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[[Category:New Reviews|Historical Fiction]]==Historical fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreview|author=Titania Hardie|title=The House of the Wind|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=I loved the intriguing title of the book and was hoping that Hardie explains it. She does: not only that but the wind element (no pun intended) is mentioned throughout at regular intervals. A nice touch, I thought and not over<!-- Remove -played either. The short Prologue describes a young girl on the eve of her 'terrible fate.' But fate seems to have changed its mind at the very last minute. And this strange/weird/scary event happens at the Casa al Vento - 'The House of the Wind.'>|amazonuk= <amazonuk!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->0755346297</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jane SandersonTananarive Due|title=Netherwood|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=The cover of Netherwood features a bold promise - 'Perfect for fans of Downton Abbey'. The basic features of a reliable 'upstairs/downstairs' saga are all present; the landed gentry enjoying their estate, the staff servicing it and the locals, all relying on the fortunate family for their own income.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751547638</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Colin Falconer|title=Silk RoadReformatory|rating=4.5

|summary=Falconer presents his readers Gracetown, Florida. June 1950. After a scuffle with a handy map of white boy, twelve year-old Robbie Stephens Jr is sentenced to six months at the famous (or perhaps that should be infamous) ''Silk Road'' which stretches from Europe all Gracetown School for Boys, otherwise known as the way to ChinaReformatory. The story opens It's a place with a charismatic young princess who lives with her extended family in an area of Mongoliabrutal and dark reputation. She But the segregated reformatory is clearly the apple a chamber of her father's eye. So much sohorrors, haunted by the boys that he will often take advice from her, rather than from have died there. In order to survive the school governor and his two older sons. She would be a prize catch indeed as a wife for any manFunhouse, but Robert must enlist the feisty Khutelun has other plans. She wants plenty help of adventure and glory in her lifethe school's ghosts – only they have their own motivations. She doesn't want to be a baby machine and besides, no man has caught her eye. Yet.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857891081</amazonuk>1803366532}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Charles FrazierKatherine Howe|title=NightwoodsA True Account

|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=If you have read Charles Frazier's 'Cold Mountain'Hannah Masury is living in Boston, or indeed seen the filmhaving been sent to live with a family who run an inn, then you'll have a fair idea what and being made to expect work there from his latest offering - 'Nightwoods'a young age. As with 'Cold Mountain', the landscape When she hears there is to be a hanging of some pirates in the Appalachians is the dominant charactertown, she decides to go and watch. Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, this time set Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the 1950shands of two vicious pirates. He even manages She hides away, so that they don't find and kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs away to get his requisite bear into sea, dressing as a boy and joining the story although thankfully it fares rather better than notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the unfortunate beast in his first book. The darkthick of things when there is a mutiny on board, oppressing majesty and beauty from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the mountains and woods pervades the whole storyocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444731246</amazonuk>0861547438

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=John BuchanSarah Marsh|title=The Thirty-nine StepsA Sign of Her Own|rating=43.5|genre=Crime (Historical)General Fiction|summary=Ask anyone about 'The Thrity-nine Steps' and I guarantee they'll be able to tell you it's After a bout of scarlet fever as a spy story with Richard Hannay at its heartchild, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Most people will be able to tell you how it startsSuddenly plunged into a world of silence, everything about her life changes. But Living in a time when you askthe use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, 'YesEllen is sent to a school where she is taught to lip read, but what ARE the 39 Steps?' physically restrained from signing. most people will falter.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846971985</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Charlotte Anne Walters|title=Barefoot on Baker Street|rating=3|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=I must admit that I think the title a little cheekyFrom here, a little too near the bone as far as she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the iconic Baker Street deaf and equally iconic Sherlock Holmes is concernedusing a system called Visible Speech. The sepia front cover suggests At the same time, Bell is working on other inventions and ideas, and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a rather sugary, romantic read so I wasn't off to the best complicated tangle of startsespionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780920121</amazonuk>1035401614

