Tag Archives: historical fiction

#BookReview ‘The Burning Grounds’ by Abir Mukherjee @radiomukhers #crime #historical #India #Raj

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It is three years since The Shadows of Men when Suren Banerjee fled Calcutta for Europe. In The Burning Grounds, fifth in the Wyndham & Banerjee series by Abir Mukherjee, Suren returns to the city and to his former colleague Captain Sam Wyndham. Both are facing difficult cases, each needs the other’s help but is reluctant to ask. Abir Mukherjee A man is found dead in the burning ghats of Calcutta. Wyndham, out of favour at the Imperial Police Force and trusted only with the most menial of cases, is sent to deal with the body. Except the corpse isn’t just anyone. He’s one of the city’s wealthiest businessmen, a patron of the arts, producer of a film being shot in Calcutta at this moment. He is admired wherever he goes. And now his throat has been cut.
Suren, who has returned home to India after his relationship in Paris with a French woman faltered, is drifting without a job, without authority. Then his cousin Dolly, a photographer, goes missing. Suren, desperate to find her, goes cap in hand to Wyndham. The reunion is awkward, both blame the other for the cause of Suren’s flight abroad. Begrudgingly, day by day, they work together, sniping, squabbling, resentful. Both are changed men and Calcutta is changing too. Dolly’s studio has been ransacked, no-one has seen her and Suren is frantic with worry. Meanwhile at a party a million miles away from the burning grounds, Sam meets a glamorous woman. Estelle Morgan is the Australian actress whose face is on the front pages of newspapers. They both enjoy a mild flirtation and Sam begins to wonder if there is a life for him beyond the grief for his dead wife and his more recent regrets at the failure of his on-off relationship with Annie Grant. But when he is charged with investigating the death of JP Mulllick, he must travel to Bishnupore to interview the film crew, he sees Estelle Morgan again. Suren goes too. More people die, none of them Dolly, but when the two cases, oh so different, are linked, Sam and Suren must learn to work together again.
Set against the last decades of the Raj, the success of these books is the laser focus on the relationship of two men who were born thousands of miles distant from each other. Intellectually they are on a level, in religious and cultural terms they are poles apart, but they find common ground in their belief in the triumph of right over wrong, the pursuit of criminality and along the way wrestle with cultural dilemmas, shames, beliefs and behaviours on both Anglo and Indian sides. As the country inches towards independence, the balance of power in the two men’s relationship adjusts too.
Excellent. This is a fine series of historical crime fiction.

Here are my reviews of the first five 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
THE SHADOWS OF MEN #5WYNDHAM&BANERJEE

If you like this, try:-
‘My Name is Yip’ by Paddy Crewe
‘Leeward’ by Katie Daysh #1NIGHTINGALE&COURTNEY
‘The Silver Bone’ by Andrey Kurkov #1KYIVMYSTERIES

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

#BookReview ‘The Wanton Road’ by JC Harvey @JCollissHarvey #historical #EnglishCivilWar

