Tag: Female heroine

I couldn’t read fast enough

In her historical fiction debut, New York Times bestselling author Donna Jones Alward deftly weaves a remarkable story of two women’s lives impacted by the Great War and a horrific maritime disaster in When the World Fell Silent.

We meet Nora Crowell and Charlotte Campbell in Halifax, Nova Scotia at a time when the town’s port served as an important harbor not only for traditional seafaring but for military vessels in WWI.

Nora is an unmarried nurse at Camp Hill Hospital, caring for veterans with devastating injuries and lives with her sister’s family. Charlotte is a young war widow with a toddler, who is treated practically as an indentured servant by her late husband’s family.

After the December 6, 1917 tragedy, the largest man-made explosion in history prior to the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, decimates Halifax, killing roughly 2,000 people and injuring 9,000, for those that survived, life will never be the same.

Jones Alward paints not only the women but also her supporting characters with such rich detail, both subtle and real, in this gripping and emotional tale.

As Nora’s and Charlotte’s stories began to intertwine ever more closely, I found myself wishing I could read even faster than I usually do to move the words from the page to my brain, to my heart more quickly.

I highly recommend When the World Fell Silent for fans of historical fiction, fans of World War I-era fiction and novels with strong women characters. Fans of Donna Jones Alward’s romance novels will be also enjoy this book. I received this advanced reader copy from Harper Collins UK, One More Chapter courtesy of NetGalley.

Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.

Fun beach read

Anyone who has ever read a British mystery or watched one on-screen knows that if there is a festival, a village fete or a jumble sale for that matter, a body is bound to turn up. Fiona Leitch’s The Cornish Campsite Murder, the sixth installment of her Nosey Parker Mysteries, is no exception.

Former Met police detective Jodie Parker and her betrothed, DI Nathan Withers, are helping out a friend, manning a Cornish pie van called Pie Hard for a camp-out weekend music festival, just down the coast from her home in the fictional Penstowan.

I liked Jodie from the start — her sense of humor, her family and her detective’s curiosity. In The Cornish Campsite Murder, a body of a former lead band member of one of Jodie’s favorites is found by the beach and her teen idol is one of the prime suspects.

I could relate to the universal feeling of actually getting to meet/speak to your teen idol and fearing they won’t live up to your expectations or if they do, that you’ll make a fool of yourself. But what if they are murderers or you falsely accuse them, ruin their reputation and they hate you? That’s the dilemma in which Jodie finds herself.

Fiona Leitch offers a humorous mystery with some fun twists, a host of colorful characters and a satisfying ending. What more could you ask for in a summer read? How about a recipe for a leek and sausage pie at the end of the book? (Having enjoyed a leek and potato pasty on a train ride from Cornwall to London, the Pie Hard’s Die Hard-themed pies sounded both delicious and a little adventuresome. I can’t wait to return for another authentic Cornish pie.)

I highly recommend The Cornish Campsite Murder for British cozy mystery fans, humorous mystery fans and beach readers. This one fits the bill for all of the above.

I received this advanced reader copy of The Cornish Campsite Murder from One More Chapter, an imprint of Harper Collins UK, courtesy of NetGalley.

Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.

Review by Di Prokop, More Mystery Please

Powerful historical fiction

In The Goddess of Warsaw, New York Times bestselling author Lisa Barr tells the powerful story of fictional Hollywood icon Lena Browning, her — unknown to fans — life before/in the Warsaw Ghetto as Bina Blonski, her resistance missions as Irina Zieliński and her escape to America.

When we first meet Lena in the prologue set in 2005 Hollywood, it seems like an over-the-top portrayal of an octogenarian Golden Age actress, not realizing that Lena was playing a character – herself. It’s a well-honed craft she used to not only survive the horrors of Nazi terror over Jews in WWII-era Poland but to battle them, survive and exact revenge.

With master strokes, Barr paints a picture of guts, determination and an unwillingness to surrender amidst the despicable and heart-wrenching events going on all around Bina Blonski, whose blonde hair and blue eyes were key to her survival. With Nazis in Hollywood, Lena’s self-appointed missions to combat them continue.

Barr seamlessly weaves all of the threads of Lena Browning’s life together for an emotional climax and while the actress may have had a ‘no tears clause’ in her film contracts, they poured down my face.

I highly recommend The Goddess of Warsaw to readers of WWII-era historical fiction, thrillers and spy novels. I received an advanced reader copy of the novel from Harper Collins Publishers, courtesy of NetGalley.

Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.

Review by Di Prokop, More Mystery Please

The Clock Struck Murder in Post WWI Paris

The Clock Struck Murder cover featuring a young woman and a clock had this Nancy Drew wannabe intrigued in this historical fiction mystery set in a Paris teeming with tourists in town for the 1924 Olympics.

In her second Lost in Paris Mystery, Betty Webb winds a tale of longing, jealousy, prejudice and murder into a compelling story when artist and American ex pat Zoe Barlow finds a lost Marc Chagall painting as a canvas wrap for a Montpernasse flea market find. Discovering the treasure, she goes in search of the beautiful young French woman who had sold and wrapped her faux Louis XIV art nouveau clock, unearthing not only more of her friend’s paintings but the woman’s dead body as well.

