Newest Historical Fiction Reviews
Historical fiction
Blossoms and Shadows by Lian Hearn
I see from the front cover that Hearn is already a best-selling author with her Tales Of the Otori so I was looking forward to a good read. However, I did slump a little when I opened the book and was presented with several pages of the story's characters - sub-divided into fictional and historical. Full review...
Derby Day by D J Taylor
I read (and reviewed) Taylor's 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 meet a couple of no-gooders as they plot and scheme and it's all about horses and the Derby. 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 and calculating daughter living with her elderly father who appear right at the start of the novel. I got the sense that things were about to happen - and they certainly did. There's a strong sense of emotions just bubbling under the surface with this duo. Full review...
The Confession of Katherine Howard by Suzannah Dunn
Katherine Howard was Henry VIII's fifth wife. She was perhaps the most seductive of his wives and a considerable contrast to her predecessor, Anna of Cleves. She's been consigned to history as a silly girl, 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-grandmother'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. Full review...
Wall of Days by Alastair Bruce
The front cover of this debut novel caught my full and undivided attention with Alone, ten years on an island, until one day... I couldn't wait to start reading. We meet the central character - we don't know his name just yet and in the grand scheme of things it doesn'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. Full review...
John Shakespeare: Prince by Rory Clements
This is the third in the excellent Elizabethan murder mystery series, featuring John Shakespeare, brother of Will. An inexplicable murder is linked to a much deeper plot of political dimensions, leading Shakespeare into danger and tragedy. A series of bombings, which appear to be targeting the immigrant population causes huge unrest and fear, and leads to the uncovering of further political dimensions. Full review...
The Map of Time by Felix J Palma
Like a lot of readers I cannot resist a book with an immediate hook that draws you into the story quickly and in a seemingly effortless fashion. From the very first page of 'The Map of Time' Felix Palma had me firmly in his grasp and continued to hold me there for the entirety of the novel. Not once did I become bored or distracted as I relished every word, page and chapter of this remarkable book. Full review...
The Golden Chain by Margaret James
It's 1931 and teenager Daisy Denham, along with her parents Alex and Rose, and two brothers have left their life in India and moved to Melbury House in Dorset, a place full of history for Alex and Rose. Daisy is not keen on her new life and surroundings and is desperate to escape, particularly when she discovers a long held family secret that casts a shadow across her past. She soon meets handsome Ewan Fraser, a young man forced to spend his holidays in Dorset thanks to his overbearing mother, and the two strike up an instant friendship that soon turns to love, spurred on by their joint interest in working on the stage. Ewan soon gives Daisy a golden chain and Daisy promises never to take it off. Full review...
The Doctor and the Diva by Adrienne McDonnell
We first meet one of the central characters, the successful, young obstetrician Dr Ravell as he mingles with the great and the good Bostonians at a high-level social gathering. His reputation seems to precede him as one guest enthuses 'After nineteen years in a barren marriage ... thanks to you, they had twins.' High praise indeed. And at this gathering he not only meets a future patient, Erika von Kessler, but he is also enraptured by her singing voice. He tries to explain all this but finds it difficult so ends up by saying 'It was not an earthly voice; it was a shimmering.' I loved that line. Full review...
River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh
At over 500 pages, this is a big book and it's also a big book in terms of the subject matters that it covers; the whole colonial situation regarding parts of the East as well as the properties and problems of the poppy's product - opium. Ghosh also crams in a wealth of very different and diverse characters so that the novel has the feel of an exotic and at times, enchanting pot-pourri 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 in my ever-growing 'to read' pile. I wonder if the latter will be as wordy as the former. Time to find out... Full review...
Ruby's Spoon by Anna Lawrence Pietroni
“This is the tale of three women – one witch, one mermaid and one missing – and how Ruby was caught up in between”.
Despite the opening, this novel is more gritty realism than fantasy – there is lots of mythical imagery but in truth, the setting for this novel is a small industrial town cut off from everywhere else by the surrounding canals. It is 1933 (the middle of the Great Depression), and a stranger arrives in town to turn Ruby’s life upside down, for better or worse. Full review...
The Fox in the Attic by Richard Hughes
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 (I'm getting into the language, you'll notice) place in the family dynasty. Full review...
Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
Let's start, as Geraldine Brooks has, with a fact: in 1665 the first Native American, Caleb Cheeshateaumauk, graduated from Harvard College. Around this, Brooks has created a wholly fictional story (the known facts are so few that this is largely unavoidable). The stroke of genius here is to put the story into the words of the entirely fictitious Bethia Mayfield, the daughter of an English minister on what we now call Martha's Vinyard, where Caleb lived in the Wampanoag tribe. At various points in her life, Bethia sets down events concerning her early secret friendship with Caleb on the island, to accompanying him and her brother to Harvard and the subsequent events. Full review...
The Heart Specialist by Claire Holden Rothman
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 behaviour, 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 medicine. It must be in the blood, in the genes. If 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 of her? The norm is marriage and a family, this medical nonsense must be stamped out. It's out of the question. This profession is strictly for the men. Try telling that to Agnes. Full review...
Devil's Consort by Anne O'Brien
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 this request to marry her to his pious son Louis VII. When her new father in law passes away, the young woman becomes Queen of France and is determined to safeguard her precious lands from all who want to take them – even if it leads to conflict with her weak-willed husband. Then she meets the Count of Anjou, Geoffrey Plantagenet, and his son Henry… Full review...
The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton by Elizabeth Speller
I reviewed and thoroughly enjoyed Speller's The Return Of Captain John Emmett so I 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 book, it was a good start. Full review...
Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch
The novel is written in the first person by a young boy called Jaffy. He describes the poverty of his life at home which includes the delightful line 'We lived in the crow's nest of Mrs Reagan's house.' He also describes his struggling mother and his absent father. But I got the sense that here was a bright and resilient boy. Full review...
The Gallow's Curse by Karen Maitland
This is the eagerly anticipated, 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), that I would be moved to give a 5 star rating to any novel - but this one richly deserves the highest of accolades. Full review...
The Sky's Dark Labyrinth by Stuart Clark
This book is heavily based on fact. All of the characters are real people - apart from one. Some of us may be familiar with the names of Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler (due 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 and appreciated was the line on the book's front cover which said 'Knowledge can be a dangerous thing.' Full review...
The Travelling Matchmaker: Emily Goes to Exeter by M C Beaton
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 on crime and historical romance, there can be few avenues down which she has yet to wander. Full review...
Forgive and Forget by Margaret Dickinson
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. Full review...
The Yearning Heart by Sylvia Broady
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. Full review...
Beneath the Lion's Gaze by Maaza Mengiste
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. Full review...
The Taker by Alma Katsu
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. Full review...
The Marrowbone Marble Company by Glenn Taylor
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. Full review...
The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno: A Love Story by Ellen Bryson
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. Full review...
Monsieur Montespan by Jean Teule
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? Full review...
Wheels of Anarchy by Max Pemberton by Paul R Spiring and Hugh Cooke
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 ... Full review...
The Scarlet Kimono by Christina Courtenay
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. Full review...
Secret of the Sands by Sara Sheridan
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 ... Full review...
Breaking Bamboo by Tim Murgatroyd
Summer 1266, Nancheng in Central China and Doctor Shih is struggling to cope with the monsoon season, when he gets a midnight summons to Peacock Hill: ancient palace complex and now home to the Pacification Commissioner, his wife, concubines and various officials and hangers on. Wang Ting-bo's only son and heir is apparently dying and all the great and good of the medical guild are unable to save him. They recommend the employment of magicians in the hope of driving out the evil spirits. Full review...
Watson's Afghan Adventure by Kieran McMullen
In truth, I could write this review in two words = (oh dear) and be done with it. But I'd better be fair and put some meat on those bones. Where to start... With its dark, almost apocalyptic front cover this book looks very much like a 'man's' book. That's fine but is this what McMullen wants? Is he happy to discard some or even perhaps most of the female reading population in one fell swoop? It appears so. Now I know that this is a historical yarn but even so, given the current situation in Afghanistan with British and American Troops, the word 'adventure' in the title doesn't sit easily with me. If I saw this book on a bookstore shelf, I would feel a little uncomfortable. Not a good start ... and it's generally downhill from here, I'm afraid. Full review...
