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[[Category:Historical Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Historical Fiction]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->
{{newreview
|author= Nicola Pryce
|title= The Captain's Girl
|rating= 4
|genre= Historical Fiction
|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>1782398856</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview|class-"wikitable" cellpadding="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--><!-- Mayfield -->|-|authorstyle=Hawa L Crickmore''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1786072424.jpg|titlelink=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786072424/ref=nosim?tag=Across the Oceanthebookbag-21]]  |ratingstyle=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[The Parentations by Kate Mayfield]]==[[image:4.5star.jpg|genrelink=General Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] |summary=A young cage fighterIn eighteenth century London, Martin Grandsonsisters Fitzgerald, was diagnosed Constance and Verity are changed forever when they become entwined with a rare genetic disorder which required a bonethe Fowler family -marrow transplant, preferably from and charged with protecting a siblingmysterious child. Only recently he'd been a fit young manFast forward to the London of 2015, in and the prime sisters are still waiting - with no way of knowing if the boy is alive or dead. Far away, a hidden pool grants those who sup from it eternal life, but now he was suffering from also forces them to keep a rare type of bone cancer: without the transplant he would be paralysed secret for life and might be dead within the next twelve weeks if he didn't receive the transplant within the next fourteen daystwo hundred years. Unfortunately MartinAs those years pass by, those who were granted immortality find that it's parents had died far from a blessing - with true darkness emerging in a car crash and there were no siblings or other close relatives. His girlfriend, Celia, was not a matchthe absence of death.[[The Parentations by Kate Mayfield|Full Review]] |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524666971</amazonuk!-- Laws -->}}{{newreview|-|authorstyle= M J Tjia"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Laws_Munich.jpg|titlelink=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178803788X/ref=nosim?tag= She Be Damnedthebookbag-21]]  |ratingstyle= 4"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"||genre= Crime (Historical) ==[[Munich: The Man Who Said No! by David Laws]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|summarylink= LondonCategory:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] I've played Neville Chamberlain in public, 1863: prostitutes you know – a full one-line in a ''Beyond the Waterloo area are turning Fringe'' sketch, where he says he has a piece of paper from Hitler. I then proceeded to prove it was a paper bag, in fact, by blowing it up dead, their sexual organs mutilated and removedimmediately bursting it. When another girl goes missing, fears grow That is what that paper was to many – the killer may have claimed their latest victim. The police are at indicator of a loss lot of hot air, and so it falls only leading to courtesan and professional detectivean unwelcome noise, Heloise Chanceywhen WW2 actually struck anyway. Certainly, to investigate. With not everyone was keen on his appeasement with the Nazis, and this book opens with the assistance first-person reportage of her trusty Chinese maidone such man, Amah Li Leen, Heloise inches closer keen on showing proof to Chamberlain that he should not sign the truthSudetenland away. But when Amah is implicated in he only got so far before his story was cut off entirely – leaving a grand-daughter, Emma, at Cambridge but under a cloud of ignominy, to pick the brutal plotlast, Heloise must reconsider whom she can trust, before barest threads of the killer strikes againstory up and see just what did happen to him.Oh, and her help has just come out of prison… [[Munich: The Man Who Said No! by David Laws|Full Review]] |amazonuk=<amazonuk>178507931X</amazonuk!-- Kristjansson -->}}|-{{newreview| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Kristjansson_Kin.jpg|authorlink=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786489937/ref= Sarah Franklinnosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  |titlestyle= Shelter"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"||rating= 5==[[Kin by Snorri Kristjansson]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|genrelink= Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime (Historical Fiction)|Crime (Historical)]] |summary=Connie Granger has escaped her bombed-out city home, finding refuge in Unnthor Reginsson is the uncrowned king of the Women's Timber Corps. For her, this remote community must now serve valley; retired Viking farmer and rumoured owner of a secret purposelarge hoard of gold.