October Book Review Club

The House of Velvet and Glass
Katherine Howe
Hyperion Books, 2012

This book caught my notice when it came out last year for the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, but I just now got around to reading it.

Two members of the Allston family of Boston went down with the Titanic, and the book focuses on the eldest daughter's struggles to come to terms with the loss of her mother Helen and younger sister Eulah. Every year on the anniversary of the disaster, Sibyl Allston goes to the house of Mrs. Dee, her mother's favorite medium, to see if she can contact her mother's spirit. Sibyl had resented Helen's decision to take only her younger daughter on tour in Europe, in hopes she would make a brilliant match. Now Sibyl, who badly wanted to join them, struggles with grief at their loss and guilt that she is glad to be alive. She manages the household and tries to mediate in the war between her father, Lan, and young brother Harlan, the scapegrace of the family. The return to Boston of old family friend, now widowed psychiatrist Benton Darby, brings more mixed feelings and conflict into her life.

The main story is interspersed with "Interludes" showing scenes of either Helen and Eulah on board the Titanic or Sybil's father Lan, who traveled to Shanghai as a young seaman, where he was introduced to opium, which plays a bigger part in the story than I had anticipated at the beginning.

I enjoyed this book a lot and became completely engrossed in it. Sybil is a sympathetic character, as is Benton, and the twists of the plot took unexpected turns. It's a mix of historical novel, character study and paranormal exploration, asking questions about destiny and whether and how much we should try to intervene. The spiritualist aspect is very interesting, and at first I thought the "House of Velvet and Glass" referred to the medium's home, but I was wrong. I don't want to say too more because it's best to peel the layers while reading the book. Excellent read.

Linda McLaughlin

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Book Review Club: After the Fog

After the Fog 
by Kathleen Shoop

Historical Fiction
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Set in Donora, PA during the killer fog of 1948. For those not familiar with this sidelight of history, here's a little background. Donora is a borough in Washington County, PA., not far from Pittsburgh. The town was built along a curve in the Monongahela River, and is surrounded by hills. At the time of the story, there were three mills along the river, manufacturing steel, wire and zinc. Because of the hills, the air in Donora was rarely clear, and we now know, unhealthy at best. In late October, 1948, a weather inversion trapped the air, creating a toxic stew that sickened many residents and initially killed twenty. Fifty more died afterwards, including the father of Stan Musial. The disaster caught the attention of Washington which launched an investigation. What happened there contributed to the passage of the first Air Pollution Control Act in 1955.

My review:

The main character, Rose Pavlesic, is a nurse who grew up in an orphanage where she was regularly abused. Now a community nurse, Rose struggles to hold her dysfunctional family together while taking care of the needy citizens of her mining town. When the killer fog descends, everyone is stressed, and truths emerge that threaten to destroy her carefully constructed world and tear her family apart.

This frank and stark depiction of life in the mining towns of western Pennsylvania struck a chord with me. I grew up in Pittsburgh and heard people talk about Donora. The town is almost a character, as is the evil, creeping fog that blankets the town and causes so much misery. The language and culture shown in the book are authentic, including words like yunz and nebby and redd-up the room. I also remember the chipped ham at Isaly's, which was quite a treat. On that level, this book was a trip down memory lane for me.

It's easy to forget how polluted our air once was, but I remember the smog and how bad it could make you feel, even simulating an asthma attack in people who don't have asthma. My parents used to tell stories of life in Pittsburgh in the 1930s when the air was so thick, you couldn't see across the street at high noon. We should all be grateful for clean air wherever we find it.

Linda 

Smog photo from http://toxipedia.org/display/toxipedia/Donora+smog 

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Book Review: The Firebird

The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Nicola Martin is a London art dealer with a secret. When she touches an object, she sees glimpses of its past. Because of her family's history in oppressive Russia, she keeps her gift a secret. Then a woman comes to the gallery with a small wooden firebird, hoping it will bring her enough money to fulfill her dream of traveling around the world. When Nicola touches it, she gets a glimpse of a scene from the time of Peter the Great. However, her boss tells the woman her Firebird isn't valuable. But Nicola knows the woman is dying of a hereditary disease and decides to do her own investigation. But for that she needs the help of someone whose psychic talents are stronger than her own. She turns to Rob McMorran, a young Scottish policeman she once knew.