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1637 Picardy, France. A husband is widowed and must find a way to continue with life, for the sake of five-year old Ned and newborn James. The Wanton Road, fourth in the Jack Fiskardo series by JC Harvey, begins with the heartbreak of grief, a description of loss so deep it is immobilising. JC HarveyFiskardo is a soldier and he does go on, as readers of the previous three books know he will. Harvey has told Jack’s story from childhood. Now he is a widower, a single father, and all he knows is fighting so he sets off on his loyal horse M’sieu in search of employment. He heads for the much-contested Dutch town of Breda intending to offer his services as a discoverer, a scout, where he stumbles upon not only his old comrades the Dead Men but also his oldest enemy Carlo Fantom and a potential new love. Pris Holland is an intriguing heroine, feisty, brave, resourceful, she has her own shadows and pain to bear.
After a detour back to Picardy to collect his children, Jack heads for London where there is talk of war coming and possible employment. With the Thirty Years War coming to a stuttering close, it seems fitting that Harvey brings Fiskardo to England eventually to fight with the King against Parliament. This is a doomed task, as we know from the history books. Threads and characters from the previous books are woven together with the history of the period, entangled, twisted and re-imagined. The pages turn quickly without me noticing how absorbed I am in the story, whether it is the speed of battle or the slower intrigue of politics and love. Pris returns to London to her family, inn owners, brothel keepers, smugglers, and at occasional war with rivals the Skinner family. These enmities and loyalties bob in and out of the novel, bringing threat, rescue, safety, betrayal. Fiskardo, his soldiers and French servants find a new home at Varney, a country house near Oxford. There they feel secure, both boys grow and particularly James, premature, underweight, mis-shapen, thrives. But how long can this peace, and love, last before war returns again?
There are so many plot twists and turns it is difficult to describe the story and do it justice. Jack and Pris meet, they part, they’re together, they’re separated by war, they grieve. Just surrender yourself to the rollercoaster. The ending is magnificent; a fast-paced rush as Jack, who must finally confront his lifelong enemy if he is ever to live in peace, is chased from one safe haven to another.
Magnificent 5*.

Here are my reviews of the Jack Fiskardo series:-
THE SILVER WOLF #1FISKARDO’SWAR
THE DEAD MEN #2FISKARDO’SWAR
PEACE AND LOVE #3FISKARDO’SWAR

If you like this, try:-
‘Orphans of the Carnival’ by Carol Birch
‘Broken Faith’ by Toby Clements #2KINGMAKER
‘The Armour of Light’ by Ken Follett #4KINGSBRIDGE

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

#BookReview ‘The Sky Beneath Us’ by Fiona Valpy @FionaValpy #historical #romance #botany #Himalaya

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A dual timeline story following the quest of Daisy Laverock to Nepal to solve the story of her disappeared great-great aunt, botanical artist Violet Mackenzie-Grant, The Sky Beneath Us by Fiona Valpy takes place as the Covid pandemic begins. Daisy is divided from her family at home and is forced to confront the unknown.Fiona ValpyScotland 1927. Against the wishes of her family, Violet enrols at the Edinburgh School of Gardening for Women where two significant things happen. She discovers a wonderful talent for painting botanical illustrations, and she falls in love. These two things combine and she finds herself in Nepal, deep in the mountains, where in learning to survive she also learns how to live. I found Violet’s story captivating and would have happily spent the rest of the novel with her.
Scotland 2020. Daisy is in Nepal planning to travel in the footsteps of her distant relative Violet whose story has become lost to her family. In Daisy’s bag are some of Violet’s plant journals which tell part of the story; Daisy’s objective is to discover the whole truth. When international travel is closed, Daisy finds herself Isolated in Kathmandu. Deciding to continue with her plan alone Daisy, like Violet before her, is stepping into the unknown. Alone, anxious, worried for the safety of family at home, she meets a father and son who offer to guide her on foot to the village of Phortse. Her difficult journey is leavened by occasional texts from her mother and two daughters in Scotland, and oldest friend Jack who is sailing a yacht across the Atlantic.
In her darkest moments, Daisy turns to Violet’s journals for inspiration. Little does she know how closely her journey will coincide with Violet’s experience.
The story juxtaposes the limitations placed on women’s lives in the 1920s, with the movement restrictions placed on everyone around the world during the Covid pandemic. In The Sky Beneath Us, these reach from the west coast of Scotland to Nepal and encompass all nations. In her time of need Daisy, like Violet before, finds empathy, generosity and friendship around her.
The Sky Beneath Us is full of wonderful descriptions of the Himalaya, its traditions, its spirituality, nature, botany and most of all the Sherpa people. This is a story of isolation and beauty, loneliness and togetherness, grief, despair and hope. The solutions found by Violet and Daisy, named as the flowers, are similar in their simplicity, their resilience and their hope.
Only when I read the Author’s Note at the end of the book did I realise that The Sky Beneath Us is linked to an earlier Valpy book, the only other one by this author that I’ve read, The Skylark’s Secret.
Read quickly, it is Violet’s story and her discovery of exquisite Himalayan flowers that stays with me.

