Historical

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Well-researched historical fiction takes readers to new (old) places and brings the time and people alive. That is, if the story works as a story.

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“Heart-wrenching does not begin to describe the reaction to The Girl in the Letter.”

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“as easy to read as one of Mr. Dickens’ actual novels and as entertaining. As the subtitle reveals, it’s a Dickens of a tale . . .”

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“Fashioning modern methods of investigation as well as other 21st century conventions into acceptable practices in the daily life of ancient Rome may sound like an insurmountable task, but

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“The Burning Chambers is a masterful novel . . .”

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“Mason introduces myriad characters, almost too many to follow, but with a careful reading the story unfolds the underpinnings of a good plot.”

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“As the rhetoric coach to the Royal Shakespeare Company, Brandreth has no need to ‘brush up on his Shakespeare,’ and his allusions and turns of phrase prove it.”

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"Overall, Knott's worthy attempt fails in style and form."

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“the story holds water and reads well from beginning to end.”

“Lindsay Faye has written a crackling historical mystery in language that sings in its dialogue, description, and narrative.”

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The Blood is a tale giving a view of what Victorian London was really like, not the prim and proper showcase of a public television set, but a callous and heartless venue where so

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“A clever and hauntingly grim fantasy . . . that will most certainly entertain fans of swordsmen, medieval sieges, and battles.”

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Paddy Hirsch, in his mesmerizing novel of New York City in 1799, creates so strong an aura of time and place and late-18th century language, readers may find themselves calling an opponent a “black

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This is the second of Graeme Macrae Burnet’s crime novels featuring Chief Inspector Georges Gorski, the shy chief of police of the sleepy rural village of Saint-Louis in Alsace in France.

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“Lestat may say he doesn’t want to cause the deaths of his fellow undead but that’s what happens in this continuation of The Vampire Chronicles.” 

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“Andrew Gross is in top form with this beautifully haunting novel that mixes history seamlessly with fiction. . . . an epic journey of struggle, hope, death and life.

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“a mother’s search for a child she’s long mourned and given up for dead, as well as a woman’s resurrection of the emotions and love for a man well-known but scorned in his own time”

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“an adventuresome romp, intriguing, entertaining, and a story of which the Bard himself might approve.”

“Came two gentleman to Venice . . .”

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Get ready to curl up with a cup of tea, a plate of scones, and A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder.

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“The Mitford Murders is the first in what promises to be an absorbing mystery series.”

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"Highly recommended."

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Alyssa Maxwell’s A Devious Death is the third in her A Lady and Lady’s Maid Mysteries.

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“the story of a man whose military prowess enabled him to become the king he had no wish to be . . . ”

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“a murder mystery set on the Spanish Main . . . will entertain for its different view of pirate life.”

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“As the first in a new series, this novel makes a successful start.”

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