Our popular annual list of books to look out for during the year is back for 2022, with history, biography and historical fiction. Here are books to read from HWA authors covering eras from Ancient Rome to the 1980s and sweeping across continents from China to Russia and India, the USA to Australia and the Antarctic, and Africa to all around Europe.
We’ll be updating this list when information about new books comes in, so do come back and see what’s been added.
January
The year opens with six immersive tales of intrigue and untrustworthiness on 6 January, 2022. WC Ryan‘s The Winter Guest is set in Ireland in 1921. The Great War is over, but the killing goes on and Tom Harkin, an IRA intelligence officer and former British Army captain must find the murderer of his one-time fiancee amid the gloom of a decaying Big House and his own memories of battle and loss. William is writing a feature for Historia about creating a sense of place in his book.
The sixth book in Nicola Pryce‘s Cornish Saga series, The Cornish Captive, finds Madeleine Pelligrew released after 14 years’ confinement in mad houses. Disguising her identity, she’s determined to find out who imprisoned her under false pretences. But is her new friend, Pierre de la Croix, a French prisoner on parole, the man he says he is? Who can she trust as her past collides with her present? Nicola writes about the shocking background to her story in Asylums and prisons: locking women away in madhouses.
City of Vengeance, the first in DV Bishop‘s Cesare Aldo series, gets its paperback publication. In Florence in 1536 money is king and Alessandro de’ Medici is duke. Law officer Aldo has four days to catch the murderer of a prominent Jewish moneylender; but he stumbles across a plot to overthrow Alessandro. Can he solve the two mysteries and avoid having his own deadly secret revealed? Read about the author’s research journey in Walking in the footsteps of Florentine history.
Matthew Harffy‘s For Lord and Land is also out in paperback. Beobrand of Ubbanford unwittingly changes the balance of power in Northumbria, setting the kings of Bernicia and Deira against each other in a deadly final fight. Meanwhile his chief warrior, Cynan, is entangled in conflict in the West when a figure from his past calls for his help.
Also out in paperback is Mrs England by Stacey Halls. Newly-graduated nurse Ruby May takes a position looking after the children of Charles and Lilian England at the isolated Hardcastle House. But there’s something not quite right about the mistress of the house. Then a series of strange events forces Ruby to question everything she thought she knew. Stacey has written about the background to her novel in Nanny state: why the golden era of Edwardian childhood is ripe for fiction.
Twice Royal Lady by Hilary Green is reissued on 6 January as a paperback, with the ebook out on the 4th. Matilda, daughter of Henry I of England, is her father’s only legitimate heir. Married to Geoffrey of Anjou, she has provided the male heirs her father needs. But when Henry dies and Matilda’s cousin Stephen seizes the throne, she must choose between her husband and her rights as her father’s heir.
Fil Reid‘s debut novel, Guinevere: The Dragon Ring is published on 10 January. On Glastonbury Tor, librarian Gwen picks up a ring embossed with a dragon emblem and is transported into the past, where she’s expected to fulfil a prophecy by marrying Prince Arthur and helping him become the king of legend. Will she stay with the future King or return to her 21st-century life?
On 11 January, Linda Stratmann‘s Sherlock Holmes and the Explorers’ Club is published. It’s her second book imagining the consulting detective as a young man and sees Sherlock fascinated by a preserved foot with extra toes which turns up at a London hospital. The clues lead Holmes and Stamford to a mysterious club – and a series of murders. Read Tom Williams’s review of the first book in the series.
Bjarki and Tor, Angus Donald‘s berserkers, return on 13 January in The Saxon Wolf, the second in his Fire Born series. Widukind, lord of pagan Saxony, will stop at nothing to reconquer his lands from the Christian Franks. Can he persuade his people to follow him into war, and will Tor and Bjarki join him in his doomed venture? Angus is writing a piece for Historia on the background to his book.
The Key in the Lock by Beth Underdown is out on the same day. Ivy Boscawen mourns the loss of her son, Tim, in the Great War, but by night she mourns another boy whose death, decades ago, haunts her still. Ivy is sure that there is more to what happened: the fire at the Great House, and the terrible events that came after. But once you open a door to the past, can you ever truly close it again?
Tom Williams returns with another James Burke adventure in Burke and the Pimpernel Affair on 14 January. The French have broken an English spy ring. Now it’s up to James Burke to rescue our agents from a Paris prison. Is this a mission too far? And how on earth does the Empress Josephine fit it into his plans?
The Widow’s Last Secret, Lora Davies‘s second novel, comes out on 18 January. In 1846, after her husband’s sudden death, Bella Farrow is living a quiet life under a secret identity. But when she meets James Earlham, their instant connection disturbs her heart, her peace and her safety. Because Bella knows that for their love to flourish, she will have to reveal her long-hidden secret – and put her trust in James.
Three books are published on 20 January. The Queen’s Lady, the second in Joanna Hickson‘s Queens of the Tower series, continues the story of ‘Lady of the Ravens’ Joan Vaux. The Tudor court of Henry VII is in turmoil, the succession rocky. Joan faces a stark choice: be true to her heart and risk everything, or play the dutiful servant and watch her dreams wither and die? Joanna’s feature on the background to her new book is in Historia, and there will be a giveaway, too.
