Book Reviews

Interview with Susan Elia MacNeal author of Princess Elizabeth’s Spy

Set in 191-192 AD in Roman Britannia, A Whispering of Spies features Libertus, Rowe’s “sleuth” in this series, accused of theft and murder. Seeking information about a newly arrived ex-lictor with a sinister background, Libertus’s innocent actions on behalf of his patron Marcus Aurelius become fodder for charges.

With the recent celebration of Queen Elizabeth’s Jubilee, it’s especially engaging to read a novel about her as a young Princess—set in some of England’s darkest days during the brutal bombing attacks by Germany during WWII. While the adventures of Maggie Hope, spy and mathematician, with the fourteen-year-old Princess are fictional, MacNeal’s portrayal of Elizabeth rings delightfully true.

Women who have lost their freedom to act according to their own choices—that’s the theme of Delany’s More Than Sorrow. Delany has interwoven the stories of Hannah, Hila and Maggie, moving from contemporary Canada, to Afghanistan to the Revolutionary period in North America to show three quite different ways in which women lose their autonomy.

Set in 17th century England, the intricacies of food preparation in a great English castle are on detailed display while we follow John’s life story from village childhood with a mother accused of witchcraft through Cromwell’s civil war and an unlikely love affair.

Book Giveaway. Set in Florence in 1963. Inspector Bordelli uncovers the killer of a wealthy signora, all while consuming delicious food and pondering philosophically.

Book Giveaway! Rubies of the Viper is a genuine gem of a mystery set in Rome during the reigns of the Emperors Claudius and Nero. The heroine is a fictional woman named Theodosia Varro, who at the opening of the novel has inherited a vast fortune–which seems to draw both suitors and killers to her doorstep.

Charles Todd’s A Bitter Truth interweaves the vices of war with the failings of families into a psychologically and historically compelling mystery set in England in 1917. Bess Crawford, an intelligent and fearless nurse working on the front lines in France, comes home on leave to discover a frightened young woman with a bruised face hiding on the doorstep of her London flat.

Fast-paced with a sense of humor and a shiver of terror, Shunning Sarah uncovers layers of mire in the Amish community of Harmony, Minnesota and among the TV broadcast staff of Spartz’s Channel 3.

SoWest: Desert Justice, an anthology of 20 mystery stories including Judith Starkston’s story “A Season for Death,” is now available on Amazon.