Mary Anne Yarde's Blog: The Coffee Pot Book Club , page 36

#BookReview - The Search (Across the Great Divide Book 2) by Michael L. Ross #American #HistoricalFiction @MichaelLRoss7

 

Publication Date: December 15, 2020
Publisher: HistoricalNovelsRUS
Page Length: 217 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction, Christian Historical Fiction, Historical Romance
Where do you go when home is no longer an option?
The guns of the Civil War have ceased firing, and the shots are but an echo... yet the war rages on, deep inside Will Crump's soul. His "soldier's heart" is searching for peace, and in that quest Will joins the westward movement, setting his path on a collision course with adventure, loss, and love.
The Westward Expansion floods the sacred, untouched lands with immigrants, bringing conflict to the Shoshone, Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho. Amidst the chaos Will finds safety in the shadow of the US Army, but the army brings battle-hardened troops into Red Cloud's War, pulling Will into a tornado of conflict. Broken treaties and promises leave both sides searching for answers. Will's search leads him to a battle for survival, and there he finds a love that could change him forever.
Dove, a young Shoshone woman, is a survivor of the Bear Creek Massacre. After being kidnapped and escaping from the Cheyenne, she joins Will's search, seeking where she belongs. Dove longs for more than the restricted role placed on women in her tribe. If she can learn to trust a white man, he just might help her find home... and hope.
Together, Will and Dove must search for understanding, and reach Across the Great Divide.