The Good Death, the fifth in SD Sykes‘s Oswald de Lacy Medieval Murders, has its paperback release on the same day. Oswald’s dying mother clutches a letter which will force him to confront a secret which has haunted him for over 20 years: the mysterious disappearance of young girls near the monastery where he was a novice monk, and the sequence of events that led to him becoming Lord of Somershill. Read Catherine Hokin’s review.
And The Man in the Bunker is the latest from Rory Clements. Germany’s defeated and Adolf Hitler has killed himself in his Berlin bunker. Yet no body has been found – and many believe he’s still alive. American and British intelligence can’t find the truth. Then Tom Wilde, the Cambridge professor and spy, arrives.
On 26 January, The Commandant’s Daughter, the first in a four-part series by Catherine Hokin, is published. In 1945, Hanni Foss hides from her concentration camp commandant father, developing the photographs she took to record the brutality of the camp and get justice. But before she can hand them to the Allies, Hanni discovers that he is now working with the British forces and will do anything to protect his secrets.
Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman is out in hardback and ebook on the following day. Dora Blake, an aspiring jewellery artist, lives with her uncle in what used to be her parents’ respected antiquities shop. When a mysterious Greek vase is delivered, Dora enlists a young antiquarian to find out more about the vase – and, she hopes, restore the shop to its former glory. But the vase holds secrets…
February
February begins with The Silver Wolf, the first in the Fiskardo’s War series by JC Harvey, on the third of the month. Amidst the chaos of the Thirty Years’ War, Jack Fiskardo embarks upon a quest which takes him from France to Amsterdam and then onto the battlefields of Germany. Will he unravel the mystery of his father’s death before the killers find him, too? The author writes about her inspiration in Nördlingen, a town where history is past and present.
On the same day, The Heretic’s Mark, the fourth in SW Perry‘s Jackdaw Mysteries, is out in paperback. Nicholas Shelby, unorthodox physician and unwilling spy, and his wife Bianca flee accusations of treason in London and head to Padua, accompanied by a strange young woman. Once there, they begin to wonder: who is this troublingly pious woman? And what does she want?
Also on 3 February, Ben Kane‘s Crusader is out in paperback. Richard the Lionheart is crowned king in 1189 and can, at last, go on crusade, accompanied by Ferdia, his loyal Irish follower. In the Holy Land he finds war at stalemate, a dispute over who will be King of Jerusalem – and the iconic Saracen leader, Saladin. Read an extract from the beginning of this book.
Lorna Cook‘s The Dressmaker’s Secret is also published on 3 February. It’s 1941 and in Paris Adèle works for Coco Chanel. She also works for the Resistance. In the present, Chloé’s grandmother has never spoken about the war. Chloé goes to Paris to uncover the truth about Adèle’s life. But her grandmother’s secrets will change her family forever.
The Wolves of Odin are back on 10 February in The Bear of Byzantium, the second in SJA Turney‘s series set in the 11th century. Halfdan and the crew of the Sea Wolf sail to Constantinople and join the Varangian Guard. But the Emperor is dying and courtiers, as well as Varangians, are picking sides. Meanwhile Gunnhild, unable to join the Guards, has visions of a wolf, a boar and a golden bear fighting to support the throne. What do they mean?
On 12 February Emma Darwin‘s This is Not a Book About Charles Darwin gets its paperback release. When Emma tried to fictionalise her family’s history, she struggled – and failed to write that book. What she’s written, instead, is a memoir, a book about failure, and, above all, a book about writing and how stories are told.
Alex Rutherford‘s Fortune’s Heir, the second in the Ballantyne Chronicles, is out in paperback on 14 February. Nicholas Ballantyne, in his Himalayan retreat, hopes for a peaceful life. But Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan, with French help, aim to drive the East India Company from India and when Warren Hastings, the Company’s newly appointed Governor-General, seeks Nicholas’s help, he agrees.
What Only We Know by Catherine Hokin is released in paperback on 15 February. Karen Cartwright discovers an old photograph and a stranger’s love letter to her dead mother sent from Germany after the war. Karen had struggled to understand her shy, fearful mother, but now she realises there was more to Elizabeth than she knew. For one thing, her name wasn’t Elizabeth; it was Liese… Catherine writes about the historical background to this book in Concentration camps and the politics of memory.
Also out on 15 February is Simon Turney‘s Agricola: Architect of Roman Britain. From Boudica’s revolt to Mons Graupius, Agricola was involved in the conquest of Britannia, becoming governor in AD77. His biography was written by his son-in-law, Tacitus, but his life has not been examined in detail since then. Using the archaeological record and contemporary accounts to compare with Tacitus, this book aims to uncover the truth about Agricola. Simon’s feature, Agricola’s victories in Britain, looks at the Roman general’s conquests.
On 16 February Son of Mercia, the first in MJ Porter‘s Eagle of Mercia Chronicles, is published as an ebook. In 825 Beornwulf, King of Mercia, is dead and Ecgberht of Wessex prepares to strike the divided kingdom. Wiglaf has claimed the right to rule Mercia, but can he unite it against the might of Wessex? MJ has written a Historia feature about the background to her story, Rival kings and the fall of Mercia.
