Year of Wonders

Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague
by Geraldine Brooks
August, 2001
Viking Adult

This story is set in a 17th century British village that is dealing with the black plague. The village at the behest of the pastor decides to quarantine themselves to prevent the spread of disease to towns in the adjacent countryside. The story is based on a true tale from the village of Eyam in Derbyshire, where townspeople actually did decide to segregate themselves and let the plague run its course. The ravages of the bubonic plague provide the back drop for this feminist tale of Anna Firth. She is a young widow with two small children, who comes from a poor abusive family and works in service to the village pastor. She is uneducated but resourceful. The trials of the plague and her growing relationship to the pastor, Michael Millepellion and his wife Elinor provide opportunities for Anna’s development. The author does a good job of firmly setting this novel in 17th century Britain. The language is contemporary to the time and everyday life of the villagers is well portrayed. As the plague takes its’ victims, the plot deals with not only the tragedy of the losses but with the everyday problems of what to do when the blacksmith is dead, the herbalist is dead, etc. Anna becomes the unlikely heroine of this novel as she retains a clear focus on life as death is everywhere around her. As other turn from religion and herbal cures to witch hunting and sorcery she makes life affirming choices in the face of almost unbelievable circumstances. The characters are multi dimensional. Anna makes good choices and bad. Anna’s father, a despicable character is given a back story that helps understanding of his life choices. There are hidden complexities – both good and bad - to the pastor and his wife that are slowly revealed.

I think this book is excellent historical fiction. It is an engrossing and believable story of what life would have been like in a plague infected 17th century English village. The author takes a topic that in most hands would be depressing beyond belief and makes it an uplifting story. I liked this book so well that I overlook the last chapter which comes in from Mars or beyond.
NKGYNT76D7C3

A Reliable Wife

by Robert Goolrick
January, 2009
Algonquin Books



This is a wicked Gothic tale slowly unfolding in the despair of the 1907 Wisconsin winter. Ralph Truitt, richest man in town, has advertised for “a reliable wife”. Catherine Land, the chosen one travels by train to remote northern Wisconsin to become Truitt’s wife. Despite the title, no one in this story is reliable. Truitt, a fifty something businessman, mourns the loss of a family from twenty years ago. Land while presenting herself as from a missionary family is a courtesan with a hidden agenda. Slowly Land comes to love Truitt; slowly Truitt comes to realize that Land is less than advertised. This is a complex and layered story that advances in fits and starts. The deliberateness with which the author introduces the plot supports the character development of both Truitt and Land. To the credit of the author he makes Catherine a sympathetic character despite her nefarious plans. This is a true Gothic story with the requisite elements – a mansion in a remote location, a suspicious housekeeper, a dead first wife, a prodigal son. You are definitely required to suspend belief to accept some of the plot twists. There was lots of imagery in this story, some of which worked for me – winter and snow linking to despair and aloneness- other images which didn’t – water and birds linking to? The author makes the almost unimaginable love story between Truitt and Land ring true. His prose is delightfully relevant “that marriage brought a kind of simple pleasure, a pleasure in the continued company of another human being, the act of caring, of carrying with you the thought of someone else”.
I would recommend this book. The prose and the developing relationship between Truitt and Land were worth the read and overcame my criticisms of the too heated ruminations of Ralph on his sex life, imagery that didn’t work for me, and plot twists that require some patience. Ultimately this story of lust, falsehoods, murder is one that centers on forgiveness. This is a first novel for Goolrick, but he had a nonfiction memoir “The End of the World as We Know it: Scenes From a Life" that I’d like to go back and read.

The Lion

by Nelson DeMille

Grand Central Publishing

June, 2010


I am happy to be reviewing a prerelease copy of this new Nelson DeMille thriller. No spoilers here. John Corey, the ex NYPD homicide detective who now works for the Federal anti terrorism task force is the main character. This is DeMille’s fifth John Corey novel (Plum Island, Lion’s Game, Night Fall and Wild Fire). You do not have to read these novels to enjoy this one although DeMille does make references to events in those earlier books.

This story is set in NYC thirteen months post the 9/11 attacks. Corey is working alongside his wife Kate Mayfield an FBI agent. In a terrifying, suspenseful scene involving a skydiving trip, they encounter the Libyan terrorist Asad Khalil. DeMille presents the motivations of both Corey and Khalil; unusual for this type of thriller you can actually understand the roots of Khalil’s terrorism. Events move along quickly following the initial meeting. The action is centered in the metro New York area and exploits the difficulties the federal/state/local agencies have had cooperating and sharing intelligence information. Corey stands above the bureaucracy and has a singular focus on bringing down the terrorist. The characters in this novel are engaging, funny and sharply drawn. Corey is non-stop with the wisecracks, I find them funny and occasionally laugh out loud funny but I can see how some readers might be annoyed by the frequency of these comments. I think you either like the Corey character or you don’t.

This is a top-notch action thriller. Differing from some of DeMille’s earlier novels, this one is tight and well edited coming in at around 400 pages.  The novel gathers in the reader with a strong opening, the plot is well organized and believable, the ending a little abrupt.  I think DeMille fans will be pleased with this installment in the John Corey series and no doubt staying up late to finish this thriller.

