Book Review: Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I by Tracy Borman ****

Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I by Tracy Borman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I doubt that anyone could read of the execution of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, without feeling sympathy for her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, demoted in one fell swoop, as she herself noticed even at that young age, from Princess Elizabeth, heir to the English throne, to Lady Elizabeth, the king’s bastard daughter by a disgraced mother.

Often, books about Elizabeth gloss over the effect of this double loss on her, noting that she rarely spoke about her mother even after she ascended to the throne, briefly mentioning a ring she owned with portraits of herself and another woman who may have been Anne, or speculating that her mother’s fate might have contributed to her own antipathy toward marriage. In Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I, however, Tracy Borman digs more deeply into the relationship between the two (brief as it was in life) and Elizabeth’s later life to show that a strong influence did exist and that there is enough evidence to show that Elizabeth did indeed honor and revere her mother’s memory

While many hated and despised Anne Boleyn, few seem to have disputed her pride in her daughter, despite the disappointment (to her father, at least) of her gender, or her active involvement in Elizabeth’s early upbringing within the constraints of her position. (Queens did not nurse their own children, and royal offspring were given their own households early on.) Even as she faced death, one of her main concerns was for her daughter.

As Elizabeth grew up she no doubt heard little good about Anne from most people, but Borman believes that there is evidence that an alternative, positive view was also provided to her, most notably by her relatives on her mother’s side, including her beloved governess, Kat Ashley. When she became queen, she notably kept these relatives close to her and actively promoted many of them, as Borman documents, as well as pointing to the presence of her mother’s emblems (notably the falcon) in her palaces and portraits. Also, while she never, unlike her sister Mary, reinstated Anne’s marriage to her father by an act of Parliament, it appears to have been well known that praise of Anne’s virtues was a way to gain her favor. The psychological influences are also examined in some detail, from the effect on her refusal to marry (no doubt exacerbated by the execution of her father’s fifth wife, and Anne Boleyn’s first cousin, Katherine Howard, when Elizabeth was only 8, as well as the unhappy marriages of her sister Mary and their last stepmother, Katherine Parr) to her use of her charm on men as queen.

On the whole, even with my considerable (though not extensive) knowledge of the period, I found Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I to be an informative and eye-opening look at the relationship between these two fascinating women.

I received a copy of Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Book Review: My Friend Anne Frank: The Inspiring and Heartbreaking True Story of Best Friends Torn Apart and Reunited Against All Odds by Hannah Pick-Goslar *****

My Friend Anne Frank: The Inspiring and Heartbreaking True Story of Best Friends Torn Apart and Reunited Against All Odds by Hannah Pick-Goslar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

On November 27, 1943, Anne Frank wrote of a waking nightmare featuring her friend Hannah (called Lies in the diary) in desperate straits. At the time, Hannah was at the transit camp of Westerbork, believing that the Frank family was safe in Switzerland. They would come into contact one more time at Belsen, shortly before Anne’s death of typhus only two weeks before the liberation of the camp. In My Friend Anne Frank, written with the assistance of Tel Aviv journalist Dina Kraft and completed after her death at 93, Hannah Pick-Goslar tells of their friendship and of her and her own family’s experiences during the war and afterward.

Originally thrown together as a result of their parents’ common background as German Jewish refugees in Amsterdam, Anne and Hannah quickly became firm friends despite the difference in their temperaments (Anne was outgoing, while Hannah was more shy and introverted) and the levels of their families’ religious observance. Together they lived through the German invasion of the Netherlands and the ever-tightening restrictions on Jews until the disappearance of the Franks into hiding, after which Hannah narrates her own experiences, including her final encounter with Anne, her reunion with other survivors including Otto Frank, and her subsequent immigration to Israel, where she became a children’s nurse and lived until her death in 2022.

Despite the title, My Friend Anne Frank, while it complements and adds context to Anne’s diary, is the story of a woman who was every bit as extraordinary in her own way, not least in her tireless efforts to keep the memory of the Holocaust, as well as that of her friend, alive.

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A version of this review was originally published in Chai Notes, the monthly newsletter of Congregation Shir Shalom in Amherst, NY.

Book Review: The Spite House by Johnny Compton ***1/2 stars

The Spite House by Johnny Compton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Eric Ross and his two daughters are on the road, living on the run for a mysterious reason that is not revealed until later, when he is offered a job that, if he can pull it off, will pay enough for them to abandon their peripatetic lifestyle and live a normal life. All that Eunice, the elderly woman who is the owner of the Masson House in Degener, Texas wants is documentation of supernatural activity. This is the intriguing premise of The Spite House. A “spite house,” for those who have never heard the term, is built solely to give grief or annoyance to someone else, whether by blocking the view, being an eyesore, or as a reminder of something the other person would prefer to forget. The origins of this one date back to the Civil War, when a terrible crime was committed that Eunice, the owner, feels spawned a curse on her and her family.

