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{{newreview|author= Grace Macallister|title= The Magician's Lie|rating=4|genre= Thrillers|summary= The Amazing Arden is 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 Arden's husband is found dead later that night, the answer seems clear, most of all to young policeman Virgil Holt. Captured and taken into custody, all seems set for Arden's swift confession. But she has a different story to tell. Even handcuffed and alone, Arden is far from powerless, and what she reveals is as unbelievable as it is spellbinding.|amazonuk= <amazonuk>1787199967</amazonuk!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Helen DunmoreTananarive Due|title=Birdcage WalkThe Reformatory

|summary=Bristol 1792: Lizzie married wellGracetown, Florida. John Diner Tredevant June 1950. After a scuffle with a white boy, twelve year-old Robbie Stephens Jr is a property developer who has reached sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, otherwise known as the zenith of his lifeReformatory. It's work: building a terrace of prestigious houses overlooking the Avon Gorgeplace with a brutal and dark reputation. In a time of turbulence as France reaches But the dawn of revolution, Britain, including Diner, fears it may spread. This puts Lizzie in segregated reformatory is a difficult position since her mother and step-father both believe in propagating pamphlets and ideas chamber of egalitarianism for and to allhorrors, including womenhaunted by the boys that have died there. In other wordsorder to survive the school governor and his Funhouse, they think nothing of spreading ideas Robert must enlist the help of the sort that fanned the French flames. However, that's not Lizzieschool's ghosts – only problem… there is a darkness in her husband's past of which she's unawarethey have their own motivations...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091959403</amazonuk>1803366532}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Beth UnderdownKatherine Howe|title=The Witchfinder's SisterA True Account

|genre=Historical General Fiction|summary=England 1645: Matthew Hopkins Hannah Masury is good at his chosen career: seekingliving in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an inn, testing and convicting those with being made to work there from a young age. When she hears there is to be a hanging of some pirates in the Devil in themtown, she decides to go and watch. His sisterEnthralled and horrified in equal measure, Alice, doesnHannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy't realise s death at the full connotations hands of his actions untiltwo vicious pirates. She hides away, widowed so that they don't find and pregnantkill her too, and then to escape them completely she returns home. Alice is grateful runs away to be allowed to live under Matthewsea, dressing as a boy and joining the notorious Ned Low's roof but then watches his sinister finger of suspicion point in unexpected places. This is pirate ship as a man changed from the cabin boy that Alice used to know. She never then realised that he'd be capable soon finds herself in the thick of killing hundreds of people things when there is a mutiny on board, and making from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the Witchfinder's Sisterocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241978033</amazonuk>0861547438

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Emma HendersonSarah Marsh|title= The Valentine HouseA Sign of Her Own|rating= 43.5|genre= Literary General Fiction|summary= In June 1914, Sir Anthony ValentineAfter a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a keen mountaineerworld of silence, arrives with his family to spend the summer in their chalet, high everything about her life changes. Living in a time when the French Alps. There, for the first time, fourteen-year-old foundling Mathilde starts work as one use of the 'uglies' - village girls employed sign language was seen as servants and pickedsomething only savages do, it Ellen is believed, sent to ensure they don't catch Sir Anthony's roving eye. For Mathilde it a school where she is the start of a life-long entanglement with les anglais - strange, exciting peopletaught to lip read, far removed but physically restrained from the hard grind of farmingsigning. Except From here, she soon finds ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the Valentines are less carefree than they appear, with deaf and using a curiously absent daughter no one talks aboutsystem called Visible Speech. It will be decades - disrupted by war At the same time, Bell is working on other inventions and ideas, accidents and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a cruel betrayal - before Mathilde discovers the key to the mystery. And in 1976, the year Sir Anthony's great-great grandson comes to visit, she must decide whether to use itcomplicated tangle of espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444704028</amazonuk>1035401614

