Like what you see here?  Why not consider subscribing to the full magazine!  Each issue of the Review, a quarterly publication of the Historical Novel Society, contains reviews of approximately 200 recent works of historical fiction published in the UK and US, with selected titles from Canada and Australia.  Please see the Historical Novel Society web site for membership information (you can even join online with a credit card).  

IN THE COUNTRY OF THE YOUNG
Lisa Carey, William Morrow, 2000, $24/C$36.50 (£15.26), 286pp, hb, ISBN 0-380-97675-7
In 1848, the Irish emigrant ship Tír na nÓg broke up against the rocky Maine coast, drowning many, including a seven-year-old girl.  Today, a brooding, fortyish artist lives alone on Tiranogue Island, named after the ship that sank so long ago on its shores.  Both the young girl, Aisling, and the artist, Oisin, have had difficult lives which included the loss of a well-loved sibling.  So when Oisin spies young footprints in his house, he assumes, and greatly hopes, that his beloved sister’s ghost has finally found him.  Instead he finds Aisling, no longer a ghost but real, returned to reclaim her lost childhood. But young girls soon become young women, and for Aisling, time is of the essence.
            What could easily have been a rather trite story of wounds healed and faith regained becomes magical in Carey’s hands, for here the impossible becomes easily accepted.  How the artist’s and the girl’s situations are both resolved is perhaps surprising, but somehow entirely appropriate.  An uplifting, charming book.

THE NOTARY
Catherine Jinks, Pan Macmillan Australia, 2001, AU$19.95, 561pp, tpb, ISBN 0-330-36253-4
Raymond Maillot’s passable skills as a notary have always taken second place to the pleasures of the flesh.  However, when the sober Dominican monk called Father Amiel asks for his assistance with a high-level investigation into sorcery and murder, Raymond can hardly refuse.  As the pair’s scrutiny into this case continues, it’s hard to say what challenges Raymond the most: finding a motive for a ghastly murder in which the victim's private parts were severed; his unforeseen desire to improve his carefree life by joining the church; or the agreement he makes with Father Amiel to stay celibate until their work is finished.
            Fourteenth century Avignon comes alive in full color under Jinks’ pen. No stone is left unturned in her very human portrayal of Raymond, trying so hard to be worthy of Father Amiel’s regard but barely able to keep his lustful nature under control. His adventures, as written, are at once lewd, literate, and laugh-out-loud funny.  As with The Inquisitor, the author’s previous medieval thriller, this novel assures a thumping good read.  The murder mystery within the book is absorbing in itself, but the real crime here is that Jinks’ novels are not published outside Australia. 

THE SONG OF GIRALDUS
Richard Loomis, Xlibris, 2000, $16 (£25.87 hb), 228pp, tpb, ISBN 0-7388-4606-6
This novel presents the recollections of medieval historian and chronicler Giraldus Cambrensis. Giraldus, who narrates in a rather lofty tone, tells of his youth as a chronicler at the court of Henry II.  Through his eyes and those of his friends and servants, we also witness the lives of King Richard and King John and the path of the Fourth Crusade. Giraldus’ unsuccessful struggles with the church and his family, many of which could perhaps be blamed on an overlarge ego, turn him into an angry, bitter man -- though not one without intelligence and wit.
          Loomis, a scholar and translator of medieval Welsh literature, has provided us with a competent illustration of this historical figure.  However, the historical details tend to overwhelm the story, and there’s little dramatic tension.  At times the novel reads like a medieval chronicle itself; perhaps this was intentional, but it makes for dry reading in places.  Still, as a self-portrait of a historian of noble birth, self-important attitude, and great intellect, perhaps this novel is an accurate representation.

VIRGIN: Prelude to the Throne
Robin Maxwell, Arcade, 2001, $24.95, 256pp, hb, ISBN 1559705639
Maxwell, in her third novel of the Virgin Queen, illustrates in detail a frequently glossed-over episode in the life of the Tudor monarch: the romantic pursuit of the young princess by her stepmother’s husband, Thomas Seymour.  At thirteen, Elizabeth has been re-granted her royal title with no small help from her father’s sixth wife, Catherine Parr, now Queen Dowager.  A dangerous undercurrent of attraction, one not unnoticed by the pregnant Catherine, develops between the princess and Seymour, and their flirtation follows a swift, logical course until it reaches a shocking conclusion.
            In many ways a typical teenager, Elizabeth’s infatuation with Seymour makes her occasionally forget her loyalty to Catherine and her own royal position.  The twist to this well-known story is in the character of Seymour. Although his handsome physique and gallant manners tend to blind people to his faults, he can’t completely conceal either his unscrupulous nature or his underlying ambition to claim the power behind the throne in any way possible.  Maxwell, finding gaps in the historical record, has formulated her own explanations of both Elizabeth’s and Catherine’s behavior.  Given her interpretations, all of which seem historically plausible, one can easily imagine Elizabeth’s later refusal to marry. 

THE SONGCATCHER
Sharyn McCrumb, Dutton, 2001, $24.95, 321pp, hb, ISBN 0-525-94488-5
Accompanying one Appalachian family down through the years is a ballad first learned by Scotsman Malcolm McCourry aboard ship in 1751.  Another inheritance brought with him to America is a family curse, which states that the eldest child of each successive generation will never be loved best by his parents. The song and the curse follow Malcolm and his descendants from Morristown, New Jersey to their later home in the western North Carolina mountains. Each generation forward participates in the folk process, but for present-day descendant, renowned folksinger Lark McCourry, the song is only a vague memory. Her quest to regain her family’s lost heritage becomes one of the novel’s focal points.
            From her own family history, McCrumb has crafted a graceful tale redolent with the history and lore of the Carolina mountains. The author’s respect and admiration for the land, legends, and the people of the Appalachians are present in every word. Based on this story, it’s easy to understand why families long resident in this part of the South don’t seem to want to leave.

MURDER AT BERTRAM’S BOWER
Cynthia Peale, Doubleday, 2001, $22.95/C$32.95 (£14.60), 342pp, hb, ISBN 0-385-49637-0
When two residents of Bertram’s Bower, a house for fallen women, are found violently murdered, shock reverberates amongst residents of the upscale communities of Boston’s Beacon Hill. Caroline Ames, an attractive thirtyish spinster, quickly steps in to investigate when she finds her friend Agatha Montgomery, the Bower’s proprietress, near nervous collapse and at risk of social disgrace.
            This is Victorian Boston done à la Merchant Ivory, complete with horse-drawn carriages, detailed descriptions of elegant fashion, and the precise, almost formal language of Beacon Hill’s elite.  The author evokes particularly well the wide disparity among the social classes, from the upper crust Ameses down to the reviled immigrant Irish. In all, the novel works better as historical social commentary than as a mystery, for the murderer may be rather obvious, but this doesn't make the story any less enjoyable.  Cynthia Peale is Nancy Zaroulis, author of several other novels of historical Massachusetts.

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Questions or comments?  E-mail me at cfsln@eiu.edu.

Last updated: March 17, 2002