Review: THE QUEEN'S COMPANION by Lucy Pick

      

In 2014, medievalist Lucy Pick published Pilgrimage (Cuidono Press), a thoughtful and engaging narrative about two Flemish noblewomen who travel to Compostela with a group of pilgrims, searching for healing and forgiveness and finding friendship and purpose along the way (review). The main character of that novel, blind Gebirga of Gistel, had found her life upended when her crusading father Bertulf returned from the Holy Land with a new bride in tow. Pick's latest novel, The Queen's Companion (Cuidono Press, July 2025), takes this reluctant stepmother, Lady Aude of al-Lawza, as its protagonist. Extending the scope of its narrative far beyond Gebirga and Aude's short but rocky coexistence in Flanders, the narrative recounts Aude's efforts to return to the Holy Land to reclaim the birthright stolen from her upon her parents' deaths. After an unexpected rencounter at Antioch with Eleanor of Aquitaine, on crusade with her husband Louis of France, Aude realizes that the queen might prove useful to her quest. She accepts a position in Eleanor's service and soon finds herself entangled in the queen's complicated political and amorous gambits. In many respects, the narrative becomes as much Eleanor's tale as Aude's.

Pick cleverly weaves the two women's stories together by employing Aude as the group's unofficial storyteller. Throughout the course of the novel, Aude recounts fifteen tales drawn from her own life in roughly chronological order. The tales she chooses to tell serve specific purposes that have direct bearing on the present action. For example, she tells her first story to the Queen and her women in payment for having been invited to join the group. With her seventh tale, Aude hopes to show adulterous Eleanor that there are seldom happy endings or valiant rescuers for lovesick ladies. She spins her last seven tales to relieve the boredom of the women's isolation at al-Lawza. Aude acknowledges her role as a real-life Scheherazade: "Every evening, I would continue my account...spinning it out as long as I could and always stop at some exciting or dramatic moment. It was not to save my life, but it might help preserve our sanity at al-Lawza. The dangers of my past seemed to distract Eleanor from worries about her future. And it would pass the time" (178). This evocation of the Persian storyteller and her frameworked tales inevitably calls to mind the works of Western medieval and early modern authors like Boccaccio and Marguerite de Navarre, powerfully encapsulating both Aude's dual Frankish-Armenian heritage and the clash of cultures engulfing the holy land during Louis and Eleanor's Crusade.

The Queen's Companion explores numerous themes--revenge, the agency of women in a era that circumscribed it, the morality of religious conquest--but central all is a focus on the nature and power of storytelling. Aude's tales delight and entertain, instruct and guide. But her storytelling also defines--whether it be her own character, the actions of others, or the political aspirations of individuals and entire nations--by hiding and revealing, comparing and contrasting, elaborating or minimizing. Through storytelling, Aude--and by extension, society at large--attempts to make sense of a world in chaos. Picking and choosing the details she wishes to reveal and controlling when and how she presents these details to her listeners, Aude orders the essential randomness of real-life experience into a coherent, harmonized whole endowed with meaning. In a similar fashion, the Frankish Crusaders attempt to appropriate the history of the Holy Land for themselves, to "retell" it within a Christian framework of their own making. Their failure to do so in the face of concerted resistance becomes part of a broader tale still being constructed to this present day. 

Pick draws upon her deep knowledge of medieval history, religion, and philosophy to create another must-read novel for readers interested in the history of Holy Land as well as those who appreciate strong and adventurous heroines. Aude's witness to and participation in Eleanor of Aquitaine's crusade, her agency in the love triangle between the queen, her husband King Louis, and her uncle Raymond of Poitiers presents an intriguing interpretation of long-speculated events and demonstrates how storytelling shapes and even decides history. The Queen's Companion offers readers an intelligent and engrossing take on the Crusades from a feminist perspective. 

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Historian Lucy Pick, Ph.D, taught for over twenty years at the University of Chicago, where she is still a research associate. Her research interests include the relationships between gender, power, and religion, the translation of science and philosophy in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and its impact on relations between religious groups. 

The Queen's Companion can be purchased directly from Cuidono Press or from Amazon.

