A Discovering Diamonds review of The Tapestry of Death by Howard of Warwick

AMAZON UK £2.99

AMAZON US $4.05

AMAZON CA $3.16

The Chronicles of Brother Hermitage Book 3

Humour / Mystery

1066 era

This is my first encounter with the work of Howard of Warwick. It won’t be my last. This book is outright humorous. I am reluctant to express an opinion on the humour, because I know from personal experience that nothing turns a reader off a humorous book faster than being told how funny it is. Humour is a strange, individual quality. We have to discover it ourselves. Let me just say that the humour is very British, and I felt compelled to read snippets to my wife as I read the book.

The book is set in 1067, just after the battle of Hastings, and concerns pornographic tapestries. The Normans have arrived and are routinely oppressing the local Saxons. The plot is interesting and well-constructed and contains several surprises. The two main characters are a monk, called Brother Hermitage, who is the king’s Investigator, and Wat the Weaver. I think the weaver is the sidekick, although he seems to play a much more active role than the monk in this book. The overall effect is like a cross between Ellis Peters and Tom Sharpe. This is the third in a series of eleven that feature this monk.

I would have been happier if the book had been better edited; punctuation is not Howard’s strong suit, so a re-edit would be advised as the lack of editing took the edge off it, somewhat.

The cover is splendid, and in keeping with the rest of the series and the tone of the work.

 Recommended, despite the editing errors.

© JJ Toner

<previous   next >

click here to return to home page 'Bookshelf' then scroll down for more items of interest

LIES, DAMN LIES AND … HELLO! THAT LOOKS INTERESTING...

From Helen: Usually, the Mid-Month Extra is posted on the 15th of each month, but as I am away at a conference this weekend I thought I would post it a day early as it is a very interesting article.

The Mid-Month Extra with Richard Tearle

On the 1^st  January, 2017, Helen (Hollick) launched this site, Discovering Diamonds. The aim was to present reviews of books of historical fiction by, primarily, new and largely independent authors.  It was very much a case of a step in the dark, a leap of faith and holding your nose whilst jumping off the top diving board. In at the deep end definitely, for to engage upon such a journey, one must have the backing and interest of authors. Not to mention a pile of books, fresh and eager to be opened, read and appraised.

These months on and there can be little doubt that this venture has proved a resounding success with readers and authors alike. So: here are a few interesting little facts.

Statistic no 1: As of the 30^th April 2018, 228 different authors have been featured.

Keep in mind a couple of things here: reviews aren't published at weekends, there have been variations on mid-week  'extras' (articles on some aspect of writing), tributes to renowned authors (including Helen herself, but she'll 'edit' this bit, I'm sure! [Helen: tempted to delete, but I’ll leave it in!] ), Book and Covers of the Month awards, the fact that she took a well deserved holiday during August, and no reviews were published during December, making way for the wonderful and exclusive short story feature Diamond Tales. Yet even that can be tempered with the fact that some authors have had more than one book reviewed, that projected reviews take us well into June and that there are still books awaiting allocation to reviewers. Not to mention that, inevitably, some books submitted have not satisfied the necessarily minimum standards to receive a review. Excluded has been the 1066 Turned Upside Down anthology (because Helen is one of the authors) , but included has been a book co-written by a husband and wife team.

That's pretty impressive.

Statistic No 2: of those 228 authors, 168 are women (73.6 %) and 60 are men (26.3%).

Once again, this doesn't take into account the actual number of books, but just a quick glance at the 'Books by Author' section would show that the statistics would favour the ladies even more.

I looked at the most popular eras covered, again using the number of different authors rather than the number of books and have ignored those written in black as these have yet to have their reviews published.

Statistic No 3: 1400s. 10 books – 8 by women, 2 by men.(80%/20% - even I can work that one out without a calculator).

