Susan Appleyard's Blog, page 5

Dolly Pleasance by C.W. Lovatt

Set mostly in London, during the 19th century, the focus of the story is the trials and tribulations of Dolly as she rises to stardom as an actress on the stage. Her father abandons her at the age of ten into the care of the manager of the Haymarket Theatre. She earns her keep by scrubbing floors and other menial work, but in such an environment her passion to become an actress grows. At 15, she is selling her body for money and favours but gives that up that when she gets her first break. From such beginnings, she ascends the ladder of success until she has her own troupe and a host of prominent theatre friends.

Dolly falls head over heels in love with Charlie Smithers, who is the protagonist of the author’s series of the same name. While obsessing about Smithers, she has an affair with another actress, who supplies much-needed comfort and support during Dolly’s failures and sorrows.

Suspense is added by an evil fellow who is determined to end Dolly’s life in a gruesome way.

We have an intimate look at life on the stage, as well as a wider look at what was going on in the London theatre world at the time. Written in the first person, Dolly seldom steps outside that context. All very interesting and authentic. Some of the secondary characters were real people.

The story is slow-moving, but larger-than-life characters kept my interest, and Dolly herself shines – passionate and sometimes temperamental, kind, funny, generous, and determined not to let anything stand in the way of achieving her ambition. She and the proper, duty-bound Smithers make an fascinating couple.

Interesting and informative – what more can you ask of a historical novel? I enjoyed it and highly recommend it.

****

CW Lovatt is the award-winning author of the best-selling Charlie Smithers collection, as well as the critically acclaimed Josiah Stubb trilogy. Dolly Pleasance is his most recent novel.

The Conversos by V.E.H. Masters

This is the second book in a series. There are a few references to what happened in the first, but this one works well by itself.

Bethia is escaping danger in Scotland to start a new life with her new husband, Mainard, who is Dutch and lives with his parents in cosmopolitan Antwerp, an important commercial hub. Her brother Will is a galley slave along with John Knox. These are the twin storylines of this book set in the religious turmoil of the 16th century. This timeframe allows for the development of suspense and the looming prospect of disaster

A new life means a new family, a new city and new challenges. Bethia is able to communicate only with Mainard and his two sisters because they all speak French, which leaves her feeling isolated. Her husband does little to help her integrate into her new family as he is often busy helping his father in business. There is an atmosphere of something not revealed. She becomes pregnant but miscarries, which drives her into depression. When she recovers, she decides she needs something to do. Mainard’s sister works as a bookseller. Today, we would think of this as a benign trade, but in Antwerp, it is a risky business.

Will’s challenge is easily defined. He wants his freedom. He does escape once, only to be caught and chained again. One of his ship-mates is John Knox who becomes an important influence. What is most interesting about Will’s story is the description of life as a galley slave, which the author relates in authentic but excruciating detail. Did you ever wonder how they manage their bodily functions? How they sleep?

I found Bethia to be a bit rash, ignoring warnings from those who knew better and getting herself into dangerous situations. She is also very curious – not really a bad thing – but Mainard is secretive. These two traits tend to bump up against each other.

A few niggles. When Bethia meets her older sister-in-law, she quickly determines that she does not like her. Later they become very friendly, but that initial animosity is never fully explained. Also, Will’s escape was one of the more exciting parts of the book, but it didn’t move the plot forward at all. Will ended right back where he started from. There were no repercussions even, which I find hard to believe.

It is a well-written book with the ‘reveals’ nicely paced and brings the two storylines together at the conclusion. I thoroughly enjoyed it and learned something new.

****

VEH Masters was born and grew up on a farm just outside of St. Andrews in Scotland. She’s been fascinated by the siege of St Andrews Castle ever since her history teacher took the class on a visit, which included going down the siege tunnel dug out of rock and peering into the bottle dungeon where Cardinal Beaton’s body is said to have been kept, pickled in salt, for over a year.

When she learned that the group who took the castle and held it for over 14 months, resisting the many attempts to re-take it, called themselves the Castilians, she knew even then it was the perfect title for the story.