 “How could he ever forget and pretend his life was normal?”
The Civil War had left its scars—not all of which could be seen. Will Crump craved peace. Peace from the nightmares which plagued him while he slept, but also while he was awake. Will knows he will never find peace amongst the familiar faces of his family, and so he packs up his life and heads for the mountains, hoping that there he will find the peace he needs. What he had not counted on was the unrest between the United States Army and the native population.
Will finds himself thrust into a conflict he neither foresaw nor wanted. But this time he is not just fighting for a flag and independence, he is fighting for the woman he is falling hopelessly in love with…
The Search (Across the Great Divide Book 2) by Michael L. Ross is a novel that does not threaten to mesmerise, it really does.
Riddled with survivor’s guilt because of what happened at Buffington Island and brought to his knees with grief for those who had died at Camp Douglas, Will is a man living on the edge. He desperately searches for words of comfort in the Bible, and he prays endlessly to God to stop the pain, but he is met with only a cold silence. So he chooses to try to outrun his past, leaving everything familiar behind him. He convinces himself that he will find peace in the mountains. Unfortunately, with the growing tension between the US Army and the native population, Will finds himself confronted with yet another war. I thought Will’s depiction was absolutely sublime. Ross has depicted Will’s extremely fragile mental health with a clear understanding of what we would now know as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. With no mental health help, Will must look inwards to drag himself out of the abyss of misery and guilt that is slowly destroying him. Will’s determination and his struggle to find the peace he so desperately desires and deserves saw me reaching for the tissues on more than one occasion. There is an honesty to Will’s character, which made him not only exceedingly likeable, but also profoundly real in the telling. On a side-note, although based upon an actual historical person, William Dorsey Crump (1844–1940), Ross admits in his historical notes that his portrayal of Will during this period is fictional, as there are no primary sources that explain what he was doing during this period of his life.
The other protagonist is the beautiful Dove, the niece of Chief Washakie. In this novel, Dove struggles to understand her feelings for Will—he is a white man and therefore her enemy. Having survived the butchering at Bear River, it is no wonder as to why she holds these views. But she cannot deny that Will had saved her life and continues to do so. I thought Dove’s depiction was truly fabulous. She is this strong woman who knows that what she has found with Will is true love, but there are so many obstacles set between them that being together seems next to impossible. But still, she insists and is determined to find a compromise between her beliefs and Will’s. I adored Dove. She is this marvelously rounded heroine who has seen her fair share of death, but she holds onto hope, and she cherishes the love which she discovers with Will. Dove was a character that I came to care deeply about.
Race and conflict are explored in all of their ugly details throughout this novel. Ross not only examines the violent clash of two profoundly different cultures, but he also scrutinizes the impact of a swiftly changing world to the Indian population. The greed for land and the natural resources this rich and unspoilt frontier had to offer was more important than the lives of those who lived there. The white settlers, and in particular the army, saw the native population as a savage nuisance that must be dealt with. The Bear Rivers Massacre is briefly mentioned in this novel, as is the US Army’s determination to mount an expedition into Powder River Country. But what I found especially sickening was the soldiers’ excitement about their vile orders to kill Indians on sight–no quarter was to be given. This government-backed genocide made for some sobering reading. What made a bad situation even worse was that the natives, who were still trying to hold on to their way of life, still insisted on fighting each other. Ross subtly asks his readers were the native American’s any different from their white brothers? The white settlers claimed land that did not belong to them, but the Indians fought to preserve their territories. In no way does Ross condone the genocide and abject cruelty and brutality which the natives faced, he does however try to show his readers a few small similarities between the two.
Another race-related topic which Ross depicts is that of interracial romance. Will and Dove’s relationship is very tender and sweet. But they both come from two vastly different worlds. They are realistic about the difficulties which their relationship would face. Dove is keenly aware that she would never fit into the white man’s world, and that Will would never give up his God to fit into hers. This ill-fated love was exquisitely told, and I was rooting for them to find the happiness that they both deserved.
Ross has explored the unpredictability of nature, both in the literal and metaphorical sense. Nature is the physical frontier which dictates not only the narrative but also the war between the US Army and the natives. It is the driving force that brings Will and Dove together, but it is also what nearly tears them apart. Ross has given his readers a setting that is on the one hand breathtakingly beautiful but on the other is thwarted with danger. It also fascinated me how the Indians used the knowledge of the land to their own advantage.
Ross has penned a novel that is as impressive in its sweep as it is in detail. Ross has a large canvas in which to tell his story, and he has done so with the utmost care to the attention of the historical detail while leaving out none of the historical controversies. The treatment of the native population and their retaliation has been explored with a keen understanding of this period in history. At times the tension in this story is almost unbearable as our brave protagonists' battle, not only to stay alive but to stay together in a world that wants to tear them apart. Ross has brought a very tragic but very fascinating era back to life in a story which is so brilliant that it is impossible to turn away from. 
Unlike before in The Clouds of War (Across the Great Divide: Book 1) where there were multiple points of view, in The Search the story is focused on Will and Dove. I thought this was a wise move, as Will and Dove’s story is utterly enthralling, and it also means that this book stands firmly on its own two feet. One certainly does not have to read the first book at all to enjoy The Search.
The Search (Across the Great Divide Book 2) by Michael Ross is a novel which gripped me from the opening sentence to the last full stop. It is, in all ways, an absolute triumph.
I Highly Recommend.
Review by Mary Anne Yarde
The Coffee Pot Book Club

Amazon UK • Amazon US • Amazon CA • Amazon AU • Barnes and Noble • Kobo

Best-selling author Michael Ross is a lover of history and great stories. He's a retired software engineer turned author, with three children and five grandchildren, living in Newton, Kansas with his wife of forty years. He was born in Lubbock, Texas, and still loves Texas. The main character of "Across the Great Divide", William Dorsey Crump, is one of the founders of Lubbock and Shallowater, Texas. Michael knew Will's granddaughter when he was a child. He has written a scholarly article on Will Crump for the Texas Historical Society, published in the Handbook of Texas Online, and has sold short stories in the past. This is his first novel and the first in the Across the Great Divide series, now an Amazon bestseller.Michael attended Rice University as an undergraduate, and Portland State University for his graduate degree. He has degrees in computer science, software engineering, and German. In his spare time, Michael loves to go fishing, riding horses, and play with his grandchildren, who are currently all under six years old.
He sees many parallels between the time of the Civil War and our divided nation of today. Sanctuary cities, immigration, arguments around the holiday table, threats of secession - all are nothing new. Sometimes, to understand the present, you have to look at the past- and reach Across the Great Divide.  
Social Media Links:Website • Blog • Newsletter sign up • Twitter •  Facebook • Instagram • LinkedIn

