Ten must-read LGBTQ+ historical fiction books

Susie Dumond is a queer writer originally from Little Rock, Arkansas. She is the author of Queerly Beloved, Looking for a Sign, and Bed and Breakup, and she also talks about books as a senior contributor at Book Riot and a bookseller at her local indie bookstore. Dumond lives in Washington, D.C., with her spouse, Mickey, and her cat, Maple. When she’s not writing or reading, you can find her baking cupcakes or belting karaoke at the nearest gay bar.

At Book Riot Dumond tagged ten "must-read LGBTQ+ historical fiction books." One title on the list:

The Lilac People by Milo Todd

German trans man Bertie had a comfortable life in 1930s Berlin, working under Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld at the forward-thinking Institute of Sexual Science. Then Hitler put a target on queer Germans’ backs. Bertie and his girlfriend Sofie escaped to a rural farm, where they evaded the Nazis for a decade. But when a trans man who escaped from a concentration camp appears on their property at the end of the war, they must protect him from Allied forces set on freeing all the Holocaust prisoners except the queer ones. It’s a powerful story of resilience and hope in dangerous times.

Read about another entry on the list.

Q&A with Milo Todd.

--Marshal Zeringue

Suzanne Redfearn's "Call of the Camino," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Suzanne Redfearn's new novel, Call of the Camino.

Her entry begins:

For my last few novels, early in the process, I have created a character sheet for the story, a single page with photos of how I envision my main characters. The irksome nickname for Reina, one of the two protagonists in Call of the Camino, is Velma, so the first photo I put on my character sheet was a cartoon image of the adorable bespectacled teenage sleuth from Scooby Doo. So I think an actress like Linda Cardellini, who played Velma in the Scooby Doo movie might be a good fit for Reina if the story were ever made into a movie.

Reina’s nemesis, Matt, the one who irritatingly nicknamed her Velma, is an arrogant heartthrob competing against Reina for a feature article on the Camino de Santiago—a contest that will determine...[read on]

Visit Suzanne Redfearn's website, and follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

Coffee with a Canine: Suzanne Redfearn and Cooper.

My Book, The Movie: Hush Little Baby.

The Page 69 Test: Hush Little Baby.

The Page 69 Test: No Ordinary Life.

Writers Read: Suzanne Redfearn (February 2016).

My Book, The Movie: No Ordinary Life.

My Book, The Movie: In an Instant.

The Page 69 Test: In an Instant.

Q&A with Suzanne Redfearn.

My Book, The Movie: Hadley and Grace.

The Page 69 Test: Hadley & Grace.

Writers Read: Suzanne Redfearn (March 2022).

The Page 69 Test: Moment in Time.

My Book, The Movie: Moment in Time.

Writers Read: Suzanne Redfearn (February 2024).

Writers Read: S. E. Redfearn (October 2024).

The Page 69 Test: Two Good Men.

Writers Read: Suzanne Redfearn.

My Book, The Movie: Call of the Camino.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: James Grehan's "Empire of Manners"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Empire of Manners: Ottoman Sociability and War-Making in the Long Eighteenth Century by James Grehan.

About the book, from the publisher:

It is easy to believe that manners are empty gestures, little more than social artifice or practiced etiquette whose sole purpose is to project civility and facilitate social interaction. But if we look more closely, they can tell us much more than we might first suppose, revealing what conventional accounts of state, economy, and religion often ignore. With this book, James Grehan offers a panoramic view of manners and sociability across the eighteenth-century Ottoman Empire, from the Balkans to the Middle East to North Africa. Studying chronicles, biographical dictionaries, and travel accounts, he throws new light on the inner dynamics of Ottoman society during a transitional period in Ottoman history which has too often been misunderstood.

Empire of Manners proposes a new way of thinking about the history of manners, arguing that violence and war-making, as much as civility and etiquette, have a central role in shaping them. The eighteenth century proved to be a turning point in this paradoxical relationship between violence and manners as war-making turned into a substantially more complex and costly enterprise, leaving a deeper and wider social footprint. The interplay between violence and manners, an unlikely couple, unexpectedly narrates the Ottoman path to the modern age.