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Polly ClarkClaire North|title= LarchfieldHouse of Odysseus|rating= 5

|summary=I It's early summer when 'What could matter more than love?'' The follow-up to the excellent ''Ithaca'' picks up a young poetfew months after where we left off. In the palace of Odysseus, Dora Fieldingwith delicate care Queen Penelope continues to rule without her husband, moves who sailed to Helensburgh on the west coast of Scotland war at Troy and her hopes are first challengedthen by divine intervention never returned home. Newly married, pregnant, As ever she's excited remains surrounded by suitors vying for the prospect throne of a life the Western Isles. Having survived – politically and physical – the chaotic storm that combines family and creativity. She thinks she knows what being a person, a wifeClytemnestra brought to Ithaca's shores, Queen Penelope is on the brink of a mother, meansfragile peace. She is soon shown One that she is wrong. As shatters however with the battle begins for her very sense return of selfOrestes, Dora comes to find the realities King of small town life suffocating, and, eventuallyMycenae, terrifying; until she finds a way to escape reality altogether. Another poet, she discovers, lived in Helensburgh once. Wystan H. Auden, brilliant and awkward at 24, with his first book of poetry publishedsister Elektra, should be embarking on success and society in London. Instead, in 1930, fleeing a broken engagement, he takes a teaching post at Larchfield School for boys where he is mocked for his Englishness and suspected - rightly - of homosexuality. Yet in this repressed limbo Wystan will fall in love for the first time, even as he fights his deepest fearsseeking refuge.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1786481928</amazonuk>0356516075

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dinah JefferiesB0C7J9D21B|title=Before the RainsA Captive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries)|author=A J Lewis

|summary=Eliza has tragically punctuated childhood memories When we first meet our hero, his name is Ettore and he lives at The House of India that have feed her desire to returnBeautiful Swallows. Therefore in 1930Idyllic as this might sound, following the death it's a bordello and Ettore's mother died when he was born. He's not been short of her husbandmothers, when the British government commission her to photograph scenes though - but for someone of Indian lifehis background in late-eighteenth-century Amalfi, she jumps at it's difficult to obtain decent employment. The stint working with the chance. What she doesnpreparation of anchovies didn't realise is that not everyone she comes across is delighted with the ideawork out and bastards are considered bad luck on fishing boats. Living within the Sultana's opulent palace complex is definitely an attraction Ettore was nothing if not resourceful - and determined - and it was not long before he had a successful business as a guide for her, as is Jay, an Indian price who shows Eliza the real Indiavisitors. However, attractions are sometimes dangerous and He was even deadlysaving some money.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241287081</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Otto de Kat and Laura Watkinson (translator)Essie Fox|title=The Longest NightFascination|rating=3.54|genre=Literary Historical Fiction|summary=Emma has a philosophy – ''let the dead rest, and love the living''. The problem with that, Victorian era is incredibly over-romanticised as a 96-year-oldsetting for historical fiction (matched only, is that there are too few living leftperhaps, and so while by the love remains she will go through her memories, taking Second World War) which has often led to more than a few writers mishandling it. There's such a woozy, diaphanous path through all the major events glut of her life. Starting media set in wartime Berlin the era that the hallmarks we've come to associate with one husband, who gets snatched from her at work, fleeing it are familiar to another place to wait for peace, and wait for him in vain, moving to Holland and finding new love, and so on – this wispy journey will show all the impacts point of warbeing cliched, from rationing right up to exile, death and survivalhackneyed even. The memories are coming strongly here and now, as Emma All this is waiting for at least one of her two sons simply to illustrate that it would be an easy thing to visitdo poorly. But despite that, something about it still grabs me – and then she will die…something about this book's description did as well.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857056085</amazonuk>1914585526

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Adrian GoldsworthyNicole Jarvis|title= VindolandaA Portrait in Shadow|rating= 34.5|genre= Historical Fiction|summary= AD 98: in the northern fields ''I want all of Britannia lies VindolandaFlorence to know my name'' Cast out from Rome, Artemisia Gentileschi arrives in Florence seeking an oasis in which her art can find a Roman auxiliary base situated on the edge of the Roman worldhome and where her future can thrive rather than stagnate. Far But as some as she enters Florentine society she faces great opposition from the prosperity and decadence powerful Accademia, the self-proclaimed guardians of Rome, the wild and untamed lands around Vindolanda are ripe with rebel tribes and druids set against healing magics that through paintings have the power to protect the destruction of Rome city and its armiescitizens from plagues and curses. In the midst of this destruction is Flavius Ferox; a Briton The all-male Accademia has hoarded power over art and architecture for centuries and Roman Centurion guard it above all else. To them, Artemisia – an ambitious young woman who promises trouble and change – has been given the task of keeping the peace in this desolate edge of the world. But life in Roman Britain is full of danger and betrayal at every turn, no place amongst them and Ferox knows it will take more than courage to overcome what lies aheadtheir society.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784974684</amazonuk>1803362340

