Newest Historical Fiction Reviews
Historical fiction
The Queen's Secret by Victoria Lamb
It was July 1575 and the court had left the unpleasant atmosphere of London for its annual progress round the homes of the more prominent nobles. It was to stay at Kenilworth Castle, home of the Earl of Leicester (better known as Robert Dudley, the queen's favourite) for some three weeks. The expenditure on the stay was enormous, but Leicester was determined to persuade Queen Elizabeth to marry him. The fact that he was also having an affair with Lettice Knollys, wife of the Earl of Essex, was beside the point. Lucy Morgan, a black entertainer of Moorish descent, was drawn into the midst of this intrigue and found herself on the edge of a plot to assassinate the queen. Full review...
Trieste by Dasa Drndic and Ellen Elias-Bursac (translator)
Haya Tedeschi, an 82 year old woman, sits alone in Italy, waiting. She waits for the adult son she hasn't seen since he was a baby. As Haya waits, she goes through her red basket of photographs and memorabilia, hanging out her life on an imaginary washing line. She then takes the reader back in time, back to her life as a Catholicised Jew, before, during and after World War II in an area called Trieste. Full review...
Bleakly Hall by Elaine di Rollo
Nurse Montgomery (Monty to her friends) and daring ambulance driver, Ada, met in Belgium during World War I. They worked as a team collecting the injured from the front line, dodging snipers and shells and ignoring social standards that accompanied the class system of the day. Monty may have been Ada's social 'superior' but such things were irrelevant whilst they faced death on an hourly basis. After the war Monty comes to work at Bleakly Hall, a hydropathic or country house hotel specialising in hydro therapies for the rich and ailing and is reunited with Ada, working as a mechanic and all-round assistant. Full review...
The Greatcoat by Helen Dunmore
Set in 1952 in Yorkshire, a young couple move into a rented flat. Philip is the new, young doctor while his new wife Isabel struggles with the isolated life with no friends or family and Philip's frequent absence due to the demands of his job. Things take a turn to the spooky when, waking from under the warmth of the old greatcoat Isabel finds in the flat, she hears a tapping at the window and finds there an RAF pilot, Alec, who appears to know Isabel intimately. Full review...
The Little Shadows by Marina Endicott
Flora Avery's schoolmaster husband dies suddenly, leaving her three daughters and a dilemma: how does she find the money to raise them? Her answer is to return to her pre-marital profession, the one of which her husband disapproved so vocally. Flora decides to put her family on the stage as a vaudeville act. So begins a new life as they tour the backwater theatres of America and their native Canada, dreaming of a big future whilst weathering the present. Set prior to and during World War I, it wasn't just the Averys who faced changes and uncertainty. Full review...
Shakespeare's Mistress by Karen Harper
The conceit of Shakespeare's Mistress is that Shakespeare was married to Anne Whateley the day before he was married to Anne Hathaway, and Anne W remained the love of his life, with an affair (if you can have an affair with your 'wife') continued in London where the same Anne was also the famed dark lady of his sonnets. There is some basis for this theory in that the parish records do show a mysterious entry into the register for just such a contract the day before the Hathaway marriage but although the author claims this is 'faction', it's very much at the fiction end of that scale and is really a 'what if?' piece. Full review...
The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman
Nora is an unusual heroine. She is sharp, snarky and funny, and her wry tone and contemporary references will resonate with her readers. But she is also uncompromisingly geeky, and she opts to complete her independent study assignment by joining her three friends at the local university in a research project on the Voynich Manuscript by Edward Kelley (This manuscript actually exists, and has taxed the abilities of some of the greatest code-breakers in the world in the last hundred years.). However Professor Hoffpauer does not consider Nora mature enough to work on the manuscript itself, despite the fact that her linguistic ability is far superior to that of the others, and instead he gives her the lesser task of translating the letters of Kelley's step-daughter Elizabeth Weston. Full review...
Noah's Child by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt
Joseph, a young Belgian Jew, is sent away by his parents when they grow nervous about the treatment of Jews during World War Two. He is taken in by a village priest, Father Pons, and given a new identity and a place in Father Pons' school along with an assortment of other children, some of whom are genuine pupils and others who are, like Joseph, seeking sanctuary. Full review...
