Title: Angels at Sunset
Author: Tom Mach
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Hill Song Press
Publisher Website: www.hillsongpress.com
Pages: 378
ISBN: 9780974515953
Price: $16.95
Publishing Date: 2012
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
This historical novel is the final in a trilogy which included the award winning Sissy and All Parts Together. The three books follow the life of Jessica Radford Chandler from her teenaged years to her death in 1921 in her 80s. Sissy focused on the lead-in to and the early portion of the Civil War in the Eastern Kansas area when Jessica masquerades as a male Union soldier. All Parts Together focused on the war years and shortly after Lincoln’s assassination. Angels at Sunset is set in the Women’s Suffrage era.
The author uses a unique writing device that formalizes an unusual flashback technique. Protagonist Jessica, who was on intimate acquaintanceship with the movers and shakers within the Women’s Suffrage movement, is living in the 1920 time frame but keeps reviewing a manuscript written for publication of her biography written by her step-daughter, Emma. The story continues through the real-time of 1920 and the past as seen through her biography up until her death. The author has built in plenty of conflict, past and present, with psychic visitations,(guardian spirits of dead friends and acquaintances}, historical facts and settings, and redemption and revenge motivations. Mr. Mach is always an engrossing writer. He is active in the Kansas Writers Association and is highly respected amongst his peers. We rated this interesting novel a score of four hearts.
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Title: A Song In My Heart
Author: Roma Calatayud-Stocks
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Beavers Pond Press Inc.
Publisher Website: www.beaverspondpress.com
Pages: 376
ISBN: 978-1-59298-395-7
Price: $34.95 (With musical CD)
Publishing Date: 2011
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
If you enjoy American and world history and culture, especially of the arts such as music and paintings and their interplay with cultural developments, women’s issues, and politics, you will love this book. Protagonist Alejandra Stanford is a Minnesota based product of both the American and Mexican monied class. She grows up comfortable a part of both cultures with the wherewithal to enjoy life to its fullest, yet she takes the time and resources to help those less fortunate. She and both her families have a highly developed appreciation for all the arts—that is their primary entertainment and recreation in the early 1900s. Ale must balance her desire for romantic love, proficiency at classical and pop music, and a line-crossing champion of women involved in music composition and conducting.
This is a first volume in a family saga trilogy. Ms Stocks’ writing style is a “You Are There” approach that is intensely personalized. The author’s unique approach to telling this story is demonstrated by her composing and recording music that exemplifies the moods of different story segments as they unfold. A note about her music (Did I just say that?) unlike so many music composition majors who have been taught that only musical weirdness should be used, her pieces are artfully pleasant. They exemplify the story points in ways that make sense, and yet they provide musical surprises at times with unexpected chord changes and melodic directions the listener doesn’t hear coming and yet make perfectly good sense once the new direction flowers. Ms Stocks’ music is a joy to experience. I found myself playing her accompanying CD while I read her entertaining book. In all, this was a highly unusual and well-done project that marries the written word with the musical words. We rated it five hearts.
Title: Red Sky Author: Patrick Culhane
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: William Morrow/Harper Collins
Pages: 338
ISBN: 9780060892555
Price: $24.95
Publishing Date: 2008
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This WWII historical novel follows a young Navel officer, Peter Maxwell, who starts out as a choir director for the San Diego base’s entertainment and then volunteers for hazardous sea duty in the South Pacific because the newly commissioned ammunition transport carries the same name as his home town in Iowa—The Liberty Hill. He is joined by several other young officers. They are shocked to discover they have been assigned an all-black crew while their ship’s Captain is a class-A bigot. The young officers immediately set out to insuring all the crew can read so no horrible accidents take place within the floating powder keg. Fortunately for Peter, a jazz music connection he developed with an older black sailor back in San Diego comes in handy when the black man and he wind up together. A white officer is murdered and Peter has been assigned to investigate by the Captain. His black friend was a homicide detective on the Chicago police force before the war and is co-opted into assisting Peter. What they discover is startling. We rated this gripping tale five hearts.