Here’s my review of another Fiona Valpy novel:-
THE SKYLARK’S SECRET

If you like this, try:-
‘Thin Air’ by Michelle Paver
‘A Traveller at the Gates of Wisdom’ by John Boyne
‘The Cottingley Secret’ by Hazel Gaynor

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#BookReview THE SKY BENEATH US by Fiona Valpy @FionaValpy https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-90j via @SandraDanby

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

#BookReview ‘Love Lane’ by Patrick Gale @PNovelistGale #historical

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Love Lane by Patrick Gale is a family story across three generations, two continents and five viewpoints but is disarmingly small-scale in its focus on the truths of this group of relatives. Family legends, gossip and anecdotes are repeated and assumed true, but can look very different when seen from another person’s perspective. Patrick GaleThe five viewpoints we hear are Harry Cane, his daughter Betty, Betty’s husband Terry, Betty’s eldest daughter Pip and her husband Mike. Each person is hiding something that embarrasses or shames them, ignorant of how others in the family see them and the commonality that binds families together.
The story starts in Canada where Harry and Paul Slaymaker are neighbouring farmers, each living alone, growing wheat near the town of Winter on the empty Canadian prairie. For years they are secret lovers, their relationship easy to hide in the middle of nowhere. But when life moves on and Harry must sell his farm, he takes a ship to Liverpool to stay with the daughter he has never met. He is looking for a new home, a place to settle, but has no idea where this might be or indeed in which country. Betty, whose knowledge of her father is limited to family gossip passed on by her elderly aunts, and letters she has exchanged with Harry in recent years, frames him in her mind as the ‘Cowboy Grandpa.’ The bulk of the novel is set in England as Harry stays with one relative, and then another and Gale interleaves flashbacks to each person’s youth. Gradually a picture forms of each person, how they see themselves, how others see them, the things they think they hide, the things others guess. Everyone is uncomfortable with some part of their life, a sacrifice made, a compromise, a secret, a youthful adventure, a betrayal.
I admit to preferring the story when Harry is on the page, he lights up the story. There are large and small themes. Attitudes to male homosexuality throughout the first half of the 20th century are contrasted between the two countries. There is a case of sexual abuse by a doctor which is both surprising and casually brushed aside.
Only when I finished Love Lane did I discover that it is Gale’s second novel based loosely on his own family history, but I read it comfortably as a standalone without knowing A Place called Winter.
A gentle read about what it is to know yourself and finding a place to belong where you can be that person.

If you like this, try:-
‘Lean Fall Stand’ by Jon McGregor
‘Dangerous Women’ by Hope Adams
‘The Women’ by Kristin Hannah

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#BookReview LOVE LANE by Patrick Gale @PNovelistGale https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-8Yo via @SandraDanby

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

#BookReview ‘The Devil to Pay’ by Katie Daysh #historicalfiction #adventure #navalwarfare