Welcome to Day #7 of the blog tour for Janet Lee Berg's fabulous book - Restitution #BlogTour #HistoricalFiction #CoffeePotBookClub @janetleeberg1 @gwendalyn_books

December 8th - February 9th 2021

Publication Date: 30th September 2020
Publisher: Koehler
Page Length: 262 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction 
Amazon UK • Amazon US • Barnes and Noble • BooksAMillion

“Restitution” is the riveting, multigenerational story of Sylvie Rosenberg, a Holocaust survivor traumatized by the memory of her art dealer father forced to trade paintings with the Nazis in an attempt to save their large extended family.  Sylvie’s adult life in 1970s New York is plagued by survivors’ guilt and bitterness.  But when her self-destructive ways threaten to upend the life of her Vietnam-vet son, Sylvie finally needs to face her demons.  She returns to Holland to confront her past and fight the Dutch judicial system for the return of the masterpieces, but the battle proves far more difficult than Sylvie imagined...
Weaving in tragic true events from her own family history, Berg offers a sensitive story of history, romance, and humor along with detail from the extensive research of Lynn H. Nicholas, the world’s leading expert on art pilfered during WWII. Over 80 years later, the real family still awaits justice and the return of artwork that continues to hang on museum walls, without noting their tragic history…  

Head on over to Gwendayln's Books for a sneak-peek between the covers of this fabulous book!
Click HERE!

Welcome to Day #2 of the blog tour for She Sees Ghosts―The Story of a Woman Who Rescues Lost Souls by David Fitz-Gerald #HistoricalFiction #Supernatural @AuthorDAVIDFG @coloursofunison

January 18th – February 5th 2021
Amazon
Publication Date: October 25, 2020 Publisher: Outskirts PressPage Length: 270 pagesGenre: Historical/Supernatural
A blazing fire killed her family and devoured her home. A vengeful demon haunted her. Ghosts of the Revolutionary War needed help that only she could provide. A young woman languished, desperate to survive, and teetered on the edge of sanity.
Mehitable grew up in a freshly tamed town, carved from the primeval forest. Family, friends, and working at the mercantile filled her days and warmed her heart. For Mehitable, life was simple and safe, until tragedy struck. When her family perished in their burning home, she retreated into a world of her own making.
As a young girl, she had seen glimmers, glimpses, and flickers of the spirit world. She closed her eyes. She turned her back. She ignored the apparitions that she never spoke of, desperately hoping they would leave her in peace. She was mistaken.
Grief-stricken, Mehitable withdrew from the human world. Ghosts were everywhere. They became bolder. She could no longer turn her back on the spirit world. Her friends feared for her survival. Nobody understood her. She would have to find her own way.
Fans of TV’s Ghost Whisperer and Long Island Medium will especially love She Sees Ghosts. This historical novel features memorable characters and delivers bone-tingling, spine chilling goosebumps. It stands on its own and it is the next installment in the Adirondack Spirit Series by the award-winning author of Wanders Far―An Unlikely Hero’s Journey. David Fitz-Gerald delivers a historical novel with a bittersweet ending that you won’t see coming.
Would she save the spirits’ souls, or would they save her? Only time would tell.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Fitz-Gerald writes fiction that is grounded in history and soars with the spirits. Dave enjoys getting lost in the settings he imagines and spending time with the characters he creates. Writing historical fiction is like making paintings of the past. He loves to weave fact and fiction together, stirring in action, adventure, romance, and a heavy dose of the supernatural with the hope of transporting the reader to another time and place. He is an Adirondack 46-er, which means that he has hiked all of the highest peaks in New York State, so it should not be surprising when Dave attempts to glorify hikers as swashbuckling superheroes in his writing. She Sees Ghosts―A Story of a Woman Who Rescues Lost Souls is the next instalment in the Adirondack Spirit Series.
Connect with David:
Website • Twitter • Facebook • Instagram

Head on over to M J Porter's Official Blog for a sneak-peek between the covers of this fabulous book!
Click HERE!