Six books are published on 17 February. TL Mogford‘s The Plant Hunter starts in the exotic world of Victorian plant nurseries. Harry Compton is no plant hunter, but when he inherits a specimen of a fabled tree and a map, greedy eyes fall on him and soon he’s sailing up the Yangtze alongside a young widow, both in pursuit of the plant that could transform both their lives. Read the Historia piece about the inspiration for this book.
On the same day, Miranda Malins returns with The Rebel Daughter, her second novel about Oliver Cromwell’s daughters. It’s 1643, and 19-year-old Bridget finds herself at the heart of the Civil War. With her father’s star on the rise, Bridget has her own ambitions for a life beyond marriage and motherhood. And as fractures appear in her own family, Bridget faces a choice: to follow her heart, or to marry for power and influence. Miranda will write more about Bridget for Historia.
In The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson it’s 1944 and Clara Button has created the country’s only underground library in the disused Bethnal Green tube station. But as the war drags on, Clara and her best friend’s determination to remain strong in the face of adversity is tested when the lives of those closest to them are at stake. Kate has written us a feature about the true story behind her novel.
Biographer Jane Dismore‘s Tangled Souls: Love and Scandal among the Victorian Aristocracy reveals the scandal that shocked the unconventional Souls, a circle of cultured wits who flourished in the 1890s. Handsome, witty, and clever MP Harry Cust’s affair with artist and poet Nina Welby-Gregory, and her pregnancy, exposed the hypocrisy of this group of upper-class pleasure-seekers who turned a blind eye to their own adulteries. Read Jane’s feature about the scandal.
Liz Hyder‘s The Gifts is set in 1840. A young woman sprouts a huge pair of impossible wings, and, as rumours of a ‘fallen angel’ cause a frenzy across London, a surgeon finds himself in the grip of a dangerous obsession. This is a story of four young women, their extraordinary gifts, and their struggle to find their own freedoms.
And, still on 17 February, Andrew Taylor‘s The Royal Secret is out in paperback. In 1670, James Marwood is investigating the murder of a colleague. Cat Hakesby is working on Slaughter Street, where a captive lion prowls the stables, until the King commissions a poultry house for his sister, visiting from France – with a secret that could change Europe. Will they be thrown together to solve the mysteries? (Is Louis XIV a Catholic?)
Castles of Wales by John Paul Davis is out on 23 February. No country has more castles per square mile than Wales. Even today, there are more than 200; some ruins, others family homes, hotels, or museums. This book throws light on the stories behind them.
Scandal at Dolphin Square: A Notorious History by Daniel Smith and Simon Danczuk investigates the history of one of the UK’s most notorious addresses, where the private lives of those from the highest of high society and the lowest depths of the underworld have collided since it was built in Pimlico in 1936. It’s an account of mysterious deaths, exploitation, child sex abuse, espionage and illicit love affairs and is out on 24 February.
March
The Dark Queens by Shelley Puhak is one of six books published on 3 March. Brunhild was a Visigothic princess; her sister-in-law Fredegund started out in servitude. In sixth-century Merovingian France, these two rival queens reigned for decades; but after their deaths, their stories were rewritten, their names defamed. This double biography reinterprets their lives. And Shelley will write more about these remarkable women for Historia.
DV Bishop returns to Cesare Aldo’s story in The Darkest Sin. Aldo’s enquiry into intruders at a convent in Florence is complicated when a man’s naked body is found. Could a nun have killed him? Meanwhile Constable Strocchi investigates the body of a law officer pulled from the Arno. Identifying the killers will put both men in great danger. And we’re promised a Historia feature about 16th-century Florentine nuns.
Hunlaf, Matthew Harffy‘s cleric turned warrior, is sent by the King of Northumbria to seek an alliance against the marauding Vikings in A Night of Flames, the sequel to A Time for Swords. But Hunlaf and the Norseman, Runolf, have their own plans – which see them caught up in a violent revolt led by a fanatical escaped slave in the wild lands of the North. Jemahl Evans reviews this book in Historia.
Lizzie Pook‘s debut novel, Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter, is set in a pearl-fishing community on the Western Australian coast in 1886. When Eliza Brightwell’s father, the bay’s most prolific pearler, goes missing at sea, she refuses to believe the rumours that he was murdered. But in a corrupt town, the cost of truth is greater than pearls, and Eliza must decide what price she’ll pay to pursue the truth. Read Lizzie’s feature about the shocking background to her book.
The Clockwork Girl by Anna Mazzola takes us to Paris in 1750. Madeleine Chastel arrives at a clockmaker’s house, plotting to discover the truth of his experiments. As children vanish from the streets, there are rumours that the clockmaker’s intricate mechanical creations are more than they seem. Has she stumbled upon a conspiracy which reaches as far as the court at Versailles? Essie Fox reviews Anna’s book.
