THE ROMANOV BRIDE
Robert Alexander, Viking, 2008, $24.95, hb, 306pp, 97806700188199
    In the first two decades of the 20th century, two worlds collide in Russia. The fall of the Romanovs and the massacre of Tsar Nicholas and his family make headlines. The Romanov Bride, though, tells the story of another family member, Grand Duchess Elisavyeta (Ella), the older sister of Tsarina Alexandra. Raised to help those in need, Ella finds she must put aside her desires to follow the dictates of her husband. She loves him, but, scarred by the horrors of his father’s assassination, he is unable to return that love. When revolutionists murder Sergei, Ella reexamines her life and gives up her riches and power to become the abbess of a convent that caters to the needs of those less fortunate.
    After the tragic and needless death of his wife and child during a peaceful march to see the tsar, Pavel seeks only revenge. He becomes a revolutionary who aids the cause by killing Romanovs and those who work with them. When he agrees to assist in the slaying of Grand Duke Sergei, Pavel’s life becomes intertwined with Ella’s.
    What makes this account of the Romanov tragedy so compelling is that the reader lives the events from two opposing perspectives. Alexander brings to life the privileged world of the ruling family and the poverty they refused to see. How different Russia might have been “if only…” is vividly portrayed within these pages. The Romanov Bride is a poignant recounting of tragic and horrible events that will bring tears to your eyes. The ironic twist of fate at the end makes this a tale as haunting as the murders in the “House of Special Purpose” in Ekaterinburg in 1918. -- Cindy Vallar

SKYLARK FARM
Antonia Arslan (trans. Geoffrey Brock), Atlantic, 2008, £12.99, pb, 275pp, 9781843546733 / Vintage, 2008, $14.95, pb, 288pp, 9781400095674
    Arslan’s luminous debut novel tells the unbearable story of the 1915 Armenian genocide in Turkey. Ethnic Armenian Yerwant Arslanian has left his home in Anatolia to study medicine in Italy. He stays on, marries an Italian countess, and lives the life of a privileged Westerner. After forty years in exile, he at last prepares to return to his homeland and visit his beloved brother Sempad and the rest of his extended family. But just as Yerwant is about to leave on his journey, Italy joins the Great War and the borders close. Meanwhile the Turkish regime, bent on cleansing the nation of ethnic minorities, orders the gendarmes to round up all Armenian men. Sempad, his wife Shushanig, their family, and friends seek refuge on Skylark Farm, the family’s country house in the hills. But Nazim, a double-dealing beggar, betrays them.
    A squad of armed horsemen closes in on Skylark Farm and butchers the men and boys, while forcing the women and girls to watch. The survivors are then sent on a long death march which will end in the southern desert. By official government invitation, Kurdish tribesmen sweep down from the mountains to seize Armenian property and to rape the women and children. Sushanig and her daughters are brutalised and left to die of hunger and disease. Any Turk who helps an Armenian will be punished by death.
    Horrified by his deed, Nazim, the betrayer, now seeks to redeem himself in a race against time to save Sushanig and her remaining children.
    Arslan does not stint in exposing the carnage, yet there is nothing gratuitous here. Writing about the lives of lost family members she never knew, she gives dignity to the dead and immortalises a tragedy that must never be forgotten. Heartbreaking and highly recommended. -- Mary Sharratt

WICKED CITY
Ace Atkins, Putnam, 2008, $24.95/C$30.00, hb, 352pp, 9780399154577
    In 1954, Phenix City on the Alabama side of the Chattahoochee River was often compared to Sodom and Gomorrah. Situated on the Georgia border, Phenix City, nick-named Sin City by the press, was a magnet for the soldiers at Fort Benning. Nevertheless, there were many decent, upright citizens disgusted with the well-entrenched political machine that fed off Phenix City’s profits from gambling and prostitution. One man, Albert Patterson, stepped up to the mat, put his life on the line and was elected State Attorney General. His murder before taking office is the last straw.
    The hero is a gas station owner named Lamar Murphy. Lamar seems to be one of those men who, having found themselves in the right (or possibly the wrong) place at the right (or wrong) time, bites the bullet and just gets the job done. He is named sheriff and, along with Patterson’s son, investigates the murder. This investigation causes a rash of cover-up crimes. Despite threats to his life and family, Lamar manages to keep all intact and catch the bad guys in the end.
    Ace Atkins has done a superb job with this fictionalized account of a true incident. Wicked City is peopled with both real and invented characters. He successfully employs the style of investigative journalism, and the plot moves along at a rapid, cannot- put-down pace. -- Audrey Braver

