Tag Archives: historical fiction

#BookReview ‘Leeward’ by Katie Daysh #historicalfiction #adventure #navalwarfare

#BookReview ‘The Players’ by Minette Walters #historicalfiction

Minette Walters is such a skilled storyteller, I savour any new historical novel. The Players doesn’t disappoint. England in 1685 is in the aftermath of the Duke of Monmouth’s failed rebellion. King James II is still on the throne and in search of vengeance. It was unexpected and delightful to find myself in the company again of Dorset physician Lady Jayne Harrier, last seen in The Swift and the Harrier. As always, Walters takes the clinical historical facts and adds likeable, and detestable, characters that make you care and challenge your assumptions. Lord Granville, Jayne’s son Elias, is a fabulous character. A spy who operates in the shadows, a political agitator, an inventor, a man of the people. He is his mother’s son. With his mother and neighbour Althea Ettrick, a young woman with a phenomenal legal brain, they hatch a plan to thwart the king’s cruel and unjust punishment regime for the Monmouth traitors.
Thousands in the south-west are destined to be judged guilty without trial and sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered. The king dispatches his judge with an impossible timetable of trials and hangings. Elias, Jayne and Althea set out to rescue as many as they can, recognising that not all can be saved. Their plotting, bravery, imagination and willingness to challenge the status quo is uplifting to read, though I admit at times Althea’s legal arguments left me spinning. Walters populates the Harrier and Ettrick households with a community of people who each bring something to the fight, loyal to the cause, all with a solid sense of what should be done. And when Lady Harrier dismisses everyone’s hatred of Judge Jeffreys, the ‘Hanging Judge’, and treats him when he is in extreme pain, we learn to look at the person behind the words, to look for explanations for behaviour and cruelty.
Meticulously researched. Hard to put down. This is a powerful story asking questions about justice, tolerance and forgiveness in the aftermath of war that resonate across the centuries. A sequel to The Swift and the Harrier, The Players can be read as a standalone novel.
Excellent.

Read my reviews of other historical novels by Minette Walters:-
THE LAST HOURS #1BLACKDEATH
THE TURN OF MIDNIGHT #2BLACKDEATH
THE SWIFT AND THE HARRIER

If you like this, try:-
‘The Witchfinder’s Sister’ by Beth Underdown
‘The Ashes of London’ by Andrew Taylor #1FIREOFLONDON
‘Plague Land’ by SD Sykes #1OSWALDDELACY

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COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘The Shadows of Men’ by Abir Mukherjee @radiomukhers #crime #historical #India #Raj

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Calcutta 1923. The Shadows of Men by Abir Mukherjee, fifth in the excellent Raj-era crime series, begins four years after the first book. A lot has happened in Calcutta since 1919, India is evolving as the power balance changes and the country edges towards the end of British rule. And the relationship between the two policemen is shifting too. It is significant that The Shadows of Men switches narrator back and forth between Captain Sam Wyndham and Sergeant Surendranath Banerjee, and that the first chapter begins with Suren. With Gandhi in prison, the independence movement is fighting internally, local elections have enforced divisions between Hindus and Moslims, high caste and low caste, landowners and peasants, neighbour against neighbour, gangster against gangster. Unknown to Sam, police commissioner Lord Taggart orders Suren to follow a visiting muslim politician. And then Suren is arrested for murder.
Unsure who to trust, Sam must identify the real murderer to clear Suren’s name. What follows is a search for the truth, a chase west across India from Calcutta to Bombay. At risk is not only a temporary calming in Calcutta, which is a powder keg waiting to explode, but also the fate of Indian politics. Will Suren hang for murder. Can Sam unravel the tangled clues to find who is killing who. And is there a traitor at police headquarters.
In this book, Suren is given his voice and we see for the first time the depth of his passion for his country, his pride in being a policeman, and the red lines he will not cross.
What an excellent series this is. A rollercoaster of a novel with a cliffhanger ending that was most unexpected. Next is The Burning Grounds.

