Difference between revisions of "Newest Historical Fiction Reviews"

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[[Category:New Reviews|Historical Fiction]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Antonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)
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|author=Minette Walters
|title=Retribution Road
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|title=The Last Hours
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction  
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|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=''Sergeant Bowman wasn't just a hard man, he was something else: a dangerous man.''  If, indeed, there was someone who was ideal for a suicide mission, it was him. Working as a soldier for the East India Company in the rural, remote, outlaw hotbeds of Asia in the 1850s, he's tasked with taking a boat of unknown prospects up the Irrawaddy to try and combat local warlord Pagan Min. It doesn't go well – to start with, he's supposed to run the rule over ruffians saved from the gallows, but can't command them until he's forced his way to having the knowledge of the mission he needs first, only for all hell to break loose.  But get back he does, only to find that while his nightmares about what really happened are met with equally dark goings-on, the official record suggests the mission never actually existed…
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|summary=In June 1348 the Black Death came into the country through the port of Melcombe in Dorset. Ignorant of many rules of hygiene which we'd find basic nearly seven hundred years later, the disease rages through the country. On the estate of Develish, Lady Anne Develish took control of the future of the people who lived in the demesne after her husband had ridden off to try and secure a marriage for his daughter. Two hundred bonded serfs lived on the estate and when Lady Anne realised the virulence of the plague she ordered that the estate refuse entry to anyone, including her husband and his entourage, for fear that they would bring the disease to her people.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857053744</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1760632139</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Theodore Brun
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|author=Lars Mytting and Paul Russell Grant (Translator)
|title=A Mighty Dawn (The Wanderer Chronicles)
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|title=The Sixteen Trees of the Somme
|rating=3.5
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|rating=4.5
|genre= Historical Fiction
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|genre=General Fiction
|summary= A story like this needs a strong central character; it needs a warrior who has conviction, heart and honour. Hakan has all these in abundance, but he didn't get them easily. In this coming of age tale, he goes on a quest to find himself after experiencing the most tremendous of betrayals.  
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|summary=While his grandfather lived the past was an area of certainty for Edvard.  At aged 4 he'd been taken to live with his grandparents, having survived the accident that killed his parents. Now his grandfather has died revelations are coming to light showing Edvard his family history is different from what he'd believed… his mother's birthplace, his mother's name, the whereabouts of late Great-Uncle Einar… and that's without looking more deeply into the fatal accident itself. Edvard is determined to solve the puzzle, a determination that will take him away from his native Norway to an area of France synonymous with devastation and a remote Scottish island loaded with secrets.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782399941</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857056069</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=S J Hardman Lea
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|author=Toby Clements
|title=The Sins of Soldiers
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|title=Kingmaker: Kingdom Come: (Book 4)
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Anson Scott wants to join the British army and World War I for a different reason than most of his fellow Americans.  He's a journalist wanting the uncensored inside story to send back home; a deadly enterprise as, if the Germans don't get him, the Brits may deem him a spyUnperturbed he carries his plan through and finds himself on the French front in 1916.  He has an ally in British officer David Alexander, which is just as well since not all his enemies are across no man's landThe two men have a lot in common, more than they know and perhaps more than is good for them as the Somme approaches.
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|summary=1470 dawns and the next chapters of the War of the Roses are ready to play outKing Edward thinks that the future has been settled but treachery is still lurkingMeanwhile Katherine and Thomas also have their world turned upside down when that ledger and a chance comment threaten all they have, including their lives.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785890182</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178089466X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=David Gilman
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|author=P F Chisholm
|title=Viper's Blood (Master of War)
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|title=Guns in the North (The Sir Robert Carey Mysteries Omnibus)
|rating=5
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|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Bowman and commander Thomas Blackstone is one of Edward III's greatest weapons, bringing him potentially head to head against the Dauphin once againHowever, faced with an elongated stale mate, Thomas' role becomes that of scavenger leader as the chances of victory make way for a greater chance of starvation amongst the armiesThere is a light at the end of the tunnel though.  Blackstone is to go on a trip:  an escort mission to Italy, delivering the French King's daughter Isabelle to Milan and her wedding. Having said that, the light at the end of the tunnel may be an oncoming lance.  Isabelle's prospective groom is one of the brothers who killed Thomas' wife and daughterDeath is definitely on the cards… but whose?
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|summary=1592: Sir Robert Carey flees the strictures of Elizabethan court – and his creditors – in order to become Deputy Warden of the West March in Carlisle.  The Scottish/English borders and those who inhabit them are different from the world he's left behind but it will have to become his world.  It's now his job to bring law to the lawlessThis isn't easy when every local he comes across has an affinity and a heritage of crime to some degreeFor Robert the best thing about the job is its proximity to the woman he loves but he doesn't know what he'll do about that yet either. Meanwhile he soon realises that those who are supposed to be on his side are plotting against him but they don't realise what they're up against.   
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784974463</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786694719</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Rory Clements
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|author=Zanna Sloniowska and Antonia Lloyd-Jones (translator)
|title=Corpus
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|title=The House with the Stained-Glass Window
|rating=5
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|rating=4
|genre=Crime (Historical)
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|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=A suicidal overdose and the murder of upper class Cecil Langley and his wife are two events that may be unconnected.  However this is England in 1936, a magnet for opposing forces and their first moves in preparation for the coming conflict, assisted or prevented by a royal crisis (depending on which side you're on). Cambridge history professor Tom Wilde may fall into the middle of this accidentally to begin with but his curiosity has been piqued enough to ensure he's not walking away.
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|summary= Marianna, an opera singer in the soon-to-be Ukrainian city of Lviv, is mistakenly shot dead at a political rally in the dying days of the Soviet Union. This novel begins with both anger and hope, as Marianna's coffin is covered in the illegal blue and yellow flag, and her death seems to herald the birth of a new nation. But the day of her funeral is also the day of her daughter's first period – a girl who must learn how to be a woman in this time of drastic change, with no mother to guide her along the way.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785762613</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857057138</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author= Beatrice Colin
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|author= K J Whittaker
|title= To Capture What We Cannot Keep
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|title= False Lights
|rating= 4
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|rating= 4.5
 
