It’s 1927 and flight fever is running high. Daring flyers are all anyone can talk about. And now the Honourable Miss Elsie Mackay, glamorous former film star and regular name in gossip columns, has a new ambition – to be the first woman to fly the Atlantic. Elsie’s friend Stella Campbell once felt at the […]
The Train That Took You Away by Catherine Hokin
Ever since the Nazis came to power, violence has spread through the city Esther Spielmann once called home. Each night she prays her family will be spared. But when her husband and father are murdered alongside fellow Jews during Kristallnacht, she has no choice but to send her beloved son, Sascha, to safety. Esther’s heart […]
The Sultan’s Emu by RJ Wilton
A world of veils and delusions. A city in ferment. A battle of empires played out in diplomatic details and back-street brutality. Marrakesh, 1906, and the unexpected arrival of a circus to perform for the Sultan seems like an opportunity for European envoy and Moroccan warlord alike, as they manoeuvre for advantage and pursue their […]
The challenges of writing a novel set in Morocco
When the perfect idea for a novel presents itself, but then you find that your source is (factually and morally) questionable, how do you approach it? By telling the story behind the stories, RJ Wilton suggests in his account of the challenges he faced in writing a novel set in early 20th-century Morocco. Sultan Abd-al-Aziz […]
Dark Frontier by Matthew Harffy
In 1890 Lieutenant Gabriel Stokes of the British Army left behind the horrors of war for a role in the Metropolitan Police. Though he rose quickly through the ranks, the squalid violence of London’s East End proved just as dark and oppressive as the battlefield. With his life falling apart, and longing for peace and […]
The Ballad of Mary Kearney by Katherine Mezzacappa
In County Down in 1767, a nobleman secretly marries his servant, in defiance of law, class, and religion. Can their love survive tumultuous times? An impoverished tenant farmer sends his 17-year-old daughter Mary into service at the home of his Ascendancy landlord. Viscount Kilkeel, the impulsive but idealistic son of Lord Goward, lately returned from […]
Murder at the Art Gallery by Fiona Veitch Smith
Newcastle, 1924, and reporter Poppy Denby is making her way up to Northumberland to celebrate her father’s 60h birthday, but first, she can’t resist stopping for a few days in Newcastle, for a quick hello to her favourite Aunt Dot. The infamous suffragette has temporarily moved up and is hosting world-renowned artist and long-time friend, […]
Death Comes in Threes by Michael Jecks
As London is bustling with growing trade from foreign lands, and Queen Mary’s health is once again a hot topic, Jack Blackjack has much to keep him busy in August, 1558. And that’s before his new tenant — a Dutch merchant — disappears under a cloud of suspicion, quickly presumed murdered, and Jack’s latest female […]