The Ladoux Mystery - the spy who framed Mata Hari? A guest post by Alan Bardos

In today's guest post, historical novelist Alan Bardos examines the facts behind the enduring legend of Mata Hari (the photos are his own). His latest novel, Enemies and Allies, third in his Johnny Swift series of historical thrillers, is out now from Sharpe Books (UK).

~

The Ladoux Mystery: The Spy Who Framed Mata Hari?

Alan Bardos

Marguerite Zelle MacLeod, better known as Mata Hari, was a sensation in the last years of the Belle Epoque with her wild and exotic dances. However, it was her espionage activities that have ensured her name is a household word, over a hundred years after her execution in 1917 as a spy. The question as to whether she was actually a double agent is still a contentious issue and may never be resolved.

The Folies Bergère, where Mata Hari performed in 1913.

By 1914, Mata Hari’s popularity had begun to decline in Paris; she had to cast her net further afield and rely more on the favour of rich and powerful men to support her lavish lifestyle. It was this that many of her biographers believe she was ultimately judged on.

In August 1914, Mata Hari was performing in Berlin with a string of lovers. When war was declared, the mood against foreigners changed. Desperate to return to France and escape the war fever sweeping through Germany, she broke her contracts and fled. Unable to get to France and forced to leave her money and possessions behind, she returned to her native Holland.

While there she was approached by Carl Cremer, an honorary German consul, who offered her 20,000 francs to spy for Germany. Mata Hari accepted the money, but whether or not she actually considered herself recruited as a spy is questionable. She may actually have taken the money in compensation for everything she left in Germany.

When Mata Hari returned to Paris in 1916, she was recruited to spy for the French by Captain George Ladoux, the head of French Counterintelligence. She planned to pull off an intelligence coup by going to Belgium and seducing the German Governor-General. She would then cultivate him as an intelligence source and sell the information to Ladoux for a million francs.

282 Boulevard St Germain, where Mata Hari was recruited by French intelligence.

However, on her way to Belgium, Mata Hari’s steamer had to pass through British waters, and during a routine customs check she was mistaken for the spy Clara Benedix. She was interviewed in Scotland Yard by ‘Blinker’ Hall, the head of Naval Intelligence, and Sir Basil Thompson, the head of Special Branch. At the end of it, they were convinced that she was not Benedix, but thought she was suspicious. They contacted Ladoux, who informed them that he thought she was a spy and that he was pretending to use her in the hope that she might give herself away as a spy. Hall and Thompson released her but would not allow her to travel on to Belgium, and sent her to Spain. On her own and ignored by Ladoux, Mata Hari used her initiative and seduced Major Arnold Kalle, the German military attaché in Spain. He gave her some low-grade information, which Ladoux did not consider worth a million francs. She was arrested not long after her return to Paris; Ladoux had by this time compiled a dossier of evidence against her.

The former Élysée Palace Hotel, where Mata Hari was arrested.

Kalle had sent telegrams to his superiors in Berlin that incriminated Mata Hari. They were sent in a code known to have been broken by the French, so it is possible that he was deliberately trying to cast doubt on her. These telegrams had been intercepted by French intelligence and were the only real evidence presented at her trial that she was a double agent. French detectives followed Mata Hari when she was in Paris, but found no evidence that she actually gathered information or passed it on to Germany. However, she admitted to taking their money on the understanding that she would.

France was swept with spy mania at the time, rocked by scandals of German plots to buy newspapers in an effort to undermine France's will to fight; unrest was rife and the government needed to regain control. Ladoux was therefore under considerable pressure to catch spies, and there is evidence to suggest he doctored the telegrams to make them more incriminating and ensure her conviction. He certainly believed a ‘woman of the world’ like her to be guilty and her promiscuous lifestyle proved it.

However, Ladoux was also arrested as a spy three days after Mata Hari’s execution. This has given rise to speculation that he framed Mata Hari as a way of deflecting attention from his own espionage activities. Ladoux had been denounced by his former driver, Pierre Lenoir, who had been arrested for buying a French newspaper with German money. When Lenoir was interrogated, he claimed that he had been set up by the Germans and that he was working for Ladoux.

Vincennes. Mata Hari was executed in the grounds of this castle.
Ladoux's and Lenoir’s files are in the archive attached to the complex.

While Lenoir was executed, Ladoux was subject to extensive investigation but was never put on trial, and after his release continued to serve in the French army after the war. It is therefore unlikely that he was a spy. Nonetheless, a cloud has hung over him ever since.

The investigations into Ladoux and Lenoir are still sealed, over a hundred years after the event, while Mata Hari’s file is now open, giving rise to a lot of speculation... but the truth may never be known.  

About Enemies and Allies:

November 1916:  The war of attrition is taking its toll on the Allied powers and cracks are starting to appear.

Captain ‘Blinker’ Hall, Head of Naval Intelligence, must strive to keep the alliance with France alive - and use all his guile to bring the Americans into the war.  Johnny Swift, a reckless former diplomat turned soldier, is convalescing in London, working for Naval Intelligence. Hall knows how to use Swift’s talents for duplicity to their fullest and sends him to Paris to flush out a traitor undermining the French war effort.

Room 40, the Royal Navy’s code breaking unit, deciphers a telegram that presents Hall with a dilemma. Its use could recruit America to their cause - but also give away the secret that the codes have been broken and cost Britain the war. Swift takes up his role in Paris and is soon caught in a web of intrigue involving Mata Hari, the Dreyfus Affair, and the catastrophe of the Nivelle Offensive.

The fate of the conflict rests on a knife edge. The traitor still lurks in the shadows of Paris’s Art Nouveau grandeur, and Swift must locate him before he can betray the Allied cause.

Biography:

Writing historical fiction combines the first great love of Alan Bardos’s life, making up stories, with the second, researching historical events and characters. He currently lives in Oxfordshire with his wife… the other great love of his life.

There is still a great deal of mystery and debate surrounding many of the events of the First World War, which he explores in his historical fiction series through the eyes of Johnny Swift, a disgraced and degenerate diplomat and soldier.

The series starts with the pivotal event of the twentieth century: the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The second book, The Dardanelles Conspiracy, is based on an attempt by Naval Intelligence to bribe Turkey out of the First World War. In the third book Johnny will be employed as a useful idiot to flush out a traitor working to undermine the Allies.

Amazon UK | Amazon | Twitter | Goodreads | YouTube Channel | Instagram | Facebook 

Review of The Last White Rose: A Novel of Elizabeth of York, by Alison Weir

Following her successful Six Tudor Queens series, Weir moves back one generation with this comprehensive fictional take on Henry VIII’s mother, Elizabeth of York.

