Life at Hopgood Hall is never boring, but Alexi Ellis hopes that there will be no more murders for the time being – she’s solved four already and is getting a reputation in the local area for being bad luck.
So when local gossip Polly Pearson arrives at Hopgood hall, Alexi knows this can only mean bad news. Polly has made it clear that she dislikes Alexi, and has campaigned for her to leave Hopgood Hall forever – so what could Polly want?
Then Polly reveals that her partner, Gerry has been found murdered in her B&B and that she is the main suspect! Alexi, her partner Jack and Cosmo the cat are all left speechless. More so when Polly begs Alexi for help improving her innocence.
But Alexi isn’t sure she wants to help this spiteful gossip. Is she really innocent or as deadly as the police believe her to be?
A Deadly Affair is the latest book in the Hopgood Hall Murder Mystery series. I’ve read them all.
By now, we know our main characters, Jack and Alexi, well. However, they are still asking questions about their relationship, and I’m afraid this aspect of the series is my least favourite. Luckily, Cosmo comes to the rescue more often than not.
The mystery itself is complex and well-plotted as our sleuths try to understand why Gerry has been murdered. It quickly transpires that all is not as simple as it first appears. Lambourn is filled with dodgy individuals, any of whom could have been the ones involved.
The resolution of the mystery unfolds quickly. I always say I judge a mystery by whether or not I guessed ‘who did it,’ and I did not see this one coming.
These mysteries often have quite a dark underbelly to them (a nod to the author’s other genre, I’m sure), and this one, similar to book 1, fits that bill. It is not quite as cosy as I prefer (because I’m a big wuss), but that doesn’t detract from the fine plotting and masterful way the mystery has been plotted by the author. I take my hat off to EV Hunter for that:)
I have read book 4, A Story to Strangle For, but I’ve failed to review on the blog.
Meet the author
Evie Hunter has written a great many successful regency romances as Wendy Soliman and is now redirecting her talents to produce dark gritty thrillers for Boldwood. For the past twenty years she has lived the life of a nomad, roaming the world on interesting forms of transport, but has now settled back in the UK.
I’m delighted to welcome A.M.Swink and her new book, Venator from the Roman Equestrian Series, to the blog with an excerpt.
Excerpt
Excerpt 5:
‘There we are.’ Julianus Titianus pushed Livius away as soon as he’d poured the wine. He lifted his glass at Decimus. ‘Your health, Centurion.’
Decimus begrudgingly sipped his drink. With a grunt, he leant forward and slammed his beaker back on the tribune’s marble table. ‘What do you want, Titianus?’
‘My, my! So very direct!’ The tribune chuckled, narrowing his beady eyes at the centurion over the rim of his glass. ‘Not even a word of thanks for your gracious host?’
‘I’m not fond of lies. They tend to stick in my throat.’ Decimus scowled.
He glanced around uncomfortably at his surroundings. Though as primus pilus he’d spent long hours in the war room discussing campaign strategies with the legate, Decimus had never felt entirely at ease within the ornate praetorium. The high, vaulted ceilings, painted walls, and mosaic floors seemed far too excessive for his tastes. Did all men of such high rank have to make their homes in opulent palaces?
He shuddered. Perhaps he wasn’t cut out for belonging to the equestrian class.
Across the table, Titianus sat before a mural depicting Pluto leading Proserpina into Hades; the mouth of the cave to the underworld loomed directly behind the tribune’s head. ‘Words were never your strong suit, were they, Maximus?’ Titianus smirked. ‘You’ve always been a man of action.’
‘Get to your point!’ Decimus barked, sitting on the edge of his chair.
‘So impatient!’ Titianus reclined against the back of his seat and tutted softly. ‘I do hope you aren’t considering the mercantile trade when you leave the army, old boy. You’re a pretty poor negotiator.’
‘Luckily enough, Tribune, I have no plans of the sort.’
‘Oh, really?’ Titianus coolly pulled out a tool to begin picking at imagined flecks of dirt beneath his spotless fingernails. ‘I thought I’d been reliably informed you plan to spend your retirement in the capital.’
Decimus shifted in his seat uncomfortably. ‘And why is it any of your concern?’
‘Just wondering if our paths shall cross again.’ Titianus smirked. ‘I’ll be heading back to pursue a quaestorship come spring. And my promotion is assured. I don’t have to bother telling you who my connections are. Let’s just say that I would be quite the valuable ally or quite the powerful enemy.’
‘Your connections are too rich for my blood; I think I’ll remain neutral.’
‘I hardly think you can value neutrality when it comes to me, Centurion.’
Decimus impatiently drummed his fingers on the table. ‘You know nothing about the business that interests me,’ he said at last.
‘Hmm…’ Titianus pretended to mull over Decimus’s words. ‘I don’t know about that. I do know that if you want to breed nags for the imperial army, you’re going to need a contract. One taken out with the palace.’