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It’s 1802 and the Anglo-French war is over. I thoroughly enjoyed Leeward, first in the Nightingale & Courtney historical naval series by Katie Daysh, so was keen to read the next book. In The Devil to Pay, though the enamoured sailors set sail for the Mediterranean on the same ship they are soon separated. Katie DayshLeeward was Hiram Nightingale’s story, The Devil to Pay is told from the perspective of Lieutenant Arthur Courtney. The forbidden relationship of these two men, separated by social conventions, the law and nautical miles, is the skeleton of these books. Courtney is not like Nightingale; he was born into rural poverty and is still uncomfortable dining at the captain’s table. When HMS Loyal goes missing on route to Malta with two important diplomats aboard, Courtney and Nightingale are enlisted on the ship sent to find her. Their secret mission involves working closely with their one-time enemy, France. As the HMS Lysander sails south, accompanied by French frigate, the Fantôme, their journey is marred by the discovery of two Lysanders, crew members, having sex. An onboard punishment involving pain and humiliation turns into a naval tribunal in Gibraltar. With the Lysander stuck in dock, the Fantôme, with Nightingale on board, sets sail to continue the search for the Loyal. Shipwreck and piracy are suspected and Courtney, following on belatedly from Gibraltar, doesn’t know if Hiram is alive or dead, free or enslaved.
Can love survive separation, pirates, shipwreck, doubts and treachery? Daysh handles the emotions of the separated lovers with a light hand. Just when Courtney is distraught at Nightingale’s departure, he must once again take responsibility for a ship without a direct order to do so. Should he follow his instincts, or naval law? There are so many twists and turns in this plot that it’s impossible to forsee the ending, its a rollercoaster of emotions just as stormy as the waves that the sailors face.
Excellent. This is a series to read in order, so be sure to read Leeward first. The English and the French may not be enemies in this book, as they were in Leeward, but war between the two will be rekindled a year after The Devil to Pay ends.
Next in the series is A Merciful Sea.

Here’s my review of the first book in this series:-
LEEWARD #1NIGHTINGALE&COURTNEY

If you like this, try:-
‘The Blue Afternoon’ by William Boyd
‘A Rustle of Silk’ by Alys Clare #1GABRIELTAVERNER
‘Rush Oh!’ by Shirley Barrett

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

#BookReview ‘Murder Under her Skin’ by Stephen Spotswood @playwrightSteve #crime

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New York 1946. Murder Under her Skin by Stephen Spotswood, second in the Pentecost and Parker post-WW2 private detective series, starts in the Big Apple and ends in rural Virginia. A completely different world that challenges expectations and attitudes. Stephen SpotswoodWhen Willowjean Parker receives a call for help from her old boss at the Hart & Halloway’s Travelling Circus and Sideshow, Will and her boss Lillian Pentecost catch a train to the small town of Stoppard. Before Will met Lillian and became a New York detective, she spent five years with the circus and her best friend was Ruby Donner the tattooed lady. Now Ruby is dead with a knife in her back.
Spotswood takes us into the circus world, the sleaze behind the magic and wonder, the tough life behind the make-up and sequins, the rivalries, the money problems, loyalty and friendship, the envy and spite. Ruby Donner ran away from Stoppard as a teenager and never went back until returning now with the circus. Who killed her? A circus colleague or someone from her hometown who has been harbouring resentments for years? Ms Pentecost’s most recent case has made the national papers and she’s famous, even in Stoppard, but not everyone welcomes the circus or the big city detectives. Will’s former mentor, the knife-throwing Russian Valentin Kalishenko, is already locked up in the town jail and the local police chief doesn’t welcome the arrival of strangers telling him how to do his job.
The focus on life in a small town in Virginia highlights the changing society as soldiers return from war and adapt to normal life again. Lillian and Will lodge with Ruby’s uncle Doc, who runs the local cinema, and he proves a useful guide to Stoppard’s people, their secrets, lawbreaking and lies. When the circus’s sideshow is firebombed, the detectives know they must be on the right track.
Murder Under her Skin develops the dynamic relationship between Will Parker and Lillian Pentecost that was introduced in the first book, Fortune Favours the Dead. Although Lillian is older and the boss, both women bring significant skills and strengths to their detecting partnership and Murder Under her Skin is told from Will’s point of view. The women are mutually supportive of each other. Lillian is Will’s mentor and teaches her the craft of detection, Will supports Lillian when her multiple sclerosis causes issues. It is too simplistic to say Lillian is the brains and Will the brawn; while Lillian proves to be nifty with a sword, Will knows when to take the initiative and ask difficult questions and when to say silent and listen.
Very enjoyable, full of snappy dialogue between Lillian and Will, plus plenty of offbeat characters who may or may not be as they seem. Next in the series is Secrets Typed in Blood.

Here is my review of the first in this series:-
FORTUNE FAVOURS THE DEAD #1PENTECOST&PARKER
…and read the #FirstPara of FORTUNE FAVOURS THE DEAD.

