Newest Historical Fiction Reviews
Historical fiction
Hurricane Hole by John Kerr
In 1942 German U-boats were wreaking havoc with Allied shipping in the Caribbean. Tom Hamilton, a young American working undercover and posing as a rich playboy, was sent to the Bahamas to investigate Nils Ericsson, a Swedish industrialist. Sweden might have been neutral in the war but Ericsson was known to have ties to the Nazis. It wasn't long before Hamilton was certain that Ericsson was building a base for U-boats at Hurricane Hole on Hog Island. The problem was what to do about it. The Governor of the Bahamas was the Duke of Windsor, friend of Ericsson and himself a suspected Nazi sympathiser. As an added complication Hamilton was attracted to Evelyn Shawcross but as she was a friend of both the Governor and Ericsson, could he trust her? Full review...
The Descent of the Lyre by Will Buckingham
Seventeen year old Ivan Gelski, the much loved son of Bulgarian peasant parents, has his bride to be and future snatched from him brutally just before his wedding. Full of rage and vengeance, he leaves his close knit village to join the haiduti, a savage band of outlaws who kill mercilessly in order to acquire food and survival. Years later, on one of these killing sprees, Ivan encounters Solomon Kuretic, a Viennese Jew and guitar virtuoso on his way to play for the Sultan in Constantinople. Solomon must play for his life but, by doing so, he sends Ivan on a journey of his own spreading across Europe and into saintly veneration. Full review...
The Gilded Lily by Deborah Swift
In Restoration England, Sadie Appleby and her older sister Ella flee their home in Westmorland to try to lose themselves in London. They're forced to try and avoid the relatives of the dead man who Ella robbed and build a new life, but things aren't always what they seem in the capital and they're left trying to work out just who they can trust. Full review...
The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin
The subject matter for Colm Tóibín's 'The Testament of Mary' is exactly what the title suggests in that it relates Mary's feelings about the death of her son, Jesus, whose name it hurts her too much to even mention. It's a curiously slight offering though. Its 100 odd pages lands it somewhere between short story and novella territory. Even so, with Tóibín's excellence as a writer and the emotive subject matter, I expected to be more engaged with the story than I was. Full review...
John Saturnall's Feast by Lawrence Norfolk
John Saturnall’s mother is a healer and herbalist. It was all too easy in the 1620’s for women with her skills to come under suspicion of witchcraft. When John and his mother are hounded from their village by religious extremists the Lessoners, they hide in Buccla’s Wood. But as winter takes a grip on the land John’s mother dies. John is taken in to work in the kitchens at Buckland Manor. His progress from scullery boy to cook is graphically recorded alongside his prickly relationship with the daughter of the house, Lucretia. The story takes the couple through the years of the civil war, when life at Buckland comes under threat from the advancing Puritan army. Full review...
The Exhibitionists by Russell James
On one particular London night in 1834 three children start a journey that will mould their futures. Newly born Maddy is abandoned in Mrs Cuthbertson's establishment (a thinly veiled baby farm) causing Maddy to spend years looking for the reasons that led her there. Baby Sam is fished out of the Thames and grows with a burning desire to uncover the truth, shaping his career as a journalist. Meanwhile Hannah is conceived that night by two people fated to live lives that don't coincide, until… Full review...
Huracan by Diana McCaulay
1986 – 30-year-old Leigh McCaulay (White gal!) is returning to Jamaica, the land of her birth. Her mother is dead and there is an estate to be settled. Her estranged father is somewhere on the island. Her brother is in England. This isn't the closest of grieving families. Leigh doesn't even know how her mother died. Indeed, she's a bit surprised to find out she'd gone back to Jamaica. The residual family had left the island not long after the father's desertion. Full review...
1356 by Bernard Cornwell
Sir Thomas Hookton, aka Le Batard (a French word that's very similar in English, if you see what I mean) roams France with his band of mercenaries, acquiring plundered riches and selling their services in the war against the French. However, Thomas' liege, Lord William Bohun, Earl of Northampton, disrupts the combative equilibrium when demands a diversion. Monks are spreading stories about 'La Malice', (the sword with which St Peter defended Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane) and with it the power to bless or curse the owner, depending who you listen to. So Lord 'Billy' wants it and La Batard must find it. Meanwhile Sir Thomas has competition as unsavoury elements in the church create a special order of knights. They mean to find it first, by foul means or even fouler. Full review...
The Lives She Left Behind by James Long
Jo has always been an odd child, talking to her imaginary friend Gally from almost as soon as she could talk. Her widowed mother drags her from doctor to therapist until medication becomes the only answer. It provides peace for Jo's mother but pushes the teenage Jo into a shady half-existence. Meanwhile somewhere else, Luke is also a teenager leading a half-life as he co-exists with his mother and her disdainful, temperamental partner. Luke feels more at home in the great outdoors than under a roof and gradually comes to realise why. They may have lived this long unaware of each other, but Luke's and Jo's worlds collide one summer at an archaeological dig and what they discover is beyond their wildest imaginings. Full review...
