Historical Novels Review, Issue 74 (November 2015)

A PUBLICATION OF THE HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY

HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW Issue 74, November 2015

Agincourt

the death of chivalry growing up fast holocaust through youthful eyes hf under southern skies hns australasia conference a fantastical depiction guy saville’s alternative hf nuala o’connor’s miss emily real vs fictional characters the gilded hour sara donati’s new series the ten thousand things 2015 walter scott winner

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE publisher’s message | historical fiction market news | red pencil | new voices

Historical Novels R eview

ISSN: 1471-7492 | © 2015 The Historical Novel Society |

pub lis h er

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

edit o r ial boa r d

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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 6868 Knollcrest Drive Charleston, IL 61920 USA <sljohnson2@eiu.edu> Publisher Coverage: Algonguin; Bethany House; HarperCollins; Henry Holt; IPG; Other Press; Overlook; Penguin Random House (all imprints); Severn House; Sourcebooks; Trafalgar Square; Tyndale; university presses; and any North American presses not mentioned below Features Coordinator: Lucinda Byatt 13 Park Road Edinburgh, EH6 4LE UK <mail@lucindabyatt.com> |

review s edit o r s , u k

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

Elizabeth Hawksley <mail@elizabethhawksley.com> Publisher Coverage: All UK children’s historicals Edward James <busywords_ed@yahoo.com> Publisher Coverage: Arcadia; Atlantic Books; Canongate; Hodder Headline (inc. Coronet, Hodder & Stoughton, NEL, Sceptre); John Murray; and Robert Hale | Alma and The History Press (interim) Doug Kemp <doug.kemp@lineone.net> Publisher Coverage: Allison & Busby; Little, Brown & Co (inc. Abacus, Virago, Warner); Random House UK (inc. Arrow, Cape, Century, Chatto & Windus, Constable & Robinson, Harvill, Heinemann, Hutchinson, Orion, Pimlico, Secker & Warburg, Vintage); and Transworld (inc. Bantam Press, Black Swan, Corgi, Doubleday) | Quercus (interim) Tracey Warr <traceykwarr@gmail.com> Publisher Coverage: Birlinn/Polygon; Bloomsbury; Faber & Faber; Granta; Pan Macmillan; Penguin; Short Books; Simon & Schuster | Accent Press; HarperCollinsUK; and Knox Robinson (interim) |

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Jessica Brockmole <jabrockmole@hotmail.com> Publisher Coverage: Amazon Publishing; Hachette Book Group; Hyperion; W.W. Norton

Arleigh Johnson <arleigh.johnson@att.net> Publisher coverage: US/Canadian children’s publishers (except S&S, HMH) Ilysa Magnus <goodlaw2@optonline.net> Publisher Coverage: FSG; Grove/Atlantic; Minotaur Books; Picador USA; Poisoned Pen Press; Soho Press; St Martin’s Press; and Tor/Forge Tamela McCann <jjmmccann@aol.com> Publisher Coverage: Five Star; Kensington; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Simon & Schuster, including children’s divisions of both |

re v i e ws e d i tors , i nd i e

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Helen Hollick <author@helenhollick.net> Publisher Coverage: all self-published, subsidy, and electronically published novels (UK) Steve Donoghue <st.donoghue@comcast.net> Publisher Coverage: all self-published, subsidy, and electronically published novels (USA) |

e d i tori a l pol i cy

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

copy ri g h t

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

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

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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/ HNS WEBSITE: www.historicalnovelsociety.org |

confe re nce s

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The Society organizes annual conferences in the UK and biennial conferences in the US and Australasia. Contact Richard Lee <richard@historicalnovelsociety.org> (UK), Ann Chamberlin <annchamberlin@annchamberlin.com> (USA), or Elisabeth Storrs <contact@hnsa.org.au> (Australasia).

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Historical Novels R eview

I ssue 7 4 , N o ve mbe r 2015 | I SSN 1471-7492

| columns |

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ed itor ia l r ich a rd le e

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

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n ew voic e s p r of ile s of debut his torical f iction authors hermion e ey r e , ma r i grif f ith, don ald s mith & l u c y s an n a | my fa nw y cook

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r ed pe nc il b e y o n d a ll d re a ms | cin dy vallar

| features & interviews |

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AGI NC OU RT th e de ath of c hivalry | b y debora h sw i f t

11 g rowin g up f as t un der t he na zi s holocaust through youthful eyes | by wanda w yporska 13

h f unde r s o uthe rn skies

the hn s austr a la sia con f eren ce | b y elis abeth sto rrs

14 a f antas tical depicti o n g uy s a v ille ’s a lte r n ative his tories | b y s arah bow er 15

nuala o’con n or’s mis s em il y r e a l v s fic tiona l characters | b y arleig h jo hnso n

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the g ilded ho u r sa r a dona ti’ s n ew s eries | by tam ela mcca nn

17 th e ten thous an d thi ngs 2 0 1 5 wa lte r scott priz e- win n er | by lucin da bya tt | reviews |

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

PUBLISHER’S MESSAGE

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a st ti me i n th i s colu m n I an nou nced the i n iti ative s we are t aki ng to help w riter memb e rs w ith i n the s o cie t y. The s e are ongoi ng : plea s e, any of you who are i nte re sted , lo ok to the web site i n the nex t month s . Many ne w th i ng s are h ap p e n i ng, and many ne w opp ortu n itie s w i l l b ecome avai lable ; we plan th at the s e w i l l b e of help to au thors at al l ph a s e s of the i r de velopme nt .

Whe n me mb e rs j oi n the y are req ue sted to s ay if the y are authors , a ge nt s , publ i she rs , and / or read e rs . O u r big ge st cate gor y by a d i st ance i s authors : the re are at lea st 8 3 6 of you . 3 5 6 memb ers m ake no stipu lation at al l, s o I su sp ec t the real nu mb er tops 1 ,0 0 0 – and th i s i s why ou r f i rst fo c u s h a s b ee n authors .

The nex t big ge st cate gor y i s kee n ( av id ) readers .

At 5 1 9 the s e s ee m to la g a way b eh i nd the authors , but a g ai n the re are 3 5 6 u n attributed . I al s o su sp ec t th at a nu mb e r of p eople cho os e ‘author ’ i n stead of ‘reade r ’, not real i zi ng the y can tick b oth .

Su rely fe w authors of h i storical f ic tion do not al s o read the ge n re w ith e nthu si a sm?

We are the refore al s o lo oki ng for ways to de vel op ou r s e r v ice s to reade rs . O u r mai n res ou rce w i l l always b e th i s ma g a zi ne – the re v ie ws can al s o b e fou nd on ou r website, org an i z ed by ce ntu r y, gen re, p e rio d – ove r 1 3 ,0 0 0 i n al l. But wh at el s e can we offer ?

In 2 0 1 6 we w i l l i n iti ate one or more on l i ne read i ng g roups . We w i l l lau nch a ‘ B o oks of the Month’ e mai l ne wsle tte r h igh l ighti ng the b est ne w re lea s e s . The website w i l l al s o b e g i n a re g u l ar ‘ blo g’ featu ri ng ne w title s and de voti ng b e sp oke space to sp ecif ic area s w ith i n h i storical f ic tion. There w i l l b e ne w l i st s and su r ve ys: ways to pi np oi nt the cl a ssics of h i storical f ic tion, pa st and pre s ent .

Wi l l the s e help to feed you r read i ng ? Or i s

there a b e tter way we cou ld b e doi ng th i s? As e ver, we are an op en s o cie t y. L e t u s k now you r thought s .

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HNR The

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

HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Columns | 1

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

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

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

Thriller writer Leonard Goldberg’s The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes, first in a new series in which Holmes’ only biological child teams up with the son of Dr. Watson, himself a young physician in London, sold to Anne Brewer at Thomas Dunne Books by Scott Mendel at the Mendel Media Group.

The Good Men author Charmaine Craig’s Miss Burma, based on the life of the author’s mother (a Burmese beauty queen) and grandparents, extending from the splendor of colonial Rangoon, through the trials of the Second World War, and into the first decades of the longest-running civil war in recorded history, sold to Peter Blackstock at Grove/Atlantic, in a preempt, by Ellen Levine at Trident Media Group.

Nicolas Cheetham, digital publisher at Head of Zeus, acquired two new books in David Gilman’s Master of War series set during the Hundred Years’ War, beginning with Gate of the Dead, as well as The Last Horseman, a standalone historical set during the Boer War. The latter will appear in August 2016.

Rosie Milne’s Olivia and Sophia: The Adventures of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the Remarkable Founder of Singapore, As Told through the Eyes of His Two Wives, fictionalized diaries that see a powerful man of the early 19th century through the eyes of two very different women, sold to Philip Tatham at Monsoon Books for publication in fall 2015 by Kelly Falconer at Asia Literary Agency.

Anna Mazzola’s The Unseeing, set in 1830s London, pitched as based on the real case of Sarah Gale, a seamstress and mother sentenced to hang for her alleged role in a murder, and the idealistic young lawyer assigned to investigate, sold to Imogen Taylor at Tinder Press, at auction and in a two-book deal, for Summer 2016 publication, by Juliet Mushens at The Agency Group.

Land of the Afternoon Sun by Barbara Wood, about a young New York socialite who marries a British baron and moves to Palm Springs in the early 1920s, sold (again) to Stephanie Beard at Turner Publishing, for publication in Spring 2016, by Harvey Klinger at Harvey Klinger.

Shana Drehs, editorial director at Sourcebooks, acquired world English rights to Marie Benedict’s historical novel, tentatively titled Mrs. Einstein’s Secret, exploring the life of Mileva Maric, wife of Albert Einstein, an accomplished physicist in her own right, via agent Laura Dail.

Paul Baggaley, publisher at Picador UK, acquired UK/ Commonwealth rights (excl. NZ), at auction, to David Coventry’s debut novel The Invisible Mile via Caspian Dennis at 2 | Columns |

HNR Issue 74, November 2015

Abner Stein, on behalf of Andy Kifer at The Gernert Company.

It’s based on the true story of five Australian and New Zealand cyclists who were the first English-speaking team in the Tour de France in 1928; it was published in June in NZ by Victoria University Press.

Emma Flint’s Little Deaths, based on a true story out of Queens, New York, in 1965, in which a woman finds herself the prime suspect in the murders of her children, pitched in the style of Tana French and Sarah Waters, sold to Francesca Main at Picador UK, at auction, by Jo Unwin at Jo Unwin Literary Agency. US rights to Paul Whitlatch at Hachette Books, by Deborah Schneider of Gelfman Schneider/ICM on behalf of Jo Unwin.

Mrs. Poe and Twain’s End author Lynn Cullen’s new novel featuring Georgia O’Keeffe, during the summer of 1929 when she went to Taos, broke free of Alfred Steiglitz and New York, and found her way as an artist, sold (again) to Karen Kosztolnyik at Gallery by agent Emma Sweeney.

Lilli de Jong by Janet Benton, about an unmarried Quaker woman in 1883 Philadelphia who gives birth at a charity house for wronged women and is unable to give her baby away, sold to Ronit Wagman at Nan A. Talese, at auction, by Jane von Mehren at Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Literary Agency.

The Muse, Jessie Burton’s second historical novel, set in 1930s Spain and 1960s London, the story of a young Caribbean immigrant, a bohemian artist and the mysterious painting that connects them across the decades, sold to Megan Lynch at Ecco and to Jennifer Lambert at Harper Canada, for publication in Summer 2016, by Sasha Raskin and Juliet Mushens at UTA. Picador UK’s Francesca Main had acquired it in a two-book deal with The Miniaturist in March 2013.

Andrew Hilleman’s World, Chase Me Down, based on the forgotten true story of an American Robin Hood, the turn-ofthe-20th-century Omaha butcher turned outlaw and populist hero who committed the “crime of the century,” sold to John Siciliano at Penguin by Christopher Rhodes at James Fitzgerald Agency.

Liz Trenow’s fourth book, The Master Piece, a story of silk and illicit romance, set against the backdrop of religious persecution, mass migration, racial tension and wage riots in 18th-century Spitalfields in London, sold to Shana Drehs at Sourcebooks and Catherine Richards at Pan Macmillan, for publication in January 2017, by Caroline Hardman at Hardman & Swainson.

Stephanie King of Usborne has acquired Vanessa Curtis’ YA historical novel The One Who Knows My Name from Ella Kahn of the Diamond Kahn Woods Literary Agency, for Jan. 2017 publication. Told through the first-person voice of fifteen-yearold Inge, the novel deals with the Nazis’ Lebensborn programme in Poland.

Water for Elephants author Sara Gruen’s Dear Henry, a novel of love and intrigue taking place on Black Tuesday in October 1929, aboard the Orient Express, exposing the characters’ lives as the financial crisis rocks the world, sold to Cindy Spiegel at Spiegel & Grau, in a three-book deal, by Emma Sweeney at Emma Sweeney Agency. Rights to Two Roads in the UK, and Allen & Unwin in Australia.

“Dickensian cast of characters,” was acquired by Granta editorial director Bella Lacey via Sarah Chalfant at the Wylie Agency.

Writing as Nancy Revell, Amanda Revell Walton sold a new series, following the first female workers in the shipyards of Sunderland during WWII, to Arrow publishing director Jenny Geras. The Shipyard Girls and two subsequent novels will be published in 2016 and 2017.

Author of Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald Therese Anne Fowler’s untitled novel about three generations of Vanderbilt women – Alva, Gertrude, and Gloria Morgan – moving from the Gilded Age to the Jazz Age, sold to Hope Dellon at St. Martin’s, at auction, by Wendy Sherman at Wendy Sherman Associates. UK rights went to Lisa Highton at Two Roads.

Author of Hell Before Breakfast Robert Patton’s Cajun Waltz, set in and around New Orleans beginning in the late 1920s and spanning thirty years, weaving together the lives of three disparate families through a time of enormous change in the Deep South, sold to Thomas Dunne for Thomas Dunne Books, in a pre-empt, for publication in June 2016, by Harvey Klinger at Harvey Klinger.

New and forthcoming titles The latest novel by Walter Scott Prize winner Robert Harris is Dictator (Hutchinson, Oct. 2015; Knopf, Jan. 2016), the long-awaited final volume in his trilogy about Cicero.

The Stockholm Castle Mystery, first in the Lute Player Mystery series by Joyce Elson Moore, was published in Aug. 2015 by Five Star/Gale. A lute player in Queen Christina’s court is tasked with solving a crime, but wax dolls and strange incidents in the old palace threaten to end the musician’s life before the investigation is complete.

Susan Higginbotham’s Hanging Mary, about Mary Surratt, the woman who could have saved President Lincoln, will be published by Sourcebooks Landmark in March 2016.

The Stargazer’s Sister by Carrie Brown (Pantheon, Feb. 2016), tells the story of German-British astronomer Caroline Herschel (1750-1848).

Anne O’Brien’s The Queen’s Choice (MIRA UK, Jan. 2016) is a biographical novel about Joanna of Navarre, second wife to England’s Henry IV, “a story of dangerous choices and consequences.”

Erratum Diane Scott Lewis’ The Apothecary’s Widow (HNR 73) takes place in 1781 rather than 1791.

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For additional forthcoming titles, please see: http://historicalnovelsociety.org/guides/forthcoming-historical-novels/

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Jodi Daynard’s next two books, completing the trilogy beginning with The Midwife’s Revolt, sold (again) to Jodi Warshaw at Amazon Publishing by Emma Patterson at Brandt & Hochman. Set during the American Revolution, the first follows a wealthy Boston merchant’s daughter who falls in love with her uncle’s slave, and the second tells the story of their son, who learns to “pass” as a white man.

Susan Spann’s Mask of the Fallen, 4th in her Shinobi Mystery series, this time featuring the theater culture of 16th-century Japan, sold to Dan Mayer at Seventh Street, for publication in summer 2016, by Sandra Bond at Bond Literary Agency.

All True Not a Lie In It by Alix Hawley, an unorthodox portrait of Daniel Boone’s quest for paradise that resulted in his son’s death, sold to Daniel Halpern at Ecco, in a pre-empt,

by Denise Bukowski at The Bukowski Agency. Published by Knopf Canada in Feb. 2015, it was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Jane Austen’s Lydia Bennet will feature in Natasha Farrant’s teen novel Lydia: The Bad Bennet Girl, which was acquired

by Chicken House via Catherine Clarke at Felicity Bryan Associates, for publication in Feb. 2016. US rights went to Scholastic.

Josi Kilpack’s Forever and Forever: The Courtship of Henry Longfellow and Fanny Appleton, a fictionalized version of the famed poet’s courtship of his second wife, sold to Chris Schoebinger at Shadow Mountain in a two-book deal, for publication in Spring 2016, by Lane Heymont at The Seymour Agency. Two of the author’s Regency romances are reviewed in this HNR issue.

Suzanne Gates’ Tinsel, in which a young woman in 1940 Hollywood discovers her best friend’s body and must solve the murder with the help and hindrance of her new friend Barbara Stanwyck, sold to Peter Senftleben at Kensington in a twobook deal for publication in 2017, by Jennifer Udden at the Donald Maass Literary Agency.

My Name Is Mary Sutter author Robin Oliveira’s The Age of Consent, which brings the character back, opening with the disappearance of two young girls in a devastating blizzard, pitched as bringing to mind The Alienist and The House of Mirth, sold to Kathryn Court at Viking by Marly Rusoff at Marly Rusoff & Associates.

Anna Solomon’s (The Little Bride) Leaving Lucy Pear, set in 1920s New England, about the unwed teenage daughter of wealthy Jewish industrialists who abandons her newborn baby to a poor Irish Catholic family, and the repercussions ten years later, sold to Sarah Stein at Viking, for publication in summer 2016, by Julie Barer at The Book Group.

And Then We Danced by Loretta Ellsworth, in which a WWII-era farm girl from Iowa falls for a German POW sent to work on her family’s farm, against the wishes and beliefs of her mother, her town, and her community, sold to Anne Brewer at Thomas Dunne Books, for publication in Spring 2017, by Irene Goodman.

UK/Commonwealth rights (excl. Canada) to Madeleine Thien’s Do Not Say We Have Nothing, a generational story of China’s history from the 1940s to present, described as having a

SARAH JOHNSON, Book Review Editor of HNR, is 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.

HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Columns | 3

NEW VOICES Debut novelists Hermione Eyre, Mari Griffith, Donald Smith and Lucy Sanna introduce new landscapes and perspectives to readers of historical fiction.

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hen I discovered that German prisoners captured in Europe during WWII were brought to the US, I saw potential for homeland conflict,” says Lucy Sanna – and, thus, the seeds of her novel The Cherry Harvest (William Morrow, 2015) were sown. Through diligent research at local libraries and museums in Madison and Wisconsin, Sanna learned, she writes, that “POWs were initially housed on US military bases, but when the Army realized that they could pay their own keep by replacing migrant workers, selected POWs were sent to rural makeshift camps – vacated schools, fairgrounds, migrant worker camps – and were put to work in canneries and on local farms. Between 1943 and 1946, my home state of Wisconsin had 39 such camps.”

She knew from her own experience as a Wisconsin native that Door County “is a bucolic peninsula covered with cherry orchards,” she says. Sanna then asked herself: “What would happen if I were to plop a group of German POWs onto a sweet family orchard?” Her answer provided additional inspiration for her novel. As she explains: “In 1944, when The Cherry Harvest opens, my fictional family is threatened because there are no workers to pick the cherries. Nearly all the able-bodied men have left for war, and migrant workers have taken better jobs at the shipyard. This would be the second year without a harvest.

“I pictured a frightened family, the enemy just outside the door. As I dug into the history, however, I learned that in many rural areas the prisoners were needed more than feared. The war is raging overseas when my protagonist, 37-year-old Charlotte, persuades the county to release prisoners to work the family orchard. In doing so, she literally brings the war home.

“The community is at odds over releasing the prisoners, and Charlotte feels the chill. Her own son is in Europe fighting the Nazis. When Charlotte’s husband invites one of the POWs into their home to tutor 17-year-old daughter Kate, family relationships begin to falter as well.

“Because the Army suppressed and then destroyed information about this piece of history, I went to Door County and interviewed growers who lived on cherry orchards in 1945, 4 | Columns |

HNR Issue 74, November 2015

when the prisoners were there. I contacted Fort McCoy, where POWs were held, I visited former rural camps, and I spent a good deal of time at the local library, going through historical references. By the time I left Door County, I had my story, and once my manuscript was complete, the curators of the Door County Historical Museum graciously gave it a thorough factcheck. I believe I caught the story just in time, because the people who remember are a small, diminishing group.”

The inspiration for Mari Griffith’s Root of the Tudor Rose (Accent Press, 2015) was, like Sanna’s novel in many ways, the consequence of a series of unanswered historical questions.

Griffith explains: “Like most kids, I was taught history at school, and hated it! I detested having to learn a string of dates and names, and the curriculum included very little about the history of my native Wales. Now, in later life, I have come to realise what a crucial part Wales and the Welsh played in 15thand 16th-century British history.

“I come from a professional background in broadcasting, and I was working on a BBC programme from Pembroke Castle when someone mentioned that this was the birthplace of the first Tudor monarch, King Henry VII. But he was an English king, wasn’t he? So what was he doing in Pembrokeshire? And why had his 13-year-old mother taken refuge here? Why did Jasper Tudor live in Pembroke? Why was Edmund Tudor in Carmarthen when he died of the plague?

I was hooked.

“I quickly learned that the Tudors were not an entirely English dynasty, no matter what films and television series would have you believe. Nowadays, I’m always pleased to point out that the very first Tudor was Owain ap Maredydd ap Tudur, a man of impeccable lineage, connected either by blood or marriage to the three princely families of Wales and closely related to our national hero, Owain Glyndwr, Shakespeare’s Glendower.

“Owain shortened his patronymic Welsh name to Owen Tudor, and his place in history was assured when he befriended Catherine de Valois, the lovely young widow of King Henry V, who was ostracised by the English court. The pair embarked upon a sensational clandestine love affair which produced five children who were half-Welsh, half- French with no English blood at all. Catherine and Owen’s son, Edmund Tudor, was the father of King Henry VII.” For Griffiths, it was important to finally “put the record straight,” whereas Hermione Eyre in Viper Wine (Hogarth, 2015) has chosen to focus on the consequences of vanity. Her novel, she says, “took about five years to write. It began when I saw the painting by Sir Anthony Van Dyck of Venetia, Lady

Photo credit: Anne Eyre

Digby, on display at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, just outside London. She’s a powerful presence, presented as if she is asleep with her night-cap on and her dark-blue bed drapes drawn around her. But she is not sleeping, she is actually dead – this posthumous portrait was commissioned as soon as her body had been discovered. She was only 33 and she was – or had been – one of the greatest beauties of her day. It was said that she had died from drinking Viper Wine, a beauty potion then popular amongst fashionable ladies.

“I was instantly reminded of our own age’s strange craze for age-defying drugs, and worked some glances to our own age into the narrative. Vanity is an eternal theme, but instead of writing Venetia off as vain, I wanted to reconstruct her experience so we could understand how she got to the point where she sacrificed everything – she had an adoring husband, Sir Kenelm Digby, as well as two little boys – for beauty.

“My career was journalism, and I have been lucky enough to interview some great artists, models and actresses, which helped me think my way into her persona and that of Van Dyck, the artist who immortalises her. The setting is before the English Civil War in 1632, and I took a lot of delight from working with the vocabulary of this rich historical period, just after Shakespeare but before the Puritan revolution.”

The English Civil war provides the historical landscape against which Griffiths has set her novel, which contrasts dramatically with North Carolina in the 18th century, and yet both she and Donald Smith share a vital connection: they have both created plausible stories.

The Constable’s Tale (Pegasus, 2015), says Smith, “began as

two lines in a 1930s family genealogy. My family has been in tidewater North Carolina since 1695. According to the book, a third great-grandfather was a volunteer constable around the time of the French and Indian war. This brief entry fired my curiosity. What was involved in being a volunteer constable in mid-18th-century America? What kind of a life might he have had? I quickly became hooked on the period, both in Carolina itself and the rest of the country – indeed the world: it was a time of great cultural and intellectual upheaval. Compared to flagship colonies like Massachusetts Bay and Virginia, North Carolina was a backwater. And what accounts for that? The more time I spent reading about the place and the period, the more I thought it would make a wonderful backdrop for a novel.

‘Virgin fictional territory,’ a historian friend observed. It had to be a murder mystery, of course, with spies, betrayals, moral ambiguities, and affairs of the heart.

“The best examples of historical fiction are time machines that transport us back to the period. They are researched to a fare-thee-well, but instead of the 32,000-foot view provided by a history, fiction allows the reader to get inside the bones of people of the time as they move through those landscapes and confront their worlds. Writers in this genre need to get the history right, but then to forget the aerial view and focus only on how it affects the characters on a personal scale. The writing gods allow us to make up things to fill in the historical gaps, bound only by imagination and the laws of plausibility. I like to think that someone from 18th-century North Carolina reading The Constable’s Tale would nod in recognition and say, yes, that’s the way it was.”

All the featured debut novelists have been inspired to transport their readers through uncharted landscapes, and, as Smith so aptly comments, to “confront” the worlds of their characters to entertain and inform readers.

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MYFANWY COOK admires the ingenuity of debut novelists and their ability to share new stories to entertain readers of historical fiction. Please email (myfanwyc@btinternet.com) or tweet (twitter.com/MyfanwyCook) about debut novelists you recommend.

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Left to right: Lucy Sanna, Donald Smith, Hermione Eyre & Mari Griffith

HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Columns | 5

THE RED PENCIL Cindy Vallar analyzes the work behind published manuscripts. In this issue, she profiles Elizabeth Camden’s Beyond All Dreams.

Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of the light on broken glass.

— Anton Chekhov These words encapsulate a goal familiar to all novelists: Show, don’t tell. Showing draws readers into the story so they experience the events firsthand. Telling keeps readers at arm’s length from what’s occurring. Think of it as the difference between watching a football game on the television versus actually snatching the ball from an opponent and his teammates pursuing you down the field. Which option puts you in the center of the action?

Elizabeth Camden, author of Beyond All Dreams, defines the difference this way: “Showing involves actions from the characters, while telling usually involves the author inserting information into the text (sometimes delivered through dialog, but still essentially an information dump).”

That’s not to say that an author should never tell. “Telling is perfectly fine if it is merely sprinkled in. It helps move the manuscript along, especially if you’ve got a lot of information that must be conveyed quickly.

“However, character development is almost always more successful when shown rather than told. Great characterization is what sells a book and keeps readers coming back for more. . .I can tell you my heroine is smart, but if I show a scene where she uses verbal swordplay to elegantly cut a rival down to size, it is much more interesting and believable to the reader.”

Since it’s harder to show a scene, many authors initially tell their story. “During my first draft I write as fast as possible,” Elizabeth explains. “First drafts are challenging . . . so my goal is to get to the finish line as quickly as possible.” Only then does she revise the scene to show. “It is a challenge to find original and meaningful ways to show a character, but the rewards are tremendous. Telling is fast and easy. Sometimes writers who believe one must never tell end up with pages of tedious action that really doesn’t enrich the story, it just links more important events. So once or twice in every novel I usually insert an 6 | Columns |

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‘overview’ passage that summarizes a couple of months passing and what happened to the characters. It helps keep the pace brisk.”

In Beyond All Dreams, Anna O’Brien is a librarian at the Library of Congress. A recent addition to the map collection reveals an error in the official version of what happened to her father. After her requests to reopen the navy’s investigation fall on deaf ears and elicit threats, she enlists the help of a handsome, yet arrogant, congressman. Their search for answers endangers Anna as well as the United States. Below is a segment from the early draft of this novel.

Anna O’Brien always had a problem with being too nice.

She was nice to her aunt and uncle, even when they treated her like hired help. When the grocer tried to charge her for a dozen apples when she’d only bought ten, she smiled and assured him it was an honest mistake. When people growled and snapped at her, she averted her eyes and refused to rise to the bait.

Which was what had been happening for the past ten minutes.

Her day began like any other. The first thing in the morning she reported to her position at the Library of Congress on the third floor of the U.S. Capitol. She had been performing research for a senator from Ohio . . . when she’d been abruptly summoned to report downstairs to the Naval Affairs room.

She was stunned to learn she had been called downstairs to be reprimanded for daring to question the validity of an old naval investigative report.

A steely-eyed, bull-necked Lieutenant Gerald Rowling greeted her with a scowl. This morning Anna sent a message to the War Department to notify them of new information that cast doubt on their conclusions about the sinking of the U.S.S. Culpeper. She never expected such a speedy response, or one so virulent. Two hours after sending her request, a snarling Lieutenant Rowling arrived and ordered her out of the library to accuse her of meddling where she had no business.

She gathered a breath and spoke in a measured

tone.

“Anytime fifty-six men disappear in the middle of the ocean, it is bound to raise questions,” she said quietly. Her voice echoed in the cavernous meeting room, with its vaulted ceilings and ornate tiled floors. Like most of the rooms in the U.S. Capitol, these rooms were designed to impress, although Anna suspected she’d been called into this room to intimidate her. She felt like a little brown sparrow sitting in the gilded splendor of the Navy’s most lavish chamber.

“Those questions were resolved nineteen years ago,” Lieutenant Rowling snapped from his position sitting behind the glossy mahogany desk.

Anna fidgeted on the Turkish carpet before him, her skin blistering under the contempt in his voice. “An investigation was conducted,” Rowling continued. “Reports filed. The U.S.S. Culpeper sank during a late season hurricane, all hands lost. Case closed.”

Anna was well aware of the details of the sinking of the Culpeper. After all, her father had been one of the men who disappeared on that ship.

“That’s the problem,” Anna pointed out in her most appeasing tone. “I am certain the report contains an error, and I’d like the case re-opened so it can be corrected.”

“The report was finalized nineteen years ago,” Rowling said. “Copies were sent to all the deceased sailors’ families, and they were given a three month period to file questions with the Navy. That time is over.”

“I wasn’t in a position to ask questions. I was only eight years old when the ship disappeared.”

“When the ship sank,” Lieutenant Rowling asserted. “All the families received the sailor’s wages, plus six month’s salary, just as the law allows. If you’re trying to reopen the issue to qualify for a pension, you can forget it. There’s nothing worse than money-grubbing parasites coming to the government with outstretched hands.”

Anna raised her chin a notch. “As you can see, I am gainfully employed and have no need for an orphan’s pension. All I want is to know what happened to my father, and in light of this new information we’ve learned about the path of the 1878 hurricane, I’d like the Navy to correct its report.” She cleared her throat, hoping her demand didn’t sound too terse. “Please,” she amended.

This version tells what’s happening, rather than allowing the reader to become invested in Anna and her story. In the first draft Elizabeth depends “too much on visual descriptions because they come easy to me. As I revise, I try to cut the visual descriptions and add the other four senses (touch, sound, scent, taste). This makes me reach for more original descriptions” that she hopes “are a little more interesting than just the visual details.” Incorporating all the senses, writing more active sentences (e.g. not using “was” so often), fleshing out plot details, and “tightening up the language” are ways in which she shows the scene and places readers beside Anna to experience her emotions and reactions.

It didn’t take Anna long to realize the navy had no intention of thanking her for noticing an error in the fifteen-year-old report.

Oddly, it seemed they wanted her head on a platter.

“You’ve got a lot of gall,” Lieutenant Gerald Rowland snapped from behind his mahogany desk. The bullnecked man began scolding Anna the moment she arrived.

Required to stand on the carpet before his desk while the seated officer snarled at her, Anna felt like a little brown sparrow quivering before a firing squad. She cleared her throat and tried to defend herself.

“When fifty-six men disappear in the middle of the ocean, a complete and accurate investigation should be conducted,” she said quietly.

“That investigation was done fifteen years ago.”

Lieutenant Rowland banged his fist on the table, making the pens and inkbottles jump. “The USS Culpeper sank during a late season hurricane, all hands lost. Case closed.”

Anna was well aware of what happened to the Culpeper. After all, her father had been one of the men who’d disappeared with that ship.

“That’s the problem,” she said, trying not to wilt under the blast of that man’s glare. “The ship couldn’t have sunk where the report claims. I’d like the case reopened so it can be corrected.”

“Copies of that report were sent to the deceased sailors’ families, and they were given a threemonth period to file questions with the navy. That time is over.”

“I wasn’t in a position to ask questions. I was only twelve when the ship disappeared.”

“When the ship sank,” Lieutenant Rowland continued, “all the families received the sailor’s HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Columns | 7

In tweaking this scene, Elizabeth made other revisions. The first, although not visible here, was to insert a new scene before this one. “I believe novels live or die based on how the reader responds to the main character. I sweat bullets over how to convey Anna’s character in the opening few scenes of the novel.

She is introverted and shy, which is a tough sell to readers unless there is something extraordinarily likable or fascinating about her. My original opening . . . isn’t a bad opening, but I needed to do better. By inserting a very brief opening scene of her joking with the congressional pages I not only got a chance to show Anna’s quirky sense of humor, I was able to seamlessly plant important backstory that made the next scene flow much better.

Thus, in the high-stress scene in which she gets chewed out, I hope the reader already likes Anna and feels some sympathy for her.”

Another change keeps Anna from sounding “condescending...I need to convey that although Anna is shy, she is no pushover.

One of the things I hoped to convey . . . is that shy people aren’t necessarily weak people.”

Elizabeth also felt the draft contained too much physical description. “I’d seen old photographs of the Naval Meeting room in the Capitol, and truly it looked like some where the Sun King would hold court. The room was amazing, but really, was it important for the reader to visualize? No. It was a historical detail that was interesting to me as a writer, but for the reader?

I’d rather have the reader be intrigued by what happened to a ship and its crew, not distracted by the palatial luxury of a meeting room.”

Other revisions altered minor details, such as Anna’s age or the lieutenant’s surname. The former was to allow Anna “more insight than an eight-year-old could realistically have. Also, the extra few years helped deepen the love and sense of comradery between Anna and her father.” Elizabeth’s tendency to “never . . . linger over details that are easy for me to clarify later” precipitated the other change. “Half the time when searching for names of my secondary characters I glance around my office and grab a name off a nearby book jacket. Obviously I was reading J.K. Rowling that week! I almost always change those names on the re-write.”

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To eliminate excess information from revisions Elizabeth relies on the mantra of “R.U.E. (Resist the Urge to Explain)! I tend to cram too much information into my first draft. All that really matters is that Anna thinks the official Navy report is wrong. The details don’t matter, so I shortened it for clarity and to keep the pace brisk.”

The fact that Elizabeth is a librarian also fleshes out Anna’s character. “I’ve been an academic research librarian for about twenty years. I wrote deadly dull academic articles on the way toward earning tenure, but eventually decided to try my hand at historical fiction. I see it as a great dovetail between my research skills and love of a good story.” Her research includes reading old memoirs because “it helps me avoid the ‘wallpaper feel’ of some historical novels.” That’s how she “stumbled across an obscure incident that is no more than a footnote in history, but I knew would be the basis for a great historical novel . . . My biggest concern was that it was so bizarre and outrageous I feared people would never believe such a thing could happen.” Her historical note in Beyond All Dreams “explains the incident and the parts I fictionalized for the story.”

Readers interested in learning more can visit Elizabeth at elizabethcamden.com or www.facebook.com/ ElizabethCamden.

Beyond All Dreams was published in 2015 by Bethany House, pb, 368pp, 9780764211751.

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wages plus six months of salary, just as the law allows. If you’re trying to reopen the case to qualify for a pension, you can forget it.”

Anna raised her chin a notch. “As you can see, I am gainfully employed and have no need for an orphan’s pension. All I want is to know what happened to my father, and in light of this newly discovered error, I’d like the navy to correct its report.”

A freelance editor and historical novelist, CINDY VALLAR also presents writers’ workshops and writes nonfiction articles about maritime piracy and historical fiction. Her historical fantasy “Rumble the Dragon” appears in Dark Oak Press’ anthology A Tall Ship, a Star, and Plunder. You can visit her at www.cindyvallar.com.

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25 October 1415

L ike many historical fiction writers, I concentrate on my own

period, and my knowledge of other periods is patchy – gleaned from TV dramas, school textbooks, and the plays of Shakespeare.

Of course I’d heard of the Battle of Agincourt, a major English victory against France in the Hundred Years’ War, and I knew it was when the French – mostly knights, and armed with the finest “high tech” military equipment of the day – were defeated by the English peasant archers.

For generations since, Agincourt has been held up as a shining example of what a few ordinary but courageous men can do in the face of seemingly impossible odds.

The background to the battle is that on his accession to the throne of England in April 1413, Henry V decided to revive the war against France and press his claim to the French throne. Terse negotiations between the two countries ensued, during which Henry made demands of the French that they found to be unacceptable, and which they rejected with increasing vigour. All the while England was preparing for war, training archers and stocking up on arrows.

But on this, the battle’s 600th anniversary, I was keen to get a better sense of why, of all the battles in the war, this one was so important, and exactly how it changed English history. I approached Juliet Barker, a historian, to give me some context.

‘Agincourt is perhaps the most famous of all medieval battles,’ she told me. ‘It did not dramatically change the course of history, but it had an impact out of all proportion to what actually happened on the battlefield. For contemporaries, it proved that God was on the side of the English (the only possible conclusion given the fact that they were so heavily outnumbered by the French) and that Henry V was therefore the legitimate king of England despite his father having usurped the throne.’

When talking to people about the background to the battle, several mentioned In a Dark Wood Wandering by Hella S. Haasse, translated by Lewis Kaplan. The novel tells the life-story of poet and courtier Charles d’Orleans (1394–1465), nephew to the mad French king Charles VI. It was first published in the

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Agincourt: The Death of Chivalry Netherlands in 1949, but is convincing in its grasp of the politics of the day.

Looking further back, we cannot escape Shakespeare’s vision of Agincourt, in which he took the chronicles of Hall and Holinshed, and welded them into a story which has imprinted itself on the English subconscious. Henry V (which has been performed continuously since 1738) gave rise to several myths. ‘Amongst them were the ideas that Agincourt was a victory for the “happy few”; that it witnessed the triumph of the longbow over the mounted knight, and of the yeoman over the aristocrat; that this was medieval England’s “finest hour”; and that it led immediately to Henry V’s recognition as heir to the King of France,’ says Stephen Cooper, author of Agincourt, Myth and Reality (Pen & Sword, 2014).

This was the battle where the legend of the superiority of English archers was born, though according to Vanora Bennett, author of Blood Royal (William Morrow, 2010), initially the English were considered ‘very infra dig, village men with village weapons, with none of the grandeur of the French style.’ However, the English longbows could shoot up to fifteen arrows per minute – a power that novelist Joanna Hickson maintains is the medieval equivalent of a phalanx of modern machine guns.

Bennett’s Blood Royal follows the life of Catherine de Valois. She tells me that on the day of the battle, St Crispin’s Day, 25th October 1415, Henry V’s English army was only 6,000 strong, against the 25,000 in the French army, and that the English were at a disadvantage as they were on unfamiliar turf. ‘I think Agincourt is one of those great story moments because it is such a David and Goliath battle. The French were grand and full of “gloire”, a bigger and older and richer and more civilised country with a very grand aristocracy turned out in full armour, with horses; their kingdom was called the “most Christian kingdom” and they rather despised the slummy English living out on their island, with their king who was the son of Henry IV, viewed as a usurper.’

by Deborah Swift

I think... Agincourt is one of those great story moments because it is such a David and Goliath battle.

HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Features | 9

‘And Hook loosed again, not thinking, only knowing that he had been told to stop this attack. He loosed shaft after shaft. He drew the cord to his right ear and was not aware of the tiny shifts his left hand made to send the white-feathered arrow on its short journey from cord to victim. He was not aware of the deaths he caused or the injuries he gave or of the arrows that glanced off armour to spin uselessly away. Most were not useless. The long bodkin heads could easily punch through armour at this close range and Hook was stronger than most archers who were stronger than most men, and his bow was heavy.’

The view that the battle was won because of English archery skills, however, has been contested by Cornwell. In a 2008 piece written for the Daily Mail, he stated: ‘Legend says the Battle of Agincourt was won by stalwart English archers. It was not.

In the end it was won by men using lead-weighted hammers, poleaxes, mauls and falcon-beaks, the ghastly paraphernalia of medieval hand-to-hand fighting. It was fought on a field kneedeep in mud and it was more of a massacre than a battle.’ 1 But what of the other side? Joanna Hickson’s The Agincourt Bride (Harper, 2013) looks at the Battle of Agincourt from a French perspective and shows that it was not so much a glorious English victory as a largely self-inflicted French defeat. ‘That part of the fifteenth century was a dire period in French history,’ she says, ‘when the King was incapable of ruling due to recurring insanity and the Queen and the Princes of the Blood fought each other for control of France, leaving much of the country blackened and bleeding from almost constant civil war. The people suffered starvation and brutality as a result and an almost total breakdown in law and order.’

In Hickson’s novel, the 14-year-old Princess Catherine is celebrating her birthday at the court in Paris when the dreadful news arrives. Her 19-year-old brother, Dauphin Louis, tells her of the appalling death toll: “That impious libertine Henry of Monmouth came lusting over to France, desperate to possess your soft, white virgin flesh – and now ten thousand Frenchmen lie dead… dead at your feet!”

“Ten thousand – Jesu! That is a terrible number.

However, you are wrong, Louis. King Henry does not lust after me but after France. I am not the territory he wants but the wretched scapegoat who is tethered to it.”

I asked Joanna what the key story moment from Agincourt was for her. ‘The image of those French horses and bodies piling up in heaps on the battlefield, felled by a combination of bad generalship, terrifying firepower and awful clinging, sucking mud. The Battle of the Somme is the Battle of Agincourt writ large and both give me the heebie-jeebies!’

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According to Cornwell’s article, the reality for the French facing those English arrows is that ‘They were wading through mud made treacherous by deeply ploughed furrows and churned to quagmire by horses’ hooves. And they were being struck by arrows so that they were forced to close their helmets’ visors.

They could see little through the tiny eye-slits, their breathing was stifled and still the arrows came. The conventional verdict suggests that the French were cut down by those arrow storms, but the chief effect of the arrows was to delay and, by forcing them to close their visors, half-blind the attackers.’

When the French lost, the victory became symbolic of the triumph of the peasant over the nobility; of courage and determination over chivalry and gallantry. The English love an underdog, and this was the classic tale of the moment the little guy conquered the big guy. Barker, the historian, notes, ‘There can be no more powerful example of this than the fact that, more than five centuries after Agincourt, Winston Churchill persuaded Laurence Olivier to make his film of Henry V to encourage the British people as he prepared for a new invasion of Normandy, one which would prove to be a turning point in the Second World War.’ Vanora Bennett reminds us that the sad aftermath is much less remembered. ‘Henry died young of battlefield dysentery. His son Henry VI was mad. More civil war quickly engulfed France, and England. Henry V’s descendants never ruled France after all. And Princess Catherine de Valois, who’d married Henry as the man who had conquered her country and had briefly become Queen of England, later showed a startlingly modern sensibility when she ignored considerations of rank and married a gentleman servant called Owen Tudor.’

But these sadder and more complicated stories lack the simple clarity of Shakespeare’s Agincourt – that moment when Henry inspired the English ‘band of brothers’ to heroism: I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, Straining upon the start. The game’s afoot: Follow your spirit, and upon this charge Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’

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References: 1. Cornwell, Bernard. “War Crime? Battle of Agincourt Was Our Finest Hour.” Daily Mail. 27 October 2008. Available from http://www.dailymail. co.uk/news/article-1080764/War-crime-Battle-Agincourt-finest-hour-saysauthor-Bernard-Cornwell.html Additional resources: 1. www.agincourt600.com 2.http://chivalrytoday.com/agincourt-where-chivalry-died-in-the-mud/

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Bernard Cornwell’s novel, Agincourt (Harper, 2009), tells the story through the life of one of the archers, Nicholas Hook:

DEBORAH SWIFT is the author of five novels set in the 17th century, including The Lady’s Slipper and the Highway Trilogy for teens, Spirit of the Highway, which is just out.

She lives in the North of England close to the Lake District National Park, and also writes under the pen-name Davina Blake.

N ovember sees the 77

anniversary of Kristallnacht, when the Nazis orchestrated and encouraged a pogrom against the Jewish population in Germany, their properties and businesses. In recent years, more historical fiction about young people during the Nazi era has emerged, bringing new perspectives on the horrors of the time, but also enabling a deeper understanding of a broader range of experiences.

As Jim Shepard, author of The Book of Aron (Quercus UK, Knopf US, 2015), says, “we’ve gone from believing that the Holocaust couldn’t be dealt with at all in the arts — Adorno’s famous dictum that there could be no poetry after Auschwitz — to feeling as though it’s almost an over-trammeled genre.” He goes on to explain that he sees the writer’s task as defamiliarizing “the expected — to make us see in a new way what we previously thought we understood — as well as, in the case of something like the Holocaust, to make the utter strangeness, the unprecedented strangeness of the event, available to us, as well.”

As writers of historical fiction, we often tread a delicate line between historical fact and historical fiction, but does any event remain off limits? How do we reflect the reality of those who died and those who survived, maintaining an appropriate level of respect? Joseph Matthews, author of Everyone Has Their Reasons (PM Press, 2015), puts it succinctly when he says, “The same cautionary responsibility applies to a fiction writer who presents events from any time or place distant from the reader: to not consciously or carelessly offer significant falsehoods.”

Both Matthews and Shepard agree that historical fiction can be educative, but as Matthews emphasizes, “Perhaps more than ‘keeping memories alive’ or ‘educating’ about the war, or about any distant time or place or events, good fiction can help a reader engage with the past so as to transpose it into the present (e.g., the immigrant/refugee issues of this novel and immigrant/refugee issues of the present moment around the th

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the Holocaust through youthful eyes

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Growing Up Fast Under the Nazis

world).”

In the same vein, Shepard concurs that he’s certainly not ready to speak for all authors of fiction, but in his own case he feels an enormous responsibility to try to present the historical record as factually as he can. This is borne out by his extremely useful list of further reading in the acknowledgments section of his book.

In their very different works, neither Matthews nor Shepard holds back from portraying the realities of life in Europe for Jewish young people during the 1930s and 40s. Indeed, using the voice of young people as protagonists allows a greater range of situations and emotions to be portrayed, in contrast to the problems faced by the adults in their lives.

Despite their youth, they wrestled with huge moral dilemmas and faced persecution, poverty and hunger. They had to weigh the actions they were taking against the very real possibility of death or causing the betrayal of other members of their family or community. Risk-taking and hunger were the backdrop to young lives existing beyond the complex laws and bureaucracy, which all too often resulted in deportation, betrayal or death.

However, the two protagonists in these novels are very different. Shepard’s Aron, a nine-yearold Polish Jewish boy, is caught in the Jewish Ghetto in Warsaw, where he ducks and dives and does what he can to survive. In the Ghetto he meets Dr Janusz Korczak (the pen name of Henryk Goldszmit), world-famous paediatrician and child rights activist, who is trying to save 150 orphans from dying of hunger and illness.

Aron helps the eminent doctor by doing what the adult will not, and Aron’s very ordinary courage is set side-by-side with that of the hero doctor, illustrating the complexity of heroism.

Shepard’s prose is lively and engaging, and his recreation of the Warsaw streets is evocative. Aron is a typical nine-year-old boy living in an extremely atypical world, and we see him, and indeed

by Wanda Wyporska

As writers... of historical fiction, we often tread a delicate line between historical fact and historical fiction, but does any event remain off limits?

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years, which is cited as helping him to sort through the evidence in the case and understand the many legal machinations upon which Grynszpan’s life ultimately hinged.

Grynszpan ‘disappeared’ and was declared dead in 1960, at the request of his parents, one of the many mysteries in his story. His motive for shooting vom Rath has been disputed: was he driven to it on account of his parents’ deportation, or was it in fact a crime of passion? Did he know vom Rath, or was this merely a legal ploy dreamt up by his lawyer to prevent the Nazis from holding a show trial? Not much is known about Grynszpan’s life in France and nothing is known about his death, which makes an interesting canvas for a fictitious account. Matthews has filled in the gaps so convincingly that the reader will have difficulty distinguishing between fact and fiction. In contrast, Shepard’s Aron is clearly a fictitious character interacting with a very real Korczak, and this means that there cannot be a happy ending.

Debate still rages about whether events of the Holocaust should be fictionalized and by whom. This has been fuelled by an increase in the number of works of historical fiction treating the subject. There is clearly a substantial difference between the early works written by survivors, such as Tadeusz Borowski or Elie Wiesel, and the two works reviewed here. Literature on this subject is constantly enriched by a variety of genres, whether memoir, academic works or fiction. In addition, there is a highly developed body of commentary on Holocaust literature, in which many of the debates are rehearsed in great detail.

Shepard’s and Matthews’ works are the latest in a growing line of fiction focusing on the experiences of young people, following the phenomenal success of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (David Fickling Books, 2006) by John Boyne. Most importantly, both of the works illuminate the wide range of situations Jewish young people experienced and their resilience and courage in the face of systemic evil. They also illustrate the impact of ethnic, religious and/or economic persecution and oppression, which is just as relevant to current debates in Europe on migration and refugees.

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Korczak, as whole characters – warts and all.

Shepard points out that “certain figures’ greatness is even more compelling when I have a clearer sense of their overall humanity.”

He is fascinated by what he calls “the distance we all feel between the dismalness of the way we mostly are and the amazing heights to which we aspire, and sometimes even achieve.” This sentiment lies at the heart of the two stories, and both heroes are shown complete with their flaws. Arguably, this makes Aron and Herschel, the protagonist of Matthews’ novel, very believable as characters; they evoke our empathy, but also often our irritation.