Decimus abruptly stopped drumming his fingers. He eyed the tribune suspiciously. ‘And?’
‘Well, I’m hardly one to brag, but…I do have friends in high places.’ Titianus shrugged. ‘Ones that have the ability to push for or against the success of such a petition.’
Decimus felt a cool chill from the smile Titianus gave him. He forced himself to bark out a laugh. ‘You’re bluffing.’
Titianus picked up his beaker and idly swirled its contents. ‘Find out at your peril, Centurion.’
‘I value my time, Tribune. And you are wasting it.’ Decimus pushed his chair back and stood.
‘Hold on!’ A note of alarm entered Titianus’s voice. He lifted a hand in protest. ‘Aren’t you curious as to what I’ve got to say?’
‘No.’ Decimus picked his helmet off the table and turned to leave. ‘I’ve played in this little farce for long enough!’
‘It concerns the princess.’
Decimus froze. His tongue darted out to wet his dry lips. ‘What about her?’
Titianus gestured to the vacant seat. He smiled as the centurion reluctantly sat back down. ‘Good, good. Now, let’s discuss this properly.’ He linked his fingers together on the tabletop, twiddling his soft, doughy thumbs. ‘I understand from our quartermaster that you purchased the princess from the legion two months ago for the sum of five hundred denarii. Is that correct?’
Decimus curtly nodded.
Titianus met the centurion’s gaze. He paused for a long moment, leaning over the table. ‘I’ll give you a thousand denarii for her.’
‘I’m sorry, Tribune.’ Decimus quickly stood again. ‘My slave is not for sale.’
‘Twelve hundred denarii!’
‘Not for that price. Not for any price.’ He clapped his helmet back on his head and began making his way towards the door.
Titianus stood and followed him down the hall. ‘Fifteen hundred denarii!’
‘At any price, Tribune!’ Decimus called warningly, refusing to break stride.
‘All right, all right!’ Titianus grabbed at the centurion’s shoulder. Decimus halted and whirled around to face him with a snarl. The tribune backed away, holding his hands up defensively. ‘Eighteen hundred denarii for one night. Just one night with her. Otherwise, she’s yours. Eighteen hundred denarii. One night. My final offer.’
Decimus’s face darkened. He loomed over the cowering tribune and grabbed hold of his neckerchief. ‘Do I look like a pimp to you?’
‘I…I just…’ Titianus choked.
‘Do I look like a pimp to you?!’ Decimus shook Titianus, lifting him onto his toes. With a contemptuous grunt, he tossed him onto the tiled floor. The man skidded roughly against the tesserae before slowing to a halt before his gilded lararium.
‘Stay away from my property, Tribune. Consider this your final warning.’ Decimus turned and stalked out the door.
Livius materialised in the hall and hastened to his master’s side.
‘Get off!’ Titianus kicked at Livius when the slave stooped to help him up. He panted, lifting his head to watch the centurion march away towards the barracks. Hate glistened in his beady dark eyes.
Blurb
Britannia, AD 59. Decimus is a long-serving senior centurion who dreams of retirement in Rome. Luciana is a Cornovii princess devoted to the freedom and survival of her tribe. Connected only by a passion for horsemanship, the pair could not be more ill-matched. After a deadly conflict thrusts these enemies together, each is determined to fight their desires and triumph over the other. Who will ultimately control the other’s heart?
But Decimus and Luciana are not the only ones on the hunt for supremacy; a desperate struggle over the province is beginning to simmer to a boil. There are whispers of mysterious Druids fomenting unrest among the western British tribes, whose inter-tribal divisions threaten to subsume them. The future of the Roman legions in the province is suddenly thrown into doubt as casualties begin to mount. Decimus and Luciana find themselves entangled within a web of characters, Briton and Roman, playing with Britannia’s destiny to serve their own ends.
The hunt for power is on, where only one side can emerge triumphant. But just who among these hunters will end up hunted?
A native of Dayton, Ohio, A.M. Swink grew up obsessed with two things: books and horses. After a childhood of reading, writing, showing, and riding, she moved to Lexington, Kentucky to complete a degree in equine science and management and a degree in English literary studies. She now works in Lexington as a college professor of reading and writing. In her spare time, she has travelled extensively around the UK and Ireland, exploring ancient sites and artefacts, as well as tracing her own ancestry. She is proud to be descended from County Cork’s Callaghan clan.
When not writing, she can be found collecting and showing model horses or enjoying her favourite British comedy programmes.