If you like this, try:-
‘Death at the Sign of the Rook’ by Kate Atkinson #6JACKSONBRODIE
‘Darktown’ by Thomas Mullen
‘The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle’ by Stuart Turton

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#BookReview MURDER UNDER HER SKIN by Stephen Spotswood @playwrightSteve https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-8Vx via @SandraDanby

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

#BookReview ‘Divided Souls’ by Toby Clements #historicalfiction #WarsoftheRoses

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England 1469. For five years, Thomas and Katherine Everingham have lived in peace until the divisions of the Wars of the Roses envelop them again. Divided Souls by Toby Clements is third in the Kingmaker series set during this deadly and complex time of on-off war between the houses of York and Lancaster. Toby ClementsAt the heart of Divided Souls is the rebellion by the Duke of Warwick against King Edward IV. Thomas and Katherine, now with a five-year-old son Rufus, never look for trouble. But when Thomas is asked by his former commander Lord William Hastings to travel to Yorkshire to monitor enemy troop movements, the Everinghams cannot refuse. And then Hastings admits his real reason for sending them north from their Lincolnshire home. He wants them to find a ledger, find it before Warwick’s supporters do. The value of the ledger is unexplained but Thomas and Katherine already know because it is buried beneath their hearth, hidden because of the deadly information it contains. And they are the only people who know where it is.
So the three Everinghams, with faithful retainers one-armed John Stump, Jack and his pregnant wife Nettie, set out for York. Old friends and familiar foes are encountered once again in Yorkshire and on a new battlefield. Old fears and nightmares that return are deepened as Thomas and Katherine, with Rufus to protect, feel vulnerable in a way they never have before. Their five years of domestic peace at Marton Hall seem a fleeting moment as the couple are separated again, Thomas must fight and Katherine faces battlefield surgery. And all the time they know that the enemy and other agents working for Hastings are searching for the ledger. Terrified of being caught, they discuss the consequences of burning it, burying it or simply giving it to Hastings.
Clements negotiates his way through a complex and confusing time in history, placing his fictional characters into an imagined setting within the facts known of the times. The result is quick-reading tale that races from one difficult decision to another as Thomas and Katherine journey into the unknown, no sooner escaping from one danger before facing another. Loved ones must be left behind, home must be abandoned and once safe familiar places are now dangerous. As King Edward’s loyal lords rebel, it isn’t only Thomas and Katherine who don’t know who to trust.
Excellent.
This is the third in the series. Please start reading with Winter Pilgrims in order to enjoy Kingmaker at its best and to fully appreciate the long-standing loyalties, fear and hatred that runs throughout Clements’ telling of two innocent people caught up in the Wars of the Roses.

Read my reviews of the other books in this series:-
WINTER PILGRIMS #1KINGMAKER
BROKEN FAITH #2KINGMAKER

And also by Toby Clements:-
A GOOD DELIVERANCE

If you like this, try:-
‘Cecily’ by Annie Garthwaite
‘The Other Gwyn Girl’ by Nicola Cornick
‘The Lady of the Rivers’ by Philippa Gregory

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

#BookReview ‘The House of Seymour’ by Joanna Hickson @joannahickson #historicalfiction  