|genre= Historical Fiction
 
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary=Paris, February 1887, and work on the foundations of Eiffel's daring tower is about to begin. Engineer Emile Nouguier, taking photographs of the site from a tethered hot air balloon for tourists nearby, chances to meet a young widow from Glasgow named Caitriona Wallace, and his own foundations start to shift. Over the next two years as the tower slowly rises in the Champ de Mars, what began as an impossible dream becomes solid reality – Cait and Emile's love for each other. In a world where more than bustles and corsets hem her in, will Cait be able to break free of her oppressive future, and given their different social strata, can Emile re-shape his?
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|summary=Cornwall, 1817.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1760291722</amazonuk>
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What if your worst mistake changed the course of history? Napoleon has crushed the Duke of Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo, and his ex-wife Josephine presides over French-occupied England. Cornwall erupts into open rebellion, and young heiress Hester escapes with Crow, Wellington's former intelligence officer, a half-French aristocrat haunted by his part in the catastrophic defeat. Together, they become embroiled in a web of treachery and espionage as plans are laid to free Wellington from secret captivity in the Scilly Isles and lead an uprising against the French occupation. In a country rife with traitors, Hester and Crow know it is impossible to play such a game as this for long...
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786695340</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author= Deanna Raybourn
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|author= J Jefferson Farjeon
|title= A Perilous Undertaking (Veronica Speedwell Mystery)
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|title= Seven Dead
 
|rating= 4
 
|rating= 4
 
|genre= Historical Fiction
 
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary=Veronica Speedwell did not choose to be an investigator by profession. She was, first and foremost, a scientist; a lepidopterist and adventuress who travelled the world looking for exciting butterfly specimens. However, when her latest expedition was cancelled due to an unfortunate incident with a giant tortoise, Veronica and her taxidermist friend Stoker took up the challenge of a murder investigation as an interesting diversion. The case seemed to an open-and-shut one; Miles Ramsforth, an art patron, had been accused of murdering his pregnant mistress, Artemisia. He was discovered at the scene, covered in her blood and had both the motive and circumstances to commit the crime. He would hang by the end of the week if Veronica and Stoker could not find the 'real' killer.
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|summary=Ted Lyte was petty criminal, but not usually the housebreaking type. He lacked the courage. However, needs must, and whilst feeling down on his luck he decided to try his chances at an isolated house with a shuttered window. ''...he might find a bit of alright behind those shutters! Wot abart it?'' Ted does indeed find something interesting behind the shutters, but it definitely isn't what he'd hoped. In a locked room he finds seven dead bodies; six men and a woman. Fleeing the house in horror, he is pursued and caught by a passing yachtsman, Thomas Hazeldean, who also happens to be a journalist. Fascinated by Ted's story (and a possible scoop), Hazeldean decides to investigate this curious case and its assortment of odd clues, including a portrait shot through the heart, an old cricket ball and a mysterious note written by one of the victims.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0451476158</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0712356886</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Jemima Brigges
+
|title=Salt Creek
|title=Counting the Cost
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|author=Lucy Treloar
|rating=4
+
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The year is 1794 and we meet our young protagonist, Maria, in desperate circumstances. Alone and terrified, she has concluded that her only option is to take her own life by throwing herself into the surging river waters. Months previously, she was cruelly violated by the master of the house where she worked and now, in the advanced stages of her pregnancy, the future seems bleak. Luckily, a pair of gypsy women find Maria and take her in. Following a traumatic labour, Maria becomes desperately ill and when she recovers, her baby is gone. Alone again, Maria is free to start a new life. With a clever disguise, she becomes the dowdy 'Miss Dinchope' and takes a position as a housekeeper for the village rector.
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|summary=The first chapter of ''Salt Creek'' opens in Chichester, England, in 1874. Hester Finch is a respected and reasonably wealthy member of her community. But she can't stop her thoughts wandering back to her adolescence, spent on Salt Creek Station in the remote South Australian Coorong region. Hester feels ''has never felt so alive as then, when we had so little''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785899139</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910709417</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Steven Burgauer
+
|author= Jamie Ford
|title=The Night of The Eleventh Sun
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|title= Love and Other Consolation Prizes
|rating=4.5
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|rating= 5
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary=The word 'Neanderthal' has become equated with people deemed to have a backward attitude and outlook. But what do we know of the original Neanderthals from over 200,000 years ago?  Here American author [[:Category:Steven Burgauer|Steven Burgauer]] melds the knowledge of anthropologists, archaeologists and historians with the story of Strong Arms, his family and their struggle to survive in a very effective, and informative way.
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|summary=At the World's Fair in 1962, it seems that all eyes are focused on the future. The Space Needle dominates the landscape, filling people with anticipation about things to come. One visitor, however, has his mind firmly focused on the past. Ernest Young is helping his daughter Ju-ju with a story she is writing for her newspaper; a story about a young immigrant boy who was given away as a prize in a raffle at the World's Fair in 1909.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1419671545</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749022752</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Meelis Friedenthal and Matthew Hyde (translator)
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|author= Nicola Pryce
|title=The Willow King
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|title= The Captain's Girl
|rating=3
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|rating= 4
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary=Meet Laurentius.  He's a scholar newly arrived in Estonia in the seventeenth century, aiming to study more.  But things aren't going well for him – a long-standing illness seems to be returning, the weather and roads are awful, he's late – and his only friend, a parakeet, won't even survive the first two days ashore.  He's entering a weird world, what's more – one imbued with evil smells, peopled by strange characters with stranger ideas. Can his modern ideas, and thinking about the soul, bear him through his course?
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|summary=Last year, Bookbag reviewed, and thoroughly enjoyed, [[Pengelly's Daughter by Nicola Pryce|Pengelly's Daughter]], a swashbuckling historical romance set in picturesque Cornwall. Now we have the pleasure of reading the much-anticipated sequel. This time, the story focuses on a neighbour of the Polcarrow family, Miss Celia Cavendish, who has been engaged to a cruel man that she does not love. One fateful night, she runs away to the Polcarrow house to beg them for help, and the pivotal events of that night have far-reaching consequences for all involved.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782271740</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782398856</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 +
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Ian Ross
+
|author=Hawa L Crickmore
|title=The Mask of Command (Twilight of Empire)
+
|title=Across the Ocean
|rating=5
+
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary= Warning: spoilers ahead for previous books in the series.  
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|summary=A young cage fighter, Martin Grandson, was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder which required a bone-marrow transplant, preferably from a sibling. Only recently he'd been a fit young man, in the prime of life, but now he was suffering from a rare type of bone cancer: without the transplant he would be paralysed for life and might be dead within the next twelve weeks if he didn't receive the transplant within the next fourteen daysUnfortunately Martin's parents had died in a car crash and there were no siblings or other close relativesHis girlfriend, Celia, was not a match.
305AD: Castus Aurelius, following the death of his predecessor, has been promoted to commander (or vir perfecctissiums) of the Roman forces at the RhineHe's also been ordered to take Crispus, Constantine's son and heir, for the character-building experienceThat complicates matters as when Castus isn't trying to keep Crispus alive, he's finding it difficult to increase his own chance of survival, especially considering how the last Rhine commander met his end.
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524666971</amazonuk>
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784975257</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author= Sophia Tobin
+
|author= M J Tjia
|title= The Vanishing
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|title= She Be Damned
|rating=3
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|rating= 4
|genre= Historical Fiction
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|genre= Crime (Historical)
|summary=1814. In the middle of the Yorkshire Moors in an isolated spot lies White Windows, a house shadowed in mystery and intrigue. Living in this desolate household is Marcus Twentyman, a hard drinking and complicated man and his sister, the hardened widow Hester. Brought to White Windows is Annaleigh, a young runaway from London who has come to Yorkshire to be the new housekeeper to the Twentyman's with the hope of leaving her painful past behind her. At first, Annaleigh believes she may have found sanctuary but soon realises she has become entangled in a web of conspiracy and danger, leaving her trapped and more alone than ever.
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|summary= London, 1863: prostitutes in the Waterloo area are turning up dead, their sexual organs mutilated and removed. When another girl goes missing, fears grow that the killer may have claimed their latest victim. The police are at a loss and so it falls to courtesan and professional detective, Heloise Chancey, to investigate. With the assistance of her trusty Chinese maid, Amah Li Leen, Heloise inches closer to the truth. But when Amah is implicated in the brutal plot, Heloise must reconsider whom she can trust, before the killer strikes again.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471151603</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178507931X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author= Mary Gibson
+
|author= Sarah Franklin
|title=Bourbon Creams and Tattered Dreams (The Factory Girls)
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|title= Shelter
|rating= 4
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|rating= 5
 