<br>Seppe, an Italian prisoner of war, He is haunted by gathering his memories. In the forest campclan, he finds a strange kind grand reunion after ten years of freedomabsence.Their meeting signals new beginnings. But as they are drawn togetherIt is time for strengthening family bonds, the world outside their forest haven is being torn apart. Old certainties are crumblingfeasting, telling tall tales and both must now make a life-defining choiceremembering shared history.[[Kin by Snorri Kristjansson|Full Review]] <br!-- Chadwick -->What price will they pay for freedom? What will they fight to protect?|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0751564974.jpg|amazonuklink=<amazonuk>1785762990<http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0751564974/amazonuk>ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]}}{{newreview|authorstyle= Jane Johnson"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"||title= Court of Lions==[[Templar Silks by Elizabeth Chadwick]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating= 5}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|genre= Historical Fiction ]] |summary= Kate Fordham arrived ''Templar Silks'' is a great example of historical fiction done well. It's a fictitious account of William Marshal's time in Jerusalem during the late 1100s during a brief spell of calm before the sunlit city death of Granada King Baldwin to leprosy in 1185. Elizabeth Chadwick has written a year agoprevious book about William Marshal but glossed over this period in his life for lack of research. In this book she goes back to fill in the gaps having spent time studying this particular period of his life. Her main problem, as she acknowledges at the shadow end of the Alhambrabook, one is that virtually nothing is known of Marshal's time in Jerusalem. We know when and why he went, we know who the most beautiful places on earthmajor power players were, we know when he came back and that is about it. So understandably, she works as a waitress serving tourists in a busy barthis book is probably more fiction than history but it is brilliantly written none the less. [[Templar Silks by Elizabeth Chadwick|Full Review]] <!-- Mitchell -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:MandM_Revenge.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1520973179/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Revenge by Mitchell & Mitchell]]=== [[image:4star. She pretends shejpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] ''Revenge''s happy opens with the news that Charles Stuart is to return to the throne as Charles II of England. A young woman, Ruth Courtney, is returning home to her new life – but how could she be? Katefamily's alonefarmhouse, afraid and hiding under excited at the prospect of a false namenew King. And fate is about She arrives home, however, to bring find her facehome ablaze and surrounded by renegade soldiers, supporters of Cromwell, her family nowhere to be found. [[Revenge by Mitchell & Mitchell|Full Review]] <!-- Rawi -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Rawi_Baghdad.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786073226/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]   | style="vertical-toalign: top; text-face with her greatest fearalign: left;"|===[[The Baghdad Clock by Shahad Al Rawi]]=== [[image:2.5star. Five centuries agojpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] ''The Baghdad Clock'' is a message, in tale of two friends growing up during the first and second Iraqi war. Shahad Al Rawi uses magic realism to illustrate the displacement felt by a hand few could read, was inscribed in blood on a stolen scrap of paperyoung girl and her neighbourhood. The paper was folded novel introduces us to the various characters surrounding the protagonist. They are full of life and pressed into one of yet never seem to add anything to the Alhambra's wallscentral narrative. There Rawi, it would seem, has laina problem with telling a story. [[The Baghdad Clock by Shahad Al Rawi|Full Review]] <!-- Clements -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Clements_Coffin.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1472204271/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Coffin Path by Katherine Clements]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], undisturbed by [[:Category:Horror|Horror]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] Maybe you've heard about Scarcross Hall? Hidden on the old coffin path that winds from the tides of history – village to the Fall of Granadamoor top, the expulsion villagers only speak of it in hushed tones - of its last Sultan – until Kate discovers how it's a foreboding place filled with evil. Born of loveMercy Booth has lived there since birth, and she's always loved the grand house and its isolation, in but a time recurrence of danger and desperationstrange events begins to unsettle her. From objects disappearing through to a shadowy presence sensed in the house, the fragment will mysteries come to light that can only be the catalyst that changes Kate's life foreversolved by Mercy unearthing long-buried secrets. And will a dark stranger help Mercy protect everything she has come to love or tear it from her grasp? [[The Coffin Path by Katherine Clements|Full Review]] |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786694336</amazonuk!