Author of Historical Fiction and Mysteries
The year is 1645 and England has been mired in a civil war for 4 years; but as men are dying in prisons and in armed encounters, in the county of Suffolk a self-appointed witch hunter is unleashing terror of a different kind. Based on a true story, The Witchfinder’s Sister by Beth Underdown, tells... Continue Reading →
The second part of Emily Hauser’s Golden Apple trilogy, For the Winner, is a reimagining of the myth of Jason and the Argonauts. Like the first book of the series, For the Most Beautiful, it tells a popular story from a female perspective, something that is rare in Greek and many other mythological traditions. There... Continue Reading →
Much praise has been heaped on Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. I am not going to write another review after the likes of The New York Times, The Guardian, NPR and The New Yorker have had a go, but I’d like to offer a personal reflection and... Continue Reading →
I don’t usually review non-historical fiction; but when I heard Ed Meek read from his new short story collection “Luck” at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, I knew it was something I wanted to write about. Meek’s concise, elegant prose zooms in on the lives of Bostonians both at home and farther afield, and is... Continue Reading →
Julie Berry's new novel The Passion of Dolssa intrigued me for many reasons. It is historical fiction; it is set in the Middle Ages; it features a saint-like character; and - most interestingly, given the spiritual subject matter - it is geared towards young adults. I admit: I'm not a YA reader, much less writer.... Continue Reading →
Modern Girls, a novel about a mother and daughter who find themselves in a family way in the 1930s New York, could easily have been yet another feel-good story where the heroine makes the right decision after a bit of hand-wringing, and all is well. But life is messy, and choices are rarely black-and-white. Thankfully,... Continue Reading →
Catherine Lowell’s debut novel The Madwoman Upstairs is equal parts an intellectual coming-of-age story, a romance and a literary mystery. Does it deliver on all counts? Twenty-year-old Samantha Whipple, still mourning the death of her father in a house fire five years ago, arrives at Oxford to begin her studies in literature. But she’s not... Continue Reading →
The following review is based on an advanced reading copy I received from the publisher. I have to be honest: The Iliad has always confused me a little. So many gods interfering with peoples’ lives; so many characters, human and immortal; war-making, armor clanking, blood and gore… what can I say? My attention wavered. If... Continue Reading →