And finally on 3 March, the paperback edition of Laura Shepherd-Robinson‘s Daughters of Night hits the shelves. It’s 1782 and Caro Corsham finds a dying woman in Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. With the clock ticking on her own secret, Caro sets out to find the killer; a search that takes her to the most elegant and sordid worlds of Georgian London – and into deadly danger.
Carol McGrath‘s Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England is published on 8 March. What was the Church view on morality, witchcraft and the female body? On which days could married couples have sex and why? How were same sex relationships perceived? How common was adultery? How did they deal with contraception and venereal disease? And how did people bend and ignore all these rules? Carol writes about Henry VIII’s sexual problems in Historia.
Annie Garthwaite‘s Cecily is out in paperback on 10 March, showing the Wars of the Roses from a woman’s perspective. When Cecily Neville’s husband, the Duke of York, takes arms against the corrupt courtiers surrounding Henry VI, a struggle for safety becomes and a fight for the crown. It will take all of her courage and cunning to save her family – and make a York king. Read Annie’s feature, Finding my matriarch, Cecily Neville.
Damn’ Rebel Bitches, Maggie Craig‘s classic book about the women of the 1745 Jacobite Rising, is issued in a new edition on 10 March. Drawn from many original documents and letters, this title includes stories of the women – and their men – that are often touching, occasionally light-hearted and always engrossing. Maggie has written about research before online records in Damn’ Rebel Bitches: Research Then and Now.
And Maggie Craig‘s companion book (about the men of the 1745 Jacobite Rising), Bare-Arsed Banditti, is out in a new edition on the same day. They were modern men; often written out of history, or depicted as gallant but misguided fools, in reality they were children of the Age of Reason. Few had any illusions about the consequences of failure.
On 17 March, VB Grey‘s Sisterhood is released in paperback. Twin sisters swap roles during the Second World War, with decades-long repercussions. Can Freya’s daughter Kirsty untangle the secrets as her mother, unable to speak, watches while the Berlin Wall falls – and dreads the truth coming out? Find out about the background to this book in Some reasons why history gets lost.
Sophie Haydock‘s debut novel, The Flames, is out on the same day. It’s about the four muses who posed for the artist Egon Schiele in Vienna more than 100 years ago: Adele, Gertrude, Vally and Edith. At last they can tell their story, one of passion and betrayal. Sophie has written about rediscovering Adele for Historia.
In Elizabethan Secret Agent: The Untold Story of William Ashby, Timothy Ashby documents a gentleman spy who took part in some of the most important events of the Elizabethan era. As ambassador to Scotland he played a major part in Anglo-Scottish relationships during the Spanish Armada crisis, and was, before that, a senior ‘intelligencer’ for Sir Francis Walsingham. It’s published on 30 March, 2022.
Traitor in the Ice by KJ Maitland is on the shelves on 31 March. Murder at the Catholic household of Battle Abbey in 1607 sees unwilling spy Daniel Pursglove sent to find proof of treachery. But nearly everyone at the abbey has something to hide – deeds far more dangerous than religious dissent. And could the traitor Spero Pettingar be hiding among them? Red our feature about the mealtime rituals at Battle.
Anne O’Brien‘s The Royal Game is out is paperback on the same day. In 1444, King Henry VI’s grip on the crown hangs by a thread as the Wars of the Roses tear England apart. From the ruins of war, three remarkable women use cunning, ambition, and good fortune to raise the Paston family from obscurity to the heart of Court politics and intrigue.
April
The second book in Catherine Hokin‘s Hanni Winter series, The Pilot’s Girl, is published in ebook format on 4 April. It’s years since Hanni’s ordeal with the Nazis, but when she goes to photograph Tony Miller, the American pilot risking his life to help starving Berliners, she sees Reiner Foss again. She’s vowed to avenge everyone who suffered at Reiner’s hands. But does her attraction to Tony leave her vulnerable? Catherine writes about the Berlin Blockade, the background to her novel.
The Bear’s Blade, the fifth in Tim Hodkinson‘s Whale Road Chronicles, is released as an ebook on 5 April. Einar, rightful Jarl of Orkney, is too injured to hold a weapon. His Wolf Coats have been fighting their enemy’s warriors, who are led by a ferocious man called the Bear, owner of a legendary sword. Such a sword could be key to Einar’s plans – but first they must contend with the Bear himself. And can a man unable to wield a weapon be a true Viking warrior?
On 7 April, The Empress and the English Doctor by Lucy Ward examines how Catherine the Great summoned the physician Thomas Dimsdale from Hertford to St Petersburg to carry out a secret mission that would transform both their lives; inoculation against smallpox. It’s a story of Enlightenment ideals, female leadership and the fight to promote science over superstition.
In Beheld: Godiva’s Story by Christopher M Cevasco (out on 10 April), Godgyfu of Coventry’s plans to better life in her beloved city are set back by her husband, Earl Leofric, and the perverse desires of Thomas, a Benedictine novice. Can she escape the monk’s menacing wiles and Leofric’s betrayals to secure her future – and what’s the story behind her famous ride?
England descends into a bitter civil war in A Marriage of Lions by Elizabeth Chadwick, released in paperback on 14 April. In 1238 Joanna of Swanscombe must separate from her husband, William de Valence, when he flees for his life. She has only her wit and courage to prevent their enemies from destroying her husband, her family, and their fortunes.
