Blending historical fact with fiction, a novel set in other times and places can transport you into the past more convincingly than a dry historical treatise - and entertain you in the bargain. What I look for in historical fiction are books by authors who, after reading the histories and doing the research, create stories based in the past that include characters I want to know better and a plot that keeps me turning pages - books like Peter Ackroyd's The Clerkenwell Tales, Bernard Cornwell's The Last Kingdom, and Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth.
Now you can spend less time searching and more time reading as I watch for new historical fiction in the Kindle Store
New York: The Novel by Edward Rutherfurd. Doubleday. TIME FRAME: The city of New York from its founding to the present. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (14 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"Rutherfurd celebrates America's greatest city in a rich, engrossing saga that showcases his extraordinary ability to combine impeccable historical research and storytelling flair. As in his earlier, bestselling novels, he illuminates cultural, social, and political upheavals through the lives of a remarkably diverse set of families. As he recounts the intertwining fates of characters rich and poor, black and white, native born and immigrant, Rutherfurd brings to life the momentous events that shaped New York and America: the Revolutionary War, the emergence of the city as a great trading and financial center, the excesses of the Gilded Age, the explosion of immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the trials of World War II, the near-demise of New York in the 1970s and its roaring rebirth in the '90s, and the attacks on the World Trade Center. Sprinkled throughout are captivating cameo appearances by historical figures ranging from George Washington to Abraham Lincoln to Babe Ruth." - Amazon.
Devil's Dream: A Novel About Nathan Bedford Forrest by Madison Smartt Bell. Pantheon. TIME FRAME: Mid-19th century U.S. Amazon customer rating: none yet. Kindle edition $14.23. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"...powerful new novel about Nathan Bedford Forrest, the most reviled, celebrated, and legendary, of Civil War generals. Considered a rogue by the upper ranks of the Confederate Army, who did not properly use his talents, Forrest was often relegated to small-scale operations. In Devil's Dream, Bell brings to life an energetic, plainspoken man who does not tolerate weakness in himself or in those around him. We see Forrest on and off the battlefield, in less familiar but no less revealing moments of his life: courting the woman who would become his wife; battling a compulsion to gamble; overcoming his abhorrence of the army bureaucracy to rise to its highest ranks. We see him treating his slaves humanely even as he fights to ensure their continued enslavement, and in battle we see his knack for keeping his enemy unsettled, his instinct for the unexpected, and his relentless stamina. As Devil's Dream moves back and forth in time, providing prismatic glimpses of Forrest, a vivid portrait comes into focus: a rough, fierce man with a life fill of contradictions." - from the hardcover edition.
Less expensive alternative: Bell's All Souls' Rising, chronicles the 18th century slave rebellion that changed the course of Haitian history.
Runestone by Don Coldsmith. Domain. TIME FRAME: 11th century North America. Amazon customer rating: none yet. Kindle edition $6.00. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"They set sail from Norway, two swift-moving longships and their handpicked crews, following the route navigated by the legendary Leif Ericson. But for young shipmaster Nils Thorsson and his fellow Norsemen the real journey begins when they push on into the uncharted continent of Vinland. There the explorers revel in the chance to penetrate a virgin land - until they trespass on the grounds of a primitive people who have seen enough of the light-hairs' cruelty to believe they are too dangerous to ignore. In one swift dawn raid, they deal with the invaders by letting go a swarm of fiery arrows Only three men from the sailing party escape: the intrepid Nils Thorsson, the hardened seaman Svenson, and an enigmatic native guide called Odin. Now. stranded in the wilderness with their one-eyed guide, Thomson and Svenson know that to survive they must master the ways of war, of the hunt - and of a proud and fearless people." - Publisher.
To Try Men's Souls: A Novel of George Washington and the Fight for American Freedom by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen. Thomas Dunne Books. TIME FRAME: 18th century U.S. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (45 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"[The] story follows three men with three very different roles to play in history: General George Washington, Thomas Paine, and Jonathan Van Dorn, a private in Washington’s army. The action focuses on one of the most iconic events in American history: Washington crossing the Delaware. Unlike the bold, courageous General in Emanuel Leutze’s painting, Washington is full of doubt on the night of December 25, 1776. After five months of defeat, morale is dangerously low. Each morning muster shows that hundreds have deserted in the night. While Washington prepares his weary troops for the attack on Trenton, Thomas Paine is in Philadelphia, overseeing the printing of his newest pamphlet, The Crisis. And Jonathan Van Dorn is about to bring the war to his own doorstep. In the heat of battle, he must decide between staying loyal to the cause and sparing his brother who has joined up with the British. Through the thoughts and private fears of these three men, Gingrich and Forstchen illu minate the darkest days of the Revolution. With detailed research and an incredible depth of military insight, this novel provides a rare and personal perspective of the men who fought for, and founded the United States of America." - Amazon.