|genre= Historical Fiction
 
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary=Where did it all go wrong? Only a short time ago, Matty Gilbie was a star of the silver screen with a glittering future predicted for her. As the 'Cockney Canary', her melodic singing voice and stunning good looks had ensured that her first foray into movies was a runaway success. Unfortunately that success came with a price: Matty's business partner Frank Rossi frittered away their money and turned violent and controlling. Bruised and battered from a particularly vicious beating from Frank, Matty secretly makes her escape back to her home in Bermondsey, and the comfort of family and friends. Frank is not one to be crossed, however, and vows to do whatever it takes to win Matty back. Can she ever be truly free?
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|summary=Connie Granger has escaped her bombed-out city home, finding refuge in the Women's Timber Corps. For her, this remote community must now serve a secret purpose.<br>
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784973335</amazonuk>
+
Seppe, an Italian prisoner of war, is haunted by his memories. In the forest camp, he finds a strange kind of freedom.Their meeting signals new beginnings. But as they are drawn together, the world outside their forest haven is being torn apart. Old certainties are crumbling, and both must now make a life-defining choice.<br>
 +
What price will they pay for freedom? What will they fight to protect?
 +
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785762990</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Shirley McKay
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|author= Jane Johnson
|title=1588: A Calendar of Crime (A Hew Cullan Mystery)
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|title= Court of Lions
|rating=4.5
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|rating= 5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
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|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary=A lot of crime happens in St Andrews during 1588 and therefore in the life of law lecturer and local investigator Hew Cullen too. As we travel through the year with him, his recently wedded English wife Frances, doctor brother in law Giles and his sister Meg, the wise woman, we also encounter some of his most interesting cases. In fact there's one to match each of the year's big festivals: Candlemas, Whitsun, Lammas, Martinmas and Yule.
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|summary= Kate Fordham arrived in the sunlit city of Granada a year ago. In the shadow of the Alhambra, one of the most beautiful places on earth, she works as a waitress serving tourists in a busy bar. She pretends she's happy with her new life – but how could she be? Kate's alone, afraid and hiding under a false name. And fate is about to bring her face-to-face with her greatest fear. Five centuries ago, a message, in a hand few could read, was inscribed in blood on a stolen scrap of paper. The paper was folded and pressed into one of the Alhambra's walls. There it has lain, undisturbed by the tides of history – the Fall of Granada, the expulsion of its last Sultan – until Kate discovers it. Born of love, in a time of danger and desperation, the fragment will be the catalyst that changes Kate's life forever.  
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973635</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786694336</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Lesley Lokko
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|author= Angus Watson
|title=The Last Debutante
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|title= You Die When You Die
|rating=4
+
|rating= 4
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary=In 1936 in Chalfont Hall in Dorset young Kit Algernon-Waters can't really understand what's going on: at thirteen years old she's been banished to have supper in the nursery whilst everyone else is dining downstairs with the guests.  Even her elder sister, Lily, who's sixteen is dining with these unnamed 'guests'.  Kit has tapped all her usual sources to find out who the visitors are, but to no avail.  All she's managed to work out (well, let's be honest 'find out by eavesdropping' is closer to the truth) is that the visitors are German. Kit's parents, Lord and Lady Wharton, are short of money and it's important that at least one of their daughters makes a good marriage. Six months later Lily is married to one of the German, living in some style in Germany. Within a couple of years she's mixing with some dubious company, including Unity Mitford.  It was even rumoured that she'd met Hitler.
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|summary= Finnbogi the Boggy and his tribe of mushroom men (Vikings) must take a road trip through hostile territory whilst being hunted by the greatest fighting force ever seen (Amazonian Native Americans). Vikings meet Native Americans in a clash of cultures and potentially the end of the world. When the Queen of the known world says your tribe has to be exterminated then your immediate future may not be so rosy.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140914254X</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356507564</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Stef Penney
+
|author=Alison Weir
|title=Under a Pole Star
+
|title=Six Tudor Queens: Anne Boleyn: A King's Obsession: Six Tudor Queens 2
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=1948: Elderly Flora Mackie is invited on a press trip to the North Pole; a trip that takes her back through her lifeFlora remembers her childhood with her father on whaling ships in the seas around Greenland, her marriage born of ambition and misaligned lust and the result: the Arctic exploration team she led in the late 19th centuryThis was a trip that had many knock-on effects including death and love.
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|summary=Thomas Boleyn sends his daughters abroad to be trained at the courts of European royaltyNot only does this give them an education in the ways of the elite, it could also ensure a good marriage.  Unfortunately he hasn't reckoned on the ideas that one of them, Anne, picks up and as for marriage… Anne is determined to marry for love not through some paternal arrangementYet the reality turns out to be different, driving a wedge through her family on a road leading to dark tragedy.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786481162</amazonuk>
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147222762X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author= Morgan McCarthy
+
|author= Martha Conway
|title= The House of Birds
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|title= The Floating Theatre
|rating= 4.5
+
|rating= 5
 