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=John BuchanClaire North|title=A Lost Lady House of Old YearsOdysseus

|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary=While I normally start with a plot description I'd better justify the summary first. (Translated, it reads - Warning - you must understand Scots dialect really well if you hope to like this book from the start. Well worth reading though, it's such a good story.) Basically, this is a tale set during the Jacobite Rising of 1745-6 with authentic dialogue of that time; which is to say, rather hard to follow if youWhat could matter more than love?''re anything like me. Most books, I can read in a couple of days maximum, this took me nearly a month and at some points I was reduced to asking my Scottish colleague to translate it for me.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846972035</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Brian Ruckley|title=The Edinburgh Dead|rating=5|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=The phrase follow-up to the excellent ''jack of all trades and master of noneIthaca' can apply to writers as well as anything else and I've always been suspicious picks up a few months after where we left off. In the palace of authors who switch genresOdysseus, as they often prove less effective when they do so. Sometimeswith delicate care Queen Penelope continues to rule without her husband, however, it does work who sailed to war at Troy and having enjoyed Brian Ruckley's fantasy writings such as [[Fall of Thanes then by divine intervention never returned home. As ever she remains surrounded by Brian Ruckley|Fall suitors vying for the throne of Thanes]], I found the Western Isles. Having survived – politically and physical – the chaotic storm that heClytemnestra brought to Ithaca's equally as enjoyable when writing shores, Queen Penelope is on the brink of a crime thrillerfragile peace. One that shatters however with the return of Orestes, King of Mycenae, and his sister Elektra, seeking refuge.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841498653</amazonuk>0356516075

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Fiona MountainB0C7J9D21B|title=Cavalier QueenA Captive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries)|author=A J Lewis

|summary=We sweep back in time to a young Henrietta. Living the spoilt and pampered life of a prettyWhen we first meet our hero, little princess whom everyone (even her dog) loves his name is Ettore and adores. She spends delightfully carefree days singing and dancing and playing with her little dog. But the subject he lives at The House of marriage is on the horizonBeautiful Swallows. SheIdyllic as this might sound, it's fourteen after all. Time to put away those childish things. Who has her family decided will be her future husband? The young princess has no say in the matter but hopes he will be just a little handsome bordello and be gentle with herEttore's mother died when he was born. ItHe's not only a marriage been short of mothers, though - but for someone of two individuals (that's almost inconsequential) his background in late-eighteenth-century Amalfi, it's a marriage difficult to obtain decent employment. The stint working with the preparation of two nations anchovies didn't work out and bastards are considered bad luck on fishing boats. Ettore was nothing if not resourceful - and determined - with strategy and it was not long-term thinking in mindbefore he had a successful business as a guide for visitors. In short, the French Royal Family want to do everything to appease other countries and hopefully keep war at bayHe was even saving some money.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848091672</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Barry UnsworthEssie Fox|title=The Quality of MercyFascination

|summary=The novel Victorian era is incredibly over-romanticised as a setting for historical fiction (matched only, perhaps, by the Second World War) which has often led to more than a few writers mishandling it. There's such a glut of media set in the turbulent years following era that the hallmarks we've come to associate with it are familiar to the Battle point of Hastingsbeing cliched, hackneyed even. We follow the Normans as they set out All this is simply to illustrate that it would be an easy thing to quell the restless and rebellious factions in the North of Englanddo poorly. An ambush in Durham sees the Normans decimated But despite that, something about it still grabs me – and determined on revenge - something about this precipitates the events which followbook's description did as well.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848093241</amazonuk>1914585526

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lisa SeeNicole Jarvis|title=Dreams of JoyA Portrait in Shadow

|summary=It's the late 1950s, and America's teenagers (the very idea a brand new concept) are beginning to live the I want all-American dream. For some of them however it isn't all 'Happy Days' diners and rockFlorence to know my name'n'roll. For the second generation Chinese immigrants there's an alternative: back 'home' there's a brave new world being forged, a world where 'we'd work in the fields and sing songs. We'd do exercises in the park. We'd help clean the neighbourhood and share meals. We wouldn't be poor and we wouldn't be rich. We'd all be equal.' |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408822296</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=John Buchan|title=Greenmantle|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=I'm told that Buchan is still widely read. Really? "John Buchan? Oh yesCast out from Rome, he wrote The Thirty-Nine Steps"… Artemisia Gentileschi arrives in Florence seeking an oasis in which her art can find a home and that's where her future can thrive rather than stagnate. But as far some as most of us get. Let's be honest most of us only know that one she enters Florentine society she faces great opposition from the many film versionspowerful Accademia, just about all the self-proclaimed guardians of which take huge liberties with the original plot.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846971977</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ellen Feldman|title=Next to Love|rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Babe, Grace and Millie are three American girls who healing magics that through paintings have grown up together. Now young women each marry their sweetheart just as America becomes involved in the Second World War. But on a fateful day in 1944, sixteen telegrams arrive from the War Department bringing death power to protect the locals, including Grace city and its citizens from plagues and curses. The all-male Accademia has hoarded power over art and architecture for centuries and Millie whose husbands have both been killedguard it above all else. Babe seems to be the lucky one as her husbandTo them, Claude, returns from the War, but in truth he will never be the same man againArtemisia – an ambitious young woman who promises trouble and change – has no place amongst them and their society.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0330544500</amazonuk>1803362340

