OCTOBER 2012:
The
Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley (Oct 1st)
With its dark legends and passionate history, the
windswept shores of Scotland are an archaeologist’s dream. Verity Grey is
thrilled by the challenge of uncovering an ancient Roman campsite in a small
village. But as soon as she arrives, she can sense danger in the air. Her
eccentric boss, Peter Quinnell, has spent his whole life searching for the
resting place of the lost Ninth Roman Legion and is convinced he’s finally
found it – not because of any scientific evidence, but because a local boy has
‘seen’ a Roman soldier walking in the fields, a ghostly sentinel who guards the
bodies of his long-dead comrades. Surprisingly, Verity believes in Peter, and
the boy, and even in the Sentinel, who seems determined to become her own
protector...but from what?
A Plague of Lies by Judith Rock (Oct 2nd)
Madame de
Maintenon is King Louis XIV’s second wife. The daughter of a minor noble of
ill-repute, she has not forgiven the king’s Jesuit confessor for encouraging
him to withhold the title of Queen from her. To placate her, the prestigious
Louis le Grand Jesuit school has sent a delegation— including her distant
relation Pere Jouvancy and rhetoric teacher Charles du Luc—to Versailles with a
gift of reliquary. The Sun King’s palace is spectacular, but the delegation’s
visit grows darker and darker. On their first night, a courtier dies, and court
whispers claim poison. Then the Jesuits fall direly ill, and a palace gardener is
found murdered. Now, fear grips a court where everyone has secrets to hide...
Toby’s
Room by Pat Barker (Oct 2nd)
Toby and Elinor, brother and sister, friends and
confidants, are sharers of a dark secret, carried from the summer of 1912 into
the battlefields of France and wartime London in 1917. When Toby is reported
'Missing, Believed Killed', another secret casts a lengthening shadow over
Elinor's world: how exactly did Toby die - and why? Elinor's fellow student Kit
Neville was there in the fox-hole when Toby met his fate, but has secrets of
his own to keep. Enlisting the help of former lover Paul Tarrant, Elinor
determines to uncover the truth. Only then can she finally close the door to
Toby's room.
In 1842 Phineas T. Barnum is a young man, freshly arrived in New York and still unknown to the world. With uncanny confidence and impeccable timing, he transforms a dusty natural history museum into a great ark for public imagination. Barnum's museum, with its human wonders and extraordinary live animal menagerie, rises to become not only the nation's most popular attraction, but also a catalyst that ushers America out of a culture of glassed-in exhibits and into the modern age of entertainment. In this kaleidoscopic setting, the stories of two compelling characters are brought to life. Emile Guillaudeu is the museum's grumpy taxidermist, who is horrified by the chaotic change Barnum brings to his beloved institution. Ana Swift is a professional giantess plagued by chronic pain and jaded by a world of gawkers. The differences between these two are many: one is isolated and spends his working hours making dead things look alive, while the other has people pushing against her, and reacting to her, every day. But they both move toward change, one against his will, propelled by a paradigm shift happening whether he likes it or not, and the other because she is struggling to survive. In many shapes and forms, metamorphosis is at the core of Among the Wonderful. Pursuing this theme, the book weaves a world where upper Manhattan is still untrammeled wilderness, the Five Points is at the height of its bloody glory, and within the walls of Barnum's museum, ancient tribal feuds play out in the midst of an unlikely community of marvels.
After Clara Bixby is abandoned by her husband and fired from her job in a New York City tavern, she has nowhere to turn. Though the Civil War has ended, life remains uncertain, especially for single women. But when she reads about Destination, Nebraska—a town populated entirely by bachelors—Clara sees a golden business opportunity. She contacts the mayor with a solution: she will match single women in New York City with homesteading bachelors and bring the brides by rail across the wild frontier. This group of women—who range from an upper-class war widow to a Bavarian immigrant—embark with Clara on an epic journey across America in search of security, a new life, and the possibility of love.
River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh (in PB Oct 2nd)
In September 1838 a storm blows up on the Indian Ocean and the Ibis, a ship carrying a consignment of convicts and indentured laborers from Calcutta to Mauritius, is caught up in the whirlwind. When the seas settle, five men have disappeared - two lascars, two convicts and one of the passengers. Did the same storm upend the fortunes of those aboard the Anahita, an opium carrier heading towards Canton? And what fate befell those aboard theRedruth, a sturdy two-masted brig heading East out of Cornwall? Was it the storm that altered their course or were the destinies of these passengers at the mercy of even more powerful forces?
A Dangerous Inheritance-Alison Weir (Oct 2nd)
The Tower of London, 1562. Queen Elizabeth I sits insecurely on the English throne. The Queen's cousin, a young woman of twenty-two has just been arrested. Will Elizabeth demand the full penalty for treason? This young woman is Lady Katherine Grey, and in her short life she has already suffered more than her fair share of tragedy. Eight years before, her older sister, Lady Jane Grey, was beheaded for unlawfully accepting a crown that was not hers. And Katherine suffered too, as a result of Jane`s fall... Now she has defied the Queen. Intertwined with Katherine's story is that of her distant kinswoman, Kate Plantagenet, the bastard daughter of King Richard III. In 1483, Kate is brought to London for the coronation of her cousin, King Edward V, and her world changes dramatically.Kate loves her father, and she has been treated as a daughter by his wife, Anne Neville. But all is not well at court, and soon after her arrival, Kate senses sinister undercurrents. Before long, she hears terrible rumors that deeply disturb her. And, like Katherine Grey, she is in love with a man who is forbidden to her. Soon, she embarks on what will ultimately prove to be a dangerous quest, covertly seeking information that can throw light on what would become one of history's most enduring mysteries. But time is not on Kate`s side - or Katherine's either.Katherine and Kate find out that incurring the wrath of princes is a dangerous game, and that being near in blood to the throne is a curse rather than a blessing. Both young women will risk much to for love, and to uncover the truth - and both will court a tragic fate.
Paris, France: 1860’s. Hundreds of houses are being
razed, whole neighborhoods reduced to ashes. By order of Emperor Napoleon III,
Baron Haussman has set into motion a series of large-scale renovations that
will permanently alter the face of old Paris, moulding it into a “modern city.”
The reforms will erase generations of history—but in the midst of the tumult,
one woman will take a stand. Rose
Bazelet is determined to fight against the destruction of her family home until
the very end; as others flee, she stakes her claim in the basement of the old
house on rue Childebert, ignoring the sounds of change that come closer and closer
each day. Attempting to overcome the loneliness of her daily life, she begins
to write letters to Armand, her beloved late husband. And as she delves into
the ritual of remembering, Rose is forced to come to terms with a secret that
has been buried deep in her heart for thirty years.
Tower: An Epic History of the Tower of London by Nigel Jones (Non-Fic
Oct 2nd)
Castle, royal palace, prison, torture chamber, execution site,
zoo, mint, home to thecrown jewels, armory, record office, observatory, and the
most visited tourist attraction in the UK: The Tower of London has been all
these things and more. No building in Britain has been more intimately involved
in the island's story than this mighty, brooding stronghold in the very heart
of the capital, a place which has stood at the epicenter of dramatic, bloody
and frequently cruel events for almost a thousand years. Now historian Nigel
Jones sets this dramatic story firmly in the context of national—and
international—events. In a gripping account drawn from primary sources and
lavishly illustrated with sixteen pages of stunning photographs, he captures
the Tower in its many changing moods and its many diverse functions. Here, for the
first time, is a thematic portrayal of the Tower of London not just as an
ancient structure, but as a living symbol of the nation of Great Britain.
In
Sunlight and in Shadow Mark Helprin (Oct 2nd)
New York in 1947 glows with post-war energy. Harry Copeland, an elite paratrooper who
fought behind enemy lines in Europe, returns home to run the family business.
In a single, magical encounter on the Staten Island ferry, the young singer and
heiress Catherine Thomas Hale falls for him in an instant, too late to prevent
her engagement to a much older man. Harry and Catherine pursue one another in a
romance played out in postwar America's Broadway theaters, Long Island
mansions, the offices of financiers, and the haunts of gangsters. Catherine's
choice of Harry over her long-time fiancé endangers Harry’s livelihood and
eventually threatens his life.
The List
by Martin Fletcher (Oct 2nd)
London, October 1945. Austrian refugees Georg and
Edith await the birth of their first child. Yet how can they celebrate when
almost every day brings news of another relative or friend murdered in the
Holocaust? Their struggle to rebuild their lives is further threatened by
growing anti-Semitism in London's streets; Englishmen want to take homes and
jobs from Jewish refugees and give them to returning servicemen. Edith's father
is believed to have survived, and finding him rests on Georg's shoulders. Then
Georg learns of a plot by Palestinian Jews to assassinate Britain’s foreign
minister. Georg must try to stop the murder, all the while navigating a city
that wants to "eject the aliens." In The List, Fletcher investigates
an ignored and painful chapter in London’s history. The novel is both a
breathless thriller of postwar sabotage and a heartrending and historically
accurate portrait of an almost forgotten era. In this sensitive, deeply
touching, and impossible-to-forget story, Martin Fletcher explores the themes
of hope, prejudice, loss and love that make up the lives of all refugees
everywhere.
