historical fiction – Page 57

Today, I’m welcoming Deborah Swift and her new book, The Fortune Keeper to the blog with a fabulous post about crime in Renaissance Venice #BlogTour #CoffeePotBookClub #FortuneKeeper #HistoricalFiction

Researching Crime in Renaissance Venice by Deborah Swift

One of the things I was aware of as soon as I started this novel, The Fortune Keeper, was that although not a crime novel, it would probably have several murders within its pages. This is because the whole series is about Giulia Tofana, who was renowned for poisoning men in order that their wives could escape marital persecution.

Giulia Tofana became a legend and it is probable that she didn’t poison as many men as the rumours say, and that probably she was blamed for the crimes of others. One of the others suspected of her crimes was her stepdaughter Girolama. As she was to feature in this book, it led me to look into the law in early modern Venice because I knew I would have to be aware of policing, punishment, and the mechanisms of the law.

**Miracle of the Holy Cross** Accademia – Miracle of the Holy Cross at Rialto by Vittore Carpaccio

Renaissance Robbery

Venice was extremely wealthy in the Renaissance period, and vagabonds and thieves flooded into the city in search of easy pickings. In the picture above you can see the canal thronged with men dressed in rich clothing and ornament. The most common crimes in Venice were burglary and forgery, but it was by no means unusual for there to be murders over money and debts. The punishment for robbery was calculated on the basis of the quantity of property taken. First offenders who stole goods worth less than one lira could get away with a whipping, but woe betide you if you stole something bigger. The penalty was the loss of an eye for goods valued between five to ten lire, and the noose awaited those brave enough to steal something worth more than forty lire.

**Interrogation chambers of the Doge’s Palace**

Debt and Death

The law allowed for anyone who was owed more than five lire de piccola to threaten and even kill the debtor in order to recoup their money, putting the onus firmly on the debtor, not the avenger. This tells us that money was the main driving force in Venetian society. But what about armed robbery or assault where no debt was owing? Most assaults were subject to a mere fine of twenty-five lire, or banishment from the city state. If your crime was a crime which drew blood – sanguinem fecerit – then the punishment was up to the judging council. There was no such thing as ‘innocent until proven guilty’ in Venetian law at that time. Proof was largely circumstantial, and it relied on the judge and jury’s instinct as to the guilt of the person involved.

Renaissance Lawkeepers

The Avogaria di Comun were a group equivalent to lawyers, though non-professional, drawn exclusively from the nobility. They acted as prosecutors for the state, giving evidence and arguing for punishments before the main judicial councils of Venice. Because of their status, their judgements were often influenced by their social position, and the personal axes they had to grind.

Execution and Mutilation

In this period it was still common for mutilations to take place, which had been traditional in medieval times. Cutting out the tongue for heresy, cutting off the thumb or fingers for pilfering. Courtesans regularly had their noses or faces cut. There was also the custom of cutting of the ‘offending’ part – this led to men who were convicted of dabbling in heresy or alchemy, or crimes against the Holy Roman Church having their hand cut off to remove the ‘devil’s instrument’. This kind of public ritual and humiliation was designed to bring public vengeance to the accused person, and to reaffirm the values of the Church or state. The ritual turned the execution into a purification of the city.

There were in fact few crimes which brought down corporal or capital punishment. The types of corporal punishment used for the crimes of rape and assault were minor by today’s standards. As an example, for assault, out of 569 cases only fifteen involved mutilation of the criminal; and sixteen more involved some form of corporal discipline. For rape offenses, corporal punishment was even less significant, with twenty cases of discipline and only four of mutilation.

Palazzo Dario where many murders in the novel unfold

Maintaining law and order

On the streets the main arbiters of law and order were the town guard, the vigili urbani, who acted like our police do now. Their job was to make sure masked men didn’t carry arms, that only noblemen wore swords, and to act as a preventative force as well as policing troublemakers.

Further up the ladder were the Council of Ten, a kind of secret police force whose job was to maintain order within the city state of Venice. There was not much space in the city gaols of Venice due to the whole nature of its construction. For crimes of fraud, marital dispute, and affray, these men sat in judgement. It was unfeasible to keep men incarcerated for long because otherwise the gaols would be full of minor offenders. Small fines and short gaol sentences were the usual punishments for common violence in Venice. When the crime crossed the line into something that was considered ‘against God’ or ‘against the reputation of Venice’ then ritual punishment could be relied upon to warn the populace about sinning against these bigger, less personal edifices.

Documents I found helpful in my research:

Law and Punishment in Early Renaissance Venice

Violence in Early Renaissance Venice — Guido Ruggiero

Banditry and Social Identity in the Republic of Venice – Sergio Lavarda

Authority and the Law in Renaissance Venice — G. Cozzi

BUY THE FORTUNE KEEPER: https://mybook.to/FortuneKeeper

Here’s the blurb

Count your nights by stars, not shadows ~ Italian Proverb

Winter in Renaissance Venice

Mia Caiozzi is determined to discover her destiny by studying the science of astronomy. But her stepmother Giulia forbids her to engage in this occupation, fearing it will lead her into danger. The ideas of Galileo are banned by the Inquisition, so Mia must study in secret.

Giulia’s real name is Giulia Tofana, renowned for her poison Aqua Tofana, and she is in hiding from the Duke de Verdi’s family who are intent on revenge for the death of their brother. Giulia insists Mia should live quietly out of public view. If not, it could threaten them all. But Mia doesn’t understand this, and rebels against Giulia, determined to go her own way.

When the two secret lives collide, it has far-reaching and fatal consequences that will change Mia’s life forever.

