Giveaway and Review of A Thing Done by Tinney Sue Heath

We have a winner: the name that I drew out of the reproduction Mycenaean bronze cup: Sarah who blogs at Reading the Past. I encourage the rest of you to buy a copy of A Thing Done. It’s well worth it!
To enter the Giveaway, simply leave a comment below before January 30th. The winner will receive a signed copy of A Thing Done. To see the rest of Tinney Sue Heath’s blog tour schedule, click on the Tour Banner above.

A Thing Done Publication Date: October 30, 2012 | Fireship Press | 336p
Do you love the internecine, flamboyant world of Dante’s Florence? Knightly honor manipulated by a deadly woman sound like a great starting place for a plot? Then you’ll enjoy Tinney Sue Heath’s A Thing Done.

She’s narrated her tale of family feuding, jealousy and betrayal through the eyes of Corrado, a Jester-for-hire. He’s an outsider to the political machinations and maneuvering of the nobility. In fact, his personal history, as the reader finds out, makes him want to avoid the “people with surnames.” But that doesn’t stop the arrogant knights from forcing him into their service and gradually winding him into complicity with their schemes.

Heath’s choice of narrator allows us to see both sides of 13th century Florence, the rich and the poor. Corrado lives in a lively neighborhood of people on the edge of survival, sharing a house with his friend Neri and Ghisola, the woman Neri loves but isn’t married to. They work as itinerant performers, jugglers, musicians, and tumblers, providing entertainment for those who can pay. Heath portrays the details of the local tavern with its sour wine and games of wager played for raisins, the meager foods Ghisola prepares with great skill, the role of the church, and the street celebrations with communal cooking and revelry. You’ll also hear about the clothes and feasts of the nobility, but I enjoyed hearing about the less commonly told side.

A Thing Done is the story of a good man struggling with guilt for actions he participates in that he knows are wrong. The first steps on this agonized path don’t appear to Corrado to be ones he can refuse. A nobleman tells you to do something, you do it—or so Corrado, and the world he lives in, assumes. But perhaps that social order, even at risk of life, should be challenged. It’s a dicey position for a lowly jester, and it keeps getting more complicated and dangerous as both sides of the conflict involve him further and the most powerful family sees the growing rift as an opportunity to seize the city’s governance. Heath has vividly captured the insidious effects on society when one class of people feels justified in unlimited use of their influence, power and money. While the context is distinctly Florentine and this is definitely a historical fiction lover’s novel, the theme strikes me as entirely applicable to contemporary America. You’ll enjoy the exciting plot twists and well-developed characters while at the same time having plenty to think about.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tinney Sue Heath has loved music and history all her life. Born near Chicago, she started college in Boston at the New England Conservatory with the intention of becoming a professional flutist, but after a rather abrupt change of direction she wound up with a degree in journalism from Antioch College. She worked as a staff reporter for the Chronicle of Higher Education and later provided editorial assistance to University of Wisconsin-based editors of two professional journals.

Her musical and historical interests eventually merged, and she discovered the pleasures of playing late medieval and early Renaissance music on a great variety of instruments. Her historical focus is currently on Dante’s Florence, so she and her husband spend a lot of time in Florence and elsewhere in Tuscany. They live in Madison, Wisconsin, where they enjoy playing music and surrounding themselves with native wild plants. Her website.