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeroen Blokhuis and Asja Novak (translator)Thomas D Lee|title=The Yellow HousePerilous Times

|genre=Literary FictionFantasy|summary=If you were ''Hate is the needy kind, would you really join path of least resistance'' Set in the drummingnear-out of town of two people accused of murder purely because of their nationality? Would you get distant future, in a feeling world on the verge of belonging just because you were there when someone carried a dead dog down off a mountain? The main character climate collapse, Britain is in this novel doesgreat peril. But he has something that will really get him noted, well-thought-of, included. He has come The British Isles desperately needs a hero (or several) to save the south of France to set up an artists' collective, where he can live and work alongside his counterparts, who can inspire each other day and best each other to create wonderful artrescue what little remains. In fact a muchWhat no-respected guest is on his way now, so surely he can find kinship? The guest's name is, after all, Gauguinone expected was that one of the Knights of the Round Table would answer the call. The main character is, of course, Vincent van Gogh…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907320563</amazonuk>0356518523

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Antonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)G K Holloway|title=Retribution RoadIn the Shadows of Castles

|genre=Historical Fiction |summary=''Sergeant Bowman wasn't just a hard man, he was something else: a dangerous man.'' If, indeed, there was someone who was ideal for a suicide mission, it was him. Working as a soldier for We begin after the East India Company momentous battle in 1066 and on the rural, remote, outlaw hotbeds day of William of Asia in the 1850s, heNormandy's tasked with taking a boat coronation as King of unknown prospects up England. William's position is not secure and the Irrawaddy new king has many challenges. Imposing authority through a coronation is important. And William is right to try and combat local warlord Pagan Minworry. It doesn't go well – to start withWhile the previous king, Harold, he's supposed to run is dead and the rule likelihood of more pitched battles is over ruffians saved from the gallows, but can't command them until he's forced his way to having the knowledge rebels are stirring and much of the mission he needs first, only for all hell country does not wish to break looserecognise a new overlord. But get back he does, only to find that while his nightmares about what really happened are met with equally dark goings-on, the official record suggests the mission never actually existed…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857053744</amazonuk>1800422466

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Theodore Brun3949666079|title=A Mighty Dawn (The Wanderer Chronicles)Noema|author=Dael Akkerman|rating=34.5|genre= Historical General Fiction|summary= A ''This is a story like this needs about some things that happened to me about twelve thousand years ago.'' Maya is a strong central character; it needs young girl living in a warrior who has convictionhunter gatherer village during the Mesolithic era. Climate change is occurring, the Sea of Grass encroaches further and further into Maya's forest home, heart and honourfood is becoming more and more scarce. Hakan has all these What to do? Can the law givers in abundance, but he didn't get them easily. In this coming the federation of age talevillages muster peaceful ways to cope? Can the Traveller, he goes on a quest to find himself after experiencing spiritual figure who interprets the most tremendous wisdom of betrayals. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782399941</amazonuk>All Life, provide solutions?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=S J Hardman Lea1529125898|title=The Sins of SoldiersGodmersham Park|author=Gill Hornby

|summary=Anson Scott wants to join ''If it were not for the British army and World War I for a different reason than most casual dereliction of his fellow Americansthe odd gentleman's duty, there would no women to teach well-bred daughters at all. He's a journalist wanting ' Anne Sharpe was thirty-one years old when she arrived at Godmersham Park to take up the uncensored inside story position of governess to send back home; twelve-year-old Fanny Austen. She had no experience of teaching but this was a deadly enterprise as, if case of necessity. Until the Germans don't get himdeath of her mother, Anne had a comfortable life and was loved by both parents although her father was frequently absent from the Brits may deem him a spyhousehold. Unperturbed he carries his plan through When her mother died, her father cast her off and finds himself on the French front in 1916would have nothing more to do with her. He has No explanation was offered but she would receive an ally annuity of £35 a year. Her maid, Agnes, would receive nothing but was fortunately taken in British officer David Alexanderby some neighbours.}}{{Frontpage|author=Melissa Fu |title=Peach Blossom Spring |rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction |summary= I loved the prelude to Peach Blossom Spring, which a short chapter entitled ''Origins''. Unfortunately it is just the only truly poetic part of a book that I expected more from. Covering Chinese history from 1938 to 2005 as well since not all his enemies are across no manviewed through one family's landperspective. When their home city is set ablaze during the war with Japan, a young mother (Meilin) and her four-year-old son (Renshu) are among those who flee. The two men have a lot in commonstory follows them on their journey across China, more than they know and perhaps more than is good for them as the Somme approachesin Renshu's case eventually to America. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785890182</amazonuk>1472277538