Set amongst opulent palazzos and shimmering canals, The Fortune Keeper is the third novel of adventure and romance based on the life and legend of Giulia Tofana, the famous poisoner.

‘Her characters are so real they linger in the mind long after the book is back on the shelf’ – Historical Novel Society

NB This is the third in a series but can stand alone as it features a new protagonist.

Trigger warnings:

Murder and violence in keeping with the era.

Buy Links

This book is available to read on Kindle Unlimited?

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Connect with the author

Deborah Swift is a USA TODAY bestselling author who is passionate about the past. Deborah used to be a costume designer for the BBC, before becoming a writer. Now she lives in an old English school house in a village full of 17th Century houses, near the glorious Lake District. She divides her time between writing and teaching. After taking a Masters Degree in Creative Writing, she enjoys mentoring aspiring novelists and has an award-winning historical fiction blog at her website www.deborahswift.com

Deborah loves to write about how extraordinary events in history have transformed the lives of ordinary people, and how the events of the past can live on in her books and still resonate today.

Recent books include The Poison Keeper, about the Renaissance poisoner Giulia Tofana, which was a winner of the Wishing Shelf Readers Award, and a Coffee Pot Book Club Gold Medal, and The Cipher Room set in WW2 and due for publication by Harper Collins next Spring.

Connect with Deborah:

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Follow The Fortune Keeper blog tour with The Coffee Pot Book Club

Today I’m delighted to host the Forest of Foes by Matthew Hardy #blogtour #ForestOfFoes

Here’s the blurb:

AD 652. Beobrand has been ordered to lead a group of pilgrims to the holy city of Rome. Chief among them is Wilfrid, a novice of the church with some surprisingly important connections. Taking only Cynan and some of his best men, Beobrand hopes to make the journey through Frankia quickly and return to Northumbria without delay, though the road is long and perilous.

But where Beobrand treads, menace is never far behind. The lands of the Merovingian kings are rife with intrigue. The queen of Frankia is unpopular and her ambitious schemes, though benevolent, have made her powerful enemies. Soon Wilfrid, and Beobrand, are caught up in sinister plots against the royal house.

After interrupting a brutal ambush in a forest, Beobrand and his trusted gesithas find their lives on the line. Dark forces will stop at nothing to seize control of the Frankish throne, and Beobrand is thrown into a deadly race for survival through foreign lands where he cannot be sure who is friend and who is foe.

The only certainty is that if he is to save his men, thwart the plots, and unmask his enemies, blood will flow.

My Review

Forest of Foes by Matthew Harffy is the 9th book in the Bernicia Chronicles. I’ve read nearly all of the books to date, but I know I’ve missed one or two out, and in this book, there are a few scenes where that comes home to roost – but not enough that I didn’t get a general idea and neither did it distract from the rest of the story.

Forest of Foes starts with a really exciting fight scene, in which Beobrand and Cynan are thrust into the heart of a skirmish. This very much sets the scene for the rest of the book, with a great deal of added political intrigue until our hero finally manages to exact revenge at the end of the book.

This book takes our characters to Merovingian France, and as readers of the series will know this isn’t Beobrand’s first trip there. As such, we meet new and old characters as Beobrand endeavours to fulfil his promise to Queen Eanflæd that he’ll get the monks Wilfrid and Baducing to Roma. Sadly, Beobrand hasn’t quite factored in the weather or the strong will of Wilfrid, or indeed the conniving members of the nobility in Merovingian France, or indeed, the queen, Bathilde.

Forest of Foes is an entertaining addition to the Bernicia Chronicles. I enjoyed the split narrative between Beobrand and Cynan, although it is a little unevenly done. There are also occasions where Wilfrid is our narrator, perhaps pointing to future developments for this character, who, historically, is a bit of a wildfire. Time will tell. The beginning of the book is particularly exciting, and the ending is satisfying. I enjoyed my trip to Merovingian France. The characters there are well drawn, and the peril to Beobrand is genuine and resolved particularly well.

I’m intrigued to see just how much trouble Beobrand and Cynan can get into as they finally resume their journey towards Roma, which I think they probably need to do quite quickly because there are forewarnings of trouble back home. We all know (I hope) that war is coming.

Meet the author

Matthew Harffy lived in Northumberland as a child and the area had a great impact on him. The rugged terrain, ruined castles and rocky coastline made it easy to imagine the past. Decades later, a documentary about Northumbria’s Golden Age sowed the kernel of an idea for a series of historical fiction novels. The first of them is the action-packed tale of vengeance and coming of age, THE SERPENT SWORD.

Matthew has worked in the IT industry, where he spent all day writing and editing, just not the words that most interested him. Prior to that he worked in Spain as an English teacher and translator. Matthew lives in Wiltshire, England, with his wife and their two daughters.

Purchase link:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3U5eD43

Follow Matthew Harffy

Twitter: @MatthewHarffy

Instagram: @beobrand

Website: matthewharffy.com

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I’m delighted to be reviewing The Watson Letters Volume 6: The Haunting of Roderick Usher on the blog #blogtour #bookreview #historicalmystery

Here’s the blurb:

An invitation. A ghostly spectre. A criminal mastermind.

When Sherlock Holmes is invited to visit an old school friend, he and Doctor Watson are plunged into the first of three adventures involving the Dark Arts and the supernatural. From the ghostly spectre of a dead sister to the search for an ancient book of spells, the detecting duo learn that each case is connected, leading them into a final showdown with their deadliest adversary yet.

Adult humour throughout.

