Historical Fiction
Review: You Have Killed Me by Rich & Jones
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Things just can’t get any worse for Antonio Mercer. A private eye by trade, a dame from his past has re-surfaced in his life as a client along with all of the emotional baggage he thought he’d left behind forever. Of course, this unusual client doesn’t have just any case – her family is mixed up with seriously dangerous people and the body count is just starting to pile up!
Review: Sock Monkey: The “Inches” Incident by Tony Millionaire
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Inches the doll was the cutest in the whole house. Loved by everyone, the world was Inches’ oyster. Then one day something happened… The Sock Monkey and Mr. Crow became concerned for their diminutive friend, but by then it was too late! The truth sent the terrified Sock Monkey and Crow fleeing for their lives! Inches had turned EVIL!
Review: Zeke and Ned by Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana
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Ezekiel Proctor and Ned Christie are the last Cherokee warriors, men of legend and history, whose fates are a consequence of such brutal policies as the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the infamous Trail of Tears. They struggle to find honor in a harsh, violent land under the relentless pressure of white law and broken promises. Every bit as tough as their men, the women in Zeke and Ned are determined to raise their families and keep the two men alive–whatever it takes.
Review: Year of the Hyenas by Brad Geagley
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Thebes is swirling with threats to the Pharaoh, Ramses III, and the city is awash in intrigue, ambition, greed, and crimes of passion. Against this backdrop Semerket, the so-called Clerk of Investigations and Secrets and a detective half-paralyzed by problems of his own, from heavy drinking to tactless behavior toward the great and powerful, is retained by the authorities to investigate the murder of an elderly, insignificant Theban priestess. They fail to inform him, however, that they don’t expect him to solve the case. In fact, they don’t want him to.
Review: The Xanadu Adventure by Lloyd Alexander
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“Miss Vesper Holly leads an active life. In the half-dozen years since my wife, Mary, and I, Professor Brinton Garrett, have been her guardians, I have seen her deal calmly and efficiently with erupting volcanoes, floods, earthquakes, exploding sausages, and other stressful events. The dear girl likes to keep busy.”
Lloyd Alexander’s beloved Indiana Jones-style heroine, Vesper Holly, is back for one last adventure. Delving into the mystery of the origins of Western civilization, Vesper and her friends set out for the site of the legendary Troy, only to fall into a trap laid by the despicable Dr. Helvitius.
Guest Review: The Wandering Arm by Sharan Newman
Part of the A-Zed Historical Fiction Review projectW is for Wandering Arm, The
Guest review by Jessica Cornish.
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From Publishers Weekly In 12th-century France, religion suffuses society. Relics, attributed with great power, are (almost) universally venerated and trade in religious objects is a lucrative, often dangerous business.
After losing their first child at birth, ex-novice Catherine Le Vendeur and her English husband, Edgar are drawn into this perilous world when Edgar agrees to pose as a masterless craftsman and infiltrate the group suspected of refashioning stolen religious goods.
Also at stake is the future of Catherine’s relatives, Jews living near the Abbey of St. Denis on sufferance of King Louis VII. Natan ben Judah, whose unsavory reputation may endanger his people, has been murdered; and the relic of the arm of Saint Aldhelm of England, which figures in the dynastic struggles between England’s King Stephen and his cousin Matilda, widow of the Holy Roman Emperor, has disappeared.
Guest Review: Vagabond by Bernard Cornwell
Part of the A-Zed Historical Fiction Review projectV is for Vagabond
Guest review by John W. Oliver, Writer.
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Vagabond is a follow-up to Harlequin (The Archer’s Tale in the U.S.) – and starts almost as soon as the earlier book ends, carrying on Thomas of Hookton’s story. He has been sent back to England to pursue his father’s mysterious legacy which hints that the Holy Grail might exist and gets tangled with the Scottish invasion of 1347. He survives that only to discover that various powerful folk in France are pursuing the same quest, a complication that takes Thomas back to Brittany and the brutal fighting about La Roche-Derrien.
Review: Under Vesuvius by John Maddox Roberts
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Things are going well for Decius Caecilius Metellus. He is Praetor Peregrinus, which means he has to judge a case or two, but those cases are outside of the City. His cases will be those dealing with foreigners, and all of Italy is his province. His first stop is Campania, ‘Italy’s most popular resort district’. Decius and his wife, Julia, are happy for a change of scenery. But the good times end when, in a town near Vesuvius, a priest’s daughter is murdered. Decius must find her killer and keep the mob off a young boy who everyone blames but he believes to be innocent. Decius may have acquired more prestige, but he’s also acquired more trouble.
Guest Review: The Terror by Dan Simmons
Part of the A-Zed Historical Fiction Review projectT is for Terror, The
Guest review by John W. Oliver, Writer.
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The men on board HMS Terror have every expectation of finding the Northwest Passage. When the expedition’s leader, Sir John Franklin, meets a terrible death, Captain Francis Crozier takes command and leads his surviving crewmen on a last, desperate attempt to flee south across the ice. But as another winter approaches, as scurvy and starvation grow more terrible, and as the Terror on the ice stalks them southward, Crozier and his men begin to fear there is no escape. A haunting, gripping story based on actual historical events, The Terror will chill you to your core.
Review: Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
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In the shade of a banyan tree, a grizzled ferryman sits listening to the river. Some say he’s a sage. He was once a wandering shramana &, briefly, like thousands of others, he followed Gotama the Buddha, enraptured by his sermons. But this man, Siddhartha, was not a follower of any but his own soul.
Born son of a Brahmin, Siddhartha was blessed in appearance, intelligence & charisma. In order to find meaning in life, he discarded his promising future for the life of a wandering ascetic. Still, true happiness evaded him. Then a life of pleasure & titillation merely eroded away his spiritual gains until he was just like all the other “child people,” dragged around by his desires.

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