Reviews
Reviews of some 15,000 historical fiction books
Mata Hari’s Last Dance
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In this latest novel by one of my favorite authors, Michelle Moran shakes off her familiar plot design (humble main character, ruthless antagonist, ...Read Review
The Cigar Factory
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I’ve never been to Charleston, South Carolina, but this book brought the place alive for me. It presents a rich atmosphere, allowing ...Read Review
Villa Triste
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Triste. French for “sad.” And that’s the mood of this short novel from Nobel Prize winner Patrick Modiano. Villa Triste opens with ...Read Review
Dandy Gilver and a Most Misleading Habit
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I enjoy this historical crime series set in interwar Scotland. In the early books Dandy is bored with her life as the wife ...Read Review
A Dandy Little Game
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In 1944, Johnny Sharansky is a middle-aged gambler who’s never had a regular job. He’s known most of the age’s infamous ...Read Review
Prayers the Devil Answers
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Rules matter, especially in magic, so the Dumb Supper ritual practiced by a Southern mountain community’s maidens to lure their future husbands ...Read Review
Nearly Always
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In 1937 Helen Durkin abandons a baby boy in a Leeds bus station. She is little Billy’s mother, a 14-year-old victim of rape. ...Read Review
Broken Angels
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In the Lodz ghetto in 1942, young Elsi is awakened by her mother, who is moaning and bleeding from a self-inflicted abortion. Elsi helps ...Read Review
A Kiss from Mr. Fitzgerald
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Evelyn Lockhart lives a conservative life in Concord, Massachusetts with her parents and sister. She’s expected to marry her childhood friend Charlie ...Read Review
The Secrets of Flight
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Mary Browning has spent a lifetime keeping secrets. Living alone and widowed, her one enjoyment in life is her weekly senior citizens’ writers’ ...Read Review