Welcome to Day #2 of the blog tour for The Other Cipher Soli Hansen Mysteries Book 2 By Heidi Eljarbo #HistoricalMystery #HistoricalFiction @HeidiEljarbo @cathiedunn

January 18th – January 29th 2021
Amazon UK • Amazon US
Publication Date: 2 December 2020Publisher: Independently PublishedPage Length: 200 PagesGenre: Historical Mystery
In the captivating second book of the Soli Hansen Mysteries, two women—separated by more than three hundred years—are connected through their love of art.
1613. Fabiola Ruber is been wed to a man she does not know and must live in a country with a new language and different customs. The memories of a lost love in her hometown Malta haunt her, and she sets out to find an artist who can do her portrait and recapture the feelings she had when she once modeled for a renowned Italian master painter.
1944. Four years into World War II, art historian Soli Hansen works with the Norwegian resistance to locate significant artwork and safeguard the pieces from the Nazis. When she finds out the Germans are after a hidden baroque depiction of a seventeenth century woman, she must muster all her courage and skills to decipher encrypted codes and preserve the mysterious art before it’s too late.
Both women are determined to do what they can to bring healing and redemption to their otherwise ominous future. Through tangled, bewildering clues and an eye for detail, Soli’s bond to Fabiola grows closer by the day. She must find the missing painting before the enemy does.
Ranging from a privileged life in seventeenth century Antwerp to Oslo during the German occupation of the second world war, this dual timeline is a historical mystery thriller that will keep you guessing until the very end.
Heidi Eljarbo


Heidi Eljarbo is the bestselling author of historical fiction and mysteries filled with courageous and good characters that are easy to love and others you don't want to go near.
Heidi grew up in a home filled with books and artwork and she never truly imagined she would do anything other than write and paint. She studied art, languages, and history, all of which have come in handy when working as an author, magazine journalist, and painter.
After living in Canada, six US states, Japan, Switzerland, and Austria, Heidi now calls Norway home. She and her husband have a total of nine children, thirteen grandchildren--so far--in addition to a bouncy Wheaten Terrier.
Their favorite retreat is a mountain cabin, where they hike in the summertime and ski the vast, white terrain during winter.
Heidi's favorites are family, God's beautiful nature, and the word whimsical.
Connect with Heidi:
Website • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram • Pinterest.

Head on over to Ruins & Reading for a sneak-peek between the covers of this fabulous book!
Click HERE!

Welcome to Day #2 of the blog tour for Falling Pomegranate Seeds: All Manner of Things, Book #2 By Wendy J. Dunn #HistoricalFiction #Tudors @wendyjdunn @ADarnGoodRead

Amazon UK • Amazon US • Amazon CA • Amazon AU
Publication Date: January 15th 2021.Genre: Historical Fiction.Publisher: Poesy Quill PublishingPrint Length: 449 Pages

Winter, 1539
María de Salinas is dying. 
Too ill to travel, she writes a letter to her daughter Katherine, the young duchess of Suffolk. A letter telling of her life: a life intertwined with her friend and cousin Catalina of Aragon, the youngest child of Isabel of Castile. It is a letter to help her daughter understand the choices she has made in her life, beginning from the time she keeps her vow to Catalina to share her life of exile in England.
Friendship, betrayal, hatred, forgiveness – All Manner of Things tells a story of how love wins out in the end. 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Wendy J. Dunn is an Australian author, playwright and poet who has been obsessed by Anne Boleyn and Tudor History since she was ten-years-old. She is the author of three Tudor novels: Dear Heart, How Like You This?, the winner of the 2003 Glyph Fiction Award and 2004 runner up in the Eric Hoffer Award for Commercial Fiction, The Light in the Labyrinth, her first young adult novel, and Falling Pomegranate Seeds: The Duty of Daughters.
While she continues to have a very close and spooky relationship with Sir Thomas Wyatt, the elder, serendipity of life now leaves her no longer wondering if she has been channeling Anne Boleyn and Sir Tom for years in her writing, but considering the possibility of ancestral memory. Her own family tree reveals the intriguing fact that her ancestors – possibly over three generations – had purchased land from both the Boleyn and Wyatt families to build up their own holdings. It seems very likely Wendy’s ancestors knew the Wyatts and Boleyns personally.
Connect with Wendy:Website • Facebook • Instagram • Twitter • Goodreads

Today we are over on A Darn Good Read for a review of this fabulous book!
Click HERE!

