|summary=Artist Michelangelo Merisi is best known by a location: Caravaggio, his home town. He grew up acquainted with the ugly side of life and death, having witnessed the plague-ridden deaths of his father and grandfather on the same day. However he was also born with the ability to create beauty in his art. He's able to make a living adorning the churches and fine houses of Rome, but Caravaggio walks a fine line. On one side is the wildness and carousing he needs to feel alive and on the other is the need to placate the powers that be. When those powers happen to be a pope who's a Borgia and a patron who's a Borgia's nephew, then the line is very fine indeed. Add complications like a beautiful woman and a life-long commitment to preserving the well being of a headstrong noble, leading him to the knights of Malta, and a life of difficulty becomes one of impossibility. Then something else happens... Caravaggio completely vanishes from history, taking the intrigue up to a whole new level.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848879199</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Austin Ratner
|title=The Jump Artist
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Austin Ratner's debut novel, ''The Jump Artist'', first published in the US in 2009, is a fictionalised account of the extraordinary life of celebrated photographer, Philippe Halsman. Born a Latvian Jew, as a young man in 1928 he was walking in the Austrian mountains when he saw his father fall to his death. This would be traumatic for anyone, but the issues were compounded when he was accused of murder by the Austrian courts in what was probably anti-semitic and certainly xenophobic in explanation. Philippe's second trial, the first failing potentially because his mother had engaged a Jewish lawyer, details the fundamental lack of evidence and shoddy police work behind the accusation.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670921599</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Theresa Breslin
|title=Spy for the Queen of Scots
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=Jenny is not only a lady-in-waiting to Mary, Queen of Scots; she's also one of her oldest and closest friends, brought up with her at the French court during Mary's long betrothal to the Dauphin. Jenny is fiercely loyal to Mary and so, when she overhears a whispered conversation about poison, she decides to turn spy for her queen. The French court is full of plotting and spying but, when Mary returns to Scotland after her young husband dies, Jenny discovers the warring clans of Scotland present her mistress with even more danger.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385617054</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Maria Duenas
|title=The Seamstress
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Raised in Spain by her mother and unaware of her father's identity, Sira moves to Morocco following her true love, only to be left stranded and alone. However, there's a kind-hearted, rough diamond of a local who, via unorthodox and downright dangerous means, pushes Sira towards reliance on the one thing she's brought from Spain: her gift with the sewing needle. This propels her into a business serving the cream of Moroccan ex-pat society, and that includes Nazi officers' wives and mistresses; a clientele that has possibilities that certain powers seem very happy to utilise.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670920029</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=L R Fredericks
|title=Farundell
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=American Paul Asher is damaged by memories and dreams originating from World War I, or at least he thinks that's where they're from. Once the war is over and, as he's estranged from his father in the US, Paul decides to remain in the UK to find work. Work comes to him as he's asked to assist Lord Percy Damory at Farundell, the Damory ancestral home. Paul's job is straightforward: Sir Percy needs someone to whom he can dictate memoirs of a well-travelled life among distant tribes. However Paul's life at Farundell will be anything but straightforward thanks to the Damorys' apparent eccentricities, an ancestor from the 18th century who refuses to be labelled as a ghost and, of course, there's Sylvie.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184854328X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=L R Fredericks
|title=Fate
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=It's the 18th century and 11 year old Francis Damory is spoken to by great great grandfather, Tobias. Nothing odd except that Tobias is dead and speaks via a portrait in Farundell, the family's Oxfordshire home. Hence begins the obsession that will take the adult Sir Francis across the world and through a lifetime of adventures to track Tobias down. The longer Francis looks, the more he realises that Great Great Grandfather isn't dead and that, therefore, Francis wants whatever he's on.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184854331X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Alissa Walser and Jamie Bulloch (translator)
|title=Mesmerized
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Celebrated scientist (at least in his own mind) Franz Anton Mesmer is called upon to cure the blindness of 18 year old piano virtuoso and courtier's daughter Marie Theresia Paradis. Despite the unease of her parents, Mesmer installs Marie into his 'magnetic hospital' where, alongside his other patients, she settles in to a regime of treatment, including free access to Mesmer's beloved piano. Mesmer is the Paradis' last resort and so they're happy to pay for success but they come to realise that the final cost may not be entirely financial and he realises that the result may not be beneficial to all parties.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857051008</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Mary Hoffman
|title=City of Swords (Stravaganza)
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=Laura's unhappiness is hidden away where no-one can see it. But she does have a release. She knows cutting herself is wrong, but the relief it provides is addictive. But Laura's secretive life is upturned by the discovery that she is a Stravagante - a person who can travel through time and space. Transported to sixteenth century Fortezza, she finds herself in the middle of a bitter battle for succession to the city's dukedom. The Stravaganti are supporting Princess Lucia but Laura also meets Ludo, the pretender, and is immediately drawn to him. And at home in Barnsbury, Laura's life is changing too, now she is a part of the time-travelling community.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408800500</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Hilary Mantel
|title=Bring up the Bodies
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Thomas Cromwell is now very far from his humble beginnings. He is Henry VIII's chief minister. Katherine of Aragorn is no longer Queen. The Princess Mary has been disinherited. Anne Boleyn wears the crown and has produced a daughter, Elizabeth. But there is no sign of a son and Henry is beginning to regret his secession from Rome. We pick up from Wolf Hall during the royal progress of 1535 and from there, we chart the destruction of the new Queen.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007315090</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Laurie Graham
|title=A Humble Companion
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=George III is unfortunately best-known for his mental instability which is a pity, because he was, in many ways, a forward thinker. One of his more-enlightened acts with regard to his own children was to appoint 'a humble companion' for his twelfth child and fifth daughter, Princess Sophia, presumably so that her life should not be limited to the cloistered residences which the Royal Family inhabited. 'Humble' is, of course a relative term and Nellie Welche was actually the daughter of a high-ranking steward in the household of the Prince of Wales, but with only two years difference in age they became life-long friends.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857387812</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Alonso Cueto and Frank Wynne (translator)
|title=The Blue Hour
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Adrian Ormache, middle class Peruvian lawyer, has a beautiful wife, two daughters of the sort to make any parent proud and a comfortable lifestyle. His parents divorced when he was small so, as he lived with his mother, he has fragmented memories of a gruff, distant dad. Despite his father's aloof, dictatorial manner, Adrian has always comforted himself with the fact he played a useful role as a land-bound naval officer, fighting Senderista terrorists for the good of Peru. After the death of his mother everything changes. Adrian finds documents that lead him away from his beliefs, towards a truth that will shatter more than his father's image.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434019410</amazonuk>
}}
