Forthcoming Historical Fiction for 2006

This list of adult historical fiction titles has been compiled from publishers’ catalogs, publisher home pages, Publishers Weekly forecasts, Amazon US and UK, and information supplied by authors.  Titles and dates on this list are subject to change. We list mainstream and small press titles set in the 1950s and earlier. 

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View Archive: Historical Novels from 2005, 2004, and 2003

January 2006

US Titles

Azhar Abidi, Passarola Rising, Viking (the picaresque journey of two brothers aboard the great airship Passarola throughout 18th century Europe)

Robert Alexander, Rasputin's Daughter, Viking (mysterious life and death of Rasputin, seen through the eyes of his daughter Maria)

Suzanne M. Arruda, Mark of the Lion, New American Library (mystery set in England and East Africa in 1919)

Julian Barnes, Arthur and George, Knopf (the lives of two men in Victorian England, one of whom will become Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Walter J. Boyne, Roaring Thunder: A Novel of the Jet Age, Forge

Peter C. Brown, The Fugitive Wife, W.W. Norton (in 1900, a Midwestern farm girl joins up with prospectors bound for Nome, Alaska, leaving her husband behind)

Susan Carroll, The Silver Rose, Ballantine (romantic novel set in Renaissance France)

Evan S. Connell, Alchymical Journals, Shoemaker and Hoard (imagines the journals of seven medieval alchemists)

Bernard Cornwell, The Pale Horseman, HarperCollins (2nd in adventure series set amid King Alfred's quest to drive the Vikings from England)

Lyn Cote, Leigh, Warner Faith (third in Women of Ivy Manor family saga of four generations of women; this volume is set between WWII and Vietnam)

Martin Davies, The Conjurer's Bird, Crown (the story of Joseph Banks, an 18th century naturalist given a bird from one of Captain Cook's voyages, and a present-day conservationist who traces the bird's history)

Athol Dickson, River Rising, Bethany House (suspense novel set in Pilotville, Louisiana, isolated outpost on the Mississippi River, in 1927; inspirational)

Linda Donn, The Little Balloonist, Dutton (literary love story set in Napoleonic France)

Sara Douglass, The Crippled Angel, Forge (third in alternate history/fantasy series set in medieval England)

Michael Drinkard, Rebels, Turn Out Your Dead, Harcourt (a Yankee hemp farmer's unwilling entrance into the Revolutionary War)

Marjorie Eccles, The Shape of Sand, Minotaur (about the mysterious disappearance of an Edwardian gentlewoman whose letters are found 40 years later.  Set in England and Egypt)

Karen Essex, Leonardo's Swans, Doubleday (novel of the Este sisters, Isabella and Beatrice, in Renaissance Italy)

Thomas Fleming, The Secret Trial of Robert E. Lee, Forge (what if Lee were tried for treason by the North after the Civil War?)

Margaret Frazer, The Sempster's Tale, Berkley Prime Crime (Dame Frevisse travels to London to recover gold from the coffers of the Duke of Suffolk)

David Fulmer, Rampart Street, Harcourt (Valentine St. Cyr mystery set in early 20th C New Orleans)

Brad Geagley, Day of the False King, Simon & Schuster (novel of murder in ancient Babylon, second in series)

Alan Gold, The Pirate Queen: The Story of Grace O'Malley, Irish Pirate, New American Library (reprint of Elizabethan novel by Australian author Gold)

Philippa Gregory, The Constant Princess, Touchstone (Katharine of Aragon tries to persuade Henry VII's court that her marriage to Prince Arthur was never consummated)

Karen Harper, The Fatal Fashione, Minotaur (murder of the royal starcher in Queen Elizabeth I's court)

B.J. Hoff, A Distant Music, Harvest House (inspirational fiction, about the rekindling of faith and friendship in an 1800s Kentucky mining town)

Michael Kurland, The Empress of India, St. Martin's Minotaur (a Professor Moriarty novel; historical mystery)

Judith Lindbergh, The Thrall's Tale, Viking (three women in the first settlement of Greenland circa 985 AD)

Pat Mattaini Mestern, No Choice But Freedom, High Country ("a novel of treachery and triumph in colonial America")

Arturo Perez-Reverte, Purity of Blood: Book Two of the Adventures of Captain Alatriste, Putnam (second in swashbuckling series about Captain Alatriste, fictional 17th century Spanish swordsman)

Jean Plaidy, Murder Most Royal, Three Rivers (novel of Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, re-release)

Anne Roiphe, An Imperfect Lens, Shaye Areheart (romantic adventure in 1880s Alexandria, Egypt)

Priscilla Royal, Sorrow Without End, Poisoned Pen Press (murder in 1271 East Anglia, the third investigations of Prioress Eleanor and Brother Thomas)

Manda Scott, Dreaming the Hound, Bantam (third in Boudica series)

Dominic Smith, The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre, Atria (reimagines the life of Louis Daguerre, one of the early inventors of photography)

Charles Todd, A Long Shadow, William Morrow (latest Ian Rutledge WWI-era mystery)

Robert W. Walker, City for Ransom, Avon (mystery set in Chicago, 1893, and the World's Fair masks the killer)

UK Titles

Dulcie Chacon, The Sleeping Voice, Harvill Secker (novel based on testimonies of women in Spanish Civil War)

Francis Cottam, A Shadow on the Sun, Simon & Schuster (Jackie and her daughter escape Nazi labour camp for new life in America)

David Dickinson, Death Called to the Bar, Constable (February 1902 at the Inns of Court a barrister is shot and Lord Francis Powerscourt investigates.)

Francisco Goldman, The Divine Husband, Atlantic (A Cuban immigrant woman in New York gives birth to a daughter whose father she refuses to name.)

Susanna Gregory, A Conspiracy of Violence, Time Warner (murder and intrigue at the Court of Charles II)

Linda Holeman, The Moonlit Cage, Review (Story of Darya, the brutalised but courageous wife of an Afghan tribesman, and David Ingram, the enigmatic Englishman who saves her.)

Anna Jacobs, Pride of Lancashire, Review (Popular saga-writer explores the world of the 19th century music hall.)

Margaret Kaine, Friends and Families, Hodder & Stoughton Coronet (romantic regional saga set in the Potteries. Two girls - one street, two families across a social divide)

Ken McGoogan, Lady Franklin's Revenge, Bantam Press (When her husband disappeared on his search for the North West Passage Lady Franklin organised one of the largest rescue attempts in history)

Jeff Shaara, To the Last Man, Bantam & Corgi. (In 1916 three great armies lie locked in a stalemate of mud and blood on Europe’s Western Front)

Paul Watkins, The Ice Soldier, Faber & Faber (1950s in the Alps an exploit conjures the ghosts of the past.)

John Wilcox, The Diamond Frontier, Headline (Simon Fonthill’s new adventure on South Africa’s turbulent Diamond Frontier.)

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February 2006

US Titles

Conrad Allen, Murder on the Oceanic, Minotaur (shipboard murder mystery in the early 20th century)

Lynn Austin, Faith of My Fathers, Bethany House (Biblical fiction about King Manesseh, Chronicles of the Kings #4)

Kevin Baker, Strivers Row, HarperCollins (two young men trying to find their way through the temptations and pitfalls of life in World War II Harlem—including a young Malcolm X)

John Barlow, Intoxicated: A Novel of Money, Madness, and the Invention of the World's Favorite Soft Drink, Morrow (a booze-swilling, cocaine-soaked novel of excess and madness in 19th century rural Yorkshire)

Rhys Bowen, Oh Danny Boy, Minotaur (Molly Murphy mystery; a NYPD captain and her former beau asks Molly to prove he was framed for murder)

George Elliot Clarke, George & Rue, Carroll & Graf (based on the authors' Nova Scotia ancestors, executed in 1949)

T. Cooper, Lipshitz Six, or Two Angry Blondes, Dutton (post-modern parody about a family from Czarist Russia searching for a lost son in 20th century America)

Elizabeth Crook, The Night Journal, Viking (a young woman's search for truth about her family's mystic past; multi-period story set now and in the 1890s American Southwest)

