Accidents of Providence: A Novel

London, 1649. King charles has been beheaded for treason; cromwell is in power; paranoia and self-righteousness rule; and glove maker Rachel Lockyer has been engaged in a secret affair with William Walwyn, a Leveler who advocates for independence and tolerance. A delightfully seditious heroine .  .  . Proof that a historical novel can be educational and entertaining.

O, the oprah magazine   “wonderfully detailed and keenly researched, it is a moving portrait of a courageous woman caught between a disastrous affair with a charismatic revolutionary and the draconian laws of the land that would put her to death because of it. Kathleen kent, author of The Traitor’s Wife.

But when rachel’s “bastard” infant is found hidden in the woods, Rachel is arrested. The question that has brought rachel to trial for murder is: why?   now drawn into rachel’s circle is the married lover she is loathe to reveal; a fiercely compassionate mother who lost her own children to smallpox; a prosecutor hell-bent on making an example of Rachel; and the criminal investigator, increasingly reluctant to build his case against the condemned young woman—all of them brought to reckon for this one life.

At once a remarkable love story and a breathtaking thriller based on true events, Accidents of Providence is “heart-poundingly vivid and intellectually provocative .  .  . Historical fiction at its best” Kirkus Reviews, starred review.


The Pure Land

His love affair with a courtesan—a woman who, unknown to him, would bear him the son for whom he had always longed—would inform a tragedy so heartrending that it would become immortal. The result is “a page-turner of the first order. Thoughtful and vivid” historical novel based on the true story that inspired Madame Butterfly and Miss Saigon Publishers Weekly.

Not merely an engaging and vivid historical novel, but also a meditative work of art that is as finely honed as a samurai’s sword” The Times, London. Thomas glover is a gutsy eighteen-year-old in Aberdeen who grasps the chance of escape to foreign lands and takes a posting as a trader in Japan. The year is 1858.

Yet beneath glover’s astonishing success lies a man cut to the heart. Part thrilling adventure, the pure land spans the feudal and the atomic ages, and characterized by Spence’s pure vision”, part lyrical reflection, East and West, global history and the private passions of the Scottish merchant-turned-Nagasaki tycoon and hero Sunday Herald.

Within ten years he amasses a great fortune, and, on the other side of the law, plays a huge role in modernizing Japan, brings about the overthrow of the shogun. A “lively and epic .  .  .


Mary, Mrs. A. Lincoln: A Novel

From her room in bellevue place, and her ultimate redemption, her poverty and ridicule, mary chronicles her tempestuous childhood in a slaveholding Southern family and takes readers through the years after her husband’s death, revealing the ebbs and flows of her passion and depression, in a novel that is both a fascinating look at a nineteenth-century woman’s experience and “an old-fashioned pleasure to read” The Plain Dealer.

She was a political strategist, a supporter of emancipation, and a mother who survived the loss of three children and the assassination of her beloved husband. The wife of abraham Lincoln is one of history’s most misunderstood and enigmatic women. A novel about the life of mary todd lincoln, narrated by the First Lady herself, a USA Today choice for Best Historical Fiction of the Year.

She also ran her family into debt, held seances in the White House, and was committed to an insane asylum—which is where Janis Cooke Newman’s debut novel begins. A los angeles times Book Prize Finalist  .


A Case of Curiosities: A Novel Harvest Book

Also witty, learned, sly, ingenious, and bawdy. Entertainment weekly   “what john fowles did for the 19th century with The French Lieutenant’s Woman and Umberto Eco did for the 14th with The Name of the Rose .  .  . A portrait of a young mechanical genius in 18th-century France, delivered along with a gallimaufry of odd and intriguing facts and a rich, lusty picture of society in that time and place.

Publishers weekly   in france, on the eve of the Revolution, a young man named Claude Page sets out to become the most ingenious and daring inventor of his time. A case of Curiosities .  .  . Over the course of a career filled with violence and passion, Claude learns the arts of enameling and watchmaking from an irascible, defrocked abbé, then apprentices himself to a pornographic bookseller and applies his erotic erudition to the seduction of the wife of an impotent wigmaker.

Kurzweil now does for the late 18th century. San francisco Chronicle. Like a joint effort by henry fielding and john barth” Chicago Tribune, this “captivating novel” San Francisco Chronicle marked the debut of one of the finest literary artists of our time. But it is claude’s greatest device—a talking mechanical head—that both crowns his career and leads to an execution as tragic as that of Marie Antoinette, and far more bizarre.

Really is brilliant.