Illuminations chronicles the life of Hildegard von Bingen (1098–1179), who was tithed to the church at the age of eight and expected to live out her days in silent submission as the handmaiden of a renowned but disturbed young nun, Jutta von Sponheim. Instead, Hildegard rejected Jutta’s masochistic piety and found comfort and grace in studying books, growing herbs, and rejoicing in her own secret visions of the divine. When Jutta died some three decades later, Hildegard broke out of her prison with the heavenly calling to speak and write about her visions and to liberate her sisters and herself from the soul-destroying anchorage.
Condemned to wander forever after he kills his brother Abel, Cain makes his way through the world in the company of a personable donkey. He is a witness to and participant in the stories of Isaac and Abraham, the destruction of the Tower of Babel, Moses and the golden calf, the trials of Job. The rapacious Queen Lilith takes him as her lover. An old man with two sheep on a rope crosses his path. And again and again, Cain encounters a God whose actions seem callous, cruel, and unjust. He confronts Him, he argues with Him.
The
Secret Keeper by Kate Morton (Oct 9th)
1959 England. Laurel Nicolson is sixteen years old, dreaming
alone in her childhood tree house during a family celebration at their home,
Green Acres Farm. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and
then observes her mother, Dorothy, speaking to him. And then she witnesses a
crime. Fifty years later, Laurel is a
successful and well-regarded actress, living in London. She returns to Green
Acres for Dorothy’s ninetieth birthday and finds herself overwhelmed by
memories and questions she has not thought about for decades. She decides to
find out the truth about the events of that summer day and lay to rest her own
feelings of guilt. One photograph, of her mother and woman Laurel has never
met, called Vivian, is her first clue.
The Time
of the Wolf by James Wilde (Oct 10th)
1062, a time many fear is the End of Days. With the
English King Edward heirless and ailing, across the grey seas in Normandy
the brutal William the Bastard waits for the moment when he can drown
England in a tide of blood. The ravens of war are gathering. But as the
king's closest advisors scheme and squabble amongst themselves, hopes of
resisting the naked ambition of the Norman duke come to rest with just one
man: Hereward. To some a ruthless warrior and master tactician, to others
a devil in human form, Hereward is as adept in the art of warfare as the
foes that gather to claim England's throne. But in his country's hour
of greatest need, his enemies at court have made him an outlaw. To stay
alive—and a free man—he must carve a bloody swathe from the frozen
lands outside the court, in this evocative tale of a man whose deeds will
become the stuff of legend.
Island of Bones by Imogen Robertson (Oct 11th)
England, 1783. In Island of Bones, Crowther’s haunting past is at last revealed. For years he has pursued his forensic studies—and the occasional murder investigation—far from his family estate. But an ancient tomb there will reveal a wealth of secrets. When laborers discover an extra body inside, the lure of the mystery brings Crowther home at last.
Centurion by Simon Scarrow (Oct 11th)
In the first century AD, Rome faces a potent new threat from its long-standing enemy—Parthia. The two rivals are vying for control of Palmyra, an officially neutral kingdom along the Euphrates river. Palmyra’s royal household is on the brink of open revolt, so Rome dispatches a task force under the command of veteran warriors Macro and Cato to defend its king and guard its orders. Macro’s cohort must march against the enemy, deep into treacherous territory. If Palmyra is not to fall into the clutches of Parthia, they will have to defeat superior numbers in a desperate siege. The quest for a lasting peace has never been more challenging, nor more critical for the future of the empire.
Aztec Revenge by Gary Jennings (Oct 16th)
Juan was
a “mestizo,” the mixture of Spanish and Indio blood that was called a blood
taint and doomed whoever bore it to a short,
violent life on the streets as a lépero beggar. But Juan had a special gift for
handling horses and an ability to defend
himself
at a time when a man’s best friends were his horse and his sword. Only El
Mestizo, the half-caste son of the conqueror Cortés,
knew the secret of Juan’s birth and that the blood of kings flowed in the young
beggar. Fleeing after killing a man beating a horse, Juan sets out on a series
of adventures as a highwayman, horse thief, and ultimately in the guise of a
wealthy caballero who is wined and dined by the richest and most powerful
people in the colony—people who didn’t realize that some of them had once
stared down the barrel of Juan’s pistola as he took their gold. A reign of
terror by the viceroy is triggered when a plot to seize the colony is
discovered and Juan must face the ultimate challenge of getting the man who
saved his own life out of the hands of Inquisition torturers. Fighting,
conniving, and loving in a colorful era of flashing swords and brave hearts,
Juan must use all the tricks he learned as a lépero and bandido to unlock the
secret of his own heritage.
Years
ago, Emily's childhood nemesis, Emma Callum, scandalized polite society when
she eloped to Venice with an Italian count.
But now her father-in-law lies murdered, and her husband has vanished. There's
no one Emma can turn to for help but
Emily, who leaves at once with her husband, the dashing Colin Hargreaves, for
Venice. There, her investigations take her
from opulent palazzi to slums, libraries, and bordellos. Emily soon realizes
that to solve the present day crime, she must first
unravel a centuries old puzzle. But the past does not give up its secrets
easily, especially when these revelations might threaten the
interests of some very powerful people.
Blood Lance by Jeri
Westerson (Oct 16th)
Crispin
Guest, returning home after a late night, sees a body hurtling from the uppermost
reaches of the London Bridge. Guest's attempted rescue fails, however, and the
man—an armourer with a shop on the bridge—is dead. While whispers in the street
claim that it was a suicide, Guest—known in certain London circles as The
Tracker for his skill in solving puzzles—is unconvinced. What
Guest uncovers is that the armourer had promised Sir Thomas Saunfayl, a friend
from Guest's former life, that he would provide him something that would make
him unbeatable in battle, something for which he'd paid a small fortune. Sir Thomas
believes that the item was in fact the Spear of Longinus - the spear that pierced
the side of Christ on the cross—which is believed to make those who possess it
invincible. Complicating matters is another old friend, Geoffrey Chaucer, who
suddenly comes
to London and is anxious to help Guest find the missing spear, about which he
seems to know a bit too much. With various forces anxious to find the spear, the
life of Sir Thomas in danger and perhaps the very safety of England hangs in the
balance, Guest and his apprentice Jack Tucker must navigate some very perilous
waters if they are to survive.
Foundation: The History of England Vol 1 by Peter Ackroyd (Non-Fic Oct 16th)
The
first in an extraordinary six-volume history, Foundation takes the
reader from the primeval forests of England's prehistory to the death, in 1509,
of the first Tudor king, Henry VII. Peter Ackroyd guides readers from the
building of Stonehenge to the founding of the two great glories of medieval
England: common law and the cathedrals. He shows glimpses of England's most
distant past— a Neolithic
stirrup found in a grave, a Roman fort, a Saxon tomb, a medieval manor house—and
describes in rich prose the successive waves of invaders who made England
English, despite being themselves Roman, Viking, Saxon, or Norman French. With
his accomplished skill for evoking time and place and his acute eye for the telling
detail, Ackroyd recounts the story of warring kings, of civil strife and foreign
wars. But he also gives a vivid sense of how the people lived in the country's
early days: the homes they built, the clothes they wore, the food they ate,
even the jokes they told. All are brought vividly to life through the narrative
mastery of one of England's finest writers, calling to mind the absorbing royal
portraits of Alison Weir and the revealing everyday details of Bill Bryson.
Young Henry: The Rise of
Henry VIII by Robert Hutchinson (Non Fic Oct 16th)
Few
men have changed history as decisively as King Henry VIII. Who, though, was the
prince that would be king? While Henry’s elder brother Arthur, heirapparent, was
scrupulously groomed for the crown, the “spare heir” Henry enjoyed a rather
indulgent childhood. Made Constable of Dover Castle at age two, and Duke of
York at three, he was prepared for a comfortable life in a clerical
career. Everything changed for the ten-year-old prince when Arthur died. As
King, Henry loved magnificence and merriment, and quickly swept away the musty cobwebs
of his father's court. But at thirty-five and lacking an heir, the time for youthful frolic had
ended. The executions would begin.
Kind One by Laird Hunt (Oct 16th)
As a teenage girl, Ginny
marries Linus Lancaster, her mother's second cousin, and moves to his Kentucky
pig farm "ninety miles from nowhere." In the shadows of the lush
Kentucky landscape, Ginny discovers the empty promises of Linus' "paradise"—a
place where the charms of her husband fall away to reveal a troubled man and
cruel slave owner. Ginny befriends the young slaves Cleome and Zinnia who work
at the farm—until Linus' attentions turn to them, and she finds herself torn
between her husband and only companions. The events that follow Linus' death
change all three women for life. Haunting, chilling, and suspenseful, Kind One is a
powerful tale of redemption and human endurance in antebellum America.