{{newreview|author=Fiona Mountain|title=Isabella|rating=4|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=The fate of mutineerSet in the near-distant future, Fletcher Christian in the 18th century remains a mystery even today but Fiona Mountain has pieced together a dramatic and powerful story based world on rumours and clues that Fletcher returned to England to be with his long-lost lovethe verge of climate collapse, Isabella CurwenBritain is in great peril. Fletcher, The British Isles desperately needs a hero (or several) to save the son day and rescue what little remains. What no-one expected was that one of a bankrupt family and Isabella, the sole heiress Knights of a huge fortune are prevented from marrying. Their relationship is manipulated by those around them and a young, naïve Isabella is forced to marry her cousin, Johnthe Round Table would answer the call. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099562251</amazonuk>0356518523

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ben KaneG K Holloway|title=Hannibal: Enemy In the Shadows of RomeCastles|rating=4.5

|summary=Thanks to his [[The Forgotten Legion by Ben Kane|Forgotten Legion]] trilogy, Ben Kane has recently bought Roman times to life We begin after the momentous battle in me far more than history 1066 and Latin lessons at school ever did. Having enjoyed this first trilogy, I've been eagerly awaiting his ''Hannibal'' trilogy, since he told Bookbag about it when we interviewed him. Finally, on the wait is over and day of William of Normandy''Hannibal: Enemy s coronation as King of Rome'' is hereEngland.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184809227X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jose Saramago and Margaret Jull Costa|title=The ElephantWilliam's Journey|rating=3.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=This novel position is inspired by a real event – the marriage gift of an elephant from Dom João III of Portugal to his cousin Maximilian, the Hapsburg Archduke of Austria. When the gift was accepted, the elephant Solomon, his mahout Subhro and numerous soldiers, oxen not secure and porters, walked from Lisbon to Vienna to deliver the present, arriving in 1552new king has many challenges. This Imposing authority through a coronation is the story of that journeyimportant.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099546884</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sara Stockbridge|title=Cross My Palm|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Fortune teller Rose Lee lives on the edge of London society in 1860, making her living by entertaining (and sometimes deceiving) the rich by reading their palms. She fears the fate she has read for herself in her own palm which And William is perhaps what makes her cautious of delivering the whole truth right to the ladies that employ herworry. On one particular night Rose is called to While the house of Lady Quayleprevious king, a woman of high societyHarold, who delights in having her fortune read, taking everything Rose tells her as gospel. One of the guests present is Emily, a young girl and friend of Lady Quayle's daughter Tabitha.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>070118504X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Alison Weir|title=The Captive Queen|rating=3|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Vaclav and Lena are both children of Russian immigrants, growing up in Brooklyn. Vaclav dreams of becoming a fantastic magician, with his friend Lena as his assistant, and as children they practise their routine together, making lists of the things they'll need, the costumes they will wear dead and the tricks they will perform. Vaclav is confident and happy, but Lena is quiet, withdrawn and struggles with speaking English. Yet Vaclav believes, always, that they are destined to be together. Even when Lena disappears one day and is gone from his life for many years still he hopes that, somehow, he will find her again.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434020443</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Helen Humphreys|title=The Reinvention likelihood of Love|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary='The Reinvention of Love' more pitched battles is one of those stories that is so bizarre and strange that it could only be based on factual events. Essentially it is a goodover, old-fashioned love triangle set mostly in Paris in the period from the 1830s to the 1860s; a world where fighting duels is a commonplace event. The triangle features the great French literary writer Victor Hugo, his wife Adèle rebels are stirring and the altogether strange critic Charles Saint-Beuve who narrates much of this story, with brief breaks for Adèle's side of events and some letters written by the Hugo's youngest daughter, also called Adèle (but let's call her, as she was known country does not wish to her family, Dédé to avoid confusion)recognise a new overlord.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846687985</amazonuk>1800422466