Purchase Link https://geni.us/dymvutk

My Review

The Haunting of Roderick Usher might be volume 6 in the Watson Letters, but it is the first book I’ve read by this author and in this series. But fear not. Building on the ‘lore’ of Sherlock Holmes and adding a few ‘adult’ touches throughout, as well as a slightly alternative universe, this is a fine story in true Sherlock Holmes style and very, very enjoyable.

The Haunting of Roderick Usher is really a string of three separate stories, all building on the other, before coming to a thrilling conclusion. The Haunting of Roderick Usher, The Witch’s Ghost and The Very Last Death of Lord Blackwood are all unique stories in themselves, with a hint of the otherworldly and with a conclusion of their own.

I really enjoyed the building blocks of the stories, and the slightly more flippant Holmes, Watson and Mrs Watson. All three of them, and indeed Lestrade as well, all have their voices throughout these tales.

A lot of fun, provided you’re not going to be offended by the slightly more adult tone – and I certainly wasn’t.

Meet the author

True-born Geordie Colin Garrow grew up in a former mining town in Northumberland and has worked in a plethora of professions including taxi driver, antiques dealer, drama facilitator, theatre director and fish processor. He has also occasionally masqueraded as a pirate. Colin’s published books include the Watson Letters series, the Terry Bell Mysteries and the Rosie Robson Murder Mysteries. His short stories have appeared in several literary mags, including: SN Review, Flash Fiction Magazine, The Grind, A3 Review, Inkapture and Scribble Magazine. These days he lives in a humble cottage in Northeast Scotland.

Connect with the author:

Website (Adults) Website (Children)

The Watson Letters Amazon Author Page Twitter

Smashwords Facebook Bookbub

Follow The Haunting of Roderick Usher blog tour with Rachel’s Random Resources

I’m delighted to welcome Anna Belfrage and her new book, Her Castilian Heart, to the blog #BlogTour #CoffeePotBookClub #medievalfiction #HistoricalFiction #HistoricalRomance #MedievalEngland #blogpost

I’m delighted to welcome Anna to the blog, and she’s written a fabulous post about her historical research.

Those unruly Welsh – a post about those that would not give up

Some years ago, I published His Castilian Hawk, where the story is set against the backdrop of Edward I’s conquest of Wales in 1282-83. Some may think that after Dafydd ap Gruffyd was executed in late 1283, Wales was permanently cowed, bowing its neck abjectly before its new overlord. Not at all like in Scotland, where the Scots just wouldn’t give up, no matter what Edward I threw at them.

Hmm. I dare say those medieval Welshmen would snort—rather loudly—at the notion that they somehow lacked in bravery. Also, one must keep in mind that the English king could command vastly more men than the Welsh could. Plus, Wales was not a cohesive unit as Scotland was. No, Wales was subdivided into various little principalities, and since the death of Llewellyn Fawr in 1240 no one had really managed to unite all Wales again. Also, large chunks of Wales had been under English control for yonks, ruled over by the so called Marcher Lords.

So it was a fragmented people who were invaded by the English in 1282-83, and in some places people didn’t overly care who sat in the nearby castle. Besides, many Welshmen had no reason to risk their neck for Llywellyn ap Gruffyd or his brother as they were princes of Gwynedd, not of Wales. But that does not mean the Welsh had rolled over and given up. In fact, there’d be a sequence of rebellions—of varying size—over the years. What all those rebellions have in common is that they failed, even if the impressive Owain Glyndwr in the early 15^th century came close to success.

In my latest release, Her Castilian Heart, the adventures and misfortunes that beset my fictional protagonists, Robert FitzStephan and his wife Noor, are to some extent set against the backdrop of another Welsh rebellion, that of Rhys ap Maredudd.

Rhys was a member of the royal house of Deheubarth, a principality in mid Wales. Deheubarth and Gwynedd were traditional enemies, so when Dafydd ap Gruffyd prodded his older brother into rebellion in 1282, Rhys sided with the English. Actually, already in the Anglo-Welsh wars of 1276-77, Rhys submitted to England, hoping that by doing so he’d be able to keep his lands—and regain the impressive Dinefwr Castle, the traditional seat of the princes of Deheubarth.

In the aftermath of the 1282-83 conquest, Rhys was rewarded for his loyalty with more land.
“And Dinefwr?” he asked.
King Edward likely raised an eyebrow. No way was he about to return such an impressive castle to a Welsh princeling. Instead, he forced Rhys to sign a quitclaim, effectively handing over “his” castle permanently to the English king. Rhys may not have liked this, but he seems to have swallowed his disappointment and instead focussed his attention on fortifying his remaining castle of note, Dryslwyn.

But it must have rankled, losing Dinefwr. Also, Rhys seems to have been under the impression that he’d been promised Dinefwr if he rode with the English against his fellow Welshmen. Whatever the case, in 1287, Rhys rebelled.

He had some initial success, but King Edward’s appointed regent, Edmund of Cornwall (the king himself was in Gascony) acted with speed, assembling a huge host that marched into Wales. By October, the rebellion had effectively been stamped out until all that was left was a core of determined men besieged at Dryslwyn. This was when King Edward’s interest in siege machines came in handy: soon enough several huge trebuchets began bombarding Dryslwyn’s walls with projectiles. In all that upheaval, Rhys managed to slip away.

For some weeks, things were quiet, but in mid-November Rhys popped up again, urging his fellow Welshmen to join his rebellion. A new, much smaller force was assembled to sort things out—one in which I’ve included Robert FitzStephan and his friend, Roger Mortimer. Rhys took refuge in yet another castle, this time the triangular-shaped Newydd Emlyn.

The English packed together their siege weapons, loaded them onto carts, requisitioned forty oxen and hauled them all the way up to Newydd Emlyn. Ten days of siege and the English won—but the elusive Rhys had managed to slip away. Again.