-- Llewellyn -->}}|-{{newreview| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|*[[image:Llewellyn-Walking.jpg|left|authorlink=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1473663075?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN= Angus Watson1473663075]]  |titlestyle= You Die When You Die"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"||rating= 4==[[Walking Wounded by Sheila Llewellyn]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|genrelink= Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]]|summary= Finnbogi the Boggy David Reece was called up in 1941 and sent to fight in Burma. On his tribe of mushroom men (Vikings) must take return in 1946, he finds a return to civilian life quite beyond him and, after a brawl, is sent to a road trip through hostile territory whilst being hunted military psychiatric hospital. There, he is treated by the greatest fighting force ever seen (Amazonian Native Americans). Vikings meet Native Americans Daniel Carter, a psychiatrist whose instincts tell him that talking therapies can work with men like David, but who is working in a clash of cultures profession enthusiastically adopting invasive procedures such as ECT and potentially the end of the worldlobotomy. When the Queen of the known ''Walking Wounded'' follows both men as they both try to come to terms with traumatic experiences and find a place in a world says your tribe has to be exterminated then your immediate future may not be so rosymoving on from WWII.[[Walking Wounded by Sheila Llewellyn|Full Review]] |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356507564</amazonuk!-- Morris -->}}|-{{newreview| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Morris_Auschwitz.jpg|left|authorlink=Alison Weirhttps://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1785763644?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1785763644]]  |titlestyle=Six Tudor Queens"vertical-align: Anne Boleyntop; text-align: A King's Obsession: Six Tudor Queens 2left;"||rating=4==[[The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|genrelink=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] |summary=Thomas Boleyn sends his daughters abroad So, you arrive in all ignorance at Auschwitz, and see the horror there, and immediately swear to survive the ordeal to see retribution dealt on those behind it, but what do you do to see that oath out? Do you get to work diligently as the Nazis demand, to be trained at the courts of European royalty. extent you get the word ''collaborator'' muttered behind your back? Not only does this give them an education Do you dare to stick your neck out and get a job that means you're actually a Jew working in the ways political wing of the eliteSS, it could also ensure a good marriage. answerable to Berlin? Unfortunately he hasnDo you dare get contacts with civilian workers building the place, and trade the loot purloined from the incoming victims't reckoned on belongings with food they smuggle in for you, under the eyes of all the ideas camp guards? The man whose real life story inspired this novel did all that one of them, Anneand survived to tell the tale, but he also managed to do something even more daring, picks up and as for marriage… Anne is determined unexpected – he dared to marry for invest hope in a burgeoning love not through some paternal arrangement. that Yet he found in the reality turns out to be different, driving a wedge through her family on a road leading to dark tragedycamp.[[The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris|Full Review]] <!-- Halliburton -->|-|amazonukstyle=<amazonuk>147222762X<"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Halliburton_Optickal.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/amazonuk>0715651978?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0715651978]]}}{{newreview|authorstyle= Martha Conway"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"||title= ==[[The Floating TheatreOptickal Illusion: A very eighteenth-century scandal by Rachel Halliburton]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating= 5}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|genre= Historical Fiction]]|summary=When young seamstress May Bedloe is left alone and penniless on the shore Rachel Halliburton's debut novel opens in London in January 1797. Benjamin West, President of the OhioRoyal Academy, she finds work is reflecting on the famous floating theatre that plies its trade along past year's scandal involving the river. Her creativity Provises, father and needlework skills quickly become invaluable and she settles into life among the colourful troupe of actors. She finds friendsdaughter, and possibly the promise of moreworries that he handled everything poorly. But cruising From the border between start the Confederate South book's figurative language is appropriately full of colour and the painterly techniques: 'free' North is fraught He had intended to deal with dangerthem honourably, but now everyone in London was saying he had not. For the sake It was as if somebody had dropped a small amount of ivory black paint into yellow orpiment on a debt that must be repaidpalette – the more he prodded and stirred the memory, May is compelled to transport secret passengersthe murkier it became.' [[The Optickal Illusion: A very eighteenth-century scandal by Rachel Halliburton|Full Review]] <!