characters created by Tiaka Hurst and Joe McClean.” Multiple rounded characters, an intricate family dynamic (readers may need the provided family tree chart to keep them all straight), and plot twists and turns will keep fans of noir novels engrossed. Characters and their actions can veer between sympathetic and repugnant, and some scenes are not for the squeamish. McClean’s background in the film industry shines through the story; while reading it, I could easily imagine a movie version. The novel incorporates provocative information on what life was like in northern cities in the pre-Civil Rights era; escaping from the Jim Crow South did not leave all of one’s problems behind. The last chapter hints at a sequel. Recommended especially to fans of noir and crime fiction.

B.J. Sedlock

THE LAVENDER BRIDE

Alexandra Weston, Boldwood Books, 2025, £12.99, pb, 376pp, 9781836039952 Hollywood, 1951. Audrey Wade works as a secretary at the Dirk Stone Talent Agency. A legacy has enabled her to escape dreary

postwar Britain, her emotionally abusive father, and those who laughed at her California dreams.

When one of Dirk’s clients, rising star Rex Trent, asks her out, she thinks all her fantasies are coming true, but there are dark undercurrents at work in the Hollywood of the 1950s: the Un-American Activities Committee is on the hunt for Communists and other ‘subversives’. Audrey herself has a former friend back in England whose politics could prove troublesome to her, and Rex has a secret that would destroy his film career if made public. Audrey agrees to a ‘lavender marriage’. She knows what she is doing, but will the superficial glamour and life among Hollywood’s elite suffice?

Alexandra Weston’s settings are vividly described—from the drabness of Sheffield (Yorkshire) and London in the late 1940s, to the sunny glamour of L.A., and a wintry hotel resort in the Canadian Rockies. Her characterisation and narrative voice are superb. The story is told mainly in a vivid firstperson present tense by Audrey, capturing the speech rhythms, colloquialisms and manners of the 1950s. She is naïve, starstruck and damaged by her grim upbringing, suffering from a deep sense of insecurity and a lack of self-worth. This allows her to be easily manipulated by those around her: Rex (whose charm hides vanity and weakness) and the devious Dirk Stone, who calls her ‘kid’ like a noir private detective, and exists on coffee, cigarettes and mint balls.

Excerpts from various gossip magazines and a 1989 interview with the older Rex frame each chapter and give additional nuance to the story. The novel was inspired by Rock Hudson’s marriage to his agent’s secretary in 1955. Highly recommended.

Mary Fisk

WAYWARD GIRLS

Susan Wiggs, William Morrow, 2025, $30.00/ C$37.00, hb, 386pp, 9780063118270

Set in the 1960s, this engaging novel tells the story of six girls committed to the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Buffalo, New York. It is a tale of friendship, survival, and ultimately, redemption. Loosely based on the true stories of girls and young women sent to Good Shepherd by the courts or their families—because they were unwed, orphans, victims of abuse or neglect, or simply because their behavior didn’t conform to unforgiving societal norms—this book reveals the harsh reality they faced. Once committed, their lives became a living hell, subjected to horrific sexual, physical, and emotional abuse by the very people who were supposed to care for them. Wayward Girls goes further by showing these girls, now women, reclaiming their voices years later and coming together to seek justice through the legal system for the wrongs committed against them.

Wayward Girls offers a glimpse into the lives of the most powerless among us: “throwaway” girls, forced to labor in the Magdalene

Laundries—the principal operation of Good Shepherd—washing bedding and clothes for people who never questioned who was doing the work. An estimated sixteen thousand girls passed through Good Shepherd from the 1880s until its closure in the late 1960s.

There have been no successful legal challenges against Good Shepherd to date, and the Buffalo Diocese has recently filed for bankruptcy amid a $150 million settlement with clergy sexual abuse victims. Still, the victims of Good Shepherd and their lawyers continue to raise their voices and demand justice for the terrible abuses they endured. In the way only good fiction can, Wayward Girls helps amplify these voices and their journey.

Suzanne Uttaro Samuels

LAST LIGHT OVER GALVESTON

Jennifer L. Wright, Tyndale, 2025, $18.99/ C$27.99, pb, 372pp, 9781496477620

May 1900. Kathleen McDaniel, hungry, out of money, and fleeing from an evil man, stumbles onto an island beach in Galveston, Texas. She has decided to walk into the ocean and end her misery. But a building appears almost out of nowhere, a Catholic orphanage called St. Mary’s, where she will take refuge. She eventually makes some great friends, including Matthew, an assistant at the town weather bureau, and Maggie, an orphan with whom she forms a deep bond. Kathleen becomes Annie, and she works at the orphanage to pay for her keep while still fearing that her previous life as a woman of privilege, and the man who pursues her, will catch up to her. She begins to build a life, and then a hurricane threatens to sweep it all away.

The story is told in two locations—May through September 1900 in Galveston, and flashing back to March 1900 in Croton-onHudson, New York, where Kathleen’s secrets begin. The Christian message of turning to God when all hope is lost is well portrayed in this story. The characters are compelling, and the descriptions of the Galveston hurricane and its aftermath are frightening and real. The contrast between 1900 Hudson Valley, where greed and ambition threaten the innocent and a man’s class status means more than his life, and 1900 Galveston, where classes all come together after a devastating hurricane, is apparent. This is a compelling story that highlights class differences and double standards at that time, while also stressing that money is not the answer to happiness. Recommended.

Bonnie DeMoss

WHEN SLEEPING WOMEN WAKE

Emma Pei Yin, Quercus, 2025, £20.00, hb, 464pp, 9781529440638 / Ballantine, 2025, $30.00/C$39.99, hb, 336pp, 9780593975572

Inspired by the experiences of the author`s grandmother during the Second World War, this novel explores the Japanese invasion of

Hong Kong and in particular the effects on the women of the Tang family: mother, second wife, daughter, maid.

The first part of the novel is set right before the seismic events which end a privileged but confined way of life for the women, and as the title suggests, they must awaken and face the harsh realities of physical work, enforced collaboration and the loss of those nearest and dearest.

The will to survive is evident throughout, and the women in their different ways respond heroically to the new and often dangerous situations in which they find themselves, learning to kill if necessary, and to make difficult decisions about who can be helped and who must be left behind.

In many ways this novel is a testament to the power, resilience and strength of these women who, like their European counterparts, joined Resistance groups and fought back against the invader. The language is descriptive and powerful and would appeal to readers who enjoyed Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko or Lisa See’s The Island of Sea Women. The experiences of women during a time of war have traditionally been second place and remain unconsidered compared to those of men, but here they are brought forward centre stage, and finally their untold stories can be recounted.

Ann Northfield

CITY OF FICTION

Yu Hua, trans. Todd Foley, Europa, 2025, $28.00, hb, 432pp, 9798889660934

In early 20th-century China, Lin Xiangfu appears in the town of Xizhen carrying his young daughter and begging nursing mothers in the town for a bit of their milk to feed her. This stranger seeks the mother of his child, the mysterious Xiaomei, who married him, gave birth to his child, and then vanished from his farm located across the Yellow River and over a thousand li away to the north. Lin Xiangfu finds friends and builds a life as a woodworker in this southern town, but history comes knocking on the town walls of Xizhen. The story of his search and the life of the woman he seeks weave together in this tale set against the breakdown of the Qing dynasty, the lawlessness that followed, and the establishment of the Chinese republic. This novel swept me away; I was enraptured. It is a story to savor, beautifully told. The author’s style feels somewhat dreamlike; the narrative, despite a deceptive simplicity, is poetic and compelling. The translation appears deft and capable, and although I am not a Chinese speaker, the cadence and flavor

seemed true. I knew very little of the period. The brutal violence and lawlessness of the changing times present a stark contrast to the emotions and day-to-day lives of Lin Xiangfu and his companions as they struggle to survive the larger forces around them and live their lives with grace, integrity, and dignity. Highly recommended, this is a novel that will linger in one’s psyche long after one has read it.

Susan McDuffie

MULTI-PERIOD

I’LL BE RIGHT HERE

Amy Bloom, Random House, 2025, $28.00/ C$37.99, hb, 272pp, 9781984801722 / Granta, 2025, £16.99, hb, 272pp, 9781783788026

Bloom excels at creating characters who combine a profound sense of alienation with a desperate desire for connection. In this short but intense character study of an Algerian brother and sister, Samir and Gazala, who emigrate to America after experiencing the Nazi occupation of France, we are offered glimpses of what it means to have another person as your true home.

The first part of the novel is riveting – a first-person account by Gazala of her unlikely survival as the daughter of a Jewish refugee. Her watchful resourcefulness appeals to the author Colette, who accepts her as an attendant and loans her out to other oncerich Parisians. Through Gazala’s eyes, we get an intimate, realistic portrait of the weariness, complacence, and complicity of Vichy France. It’s a biting satire of the casual cruelty of the rich.

We then jump to 2015, as Gazala’s American found family surrounds her on her deathbed. The remainder of the novel hops around the 1960s through the 2010s and offers vignettes from the subsequent lives of Gazala’s adoptive sisters, Anna and Alma Cohen, their daughters, Bea and Lily, and all the men who orbit around them. Gazala and Samir are the anchors to this clan, enigmatic but joined by a love that keeps all the other characters returning to them through the years. More a series of interconnected short stories than a novel, these events unfold in non-sequential flashbacks, and keeping track of where each character is in their life’s journey will frustrate some readers and entertain others. All Bloom’s characters are thoughtful and appealing, representing a range of personalities, but all share an awareness that even the closest relationships are destined to end in loss. The elegiac tone of the novel might not appeal to all readers, but the prose is undeniably lovely.

Kristen McDermott

THE HEIRLOOM

Julie Brooks, Headline Review, 2025, £12.99/$19.99/C$23.99, pb, 384pp, 9781035414826

Quaint little Puckridge Cottage has been home to wise women for generations. Or perhaps witches rather than wise women, as their skills often made them subjects of

suspicion. Brooks’ multi-timeline novel jumps quickly from present-day Australia to 1811 Sussex, where Philadelphia Foord Boadle marries a dashing young man and runs her small millinery business alongside his tailor shop. And, as with all the women who precede her, Philadelphia does other things on the side. A decade later, in 1821, her husband dies of poisoning and their young apprentice is suspected, although Philadelphia is accused of various scandals by local women who vied for her handsome husband’s attention. A wellrespected landowner champions her at trial to ensure the rule of law and fairness.