The sequel, The Conversos, which picks up to the hour where The Castilians left off, continues the dramatic adventures of Bethia and Will. To find out more please go to her website https://vehmasters.com/ and she would be honoured if you signed up for the newsletter.

Back to Mexico.

I’m back in Mexico for 5 lovely months. Here: sea, sand, sunshine, outdoor pools, beachside restaurants… In Ontario: snow, frost, ice, slippery roads, cleaning car windows daily, taking ten minutes to put on boots, coat, scarf, hat, gloves; if you have children, much longer…

Those are some of the reasons that I love Mexico. I have probably been coming here for months at a time for nearly thirty years. And here is another reason I love it: the people.

When people learn I have been going to Mexico for so many years, most will ask an inevitable question. (Even before Covid.) ‘Do you feel safe?’ I will leave aside the implication that I am so stupid as to go somewhere where I feel unsafe and limit myself to saying that I have only once felt unsafe. No need to go into that as nothing came of it.

There is a feeling among people who haven’t been here that the Mexican people are all thieves who will rob you at the drop of a hat. So, a couple of anecdotes to refute that piece of anal waste.

I once left my camera in a bar and headed off. When I realised I had forgotten it, my husband and I drove back and asked the person behind the bar. He told me another guy was working at that time and sent someone to fetch him. This guy, young, maybe early twenties, showed up with my camera. I tried to reward him with a few pesos, but he wouldn’t accept it. We had to buy drinks and give him a larger tip than usual. That he accepted.

On another occasion, my husband unknowingly dropped his keys on the beach. Someone found them and then found the car by beeping it. Obviously, he had a perfect opportunity to steal it. Instead, he wrote a note in the dust on the back giving his telephone number! Not satisfied with that, he then figured if we were no longer on the beach, we were probably in one of the beachside bar/restaurants and he went among them asking if anyone had lost keys until he found us. Again, he refused a reward.

I could go on, not only with my own experiences but also with people with whom we have swapped anecdotes over the years. We have never had a negative experience with the people of our community.

Yes, there are cops who try to hustle us if they catch us doing something on the roads that Mexicans would get away with. And yes, there is certainly a drug trade. But there are bad people everywhere. And there are good. I think the Mexican people get a bad rap.

If you disagree, come down and find out for yourself.

A Canopy of Stars by Stephen Taylor

Set in the early 19th century, this courtroom drama is an indictment of anti-Semitism, which began two centuries BCE and is an ongoing evil today.

David Neander arrives in England to start a new life. Two days later, he is accused of stealing half a sheep, arrested and brought to trial. It becomes obvious that the judge is prejudiced by the fact that David is a Jew and regards him as a low-life. The valuation of the half-sheep is 40 shillings, which makes the theft a capital crime and worthy of the death penalty. David is found guilty and sentenced to death. This part of the story is based on a true event that the author read about.

Julia Carmichael wanted to be a lawyer like her father, but since that is impossible she becomes his clerk. She is in the courtroom for David’s trial and is furious at what she sees as an egregious miscarriage of justice. After visiting David in prison, she determines to save him from the hangman. Their association blossoms into a restricted romance.

This is more than just a courtroom drama. The author takes us on a journey through the previous four years of David’s life where we see that far from being a low-life, he is an exceptional young man who has risen from a family tragedy to become a translator, a poet, and a pugilist. The latter skill proves very useful as he makes his way from Germany to England, only to run afoul of the law.

David is a thoroughly decent man and Julia is a determined, loyal and compassionate young woman who refuses to give up in spite of setbacks. On his journey, David meets some interesting characters. My favourite is Old Musketeer, named after the gun that blinded him, a more self-reliant man than most sighted people.

The historical aspects of the story – justice in 29th century England, anti-Semitism in Germany, and more – were enlightening. One little niggle – too much description of David’s fights, literally blow by blow, became tedious. I skipped through them, so they did not spoil my enjoyment of the book.

****

I reviewed this book for Discovering Diamonds

Keziah’s Song by Daryl Potter

Set in 2nd century B.C.E in Ancient Israel

I was attracted to this book because it is refreshing to find a book set in a different time, a little-known era, than those presently popular.