Here are my reviews of the first four books in the Wyndham & Banerjee series:-
A RISING MAN #1WYNDHAM&BANERJEE
A NECESSARY EVIL #2WYNDHAM&BANERJEE
SMOKE AND ASHES #3WYNDHAM&BANERJEE
DEATH IN THE EAST #4WYNDHAM&BANERJEE

If you like this, try:-
‘Darktown’ by Thomas Mullen
‘I Refuse’ by Per Petterson
‘The Killing Lessons’ by Saul Black

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#BookReview THE SHADOWS OF MEN by Abir Mukherjee @radiomukhers https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-8J7 via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘Peace and Love’ by JC Harvey @JCollissHarvey #historical

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Peace and Love by JC Harvey is third in the Jack Fiskardo historical adventure series but is a step aside from Jack’s story. It takes place in another century, telling the tale of the grandson of one of Jack’s rogues. I didn’t know what to expect, it is charming and short; only 125 pages. In Uppsala province, Sweden in 1720, Magnus, the grandson of Jack Fiskardo’s youthful ensign, Karl-Christian von Lindeborg, is high-born, rich and alone. His bones ache. He is an old soldier with no place in the world. He drifts around his empty castle as day merges into day, emotionally shuttered to those around him. And then into his life with a bang arrives a ward, a young girl, the grand-daughter of his childhood teacher, Dr Excelsior, recently deceased. Magnus, who has never interracted with children, takes Elise into his castle, tells her she is safe and then forgets about her. Elise finds a place with the staff but feels adrift. Both know the situation is unsatisfactory, neither knows how to change it. Until one night, Elise sleepwalks and the two shy, introverted people begin to talk.
When the count’s sister arrives at the remote castle for a visit, she tells him Elise needs proper parenting as she is approaching marriageable age. And so Elise returns to Uppsala with Margrit and everything changes. The count’s life is empty again, without purpose. ‘And he missed her. No sooner was he accustomed to her than she was gone. He missed her more than if he had known her all her life; precisely because she had been plucked away when he had hardly come to know her at all.’
Peace and Love is a charming, unexpected step aside from the tales of Jack Fiskardo. There is a fleeting mention of Jack, a louring portrait in a long gallery, surrounded by his fellow fighters.
Next in the series is The Wanton Road.

Here are my reviews of the Jack Fiskardo series:-
THE SILVER WOLF #1FISKARDO’SWAR
THE DEAD MEN #2FISKARDO’SWAR

If you like this, try:-
‘Rush Oh!’ by Shirley Barrett
‘Orphans of the Carnival’ by Carol Birch
‘At the Edge of the Orchard’ by Tracy Chevalier

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#BookReview PEACE AND LOVE by JC Harvey @JCollissHarvey https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-8IH via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘The Indigo Ghosts’ by Alys Clare #historical #mystery

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This series keeps getting better and better, The Indigo Ghosts by Alys Clare is so captivating I read it in twenty-four hours, picking it up at every opportunity. Third in the Gabriel Tavernier historical mystery series, former ship’s surgeon and now Devon doctor Gabriel faces an inexplicable case that challenges all he believes in, and all he knows to be scientifically true. October 1604. Called urgently by his old captain, Zeke Colt, to visit his former ship the Falco, now docked in Plymouth, Gabe walks into an atmosphere of fear, panic and superstition. The ship, everyone on board says, is haunted by a bad spirit, malevolent, making everyone ill. There have been deaths, visions, blue-skinned ghosts, a disgusting miasma that has overwhelmed the air.
Firmly disbelieving the ghost theory, Gabe is confident there will be a factual, scientific answer. But exploring the darkest, tiniest space in the hold – three paces by two – he discovers the source of the stink, finds a dead body, and sees a crocodile. Gabe returns to the Falco the next day with local coroner, his friend Theophilus Davey, and the body is removed for examination. Meanwhile the ship’s crew empty the barrel of waste and clean the area. More discoveries are made, nothing makes sense.
A trail of discoveries unveils an explanation both rational and wild. There is talk of spirits, possession, dark magic and cruelty impossible to imagine. In search of facts, Gabe traces the Falco’s final journey around the Caribbean and back home to Devon, and then re-reads the journals he kept when he was a young seafaring doctor sailing the Caribbean Sea. A solution suggests itself but seems too far-fetched to be possible. Assisted by the silent detection of Theo’s assistant, spiritual support and guidance from the local minister, and suggestions from his sister Celia, Gabe edges towards an answer.
A smashing book. The Indigo Ghosts is a tale of slavery, torture, fear and the worst that man can do to man. It’s about faith and what it can make a man do. And its about the goodness of Gaberiel Taverner, searching for the truth while defending his family and loved ones. This is a very readable series, a bit different from anything else out there that I’ve found.