The Black Sun: A People of the Longhouse Novel by W Michael and
Kathleen O’Neal Gear (Oct 16th)
Dekanawida
has become known as “The Sky Messenger,” a prophet of immense power, and
Hiawento is his Speaker. Thousands now believe in the Great Law of Peace and
have joined the League. But they are still being harassed by marauding warriors
from the People of the Mountain who steadfastly refuse to adopt the Great Law. Dekanawida
has prophesied destruction if the warfare continues. As one by one, portents
start coming true, Dekanawida has one last chance to convince the People of the
Mountain to join the League and save their world from utter destruction.
The Maid: A Novel of Joan of Arc by Kimberly Cutter (in PB Oct 16th)
It is the fifteenth century and the tumultuous Hundred Years War rages on. France is under siege, English soldiers tear through the countryside destroying all who cross their path, and Charles VII, the uncrowned king, has neither the strength nor the will to rally his army. And in the quiet of her parents’ garden in Lorraine, a peasant girl sees a spangle of light and hears a powerful voice speak her name. Jehanne. The story of Jehanne d'Arc, the visionary and saint who believed she had been chosen by God, who led an army and saved her country, has captivated our imagination for centuries. But the story of Jeanne - the girl - whose sister was murdered by the English, who sought an escape from a violent father and a forced marriage, who taught herself to ride and fight, and who somehow found the courage and tenacity to convince first one, then two, then thousands to follow her, is at once thrilling, unexpected and heart-breaking. Rich with unspoken love and battlefield valor, The Maid is a novel about the power and uncertainty of faith, and the exhilarating and devastating consequences of fame.
As World War II sweeps the continent and England steels
itself against German attack, Maggie Hope, former secretary to Prime Minister
Winston Churchill, completes her training to become a spy for MI-5. Spirited,
strong-willed, and possessing one of the sharpest minds in government for
mathematics and code-breaking, she fully expects to be sent abroad to gather
intelligence for the British front. Instead, to her great disappointment, she
is dispatched to go undercover at Windsor Castle, where she will tutor the
young Princess Elizabeth in math. Yet castle life quickly proves more
dangerous—and deadly—than Maggie ever expected. The upstairs-downstairs world
at Windsor is thrown into disarray by a shocking murder, which draws Maggie
into a vast conspiracy that places the entire royal family in peril. And as she
races to save England from a most disturbing fate, Maggie realizes that a quick
wit is her best defense, and that the smallest clues can unravel the biggest
secrets, even within her own family.
The
Paris Deadline by Max Byrd (Oct 16th)
Paris, 1926. Newspaper reporter Toby
Keats, a veteran of the Great War and the only American in Paris who doesn’t
know Hemingway, has lived a quiet life—until one day he comes into possession
of a rare eighteenth-century automate, a very strange and somewhat scandalous
mechanical duck. Highly sought after by an enigmatic American banker, European
criminals, and the charming young American Elsie Short, the duck is rumored to
hold the key to opening a new frontier in weapons technology for the German
army, now beginning to threaten Europe once more. Haunted with his nightmarish
past in the War, Toby pursues the truth behind the duck.
Elza believed her
Dutch husband would be her handsome prince, with whom she’d live happily ever
after. But he soon turned cold, dismissive, and scornful, more interested in
politics than Elza. When he grows violent, she leaves everything and runs away
to post-revolutionary Paris, where she finds herself in need of a protector.
Elza makes a deal with a commander in the French army: in exchange for his
defense against her husband, she will become his mistress. So begins a sensual
journey that leads from the decadent salons of Paris to the Italian coast to
the bed of General Napoleon Bonaparte himself. Elza finds that she has a
survivor’s instincts, a courtesan’s passion, and the gift of second sight. When
a tarot reading reveals the face of a soldier who she senses is her soulmate,
Elza must once again decide if she is strong enough to risk everything for her
destiny.
The
Stockholm Eight by Karen Engelmann (Oct 23rd)
Life is close to perfect for Emil Larsson, a
self-satisfied bureaucrat in the Office of Excise and Customs in Stockholm of
1791. He is a true man of The Town—drinker, card player, and contented
bachelor. Until one evening, when Mrs. Sophia Sparrow, proprietor of an
exclusive gaming parlor and fortune teller, shares with him a vision she has
had—a golden path that will lead to love and connection for Emil. She offers to
lay an Octavo for him, a spread of cards that augur the eight individuals who
can help him realize this vision—if he can find them. Emil begins his search, intrigued by the
puzzle of his Octavo and the good fortune Mrs. Sparrow’s vision portends. But
when Mrs. Sparrow wins a mysterious folding fan in a card game, the Octavo’s
deeper powers are revealed. No longer just a game of the heart, collecting his
Eight is now crucial to pulling his country back from the crumbling precipice
of rebellion and chaos. Set against the luminous backdrop of late 18th century
Stockholm, as the winds of revolution rage through the great capitals of
Europe, The Stockholm Octavo brings together a collection of characters both
fictional and historical whose lives tangle in political conspiracy, love, and
magic in a breathtaking debut that will leave readers spellbound.
On a stormy night in 1421, the
North Sea delivers a devastating blow to Holland: the Saint Elizabeth Flood, a
deluge of biblical proportions that drowns hundreds of towns, thousands of
people, and forever alters the geography of the Low Countries. Where the
factions of the noble Hooks and the merchant Cods waged a literal class war but
weeks before, there is now only a nigh-endless expanse of grey water, a
desolate inland sea with moldering church spires jutting up like sunken
tombstones. For a land already beleaguered by generations of civil war, a worse
disaster could scarce be imagined. Yet even disaster can be profitable,
for the right sort of individual, and into this flooded realm sail three
conspirators: a deranged thug at the edge of madness, a ruthless conman on the
cusp of fortune, and a half-feral girl balanced between them. If they work
together they may find reward beyond reckoning, but such promise is no
guarantee against betrayals born of greed, rage, and lust. In a
topsy-turvey world where peasants feast while noblemen starve, these three
uneasy confederates will learn that theft, fraud, and even murder are simply
part of politics as usual in the island-city of Dordrecht, and even if their
scheme succeeds they may not live long enough to enjoy it...
American Ghost by Janis Owens (Oct 23rd)
Jolie
Hoyt is the daughter of a Pentecostal preacher living in small-town Florida.
Disregarding her family’s closet full of secrets and distrust of outsiders, she
throws caution to the wind when she falls in love with Sam Lense, a Jewish
anthropology student from Miami in town to study the region. But their affair
ends abruptly when Sam is discovered to have pried too deeply into the town’s
dark racial past and he becomes the latest victim of violence. Years later, Sam
and Jolie are brought together again, and as they resolve the mistakes of their
early love, they finally shed light on the ugly history of Jolie’s hometown.
Harriet and James's interwoven stories of love and betrayal propel this sweeping and dramatic novel as it moves between Regency London on the cusp of modernity—a city in love with science, the machine, money—and the shocking violence of war in Spain. With dazzling skill Stella Tillyard explores not only the effects of war on the men at the front but also the freedoms it offers the women left behind. As Harriet befriends the older and protective Kitty, Lady Wellington, her life begins to change in unexpected ways. Meanwhile, James is seduced by the violence of battle, and then by love in Seville.
In 1904, as the Russo-Japanese war deepened, Asia was parceled out to rising powers and the Korean Empire was annexed by Japan. Facing war and the loss of their nation, over a thousand Koreans left their homes to seek possibility elsewhere—in unknown Mexico. After a long sea voyage, these emigrants—thieves and royals, priests and soldiers, orphans and entire families—disembark with the promise of land. Soon they discover the truth: they have been sold into indentured servitude. Aboard ship, an orphan, Ijeong, fell in love with the daughter of a noble; parted when the various haciendados claim their laborers, he vows to find her. After years working in the punishing heat of the henequen fields, the Koreans are caught in the midst of a Mexican revolution. Some flee with Ijeong to Guatemala, where they found a New Korea amid Mayan ruins.
The fascinating characters that roam across the pages
of Emma Donoghue's stories have all gone astray: they are emigrants, runaways,
drifters, lovers old and new. They are gold miners and counterfeiters,
attorneys and slaves. They cross other borders too: those of race, law, sex,
and sanity. They travel for love or money, incognito or under duress. With rich historical detail, the celebrated
author of Room takes us from puritan Massachusetts to revolutionary New Jersey,
antebellum Louisiana to the Toronto highway, lighting up four centuries of
wanderings that have profound echoes in the present. Astray offers us a
surprising and moving history for restless times.
