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[[Category:New Reviews|Historical Fiction]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->==Historical fiction==__NOTOC__ <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Charlotte Bronte and Karena RoseTananarive Due|title=Jane EyroticaThe Reformatory|rating=35

|summary=Jane Eyre Gracetown, Florida. June 1950. After a scuffle with a white boy, twelve year-old Robbie Stephens Jr is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, otherwise known as the Reformatory. It's a place with a brutal and dark reputation. But the segregated reformatory is a classic I studied chamber of horrors, haunted by the boys that have died there. In order to death survive the school governor and his Funhouse, Robert must enlist the help of the school's ghosts – only they have their own motivations...|isbn=1803366532}} {{Frontpage|author=Katherine Howe|title=A True Account|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Hannah Masury is living in high schoolBoston, but I didn’t mind because it’s having been sent to live with a book I enjoyed then family who run an inn, and still enjoy nowbeing made to work there from a young age. Jane Eyrotica When she hears there isto be a hanging of some pirates in the town, she decides to put it simplygo and watch. Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a smutty version young boy's death at the hands of two vicious pirates. She hides away, so that they don't find and kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, dressing as a boy and joining the classicnotorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a cabin boy. Hot on the heels of She soon finds herself in the likes thick of [[Fifty Shades Of Grey by EL James]] this things when there is a reworking mutiny on board, and from there we are caught up in which her rip roaring tale of life on the once demure Jane beds anything with a pulseocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0749959428</amazonuk>0861547438

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ken FollettSarah Marsh|title=Winter of the World (Century A Sign of Giants Trilogy 2)Her Own

|genre=Historical General Fiction|summary= The After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a world of 1933 seems to be silence, everything about to disprove the idea that WWI was the war to end all warsher life changes. German politician Walter von Ulrich and his wife (and former English aristocrat) Maud watch Living in horror a time when the use of sign language was seen as Adolf Hitler's National Socialists increase their hold; something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a rise in popularity that invigorates their son Erikschool where she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. After visiting the von UlrichsFrom here, young Lloyd Williams takes mental images of the brutality gripping Germany home to England, images that fire him she ends up to fight against the fascist threat elsewhere in Europe. Meanwhile young socialite Daisy Peshkov another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has marriage on her mind but isn’t considered been teaching the deaf and using a respectable prospect in her native USAsystem called Visible Speech. (Blame her thuggish fatherAt the same time, movie magnate Lev.) This doesn't stop her though; if she can't have a rich American husbandBell is working on other inventions and ideas, there's still and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a bit complicated tangle of money left in Britainespionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0230710107</amazonuk>1035401614

{{newreview|author=Rosemary Sutcliff|title=Sword At Sunset|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Every country has its myths and legends: those stories that are told and reThe follow-toldup to the excellent ''Ithaca'' picks up a few months after where we left off. Stories that have any number of re-interpretations. Stories, a belief in which becomes part In the palace of our national identityOdysseus, even if we hold them with delicate care Queen Penelope continues to be truerule without her husband, purely because we want them who sailed to be truewar at Troy and then by divine intervention never returned home. Part As ever she remains surrounded by suitors vying for the throne of them, at any ratethe Western Isles. Those parts of our favourite retelling Having survived – politically and physical – the chaotic storm that speak most Clytemnestra brought to us as individualsIthaca's shores, Queen Penelope is on the brink of a fragile peace. In EnglandOne that shatters however with the return of Orestes, King of Mycenae, Robin Hood and his merry mensister Elektra, is one such. The other is King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Tableseeking refuge.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857892436</amazonuk>0356516075

