Regretfully not much reading has been happening over the past week. I'm still trying to sort out what reading challenges I will sign up for this year. However, I did manage to finish three novels, though the reviews are still to be written.
What I Read Last Week
The theatres are padlocked. Christmas has been cancelled. It is 1657 and the unloved English Republic is eight years old. Though Cromwell's joyless grip on power appears immovable, many still look to Charles Stuart's dissolute and threadbare court-in-exile, and some are prepared to risk their lives plotting a restoration.
For the officers of the Republic, constant vigilance is needed. So, when the bloody corpse of a Royalist spy is discovered on the dung heap of a small Essex village, why is the local magistrate so reluctant to investigate? John Grey, a young lawyer with no clients, finds himself alone in believing that the murdered man deserves justice. Grey is drawn into a vortex of plot and counter-plot and into the all-encompassing web of intrigue spun by Cromwell's own spy-master, John Thurloe.
So when nothing is what it seems, can Grey trust anyone?
A powerful novel set in Gallipoli, that's part war-story and part mystery. 'Amid Gallipoli's slaughter he hunted a murderer ...' It is 1915 and Thomas Clare rues the day he and his best friend Snow went to war to solve the murder of his father. The only clues - a hidden wartime document and the imprint of an army boot on the victim's face - have led the pair from the safety of Queensland to the blood-soaked hills of Gallipoli. Now not only are Thomas's enemies on every side - from the Turkish troops bearing down on the Anzac lines, to the cold-blooded killer in his own trench - but as far away as London and Berlin. For, unbeknown to Thomas, the path to murder began thirteen years earlier in Africa with the execution of Breaker Morant - and a secret that could change the course of history ...
To any passer-by, Eleanor Lee might be almost invisible - just another elderly lady - but beneath the surface lies a powerful secret she has kept hidden for decades . . . At the dawn of the Second World War, Eleanor is a fiercely independent young woman, determined to write her own future, rejecting marriage for passion security for adventure. But now, seventy years later, alone in her big old house, she is anxious to erase the past. Peter Mistley, a young man escaping his own ghosts, is employed to help Eleanor sort through her lifetime of possessions. For amongst them are things that her children and grandchildren must never find. Together, Eleanor and Peter uncover traces of another life - words and photographs revealing a story of forbidden love, betrayal, guilt and self-sacrifice. But by releasing her memories at last, can Eleanor still protect those who must never know the truth?
Reading Today
Run, run, girl. In the name of God, run. It's 1141 and freezing cold. Gwil, a battle-hardened mercenary, watches in horror as a little girl with red hair is dragged away by his own men. Caught in the middle of the fight for England she is just one more victim in a winter of atrocities. But a strange twist of fate brings them together again. Gwil finds the girl close to death, clutching a sliver of parchment - and he knows what he must do. He will bring her back to life. He will train her to fight. And together, they will hunt down the man who did this to her. But danger looms wherever they turn. As castle after castle falls victim to siege, the icy Fens ring with rumours of a madman, of murder - and of a small piece of parchment the cost of which none of them could have imagined....
Hoping to Also Read This Week
As the fifth novel in acclaimed historian Adrian Goldsworthy's
Napoleonic series opens, British fortunes in the Peninsula War are at
their lowest ebb. Lieutenant Hamish Williams of the 106th Foot will soon
discover just how precarious their situation is, and what bloody
sacrifices are necessary to prevent total victory for the French. While
the Navy keeps the British foothold at Cadiz from falling to the enemy,
help from the valiant but divided Spanish geurrillos will be vital if
the French advance on land is to be halted. Alongside the experienced
'exploring officer' Lieutenant Hanley, Williams joins the Spanish
partisans behind enemy lines, but while he learns much about the
viciousness of guerrilla warfare - not least that women can sometimes
fight with all the ferocity of their male counterparts - he quickly
finds that the greatest danger comes from his own side. Carrying vital
knowledge of a traitor, Williams must find his way back to the British
lines before a deadly French trap can be sprung, but with the British
commanders determined to go on the attack, will he be able to avert
disaster?
Patrick Paniter was James IV's right-hand man, a diplomatic genius who
was in charge of the guns at the disastrous battle of Flodden in
September 1513 in which the English annihilated the Scots. After the
death of his king he is tormented by guilt as he relives the events that
led to war. When Louise Brenier, daughter of a rogue sea trader, asks
his help in finding out if her brother Benoit was killed in action, it
is the least he can do to salve his conscience. Not satisfied with the
news he brings, Louise sets off to find out the truth herself, and
swiftly falls foul of one of the lawless clans that rule the
ungovernable borderlands. After Flodden is a novel about the
consequences of the battle of Flodden, as seen through the eyes of
several characters who either had a hand in bringing the country to war,
or were profoundly affected by the outcome. There have been very few
novels about Flodden, despite its significance,and none from this
perspective.
It's a racy adventure, combining political intrigue and romance, and its
readership will be anyone who loves historical fiction, or is
interested in the history of Scotland and the turbulent, ungovernable
borderlands between Scotland and England.
On a balmy summer in 1898 Vanessa Wetherburn is contentedly feeding a
clotted cream scone to her young son in her Cambridge garden when she is
startled by the abrupt arrival of her long-time friend, the journalist
Patrick O'Sullivan. Eager to discover the identity of a beautiful young
woman found floating in the River Cam, Pat has called on the one woman
he knows is sure to be able to solve the mystery. Over recent years
Vanessa has garnered a reputation for solving crimes - including
murders, thefts and blackmail attempts - but never before has she faced
an unknown victim. She is at a loss to know where to begin. As Vanessa
considers what to do, her first important clue arrives in the form of
Ernest Dixon, who is worried by the disappearance of his favourite
actress; a young woman named Ivy Elliot, who was playing the part of
Ophelia.Could the missing girl and unidentified body be one and the same
woman? Forced to go undercover to continue her research, Vanessa
stumbles across an amazing and revolutionary discovery, which not only
helps her to solve the case but will have a major impact worldwide.
Beautifully written and thoroughly researched, this latest case for the
talented Mrs Weatherburn proves to be her most perplexing yet.
