New books by HNS members, May 2019
Congrats to the following authors on their new releases! If you’ve written a historical novel or nonfiction work published (or to be published) in Feb. 2019 or after, please send them in to us or tweet the details @readingthepast by July 7: author, title, publisher, release date, and a blurb of one sentence or less. Details will appear in August’s magazine. Submissions may be edited for space.
In A Distant Field by RJ MacDonald (Warriors Publishing Group, Nov. 11, 2018), two brothers survive the sinking of the RMS Lusitania and go on to enlist in the Seaforth Highlanders; all too soon they find themselves heading towards the bloody battlefields of WWI.
Set during WW1, Colleen Adair Fliedner’s In the Shadow of War: Spies, Love & the Lusitania (Sand Hill Review Press, Nov. 15, 2018) weaves together a patchwork of real events, including the bombing of the U.S. Capitol, the attempted assassination of J.P. Morgan, and the sinking of the famous passenger liner that took the lives of 1,198 souls.
Zimbabwe Falcon by David Maring (BookBaby, Dec. 21, 2018) covers the conflicts involving the Rhodesian Pioneers, Boers, Ndebele, Shona, and a black Jewish tribe in the region between Limpopo and Zambezi Rivers from 1898- 1923.
In Joy to My Love by Karen M. Edwards (Amazon, Jan. 2), Effie Innes has encountered prejudice and belittlement most of her life, but when two men she loves are taken from her Lowland Scottish fishing village to fight in the War of 1812 with America, she finds the courage to reach out for what she wants.
The Serpent, The Puma, and The Condor: A Tale of Machu Picchu (Mnemosyne Books, Jan. 22), Gayle Marie’s debut historical novel, is set during the time of Pizarro’s invasion of Peru and is told from the Inca perspective.
Marina Osipova’s How Dare the Birds Sing (indie, Jan. 24) takes readers across the 1930s Stalinist Soviet Union and WWII in a tale whose characters are bound by secrets, love, hatred, and unthinkable quirks of fate.
The second book in a two-part series, P.K. Adams’ The Column of Burning Spices (Amazon/Iron Knight Press, Feb. 1) tells the true story of Hildegard of Bingen, who, enclosed in a Rhenish convent at a young age, defies the medieval Church hierarchy in her quest to become a physician.
Peculiar Savage Beauty by Jessica McCann (Atlantis Audio Productions/Perspective Books, Feb. 26) was praised by Publishers Weekly as a “…gripping, atmospheric novel. McCann’s Dust Bowl saga meshes a seminal event in American history with a suspenseful plot and insightfully etched characters.”
Nancy Blanton’s third novel, The Earl in Black Armor (Ellys-Daughtrey Books, Mar. 1) is a story of loyalty, betrayal, love and murder, centered around the life of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, in 1635 – 1641.
In The Deceivers by Bill Page (Matador UK, Mar. 19), set in Roman Britain in AD 370, unwilling to comply with an order from Caristanius Sabinus, governor of Britannia Prima, to hand over a mysterious figurine of the Underworld Goddess Hecate, Canio sets out to acquire a fake good enough to deceive him: it may not end well.
Arthur, Dux Bellorum by Tim Walker (TimWalkerWrites, Mar. 1) is a re-imagining of the King Arthur story from a historical perspective.
Ervin Klein’s novel Subterfuge (Enigma House, Mar. 31) is a World War II story of a missing U-boat, a Nazi cover-up, and a son’s determination to discover the truth.
White Rose by Kip Wilson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/Versify, Apr. 2) is a YA novel-in-verse that recounts the lives of Sophie Scholl and fellow members of the White Rose resistance group in Nazi Germany, highlighting their brave stand against fascism.
In Bright Axe, second in the Byrhtnoth Chronicles by Christine Hancock (Madder Press, Apr. 11), set in the 10th century, Byrhtnoth is torn between his quest to find his father and his duty to his lord; his friends suffer, and in Northumbria he encounters wolves and a mysterious woman who offers him news of his father – and more.
The Time Collector by Gwendolyn Womack (Picador USA/Macmillan, Apr. 16), a romantic thriller between two psychometrists who can touch objects and see the past, travels around the world and through time to solve the mystery behind out-of-place artifacts that challenge the timelines of recorded history.
Mary Lawrence’s The Alchemist of Lost Souls (Kensington, Apr. 30), is fourth in the Bianca Goddard Mysteries set in Tudor London, where Bianca risks her life to prevent her father’s dangerous discovery—an amalgam of earth and fire—from being used against the King’s army in Scotland.
In Kate Braithwaite’s The Girl Puzzle, A Story of Nellie Bly (Crooked Cat, May 5), asked to type up a manuscript revisiting Nellie Bly’s experience in a New York asylum, Beatrice believes she’s been given the key to understanding one of the most innovative and daring figures of the age.
Abe & Ann by Gary Moore (Komatik Press, May 15) is a novel based on the little-known story of Abraham Lincoln’s passionate romance with Ann Rutledge in his twenties, when long before he was a bearded wise man saving democracy, he was homely, timid, and hopelessly in love.
In Book 3 of Catherine Kullmann’s The Duchess of Gracechurch Trilogy, The Duke’s Regret (Willow Books, May 28), when Jeffrey, Duke of Gracechurch is forced to realise how hollow his marriage and family life are, he is determined to make amends to his wife and children and forge new relationships with them.
The past meets the present in Jessica James’ Lacewood (Patriot Press, Jun. 18), a haunting read about the restoration of an abandoned mansion, and the secrets it reveals about a long-lost love.
In Promises by Eileen Joyce Donovan (Waldorf Publishing, July), Lizzie, age 13, is among the children sent to Canada to avoid the brutal bombing of English cities during World War II; however, this doesn’t mean she escapes the horrors of war, since both on the voyage and in the fishing village where she and her brother are sent, she experiences danger, cruelty, and loss, but resiliently forms alliances, makes plans, and takes charge of her life.