Review: DOWN A DARK RIVER by Karen Odden

Any novel that quoted Victorian poet Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" would be a favorite of mine, but when one of the victims in Karen Odden's just-released mystery DOWN A DARK RIVER (Crooked Lane) offers the poet's famous admonition--"Ah, love, let us be true / To one another! for the world /... / Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, / Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain"-- as a message of hope, it's icing on an already delectable cake. Odden's fourth novel, the first installment of her new Inspector Corravan series, links matter and message together so profoundly readers will find themselves musing on the fundamental questions the novel poses long after they close the cover on this thoroughly satisfying read.

An expert in Victorian literature and culture, Odden conjures a vividly convincing setting populated with memorable characters that reverberate with historical and psychological authenticity. An emotionally scarred Irishman who grew up on the docks in the seedy Whitechapel district of London, protagonist Michael Corravan has traded the boxing ring for the neighborhood precinct. He now works for Scotland Yard at a time when the agency is under intense scrutiny for corruption. When a dead young woman in a ball gown is discovered floating down the Thames in a boat à la Lady of Shalott, Corravan must apprehend her murderer before newspaper coverage sparks panic among London's upper crust. Concurrently working on the case of a runaway wife, Corravan suspects the two cases might be connected, but all too soon another body comes floating down the river, then another.... Abrasive and irregular in his methods, Corravan incurs the censure of his superiors just as his investigation begins to bear fruit. With his career, the reputation of the Yard, the safety of his lover, and the lives of future victims on the line, Corravan pieces together the clues, only to face a soul-wrenching question--can justice be served in the face of horrendous injustice? Corravan's answer and actions to this dilemma upends the mystery genre's traditional norms and provides plenty of fodder for thought on the meaning of justice in an unjust world of stark class and economic disparities. 

Odden's intricate plot merits praise for its keen execution, but the completeness and particularity of her characters endows this novel deep emotional resonance. No cardboard characters populate these pages; the reader can sense the detailed backstory Odden has imagined for each and every player. Issues in the characters' pasts complicate their present, and the author reveals just enough in just the right places to elucidate the characters' motivations. Corravan's traumatic past shapes his effectiveness as an inspector in strong yet subtle ways, and readers will be pleased to discover a man of broad generosity and deep compassion behind his prickly exterior.

Though the novel's action takes place in the kitchens, gentlemen's clubs, and grimy streets of Victorian London, the issue at the heart of DOWN A DARK RIVER--whether the powerless can ever receive justice from the hands of the powerful who have wronged them--remains relevant, and just as thorny, today. Now, as then, the silenced need a voice to bring injustice to light. Through the efforts and humanity of Inspector Michael Corravan, a welcome addition to the ranks of fictional police inspectors, Karen Odden gives them one.

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Karen Odden earned her Ph.D. in English from New York University and subsequently taught literature at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has contributed essays to numerous books and journals, written introductions for Victorian novels in the Barnes & Noble classics series, and edited for the journal Victorian Literature and Culture (Cambridge UP). Her previous novels, also set in 1870s London, have won awards for historical fiction and mystery. A member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime and the recipient of a grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, Karen lives in Arizona with her family and her rescue beagle Rosy.

Visit her website to learn more about Karen and her novels.

Review: THE STEEL BENEATH THE SILK by Patricia Bracewell

The wait was definitely worth it.

THE STEEL BENEATH THE SILK (Bellastoria Press, March 2) caps off Patricia Bracewell's trilogy on eleventh-century Emma of Normandy, Queen of England, with all the drama, emotion, and skill that fans of the series have come to expect. With consummate ease, Bracewell plunges her readers back into a perilous, war-torn England ravaged by marauding Danish raiders from without and crumbling from treachery within. As King Swein of Denmark and his ambitious son Cnut penetrate ever farther into England, suborning English lords and capturing city after city, Emma's raddled husband, King Æthelred, alienates allies and squanders the loyalty of his people. Calling upon her wits, her faith, and the counsel of a trusted few, Emma must discern rumor from fact, friend from foe, solid hope from fleeting fancy as she strives to hold the besieged country together and make her dream of a united, peaceful England an enduring reality.

