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Editors' Choice
Titles for
February 2010:
[Table of
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2009] [Feb
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2008]
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2006] [May
2006] [Feb
2006] [Nov
2005]
THOUGH WATERS ROAR
Lynn Austin, Bethany House, 2009, $13.99, pb, 430pp, 9780764204968
Once again, Lynn Austin has created an intense, thought-provoking
and thoroughly satisfying historical Christian fiction tale. The
story spans the life of four generations of women, each struggling
with society and marriage, but ultimately fighting for justice and a
better life. It begins in 1920 in Roseton, Pennsylvania, as
twenty-year-old Harriet Sherwood sits in jail for transporting
bootleg liquor.
As Harriet contemplates her current predicament, she
confesses her feelings of inadequacy – she comes from a long line of
heroines, but somehow ends up in jail for something she does not
even believe in. Harriet tells the story of her great-grandmother,
Hannah, who participated in the Underground Railroad; her Grandma
Bebe who fought for Prohibition; and her mother, Lucy, a suffragist
who fought for women’s right to vote. As Harriet reminisces about
the irony of her current state, her story unfolds through her
recollection of her family’s history.
As always, Austin’s characters are flawed, realistic, and
completely lovable. Harriet’s narration was riveting, and I
anxiously turned the pages to find out what happened next. The
flashbacks kept each of the women’s stories alive through the pages
and helped to complete Harriet’s own tale. The book’s powerful
message of trusting in God during times of trial helps give it a
particularly satisfying conclusion, when each character learns from
her mistakes. With its precise historical detail, intricate
storyline, and a consistent theme of faith and love, this is yet
another of Austin’s masterpieces.
--
Rebecca Roberts
THE POSTMISTRESS
Sarah Blake, Putnam/Amy Einhorn, 2009, $25.95/C$32.50, hb, 336pp,
9780399156199 / Viking, May 2010, £12.99, hb, 336pp, 9780670918683
This atmospheric novel follows the intersecting lives of three
American women during 1940 and 1941. Iris James is the postmaster
(she doesn’t believe in the term postmistress) of Franklin,
Massachusetts, on Cape Cod. Emma Trask is a new arrival in town: she
has just married Franklin’s doctor. And Frankie Bard is in London,
broadcasting about the Blitz with Edward R. Murrow.
Iris takes very seriously her role as the government
representative who acts as a conduit in making sure that people
receive their mail. Emma, who has no one else in the world, is
delighted to be cherished by her new husband. And Frankie, despite
the terrifying conditions, is energized by being able to observe and
report on the fortitude of Londoners. But things soon start to
unravel. Emma’s husband’s life changes course after a tragedy with a
patient, and Iris breaks her code of ethics by failing to deliver a
letter. Frankie heads off to the Continent to witness and to record
the voices of those who have been dispossessed, those who find their
very lives at risk. Frankie’s broadcasts both intrigue and repel
Iris and Emma, and then Frankie appears in person in Franklin to
deliver devastating news.
The author successfully paints a portrait of small town
America; many don’t want to acknowledge that what is happening in
Europe may soon affect them, despite their paranoia about their
supposed enemies. A few realize what is coming but make little
headway in convincing others. The scenes set in London vividly mix
the people’s determination with tragedy. Across the Channel, the
desperation of the Jews that Frankie interviews is palpable. The
plot presents a time often written about in a fresh and most
engaging manner. Highly recommended. --
Trudi E. Jacobson
THE BOOK OF FIRES
Jane Borodale, Pamela Dorman/Viking, 2010, $26.95, hb, 368pp,
9780670021062 / HarperPress, 2009, £14.99, hb, 400pp, 9780007305728
Jane Borodale’s stunning debut novel begins with that classic
element of suspense, a countdown to an explosion—not so much of the
pyrotechnics that fascinate and draw together the two main
characters, but the birth of a bastard child. Agnes Trussel’s Sussex
family ekes out a living in tough times. Rather than confess her
shameful pregnancy, she runs away to London with a cache of stolen
coins. Along the way she meets a helpful stranger, but by her own
efforts she finds employment in the household of John Blacklock,
maker of fireworks—not merely as a servant, but as his assistant.