|genre= Historical Fiction
 
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary=Oliver has spent years trying to convince himself that he's suited to a life of money making in the city, and that he doesn't miss a childhood spent in pursuit of mystery, when he cycled around the cobbled lanes of Oxford, exploring its most intriguing corners. When his girlfriend Kate inherits a derelict house - and a fierce family feud - she's determined to strip it, sell it and move on. For Oliver though, the house has an allure, and amongst the shelves of a discarded, leather bound and gilded volumes, he discovers one that conceals a hidden diary from the 1920s. So begins a quest to discover the identity of the author, Sophia Louis. It is a portrait of war and marriage, isolation and longing and a story that will shape the future of the abandoned house - and of Oliver - forever.
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|summary=When young seamstress May Bedloe is left alone and penniless on the shore of the Ohio, she finds work on the famous floating theatre that plies its trade along the river. Her creativity and needlework skills quickly become invaluable and she settles into life among the colourful troupe of actors. She finds friends, and possibly the promise of more. But cruising the border between the Confederate South and the 'free' North is fraught with danger. For the sake of a debt that must be repaid, May is compelled to transport secret passengers, under cover of darkness, across the river and on, along the underground railroad. But as May's secrets become harder to keep, she learns she must endanger those now dear to her.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472205847</amazonuk>
+
 
 +
And to save the lives of others, she must risk her own...  
 +
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785762907</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author= Jacquelyn Benson
+
|author= Jenny Ashcroft
|title= The Smoke Hunter
+
|title= Beneath a Burning Sky
 
|rating= 4
 
|rating= 4
 
|genre= Historical Fiction
 
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary= Eleanora Mallory is an educated young woman living in Victorian London but she is restricted by the strict social codes of the late nineteenth-century. She's a historian, a suffragette, and is years ahead of her time much to the chagrin of her male work colleagues at the Public Records Office. After losing her job and finding a mysterious map abandoned on her former employer's desk, Ellie decides to take a chance at an adventure. She packs her bags and sets off on a journey to Central America, where the map shows the way to a legendary historical city. It's the expedition of a life time, but little does Ellie know that a team of fortune hunters are hot on her trail.
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|summary=Young bride Olivia Sheldon finds returning to her childhood home in Egypt a bitter-sweet experience. On the one hand, she has been reunited with her estranged sister Clara, and the pair have formed a deep and loving bond. On the other, she has an unhappy marriage to her domineering husband Alistair, who only married her to spite Clara, who had refused him previously. Life with the sadistic Alistair is unbearable, with Olivia subjected to horrific abuse at his hands, daily. As a lady with no means of supporting herself, Olivia seems trapped without any means of escape, only finding solace in the company of her sister and friends. But when her dear sister goes mysteriously missing in the bustling streets of Alexandria, it is up to Olivia to try and solve the mystery of her disappearance before it is too late.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472238346</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751565032</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author= Angus MacDonald
+
|author=Conn Iggulden
|title= Ardnish Was Home: A Novel
+
|title=Dunstan: One Man Will Change the Fate of England
|rating= 4
+
|rating=4.5
|genre= Historical Fiction
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|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=A tiny peninsular lying on the west coast of Scotland, Ardnish provides a beautiful setting for a book that entices the reader to devour it all in one sitting. Duncan Peter Gillies (DP to friends and family) leaves Ardnish as a young man to sign up for the Lovat Scouts in 1915. What a tragically sweet story is to follow! Posted to Gallipoli, brutal scenes of the realities of the First World War face the reader from page one. Tragically, the young DP is desperately wounded and the medical support is woefully poor. The Gallipoli Campaign seems doomed to fail. DP learns that the order has been given for the allied troops to withdraw to the safety of Malta. Distressingly, the rescue boats are unreliable and DP with other casualties and nurses, find themselves in an impossible position stranded in enemy territory. This fast paced story charts DP's progress in escaping from the war zone, in recovering from his injuries, and, in the most desperate of circumstances, finding love.
+
|summary=The young Dunstan shows no sign of the sainthood he'll later attain.  Son of a Wessex thane and sent to a monastery for education, this isn't a lad who responds to discipline. However an enquiring, intelligent mind begins to emerge and then comes the big break. Lady Elflaed calls to put a proposal to him after hearing about what she considers to be a miracle and the monks consider another in a long line of excuses. Yet Dunstan will outshine all his teachers as well as knowing seven kings and holding responsible positions in their courts, as the book's title suggests.  Whether we believe in the miracles or not, Dunstan certainly had quite a life!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780274262</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718181441</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author= Lynn Guest
+
|author= Simon Edge
|title= The Sword of Hachiman
+
|title= The Hopkins Conundrum
|rating= 4
+
|rating= 5
|genre= Historical Fiction
+
|genre= General Fiction  
|summary= Set at the dawn of the Shogun era, ''The Sword of Hachiman'' follows two warrior clans, the Minamoto and the Taira, as they struggle for power under the Emperor. At first the Taira are in uneasy control, but the three Minamoto sons, separated at birth, plan to secretly reunite in order to defeat the Taira and avenge their Father's death. The youngest, Yoshitsune, is deemed most worthy and is granted the family heirloom, the Sword of Hachiman, the War God. Initiated into love and espionage by a young Taira noblewoman, and tested in the ferocious hand to hand combat that is his birthright, we follow Yoshitsune as he meets his faithful retainer, Benkei, and as he goes behind the scenes of the Cloister court, where two extraordinary women enter his life…
+
|summary= Tim Cleverley inherits a failing pub in Wales, which he plans to rescue by enlisting an American pulp novelist to concoct an entirely fabricated mystery about Gerard Manley Hopkins, who composed ''The Wreck of the Deutschland'' nearby.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861515634</amazonuk>
+
 