The adored eldest daughter of Edward IV during the tumultuous Wars of the Roses, Elizabeth spends part of her childhood in sanctuary with her mother and siblings. The early sections move slowly, with outside events mostly recounted to her.

However, her personality blossoms over time, and Weir provides a realistic feel for the worry Elizabeth’s family experiences as their fortunes shift, especially after Richard III usurps the throne following King Edward’s death and her brothers disappear while in his custody. The story gives a coherent, convincing picture of the treacherous political climate’s many players, showing why Elizabeth plots to marry Henry Tudor.

Weir doesn’t anachronistically superimpose a feminist viewpoint on Elizabeth, who knows her value yet prefers being a supportive wife and mother, but her female characters are overly prone to weeping. Weir’s thorough approach to her subject is impressive, as is the sumptuously recreated atmosphere of late-medieval royal life.

The Last White Rose was published by Ballantine this week.  In the UK, the publisher is Headline Review, where the title is Elizabeth of York: The Last White Rose (the title and subtitle are switched).  I wrote this review for Booklist's May 1st issue.

Some additional comments:

- The novel is 544pp long and about evenly divided between Elizabeth's childhood/adolescence and her marital life. The story gives a realistic sense of the political scene from a child's perspective, but it does mean that Elizabeth isn't an active participant in events until a good ways in. Some readers will appreciate the evenly-paced comprehensiveness; others may feel the beginning sections could have been pruned.

- This novel is first in a projected trilogy of novels: first Elizabeth of York, then Henry VIII (whose wives we've already gotten to meet in Weir's previous series), then Mary Tudor.  Three generations, in other words.

- If you've read Philippa Gregory's The White Princess, also about Elizabeth of York, this story is quite different, especially regarding Elizabeth's feelings toward her uncle, Richard III, and her eventual husband, Henry Tudor (the future Henry VII).  I prefer Weir's version.

Research in the Digital Age is Sometimes Analog, an essay by Connie Hertzberg Mayo

Historical novelist Connie Hertzberg Mayo, the author of The Sharp Edge of Mercy, is here today with an essay about her research methods, which reminds us of the importance of visiting physical archives for relevant source material.

~

Research in the Digital Age is Sometimes Analog

Connie Hertzberg Mayo

During the long car ride from Massachusetts to Philadelphia to drop off our oldest at college, I unearthed a tiny notebook that been bouncing around in my purse for years, and I wrote down a writing schedule. I had been putting off the commitment to writing my second novel until our nest became a little emptier, and even though I knew I wouldn’t religiously stick to any schedule, this helped me draw a line between I’m-not-writing and I’m-writing.

But a big part of writing historical fiction isn’t writing at all. Any good historical novel is backed up by a truckload of research. Wise novelists know to be very judicious in deciding what ends up in the book – the right answer is: a small fraction of all you’ve learned – but all of that “unused” research is, in a way, used. It’s as if you drink in all that detail and then let a small amount of it seep through your pores.

So if you need to do extensive research while you happen to have a job and a family, the internet becomes your best friend. I learned this while writing my first book, The Island of Worthy Boys, when I discovered that The Beacon, the monthly newsletter written by the boys at the Boston Farm School, had been digitally scanned by some persistent soul at the UMass archives. Hundreds of issues, each several pages, were available dating from 1890, just a year after the time period of my book. I spent hours reading about the daily lives of the boys I wanted to write about – their job polishing lamp chimneys, their pet parrot and goat, their copious time spent in chapel.

After we arrived home from Philadelphia, I therefore fired up my laptop to start research for The Sharp Edge of Mercy, which is set at the New York Cancer Hospital in 1890. And I found… less than I had expected. Looking back, I can see that my expectations had been built on The Beacon, but the counterpart at this hospital was a series of dry annual reports. They dutifully reported how many beds were filled, even how many of which type of cancers were treated, but where were the details about the daily lives of the nurses? What did the patients eat? What was the building like? Who did the laundry?

I realized I had to go to the physical archives to see if there was anything I could use that had not been hoisted onto the internet. Given that the hospital was in Manhattan and had evolved into Sloan Kettering when it moved from Central Park West to the East Side, I assumed I would be taking a trip to somewhere in New York City. But much to my surprise, I discovered that what I needed was housed at the Rockefeller Archive Center in Sleepy Hollow, NY – the town where I went to high school! I took this weird coincidence as a sign from the universe confirming that this was the book for me to write.

author Connie Mayo
(credit: Sivan Lahav)

At the archives, I found two things that were instrumental in writing the book. The first was a set of blueprints of all the hospital floors. I could see the dining room, the parlor, the wards. I started to walk through the hospital in my mind. And on the bottom floor was a room labeled "Crematorium," which was not something they advertised in the annual reports. I knew immediately that my story would include the crematorium, even though there was no information about how it was used – that would have to come from my imagination (and a whole separate line of research about cremation in 1890).

The other thing I found that was tremendously useful was surgical notes. Captured on microfiche, the typed words on yellowed pages were a window into the state of surgery at the time. Never would I have imagined that whiskey would have been administered with a hypodermic needle when a patient was fading on the operating table, but there it was in black and white (well, black and yellow). Half of surgeries seemed to be about removing infected tissue from a prior surgery. There was certainly awareness that infection was as fierce an enemy as cancer, but not much ability to control it.

All this is not to say that the first book was produced only with digital research and the second with analog. Surfing for pictures of nurses uniforms and caps worn at the turn of the century, for example, was easy enough to do from the comfort of my desk chair. But it’s also true that if you want to find every gem of information, there is still no substitute for showing up in person.

~

 

Connie Hertzberg Mayo grew up in Westchester County, New York, but moved to Massachusetts to get a Literature degree from Tufts University and never ended up leaving. Her first book, The Island of Worthy Boys (She Writes Press, 2015) won the 2016 Gold Medal for Best Regional Fiction in the Independent Publisher Book Awards. Connie’s short story, “Little Breaks”, was published by Calyx Journal in 2017. Her latest novel, The Sharp Edge of Mercy, is published by Heliotrope Books in May 2022. Connie works as a Systems Analyst and empty-nests with her husband and two feuding cats. Visit her website at https://conniemayo.com.

Donna Everhart's The Saints of Swallow Hill, an engrossing tale of the Depression-era South

This novel is a terrific find—an engrossing example of Southern historical fiction that’s full of gritty realism, heart, and hope. Everhart introduces readers to the rarely-encountered setting of the pine forests near Valdosta, Georgia during the Depression, in the company of three people seeking a way out of their troubles.