Eric, of course, knows nothing of the backstory, nor does he know that the previous investigators left as physical and emotional wrecks, but he accepts the job and moves in. There is a slow buildup of occurrences, but eventually, everything comes to a head in a shattering climax. While the book was what I believe is called a “slow burn,” the ending was sufficiently original, in my opinion, for me to round up my 3.5-star rating to 4. One of the only things that I wish had been, if not explained, at least explored more fully, is the unusual ability that the builder of the house and members of Eric’s family, including his younger daughter, shared, that probably contributed to his (relative) success in his task.

I also felt that the characters, including Eric and his daughters, Dessa and Stacey, as well as his employer and her staff members, were well-rounded and easy to identify with.

I received a copy of The Spite House from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Book Review: Who by Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai by Matti Friedman *****

Who by Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai by Matti Friedman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When Israel was attacked by a coalition of Arab states on Yom Kippur of 1973, singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen was living in Greece, his personal and professional life at a point of stalemate as he approached the age of 40. Seemingly somewhat to his own surprise, he found himself on a flight to Tel Aviv with the vague idea of volunteering at a kibbutz. What he ended up doing was traveling around the front with other musicians, mostly Israeli, playing for and meeting with the troops. The trip was unpublicized and little specific has been known about it before now, although those who experienced it never forgot it. It also helped revivify Cohen’s creativity and inspired the song “Lover Lover Lover.”

In Who by Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai, journalist Matti Friedman attempts to reconstruct this time through interviews with those who were there as well as a brief unfinished manuscript by Cohen. We vividly relive the events of the war as young men and women, often only in their teens and twenties, grapple with the trauma of invasion and the loss of their comrades, as well as their reaction to those who came to offer a brief respite from those things. Intertwining with reflections on the Yom Kippur service itself, Friedman presents a powerful portrayal of a crucial time in the life of an artist and of a nation.

(Content warning: As is to be expected in a portrayal of war, this book contains some scenes of graphic violence.)


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A version of this review was originally published in Chai Notes, the monthly newsletter of Congregation Shir Shalom in Amherst, NY.

Book Review: The Fourth Enemy (Daniel Pitt #6) by Anne Perry ****

The Fourth Enemy by Anne Perry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

At the beginning of his sixth adventure, young lawyer Daniel Pitt’s life has changed in some dramatic ways. Firstly, he and strong-willed forensic scientist Miriam fford Croft, after finally acknowledging their compatibility and strong mutual attraction, have just begun what looks like it will be a very happy marriage, and secondly, Marcus fford Croft, Miriam’s father and Daniel’s boss, has retired from the law firm he founded, hiring the well-reputed but unconventional Gideon Hunter as his replacement.

Almost immediately upon taking over, however, Hunter takes on what could be a make-or-break case for the firm: the prosecution of controversial but also powerful and widely admired newspaper mogul Malcolm Vayne. If Vayne is acquitted, not only will it hurt the firm’s reputation, but he is a man who never forgets a slight and will exercise his considerable influence to do it even more harm. Also, the more they learn about his financial dealings, the clearer it becomes that he is acquiring political power and influence, both at home and abroad, that could endanger the security of the nation. The case eventually escalates to include murder and the placing of Miriam in imminent peril of death before concluding in a dramatic courtroom scene and verdict.

The first half of the book went a bit slowly for my taste, but things quickly picked up once the trial began, and as always, Perry’s characters and the relationships between them are vivid and unforgettable. I particularly liked Gideon Hunter’s wife Rose, who finds a common cause with Miriam in her advocacy of women’s suffrage, and Nadine Parnell, a doughty elderly woman who has done accounting for Vayne for years and is willing to testify against him despite an attempt on her life.

Sadly, Anne Perry passed away right after the publication of The Fourth Enemy, so unless she has left outlines behind and her heirs hire someone to continue the series, this will be the last we hear from Daniel Pitt. I have been reading her books since shortly after the beginning of her first series featuring Charlotte and Thomas Pitt, and will sorely miss her. RIP, Ms. Perry.

I received a copy of The Fourth Enemy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Book Review: Cleopatra's Daughter: From Roman Prisoner to African Queen by Jane Draycott *****

Cleopatra's Daughter: From Roman Prisoner to African Queen by Jane Draycott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have been waiting for this book ever since I first learned, probably as a teenager, that Cleopatra and Marc Antony had a daughter. Even her name, Cleopatra Selene (after the goddess of the moon), was evocative and intriguing. While it was usually mentioned that she was taken to Rome after her parents’ deaths, along with her two full brothers, who both soon disappear from the historical record, and raised in the household of Octavia, her father’s Roman wife, nothing else was mentioned of her. Finally, Jane Draycott has granted my wish.