I’m delighted to share an excerpt from Legacy of the Ruins
The heroine, Freydis, aged 10, is being sent away to live with relatives against her will and her mother doesn’t seem to care about her wishes:-
Freydis jumped over the gunwale easily and sat down on her chest of belongings, which must have been loaded earlier. She knew it was hers because it had her name carved in runes on the lid. Reading and writing was a skill her late father had taught her, and she was proud of her proficiency. She also knew how to count and haggle for goods to best advantage. Perhaps one day this would come in useful. She lifted a hand to wave at her mother, schooling her features into an expression of calm acceptance, directly at odds with how she was feeling. ‘Farewell, Mother.’ Dagrun nodded. ‘May the gods go with you.’ Then she turned and walked up the path without waiting for the ship to cast off. Freydis swallowed hard several times, but turned her head away so that no one would see. It hurt that her mother could dismiss her so easily, but they had never been close. Dagrun had despaired of her unwillingness to learn female tasks, and had often bemoaned the fact that she was allowed to run wild. It was something her parents had never seen eye to eye on, but now it was a moot point. Her hands were shaking and she buried them in the folds of the smokkr her mother had forced her to wear. Underneath, she had on the tunic and trousers she was usually dressed in, which were more practical. As soon as the ship had moved out of sight of the settlement, she pulled the overdress off. She glanced defiantly at Joalf as she began to fold it, then stood up to place it in her kist. ‘You have something against women’s garments?’ the big man asked mildly, one eyebrow quirking up. He looked amused rather than annoyed. ‘Yes. My father raised me to be a fighter, not a girl. I cannot do that in skirts.’ Joalf nodded. ‘Fair enough.’ With those two words, Freydis knew she had found a friend. Perhaps life with her mother’s cousin would not be so bad after all. She would bide her time until she could return. Hopefully that would not be too long.
Here’s the blurb
A bond that even time cannot break
Storm Berger has never forgiven himself for his younger sister Madison’s disappearance. Suspecting she’s travelled back to the ninth century in the footsteps of other family members, Storm can only make sure she’s safe by going after her.
Raised unconventionally as her father’s only child, Freydis has never been content to simply accept her fate. So, when she’s promised in marriage to a tyrant, she’s determined to find a way out of the arrangement. Help comes in the form of a mysterious and attractive stranger stranded on her island’s shores: Storm.
The only way Freydis can truly be free is for Storm to marry her himself. But that would mean entwining lives that, until now, have been separated by centuries. . .
Christina Courtenay writes historical romance, time slip/dual time and time travel stories, and lives in Herefordshire (near the Welsh border) in the UK. Although born in England, she has a Swedish mother and was brought up in Sweden – hence her abiding interest in the Vikings. Christina is a Vice President and former Chair of the UK’s Romantic Novelists’ Association and has won several awards, including the RoNA for Best Historical Romantic Novel twice with Highland Storms (2012) and The Gilded Fan (2014) and the RNA Fantasy Romantic Novel of the year 2021 with Echoes of the Runes. LEGACY OF THE RUNES (time travel historical romance published by Headline Review 15th August 2024) is her latest novel. Christina is a keen amateur genealogist and loves history and archaeology (the armchair variety).
I’m delighted to welcome Heidi Eljarbo and her new book, Whispers in the Snow, Heartwarming Christmas Series, to the blog. Here’s the Blurb Of course,…
I’m delighted to share my review for Mrs Hudson and the Spirits’ Curse by Martin Davies, an intriguing Holmes-esque mystery #bookreview #mystery #HistoricalFiction
I’m delighted to share my review for Adam Lofthouse’s Wolf and The Crown, which is released today #historicalfiction #bookreview #RomanEra #WallOfHadrian
I’m delighted to welcome Katerina Dunne and her new book, Return to the Eyrie from the Medieval Hungary series to the blog with The Siege of Szabács (1476).
The Siege of Szabács (1476)
During his long reign (1458-1490), King Mátyás of Hungary faced the Ottoman army many times. Although the King kept a rather defensive stance against Sultan Mehmed’s advances towards Central Europe, he did his best to ensure the border raids perpetrated by the Ottomans remained localised. Mátyás focused on expanding his kingdom to the west and north; but when circumstances demanded it, he fought the Ottomans successfully.
Several chapters of Return to the Eyrie are dedicated to the siege of Szabács (Jan-Feb 1476) It is where the young heroine, Margit, receives her baptism of fire as a soldier. Dressed in a man’s clothes, she puts her archery and fighting skills to the test.
The fortress of Szabács (Šabac in Serbian) was a stronghold on the southern bank of the river Sava. It was built in 1470 by the Ottomans, who had occupied the area since 1459 and used the fortress as a base to launch raids into the territories of the Kingdom of Hungary (mainly Croatia, Slavonia and the Hungarian-occupied area around Belgrade)
According to sources of the time, the fortress was constructed of wood and rammed earth and was surrounded by marshes as well as man-made ditches. This whole arrangement was quite effective against bombardment.
The remains of the Šabac / Szabács fortress photo by Ванилица from Wikipedia
After fighting against his Christian neighbours for many years, King Mátyás wished to pacify public opinion in Hungary and abroad and present himself as a “defender of the faith”. During 1475, he had already established a huge army of Hungarian, Transylvanian, Wallachian and mercenary forces, including artillery and siege equipment as well as river galleys and gunboats.