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Margaret SkeaB0C7J9D21B|title=Turn of the TideA Captive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries)|author=A J Lewis

|summary=Family When we first meet our hero, his name is Ettore and clan count in 16th century Scotland as Munro discovershe lives at The House of Beautiful Swallows. His allegiance lies with the Clan Cunninghame Idyllic as this might sound, it's a bordello and therefore heEttore's involved in their bloody feud with the Montgomeriesmother died when he was born. It should be straightforward He's not been short of mothers, though - but sometimes feelings don't run along genealogical lines and loyalties are torn. Munrofor someone of his background in late-eighteenth-century Amalfi, it's wife Kate finds this as difficult to live obtain decent employment. The stint working with, sharing the hardships preparation of a life anchovies didn't work out and bastards are considered bad luck on the edge whilst trying to protect their childrenfishing boats. Unfortunately the Cunninghames' victory at the Annock massacre has created greater problems than Ettore was nothing if not resourceful - and determined - and it solved and no one knows which side fate will eventually favourwas not long before he had a successful business as a guide for visitors. Meanwhile King James' presence creates a temporary respite, but revenge can't be side-lined foreverHe was even saving some money.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909305065</amazonuk>

 {{newreview|author=Sally Prue|title=Song Hunter|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=A new Ice Age is coming. Winters are getting colder. There are fewer mammoths to hunt and no trees from which to fashion spears to kill them. A small group of Neanderthals is facing starvation this winter. One of them, Mica, is full of ideas to avert the impending doom, but the others simply won't listen to her. If something has never been before then it is ''nothing'' and simply not worth thinking about. Even Bear, who loves Mica, won't hear her. One night, Mica hears strange voices calling in the darkness. They fill her with a deep sense of longing. But to whom do these siren voices belong? And do they hold the key to Mica's future?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192757113</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lisa Hilton|title=Wolves in Winter|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=It's 1492 and Mura, an exotic-looking child of Moorish, Spanish and Viking origin enjoys an idyllic childhood living with her widowed father, a Toledo bookseller. However she soon learns that the world is a cruel place when he's snatched by the Spanish Inquisition and she's hidden in a brothel for safe keeping. Adara, the lady of the night entrusted with Mura, betrays that trust and the child's adventurous journeys begin. From nurtured daughter to child prostitute to Medici slave, Mura discovers the power within, nourished by her childhood tales from the Moors and 'North Men' and her gift of 'the sight'. Mura also bears a secret but it seems that she'll be the last to discover it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848874677</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=John Kerr|title=Hurricane Hole|rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=In 1942 German U-boats were wreaking havoc with Allied shipping in the Caribbean. Tom Hamilton, a young American working undercover and posing as a rich playboy, was sent to the Bahamas to investigate Nils Ericsson, a Swedish industrialist. Sweden might have been neutral in the war but Ericsson was known to have ties to the Nazis. It wasn't long before Hamilton was certain that Ericsson was building a base for U-boats at Hurricane Hole on Hog Island. The problem was what to do about it. The Governor of the Bahamas was the Duke of Windsor, friend of Ericsson and himself a suspected Nazi sympathiser. As an added complication Hamilton was attracted to Evelyn Shawcross but as she was a friend of both the Governor and Ericsson, could he trust her?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709099053</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Will BuckinghamEssie Fox|title=The Descent of the LyreFascination|rating=54

|summary=Seventeen year old Ivan GelskiThe Victorian era is incredibly over-romanticised as a setting for historical fiction (matched only, perhaps, by the much loved son of Bulgarian peasant parents, Second World War) which has his bride often led to be and future snatched from him brutally just before his weddingmore than a few writers mishandling it. Full of rage and vengeance, he leaves his close knit village to join the haiduti, There's such a savage band glut of outlaws who kill mercilessly media set in order the era that the hallmarks we've come to associate with it are familiar to acquire food and survival. Years later, on one the point of these killing spreesbeing cliched, Ivan encounters Solomon Kuretic, a Viennese Jew and guitar virtuoso on his way hackneyed even. All this is simply to illustrate that it would be an easy thing to play for the Sultan in Constantinopledo poorly. Solomon must play for his life butBut despite that, by doing so, he sends Ivan on a journey of his own spreading across Europe something about it still grabs me – and into saintly venerationsomething about this book's description did as well.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>9380905076</amazonuk>1914585526