The Confidant by
Helene Gremillon (Oct 30th)
Paris,
1975. Camille sifts through letters of condolence after her mother’s death when
a strange, handwritten missive stops her short. At first she believes she
received it by mistake. But then, a new letter arrives each week from a
mysterious stranger, Louis, who seems intent on recounting the story of his
first love, Annie. They were separated in the years before World War II when
Annie befriended a wealthy, barren couple and fell victim to a merciless plot
just as German troops arrive in Paris. But also awaiting Camille’s discovery is
the other side of the story, which will call into question Annie’s innocence
and reveal the devastating consequences of jealousy and revenge. As Camille
reads on, she begins to realize that her own life may be the next chapter in
this tragic story.
Could a secret from 1914 end a century of heartache? A
tiny figure stands at the cliff edge - hair flying in the breeze. Grania Ryan
is hypnotised by the enchanting vision, unaware this young girl, Aurora Lisle,
will change her life in countless ways. For Grania is suffering and has
returned to Ireland and the arms of her loving family, in the hope her wounds
might heal. As their paths begin to entwine, Grania's mother becomes deeply
troubled … because almost a century of entanglement has brought nothing but
terrible tragedy to their two families. The past is set to repeat its sorrows.
A suitcase hidden in the attic of a magnificent house in London during the
First World War is where it all began, but could it now hold the key to ending
the heartbreak that has beset the Lisles and the Ryans for so long?
Part Gossip Girl, part Edgar Allan Poe, and wholly beautiful, elegant and suspenseful, this novel set in Venice during the Renaissance is a true romantic thriller. When Cassandra Caravallo visits her friend Liviana's crypt and finds a murdered courtesan inside, her world is turned upside down. Before she knows it, Cass is involved with Falco, a grave-robbing artist, and on her way to discovering corruption in the elite Venetian society. But will she find the man who's been savagely murdering beautiful young girls before he finds her? Will she stay true to her fiance, who's off studying law in France? Or will she succumb to Falco's charms? Beauty, love, romance and murder combine in a novel that's as seductive and stunning as Venice itself.
The Eyes of Venice by Alessandro Barbero (Oct 30th)
Venice at the end of the 1500s is an unforgiving city. The Doge rules with an iron fist and the Holy Office harbors suspicions about everything and everyone. Even the walls have eyes. The Republic of Venice watches and listens, then passes judgment swiftly and definitively. In a city where everyone is assumed guilty of something, a young stonemason by the name of Michele has been accused of a crime he didn’t commit. Afraid for his life, he flees the city aboard a galley carrying gold coin, leaving behind his young wife, Bianca. Banished from his home, Michele embarks on a series of extraordinary adventures as his ship stops in every port and on every island in the Mediterranean. In order to survive, this naïve and immature boy must fast become a man, one possessed of cunning, courage and fortitude. Bianca remains alone in the cruel and treacherous Venice, facing challenges that are, if anything, even more difficult than those of Michele. She will encounter all the terrors and mysteries that the labyrinthine city holds in its blind alleys and narrow passageways. And she, like Michele, will discover in herself a tenacious and indestructible will to survive.
City of
Saints by Andrew Hunt (Oct 30th)
To the outside observer, Salt Lake City seems to be the
squeaky-clean “City of Saints”—its nickname since Mormon pioneers first
arrived. Its wide roads, huge Mormon temple topped by a horn-blowing angel, and
orderly neighborhoods give it the appearance of the ideal American city. But
looks can be deceiving. When beautiful socialite Helen Kent Pfalzgraf turns up
dead, Salt Lake County Deputy Art Oveson—a twenty-something husband, dad,
and devout Mormon just getting his start—finds himself thrust into the
role of detective. With his partner, a foul-mouthed, vice-ridden former
strikebreaker, he begins to pursue Pfalzgraf’s murderer—or murderers. Their
search takes them into the dark underbelly of Salt Lake City, a place rife with
blackmail, corruption and murder. Throw in a cowardly sheriff seeking
reelection, a prominent local physician with a host of skeletons in his closet,
and swirling rumors of an affair between the murder victim and an
elusive Hollywood star, and you’ve got City of Saints, a
mystery based on a true yet largely forgotten murder that once captivated the
nation but still remains unsolved eighty years later.
NOVEMBER 2012:
The
Pilgrim by Hugh Nissenson (in PB Nov 1st)
"The Pilgrim" is a gripping account of a love-torn
Puritan's spiritual struggle for redemption. Charles Wentworth, a heartbroken
Puritan, has abandoned his faith after the death of his betrothed. Now he must
travel to Plymouth in hopes of being freed of the temptations that torment him,
never expecting to encounter again love amid a world of discovery and danger.
Lovelier
Than Daylight Rosslyn Elliott (Nov 6th)
Royal Romances: Titillating Tales of Passion
and Power in the Palaces of Europe by Leslie Carroll (Non Fic-Nov 6th)
Lovelier
Than Daylight Rosslyn Elliott (Nov 6th)
When her nieces and nephews fall
victim to their alcoholic father's mistakes, Susanna Hanby vows to rescue them.
In
1875, Susanna Hanby travels to her sister’s Ohio farm—but no one is there. Her
sister’s alcoholic husband claims that she has run off and dumped their six
children at the county orphanage, and he doesn’t care. Desperate to keep the
family together, Susanna seeks help from her uncle Will in Westerville. Johann
Giere is heir to a thriving German-American brewery in Columbus. When he helps
a saloon owner take beer to Westerville, Johann expects a fight between the new
saloon and the driest town in America. He doesn’t expect to meet Susanna, a
pretty temperance crusader who wins his sympathy. The small town erupts in
gunpowder and fire, but Johann vows to help Susanna rescue her nieces and
nephews. Susanna grows to admire him even as she detests his business. He finds
her lovelier with every passing day, until they both face an impossible choice
between passion and principle.
Royal Romances: Titillating Tales of Passion
and Power in the Palaces of Europe by Leslie Carroll (Non Fic-Nov 6th)
Elegant
palaces, dazzling power plays, shimmering jewels, and the grandest of
all-or-nothing gambles—nothing can top real-life love among the royalty. From
Louis XIV’s defiance of Church law to acknowledge his mistress Madame de
Maintenon as his wife, through to Prince William’s and Kate Middleton’s newly
wedded bliss, Royal Romances covers five scandalous, seductive centuries of all-for-love royal
desire.
Scotland, 1830. Following the death of her husband, Lady Darby has taken refuge at her sister’s estate, finding solace in her passion for painting. But when her hosts throw a house party for the cream of London society, Kiera is unable to hid from the ire of those who believe her to be as unnatural as her husband, an anatomist who used her artistic talents to suit his own macabre purposes. Kiera wants to put her past aside, but when one of the house guests is murdered, her brother-in-law asks her to utilize her knowledge of human anatomy to aid the insufferable Sebastian Gage-a fellow guest with some experience as an inquiry agent. While Gage is clearly more competent than she first assumed, Kiera isn’t about to let her guard down as accusations and rumors swirl. When Kiera and Gage’s search leads them to even more gruesome discoveries, a series of disturbing notes urges Lady Darby to give u the inquiry. But Kiera is determined to both protect her family and prove her innocence, even as she risks becoming the next victim.
Maeve,
daughter of Lord Sean of Sevenwaters, was badly burned as a child and carries
the legacy of that fire in her crippled hands. After ten years she’s returning
home as a courageous, forthright woman with a special gift for taming difficult
animals. But while her body’s scars have healed, her spirit remains fragile, as
she fears the shadows of her past. Sevenwaters is in turmoil. The fey prince
Mac Dara has become desperate to see his only son, who is married to Maeve’s
sister, return to the Otherworld. To force Lord Sean’s hand, Mac Dara has
caused a party of innocent travelers on the Sevenwaters border to vanish. When
Maeve finds one of the missing travelers murdered in the woods, she and her
brother Finbar embark on a journey that may bring about the end of Mac Dara’s
reign—or lead to a hideous death. But if she is successful, Maeve may open a
door to a future she has not dared to believe possible...
The legend begins . . . Greece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward
young prince, has been exiled to the kingdom of Phthia to be raised in the
shadow of King Peleus and his golden son, Achilles. Yet despite their
differences, the boys become steadfast companions whose bond deepens as they
mature—much to the fury of Achilles’ mother, Thetis, a cruel sea goddess who
despises mortals. When word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, the
men of Greece, bound by blood and oath, must lay siege to Troy in her name.
Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause. Torn
between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Soon, the Fates will
test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.
The Tudor
Conspiracy by C. W. Gortner (UK Rel Nov 8th)
Winter 1554. Brendan Prescott, spymaster to the
Princess Elizabeth, has discovered that he is connected to the Tudors by blood
as well as allegiance. Though his secret is known only by a few, it could be
his downfall as he is called to London to protect the princess. Accompanied by
his young squire Peregrine, he reluctantly leaves his sweetheart Kate behind -
but in the city he discovers that no one is quite what they seem. What fate
does Queen Mary intend for her sister? Is Robert Dudley somehow manipulating
the princess, even though he is locked in the Tower? And should Brendan trust
the alluring Sybilla, Mary's lady-in-waiting, who professes to be on his side?