For the coming four years, he somehow managed to stay hidden. Some people think he may have escaped to Ireland, but if he had, one wonders why he came back only to be captured. In 1291, Rhys ap Maredudd was executed in York, far from the land of his birth. His son and namesake was to spend the coming fifty years in prison.

Rhys was not the last Welshman to rebel against Edward. Some years later, the fires of rebellion would yet again threaten Edward’s iron hold on this his newest dominion—but of that I will write in the next book in the series!

Thank you so much for sharing such a fascinating post. Good luck with your new book and with writing the next one.

Here’s the blurb:

Blood is not always thicker than water…

At times a common bloodline is something of a curse—or so Robert FitzStephan discovers when he realises his half-brother, Eustace de Lamont, wants to kill him.

A murderous and greedy brother isn’t Robert’s only challenge. He and his wife, Noor, also have to handle their infected relationship with a mightily displeased Queen Eleanor—all because of their mysterious little foundling whom they refuse to abandon or allow the queen to lock away.

Eustace is persistent. When Robert’s life hangs in the balance, it falls to Noor to do whatever it takes to rip them free from the toothy jaws of fate. Noor may be a woman, but weak she is not, and in her chest beats a heart as brave and ferocious as that of a lioness. But will her courage be enough to see them safe?

Trigger Warnings:
There is some sexual (consensual) content. Also some violence

Buy Links:

Available on Kindle Unlimited

Universal Link : http://myBook.to/HEART

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Meet the author

Had Anna been allowed to choose, she’d have become a time-traveller. As this was impossible, she became a financial professional with two absorbing interests: history and writing. Anna has authored the acclaimed time travelling series The Graham Saga, set in 17th century Scotland and Maryland, as well as the equally acclaimed medieval series The King’s Greatest Enemy which is set in 14th century England.

Anna has also published The Wanderer, a fast-paced contemporary romantic suspense trilogy with paranormal and time-slip ingredients.

Her Castilian Heart is the third in her “Castilian” series, a stand-alone sequel to her September 2020 release, His Castilian Hawk. Set against the complications of Edward I’s invasion of Wales, His Castilian Hawk is a story of loyalty, integrity—and love. In the second instalment, The Castilian Pomegranate, we travel with the protagonists to the complex political world of medieval Spain. This latest release finds our protagonists back in England—not necessarily any safer than the wilds of Spain!

Anna has also authored The Whirlpools of Time in which she returns to the world of time travel. Join Duncan and the somewhat reluctant time-traveller Erin on their adventures through the Scottish Highlands just as the first Jacobite rebellion is about to explode!

All of Anna’s books have been awarded the IndieBRAG Medallion, she has several Historical Novel Society Editor’s Choices, and one of her books won the HNS Indie Award in 2015. She is also the proud recipient of various Reader’s Favorite medals as well as having won various Gold, Silver and Bronze Coffee Pot Book Club awards.

Find out more about Anna, her books and enjoy her eclectic historical blog on her website, www.annabelfrage.com

Connect with Anna

Website: Twitter: Facebook:

Instagram: BookBub: Amazon Author Page: Goodreads:

Follow the Her Castilian Heart blog tour with The Coffee Pot Book Club

Sherlock Holmes & The Singular Affair by M.L.Wiseman is on the blog today #blogtour #bookreview

Here’s the blurb:

Before Baker Street, there was Montague.

Before partnership with a former army doctor recently returned from Afghanistan, Sherlock Holmes had but the quiet company of his own great intellect. Solitary he might be but, living as he did for the thrill of the chase, it was enough.

For a little while, at the least, it was enough.

That is, until a client arrives at his door with a desperate plea and an invitation into a world of societal scandal and stage door dandies. Thrust deep in an all-consuming role and charged with the safe-keeping of another, Holmes must own to his limits or risk danger to others besides himself in this the case of the aluminium crutch.

Purchase Links

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My Review

I do love a Sherlock Holmes mystery, and this is a very good one. It wasn’t that long ago that I read some of the original stories, and so I can say that the set-up is very traditional Holmes, even if we don’t have Watson in this story. This Holmes sounds like Holmes and acts like Holmes, and the story is particularly twisty and all the more enjoyable for that. (I am also an avid fan of the 221B Baker Street board game, although I do struggle to find others who love it as much as I do).

Holmes is asked to investigate the identity of a man who only one woman is convinced is not who he says he is. She has proof, she says. She grew up with the ‘real’ man, and this man, wearing his name and even beloved of the missing man’s uncle, is not who he claims to be. This sounds like it should be easy to solve – unmask the culprit and ta-da. But that is not at all the case. Holmes is forced to adopt an alias to live a double life for a while in his attempt to get to the bottom of the case, which becomes somewhat grisly throughout the investigation.

Sometimes I was a little confused, but I think that was intentional. There were times I was a little unsure about what Holmes was up to, but I also believe that was intentional as well. I did feel thoroughly swept up in Holmes’ world, with its slightly murky sidelines, as well as its traditional ‘day at the races,’ and the conclusion to the story was very satisfying.

A really well-done Holmes mystery. MK Wiseman knows her stuff, which is very, very true to the original, even in its brevity. I really recommend this tale if you love a good Holmes mystery.

Meet the author

M. K. Wiseman has degrees in Interarts & Technology and Library & Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her office, therefore, is a curious mix of storyboards and reference materials. Both help immensely in the writing of historical novels. She currently resides in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.