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Gilman1916072038|title=Viper's Blood The House in the Hollow (Master of WarThe Talbot Saga)|author=Allie Cresswell|rating=4.5

|summary=Bowman and commander Thomas Blackstone is one We meet part of Edward III's greatest weapons, bringing him potentially head to head against the Dauphin once againTalbot family in Yorkshire in November 1811. HoweverTwenty-seven-year-old Jocelyn Talbot and her mother have travelled in some discomfort from their home at Ecklington, faced with an elongated stale mate, Thomas' role becomes that of scavenger leader as to the chances of victory make way for a greater chance of starvation amongst house in the armieshollow. There The two women are angry with each other and Jocelyn is well aware of her mother's strengths and weaknesses: ''She is practiced at subterfuge, at concealing, beneath a light at the end facade of respectability, the tunnel thoughdeplorable truth''. Blackstone  Hester is furious about Jocelyn's refusal to go on a trip: an escort mission to Italydo as she was asked, delivering the French Kingwhich has precipitated ''s daughter Isabelle to Milan this violent and her weddingunexpected removal''. Having said that, the light at the end  Then we are told of the tunnel may be an oncoming lance. Isabelle's prospective groom is one birth of the brothers who killed Thomas' wife a child and, soon after, Hester Talbot departs, leaving Jocelyn in shame and daughterisolation in Yorkshire. Death is definitely on the cards… but whose?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784974463</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rory ClementsAnnabel Abbs|title=CorpusThe Language of Food

|genre=Crime (Historical)Fiction|summary=A suicidal overdose and the murder of upper class Cecil Langley and his wife are two events that may be unconnected. However this Eliza Acton is England in 1936, a magnet for opposing forces and their first moves in preparation for the coming conflict, assisted or prevented by a royal crisis (depending on which side you're on). Cambridge history professor Tom Wilde may fall into the middle of this accidentally to begin with but his curiosity poet who has been piqued enough to ensure he's not walking away.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785762613</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Beatrice Colin|title= To Capture What We Cannot Keep|rating= 4|genre= Historical Fiction|summary=Paris, February 1887, and work on never had the foundations of Eiffel's daring tower is about slightest inclination to begin. Engineer Emile Nouguier, taking photographs of the site from a tethered hot air balloon for tourists nearby, chances to meet a young widow from Glasgow named Caitriona Wallace, and his own foundations start to shift. Over the next two years as the tower slowly rises in the Champ de Mars, what began as boil an impossible dream becomes solid reality – Cait and Emile's love for each otheregg. In When tasked with writing a world where more than bustles and corsets hem her in, will Cait be able to break free of her oppressive future, and given their different social strata, can Emile re-shape his?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1760291722</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Deanna Raybourn|title= A Perilous Undertaking (Veronica Speedwell Mystery)|rating= 4|genre= Historical Fiction|summary=Veronica Speedwell did not choose to be an investigator by profession. She wascookery book, first and foremostshe recruits Ann Kirby, a scientist; local woman with a lepidopterist and adventuress who travelled the world looking for exciting butterfly specimenstroubled home life. HoweverTogether, when her latest expedition was cancelled due to an unfortunate incident with a giant tortoisethey test, craft, Veronica refine and her taxidermist friend Stoker took up reshape the challenge world of a murder investigation as an interesting diversion. The case seemed to an open-and-shut one; Miles Ramsforthdomestic cookery, an art patron, had been accused of murdering his pregnant mistress, Artemisia. He was discovered at the scene, covered in her blood and had both reinventing the motive recipe book and circumstances to commit the crime. He would hang by changing the end face of the week if Veronica and Stoker could not find the 'real' killercookery writing forever.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0451476158</amazonuk>1398502227

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jemima BriggesFreya Marske|title=Counting the CostA Marvellous Light

|summary=The year Robin Blyth is 1794 and we meet our young protagonistnudged into a job in the Civil Service, Maria, in desperate circumstancesmuch to his chagrin. Alone There he meets Edwin Courcey and terrified, she has concluded learns that her only option is to take her own life by throwing herself into the surging river watersstreets of London are threaded with magic. Months previouslyDesperate to remove a curse that threatens to swallow him, she was cruelly violated by Robin follows Edwin to the master of countryside, where the house where she worked hedgegrows bristle with incantations and now, in the advanced stages of her pregnancy, the future seems bleakpeople shimmer with power. Luckily, There they uncover a pair sinister plot that threatens the lives of gypsy women find Maria and take her all magicians in. Following a traumatic labour, Maria becomes desperately ill and when she recovers, her baby is gone. Alone again, Maria is free to start a new life. With a clever disguise, she becomes the dowdy 'Miss Dinchope' and takes a position as a housekeeper for the village rectorBritish Isles.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785899139</amazonuk>1529080886