Saxon: The Book of Dreams (Saxon 1) by Tim Severin
Sigwulf is the Saxon prince of a small kingdom - that is, until the ruthless King Offa of Mercia slaughters his family. He is saved from execution for a single purpose - to be shipped off to the court of King Carolus of the Franks. Sigwulf quickly befriends the Kings nephew, Count Hroundland, a powerful and very ambitious man. However, just as quickly Sigwulf survives an attempt on his life, he also finds he has been thrown into a world of deceit and vain ambitions. Only Osric, Sigwulf's crippled personal slave, can be trusted. Full review...
The Year After by Martin Davies
Captain Tom Allen is home from World War I. Whilst waiting to be demobbed, he receives an invitation to attend the annual Christmas house-party at Hannesford Court, the stately home of Sir Robert and Lady Stansbury. He used to look forward to it before joining up and so decides to attend again, but everything has changed. The Stansbury's heir, Harry, and son-in-law, Oliver, were killed and second son, Reggie Stansbury, remains in a nursing home with no legs and dwindling self-respect. Whilst coming to terms with the devastating realisation that he's one of the very few men in their set to return alive and entire, Tom remembers pre-war Hannesford and the night when his friend Professor Schmidt died at such a gathering. Everyone believes it was unsuspicious but gradually things are coming to light that hint of hidden secrets. Along with her Ladyship's former companion, Anne (who has issues of her own), Tom decides to investigate as truths are exhumed, making him doubt whether those happier times were as idyllic as he remembers. Full review...
The Stockholm Octavo by Karen Engelmann
As a Customs and Excise 'Sekretaire' in 18th century Stockholm, Emil Larsson has all he needs: professional respect, a bachelor's lifestyle and a table at Mrs Sparrow's gaming house whenever he fancies his luck. Contrastingly, his superiors at work feel he's missing a certain something. In order to climb further up the career ladder (maybe even to maintain his current position) Emil needs to marry. His manager believes this so fervently that there's a deadline for the wedding. Emil panics but Mrs Sparrow offers to lay an 'Octavo', a fortune-telling spread of eight cards to guide him to the eight people who will ensure his success. However, not all goes to plan as, over the eight nights it takes to complete the Octavo, it becomes apparent that the prediction isn't for Emil's future, but has become an Octavo to save the whole of Sweden. Full review...
Eleven Eleven by Paul Dowswell
It's 2am in Paris on Tuesday 11th November 1918. Negotiations for ending World War I are almost complete and both sides will announce the Armistice at 11am. But the people actually fighting the war don't know that yet... Full review...
Time's Echo by Pamela Hartshorne
Grace Trewe has temporarily moved to York to sort out the affairs of her godmother, Lucy, who died suddenly. After surviving the Indonesian tsunami the previous Christmas, Grace has decided to live life to the full and plans more travelling once Lucy's house is sold. She hasn’t a care or a tie in the world, as long as she doesn't remember little Lucas back on that Christmas beach. As it turns out, that's not the only thing she needs to avoid. Strange, horrific dreams disrupt her sleep and vivid daydreams start to attack her waking moments as 21st century York keeps fading to be replaced by its 16th century streets. Grace will be fine though; it's just stress and her oddly acquired knowledge of the past is just a coincidence, or so says seemingly kindly neighbour, historian and single father Drew. Meanwhile, 500 years before, there was a woman named Hawise who met a terrible death… Full review...
Scramasax: The Viking Sagas, Book Two by Kevin Crossley-Holland
We left Solveig finally reunited with her Viking father, after a journey that took her all the way from her Scandinavian home to Miklagard (Constantinople). There, her father is in the service of Harald Hardrada, who in turn serves the Empress Zoe. Zoe's court is a dangerous place, full of spies and prisoners and instant punishment by death - for the smallest of transgressions. So Solveig needs to learn fast if she is to persuade Harald to allow her to stay with the Viking guard. Full review...
Ferney by James Long
History lecturer Michael Martin thought that the chance of love and marriage had passed him by. Then Gally, a history nut and lecture gate crasher, attended one of his lectures and dared to contradict him. Contradiction led to courtship and the marriage that had previously seemed so elusive but despite their love and accompanying emotional security, Gally has a dark subconscious that haunts her. She's unsettled by repeating nightmares and, worse, night terrors that can't be explained by counsellors' logic. However when Mike and Gally find their (or rather, Gally's) ideal home in the shape of a derelict cottage in the Somerset village of Penselwood, Gally's nightmares are augmented by a strong feeling of déjà vu. Meanwhile the Martins seem to have developed a benevolent stalker in the shape of aged local Ferney Miller. Mike considers him a bit of a pain while for Gally he represents something else entirely; something that she can't explain nor understand but will become a threat to her marital happiness and Michael's peace of mind. Full review...