Sarah Dunant, In the Company of the Courtesan, Random House (novel set in Renaissance Rome and Venice, from author of The Birth of Venus)

Ruth Francisco, The Secret Memoirs of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, St. Martin's Press (fictionalized life of this great 20th century icon)

John Gardner, Troubled Midnight, Minotaur (in 1943, as Britain readies to invade Europe, two bodies are found in a small Berkshire town)

Laurien Gardner, A Lady Raised High, NAL (novel about Anne Boleyn, second in series; this one by Jennifer Ashley under a pseudonym)

Carol Goodman, The Ghost Orchid, Ballantine (literary mystery about a Victorian mansion in upstate New York; alternates between the present and 1893)

Louise M. Gouge, Son of Perdition, RiverOak (3rd in Ahab's Legacy series, about Timothy, son of the infamous Captain Ahab)

Sara Gran, Dope, Putnam (a woman descends into her dark past to help rescue a Barnard student from heroin dens)

Sally Gunning, The Widow's War, William Morrow (in 1761 Cape Cod, a widow discovers a new sense of self after her husband dies in a whaling disaster)

Karen Harper, The Last Boleyn, Three Rivers (novel about Mary Boleyn; re-release of Harper's novel Passion's Reign)

Steven Heighton, Afterlands, Houghton Mifflin (about the six-month winter ordeal observed by castaways, nineteen people cast adrift on ice off the coast of Greenland in 1871)

Steve Hockensmith, Holmes on the Range, Minotaur (somewhere west of Deadwood, a pair of cowboy sleuths investigate a murder just like their hero, Sherlock Holmes.  Set in 1893 Montana)

Jane Jakeman, Fool's Gold, Berkley Prime Crime (Lord Ambrose historical mystery)

Raymond Khoury, The Last Templar, Dutton (secrets of the Knights Templar reach the 21st century; multi-period novel)

Michael Kurland, The Empress of India, Minotaur (a Professor Moriarty mystery, set in fin-de-siecle Europe)

Susan Lang, Juniper Blue, University of Nevada (about a woman homesteading at the end of a rugged canyon in the Mojave Desert in Depression-era Southern California)

Katharine McMahon, The Alchemist's Daughter, Crown (daughter of a scientist in 18th century England decides to chart her own path)

Kathleen Morgan, Wings of Morning, Revell (inspirational historical novel set in the Scottish Highlands in 1566; romance)

Pamela Morsi, The Cotton Queen, MIRA (novels of mother-daughter relationship set in a small Texas town)

Robert Mrazek, The Deadly Embrace, Viking (a novel of World War II; follows a young American woman to war-torn England as she struggles to safeguard the Allies’ most important intelligence secrets)

Mary E. Neighbour, Speak Right On, Dred Scott, Toby Press (biographical novel of Dred Scott)

Robin Paige, Death on the Lizard, Berkley Prime Crime (historical mystery set in 1903 Cornwall, surrounding the new wireless communications technology)

Rebecca Pawel, The Summer Snow, Soho (latest Carlos Tejada mystery, about the death of a rich old woman in Granada)

Sheldon Russell, Dreams to Dust, Univ. of OK Press (novel of the Oklahoma Land Rush)

Edward Rutherfurd, The Rebels of Ireland, Doubleday (2nd half of his epic saga of Irish history)

Wesley Strick, Out There in the Dark, Thomas Dunne (the corrupt side of wartime Hollywood)

Jenny White, The Sultan's Seal, W.W. Norton (in 1886 Istanbul, a governess at the imperial harem is discovered brutally murdered)

Stephen Wright, The Amalgamation Polka, Knopf (literary Civil War novel, about Liberty Fish, son of abolitionists and grandson of slaveholders)

UK Titles

Rita Bradshaw, The Rainbow Years, Headline (After fleeing a violent marriage, a young woman volunteers for the WAAF in WWII and hopes to build a new life.)

Sarah Dunant, In the Company of the Courtesan, Little Brown (novel set in Renaissance Rome and Venice, from author of The Birth of Venus)

Barbara Ewing, Rosetta, Time Warner (discovery of the Rosetta Stone, French Revolution and Napoleon – romance plus exotic locations)

Gillian Freeman, But Nobody Lives in Bloomsbury, Arcadia (Fictional exploration of the Stephens sisters and their Bloomsbury friends.)

Sarah Harrison, The Nightingale’s Nest, Hodder & Stoughton (A woman’s discovery of the nature of power and the price of peace in 1920s London.)

Margaret Kaine, Friends & Families, Hodder & Stoughton (Hopes and dreams of two girls growing up in the 1950s.)

Simon Levack, Shadows of the Lords, Simon & Schuster (more murder and mayhem in 16^th Century Mexico)

Anne Perry, Dark Assassin, Headline (Latest in the William and Hester Monk Victorian mystery series.)

Jem Poster, Rifling Paradise, Sceptre (19th century English landowner forsakes comfortable existence to become a naturalist in Australia.)

Deirdre Purcell, The Secret, Headline (Contemporary woman’s world becomes entangled with a young girl’s secret in 1944.)

D.J. Taylor, Kept, Chatto & Windus (Victorian mystery set in Scottish Highlands, London and Yukon)

Edward Thorpe, The Luftwaffe Letters, Arcadia (The life of a young, aristocratic pilot in Hitler’s Luftwaffe.)

Jacqueline Winspear, Pardonable Lies: A Maisie Dobbs Mystery, John Murray (Family tensions and mysterious deaths in WWI.)

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March 2006

US Titles

Tamera Alexander, Rekindled, Bethany House (a woman takes over the ranch after her husband is presumed dead in a snowstorm; love, loss, and second chances)

Susanne Alleyn, Game of Patience, Minotaur (historical mystery novel set in Revolutionary Paris)

Elizabeth Aston, The True Darcy Spirit, Touchstone (new romance set in the world of Jane Austen)

Meg Elizabeth Atkins, A Suburban Death, Allison & Busby

Carrie Bebris, North by Northanger, Minotaur (Mr. and Mrs. Darcy mystery)

Emily Barton, Brookland, Farrar Straus & Giroux (in 18th century Brooklyn, a determined and intelligent woman is consumed by a vision of a bridge)

Rhys Bowen, Oh Danny Boy, Minotaur (in early 1900s New York, Irish immigrant Molly Murphy tracks a serial killer)

John Boyne, Crippen: A Novel of Murder, Thomas Dunne (historic trans-atlantic chase after Dr. Hawley Crippen, who murdered his wife in 1910)

Richard Croker, No Greater Courage, William Morrow (novel of the Battle of Fredericksburg)

Debra Dean, The Madonnas of Leningrad, William Morrow (900-day siege of Leningrad during WWII is echoed by the destructive siege against the memory of an elderly Russian woman suffering from Alzheimer's)

Amanda Elyot, By a Lady: Being the Adventures of an Enlightened American in Jane Austen's England, Three Rivers (time-travel romp through Jane Austen's Bath)

Per Olov Enquist, The Book About Blanche and Marie, Overlook (explores the complex relationship between two of the 20th century's most remarkable women: Blanche Wittman, a famous hysteria patient, and Marie Curie)

Dorothy Garlock, Train from Marietta, Warner (Kathryn Tyler's cross-country train trip is unexpectedly derailed when she's kidnapped by a band of outlaws)

Kathleen Cunningham Guler, The Anvil Stone, Bardsong Press (book 3 of the Macsen's Treasure series set in 5th century Britain)

Philippa Gregory, Virgin Earth, Touchstone (sequel to Earthly Joys, about Stuart-era gardener John Tradescant the Younger)

Liz Curtis Higgs, Grace in Thine Eyes, WaterBrook (places the biblical story of Dinah in 18th century Scotland)

Kathleen Hills, Witch Cradle, Poisoned Pen Press (mystery set in 1951 Michigan, surrounding Communist activities in the earlier part of the 20th century)

Peter Hobbs, The Short Day Dying, Harvest (four seasons in the life of Charles Wenmouth, a 27-year-old apprentice blacksmith and Methodist lay preacher in Cornwall in 1870)