At home in Brisbane in 2024, Mia Curtis receives a package claiming she is heir to Puckridge Cottage, property left to her by one Henrietta Foord Sutton, whose name means nothing until Mia approaches her mother and discovers deliberately buried family secrets. Venturing to Sussex to inspect her inheritance, Mia feels oddly welcome and is hit by a powerful sense of déjà vu. An attractive young genealogist connects some important historical dots, particularly with reference to Philadelphia, who came to be known as the Witch of Sussex Downs.

This is one example where a too-oft superfluous prologue would have worked brilliantly. A taste of something in the 1800s timeframe would have hooked me faster than the dry start to this novel. Leaving that aside, this an enjoyable foray into village life with lots of small pertinent details enlivening the 19th-century story. The trial is exceptionally well documented. Mia’s story becomes more interesting as it progresses, and I liked the way Brooks ties in more than one bloodline. Overall, there’s lots to love here, and I’d recommend it to readers who enjoy multi-era novels.

Fiona Alison

TYPEWRITER BEACH

Meg Waite Clayton, Harper, 2025, $30.00/ C$37.00, hb, 320pp, 9780063422148

In early 1957, twenty-two-year-old actress Isabella Giori is being groomed to be Hollywood’s new It Girl. Despite an odd and frustrating audition with Alfred Hitchcock, “Iz” is certain that success is just around the corner … until the studio suddenly squirrels her away in a cottage in Carmel-by-the-Sea. Lonely and worried about the fate of her career, Iz befriends her next-door neighbor, blacklisted Léon Chazan, who makes ends meet by selling screenplays under pseudonyms and quietly fixing other writers’ scripts. An unlikely friendship develops as Iz and Léon protect each other’s secrets.

In 2018, Léon’s granddaughter, Gemma Chazan, arrives in Carmel to prep her recently deceased grandfather’s cottage for sale. Brokenhearted over her beloved grandfather’s death, the end of her romantic relationship, and her own screenwriting career’s failure to launch, Gemma meets Sam Kenneally, who’s nursing heartache of his own. Together, they work to unravel the mystery of Léon’s past and

his friendship with Iz, who, at eighty-two, still lives in Carmel.

The novel is a fascinating look at Hollywood during the havoc wreaked on the industry in midcentury by the House Un-American Activities Committee. Though the main characters come from wealth and the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, their struggles and longing for a sense of family keep them relatable and loveable. While the book starts out a bit slow, the deeply immersive setting and timely look at political and social issues that haven’t yet been left behind will keep readers engaged.

Sarah Hendess

WILD MOUNTAINS, WILD PEOPLE

Seán Damer, Ringwood, 2025, £9.99, pb, 294pp, 9781917011105

Glasgow, Scotland, 2010. Classics professor Andy Gallagher receives a phone call from his distressed father, Michael, saying he has received a letter from Themia Sfakianakis, claiming that her husband, John Gallagher, had only just recently died and had left instructions for his son, Michael, to retrieve a box of important papers that were in Korifi, a small village in Crete. The reason for Michael’s confusion and anger is that he and his mother, Maeve, had been told that John had been declared missing in action, assumed dead, in 1945.

Andy decides to go to Crete, an island he loves, to discover whether Themia’s husband was really his grandfather, why he had never come home after the war and married his sweetheart and been a father to his son, conceived just before he left for the war, and what the important papers are.

Intermingled with Andy’s journey of discovery are chapters containing excerpts from John’s diaries, written during the war. He describes his socialist politics, his love for the child he made but never saw and his determination to marry Maeve as soon as he was allowed home. He explains his posting to Crete, his growing love of the country and the people and his abhorrence of the British ‘dirty tricks’ towards ELAS (the Greek People’s Liberation Army) whom he is there to train to defend themselves from the Germans and whose aims he supports wholeheartedly, but whom the British refuse to arm.

It is this conflict of interests that results in an action that means that John can never go home and must, as far as the British Army and his family is concerned, be assumed dead.

Damer obviously has a love of Crete and its people himself, and he describes very well the landscape and the lives of the Cretans during the war and present day. This is a story of ideals both social and political: love, sacrifice and the search for truth. It’s a good story, well told.

Marilyn Pemberton

SMOKE ON THE WIND

Kelli Estes, Lake Union, 2025, $16.99/£8.99, pb, 395pp, 9781662528095

Just as Keaka Denney and her son Colin set out to walk the 100-mile West Highland Way before he begins university studies in presentday Glasgow, Keaka finds a carving etched in the stone bridge over the River Clyde—a fourpetal flower within a four-corner knot. This is the first of many carvings made by Sorcha Chisholm in 1801 as she and her son Aonghas flee into the Scottish countryside after their home is ransacked and burned, and a man dies.

Smoke on the Wind follows the same pattern as Estes’ two previous novels: tracing the paths of two women who connect with one another in two different time periods. The Girl Who Wrote in Silk shifts back and forth from 1886 to present-day Orcas Island, Washington. Today We Go Home moves from the days of the Civil War to modern Seattle. This novel takes readers on a day-by-day hike past lochs, glens, and moors and back to the time of the Clearances, when tenant farmers were forcibly removed so their lands could be converted into sheep ranches or hunting estates.

The narrative is so vivid in its descriptions of the landscapes of today and yesterday that readers can almost see the switchbacks and steep incline of Devil’s Staircase or feel the burn of a broken foot blister. Readers also share the women’s deep emotions—regret over past wrongs and fears of an uncertain future.

There is no real explanation for the connection between Sorcha and Keaka, so one wonders: why these two women, why then, why now? The storyline often covers the same ground and slips into repetitive ruminations. But overall, the journey is deeply moving as the women find their own way by helping one another.

K. M. Sandrick

THE DEVIL THREE TIMES

Rickey Fayne, Fleet, 2025, £20.00, hb, 416pp, 9780349127217 / Little, Brown, 2025, $30.00, hb, 416pp, 9780316575171

Rickey Fayne’s debut novel is an ambitious family saga that spans 175 years of history, from the horrors of the trans-Atlantic slave trade right up to modern times. The novel’s inspiration from Black spiritual traditions and folklore is evident from the very beginning when the Devil, banished from heaven, agrees to help Black people escape the tyranny of slavery if Jesus

will, in turn, assist him in his bid to re-enter paradise.

The action immediately segues to the first narrative perspective, Yetunde, captured from her village in Africa and put on a slave ship bound for Tennessee. Thus begins a wideranging exploration of the lives of Yetunde’s descendants, each generation seeking to understand its own identity and navigate the oppressions and opportunities presented by the world around them. Some find contentment but many don’t – and everyone’s life is coloured by family relationships (legal and natural, open and secret), religion, art, alcohol and money. Each story is fascinating, and we move from lives of slavery on the Tennessee plantation, to post-Civil War freedom through to the Great Migration.

However, powerful as this generational saga is, what gives this novel its uniqueness is the prevalence of African spirituality and belief systems, imbuing every life, even those who choose a Christian path. Yetunde makes frequent appearances – her yellow dress a constant reminder of slavery – and the interface between this world and the next is thin, symbolised by water. The evocative language captures Black lives perfectly through a stream of consciousness, non-linear narrative.

This novel is not an easy read, but the reward is the appreciation of a work of modern literary fiction of the highest order. I loved every moment that I spent immersed in the richness of this narrative, and felt honoured and humbled to be given a glimpse of the trials and triumphs of these lives.

Adele Wills

THE STOLEN LIFE OF COLETTE MARCEAU

Kristin Harmel, Gallery, 2025, $28.99, hb, 384pp, 9781982191733

Colette Marceau, now in her eighties, has been ‘relieving unpleasant people of their jewels since she was ten years old.’ It’s 2018, and she is still committed to her Robin Hood approach to life, just as she is still haunted by events in Paris during WW2, when her younger sister vanished. The last time Colette saw her sister, she was wearing a nightgown with a distinctive and valuable bracelet sewn into the hem. When her body is found in the Seine, Colette’s sister is dead, and the bracelet is missing.

This is a well-constructed dual timeline novel, moving between occupied Paris and modern-day America. Colette has a ‘found family,’ and her tenderness for others softens the sharp edges of her determined independence and persistent thieving. When the long-missing bracelet surfaces in a local gallery, Colette hopes she has a chance of answers and connects with the original owner of the bracelet, stolen from a Jewish family by Nazis but recovered by Colette’s mother. The Paris storyline gradually relates the loss and heartbreak in Colette’s past, allowing for all to be revealed in the contemporary timeline. Harmel has a magic touch when it comes to

creating characters who readers will root for and find themselves turn the pages anxiously to see where the story goes. This one may be a little heavy on coincidence, but I ate it up happily in one enjoyable sitting.

Kate Braithwaite

THE SECRETS OF DRAGONFLY LODGE

Rachel Hore, Simon & Schuster UK, 2025, £16.99, hb, 400pp, 9781398518001

Hore returns to her usual dual-narrative, time slip structure for her 14th novel, which takes place on the modern Norfolk Broads and in 1940s/50s London. The protagonist, Stef, is researching material for a book about women scientists in the post-war era when Stef’s mother, who lives in Norfolk, introduces her to Dr Nancy Foster, a naturalist and teacher. Initially, Nancy is a reluctant interviewee but reconsiders after a key incident. This allows Stef to gain Nancy’s trust, and the action then switches nicely between the two time periods.

Hore’s descriptions of the Norfolk Broads are especially immersive. The premise is interesting, seldom covered in book club fiction: the role of women in science and the struggles they faced, and I was eager to find out more about these women. Hore undertook much research for this novel, but several times it falls prey to too much, telling us this research and packing the story with information that, whilst interesting, slows the story down. Nancy’s backstory kept me reading, but the narrative style combined with too much detail prevented me from forming a closer emotional attachment with her. I wanted to get more into her head. In addition, some of Stef’s motivations seemed surprising, given she was a champion of women and their tenacity.

The romance element to the story is predictable and formulaic, but very typical for this genre and will no doubt please Hore’s legion of fans. The pace picks up well at the denouement of this novel, but overall this felt like an unbalanced reading experience in want of a tighter edit.

Katharine Riordan

ZEAL

Morgan Jerkins, Harper, 2025, $28.99/ C$35.99/£20.00, hb, 416pp, 9780063234086

Zeal is an engrossing tale of a heartfelt love born during slavery, and how the couple’s descendants have the potential to embody their forebears’ greatest dreams— if they can get past some messy obstacles. The novel opens on a moonlit evening in Manhattan, as Oliver Benjamin

and Ardelia Gibbs celebrate their engagement with relatives and friends at an elegant party. With his parents’ blessing, Oliver gifts Ardelia a precious heirloom: a poetic, heartfelt letter dated October 1865, written by his ancestor Tirzah Ambrose to her beloved, Harrison, from whom she was separated during wartime.