With rare exceptions, biographies of ancient and medieval women can be disappointing, mainly due to the sheer paucity of information available about them from a world run by and written about by men, and far too often the book devolves into a “life and times” with a lot about the men in the subject’s life and mainly supposition about the subject herself. I’m happy that this was not the case with Cleopatra’s Daughter. Yes, those things were present, as is to be expected, but I never forgot that she was the focus, and it seemed that Ms. Draycott was able to extract a surprising amount of information from a scanty record. This was helped by the fact that Cleopatra Selene, if not as powerful and charismatic as her mother (a well-nigh impossible task), also seems to have been a formidable woman who inspired loyalty on her own behalf, as well as having what appears to be a compatible and equal match with one of Rome’s client kings.

The book starts with a brief history of the Ptolemaic dynasty, its center in Alexandria, and the lives of the two outsized personalities who would become the parents of Cleopatra Selene. It then traces what her life would have been like, first as a princess and nominally a queen in her own right, as her parents declared her Queen of Crete and Cyrenaica when she was only six years old, then her late childhood and adolescence in Rome, and finally her marriage to Juba II of Numidia, a fellow child hostage who had also been raised in Augustus’s circle, and their rule of the kingdom of Mauretania until what seems to have been a fairly early death. Despite this, she still exerted a large influence on the culture of their court, including Egyptian symbolism in artwork and on their coinage, as well as on Juba’s scholarly writings. Finally, Ms. Draycott speculates on whether the pair, whose son was murdered by Caligula, might also have had one or more daughters whose descendants may have ended up on the imperial throne. I also found her discussion of the fraught question of Cleopatra Selene's mother's, and by extension her own, ethnicity to be both balanced and thoughtful. All in all, I enjoyed this book very much, and it truly brought Cleopatra Selene and those around her to life for me.

I received a copy of Cleopatra’s Daughter from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Book Review: Of Manners and Murder by Anastasia Hastings ***1/2

Of Manners and Murder by Anastasia Hastings
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Violet Manville, spirited, intelligent, not the type to suffer fools gladly, and most unforgivably in Victorian society, not possessed of a large fortune, is not the type of young lady who is in great demand as a wife. Luckily, she doesn’t care and is happy to leave that type of thing to her younger half-sister Sephora, who is beautiful, flirtatious, and an heiress. Even she, however, is somewhat daunted when her Aunt Adelia leaves on holiday and informs her that she is expected to take up Adelia’s role as “Miss Hermione,” one of the country’s popular “agony aunts,” or in modern parlance, an advice columnist.

When one of the first letters she opens is from Ivy Armstrong, a new young wife who has experienced several "accidents" and believes that someone is trying to kill her, Violet is concerned enough that she sets off to meet with her, only to discover that she has arrived too late. Almost no one, however, seems to seriously think that Ivy was murdered, attributing her death to either suicide or accident. Violet determines to prove that she was and soon finds herself in danger from a killer who is determined not to be caught. Meanwhile, Sephora, from whose point of view some chapters are told, is involved in a secret romance that has a surprising (if somewhat far-fetched) connection to the situation.

Despite that, as well as a few other things that seemed like a stretch, like well-bred young ladies being out and about unattended, I enjoyed Of Manners and Murder very much. I liked Violet and Bundy, her aunt’s servant, who serves as a sort of Watson for her, and even Sephora, while immature, has potential. I look forward to the next in the series. 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.

I received a copy of Of Manners and Murder from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

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Book Review: The Vatican Candidate by Paul Bryers ****

The Vatican Candidate: A Harper & Blake Mystery by Paul Bryers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Paul Bryers’ The Vatican Candidate begins from the point of view of an elderly priest living in Sicily, as his idyllic day is interrupted by a violent intrusion. Then it switches to the US, where researcher Hannah Harper is interviewing for a job as assistant to historian Michael Blake, whose fame comes from his books about the persistence of Nazi beliefs and similar (white supremacist) ideas through time and how they continually reemerge. (These books sound fascinating - I would read them if they existed in our world!)

Hannah gets the job, but when she goes to see Michael at his home, she finds his body and that of his partner in a gruesome tableau. The police write it off as a murder-suicide, but Hannah is attacked in her own home soon afterward and when she meets Michael’s brother Aiden, she finds that the official explanation has also left him unconvinced. He believes that it has something to do with the topic of Michael’s next book and hires Hannah to help him investigate what his brother had been working on. Their search takes them to Germany, the Tyrol, and finally to Sicily, where the connection to the earlier massacre is at last revealed. The current Pope, already despised and distrusted among the far right, has decided to open the Vatican archives, which it has always been rumored will contain evidence of collaboration between the Nazis and the highest levels of the Church, and in certain circles, it has been determined that this must not be allowed to happen.