Kate Horsley, Black Elk in Paris, Trumpeter/Shambhala (young woman in 19th century Paris falls in love with Black Elk, a Native American Indian)

Angela Hunt, Magdalene, Tyndale (biographical, inspirational novel of Mary Magdalene)

Conn Iggulden, Emperor: The Gods of War, Delacorte (adventure starring Julius Caesar, fourth in series)

Caryn James, What Caroline Knew, St. Martin's Press (a devastatingly beautiful woman is caught up in a sex-and-art scandal that affects the rest of her life; set in the 1920s)

Rebecca Kohn, Seven Days to the Sea: An Epic Novel of the Exodus, Rugged Land (novel of Moses, Tzipporah, and Miriam)

Starling Lawrence, The Lightning Keeper, HarperCollins (an epic American novel of ambition, love, and enterprise, set on the brink of world war and a scientific revolution)

Andrei Makine, The Woman Who Waited, Arcade (a Russian woman continues to wait for the lover who never returned from the war, three decades earlier)

Jaime Manrique, Our Lives Are the Rivers, Rayo/HarperCollins (life of Manuela Sáenz, who abandoned her position as one of the wealthiest women in Peru to join forces with her lover Simón Bolívar)

Judith Miller, Morning Sky, Bethany House (African-American settlers in late 19th century Kansas)

Robin Morgan, The Burning Time, Melville House (story of Lady Alyce Kyteler, who resisted the Inquisition in medieval Ireland)

James Morrow, The Last Witchfinder, William Morrow (in late 17th century England and America, a young girl makes it her life's mission to bring down the Parliamentary Witchcraft Act)

Naomi Novik, Temeraire, Del Rey (historical fantasy about dragons, set during the Napoleonic Wars)

Caroline Paul, East Wind, Rain, William Morrow (in 1941, after Pearl Harbor, an isolated Hawaiian community meets the wider world)

Anne Perry, Dark Assassin, Ballantine (latest in William Monk mystery series set in Victorian England)

Tracie Peterson, Summer of the Midnight Sun, Bethany House (action, adventure, and romance in late 19th century Alaska)

Michael Phillips, The Soldier's Lady, Bethany House (racial conflict in post-Civil War South Carolina)

Mary Rourke, Two Women of Galilee, MIRA (novel of Joanna, cousin of Mary and the wife of Herod's steward, and how she became a follower of Jesus)

Gilles Rozier, The Mercy Room, Arcade (a teacher of German, recruited by the Gestapo to translate documents, has an affair with a Jew whose life she saves)

Harold Schechter, The Tell-Tale Corpse, Ballantine (an Edgar Allan Poe mystery)

Javier Sierra, The Secret Supper, Atria (depicts a deadly game of wits between Leonardo da Vinci and an Dominican inquisitor)

Anne Easter Smith, A Rose for the Crown, Touchstone (the sweeping life story of Kate Haute, the might-have-been mistress of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, later Richard III)

Susan Straight, A Million Nightingales, Pantheon (literary fiction; about the life of a slave girl in 19th century New Orleans)

Frank Tallis, A Death in Vienna, Grove (locked room mystery set in Freud's Vienna)

Lou Jane Temple, Death du Jour, Berkley Prime Crime (culinary mystery set in 1790 Paris; 2nd in series

Adam Thorpe, Rules of Perspective, Henry Holt (literary novel set in 1945 Lohenfelde, Germany)

Jane Urquhart, A Map of Glass, MacAdam/Cage (multi-period novel set in the present and in 19th century Canada, literary)

Sarah Waters, The Night Watch, Riverhead (novel of psychological complexity, about three women in wartime London)

Sarah Zettel, Under Camelot's Banner, Luna (Arthurian fantasy novel)

UK Titles

Jean M. Auel, The Clan of the Cave Bear, Hodder & Stoughton. Re-issue.

Noel Barker, A Woman of Cairo, Hodder & Stoughton. Re-issue.

Frank Barnard, Blue Man Falling, Headline Review (follows two RAF pilots during the Battle of France in 1939-40)

R.F. Delderfield, To Serve Them All My Days, Hodder & Stoughton. Re-issue.

Pamela Evans, In the Dark Streets Shining, Headline (WWII London saga.)

Juan Marse, Shanghai Nights, Harvill Secker (post war novel set in Barcelona and Shanghai.  Gunrunners, Nazis and Spanish Civil War)

Fenella-Jane Miller, A Suitable Husband, Robert Hale (Regency romance adventure)

Santa Montefiore, The Gypsy Madonna, Hodder & Stoughton (Romance and dark mystery in occupied France and post-war America.)

Irene Nemirovsky, Suite Française, Chatto & Windus (novel of German occupation of Paris – reprint of classic)

Anya Seton, Katherine, Hodder & Stoughton. Re-issue.

Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave, Hodder & Stoughton. Re-issue.

Kate Tremayne, The Loveday Loyalty, Headline (7th book in the popular Loveday series.)

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April 2006

US Titles

Boris Akunin, The Death of Achilles, Random House (an Erast Fandorin mystery set in 1882 Moscow)

Julia Alvarez, Saving the World, Algonquin (two women swept up in campaigns against the scourges of their day; one modern-day story, the other set in Spain's American colonies in 1803)

T. Davis Bunn and Isabella Bunn, The Night Angel, Bethany House (romance and adventure in 19th century Venice and America)

Broos Campbell, No Quarter, McBooks (an American midshipman in the year 1800; historical adventure)

Marion Chesney, Our Lady of Pain, Minotaur (Edwardian murder mystery)

K.L. Cook, The Girl from Charnelle, HarperCollins (depicts the struggles of a working class family in a west Texas panhandle town through the eyes of a 16-year-old girl)

Gretchen Craig, Always and Forever, Kensington Zebra (against the backdrop of 1830s Louisiana, a sweeping saga of a Creole-American family and of two remarkable women whose friendship will be tested by prejudice, tragedy, passion, and the love of one extraordinary man)

Elizabeth Cunningham, The Passion of Mary Magdalen, Monkfish (historical, visionary fiction imagining Mary Magdalene as a Celt)

Kerry Greenwood, Cocaine Blues, Poisoned Pen Press (first Phryne Fisher mystery, about a flapper in 1920s Melbourne, Australia)

Philippa Gregory, Virgin Earth, Touchstone (life of John Tradescant the Younger, royal gardener to King Charles I)

Philip Griffin, Ursula's Maiden Army, Beagle Bay (based on the legend of St. Ursula, 5th century martyr of Cologne, Germany)

Carolyn Haines, Penumbra, Minotaur (Jade Dupree, a mixed-race beautician in 1950s Mississippi, is determined to find her missing niece; historical mystery)

John Hideyo Hamamura, Color of the Sea, Thomas Dunne (relocation of Japanese Americans during WWII)

Amy Hassinger, The Priest's Madonna, Putnam (forbidden love between a woman and a holy man--who may own the treasures of the Knights Templar-- in southern France in 1896)

William Haywood Henderson, Augusta Locke, Viking (about a female pioneer
in the wilderness of the American West, and the next five generations of her family)

Colleen Hitchcock, Rabbit Heart, Pocket (suspense novel set in Victorian England: a French temptress who loves men... to death)

Maria-Elena John, Unburnable, HarperCollins (Set in post-WW II Dominica and contemporary Washington D.C., intertwines the culture of blacks in the United States and maroon culture in the West Indies)

Pamela Kaufman, The Prince of Poison, Three Rivers (adventure in medieval England, by the author of Shield of Three Lions; final volume in trilogy)

Jane Kirkpatrick, A Clearing in the Wild, WaterBrook (a woman in an 1850s religious community in Missouri dislikes its emphasis on isolation, and pushes her husband to break away)

Bonnie Leon, When the Storm Breaks, Revell (part of the Queensland Chronicles series of a family in 19th century Australia)

Catherine Monroe, The Barefoot Girl, New American Library (a novel of St. Margaret, patroness of the abused, beginning in 1340 San Severino, Italy)

Gilbert Morris, Daughter of Deliverance, Bethany House (about Rahab, a prostitute of Jericho; part of the Lions of Judah biblical fiction series)