The main characters are brother and sister, Jacob and Keziah, who live in Cana in Galilee, but the story is really about the close community in which they live, how they live and how the industry of such small places operated in those days. There is a glassmaker, a wine producer and a carpenter, and each has the support of others when needed. They are an assortment of characters that feel like our own neighbours.

Music plays an important role in Keziah’s life. It is a way she has of communicating with her husband in public – invitation and acceptance. She plays her lute and neighbours play other instruments or sing when they gather together in one another’s houses to celebrate life. These musical evenings and the simple, productive lives of the villagers form a counterpoint to the wars that overshadow the period: against the Seleucids of the Greek-Syrian Empire and against the Egyptians. Civil war erupts as brother fights brother, and mother fights son for the crown of the Hasmoneans. The people of Cana are inevitably drawn into the conflicts.

This compelling book is a rich tapestry of war and peace, courage and endurance, love and loss that underscores the simple truth that when leaders clash it is the innocent who pay the price.

I see the story as a kind of microcosm of the Jews suffering throughout the centuries. No matter how many times other nations attack, massacre and drive them from their homes, they survive, flourish and go on as before.

I thoroughly enjoyed this read and wholeheartedly recommend it.

*****

Daryl Potter has been a cornet player, carpenter, nurse,emergency room assistant, chicken catcher, medical genetics lab technician, ITmanager and banking product manager. He has explored Egypt’s pyramids, Israel’sdeserts, and Turkey’s archaeology. In addition to studying Alexandrian Greekand ancient Hebrew poetry, he has been bitten by a wolf in northern BritishColumbia and attacked by a western diamondback rattlesnake in California. Heand his wife share their home outside Toronto, Ontario, with their two teenagechildren.

His first novel, Keziah’s Song, explores thetumultuous 135-101 BCE period, focused on the Seleucid Empire and Israel.Further books in the series will explore the period 135 BCE to 135 CE with areach that expands to include Egypt, Rome, Nabataea and the Parthian Empire.This is a period of history full of little-known stories that are as dramaticas anything found in most popular fantasy novels and whose effects continue toshape Western Civilization and three of the world’s major religions.

For more information and Daryl’s blog, please visit darylpotter.com.

Where Irises Never Grow by Paulette Mahurin

While researching her dissertation in 2017 Los Angeles, Monica Chastain purchases a rare, antique copy of Aesop’s Fables. Inside the spine, she finds a sliver of newsprint with what appears to be a swastika, two names and the date 1942 written in the margin. The two names are Madeline Leblanc and Madeline Eisenberg. With her dissertation finished and accepted, Monica has time on her hands to explore the intriguing note and see where it leads.

From that point on, the narrative switches to September 3rd 1939, the day France declared war on Germany and the same day that the parents of a 17 year-old Jew, Agnès Eisenberg, are involved in a fatal accident. Fortunately for Agnès, she is taken in by good friends of her mother’s, Victor and Charlotte Legrand. They live in Lyon, in the area controlled by the Vichy government, where collaboration means the rounding up of Jews for extermination. The Legrands risk their own lives to protect Agnès when she meets and falls in love with a member of the resistance and has a baby. With the arrival of the sadistic Klaus Barbie, the ‘Butcher of Lyon’ the net begins to close in on both Jews and members of the resistance. Barbie’s dungeon is the place where irises, France’s national flower, never grow.

The three main characters are all too human in their weaknesses and strengths, their loyalty, compassion and fears, their oscillating emotions. The author’s prose is so authentic that the reader is inescapably bound with them in the same rooms as they listen for the dread arrival of the Nazis. It is an excruciating depiction of what so many went through during the Hitler regime. I felt their terror and shared their frantic hope for an avenue of escape to open before the Butcher came for them.

The goodness and decency of the Legrands stands in sharp contrast to the viciousness of Klaus Barbie, just as the selfless courage of the resistance, those who helped them and those who risked their lives by sheltering and helping Jews shines all the brighter when compared with the cowardly collaboration of the Vichy Government.