These ordinary young people manage to act heroically, even in a time as heinous as the Nazi era.

Everyone Has Their Reasons also features a young Jewish boy, but here the similarity between the two books ends. On 7 November 1938, Herschel Grynszpan, a 17-year-old Jewish Polish-German, walked into the German Embassy in Paris and shot dead a minor diplomat called Ernst vom Rath. It became such a cause célèbre that the US journalist Dorothy Thompson established a campaign to raise funds for Grynszpan’s Paris trial.

This assassination was the pretext for the launch of the Kristallnacht pogrom, although the Nazis had clearly planned such an event for some time. Grynszpan claimed that he was protesting the rounding up of 12,000 Jews (including his family) living in Germany with Polish passports, who had been dumped at the Polish border. Herschel’s story is narrated through his letters to a mysterious lawyer, allowing a fragmented narrative that reflects the 17-year-old’s mind. Matthews paints a picture of a teenager troubled by what was going on in the world around him, but also of a boy beset by feelings of deep fragility one minute and immense grandeur the next. Once arrested in 1938 in Paris, Herschel is caught between the proverbial Scylla and Charybdis, in other words, the French and the Germans. His fate is entirely dependent upon the line of the invading German forces as he is moved south through France. Even when he finds himself at liberty, he realizes that turning himself in at a French prison is preferable to being hungry and on the run, with the prospect of being captured and recognized by the Germans.

Matthews expertly portrays Parisian society in the 1930s, with its socio-economic, religious and ethnic hierarchies exacerbated by the stress of increased migration and war. “I’m not a fan of literary works that merely use highly charged historical or political settings as little more than backdrops, lending a cheaply-purchased aura of significance to the works, without taking on hard questions raised by those settings,” he says. He describes the book as “an attempt to take on some of the issues that I saw as being raised by Herschel’s story – among them the treatment of refugees, politics based on ‘identity’, the workings of social class during crises – [this] was one of the main reasons I wanted to write the book in the first place.”

Interestingly, Matthews was a criminal defense lawyer for many

WANDA WYPORSKA is the author of Witchcraft in Early Modern Poland 1500-1800, published by Palgrave Macmillan. She lives in London and is currently writing the first of a trilogy of historical novels.

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the 2015 HNS Australasia Conference

A love of historical fiction knows no geographical limits. For

years historical fiction fans from Australia, New Zealand, and south-east Asia have been envious of the opportunity to attend HNS conferences held in the northern hemisphere. With this in mind, a small band of aficionados (Chris Foley, GS Johnston, Wendy J Dunn, Diane Murray, and myself ) decided to establish the Historical Novel Society Australasia to celebrate the genre in our part of the world.

The HNSA inaugural conference was held in Sydney 2022 March 2015. Sessions showcased 40 speakers discussing craft, research, inspiration, and personal histories.

The program was modest but well received by over 170 enthusiastic attendees.

Internationally renowned authors included Kate Forsyth (our patron), Felicity Pulman, Colin Falconer, Toni Jordan, and Juliet Marillier, together with many talented Australasian authors.

The opening night reception featured a round table debate, facilitated by Kelly Gardiner, between Gillian Polack, Rachel Le Rossignol, Jesse Blackadder, and Deborah Challinor to explore the topic ‘What can historical novelists and historians learn from each other?’ Each of these writers boasts doctorates in either or both history and creative writing, which resulted in a substantive and entertaining discussion. We were also honoured that Sophie Masson spoke on the connection between history and fiction in her analysis of the French term ‘histoire’, which has the dual meanings of ‘history’ and ‘story.’

The year 2015 is the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign of the Great War, which holds particular resonance for both Australians and New Zealanders in the commemoration of our war dead. Accordingly, the theme of the conference was ‘The Historical Novel in Peace and War’. Colin Falconer gave a moving keynote address that transported the audience back to the horror and bravery of those fighting in the trenches. The panel, War Torn Worlds, then discussed why the world wars

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Historical Fiction Under Southern Skies

inspire fiction and the challenge faced in depicting characters who must endure the turbulence of such conflicts.

Other panels included Tall tales and true: how storytellers imagine history; Can CYA fiction compete with werewolves, vampires and zombies?; Intrigue, mystery, fantasy and timeslip; and The path less travelled: indie publishing and the freedom to explore.

The audience was also treated to interviews with Sulari Gentill, Peter Corris, Toni Jordan, and Posie Graeme-Evans.

A particularly popular panel was the ‘First Pages’ competition.

This replaced one-on-one pitch sessions. Aspiring writers submitted a short excerpt which was read by an actor/ narrator, thereby ensuring their writing was presented in a vivid and engaging way.

The feedback from a panel of publishers and agents then provided insight to the entire conference audience as to what attracts their attention.

In addition to an academic session on the role of the female detective in historical fiction, the conference included super sessions which covered historical fiction writing and research, manuscript assessments, and a social media session run by myself and Marg Bates, the wonderful blogger from Historical Tapestry and The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader.

Finally, what conference would be complete without a saucy, sizzling and sexy session? In Bed with History featured Kate Forsyth, Colin Falconer, and Jesse Blackadder in a romp as they performed a rendition of one the racier scenes in Kate’s novel, Bitter Greens.

We appreciate Richard Lee’s support to HNSA as a regional arm of the HNS, and its conference will become a fixture alongside the current UK and US events. Our conferences will be conducted biennially, with the next one scheduled in Melbourne in 2017. We hope to see you there!

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Elisabeth Storrs is the author of the Tales of Ancient Rome series. More information about HNSA can be found at www.hnsa.org.au

by Elisabeth Storrs

A love... of historical fiction knows no geographical limits.

HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Features | 13

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Guy Saville’s alternative histories

There is a character in Guy Saville’s The Madagaskar Plan

(Hodder & Stoughton, 2016) whose name we never learn.

Although his nom de guerre is Salois, he is, in a nod to the films of Sergio Leone, a man with no name. He is also a man of all names and a living testament to the power of the written word.

Saville, who can work sixteen-hour days when in the grip of a book, has now published the first two volumes of his Afrika Reich trilogy to critical acclaim and popular enthusiasm.

His books are alternative histories, intense, passionate thrillers set in a Nazi empire in Africa. What drew Saville to the genre is that its ‘speculative quality allows writers to ask…questions about the nature of history…Would things be better or worse if it had taken a different path? In The Madagaskar Plan there has been no Holocaust. One would assume the outcome would have been better for the Jews – but what I’m suggesting is that the hangman’s noose would have tightened in a different way.’ In this version of history, Europe’s Jews are deported to labour camps in Nazi Madagaskar.

What sets Saville’s work apart is the subtlety of its characters. The hero of both novels is a morally and physically compromised figure, the villain a sophisticated and magnetic man with a surprising motivation for his excesses.

Although Saville makes good, and often satirical, use of ‘the iconography of the Third Reich…all those ranks of black uniforms and torch lit parades,’ he also believes the writer can use the Nazis to challenge our assumptions of evil. ‘As a writer, these pre-existing assumptions give me a lot to play with as I can then shade in contradictions and complexity…If I ever struggle with this, I try to imagine my heroes as villains in a different story.’

As befits the genre, there is a good deal of carnage, yet it is not a purely masculine book; Madeleine, the heroine, is a pivotal figure whose decisions drive the narrative and who is possibly tougher than all the men put together. On the challenge of writing the opposite sex, Saville notes, ‘In writing Madeleine I was less interested in defining her as male or female than as human…If you’re driven to survive against overwhelming odds,

One would...

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A Fantastical Depiction it is that survival instinct that defines you as much as your gender. Having said that, I enjoyed writing her immensely.’

The third novel in the Afrika Reich trilogy is well on in the planning stage. ‘I have a working sketch of the third book and certainly know the key dramatic moments and, most importantly, how it ends. It’s set several years after Madagaskar [set in 1953], when a full-scale war has engulfed Africa and the Nazis are close to defeat. Most of the action will take place in the Sahara, “a place of sand-lashed camps and secrecy”.’

Despite a clear idea of where his own writing is going next, Saville’s assessment of the current uncertain state of the publishing industry is bleak. ‘I believe the biggest threat is that people are reading less…There are too many other distractions – from TV boxsets…to social media and computer games, to constantly checking your mobile phone.’ He fears this has not only led to greater conservatism among the major publishing houses, but has dumbed down reading habits. ‘I think this is a problem for any serious writer…anyone who doesn’t want to do “middle of the road” fiction.’

Saville’s influences are writers such as Dickens, Dostoyevsky and Balzac, whose ‘fantastical depiction of the world strikes me as more truthful’ [than realist fiction].

Saville works at least partially in pen and ink, in a cabin at the bottom of his garden, surrounded by fields. Although he also cites contemporary writers among those he admires – William Boyd, Robert Harris, Sarah Waters – he is, perhaps, an old-fashioned novelist in his ability to create memorable characters, realise a concrete fictional world, and devise ingenious, multi-layered plots that stand up to close scrutiny – all in prose which is elegant and cleverly allusive.

It’s the kind of writing we should all hope readers continue to want.

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Sarah Bower is the author of two critically acclaimed historical novels, The Needle in the Blood and The Book of Love. Her contemporary literary thriller, Erosion, was published in 2014 under the penname S. A. Hemmings. She is currently working on a novel about Palestine in the 20th century.

by Sarah Bower

assume the outcome would have been better for the Jews — but what I’m suggesting is that the hangman’s noose would have tightened in a different way.

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real versus fictional characters

Narrating a novel in the voice of a well-known historical figure

can be a daunting task. One must be both true to historical fact while giving the fictionalized version a believable and engaging persona. Another pitfall, especially when reimaging a writer’s life, may be the use of too many phrases from the author’s works, thus taking away the opportunity to give a fresh perspective on a well-studied subject. Miss Emily (Penguin US, Sandstone UK, 2015) avoids monopolizing poetic verses, using instead clever reasoning behind the characters’ actions and ponderings that relate to recorded words and peculiarities of the historical people.

Based on a period during the life of American poet and writer Emily Dickinson, the story follows two protagonists: Emily herself, and a fictional character from O’Connor’s own hometown in Ireland.

Ada Concannon, a newly arrived Irish immigrant, is looking for work while staying with her Amherst, Massachusetts relatives.

The Dickinsons are without a maid, and Emily and her sister have been dividing the chores, which leaves little time for other pursuits. It is with much relief that Ada is hired, ultimately moving in with the family to take care of kitchen and laundry duties, as well as other chores.

Emily, surprisingly to those not acquainted with the poet’s personal life, loved to bake, and she spends time in the kitchen with Ada, forming a bond between the women that is frowned upon by the elder Dickinsons. Emily’s brother, Austin, is portrayed as especially vehement about separating the social classes and behaving accordingly, although this was one of O’Connor’s fictions. She explains: “In reality, I think he was a much more fair-minded, generous, and genteel man than I have made him in my book, but I needed to serve the plot.” In fact, much of the conflict in the story deals with Emily’s shying away from Amherst society and withdrawing into her small circle, of which Ada becomes an increasingly important part. The kitchen comes to be a sanctuary for both women; for one as the means of living an independent life, and quite the opposite for the other. For

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Nuala O’Connor’s Miss Emily

Emily, it is sharing a part of herself that no one — not even her mother, sister or beloved sister-in-law, Susan — has witnessed.

Ada, as a fictitious addition to Emily’s world, provides much needed malleability as a character, which helps meet O’Connor’s creative demands. “It turned out [Emily] did have Irish maids, but I invented a new one so that I would not be working two real lives into fiction. I needed some room to imagine.” The author achieves a link between Emily and Ada by giving them similar traits, such as an interest in nature and a way with words. Ada is no poet, but her plain, blunt dialog sprinkled with her mother’s Irish sayings and superstitions gives inspiration to Emily, igniting the poet’s curiosity and muse. In the author’s words, “They are noticers — nothing escapes them.”

This novel, written in dual voices, works exceedingly well in blending fact and fiction.

For those with a cursory knowledge of Dickinson’s life and poetry, the imagined content fits pleasingly with the mid-19th century setting. The poet’s verses, though cleverly interlaced within the narrative in various forms, are not noticeable replicas, as has been apparent in similar fictional biographies. A refreshing take on one of the noted periods of her life — Emily’s famous transition to wearing only white — is deftly woven into the story with thought and humor, as is her habit of distributing gingerbread cookies to the children in the neighborhood. Readers are given an admirable and respectable impression of a character who could as easily be seen as an odd recluse. Without both perspectives, there wouldn’t be an endearing depth of feeling between the characters. Ada’s inclusion, as a blank page to Emily’s strictly documented existence, works as an effective tool in creating an enthralling biographical novel.

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Arleigh Johnson has worked in the book industry for more than a decade and is an active member of the book blogging community with her websites www. historical-fiction.com and www.royal-intrigue.net. She has been reviewing books online for 8 years and with the HNS since 2011.

by Arleigh Johnson

Ada’s inclusion... as a blank page to Emily’s strictly documented existence, works as an effective tool in creating an enthralling biographical novel.

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Sara Donati’s first offering in a new series

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s a long-time fan of Sara Donati’s six-book Into the Wilderness series, I was thrilled to learn that the author has a new series coming out this fall that continues the stories of the Bonner descendants. The Gilded Hour (Berkley, 2015) centers on Anna and Sophie Savard, cousins and female physicians in New York in 1883, and the second-class citizenship women faced as both healers and patients during this time.

“The patriarchy did as much as they could get away with to restrict women’s sphere of influence,” Donati writes about the state of medicine in the 1880s. “Women physicians were limited to caring for women and children, and were often blackballed out of medical societies. They set up their own medical colleges and societies, which they did very efficiently, of course. But no matter how hard they worked, or how smart they were, they had mountains put in their way. They had no voice in the laws that governed their own healthcare and reproductive rights.

In writing this novel, I imagine that one of the hardest aspects of what Anna and Sophie did, day to day, was treating women in dire circumstances with little hope of improvement.”

Indeed, it’s easy to see the frustrations both women faced in the world, and Anna, in particular, comes across as a very determined young woman, one who knows what she wants to accomplish and is forceful in those endeavors. Donati admits, however, everybody makes sacrifices, and Anna, while driven, always feels she’s coming up short somewhere. Fortunately, she finds a man ahead of his time in Jack, whose own mother was highly unusual, thus opening the door for him to accept Anna for who she is.

“Imagine what a scandal it was in the 1840s for the daughter of a Rabbi from one of the oldest Jewish enclaves in Italy to defy her father and marry a Catholic,” Donati explains. “As a young man, Jack saw that women like his mother were very rare, and it made him value intelligence and self-confidence. He would’ve

No matter...

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The Gilded Hour

been miserable with a girl raised to be an obedient housewife.

And then Anna came along.”

Anna’s story is the focus for The Gilded Hour, but her cousin Sophie’s story is important as well. Sophie’s mixed heritage labels her a woman of color, and this makes life doubly hard, especially when it comes to Sophie’s relationship with Cap, the man she loves but feels she cannot have. Donati says that if the two lived in Paris, it would have been easier to be together openly, but the two would still have had a hard time of it.

Cap’s illness becomes the deciding factor for both, and Donati says we’ll be feeling closer to her in the sequel.

One of the more interesting aspects of The Gilded Hour is the seamless way Donati weaves real-life characters with her own. Those interspersed with Anna and Sophie include Mary Putnam Jacobi and her husband, Abraham, both physicians and progressive for their time, who have great influence on both girls. There is also Anthony Comstock, who is a rabid antivice crusader, determined to purge New York City of anything he feels is indecent.

Donati admits he was hard to write because there was a risk of his becoming a caricature based on his real-life actions. He’s the man you love to hate and cannot wait to see how far he’ll go to accomplish his goals.

There’s so much more that comprises The Gilded Hour, including orphans shuffled among several homes, women fighting for control of their reproductive issues, and even a murder mystery. Donati’s love of research and attention to detail bring the story alive and flesh out the adventure. The strong female-led household definitely continues the tale of the Bonners in ways all readers will applaud.

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Tamela McCann, a US Editor for the HNS, is an avid reader/reviewer of historical and young adult fiction. When not reading or writing, she can be found teaching middle school technology in Nashville, TN.

by Tamela McCann

how hard they worked, or how smart they were, they had mountains put in their way.

They had no voice in the laws that governed their own healthcare and reproductive rights.

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HNR Issue 74, November 2015

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winner of the 2015 Walter Scott Prize

The Ten Thousand Things is a masterpiece of historical fiction.

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THE TEN THOUSAND THINGS Cambridge. It remains, so far as I know, at the bottom of the river near Magdalen Bridge to this day.” Spurling’s loss proved an essential trigger to the writing of this book.

A noted playwright, Spurling didn’t “even attempt to write a novel” until he was over 50. “As a playwright I’m used to making all sorts of people speak and I do it instinctively without any kind of conscious process. Of course the longer I spend with my characters – and I spent ten years with Wang Meng and the other characters in this book – the more they become familiar and even inseparable from myself, though still, I hope, recognisably different from one another according to their different personalities and roles in the story. Readings and re-readings of the enormously long great early Chinese novels of the fourteenth-century – Three Kingdoms and Bandits of the Marsh (also translated by Pearl Buck as The Water Margins) – helped me to sprinkle a Chinese flavour into the dialogue.” The book was finished in 2000, but fourteen years passed, and numerous publishers’ rejections arrived, before publication.

Spurling’s novel won the Walter Scott Prize. Spurling comments: “I love Walter Scott and have read all his novels, some more than once. I like the man’s company, his leisurely storytelling, his romanticism.

Tolstoy’s wife said that she always knew when her husband was working towards a new novel, because he was reading Walter Scott. I understand that. Reading Walter Scott puts one in the storytelling mood.” The benefactors of this magnificent prize, the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, are “the most charming and generous hosts you could ever hope to meet”, but it was the surprise of winning that left Spurling in a “state of rapturous shock”. “This was my first [prize], a month before my 79th birthday, and since I decided to be a writer when I was 11, it’s been a long haul.” Apt words from the author of a book that reminds us to treasure the present.

Using the trope of the long-lost manuscript, the book contains many references to the passage of time. The protagonist is the artist Wang Meng, known to have lived c. 1271–1368, when China was ruled by the Mongols. Wang never rose above the rank of magistrate although he was descended from an earlier emperor, the founder of the native Song dynasty. Wang Meng’s fame as an artist was largely posthumous: today his works sell for millions and he is revered as one of the “Four Masters” of the Yuan Dynasty before it was overthrown by Zhu Yuanzhang, founder of the Ming dynasty, and a character in this book. So far, one might say, so unusual: a faux-memoir, an artist, a tumultuous period of history. Yet Spurling weaves these ingredients into an evocative story that retains a lightness of touch, a translucence reminiscent of the artist’s works, painting an entire world that transports us back to 14th-century China.

The Ten Thousand Things is a phrase taken from Daoism and their attachment to the visible world of nature.

“It was the landscape paintings of the period that first attracted me, especially Wang Meng’s, together with his undeserved death in prison as an old man. I wanted to understand and express why I liked them so much and that meant entering and if necessary imagining the lives of those who made them.”

The fictional memoir is written by Wang Meng. It is said, in the opening note, to have been translated into English by Dr Stephen Albert. This is a passing reference to Jorge-Luis Borges’ Chinese stories – indeed, a chapter in Wang’s memoir is entitled The Garden of Forking Paths, the title of the story in which the sinologist Dr Albert plays a key role.

Spurling is now in his late seventies, echoing Wang’s own age at the time of writing. One of Wang’s most evocative memories is of a precious white jade ring that he lost as a young man.

Spurling told me that, “The white jade ring derived from my own gold ring, made by Breon O’Casey, which fell into a flowerbed Lucinda Byatt is features coordinator for the Review. She too finds Walter Scott when I was gardening and reappeared some years later, only a great storyteller. More at her website: www.lucindabyatt.com to fall off again into the River Cam, when I was punting in

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by Lucinda Byatt

This was... my first prize, a month before my 79th birthday, and since I decided to be a writer when I was 11, it’s been a long haul.

HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Features | 17

Reviews |

online exclusives

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Due to an ever-increasing number of books being reviewed and space constraints within HNR, many reviews are now published as online exclusives. To view these reviews and much more, please visit http://www.historicalnovelsociety.org/ reviews/?type=online

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Denotes an Editors’ Choice title

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THE SECRET CHORD Geraldine Brooks, Viking, 2015, $27.95, hb, 320pp, 9780670025770 / Little Brown, 2015, £16.99, hb, 320pp, 9781408704516 / Hachette Australia, 2015, A$39.99/NZ$49.99, hb, 387pp, 9780733632174 King David needs little introduction to those raised in the Judeo-Christian faiths (he’s also a prophet of Islam), but readers without any religious background may have an advantage in simply reading this as a novel set around 3,000 years ago. It is told through the eyes of the seer, Natan, who only survives because of his prophecy that foretells David’s great destiny. Natan continues to be David’s conscience throughout life.

Although we do glimpse David’s amiable side through his music, for the most part he’s an unpleasant individual; power-hungry, duplicitous, murderous and cruel. Natan displays more humanity and control but is not above creating visions to suit the circumstances. Aside from the machinations, there are so many characters moving throughout that it’s difficult to grasp the scale. The transliteration to Hebrew of names may be confusing for the uninitiated, also Mitzrayim for Egypt, the Philistines are Plishtim, etc. Even God is oblique, just “the Name”. This may add authenticity but can feel pretentious at times.

Many of the original Biblical accounts have been refashioned or described in graphic detail, perhaps to make them more controversial. Most of the women suffer appalling treatment. Not even the famed seduction of Batsheva (Bathsheba) is the usually accepted version, and there is another scene featuring David’s only daughter that is extremely distressing and heralds an explosion of final redemptive blood-spilling.

While there are passages full of the author’s usual insightful prose, sadly these are eclipsed by the novel’s more distasteful aspects. It will depend on the individual reader’s degree of sensitivity as to whether they will enjoy it, but even for Brooks fans 18 | Reviews |

HNR Issue 74, November 2015

it may prove too dense and gruelling to take.

Marina Maxwell DAY OF ATONEMENT: A Novel of the Maccabean Revolt David A. deSilva, Kregel, 2015, $15.99, pb, 320pp, 9780825424717 The story line of this debut novel revolves around the increased oppression dished out by the regime of Antiochus IV and his puppeteers in Jerusalem against the traditional inhabitants of Judea. This is an “idea” book with historical dramatizations of actual events, rather than a plotbased or character-based book. The ideas center on the conflict between a foreign-imposed “modern” state and traditional local religious practices. There is no discernible plot, yet the author does a good job of showing the internal conflicts of some of the characters as they try to toe the line between modernization and their traditions—and even Antiochus IV has some second thoughts of his own. Whether the author intended it or not, the parallels between his traditionalists of Judea and the Arab terrorists of today are rather striking, the issues being remarkably similar.

Though it seems front-loaded with long expository passages and takes about 60 pages for any sort of story to emerge, I found myself becoming more engaged with the book the further I penetrated it. Towards the end it was hard to put down. And, other than a handful of anachronisms (such as the use of modern words like “kilometer,” and “Transjordan,” when period-oriented terms were available, and the use of Shalom in the temple, when Shakinah was the intended meaning), the historical settings are well done, which should make the book attractive to history buffs – especially those interested in the close of the Hellenistic era and the beginning of the Maccabean era. I would have liked, however, to have seen the book continue to the actual capture of Jerusalem, rather than end at the beginning of the Maccabean revolt.

Barry Webb GAME OF QUEENS: A Novel of Vashti and Esther India Edghill, St. Martin’s, 2015, $28.99/C$33.50, hb, 383pp, 9780312338930 This is a sprawling tale that, despite the title, is as much about two men, Daniel and Hegai, as it is about queens. Queen Vashti, the Persian Queen of Queens, refuses to obey her husband’s request to come unveiled before his guests and loses her crown. Esther is the hidden Jew who, thrust into a beauty contest to become queen, saves her people.

Much in the queens’ stories will please readers.

Edghill’s version of Vashti’s character is compelling.

She changes from a girl who’s been tricked into living in an extended, childish state to a woman who realizes she may not want the crown. Edghill gives Esther an appealing independence. In one scene she demonstrates Haman’s immorality by showing him drowning puppies. Esther rescues the

dogs while facing down Haman’s assault.

But at key moments the story rushes. For example, Esther’s greatest danger, to approach the king without summons, an offense punishable by death, is reported summarily at a double remove.

Esther is a point-of-view narrator, so this arm’s distance seems odd. We could be inside her experience at the story’s crescendo.

The first quarter of the book focuses on Daniel and Hegai without the queens. That implies essential centrality for these two men. Daniel’s role with both queens is to give advice, but that advice takes the form of getting them to listen to their own ideas. Hegai plays a more constant role in Vashti’s life, but he never takes decisive action despite the motivation provided by the violence in Hegai’s early life. This novel works best when we are close to the inner world of these ancient queens.

Judith Starkston ESTHER Rebecca Kanner, Howard, 2015, $22.99/C$29.99, hb, 381pp, 9781501108662 Award-winning author Rebecca Kanner returns to the Old Testament, this time drawing from one of the most powerful and often-portrayed female figures in Biblical history: Esther, the Jewish virgin who became a Persian queen and saved her people from destruction. Kanner’s depiction of Esther is a departure from how she is often rendered, that is, humble and obedient, with a kindness to others that manifests as courage. Instead, we meet a young girl who fights capture and must survive in a harsh and cruel world that treats women as chattel to be discarded, passed from king down to soldier at whim. Esther is a broken and flawed figure struggling to capture the attentions of King Xerxes while fighting her feelings for one of his soldiers.

The political machinations of Halannah, Haman’s niece and the concubine who would be queen, are the epicenter of the novel, which pivots on harem life, bringing a less-frequently-seen perspective to the Esther story. There are several deviations from the traditional Esther story that Kanner takes which reveal a complexity of depth and richness beneath the glittering facade of the Persian Empire, a setting and culture which, in other retellings, can be forgotten completely.

Kanner focuses not on Esther’s faith, but on her desperation, which makes for a compelling piece of historical fiction.

Lauren Miller

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SALAMIS Christian Cameron, Orion, 2015, £19.99, hb, 312pp, 9781409114178 The fifth novel in Christian Cameron’s Long War series set in ancient Greece begins after the gates of Thermopylae have fallen. With a Persian Biblical — Classical

invasion now seemingly inevitable, some Greek states are already evacuating their citizens while the allied Greek fleet sits on the beach arguing about what to do next. The hero of this series, Arimnestos of Plataea, takes the lead in welding together this fragile Greek naval alliance so they can take on the Great King, Xerxes, and the greatest fleet every assembled. It is his personal battle to defeat both Persian and Greek enemies that will determine the fate of the western world as the book builds towards the climactic and decisive battle of Salamis.

Using the framing device of Arimnestos telling a campfire tale to his daughter and friends, Cameron provides an extended prologue to fill readers new to the series in on the events of the previous four novels before jumping into the action-packed narrative of Salamis. The author is exceptionally skilful at battle descriptions, creating fight scenes that live and breathe while panning back and forth with impressive smoothness from large-scale battles involving hundreds of ships to the close-up horror of hand to hand combat. But Cameron really impresses in combining that military expertise with dextrous characterisation and vibrant story telling as Arminestos and a huge cast of characters love, live and die. At the same time, strategic and political viewpoints are not neglected, and the author manages to keep a healthy balance between action and exposition. The research is convincing and Salamis is full of seemingly authentic period detail that always serves the story. This is an outstanding historical novel with much to attract historical fiction fans of all genres.

Gordon O’Sullivan CLEOPATRA’S SHADOWS Emily Holleman, Little, Brown, 2015, $27.00/ C$30.00, hb, 384pp, 9780316382984 While Cleopatra is universally known, her older and younger sisters, Berenice and Arsinoe, have been relegated to mere footnotes in history. Author Holleman attempts to remedy that with this sumptuously written novel, first in a planned series, set in a brilliant but decadent Ptolemaic Egypt on the verge of complete Roman dominance.

A bloody palace coup led by the teenaged Berenice forces her father King Ptolemy “the Piper” to flee to Rome, taking Cleopatra, his favorite daughter, with him. His concubine also steals away with their young sons, abandoning the eight-yearold Arsinoe. Although Berenice, busy consolidating her power base to become Queen of the Two Lands, can barely picture Arsinoe’s face, she’s urged by her vindictive mother, Tryphaena, to execute the child; however, after meeting with Arsinoe, she prefers to leave her sister alive. Clever Arsinoe, who discovers that her ominous dreams often portend reality, learns to survive amidst war-ravaged Alexandria, aided by her all-knowing eunuch tutor, Ganymedes, and her faithful playmate, Alexander.

Meanwhile, Berenice, the first queen to rule Egypt in a thousand years, finds herself battling political Classical — 1st Century

machinations, palace intrigue, untrustworthy advisers, and a couple of unsuitable husbands in her attempt to maintain control. When the news arrives that their father’s return to Egypt is imminent, both girls must make difficult choices to stay alive in a dynasty that seems to prefer killing each other off rather than existing in harmony.

Told from the alternating points of view of each girl, and filled with beautiful images and authentic details of the palaces, temples, and slums of Hellenistic Alexandria, Holleman’s smoothly flowing narrative pulls you along like a voyage down the Nile, immersing you in the story of these unforgettable and tragic royals.

Michael I. Shoop WRATH OF THE FURIES Steven Saylor, Minotaur, 2015, $26.99, hb, 320pp, 9781250015983 In the latest installment of the Roma Sub Rosa series, Gordianus again displays his sleuthing skills, but instead of the mature Finder, this entry concerns a Gordianus barely out of his teens. After writing two general historical novels (Roma and Empire), Saylor has returned to the mystery genre.

This is the third installment of what amounts to a series within a series, the adventures of young Gordianus. This episode puts him in the year 88 B.C., when Mithridates is plotting to kill every Roman and Roman sympathizer in Asia.

Disguised as a mute to avoid speaking his Roman-accented Greek, Gordianus arrives in Ephesus, where any Roman might be killed on sight. He communicates through Bethesda, his slave and lover. Can he foil Mithridates’ plot, or at least save those close to him, like the famous poet Antipater, now going under the name of Zoticus?

The series has been rejuvenated by the younger hero and is now better than ever. His episodic Seven Wonders of the World and Raiders of the Nile combine with this latest to establish him as the undisputed master of the Roman historical mystery.

James Hawking VILLA OF DECEIT Ron Singleton, Penmore, 2015, $18.50, pb, 532pp, 9781942756408 In the first few pages, the Colosseum appears in 70 BC, 150 years before it was opened. As the story continues, senators are worried about running for re-election, a puzzling distortion of Roman procedure. However, these inaccuracies are minor, and my objections are pedantic because what is brilliantly captured here is the relentless brutality of Roman life, not only on the battlefield, but within the home and during military training. The head of the household routinely rapes female slaves, casually murders a male slave, and beats his son Gaius for little or no reason, reminding him that the father is within his rights to kill a son. Gaius’s mother is not much better, but she does provide a memorable erotic scene. Gaius joins the legions, where the training involves more beating and a murder plot. There are occasional appearances by Caesar, Cicero, and, most prominently, Crassus, but the real focus is on Gaius and his love for Aspacia, a slave from Lusitania whom he inherits, frees, and marries.

Obscure Latin terms like pinacotheca (picture

gallery), villicus (farm manager), or buccellatum (hardtack) are used, but they are always clear from context or explained explicitly. Spoiler alert: Don’t read the cover of the book. It gives away key plot developments almost to the last page.

James Hawking

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BLOOD OF A STONE Jeanne Lyet Gassman, Tuscany Press, 2015, $19.95, pb, 392pp, 9781936855315 Demetrios, 18, lives in 1st-century Judea, a time and place roiling with different cultures, religions, and change. He’s seen nothing but bad luck as the book opens: he walks with a heavy limp and his father is selling him to a drunken and brutal retired Roman general. The only saving grace will be his fellow slave, Elazer, an older Jewish man who tries to help Demetrios — who begins stealing food from the Roman’s kitchen when he realizes he’s not going to be fed enough. In the midst of a whipping, Demetrios kills the Roman. Elazar saves the day and plans their escape. Now the scene is set for the rest of the book, where the two, posing as free men, traders, make their way along with caravans through the ancient world as they try to make a new life for themselves, with the impetuous Demetrios sabotaging their every step. Elazar eventually meets the followers of Jesus, and then Jesus himself. Gassman has done her homework and brings and ancient world to life in this novel.

It’s very much Demetrios’s story of finding faith; he’s a young man going through terrible trials and all the temptations of the world. I found him incredibly unlikable. Even everymen in the process of maturing sometimes make good decisions, but not the paranoid, whining, impulsive Demetrios. I felt uncomfortably hard-hearted as I got to know the kid, and got to where I was simply worrying about Elazar. I also had a hard time believing that this limping boy would be able to kill the strong and battle-hardened Roman soldier with a stone, or that Demetrios and Elazar would then be able to then disappear into the countryside.

Kristen Hannum SCOURGE OF ROME Douglas Jackson, Bantam Press, 2015, £18.99, hb, 413pp, 9780593070581 Douglas Jackson is quickly becoming an author of some note within the historical genre. I was fortunate enough to review a novel from his Rome series earlier in the year. So, imagine my initial excitement when I was offered the opportunity to read a second novel from the same series. However, as an author myself, I know the difficulties in keeping characters fresh and vibrant, as the number in the series increase. Therefore, as I unwrapped the packaging around the novel, a mixture of emotions washed over my literature taste buds. Joy at being able to sink my teeth into another fine feast of intrigue and battle, and yet fearful of a bland gruel destined to be consigned to the bin.

The novel is set in 70 AD in an era where Vespasian was Emperor. I was delighted when the novel concentrated on the first Jewish-Roman war HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Reviews | 19

and the siege of Jerusalem. The simple reason is I can only ever remember reading one book which described the siege, and that was all too brief.

Characters from previous books in the series remain as fresh as when they first appeared, new characters enter the fray and do not disappoint. The intrigue throughout the book keeps you second-guessing what will happen next. Then the author throws in the action scenes, and you are transported body and soul into the battle. I have read many great authors’ work, but I have no qualms in declaring Douglas Jackson the finest writer of battle, skirmish or siege passages. As I finished the final page and closed the book, I remembered those initial fears. I smiled, content in the knowledge that I enjoyed a feast of storytelling.

Robert Southworth

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3rd century

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THE EMPEROR’S SILVER Nick Brown, Hodder & Stoughton, 2015, £19.99, hb, 402pp, 9781444779141 The Roman Empire in 273 AD. The Palmyrans have been defeated, but there is trouble in Egypt, and the Empire faces financial ruin with the debasement of its coinage. The Emperor Aurelian had set up mints to manufacture the coins in the East and, in particular, one at Tripoli. It is suspected that somewhere in the area is a gang making counterfeit coins, and the Imperial Agent, Cassius Corbulo, is sent to investigate. He tracks down the criminals at Berytus (modern- day Beirut) and, together with his servant, Simo, and bodyguard, Indavara, sets about finding the centre of operations and bringing the gang to justice.

Based on fact, this was a fascinating story. I had not met either the author or these characters before but will certainly look out for them again.

The characterisation is excellent and the pace good, although, to be fair, I did find it a little slow to begin with. Once things really began to happen, it was a book I simply could not put down, and the final sentences took me completely by surprise.

This would appear to be the fifth book in the Agent of Rome series, and I look forward to catching up on the earlier ones. Recommended.

Marilyn Sherlock

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5th century

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ON THE EDGE OF SUNRISE Cynthia Ripley Miller, Knox Robinson, 2015, $12.99/£12.99, pb, 359pp, 9781910282441 AD 450. The Roman Empire is breaking apart, and Attila the Hun has his sights set on conquering Gaul. An Assembly of Warriors is held in Gaul to try and unite Rome and the various erstwhile tribal factions into an army capable of defeating Attila.

Arria, daughter of a Roman Senator and wellversed in the politics and diplomacy of the day, is sent to this assembly. Arria is abducted from the Assembly by a Chamavi warrior, a barbarian from another tribe, but then rescued by Garic, a Frank, who is aided by his cousin, Vodamir. Arria and Garic fall in love at first sight.

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The love story between Garic and Arria is set against a background of fierce battles, intrigue, jealousy and betrayal. Arria is unwillingly betrothed to Drusus, a Roman tribune who sees this marriage as a means to fulfilling his personal ambitions, whilst Garic is a long-haired Frank well beneath her in rank. The story weaves, twists and turns at a tremendous pace, and the characters leap off the pages, which simply keep on turning. This is the author’s debut novel, the first in her ‘Long Hair’ series. I look forward to reading more in due course. Recommended.

Marilyn Sherlock

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6th century

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THE LAST ROMAN: Triumph Jack Ludlow, Allison & Busby, 2015, £19.99, hb, 350pp, 9780749014513 Flavius Belisarius is the most brilliant general of his time.

He is wily in war, honourable in his dealings with allies and enemies, and regarded as a lucky commander.

Is he valued as an Imperial treasure? That is not what happens in Byzantium within the corridors of power.

Belisarius is regarded with suspicion by Emperor Justinian, who cannot accept that he is dealing with an honest man; Empress Theodora hates him, and his wife Antonina despises him. His present task is the re-creation of the Roman Empire in its heyday, and the final volume of this series starts on the Italian mainland. Despite a chronic shortage of men and supplies and the ill will of some of his junior commanders, a campaign against the enterprising Goths receives the careful planning and precision of execution that have made Belisarius famous and adored by his armies. Its successful conclusion brings him an extraordinary opportunity, but a peremptory summons from the Emperor sends him to deal with trouble on Byzantium’s Eastern borders while all that has been achieved in Italy falls apart.

This book deals with mighty matters; it is hard to understand why such a man is deliberately frustrated by those who owe him support in return for his own incorruptible dedication to his oath and his duty. A reader simply has to accept this was how it was in Byzantium. The novel, especially the Italian section, gives a thrilling account of every aspect of warfare: sieges, pitched battles, sudden reversals, improvisation, all presented with clarity and excitement. An altogether great achievement from an experienced and deservedly popular author.

Nancy Henshaw

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7th century

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OSWALD: Return of the King Edoardo Albert, Lion Fiction, 2015, £7.99/$14.99, pb, 448pp, 9781782641162 In the second of the Northumbrian Thrones series, we return once again to 7th-century AngloSaxon Britain and to the exiled King Oswald of Northumbria, who, spurred on by the death of his uncle, Edwin (the central character of the first book), returns to successfully reclaim his kingdom.

Following his restoration to the throne, Oswald sets out to convert his people to Christianity, a faith he had embraced while in exile on the holy isle of Iona. Later in the story it leads him to found the great monastery of Lindisfarne, still considered a place of religious power and sanctity to the present day.

Oswald is not just a story of kingship and conversion. It takes little-known historical characters and fleshes them out, bringing their stories to life. Oswald is more than just a warrior king. He yearns to join the monks and lead a life of prayer and devotion to the new religion. But others press him into becoming a hero and to compete with his younger brother, Oswiu, one of the things that eventually leads to his downfall. Underpinning the story is the presentation of a country and its people, struggling with the change from the old beliefs to the strange new religion.

Although it might be helpful to read Edwin: High King of Britain to fully understand all the complex political issues and relationships, there is a very useful and highly detailed summary of Edwin at the beginning, along with a glossary, pronunciation guide and ‘Dramatis Personae’, which lists both real-life and invented characters.

The author uses meticulous research and scholarship to bring to life a time in history for which there is very little archaeological or literary evidential material. It provides interest and excitement on every page and is definitely what you would call a ‘page turner’. Highly recommended.

Linda Sever

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9th century

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AVELYNN Marissa Campbell, Griffin, 2015, $15.99, pb, 320pp, 9781250084989 England, 868-70, at the start of the Viking invasion of Wessex. This is not a good time for the daughter of the Saxon Ealdorman of Somerset to fall in love with the Viking leader’s half-brother.

To make Avelynn’s situation worse, her father has betrothed her to Demas, an ambitious and vicious Saxon noble. She is, furthermore, secretly a priestess of the goddess and believes that women have rights; he sees them as possessions, and he has the support of a patriarchal and intolerant Church.

She struggles heroically to escape the marriage, but in an age when women were ruled by men and highly vulnerable to abuse and rape, her opponents have all the advantages and are ready to stoop to 3rd Century — 9th Century

treachery as well.

This is an unusual blend of history, romance, and fantasy. The historical context is darker and more violent than is common in romance: people are tortured and brutally slain, and though Avelynn escapes the worst, her beatings are harsh enough.

Conversely, the lovers’ passionate relationship reflects current trends in popular romance: Alrik the Blood-Axe is not only a magnificent warrior, but unexpectedly respectful and sensitive to her needs. Avelynn herself recalls the female heroes of fantasy, with her independent spirit, weapon skills, and ‘sight.’ Does Campbell pull it off? Depends on what you are looking for, but it is worth checking out.

Ray Thompson

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11th century

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THE WAKE Paul Kingsnorth, Graywolf, 2015, $16.00/ C$18.50, pb, 384pp, 9781555977177 / Unbound, 2015, £8.99, pb, 384pp, 9781783520985 Paul Kingsnorth’s challenging, heavily researched first novel, The Wake, is written in what he describes as a “shadow tongue” of Old English, or, as it would be in the language of the book, “sceado tunge.” He includes a brief glossary for the words that have no relation to modern English (such as “fugol” for “bird”), but generally the reader must learn to translate as the story unfolds. The raw human tragedy that the damaged and damaging narrator, Buccmaster of Holland, relates makes the searing story clear enough.

Buccmaster is an important man in his world, as he often reminds those around him: a free tenant farmer with land, a large house, people who work for him, and a seat in local government. All that changes when William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy, invades, and Normans sweep through the countryside in an orgy of pillaging, burning, raping, and killing. Buccmaster loses everything, including his family; everything, that is, except for a misplaced sense of his own superiority as a leader and as the one chosen to cast out the foreign invaders. For him, this includes Christianity, which he sees as a false, foreign religion that rules by fear of damnation. Buccmaster looks instead to the old gods of England, as his grandfather taught him.

They speak to him, goading him to act, telling him to trust no one, and he listens too well.

If, as it has been said, the past is a foreign country, it’s worth learning the language to make this visit.

Jennifer Bort Yacovissi ICE QUEEN: Book Two of Odd Tangle-Hair’s Saga Bruce Macbain, Blank Slate, 2015, $18.95, pb, 380pp, 9781943075140 Odd Tangle-Hair, exiled Icelander and skald to Harald, renegade prince of Norway, is deeply enmeshed in the politics and personalities of Novgorod. To further entangle his situation, he is torn between Harald himself and Harald’s sworn enemy, Ingigerd, Princess of Novgorod.

His situation only worsens when a Pecheneg army captures Kiev, and Odd must use every scrap of 11th Century — 12th Century

his wit and daring to reclaim it for the Rus. The aftermath of this bloody battle only finds him in worse straits. How can he reconcile himself to the woman who shares his bed and the man who holds his fealty?

Ice Queen is the second installment of the Odd Tangle-Hair Saga. The first book, Odin’s Child, was a pleasure to read, full of longships and Vikings.

This second one, though, has far less Viking in it.

Odd spends the first quarter of the book mostly observing the goings-on at the Novgorod court, though when the story finally heats up, it does so quickly, and we have Odd at the center of the goings-on. Macbain is such a talented writer, and his characters are so compelling, that I’m quick to forgive some of the lulls in the novel’s pacing, most of which can be chalked up to the constraints imposed by true history on historical fiction writers. Odd’s world, and that of the lands of the Rus, feels alive and vibrant, and I look forward to the next episode of Tangle-Hair’s saga.

Justin M. Lindsay BANQUO’S SON T. K. Roxborogh, Thomas & Mercer, 2015, $15.95, pb, 385pp, 9781503945821 The greedy, maniacal and brutal tyrant Macbeth has murdered his king, Duncan, the entire family of another thane, MacDuff, and Macbeth’s own cousin Banquo. The proud people of Scotland in the mid-11th century are delighted when King Malcolm kills Macbeth, but Banquo’s son Fleance, or Flea as he is nicknamed to protect his identity, retains sad and frightening fragments of memory about his father’s murder and his own harrowing escape.

Now we have the magnificent story of Fleance’s adoption by common parents who trained him in military skills and honor equal to that of any royal son. Now we also encounter the ghost of his father, who appears and demands revenge for his murder.

Fleance will fall in love, sacrifice that love to satisfy his father’s command, save the life of the future King of Scotland, meet enemies who see him as a royal threat and more in tension-ridden scenes.

Fleance is about to begin a journey that will prepare him for a future he would never have imagined.

What is fascinating about this riveting story is the role of the three “witches” who tempted Macbeth and now Fleance, the bizarre behavior of King Donalbain, and of course the mystery Fleance seeks to solve: who precisely murdered his father for Macbeth? The author also skillfully presents the memories and points of view of royal and common characters who lived through those tempestuous times that almost destroyed this noble land of Scotland. Banquo’s Son is superb historical fiction that this reader hated to end. Readers will be eagerly anticipating the next novel in this series by this very skilled writer!

Viviane Crystal HEREWARD: The Immortals James Wilde, Bantam, 2015, £14.99, hb, 329pp, 9781848668997 Hereward the Wake is one of a plethora of lesser-known British folk heroes, an adventurer who carried on a guerrilla war against the Norman invaders from the Lincolnshire fens. According to the legend, he was the last man to swear allegiance

to William the Conqueror. This book is the fifth in a series, and this time we leave the canon of the legend and into speculation of Hereward’s life post-rebellion. James Wilde has him journeying with his remaining followers to the Byzantine Empire where, as many north-men did historically, they attempt to join a crack mercenary unit called the Varangian Guard. Unfortunately, in decadent Constantinople, this requires an entrance fee.

Broke and desperate, Hereward’s band is forced to undertake menial mercenary duties until they fall foul of one of the city’s political factions, which badgers them into a desperate rescue mission.

I have to say I found this tale curiously bland. In the legends, Hereward is physical, noble, and very impulsive. Here he is reactive, cunning and passive.

The fight scenes lack conviction, there isn’t enough geographical detail, there are too many characters, and none of them are developed enough. I also found the succession of short chapters made the narrative very choppy. Still, it’s good to see an old hero brought back to life.

Martin Bourne

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12th century

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SWORDLAND Edward Ruadh Butler, Accent, 2015, £14.99, pb, 469pp, 9781783753239 Swordland tells the tale of Robert FitzStephen, a tough Norman soldier fighting on the Welsh marches in the 12th century. His military prowess has made him arrogant, however, leading him to provoke a Welsh rebellion that soon brings about a humiliating defeat and his capture. Left to stew in a Welsh dungeon by his overlord and supposed protector, King Henry II, FitzStephen’s quest for martial glory seems to have come to an abrupt end. But events on the other side of the Irish Sea now take a hand, and the dethroned Irish king Diarmait Mac Murchada has need of a tough Norman soldier to help him regain his crown.

Will FitzStephen take this last chance and lead Mac Murchada’s soldiers back to Ireland? And if he does, will he be able to stake out a ‘swordland’ of his very own?

This story of Ireland and Wales in the 1100s is a very well-researched slow-burning narrative.

While Swordland begins with a vibrant and bloody set piece, what follows is an over-extended series of political machinations and conversations which hinder rather than move the plot forward. The character of FitzStephen himself is interesting, with both Norman and Welsh origins as well as convincingly contemporary attitudes, but he is somewhat let down by the quality of the characterisation around him. There are too many minor characters who function only to interrupt the narrative flow rather than driving the story on. When the action eventually wends its way to Ireland, however, Butler ups the pace considerably and Swordland really starts to get going. The beautiful but dangerous landscape of medieval Ireland is well described, and the action scenes there are perfectly pitched and handled with real expertise. This is a book of two unbalanced parts with the second half far stronger.

Gordon O’Sullivan HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Reviews | 21

THE EYE STONE Roberto Tiraboschi (trans. Katherine Gregor), Europa, 2015, $17.00, pb, 286pp, 9781609452650 Imagine the world before eyeglasses, before microscopes and magnifiers, before the invention of all those things that aid weak eyes; the world as it is experienced by people completely dependent on what the eyes alone can take in. This is the world of Tiraboschi’s novel. It is described on its cover as “The First Medieval Noir about the Birth of Venice.” The key word is “noir.” Tiraboschi’s literary vision about early medieval Venice is dark, bleak, gritty, and violent. The group of islands that would later be joined by bridges is already home to a colony of glassmakers, ruthless and competitive men ruled by greed and superstition. Edgardo d’Arduino is a cleric/copyist who is going blind and in a desperate search for a legendary magic stone said to restore vision—and also to find a serial killer.

This reader wondered if the translation was quite as adept as it could have been and if Tiraboschi really included all those sentence fragments in the original language. Quite a few words are left untranslated, requiring a glossary at the end of the text, and some nimble fingerjumping back and forth between text and glossary.

Mostly, though, the insistence on all things unlovely, all things cruel in this world, gave me pause rather than impetus to read enthusiastically.

The darkness is a perfect metaphor for losing sight, for dwelling in superstition, but this world could have benefited from some contrast, some hint of at least the possibility of light and goodness.