For a variety of reasons Agnes walks in guilt. She lives with
constant fear that her theft and her pregnancy will be discovered.
She must conceal both from Blacklock’s other servants as well as
from neighborhood merchants and strives to hide the truth of her
past—even
her
family’s existence. The slightest mistake while filling the
containers could result in destruction and instant death. Her hands
may be deft, but her mind is uneasy. All the while she grows expert
in her master’s most dangerous trade, and more hopeful of helping
him produce rockets capable of colored fire.
Agnes is the plaything of fate, alternately enjoying good
luck and bad as her swelling belly threatens both her livelihood and
her life. The climactic scenes do not disappoint.
Through Agnes the author thrusts her readers into 1750s
London, with atmospheric descriptions, impeccable dialogue, and
gripping uncertainties. An exceptionally well-crafted novel,
beautifully written. --
Margaret Barr
THE JEWEL BOX
Anna Davis, Black Swan, 2009, £7.99, pb, 413pp, 9780552773393 /
Pocket, 2009, $15.00, pb, 384pp, 9781416537366
Grace Rutherford is a pioneer. By day she is the first female
copywriter at a stuffy advertising agency. By night, she is Diamond
Sharp, gossip columnist, arbiter of fashion and good taste and all
round flapper.
Soon, she finds herself having to choose between two very
different men – American playboy novelist, Dexter O’Connell, who has
never quite recovered his form since his scandalous first novel, and
the quiet, intense John Cramer, whose past is inextricably linked
with O’Connell’s and whose future might lie with Grace’s younger
sister, Nancy, a widow with two small children.
It is a stroke of genius on Davis’s part to reinvent
chick-lit for the London of the 1920s. The hedonistic era is perfect
for the more daring or frivolous aspects of the genre but, like all
the best chick-lit, this is a book with dark undercurrents beneath
its glittering surface.
The Great War is still within living memory and continues to
haunt the central characters. Grace might appear to have a party
lifestyle, but she is working so hard in order to support her family
as well as trying to assuage the guilt she feels at the secret
injury she has inflicted on her beloved sister. Like the book
itself, she is far deeper than might appear from an initial glance.
The novel is cleverly plotted, the characters satisfyingly
complex and only one phrase, ‘does what it says on the tin’ is far
too modern for the period in which the story is set. In short, I
loved it. --
Jasmina Svenne
DAY AFTER NIGHT
Anita Diamant, Scribner, 2009, $27.00/C$32.00, hb, 294pp,
9780743299848 / Simon & Schuster, 2009, £12.99, pb, 304pp,
9781847377074
Welcome to Atlit. Meet Tedi, from Holland, who lost her sense of
smell during the war, but who has regained it with a vengeance. Meet
Zorah, from Poland, though she would probably rather not meet you.
And Shayndel, also from Poland, a natural leader and very brave. And
there is Leonie, a French beauty, who is great friends with Shayndel.
All have managed to get to Palestine after the war. All are Jewish,
and their experiences during the war are better left unstated for
now, though you will read about them in Day After Night. But
these young women are unable to start new lives yet in Palestine,
for Atlit is an internment camp. Tedi and Zorah and Shayndel and
Leonie are not free to leave it, as they do not have sponsors. So
they wait, struggling to learn Hebrew, trying to envision communal
life on a kibbutz, and slowly opening up to those around them.
Anita Diamant’s compelling new novel introduces us to these and many
other memorable characters, all of whom have gripping tales. The
tensions between the survivors of the Holocaust who are trying to
rebuild their shattered lives and the British who are strictly
controlling those who can freely enter the country are made vividly
clear. The Palmach, the unofficial Jewish fighting unit, is active
on behalf of new arrivals, coming into conflict with the British.
