Tag: Historical fiction

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Trial of Lotta Rae by Siobhan MacGowan

Set in suffragette London. Lotta Rae is a working-class 15-year-old, raped by a wealthy gentleman, who makes the brave decision to testify in court. William Lindon is a barrister about to lose everything. Both have decisions to make that will change the course of their lives and the lives of everyone around them for generations to come. Atmospheric historical novel set in 20th-century Suffragette … Read More The Trial of Lotta Rae by Siobhan MacGowan

Hands of Gold by Roni Robbins

Will Sam purge his guilty conscience before it’s too late? Will he atone for his offences and find solace in the final countdown? Sam Fox spent his whole life running against the hands of time. He is now racing to set the record straight about secrets he and Hannah, his wife of 65 years, have been harbouring from their children and each other. #HandsofGold … Read More Hands of Gold by Roni Robbins

The Key in the Lock by Beth Underdown

I still dream, every night, of Polneath on fire. Smoke unfurling out of an upper window and a hectic orange light cascading across the terrace. By day, Ivy Boscawen mourns the loss of her son Tim in the Great War. But by night she mourns another boy – one whose death decades ago haunts her still. For Ivy is sure that there is more … Read More The Key in the Lock by Beth Underdown

My Top 8 Books of 2021 – part four

Here are my favourite eight books of the fourth quarter of 2021. So far this has been a good year for books if for nothing else, so it was a really difficult decision. Please note that there may be books amongst the list that are not published until 2022, but these are books I have read this year and may be ARCs. The Flight of … Read More My Top 8 Books of 2021 – part four

The Last Checkmate by Gabriella Saab

Readers of Heather Morris’s The Tattooist of Auschwitz and watchers of The Queen’s Gambit won’t want to miss this amazing debut set during World War II. A young Polish resistance worker, imprisoned in Auschwitz as a political prisoner, plays chess in exchange for her life, and in doing so fights to bring the man who destroyed her family to justice. Maria Florkowska is many … Read More The Last Checkmate by Gabriella Saab