Learn more about Empire of Manners at the Stanford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Twilight of the Saints.

The Page 99 Test: Empire of Manners.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven powerful novels featuring undocumented immigrants

Cindy Fazzi is a Filipino American writer and former Associated Press reporter. She’s the author of the Domingo the Bounty Hunter series. Danger No Problem (book 1), previously titled Multo, was a finalist in the Best Literary category of the 2024 Silver Falchion Award. Book 2 is titled Sunday or the Highway.

At Electric Lit Fazzi tagged six of her "favorite novels about undocumented immigrants written by immigrants, and one equally outstanding novel written by a first-generation Brazilian American author." One title on the list:

The Other Americans by Laila Lalami

The very title of this excellent novel by Laila Lalami, born in Morocco, announces its overarching subject. But the novel packs a lot of serious themes, in addition to immigration. The death of Driss Guerraoui, a Moroccan immigrant living in a small town in the Mojave Desert in California, is at the center of the story. Driss was killed by a speeding car in what appears to be a hit-and-run accident, or was it? Driss’s death triggers conflicting reactions and emotions from nine characters who narrate the book. Their narrations touch on a wide range of issues, from race and religion to immigration, class, and family dynamics. Although the novel involves a murder mystery, don’t expect page-turning plot and relentless action. Lalami’s novel is an occasion for contemplation about our prejudices, fears, and hopes.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Victoria Redel

From my Q&A with Victoria Redel, author of I Am You:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

My hope is that before reading the novel the title I Am You provokes a question in the reader-- What does this mean? Or maybe even a response of-- No way, you're not me! But when you start reading the novel, what the title means keeps slightly altering as the relationship of the two central characters, Maria and Gerta, shifts. And when you come to the end, the title hopefully feels quite layered and rich.

What's in a name?

In I Am You though the story is invented, the central characters are based on...[read on]

Visit Victoria Redel's website.

The Page 69 Test: Before Everything.

The Page 69 Test: I Am You.

Q&A with Victoria Redel.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top crime novels led by female protagonists

Anders de la Motte, a former police officer, made his debut in 2010 with the award-winning thriller Game and has since then been one of Sweden’s most beloved and popular crime writers. He is the author of several acclaimed and bestselling crime fiction series, among them the suspenseful Skåne Quartet.

De la Motte's new novel is The Glass Man, the second title in the Leonore Asker series.

At People magazine the author tagged ten favorite crime titles starring strong female characters, including:

The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen

The Rizzoli and Isles series offers not one, but two strong female protagonists with different skills, talents and challenges, all set in a classic police procedural setting.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Surgeon is among Jack Jordan's five top medical thrillers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Peter Fritzsche's "1942"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: 1942: When World War II Engulfed the Globe by Peter Fritzsche.

About the book, from the publisher:

A penetrating history of the year World War II became a global conflict and humankind confronted both destruction and deliverance on a planetary scale, “offering an intriguing perspective on a world at war” (Richard Overy, New York Times–bestselling author of Blood and Ruins)

By the end of the Second World War, more than seventy million people across the globe had been killed, most of them civilians. Cities from Warsaw to Tokyo lay in ruins, and fully half of the world’s two billion people had been mobilized, enslaved, or displaced.

In 1942, historian Peter Fritzsche offers a gripping, ground-level portrait of the decisive year when World War II escalated to global catastrophe. With the United States joining the fight following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, all the world’s great powers were at war. The debris of ships sunk by Nazi submarines littered US beaches, Germans marauded in North Africa, and the Japanese swept through the Pacific. Military battles from Singapore to Stalingrad riveted the world. But so, too, did dramas on the war’s home fronts: battles against colonial overlords, assaults on internal “enemies,” massive labor migrations, endless columns of refugees.

With an eye for detail and an eye on the big story, Fritzsche takes us from shipyards on San Francisco Bay to townships in Johannesburg to street corners in Calcutta to reveal the moral and existential drama of a people’s war filled with promise and terror.

Learn more about 1942 at the Basic Books website.

The Page 99 Test: Hitler's First Hundred Days.

The Page 99 Test: 1942.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Kathleen S. Allen's "The Resurrectionist"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Resurrectionist: A Tale of Gothic Horror by Kathleen S. Allen.