Elizabeth Lowry‘s new novel, The Chosen, is also out on 14 April. After his wife Emma dies the author Thomas Hardy finds her diary, in which she confides her true feelings about him. He has to re-evaluate himself, and reimagine his unhappy wife as she was when they first met. Elizabeth has written about reconstructing Emma’s diaries.
Simon Turney starts a new Roman series with The Capsarius, published on the same day. Titus Cervianus is a capsarius – a combat medic – with the XXII Deiotariana legion, posted to Egypt in 25BC. He’s also unpopular with the men and needs all the help he can get from his unexpected and eccentric allies, not just against the warrior queen of Kush.
International Trade in the Middle Ages by Hilary Green, published on 15 April, journeys through the complex developing exchanges which are the foundation of trade today. As trade expanded and became more valuable, international relations became more sophisticated when governments moved to protect the valuable income it brought and nations became ever more competitive. (We’re thrilled that Hilary was asked to write this book after her feature on the subject appeared in Historia.)
Nicola Griffith retells Arthurian myth in Spear, out on 19 April in ebook format. Filled with magic and determination, Peretur (whose name means ‘spear’) leaves her home in the dark wood to travel to Artos in Caer Leon, where she steals the hearts of beautiful women, fights warriors and sorcerers, and makes a place to call home.
On 21 April The Stone Rose, the third book in Carol McGrath‘s She-Wolves trilogy, retells the life of fierce, self-destructive Isabella of France. Wife to a weak king, Isabella finds herself facing enemies in a war with Scotland and her uncle Lancaster, whose attempts to rein in royal power cause a rift between them. But the threat to the kingdom is a threat to her marriage – and to her own life.
A Silent Way to Die, the second Kember and Hayes Mystery by NR Daws, is published on 26 April and continues the murder-solving partnership of DI Jonathan Kember and psychologist and pilot Lizzie Hayes during the Second World War.
The first in a new series, The Bangalore Detectives Club by Harini Nagendra hits the shelves on 28 April, one of five books by HWA authors published on this day. After a murder at a party, Kaveri sets out to find the killer and discovers that sleuthing in a sari isn’t so hard when you have a talent for maths, a head for logic and a doctor for a husband. And she’ll need them all as the case leads her deeper into danger, sedition and intrigue in Bangalore’s darkest alleyways.
The French House by Jacquie Bloese is also out on 28 April. In Nazi-occupied Guernsey, the consequences of making the wrong decision can be deadly. And when the lives of estranged lovers Émile and Isabelle become entwined with a German officer, loyalties are blurred, and dangerous secrets are forged.
Miss Aldridge Regrets is the second novel from Louise Hare. After a death at the club she sings at, Lena Aldridge can’t resist the offer of a starring role on Broadway and a first-class ticket on the Queen Mary.
Until death follows her onto the ship, where her greatest performance has already begun… because someone there has only one thing on their mind – murder. Read about the glamorous backdrop to Louise’s novel in RMS Queen Mary, the great transatlantic liner.
Jacqueline Riding‘s biography Hogarth: Life in Progress has its paperback publication on the same day. William Hogarth’s vision still largely defines the 18th century. Here we meet an artist who was far bolder and more various than we realise: an ambitious self-made man, a devoted husband, a sensitive portraitist, an unmatched storyteller, philanthropist, technical innovator and the author of a seminal work of art theory.
And Alex von Tunzelmann‘s Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues That Made History is also out in paperback on 28 April. Statues are one of the most visible, and controversial, forms of historical storytelling. This book looks at 12 statues in modern history: why they were put up; the stories they were supposed to tell; why those stories were challenged; and how they came down.
On 30 April, Britain’s Plot to Kill Hitler: The True Story of Operation Foxley and SOE by Eric Lee is published. His extensive research into an assassination plan which remained shrouded in mystery for decades reveals several bizarre suggestions, including poisoning Hitler’s water, hypnotism and injecting vegetables with female hormones. Eric’s Historia feature looks more closely at these strange events.
Other books scheduled for publication this month are The King’s Cavalier (working title), book three in Mark Turnbull‘s Rebellion series of novels, and Sara Read‘s The Midwife’s Truth.
May
The sixth and last in Jean Fullerton‘s Ration Book series is out on 5 May. In A Ration Book Victory, Queenie Brogan discovers that her one-time love – now her parish priest – is dying. Can she finally tell him the secret she has kept for over 50 years? And if she does, could the truth destroy the Brogan family?
Six books are in the shops on 12 May. In One Moonlit Night by Rachel Hore Maddie and her daughters flee the Blitz to the house her missing husband stayed in during his childhood. She won’t accept that he’s dead; and she becomes curious about a mysterious event in his youth that seems to be unresolved. No-one will tell her the truth – or reassure her that he’ll ever return to her.
Privilege is the new novel by Guinevere Glasfurd. In 18th-century Paris, Delphine Vimond and apprentice printer Chancery Smith set out to to discover the author of potentially incendiary papers marked only ‘D’. Louis XV’s censor, Henri Gilbert, is also looking for D; but who will find the writer first – and does D even exist?
