Category Archives: Historical Fiction

The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami

Posted on October 9, 2015 by bseat

I don’t know about you, but as a reader I often fall into a rut.  I will find a certain author or genre that I like and will read them almost exclusively until I am bored or forced to read … Continue reading →

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Perfidia by James Ellroy

Posted on September 25, 2015 by bseat

The reading life sometimes raises interesting conundrums. Originally, I believed that once I started a book I should finish it.  Just like the “clean plate” rule my parents instilled in me for eating food, I approached my reading in the … Continue reading →

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The Burnable Book by Bruce Holsinger

Posted on September 18, 2015 by bseat

Agnes, watched from a deep hedge while a nobly born woman was brutally murdered. The man who did it seemed familiar to Agnes but she can’t quite place him. There is no doubt the man was after something because after … Continue reading →

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Some Luck by Jane Smiley

Posted on August 14, 2015 by bseat

Life on a farm in Iowa from 1920 to 1953 wouldn’t seem like a great topic for the first of three novels, but Jane Smiley proves that memorable characters, a deep understanding and appreciation for the rhythms and values of … Continue reading →

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Leaving Berlin by Joseph Kanon

Posted on August 7, 2015 by bseat

Alex Meier has made a devil’s bargain. In exchange for making the McCarthy Committee’s investigations into his youthful fling with communism before World War II go away, the CIA wants him to return to Berlin and act as their spy. … Continue reading →

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Heresy by S. J. Parris

Posted on July 24, 2015 by bseat

Bruno Giordano, a former priest and now excommunicant, has been running from the Inquisition in Italy because of his proclivity for reading books that are considered heretical, like Erasmus’ Commentaries or Copernicus’ De revolutionibus orbium coelestium. Finally, after many narrow escapes … Continue reading →

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The Hour of the Cat by Peter Quinn

Posted on July 17, 2015 by bseat

It is 1939 and Fintan Dunn, is a PI, struggling to find work in New York City. He had a great lead on a divorce case; a woman wanted him to catch her husband in flagrante delicto in order to improve her … Continue reading →

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The Bone Tree by Greg Iles

Posted on June 19, 2015 by bseat

In this second installment of a trilogy which began with Natchez Burning, Iles takes us deeper into the morass of racism, hatred, violence and corruption that lies underneath a thin veneer of southern gentility in Mississippi.  Penn Cage, who is now the … Continue reading →

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Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

Posted on June 5, 2015 by bseat

It is 1966 and a woman and her husband attend the opening  at MOMA of a photographic exhibit by Walker Evans. The exhibit is of portraits Evans took of ordinary New Yorkers on the subway using a hidden camera. Among … Continue reading →

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Lionheart by Sharon Kay Pennman

Posted on May 8, 2015 by bseat

It is always hard to tease out truth from fiction especially when your subject is someone whose exploits and life became the basis of legend. Richard the Lionheart, King of England  from 1189-99, was an amazing warrior, a sound tactician, … Continue reading →

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