I was truly sorry to see this book end. I wanted to spend
much more time with all these brave women about whom I had come to
care so much. As the author brings us up to date on their lives, it
came as a shock to realize that I wouldn’t be able to eavesdrop on
their experiences post-Atlit, that their lives have already been
lived. This caused a profound regret. Ms. Diamant, might you not go
back and fill in some of the blanks? --
Trudi E. Jacobson
THE TEMPLAR MAGICIAN
Paul Doherty, Headline, 2009, £19.99, hb, 299pp, 9780755354542
The Templar Magician
is an action-packed historical adventure set in 1152 during the
civil war between King Stephen and Matilda’s son Henry Fitzempress,
later to become Henry II. The fifty-year-old Templar Order is a
wealthy power, glittering with riches. Jerusalem is controlled by
the Crusaders, although, five decades after the first Crusade,
idealism is replaced by subtle power-play. Against this background,
Edmund de Payens, Crusader and Templar, is caught up in murderous
intrigue after the brutal assassination of Raymond, Count of
Tripoli. Edmund and Philip Mayele, as envoys for the Templars, are
sent to negotiate with The Assassins, a sect believed responsible
for the murder. It appears, however, that this assassination may be
connected to a rogue coven within the Templar Order itself. The
narrative now becomes a thrilling pursuit that moves from the
Crusading kingdoms to England. Here terrifying mysteries are
revealed and a dark plot which surrounds the English court during
the turbulent 12th century is exposed.
This excellent novel is to be commended in particular for its
character development. The mystery will keep the reader guessing to
the final chapter because the story is inhabited by complex
characters and no one is who they appear to be. Paul Doherty is also
to be praised for his period authenticity. 12th-century London is
resurrected through gritty sensual descriptions of streets, inns,
wharves, monasteries and palaces. Details of the people who inhabit
London create a vibrant world. People throng these streets and
alleyways, ‘beggars, drunks, the importunate apprenticeships with
their mantles lined with dormouse fur’. Enemies lurk amongst the
shadows. Equally well realised, atmospherically depicted desolate
country manors, priories and abbeys haunt Doherty’s pages. Scenes
set in the Crusading lands are also authentically created to reveal
colour, cruelty and the darkly exotic. Finally, this novel shows
Paul Doherty as a storyteller who weaves a fast moving tale of
intrigue; one which speculates but also posits a horrible and
possible truth.
--
Carol McGrath
THE ENDLESS FOREST
Sara Donati, Delacorte, 2010, hb, $27.00/C$33.00, hb, 640pp,
9780553805260
With The Endless Forest, Sara Donati’s sweeping saga of the
Bonner family comes to a close, and what a magnificent ending it is!
The story that began in Paradise, New York with Into the
Wilderness comes full circle as Nathaniel and Elizabeth’s
children return to their mountain home in 1824 to raise their
families and face the past and the future. This final book in the
series settles old scores and ties up loose threads while giving us
fevered action and romance in the bargain.
Opening with a springtime flood that manages to devastate
Paradise both physically and spiritually, The Endless Forest
brings daughter Lily home in hopes of beginning her own family. Her
twin Daniel, still affected by his disabling accident years earlier,
keeps to himself until the arrival of young Martha Kirby sparks a
reawakening. When town nemesis (and Martha’s mother) Jemima Kuick
returns, old wounds resurface that force the hand of not just Daniel
and Martha, but also other Bonners and townspeople. Jemima’s still
out for blood, and the family must draw together in order to keep
what’s rightfully theirs.
All the characters we’ve grown to know and love are present:
Nathaniel and Elizabeth, now grandparents, are still lovingly
guiding their families; Hannah, Luke, and Gabriel are raising
children along with their spouses; and Curiosity is still dispensing
advice. Most delightful is the presence of Birdie, youngest child of
Nathaniel and Elizabeth, who manages to insert herself in the thick
of things and always has an opinion to share.