Del Reese, a traveling farmhand who’s good-looking and knows it, juggles affairs with three married women until one farmer catches him with his wife and takes revenge. Rae Lynn Cobb has been happy with her older husband, Warren, with whom she runs a small North Carolina turpentine farm, until Warren’s clumsiness and stubbornness lead to a terrible accident and a moral dilemma. Both she and Del are drawn separately to the large Swallow Hill turpentine camp down in southern Georgia, where longleaf pines are tapped for their gum.

Their presence arouses curiosity. The woods rider supervising the camp, a cruel fellow named Crow, enforces the color line and disapproves of Del taking on work designated for Black men. Having disguised herself as a young man called Ray, Rae Lynn can’t keep up with the others and has trouble making quota; that and her scrappy attitude get her in hot water. (She makes a puzzling mistake in using the call name “Tar Heel” for her work while wanting to conceal her origins.) Then there’s Cornelia, the local commissary’s abused wife. It’s clear she needs rescuing.

The three characters elicit sympathy with their yearnings for something more; Swallow Hill is a nasty place run by mostly nasty people, though the villains aren’t stereotyped. With the intense summer heat, the rich scent of evergreens, and the hum of cicadas filling the air, the atmosphere rises off the page, and the folksy Southern-accented dialogue invites the reader in.

The Saints of Swallow Hill was published by Kensington in January, and I'd reviewed it for the Historical Novels Review's May issue. Donna Everhart has written many other Southern historical novels which I'm now determined to read.

Twelve intriguing historical fiction debuts for 2022

In the publishing world, debuts command a lot of attention. Media outlets appreciate hearing about new voices and learning what these authors bring to their chosen genre and to literature in general. Readers get introduced to new authors whose careers may be worth following. With this in mind, below are twelve works of historical fiction written by first novelists, with settings ranging from medieval times through the 20th century.  (Look out for a subsequent post focusing on second novels.)

Promoted as Mexican Gothic meets Rebecca, The Hacienda is suspenseful Gothic fiction set around a (literally) haunted house in 1820s Mexico, at the time of the country's war for independence. Berkley, May 2022.  [see on Goodreads] 

Christopher Cevasco, former publisher of the historical-speculative magazine Paradox (I was a longtime subscriber), debuts with Beheld: Godiva's Story, a dark re-imagining of the legend of Lady Godiva (Godgyfu) and her naked ride through the town of Coventry in the 11th century. Lethe Press, April 2022. [see on Goodreads]

Theatre of Marvels is Lianne Dillsworth's debut about a young mixed-race actress from London's East End confronting issues of identity and violence against women in Victorian times. Harper, April 2022. [see on Goodreads]

Kali Fajardo-Anstine's first novel Woman of Light is described as a multigenerational western saga about an indigenous Chicano family and their ancestral stories, set in the 1930s and earlier; the heroine, Luz Lopez, is a tea-leaf reader who sees visions of those who came before her. One World, June. [see on Goodreads]

Bonnie Garmus's debut is currently on the NYT bestseller list, an impressive feat! Lessons in Chemistry takes on 1960s-era misogyny with sly humor via the tale of a scientist, Elizabeth Zott, who becomes the star of a cooking show and develops an avid following.  Doubleday, April 2022. [see on Goodreads]

Aanchal Malhotra's debut is a multi-layered novel about art, politics, and cross-cultural romance, set against the backdrop of the struggle for Indian independence and the subsequent Partition in the 1930s-40s. Flatiron, December 2022. [see on Goodreads]

The Tobacco Wives by Adele Myers delves into the lives of the bigwigs in North Carolina's tobacco industry in the '40s. A young seamstress notices increasing health problems among their wives (her clients) and faces a difficult choice; should she speak up? William Morrow, March 2022. [see on Goodreads]

The lead title from UK publisher Bluemoose for 2022, Devika Ponnambalam's debut novel takes the historical figure Teha’amana, the young teenage bride of painter Paul Gauguin in late 19th-century Tahiti, seeing events from her viewpoint. A story of identity, art, and colonialism. Bluemoose, March 2022. [see on Goodreads]

This coming-of-age epic spans from the post-WWI period through occupied France in WWII and follows a girl and her eccentric family on a large Dorset estate as she grows up and finds her own place in the world. Knopf, October 2022.  [see on Goodreads]

The French Revolution and Reign of Terror are seen from a new angle in this debut which features a biracial heiress from Saint-Domingue (later called Haiti) who flees violence in her home country and travels across the globe, only to be engulfed in another revolution. Berkley, August 2022. [see on Goodreads]

An interesting premise: in Mallorca in the 19th century, when writer George Sand and her lover Chopin  visit in the hopes he'll recover his health, another presence encounters them: the ghost of a young woman who died in the 15th century, and who falls in love with Sand (who can't see her). Scribner, July 2022. [see on Goodreads]

Secrets surrounding an ancient Greek vase spill over into Georgian London when Pandora "Dora" Blake, a would-be jewellery designer, investigates the vase following its arrival at her uncle's antique shop. Harvill Secker (UK), January 2022. [see on Goodreads]

The Eleventh Commandment by Mary F. Burns delves into a Victorian-era archaeological scandal

On March 9, 1884, a Jerusalem-based antiquities dealer named Moses Wilhelm Shapira was found dead in his Rotterdam hotel room. He had presumably killed himself in despair, following revelations that the leathery scroll fragments he’d tried to sell to the British Museum for a million pounds were forgeries. But did he, in fact, commit suicide? And were the documents fake?

These tantalizing questions circle through Mary F. Burns’ latest historical mystery. Her amateur detectives – this is fourth in a series, though it stands fine on its own – are good friends Violet Paget (noted writer under the pseudonym Vernon Lee) and John Singer Sargent (the successful portrait painter).

The Eleventh Commandment imagines that before his death, Shapira had mailed some of the scrolls to Sargent, a sympathetic acquaintance, for safekeeping since he feared for his life. After receiving them and learning about Shapira’s death, John and Violet join forces with Lord James Parke, a mutual friend on the board of the British Museum, to discover the truth. They board a train to Rotterdam, where their adventures begin. Scenes of their investigation alternate with an account written by Myriam Harry, Shapira’s daughter, describing her father’s life and sharing her concerns about his welfare.

In all my years of reading historical fiction, this was my first acquaintance with Moses Shapira and the controversy over the “Shapira Scrolls,” which mysteriously vanished from sight long ago. Debates about their authenticity still percolate today. Shapira had believed they’d command a high price because one fragment, with text written in ancient Hebrew, appeared to contain an early version of Deuteronomy from the Old Testament, with an unfamiliar new commandment.