About the book, from the publisher:

A young Victorian woman unwittingly unleashes a monster into being in this gothic tale of medical mystery and sinister suspense, perfect for fans of DON'T LET THE FOREST IN and BELLADONNA.

Death is just the beginning.

When seventeen-year-old Dilly Rothbart finds her recently deceased father's hidden journal, her entire world is upended—for what she finds within are the steps to bring a dead soul back to life.

Intent on finishing her father's work and establishing herself as the greatest scientist in history, Dilly plunges into a medical underworld of corpse-stealing, grave-robbing, and even murder. And when her twin sister steps in the way of her studies, she'll do whatever is necessary to secure the recognition she deserves.

This twisty, atmospheric, Frankensteinian tale is about a group of ambitious young scientists who descend into corruption when a breakthrough discovery grants them the power of gods.

Visit Kathleen S. Allen's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Resurrectionist.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Suzanne Redfearn reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Suzanne Redfearn, author of Call of the Camino: A Novel.

Her entry begins:

I have read some amazing books lately. My favorite was a surprise since I don’t normally read fantasy novels. But The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune was my book club’s selection a couple of months ago, and it was incredibly moving and thought provoking. I have the sequel, Somewhere Beyond the Sea, downloaded, and I can’t wait to rejoin the amazing cast of characters from the first novel.

The second story that I absolutely tore through is from one of my favorite...[read on]

About Call of the Camino, from the publisher:

From the bestselling author of In an Instant comes a deeply moving novel following the transformative journeys of two women walking entwined paths on a legendary route across Europe a generation apart.

Reina Watkins lost her father when she was eight. Seventeen years later, she still carries that grief. When her budding journalism career takes an unexpected turn, it leads her to the ancient five-hundred-mile Camino de Santiago in Spain. Now she finds herself embarking on the same pilgrimage that her father made at her age, unaware of how profoundly it will change her.

Back in 1997, Isabelle Vidal is a teenager on the run. Fleeing from her boarding school, she heads straight for the Way of Saint James. She’s heard the Camino will provide. And so it does, in the form of a handsome young American and the promise of a new life. But it could all fall apart if her troubles catch up with her.

One woman is coming to grips with her past; the other is grasping for her future. But as each treads the same hallowed trail, it will knot their destinies together in a most miraculous way.

Visit Suzanne Redfearn's website, and follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

Coffee with a Canine: Suzanne Redfearn and Cooper.

My Book, The Movie: Hush Little Baby.

The Page 69 Test: Hush Little Baby.

The Page 69 Test: No Ordinary Life.

Writers Read: Suzanne Redfearn (February 2016).

My Book, The Movie: No Ordinary Life.

My Book, The Movie: In an Instant.

The Page 69 Test: In an Instant.

Q&A with Suzanne Redfearn.

My Book, The Movie: Hadley and Grace.

The Page 69 Test: Hadley & Grace.

Writers Read: Suzanne Redfearn (March 2022).

The Page 69 Test: Moment in Time.

My Book, The Movie: Moment in Time.

Writers Read: Suzanne Redfearn (February 2024).

Writers Read: S. E. Redfearn (October 2024).

The Page 69 Test: Two Good Men.

Writers Read: Suzanne Redfearn.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten books in translation that celebrate Ukraine

Nelly Klos the program director of Lviv BookForum. Klos is known as an expert in international cooperation and creative management of cultural initiatives. She has coordinated numerous cultural events, including the organization of literary festivals and intercultural art projects across Europe. Her portfolio includes national campaigns to promote children's reading and innovative multimedia projects using augmented reality, implemented with the support of international cultural institutions.

At Lit Hub she tagged "ten important books that will help you understand Ukraine—and why this country stands and will stand." One title on the list:

The Torture Camp on Paradise Street, Stanislav Aseyev (translated by Zenia Tompkins and Nina Murray)

Longlisted for the 2024 PEN America Translation Prize. This memoir of Ukrainian journalist and writer Stanislav Aseyev recounts his experience as a prisoner from 2015 to 2017 in a modern-day concentration camp overseen by the Federal Security Bureau of the Russian Federation (FSB) in the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk. Rendered deftly into English, Aseyev’s compelling account offers a critical insight into the operations of Russian forces in the occupied territories of Ukraine.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Sarah Conly's "The Limits of Liberty"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Limits of Liberty by Sarah Conly.