Jeanne Mackin

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13th century

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BOHEMIAN GOSPEL Dana Chamblee Carpenter, Pegasus, 2015, $25.95, hb, 400pp, 9781605989013 Mouse is fifteen, has no baptised name and no parents, and lives in a monastery in 13th-century Bohemia (now the Czech Republic). However, Teplá Abbey is no home to this strange girl. Mouse is distrusted by its inhabitants for her uncanny abilities, and – as one unbaptised – certainly cannot become a nun. Life changes radically for Mouse when the Younger King, the eighteen-yearold Ottakar, is brought to the monastery with an arrow in his chest. Mouse, trained as a healer, saves his life, and Ottakar, still weak, takes her back with him to Prague.

Bohemian Gospel is an historical novel with fantastical elements set within the rein of the ‘Golden and Iron King’, Ottokar II of Bohemia.

As Mouse aids Ottakar in his struggle against his deranged father and fractious nobles, the two fall in love. However, there can be no happy ending between a nameless girl and a king in need of political allies. Thus on one level, Bohemian Gospel is a tragic romance. On another, the tale centres on the mystery of Mouse’s parentage and supernatural abilities. Mouse discovers more and more about her powers as she battles against evil spirits, lustful men, and finally her own nature. Finally, the novel’s title is explained when Mouse seals herself away to produce the famous Codex Gigas, the world’s 22 | Reviews |

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largest medieval manuscript.

In those parts of the tale in which Mouse must counter threats, the novel is a compulsive read, full of historical and supernatural (yet historically-founded) detail. However, there are significant stretches in which the tale lacks narrative drive. Mouse’s sufferings are set at a distance by the author’s ‘telling’ of emotions, and there are occasional point-of-view slips. I enjoyed the unusual historical setting and the novelistic explanation of the Codex, but overall Bohemian Gospel was a little disjointed and the writing patchy.

Carol Hoggart

into the first person and the story into his mouth the well-known tale comes across to the reader as an authentic recollection of the events at the end of the 13th century. There may be some other minor fictitious characters, but if so, they blend in so well with the real antagonists of the day that one is totally convinced by the story. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it.

Marilyn Sherlock

A SHADOWED EVIL Alys Clare, Severn House, 2015, $28.95/£19.99, hb, 240pp, 9780727885203 England, 1212. In this 16th Hawkenlye mystery, Josse and Helewise are visiting his mother’s ancestral home, Southfire Hall. Uncle Hugh is dying, and the house, always a place of warmth and welcome, now has a tense, unhappy atmosphere.

Cousin Herbert has married an unpleasant woman, Cyrille de Pices, who is unkind to her little son, Olivar, and is heartily disliked by all. A young, handsome stranger is injured just outside the gates, and is succoured by Helewise and the female relatives. Josse’s favorite cousin is missing and is not discussed. He and Helewise struggle to make sense of these threads, deal with the deaths that occur, and find out what happened to Aeleis— all in a frosty wintertime under Interdict and with looming evil at the Hall.

This novel stands alone as far as the mystery, and fans of the series will enjoy revisiting Josse, Helewise, Hawkenlye Abbey, and Wealden Forest.

Readers new to this fictional world would enjoy it more if they went back to the early books and read them in order. The long, satisfying story of Sir Josse D’Acquin and Abbess Helewise would make more sense, as would the Plantagenet timeline. This series is highly recommended.

Elizabeth Knowles

NOW IS THE TIME Melvyn Bragg, Sceptre, 2015, £18.99, hb, 357pp, 9781473614529 This magnificent novel of epic scope focuses on the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381: England’s largest popular uprising and the closest the country has ever come to revolution. The story gains steady momentum through empathetic introduction to the key players, reaching a tumultuous climax in the raging violence that overtook London for three weeks, emptied prisons, laid waste to palaces, and came within a whisker of toppling Church and State, curtailed only by the unwavering devotion to the king that was, in the end, the rebellion’s undoing.

The characters are brought to life in all their human frailty, inspired by faith, fervour, the search for justice and right, greed and opportunism, or the fear of losing everything. We see the insecurities of the fourteen-year-old Richard II, with his stammer and preference for speaking French, living in the shadow of his illustrious father, the Black Prince, dependent upon his mother, Joan, who in turn is obsessed with her jewels. We follow the natural leadership of Wat Tyler, bowman patriot, who gives voice to the ‘true commons’: the ordinary folk weakened by 33 years of plague, oppressed by bondage, servitude and crippling taxation, and we hear the inspirational poetry of the radical preacher John Ball. Constantly but smoothly shifting in focus, the story zooms in on intimate detail and out to the wider perspective giving insight at all levels of society, from the blinkered tyranny of the nobility and the self-serving unscrupulousness of the Mayor of London and his merchant friends, to the stoicism of Tyler’s wife, the courage of his daughter, and the indomitability of his lover, Johanna Ferrers, which leaves the novel on a note of hope.

Along with Credo, Now is the Time will surely confirm Melvyn Bragg as one of the best historical fiction authors of our generation.

Jenny Barden

UPRISING Jack Whyte, Sphere, 2015, £8.99, pb, 606pp, 9780751561777 Edward I is on the throne of England, has conquered Wales, and now has his sights firmly set on subjugating Scotland as well. The Scottish throne became empty on the death of Margaret, Maid of Norway, and was succeeded by John Baliol, Edward’s ‘puppet’ king. In 1297 William Wallace and Robert Bruce began the fight back for Scotland’s independence, which was finally won on the field of Bannockburn and sealed in the Treaty of Arbroath in 1320.

This book retells the early years of that fight from the slaughter of the Scottish forces at Falkirk to the appointment of William Wallace as sole Guardian of Scotland at Selkirk and is, in fact, the story of Wallace. The storyteller is a priest, Father James Wallace, a cousin and close friend to William. We are told that the night before Wallace’s execution at the hands of Edward I, James promised his cousin that he would write his story down so that all men should know the truth. This book is that story.

This is a work of fiction, and therefore one assumes, although not specifically told, that Father James never actually existed, but in putting the book

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A POISONOUS PLOT Susanna Gregory, Sphere, 2015, £19.99, hb, 389pp, 9780751549775 It’s 1358, and the city of Cambridge is a-boil of intrigue, resentment and hot tempers. People are 13th Century — 14th Century

turning up dead – rich people, important people, innocent people – and poison is indicated. Is it the new, stinking dye-works disgorging its colourful effluent into the river which waters and feeds the poor of the city? Combating his own reputation as a medicus, Matthew Bartholomew is desperate to hold onto sanity. A new doctor, a member of his own college, is popular yet seemingly useless.

His college Master is determined to win funding against the rival upstarts Zachary Hostel, the always simmering hostility between University and Town is becoming violent… and it’s his own sister who’s opened the unpopular dye-works.

In this 21st novel in the series, once again Susanna Gregory has combined historical accuracy, amusing characterisation and a corking good plot to present a section of British history that is often overlooked: the emergence from the Dark Ages to Renaissance in the field of education and medicine.

The popularity of sugar and sweet ciders as a trade item is an additional bonus!

Alan Cassady-Bishop THE LADY AGNES MYSTERY, Volumes 1 and 2 Andrea H. Japp, Gallic, 2015, vol. 1 transl. Lorenza Garcia, £9.99/$18.95, pb, 600pp, 978190477168; vol. 2 transl. Lorenza Garcia & Katherine Gregor, £9.99/$18.95, pb, 623pp, 9781910477175 Across these two volumes, translated from the original French, Andrea Japp tells the story of Lady Agnes de Souarcy, who we meet at the beginning of the tale as a sixteen-year-old widow and mistress of an impoverished manor. A murderer is at large, killing messengers from the Pope and poisoning nuns. Agnes is beset with dangers: she is framed for the murders, has to stave off the incestuous desires of her half-brother, and is then arrested by the sadistic Inquisitor, Florin, who is intent on proving her a heretic. A host of other fascinating and welldrawn characters surround her: the wise young orphan Clement, the passionate Abbess Eleusie, the gruff Apothecary Nun, the Knight Hospitaller, Leone and Comte Artus, who finds himself in love with Agnes. Her life is further threatened by a beautiful poisoner, by witchcraft and the venery of her daughter Mathilde. The evocation of the Inquisition cells is horribly vivid, as is the fraught atmosphere of the nunnery.

This is a complex and finely wrought tale requiring the reader to follow nimbly as layers of plot unfold around Agnes in Normandy and at Clairets Abbey, amidst the machinations of the Vatican and King Philip’s court in Paris. The mystery surrounding Agnes is reminiscent of Dan Brown or Kate Mosse, but Jappe makes this tale of Divine Blood her own. The denouement of so much mystery is wrapped up swiftly and a little anti-climatically. There are occasional glitches and oddnesses in the translation. The writing style at first struck me as peculiar and sometimes oddly indirect, as in its depiction of Agnes’s torture at the hands of the Inquisition for instance, but gradually the cadences of the language cast a spell, drawing me into the texture of this enthralling historical world. An excellent read.

Tracey Warr

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THE BUTCHER BIRD S. D. Sykes, Hodder & Stoughton, 2015, £17.99, 14th Century — 15th Century

hb, 342pp, 9781444785814

The Butcher Bird, the sequel to Plague Land, is a classic who-dunnit laced with numerous and well-placed red herrings, and enough backstory competently woven into this current tale to give the reader a picture of what has gone before.

A reluctant lord, nineteen-year- old Oswald de Lacy is a memorable and modern character, and although he’s flawed – stumbling his way through the investigation, occasionally acting cowardly, and very quick to dismiss the opinions and observations of others – his scepticism serves him well in his role as amateur sleuth, with the final denouement making perfect sense. His hesitant devotion to his crabby older sister Clemence and his exasperating mother is both touching and awkward and bears more than a little resemblance to C J Sansom’s Shardlake character.

Set against the backdrop of a Kentish estate in 1351 following the plague years, there’s a strong sense that the old order of things has been broken, with tenants making the most of the new times and demanding higher wages due to the shortage of labour, but also of freshness and new beginnings.

Nature plays a strong role in The Butcher Bird, and despite the heinous crime – child murder – and with so many losses to the Plague, a celebration of life is nevertheless central to the novel.

Evocatively told and gripping, with a sense of danger from the start, a copious use of sensuality in the language, e.g. ‘spring was stroking the world with its soft green fingers’, and a helpful glossary of Medieval terminology at the back, this novel is very highly recommended.

Henriette Gyland

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15th century

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THE LION OF MISTRA James Heneage, Heron Books, 2015, £18.99, hb, 531pp, 9781782061199 By the early 15th century, Constantinople and Mistra in the Morea are the last relics of a Byzantine Empire now threatened by the Turks from the East and Venice from the West. Luke Magoris, Protostrator of Mistra, believes he can save the Empire if he can raise money to construct walls and build a navy. To find gold he must embark on a banking scheme with the shifty Medici and also compete with Venice for trade. He must make alliances with mysterious China, unreliable Egypt and with wild Sahara tribes. Who can he trust?

Who can he outwit?

This is the third of the Empire Trilogy. Because Heneage launches into his story without a list of characters or any background information, the first 60 pages are bewildering. But once settled in, he skilfully gives us a fascinating picture of this volatile period. The world’s great Empires are battling for dominance, and yet each is threatened from within. Turk fights Turk and Islam is split

by fanatical reformers; the Ming Emperor must control his conservative Mandarins; Jan Hus preaches a Protestant reformation that disrupts Catholic Europe; Italian city states plot against each other; and adventurous Portugal encroaches on Venice’s trading monopoly. This sweep of political, religious and economic turmoil is set against a colourful picture of medieval cities and life. Especially marvellous is Luke’s journey from Ethiopia across the Sahara to Mali.

If the characters are, frankly, two-dimensional and unengaging, a pacy, unpredictable plot should keep the reader hooked. This is a novel by an accomplished storyteller presenting a vivid and comprehensible portrait of a complex world in flux.

Once the action gets going, the novel is impossible to put down.

Lynn Guest RED ROSE, WHITE ROSE Joanna Hickson, Harper, 2015, $14.99/£7.99, pb, 526pp, 9780007447015 Hickson’s newest novel, Red Rose, White Rose, is the story of Cicely Neville, daughter of the powerful Earl of Westmorland, a staunch Lancastrian who consolidates power by negotiating brilliant marriages for his children. His last betrothal before he dies is between his nine-year-old daughter, Cicely, and his ward, Richard, Duke of York.

Born of Lancaster and married to York, the courageous Cicely must treat a path through one of the most unstable eras in English history, the Wars of the Roses. Hickson is brave, herself, for attempting to tell such an ambitious story. The cast of characters is unwieldy and made even more difficult because so many of the names are the same; this makes rendering a clear story challenging. Unfortunately, Hickson’s tale could use more clarity.

Told from the view point of Cicely and her bastard half-brother, Cuthbert, the story unfolds as Cicely is kidnapped and held hostage by members of her own family who are angered over the distribution of property after her father’s death.

Her own mother and brothers hesitate to rescue her and she must use her feminine wiles to escape.

This act will haunt her through the remainder of the story.

Perhaps readers with a masterful knowledge of 15th-century England will be able to negotiate the historical maze of Lancaster and York and the role of the Neville family in the Wars of the Roses.

Anne Clinard Barnhill

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THE PAINTER OF SOULS Philip Kazan, Orion, 2015, £13.99, pb, 466pp, 9781409142836 This novel follows the early life and career of one of the Renaissance’s most gifted artists, Fra Filippo Lippi. The author admits that much of his story has been built around a skeleton of facts, but from that framework, Kazan has built a beautiful novel, lit from within by the luminosity of the art he describes. The half-feral child Pippo is saved from the streets of Florence through charity and brought to a monastery. His talent for drawing cannot be suppressed, and the abbot gives him permission to study with one of the painters currently working on the frescoes being painted for one of the Church’s wealthy patrons. And so we see Masaccio paint HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Reviews | 23

the Brancacci chapel and are taken by him to wonder at his Holy Trinity in Santa Maria Novella.

This is more than a novel about the wonders of Renaissance art, however. Pippo struggles between what we think he should be, and what he is. He is a ‘bad’ monk – he drinks, gambles, seduces women and escapes from the cloister whenever he gets the chance – but he sees beauty and the potential of the divine in everyone he meets and everyone he draws. It is also a novel about loyalty, about holding to your roots and those you love, even when it is easier to walk away.

These elements make for a highly enjoyable novel.

Kazan effectively draws the reader into the world of Renaissance Florence in all its glory and squalor.

His main characters are believable and complex, and the language he uses is precise and luminous.

Recommended.

Charlotte Wightwick

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REBELLION Livi Michael, Penguin, 2015, £7.99, pb, 353pp, 9780241966709 Livi Michael returns to her Wars of the Roses saga, begun in Succession (HNR 71). It is the summer of 1462.

Edward, Earl of March, has seized the throne and rules as Edward IV. Margaret of Anjou, queen to the gentle and confused Henry VI, has fled to France with her son, Prince Edward, where she attempts to win support to regain her husband’s throne. Meanwhile, Margaret Beaufort, married to Henry Stafford, longs for her son, Henry Tudor, who lives under the wardship of the Yorkist Herbert family.

Rebellion follows the tumultuous events of the next nine years, reaching a climax at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471 and its immediate aftermath. As in Succession, the story is told from many viewpoints, chief among which, are those of the two formidable Margarets of the House of Lancaster. The chorus of voices – in third and first person, sometimes omniscient, sometimes the great players such as Elizabeth Woodville and the Earl of Warwick, sometimes the rank and file of soldiery – are deftly interwoven with contemporary chronicles and letters. Events unfold with pace and immediacy. It is a tale without heroes and villains, though dark deeds are done as fortunes rise and fall and rise again.

The reader feels deeply for both Margaret of Anjou and Margaret Beaufort, who are strongwilled women, determined that right should be done – whether in the regaining of an usurped throne, or the need for a mother to be with her son, by whatever means she can. Margaret Beaufort’s is the last voice we hear. I sensed a steeling of her 24 | Reviews |

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ambition and resolve on the final pages. Although her son is in exile again, her fortunes are at low ebb, and her life is once more marred by tragedy, she will not bow down. Highly recommended.

Mary Fisk MASTER OF SHADOWS Neil Oliver, Orion, 2015, A$29.99/NZ$34.99, pb, 605pp, 9781409158127 / also hb, £14.99/ A$39.99/NZ$49.99, 9781409158110 This sweeping epic set in the mid-15th century has many of the ingredients of the traditional historical novel à la Sir Walter Scott: adventure, battles, romance, conspiracies and secrets. Young John Grant is rescued from malevolent Scots Borderers by Bahr Khassan, a stranger from the East and friend of John’s late father, Patrick. John travels with Bahr across Europe, honing his skills as a mercenary in the battles between Christians and Muslims.

Lena is a mysterious warrior woman who lives alone in the Spanish woods. When she becomes a target of those same Scotsmen, she is in turn rescued by John Grant. There are big surprises in store when we learn about her past and discover who she really is.

Constantine, heir to the Byzantine emperor, is crippled after catching young Yaminah when she falls from the gallery of St Sophia. Confined to his rooms, he spends his days creating shadow puppet plays about Constantinople’s turbulent history.

This is Neil Oliver’s first foray into fiction, and he brings with it all his incomparable enthusiasm, for which he is already acclaimed through his television documentaries and non-fiction. His often lyrical narrative does take getting used to, as it shifts sideways or bends between place and time, but perhaps the characters’ journeys are intended to be like the convolutions of a Celtic knot or triskelion spiralling around a common destiny at the spectacular fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans.

Oliver has included degrees of mysticism and myth and taken historical liberties that will no doubt upset some purists, but they hardly matter in this extraordinary and absorbing ride. It is a highly ingenious blockbuster that is sure to find its way to the top of many a reading list. There’s also an audio version narrated by the author himself to further enhance the spine-tingling and swoon factors!

Marina Maxwell LAURUS Eugene Vodolazkin (trans. Lisa Hayden), OneWorld, $24.99/$31.50, hb, 352pp, 9781780747552 Eugene Vodolazkin’s second novel, Laurus, is the winner of two major Russian literary awards. His first novel, Solovyov and Larionov, also garnered notice and was shortlisted for the Andrei Bely Prize and the Big Book Prize. But be warned—though a prize-winner, Laurus is a difficult read, mixing language from current-day expressions to sentences that resound with Biblical authority to phrases which use spellings from the 15th century. Sometimes, these shifts occur within one paragraph.

Laurus tell the story of Arseny, a young boy when the story opens, who learns medicine from his grandfather, Christofer. Arseny is an apt pupil

and continues his grandfather’s medical practice after his grandfather dies. Living on his own without any family, Arseny dutifully and creatively heals the many who come to him. He discovers a girl, Ustina, living outside his hut. She is sick and covered in sores. He brings her into the hut, bathes her and begins to heal her. As you might imagine, they fall in love. Unfortunately, though Arseny has studied childbirth with his grandfather, when the time comes for Ustina to deliver their baby, Arseny doesn’t know what to do because this birth is difficult. Both mother and baby die. Arseny refuses to bury them, until the villagers come to the hut and insist. Soon after, Arseny leaves the village, driven to atone for Ustina’s and the baby’s deaths.

From this point on, Arseny, now called Ustin, begins his travels over plague-ridden Europe. He is searching for redemption and trying to make restitution for his failure to save Ustina. Bold, rich and complex, Laurus deals with large issues: the concept of time, love and death, love and guilt.

Not for everyone, this unusual novel brings many challenges.

Anne Clinard Barnhill TO DESIRE A HIGHLANDER Sue-Ellen Welfonder, Forever, 2015, $7.99, pb, 416pp, 9781455526284 Part of the Scandalous Scots series, this historical romance is set in the Hebrides in 1400.

Lady Gillian MacGuire is very reluctant to wed the older man to whom she was promised years ago, but her resentment turns to confusion when he returns, much changed. No surprise, because he is actually Roag the Bear, a magnificent warrior on secret assignment for the Scottish king. He counts on a superficial similarity and the passage of time to conceal his subterfuge; he did not expect to find himself betrothed to a flame-haired beauty. After initial difficulties, they fall in love.

Despite interesting glimpses into conditions in a remote part of the world, notably the use of galleys (descended from Viking longships), the focus is on the lovers’ passionate response to each other. Welfonder acknowledges her enthusiasm for ‘big, bold Highland heroes and the strong and proud heroines who love them… reading a book is actually opening a portal and being swept away to wherever or whenever your heart desires.’ If sentimental romances which follow this formula appeal to you, you may enjoy this one.

Ray Thompson

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A PINCH OF NUTMEG Christine Ambrosius (trans. D. W. Lovett), AmazonCrossing, 2015, $14.95, pb, 514pp, 9781477830635 Jakob is fiercely passionate about cooking with the best natural ingredients. His grandmother taught him to cook the basics with a few extras, but her appreciation of the taste and appearance of great meals remains paramount in Jakob’s mind and heart forever. This is a delightful novel with innumerable fascinating moments on culinary, romantic and historical levels that make the reader delight in relishing these many pages about the 15th Century — 16th Century

16th-century Rhineland, England, Turkey, Italy and France. Lifelong friends and enemies await Jacob’s appearance and challenge his every positive move forward.

As he is learning to cook for the nobility in all of these places, he works his way up to Master Cook. His food must not only taste delicious but must be presented with exotic flairs, which elicit gasps of wonder and appreciation from poor and rich alike. While he is learning, he finds out the truth about his father and mother, and this makes for intriguing scenes that educate Jakob in the extensive machinations that have brought him to each successive moment. A spoiler alert is not needed, as Jakob is determined to prove himself, and does so as a man of integrity and phenomenal talent. He finds love in two different ways that wind up in surprising roles for the smart, sexy women in his future. A Pinch of Nutmeg is well-researched, accurate, and a multi-course extravaganza sure to please every lover of literate historical and culinary fiction. Highly, highly recommended!

Viviane Crystal A PERILOUS ALLIANCE Fiona Buckley, Crème de la Crime, 2015, $29.95/£19.99, hb, 240pp, 9781780290768 England, 1576. In this 13th in a series of Elizabethan mysteries, Ursula Blanchard, the Queen’s illegitimate half-sister, is again asked to risk her future for the good of the country.

Requested to marry again to strengthen an alliance with France, Ursula combines doubts over her new betrothal with distress at the suspicious death of a household member.

As mayhem ensues, Ursula and several of her trusted retainers journey to London and Dover.

They set out for France, trying to save a life and support the Crown. Piracy interferes with this plan, forcing Ursula and her companions to battle danger and violence. There is a whole series of disturbing and dangerous events before Ursula’s wrong-side-of-the-blanket, steely strength helps resolve the issues. She is King Henry VIII’s (fictitious) daughter, after all, as she tells herself in a moment of particular peril.

This book stands alone, with enough nonspoiler hints at the backstory to entice new readers to look for the twelve older titles. An intelligent, entertaining and enjoyable read, this story is set against a rich historical backdrop. People who like mysteries and the Tudors should enjoy this book.

Elizabeth Knowles

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DACRE’S WAR Rosemary Goring, Polygon, 2015, £14.99, hb, 384pp, 9781849673116 This novel of the Scottish and English borders in the 16th century is the sequel to Goring’s debut, After Flodden. It is set ten years later and these are still turbulent times. Henry VIII’s man in the north is Thomas, Baron Dacre, overlord of the English marches. The increasingly powerful clan leader Adam Crozier is Dacre’s enemy. Dacre had ordered the murder of Crozier’s father, and now Crozier is seeking revenge.

Goring does not shy away from conveying the violence and murder that was carried out by both sides, yet it is never gratuitous. She also deftly weaves the threads of the political intrigue that 16th Century

was so characteristic of this place and time. Dacre’s trial at Cardinal Wolsey’s Star Chamber is as gripping as any thriller, as is his subsequent imprisonment.

Mention should also be made of Goring’s use of language. It is richly evocative and at times near-poetic.

Both Dacre and Crozier are portrayed as multi-dimensional characters. They each have their own deeply personal narrative which draws the reader in. The devotion of Blackbird, Dacre’s personal servant, to his master, is subtle, credible and touching. Crozier’s troubled relationship with his wife, Louise, is deeply moving and sheds light on the perilous lot of women, too. The ending, for both characters, is beautifully executed.

There is a passage in the book where Dacre is trying to convince Wolsey that (and I paraphrase) “things are different up in the borders”. This novel explores that difference and that world. It is one that is well worth discovering. Highly recommended.

E.M. Powell LUTHER AND KATHARINA: A Novel of Love and Rebellion Jody Hedlund, WaterBrook, 2015, $14.99, pb, 400pp, 9781601427625 Germany, 16th century. Set against the backdrop of Martin Luther’s Protestant reformation of the Catholic Church, popular Christian/romance author Jody Hedlund’s story focuses on the stormy and passionate love shared by former Augustinian monk Martinus Luther and a young woman of noble birth, Katharina von Bora. Entered into the convent by her father when she is just five, Katharina is deeply moved by Luther’s teachings regarding the importance of marriage and raising a family rather than living a cloistered life. Thus, one spring day in 1523, she escapes the convent walls, taking several other nuns with her.

While strongly attracted to Luther, Katharina is determined to make a wealthy, noble marriage— her birthright, she believes. Soon, however, reality sets in: Katharina is 26 and perhaps not as fine a catch as she once was. Also, many ex-monks already have found wives. Meanwhile, Luther, who is wildly attracted to her, clings to his decision never to marry: he has been excommunicated, and his teachings have made him a target for assassination.

He does not want to put Katharina or anyone else in mortal danger due to their association with him.

This is a romance novel with much of the historical detail off-stage. We learn of the dangerous political machinations swirling around Martin Luther and his supporters (including Katharina) primarily in conversations between the preacher, his cohorts, and Katharina herself. The cat-andmouse (with the immensely likable Katharina as the cat) romance is lively and engaging. Readers interested in the Reformation and Martin Luther’s teachings in depth likely will be inspired to seek additional information about him and Katharina both. Recommended.

Alana White

THE KING’S SISTERS Sarah Kennedy, Knox Robinson, 2015, $27.99/£19.99, hb, 320pp, 9781910282779 This is the latest instalment in a trilogy, after The Altarpiece and City of Ladies, which follows the challenges faced by Catherine Havens, originally a nun, just as Henry VIII initiates the English Reformation and closes all the monasteries and convents. Although the only sister to King Henry is Anne of Cleves, because of her designation as “The King’s Beloved Sister” after Henry rejects her, the other royal sisters in the story are Mary and Elizabeth Tudor. Catherine, having spent most of her time at Hatfield House with Mary and Elizabeth in City of Ladies, is now in charge of meals and wellness at the residence of Anne of Cleves, where tension spikes after Henry’s fifth queen, Catherine Howard, is beheaded. The King’s spies are everywhere, including in Anne’s house, and are closing in on the former nun for her mysterious healing practices.

Kennedy’s background as a scholar of the Early Modern period and a published poet are evident in the well-crafted prose and evocative setting.

Although she has admirable backbone and clever wit, Catherine makes errors in judgement about fleeing Anne’s house before she finds herself and her companion, Ann, imprisoned. Catherine hopes her new lover, Benjamin, will be able to arrange for her release, but finds the lawyer he sends to her untrustworthy. Benjamin is an example of how the male characters in Kennedy’s novel are contradictory yet flat. (In addition, in City of Ladies, Benjamin crosses the line between a respectfully caring friend of Catherine’s husband and someone who tries to manipulate her into an affair with him.) Catherine, who seems to be constantly putting her young daughter into someone else’s care while solving problems, sometimes comes across as argumentative and lacking an emotional connection to her children. The characters could be fleshed out better, but the writing style and representation of 16th-century England are well done.

Terri Baker MY LADY VIPER E. Knight, Lake Union, 2015, $14.95, pb, 414pp, 9781477830901 Anne Seymour is scurrilously characterized in the court of King Henry VIII as a “viper in a nest of rabbits,” a mysterious but obviously negative connotation. By the time the reader is finished with this devastating account of her role in the Tudor court, he or she will realize that is the understatement of the year! Anne, sister-in-law to the queen, Jane Seymour, collects evidence and manipulates the never-ending conflicts that exist between the Howards (relatives of Queen Anne Boleyn) and the Seymours, from the 1530s until the death of the volatile King of England.

Anne Seymour’s dreams and daylight hours are rife with fear and the nauseating memory of the violation she suffered at the hands of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. On the passionate, opposite side of the spectrum, she struggles with the highly charged lust she experiences when she’s with Sir Anthony Browne, a rising star in the King’s court; the attraction and repulsion between these two people add fiery spiciness throughout the HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Reviews | 25

entire novel. Anne Seymour’s family is portrayed in its rapacious greed for status in Henry’s court; all in all, that’s what everyone in this novel wants.

Sometimes the chess game-like schemes Anne and her husband, Edward, implement are exhaustingly dangerous, as one never knows how Henry will react with his ever-fluctuating moods.

At the same time, E. Knight gives the reader poignant moments the reader will never forget, such as the scenes of the deaths of Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, and Anne Seymour’s child, as well as the king’s mourning of his one true love. My Lady Viper is stunning, shattering, and unforgettable historical fiction.

Viviane Crystal PRISONER OF THE QUEEN E. Knight, Lake Union, 2015, $14.95/ C$19.95/£8.99, pb, 370pp, 9781503945562 This is the story of Lady Katherine Grey, sister of Lady Jane Grey, the doomed queen who perched on the throne for nine days in between Edward VI and Queen Mary. Lady Jane Grey was convinced of her right to the throne, but for the most part she was a puppet of her father and the clique of unrealistic schemers around him.

In Prisoner of the Queen’s eloquent prologue, Katherine confides, “I’ve seen a queen fall from power in just nine days. I’ve watched a queen die of heartbreak and neglect. And I’ve threatened a queen with my very existence, for I, too, am of royal blood.” Katherine doesn’t want the throne.

Mostly, she just wants to be left alone, to live like other wealthy women of her era: to be able to find a husband, raise her children, and tend to her castle.

Who wouldn’t? Alas, Queen Elizabeth, Lady Katherine Grey’s cousin, is a careful queen who isn’t willing to risk her throne to promises of good behavior.

The book begins in 1548, when Katherine is just eight and her sister eleven. The girls are innocents but Elizabeth Tudor, at fourteen, already sees them as her enemies. The book ends in 1568. Fans of Tudor historical fiction will enjoy this novel, for Knight does an admirable job of straightening out the complicated politics of the time and showing us the world Katherine lived in. It left me feeling frustrated, however, by Katherine’s lack of depth and by a general lack of movement in its pages.

Days, months, and years went by, and Katherine was still stuck in pretty much the same place. That felt real. Knight was brave to take on her story; it’s hard to transform a victim into a protagonist.

Kristen Hannum MÉDICIS DAUGHTER Sophie Perinot, Thomas Dunne, 2015, $26.99/ C$31.50, hb, 384pp, 9781250072092 Marguerite de Valois, daughter of France’s King Henri II and Catherine de Médicis, grows up within the pages of this panoramic coming-ofage novel. It focuses on the religious wars between the Catholics and Huguenots in the late 16th century, and, more personally, Margot’s amorous adventures and marriage prospects. The court of Charles IX—led by his indefatigable mother—is described in detail. Margot strives to be dutiful and watches with mixed feelings as she is promised from one royal hand to another, finally resulting in a surprising and emotionally complicated situation 26 | Reviews |

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that finishes the story off beautifully.

Politically, this era in French history can be a confusing series of religious skirmishes, yet the author balances it deftly—and, though the central character is staunchly one-sided, both the Protestant and Catholic faiths are given credence through various figureheads of the rival factions.

Culminating in the savage St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, this is a detailed view of the events as related by an ill-used royal daughter coming into her own.

The writing style features an easy-flowing narrative, sufficiently capturing the tone of the era and giving a broad understanding of the various personages surrounding the court. Margot’s personality is, as expected, empathetic—though with a heavy dose of spirit and wit. A natural antagonist is surely the dark queen, Catherine de Médicis, but even her scheming seems almost maternally inspired compared to fictional depictions in similarly-themed novels. Though it may be rooted in family dysfunction, the reader may be surprised to discover the true demons afflicting the characters. This story is an enthralling page-turner which lovers of royalty fiction and strong female leads should enjoy thoroughly.

Arleigh Johnson SECRET WORLD: A Tudor Mystery Featuring Christopher Marlowe M.J. Trow, Severn House, 2015, $28.95/£19.99, hb, 224pp, 9781780290751 In this installment of Trow’s Marlowe-asdetective series (which I admittedly had not encountered prior to this entry) set in June 1589, Marlowe has returned to visit his family in Canterbury. In what can only be described as a horrid homecoming, Marlowe is not merely denigrated by his father but discovers that a spinster family friend has been brutally bludgeoned to death. Despite his father’s absurd conclusions, Marlowe believes that the wrong person has been accused of the crime, and he sets out to discover why she was murdered and by whom. When other murders occur, Marlowe begins to see the connections – all having to do with certain jeweled globes owned by each victim.

A whirlwind of events occurs, spearheaded by Sir Francis Walsingham, the Queen’s spymaster, who believes that the globes have a political connection. As Marlowe is drawn deeper into the investigation, he is targeted, threatened, almost killed. Not merely a highly feted playwright and poet, Marlowe is a spy.

This is a fast, engaging and recommended read – and now I have to go back and read more of this series.

Ilysa Magnus

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MARSTON MOOR Michael Arnold, Hodder & Stoughton, 2015, £17.99, hb, 415pp, 9781848547643 It may be that I am becoming addicted, but I think Arnold’s Stryker series gets better with each book. This is the 6th book in the series following the career of Innocent Stryker, royalist officer in

the English Civil War. We have now reached 1644 and the beginning of the end for the royalist cause.

As I have said in reviewing earlier books in the series, Arnold is at his best describing real events through the eyes of the participants. Marston Moor is almost entirely a story of real events, not only the great battle itself, one of the greatest fought on English soil, but also of the campaigns in Lancashire and Yorkshire which led up to it. I was pleased to find that the rather improbable love interest in the earlier books was completely absent.

The story is savage, vivid and easy to follow. At last I think I understand the battle of Marston Moor, which is more than any of the participants did, except perhaps Cromwell. All three senior Parliamentary commanders had fled the field in despair before Lieutenant General Cromwell won the day for them.

I am looking forward to Naseby and Worcester.

Edward James THE LAST ROUNDHEAD Jemahl Evans, Caerus, 2015, £9.99, pb, 336pp, 9781909374645 These are the fictional memoirs of one Sir Blandford Candy, writing at the grand old age of 95 in 1719 – indeed probably the final Roundhead alive in the kingdom. His story begins as a callow eighteen-year-old in 1642, at the start of the English Civil War. He joins the Parliament side just about by accident and gets a commission in a regiment as a cornet. His dashing personality and hedonistic outlook is more akin to that of the traditional cavalier rather than a grim and sober puritan. He is bloodied at the Battle of Edgehill, and having impressed his uncle, Samuel Luke, an influential supporter of the Parliamentarian side, he becomes an intelligencer, which leads him into all sorts of danger, adventures and engagement with high-ranking figures of the day.

It is great fun and a rollicking good read, while Candy lives an exceptionally and, somewhat unlikely, charmed life in surviving the perils and vicissitudes of the war. The language is ribald and entirely immersed in the culture and conventions of crude 17th-century England. Footnotes and endnotes provided by the “editor” give the historical detail and context of the narrative intended as an accurate accompanying scholarly apparatus. The story is similar in style to the parodies by Robert Nye, written with an appropriate zest and dash.

Douglas Kemp THE CHOSEN MAN J.G. Harlond, Penmore, 2015, $20.50, pb, 397pp, 9781942756040 In 1636, tulip bulbs in Holland are worth their weight in gold. The Vatican plans on forcing a financial scandal in the Low Countries by creating a high price for tulip bulbs, and then developing an economic crisis situation where the price of the bulbs would decline in value.

Ludovico (Ludo) da Portovenere, a Genoese spice and silk merchant, is chosen and brought into the conspiracy. Dreaming of making high profits from the sale of tulip bulbs, he sets sail for Holland.

Along the way, he encounters and is assisted by a Spanish youth named Marcus, who is looking for his father in Flanders and soon tags along as Ludo’s “servant.” Before leaving Spain, Ludo rescues 16th Century — 17th Century

a young Spanish girl, Alina, from pirates, and she accompanies them north. They stop in England, and Alina remains with an elderly rich man who is looking for a young girl to marry his homely son.

This novel contains two stories: that of Ludo and Marcus and their adventures in the Netherlands disrupting the tulip trade, and that of Alina, living as a foreign young woman in England with a man she does not love, but willing to sacrifice her happiness to live as a lady. Both come together into an exciting climax. Be prepared to be immersed in this book. The research into the tulip trade in 1636 (the story is based on a true event) and the manor house life of 17th-century England add depth to the storyline.

A well-written period novel that I highly recommend.

Jeff Westerhoff SHAKESPEARE NO MORE: A Jacobean Mystery Tony Hays, Perseverance Press, 2015, $15.95, pb, 232pp, 9781564745668 Knowing he is dying, William Shakespeare summons his estranged childhood friend to his bedside to find out who poisoned him. Simon Saddler knows that as the constable of Stratford it is his duty to find the murderer of a fellow townsman, but to do so he must let go of the bitter feelings he holds toward the brilliant poet and playwright, who had slept with Simon’s wife. His search takes him to London, where Will made his name, as well as to his enemies, since with one of his dying breaths Shakespeare accuses the Earl of Southampton.

Simon’s resourcefulness knows no bounds, as he befriends Ben Jonson, becomes an agent of Sir Francis Bacon, and is nearly killed three times to try to deter him from learning the truth. He must also battle palace intrigue on his mission to track down as many of Will’s fellow playwrights and players as he can to fulfill that pledge to his dying friend.

Former journalist Hays accomplishes a tour-deforce in transporting us back 400 years to the time of both Puritans and debauchery. He died this year, so sequels featuring this intrepid constable may not materialize, but this plausible version of an unsolved mystery involving 32 characters stitches together historical facts with imagination to yield a satisfying conclusion.

Tom Vallar SWORD OF HONOR (US) / SWORD OF HONOUR (UK) David Kirk, Doubleday, 2015, $26.95, hb, 464pp, 9780385536653 / Simon & Schuster UK, 2015, £20.00, hb, 400pp, 9781471102448 In Japan in October of 1600, the Battle of Sekigahara decisively provided a path to the Shogunate for Lord Tokugawa. Samurai Musashi Miyamoto survived the battle and killed the man he felt responsible for his father’s death: Lord Hayato. Tadanari Kozei, Samurai and master of sword for the Yoshioka School in Kyoto, assigned one of his students, the foreigner Akiyama, the task of killing Musashi for statements made against the Yoshioka School during the battle.

Musashi is a master swordsman and feels distaste for the Samurai code, known as “the Way,” 17th Century — 18th Century

which includes the act of Seppuku, or death by suicide – which claimed his father’s life. Known as the “Masterless,” he has become an outcast from the Samurai. After dealing with the assassin, Musashi decides to head for Kyoto and meet with the Yoshioka leaders and explain that he has not dishonored their school but has different beliefs about what is right and wrong with the Samurai way. Outnumbered, he is faced with a battle for his life. If he succeeds, it could change the Samarai code forever.

A resident of Japan since 2008, Kirk has captured the essence of life in medieval Japan.

Based on a true account of the events following the Battle of Sekigahara, he has used impeccable research to provide a story rich in historical detail.

The social customs and the divide that existed between the Samaria and the peasants, the rich and the poor, are vividly portrayed in his account of Japanese history. I highly recommend this novel, especially for those who may want to learn more about the Samurai.

Jeff Westerhoff THE STOCKHOLM CASTLE MYSTERY Joyce Elson Moore, Five Star, 2015, $25.95, hb, 304pp, 9781432830786 In 1649 Sweden, a Polish soldier and lute player, Johan Sokolewski, is seeking refuge from the horrors of the Thirty Years War. He is hired as a lutenist for the Swedish royal family, but a murder and a theft soon disturb the peacefulness of the Court. Queen Kristina appoints Johan to investigate the crimes, as he is a newcomer and unlikely to have been the perpetrator. The court’s astrologer, the attractive alchemist Zofia, is the prime suspect. Johan does not want to see this pretty, intelligent woman executed. He and his new friend Gunne, one of the queen mother’s several dwarves, struggle in the cold of the frigid Swedish winter to locate the true thieving killer before time runs out and Zofia is hanged.

This is the first book of a planned trilogy featuring Johan Sokolewski. There is an interesting cast of characters, a fascinating, fresh setting, and a series of exciting events. The mystery plot plods along a bit as readers are given little information to help them figure out who might have committed the crimes. The biggest weakness in this book is the dry, monotone prose style that makes it hard for the reader to want to keep turning the pages.

Still, this author has won multiple awards for her fiction, so fans looking for something a little different in a historical mystery may want to ignore this reviewer’s criticisms and take a look anyway.

Elizabeth Knowles MARBECK AND THE GUNPOWDER PLOT John Pilkington, Severn House, 2015, $27.95/£18.99, hb, 208pp, 9780727885142 I admit that I have not had the pleasure of meeting Marbeck before, thinking him just a bit too testosterone-driven. I was wrong.

Marbeck is a government spy in 1605, during the reign of King James, newly crowned. With England still reeling from fierce divisions between the Protestant majority and Catholics, Papists remain high on the government’s “hit list.” Among those targeted are Jesuit priests and Thomas Percy.

When Marbeck’s informants hint at terrible doings directed at the King by Papists both known and unknown, Marbeck is aghast at the fact that the spymaster refuses to take those threats seriously.

Marbeck then goes slightly rogue and uncovers what he believes to be a plot to blow up Parliament, the King and his family. We have come to know it as the Gunpowder Plot.

Pilkington’s Marbeck is delightful – strong, resilient, smart – driven to do what he believes is right and just, but having enough of a conscience to see that the insane persecution and destruction of “papists” is going too far in many instances. He is also deeply humanized by his love for Meriel. Since it seems as if Marbeck has the nine lives of a cat and Pilkington leaves off the story just in time to prepare us for another installment, I wait anxiously for it. Marbeck is a terrific protagonist and we come to like, respect and admire him.

Ilysa Magnus

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IMPERFECT PRETENCE Ann Barker, Robert Hale, 2015, £11.99, pb, 244pp, 9780719815607 Imperfect Pretence is Ann Barker’s eighteenth novel, and she obviously knows the period well, although I was dubious about two women dining alone in the ‘public dining room’ of an inn. Set mainly in Norfolk in 1793, it is the story of a ship owner, Max Persault, who is induced to pretend to be his cousin, Alistair, the Duke of Haslingfield.

Travelling to one of the duke’s minor estates, where the duke will not be known, he encounters Miss Constance Church, who takes an instant dislike to him.

Meeting again at the duke’s estate, near which Constance lives, misunderstandings are cleared up as the couple get to know each other and gradually fall in love, as do their friends Abdas Okoro, an African Max saved from a slave ship, and Melinda Grayleigh. I had a problem with this aspect of the story, as none of the main characters have any problem with their interracial relationship, which seems unlikely in this period. And there is a problem with the finale, when Max decides to stay on in the area under his real name, although everyone in the vicinity knows him as the duke.

Despite these caveats, it is a pleasant read. The dialogue flows, and the characters are believable. jay Dixon THE SISTERS OF VERSAILLES Sally Christie, Atria, 2015, $16, pb, 432pp, 9781501102967 In The Sisters of Versailles, the first of a planned trilogy about the women in the life of King Louis XV, Sally Christie takes us to one of the most ofttrodden spots in historical fiction: the decadent court of Versailles, with its sparkling chandeliers and dingy back stairways. Fortunately, the characters who glide down the halls are fresh faces in historical fiction: the five Mailly-Nesle sisters, four of whom will share the bed of the king.

This is Christie’s first novel, and she handles it with aplomb. The daughters of a debauched father and a mother of dubious reputation, the HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Reviews | 27

five aristocratic sisters, who take turns narrating in the first person present, have distinct voices and personalities. The letters between the sisters, which usually say something quite different from what the letter-writer is actually thinking, are a nice touch.

Getting the reader to sympathize with characters who lead essentially superficial lives is a formidable task, and Christie manages it with most of the narrators, although not all readers will grieve the abrupt departures of some main characters or sympathize with the last surviving sister’s nostalgia for a lost world as she looks back from the vantage point of post-revolutionary France. That aside, I look forward to more from this author.

Susan Higginbotham THE MISTRESS OF TALL ACRE Laura Frantz, Revell, 2015, $14.99, pb, 400pp, 9780800720445 As Sophie Menzies waits patiently for her brother to return safely from the American War of Independence, her home is in the process of being seized by the government. Her neighbor General Seamus Ogilvy returns a war hero and is kind to Sophie, who is alone at Three Chimneys. Needing a helper for his young daughter, he proposes to her, offering her a reprieve from the anonymous threats aimed at her once-Tory household. Seamus’ daughter, Lily Cate, is an integral character as the romance between Sophie and Seamus blossoms.

She is adored by them both. The novel takes a refreshing twist with one of its characters, yet tragedy strikes, and the couple needs to overcome both emotional and legal obstacles to remain together at Tall Acre.

With the kindling of the characters’ slow-paced romance, readers feel the tension and become fully invested with the story, which includes several subplots. As the story arc progresses, the moods change as we experience grief, loneliness, fear, hope and joy alongside Sophie and Seamus. The postAmerican Revolution setting is shown as a tense, uneasy time with unregulated government and progressive ideals. This country, one in which in which former Loyalists and colonial settlers eager for a new beginning live as neighbors, struggles to adapt to its newly independent status. The author includes quotes of faith to guide the unforgettable characters’ path, and they turn to Him to lighten their load, making this novel a beautiful blend of inspirational and historical romantic fiction. It is no surprise that Laura Frantz is a favorite writer in the genre.

Marie Burton

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PALOMA AND THE HORSE TRADERS Carla Kelly, Camel Press, 2015, $14.95, pb, 256pp, 9781603819909 This novel is Book 3 of The Spanish Brand, a new historical romance series by award-winning author Carla Kelly. Set in the 18th century in what is today New Mexico, the novel is much more than a romance. It is, in fact, a rousing and exciting Western that will appeal to all readers.

The sun is setting on the Spanish empire in the New World, and cattle brand inspector Marco Mondragon worries about the future of the ranch he operates with his fiery and capable wife, Paloma.

An immediate threat is the fierce Comanches.

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Spanish colonists, a renegade named Great Owl threatens to destroy that fragile peace and plunge the whole colony into war.

The Comanches are not the only threat to Marco and Paloma’s security, however.

Realizing how Spain is faltering in the New World, other powers— the French, British, and Americans—are seeking to find opportunities to make claims of their own on the land. Complicating matters at the ranch is the arrival of a mysterious, taciturn man and a slave girl Marco purchased from the Comanches.

Kelly knows her subject matter; her historical research is impeccable. But her research never gets in the way of her spinning a good yarn. This is a great read, and it is highly recommended.

John Kachuba THE VIOLINIST OF VENICE: A Story of Vivaldi Alyssa Palombo, Griffin, 2015, $15.99, pb, 400pp, 97811466882638.

Enter the world where violin lessons taught to Adriana d’Amato by a young, fledgling red-haired priest, Antonio Vivaldi, evolve into a fiery, secret romance that can never be publicly acknowledged.

The fusion of musical and physical passion grows into phenomenal creativity and performance.

Venice in the 18th century is a city where people truly cherish beautiful music whether performed in concert or in popular opera performances.

Adriana often wonders what the future role of women will be, since they are not presently permitted to perform in public; add to that the fact that upon her famous singer mother’s death, her father forbade Adriana to play the violin ever again.

Adriana will sacrifice so much in order to cherish her beloved Antonio, which eventually sparks her own musical compositions. Family dysfunction, violence, and manipulations of Adriana’s future continue until the day when Adriana and her family are free to be honest about her past passionate relationship with Vivaldi, astonishing Venice with his talent and his vivid influence on Adriana’s children.

The mesmerizing descriptions of the musical compositions written and played in this novel are the highlights of this story, along with following the enchanting affair of this dynamic and talented couple. Scenes presented of Venetian “Carnevale” and other cultural delights add to the reader’s enjoyment. So gorgeous are the relationships and music reflected here that the reader will want to spend hours listening to truly beautiful music created by both Antonio Vivaldi and Adriana d’Amato. Stunning, lovely historical fiction that is a must-read!

Viviane Crystal THE CONSTABLE’S TALE Donald Smith, Pegasus, 2015, $25.95/C$33.95, hb, 304pp, 9781605988610 When a travelling tinner enters New Bern clutching a baby in his arms and announces that the

rest of the little child’s family has been murdered, there is only one possible culprit that the citizens can accept: an Indian attack. But volunteer constable Harry Woodyard doesn’t believe that possible. So, he sets out, defying the orders of the county sheriff and powerful judge, to find out the identity of the true murderer. When the people of New Bern arrest the old Indian Comet Elijah— Harry’s mentor and friend—his task becomes all the more serious. Harry’s journeys take him from North Carolina, through Virginia and Boston, and up to the imposing city of Quebec at the height of Wolfe and Montcalm’s battles. What Harry discovers is that more than just a murder has happened, that there is a traitor conspiring to destroy the British, and Harry knows who the man is.

The Constable’s Tale is set during the French and Indian War and is rich in historical details and character. Smith’s writing is well-paced, and his attention to historical detail is such that it does not overwhelm the reader, but still brings colonial America alive. The middle sections of the book felt a bit sluggish, but if you can work past that, the ending will leave you wondering how you missed it.

A nice light read.

