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[[Category:Historical Fiction|*]]
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===[[The Parentations by Kate Mayfield]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]]
In eighteenth century London, sisters Fitzgerald, Constance and Verity are changed forever when they become entwined with the Fowler family - and charged with protecting a mysterious child. Fast forward to the London of 2015, and the 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 also forces them to keep a secret for two hundred years. As those years pass by, those who were granted immortality find that it's far from a blessing - with true darkness emerging in the absence of death. [[The Parentations by Kate Mayfield|Full Review]]
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===[[Munich: The Man Who Said No! by David Laws]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]]
I've played Neville Chamberlain in public, you know – a full one-line in a ''Beyond the 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 and immediately bursting it. That is what that paper was to many – the indicator of a lot of hot air, and only leading to an unwelcome noise, when WW2 actually struck anyway. Certainly, not everyone was keen on his appeasement with the Nazis, and this book opens with the first-person reportage of one such man, keen on showing proof to Chamberlain that he should not sign the Sudetenland away. But 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 last, barest threads of the story 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]]
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===[[Kin by Snorri Kristjansson]]===
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime (Historical)|Crime (Historical)]]
Unnthor Reginsson is the uncrowned king of the valley; retired Viking farmer and rumoured owner of a large hoard of gold. He is gathering his clan, a grand reunion after ten years of absence. It is time for strengthening family bonds, feasting, telling tall tales and remembering shared history. [[Kin by Snorri Kristjansson|Full Review]]
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===[[Templar Silks by Elizabeth Chadwick]]===
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]]
''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 death of King Baldwin to leprosy in 1185. Elizabeth Chadwick has written a previous 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 end of the book, is that virtually nothing is known of Marshal's time in Jerusalem. We know when and why he went, we know who the major power players were, we know when he came back and that is about it. So understandably, this book is probably more fiction than history but it is brilliantly written none the less. [[Templar Silks by Elizabeth Chadwick|Full Review]]
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===[[Revenge by Mitchell & Mitchell]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]]
''Revenge'' 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 family's farmhouse, excited at the prospect of a new King. She arrives home, however, to find her home ablaze and surrounded by renegade soldiers, supporters of Cromwell, her family nowhere to be found. [[Revenge by Mitchell & Mitchell|Full Review]]
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===[[The Baghdad Clock by Shahad Al Rawi]]===
[[image:2.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]]
''The Baghdad Clock'' is a 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 young girl and her neighbourhood. The novel introduces us to the various characters surrounding the protagonist. They are full of life and yet never seem to add anything to the central narrative. Rawi, it would seem, has a problem with telling a story. [[The Baghdad Clock by Shahad Al Rawi|Full Review]]
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===[[The Coffin Path by Katherine Clements]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[: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 village to the moor top, the villagers only speak of it in hushed tones - of how it's a foreboding place filled with evil. Mercy Booth has lived there since birth, and she's always loved the grand house and its isolation, but a recurrence of strange events begins to unsettle her. From objects disappearing through to a shadowy presence sensed in the house, mysteries come to light that can only be solved 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]]
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===[[Walking Wounded by Sheila Llewellyn]]===
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]]
David Reece was called up in 1941 and sent to fight in Burma. On his return in 1946, he finds a return to civilian life quite beyond him and, after a brawl, is sent to a military psychiatric hospital. There, he is treated by Daniel Carter, a psychiatrist whose instincts tell him that talking therapies can work with men like David, but who is working in a profession enthusiastically adopting invasive procedures such as ECT and lobotomy. ''Walking Wounded'' follows both men as they both try to come to terms with traumatic experiences and find a place in a world moving on from WWII. [[Walking Wounded by Sheila Llewellyn|Full Review]]
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===[[The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]]