Judith Pella, Mark of the Cross, Bethany House (historical drama; love, hatred, and revenge in medieval England)

Elizabeth Peters, Tomb of the Golden Bird, William Morrow (Amelia Peabody mystery, set around the search for King Tut's tomb)

Eva Rice, The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets, Dutton (about a group of friends in postwar London’s glamorous and daring young society)

Merce Rodoreda, A Broken Mirror, Univ of Nebraska (spanning three generations and composing a kaleidoscopic family history; set in Barcelona from the 1870s through the advent of the Franco years)

Frances Sherwood, Night of Sorrows, W.W. Norton (the story of Malintzín, Aztec mistress of Hernan Cortes)

Loren Teague, Highland Rebel, Whiskey Creek (in 18th C Scotland, a Highland chieftain, a minister's daughter, and an unwilling soldier in the King's army form a strong bond of friendship)

Carl-Johan Vallgren, The Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot, HarperCollins (story of the love that grows between Hercules, a deformed boy described as a monster, and Henriette, his childhood friend, set in 19th-century Europe)

Jay Worrall, An Approaching Enemy: A Novel of the Napoleonic Wars, Random House (seafaring adventure, 2nd in series)

UK Titles

Kate Allan, Perfidy and Perfection, Robert Hale (at the time of Jane Austen, in the middle of England, a rector's daughter keeps a shameful secret: she's a novelist)

Anthony Copella, The Wedding Officer, Time Warner (wartime romance In Italy – love, food and Vesuvius!)

Paul Doherty, The Year of the Cobra, Headline (Mystery set in ancient Egypt.)

Christian Jacq,  The Tree of Life, Simon & Schuster (new series of murder mysteries set in ancient Egypt)

Bernard Knight, The Elixir of Death, Simon & Schuster (Crowner John mystery set in 12^th Century England, plots and murder involving King John and Richard the Lionheart)

Lee Langley,  A Conversation on the Quai Voltaire, Chatto & Windus (artist and engraver who made “Egyptomania” popular is main character of novel set in 19^th Century France)

Rosemary Rowe, A Roman Ransom, Headline (Latest in popular crime series set in Roman Britain.)

Michael Taylor, Close Relations, Hodder & Stoughton (Black Country saga.)

Richard Zimler, The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon, Arcadia. Re-issue.

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May 2006

US Titles

Aileen Baron, The Torch of Tangier, Poisoned Pen Press (historical mystery set in WWII-era Tangier, Morocco, 2nd in series after A Fly Has a Hundred Eyes)

Linda Berdoll, Darcy and Elizabeth: At Home at Pemberley, Sourcebooks Landmark (followup on Pride and Prejudice)

Gwen Bristow, Jubilee Trail, Chicago Review Press (reprint of classic historical novel about a woman's exuberant journey to California in 1844)

Lenore Carroll, Uncertain Pilgrims, Univ. of New Mexico (woman tells stories from Western history as she travels the Santa Fe Trail)

Carol Cox, Ticket to Tomorrow, Barbour (Annie Trenton and her late husband's partner step off the train at the great world's fair in Chicago and walk smack into political intrigue)

Miguel Delibes, The Heretic: A Novel of the Inquisition, Overlook Press (16th century Spain)

Laura Esquivel, Malinche, Atria (novel of the Mexican Conquest)

E. Randall Floyd, High Moon on the Marsh: The Saga of Neptune Small, Harbor House

Ariana Franklin, City of Shadows, William Morrow (suspense in WWI-era Berlin, featuring a woman calling herself Anna Anderson)

Alan Furst, The Foreign Correspondent, Random House (an international news correspondent's secret life leads him to become a target for assassination; set in 1939 Paris)

Jason Goodwin, The Janissary Tree, Farrar Straus & Giroux (first in new mystery series set in the Ottoman Empire in 1836)

Sara Gruen, Water for Elephants, Algonquin (an elderly man recollects the days he spent with a traveling circus during the Great Depression)

C.J. Hribal, The Company Car, Random House (about a family caught in the changing landscape of American life, from the 1950s to the present day)

Jane Jakeman, In the City of Dark Waters, Berkley Prime Crime (novel of love, art, and the life of Claude Monet, set in Venice at the dawn of the 20th century)

Julith Jedamus, The Book of Loss, St. Martin's Press (love and betrayal in 11th century Japan)

Gary Jennings, Junius Podrug, and Robert Gleason, Aztec Rage, Forge (exotic adventure in 16th century Mexico)

Morgan Llywelyn, The Greener Shore: A Novel of the Druids of Hibernia, Del Rey (sequel to her novel Druids)

Jeffrey D. Marshall, The Inquest, Hardscrabble/Univ of Vermont (about the aftermath of an woman's abortion and subsequent death in 1830s Burlington, Vermont)

Malika Mokeddem, Century of Locusts, Univ. of Nebraska (Algeria's legendary past and its colonial injustices, set in the first half of the 20th century; Francophone literature)

Juilene Osborne-McKnight, Song of Ireland, Forge (historical fantasy about the history of early Ireland, when the Bard Amergin and his people land on the shores of the enchanted isle)

Matthew Pearl, The Poe Shadow, Random House (literary suspense novel about the still unsolved mystery of Edgar Allan Poe's death)

Jean Plaidy, The Courts of Love, Three Rivers (Eleanor of Aquitaine; reissue)

Amanda Quick, Second Sight, Putnam (simmering passions and paranormal secrets of the Victorian Age)

Frederick Reuss, Mohr: A Novel, Unbridled (the exiled Jewish playwright and novelist Max Mohr, and the beautiful wife he left behind; set in Germany in the 1920s and '30s)

Judith Merkle Riley, A Vision of Light, Three Rivers (1st in Margaret of Ashbury series set in 14th century England; reissue)

John Maddox Roberts, SPQR X: A Point in Law, Minotaur (10th in series, set in ancient Rome)

Shan Sa, Empress, HarperCollins (story of Empress Wu, 7th century Empress of China)

Cheryl Sawyer, Code of Love, NAL Trade (a noble Frenchwoman and a staunch Bonapartist must forge an odd alliance with a loyal English spy to uncover Napoleon's unbreakable Grand Code before their enemies do; romantic epic)

Anya Seton, Avalon, Chicago Review Press (reprint of classic historical novel about a wandering prince and the woman he loves in 10th century England and Europe)

Catherine Shaw, The Library Paradox, Allison & Busby (female private detective in 1896 London, 3rd in series)

Will Thomas, The Limehouse Text, Touchstone (Victorian mystery)

Carrie Tiffany, Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living, Scribner ("science, love, and the limits of progress" in 1930s Australia)

Hans Warren, Secretly Inside, Univ. of Wisconsin (a Jew in Nazi-occupied Holland is taken in by benevolent farmers, but his refuge becomes his prison)

Richard S. Wheeler, The Fire Arrow, Forge (latest Barnaby Skye adventure in the Rockies; love and survival in the unforgiving wilderness of the American West)

Sandra Worth, The Rose of York: Crown of Destiny, End Table Books (part two of trilogy set during the War of the Roses; the romance of Richard III and Anne Neville)

Lloyd Zimpel, A Season of Fire and Ice, Unbridled (a morality tale of survival and destiny, set the heartlands of the 1880s Upper Midwest)

UK Titles

Louis Bayard, The Pale Blue Eye, John Murray (Atmospheric mystery set in 1831.)

Libba Bray, A Great and Terrible Beauty, Simon & Schuster (forbidden love when English girl is sent to India)

Maggie Craig, Scarlet Threads, Headline (WWI saga about labour unrest and social change in Clydebank.)

Ann Granger, A Rare Interest in Corpses, Headline (First in a new Victorian crime series.)

Simon Levack, City of Spies, Simon & Schuster (murder and sleuthing in 16^th Mexico)

Freda Lightfoot, Putting on the Style, Hodder & Stoughton (Street market life in 1950s Manchester.)

Gwen Madoc, Her Mother’s Sins, Hodder & Stoughton (Evil and redemption in turn-of-the-century Swansea.)