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Deborah SwiftNicole Jarvis|title=The Gilded LilyA Portrait in Shadow

|summary=In Restoration England, Sadie Appleby and her older sister Ella flee their home in Westmorland to try to lose themselves in London. They're forced 'I want all of Florence to try and avoid the relatives of the dead man who Ella robbed and build a new life, but things arenknow my name't always what they seem in the capital and they're left trying to work out just who they can trust.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330543431</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Colm Toibin|title=The Testament of Mary|rating=3Cast out from Rome, Artemisia Gentileschi arrives in Florence seeking an oasis in which her art can find a home and where her future can thrive rather than stagnate.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=The subject matter for Colm Tóibín's 'The Testament But as some as she enters Florentine society she faces great opposition from the powerful Accademia, the self-proclaimed guardians of Mary' is exactly what the title suggests in healing magics that it relates Mary's feelings about through paintings have the death of her son, Jesus, whose name it hurts her too much power to even mentionprotect the city and its citizens from plagues and curses. It's a curiously slight offering though. Its 100 odd pages lands The all-male Accademia has hoarded power over art and architecture for centuries and guard it somewhere between short story and novella territoryabove all else. Even soTo them, with Tóibín's excellence as a writer Artemisia – an ambitious young woman who promises trouble and change – has no place amongst them and the emotive subject matter, I expected to be more engaged with the story than I wastheir society.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0670922099</amazonuk>1803362340

{{newreview|author=Lawrence Norfolk|title=John Saturnall's Feast|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=John Saturnall’s mother is a healer and herbalist. It was all too easy Set in the 1620’s for women with her skills to come under suspicion of witchcraft. When John and his mother are hounded from their village by religious extremists the Lessonersnear-distant future, they hide in Buccla’s Wood. But as winter takes a grip world on the land John’s mother dies. John verge of climate collapse, Britain is taken in great peril. The British Isles desperately needs a hero (or several) to work in save the kitchens at Buckland Manorday and rescue what little remains. His progress from scullery boy to cook is graphically recorded alongside his prickly relationship with the daughter What no-one expected was that one of the house, Lucretia. The story takes the couple through the years Knights of the civil war, when life at Buckland comes under threat from Round Table would answer the advancing Puritan armycall.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408805960</amazonuk>0356518523

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Russell JamesG K Holloway|title=The ExhibitionistsIn the Shadows of Castles

|summary=On one particular London night We begin after the momentous battle in 1834 three children start a journey that will mould their futures1066 and on the day of William of Normandy's coronation as King of England. Newly born Maddy is abandoned in Mrs CuthbertsonWilliam's establishment (position is not secure and the new king has many challenges. Imposing authority through a thinly veiled baby farm) causing Maddy coronation is important. And William is right to spend years looking for worry. While the reasons that led her there. Baby Sam previous king, Harold, is fished out dead and the likelihood of more pitched battles is over, the Thames rebels are stirring and grows with a burning desire much of the country does not wish to uncover the truth, shaping his career as recognise a journalistnew overlord. Meanwhile Hannah is conceived that night by two people fated to live lives that don't coincide, until…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>178095011X</amazonuk>1800422466

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Diana McCaulay3949666079|title=HuracanNoema|author=Dael Akkerman

|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=1986 – 30-year-old Leigh McCaulay (''White gal!'') This is returning to Jamaica, the land of her birth. Her mother is dead and there is an estate a story about some things that happened to be settled. Her estranged father is somewhere on the islandme about twelve thousand years ago. Her brother is in England. This isn't the closest of grieving families. Leigh doesn't even know how her mother died. Indeed, she's a bit surprised to find out she'd gone back to Jamaica. The residual family had left the island not long after the father's desertion.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845231961</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Bernard Cornwell|title=1356|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Sir Thomas Hookton, aka Le Batard (Maya is a French word that's very similar young girl living in Englisha hunter gatherer village during the Mesolithic era. Climate change is occurring, if you see what I mean) roams France with his band the Sea of mercenaries, acquiring plundered riches Grass encroaches further and selling their services in the war against the French. However, Thomasfurther into Maya' lieges forest home, Lord William Bohun, Earl of Northampton, disrupts the combative equilibrium when demands a diversionand food is becoming more and more scarce. Monks are spreading stories about 'La Malice', (What to do? Can the sword with which St Peter defended Jesus law givers in the Garden federation of Gethsemane) and with it the power villages muster peaceful ways to bless or curse cope? Can the ownerTraveller, depending a spiritual figure who you listen to. So Lord 'Billy' wants it and La Batard must find it. Meanwhile Sir Thomas has competition as unsavoury elements in interprets the church create a special order wisdom of knights. They mean to find it firstAll Life, by foul means or even fouler.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007331843</amazonuk>provide solutions?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=James Long1529125898|title=The Lives She Left BehindGodmersham Park|author=Gill Hornby