Louise Fein‘s The Hidden Child is out in paperback. In inter-war London, a successful couple must confront their fears and their lies when their daughter is found to have epilepsy, a condition her eugenicist father campaigns against. Louise writes about the chilling theory that lies behind her novel in Building better humans? Eugenics and history.
Also out in paperback is Commander, Paul Fraser Collard‘s tenth Jack Lark book. It’s 1869 and Jack is in Egypt, where he’s offered work on an expedition into the Sudan to eradicate the slave trade and open the area to commerce. How can he refuse?
The Fallen Sword, AJ Mackenzie‘s latest book, will also be published on 12 May. During the Hundred Years’ War, the conspiracy against the thrones of England and France has regrouped. Ambush and murder in the war-torn fields of Flanders, meetings in ruined castles and assassination attempts in the streets of Bruges and Paris all follow, as Simon Merrivale relentlessly hunts the conspirators.
Elizabeth Buchan‘s Two Women in Rome is out in paperback on the same day. Archivist Lottie Archer unravels a tragic love story beset by the political turmoil of post-war Italy and begins to confront the losses in her own life. You can find out about medieval miniatures, one of the more intriguing aspects of the background to her book, in her Historia feature.
Widows of the Ice: The Women that Scott’s Antarctic Expedition Left Behind by Anne Fletcher is published on 15 May. Unlike other accounts of the famous expedition which became a powerful symbol of heroic failure and British bravery, this book examines the rest of the story through the experience of the wives whose husbands did not return: Kathleen Scott, Oriana Wilson and Lois Evans.
Dead in the Water, the fifth in Mark Ellis‘s DCI Frank Merlin series set during the Second World War, comes out on 19 May. In a bombed-out London swarming with gangsters and spies, DCI Frank Merlin continues his battle against rampant wartime crime. A mangled body is found in the Thames just as some items of priceless art go mysteriously missing. What sinister connection links the two?
The Lying Dutchman by Graham Brack, the sixth in his Master Mercurius Mysteries, is published in ebook format on 20 May. Set in 1685, it sees Mercurius being tasked with thwarting a plan to invade England, only to be tried for espionage.
On 24 May the hardback edition of Nicola Griffith‘s Spear is out (see 19 April for details). Nicola writes about the inspirations for her book in History, historicity, historiography and Arthurian legend.
King, the third in Ben Kane‘s Lionheart series, is released on 26 May. In 1192 Richard I can return from the Holy Land to his troubled kingdom, accompanied by the faithful Ferdia. But on the way Richard is captured and imprisoned, his ransom bleeding England’s coffers dry. How can he outwit his enemies in France and at home and restore order to England? Read the first chapter of Ben’s book in our preview: King by Ben Kane: exclusive extract for Historia.
Fil Reid‘s latest Arthurian timeslip novel, The Sword, is out on 31 May. After Gwen was snatched by Merlin from the 21st century to become King Arthur’s wife, she chose to stay. But she carries the secret of what the stories say will happen to him. Can she save him from defeat at Camlann – or will her knowledge bring about his downfall?
June
The month begins with Rotten to the Core, TE Kinsey‘s eighth Lady Hardcastle Mystery book, published on 7 June. In Summer 1911, amateur sleuth Lady Hardcastle and her lady’s maid, Flo, are investigating odd cider-related murders amid whispers of ancient secrets and moonlit rituals. Can they catch the killer before any more people drop off the tree?
Also on 7 June, MJ Porter‘s Eagle Of Mercia series continues with Wolf of Mercia. As Wiglaf’s warriors beat back Wessex, Icel finds himself among the retreating troops. To survive, he must pretend to be a Wessex warrior while plotting to bring down their forces. But his allegiances are tested…
On 9 June there are nine books by HWA authors published. Madwoman by Louisa Treger tells the story of Nellie Bly who, desperate to make her name as a journalist in New York, tricks hers way into an asylum to report on conditions from the inside. Her days of terror reawaken the traumatic events of her childhood. She entered the asylum of her own free will. But will she ever get out?
It’s clear by AD312 that Constantine and Maxentius’s rivalry must end in Simon Turney and Gordon Doherty‘s Sons of Rome, the final book in their Rise of Emperors trilogy. When the two forces clash in a battle that will shape history, only one thing is certain: the sole ruler of an empire will be decided.
Sean Lusk‘s The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley, set in the mid-18th century, is the story of Zachary, whose father, Abel, makes extraordinary clockwork automata in London. Abel sends his son to be raised by his late wife’s eccentric aunt, a proto-feminist who keeps the largest owl collection in England. Then Abel is coerced into spying in Constantinople – with an automaton.
Acts of Love and War by Maggie Brookes is also out on 9 June. When two brothers who both love her join opposite sides in the Spanish Civil War, Lucy goes to Spain to persuade them to come home. Horrified by the plight of refugee children, she volunteers to help. But the question of which brother she loves is less immediate than whether any of the trio will survive.
In The Wall by Douglas Jackson, Marcus Flavius Victor has kept the Picts behind Hadrian’s Wall for 20 years. So why is he now stripping the defences of cavalry to strengthen his own force? Is he risking civil war to seize Britannia for himself? Or is he raising an army to save the province from what waits on the other side of the Wall?