As he tries to unravel the mysteries of the Tudor court Brendan's life will be
put in danger many times, and along the way he learns more about his own past.
Crossing on the Paris by
Dana Gynther (Nov 13th)
The
year is 1921. Three women set out on the impressive Paris ocean liner on
a journey from Paris to New York. Julie Vernet is a young French woman from a
working class family who has just gotten her first job as a crew worker on the
ship. Escaping her small town and the memory of war, she longs for adventure on
the high seas...
Constance Stone is a young American wife and mother who has traveled to Paris
to rescue her bohemian sister, Faith, who steadfastly refuses to return to
America and settle down. Constance returns home to New York, having failed at
the duty her father asked of her...
Vera Sinclair, a rich, ex-patriate American is leaving France after thirty-one
years to live out her remaining time home in America. Over the course of the
transatlantic voyage, she reflects on her colorful life and looks forward to a
quiet retirement. While each of these women come from different walks of life,
their paths cross while at sea in a series of chance encounters.
King’s
Man by Angus Donald (Nov 13th)
The Third Crusade is Over. Richard the Lionheart is
bound for England. But with all the princes of Europe united against him… can
the greatest warrior in Christendom make it safely home? The Lion is Chained.
Captured. Bound. Imprisoned. King Richard’s slim hope of salvation rests on one
man – a former outlaw, a vengeful earl, a man who scoffs at Holy Mother Church.
Robin Hood. For King and country Robin and his loyal lieutenant Alan Dale will
risk all – from vblood-soaked battlefields to deadly assassins – to see the
Lionheart restored to his rightful throne.
Mississippi plantation mistress Amanda Satterfield
loses her daughter to cholera after her husband refuses to treat her for what
he considers to be a “slave disease.” Insane with grief, Amanda takes a newborn
slave child as her own and names her Granada, much to the outrage of her
husband and the amusement of their white neighbors. Troubled by his wife’s
disturbing mental state and concerned about a mysterious plague sweeping
through his slave population, Master Satterfield purchases Polly Shine, a slave
reputed to be a healer. But Polly’s sharp tongue and troubling predictions
cause unrest across the plantation. Complicating matters further, Polly
recognizes “the gift” in Granada, the mistress’s pet, and a domestic battle of
wills ensues. Seventy-five years later,
Granada, now known as Gran Gran, is still living on the plantation and must
revive the buried memories of her past in order to heal a young girl abandoned
to her care. Together they learn the power of story to heal the body, the
spirit and the soul.
An engrossing, epic American drama told from four distinct perspectives, spanning the first major wave of Irish immigration to New York through the end of the Civil War. Four unique voices; two parallel love stories; one sweeping novel rich in the history of nineteenth-century America. This remarkable debut draws from the great themes of literature—famine, war, love, and family—as it introduces four unforgettable characters. Ethan McOwen is an Irish immigrant whose endurance is tested in Brooklyn and the Five Points at the height of its urban destitution; he is among the first to join the famed Irish Brigade and becomes a celebrated war photographer. Marcella, a society girl from Spain, defies her father to become a passionate abolitionist. Mary and Micah are slaves of varying circumstances, who form an instant connection and embark on a tumultuous path to freedom.
The Watchers: A Secret
History of the Reign of Elizabeth I by
Stephen Alford (Non-Fic Nov 13th)
In
a Europe aflame with wars of religion and dynastic conflicts, Elizabeth I came
to the throne of a realm encircled by menace. To the great Catholic powers of
France and Spain, England was a heretic pariah state, a canker to be cut away
for the health of the greater body of Christendom. Elizabeth’s government, defending
God’s true Church of England and its leader, the queen, could stop at nothing
to defend itself. Headed by the brilliant, enigmatic, and widely feared Sir
Francis Walsingham, the Elizabethan state deployed
every dark art: spies, double agents, cryptography, and torture. Delving deeply
into sixteenth-century archives, Stephen Alford offers a groundbreaking, chillingly
vivid depiction of Elizabethan espionage, literally recovering it from the
shadows. In his company we follow Her Majesty’s agents through the streets of
London and Rome, and into the dank cells of the Tower. We see the
world as they saw it—ever unsure who could be trusted or when the fatal knock
on their own door might come. The
Watchers is a riveting exploration of
loyalty, faith, betrayal, and deception with the highest possible stakes, in a
world poised between the Middle Ages and modernity.
Isle of Shadows by Tracy L. Higley (Nov 13th)
On
the island of Rhodes, 227 BC, Tessa of Delos has served for ten years as a
hetaira—a high-priced Greek courtesan—to a wealthy politician. In that time,
she's lived in luxury, but as a virtual prisoner, serving at her master's whim.
Though intelligent and beautiful, Tessa has learned to numb herself to all
desires for freedom and love. But when her owner meets a violent death, Tessa
is given the chance to be free—if she can hide the truth of his death and maintain
a masquerade until escape is possible. She joins forces with unlikely
allies—a Hebrew houseservant named Simeon and Nikos, a seafarer who wants to
work in the house of Tessa's owner. As
Tessa seeks freedom for herself and for those she is beginning to love, forces
collide that will literally shatter the island’s peace, bringing even the
mighty statue of Rhodes, Colossus, to its knees.
Resurrectionist
by James McGee (Nov 14th)Death can be a lucrative business. But it’s the corpses the body-snatchers leave behind, horribly mutilated and nailed to a tree, which sets Bow Street Runner Matthew Hawkwood on their trail. A new term at London’s anatomy schools stokes demand for fresh corpses, and the city’s "resurrection men" vie for control of the market. Their rivalry takes an ugly turn when a grave robber is brutally murdered and his body displayed as a warning to other gangs. To hunt down those responsible, Hawkwood must venture into London’s murkiest corners, where even more gruesome discoveries await him. Nowhere, however, is as grim as Bedlam, notorious asylum for the insane and scene of another bizarre killing. Sent to investigate, Hawkwood finds himself pitted against his most formidable adversary yet, an obsessive genius hell-bent on advancing the cause of science at all costs.
Bohemund is heading east into the Byzantine Empire,
part of the greatest military expedition of medieval times, the Papal Crusade
to take back the holy places of Christendom from the infidel. But Bohemund has
his own agenda, the increase of his own riches, fiefdoms and influence at any
cost. Bohemund and his nephew, Tancred, are heading east into the lands of the
Byzantine Empire. But Bohemund and his fellow Normans never pass into a new
territory without an eye to the notion of gaining land and power, and this is
no exception. On his mission to wrest territory for himself, through a maze of
smiling villains and shifting alliances, one man will come to play the deciding
role in Bohemund’s story, the wily Emperor, Alexius Comnenus.
In the pre-dawn hours of August 24th, 1305, in London’s
Smithfield Prison, the outlaw William Wallace—hero of all the Scots and deadly
enemy of King Edward of England—sits awaiting the dawn, when he is to be hanged
and then drawn and quartered. This brutal sundering of his body is the revenge of
the English. Wallace is visited by a Scottish priest who has come to hear his
last confession, a priest who knows Wallace like a brother. Wallace's
confession—the tale that follows—is all the more remarkable because it comes
from real life. We follow Wallace
through his many lives—as outlaw and fugitive, hero and patriot, rebel and
kingmaker. His exploits and escapades, desperate struggles and victorious
campaigns are all here, as are the high ideals and fierce patriotism that drove
him to abandon the people he loved to save his country.
The Gilded Lily-Deborah Swift (Nov 27th)
Timid
Sadie Appleby has always lived in her small village. One night she is rudely
awoken by her older and bolder sister, Ella, who has robbed her employer and is
on the run. The girls flee their rural home of Westmorland to head for London,
hoping to lose themselves in the teeming city. But the dead man's relatives are
in hot pursuit, and soon a game of cat and mouse begins. Ella becomes obsessed
with the glitter and glamour of city life and sets her sights on flamboyant
man-about-town, Jay Whitgift. But nothing is what it seems - not even Jay
Whitgift. Can Sadie survive a fugitive's life in the big city? But even more
pressing, can she survive life with her older sister Ella? Set in London's
atmospheric coffee houses, the rich mansions of Whitehall, and the pawnshops,
slums and rookeries hidden from rich men's view, The Gilded Lily is about
beauty and desire, about the stories we tell ourselves, and about how
sisterhood can be both a burden and a saving grace.
In the London summer of 1913, two brilliant minds from opposite sides of the law are pitted against each other in the hunt for the most precious necklace in the world—more valuable than the Hope diamond—and the psychological cat and mouse game between celebrated jewel thief Joseph Grizard and Scotland Yard’s Chief Inspector Alfred Ward, a real life Sherlock Holmes. Thoroughly researched, compellingly colorful, The Great Pearl Heist is a gripping narrative account of an untold story.