|summary=Jo has always been an ''If it were not for the casual dereliction of the odd childgentleman's duty, talking there would no women to her imaginary friend Gally from almost as soon as teach well-bred daughters at all.'' Anne Sharpe was thirty-one years old when she could talk. Her widowed mother drags her from doctor arrived at Godmersham Park to therapist until medication becomes take up the only answerposition of governess to twelve-year-old Fanny Austen. It provides peace for Jo's mother She had no experience of teaching but pushes the teenage Jo into this was a shady half-existencecase of necessity. Meanwhile somewhere elseUntil the death of her mother, Luke is also Anne had a teenager leading a half-comfortable life as he co-exists with his mother and was loved by both parents although her disdainful, temperamental partnerfather was frequently absent from the household. Luke feels When her mother died, her father cast her off and would have nothing more at home in the great outdoors than under a roof and gradually comes to realise whydo with her. They may have lived this long unaware No explanation was offered but she would receive an annuity of each other£35 a year. Her maid, Agnes, would receive nothing but Luke's and Jo's worlds collide one summer at an archaeological dig and what they discover is beyond their wildest imaginingswas fortunately taken in by some neighbours.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780875320</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tim SeverinMelissa Fu |title=Saxon: The Book of Dreams (Saxon 1)Peach Blossom Spring

|summary=Sigwulf is the Saxon prince We meet part of a small kingdom - that is, until the ruthless King Offa of Mercia slaughters his Talbot familyin Yorkshire in November 1811. He is saved Twenty-seven-year-old Jocelyn Talbot and her mother have travelled in some discomfort from execution for a single purpose - to be shipped off their home at Ecklington, to the court of King Carolus of house in the Frankshollow. Sigwulf quickly befriends the Kings nephew, Count Hroundland, a powerful The two women are angry with each other and very ambitious man. However, just as quickly Sigwulf survives an attempt on his life, he also finds he has been thrown into a world Jocelyn is well aware of deceit and vain ambitions. Only Osric, Sigwulfher mother's crippled personal slave, can be trusted.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230764428</amazonuk>}}strengths and weaknesses:

{{newreview|author=Martin Davies|title=The Year After|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Captain Tom Allen ''She is home from World War I. Whilst waiting to be demobbedpracticed at subterfuge, he receives an invitation to attend the annual Christmas house-party at Hannesford Courtconcealing, the stately home beneath a facade of Sir Robert and Lady Stansbury. He used to look forward to it before joining up and so decides to attend again, but everything has changed. The Stansbury's heir, Harry, and son-in-law, Oliver, were killed and second sonrespectability, Reggie Stansbury, remains in a nursing home with no legs and dwindling self-respect. Whilst coming to terms with the devastating realisation that hedeplorable truth's one of the very few men in their set to return alive and entire, Tom remembers pre-war Hannesford and the night when his friend Professor Schmidt died at such a gathering. Everyone believes it was unsuspicious but gradually things are coming to light that hint of hidden secrets. Along with her Ladyship's former companion, Anne (who has issues of her own), Tom decides to investigate as truths are exhumed, making him doubt whether those happier times were as idyllic as he remembers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340980443</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Karen Engelmann|title=The Stockholm Octavo|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=As a Customs and Excise Hester is furious about Jocelyn'Sekretaire' in 18th century Stockholms refusal to do as she was asked, Emil Larsson which has all he needs: professional respect, a bachelorprecipitated 's lifestyle and a table at Mrs Sparrow's gaming house whenever he fancies his luck. Contrastingly, his superiors at work feel he's missing a certain something. In order to climb further up the career ladder (maybe even to maintain his current position) Emil needs to marry. His manager believes this so fervently that thereviolent and unexpected removal's a deadline for the wedding. Emil panics but Mrs Sparrow offers to lay an 'Octavo', a fortune-telling spread of eight cards to guide him to the eight people who will ensure his success. However, not all goes to plan as, over the eight nights it takes to complete the Octavo, it becomes apparent that the prediction isn't for Emil's future, but has become an Octavo to save the whole of Sweden.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444742698</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Paul Dowswell|title=Eleven Eleven|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary=It's 2am Then we are told of the birth of a child and, soon after, Hester Talbot departs, leaving Jocelyn in Paris on Tuesday 11th November 1918. Negotiations for ending World War I are almost complete shame and both sides will announce the Armistice at 11am. But the people actually fighting the war don't know that yet..isolation in Yorkshire.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408826232</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Pamela HartshorneAnnabel Abbs|title=Time's EchoThe Language of Food