THE DARK LANTERN
Gerri Brightwell, Crown, 2008, $24.95/C$27.95, hb, 320pp, 9780307395344
    Brightwell has fashioned a multilayered, Upstairs, Downstairs-type mystery that drew me in completely. When I finally paused to reflect, I realized it had everything but the kitchen sink. To wit: a young servant girl moves from the country to London and hides her past from her new employers; the matriarch of this household is on her deathbed while her daughter-in-law longs to return to Paris; and her son is intent on proving that anthropometry is a superior method to fingerprinting in identifying criminals. One more thing—when the eldest son is expected to return from India, what the family gets instead is a woman claiming to be his widow and the news that he has drowned at sea.
    The author deftly weaves together multiple plot strands—although on the surface there is no central mystery, there are several smaller ones that come together quite credibly at the end. Characters are unique and engaging, with Jane, the servant girl with the secret, being the most sympathetic. Her experience “downstairs” is rendered with such realism as to make me devoutly wish she would get the happy ending she deserved. Is her gentleman caller too good to be true? Other plotlines are equally engrossing. Even knowing that fingerprinting wins out over anthropometry, I was fascinated by Robert Bentley’s utter devotion to the cause. And now this review has everything in it but the kitchen sink. So many reasons to enjoy this book. -- Ellen Keith

BEWITCHING SEASON
Marissa Doyle, Henry Holt, 2008, $16.95/C$19.75, hb, 352pp, 9780805082517
    This delightful debut by Marissa Doyle bodes well for her career as a writer of young adult novels. Set during the months just prior to Queen Victoria’s ascension to the throne, Bewitching Season follows the adventures of apprentice witch Persephone Leland and her twin, Penelope.
    The girls’ governess, Miss Allardyce, a powerful witch, disappears the week before the London Season begins, leaving the girls without her guidance during their coming out. Determined to find her, they join forces with their younger brother Charles, family friend Lochinavar Seton, and the Allardyce family on a search that leads them into the depths of Kensington Palace, where they encounter an evil courtier with nefarious plans for Princess Victoria.
    All the elements sure to appeal to teenage readers are here: a handsome young man, pretty dresses, balls, and a mystery to solve. Add the historical setting, beautifully drawn with just the right amount of detail, and the romance, with the aforesaid handsome young man, and it's a hard tale to resist. The plot rolls along, alternating between the debutante balls and the gloomy palace.
    Persephone is a wonderful heroine. Though talented at her studies, she lacks the confidence of her sister. Throughout the story she learns much about herself and those around her. This coming-of-age aspect adds depth to an already charming romp, broadening its appeal. The other characters are equally appealing and well defined, firmly rooted in their era. I especially liked young Charles, who bounded along with just the right combination of enthusiasm and boyish charm.
    From the very first page, this book had me hooked, and it will join other favoured novels waiting to be shared with my nieces when they’re older. Very highly recommended. -- Teresa Basinski Eckford

