Saturday Sleuthing: More Regency Mystery Series, A Tale of the Stuart Court and An Intriguing Story of A "Slip-Gibbet"

I'm very excited by yesterday's book hunt. Not only did I discover more Regency mystery series to follow, but two very interesting novels, one set after the death of Charles II, during the reign of William and Mary and the other based on the true story of a woman who escaped the gallows and was transported to Australia. All these authors are new to me and I'm looking forward to adding these books to my reading pile.

The Heiress of Linn Hagh by Karen Charlton

2013 Paperback cover

Northumberland, November 1809: A menacing figure stalks women through Hareshaw Woods and a beautiful, young heiress disappears from her locked bedchamber at Linn Hagh. The townsfolk cry 'witchcraft' and the local constabulary are baffled. Fearing for her safety, Helen Carnaby's worried uncle sends out for help from Bow Street magistrates' court in London.
Detective Stephen Lavender and Constable Woods now face their toughest and most dangerous case. The servants and the local gypsies won’t speak to them, Helen’s siblings are sly and uncooperative and the sullen local farmers are about to take the law into their own hands.

2015 Paperback cover

Isolated in this beautiful but remote community, Lavender and Woods find themselves trapped in the middle of a simmering feud and are alarmed to discover a sinister world of madness and violence lurking behind the heavy oak door of the ancient pele tower at Linn Hagh.

Helen Carnaby's disappearance is to prove one of the most perplexing mysteries of Lavender's career. Why did she flee on that wintry October night? How did she get out of her locked bed chamber? And where is she now?

This is the first in a series of Regency mysteries featuring detective Stephen Lavender and Constable Edward Woods. Originally published in 2013, a new paperback edition of this novel will available from June 9, 2015. The Heiress of Linn Hagh has also be released as The Missing Heiress.

A Moment of Silence by Anna Dean

UK edition

1805. An engagement party is taking place for Mr Richard Montague, son of wealthy landowner Sir Edgar Montague, and his fiancee Catherine. During a dance with his beloved, a strange thing happens: a man appears at Richard's shoulder and appears to communicate something to him without saying a word. Instantly breaking off the engagement, he rushes off to speak to his father, never to be seen again. Distraught with worry, Catherine sends for her spinster aunt, Miss Dido Kent, who has a penchant for solving mysteries. Catherine pleads with her to find her fiance and to discover the truth behind his disappearance. It's going to take a lot of logical thinking to untangle the complex threads of this multi-layered mystery, and Miss Dido Kent is just the woman to do it.

A Moment of Silence  is the first book in a series featuring Miss Dido Kent, a crime solving spinster. It has also been released as Bellfield Hall for the US market. Below are the covers for the rest of the series. I love them: so very Jane Austenesque in appearance.

The Hanover Square Affair by Ashley Gardner

London, 1816 Cavalry captain Gabriel Lacey returns to Regency London from the Napoleonic Wars, burned out, fighting melancholia, his career ended. His interest is piqued when he learns of a missing girl, possibly kidnapped by a prominent member of Parliament. Lacey's search for the girl leads to the discovery of murder, corruption, and dealings with a leader of the underworld. At the same time, he faces his own disorientation transitioning from a soldier's life to the civilian world, redefining his role with his former commanding officer, and making new friends--from the top of society to the street girls of Covent Garden.

There are nine books in the series to-date. As well as writing historical mysteries as Ashley Gardner, she also writes historical and paranormal romance under the pseudonyms of  Allyson James and Jennifer Ashley

A Pledge of Better Times by Margaret Porter

A sweeping tale of ambition, treachery, and passion incorporating historical figures and events. For generations Lady Diana de Vere's family loyally served England's crown. But after King Charles II's untimely death, her father firmly opposes James II's tyranny. Charles Beauclerk, Duke of St. Albans-the late king's bastard son by actress Nell Gwyn-also rebels against his newly crowned uncle's manipulation. Secretly pledging to wed Diana, he departs for the Continent to become a soldier. Political and religious turmoil bring about revolution and yet another coronation before Charles returns to claim his promised bride. As companion to Queen Mary Stuart, Diana has followed her de Vere forbears into royal service. She expects Charles to abandon his military career after marriage, but he proves unwilling to join the ranks of the courtiers he despises and mistrusts. In palace corridors and within their own household the young duke and duchess confront betrayals, scandals, and tragedies that threaten to divide them. And neither the privileges of birth nor proximity to the throne can ensure their security, their advancement-or their happiness.

This is Margaret Porter's first mainstream historical novel and is due for release in April, 2015. She also writes historical romances as Margaret Evans Porter.


Scapegallows by Carol Birch

This is the story of Margaret Catchpole, born into a smugglers' world in Suffolk in the late 1700s. As the valued servant of a wealthy family and a friend of criminals, Margaret leads a double life that inevitably brings about her downfall, and she is sentenced to hang not once, but twice. But she escapes the gallows and is transported with other convicts to Australia. A wonderful adventure story, Scapegallows takes inspiration from the life of the real Margaret Catchpole. A woman who lived by her wits, she was a slip-gibbet, a scapegallows.

Carol Birch has written eleven novels. Scapegallows was the first of her novels to be set totally in the past. It is based on the true story of Margaret Catchpole.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This weekly meme is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

Again this week gardening jobs have encroached on my reading time and I didn't get to read as many books as I would have liked.

What I Read Last Week 

Blood Ties by C.C. Humphreys (The French Executioner #2)


Years have gone by since the events surrounding the death of Anne Boleyn. But her missing hand and all that it represents to the dark world of 16th-century Europe still draws the powerful to seek it out. Jean Rombaud - the French executioner of the first novel - has grown old, both in age and spirit. Wearied by the betrayal of a son and the scorn of a wife, he fights in the seemingly never-ending siege of Siena. Meanwhile, Gianni Rombaud has forsaken everything his ageing father stands for and now kills heathen for the Inquisition in Rome. Then he is summoned by Cardinal Carafa himself. His masters no longer merely want his dagger in the hearts of Jews, they want the hand of the dead queen...But only three people know where it is buried, and one of them is Gianni's father...


