Historical Fiction – Page 45

The Story Keeper by Anna Mazzola

Published on August 27, 2018August 27, 2018 by Margaret2 Comments

The Story Keeper

The Story Keeper is historical fiction set on the Isle of Skye in 1857 where Audrey Hart has been employed by Miss Buchanan to collect the folklore and fairy tales of the local community. The Highland Clearances have left their mark on the crofters leaving them suspicious and fearful, unwilling to talk to Audrey as both the clergy and schoolmasters have condemned their practice of the old traditions – the stories are being lost.

The novel stresses the importance of folk tales – stories that have been told to make sense of the world and reflect people’s strengths, flaws, hopes and fears. Such stories are interspersed throughout the book. When one by one young girls go missing from their homes the locals believe they have been taken by the spirits of the unforgiven dead. For these are not tales of good fairies, but of malign spirits that torment the girls they have stolen, sometimes returning them, ‘sorely changed’.

This is a novel full of family secrets and unfulfilled desires. There is a mystery about Audrey, her background and why she wanted to come to Skye. At first she believes there is a rational explanation to the girls’ disappearance but gradually she comes to fear that there may be something more supernatural behind it – linked maybe to the mystery of her mother’s disappearance years earlier on Skye.

It is beautifully written with vivid descriptions of the island, the flocks of black birds that whirl above the house that stands like an enchanted castle or a fortress on the coast. From a slow start the pace of the book rises to a crescendo in a dramatic and horrific ending combining the supernatural with reality, and tales of cruel fairies with the brutality of human beings. I loved the setting, the characterisation and the mix of history with folklore and fairy stories.

Thank you to the publisher, Tinder Press for my copy of this book for review.

My Friday Post: The House Between Tides by Sarah Maine

Published on August 24, 2018 by Margaret6 Comments

Every Friday Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader where you can share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.

The book I’m featuring this week is The House Between Tides by Sarah Maine, a book I’m planning to read soon. It’s the story of a crumbling estate in the wilds of Scotland, set in 1910 and 2010.

The House Between Tides

It begins:

2010

The first bone he had dismissed as dead sheep. There’d been others – ribs decaying amidst rabbit droppings and debris from the collapsing ceilings, or bleached vertebrae. But the next one was a long bone, and he held it, considering a moment, then rocked back on his heels.

This was no sheep.

Also every Friday there is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice.

30879-friday2b56 These are the rules:

Grab a book, any book.
Turn to page 56, or 56% on your eReader.
Find any sentence (or a few, just don’t spoil it) that grabs you.
Post it.
Add the URL to your post in the link on Freda’s most recent Friday 56 post.

Page 56:

And she had been drawn to a painting which hung in a corner, away from the others, a painting she now recognised as the view from the foreshore in front of the house. It showed two ill-defined figures walking across the strand, through contrasting patches of light, shadow and mist, walking in parallel, slightly apart from each other, and somehow clearly a man and a woman. But were they coming together or drifting apart?

Description (Amazon)

Following the death of her last living relative, Hetty Deveraux leaves London and her strained relationship behind for Muirlan, her ancestral home in Scotland – now in ruins. As Hetty dives headfirst into the repairs, she discovers a shocking secret protected by the house for a hundred years.