Over the next 150 years, their families’ stories unfold, beginning just after the Civil War. Wearing a Union soldier’s blue uniform, Harrison returns to the plantation in Natchez, Mississippi, where they had been enslaved, only to discover the site in ruins and Tirzah nowhere to be found. Now residing in Shreveport, Louisiana, Tirzah has a kind preacher looking out for her welfare, but she never gives up hope of reuniting with Harrison.

Jerkins is a superb storyteller who nimbly uses a vast swath of American history for her canvas, from the Freedmen’s Bureaus that supported the formerly enslaved, the Black Codes that legalized discrimination, the Great Migration, and much more… leading through the isolation of the Covid pandemic. Revealing specifics of the plot risks spoilers; the novel is best experienced through the author’s own words. Covering impressive geographic and emotional ground, she explores her strongminded characters’ choices as they pursue romantic liaisons and the freedom to live as they wish, sometimes getting in their own way. The trauma they encounter is laid bare on the page, and the love they share echoes even more strongly. An unforgettable story of ancestral legacies and the long journey to understand and overcome them.

Sarah Johnson

THE RESISTANCE PAINTER

Kath Jonathan, Simon & Schuster Canada, 2025, $17.99/C$24.99, pb, 433pp, 9781668013618

In her debut novel, Kath Jonathan brings to light a seldom-explored facet of the Holocaust during World War II. The narrative unfolds across two interwoven timelines, exploring the extraordinary courage of hundreds of young resistance fighters who risked everything to defy the Nazis during their occupation of Warsaw.

The first part is set in Poland in 1944, at the peak of Nazis’ brutal assault on the people of Warsaw, where fifty thousand civilians were tortured and killed. This section is told through the eyes of Irena Marianowska, a young artist whose resourcefulness and extraordinary bravery help save the lives of countless Jewish families and their protectors. Irena is a crucial member of the Sewer Rats, a group of teenagers and children—some as young as ten—who guide hundreds to safety through Warsaw’s labyrinthine sewer system. When the Szare Szeregi, the resistance movement’s paramilitary arm, launches the Warsaw Uprising in a desperate bid to free the city, the cost is devastating. After sixty-three days of fierce fighting, almost all the Sewer Rats and their fellow resistance members are either killed or sent to concentration camps.

The second timeline takes place in Toronto

in 2011, narrated by Irena’s granddaughter, Jo Blum, a celebrated sculptor. Driven to uncover the fates of Irena’s fellow resistance fighters, Jo’s investigation reveals long-buried secrets and painful betrayals, including the treachery of a trusted resistance member. When Jo shares these revelations with her grandmother and others who are invested in the investigation’s outcome, the consequences are shattering. Irena’s paintings and Jo’s sculptures provide a fascinating connection between Irena and her granddaughter.

Although the dual timeline structure, with two separate first-person narrators, can occasionally be challenging to follow, Jonathan’s thorough research makes this novel an essential read for those seeking to understand this somber chapter of history.

Alan Collenette

THE LOST BAKER OF VIENNA

Sharon Kurtzman, Viking, 2025, $30.00, hb, 432pp, 9780593830864 / Headline Review, 2025, £15.99, pb, 432pp, 9781035418206 Kurtzman’s novel, inspired by her own mother, a Holocaust survivor, follows the fictional Rosenzweigs’ path through WWII from Vilna, Kovno, Stutthof, Dachau, and Displaced Persons camps to war-torn Vienna; the freeing of Jewish prisoners from concentration camps was just the beginning. The dual timeline follows Chana in 1946 Vienna and Zoe, her great-niece, in 2018 North Carolina, with the bulk of the focus on 19-year-old Chana’s resilience working in a Vienna hotel kitchen as a dishwasher, struggling like so many refugees. The city is rife with food shortages and dangerous Russian soldiers. Two black market dealers, Meyer Suconik (Jewish) and Kirill (Russian), vie for territory, adding to the violence.

Meyer helps Chana and her mother find work and lodging. In the Empress Hotel kitchen, Chana meets apprentice baker Elias. They meet secretly to bake, which reminds her of her dream and her deceased baker father: one of the book’s sweetest scenes. Gradually our heroine is torn, developing romantic relationships with both Elias and Meyer but fearing Meyer’s dark dealings. We are privy to her confused thoughts and strong emotions.

Upon Grandpa Aaron’s passing, Zoe begins a search to discover family, through a letter left by Aaron to contact Henri Martin. Zoe, a professional food writer, convinces her editor to pay for her trip to the celebrated Boucher Foundation Conference, where Henri is the keynote speaker. What will Zoe discover at that interview? Which man will Chana marry? Will the Rosenzweigs emigrate to the USA? In the touching final chapters, we learn of Henri’s connection to this family.

The author does an excellent job of creating suspense and character development, especially for Meyer and Chana. Many novels focus on war and life under Nazi occupation;

this tender coming-of-age novel deals with the aftermath and hope for the future.

Gail M. Murray

THE ONE AND ONLY VIVIAN STONE

Melissa O’Connor, Gallery, 2025, $18.99/ C$25.99, pb, 368pp, 9781668074831

The One and Only Vivian Stone is a dualperiod novel which begins in modern-day California with Margot DuBois as she deals with the loss of her beloved grandmother, Ginger. As she packs and prepares her grandmother’s home for sale, Margot uncovers a box of audio tapes and a letter written by Vivian Stone, a long-forgotten comedic actress. The mysterious find reunites Margot with her high school boyfriend Leo as they attempt to discover how Vivian Stone was (or is?) connected to the DuBois family. Vivian’s story opens in 1951 and recounts her struggle to survive and thrive in Old Hollywood. As Vivian Mackenzie, she hopes to become a serious dramatic actress, but her stack of rejections has put paid to that dream. A chance encounter with Hugh Fox, an accomplished actor, leads Vivian in an entirely new direction. As Vivian Stone, she is rebranded as the girl -next-door and comedic relief in multiple, successful films. But navigating the Hollywood studio system and its demands, will lead Vivian to fear her past mistakes and question her current path as an actress, all while falling in love with more than one man.

Melissa O’Connor is a snappy writer who manages to create two sympathetic female leads in Margot and Vivian. While Vivian’s story is undeniably the more compelling of the two, with its tale of Old Hollywood, the reader is also drawn into the emotional turmoil facing Margot as she grieves the loss of her grandmother. Her reunion with Leo keeps the narrative from becoming too dark while offering her the chance for redemption. Highly recommended for both lovers of historical and modern romantic fiction.

Caroline D. Wilson

DESTINY COMES DUE

Various, Paper Lantern Writers, 2024, $15.00, pb, 260pp, 9798987122259

Ten authors affiliated with Paper Lantern Writers contributed to this engaging collection of short fiction. Each of the tales, ranging from a twelve-page short story to

a forty-page novelette, demonstrates the variety and attraction of the form.

Many contributions center on women achieving financial power, revenge on abusive men, or redemption, while a few center on men who face the consequences of their transgressions. Some authors tie their stories closely to historical reality, such as the 1875 trial of Henry Ward Beecher, the burying of the dead in Gettysburg, or the creation of the poodle skirt in Los Angeles. Other authors craft a fresh story in a historical setting, including negotiations behind the fate of American railroads during the Civil War, the circumstances of an unmarried English mother in the late Georgian period, and a young Dutch woman in 1660 who suspects her brother of murder. Two of the stories, despite their limited length, effectively use multiple points of view—feuding cousins in England in 1515, and loving siblings in war-torn India in 1939. Several contributors describe conflict exacerbated by what today we call class differences—an Irish nun from a formerly wealthy family whose misdeeds force her to clean the convent in the Middle Ages, and a priest who fathers a child with his servant in 1555 on the Isle of Jersey. The majority of stories excel at feathering in historical detail, immersing readers in a particular time and place.

Although some readers may wish for more non-western settings, for a more unifying theme, or for a more obvious organization to the sequence of the stories, most will find the collection an inspiring example of how unfamiliar eras and places can heighten the appeal of fiction.

Marlie Wasserman

HISTORICAL FANTASY

THE POSSESSION OF ALBA DÍAZ

Isabel Cañas, Berkley, 2025, $29.00/C$39.00, hb, 384pp, 9780593641095 / Solaris, 2025, £9.99, pb, 400pp, 9781837866328

In 1765 Zacatecas, Mexico, Alba seeks to shape her destiny through an engagement with her childhood friend Carlos, but when the plague strikes their town, her family is invited to sequester at Carlos’s family’s mines. There, she uncovers dark secrets about her past and experiences unsettling changes in herself. When Alba attacks Carlos’s handsome but ostracized cousin, Elías, with no memory of the event, it becomes clear something dark is taking control of her. Elías is able to tap into dark magic at a high cost to himself, much like his alchemical work with liquid mercury that already afflicts his hands with tremors. But setting aside their growing attraction towards each other becomes just as difficult as freeing Alba from a sinister demon, while also finally uncovering the truth about why she was left abandoned as a baby in a haunted silver mine.

Isabel Cañas excels in the genre of gothic

horror. With vivid and sensuous prose, the tightening social constraints hovering over Alba’s future, forbidden desires, and creeping tension, Cañas effortlessly sends chills down her readers’ spines. Each page is immersive in detail and darkly atmospheric. But the heartbeat of her books lies in the well-crafted characters. Both Alba and Elías are on a quest to take control of their lives. Elías grapples with overcoming his dark past while paying back his father’s debts. For Alba, the loss of control over her body due to possession starkly reflects the struggle for female agency and autonomy in an 18th-century patriarchal society, with the Catholic inquisition looming as a constant threat. If you crave blood-fueled cinematicquality terrors, Cañas is the author who will scratch that itch. Keep your lights on with this one!

J. Lynn Else

ONCE WAS WILLEM

M. R. Carey, Orbit, 2025, £20.00, hb, 304pp, 9780356519463

The year is 1152 in England; Stephen and Matilda’s civil war rages. With a weakened government, outlaws take control across the country and, in the sleepy village of Cosham, the local baron is ousted and his power seized by the brigand Maglan Horvath.

