Category: Historical Fiction

  • Can Jack be back?

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE CUTTHROAT. By Clive Cussler and Justin Scott. Penguin Audio. Read by Scott Brick. 9 ½ hours; 8 CDs. $45. Also available in hardback from G.P. Putnam’s Sons. Isaac Bell, the chief investigator for the Van Dorn Detective Agency, would not normally be assigned to find an attractive young woman…

  • Pirates, beware

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE SHORES OF TRIPOLI: Lieutenant Putnam and the Barbary Pirates. By James L. Haley. Books on Tape. Read by Paul Boehmer. 15 ½ hours; 13 CDs. Also available in hardcover from G.P. Putnam’s Sons. 464 pages. Wow, what a book – a naval adventure tale full of action, interesting characters…

  • A haunting novel

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson LINCOLN IN THE BARDO. By George Saunders. Read by Nick Offerman, David Sedaris and George Saunders, with a full cast of others. Random House Audio. 7 ½ hours, 6 CDs. $35. Also available in print from Random House. George Saunders has earned his literary laurels through writing short fiction, as…

  • “Jack is back,” and fortunately, so is Maggie Hope

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE QUEEN’S ACCOMPLICE. By Susan Elia MacNeal. Read by Susan Duerden. Books on Tape. 10 ½ hours; 9 CDs. Also available in paperback from Bantam Books, $16. Maggie Hope, intrepid spy, code-breaker and all-around spunky young woman, is at it again, in the thick of World War II action and…

  • From dark times, brilliant fiction

    Two novels, both set in France during World War II, provide Paul O’Connor with a feast of outstanding fiction. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor THE NIGHTINGALE. By Kristin Hannah. St. Martin’s Press. 440 pages. $27.99. ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE. By Anthony Doerr. Scribner. 531 pages. $27. It’s early summer. We’re in the family…

  • Murder – or is it? – in WWII New York

    Many newspaper reporters dream of one day writing a novel. Dan Fesperman is living the dream – he just published No. 10. Paul O’Connor isn’t a big fan of mysteries, but he found this one quite entertaining. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor THE LETTER WRITER. By Dan Fesperman. Knopf. 372 pages. $26.95 The last few…

  • Portrait of the artist as a young resistance fighter

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson A COUNTRY ROAD, A TREE. By Jo Baker. Read by David Rintoul. Random House Audio. 10 ½ hours; 9 CDS. $40. Also available in print from Knopf. Ah, what a heady thing to be an aspiring young writer in Paris – until the Nazis come goose-stepping in. In her new novel,…

  • Putting down roots

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson AT THE EDGE OF THE ORCHARD. By Tracy Chevalier. Penguin Audio. Read by Mark Bramhall, Hillary Huber, Kirby Heyborne and Cassandra Morris. 9 hours; 7 CDs. $40. Also available in print from Viking. I regret to say that I have not read any of Tracy Chevalier’s previous novels, a situation…

  • East side, west side, all around the town

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson BROOKLYN ON FIRE. By Lawrence H. Levy. Read by Cassandra Campbell. Books on Tape. 10 hours; 9 CDs. Mary Handley was the first woman to work as a detective with the Brooklyn Police Department. Her success there gained her quite a bit of fame, or maybe notoriety. She’s not giving…

  • The swans and their darling

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE SWANS OF FIFTH AVENUE. By Melanie Benjamin. Delacorte Press. 341 pages. $28. Think of Truman Capote not as he was in his later years: dissipated, bloated, outrageous, abusing drugs and alcohol, given to public breakdowns, unable to complete a novel. Think of him instead as slight, blond and young,…