What I'm Reading Today

Blood Royal by Diana Norman

Lady Cecily Fitzhenry was ruined in the South Sea Bubble. Her husband, whom she was forced to marry by her archenemy Sir Robert Walpole as punishment for her support of a Stuart rebel, has speculated with her dowry. The only property left to her is a crumbling public house on the Great North Road. Cecily makes it into one of the great coaching inns, spies for the 'Old Pretender' and fights to save her people from the gallows of Walpole's terrible Black Acts. Thanks to a wily lawyer, Cecily becomes the saviour of her country in a way she hadn't expected...






The beginning of this novel didn't grab my attention like Shores of Darkness, which was a little disappointing. Nonetheless, it is turning out to be a good read.

What I Hope to Read Next

I'm so excited by these books in my reading pile that I'm not sure what to read next. Some of them I mentioned in last Monday's post, but they are still contenders for this week's reading. I need a crowd of Yvonne clones so that I can read them all at once!

Gallipoli Street by Mary Anne O'Connor

An Anzac tale of three families whose destinies are entwined by war, tragedy and passion.
At 17, Veronica O’Shay is happier running wild on the family farm than behaving in the ladylike manner her mother requires, and she despairs both of her secret passion for her brother’s friend Jack Murphy and what promises to be a future of restraint and compliance. 
But this is 1913 and the genteel tranquillity of rural Beecroft is about to change forever as the O’Shay and Murphy families, along with their friends the Dwyers, are caught up in the theatre of war and their fates become intertwined.
From the horrors of Gallipoli to the bloody battles of the Somme, through love lost and found, the Great Depression and the desperate jungle war along the Kokoda Track, this sprawling family drama brings to life a time long past… a time of desperate love born in desperate times and acts of friendship against impossible odds.
A love letter to Australian landscape and character, Gallipoli Street celebrates both mateship and the enduring quality of real love. But more than that, this book shows us where we have come from as a nation, by revealing the adversity and passions that forged us.
A stunning novel that brings to life the love and courage that formed our Anzac tradition.

My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young

A letter, two lovers, a terrible lie. In war, truth is only the first casualty. 'Inspires the kind of devotion among its readers not seen since David Nicholls' One Day' The Times While Riley Purefoy and Peter Locke fight for their country, their survival and their sanity in the trenches of Flanders, Nadine Waveney, Julia Locke and Rose Locke do what they can at home. Beautiful, obsessive Julia and gentle, eccentric Peter are married: each day Julia goes through rituals to prepare for her beloved husband's return. Nadine and Riley, only eighteen when the war starts, and with problems of their own already, want above all to make promises - but how can they when the future is not in their hands? And Rose? Well, what did happen to the traditionally brought-up women who lost all hope of marriage, because all the young men were dead? Moving between Ypres, London and Paris, My Dear I Wanted to Tell You is a deeply affecting, moving and brilliant novel of love and war, and how they affect those left behind as well as those who fight.

Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks

A young woman's struggle to save her family and her soul during the extraordinary year of 1666, when plague suddenly struck a small Derbyshire village. In 1666, plague swept through London, driving the King and his court to Oxford, and Samuel Pepys to Greenwich, in an attempt to escape contagion. The north of England remained untouched until, in a small community of lead miners and hill farmers, a bolt of cloth arrived from the capital. The tailor who cut the cloth had no way of knowing that the damp fabric carried with it bubonic infection. So begins the Year of Wonders, in which a Pennine village of 350 souls confronts a scourge beyond remedy or understanding. Desperate, the villagers turn to sorcery, herb lore, and murderous witch-hunting. Then, led by a young and charismatic preacher, they elect to isolate themselves in a fatal quarantine. The story is told through the eyes of Anna Frith who, at only 18, must contend with the death of her family, the disintegration of her society, and the lure of a dangerous and illicit attraction. Geraldine Brooks's novel explores love and learning, fear and fanaticism, and the struggle of 17th century science and religion to deal with a seemingly diabolical pestilence. 'Year of Wonders' is also an eloquent memorial to the real-life Derbyshire villagers who chose to suffer alone during England's last great plague.

Wild Wood by Posie Graeme Evans

There are no accidents. There is only fate. 1981. Jesse Marley calls herself a realist; she is all about the here and now. But in the month before Charles and Di's wedding all her certainties are suddenly blown aside by events she cannot control. Finding herself in hospital, unable to speak, she must write everything down. And as if her fingers have a will of their own, she beings to draw places she's never been to, people from another time. Rory Brandon, Jesse's neurologist, is intrigued. He knows the place she is drawing - Hundredfield, a castle in the Scottish Borders - and Jesse demands to see it. Unbeknown to them all, Jesse carries ancient knowledge that Hundredfield unlocks. She is key to the mystery that haunts this wild place, and she has a place in the legend of the lady who walks the forests ...


The Anchoress by Robyn Cadwallader

Set in the twelfth century, The Anchoress tells the story of Sarah, only seventeen when she chooses to become an anchoress, a holy woman shut away in a small cell, measuring seven paces by nine, at the side of the village church. Fleeing the grief of losing a much-loved sister in childbirth and the pressure to marry, she decides to renounce the world, with all its dangers, desires and temptations, and to commit herself to a life of prayer and service to God. But as she slowly begins to understand, even the thick, unforgiving walls of her cell cannot keep the outside world away, and it is soon clear that Sarah's body and soul are still in great danger......