This is an excellent novel, well-written and steeped in the awful atmosphere of Lyon during those years. Some readers might find the descriptions of torture disturbing. Nevertheless, I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

*****

This review was written for Discovering Diamonds

Paulette Mahurin is an international best selling literary fiction and historical fiction novelist. She lives with her husband Terry and two dogs, Max and Bella, in Ventura County, California. She grew up in West Los Angeles and attended UCLA, where she received a Master’s Degree in Science.

Her first novel, The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap, made it to Amazon bestseller lists and won awards, including best historical fiction 2012 in Turning the Pages Magazine. Her second novel, His Name Was Ben, originally written as an award winning short story while she was in college and later expanded into a novel, rose to bestseller lists its second week out. Her third novel, To Live Out Loud, won international critical acclaim and made it to multiple sites as favorite read book of 2015. Her fourth book, The Seven Year Dress, made it to the bestseller lists for literary fiction and historical fiction on Amazon U.S., Amazon U.K. and Amazon Australia. Her fifth book, The Day I Saw The Hummingbird, was released in 2017 to rave reviews. Her sixth book, A Different Kind of Angel, was released in the summer of 2018 also to rave reviews.

Semi-retired, she continues to work part-time as a Nurse Practitioner in Ventura County. When she’s not writing, she does pro-bono consultation work with women with cancer, works in the Westminster Free Clinic as a volunteer provider, volunteers as a mediator in the Ventura County Courthouse for small claims cases, and involves herself, along with her husband, in dog rescue. Profits from her books go to help rescue dogs from kill shelters.

The Virtues of Scandal by Robert Henry Abramson

It seems to me that great gifts are often balanced by immoderate weaknesses. An example is George Lord Byron, a poet of extraordinary talent and a man of excessive sexual appetites that acknowledged no taboos. Abramson’s story is divided into three parts and the narrative is cleverly interwoven between them, often breaking off at a critical point to keep the reader enthralled.

One part deals with the years after Byron’s huge success with Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, his turbulent affair with Caroline Lamb and the scandal of his relationship with his half-sister, Augusta. The author portrays him as I have always imagined him: wickedly witty, bitingly outspoken, egotistical, yet passionate, romantic and eloquent. His friends are present, Hobhouse and Moore, and his enemies, Robert Southey and the Earl of Castlereagh, all painted in vivid colours. I have to say that the portrait of Castlereagh is one of the most sympathetic I have ever read for an antagonist.

The second part begins with the author’s suggestion that Byron wasn’t driven from England because of the scandals and debts that were hounding him, but by a plot concocted by his enemies in parliament because he was inserting himself in Irish affairs – at the time a crucial concern of the government. In Greece, he becomes involved in the Greek War of Independence, and while these chapters depart from the historical record, they reveal Byron’s big-heartedness, his courage and humanity, as well as juxtaposing London’s drawing rooms with the war-torn landscapes of Greece.

The third parts deal with the rollicking adventures of Don Juan, the hero of Byron’s narrative poem.

At the end of my reading, I felt as if I knew Byron better than I did before, and I applaud the author for breathing life into him. He is such a complex character that it can’t have been an easy task.

Excellent work.

*****

The Keening by Anne Emery

This is a dual timeline novel set in 2917/18 and the late 16th/early 17th centuries in Northern Ireland. In the 20th century story, Mick Tierney who runs the Tierney Hotel for his father is faced with the threat of a large development, including a casino being built between the hotel and the view of the River Erne, in the midst of which is a Castle on an island. Mick comes up with the idea of bringing in archaeologists to dig up the land round about because a guesthouse stood there four hundred years earlier. If historical artifacts are found, the development will be stopped or at least delayed. Mick’s grandmother warns him not to do it because she is afraid of what will be found.

Which brings us to 1595 and Brigid Tierney, who runs the guesthouse for her brother Diarmait. She attends a gathering at the island castle along with her friend Sorcha who is also a doctor and a seer.  The next morning, Sorcha is found dead near her home with two arrows in her. After an investigation, Brigid’s man and the father of her two children, Shane O’Callahan is accused of the murder.

I hardly know where to begin with this book. One of the best aspects is a treasure trove of information about Irish law, customs and culture. Some truly fascinating tid-bits are offered up. The dialogue skips along (mostly) and some is pure gold. ‘The tide’s nearly out’, meaning the beer is almost gone, and the number of words a man can use to insult another is astonishing. The reader can hear the Irish brogue throughout the modern story.