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 the extent you get the word ''collaborator'' muttered behind your back? Do you dare to stick your neck out and get a job that means you're actually a Jew working in the political wing of the SS, answerable to Berlin? Do you dare get contacts with civilian workers building the place, and trade the loot purloined from the incoming victims' belongings with food they smuggle in for you, under the eyes of all the camp guards? The man whose real life story inspired this novel did all that, and survived to tell the tale, but he also managed to do something even more daring, and unexpected – he dared to invest hope in a burgeoning love that he found in the camp. [[The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris|Full Review]]
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===[[The Optickal Illusion: A very eighteenth-century scandal by Rachel Halliburton]]===
[[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]]
Rachel Halliburton's debut novel opens in London in January 1797. Benjamin West, President of the Royal Academy, is reflecting on the past year's scandal involving the Provises, father and daughter, and worries that he handled everything poorly. From the start the book's figurative language is appropriately full of colour and painterly techniques: 'He had intended to deal with them honourably, but now everyone in London was saying he had not. It was as if somebody had dropped a small amount of ivory black paint into yellow orpiment on a palette – the more he prodded and stirred the memory, the murkier it became.' [[The Optickal Illusion: A very eighteenth-century scandal by Rachel Halliburton|Full Review]]
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===[[W by John Banks]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
On the slopes of Mt Hood in Oregon, 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 Viking discovery - three personal catastrophes having left him angry, unmoored and with his world in turmoil. Beginning a journey westward, he's filled with a desire to wreak vengeance on the individuals he finds morally corrupt. [[W by John Banks|Full Review]]
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{{newreview
|author= J Jefferson FarjeonElaine Everest|title= Seven DeadChristmas at Woolworths|rating= 43.5
|genre= Historical Fiction
|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 ''Christmas at an isolated house with a shuttered window. Woolworths''...he might find a bit of alright behind those shutters! Wot abart it?is the sequel to wartime saga '' Ted does indeed find something interesting behind the shuttersThe Woolworths Girls, but it definitely isn't what he'd hopedand continues the story where the first book left off. In a locked room he finds seven dead bodies; six men Members of the close-knit community in Erith are doing their best to pull together and a womankeep morale high, even though the future is uncertain. Fleeing At the house in horrorheart of the neighbourhood, he the home of kindly matriarch Ruby is pursued a beacon where family and caught by friends can gather for good food and conversation: a passing yachtsman, Thomas Hazeldean, who also happens way to forget the troubles outside. Spirits remain high; even when the bombs are falling so close to be a journalisthome. Fascinated by Ted's story (We catch up with the three friends from the first book: Sarah yearns for peace and a possible scoop), Hazeldean decides an end to investigate this curious case and its assortment of odd cluesthe war, including Maisie is desperate for a portrait shot through the heart, an old cricket ball child and a mysterious note written by one of the victimsFreda would love to find romance.Will they all get their wishes this Christmas?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>07123568861509843655</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|titleauthor=Salt CreekMinette Walters|authortitle=Lucy TreloarThe Last Hours
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The first chapter 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''Salt Creek'' opens in Chichesterd find basic nearly seven hundred years later, Englandthe disease rages through the country. On the estate of Develish, Lady Anne Develish took control of the future of the people who lived in 1874the demesne after her husband had ridden off to try and secure a marriage for his daughter. Hester Finch is a respected Two hundred bonded serfs lived on the estate and reasonably wealthy member when Lady Anne realised the virulence of her community. But the plague she can't stop her thoughts wandering back ordered that the estate refuse entry to anyone, including her adolescencehusband and his entourage, spent on Salt Creek Station in for fear that they would bring the remote South Australian Coorong region. Hester feels ''has never felt so alive as then, when we had so little''disease to her people.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>19107094171760632139</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author= Jamie Ford|title= Love Lars Mytting and Other Consolation Prizes|rating= 5|genre= Historical Fiction|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>0749022752</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Nicola PrycePaul Russell Grant (Translator)|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 Sixteen Trees 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|author=Hawa L Crickmore|title=Across the OceanSomme|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=A young cage fighter, Martin Grandson, While his grandfather lived the past was diagnosed an area of certainty for Edvard. At aged 4 he'd been taken to live with a rare genetic disorder which required a bone-marrow transplanthis grandparents, preferably from a siblinghaving survived the accident that killed his parents. Only recently Now his grandfather has died revelations are coming to light showing Edvard his family history is different from what he'd been a fit young manbelieved… his mother's birthplace, his mother's name, in the prime whereabouts of life, but now he was suffering from a rare type of bone cancer: without the transplant he would be paralysed for life late Great-Uncle Einar… and might be dead within the next twelve weeks if he didnthat't receive s without looking more deeply into the transplant within the next fourteen daysfatal accident itself. Unfortunately Martin's parents had died in Edvard is determined to solve the puzzle, a car crash determination that will take him away from his native Norway to an area of France synonymous with devastation and there were no siblings or other close relatives. His girlfriend, Celia, was not a matchremote Scottish island loaded with secrets.