Hawk Quest by Robert Lyndon
Hawk Quest is an epic of a historic novel set in the 11th century. A band of companions led by Vallon, the mysterious Frankish warrior, travel from England to Scandinavia and on to Anatolia in order to capture and deliver four rare pure white falcons as a ransom for Sir Walter, the son of a Norman nobleman held by the Seljuk Turks. Full review...
Bereft by Chris Womersley
Quinn Walker, a young Australian man fresh from fighting on the European front in World War One, returns to the very town he was drummed out of ten years before, after being accused of raping and killing his own younger sister. Two things have beaten him to the small settlement - one, the global flu pandemic; two a telegram saying he died bravely in action earlier in the war. And the less you know of what he meets and does back in Flint the better, the more to keep this fresh and brilliant book's many intrigues as secret as they were for me. Full review...
The Pleasures of Men by Kate Williams
Catherine Sorgeiul is a woman with burdens. Living with her uncle in London’s East End during the reign of Queen Victoria, hers is a life that seems empty – yet in fact is full of things she is trying to push away.
Filling her days has become a problem, so when a series of grisly murders begins, Catherine is drawn to the mystery of the Man of Crows in a way that seems bound to change her life. Full review...
The Whores' Asylum by Katy Darby
The Whores’ Asylum, a debut novel, is a tale of friendship, love, sin and criminality set in late 19th century Cambridge and Oxford. The comparison to one of my favourite historical novelists, Sarah Waters, also caught my attention. Sadly, I was a little bit disappointed. Full review...
The Indies Enterprise by Eric Orsenna
As soon as you pick up a novel about Columbus's discovery of the Americas, certain expectations come to mind. Orsenna however is much more than your average writer and he manages to subvert almost all of these by delivering a quiet, scholarly account of what seems at first a diversion, the art of map making. But this book is not about Columbus himself, but rather his brother Bartholomew, and how he is swept into the excitement and ambition of his older sibling. Full review...
My Dear I Wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young
It takes a while for the full power of Louisa Young's remarkable My Dear I Wanted To Tell You to become apparent, but when it does, it can hardly fail to move you. Set just before and during World War One, it's a story of love and human spirit against the odds. The impact of the book is in what happens to the characters, so I don't want to give too much away, but it's worth pointing out that it's not for the overly squeamish reader particularly in some of the descriptions of surgical procedures, which have clearly been meticulously researched by Young. The title itself it taken from the opening words of the standard letters that the wounded were given to send to loved ones back home. The wounded were required to fill in the blanks. Full review...
Little Bones by Janette Jenkins
While this might sound like the afterlife of a brilliant and unlikely cabaret mimic, it's not. It's a rich, evocative and engaging novel set in the last years of Victoria's reign, in the depths of her darkest London. Fate - and being abandoned by, in turn, her mother and older sister - leaves Jane Stretch living with and working for a doctor and his lumpen, housebound wife. Jane is alternatively called an 'unfortunate' and a 'cripple' for her disabilities and distorted frame, but she has enough bookish intelligence to pass herself off as an assistant to the doctor, who only ever does one operation - abortions, for music hall artistes. The plot is evidently gearing up to reveal how dangerous such a criminal business might be, for the both of them. Full review...
The House of Eliott by Jean Marsh
When Evangeline and Beatrice's father dies, the two sisters discover that he has left them with very little money and without any qualifications with which to support themselves. They struggle to find suitable employment before accidentally discovering their talents as seamstresses and fashion designers. The book follows their journey of independence after their father's death, and the new relationships they begin to build without him dominating their lives. Full review...
The Promise by Lesley Pearse
Belle has a lovely London life, a good career and a happy marriage. But she has a murky past, and although it’s shaped her kind heart and character, it isn’t something she wants to come face to face with again. But some people are not able to forget the past, for reasons good and bad, and against the dramatic backdrop of the Great War, Belle is about to come face to face with all sorts of things she thought she had forgotten. Full review...
Almodis the Peaceweaver by Tracey Warr
At the age of five Almodis de la Marche was taken as a hostage - a guarantee of her family's good behaviour - and she remained there until she was of marriageable age. It was all the harder for Almodis as it meant that she was separated from her identical twin. The situation was not hostile although she didn't get on well with her foster mother, Agnes - and never would. Her first marriage was to Hugh of Lusignan and Almodis felt something akin to love for this gentle man, but the sexual relationship between the two was tenuous to say the least and Almodis was determined that she would create her own dynasty. At a time when marriages were put aside if they were not producing the required heirs, Almodis decided that she had to move on. Her next marriage - to Pons of Toulouse - would be more productive but far from happy. Full review...