As the story of Brigid and Shane progresses, shocking facts are revealed that are far worse than anything the modern grandmother could have imagined. At the same time they live in fear that the English will cross the border into Ulster and they will lose the guesthouse.

This was an interesting story and an enjoyable read, although the end was unexpected and horrific. I recommend it for those who particularly enjoy Irish history.

****

Where Irises never grow by Paulette Mahurin

This is a dual time line story set in the late twenty first century and during WWII. While researching her dissertation, Monica Chastain purchases a rare, antique copy of Aesop’s Fables. Inside the spine, she finds a sliver of newsprint with what appears to be a swastika, two names and the date 1942 written in the margin. The two names are Madeline Leblanc and Madeline Eisenberg. With her dissertation finished and accepted, Monica has time on her hands to explore the intriguing note and see where it leads. From that point on, the narrative switches to September 3rd 1939, the day France declared war on Germany and the same day that the parents of a 17 year-old Jew, Agnès Eisenberg, are involved in a fatal accident. Fortunately for Agnès, she is taken in by good friends of her mother’s, Victor and Charlotte Legrand. They live in Lyon, in the area controlled by the Vichy government, where collaboration means the rounding up of Jews for extermination. The Legrands risk their own lives to protect Agnès when she meets and falls in love with a member of the resistance and has a baby. With the arrival of the sadistic Klaus Barbie, the ‘Butcher of Lyon’ the net begins to close in on both Jews and members of the resistance. Barbie’s dungeon is the place where irises, France’s national flower, never grow.

The three main characters are all too human in their weaknesses and strengths, their loyalty, compassion and fears, their oscillating emotions. The author’s prose is so authentic that the reader is inescapably bound with them in the same rooms as they listen for the dread arrival of the Nazis. It is an excruciating depiction of what so many went through during the Hitler regime. I felt their terror and shared their frantic hope for an avenue of escape to open before the Butcher came for them.

The goodness and decency of the Legrands stands in sharp contrast to the viciousness of Klaus Barbie, just as the selfless courage of the resistance, those who helped them and those who risked their lives by sheltering and helping Jews shines all the brighter when compared with the cowardly collaboration of the Vichy Government.

This is an excellent novel, well-written and steeped in the awful atmosphere of Lyon during those years. Some readers might find the descriptions of torture disturbing. Nevertheless, I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

*****

The Fabian Waltz by Kris Hall

There are some familiar names in this excellent book: George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde and Beatrice Potter. These three disparate characters and two others less famous: Sidney Webb, founder of the Fabian Society and the London School of Economics, and Charlotte Payne-Townshend, an Irish millionaires, find themselves sharing a farmhouse for the summer. Oscar Wilde is the odd man out, a sybarite among activists, a charming cynic among dreamers and idealists. When they go their separate ways, their careers take them along different paths. Wilde’s leads to the infamous court case.

It’s always a pleasure for authors to read about other authors, and I thoroughly enjoyed this delightful book. It is full of humour, philosophy, politics, issues such as women’s rights and the needs of the poor that are still relevant today, and romance – conducted in Victorian style. If the words attributed to Wilde and GBS are not direct quotes, as I suspect some are, kudos to the author for his/her wit. The author has captured the voices of the Victorian era beautifully, and the pages are not littered with descriptions of clothing or the appearance of the characters. (This may be a trend as I have noticed it in other literary fiction.)

I need hardly add that the characters are fascinating. I hoped to find in the notes at the end what aspects of these characters is from the imagination of the author. I knew that Oscar Wilde was a wit, oft-quoted. But was George Bernard Shaw as impish as depicted? Was he a vegetarian before vegetarianism became popular? Was he a marriage-shy ladies’ man? As for Beatrice Potter, I admit as I was reading to confusing her with Beatrix Potter of Peter Rabbit fame. Different women.

I highly recommend this book for those who enjoy the Victorian era or reading about other authors or just want an easy to read, humorous book at a bargain basement price.

*****