Victor Pemberton, The Other Side of the Track, Headline (WWI-era romance.)

Nigel Tranter, Hope Endures, Hodder & Stoughton (Story of Thomas Hope, who rose to be courtier, counsellor, lawyer and friend to King James VI of Scotland and I of England.)

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June 2006

US Titles

Marie Arana, Cellophane, Dial Press (about an American engineer who builds a paper factory in the middle of the Amazon rainforest in the 1930s)

Margaret Ball, Duchess of Aquitaine, St. Martin's (about the younger years of Eleanor of Aquitaine, set in 11th century Aquitaine and France)

Steven Barnes, Great Sky Woman, One World (prehistoric novel set in ancient Africa)

Louis Bayard, The Pale Blue Eye, HarperCollins (ingenious tale of murder and revenge at West Point, featuring a retired detective and a young cadet named Edgar Allan Poe)

Barbara Cleverly, The Bee's Kiss, Carroll & Graf (Detective Joe Sandilands
mystery)

Ivan Doig, The Whistling Season, Harcourt (in 1909, homesteaders arrive on the Montana prairie to help with an irrigation project; literary western)

Judith Geary, Getorix: The Eagle and the Bull, Claystone (a Celtic adventure in ancient Rome)

Alan Geoffrion, Broken Trail, Fulcrum (lives of five Chinese women brought to Wyoming to serve as prostitutes in an outpost town, and how their fate intertwines with two western horsemen)

Deeanne Gist, The Measure of a Lady, Bethany House (humor and romance, in a story of a virtuous young woman maintaining her honor in decadent Gold Rush San Francisco)

W.E.B. Griffin and W. E. Butterworth IV, The Saboteurs, Putnam (WWII adventure, set during the Battle of the Atlantic; a Men of War novel)

Jane Harris, The Observations, Viking (a peculiar friendship between the mistress of a Scottish estate and her appealing housemaid; set in 1863)

Lee Irby, The Up and Up, Doubleday (a bootlegger tries to restart his life in 1920s Miami)

Victoria Lustbader, Hidden, Forge (glitzy family saga set in 1920s New York City)

Catherine MacCoun, Beyond the Abbey Gates, Trumpeter (in 14th century England, everyone at Greyleigh Abbey believes Ingrid is a healing saint; reissue of The Age of Miracles)

Paul Malmont, The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril, Simon & Schuster (casts the rivalry between two of pulp fiction's most revered writers into its own saga; set in 1937)

Linda Lael Miller, The Man from Stone Creek, HQN (romance between a ranger working undercover, and a postmistress in the Old West)

Ann Parker, Iron Ties, Poisoned Pen Press (2nd Inez Stannert mystery set in 1880 Leadville, Colorado)

David Payne, Back to Wando Passo, Morrow (a down-on-his-luck rock musician moves to an inherited South Carolina rice plantation; his search for the meaning of a voudou pot takes him back 100 years to an illicit, interracial love affair)

Kim Vogel Sawyer, Waiting for Summer's Return, Bethany House (romantic historical fiction set in the small Mennonite community of Gaeddert, Kansas, reminiscent of Janette Oke)

Sandra Scoppettone, Too Darn Hot, Ballantine (Faye Quick mystery set in WWII-era New York City)

Penelope J. Stokes, Delta Belles, Doubleday (the reunion of the Delta Belles, a music group that takes their campus by storm in the 1960s)

Victoria Thompson, Murder in Little Italy, Berkley Prime Crime (murder of a young mother in NYC's Little Italy; a Gaslight Mystery)

Adam Thorpe, The Rules of Perspective, Henry Holt (four people in a small German town in 1945 prepare for their fate as the Allied Third Army approaches)

John Vernon, La Salle, Univ. of Nebraska (novel of the Sieur de La Salle, legendary explorer of late 17th and early 18th century North America)

Katharine Weber, Triangle, Farrar, Straus, & Giroux (about the last survivor of the tragic 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire)

UK Titles

Anne Baker, Carousel of Secrets, Headline (1930s Merseyside saga.)

Susanna Gregory, The Tarnished Chalice, Time Warner (next in Matthew Bartholomew series.  A relic with a terrible past is at the centre of this case)

Evelyn Hood, Voices from the Sea, Time Warner (family drama set in Edwardian Glasgow)

Michael Jecks, The Death Ship of Dartmouth, Headline (Latest Knights Templar mystery.)

Medieval Murderers, Sword of Shame, Simon & Schuster (collection of authors combine to bring together story of ill-fated sword which brings disaster to each owner)

Joel Ross, White Flag Down, Hodder & Stoughton (WWII thriller.)

Simon Scarrow, Young Bloods, Headline (First in a new series that brings together Wellington and Napoleon.)

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July 2006

US Titles

Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood, Berkley Prime Crime (latest Beatrix Potter mystery set in early 20th century Sawrey, England)

Kate Allan, Perfidy and Perfection, Robert Hale (at the time of Jane Austen, in the middle of England, a rector's daughter keeps a shameful secret: she's a novelist)

Howard Bahr, The Judas Field, Henry Holt (novel of the Civil War)

Calvin Baker, Dominion, Grove (three generations of an African-American family in the years leading up to the Revolutionary War)

Anne Cato, An Unchaste Life: Memoirs of a Tudor Queen, Lyon-Rampant (biographical novel of Catherine Howard)

Laurien Gardner, Plain Jane, New American Library (novel of Jane Seymour)

Ginger Garrett, Dark Hour: Jezebel's Forgotten Daughter and Her Attack on the Line of David, NavPress (biblical fiction)

Tricia Goyer, Arms of Deliverance: A Story of Promise, Moody (two friends, female reporters at the NY Tribune, become competitors as they're swept into WWII)

Catriona McPherson, The Burry Man's Day, Carroll & Graf (Dandy Gilver mystery, set during the summer of 1923)

Kerry Greenwood, Flying Too High, Poisoned Pen Press (2nd in series about talented and glamorous flapper detective Phryne Fisher, in 1920s Melbourne)

Diane Haeger, Courtesan, Three Rivers (epic romance of Henry II of France and Diane de Poitiers, reissue)

Livia Hallam and James Reasoner, War Drums, Cumberland House (2nd in Civil War trilogy, family saga set in the South)

Marek Halter, Lilah, Crown (3rd in Halter's trilogy of the feminine Bible, about Lilah, sister of Ezra)

Gilbert Morris, The Hesitant Hero, Bethany House (WWII adventure in the House of Winslow series)

Tracie Peterson, Under the Northern Lights, Bethany House (romantic adventure set in Last Chance, Alaska)

Steven Pressfield, The Afghan Campaign, Doubleday (re-creates Alexander the Great’s invasion of the Afghan kingdoms in 330 BC)

David L. Robbins, The Assassins Gallery, Bantam (in the dying days of WWII, a hired killer stalks FDR)

Christine Schaub, The Longing Season, Bethany House (story behind Amazing Grace, about the religious transformation of sea captain John Newton)

Mary Fremont Schoenecker, Five Summers Waiting, Five Star (a woman, daughter of a Long Island widower, and a medical college student fall in love in the early Civil War years)

Harry Thompson, To the Edge of the World, MacAdam/Cage (seafaring adventure that charts the lives of Robert Fitzroy and Charles Darwin, their friendship, and the history-making theory that drove them apart; UK title was This Thing of Darkness)

Robyn Young, Brethren, Dutton (an epic adventure of the Knights Templar)

UK Titles

Alexandra Connor, The Lydgate Widow, Headline (Lancashire saga involving the enigma of a widow whose abandoned house dominates her village)

Emma Darwin, The Mathematics of Love, Headline (a novel weaving together two narratives of Waterloo and its aftermath)

Anna Jacobs, Star of the North, Hodder & Stoughton (new saga about the 19^th century music hall, sequel to Pride of Lancashire)

Jude Morgan, Symphony, Headline (fictional retelling of the passionate and stormy relationship between composer Hector Berlioz and Harriet Smithson, his actress-muse)

Barbara Nadel, After the Mourning, Headline (latest crime novel in the Frances Hancock WWII series)