Twelve-year-old Willem lives in the village with his parents, who are grief-stricken when Willem contracts a fever and dies. A year passes and Cain Caradoc, a black magician, settles nearby. Willem’s parents strike an unholy deal with the unscrupulous Caradoc to revive Willem. Willem returns – but after being buried for a year, he is not as he was, and his deformed body strikes horror into everyone he meets. Reminiscent of Frankenstein’s monster, he is chased from the village to find refuge in the mountains, where he joins a group of misfits and outcasts. When Horvath and Caradoc band together to threaten the village, it is Willem and his friends who come to the rescue.

This is an engaging work of historical fantasy, evoking life in the 12th century, while drawing on folklore, as well as Christian and Gnostic traditions, to create a rich backdrop for this thrilling novel. Carey’s writing is assured with Willem narrating the events, both as a participant and from later research. Willem’s language has an archaic authenticity, adding colour to the story. Numerous narrative strands seem like digressions, but Carey skilfully weaves them together to a satisfying conclusion. Some stories – Morjune and Betheli for example – are very moving. While characterisation largely relies on villains and heroes for its narrative arc, it is not without depth and unexpected revelations. And the story explores wider themes about prejudice and tyranny.

This is not for the historical purist; but if you want an imaginative, fast-paced story that draws on the spiritual and mythological philosophies of its medieval setting – then this is for you. Highly recommended.

Adele Wills

WILD AS THE STARS

Kerry Chaput, Black Rose Writing, 2025, $6.99, ebook, 329pp, 9781685136208

In Seattle, 1925, Eleanora “Nora” Cleary is washing dishes at the Milk House and dreaming of a world that allows her to use her magic. But Prohibition has caused the banning of magic as well as alcohol. At the Milk House, the substance inside the glasses is certainly not milk, and Nora is not participating in the magic performed in this underground club because she is a fire dancer, like her mother before her, and her very nature sometimes threatens to consume her. To further complicate matters, she suffers from debilitating panic attacks. Then the son of the owner of the Luminaire, where magic is still openly performed, comes to the Milk House to recruit a dancer, and he wants Fiona Cleary’s daughter.

I was quickly drawn into this story, where magic is illegal along with alcohol, and the dancers can conjure, among other things, rainbows, gems, ice, stars, water, and in Eleanora’s case, fire. The point of view shifts back at times to Fiona, Nora’s mother, in Chicago at the beginning of Prohibition in 1919, to their escape to Seattle, and beyond. This is very effective in showing Nora’s history to the reader. Prohibition raids and public attacks on the dancers are a part of the story as well. The writing is almost musical, and it gives us a clear picture of the dancers’ plight and the toll that magic takes on their mental health. For example, “I’m completely at the mercy of my emotions. Magical Dance is the portal to all things magnificent and devastating. I never know which will prevail.” The story is captivating, and, while fantasy, is inspired by both real-life Prohibition and vaudeville. There is a surprise that takes the novel to even higher levels, a romance, and an underlying message of self-acceptance. Highly recommended.

Bonnie DeMoss

THE CHOSEN QUEEN

Sam Davey, Diversion, 2025, $28.99/C$38.99, hb, 352pp, 9798895150399

The storied landscape of King Arthur’s realm offers fertile ground for talented novelists, and this new book is no exception. Indeed, it offers a welcome and refreshing retelling of the story of Igraine, mother of King Arthur, in her own voice. Opening in the short-lived peace after the British kingdoms united under Uther Pendragon have defeated the Saxons, discord begins anew when Uther pursues Igraine, the married Duchess of Cornwall. Although her marriage has been strained by her husband’s

growing interest in Christianity while she remains committed to the Goddess, she still chooses to remain a loyal wife and tries to talk him out of war against Uther. Into this volatile mix of emotions, religious beliefs, and political exigency, the seeds of magic are planted through enchantment and coaxed to grow through deception by both Vivian, Lady of the Lake, and the Druid Merlin. Their joint goal is to have Igraine wed Uther before the birth of her son, the prophesied Once and Future King. Imprisoned by Uther and stripped of her sovereignty, unable to protect her countrymen and women, and hounded by Vivian to do her duty by the Goddess, Igraine taps into her own strength as her story dramatically unfolds.

Complex characters who engage in behavior that is sometimes honorable and sometimes atrocious for many different reasons, and a swift unfolding of events that could be viewed as either inevitable or purposeful, drive this powerful story forward. Highly recommended for all Arthuriana fans wishing to explore or newly imagine the prequel days to the ascendancy of King Arthur through the compelling voice of one remarkable woman.

Karen Bordonaro

SANDS OF BONE

Logan D. Irons, Aethon Books, 2024, $16.99, pb, 558pp, 9798332807503

12th century. Chapter One opens with, “The smoke singed the Christians’ noses, throats, and lungs, every part of them stripped raw and coated in ash.” This vivid, harsh opening presages this novel accurately. Book Two of the Oaths of Blood Saga starts in medias res at the end of a terrible battle between the Saracens, led by the honorable Saladin, and Christian knights as they struggle over control of the Holy Land during Crusades. Robert Cutnose, the long-lived, animal-infused protagonist of this novel, as well as the first book (which I haven’t read), reveals his expertise as a hard-nosed military man from the first page. All the blood, guts, and misery of what must have occurred in history itself is played out with convincing realism. Familiar names from history, such as Saladin, Balian de Ibelin, King Guy, and Lord Raynald all make their appearance in three dimensions. Billed as an “action-packed grimdark historical fantasy,” the novel certainly lives up to its advertising.

Although the Crusades in this world are part of a centuries-long shadow war between two factions, this novel is light on fantasy and heavy on historical detail, gory battle scenes, and desperate struggles for survival. The tale weaves in and around historical happenings deftly, and ratchets up the stakes with skill. If you’re into sweaty fighting with a touch of fantasy, this is the series for you.

Xina Marie Uhl

THE PHOENIX PENCIL COMPANY

Allison King, William Morrow, 2025, $29.99, hb, 368pp, 9780063446236 / Fourth Estate, 2025, £16.99, hb, 368pp, 9780008700843

In WWII Shanghai, women of a certain family can absorb messages from the pencils that wrote them. They stab the pencils into their wrists and pour out life energy with the liquified pencil hearts. The Japanese invaders force the women to spy; after the war, so do the Communists and the Nationalists dueling for China’s soul. Yun and her adored cousin Meng lock down for years in the pencil production company, co-writing a fantasy story to stay human.

Yun finds a way out, to California, still indentured. Political complications, cowardice, and shame keep her from helping Meng. The historical background is sketched too lightly. Still, Yun’s section is fascinating.

Yun’s story alternates with a modern-day timeline set in Massachusetts and told by Monica, who leaves MIT to care for her ailing grandparents. Monica wants to know Yun’s truth before Yun loses her memory. But does she have the right?

Parallels link the two plots: Monica loves Louise, their relationship on slow burn. Both women are enthralled by the power of story but learn the hard way that stories can be deformed, stolen and misused, whether by old magic or modern tech. Monica is engaging and self-aware, but her story sometimes feels like a way to evade the searing emotions and self-revelations Yun experienced. Monica strongarms her grandmother into finally telling her story. I know you and I told ourselves different versions of the same truth, Yun tells Meng. But Meng’s story is also missing.

Particularly apt for our moment in history, this is a book that needs to be read and reread. A book about family love, romantic love, love of country, and all the forms of betrayal that go with them.

Alison McMahan

THE BEWITCHING

Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Del Rey, 2025, $29.00, hb, 368pp, 9780593874325 / Arcadia, 2025, £20.00, hb, 368pp, 9781529441703

innocent on moonless nights.” Minerva and Alba narrate their own stories, but Minerva uncovers Virginia’s life through a found manuscript and interviews as she researches her thesis. That research turns threatening as she battles uncanny forces in the college town. Over the years, people have disappeared. Will Minerva suffer the same fate?

In what appear to be neutral setting details, Moreno-Garcia contrasts scholarship students and migrant workers, foreigners without money or societal protections, with the privileged class that populates the college and its donors. On scholarship far from her sole family member, Minerva “couldn’t afford to be anything except excellent… now she was slipping up.” Within the Mexican setting, a similar elite are juxtaposed with poor farmers. But with brilliant craft, Moreno-Garcia deploys the vulnerabilities these systemic imbalances create to infuse driving suspense throughout the novel.

At the core of The Bewitching lies an eloquent warning to pay attention to the resonances of folklore about witches. A character makes a passing reference to Jung and the universality of magical folklore, but for Moreno-Garcia, folk traditions must hold an even more pressing, flesh-and-blood place in our lives. In dramatic, page-turning scenes the characters wield passed-on magical knowledge as weapons against creeping shadows of evil. Whether witches and warlocks are real or not doesn’t alter the value in such generational attention to folk traditions. Creeping evils never disappear, and the innocent are still bled dry. A highly recommended, gripping, intelligent novel.

Judith Starkston

A RESISTANCE OF WITCHES

Morgan Ryan, Viking, 2025, $30.00, hb, 416pp, 9780593831960

In this accomplished debut set in 1940, outwardly unimpressive

murdered headmistress believed it was more important for the witches join in resisting the looming threat of the Third Reich. When Lydia discovers that the assassin also stole a dangerous book, the Grimorium Bellum, she must travel alone to the heart of occupied France, where she finds allies and a touch of romance.

Rebecca Gagne joined the French resistance when the rest of her family was sent to the death camps. Henry Boudreau is a handsome Haitian American curator who also commands supernatural powers. Together, the three must face an evil that is equally supernatural and all too real. Ryan expertly navigates the delicate balance between carefully researched historicity and occult fantasy, and the result is a rousing story as well as a touching exploration of the bonds between mothers and daughters. Highly recommended.

Erica F. Obey

THE BOOK OF RECORDS

Madeleine Thien, W. W. Norton, 2025, $28.99, hb, 357pp, 9781324078654 / Knopf Canada, 2025, C$36.95, hb, 368pp, 9781039009561 / Granta, 2025, £20.00, hb, 368pp, 9781803510729

In spellbinding gothic horror, The Bewitching tells three women’s stories: Minerva at a New England college in 1998, Virginia at the same college in 1934, and Alba in rural Mexico in 1908. Minerva had taken care of an aged Alba, her great-grandmother, and been told “tales of witches who drank the blood of the

Lydia Polk is such a talented young witch that the headmistress of Britain’s Royal Academy of Witches has chosen to mentor her. But Lydia’s world is abruptly shattered when a witch sent by the Third Reich breaches the impregnable barriers of the Academy and brutally murders the headmistress. There is clearly a traitor within the Academy, but Lydia soon discovers that the senior members of the Academy have little interest in tracking her down. The elder witches’ reluctance is arguably justified by the years of persecution they have borne at the hands of the British government, but the

In a near-future dystopia, seven-year-old Lina and her father, Wui Shin, seek refuge from an ecological/ technological disaster in the limbo of a way station called The Sea somewhere near Hong Kong. The family has been separated, Lina’s mother and brother going another way. Years pass, and little effort is made to reunite or to catch one of the boats to someplace else. Lina and Wui Shin share rooms in a high-rise with refugees at similar loose ends.

