==Historical fiction==
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{{newreview
|author=Brian Ruckley
|title=The Edinburgh Dead
|rating=5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=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 by Brian Ruckley|Fall of Thanes]], I found that he's equally as enjoyable when writing a crime thriller.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498653</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Fiona Mountain
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 on crime and historical romance, there can be few avenues down which she has yet to wander.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849014795</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Margaret Dickinson
|title=Forgive and Forget
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Straight away I got the sense of this book because of its language and style. Lots of adjectives such as Polly has a ' ... fiery personality' and 'Cold fear ran through the girl's slim body.' This book is very easy to read, to get into as the tone is conversational. There are lines like 'The young girl's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open in a horrified gasp. She clutched her throat as she uttered hoarsely, 'no, oh, no!' ' This book will appeal to those readers who like a rather uncomplicated yarn but also with a good dash of romance. True escapism. Personally, the title is too slushy for me but I appreciate that it fits in nicely with the genre and also with Dickinson's style. But, I have to say, there's an awful lot of 'hearts thumping' and 'eyes blazing' - too many for me, I'm afraid.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>033051623X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sylvia Broady
|title=The Yearning Heart
|rating=3
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=It is 1941 so when an unmarried Frances Bewholme becomes pregnant she is shunned by her family and sent to an isolated farm to live and work. To add to her shame and disgrace Fran's unborn baby is not just any man's; it is her brother-in-law's. Victor Renton, home on leave from the war takes advantage of Fran one night when she comes home, upset and heartbroken.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709092113</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Maaza Mengiste
|title=Beneath the Lion's Gaze
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Ethiopia 1974. Emperor Haile Selassie is an old man barely clinging on to power. Still thought of, even by those rebelling against him, as a demi-god that they daren't disrespect let alone challenge he has held the country in thrall to his aristocratic government supported by the violence and repression of the army and the police.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099539926</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Alma Katsu
|title=The Taker
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When Dr Luke Findley begins his nightshift at Aroostook County Hospital in St Andrews, Maine, things are quiet until Lanny McIlvrae is brought in by the police. Lanny is covered in blood and claims she has killed a man and left him in the woods. Desperate to escape, Lanny quickly asks for Luke's help, but he is not sure at first, so Lanny decides to tell Luke her life story, a story that begins in the early Puritan settlement of St Andrews in 1809 and spans nearly two hundred years, taking Lanny from her home to Boston and beyond. A story that is rich, imaginative and entirely authentic, filling the majority of the novel, and there wasn't a moment when I questioned her reliability as she tells Luke everything, chapter by chapter, as he helps her to escape, slowly drawing him and the reader into her world.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846058171</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Glenn Taylor
|title=The Marrowbone Marble Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Glenn Taylor tells a big story with a deft lightness of touch. Covering the period from the early 1940s to the late 1960s, The Marrowbone Marble Company (and it's marble in the form of the glass marble game for children rather than the stone variety) tells the story of Loyal Ledford, a hard working man in West Virginia who marries the daughter of the glass factory where he works. Returning from a traumatic World War two, he decides to start his own business manufacturing marbles. If that sounds dull, it's far from it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007359071</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ellen Bryson
|title=The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno: A Love Story
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Set in the days and months following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno is an inventive and highly entertaining story of the life of the ''curiosities'' performing in the great PT Barnum's great American Museum.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330533819</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jean Teule
|title=Monsieur Montespan
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The Marquis de Montespan is totally in love with his new wife Athénaïs and she with him, so much so that when she becomes a lady in waiting at the palace of Versailles, she begs her husband to remove her in case she falls for the charms of the famous Sun King. The Marquis refuses because of the prestige and fortune her position brings them – but it's a decision he quickly regrets, as Louis XIV
indeed manages to cuckold him. With all of France talking about the new woman in the king's life, Montespan is expected to take the rewards offered to him in exchange for his wife and leave the couple alone. But many years before the French Revolution, instead he takes the unprecedented step of standing up to the king, ignoring his offers and proclaiming his cuckoldry by adding horns to his coat of arms. Can the man who's become a figure of fun throughout the country win back his wife?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906040303</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Paul R Spiring and Hugh Cooke
|title=Wheels of Anarchy by Max Pemberton
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=This mystery-adventure book was written and published around 100 years ago. Will it stand the test of time? The back cover blurb says confidently that this '' adventure story ... makes James Bond look like a stay at home ...'' Before you get into the story proper there's quite a lot of information in the introductory pages. Some of it I did find interesting (the page about Max Pemberton and Sherlock Holmes for instance) but some readers may feel a little bogged down before they've even started to read chapter one. Both Pemberton and Holmes belonged to a small, elite criminology society in London. I got the impression that the two co-compilers felt as if they had to justify themselves somehow. I ploughed on ...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907685316</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Christina Courtenay
|title=The Scarlet Kimono
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=It's 1611 and young Hannah's life in Plymouth is anything but exciting. She has a horrid elder sister to deal with, and is jealous of her brother Jacob's career aboard a merchant ship. Realising the life her parents have mapped out for her as wife to a man she loathes is not for her, Hannah decides to take action and control of her own destiny. Soon she runs away from home, disguising herself as a boy and stowing away on one of the ships under her brother's command.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906931291</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sara Sheridan
|title=Secret of the Sands
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=It's the summer of the year 1883. William Wilberforce, hero of the anti-slavery movement is enjoying a gentleman's life in London. But, far away in Abyssinia, things are far from rosy for the local people. The situation facing them is ugly and very dangerous - slavers (what a horrible word) are in the area and with the stark sentence 'It takes only seven minutes to capture almost everyone' we get the picture, loud and clear. Sheridan wastes no time in giving her readers the heart-wrenching details: the elderly are separated and treated with very little dignity (they're almost worthless, not worth the bother of transportation), the fit and healthy are singled out and lastly, the young are segregated. They are 'prized' most of all. And into this latter category falls a pretty 17 year old girl called Zena. She is spirited. She will not show any fear. She thinks for a split second of running but is intelligent enough to know that she'd be beaten severely for her sheer insubordination and probably even killed on the spot. But behind her expressive eyes she is thinking and plotting ...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847561993</amazonuk>
}}