Welcome to Day #10 of the Blog Tour of — Betrayal #histfictioneers #Betrayal #HistoricalFiction #CoffeePotBookClub @HistFictioneers @BritonandDane

   

BETRAYAL
BY JUDITH ARNOPP, CRYSSA BAZOS, ANNA BELFRAGE, DEREK BIRKS,HELEN HOLLICK, AMY MARONEY, ALISON MORTON, CHARLENE NEWCOMB, TONY RICHES, MERCEDES ROCHELLE, ELIZABETH ST. JOHN, ANNIE WHITEHEAD

NOVEMBER 17TH - JANUARY 19TH

Publication Date: November 17, 2020

Publisher: Historical Fictioneers

Page Length: 486

Genre: Historical Fiction

Betrayal, treachery, treason, deceit, perfidy—all names for the calculated violation of trust. And it’s been rife since humans trod the earth. A promise broken A mission betrayed A lover’s desertion A parent’s deception An unwitting act of treason Betrayal by comrades Betrayal by friends Could you resist the forces of misplaced loyalty, power hunger, emotional blackmail, or plain greed? Is there ever redemption, or will the destruction visit future generations and even alter history? These questions are still with us today. Read twelve tales by twelve accomplished writers who explore these historical yet timeless challenges from post Roman Britain to the present day.

Our last stop on this tour is over on Let Your Words Shine... for a sneak-peek between the covers of this fabulous book!
Click HERE!

Welcome to Day #1 of the blog tour for The Other Cipher Soli Hansen Mysteries Book 2 By Heidi Eljarbo #HistoricalMystery #HistoricalFiction @HeidiEljarbo @SaraEchelon5

 

January 18th – January 29th 2021
Amazon UK • Amazon US
Publication Date: 2 December 2020Publisher: Independently PublishedPage Length: 200 PagesGenre: Historical Mystery
In the captivating second book of the Soli Hansen Mysteries, two women—separated by more than three hundred years—are connected through their love of art.
1613. Fabiola Ruber is been wed to a man she does not know and must live in a country with a new language and different customs. The memories of a lost love in her hometown Malta haunt her, and she sets out to find an artist who can do her portrait and recapture the feelings she had when she once modeled for a renowned Italian master painter.
1944. Four years into World War II, art historian Soli Hansen works with the Norwegian resistance to locate significant artwork and safeguard the pieces from the Nazis. When she finds out the Germans are after a hidden baroque depiction of a seventeenth century woman, she must muster all her courage and skills to decipher encrypted codes and preserve the mysterious art before it’s too late.
Both women are determined to do what they can to bring healing and redemption to their otherwise ominous future. Through tangled, bewildering clues and an eye for detail, Soli’s bond to Fabiola grows closer by the day. She must find the missing painting before the enemy does.
Ranging from a privileged life in seventeenth century Antwerp to Oslo during the German occupation of the second world war, this dual timeline is a historical mystery thriller that will keep you guessing until the very end.
Heidi Eljarbo


Heidi Eljarbo is the bestselling author of historical fiction and mysteries filled with courageous and good characters that are easy to love and others you don't want to go near.
Heidi grew up in a home filled with books and artwork and she never truly imagined she would do anything other than write and paint. She studied art, languages, and history, all of which have come in handy when working as an author, magazine journalist, and painter.
After living in Canada, six US states, Japan, Switzerland, and Austria, Heidi now calls Norway home. She and her husband have a total of nine children, thirteen grandchildren--so far--in addition to a bouncy Wheaten Terrier.
Their favorite retreat is a mountain cabin, where they hike in the summertime and ski the vast, white terrain during winter.
Heidi's favorites are family, God's beautiful nature, and the word whimsical.
Connect with Heidi:
Website • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram • Pinterest.