The story moves at a rapid and entertaining clip, thanks to Bracewell's strong command of the historical material and her intimate familiarity with her characters. Readers, even ones new to the series, will never lose their bearings. Customized maps of England and London detail the physical setting; chapter headings provide locations and dates to set the scene. The author takes care, especially in the opening chapters, to weave in accounts of past events that bear on the present action, keeping these flashbacks fresh by recounting them from a new perspective or shading them with recent insight. Both to control the pacing and to introduce important historical events tangential to Emma's narrative arc, Bracewell inserts snippets from the contemporary Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. This historical scaffolding plays an additional role: the contrast between these brief, factual passages and Bracewell's emotionally rich, internalized narration demonstrates the power of historical fiction to transform the dry bones of history into a compelling reflection on the human spirit, wholly relevant to modern readers.

Readers of the previous installments will recognize and welcome the reappearance of favorite characters who continue to evolve. Although the main story arc focuses on Emma and her efforts to foster a united England, the journeys of these other characters deservedly vie for attention. The narrative point-of-view shifts when circumstance requires; Bracewell hands these shifts of perspective with finesse and a keen sense of what another viewpoint can contribute to a given situation. Æthelred, Athelstan, Edmund, Elgiva, and Cnut all take turns as viewpoint characters, experiencing events beyond Emma's purview and fueling the conflicts and passions that motivate the central action.

The strongest aspect of THE STEEL BENEATH THE SILK is precisely the psychological richness of its characters. Even if the reader knows the historical trajectory of Emma's life, this imagined, emotionally nuanced account of her struggle to reconcile her personal desires with the strategic needs of her kingdom will nonetheless appeal and intrigue. As Bracewell admits in her Author Note, although the events that she portrays are factual, "Emma's role in them is my own invention. Although we know that she was there and must have played some part in all that occurred, we simply cannot be certain about what that was." Having thought long and hard about Emma's participation in these critical events in England's history, Bracewell fashions a main character with whom the reader can identify as well as admire. The trilogy as a whole presents Emma as a poignantly complex, achingly real woman whose actions not only define her individuality, but serve as the point of departure for broader contemplation of the very notion of queenship. 

"Long live the queen"--Bracewell closes her monumental endeavor with this resounding and devoted cheer. It is precisely thanks to Bracewell's meticulous research, keen insight into human nature, and first-rate narrative skills that Emma of Normandy, Queen of England, will live long and vividly in the minds and hearts of the trilogy's readers. THE STEEL BENEATH THE SILK, along with its companion volumes, merits a prominent place in the canon of exemplary historical fiction.

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Patricia Bracewell's love of reading led to college degrees in Literature, a career as a high school English teacher, and an  unquenchable desire to write. Shadow on the Crown, the first book in her trilogy about the 11th century queen Emma of Normandy, was published in 2013 in the U.S. and England, and has been translated into Italian, German, Portuguese and Russian. Her second novel, The Price of Blood, published in 2015, continues the gripping tale of a queen whose marriage to an English king set in motion a series of events that would culminate in the Norman Conquest of 1066. In 2014 Patricia was honored to serve as Writer-in-Residence at Gladstone's Library in Wales where she conducted research for The Steel Beneath the Silk, the third book in her trilogy about Queen Emma. Patricia and her husband live in Oakland, California. Visit her at her website.

THE STEEL BENEATH THE SILK can be purchased from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Indiebound.

Review: THE GIANT by Laura Morelli

One of the greatest challenges in writing a historical novel about a figure as colossal as Michelangelo is finding the proper angle from which to view him, a perspective that will provide a dramatic narrative arc as well as insight into the man beneath the reputation. In her newly published novel, THE GIANT, art historian Laura Morelli examines Michelangelo's creation of the iconic statue of David, commissioned by the city of Florence in 1501, through the eyes of his friend and collaborator Jacopo Torni (1476-1526). The novel's deliciously ambiguous title captures the multiple avenues of exploration this inspired choice of perspective opens. "The Giant" is, of course, the statue of David, which, at 17 feet, towers three times the height of a man. The sobriquet also refers to Michelangelo himself, a sculptor whose skills and vision far exceed those of the vast majority of artists. Yet, beyond the historical person, "The Giant" refers to the looming construct of "Michelangelo" in Jacopo's mind. "The Giant" is a talented rival whose focus, achievement, and fame forever dwarf and inhibit Jacopo's own accomplishment. As Michelangelo labors to free David from the marble block, Jacopo wrestles to escape the self-doubt and insecurity that haunt him in the shadow of his gifted friend.