The great entertainment in the group is to retell stories from three books of historical biographies, the only volumes of a much larger set to arrive in The Sea. Three historical figures weave their tales of similar chaotic migration in beautifully invoked history: eighth-century Chinese poet Du Fu, whose poetry keeps him jobless in difficult political times; 17th-century Portuguese-Jewish-Dutch Baruch Spinoza, whose philosophy gets him excommunicated from his own people to live in exile just a few bridges over from his home; 20th-century Hannah Arendt, chased by Nazis from Berlin to France to Spain to Portugal to the US. The characters lighten their way with philosophy and jokes: Why did the chicken cross the mobius strip? To get to the same side. Beautiful, thought-provoking, literary writing throughout makes it clear why this

book should be a finalist for the Booker Prize and should be savored. A willingness to get tangled up in a complicated, drawn-out plot with unfamiliar names and places would be a reader requirement.

Ann Chamberlin

ALTERNATE HISTORY

DAIKON

Samuel Hawley, Avid Reader, 2025, $29.99, hb, 352pp, 9781668083055

Samuel Hawley’s Daikon provides a unique, enthralling “what if” to World War II fiction by positing an earlier U.S. bombing mission bound for Hiroshima in which the plane crashes south of the target with its nuclear warhead unexploded.

A Japanese physicist trained in California, Keizo Kan, is ordered to examine the unusual bomb, code-named “Daikon” (radish), and retrofit it for use against America. Like Germany, Japan was racing to develop a nuclear bomb, hamstrung by the lack of America’s vast resources of money, personnel, and uranium. Yet Kan throws himself into the project, fueled by Japan’s desperate situation, scientific curiosity, and the wild hope that success will win his beloved wife’s release from prison on false charges of espionage.

Hawley provides a lucid explanation of the bomb’s workings, while drawing us into Kan’s horror at the accidental discovery of radiation’s effect on the human body—theorized but not directly experienced by those in the Manhattan Project. We feel his anguish when a new target is proposed—San Francisco, where Kan studied and met his wife—and his struggle to reconcile duty and humanity. Of course, the backdrop of this herculean effort is its futility: readers know what is coming. However, by not providing the exact time period of Kan’s work, Hawley puts us with the Japanese people, stunned by the blinding flash over Hiroshima, on August 6, 1945.

In an afterword, Hawley provides a thoughtful summary of arguments for and against bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki, including opposition of such leaders as General Dwight Eisenhower. The calculus is difficult, and Hawley has no facile answers, but Daikon brings us deeply into a soul struggling with the collision of patriotism, pride, scientific inquiry, family devotion, and abject horror at the capacity of nuclear war to obliterate.

Pamela Schoenewaldt

TOBACCO REPUBLIC

R. A. Moss, Beck & Branch, 2025, $14.99, pb, 262pp, 9798310630710

Tobacco Republic is an enthralling work of alternative history that underscores just how improbable the creation of the United States truly was. The author’s seventh novel, this work envisions a world where the thirteen American colonies never achieved unity, and explores the profound global repercussions. Through

masterful storytelling, the author draws readers into a reality so vividly constructed that the boundaries between fact and fiction blur, making the imagined world feel entirely plausible.

The reading experience is both unsettling and exhilarating, as the audience is immersed in a landscape of political intrigue, espionage, and personal drama. The narrative skillfully intertwines the lives of spies, lovers, and revolutionaries, against the backdrop of a fractured America plagued by internal discord, secret surveillance and foreign dominance.

The novel examines the consequences of division, showing the obliteration of justice, dignity and trust. The story unfolds across two timelines. The first begins in 1776, where the hope for a unified nation collapses under the weight of disputes over slavery and representation, with figures like Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson at the forefront of the struggle. The second timeline is a presentday North America starkly different from our own—a continent divided into competing nation-states, their destinies manipulated by global superpowers. Echoing the dystopian atmosphere of George Orwell’s 1984, the novel plunges into a world of surveillance, betrayal, and shifting alliances. Through thoughtful reflections on history and the wielding of power, Tobacco Republic warns us in Orwellian fashion of the cataclysmic dangers of persisting with today’s real-life flirtations with violence and world war.

The ending is more optimistic, but as unlikely as was the founding of the USA we know today. Readers will be enthralled by R. A. Moss’s exceptional storytelling, making Tobacco Republic both a provocative and unforgettable read. I highly recommend this book.

Alan Collenette

FELIX GREY AND THE DESCENDANT

Mario Theodorou, Neem Tree, 2025, £9.99/$17.95, pb, 256pp, 9781915584830

Felix Grey is the youngest Prime Minister since Pitt in an alternate history set in 1904. Economically Britain is doing well, but rapid industrialisation has caused social problems to come to a head, and Felix also has to deal with the additional tension of increasing foreign competition. Then two peers are kidnapped, and a series of obviously contrived factory “accidents” stir up trouble in the trade union movement. Add in Masonic links, a feisty female professor and the discovery of a secret passage at 10 Downing Street, and we have the makings of a very good mystery.

Unfortunately, the realisation is somewhat lacking. Mr Theodorou is primarily a screenwriter, and it shows. As a script, this would work quite well. As a novel there isn’t enough characterization, and the numerous plot holes destroy suspension of disbelief. There is no good reason why a Prime Minister is the main protagonist – the book has him facing a vote of no confidence and yet spending untold

hours on an independent investigation. The evil plot and its thwarting make no sense, and the motivations of the main villain are revealed too late, which means the final reveal loses a lot of its impact. Still the lead-in to the next book in the series is compelling.

Martin Bourne

TIMESLIP

SHADOWS IN THE SPRING

Christina Courtenay, Headline Review, 2025, £10.99/$17.99, pb, 352pp, 9781035418664

Christina Courtenay has written numerous timeslip novels, and her latest develops a storyline from a character introduced in her 2024 novel Shadows in the Ashes

The historical storyline is set in 80 AD. Duro has escaped from a devastated Pompeii to return to Britannia. As an Iceni, he has been enslaved following the defeat of Boudica’s rebellion and now seeks vengeance on the Roman legionary who destroyed his life. En route, he rescues an enslaved German woman, and she agrees to join him on his quest. The modern storyline sees Mackenna Jackson moving to Bath. She meets Jonah Miller, a wealthy but disillusioned rock star, and there is an immediate attraction. As they visit the Roman sites in Bath, both experience flashbacks of an earlier time and an earlier passion.

Courtenay has written an enjoyable novel. The plot is engaging, and the two storylines mirror each other, but never in an obvious way. It is more that the characters visit the same places and the modern characters experience unsettling visions. Duro is an appealing and compassionate character. His behaviour is considerate and almost gentlemanly – how authentic this is for a member of the Iceni tribe I’m not sure, but I’d like to think so. The Romans, on the other hand, are depicted as rapacious, far less decent than the British tribes that they have supposedly civilised.

Courtenay has included helpful explanations for readers not well versed in Roman culture, which is occasionally a little intrusive. The recreation of the Roman world, however, is well done. While undoubtedly a historical novel, this is also a romance, and this is well handled and includes a sprinkling of sexual frisson. The misunderstandings, though, are surmounted very easily and remind us that we are in a cosy fictional world rather than the messy world of reality.

Adele Wills

THE BOOK OF LOST HOURS

Hayley Gelfuso, Atria, 2025, $29.99, hb, 400pp, 9781668076347 / Atlantic, 2025, £16.99, hb, 400pp, 9781805464754

1938: Lisavet Levy’s father is a clockmaker, one who has a secret the Nazis want. As the violence of Kristallnacht approaches their home, he hides eleven-year-old Lisavet behind a mysterious door that disappears the moment she steps through. The place she finds herself in is a library between time, where the

memories of everyone are stored after they are gone. Lisavet soon learns that there are those who want to destroy memories, to preserve their version of history, and she becomes the protector of the time space, rescuing the lost memories and hiding them in her own secret book. When an American timekeeper named Ernest discovers what she is doing, suddenly Lisavet’s mission—and her quiet existence— are threatened.

1965: Teenaged Amelia Duquesne is mourning the death of her Uncle Ernest, who was her guardian, when she is approached by a woman named Moira, representative of a secret government agency charged with monitoring the library of memories. Moira asks for Amelia’s help to go into the time space and search for a book that her uncle had long sought. To her surprise, Amelia can travel into the time space and between memories of the departed, but in doing so, she finds more questions than answers: about her uncle, the agency, and memory itself.

The Book of Lost Hours is an immersive and enchanting debut. It has mystery, romance, history, and magic. It also offers fascinating commentary on how we remember the past. The characters frequently muse on the idea that history is written by the victors. In Gelfuso’s novel, history is more often unwritten by those who only want their version of events to be remembered, an idea that unfortunately feels too timely and relevant to this reader.

Jessica Brockmole

CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULT REBELLION 1776

Laurie Halse Anderson, Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, 2025, $18.99/C$24.99, hb, 416pp, 9781416968269

After the death by smallpox of her mother and siblings, Elsbeth and her father move to Boston, fleeing their own grief. Her father finds work as a sailmaker, but disappears on the day the Loyalists flee Boston because the Patriots have conquered the city. Thirteenyear-old Elsbeth, excited to be rid of the British, finds herself all alone. She had been a maid-of-all-work for a Loyalist judge who left the city. Fortunately, Elsbeth is taken on by the large Pike family as a maid. When smallpox becomes an epidemic in the city, Elsbeth must work extra hard, taking care of the inoculated, but very sick, Pike children and their mother. Her only friend has joined the Patriot army, and her dream of becoming a seamstress seems impossible to reach.

Anderson does an amazing job of bringing the setting, Boston in 1776, to life. While Elsbeth and the Pike family are aware of the War for Independence, their lives carry on mostly as usual. There is work to be done, sick children to care for, a cow to milk, thieves to outmaneuver, and funerals to attend. A regime change brings both hope and fear, but mostly uncertainty. Elsbeth is a courageous, intelligent, and inspiring character. This novel

digs deep into setting and character, with a plot that is also engaging. Who will die of smallpox? What will happen to Elsbeth? Where is her father? Will her dear friend return from the battlefield? An excellent read for children who enjoy historical fiction. Ages 10-14.