Not wanting her married lover/police inspector to become involved with the case of her friend’s paintings, the 24-year-old takes on an investigation to find both the killer and the art thief putting her own life in jeopardy.

In true historical fiction fashion, Webb introduces us to the post-WWI Paris scene, other artists, writers and even Johnny Weissmuller, known more for his role as Tarzan than his five Olympic gold medals in this Francophile mystery. The author also brings the reader along through a more personal secondary investigation for Zoe, from her past in Alabama.

I recommend The Clock Struck Murder for fans of historical mysteries, especially those set in France. I received this advanced reader copy of A Clock Struck Murder from Poisoned Pen Press. Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.

Dr. Lydia Weston is 1875 Philadelphia’s newest amateur detective

In Murder by Degrees, Ritu Mukerji introduces us to Dr. Lydia Weston, a practicing physician in 1875 Philadelphia and instructor at the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, at a time when little faith and confidence was put in lady doctors by not only patients but her male counterparts as well.

Weston’s sharp eye, love of poetry and compassion for her patients and students puts her right in the middle of a murder investigation, when a patient is dragged from the Schuykill River and believed to have committed suicide.

With an undeterred fervor, she works alongside her mentor Dr. Charles Stanley and a reluctant police inspector and his sergeant to find the truth.

Mukerji, a practicing internist for 15 years, layered in beautifully explained medical details without losing the reader. She also came to know the City of Brotherly Love while attending the Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and well translated the marvels of the Philadelphia landscape.

The author also has a BA in history from Columbia University, so it’s no wonder that when this avid mystery reader decided to write her own crime fiction, it would be an historical mystery set in the city in its grand heyday, just before the Centennial Exhibition where the telephone, typewriter and sewing machine would be introduced.

This post-Civil War era also marks the early years of the women’s suffrage movement and is ripe with possibilities for Dr. Lydia Weston. With her protagonist now established, I look forward to Mukerji’s future installments of the series and the development of an even richer character, drawing even farther on lessons learned from her youth, as well as possible romantic involvement with a local police sergeant.
 
I recommend Murder by Degrees to mystery, historical mystery and medical drama fans. I received this Advance Reader’s copy of Murder by Degrees from Simon & Schuster, courtesy of NetGalley.

Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.

A Gentlewoman’s Guide to Murder

By Victoria Hamilton

Stories of masked avengers sweeping to the rescue of the unfortunate bring to mind  swashbuckling heroes and adventure as they take down dastardly fiends. A genteel young woman in London circa 1810, as such, makes the premise all the more intriguing.

Victoria Hamilton’s A Gentlewoman’s Guide to Murder delivers adventure amid the most treacherous of characters.

Our protagonist, Miss Emmeline St. Germaine and a like-minded group of women set out to rescue young scullery maids from the hands of their lecherous employers, at a time when women had little voice or power in Regency society.

After a masked Emmeline rescues one such child just as her employer – a well known knight – is about to rape the youngster, she becomes an unnamed suspect in the man’s murder. 

Emmeline’s investigation into finding the real murderer(s) are paramount before she and her mission are exposed. The investigation and subsequent discovery will change her life forever.
This is no cozy lighthearted read. It’s sad and at times difficult to read not just because of the subject matter but also the pace, which can drag on at times.

​The first in a new series from Hamilton, AKA national bestselling author Donna Lea Simpson, I’m hopeful the next installment isn’t quite so heavy.

I received a free egalley of A Gentlewoman’s Guide to Murder courtesy of Beyond the Page Publishing, through NetGalley. This review is fair and impartial.  

Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.

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Mother Daughter Traitor Spy

By Susan Elia MacNeal

The New York Times bestselling author of Mr. Churchill’s Secretary and the Maggie Hope mysteries, Susan Elia MacNeal has a rare gift for making historical fiction real and relevant in today’s world.​

Mother Daughter Traitor Spy is no exception.

In this standalone suspense thriller, the award-winning author introduces us to mother and daughter Violet and Veronica Grace, just as Veronica graduates from college about to set off on a promising and exciting career in journalism.

Life and our grand plans for it, however, can unravel like the delicate thread of a cherry blossom on a silk blouse. That’s when life gets interesting and can become more than a bit scary.

Based on a real-life mother/daughter team, Grace and Sylvia Comfort, MacNeal shines a light on a shocking World War II-era story previously relegated to the edges of our history – of Hollywood Nazis, two brave women and the Jewish spy ring that worked together to take them down.

MacNeal’s compelling storytelling had me on the edge of my seat, sometimes yelling at the characters. While I was afraid for the inexperienced mother and daughter spies as they infiltrated a Nazi cell, I was terrified for the Jewish undercover operatives with whom they worked, worrying what would happen to them, to their families, should they be found out. 

What makes this story all the more frightening is that you can see current-day forces in play that could make it feasible for these unbelievable events to happen in our country today.

I received a free advanced reader copy of of Mother Daughter Traitor Spy courtesy of Bantam Books, Random House Publishing Group, through NetGalley. This review is fair and impartial.
 
I highly recommend Mother Daughter Traitor Spy. In fact, I believe it along with MacNeal’s Maggie Hope series, should be required reading not only to give context to the world we live in today but to more importantly show how unsung bravery can make all the difference.

Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.
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