Connect with M.K.Wiseman

http://mkwisemanauthor.com

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https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7073540.M_K_Wiseman

Giveaway to Win 2 x M. K. Wiseman Sherlock Holmes Book Bundle (Open to US / UK and Canada)

Prize includes:

Signed and ‘annotated’ with a few margin notes copies of Sherlock Holmes & the Singular Affair & Sherlock Holmes & the Ripper of Whitechapel

Nifty ‘magnifying glass’ bookmark

*Terms and Conditions –UK / US & Canada entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

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Today, I’m sharing an exciting post by Michael L. Ross about his new book, The Founding, Book 3 in Across the Divide #historicalfiction #biographicalfiction #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub

I’m delighted to welcome Michael L. Ross to the blog, with a post about his new book, The Founding.

The Founding follows the earthquake changes that the railroad made to American business and society during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Through the eyes of my fictional characters, Julia and Hiram Johannsen, the railroad itself almost becomes another major character. Julia is the sister of the main character, Will Crump. In order to do an effective job with telling the story of the railroad, I had to research and plot the timeline of the many different railroads that pushed south and west across America during the period 1868-1909.

The figure of robber baron Jason “Jay” Gould looms over the story, as he went from a tannery business to partner in the Erie Railroad to the major force behind the Union Pacific Railroad. The UP swallowed many other lines in its march to the Pacific Ocean.

Julia was a businesswoman at a time when it was uncommon, and shepherded the Johannsen steamship line through the Civil War, while Hiram fought for the Federal army in book 1 of the series, The Clouds of War. As The Founding opens, Julia and Hiram’s business is in danger from the encroaching railroads, financed from New York and Europe. They must adapt or perish.

The Atchison, Topeka, Santa Fe promised a new rail line that could save them. For my research, I delved into the railroad’s history, largely through Keith L. Bryant Jr.’s non-fiction account, History of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway, and local records in the Newton, Kansas historical society. The ATSF and the Kansas Pacific railroads sought to go through Kansas from east to west, and south through Indian Territory (Oklahoma) to Santa Fe, and California. At every turn, Jay Gould bought up lines and pounced on the business, making it very tough indeed to compete. The Life and Legend of Jay Gould by Maury Klein follows Gould’s life in great detail, chronicling the schemes and deals that made Gould famous and feared.

The railroad story is a complex one, and many managers came and went. The road to success was complicated by the financial panic of 1873, where many railroads went bankrupt in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian war. European countries had invested heavily in American railroads via bonds, and the end of the war with German victory brought the collapse of the Jay Cook Company, whose bonds financed railroad expansion.

Two historical tidbits turned up in research that was of great interest and impacted the book. First, the famous joining of the railroads at Promontory Point, Utah to form the transcontinental railroad wasn’t truly transcontinental at first. It was thought that no one could build a bridge across the Missouri River, and at the time the Golden Spike was driven, the Union Pacific stopped at the river, and picked up on the other side. For a period of time, the locomotives had to be ferried across. Then the Kansas Pacific helped to build the Hannibal Bridge, a unique design that swung a bridge section sideways to allow steamboat river traffic, then back into a contiguous bridge across the river. Without electricity, and using only gravity, gears, and river power, it was a major engineering feat, truly uniting the east and western portions of the United States by rail.

Second, in Chicago, a man named George Hammond filed a patent for a refrigerated railroad car, in 1868. Within two years, Hammond was selling refrigerated meat to the tune of two million dollars annually. Railroad lines that had invested heavily in stockyards in Chicago and elsewhere were reluctant to adopt the new cars, but progress marched forward as demand for beef in the east increased. In The Founding, Hiram and Julia make use of both of these inventions to outsmart Gould, and in real life, Gould was slow to pick up on them. The refrigerated cars spawned a large meat packing business in Fort Worth, Texas, and with the expansion of the railroad, completely eliminated the need for the cattle drives of western movies. Within a decade, Hammond’s new plant in Omaha, Nebraska, was slaughtering over 100,000 cattle a year and moving a fleet of 800 refrigerator cars. Gustavus Swift improved the design of refrigerated cars.¹ During the 1850s, when he was still a teenager, Gustavus F. Swift started to work in the beef business in Massachusetts. In 1875, Swift began buying cattle in Chicago to send to his family’s butcher operations back East. He quickly revolutionized the meat industry by using newly developed refrigerated railcars to ship fresh meat from Chicago to Eastern markets. The company soon set up a national network of branch offices, which allowed it to control the distribution of its meat across the country. By 1886, when the company slaughtered more than 400,000 cattle a year, Swift employed about 1,600 people. Between 1887 and 1892, new packing plants were opened in Kansas City, Omaha, and St. Louis. By the time the founder died in 1903, his company grossed $200 million in annual sales and employed about 23,000 people across the country.^{2^[1]}

These inventions allowed our fictional characters to gain capital to beat Gould, temporarily, at his own game.

As railroads advanced, many new towns were founded. Whether the railroad’s route included a particular town could mean the difference between death and survival for the town. Often towns paid handsome sums to the railroads to influence the route. Dallas paid a large cash bounty to gain three railroad lines running through it, cementing it as a center of Texas commerce. In 1860, Dallas only had 261 people. By 1900, it had 82,726.³

Often the town was required to pay for a depot, as well as show that there would be sufficient freight and passenger traffic to warrant choosing a route through the town. In Nicodemus, the citizens raised $16,000 for a depot, with great hopes. There was lots of politics and influence peddling.

Lubbock, Texas, the other town in this book, was initially unsuccessful in wooing the railroad. However, with persistence, growth, and the fact that it was racially white, the town fathers, including Will Crump, were successful in the end.