Donati supplies us with an epilogue that lets us know what
happens next in the lives of the Bonner clan. I will miss these
stories, and yet I find that Donati has given this saga a most
gratifying finale. Highly recommended.
--
Tamela McCann
THE LAKE WOMAN
Alan Gould, Arcadia, 2009, AU$29.95, pb, 296pp, 9781921509346
Alec Dearborn, a thoroughly likeable Australian soldier in the
British paratroopers, takes part in the Allied invasion of France.
On the eve of the D-Day offensive, he crosses the Channel prepared
to fight but still unsure of how he will acquit himself, having
developed no personal animosity towards the enemy. When his aircraft
is shot down over Normandy, he manages to break free, landing in a
lake, and is rescued by an enigmatic French woman. After being
revived and hidden, he sets out to join his troops but is unable to
erase the impression Mamzelle leaves in his mind. His search, and
its eventual conclusion, makes a poignant, mystical and yet utterly
believable tale.
In this literary novel, poet Alan Gould catches the voice of
the era and renders it beautifully. Every sentence is worthy of
lingering reflection. The narrative starts strongly, with Dearborn
plunged into a cold lake, entwined in his parachute, and struggling
for breath. He paints the relationship with Mamzelle with a fine
brush. Although the protagonist spends only a few hours in her
presence, we understand her indelible appeal. Chapter Two is largely
back-story, which interrupts the narrative flow briefly. There are
also a couple of instances in which the passing of time draws
unnecessary attention to itself. But these are minor considerations.
The overall work is a thing of beauty, tender, heartfelt and
compelling. A meditation on love and morality in a time of war, this
story lingers long after its final page is turned. --
Elizabeth Jane
THE SAFFRON GATE
Linda Holeman, Headline Review, 2010, £6.99, pb, 435pp, 978075531130
This book was a delightful surprise. I do not usually review
romantic fiction, but this arrived just after I had sent out a batch
of books for review, so I took it on for myself. It is most
definitely a love story, with a lovelorn heroine on a quest to find
her missing amour. But Sidonie O’Shea is no conventional romantic
heroine, innocent, beautiful but feisty. She is innocent only
because she is a polio victim, the product of an isolated,
over-protected childhood in a poor immigrant family in upstate New
York. Feisty she is not. However, she faces a daunting task, for her
lover has gone missing in Morocco and she sets out to find him
there. It is 1930, and Morocco has only recently been ‘pacified’ by
the French: it is exotic and dangerous.
The Saffron Gate
is about love and loneliness, betrayal and redemption, and also
about culture shock and assimilation, physical handicap,
colonialism, and above all about Morocco, its culture and its
peoples. It is worth reading just as a travel book, but read it also
as a page-turning mystery story with an unusual denouement. --
Edward James
REQUIEM IN VIENNA
J. Sydney Jones, Minotaur, 2010, $24.99/C$31.99, hb, 293pp,
978031238390
In 1899 Vienna, the director of the Court Opera, conductor-composer
Gustav Mahler, appears to be the intended victim of a series of
accidents: first a singer dies when the fire curtain falls on her
during a rehearsal, then Mahler’s podium collapses under him. Alma
Schindler, who is in love with Mahler, approaches lawyer Karl
Werthen to find out who is trying to kill the composer. At first
Mahler doesn’t believe the incidents are any more than accidents,
but the murder—made to look like suicide—of a violinist who saw the
singer killed convinces him that something much more serious is
going on.
Werthen, with the assistance of his new wife Berthe and the
great criminologist Hans Gross (a real person, said to be one of
Conan Doyle’s models for Sherlock Holmes), investigates the case and
finds there are many people with reasons to kill Mahler. Then, when
Werthen receives an anonymous letter suggesting that the supposedly
natural deaths of Brahms, Bruckner, and Johann Strauss may not have
been natural after all, he realizes a murderer may be plotting to
kill the great composers of Vienna.