 +
In Victorian England, Gerard Manley Hopkins lives a life full of confusion and contradiction, but discovers a calling for poetry that threatens to overrule his calling to God. And, speaking of God, Five nuns leave persecution to travel to a new world – only to find themselves in more trouble that they could ever have imagined…
 +
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785630334</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Tracey Warr
+
|author=Anne O'Brien
|title=Conquest: Daughter of the Last King
+
|title=The Shadow Queen
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Princess Nest ferch Rhys is the only legitimate child of Rhys ap Tewdr (there's a surname to make hist-fict addicts smile!), the last king of Deheubarth, WalesPlaying on the beach with her brother one day she's captured by Norman soldiersFrom there she's held hostage by the noble Montgomery family, loyal to King William Rufus.  The standard of captivity in which Nesta is kept isn't badLady Sybil is particularly kind to her, realising that Nest is still mourning the deaths of her father and most of her siblings at the hands of men from that same household.  There is an ulterior motive though.  The object of Sybil's attentions is to make Nest a suitable wife for English nobility but she's already promised to a Welsh prince.  Who will Nest actually marry and, more importantly, will Nest have any say in it?
+
|summary=Born in 1328, Joan of Kent may be of royal blood but she's from a family tainted by treachery.  Her father Edmund Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, was executed for his part in the infamous Montague plotHowever Joan has grown up under the protection of her cousin, King Edward III with all the advantages and attributes of a princessYet, much to her mother's chagrin, obedience isn't one of these attributesJoan's head strong feist takes her on a varied journey in life.  Having said that, three husbands, five marriages (technically) and a son destined for the English throne means that it's also been one heck of a life!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907605819</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848455070</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=John G Smith
+
|author=Patricia Falvey
|title=Eugene
+
|title=The Girls of Ennismore: A Heart-Rending Irish Saga
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Eugene is the youngest of 13 children, born into a family for whom the future seems assured due to their parents' butchery business in a small, close East Midlands communityBut they can't see what lies ahead: war in the world and between the siblingsFor Eugene, from his birth in the 1920s through the war in Burma and trying to settle down afterwards, the impact will last a lifetime.
+
|summary=Ireland 1900: Ennismore House's young heiress Victoria had hoped that she and Rosie Killeen would be friends forever.  Rosie soon comes to know better as there's a social chasm between those who live in the House and those, like Rosie's family, who have been brought up merely to serve themThe days of innocence are coming to an end in many waysSoon, as the cry for Irish Home Rule becomes louder, there'll be more than steps on society's ladder between them as each must discover their own way in a nation that will never be the same again.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B01LW2XPQP</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786490625</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Irina Ratushinskaya
+
|author= Elaine Everest
|title=The Odessans
+
|title= The Butlins Girls
|rating=4.5
+
|rating= 4
|genre=Historical Fiction
+
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary=The Petrovs, Geibers and Teselenkos may all live as friends in the Ukrainian town of Odessa, but this is the dawn of the 20th century: changes are afoot that will test their friendship as well as their existence.  Be they Russian establishment, Russian Jews or Polish, each family will see tragedy alongside the birth pangs of a future Soviet state, not to mention the struggle for survival that will be more successful for some of them than for others.
+
|summary=Fresh-faced Molly Missons has just arrived in Skegness to start her new job as a Butlins auntie. Behind the smiles and confident appearance, she hides a secret; she has taken the job to escape escalating problems at home. She soon finds good friends in her chalet-mates Bunty and Plum, and it turns out that they each have their own reasons for wanting a fresh start. Meanwhile, Molly is shocked to discover that her movie-star crush Johnny Johnson is working as an entertainment adviser at the camp. Is he really as suave as his on-screen persona? And why is he working at the camp anyway? As hidden secrets become discovered, Molly and her new friends face new threats and dangers that may threaten their new-found freedom.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473637260</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447295536</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|title=Clover Moon
+
|author= Geraint Jones
|author=Jacqueline Wilson
+
|title= Blood Forest
|rating=4.5
+
|rating= 5
|genre=Confident Readers
+
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary=Clover Moon lives in Cripps Alley, a slum street in Victorian England. Her father works at the factory and the heavy work has taken a toll on his health. He likes to drink an ale or two after work, spending money the family can barely afford. Clover's mother died giving birth to her younger sister, Megs, a wispy, shy child. Father married again - to Mildred, a sharp-tongued woman who is free with a beating, particularly if the beating goes to Clover. Clover has another four half-siblings and it's Clover, rather than Mildred, who takes care of them.
+
|summary= Felix.  The lucky one. He doesn't feel especially lucky when he staggers out into the grove and finds twelve of his comrades butchered and mutilated in the worst possible ways. He felt even less lucky when the soldiers arrived, Roman cavalry. He might have run, but he knew he'd never make it. He stepped out to face whatever came next.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857532731</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718184815</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author= Graham Moore
+
|author= Dominic Smith
|title= The Last Days of Night
+
|title= The Last Painting of Sara de Vos
 
|rating= 5
 
|rating= 5
 
|genre= Historical Fiction
 
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary=''The night-time of our ancestors is ending. Electric light is our future. The man who controls it will not simply make an unimaginable fortune. He will not simply dictate politics… The man who controls electricity will control the very sun in the sky.''
+
|summary= If you find the techniques used by Rembrandt and Vermeer fascinating, ''The Last Painting of Sara de Vos'' provides a masterclass in how to work up a canvas in stages.  Framing the novel as the story of a seventeenth century Dutch painting, Dominic Smith vividly sketches out the main contours of his characters and the three time periods they inhabit before we are even one fifth of the way through.  Sara is one of the few women artists of the period and her painting is of children skating on a frozen canal, her now dead daughter its central figure. The painting has been in Marty de Groot's family since before Isaac Newton was born and he is the patent lawyer from whom it is stolen in 1950s Manhattan.  Ellie Shipley forged a copy of the painting in her postgraduate student years and in 2000 finds herself at the centre of a gathering storm which threatens to destroy her reputation as one of Sydney's foremost fine art academics.   Satisfying though those first descriptions are, we then understand these are merely the author's equivalent of the delicate chalk lines used by painters of the Dutch Golden Age to mark out the composition which will follow.
 
