THE WHISTLING SEASON
Ivan Doig, Harcourt, 2006, $25.00, hb, 345pp, 0151012377
When Paul’s widower father decides to answer an advertisement in the Westwater Gazette (“Can’t cook but doesn’t bite: Housekeeping position sought by widow… salary negotiable but must include railroad fare to Montana locality”), he and his brothers have no idea how much their lives will change. The Milliron family lives at Marias Coulee, where drywater farming is the order of the day. It is autumn, 1909. Paul, the eldest son, is the scholar of the family, and comprises half of the 7^th grade local one-room schoolhouse. Paul narrates this beguiling tale of how Rose, the “A-1” housekeeper of the advertisement, and Morrie, her brother who arrives unexpectedly with Rose, fit into the life of the community, and their family. Life for the three boys centers on the schoolhouse, and when the schoolmistress unexpectedly leaves and Morrie is pressed into service, amazing things happen.
    Paul narrates this story many years later, when Sputnik has challenged the quality of teaching occurring in America’s schools, especially in those remaining one-room schoolhouses still to be found in less populous areas. Paul Milliron, State Superintendent of Schools – the youngest in the nation when he was first elected – is facing a difficult decision about closing these rural schools. However, the extraordinarily vivid storytelling throws readers headlong into those heady days of 1909 and 1910, without the gap in time dimming or diluting the tale.
    This was the first book I’d read by Doig, but I was so enchanted by the Milliron family, Rose and Morrie, the depiction of the local landscape, and the author’s lyrical writing that I’ve already decided on the next book of his that I’ll lose myself in. -- Trudi E. Jacobson

THIRTEEN MOONS
Charles Frazier, Random House, 2006, $26.95, hb, 422pp, 0375509321 / Sceptre, 2006, £17.99, hb, 416pp, 0340826614
Cold Mountain is a tough act to follow. Yet Charles Frazier more than rises to the occasion with Thirteen Moons, an extraordinary fictional reminiscence of a rich, exotic life in the South in the first half of the 19th century. The engaging narrator, Will Cooper, is bound in servitude to run a remote trading post in Indian country in the mountains of North Carolina, about twenty-five years before the Civil War. An intelligent, literate young man with a romantic imagination, Will is adopted by an old Cherokee chief named Bear, and spends much of his life helping his adopted people preserve their heritage from an encroaching Federal policy of Indian removal.
    The heart of the story, however, is Will’s love affair with the mysterious Claire. Like the poetically named Indian moons that thread the novel as timekeepers and symbols, Claire’s presence haunts every page of this beautifully imagined, exquisitely told tale. In addition to creating vivid characters, Frazier has an astonishing command of his craft, making sentences and paragraphs into scenes that stay with you on all levels. Yet at no time does the style become overbearing, or lose its gently humorous undertone of self-awareness. Some moments call to mind the comic timing of Mark Twain. Others take one’s breath away with the sheer magnificence of their insight.
    If, as Will says midway through the book, “Writers can tell any lie that leaps into their heads,” in doing so Frazier reveals essential truths. This is a book to be savored, to be read slowly, to be reread from time to time. Highly recommended. -- Susanne Dunlap

CRITIQUE OF CRIMINAL REASON
Michael Gregorio, Faber & Faber, 2006, £12.99, pb, 395pp, 0571229271 / St Martin’s Press, 2006, $24.95, hb, 400pp, 0312349947
‘Observe, Stiffeniis. It slid in like a hot knife cutting lard.’ So begins Michael Gregorio’s chilling story of murder at a time when the scientific detection of crime was in its infancy. It is 1804, and young country magistrate Hanno Stiffeniis is mysteriously called into the Prussian city of Konigsberg to investigate a series of random brutal killings. Once there he finds the city in uproar, with the general public convinced that the devil is at work. Rioting on the streets is becoming a distinct possibility. At first unable to understand why such a minor official has been ordered to head the investigation, Hanno soon finds himself drawn into a whirlwind of death and destruction. The only light at the end of the tunnel is offered by a man Hanno greatly admires, the philosopher Immanuel Kant.
     Hanno’s work is clouded by his own demons, and it seems that many people he meets are determined to muddy the waters still further. No one is quite who they seem, and even Professor Kant’s involvement might not be as impartial as expected. With his dour assistant Koch to aid him, Hanno is unwavering in his resolution to solve the case, only to find himself a target for the killer. It soon becomes clear that the reason for his own summons to Konigsberg is more sinister than he first realised.
    Critique of Criminal Reason is a marvellously atmospheric thriller in which the dark and dangerous streets of Konigsberg are evocatively brought to chilling life. Grotesque characters march through the pages, shedding light and blurring truth in equal measure. Reason and logic fight with superstition and random violence for the upper hand, and it is never clear which side is going to win. This is the first in a proposed series of crime novels set to feature Hanno Stiffeniis, and if this opener is anything to go by, lovers of detective fiction are in for a rare treat.
-- Sara Wilson