With only whispered rumours circulating among the local villagers and a handful of leads to guide her, Hetty finds the power of the past is still affecting her present in startling ways.

~~~

Sarah Maine is a new-to-me author, so I’m not sure what to expect, but The House Between Tides is described by Kirkus Reviews as ‘ A compelling debut which deftly blends classic suspense with modern themes.’ The reviewer in the Independent is quoted on the front cover – ‘An echo of Daphne du Maurier‘, so I’m hoping I’ll like it.

What about you? Does it tempt you or would you stop reading?

By Sword and Storm by Margaret Skea

Published on August 20, 2018August 20, 2018 by Margaret2 Comments

By Sword and Storm (The Munro Scottish Saga Book 3)

Two of the best historical fiction books I’ve read in recent years are Margaret Skea’s Munro Scottish Sagas, Turn of the Tide, and A House Divided, both of which transported me back in time to 16th century Scotland and France, specifically to the world of the feuding clans of Cunninghame and Montgomerie.

By Sword and Storm is the third book in the Munro Saga. It stands well on its own but I recommend reading the earlier books to get the whole picture of what happened in the years before. It is now 1598 and the Munro family, Adam, his wife, Kate, and children, Robbie, Maggie and Ellie are living in France. Adam and Robbie are in the Scots Gardes, serving Henri IV of France: Adam is a colonel and Robbie is a sergeant. The Scots Gardes were an elite Scottish regiment whose duties included the provision of a personal bodyguard to the French King.

The story is well grounded in research and based on historical facts, seamlessly interweaving fact and fiction. It is complex novel with several plot lines, locations and characters, some based on real historical figures and others fictitious, such as the Munro family. There’s a useful list of the main characters and a map at the start of the book and a glossary and historical note at the end.

As the story begins the French Wars of Religion are drawing to an end and the Edict of Nantes has established religious freedom, placating the Catholics whilst making concessions to the Huguenots – but not in Paris or at the French court, where Protestants are still banned from openly practising their religion. When Adam saves Henri’s life as a shot is fired from the crowd, he and his family are summoned to live at the French court, despite their religious beliefs. Life in Paris holds many dangers for the Munros, especially for Robbie when he falls in love with a girl from a Huguenot family.

Back in Scotland some members of the Cunninghame and Montgomerie factions are still feuding, notably Hugh Montgomerie, the Laird of Braidstane and William, the son of the head of the Cunninghame clan, whilst other clan members try to maintain the peace. James VI has banned duelling but that doesn’t deter Hugh and William. Meanwhile, Hugh’s wife, Elizabeth, pregnant and left on her own in the depths of winter with only her children and a servant for company, faces her own dangers.

There is so much to enjoy in this book – first of all the story itself, expertly narrated, full of tension and surprise, and also the characters. But I also loved the personal touches, revealing what life was like in the 16th century, how both ordinary people and royalty lived, and the dangers that faced them in their daily lives, particularly for women in childbirth and sickness and for those who dissented from the established religion.

I loved all the details about the French court, in particular about Henri’s mistress and the relationship between her and Kate. As in the earlier books Margaret Skea writes such beautifully descriptive passages, bringing to life the details of the French court and of the landscape in both Scotland and France as well as the dangers of travelling by sea.

This is ostensibly the end of the Munro saga – but Margaret Skea has revealed on her blog that she is hoping to revisit the Munro story at a later date. I hope she does, but if not this is an excellent end to the series.

Format: Kindle Edition – also available in paperback
File Size: 1339 KB
Publisher: Corazon Books (Historical/Saga) (11 July 2018)
Source: Advance copy from the publisher
My rating 4*

Six Degrees of Separation from Atonement to Out of Bounds

Published on August 4, 2018August 4, 2018 by Margaret27 Comments

I love doing Six Degrees of Separation, a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. Each month a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the one next to it in the chain.

Atonement

This month the chain begins with Atonement by Ian McEwan, a book I’ve read and loved! This is a love story and also a mystery. It revolves around the lives of two sisters, Briony and her older sister, Cecelia. It has vividly-drawn characters and harrowing descriptions of war with reflections on the process of writing and the interpretation of novels.

Kew Gardens The Gardens of the Dead The Black Friar (Damian Seeker, #2) He Who Whispers (Dr. Gideon Fell, #16) Cauldstane Out of Bounds (Inspector Karen Pirie, #4)

Briony is an admirer of Virginia Woolf and stream-of-consciousness writing and that brings me to the first link in the chain – Virginia Woolf’s short story Kew Gardens with its descriptions of people in the Gardens on a sunny day as they pass by a flowerbed.

My second link is to a book also with the word ‘gardens‘ in the title – The Gardens of the Dead by William Brodrick, featuring Father Anselm, a barrister turned monk. Another book, also crime fiction, that features a monk is –

The Black Friar by S G MacLean, set in the 17th century, in which the body of a man dressed as a Dominican friar, is found bricked up in a wall in Blackfriars, once a monastery. He was actually an undercover agent going under the name of ‘Gideon Fell’.

In He Who Whispers by John Dickson Carr, one of his series of locked room mysteries/impossible crimes, Dr Gideon Fell is an amateur sleuth. A body is found lying on the parapet of a tower, once part of a chateau since burnt down.

My next link takes me to another book featuring a tower – Cauldstane by Linda Gillard, a ghost story, set in a Scottish tower house in the Highlands owned by Sholto MacNab, a retired adventurer. It’s also a story of loss and revenge, of good versus evil and the power of love. Meredith, Sholto’s second wife, was killed in a car crash.

There is also a car crash in my final link, another crime fiction novel, Out of Bounds by Val McDermid, the 4th Inspector Karen Pirie novel, in which a teenage joyrider crashes a stolen car and ends up in a coma. A routine DNA test reveals a connection to an unsolved murder from twenty-two years before.

~~~

My chain is made up of a mixture of books that I’ve read or are on my TBR shelves and a mix of short stories, historical fiction and mostly crime fiction. Beginning with a book set in the 1930s and 40s the chain moves through the centuries from the 17th century to the present day linked by the titles, monks, names of the characters, towers and car crashes.

Next month (1 September, 2018), we’ll begin with Where Am I Now? by Mara Wilson.

The Tudor Crown by Joanna Hickson

Published on July 23, 2018 by Margaret6 Comments

The early life of Henry VII

Description:

When Edward of York takes back the English crown, the Wars of the Roses scatter the Lancastrian nobility and young Henry Tudor, with a strong claim to the throne, is forced into exile.

Recently widowed and vulnerable, his mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, forges an uncomfortable alliance with Edward’s queen, Elizabeth Woodville. Swearing an oath of allegiance to York, Margaret agrees to marry the king’s shrewdest courtier, Lord Stanley. But can she tread the precarious line between duty to her husband, loyalty to her son, and her obligation to God and the king?