Shapira was a colorful character, a Polish-born Jew who converted to Christianity, moved to the Holy Land, developed a passion for Biblical artifacts, and opened a shop catering to other “good Christians who yearn for evidence of the truths in the Bible,” as his wife describes in the novel. His life was highly dramatic, and it’s all here: treasure-seeking excursions into the Middle Eastern desert, cutthroat academic rivalry, thievery, scandal… and that’s all before the scrolls come into the picture.

Regarding the fictional aspects, Violet and John form a good team. In real life, the pair were childhood friends, and their warm, mutually supportive relationship is fun to witness. Both have other preoccupations, too. John is struggling to perfect his Madame X portrait, and Violet amusingly maneuvers through awkward situations with the parents of her romantic interest, poet Mary Robinson. The suspect list is limited in comparison to other mysteries, though because it avoids simplistic solutions, the story is particularly thought-provoking. The circumstances of what might have happened when, how, and by whom are interesting to puzzle out.

The Eleventh Commandment was published by Word by Word Press in March (thanks to the author for sharing a PDF with me).

Sarah Bird's Last Dance on the Starlight Pier takes you into the world of Depression-era dance marathons

Awakening exhausted on the Galveston beach after a dance marathon, Evie Grace Devlin witnesses the fiery destruction of the Starlight Palace, the performance venue, while recalling a terrible mistake she made.

Following this striking opening, the story rewinds three years to 1929, as Evie flees her traumatic vaudeville past and her vain, abusive mother by enrolling in nursing school in Galveston. Here she finds friendship and her calling. When her nursing pin is unjustly withheld, Evie grudgingly returns to the entertainment world as nurse for a dance marathon group, including its dashing star, Zave.

Bird (Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen, 2018) is a master at crafting narrative voices, and Evie’s is an irresistible blend of scrappy determination and vulnerability. Despite her street smarts, her instincts sometimes lead her astray.

The Depression is a multifaceted character in this addictive tale, which evokes ferocious dust storms, dance marathons’ demanding rules, and Chicago nightlife as acutely as the emotions of desperate Americans seizing happiness wherever they can. As the novel stirringly demonstrates in multiple ways, home can be found amid people who accept us for ourselves.

Last Dance on the Starlight Pier is published this month by St. Martin's; I wrote this review for Booklist's March 1 issue. 

Some additional comments:

- Interestingly, one aspect of the text has changed since I read it. The Edelweiss e-copy had "Starlite Palace" and "Starlite Pier," although the title spelled it Starlight. I checked against the Look Inside on Amazon just now, and the book now has "Starlight," so I've adjusted it in my review above. The publisher must have decided before publication to use the more conventional spelling throughout.  Confusing for those of us who read it early!  (I prefer the original spelling, fwiw)

- No room to say this in the review, but one favorite character was Sofie Amadeo, Evie's best friend and fellow nursing student, and the daughter of the Italian crime family that essentially runs Galveston. If you're expecting a stereotypically pampered Mafia princess, you won't find it here. Sofie's determined to chart her own course in life.

- The world of Depression-era dance marathons is so alluring and strange. There's a reason Evie is brought on board as a nurse (the performers' feet get tired, and they're susceptible to injuries). In order to outlast their opponents on the dance floor, and earn the big cash prize, couples take turns sleeping in each other's arms while the awake partner shuffles them around. Participants also received free meals, one big perk at a time when hunger and poverty were widespread.  Read more at Atlas Obscura.

Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tinghui Zhang revisits the American West from a compelling new viewpoint

How do you restore agency over your life when you have few choices and you’re forced to hide your identity to survive? Such is the central question within Four Treasures of the Sky, an enlightening and haunting coming-of-age tale about a Chinese teenager trying to outpace what she believes is a tragic destiny.

Lin Daiyu has always hated her name, taken from a legendary heroine who sadly died young after a romantic betrayal. Even so, she enjoys an idyllic childhood with her loving parents and grandmother in a coastal fishing village. Her world changes in an instant after her mother and father, talented tapestry-makers, suddenly vanish. For Daiyu’s safety, her grandmother sends her off alone, disguised as a boy, to the city of Zhifu, where she’s taken in by a master calligrapher and surreptitiously picks up his skills. The lessons that calligraphy teaches her remain throughout her life.

Once again, her time of peace and learning isn’t to last. While visiting a fish market in 1882, at age thirteen, she’s kidnapped, forced to learn English (for greater appeal to her future white customers), and shipped inside a coal bucket to San Francisco, where she’s sold into a prosperous brothel run by the ambitious Madam Lee and renamed “Peony.” Her adventures, such as they are, don’t end there.

With her outer persona – her name, clothing, gender – repeatedly changed, Daiyu must conceal her true self, with the ghost of the long-dead Lin Daiyu echoing in her head yet unable to help her. The way Zhang portrays Daiyu’s interior life is breathtakingly complex and works well in keeping with the trials she endures. Daiyu speaks in first-person present tense, without quotation marks for dialogue, which causes only rare confusion between her narrative and others’ speech.

In an era where almost everyone seeks to crush her humanity – we see many examples of bigotry, and of how Chinese girls are considered disposable – Daiyu’s voice sings out clearly. In her author’s note, Zhang writes of her purpose in bringing the history of systemic discrimination and violence against the Chinese into the popular consciousness, especially with the rising number of hate crimes against Asians in the U.S. today. Historical fiction is an ideal vehicle for revealing little-known stories such as this, and Daiyu’s personal story – which she fiercely owns at last – is one people need to hear.

Four Treasures of the Sky was published by Flatiron/Macmillan this month; I read it from an Edelweiss e-copy.

The Italian Girl's Secret by Natalie Meg Evans draws readers into wartime Naples

This story offers an intensely powerful view of wartime Naples and surrounding towns from an Italian woman’s perspective. By 1943, it has been four years since Carmela del Bosco returned from England, where she attended school and experienced terrible loss. She now lives in a farmhouse with her Nonna in the hills outside Naples, growing tomatoes and raising animals, while the occupying Germans roam the countryside, rooting out dissent.

When her half-brother Danielo, a resistance fighter, asks her to conceal a wounded soldier, Sebastiano, she resists bringing the stranger into her home, fearing her Fascist second cousins’ wrath. Instead, she reluctantly agrees to harbor Sebastiano nearby within an abandoned vedetta, a stone watchtower. His wits confused by morphine, the man speaks in English to Carmela and reveals his mission to find a wireless operator to communicate crucial information to the Allies. From that point on, every action Carmela takes draws her into danger.