As with most instances of this type of book, there is another murder along the way in which our main characters are implicated, and they find themselves on the run as they race to discover the connection between a flight by a celebrated German aviatrix out of besieged Berlin in 1945 and the modern-day conspiracy. The story was wound up well and the characters had a certain amount of chemistry, though refreshingly no unresolved sexual tension that I noticed. I did find Hannah’s constant testiness at Aiden a bit annoying, although to be fair he did seem to fail to keep her informed about what he was up to without any good reason. He was by far the more interesting character to me. I also appreciated the historical note from the author at the end telling about the real events on which the novel is based.

I received a copy of The Vatican Candidate from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

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Book Review: The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land: Stories by Omer Friedlander ****

The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land: Stories by Omer Friedlander
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

March is the month of Purim, and The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land, winner of the 2022 AJL Jewish Fiction Award and the debut short story collection by 27-year-old Israeli author Omer Friedlander, seems like an appropriate book to focus on since, while it is as earthbound as the orange groves, refugee camps, and cities in which its stories are set, it is also imbued with the love of folktales and fairy tales Friedlander says he inherited from his father. Also like the story of Esther, while his stories have their tender and whimsical moments, they are haunted by the shadow of tragedy, as reminders of Israel’s history and current situation make frequent appearances.

Many of Friedlander’s characters are outsiders or outcasts, coming into contact with, and as often separating from, those who are their opposites. The Jewish girl and the Bedouin boy she falls in love with in “The Sand Collector,” the activist mother whose son was killed in the war she opposed, and the two girls in the last story, “The Miniaturist,” whose families’ professional rivalry dates back to before the expulsion from Spain, are some of these. At other times, like the title character, a feckless con man who sells his “bottles of air” to tourists with the help of his daughter and her one-eyed cat, Moshe Dayan, they stand in opposition to the “normal” world, but all are portrayed as richly individual characters in beautiful and evocative language.

Originally published in the March 2023 edition of Chai Notes, the newsletter of Congregation Shir Shalom in Buffalo, NY.

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A version of this review was originally published in Chai Notes, the monthly newsletter of Congregation Shir Shalom in Amherst, NY.

Book Review: Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness by Joshua Wolf Shenk *****

Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness by Joshua Wolf Shenk
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A wonderful look at how depression shaped Lincoln's life and how his struggles with it, painful as they were, helped make him the great man the US needed to bring us through our darkest hours. Not only did it provide extraordinary detail about his life and personality, mostly but not entirely through that lens, but there was also quite a bit of context provided, such as how people of that era saw strong emotions in men, as well as some of the intellectual currents in which he was immersed.

Richard M. Davidson, the narrator, was also a pleasure to listen to and enhanced my enjoyment of the book.

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Book Review: Murder at Black Oaks by Philip Margolin ***1/2

Murder at Black Oaks by Phillip Margolin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had often considered trying one of Philip Margolin’s books and this one looked intriguing, so I figured I would give it a shot. A creepy, isolated mansion with a curse on it, a group of near-strangers gathered together when the roads are washed out by a storm, a murderous escapee from a nearby mental hospital on the loose - what’s not to like? Thankfully, although Robin Lockwood is a series character, that didn’t affect my ability to get up to speed, possibly a benefit of taking her out of her regular surroundings.

Robin is originally contacted by Frank Melville, a former prosecutor who had put college student Jose Alvarez on death row for the murder of his girlfriend. Then, years later, the real killer confessed to him but made it impossible for him to bring justice to the wrongly convicted man. Now circumstances have changed, and he wants Robin to take on the case. After Jose is freed, Frank invites him and Robin to his house, a transplanted (or recreated - I wasn’t clear on which) English mansion, complete with a rumored curse - featuring werewolves, yet! The other elements of the classic “country house mystery” fall into place in quick succession, and soon after that the first murder happens, in a novel twist on the classic “locked room.” Finally, after several tense hours, the party is put back in touch with the rest of the world, but it is only some time later that Robin manages to pull all the threads together and expose the killer.

I had slightly mixed feelings about this book. On the whole, I enjoyed it and I didn’t guess the killer, which I see as a positive as long as I feel like I had a decent chance, but I'm not sure how well the plot fits into the Christie-esque framework. It also seemed amazingly coincidental that everything (most of which was beyond the killer’s control) came together as it did, but then Margolin does have a short blurb offering this book up as a homage to Golden Age mysteries. I’ve been reading quite a few of those recently and it’s amazing how much coincidence features in those, so intentional or not, I suppose that gives it authenticity. One thing that I did feel weakened it slightly right at the start was beginning with Frank’s story in Chapter One and then having him retell the same story to Robin when he talks to her, but that was a pretty minor detail.