It is not exactly certain whether his plan at the time was to go to the aid of the Moldavian and Wallachian princes, whose territories were threatened by an Ottoman invasion, or capture the main Ottoman fortresses in Serbia in order to stop the enemy attacks against his own kingdom. In any case, he ended up besieging Szabács in January and February 1476 from land and river with a force that severely outnumbered the Ottoman defenders and discouraged any relief army to approach the fortress.
The earthen walls of Szabács withstood the long-range bombardment during the first part of the siege while the Ottoman arrows and firearms prevented any assault from the land. But when the waters in the ditches rose in the first days of February, the war galleys were able to approach from the river and intensify the damage to the walls. This, together with bombardment and assaults from the land, broke the Ottoman resistance, and the defenders surrendered on 15 February 1476.
In his chronicle, Antonio Bonfini wrote that Mátyás took the fortress by employing a ruse: he feigned retreat while a part of his army hid in a neaby forest. When the Ottomans thought the danger had passed and relaxed their guard, the hidden soldiers climbed the walls and took Szabács. Although this story has great dramatic effect (which I partly use in my novel), it was probably only a myth.
Another primary source of the time, the anonymous poem Szabács Viadala (The Fight for Szabács), presents a more plausible version of how the fortress was taken. In the poem, an Ottoman soldier, who still remembered his Hungarian origin, fled and revealed the weak points of the fortifications to Mátyás. The bombardment then concentrated on these areas until the fotress fell.
Armour and weapons of King Mátyás’soldiers at the Visegrád citadel museum (my photo)
Whatever the real reason for the capture of Szabács was, historian Tamás Pálosfalvi suggests that its significance rests on the King’s original intentions at the time. If Mátyás had intended to assist Moldavia and Wallachia but was forced to change his plans due to the adverse weather or the failure of the Ottomans to attack Wallachia at the time, then the victory at Szabács can be considered a success. If, however, Szabács was his main aim, then the whole operation only served to convince public opinion in Hungary and abroad of the King’s commitment to defending Christendom against the Ottoman danger.
Works Consulted:
Antonio Bonfini: A Magyar Történelem Tizedei (Rerum Hungaricarum Decades), Hungarian trans. P. Kulcsár (Budapest, 1995)
Szabács Viadala (The Fight for Szabács)—a poem commemorating the siege and capture of Szabács (author anonymous; date unknown but possibly around the time of the siege in 1476)
Armour and weapons of King Mátyás’soldiers at the Visegrád citadel museum (my photo)
Blurb
Honour, revenge, and the quest for justice.
Belgrade, Kingdom of Hungary, 1470:
Raised in exile, adolescent noblewoman Margit Szilágyi dreams of returning to her homeland of Transylvania to avenge her father’s murder and reclaim her stolen legacy. To achieve this, she must break the constraints of her gender and social status and secretly train in combat.
When the king offers her a chance at justice, she seizes it—even if it means disguising herself as a man to infiltrate the vultures’ nest that now occupies her ancestral ‘eyrie’.
Plagued by childhood trauma and torn between two passionate loves, Margit faces brutal battles, her murderous kin’s traps and inner demons on her quest for vengeance. Only by confronting the past can she reclaim her honour—if she can survive long enough to see it through.
Return to the Eyrie is an epic coming-of-age tale of a young woman’s unwavering pursuit of justice and destiny in 15th century Hungary.
Katerina Dunne is the pen-name of Katerina Vavoulidou. Originally from Athens, Greece, Katerina has been living in Ireland since 1999. She has a degree in English Language and Literature from the University of Athens, an MA in Film Studies from University College Dublin and an MPhil in Medieval History from Trinity College Dublin.
Katerina is passionate about history, especially medieval history, and her main area of interest is 13th to 15th century Hungary. Although the main characters of her stories are fictional, Katerina uses real events and personalities as part of her narrative in order to bring to life the fascinating history of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary, a location and time period not so well-known to English-speaking readers.
Return to the Eyrie (published April 2024) is the second book in the Medieval Hungary series, a sequel to Lord of the Eyrie (published in February 2022).
I’m delighted to welcome Jennifer Ivy Walker and her new book, The Witch of the Brenton Woods, to the blog with the historical aspect of The Witch of the Brenton Woods.
Historical Aspect of The Witch of the Brenton Woods
I wanted the hero of my story to be an American paratrooper dropped into Normandy for the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, so I researched many of the different divisions of American servicemen during World War II. I selected the 507th PIR (Parachute Infantry Regiment), which was part of the 82nd Airborne Division, whose D-Day objective known as Mission Boston was to secure the Merderet River crossing in Normandy.
As I developed the historical fiction aspects of The Witch of the Breton Woods, I decided to have my fictional character, First Lieutenant Richard Zachford, be forced to make an emergency jump when his plane was shot down by German 88mm flak antiaircraft artillery guns. It was rewarding and challenging to weave together fictious characters who were part of the real 507th PI and weave them into the Battle of Saint-Malo, the culminating point of my novel.
