Thief of Shadows

The title: Thief of Shadows
The author: Elizabeth Hoyt
Publication:  Hachette, 2012
Got it from: Indigo Saint John, 2012

This book suffered from an unfortunate case of "lateritis."  I was reading it and enjoying it, and then whoops, I was going away on vacation.  Then I picked it up and started reading it again, and oops, I had to read some books that were due back at the library.  The end result was that my reading of this book was very fragmented.  Which is a shame, because I thoroughly enjoyed it and it did not deserve to be kept on the back burner.  But such is the case when you have a TBR list as enormous as mine.

This is the fourth book in the Maiden Lane series, set in early 1700's London.  (Note - I have not read the other books in the series).  The hero is Winter Makepeace, a very serious, almost humourless manager of the Home for Unfortunate Infants and Foundling Children - at least by day.  By night he is the Ghost of St. Giles, a masked crimefighter who protects the innocent and rescues people in one of London's most notorious slums.  Lady Isabel Beckinhall is a widow who rescues the Ghost one night and likes what she sees.  She is also on a charity committee for the orphanage, and Winter is in danger of being ousted as manager.  Isabel must tutor him in the ways of polite society so he can keep his position.  He doesn't take the tutoring well.

I loved this book.  The 18th century is an unusual setting for a historical romance, and it made the whole masked crimefighter plot more believable.  (FYI - I bought this book for the masked crimefighter plot.  It's possibly my most favourite romance trope).  The differences between the hero and the heroine made for an interesting dynamic.  Isabel is a full six years older than Winter (she's 32), and she's rich, titled, and worldly.  By contrast, Winter grew up in poverty, is very straightforward and practical and has no experience in the world of the aristocracy - and he's also a virgin.  Winter is a great hero and a refreshing change from the usual rogues and rakes.  He cares deeply about the children in his care and uses his alter ego as the ghost to stop their abuse.  It's fun to watch Isabel turn him into more of a badass, in a sexy way.

I have only one minor quibble with the book.  Characters from the other books in the series kept popping up or were referenced and I couldn't keep them straight.  I suppose that can happen when you want someone to read the whole series.  But I can't complain too much since I really enjoyed the book. 

Queen Victoria's Book of Spells

The title: Queen Victoria's Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy
The author: Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (editors)
Publication:  Tor Books, 2013 
Got it from: The library

"Gaslamp fantasy," as the introduction to this book explains, is a work of fantasy set at any time during the era of gaslamps (primarily the nineteenth century).  The idea immediately conjures up steampunk, although that is just one subgenre of gaslamp.  (Incidentally, only one of the short stories in this anthology is what I would call steampunk: "Their Monstrous Minds," a Frankenstein retelling by Tanith Lee.)  The stories in this collection are all over the place: some deal with Queen Victoria, others with subjects like the Great Exhibition, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Dickens, the cholera epidemic and spiritualism.  All the stories have some aspect of the fantastic.

As with any collection of short stories, I enjoyed some more than others.  The most lighthearted is the title story by Delia Sherman, in which a modern-day scholar discovers that Queen Victoria may have used magic for her own selfish ends.  "The Unwanted Women of Surrey" by Kaaron Warren highlights the vulnerability of women who were considered mentally ill in the Victorian era, set amidst the Broad Street cholera outbreak of 1854 (an event I've been interested in since reading Steven Johnson's fascinating book The Ghost Map.)  "Estella Saves the Village" by Theodora Goss is a fun story of Victorian literature lovers as it imagines a village inhabited by characters from Great Expectations, Middlemarch, Jane Eyre and Sherlock Holmes, etc and in which Estella must solve a mystery a la Flavia de Luce.  The real reason I picked up this book was for Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer's "The Vital Importance of the Superficial."  Fans of Sorcery & Cecelia will not be disappointed by this laugh-out-loud story told in letters. 