Richard Sharpe is back in Bernard Cornwell‘s Sharpe’s Assassin, also on 9 June. Napoleon’s army may be defeated, but another enemy lies waiting in the shadows – a secretive group of fanatical French revolutionaries. Wellington sends Sharpe to a new battleground: the maze of Paris street. In search of a spy, he will have to defeat a lethal assassin determined to kill his target or die trying.
And in Sara Sheridan‘s Celtic Cross, a Mirabelle Bevan mystery, Mirabelle and her fiance Alan move into a secluded house on the banks of the Firth of Forth. But when a nun dies in mysterious circumstances at the Little Sisters of Gethsemane Convent nearby, they are drafted to uncover what happened.
Elizabeth Macneal‘s Circus of Wonders gets its paperback release on the same day. Nell, the ‘leopard girl’, is the star of Jasper Jupiter’s Circus of Wonders. But who gets to tell her story? And, as she falls in love with Toby, can he detach himself from his past and the secret binding him to his brother?
And, finally on 9 June, The Tsarina’s Daughter by Ellen Alpsten is out in paperback. Elizabeth Romanov is the daughter of Peter the Great and Catherine I, but when her mother dies, she is left penniless and powerless, constantly threatened. Consumed by passion, Elizabeth must decide whether to take up her role as Russia’s ruler, and what she’s willing to do for her country… and for love.
The paperback edition of Anna Abney‘s The Master of Measham Hall comes out on 23 June. When Alethea Hawthorne finds herself cast out on the streets of London during the Great Plague, getting home to Derbyshire seems impossible until she meets Jack. But further problems await her when she returns and only quick wits can save her – and her home.
On 30 July, The Fair Botanists by Sara Sheridan is out in paperback. In the summer of 1822 two young women are drawn to Edinburgh’s Botanic Gardens as the rare Agave Americana plant draws near to flowering. But what secret is Belle hiding from Elizabeth? Sara writes about the inspirations for her book in Rediscovering Edinburgh’s New Town.
July
Jonathan Trigell‘s latest novel, Under Country, set among the poverty, camaraderie and brutality of the miners’ strike in 1984, is out on 1 July. Charlie was a miner, son of a miner, son of a miner’s son. And he was proud to be so. The pit villages were proud places. Miners were respected. The mines never stopped. Until they did.
The King’s Cavalier by Mark Turnbull, the third book in his Rebellion Series, is also out on 1 July. When the Second Civil War breaks out in 1647, Captain Maxwell Walker is torn between his duty to King Charles I and the promise of a new life. Then the New Model Army initiates a coup and the two men’s fates must be decided.
Agent in Peril, the second book in Alex Gerlis‘s Wolf Pack series is published on 7 July. Roman Loszynski knows how to make bombing raids far more accurate. British agent Jack Miller and undercover spy Sophia von Naundorf must get Loszynski out of the Warsaw ghetto, a desperate mission filled with danger.
Tim Hodkinson‘s The Bear’s Blade (out as an ebook on 5 April) gets its paperback publication on 7 July.
Two Houses, Two Kingdoms: A History of France and England, 1100-1300 is the new book from Catherine Hanley, told through the stories of the people involved. In an age of personal monarchy, the personalities and actions, the likes and dislikes, of kings could affect the lives of millions. As could the queens, the children, the sisters used as peace offerings, the jealous brothers and cousins, the murderous uncles and stepmothers. It’s out on 12 July.
The latest in Alexandra Walsh‘s Marquess House Saga, The Jane Seymour Conspiracy, is out as an ebook on 20 July. Perdita and Piper have a new mystery to unravel: a code that leads to a new outlook on Henry’s relationship with Jane Seymour. But before they can reveal the secret, their cousin starts his campaign to take Marquess House from them. A potentially deadly campaign…
Three books hit the shelves on 21 July. In Frances Quinn‘s new novel, That Bonesetter Woman, Endurance Proudfoot isn’t exactly an ideal Georgian lady, but she has inherited her father’s skills. So while her pretty sister makes a name as a society beauty, she makes hers as London’s first and best female bonesetter. But it’s dangerous at the top, and there’s a long way to fall…
Hawker and the King’s Jewel, the debut novel by Ethan Bale, is out on the same day. After the Battle of Bosworth, Sir John Hawker, Richard III’s loyal retainer, flees England with two Yorkist companions. They head for Venice, where Hawker must return a cursed jewel – and where his former love still is. Ethan’s feature on the enduring mystery of the Princes in the Tower will be in Historia soon.
And it’s paperback publication day for The Spirit Engineer by AJ West. Belfast in 1914, and high society is obsessed with spiritualism. When ‘spirit’ voices suddenly come to scientist and sceptic William Jackson Crawford he becomes obsessed with the phenomenon, questioning his own beliefs. Or is the medium Kathleen Goligher playing tricks on him?