Bryan Dumas MASQUERADE Joanna Taylor, Piatkus, 2015, £7.99, pb, 279pp, 9780349407289 Lizzie, a naive country girl, finds herself in a London brothel. She escapes to ply her trade independently in Piccadilly. Then she meets the wealthy Lord Hays, who asks her to be his companion for a week, masquerading in sumptuous gowns at Society functions, while he negotiates a business deal to buy a ship which will participate in the slave trade. Inevitably, she falls in love, but that is impossible. He must marry someone from his own background, and she is not prepared to be his kept mistress. Lizzie is accepted as his companion, and she befriends his servants. She meets people who deplore the slave trade, but cannot persuade him it is wrong.

I was not convinced by the characters: Lizzie’s acceptance of her fate as a prostitute, Lord Hays’ need to use her, or the friendliness of the servants.

She came across as the stronger character; Lord Hays was too malleable. What I also found disturbing and misleading was the publicity from the publisher that this novel, set in 1786, took place in ‘Regency London’, twenty-five years before the Regency began. Perhaps the mention of the characters being in ‘Regent Street’ influenced them, and Shaftsbury Avenue also featured, an exact hundred years before this road was opened.

Marina Oliver

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THE ADVENTURESS Tasha Alexander, Minotaur, 2015, $25.99/ C$29.99, hb, 304pp, 9781250058263 Lady Emily, an amateur sleuth, and her agent husband join their friend Jeremy, the Duke of Bainbridge, to celebrate his engagement to American heiress, Amity Wells, in Victorian18th Century — 19th Century

era Cannes, France. Emily at first doesn’t care for Amity, thinking her false and shallow. One evening Jeremy’s close friend is found in the duke’s room, dead. Strychnine is discovered in a bottle of whisky. Suicide, though the man was nothing but congenial, is the verdict. Emily suspects it might be murder, but no one believes her. Strange accidents happen as the group tours through the Riviera, and Emily begins to consider that Jeremy was the intended victim, not his friend. She is tricked with false messages, all meant to discredit her. Someone is also trying to “prove” that Emily and Jeremy are lovers. Another murder occurs and Emily is lured to dangerous sites. Could it be Amity’s odd brother who is behind these incidents?

The novel is a fun read with interesting twists.

The villain needed more foreshadowing to show such an evil capacity, and I’d have liked to have known the first victim better before he died.

Another lively entry in this mystery series.

Diane Scott Lewis SOPHIE’S SALVATION Janet Aylmer, Copperfield Books, 2015, £8.99, pb, 251pp, 9780952821007 The wars with France and America have ended, and in England mechanisation and expansion is the order of the day. Sophie Douglas is the difficult, middle daughter of Mr and Mrs Maitland. Before she fully realises how much she dislikes the man she has insisted on marrying, he meets a violent end, while her mother has perished through Sophie’s recklessness. The story recounts Sophie’s physical and emotional journeys. If she can but put her energy and determination to good use, she may be rewarded beyond her expectations. Her father’s heir Mr Harford, with his steady gaze and sudden smile, could be the one to encourage her in her intentions.

From the factories of Leeds to rural Dorset, and to the ruined vineyards of France, the narrative proceeds at a steady pace, introducing many amiable people, but it would have been more exciting with more conflict. For instance, parties or balls can be great occasions for indiscretion, misunderstanding and scandal; instead, everyone has a pleasant time and then goes home. A voyage taking Sophie and Mr Harford to France aboard The Lyme Flyer has lots of potential with the notorious Bay of Biscay at its most spiteful. We learn that they are unaffected by seasickness, but Sophie does not show any intense pangs of uncertainty about the feelings of the attractive and eligible hero.

All the ingredients are here for a first-class Regency romance. The research is impressive and the story well-told and enjoyable with a background of strong family feeling. But the kindhearted author has spared her protagonists the desperate pains of falling in love, while readers can be cruel creatures who vicariously enjoy the suffering of fictional characters.

Nancy Henshaw ONLY A KISS Mary Balogh, Berkley, 2015, $7.99, pb, 400pp, 9780451469687 / Piatkus, 2015, £8.99, pb, 400pp, 9780349405339 Did you ever read a romance convinced that the hero was just not going to shape up by the happily-ever-after? My thought exactly on the 19th Century

shallow, useless Percival Hayes, Lord of Hardford, at the start of Only a Kiss. Not to worry: he is in the hands of Mary Balogh, fast becoming the gold standard of historical romance set in Regency-era England. Match this seemingly spoiled lightweight with a much darker, deeply disturbed war survivor in Imogen, Lady Barclay. Now add the setting of a smuggler-haven: Cornwall. Voila – readers are off to a satisfying love story. Imogen is an ice woman who gradually thaws just as the spring flowers begin to return to her beloved garden, under the humor and care of the new Earl of Hardford.

Her return to life is poignant, heartrending and beautiful. And Percy finds surprising and welcome depth… for himself and delighted readers both.

Eileen Charbonneau THE SUSPICION AT SANDITON (Or, The Disappearance of Lady Denham) Carrie Bebris, Tor, 2015, $23.99/C$27.99, hb, 334pp, 9780765327994 This seventh volume in Bebris’ mystery series featuring Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth Darcy finds the couple visiting the seaside village of Sanditon, the setting of Jane Austen’s final, unfinished novel.

There they find Elizabeth’s friend Charlotte Heywood and an acquaintance of Darcy’s, Thomas Parker, who wants to develop Sanditon into a fashionable resort. Shortly after the Darcys’ arrival, Lady Denham, a wealthy, childless widow, invites them to a dinner party at her mansion, Sanditon House. Thirteen guests, including several potential heirs of Lady Denham, assemble for dinner, but the hostess fails to appear. Did one of the heirs kidnap Lady Denham so she wouldn’t change her will? As a storm rages, the Darcys lead a search, but then the other guests start disappearing, one by one, and the servants tell stories of Sanditon House being haunted by the ghosts of its former owner and a young girl who disappeared in the previous century.

Are the kidnappings the work of human or spirit?

The book is suspenseful and hard to put down.

This series is a delight for the Austen fan, as the Darcys interact with characters from Austen’s other works. It is not necessary to have read the other volumes first.

Vicki Kondelik THUNDER OVER THE SUPERSTITIONS Peter Brandvold, Five Star, 2015, $25.95, hb, 234pp, 9781432830106 The Superstition Mountains, located in the Arizona Territory, are the home to the Thunder God of the Chiricahuas Apache. The mountains also hold a secret – a hidden gold mine. It’s the 1870s and Gideon Hawk, a former lawman who is half Native American, is on the trail of Pima Miller, a wanted killer. Hawk is known as a rogue lawman and bounty hunter who will kill anyone who stands in his way.

Years ago, his young son was taken from a schoolyard and hanged. His distraught wife then hanged herself. Hawk’s mind snapped, and he now seeks revenge against all wanted lawless men. In a shootout with Miller, Hawk accidentally kills an innocent woman, Pima’s girlfriend. Pima escapes and arrives wounded at the Superstition Stage Relay Station, where a young woman named Jodi tends to his wounds, then guides him into the Superstition Mountains to escape from Hawk and

look for the lost gold mine.

This gutsy, fast-paced adult western is packed with action and unusual characters, including its anti-hero Gideon Hawk. He can be a likeable character, especially with his association with his sometime-partner Saradee Jones: “he knows he must kill her someday.” Pima Miller is one nasty outlaw who probably deserves his fate. Most Westerns are written for a general audience, but because of language and several explicit sexual encounters, I would not recommend this one for children. It’s a page-turner with relentless action, and I look forward to reading another of Brandvold’s tales.

Jeff Westerhoff THE TROUBLE WITH PATIENCE Maggie Brendan, Revell, 2014, $14.99, pb, 330pp, 9780800722647 Montana Territory, 1866. The Civil War has ended and Nevada City, a rugged mining town, is a magnet for those who, like spinster Patience Cavanaugh, are seeking a new life. When the man she hopes to marry is killed, Patience, who considers herself unattractive, decides to find a home all her own. She cuts her mother’s apron strings, leaves Tennessee, and heads for Nevada City—with nothing in her reticule but the deed to a boarding house she inherited from her grandmother. One look at the rundown Creekside Inn shakes Patience to the core. When she falls back on the only thing she knows how to do—home cooking—the smell of baking biscuits brings envious women and hungry men running. The latter includes two attractive men who, once they overcome their checkered pasts, help the struggling baker build a business and the self-confidence she needs to run it. Patience’s struggle to overcome low self-esteem is interesting. Otherwise, this conventional plot with a predictable ending is strictly for fans of series romance.

Jeanne Greene

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THE DEVIL’S DAUGHTERS Diana Bretherick, Orion, 2015, £13.99, pb, 464pp, 9781409150305 The second novel from Diana Bretherick is a dark twisting and gothic tale which moves along at a breakneck pace, bringing our hero, the young Scottish doctor James Murray, from his father’s funeral in foggy Edinburgh back to Turin. Here James is once again working with famed criminologist Cesare Lombroso, with whom he served as apprentice. This time, however, James has brought with him his 18-year-old sister Lucy, a writer and would-be lady detective. Murray is on the trail of a missing girl, a cousin of his former lover, Sofia. He soon discovers that a number of other girls have gone missing and that all are connected to a mysterious gothic abbey on the outskirts of the city. Local people are afraid, and there are rumours of haunting and satanic ritual but James is determined to find the missing girl and HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Reviews | 29

win back his love.

This is a brilliantly written period thriller that doesn’t stint on the gore and the chills. The female characters are particularly compelling, Lucy does some investigating of her own, and I hope the author gives her a chance to develop her own story in future instalments. The famous Lombroso’s writings on criminality and women’s minds are quoted at the start of each chapter. Surrounded as he is by powerful and intelligent women, the ignorance and narrow scope of 19th-century scholarship on the capabilities of women are sharply highlighted. A thoroughly enjoyable read, and one that fans of Sherlock Holmes are bound to relish.

Lisa Redmond DEATH AT HUNGERFORD STAIRS J.C. Briggs, The Mystery Press, 2015, £8.99, pb, 285pp, 9780750964173 London, November 1849. The novelist Charles Dickens and Superintendent Sam Jones of Bow Street are looking for a missing boy and his dog.

A body of a boy is discovered in the river Thames at Hungerford Stairs. At first Dickens and the policeman are not interested, concentrating on their own investigation. However, when two more boys are found brutally murdered, the pair find themselves on the hunt for a serial killer in a complicated case that tests their wits – but can they solve the clues and rescue another child before the murderer strikes again?

There have been a variety of successful novels using literary characters, both fictional and actual, and this is a welcome addition to the genre. This is the second novel featuring Charles Dickens and Superintendent Jones. The author obviously has a deep knowledge of Dickens and his works, which is interwoven throughout the novel, without being obvious or pedantic. The characters are convincing, while the dark side of Victorian London is effectively portrayed in a chilling tale of child murder, deceit and madness. Grab a cup of coffee, put your feet up and enjoy.

Mike Ashworth OPHELIA’S MUSE Rita Cameron, Kensington, 2015, $15, pb, 416pp, 9781617738562 Ophelia’s Muse chronicles the tumultuous relationship between Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his muse, Elizabeth Siddal. Told from alternating points of view, the novel picks up with Lizzie, a lower-middle-class millinery assistant. She is alluring and intelligent, and longs for more than the monotony of her current circumstances. Lizzie comes to the attention of Walter Deverell, a painter embroiled with the rebellious Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Lizzie’s association as his model brings her into Rossetti’s orbit, and also takes her down an unexpected path of scandal, sickness, and sadness.

Lizzie Siddal was easily the first supermodel.

Stunningly beautiful, she sat for several of the painters in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; she was also an accomplished artist and poet.

Unfortunately, she was better known for her modeling work, including John Everett Millais’s iconic Ophelia, which would become one of the most recognizable portraits of the period. She 30 | Reviews |

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would also become known for her turbulent relationship with Rossetti.

Cameron’s depiction of the two artists is fairly accurate in terms of their personalities. At times, the writing seems patronizing, which can be annoying for readers who have a solid grasp of the time period. Lizzie and Dante’s volatile relationship is depicted well; it was clearly codependent and, as such, reading about their ups and downs can be tiring. Lizzie goes from being an intelligent, independent woman with aspirations to a hypochondriac obsessed with Rossetti and his refusal to marry her. By the time the two finally commit to each other, the reader may just wish for the end to hasten as Lizzie has become a drug-addicted shrew, and Dante spends all his time drinking and cavorting with his models. A sad conclusion for both artists, who apparently could not live with – or without – each other.

Caroline Wilson THE VISITANT: A Venetian Ghost Story Megan Chance, Lake Union, 2015, $14.95, pb, 339pp, 9781503945173 The Visitant: A Venetian Ghost Story is a wonderfully drawn Gothic tale. The novel follows a disgraced Elena Spira to Venice in 1884 as she seeks to redeem her family. She carries many secrets with her, and must work to keep them hidden as she attends the ailing Samuel Farber.

She has been tasked with keeping his secret safe, and nursing him to health so that he may return to America for an arranged marriage. He proves to be a truculent patient, and Elena must fight him and the dark forces residing in the crumbling Casa Basilio, all while evading the alluring stares of the casa’s owner, Nero Basilio.

Megan Chance is one of the few accomplished historical fiction writers specializing in Gothic novels. The Visitant evokes everything that is wonderful in the genre: secretive characters, an old house, and of course, ghosts and demons. In many ways it echoes Henry James’ Turn of the Screw. Chance excels at drawing the reader into the plot without giving much away, which leaves one guessing right up to the end. She also has created wonderfully nuanced characters in this novel. Elena, Samuel, and Nero all at times seem despicable, and yet they evoke sympathy. Elena is riddled with guilt over her past decisions and yet she longs to set free to live life as she sees fit. Yet she becomes embroiled in an ill-advised romantic relationship with Nero, who is all charm and deception. It is heartbreaking to see her realize the truth only to discover that she has given her heart away to the wrong person yet again.

The Visitant will keep readers turning pages well into the night and is recommended for lovers of general historic fiction who like the draw of the supernatural and a dash of romance on the side.

Caroline Wilson THE TIDE WATCHERS Lisa Chaplin, William Morrow, 2015, $15.99/ C$19.99, pb, 480pp, 9780062379122 In 1802, England and France are experiencing the tenuous Peace of Amiens. Duncan, a King’s Man (British spy), is sent to France to rescue his mentor’s willful daughter, who ran off with a French nobleman. Lisbeth is toiling in a seedy tavern after

the cruel nobleman deserted her and took their infant son. Duncan also searches the Channel coast for evidence that Napoleon is building a huge fleet in Boulogne and schemes to invade England.

Inventor Robert Fulton, a staunch Republican, is rumored to be building a submersible to attack the English fleet. Duncan insists that the clever Lisbeth pose as Fulton’s housekeeper to discover his plans, and learn to operate the submersible. He uses the rescue of her stolen child as leverage.

Duncan and Lisbeth’s growing attraction for one another is threaded throughout the novel.

Lisbeth is strong and resourceful but leery of men after her experiences with the Frenchman, a French spy who continues to stalk her. Duncan keeps his emotions close after a rough upbringing, so both characters carry sad baggage. The scenes in the submersible are gripping, the spy maneuvering intriguing. Chaplin trickles in backstory and clues in tantalizing drips that keep you guessing.

The alliances can get confusing. Fulton takes Lisbeth, a servant with no references, in too easily, and George III was not of the House of SaxeCoburg. However, the novel is breathtaking and fast-paced with brilliant plot twists, though the ending is extremely abrupt. I hope for a sequel.

Highly recommended.

Diane Scott Lewis CHRISTMAS BELLS Jennifer Chiaverini, Dutton, 2015, $25.95/ C$33.95, hb, 304pp, 9780525955245 In 1863, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, still reeling from a personal tragedy and living amid the national tragedy of the Civil War, wrote the poem “Christmas Bells,” which later became a beloved Christmas carol. In this novel, Jennifer Chiaverini gives us the story behind the poem.

Paralleling Longfellow’s story is a contemporaryset one featuring several Bostonians, all facing Christmas with trouble in their hearts. These include Sophia, a young music teacher who has just been informed her job will be eliminated due to budget cuts; Lucas, who longs to take his friendship with Sophia to a higher level; Charlotte, whose hopes of winning a writing competition are dashed when she is falsely accused by a teacher of plagiarism; and Laurie, who is finding it harder and harder to keep a distressing secret from her children. Interconnected with each other, all will find that the Longfellow poem speaks to them in some way.

Both the historical and contemporary stories are moving, with vivid and sympathetic characters, and they mesh together smoothly and naturally. As this is a novel intended for the Christmas market, the resolutions to the stories won’t surprise anyone, but getting there is a pleasure.

Susan Higginbotham NOW & FOREVER Mary Connealy, Bethany House, 2015, $14.99, pb, 328pp, 9780764211799 Mountain man Matt Tucker, who lives in the Dakota Territory, should pay attention to the trail, but a woman distracts him. Which is how he tangles with a mama grizzly. She swats him off the mountain then chases after him. Which is how he encounters Shannon Wilde, his distracter. With nowhere left to run, they jump into the Slaughter 19th Century

River. Shannon’s Civil War survival and medical training kick in, and she snags a branch that leads her to a cave. Once she gets Matt out of the water and splints his broken leg, they explore the cave, hoping to find a way back to civilization.

The rescue party, including a preachermountain man, insists the pair wed since they’ve spent the past five days alone. Matt likes the idea, but Shannon needs more convincing. Mountain man and sheep farmer aren’t compatible. But those problems seem small once someone begins trying to force Shannon off her property no matter who gets hurt.

From first page to last, book two in the Wild at Heart series is a hoot! Connealy tackles the serious and the comical with equal aplomb, while her characters tug at heart strings. This great inspirational romance doesn’t disappoint.

Cindy Vallar

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A WOMAN OF NOTE Carol M. Cram, Lake Union, 2015, $14.95, pb, 393pp, 9781503946835 Carol M. Cram follows her excellent debut, The Towers of Tuscany, with this outstanding novel, A Woman of Note, which tells the story of Isabette Grüber, a concert pianist in 1820s Vienna. Isabette dreams of becoming a composer at a time when women composers were almost unheard of. Her father is dead, and her older sister, also a talented pianist, is in an asylum. Her mother is cold toward her, and her manager lusts after her.

She meets an American singer, Amelia Mason, and becomes her accompanist, but she is not content with just that. Meanwhile, the charming Amelia has secrets of her own. Isabette meets, and loves, an aspiring composer, Josef Hauser, who recognizes her talent but doesn’t fully appreciate her as a woman. Hauser’s compositions are not very good, and Isabette decides to improve on them, while giving Hauser all the credit. Later, she has her own compositions published under a male pseudonym.

They are well-received, but no one knows they are hers. Will she ever gain the recognition she deserves?

Cram’s writing is so vivid, you can hear the music in your head as you read. She paints an amazing portrait of a woman who desires to succeed in a field that was closed to women, with a few courageous exceptions, at the time. Also, I found it refreshing to read about a heroine who isn’t beautiful. The musical scene in Vienna comes to life in brilliant detail, and the famous figures who make appearances include Schubert, Chopin, Berlioz, Liszt, and Clara Wieck, later Clara Schumann, who was one of the inspirations for the fictional Isabette. Cram also provides a list of the compositions mentioned in the book. A Woman of Note is one of the best historical novels I’ve read all year.

Vicki Kondelik

19th Century

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THE COURTESAN Alexandra Curry, Dutton, 2015, $26.95, hb, 400pp, 9780525955139 European and Japanese powers are vying for Chinese trade and even takeover in the late 1800s. Meanwhile, seven-year-old Jinhua’s peaceful world is about to undergo cataclysmic changes, beginning with the horrific demise of her father and her sale into prostitution. She suffers the unimaginable agonies of having her feet bound in the ancient traditional manner. Her only comfort is her new friend, Suyin, who tries to make Jinhua realize the harsh aspects of life in a brothel are nothing like the fanciful tales her father used to tell her.

Time passes, and Jinhua is rescued by Master Hong, who believes Jinhua is his former love reborn and takes her as his concubine, to the dismay of his first wife. However, Jinhua will soon become a new woman as she travels to Vienna, where Master Hong is to serve as China’s ambassador in “the land of foreign devils.” There she discovers real love. On their return to China, she starts an independent life and later has her life threatened by the Japanese in their invasion of China.

The Courtesan is a literary novel that exquisitely describes Jinhua’s amazing transformation from a naïve child to a glamorous, intelligent, strong, and adventurous woman who blends the best of traditional and modern China and Europe. Her final choices are shockingly tranquil in the face of history’s stark brutality. The best historical novel I have read this year!

Viviane Crystal A MURDER COUNTRY Brandon Daily, Knox Robinson, 2014, $27.99/£19.99, hb, 176pp, 9781908483676.

The setting is the Appalachian country, thickly wooded and lightly settled, some time after the Civil War. The Rider believes he was called by a flaming angel to cleanse the world of sinners.

Clothed in black, he travels the land carrying out God’s vengeance on those he thinks deserve it.

When he murders Josiah’s parents, the boy sets out to take revenge on the Rider. Corvin, a youthful runaway who became a savage renegade, now a reformed adult, has returned to run his family’s coal mine. After a vicious attack on his beloved wife and the blowing up of his coal mine, he rides out to destroy the guilty men. The bulk of the novel consists of the various events and the people whom the three avengers encounter in this raw, violent backwoods country. The core of the novel comes when each must make a choice: kill or back away.

Two choose murder, one turns back.

This is a very demanding read. The violence, blood and cruelty are relentless. Few characters show a modicum of decency. When two old men separately give food and sensible advice to Josiah, the relief is tremendous. The writing is dense, often poetic, sometimes verging on the pretentious, but the dialogue is superb and the towns and people are colourfully drawn and convincing, if pretty

nasty on the whole. This is a very serious and very moral novel. By the end, the violence that seemed gratuitous is justified to prove the author’s message.

Cormac McCarthy is referred to on the jacket and, in subject matter and dialogue, it is a reasonable comparison. Readers who can wade through the blood may find their perseverance richly rewarded.

Lynn Guest

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THE GILDED HOUR Sara Donati, Berkley, 2015, $27.95/C$35.95, hb, 752pp, 9780425271810 Cousins Anna and Sophie Savard are physicians in New York City in 1883, determined to serve their patients and bring a better life to women.

At almost every turn there are those who do not wish to see them succeed, and none more vehemently than antivice crusader Anthony Comstock, a man who is determined that women will not receive feminine healthcare in general and birth control in particular. The cousins are just as determined, however; part of that stubborn streak must come from their Bonner ancestors of Donati’s popular Into the Wilderness series. But this determination comes at a high cost, including focusing on their professions almost to the exclusion of others and putting others in danger just by a willingness to help. Both women face personal challenges of their own, including the fact that Sophie is considered a woman of color and thus not accepted by many in society, and neither has been able to lower their barricades in order to find love. But it’s possible that all that is about to change.

This is a sweeping, captivating novel that continues the Bonner heritage by focusing on two female descendants of Nathaniel Bonner. There is a dark mystery involved, and the plight of orphaned immigrant children in New York receives much attention. Donati is a master at weaving real-life people into her stories, and she does it superbly in this novel. Above all, however, are the characters themselves, finely drawn and deeply emotional, making you experience their lives and feel their challenges acutely.

This is an outstanding first novel in a new series, and with it comes all the best feelings evoked by good writing: empathy, concern, drive, despair, and ecstasy. It’s the beginning of the best of journeys in historical fiction.

Tamela McCann LADY BE GOOD Meredith Duran, Pocket, 2015, $7.99/C$9.99, pb, 400pp, 9781476741376 Kit Stratton, Viscount Palmer, is a war hero and eligible society bachelor in late Victorian England.

Lilah Marshall is an Everleigh Girl, an auctionhouse hostess paid to charm potential buyers. She’s been educated above her criminal station, like her literary ancestor Moll Flanders, but her Uncle Nick blackmails her into returning temporarily to her old thieving ways. Lilah and Kit’s first meeting HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Reviews | 31

contains the requisite instant physical attraction, but they have other things in common too, despite their class differences: both are grieving the death of a much-loved sibling, and both harbour guilty secrets from their pasts.

This novel’s intriguing premise, good writing, and solid historical detail should have engaged me more than it did. Ultimately, I found Kit and Lilah two-dimensional and cliché, and their chemistry seemed forced. I also tired of the many reminders of Kit’s “leonine” attractiveness. Secondary characters Catherine and Nick steal the limelight, and I kept wishing they were the protagonists. Happily, it turns out they are the protagonists of Duran’s next book in the series, Luck Be a Lady. If the purpose of Lady Be Good was to whet the reader’s appetite for the next installment, it worked for me.

Clarissa Harwood HOME BY NIGHTFALL Charles Finch, Minotaur, 2015, $25.99/C$29.99, hb, 304pp, 9781250070418 This novel takes former Member of Parliament Charles Lenox home to Surrey to visit his elder brother, Sir Edmund. Even while keeping his eye on London where a concert pianist has disappeared, Lenox gets involved in a local murder, which requires delving into his past. He is no longer an “amateur” sleuth, however; he’s turned professional.

The crime-solving process is successful—but watching Lenox struggle with his new role is far more interesting.

This is class-conscious England in 1876, remember? As a businessman with a staff of professional investigators and an office in London, Lenox is now “in trade.” He is very aware that his status has changed—and nowhere more than at the side of his titled brother in the village where they grew up, Will Charles Lenox be content as a tradesman?

Or will he revert to his aristocratic roots? Finch may be setting his readers up for more changes ahead. Highly recommended for series fans and all who enjoy cozy English mysteries.

Jeanne Greene STEERING TO FREEDOM: From Slave to Civil War Hero Patrick Gabridge, Penmore, 2015, $18.50, pb, 334pp, 9781942756224 It is fitting that this novel should be published in the sesquicentennial of the last year of the Civil War. Both Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and his order to include African-American troops had a profound effect on the lives of freed slaves and on the progress of the war itself. One man, an escaped slave named Robert Smalls, played an important, although largely unknown, role in elevating the position of African-Americans as soldiers and citizens.

In 1862, Charleston riverboat pilot Smalls develops a daring plan: to steal the riverboat Planter from under the noses of the Confederate army and to sail his crew and their families to freedom. But first the gallant crew must maneuver the boat past the guns of Fort Sumter and other Confederate batteries and try to dodge the mines and torpedoes placed in the harbor to thwart a Union attack.

Even if they succeed in that feat, will the ships of the Union blockade consider their little boat friend 32 | Reviews |

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or foe?

Author Gabridge weaves a tight, suspenseful tale that is a valuable addition to the ever-growing library of books that recount the contributions African-Americans made to the war effort. The novel is meticulously researched; by the time the reader finishes the book, he may be able to pilot a riverboat. The research is never pedantic, however, and it never gets in the way of an entertaining story.

This book is highly recommended.

John Kachuba WHAT BECAME OF THE WHITE SAVAGE Francois Garde (trans. Aneesa Abbas Higgins), Dedalus, 2015, £11.99, pb, 338pp, 9781910213087 Narcisse Pelletier, an 18-year-old French sailor, returns from searching for water to find his ship gone. He is alone on the coast of Australia. It is the 1840s. Nearly twenty years later Octave de Vallombrun, a French geographer, is called to the governor’s house in Sydney; a white man has been found living amongst the savages, acting and speaking like them. De Vallombrun takes responsibility for the white savage and begins the long task of learning about him and rehabilitating him so that he can return to civilised society.

Francois Garde’s first novel won nine awards after its publication in France in 2012. It is a good book, readable and interesting. The novel is divided between Narcisse’s experiences and the episodic accounts of de Vallombrun. As a result of this structure, the account (very possibly intentionally) feels quite impersonal and is often like reading an anthropological report. It felt as if the book was constantly on the verge of saying something truly thought-provoking but without ever quite managing to do so. I would recommend this book, whilst at the same time feeling that it held the promise of more than it ultimately delivered.

Tim Smith WHOSE BUSINESS IS TO DIE Adrian Goldsworthy, Orion, 2015, £20.00, hb, 328pp, 9780297871866 If you want to know what a battle in the Napoleonic Wars was like from the inside, then you should look no further than this novel.

Goldsworthy is renowned as a military historian, and this is the sixth book in this series set in this particular era. There is plenty of slice and dice, enough for any bloodthirsty reader and myriad ways to end life on a battlefield; none of them are pleasant, naturally enough. The roundshot ‘cut the soldier behind him in half, flinging his torso so that it knocked down two men in the next rank and drenched them in blood and entrails.’ (p257). If this is your thing, there is plenty more.

There was a lot of back-story, however, and it sometimes seemed as if every time a character appeared, there was a lot of catch-up for the reader.

Perhaps a series to read from the beginning, then, as I struggled to engage with the characters when all I knew about them was a short summary. For me, there could have been more human interest. There is a love interest, but it is not really that prominent, perhaps unsurprisingly as, by and large, the setting is the battlefields. Those more militarily minded may find manoeuvres, digging ramparts and picket duty more interesting than I did. The historical research and army knowledge seem impeccable,

details such as uniform and weapons ring very true, and the reader will certainly learn about how wars such as these were fought and how they felt.

Ann Northfield BUFFALO TRAIL Jeff Guinn, Putnam, 2015, $27.00/C$35.00, hb, 432pp, 9780399165429 It’s 1873, and young Cash McLendon is stuck in the town of Dodge, Kansas. He and his partner, Bat Masterson, gather buffalo bones scattered on the prairie to make a few dollars. Cash wants to find his lost love, Gabrielle Tirrito, show her he is a changed man, and propose marriage. Cash learns of a buffalo hunt, planned for the spring of 1874, led by intrepid hunter Billy Dixon. He is also told that Gabrielle is living in the small town of Mountain View, miles from Dodge. He now hopes to earn enough money to join her on the buffalo hunt.

South of Dodge, Comanche warrior Quanah Parker is trying to gather an army of Indian warriors, with the help of Spirit Messenger Isatai.

Meanwhile, the buffalo hunters are following the trail into Indian lands. They are going to have to defend themselves against a mass of Indian warriors from different tribes, led by Parker, waiting for them at Adobe Walls.

Buffalo Trail is the second book in Jeff Guinn’s trilogy of the American West. I don’t think it is necessary to read the first book to follow the storyline. Similarly to the works of award-winning western novelist Larry McMurtry regarding authenticity and the development of interesting characters, the author has provided a well-written novel of early western Americana. Readers may become disgusted by scenes in which buffalo are killed for their hides, leaving the meat to spoil under the prairie sun. Also, the descriptive methods of torture performed by the Indians may repel. But this was the American West after the Civil War, and the author has presented a truthful picture of life on the prairie during the Indian Wars.

I look forward to the author’s next book in the series.

Jeff Westerhoff THE PRINCE AND I Karen Hawkins, Pocket, 2015, $7.99/C$9.99, pb, 400pp, 9781476785974 / Headline Eternal, £8.99, 9781472229045 Set in 19th-century Scotland during what appears to be the time of the Napoleonic Wars, The Prince and I is the second installment of the Oxenburg Princes series and a twist on the tale of Robin Hood. Spirited Murian MacDonald has been robbed of a husband and castle and forced into the woods with widows, children, and a few elderly men. To draw out Loudan, the new lord of Rowallen Castle, and his army in order to get into the castle and find the much-needed journal that proves the new lord killed her husband and took the castle as his right, she and her merry band of widows and elders stop his guests at gunpoint— or what appears to be at gunpoint. But instead of robbing them, they ask for donations of food and money. One night, however, Murian and her troupe stop the wrong coach, that of Prince Gregori Maksim Romanovin of Oxenburg (known as Max) and his Romany grandmother, who has also been wronged and robbed by Loudan. Once Max locates 19th Century

Murian in the forest and hears her story, he resolves to help her.

This novel is a fun and spirited romance that focuses on Murian and Max, and their budding love.

It has everything a good romance needs—warmth, humour, sensuality and of course heartache, but is balanced with a convincing plot, entertaining secondary characters, genuine complications that tug at the heart, and the happily-ever-after ending that eventually leaves the reader well-satisfied.

Francesca Pelaccia HEARTS MADE WHOLE Jody Hedlund, Bethany House, 2015, $14.99, pb, 379pp, 9780764212383 This is the second full novel in the short Beacons of Hope series (after Love Unexpected), set in lighthouses around the Michigan shore.

Caroline Taylor has been the interim lighthouse keeper since her father’s death and would like to continue in that role. But her family’s enemies are determined to drive her out by appointing a man as keeper—Ryan Chambers, a character from the first novel. Ryan has been through the Civil War and emerged as a broken man, maimed and addicted to morphine and alcohol.

Jody Hedlund is one of the authors pushing at the boundaries of inspirational historical romance, and I like the result. Ryan is far from perfect and struggles with his addictions throughout the story. Vivid instances of cruelty, compromising situations, and character outcomes that do not go in the expected direction kept me turning the pages. The spiritual arc keeps the novel firmly in the Christian sphere, yet is never over-emphasized.

Sex, although never explicit, always seems to be just below the surface in Hedlund’s romance novels, a good choice for readers who like just a little heat.

Jane Steen NO COMFORT FOR THE LOST: A Mystery of Old San Francisco Nancy Herriman, Obsidian, 2015, $15.00/ C$20.00, pb, 384pp, 9780451474896 San Francisco, 1867: English Nurse Celia Davies, abandoned by her roving husband, tends to poor women at her clinic in post-Civil War San Francisco. She tries to make a home for her halfChinese cousin, Barbara, while she waits for some news of her husband.

All Celia‘s medical expertise is of no use when the bayoneted body of Li Sha is pulled up from the bay. A reformed Chinese prostitute, Li Sha was Celia’s friend as well as the lover of her brotherin-law, Tom. Tom is quickly arrested and jailed for the murder. Amidst a background of anti-Chinese sentiment and police corruption, Detective Nicholas Greaves remains determined to solve the case and find the real killer, although the intriguing Mrs. Davies, and her penchant for finding trouble, factor into his desire for justice.

This well-written and absorbing novel is the first book in a promising new mystery series.

Nancy Herriman paints a vivid array of unique characters and places them in an interesting setting.

The book moves along at a pleasant clip, and the chemistry between Celia and Nicholas promises more adventures in the future. Recommended for lovers of historical mystery.

Susan McDuffie 19th Century

TWAIN AND STANLEY ENTER PARADISE Osacr Hijuelos, Grand Central, 2015, $28.00/ C$31.00, hb, 472pp, 9781455561490 In an interesting life-imitates-art twist, the widow of famed author Oscar Hijuelos was the force behind the posthumous publication of this, his final work, which in part describes the effort of the widow of famed author and explorer Henry Morton Stanley to posthumously publish his final work. The novel traces the long and unlikely friendship between Welshman Stanley and American Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain, which started when they were young unknowns and continued as they became two of the most famous authors in the English language. We get a more detailed look at Stanley, from his unhappy and impoverished childhood through the fame that started with his successful rescue of missionary David Livingstone and later exploration— many charged it exploitation—of the Congo for Belgium’s King Leopold, and finally a hard-won, bittersweet happiness with his wife, socialite and famed portraitist Dorothy Tennant, and their adopted son, Denzil. Hijuelos presents a man scarred by rejection and desperate to prove himself, in sharp contrast to Samuel Clemens, who seems forever comfortable in his own skin, even as life and his own poor financial choices deal him some heavy blows.

Though the novel was more than ten years in the making, it’s tempting to wonder whether Hijuelos considered it finished. The author fails to make his characters flesh and blood, instead holding everyone at arm’s length. It reads so much like a biography for the first two-thirds that there is a temptation to cry foul when the author finally ascribes thoughts or feelings to his subjects. A biography must demure on details not in the historical record, but Hijuelos chose to make these historical figures characters in a novel without offering his readers the intimacy a novel should provide. It is that lack of intimacy that makes this interesting work ultimately unsatisfying.

Jennifer Bort Yacovissi A STUDY IN DEATH Anna Lee Huber, Berkley Prime Crime, 2015, $25.95/C$33.95, hb, 336pp, 9780425277522 In this Lady Darby mystery set in 1831 Scotland, the widowed Kiera is painting the portrait of a young, beautiful society wife when the woman dies suddenly and painfully. Kiera believes it is murder, and sets out with the assistance of her fiancé, Mr. Sebastian Gage, to discover who did it.

Meanwhile, Kiera’s sister, Alana, Lady Cromarty, is experiencing a difficult, dangerous pregnancy and may be having marriage problems. Kiera allows Alana to plan a more elaborate wedding than she wants for herself and Gage. This adds to the tension as Kiera and Gage’s love is tested by the strains of the murder investigation and by Gage’s continuing lack of communication with Kiera about his past.

Kiera’s involvement with a hardened criminal will help her solve the case, but puts her and Gage on dangerous ground.

Kiera is a feisty, principled heroine, but her assertiveness and social values, especially regarding women’s issues, make her seem like a modern woman in 19th-century dress. She and Gage do

remain chaste until their wedding night, and their charming struggles with frustration seem true to the times.

The mystery line is thin, with the final resolution difficult to understand given the clues that are provided. Still, the main characters are likeable, and this is a pleasant read, with enough hints at backstory and future perils to tempt readers to look for other books by this author.

Elizabeth Knowles THE CONSUL’S DAUGHTER Jane Jackson, Accent, 2015, £12.99, pb, 331pp, 9781783759613 Teuder Bonython owns and runs a successful shipyard in Cornwall. His daughter, Caseley, has a flair for business and, since her father is terminally ill, she has taken over the running of the yard. Into the picture comes Jago Barata, half-Spanish, halfEnglish and captain of one of the Bonython ships.

From occasional references given, this tale would appear to be set in the Victorian era, but it could be set anywhere in any century. There are no historical links to any known Victorian personality or event apart from a rather nebulous involvement in the Carlist uprisings in Spain, but even then that is only used as a reason for Caseley carrying a package to Santander for her sick father and being forced to sail on the same ship on which Jago just happens to be the captain.

The book would have benefited from the attention of a proof-reader. The story itself is good and well-paced, it has a slightly different stance to the usual “boy meets girl who initially hate each other before falling into each other’s arms,” and it keeps the pages turning. It would certainly pass the time on a long flight or a boring, wet afternoon. An historical romance rather than an historical novel.

Marilyn Sherlock WHAT HAPPENS UNDER THE MISTLETOE Sabrina Jeffries, Karen Hawkins, Meredith Duran, and Candace Camp, Pocket, 2015, $7.99, pb, 391pp, 9781476786087 Each year I look forward to reading some of the many holiday-set romance books put out by publishers. An offer to review What Happens under the Mistletoe jump-started my holiday season with four Christmastide-set romance novellas by four multi-published authors.

Sabrina Jeffries gives us The Heiress and the Hothead, in which an American woman mill owner and a reform-minded British politician clash. The premise is excellent and the characters are clearly drawn. Unfortunately, the ending made me wince.

Karen Hawkins contributes Twelve Kisses to Midnight, part of her Princes of Oxenburg series.

Two Scottish former lovers find refuge from an unexpected snowstorm and rekindle their love.

Every author appreciates knowing someone enjoys a story, but having a reviewer hunt down the other books in a series is high praise indeed. I look forward to reading these soon.

Candace Camp sets her tale in 1807. By Any Other Name tells the tale of two Rose cousins becoming involved with two women, one a prim miss, the other who masquerades as a man to search for her missing brother. I enjoyed the story, but certain plot elements stretched my HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Reviews | 33

willingness to suspend disbelief. My favorite story was Meredith Duran’s Sweetest Regret, about two sweethearts separated by her manipulative father.

Thrown together again, Georgie and Lucas must risk hurt by revealing their true feelings, to talk and listen, rather than hide behind social masks.

Overall, the book is enjoyable and a nice way to pass the evening in front of a cozy fire with a cup of hot chocolate.

Monica Spence HOW TO MARRY A ROYAL HIGHLANDER Vanessa Kelly, Zebra, 2015, $7.99/C$8.99, pb, 472pp, 9781420131284 This is the last novel in Kelly’s Renegade Royals series, which features the illegitimate sons of England’s royal princes during the Regency period. After one misadventure too many, Eden Whitney is dragged off by her mother to ‘rusticate’ at the estate of one of them: Alasdair Gilbride, heir to a Scottish earldom. Trouble, however, follows her, for Alasdair wants her help to escape from the arranged betrothal that awaits him. Add antagonism between Scots and English, repressive conventions governing social conduct (especially for women), family feuds and assassination plots, and a powerful physical attraction between Alasdair and Eden, and the situation is fraught, to say the least.

Attitudes do begin to seem rather contrived and circumstances veer uncomfortably close to melodrama at times, especially with the mad aunt; but Eden is a lively and high-spirited heroine and Alasdair a decent fellow, as well as a hunky highlander with a distinguished war record, predictably. And rich, of course. Fans of Regency romances will find much to enjoy.

It is bound with a novella, “Tall, Dark, and Royal,” in which Dominic Hunter is reunited with his childhood sweetheart, Chloe Steele. Since her seduction/rape by a royal prince, she has devoted herself to helping young women escape from abusive relationships. He comes to her aid when she runs foul of a criminal family, but retires from his own career to help with hers.

Independence reaffirmed?

Ray Thompson A HEART REVEALED Josi S. Kilpack, Shadow Mountain, 2015, $15.99, pb, 324pp, 9781609079901 As in typical Regency Romances, the heroine has come to London for the Season in search of a husband. Amber Sterlington has timed her debut to catch a man wealthy and titled enough to deserve her. Beautiful, spoiled, selfish, and manipulative, she has caught the eye of every man in London. One who is particularly captivated is Thomas Richards, the third son of a lowly Yorkshire lord. He has a long list of requirements for the wife he wants, but not much to offer. However, what he really wants is someone as gorgeous as Amber. Even after realizing she’s an awful person, he’s unable to settle for a plainer female. Just when the reader is ready to give up on these shallow characters, disaster strikes Amber, stripping her of her place in society. Exiled to Yorkshire, her path crosses that of Mr. Richards again. The story becomes more serious than a typical Regency Romance, and the slow build of 34 | Reviews |

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the relationship between hero and heroine is more complex and quite moving. This is clean romance with an unusual plot element that makes it well worth sticking with the protagonists until they blossom into a couple to root for.

Sue Asher

LORD FENTON’S FOLLY Josi S. Kilpack, Shadow Mountain, 2015, $15.99, pb, 336pp, 9781629720661 Lord Fenton, who played the role of loyal friend in A Heart Revealed, now stars as the reluctant hero of his own Regency romance. Fenton is a good man, but resentment against his father, the Earl of Chariton, has nearly ruined him. To spite the earl, Fenton has become a hard-drinking, gambling dandy who flirts with every lady of the ton. His scandalous behavior brings him to the brink of being disinherited unless he mends his ways and finds a suitable wife. The bride, chosen by his mother, is Alice Stanbridge. Clever, quiet, well-mannered, and secretly in love with Fenton since childhood, Alice is thrilled by Fenton’s proposal until she learns it is to be a marriage of convenience. Hurt by his disinterest, she responds with a practical coldness, proving herself more than his match. Fenton is drawn to her quick wit and, increasingly, he is attracted to her. With her help, he discovers that family secrets that have shaped him don’t have to define the rest of his life. This is an enjoyable story that focuses on the emotional development of the relationship, recommended for those who prefer romance with sexual tension but not graphic descriptions of sex.

Sue Asher THE MEMORY WEAVER Jane Kirkpatrick, Revell, 2015, $14.99, pb, 352pp, 9780800722326 Jane Kirkpatrick’s historical novels re-imagine periods of time that many have forgotten, usually featuring important members of society from that particular era. The Memory Weaver brings us the story of Eliza Spalding, growing up among the wilderness of the Oregon Trail in the mid-1800s, and how she and her family dealt with the tragic Indian Massacre of 1847. The Spaldings were missionaries who traveled along with the Whitman family in order to bring the “Book of Heaven” to the Indians across the Rockies.

At age ten, Eliza witnesses the horrible tragedy when the Whitmans are killed along with about a dozen others, an event spurred by a measles outbreak among the Cayuse Indians. Throughout Eliza’s life, she relives certain traumatic memories and eventually learns to separate her belief about what originally happened from the reality. Her tenacity, loyalty, strength and devotion to her family are all traits that we come to admire about Eliza, and the struggles between the Indians and pioneers are just one of the themes interlaced throughout the story. Eliza’s relationships with her stubborn father, her sisters, and husband carry the story forward as we marvel at the hardships of the pioneer families.

Since the novel is written to closely mirror actual events, the final push towards the end focuses on Eliza’s need to find peace and understanding with her memories, which stalls enjoyment of the novel. Even still, the novel imparts an intriguing

slice of America’s history with several tear-jerking moments as we recount Eliza’s steps as the first white baby to survive adulthood in the Oregon Territory.

Marie Burton LADY MAYBE Julie Klassen, Berkley, 2015, $16/C$21, pb, 389pp, 9780425282076 Hannah Rogers had been earning a living as a lady’s companion to Lady Marianna Mayfield when she unexpectedly left her post. With no one to cover for her illicit affair, this put Lady Marianna in an awkward position; when Hannah returns to collect owed wages, Marianna finagles the young woman into returning. But en route to their country home, a tragic coach accident occurs and Marianna dies, though Hannah and Sir John survive. In the confusing days that follow, Hannah’s mistaken for the lady of the house and, with Sir John incapacitated, she allows the rue to continue.

But when Sir John begins to recover, will she be turned out, unable to care for the child she’s had out of wedlock?

Klassen takes a Gothic atmosphere and, in Hannah and Sir John, imbues it with sympathetic characters. Both duped by Marianna, they begin to forge a bond that is threatened by Sir John’s solicitor as he delves into the truth, determined to expose Hannah’s perfidy. There are a couple of twists I didn’t see coming, and a rather frightening trial that kept me on the edge of my seat. There is also a side story concerning Hannah’s disapproving father that is sweet but mostly unnecessary, though it is nice to see them come to an understanding.

Atmospheric and moody, overall this story is reminiscent of Victoria Holt’s finest.

Tamela McCann THE DUKE CAN GO TO THE DEVIL Erin Knightley, Piatkus, 2015, £8.99, pb, 318pp, 9780349410678 / Signet, 2015, $7.99, pb, 336pp, 9780451473653 The Bath Music Festival has been a great success, especially for the musical trio, Sophie, Charity and May. The first two have found true love, but May will be hard to please. She enjoys playing her zither before an audience, but she does not like Bath, having spent most of her life on the high seas with her father, a sea captain for the East India Company. She prefers the company – and the language – of sailors to the formality of Bath society. Especially those aristocrats, well, the wealthy, noble and snooty Duke of Radcliffe, whose nose is made for looking down and whose eyebrows are made for raising (one at a time or both together). May will soon ruffle his impeccable plumage.

This story is written at a fascinating time in British history. After terrifying events across the Channel, radical change must be achieved at home without revolution. The far-sighted Duke must set the example: how to ensure the well-being of his tenants and workforce without damaging the economies of nations in the Far East. All of May’s sympathies lie with the latter. Readers of this series are sure to enjoy this novel, although May and the Duke make awfully long speeches to one another followed by equally long introspection. A brisker pace would have allowed easier reading, and 19th Century

May’s frank speech sometimes lapses into the 21st century.

Nancy Henshaw FOREVER YOUR EARL Eva Leigh, Avon, 2015, $7.95/C$9.99, pb, 384pp, 9780062358622 This is the first of The Wicked Quills of London, a Regency series about female writers in an era when such unladylike conduct was disapproved. Eleanor Hawke, owner and publisher of a newspaper devoted to the scandalous doings of the aristocracy, is understandably surprised (and suspicious) when a favorite target arrives in her offices and invites her to accompany him on his wild activities and write about them. Her instincts are correct, but the Earl of Ashford’s motives are commendable: he is trying to help a deeply troubled friend. Predictably they fall in love: she is not only pretty, but possessed of wit and an independent spirit, and he is… an impressive male. She, however, is a commoner, he a lord, and the class gulf is wide. Can they bridge it? Should they?

Her need for disguise and the intermingling of their two separate worlds allow the author to explore such interesting topics as fashionable clothing, theatre, gambling, and publishing in more detail than is common. The lovers’ preoccupation with each other is rather drawn out. Recommended, nonetheless.

Ray Thompson LOVE IN THE TIME OF SCANDAL Caroline Linden, Avon, 2015, $7.99/C$9.99, pb, 378pp, 9780062244925 London, 1822. Benedict Lennox is handsome and titled but lacks money to give him independence from his cruel, abusive father. He seems to have unexplained character flaws, too. Penelope Weston is a beautiful, passionate young lady with a happy family and a large dowry, but is tainted by merchant roots. When her reputation is ruined by the lies of a vicious cad, she and Benedict marry to preserve her standing in society and to make him secure financially. Sensuality brings them together, but can they build a marriage that unites them outside the bedroom as well as within it? They face danger and true evil together, and must work as a team to plumb their deepest strengths as they struggle to survive. This is a frothy, sizzling page-turner with surprisingly likeable and interesting protagonists.

Recommended for fans of spicy Regency romance.

Elizabeth Knowles TO WED AN HEIRESS Rosanne E. Lortz, Madison Street, 2015, $12.95, pb, 286pp, 9780996264808 Described as ‘a novel of romantic suspense,’ this Regency combines romance and mystery. To rescue the family estate from his late father’s gambling debts, Haro, the Earl of Anglesford, must marry an heiress, though it means breaking an understanding with his cousin Eda. The heiress he finds, however, proves less suitable than he hoped, and he is in the process of breaking off the engagement when her murdered body is found. Unfortunately, he is the chief suspect.