The Girl on the Cliff by Lucinda Riley (Oct 30th) Why has a secret from 1914 caused a
century of heartache? Troubled by recent loss, Grania Ryan has returned to
Ireland and the arms of her loving family. And it is here, on a cliff edge,
that she first meets a young girl, Aurora, who will profoundly change her life.
Mysteriously drawn to Aurora, Grania discovers that the histories of their
families are strangely and deeply entwined...From a bittersweet romance in
wartime London to a troubled relationship in contemporary New York, from
devotion to a foundling child to forgotten memories of a lost brother, the
Ryans and the Lisles, past and present, have been entangled for a century.
Ultimately, it will be Aurora whose intuition and remarkable spirit help break
the spell and unlock the chains of the past. Haunting, uplifting and deeply
moving, Aurora's story tells of the triumph of hope over loss.
DECEMBER 2012:
Light
Falling on Bamboo by Lawrence Scott (Dec 1st)
After a gentleman's education in Europe,
landscape artist Michel Jean Cazabon returns home to Trinidad in 1848 in
time for his mother's death, and discovers the changes to his island since the
emancipation of slaves. Plantation owners and colonial administrators still
hold the power, leaving freed blacks and "coloreds" not quite
free; the idealism of revolutionary Paris now seems a dream away and his French
wife and children are waiting to join him on the island. The busy working
artist makes friends with the governor and English colonial settlers and
secures commissions and painting lessons, but his sensual desires always threaten
to compromise his prospects. His career may prosper, but he is more worried
about his white wife's reaction to a family secret kept hidden by his father,
mother, and a corrupted colonial island.
From the civil rights struggle in the United States to the
Nazi crimes against humanity in Europe, there are more stories than people
passing one another every day on the bustling streets of every crowded city.
Only some stories survive to become history. Recently released from prison,
Lamont Williams, an African American probationary janitor in a Manhattan
hospital and father of a little girl he can’t locate, strikes up an unlikely
friendship with an elderly patient, a Holocaust survivor who was a prisoner in
Auschwitz-Birkenau. A few blocks uptown, historian Adam Zignelik, an untenured
Columbia professor, finds both his career and his long-term romantic
relationship falling apart. Emerging from the depths of his own personal
history, Adam sees, in a promising research topic suggested by an American
World War II veteran, the beginnings of something that might just save him
professionally, and perhaps even personally. As these men try to survive in
early-twenty-first-century New York, history comes to life in ways neither of
them could have foreseen. Two very different paths—Lamont’s and Adam’s—lead to
one greater story as The Street Sweeper, in dealing with memory,
love, guilt, heroism, the extremes of racism and unexpected kindness, spans the
twentieth century to the present, and spans the globe from New York to Chicago
to Auschwitz.
Wake of the Perdido Star by Gene Hackman and
Daniel Lenihan (Re-issue Dec 4th)
A classic tale of survival and revenge, this rousing
novel of men, sailing ships, shipwrecks, pirates, and the sea, set in the early
1800s, is full of authentic nautical and historical detail, especially about
diving and salvage operations of the period. It follows the exploits of Jack
O’Reilly, a 17-year-old New England boy struggling toward manhood, whose sea
adventures over three years take him to Cuba, around Cape Horn, to the South
Sea islands, the Philippines, around the Cape of Good Hope, and finally back to
Cuba and the Americas. Wake of the Perdido Star is at once a morality tale, an
action-packed saga of heroism, camaraderie, and survival, and a historical
treatment of men at sea two hundred years ago.
The future of Egypt lies in the hands of chief
detective Rahotep in this final installment of Nick Drake's acclaimed ancient
Egyptian trilogy. King Tutankhamun has died without an heir, and his young
widow, Queen Ankhesenamun, last of her dynasty, struggles to maintain power and
order. To defeat her enemies, she has but one hope: to forge an alliance with
the Hittites, a powerful, militant new empire that threatens Egypt's supremacy.
The loyal Rahotep, chief detective of the Thebes Medjay-the ancient capital's elite
police force-and his friend, the royal envoy Nakht, are sent on a clandestine
mission to the Hittite homeland, to persuade the king to agree to a marriage
between one of his sons and Ankhesenamun-a union that would bring peace to the
region and consolidate the queen's power.
Back in Egypt, the nefarious General Horemheb is poised to use his army
to impose martial law and destroy the dynasty. But he is not the only enemy
vying for control. A mysterious and brutal new opium cartel has emerged within
the criminal underworld of Thebes, ready to take over the lucrative black
market-and, ultimately, the very heart of the government. In this epic quest to the dark heart of the
ancient world, Rahotep must also confront his own demons if he is to prevent
the gathering forces of chaos from destroying Egypt's greatest dynasty, and to
return home in time to save his own family from the terror that threatens them
all.
The Shoemaker’s Wife by Adriana Trigiani (in PB Dec 4th)
High in the Italian Alps at the turn of the twentieth
century, Ciro, a strapping mountain boy, meets Enza, a practical beauty. But
when scandal rocks Ciro's tiny village, unbeknownst to Enza, he is sent to hide
in America. When disaster strikes Enza's family, she, too, is forced to go to
America. Ciro and Enza build fledgling lives—until fate intervenes and reunites
them. But it is too late: Ciro has volunteered to serve in World War I and Enza
finds success in the costume department of the Metropolitan Opera House. Over
time, these star-crossed lovers meet and separate, until the power of their
love changes both of their lives forever.
Every Perfect Gift by Dorothy Love (Dec
4th)
The
year is 1886, and Sophie Robillard returns to Hickory Ridge, Tennessee, after
living in Texas for 15 years as the ward of Ada and Wyatt Caldwell. Now that
the town's population has exploded, her
intention is to reopen the long-defunct newspaper office that so captivated her
when she was still an orphan. The rejection she experienced as a child because
of her mixed parentage has left deep scars that she hopes can be healed by
succeeding in this new venture. Ethan Heyward was uprooted from his home as a
boy following an unspeakable tragedy. Horace Blakely, a millionaire
businessman, took Ethan under his wing and eventually put him in charge of the
construction and opening of Blue Smoke resort in Hickory Ridge. They meet when
Sophie arrives at Blue Smoke to interview Ethan for her newspaper. As their attraction
deepens, each hides a secret that, if revealed, could end their relationship.
The year is 1796, and a trading ship arrives in the
vibrant trading town of Newburyport, Massachusetts. But it's a ghost ship--her entire crew has
been decimated by a virulent fever which sweeps through the harbor town, and
Newburyport's residents start to fall ill and die with alarming haste. Something has to be done to stop the virus
from spreading further. When physician
Giles Wiggins places the port under quarantine, he earns the ire of his
shipbuilder half-brother, the wealthy and powerful Enoch Sumner, and their eccentric
mother, Miranda. Defiantly, Giles sets up a pest-house, where the afflicted
might be cared for and separated from the rest of the populace in an attempt to
contain the epidemic. As the seaport descends into panic, religious fervor, and
mob rule, bizarre occurrences ensue: the
harbormaster’s family falls victim to the fever, except for his son, Leander
Hatch, who is taken in at the Sumner mansion and a young woman, Marie
Montpelier, is fished out of the Merrimac River barely clinging to life,
causing Giles and Enoch—who is convinced she’s the expatriate daughter of the
French king—to vie for her attentions--all while medical supplies are pillaged
by a black marketer from Boston. As the
epidemic grows, fear, greed, and unhinged obsession threaten the Sumner
family—and the future of Newburyport itself.
Stalin’s Barber by Paul M. Levitt (Dec 16th)
January 2013:
The
Italian Woman by Jean Plaidy (re-issue Jan 1st)
Seven Locks by Christine Wade (Jan 1st)
Ashenden by
Elizabeth Wilhide (Jan 8th)
The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott (in PB Jan 8th)
Sumerset
Abbey by Teri Brown (Jan 15th)
The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis (Jan 15th)
The Lady of Secrets by Susan Carroll (Dec 11th)
Meg
Wolfe, The Lady of Faire Isle, is a gifted healer who can find a cure for
almost any ailment. But she’s also the daughter of Cassandra Claire, a mad
witch and heretic with a notorious history. Meg’s infamous lineage makes her a
target from both those who want to use her extraordinary talents for good and
those who want to use them for evil. One man in particular needs her special
skills: to execute his revenge on a king. History and a kingdom hang in the
balance as Meg tries to navigate the delicate line between right and wrong. And
what she discovers is that she can no longer trust anyone or anything…not even
her own heart.