|summary=Grace Trewe Eliza Acton is a poet who has temporarily moved to York to sort out never had the affairs of her godmother, Lucy, who died suddenly. After surviving the Indonesian tsunami the previous Christmas, Grace has decided to live life slightest inclination to the full and plans more travelling once Lucy's house is soldboil an egg. She hasn’t When tasked with writing a care or a tie in the worldcookery book, as long as she doesn't remember little Lucas back on that Christmas beachrecruits Ann Kirby, a local woman with a troubled home life. As it turns outTogether, they test, that's not the only thing she needs to avoid. Strangecraft, horrific dreams disrupt her sleep refine and vivid daydreams start to attack her waking moments as 21st century York keeps fading to be replaced by its 16th century streets. Grace will be fine though; it's just stress and her oddly acquired knowledge reshape the world of domestic cookery, reinventing the past is just a coincidence, or so says seemingly kindly neighbour, historian recipe book and single father Drewchanging the face of cookery writing forever. Meanwhile, 500 years before, there was a woman named Hawise who met a terrible death…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>033054425X</amazonuk>1398502227

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kevin Crossley-HollandFreya Marske|title=Scramasax: The Viking Sagas, Book TwoA Marvellous Light

|summary=History lecturer Michael Martin thought Robin Blyth is nudged into a job in the Civil Service, much to his chagrin. There he meets Edwin Courcey and learns that the chance streets of love and marriage had passed him byLondon are threaded with magic. Then Gally, Desperate to remove a history nut and lecture gate crasher, attended one of his lectures and dared curse that threatens to contradict swallow him. Contradiction led , Robin follows Edwin to courtship and the marriage that had previously seemed so elusive but despite their love and accompanying emotional securitycountryside, Gally has a dark subconscious that haunts her. She's unsettled by repeating nightmares where the hedgegrows bristle with incantations and, worse, night terrors that can't be explained by counsellors' logicthe people shimmer with power. However when Mike and Gally find their (or rather, Gally's) ideal home in the shape of There they uncover a derelict cottage in sinister plot that threatens the Somerset village lives of Penselwood, Gally's nightmares are augmented by a strong feeling of déjà vu. Meanwhile the Martins seem to have developed a benevolent stalker all magicians in the shape of aged local Ferney Miller. Mike considers him a bit of a pain while for Gally he represents something else entirely; something that she can't explain nor understand but will become a threat to her marital happiness and Michael's peace of mindBritish Isles.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780875304</amazonuk>1529080886

