Author of Historical Fiction and Mysteries
Katharina: Deliverance, the first installment of the fictionalized story of Katharina von Bora, the wife of Martin Luther, focuses on her childhood and early adult years. Katharina comes from a moderately well-to-do family from Saxony and is only five years old when her mother dies, leaving her and her brothers in the care of a... Continue Reading →
For a historical fiction writer and author, I was largely unfamiliar with Regency writing. It's a period that has many devoted fans, so I recently jumped on the wagon to see what all the fuss was about. My first foray into Regency historical fiction was a mystery titled What Angels Fear by author C.S. Harris. The story's... Continue Reading →
In 1974, fourteen-year-old Leni Allbright and her parents Ernst and Cora move from Seattle to the wilderness of Alaska looking for a fresh start. Leni's father had returned from Vietnam a broken man, haunted by horrific memories that rob him of sleep and render his moods volatile and unpredictable. The family hope that the harsh beauty... Continue Reading →
In this latest installment of the Matthew Shardlake series, the eponymous character decamps to Norfolk on a personal mission for the Lady Elizabeth and becomes embroiled in a massive uprising that threatens to engulf England. In the early summer 1549 - during the reign of Edward VI - Lady Elizabeth Tudor becomes concerned about the... Continue Reading →
The popular perception of those who arrived on the shores of North America on the Mayflower is that they were all godly puritans and that the colony of Plymouth was an idyllic community where everyone worked equally hard and religious harmony prevailed. This image may be idealized, if we are to believe the version of... Continue Reading →
Today's review is a bit of a throwback, especially given that Hilary Mantel recently published the last book in her historical Cromwell series, The MIrror and The Light. However, that book had rather mixed reviews, so to get my Mantel fix I reached for something else on my shelf, A Place of Greater Safety, published in 1992. I have... Continue Reading →
Colum McGann's novel Zoli delves into the little known world of eastern European Roma, who for centuries were known as Gypsies. Although set mainly in Slovakia, it is loosely based on the life of Polish Roma poet Papusza. Disaffected Irishman Stephen Swann arrives in Slovakia in the early postwar years, attracted by the revolutionary allure of the... Continue Reading →
In the fourth installment of the Giordano Bruno series, Treachery, Sir Francis Drake is still basking in the glory of being the first person to circumnavigate the globe. It is August 1585 and he is preparing for another sea voyage, which this time will take him to the New World via the coast of Spain,... Continue Reading →
Sarah Waters's The Little Stranger combines historical fiction with a touch of supernatural. Set in a crumbling, gloomy manor of Hundreds Hall in the English countryside in the immediate postwar years, it has a psychologically tense air that will appeal to many gothic mystery fans. Middle-aged country physician, Dr. Faraday, is called one day to attend to... Continue Reading →
Ariel Lawhon's historical novel Flight of Dreams imagines the lives of the Hindenburg passengers in the final days before the epic disaster that destroyed the airship. The history is well-known: in the 1930s, the world's aviation industry was rapidly changing and expanding into intercontinental passenger travel, and nothing was a greater symbol of those ambitions that the... Continue Reading →
P.K. Adams 