New books by HNS members, February 2018

Congrats to the following HNS author members on their new and upcoming releases! For members: if you’ve written a historical novel or nonfiction work published (or to be published) in December 2017 or after, please email us with the following details by April 7: author, title, publisher, release date, and a blurb of one sentence or less. Details will appear in May’s magazine.

Danae Penn’s False Rumours (Nichol, Jun. 23, 2017) presents Belina Lansac, young wife of a detective in south-west France, who learns that the Princes in the Tower are being chased by a murderer ordered by Henry Tudor’s mother to kill them so that she can accuse Richard III of their murder and thereby spread false rumours.

A Redoubtable Citadel (Amazon Kindle, Sep. 7, 2017), book four of Lynn Bryant’s Peninsular War Saga, follows the 110th infantry to Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz.

Set in 11th century Spain, The Ring of Flames by Joan Fallon (Scott Publishing, Sep. 18, 2017) is the exciting conclusion to the al-Andalus series.

In Mist-chi-mas: A Novel of Captivity (Fairchance, Sep. 28, 2017) by J.L. Oakley, a recently widowed woman, seeking answers to a growing mystery, embarks on a journey to find the lover she thought murdered years before, unaware that she is stirring up an old struggle of power and revenge at which she is the heart.

Shaun Lewis’s first novel, The Custom of the Trade (Endeavour, Sep. 29, 2017), is set between 1912 and 1915; Richard Miller survives the sinking of his submarine to take command of an E-boat and wreak havoc against Turkish shipping in the Dardanelles whilst at home his cousin, Elizabeth, fights her own battles to win the vote for women and fight misogyny.

In C. B. Huesing’s Kill Abby White! Now! (Dog Ear, Oct. 1, 2017), set in Chicago between 1929-42, Abby White and her fellow interns at the Chicago Tribune set out to find a big scoop to perfectly cap their collegiate careers at Northwestern University but find themselves in a life-threatening run-in with the mafia that will follow them around the globe.

In Salvage Optic: a Gothic Novel of the Timor-Laut and Tanembar Archipelagoes, and of the Terrible Island of Bali. Dutch East Indies, Anno 1674 by Dwight Brooks (Outskirts Press, Oct. 2, 2017), a slave-diver is hunted in the life-devouring Moluccas.

Set in Ireland 4,000 years ago, Stiofán Ó Nualláin’s Yellow Sun (David J Publishing, Oct. 2, 2017) shows how traditional life in a Stone Age community is irrevocably transformed by the arrival of a stranger with the magic of turning stone into metal; what follows is a story that brings horror and violence and an adventure that changes lives forever.

In Cynthia T. Toney’s The Other Side of Freedom (Write Integrity Press, Oct. 9, 2017), set in 1925, a farm boy witnesses the murder of an innocent family friend and must choose whether to remain silent to protect his immigrant family as his father asks—or defy a gang of mobsters and corrupt police.

Friend of Henry II, but excommunicated three times—the only way to save his soul is to give up worldly power and found a monastery; but who is the mysterious lady who makes that possible? This is the premise for Nicky Moxey’s Sheriff and Priest (Dodnash Books, Oct. 15, 2017).

In Elizabeth Jane Corbett’s The Tides Between (Odyssey, Oct. 20, 2017), when fifteen-year-old Bridie smuggles a notebook filled with her dead father’s fairy tales into the steerage compartment of an emigrant vessel, she uncovers a dark family secret. Shocked by the revelation, she befriends a mysterious Welsh storyteller, but will his tales bring comfort or shatter her memories?

The Consul’s Daughter by Mark Knowles (Endeavour, Oct. 26, 2017) takes place in Rome of AD 205; the night watch stumbles across the young body of a girl on the foggy banks of the Tiber and becomes embroiled in a political conspiracy against the emperor.

In Rosemary Morris’s romantic historical novel Wednesday’s Child (BooksWeLove, Oct. 26, 2017), sensibility and sense are needed for Amelia Carstairs to accept her late grandmother’s choice of her guardian, the Earl of Saunton, to whom Amelia was previously betrothed.

Fanny Newcomb and the Irish Channel Ripper by Ana Brazil (Sand Hill Review Press, Nov. 1, 2017) is a mystery set in 1889 New Orleans, a city that is overrun with prostitutes, pornographers, a malicious Jack the Ripper copycat, and an intelligent, tenacious typewriting teacher named Fanny Newcomb.

Denitta Ward’s Somewhere Still (Welbourne, Nov. 1, 2017), a coming-of-age story of one young woman’s transformative journey of love, betrayal, and redemption, is a window into the Roaring Twenties and the history and culture of Kansas City at a turning point in its development.

Vanessa Couchman’s French Collection: Twelve Short Stories (indie, Nov. 9, 2017) is a collection of short stories inspired by and set in France, ranging from medieval times up to the 20th century, some of them based on true stories.

Set against the backdrop of the bitter and brutal Marcomannic war, Adam Lofthouse’s The Centurion’s Son (Endeavour, Nov. 17, 2017) is a coming of age narrative of one young soldier in the Roman camp.