I've read several books by Susanna Kearsley and she is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors. So far, her books have been set in Britain, so Firebird, with its Russian theme, seemed a departure. But as I began reading, familiar characters popped up. I was delighted to meet the grown-up Rob, whom I first met as a fey child in The Shadowy Horses and who is just as charming as an adult. And as he and Nicola continue to follow the trail of the Firebird, we learn the story of Anna, the child born to 18th c. characters from The Winter Sea.

Nicola and Rob follow Anna's wanderings from Scotland to Belgium as she is brought to safety with her Jacobite uncle. Later she becomes ward of Admiral Thomas Gordon and travels with him to St. Petersburg where he helps Peter the Great build his Navy.

Kearsley does a good job of interweaving the historical and contemporary stories. I found the glimpse into the Jacobite community in St. Petersburg a fascinating piece of unknown history.

If you enjoy the "story within a story" like Possession or The French Lieutenant's Woman, only with happier endings, give this one a try. 

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Linda 

PS: Dear FCC, I pre-ordered a Kindle copy.

Egg-cerpt Exchange: A Necessary End

Please help me welcome my Egg-cerpt Exchange guest today, Diana Rubino, author of A Necessary End. Welcome, Diana. Please tell us a little about you and your book. 

My passion for history has taken me to every setting of my historicals. The four-book “Yorkist Saga” and two time travels are set in England. After finishing the Italian vampire romance “A Bloody Good Cruise” I decided to write biographical novels with no fictional characters. I recently completed “President Washington’s Daughter”, about Eliza Jumel Burr, who made her way up from the streets of Providence to being the richest woman in New York City and wife of Vice President Aaron Burr. My latest work is “Give Us Liberty”, the story of Martha Washington as told by her “favorite servant,” her slave Oney Judge.

I'm studying for a Master’s Degree in Archaeology, and own an engineering business with my husband Chris. A longtime member of Romance Writers of America’s NH chapter and the Richard III Society, I've written articles for Romantic Times and appeared on The Book Swap Café, shown nationwide on Comcast channels.

I'm a golfer, pianist, and sling a mean kettlebell. Fav bands are the B-52s, Stones, Ozzy, and the 60s rock 'n roll I grew up with. Rock 'n roll keeps me young!

A NECESSARY END is a paranormal twist on John Wilkes Booth's insane plot to assassinate President Lincoln. It contains no fictional characters.

It is a 'dark' paranormal because a malevolent spirit haunts Booth to assassinate the 'tyrant' as in Julius Caesar. But since I believe every situation, no matter how foreboding, allows for humor, I've added a few lighter scenes that offer the reader some much-needed relief. How can Booth's plot not leave itself wide open for humor? It was pure comic farce, how he recruited this motley band of adoring disciples and gave them each an assignment in his absurd conspiracy. Yes, Booth sure gets what's coming to him in the end.

Buy link: http://amzn.com/B00AX9Y6NU

Blurb:

When actor John Wilkes Booth, under the guise of seeking spiritual advice, visits the President's medium to gather information about Lincoln's habits in order to kidnap him, a malevolent spirit begins to haunt and torment him, driving him to the brink of insanity. A mysterious coin also appears out of nowhere, and returns every time Booth tries to discard it. Each return of the bloodthirsty Roman coin brings terrifying events and eerie hauntings. In the midst of these strange visitations, Booth falls in love with Alice Grey, a beautiful actress who's hired by the government to spy on him. Will her love for Booth win out over her duty to protect the President from assassination?

Excerpt:

Washington City, November, 1864

I don’t believe in ghosts, Wilkes assured himself as he listened to the high keening of the medium. He shivered as a draft wafted over him. Smoky incense intensified the gloom.

He wasn’t at this séance to seek omens or cryptic guidance from beyond the grave. He was attending this charade to learn of Abraham Lincoln’s future.