The Leopards of Normandy: Devil by David Churchill

The Leopards of Normandy trilogy tells the story of William the Conqueror in all its wild, intoxicating, unfailingly dramatic glory. The fate of England hangs in the balance of a fight between brothers The noble families of Europe are tearing themselves apart in their lust for power and wealth. Emma, Queen of England, is in agony over the succession to her husband Canute's throne ...while her brother, the Duke of Normandy's sons battle in the wake of his death. Robert, the younger son, has been cheated of Normandy's mightiest castle and sets out to take it by force. He emerges from a bloody siege victorious and in love with a beautiful - and pregnant - peasant girl. Robert's child will be mocked as William the bastard. But we have another name for him ...Conqueror. The first instalment in the Leopards of Normandy trilogy paints a world seething with rivalry and intrigue, where assassins are never short of work.

The Traitor's Wife by Allison Pataki

A riveting historical novel about Peggy Shippen Arnold, the cunning wife of Benedict Arnold and mastermind behind America's most infamous act of treason . . . Everyone knows Benedict Arnold--the Revolutionary War general who betrayed America and fled to the British--as history's most notorious turncoat. Many know Arnold's co-conspirator, Major John Andre, who was apprehended with Arnold's documents in his boots and hanged at the orders of General George Washington. But few know of the integral third character in the plot: a charming young woman who not only contributed to the betrayal but orchestrated it. Socialite Peggy Shippen is half Benedict Arnold's age when she seduces the war hero during his stint as military commander of Philadelphia. Blinded by his young bride's beauty and wit, Arnold does not realize that she harbors a secret: loyalty to the British. Nor does he know that she hides a past romance with the handsome British spy John Andre. Peggy watches as her husband, crippled from battle wounds and in debt from years of service to the colonies, grows ever more disillusioned with his hero, Washington, and the American cause. Together with her former love and her disaffected husband, Peggy hatches the plot to deliver West Point to the British and, in exchange, win fame and fortune for herself and Arnold. Told from the perspective of Peggy's maid, whose faith in the new nation inspires her to intervene in her mistress's affairs even when it could cost her everything, "The Traitor's Wife" brings these infamous figures to life, illuminating the sordid details and the love triangle that nearly destroyed the American fight for freedom.

The Greatcoat by Helen Dunmore

In the winter of 1952, Isabel Carey moves to the East Riding of Yorkshire with her husband Philip, a GP. With Philip spending long hours on call, Isabel finds herself isolated and lonely as she strives to adjust to the realities of married life. Woken by intense cold one night, she discovers an old RAF greatcoat hidden in the back of a cupboard. Sleeping under it for warmth, she starts to dream. And not long afterwards, while her husband is out, she is startled by a knock at her window. Outside is a young RAF pilot, waiting to come in. His name is Alec, and his powerful presence both disturbs and excites her. Her initial alarm soon fades, and they begin an intense affair. But nothing has prepared her for the truth about Alec's life, nor the impact it will have on hers ...

Saturday Sleuthing: The Napoleonic Wars, The Russian Revolution, World War I, World War II and a Gothic Ghost Story

Today my book sleuthing has uncovered a number of novels from authors that I have not read before, though three are from the one author.

Lieutenant and Mrs Lockwood by Mark Bois 

"Captain Barr desperately wanted to kill Lieutenant Lockwood. He thought constantly of doing so, though he had long since given up any consideration of a formal duel. Lockwood, after all, was a good shot and a fine swordsman; a knife in the back would do. And then Barr dreamt of going back to Ireland, and of taking Brigid Lockwood for his own." So begins the story of Lieutenant James Lockwood, his wife Brigid, and his deadly rivalry - professional and romantic - with Charles Barr. Lockwood and Barr hold each other's honor hostage, at a time when a man's honor meant more than his life. But can a man as treacherous as Charles Barr be trusted to keep secret the disgrace that could irrevocably ruin Lockwood and his family? Against a backdrop of famine and uprising in Ireland, and the war between Napoleon and Wellington, showing the famous Inniskilling Regiment in historically accurate detail, here is a romance for the ages, and for all time. ..

There is an in-depth review of this novel by Robert Burnham on the The Napoleon Series website.

This is Mark Bois' debut novel and is the first of a series. The reason I added this to my wish list is the two different perspectives: the officer on active service in the West Indies and eventually at Waterloo, and the family he leaves behind in Ireland.

The Hour of Parade by Alan Bray

"The past pressed on him so that he felt he must fall to his knees. If he could just tell Valsin all that had happened-then the younger man might understand and redeem them both." One violent act draws together three very different people in Alan Bray's haunting debut, "The Hour of Parade." The year is 1806, and Russian cavalry officer Alexi Ruzhensky journeys to Munich to kill the man responsible for murdering his brother in a duel, French officer Louis Valsin. Already thwarted once at the Battle of Austerlitz by Valsin's lover, Anne-Marie, Alexi has been told by his father not to fail again. Obsessed by the main character in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's novel "Julie," Alexi becomes romantically entangled with a beautiful and passionate young Bavarian woman. He hides his true identity and befriends Valsin and Anne-Marie, only to find that he has no thirst for blood. As the three grow closer, tensions mount as Alexi and Anne-Marie desperately try to resist their growing attraction. But as the novel comes to its explosive conclusion, Alexi will learn that revenge cannot be forgotten so easily. An intricately woven history of love, lust, and murder, "The Hour of Parade "proves itself an epic romance for the ages.


My reason for selecting this novel is that though set during the Napoleonic Wars it is not a war story, but one of relationships and family honour.