Title: Axe of Iron: The Settlers
Author: J.A. Hunsinger
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Vinland Publishing, LLC
Pages: 384
ISBN: 978-0-9801601-0-9
Price: $17.95
Publishing Date: Aug 2008
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This great historical chronicles the Norse culture of 1008 AD. Six ships of Norse families, including their livestock, horses, and dogs, sail to the American continent. The details of how they lived and supported themselves are both practical and believable. Once you read this book, you will no longer consider Norse to be marauding barbarians. Their skills at sustaining life and community are detailed, many, and practicable.
Chieftain Halfdan Ingolfsson is faced with the volatility of his own people’s tempers as well as the support or opposition of their Native American neighbors. The author’s writing reminds me of the great Mika Waltari, who produced so many detailed historical novels and clearly defined the genre. I found this to be a fascinating read and rated it five hearts.
Title: The Blood of Caesar: A Second Case from the Notebooks of Pliny the Younger
Author: Albert A. Bell, Jr.
Illustrator: various
Publisher and/or Distributor: Ingalls Publishing Group, Inc.
Pages: 260
ISBN: 978-1-932158-82-3
Price: $15.95
Publishing Date: 2008
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
The last time I reviewed a historical mystery of the Roman Empire (the first) in this series was the year Heartland Reviews first started in 2002, six years ago. The author is as good today as he was back then. A very politically dangerous Emperor Domitian asks Pliny to investigate the mysterious death of a skilled slave workman. Of course, there is a deeply hidden, dangerous agenda, which Pliny and his friend Tacitus must somehow manage to both survive and keep below the political horizon.
This book is filled with wonderful cultural and historical details, accompanied by excellent drawings. The mystery aspect of the story keeps twisting all around dangerous Roman neighborhoods and powerful characters. This is historical fiction at its best. We rated it five hearts.
Title: Churchill’s Triumph
Author: Michael Dobbs
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Pages: 298
ISBN: 978-1-4022-1045-7
Price: $14.95
Publishing Date: March 2008
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
This historical novel built around the events of the meeting of Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin at Yalta in the Crimea chronicles the interplay between these three government leaders dividing up post-war territories. There is nothing noble about this novel. It shows everyone’s warts and sad agendas of these well-known men. There are interesting by plays with a Polish refugee and Churchill’s valet. Roosevelt’s rapidly declining health is shown and its impact on Roosevelt’s part that he played in the negotiations. The same is true of Churchill.
Whether it was the material the author had to deal with or history itself, this book was not as scintillating as the author’s Never Surrender novel about Winston. At the same time, it was sadly touching. We rated it four hearts.
Title: The Motive from the Deed
Author: Patricia Wynn
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Pemberley Press
Pages: 378
ISBN: 978-0-9771913-3-8
Price: $26.95
Publishing Date: 2007
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
The year 1715 in an England is upset by the competition for the crown by German-born George and French-supported Scot James Stuart. Thrown into this setting are members of the bookselling and publishing community, which plays a role of influence in the royal conflict. People are poisoned and others are accused, while truth cannot be discerned without the help of a serving lady, Hester Kean, and an Earl, who takes on the persona of a feared highwayman, the Blue Satan.
This is a historic romantic novel and mystery all in one package. The author, a highly experienced writer in the genre, has produced a delightful novel that entertains and teaches at the same time. We rated it five hearts.
Title: Flora’s Money
Author: Ray Rueby
Illustrator: Ray Rueby
Publisher and/or Distributor: Tobey Arts
Pages: 306
ISBN: 978-0-9740428-1-7
Price: $23.95
Publishing Date: 2007
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
In 1929, the market tanks and prohibition creates a huge market for illicit booze. Liquor smuggling has become the crime toujour. Chicago has become one of the major hubs for bootleggers. Into this setting hitchhikes Flora, a 19-year-old, 6’4” Amazon from Michigan. She lucks into a bartender job at a popular speakeasy. While there, she discovers her bosses are pretty lax about their money and its accounting. She begins squirreling some of the loose floating cash into a hiding place, planning for her eventual retirement. The Federal lawmen are getting closer to shutting the place down, so she steals a lot of the money and escapes to her hometown, a small fishing village on the Eastern shore of Lake Michigan. There, the money becomes the salvation of the community, but Flora is kept looking over her shoulder for both crooked bosses and the Feds.