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A preface featuring the best known Seymour of them all, Jane, sets the background to The House of Seymour by Joanna Hickson. It is 1537 and a new coat of arms has been created for Queen Jane as she awaits the birth of her first child. It features six crests: King Henry VIII’s personal symbols, the badge of the Seymour family plus four that are unfamiliar to the queen. They belong to her four grandmothers. Joanna HicksonThe House of Seymour starts in 1424 and concentrates on the life of sixteen-year-old Isabel Williams who is promised to a boy she loves. It is a love match, her betrothed Thomas Stamford is of a good family and a friend to Isabel’s younger brother and Williams heir Robert. But when Rob dies of a fever, Isabel’s parents seek a more advantageous match for their remaining child. And so she marries into the Seymour family. John Seymour is a good customer of Isabel’s father, a vintner, and Mark Williams has discovered John is also heir to a rich grandfather. He is set to inherit a Wiltshire manor, Wolf Hall, and the wardenship of Savernake, a royal hunting forest. And so Isabel’s life changes forever.
Running parallel to Isabel’s story is that of Jess Henge, unusually a shepherdess, whose family live at Henge Farm beside the standing stones at Avebury. This is an area of superstition and the family are regarded as different, especially when one of the ewes cared for by Jess gives birth to two lambs. When her cousin Addy disappears in odd circumstances from the Long Barrow at Silbury Down, villagers say Addy was stolen by the devil. Whisperers and gossips blame Jess. In search of a church where she may give confession to a priest who does not know her, she flees to Easton Priory.
This is a story of godliness and superstition, of cruelty and kindness, of naked ambition fuelled by the gains to be made by moving in royal circles. It is a story of loyalty and support among women and friends, sometimes from unexpected places, and the arrogance and sense of superiority of a male-dominated society that sees women as objects. Foreshadowing of King Henry VIII, perhaps, though not all the male characters in the book are thoughtless or rough in their treatment of women.
I read The House of Seymour easily over a weekend and enjoyed this glimpse into society on the edge of royal circles when King Henry VI is a young child. Isabel Seymour and Jessica Henge are two very different women, both compelling characters who face pain and abuse by holding their heads up high. The pace drops at times but my curiosity about the women kept me reading.
An intriguing insight into a family I know little about. The two major settings, Wolf Hall and Avebury, are wonderfully depicted. I anticipate further Seymour novels telling the life stories of Jane’s other female relatives.

Here are my reviews of Hickson’s two Queens of the Tower books:-
THE LADY OF THE RAVENS #1QUEENSOFTHETOWER
THE QUEEN’S LADY #2QUEENSOFTHETOWER

If you like this, try:-
‘The Royal Rebel’ by Elizabeth Chadwick #1JEANETTEOFKENT
‘Days Without End’ by Sebastian Barry #1DAYSWITHOUTEND
‘Orphans of the Carnival’ by Carol Birch

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

#BookReview ‘The Royal Rebel’ by Elizabeth Chadwick @Chadwickauthor #historicalfiction #medieval

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1338 England is at war with France. The court of King Edward III travels to Calais and with them goes Jeanette of Kent, a rebellious, outspoken, daring, determined young girl, all the things a lady of the court is supposed not to be. War runs throughout The Royal Rebel by Elizabeth Chadwick and so does love. I loved Jeanette’s character arc through the course of this book, from impressionable young teenager to twenty-something. As a cousin of the king, twelve-year-old Jeanette spends much of her time at court, chaperoned, managed, supervised, hardly ever alone. In Calais, she meets a young soldier, commoner Thomas Holland, and the two fall head over heels in love. Married secretly their plans immediately go wrong. Jeanette returns to England with the court while Thomas must go to war again. Both are desperately in love.
As happens with any young woman of the court, Jeanette is expected to make a pragmatic politically-acceptable marriage. When told she must marry a childhood acquaintance William Montagu who she dislikes, she explains she is already married. Her mother and William’s reject Jeanette’s inconvenient story as a child’s fancy and deem her evidence insubstantial. Jeanette has no choice but to marry as she is told, ‘she could not refuse; she was a sparrow tossed in a storm wind, wings over tail. She curtseyed, and took her leave, carrying herself with pride and grace until she was out of the door, but then grabbed her skirts in her fists and started to run… on and on… [until] the enormity of what she had tried to outrun caught up with her like a gazehound on a hare.’
This is essentially a love story set within the unemotional, unromantic world of the court. Marriage matches are made for convenience, diplomacy, for political gain, wealth and property; never for love. Jeanette and Thomas’ love for each other means nothing. Decisions are taken about their lives without their input. There are many twists and turns in this story and I really rooted for the couple to find a way to be together. They are manipulated, lied to, separated, bullied and abused. Thomas must continue to earn his living as a soldier and a piece of luck means he gains the funds to mount a legal challenge. But this court case moves so slowly, delayed by process, by the spreading plague, by machinations of the witnesses giving evidence against Jeanette and Thomas. But the couple, still so young, continue their fight, continue to hope despite all the setbacks, opposition and accusations of dishonesty. Jeanette learns patience, ‘All her hopes were like beautiful eggshells, and she dared not tread too heavily for fear that they would shatter.’
Elizabeth Chadwick has created strong, nuanced characters to care for. She is a new author for me and now I look forward to reading the sequel, The Crownless Queen.

