Sarah Bower
John Saturnall’s Feast
Editors' choice
Let me not beat about the bush. Lawrence Norfolk’s The Pope’s Rhinoceros is one of the best books I have…
The Berlin Crossing
In Brandenburg, in 1993, the deathbed urging of his mother spurs out-of-work teacher Michael Ritter to go in search of…
The Brothers
Finland, 1809. Henrik and Erik are brothers who fought on opposite sides in the war between Sweden and Russia. When…
Trieste
Haya Teschi is old now. In July 2006, she sits waiting to be reunited with her son, whom she has…
The Pleasures of Men
The year is 1840, and London is in the grip of economic depression. There are riots in the streets, and…
Literally Dead
In Depression-era Chicago, Amos Jansen, clerk at the Chicago Modern Literature Society, welcomes Ernest Hemingway to the city to give…
Death Comes to Pemberley
Following the current fashion for new fictions derived from the works of Jane Austen, P.D. James has combined her love…
Tyranny and the Lash
Stephen Wade’s brief survey of the history of the penal system in Britain from the 12th to the 21st century…
Death on the Rive Nord
This is the second in Magson’s Lucas Rocco series, set in Picardie in the early 1960s. Rocco, a tough Parisian…
On Ugliness
A companion piece to Eco’s On Beauty, this book explores the culture, politics and aesthetics of ugliness through a history…
About our Reviews
Over the last 15 years The Historical Novels Review (the society’s print magazine for our members) has published reviews of some 12,000 historical fiction books. We plan to upload them all and make them searchable here.