On 29 July, The Carnelian Phoenix by Jacquie Rogers sees Valerius travel to Rome to visit his family. On the way he inherits a carnelian ring from his father. Then his lover, Julia disappears and Valerius finds his loyalties torn, especially when he discovers a plot against the boy Emperor. When he reaches Rome, can he save himself – and the Empire?
August
There are five books out on 4 August. Leanda de Lisle follows her HWA Non-fiction Crown-winning White King with a biography of Charles I’s Queen, Henrietta Maria. Challenging nearly 400 years of prejudice, she reveals her subject as a fascinating, fearless woman. Leanda has written about this controversial figure for Historia.
In SG MacLean‘s latest novel, The Bookseller of Inverness, Iain MacGillivray has survived the Battle of Culloden and is living a quiet life as a bookseller. The day after a stranger visits his shop, Iain finds him dead, and a dagger with a Jacobite symbol beside the body. Iain finds himself embroiled in a web of deceit and a series of old scores to be settled.
On the same day, Oscar de Muriel‘s Frey & McGray Victorian melodrama series comes to an eye-opening end with The Sign of the Devil. Detective ‘Nine-Nails’ McGray must clear his sister’s name of an accusation of murder at the lunatic asylum she’s kept in. He enlists the help of Inspector Ian Frey in a case which reveals all the secrets so carefully kept throughout their story.
Jean Fullerton‘s Ration Book series about an East London family during the Second World War is well known. Now she’s written her autobiography, A Child of the East End, which documents life in post-war Cockney London drawing on her own and her family’s memories. Jean’s guide to writing your own memoir, Writing yourself into history: useful tips, is available in Historia.
And finally on 4 August, Julie Walker‘s debut novel, Bonny & Read, is out. In 1720, in the Caribbean, two extraordinary women are on the run – from their pasts, from the British Navy and from their fates. When they meet, during a pirate raid on a ship, the connection is immediate. They’ll fight together, weep together… will they die together?
The Loki Sword, the third in Angus Donald‘s Fire Born series, hits the shelves on 11 August. Bjarki Bloodhand has subdued his berserker madness; his half-sister, the shield maiden Tor Hildarsdottir, faces brutal reprisals for killing the Jarl of Norrland’s warriors. The solution? To find a lost sword said to have belonged to the Norse god Loki.
Gill Paul‘s latest novel, The Manhattan Girls, comes out on 18 August. New York, 1921; four extraordinary women form a bridge group that becomes a firm friendship. Dorothy Parker, renowned wit, member of the Algonquin Round Table; Jane Grant, first female reporter for The New York Times; Broadway actress Winifred Lenihan; and Peggy Leech, magazine assistant by day, novelist by night.
On the same day, The Lost Man of Bombay by Vaseem Khan sees Inspector Persis Wadia investigating the death of a white man found frozen in the Himalayan foothills. Is he linked to two murders? The third in the Malabar House series pits Persis against a deadly mystery in the turbulence of post-colonial India.
And TL Mogford‘s The Plant Hunter (see 17 February) gets its paperback release, also on 18 August.
September
Plenty of paperback editions of novels are released this month. On 1 September three books by HWA members come out, including The Gifts by Liz Hyder and Kate Thompson‘s The Little Wartime Library, both first published earlier this year on 17 February.
And A Night of Flames by Matthew Harffy is released in paperback on the same day (see 3 March for details).
Also out in paperback is One Moonlit Night by Rachel Hore, this time on 15 September (see 12 May).
Captain Hazard’s Game, the third of David Fairer‘s social comedies set in early 18th-century London, is out on 28 September. He’s written about the social background to his books in London in 1708: a surprisingly modern city.
And it’s paperback publication time on 29 September for Traitor in the Ice by KJ Maitland, first released on 31 March.
October
Domitian, the third in SJA Turney‘s Damned Emperors series, is published on 20 October. Vespasian’s younger son has known only fear, death and treachery and uses a network of spies to stay one step ahead. So when Domitian unexpectedly becomes Emperor, his childhood guardian, Nerva, is the man he turns to with his fears, and his secrets.
Nicola Cornick‘s latest novel, The Winter Garden, is out on 27 October. It’s a dual-timeline novel set in the present and the years preceding the Gunpowder Plot in 1605.
Also on 27 October, the most brilliant – but the most wayward – soldier in the British army is back in Sharpe’s Command by Bernard Cornwell. It’s 1812 in Spain, and two French armies march towards each other. If they meet, the British are lost. But guess who plans to stand in their way?
And National Treasures by Caroline Shenton is released as a paperback on the same day. She tells the gripping and sometimes hilarious true story of how an unlikely bunch of men and women saved London’s museums, galleries and archives in the Second World War. Caroline has written about one unusual aspect of the operation in How WWI veterans saved Britain’s treasures in WWII.
Finally on 27 October, WC Ryan‘s The Winter Guest has its paperback release. See 6 January for details.
November
Tracy Borman‘s next book, Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I: The mother and daughter who changed history, is expected to be published this month.
December
Forest of Foes, the ninth in the Bernicia Chronicles by Matthew Harffy, is out in hardback and ebook formats on 8 December.
This list is a work in progress. We’ll update it as more information about new books becomes available, so if you don’t see a book you want, pop back in a few weeks and see what we’ve added.