Elizabeth Caulfield Felt

THE BOY WHO BECAME QUEEN

Christina Balit, Otter-Barry Books, 2025, £14.99, hb, 40pp, 9781915659491

This picture book follows the career of a boy actor in Shakespeare’s Globe theatre. From the life of an orphan on the streets of Elizabethan London to playing Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Jack’s progress is described in evocative prose and charming watercolour pictures.

Told from Jack’s point of view, the story takes us from Jack singing on ‘Gutter Lane ... for pennies’, a ragged child who has lost his family to the plague, through a kidnapping into the unexpectedly hard life of a ‘Blackfriars’ Boy’, to singing at court for Queen Elizabeth. Here he impresses William Shakespeare, who invites him to join his company. The playwright needs talented young boys to take the women’s parts that Elizabethan culture forbids women taking themselves, and these young boys clearly had to be talented actors and performers. From meeting a Queen to convincingly performing as one completes the arc of this simple story, and Jack is set for a successful life as an actor.

The text comprises essential dialogue and equally essential description, which gives a graphic view of Elizabethan life: Jack is scrubbed clean at the Blackfriars’ with ‘animal fat, quicklime and ashes’, and has ‘the vermin’ combed out of his hair; the Globe theatre smells ‘of garlic and apples, ale and tobacco. It was dirty. It was thrilling.’ The illustrations which occupy most of the page-space are full of movement and colour. The hairs of a dancing bear’s coat, the feathers of a hawk, have a geometrical precision; the planks of the wooden stage at the Globe seem to flow like water.

A beautiful book into which considerable research has gone, this would delight any child with an interest in performing, and would be an asset at primary school. Recommended for 7 - 12-year-olds.

Jane Burke

SAMSON AND THE CHARLESTON SPY

Paul A. Barra, Level Elevate, 2025, $13.95, pb, 153pp, 9781685128784

After 11-year-old Samson witnesses the attack on Fort Sumter that ignites the American Civil War, his friend Mary Lee convinces him that a spy must have forewarned the Yankees, since despite severe damage to the fortress, there were no fatalities among the troops. Joined by their friends Sidney (white, like

Samson and Mary Lee) and Jeremiah (the Black son of a freedman), they set out to find the truth. Through investigation, deduction, and luck they uncover the spy, with exciting action scenes enlivening the narrative. Some stylistic inconsistencies are jarring. The narration, while mostly in standard formal English, contains seemingly random colloquialisms (“hisself,” “He would a gone back to … sleep ‘cept that he figured it was about time to get up”). Shifts in point of view, sometimes showing the action from the vantage point of an adult character, also interrupt the flow.

Samson is brave and intelligent, with a strong sense of duty. Yet in some ways his character doesn’t ring true. He and his coinvestigators are strangely ignorant about each other’s lives—the long-time friends don’t know that Mary Lee is Catholic (in a culture very much focused on churchgoing) and that Sidney’s mother is dead. More problematic is that while Samson occasionally appears uneasy at the idea of slavery, he takes comfort that enslaved people are treated “like family” and seem to be happy, and that the woman who helped raise him “doesn’t think of herself as a slave.” A few times he starts discussing his concerns with his friends and his father, but quickly drops the subject. He is otherwise portrayed as a caring person, and it would have added depth to his character if he had challenged those justifications for enslavement rather than merely being made to feel uncomfortable by them. Middle grade.

Tracy Barrett

THE ENEMY’S DAUGHTER

Anne Blankman, Viking, 2025, $18.99/C$24.99, hb, 262pp, 9780593623046

Marta is traveling with her father on the Lusitania from New York back home to Germany during WWI. Out of fear of retribution, they hide their German nationality. Their identities are discovered, however, just before the ship is attacked by German torpedoes. In the chaos, Marta is separated from her father, but both are rescued off the coast of Ireland. Her father is arrested and sent to England for trial, while Marta manages to escape.

Now a stranger in a strange land, Marta is befriended by a young Irish girl, Clare, and her family. They accept her into the household only because Marta pretends to be Dutch. Clare and Marta become close friends, with Clare even helping Marta get a job in the local Rowntree chocolate factory. Although terrified of being discovered, Marta begins to sense the humanity in those she thinks of as her enemy.

The Enemy’s Daughter cleverly lays out the complex wartime alliances and allies, not only between nations, but among the citizenry as well. Who is my enemy, but more importantly, why are they my enemy? Marta herself struggles with this, planning a way back home, helped by those who would turn her in if her identity was known. Eventually she comes to realize the truth of what her father had

told her while still on the Lusitania, that while the governments may be at war, we cannot hate the people of those countries: “They are humans, both good and bad. Just as we are.”

The Enemy’s Daughter, Blankman’s second YA novel, does a stellar job of presenting the prejudices of war seen through the lens of a child. Grappling with the worldview of adults while living with the real and natural friendships between children, Marta exemplifies the complicated nature of war at the local and personal level.

Steve Shaw

CLOSER TO FAR AWAY

Kristin Butcher, Red Deer, 2025, C$14.95, pb, 240pp, 9780889957497

Set in a small town in Saskatchewan near the U.S. border in 1921, this novel for middle school-age readers and up portrays Lucy, a 13-year-old whose mother was killed along with her aunt and baby cousin in a house fire. Lucy’s father, a bank manager, buries himself in work and blames her financially struggling uncle, who had boarded up his ramshackle house’s windows to save money on heat, for the tragic accident. Lucy tries to keep the house running in her mother’s stead but struggles to balance housework, school, and wrangling her two brothers—one older, one much younger. This leads her father to hire a housekeeper, but when Lucy’s five-year-old brother attaches himself to the housekeeper and forgets his mother, Lucy sabotages the kind woman’s efforts, leading to her departure and tearing the family further apart.

Butcher’s novel seamlessly weaves historical details into a story about family struggles, grief, and forgiveness. The novel takes place at the time of Prohibition, and Lucy’s older brother puts himself (and indirectly her) in danger by taking a job as a bootlegger with his lecherous high-school friend and the friend’s father, the local pharmacist. These touches add tension and suspense while raising the moral dilemmas that the now-motherless teens face. At the core of the story is the family’s struggle to process grief and to forgive each other for the mistakes of the past and the ones they continue to make. Despite the main character’s age and a beginning that feels more middle grade, the older brother’s drinking and smoking and a thwarted sexual assault make this novel more appropriate for teen readers.

Lyn Miller-Lachmann

WHEN SALLY O’MALLEY DISCOVERED THE SEA

Karen Cushman, Knopf, 2025, $17.99/C$24.50, hb, 240pp, 9780593650578

1894. Kicked out of an orphanage and fired from her job at a hotel, sassy 13-year-old Sally O’Malley decides to set off on her own, heading west across Oregon, to find the sea. She reluctantly begins to travel with a trader named Major and her friendly dog, Sarge, and the cantankerous mule, Mabel. Major is hired to transport a spoiled seven-year-

old boy, Lafayette, to Astoria. Having never encountered caring people, Sally is suspicious of kindness. This ragtag crew has adventures along their travels: a near-robbery by a drunk, a dangerous ferry ride, a blueberry stuck up a nose, and many more. Sally grows fond of Major and Lafayette. But what will happen when they get to the sea? Will it fill the hole within her?

Sally is a spunky, loveable heroine, and the constant conflicts will keep readers turning the page. The writing is colorful and fun. At one point Sally says, “[I]t was hotter than a burned boot inside there, and I was sweating like a turkey on the night before Thanksgiving.” Cushman has done a spectacular job with Sally’s voice. Sally likes words and makes note of new and unusual vocabulary—a great way for young readers to learn new words.

A fun romp of a story with an important message: There are good people in this world you can trust; when you find them, keep them close. Ages 8-12.

Elizabeth Caulfield Felt

EVIE AND MARYAM’S FAMILY TREE

Janeen Hayat, Guppy Books, 2025, £7.99, pb, 344pp, 9781916558410

Evie and Maryam are classmates in presentday London. They are assigned as partners to do a school project to find out about each other’s family history. Their relationship is uneasy to begin with due to Evie’s friends’ attitude towards Maryam, centring around the latter’s South Asian heritage.

Both girls come across folders in their respective grandmothers’ possession with writing in a mysterious code that they determine to unravel. The modern-day story alternates with scenes set in Delhi, beginning in 1929 when two girls – Indian Safia and Kathy, the daughter of British colonials –become friends and later develop a lifelong correspondence which will influence their own lives and those of their descendants. Partition and its consequences form the background to this middle-grade novel, and there are parallels in the racism and class prejudice experienced by both Maryam and Safia. However, this does not come across as heavy-handed, as the characters and dialogue of all four girls and their families are warmly and deftly depicted.

The revelation of the truth behind the relationships between Evie and Maryam and the girls from the earlier generation does not really come as a surprise, and coincidence does stretch credulity a little. At the same time, this resolution is very satisfying, and the book could encourage young readers to find out more about their own family histories in addition to learning more about the wider ramifications associated with Britain’s colonial history in India and its aftermath. There’s also an unexpected Bletchley Park connection –the activities of which are cropping up quite frequently in recent children’s novels!

Ann

Lazim

BOTTICELLI’S APPRENTICE

Ursula Murray Husted, Quill Tree Books, 2025, $24.99/C$19.99, hb, 272pp, 9780063157934

Florence, Italy, 1482. At the height of the Italian Renaissance, young Mella is a gifted artist relegated to the role of tending chickens for master craftsman Sandro Botticelli. Though girls can’t be artists’ apprentices in Florence, Mella yearns to paint and practices her craft at night. A delightful graphic novel overflowing with clever illustrations and witty dialogue set against the background of everyday life in Florence, this is a lovely homage to the power of friendship, hope, perseverance, and faith in yourself. Entertaining side-stories abound. Mella’s rambunctious and expressive dog, Blue, has a trove of amusing adventures, and family life spills engagingly across the pages, equally hectic and endearing.

Husted’s deep knowledge of Renaissance Italian history and painting shines throughout. With a light touch, she offers readers an insider’s look into the process of 15th-century painting that includes a very funny nod to Botticelli’s contemporaries, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Her author’s note provides an entertaining insight into the history behind the story she has transformed into an admirable work of historical fiction. For readers ages 8-12 and adults interested in the history of Italian Renaissance painting. Very highly recommended.