By examining popular works of fiction by more than 20 authors over the last one thousand years, The Once and Future Queen: Guinevere in Arthurian Legend by Nicole Evelina (Lawson Gartner, Nov. 21, 2017) shows how the character of Guinevere reflects attitudes toward women during the time in which her story was written, changing to suit the expectations of her audience.

Without the Veil Between, Anne Brontë: A Fine and Subtle Spirit by D.M. Denton (All Things That Matter Press, Nov. 27, 2017) gives us Anne Brontë: not the “less gifted” sister of Charlotte and Emily; nor the Anne who “also wrote two novels,” but Anne herself, courageous, committed, daring and fiercely individual: a writer of remarkable insight, prescience and moral courage whose work can still astonish us today.

In Jeffrey K. Walker’s Truly Are the Free (Ballybur, Nov. 30, 2017), second in the Sweet Wine of Youth trilogy, friends scarred by the First World War try to make their way in ’20s Harlem, newly independent Ireland, and avant-garde Paris.

Dana Stabenow’s Silk and Song (Head of Zeus, Dec. 2, 2017) follows the journey of Marco Polo’s granddaughter during the years 1322-1327, from China at the end of the rule of Kublai Khan to England and the beginning of the reign of Edward III.

Herodias Long of 17th-century Newport has the home of her dreams in her grasp, but must she give it up to keep the man she loves? In the meanwhile, Rhode Island battles Puritan encroachment in The Golden Shore (Neverest, Dec. 5, 2017), third in the Scandalous Life series by HNR reviewer Jo Ann Butler.

In On a Stormy Primeval Shore by Diane Scott Lewis (BooksWeLove, Jan. 1), set in 1784, Amelia sails to New Brunswick, a land overrun by Loyalists escaping the American Revolution, to marry a soldier whom she rejects, while Acadian Gilbert fights to preserve his heritage and property—will they find love when events seek to destroy them?

Impossible Saints by Clarissa Harwood (Pegasus Books, Jan. 2), set in 1907 London, features a militant suffragette and an Anglican priest who struggle with their competing ambitions and their love for each other.

Tamar Anolic‘s novel Triumph of a Tsar (CreateSpace, Jan. 11) explores a world in which the Russian Revolution is averted and the hemophiliac Alexei, son of Tsar Nicholas II, comes to the throne.

Kali Napier’s The Secrets at Ocean’s Edge (Hachette Australia, Jan. 30) is a mystery set during the Depression in Western Australia, following the story of one family as it struggles to stay together while secrets threaten to tear it apart.

From the war-torn Dark Ages of Medieval Europe to America’s Gilded Age, and all the way up to Kate Middleton, Bad Princess by Kris Waldherr (Scholastic, Jan. 30), nonfiction for ages 10 and up, explores more than 30 true princess stories, going beyond the glitz and glamour to find out what life was really like for young royals throughout history.

In Rebecca Kightlinger’s Megge of Bury Down (Zumaya, Feb. 1), set in 13th-century Cornwall, the healer of Bury Down has sworn to face death by fire rather than fail in her one charge in this life: to bring her daughter to vow to protect an ancient grimoire whose power sustains the spirits of all the seers and healers of Bury Down. To what lengths will she go when Megge refuses?

In The Man Upon the Stair by Gary Inbinder (Pegasus Crime, Feb. 6), the third Inspector Lefebvre historical mystery set in fin de siècle Paris, Chief Inspector Achille Lefebvre returns from a much-needed vacation to find that there are assassins on his tail, and, as if that weren’t enough, one of France’s wealthiest men has gone missing without a trace.

In Donna Croy Wright’s dual-period novel The Scattering of Stones (Paradigm Hall Press, Feb. 6), genealogist Maggie Smith researches a mysterious ancestor who draws Maggie, soul-deep, into her story, taking her from post-revolutionary Pennsylvania to the Ohio frontier, through love and tragedy, to where promises are kept but also broken.

Michael Dean’s The White Crucifixion: A Novel about Marc Chagall (Holland Park, Feb. 22) is a fictionalised account of the roller-coaster life, in terrible times, of one of the most enigmatic artists of the 20th century.

Worldviews collide when a glittery torch singer falls for a staid dry-goods dealer in 1920s Chicago in Jennifer Lamont Leo’s Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas, Mar. 12).

In The Flames of Florence (Diversion, May 8), the conclusion of Donna Russo Morin’s award-winning trilogy, Da Vinci’s Disciples face their greatest challenge, one shrouded in the cloak of a monk. From the ashes of war, Friar Girolamo Savonarola rises; some call him a savior and a prophet, some a delusional heretic. Who will reign triumphant?

C. C. Humphreys’ new novel Chasing the Wind (Doubleday Canada, Jun. 5) brings him into the 20th Century with the tale of Roxy Loewen – Smuggler, Smoker, Aviatrix, Thief. An art heist/love story set against the Berlin Olympics and the last voyage of the Hindenburg.