^[1] https://www.saddleandsirloinportraitfoundation.org/post/george-henry-hammond-inducted-in-1953-or-1954

2Encyclopedia of Chicago

3 Dallas population

Thank you so much for sharing such a fascinating post.

Here’s the blurb:

Two men, two dreams, two new towns on the plains, and a railroad that will determine whether the towns—one black, one white—live or die.

Will Crump has survived the Civil War, Red Cloud’s War, and the loss of his love, but the search for peace and belonging still eludes him. From Colorado, famed Texas Ranger Charlie Goodnight lures Will to Texas, where he finds new love, but can a Civil War sharpshooter and a Quaker find a compromise to let their love survive? When Will has a chance to join in the founding of a new town, he risks everything—his savings, his family, and his life—but it will all be for nothing if the new railroad passes them by.

Luther has escaped slavery in Kentucky through Albinia, Will’s sister, only to find prejudice rearing its ugly head in Indiana. When the Black Codes are passed, he’s forced to leave and begin a new odyssey. Where can he and his family go to be truly free? Can they start a town owned by blacks, run by blacks, with no one to answer to? But their success will be dependent on the almighty railroad and overcoming bigotry to prove their town deserves the chance to thrive.

Will’s eldest sister, Julia, and her husband, Hiram, are watching the demise of their steamboat business and jump into railroads, but there’s a long black shadow in the form of Jay Gould, the robber baron who ruthlessly swallows any business he considers competition. Can Julia fight the rules against women in business, dodge Gould, and hold her marriage together?

The Founding tells the little-known story of the Exodusters and Nicodemus, the black town on the plains of Kansas, and the parallel story of Will’s founding of Lubbock, Texas, against the background of railroad expansion in America. A family reunited, new love discovered, the quest for freedom, the rise of two towns. In the end, can they reach Across the Great Divide? The Founding is the exciting conclusion to the series.

Praise for The Founding:

“Michael is an excellent storyteller and has done a wonderful job depicting Luther, and the other black characters in this book. He has done his homework and depicts many historical facts about Nicodemus in a most enlightening and creative way. It has been a pleasure working with someone who has made a concerted effort to get things right.

~ Angela Bates

Nicodemus Descendant/Historian

Executive Director

The Nicodemus Historical Society and Museum

Watch the book trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbVY8_AIpJQ

Buy Links:

Universal Link:

Amazon UK: Amazon US: Amazon CA: Amazon AU:

Meet the author

Michael Ross is a lover of history and great stories.

He’s a retired software engineer turned author, with three children, and five grandchildren, living in Newton, Kansas with his wife of 39 years. Michael graduated from Rice University and Portland State University with degrees in German and software engineering. He was part of an MBA program at Boston University.

Michael was born in Lubbock, Texas, and still loves Texas. He’s written short stories and technical articles in the past, as well as articles for the Texas Historical Society.

Across the Great Divide now has three novels in the series, “The Clouds of War”, and “The Search”, and the conclusion, “The Founding”. “The Clouds of War” was an honorable mention for Coffee Pot Book of the Year in 2019, and an Amazon #1 best seller in three categories, along with making the Amazon top 100 paid, reviewed in Publisher’s Weekly. “The Search” won Coffee Pot Cover of the Year in 2020, and Coffee Pot Silver Medal for Book of the Year in 2020, as well as short listed for the Chanticleer International Book Laramie Award.

Connect with Michael:

Website: Twitter: Facebook:

LinkedIn: Instagram:

Book Bub: Amazon Author Page: Goodreads:

Follow the Across the Great Divide blog tour with The Coffee Pot Book Club

Happy Book Birthday to The Automobile Assassination (Book 2 in The Erdington Mysteries)

I don’t really need an excuse to share these wonderful photos, but a book birthday does seem like a good opportunity to do so. So below are some of the images that first inspired me to write about The Automobile Association sentry boxes in my story The Automobile Assassination.

Below is Beadnell Sentry Box, near Seahouses in Northumberland – on the road opposite Beadnell. (For anyone who doesn’t know, this is close to Bamburgh Castle AKA Bebbanburg, for fans of the Saxon period). And Ardgay Sentry Box, North Scotland, which I visited on my way to my holiday in Orkney in 2021. I had to include the view from the Ardgay sentry box, which is absolutely stunning. And it makes perfect sense as to why a sentry box would have been needed there – it is very remote.

Very few of these sentry boxes remain in their locations – and the majority are in Northern England and Scotland, and are, hopefully, now listed buildings. But, there would have been a time when these sentry boxes would have been a regular sight throughout the United Kingdom. A list of all the sentry boxes known up to 1962 reveals that there were 862 boxes (although not all of them may have been constructed) and just to add to the joy of them, these numbers make very little sense. Boxes located close together are not numbered concurrently.

Inside one of these sentry boxes would have been a telephone, and if you were lucky, a petrol canister so that you could make it to the next petrol station, if you did happen to run out of petrol. Patrolmen (yes, sadly, they were all men at the time) would have followed a specific route, to begin with on peddle bikes, but eventually using motorbikes with sidecars stuffed full of tools to help the stranded motorist. And the phone, in the 1940s, would have been answered by someone in the head office based in London.

AA members paid a subscription fee, and were then given a key which allowed access into the sentry boxes. Can you imagine how cross you’d have been to need to use the telephone only to discover you’d left your key at home. Cars also had a very dapper badge, often attached to the front grill, which proclaimed they were members. AA patrolmen were to salute to all cars showing a badge.

But enough about the sentry boxes, and the AA organisation in the 1940s. here’s the blurb for the book.

Erdington, September 1944

As events in Europe begin to turn in favour of the Allies, Chief Inspector Mason of Erdington Police Station is once more prevailed upon to solve a seemingly impossible case.