The mystery is satisfying and the behavior of the characters credible, albeit stereotypical: snobbish aristocrats casually assume the privileges of rank; 19th Century — 20th Century

the vulgar, bullying mill owner crudely uses his wealth to further his ambitions by marrying his daughter into the aristocracy; beneath her polished façade the daughter is spiteful to those she can order around; Eda is jealous of her rival. Haro is trying to do the decent thing, and the investigator is shrewd, but the others do not behave well. The author notes that the characters are ‘a light-hearted recasting of the characters from the Norman Conquest period in the world of the British Regency.’ Recommended.

Ray Thompson THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF EBENEZER SCROOGE Charlie Lovett, Viking, 2015, $19.95/$25.95, hb, 106pp, 9780525429104 The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge is a delightful sequel to Dickens’ A Christmas Carol that is imaginatively woven together by the author of The Bookman’s Tale, Charlie Lovett. The novella is a summary of the decades following Scrooge’s remarkable Christmas transformation.

Scrooge’s adoration for humanity has remained intact but drained his bank accounts –though not his ability to bounce a charitable cheque. He has stayed a merry, jovial soul, sharing his cheer with every citizen young and old, furry or flying, much to their vexation! It is this discontent that spurs Scrooge on to meet with the spirits which so changed his life in order to transform the lives of his family, his partner Bob Cratchit and others all the year long. Nephew Fred, an irritable government employee, and Cratchit, a scrappy workaholic, are vehicles for Scrooge and the spirits to work with.

Lovett has written a lovely Dickensian novella which hits the right notes and temperament. It lurches with joy and a wordiness fitting for its era.

The author finds his own style while paying tribute to a writer who has greatly influenced him, while still delivering his message about kindness and charity and the season of Christmas living on for more than one day. It’s truly a gentle, charming and recommended read.

Wendy A. Zollo ART IN THE BLOOD Bonnie Macbird, Collins Crime Club, 2015, $25.99, hb, 400pp, 9780008130831 / £12.99, hb, 400pp, 9780008129668 “A Sherlock Holmes Adventure” is the subtitle of this second in a series that owes to the small and big screen interpretations of Arthur Conan Doyle as well as to the master himself. The setting is the winter of 1888-89. Doctor Watson finds his 35-year-old friend depressed and back on cocaine after his Ripper investigation. Then a letter arrives from a French singer, a character whose intelligence and perception match her beauty on every page.

Her ten-year-old son, fathered and being raised by an English lord, is missing. The game’s afoot.

The duo is soon on the way to Paris, where an art theft of the priceless Marseilles Nike sculpture begins to run a convergent course with the case, thanks to the singer’s lover – a French rival detective. Back in England, murders of silk mill worker children add yet another element to baffling events.

Clear writing, a breakneck pace, atmospheric description and memorable characters make up

for occasional lapses that sound too contemporary (“game plan,” “fill me in,” “quite unique”). A vulnerable and deep-feeling Sherlock Holmes needs both his Watson and his team of allies and rivals to crack this complex, intriguing and riveting case.

Eileen Charbonneau THE DETERMINED HEART Antoinette May, Lake Union, 2015, $14.95, pb, 437pp, 9781503945180 Mary Shelley’s life provides rich material for this biographical novel. Born to an early feminist mother who died giving birth, Mary was raised by an egotistical father. As a child she met Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Charles and Mary Lamb, and a kindly “Uncle” Aaron Burr, who moved to England after his infamous duel with Hamilton. Her wicked stepmother and even worse stepsister seem to be out of a fairy tale, but their portrayal seems historically accurate.

Mary elopes with a married nobleman referred to as Bysshe, the author of romantic poetry and essays on free love and atheism. Eventually they flee to Italy, where she loses baby after baby. His friend Lord Byron, a heartless cad, impregnates her stepsister, but as the story progresses, Shelley proves to be even more insensitive. After his wife’s suicide, they eventually marry, and Mary continues to regard him as her romantic hero, but by the time he drowns, the reader might be glad to be rid of him.

The best parts involve the gestation of Frankenstein. As a girl Mary lived near an abattoir and a gallows. Later she developed an interest in vitalism and the power of electricity. When Byron, Shelley and Mary made their famous wager about writing a Gothic tale, Mary used her gruesome experiences to create an immortal story. Her novel was not only commercially successful; it began a new genre and continues to spawn countless adaptations and parodies.

James Hawking MRS ENGLES Gavin McCrea, Scribe, 2015, £14.99, hb, 344pp, 9781922247957 / Catapult, 2015, $16.95, pb, 368pp, 9781936787296 Lizzie Burns is a young factory worker from the Irish slums of Manchester. Mary, her elder sister, is in a relationship with the factory owner, Fredrick Engles. When Mary dies, Lizzie steps into Fredrick’s affections and a world of politics and people she is unused to. After they move to London Lizzie becomes the lady of a fine house with servants, security and society. But the past is not an easy thing to shed, and Lizzie finds herself drawn to things she knows she ought to have nothing more to do with.

Gavin McCrea’s debut novel is a rich and interesting read. Lizzie Burns is a memorable and fully formed character that stays with you. Her thoughts and musings, as she moves through a world she was not raised to, are cynical, insightful, amusing and touching. Lizzie happens to be the partner of a famous man, but her voice is that of everywoman, a voice seeking to come to terms with the world, to understand people she loves and has loved, to find a place where she is at ease with life.

Mrs Engles is a good read that provides a voice HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Reviews | 35

to those who stand in the shadows of fame and history.

Tim Smith STONES IN THE ROAD E. B. Moore, NAL, 2015, $15, pb, 384pp, 9780451469991 E.B. Moore has created a memorable protagonist in Joshua, an eleven-year-old Amish boy—“part Lazarus, part prodigal”—who flees west from his home in Amish country in Pennsylvania, wanders for ten years, and returns to his astonished family.

Set in the 19th century and written in alternating points of view, the novel follows Joshua as he struggles with the tragic results of a violent fight with his alcoholic father and a disastrous fire. The book begins with Joshua standing at his own grave; the chapters that follow are flashbacks.

On his travels, he encounters the treacherous world of “the English.” He meets both kind people who feed him and tend his wounds and others who inflict wounds of betrayal. Meanwhile, his mother, Miriam, tending to her hard-as-nails husband and always grieving for a boy she hopes is alive, must hold the family together. When her husband’s health deteriorates, Miriam is forced to call on a strength she didn’t know existed. Both Miriam and Joshua encounter “stones in the road” as they learn lessons in trust and forgiveness.

Moore realistically portrays Amish and frontier life in the 19th century. Joshua’s struggles form the bulk of the novel, moving slowly in some chapters toward the resolution, which comes too quickly after such a long build-up. The prose style is often composed of short declarative sentences in short paragraphs, giving the reader a feeling of tense summation, much like the condensed style of poetry, not surprising given that Moore herself is a poet. The novel is based loosely on Moore’s grandfather. Fans of this time period, as well as Amish culture, will enjoy the book and be glad that Moore brought her grandfather’s story to a wider audience.

Lorraine Norwood A SAPPHIRE SEASON Lynn Morris, FaithWords, 2015, $14.99, pb, 368pp, 9781455575619 Lady Mirabella Tirel, the well-meaning but rather thoughtless daughter of a marquess, has been close friends with Sir Giles Knyvet since childhood. Since she is also wealthy and beautiful as well as titled, she is much sought after, but when she finally decides it is time to marry, she does not think to include him on her list. Eventually, however, she realizes that she is actually in love with her best friend, to whom other prospective partners compare unfavorably; but is it too late?

This is an inspirational Regency romance, peopled with generally likeable characters: her religious faith helps Mirabella through a difficult growing experience, during which she learns to appreciate her privileges and to accept God’s plan for her. The author devotes considerable space to the physical setting, and while this can be informative, it does slow down the plot, which is reminiscent of Jane Austen’s Emma. She reports that her readers enjoy the details on ladies’ clothes, but I’m with Austen’s Mr. Bennet and his impatience with unnecessarily extensive descriptions of finery. A 36 | Reviews |

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male reaction, perhaps? Otherwise, a pleasant read.

Ray Thompson THE MIDWIFE’S TALE Delia Parr, Bethany House, 2015, $14.99, pb, 336pp, 9780764217333 This story is set during the 1830s in a small Pennsylvania town where Martha Cade is the local midwife. Widowed for a decade, but still attractive, she is respected by the community and is passionate about her vocation. Then life becomes complicated when her teenage daughter runs off with a traveling theatrical group and a new doctor arrives in town with the latest medical knowledge on how to deliver babies. Add to this an unusual minister and his wife who purchase an old farm outside of town and use it to house a group of boy orphans they have rescued from city streets. But something is amiss, and it will take Will, one of the orphans, to enlighten Martha before a tragedy engulfs the town.

Readers who enjoy Jan Karon’s Mitford series should also like this novel, with its flawed but engaging characters, a plot that twists and surprises, and a healthy dash of romance to carry the story along. It’s billed as a historical romance, yet I think it transcends that to showcase the strong bonds that women have as they support one another throughout life.

Linda Harris Sittig A CHRISTMAS ESCAPE Anne Perry, Ballantine, 2015, $18.00, hb, 158pp, 9780553391411 Perry’s thirteenth holiday novella takes a sojourn from her familiar realm of Victorian England over to the small Italian island of Stromboli, in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The steep mountainous landscape is picturesque and the weather temperate, even in early December, and Charles Latterly aims to spend a few weeks pulling his thoughts together after his wife’s recent death. However, despite the beautiful locale and the scrumptious meals prepared by the hostelry’s owner, his stay is extremely volatile. First, most of the other guests – a vibrant teenager and her great-uncle, a grumpy man and his troubled wife, the colonel who tries to save her from potential abuse, and a famous novelist – knew each other from back home and don’t all get along. Also, the volcano sitting atop the village shows signs of reawakening.

There’s a lot of suspense and character development packed into this relatively short work. After one of the guests is found dead – an accident disguised as murder – Charles realizes the suspect pool is very limited and seeks to find a motive. His growing fatherly rapport with the young woman, Candace Finbar, brings out a new side to his nature. Between knowing that a murderer is nearby and the danger posed by falling lava bombs, the atmosphere is incredibly tense. The notion of a “Christmas escape” turns out to have an unexpected double meaning. Charles, of course, is the brother of Hester (Latterly) Monk, heroine of Perry’s Monk detective series. Charles has a recurrent secondary role in those novels, and is such an intriguing character here that he deserves the chance to take the lead once again.

Sarah Johnson

CORRIDORS OF THE NIGHT Anne Perry, Ballantine, 2015, $27/C$35, hb, 288pp, 9780553391381 / Headline, 2015, £7.99, pb, 320pp, 9781472219473 In this, the 21st installment of her bestselling Victorian-era William Monk series, the Thames River Policeman’s wife, Hester Monk, is back to nursing, filling in for a friend at London’s Royal Naval Hospital annex. Hester, who is every bit William Monk’s equal in being a survivor who can save others as well as herself, discovers a frightened little girl in the annex’s dark corridors. The girl pleads with Hester to save her older brother, who is dying. The girl leads Hester to her two brothers, and it soon becomes clear that the three children are prisoners, being drained of their blood in a cruel but successful medical experiment. The brilliant chemist Hamilton Rand is determined to be the man to find a cure for the dreaded “white blood disease.” Soon Hester will be his prisoner as well.

From the first, a reader can relax in Anne Perry’s steady hands. It’s that clear that this master storyteller knows her way around this era and knows her way around a plot. She’s deft whether her characters are fighting gun smugglers, being questioned in a courtroom, grappling with medical ethics or trying to save kidnapped children.

It’s been a long time since I’ve read one of Anne Perry’s William Monk books, and I was concerned that there might be a lot of back-story I’d either have to wade through or else miss out on – but that’s not the case. Perry can somehow gracefully slip in everything a new reader needs to know without losing a step in the suspenseful, twisting narrative.

Corridors of the Night is yet another reason to thank the reading gods for Anne Perry.

Recommended.

Kristen Hannum A FREE STATE Tom Piazza, Harper, 2015, $25.99, hb, 240pp, 9780062284129 Tom Piazza often writes about jazz and blues, and their various ethnic and cultural origins and influences. In his latest novel, A Free State, Piazza reaches even farther back in American music traditions to reflect on the odd phenomenon of the minstrel show, which was all the rage in the North ahead of the Civil War. The straightforward story brings together Joseph—who later takes the name Henry Sims—an escaped slave who is also a talented musician and performer; James, the performer/manager of a Philadelphia-based minstrel troupe that needs a big headliner to remain competitive; and Tull Burton, a brutal slave hunter sent to recapture Joseph/Henry dead or alive.

Henry is the son of a slave who was the current favorite of the master, which explains Henry’s light skin and green eyes. He and James have parallel stories: they are both self-made men from distinctly underprivileged circumstances who developed their natural talents to make a better life.

The primary difference is that it was not against the law for James to run away from his home and change his name. When James sees Henry’s mesmerizing street performance, he knows that the Virginia Harmonists, “purveyors of Ethiopian airs, 19th Century

plantation jigs, and every variety of Negro jollity,” need him to join their show, though that’s against the law, too. Henry is a born showman in a time and place that demands he remain hidden. To be free, to escape being hunted, Henry must make it to Canada, but it’s not where he wants to be. If he has to go where he doesn’t want to go, how is that freedom? Piazza leaves the threads of the story open-ended, with that question left unanswered.

Jennifer Bort Yacovissi

C

A CURIOUS BEGINNING Deanna Raybourn, NAL, 2015, $25.95, hb, 352pp, 9780451476012 A Curious Beginning is the first installment in Deanna Raybourn’s new mystery series featuring Veronica Speedwell.

Veronica is an intrepid traveler and natural historian who flouts Victorian morals with relish. Upon returning to England to nurse her dying foster mother, she soon finds herself embroiled in a complex plot that might mean the death of her. Along the way she meets the enigmatic Baron, who seems to know the details of her personal history, and his friend, the stoic and sometimes downright churlish Stoker.

When the Baron turns up dead, Veronica and Stoker are launched on a race to discover whether their friend’s death was natural or nefarious. High jinks, suspense, and sexual tension ensue.

Deanna Raybourn excels at creating rollicking good reads featuring complex and hilarious characters. She is most known for her bestselling Lady Julia Grey mystery series. With Veronica, she takes on an entirely different character. While Lady Julia was courageous yet fairly straitlaced, Veronica is eccentric and sexually liberal, but downright fun to read about. Her mental observations are both sharp and humorous. Her sidekick (for want of a better term) Stoker is much like Lady Julia’s foil Nicholas Brisbane, dark and mysterious. Veronica and Stoker make an irreplaceable team who enjoy verbal sparring as much as sleuthing.

This novel will appeal primarily to mystery lovers, but those who like a thrilling story with romance and a lot of humor will find it and engaging read. Highly recommended.

Caroline Wilson DEATH OF A CENTURY Daniel Robinson, Arcade, 2015, $24.99, hb, 268pp, 9781628725391 In Greenwich, Connecticut, in the 1920s, the aftereffects of the Great War are still felt by newspaperman Joe Henry and his colleague, Wynton Gresham. Gresham had survived the terrible Second Battle of the Champagne in 1915 but Henry knew it haunted him still. On a cold rainy night, Henry finds his friend murdered, and himself a suspect. Piecing together Gresham’s plans, he takes Gresham’s passport and his ticket to Paris, determined to clear his name and discover the manuscript that caused his friend and others to be killed.

Robinson skillfully evokes the haunted life of 19th Century

Great War veterans and their camaraderie as well.

In Paris, Henry is aided by strangers who become friends simply because they fought in the same war.

He finds himself playing a cat-and-mouse game with a man who betrayed his fellow soldiers in the Battle of the Champagne. Gresham’s manuscript was going to expose him, and so Gresham was killed.

Henry and his fellow veterans frequently toast “to the Lost,” so it’s fitting that they also encounter Hemingway’s Lost Generation in Paris, meeting Hemingway, Sylvia Beach, and others.

To Robinson’s credit, their introductions to the story are subtle and storyline-related, none of this “famous person cameo” that can be distracting.

While Henry spends much of the book on the run, he is also invigorated at the chance to right some of the wrongs of the war. He has a purpose that he didn’t have back in Greenwich, and the reader gets the sense that the expatriate life may be for him.

Ellen Keith THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF WOMEN Nina Romano, Turner, 2015, $17.95, pb, 272pp, 9781630269074 It’s a dangerous time in late 1800s China.

The Dowager Empress Cixi secretly supports the violent attacks on foreigners by the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists, which will become famous as the Boxer Rebellion. Lian spends her time being trained by her Swiss-born father, Dr. Gianluca Brasolin, in the healing arts. They serve as representatives of the Italian Embassy and have now been called to the bedside of the ailing Italian ambassador. There Lian will meet the intensely passionate love of her life, Giacomo Scimenti.

This is their story, recorded by Lian in Nushu, the secret language of Chinese women. It is a tale of love at first sight that will bear fruit in the birth of a daughter but which will remain unfulfilled on every other level because of the death of Lian’s father. Lian is then forced to marry Lu, who brutally beats his wife. Escape will follow, and years of suffering in the midst of China’s decline, which is blamed on the encroaching foreigners. At the same time, as a member of the Italian navy, Giacomo is serving on a ship assigned to monitor and prevent further attacks by the Boxers. He is a skilled cook and comrade to his shipmates, but his heart is empty without his missing love. Meanwhile, Lian will fight for her sanity after terrible loss and frequently want to end it all, a story that parallels the terrible suffering endured at the time by all Chinese women.

Although the love between Lian and Giacomo remains unrequited for a very long time, this is a beautiful story of hope and love stronger than any adversity. Very special historical fiction that is highly recommended!

Viviane Crystal TYGER: A Kydd Sea Adventure Julian Stockwin, McBooks, 2015, $24, hb, 352pp, 9781590137000 / Hodder & Stoughton, 2015, £18.99, hb, 384pp, 9781444785432 In the early 1800s, with the Napoleonic Wars still raging, Captain Kydd brings his frigate, L’Aurore, into Plymouth Hoe. He is home following a successful mission rescuing his brother-in-law

from a Turkish prison. Although the captain – true to his moniker, ‘Tom-cutlass’ – is anxious to get back to Cadiz to rejoin the British fleet, his carpenter brings him bad news. Rotting wood is discovered in the timbers of the garboard strake, the worst part in the ship’s hold. With L’Aurore under repair, Kydd is called as a witness at a courtmartial. An eavesdropping news reporter overhears and prints critical remarks Kydd had made to a friend. The alarmed Admiralty swiftly reassigns Kydd to command another ship, the Tyger, whose disruptive crew, having recently mutinied, are still unruly. The Tyger is assigned to the Baltic Sea, and while Kydd is trying to control the defiant crew and other issues, he faces another challenge. Three captured Prussian frigates, flying the French flag, appear menacingly on the horizon.

Having joined the British Royal Navy when only fifteen, Julian Stockwin’s adept nautical know-how shows in his novels. We are treated to travel alongside the sailors and experience life on a ‘fighting-sail’ vessel. The combat scenes, with their elements of surprise, heroism, and horror, have an authenticity about them. These, combined with the political intrigue, particularly in the Baltic Sea countries, and the descriptions of societal norms of that period make this a truly interesting historical novel. It is the sixteenth instalment in the Kydd series, and naturally, those unfamiliar with the previous books might find the character descriptions rather light. That said, this reviewer believes that this is one of the best Kydd books thus far. Highly recommended.

Waheed Rabbani THE CHILDREN OF SILENCE Linda Stratmann, The Mystery Press, 2015, £8.99/$14.95, pb, 278pp, 9780750960106 In the summer of 1880 workmen digging in a filthy London canal basin uncover human remains.

The wife of a missing businessman engages protofemale detective Frances Doughty to investigate, and hopes that Frances will also be able to rescue her from the clutches of her evil brother-in-law.

As we follow the adventures of Frances and her trusty assistant Sarah through murder, blackmail and general mayhem, another corpse enters the fray, and the succession of possible suspects, with a liberal sprinkling of red herrings, keeps us guessing through to the inevitable showdown.

This mystery novel is the fifth in the Frances Doughty series but performs well as a stand-alone work. Stratmann’s characters are well drawn, and her initial description of the Paddington Canal Basin is memorable. Her detective story is worthy of Conan-Doyle himself, whilst her subtle wit and reflection of the social mores of Victorian times are reminiscent of Jane Austen. She weaves the thread of her plot through the early days of sign language and education for ‘the deaf ’, as well as the Suffragette Movement and the general disapprobation of men towards Frances’s chosen career.

An enjoyable and entertaining read, The Children of Silence has made me want to delve deeper into the adventures of Frances and Sarah.

Jo Galloway MR SCARLETTI’S GHOST Linda Stratmann, The Mystery Press, 2015, £8.99, pb, 317pp, 9780750960502 HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Reviews | 37

Set in Victorian Brighton, this novel centres around the contemporary obsession with spirit mediums, ghosts and séances. The main character is Mina Scarletti, an unusual investigator, not because she writes horror stories, but because she herself is short, child-like in appearance and twisted in body due to scoliosis. Mina’s mother has become involved with the group of believers run

by Miss Eustace, a medium of unusual power who can channel the ghost of the deceased Mr Scarletti, even.

Mina is the sceptical one, and the novel follows her attempts to unmask and reveal the mendacious tricks of Miss Eustace and her accomplices. The tale is a leisurely one, very much in the style of a Victorian novel. The action often takes place internally as characters question their belief systems and ideas of faith, death and life after this perhaps not so final event. The author has already written the next Mina Scarletti mystery, The Royal Ghost, and in addition, has written a six-book series featuring another lady investigator, France Doughty, which I intend to try out. This novel is perfect for those who enjoy a Victorian atmosphere and do not demand high action throughout. It is thoughtful, well-characterised and thoughtprovoking. Ultimately mediums succeed in duping those who wish to be duped.

Ann Northfield WATERLOO: The Bravest Man Andrew Swanston, Allison and Busby, 2015, £16.99, hb, 350pp, 9780749019501 With the Bicentenary of Waterloo this year, Swanston’s novel takes us into the thick of the campaign. We experience both the confusion of being a scattered and seemingly isolated unit amidst the immense and widespread chaos of a Napoleonic battle at Quatre Bras, followed by it and its commander being given a specific task: hold Hougoumont in solitary glory beneath the Duke of Wellington’s lines at Waterloo.

Swanston’s novel is thoroughly readable. Its flow carries the reader along. He has caught the period atmosphere well, and his characterisation is well-rounded, using simple idiom. Our knowledge of his characters leads to intriguing sub-plots woven into the narrative. His research has been thorough, and his passing reference to the sea of the unknown makes readers scurry to their search engines. Some of the interactions between officers and men are more to be expected in the present day, but Swanston makes it work. His book is an enjoyable yarn for any reader interested in the military history of the period.

G.H. Storey PINE MARTEN Wallace J. Swenson, Five Star, 2015, $25.95, hb, 232pp, 9781432831219 Tragedy strikes the life of woodsman Salem Greene and his family while living in the Missouri wilderness in 1855. Upon returning home from delivering cut logs to Boonsboro, he finds both his young daughter and wife raped and killed and his son missing and presumed dead. Trying desperately to forget his past, he finds a secluded cabin and continues his woodcutting occupation.

The nightmares continue, along with visitations from specters during the night. Terrified from his 38 | Reviews |

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dreams, he is visited by Dufrey, a drifter, who stays with him and helps him regain his sanity.

Salem is unaware that his son Martin escaped the killers of his family. He is living in the wild, a mile away from Salem’s cabin. Alone and afraid, he believes he let his father down by not protecting his mother and sister from the killers. Meanwhile, Salem learns who killed his family and seeks revenge.

This is an enjoyable novel, a western tragedy mixed with a spiritual undertone and a fast-paced and gripping storyline. The author moves from Salem’s struggles in dealing with his anguish to his son Martin’s life in the wild: alone, hungry and afraid. I could feel the tension build and understood the plight of the father as he tried to make sense of the death of his family. I definitely recommend this book – well written and a thoroughly worthwhile read.

Jeff Westerhoff TERROR BY GASLIGHT Edward Taylor, Robert Hale, 2015, £19.99, hb, 224pp, 9780719816611 Victorian London. A serial killer is stalking Hampstead Heath, killing an apparently random victim every month with a single knife thrust, sowing terror in the hearts and minds of the local population. Major Henry Steele and exSergeant Mason, both recently retired from Military Intelligence and now working as private investigators, are helping Scotland Yard hunt the so called “Heath Maniac”. The two men begin to suspect a link between the victims. Their investigation takes them into the polite and seemingly respectable homes on the heath, through to a shady lawyer, a vivisectionist, and the bedside of a dying comedian before the Maniac is finally exposed.

The author effectively evokes the dark underside of Victorian society as the two detectives carry out their investigations. The characters are well drawn and substantial, while the plot is well structured, convincing and builds up to a satisfying conclusion.

The banter between the two detectives provides light relief against the darker investigation. There is potential here for a series of novels featuring these two gentlemen in what is a welcome addition to the genre of Victorian detective fiction. An enjoyable read.

Mike Ashworth CAGED ANGEL Anne-Marie Vukelic, Hale, 2015, £19.99, hb, 240pp, 9780719816994 In 1837, aged 23, Angela Burdett inherits her grandfather’s share in Coutts Bank, making her the richest woman in England. She changes her name to Angela Burdett-Coutts, and dedicates her life and fortune to humanitarian causes. Working alongside her close friend, Charles Dickens, she funds social, health and educational causes in the East End, and establishes a home for ‘fallen women.’

At a time when even wealthy women had limited influence, Angela defies convention by refusing multiple proposals of marriage, preferring her role as a fiercely independent ‘Queen of the Poor’. Her high-profile position in society draws the attention of mentally unstable barrister, Richard Dunn, who stalks the heiress for years, even breaking into her

home and stealing a lock of hair.

This fictionalised account of the life of Angela Burdett-Coutts provides a fascinating insight into the privileged, although sometimes lonely, world of a ‘spinster’ philanthropist in 19th-century Britain. Richard Dunn is chillingly portrayed, and even Angela’s vast wealth can do little to protect her from the relentless attention of this obsessive admirer. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in the lives of Victorian women.

Claire Thurlow THE CRESCENT SPY Michael Wallace, Lake Union, 2015, $24.95, hb, 9781503949454 / also $14.95, pb, 334pp, 9781503945586 In 1861, Josephine Breaux is a newspaper reporter at the Battle of Bull Run during the American Civil War. After interviewing Confederate officers, she barely makes it back to her Union contacts. Accused of being a spy, she insists she is only gathering information for her newspaper articles. To her shock, President Abraham Lincoln has heard of her exploits, calls her to the White House, and insists that she spy for him in her old hometown of New Orleans.

She resists, as New Orleans holds painful memories from her past. Finally conceding, she is accompanied by a Pinkerton man, Frank Gray, and smuggled into the rebel-occupied city. Josephine finds herself in the middle of several battles for New Orleans, caught between the North and the South, as she sends information to Washington.

Her past catches up to her to complicate matters.

Josephine was raised on a riverboat where her mother was a dancer, and she is savvy about the river and its people. Her clever ingenuity seems, at times, almost improbable for one only twenty years old. The battle scenes are sharp and realistic, the descriptions of river life and New Orleans vivid, and her growing attraction to Frank adds spice to this engrossing novel.

Diane Scott Lewis

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FRENCH CONCESSION Xiao Bai, Harper, 2015, $27.99, hb, 368pp, 9780062313454 Shanghai, 1931: a Chinese Nationalist official is welcomed at Shanghai Harbor with fireworks, deafening noise, a lethal bullet, and the unexpected disappearance of the official’s wife, Leng. The protagonist, Hseuh, a French-Chinese photographer, was absolutely riveted by Leng’s beauty on the boat but never got near her. Now Hseuh undergoes a fiercely brutal interrogation about who was on the boat before the murder and is forced to become a police collaborator, with orders to find who is behind this death and why it occurred.

This complex novel concerns mysterious characters indeed. First we meet Hseuh’s lover, Therese, who packs a gun and disappears for days and weeks after Hseuh asks questions that, if answered, would reveal a side of Shanghai about to explode. Later, Leng will entrance Hseuh as well. Under the peaceful façade of this pivotal 19th Century — 20th Century

city, preparations are being made for a huge battle involving the Nationalists, Communists and Japanese, and Therese and Leng are an integral part of this dire revolutionary struggle.

Hseuh is so besotted by these women that he is inadvertently drawn into an underworld of gun trading, smuggling, gangs, criminals and spies.

Hseuh thinks and acts like a spy out of a John Le Carré novel but one who is more insecure with the political and criminal realities he is learning and becoming part of by association with each volatile day that passes. Hseuh feeds his police superiors just enough information to remain credible but plays so many different roles with Therese, Leng and other nefarious characters that his life is seriously at risk in the seamy, exciting side of Shanghai in the days preceding momentous historical changes in China. French Concession is an intriguing historical mystery-thriller.

Viviane Crystal MURDER ON THE SWITZERLAND TRAIL Mike Befeler, Five Star, 2015, $25.95, hb, 262pp, 9781432830502 Boulder, Colorado in 1919 has seen so few murders in its brief history that veteran policeman Harry McBride has never had to solve one. He and his wife are enjoying a Sunday train ride into the Rockies following the Switzerland Trail, when his day off turns into his worst case. As the train starts its return trip, one of the passengers staggers through the rear door, points toward the others and shouts, “You assassin!” before collapsing dead from a knife wound.

That assassin, Harry knows, could be the conductor as well as any of the other five on the same car, and he digests their interwoven past relationships and present disagreements he learned about on the trip up the mountain.

They all knew the victim, a wounded and bitter World War I soldier, including his former college roommate turned socialist lawyer, their former college landlady, the soldier’s fiancé and her autistic brother, and their former history professor who loves to talk about the rail line and the landmarks they pass on their journey.

Harry is a likable, plodding investigator, who needs a bit of luck to identify the murderer before the train arrives at the Boulder depot. Although the cast of characters Befeler assembles for this voyage resembles an Agatha Christie novel, the writing style and tension fall far short of that peak, in this first effort after leaving his niche genres of “geezerlit and paranormal mysteries.” He emphasizes the history (weather, news, and movies of the day) by forcing it into stilted dialogue at the expense of the action, and his mouthpiece professor is just an excuse for information dumps embedded in monologues that the passengers, and this reader, soon tire of.

Tom Vallar A PEACH OF A PAIR Kim Boykin, Berkley, 2015, $15/C$20, pb, 292pp, 9780425281994 In 1953, in Columbia, South Carolina, Nettie Gilbert has it all. She’s about to graduate with her degree in music education from Columbia College, and she’s engaged to her long-time love, Brooks 20th Century

Carver. Then a letter from her mother wrecks her secure future; her younger sister Sissy is pregnant with Brooks’ child and they’re getting married.

Nettie’s mother begs her to be the bigger person and come to the wedding and support her sister.

Nettie’s reaction is perfectly understandable; she falls apart and takes a leave of absence from school.

This collapse of her future ends up being perfectly timed. She ends up as companion and caretaker to Emily and Lurleen Eldridge, two elderly sisters in nearby Camden. Lurleen has congestive heart failure and Emily can’t care for her on her own.

The sisters have a long, complicated history together which is revealed slowly over the course of the book. Naturally, Nettie learns through their relationship to forgive her own sister. She also finds love in the form of the sisters’ doctor, handsome Remmy Wilkes. Forgive me if this makes the book sound saccharine. Indeed, it’s far from it. Both Lurleen and Emily are salty, not sentimental, old maids; both have survived tragedies that would have felled lesser women. Nettie has the same vein of strength. Her family has quite clearly sided with her sister, and she survives that betrayal.

The book’s strength is its characters more than its place. Although it ably evokes the genteel South in the 1950s, it’s a very white South, untouched by civil unrest, and where the only shame is being an unwed mother.

Ellen Keith THE PALEST INK Kay Bratt, Lake Union, 2015, $14.95, pb, 455pp, 9781503946163 The title refers to a Chinese proverb that states that the palest ink is better than the best memory. Benfu and his friend Pony Boy attempt to document the abuses that occur during Mao’s Cultural Revolution in 1960s Shanghai. Benfu’s family is rather well-off, while Pony Boy has to work several jobs, including cleaning public toilets, to support his family after his father has a heart attack. Benfu meets an elderly man who asks him to hide a packet of negatives. Pony Boy’s girlfriend, Zu Wren, urges them to use the photos to create a newsletter of anti-government propaganda, which Pony Boy can distribute secretly on his father’s mail route. As rumors grow of Red Guard-led violence and rapidly-changing government policy, Benfu’s parents send him to the countryside with false identification papers, thinking to get him out of harm’s way. But he has difficulty passing himself off as a peasant and comes under suspicion. Pony Boy attempts to journey to by train to try and see Mao, but officials discover the illegal newsletter in his bag.

An author’s note states that the book is Bratt’s attempt to “pay tribute to the staggering amount of victims… who lost their lives due to the ten years of China’s so-called Cultural Revolution.”

She lived in China for several years, and includes a reference list of her research sources. Pony Boy and Benfu are characters the reader will identify with. Learning about life in mid-20th century China was interesting, despite a few information dumps. The book enlightened me about some of the Cultural Revolution’s abuses, which were not made public for decades. I recommend this novel to readers wanting to experience an infamous period of Chinese history, where a single wrong word or

action could have disastrous consequences.

B.J. Sedlock THE RED STORM Grant Bywaters, Minotaur, 2015, $25.99/ C$29.99, hb, 259pp, 9781250073075 This novel is set in New Orleans, in 1938, long before Joe Lewis broke the glass ceiling for boxers of color. William Fletcher is a talented black heavyweight but, with everything stacked against him, he will never win a title. Fletcher’s a smart guy as well as a big one, however; he gives up the ring, puts a history of petty crime behind him, and turns private eye.

Fletcher sets up in New Orleans to attract clients like himself—“white clientele” is trouble— but business is slow. He can’t afford to be choosy.

So when Storm, an old enemy, asks Fletcher to find his daughter, he agrees. Finding the daughter is simple compared to what follows when Storm is killed and Fletcher, trying to solve the murder, gets pulled into a violent battle between two rival gangs. Due to his earlier experience, Fletcher’s got contacts in two cities and on both sides of the law, a combination that gets him out of trouble—this time—and promises a life of adventure.

The Red Storm is written in the first person.

Fletcher vividly describes the shady characters and fast action in the words of an educated man. When he’s talking to criminals and shysters, however, he uses the same ungrammatical “chin music” they do. Clearly, there is more to learn about William Fletcher PI in the future.

You can expect flickering neon light and backstreet jargon, some of it unintelligible; but for a first novel and a noir at that, The Red Storm is remarkably free of clichés. Except for leaving way too much to explain in the last chapters, Grant Bywater’s debut is a stunner.

Jeanne Greene THE HOURS COUNT Jillian Cantor, Riverhead, 2015, $26.95/C$34.95, hb, 358pp, 9781594633188 In June 1953, the U.S. executed alleged spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. Cantor tells the Rosenbergs’ story, beginning in 1947, through the first-person narrative of their fictional apartment neighbor, Millie Stein.

Ethel and Millie, both mothers of young children and married to co-workers, form a deep friendship. Millie’s husband is a recent immigrant from Russia, and the Rosenbergs have ties to Russian sympathizers and communists. Times in their Knickerbocker Village of New York City are a constant challenge. Senator McCarthy is on a rampage, the Soviets are exploding hydrogen bombs, and good jobs are hard to find, particularly for Russian immigrants. On top of that, the Steins’ first son is autistic and disdained by his father.

The roughly first half of the novel portrays Millie’s daily life and her growing bond with Ethel. Cantor transports the reader into that time and place through vivid details, true human interactions, some poetic lines, and an author’s voice that fits. Millie and the Rosenbergs elicit understanding and empathy. These aspects reflect Cantor’s deep research (summarized nicely in the Author’s Notes) into the Rosenbergs and the likely grave injustice of their incarceration, trial and HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Reviews | 39

sentencing.

The remainder of the novel tells of the FBI investigations, informers and counter-informers, and the resulting chaos. The games played by the FBI and its informers, though well-paced, ring less true than the first half of the story. Several hardto-accept plot twists and actions by the key FBI informant will disappoint some readers.

G. J. Berger A PROMISE MADE Valerie Joan Connors, Deeds Publishing, 2015, $17.95, pb, 289pp, 9781941165775 When the soldiers come home to Marquette, Michigan in 1945, 17-year-old Eva Larkin joins throngs at the train station to greet uniformed men bearing duffle bags and exotic tales. A wink from a flirtatious soldier is followed by a chance meeting outside the bar where Leo Maguire has a new job.

Leo asks Eva in for a Coke. It’s not long before he sweeps the naïve girl off her feet and into trouble.

Hasty weddings are common in the giddy postwar years, and Eva hopefully takes up housekeeping with Leo in a tiny apartment.

However, as Eva’s pregnancy advances, Leo drinks his evenings away. Their son is born early, medical bills mount, and Leo’s frustration leads to violence.

It takes a year for Eva to realize that Leo’s beatings will never stop, and to screw up courage to leave him. She takes their son to New York City, where there are plenty of jobs for young women. Eva hopes that Leo will never find her there, but he doesn’t give up easily.

A Promise Made reminds modern readers how women’s lives have changed since the 1950s.

Assistance for single mothers, such as day care, was scarce. Despite the stigma of divorce and Leo’s disastrous intrusions, Eva pursues her dream of an education and a career.

I rooted for the complex, vulnerable Eva. Leo was easy to predict, but hard to understand. Connors gives us the barest glimpses at what drove his anger, but maybe understanding of a creature like Leo lies at the bottom of a liquor bottle, and who wants to follow that path? Instead, enjoy A Promise Made, and find inspiration in Eva’s courage.

Jo Ann Butler

THE GATES OF RUTHERFORD Elizabeth Cooke, Berkley, 2015, $16.00/C$21.00 pb, 384pp, 9780425277195 In this third book in the series, the son and heir to the great Yorkshire estate—Rutherford Park— is a fighter pilot in France. It’s 1917, and Harry has been injured and ordered to return to England for surgery. Back in England, his sister, Charlotte, is on the verge of marrying a blinded officer. She’s afraid she’s making the biggest mistake of her life. Her affections—feelings she doesn’t quite understand—are elsewhere, but she has bowed to convention. Her older sister Louisa is conducting a secret affair with a man of much lower station while taking care of their deserted father. Their mother, Octavia, a woman full of exuberance, has left her rigid, older husband and is living with the love of her life, an American about to travel to France to gather intelligence that will encourage the United States to enter WWI. We even get a sensitively rendered point of view from a German POW working on the estate.

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Class differences are wavering, the old ways fading, and the upkeep of huge estates becoming impossible. The characters are sympathetic and interesting, but reading the first two books would help to know them better. I had the most difficult issue with Harry and his motivations, although perhaps the earlier stories would have remedied that. Cooke is a fine writer, even with dragged-out scenes and large info dumps on war, and the futility of war. Her descriptions of the fighting, weapons, aircraft and the day to day discomfort of being a soldier are impressive. Despite the title, most of the novel takes place far from Rutherford Park. I would recommend the series.

Diane Scott Lewis WILBERFORCE H.S. Cross, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015, $27.00, hb, 464pp, 9780374290108 Wilberforce chronicles life for Morgan Wilberforce at St. Stephen’s boys’ academy in 1926, where boredom and hormones are often released with spats on the rugby pitch, pilfered magazines, and sneaking out of dorm rooms for a pint. When a mild rebellion by the younger class is followed by a disaster that ends a boy’s life, Morgan expects the headmaster to close the academy for good— and he’s irrevocably torn. But then classes resume, tougher than ever, and after Morgan once again refuses to bend to their rule, he’s sent away for reforming under the tutelage of a decorous bishop.

Morgan returns to school eventually, but we are left wondering at what expense.

The book jacket touts a “contrary spirit” for its characters, and Wilberforce and his companions live up to the mark. We are given a close inspection of Morgan, the pain felt after his mother’s death, and the torments of the other students, without a real hook of investment. At one point Morgan finds a bit of solace in a teacher, who tries his best to answer the pressing questions of life despite his own shortcomings, but his story is discontinued almost as quickly as it begins. The writing itself is dense and dark at times, which lend well to the story’s overall landscape. Personally, I find dashes instead of quotes difficult to follow in conversation, but I think enthusiasts of the period will find much to love about Cross’s look into boarding schools of the past, and the tormented adolescents within.

Holly Faur TWAIN’S END Lynn Cullen, Gallery, 2015, $26.00/C$34.00, hb, 352pp, 9781476758961 The thin line between the persona of Mark Twain and the author, Samuel Clemens, is explored in this emotional and revealing fictionalization of the last few years of his life. Isabel Lyon worked as Clemens’ secretary for seven years, her employment abruptly ending just after her wedding, which had been blessed by the author. Curiously, Samuel Clemens and his daughter, Clara, then vilified her in the press, making false accusations and bullying her out of home on their property. Isabel, however, never went on record to exonerate herself. This story imagines what may have occurred between the volatile author and his once-beloved secretary.

There is much history explored in this tale, especially eye-opening for readers not well acquainted with the author’s personal life. Mark

Twain, a humorist, was adored in his lifetime by a legion of fans. Samuel Clemens, however, was unapologetically outspoken, cynical and strangely selfish—but as the story played out, his particular demons began to make sense. Isabel, three decades his junior, turned awe and fascination into obsession and in the end showed true loyalty to the man who essentially ruined her life.

As with her novel on Edgar Allan Poe, Cullen has humanized a popular literary figure while telling a compelling story. The timeline jumps around a bit, and readers will need to pay attention to the chapter headings, which include place names and dates, to mentally arrange the series of events.

Readers should find this novel an intriguing and character-driven retelling of a man that many still blindly revere solely as the fictional Mark Twain, and not the real man behind the pen name.

Arleigh Johnson SUMMER AT HIDEAWAY KEY Barbara Davis, NAL Accent, 2015, $16.00/ C$20.00, pb, 386pp, 9780451474582 For the core of her third novel, Barbara Davis takes a staple of historical women’s fiction – the discovery of an old diary – and grafts around it an engrossing story about sibling jealousy, the difficult path to self-discovery, and the importance of understanding the past and taking chances on the future.

In 1995, following her father’s death, wealthy fashion designer Lily St. Claire is surprised to discover he left her a beach house, Sand Pearl Cottage, on the small island of Hideaway Key on the Gulf Coast of Florida. The house once belonged to Lily’s beautiful lookalike aunt, LilyMae Boyle, the long-estranged older sister of Lily’s mother, Caroline. Determined to learn more about her family, despite her mother’s firm disapproval, Lily takes up residence in the cottage, sorts through her late aunt’s belongings, and makes connections with many of the locals – including her nearest neighbor, Dean Landry, a hunky architect whose friendly overtures she doesn’t fully trust: he wants to buy her cottage and tear it down for a new building project.

Beginning in 1953, Lily-Mae’s journal reveals the story of her difficult adolescence and the adult decisions that led to her renown as a cover model and, much later, her dying alone in her bed at Hideaway Key. With a heartfelt tone revealed through her rural Tennessee twang, Lily-Mae tells how her Mama abandoned her and Caroline at a poor farm after their money ran out. Lily-Mae’s resolve to do whatever it takes to protect her younger sister, even to her own detriment, instills in Caroline a resentment that festers throughout their lives.

Both tales are flawlessly interwoven, each enhancing the plot and themes revealed in the other, and they exert a similar emotional pull. The ending is perfect – have some tissues ready – and the glorious depictions of the Florida beaches will satisfy anyone who’s ever dreamed of an idyllic tropical haven.

Sarah Johnson MURDER ON THE MINNEAPOLIS Anita Davison, Buried River, 2015, £7.99, pb, 319pp, 9781910208267 20th Century

Never before have I read about a transatlantic crossing with so many murders. In 1902, the Minneapolis, a small cargo and passenger ship passes Newfoundland on the Great Circle route, noted for storms and icebergs. In the stuffy, polite atmosphere, innocent Flora, a governess returning to England with her charge, Eddy, discovers the body of a man in evening dress. After a slow start, the story develops well until the dead man’s partner emerges. Then she is found stabbed and Eddy finds an oriental dagger. It soon becomes a likeable, easy-to-read novel of quest for murderers.

The passengers, all in first-class suites, are uncomfortable even whilst investigating a murder.

Then there is another, and another murder... Oh! I’ve lost count of the murders and all the new characters.

Flora meets a Mr Harrington, called Bunny, who is concerned about Matilda in the ship’s hold.

Despite the murder investigations, Flora and Bunny hit it off. Have we a love story as well as murders?

There are many passengers with good characterisations. Some remember the first dead man as a gambler and womaniser. As varied passengers, including helpful foreigners, pearlbedecked double-barrelled dowagers and eager young mashers dart from suite to suite in their investigations, there is ‘man overboard’ called. But it’s not a man but another young woman.

The book has some good turns of phrase, and there is romance in the air as Flora’s ‘insides turn to water’ as she pals up with wealthy Bunny Harrington as sleuth and assistant. Matilda, in the hold, is Harrington’s Daimler and, in Liverpool, two of the apparently innocent passengers are taken away by police.

Geoffrey Harfield NEWS FROM BERLIN Otto de Kat (trans. Ina Rilke), MacLehose, 2015, £8.99/$22.99, pb, 206pp, 9781848662346 Switzerland, June 1941, and Oscar Verschuur is a Dutch diplomat, with a reputation as a political firefighter, working in Berne. His wife, Kate, is in London helping in a hospital, and his daughter, Emma, is in Berlin, married to a high-placed, anti-Nazi civil servant in the German foreign ministry. When Emma makes a visit to Geneva, and meets her father in a restaurant at the end of May 1941, she tells him the date of the planned German invasion of the Soviet Union – Operation Barbarossa, having been told it by her husband.

Oscar does not know how to use this dangerous information without exposing his daughter and son-in-law to peril from the Gestapo. The marriage between Oscar and Kate is a long-distance, loose state of affairs, and both of them seem to drift towards others – for Oscar it is Lara, a lover he meets in the Swiss mountains; and for Kate it is Matteous – an African soldier who she looks after in the Richmond hospital in England and then attempts to rehabilitate into English wartime society. Oscar flies to London, in order to inform a senior contact about the date for Operation Barbarossa, where he meets up with Kate.

This is a well-narrated and beautifully observed story of how individuals have to function in the stifling, dangerous and treacherous atmosphere of war. It is about grief, memory and the emotional 20th Century

underpinning of life. It is a brief, dense novel, and leaves many loose ends unresolved. But it’s a book that very much deserves reading.

Douglas Kemp SWEET WATTLE CREEK Kaye Dobbie, Harlequin Mira Australia, 2015, A$29.99, pb, 371pp, 9781743693087 It’s 1986 and Sophie is on the run from a toxic relationship. She hides out in the small country town of Sweet Wattle Creek and gets a job with the local newspaper. When an old wedding dress arrives on her doorstep with just “Charlie and Belle” written on the box, she’s keen to uncover its history.

A personal tragedy shatters Belle’s comfortable life in Melbourne. Her only asset is the run-down Grand Hotel bequeathed to her by her mysterious Aunt Martha. When she takes up her inheritance in 1931, she has to deal with unexplained open resentments towards her and Martha.

Sophie finds a common link to Belle: “…our circumstances were similar in a way. I, too, had left all I’d known behind me after a catastrophic event, and had to make a new life for myself among strangers… I knew a little of the emotional trauma Belle must have been through.”

The flavour of small-town life in rural Australia is excellent, as are the finer details of the 1930s and 1980s. Sophie’s story tackles some complex contemporary issues, while Belle is a sympathetic reflection of a woman facing the prejudices and attitudes of a grieving conservative generation who suffered World War I only to be hit by the Great Depression.

With the alternating narratives, concentration is needed to follow the sequence of events and intricate relationships. Because the reader knows right from the beginning the basis of Martha’s secret, also the history of the wedding dress, the gradual revelations for the benefit of first Belle and then Sophie can make some passages feel repetitive.

There are also the inevitable contrivances tying up the plot, but overall this is a warm and entertaining novel that will give pleasure to many readers both in Australia and beyond.

Marina Maxwell A STROKE IN TIME Gerard Doran, Flanker, 2015, $19.95/C$19.95, pb, 326pp, 9781771174596 Five miles outside of St. John’s, Newfoundland, lies Outer Cove, a small community of fishing families and farmers eking out their existence as an often-willful nature allows. One event that brings the entire community together is the annual St. John’s Regatta, held on Quidi Vidi Lake each August. In 1901, the Outer Cove team set a record that stood for 80 years, and Doran brings to life the men and women behind this accomplishment.

Watt Power was a powerful rower when younger, but now struggles both with age and alcoholism.

John Whelan is twenty years younger than Watt but knows he only has one more good race left, and that’s if he’s lucky and trains hard. Watt and John pull together five other Outer Cove men who have little to middling experience rowing and imbue the team with a sense of purpose and unity. Along the way there’s grueling training, which takes time away from the already-short fishing season, and

results in blistered hands and backsides. There’s also interference and unsportsmanlike behavior from their top competitor, the Torbay team.

Doran based his writing on research and stories shared by locals; the history and descriptions ring true, from Watt’s training talks to the late-night conversations between John and his wife, Kate.

The detailed description of the new shell design used by the team shines light on the local builder as well as the architect. The dialogue reflects local phrases and everyday conversation, providing readers with a true sense of this turn-of-thelast-century community. Other Newfoundland history is referenced in Doran’s narrative, and readers wanting more stories of these same small Newfoundland communities may also enjoy Nellie Strowbridge’s recent Ghost of the Southern Cross.