Stalin’s Barber by Paul M. Levitt (Dec 16th)
Avraham
Bahar leaves debt-ridden and depressed Albania to seek a better life in,
ironically, Stalinist Russia. A professional barber, he curries favor with the
Communist regime, ultimately being invited to become Stalin’s personal barber
at the Kremlin, where he is entitled to “live in a government house with other
Soviet dignitaries.” In the intrigue that follows Avraham, now known as Razan,
he is not only barber to Stalin but also to the many Stalin look-alikes that
the paranoid dictator circulates to thwart possible assassination
attempts—including one from Razan himself.
January 2013:
The
Italian Woman by Jean Plaidy (re-issue Jan 1st)
When Catherine de' Medici was forced to marry Henry of
Orleans, her's was not the only heart broken. Jeanne of Navarre once dreamed of
marrying this same prince, but like Catherine, she must bend to the will of
King Francis's political needs. And so both Catherine and Jeanne's lives are
set on unwanted paths, destined to cross in affairs of state, love and faith,
driving them to become deadly political rivals. Years later, Jeanne is happily
married to the dashing but politically inept Antoine de Bourbon, whilst the
widowed Catherine continues to be loved by few and feared by many - including
her children. But she is now the powerful mother of kings, who will do anything
to see her beloved second son, Henry, rule France. As civil war ravages the
country and Jeanne fights for the Huguenot cause, Catherine advances along her
unholy road, making enemies at every turn...
Seven Locks by Christine Wade (Jan 1st)
In the
years before the American Revolution, a woman’s husband mysteriously disappears
without a trace, abandoning her and her children on their farm at the foot of
the Catskill Mountains. At first many believe that the farm wife, who has the
reputation of being a scold, has driven her husband away. But as the strange
circumstances of his disappearance circulate, a darker story begins to unfold,
sending the lost man's wife on a desperate journey to find the means and
self-reliance to ensure her family’s survival. Inspired by a famous American
folktale, Seven Locks is an ambitious and poignant exploration of family
love, secrets, and misunderstandings, and of the inner and outer lives of the
American frontier at the end of the eigtheenth century. In this lyrical and
complex book, which opens with a mystery and ends with a literary twist, Wade
creates a rich, imaginative and tactile evocation of life and times in the
historical Hudson River Valley, where the lines between myth and reality fade
in the wilderness beyond the small towns, while an American nation struggles to
emerge.
Mistress of
my Fate by Hallie Rubenhold (Jan 8th)
The 22nd October
1789: I shall never forget that day. I shall never forget the decision I
made. was seventeen and so ill prepared
for life that I hardly knew how to dress myself, let alone how to board a mail
coach or even how to purchase a loaf of bread. When I fled my home at Melmouth
Park, I left those who both loved and hated me behind. I threw myself upon the
world, dear reader – and see what trouble has come of that. Do read my tale
closely, for the warnings of your mamma and your governess were correct; there
is much to be learned from a woman of my sort. I fell for every snare and trick
of fate, so that you might not. My tale is not for the faint of heart - the
prude, the high-minded and moral are likely to take offence. You have heard the
lies and slander from others. Prepare now to hear the truth. Set during a
period of revolution and turmoil, Mistress of My Fate is the first book in the
series, The Confessions of Henrietta Lightfoot. In her candid and eye-brow
raising memoirs, Henrietta seeks to set the record straight about the events
that shaped her into the woman she became.
Ashenden by
Elizabeth Wilhide (Jan 8th)
“The house contains time. Its walls hold
stories. Births and deaths, comings and goings, people and events passing
through. For now, however, it lies suspended in a kind of emptiness, as if it
has fallen asleep or someone has put it under a spell. This silence won’t last:
can’t last. Something will have to be done.”
When brother and sister Charlie and Ros discover that they have inherited their aunt’s much-loved house, they must decide if they should sell it. Moving back in time, in an interwoven narrative spanning two and a half centuries, we meet those who have built the house, lived in it and loved it, worked in it, and those who would subvert it to their own ends, including the original architect as he directs the building of the house, the big Victorian family who happily live there for forty years, the maid who thinks her problems will be solved if she steals a small bibelot, the soldiers who are billeted there during World War I, the speculator who holds a treasure hunt there during the Roaring Twenties, the young couple who restores it during the 1950s, and the house’s final owner. A novel about people, architecture, and living history, Ashenden is an evocative portrait of a house that becomes a character as compelling as the people who inhabit it.
When brother and sister Charlie and Ros discover that they have inherited their aunt’s much-loved house, they must decide if they should sell it. Moving back in time, in an interwoven narrative spanning two and a half centuries, we meet those who have built the house, lived in it and loved it, worked in it, and those who would subvert it to their own ends, including the original architect as he directs the building of the house, the big Victorian family who happily live there for forty years, the maid who thinks her problems will be solved if she steals a small bibelot, the soldiers who are billeted there during World War I, the speculator who holds a treasure hunt there during the Roaring Twenties, the young couple who restores it during the 1950s, and the house’s final owner. A novel about people, architecture, and living history, Ashenden is an evocative portrait of a house that becomes a character as compelling as the people who inhabit it.
The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott (in PB Jan 8th)
Tess,
an aspiring seamstress, thinks she's had an incredibly lucky break when she is
hired by famous designer Lady Lucile Duff Gordon to be a personal maid on the
Titanic's doomed voyage. Once on board, Tess catches the eye of two men, one a
roughly-hewn but kind sailor and the other an enigmatic Chicago millionaire.
But on the fourth night, disaster strikes. Amidst the chaos and desperate
urging of two very different suitors, Tess is one of the last people allowed on
a lifeboat. Tess’s sailor also manages to survive unharmed, witness to Lady
Duff Gordon’s questionable actions during the tragedy. Others—including the
gallant Midwestern tycoon—are not so lucky. On dry land, rumors about the
survivors begin to circulate, and Lady Duff Gordon quickly becomes the subject
of media scorn and later, the hearings on the Titanic.
Sumerset
Abbey by Teri Brown (Jan 15th)
Rowena and Victoria, daughters to the third son
of the Earl of Summerset, have always treated their housekeeper’s daughter,
Prudence, like a sister. But when their father dies and they move in with their
uncle’s family in a much stricter household, Prudence is relegated to the
downstairs maids’ quarters, much to the girls’ shock and dismay. The impending
war offers each girl hope for a more modern future, but the ever-present
specter of class expectations makes it difficult for Prudence to maintain a
foot in both worlds.
In 1923, seventeen-year-old
Hattie Shepherd flees Georgia for Philadelphia, where, though her first two
babies die because she can't afford medicine, she keeps nine children alive
with collard greens, old southern remedies, and sheer love. Saddled with a
husband who will bring her nothing but disappointment, she prepares her
children for a world she knows will not be kind to them. Their trials are the
trials on which the history of America was forged, a tribute to the resilience
of the human spirit, and a force stronger than love or trouble, the
determination to get by and get through.
Born a slave in 1847 but raised as a free man by the Reverend William King, David has rebelled against his emancipator and a future in the church. Now he's a God-cursing, liquor-slinging, money-having, Hobbes-quoting man-about-town, famously educated, fabulously eccentric, and more-or-less happy . . . till the death of Reverend King brings his past back to haunt him. Inspired by the Elgin Settlement, which by 1852 housed seventy-five free black families and was studied by Abraham Lincoln, Ray Robertson's novel is a fiery look at a community essential to the Underground Railroad's success.
Parlor
Games by Maryka Biaggio (Jan 22nd)
In 1887, at the tender age of eighteen, May
ventures to Chicago in hopes of earning enough money to support her family.
Circumstances force her to take up residence at the city’s most infamous
bordello, but May soon learns to employ her considerable feminine wiles to
extract not only sidelong looks but also large sums of money from the men she
encounters. Insinuating herself into Chicago’s high society, May lands a
well-to-do fiancé—until, that is, a Pinkerton Agency detective named Reed
Doherty intervenes and summarily foils the engagement. Unflappable May
quickly rebounds, elevating seduction and social climbing to an art form as she
travels the world, eventually marrying a wealthy Dutch Baron. Unfortunately,
Reed Doherty is never far behind and continues to track May in a delicious
cat-and-mouse game as the newly-minted Baroness’s misadventures take her from
San Francisco to Shanghai to London and points in between. The Pinkerton
Agency really did dub May the “Most Dangerous Woman,” branding her a crafty
blackmailer and ruthless seductress. To many, though, she was the most
glamorous woman to grace high society. Was the real May Dugas a cold-hearted
swindler or simply a resourceful provider for her poor family? As the narrative
bounces back and forth between the trial taking place in 1917 and May’s devious
but undeniably entertaining path to the courtroom—hoodwinking and waltzing her
way through the gilded age and into the twentieth century—we're left to ponder her
guilt as we move closer to finding out what fate ultimately has in store for
our irresistible adventuress.