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>192526680X</amazonuk>
Graham Moore's latest novel is set in 19th Century New York City following the War of the Currents immediately after the discovery of electricity. Paul Cravath is a young lawyer, recently graduated from Columbia Law School, who finds himself at the centre of the biggest lawsuit in American history to date: who invented the light bulb. Enlisted to defend George Westinghouse against 312 lawsuits and a sum of one billion dollars, Paul embarks on a seemingly impossible case to win. Going up against the incredibly intelligent and extremely resourceful Thomas Edison, who has newspapers at his disposal and the support of J.P. Morgan himself, Paul is nonetheless determined to win by any means necessary. In his unwavering quest for victory, Paul encounters Nikola Tesla, the eccentric genius, who could have the power to stop Edison, Alexander Bell, the inventor of the telephone and only one to beat Edison before, as well as Agnes Huntington, the astonishingly beautiful opera singer. With the stakes so high, Paul will discover that everyone is desperate to win, setting in motion their own plans with disastrous consequences.
+
}}
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471156664</amazonuk>
+
{{newreview
 +
|author= Caro Fraser
 +
|title= The Summer House Party
 +
|rating= 4.5
 +
|genre= General Fiction
 +
|summary= In the gloriously hot summer of 1936, a group of people meet at a country house party. Within three years, England will be at war, but for now, time stands still. Dan Ranscombe is clever and good-looking, but he resents the wealth and easy savoir-faire of fellow guest, Paul Latimer. Surely a shrewd girl like Meg Slater would see through that, wouldn't she? And what about Diana, Paul's beautiful sister, Charles Asher, the Jewish outsider, Madeleine, restless and dissatisfied with her role as children's nanny? And artist Henry Haddon, their host, no longer young, but secure in his power as a practised seducer. As these guests gather, none has any inkling the choices they make will have fateful consequences, lasting through the war and beyond. Or that the first unforeseen event will be a shocking death…
 +
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786691485</amazonuk>
 +
}}
 +
{{newreview
 +
|author= Matthew Harffy
 +
|title= The Serpent Sword
 +
|rating= 4.5
 +
|genre= Historical Fiction
 +
|summary= It's AD 633 and Albion is a divided island made up of petty warlords who want to be treated like honourable royalty but act like gangsters. Romans are a memory that have entered into myth and the souls of Albion are torn between the old Gods and the new Christ. It is in this world that we follow the adventures of Beobrand as he undertakes the classic hero’s journey. Beobrand moves from wide-eyed teenager to hardened and honourable warrior through a brutal rite of passage as he hunts the killer of his brother and seeks to become a true warrior.
 +
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786692406</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Paula McLain
+
|author=Antonia Senior
|title=Circling the Sun
+
|title=The Tyrant's Shadow
|rating=4.5
+
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Beryl Clutterbuck was just two when she was taken by her parents from Abingdon in England to Kenya, to a farm at Njoro in the Rongai Valley in what was then the British East African Protectorate and which would become KenyaHer mother was dismayed - amazed that her father would have sold everything to get little more than a few mud huts - and it was only a couple of years before she returned home with Dickie, Beryl's brother, leaving Beryl and her father to cope as best they couldBeryl grew up wild - largely brought up by the local tribespeople - and was catapulted into a disastrous marriage when she was just sixteen.  It taught her one thing, though - she needed to take charge of her own destiny.
+
|summary=Warning: spoilers ahead for ''Treason's Daughter''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844088308</amazonuk>
+
Patience lives with her widowed brother, William, helping to care for his son Richard (nicknamed Blackberry).  Despite the Civil war ending, the times are still uncertain.  Cromwell is increasingly annoyed with a parliament of rebels refusing to go to the electorate for ratification.  William sees this problem at close quarters once he's effectively forced to become Cromwell's legal advisor in an atmosphere poisoned by espionage and religious factionsHowever when Patience comes across Shadrick Simpson, a charismatic preacher, all becomes clearer for her at least.  Meanwhile Sam Challoner, William's brother in law, comes home after privateering with Prince Rupert and realises that the fight at sea is better than peace at homeAt least when you're privateering you know who your enemy is.
 +
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782396616</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}

Revision as of 07:49, 2 November 2017

The Last Hours by Minette Walters

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

In June 1348 the Black Death came into the country through the port of Melcombe in Dorset. Ignorant of many rules of hygiene which we'd find basic nearly seven hundred years later, the disease rages through the country. On the estate of Develish, Lady Anne Develish took control of the future of the people who lived in the demesne after her husband had ridden off to try and secure a marriage for his daughter. Two hundred bonded serfs lived on the estate and when Lady Anne realised the virulence of the plague she ordered that the estate refuse entry to anyone, including her husband and his entourage, for fear that they would bring the disease to her people. Full review...

The Sixteen Trees of the Somme by Lars Mytting and Paul Russell Grant (Translator)

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

While his grandfather lived the past was an area of certainty for Edvard. At aged 4 he'd been taken to live with his grandparents, having survived the accident that killed his parents. Now his grandfather has died revelations are coming to light showing Edvard his family history is different from what he'd believed… his mother's birthplace, his mother's name, the whereabouts of late Great-Uncle Einar… and that's without looking more deeply into the fatal accident itself. Edvard is determined to solve the puzzle, a determination that will take him away from his native Norway to an area of France synonymous with devastation and a remote Scottish island loaded with secrets. Full review...

Kingmaker: Kingdom Come: (Book 4) by Toby Clements

5star.jpg Historical Fiction

1470 dawns and the next chapters of the War of the Roses are ready to play out. King Edward thinks that the future has been settled but treachery is still lurking. Meanwhile Katherine and Thomas also have their world turned upside down when that ledger and a chance comment threaten all they have, including their lives. Full review...

Guns in the North (The Sir Robert Carey Mysteries Omnibus) by P F Chisholm

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

1592: Sir Robert Carey flees the strictures of Elizabethan court – and his creditors – in order to become Deputy Warden of the West March in Carlisle. The Scottish/English borders and those who inhabit them are different from the world he's left behind but it will have to become his world. It's now his job to bring law to the lawless. This isn't easy when every local he comes across has an affinity and a heritage of crime to some degree. For Robert the best thing about the job is its proximity to the woman he loves but he doesn't know what he'll do about that yet either. Meanwhile he soon realises that those who are supposed to be on his side are plotting against him but they don't realise what they're up against. Full review...

The House with the Stained-Glass Window by Zanna Sloniowska and Antonia Lloyd-Jones (translator)

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

Marianna, an opera singer in the soon-to-be Ukrainian city of Lviv, is mistakenly shot dead at a political rally in the dying days of the Soviet Union. This novel begins with both anger and hope, as Marianna's coffin is covered in the illegal blue and yellow flag, and her death seems to herald the birth of a new nation. But the day of her funeral is also the day of her daughter's first period – a girl who must learn how to be a woman in this time of drastic change, with no mother to guide her along the way. Full review...

False Lights by K J Whittaker

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

Cornwall, 1817.

What if your worst mistake changed the course of history? Napoleon has crushed the Duke of Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo, and his ex-wife Josephine presides over French-occupied England. Cornwall erupts into open rebellion, and young heiress Hester escapes with Crow, Wellington's former intelligence officer, a half-French aristocrat haunted by his part in the catastrophic defeat. Together, they become embroiled in a web of treachery and espionage as plans are laid to free Wellington from secret captivity in the Scilly Isles and lead an uprising against the French occupation. In a country rife with traitors, Hester and Crow know it is impossible to play such a game as this for long... Full review...