The Last Campaign of Marianne Tambour: A Novel of Waterloo by David Ebsworth 

On the bloody fields of Waterloo, a battle-weary canteen mistress of Bonaparte's Imperial Guard battalions must fight to free her daughter from all the perils that war will hurl against them - before this last campaign can kill them both.

The book blurb above is very brief, but a review written by Susan Howard and posted on The Napoleon Series website gives a much better description of this novel.







This is David Ebsworth's fourth novel.  His debut novel was The Jacobite's Apprentice, another on my wish list. Once again this novel was selected because of its different perspective: Waterloo through the eyes of women at the battle.


The Absolutist by John Boyne

September 1919: Twenty-years-old Tristan Sadler takes a train from London to Norwich to deliver a clutch of letters to Marian Bancroft. Tristan fought alongside Marian's brother Will during the Great War. They trained together. They fought together. But in 1917, Will laid down his guns on the battlefield and declared himself a conscientious objector, an act which has brought shame and dishonour on the Bancroft family. The letters, however, are not the real reason for Tristan's visit. He holds a secret deep within him. One that he is desperate to unburden himself of to Marian, if he can only find the courage. Whatever happens, this meeting will change his life - forever.




John Boyne is the author of many novels. One of them, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, was made into a film with the same name.  The World War I setting

The House of Special Purpose by John Boyne

Russia, 1915: Sixteen year old farmer's son Georgy Jachmenev steps in front of an assassin's bullet intended for a senior member of the Russian Imperial Family and is instantly proclaimed a hero. Rewarded with the position of bodyguard to Alexei Romanov, the only son of Tsar Nicholas II, the course of his life is changed for ever. Privy to the secrets of Nicholas and Alexandra, the machinations of Rasputin and the events which will lead to the final collapse of the autocracy, Georgy is both a witness and participant in a drama that will echo down the century. Sixty-five years later, visiting his wife Zoya as she lies in a London hospital, memories of the life they have lived together flood his mind. And with them, the consequences of the brutal fate of the Romanovs which has hung like a shroud over every aspect of their marriage...


This novel appealed to me because it offers a look at history from a different perspective. I'm also a fan of dual time frame novels


This House is Haunted by John Boyne

1867. Eliza Caine arrives in Norfolk to take up her position as governess at Gaudlin Hall on a dark and chilling night. As she makes her way across the station platform, a pair of invisible hands push her from behind into the path of an approaching train. She is only saved by the vigilance of a passing doctor. When she finally arrives, shaken, at the hall she is greeted by the two children in her care, Isabella and Eustace. There are no parents, no adults at all, and no one to represent her mysterious employer. The children offer no explanation. Later that night in her room, a second terrifying experience further reinforces the sense that something is very wrong. From the moment she rises the following morning, her every step seems dogged by a malign presence which lives within Gaudlin's walls. Eliza realises that if she and the children are to survive its violent attentions, she must first uncover the hall's long-buried secrets and confront the demons of its past.


The cover and the Norfolk setting drew my attention to this novel.Occasionally I like to read a good ghost story, which I hope this is.

We Shall Remember by Emma Fraser

1939. Irena is a young medical student living in Warsaw when the German army invade Poland. Those closest to her are dying and when Irena realises that no one is coming to Poland's aid, it's clear that she is alone. Forced to flee to Britain, Irena meets Richard, a RAF pilot who she's instantly drawn to and there's a glimmer of happiness on the horizon. And then the war becomes more brutal and in order to right a never-forgotten wrong Irena must make an impossible decision. 1989. Decades later, Sarah's mother is left a home in Skye and another in Edinburgh following the death of Lord Glendale, a man she's never met, and only on the condition that Magdalena Drobnik, a woman she's never heard of, is no longer alive. Sarah's only clues to this mystery are two photographs she doesn't understand but she's determined to discover the truth, not knowing that she's about to begin a journey that will change her life. Gripping, poignant and honest, We Shall Remember is an incredibly powerful story about the choices we make under fire.

The dual time frame and my Polish heritage is responsible for this one being added to my wish list.

It's Monday! What Are you Reading?

This weekly meme is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

Most of my time last week was spent out in the garden,  but I managed to read two novels and start another in between the digging and the planting.

What I Read Last Week

Shores of Darkness by Diana Norman

For Martin Millet of the Dragoons it began on the turbulent summer day in 1706 when he returned from the French wars to find his Aunt Effie murdered and himself sole inheritor of her lodging house and her serving girl Bratchet, neither of which he wanted. For Daniel Defoe, political hack, failed merchant and debtor, it had begun a little earlier, on the equally inauspicious day when they put him in the pillory for seditious libel and he was accosted by an enormous orange-haired Highlander. The Scotsman is seeking a young kinswoman, Anne Bard, and offers Defoe money to help him find her. Then, surprisingly, a Minister of State does the same, for Anne Bard may be able to answer the question that is tearing the country apart. The ageing Queen Anne is childless, leaving the future king to be chosen between a Protestant Hanoverian and a Catholic Jacobite, neither of whom is popular. What, however, if there were a third choice: another true Stuart, but a Protestant? Defoe, the threat of Newgate hanging over him, can hardly refuse. And since Anne Bard's last known address was Aunt Effie's lodging house, Defoe employs two even more unlikely spies to help him: Millet and his troublesome legacy, the Bratchet. Followed by the mysterious Highlander, their search takes them to Flanders where the Duke of Marlborough is fighting the French, to the court of the Sun King Louis XIV himself, into piracy and finally, unwillingly, into the world of the darkest trade of all. Yet all the time, had they but known it, the answer lies at home, dangerously close to Queen Anne herself.


This was such a good read that I've added another of her novels to my reading pile this week.