THE BOLEYN INHERITANCE
Philippa Gregory, Touchstone, 2006, $25.95, hb, 519pp, 0743272501 / HarperCollins, 2006, £17.99, hb, 528pp, 0007190328
Gregory’s latest novel focuses on the lives of three women, all of whom bear witness to the Boleyn family’s legacy: Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII’s fourth wife; Katherine Howard, Henry’s fifth wife; and Jane Rochford, whose sister-in-law, Anne Boleyn, and husband, George Boleyn, went to the executioner’s block because she testified against them. Gregory alternates their narratives, and we hear their stories in the first person as they experience their daily lives.
    Anne, the maiden from Flanders, who has lived her life under her brother’s thumb, is finally free to leave her bondage. She travels to England to become Henry’s wife and finds herself a stranger in a strange land. She cannot speak the language, her clothing is unfashionable, and her initial response to Henry – revulsion – does not earn her Henry’s good graces, even before they are married. She is clearly not long for the throne of England. How Anne is falsely accused and manages to avoid the axe is a miracle of storytelling.
Kitty Howard is groomed to seduce Henry and to manipulate the Howard family – cousins to Anne Boleyn – back into the king’s inner circle. She is a silly, pitiful, yet beautiful girl who is in love with love. She entices Henry away from Anne and sees her life as a revolving door of new dresses, jewelry and pretty young men.
    Jane Rochford is, perhaps, the most moving of Gregory’s characters because she is so depraved. Spying for her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, Jane manages to bear false witness against just about anyone whose downfall will exalt her family line and ensure her fortune and title. Universally distrusted and loathed, Jane does not understand how manipulated she has been until it is too late.
    Beautifully drawn characters, glorious storytelling – a tour de force from Philippa Gregory and a must read. -- Ilysa Magnus

GENTLEMEN IN QUESTION
Melinda Hammond, Robert Hale, 2006, £18.99, hb, 223pp, 0709080859
From the moment Madeleine Sedgewick waits on the dockside at the busy port of Rye for the arrival of her French cousin, Camille, Comte du Viviere, she becomes embroiled in all kinds of adventure and intrigue. Madeleine soon finds herself plunged into the murky world of crime. All is not as it appears, and soon doubts arise as to the true character of the Comte. And then there is the fascinating Mr Hauxwell, a rich beau who rather intriguingly has a handy quip for every occasion.
    The murder and mayhem occurs at a protracted house party in a Georgian country house at Christmas time. The amusing foibles of the house guests are lovingly described, as are the entertainments. Delightful. Madeleine is a sporting Regency heroine of the madcap variety. I loved her. Her dollops of good sense combined with complete honesty made her a refreshing read.
    A nicely paced story. The narrative rattles along when the action demands, yet lingering attention is paid to the tender moments. A most enjoyable read; highly recommended. -- Fiona Lowe

