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 →
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 →
Guest blog by Judith Starkson Map of Hittite empire One of the delights of writing historical fiction—even when it blends into fantasy as mine does—comes from delving into the past via research. My fiction is set in the world of the ancient Hittites, a powerful Bronze Age empire (1600-1200 BCE) that stretched across what is... 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 →
After what felt like hours but could not have been more than ten or fifteen minutes, we arrived at the duke’s private apartments, where he had received me three days earlier. Neither courtiers nor servants filled the antechamber this time; there were only two stone-faced guards standing sentinel on either side of the inner door.... Continue Reading →
An elegant retelling of the legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Spellbook of Katrina van Tassel is an enjoyable read, especially as the autumn draws near and we enter the Halloween season. The novel recreates the whirlwind courtship of wealthy heiress of Dutch descent Katrina van Tassel and Ichabod Crane, a newly arrived schoolteacher in reduced circumstances. Fearing... Continue Reading →
"Set in the depths of winter, during the Polish Golden Age at the time of the Jagiellonian dynasty, Silent Water is a deeply satisfying and engrossing historical mystery [...] richly executed, with penetrating human insights and unforgettable sets." - review by Laura Rahme, author of Julien's Terror "In addition to the “whodunnit” aspect, this book stands out for... Continue Reading →
I have been on a historical mystery binge lately, though with this latest novel I shifted gears in terms of time and place. Murder in the Oval Library by C.M. Gleason is set in Washington, DC during the first days of the Civil War. The day after the news reaches the US capital of the fall of... Continue Reading →
P.K. Adams 