The French Executioner by C.C. Humphreys  (The French Executioner Series #1)

It is 1536, and the expert swordsman, Jean Rombaud, has been brought over from France by Henry VIII to behead his wife, Anne Boleyn. But on the eve of her execution Rombaud swears a vow to the ill-fated queen - to bury her six-fingered hand, symbol of her rumoured witchery, at a sacred crossroads. Yet in a Europe ravaged by religious war, the hand of this infamous Protestant icon is so powerful a relic that many will kill for it...From a battle between slave galleys to a black mass in a dungeon, through the hallucinations of St Anthony's Fire to the fortress of an apocalyptic Messiah, Jean seeks to honour his vow.





C.C. Humphrey's novels are always entertaining, though a little gruesome in some parts. As this is only a two novel series, I decided to read the sequel straight away. Also both these books are from the library and need to be returned next week. That's one way of deciding what to read next.


What I'm Reading Today

Blood Ties by C.C. Humphreys (The French Executioner #2)


Years have gone by since the events surrounding the death of Anne Boleyn. But her missing hand and all that it represents to the dark world of 16th-century Europe still draws the powerful to seek it out. Jean Rombaud - the French executioner of the first novel - has grown old, both in age and spirit. Wearied by the betrayal of a son and the scorn of a wife, he fights in the seemingly never-ending siege of Siena. Meanwhile, Gianni Rombaud has forsaken everything his ageing father stands for and now kills heathen for the Inquisition in Rome. Then he is summoned by Cardinal Carafa himself. His masters no longer merely want his dagger in the hearts of Jews, they want the hand of the dead queen...But only three people know where it is buried, and one of them is Gianni's father...



What I Hope to Read Next

I'm not sure which one to read first, but Blood Royal is working its way to the top of this little pile.

Gallipoli Street by Mary Anne O'Connor

An Anzac tale of three families whose destinies are entwined by war, tragedy and passion.
At 17, Veronica O’Shay is happier running wild on the family farm than behaving in the ladylike manner her mother requires, and she despairs both of her secret passion for her brother’s friend Jack Murphy and what promises to be a future of restraint and compliance. 
But this is 1913 and the genteel tranquillity of rural Beecroft is about to change forever as the O’Shay and Murphy families, along with their friends the Dwyers, are caught up in the theatre of war and their fates become intertwined.
From the horrors of Gallipoli to the bloody battles of the Somme, through love lost and found, the Great Depression and the desperate jungle war along the Kokoda Track, this sprawling family drama brings to life a time long past… a time of desperate love born in desperate times and acts of friendship against impossible odds.
A love letter to Australian landscape and character, Gallipoli Street celebrates both mateship and the enduring quality of real love. But more than that, this book shows us where we have come from as a nation, by revealing the adversity and passions that forged us.
A stunning novel that brings to life the love and courage that formed our Anzac tradition.

My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young

A letter, two lovers, a terrible lie. In war, truth is only the first casualty. 'Inspires the kind of devotion among its readers not seen since David Nicholls' One Day' The Times While Riley Purefoy and Peter Locke fight for their country, their survival and their sanity in the trenches of Flanders, Nadine Waveney, Julia Locke and Rose Locke do what they can at home. Beautiful, obsessive Julia and gentle, eccentric Peter are married: each day Julia goes through rituals to prepare for her beloved husband's return. Nadine and Riley, only eighteen when the war starts, and with problems of their own already, want above all to make promises - but how can they when the future is not in their hands? And Rose? Well, what did happen to the traditionally brought-up women who lost all hope of marriage, because all the young men were dead? Moving between Ypres, London and Paris, My Dear I Wanted to Tell You is a deeply affecting, moving and brilliant novel of love and war, and how they affect those left behind as well as those who fight.

Blood Royal by Diana Norman

Lady Cecily Fitzhenry was ruined in the South Sea Bubble. Her husband, whom she was forced to marry by her archenemy Sir Robert Walpole as punishment for her support of a Stuart rebel, has speculated with her dowry. The only property left to her is a crumbling public house on the Great North Road. Cecily makes it into one of the great coaching inns, spies for the 'Old Pretender' and fights to save her people from the gallows of Walpole's terrible Black Acts. Thanks to a wily lawyer, Cecily becomes the saviour of her country in a way she hadn't expected...






Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

France, 1940. Lucile Angellier's husband has been captured as a prisoner-of-war, and all she can do is wait for him - and tend to the household controlled by her domineering mother-in-law. Their small village is soon occupied by a regiment of German soldiers, forcing the locals to coexist with an invading Nazi force. Lieutenant Bruno von Falk takes up lodgings with the Angellier women, and Lucile struggles with her growing feelings for the handsome officer - soon a powerful love draws them together, and they too fall victim to the tragedy of war.

Irene Nemirovsky began writing Suite Francaise in 1940, but her death in Auschwitz prevented her from seeing the day, sixty-five years later, that the novel would be discovered by her daughter and hailed worldwide as a masterpiece.

Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks

A young woman's struggle to save her family and her soul during the extraordinary year of 1666, when plague suddenly struck a small Derbyshire village. In 1666, plague swept through London, driving the King and his court to Oxford, and Samuel Pepys to Greenwich, in an attempt to escape contagion. The north of England remained untouched until, in a small community of lead miners and hill farmers, a bolt of cloth arrived from the capital. The tailor who cut the cloth had no way of knowing that the damp fabric carried with it bubonic infection. So begins the Year of Wonders, in which a Pennine village of 350 souls confronts a scourge beyond remedy or understanding. Desperate, the villagers turn to sorcery, herb lore, and murderous witch-hunting. Then, led by a young and charismatic preacher, they elect to isolate themselves in a fatal quarantine. The story is told through the eyes of Anna Frith who, at only 18, must contend with the death of her family, the disintegration of her society, and the lure of a dangerous and illicit attraction. Geraldine Brooks's novel explores love and learning, fear and fanaticism, and the struggle of 17th century science and religion to deal with a seemingly diabolical pestilence. 'Year of Wonders' is also an eloquent memorial to the real-life Derbyshire villagers who chose to suffer alone during England's last great plague.