INCANTATION
Alice Hoffman, Little Brown, 2006, $16.99/C$22.99, hb, 166pp, 0316017159
Encaleflora, a tiny village in Spain, has been home for the deMadrigal family for over five hundred years. Estrella, sixteen and on the verge of womanhood, lives there with her mother, Abra, a skilled herbalist and artisan, her formidable grandmother, and her grandfather, Jose, a well respected scholar. None of them pay her much attention, especially since her older brother, Luis, has gone to study at the seminary. One day Estrella and her best friend, Catalina, see smoke coming from the direction of the city’s center. They run to find out the cause. At first, Estrella thinks someone is burning doves. Then she realizes that the ‘doves’ are pages from books seized from the Jews in the town’s alajama, or Jewish quarter. The fires that day signal the beginning of a series of life changing events for Estrella and her family.
    This profoundly moving young adult novel explores the persecution of the Jews in 15^th and 16^th century Spain. In particular, it delves into the lives of the Marranos, or secret Jews, who converted to Christianity in order to avoid expulsion but covertly practiced their true religion. As Estrella’s mother teaches her, “the inside of something [is] not necessarily its outside.”
    I found this book impossible to put down. Estrella deMadrigal is a brave, admirable, and honest heroine for young readers. This is a richly descriptive narrative, and I would recommend it to adults as well as teens.
-- Alice Logsdon

THIS TIME OF DYING
Reina James, Portobello, 2006, £10.99, pb, 240pp, 1846270456 / To be pub. in the US by St. Martin’s, April 2007, $24.95, hb, 304pp, 031236444X
This most unusual first novel chronicles the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic in London. The story opens with flu-stricken Dr. Wey drawing on his last reserves of strength to post a letter warning the government to close the ports and stop the movement of the troops in order to halt the epidemic. Before Wey can reach the post box, he collapses and dies in the street, his face blue with cyanosis, the Spanish flu’s trademark symptom.
    Undertaker Henry Speake finds both Wey’s body and his letter, which he reads and keeps. As the disease spreads and the body count mounts, Wey’s letter haunts him. Unable to confide in his self-centred sisters, he turns to Mrs. Allen Thompson, a widowed teacher whose school has closed down for the duration of the epidemic. When their friendship evolves into slow-burning romance, they suffer the censure of their family and friends: Henry, a common tradesman, is beneath Allen’s station, and a respectable woman has no business seeking his company. But as the flu ravages the community, old social barriers break down. Servants and working class people stand up to their social ‘betters’ and women take on male professions. Meanwhile Henry and Allen struggle to find the courage to be true to themselves.
    Written in deceptively plain and unsentimental prose, the novel is quite sophisticated in structure. The author manages to dip into many different characters’ heads to paint an intimate portrait of how the flu impacts an entire community already decimated by war: from the elderly doctor who cannot live up to the weight of his duties, to Henry’s ‘masculine’ sister, seething in resentment because she believes she could run the family business more competently than her distracted brother. Despite its macabre subject matter, a highly compelling and recommended read. -- Mary Sharratt

DARK ANGELS
Karleen Koen, Crown, 2006, $25.95/$C34.95, hb, 544pp, 0307339912
Through a Glass Darkly was a book that lingered in the memory: a lush historical setting, carefully created characters, riveting storyline. Now, twenty years later, I have finished its prequel, Dark Angels, and am happy to report that it is every bit as memorable. In this new novel, Alice Verney is maid-of-honour to Princess Henriette, the beloved sister of Charles II of England. After the monarchy is restored, people who experienced years of turmoil want pleasure and little else, but even at this court there is intrigue aplenty, particularly about the childless Queen Catherine. Alice – an inveterate meddler – becomes embroiled in secrets involving the powerful Duke of Balmoral (whom she wishes to marry) and the mysterious Henri Ange (who could be English, could be French). As the plot gallops along, Alice learns much about herself and her relationships with her father, her friends, and Richard Saylor, the soldier who becomes one of the only people she can trust.
    One of the things I enjoyed most about Dark Angels was its elaborate picture of the English court and its various sub-courts (e.g., Queen Catherine’s). The period details are thoughtfully chosen, and the numerous courtiers and servants are distinct from one another. Censorious and stubborn Alice is not exactly a likeable protagonist, but it is a tribute to the author’s skill that we care about her anyway.
    It is a rare book where the characters are so real, they could easily be the people you encounter each day. Karleen Koen accomplished this with her first two novels, and now, with Dark Angels, she has done it once again. A note from the publisher says, “I guarantee that you’re in for quite a treat [if you read this novel].” I can’t phrase it any better than that. -- Claire Morris