Final verdict: If I could, I would give this book 3-1/2 stars, but I will round up and give it 4

I received a copy of Murder at Black Oaks from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Book Review: The Killer of the Princes in the Tower: A New Suspect Revealed by M.J. Trow ***

The Killer of the Princes in the Tower: A New Suspect Revealed by M.J. Trow
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

What happened to Edward V and his younger brother Richard (the “Princes in the Tower”) is one of the most intriguing mysteries in history. Were they murdered? If so, by whom, and if by so many people’s favorite villain, their uncle Richard III, why did he cover it up, which seems to many of us to defeat the purpose? If they weren’t, what happened to them. (Personally, I like Buckingham for it.) I was interested in reading this book, which promised a new suspect when, apart from utter unknowns, there are so few available who had motive, means, and opportunity.

A good part of the book is laying out the history, debunking other accounts, particularly that of Sir Thomas More, and examining the usual suspects, which I felt was well done and goes a long way toward my rating not being lower, if maybe a bit too snarky in places for some people’s tastes. Then….drum roll…the new suspect was revealed, and I’m sorry to say that I found them (I’ll use a neutral pronoun here)…disappointing.

One weakness - at least in the flow of the writing - comes almost immediately, when we are given an exhaustive history of the person’s family almost literally from the time of the Norman Conquest. Then we get the case. Sadly, it fails to convince - at least this reader. The person certainly had means and opportunity, but everything else (except possible evidence of greed, which many people are guilty of but which hardly indicates a murderous disposition) seems to come straight from the author’s imagination. The examination of their alleged personality, a crucial aspect of what he claims as the motive (a psychopath, acting “because [they] could”) fails - again, to me, because there isn’t enough evidence to determine that, and the reconstruction of the “crime” also is backed by as much evidence as More’s account - that is to say, none. Then this person is accused of another murder (which I have never seen portrayed as anything but a tragic natural death) almost 20 years later. The most that can be said, in my opinion, is that it’s out of the box and within the bounds of possibility, but I would need far more evidence to buy it, which as Mr. Trow admits, is unlikely to be forthcoming.

I received a copy of The Killer of the Princes in the Tower: A New Suspect Revealed from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

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Book Review: Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao *****

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In a future society based on traditional China, complete with female subservience and foot-binding, young men and women pilot vehicles called Chrysalises, powered by qi (life force) to fight the Hunduns, who have taken over their planet and threaten their civilization. The only catch for the “concubines,” however, is that they are usually drained of qi and die in the process, and as in so much else, the men get all the credit. Wu Zetian, a poor but strong-willed young woman, volunteers as a concubine with the aim of avenging her older sister’s death, but things go differently than she had planned. The pilot she blames for her sister’s death is killed, but by means of her qi rather than the mundane hairpin she had taken with her, and she is hailed as an “Iron Widow” and paired up with the strongest and most dangerous of the other pilots, Li Shimin. She then must work with Shimin; Yizhi, a rich young man from her village who is in love with her; and with other, much less savory characters to defeat the Hunduns and the battle strategists alike and to ensure that no more young women will die. In the process, she will discover explosive secrets about both the pilot system and the war itself.

The world-building in this book seemed a little vague at times, and I’m not sure whether that is a weakness or a strength. Hopefully, we will learn more about the society and its backstory in the next book, particularly considering the revelation at the end. I found Zetian to be a compelling and at times terrifying character, particularly after the final battle, and at least at that point she is not sympathetic, even though we have been in her head and understand her motivations, but again, I hope we will see her grow into wisdom and compassion as her story continues. I do not demand characters who are “likable”; I just want them to be well-rounded people who make me care about what happens to them, and Zetian fits the bill. I eagerly await the second installment.

The author notes at the beginning of the book that Zetian is inspired by Empress Wu, the only woman who ever ruled China in her own right, and this book makes me want to know more about her as well.

I received a copy of Iron Widow from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Book Review: The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World by Shelley Puhac ****1/2

The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry that Forged the Medieval World by Shelley Puhak
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What I learned about the Merovingians in school and most of my previous reading (not counting the fevered imaginings of Dan Brown and the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail) was short, simple, and boring: the “long-haired kings” of the Franks, after Clovis I converted to Christianity, eventually deteriorated to “do-nothing kings” and were overthrown by the father of Charlemagne. The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World by Shelley Puhac brings this dynasty to life through its portrayal of two of its rival queens.