A Duty to the Dead

by Charles Todd
September, 2009
Harper Collins



This novel is the first in a new historical mystery series set in Britain in World War I. It introduces the main character, Bess Crawford, a British Army nurse. She is outspoken, intelligent, resourceful and independent. The novel opens with the sinking of the Britannic (sister ship to the Titanic) in Greek waters. It is an effective opening grabbing the reader’s attention right away. Bess is injured in the sinking and invalided home to recover with her parents. Her father is a retired Colonel who served in India, where she was raised. This background should provide fertile material for the series.


The plot involves Bess visiting the Graham family to deliver a message from a dying son of the family. I won’t give away any spoilers but the story is engaging and not terribly complex. It is set primarily in the Kent countryside and the usual eccentric cast of villagers – the vicar, the matriarch, the tutor, the country doctor - is on display. The time period and the fact that Bess Crawford is an army nurse invite comparisons to the Maisie Dobbs series. This new series compares favorably to the Maisie Dobbs series, they both depict the sorrow and sacrifice of WWI Britain but this series seems darker to me, with characters not quite as well rounded as the Dobbs series. I would recommend this book; it is a straightforward historical mystery that does a good job of putting the reader in the time and place with a mystery that is just intriguing enough to satisfy.

This Body of Death: An Inspector Lynley Novel

By Elizabeth George

Harper, 2010

I am going to have a difficult time reviewing this book. I have always loved the Inspector Linley series by Elizabeth George.  I was dismayed when George killed off Linley’s wife Helen in With No One as Witness, disappointed in her previous novel Careless in Red and really, really disappointed in This Body of Death. I’ve kept reading this series because I have much enjoyed the characters -Inspector Linley, Barbara Havers, Simon St. James and his wife Deborah. They are well drawn and rich in detail.  The nuances of class in British society are well described.  But I think this might be it for me. This book is 600 plus pages long. It moves at a glacial pace. There is a murder in a London cemetery. The girl who is murdered is from the countryside. There is a historical story that is told in alternating chapters with the real time murder mystery. The historical story speaks to some of the problems of children raised in poverty. It all comes together at the end but it is tortorous. There are numerous characters many of whom are extraneous to the plot. Almost all of the characters seem to lack passion, only Barb Havers delivers in expanding her character in her relationship with her neighbors and her new boss. A new character, Isabelle Ardery, the acting superintendent is introduced. She appears to be a complex person, but the author really doesn’t develop her well. Inspector Linley is oddly passive throughout most of the story and not the protoganist. By the time the murder is solved I bet very few of the readers even care. The motivation for the murder is murky and the murderer is one dimensional.  I hate to be this negative about a book and maybe if the earlier books in this series were not excellent and my hopes so high for this one I would be less disappointed.    I miss the Elizabeth George of old - characters we care about, tight plot lines, and less social commentary!

A Question of Honor

by Lynne Olson and Stanley Cloud
Knopf, 2003
In this book the authors debunk a number of strongly held myths concerning Poland and her role in WWII. The story is told through the actions of several Polish airmen who served with the RAF in the Battle of Briton but the actions of other Poles both military and non-military aren’t neglected. If you read this I am convinced your opinion of Poland and the Polish role in WWII will be profoundly altered. They say history is written by the victors and in this case Russia triumphed once again over Poland. Poland has been portrayed as at best a pitiful backward victim and at worst a mere footnote in this war. Some of the key facts the authors bring to light:
• Polish airmen in the Battle of Briton were the true “air aces” at times accounting for 30-40% of the downed German planes. Queen Elizabeth II “If Poland had not stood with us in those days…the candle of freedom would have been snuffed out”.

• The Polish military men who left Poland (and there were 100,000 of them) after the Nazi defeat in 1939 traveled thousands of miles to get to the Allied lines. Typical travel stories had these men going through Rumania, down to the Mediterranean and then into North Africa before arriving in England or Free France.

• The Poles never stopped fighting the Nazis. The Polish resistance forces were deemed the most effective by Allied HQ. No other country in Europe suffered, proportionally more damage and casualties in the war. Poland lost 20% of its population v. 11% for Russia, 7% for Germany and less than 1% for US and Britain.

• When people refer to the cities of Europe devastated in the war – London, Dresden, Coventry, and Hamburg, no one ever mentions Warsaw which was leveled when the Poles revolted against the Nazis in 1944-45. An uprising totally unsupported by any Allied help.

• Polish spies obtained the Germans’ Enigma coding machine and Polish cryptographers helped break the ciphers. This wasn’t revealed until the 1970s.

• The Free Polish Army under Allied command was the 4th largest armed force (US, Britain, Russia) on the Allied side. Larger than the Free French Army! They played prominent roles in several Allied campaigns

I could go on with this list but don’t want this review to be too long. This book despite the facts crammed into it reads very well. Individual acts of bravery and valor are juxtaposed with events at the national level. The time period where the Polish airmen were “the Glamour Boys” of England is a great period piece. The first two thirds of the book are inspiring and a fun read as new revelations about Polish military feats are presented. The last third of the book where Poland is excluded and betrayed by the Allies in the post war decisions made at Teheran and Yalta was a harder read for me. The Allies (Britian, US and Russia) insisted that France have an equal share in the post war decisions but excluded the Poles despite their many contributions to the Allied victory. The irony!! Poland who fought to the end sold out and France who barely fielded an army rewarded, ugh. The last comment I’d make is the strong character, loyalty and love of country of the Poles is an integral and moving part of this story.