Helene Williams ONE MAN’S FLAG David Downing, Soho, 2015, $27.95, hb, 384pp, 9781616952709 I loved the premise of this novel as well as the unusual, volatile settings of India and Ireland during WWI. Both countries were chafing under British rule and willing to reach out to Germany for help under the assumption that, as Downing says in his author’s note, “an enemy’s enemy” might prove a friend. British spy Jack McColl begins the novel in India trying to track down members of the terrorist group Jugantar during India’s independence movement in 1915. The novel ends with Jack and his Irish-American journalist lover Caitlin Haney in Ireland during the 1916 uprising.

This international spy thriller has well-crafted action scenes and an exciting climax that merges the love story and the protagonists’ political sympathies. I learned a lot about the political climate in India and Europe during the Great War, but the novel read like nonfiction because the characterization and historical details were weak.

I never felt I knew the protagonists well enough to care about them and had no sense of their personalities or motivations. Downing reports historical and political events in a general way but rarely specifies details of the setting (clothing, technology, architecture) to evoke the era. In addition, the characters’ language and attitudes were anachronistically modern, often leading me to forget I was reading a historical novel. This is the second novel in the series, but unfortunately it didn’t make me want to read the first.

Clarissa Harwood

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RED ICON Sam Eastland, Faber and Faber 2015, £12.99 pb, 346pp, 9780571312283 This fifth book in Eastland’s Inspector Pekkala series begins with the accidental discovery of a lost icon in the crypt of a bombed church in 1944. When Stalin charges Pekkala, the legendary Emerald Eye, to investigate, a dark and complicated adventure begins which takes Pekkala back into HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Reviews | 41

his past as the Tsar’s favourite secret policeman and foreshadows the uneasy peace of the Cold War era. The novel is a thrilling romp through Russian history from 1915 to 1945. The brusque but fairminded Finn, Pekkala, is a gallant maverick in the tradition of Philip Marlowe whose quasi-marital relationship with his sidekick, Kirov, echoes great policing partnerships from Holmes and Watson to Morse and Lewis. Eastwood’s archvillain, a monstrous, hideously mutilated religious fanatic, is terrifying yet comprehensible in the way of Frankenstein’s Monster. A distinguished supporting cast includes the doomed Tsar and Tsarina, Rasputin, Stalin and Hitler, and Eastwood manages to give all these a fair hearing.

In his skilled hands, no-one is a cliché.

Eastland writes well. His prose is elegant, his observation acute, and he handles a complex chronology with assurance. He mixes lyricism and compassion with high drama and scenes of very grisly violence in a way which keeps you permanently on the edge of your seat, never knowing when a description of great art or grand scenery or even someone’s wallpaper is going to segue into a nightmare of butchers’ knives and chemical warfare. He is also very funny, particularly when writing about human relationships with exasperating technology – broken-down cars, wrecked tanks, a world dragging itself out of total war in which the only machine which actually works is the hangman’s drop. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

Sarah Bower HEIRS AND ASSIGNS: The Herbert Reardon Historical Mysteries, #1 Marjorie Eccles, Severn House, 2015, $28.95/£19.99, hb, 224pp, 9780727885289 In Shropshire, England, in 1928, wealthy Penrose Llewellyn invites his family and friends to his country manor for his 60th birthday celebration.

Among them are Penrose’s sister and her daughter, Penrose’s younger brother and his wife, plus his seedy-looking youngest brother, who has shown up after an absence of 24 years. The family physician, Doctor Fairlie, is present, but there is also an uninvited guest, the housekeeper’s nephew, surreptitiously dining in the kitchen. All have their own axes to grind with Penrose.

After dinner, Penrose announces, to the astonishment of his guests, his engagement to Anna, a landscape architect. While most of the relatives are pondering the likely changes in Penrose’s will, the exhausted man is helped to bed by Fairlie. In the morning, Penrose is found dead. Although Fairlie signs the death certificate, Anna is not satisfied. When the autopsy shows indications of foul play, Detective Inspector Reardon and Sergeant Gilmour are called in to investigate. Despite their intense questioning, and the occurrence of another suspicious death, no one seems to be telling the whole truth. It will take the discovery of a buried skeleton of a dog to provide important clues.

Marjorie Eccles has introduced DI Reardon in this new mystery series remarkably well. It is not only set in the Downton Abbey period, but the writing captures the nuances and cultural peculiarities of that era superbly, particularly the language—which includes some delightful 42 | Reviews |

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slang. Told in the style of a police procedural, the vivid narrative includes the background and idiosyncrasies of the large cast of characters.

While engrossed in the murder mystery, we are transported to the post-WWI period, with its sights and sounds, and learn of its influence on the characters. The abundance of red herrings keeps us guessing the perpetrator up to the ending.

Waheed Rabbani A MAN OF SOME REPUTE Elizabeth Edmondson, Thomas & Mercer, 2015, $15.95, pb, 293pp, 9781477829349 Hugo Hawksworth, an injured WWII intelligence officer, grudgingly accepts a desk job in the country and takes up residence in Selchester Castle with his spunky kid sister, Georgia.

Struggling with his own demons, Hugo must make a life for himself and Georgia after the death of their parents. The castle itself is full of its own secrets, however, including the whereabouts of the last earl, who disappeared during a blizzard seven years before, never to be heard from again. When the late earl’s body turns up under the flagstones of the castle’s Old Chapel, the real questions become who killed him and why. With the late earl’s niece, Freya, Hugo, Georgia, and their uncle Leo work to solve the mystery of who killed Lord Selchester, why the murder was concealed for so many years, and what broader implications the earl’s death may have had for post-war national security.

Full of small-town charm and colorful characters, the book is an enjoyable escape into post-war Britain. The only difficulty is that the mystery itself is the weakest point of the narrative.

The secondary characters are all thinly drawn and mentioned sparingly, resulting in a murder investigation that feels anti-climactic. Witnesses described as “buttoned up” become conveniently talkative, suspects feel compelled to spill all when put on the spot, and much of the middle hardly mentions the murder investigation at all, all of which diminishes the plot. Hugo, Freya, Georgia, and Leo are intriguing characters – appealing, witty, and well-drawn – but the mystery itself will leave thriller/suspense enthusiasts wanting more.

Rebecca Henderson Palmer THE BOOK OF LOST AND FOUND Lucy Foley, Back Bay, 2015, $14.99/C$17.99, pb, 432pp, 9780316375054 / Harper, 2015, £7.99, pb, 544pp, 9780007575350 Spanning most of the 20th century, The Book of Lost and Found is the sort of sweeping multi-period saga I seek out, one that promises to carry me away on a journey of discovery along with the characters.

In 1986, Kate Darling is a 27-year-old photographer still mourning her mother, June, a celebrated ballerina; the two had been exceptionally close. After the subsequent death of June’s adoptive mother, Evie, Kate is shaken to learn that Evie had withheld information about June’s birth mother.

An exquisite decades-old sketch of a beautiful dark-haired woman with a striking resemblance to June leads Kate to renowned artist Thomas Stafford, now an elderly widower living on Corsica.

Intervening sections reveal the tale of a longago love that transformed Tom’s life. He and Alice Eversley, born into different social classes, become friends as children, when their families vacation on

Cornwall during the lazy summer of 1913. They meet again at an English house party in 1928.

Although separated due to life circumstances, neither forgets the other.

“How could a mere few strokes of pen do that, exert such a pull of memory and emotion?”

Foley’s elegiac tone suits her story about love, loss, and people’s connections to the past. Each locale is skillfully described, from the rocky Corsican coast, with its heady scent of herbs and salt, to the bohemian 1920s and, later, the terror of wartime France. While Alice is a brave, unselfish heroine, at times Kate feels immature in comparison. For example, I puzzled at her habit of wearing jeans and crumpled T-shirts for important meetings. The novel also jumped abruptly from one viewpoint to another in the later sections.

While imperfect, this debut novel has much to recommend it. Fans of Kimberley Freeman, Lucinda Riley, and Rachel Hore will want to look for it.

Sarah Johnson THE BEAST’S GARDEN Kate Forsyth, Vintage Australia, 2015, A$32.99, pb, 448pp, 9780857980403 Since the death of her mother, Ava Falkenhorst, singer and daughter of an eminent psychiatrist, has been raised alongside her Jewish friend Rupert Feidler. Prior to the rise of the Nazis, their relationship is not a problem. But one violent night in November 1938 changes everything. Rupert’s home is ransacked, his parents unable to repair the damages made by Hitler’s Brownshirts.

Despite the regulations, Ava and her father insist on helping their Jewish friends. Their actions do not escape the notice of Leo von Lowenstein, a handsome, aristocratic military intelligence officer serving in the Abwehr. When Leo contrives a musical engagement for Ava, she cannot deny her attraction to him. She swears never to fall in love with a Nazi officer.

Kate Forsyth’s latest novel is inspired by a variant of the well-known fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast.” In keeping with her other ‘fairy tale’ novels, there are links between the fantastical and the psychological. However, The Beast’s Garden is more in keeping with the tone of The Wild Girl than her more mystical Bitter Greens.

Through shifting third-person points-of-view, we meet the various groups targeted by the Nazis and the resistance movement that formed in response. Apart from the Falkenhorst and Feidler families, Forsyth’s characters are mainly historical.

The novel’s triumph is a growing sense of horror as each character grapples with a response to evil incarnate.

At times, the large cast of historical characters detracts from the depth of its protagonists. The author also has a tendency to finish each scene by telling us what she had already shown us so beautifully. But these are quibbles. The Beast’s Garden is a compelling novel that gives its readers real insight into the German resistance movement.

I can’t wait to read Forsyth next ‘fairy tale’ novel.

Elizabeth Jane Corbett WISH ME LUCK AS YOU WAVE ME GOODBYE Marius Gabriel, Lake Union, 2015, $14.95/ 20th Century

C$19.95/ £8.99, pb, 384pp, 9781503945227 Isobel fiercely mothered her sisters Chiara and Felicity when the three British girls were orphaned, not caring what the world thought. Now that her sisters are grown, she still doesn’t care about what the world thinks, but now she’s bull-headed about fascism. She thinks Franco, Hitler, and Mussolini will set the world back on its axis and clean things up. The book begins in Spain in 1936; the Spanish Civil War has forced her from her home. Isobel is married to a wealthy, conservative Spaniard who has deserted her without divorcing her. When an idealistic American shows up fighting for the Republic, she makes his life miserable before having to accept his help to escape being shot.

Chiara, the middle sister, is in London. She’s also falling for a spectacularly wrong man. He’s old enough to be her father, and everyone warns her that he’ll ruin her, leaving her unmarriageable.

Felicity, the youngest, is in love with the most radical paramour of all: she’s determined to become a Carmelite nun.

I didn’t think I would like this book, and the first few pages didn’t persuade me otherwise. But then I was sucked in, and lost sleep over following the sisters’ lives. Gabriel is a solid writer who paints his story across a broad canvas of World War II Europe, with each woman’s personality complex, intelligent, and confounding. This fast-paced romantic saga is both compelling and suspenseful; the kind of book where you look up and realize it’s 2 a.m. with the alarm set to go off in four hours. I was grateful for a good old-fashioned story that swept me away in the fashion of Rosamunde Pilcher or Herman Wouk. Recommended with one caveat: I finished the book already longing for a sequel.

Kristen Hannum TWICE IN A LIFETIME Dorothy Garlock, Grand Central, 2015, $26.00/ C$29.00, hb, 372pp, 9781455527281 Dorothy Garlock lives up to her reputation as being one of the best writers of Americana with Twice in a Lifetime.

Clara Sinclair is trying to make the best of life in Sunset, Missouri. Her husband had died nine years earlier in 1945, while fighting in the Pacific, and with his death her world slowly spiraled out of control. Their son, Tommy, is now hanging out with the wrong crowd and becoming defiant and out of control. Her mother is showing the first signs of Alzheimer’s, and at her work—as a bank teller—the boss, a disgusting, rotund man, is holding her mortgage over her head as a way to get her to concede to marriage.

For Drake McCoy, 1954 couldn’t be a better year. He’s racing cars, betting drunkards and braggarts in towns across the Midwest that his beat up car could out race any of them. What he doesn’t know is that his mechanic, Amos, has a secret addiction to morphine and had stolen from a dealer who is now chasing them from town to town to collect. However, the racing circuit is wearing on Drake and he is beginning to entertain thoughts of settling down.

Twice in a Lifetime is a fast-paced romance that will appeal to readers of all genres—romance, Americana, or historical fiction. The romantic tension between Drake and Clara pulls the reader along with the two lovers, willing them to finally 20th Century

give in to their emotions. Garlock weaves Amos’ side story into the overall plot in a way that, without it, the story would fall apart. In Garlock’s hands, mid-century small-town America comes to life in vibrant detail—from Main Street to the broken swing on the front porch. A fun little book.

Bryan Dumas BIRDS OF PASSAGE: An Italian Immigrant Coming-Of-Age Novel Joe Giordano, Harvard Square Editions, 2015, $22.95, hb, 272pp, 9781941861080 Leonardo Robustelli is forced to leave Naples, Italy in 1903. A deadly feud arises between two families, and Leonardo commits a crime that forces him to accept financial support and a ticket to America. This is the historical period when Europeans believe that the streets of America are paved with gold. In reality, poverty and struggle are the norm for America’s Italian immigrants settling in the famous Mulberry Street location of New York City. Leonardo’s refusal to accept the minimum propels him into a world of violence and power, where Italian gangs are in constant conflict with the Irish immigrants running the Tammany Hall political machine that has most of the city’s politicians and officials in its pockets. Leonardo and Carlo, another Italian immigrant, avidly compete for the love of a gorgeous Italian young woman, and Carlo appears to be winning because he has money, which was deviously obtained.

The novel is an exhilarating journey through what is commonly known as “Little Italy,” with its medley of Italian dialects, delicious meals of various pastas with sauce, and scenes both comic and serious about the rites of arranging marriages for children who have become Americanized enough to marry for love, as occurs with the woman Leonardo and Carlo pursue. Birds of Passage is an exciting, accurate and all-too-true story of “survival of the fittest” for young men strutting along the American streets with hope and passion.

Recommended historical fiction.

Viviane Crystal SECRETS SHE KEPT Cathy Gohlke, Tyndale, 2015, $14.99/C$19.99, pb, 416pp, 9781496400802 When Hannah Sterling’s mother dies, Hannah is left with a longing for a relationship she never had with her stern, domineering mother. Looking to fill the void, Hannah begins to dig into Lieselotte’s past as she cleans out her home. What she finds is that her mother wasn’t everything she claimed to be. In fact, Hannah learns that she has a grandfather living in Germany. A grandfather that her mother never mentioned; a family Lieselotte never acknowledged. Upon his invitation, Hannah takes a leave of absence from her teaching job and travels to Germany, where she learns that her grandfather played an active role in the Nazi Party and that her mother worked tirelessly to thwart his dark intentions.

Secrets She Kept is told in alternating chapters of Hannah in 1972 and Lieselotte during World War II. In Lieselotte’s chapters we learn of a young girl madly in love with a young man—Lukas—who is everything that her father despises. Lieselotte is forced to choose between her family, who are rising up the ranks of the Nazi Party, and Lukas’ family,

who are secretly working against the Nazi regime.

Slowly, Hannah discovers this past and unlocks horrid secrets that her grandfather would rather see buried forever.

Though this is a work of Christian historical fiction, and the message is there, Cathy Gohlke (an award-winning Christian author) keeps the “sermons” and preachiness to a minimum. This makes Secrets a wonderful book to read and allows the characters to develop naturally. I was pleasantly surprised by this book and would recommend it to anyone.

Bryan Dumas

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WHEREVER THERE IS LIGHT Peter Golden, Atria, 2015, $25, hb, 368pp, 9781476705583 In 1920, fifteenyear-old Julian leaves Germany for America because of his dictatorial Jewish father, Professor Rose.

He becomes wealthy by joining a Newark bootlegging gang and dealing in real estate. In 1938, Mrs. Wakefield, daughter of a slave and the founder of an African-American college in South Florida, hires Professor Rose, rescuing him from the Nazis. Julian is invited to his parents’ welcome party. There he meets Mrs. Wakefield’s daughter, Kendall, a glamorous black woman. Despite their religious and racial differences, Kendall and Julian fall in love and begin an off-and-on affair lasting for nearly 30 years. The two tackle the problems an interracial couple would typically encounter.

Both relocate to peaceful pre-WWII Greenwich Village. The war interrupts their romance; Julian is recruited by the OSS, and Kendall serves as a combat photographer. Kendall settles in post-war Paris, and fate brings the sweethearts together when Julian is sent to Paris on a mission.

Peter Golden has penned an unusual love story between a Jewish man and a black woman.

The evocative title spotlights their epic romance.

As the novel’s numerous settings transport us mentally to its locales, so do its well-narrated scenes of interracial relations, religious biases, and prejudices. These impact not only the couple but also their families and friends. The Paris segment’s showcasing of American expatriate life among artists, writers, and intellectuals is particularly well-handled. However, it’s the protagonists’ own self-interests –Kendall’s devotion to art, and Julian’s to wealth and aggression – that conflict with their love. The strong writing and numerous sex scenes keep us engrossed to the ending. Highly recommended.

Waheed Rabbani TOM & LUCKY AND GEORGE & COKEY FLO C. Joseph Greaves, Bloomsbury, 2015, $26.00, hb, 448pp, 9781620407851 The beginning of this novel about syndicated crime groups reads like every other Mafia story. Charles Lucky Luciano rises to power by HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Reviews | 43

winnowing the field of all competitive leaders who eliminate rivals or traitors. However, Luciano is relatively respected because he is one of the first mob bosses to allow a certain amount of autonomy to those who report to him. Gambling and prostitution both flourish, but the government and FBI have turned away from their previous “handsoff ” policy. Tom is Prosecutor Tom Dewey, who has his eye on becoming Governor and eventually President of the United States, and he becomes Luciano’s nemesis. George Morton Levy is the man who will become Luciano’s defense attorney in a trial which is alleging 558 separate criminal charges against not-so-lucky Luciano. Cokey Flo is a madam who first tries to run a house of prostitution independently from the Mafia and then becomes the favorite “girl” of one of its top leaders. Her drug problem is her own worst enemy and eventually may become Lucky’s as well. Sounds familiar so far, correct? Warning: this is not your usual two-bit crime thriller.

A trial is presented that will shock any reader with a brain with its challenges, travesties, illegalities – all shocking beyond measure. The mind of the reader spins with questions and horrific reactions at how “justice” and its questionable scales are stretched beyond imagination. It’s said that the job of a lawyer is to get the job done. The job does get done, but oh what a tangled web is woven in the process. Highly recommended historical fiction!

You won’t ever forget this novel.

Viviane Crystal

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ENDURANCE Tim Griffiths, Allen & Unwin, 2015, A$29.99, pb, 354pp, 9781760111540 Photographer Frank Hurley needs little introduction to anyone fascinated with early 20th century Antarctic exploration, or who has ever been moved by his stark images of the Western Front.

Barely thirteen, Frank escapes family violence in Sydney and jumps a freight train in search of adventure. While labouring in an iron-works, photography becomes his passion.

Eventually, he sets himself up commercially but runs into financial troubles. When a friend jokes he never seems to feel the cold, Frank sees himself the ideal candidate for photographer to Douglas Mawson’s Australian Antarctic Expedition of 1911. This leads to his recruitment in 1914 by Ernest Shackleton for his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, during which Hurley takes some of his most iconic images, such as Endurance stuck in the ice. Rescued after desperate months on Elephant Island, Frank is still not afraid to put his life on the line and plunges headlong into the bloody conflict at Ypres and Passchendaele.

Author Tim Griffiths has connected strongly with the complex spirit of Hurley. Behind the swagger of the gutsy showman are echoes of the misfit, the stubborn loner ill at ease with privilege or bureaucracy. Even those who love him are destined to never truly hold him.

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There is immediacy and reality here on every page. The imagery of clinging to life at the extreme margins of existence is intense. There are stomachchurning scenes of wholesale slaughter – animals and birds on the ice, human beings in the trenches – that contrast markedly with the mercenary selfinterest of individuals not always as heroic under stress as formal accounts would have us believe.

This is a spectacular tale all around, a superb example of how a biographical novel can bring history alive for those who may find academic versions too dry or daunting. Very highly recommended.

Marina Maxwell THE WOMAN IN THE PHOTOGRAPH Dana Gynther, Gallery, 2015, $16.00/C$18.00, pb, 352pp, 9781501103063 Lee Miller arrives in Paris in 1929 just in time to meet her idol, Man Ray. She asks him to take her on as his protégée; thus begins a famous partnership.

Lee is Man’s model, student, and assistant; Man is her mentor and lover, conduit to the famous and most talented artists in Montmartre. Through Man’s guidance, Lee becomes a sought-after portrait photographer, as well as working for Paris Vogue as a photographer and a fashion model; she acts in movies and became friends with Charlie Chaplin. All these advantages provided to Lee by her friendship with Man Ray propel her to the top and drive a wedge between her and Man. With the exception of a particularly gruesome childhood misadventure that was to follow her into adulthood, Lee is a true golden girl. However, after an assignment in London, Lee finds it difficult to pick up the threads of her fraying relationship with Man. Incredibly, their romance, arguably, one of the most famous of the 20th century, had burned itself out in less than three years.

Dana Gynther uses known facts about Miller’s life as an outline and fills in the details in a way that brings the reader into the moment. Miller was an exceptionally beautiful model, talented photographer, and free-spirited bon vivant. The Woman in the Photograph is a fascinating account of Surrealist life in Paris of the ‘20s and ‘30s.

During World War II, which is not covered in this biography, Lee Miller became a respected photojournalist.

Audrey Braver MAYHEM: Three Lives of a Woman Elizabeth Harris, Gival Press, 2015, $20.00, pb, 140pp, 9781940724003 Born in 1909, Evelyn Kunkle of Iron Rock, Texas comes from a good family, and so does her new husband, Lester Gant. Both are descended from hard-working German immigrants who carved ranches out of Texas scrublands and created their own affluence. The Kunkles and Gants build a rock house for the newlyweds, then wait hopefully for the next generation.

Some thirty years later, Evelyn is a castoff; dogged by whispers of impropriety which render her unfit to raise other people’s children. She is one of those middle-aged women who assist the elderly in return for room, board, and stipend. Owning nothing she can’t fit into a suitcase, Evelyn passes from one invalid from the next as need arises. How did Evelyn fall so far?

The Great Depression stresses the Gants, and so does the couple’s infertility. Then Lester finds Evelyn in a compromising position with a neighbor’s shiftless son. The traumatized woman is unable to speak of rape when she sees condemnation in her husband’s eyes. Lester Gant and his brother catch up with Charlie McCoy, and are arrested for castrating him.

Elizabeth Harris presents readers with Evelyn Kunkle’s tragically checkered life in Mayhem. It is a delight to read in many ways, with rich atmosphere, complex characters, and fluid writing. However, Ms. Harris breaks the dimension between her story and its readers; subtly at first, but this violation is recurrent. When an author speaks directly to inform me of a character’s purpose or motivation, I am thrust out of the story. However, this is personal preference, so don’t let it stop you giving Mayhem a try.

Jo Ann Butler

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A SHAMEFUL MURDER: A Reverend Mother Mystery Cora Harrison, Severn House, 2015, $28.95/£19.99, hb, 256pp, 9780727885111 In the debut of Harrison’s new mystery series, she departs from her well-received 16th century mystery series to create an engaging new heroine, Reverend Mother Aquinas, who oversees a school for the Cork poor in 1923 Ireland.

When the Reverend Mother discovers the body of an apparently well-to-do young woman washed up on the convent steps, she engages the assistance of one of her former pupils, Police Sergeant Patrick Cashman, and her old friend, Dr. Sher. Things, however, are not what they appear to be. As the plot thickens, what first seemed to be an easy resolution becomes more complex, deep and troubling. Why is this young woman dead? Why did she have a ticket for Liverpool in her evening bag? Although we know her name, details just don’t seem to jive.

Reverend Mother Aquinas is a glorious character. Although she is in her 70s, she finds unfailing strength in her students – particularly a former student who has become closely involved in the revolutionary movement and Patrick Cashman who is a talented detective – and in her quest for the truth. Poverty-stricken Cork is placed in stark juxtaposition to the wealthy and elite which had been the Reverend Mother‘s roots – so she knows the score.

This is a terrific read, carrying you along on the ride. Highly recommended.

Ilysa Magnus MOVE YOUR BLOOMING CORPSE D.E. Ireland, Minotaur Books, 2015, $25.99, hb, 306pp, 9781250049353 The second book in this mystery series featuring the familiar characters from G.B. Shaw’s Pygmalion/My Fair Lady begins at the Royal Ascot races of June 1913. Eliza Doolittle’s irrepressible 20th Century

father, Alfie, is co-owner of the racehorse Donegal Dancer. The steed soon wins his race, much to the delight of the gathered owners’ syndicate. But soon after, one of them, the colorful Diana Price, former Gaiety Girl and current heartthrob of at least two additional partners, is found murdered. By a jealous husband? A wronged wife? Or was Diana at the wrong place and time?

Soon other syndicate members are felled, and none of the survivors feel safe. Eliza’s Scotland Yard cousin is stumped, as is Henry Higgins, Eliza’s partner in amateur sleuthing.

Told in contrasting viewpoints, with cliffhanger endings to each chapter, this murder mystery is breezy and well-paced, with delightful touches of Edwardian life of which we have grown fond—shopping and dining at Selfridges, the suffragette movement, the titled and the dustmen, and delightful picnics that turn deadly at the taste of the tea.

Eileen Charbonneau LEGACY OF GREYLADIES Anna Jacobs, Allison & Busby, 2015, £19.99, hb, 359pp, 9780749014223 1915. Greyladies, in Wiltshire, is a manor house, half of which the government has requisitioned to house German refugees while Phoebe Latimer, the current chatelaine, and her two servants continue to live in the older wing. When Phoebe’s officer husband comes home on Christmas leave, she will have exciting news for him.

A recent war widow, Olivia has been bullied by her obnoxious cousin into looking after his pregnant wife. Bored and frustrated, she is helped by a friend, Babs, to escape to London. Together they tour England advising on the setting up of the new Women’s Institutes. Although she did not intend to remarry, she is attracted to Babs’ friend, Alex. Chance brings them to Greyladies, where Olivia feels curiously at home. But the house is threatened by an embittered war veteran who plots to lead an attack to murder the Germans and burn Greyladies. Can the women and Alex protect the elderly Germans and thwart the thugs?

This is the third in the popular Greyladies series. The depictions of women’s restricted lives and early feminism are good, as is the village in wartime: the only males are old, young or wounded. But the characters, except for Olivia, are flat, either wholly pleasant or wholly nasty. A fourth instalment is planned, but this novel has a listless feel, perfunctory rather than engaging until the last chapters, when a slam-bang, patriotic finale is preposterous but heart-warming.

Lynn Guest THE TEA PLANTER’S WIFE Dinah Jefferies, Penguin, 2015, £7.99, pb, 448pp, 9780241969557 Gwendolyn Hooper is newly married to a tea plantation owner and is keen to join him in Ceylon. She seems at ease with her decision to leave England behind and make a new life with her husband. Gwen makes a big effort to ingratiate herself with the staff, manage the accounts and oversee what a wife should do.

This, of course, includes providing her husband with an heir. It is not his first marriage, though.

His first wife took her own life, but he is not open 20th Century

to talk with Gwen about what happened, and she does not feel she should pursue this line of questioning. She is over the moon when she finds out that she is pregnant. However, the birth is not a straightforward event and sets in motion years of turmoil for Gwen.

Jefferies transports her readers to Ceylon with ease and evokes the atmosphere of what a tea plantation would have been like in the 1920s and 1930s. She gives a feel of what it was like to live the life of an expat during this time. There is a bit of a jump forward in time, but this is handled with care

by Jefferies and does not detract from the story.

Cathy Powell

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THE LAST PILOT Benjamin Johncock, Picador, 2015, $26.00/ C$29.99, hb, 304pp, 9781250066640 / Myriad Editions, 2015, £8.99, pb, 320pp, 9781908434845 I was dismayed at the author’s choice to omit dialogue quote marks, but it wasn’t long before I forgot that and got caught up in this wonderful first novel.

It begins in 1947, when Jim Harrison is among the pilots in the postwar California desert who test the limits of rocket-powered aircraft.

It’s a dangerous occupation, with pilots being killed as often as once a week. Jim’s wife Grace longs for a child but has a condition that prevents her from getting pregnant. Jim declines a chance to join the Mercury project, because it doesn’t involve any skill in piloting, merely sitting there like a lab animal.

Despite the odds, Grace gets pregnant, and the Harrisons are enchanted with their little daughter Florence. After tragedy strikes, Jim volunteers for the next round of astronaut selection, but Grace comes to hate living in Houston and the expectations the public places on astronauts’ wives.

When she flees back to California, the negative publicity of divorce looms over Jim’s career, compounded by torment over his role in Florence’s fate.

Johncock has said the book is a “love letter” to the test pilots and astronauts of the 1950s and ´60s. Fictional Harrison interacts with real people: Chuck Yeager, Neil Armstrong, and Pancho Barnes, legendary owner of the test pilots’ hangout bar. I’m old enough to remember some of the public side of the space race, and this book gave me a new perspective on what went on behind the scenes that the media of the time didn’t talk about. Fans of Mad Men and Astronaut Wives Club will be drawn to the mid-century atmosphere. A small quibble is that Florence seems over-the-top precocious for age two, but Jim and Grace’s relationship rings true.

Memorable characters and setting produce a great historical fiction reading experience.

B.J. Sedlock THE THIRD PLACE: A Viennese Historical Mystery J.Sydney Jones,Severn House,2015,$28.95/£19.99, hb, 224pp, 9780727885265 J. Sydney Jones’s sixth novel in the Viennese

Mystery series is set in the waning days of winter in 1902. Private enquiries agent Karl Werthen is asked to investigate the death of the headwaiter of the Café Burg, a death that, at first glance, looks like an accident. While pursuing leads in that case, he is engaged, along with renowned criminologist Dr. Hanns Gross, to find a missing letter from the emperor to his mistress. As the investigations unfold, it becomes clear the two cases are related and that the emperor’s life—and the future of the empire—are at stake.

The Third Place is full of incendiary politics, assassination plots, and a race against time to protect Vienna from a catastrophe, and I enjoyed every bit of it. Karl Werthen, a wonderful protagonist who is smart, worldly, and a genuine good guy and loving family man, is perfectly matched with the no-nonsense Dr. Gross. The two make a great investigative team who, nonetheless, face a daunting challenge in tracking down the ruthless assassin who intends to wreak havoc on the empire at any cost. Watching them match wits as the clock ticks toward disaster is exciting, and the Viennese setting and rich period details only add to the enjoyment.

Kristina Blank Makansi

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THE ART OF WAITING Christopher Jory, Polygon, 2015, £12.99, hb, 293pp, 9781846973086 The Art of Waiting is set in Italy and Russia between 1928 and 1952. It tells the story of Aldo Gardini, a young Italian, through his early life in Venice, the unspeakable horrors of the war and his difficult homecoming. It shows a gradual loss of innocence, as Aldo embarks upon a relationship with a married woman, suffers the loss of his father in suspicious circumstances and is then conscripted into the army. He is sent to Russia, to fight a war he hardly believes in, and is eventually taken as a prisoner of war. Throughout his time in prison there are two things that keep his hopes alive: his love for Katerina, a young Russian woman who has befriended him, and a burning desire for revenge on the man he believes to have killed his father.

This is a beautifully written book, with powerful descriptions that evoke the atmosphere of prewar Venice and Leningrad, and then of war-torn Russia. There is no sentimentality here: brutality and corruption exist just as much in peacetime as during the war. But there are moments of kindness, too, sometimes when they are least expected. The author uses a recurrent theme of water (the sea, the River Neva and the lagoon of Venice) to convey contrasting fortunes. The water can provide food and a setting for romance, but it also draws people to their deaths. Ultimately this is a story of love and loss, of conflicting emotions and a world in which, as one character says, “nothing makes sense”.

Karen Warren THE GIRL FROM THE TRAIN Irma Joubert (trans. Elsa Silke), Thomas Nelson, HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Reviews | 45

2015, $15.99, pb, 320pp, 9780529102379 Poland, 1944. Jakób Kowalski, a young Polish resistance fighter, plants a bomb intended to destroy a German troop train, but it blows up a train taking Jews to a labour camp instead. Six year-old Gretl is the only survivor, and Jakób takes her home with him, where she is educated at a Catholic school. However, his family can’t keep her for long, so Jakób arranges her adoption by an Afrikaner family in South Africa. Gretl must hide her origins and become the Aryan Protestant child her new family is expecting.

The third-person limited narration alternates between Gretl’s and Jakób’s points of view, which offer a vivid, enjoyable contrast. As Gretl learns to adapt to life in South Africa, Jakób’s antiCommunist beliefs create difficulties for him in Poland. Oddly, while the novel’s setup led me to expect conflicts of many kinds—political, religious, romantic—most of these were fairly easily resolved. Gretl and Jakób are good people who always do the right thing. Their nobility is admirable, if sometimes difficult to relate to. Their shared secrets and Jakóbs guilt save them from being perfect, but only just.

Joubert’s writing style is a little choppy, with many short sentences (though this may be a translation issue) and brief narrative scenes that add little to the story. The era and setting are interesting, but the author seemed to be protecting her characters too much, considering the challenges one would expect from their situations. The ending was also on the sentimental side. I would recommend this novel to readers who enjoy a slower pace and don’t require tension in every scene.

Clarissa Harwood DREAMS THAT VEIL Dominic Luke, Buried River, 2015, £8.00, pb, 286pp, 9781910208236 The novel opens in December 1911. Twelveyear-old Eliza Brennan is living a cosy, if boring, life with her widowed mother and her cousin Dorothea in the heart of Northamptonshire. She is looking forward to the highlight of the Christmas season – the return of her brother, Roderick, from University. Sheltered from life by her strict, overbearing mother and a small army of servants, Eliza is unaware that both Roderick and Dorothea are maturing into adulthood. Struggling with the changes to her own body as she faces the challenges of puberty, she is blissfully unaware of life changing around her as the years move forward, inexorably, to 1914.

This is a charming story of an England basking in an idyllic world of peace and bucolic innocence before the storm of the First World War, and of a young girl’s struggle with her transition to maturity.

The novel ends on the day that War is declared, leaving the way open for a sequel. In this exquisitely written novel, the author evokes the personality, feelings of bewilderment and confusion of a young girl who realises that her world is changing, but is ill- equipped to deal with the changes.

Mike Ashworth MRS. ROOSEVELT’S CONFIDANTE: A Maggie Hope Mystery Susan Elia MacNeal, Bantam, 2015, $15.00/ C$20.00, pb, 352pp, 9780804178709 46 | Reviews |

HNR Issue 74, November 2015

Intrepid spy Maggie Hope is back on US soil for the first time in years in her newest mystery adventure. It’s Christmas, 1941, just after Pearl Harbor, and the US is preparing to enter World War II. Maggie has accompanied Prime Minister Winston Churchill across the Atlantic, along with fellow secretaries David Green and John Sterling. They’re finalizing preparations to show a united front between Churchill and President Franklin Roosevelt when Maggie gets caught up in a problem brought to her by Eleanor Roosevelt: her secretary, Blanche Balfour, hasn’t shown up for work, and Eleanor was worried. What Maggie and Mrs. Roosevelt find at Blanche’s apartment is but one piece in a much larger puzzle which, if not solved quickly, could tear apart the White House, national unity, and the fledgling Allied partnership between the US and British forces.

Readers become privy to Mrs. Roosevelt’s activism, her work for social justice, and the reality of the Jim Crow South as she tries to save unfairlyconvicted black sharecropper Wendell Cotton from the electric chair. MacNeal’s images and characters are true to the time, and the resonance of several of the subplots with current events deepen the impact of the tale; MacNeal is to be commended for her skillful weaving of racial and gender issues into an already complex political picture. Readers also learn a little more about Maggie’s family as well as some of the newest British spying tactics during that time. There’s a tremendous amount of world and US history in this delightful volume, and MacNeal provides notes about resources readers can consult for further reading.

Helene Williams IN THE SHADE OF THE ALMOND TREES Dominique Marny, Publishers Square/Open Road, 2015, $15.99, pb, 280pp, 9781504000734 Marny’s second novel, first published in France in 1997, is a post-WWI saga about a responsible young woman, Jeanne Barthélemy, who takes it upon herself to revive her family’s Provençal estate, Restanques. Due to her mother’s depression after her father’s wartime death, and her brother Laurent’s wanderlust and fecklessness, it’s left to Jeanne to oversee the almond and olive harvest, keep their servants employed, and find a way to produce more income. For the latter, she launches a nougatmaking business using a generations-old recipe.

Readers get a nice education in producing this delicious local specialty, and the hilly countryside is beautifully described. As an introduction to the beauty of Provence, the novel satisfies.

Jeanne gets involved with unsuitable men in her search for love. The same holds true for her mother, Marthe, and her maid, Rosalie; this is a land of stormy passions. However, Jeanne’s heart belongs to her brother’s friend, Jérôme, a war hero and botanist. Jeanne doesn’t acknowledge her affections until later, because she’s upset with Jérôme for whisking Laurent away on a round-theworld trip when he should be home, securing his family’s future.

Publishers Square has the laudable goal of introducing popular French commercial fiction writers to American audiences. However, the choice of this novel is curious. It breaks many rules of fiction-writing, not in a good way. Viewpoints can change with each new paragraph, people

behave nonsensically, and the story often goes off the rails, providing irrelevant detail on minor characters. The translation (presumably by the publisher; no translator is given) is awkward. Why use “Ms. Jeanne” rather than “Mademoiselle Jeanne” in a work set in France? The language is also full of modern American slang, like “living here in the boonies.” Although the story has great potential, it’s difficult to recommend, which is unfortunate.

Sarah Johnson

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BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE A DIME? Jack Martin, Blank Slate, 2015, $15.95, pb, 220pp, 9781943075089 In the 1930s, America is clearly a county in transition. The economy is on a downward spiral, and the majority of citizens are turning to anyone offering a change of fortune. Criminal bosses control the flow of money, liquor, etc.

Senator Huey Long controls politicians, affluent businessmen, and the general population, who demand social and economic parity. A pipe dream?

Suddenly, an assassination attempt on President Franklin Delano Roosevelt indicates that someone is looking for a different, radical leader who will provide the same hope that the “madman” Adolf Hitler offers to the German people. FBI Director Herbert Hoover hates being powerless, and so he assigns agent Harry Bierce to find out who is truly behind the attempted assassination. This is the story of Bierce’s mission and his free-wheeling, independent, supposedly willy-nilly methods that will get the job done, with Hoover’s reluctant approval.

This is an intriguing novel because the narrator assumes a neutral stance, which compels the reader to admit that all men have positive and negative attributes, that motives are complex, that one may have to overlook the tyrannical control of a leader in order for the common man to receive a decent wage, education, and so on. It’s also the story of the infamous couple, Bonnie and Clyde, a secret cult supporting the German Führer, and so much more. The pace never slackens, and yet we can’t stop reading because we have no idea whether a solution or resolution is around the corner. The title, an actual poem/song, accurately reflects America’s power and weakness, a theme pervading every page of this excellent historical novel. Highly recommended, indeed!

Viviane Crystal EVERYONE HAS THEIR REASONS Joseph Matthews, PM Press, 2015, $24.95, hb, 528pp, 9781629630946 Joseph Matthews has created a fictional picture of the little-known Herschel Grynszpan, a “teenage assassin” whose killing of a consular official in the German embassy in Paris in 1938 provided the pretext for an outbreak of violence against Jews—Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass.

Thousands of Jewish properties and synagogues were destroyed, while Jews throughout Germany 20th Century

were beaten, imprisoned, or killed.

The novel is epistolary in character, told through Grynszpan’s “letters” to his attorney from 1940 to 1945. Grynszpan writes of his early life in Germany as storm clouds of the Holocaust gather, his flight to Paris when he was 15, and his subsequent shadow existence in the seamy Paris nightlife. After he is handed to the Gestapo, he is moved to several prisons then to concentration camps.

Matthews beautifully captures the tone of a schoolboy’s German tinged with Yiddish. The sentence structure and phrasing seem true to the voice. Likewise, his portraits of pre-World War II Germany and Paris are filled with extensive and accurate detail.

Although based on Matthews’ extensive research and on the historical record, the novel’s format distances the reader and confines any action and dialogue to letter-form. Readers who like novels told through letters will no doubt find this book interesting. Matthews has said he chose the letterform because the historical record is so incomplete.

While Grynszpan was a real person, other characters in the novel are fictional. It is hoped that future research will reveal more about Grynszpan.

His story deserves to be told as biography rather than fiction.

Lorraine Norwood WOMAN WITH A BLUE PENCIL Gordon McAlpine, Seventh Street, 2015, $13.95, pb, 190pp, 9781633880887 Imagine your reaction if you woke up one morning and found that almost two months had passed and no one knows you. It is a month after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese invaders, and Americans are suspicious of all Asian-looking people. They believe there are Japanese spies in America and will do anything to stop such traitors.

But for now, there’s a curfew for all Japanese, and Sam Sumida is trying to solve the murder of his wife, Kyoko, as well as partner with a man who claims he is in the same situation.

Another plot appears in between Sam’s story, one being written by a Japanese first-time author interned in one of those camps. He has changed his story from a Japanese character to a KoreanAmerican detective, Jimmy Park, who attempts to find the vicious Japanese spy known as Orchid.

This story is what is known as “metafiction,” a novel that is manipulated and monitored by an American woman editor but who really is someone else.

One of the novels is a discarded story; the other is heavily planned more by the editor than the author. The question of who is the most real character and who is an actual discarded character, presenting the besieged state of America and Asian-Americans during the time of America’s entrance into WWII, is a large part of the story.

Superb, highly recommended historical fiction!

Viviane Crystal A PLACE WE KNEW WELL Susan Carol McCarthy, Bantam, 2015, $27.00/ C$35.00, hb, 272pp, 9780804176545 It turns out that Susan Carol McCarthy’s latest novel, A Place We Knew Well, is a far truer story than readers may at first imagine. McCarthy lived in Orlando, Florida during the Cuban Missile Crisis, that white-knuckle showdown between 20th Century

the U.S. and the Soviet Union that unfolded over little more than a week in October 1962.

Florida residents found themselves engulfed in the staggering military build-up that occurred with unprecedented speed to aim America’s collective might at the island just 90 miles off the tip of the Keys. McCarthy sent out questionnaires to collect recollections of others who were in high school at the time, as she was; one response apparently served as the basis for the family story she relates against this dark slice of American history.

Wes Avery is an upstanding member of his community, a WWII Air Force veteran who owns a local gas and service station and is a devoted husband to Sarah and father to Charlotte, a junior in high school. He continues to be amazed at his own good luck at how his life has turned out so far. Unfortunately, matching the speed with which America’s confrontation with Cuba and Moscow escalates, Wes’s good luck begins to disintegrate under the weight of long-held family secrets.

What’s most compelling about the story is its vivid reminder of the suddenness of the crisis, the shared knowledge that both sides were for the first time armed with weapons that could wipe out all of mankind, and the real sense that tomorrow might not arrive. McCarthy’s use of detail—the concern over a lack of fallout shelters since Florida’s high water table means there are no basements, the abrupt stranglehold on Florida’s economy as a result of the military build-up—adds to the novel’s authenticity.

Jennifer Bort Yacovissi IN THE DARK Deborah Moggach, Overlook, 2015 (c2008), $26.95, hb, 320pp, 9781468310924 Moggach’s sixteenth novel, In the Dark, masterfully recreates London during the Great War, focusing not on the trenches but on the inhabitants of a shabby Southwark boarding house.

With the help of her hormone-ravaged son Ralph and maid-of-all-duties Winnie, Eithne Clay, a war widow, rents rooms to a showgirlloving dandy bound for war, a ravenous woman with broken dentures, a Karl Marx-spouting blind veteran, and a family whose daughter is bent on more than guiding her shell-shocked father to the pub.

Beleaguered by rationing and unwilling to evict boarders behind in their rent, Eithne’s prospects and the lodgers’ meals improve when Neville Turk, a prosperous butcher, courts Eithne with “top quality bangers, sixty percent pork.” Annoyed, Ralph turns vegetarian, questions where the butcher gets his lamb chops, and demands to know why the man hasn’t joined up to fight.

Moggach deftly paints the deprivation of wartime. Families survive on “cabbage leaves picked up from the gutter” and thrice-boiled tea. Still, the lodgers gather pleasure where they can: the blind veteran cherishes his gramophone, war-liberated women discover their sexuality, and Ralph sleeps with a cat warming his belly—when he’s not lusting over bust-enhancing advertisements.

Historical details flow naturally from the story: inexplicably, Neville Turk finds able-bodied men to wire the house for electricity; Ralph and Winnie attempt smoking as protection against the spreading influenza; and delighted by her new

telephone, Eithne realizes she has no one to call.

In the dark, secrets are revealed and exploited.

Lodgers lie, plot, and blackmail. In a stunning climax, the choice between right and wrong is as complex as Moggach’s characters.

Jo Haraf GOD’S KINGDOM Howard Frank Mosher, St. Martin’s, 2015, $25.99, hb, 240pp, 9781466882003 Northern Vermont in the 1950s is the setting for this coming-of-age novel by one of America’s most gifted storytellers. Young Jim Kinneson – curious, resourceful, and dutiful – is the perfect narrator of both his and his family’s adventures, which stretch back to before the American Revolution.

The Kinnesons are a mix of early peoples of the area that borders French Canada. They played a role in early conflicts with the Abenaki people and the Underground Railroad. It is a place that mixes kindness and cruelty, where a thriving AfricanAmerican community is both tolerated and falls victim to a Ku Klux Klan massacre. Generations of menfolk hunt and fish and play baseball, hockey, and basketball together. They eat lunches packed by loving mothers, while spite-filled teachers bully children to death and bury trunks of grisly secrets under stairways. Outsiders don’t fare well, despite the general decency of Jim and his immediate family.

Planted in Jim’s own growing-up is the dawning knowledge of a family secret, skillfully seeded into the narrative, which may lead the reader to thumb through the pages again for missed clues. While the men are carefully shaded with rich inner lives, the women tend toward the less actualized or archetypal. Told in episodic and lyric style, this novel is both intimate and a family saga, vignette and epic. God’s Kingdom shines a light on a corner of America that illuminates the whole.

Eileen Charbonneau

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A MATTER FOR THE JURY Peter Murphy, Oldcastle, 2014, $16.95/£8.99, pb, 416pp, 9781843442851 Murphy’s fourth novel (after A Higher Duty, 2009) is a character-driven legal thriller of the first order. Based on real events, the plot turns on the complexities of the British legal system 50 years ago, when capital punishment was hanging. Nevertheless, it will have readers thinking about practices in the English-speaking world today.

Ben Schroeder, a young Jewish barrister in A Higher Duty, has advanced in his profession.

He has been asked to defend in a murder trial— an honor—as second to Martin Hardcastle, an eminent Queen’s Counsel. Although Schroeder expects to be relegated to routine tasks while the QC manages strategy, he is grateful for the experience.

The accused is a young working man named Billy Cottage, who is, by his own admission, guilty HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Reviews | 47

of murder. The evidence against him is clear and tangible. He has no credible alibi. Thus, the role of the defense team is not to prove his innocence but reduce the charge enough to save Billy Cottage from hanging.

Like a historian or journalist, Murphy gives readers the facts up front. He describes the murder and provides Cottage’s full history without explaining the man’s behavior. He lets us in on Schroeder’s insecurities, his broken heart, and his fears of anti-Semitism in Chambers. We know the QC has personal problems. We expect Hardcastle to let Schroeder down at a critical juncture in the trial; but we don’t know when or how. Our understanding enhances the action, without diminishing the suspense. The outcome of the trial is unpredictable.

For all its length and complexity, A Matter for the Jury is a page-turner recommended for anyone who enjoys courtroom fiction or the history of 20th-century law.

Jeanne Greene DREAMS OF THE RED PHOENIX Virginia Pye, Unbridled, 2015, $16, pb, 288pp, 9781609531232 In 1937, Japan invades northern China while the feuding Nationalists and Communists are trying to decide if they should unite against this common enemy. In this tumultuous world we meet Caleb, Shirley, and their son, Charles, missionaries serving in the region. The phoenix bird, Fenghuang, which represents the full range of Yin and Yang in life, symbolizes the Chinese belief in immortality, a symbol of steadiness in these difficult times.

Now we discover that Caleb has recently been killed by a mudslide while also serving as a spy for the Communists. Shirley rises from her grieving state to open a medical clinic serving the needs of those Chinese wounded in the Japanese incursion. White missionaries mistakenly think they are helping “these poor people.” The plot is breathtakingly poignant, but what is even more astonishing is the gradual erosion of American arrogance and the realization that so many assumptions about Asian motives and actions are totally erroneous. Caleb, Shirley, and Charles are forced by military and civilian characters to understand how their Chinese friends and acquaintances focus on the good of all rather than one’s personal choices.

Chinese lives parallel the journey of the phoenix through life and death, a life now about to change momentously. Each American character is humbled and awed upon this realization. Meanwhile, old Nationalist Tupan Feng says, “The Chinese phoenix will never land again in this country…The emperor of all birds has flown!” Dreams of the Red Phoenix is written in evocative, compelling language that should be required reading for those who wish to comprehend service to other nations and true Chinese patriotism during this poignant period of suffering and hope. Superb historical fiction!