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August 2006

US Titles

Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood, Berkley Prime Crime (3rd in a cozy series inspired by the life of Beatrix Potter)

Janet Aylmer, Darcy's Story, HarperCollins (Pride and Prejudice told from a new perspective)

Mary Balogh, Simply Love, Delacorte (while on summer holiday at Wales, a schoolteacher meets a quiet hero of the Peninsular Wars; romance)

Ron Base, Magic Man, Thomas Dunne (a New York City newspaper columnist returns to Mississippi to face his repressed past, just as an unsolved civil rights case opens)

Lisa Tawn Bergren, The Begotten: A Novel of the Gifted, Berkley (in 1339, at the height of the Inquisition, an ancient prophecy threatens the foundations of the church)

Christopher Bigsby, Beautiful Dreamer, Thomas Dunne (story of a lynch mob on the trail of a couple thrown together in violence and fear; set in the mid-20th century

Cynthia Breeding, Camelot's Destiny, Zebra (Arthurian-era romance in which
Gwenhwyfar is a strong Celtic queen)

Sonny Brewer, A Sound Like Thunder, Ballantine (novel of family, betrayal, and forgiveness set in an Alabama gulf town during the onset of WWII)

Stig Dalager, Journey in Blue, Peter Owen (novel about Hans Christian
Andersen)

Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers, Viking (major new translation of this classic, a swashbuckling adventure set in 17th century France)

Tom Franklin, Smonk, Morrow ("A Quentin Tarantino-esque novel set in 1900s Alabama")

Nicole Galland, Revenge of the Rose, William Morrow ("playful meditation on love, revenge, assumptions, secrets and startling revelations" set at the court of the Holy Roman Emperor in the 13th century)

Margaret George, Helen of Troy, Viking (epic novel about the title character, the woman whose face launched a thousand ships)

Jennifer Gilmore, Golden Country, Scribner (literary novel of a Jewish-American family in NYC during the 1920s and 30s)

Laurie Graham, Gone With the Windsors, HarperCollins (the diary of the slightly dim best friend of Wallis Simpson, her inseparable companion)

Richard Grant, Another Green World, Knopf (several fatally conjoined lives during WWII)

Cathy Marie Hake, Letter Perfect, Bethany House (humorous historical novel, a young woman travels west to meet the father she's never seen)

Morag Joss, Puccini's Ghosts, Delacorte ("journey into the dark heart of a family in crisis," set in the summer of 1960

Tucker Malarkey, Resurrection, Riverhead (provocative love story set in post-WWII Cairo, centering on the discovery of the Gnostic Gospels; was Mary Magdalene the first apostle?)

Edward Marston, The Princess of Denmark, Minotaur (Elizabethan theater mystery featuring Nicholas Bracewell)

Francine Mathews, The Alibi Club, Bantam (international thriller set about a little-known episode of early WWII; desperate plot to keep a deadly weapon out of German hands)

Ami McKay, The Birth House, Morrow (struggles of a small Nova Scotia community to preserve the midwife tradition despite the push towards modernity; set during the WWI years)

James Conroyd Martin, Against a Crimson Sky, St. Martin's Press (sequel to Push Not the River, an epic of 18th century Poland)

Kathleen McGowan, The Expected One, Touchstone (heroine searches for gospel written by her ancestor, Mary Magdalene; set today and in biblical times)

Thomas Mullen, The Last Town on Earth, Random House (about a town in the Pacific Northwest that quarantined itself against the 1918 flu epidemic)

Scott Oden, Memnon, Medallion (novel of Memnon of Rhodes, Greek mercenary commander who opposed Alexander the Great)

Delia Parr, A Hearth in Candlewood, Bethany House (gentle historical fiction set in 1840s New York)

Susan Holloway Scott, Duchess, New American Library (a novel of Sarah Churchill, the lady-in-waiting who helped bring James II to England's throne)

Lauraine Snelling, A Promise for Ellie, Bethany House (continuing the story of her Red River of the North series, about the lives of newlywed immigrants in 1900 North Dakota)

John Speed, The Temple Dancer: Jewels of the Deccan, St. Martin's Press (novel of 17th century Goa, India)

James Alexander Thom, Saint Patrick's Batallion, Ballantine (the amazing-real life story of John Riley, an Irishman who led his men to desert the American military during the Mexican-American war)

Jeane Westin, Lady Katherne's Wild Ride, Signet Eclipse (Restoration-era historical romance)

Jack Whyte, The Knights of the Black and White, Putnam (first book in new
trilogy about the Knights Templar)

UK Titles

Benita Brown, Fortune’s Daughter, Headline (Northeast saga, featuring a stolen child and a painful secret)

Alys Clare, Girl in a Red Tunic, Hodder & Stoughton (medieval murder mystery featuring Abbess Helewise)

Paul Doherty, The Queen of the Night, Headline (new mystery series set in ancient Rome)

Judith Lennox, A Step in the Dark, Headline (a woman’s quest to reunite with the young son she was forced to leave behind in colonial India at the outbreak of WWI)

Freda Lightfoot, Fools Fall in Love, Hodder & Stoughton (saga set among the stalls of Manchester’s Champion Street market)

Fenella-Jane Miller, The Dissemblers, Hale (her third Regency romantic adventure; set in Essex, in and around the place where she lives, Frating, Great Bentley and Thorrington)

Margaret Muir, The Twisting Vine, Hale (a saga set in Yorkshire, 1895-1920)

Jed Rubenfeld, The Interpretation of Murder, Headline (crime thriller inspired by Freud’s 1909 visit to Manhattan)

Simon Scarrow, The Eagle in the Sand, Headline (seventh novel in Simon Scarrow’s alternate history of the Roman Empire)

Jacqueline Winspear, Messenger of Truth, John Murray (fourth novel in the popular Thirties-era Maisie Dobbs detective series)

Robyn Young, Brethren, Hodder & Stoughton (a young man comes of age and finds his place in the Knights Templar on the eve of the Last Crusade)

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September 2006

US Titles

Lauren Baratz-Logsted, Vertigo, Delta (suspenseful, erotic literary novel; In turn-of-the-century London, a Victorian wife begins a noble-minded project: writing letters to a lonely local prisoner)

Sam Barone, Dawn of Empire, William Morrow (action-adventure set in Bronze
Age Iraq)

Peter Behrens, The Law of Dreams, Steerforth (about a young man's perilous journey from innocence to experience as he travels from Ireland to Liverpool and Wales during the Great Potato Famine of 1847)

Gioconda Belli, The Scroll of Seduction, Rayo (story of the Spanish queen Juana the Mad, and a modern-day scholar obsessed with her legacy)

James R. Benn, Billy Boyle, Soho (WWII mystery, featuring a 22-year-old Irish cop from Boston, set against the impending invasion of Norway)

William Boyd, Restless, Bloomsbury USA (a woman discovers her mother's secret past as a rigorously trained WWII spy; historical thriller)

Bill Bright and Jack Cavanaugh, Fury, Howard (suspenseful thriller set against the historic events of America's Great Awakening, ca. 1825-26)

Da Chen, Brothers, Shaye Areheart (a rivalry between stepbrothers during China's Cultural Revolution)
Michael Cox, The Meaning of Night, Norton (story of murder, deceit, love, and revenge in Victorian England)

Gordon Dahlquist, The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, Bantam ("a monumental Victorian thriller... an alchemical conspiratorial tale of science, fantasia, lust for power-with a goodly amount of sexual mischief")

Alice Duncan, Cactus Flower, Five Star (frontier romance; a woman who grew up in a NYC theatrical company finds romance in the Wild West)

Carola Dunn, Gunpowder Plot, Minotaur (Daisy Dalrymple mystery set during
Guy Fawkes celebration in 1924 England)

Sebastian Faulks, Human Traces, Random House (literary novel about the roots of early psychiatry, set in London, Paris, California, and Africa in the late 19th century)

Louise M. Gouge, Then Came Faith, Emerald Pointe (first in new series that examines slavery's impact on the US during the post-Civil War period)