He still ached with grief over his boyhood friend’s death. A part of his soul died along with John Beall, who was everything the South stood for. Rage over the betrayal seized his heart and boiled his blood. How could Lincoln do this to another human being? How could the President look him in the eye and promise he’d let John live, then murder him?

Wilkes fought to subdue these emotions. No phantom held the answers he sought on this bone-chilling night, just the bird-like matron entranced before him, Nettie Colburn Maynard. The medium was Mrs. Lincoln’s spiritualist, famed for her evenings at the White House “bringing back” their dead boys, Eddie and Willie. Wilkes had to admit she put on a good show. One thing he appreciated was fine acting. But he was wary. The parlor felt haunted as shadows crept up the walls. The hairs at the back of his neck already stood on end, and a chill slithered through his body. Although his hands were icy, his palms sweated, making them even colder. The room stood silent and musty as a tomb. The dank staleness assaulted him. His throat aching for a trickle of brandy, he coughed.

Mrs. Maynard’s eyes were shut tight. His own gaze darted about, unable to settle. Candles flickered jagged shadows around the room. Wallpaper patterns swirled to impenetrable fog. And the curtains...did they flutter, even though the windows were closed?“A spirit is present, Mr. Booth.” Her voice, almost a whisper, barely reached his ears. She exhaled feathery tendrils of steam in the eerie half-light. “It watches over you, seeks to guide you.” He felt her shoulders shake with violent tremors. “He was powerful in life, but more powerful in death, released of mortal frailty.”

Wilkes felt the dread of approaching harm, but sat too spellbound to get up and quit the whole thing. He guessed it was raw fear that kept him frozen in his seat. His voice, trained in delivery of lines, was suddenly struck silent. He had to admit she was gifted, the perfect witch for Macbeth. The funereal black dress draped her gaunt figure like a shroud. Shadowed by the pale flames, Mrs. Maynard played her role to perfection. Once again, he convinced himself it was all an act. But if it was real and some being from beyond really did hover over him…

Just then he realized his jaw was tightly clenched. He struggled to slacken it.

“He lived many centuries ago, Mr. Booth, and knew you by another name. He revisits you now, drawn close by your pain and grief. She shuddered again. Her grip crushed his hand, her knuckles white as bleached bone. “I feel his essence very forcefully, right there…” Her hands turned to ice. “Behind you…”

He nearly ripped a tendon snapping his neck around, but saw neither phantom nor flesh, just movement at the edge of his vision flickering up the wall. Threads of fear tickled at his nerves. Nothing was as it seemed. Turning to face her again, he felt foolish for succumbing to her trickery. An embarrassed blush heated his cheeks as the room temperature plummeted. He breathed deeply to calm his pounding heart.

“He will thrust you towards your true destiny, young man.”

Connect with Diana online at:
website: http://www.DianaRubino.com
blog: http://www.DianaRubinoAuthor.blogspot.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/dianarubino
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DianaLRubino

My thanks to Diana for being our guest. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments section. You can find me today at Diana's blog with an excerpt from Rogue's Hostage.

Linda

Book Review Club: A Visit to Scotland

Both of this month's books are set in Scotland, a country that has long fascinated me.


The Shadowy Horses 
by Susanna Kearsley
Audiobook narrated by Sally Armstrong
Oakhill Publishing 2011 (Originally published by Orion, 1997)


Setting: Eyemouth, Scotland
Inspired by Rosemary Sutcliffe's The Eagle of the Ninth, about the Roman Lost Legion.

Verity Gray is an English archeologist who is lured to a dig in Scotland by Adrian, an old boyfriend/colleague. There she learns that eccentric Irishman Peter Quinnell is financing the project. Rumored to be mad, Peter is obsessed with finding the Lost Legion, the Roman Ninth, which marched north into Scotland and disappeared early in the 2nd century AD. She's especially shocked to learn that Peter picked Rose Hills because a local boy reputed to have second sight had seen a Roman legionaire in the area. Can Robbie's Sentinel be real? Peter is hard to say no to, and Verity is intrigued by the job  as well as attracted to handsome Scotsman David Fortune. And then there is Robbie, a charming and precocious eight-year-old whose predictions are rarely wrong. I especially love the way the animals react to The Sentinel. The cats hiss and arch their backs while Robbie's collie gambols by the ghost's side, jumping up occasionally for a pat.