Despite the publisher’s blurb (which is partly inaccurate), this story is not primarily a romance but a tale of a woman’s and family’s struggle for survival when there are no safe places—not even a beloved home—and split-second decisions have major repercussions. Knowing who to trust is paramount, and while Carmela may seem annoyingly naïve in letting some secrets slip, her flawed nature makes her seem more real in the end.

The family interactions are riveting. Carmela’s father, Don Gonzago, is a minor nobleman with a messy romantic history, and his palazzo, with its underground vaults, is the scene for many vivid moments. Carmela’s beloved dog, Renzo, is part of her family, too, and her concern for his welfare is heartwarming. In a taut, action-filled style, Evans exposes the unsentimental brutality of wartime and digs deep in revealing her characters’ emotions as Carmela faces her past and makes choices that affect her future.

The Italian Girl's Secret was published by Bookouture in 2021; I'd reviewed it from NetGalley for the Historical Novels Review.

Toto Koopman—Model and Spy, a guest post from historical novelist Maryka Biaggio

I'm extending a welcome today to Maryka Biaggio, who has an essay about a WWII heroine, Toto Koopman, you likely won't have heard of, as she explains below.  She also provides insight into why Toto's life story is well worth knowing. Maryka's novel The Model Spy was published yesterday (find it on Amazon and Goodreads).

~

Toto Koopman—Model and Spy

Maryka Biaggio

Some years ago, I came across a biography of Toto Koopman, a woman largely unknown today. The Many Lives of Miss K by Jean-Noël Liaut was originally published in France. It’s a slight biography, covering all of Toto Koopman’s life in 230-some pages, and opens with this:

‘It’s Mademoiselle! I never wanted to marry,’ countered Catharina ‘Toto’ Koopman to anyone who dared to address her as Madame. It was the same answer she gave throughout her life, a long life of adventure, peril, conflict and intrigue; a life where petty rancor and timid imagination had no place and simplistic dualism had no voice—the extraordinary journey of a beguiling woman.

I was hooked. Thus began my quest to fashion a novel about Toto’s World War II ventures.

Toto was arguably the first woman to spy for the British Intelligence Service. Her life is not well documented, and she left no letters or diaries. That presented challenges and opportunities for me as a writer. I wanted, as much as possible, to accurately portray her experiences during the war, but I had little to go on. I spent over five years chasing down the clues nested in her biography and immersing myself in fiction and nonfiction about Italy’s fractured politics, Mussolini’s reign, the economic state of Italy leading up to and through the war, Mussolini’s son-in-law and Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano, female spies, and Allied strategies in the European theater.

Toto Koopman was born in Indonesia to a Dutch father and Indonesian mother. Educated in Holland and London, she had it all—beauty, brains, and fame. She took up the life of a bon vivant in 1920s Paris and modeled for Vogue magazine and Coco Chanel. Fluent in six languages, she was adventurous and daring. Still, I wondered, why did she walk away from a successful modeling career—and the prospect of an even more successful career in the nascent but burgeoning film industry of the 1930s? I had to answer this question if I was going to accurately portray her immersion in the world of espionage.

In the mid-1930s, Toto left Paris for London, where she attracted the attention of Lord Beaverbrook, the William Randolph Hearst of England. She soon became his confidante, companion and translator, traversing Europe and finding herself caught in the winds of impending war. Beaverbrook introduced her to influential people, including a director at the British Intelligence Service, who schooled her in espionage.

On the eve of World War II, Toto gave up her exciting and comfortable life in London and moved to Florence. There she joined the Italian resistance and began sending intelligence to London. This was not without significant risks—she was a public figure, photographed by some of Europe’s most famous photographers, and featured in social columns in London, Paris, and Berlin newspapers. Biracial, elegant, and vivacious, she could not simply melt into anonymity.

Toto Koopman obviously held strong beliefs about the war effort. I believe that her childhood experiences with prejudice and her tutelage in world politics under Beaverbrook ignited a fervent interest in the hate-mongering and authoritarian movements sweeping the Continent at that time. This I considered the key to her decision to spy. But that didn’t mean she would have an easy time of it. As she bravely took up the role of spy, Mussolini’s Blackshirts and the Nazi’s military intelligence pursued her. Operating in the hotbed of Mussolini's Italy, she courted danger every step of the way. And as the war entered its final stages, she faced off against the most brutal of forces—the Abwehr, Germany's Intelligence Service. It was not easy to write about her harrowing experiences, but it was worth the effort. Toto was one of the many brave souls who fought the good fight and sacrificed much to see the Allies through the darkness of that terrible war.

~

Maryka Biaggio, Ph.D., is a psychology professor turned novelist who specializes in historical fiction based on real people. Her most recent novel, The Model Spy, is based on the true story of Toto Koopman, who spied for the Allies and Italian Resistance during World War II. Her website is www.MarykaBiaggio.com, and for more information on the novel, please check out the book trailer.

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn, her thrilling novel about a real-life WWII heroine

Quinn (The Rose Code, 2021) incorporates the life of Lyudmila Pavlichenko, history’s most successful female sniper, into this thrilling novel.

In 1941, after the Nazis invade her Soviet homeland, Mila, a library researcher and single mother with an arrogant, estranged husband, leaves her family and university studies to join the Red Army, intent on utilizing her marksmanship training.

The on-the-ground action is propulsive as Mila forms bonds with other soldiers while battling sexism and waiting patiently in trenches for her targets to appear. Quinn alternates these immersively realistic scenes with a narrative set in 1942, as danger stalks Mila and President Roosevelt during her overseas goodwill tour to persuade America to open a second front in Europe.

From the killer opening line to the suspenseful denouement, Quinn’s novel is a winner. Set aside any preconceptions about a sniper’s typical personality. Mila is a brave, witty woman of steely resolve—“don’t miss” is her modus operandi—who falls passionately in love, totes her history dissertation around on missions, and collects leaf samples to mail home to her son. Her unusual friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt is another highlight.

Novels about WWII heroines are having a moment, and this is a stellar example. Recommend it to fans of Ariel Lawhon’s Code Name Hélène (2020) and all lovers of smart historical fiction.

The Diamond Eye is published today by William Morrow; I wrote this starred review for Booklist's Feb. 15th issue. As mentioned in my previous post about novels focused on Ukraine and Ukrainians, Lyudmila Pavlichenko was born in what's now Ukraine and is a fierce defender of her homeland against the Nazi invaders.  If you know little to nothing about her life before reading this novel (as I did), I advise avoiding Wikipedia or other biographical articles; there be spoilers!  