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Steven BurgauerB09F4CTKJR|title=The Night of The Eleventh SunFlights for Freedom|author= Steven Burgauer

|summary=The word 'NeanderthalIt' s the later stages of World War I and the United States has become equated with people deemed to have just entered the conflict. Petrol Petronus is a backward attitude young American who has signed up and outlookjoined the 17 Aero Squadron. But what do we know of This company was the original Neanderthals from over 200first US Aero Squadron to be trained in Canada,000 years ago? Here American author [[:Category:Steven Burgauer|Steven Burgauer]] melds the knowledge of anthropologists, archaeologists first to be attached to the RAF and historians with the story of Strong Arms, his family and their struggle first to be sent into the skies to survive fight the Germans in a very effectiveactive combat. But before that can happen, and informative wayPetrol has to master flying the notoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1419671545</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Meelis Friedenthal and Matthew Hyde (translator)Christophe Medler|title=The Willow King|rating=3|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Meet Laurentius. He's a scholar newly arrived in Estonia in the seventeenth century, aiming to study more. But things aren't going well for him – a long-standing illness seems to be returning, the weather and roads are awful, he's late – and his only friend, a parakeet, won't even survive the first two days ashore. He's entering a weird world, what's more – one imbued with evil smells, peopled by strange characters with stranger ideas. Can his modern ideas, and thinking about the soul, bear him through his course?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782271740</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Ian Ross|title=The Mask of Command (Twilight of Empire)|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary= Warning: spoilers ahead for previous books in the series. 305ADMadrigal: Castus Aurelius, following the death of his predecessor, has been promoted to commander (or vir perfecctissiums) of the Roman forces at the Rhine. He's also been ordered to take Crispus, Constantine's son and heir, for the character-building experience. That complicates matters as when Castus isn't trying to keep Crispus alive, he's finding it difficult to increase his own chance of survival, especially considering how the last Rhine commander met his end.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784975257</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Sophia Tobin|title= The Vanishing|rating=3|genre= Historical Fiction|summary=1814. In the middle of the Yorkshire Moors in an isolated spot lies White Windows, a house shadowed in mystery and intrigue. Living in this desolate household is Marcus Twentyman, a hard drinking and complicated man and his sister, the hardened widow Hester. Brought to White Windows is Annaleigh, a young runaway from London who has come to Yorkshire to be the new housekeeper to the Twentyman's with the hope of leaving her painful past behind her. At first, Annaleigh believes she may have found sanctuary but soon realises she has become entangled in a web of conspiracy and danger, leaving her trapped and more alone than ever.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471151603</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Mary Gibson|title=Bourbon Creams and Tattered Dreams (The Factory Girls)|rating= 4|genre= Historical Fiction|summary=Where did it all go wrong? Only a short time ago, Matty Gilbie was a star of the silver screen with a glittering future predicted for her. As the 'Cockney Canary', her melodic singing voice and stunning good looks had ensured that her first foray into movies was a runaway success. Unfortunately that success came with a price: Matty's business partner Frank Rossi frittered away their money and turned violent and controlling. Bruised and battered from a particularly vicious beating from Frank, Matty secretly makes her escape back to her home in Bermondsey, and the comfort of family and friends. Frank is not one to be crossed, however, and vows to do whatever it takes to win Matty back. Can she ever be truly free?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784973335</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Shirley McKay|title=1588: A Calendar of Crime (A Hew Cullan Mystery)|rating=4.5|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=A lot of crime happens in St Andrews during 1588 and therefore in the life of law lecturer and local investigator Hew Cullen too. As we travel through the year with him, his recently wedded English wife Frances, doctor brother in law Giles and his sister Meg, the wise woman, we also encounter some of his most interesting cases. In fact there's one to match each of the year's big festivals: Candlemas, Whitsun, Lammas, Martinmas and Yule.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973635</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Lesley Lokko|title=The Last DebutanteClosely Guarded Secret