We are starting this tour off over on Sara In Bookland with an exclusive author interview!
Click HERE!

Welcome to Day #1 of the blog tour for Falling Pomegranate Seeds: All Manner of Things, Book #2 By Wendy J. Dunn #HistoricalFiction #Tudors @wendyjdunn @gwendalyn_books

 

Amazon UK • Amazon US • Amazon CA • Amazon AU
Publication Date: January 15th 2021.Genre: Historical Fiction.Publisher: Poesy Quill PublishingPrint Length: 449 Pages

Winter, 1539
María de Salinas is dying. 
Too ill to travel, she writes a letter to her daughter Katherine, the young duchess of Suffolk. A letter telling of her life: a life intertwined with her friend and cousin Catalina of Aragon, the youngest child of Isabel of Castile. It is a letter to help her daughter understand the choices she has made in her life, beginning from the time she keeps her vow to Catalina to share her life of exile in England.
Friendship, betrayal, hatred, forgiveness – All Manner of Things tells a story of how love wins out in the end. 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Wendy J. Dunn is an Australian author, playwright and poet who has been obsessed by Anne Boleyn and Tudor History since she was ten-years-old. She is the author of three Tudor novels: Dear Heart, How Like You This?, the winner of the 2003 Glyph Fiction Award and 2004 runner up in the Eric Hoffer Award for Commercial Fiction, The Light in the Labyrinth, her first young adult novel, and Falling Pomegranate Seeds: The Duty of Daughters.
While she continues to have a very close and spooky relationship with Sir Thomas Wyatt, the elder, serendipity of life now leaves her no longer wondering if she has been channeling Anne Boleyn and Sir Tom for years in her writing, but considering the possibility of ancestral memory. Her own family tree reveals the intriguing fact that her ancestors – possibly over three generations – had purchased land from both the Boleyn and Wyatt families to build up their own holdings. It seems very likely Wendy’s ancestors knew the Wyatts and Boleyns personally.
Connect with Wendy:Website • Facebook • Instagram • Twitter • Goodreads

We are starting off this tour over on Gwendalyn's Books for a review of this fabulous book!
Click HERE!

Welcome to Day #1 of the blog tour for She Sees Ghosts―The Story of a Woman Who Rescues Lost Souls by David Fitz-Gerald #HistoricalFiction #Supernatural @AuthorDAVIDFG @BritonandDane

 

January 18th – February 5th 2021
Amazon
Publication Date: October 25, 2020 Publisher: Outskirts PressPage Length: 270 pagesGenre: Historical/Supernatural
A blazing fire killed her family and devoured her home. A vengeful demon haunted her. Ghosts of the Revolutionary War needed help that only she could provide. A young woman languished, desperate to survive, and teetered on the edge of sanity.
Mehitable grew up in a freshly tamed town, carved from the primeval forest. Family, friends, and working at the mercantile filled her days and warmed her heart. For Mehitable, life was simple and safe, until tragedy struck. When her family perished in their burning home, she retreated into a world of her own making.
As a young girl, she had seen glimmers, glimpses, and flickers of the spirit world. She closed her eyes. She turned her back. She ignored the apparitions that she never spoke of, desperately hoping they would leave her in peace. She was mistaken.
Grief-stricken, Mehitable withdrew from the human world. Ghosts were everywhere. They became bolder. She could no longer turn her back on the spirit world. Her friends feared for her survival. Nobody understood her. She would have to find her own way.
Fans of TV’s Ghost Whisperer and Long Island Medium will especially love She Sees Ghosts. This historical novel features memorable characters and delivers bone-tingling, spine chilling goosebumps. It stands on its own and it is the next installment in the Adirondack Spirit Series by the award-winning author of Wanders Far―An Unlikely Hero’s Journey. David Fitz-Gerald delivers a historical novel with a bittersweet ending that you won’t see coming.
Would she save the spirits’ souls, or would they save her? Only time would tell.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Fitz-Gerald writes fiction that is grounded in history and soars with the spirits. Dave enjoys getting lost in the settings he imagines and spending time with the characters he creates. Writing historical fiction is like making paintings of the past. He loves to weave fact and fiction together, stirring in action, adventure, romance, and a heavy dose of the supernatural with the hope of transporting the reader to another time and place. He is an Adirondack 46-er, which means that he has hiked all of the highest peaks in New York State, so it should not be surprising when Dave attempts to glorify hikers as swashbuckling superheroes in his writing. She Sees Ghosts―A Story of a Woman Who Rescues Lost Souls is the next instalment in the Adirondack Spirit Series.
Connect with David:
Website • Twitter • Facebook • Instagram