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>15246669710857056069</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= M J TjiaToby Clements|title= She Be DamnedKingmaker: Kingdom Come: (Book 4)|rating= 45|genre= Crime (Historical) Fiction|summary= London, 1863: prostitutes in 1470 dawns and the next chapters of the War of the Waterloo area Roses are turning up dead, their sexual organs mutilated and removedready to play out. When another girl goes missing, fears grow King Edward thinks that the killer may future has been settled but treachery is still lurking. Meanwhile Katherine and Thomas also have claimed their latest victim. The police are at world turned upside down when that ledger and a loss and so it falls to courtesan and professional detectivechance comment threaten all they have, 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 againincluding their lives.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178507931X178089466X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Sarah FranklinP F Chisholm|title= ShelterGuns in the North (The Sir Robert Carey Mysteries Omnibus)|rating= 4.5|genre= Historical Fiction|summary=Connie Granger has escaped her bombed-out city home, finding refuge in 1592: Sir Robert Carey flees the Women's Timber Corps. For her, this remote community must now serve a secret purpose.<br>Seppe, an Italian prisoner strictures of war, is haunted by Elizabethan court – and his memories. In creditors – in order to become Deputy Warden of the forest camp, he finds a strange kind of freedomWest March in Carlisle.Their meeting signals new beginnings. But as they The Scottish/English borders and those who inhabit them are drawn together, different from 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 he's left behind but it will they fight have to protect?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785762990</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Jane Johnson|title= Court of Lions|rating= 5|genre= Historical Fiction |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 barbecome his world. She pretends she It'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 now his job to bring her face-law to-face with her greatest fearthe lawless. Five centuries ago, a message, in This isn't easy when every local he comes across has an affinity and a hand few could read, was inscribed in blood on a stolen scrap heritage of papercrime to some degree. The paper was folded and pressed into one of For Robert the Alhambra's walls. There it has lain, undisturbed by best thing about the tides of history – the Fall of Granada, the expulsion of job is its last Sultan – until Kate discovers it. Born of love, in a time of danger and desperation, proximity to the fragment will be the catalyst woman he loves but he doesn't know what he'll do about that changes Kate's life foreveryet either. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786694336</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Angus Watson|title= You Die When You Die|rating= 4|genre= Historical Fiction|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 Meanwhile he soon realises that those who are supposed to be exterminated then your immediate future may not be so rosyon his side are plotting against him but they don't realise what they're up against. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>03565075641786694719</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Alison WeirZanna Sloniowska and Antonia Lloyd-Jones (translator)|title=Six Tudor Queens: Anne Boleyn: A King's Obsession: Six Tudor Queens 2The House with the Stained-Glass Window
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Thomas Boleyn sends his daughters abroad Marianna, an opera singer in the soon-to -be trained Ukrainian city of Lviv, is mistakenly shot dead at a political rally in the courts dying days of European royaltythe Soviet Union. Not only does this give them an education This novel begins with both anger and hope, as Marianna's coffin is covered in the ways illegal blue and yellow flag, and her death seems to herald the birth of the elite, it could also ensure a good marriagenew nation. Unfortunately he hasn't reckoned on But the ideas that one day of them, Anne, picks up and as for marriage… Anne her funeral is determined to marry for love not through some paternal arrangement. Yet also the reality turns out day of her daughter's first period – a girl who must learn how to be differenta woman in this time of drastic change, driving a wedge through with no mother to guide her family on a road leading to dark tragedyalong the way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147222762X0857057138</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Martha ConwayK J Whittaker|title= The Floating TheatreFalse Lights|rating= 4.5
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary=When young seamstress May Bedloe is left alone and penniless on the shore of the OhioCornwall, 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 her1817.