About the book, from the publisher:

When does liberty matter? It is often thought that personal liberty is always valuable and that it has a unique intrinsic value. In The Limits of Liberty, philosopher Sarah Conly argues that it is much less valuable than traditionally believed. Conly posits that liberty only has value for its consequences-liberties that bring good things have value, but liberties that bring bad consequences have no value. This means that in many cases where liberty has been valued, we are mistaken. Restrictions on certain liberties are more acceptable than commonly thought.

The Limits of Liberty lays the groundwork for this argument, then delves into controversial policy revisions across various areas. In medical ethics, Conly proposes that patient autonomy should be respected less than it currently is, highlighting instances of people being vaccinated against their will. In environmental ethics, the problem of incremental harms is discussed- particularly when each person contributes a small amount to an overall harm and thus feels no responsibility. The argument is made that each person is morally responsible for environmentally harmful actions, and that there is a duty, enforceable by the government if necessary, to eat less meat and have fewer children.

When it comes to the ethics of personal expression, Conly argues for more restrictions on speech. Specifically, that there should be greater legal liability for internet speech than currently exists. In the realm of religion, a case can be made against religious accommodation, the policy of making exceptions to laws for people whose religion is contrary to the law. Ultimately, The Limits of Liberty offers novel policy recommendations in medical ethics, environmental ethics, freedom of speech policy, and freedom of religion, challenging traditional views on the value of personal liberty.

Learn more about The Limits of Liberty at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Against Autonomy.

Writers Read: Sarah Conly (December 2012).

The Page 99 Test: The Limits of Liberty.

--Marshal Zeringue

Tony Wirt's "Silent Creek," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Silent Creek by Tony Wirt.

The entry begins:

Jim McCann was a high school basketball star destined for the NBA. Then an injury shattered his knee and his dreams. Disillusioned, he cut ties with his stifling hometown.

Years later, he returns for his father’s funeral. Finding that his mother has dementia, he reluctantly takes over the family propane business. But there’s a silver lining: reconnecting with Kyle, his childhood best friend, and meeting Kelli, the only one who understands his struggle to fill his own big shoes.

There’s a dark cloud too. Colton Reid, a troubled former classmate, still holds an old basketball grudge. And after Kyle convinces Jim to fire him, the disturbing incidents begin. Nothing too serious at first—until the stalking hits Jim where he lives, unleashing a cascade of grave revelations.

Considering my main character Jim McCann is a 6-8 former basketball player, actor options are limited. I’m going with the guy I had in the back of my mind when writing Jim…former Creighton University star Doug “Dougie McBuckets” McDermott. I don’t know if he can act, but he’s the right age and 6-6 so he’ll look the part.

For our female lead, Kelli, I’m going with...[read on]

Visit Tony Wirt's website.

The Page 69 Test: Pike Island.

Q&A with Tony Wirt.

My Book, The Movie: Pike Island.

My Book, The Movie: Silent Creek.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight novels about (literally) divided countries

Tamar Shapiro grew up in both the U.S. and Germany and now lives in Washington, DC with her husband, two children, and the world’s best dog. Her debut novel is Restitution. Shapiro’s writing also appears in Electric Literature, Poets and Writers, and Literary Hub (forthcoming). A former housing attorney and non-profit leader, she is a 2026 MFA candidate at Randolph College in Virginia.

At Electric Lit Shapiro tagged eight novels "set in countries that have fractured, shifting our maps and our conceptions of the world. The reconfigurations covered on these pages take many different shapes, but all are born of violence, and the scars are still visible." One title on the list:

Milkman by Anna Burns

Milkman, which won the 2018 Booker Award, does not explicitly mention Northern Ireland. In fact, the book steers clear of proper nouns and names, instead using descriptors, such as “country over the water” and “country over the border.” Still, it is clear Milkman is about a young woman in 1970s Northern Ireland, who is being stalked by a paramilitary leader in her neighborhood. At the same time (and perhaps because of his interest), she faces constant surveillance. Intimate and political oppression quickly become one and the same. In a place of violence and divided loyalties, everyday items and mundane choices are deadly political symbols. At once horrifying and deeply revealing, Milkman lays bare the ways in which communities and individuals fall apart.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Aaron Sheehan-Dean's "Fighting with the Past"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Fighting with the Past: How Seventeenth-Century History Shaped the American Civil War by Aaron Sheehan-Dean.