Join me in Conversation with #HistoricalFiction author, Philip Gooden. Philip's fabulous book — The Salisbury Manuscript — is only 0.99 for a Limited Time! @PhilipGooden

 

Publication Date: 1st December 2020
Publisher: Sharpe Books
Page Length: 305 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction 
1873.
A treasure-hunter is stabbed to death while searching a burial chamber on the outskirts of the city of Salisbury.
At the same time Tom Ansell arrives from London to receive a manuscript from one of the cathedral canons. Tom is an ambitious lawyer, and about to marry Helen Scott - a budding novelist.
Felix Slater, a respectable churchman and amateur archaeologist, wants the scandalous manuscript of his late father's memoirs locked away until after his own death.
But Slater’s death comes much sooner than expected, and Tom falls under suspicion for his murder. The compromising manuscript has disappeared.
To exonerate himself, Tom, accompanied by Helen, must unmask an ingenious, elusive killer, one who will threaten their own lives. The pursuit takes them from the cells of the city gaol to the heights of the cathedral spire and out among the ancient earthworks of Salisbury Plain.
The Salisbury Manuscript is the first in a series set in England’s cathedral cities. Full of action, suspense and gothic atmosphere, the novel brings back to life a world of Victorian mystery.

"Full of the sights and sounds of fourteenth-century England--and pleasingly free of tedious exposition and clumps of research--this lively novel is a fine example of how to get it right in a historical mystery. Chaucer himself is a well-realized and charming protagonist, and the series seems to be settling in for a long run."Booklist
"An absorbing mix of history, suspense and romance, this tale brings one of Britain's most renowned literary figures to credible life." Publishers Weekly

Mary Anne: A huge congratulations on your series, The Salisbury Manuscript (Tom Ansell Cathedral Mysteries Book 1) Could you tell us a little about your series and how you came to write it?

Philip Gooden: Thanks. Mary Anne. I’m delighted to be taking part in the Coffee Pot Book Club once more.

The Holy Murder series is made up of three murder mysteries set in English cathedral cities in the 1870s. I’d already written a series of mysteries with Geoffrey Chaucer as the central character and another six books featuring Nick Revill, a player in Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, so I thought it was time to come up to date and write something more modern - or 19th century at any rate. 

Like countless others, I’ve long been a Sherlock Holmes devotee, not just for the wonderful characters and mysteries of the stories but because of their atmosphere, which can be sinister and playful at the same time. And I enjoy Dickens and Wilkie Collins, with their intricate, gothic plots. In my own way I tried to get something of that feel into The Salisbury Manuscript, the first of the series.  

Knowing I was going to write about several cathedral cities (Durham and Ely are the settings for the second and third books), I needed a character who could plausibly travel from one place to another while going about his business. A churchman would have been one possibility. But I settled on a young lawyer, Tom Ansell. After all, lawyers know about family secrets and are sometimes faced with mysteries, and they certainly encounter people who are in strange or stressful circumstances.

I needed to balance Tom, who’s a bit dry and - well - lawyerly, with a partner who is slightly less conventional. His fiancée is Helen Scott. She’s independent-minded, has ambitions to write, and naturally she gets caught up in the mysteries which Tom finds himself investigating. In fact, in one book she actually gets put into gaol. (To even things out, in another of the books he gets imprisoned.)