Photo credit: Maksim Sokolov

Narrated in Jacopo's engaging, first-person voice, THE GIANT is as much, if not more, his story as it is Michelangelo's. The narrative revolves around the gigantic slab of marble that has lain, abandoned, in the cathedral precinct for decades. When the city fathers announce a contest to carve a figure from the stone, Jacopo invites Michelangelo back from Rome to collaborate with him on an entry. Although Jacopo's suggestions influence Michelangelo's designs, Michelangelo submits a proposal in his own name and wins the commission. He withdraws, surly and alone, into a high wooden pen to work on the statue in private, while Jacopo, ever the fun-loving, garrulous prankster, fritters away his sister's dowry and his own self-worth at the gambling table, waiting to be invited to help. Slowly, meticulously, Michelangelo's tools rasp away at the marble, giving exquisite form to the beauty of his vision. Just as steadily, and with as much painful effort, frustration and circumstance chip away at Jacopo's resistance, urging him to abandon his sloth and free his own talent from unreasonable expectations. With Michelangelo's unexpected help, Jacopo learns that he can either wallow, unproductive and overlooked, in envy, or use it as a spur toward greatness. It is a choice all creatives face as they contemplate the grand achievements of the artists that have preceded them.

Photo credit: Bruce Stokes

Based on a true story and replete with the details of technique and historical context that only an expert in the field can provide, Laura Morelli's THE GIANT provides a fascinating, satisfying account of the creation of one of the Renaissance's most revered works of art. Its convincing evocation of the vibrant artistic culture of early sixteenth century Florence reveals that, for many an artist, the most exacting challenge is not competing against other creators, but inspiring the reluctant self. Highly recommended.

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Laura Morelli holds a PhD in art history from Yale University and is the author of fiction and nonfiction inspired by the history of art. She has taught college students in the United States and Italy, and has developed lessons for TED-Ed. Her flagship shopping guidebook, Made in Italy, has led travelers off the beaten track for more than two decades. Her award-winning historical novels include The Painter's Apprentice, The Gondola Maker, and The Night Portrait: A Novel of WWII and da Vinci's Italy. Learn more at lauramorelli.com. Laura's books are available for purchase here.

Review: THE LOST DAUGHTER by Gill Paul

THE LOST DAUGHTER by Gill Paul (William Morrow 2019) is a richly textured, emotionally resonant novel that transforms a tantalizing historical "what if" question into a riveting journey of self-discovery and healing. A dual timeline narrative, THE LOST DAUGHTER structures itself around two premises: that Maria Nikolaevna, the nineteen year-old daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, survives the horrific execution of her family in 1918, and that, fifty years later in Australia, a young woman of Russian-Chinese descent inherits mysterious items that, she will eventually discover, belonged to Maria at the time of her execution. Two stories unfold: one told from the perspective of Maria as she builds a new, anonymous life in post-tsarist Russia, and the other from that of Val Scott, a young mother determined to escape her abusive marriage and create a future for herself and her daughter. Val's surly and taciturn father, Russian emigré Irwin Scott, links the two narrative threads together. As Val works to identify the strange objects and uncaptioned photographs her father stashed in a safety deposit box, she slowly uncovers the mystery of his checkered past. Her quest to understand what he'd always hidden from her frees her from pain and blame and opens the way to a future she'd never before imagined.

The novel's strength lies in its sympathetic depiction of two women struggling to triumph over the violence and misfortune in their lives. Maria and Val follow reverse, yet complimentary, trajectories. One of the last Tsar's several daughters, Maria lives a life of luxury and familial affection until the Bolshevik Revolution robs her of her wealth and security. Violence tears her from the heart of her family and thrusts her into a life of poverty and complete dependence on the charity and reticence of strangers. Val, on the other hand, has enjoyed little security in her life. Raised by a cold and distant father after the unexplained disappearance of her mother, she finds herself bullied and physically abused by her controlling husband. To protect her young daughter, Val must escape her marriage and begin anew with few skills and little money. Whereas Maria, in order to construct a safe future for herself and her children, must completely and utterly renounce her past, Val can only establish a secure life for herself and her daughter by piecing together the mysterious fragments of her parents' stories and claiming their past as her own. Both woman painfully learn how the past, in unlikely ways, intrudes on the present and shapes it in ways not foreseen. Ultimately, both discover that the sole remedy to the chaos that threatens to engulf them is devotion to those they love.