Alana White

I WITNESSED: The Lizzie Borden Story

Jeramey Kraatz, illus. Crystal Jayme, HarperAlley, 2025, $15.99/C$19.99, pb, 208pp, 9780063247277

In the summer of 1892, fourteen-year-old Charlie Churchill sees terrifying, shadowy figures in the window of the Bordens’ house next door. When the hacked bodies of Abigail and Andrew Borden are found only a few hours later, all of Fall River, Massachusetts, is thrown into a panic. As police investigate the murders and eventually bring Lizzie Borden, one of the daughters, to trial, Charlie begins to suspect that he has witnessed the murders and does some investigating on his own. He goes as far as planting a broken ax handle, an item he believes to be “evidence,” at the Borden home, hoping the police will find it.

In this graphic novel aimed at readers ages 8 to 12, author Kraatz and illustrator Jayme use actual dialogue from historical court records to

help tell the story of Lizzie’s trial and eventual acquittal. Young readers will learn from Charlie’s thoughts and actions that it is unwise to make judgments about people without having the facts.

The illustrations are rendered in pale tones of blue. Considering that there is not a lot of action in the novel, the addition of color now and then would have perhaps kept a young reader more engaged. Still, the novel is a good introduction to one of America’s most famous murder cases.

John Kachuba

LILY’S HONG KONG HONEY CAKE

Erica Lyons, illus. Bonnie Pang, Apples & Honey, 2025, $19.95, hb, 32pp, 9781681156767

When Lily is three, she and her family leave Austria and their bakery because of harassment against Jews. They eat their honey cakes on a ship. In 1940, when she is four, and for several more years, Lily celebrates Rosh Hashanah at their new bakery in Shanghai with honey cakes. At age eight, there is little food and no cake. When Lily is nine, the family leaves Shanghai for Hong Kong, where they live in a crowded hotel as refugees. At ten, on Rosh Hashanah, Lily helps the hotel chef make honey cakes, even without honey.

Full-page spreads show each year of Lily’s early life, on Rosh Hashanah. The language and content are repetitive in word or concept—cleverly done, showing that even when things change, some things remain the same. The war and deprivation are hinted at, but the bright colors show the hope and love of Lily’s family. End pages include a map of the fictional Lily’s journey, and detailed information about the Jewish diaspora to Asia. An enjoyable, inspiring story. Ages 3-8.

Elizabeth Caulfield Felt

UNDER A FIRE-RED SKY

Geraldine McCaughrean, Usborne, 2025, £8.99, pb, 272pp, 9781836040774

In this unusual novel set in the early years of World War Two in the UK, we meet four teenagers, Olive, Franklin, Lawrence and Susan, aka Gemmy or Gremlin. They all were supposed to have been evacuated from London, specifically Blackheath and Greenwich. They are older teenagers, and each decides to defy their parents’ wishes and return to London.

They then decide to form a group which they call The Meridians. They will make expeditions designed and led by Lawrence to monuments and places of interest in the past. Their present and future seem to be too uncertain, so they are seeking comfort and togetherness while exploring the past. Franklin particularly wants to become a fireman like his father and is on a constant search for a fire station that will accept him. The reader is rooting for him throughout the novel.

Lawrence is the academic of the group. He loves history and is also secretly inventing an

Aviette or small plane. Olive’s father is also a fireman and, through her, we see the effects of his job, particularly in wartime, on his family. Gemmy is trying to escape on the evacuating train from her abusive, alcoholic father. She manages to escape from the train and lives in an abandoned van in the woods. How will the war affect them all, and will they all make it through?

This is an ambitious novel told from four different points of view. It also contains a detailed account of a little-known facet of the war, the work of firefighters in war time and the immense risk to which they were subjected. This is an immersive narrative which holds the reader’s interest from page one. McCaughrean has managed to conjure the London Blitz impeccably.

Rebecca Butler

GIANT

Judith McQuoid, Little Island, 2025, £7.99, pb, 223pp, 9781915071828

A story of friendship across the class divide, the importance of creativity and an insight into the early life of novelist C. S. Lewis are the main themes of this delightful novel for eightto eleven-year-olds.

In 1908 Belfast, Davy is twelve, and that’s the right age for a working-class boy to start earning a living, especially as his father is ill and the family are struggling. Davy’s mother takes him to the house where she works – the middle-class home of C. S. Lewis – known to his family as Jacks. At this point though, Jacks, future writer of the Narnia chronicles, is a boy of ten. Davy thinks Jacks is very odd. He’s always got his head in a book or is writing stories. However, when Jacks points out that the hill overlooking Belfast looks like a giant, this fires Davy’s imagination. The boys become friends and revel in their own world of make believe. This allows Davy to realise he has a talent as an artist.

But the grown-up world starts to intrude. How can Davy possibly use his artistic abilities for a job – he needs to know his place and work in the shipyard like his ailing dad. Tragedy strikes for Jacks and that pulls the two boys further away from each other. Will they be able to retain their friendship or will it be too difficult across the class divide?

McQuoid’s novel weaves together the facts of Lewis’s life with an imaginative story of hardship and friendship that shows how important creativity is to all – whether children or grown-ups.

Kate Pettigrew

I AM REBEL

Ross Montgomery, Walker, 2024, £14.99, hb, 304pp, 9781529502909 / Candlewick, 2025, $9.99, pb, 240pp, 9781536246803

I Am Rebel is the story of a dog separated from his boy, Tom, and determined to bring him home. Rebel is a good boy—he stays when Tom tells him to, even though it means being left behind. What Rebel doesn’t initially know is that Tom has joined a band of actual rebels

marching to overthrow the king. Convinced Tom is in danger, Rebel sets off to save him.

The journey takes this small, unprepared dog through cities where a stray can vanish, forests filled with wolves, and lands terrorized by men with muskets. I didn’t expect to enjoy a middle grade novel this much, but you’d have to be a heartless monster not to be moved by this sweet, surprisingly wise story.

Along the way, Rebel makes friends—a gruff feral dog, a brave little mouse, a gentle donkey—and learns what it means to be brave, to live without humans (even though he’d rather not), and how love and loyalty shape us. He observes, in a way only dogs can, how small nothings often turn out to be the most important things. And that not everyone is lucky enough to have people to love and who love them back. It’s a powerful reminder to practice gratitude, no matter your age.

The themes of independence and resilience are well suited to younger readers. The short chapters and fast pace make it an easy, engaging read—for young readers, and for old people like me. My only gripe is the lack of setting details. We don’t know when or where this story takes place, though that fits, since Rebel wouldn’t know either. In my mind, it’s somewhere around the Irish Rebellion of 1798.

All in all, I Am Rebel is a heartfelt adventure, and I recommend it warmly for ages 9-12.

Kristen McQuinn

DEEP DARK

Zohra Nabi, illus. Paola Escobar, Simon & Schuster, 2025, £7.99, pb, 320pp, 9781398532922

The year is 1833. Cassia Thorne, who has been in England since she was nine, having previously lived in India with her father in relative luxury, now lives with him in the Fleet Debtors’ Prison in London. He lost his money when many of his merchant ships sank.

Cassia can come and go from the prison on a daily basis but must be back in time for the nightly curfew. She has two jobs, one as a street singer: children who used to sing songs for money. Cassia can make a little more because she can also play the flute. Her second job is tutoring the disagreeable Bradshaw girls in piano. This is not an enviable position.

Through singing at the Bartholomew Fair, she meets Teo, who is an enterprising young thief. Cassia dreams of writing her own ballads, not just singing other writers’ work, so she asks Teo for his stories of thieving. From Teo, she learns that children are unaccountably going missing without trace. And not just one or two either, but a good many. She, Felix Bradshaw, stepbrother of the Bradshaw girls and Teo, decide to join forces and locate the missing children. What they find is organised criminality and a mysterious Kraken lurking in the old rivers beneath London streets. Can they rescue the children before something deadly happens?

The historical detail in Nabi’s novel is what elevates it. The atmosphere and ambition of the street singers is a facet of history that is

very rarely written about in Middle Grade, as is life inside the debtors’ prison and the reasons why people might end up there. Cassia is a spirited and likeable character who drives the narrative forward. The weakness of this novel is the insertion of the fantasy element in relation to the Kraken. Sometimes that element of the story stretches credulity, when the social history has been particularly well-researched.

Rebecca

Butler

MY TEETH IN YOUR HEART

Joanna Nadin, illus. Anna Morrison, UCLan Publishing, 2024, £8.99, pb, 341pp, 9781916747142

In 1974, Anna, the daughter of ex-pats living in Cyprus, falls in love with George, a Cypriot boy. In 2004, Billy loves Cass – they are her person – but Cass loves the boy Billy is seeing on the rebound. Billy’s quest to discover Anna begins when her grandmother dies and bequeaths Billy’s dysfunctional mother a diary and a secret. They go to Cyprus where Billy follows the trail laid by Anna’s diary.

Anna and Billy tell alternating stories about the mess of love, star-crossed, triangulated, unrequited. The title is taken from Euripides’ Medea, so it is also about the choices we make as we suffer. Betrayal and lies are at the heart of many of the relationships portrayed here. Sexual violence, homophobia, ethnic division, colonialist racism and war threaten as Anna grows into her body, learns how sexual mores are different for girls and between genders, learns the risks of expressing sexuality. Anna and Billy also find redeeming love and how we can save each other.

Anna’s story is based on a true timeline in Cypriot history, and this is in many ways a contemporary novel with a historical twist, created by generational secrets. Young adults experiencing the mess of love themselves will relate to Anna and Billy’s predicaments. While there is some merging of the two voices, Billy’s voice is distinguished by an engaging swearing habit. They share the same self-awareness and sense of agency. I wonder, in Anna’s case, how much this fits the more oppressive patriarchal culture of the 1970s. That said, the deep viewpoint of these characters makes for an immersive and relevant read for those who are breaking into adult experiences. Young readers who are ready for adult themes will enjoy being taken on an immersive journey as these girls discover who they really are.

Louise Tree

RENEGADE GIRLS

Nora Neus, illus. Julie Robine, Little, Brown Ink, 2025, $18.99, pb, 304pp, 9780316439930

“The hard choice is almost always the right one.” In 1888, Helena (Nell) Cusack is ostensibly seeking a husband in New York’s fashionable circles, although she prefers girls and longs for a meaningful career. She has a marginally respectable job as a society reporter, but yearns to expose oppressive mistreatment, like her hero, the “stunt-girl” reporter Nelly Bly. With the assistance of her

friend and sometime servant Lucia Amatucci, and under the influence of the unconventional budding photographer Alice Austen, Nell infiltrates the sweatshops of lower Manhattan to report on their abuses under the pen name Nell Nelson, falling in love with Alice along the way.