Brunhild was a Visigothic princess who married Sigebert, a grandson of Clovis; Fredegund was a slave in the court of Sigibert’s brother Chilperic. After Brunhild’s sister, who had married Chilperic, was murdered and replaced by Fredegund, who had previously been his mistress, the fight was on. Over the course of the next forty years, the two queens schemed and plotted against one another using everything from diplomacy to assassination and military moves, and mainly working through the men in their lives - husbands, sons, and in Brunhild’s case grandsons - given that women were not allowed to wield overt power in the Frankish culture. Obviously, both were strong-willed and charismatic, and at times Puhac’s “narrative nonfiction,” while based on the original sources, is riveting and at times reads like a novel. Sadly, after their deaths, those who followed them made sure that their memories were either erased or vilified.

The only issue that I had was that at first, I found it difficult to keep some of the names straight, given that many were not only unfamiliar to me but similar to one another as well, such as Fredegund and Radegund or Chilperic and Childebert, although that got easier since they became more fleshed out as the narrative progressed. I would recommend bookmarking the list of characters at the beginning for easy referral.

I received a copy of The Dark Queens from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Book Review: Madam by Phoebe Wynne ***

Madam by Phoebe Wynne
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Madam by Phoebe Rynne is billed as a modern gothic, and the “gothic” part is certainly taken care of by Caldonbrae Hall, the forbidding Scottish mansion, now serving as a girls’ boarding school, at which teacher Rose Christie arrives in 1992 as its new head of Classics. Chosen as a result of a recommendation from a colleague, Rose’s youth and relatively limited experience seem hardly to fit her for such a senior position at a prestigious school, but the salary and benefits will assist her in caring for her mother, who has MS and is steadily getting worse. Rose is even less prepared for the secrets she will find within the walls of Caldonbrae.

Madam, which takes its title from the peculiar custom at the school of addressing all the female staff indistinguishably as “Madam” (and all males as “Sir”) had a rather slow start, although it did pick up after the first third or so as Rose gets to know and slowly win over her initially hostile students and also attempts to navigate the labyrinthine structure (both figurative and literal) of the school. After that, it builds towards a shattering climax.

While my opinion of the book improved as it went on, my biggest problem was suspending my disbelief about whether – even in the 1990s - its system of “education” could have been maintained and kept secret from the world at large, especially given the fact that part of it was that its students would be moving in the highest circles of society, and it seemed unlikely that they would have been able to be kept isolated and insulated from “new” ideas for what would essentially have been the rest of their lives. This is where the “modern” part of the description failed for me. I could see this taking place far more easily in the 1950s or 1920s, but then, of course, most of the “traditions” would have seemed much less outlandish. I also found the character of Rose to be so impulsive and unable to keep from voicing her disapproval and opposition that it became unbelievable that they would have kept her on for as long as they did, continuing to give her “another chance” however outrageously (in their view) she behaved. (view spoiler)[ Also, given the realities of human trafficking in today's world, while the school's method of operation was pretty appalling, I also found it impossible to summon what seemed to be the expected feelings of horror when it was revealed what was actually going on. (hide spoiler)]

Rose's mother, too, was not very believable as a feminist; this was a situation where the author would have benefited by “showing, not telling,” as the saying goes, since we're told that she was one but never see any evidence of it in the “present” of the book or even in the dealings with her daughter in the past to which we are made privy.

On the other hand, I did like the stories about strong women in the classical tradition (although they rarely came to positive ends) and how Rose used them to encourage her students to question the future that was laid out in front of them. On the whole, I would give this book 2.5 stars, mainly due to my issues with it, but will round up to 3 for the purposes of Goodreads, which unfortunately doesn't allow half-star ratings.

I received a copy of Madam for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Book Review: Death with a Double Edge by Anne Perry ****

Death with a Double Edge by Anne Perry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Young attorney Daniel Pitt, when called to identify a man in the police morgue who had his card, is at first afraid that it is Kitteridge, one of the younger partners who had been late to a meeting. However, it turns out to be Jonah Drake, one of the firm’s senior partners, who has been viciously murdered in one of the seamier parts of London. Concerned for the reputation of the firm, Daniel’s employer, Marcus fford Croft, assigns him and Kitteridge to comb through Drake’s recent cases for a connection.

They soon hone in on two cases, one in which the son of a shipping magnate was acquitted of the murder of a young woman, and another in which the defendant was left with a stain on his reputation, despite not being convicted. Keeping on the right side of the shipping magnate, Erasmus Faber, is vital to the British government’s national interests as they attempt to build up their navy in the years leading up to WWI, so Daniel is warned by his father, Sir Thomas, head of Special Branch, to avoid involving him if possible, but this is where the trail seems to lead. Soon others are murdered, and Daniel, Sir Thomas, and his mother, Charlotte, find themselves deep in a web of corruption and scandal.