THE MOON IN THE MANGO TREE
Pamela Binnings Ewen, B&H, 2008, $15.99, pb, 480pp, 9780805447330
    Barbara Perkins adores opera. She is a talented singer. When her chance finally comes to work with the Chicago Opera, she finds her husband Harvey, a doctor, has an equal desire to be a missionary to Siam. Barbara must choose between the husband she loves and the musical career she always wanted. It’s 1919, and although Barbara considers herself a modern woman, she is still encouraged by all to accompany her husband and find her fulfillment with him. She chooses to follow her husband despite her budding musical career.
    Barbara finds life in a remote northern village of Siam, far from civilization, to be both enchanting and horrific in turns. She makes herself unpopular with some of the missionaries when she enjoys learning about the traditions and religion of the people around her. The primitive living conditions and the deep-seated prejudice of her fellow missionaries make life in Siam very difficult for her, and she begins to wonder if she made the right choice.
     Pamela Binnings Ewen wrote this richly detailed novel based on the experiences of her grandmother, who lived in Siam and Europe during the Roaring Twenties. The story thoughtfully and realistically describes the inner turmoil of this young woman as well as the beauty and dangers of Siam. Descriptions of the landscape and the people are so vivid that the reader becomes as enchanted with Siam as Barbara. The subtle inspirational elements enhance the plot without overpowering it. This is a thought-provoking and enjoyable story, difficult to put down. Highly recommended. -- Nan Curnutt

THE TWICE BORN
Pauline Gedge, Penguin Canada, 2007, C$24.00, pb, 624pp, 9780143052913
    After tackling the revolt against the Hyksos in her superb Lord of the Two Lands trilogy, Pauline Gedge returns in excellent form with her latest offering, The Twice Born. The first in a two-volume series surrounding the reign of Pharaoh Amunhotep the Third, this novel traces the childhood and eventual rise to power of Huy, son of Hapu, who became one of Egypt’s most respected and enigmatic seers, renowned for his insights into the fabled Book of Thoth.
    Ms. Gedge readily admits in her afterword that very little is known about Huy before he attracted the patronage of his Pharaoh; nevertheless, she manages to weave out of a few historical fragments a vivid, emotionally charged tapestry about the spoiled, intelligent son of a peasant farmer who suffers a terrible accident and is plunged into a labyrinth of deities, prescience and divination. Anchored by her impeccable knowledge of ancient Egypt, Gedge portrays Huy’s struggle to accept his destiny with conviction and an unapologetic lack of sentimentality. Her descriptions of the daily lives of the priestly and the noble castes, as well as the toils of the commoner, capture in vivid color the smells, tastes, sights and sounds of a vanquished time whose mysteries continue to captivate our imagination.
    While not as well known in the United States, Pauline Gedge has long been an international bestseller, with six million copies of her books in print. With The Twice Born, she cements her reputation as one of our genre’s finest writers, capable of conveying through her evocative prose the spiritual and secular panorama of a young man who must learn to come to terms with a terrifying power capable of transforming both him and the world around him.
-- C.W. Gortner

THE MONSTERS OF TEMPLETON
Lauren Groff, Voice, 2008, $24.95/$27.95, hb, 364pp, 9781401322250 / Heinemann, 2008, £12.99, hb, 384pp, 9780434017843
    Willie (Wilhelmina) Upton, a doctoral student in archaeology who has gotten a bit too involved with a married professor during a dig in Alaska, returns to her hometown of Templeton, New York, to recuperate and to figure out what life holds in store for her. While she is moping about, her mother drops an explosive piece of news: Willie’s father wasn’t actually one of three possible hippies in San Francisco, but a fellow resident of Templeton. Willie’s mother sends her on a quest to find her father, giving her just one clue: he was an illegitimate descendant of Marmaduke Temple, the founder of Templeton. Willie begins to trawl through the family history to identify her father.
    The author doesn’t hide the fact that Templeton is actually Cooperstown, New York, and the Temple family is the Cooper family, which included the famous author James Fenimore Cooper. A reader familiar with his work will find additional richness in this novel, but even one who does not know the stories will be captivated. Throughout the book, there are chapters written by various members of the Temple family and others who were involved with Marmaduke, giving great immediacy to what Willie is discovering through the distance of time. These chapters sometimes take the form of letters or testaments, and span the late 1700s to early 1900s. Willie manages to uncover a variety of family-related secrets during her search, all the time dealing with numerous stressful life events: the results of her affair, her mother’s new religious mania, her best friend’s illness, and the surfacing of the corpse of the long-rumored Templeton monster from the depths of Glimmerglass Lake, which casts a pall over the town for much of the summer.
    This multi-period, multi-textured novel is an absolute treat to read.
-- Trudi E. Jacobson