Readers of historical fiction will savor the wide swath of well-researched Russian history, both tsarist and communist, that Paul presents with convincing detail. (The chapters set during the Siege of Lenigrad are particularly moving.) Readers of contempory women's fiction will appreciate the protagonists' courage and resourcefulness as they struggle to overcome challenges. Both readers will relish the novel's emotional insight and poignancy. THE LOST DAUGHTER supremely illustrates the power of a dual narrative to draw the modern reader into dialogue with the past. As a new Russia emerges from the ruins of the old, Gill Paul's two protagonists rise from the rubble of personal destruction in a twisty and ultimately satisfying quest for identity and self-determination.

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Gill Paul’s historical novels have reached the top of the USA Today, Toronto Globe & Mail and UK kindle charts, and been translated into twenty languages. She specializes in relatively recent history, mostly 20th century, and enjoys re-evaluating real historical characters and trying to get inside their heads.

Gill also writes historical non-fiction, including A History of Medicine in 50 Objects and series of Love Stories. Published around the world, this series includes Royal Love Stories, World War I Love Stories and Titanic Love Stories.

Gill was born in Scotland and grew up there, apart from an eventful year at school in the US when she was ten. She studied Medicine at Glasgow University, then English Literature and History (she was a student for a long time), before moving to London to work in publishing. Her first novel was written at weekends, but she has now given up the ‘day job’ to write fiction full-time. She also writes short stories for magazines and speaks at libraries and literary festivals about subjects ranging from the British royal family to the Romanovs, and about writing itself.

Gill swims year-round in an open-air pond – “It’s good for you so long as it doesn’t kill you”– and loves travelling whenever and wherever she can.

To learn more about Gill Paul and her books, visit her website.

Review and Giveaway: THE UNDERGROUND RIVER by Martha Conway

Geographical boundaries are rarely as precise as they appear on a map, and moral boundaries can be just as fluid. Martha Conway's new novel, THE UNDERGROUND RIVER (Touchstone, June 2018), explores these truths with creative and compelling verve. Set in 1838 on a floating theater boat traveling down the Ohio River--the watery boundary dividing slave territory from free--the novel traces its characters' journeys from ignorance to understanding, aloofness to connection, ambivalence to conviction. As the boat docks for performances in seemingly interchangeable towns on both sides of the river, protagonist May Bedloe learns that appearance does not always correspond with reality--and that this discrepancy, far from being perfidious, often serves admirable ends.

Much of the novel's force and charm derives from May's idiosyncracies. A twenty-two year old orphan, May works as her actress cousin's dresser, designing, sewing, and caring for Comfort's costumes as the pair travels from gig to gig. Blunt to a fault and awkward in company--modern medicine would place May somewhere on the autism spectrum--May is generally content with her behind-the-scenes role. When a steamboat explosion destroys the costumes and changes the course of Comfort's career, May is forced to fend for herself for the very first time. To secure employment, she lends money borrowed from Comfort's abolitionist benefactress to Hugo Cushing, owner of a floating theater boat in need of repairs. May joins Hugo's troupe, and though her forthright tongue and literal-mindedness often land her in trouble, her skills, as well as her devotion to the enterprise, soon earn her the actors' acceptance. Drawn especially to Leo, the free black boatman who never dares disembark on the river's southern shore, and to Captain Hugo, struggling under the weight of responsibility and grief over his sister's death, May quickly adapts to life on the riverboat and blossoms beyond the confines of her cousin's shadow.

Yet all too soon, Comfort and her benefactress reappear, disrupting paradise. Demanding repayment of her loan, Mrs. Howard proposes that May work off her debt by delivering slave children to freedom on the northern bank of the river. Unable to refuse, May embarks on a series of dangerous, illegal missions that she must hide from her friends. Compassion vies with prudence as she tries to balance the needs of her charges against the safety of the troupe. At times, she must lie outright--an ever-difficult task--to protect or to deceive; at others, she must use her bluntness to misdirect or to persuade. Her struggle is keen and leads to disaster, but through it May finds courage she never knew she possessed, allies she never suspected, and a purpose she'd never imagined. Ever uneasy in her new role, May demonstrates that reluctant foot soldiers can be as effective as brash warriors in the righting of social wrongs--a much appreciated nuance that protects her from a predictable and potentially unconvincing transformation.