The Cocaine Salesman by Conny Braam
Picture a world of hellish exclusion, nightmarish noise and images, and horrid violence. Picture one person trying to live through the sleepless nights, the isolation among his peers, the permanent sense of dreadful threat. Picture him needing drugs. His best friend might even be called Charlie. But don't picture an inner city slum, 2012, but a man on the front in World War One. Full review...
The Gendarme by Mark Mustian
There are times when you will want to shut 'The Gendarme' and just walk away from the despair and disgust that this account of genocide engenders. Don't. Ultimately this tale of an old Turk revisiting his terrible past is both touching and important - an exploration of memory and forgiveness that shouldn't be missed. Full review...
Praetorian (Roman Legion II) by Simon Scarrow
Still in hock to the imperial secretary Narcissus, Praetorian opens with our heroes Cato and Macro kicking their heels at the port of Ostia. They're about to embark on one of their most challenging adventures yet - as undercover spies in the Praetorian Guard. Rome in AD50 is full of perils. Imperial authority is now absolute and the Senate really only exists as an old boys club. The real power comes from being an adviser to the Emperor and, as these advisors jostle for influence, plots and conspiracies abound. Claudius, never in the best of health, looks precarious - but which of his heirs will succeed him? Nero? Or Britannicus? And can he hold on for long enough that the choice is clear? Full review...
The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
Set in the last desperate days before the Roman siege on Masada (70CE), the lives of four women collide and merge. They are Yael, the daughter of a Sicarii assassin; Revka, the wife of a gentle baker who witnessed her daughters' rape and murder; Aziza, raised as a boy with the skills of a great warrior and Shirah, born in Alexandria to a mother well versed in ancient magic. All four have crossed the heartless desert on separate journeys to arrive at the last outpost against the Roman Legion, where 900 Jews held out for many, many months. Here they have little power and less hope, but each refuses to be a victim. All are harbouring deep secrets about their pasts, as they become the Masada's dovekeepers. With supplies dwindling and certain death drawing near, their uneasy bonds to each other strengthen as their truths are unveiled. They find an uneasy comfort that becomes true loyalty and empowerment. While few in their company survive to recount the tale, their story has lived on to haunt the deepest of memories. Full review...
The Things We Cherished by Pam Jenoff
The rather sentimental title and Mills & Boon-ish front cover did not endear me to this book initially. The blurb on the back cover made up for this, however. The story opens - at the end, if you get my drift and we're in America in 2009. An elderly man called Roger is in prison, awaiting trial for (alleged) war crimes. Charlotte has been assigned to the case. Although she's a hot-shot lawyer she also has a conscience (unlike many of her colleagues) so therefore she's a bit of a rare breed. Full review...
The Courtesan's Lover by Gabrielle Kimm
This is a big thumping book running to almost 500 pages. We're in sixteenth century Italy, Naples to be precise and the scene is set for the entrance of the main character, courtesan Francesca. And what an exotic creature she is. But also charming, thoughtful and intelligent. Full review...
Highland Storms by Christina Courtenay
The publisher, Choc Lit Limited, gives a fair idea of what kind of read this book is. Romance with a capital R. Courtenay decides to go back in time to a Scotland rather weary of battles but strong in image especially in terms of the countryside. Is the book's purple hue suggestive of the purple heather to be found all over this area of Scotland, I wonder. It all conjures up a deeply romantic setting for many, myself included. Add in the odd fairy-tale castle or two and it's even better. Full review...
Fiennders Abbey by Jean Marsh
In was the end of the nineteenth century and the family at Fiennders Abbey might lead much more leisurely lives than the staff who kept the house running as it should, but their fortunes were inextricably linked. Mary Bowden was the tweenie when we first met her – she did all the dirty jobs which were beneath those higher up the ladder – as well as being the daughter of the gamekeeper. She was also intelligent, ambitious and very attractive with her straight, milk-blonde hair. As a child she'd always been very friendly with Richard, the son of the house, but it's not a friendship which either of their mothers wishes to foster. Full review...