About the book, from the publisher:

Civil War Americans, like people today, used the past to understand and traverse their turbulent present. As Aaron Sheehan-Dean reveals in this fascinating work of comparative intellectual history, nineteenth-century Americans were especially conversant with narratives of the English Civil Wars of the 1600s. Northerners and Southerners alike drew from histories of the English past to make sense of their own conflict, interpreting the events of the past in drastically different ways. Confederates, for example, likened themselves to England’s Royalists (also known as Cavaliers), hoping to preserve a social order built on hierarchy and claiming the right to resist what they perceived as radicals' assaults on tradition. Meanwhile, conservative Northerners painted President Lincoln as a tyrant in the mold of English Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell, while radical abolitionists drew inspiration from Cromwell and sought to rebuild the South as Cromwell had attempted with Ireland.

Surveying two centuries of history-making and everyday engagement with historical thought, Sheehan-Dean convincingly argues that history itself was a battlefront of the American Civil War, with narratives of the past exercising surprising agency in interpretations of the nineteenth-century present. Sheehan-Dean’s discoveries provide an entirely fresh perspective on the role of historical memory in the Civil War era and offer a broader meditation on the construction and uses of history itself.

Visit Aaron Sheehan-Dean's website.

The Page 99 Test: Fighting with the Past.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Stephanie Cowell

From my Q&A with Stephanie Cowell, author of The Man in the Stone Cottage:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

I can’t remember when I chose my title, but I feel it has air of mystery about it. Who could this man be? I found a very early draft of the novel from years ago from Charlotte’s pov but it eventually became more of Emily’s journey and the title changed. I was always so drawn to the remoteness of half-ruined houses/cottages on the Yorkshire moors -- the loneliness of them, the allure. I first saw such cottages in my adolescence and climbed in one and wondered if the owner would step through time and come in. I could see him standing in the doorway.

What's in a name?

The Man in the Stone Cottage is about real people, the Brontë sisters who wrote Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, etc. so those names are factual. The only fictional characters are...[read on]

Visit Stephanie Cowell's website.

The Page 69 Test: Claude & Camille.

The Page 69 Test: The Man in the Stone Cottage.

Q&A with Stephanie Cowell.

--Marshal Zeringue

Thirty top literary mean girls we love to hate

In 2015 at Flavorwire, Sarah Seltzer tagged thirty of literature’s most delightfully nasty mean girls. One character on the list:

Caroline Bingley, Pride and Prejudice

You didn’t think we’d forget Caroline, did you? She does everything in her power to turn Mr. Darcy’s attention away from Elizabeth Bennet’s fine eyes and towards her muddy petticoat. She fails; we exult.

Read about another mean girl on the list.