When tragedy befalls Edward’s reign, Richard of York’s ruthless actions fire the ambition of mother and son. As their destinies converge each of them will be exposed to betrayal and treachery and in their gruelling bid for the Tudor crown, both must be prepared to pay the ultimate price…

Little is known about Henry Tudor’s early life and this novel covers the time he spent in exile when he was fourteen years old up to the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 when he was twenty eight. The son of Edmund Tudor and Margaret Beaufort, Henry was born in Pembroke Castle in Wales. As a Lancastrian claimant to the throne, Henry’s life was in danger and so, together with his uncle, Jasper Tudor, he fled the country after Henry VI was killed in 1471 and Edward IV took the throne. They were aiming to seek refuge in France, but storms drove them to land in Brittany (I hadn’t known that Brittany was not part of France at that time). Where they spent the next fourteen years.

If I knew little about Henry VII, I knew even less about his mother Margaret Beaufort. She was only thirteen when Henry was born and saw little of him during his early life in Wales and subsequent exile in Brittany. The Tudor Crown is told from both her perspective and that of Henry’s, including letters between them telling of their plans for Henry’s return to England.

The funny thing about historical fiction, to my mind, is that although I know the outcome of events as I read I found that I was willing Henry on and wondering how he would be successful. Joanna Hickson has brought the period to life, capturing the danger and frustration and hopes for the future that both Henry and Margaret experienced. I could visualise the scenes, particularly the storm at sea and the perilous landing on the shores of Brittany, Henry’s fictional love affair with Catherine de Belleville and the account of the Battle of Bosworth. She has filled the story with characters that have their own personalities. In particular I grew to like and admire Margaret Beaufort. She comes across as an intelligent and compassionate woman, loyal to her son, always ready to help him financially and ambitious for his future.

I think this is a good mix of fact and fiction – in her Author’s Note Joanna Hickson explains that ‘with the odd exception’ the people Henry met and the places he went to existed but their characters and descriptions are from her imagination. She say she ‘has never doubted that Richard was responsible for the deaths of the Princes in the Tower’ in contrast to other accounts that I’ve read, particularly Sharon Penman’s The Sunne in Splendour in which she portrays a very likeable Richard and a different solution to what happened to the Princes.

I really enjoyed reading this book, and as in all good historical fiction Joanna Hickson has included details of the sources she has used in her research for The Tudor Crown. Now, I’m hoping she will write more books about Henry’s life after he became King.

Many thanks to Harper Collins and NetGalley for a review copy.

Amazon UK link

Ruined Stones by Eric Reed

Published on July 20, 2018 by Margaret8 Comments

Ruined Stones combines two of my favourite genes – crime fiction and historical fiction. It’s set in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1941 during the Second World War, where Grace Baxter, who has recently moved from Shropshire, is working in the Women’s Auxiliary Police force in a small sub-station. As the young policemen have joined up, the police are recruiting women but their duties are restricted and they can’t make arrests.

The body of a young unidentified woman is found in the ruins of a Roman temple not far from the police station. Grace is assigned to interviewing the neighbours but no one admits to seeing or hearing anything suspicious during the night due to the blackout and the fog. The police initially think it could have been an accident or suicide, but why are the victim’s legs and arms arranged into the ancient symbol of the reverse of the Nazi swastika?

Grace comes from a line of ‘wise women’ and is sensitive to the remains of the Roman temple, sensing something unthinkably old and powerful in the pagan ruin. Then another body is found, implicating Mavis, Grace’s landlady, although there are number of other suspects as well. Mavis, is viewed with suspicion by her neighbours because of her friendship with a Dutch refugee, Hans, who some believe to be a German. When the murdered man is identified as Mavis’ husband, Grace finds her life in great danger as she investigates the mystery and finally discovers the culprit.

I enjoyed this mystery, with its convincing characters, set against the backdrop of the war, as the Germans repeatedly bomb Newcastle and the inhabitants seek shelter in the crypt of the local church, which takes a direct hit. It provides an interesting look at life during the war, complete with black marketeers and criminals taking advantage of the blackout, and the prejudice and fear shown to foreigners and strangers. I was also interested to see the attitudes to women and their work for the police during the war and the hostility towards them from the public and from police officers. And I also enjoyed the hint of the supernatural through Grace’s own background.

This is the second book featuring Grace Baxter – the first is The Guardian Stones, set in the remote Shropshire village of Noddweir, where Grace’s father was the village constable until he joined the armed forces at the start of the war.

‘Eric Reed’ is the pen name of husband and wife, Mary Reed and Eric Meyer. Mary spent her early life in Newcastle and the setting in this city is depicted as it was in 1941, apart from two imaginary streets. The temple ruins, dedicated to the local god Antenociticus, still exist – you can see a photo and information about it on the English Heritage site. There is a glossary of Geordie dialect words and phrases included in the novel at the end of the book.

Many thanks to the authors and Poisoned Pen Press for a review copy.

Amazon UK link
Amazon US link