MISTRESS OF THE SUN
Sandra Gulland, Touchstone, 2008, $26.00, hb, 400pp, 9780743298872 / HarperCollins Canada, 2008, C$29.95, hb, 352pp, 9780002007757
    In her first novel in eight years (following the international success of her Josephine B. trilogy), Sandra Gulland has chosen an enigmatic figure—Louise de la Vallière, mistress to Louis XIV and mother of four children by him. Louise has been overshadowed in history by her more glamorous successors and the flamboyance that characterized the later years of Louis’s reign, but in her captivating jewel of a novel Gulland offers an absorbing account of a woman who reluctantly became a royal mistress and paid the price.
    Gulland’s Louise has a fey spirit with the ability to enchant horses. In a desperate act of magic to save a feral stallion’s life she sets the course for her own destiny, one that will bring her equal measures of sorrow and joy. Uneasy with the cruel sycophantism of court, caught between her innate spiritual introspection and an impoverished lineage that compels her to noble servitude, Louise eventually catches the young king’s eye. Louis is handsome and vital, poised to assume his later embodiment as the Sun King. In Louise, he discovers incorruptible innocence, and their romance flourishes under a secrecy that continues for years, even as he grows in stature and she wrestles with her conscience and the degradation of her illusions. Scandal ensues when Louise is brought into the open as Louis’s lover; this fateful moment also sets the stage for her decline.
     Fascinating details of life at the French court sparkle throughout the narrative, evidence of Gulland’s dedication to research. While Louise may not be as ambitious or clever as those who followed in her footsteps, she imbues an unforgettable authenticity that gives credence to the belief that she was Louis XIV’s only true love. -- C.W. Gortner

BOUND
Sally Gunning, Morrow, $24.95/C$26.95, hb, 307pp, 9780061240256
    Gunning’s second outstanding historical novel explores a young woman’s difficult coming of age, a process that teaches her much about freedom, trust, and the responsibilities associated with both.
    Sold by her debt-ridden father as an indentured servant upon their arrival in Massachusetts in 1756, Alice Cole grows up knowing abandonment by those she loves. She spends her childhood bound to the Morton family and treated almost like a sister by daughter Nabby, whom she follows to a new household when Nabby marries – which proves her misfortune. Dutiful Alice, fifteen and beautiful, attracts the unwanted attention of Nabby’s new husband. Desperate to escape, Alice flees eastward on foot along the Boston road and stows away on a ship belonging to a sympathetic widow from Satucket, Lyddie Berry, and her companion. Widow Berry takes her in, making use of Alice’s skill in spinning, and they spend silent days weaving wool into homespun as a protest against costly British goods. Alice’s past life catches up with her, but she finds it impossible to trust the widow and her boarder, attorney Eben Freeman, until it’s almost too late.
     From here on, the storyline becomes completely unpredictable, yet it’s fully in keeping with Alice’s character and her social milieu. Gunning’s spare dialogue captures the famous “New England reserve” (surely more pronounced in the mid-18^th century?); she also painstakingly re-creates colonial Cape Cod, from its clapboard houses, busy wharves, and fresh salty air to the growing political stirrings among its residents. As a standalone novel, Bound will transport you 250 years into the past and immerse you in a dramatic storyline that exposes the injustice of indentured servitude. As a sequel to The Widow’s War, it not only continues but enhances the experience of the original. Beautifully done, and strongly recommended. -- Sarah Johnson

THE LAST BEAR
Mandy Haggith, Two Ravens Press, 2008, £8.99, pb, 198pp, 9781906120160
    Brigid is the last in a long line of medicine women; she lives alone in the forest since she has been banished from the local community by James, the priest and brother-in-law of the headman, Bjorn.
    One thousand years ago, the Vikings are settled in the North West Highlands of Scotland, and the spread of Christianity clashes with the old pagan beliefs; conflicts arise and loyalties become confused. In her forest home, Brigid watches and marks the changes and their effects on the people and their world as the new ways encroach on the community, even into the forest. With the death of the last bear, the world is changed forever. There is no escaping the long-term effects that man imposes on his environment – a theme that resonates today.
    Beautifully written, this is a wonderful mix of legend and historical romance: a moving and exciting first novel from a fine writer. -- Ann Oughton