Jones, who has lived in Vienna for twenty years, brings late
19th-century Vienna—its opera house, cafes, and food—brilliantly to
life and made me feel as if I were living there. Werthen and Berthe
are wonderfully sympathetic characters, and Gross, while not as
immediately appealing, clearly possesses a brilliant mind. I would
highly recommend this book to music lovers and anyone interested in
Vienna. --
Vicki Kondelik
THE SWAN THIEVES
Elizabeth Kostova, Little, Brown, 2010, $26.99/C$32.99, hb, 576pp,
9780316065788 / Sphere, 2010, £16.99, hb, 576pp, 9781847442406
An enchanting story and a deeply human experience. At the end of it,
one feels compelled to paint, or write, sing or make music, or
simply live with greater intensity. The crisis of mind—and
soul—of a famous artist that begins the story leads the narrator,
psychiatrist Andrew Marlow, on the reluctant hero’s journey as he
unravels the haunting obsession that has caused his patient to
attack a painting with a knife. Kostova deftly weaves two stories of
love and art from the Impressionist era in Paris to contemporary
rural Maine and New York. The larger-than-life figure of Robert
Oliver, the artist-patient, looms over the narratives of the women
who have loved him and the doctor who is determined to free him from
the silent cage he has chosen to inhabit.
Kostova’s writing is always good, and sometimes exquisite.
Here’s a sentence describing how Andrew feels upon seeing his
90-year-old fa ther
for the first time in a few years: “When I saw him waiting for me in
his good summer clothes…I felt as always both his reality and the
thin air that would one day replace him.” She uses letters,
narrative, dialogue, and exposition with ease. The story is weighty,
and moves slowly, thoughtfully—not a book to rush through, but to
savor and ponder as you read it.
There is a little unsteadiness in the plot. The fortuitous
connections seem just a touch too easy, and the last chapters almost
rush to the conclusion. But these are minor issues compared to the
overarching quality of the writing and the humanity of the
characters. The Swan Thieves is a deeply involving story, one
that will resonate for a long time after you’ve closed the book,
like the sound of a very old church bell at dusk. --
Mary F. Burns
RANSOM
David Malouf, Chatto & Windus, 2009,
£14.00, hb, 224pp, 9780701184155 / Pantheon, 2010, $24.00, hb,
240pp, 9780307378774
Ransom
is a diamond of a novel, tiny but flawless, prose so pared away and
carefully constructed that however many times you read it, it
persists in revealing new meanings and unfolding new images to the
mind’s eye.
It begins with the tragic consequences of
the anger of Achilles, the deaths of Patroclus and Hector and
Achilles’ desecration of Hector’s body. But fatherhood is its real
subject matter. Priam mourns his son, but also reflects on his own
fatherless upbringing. Achilles, who thought the war was going to be
‘over by Christmas’, misses his own son. When Priam decides he will
go to intercede with Achilles for Hector’s body, he goes not as a
king but as a father, plainly dressed and travelling in an ordinary
mule-cart, whose driver is hims elf no stranger to the grief of losing a
child.
As with Homer, so with Malouf; when heroes step away from
their public image and allow themselves to
be mortal, miracles of empathy and reconciliation can happen,
beautifully represented here by small details – the
feel of water running over bare feet in
the heat of the day, a shared meal, sleeping in the open air under a
good blanket. These are also the things which, by contrast, warn us
about the consequences of heroism and its inflexibility.
Cassandra-like, Malouf spares the reader nothing in his sickening
account of the inevitable slaughter of Priam by Neoptolemus.
n his afterword, he recounts first encountering
The Iliad
as a boy in Brisbane during World War Two. He, like Priam and
Achilles, was suspended in the middle of a war with no end in sight.
I assume it is no accident that he has come back to the subject now,
and I wish fiction like this was taken more seriously by
politicians. This book is, quite simply, a masterpiece.