-- Banks -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Banks_W.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0983333416?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0983333416]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[W by John Banks]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], under cover [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] On the slopes of darknessMt Hood in Oregon, across an 1000-year old Viking is discovered frozen - three thousand miles further west than any previously known Viking exploration. Josh Kinninger is inspired by the river Viking discovery - three personal catastrophes having left him angry, unmoored and onwith his world in turmoil. Beginning a journey westward, along the underground railroad. But as Mayhe's secrets become harder filled with a desire to keep, she learns she must endanger those now dear to herwreak vengeance on the individuals he finds morally corrupt. [[W by John Banks|Full Review]] |}
And to save the lives of others, she must risk her own...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785762907</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Jenny AshcroftElaine Everest|title= Beneath a Burning SkyChristmas at Woolworths|rating= 43.5
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary=Young bride Olivia Sheldon finds returning ''Christmas at Woolworths'' is the sequel to her childhood home in Egypt a bitter-sweet experience. On the one hand, she has been reunited with her estranged sister Clarawartime saga ''The Woolworths Girls, '' and continues the story where the pair have formed a deep and loving bondfirst book left off. On Members of the other, she has an unhappy marriage close-knit community in Erith are doing their best to her domineering husband Alistair, who only married her to spite Clarapull together and keep morale high, who had refused him previously. Life with even though the sadistic Alistair future is unbearable, with Olivia subjected to horrific abuse at his hands, dailyuncertain. As a lady with no means At the heart of supporting herself, Olivia seems trapped without any means of escapethe neighbourhood, only finding solace in the company home of her sister kindly matriarch Ruby is a beacon where family and friendscan gather for good food and conversation: a way to forget the troubles outside. But Spirits remain high; even when her dear sister goes mysteriously missing in the bustling streets of Alexandria, it is bombs are falling so close to home. We catch up with the three friends from the first book: Sarah yearns for peace and an end to Olivia to try and solve the mystery of her disappearance before it war, Maisie is too latedesperate for a child and Freda would love to find romance.Will they all get their wishes this Christmas?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>07515650321509843655</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Conn IgguldenMinette Walters|title=Dunstan: One Man Will Change the Fate of EnglandThe Last Hours
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The young Dunstan shows no sign In June 1348 the Black Death came into the country through the port of the sainthood heMelcombe in Dorset. Ignorant of many rules of hygiene which we'll d find basic nearly seven hundred years later attain, the disease rages through the country. Son On the estate of Develish, Lady Anne Develish took control of a Wessex thane the future of the people who lived in the demesne after her husband had ridden off to try and sent to secure a monastery marriage for education, this isn't a lad who responds to disciplinehis daughter. However an enquiring, intelligent mind begins to emerge Two hundred bonded serfs lived on the estate and then comes when Lady Anne realised the big break. Lady Elflaed calls to put a proposal to him after hearing about what virulence of the plague she considers ordered that the estate refuse entry to be a miracle anyone, including her husband 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 courtsentourage, as for fear that they would bring the book's title suggestsdisease to her people. Whether we believe in the miracles or not, Dunstan certainly had quite a life!