Twelve historical novels featuring Ukraine and Ukrainians

Like countless others, I've been horrified by the war in Ukraine and the suffering among the people there. My interest in the country's history is also personal since my maternal ancestors originated from places now part of Ukraine: specifically Bolekhiv (Bolechow), Kolomyia, and Kyiv. They all left in the early 20th century and settled in New York and Philadelphia. The circumstances are very different, of course, but events of the last month have had me reflecting on their decisions to flee their homelands to escape life-threatening oppression.

Country borders have changed significantly over the last century and a half, which has made research a challenge. At different times, the lands from which they hailed were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Poland, or the Russian Empire. It was interesting to come across my great-grandfather's naturalization record in which he renounced allegiance to Nicholas II, Emperor of all the Russias!

The following historical novels, primarily set more than 50 years in the past, aim to illustrate the lives and experiences of earlier generations of people living within the borders of contemporary Ukraine. You'll note a frequent thread in these works is the fight against persecution and tyranny. Please feel free to recommend additional titles in the comments.

A century-spanning saga, Alina Adams' The Nesting Dolls traces the story of women in a Jewish family from 1930s Odesa across the Atlantic to Brighton Beach, New York, in the 21st century, incorporating themes of loyalty, hope, and the aftermath of painful choices. The author herself comes from Odesa. [see on Goodreads]

A young doctor who is going blind, Zinaida Lintvaryova, befriends a young man from Moscow, Anton Chekhov, when his family rents a dacha on her estate in eastern Ukraine (based on real-life history). This drama set in 1888 gets juxtaposed against a modern woman reading Zinaida's diaries. [see on Goodreads]

To escape anti-Semitic pogroms in their shtetl near Odessa, members of a Jewish family decide to emigrate to America, but assimilating into the culture of their new country isn't easy. A novel of persecution, generational differences, and resilience. [see on Goodreads]

A young Jewish mother hopes to make a new start in America by emigrating in 1905 with her two surviving daughters after the rest of their family was killed in pogroms in Ukraine, but memories of their trauma remain; this saga spans four generations. [see on Goodreads]

In her forthcoming debut, conceptualized well before the events of today, the author dramatizes the terrible events of the Holodomor of the 1930s, the man-made famine instituted by Stalin in which millions of Ukrainians died. The story is told from the viewpoint of a 16-year-old girl as she comes of age during this horrible time, and that of her granddaughter 70 years later. Out in May. [see on Goodreads]

The heroine of Kate Quinn's latest historical thriller is Lyudmila "Mila" Pavlichenko, a Ukrainian library researcher who trains in marksmanship and becomes history's most accomplished female sniper, using her sharp-eyed skills as part of the Soviet army against the Nazis during WWII. There are echoes of today in seeing Ukrainians' indefatigable fight to defend their homeland. Based on a true story. This novel is published next week. [see on Goodreads]

Seiffert, whose novel The Dark Room was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, has written a wrenching Holocaust novel about a diverse cast of characters in WWII-era Ukraine, as Nazi soldiers invade a small town. [see on Goodreads]

Susan Sherman's novel The Little Russian takes its title from an older (and imperialist) nickname for Ukraine which was in use at the time the story takes place, the turn of the 20th century. She based her main character on her grandmother, a young Jewish woman who struggles to keep herself and her family alive in a time of political turmoil.  Read the guest post she wrote for my site back in 2012. [see on Goodreads]

This slim literary novel opens in 1989, as an opera singer is murdered in the streets of Lviv while fighting for Ukrainian independence from the Soviets. The narrator, her daughter, takes readers on a journey encompassing the history of her maternal ancestors and of her beloved, politically troubled city. Translated by Antonia Lloyd Jones.  [see on Goodreads]

The publisher's blurb for this emotional historical novel says the author based her story on intensive research and interviews with Ukrainian WWII survivors.  Told from four individuals' viewpoints during the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union and the bombing of Kyiv, it reveals not only the darkness and cruelty of the time but also people's resiliency and hope.  [see on Goodreads]

Mark Sullivan's The Last Green Valley, also a novel of Ukraine during WWII, is inspired by the true story of a family of German heritage, farmers in the Ukrainian countryside, forced into a dangerous, life-altering decision in 1944, as Stalin's Red Army approaches their home. [see on Goodreads]

From Ukrainian novelist Oksana Zabuzhko comes a complex, 700-page epic covering six decades in Ukraine, beginning in the pre-WWII years and focusing on three women. They including a brave member of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army killed by Stalin's forces in 1947 and a journalist researching her life years later. Translated by Nina Shevchuk-Murray.  [See on Goodreads]

Lorena Hughes' The Spanish Daughter takes readers to vibrant 1920s coastal Ecuador

Lorena Hughes’ second novel drops a murder mystery into a simmering tale of sibling rivalry, gender-bending impersonation, and chocolate, and the result is scrumptiously readable. As in her debut, The Sisters of Alameda Street (2017), The Spanish Daughter vibrantly recreates the author’s native Ecuador.

In 1920, the coastal city of Vinces is known for its European architecture and cacao production. An experienced chocolatier, María Purificación de Lafont y Toledo, called Puri, sails from Seville to claim an inheritance from her late father, cacao plantation owner Don Armand, who had abandoned her and her mother decades earlier. She discovers, to her shock, that someone wants her dead.

Aboard the ship to Ecuador, Puri’s husband Cristóbal is killed in an attack meant for her, and so Puri disguises herself as Cristóbal—lowering her voice, wearing his clothes, and donning false facial hair—to determine who wanted to steal her rightful legacy. Puri surprisingly learns that her father had a second family, but while her half-siblings are resentful over Don Armand’s will, they treat “Don Cristóbal” with respect and don’t seem especially murderous.

This family has secrets aplenty, though, and Puri must sneak around the hacienda without letting her disguise slip, a challenge when she’s not comfortable riding horses, and when the dashing plantation administrator takes her drinking and to visit prostitutes (these scenes and Puri’s reactions are hilarious). The story explores gender roles with thought-provoking understanding. The plot feels initially jumpy when the viewpoint switches to Puri’s half-sisters at different times in the past, but these segments serve to illustrate family dynamics while adding to the puzzle.

It almost seems impossible there could be a satisfying ending to this complex state of affairs, but there is, very much so, and the novel’s atmosphere is as rich as Puri’s chocolate recipes.