DANGEROUS PURSUITS
Alanna Knight, Allison & Busby, 2006, £6.99/$9.95, pb, 288pp, 0749082445
The second book in the Rose McQuinn mystery series is a thoroughly enjoyable introduction to the world of Edinburgh’s first intrepid female private investigator, for readers who like me happened to miss the first book in the series. An oversight I will not be long in setting to rights! In the 1890s, ‘intrepid’ is certainly a fair description of Rose McQuinn, a most engaging character, intelligent, independently minded and utterly unconventional. Lovingly employed details help to create a convincing and compelling picture of late Victorian Edinburgh, amongst which are a heroine who reads the novels of Robert Louis Stevenson and a young nanny who performs in Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic operettas. The plot is shot through with darker undertones: Dockers’ strikes, appalling poverty and errant husbands, to name but a few.
    In Dangerous Pursuits we find Mrs McQuinn attempting to persuade her lover, Detective Sergeant Jack MacMerry, that she has discovered a dead woman’s body whilst walking on Arthur’s seat, the volcanic outcrop perched high above the city. Detective Sergeant MacMerry is not so easily persuaded, not without good reason – there is no report of a dead body. An inconvenient occurrence Mrs McQuinn is determined to explain. She is certain foul murder has taken place.
    The central relationship between Jack MacMerry and Rose McQuinn is full of charm. One cannot help but admire the Detective Sergeant’s terrier-like tenacity in the face of his lady-love’s implacable independence. Alanna Knight’s writing is richly diffused with a winning combination of warm-hearted tenderness and humour, whilst the mystery story is equally captivating and reaching a deeply satisfying conclusion. Highly recommended. -- Fiona Lowe

SYMPHONY
Jude Morgan, Headline, 2006, £11.99, pb, 374 pp, 0755327721
This stunning novel illuminates the passionate and stormy union of great Romantic composer, Hector Berlioz, and Anglo-Irish actress, Harriet Smithson, his muse, who inspired his Symphonie Fantastique. Though penniless, Hector eventually marries Harriet when she is past her prime and down on her luck, thus creating a scandal which leaves him disinherited and banished to the fringes of respectable society. The most interesting part is what comes next – what happens when a genius marries his muse and the muse is a brilliant artist in her own right, not content to be frozen upon a pedestal? Hector’s opium and infidelity and Harriet’s drinking and jealousy shatter their idyll.
    In the hands of a lesser author, their story would be reduced to a sad melodrama. Morgan, however, lifts the narrative to another level, starting with Harriet and Hector’s childhoods. They do not even become lovers until the last third of the book. Instead we meet each of them as individual artists heroically struggling to make their mark in an indifferent world. Morgan’s great gift to the reader is in rescuing Harriet Smithson from the footnotes of history and presenting her as an accomplished actress who, after years of obscurity, electrifies Paris and inspires a whole generation of young writers and artists, even though she can barely speak French. This dignified portrait of Harriet makes the tragedy of her marriage all the more heart-breaking.
    Interludes narrated from the perspectives of Chopin and Mendelssohn prevent the story from becoming too claustrophobic or heavy-handed. Ultimately this book is a transcendent meditation on the redemptive power of love and art. The finest historical novel I have read this year, Symphony is best savoured with Berlioz’s music playing in the background. -- Mary Sharratt 

