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Historical Fiction October 2019
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The River Maid by Dilly Court"Hardworking Essie Chapman lives with her boatman father on the banks of the Thames. When an accident leaves him bedridden with only ale to ease his pain, it is Essie who takes up the oars for the family's survival, risking her life to ferry passengers across the dangerous waters. One night, Essie transports a mysterious man from a foreign ship to the docks, a man who gives her no more than his name - Raven. And against her will, Essie finds herself on a ship bound for the Australian penal colonies. Plunged into terrible danger, Essie embarks on a perilous journey to the other side of the world..."
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Zuleikha
by Guzel' IAkhina
After her husband is killed by communist forces in 1930, Zuleikha is sent to a gulag in Siberia where she befriends her fellow exiles and makes a new life for herself.
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Mistress of the Ritz : a novel
by Melanie Benjamin
The director of the luxurious Hotel Ritz in occupied Paris and his courageous American wife, Blanche Auzello, risk their marriage and lives to support the French Resistance during World War II. By the best-selling author of The Aviator's Wife
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| The Secrets We Kept by Lara PrescottWhat it's about: The CIA's plan to smuggle copies of Boris Pasternak’s banned novel Dr. Zhivago into Moscow as anti-Soviet propaganda.
Starring: Russian-born secretary-turned-spy Irina; her handler Sally, with whom she begins an affair; and Pasternak's mistress, Olga, who refuses to incriminate her lover and lands in the gulag.
Want a taste? "Some of us spoke Mandarin. Some could fly planes. Some of us could handle a Colt 1873 better than John Wayne. But all we were asked when interviewed was, 'Can you type?'" |
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Death in focus : an Elena Standish novel
by Anne Perry
In a series debut by the best-selling author of the William Monk mysteries, an intrepid young photographer carries her imperiled lover’s final, urgent message into the heart of pre-World War II Berlin as Hitler is ascending to power.
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| The Hunger by Alma KatsuWhat it is: a chilling, often visceral retelling of the Donner Party's ill-fated overland journey, in which supernatural forces stalk the wagon train.
Is it for you? While this well-researched novel adheres closely to the known facts, the introduction of elements such as lycanthropy and ghosts may not be everyone's cup of tea.
For fans of: menacing historical horror à la Dan Simmons' The Terror or F.R. Tallis' The Passenger. |
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The Forgotten Village by Lorna Cook 1943: The world is at war, and the villagers of Tyneham are being asked to make one more sacrifice: to give their homes over to the British army. But on the eve of their departure, a terrible act will cause three of them to disappear forever. 2018: Melissa had hoped a break on the coast of Dorset would rekindle her stagnant relationship, but despite the idyllic scenery, it's pushing her and Liam to the brink. When Melissa discovers a strange photograph of a woman who once lived in the forgotten local village of Tyneham, she becomes determined to find out more about her story. But Tyneham hides a terrible secret, and Melissa's search for the truth will change her life in ways she never imagined possible.
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| The Taxidermist's Daughter by Kate MosseIntroducing: taxidermist's daughter Constantia "Connie" Gifford, whose missing memories, the result of a childhood accident, are slowly returning -- much to her dismay.
Is it for you? Set in 1912 Sussex, England, this atmospheric novel incorporates detailed, often gruesome descriptions of the taxidermist's trade into a Gothic story of murder and secrets.
Want a taste? "It is a tale that begins, as it will end, in a graveyard where the bones and the spiders and the worms inhabit the cold earth." |
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| The Silent Companions by Laura PurcellWhat happens: Pregnant Elsie Bainbridge travels to her late husband's ancestral home in the English countryside, where she encounters suspicious villagers, frightened servants, and life-sized, eerily lifelike 17th-century painted wooden figures.
Why you might like it: This haunting novel unfolds in parallel narratives that shift back and forth between the 1630s and the 1860s.
For fans of: the Gothic atmosphere of Susan Hill's The Woman in Black. |
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The Guardian of Lies by Kate Furnivall 1953, the South of France. The fragile peace between the West and Soviet Russia hangs on a knife edge. And one family has been torn apart by secrets and conflicting allegiances. Eloise Caussade is a courageous young Frenchwoman, raised on a bull farm near Arles in the Camargue. She idolises her older brother, Andŕe, and when he leaves to become an Intelligence Officer working for the CIA in Paris to help protect France, she soon follows him. Having exchanged the strict confines of her father's farm for a life of freedom in Paris, her world comes alive. But everything changes when André is injured - a direct result of Eloise's actions. Unable to work, André returns to his father's farm, but Eloise's sense of guilt and responsibility for his injuries sets her on the trail of the person who attempted to kill him. Eloise finds her hometown in a state of unrest and conflict. Those who are angry at the construction of the American airbase nearby, with its lethal nuclear armaments, confront those who support it, and anger flares into violence, stirred up by Soviet agents. Throughout all this unrest, Eloise is still relentlessly hunting down the man who betrayed her brother and his country, and she is learning to look at those she loves and at herself with different eyes. She no longer knows who she can trust. Who is working for Soviet Intelligence and who is not? And what side do her own family lie on?
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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