Last year I read Susanna Kearsley's The Rose Garden, and fell in love with her writing style. Her prose is lush and unhurried, as she draws you into the world of her characters. The Shadowy Horses is part archeological mystery, part ghost story combined with a lovely romance. It all makes for a very satisfying mix, on that fans of Mary Stewart will enjoy.

I'm so glad I chose the audio version. Armstrong is a marvelous narrator who does a wonderful job, especially with the Scottish accents, which sounded spot on to my American ear. I can still hear her musical cadences even though the audiobook is finished and returned to the library.

* The Shadowy Horses page at Kearsley's website includes  location photos and insight into what inspired her to write the story.

The Winter Sea
by Susanna Kearsley
Allison & Busby, 2010

Kearsley returns to Scotland for this story within a story set on the rugged coast north of Aberdeen. In the modern story, novelist Carrie McClelland arrives in Cruden Bay, a village near ruined Slains Castle, and knows this is where she has to live to write her book about the abortive 1708 Jacobite invasion.

Carrie's story is interspersed with scenes from her novel, featuring one of her ancestors, young Sophia Paterson, who comes to Slains in 1708 to live with a kinswoman. There she meets the love of her life, an outlawed Jacobite who serves James III and finds herself thrust into a world of intrigue and danger.

The whole thing becomes eerie when Carrie researches the events of 1708 and discovers that the scenes she has already written are oddly accurate, even down to names of characters she thought she'd made up, but who really existed. Her father suggests it might be a case of genetic memory. Carrie isn't sure; she just knows this is a story that must be told.

I enjoyed this book, too, though not quite as much as The Shadowy Horses. I liked the fact that it was set in 1708 rather than the more popular 1745 uprising, and the history of Slains Castle is quite interesting. You can check out Kearsley's location photos at her website.

What country fascinates you?

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Linda

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Book Review Club: The Coffee Trader

THE COFFEE TRADER
by David Liss,
Ballantine 2004

Amsterdam, 1659: On the world’s first commodities exchange, fortunes are won and lost in an instant. Miguel Lienzo, a sharp-witted trader in the city’s close-knit community of Portuguese Jews, knows this only too well. Once among the city’s most envied merchants, Miguel has suddenly lost everything. Now, impoverished and humiliated, living in his younger brother’s canal-flooded basement, Miguel must find a way to restore his wealth and reputation.

Miguel enters into a partnership with a seductive Dutchwoman who offers him one last chance at success—a daring plot to corner the market of an astonishing new commodity called “coffee.” To succeed, Miguel must risk everything he values and face a powerful enemy who will stop at nothing to see him ruined. Miguel will learn that among Amsterdam’s ruthless businessmen, betrayal lurks everywhere, and even friends hide secret agendas.

Since I love coffee and history, the subject of this book intrigued me, and I found more intrigue inside than I anticipated. Late 17th c. Amsterdam is a tolerant city that offers sanctuary to oppressed Jews from other countries. The main character, Miguel Lienzo, is a Portuguese Jew from a family of conversos. A commodities trader at The Exchange, he was once prosperous, but is deeply in debt as the book opens. A Dutchwoman, Gertruid Damhuis, suggests that he invest in a new commodity: coffee. Miguel hatches a scheme to corner the market, unaware that he is being manipulated by others, including two fellow Jews who despise each other.

I liked Miguel, even though he's not the most honest guy. Apparently, lying is a business tool in commodities trading, at least as it existed then. He does have a core of integrity and a streak of chivalry where women are concerned, esp. his brother's wife, Hannah, who secretly longs for him. And for his coffee beans. She finds both irresistibly stimulating.

But what a nest of thieves and liars! Everyone seems to have an agenda and multiple secrets. Who should Miguel trust, if anyone?

I found the historical setting detailed and fascinating. The Coffee Trader is well-written, with complex characters and more twiests and turns than I could keep track of. Recommended for fans of historical fiction.

Read on my Kindle 3.

Linda

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