THE LIGHT OF EVENING
Edna O’Brien, Houghton Mifflin, 2006, $25.00/C$33.95, hb, 304pp, 0618718672 / Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006, £14.99, hb, 224pp, 0297851330
The novel opens in the latter half of the 20^th century. Dilly, bedridden in a small rural Irish hospital, reminisces about her past as she waits for the arrival of her eldest daughter, Eleanora. She recalls her early life, her strong desire to leave home, and her subsequent return. A large part of the novel’s first half explores Dilly’s time spent in Brooklyn, in the late 1920s, when she arrives in America with dreams of success and adventure only to be sorely disappointed. After a failed relationship and her brother’s death, Dilly returns to Ireland, marries a wealthy man, Cornelius, and moves to his rustic estate, Rusheen, where they raise their two children. Most of the second half of the novel follows Eleanora, who moves to England, begins a successful writing career, and marries an older novelist. Soon she divorces him and begins a series of affairs. Through this time, mother and daughter are constantly at odds. Despite Eleanora’s reluctance to return to Ireland, it is all she writes about. At the end of the novel, they reconcile in a surprising way.
    O’Brien’s complicated subject is reflected in her compelling style. She shifts from Dilly’s first person narrative to the third person in Eleanora’s. Her characters’ complex emotions and thoughts are reflected in the prose and in their journal entries and letters. This is an exceptional novel about passion, family, and time. -- Gerald T. Burke

SOVEREIGN
C.J. Sansom, Macmillan, 2006, £16.99/C$32.95, hb, 581pp, 1405050489 / To be pub. in the US by Viking, March 2007, $25.95, hb, 592pp, 0670038318
To overawe the rebellious north, Henry VIII makes a grand Progress to York. Travelling ahead are lawyer Matthew Shardlake and his assistant, Jack Barak, to help prepare petitions and, at Cranmer’s behest, to ensure that an important conspirator arrives in good health at the Tower for questioning.
    A workman is murdered and papers are found which could shake the throne. Shardlake, confronted by personal enemies, threats and constant danger, is determined to seek out the truth. In typical sleuth fashion he has a disability, personal problems, and moral dilemmas he must resolve in order to carry out his instructions.
    Meticulously detailed (though the frequent references to ‘lunch’ in the early 16th century struck a jarring note), this novel provides an intriguing glimpse into the lives of people behind the throne and the preparations involved in keeping royal lives running smoothly. The plot is satisfyingly complex, and the people, real and fictional, are portrayed with skill. The background, the private lives of the court and the ordinary people, is brought vividly to life.
-- Marina Oliver

DUCHESS: A Novel of Sarah Churchill
Susan Holloway Scott, New American Library, 2006, $14.00/C$18.50, pb, 384pp, 0451218558
This wonderful fictional biography of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, whisks the reader into a period rife with intrigue, love, sex, war and religious strife. Told through Sarah’s eyes, Duchess follows her life from her first days at court in the 1670s until her return from exile just before the death of Queen Anne in 1714.
    There are so many reasons to recommend this book, from its myriad believable characters, ably drawn setting, polished and fluent prose, to its ability to totally immerse the reader in the past. We watch Sarah grow from a young woman of ambition and inner strength to a political and social leader at Queen Anne’s court. But her success doesn’t come without sacrifice, petty rivalry or danger, especially when she and her husband, John, throw their support behind the rebellion against James II. The reader experiences it all in glorious detail.
    Scott’s in-depth research is clear from her setting and plot, yet she doesn’t overwhelm the reader with minutiae; her clear prose evokes the language of the period without falling into the realms of gadzookery. Readers will also find that the story moves along at a fine pace. Sarah recounts those events of most importance to her, and it is interesting to note how she moves through time more quickly as her relationship with Anne begins to crumble.
    What ties this book together, though, is the love match between Sarah and John. Despite many separations due to his military career and their somewhat divergent views on politics and child-raising, the reader never doubts the depth of their love and the strength it gives them, both individually and as a couple.
     Readers looking for a true escape into the past will want to add this book to their collection and their keeper shelf. -- Teresa Basinski Eckford