I did extensive research about the Battle of Saint-Malo, a city in Bretagne (Brittany) that I had visited twice before as a high school French teacher taking my students on trips to France. When I discovered that a major focus of World War II had been The Battle of Brittany, I wove my fictional characters into the historical events which actually took place in the Battle of Saint-Malo, one of the crucial seaports that the Nazis controlled, which was deemed essential for the Allies to recapture.
Saint-Malo was one of the French towns designated as a fortress under Hitler’s Atlantic Wall program, and the Allies intended to capture the town so that its port could be used to land supplies and naval reinforcement. However, the Germans had covered the medieval castle into an underground fortress that was nearly impenetrable. When the Allies did successfully retake Saint-Malo, it had been so heavily damaged that it had been rendered unusable, and the courageous Malouins (the French name for the local inhabitants of Saint-Malo) slowly rebuilt their beloved city.
In writing The Witch of the Breton Woods, I wove together the events leading up to the surrender of the German Colonel Von Aulock (known as the Mad Colonel) on the 17th of August, 1944 and the surrender of the nearby German garrison of Cézembre on September 2nd. It was very challenging to entwine the plot development of my novel with the actual events which occurred between the D-Day landing of June 6th and the surrender of the Germans at Saint-Malo on September 2nd, 1944. I am very proud to have interwoven compelling historical fiction and thrilling romantic suspense in The Witch of the Breton Woods.
Blurb
Traumatized by horrors witnessed during the Nazi invasion of France, a young woman retreats to the dense Breton woods where she becomes a member of the clandestine French Resistance. When she finds a critically injured American paratrooper whose plane was shot down, she shelters the wounded soldier in her secluded cottage, determined to heal him despite the enormous risk.
Ostracized by villagers who have labeled her a witch, she is betrayed by an informant who reports to the Butcher—the monstrous leader of the local paramilitary organization that collaborates with the Germans. As the enemy closes in, she must elude the Gestapo while helping the Resistance reunite the American with his regiment and join the Allied Forces in the Battle of Brittany.
Can true love triumph against all odds under the oppressive Third Reich?
Jennifer Ivy Walker has an MA in French literature and is a former high school teacher and professor of French at a state college in Florida. Her novels encompass a love for French language, literature, history, and culture, incorporating her lifelong study, summers abroad, and many trips to France.
The Witch of the Breton Woods is heart-pounding suspense set during WWII in Nazi-occupied France, where a young woman in the French Resistance shelters and heals a wounded American soldier, hiding him from the Gestapo and the monstrous Butcher who are relentlessly hunting him.
I’m delighted to welcome Jennifer M. Lane and her new book, Downriver from The Poison River Series, to the blog with a guest post.
Guest Post
On the surface, Downriver, the first book in the Poison River series, is an extension of my lifelong interest in coming-of-age tales, where men and women unlock a part of themselves that allows them to move into a new phase of life. Though I believe we can “come of age” at many points, Charlotte and her friends are teenagers at the start of the series, fighting a battle much more formidable than their years.
The story is fictional, but the places are real, and the foundation on which the plot sits is based in the history of Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal country.
The world Charlotte and her brother, Emmett, come from is tainted by the conflict between coal bosses and mine workers. It’s a history of rich versus poor, of immigrants with fewer protections being abused by a coordinated system of oppression.
Mine workers in this region in the nineteenth century were largely Irish immigrants, many of whom fled the potato famine and the corporatization of their food supply. As they fought back in Ireland and England, emigrees formed a group known as the Molly Maguires, coordinating increasingly violent uprisings against farmers who locked them out of land they once farmed and merchants who raised the rates on foods.
The Strike in The Coal Mines. Credit: Public Domain (prior to 1929)
In the United States, as Irish workers settled in anthracite country and took on mine work, they soon found themselves financially shackled to their new employer. Housing was taken from their pay along with fees for the town doctor. Their remaining income was paid in scrips—company coin that could only be spent in the overpriced company store. Their income rarely exceeded their bills. And the more they pushed for better conditions, the more the coal bosses fought back. Eventually, things turned violent.
No paper trail links the 1860s and 1870s violence and murders of coal bosses to a coordinated Molly Maguires group, but once slung, the moniker stuck. As the chasm between the miners and coal bosses widened, Frank Gowen convinced the State of Pennsylvania to allow the coal patch towns to hire their own private police force to combat the Mollies. The Coal and Iron Police was formed, then returned the miner’s fire.
Frank Gowen. Credit: Public Domain (prior to 1929)
This is the world of my fictional Frank Morris, Charlotte and Emmett’s father. The fictional man was a more public figure than the man who inspired him. Frank Morris wrote speeches that sparked an uprising before losing his life to poisoning. The real Jack Kehoe was hanged, accused of working quietly, leading a group of men who used violence and murder to punish coal bosses and intimidate their opposition.
