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Flirtations of the most dangerous and serious sort entangle Frances Stuart first in the court of Louis XIV and then in the Restoration court of Charles II. Despite the luscious gowns and extravagant jewels she wins for herself, we don’t envy her the high-wire balancing act she must maintain as she tries to win first one king’s influence and then another, while concealing the tragic secrets that would destroy her family and herself.

“Webb holds up a light into the inner recesses of a fascinating and contradictory woman . . . Becoming Josephine is an accomplished debut.” Read my review of Heather’s excellent novel about Josephine, Empress of France, Napoléon Bonaparte’s wife on the New York Journal of Books.

Another page-turning, alternately funny and bone-chilling mystery from Julie Kramer. A delivery of an envelope of human teeth gets Riley going on another lethal investigation.

Teatime for the Firefly creates a vivid portrayal of the exotic world of the Assam tea plantations and Indian life during both WWII and the momentous upheavals immediately following the war. It excites the palate with its depth and fullness.

“Intimacy amidst the giants”– Stephanie Dray’s novel about Selene, Cleopatra’s daughter, set during the Augustan Age, ranges between Rome and the kingdom of Mauretania in northern Africa. My review published in the New York Journal of Books.