Called to the local mortuary where a man’s body lies, shockingly bent double and lacking any form of identification, Mason and O’Rourke find themselves at Castle Bromwich aerodrome seeking answers that seem out of reach to them. The men and women of the royal air force stationed there are their prime suspects. Or are they? Was the man a spy, killed on the orders of some higher authority, or is the place his body was found irrelevant? And why do none of the men and women at the aerodrome recognise the dead man?

Mason, fearing a repeat of the cold case that dogged his career for two decades and that he’s only just solved, is determined to do all he can to uncover the identity of the dead man, and to find out why he was killed and abandoned in such a bizarre way, even as Smythe demands he spends his time solving the counterfeiting case that is leaving local shopkeepers out of pocket.

Join Mason and O’Rourke as they once more attempt to solve the impossible in 1940s Erdington.

The Automobile Assassination can be read in ebook, paperback, hardback and audio version (narrated by the wonderful Matt Coles). I do hope you will check out the blog posts below.

Ruins and Reading (review)

Kitty Kat’s Book Review Blog (review)

David’s Book Blurg (review)

Chicks, Rogues and Scandals (Guest Post)

Rambling Mads (review)

Kathryn Booksville (review)

Gingerbookgeek (review)

Two Ladies and A Book (review)

Miriam Smith (review)

Chez Maximka (review)

Brown Flopsy’s Book Burrow (review)

Jen Loves Reading (review)

Colin Garrow (review)

On the Shelf Reviews (Q & A)

Lynda’s Book Reviews (review)

ChristianBookAHolic (review)

Jane Hunter Writes (review)

Chicks, Rogues and Scandals (Guest post with a fabulous Youtube of an AA training film)

Just4mybooks (review)

Check out The Erdington Mysteries series page on the blog.

Posts

Today I’m delighted to be taking part in the blog tour for a new historical mystery, Chaos at Carnegie Hall by Kelly Oliver #blogtour #BoldwoodBooks

Here’s the blurb:

Agatha Christie meets Downton Abbey in the Fiona Figg and Kitty Lane Mystery series opener.

Can Fiona catch a killer and find a decent cup of tea before her mustache wax melts?

1917. New York.

Notorious spy, Fredrick Fredricks, has invited Fiona to Carnegie Hall to hear a famous soprano. It’s an opportunity the War Office can’t turn down. Fiona and Clifford are soon on their way, but not before Fiona is saddled with chaperon duties for Captain Hall’s niece. Is Fiona a spy or a glorified babysitter?

From the minute Fiona meets the soprano aboard the RMS Adriatic it’s treble on the high C’s. Fiona sees something—or someone—thrown overboard, and then she overhears a chemist plotting in German with one of her own countrymen!

And the trouble doesn’t stop when they disembark. Soon Fiona is doing time with a group of suffragettes and investigating America’s most impressive inventor Thomas Edison.

When her number one suspect turns up dead at the opera and Fredrick Fredricks is caught red-handed, it looks like it’s finally curtains for the notorious spy.

But all the evidence points to his innocence. Will Fiona change her tune and clear her nemesis’ name? Or will she do her duty? And just what is she going to do with the pesky Kitty Lane? Not to mention swoon-worthy Archie Somersby . . .

If Fiona’s going to come out on top, she’s going to have to make the most difficult decision of her life: the choice between her head and her heart.

Purchase Link – https://amzn.to/3dMIUoT

My Review

Chaos at Carnegie Hall is a cosy historical mystery set in London, onboard a transatlantic ship during its crossing and also in New York in November 1917. We’re introduced to Fiona Figg, an enterprising young woman, a spy if you would, who is happy to don male costumes to get the answers she seeks.

I did find the beginning of the book a little confusing, but then I discovered why, for Fiona Figg isn’t a new literary creation, but this is her in a new series, complete with references to previous exploits. Once I realised this, I was flying. The backstory isn’t overly relevant, and it adds a wonderful layer of depth to the character. Fiona Figg is not new to this jig, and she knows what she’s about, despite all the men in her life trying to make it more difficult for her.

This story is bursting with historical details – the Suffragettes, events at Carnegie Hall, ‘real’ historical characters, and of course, yellow cabs – which our fine main character informs us makes it much easier to spot a cab in the snowy November conditions she’s enduring. I really enjoyed the way the story is woven around events that actually happened.

The mystery builds really well, and the attendant sidekicks of Clifford, Kitty and, of course, Poppy, the dog, really add to the ongoing mystery.

A thoroughly enjoyable historical mystery recommended for fans of the genre and with just a smidge more historical detail than some other cosy mysteries, which makes it all the more appealing to me.

Meet the Author

Kelly Oliver is the award-winning, bestselling author of three mysteries series: The Jessica James Mysteries, The Pet Detective Mysteries, and the historical cozies The Fiona Figg Mysteries, set in WW1. She is also the Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University and lives in Nashville, Tennessee. She is bringing new titles in the Fiona Figg series to Boldwood, the first of which, Chaos in Carnegie Hall, will be published in November 2022.

Connect with Kelly

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kellyoliverauthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kellyoliverbook

Bookbub profile: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/kelly-oliver

Follow the Chaos at Carnegie Hall blog tour with Rachel’s Random Resources

Happy Release Day to Warrior of Mercia, book 3 in the Eagle of Mercia Chronicles

Today sees the release of book 3 in my series about young Icel, a much-loved character from my The Ninth Century series featuring King Coelwulf, the last king of Mercia. And so, now that Icel as a young man, and Icel as a crotchety older man are both firmly in reader’s minds, I thought I’d share more about the idea for the Eagle of Mercia Chronicles series.