Here are my reviews of the first two novels in this series:-
A RUSTLE OF SILK BY ALYS CLARE #1GABRIELTAVERNER
THE ANGEL IN THE GLASS #2GABRIELTAVERNER

If you like this, try:-
‘A Good Deliverance’ by Toby Clements
‘The Last Runaway’ by Tracy Chevalier
‘The Armour of Light’ by Ken Follett #4KINGSBRIDGE

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COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘The Voyage Home’ by Pat Barker #historical #myths

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A dirty, realistic, unflinching portrayal of the women taken hostage by the Greek victors at Troy, The Voyage Home by Pat Barker is unputdownable. I didn’t expect anything less having devoured the first two books in this trilogy, The Silence of the Girls and The Women of Troy.Prophetess Cassandra, taken as war booty by King Agamemnon, is on the boat home; to Agamemnon’s home that is, not hers. After the battle, Cassandra and her maid Ritsa sail away from Troy towards Greece. Awaiting them are Queen Clytemnestra, who has governed in her husband’s absence, and his two remaining children Orestes and Electra. The post-war story told by these three women is familiar after many conflicts. Murder, abduction, rape, abuse, torture, child killing, looting, destruction, triumphalism. All have suffered during this ten-year-long men’s war. Cassandra, the priestess daughter of Trojan king Priam, may wear silk and decorate her hair with flowers, but she is as much a slave as Ritsa who was a noblewoman before her capture. Plagued by visions of her captor’s death, and her own, Cassandra is at times emotionally disturbed, at others she is defiant. Clytemnestra, full of vengeance for her husband’s sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia – in tribute to the gods in return for a fair wind to war – must smile and welcome his concubine to her home. But what a home; plagued by the long-dead voices, handprints and footprints of child ghosts, the palace is an unsettling place.
Witty and, in places, bloodthirsty, Barker writes about the abuse of these women with a delicacy and empathy that makes the pages turn quickly. I read this in two days. She writes with anger and disgust that seems modern, but these are age-old tales of men’s brutality. In a palace full of nightmares, murder is planned. These three women, slave and non-slave, are seeking retribution. But what is revenge? Is it a universal truth. Does it mean the same to each of these woman. Justice. Murder. Survival against the odds. Peace. The ability to rise each morning without fear. Does it mean striking the fatal blow yourself or watching someone else? I don’t see this as a feminist re-telling in which weak men receive their come-uppance. Barker shows the men are arrogant, conniving, self-seeking and brutal. The women can be strong, brutal, selfish and unlikeable too.
A brilliant end to this trilogy. Pat Barker brings mythology to life, making it relevant for life today. One to think about for days afterwards. Highly recommended.

Read my reviews of other Pat Barker novels:-
THE SILENCE OF THE GIRLS #1WOMENOFTROY
THE WOMEN OF TROY #2WOMENOFTROY
LIFE CLASS #1LIFECLASS
TOBY’S ROOM #2LIFECLASS
NOONDAY #3LIFECLASS
ANOTHER WORLD
BLOW YOUR HOUSE DOWN
DOUBLE VISION
UNION STREET

If you like this, try:-
‘House of Names’ by Colm Tóibín
‘Stone Blind’ by Natalie Haynes
‘Sparrow’ by James Hynes

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#BookReview THE VOYAGE HOME by Pat Barker https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-8Gl via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘The Story Spinner’ by Barbara Erskine @Barbaraerskine #historical