Pride and Prejudice also appears on Sarah A. Parker's list of five of the best female leads in fiction, Kerry Wolfe's list of ten of the greatest love stories in novels, Annabelle Thorpe's top ten list of aunts in fiction, Harriet Evans's top ten list of close families in literature, Amelia Morris's top ten list of captivating fictional frenemies, David Annand's list of the top ten buildings in fiction, Off the Shelf's list of ten of the most fantastical (and sometimes fanatical) parties imaginable in novels, KT Sparks's seven best graceless literary exits, Lit Hub's list of twenty-five actually pretty happy couples in literature, Ellie Eaton's list of eight of literature's notable mean girls, Sarah Vaughan's list of nine fictional bad mothers in fiction, Jessica Francis Kane's top ten list of houseguests in fiction, O: The Oprah Magazine's twenty greatest ever romance novels, Cristina Merrill's list of eight of the sexiest curmudgeons in romance, Sarah Ward's ten top list of brothers and sisters in fiction, Tara Sonin's lists of fifty must-read regency romances and seven sweet and swoony romances for wedding season, Grant Ginder's top ten list of book characters we love to hate, Katy Guest's list of six of the best depictions of shyness in fiction, Garry Trudeau's six favorite books list, Ross Johnson's list of seven of the greatest rivalries in fiction, Helen Dunmore's six best books list, Jenny Kawecki's list of eight fictional characters who would make the best travel companions, Peter James's top ten list of works of fiction set in or around Brighton, Ellen McCarthy's list of six favorite books about weddings and marriage, the Telegraph's list of the ten greatest put-downs in literature, Rebecca Jane Stokes' list of ten fictional families you might enjoy more than the one you'll actually spend the holidays with, Melissa Albert's lists of five fictional characters who deserved better, [fifteen of the] romantic leads (and wannabes) of Austen’s brilliant books and recommended reading for eight villains, Molly Schoemann-McCann's list of ten fictional men who have ruined real live romance, Emma Donoghue's list of five favorite unconventional fictional families, Amelia Schonbek's list of five approachable must-read classics, Jane Stokes's top ten list of the hottest men in required reading, Gwyneth Rees's top ten list of books about siblings, the Observer's list of the ten best fictional mothers, Paula Byrne's list of the ten best Jane Austen characters, Robert McCrum's list of the top ten opening lines of novels in the English language, a top ten list of literary lessons in love, Simon Mason's top ten list of fictional families, Cathy Cassidy's top ten list of stories about sisters, Paul Murray's top ten list of wicked clerics, John Mullan's lists of ten of the best housekeepers in fiction, ten great novels with terrible original titles, and ten of the best visits to Brighton in literature, Luke Leitch's top ten list of the most successful literary sequels ever, and is one of the top ten works of literature according to Norman Mailer. Richard Price has never read it, but it is the book Mary Gordon cares most about sharing with her children.

The Page 99 Test: Pride and Prejudice.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Simon Cordery's "Gilded Age Entrepreneur"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Gilded Age Entrepreneur: The Curious Life of American Financier Albert Benton Pullman by Simon Cordery.

About the book, from the publisher:

Simon Cordery's Gilded Age Entrepreneur illuminates the fascinating and chaotic business world of Albert Pullman. The influential but little-known older brother of George Pullman and the craftsman of the family, Albert designed the first luxurious Pullman railroad cars and hosted promotional trips to show them off. In those heady early days, he met national business and political leaders and hired the first Pullman porters.

Albert and George made a formidable team, but as the Pullman Company grew, Albert's role shrank. He turned to his own investment portfolio, often with disastrous results. Beginning with the industrial laundry that cleaned sleeping-car linens, Albert appeared before the Supreme Court after a catastrophic insurance investment, ran afoul of federal banking regulations, and failed in an attempt to corner wheat futures. With evermore unsuccessful speculations, Albert was tempted by extralegal land sales and entered the silver-mining game. Finally, his own family in crisis and his relationship with George shattered, Albert Pullman launched into one last round of adventurous investments with mixed results.

Gilded Age Entrepreneur demonstrates that Albert Pullman embodied the small-time investors who were legion after the Civil War. From banking and insurance to manufacturing and mining, a host of hopeful dreamers like Albert Pullman fueled the circulation of capital by forging political connections, creating and losing businesses, issuing shares, and longing for profit.

Learn more about Gilded Age Entrepreneur at the Cornell University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Gilded Age Entrepreneur.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Ron Base and Prudence Emery's "Curse of the Savoy"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Curse of the Savoy: A Priscilla Tempest Mystery (Book 4, Priscilla Tempest Mysteries) by Ron Base and Prudence Emery.

About the book, from the publisher:

Curse of the Savoy, the fourth in the Priscilla Tempest mystery series, is a gripping tale of suspense set against the backdrop of high society and 1960s London.