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andre BrinkB09F4CTKJR|title=PhilidaFlights for Freedom|author= Steven Burgauer

|summary=Philida falls in love with Frans, It's the son later stages of Cornelis Brink World War I and they have four children together creating the United States has just entered the conflict. Petrol Petronus is a tragedy on two counts: only two children survive young American who has signed up and their love is troubledjoined the 17 Aero Squadron. For this is South Africa This company was the first US Aero Squadron to be trained in 1830 Canada, the first to be attached to the RAF and Philida is only the Brinks' 'knit girl': a slave specialising first to be sent into the skies to fight the Germans in active combat. But before that can happen, Petrol has to master flying the family's knittingnotoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846557046</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=John BuchanChristophe Medler|title=HuntingtowerMadrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret|rating=3.54

|summary=Dickson McCunn Set against the backdrop of the English Civil War, a secret plan (code-named Madrigal) is on his travels through rural Scotland when he meets a man he doesn't warm to at first, discovered by Sir Robert Douse in the name summer of John Heritage1642. They are quite chalk and cheese – McCunn an older man, who has only just sold up his very well-known Glasgow grocery shop and made this trip his first steps into retirement on As a complete whim. Heritage is younger, Englishloyal servant of the King, and a soldier. McCunn seems Head of the old RomanticSecret Service, Heritage modern poetry in contrast. But when they meet up itis Robert's at duty to uncover the edge details of the Huntingtower estate, a coastal country house, guarded by suspicious landlords turning guests away plan and unfriendly foreign types, and found follow the clues to contain a young beauty who just happens to be uncover one of the love of Heritage's life, most guarded secrets in history—especially since they met a few years previousthe plot could affect the King. She is being coerced into staying against her will, but lo and behold – the cynical Heritage can come over all chivalrous and try and rescue her – with desperate consequences for both men…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184697223X</amazonuk>B095HY8SXQ

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1471187179|authortitle=A N WilsonBeautiful Spy|titleauthor=The Potter's HandRachel Hore

|summary=The man of clay that A N Wilson throws onto his storytelling wheel in Minnie is an 'ordinary'girl living an unexciting life in a leafy provincial suburb. The Potter's Hand'' book is set in the great Josiah Wedgwood, but this is much more than a historic telling of his life. Indeed, Josiah already has a thriving business at the start of the book. What Wilson does particularly impressively 1930s and Minnie is expected to live up to put Wedgwoodher mother's achievement expectations and works into the context of the politics and social philosophy of the times, sandwiched between the two great revolutions in America and France. In order find a nice young man to do thismarry, Wilson has to play slightly loose with artistic licence by altering dates produce children and time lines a bit, but it works well. He also balances spend the real historic figures with several key figures rest of his own invention her days looking after her husband and where the historic figures don't quite fit with his narrative, he alters their ages and invents 'facts' to the benefit of the fictional narrative.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848879512</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=John Buchan|title=The Gap in the Curtain|rating=3|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=A short stay with friends in society for Sir Edward Leithen is just what he needs, being an overworked MP and lawyerhome. Among the collection of fellow guestsUnfortunately, some of whom he knows and some he doesnthis isn't, is the extraordinary mind of Professor Moe, a scientist who decides what she wants to do at all and neither does she want to select some of the houseguests continue working as subjects for his latest experimenta secretary. He declares that he can make sure they can see into the future, and the people he chooses – for various reasons – do indeed get As a mental snatch result of The Times newspaper exactly a year chance meeting, she finds herself drawn into their futureespionage, and what's more, one that comes completely true – either working for good or bad…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846972248</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ben Kane|title=Spartacus the Gladiator|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Given Ben Kane's tendency secret service and effectively living a double life - attempting to write strong characters who rebel against their Roman leaders, it's perhaps slightly predictable that he should take on infiltrate the story Communist Party of Spartacus, who led a slaves' rebellion against RomeGreat Britain. This is, perhaps, the only thing you can say about Kane's writing that is predictable.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099561921</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Robin Binckes|title=Canvas Under The Sky|rating=3|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Rauch Beukes is a 17 year old Boer lad living with his family on the Eastern Cape frontier in Africa. Sadly for them, the year is 1834: not a good time Minnie finds herself torn between what she perceives as the Boers live under the dictates of the British her duty and in fear of indigenous local tribes. This becomes all too real to Rauch when, returning from a trip with his father, he discovers a smouldering heap where his home once stood and a row of graves bearing the remains of his mother friends she has made - and sisters. Wanting a better life, a group of farmers decide to travel towards Africa's southern interior to establish a selflikes -determining Boer homeland and so Rauch, his father and brothers join them feeling they have nothing to lose. The momentum grows and whilst working for the migration will become known as 'The Great Trek', a tough, dangerous period of South African history, challenging Rauch's strength, courage and a fair bit of his libidoCommunist Party.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1920143637</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rose TremainAfonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)|title=Merivel: A Man of His Time|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Rose Tremain has made fans of her 1989 book ''Restoration'' wait for a long time before picking up the story of Sir Robert Merivel. Almost as much time has passed in MerivelKokoschka's world with the book opening in 1683. Leaving a follow up so long can be fraught with danger. For those, like me, who loved ''Restoration'' at the time, the memory of its central character has grown in fondness over time while some of the detail has been inevitably lost to memory. Thankfully, this is one of those rare things in literature; a very good follow up.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701185201</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Naomi Alderman|title=The Liars' GospelDoll|rating=2.5

