historical fiction

Fiction: Investigating the Kennedy Assassination: Why Was Kennedy Killed? by Michael J. Deeb and Robert Lockwood Mills

August 25, 2024 admin 0

If there was ever a week where we had enough Kennedy, it was this one. With the son of a former presidential hopeful and the nephew of one of America’s best-loved presidents of all time making headlines for forging deals with political devils, it’s easy to say, “enough already” with the Kennedy’s. Yet, for all their faults, Michael J. Deeb and Robert Lockwood Mills can’t be called on the carpet for the timing of their […]

Crime Fiction: Blackout by Simon Scarrow

April 8, 2022 J. Kingston Pierce 1

I’m a huge fan of crime novels set in Europe during World War II. Although the deaths of Philip Kerr and, more recently, J. Robert Janes have lessened the supply of high-quality stories in that field, British author Simon Scarrow has stepped up with Blackout (Kensington), the top-notch opening installment in a Berlin-set series featuring Criminal Inspector Horst Schenke of the Kriminalpolizei. Like Kerr’s protagonist, Bernie Gunther, Schenke steers clear of Nazi affiliations. That makes […]

Fiction: The Wolf Boy by Sam Osherson

April 29, 2020 admin 0

A brilliant but untested young general, Hannibal of Carthage, is about to embark on an audacious war against powerful Rome, the enemy who defeated his father and threatens the future of his city. In The Wolf Boy, an orphaned boy, Nahatum, is caught stealing from Hannibal’s tent and is about to be executed by the guards. Instead, Hannibal finds himself unexpectedly charmed by the boy and — just as surprisingly, makes Nahatum his servant as […]

Fiction: Last Gentleman in the Middle Distance by Jean A. Verthein

February 13, 2020 admin 0

Last Gentleman in the Middle Distance is a literary historical novel with a timely edge. The story introduces us to a young woman named Meta after World War I. Running away from her estranged family in rural Lower Saxony, she arrives with her friends into 1920s Berlin. By choice or fate, the politics of the day and the struggle for food and home absorbs each one. To duck out of rural turmoil, they must confront […]

Fiction: Lafayette: Courtier to Crown Fugitive, 1757-1777 by S.P. Grogan

January 13, 2020 admin 0

More so than history, Lafayette: Courtier to Crown Fugitive, 1757 to 1777 (Histria) delves into the mystery of how the character of Marquis de La Fayette rose to the occasion in his desire to fight for the underdog rebels in faraway America. This is a fictional account of the coming-of-age of one of France’s most wealthy young bachelors. Author S.P. Grogan places the youth of Gilbert into the context of the world around him in […]

Fiction: The Ship’s Carpenter by DE Stockman

September 12, 2019 admin 0

Caught between Great Britain and France in the mid 1700s, Abraham struggles to pursue his passion for shipbuilding. Kings and captains interrupt his quest for a peaceful life as he encounters and overcomes barriers in two opposed and stratified cultures.From the streets of old London to the Citadel of Louisbourg and lands between, seafaring battle action and love’s complexities entwine to create a dramatic story centered on the carpenter and his love, Yvette. The fastest […]

Final Wolf Hall Installment Delayed

July 5, 2017 admin 0

Hilary Mantel has said that the third and final book in her bestselling Wolf Hall series, The Mirror and the Light, will be delayed. Significantly, Mantel has been awarded the Booker Prize for each of her previous two books in this series: In 2009 for Wolf Hall, and for Bring Up the Bodies in 2012. Fans are understandably impatient for round three. From The Guardian: The book may not appear until 2019, said Mantel, who […]

Fiction: Rush Oh! by Shirley Barrett

April 28, 2016 J. Kingston Pierce 0

(Editor’s note: This review comes from Steven Nester, host of Poets of the Tabloid Murder, a weekly Internet radio show heard on the Public Radio Exchange [PRX]. Nester is also a freelance writer whose work has appeared in The Rap Sheet, Mystery Scene and Firsts Magazine.) Rush Oh! (Little, Brown), a first novel by Australian filmmaker Shirley Barrett, is also the cry alerting whalers to launch their longboats and let fly “the sting of iron” […]

Fiction: Out of Mercy by Jonathan Ashley

January 14, 2016 J. Kingston Pierce 1

(Editor’s note: This review comes from Steven Nester, host of Poets of the Tabloid Murder, a weekly Internet radio show heard on the Public Radio Exchange [PRX]. Nester is also a freelance writer whose work has appeared in The Rap Sheet, Mystery Scene and Firsts Magazine.) The decades after America’s Civil War were brutal, especially in the border states where North and South bore murderous grudges and roving gangs pillaged dirt-poor towns ruled by anarchy. […]