Cornwell’s done it again. New readers: Draw a flagon of ale, and be prepared to find the first seven in the series.
As conspiracies breed in their wake, Lord Uhtred of Bebbanburg and Lady Æthelflaed ally to drive invaders from Mercia in Cornwell’s (The Pagan Lord, 2014, etc.) eighth in his Saxon series.
"In the year of our Lord 911," Alfred the Great is gone. "Alfred had dreamed of uniting the Saxons. That meant driving the Danes out of northern Mercia, from East Anglia, and, eventually, from Northumbria." King Edward now rules Wessex, and Lord Æthelred is Edward’s reeve in Mercia, but he’s been mortally wounded in battle, and it is his wife, Lady Æthelflaed, who has "the love of the Mercians." A heroine lost in history’s mist, the lady is Cornwell’s homage to a warrior, a leader who preserved Mercia against invading Danes and the Vikings encroaching from Ireland. With her lover Uhtred, Æthelflaed fights battles across "Englaland"—the best and bloodiest against the Viking lord Sigtryggr—and manipulates the ealdormen (lords) to accept her leadership upon Æthelred’s death. This novel easily stands alone, with perfectly choreographed battle scenes and political infighting between Æthelhelm, Edward’s father-in-law, "the richest man in Wessex," and Eardwulf, Æthelred’s traitorous henchman. The protagonists, and Uhtred’s daughter, Stiorra, who flees with Sigtryggr, are perfectly drawn. Other characters shine: the giant Gerbruht and Folcbald, Frisian warriors; Finan, Uhtred’s droll second-in-command; and Eadith, Eardwulf’s sister, who wins Uhtred’s affection and heals him with his vanquished enemy’s sword. Despite Cornwell’s use of ancient names and places, the lusty, rollicking narrative (accompanied by a map) is totally accessible and great good fun.
Cornwell’s done it again. New readers: Draw a flagon of ale, and be prepared to find the first seven in the series.Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-225071-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2014
Altogether bizarre—and pleasingly beguiling, if demanding. Not the book for readers new to Murakami but likely to satisfy...
Murakami (Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, 2014, etc.) returns with a sprawling epic of art, dislocation, and secrets.
As usual with Murakami, the protagonist of his latest, a long and looping yarn, does not bear a name, at least one that we know. As usual, he is an artist at loose ends, here because his wife has decided to move on. And for good reason, for, as he confesses, he has never been able to tell her “that her eyes reminded me so much of my sister who’d died at twelve, and that that was the main reason I’d been attracted to her.” A girl of about the same age haunts these pages, one who is obsessed with the smallness of her breasts and worries that she will never grow to womanhood—and for good reason, too, since she’s happened into an otherworld that may remind some readers of the labyrinthine depths of Murakami’s 1Q84. Dejected artist meets disappeared girl in a hinterland populated by an elusive tech entrepreneur, an ancient painter, a mysterious pit, and a work of art whose figures come to life, one of them “a little old man no more than two feet tall” who “wore white garments from a bygone age and carried a tiny sword at his waist.” That figure, we learn, is the Commendatore of the title, a character from the Italian Renaissance translated into samurai-era Japan as an Idea, with a capital I, whose metaphorical status does not prevent him from coming to a bad end. The story requires its players to work their ways through mazes and moments of history that some would rather forget—including, here, the destruction of Nanjing during World War II. Art, ideas, and history are one thing, but impregnation via metempsychosis is quite another; even by Murakami’s standards, that part of this constantly challenging storyline requires heroic suspension of disbelief on the reader’s part.
Altogether bizarre—and pleasingly beguiling, if demanding. Not the book for readers new to Murakami but likely to satisfy longtime fans.Pub Date: Oct. 9, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-52004-7
Page Count: 704
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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A treasure trove of Victoriana, especially for foodies. More history than mystery but a truly delightful read.
A split-second decision is life-changing in this stand-alone Victorian-era mystery from Bowen (Love and Death Among the Cheetahs, 2019, etc.).
Isabella Waverly’s father is an aristocrat estranged from his family who’s fallen so far in the world that he sent his oldest daughter out to work as a servant at 15. Her only joy is learning to cook. When a girl is run over by an omnibus before her eyes, Bella automatically picks up an envelope the dead girl had been clutching. The envelope contains an invitation to apply for an under-cook position at Buckingham Palace that very day. Introducing herself as Helen Barton, Bella snags the job. She hides her new position from Louisa, the younger sister who’s marrying the son of a well-off family. She struggles to immerse herself in the persona of a girl from Yorkshire, explaining her upper-class accent by saying her father was a gentleman. The only fly in the ointment is the appearance of Helen’s brother, who blackmails her into finding a job for him, too. Bella’s passion for cooking and her work ethic soon endear her to the mostly male staff. Queen Victoria, who has an enormous appetite for rich foods, so enjoys Bella’s scones that she personally asks her to make them every day. When her majesty travels to Nice, Bella goes along and gets to put her knowledge of French to use. She develops a semiromantic friendship with the head chef at the hotel, which was built especially for the queen. Indeed, her life seems idyllic until Count Wilhelm, the betrothed of Princess Sophie, dies, ostensibly from a poisoned mushroom Bella bought in a local market. Now she must juggle cooking and a suddenly active love life as she searches for a way to end her predicament.
A treasure trove of Victoriana, especially for foodies. More history than mystery but a truly delightful read.Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5420-0825-9
Page Count: 348
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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