Saturday Sleuthing: Classic Cars, Spitfires, Chimney Sweeps, Chefs and Jane Austen

Amy Myers writes crime novels, but they are crime novels with a difference. Her crime solving characters are an unusual mix and while some of these novels cannot be called historical fiction they do have links to the past.

THE JACK COLBY, CAR DETECTIVE, MYSTERIES

Jack Colby is the owner of a classic car restoration business and while tracking down classic cars finds himself involved in murder. I was drawn to these books by their covers: classic cars have a style of their own, especially those from the 1930s. Six books are currently available in this series.

Classic In The Barn (Jack Colby, Car Detective Mysteries #1)

When Jack Colby glimpses a 1938 Lagonda V12 lying uncared for in a Kentish country barn, he has to have a closer look - which brings him face to face with its angry owner, Polly Davis. Is it the car or Polly that captivates his heart? He decides to find out more about both, but his enquiries are abruptly cut short when Polly is murdered. Convinced that the Lagonda is somehow involved, he is determined to bring her killer to justice, even at the expense of his own safety . . .








Classic Cashes In (Jack Colby, Car Detective, Mysteries #6)

Jack Colby, car detective, takes a seemingly routine commission that precipitates him into a dangerous world of secrets and murder. A commission to buy a classic Packard saloon from the 1930s on behalf of a client should have been routine for Jack Colby, but this Packard is special ...and as Jack struggles to piece together the car's history and the mystery surrounding it, he is soon precipitated into a dangerous world where nothing is as it seems. What is the reason behind enigmatic banking magnate Philip Moxton's desperate desire for this particular car? Whatever it is, the car's current owner, actor Tom Herrick, seems to know it too - and is all too willing to sell. But when murder strikes, Jack is drawn into a hunt for the truth that involves not only his personal happiness but facing a relentless killer.



THE MARSH AND DAUGHTER MYSTERIES

Peter and Georgia Marsh are a father and daughter team. Peter is an ex-policeman confined to a wheelchair and Georgia is the wife of a publisher. Together they investigate crimes from the past and write books about their cases. There are eight books in this series, The Wickenham Murders,  is the first.

Once again I was drawn to these two novels by their covers: spitfires always signal a World War II story, another of my favourite eras, and the ink pot, with the image of the old mansion, and quill definitely hinted at a more historical connection.

Murder in Hell's Corner (Marsh and Daughter Mystery #3)

A reunion of Spitfire pilots from the Battle of Britain in a Kentish country hotel, and an overgrown rockery garden covered with bluebells combine to spark off one of Georgia and Peter Marsh's most dramatic cases. They discover that a murder had taken place in the 1970s; the victim was a popular war hero, Patrick Fairfax. His murder had never been solved. Convinced that there is a story here, the father and daughter Marsh team is driven to find out what happened. As well as the Spitfire pilots, the reunion included several members of the aviation club Fairfax ran after the war, and not all of them had cause to love him. Fairfax' memory is still green: his family keeps the flame burning, a film is in production, and his classic story of the Battle of Britain is to be reissued. What Peter and Georgia discover, however, sets in train of events that leads to a second murder, as the passions of today boil over to prevent the truth from emerging.

Murder in Abbott's Folly (Marsh and Daughter Mystery #8)

Curiosity about a murder that took place in an eighteenth-century folly draws father and daughter team Peter and Georgia Marsh to a Jane Austen-themed summer gala at Stourdens, a fast-decaying Georgian mansion in Kent. But instead of enjoying a literary day out, they are thrust into a tense situation, with a collection of Jane's letters - thought to contain thrilling secrets about her love life - at its heart. Should they be published? Peter and Georgia are inadvertently caught up in the battle - which soon turns deadly .







THE TOM WASP MYSTERIES

Tom Wasp is a chimney sweep from the East End of London. Together with Ned, his former climbing boy, they solve crimes in Victorian London. There are only two novels so far in this series, the first being Tom Wasp and the Murdered Stunner.

Tom Wasp and the Newgate Knocker (Tom Wasp Mystery #2)

When chimney sweep Tom Wasp visits his friend Eliza Hogg in Newgate Prison in January 1863, on the day before she is due to be hanged, he is surprised to be given the only thing of value she possesses and even more surprised when that turns out to be a pawn ticket. Tom's apprentice, twelve-year-old Ned, is disappointed that the pawned item is only a scruffy sailor doll. Some days later, however, they find its hidden secret...








THE AUGUSTE DIDIER MYSTERIES

This series, of nine books, is set in the late Victorian/early Edwardian era and features Auguste Didier, a French chef. This was Amy Myers' first series.

Murder in Pug's Parlour (Auguste Didier Mysteries #1)

Accused of poisoning a man with the mushrooms he prepared the night of the murder, chef Auguste Didier is forced to investigate the crime himself in order to clear his name.













I did say at the start of this post that Amy Myers' crime solving characters are an unusual mix. What do you think?

While I probably won't read any of the Jack Colby novels or the books featuring Auguste Didier, not being a great fan of books with a culinary setting, I'm seriously tempted by the other two series. Cold case crimes fascinate me by the fact that crimes can still be solved a very long time after they are committed. And the Tom Wasp Mysteries? This series did grab my attention. If a chef and a car restorer can solve crime, why not a Victorian chimney sweep?

Amy Myers' writing career spans over 25 years, from 1986 to the present. She also writes romances, suspense and historical novels under a number of pseudonyms: Laura Daniels, Alice Carr and Harriet Hudson. As with most authors with a large body of work, many of her early crime novels are out of print, but some have been released as ebooks.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This weekly meme is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

Not a very exciting week for me reading-wise. One novel completed, two started and more added to my reading pile.