Jack Kehoe. Credit: Public Domain (prior to 1929)
In retaliation, Frank Gowen hired a Philadelphia detective (Allan Pinkerton) to plant a spy within his worker’s ranks. That spy found himself regretfully entangled in violence he was accused of instigating before testifying against the miners in a case that was prosecuted by Gowen himself. The gross miscarriage of justice is considered one of the bleakest eras of the American justice system.
Readers will encounter more of this rich history in subsequent books in the series. Set a mere quarter century after twenty men were sentenced to hang for their role as Molly Maguires, Downriver draws largely on these political and worker tensions as background. The battle Charlotte and her friends wage is against a pollution that poisons the air and the water, sickening people in her hometown of Stoke and poisoning the fish in the Maryland foster village on the Chesapeake Bay.
Eckley Miner’s Village. Credit: CC BY-SA
As she battles her father’s coal boss from afar, Charlotte teams up with suffragists, her high school literary society, and a handsome young man who lost family to the poison, too.
Though the era of the American Revolution is my favorite, writing Downriver has given me a chance to merge the historical settings of my Chesapeake Bay hometown and my partner’s in the Poconos outside Eckley Miner’s Village. Visitors to their museum can enjoy the history and structures such as houses and the coal breaker that was constructed for the 1970s film The Molly Maguires.
Blurb
A sulfur sky poisoned her family and her heart. Now revenge tastes sweeter than justice.
It’s 1900. In a Pennsylvania coal town tainted by corruption and pollution, Charlotte’s world collapses when her parents meet a tragic end. Sent to a foster family in a Maryland fishing village, she’s fueled by grief and embarks on a relentless quest for justice against the ruthless coal boss, Nels Pritchard.
But Charlotte is no ordinary girl. She shares the fiery spirit of her father, whose powerful speeches inspired worker riots. With a burning desire for vengeance, she sets out to uncover the truth behind Pritchard’s crimes, unearthing a shocking connection between the town’s toxic air and the lifeless fish washing up on the shore of her Chesapeake Bay foster town.
To expose the truth, Charlotte builds a network of unexpected allies. There are gutsy suffragists, a literary society of teenage girls willing to print the truth… and Weylan. The captivating young man lost his own family to Pritchard’s poison. He offers support, but Charlotte questions his true motives when he lures her to break the law. Could she be falling into a dangerous trap, leading her to a fate worse than poison?
With her unwavering spirit and determination, Charlotte must forge alliances and navigate a web of treachery before Pritchard seeks his own ruthless revenge.
The newest book by award-winning author Jennifer M. Lane is perfect for fans of Jeannette Walls’ Hang the Moon and the fiery protagonist in The Hunger Games. Join Charlotte in this small town, coming-of-age dystopian historical saga as she finds resilience, courage, and triumph in her search for identity, independence, and her true home.
This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited
Meet the Author
A Maryland native and Pennsylvanian at heart, Jennifer M. Lane holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Barton College and a master’s in liberal arts with a focus on museum studies from the University of Delaware, where she wrote her thesis on the material culture of roadside memorials.
Jennifer is a member of the Authors Guild and the Historical Novel Society. Her first book, Of Metal and Earth, won the 2019 Next Generation Indie Book Award for First Novel and was a Finalist in the 2018 IAN Book of the Year Awards in the category of Literary / General Fiction. She is also the author of Stick Figures from Rockport, and the six book series, The Collected Stories of Ramsbolt.
I’m delighted to welcome Constance Briones and her new book, Try Before You Trust: To All GentleWomen and Other Maids in Love, to the blog with an excerpt.
Excerpt
A sorrowful expression crossed his face. “When I said I loved you, I meant it. I have loved you like no other woman I’ve known,” he uttered with a hint of resentment that I doubted his love for me.
I believed him, but how he could bury his love for me to procure a more comfortable married life with Rose Clavell was unfathomable.
I let go of his arm and opened the door. “Aye, you loved me, Robert. But not enough to weather the tribulations of love.”
He averted his gaze and hesitated before leaving. It was as if he wanted to say more in self-defense, but it would have fallen on deaf ears. He walked briskly past me and down the stairs. When I heard the central door shut, I slumped to the floor. I could feel angry tears in my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. Like the women in Heroides, I, too, had fallen victim to my passion and was forsaken by a man I loved too fast and too soon. But unlike them, I would not break.
Blurb
What if Taylor Swift found herself penning songs about love in Elizabethan England when women were required to be chaste, obedient, and silent?
Isabella Whitney, an ambitious and daring eighteen-year-old maidservant turned poet, sets out to do just that. Having risked reputation and virtue by allowing her passions for her employer’s aristocratic nephew to get the better of her, Isabella Whitney enters the fray of the pamphlet wars, a scurrilous debate on the merits of women.