#BookReview ‘The Rebel’s Mark’ by SW Perry @swperry_history #historical #crime

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The Rebel’s Mark is fifth in the addictive Jackdaw Mysteries series by SW Perry in which intrepid doctor Nicholas Shelby and his apothecary wife Bianca are sent to Ireland where Irish rebels fight the English. What an adventure it is, full of Elizabethan politics, religious division, spying, kidnapping, fighting, the cunning of some clever women and a shipwreck. The story starts in 1598 with the shipwreck. A Spanish ship founders on Irish rocks and most aboard are lost, if not drowned they are murdered by the English soldiers who stumble on the wreck. Two women escape. Exactly why a Spanish ship should be so far from home is a mystery.
Robert Cecil, Secretary of State to Elizabeth I, sends Nicholas to Ireland to join Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, commander of the English army, but also as a spy. Bianca refuses to be separated from her husband and Nicholas gains permission for her to travel as part of the medical team. Their young son Bruno stays at home at the Jackdaw tavern, cared for by his mother’s landlady Rose and her husband Ned Monkton. Nicholas’ secret task is to meet with poet Edmund Spenser, he of the Faerie Queene. Spenser is annoyingly tight-lipped. There are many personality clashes which add to the divisive politics of the time. Essex hates Cecil. One of Essex’s commanders is a former admirer of Bianca and therefore sets against Nicholas. Who knows whose side Spenser is really on. How is the shipwreck connected to Anglo-Irish politics. And what of the Irish rebels, ‘men in fur pelts and broacloth gowns sit upon shaggy ponies’ led by the enigmatic Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone.
As always the story moves along at a cracking pace. Nicholas and Bianca both get into trouble and have their separate adventures while at home in Bankside, stolid Ned becomes curious about the murder of a young man and starts to ask awkward questions.
I’m loving this series. To get the most out of it, start with the first The Angel’s Mark.

Here are my reviews of the other books in the series:-
THE ANGEL’S MARK #1JACKDAWMYSTERIES
THE SERPENT’S MARK #2JACKDAWMYSTERIES
THE SARACEN’S MARK #3JACKDAWMYSTERIES
THE HERETIC’S MARK #4JACKDAWMYSTERIES
THE SINNER’S MARK #6JACKDAWMYSTERIES

If you like this, try:-
‘The Lady of the Ravens’ by Joanna Hickson #1QUEENSOFTHETOWER
‘The Forgotten Sister’ by Nicola Cornick
‘The Instrumentalist’ by Harriet Constable

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#BookReview THE REBEL’S MARK by SW Perry @swperry_history https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-8BW via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘A Good Deliverance’ by Toby Clements #historicalfiction

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A Good Deliverance by Toby Clements is many things, many stories. A story of one man’s life. Of the writing of a great courtly chronicle. Of wins and losses on foreign battlefields. Of the relationship of an imprisoned old man and the young boy who brings his food. Above all, it is about the power of story. The prison confession of Sir Thomas Malory, writer of Le Morte d’Arthur, husband, father, landowner, soldier, courtier, politician and hopeless romantic, is wittily told, bringing a new perspective to the Wars of the Roses. Thomas, an admirer of knightly tales, honorable battles, courtly love, is in his fifties when he is arrested and imprisoned at Newgate jail. These are times of political and civil unrest. His offence is unknown to him and while expecting the step of his lawyer bringing news of a pardon, he awaits his execution. The person he sees most frequently is the twelve year old son of the prison warder. This boy brings his food twice a day, he also brings gossip and curiosity. And so in his tales to this boy, Malory tells the story of his life.
For a story that essentially takes place within four walls, this is a dynamic book that I didn’t want to put down. Clements has created a fictional character from a real man of whom little is known. Historians have a variety of possible noblemen who may have been the real Malory and this gives Clements plenty of room to create a character full of love, of conflict, of ambition often misjudged or misplaced, and of optimism. His life has been a perilous one full of sieges and battles in foreign countries, of disputes with unworthy lords, of brushes with royalty, of falling in love, sometimes unwisely. It is in short an echo of the courtly tales of love and honour surrounding King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The prison boy, desperate for Malory to get to the tale about fighting at Agincourt alongside King Henry V, is treated to retellings of tourneys and swords, of ships and duels and strange lands. He also learns his letters.
When the boy is absent at his duties, Malory’s story continues chronologically for the reader as the bits between the battles and feuds are retold. The pile of papers in his coffer demonstrates that Malory is rewriting the legends of Arthur, Lancelot etc. As he tidies, amends, obfuscates, shortens and lengthens the Arthurian myths, how, we should wonder, is he editing his own life story and why. To make it more entertaining for the boy, to gild his own legacy, to prove his innocence of whatever crime of which he is accused.
This is a funny, clever, entertaining story about a well-known period of English history, told from an unusual perspective. In Malory, Clements has created a sympathetic character who means the best but often fails to live up to his own dreams.
Engaging. Entertaining. Unusual.
PS. Despite the sudden ending, this is rumoured to be the first of two books about Thomas Malory.