This was a fascinating read about the looseness of prohibition and the ease by which a bank can be formed. It also addresses the social and economic ills of the 30s and how the right advisor can increase the chances of success for entrepreneurs. We rated this book four hearts.
Title: Shades of Gray
Author: Jessica James
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Patriot Press Books
Pages: 534
ISBN: 987-0-9796000-0-5
Price: $27.99
Publishing Date: 2008
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
This historical romance from the Civil War is filled with great inter-character conflict. Its Virginia setting and the highly charged emotions of slavery and cruel step-fathers really racks up the tension. It also focuses on mis-communications producing needless hurt feelings and resulting actions. It addresses the conflict of loyalties in border states and how families were torn apart by conflicting senses of honor. Andrea, the female protagonist, comes across as an almost super woman and the male protagonist, Alex Hunter comes across as an almost clueless, although well-meaning, military leader who readily reads and understands the enemy’s potential actions while totally misunderstanding those closest to him and even himself. We rated this historical novel four hearts.
Title: Two Brothers: One North, One South
Author: David H. Jones
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Staghorn Press
Pages: 318
ISBN: 9780979689857
Price: $24.95
Publishing Date: 2008
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This is about a well to do family in Maryland torn apart by the Civil War. One son goes off to fight for the South. The older brother ends up as an officer in the North. Both end up in units comprised of members from Maryland. Both are severely wounded and end up dying a couple of wards away from one another. A government civil servant who became one of America’s great poets, Walt Whitman, visits and provides succor to wounded soldiers, including the younger Rebel brother. He tells that boy’s story through his eyes to the rest of the family when they come to visit the dying older brother. This is a highly charged emotional rendering of what has become so wrong when families are torn apart by war, politics, and willfulness. We rated this touching novel five hearts.
Title: Never Surrender: A Novel of Winston Churchill
Author: Michael Dobbs
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Sourcebooks Landmark
Pages: 320
ISBN: 9781402210440
Price: $14.95
Publishing Date: 2007
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
A superbly written historical novel that tells the story of the grand old man during England's darkest hour. The author writes like the proverbial fly on the wall as witness to Churchill's meetings and conversations. Churchill was a man his peers loved to hate, but he was the right man for the job at the right time. Like Lincoln, he appointed his greatest enemies to his cabinet and took advantage of their abilities. I was held spell bound throughout the entire book. It explains so much while rendering it so realistic. The dialogue is incredible. We rated this a max five hearts.
Title: Avenging Victorio: A Novel of the Apache Insurgency in New Mexico, 1881
Author: Dave DeWitt
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Rio Grande Books
Pages: 261
ISBN: 978-1-890689-26-1
Price: $24.95
Publishing Date: 2007
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
This novel by a highly experienced best-selling author (34 books) is an excellent description of 1880s frontier military and national politics. It follows a scraggly band of Apache’s as they seek revenge against the Americans for the setting up and Mexican military fatal ambush of their leader, Victorio. The band’s 70s old succeeding leader, Nana, goes against the American General Officer Edward Hatch in a costly guerrilla war and the exciting complication of a hidden Indian golden treasure hoard makes for an exciting story.
The story progresses smoothly. The author portrays the case for both sides and explains much of what actually happened in history. He has contributed greatly to the historical environment of the Southwest. We rated his novel four hearts.