The Half Wives: A Novel

Marilyn distracts herself with charity work. Part historical fiction, part heartbreaking romance, part bildungsroman, this book takes readers on a journey rich with detail and darkness” Seattle Book Review. She keeps readers hooked right up to the book’s satisfying conclusion. Publishers Weekly. Henry plageman is a master secret-keeper.

Before long, the four will be drawn to the same destination—the city cemetery on the outskirts of San Francisco—where the collision of lives and secrets leaves no one unaltered. A former lutheran minister, many years ago; his wife, he lost his faith after losing his infant son, Jack, Marilyn, remains consumed by grief.

A finalist for the townsend prize   “the developing San Francisco of the 1890s becomes a rich background for these three as they play out their messy, somber, intertwined fates. The new york times book review   “a poignant, beautifully crafted, always gripping tale of loss and love, sometimes heart-rending, and the human need to try to set things right.

Kevin baker, author of the big Crowd   “Pelletier’s writing is moving and enthralling .  .  . Lucy must rescue the intrepid Blue, who has fallen in a saltwater well. Henry needs to talk his way out of the police station, where he has spent the night for disorderly conduct.


River Thieves: A Novel

When buchan’s peace expedition into “Indian country” goes awry, the rift between father and son deepens and begins to divide those closest to them. An enthralling story of great passion and suspense, vividly set in the stark Newfoundland landscape and driven by an extraordinary cast of characters, River Thieves captures both the vast sweep of history and the intimate lives of those caught in its wake.

Years later, when a second expedition to the Beothuk’s winter camp mounted by the Peytons leads to the kidnapping of an Indian woman and the murder of her husband, Buchan returns to investigate. As the officer attempts to uncover what really happened at the Red Indian’s lake, the delicate web of obligation and debt that holds together the Peyton household—and the community of settlers on the northeastern shore—slowly unravels.

His closest ally, John Peyton Jr. Maintains an uneasy balance between duty to his father—a domineering patriarch with a reputation as a ruthless persecutor of the Beothuk—and his troubled conscience. An impressive first novel” of a crisis between natives and colonists in Newfoundland, based on historical events Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

In 1810, a naval officer, or “red indians, david buchan, ” the aboriginal inhabitants of Newfoundland, arrives in the Bay of Exploits with orders to establish contact with the Beothuk, who are facing extinction. Cassie, walks a precarious line of her own between the unspoken but obvious hopes of the younger Peyton, the fiercely self-reliant and secretive woman who keeps the family house, her loyalty to John Senior, and a steadfast refusal to compromise her independence.

When buchan approaches the area’s most influential white settlers, for advice and assistance, the Peytons, he enters a shadowy world of allegiances and old grudges that he can only dimly apprehend.


The Sea Beggars: A Novel

Remaining behind in antwerp, hanneke, meanwhile, is forced to endure a series of devastating trials that would crush a young woman of weaker spirit and sensibilities. It is yet one more fictional excursion into the breathtaking world of the past by an author the New York Times praises as “a literary phenomenon.

”. A sixteenth-century family joins with pirates and William of Orange to fight the Spanish Inquisition in this novel of the Dutch Revolt by “a first-class storyteller” People. Consistently ranked among the top authors of historical fiction, along with Mary Renault, Phillipa Gregory, Mary Stewart, and Diana Gabaldon, the great Cecelia Holland now transports readers to the sixteenth-century Netherlands in an exciting tale of resistance and rebellion against cruel Spanish oppressors that combines unforgettable fictional characters with real historic personages.

No one was safe from religious persecution in the dutch low Countries when the “conqueror king, ” Phillip II of Spain, dispatched the Catholic Church’s Inquisition to the Netherlands in the late 1500s. Now their children, jan and hanneke, must survive on their own by any means necessary as fate carries them down separate but equally dangerous paths.

But young hanneke soon realizes there can be no escape or safe haven anywhere as long as her country is in chains, and she vows to dedicate her life to the perilous cause of freedom. A sweeping and epic historical novel rich in color and stunning period detail, Holland’s The Sea Beggars is an enthralling, action-packed adventure that interweaves fact with brilliant invention.

Jan’s destiny is on the high seas—and ultimately in the royal court of England’s Queen Elizabeth—as he and his uncle Pieter boldly retake the old man’s captive ship and join the infamous pirates known as the Sea Beggars in their quest to drive the enemy invaders from Dutch waters. Strong, and independent, courageous, she embarks on a harrowing journey to Germany in the company of refugee ruler William of Orange ahead of the impending terror of Spain’s sadistic Duke of Alva.