Read my reviews of the first two Kingmaker novels by Toby Clements:-
WINTER PILGRIMS #1KINGMAKER
BROKEN FAITH #2KINGMAKER

If you like this, try:-
‘Cecily’ by Annie Garthwaite
‘A Column of Fire’ by Ken Follett #3KINGSBRIDGE
‘The King’s Messenger’ by Susanna Kearsley

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COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘The Instrumentalist’ by Harriet Constable #historicalfiction #Venice

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18th century Venice. A baby is posted through a hole in the wall at Ospedale della Pietà, a hospital for orphaned girls. She is one of many left there, mostly by sex workers. They are fed, educated and, if they have the aptitude, they learn a musical instrument. The Instrumentalist by Harriet Constable imagines the life story of Anna Maria della Pietà. Based on a real violinist, Anna sees musical notes as colours swooping, swirling, dancing. She believes fiercely that she is special but this ferocity also makes her vulnerable. In her relationship with her music master she is looking for musical success but secretly hopes to find a father-figure. Unnamed, I assume the maestro to be Antonio Vivaldi. Little is known about the real Anna Maria and this frees Constable to imagine her life, her successes, failures, challenges and betrayals.
Anna is a precocious violinist at the age of eight, her ambition and zeal to succeed is familiar nowadays but I’m not sure how typical it was for an orphan in 18th century Venice. The language occasionally drifts into modern-day vocabulary and grammar. Understanding that her life can only be changed if she joins the figlie di coro, the ospedale‘s orchestra, Anna Maria becomes accomplished at playing the violin and in musical composition. There are riches to be gained when the orchestra performs, donations to the ospedale from wealthy donors, gifts for the performers. The stakes are high, girls who fail are quickly married off. Friends are sacrificed.
In places, the writing is indulgent; repetitive description is pretty but doesn’t move the story along. Two-thirds through is a different phase showing the real Venice and the dirt and injustice beneath the wealth and beauty. The perfume made of jasmine distilled in pig fat, used for a week before being discarded. The hand-made lace cuffs and handkerchiefs made in a sweatshop. Shimmering red silk and the red blood of a newly killed piglet. A reminder of the binary life of girls at the ospedale; gifts and benefits come with musical excellence, musical failure means housework, training in lacework, laundry or being sold into marriage.
An intense novel set within a constricted building in a city that is at once beautiful and threatening. Every baby girl left at the ospedale must find a way to survive in an unforgiving world but will always wonder if her mother will return to her. I finished The Instrumentalist wishing the story was broader, focussing equally on the three childhood friends, Anna Maria, Paulina and Agata and not just on Anna Maria.

If you like this, try:-
‘The Glassmaker’ by Tracy Chevalier
‘City of Masks’ by SD Sykes #3OSWALDDELACY
‘The Garden of Angels’ by David Hewson

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE INSTRUMENTALIST by Harriet Constable https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-8v3 via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

	#BookReview ‘Murder… on #BookReview ‘Murder at the Cou…
	#BookReview ‘Murder… on #BookReview ‘Death Comes to Ma…
	#BookReview ‘Murder… on #BookReview ‘The French for Mu…
	#BookReview ‘Murder… on #BookReview ‘A Mansion for Mur…
	#BookReview ‘Murder… on #BookReview ‘The Seaside Murde…

SANDRA DANBY'S BOOK REVIEWS

Sharing thoughts on the books I read, new authors, favourite authors, classics re-visisted

Tag Archives: historical fiction

#BookReview ‘Leeward’ by Katie Daysh #historicalfiction #adventure #navalwarfare

#BookReview ‘The Players’ by Minette Walters #historicalfiction

#BookReview ‘The Shadows of Men’ by Abir Mukherjee @radiomukhers #crime #historical #India #Raj

#BookReview ‘Peace and Love’ by JC Harvey @JCollissHarvey #historical

#BookReview ‘The Indigo Ghosts’ by Alys Clare #historical #mystery

#BookReview ‘The Voyage Home’ by Pat Barker #historical #myths

#BookReview ‘The Story Spinner’ by Barbara Erskine @Barbaraerskine #historical

#BookReview ‘The Rebel’s Mark’ by SW Perry @swperry_history #historical #crime

#BookReview ‘A Good Deliverance’ by Toby Clements #historicalfiction

#BookReview ‘The Instrumentalist’ by Harriet Constable #historicalfiction #Venice

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