The Diamond Eye is an excellent fictionalized retelling of the life of the legendary Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko (called Mila in the book). Lyundmila was an infamously deadly Soviet sniper (incidentally, born in Kiyv) who is credited with killing over 300 Nazis during World War II. She was so good at her job, she earned the…
With apologies to Paul Simon, it seems there are 50 million ways to rewrite Little Women. I’ve seen modern adaptions that switch the book’s setting and time period; versions that give us a living Beth or a Jo/Laurie union. Versions where the Marches are vampires or werewolves, or just plain horny. The four folks taking…
Death at Greenway is described as a “captivating suspense novel about nurses during World War II”. Oddly enough it merits neither descriptor. Bridget Kelly has made a deadly mistake – or so her supervisor has informed her. As a trainee, Bridget is to walk the wards with an actual nurse and offer assistance, not perform…
The worldwide fascination inspired by the six Mitford sisters continues apace, as might that inspired by any family which managed to spawn an ardent communist activist journalist whose investigation of the funeral industry made history, an anti-communist internationally famous novelist, two Hitler-loving fascists (one quite literally so), a country girl, and the Duchess of Devonshire…
I’m a big fan of historical mystery so I was happy to pick up the latest A Sparks & Bainbridge Mystery by Allison Montclair. A Rogue’s Company is the third volume of the series and I hate coming into a mystery series in the middle. So, I listened to the first two books in preparation…
The Curator’s Daughter is a story of how women often find themselves in the most impossible situations and manage to rise above them to create a better world for themselves, those they love and all who come after them. Hanna Tillich is not a Nazi, but she is reluctantly employed by them. She worked all…
The Paris Apartment is a compelling story told in dual timelines. The first is 1938 – 1942 during the Nazi occupation of Paris, and the second is 2017 in Paris and England after an apartment, unseen since World War II, is opened and its contents create more questions than answers. It’s 2017 and Aurelia (Lia)…
I’m an avid gardener and a lover of Historical Fiction so I was delighted to pick up The Last Garden in England. I’m happy to report it was everything I hoped it would be! The Last Garden in England tells the story of the Highbury House garden across three different time periods. The first begins…
Our Darkest Night – a tale of how one young Jewish woman survived and thrived in WWII Italy – had me riveted from the first page to the last. Antonia Mazin’s father had been a famous doctor but by Autumn of 1943 the racial laws had stripped him of that title. Now the two of…
Narrated by Richard Armitage This past spring, in the early days of the pandemic, I read the complete works of Jane Austen, which, I thought, made me rather suited to taking on a review of the audiobook version of The Jane Austen Society, a gentle, quiet, sincere story that is an homage to the work…