In the luxurious setting of London’s Savoy Hotel, an opulent dinner party hosted by the legendary filmmaker Orson Welles takes a sinister turn. Amidst the grandeur of the Pinafore Room, fourteen renowned guests, including Alfred Hitchcock, Cary Grant, and the scandalous Miss Christine Keeler, gather for an unforgettable evening. However, the spectre of an old curse looms over the event—a curse said to bring doom to the first guest who leaves a dinner with thirteen attendees. Kasper, a three-foot-tall sculpture of a sleek black cat is said to be the antidote to the curse—if only the reckless attendees had paid heed to the superstition!

In the aftermath of the party, blackmail, betrayal, and murder ensue, entwining the guests in a web of deceit and danger. Once again, Priscilla Tempest, plucky head of the Savoy’s press office, finds herself at the heart of the intrigue. The mysterious events even draw the attention of the Queen, hinting at a conspiracy that reaches the highest echelons of society. Is the curse real, or is something more sinister at play? This riveting mystery, as sparkling as a Buck’s Fizz, promises celebrity gossip and scandal along with twists and turns that will delight readers until the very last page.

Visit Ron Base's website.

The Page 69 Test: Curse of the Savoy.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten fictional towns in children's books

Shane Hegarty, born and raised in Skerries, Ireland, is a children's book author. His books include the Darkmouth series.

In 2016, at the Guardian, he tagged ten of the greatest fictional towns and cities in children’s and YA writing. One setting on the list:

Bayport from The Hardy Boys books by Franklin W Dixon

A surprisingly crime-ridden spot on the Atlantic coast of the USA whose various mysteries could only be solved by a couple of teenage boys (and, on occasion, their pal Nancy Drew). They must have chased villains across every spot of Bayport and Barmet Bay several times over in a series that has run for almost 85 years. Franklin W Dixon never existed either, but was a pseudonym under which many authors contributed. Along with Alfred Hitchcock And The Three Investigators (also not written by Alfred Hitchcock) these were vital books in my 80s childhood, although I was unaware of how much of the horrible racial stereotypes had been stripped from the earliest stories.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Manu Bhagavan's "The Remarkable Madame Pandit"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Remarkable Madame Pandit: Champion of India, Citizen of the World by Manu Bhagavan.

About the book, from the publisher:

A pioneering politician and diplomat, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (1900–1990) was an Indian icon, admired worldwide for her brilliance and glamour. Eleanor Roosevelt called her “the most remarkable woman” she had ever met. Madame Pandit, as she was widely known, moved in elite global circles even as she worked to improve the lives of millions. She traded quips with Winston Churchill, worked alongside Albert Einstein, and was detained for the attempted assassination of Benito Mussolini. She even came out of retirement to campaign against her own niece, Indira Gandhi, to stop an authoritarian takeover and save Indian democracy.

The Remarkable Madame Pandit is the definitive biography of India’s greatest modern diplomat. Manu Bhagavan chronicles Pandit’s life and times, from her upbringing in an illustrious family to her role in her country’s fight for independence and through her globe-trotting career bridging East and West. Pandit was India’s first woman cabinet minister, an ambassador to the United States and the Soviet Union, and the first woman elected president of the UN General Assembly. Her influence extended well beyond these formal roles: she became one of the most prominent international voices for peace while paving the way for women in many fields. Based on eight years of research using material in five languages from seven countries, this book tells Madame Pandit’s gripping story in full―and in so doing, retells the history of India and the world in the twentieth century.

Visit Manu Bhagavan's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Remarkable Madame Pandit.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight suspense novels set around the world

Carolina Ciucci is a teacher, writer and reviewer based in the south of Argentina. She hoards books like they’re going out of style. In case of emergency, you can summon her by talking about Ireland, fictional witches, and the Brontë family. At Book Riot she tagged eight suspense titles that "will make you feel like you traveled thousands of miles — and in some cases, dozens of years — to get to know a new city or town." One novel on the list:

Wife of the Gods (Darko Dawson #1) by Kwei Quartey
Setting: Ghana

Detective Inspector Darko Dawson loves living with his wife and son in Accra, Ghana. He’s less than enthused when he’s assigned a murder investigation outside of a small town, especially because the town in question carries the weight of decades-old painful memories.

Read about another entry on the list.

Wife of the Gods is among Michael Stanley's top ten crime novels.

The Page 69 Test: Wife of the Gods.

--Marshal Zeringue