MICHAELMAS TRIBUTE (UK) / A SECRET AND UNLAWFUL KILLING (US)
Cora Harrison, Macmillan, 2008, £16.99, hb, 326pp, 9781405092258 / Minotaur, Sept. 2008, $24.95, hb, 336pp, 9780312372682
    The Brehon Judge, Mara, returns in this second historical murder mystery set in the Burren in north-west Ireland. It is 1509 and people are gathering for the Michaelmas Fair, but an angry undercurrent is marring the celebrations. Ragnall MacNamara, the unpopular steward of the MacNamara clan, is found murdered and Mara is called upon to investigate. Another death soon follows to complicate the picture.
    Mara needs all her professional wits about her – especially since an unexpected marriage proposal is distracting her thoughts – to get to the bottom of this knotty case. And, when she finally pinpoints the awful truth, it seems that she must inevitably hurt the person she loves the most.
    Once again, Cora Harrison brings 16th century Ireland beautifully to life and her Brehon detective, Mara is a fantastic protagonist – an absolute one-off and yet refreshingly real. Her dignity and intelligence are beacons that guide the reader through a murky story of greed and vengeance. -- Sara Wilson

The Invention of Everything Else
Samantha Hunt, Houghton Mifflin, 2008, $24/C$26.95, hb, 272pp, 9780618801121 / Harvill Secker, 2008, £12.99, hb, 368pp, 9781846551925
    In 1943 Louisa and her father Walter live alone in a house in Hell’s Kitchen. Louisa is a chambermaid at the Hotel New Yorker, and her father is the night watchman at the New York Public Library in Bryant Square. Walter is a dreamer who has spent his life mourning the loss of his true love, Louisa’s mother, who died an indeterminate amount of time before. His one passion is science and science fiction, a passion he shares with his best friend Azor, who has been mysteriously missing for the past two years.
    Enter the true hero of the piece: Nikola Tesla, an old, impoverished inventor living on the 34^th floor of the Hotel New Yorker (visitors can still stay in that room). Louisa, who cannot resist snooping in the rooms she cleans, finds her way into his extraordinary abode and discovers a remarkable life, written in hidden papers. But things take a strange turn when Azor turns up again out of nowhere, claiming to have built a time machine that gives Walter hope that he can return to the past and have just one more conversation with his beloved wife, Freddie.
    To try to encapsulate this remarkable story, how Hunt weaves together the threads of several lives—current and in times past—in a poignant and believable dénouement would be to do this beautiful novel a disservice. From the language that creates a magical atmosphere imbued with longing and possibility, to the perfectly paced, inevitable and yet surprising drama, The Invention of Everything Else is a joy to read.
    A word of warning: you may just fall hopelessly in love with the striking Mr. Tesla, with the winsome Louisa, the dreamy Walter, the preposterous and impractical Azor, and the solid, secure Arthur, Louisa’s beau, and possibly find yourself wishing that you could turn the clocks back and enter their world.
-- Susanne Dunlap

THE OUTCAST
Sadie Jones, Chatto & Windus, 2008, £12.99, hb, 347pp, 9780701181758 / Harper, 2008, $24.95, hb, 352pp, 9780061374036
    Set in a middle-class commuter town in southern England in the late 1940s and 1950s, this is a highly accomplished first novel. The story begins with Lewis Aldridge, in his late teens, arriving home on his release from Brixton prison after serving two years for an unknown offence. The tale unfolds of the circumstances leading up to his incarceration and then the disturbing events following his return to home life in fictional Waterford (not to be confused with the town in Ireland). Lewis is a disturbed and difficult young man, but we are taken through the events in his young life, starting with the death of his mother in a drowning accident whilst picnicking. Lewis grows up bereaved in a cold and bleak domestic environment, with his father quickly remarrying.
    The milieu of harsh home life and culture of the England in the 1950s are pictured with acute and searing honesty. There is the hypocrisy of the small community, church-based and yet utterly selfish and sanctimonious, and the delights of hidden domestic abuse, drunkenness and repression. Lewis finds some relief in this paean of gloom, notably with his developing relationship with Kit Carmichael, the rebellious and abused daughter of Waterford’s wealthy alpha-male. This is excellent historical fiction, both an engaging story and a work of literary finesse. -- Doug Kemp