Viviane Crystal THE BLOOD DIMMED TIDE Anthony Quinn, No Exit Press/Trafalgar Square, 2014, $16.95/£8.99, pb, 254pp, 9781843444657 In his mystery The Blood Dimmed Tide, Anthony Quinn weaves Ouija boards, ghosts, 48 | Reviews |

HNR Issue 74, November 2015

séances and mysterious bodies discovered floating in the ocean into a shroud of intrigue. Add to that the political unrest in Ireland at the start of WWI and the famous Irish poet W. B. Yeats, and you’ll find much to admire in the work. The atmosphere, period details, and literary references are all spoton. The reader can see, taste, hear, smell and feel the Irish coast, the small towns, the citizenry.

The story involves the ghost of a murdered girl who chooses W. B. Yeats to haunt. In order to rid himself of this specter, Yeats enlists the help of his protégé, Charles Adams, a young man who is skeptical of Yeats’ delving into the supernatural, but nevertheless intrigued by the great poet’s strange interest in the occult. Adams watches as Yeats and his young wife, Georgie, have session after session of automatic writing, where the “spirit” advises Yeats to keep doing his husbandly duty. The “spirit” designates how, when and where such coupling is to occur. This doesn’t help Adams become a true believer.

Though well-researched, the story becomes bogged down toward the middle, when Adams begins to unravel the true nature of the girl’s death.

Maud Gonne plays a central role in the mystery, but with her appearance, the plot points become confusing. Part-mystery, part-history, part-ghost story, part-literary: perhaps this novel suffers from an identity crisis.

Anne Clinard Barnhill WHITE COLLAR GIRL Renee Rosen, NAL, 2015, $15/C$20, pb, 448pp, 9780451474971 Jordan Walsh has been hired on as a journalist for the Chicago Tribune, and she’s eager to make her mark and tackle the tough reporting that her father and brother did. Unfortunately she’s been relegated to the society pages, but she’s determined not to stay there. In the male- dominated world of journalism in the 1950s, Jordan knows she has to work twice as hard to get a story that will make her editor take notice. And she does just that, finding her own leads and putting herself in danger to get the goods on corruption in Mayor Daley’s office.

Constantly thinking like a hard-nosed reporter, Jordan’s career eventually begins to wear on the relationship with her boyfriend, and she has to make some painful choices about what she wants and how she expects to get it.

Rosen has a gift for bringing difficult women to life, and Jordan Walsh is no exception. I wanted Jordan to succeed and cheered her on as she took on the men in her office and not only competed, but bested them, but I also was able to see her vulnerability and headstrong determination that could just as easily destroy everything good in her life. Still, sacrifices had to be made and some of Jordan’s problems were disasters of her own making. Rosen builds her story around real events and places Jordan in the midst of history, showing the strength, courage, and tenacity required for a woman to be taken seriously. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and I especially loved the ending, because, like life, it shows that the bumps along the way give you the impetus to continue the story.

Highly recommended.

Tamela McCann

THE GIRL FROM KRAKOW Alex Rosenberg, Lake Union, 2015, $14.95, pb, 482pp, 9781477830819 The life of the title character, Rita Feuerstahl, carries her from 1935 to 1947, from her restless student days to an ill-suited marriage, a love affair and a child who changes her life forever. Heightening the drama of Rita’s life is the fact that she is a Jew in Eastern Europe, hiding in plain sight as she keeps a powerful military secret entrusted to her early in the war. Always engrossing, at first Rita’s life is overpowered by the more free and colorful adventures of her lover as he changes identities and countries and falls into positions of comfort and power in wartime Europe. But motherhood transforms a vain and directionless ingénue into something more: a woman of substance, with a strong desire to live and learn from her hard-won survival. Ghetto life, separations, loss of her loved ones to the Holocaust, a hidden identity that tries to conform to German overlords’ expectations – all try her mind and spirit.

In this episodic, traumatic, and thrilling novel, Rita’s heart, resilience and redeeming sacrifice shine through a compelling story with one of the most satisfying conclusions this reader has experienced in a long time.

Eileen Charbonneau THE RED COLLAR Jean Christophe Rufin (trans. Adriana Hunter), Europa, 2015, $16.00, pb, 160pp, 9781609452735 After the carnage of World War I is finally over, Jacques Morlac, a decorated war hero, is arrested and held in an abandoned barracks in a small town in France, while just outside, his battered and scarred dog barks day and night for its master. Over the course of four days, Hughes Lantier, the officer in charge of Morlac’s investigation, encourages the reluctant prisoner to tell the story of how he made it through the war only to come home to end up under arrest. But Lantier suspects there is more to Morlac’s story and sets out to discover what the prisoner is hiding and why.

Written by award-winning author JeanChristophe Rufin, one of the founders of Doctors Without Borders, The Red Collar is a slim novel that tells a deceptively simple story about a man and his dog. Inspired by a true story, the book is, at its heart, a painful and moving tale of the horrors of war, mistaken pride, and unbounded loyalty.

There are three main human characters, but the thread that ties them together is Wilhelm, the dog whose dedication to his master, even in the face of indifference, is inspiring and heartbreaking. The Red Collar is ultimately his story, and I recommend the book to dog lovers everywhere.

Kristina Blank Makansi THE GIRL WHO WROTE LONELINESS Kyung-Sook Shin (trans. Hayun Jung), Pegasus, 2015. $25.95, hb, 400pp, 9781605988634 Our narrator writes and writes, attempting to understand how the past weaves into the present and, yes, even the future. Aware that she has a problem with escaping or running away, she attempts to find a place where she can reflect on what happened in South Korea from the 1970s to the mid-1990s. A former high school student accuses her, stating, “You don’t seem to write about 20th Century

us. Your life seems different from ours now.” The narrator is shamed and even haunted by these simple words.

So begins the story of this older Korean writer analyzing life as a student, industrial worker, and writer. A secondary, subtle thread is the question of what distinguishes a fictional novel from a work of “literature.” Nature provides the only comforting, hopeful image, “seeing beautiful birds asleep with their faces toward the sky.” Newly formed unions are deemed the enemy, and the state believes that the Special Education Program for Industrial Workers, also known as industrial warriors, is what will jettison the post-WWII impoverished country into a prosperous future. The assassination of President Park Chung-hee is given a romantic aura as well, which is shocking to any intelligent reader. Little by little we realize we are reading about a country with a socialist government that very much resembles a dictatorship on the national and local levels. “I am on the threshold of a home being crushed and torn apart.”

The tone is as dreary as its topic, but it is a fictional account of what absolutely must be told and known. Intense but revealing historical fiction that the author calls something between “not quite fact, not quite fiction.”

Viviane Crystal THE WILSON DECEPTION David O. Stewart, Kensington, 2015, $25/ C$27.95, hb, 266pp, 9780758290694 The year 2014, the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the start of the Great War, aka World War I, marked the publication of many titles, fiction and non-fiction, on that war. Stewart’s mystery takes a slightly different tack, looking at the end of the war: the protracted peace negotiations and the seeds that were planted that allowed for World War II. Rather than Wilson, Stewart’s protagonists are Dr. Jamie Fraser, who has been serving as an army doctor, and Speed Cook, former player in the Negro Leagues, now in Paris to clear his army sergeant son who has been accused of desertion.

Fraser and Cook are old friends, and when Fraser is called to nurse the president through his influenza, he seizes the opportunity to advocate for Cook’s son, Joshua. Historical figures fill the pages of this mystery—Clemenceau, the French premier, Lloyd George, the British prime minister, and Allen and Foster Dulles, nephews of Secretary of State Robert Lansing. T.E. Lawrence stalks the peace treaty, advocating for Arab independence and is dismissed as a zealot.

This was a challenging mystery to untangle. The personal—the freedom of Joshua Cook—collides with the political—the younger Cook is secretly installed as a valet in Wilson’s household in Paris and Fraser and the elder Cook are blackmailed by the French to report on the president’s activities. The post-armistice negotiations provide a fascinating look at the jockeying for power among countries who are ostensibly allies. Hindsight allows for much clearer sightlines into the causes of the Second World War. What left me uneasy is what Stewart emphasizes—correctly—that individuals are unimportant in the political framework. Joshua Cook is known to be innocent, but those with the power to clear him are unconcerned that he is 20th Century

wrongly sentenced.

Ellen Keith

BRIDES OF WAR June Tate, Allison & Busby, 2015, £19.99, hb, 287pp, 9780749018375 World War Two has ended, and servicemen are returning home, including the gallant, generous American GIs. British girls with American boyfriends have been lucky, but do they love them enough – are they brave enough – to join them as GI Brides in the fabulous country that is America?

Two such young women become close friends on board ship as they cross the Atlantic Ocean. Valerie’s new husband, Ross, is a lawyer in New York while Gracie is destined for Colorado with Jeff. The girls are warm-hearted, adaptable and determined, but the hostility of in-laws soon becomes only a minor problem. Valerie’s outstanding talent is recognised by tutor Max at her art class; an exhibition of her work brings recognition from all around, and her husband sees her as a source of prestige for his own business. Journalists home in on Valerie’s relationship with Max, with whom she escapes to find inspiration in the magnificent scenery of Colorado, combined with a visit to her old friend, Gracie. Gracie desperately conceals the fact that her husband is a gambler, a drunkard and a bully.

Her only unfailing friend amongst his family is his “wild boy” brother Rick. She longs to return to England, but when tragedy gives her the chance, her feelings are mixed.

Brides of War is easy to read, but I did so with care: could I find any anachronisms? No I could not; even ‘networking’ goes back a surprisingly long way. This is an unusual romance with two valiant heroines.

Nancy Henshaw AN IRISH DOCTOR IN LOVE AND AT SEA Patrick Taylor, Forge, 2015, $25.99/C$31.00, hb, 496pp, 9780765378200 Fans of Patrick Taylor’s highly entertaining Irish Country Doctor series will not be disappointed with this latest book. The novel is told in alternating chapters of Dr. O’Reilly’s present life and medical practice, versus his experience as a WWII naval surgeon. As the reader goes back and forth in time, the quaint village of Ballybucklebo in Northern Ireland springs back to life with its familiar surroundings and characters, and lovable animals such as Arthur Guinness, O’Reilly’s faithful Labrador.

In the present day, Dr. O’Reilly and his wife Kitty are preparing to attend his thirty-year medical school reunion. As they get ready for the festivities in Dublin memories of his war time years begin to resurface and fill him with a wistfulness of days gone by, and friends and love lost in war. In those memories we learn the story of his first wife, Deirdre and the severely injured men he treated while stationed on the HMS Warspite.

The charming characters that have anchored the previous books return, bringing a feeling of authenticity to Ballybucklebo and the life of an Irish country doctor. Told through both real and fictional events, the novel moves swiftly along to a satisfying conclusion and leaves the reader hoping that Taylor will continue with yet another book.

Linda Harris Sittig

ALL THE STARS IN THE HEAVENS Adriana Trigiani, Harper, 2015, $26.99, hb, 464pp, 9780062319197 / Simon & Schuster, 2016, £14.99, hb, 464pp, 9781471136344 In 1935, Loretta Young and Clark Gable meet on the set of The Call of the Wild, being filmed on location on snowy Mount Baker in Washington.

Loretta is young, but successful, with 50 film credits to her name and her share of leading men.

She has no intention of falling for this one. But she doesn’t anticipate how Gable fills the set, touching everyone with his energy and charisma. Despite her Catholic upbringing, and her better judgment, she falls for the married Gable.

Alongside the story of Loretta Young and Clark Gable’s troubled relationship is that of fictional Sister Alda Ducci, forced to leave her convent to work as Loretta’s secretary. Hollywood is a world away from the convent and Alda fights to maintain her honest values in this city of carefully managed lies. But she’s as stubborn as her employer and, whether faced with love or loss or potential scandal, she finds her way in Hollywood.

Adriana Trigiani pulls us firmly into Golden Age Hollywood. She shows the glitter on the screen, but also the exhaustion, the fragility, the truths behind the scripted lives. She has the challenge of writing well-known characters (in addition to Young and Gable, we spend time with notables such as David Niven, Spencer Tracy, and Hattie McDaniel) that are true to history, but also true to readers’ perceptions. Did she succeed? This reader certainly turned the pages. Those who enjoy classic films and Hollywood history will find much to relish here.

Jessica Brockmole THE BIG GREEN TENT Ludmila Ulitskaya (trans.Polly Gannon), Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015, $35.00/C$39.99, hb, 576pp, 9780374166670 Ludmila Ulitskaya’s 500-plus page, classically Russian novel The Big Green Tent offers a tale of three schoolboys drawn together by their shared status as outcasts—intelligent, artistic, regular targets of the schoolyard bullies—who become lifelong friends. This is a richly layered story that manages to be both intimate and grand in scale simultaneously.

When Ulitskaya appears to complete the entire life story of two of the main characters within the first 150 pages of the book, a reader is tempted to wonder where else she is going to take the story.

The answer is that she circles back again and again to explore different elements of her characters’ lives, to expose more details and to follow various trajectories of actions and events that in turn spawn other trajectories. Each chapter or section, as tangential to the central action as it may appear to be, eventually ties back to the main characters and reveals yet another facet of the expanding story. Permeating every aspect of the novel—in both mundane details and in seismic, life-changing events—is the calculated, heartless, and systematic brutality of the Soviet regime, which retains its character well beyond the death of Stalin and the rise of Khrushchev, an era the characters misread as offering a respite from the cultural chokehold of Stalin. Each of the main characters is tripped up in one way or another by the system, and HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Reviews | 49

must choose a path forward. Sharing a love of Russia and a hatred of the regime, some would do anything to leave and others would do anything to stay—anything, of course, but accept the mindless, unquestioning obedience the Soviet system demands of them.

Jennifer Bort Yacovissi DEATH WEARS A MASK Ashley Weaver, Minotaur, 2015, $24.99, hb, 336pp, 9781250046376 This is the second in Weaver’s Amory Ames series, and it is as delightful as the first. Reuniting with Milo, her dashing playboy husband, after helping to solve a murder at the Brightwell Hotel, Amory once again begins to doubt Milo’s fidelity and decides to stay at their London flat and agrees to help an old family friend recover valuable stolen jewelry. When one of the suspects in the theft is murdered at a dinner party, Detective Inspector Jones, whom Amory met at the Brightwell, enlists her help, pulling her deeper into the investigation.

Amidst rumors of Milo’s liaison with a French film star and the advances of a handsome viscount, the couple must work together to solve the murder and, in the process, save their marriage.

Amory Ames makes a delightful slightly reluctant sleuth, and her passionate yet insecure relationship with Milo reveals a very human and vulnerable side of an otherwise worldly socialite.

Set in the 1930s, the book has a decadent Downton Abbey vibe that fans of the series will enjoy. My one complaint is that Amory is quick to think the worst of Milo even after the events at Brightwell, although he does give her reason to doubt his commitment. I look forward to the third book in the series, but hope that Amory and Milo’s rocky relationship isn’t as central to the plot.

Kristina Blank Makansi ALONG THE INFINITE SEA Beatriz Williams, Putnam, 2015, $26.95/C$34.95, hb, 456pp, 9780399171314 Two heroines – one beautiful and innocent, the other beautiful and jaded – share the stage in Williams’ cinematic novel, which wraps up her trilogy about the upper-class Schuyler sisters. Left pregnant by a prominent (and married) senator, Pepper Schuyler has travelled south to Palm Beach in 1966 to sell the vintage Mercedes roadster she’s spent the summer helping to restore. She hopes the money – an astounding $300K – will help her establish a new life away from her relatives and her ex-lover, who wants to pressure her into an abortion.

To the surprise of the world-weary, cynical Pepper, the buyer takes interest in her situation. Annabelle Dommerich, a mysterious widow of European extraction, claims to have personal experience with Pepper’s predicament, and she also knows the car intimately well. “Twenty-eight years ago, I drove from my life across the German border inside that car, and I left a piece of my heart inside her,” Annabelle tells her.

Her story, which unfolds alongside Pepper’s, is the more gripping of the two. In 1935, Annabelle 50 | Reviews |

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de Créouville, aged nineteen, spends the summer at her father’s villa along the gorgeous Côte d’Azur.

There she falls in love with Stefan Silverman, a wounded Jewish man her brother asks her to help (which she does, unquestioningly). Playing out amidst the sun-dappled islands of the French Riviera, their affair is divinely romantic, but Annabelle is kept ignorant of the intrigue surrounding Stefan’s presence. We know from the beginning about Annabelle’s eventual marriage to Johann von Kleist, a baron and high-ranking Nazi, but, in tantalizing fashion, Williams keeps us guessing about the man with whom she escaped to America.

With its multiple twists, clever dialogue, and well-balanced blend of romance and thrilling adventure, the novel is smart and sexy escapist reading. It cries out for a film treatment.

Sarah Johnson QUEENS NEVER MAKE BARGAINS Nancy Means Wright, Wind Ridge, 2014, $15.95, pb, 223pp, 9781935922476 Jessie Menzies isn’t quite eighteen when she finishes her schooling in Leven, Scotland. The Great War has not yet begun, so Jessie’s main concern is how to choose between the village’s lads.

Then a letter comes from Cherry Valley, Vermont, where Jessie’s aunt Grace has just died, leaving behind two young children. Jessie’s mother, Flora, packs her off to the blue collar town as a nanny, telling the reluctant girl, “It’s just for a year.”

Thus begins Queens Never Make Bargains.

Wright, an award-winning author, presents her readers with a Thurberesque cast of characters anchored by a trio of resolute Scottish-American women: Flora, who comes to America to care for her daughter after Jessie’s immigrant lover dies in WWI; Jessie, who marries her aunt’s pious husband, but never manages to tame her rebellious stepdaughter; and Victoria, actress and Spitfire pilot, who refuses to bow to convention.

Sometimes they must compromise, but these three women remain ferociously true to their hearts.

Though it spans two world wars, the Great Depression and the 1918 influenza epidemic, Queens is strongly character-driven rather than plot-driven. Wright’s story is entertaining, poignant, and recommended, especially to readers who enjoy multigenerational tales.

Jo Ann Butler THOMPSON ROAD Scott Wyatt, Booktrope, 2015, $16.95, pb, 320pp, 9781620159552 When fourteen-year-old Raleigh Starr rescues kittens from a burning barn on Thompson Road in 1937, he crosses paths with Mona Garrison, a feebleminded twelve-year-old. Later, he protects her from bullies. He doesn’t think much about her until he’s seventeen and head over heels in love with Sally Springs, who doesn’t notice him since she already has a boyfriend. He yearns to change that, but doesn’t know how until he spies Mona dancing.

Her fluid grace spurs him to enter the 1941 dance

contest at the Western Washington State Fair.

Sally and her beau placed third last year, and if he and Mona win this time, Sally will have to notice him. First, though, Mona must teach him how to dance.

For his plan to work, no one must know what they’re doing. Each week after Mona cleans his aunt’s house, Raleigh takes her to a bar where they practice. Without telling the Garrisons about the contest, he convinces them to let her accompany him to the fair as a reward for her hard work.

They win, but Raleigh’s lies and betrayal of trust have a profound effect on their lives. He goes to war following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, while Mrs. Garrison, fearing her niece will adopt loose morals, has Mona institutionalized and a stranger appointed as her guardian.

Spanning two decades, Thompson Road is a tale of how seemingly innocent actions have irreparable consequences and the struggles people endure because of the choices they make. It is set during a time when people with mental disabilities have no rights, and Wyatt provides a horrifying glimpse into what that means. This poignant story portrays the social aspects of life, and the emotions it evokes linger long after the last page is turned.

Cindy Vallar STONE COLD DEAD James W. Ziskin, Seventh Street, 2015, $15.95/ C$17, pb, 318pp, 9781633880481 Stone Cold Dead is the third of Ziskin’s mysteries featuring Ellie Stone, reporter for the newspaper, the Republic, in New Holland, New York. On New Year’s Eve, 1960, her private celebration with a seaman she met at a party is interrupted

by Irene Metzger. Irene’s fifteen-year-old daughter is missing, and based on Ellie’s prior investigative reporting of a murder, she believes Ellie can help her.

Ellie is young but tough. She drinks too much and holds her own in the sexism of the newsroom and the anti-Semitism of her adopted upstate New York home. By a strange coincidence, Ellie had met the missing girl, Darleen Hicks. Darleen came to Ellie’s aid at a high school basketball game when she was sick after drinking too much, but she also made off with Ellie’s pint of whiskey. Ziskin deftly paints a portrait of both Ellie and Darleen with that encounter.

Ellie’s investigations make her an enemy of Darleen’s brutal stepfather, Dick Metzger, and the unwilling love interest of Darleen’s boyfriend, Joey Faglio. He’s locked up in juvenile detention but keeps escaping and threatening Ellie with his attentions. While she has the support of her editor at the paper, her reporting rival, George Walsh, is the publisher’s son-in-law and constantly undermines her. It’s a credit to Ziskin’s characterization of Ellie that she’s not defeated by what seems to be a bleak life in this small town.

Instead, she has friends both in town and on the police force who have her back. Her drinking raises several eyebrows, and I have a feeling it will have to be addressed in a future installment. I look forward 20th Century

to the story she tackles next.

Ellen Keith

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THE JAPANESE LOVER Isabel Allende (trans. Nick Caistor, and Amanda Hopkinson), Atria, 2015, $28.00, hb, 322pp, 9781501116971 “We are all born happy. Life gets us dirty along the way, but we can clean it up. Happiness is not exuberant or noisy, like pleasure or joy; it’s silent, tranquil, and gentle; it’s a feeling of satisfaction inside that begins with self-love.” Age is the merciful healer in the Lark House Nursing Home, where several characters meet and share their unique stories. After being sent from Poland to America by her parents at the beginning of World War II, Alma is adopted by her Belasco relatives, while her parents are ruthlessly obliterated in one of Hitler’s concentration camps. Before the war begins, Ichimei Fukuda’s father begins work as the Belascos’ skilled gardener, but after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, the Fukuda family is exiled to one of America’s notorious internment camps.

After the war, Ichimei forms a hidden, lifelong love affair with Alma. Alma, choosing comfort and social status over her love for Ichimei, later marries Nathaniel Belasco, who carries his own secrets.

Irina, who is Alma’s assistant in her elderly years, is forced to live in anonymity as a former victim of childhood trauma. Within Lark House, Seth Belasco, Alma’s grandson, fails to attract Irina’s attention, let alone her love. The evolution of these struggles is oddly organized and partially lacking in affect, but it turns out that the “muted passion” in each character parallels the ordeals of elderly and younger characters striving to love themselves and resolve their earlier conflicts. Some muted magical realism, per Allende’s famous writing style, is added, with questionable effect. All in all, The Japanese Lover is a unique, fictional look at life from WWII to the present.

Viviane Crystal

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THE INCARNATIONS Susan Barker, Touchstone, 2015, $26, hb, 384pp, 9781501106781 / Black Swan, 2015, £8.99, pb, 496pp, 9781784160005 The Incarnations is unlike any book you are likely to read this year. And that is a good thing, because you will not soon forget this wild ride of a storywithin-a-story about past lives.

It is 2008 in China, and Beijing is gearing up to host the Olympics. The protagonist, known as Driver Wang, as he is a taxi driver in the bustling city, has 20th Century — Multi-period

been finding notes in his cab, left by an anonymous passenger. The writer purports to not only know details of Wang’s current life, but of all six of his past lives. The writer of the notes claims that his/her soul and Wang’s souls have been bound together for centuries.

Rotating chapters tell the fascinating narratives of the intertwining lives of the two souls. For example, in a previous incarnation, Wang’s mysterious taxi passenger tells him that he was a concubine in the Ming Dynasty; a boy named Bitter Root, son of a sorceress, in the Tang Dynasty; and most recently, a schoolgirl during China’s Cultural Revolution in the mid-1960s. In this life, Wang, whose mother died when he was not quite a teenager, has a difficult relationship with his cruel father and scheming stepmother. And although he has a wife and child, he wrestles with residual feelings he has for Zeng, an unstable man whom he met while the two were in a psychiatric hospital years earlier.

Weaving Chinese folklore in a similar vein as Amy Tan, the author spins an enigmatic and enchanting tale that may cause the reader to wonder: how old is my soul?

Hilary Daninhirsch ANOTHER HEARTBEAT IN THE HOUSE Kate Beaufoy, Transworld Ireland, 2015, £7.99, pb, 576pp, 9781848271913 As the layers within this story unfold, the reader becomes engrossed in the recent history of Edie together with the historical discoveries she makes while preparing her uncle’s house for auction in a remote part of County Cork. The last time Edie spent time at her uncle’s lodge was in the company of her best friend, Hilly, and she has many fond memories of those two weeks. Sadly, Edie has been finding it difficult to reconcile herself to having allowed a rift between them to continue for a year, and, since Hilly’s tragic death, she is suffused with guilt.

In the process of cataloguing the contents worth saving for resale from the house, Edie discovers a manuscript from the mid-19th century, written in perfect copperplate script. The story revealed over the course of her stay is intriguing. There are many references linking the tale with local landmarks, the gentry who owned large properties in the area at that time, and with the writer William Thackeray, who was known to have spent time travelling that part of Ireland at that period.

This compelling story is a good read, taking the reader seamlessly across the years, as the stories are unfurled and allowing some insight into the hardships from the Great Famine (An Gorta Mór) to the progress made by the early 1930s.

Cathy Kemp

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A DICTIONARY OF MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING Jackie Copleton, Penguin, 2015, $16.00/C$21.00, pb, 304pp, 9780143128250 On August 9, 1945, Amaterasu Takahashi

was late in meeting her daughter, Yuko, in Nagasaki’s Catholic cathedral; her tardiness saved her life, as the atomic bomb known as Fat Boy was dropped on the city at 11:01 a.m.

Yuko most certainly perished, as did Hideo, Amaterasu’s cherished grandson. Unable to heal from this terrible loss, Amaterasu and her husband, Kenzo, soon immigrated to the United States.

Decades later, Kenzo is dead, and Amaterasu is alone except for the alcohol that has become her companion; she speaks little English, and prefers not to learn. One winter morning she opens her door to a grossly disfigured man claiming to be Hideo, who brings a box of letters as proof. When Amaterasu opens these letters, she is forced to unlock her memories of a painful past, slowly revealing to the reader a complicated web of history, cultural mores, and human emotions that are difficult to confront. The letters are written by Jomei Sato, a prominent Nagasaki doctor who was Yuko’s lover; Yuko’s voice is heard in the narrative, as well, through her diary entries. Hideo prods Amaterasu to add her own reluctant reminiscences to complete this story of love, family, and deception.

Copleton aptly portrays the multiple faces of pre-war Nagasaki and its environs, from the holiday island of Iojima to the bustling efficiency of a hospital, to the darker side of its red light district. The darkness is also reflected in her descriptions of pikadon (the Japanese word for the bombing: brilliant light and thunderous noise) and its aftermath, which is still difficult to read even though we know the outcome. Copleton adds yet another valuable layer by beginning each chapter with words and definitions for concepts inherent in Japanese culture. This is a beautiful, heartwrenching story full of love and history.

Helene Williams ONLY THE ANIMALS Ceridwen Dovey, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2015, $25.00, hb, 256pp, 9780374226633 Handicapped by homocentric prejudice, few humans can properly comment on themselves, or upon their species. Who else shall speak to us of the human condition? Only the animals who share our homes and beds, and serve us as beasts of burden. Humans cast them willy-nilly into the ocean depths, plunge them into the brutalities of war, or blast them into space just to see what happens.

Whether these animals are keen observers or mere brutes awaiting the next order – or their fates – ten of them inhabit the pages of Ceridwen Dovey’s Only the Animals. This is no random assemblage of creatures: chimpanzee, elephant, and parrot are linked to writers, famed and obscure, spanning more than a century. Unfortunately, these HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Reviews | 51

associations rarely do Ms. Dovey’s animals much good.

I loved this delightful collection of short stories.

Mussels ocean-hop to the hippie scene in San Francisco Bay, then are swept off into war in the Pacific. Virginia Woolf adopts, and collaborates with Tolstoy’s tortoise. Bears abandoned by their keepers in Sarajevo’s zoo are fed by citizens who dare enemy shelling to share scarce food. Their story is tragic from the start, but the bears speak to us of both human kindness and brutality. Ms. Dovey’s fecund imagination knows no bounds, and I highly recommend Only the Animals.

Jo Ann Butler PALACE OF TEARS Julian Leatherdale, Allen & Unwin, 2015, A$29.99, pb, 551pp, 97817601601 Adam Fox is owner of the Palace, an exclusive resort hotel in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. In 1914, his only son Robin tumbles to his death over a cliff. Suspicion falls on Robin’s childhood friend, Angie Wood.

In 2013, Adam’s grand-daughter Lisa begins exploring her family history and comes across cryptic references to Angie and wonders what happened to her. In the process we learn about Lisa’s mother Monika, Adam’s two wives, Adelina and Laura, and his lover Freya, all of whom were to suffer from “… so many lies … elaborate acts of deception … secret agreements, hidden cruelty, forbidden love.”

This epic novel has some keen observations of 20th-century Australian society and is at its best when it delves into little-known aspects such as the appalling treatment during World War I of people who had either German ancestry or family connections and were sent to concentration camps and then deported.

There are lavish descriptions of art and design, food, fashion, theatre, and early Australian moviemaking; plus several fires, dream sequences and even a fairy story. There are cameos from real historical individuals, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in a séance, and Dame Nellie Melba gives one of her last recitals. Interesting as some of these digressions might be, with so much going on and too many points of view, ultimately there is no real emotional connection to the women, whose destinies are controlled by the ruthless Adam.

All this excess as well as plot twists within twists might even be seen as a metaphor for the ridiculous sprawling luxury hotel itself that is nicknamed “Fox’s Folly”.

It’s a novel that is in turns exhilarating, exasperating and exhausting. In spite of this chaos, a lot of readers are going to simply adore it!

Marina Maxwell I WAS A REVOLUTIONARY Andrew Malan Milward, Harper, 2015, $24.99, hb, 243pp, 9780062377319 Andrew Malan Milward opens his collection of short stories with an academic investigation of the 1863 raid on Lawrence, Kansas, by Quantrill 52 | Reviews |

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and his men. This exploration is collected over the course of the unnamed narrator’s journey from oblivious young female resident of Lawrence to fascinated undergraduate, majoring in history, at the University of Kansas (KU). Like the other seven stories in this collection, this first story blends fact with fiction, linking both to academic studies.

All of the short stories focus on historical events in Kansas but, like the first story about the raid on Lawrence, are strongly connected to the social and historical events taking place in the United States.

The second story, “O Death,” for example, explores the efforts of one African-American family to reach Nicodemus, a Kansas city established in 1877 during the Reconstruction Period after the Civil War. The obstacles they must overcome in their journey to a town established by African Americans for African Americans is heartbreaking; white riverboat captains, for example, refuse to take on African American passengers, stranding the family and others for three months as they wait for someone to transport them away from the draconian South.

The historical characters in these stories often overlap, but the various voices of the narrators are always compelling, drawing you into this fascinating study of the role Kansas played in American history.

Terri Baker THE SONG OF HARTGROVE HALL (US) / THE SONG COLLECTOR (UK) Natasha Solomons, Plume, 2015, $16, pb, 388pp, 9780147517593 / Sceptre, 2015, £16.99, 400pp, 9781444736380 In 1946, Harry Fox-Talbot, called Fox, and his older brothers Jack and George are reclaiming their estate, Hartgrove Hall, after its requisition in the war. They’re determined to bring life back to the house with a New Year’s Eve party. Jack, the dashing, handsome eldest brother, leaves the work of the party to Fox and George, while he enjoys his date, singer Edie Rose. In 2000, Fox is mourning the loss of his wife Edie. The Song of Hartgrove Hall reveals, bit by bit, how Jack’s girlfriend Edie became Fox’s wife.

Even as a young man, Fox was a gifted composer, more interested in the music he heard in his head than the demands of the estate. All three brothers vow to put their energy into saving the estate so as not to sell it, but when Jack and Edie marry, a heartbroken Fox severs family ties and moves to London. In chapters that alternate between the 1940s to 1950s and 2000s, Solomons explains how Fox finds his way back to Hartgrove Hall as its master.

Fox’s love for Edie is the theme of the book, and heartbreakingly, it’s a love that threatens everyone in its path. Unfortunately, Edie seems to exist more as a point of tension between the two brothers than a person in her own right. After her death, Fox ignores his daughters and granddaughters, only finding solace in his young grandson Robin, a piano prodigy. Robin pulls him out of his solipsism

and reawakens his desire to compose. Although Fox can be a selfish, unsympathetic character, the narrative is undeniably fascinating, evoking the worlds of crumbling family estates, forbidden love, and musical genius.

Ellen Keith THE LOST GARDEN Katharine Swartz, Lion Fiction, 2015, $14.99, pb, 288pp, 9781782640707 Alternating from past to present, this novel is set in the quaint village of Goswell on the Cumbrian Coast of North West England. In present day, Marin Ellis’s life has been turned upside down with the death of her father, resulting in Marin taking guardianship of her 15-year-old half-sister, Rebecca. The two of them decide to move to Goswell in an attempt to start life anew. However, neither anticipates the rocky adjustment of living on the coast or negotiating the village’s established social circles.

Back in 1919, Eleanor Sanderson, daughter of Goswell’s vicar, has also had her life turned upside down with the wartime death of her beloved brother. Eleanor’s father attempts to distract her grief by hiring someone to create a garden for her pleasure. The ensuing result is that she and the gardener become unusual friends.

The garden becomes the focal point of both stories because it offers the dual protagonists a place not only of refuge, but also an outlet for channeling grief. More than just a patch of ground, the garden soon becomes the catalyst for both main characters to assert themselves, forging a unique relationship with the two gardeners, a century apart. As the chapters alternate from the past to the present, the two tales merge with concentric plots of society’s expectations for young women, and the complications that can arise from loyalty and love.

As a professed Anglophile, I thoroughly enjoyed the novel because it brought the Cumbrian coast to life with delightful local details. An unexpected benefit was how the dual stories woven together gave me deeper insight into the ways in which families cope with grief and how society’s expectations about social strata can reach across generations.

Linda Harris Sittig ALL THAT FOLLOWED Gabriel Urza, Henry Holt, 2015, $25.00/ C$28.99/£16.99, hb, 253pp, 9781627792341 All That Followed is one of those works of fiction—historical or not—where history is the central character and everything else flows from it.

In Gabriel Urza’s case, that history is the history of the Basque people of Spain, their independence, their survival during Franco’s years, and their longing for a future uncertain.

Urza takes the history of the Basque people and tells their story through vignettes: Joni, the American who comes to Muriga, Spain, to teach English; Mariana, the wife of the murdered political leader; and Iker, the young Basque in jail for that murder. Joni and Mariana are estranged Multi-period

friends and Iker was once Joni’s pupil. The 2004 Madrid train bombing starts these three characters on a path of reflection, how history and their circumstances brought them to where they were today: A lonely old man longing for any kind of love, a sad widow trying to sort out what she calls two types of infidelity, and a convicted murderer wondering how his future changed so radically from his hopes.

If this review feels jumbled, it is because that is how the reader comes away from the book. It is a murder mystery where we know the “how” from the beginning, but instead are drawn through the “why.” What could the three characters have done to prevent the murder? Why does history compel us to behave the way we do? Why do people perceive it differently?

Urza’s writing is taut, harsh, and then lyrical and soft. It is deeply atmospheric and rich in imagery.

But the characters, for all their history, felt flat. The jostling between time and characters was difficult to follow at times, and in the end, I didn’t feel satisfied with myself or the book. After a week’s reflection, there isn’t much that stands out in my memory. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t read it.

It is a book that will garner praise, just not much from me.

Bryan Dumas THE LURE OF THE MOONFLOWER: The Final Pink Carnation Novel Lauren Willig, NAL, 2015, $16.00/C$21.00, pb, 528p, 9780451473028 This is the final (sob!) chapter of Pink Carnation stories. In 2005, our series narrator, Eloise, has abandoned her Ph.D. thesis to pen historical novels. She and Colin Selwick are set to tie the knot, all while attempting to juggle family and friends from both sides of the Atlantic who are making a hash of their life in and around statelybut-crumbling Selwick Manor.

1807: Jane Wooliston, our favorite intrepid female Regency-era spy, knows her skills as well as her limitations when it comes to spying on the French. She reluctantly teams up with the brilliant and charismatic rogue agent known as the Moonflower, aka Jack Reid, son of Colonel Reid and stepson of Jane’s former guardian, Miss Gwen.

Their mission: to protect mad-as-a-hatter Queen Maria of Portugal from capture by Napoleon’s troops and to escort her to safety in England. Will love prevail in two different centuries? Will Jane— and Eloise—get their men?

Not to give away any more of the plot, I found The Lure of the Moonflower quite a treat. Willig ties up lots of loose ends and reintroduces us to her large cast of characters from the other Pink Carnation novels in a hilarious series of complications.

Her humor, characterization, plotting skill, and research shine in a very entertaining story. That said, now all we have to do is convince Ms. Willig to write another dozen or so Pink Carnation novels. (Please!)

Monica E. Spence Multi-period — Historical Fantasy

THE SEA KEEPER’S DAUGHTER (The Carolina Heirlooms Novels) Lisa Wingate, Tyndale, 2015, $19.99, hb, 322pp, 9781414388274/$14.99, pb, 322pp, 9781414386904 The inheritance of a dilapidated historic hotel on Roanoke Island comes at a fortuitous moment for Whitney Munroe. A restaurant entrepreneur working on opening a second location, she arrives in Manteo with financial deadlines nipping at her heels. Her initial thoughts of selling the building for fast cash are soon dispelled, however, when she discovers a number of old letters secreted amongst her grandmother’s belongings—letters from a sister, Alice, who worked with Roosevelt’s Writer’s Project in 1936. Through Alice’s powerful words and astute perceptions, we follow her journey through the Blue Ridge Mountains as she conducts her interviews. The letters are deeply moving, replete with motley characters—some charming, some down-right dangerous—and we travel beside Alice on dangerous treks through an unforgiving land which became home to many Depression victims.

Whilst piecing together Alice’s extraordinary story, Whitney is pulled between financial and family pressures. The disposal of the hotel begins to take a back seat to her need to deal with a belligerent, ailing stepfather who has been granted a life-tenancy by her deceased mother. Then there’s the necklace and carved scrimshaw that are so valuable the museum can’t afford to purchase them outright, but which Whitney desperately needs to sell.

The Sea Keeper’s Daughter is a charming inspirational novel, never indulging in a “too good to be true” feel with character or circumstance. Alice’s and Whitney’s stories are equally compelling—not always the case in multi-period novels. A wonderful story in fast-paced, clean, descriptive prose.

Fiona Alison

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REWINDER Brett Battles, 47North, 2015, $14.95/C$18.86, pb, 260pp, 9781477830833 Denny Younger is an Eight—one of the lowest social classes in a strictly stratified British society in a timeline where the American Revolution never happened and England rules most of the planet.

After taking his placement exams and expecting to be placed in a job with his father, Denny is surprised when he is asked to take another exam.

After the exam, Denny is offered two jobs: become a librarian, or something more. The lure of the unknown draws him into the world of Rewinders.

These are people working for the Upjohn Institute whose sole job is to go back through time as geneologists to observe and retrace bloodlines and family histories. When Denny goes back, he learns that a matter of 12 seconds is enough to alter life as he knows it. After spending time in the “real” (the

reader’s) timeline, falling in love, and learning more about a society without boundaries Denny must decide which reality will survive.

This book is almost entirely set in 2015—either the alternate timeline (Denny’s) or the reader’s reality—with a few jaunts into the past that are more side notes to the overall plot. For readers of historical fiction, the George Washington aspect of the plot will be intriguing, but maybe not enough to carry interest throughout. This is first and foremost a Sci-Fi/time travel book. Denny’s character was difficult to engage with. He is praised by others as being smart and quick, but it takes him four days to realize he’s altered reality. And for a time travel book, there are many paradoxes that are left unexplained: How are other Rewinders not erased when the timeline changes? Or Denny for that matter? If you are willing to look past the gaps in the “science,” Brett Battle’s writing is solid and he keeps a fast pace. It is a quick read and presents an interesting question on society and the past.

Bryan Dumas

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THE SECRETS OF BLOOD AND BONE Rebecca Alexander, Broadway Books, 2015, $15.00, pb, 384pp, 978-0804140706 In The Secrets of Blood and Bone, Rebecca Alexander picks up where she left off in the first part of her trilogy, combining modern-day fantasy, vampirism and 16th-century sorcery in the hands of Dr John Dee’s erstwhile assistant, Edward Kelley.

In the contemporary story, Jackdaw Hammond describes herself and Sadie, the girl she is looking after, as “borrowed timers,” people who have been saved from death by magic. But in order to stay alive, Jack and Sadie must protect themselves using 66 centuries-old sigils inscribed within protective circles – in tattoos, in Jack’s case, and drawn on the walls or floors in invisible ink for Sadie. In the first novel in the trilogy, The Secrets of Life and Death, Jackdaw encountered Elizabeth Bathory, an infamous 16th-century murderess with dangerous consequences that play out in this sequel. And now she has also crossed the path of an aristocratic English family, the Dannings, who have an urgent need for herbal tincture made by Ellen, a modern-day witch who has died in mysterious circumstances, and in whose house Jack and Sadie are living.

As in Alexander’s previous novel, events in the present are inextricably linked to the past, in particular to the life of Edward Kelley. In The Secrets of Blood and Bone, Kelley has parted company with Dr Dee and set off on a dangerous mission to Venice – a mission he has undertaken for the same family that, centuries later, is so interested in Jack and Sadie.

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Jack, Sadie and Jack’s love interest, Felix, but may find the initial pace disappoints. The story moves frequently from past to present and to different points of view in the present, giving it a disjointed feel. Alexander’s mix of popular urban fantasy elements – such as vampires and werewolves – and her beautifully realized historical sections, however, should win her many fans.

Kate Braithwaite GIDEON SMITH AND THE MASK OF THE RIPPER David Barnett, Tor, 2015, $15.99/C$18.50, pb, 384pp, 9780765334268 It is the early 1890s in England, and the Hero of the Empire, Gideon Smith, along with his sidekicks Aloysius Bent, Rowena Fanshawe, the Belle of the Airwaves, and Maria, the automaton, are on the trail of a killer in London, known as infamous Jack the Ripper. In a fantasy world of flying steam airships, steam-operated cabs and mechanically driven robots, these intrepid heroes must fight Indian Thuggee assassins, a large tyrannosaur kept in the sewers of London ready to be unleashed upon the population, and a devious killer and mystic hypnotist Markus Mesmer, who sends people into the streets of London in hypnotic trances.

A well-written fantasy novel of Victorian England, this novel is the second book in the series.

This was my first steampunk adventure novel, and I found the story riveting, fast-paced and exciting. Once I got my head around the alternate history information (America actually loses their Revolution) and the gadgets used by the characters to move the plot along, I was able to enjoy the book.

The characters are well-formed, credible and, in some cases, bigger than life. I highly recommend this novel and series to those who enjoy fantasy or steampunk stories.

Jeff Westerhoff THE REVOLUTIONS Frank Gilman, Corsair, 2015, £8.99, pb, 476pp, 9781472113276 Arthur Shaw, an impecunious writer, meets and subsequently falls in love with Josephine Bradman during London’s (fictional) Great Storm of 1893.

While attending a séance, he gets an offer of a suspiciously well-paid job, which involves seemingly arcane and pointless writing and calculating figures in an office in Deptford. His commitment to this new career distances him from Josephine, who then has a disturbingly macabre experience at an occult gathering. When Shaw’s office is burnt down in a catastrophic fire in which he nearly loses his life, he decides to investigate further. He becomes involved in a bizarre and highly dangerous struggle for supremacy in magical and occult circles in London, which culminates in Josephine being stranded on Mars and Arthur becoming part of the expedition to get her back! It is all rather weird and wacky, the mood similar to late 19th-century science-fiction accounts of life on other planets in the solar system.

But the narration of the story is very good as it zips 54 | Reviews |

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along in an entertaining and highly imaginative style.

Douglas Kemp THE IRON ASSASSIN Ed Greenwood, Tor, June 2015, $25.99/C$29.99, hb, 320pp, 9780765338464 In Greenwood’s steampunk England, Sworn Agents of the Tower vow to protect the Queen and her philandering son against the Ancient Order of the Tentacles. The evil Order is amuck with in-fighting, one faction following the mysterious “Uncle” and one following Lady Roodcannon, the prince’s former lover and mother of his bastard son. In defense of the Royals, Jack Straker invents the Iron Assassin, a corpse brought to life through electricity and an iron exo-skeleton. The assassin’s controls are taken over by the Tentacles. Straker works with pal Hardcastle and new agent Lady Harminster to re-gain control of his creation.

With a Dramatis Personae list of 98 characters (13 women), in order of appearance, keeping track of characters is difficult. It took me 100 pages to realize who the main characters were, mostly by who was still alive. Deadly violence erupts on nearly every page. The plot is straightforward (bad guys vs good guys). The pseudo-science of this steampunk world works if readers ignore real science. Sentences without subjects or verbs are common, which caused me to re-read many passages. Readers looking for a book heavy on action and violence might like this story.

Elizabeth Caulfeld Felt CROOKED Austin Grossman, Mulholland, 2015, $26.00, hb, 368pp, 9780316198516 Take Richard Nixon’s well-documented political biography and much-analyzed personal foibles, throw in some good old-fashioned Cold War spy craft, and finish it off with an odd mix of National Treasure and Men in Black, and that approximates what Austin Grossman serves up in his latest novel. His inspiration, apparently, is that no one has ever definitively explained the motive behind the Watergate break-in. That Grossman is a video game designer (Tomb Raider, Deus Ex) hints at what to expect.

Decidedly, this is Dick Nixon as you’ve never seen him before, along with a whole cast of historical figures playing wildly against type. In particular, there’s Ike Eisenhower as Wizard-inChief, an other-worldly Henry Kissinger—“no one liked to be within two feet of him”, and with good reason—and not-so-dutiful wife Pat, who Nixon, as first-person narrator, describes as even more misunderstood than he. Though this is wildly alternative history, Grossman effectively captures the zeitgeist of the late ´40s and early ´50s as the Cold War blossomed and the atomic age and its doomsday implications hung like a mushroom cloud over everything. The premise here is that the world is filled with demonic beasts and various extraterrestrials, that the New World population was allowed to survive based on black magic and

shadowy deals with this other populace, that every U.S. president has had more or less knowledge and mastery of these forces, and finally that part of the Cold War arms race was the competition to control and deploy these unpleasant forces.

While Grossman offers glimpses of these sinister projects, he never gives us the big reveal; he only alludes to the showdown Nixon orchestrates to allow mankind to continue, paid for with his own downfall. Nixon tells us that he’s seen the devil, but we never do. What a letdown.

Jennifer Bort Yacovissi THE PYRE: The Return of Ravana David Hair, Jo Fletcher Books, 2015, £8.99, pb, 340pp, 8780857053602 Based in Mandore and Jodhpur in Rajasthan, The Pyre is a fantasy novel that follows two groups of young people, one in the present day where school friends are brought together as strangers through a series of supernatural encounters, to play their part in an ancient battle which began in 769 AD. Their experiences echo another group of young people from the 8th century, who, through past lives, have become intrinsically linked with those in the present. The plot that runs through past and present is that of Ravindra-Raj, the evil Raja of Mandore, who devises a plot to rise from the dead, by burning himself and his seven queens alive on a pyre while conducting a ritual with the aid of Ravana, the demon king of the Ramayana epic. The plan fails when one of the queens escapes the pyre and the ghost of the Raja and his queens continue to pursue those involved in the escape up to the present day.

The Pyre was genuinely dark and unsettling. It is not so much a timeslip novel, rather a story set in two timelines that sometimes collide with or echo each other. The core mythic background of the Indian epic, the Ramayana, has been diligently researched and a brief introduction is presented in the final pages of the book. The story telling within the novel is outstanding, as is the way Hair mixes the fantasy elements with those of the traditional epic, bringing all the characters to life.

Being so used to reading fantasies based on western mythology, I found it refreshing to read something based on different cultural traditions.

Linda Sever

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THE VIRGIN’S DAUGHTER: A Tudor Legacy Novel Laura Andersen, Ballantine, 2015, $15.00/ C$18.00, pb, 352pp, 9780804179362 England, 1580: William Tudor (Henry IX) is dead, his sister Elizabeth I is on the throne, her marriage to Philip of Spain nears divorce, and Anne Isabella is their sole heir, complicating English Protestant/Spanish Catholic relationships.

Lucette Courtenay, one of Dr Dee’s brightest Historical Fantasy — Alternate History

puzzle solvers, is ordered to France by Walsingham to investigate the LeClerc brothers, Nicholas and Julien, who are suspected of masterminding a plot to free Mary Stuart. Rivalry for Lucette’s affections develops between the two brothers, but while she inadvertently falls in love with Julien and he with her, Nicholas’ announcement of his intention to marry her takes her off-guard. Deciding she needs to persuade the brothers onto English soil and into Walsingham’s jurisdiction, Lucette agrees to travel with Nicholas (ostensibly to seek her father’s permission to marry), knowing that Julien will follow.