Statistic No 4: 1500s: 16 books, 12 by women, 4 by men (75%/25%)

Statistic No 5: 1600s: 23 books, 18 by women, 5 by men (78.2%/21 .7%)

Statistic No 6: 1700s (including regency): 26 books, 21 by women, 5 by men (80.7%/19.2%)

Statistic no 7:1800s (including American Civil War):51books, 42 by women, 9 by men (82.3%/17.7%)

Statistic No 8:1900s (excluding WWI & WWII): 28 books, 20 by women, 8 by men (71.4%/28.5%)

Statistic No 9: World War I: 13 books, 8 by women, 5 by men (61.5%/38.4%)

Statistic No 10: World War II: 29 books, 21 by women, 8 by men (72.4%/27.5%)

And finally, to hammer home the point:

Statistic No 11: 1300s: 7 books, 7 by women, 0 by men (100%/0%)

There are a few other periods and the outcome would, by glancing at them only, be very similar to the overall picture. And if I have miscounted somewhere (and that is sure to have happened), then one or two errors either way will not have any significant impact on the findings. Clearly, then, Historical Fiction is most definitely a woman's domain. You, authors yourselves, may have opinions on why this should be – and we would love to hear them; I will make no comment here other than to stress that Historical Fiction is only one genre (and a blanket one at that) and wonder whether men 'dominate' in other genres – horror, crime, fantasy etc – as much as women do here.

What drew you to write Historical Novels as opposed to some other genre? Are you surprised by the findings? Do you think a sample of just under 300 books is sufficient enough to justify the claims? Oh, I know many of you have written books that can be also be classified in other categories, or embrace more than one (Timeslip, for example), but they must have contained a high degree of the past to have been reviewed here.

So: any thoughts or comments?

© Richard Tearle

A Discovering Diamonds Review of That Deplorable Boy by Jasper Barry

AMAZON UK £3.99

AMAZON US $5.58  

AMAZON CA $7.30

Romance - LGBT / Fictional saga

late 19^th Century

Paris

Following on from the first volume, The Second Footman, of this trilogy Max Fabien has now been secretary and lover of his master, Armand, marquis de Miremont, for a year. Their affair, discreet, yet intense is nevertheless stretched at times: Armand, the much older man, is overcome with jealousies swiftly followed by regrets and apologies; Max is young, astonishingly handsome and prone to attract the attentions of  people his own age of either sex.

When Armand's estranged wife, Aline and their younger daughter, Juliette, descend upon Armand's chateau, the place becomes chaotic as Aline insists on taking over: their daughter is about to come of age and only the best will do for her. This is where we really find out just how weak a man Armand is as Aline walks all over him and Juliette twirls him around her little finger. Max looks on stoically, but his downfall looks imminent when he spurns Juliette's unwanted advances – despite her recent engagement.

There is a lot to be commended in this book: the narrative is impeccable and always in keeping with the era; the characters are so well written that you want to strangle Aline almost from her initial entrance, Juliette is little better and you switch your feelings towards Armand from sympathy to disdain and back again. Throughout all this, Max remains the perfect gentleman, yet he has his own demons to deal with. You also tend to feel sorry for him as events conspire against him; yet, at the same time, you question his motives, his ambitions and his love for Armand.

It is a story of the trials of love, suspicions and jealousies, breaking up and making up, liars and thieves, charlatans and wastrels.

The pace picks up a lot at about the halfway stage, though in my view it was somewhat pedestrian prior to that, over filled with Armand's doubts, jealousies and accusations and Max's repudiations and reassurances. There are a few references to the back story until quite close to the end when Max makes a discovery and this rather leads the reader away from the main story. As with any series, I think it would be beneficial to read the books in order. At over 400 pages, I found it a little long and that may put potential readers off as the 'entertainment' and the action doesn't really start until Aline and Juliette arrive on the scene.

The cover well depicts the enigmatic Max, although the yellow font is a little hard to read, especially at thumbnail size.

© Richard Tearle

<previous   next >

click here to return to home page 'Bookshelf' then scroll down for more items of interest