She’s determined to make her mark by becoming the first woman to write a poem defending women in love, highlighting the deceptive practices of the men who woo them. Her journey to publication is fraught with challenges as she navigates through the male-dominated literary world and the harsh realities of life in sixteenth-century London for a single woman.
Loosely based on the life of Elizabethan poet Isabella Whitney, this is a compelling tale of a young woman’s resilience and determination to challenge the status quo and leave her mark in a world that was not ready for her.
Constance Briones has a Master’s in Woman’s History, which informs her writing.
She first learned about the subject of her debut historical fiction novel, the sixteenth-century English poet Isabella Whitney, while doing research for her thesis on literacy and women in Tudor England. Isabella Whitney’s gusty personality to defy the conventions of her day, both in her thinking and actions, impressed Constance enough to imagine that she would make a very engaging literary heroine.
As a writer, Constance is interested in highlighting the little-known stories of women in history. She is a contributing writer to Historical Times, an online magazine. When not writing, she lends her time as an educational docent for her town’s historical society.
She contently lives in Connecticut with her husband and Maine coon sibling cats, Thor and Percy.
Ex-intelligence agent James Ryker receives a coded message through a secret drop point, a means of communication known only to him and one other person. The problem is, that other person is his ex-boss, Mackie… and he’s already dead.
But the cry for help is real, and it’s a request Ryker can’t refuse.
Travelling to New York alone and without official sanction, Ryker has a single goal in mind, yet even he couldn’t have bargained for the violent world he’s soon embroiled in. Caught in the middle of a spiralling chaos with the FBI on one side, and two warring underworld bosses on the other, Ryker must put all of his skills to the test in order to come out on top, and keep his word.
In a world full of lies and deceit, loyalty is everything, and it’s time for James Ryker to pay his dues.
A fast-paced thriller filled with twists, turns, and intrigue that will grip fans of Mark Dawson and the Jason Bourne novels.
The Green Viper is book 4 in the James Ryker series, but the first one I’ve read, although I’ve read one of Rob Sinclair’s standalone novels, Rogue Hero. Check out the review here.
It is fast-paced as our ‘hero’ sets about helping the son of his former boss where he’s entangled himself in a bit of bother in New York. That said, the beginning is a little more difficult to really get into – I would recommend persevering because after that, the storyline is very quick and I read the vast majority of the book in one sitting. It’s a fun, pacy read with a whole load of violent encounters thrown in for good measure, and some rather nasty bad guys, and our author has no problem with ramping up the body count.
If you’re a fan of action thrillers, then you’ll really enjoy The Green Viper. I certainly plan on finding some room on my TBR pile to add the other books in the series.
Meet the author
Rob Sinclair is the million copy bestseller of over twenty thrillers, including the James Ryker series. Rob previously studied Biochemistry at Nottingham University. He also worked for a global accounting firm for 13 years, specialising in global fraud investigations.
How do you recover from the havoc wrought by history’s cruellest plague?
It’s June 1349. In Meonbridge, a Hampshire manor, many have lost their lives to the Black Death, among them Alice atte Wode’s beloved husband and Eleanor Titherige’s widowed father. Even the family of the manor’s lord and his wife, Margaret de Bohun, has not entirely escaped.
But, now the plague has passed, the people of Meonbridge must work together to rebuild their lives. However, tensions mount between the de Bohuns and their tenants, as the workers realise their new scarceness means they can demand higher wages and dictate their own lives.
When the tensions deepen into violence and disorder, and the men – lord and villagers alike – seem unable to find any resolution, the women – Alice, Eleanor and Margaret – must step forward to find a way out of the conflict that is tearing Meonbridge apart.
Carolyn Hughes has lived much of her life in Hampshire. With a first degree in Classics and English, she started working life as a computer programmer, then a very new profession. But it was technical authoring that later proved her vocation, word-smithing for many different clients, including banks, an international hotel group and medical instruments manufacturers.
Although she wrote creatively on and off for most of her adult life, it was not until her children flew the nest that writing historical fiction took centre stage. But why historical fiction? Serendipity!
Seeking inspiration for what to write for her Creative Writing Masters, she discovered the handwritten draft, begun in her twenties, of a novel, set in 14th century rural England… Intrigued by the period and setting, she realised that, by writing a novel set in the period, she could learn more about the medieval past and interpret it, which seemed like a thrilling thing to do. A few days later, the first Meonbridge Chronicle, Fortune’s Wheel, was under way.
Six published books later (with more to come), Carolyn does now think of herself as an Historical Novelist. And she wouldn’t have it any other way…
I’m delighted to welcome Debra Borhert and her new book, Her Own War, Book 3 in the Château de Verzat Series, to the blog with the historical aspect of the novel.