--
Sarah Bower
WOLF HALL
Hilary Mantel, Henry Holt, 2009, $27.00, hb, 532pp, 9780805080681 /
Fourth Estate, 2009, £18.99, hb, 560pp, 9780007230181
The story of the courtship and marriage of Henry VIII and Anne
Boleyn is the stuff of legend. I could not imagine it being done
again, and done with indescribable talent, until I read Hilary
Mantel’s version.
Thomas Cromwell, Putney-born and a blacksmith’s son, has the
brilliance, wit and savvy of the most enlightened man of his age,
exceeding even that of his rival, Sir Thomas More. Where Cromwell’s
life is full of energy, love and learning, More is circumscribed by
his warped religious intolerance, culminating in the torturing of
heretics right under his family’s noses at Chelsea. Cromwell has
seen plenty of death and loss since childhood and has carried those
memories into adulthood, utterly rejecting this earlier deprivation
yet hardening him to the reality of Tudor life.
Cromwell is a pragmatic man, charming and astute. A
consummate politician, he knows the follies and foibles of court
politics – and how to keep
his
head on his shoulders while all around him are losing theirs. As
Cromwell’s fortunes improve, and his political aspirations are met
and exceeded, he becomes Henry’s closest ally and supporter. It is
by Cromwell’s maneuverings that Henry marries and crowns his heart’s
desire – Anne Boleyn. It is also Cromwell who breaks the logjam of
opposition to Henry and Anne’s marriage – by defeating the power of
More, Queen Katherine and Princess Mary, all of whom Mantel paints
as full-blown people, not simply caricatures. Even they can’t help
liking this fellow.
The recipient of the 2009 Booker Prize, this is a remarkable
book told in a unique and compelling voice. The reader experiences
Cromwell on the most intensely personal level, his humor, equanimity
and brilliance shining through. Mantel’s use of language is almost
musical, and I found myself rereading passages just for the lyrical
enjoyment of the words. An amazing journey that must be experienced.
--
Ilysa Magnus
O, JULIET
Robin Maxwell, NAL, 2010, $15.00, pb, 352pp, 9780451229151
Maxwell delivers a mesmerizing retelling of the famous star-crossed
lovers, Romeo and Juliet, in her latest novel, set in Italy at the
beginning of the Renaissance. Juliet Capelletti is a headstrong,
intelligent young lady who is facing an arranged marriage to Jacopo
Strozzi, her father’s new business partner. She does not look
forward to her match but knows that it will make her parents happy.
Juliet’s entire future is forever changed one night at the
engagement party of her best friend, Lucrezia, when she meets the
handsome Romeo Monticecco. Romeo is at the party to seek
reconciliation between his family and the Capelettis, who have been
feuding and retaliating against each other for years.
Juliet and Romeo find a chance to talk together alone under
the stars, and their destiny unfolds. Both are surprised by the
other’s passion for poetry and shared interest in Dante Alighieri’s
Vita Nuova. After their first meeting, Juliet is determined
to find a way out of her upcoming marriage to Jacopo, even though
this means defying her family’s wishes for her and possibly
destroying the business between her father and her betrothed.
What unfolds is a beautiful love story between the soul mates
Romeo and Juliet. Maxwell realistically portrays the torment with
which Juliet is faced as she wonders what her future holds. The
things I enjoyed the most about the novel were how Maxwell drew
parallels between Dante and his love, Beatrice, and Romeo and
Juliet, and her use of poetry and quotes from Dante throughout the
novel. Readers will savor this exquisite and magical love story.
--
Troy Reed
PRINT THE LEGEND
Craig McDonald, Minotaur, 2010, $24.99, hb, 342pp, 978031255437
Since I have never been a Hemingway fan, the plot of Print the
Legend only mildly intrigued me. I was willing to be
entertained, but I didn’t expect it to be one the best books I’d
read in years. I may even go back and give Hemingway another try.
Although the story begins with a Hemingway scholar wanting to
prove Mary Hemingway murdered her famous husband, it quickly becomes
a multi-layered plot with moving timelines. In the hands of a less
skilled writer, the short bursts of text told from different points
of view could easily have doomed the story, but McDonald never loses
his reader.