My characters in the Ninth Century series feel like they very much arrived in my head fully formed. Coelwulf was obviously the first, but others quickly followed, and Icel, with his derisive comments about any of their accomplishments, was an early fan favourite, and one of my favourites as well. Surly, and outspoken, while offering little of his life before the period that my characters knew him, he really did speak to me when I was deciding on a new series to write for Boldwood Books. All those little comments he makes. I think the below is our first introduction to his character;

“In the reign of King Wiglaf I first became a man,” he’s fond of saying, although he never explains what act made him a man. Again, I’ve stopped questioning him. Edmund likes to when he’s either drunk too much, or is trying to distract himself from whatever attack we’re about to begin. And of course Rudolf hangs on Icel’s every word. They’re an excellent match for each other, the boy who never runs out of questions, and the man who never answers them.’ (The Last King)

All these hints at what he might really have been like when he was perhaps no older than Rudolf, another firm fan favourite, made me want to tell his story. It did help that Mercia, at the time he would have been a boy was in political turmoil. It also helped that the Viking Raiders were making an appearance in Saxon England as well throughout the 830s. But Icel is a fictional character, and while fictionalising my Saxon characters, the men and women I normally write about did actually exist, even if we only have their names. But Mercia, in the 820s and 830s suffered a series of successive kingships, many of which failed, and so while Icel is fictitious, he does allow me to give a more rounded view of the entirety of events. He will live through these tumultuous times, and that’s important when I wanted to write about these events as well as all the kings.

It also helped that, in my contrary nature as a writer of historical fiction, that I always want to offer something a little different to the oft-taken paths when authors write about Saxon England – the Vikings, the reign of Alfred, Ethelred the Unready and the Norman Conquest, as well as the Golden Age of Northumbria, are often chosen but there is just so much more in these six hundred years to write about. So, no one else was writing about Mercia as it begins to falter in the 820s and 830s, and so I thought, why not:)

I really, really hope you’ll enjoy book 3, Warrior of Mercia, which follows Icel to the kingdom of the East Angles. I can also assure you that Book 4 is well underway as well.

Icel is a lone wolf no more…

Oath sworn to Wiglaf, King of Mercia and acknowledged as a member of Ealdorman Ælfstan’s warrior band, Icel
continues to forge his own destiny on the path to becoming the Warrior of Mercia.

With King Ecgberht of Wessex defeated and Londonium back under Mercian control, the Wessex invasion of Mercia is over.

But the Wessex king was never Mercia’s only enemy. An unknown danger lurks in the form of merciless Viking raiders, who set their sights on infiltrating the waterways of the traitorous breakaway kingdom of the East Angles, within touching distance of Mercia’s eastern borders.

Icel must journey to the kingdom of the East Angles and unite against a common enemy to ensure Mercia’s hard-won freedom prevails.

books2read.com/WarriorofMercia

Available now in ebook, paperback, large print paperback, hardback and audio.

Check out some blog posts I wrote for release day!

Adding the ‘little’ bits to enrich a story of Saxon historical fiction

Peterborough Monastery ✨

And you can follow the blog tour with Rachel’s Random Resources too. I’ll be updating with links to reviews, and I’d like to say a huge thank you to my blog tour hosts and usual reviewers for going out of their way to make release day so special.

The Pursuit of Bookiness

Stacy T Advance Book Reviewer

Splashes into Books

Johann Loves Book Talk

Sharon Beyond the Books

Ruins and Reading

The Strawberry Post

Reviewsfeed

I’m sharing my review for Domitian by S J A Turney – highly recommended historical fiction #bookreview #histfic

Here’s the blurb

Rome, AD 52. The Julio-Claudian dynasty is in its death throes. Over the next twenty years, chaos descends as Claudius then Nero are killed. The whole empire bucks and heaves with conspiracy, rebellion and civil war.

Out of the ashes and discord, a new imperial family emerges: the Flavians. Vespasian is crowned emperor, with his sons, Titus and Domitian, next in line.

Domitian, still only a teenager, has known only fear, death and treachery for as long as he has been alive. Suspicious of the senate as a breeding ground for treachery, and fiercely protective of his surviving family members, he uses a network of spies to stay one step ahead of any would-be conspirators.

When Titus unexpectedly falls gravely ill, the throne beckons for Domitian, something he never wanted or prepared for. As in all his darkest moments, Domitian’s childhood guardian, Nerva, is the man he turns to with his fears, and his secrets…

My Review

Domitian by S J A Turney is an engrossing story of political shenanigans in first-century AD Rome.

I’m not hugely well-read on Roman history, but through reading Turney’s books, I’ve come to appreciate just what a rich tapestry there is to weave tales of corruption, war and politics. And cor, doesn’t Domitian have it all? The narrative starts during the reign of Nero, and takes us through the year of the four emperors, when Vespasian comes out on top, through the brief rule of his son, and then onto Domitian. It’s not quite as whistlestop as it sounds, but the viewpoint Turney adopts, through the eyes of Nerva, allows the reader to stand back and watch it all happen, perhaps, like me, with an increasingly open mouth of disbelief.

This isn’t a fast read, as perhaps others of Turney’s more martial Roman stories might be, but it is absorbing. There isn’t a cast of thousands, but there are still many men who rise and fall (not so many women, but they are still included in the story), and events that we all might know more about, such as the eruption of Vesuvius and the continuing invasion of Britannia under Agricola (I see what you did there Mr Turney:)).

This is a story of politics, spies and corruption; of men who don’t want to fall into the same traps as those who went before. It is a fabulous story, and I highly, highly recommend it.

Buy Now