DAY
A.L. Kennedy, Knopf, 2008, $24.00, 288pp, 9780307266835 / Vintage, 2008, £7.99, pb, 288pp, 9780099494058
    Alfie Day has been an RAF tail gunner and a starved, beaten POW. Five years have passed, and Alfred is the sole survivor of his bomber crew. He is also among the millions of walking wounded, living in the scarcity and devastation of post-war Britain. A fishmonger’s battered son, he’d half hoped the war would end a life he’d been taught was worthless. Now he endures survivors’ guilt and a swarm of stabbing memories, the agonizing hyper-realities of childhood abuse and twenty-nine bombing missions.
    The author’s exquisite prose carries the reader past the near dumb shows of Day’s conversation, deep into the clear, swirling eddies of his mind. This is a man who knows more than he shows, who is frozen by the violence he’s endured. Hoping to find his way out of paralyzing numbness, he travels to Germany to take part in a film set in a death camp. Here the past, both in memory and in the form of an SS man now passing as a partisan, confronts him. He remembers, hopelessly, the few moments of tenderness in his life, a wartime affair with a married woman.
    Occasionally the stream of consciousness left me behind, but the superb precision of the writing brought a knockout punch to each and every page. Day gives the reader World War II warts and all, stripped of pieties or flag-waving. Ms. Kennedy, who has won prestigious awards for earlier works, again demonstrates a humbling mastery of her art. -- Juliet Waldron

LAVINIA
Ursula K. Le Guin, Harcourt, 2008, $24.00, hb, 288pp, 9780151014248 / To be pub. by Gollancz, 2009, £18.99, hb, 432pp, 9780575084582
    I’ve always wished I could write Ms. Le Guin’s lucid prose. In so few words she can create a world and take you there. More than that, though, she slides you into the mind and mindset of her characters and gives you a sense of understanding their world. Lavinia’s world is also Virgil’s, because Lavinia is the king’s daughter from the Aeneid who marries Aeneas; together they founded the lineage of Rome. Virgil spares her one line, but Le Guin gives her a life.
    In the novel Lavinia tells her own story, but she also tell the poet’s. There is a fine interweaving between the story from the sacred grove, where Lavinia met (and continues to meet) the spirit of the dying Virgil, and Lavinia’s own. Her future is foreshadowed by the poet’s words. She knows she will marry Aeneas and that he will live a scant three years longer. So we follow Lavinia as the threads are woven together: Lavinia’s growing up, her home and family, Virgil’s bloody battles and deaths, the sweet years of marriage, and then the struggles to see the son Lavinia bore Aeneas become the man his father would have wanted.
    If you enjoyed Virgil’s Aeneid, you will enjoy seeing that one line fleshed out. If you like classical history, this is a fascinating glimpse of the little warrior states that eventually became part of Rome. For those who like poetic prose, a good story well told, and living through a different mind in another world, then Lavinia will be a book to enjoy again and again. -- Patrika Salmon

THE SWORD OF REVENGE
Jack Ludlow, Allison & Busby, 2008, £19.99, hb, 410pp, 9780749080143
    This is the second of a trilogy set in the Roman Republic during the period before Julius Caesar. The first part, Pillars of Rome, was reviewed in HNR 43. The story has now advanced to the next generation of characters, who must deal with the consequences of death and betrayal in an age of wars and lethal politics. Titus Cornelius sets out on a path of vengeance that he hopes will make him a great soldier, whilst his brother Quintus follows a political route that brings him up against the most powerful senator in Rome, a man haunted by a prophecy connecting him with the Cornelius family. And then there’s Aquila, the abandoned child who becomes a mercenary in Spain.
    This is a rip-roaring page-turner with considerable depth. It gives a vivid, authentic flavour of those turbulent times, laced as it is with carefully-worked-in historical detail that’s informative without being intrusive. And the characters are engagingly three-dimensional, even the villains.
-- Sarah Cuthbertson