Since Miriam fford Croft, the daughter of Daniel’s employer and his usual partner in detection, is attending medical school on the Continent, and due to the unusual nature of the case, both of his parents have a far more central role than they have in the earlier books in this series. I, for one, was glad to see them back in the thick of the action once again, and the love of the parents for their son and for each other, even after thirty years of marriage, as well as his for them, is believable and well drawn, especially when Charlotte is put in danger in a bid to stop the investigation and they fear that they may never see her again.

The mystery, as always, is enjoyable, although I felt that the solution maybe wasn’t quite up to snuff, but where Ms. Perry has always excelled is in the creation of often quirky but always believable characters who seem to jump off the page. The first victim, Jonah Drake, in particular, comes to life (ironically, after his death), as Daniel searches his papers and possessions for clues to his murderer, and he comes to see what he thought was rather standoffish, even boring, older man as a brilliant, passionate legal mind with a wry humor and even artistic talent. Marcus fford Croft, who may be contending with the early stages of dementia, is also perceptively and sympathetically drawn.

Death with a Double Edge is a worthy entry into a series that, with the 32 Thomas and Charlotte Pitt books, now stands at 36 books, all well written and enjoyable. I look forward to Daniel’s further adventures and growth as both a human being and an attorney.

I received a copy of Death with a Double Edge for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

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Book Review: Down Along with That Devil's Bones by Connor Towne O'Neill *****

Down Along with That Devil's Bones: A Reckoning with Monuments, Memory, and the Legacy of White Supremacy by Connor Towne O'Neill
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Framed around O'Neill's travels through the South from the time leading up to and following the 2016 election through 2018, this examination of the controversy over Confederate monuments and the legacy of white supremacy focuses on one personage: general, slave trader, and first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan Nathan Bedford Forrest, who also commanded the Confederate troops who perpetrated the Fort Pillow massacre in 1864. Although only 250 pages long, it also includes a lot of much-needed context and history for the 150-year span between the Civil War and today.

While it's clear where O'Neill's sympathies lie, he engages people on both sides of the issue with respect, as well as acknowledging the benefits that white Northerners such as himself have received from the inequalities embedded in the system since before the Revolution. His refrain of "it's us" (sorry, English purists - it definitely has more "punch" than "it's we") is a sadly-needed corrective to the upbeat message we hear so much these days that "this is not who we are." He also attempts to understand the personality and motivations of Forrest himself (and his admirers) rather than painting them as caricatures of racism and evil.

His journey takes him to places such as Selma, AL; a monumental (and ugly, in many people's view) statue of Forrest on private land facing Interstate 65 that was created by segregationist Jack Kershaw; and Memphis, among other places, and ends at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, AL, where he ponders whether the arc of the universe, as Dr. King said, truly bends towards justice.

I see some criticism of this book in other reviews for being centered on the author's perspective as a white Northerner, but while no doubt there are many valuable and meaningful books that could be written on the subject by others, this is the one that this author chose to write, or that chose him to write it, and I found it powerful and enlightening.

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Book Review: Queens of the Crusades by Alison Weir ***1/2

Queens of the Crusades: England's Medieval Queens by Alison Weir
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Alison Weir has embarked on a project to write a series of collective biographies of England’s medieval queens, a wise idea since many of them do not have enough known about them for a full-length biography aimed at the interested layperson. Queens of the Crusades is the second volume, although she has noted that her biographies of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Isabella of France should also be included in the sequence.

Although, as Weir acknowledges, these five queens did not all go on crusade themselves, this was the time when the idea of reconquering the Holy Land from Islam permeated the air, and it influenced the lives of all of them. The five women are Eleanor of Aquitaine (married to Henry II), Berengaria of Navarre (Richard I), Isabella of Angoulême (John), Eleanor of Provence (Henry III, and spelled Alienor to reduce the potential confusion at the plethora of Eleanors), and Eleanor of Castile (Edward I). Edward I also married Marguerite of France after his first wife’s death, so I hope that she hasn’t been left out and will be included in the next volume.

Queens of the Crusades paints what is probably as full a picture as possible of the lives of these five women for the non-historian (apart from Eleanor of Aquitaine, about whom there is an abundant amount known): their upbringing, personalities, triumphs and tragedies, relationships with their husbands and children, political influence, and often details of their daily lives drawn from accounts and other records. The account of Berengaria of Navarre is disappointingly slim, mainly due to her her husband’s inexplicable neglect of her while she was queen, but there was more than I have seen before about her life after Richard’s death. (I was glad to see the idea that he was gay firmly squashed, and anyway, as Edward II and James I show, even if his chief attraction had been to men, this would have been no bar to the fathering of children.) The lives of these women often overlapped, so it was also interesting to see their interactions with one another, which mainly seem to have been positive - surprising, since all of them - even Berengaria in her widowhood - seem to have been strong-willed women with differing priorities and personalities.