With its novel premise, unique setting, endearing protagonist, and gut-wrenching dilemmas, THE UNDERGROUND RIVER is a delightful, thought-compelling read. Just as the actors of the Floating Theater teach May to embrace the possibilities of believing something that isn't "true," Martha Conway convinces her readers of the marvelous power of fiction to convey truths worthy of contemplation. "There is always a surprise at the end," Hugo warns May midway through the story, and that surprise might just be this: the realization that truth originates and abides in the unrelenting conflict between imagination and reality.

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Martha Conway grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, the sixth of seven daughters. Her first novel was nominated for an Edgar Award, and she has won several awards for her historical fiction, including an Independent Book Publishers Award and the North American Book Award for Historical Fiction. Her short fiction has been published in the Iowa Review, Massachusetts Review, Carolina Quarterly, Folio, Epoch, The Quarterly, and other journals. She has received a California Arts Council Fellowship for Creative Writing, and has reviewed books for the Iowa Review and the San Francisco Chronicle. She now lives in San Francisco, and is an instructor of creative writing for Stanford University’s Continuing Studies Program and UC Berkeley Extension. She is the author of THE UNDERGROUND RIVER.

For more information, please visit Martha Conway’s website. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads.

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Order THE UNDERGROUND RIVER from

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | INDIEBOUND | BOOKS-A-MILLION | POWELL’S

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During the Blog Tour, we will be giving away 5 custom-made coffee mugs. To enter, please use the Gleam link below.

--Giveaway ends at 11:59 pm EST on July 26th.  You must be 18 or older to enter.

--Giveaway is open to US residents only.

--Only one entry per household.

--All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspicion of fraud will be decided uon by the blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrans may be disqualified at our discretion.

--Winner has 48 hours to claim prize or a new winner will be chosen.

The Underground River

Review and Giveaway: TRIAL ON MOUNT KOYA: A Hiro Hattori Novel by Susan Spann

Guided by the conviction that men kill for three reasons--power, money, or love--Hiro Hattori, protagonist of Susan Spann's TRIAL ON MOUNT KOYA (Seventh Street Books), races to unravel a disturbing series of murders at a remote Buddhist temple. Sent to deliver a secret message to an Iga ninja residing there, Hiro and Father Matteo become trapped at the monastery by a violent storm. As thunder booms and snow swirls in impenetrable clouds, a murderer begins to pick off the monks one by one, leaving the victims posed as one of the thirteen jusanbutsu, or deities that judge the souls of the dead. Realizing that the number of jusanbutsu matches the number of individuals at temple--including themselves--Hiro and Matteo must unmask murderer and motive before all succumb. Judging love and money as unlikely factors behind murders at an impoverished monastery, Hiro focuses on the power struggles that complicate the monks' attempts to name a new abbot. Only when Matteo becomes the murderer's next target does Hiro recognize the error in his thinking. But how to outwit someone intent on creating a grisly council of the dead?

TRIAL ON MOUNT KOYA succeeds as both compelling mystery and rich historical fiction. The closed situation--a given number of individuals isolated in an inescapable location with an unknown killer among them--keeps tension high and forces the characters into a persistent state of mistrust. The realization that each victim personifies one of the thirteen jusanbutsu only adds to the strain, as survivors attempt to predict who will be next to die and how. The abbot falls victim early on, leaving the monks without a designated leader and exposed to the danger of factions. The presence of a prickly pilgrim allows for the possibility of outside political involvement, and Hiro and Matteo are never above suspicion in the eyes of the monks. The oppressive weather not only heightens the danger by muffling sounds and obscuring sight, but adds the stress of a ticking clock--the murderer obviously intends to complete the monastery's annihilation by storm's end. Spann manipulates these elements of suspense with great finesse, creating a true page-turner of a plot that culminates in an emotionally satisfying and logically convincing conclusion.