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>07181814411760632139</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Simon EdgeLars Mytting and Paul Russell Grant (Translator)|title= The Hopkins ConundrumSixteen Trees of the Somme|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction |summary= Tim Cleverley inherits a failing pub in Wales, which While his grandfather lived the past was an area of certainty for Edvard. At aged 4 he plans 'd been taken to rescue by enlisting an American pulp novelist live with his grandparents, having survived the accident that killed his parents. Now his grandfather has died revelations are coming to concoct an entirely fabricated mystery about Gerard Manley Hopkins, who composed light showing Edvard his family history is different from what he'd believed… his mother'The Wreck of the Deutschland's birthplace, his mother' nearby. In Victorian Englands name, Gerard Manley Hopkins lives a life full the whereabouts of confusion late Great-Uncle Einar… and contradictionthat's without looking more deeply into the fatal accident itself. Edvard is determined to solve the puzzle, but discovers a calling for poetry determination that threatens to overrule will take him away from his calling native Norway to God. And, speaking an area of God, Five nuns leave persecution to travel to France synonymous with devastation and a new world – only to find themselves in more trouble that they could ever have imagined… remote Scottish island loaded with secrets.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>17856303340857056069</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Anne O'BrienToby Clements|title=The Shadow QueenKingmaker: Kingdom Come: (Book 4)|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Born in 1328, Joan 1470 dawns and the next chapters of Kent may be of royal blood but she's from a family tainted by treachery. Her father Edmund Woodstock, 1st Earl the War of Kent, was executed for his part in the infamous Montague plotRoses are ready to play out. However Joan has grown up under the protection of her cousin, King Edward III with all thinks that the advantages and attributes of a princessfuture has been settled but treachery is still lurking. 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 Meanwhile Katherine and Thomas also have their world turned upside down when that, three husbands, five marriages (technically) ledger and a son destined for the English throne means that it's also been one heck of a life!chance comment threaten all they have, including their lives.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848455070178089466X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Patricia FalveyP F Chisholm|title=Guns in the North (The Girls of Ennismore: A Heart-Rending Irish SagaSir Robert Carey Mysteries Omnibus)
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Ireland 19001592: Ennismore House's young heiress Victoria had hoped that she Sir Robert Carey flees the strictures of Elizabethan court – and Rosie Killeen would be friends foreverhis creditors – in order to become Deputy Warden of the West March in Carlisle. Rosie soon comes to know better as there's a social chasm between The Scottish/English borders and those who live in inhabit them are different from the House and those, like Rosieworld he's family, who left behind but it will have been brought up merely to serve thembecome his world. 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 societyIt's ladder between them as each must discover their own way in a nation that will never be the same again.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786490625</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Elaine Everest|title= The Butlins Girls|rating= 4|genre= Historical Fiction|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 now his 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 bring law 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>1447295536</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Geraint Jones|title= Blood Forest|rating= 5|genre= Historical Fiction|summary= Felixlawless. The lucky one. He doesnThis isn't feel especially lucky easy when every local he staggers out into the grove comes across has an affinity and finds twelve a heritage of his comrades butchered and mutilated in the worst possible wayscrime to some degree. He felt even less lucky when For Robert the best thing about the job is its proximity to the soldiers arrived, Roman cavalry. He might have run, woman he loves but he knew doesn't know what he'd never make itll do about that yet either. He stepped out Meanwhile he soon realises that those who are supposed to face whatever came nextbe on his side are plotting against him but they don't realise what they're up against. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>07181848151786694719</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Dominic Smith|title= The Last Painting of Sara de Vos|rating= 5|genre= Historical Fiction|summary= If you find the techniques used by Rembrandt Zanna Sloniowska 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>}}{{newreview|author= Caro FraserAntonia Lloyd-Jones (translator)|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 wideStained-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|author=Antonia Senior|title=The Tyrant's ShadowGlass Window