Historical Aspect of the Novel: Enslavement in Eighteenth-Century France by Debora Borchert
“I survived enslavement. I know where they look.” — Aurélia, Her Own War
In the first book in my Château de Verzat series, the brother-sister protagonists flee France aboard a slaver. As I further researched the slave trade, I knew I would not be able to adequately convey the horrors of their voyage. Consequently, that story lives only in my mind.
Yet, the male protagonist, Henri, falls in love with a formerly enslaved woman, Aurélia, who was forced onto the same ship. In America, they cannot marry, and people treat Aurélia as an enslaved woman. Eager for her freedom, Henri brings Aurélia to France, after the new government abolished enslavement. The August 1793 decree for the abolition of slavery ended all slave-trade activity across all French territories in 1794.
In the second book, Her Own Revolution, Henri, Aurélia, and their son, Charles, depart America and arrive in France in late 1796, where Henri believes Aurélia and their son will be safe.
Although slavery was illegal in France, people, like Thomas Jefferson, brought their “property” to France, and France respected his and others’ rights to own enslaved people.
The irony of these laws caused me to wonder about the formerly enslaved, and whether people of color had rights in France in 1796. They did not. In my work as a historical fiction writer, I attempt to focus light on historic injustices.
For research, I traveled to Nantes, which was the largest slave-trading port in France from 1707-1793. The city has created a Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery, dedicated to the thirteen million Africans who were deported during the transatlantic slave trade.
The Memorial’s underground gallery was created to enable visitors to imagine what it might feel like to exist in the hold of an 18th century ship. Sounds of flapping sails, splashing waves, creaking ropes and wood, clanking chains and shackles, human groans and cries, echo in the shadows.
At that moment I knew my character Aurélia would be mute, caused by the trauma she had endured. I also knew she would not be safe in France, for, although Henri did not know it, I knew she had no rights.
The third book, Her Own War, opens with a hailstorm that threatens the vineyard, and is followed by a declaration that all noble émigrés must leave France or face the guillotine. Henri, a noble émigré, must leave, and, as Aurélia is pregnant, she is unable to travel with him. He must leave her under the protection of the four hundred families who live on the estate. However, no one, not even Henri, could have protected her from history.
During the eighteenth century the recapture of freed, formerly enslaved people was terrifyingly common, and many were enslaved in the sex trade. France had a robust demimonde, a polite name for the business of prostitution, catering to tastes for the exotic. These facts threatened Aurélia’s safety. But, as Aurélia had survived enslavement, she proved to be a courageous character who risks her life to save the lives of her children.
As Napoleon Bonaparte gathers power at the end of Her Own War, I know the plot of the next book of in the series will be affected by his re-establishment of slavery in1802, which revived slave-trade activity for another fifteen years.
Having learned that even today human beings are enslaved, I chose to bring light to the historical facts of the 18th century, sadly reflected in the crimes against humanity in this century.
Artwork that inspired the character Aurélia.
Bust of an African Woman by Charles-Henri-Joseph Cordier. Courtesy The Walters Art Museum, Creative Commons License. Artwork that inspired 18th century Nantes, France.
Le Port de Nantes, by Nicolas Ozanne, Courtesy Wiki Creative Commons
Blurb
As Napoleon Rises from the Ashes of The French Revolution, One Woman Dares to Spy Against Him
Sentenced to eight months in an insane asylum for the crime of impersonating a man, Geneviève LaGarde fears giving birth in a filthy cell will mean certain death for her and her unborn child. Desperate for her release, her husband, Louis, trades his freedom for hers and must join Bonaparte’s army in Egypt.
As Geneviève wages her own war against the tyrannical general, she not only risks her own life but also those of her children and the four hundred families who depend on the Château de Verzat estate. Knowing her desperate actions could cause the government to confiscate the entire vineyard, she sacrifices everything to save her husband and protect the people who become her family.
A captivating tale of the power of love, hope, and courage, and the strength of community.
Book 1Book 2Book 3
Reviews
“Fans of historical fiction will find this novel a most captivating read.” —Kirkus Reviews
“For fans of Stephanie Dray’s The Women of Chateau Lafayette.” —Publishers Weekly BookLife Editor’s Pick “A compelling story of love, war, and fierce family loyalty. While the narrative stays true to the social mores of the French Revolutionary era, Borchert gives her readers powerful and active female characters who often cunningly use conventional gender expectations to conceal their real motives and actions. Fans of historical fiction will find this novel a most captivating read.” —Kirkus Reviews
This title will be on #KindleUnlimited for the first 90 days
Meet the Author
Debra Borchert has had many careers: clothing designer, actress, TV show host, spokesperson for high-tech companies, marketing and public relations professional, and technical writer for Fortune 100 companies. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Writer, among others. Her short stories have been published in anthologies and independently.
A graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology, she weaves her knowledge of textiles and clothing design throughout her historical French fiction. She has been honored with a Historical Novel Society Editors’ Choice, Publishers Weekly BookLifeEditor’s Pick, and many other five-star reviews.
MJ Porter 