{{newreview|author=Karen Harper|title=The Queen's Governess|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Kat Ashley isn't Maya is a young girl living in a name one usually associates with hunter gatherer village during the Tudor Mesolithic era. Climate change is occurring, but just like the more famous characters Sea of the period, she has her own fascinating story to tell, a story which this book captures perfectly. As Thomas Cromwell's spy, Anne Boleyn's confidante Grass encroaches further and later Princess Elizabethfurther into Maya's governessforest home, Kat Ashley certainly knew the Tudor court well and it food is through her fictional diary entries that becoming more and more scarce. What to do? Can the law givers in the reader is invited federation of villages muster peaceful ways to know cope? Can the Traveller, a spiritual figure who interprets the dazzlingwisdom of All Life, yet dangerous Tudor court too.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091940419</amazonuk>provide solutions?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Roy Jacobsen, Don Bartlett (translator) and Don Shaw (translator)1529125898|title=Child WonderGodmersham Park|author=Gill Hornby

|summary=Katey Kontent works hard during ''If it were not for the day as a typist at a big law firm in 1930s Manhattan, but at night she likes to sample casual dereliction of the nightlife – jazz clubs in Greenwich Village. There on New Yearodd gentleman's Eve 1937duty, she and her roommate Eve meet the charming Tinker Greythere would no women to teach well-bred daughters at all. This is the start of a year of many changes for Katey and her friends.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444708848</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|author=Meira Chand|title=A Different Sky|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=We meet Anne Sharpe was thirty-one years old when she arrived at Godmersham Park to take up the first position of the three main characters governess to twelve-year- Chinese Mei Lan on old Fanny Austen. She had no experience of teaching but this was a trip with her devoted minder-nursemaid into towncase of necessity. The sights and smells intrigue Until the young girl as they are death of her mother, Anne had a far cry comfortable life and was loved by both parents although her father was frequently absent from the household. When her comfortable home mother died, her father cast her off and its surroundingswould have nothing more to do with her. Rather than appreciating all that space and the beautiful objects in the family home, Mei Lan feels lonely (No explanation was offered but she's would receive an only child) and even hemmed inannuity of £35 a year. But perhaps she'll change as she grows upHer maid, Agnes, would receive nothing but was fortunately taken in by some neighbours.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099546248</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lian HearnMelissa Fu |title=Blossoms and ShadowsPeach Blossom Spring

|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=I see from loved the front cover that Hearn is already prelude to Peach Blossom Spring, a best-selling author with her short chapter entitled ''Tales Of the OtoriOrigins'' so . Unfortunately it is the only truly poetic part of a book that I was looking forward expected more from. Covering Chinese history from 1938 to a good read2005 as viewed through one family's perspective. HoweverWhen their home city is set ablaze during the war with Japan, I did slump a little when I opened the book young mother (Meilin) and was presented with several pages of the her four-year-old son (Renshu) are among those who flee. The storyfollows them on their journey across China, and in Renshu's characters - sub-divided into fictional and historicalcase eventually to America. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857382977</amazonuk>1472277538

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=D J Taylor1916072038|title=Derby DayThe House in the Hollow (The Talbot Saga)|author=Allie Cresswell

|summary=I read (and reviewed) Taylor's [[Ask Alice by D J Taylor|Ask Alice]] and took to Taylor's style straight away. Is this one going to be as good - or even better? Time to find out ... To set the tone we first We meet a couple part of no-gooders as they plot and scheme and it's all about horses and the DerbyTalbot family in Yorkshire in November 1811. And by degrees, Taylor introduces his main characters, chapter by chapter, to his readers. As this novel runs to over 400 pages, there's plenty of time for flesh to be heaped upon the bones of many of these characters. So, for example, we have a rather cold Twenty-seven-year-old Jocelyn Talbot and calculating daughter living with her elderly father who appear right mother have travelled in some discomfort from their home at Ecklington, to the start of house in the novelhollow. I got the sense that things were about to happen - The two women are angry with each other and they certainly did. ThereJocelyn is well aware of her mother's a strong sense of emotions just bubbling under the surface with this duo.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701183586</amazonuk>}}strengths and weaknesses:

{{newreview|author=Suzannah Dunn|title=The Confession of Katherine Howard|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Katherine Howard was Henry VIII's fifth wife. 'She was perhaps the most seductive of his wives and is practiced at subterfuge, at concealing, beneath a considerable contrast to her predecessor, Anna facade of Cleves. She's been consigned to history as a silly girlrespectability, but careful reading gives the lie to this. Suzannah Dunn begins her story when Katherine was twelve years old and went to live in her step-grandmotherdeplorable truth's household. There she met Cathryn – generally known as Cat – Tilney, but the two girls were very different and didn't hit it off initially. Cat was quietly ambitious, aware that she needed to make a good marriage, whilst Katherine was image-conscious and very interested in the boys.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007258305</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|title=Wall of Days|author=Alastair Bruce|rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=The front cover of this debut novel caught my full and undivided attention with Hester is furious about Jocelyn''Alones refusal to do as she was asked, ten years on an island, until one day...which has precipitated '' I couldn't wait to start reading. We meet the central character - we don't know his name just yet this violent and in the grand scheme of things it doesnunexpected removal't really matter. He's living alone on an island, somewhere in the world. Is it the past, the present or even the future? As the story developed I decided on the former.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846688000</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Rory Clements|title=John Shakespeare: Prince|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=This is Then we are told of the third in the excellent Elizabethan murder mystery series, featuring John Shakespeare, brother birth of Will. An inexplicable murder is linked to a much deeper plot of political dimensionschild and, leading Shakespeare into danger and tragedy. A series of bombingssoon after, which appear to be targeting the immigrant population causes huge unrest and fearHester Talbot departs, leaving Jocelyn in shame and leads to the uncovering of further political dimensionsisolation in Yorkshire.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848544251</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Felix J PalmaAnnabel Abbs|title=The Map Language of TimeFood

|summary=Like Eliza Acton is a lot of readers I cannot resist poet who has never had the slightest inclination to boil an egg. When tasked with writing a cookery book , she recruits Ann Kirby, a local woman with an immediate hook that draws you into the story quickly and in a seemingly effortless fashiontroubled home life. From the very first page of 'The Map of Time' Felix Palma had me firmly in his grasp Together, they test, craft, refine and continued to hold me there for reshape the entirety world of domestic cookery, reinventing the novel. Not once did I become bored or distracted as I relished every word, page recipe book and chapter changing the face of this remarkable bookcookery writing forever. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007344120</amazonuk>1398502227

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Margaret JamesFreya Marske|title=The Golden ChainA Marvellous Light

|summary=It's 1931 and teenager Daisy DenhamRobin Blyth is nudged into a job in the Civil Service, along with her parents Alex much to his chagrin. There he meets Edwin Courcey and Rose, and two brothers have left their life in India and moved to Melbury House in Dorset, a place full learns that the streets of history for Alex and RoseLondon are threaded with magic. Daisy is not keen on her new life and surroundings and is desperate Desperate to escape, particularly when she discovers remove a long held family secret curse that casts a shadow across her past. She soon meets handsome Ewan Fraserthreatens to swallow him, a young man forced Robin follows Edwin to spend his holidays in Dorset thanks to his overbearing motherthe countryside, where the hedgegrows bristle with incantations and the two strike up an instant friendship people shimmer with power. There they uncover a sinister plot that soon turns to love, spurred on by their joint interest threatens the lives of all magicians in working on the stage. Ewan soon gives Daisy a golden chain and Daisy promises never to take it offBritish Isles.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>190693164X</amazonuk>1529080886