On Agate Hill
Lee Smith, Algonquin, 2006, $24.95/C$34.95, hb, 416pp, 1565124529
Lee Smith is a talented novelist who has written an absorbing novel of the post-Civil War South. Molly Petree is an orphan living on her uncle’s North Carolina plantation on Agate Hill. Molly’s parents, brothers, and aunt have all died, and her uncle is emotionally shattered by the war and the loss of his wife and children. Molly, too, is saddened by the death of her family, but still manages to find joy in the beautiful countryside.
    Molly’s situation becomes precarious when her uncle dies, leaving her in the care of Selena, the tenant farmer’s widow, whom her uncle married shortly before dying. She acquires a protector in the mysterious Simon Black, a devoted friend of her parents, who arranges for her to go to a boarding school. As Molly grows up, her life continues to be marked by tragedy. She seems destined to lose everyone she loves, but through all this, Molly endures, and in the end, returns to Agate Hill.
    In beautifully written prose, Smith writes about the survival of the human spirit in the midst of heartbreaking tragedy. She has done meticulous research, basing much of the book on memoirs and diaries. This is reflected in the vividness with which this time and place is depicted: the daily life and activities, the description of the countryside and the mood of the people. Not to be missed. -- Jane Kessler

RED RIVER
Lalita Tademy, Warner, 2007, $24.99, hb, 418pp, 0446578981 / Headline Review, 2006, £19.99, hb, 416pp, 0755332687
“This is not a story to go down easy, and the backwash still got hold of us today. The history of a family. The history of a country… Wasn’t no riot like they say… it was a massacre.” In 1873, five years after the Louisiana Constitution grants citizen rights to former slaves, the black men of Grant Parish risk their lives to vote, electing a Republican sheriff. When the Democratic incumbent refuses to step down, a group of black militiamen blockade the courthouse. Expecting the U.S. government to uphold the election results, the militants wait for federal reinforcements, but weeks pass and no relief appears. The white attackers finally break the impasse by setting fire to the courthouse; and a massacre ensues that includes the slaughter of four dozen unarmed blacks. Sam Tademy and Isaiah Smith (the author’s great-great-grandfathers) are two of the few survivors of the “Colfax Riot.”
    With a deft hand, Lalita Tademy intertwines historical events with her own ancestral story to create a novel about two families struggling to build a better world for the generations that follow. Her varied characters are unforgettable, her forthright descriptions are vivid (“The precarious relationship… crumples like a wobbly wagon wheel that finally capsizes the cart”) and her unusual use of the present tense provides immediacy while propelling the story forward.
It is accomplishment enough to write a novel that so poignantly exposes the indignities endured by one group of people during one small period of history, but the author’s stunning achievement is to tell a story that, despite its specificity of time, place, and race, universalizes both the suffering and the sacrifice. More than a family saga, Red River is a clear glass that illuminates the misery of injustice and the magnificence of sacrifice, wherever they are found. Bravo! -- Nancy J. Attwell

Knights of the Black and White
Jack Whyte, Putnam, 2006, $25.95, hb, 548pp, 0399153969
If Jack Whyte ever decides on a criminal career, then best of luck to those who have to catch him. His plotting is meticulous, imaginative, and executed to perfection. There is not a loophole or loose thread in Knights of the Black and White, his fast-paced story of Sir Hugh de Payens, knight of the First Crusade and founder of the Knights Templar. In 11^th century France, there is a secret Order dedicated to the preservation of ancient knowledge. The well- guarded documents are difficult to read. The information is dangerous. Per tradition, only one son of each family in the Order will be initiated into its rites. Hugh de Payens is the chosen son.
    Hugh’s study of the Order’s lore ends with a call to join the First Crusade. After the savage battle for Jerusalem, the Order again touches Hugh’s life. He is charged to assemble members of the brotherhood and await further orders from France. The orders are unbelievable. The brothers are to search for a treasure hidden in subterranean ruins under the Temple Mount – that is, directly under the palace of the King of Jerusalem.
    Hugh’s strategy is inspired. He offers the services of his fellow knights for the purpose of protecting pilgrims. The knights will become a monastic order of fighting monks. It won’t cost the Church or the king a shekel. All they ask is for a place to live and house their horses. The abandoned stables near the king’s palace will do perfectly: the old stables situated on the Temple Mount…
    The rest is an exciting tale of desert fighting, political treachery, lust, and love. The story is rich in historical detail, some of it outright funny, all of it interesting and skillfully introduced. The ending is perfect. Don’t just read this book; add it to your collection. -- Lucille Cormier

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