Based on real journalism pioneers Nell Nelson and Alice Austen, the graphic novel Renegade Girls mixes difficult truths (Lucia nearly loses a finger working at a sweatshop) with wishful unrealities, such as a multiracial upper-class society. The drawing of Nell’s romance with Alice is sweet, with several closeup panels of fingers just barely touching, and then hinted passion in muted mauve and gray. The depiction of clothing and the visual pacing are wonderful, although the women are often difficult to tell apart, both cute in the same way, with hair color their most distinguishing feature.

I suspect that even the young adult readership will find its idealized vision of the power of journalism a bit nostalgic and the villains too unambiguously villainous. Having said that, while the narrative is based on fighting injustice, the real struggles and hard choices are deeply personal. Can Alice defy propriety outside of her safe, idyllic home on Staten Island? Can Nell continue her work once she realizes how it will damage those she loves? These are hard choices indeed, and ones all readers can take heart from.

Melissa Bissonette

WORDS MATTER

Anita Fitch Pazner, illus. Sophie Casson, Groundwood, 2025, $19.99/C$21.99, hb, 72pp, 9781773069708

This fictionalized biography in verse for middle-grade readers narrates the story of siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl, members of the White Rose Resistance that circulated leaflets about the truth of Hitler’s genocidal war. Pazner sets the stage with Hitler’s takeover of a Germany struggling through the Great Depression, preaching hatred against traditional scapegoats—Jews, Romani, LGBTQ people— and his own political enemies. Readers meet Hans and Sophie’s father, a freethinker who had to hold his tongue to keep his family safe. At first Hans and Sophie join the Hitler Youth, eager to help their fellow Germans. In a poignant spread, Pazner and illustrator Casson show 12-year-old Hans and his friends designing a fantasy creature to display under the Nazi flag, only to have their commander destroy it in the name of “Conformity above all else.”

Most of the story focuses on how the

young Scholls become disillusioned with Nazi ideology, and how serving on the front lines opens Hans’s eyes to the propaganda the German people have been fed. Bad luck leads to their capture and execution, but Pazner ends on an inspiring note, with British planes dropping the leaflets that the White Rose members wrote and circulated. Words do matter, and this book offers young readers much to think about, particularly in a new era of autocracy, hatred, and violence against the vulnerable.

Lyn Miller-Lachmann

WOLF MOUNTAIN

Alice Roberts, illus. Keith Robinson, Simon & Schuster, 2025, £14.99, hb, 320pp, 9781398521377

I have long been a fan of Professor Alice Roberts’ gripping television programme Digging for Britain in which she explains human anatomy and tells us the story of how we humans developed from cavemen to being how we are today. And she doesn’t forget to explain how we built houses for ourselves, solved water problems, invented drains, roofs and so on – not to mention how we learnt to hunt, track, and kill and cook various animals. She has now, bravely, turned our human story into fiction, and Wolf Mountain is her second novel set in prehistoric Ice-Age Britain.

I have to be honest and confess that I have a low nightmare threshold, and this is a book with a lot of death in it. Our early ancestors had to cross ice crevasses, kill edible prey with dangerous antlers like reindeer and aurochs, defend themselves against lions, musk oxen, wolves and so on. Much-loved characters can die horribly in a few minutes – usually by drowning – and Alice Roberts doesn’t pull her punches. Think Philip Pullman meets Jean Auel with a touch of Rosemary Sutcliff.

However, I read the book at a gallop –indeed I read it several times and decided that I was probably being a wimp and needed to wise up. I was helped by the fact that men being in charge was noted by the heroine as unusual (which made a pleasant change). I liked the fact that the heroine found herself pondering how one might make snowshoes and other useful things – and, eventually, I began to identify with her. Tuuli – the heroine’s somewhat awkward name – is very effective at treating the badly-wounded tame wolf, Lupa, for example.

There are also a number of words which I felt needed explaining – talo for example. Suggested age range 11+.

Elizabeth Hawksley

IMHOTEP AND THE QUEST TO KUSH

Al Sirois, Fitzroy Books, 2025, $17.95/C$23.95, pb, 220pp, 9781646035830

In Al Sirois’s novel, a young man named Imhotep embarks on a perilous journey up the Nile to the land of Kush in search of a cure for the ailing King Sanakhe, elder brother to the future king Djoser. Throughout Imhotep’s

quest, the narrative explores various aspects of ancient Egypt’s Old Kingdom. Imhotep experiences life as a sailor, a healer, and a spy, and is the confidant of a royal prince. He crosses paths with individuals who have nefarious intentions against the king and encounters diverse groups of people and cultures. Some readers will likely recognize the name of our main character: the architect credited with building Djoser’s step pyramid, yes, that Imhotep.

Early on, the main female character expresses that she doesn’t see the point of an education and that her sole aspiration is to find a partner and have babies. Sadly, a pattern quickly emerges as almost all the female characters show little depth and primarily serve the purpose of flirting with Imhotep.

I noticed some errors in the book. First, the Temple of Khnum at Elephantine wasn’t erected until the Middle Kingdom era. Also, one of the male characters is named Henuttawy, which is the name of a 19thdynasty princess meaning “Mistress of Two Lands.” Lastly, expressions like “oh pooh” and “answering the call of nature” feel out of place.

Despite being the second installment in a series, the narrative allows for a seamless and engaging read. I believe the book will captivate male readers as our young protagonist embarks on a daring journey. This adventure is particularly suitable for readers aged 9 to 12 who might enjoy an initial exposure to a fascinating ancient culture and an immersion into distant lands.

J. Lynn Else

WINK, MURDER

Rhian Tracey, illus. David Dean, Piccadilly Press, 2025, £7.99, pb, 288pp, 9781800789593 London, April 1942. Mary Clark’s gift for learning languages has made her an invaluable asset in the secret world of Bletchley Park. Sent reluctantly to Bedford, she attends top-secret Japanese lessons and is introduced to her American study partner, Spencer. A natural linguist, observer and organiser, Mary is ideal for wartime intelligence work and is summoned back to Bletchley to receive orders to be covertly placed as a waitress in the opulent surroundings of The Ritz hotel, London.

This is the third delightful book in the series, and although standalone, it does link to the earlier books. Mary’s mixed Jamaican and British heritage reveal that her life is affected by blatant racism and sexism in 1940s Britain. This is also reflected in the experiences of her sister through letters received, but Mary

cannot respond in kind, revealing the dangers and discrimination she faces.

The story is gripping. The lovely interplay between Spencer and Mary is humorous and shows the difference in American and British English, which gives the story lighter moments at a very dark time in our history post Pearl Harbour. The Bletchley children had to learn to keep secrets, even from their own families, and to ‘trust no one’ as national security is threatened. Innovative technology, such as ‘the secret listeners’, is introduced.

Historical events and real-life characters are slipped in effortlessly, which make excellent discussion points as to their significance in history or to the story. The Blitz, rationing and the distrust of foreigners add to this. The absolute horror of air raids is graphically described using all the senses to bring the reality of war into the reader’s imagination. An excellent resource for 9+ year-olds studying World War II.

Valerie Loh

THE SPARTAN SACRIFICE

Andrew Varga, Imbrifex Books, 2025, $20.99, hb, 304pp, 9781955307109

This fourth in a series of timejumping novels takes 17-year-old Dan Renfrew to the year 480 BC, just in time to witness the most stunning battle he’s ever heard about: Thermopylae, when 300 Spartans

stood heroically against the Persians. Dan’s responsibility as a time-jumper is to respond when there’s a “glitch” in the stream of history that could change all of it; mend the glitch, and he can go home. But when mending this one demands that he step into a bloody and overmatched battle himself, going home afterward isn’t a likely option—especially when his time-jumping partner Sam, aka Samantha, with her beauty and her refusal to let him love her, gets furious and puts him into more deadly danger at a critical moment. The real point of all his efforts, when he’s not actively mending a glitch, is to stop psychopath Victor Stahl from taking over the past-andpresent world in order to install a new world order that lets the wealthy and unscrupulous own and run everything. (Book 1 of the series

came out in March 2023, so draw your own conclusions about political coincidence.)

Dan’s efforts to stop Victor take him across several “red lines” of his own morality in this book, and self-forgiveness isn’t guaranteed to follow self-knowledge for him. No need to read the earlier titles first, as Varga’s lively, accessible writing and quick historical backgrounding pull everything together (aimed at teens, and appealing to adults as well). But because the deepest values at stake here are love, loyalty, and courage for Dan and his closest friends, waiting a year for book 5 to follow this highly recommended adventure may be the toughest part.

Beth Kanell

CLEM FATALE HAS BEEN BETRAYED

Eve Wersocki-Morris, illus. Honie Beam, Little Tiger, 2025, £7.99, pb, 238pp, 9781788957502 London, 1951. Twelve-year-old Clem Fatale is proud to be the youngest member of her father’s notorious band of thieves, The Spider Gang. She is deft at picking locks and accessing tight spaces. The quest to find her missing father begins when Jimmy Fatale disappears when their attempt to steal the ‘Fool’s Canary’ diamond from Lord Weatherdale’s home fails, leaving Clem bereft and unwittingly with a kidnapped Gilbert, the lord’s naive son. The unlikely pair are thrown together in her quest and balance each other perfectly. Gilbert is equally quick of wit but lacks knowledge of the outside world in general and so is fascinated by Clem as she moves around its dark underbelly.

It is unusual to have a thief as a heroine, but her father is a mysterious figure, and his actions likewise. Clem’s socialite mother throws her upbringing into a unique light. She is familiar with Gilbert’s world yet is happiest following in the footsteps of her father. Humour, pace and plot gallop across the pages, with the use of witty names, catchy banter and a growing friendship and respect between Gilbert and Clem.

Winnie and Konrad are characters that introduce aspects of social history in postwar London and, sadly, prejudice. This makes the book an excellent source of discussion for the classroom situation, especially as Nazi Germany had just been defeated and London had suffered terribly through the bombing in the Blitz, highlighting the resilience of those who lived through it. Her father makes a strong comment on the changes within Britain after the war.

The delightful illustrations by Honie Beam from cover to the full-page drawing within add to the book’s enjoyment. This a fastpaced adventure, suitable for 9 - 12-year-olds.

Valerie Loh

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).