Title: The House of Pendragon Book II: The Recruit
Author: Debra A. Kemp
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Amber Quill Press
Pages: 278
ISBN: 978-1-59279-699-1
Price: $17
Publishing Date: 2007
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
This is a nicely done historical Arthurian novel set at the height of Arthur’s power. The protagonist, Arthur’s long lost daughter, Lin, has come from the status of a badly abused slave (in the series’ first book) to the King’s daughter and heir. Unwanted, unloved, and certainly misunderstood by the Queen Mother Gwenhwyfar, Lin seeks to develop her own way by becoming a member of her father’s army and going through its basic training experience as its only girl member. Extreme emotional conflict takes place when she finds herself thrust in amongst brothers related to her father and to her prior tormentor, Modred, who are also members of the household that enslaved her. She is startled to find herself becoming attracted to some of them, despite her ill feelings and memories. At the same time, her foster brother, Dafydd, is transitioning from slave to court bard, whom she helps along with the gift of a beautifully crafted harp.
This story flows in its telling by a much older Lin to her royal children as they return to a greatly diminished Camelot after a twelve-year absence. Her characters are excellent, her leadership lessons are true and believable, and Lin’s transition from a 12-year-old girl to a young lady is fascinating. We rated this book four hearts.
Title: Getorix: The Eagle and the Bull
Author: Judith Geary
Illustrator: Carolin Garrett
Publisher and/or Distributor: Claystone Books
Pages: 280
ISBN: 1-932158-74-X
Price: $24.95
Publishing Date: 2006
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
This historical novel follows a reluctant Celtic slave boy, his search for freedom from a wealthy Roman Family, and a developing stormy friendship with the family’s heir and son. The story line is good, the characters are good representations of people of the period and the varying levels of Roman society they represent. The illustrations throughout the book add greatly to a reader’s vision of what it may have been like to live in the century before Christ. We rated it four hearts.
Title: Traces: Birth of Alexander the Great
Author: Faye Turner
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Ki Eea Key Press
Pages: 416
ISBN: 0-9762500-3-9
Price: $14.95
Publishing Date: 2006
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
This is an excellent historical novel centered around a family physician who secretly loves the queen of Phillip of Macedonia and may actually be the biological father of Alexander. This second book in a series concerns safeguarding the queen and her anticipated birth to Phillip’s heir from rival political factions in Phillips court, including even Phillip himself. This is a historical novel in the tradition of Mika Watari’s books. The story, with its secret knowledge and connections is as accurate as time and research abilities allow. We rated it four hearts.
Title: The Anvil Stone
Author: Kathleen Cunningham Gyler
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Bardsong Press
Pages: 416
ISBN: 0-9660371-5-4
Price: $25.95
Publishing Date: March 2006
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
A tale centered around the Arthurian legends of Old England in the 5th-6th century, this book presents a possible prelude to the origins of Merlin and young Arthur and, of course, his sword—Excalibur. Extremely well-researched, this story provides a geopolitical and historical setting that comes alive under the author’s able hands. We get a very realistic open window into the day-to-day lifestyles of the era.
The author demonstrates she knows her subject area meticulously and is able to translate her knowledge into an enjoyable read. Enthusiasts of historical fiction, the Society for Creative Anachronism, and all lovers of Celtic matters are going to love this book. We rated it a high four hearts.
Title: A Heart for Any Fate
Author: Suzanne Lyon
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Five Star/Thomson Gale
Pages: 303
ISBN: 1-59414-329-3
Price: $25.95
Publishing Date: 2005
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
Imagine that your great-great-great-great-grandmother had married in 1790, started a family; began homesteading in Virginia; and then followed Daniel Boone into Kentucky and eventually into Missouri. Imagine that there is a monument erected in her memory in Missouri, and it is still honored to this day for one of the greatest pioneer women in the history of the region. That is exactly the case for this experienced author, who took what facts she could find about her ancestor, Hannah Allison Cole, her family, her friends, and her young slave girl, and turned them into a breathtaking historical novel with characters that leap off the page and into your heart. Although the books reads like darn good fiction, it’s based on the truth—only the dialogue has been fictionalized. Hannah stands her ground against Indian marauders; she bears child after child; she deals with a brother-in-law who loves her madly; and with sudden widowhood. All the time, she keeps family and friends together and makes life-saving decisions for all their good.
This is a well-written historical novel, made even better because we know it was real. Ms Lyon really brings history to life. We rated this novel a solid four hearts.