I love all books Tudor, and alternate histories can be fertile ground for fresh thinking and speculative ‘what ifs?’ Unfortunately, this story didn’t live up to my expectations. It’s an entertaining read with a plausible, if over-simplified plot. Anne Isabella remains peripheral to this story, making me wonder about the title (the next in series, I assume, will change this) and there are simple editorial overlooks: a diary entry dated Aug 27 is followed up by one dated Aug 14. I found the narrative choppy and disjointed, which I daresay would make a good TV mini-series, but less so what I like to see in an authentic historical novel.

Fiona Alison

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BOOK: My Autobiography John Agard (illus. Neil Packer), Candlewick, 2015, $15.99/C$19.00, hb, 144pp, 9780763678876 / Walker, 2014, £12.99, hb, 144pp, 9780744544787 Book tells the story of writing and book-making from the dawn of time until the current age.

Written with wit and humor, this history should appeal to any curious 10-year-old or older child.

Filled with philosophical quotes from various great thinkers of the world and wonderful facts about how writing developed, Book tells it like it was.

Clay tables, cuneiform writing, and pictures on a cave wall all express human beings’ desire to, well, express themselves. Regardless of the occasion or tool, writing things down and sharing thoughts with others seems to be one function basic to human existence. The development of the alphabet helped the art of writing and expressing, while the use of appropriate surfaces, such as papyrus, expanded the possibilities of the written word.

Listen to the way Book describes one of Book’s developments: “I was still rolling (papyrus scrolls) when, out of the blue, sheep entered my life. That’s right. Deep down inside of me, there’s a part that still bleats; especially when I dream of days gone by, two thousand years ago or more, when a certain Ptolemy V, Pharaoh of Egypt, took great pride in his library in Alexandria.”

The unique charm of Book’s voice carries the information about the history of writing along with a certain appeal. And, as Book evolves into EBook, it’s interesting to speculate about where Alternate History — Children & YA

Book will be heading next.

Anne Clinard Barnhill THE SAFEST LIE Angela Cerrito, Holiday House, 2015, $16.95/ C$23.95, hb, 192pp, 9780823433100 With her novel set in Poland during the Holocaust, Angela Cerrito tells the story of Anna Bauman (aka Karwolska), a nine-year-old Jew who lives in the Warsaw ghetto with her parents. Life in the ghetto is difficult—not enough food, constant threat from Nazi soldiers, threadbare clothing— but for Anna, being with her family is enough.

Unfortunately, Anna’s world is about to change.

In order to protect her from the Nazis, Anna’s parents send her away, after teaching her Catholic customs, because Anna is going to a Catholic orphanage under a new name—Karwolska. In the orphanage, Anna meets many girls of all ages: some kind, others not. Slowly, Anna settles into her new routine, being Anna Karwolska during the day, but haunted by Anna Bauman at night. She struggles to remember her family, their words and faces.

Though Anna adjusts to life at the orphanage, she doesn’t stay there for long. Soon, she is adopted by a Polish family from the country, where Nazi soldiers enter any house at will to procure what food is available. Anna lives in fear that her secret will be discovered and she, along with her adoptive family, will be shot by the Nazis.

The story is based on the work done by the reallife Irene Sendler, a woman who rescued over 2500 Jewish children by masquerading them as Catholic orphans. The author was able to travel to Poland to visit Ms. Sendler, and this experience informs the book. In the publisher’s literature about the book, the target readers are from 8-12. And, though the book is well-written, because of the harrowing nature of some of the events, I would recommend this for the more mature child.

Anne Clinard Barnhill CHASING SECRETS Gennifer Choldenko, Wendy Lamb, 2015, $16.99/ C$19.99, hb, 278pp, 9780385742535 Thirteen-year-old Elizabeth Kennedy has no greater concerns than navigating friendships at school and dreaming about following in her physician father’s footsteps, but when San Francisco’s Chinatown is placed under quarantine in 1900, suddenly life is more complicated. There are rumors of plague, denied by the newspapers and society doctors. The family’s beloved Chinese cook disappears and Lizzie discovers his son Noah hiding on the third floor of their house. As Lizzie befriends Noah, she begins to question everything she thought she knew about Chinese and American relations in San Francisco.

An excellent book about friendship, family, tolerance, and finding strength in adversity.

Jessica Brockmole Chasing Secrets is a captivating story about a thirteen-year-old girl named Elizabeth Kennedy, who yearns to go to college and become a doctor.

But, under the watchful eyes of her wealthy aunt and uncle, Lizzie is barely allowed to answer medical calls with her papa. There are rumors of the plague in San Francisco. Her cook is trapped in Chinatown’s quarantine, there is a new boy living in secret upstairs, and there is still the lingering question of why everyone is waiting on the monkey.

With the reluctant help of her older brother Billy, she tries to get their cook out of the quarantine.

Throughout Lizzie’s adventures, she learns that friendship is important and that hard work leads to great success.

I liked this book because the author did a great job with imagery and details and I felt like I was experiencing what the characters in the book were experiencing. This quality of the writing helped the story be perceived a little better. I would recommend this book to teens and pre-teens mostly, but Chasing Secrets could be enjoyable to anyone of any age.

Ellen Brockmole, age 12 WATER GHOSTS Linda Collison, Old Salt Press, 2015, $8.95, pb, 182pp, 9781943404001 James McCafferty would rather be anywhere else than on this Chinese Junk his mother has forced him onto. Meant to be adventure therapy for its troubled teen passengers, this cruise from Hawaii across the Pacific will prove to be deadly.

And James knows it—he can see ghosts. At sea and ill at ease with the misfits, criminals, and bullies who comprise his bunkmates, he comes to believe that the ship will be taken over by the restless spirits of a long-dead band of courtiers who had fled the Ming imperial world centuries ago. As the days go by, and as the adult leaders begin to disappear, James soon finds himself in a battle for his own soul.

Collison weaves together elements of horror, historical, and nautical fiction in Water Ghosts. It is rife with teenage angst stemming from James’s father’s death, his mother’s detachment, and his sense of isolation from being able to perceive auras and departed spirits. Her experience with ships shines through, as do her insights into the teenage mind and the history of the Ming dynasty. For this reader, however, the angst and teenage drama were just too thick. James’s supernatural abilities distracted from the story. Direct encounters with the courtiers’ ghosts would have been more compelling.

Most of the characters lack depth, and the story breaks stride about two-thirds of the way through as Collison sends us back hundreds of years into the dead courtiers’ lives, departing from the main characters’ storyline for most of the remainder of the book. This is a short novel, and trying to squeeze two stories into it just didn’t work. Though YA, the writing is rife with adult themes and explicit language.

Justin M. Lindsay THE BLACK CROW CONSPIRACY Christopher Edge, Albert Whitman, 2015, $16.99, HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Reviews | 55

hb, 272pp, 9780807507803 An action-packed and engaging read from start to finish, this is the third of an early Edwardian era trilogy featuring a young girl who happens to be a celebrated author of horror for the magazine Penny Dreadful. Fifteen-year-old Penelope Tredwell, however, hides behind the pen name of Montgomery Flinch and masquerades as his niece, employing a clever actor to play the part in public.

In this latest adventure, Penelope has been suffering from writer’s block for many months and comes up with the idea of a contest in which her readers send in their own story plots. Among the many entries, she discovers one intriguing tale that is signed only with the drawing of a black crow. Once her version of The Thief That Wasn’t There is printed, she finds herself and her friends in trouble with a detective from New Scotland Yard for a crime that had been committed exactly as described by the illustrious Montgomery Flinch— the theft of the crown jewels just weeks before the new king’s coronation.

With a scientific twist and a plot involving the royal family, the story may seem a bit far-fetched, but moves along quickly with humor and wit. The characters each have distinct personalities that complement the early 20th-century London setting.

An immensely satisfying ending sadly concludes this charming series of escapades, but leaves an opening for perhaps a different spin on the lovable characters.

Arleigh Johnson ALISTAIR GRIM’S ODDITORIUM Gregory Funaro, Disney-Hyperion, 2015, $16.99/ C$17.99, hb, 432pp, 9781484700068 Grubb, an orphan boy around twelve years old, is a chimney sweep abused and exploited by his master until the day he stows away in a trunk belonging to a mysterious guest at the inn for which he’s been working. When he’s discovered, he finds himself in the amazing world of Alistair Grim’s Odditorium, which is fueled by a strange, glowing blue energy. Mr. Grim agrees to put him to work as a chimney sweep and immediately Grubb settles in with the enchanted objects and magical creatures inhabiting his new home. But before he gets too comfortable, the Odditorium comes under attack, and Grubb is swept up in an adventure in which he must use his wits to protect his new friends and prevent the Odditorium’s magic from falling into the wrong hands.

In a Victorian-era steampunk/magical mashup, Gergory Funaro has created a world with all manner of bizarre creatures that will surely enchant young readers. While I sometimes felt the writing fell a bit flat, some of the action was rushed, and the secondary characters could have used more depth, the bones of the story are solid and will appeal to the target audience. The book reminded me of The Phantom Tollbooth, but I believe that by trimming the Odditorium down by several thousand words, Mr. Funaro could have and delivered a stronger story.

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TUT: The Story of My Immortal Life P. J. Hoover, Starscape Books, 2014, $15.99/ C$18.50, hb, 320pp, 9781466814752 This is the tale of King Tutankhamun’s journey through eternity after his wicked Uncle Horemheb, who was responsible for slaying his parents, attempts to murder him in his tomb three thousand years previous. The boy king is now living in Washington D.C with a variety of ancient gods, energetically attempting to avoid to The Cult of Set which idolizes and reveres one of the nastiest of the Egyptian Gods, all while attending middleschool and doing homework and all the other redundancies of attending the eighth-grade for the umpteenth time!

Tut is told with humor and a puckish sense of adventure utterly appropriate for its age group (young teens). It is both historical in an accessible way that does not overwhelm the story or the reader but adds appropriate elements from both eras. It’s a novel I believe boys will find an enjoyable and quick read.

Admittedly, there is a bit of hesitancy regarding why Tut hasn’t perhaps become a bit more worldly over thousands of years and still thinks like a fourteen-year-old. Since this component, when glossed over, likely adds to the novel’s appeal, it should be regarded more as a positive than a negative. All in all, a rather delightful read.

Wendy A. Zollo CROW MOUNTAIN Lucy Inglis, Chicken House, 2015, £7.99. pb, 368pp, 9781910002353 This is two stories, one set in the pioneering days of the Wild West in the 1880s concerning Emily, a cosseted 15-year-old sent from England to marry a young railroad heir whom she has never met, and the other about a girl in present time travelling with her ecologist mother on a month’s field research to the same Crow Mountain in Montana.

Both strands run in parallel. Emily survives a terrible accident when all her travel companions are wiped out. Hope survives an accident near the same place. Emily tells her strand of the story in the first person in a diary that Hope finds, and it quickly becomes a love letter written to the engaging bad-boy who rescues her. Hope, stranded with Cal, wrongly accused of rape, also discovers love. Nate teaches Emily how to live in nature and respect the indigenous Crow people, how to survive danger, and ultimately how to throw off her strict upbringing and follow her heart. It is left to Hope to bring the conflicts of the past to an unexpected and satisfying conclusion.

Both tender and painful, the relationships are set against a stunning landscape where ancient conflicts between two families are strongly evoked.

In time-slip novels, often one story draws us more than the other, but in this case both are evenly handled. Hope, moving away from her mother’s over-protective ambience, is as interesting as Emily in her quest for love. Both stories reach a dramatic climax, and both endings have clever twists. The only jarring note is that Hope’s mother, cast as a

feminist bad guy, would surely never have meekly rolled-over for a man in a uniform. That aside, this is an enthralling read.

Cassandra Clark THE CURIOUS TALE OF THE LADY CARABOO Catherine Johnson, Corgi, 2015, £7.99, pb, 271pp 9780552557634 England, April 1819. Mary Willcox, destitute and desperate, is attacked, assaulted and left in a ditch by two farm labourers. Later, a badly-beatenup girl appears. She speaks no known language and she looks foreign. Who is she? Where does she come from? In an age where people gawp at ‘mermaids’ and other curiosities at country fairs, she exudes an intriguing air of nobility and mystery.

Mrs Worrall of Knole Park and her teenage daughter, Cassandra, take the girl under their wing.

Learned men come to visit and pronounce on her and her condition. Somehow, she acquires a name and a provenance: she is the Princess Caraboo of the Malay Islands, and she keeps everyone fascinated by her religious rituals up on the roof, her ability to kill a pigeon with a bow and arrow and the exotic clothes she chooses to wear.

What interests Johnson is the relationship between pretence and reality. Men, Caraboo thinks, can dissemble. A rich young man can play the debonair buck in a gaming club; a callous roué in a brothel; or be a tongue-tied youth with a lady from his own class. Which, if any, of these personas is the true one?

But women have no such choice. How can a working-class girl, seduced and abandoned by her lover, having lost her baby and been kicked out by her parents, without money or connections, ever change the constrictions binding her class and sex?

Can she ever become somebody else, someone with a brighter future to look forward to? Or must she end up half-starved and abused in the poorhouse and with nothing but drudgery until a povertystricken death?

The author has taken the true history of Mary Willcox and turned it into a fascinating and perceptive story. Any teenage girl should enjoy this book.

Elizabeth Hawksley A SCHOOL FOR BRIDES Patrice Kindl, Viking, 2015, $17.99/ C$19.99/£12.99, hb, 272pp, 9780670786084 In the fictitious English village of Little Hoo, a small band of teenage ladies are being ‘finished’ at the Winthrop Hopkins Female Academy, but the lack of suitable young men in the vicinity is a great cause of concern to them. Their luck is changes swiftly, however, when a certain Mr. Arbuthnot, passing through Lesser Hoo, is thrown from his horse and left in a bramble bush with a broken leg.

Forced to convalesce at the school, Mr. Arbuthnot and the friends who visit him in his hour of need quite change the fortunes of the girls of the Winthrop Hopkins Academy.

A School for Brides is a light-hearted, AustenChildren & YA

esque story with plenty of romance, some stolen jewels and a hefty nod to the need for both men and women to marry for money. The path to love and marriage does not run smoothly for Miss Evans, Miss Asquith, Miss Franklin, Miss Crump or Miss Pffoliott, nor are all the men they encounter as honorable as they at first appear.

Although it has a certain charm, the novel suffers from having too many young ladies all with their own story and romance. At points the number of characters is difficult to keep track of, and without any real main protagonist to root for the novel lacks emotional weight. It is a pleasant read but significantly less engaging than Kindl’s previous novel, Keeping the Castle, which is also set in Lesser Hoo. Kate Braithwaite THE ORIGINAL COWGIRL Heather Lang (illus. Suzanne Beaky), Albert Whitman, 2015, $16.99, hb, 32pp, 9780807529317 The true story of the first female rodeo competitor, Lucille Mulhall, this children’s picture book features bright, full-page illustrations and an easy-to-follow narrative of the cowgirl’s life from fearless child to Wild West performer and role model.

Lucille is not like other girls, who like to wear fancy dresses and sip tea. To her mother’s disappointment, Lucille wanted to be outdoors, riding horses and roping cattle. Her father, who organized rodeo events, saw her genuine skill and encouraged her to practice and eventually enter the all-male competitions. To everyone’s surprise, she not only did exceedingly well, but won numerous prizes and eventually came to the notice of none other than Vice Presidential candidate Theodore Roosevelt. She broke records, suffered injuries, and ignored jeers—but perhaps one of her most extraordinary accomplishments was her unintentional contribution to the upcoming women’s rights movement.

Though Lang glosses over some of the sketchier history of the Mulhall family, it is an appropriate approach for a children’s book. Lucille herself was a courageous and talented young woman who opened the door for others in her wake, and is truly the “original cowgirl.” This volume includes and timeline and short history of the Lucille Mulhall’s life.

Arleigh Johnson ANTON AND CECIL: Cats on Track Lisa and Valerie Martin, Illustrator Kelly Murphy, Algonquin, 2015, $16.95/C$22.95, hb, 272pp, 9781616204198 United States, late 1800s: Anton, a sleek grey cat, and his adventurous brother Cecil have settled back down in Lunenberg after a safe return home from the nautical adventures detailed in the first volume of this series (Cats at Sea). A message via the mouse network disturbs Anton’s peaceful life; his good friend Hieronymus, a mouse, has been captured and is held prisoner someplace Children & YA

in the west, between “the whale and the coyote.”

Hieronymus previously saved Anton’s life and so the loyal cat feels he has no choice but to try and save his friend. Spunky Cecil accompanies his brother on the quest.

Their trek takes them on sailing ships and the fearsome “land ships,” far away from their seaside home to the very heart of the Wild West and beyond. Separated from each other more than once, Cecil befriends prairie dogs and rides a bison while Anton frolics with lynx kits and fights a rattlesnake. The adventures continue as they search for Hieronymus.

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Anton and Cecil and found their story quite engaging. The book moves along at a fast clip, similar to the speed with which the cats cross the country in the giant “land ships.” The book and its endearing heroes should appeal to young readers who love cats and adventure, as well as to older ones who enjoy a little escapist whimsy in their literary diet. Lovely illustrations, including a map, enhance this tale of tails. Highly recommended; a very sweet read!

Susan McDuffie WANDERVILLE: Escape to the World’s Fair Wendy McClure, Razorbill, 2015, $16.99/ C$19.99, hb, 240pp, 9781595148209 The fair of the title is the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Five abandoned children are escaping from villainous Miss DeHaven, who— in past volumes of the series—chaperoned their orphan train and forced them to work on a farm.

The opening scene finds the kids on a railroad handcar heading west towards their imaginary children’s paradise of “Wanderville” in California.

An encounter with the eccentric Mr. Zogby changes their course, as he offers them money to take a gold medallion to a certain person at the St. Louis World’s Fair. He pays for their steamboat tickets, but once on board they scuffle with some boys being taken to work in a nasty-sounding cannery. Miss DeHaven turns up on the boat and has all the children locked into an animal pen after they steal food, but the kids manage to elude her and slip into the Fair. Will they find the mysterious friend of Zogby, and receive enough reward to get them to California, or will Miss DeHaven catch them first?

McClure will keep readers with a short attention span interested with a plot that includes lots of action. The story will enlighten today’s children about the plight of their homeless counterparts a century ago—material suitable for supplemental reading in a history or sociology lesson. However, I found the rest of the history rather transparent, and did not get a good sense of time or place either on the boat or at the fair due to too much careering from one action scene to the next. I had trouble keeping the characters straight, as there wasn’t a lot of development. Perhaps if I’d read the two previous volumes, that would have been less of a problem. It’s a good concept for a children’s series, but the execution in this volume is more superficial than memorable.

B.J. Sedlock

THE EASTER RISING: Molly’s Diary Patricia Murphy, Poolbeg, 2014, £5.99, pb, 291pp, 9781781999745 Patricia Murphy, the prize-winning producer and director of BBC and Channel 4 documentaries, has here produced a lively historical novel based on solid fact. Molly and Jack O’Donovan are caught up in the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916: fourteenyear-old Jack carrying messages for the rebels, and twelve-year-old Molly aiding the wounded. When Jack is missing and feared dead, it is up to Molly to try and find him, then help him escape.

The novel is written in the form of Molly’s diary, and effectively delineates one child’s rapid ascent to maturity. The girl who starts the story complaining that her brother ‘teases me something rotten’ and describing her new diary as ‘the best present ever’ finds herself a hundred pages later ministering to wounded soldiers – ‘His foot looked like something caught in a mangle’ – and ends the book understanding that ‘the blood spilt on both sides is all the same colour red.’

An exciting and fast-paced narrative told from Molly’s point of view is pinned down at every point by meticulous research: we learn, for example, that the women whose husbands are away fighting in France are called ‘Separation women’, that the local Scout troop is a front for Fenian recruits, and that putting sugar on a wound can help fight infection.

We meet the real actors in the rebellion, men such as James Connolly and Michael Collins, and experience their fears, triumphs and dilemmas. The language throughout is simple, almost tele-visual: ‘A cylindrical iron lorry used to transport stout had holes drilled in the side to create an armoured vehicle.’

Children of 10 -14 would love this, and it gives an invaluable insight into what it is like to be caught up in violent political upheaval – as relevant today as ever.

Jane Burke YOUNG HOUDINI: The Demon Curse Simon Nicholson, Oxford, 2015, £6.99, pb, 216pp, 9780192734761 This little novel is based on the intriguing premise of Harry Houdini’s boyhood. What sort of childhood did the great escapologist have? Here is a fantasy version of the scrape he and his two companions, Arthur, the bookish English boy, and the feisty American girl, Billie, find themselves in.

We first discover them bound, gagged and trapped inside separate suitcases on a fast train to the Southern states. Harry, because this is what he’s good at, effects a miraculous escape just as they are all on the point of suffocating to death. A man in grey makes a mysterious appearance. None of the children can work out why they have been kidnapped. Soon they find themselves embroiled in a plot against the mayor of New Orleans, stricken down by a mysterious power. A glamourous but sinister woman leader appears, and a rabblerousing politician leads placard-waving dissidents to near-anarchy outside the mayor’s office. A mad scientist is also involved, and a group of villagers, trying to protect their property, are demonised on HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Reviews | 57

the basis of their belief in voodoo.

How does it all hang together? Ingeniously, is the short answer. My misgivings concern writing style. Despite the opening, it is slow as the three ruminate over their fate as if not quite sure why they are here. Later it speeds up and reads like a graphic novel without the pictures. Research is needed in the boat scenes, though: oars are not placed in ‘holders’ or ‘brackets’ but in rowlocks, rain doesn’t make a boat sail, nor would crew be ‘undoing knots’ as they approached a quay. Our resident eight-yearold was confused by the goodies v. baddies plot.

Perhaps 12-year-olds would have a better grip.

Cassandra Clark

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CURIOSITY HOUSE: The Shrunken Head Lauren Oliver & H. C. Chester, Hodder & Stoughton, 2015, £9.99, hb, 362pp, 9781444777185 / HarperCollins, 2015, $16.99, hb, 368pp, 9780062270818 1930s New York.

Times are hard for Dumfrey’s Dime Museum of Freaks, Oddities and Wonders.

The museum, which has wonders like the Amazonian shrunken head, also houses four children with extraordinary powers: Pippa can read minds (when she’s not suffering from stage fright); Thomas can squeeze himself into a space the size of a bread box; and Sam is the strongest boy in the world (but has problems controlling his strength).

Then Max arrives; a tough orphan of the streets, her skill is knife-throwing.

Every evening, they, and the other sideshow freaks like Betty the bearded lady, and Hugo the elephant man, put on a show. They just about make ends meet, until the night the shrunken head goes missing and an old lady drops dead with fright, when things suddenly spiral dangerously out of control. The four children are determined to get back the head – and the secrets behind the Dime Museum are slowly and dangerously exposed…

This story has a psychological side which I really enjoyed. It’s both very modern, set in its own dystopia, but underneath, it’s linked to the dark side of fairy tales. I liked the four very different children; each multi-talented but emotionally isolated by anxieties and fears they can’t understand.

Somehow, if things are to be put right, they must learn to face their deepest fears and create a bond with each other.

And I loved the depiction of 1930s New York; it’s anarchic, exuberant and creative but it’s also uncaring, dangerous and frightening, with people who are not always what they seem. Villains flourish here as well as hard working citizens struggling to make a living in a hard world. It’s a place where anything can happen.

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should love it.

Elizabeth Hawksley ESCAPE FROM THE PAST: The Duke’s Wrath Annette Oppenlander, Lodestone, 2015, $12.95/ C$15.95/£7.99, pb, 299pp, 978184694973 When 15-year-old nerd and gamer Max Anderson decides to try his hand at the master level of an unpublished video game, he isn’t prepared for the ultimate gaming experience: being transported into the actual past. This turns out to be medieval Germany, 1471, and Castle Hanstein, near the village of Rimbach, and the Klausenhof Inn, which still exists today in present-day Germany. Without any clues about the game’s rules, missions or even how to return to his time, Max uses his ingenuity, whatever he remembers from history lessons about the places and time, and friendships with a peasant boy, a healer, a beautiful servant girl, a lady in distress, knights, squires, and the lord of the castle to help him survive and pick his way through ordeals and hardships.

The historical details in the novel are on the mark and describe just enough to reveal the conditions of medieval life as a peasant, servant, craftsman, lord, lady, squire, and knight. Max stumbles through in time and masters the game, but matures and comes out a changed young man.

Geared to a young adult audience, Escape from the Past is an entertaining and fast-paced read that guarantees to thrill any young reader’s/gamer’s wish to be a hero in a faraway time.

Francesca Pelaccia GODS AND WARRIORS: The Crocodile Tomb Michelle Paver, Puffin, 2015, £7.99, pb, 312pp, 9780141339337 This book, the fourth in a series, is set in the Bronze Age. Two youngsters from different Greek societies, Hylas and Pirra, are stranded on the coast of North Africa. They must travel into Egypt and along the Nile, to search for a talismanic dagger.

They are helped by an assortment of the people they meet and by their animals, a half-grown lioness and a falcon. But the dagger is also pursued by ruthless enemies, who need to recover it to bring success to their tribe.

This is a fast-paced action adventure. I did not find it difficult to follow the story as a standalone but might have been more engaged with the main characters if I had read the previous books in the series. But the strength of the book for me lies in the evocation of an ancient world. We see what it might have been like to work as an embalmer for the dead or to discover the brilliant paintings inside an Egyptian tomb. The depiction of the Nile delta and the desert are particularly effective, as Hylas and Pirra encounter baboons, papyrus reeds, crocodiles and hippos for the first time. Brief glimpses into the minds of the lioness and the falcon help conjure up the sensations of the natural world as well as the life of people encountered.

Hylas and Pirra have an unquestioning belief in

the gods of their own places and also the gods of the peoples they encounter. Since we see through their eyes, their encounters with the crocodile god and the rest are played straight, without rational explanation. This strengthens the reader’s immersion in their world and maybe helps us understand what it might have been like to live in those times. For readers of 10 and above.

Sandra Unerman BEASTLY BONES William Ritter, Algonquin, 2015, $17.95/ C$24.95, hb, 304pp, 9781616203542 This amusing sequel to Jackaby continues the tale of Abigail Rook and her employment with the strange, yet lovable, R.F. Jackaby. With shapeshifting kittens, a possible dragon, and even ghosts, this is a quirky, fantastical story. As in the first novel, Abigail and Jackaby investigate weird mysteries in 1890s New England. This time, New Fiddleham police commissioner Marlowe asks for their help involving a puncture wound murder.

Jackaby, of course, expects (rightfully) that it is something supernatural.

Following the trail, the detective and his trusty young sidekick wind up in Gad’s Valley, where their exiled friend Charlie Crane now resides. With the gang back together again, the three explore both murder and theft. Abigail’s expertise plays a big part in the story since the mystery involves missing bones from an archeological dig. Jackaby, as always, is eccentric, does inexplicable things, and remains somewhat mysterious himself.

Despite being advertised for grades seven and up, I would actually recommend this for a younger audience, as the tone seems more suitable for fifth or sixth graders. With unusual, interesting characters and an enjoyable plotline, Beastly Bones keeps readers engaged until the end, and perhaps beyond. I hope the next story focuses on Jenny, the housebound ghost, whose story has gotten more enigmatic and interesting.

Rebecca Cochran

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THE MARVELS Brian Selznick, Scholastic, 2015, $32.99/£16.99, hb, 640pp, 9780545448680 Brian Selznick has done it again – written and illustrated a pitch-perfect tale that conjures up a lost art of storytelling.

As in his blockbuster novels, The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Wonderstruck, Selznick weaves together two seemingly unrelated stories spanning generations and time periods.

The first portion of the book is told in softshaded pencil illustration. Over two centuries ago, an American boy and his brother are passengers on a ship on which they are performing a play. After a shipwreck, the two wash up on British shores, but Children & YA

only the younger boy survives. Time passes, and he becomes an actor at a theater. One day, a baby boy is abandoned there, and Billy takes him in, leading to a theater dynasty family called The Marvels.

In the written version, which is set in the 1990s, a young boy runs away from his boarding school to his Uncle Albert, whom he’s never met. Albert is unhappy to see him and initially mistrusts the boy and treats him poorly. The boy is struck by the home that the uncle lives in; it looks like it’s something out of an earlier century.

This heart-warming story-within-a-story, with family as its central theme, is classic Brian Selznick.

The book was inspired by a real-life place called Dennis Severs’ House in London. As with his other books, audiences of all ages will find something to love in The Marvels.

Hilary Daninhirsch THE GIRL IN THE TORCH Robert Sharenow, Balzer & Bray, 2015, $16.99/$21.00, hb, 272pp, 9780062227059 The Girl in the Torch tells the story of Sarah, a twelve-year-old girl who, along with her mother, has escaped the pogroms of Czarist Russia, where her father was killed by soldiers. Their dream is to come to America, and both are inspired by a postcard of the Statue of Liberty and Emma Lazarus’ famous poem written for the Lady. “Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” – these words are etched in Sarah’s heart as she and her mother make the long journey across the ocean to the “promised land.”

Unfortunately, Sarah’s mother dies right after they land. Classified as an orphan, Sarah is sent by officials on a boat back to her homeland. In a daring leap of faith, Sarah jumps from the ship into the cold Atlantic and swims toward the Lady. Once on the island, she survives by her wits. Although this may seem unlikely, in Sharenow’s capable hands, her story is believable.

When the towering and gruff night watchman, Maryk, discovers Sarah, her real adventures begin.

He takes her to the boarding house of Mrs. Lee, a Chinese woman who allows Sarah to stay in Maryk’s room for one week only, while he sleeps in the basement. Sarah earns her keep doing chores.

Sarah is then introduced to Mrs. Jean and Smitty, an African-American couple who also work for Mrs. Lee. In a microcosm of America, the melting pot, Sarah sees the variety and gifts of all those who have come to America’s shores. Sharenow is able to represent the various cultures without resorting to stereotypes. Sarah ends up finding help and friendship where she least expects it.

This is a charming yet realistic tale about the courage it takes to immigrate to a new world.

Anne Clinard Barnhill THE FARMERETTES Gisela Tobien Sherman, Second Story, 2015, $12.95, pb, 348pp, 9781927583647 During World War II, everyone at home did what they could to support the soldiers, including women taking on jobs normally done by men.

In Canada, one of the home-front programs was the Farm Service Corps, better known as the Farmerettes, in which young women left the cities to work on rural farms, taking over the Children & YA

seeding, hoeing, weeding, and picking of crops.

This story brings young adult readers right to the farm, along with a group of teenaged women from all backgrounds and mindsets—rich to poor, thoughtful to mean-spirited, and hard-working to manipulative.

Isabel daydreams about life when Billy, her fiancé, returns. Blinxie longs to be working with her sister, Kathryn, a pilot. Helene is grateful for the fresh air and plentiful food on the farm, feeling guilty about her oppressed family at home. Peggy is outgoing, partly to keep a family secret hidden.

And Jean, whose family owns the farm, is clever and uncomplaining, but she wonders about life beyond the small towns outside of Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario. Each of these young women struggles with real issues of the time—and indeed, today— suffering loss, gaining independence, questioning authority. One other member of the group, identified only as “X”, obsesses about what she is sure are abnormal feelings; the anonymization of this individual may put off today’s readers, though perhaps that tactic was Sherman’s attempt to make X’s worries more universal and less time-bound.

In any case, the stories are gently told and flow smoothly toward resolution. The rural Canadian setting allows for a delightful historical snapshot of a time when everyone knew their neighbors, hitchhiking was a safe mode of transit, and the phonograph was the main means of distraction from a world at war.

Helene Williams I SURVIVED: The Great Chicago Fire, 1871 Lauren Tarshis, Scholastic, 2015, $4.99/C$5.99, pb, 110pp, 9780545658461 This is the eleventh book in the I Survived series of novels for young readers focusing on catastrophic events in history. The “I” this time is eleven-yearold Oscar Starling, who lost his father several years before. His mother marries a painter and the family moves to Chicago. In the train station while waiting with the luggage, Oscar is robbed of all his possessions. Later, seeing the girl who tricked him, Oscar chases her, just as the fire begins to spread through the city. Oscar is separated from his family.

He must overcome one problem after another, trying to save himself as well as an orphan girl and her little brother.

The story is one exciting event after another.

Oscar is a sympathetic character, and readers will cheer for him as he struggles to survive. The excitement will keep children reading, and they will learn a lot about 19th-century Chicago without realizing it. The end of the book contains more information about the fire and this time and place in history. The writing is simple and effective, aimed at children in grades 2 to 4. Recommended.

Elizabeth Felt ISABELLA’S LIBRETTO Kimberly Cross Teter, Excalibur, 2014, $14.95, pb, 258pp, 9780982062920 Isabella’s Libretto is a gem of a book about a teenager who, in the early 1700s, was abandoned at birth at a Venice orphanage run by the Catholic Church. Called Isabella dal Cello because of her skillful cello playing for the orphanage orchestra, she is devoted to her craft and cares for her cello as if it’s her lifeline.

“Four Seasons” composer Don Antonio Vivaldi is a music teacher and conductor at the school, and he recognizes Isabella’s extraordinary gift and devotion to her cello playing. With all her heart, Isabella wants Vivaldi to write a special solo piece for her. When Isabella’s close friend leaves the monastery for marriage, Isabella hopes that perhaps she will have an opportunity to realize this dream.

In the meantime, Isabella yearns to see what lies beyond the walls behind which she’s been cloistered her entire life. A scary escape with her best friend to see fireworks leads to an encounter with some dangerous men, a memory that haunts her throughout the book. As penance for escaping the orphanage, Isabella is charged with becoming a mentor to Monica, a new arrival. Monica had survived a fire that killed her parents, though she was left scarred and disfigured.

At a time when women had few, if any, choices, Isabella is faced with having to choose between two paths: love of a man or love of music. This young adult book is simultaneously melancholy and uplifting and explores issues of identity, loneliness, and celebrates the beauty of music. The author skillfully transports the reader back in time to a long-ago world. Though it is marketed to a young adult audience, the book would appeal to readers of all ages.

Hilary Daninhirsch CHARLIE AND THE GRANDMOTHERS Katy Towell, Knopf, 2015, $16.99/ C$19.99/£12.99, hb, 240pp, 9780375868603 In this young adult Victorian-era, lightly gothic tale, a brother and sister find themselves imprisoned by a pair of ghoulish grandmothers at an equally morbid farmhouse that seems to come to life with changing corridors and disappearing doors. For 12-year-old Charlie Oughtt, a slightly obsessive, easily distressed boy, it is a nightmare come true. His adventurous sister, Georgie, enjoys the journey until a real evil emerges and the two must fight to survive.

Early in the book there is a definitive late 19thcentury theme, with mention of the customs and inventions of the time, though a year is not specified. Later, some surprising historical references emerge, making this fit more within the historical fiction genre, rather than the fantasy and horror aspect that is apparent.

The author has imaginatively combined bits from popular children’s fables with the psychology behind sleep, dreams and the mind. Though the concept may be a bit confusing for young readers, the characters are endearing, the story moves quickly, and there is the added bonus of gruesome illustrations to match the tone of the narrative. This story will resonate with readers who enjoy slightly macabre tales and imaginative settings rather than straightforward historical fiction.

Arleigh Johnson THE FALCONER’S APPRENTICE Malve von Hassell, Namelos, 2015, $9.95, pb, 224pp, 9781608981939 Andreas lives at Castle Kragenberg in the German-speaking part of Frederick II’s vast Holy Roman Empire. The teenage orphan suffers abuse from local boys, especially the count’s son Ethelbert, HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Reviews | 59

but Andreas enjoys doing his Latin lessons and aiding the falconer in training hunting birds. When his favorite falcon, Adela, scratches Ethelbert, and an order goes out to kill her, Andreas hides the bird and eventually runs away with her in a cart owned by a trader/entertainer who also works as a spy for the emperor.

The parts of the book are divided by quotes from Frederick’s The Art of Falconry. As would be expected, the novel supplies information on the types of birds and their suitability for the social status of those who hunt with them: “Gyrfalcons are for kings… goshawks for poor men, female sparrow hawks for priests, male sparrow hawks for clerks, and kestrels for knaves.”

As the cart travels through Italy, the sympathetic hero also practices the art of healing, using useful medieval medical techniques such as cleaning and stitching wounds. Like most good young adult novels, this is a bildungsroman. The story of the young man’s education is uncluttered with love and has only minimal violence.

James Hawking GORDON PARKS Carole Boston Weatherford, Albert Whitman, 2015, $16.99/C$23.99, hb, 32pp, 9780807530177 Beginning at his birth in 1912, Life Magazine photographer Gordon Parks’ story is told simply and without melodrama, allowing the power to emerge from the narrative. The illustrations are strongly figured, drawn in denim blue, black and brown, which evoke documentaries of the 1930s and ´40s. Mr. Parks, the youngest of fifteen children, was an American black man whose talent was so big that even racism couldn’t knock it down or squelch it. Written for the ages 5-8 set, this low-key, effective story would make a wonderful addition to any classroom read-aloud schedule or home library. Real-life heroes, this book affirms, truly are everywhere, and their success often achieved against long odds.

Juliet Waldron DARK TERROR (Tales of War, 2) John Wilson, Doubleday Canada, 2015, $9.99/ C$12.99, pb, 189pp, 9780385678322 Fifteen-year-old Newfoundland miner, Alec Shorecross, enlists at the beginning of World War 1 with the hope of doing something useful to aid the war effort. He applies to become a pilot, but the commanding officer immediately recognizes the traits that make Alec an excellent miner, and he soon finds himself in France and back underground in the company of the 169 Tunnelling Company.

The little-known but hazardous work these brave men and boys completed is brought into clear focus in this atmospheric novel. The tunnels were dark, claustrophobic, hot and airless, and it took a particular kind of courage to work in them.

Deep underground, at one point to a depth of 80 feet, the author describes tunnelling through treacherous running sand to reach the clay below.

The work was completed almost silently, and the clay kickers relied on the sappers with geophones (rather like stethoscopes) to locate enemy tunnels, any of which could be filled with explosives ready to detonate. With by far the keenest hearing, Alec trains as a sapper, learning how to shut out all 60 | Reviews |

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extraneous noise in order to focus on something as vague as a misplaced footstep.

Dark Terror is aptly focused on readers aged 10 to 14. The language is clear and crisp, and the author supplies some grim descriptions of injury and death whilst maintaining an awareness of age appropriate detail. Several key characters are based on real-life heroes. This fact and the occasional photograph add authenticity and realism because it is immediately apparent that some of these heroes were little more than adolescents, mature far beyond their years. The novel culminates with the excavation of nineteen mines which were used to blow up the Messines Ridge in 1917, an engineering marvel the scale of which was not attempted again, despite its huge success. Definitely recommended.

Fiona Alison

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IRREPRESSIBLE: The Jazz Age Life of Henrietta Bingham Emily Bingham, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015, $28.00, hb, 365pp, 9780809094646 Perhaps the most important task of the biographer is not just to tell the facts but to put the subject’s life in context. Bingham does that with extraordinary detail in this biography of her own ancestor, early 20th-century “It Girl” Henrietta Bingham.

Henrietta was born to an important Southern family with a doting father, tremendous wealth and mesmerizing good looks. She was white in a very racist time and place, and she was bisexual in a culture where it was considered deviant. She likely had learning disabilities, so despite her obvious intelligence did not do well academically.

So what is a rich, beautiful rebellious girl to do?

Good girls go to heaven, Mae West said, but bad girls go everywhere. Henrietta met the Bloomsbury authors, the Freudians, tennis stars, actors and most of the major names of the Jazz Age. But the point of this biography is not to glamorize, but to analyze what Henrietta’s life meant, a life that started with promise and ended in breakdown. It’s a life and a biography that makes for compelling reading.

Jeanne Mackin FIRST OVER THERE: The Attack on Cantigny, America’s First Battle of World War I Matthew J. Davenport, St. Martin’s, 2015, $28.99/ C$33.50, hb. 360pp, 9781250056443 The United States declared war on Germany in 1917, but months went by without US deployment, with no end to the war in sight. First over There describes the stirring events of 1918 when, with the British and French desperate for fresh troops, American soldiers arrived to tip the balance in their favor.

The first US army divisions arrived in France soon after the Germans made their westernmost incursion at the hillside village of Cantigny. With complete confidence, Gen. John J. Pershing ordered the 1st Army Division to take Cantigny back and hold it. Their victory, after three days of hard

fighting, aided by French artillery, increased allied morale immeasurably. Yes, there were bigger battles to follow—but Cantigny marked a turning point in the war.

Davenport brilliantly incorporates the words of the US soldiers—descendants of those who took sides in the Civil War just 50 years before— now united against a common enemy. This extraordinary new history is highly recommended.

Jeanne Greene ALEX’S WAKE: The Tragic Voyage of the St. Louis to Flee Nazi Germany, and a Grandson’s Journey of Love and Remembrance Martin Goldsmith, Da Capo Press, 2014, $15.99, pb, 344pp, 9780306823718 In the spring of 1939, Alex and Helmut Goldschmidt, along with more than 900 other Jewish refugees, flee Nazi Germany on board the SS St. Louis with the hopes of starting a new life in Cuba. Turned away by Cuban immigration authorities, they seek asylum in the United States and Canada, where they are also declined entry, and subsequently sent back to Europe. The two men repeatedly try to find a way, any way, out of Europe, but are eventually imprisoned in Auschwitz and there are sent to their deaths.

Goldsmith embarks on his own journey to Europe to follow the trail his grandfather and uncle took, a journey to connect with the family he’s never met and to somehow give them a voice. The most heartbreaking passages in the book are taken directly from Alex and Helmut’s letters to family members, begging for any assistance they can provide in getting the two men to safety. A powerful and honest examination of the Holocaust’s effects on its victims and those who survived.

Janice Derr READING CLAUDIUS: A Memoir in Two Parts Caroline Heller, Dial, 2015, $27, hb, 320pp, 9780385337618 Caroline Heller’s thoughtful and tender memoir raises the bar considerably for future non-fiction authors. In the first part of her memoir, she explores her parents’ and uncle’s lives in pre-World War II Prague, when the city sparkled with the intellectual fervor of a café/salon society. As her mother, father, and uncle discussed the compelling philosophical and political issues of the day, Hitler’s military build-up next door threatened to unravel the young Czech democracy. Heller’s mother and uncle emigrated to England and the U.S., but her father was arrested and spent six years in Buchenwald and Auschwitz.

The second part of the memoir focuses on the scope of trauma inflicted by Hitler as it trickled down to victims’ children and grandchildren. Paul Heller, deeply traumatized by his experiences as a prisoner, unknowingly affected his daughter’s emotional life, a consequence she writes about with deep affection and forgiveness. Her thorough research, oral interviews, and exploration of family letters, augmented by her memory and imagination, produce a heartbreaking book. Heller writes with honesty and integrity about a period of history that should never be forgotten. One of the finest memoirs to be published in a long while.

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Highly recommended.

Lorraine Norwood

SWANSONG 1945 Walter Kempowski, Granta, 2015, £12.99, pb, 477pp, 9781847086419 This “collective diary” consisting of excerpts from diaries, letters and official memorandum covers the eighteen day period from Hitler’s final birthday to VE day. Walter Kempowski focuses on four particular dates: Hitler’s birthday, the day Allied and Russian forces first met, the day Hitler committed suicide and VE day. Weaving together sources from refugees, POWs, officers, concentration camp inmates, reporters, soldiers of all sides and ordinary people caught up in the final events of the European theatre, Kempowski has produced a dazzling collage of suffering and humanity.

Too often books about war can focus upon battles and strategy while losing sight of the role of, and effects upon, individuals. Swansong 1945 puts those individuals – normal people creating and caught up in history – at the forefront, providing a revelatory insight into their thoughts and everyday life under extraordinary conditions. A wonderful book. Highly recommended.

Tim Smith GENGHIS KHAN: The Man Who Conquered the World Frank McLynn, The Bodley Head, 2015, £25.00, hb, 646pp, 9780224072908 A new history by Frank McLynn is always a treat to be savoured, and his latest release is no exception.

It’s a substantial read but as the author states in the introduction, he is attempting a ‘synthesis of all the scholarship done in the major European languages in the past forty years related to Genghis and his sons.’ McLynn doesn’t disappoint. We have the full story of Genghis, born in 1162 as Temujin, who becomes the greatest conqueror the world has ever known, with his empire eventually covering twelve million miles. If that wasn’t impressive enough, Genghis also acquired 23 official wives, 16 regular concubines, a huge harem and a 17-piece all-girl orchestra. McLynn gives us a masterful insight into the harsh life of the Mongols, with fascinating details like the consumption of koumiss, a type of alcoholic fermented mares’ milk. There is even a special appendix devoted to the Mongol religion.

Add in detailed and beautifully produced maps, with a helpful glossary of principal personalities and you too will be lost in this epic, superbly written history.

E.M. Powell THE ANGEL AND THE CAD Geraldine Roberts, Macmillan, 2015, £20.00, hb, 392pp, 9781447283492 / £12.99, eb In 1805, aged 16, Catherine Tylney Long became England’s richest heiress. She could have had her pick of the suitors that clustered around her, including the future William IV. But contrary to the advice of her family, Catherine chose to marry for love: to William Wellesley Pole, nephew of the Duke of Wellington, a charming wastrel whose handsome façade hid a dark, volatile streak.

Catherine stood by William when, having Nonfiction

frittered away her fortune within a decade, he was forced into exile. But as sexual scandal pursued them across Europe, William was to discover that even a patient woman could be pushed too far, leading to a landmark court case.

This biography reads like a novel, with some twists no novelist would dare to invent. Geraldine Roberts sets out to rehabilitate Catherine who, at best, has been presented as a footnote in history, a pretty cipher rather than an intelligent and resourceful woman working around the sexual inequalities of her era in order to protect her children. I have just one quibble: should nonCatholic religious services really be referred to as “Masses”? A book for anyone interested in infamous Georgian scandals.

Jasmina Svenne STALIN’S DAUGHTER Rosemary Sullivan, Fourth Estate, 2015, £25, hb, 741pp, 9780007491117 / Harper, 2015, $35.00, hb, 768pp, 9780062206107 Born in 1926, Svetlana Stalina was raised in the Kremlin. When she was six, her mother committed suicide. Relatives were executed in the purges; a brother disappeared, another died a Nazi prisoner. When Svetlana was sixteen, Stalin sent her 38-year-old first love to the Gulag for ten years. Three marriages and several lovers later, Svetlana defected to the United States in 1967, leaving behind a 22-year-old son and a 17-yearold daughter. Unused to money – she never had a bank account – Svetlana distributed wealth gained from her memoir Twenty Letters to a Friend to good causes. She married an adherent to an experiment in communal living in the Arizona desert. The widow presiding over the community appropriated most of Svetlana’s remaining money. In 1984 Svetlana returned to Russia in an unsuccessful attempt to unite her Russian children with her American daughter. Back in the west, she moved several dozen times, falling out with friends, dying in poverty in 2011. She saw herself as a pawn.

Rosemary Sullivan sees her as the Kremlin princess: demanding, naïve. This book is a masterful portrait of a damaged woman whom I would love to have met; reading it is the best alternative.

Janet Hancock

and members of the French entourage are involved in all manner of intrigues and liaisons as well as political posturing.

The vivacious Betsy lifts the tone whenever she takes centre stage, but the book drags at times under the weight of its research and repeated scrutiny, e.g., suspicions surrounding her father’s patronage in high places, and also diversions into the backgrounds of subordinate characters. But for Napoleonic aficionados, the earlier chapters will offer new insights into what really happened on St Helena while the latter chapters reveal lesserknown facts about the Balcombes in Australia.

Marina Maxwell LIFELINE ACROSS THE SEA: Mercy Ships in the Second World War David Williams, The History Press, 2015, £16.99, pb, 158pp, 9780750961356 Clausewitz famously coined the phrase ‘total war’ and defined it as an ideal state. This did not mean, as some suppose, that he recommended it; rather it was an abstract concept against which all real wars should be measured. In practice all wars are ‘limited wars’ to a greater or lesser extent. Even in the Second World War, the most total of recent wars, the belligerents observed certain rules, if not universally.

The best example of this are the 30 seaborne missions which took place between the Allies and the Axis powers to exchange sick POWs and ‘protected persons’ (diplomats, medical staff and the like). Fifty ships were employed, repatriating over 150,000 persons (one was sunk on its mercy mission). Not many compared to the scale of the war, but a significant triumph of humanity over hostility.

Williams describes each mission in detail. It is not bedside reading, unless you like counting ships.

However, it is wonderful source material if ever you consider writing a WWII novel.

Edward James

BETSY AND THE EMPEROR (Aus.) / THE EMPEROR’S SHADOW: Bonaparte, Betsy and the Balcombes (UK) Anne Whitehead, 2015, Allen & Unwin, A$32.99, pb, 452pp, 9781760112936 / Allen & Unwin, £20.00, hb, 368pp, 9781760113452 The tagline on the Australian edition, “The true story of Napoleon, a pretty girl, a Regency rake and an Australian colonial misadventure”, puts a light spin on what is a major scholarly work about Napoleon’s imprisonment on St Helena and how his friendship with the Balcombe family led to a chain of events that found them living in New South Wales.

Teenage Betsy Balcombe grows close to the deposed Emperor as he struggles with his humiliation and confinement on the remote island.

She’s cheeky and irreverent, and he reciprocates with playfulness between them, much to the shock or annoyance of others. Meanwhile, British officials HNR Issue 74, November 2015 | Reviews | 61

© 2015, The Historical Novel Society ISSN: 1471-7492 | Issue 74, November 2015