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Adrienne McDonnellB09F4CTKJR|title=The Doctor and the DivaFlights for Freedom|author= Steven Burgauer|rating=4.5

|summary=We first meet one It's the later stages of World War I and the central characters, United States has just entered the successful, conflict. Petrol Petronus is a young obstetrician Dr Ravell as he mingles with the great American who has signed up and joined the good Bostonians at a high-level social gathering17 Aero Squadron. His reputation seems This company was the first US Aero Squadron to precede him as one guest enthuses 'After nineteen years be trained in a barren marriage ... thanks Canada, the first to be attached to the RAF and the first to be sent into the skies to you, they had twinsfight the Germans in active combat.' High praise indeed. And at this gathering he not only meets a future patientBut before that can happen, Erika von Kessler, but he is also enraptured by her singing voice. He tries Petrol has to explain all this master flying the notoriously difficult but finds it difficult so ends up by saying 'It was not an earthly voice; it was a shimmering.' I loved that linemajestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751543608</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Amitav GhoshChristophe Medler|title=River of SmokeMadrigal: A Closely Guarded Secret

|summary=At over 500 pagesSet against the backdrop of the English Civil War, this a secret plan (code-named Madrigal) is a big book and it's also a big book discovered by Sir Robert Douse in terms the summer of the subject matters that it covers; the whole colonial situation regarding parts 1642. As a loyal servant of the East as well as the properties King, and problems Head of the poppySecret Service, it is Robert's product - opium. Ghosh also crams in a wealth duty to uncover the details of very different the plan and diverse characters so that follow the novel has the feel of an exotic and at times, enchanting pot-pourri clues to uncover one of a read. I have to say at the outset that I find authors such as Rushdie wordy, very wordy. I have Ghosh's ''The Glass Palace'' most guarded secrets in my ever-growing 'to read' pile. I wonder if history—especially since the latter will be as wordy as plot could affect the former. Time to find out..King.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0719568986</amazonuk>B095HY8SXQ

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anna Lawrence Pietroni1471187179|title=Ruby's SpoonA Beautiful Spy|author=Rachel Hore

|summary=“This Minnie is an 'ordinary' girl living an unexciting life in a leafy provincial suburb. The book is set in the tale of three women – one witch1930s and Minnie is expected to live up to her mother's expectations and find a nice young man to marry, one mermaid produce children and one missing – spend the rest of her days looking after her husband and how Ruby was caught up in between”their home. Despite the opening Unfortunately, this novel is more gritty realism than fantasy – there is lots isn't what she wants to do at all and neither does she want to continue working as a secretary. As a result of mythical imagery but in trutha chance meeting, she finds herself drawn into espionage, working for the setting for this novel is secret service and effectively living a small industrial town cut off from everywhere else by double life - attempting to infiltrate the surrounding canalsCommunist Party of Great Britain. It is 1933 ( Minnie finds herself torn between what she perceives as her duty and the middle of the Great Depression), friends she has made - and a stranger arrives in town to turn Ruby’s life upside down, likes - whilst working for better or worsethe Communist Party.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099540053</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Richard Hughes|title=The Fox in the Attic|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=The novel opens with a scene set to grab the reader's attention: a young girl has been found dead somewhere on the Welsh coast. And straight away I'm aware of Hughes' particular writing style. Fluid with proper sentences. It all has a traditional feel which I liked. Then we cut fairly briskly to the young Augustine who's rattling around in some pile. Due to the fallen in the First World War, many heirs did not return to England to take their rightful Afonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (I'm getting into the language, you'll noticetranslator) place in the family dynasty.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848879784</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Geraldine Brooks|title=CalebKokoschka's CrossingDoll|rating=42.5|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary=Let's startWell, as Geraldine Brooks has, with this looked very much like a fact: in 1665 book I could love from the first Native Americanget-go, Caleb Cheeshateaumauk, graduated from Harvard College. Around this, Brooks has created a wholly fictional story (the known facts are so few that this which is largely unavoidable)why I picked my review copy up and flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of it. The stroke of genius here is I found things to put potentially delight me each time – a weird section in the story into the words of the entirely fictitious Bethia Mayfield, the daughter of an English minister middle on what we now call Martha's Vinyarddarker stock paper, where Caleb lived a chapter whose number was in the Wampanoag tribe. At various points in her life20, Bethia sets down events concerning her early secret friendship with Caleb on the island000s, to accompanying him and her brother to Harvard and the subsequent events.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007333536</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Claire Holden Rothman|title=The Heart Specialist|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=We first meet teenager Agnes at home - dissecting a recently-dead squirrel in secret. She knows full well that her family would not approve of this unseemly behaviourletters used as narrative form, especially from a girl. She's expected to be a young lady and enjoying ladylike hobbies, like playing with dolls. Fat chance. Feisty Agnes is her father's daughter and she has an interest in medicineso on. It must be in intrigued with the blood, subterranean voice a man hears in the genes. If wartorn Dresden that's the case it's skipped younger sister Laure. The two sisters are very different. Laure is a gentle and pretty girl but her health is rather delicate. Agnes is a bit of a tom-boy and a go-getter. Their grandmother despairs of young Agnes - what's to become little I knew of her? The norm is marriage and a familyit mentioned, this medical nonsense must be stamped outtoo. ItBut you's out of ve seen the question. This profession is strictly for the men. Try telling star rating that to Agnes.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1851687947</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Anne O'Brien|title=Devil's Consort|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=In the year 1137 fifteen year old Eleanor of Aquitaine is an orphan. Just before her father's death he asked King Louis VI of France to take care of her, and the unscrupulous Louis took advantage of comes with this request to marry her to his pious son Louis VII. When her new father in law passes awayreview, the young woman becomes Queen of France and is determined to safeguard her precious lands from all who want to take them – even can tell that if it leads to conflict with her weak-willed husband. Then she meets the Count of Anjou, Geoffrey Plantagenet, and his son Henry…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778304272</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Elizabeth Speller|title=The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=I reviewed and thoroughly enjoyed Speller's [[The Return of Captain John Emmett by Elizabeth Speller|The Return Of Captain John Emmett]] so I love was really keen to get stuck into the follow-up. The main character, officer Laurence Bartram is also an important character in the previous book, but both are stand-alone novels in their own right. The front cover is evocative and is also as pretty as a picture - literally. With its intriguing title which had me asking all sorts of questions before I'd even opened the bookon these pages, it was a good startnot actually caused by them. So what happened?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1844086313</amazonuk>1529402697