Seven Dead by J Jefferson Farjeon

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

Ted Lyte was petty criminal, but not usually the housebreaking type. He lacked the courage. However, needs must, and whilst feeling down on his luck he decided to try his chances at an isolated house with a shuttered window. ...he might find a bit of alright behind those shutters! Wot abart it? Ted does indeed find something interesting behind the shutters, but it definitely isn't what he'd hoped. In a locked room he finds seven dead bodies; six men and a woman. Fleeing the house in horror, he is pursued and caught by a passing yachtsman, Thomas Hazeldean, who also happens to be a journalist. Fascinated by Ted's story (and a possible scoop), Hazeldean decides to investigate this curious case and its assortment of odd clues, including a portrait shot through the heart, an old cricket ball and a mysterious note written by one of the victims. Full review...

Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

The first chapter of Salt Creek opens in Chichester, England, in 1874. Hester Finch is a respected and reasonably wealthy member of her community. But she can't stop her thoughts wandering back to her adolescence, spent on Salt Creek Station in the remote South Australian Coorong region. Hester feels has never felt so alive as then, when we had so little. Full review...

Love and Other Consolation Prizes by Jamie Ford

5star.jpg Historical Fiction

At the World's Fair in 1962, it seems that all eyes are focused on the future. The Space Needle dominates the landscape, filling people with anticipation about things to come. One visitor, however, has his mind firmly focused on the past. Ernest Young is helping his daughter Ju-ju with a story she is writing for her newspaper; a story about a young immigrant boy who was given away as a prize in a raffle at the World's Fair in 1909. Full review...

The Captain's Girl by Nicola Pryce

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

Last year, Bookbag reviewed, and thoroughly enjoyed, Pengelly's Daughter, a swashbuckling historical romance set in picturesque Cornwall. Now we have the pleasure of reading the much-anticipated sequel. This time, the story focuses on a neighbour of the Polcarrow family, Miss Celia Cavendish, who has been engaged to a cruel man that she does not love. One fateful night, she runs away to the Polcarrow house to beg them for help, and the pivotal events of that night have far-reaching consequences for all involved. Full review...

Across the Ocean by Hawa L Crickmore

4star.jpg General Fiction

A young cage fighter, Martin Grandson, was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder which required a bone-marrow transplant, preferably from a sibling. Only recently he'd been a fit young man, in the prime of life, but now he was suffering from a rare type of bone cancer: without the transplant he would be paralysed for life and might be dead within the next twelve weeks if he didn't receive the transplant within the next fourteen days. Unfortunately Martin's parents had died in a car crash and there were no siblings or other close relatives. His girlfriend, Celia, was not a match. Full review...

She Be Damned by M J Tjia

4star.jpg Crime (Historical)

London, 1863: prostitutes in the Waterloo area are turning up dead, their sexual organs mutilated and removed. When another girl goes missing, fears grow that the killer may have claimed their latest victim. The police are at a loss and so it falls to courtesan and professional detective, Heloise Chancey, to investigate. With the assistance of her trusty Chinese maid, Amah Li Leen, Heloise inches closer to the truth. But when Amah is implicated in the brutal plot, Heloise must reconsider whom she can trust, before the killer strikes again. Full review...

Shelter by Sarah Franklin

5star.jpg Historical Fiction

Connie Granger has escaped her bombed-out city home, finding refuge in the Women's Timber Corps. For her, this remote community must now serve a secret purpose.
Seppe, an Italian prisoner of war, is haunted by his memories. In the forest camp, he finds a strange kind of freedom.Their meeting signals new beginnings. But as they are drawn together, the world outside their forest haven is being torn apart. Old certainties are crumbling, and both must now make a life-defining choice.
What price will they pay for freedom? What will they fight to protect? Full review...

Court of Lions by Jane Johnson

5star.jpg Historical Fiction

Kate Fordham arrived in the sunlit city of Granada a year ago. In the shadow of the Alhambra, one of the most beautiful places on earth, she works as a waitress serving tourists in a busy bar. She pretends she's happy with her new life – but how could she be? Kate's alone, afraid and hiding under a false name. And fate is about to bring her face-to-face with her greatest fear. Five centuries ago, a message, in a hand few could read, was inscribed in blood on a stolen scrap of paper. The paper was folded and pressed into one of the Alhambra's walls. There it has lain, undisturbed by the tides of history – the Fall of Granada, the expulsion of its last Sultan – until Kate discovers it. Born of love, in a time of danger and desperation, the fragment will be the catalyst that changes Kate's life forever. Full review...

You Die When You Die by Angus Watson

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

Finnbogi the Boggy and his tribe of mushroom men (Vikings) must take a road trip through hostile territory whilst being hunted by the greatest fighting force ever seen (Amazonian Native Americans). Vikings meet Native Americans in a clash of cultures and potentially the end of the world. When the Queen of the known world says your tribe has to be exterminated then your immediate future may not be so rosy. Full review...

Six Tudor Queens: Anne Boleyn: A King's Obsession: Six Tudor Queens 2 by Alison Weir

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

Thomas Boleyn sends his daughters abroad to be trained at the courts of European royalty. Not only does this give them an education in the ways of the elite, it could also ensure a good marriage. Unfortunately he hasn't reckoned on the ideas that one of them, Anne, picks up and as for marriage… Anne is determined to marry for love not through some paternal arrangement. Yet the reality turns out to be different, driving a wedge through her family on a road leading to dark tragedy. Full review...

The Floating Theatre by Martha Conway

5star.jpg Historical Fiction

When young seamstress May Bedloe is left alone and penniless on the shore of the Ohio, she finds work on the famous floating theatre that plies its trade along the river. Her creativity and needlework skills quickly become invaluable and she settles into life among the colourful troupe of actors. She finds friends, and possibly the promise of more. But cruising the border between the Confederate South and the 'free' North is fraught with danger. For the sake of a debt that must be repaid, May is compelled to transport secret passengers, under cover of darkness, across the river and on, along the underground railroad. But as May's secrets become harder to keep, she learns she must endanger those now dear to her.

And to save the lives of others, she must risk her own... Full review...

Beneath a Burning Sky by Jenny Ashcroft

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

Young bride Olivia Sheldon finds returning to her childhood home in Egypt a bitter-sweet experience. On the one hand, she has been reunited with her estranged sister Clara, and the pair have formed a deep and loving bond. On the other, she has an unhappy marriage to her domineering husband Alistair, who only married her to spite Clara, who had refused him previously. Life with the sadistic Alistair is unbearable, with Olivia subjected to horrific abuse at his hands, daily. As a lady with no means of supporting herself, Olivia seems trapped without any means of escape, only finding solace in the company of her sister and friends. But when her dear sister goes mysteriously missing in the bustling streets of Alexandria, it is up to Olivia to try and solve the mystery of her disappearance before it is too late. Full review...