THE BLACKSTONE KEY
Rose Melikan, Sphere, 2008, pb, £10, 435pp, 9781847441331 / Touchstone, Sept. 2008, $14.00, pb, 465pp, 9781416560807
    Mary Finch receives an invitation from a rich, estranged uncle to meet him at White Ladies, his estate on the Suffolk coast. Mary’s own circumstances have been somewhat wanting, so she courageously sets off on her own with her uncle’s letter determined to mend the twenty-year family rift.
    In 1795 such a journey is perilous enough for a young woman travelling on her own. However, Mary’s journey will become a greater adventure than she could have possibly envisaged. A roadside accident results in a man dying; he whispers strange warnings to her. Mary also discovers he carries her uncle’s watch. With no answers to her growing number of questions, she is saddened to learn on arrival at her destination that her uncle has already died. She is helped by two men, and confides in both as they try to find out the significance of the Blackstone Key.
    Mary is naïve about the world, but intelligent, knowledgeable about legal issues and gifted at analytical thinking. Her determination to solve the puzzle leads her into a lonely place where she does not know who she can trust. Fate draws her into the path of smugglers, and worse, the sinister world of espionage. But who is the traitor? She has stumbled into a world where nothing is as it seems. In the midst of this she has a growing fondness for one of her helpers.
    The novel starts off in a gentle manner and increases in pace and action as the story progresses and the mystery builds. Readers who love period detail, whether in costume, fact, language or law, will revel in this book. Although predominantly a mystery, it has the contrast of a gentle romance building within it. Ultimately, it has an exciting, action-packed and satisfying ending.
-- Valerie Loh

SUN OF SILVER, MOON OF GOLD
Maureen Peters, Hale, 2008, £18.99, hb, 223pp, 9780709084440
    In 1837, following her father’s death, Flora Scott is not surprised when her family decides to send her to the New World to stay with her uncle Frank. After all, she is already resigned to her fate – ending up as an old spinster. At 27 years of age, she knows the move would rid her family of an embarrassment, and a dependant.
    Flora travels to Chicago, secretly hoping for an adventure. While she awaits collection at the coach stop, she encounters an Indian who helps her with her cases. She immediately notices the arrogant behaviour of the white locals towards him. But she has no time to ponder on the injustice yet. Her uncle’s estate manager, Brent O’Brien, arrives to collect her and takes her to her uncle’s manor house.
    As Flora settles in, she is confronted with suspicion by her uncle’s staff, Brent amongst them. She is enraged by the white settlers’ arrogance towards the Indians and stands up against what she considers to be a great injustice. She becomes friendly with an outcast, ignoring warnings and snubs. When actions by the local government to relocate a tribe get out of hand, she hatches a plan and receives help from an unexpected source, Brent. As his bloodline is revealed, they decide to face the truth – and the world – together, regardless of consequences.
    Sun of Silver, Moon of Gold is a riveting tale of a young woman’s fight against cruelty and ignorance. It shows the hardships the Indian tribes faced at the hands of the white incomers, and the helplessness of individuals against the majority. That, with a dose of romance, makes excellent reading.
-- Stephanie Hochadel