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Carol BirchChristina Hammonds Reed|title=Jamrach's MenagerieThe Black Kids

|genre=Historical FictionTeens |summary=The Christina Hammonds Reed's debut novel is written in the first person by a young boy called Jaffy. He describes set against the poverty backdrop of his life at home which includes the delightful line 'We lived in 1992 Los Angeles riots, a reaction to the crow's nest absolution of Mrs Reagan's house.' He also describes his struggling mother and his absent father. But I got the sense that here was four police officers for beating a bright and resilient boy. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847676561</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Karen Maitland|title=The Gallow's Curse|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=This is the eagerly anticipatedblack man, and long awaited third novel by the immensely talented author Karen Maitland. It seems as if her ever expanding and permanently loyal fan base will not be disappointed in any way by her latest offering. It's rare (if ever)Rodney King, that I would be moved nearly to give a 5 star rating to any novel - but this one richly deserves death. Told from the highest of accolades.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718156358</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Stuart Clark|title=The Sky's Dark Labyrinth|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=This book is heavily based on fact. All perspective of Ashley Bennett, the characters are real people - apart novel follows her evolution from one. Some of us may be familiar a silent bystander when confronted with the names matters of Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler (due race, to the importance of their respective work, both men are afforded healthy chunks in my Oxford English Dictionary). Clark also has a rather impressive working CV including holding a Fellowship of the Royal Astronomical Society. But what I personally really liked woman finding her voice and appreciated was the line on the book's front cover which said 'Knowledge can be a dangerous thingembracing her heritage.'|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846971748</amazonuk>1471188191

{{newreview|author=M C Beaton|title=The Travelling Matchmaker: Emily Goes to Exeter|rating=3|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Emily Goes to Exeter is by way of 'Being the First Volume of the Travelling Matchmaker' as the subheading has it on the frontispiece: the beginning of a new series obviously.  If like me you have come to Beaton by way of Hamish Macbeth this might seem like something of a diversion. A little research shows you that in fact Marion Chesney, who writes under a number of pseudonyms (including Beaton) has a prolific work-rate. Having produced upwards of 130 books since starting writing full time in the 1980s, focussing Move on crime and historical romance, there can be few avenues down which she has yet to wander.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849014795</amazonuk>}}[[Newest History Reviews]]