Category: Historical Fiction

  • REVIEW of True Grit, by Charles Portis

    True Grit is the story of Mattie Ross, a fourteen year old girl from Arkansas who sets out to avenge the murder of her father by the outlaw Tom Chaney. She hires an ornery, old U.S. Marshal named Rooster Cogburn and follows him out into Indian territory to take Chaney captive and bring him back…

  • REVIEW of Venus in Copper and The Iron Hand of Mars, by Lindsey Davis

    It is fascinating to me how Lindsey Davis has created the character of Marcus Didius Falco in such a way that she can use him as a window into whatever facet of Roman society she desires. Venus in Copper and The Iron Hand of Mars are books three and four in the Marcus Didius Falco…

  • REVIEW of Shadows in Bronze, by Lindsey Davis

    In Shadows in Bronze, the second book of the Marcus Didius Falco series by Lindsey Davis, Marcus goes undercover to find out more about the conspirators whom he thwarted in the previous novel. As they explore the towns of the Italian countryside, Marcus and his nephew Larius become door-to-door salesmen, offering lead pipes at a…

  • REVIEW of The Silver Pigs, by Lindsey Davis

    I like mysteries, I love historical fiction, and it’s always an added bonus to read a book that’s part of a series — if it tickles your fancy, you know that there’s more just like it. The Silver Pigs, by Lindsey Davis, is the first book in the Marcus Didius Falco canon, a series of…

  • REVIEW of The Skin Map, by Stephen Lawhead

    Let me get this off my chest before I start: I am not a big fan of time travel novels or novels that jump back and forth between sets of characters in different time periods. With that said, I must acknowledge that I liked Stephen Lawhead’s new book, The Skin Map, more than I thought…

  • REVIEW of The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, by Lauren Willig

    “Sync’ me! If it isn’t that demmed, elusive pimpernel!” The Scarlet Pimpernel has always been a favorite of mine, the book, the musical, and both the movie versions–starring Leslie Howard (1934) and Anthony Andrews (1982). Perusing several historical fiction blogs, I was intrigued to learn that Lauren Willig has created a whole spin-off series from…

  • REVIEW of The Greatest Knight, by Elizabeth Chadwick

    It’s a strange state of affairs to go a whole month of the new year without finishing a book.  January was consumed with craziness–moving to our new house and spending two weeks at the hospital–and now here it is February before I have anything to review. Slowly but surely, I have been working my way…

  • REVIEW of The Shadowy Horses, by Susanna Kearsley

    At the beginning of this month, Historical Tapestry celebrated Susanna Kearsley week with reviews, interviews, and discussions–all about an author I had never heard of before. I was intrigued. All five of Historical Tapestry’s contributors seemed to agree that Susanna Kearsley was tops. It was a high recommendation–I had to investigate further. The Kearsley novel…

  • REVIEW of The Jewel of St. Petersburg, by Kate Furnivall

    In the years leading up to the Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks agitate for change causing unrest throughout all of Russia. Valentina Ivanovna, a young Russian noblewoman, experiences their violence when a bomb blows up her father’s study permanently injuring her younger sister Katya. Consumed by an unwarranted guilt for this event, Valentina determines to devote…

  • REVIEW of The Face of a Stranger, by Anne Perry

    How many people in the real world actually get amnesia so badly that they can’t remember who they are or recall any of the details of their past life? Definitely not as many people as get amnesia in the literary world. Amnesia in books is used as a deus ex machina, an obvious contrivance on…