Archives by Tag 'America'
Review: ‘A Study in Scarlet’ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Title: Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Published: Headline Review, 2006, pp. 164 Genre: Classic mystery fiction Blurb: Arriving in the wilderness of London and in need of lodgings, Dr John Watson finds himself living at 221b Baker Street with one Sherlock Holmes. When a corpse is discovered in a derelict house Watson, fascinated by his [...]
Review: ‘Twist of Gold’ by Michael Morpurgo
Title: Author: Michael Morpurgo Published: Egmont, 2001, pp. 300 Genre: Young adult historical fiction Blurb: Sean and Annie have fled the potato famine in Ireland for America, leaving their dying mother behind. They are the only O’Brien children to have survived their family’s suffering. The worst is not over as they embark on a hard [...]
Review: ‘The Age of Innocence’ by Edith Wharton
Title: The Age of Innocence Author: Edith Wharton Published: Virago, 1994, pp. 303 Genre: Modern classic Blurb:In the conformist, closed world of upper-class New York, Newland Archer anticipates his marriage to May Welland, a young girl “who knew nothing and expected everything”. Into this ordered arrangement bursts May’s cousin Ellen, the mysterious and exotic Countess [...]
Review: ‘The Last Witchfinder’ by James Morrow
Title: The Last Witchfinder Author: James Morrow Published: Phoenix, 2006, pp. 573 Genre: Historical fiction Blurb:In the spring of 1688, Walter Stearne, Witchfinder-General for Mercia and East Anglia, roams the countryside in search of heretics. His daughter Jennet is left behind in the care of her Aunt Isobel, who schools her in the New Philosophy [...]
Review: ‘Murder with Peacocks’ by Donna Andrews
Title: Murder with Peacocks Author: Donna Andrews Published: St Martin’s Paperbacks, 1999, pp. 311 Genre: Contemporary mystery Blurb:So far Meg Langslow’s summer is not going swimmingly. Down in her small Virginia hometown, she’s maid of honor at the nuptials of three loved ones — each of whom has dumped the planning in hercapable hands. One [...]
Review: ‘Sophia Scrooby Preserved’ by Martha Bacon
Title: Sophia Scrooby Preserved Author: Martha Bacon Published: Puffin Books, 1971, pp. 220 Genre: Children’s historical fiction Blurb: ‘My little panther’, Nono’s father called her, but he didn’t get the chance to say it for long. Her African village was destroyed and she first lived in the bush then was sold as a slave, given [...]
Review: ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ by Arthur Golden
Title: Memoirs of a Geisha Author: Arthur Golden Published: Vintage, 1998, pp. 434 Genre: Historical Fiction Blurb: This story is a rare and utterly engaging experience. It tells the extraordinary tale of a geisha – summoning up a quarter century, from 1929 to the post-war years of Japan’s dramatic history, and opening a window onto [...]
Review: ‘The Last Time They Met’ by Anita Shreve
Title: The Last Time They Met Author: Anita Shreve Published: Abacus, 2001, pp. 360 Genre: Fiction Blurb: When Linda Fallon and Thomas Janes meet at a writers’ festival in Toronto, it is the first time they have seen each other for twenty-six years. Theirs is a story bound by the irresistible pull of true passion [...]
Review: ‘The Cigarette Girl’ by Carol Wolper
Elizabeth West is twenty-eight, which means she’s just entered The Zone–that seven-year span in a woman’s life when the pressure to find Mr. Right is at its most intense. For Elizabeth, however, the quest is not about Mr. Right so much as it is about Mr. Maybe. And on some nights, all she’s looking for [...]
Review: ‘The Swan Thieves’ by Elizabeth Kostova
Psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe has a perfectly ordered life–solitary, perhaps, but full of devotion to his profession and the painting hobby he loves. This order is destroyed when renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art and becomes his patient. In response, Marlowe finds himself going beyond his own legal and [...]