Livia Hallam with James Reasoner, War Drums, Cumberland House (2nd volume in Palmetto trilogy, a Civil War family saga set in Nassau, Bahamas, and the southern US)

Robert Harris, Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome, Simon & Schuster (the story of Cicero's rise to power, told from the viewpoint of his confidential secretary)

Lian Hearn, The Harsh Cry of the Heron, Riverhead (last tale of the Otori, set in an alternate medieval Japan)

Greg Hollingshead, Bedlam, St. Martin's Press (madness in 18th century England)

Dan Jacobson, All for Love, Metropolitan (the scandalous love story of Louise of Coburg, Archduchess of Austria, and Lieutenant Geza Mattachich, a commoner)

John Jakes, The Gods of Newport, Dutton (scandalous happenings in one of the world's most famous resorts; Newport, Rhode Island, in the late 19th C)

Philip Kerr, The One from the Other, Putnam (Bernie Gunther novel; thriller set in postwar Munich)

Karleen Koen, Dark Angels, Crown (sweeping epic set in Restoration England; prequel to Through a Glass Darkly)

Dewey Lambdin, A King's Trade, St. Martin's Press (Alan Lewrie naval adventure, book 13)

Simon Levack, The Shadow of the Lords, Minotaur (murder and Mexico, 2nd in Aztec mystery series)

Doug Marlette, Magic Time, FSG, (murder, courtroom drama, love, betrayal
and justice in NYC and the early South of the 1990s, with flashbacks to
1964)

Karen Mercury, The Four Quarters of the World, Medallion (romance and adventure in the 19th century kingdom of Abyssinia)

Edward Marston, The Railway Viaduct, Allison & Busby (Robert Colveck mystery set in 1850s London)

J.L. Miles, Cold Rock River, Cumberland House (family, race, love, loss, and mysterious secrets in 1963 rural Georgia)

Philippa Morgan, Chaucer and the Doctor of Physic, Carroll & Graf (3rd in Chaucer mystery series)

Nancy Moser, Mozart's Sister, Bethany House (novel of Marianne Mozart)

Denise Nicholas, Freshwater Road, Pocket (a 19-year-old woman's role in the Civil Rights movement)

Diana Norman, The Sparks Fly Upward, Berkley (love and courage in time of war, set during the Reign of Terror; 3rd in her series of 18th century novels, after Taking Liberties, and featuring Philippa, Makepeace Burke's daughter)

David Pirie, The Dark Water, Pegasus (the creator of Sherlock Holmes pursues his own fiendish nemesis)

Judith Merkle Riley, In Pursuit of the Green Lion, Three Rivers (reprint; 2nd in Margaret of Ashbury trilogy set in 14th C England)

Pam Rosenthal, The Slightest Provocation, Signet Eclipse (erotic romance set in Regency England, about a couple that puts their differences aside to uncover a political conspiracy)

Jed Rubenfeld, The Interpretation of Murder, Henry Holt (historical debut thriller featuring two murdered heiresses, Freud, and NYC in 1909)

Elena Santangelo, Poison to Purge Melancholy, Midnight Ink (Pat Montello mystery set today and in post-Revolutionary Virginia)

Anya Seton, The Winthrop Woman, Chicago Review Press (reprint of Seton's
classic novel about Elizabeth Winthrop of colonial Massachusetts)

Lauraine Snelling, The Brushstroke Legacy, WaterBrook (in the Badlands, a woman uncovers the art and life of Nilda, her great-grandmother, who lived in the family's old cabin in the early 1900s)

Lauraine Snelling, A Land to Call Home, Bethany House (latest in Red River
of the North series)

Sheri Cobb South, Of Paupers and Peers, Five Star (Regency romance, about a curate who doesn't know he's heir to a dukedom)

Indu Sundaresan, The Splendor of Silence, Atria (a doomed love affair set in western India in 1942)

Diane Whiteside, The Southern Devil, Kensington Brava (erotic romance about a chivalrous Civil War veteran and the woman he can't forget)

Jacqueline Winspear, Messenger of Truth, Henry Holt (Maisie Dobbs investigates the mysterious death of a controversial artist and WWI veteran)

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Roman Dusk, Forge (novel of the vampire Count Saint-Germain in imperial Rome)

Stefanie Zweig, Somewhere in Germany, Univ. of Wisconsin (return of the Redlich family to Germany after their 9-year exile in Kenya during WWII, sequel to Nowhere in Africa)

UK Titles

Michael Cox, The Meaning of Night, John Murray (tale of mistaken identity, murder, and revenge by the co-editor of The Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories)

Posie Graeme-Evans, The Beloved, Hodder & Stoughton (third novel in the trilogy involving Edward IV and his mistress, Anne de Bohun)

Audrey Howard, Rose Alley, Hodder & Stoughton (mother and daughter struggle to rise above poverty in Victorian Liverpool’s worst slum)

Reina James, The Time of Dying, Atlantic (romance set in London during the closing weeks of WWI, as the flu pandemic sweeps the globe)

Jose Luis de Juan, This Breathing World, Arcadia (mirrored stories of a homosexual Syrian scribe in first-century Rome who becomes a murderer and renowned man of letters, and of a present day American whose life and exploits parallel his historical predecessor’s)

Margaret Muir, Sea Dust, Thorpe/Ulverscroft Large Print (1856 - a dramatic story of escape on a tall ship)

Maggie O’Farrell, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Headline (portrait of a woman who has been edited out of her family’s history, set in 1930s India and Edinburgh)

June Tate, When Somebody Loves You, Headline (saga set in 1930s Southhampton)

Peter Tremayne, A Prayer for the Damned, Headline (latest in the Sister Fidelma crime novels set in 7^th century Ireland)

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October 2006

US Titles

Pamela Aidan, Duty and Desire, Touchstone ("a novel of Fitzwilliam
Darcy, Gentleman"; second in trilogy

Ana Baca, Mama Fela's Girls, Univ. of New Mexico (a family of strong women coping with poverty and prejudice in northeastern New Mexico during the Depression)

Win Blevins, Heaven is a Long Way Off, Forge (novel of western mountain men, 4th in series)

P.C. Doherty, The Assassins of Isis, Minotaur (ancient Egyptian mystery)

Sara Donati, Queen of Swords, Bantam (historical epic set on the American frontier, in Quebec, and in the French Antilles in the early 19th century; Wilderness series, book 5)

Sybil Downing, The Vote, Univ. of New Mexico Press (in 1918, a young woman becomes a passionate supporter of the National Women's Party)

Joan Druett, Run Afoul, Minotaur (latest Wiki Coffin mystery, set aboard two of the US Exploring Expedition ships and in Rio de Janeiro in 1838)

Leslie Epstein, The Eighth Wonder of the World, Other Press (reimagines Fascist Italy)

Carolly Erickson, The Last Wife of Henry VIII, St. Martin's Press (biographical novel of Katherine Parr)

Charles Frazier, Thirteen Moons, Random House (a 19th century man's journey to preserve the Cherokee homeland and culture)

Janice Graham, The Tailor's Daughter, St. Martin's Press (about a Victorian-era deaf woman who defies convention by working as a gentleman's Savile Row tailor)

Sarah Hall, Haweswater, HarperPerennial (in 1936, a farming community in Westmoreland, England, will shortly be flooded to make way for a new reservoir)

C.C. Humphreys, Jack Absolute, Thomas Dunne (swashbuckling adventure set during the American War of Independence)

Kimberly Iverson, Liberty, HQN (about a gladiatrix-slave in Londinium's arena)

William Kittredge, The Willow Field, Knopf (epic of the American West)

Jeanne Kalogridis, I, Mona Lisa, St. Martin's Griffin (re-creation of the
life of the woman behind Da Vinci's Mona Lisa)

Kate Kingsbury, Slay Bells, Berkley Prime Crime (Christmas entry in the Pennyfoot Hotel Mystery series set in Victorian England)

Zelda Lockhart, Cold Running Creek, Simon & Schuster (pre- and post-Civil War, three generations of women, African American and Native American, struggle to be free)