The House of the Wind by Titania Hardie
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-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.' Full review...
Netherwood by Jane Sanderson
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. Full review...
Silk Road by Colin Falconer
Falconer presents his readers with a handy map of the famous (or perhaps that should be infamous) Silk Road which stretches from Europe all the way to China. The story opens with a charismatic young princess who lives with her extended family in an area of Mongolia. She is clearly the apple of her father's eye. So much so, that he will often take advice from her, rather than from his two older sons. She would be a prize catch indeed as a wife for any man, but the feisty Khutelun has other plans. She wants plenty of adventure and glory in her life. She doesn't want to be a baby machine and besides, no man has caught her eye. Yet. Full review...
Nightwoods by Charles Frazier
If you have read Charles Frazier's 'Cold Mountain', or indeed seen the film, then you'll have a fair idea what to expect from his latest offering - 'Nightwoods'. As with 'Cold Mountain', the landscape of the Appalachians is the dominant character, this time set in the 1950s. He even manages to get his requisite bear into the story although thankfully it fares rather better than the unfortunate beast in his first book. The dark, oppressing majesty and beauty of the mountains and woods pervades the whole story. Full review...
The Thirty-nine Steps by John Buchan
Ask anyone about 'The Thrity-nine Steps' and I guarantee they'll be able to tell you it's a spy story with Richard Hannay at its heart. Most people will be able to tell you how it starts. But when you ask, 'Yes, but what ARE the 39 Steps?' most people will falter. Full review...
Barefoot on Baker Street by Charlotte Anne Walters
I must admit that I think the title a little cheeky, a little too near the bone as far as the iconic Baker Street and equally iconic Sherlock Holmes is concerned. The sepia front cover suggests a rather sugary, romantic read so I wasn't off to the best of starts. Full review...
A Lost Lady of Old Years by John Buchan
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 you'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. Full review...
The Edinburgh Dead by Brian Ruckley
The phrase 'jack of all trades and master of none' can apply to writers as well as anything else and I've always been suspicious of authors who switch genres, as they often prove less effective when they do so. Sometimes, however, it does work and having enjoyed Brian Ruckley's fantasy writings such as Fall of Thanes, I found that he's equally as enjoyable when writing a crime thriller. Full review...
Cavalier Queen by Fiona Mountain
We sweep back in time to a young Henrietta. Living the spoilt and pampered life of a pretty, little princess whom everyone (even her dog) loves and adores. She spends delightfully carefree days singing and dancing and playing with her little dog. But the subject of marriage is on the horizon. She'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 and be gentle with her. It's not only a marriage of two individuals (that's almost inconsequential) it's a marriage of two nations - with strategy and long-term thinking in mind. In short, the French Royal Family want to do everything to appease other countries and hopefully keep war at bay. Full review...
The Quality of Mercy by Barry Unsworth
'The Quality of Mercy' picks up the story of the author's Booker Prize-winning 'Sacred Hunger' although if you haven't read the first book, you won't be greatly disadvantaged as the relevant story lines are explained. What you might miss out on is some of the feeling for a few of the main characters, most notably the Irish fiddler, Sullivan who, when this book picks up in spring 1767, has just escaped from prison where the remaining shipmates of the slave ship, the 'Liverpool Merchant' await their trial of piracy. Slavery and abolition thereof remains a central theme of this sequel, but the book draws some poignant similarities with those in bondage due to poverty, and particularly those working in the coal mines of County Durham. Full review...
Sworn Sword by James Aitcheson
The novel is set in the turbulent years following the Battle of Hastings. We follow the Normans as they set out to quell the restless and rebellious factions in the North of England. An ambush in Durham sees the Normans decimated and determined on revenge - this precipitates the events which follow. Full review...
Dreams of Joy by Lisa See
It's the late 1950s, and America's teenagers (the very idea a brand new concept) are beginning to live the all-American dream. For some of them however it isn't all 'Happy Days' diners and rock'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.' Full review...
Greenmantle by John Buchan
I'm told that Buchan is still widely read. Really? "John Buchan? Oh yes, he wrote The Thirty-Nine Steps"… and that's as far as most of us get. Let's be honest most of us only know that one from the many film versions, just about all of which take huge liberties with the original plot. Full review...