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink and Carol Brown Janeway
It's West Germany, 1958. A 15-year-old schoolboy, Michael Berg, is suffering a long bout of hepatitis. When he recovers he returns to the flat of a tram conductor, 36-year-old Hanna Schmitz, to thank her for taking care of him the day he fell sick. The two of them begin a secret affair that becomes a routine for months: after school and work, Michael would read to her, and then they would make love and bathe each other. Both of them fall in love. Full review...
Treason by Berlie Doherty
Forced by his power-hungry aunt and uncle to leave the comfort of his modest family home, Will Montague finds himself utterly overwhelmed, as he works as a page to Prince Edward under the keen eye of the temperamental King Henry, just as prone to unexpected bursts of compassion as he is to brutal cruelty. Just as he begins to find his feet in this new position, Will finds himself suddenly on the run, desperately trying to clear the name of his father, convicted of treason for failing to revert to the Protestantism led by the King, and simultaneously gaining more awareness of the world he lives in and the plights of the working class. Full review...
The Kydd Inheritance by Jan Jones
Nell's Kydd's father died in a hunting accident and her brother, Kit was uncontactable, seemingly lost, on his way back from India. This left her uncle, Jasper Kydd in charge of the family estate and he appeared to be doing all in his power to wreck Kydd Court and make Nell's life a misery. Her mother coped with it all by retreating into her own world, where she couldn't be reached either. When an unwelcome offer of marriage is forced upon her, Nell knows that she has to take action and that's when the very unsettling Captain Hugo Derringer arrives. He's an old friend of Kitt's, but what exactly is he doing in the area and can Nell trust him? Full review...
The de Lacy Inheritance by Elizabeth Ashworth
Set in England in 1192, the novel is full of details of life in this period, and resists the temptation to get overtly bogged down in excessive political detail, which makes this a very accessible read to those (like myself) who are not too knowledgeable about this particular historical period. Returning from the Crusades, Richard is forced to leave his family and atone for the sins which he believes has lead to him being afflicted with leprosy. Undertaking a quest to his grandmother's nearby cousin (who is childless, so grandmother wants Richard to present her case for inheriting his lands), Richard finds refuge here. This point struck me as odd - almost jarring in it's unlikelihood. Not only does Richard find help/support/refuge here (whilst remaining unknown to all except the cousin and his wife), but he's virtually welcomed with open arms. Would an itinerant leper be treated in this way? It did add a note of discord to the narrative - as if the quest for inheritance was more important that his trials as a leper. Full review...
South Riding by Winifred Holtby
The central character is a single woman in her middle years who relishes the chance to return to her roots in the tight-knit South Riding community. She's ambitious and well-travelled and has tasted life and work in bustling, cosmopolitan London. So it would appear that her pull back home is very strong indeed. But, you have to ask yourself the question, who would choose to give up this stimulating life down south and return up north? One Sarah Burton, schoolteacher with promotion in her mind, that's who. Everything depends on Sarah actually getting this job. And straight away, Holtby gives us the low-down on the collective mentality of local government. Yes, narrow-minded, parochial, dull - it's all of those things and more. But not everyone is a political 'sheep'. There's one or two who can see the bigger picture and can look beyond personal gain. Full review...
Dark Fire by C J Sansom
1540 was the hottest summer of the sixteenth century but Matthew Shardlake was doing his best to hold his legal practice together, which was made more difficult by the fact that he believed himself to be out of favour with Thomas Cromwell. He tried to keep a low profile but when he defended the accused in a most unpopular case – that of a girl accused of brutally murdering her cousin – he found that the king's chief minister had a new assignment for him. Unless he could solve Cromwell's problem his client was likely to die a slow and nasty death. Full review...
The Oracle of Stamboul by Michael David Lukas
The book is set in the Ottoman Empire and the reader is given a potted history of those times,. Wars, troops, Rome and the Byzantines all get a passing mention ... and a baby called Eleonora is born. Sadly, her mother does not make it and it's left to her father to bring her up. He struggles and decides the best thing for himself, but more importantly, for his young daughter, is to enter into a marriage of convenience with a member of his extended family. Domestic life rumbles along, but underneath the surface, things are brewing ... Full review...
A Study in Crimson by Molly Carr
As soon as I read the blurb on the back cover I thought there's no doubting that this book is going to be one of those delightful romps, shall we say. Carr takes the famous and much-loved and much-read detective Holmes along with his trusty, if rather dull and plodding side-kick Watson and decides to have a bit of fun. But will it work? Full review...