The Spanish Daughter was published last December by Kensington, and I reviewed it from NetGalley for the Historical Novels Review. I'd also reviewed The Sisters of Alameda Street when it came out and look forward to more works by this author.

Discussing Bryn Turnbull's The Last Grand Duchess on the Off the Shelf videocast

I had a great time yesterday evening chatting about Bryn Turnbull's The Last Grand Duchess on Off the Shelf, a videocast hosted by authors Barb Wallace, Renee Ryan, and Donna Alward. Thanks to Barb, Renee, and Donna for inviting me as a guest and for letting me choose this episode's discussion book!

The Last Grand Duchess, subtitled "A Novel of Olga Romanov, Imperial Russia, and Revolution," looks at the last years of the Russian imperial family through the eyes of the Tsar and Tsarina's oldest daughter, Olga. As she comes of age, her eyes begin opening to the reality of the political situation around her, and her parents' role in creating it. 

It's a dual-timeline novel that contrasts an era of opulent balls, tea parties, and the advent of WWI with scenes taking place several years later, beginning in 1917, after Nicholas II's forced abdication of the throne and the family's subsequent captivity and exile. Everyone had opinions on the split-timeline aspect, which made for a good discussion.

The program's just under an hour. It's embedded below and also available by visiting YouTube.

Off the Shelf is an offshoot of the Step into the Story Facebook group (which I'm part of), and the show has regular episodes with discussions about intriguing historical novels and aspects of the writing process.  I'm glad to have been a part of it!

Kerri Maher's The Paris Bookseller celebrates Sylvia Beach, publisher and bookshop owner in 1920s literary Paris

In a novel exuberant, bittersweet, and reflective by turns, Maher explores the life of Sylvia Beach, doyenne of the American expat literary scene during the interwar years as proprietress of the English-language bookstore Shakespeare and Company. Unlike many writers whose work she championed, Beach may not be a household name, but the story gives her her due, recognizing that it takes a special talent to create a space where art can thrive.

In 1919, Sylvia arrives in the French capital, content to breathe the air of this “most rare and wonderful of places.” She finds a spiritual home at the bookshop of Adrienne Monnier, a young raven-haired Parisian to whom she’s attracted. Adrienne is already attached, but she and her partner welcome Sylvia to their literary life.

An admirer of the unabashed honesty of Kate Chopin and James Joyce, Sylvia discovers her true métier lies in supporting the power of art to “be new, to make change, to alter minds.” Establishing her own bookstore and lending library sets her on this path, making her store a magnet for the literati.

The atmosphere feels effervescent with creativity, though after obstacles to Sylvia’s dreams fall away (she and Adrienne become a couple at last), the story lacks conflict. Momentum increases once Sylvia takes up the challenge of publishing the manuscript of Joyce’s Ulysses herself, since the work is deemed obscene in the United States.

The ways she and her friends circumvent would-be censors to get the book into American readers’ hands are brilliant. Joyce may be a genius, but he has definite character flaws, and the story offers a deep look at their complicated relationship and Sylvia’s own emotions as she questions how much she should give of herself in indulging him. In the end, readers will emerge with sincere appreciation for the artistic spirit and courage of a remarkable woman.

The Paris Bookseller was published by Berkley last month, and I reviewed it from NetGalley for the Historical Novels Review.  Historical fiction about librarians and booksellers has become popular; unsurprisingly, readers love reading about other people who appreciate books and literature. Read more about the story behind the book in Trish MacEnulty's interview with the author for the same HNR issue.

Louisa Morgan's The Great Witch of Brittany tells a tale of women's magic in rural 18th-century France

Morgan wrote this book in response to reader requests for more about Ursule Orchière, the elderly matriarch from A Secret History of Witches. At the beginning of that novel, Grandmère Ursule used a tremendous feat of magic to protect her descendants from witch-hunters and point their way to a safer home across the sea.

The Great Witch of Brittany is an expansive saga that should satisfy her fans’ expectations for a prequel and then some. Like the menhirs on the field where the Orchières rest their caravan, it also stands proudly on its own.

In 1763, in a Romani settlement outside Carnac-Ville in northwest France, Ursule is a plain, dark-eyed thirteen-year-old who assists her fortune-teller mother, Agnes. Although the Orchière women have a heritage of witchcraft, none among their large clan can work magic until Ursule’s latent abilities awaken during puberty. When Ursule unknowingly blurts out a hidden truth about a client, the situation turns dangerous, forcing Ursule to flee and leave the travelers’ life behind.

We know that Ursule will become a mother and grandmother, but not how that came about. Suffice it to say that in ensuring the continuation of her line, Ursule must weigh whether to use her knowledge of spells and tonics toward this purpose. Unsurprisingly, she also faces prejudice due to her skin color throughout her long life.

Aside from repercussions from the French Revolution, historical events don’t intrude much, although the scenes of pagan festivals and daily life in the pre-industrial Breton countryside are skillfully illustrated. The book spans nearly sixty years, and Ursule and her family comes to feel like old friends as she moves from maiden to mother to crone with guidance from her ancient grimoire, scrying stone, a raven familiar, and the voices of her predecessors. For fans of feminist historical fantasy, this tale of women’s stories, power, and mysteries will greatly appeal.

The Great Witch of Brittany was published by RedHook this month, and I'd reviewed it from NetGalley for the Historical Novels Review.  I actually enjoyed it more than the original book, which I'd reviewed in 2017.

Jane and the Year Without a Summer by Stephanie Barron takes Jane Austen to the spas of Cheltenham in 1816

In May 1816, Jane Austen and her beloved sister, Cassandra, embark on a two-week stay in the fashionable English spa town of Cheltenham to take the waters and stroll about the streets. Sadly, Jane has been plagued by illness, with little appetite, and suffering from backaches, fatigue, and an odd sallow complexion. If she can manage to distract herself from her poor health and her brothers’ personal problems, maybe Jane will find time to work on her manuscript-in-progress, “The Elliots,” while she’s away.

She and Cassandra take lodgings at Mrs. Potter’s, a boarding house on the High Street whose other guests are an eccentric and motley bunch, including a beautiful invalid heiress with a waspish temper, the companion who attends her in her wheeled chair, a middle-aged brother-sister pair whose self-centeredness knows no bounds, a young woman who gives elocution lessons to actors, and more. Meanwhile, Jane has trouble setting aside thoughts of Mr. Raphael West, a handsome past admirer, and wonders why he hasn’t renewed their acquaintance.