}}
{{newreview
|author= Jenny AshcroftJ Jefferson Farjeon|title= Beneath a Burning SkySeven Dead
|rating= 4
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary=Young bride Olivia Sheldon finds returning to her childhood home in Egypt a bitter-sweet experienceTed Lyte was petty criminal, but not usually the housebreaking type. On He lacked the one handcourage. However, she has been reunited with her estranged sister Claraneeds 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 pair have formed shutters, but it definitely isn't what he'd hoped. In a deep locked room he finds seven dead bodies; six men and loving bonda woman. On Fleeing the otherhouse in horror, she has an unhappy marriage to her domineering husband Alistairhe is pursued and caught by a passing yachtsman, who only married her to spite ClaraThomas Hazeldean, who had refused him previously. Life with the sadistic Alistair is unbearable, with Olivia subjected also happens to horrific abuse at his hands, dailybe a journalist. As Fascinated by Ted's story (and a lady with no means of supporting herselfpossible scoop), Olivia seems trapped without any means Hazeldean decides to investigate this curious case and its assortment of escapeodd clues, only finding solace in including a portrait shot through the company of her sister heart, an old cricket ball and friends. But when her dear sister goes mysteriously missing in the bustling streets a mysterious note written by one of Alexandria, it is up to Olivia to try and solve the mystery of her disappearance before it is too latevictims.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>07515650320712356886</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|authortitle=Conn IgguldenSalt Creek|titleauthor=Dunstan: One Man Will Change the Fate of EnglandLucy Treloar
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The young Dunstan shows no sign first chapter of the sainthood he'll later attain'Salt Creek'' opens in Chichester, England, in 1874. Son of Hester Finch is a Wessex thane respected and sent to a monastery for education, this isnreasonably wealthy member of her community. But she can't a lad who responds stop her thoughts wandering back to discipline. However an enquiringher adolescence, intelligent mind begins to emerge and then comes spent on Salt Creek Station in the big breakremote South Australian Coorong region. 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 Hester feels ''has never felt so alive as well as knowing seven kings and holding responsible positions in their courtsthen, as the bookwhen we had so little''s title suggests. Whether we believe in the miracles or not, Dunstan certainly had quite a life!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>07181814411910709417</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Simon EdgeJamie Ford|title= The Hopkins Conundrum|rating= 5|genre= General Fiction |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. 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|author=Anne O'Brien|title=The Shadow Queen|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|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 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) Love and a son destined for the English throne means that it's also been one heck of a life!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848455070</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Patricia Falvey|title=The Girls of Ennismore: A Heart-Rending Irish Saga|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|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 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.|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 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>1447295536</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Geraint Jones|title= Blood ForestOther Consolation Prizes
|rating= 5
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary= Felix. The lucky one. He doesnAt the World't feel especially lucky when he staggers out into the grove and finds twelve of his comrades butchered and mutilated s Fair in the worst possible ways. He felt even less lucky when the soldiers arrived1962, Roman cavalry. He might have run, but he knew he'd never make it. He stepped out to face whatever came next.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718184815</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 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 seems that all eyes 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 focused 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 Manhattanfuture. 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 Fraser|title= The Summer House Party|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction |summary= In Space Needle dominates the gloriously hot summer of 1936landscape, a group of filling 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 with anticipation 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 things 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|author=Antonia Senior|title=The Tyrant's Shadow|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Warning: spoilers ahead for ''Treason's Daughter''come.Patience lives with her widowed brotherOne visitor, Williamhowever, helping to care for has 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782396616</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= David Barbaree|title= Deposed|rating= 4.5|genre= Historical Fiction|summary= A.D 68. A deposed emperor lies in a prison cell, betrayed and newly blinded by those who were sworn to protect him. He is now crippled and deprived of power, left completely mind firmly focused on the edge of despair with a frightened young slave named Marcus as his only companionpast. Ten years later and it Ernest Young is Emperor Vespasian who wears the purple. Things may have settled since the civil war but Vespasian's son Titus is plagued by worry about plots to murder helping his father. Gruesome atrocities and mysterious disappearances are rife throughout Rome; it is a city full of falsehoods and intrigues daughter Ju-ju with the fear of rebellion lurking beneath the surface. Furthermore, a man who used to be emperor still lives – a blind man who everyone believes to be dead. His name story she is Nero and he seeks revenge against those who wronged him. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785762672</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Diney Costeloe|title= The Married Girls|rating= 4.5|genre= Historical Fiction|summary=Wynsdown, 1949. In the small Somerset village of Wynsdown, Charlotte Shepherd is happily married to farmer Billy. She arrived from Germany on the Kindertransport as a child during the war and now feels settled in writing for her adopted home. Meanwhile, the squire's fighter pilot son, Felix, has returned to the village with newspaper; a fiancée in tow. Daphne is beautiful, charming... and harbouring secrets. After meeting during the war, Felix knows some of Daphne's past, but she has worked hard to conceal that which could unravel her carefully built life. For Charlotte, too, story about a dangerous past is coming back in the shape of fellow refugee, bad young immigrant boy Harry Black. Forever bound by their childhoods, Charlotte will always care for him, but Harry's return disrupts the village quiet and it's not long before gossip spreads. The war may have ended, but for these girls, trouble is only just beginning...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784976121</amazonuk>}}{{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 who was stationed in Berlin given away 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 prize in a murder that has occurred raffle 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>}}{{newreview|author= Stephan Collishaw|title= The Song of the Stork|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 KennedyWorld'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 Fair 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 passport1909.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>09932023220749022752</amazonuk>
}}