The
Typewriter Girl by Alison Atlee (Jan 29th)
In Victorian London, there’s only so far an
unmarried woman can go, and Betsey Dobson has relied on her wits and cunning to
take herself as far as she can—to a position as a typewriter girl. But still,
Betsey yearns for something more…so when she’s offered a position as the
excursions manager at a seaside resort, she knows this is her chance for security,
for independence, for an identity forged by her own work and not a man’s
opinion. Underqualified for the job and on the wrong side of the aristocratic
resort owner, Betsey struggles to prove herself and looks to the one person who
can support her new venture: Mr. Jones, the ambitious Welshman building the
resort’s pleasure fair. As she and Mr. Jones grow ever closer, Betsey begins to
dream that she might finally have found her place in the world—but when her
past returns to haunt her, she must fight for what she’s worked so hard…or risk
losing everything.
FEBRUARY 2013:
The Vanishing Woman by Doug Peterson (Feb 1st)
In 1848, Ellen Craft became invisible. Ellen, a
slave from Macon, Georgia, took trains and steamboats north, but the people all
around couldn't see her. They saw only a white man. Ellen Craft's mother was a
slave, but her father was her master, and she had skin as white as his. So she
posed as a white man, while her husband William posed as her slave. Ellen
vanished, and she became William Johnson - an ailing gentleman seeking medical
treatment in Philadelphia. The Vanishing Woman is based on a true
story - one of the boldest escapes in American history. It was an escape driven
by prayer, audacity, and the desire for family. William and Ellen knew they
could never have children until they were free, so they embarked on the
greatest of escapes, running a thousand miles to freedom. Their incredible
story riveted a nation, and it put the Fugitive Slave Act to the test, bringing
attention to their plight all of the way to the White House. The ultimate
irony: The invisible woman became one of the most visible symbols of freedom in
19th Century America.
A Good
American by Alex George (in PB Feb 5th)
It
is 1904. When Frederick and Jette must flee her disapproving mother, where
better to go than America, the land of the new? Originally set to board a boat
to New York, at the last minute, they take one destined for New Orleans instead
("What's the difference? They're both new"), and later find
themselves, more by chance than by design, in the small town of Beatrice,
Missouri. Not speaking a word of English, they embark on their new life
together. Beatrice is populated with
unforgettable characters: a jazz trumpeter from the Big Easy who cooks a mean
gumbo, a teenage boy trapped in the body of a giant, a pretty schoolteacher who
helps the young men in town learn about a lot more than just music, a minister
who believes he has witnessed the Second Coming of Christ, and a malevolent,
bicycle-riding dwarf.
The
Chemistry of Tears by Peter Carey (in PB Feb 5th)
An automaton, a man and a woman who can never
meet, two stories of love—all are brought to incandescent life in this
hauntingly moving novel from one of the finest writers of our time. London
2010: Catherine Gehrig, conservator at the Swinburne museum, learns of the
sudden death of her colleague and lover of thirteen years. As the mistress of a
married man, she must struggle to keep the depth of her anguish to herself. The
one other person who knows Catherine’s secret—her boss—arranges for her to be
given a special project away from prying eyes in the museum’s Annexe. Usually
controlled and rational, but now mad with grief, Catherine reluctantly unpacks
an extraordinary, eerie automaton that she has been charged with bringing back
to life. As she begins to piece together
the clockwork puzzle, she also uncovers a series of notebooks written by the
mechanical creature’s original owner: a nineteenth-century Englishman, Henry
Brandling, who traveled to Germany to commission it as a magical amusement for
his consumptive son. But it is Catherine, nearly two hundred years later, who
will find comfort and wonder in Henry’s story. And it is the automaton, in its
beautiful, uncanny imitation of life that will link two strangers confronted
with the mysteries of creation, the miracle and catastrophe of human invention,
and the body’s astonishing chemistry of love and feeling.
Sacrilege by S.J. Parris (in PB Feb 5th)
London,
summer of 1584: Radical philosopher, ex-monk, and spy Giordano Bruno suspects
he is being followed by an old enemy. He is shocked to discover that his
pursuer is in fact Sophia Underhill, a young woman with whom he was once in
love. When Bruno learns that Sophia has been accused of murdering her husband,
a prominent magistrate in Canterbury, he agrees to do anything he can to help
clear her name. In the city that was
once England's greatest center of pilgrimage, Bruno begins to uncover
unsuspected secrets that point to the dead man being part of a larger and more
dangerous plot in the making. He must turn his detective's eye on history—on
Saint Thomas Becket, the twelfth-century archbishop murdered in Canterbury
Cathedral, and on the legend surrounding the disappearance of his body—in order
to solve the crime.
Frances and Bernard by Carlene Bauer (Feb 5th)
In
the summer of 1957, Frances and Bernard meet at a writers’ colony. She finds
him faintly ridiculous, but talented. He sees her as aloof, but intriguing.
Afterward, he sends her a letter. Soon they are engaged in the kind of fast,
deep connection that can take over — and change the course of — our lives. Bernard
is a poet—well-born, Harvard-educated, gregarious, passionate. Frances is a
fiction writer--daughter of a middle-class Irish family, wry, fairly (and often
unfairly) judgmental. She is deeply Catholic; he is a convert who yearns to
sound out matters of the spirit. He is well into his writing career; she is
looking for a way into New York literary life.
The Child
of Vengeance by David Kirk (Feb 14th)
His name was Bennosuke, son of the great Munisai
Shinmen, known throughout the empire as one of the greatest warriors who ever
lived. His destiny was to become a great warrior like his father - a Samurai,
one of the most feared and respected in the world. But before fame comes
action, and Bennosuke must prove himself on the battlefield before he can claim
his inheritance. And in his way stands the vengeful Kensaku, son of Lord
Nakata, the face of the enemy, a man who is determined to kill Bennosuke. It is
a battle between honour and vengeance, pride and reputation. And Bennosuke must
look death in the eye before he can call himself a warrior. Before he can call
himself Musashi, the greatest warrior of all time...
The Missing
Italian Girl by Barbara Corrado Pope (Feb 15th)
On a sultry night in June 1897, Pyotr Ivanovich
Balenov, a young Russian, and two young women transport a dead man through the
narrow streets of a working class neighborhood in northeastern Paris. They
throw the body into the canal and the girls flee to the Latin Quarter to hide
with one of the Russian’s anarchist “comrades.” They do not realize they, too,
are being watched. Their subsequent disappearance and the violent acts
that follow will set Clarie Martin, a teacher and mother of a toddler, and her
husband, magistrate Bernard Martin (last seen in Cezanne's Quarry
and The Blood of Lorraine) on a dangerous quest to rescue them from a
vicious killer.
MARCH 2013:
The Obituary Writer by Ann Hood (Mar 4th)
On
the day John F. Kennedy is inaugurated, Claire, a young wife and mother
obsessed with the glamour of Jackie, struggles over the decision of whether to
stay in a loveless but secure marriage or to follow the man she loves and whose
baby she may be carrying. Decades earlier, in 1919, Vivien Lowe, an obituary
writer, is searching for her lover who disappeared in the Great San Francisco
Earthquake of 1906. By telling the stories of the dead, Vivien not only helps
others cope with their grief but also begins to understand the devastation of
her own terrible loss. The surprising connection between these two women will
change Claire’s life in unexpected and extraordinary ways.
The Gods of
Heavenly Punishment by Jennifer Cody Epstein (Mar 11th)
In
this evocative and thrilling epic novel, fifteen-year-old Yoshi Kobayashi,
child of Japan’s New Empire, daughter of an ardent expansionist and a mother
with a haunting past, is on her way home on the March night when American
bombers shower her city with napalm—an attack that leaves one hundred thousand
dead within hours and half the city in ashen ruins. In the days that follow,
Yoshi’s old life will blur beyond recognition, leading her to a new world
marked by destruction and shaped by those considered the enemy: Cam, a downed
bomber pilot taken prisoner by Japan’s army; Anton, a gifted architect who
helped modernize Tokyo’s prewar skyline but is now charged with destroying it;
and Billy, an Occupation soldier who arrives in the blackened city with a dark
secret of his own. Directly or indirectly, each will shape Yoshi’s journey as
she seeks safety, love, and redemption.
ON THE RADAR (Titles where no info but the title/release date have been posted):
- The Legend of Broken by Caleb Carr (Nov 27th)
- Bone River by Megan Chance (Dec 4th)
- India Black and the Rajah's Ruby by Carol K. Carr (Dec 31st)
- The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier (Jan 8th)
- Empress of the Night by Eva Stachniak (Jan 13th)-2nd Catherine the Great novel
- Royal Inheritance by Kate Emerson (Jan 29th)
- The Ambassador's Daughter by Melanie Benjamine (Feb 5th)-story of the marriage of Ann and Charles Lindbergh
- Speaking from Among the Bones (A Flavia de Luce novel) by Alan Bradley (Feb 5th)
- The Romanov Cross by Robert Masello (Feb 26th)