Juliet Marillier, Blade of Fortriu, Tor (historical fantasy about the Picts; sequel to Dark Mirror)

Rebecca McEldowney, Soul of Flesh: A Novel of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, Windstorm Creative

Sena Jeter Naslund, Abundance, Morrow (novel of Marie Antoinette)

Julia Oliver, Devotion, Univ of Georgia Press (biographical novel about Varina "Winnie" Davis, youngest daughter of Jefferson Davis)

Markus Orths, Caterina, Toby Press (true story of Caterina d'Erauso, a 17th century Spanish woman who disguised herself as a man)

Michael Pearce, A Dead Man in Athens, Carroll & Graf (officer from
Scotland Yard investigates a poisoning in 1913 Athens)

Robert J. Randisi, Everybody Kills Somebody Sometime, Minotaur ("Rat Pack"
mystery featuring Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra)

James Reese, The Witchery, Morrow (gothic historical, sequel to The Book of Spirits)

Alyson Richman, The Last Van Gogh, Berkley (love story, recreating the last months of Vincent van Gogh's life)

Haim Sabato, The Dawning of the Day: The Story of Ezra Siman Tov, Toby

Joanna Catherine Scott, The Road from Chapel Hill, Berkley (sweeping tale of the Civil War, from the viewpoint of three young Southerners who are worlds apart)

Lee Smith, On Agate Hill, Algonquin (Reconstruction-era epic that follows a woman's life from orphanhood to widowhood)

Barry Unsworth, The Ruby in Her Navel, Nan A. Talese (love and intrigue in
12th century Palermo)

Nina Vida, The Texicans, Soho (story of the tribulations and triumphs of the people who really settled Texas)

K. Michael Wright, Tolteca, Medallion (dark fantasy set in the Toltec empire)

M.J. Zellnik, Death at the Rose Paperworks, Midnight Ink (2nd in mystery series about a Jewish dressmaker in Portland, Oregon, in the late 19th century)

UK Titles

Hilary Green, Never Say Goodbye, Hodder & Stoughton (a young Englishwoman works undercover in occupied France during WWII)

Anne Perry, At Some Disputed Barricade, Headline (latest in Perry’s WWI quintet)

Julian Stockwin, Command, Hodder & Stoughton (latest in Thomas Kydd seafaring novels tell of the hero transporting convicts to Australia)

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November 2006

US Titles

Daniel Kehlmann, Measuring the World, Pantheon (novel of Carl Friedrich
Gauss)

Larry Karp, The Ragtime Kid, Poisoned Pen Press (historical crime novel set in Sedalia, MO, in 1899)

Elmer Kelton, Ranger's Law, Forge (reprint of three Kelton novels about the Texas Rangers: Ranger's Trail, Texas Vendetta, Jericho's Road)

David Maine, The Book of Samson, St. Martin's Press (irreverent retelling of
the Samson and Delilah story)

Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Picador USA (novel of the French
Revolution; 1st paperback)

Antoinette May, Pilate's Wife, Morrow (story of Claudia, the seer who foresaw the persecution of Christians at the hands of the Romans and tried to stop the Crucifixion)

Max McCoy, A Breed Apart, Signet (novel of Wild Bill Hickok)

Judith Miller, Daylight Comes, Bethany House (conclusion to Freedom's Path series set in the prairie town of Nicodemus, Kansas)

Jude Morgan, Indiscretion, St. Martin's Press (novel of love, status, and fortune in Regency England)

Therese Nichols, Sunburst's Citadel, Medallion Sapphire (romance set in 15th century India)

I.J. Parker, Black Arrow, Penguin (next installment in the Sugawara Akitada mystery series, set in 11th century Japan)

Anne Perry, A Christmas Secret, Ballantine (new holiday mystery set in Victorian England)

Tracie Peterson, Whispers of Winter, Bethany House (conclusion to Alaskan Quest series, adventure and romance in the rugged Alaskan Territory)

Eve Pollard, Jack's Widow, William Morrow (the private life and thoughts of Jackie Kennedy after JFK's death)

Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Penguin Press (epic literary novel taking place between the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and the time after WWI)

Peter Rushforth, A Dead Language, MacAdam/Cage (novel of Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, the faithless young naval lieutenant who abandons Madame Butterfly; sequel to Pinkerton's Sister)

Jeff Shaara, The Rising Tide, Ballantine (1st in new trilogy of WWII)

Philip Sington, Zoia's Gold, Scribner (early 20th C story of a legendary Russian aristocrat and artist)

Richard Taylor, Sue Mundy, Univ Press of Kentucky (a novel of the Civil
War)

Frederick Turner, Redemption, Harcourt (debauchery in New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century)

Donna Vanliere, The Angels of Morgan Hill, St. Martin's Press (Morgan Hill,
Tennessee, is turned upside down in 1947 when the first black family moves
to the area)

UK Titles

Charles Frazier, Thirteen Moons, Sceptre (a young Cherokee fights against Washington City to preserve his people’s homeland)

Samantha Grosser, Another Time and Place, Macmillan New Writing (love, loss and adventure in England and on the continent during the last stages of the Second World War)

Bengt Ohlsson, Gregorius, Atlantic (philosophical novel about the nature of love, set in 1905 Stockholm)

Janet MacLeod Trotter, A Handful of Stars (saga set in Depression-era Tyneside)

Kate Westbrook, Secret Servant: The Moneypenny Diaries (second novel in the Miss Moneypenny series of Cold War espionage)

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December 2006

US Titles

Stephanie Barron, Jane and the Barque of Frailty, Bantam (Jane Austen mystery set in 1811, after publication of Sense and Sensibility; the mistress of the Comte d'Antraigues is murdered)

Adria Bernardi, Openwork, SMU Press (A dialogue between two women that spans the 20th century in Italy and America; begins in a rural Apennine village in Italy in 1913)

Barbara Taylor Bradford, The Ravenscar Dynasty, St. Martin's (glitzy family saga of the Deravenels, set in Edwardian England)

Max Brod, Tycho Brahe's Path to God, Northwestern Univ Press

Gina Buonaguro and Janice Kirk, The Sidewalk Artist, Thomas Dunne (interweaves two love stories: present-day story about a sidewalk artist named Raffaelo, and a 16th century focusing on the renowned painter Raphael and his secret lover)

David Garland, Valley Forge: A Novel of the American Revolution, St. Martin's Press (2nd novel of Captain Jamie Skoyles in the American Revolution, sequel to Saratoga)

Philippa Gregory, The Boleyn Inheritance, Touchstone (novel of Katherine
Howard, Anne of Cleves, and Lady Jane Rochford in Henry VIII's England)

Karen Harper, The First Princess of Wales, Three Rivers (novel of Joan of
Kent, wife of the Black Prince in 14th century England; reissue of her
earlier Sweet Passion's Pain)

Frederick Highland, Night Falls on Damascus, Minotaur (set in Syria during the French Mandate of the 1930s)

George Robert Minkoff, The Weight of Smoke, McPherson & Co (first two disastrous years at Jamestown, presented as Captain John Smith's secret diaries)

Arturo Perez-Reverte, The Sun Over Breda, Putnam (latest in Captain
Alatriste series of action-adventure novels)

Jean Plaidy, The Captive Queen of Scots, Three Rivers (novel of Mary Queen
of Scots; first in duology)

David Roberts, The Quality of Mercy, Carroll & Graf (Verity Browne/Lord Edward Corinth mystery set in 1938 Austria and England)

Jody Shields, The Crimson Portrait, Little, Brown (in spring 1915, on a sprawling country estate outside London, a young widow has an affair with a soldier whose face she cannot see)

Jack Whyte, The Eagle, Forge (final volume in the Camulod Chronicles; Arthurian fiction)

Lauren Willig, The Deception of the Emerald Ring, Dutton (chick lit/romantic spy adventure in the Napoleonic Era)

UK Titles

Thalassa Ali, Companions of Paradise, Headline (a young woman caught between marital discord and political upheaval that follows the British victory in 1840s Afghanistan)

Paul Doherty, The Wax-Men Murders, Headline (medieval sleuth, Hugh Corbett has a gruesome new case to solve)