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Warning: spoilers ahead for ''Treason's Daughter''.Patience lives with her widowed brotherMarianna, William, helping an opera singer in the soon-to care for his son Richard (nicknamed Blackberry). Despite the Civil war ending-be Ukrainian city of Lviv, the times are still uncertain. Cromwell is increasingly annoyed with mistakenly shot dead at a parliament political rally in the dying days of rebels refusing to go to the electorate for ratificationSoviet Union. William sees this problem at close quarters once heThis novel begins with both anger and hope, as Marianna's effectively forced to become Cromwell's legal advisor coffin is covered in an atmosphere poisoned by espionage the illegal blue and religious factions. However when Patience comes across Shadrick Simpsonyellow flag, and her death seems to herald the birth of a charismatic preacher, all becomes clearer for new nation. But the day of her funeral is also the day of her at least. Meanwhile Sam Challoner, Williamdaughter's brother first period – a girl who must learn how to be a woman in lawthis time of drastic change, comes home after privateering with Prince Rupert and realises that no mother to guide her along the fight at sea is better than peace at home. At least when you're privateering you know who your enemy isway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>17823966160857057138</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= David BarbareeK J Whittaker|title= DeposedFalse Lights
|rating= 4.5
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary= A.D 68. A deposed emperor lies in a prison cellCornwall, betrayed and newly blinded by those who were sworn to protect him1817. He is now crippled and deprived  What if your worst mistake changed the course of history? Napoleon has crushed the Duke of power, left completely on Wellington at the edge Battle of despair with a frightened young slave named Marcus as Waterloo, and his only companionex-wife Josephine presides over French-occupied England. Ten years later Cornwall erupts into open rebellion, and it is Emperor Vespasian who wears the purple. Things may have settled since the civil war but Vespasianyoung heiress Hester escapes with Crow, Wellington's son Titus is plagued former intelligence officer, a half-French aristocrat haunted by worry about plots to murder his fatherpart in the catastrophic defeat. Gruesome atrocities and mysterious disappearances are rife throughout Rome; it is Together, they become embroiled in a city full web of falsehoods treachery and intrigues with espionage as plans are laid to free Wellington from secret captivity in the fear of rebellion lurking beneath Scilly Isles and lead an uprising against the surfaceFrench occupation. FurthermoreIn a country rife with traitors, a man who used Hester and Crow know it is impossible to be emperor still lives – play such a blind man who everyone believes to be deadgame as this for long.. His name is Nero and he seeks revenge against those who wronged him. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>17857626721786695340</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Diney CosteloeJ Jefferson Farjeon|title= The Married GirlsSeven Dead|rating= 4.5
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary=WynsdownTed Lyte was petty criminal, 1949. In but not usually the small Somerset village of Wynsdown, Charlotte Shepherd is happily married to farmer Billyhousebreaking type. She arrived from Germany on the Kindertransport as a child during He lacked the war and now feels settled in her adopted homecourage. Meanwhile, the squire's fighter pilot sonHowever, Felixneeds must, has returned and whilst feeling down on his luck he decided to the village try his chances at an isolated house with a fiancée in towshuttered window. Daphne is beautiful, charming''... and harbouring secrets. After meeting during the war, Felix knows some he might find a bit of Daphnealright behind those shutters! Wot abart it?'s past' Ted does indeed find something interesting behind the shutters, but she has worked hard to conceal that which could unravel her carefully built lifeit definitely isn't what he'd hoped. For Charlotte, too, In a locked room he finds seven dead bodies; six men and a dangerous past is coming back woman. Fleeing the house in the shape of fellow refugeehorror, bad boy Harry Black. Forever bound he is pursued and caught by their childhoodsa passing yachtsman, Charlotte will always care for himThomas Hazeldean, but Harrywho also happens to be a journalist. Fascinated by Ted's return disrupts the village quiet story (and a possible scoop), Hazeldean decides to investigate this curious case and it's not long before gossip spreads. The war may have endedits assortment of odd clues, but for these girlsincluding a portrait shot through the heart, trouble is only just beginning..an old cricket ball and a mysterious note written by one of the victims.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>17849761210712356886</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author= Philip Kerr|title= Prussian Blue: Bernie Gunther Thriller 12|rating= 3.5|genre= Crime (Historical) |summary= Bernie Gunther is not your typical hero. In 1939, he was stationed in Berlin as a police officer handling murder cases and occasionally doing work for some high-ranking Nazis. Although never a Nazi party member himself (he was a known member of the Social Democratic Party), he understood that the best thing he could do for himself at that time was to make himself indispensable to men like Reinhard Heydrich and Martin Bormann. So when he is assigned to solve a murder that has occurred at Hitler's Berghof in the Bavarian mountains, he knows that he needs to do it quickly and discreetly – not just for justice's sake, but for his own. He is given exactly one week to apprehend the suspect, and he hopes that with the help of his friend Friedrich Korsch, an investigator with the Krimialpolizei (or Kripo, for short) he just might get lucky. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784296481</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewSalt Creek|author= Stephan Collishaw|title= The Song of the StorkLucy Treloar|rating= 4.5|genre= Literary Fiction|summary= Stephan Collishaw has achieved a rare feat – a novel set amidst the horrors of Nazi tyranny that does not shy away from human suffering, but does not drown in it either. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785079190</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Alan Kennedy|title=A Time to Tell Lies|rating=4|genre=Crime (Historical) |summary= Psychologist Alan Kennedy's fifth novel continues the story he began with [[Lucy by Alan Kennedy]]. In the autumn of 1942, Captain Alex Vere and Justine Perry are among the men and women picked up and taken to a stately home in Scotland, where they are trained in spy skills. After this first encounter, Alex is smitten yet uncertain if he will ever see Justine again. The spy's life is dangerous and unpredictable, after all. Six weeks later, though, they meet up again in southwest France, where they have been sent to collect Simone, a Special Operations Executive agent. It's Alex's first mission (Justine's fourth) and all goes horribly awry. Alex ends up in custody at the Gendarmerie, facing a German who knows he has a false passport.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0993202322</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Alex Nye|title=For My Sins|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=1586: Mary Stuart, Queen The first chapter of Scots''Salt Creek'' opens in Chichester, has time to look back over her past life as she sitsEngland, incarcerated by in 1874. Hester Finch is a respected and reasonably wealthy member of her second cousin Queen Elizabeth Icommunity. Mary's life hasnBut she can't been one of totally pampered royalty. Growing up in France, away from stop her mother, widowed and then returning to Scotland thoughts wandering back to claim the throne before she was even 19, her struggle with fate started early. The tensions between Mary the womanadolescence, Mary the Catholic and Mary the political force continue through three marriages, an unsolved murder and spent on Salt Creek Station in the thwarted desire to serve her peopleremote South Australian Coorong region. Now itHester feels 's come to this prison cell but while there's lifehas never felt so alive as then, therewhen we had so little's still hope…'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>19059167871910709417</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author= Grace MacallisterJamie Ford|title= The Magician's LieLove and Other Consolation Prizes|rating=45|genre= ThrillersHistorical Fiction|summary= The Amazing Arden is At the most famous female illusionist of her day, renowned for her notorious trick of sawing a man in half on stage. But one night she swaps her trademark saw for an axe. When ArdenWorld's husband is found dead later that nightFair in 1962, the answer it seems clear, most of that all to young policeman Virgil Holteyes are focused on the future. Captured and taken into custodyThe Space Needle dominates the landscape, all seems set for Arden's swift confession. But she has a different story filling people with anticipation about things to tellcome. Even handcuffed and aloneOne visitor, Arden is far from powerlesshowever, and what she reveals is as unbelievable as it is spellbindinghas his mind firmly focused on the past.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1787199967</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Helen Dunmore|title=Birdcage Walk|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Bristol 1792: Lizzie married well. John Diner Tredevant Ernest Young is helping his daughter Ju-ju with a property developer who has reached the zenith of his life's work: building story she is writing for her newspaper; a terrace of prestigious houses overlooking the Avon Gorge. In story about a time of turbulence young immigrant boy who was given away as France reaches the dawn of revolution, Britain, including Diner, fears it may spread. This puts Lizzie a prize in a difficult position since her mother and step-father both believe in propagating pamphlets and ideas of egalitarianism for and to all, including women. In other words, they think nothing of spreading ideas of raffle at the sort that fanned the French flames. However, that's not LizzieWorld's only problem… there is a darkness Fair in her husband's past of which she's unaware1909.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>00919594030749022752</amazonuk>
}}

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