Philida by Andre Brink
Philida falls in love with Frans, the son of Cornelis Brink and they have four children together creating a tragedy on two counts: only two children survive and their love is troubled. For this is South Africa in 1830 and Philida is only the Brinks' 'knit girl': a slave specialising in the family's knitting. Full review...
Huntingtower by John Buchan
Dickson McCunn is on his travels through rural Scotland when he meets a man he doesn't warm to at first, by the name of John Heritage. They are quite chalk and cheese – McCunn an older man, who has only just sold up his very well-known Glasgow grocery shop and made this trip his first steps into retirement on a complete whim. Heritage is younger, English, and a soldier. McCunn seems the old Romantic, Heritage modern poetry in contrast. But when they meet up it's at the edge of the Huntingtower estate, a coastal country house, guarded by suspicious landlords turning guests away and unfriendly foreign types, and found to contain a young beauty who just happens to be the love of Heritage's life, since they met a few years previous. She is being coerced into staying against her will, but lo and behold – the cynical Heritage can come over all chivalrous and try and rescue her – with desperate consequences for both men… Full review...
The Potter's Hand by A N Wilson
The man of clay that A N Wilson throws onto his storytelling wheel in The Potter's Hand is the great Josiah Wedgwood, but this is much more than a historic telling of his life. Indeed, Josiah already has a thriving business at the start of the book. What Wilson does particularly impressively is to put Wedgwood's achievement and works into the context of the politics and social philosophy of the times, sandwiched between the two great revolutions in America and France. In order to do this, Wilson has to play slightly loose with artistic licence by altering dates and time lines a bit, but it works well. He also balances the real historic figures with several key figures of his own invention and where the historic figures don't quite fit with his narrative, he alters their ages and invents 'facts' to the benefit of the fictional narrative. Full review...
The Gap in the Curtain by John Buchan
A short stay with friends in society for Sir Edward Leithen is just what he needs, being an overworked MP and lawyer. Among the collection of fellow guests, some of whom he knows and some he doesn't, is the extraordinary mind of Professor Moe, a scientist who decides to select some of the houseguests as subjects for his latest experiment. He declares that he can make sure they can see into the future, and the people he chooses – for various reasons – do indeed get a mental snatch of The Times newspaper exactly a year into their future, and what's more, one that comes completely true – either for good or bad… Full review...
Spartacus the Gladiator by Ben Kane
Given Ben Kane's tendency to write strong characters who rebel against their Roman leaders, it's perhaps slightly predictable that he should take on the story of Spartacus, who led a slaves' rebellion against Rome. This is, perhaps, the only thing you can say about Kane's writing that is predictable. Full review...
Canvas Under The Sky by Robin Binckes
Rauch Beukes is a 17 year old Boer lad living with his family on the Eastern Cape frontier in Africa. Sadly for them, the year is 1834: not a good time as the Boers live under the dictates of the British and in fear of indigenous local tribes. This becomes all too real to Rauch when, returning from a trip with his father, he discovers a smouldering heap where his home once stood and a row of graves bearing the remains of his mother and sisters. Wanting a better life, a group of farmers decide to travel towards Africa's southern interior to establish a self-determining Boer homeland and so Rauch, his father and brothers join them feeling they have nothing to lose. The momentum grows and the migration will become known as 'The Great Trek', a tough, dangerous period of South African history, challenging Rauch's strength, courage and a fair bit of his libido. Full review...
Merivel: A Man of His Time by Rose Tremain
Rose Tremain has made fans of her 1989 book Restoration wait for a long time before picking up the story of Sir Robert Merivel. Almost as much time has passed in Merivel's world with the book opening in 1683. Leaving a follow up so long can be fraught with danger. For those, like me, who loved Restoration at the time, the memory of its central character has grown in fondness over time while some of the detail has been inevitably lost to memory. Thankfully, this is one of those rare things in literature; a very good follow up. Full review...
The Liars' Gospel by Naomi Alderman
In The Liars' Gospel, Naomi Alderman gives the perspective of four people on the recent death of a Jewish man named Yehoshuah, who is more commonly known these days by the anglicized name of Jesus. These perspectives include Miryam (Mary), the teacher's mother, Iehuda of Qeriot (Judas Iscariot), a one time follower of the man, Caiaphas, the High Priest of the great Temple in Jerusalem and finally Bar-Avo, Barabbas, a rebel who is determined to bring down the occupying Roman presence. What makes this such a remarkable book is the sheer visceral nature of the story telling. Each story is vividly told, and Alderman evokes the time and place to such a level that you half expect to have developed a sun tan while reading the book. Full review...