In her fourteenth Jane Austen mystery, Stephanie Barron smoothly interweaves real events from Jane Austen’s life with a fictional crime scenario involving her fellow lodgers, at least one of whom has murder in mind. You may be excused for forgetting, early on, about the novel’s intended genre, since the plot ambles along nicely for a while without any deadly happenings.

author Stephanie Barron

Jane and Cassandra sample the waters at the Pump House (which taste absolutely vile!), and her visit to a local physician gets her blood boiling, a reaction that women especially will identify with. The Austen sisters become curious about the mysterious “Beauty in the Bath Chair” and her reasons for being in Cheltenham. Make no mistake, though, this genteel mystery has teeth, and Jane, with her famously astute observations on human nature, is there to untangle it all.

The novel is written in the form of a period piece authored by Jane herself, complete with Regency-era diction, vocabulary, and spellings, plus historical footnotes contributed by the book’s “editor.” Through them, we’re told (or reminded, for those in the know) about the meaning of the title: following the eruption of Mt. Tambora in the Dutch East Indies the previous year, the weather across Europe in 1816 was unnaturally cold and dismal. Footnotes in historical fiction only work well in certain instances, and this is one of them.

Despite Jane’s literary brilliance (and deductive success, as imagined here), it’s impossible, while reading this story, to set aside the sorrowful fact that her life—and by implication, perhaps this series as well—is drawing to a close. The ending, while bittersweet, feels just right for the book, and for readers who haven’t sampled Jane’s previous adventures, there are thirteen others to anticipate.

Stephanie Barron's Jane and the Year Without a Summer is published by Soho Press this month (I reviewed it from a NetGalley copy for the author's blog tour).

Eva Stachniak's The School of Mirrors presents a new view of 18th-century women's lives at Versailles

Stachniak casts empathetic light on a French mother and daughter whose lives are affected by royal privilege.

By 1755, Louis XV, weary of court formalities and dramas, has become a “connoisseur of innocence,” so his valet de chambre procures untouched teenage girls for his pleasures. Believing she’ll be entering domestic service, pretty, lower-class Véronique Roux arrives at a house near the Versailles palace and gets instructed in the courtesan’s arts. Her patron’s identity is kept concealed, and Véronique loses access to their daughter, Marie-Louise, after her birth.

Marie-Louise becomes a skilled midwife though often wonders about the parents she never knew. As revolutionary fervor builds, her secret royal heritage could become a liability if it’s discovered.

Stachniak combines a delicately embroidered historical world with enduring situations, like the exploitation of the less fortunate and parent-child relationships. Her multifaceted approach also showcases Queen Marie Leszczyńska’s charity work and a fascinating cloth mannequin used to train midwives.

The theme of illusion versus authenticity emerges in subtle ways. This accomplished novel should enthrall Francophiles and women’s history enthusiasts.

The School of Mirrors will be published next week by William Morrow; I turned in this review for Booklist, and the final review was published in their January 1st issue.

Some background information:

- The house where Véronique resides during her time as a mistress-in-training (and later mistress in fact) was a real place called Parc-aux-Cerfs, or Deer Park, as it's called in the novel. Read more about it at the This Is Versailles blog.

- Angelique Marguerite Le Boursier du Coudray, known as Madame du Coudray, was a pioneering midwife who trained other women across France in her profession.  Her cloth mannequin, called the "machine," is a cloth anatomical model used to demonstrate the birthing process, and a photo can be found on her Wikipedia page. Stachniak shares more information in her author's note about Madame du Coudray's revolutionary teaching methods, and how they gave young women agency in a world dominated by powerful men.

- Stachniak is also the author of other recommended historical novels about historical women, including The Chosen Maiden about choreographer Bronislava Nijinska; The Winter Palace and Empress of the Night about Catherine the Great; and Garden of Venus, about 19th-century courtesan, and later countess, Sophie Potocka.

Some romantic historical reads for Valentine's Day

In a comment to a recent post, Tiffany asked about “some recommendations or your favorite romances for some good Valentine's Day reading.” I pondered this for a while, since I don’t currently read a lot of genre romances; I enjoy them, but my reviewing schedule doesn’t allow me to dive into these books as much as I’d like.

 But if we’re talking about love stories across the entire historical fiction spectrum, I can easily provide some recommendation on that score. Many of these novels are best described as historical fiction with romantic elements. I tend to go for deeper themes in my romances, rather than lighter, fluffier fare. Also, most are older titles that could be described as classics.

These are in no particular order. Please share your own favorites in the comments.

Jojo Moyes, The Last Letter from Your Lover, a dual-period romantic mystery, set in 1960 and over forty years later, about a woman who developed amnesia after a terrible car accident, and who starts questioning the truth about her marriage after finding a mysterious love letter. The movie adaptation (which I thought was just okay) oversimplified the story and omitted one of my favorite parts. This prompted me to reread the novel, which was as good as I remembered.

Madeline Hunter’s medieval romances, including By Arrangement and By Design, set in 14th-century London and which feature characters from different social classes. I wish medieval romances were still in vogue so we could see more like this.

Overseas by Beatriz Williams, her first novel, a complex time-travel story about a modern American woman and a British officer in the Great War. Julian Ashford is a wonderful, honorable hero in this timeless love story.

Tempest by Beverly Jenkins, a mail-order bride romance with plenty of surprises, featuring African American characters in the Old West.

Meredith Duran’s Duke of Shadows, another first novel (from 2008), a meaty Victorian romance with a biracial hero, set in India and England, with exquisite writing which is unafraid to delve into darker issues.

Jeannie Lin’s My Fair Concubine, part of her Tang Dynasty series, a nuanced love story about honor, duty, and class differences with a new take on the classic “My Fair Lady” scenario.

Passing Glory by Reay Tannahill, one of my favorites of her sprawling romantic sagas, which begins in early 20th century England and spans fifty years. It won the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s Novel of the Year, and the ending is most definitely earned.

The Dutch Girl by Donna Thorland, which I read last year; it’s a full-bodied historical novel of American Revolution-era New York, with strong romantic elements and a plotline involving adventure, secret identities, and the history of Dutch settlement in America. The attention to historical detail is impressive.

Piper Huguley’s Home to Milford College series, romantic historical fiction set in the Reconstruction-era South, about the love story between two African American characters who found a fictional historically Black college. Start with The Preacher’s Promise.

Pamela Belle’s Heron Saga, a family saga and star-crossed love story of 17th-century England, published in the 1980s and reissued by Lume Books, so new readers will get a chance to discover them. The Moon in the Water is book one.

Beau Crusoe by Carla Kelly, a Regency romance involving a troubled hero suffering from PTSD and a widow struggling to overcome a scandalous past. I first wrote about it here.