Even more notable in this sixth installment of the Shinobi Mysteries is the seamless fusion of psychological insight with cultural history. The murderer's modus operandi vividly exposes readers to Buddist teachings on death and final judgment. Each victim's gruesome pose permits discussion of a particular Buddist avatar, while the entire chain of murders opens discussion of how Buddhism treats the passage of souls from this life to the next. These teachings are integral to understanding the murderer's twisted motivation. None of the earlier Shinobi mysteries delves so far into religious questions, but in TRIAL ON MOUNT KOYA Buddhist and Christian teachings confront each other in a direct and sustained manner. Father Matteo finds himself forced to counter Buddhist teaching with his own Christian convictions and comes directly under suspicion for murdering in the service of a rival religion. Spann treats this clash of philosophies with admirable insight, adding depth to Matteo's character and aspirations even as she humanizes a murderer whose horrific acts have a noble, if ultimately warped, purpose.

Politics simmers below the surface in this latest Shinobi Mystery, allowing questions of a more philosophical bent to bubble to the surface. Yet the underlying threat posed by Japan's feuding overlords remains ever present and ever dangerous to the Portuguese priest and his mission. Hiro cannot afford to let guilt and the heartbreak of lost love cloud his vision as Father Matteo falls into the hands of a murderer struggling to redeem his own disappointed devotion. Ingenious, ambitious, and resoundingly successful, TRIAL ON MOUNT KOYA is Susan Spann's best novel yet.

AMAZON | BARNES AND NOBLE | INDIEBOUND

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Susan Spann is the award-winning author of the Shinobi Mystery novels featuring ninja detective Hiro Hattori and Portuguese Jesuit Father Matteo. 

After earing an undergraduate degree in Asian Studies from Tufts University in Boston, Susan earned a law degree.    She currently specializes in intellectual property and business and publishing contracts. Her interest in Japanese history, martial arts, and mystery inspired her to write the Hiro Hattori novels set in sixteenth-century Japan. 

Susan is the 2015 Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' Writer of the Year, a former president of the Northern California Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America, and a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, the Historical Novel Society, and the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. She is represented by literary agent Sandra Bond of Bond Literary Agency. 

When not writing or representing clients, Susan enjoys traditional archery, martial arts, photography, hiking, and traveling in Japan. 

For more information, please visit Susan's website. You can also find Susan on Facebook and Twitter (@SusanSpann), where she founded the #PubLaw hashtag to provide legal and business information for writers. 

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Giveaway

During the Blog Tour, we will be giving away 5 copies of TRIAL ON MOUNT KOYA! To enter, please use the Gleam form linked below.

Rules

--Giveaway endes at 11:59 pm EST on August 8, 2018. You must be 18 or older to enter.

--Giveaway is open to US residents only.

--Only one entry per household.

--All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the system; suspected fraud will be decided upon by the blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our discretion.

--Winner has 48 hours to claim prize or a new winner is chosen.

 https://gleam.io/competitions/KPAPn-trial-on-mount-koya

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Blog Tour Schedule

Tuesday, July 3
Kick Off at Passages to the Past

Wednesday, July 4
Interview at Donna’s Book Blog

Thursday, July 5
Interview at T’s Stuff
Feature at The Bookworm

Friday, July 6
Guest Post at Jathan & Heather

Sunday, July 8
Review at Carole Rae’s Random Ramblings

Tuesday, July 10
Feature at Historical Fiction with Spirit

Wednesday, July 11
Review at Oh, for the Hook of a Book!

Thursday, July 12
Guest Post at Oh, for the Hook of a Book!

Friday, July 13
Review at Jorie Loves a Story

Monday, July 16
Review at Writing the Renaissance

Tuesday, July 17
Guest Post at Writing the Renaissance

Wednesday, July 18
Review at Beth’s Book Nook Blog

Friday, July 20
Feature at Maiden of the Pages

Saturday, July 21
Review at Cup of Sensibility

Tuesday, July 24
Feature at Svetlana’s Reads and Views

Thursday, July 26
Feature at Encouraging Words from the Tea Queen

Friday, July 27
Interview at Dianne Ascroft’s Blog

Monday, July 30
Review at Pursuing Stacie

Wednesday, August 1
Feature at CelticLady’s Reviews

Thursday, August 2
Review at A Book Geek

Friday, August 3
Interview at Jorie Loves a Story

Sunday, August 5
Feature at What Is That Book About

Monday, August 6
Review at Broken Teepee

Wednesday, August 8
Review at Reading the Past

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Review and Giveaway: ECSTASY by Mary Sharratt

Seeking to supplement a famous man's public persona with intimate detail, authors of historical fiction often choose the man's wife to narrate his story. It's not often that the woman herself has the potential to rival her husband's brilliance, but such is the situation Mary Sharratt explores in her latest novel, ECSTASY (HMHBooks, April 2018). Written from the close third-person perspective of Alma Schindler Mahler, wife of composer Gustav Mahler and a gifted composer in her own right, ECSTASY examines Alma's difficult position in turn-of-the-twentienth-century Vienna. In an era and locale where women were still expected to surrender their own aspirations to the duties of marriage and motherhood, Alma suffers tremendous anguish as she attempts to reconcile her musical ambitions with her awe of her husband's genius.