|summary=In ''The Liars' Gospel''Well, Naomi Alderman gives this looked very much like a book I could love from the perspective of four people on the recent death of a Jewish man named Yehoshuahget-go, who which is more commonly known these days by the anglicized name why I picked my review copy up and flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of Jesusit. These perspectives include Miryam (Mary), I found things to potentially delight me each time – a weird section in the teacher's mother, Iehuda of Qeriot (Judas Iscariot)middle on darker stock paper, a one time follower of chapter whose number was in the man20,000s, Caiaphasletters used as narrative form, and so on. It intrigued with the High Priest subterranean voice a man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of the great Temple in Jerusalem and finally Bar-Avoit mentioned, Barabbas, a rebel who is determined to bring down too. But you've seen the occupying Roman presence. What makes star rating that comes with this such a remarkable book is the sheer visceral nature of the story telling. Each story is vividly toldreview, and Alderman evokes the time and place to such a level can tell that you half expect to have developed a sun tan while reading the bookif love was on these pages, it was not actually caused by them. So what happened?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>067091990X</amazonuk>1529402697

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeanette WintersonChristina Hammonds Reed|title=The Daylight GateBlack Kids

|genre=FantasyTeens |summary=1610s Lancashire, and Alice Nutter Christina Hammonds Reed's debut novel is set against the best landowner you could wish for. Single, rich and connected, she takes no sides in backdrop of the religious schisms James I has inherited1992 Los Angeles riots, and takes no bull from those trying a reaction to oppress the poorabsolution of four police officers for beating a black man, putting them up and feeding them when no-one else willRodney King, nearly to death. But those poor are seen as sinful by others - amoral, dirty in mind, body and spirit, and in league with Told from the devil. And people are beginning to question Alice's attitudes, choice perspective of company - and ageless beauty. ThisAshley Bennett, then, is the based-on-truth story novel follows her evolution from a silent bystander when confronted with matters of how Alice Nutter got race, to be one of the accused in the Pendle Witch trialsa woman finding her voice and embracing her heritage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099561859</amazonuk>1471188191

