The process of writing fiction is an elusive process. The Wall Street Journal’s “Word Craft” column has once again delivered some excellent pearls about the layered truth and the unpredictable force of imagination in writing.
Rhys Bowen’s latest offering in her Royal Spyness series, Naughty in Nice, is pure fun. The French Riviera in 1933, Coco Chanel, Mrs. Simpson and the Duke of Windsor lurking on the sidelines, handsome scoundrels and clever thieves, gorgeous gowns and too much champagne, not to mention a dark, handsome lover and a clever if somewhat naïve young Lady Georgiana (cousin to Queen Mary) out to solve all the puzzles even if it puts her life in danger.
An engaging interview with Elizabeth Speller, author of The Return of Captain John Emmett: what led her to write about the aftermath of WWI, her choice of shellshock (PTSD) and the execution of an officer as foci for the book, and what she discovered along the way of writing it.
Have you ever wondered what ancient music sounded like–Stone Age or a Greek bard? An article in the Chronicle of Higher Education reveals a hot new field in archaeology and some amazing discoveries you’ll even be able to listen to.
Elizabeth Speller joins mystery writers like Jacqueline Winspear in setting her story immediately after World War I, filled with characters fractured by the Great War and trying to pick up the pieces. This debut novel has everything you want in a good mystery: well-developed characters you can’t predict, suspense, love, and twists. It also takes a new approach that works.
Typically historical fiction set in ancient Rome focuses on senators, military geniuses, mad emperors, and a lot of blood. This novel shows a side of Rome most will not be familiar with as it follows four upperclass women through the tumultuous year of the four emperors.
A Wall Street Journal review of Carthage Must Be Destroyed by Richard Miles looks at the social milieu of this great civilization, using excellent new archaeological finds to rebuild this empire’s lost history, wiped from memory by the victorious Romans.
The Small Book opens in 1915 with a doctor’s diary entry from the frontlines of the World War I describing the execution of a private for desertion. “This has been a wretched business. They have made a murderer out of me and all of us who were present.” While the book quickly jumps to 1946 and later to 1998, the repercussions continue throughout from this soldier’s death at the hands of his own side.
In a guest post Laura Gill argues against the matrilineal tradition of kingship among the Mycenaeans. “In the absence of solid documentary evidence, proponents of the matrilineal tradition of kingship turn to the legends themselves to support their theory, and point to royal heiresses such as Helen of Sparta and Penelope, wife of Odysseus, as kingmakers. Let us look at the same legends, as well as further examples where Mycenaean royal women seem to hand power to men, to demonstrate that those women were the instruments rather than the wielders of political power.”
Crystal blue sea, hot sand, sleepy villages with garrulous old men drinking ouzo in outside cafés, badly built tourist hotels and other monstrosities of modern development, corrupt police, and ancient Greek myths that don’t seem to want to go away—Zouroudi certainly knows Greece and creates a lovingly detailed portrait as she slowly unrolls her murder mystery. In a world of frenetically-paced thrillers, Taint of Midas has the cadences of a lazy afternoon nap in a hammock—just the thing if you’re suffering from an overdose of busy life.