|summary=In 1936 in Chalfont Hall in Dorset young Kit Algernon-Waters can't really understand what's going on: at thirteen years old she's been banished to have supper in Set against the nursery whilst everyone else is dining downstairs with backdrop of the guests. Even her elder sisterEnglish Civil War, Lily, who's sixteen is dining with these unnamed 'guests'. Kit has tapped all her usual sources to find out who the visitors are, but to no avail. All she's managed to work out a secret plan (well, let's be honest 'find out by eavesdropping' is closer to the truthcode-named Madrigal) is that discovered by Sir Robert Douse in the visitors are Germansummer of 1642. Kit's parentsAs a loyal servant of the King, Lord and Lady WhartonHead of the Secret Service, are short of money and itis Robert's important that at least one duty to uncover the details of their daughters makes a good marriage. Six months later Lily is married the plan and follow the clues to uncover one of the German, living most guarded secrets in some style in Germany. Within a couple of years she's mixing with some dubious company, including Unity Mitford. It was even rumoured that she'd met Hitlerhistory—especially since the plot could affect the King.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140914254X</amazonuk>B095HY8SXQ

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stef Penney1471187179|title=Under a Pole StarA Beautiful Spy|author=Rachel Hore

|summary=1948: Elderly Flora Mackie Minnie is invited on an 'ordinary' girl living an unexciting life in a press trip leafy provincial suburb. The book is set in the 1930s and Minnie is expected to live up to her mother's expectations and find a nice young man to marry, produce children and spend the North Pole; a trip that takes rest of her back through days looking after her lifehusband and their home. Flora remembers her childhood with her father on whaling ships in the seas around GreenlandUnfortunately, her marriage born of ambition this isn't what she wants to do at all and misaligned lust and the neither does she want to continue working as a secretary. As a result: of a chance meeting, she finds herself drawn into espionage, working for the Arctic exploration team she led in secret service and effectively living a double life - attempting to infiltrate the late 19th centuryCommunist Party of Great Britain. This was a trip that had many knockMinnie finds herself torn between what she perceives as her duty and the friends she has made -on effects including death and lovelikes - whilst working for the Communist Party.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786481162</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Morgan McCarthyAfonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)|title= The House of BirdsKokoschka's Doll|rating= 42.5|genre= Historical Literary Fiction|summary=Oliver has spent years trying to convince himself that he's suited Well, this looked very much like a book I could love from the get-go, which is why I picked my review copy up and flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of it. I found things to potentially delight me each time – a life of money making weird section in the citymiddle on darker stock paper, and that he doesn't miss a childhood spent chapter whose number was in pursuit of mysterythe 20, when he cycled around the cobbled lanes of Oxford000s, exploring its most intriguing corners. When his girlfriend Kate inherits a derelict house - and a fierce family feud - she's determined to strip itletters used as narrative form, sell it and move so on. For Oliver though, the house has an allure, and amongst It intrigued with the shelves of subterranean voice a discarded, leather bound and gilded volumes, he discovers one man hears in wartorn Dresden that conceals a hidden diary from the 1920s. So begins a quest to discover the identity what little I knew of the authorit mentioned, Sophia Louistoo. It is a portrait of war and marriage But you've seen the star rating that comes with this review, isolation and longing and a story can tell that will shape the future of the abandoned house - and of Oliver - foreverif love was on these pages, it was not actually caused by them. So what happened?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1472205847</amazonuk>1529402697

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jacquelyn BensonChristina Hammonds Reed|title= The Smoke HunterBlack Kids|rating= 4.5|genre= Historical FictionTeens |summary= Eleanora Mallory is an educated young woman living in Victorian London but she Christina Hammonds Reed's debut novel is restricted by set against the strict social codes backdrop of the late nineteenth-century. She's a historian1992 Los Angeles riots, a suffragette, and is years ahead of her time much reaction to the chagrin absolution of her male work colleagues at the Public Records Office. After losing her job and finding four police officers for beating a mysterious map abandoned on her former employer's deskblack man, Rodney King, Ellie decides nearly to take a chance at an adventuredeath. She packs her bags and sets off on a journey to Central AmericaTold from the perspective of Ashley Bennett, where the map shows the way to novel follows her evolution from a legendary historical city. It's the expedition silent bystander when confronted with matters of a life timerace, but little does Ellie know that to a team of fortune hunters are hot on woman finding her voice and embracing her trailheritage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1472238346</amazonuk>1471188191