If you like this, try:-
‘The Last Hours’ by Minette Walters #1BLACKDEATH
‘The Turn of Midnight’ by Minette Walters #2BLACKDEATH
‘The Story Spinner’ by Barbara Erskine

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#BookReview THE ROYAL REBEL by Elizabeth Chadwick @Chadwickauthor https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-8Sj via @SandraDanby

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

#BookReview ‘The Secret Keeper’ by Renita D’Silva @RenitaDSilva #romance #India #WW2

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From 1930s India to England in World War Two and the 1990s, The Secret Keeper by Renita D’Silva is the story of Rani Raj, the secrets she kept, the secrets she didn’t keep and the fallout across two generations. Renita D’SilvaRani grows up in pre-war Europe with her Indian father, a crown prince, and German mother. Their life is thrown into turmoil when her grandfather dies and her baba becomes king. This doesn’t simply mean that the family must relocate to India, but that they must abandon their Marxist beliefs and adopt the wealthy segregated existence that goes with the royal role. Rani and her mother must live in the women’s zenana, separately from Rani’s father and brother Arjun. Rani’s entire world turns upside down, she struggles to understand her father’s about-face of everything he believed in, and encouraged her to believe. Planning to study at university, Rani’s world becomes limited to an enclosed space, albeit a beautiful, privileged one.
Strong-willed Rani rebels. Adopting her maid’s sari and strong accent, she ventures beyond the palace walls where she meets the milkman’s son Prasad and falls in love. After a misguided plan to convince her father the king that Prasad is a suitable husband for her, she is banished to England where she studies at university. In Cambridge she struggles with an ethical dilmena; her delight at being able to study again, against the silence from her family and the uncertainty about Prasad’s fate. She writes home weekly but receives no reply. It is a severe punishment for an idealistic, hopelessly naive mistake.
When war begins, Rani is recruited as a codebreaker at Bletchley Park while her best friend Gertie joins the Special Operations Executive. I so wanted to know more about Gertie, and it’s at this point that I felt the book could have gone in a different direction.
In England 1990, a young woman called Esme is bereaved twice in a matter of weeks. First her beloved, quiet, academic father dies, and then the family’s motherly housekeeper Mrs Lewes who has raised Esme in the absence of a mother. Struggling with her grief, Esme visits a counsellor who encourages her to explore her past family history. A visit to her older brother Andrew unveils a childhood different from the one she remembers.
The Secret Keeper is a moralistic story about teenage mistakes having a tragic consequence in the adult world. This is an emotional story about the traps of idealistic first love coming back to haunt you in later life. Young Rani makes promises without understanding or stopping to think what it may mean to keep them.
I always enjoy Renita D’Silva’s stories set in India. Whether describing extremes of wealth or poverty her description puts me in the place, in all its intensity and power.

Read my reviews of these other novels by Renita D’Silva:-
A DAUGHTER’S COURAGE
A MOTHER’S SECRET
BENEATH AN INDIAN SKY
THE GIRL IN THE PAINTING
THE ORPHAN’S GIFT
THE SPICE MAKER’S SECRET
THE WAR CHILD

If you like this, try:-
‘Daughters of War’ by Dinah Jefferies #1DAUGHTERSOFWAR
‘The Secret History of Audrey James’ by Heather Marshall
‘Dear Mrs Bird’ by AJ Pearce

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

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