The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson
1610s Lancashire, and Alice Nutter is the best landowner you could wish for. Single, rich and connected, she takes no sides in the religious schisms James I has inherited, and takes no bull from those trying to oppress the poor, putting them up and feeding them when no-one else will. But those poor are seen as sinful by others - amoral, dirty in mind, body and spirit, and in league with the devil. And people are beginning to question Alice's attitudes, choice of company - and ageless beauty. This, then, is the based-on-truth story of how Alice Nutter got to be one of the accused in the Pendle Witch trials. Full review...
The Painted Bridge by Wendy Wallace
Young bride Anna Palmer places her trust in all the wrong people. One choice that backfires spectacularly is her impulsive marriage to the Reverend Vincent Palmer. Less than a year after their marriage he tells her that they are going to visit some of his friends at a place called Lake House. But Lake House is a privately run asylum 'for genteel women of a delicate nature'. Once there Anna discovers that she is not allowed to leave without Vincent's approval. Full review...
Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling by Michael Boccacino
Widowed under tragic circumstances, Charlotte Markham needs an income and so she's employed by widower Henry Darrow as a governess for his sons James and Paul. Their home 'Everton' may seem a typical Victorian mansion but the town of Blackfield isn't your average English small town; the Darrow's Nanny Prum is found murdered in a particularly grisly manner. It's a mystery to the local police but Charlotte's friend Susannah has a clue if only they'd listen to her. Meanwhile the Darrow boys' nights are spent dreaming of a house in the woods where their mother still lives. Charlotte decides to treat this head on and takes them for a walk to show them there's no substance to it. However, in doing so they discover the nightmare that is The House of Darkling. Full review...
Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy 2) by Deborah Harkness
Shadow of Night moves on from where A Discovery of Witches finishes. Matthew Claremont (vampire, intellectual and, even after centuries of life, still looking a pretty decent 37 years old) and Diana Bishop (historian and witch with a pedigree stretching back to the Salem witch trials) are married and have time-walked to 1591 to look for Ashmole 782, the ancient book that Diana let slip through her fingers in 2010. They also need to find Diana a tutor to help her control the powers that she's chosen to ignore for a lifetime. There aren't just supernatural items on the agenda though; Diana thought she knew all there was to know about her new spouse but there are secrets to be discovered, his connection to the historic 'School of the Night' being one of the less dangerous. Oh, and another thing, they discover that the 16th century isn't, perhaps, the best time to visit if you're a witch, especially if you need to advertise for a tutor. (I think we could have told them that if they'd asked!) Full review...
Dark Thread by Pauline Chandler
Kate is an artisan weaver, like her mother. But she is so full of grief and guilt that she can't even think about returning to her craft. Because Kate's mother died in a road accident and Kate thinks it was all her fault. And, all of a sudden, everything gets too much - the kindly-meant but oppressive sympathy - and Kate collapses. She wakes, still at the mill, but in a long-past time. Here, Kate must learn to weave the dark threads of her life into its overall picture. Until she does, she can't return home... Full review...
The Heat of the Sun by David Rain
David Rain is far too young to be writing this exquisitely. That's all I'm going to say.
Oh, you need me to justify that comment? Full review...
The Conductor by Sarah Quigley
Composer Dmitri Shostakovich can block anything out whilst he's writing music: his wife Nina's voice, his children arguing, even the side effects of living in Stalinist Leningrad. However, life is about to become more than an annoying distraction from music as Germany declares war on Russia and gradually initiates what history will come to know as the Siege of Leningrad. Shostakovich then realises, just as gradually, that his music may serve a purpose to sustain his compatriots in the absence of sufficient food and hope. His Seventh Symphony becomes a protest against oppression, but he needs an orchestra to play it and the top musicians have been evacuated to save the country's cultural heritage. He therefore turns to Karl Eliasberg, the aspiring but third rate conductor of a cobbled together orchestra. Music can create miracles but, for Eliasberg and his musicians, being able to play it will be the biggest miracle of all. Full review...
The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco
If the popular press is to be believed, then those of us who write book reviews do so to show off our own (non-existent) talents as writers whilst trying to condemn the abilities of far greater worth.
Well, not quite.
I would not pretend to have a tiny iota-fragment of the talent that Umberto Eco has. Nor would I seek to decry his latest opus.
On the other hand, I am an ordinary reader – one moreover that enjoyed The Name of the Rose immensely – and I really struggled with The Prague Cemetery. I didn't struggle to get through it. It is actually quite an easy read, if you just read the surface of it. I did struggle to see the point of it. It may well just be me. I put my hands up. Full review...
A Name in Blood by Matt Rees
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. Full review...