Meadowlands

Fans of downton abbey and upstairs, downstairs will be captivated” by this novel of an aristocratic family at the dawn of the First World War Booklist, starred review. Meanwhile, millie’s sister finds fulfilment in helping the local wives and children left destitute while their husbands are away fighting.

They will encounter hardship, danger, and wonderfully sharp attention to detail” Booklist, heartache—and unexpected love—in a saga filled with “compelling characters, interesting historical facts, realistic situations, starred review. August, lady adelaide, 1914: the silver wedding celebrations of Sir George Barsham, MP, and his wife, have been overshadowed by the declaration of war with Germany.

Over the following months, as the male estate workers head for the front and the maids disappear to work in the newly opened munitions factory, the Barsham family’s comfortable, aristocratic lifestyle is set to change forever. During the course of the war, as devastating losses mount, the strength of character of the four Barsham siblings will be tested as never before.

. To lady adelaide’s dismay, her younger daughter, Millie, learns to drive an ambulance: a most unladylike skill. Determined to do his bit for king and country, Polly, leaving Lady Adelaide’s maid, James Barsham enlists as an officer and heads for Flanders, devastated.


The Turquoise: A Novel

The life of santa Fe Cameron lingers long in memory. Springfield Republican. A novel of a girl’s journey from an orphaned childhood in New Mexico to an opulent life in Gilded Age New York, by the author of Avalon. This reader for one enjoyed The Turquoise enormously. The new york times   “with accurate historical background, Anya Seton has constructed a touchingly tragic story of a girl who tried so hard to find happiness that she lost everything in her search.

Filled with color, excitement, foxfire, this is a stirring historical saga from the author of Katherine, and starring an unforgettable heroine, and rich period detail, and many other novels. At seven years old, she would also lose her father. Shortly thereafter, a navajo shaman recognized psychic power in the orphan girl, and gave her a turquoise pendant as a keepsake.

Seton, has a gaudy vitality all her own, at her best, and a sure sense of theatre. For “fey, ” life is made up of violent contrasts: the rough wagon that brings her East and the scented carriages waiting before her own Fifth Avenue mansion; the glittering world of the Astors and a dreary cell in the Tombs.

This turquoise, the indian symbol of the spirit, will dominate her life—even after she leaves the simple beauty of her native New Mexico to search for happiness in the glamorous New York of the 1870s. In 1850, as her mother lay dying and a priest stood by, Santa Fe Cameron was named by her Scottish father after the town in which she had just been born.

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The Forgotten Queen

But she has rivals. Despite her doubts, Margaret falls under the spell of her adopted home. Beset by betrayal, margaret has one overriding ambition she will never give up—to preserve the crown of Scotland for her son, secret alliances, and the vagaries of her own heart, no matter what the cost. Even providing an heir cannot guarantee Margaret’s safety when Jamie leads an invading army against her own brother, Henry VIII.

The “excellent, desire, fast-paced story” of a woman torn between duty, and loyalty—and the legacy she seeks to leave for those she loves Historical Novel Society. Barely out of girlhood, margaret is married by proxy to James IV and travels to Edinburgh to become queen of Scotland. And when her husband falls in battle, she falls prey to the attentions of the ambitious Earl of Angus—a move that brings Scotland to the brink of anarchy.

And while jamie is an affectionate husband, he is not a faithful one. From her earliest days, Margaret Tudor knows she will not have the luxury of choosing a husband. Exquisitely detailed and poignant, the forgotten Queen vividly depicts the life and loves of an extraordinary woman who helped shape the fate of two kingdoms—and in time, became the means of uniting them.

As daughter of henry VII, her duty is to gain alliances for England.


The Chapel: A Novel

Her efforts to book a ticket home, though, are stymied by her aggressively supportive children and the ministrations of an incomprehensibly Italian hotel staff. Now she is in italy alone, though she was itching to leave as soon as she arrived in Padua. At last, a love story for adults—wrapped in a sophisticated mystery about art, religion and the fragility of the human heart.

Elizabeth benedict, bestselling author of Almost. Vividly entertaining. Publishers weekly   the tour elizabeth berman is on is better suited to her late husband, a Dante scholar who’d masterminded the itinerary as a surprise for their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary before leaving her a widow. Combines art, art history, and Italian allure into a cerebral romance .

 .  . Then, in the arena chapel, she comes face to face with the first documented painting of a teardrop in human history—and in the presence of that tearful mother, and the arresting company of the renowned and anonymous women painted by Giotto, she wakes up to the possibility that she is not lost .

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