Category: Historical fiction
+ family, fiction, friendship, grief, Historical fiction, Italy, literature, loss, love, murder, review, suffragette movement
Murder Under The Tuscan Sun by Rachel Rhys
An isolated castle, a deadly crime. Is this real or a nightmare? In a remote castle high up in the Tuscan hills secrets are simmering among its glamorous English residents:The ailing gentleman art-dealerHis dazzling nieceHer handsome Fascist husbandTheir neglected young daughterThe housekeeper who knows everythingand Connie, the English widow working for them #MurderUnderTheTuscanSun #RachelRhys #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour Every night, Connie hears sinister noises and a terrible … Read More Murder Under The Tuscan Sun by Rachel Rhys
+ cosy mystery, crime fiction, fiction, Historical fiction, lies, magic, murder, murder mystery, mystery, psychiatrist, review, secrets, Thirties
Death and the Conjuror by Tom Mead
An enthralling locked-room murder mystery inspired by crime fiction of the Golden Age, Death and the Conjuror is the debut novel by acclaimed short-story writer Tom Mead. Selected as one of Publishers Weekly’s Mysteries of the Year 2022. 1936, London. A celebrity psychiatrist is discovered dead in his locked study. There seems to be no way a killer could have escaped unseen. There are … Read More Death and the Conjuror by Tom Mead
+ abuse, adventure, childhood, crime fiction, Detective novel, family, fiction, friendship, Ghost story, gothic horror, grief, Historical fiction, List, literature, London, loss, love, Magical realism, mental health, motherhood, murder, mystery, police drama, religion, revenge, review, secrets, short stories, short story, sisters, supernatural, thriller, twins
My Top 8 Books of 2022 Part Four
Here are my favourite eight books of the final quarter of 2022. One of these will make it into my top four books of 2022 (I just couldn’t cut it down to three this year). The Parlour Game by Jennifer Renshaw This is the book I have been waiting for! A gothic tale of sinister goings-on, mysterious disappearances, hauntings and macabre artefacts with special powers. … Read More My Top 8 Books of 2022 Part Four
+ family, feminism, fiction, girl's school, grief, Historical fiction, literature, London, loss, love, mental health, motherhood, music, psychiatrist, relationships, review, sisters, twins
The Crooked Little Pieces: Volume 2 by Sophia Lambton
Mind the gap between youth’s pedestal and looming adulthood. Two years have passed since Anneliese and Isabel braved the bombardment of the Blitz. Risks are resumed and revelations rattle as the past begins to rear its ugly head. Suffering sends Isabel on downward spirals; Anneliese falls victim to society’s expectations. Skeletons come tumbling from Susanna’s closet and for some the sex-and-death divide grows thinner. … Read More The Crooked Little Pieces: Volume 2 by Sophia Lambton
+ childhood, coming-of-age, family, feminism, fiction, girl's school, Historical fiction, literature, London, love, music, piano, relationships, review, sisters, twins, World War Two
The Crooked Little Pieces: Volume 1 by Sophia Lambton
Lost are the creatures destined never to be understood. 1926. Professor Josef van der Holt obtains a post at an all women’s college overseas. Stuffy London suddenly becomes the site for the unseemly exploits of his half-Dutch and half-German daughters Anneliese and Isabel. When tragedy carves out a hollow in their lives, an ailing soul sends the sororal twins along a jagged path: while … Read More The Crooked Little Pieces: Volume 1 by Sophia Lambton
+ brothers, crime fiction, Detective novel, family, fiction, friendship, haunting, Historical fiction, kidnapping, literature, London, love, murder, police corruption, prostitution, revenge, review, secrets, sisters
Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson
1926, and in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a delirious new nightlife. In the clubs of Soho, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time. The notorious queen of this glittering world is Nellie Coker, ruthless but also ambitious to advance her … Read More Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson
+ adventure, fiction, haunting, Historical fiction, love, review, Scotland, Scottish Highlands, supernatural, witchcraft
Outcast by Claire Voet
In 1945 Molly Hazleton is heartbroken when her fiancé doesn’t return from the war after being reported “missing in action.” So when Aunt Daphne comes to visit with news of having bought a 17th century manor house at auction in Scotland, Molly welcomes the opportunity to start afresh and help her aunt turn Aberdoch Manor into a hotel. With a strange sense of déjà vu, … Read More Outcast by Claire Voet
+ abuse, child abuse, childhood, coming-of-age, community, cult, family, feel-good, female friendship, fiction, friendship, germany, grief, Historical fiction, holocaust, jewish history, jews, lies, List, literature, loss, love, motherhood, murder, music, nazi germany, piano, rape, relationships, religion, review, secrets, sisterhood, suffragette movement, whimsical
My Top 8 Books of 2022 – Part Two
Here are my favourite eight books of the second quarter of 2022. You will notice that it doesn’t include any crime dramas, detective novels or serial killer thrillers. While I love those genres, they rarely bring something totally new to the table and my favourites tend to be feel-good, whimsical or magical realism. Or totally original or make me cry. There are a couple of … Read More My Top 8 Books of 2022 – Part Two
+ abuse, child abuse, childhood, fiction, Historical fiction, lies, Mallorca, mystery, narcissist, obsession, psychopath, rape, review, secrets, spanish civil war
The Silk Pavilion by Sarah Walton
Lucy’s on assignment. The wild reclusive writer awaits her arrival in his Mallorcan home. She wants the story of his life. He wants her to become part of it. Villa Rosa hides a dark secret. Beneath Deià’s sunny olive groves are the bodies of a generation. Spain’s unearthed shadow entwines with Lucy’s as her own skeletons start to rattle out of her closet. Will … Read More The Silk Pavilion by Sarah Walton
+ audio drama, Cat on a Piano, dark humour, fiction, Historical fiction, podcast, radio play, religion, revenge, review, short story, Theatrephonic, witchcraft
The Caulder’s Well Trial of 1648 by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic
There is a great evil abroad, but it’s not what you might think. A woman sits shackled in a cage waiting for the two witchfinders, March and Dale, to pronounce their verdict. But wait a minute. This woman appears to have done nothing but good. Easing pain and curing illness goes against the will of God, they tell the townsfolk. They are punishments for … Read More The Caulder’s Well Trial of 1648 by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic
+ family drama, fiction, germany, Historical fiction, holocaust, jewish history, jews, literature, nazi germany, racism, rape, review, Russia, Scottish Highlands, World War Two, WW2
The Turn Of The Tide (The Sturmtaucher Trilogy #3) by Alan Jones
The Turn of the Tide is the third book in the Sturmtaucher Trilogy: a powerful and compelling story of two families torn apart by evil. As Hitler’s greed turns eastwards to the fertile and oil rich Soviet heartlands, life for the Kästner and the Nussbaum families disintegrates and fragments as the Nazis tighten the noose on German and Polish Jews. Implementing Endlösung der Judenfrage, … Read More The Turn Of The Tide (The Sturmtaucher Trilogy #3) by Alan Jones
+ brothers, childhood, faeries, fairies, folklore, friendship, Historical fiction, Ireland, jewish history, jews, literature, love, Magical realism, mythology, religion, review, sisters, superstition, tradition
Tunnel Of Mirrors by Ferne Arfin
June 1907. Rachel Isaacson, a spirit child, is born into a large and rigidly orthodox Jewish family in the Lower East Side. Hungry for freedom, dominated by a tyrannical father and haunted by inexplicable visions and voices, Rachel’s quest for independence leads her into a marriage of convenience with tragic consequences. Across the Atlantic, Ciaran McMurrough, storyteller, fiddler and cliff climber, leads a life … Read More Tunnel Of Mirrors by Ferne Arfin
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