Dunstan: One Man Will Change the Fate of England by Conn Iggulden

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

The young Dunstan shows no sign of the sainthood he'll later attain. Son of a Wessex thane and sent to a monastery for education, this isn't a lad who responds to discipline. However an enquiring, intelligent mind begins to emerge and then comes the big break. Lady Elflaed calls to put a proposal to him after hearing about what she considers to be a miracle and the monks consider another in a long line of excuses. Yet Dunstan will outshine all his teachers as well as knowing seven kings and holding responsible positions in their courts, as the book's title suggests. Whether we believe in the miracles or not, Dunstan certainly had quite a life! Full review...

The Hopkins Conundrum by Simon Edge

5star.jpg General Fiction

Tim Cleverley inherits a failing pub in Wales, which he plans to rescue by enlisting an American pulp novelist to concoct an entirely fabricated mystery about Gerard Manley Hopkins, who composed The Wreck of the Deutschland nearby.

In Victorian England, Gerard Manley Hopkins lives a life full of confusion and contradiction, but discovers a calling for poetry that threatens to overrule his calling to God. And, speaking of God, Five nuns leave persecution to travel to a new world – only to find themselves in more trouble that they could ever have imagined… Full review...

The Shadow Queen by Anne O'Brien

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

Born in 1328, Joan of Kent may be of royal blood but she's from a family tainted by treachery. Her father Edmund Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, was executed for his part in the infamous Montague plot. However Joan has grown up under the protection of her cousin, King Edward III with all the advantages and attributes of a princess. Yet, much to her mother's chagrin, obedience isn't one of these attributes. Joan's head strong feist takes her on a varied journey in life. Having said that, three husbands, five marriages (technically) and a son destined for the English throne means that it's also been one heck of a life! Full review...

The Girls of Ennismore: A Heart-Rending Irish Saga by Patricia Falvey

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

Ireland 1900: Ennismore House's young heiress Victoria had hoped that she and Rosie Killeen would be friends forever. Rosie soon comes to know better as there's a social chasm between those who live in the House and those, like Rosie's family, who have been brought up merely to serve them. The days of innocence are coming to an end in many ways. Soon, as the cry for Irish Home Rule becomes louder, there'll be more than steps on society's ladder between them as each must discover their own way in a nation that will never be the same again. Full review...

The Butlins Girls by Elaine Everest

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

Fresh-faced Molly Missons has just arrived in Skegness to start her new job as a Butlins auntie. Behind the smiles and confident appearance, she hides a secret; she has taken the job to escape escalating problems at home. She soon finds good friends in her chalet-mates Bunty and Plum, and it turns out that they each have their own reasons for wanting a fresh start. Meanwhile, Molly is shocked to discover that her movie-star crush Johnny Johnson is working as an entertainment adviser at the camp. Is he really as suave as his on-screen persona? And why is he working at the camp anyway? As hidden secrets become discovered, Molly and her new friends face new threats and dangers that may threaten their new-found freedom. Full review...

Blood Forest by Geraint Jones

5star.jpg Historical Fiction

Felix. The lucky one. He doesn't feel especially lucky when he staggers out into the grove and finds twelve of his comrades butchered and mutilated in the worst possible ways. He felt even less lucky when the soldiers arrived, Roman cavalry. He might have run, but he knew he'd never make it. He stepped out to face whatever came next. Full review...

The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith

5star.jpg Historical Fiction

If you find the techniques used by Rembrandt and Vermeer fascinating, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos provides a masterclass in how to work up a canvas in stages. Framing the novel as the story of a seventeenth century Dutch painting, Dominic Smith vividly sketches out the main contours of his characters and the three time periods they inhabit before we are even one fifth of the way through. Sara is one of the few women artists of the period and her painting is of children skating on a frozen canal, her now dead daughter its central figure. The painting has been in Marty de Groot's family since before Isaac Newton was born and he is the patent lawyer from whom it is stolen in 1950s Manhattan. Ellie Shipley forged a copy of the painting in her postgraduate student years and in 2000 finds herself at the centre of a gathering storm which threatens to destroy her reputation as one of Sydney's foremost fine art academics. Satisfying though those first descriptions are, we then understand these are merely the author's equivalent of the delicate chalk lines used by painters of the Dutch Golden Age to mark out the composition which will follow. Full review...

The Summer House Party by Caro Fraser

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

In the gloriously hot summer of 1936, a group of people meet at a country house party. Within three years, England will be at war, but for now, time stands still. Dan Ranscombe is clever and good-looking, but he resents the wealth and easy savoir-faire of fellow guest, Paul Latimer. Surely a shrewd girl like Meg Slater would see through that, wouldn't she? And what about Diana, Paul's beautiful sister, Charles Asher, the Jewish outsider, Madeleine, restless and dissatisfied with her role as children's nanny? And artist Henry Haddon, their host, no longer young, but secure in his power as a practised seducer. As these guests gather, none has any inkling the choices they make will have fateful consequences, lasting through the war and beyond. Or that the first unforeseen event will be a shocking death… Full review...

The Serpent Sword by Matthew Harffy

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

It's AD 633 and Albion is a divided island made up of petty warlords who want to be treated like honourable royalty but act like gangsters. Romans are a memory that have entered into myth and the souls of Albion are torn between the old Gods and the new Christ. It is in this world that we follow the adventures of Beobrand as he undertakes the classic hero’s journey. Beobrand moves from wide-eyed teenager to hardened and honourable warrior through a brutal rite of passage as he hunts the killer of his brother and seeks to become a true warrior. Full review...

The Tyrant's Shadow by Antonia Senior

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

Warning: spoilers ahead for Treason's Daughter. Patience lives with her widowed brother, William, helping to care for his son Richard (nicknamed Blackberry). Despite the Civil war ending, the times are still uncertain. Cromwell is increasingly annoyed with a parliament of rebels refusing to go to the electorate for ratification. William sees this problem at close quarters once he's effectively forced to become Cromwell's legal advisor in an atmosphere poisoned by espionage and religious factions. However when Patience comes across Shadrick Simpson, a charismatic preacher, all becomes clearer for her at least. Meanwhile Sam Challoner, William's brother in law, comes home after privateering with Prince Rupert and realises that the fight at sea is better than peace at home. At least when you're privateering you know who your enemy is. Full review...