What I Read Last Week

A Fine Summer's Day by Charles Todd

On a fine summer's day in June, 1914, Ian Rutledge pays little notice to the assassination of an archduke in Sarajevo. An Inspector at Scotland Yard, he is planning to propose to the woman whom he deeply loves, despite intimations from friends and family that she may not be the wisest choice. To the north on this warm and gentle day, another man in love-a Scottish Highlander-shows his own dear girl the house he will build for her in September. While back in England, a son awaits the undertaker in the wake of his widowed mother's death. This death will set off a series of murders across England, seemingly unconnected, that Rutledge will race to solve in the weeks before the fateful declaration in August that will forever transform his world .........



This is the first novel I've read by Charles Todd. I enjoyed it and am now looking forward to reading the first book in the series.

Reading Today

The French Executioner by C.C. Humphreys  (The French Executioner Series #1)

It is 1536, and the expert swordsman, Jean Rombaud, has been brought over from France by Henry VIII to behead his wife, Anne Boleyn. But on the eve of her execution Rombaud swears a vow to the ill-fated queen - to bury her six-fingered hand, symbol of her rumoured witchery, at a sacred crossroads. Yet in a Europe ravaged by religious war, the hand of this infamous Protestant icon is so powerful a relic that many will kill for it...From a battle between slave galleys to a black mass in a dungeon, through the hallucinations of St Anthony's Fire to the fortress of an apocalyptic Messiah, Jean seeks to honour his vow.





Shores of Darkness by Diana Norman

For Martin Millet of the Dragoons it began on the turbulent summer day in 1706 when he returned from the French wars to find his Aunt Effie murdered and himself sole inheritor of her lodging house and her serving girl Bratchet, neither of which he wanted. For Daniel Defoe, political hack, failed merchant and debtor, it had begun a little earlier, on the equally inauspicious day when they put him in the pillory for seditious libel and he was accosted by an enormous orange-haired Highlander. The Scotsman is seeking a young kinswoman, Anne Bard, and offers Defoe money to help him find her. Then, surprisingly, a Minister of State does the same, for Anne Bard may be able to answer the question that is tearing the country apart. The ageing Queen Anne is childless, leaving the future king to be chosen between a Protestant Hanoverian and a Catholic Jacobite, neither of whom is popular. What, however, if there were a third choice: another true Stuart, but a Protestant? Defoe, the threat of Newgate hanging over him, can hardly refuse. And since Anne Bard's last known address was Aunt Effie's lodging house, Defoe employs two even more unlikely spies to help him: Millet and his troublesome legacy, the Bratchet. Followed by the mysterious Highlander, their search takes them to Flanders where the Duke of Marlborough is fighting the French, to the court of the Sun King Louis XIV himself, into piracy and finally, unwillingly, into the world of the darkest trade of all. Yet all the time, had they but known it, the answer lies at home, dangerously close to Queen Anne herself.


Once again I have set aside one book for another. I had started The French Executioner and was enjoying the tale, but then I collected Diana Norman's novel Shores of Darkness from the library, read the prologue and now I'm more than halfway through this book and unable to put it down.


What I Hope to Read Next

Blood Ties by C.C. Humphreys (The French Executioner #2)


Years have gone by since the events surrounding the death of Anne Boleyn. But her missing hand and all that it represents to the dark world of 16th-century Europe still draws the powerful to seek it out. Jean Rombaud - the French executioner of the first novel - has grown old, both in age and spirit. Wearied by the betrayal of a son and the scorn of a wife, he fights in the seemingly never-ending siege of Siena. Meanwhile, Gianni Rombaud has forsaken everything his ageing father stands for and now kills heathen for the Inquisition in Rome. Then he is summoned by Cardinal Carafa himself. His masters no longer merely want his dagger in the hearts of Jews, they want the hand of the dead queen...But only three people know where it is buried, and one of them is Gianni's father...


Gallipoli Street by Mary Anne O'Connor

An Anzac tale of three families whose destinies are entwined by war, tragedy and passion.
At 17, Veronica O’Shay is happier running wild on the family farm than behaving in the ladylike manner her mother requires, and she despairs both of her secret passion for her brother’s friend Jack Murphy and what promises to be a future of restraint and compliance. 
But this is 1913 and the genteel tranquillity of rural Beecroft is about to change forever as the O’Shay and Murphy families, along with their friends the Dwyers, are caught up in the theatre of war and their fates become intertwined.
From the horrors of Gallipoli to the bloody battles of the Somme, through love lost and found, the Great Depression and the desperate jungle war along the Kokoda Track, this sprawling family drama brings to life a time long past… a time of desperate love born in desperate times and acts of friendship against impossible odds.
A love letter to Australian landscape and character, Gallipoli Street celebrates both mateship and the enduring quality of real love. But more than that, this book shows us where we have come from as a nation, by revealing the adversity and passions that forged us.
A stunning novel that brings to life the love and courage that formed our Anzac tradition.

My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young

A letter, two lovers, a terrible lie. In war, truth is only the first casualty. 'Inspires the kind of devotion among its readers not seen since David Nicholls' One Day' The Times While Riley Purefoy and Peter Locke fight for their country, their survival and their sanity in the trenches of Flanders, Nadine Waveney, Julia Locke and Rose Locke do what they can at home. Beautiful, obsessive Julia and gentle, eccentric Peter are married: each day Julia goes through rituals to prepare for her beloved husband's return. Nadine and Riley, only eighteen when the war starts, and with problems of their own already, want above all to make promises - but how can they when the future is not in their hands? And Rose? Well, what did happen to the traditionally brought-up women who lost all hope of marriage, because all the young men were dead? Moving between Ypres, London and Paris, My Dear I Wanted to Tell You is a deeply affecting, moving and brilliant novel of love and war, and how they affect those left behind as well as those who fight.