The book is labeled a crime novel, but that’s a terrible
oversimplification. McDonald uses Hector Lassiter, an old friend of
Hemingway’s, as a hero and a literary guide. Through Hector’s
musings and actions, we are treated to an intimate view of
Hemingway’s writings as well as his life. And as Lassiter tries to
protect the woman he loves while pursing a personal enemy, he
evolves into a credible romantic figure. Like many writers, McDonald
has a not-so-subtle agenda in Print the Legend, but he can be
forgiven, since his characters are so well drawn and he brings us
along successfully until almost the very end.
There is one thing that I did not like about the book: its
menacing cover. It misrepresents what is inside. Not being familiar
with the author, I would never have selected to read this book based
on the cover art. This book will appeal to readers who read outside
the crime genre. --
Veronika Pelka
EYE OF THE RAVEN
Eliot Pattison, Counterpoint, 2010, $26.00, hb, 400pp, 9781582435664
In the second installment of his colonial mystery series, Edgar
Award winner Pattison provides an absorbing tale firmly and
effectively grounded in the history of early America. Traveling a
wilderness road with his Indian comrade and mentor Conawago, Scots
medic Duncan McCallum comes upon a grisly murder scene. Not only is
the victim—a land surveyor—nailed to a tree, his heart has been
replaced by a metal gear. Together the Scotsman and the Indian
strive to solve the mystery of this and other identical murders that
connect Virginia planters, a mulatto slave family seeking freedom, a
French-born former Jesuit, Quakers, and Philadelphia grandees eager
to expand their holdings in the Pennsylvania Territory.
The ritual killings coincide with the negotiation of a treaty
between the natives and the land companies, with representatives
from Virginia and Pennsylvania competing for advantage. A false
confession by a respected Iroquois chief sends McCallum on a
dangerous and enlightening investigation across the disputed
territory. In Indian settlements along the way, he witnesses the
upheaval and devastation imposed by European encroachment. By the
time he and Conawago reach Philadelphia, where the outcome of both
treaty and the murder trial will be simultaneously determined, his
identity as a runaway bondsman imperils his life. For in that city
he encounters the aristocratic and vengeful enemy who professes to
hold his indenture.
Scientific advances in mechanics and electricity, and the
ancient Indian traditions alternately aid and hamper McCallum’s
quest for truth, and he meets with widely divergent methods of
justice. Their divergent methods of justice are also factors.
Throughout the novel Pattinson superbly builds tension and explores
a period of shifting and uncertain alliances and loyalties. A
thoroughly gripping read. --
Margaret Barr
ROME, THE EMPEROR’S SPY
M.C. Scott, Bantam Press, 2010, £12.99, hb, 493pp, 9780593055724
This is a spy thriller which opens in Jerusalem in the reign of
Tiberius where a young man, Math, watches as a body is removed
surreptitiously from a tomb. The story then moves on to Gaul in the
reign of Nero. It is here that Sebastos Abdes Pantera (the Leopard)
becomes involved with Math, dock thief and apprentice charioteer,
Ajax, his trainer and Hannah, a physician who was reared by the
Sybils. The Emperor Nero, hearing a prophecy that Rome will burn,
charges Pantera with stopping the impending catastrophe. Math, Ajax
and Hannah are drawn into a deadly game where death is the price of
failure.
This book takes off like a rocket from the opening sentence
and does not let up until the final paragraph. The characters stride
across the pages with colour and vibrancy, backed by compelling
descriptions which bring alive the people and the cities. The action
sequences, especially the chariot races are vivid, exciting and
gripping. I could feel the sand on my face racing chariots in
Alexandria and the heat from the fire as parts of Rome burned.