KILLING ROMMEL

Steven Pressfield, Doubleday, 2008, $24.95/C$32.00, hb, 333pp / Doubleday, 2008, £12.99, pb, 335pp, 9780385613880
    North Africa, 1942. The British Eighth Army is in trouble. The brilliant and daring tactician, Field-Marshal Rommel, and his Panzer divisions have captured Tobruk, giving them a base from which to capture the vital oil fields of the Middle East. The Long Range Desert Group, a small, heavily-armed yet highly mobile force, is set up to get behind the German lines and cause as much damage as possible – preferably by killing Rommel.
    Young Lieutenant Chapman finds himself seconded to this new commando force. Once behind enemy lines, they have only themselves to rely on. Chapman must learn fast if he and his mates are to carry out their objectives – and survive.
    In war, a man learns who he truly is. Chapman has this epiphany and learns both his limitations and, paradoxically, that he can push himself far beyond what he ever imagined. At the end of the book he says, ‘I did not go to war gravely and soberly as Lao-Tzu tells us a wise man ought. But I returned from it that way.’
    This is a first-class war adventure: fast-paced, accurate without being pedantic, full of danger, chases, and hairbreadth escapes as Chapman and his men in their worn-out tanks and rapidly diminishing supplies somehow manage to keep one step ahead of the Germans. But Pressfield is too good a writer to ignore the brutal realities. He does not allow his readers to forget that soldiers get killed, sometimes agonizingly, and that military authorities can be incompetent. There is chaos as well as quiet heroism. If you want insight into the reality of life at war, as well as thrills, this is the book for you.
-- Elizabeth Hawksley

THE SEVENTH WELL
Fred Wander (trans. Michael Hofmann), Granta, 2008, £12.99, hb, 160pp, 9781847080226 / W. W. Norton, 2007, $23.95, hb, 192pp, 9780393065381
    The Seventh Well was originally published in East Germany in 1971, but not until its reissue in 2006 did it begin to achieve the notice it deserves. Its life story is thus not dissimilar to that of Primo Levi’s If This Is A Man, which sank almost without trace on its first publication in 1947 but has gone on to be recognised as one of the greatest works of Holocaust literature. I fervently hope Fred Wander’s novel will achieve the same reputation. Although it is a novel, and Levi’s book is a memoir, there are many similarities between them – their brevity, their anecdotal structure, their memorable cast of everyday heroes, but most of all, their total freedom from judgmentalism. What is the point, they seem to say, in even trying to understand what the Nazis did to the Jews and other ethnic groups? All the writer can do is bear witness, chronicle faithfully and meticulously his experience and those of his fellow prisoners, and let the events speak for themselves. This Wander does, with the same painful honesty as Levi. His narrator is no storybook hero, no beacon of moral rectitude and fearless valour. He is often ashamed of himself for surviving because this involves him in moral abnegation and a narrowing of focus which reduces him, in his own eyes, to little more than an animal. Conversely, he is always compassionate and often very funny about the men with whom he shares his existence in the camps. His humanity is not lost, merely dormant, and triumphs in his writing.
    This is one of the best books I have read so far this year, which is a tribute as much to Michael Hofmann’s eloquent and unobtrusive translation as to Wander himself. I cannot recommend it too highly.-- Sarah Bower

THE LADY ELIZABETH
Alison Weir, Ballantine, 2008, $25.00, hb, 496pp, 9780345495358 / Hutchinson, 2008, £12.99, hb, 496pp, 9780091796723
    How does a Princess Elizabeth become a Lady Elizabeth within a matter of days, the almost-three-year-old wants to know. Her father, the powerful Henry VIII, beheads her mother, Anne Boleyn, a woman she hardly knows, and has her declared a bastard. She is no longer a princess of the realm now - only a king’s illegitimate offspring.
    And in this way, Elizabeth, from the earliest of ages, learns what it means to be at the center of a political maelstrom. Always bright beyond her years, Elizabeth gingerly picks her way through one political minefield after another. She chooses her friends wisely and is quick to figure out who her enemies are. She desperately wants to be loved, seeks it from her sister, Mary, from her stepmothers (who often don’t last terribly long) and from her esteemed father. The queens come and go, but Henry remains the bastion of strength in Elizabeth’s eyes. She wants to be the king he is.
    Weir, deftly applying historical fact to this wonderful personality, creates a young Elizabeth who is, at the same time, brilliant, aching for love, desperate for acceptance, analyzing her possibilities and ever vigilant. Elizabeth’s growth as a woman, as a warrior and as a politician is the focus of this most formidable book. By the time Elizabeth is prepared to ascend to the throne, she is well-schooled in the politics of manipulation and prevention – learning how to avoid becoming a tenant in the Tower of London or a victim of either Henry or her sister, Queen Mary, or of any number of Catholic or Protestant sympathizers. She has learned well.
    This is a highly recommended read.-- Ilysa Magnus

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