The novel covers the years 1899 to 1911, from Alma's nineteenth summer through the year of Mahler's death. Though Alma would outlive her husband by half a century to lead a colorful, liberated existence in Austria and New York, it is the years she spends in Mahler's shadow that determine the future course of her life. Daughter of a noted painter, Albert Schindler, and stepdaughter of Carl Moll, one of the founding artists of the Vienna Secession, Alma grows up surrounded by artists and intellectuals. Encouraged by her parents, she studies piano and composition and has composed a series of lieder for piano and voice by the time she meets Mahler in 1901. After a whirlwind courtship, she marries the much-older conductor in 1902, only to abandon her studies when Mahler insists there be only one composer in the family. The bulk of the novel details Alma's struggle to subjugate her ambition and desires to the dictates of her husband's artistic life and marital expectations. The demands of motherhood, tragedy, and her husband's work schedule and frequent touring sap Alma of her mental and physical strength until she finds herself at the brink of a breakdown. Only then, having lost her grip on her true self, does she find the courage to engage in behavior that forces Mahler to reevaluate their relationship and the validity of his wife's talent and dreams.

Sharratt faces a difficult task in capturing the essence of this contradictory woman, by turns meek and courageous, passive and pioneering. A fundamental ambivalence defines Alma: she relishes her role as helpmate and muse, facilitator of her husband's genius, even as she increasingly resents how catering to his needs forces her to deny her own. At times, this ambivalence renders her frustratingly submissive; at others, she commits rash, impulsive actions that almost defy explanation. The thread that binds Alma's warring selves together, that creates a whole from contradictory parts, is ecstasy: the ecstasy she experiences listening to her husband's glorious music crash over the concert hall; the elation she finds in furtive composing and amorous dalliance; the rapture she and Mahler share at intimate moments of their difficult but enduring relationship. Just as Mahler incorporates cowbells and hammerblows into symphonies of voice and instrument, to stunning effect, Sharratt probes the limitations and frustrations of Alma's marriage in order to better celebrate the ecstasy of life lived in unbounded appreciation of creative beauty.

Luscious in language and beautiful in execution, ECSTASY is a novel to savor. Though the belle époque world it evokes in brilliant detail might be distant in time, the challenge Alma faces--that of extracting her self from the confines of duty and expectation to relish the fullness of life--is one that women continue to face today. Alma Schindler Mahler--muse, mother, and musician--can help them triumph.

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During the Blog Tour we will be giving away a paperback copy of ECSTASY. To enter, please follow the link below.

Giveaway Rules

--Giveaway ends at 11:59 pm EST on May 18, 2018. You must be 18 or older to enter.
--Giveaway is open to US residents only.
--Only one entry per household.
--All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspicion of fraud is decided upon by the blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our discretion.
--Winner has 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.

https://gleam.io/skN0R/ecstasy

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MARY SHARRATT is an American writer who has lived in the Pendle region of Lancashire, England, for the past seven years. Her critically-acclaimed novels include SUMMIT AVENUE, THE REAL MINERVA, THE VANISHING POINT, THE DAUGHTERS OF WITCHING HILL (reviewed here), ILLUMINATIONS, and THE DARK LADY'S MASK (reviewed here). Sharratt is also co-editor of the subversive fiction anthology Bitch Lit, a celebration of female antiheroes, strong women who break all the rules. For more information, please visit Mary's website. You can also connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads. 

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To follow the ECSTASY blog tour, click here.

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AVAILABLE IN HARDCOVER & EBOOK:

AMAZON | AMAZON UK | BARNES & NOBLE | BOOKS-A-MILLION | INDIEBOUND

ALSO IN AUDIOBOOK:

AMAZON UK | BARNES & NOBLE | BOOKS-A-MILLION