Superb writing from a master story-teller, this is a book to keep
and savour. Highly recommended. --
Mike Ashworth
THE ANARCHIST
John Smolens, Three Rivers, 2009, $15.00/C$18.95, pb, 320pp,
9780307351890
This novel is a fictitious account of Leon Czolgosz, who, on
September 6, 1901, in Buffalo, New York, shot and mortally wounded
President McKinley. It is primarily a story of the months leading up
to the assassination. It’s also the story of the men who tried to
stop him.
Czolgosz was an anarchist who followed the teachings of Emma
Goldman, a radical labor leader, preaching an overthrow of big
business and government. A weak, timid man, Czolgosz was driven by a
sense of duty to the cause of anarchy.
This is a suspense-filled novel featuring many characters
affected by the assassination: European immigrants who are treated
unkindly and must work hard to earn a living; the Pinkerton
detectives who take advantage of their power; corrupt politicians;
women forced into prostitution to survive; and, finally, Moses Hyde,
who befriends Czolgosz and is forced by the police to spy on him.
Mr. Smolens has written an exceptional book of America around
the turn of the 20th century – one which covers the entire breadth
of the conflict between the working man (and woman) and the American
political machine. The major characters – Czolgosz, Hyde, the nasty
detective, and the Russian prostitute – are interesting and add
depth to the story. The author stays true to the facts and develops
a fictional storyline that held this reader’s interest, as I quickly
turned the pages to read the next chapter. Highly recommended.
--
Jeff Westerhoff
A DISTANT MELODY
Sarah Sundin, Revell, 2010, $14.99, pb, 432pp, 9780800734213
In 1942, plain Allie Miller travels to northern California for her
best friend’s wedding. There, she meets pilot Lt. Walter Novak on
his last furlough home before being shipped overseas. The two,
usually both social misfits, hit it off and quickly form a deep
bond, prompting them to correspond after the weekend is over.
As letters fly between Walt’s bomber base in England and
Allie’s upper-class home, their friendship binds them together, but
lies soon tear them apart. Walt falls in love with Allie only to
discover that she already has a boyfriend. And Allie has agreed to
marry J. Baxter Hicks just to please her parents. In reality her
deepest desire is to obey God, who is telling her to follow a much
different path. Allie must choose between her faith and her family,
and Walt must come to grips with the pain and sorrow of war.
Debut novelist Sundin delivers an impressive World War II
romance full of courage, sacrifice, and lessons learned. The time
Sundin has put into researching aviation during the war is evident,
and she does an excellent job weaving these details into the story.
Walt’s relationships with his crewmen and his struggles to fit it in
are as intriguing as Allie’s fights against her parents for freedom
and independence.
Perfectly plotted, dramatic and full of tension, this is an
excellent start to the new Wings of Glory series, which will feature
each of the Novak brothers. Highly recommended. --
Rebecca Roberts
A DUTY TO THE DEAD
Charles Todd, Morrow, 2009, $24.99/C$32.99, hb, 330pp, 978061791765
Todd (the pseudonym for a mother-son writing team) departs from the
Inspector Ian Rutledge series in this engrossing mystery featuring
World War I nurse Bess Crawford. Injured in the sinking of the
hospital ship Britannic, Bess uses her leave to fulfill a
promise to a dying patient: deliver a mysterious message to his
brother, “Tell Jonathan I lied.” The Graham family is singularly
uninterested in Arthur’s last words, and Bess finds her curiosity
piqued and her nursing skills in demand in their small town in Kent.
Through a series of events, she finds herself investigating an event
that occurred fifteen years ago, stonewalled at every turn.
As with the Inspector Rutledge series, the effects of World
War I permeate the lives of the characters. Bess, with her front
seat at the theatre of war, has more compassion than most when she
encounters a shell-shocked patient. She also encounters family
secrets that include adultery and an attempt to thwart
primogeniture. I absolutely devoured this mystery. Unlike the
Rutledge books, it is told in the first person, and Bess’s voice is
a compelling one. Some threads are dropped, but that is a minor
complaint. If this is the first in the Bess Crawford series, it is
an excellent debut. --
Ellen Keith
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