

Excerpt: The Enemy's Wife (Survivors of War) by Deborah Swift
1941. When Zofia’s beloved husband Haru is conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Army, she is left to navigate Japanese-occupied Shanghai alone.
Far from home and surrounded by a country at war, Zofia finds unexpected comfort in a bond with Hilly, a spirited young refugee escaping Nazi-occupied Austria.
Archaeolibrarian
Apr 24


Excerpt: Lucie Dumas by Katherine Mezzacappa
London, 1871: Lucie Dumas of Lyon has accepted a stipend from her former lover and his wife, on condition that she never returns to France; she will never see her young son again. As the money proves inadequate, Lucie turns to prostitution to live, joining the ranks of countless girls from continental Europe who'd come to London in the hope of work in domestic service.
Archaeolibrarian
Apr 23


Excerpt: A Taste of Evil (Hani's Daughter Mysteries #5) by N. L. Holmes
In Tutankhamen's Egypt, the vizier's head cook dies suspiciously, and it looks like murder to Neferet and Bener-ib. Only, who would want to kill a cook, a man admired by all?
Archaeolibrarian
Apr 9


Spotlight: The Queen’s Maid: Anne Boleyn in France (The Anne Boleyn Chronicles, #2) by Rozsa Gaston
After an enlightening period of training as a lady’s maid at Margaret of Austria’s court, Anne Boleyn has been sent to France.
She arrives at the Palace of Tournelles, home of ageing King Louis and his new English wife, Mary Tudor, sister of King Henry VIII. As Anne speaks French, her main role is to serve as translator for Queen Mary.
Archaeolibrarian
Mar 27


Excerpt: The Lost Seigneur (A Chateau Laux Odyssey #2) by David Loux
It is the story of Jean-Pierre du Laux, a nobleman in southern France, who was wrongly imprisoned during a time of religious intolerance and subsequently endeavors to return to his family. Many years have passed since he saw them, and his long incarceration has broken his health.
Archaeolibrarian
Mar 26


Excerpt: Code of Honour (Soldier Spy #3) by Rosemary Hayes
Will Fraser and Duncan Armstrong have served their country well as spies, exposing traitors and rescuing betrayed royalists.
Now they are asked to support military operations in the Peninsular War. The French are using a new code which is proving impossible to decipher. Will and Armstrong must work with Spanish guerrillas to intercept messages between French Commanders and pass them to Wellington’s codebreakers.
Archaeolibrarian
Mar 24


Excerpt: Rogues & Kings (Tales of Robin Hood #2) by Charlene Newcomb
The year is 1216 and civil war rages in England. King John ravages the countryside against rebellious barons and a French invasion. Unbeknownst to him, his newest squire, Richard, is in fact the son of a man the king would hang without a second thought. A man the common folk call Robin Hood.
Archaeolibrarian
Mar 13


Spotlight: The Green Baize Door (A Marie Chevalier Mystery, #1) by Eleanor Birney
In the fashionable mansions on Chestnut Hill, a simple green baize door separates the masters’ world from the servants’. That door is thrown wide when an elderly housekeeper is found brutally murdered on the first day of the new century. Marie Chevalier, the housekeeper’s poor but ambitious granddaughter, and James Lett, the mansion owner’s kind but indolent son, suspect the killer is connected to one of their families—but which one?
Archaeolibrarian
Mar 10


Review: A Theory in Vienna by Heidi Gallacher
‘I bring to light a truth, which was unknown for many centuries with direful results for the human race.’ – Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis.
Imagine you’d discovered something. Something that could save hundreds of thousands of lives. But they wouldn’t let you tell anyone. Wouldn’t it drive you mad?
Merissa
Mar 5


Excerpt: One Fine Voice by Rebecca Langston-George
All her life, Esther Hopkins has been told she has a mighty fine voice.
Still, she can't believe her luck when just days after moving to town, she's invited to sing a solo at the 1923 Independence Day picnic. But the group sponsoring the picnic is not the benevolent fraternal order they claim to be. Worse, they've recruited her father, the town's freshly ordained Baptist minister, to become their chaplain.
Archaeolibrarian
Feb 27


Guest Post: The Deserter: A Tale of the Foreign Legion by Wayne Turmel
Gil Vincente is a Boer War veteran, broken and adrift on the rough streets of Marseille. Desperate, he seeks discipline and renewed purpose in the unforgiving ranks of the French Foreign Legion. At first, he finds it, but not for long. When a treacherous soldier frames him for murder, it forces the new legionnaire to run for his life.
Archaeolibrarian
Feb 20


Excerpt: Secrets in the Woods by Susan D. Levitte
On October 8, 1871, fire turned night into a living hell.
While Chicago's blaze claimed the headlines, a fiercer and more devastating inferno swept across Wisconsin's Green Bay peninsula-obliterating farms, forests, and families in its path.
Archaeolibrarian
Feb 19
