Catherine Meyrick's Blog, page 19
June 15, 2022
Book Review – The Kings Inquisitor by Tonya Ulynn Brown
The Kings Inquisitor by Tonya Ulynn Brown opens in December 1590 with James VI and his childhood friend William Broune making their way at dusk through the noisesome streets of Edinburgh in the company of a witch-pricker. In a dank room reeking of evil and cruelty at the Edinburgh’s gaol, the Tollbooth, David Seaton, Deputy Bailiff of Tranent, has been ‘questioning’ Geillis Duncan with pilliwinks and rope to force her to confess to witchcraft. James has come to watch the interrogation. Geill...
June 3, 2022
My Reading – May 2022
The Shiralee by D’Arcy Niland
There was a man who had a cross and his name was Macauley.
Angel of Goliad by Jean M Roberts
The sun was high in the brilliant summer sky. It was a rare day of sunshine during the rainy season.
Holding by Graham Norton
It was widely accepted by the residents of Duneen that, should a crime be committed and Sergeant Collins managed to apprehend the culprit, it would be very unlikely that the arrest had involved a pursuit on foot.
Playing Beattie Bow by Rut...
May 25, 2022
Angels and Bandits by Brodie Curtis
Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Brodie Curtis’s newly released novel Angels and Bandits as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. Angels and Bandits follows two young RAF pilots during The Battle of Britain.
From the author:
By October 1938, Britain and all of Europe were of course watching Hitler and the Nazis with a wary eye and a sense that war was inevitable. An agreement was signed at Munich in September that some politicians, like Neville Chamber...
May 22, 2022
Book Review – The Angel of Goliad by Jean M Roberts
The Angel of Goliad begins in Houston, Texas in the present day when Magda O’Toole, an investigative journalist, wakes from a four month coma following a fall from a ladder and is stunned to discover that she can now speak Spanish. On her return home, she finds a package from Matamoros, Mexico waiting for her. It contains a miniature of a beautiful nineteenth century woman with the name Francita Alavez with the date 1836 written on the back. Intrigued by the portrait, she travels to Matamoro...
Book Review – Angel of Goliad by Jean M Roberts
Angel of Goliad begins in Houston, Texas in the present day when Magda O’Toole, an investigative journalist, wakes from a four month coma following a fall from a ladder and is stunned to discover that she can now speak Spanish. On her return home, she finds a package from Matamoros, Mexico waiting for her. It contains a miniature of a beautiful nineteenth century woman with the name Francita Alavez with the date 1836 written on the back. Intrigued by the portrait, she travels to Matamoros an...
May 7, 2022
My Reading – April 2022
The Boys in the Island by Christopher Koch
The little boy stood looking at the Soons. Soon! Soon! Soon! they hummed; and it was not words the way people spoke words, it was a long humming song, going on and on.
When Night Comes by Favel Perrett
There was a time when Vikings filled our house and there were people and parties and Mum was happy then.
May 1, 2022
Cold Blows the Wind – my newest novel
Well here it is, my latest novel—published last Thursday—Yay!
Unlike my previous two novels which were set in the Elizabethan period and peopled by fictional characters, Cold Blows the Wind begins in Hobart Town, Tasmania in 1878 and follows a period in the lives of my paternal great-great grandparents Sarah Ellen Thompson and Henry Watkins Woods. It is the culmination of over fifteen years genealogical research and, intermittently, ten years of writing.
For me, genealogical research i...
April 11, 2022
When The Mermaid Sings by Helen Hollick
Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Helen Hollick’s prequel to The Sea Witch Voyages, When the Mermaid Sings as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club.
A DISPATCH FROM THE AUTHORA brief bit about the Sea Witch Voyages:
I wrote the first Voyage (Sea Witch) back in 2005 after thoroughly enjoying the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Like most avid readers, however, I wanted more than just the movie, I wanted to read something that was as entertain...
April 7, 2022
Secrets of Rosenli Manor by Heidi Eljarbo
Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Heidi Eljarbo’s newly released novel, Secrets of Rosenli Manor, as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. Secrets of Rosenli Manor is the first book in Heidi’s new turn-of-the-century series, Mysteries of the Modern Ladies’ Society.
The gardens were quiet. The whispers of winter were fading away. No icicles pointing toward the frozen ground. No sparkling crystals in kaleidoscope patterns on blankets of white. The snowfa...
April 2, 2022
My Reading – March 2022
Vandemonians, the repressed history of colonial Victoria by Janet McCalman
‘Me name’s Miles; Ellen Miles,’ remarked an old woman at the City Court yesterday.
Spinning Tops and Gumdrops, a portrait of colonial childhood by Edwin Barnard
This book tells the story of the six generations of children, the offspring and descendants of convicts and settlers who grew up in Australia in the years between 1788 and about 1900.
Escape the Choice by Ellie Yarde
I replayed the scene in my head as I twirled...