I enjoyed writing the back-and-forth dialogue between Tom and Helen. I hope it’s bantering and affectionate. Also, of course, it is very useful in a detective story for the central character to have another person to bounce ideas and theories off.

Mary Anne: With the tallest church spire in the United Kingdom and the home to one of the only four surviving manuscripts from the original 1215 Magna Carter, Salisbury Cathedral is a truly remarkable building. What was it about Salisbury Cathedral that sparked your imagination?

Philip Gooden: We lived in Bath for many years so Salisbury was a relatively short car or train ride away. I’ve always looked forward to that first sight of the magnificent spire as you approach the city, and even at night you can see the red star shining at the top of the steeple (prosaically the light is an aircraft warning beacon). The lawns, tree-lined walks and buildings in the Salisbury Close are particularly attractive. It’s not surprising that ex-Prime Minister Ted Heath chose to live at Arundells, one of the most elegant houses. I remember seeing the solitary policeman stationed outside the gate when he was living there. There’s a kind of family feel to a cathedral close too, with the various dwellings and church offices clustered around the parental, almost overbearing presence of the cathedral. But despite the sense of security, there can also be mystery and mayhem, and I considered that (made-up) Venn House would not only be home to a cathedral canon but also to his murder.       

Mary Anne: When researching this novel did you come upon any unexpected historical discoveries?

Philip Gooden: I had an enjoyable time tramping around Old Sarum, the hill-fort a few miles north of the city, which provides the opening scene and also a location for another murder in The Salisbury Manuscript. Stonehenge is the most famous prehistoric site not far from the city but there are many other mounds, barrows and monuments in the area. As in so many parts of Britain, this is a place where you feel close to the distant past. It can be literally under your feet. 

I also took a ‘spire tour’ of Salisbury Cathedral. It’s another world up there. Visitors can’t go to the top of course but they can see how the medieval builders left their scaffolding in place inside the spire, presumably because it was too much trouble to dismantle. I also learnt that a sailor capered up the outside of the steeple to celebrate the Restoration, when Charles II came to the throne. Apparently he did a handstand at the top. These are the sort of oddball facts that give extra flavour to a story.  

Mary Anne: Do you think historical fiction authors have a responsibility to depict the past as accurately as they can?

Philip Gooden: Yes and no. Readers should be aware that they’re reading fiction - the writer is allowed to make things up! But most historical fiction authors probably have an innate wish to stick to historical fact, partly out of respect for the past and partly because they will have have done quite a bit of research which they don’t want to waste. In other words you don’t turn the French into the victors at Trafalgar or marry off Queen Elizabeth I, unless you are writing a counterfactual or ‘alternative’ story. History provides enough narrative twists and surprises anyway, without the need to invent much. And if you are dealing with a well-known person or event there are almost certainly gaps in what is known about them which you are at liberty to fill as you wish.        

Mary Anne: What do you think makes for a successful novel?

Philip Gooden: I think people read fiction for different reasons, though often those reasons overlap. One is the simple power of page-turning. The reader just has to know what happens next. The story is king. Another big draw is sympathy or identification with one or more of the figures in the narrative. You grow to like, maybe even to love, them. There might be a more intimate response: that you are not alone because the protagonist of a novel is going through a similar experience to one of yours. You could it fellow-feeling. Or, conversely, readers may be glad that they don’t have go through what the central characters are enduring. Another factor in successful fiction, and perhaps the most rarefied one, is that the reader relishes the author’s style, the way with words, the view of the world. If all three elements - page-turningness, sympathy and style - combine in your novel, then you’re a very fortunate and accomplished author.

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Philip Gooden writes fiction and non-fiction. His historical stories are set in the time of Chaucer, in Shakespeare’s London and in the cathedral cities of Victorian England. The Pale Companion, one of the Nick Revill Elizabethan mysteries, was shortlisted for the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger. Philip also writes books on words and language including The Story of English, Who’s Whose and the award-winning Faux Pas. His most recent book is Bad Words, which is about bad language (and other matters). Philip was chairman of the UK Crime Writers’ Association in 2007-8.
Connect with Philip:Twitter.