Book Review: The Winter House by Nicci Gerrard

Marnie Still receives an unexpected telephone call from an old friend, Oliver Fenton, who she hasn’t heard from in years. A mutual friend, Ralph  Tinsley, is dying of cancer and has summoned Marnie to his home in Scotland. This must be a very special friendship because Marnie puts her London life on hold and heads north.

What ensues from the dash to Scotland is Marnie recounting the story of their meeting and subsequent friendship to Ralph, not knowing if he can hear her or make sense of what she's saying. The telling is made more poignant by the reader's access to Ralph's thoughts and memories, the ones he cannot voice because of his morphine-induced state.

From the first few chapters as Marnie prepares to leave for Scotland, it is evident there has been an estrangement between a  group of friends consisting of Marnie, Oliver, Ralph and Lucy. This happened one summer, over twenty years ago. It’s an entangled relationship the four share as they go from adolescence to adulthood.

I felt sorry for Ralph, but I didn't like him. He was selfish, unreliable and unpredictable, though there were glimpses of another Ralph under that volatile nature. At times Marnie resented his intrusion into her family life, but was always there for him in times of crises. Ralph, however, did redeem himself in my eyes once I'd finished the novel and reflected on the ending. What I thought was a final selfish demand of summoning Marnie to his bedside could be interpreted as Ralph's means of atonement, a way of re-uniting Marnie and Oliver.

Nicci Gerrard's descriptions of the remote cottage and the landscape were excellent. I loved the imagery of the wintry setting: the shortening of the days as Ralph’s life is getting shorter and the warmth of the cottage reflecting the feelings of the people cocooned within its walls.

Knowing early on that one of the main characters was going to die, I expected to be thoroughly depressed by the end of the book, but I wasn’t. I was prepared for a mass out pouring of grief and lots of sentimentality when Ralph finally dies, but this didn't eventuate. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised that despite the gloomy subject matter, I was left feeling happy and uplifted.

The Winter House moves gently in and out of the past to the inevitable outcome. It is a story of unrequited love, jealousy and betrayal. It explores how friendships form, what draws us to one another and how the ties of family and friends are never truly broken.

I don’t know what made me choose this novel. Nicci Gerrard doesn't write in the genre I usually read, but I’m glad I added this one to my reading pile.

Saturday Sleuthing: Some Great Historical Mystery Finds

What do Richard Nottingham and Tom Harper have in common? They both solve crime in Leeds, England: in the 18th and 19th centuries respectively. From Chris Nickson come two historical mystery series: The Richard Nottingham Mysteries and The Detective Inspector Tom Harper Mysteries.

The Broken Token (The Richard Nottingham Mysteries #1)

 Leeds, England, 1731.

When Richard Nottingham, Constable of Leeds, discovers his former housemaid murdered in a particularly sickening manner, his professional and personal lives move perilously close. Circumstances conspire against him, and more murders follow. Soon the city fathers cast doubt on his capability, and he is forced to seek help from an unsavory source. Not only does the murder investigation keep running into brick walls as family problems offer an unwelcome distraction; he can't even track down a thief who has been a thorn in his side for months. When answers start to emerge, Nottingham gets more than he bargains for.

The next in the series is Cold Cruel Winter, followed by The Constant Lovers (#3), Come the Fear (#4), At The Dying Year (#5) and Fair and Tender Ladies (#6)


The Detective Inspector Tom Harper Mysteries is a relatively new series by Chris Nickson consisting of two books so far. It was the second book in the series, Two Bronze Pennies, that caught my eye first.

Gods of Gold (The Detective Inspector Tom Harper Mysteries #1)

June 1890. Leeds is close to breaking point. The gas workers are on strike. Supplies are dangerously low. Factories and businesses are closing; the lamps are going unlit at night. Detective Inspector Tom Harper has more urgent matters on his mind. The beat constable claims eight-year-old Martha Parkinson has disappeared. Her father insists she's visiting an aunt in Halifax - but Harper doesn't believe him. When Col Parkinson is found dead the following morning, the case takes on an increasing desperation. But then Harper's search for Martha is interrupted by the murder of a replacement gas worker, stabbed to death outside the Town Hall while surrounded by a hostile mob. Pushed to find a quick solution, Harper discovers that there's more to this killing than meets the eye - and that there may be a connection to Martha's disappearance.


Two Bronze Pennies (The Detective Inspector Tom Harper Mysteries #2)

Leeds, England, Christmas Eve, 1890. DI Tom Harper is looking forward to a well-earned rest. But it's not to be. A young man has been found stabbed to death in the city s poverty-stricken Jewish district, his body carefully arranged in the shape of a cross, two bronze pennies covering his eyes. Could someone be pursuing a personal vendetta against the Jews?
Harper's investigations are hampered by the arrival of Capitaine Bertrand Muyrere of the French police, who has come to Leeds to look into the disappearance of the famous French inventor Louis Le Prince, vanished without trace after boarding a train to Paris.
With no one in the close-knit Jewish community talking to the police and with tensions rising, DI Harper realizes he'll have to resort to more unorthodox methods in order to unmask the killer.


These two series appeal to me because of their setting. Leeds is a city I remember from my childhood, though I don't know much of its history only that it was, like many towns in Yorkshire, famous for its woollen mills. So I'm hoping these novels have lots of historical detail, as well as being great mysteries.

Chris Nickson has a post on his blog entitled So Why Do I Write Historical Crime?  It's always interesting to know why an author has chosen to write in a particular genre. I found it very informative.