{{newreview|author=Wendy Wallace|title=The Painted Bridge|rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Young bride Anna Palmer places her trust in all the wrong people. One choice that backfires spectacularly is her impulsive marriage to the Reverend Vincent Palmer. Less than a year after their marriage he tells her that they are going to visit some of his friends at a place called Lake House. But Lake House is a privately run asylum 'for genteel women of a delicate nature'. Once there Anna discovers that she is not allowed to leave without Vincent's approval.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857209272</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Michael Boccacino|title=Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|summary=Widowed under tragic circumstances, Charlotte Markham needs an income and so she's employed by widower Henry Darrow as a governess for his sons James and Paul. Their home 'Everton' may seem a typical Victorian mansion but the town of Blackfield isn't your average English small town; the Darrow's Nanny Prum is found murdered in a particularly grisly manner. It's a mystery to the local police but Charlotte's friend Susannah has a clue if only they'd listen to her. Meanwhile the Darrow boys' nights are spent dreaming of a house in the woods where their mother still lives. Charlotte decides to treat this head Move on and takes them for a walk to show them there's no substance to it. However, in doing so they discover the nightmare that is The House of Darkling.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781164460</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Deborah Harkness|title=Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy 2)|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=''Shadow of Night'' moves on from where [[A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness|A Discovery of WitchesNewest History Reviews]] finishes. Matthew Claremont (vampire, intellectual and, even after centuries of life, still looking a pretty decent 37 years old) and Diana Bishop (historian and witch with a pedigree stretching back to the Salem witch trials) are married and have time-walked to 1591 to look for Ashmole 782, the ancient book that Diana let slip through her fingers in 2010. They also need to find Diana a tutor to help her control the powers that she's chosen to ignore for a lifetime. There aren't just supernatural items on the agenda though; Diana thought she knew all there was to know about her new spouse but there are secrets to be discovered, his connection to the historic 'School of the Night' being one of the less dangerous. Oh, and another thing, they discover that the 16th century isn't, perhaps, the best time to visit if you're a witch, especially if you need to advertise for a tutor. (I think we could have told them that if they'd asked!)|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755384733</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Pauline Chandler|title=Dark Thread|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary=Kate is an artisan weaver, like her mother. But she is so full of grief and guilt that she can't even think about returning to her craft. Because Kate's mother died in a road accident and Kate thinks it was all her fault. And, all of a sudden, everything gets too much - the kindly-meant but oppressive sympathy - and Kate collapses. She wakes, still at the mill, but in a long-past time. Here, Kate must learn to weave the dark threads of her life into its overall picture. Until she does, she can't return home... |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907869565</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=David Rain|title=The Heat of the Sun|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=David Rain is far too young to be writing this exquisitely. That's all I'm going to say. Oh, you need me to justify that comment? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857892037</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sarah Quigley|title=The Conductor|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Composer Dmitri Shostakovich can block anything out whilst he's writing music: his wife Nina's voice, his children arguing, even the side effects of living in Stalinist Leningrad. However, life is about to become more than an annoying distraction from music as Germany declares war on Russia and gradually initiates what history will come to know as the Siege of Leningrad. Shostakovich then realises, just as gradually, that his music may serve a purpose to sustain his compatriots in the absence of sufficient food and hope. His Seventh Symphony becomes a protest against oppression, but he needs an orchestra to play it and the top musicians have been evacuated to save the country's cultural heritage. He therefore turns to Karl Eliasberg, the aspiring but third rate conductor of a cobbled together orchestra. Music can create miracles but, for Eliasberg and his musicians, being able to play it will be the biggest miracle of all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190880002X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Umberto Eco|title=The Prague Cemetery|rating=3|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=If the popular press is to be believed, then those of us who write book reviews do so to show off our own (non-existent) talents as writers whilst trying to condemn the abilities of far greater worth. Well, not quite. I would not pretend to have a tiny iota-fragment of the talent that Umberto Eco has. Nor would I seek to decry his latest opus.  On the other hand, I am an ordinary reader – one moreover that enjoyed The Name of the Rose immensely – and I really struggled with ''The Prague Cemetery''. I didn't struggle to get through it. It is actually quite an easy read, if you just read the surface of it. I did struggle to see the point of it. It may well just be me. I put my hands up.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555972</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Matt Rees|title=A Name in Blood|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Artist Michelangelo Merisi is best known by a location: Caravaggio, his home town. He grew up acquainted with the ugly side of life and death, having witnessed the plague-ridden deaths of his father and grandfather on the same day. However he was also born with the ability to create beauty in his art. He's able to make a living adorning the churches and fine houses of Rome, but Caravaggio walks a fine line. On one side is the wildness and carousing he needs to feel alive and on the other is the need to placate the powers that be. When those powers happen to be a pope who's a Borgia and a patron who's a Borgia's nephew, then the line is very fine indeed. Add complications like a beautiful woman and a life-long commitment to preserving the well being of a headstrong noble, leading him to the knights of Malta, and a life of difficulty becomes one of impossibility. Then something else happens... Caravaggio completely vanishes from history, taking the intrigue up to a whole new level.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848879199</amazonuk>}}