My main criticism of the book is something that probably won’t bother a lot of other people. Weir said in the introduction to the first book (Queens of the Conquest ) that she would be skipping Eleanor of Aquitaine and Isabella of France since she had written full-length biographies of both, but obviously, although she makes no reference to the factors behind it, she changed her mind, at least about Eleanor. I certainly don’t object to her inclusion in this book, since as noted, their lives do overlap, but I felt that her portion (probably a condensed version of the same information that is in the biography), took up too much of this book (I estimate almost 40% when the bibliography and other ending and beginning material weren’t included). She is such a towering figure that she overwhelms the others, and I feel that it would have been better to at least cut down her section somewhat - maybe to the time of her widowhood when her life overlaps with Berengaria’s.

Although Weir has never been one of my favorites, I feel that she did a creditable job with this book. On the whole, however, while there is a lot of information I didn’t know and they are put into the context of their times, her view of them is fairly conventional and I didn’t gain any new insights. 3.5 stars.

I received a copy of Queens of the Crusades for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Book Review: The Three Locks by Bonnie MacBird ****

The Three Locks by Bonnie MacBird
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first of the titular “three locks” in this book appears in the form of a mysterious box sent to Dr. John Watson by an aunt of whom he had previously been unaware. It had been his mother's and she had requested that it be given to him on his 21st birthday, now years in the past. The trick lock on the box, however, renders its secret inaccessible for the present. Secondly, his colleague and friend Sherlock Holmes is approached by the wife of an Italian escape artist, The Great Borelli, who begs him to discover the truth behind a feud between her husband and another magician. Borelli comes close to death that same night when Holmes and Watson attend his show and one of his acts goes horribly wrong.

Finally, Peregrine Buttons, a young Catholic deacon, asks Holmes to discover the whereabouts of a missing young woman, the strong-willed Odilie (Dillie) Wyndham, who has disappeared from her father’s home in Cambridge. The “lock” in this case is the Jesus Lock on the River Cam, which will play a crucial part in the story later on.

How are these mysteries connected, if indeed they are? Holmes skillfully juggles the two cases, in both of which lives are at stake and in both of which, if loss of life can be considered failure, he fails despite his best efforts, but, as in many of the original stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, he succeeds to the extent that some justice is achieved. The final mystery, that of the locked box, is also solved at the end, giving us some knowledge of events in Watson’s past and how they have affected his subsequent life.

The Three Locks is the fourth in a series of Sherlock Holmes pastiches by Ms. MacBird, but the first I have read. However, I did not feel lost or confused in any way, which may be a benefit of reading a book, even out of order, that is set in a much larger fictional world. At first, I didn’t care for the somewhat testy - even rude - way in which the relationship between Holmes and Watson is presented, although there is some comedy in it, but eventually I felt that the author hit her stride. I will certainly seek out the other books in the series in the hope that they are as enjoyable as this one was.

I received a copy of The Three Locks for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Book Review: Take It Back by Kia Abdullah ****

Take It Back by Kia Abdullah
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Zara Kaleel, the protagonist of Take It Back, does not take the easy route. Not only did she leave the marriage arranged for her by her traditional Muslim family; a talented lawyer, she also abandoned a job at a top-flight London law firm to become a counselor at a rape crisis center.

Little does she imagine, however, the path that will open up before her when she meets with teenage Jodie Wolfe. Jodie, who has a medical condition that causes severe facial deformities, tells Zara that she was lured to an abandoned warehouse and sexually assaulted by four of her classmates, all Muslim boys from hardworking immigrant families. Taking the case will result in attacks on her, both in the form of protests and eventually physical assault, as a traitor to her “people,” and on the other hand, the risk of inflaming anti-Muslim feeling. Still, she feels strongly that she must continue to support Jodie through the charging and trial of her attackers.

Tackling the delicate subjects of sexual assault, disability, and religion, Take It Back walks a fine line, and largely does it successfully. I worried that this book would end up validating one of two stereotypes, either that of girls who lie about rape or Muslim teenagers fulfilling racist nightmares, but with a clever twist at the end, Ms. Abdullah managed to avoid doing either. The characters are complex, although the accused assailants themselves have less time devoted to them than Zara, Jodie, and her family and associates. Zara can be headstrong and stubborn, with a penchant for reckless behavior which causes near disaster to the case on at least two separate occasions, but hopefully, these issues will be dealt with in later books (this appears to be the first in a series) and will give her a chance to grow as a character.

Despite the painful subject matter, I enjoyed this book very much and will keep my eye out for the next book in the series.

I received a copy of Take It Back for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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