Review of iFrankenstein by Bekka Black (aka Rebecca Cantrell)
For Halloween: Bekka Black has retold Frankenstein in the 21st century by text, email, tweet, and web browsers, primarily for a teen audience.
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Judith Starkston
Judith Starkston has spent too much time exploring the remains of the ancient worlds of the Greeks and Hittites. Their myths and clashes inspire her fiction and open gates to magical realms. She has degrees in Classics from the University of California, Santa Cruz and Cornell. She loves myths and telling stories, and her novels imbue fantasy with the richness of ancient worlds. The first book in her Trojan Threads Series, Hand of Fire was a semi-finalist for the M.M. Bennett’s Award for Historical Fiction. Priestess of Ishana, the first in her historical fantasy Tesha series, won the San Diego State University Conference Choice Award. Judith is represented by Richard Curtis.
Review of The Wrong Hill to Die On by Donis Casey
Set in Tempe, AZ in 1916 this gracious mystery takes on tough themes such as anti-immigration phobias and racism while keeping you turning pages to find the murderer among movie stars, lawyers, Pancho Villa’s men, and a couple caddish ladies’ men.
Review of The Terrorist Next Door by Sheldon Siegel
This is a scary book—not in the Halloween sense but because it portrays our collective “worse nightmare” in post 9/11 America: a bomber right here “next door” as Siegel’s title says. A mysterious person, identified as “the young man” until the end, brings Chicago to its knees with fairly low-tech bombs, high-tech tools and carefully planned villainy.
Interview with Susan Elia MacNeal
Interview with Susan Elia MacNeal author of Princess Elizabeth’s Spy
Review of A Whispering of Spies by Rosemary Rowe
Set in 191-192 AD in Roman Britannia, A Whispering of Spies features Libertus, Rowe’s “sleuth” in this series, accused of theft and murder. Seeking information about a newly arrived ex-lictor with a sinister background, Libertus’s innocent actions on behalf of his patron Marcus Aurelius become fodder for charges.
Informal Bibliography: Nonfiction Books about Troy and the Hittites
An informal bibliography of scholarly but accessible books about Troy and the Hittites.
Review and Giveaway of Princess Elizabeth’s Spy by Susan Elia MacNeal
With the recent celebration of Queen Elizabeth’s Jubilee, it’s especially engaging to read a novel about her as a young Princess—set in some of England’s darkest days during the brutal bombing attacks by Germany during WWII. While the adventures of Maggie Hope, spy and mathematician, with the fourteen-year-old Princess are fictional, MacNeal’s portrayal of Elizabeth rings delightfully true.
Review of More Than Sorrow by Vicki Delany
Women who have lost their freedom to act according to their own choices—that’s the theme of Delany’s More Than Sorrow. Delany has interwoven the stories of Hannah, Hila and Maggie, moving from contemporary Canada, to Afghanistan to the Revolutionary period in North America to show three quite different ways in which women lose their autonomy.
Review of John Saturnall’s Feast by Lawrence Norfolk
Set in 17th century England, the intricacies of food preparation in a great English castle are on detailed display while we follow John’s life story from village childhood with a mother accused of witchcraft through Cromwell’s civil war and an unlikely love affair.
Giveaway and Review of Death in August, by Marco Vichi
Book Giveaway. Set in Florence in 1963. Inspector Bordelli uncovers the killer of a wealthy signora, all while consuming delicious food and pondering philosophically.