Order in Chaos by Jack Whyte. Harper. Book 3 in the Templar Trilogy that began with Knights of the Black and White. TIME FRAME: 14th century Europe. Amazon customer rating: none yet. Kindle edition $7.34. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Order in Chaos begins just prior to Friday the thirteenth of October 1307, the original Day of Infamy that marked the abrupt end of the Order of the Templars. On that day, without warning, King Philip IV sent his armies to arrest every Templar in France in a single morning. Then, with the aid of Pope Clement V, he seized all the Temple assets and set the Holy Inquisition against the Order. Forewarned at the last minute by the Grand Master himself, who has discovered the king’s plot too late to thwart it, Sir William St. Clair flees France with the Temple’s legendary treasure, taking with him several hundred knights, along with the Scots-born widow of a French Baron, the Lady Jessica Randolph. As time passes and the evidence of the French King’s treachery becomes incontestable, St. Clair finds himself increasingly disillusioned and decides, on behalf of his Order, to abandon the past. He releases his men from their 'sacred' vows of papal obedience and leads them into battle as Temple Knights one last time, in support of King Robert Bruce at the battle of Bannockburn." - us.penguingroup.com.
Fans of historical romance novelist Georgette Heyer will be pleased to learn that four more of the author's historical romances have been released for the Kindle:
The Grand Sophy Sourcebooks. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (59 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"When Lady Ombersley agrees to take in her young niece, no one expects Sophy, who sweeps in and immediately takes the ton by storm. Sophy discovers that her aunt's family is in desperate need of her talent for setting everything right: Ceclia is in love with a poet, Charles has tyrannical tendencies that are being aggravated by his grim fiancee, her uncle is of no use at all, and the younger children are in desperate need of some fun and freedom. By the time she's done, Sophy has commandeered Charles's horses, his household, and finally, his heart." - Amazon.
The Convenient Marriage. Sourcebooks. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (31 reviews). Kindle edition $5.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Horatia Winwood is simply helping her family. When the Earl of Rule proposes marriage to her sister Lizzie, Horatia offers herself instead. Her sister is already in love with someone else, and Horatia is willing to sacrifice herself for her family's happiness. Everyone knows she's no beauty, but she'll do her best to keep out of the Earl's way and make him a good wife. And then the Earl's archenemy, Sir Robert, sets out to ruin her reputation... Unbeknownst to Horatia, the Earl is enchanted by her. There's simply no way he's going to let her get into trouble. Overcoming some misguided help from Horatia's harebrained brother and a hired highwayman, the Earl routs his old enemy, and wins over his young wife, gifting her with a love that she never thought she could expect." - Amazon.
The Nonesuch. Sourcebooks. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (25 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Tiffany Wield's bad behavior is a serious trial to her chaperone. 'On the shelf' at twenty-eight, Ancilla Trent strives to be a calming influence on her tempestuous charge, but then Tiffany runs off to London alone and Ancilla is faced with a devastating scandal. Sir Waldo Hawkridge, confirmed bachelor and one of the wealthiest men in London, comes instantly to the aid of the intrepid Ancilla to stop Tiffany's flight, and in the process discovers that it's never too late for the first bloom of love." - Amazon
The Corinthian. Sourcebooks. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (23 reviews). Kindle edition $5.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Walking home at dawn, quite drunk, Sir Richard Wyndham encounters heiress Penelope Creed climbing out her window. She is running away from a dreaded marriage to her fish-lipped cousin, while Sir Richard himself is contemplating a loveless marriage with a woman his friends have compared to a cold poultice. Sir Richard can't allow her to careen about the countryside unchaperoned, even in the guise of a boy, so he pretends to be her tutor and takes her on a fine adventure. When their stagecoach overturns, they find themselves embroiled with thieves, at the center of a murder investigation, and finally, in love." - Amazon.
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