But if I remember one story above all others, it will be James P. Blaylock's fascinating and eerie"Smithfield."  In it, Arthur Conan Doyle is photographing a street on London on the last night before it gets electricity.  It's a brilliant meditation on what we lose with progress.  With perpetual daylight, have we lost the ghosts of the past?  It perfectly encapsulates what I find fascinating about the nineteenth century, which I consider the key turning point in history, where the old world meets the modern one.  At the end of the story Blaylock states, "I'm not at all fond of the idea that the world as I've come to know it is passing away."  Any thoughtful person would agree.

A Marked Man

The title: A Marked Man
The author: Barbara Hamilton
Publication: Berkeley, 2010
Got it from: Amazon b-day money 2012 (thanks sis!)

Boston, 1774: Just ten weeks after the Boston Tea Party, the city is holding its breath awaiting retribution from the king.  Amidst days of endless sleet, Abigail Adams is approached by a young friend, Lucy Fluckner: her lover is accused of murdering a royal representative to the colonies.  Abigail knows that the accused, Harry Knox, is involved with her cousin Sam and the other members of  the Sons of Liberty.  There is a danger that if convicted, Harry might be coerced into revealing the names of the other rebels.  While John travels afield to do his duty as a lawyer, Abigail must unravel the clues that point to the real murderer, while facing considerable danger herself.

There's so much I like about this novel and so much I could say.  Barbara Hamilton (a pseudonym for prolific writer Barbara Hambly) does an excellent job in this second Abigail Adams mystery, and her knowledge of the people and customs of the era is mind-boggling.  It is a time and place in history that holds so much fascination for me, because it is so unique: a group of intellectuals who foment rebellion against an oppressive regime and rouse the support of the common people in the process. They're a circle of neighbours and acquaintances who use their knowledge of history and politics to dare to imagine a different, better way of life.  I love all the characters in this world: irascible John, forever turning to the classics for inspiration and guidance; cunning and daring Sam Adams; brave and reliable silversmith Paul Revere; young and idealistic printer Harry Knox; and most of all Abigail herself, resourceful, intelligent and playful all at the same time.

It's Abigail who forms the heart and mind and soul of the stories - she's not just a sleuth in the background, her life with all its trials and routines is at the forefront.  She is first and foremost a women in 18th century America with strong Puritan values, and therefore has strong ties to church, family and home life.  It's hard not to sympathize with her when she feels the exasperating contradiction between knowing she should be doing the household chores and hating them "like the mouth of hell."  And it's easy to see why a woman with her intellect would feel a strong urge to solve a mystery rather than try to separate squabbling children or do endless rounds of thankless washing.  Reading this, one has the sense that proud as she is of her home, she also wants something more than what is allotted to women of her time.

Here, too, we get tantalizing hints that she's unconsciously nursing a crush on her ally throughout the series, the British Lieutenant Coldstone, a man whose principles and intellect match her own.  Naturally she's appalled that people would think there is anything untoward in their relationship and she of course would never dream of betraying her beloved John.  But early on in the story, when she knows she needs to visit the officer again on Castle Island, she has a fleeting "twinge of regret" when she thinks of him.  This is all we get until later on in the story, where she describes him to herself as "extremely comely."  It's one of those clever little teases the author throws in, like name Coldstone: at first we assume it's because he's a stiff-backed and standoffish, but I rather like my own theory, that it's because he's a stone cold fox.

The pleasure here is in the place more than the mystery (alas, I guessed the murderer straight away) and in that Hamilton succeeds wonderfully.  Now if only I could stop worrying that the latest book in the series, #3 (published in 2011) won't be the last.  The author has given hints about Abigail solving crimes with Martha Washington and Thomas Jefferson, and I'll be sorely disappointed if she doesn't.

The Mermaid

The title: The Mermaid
The author: Betina Krahn
Publication: Bantam, 1997
Got it from: Sony Reader Store

Before I begin this dolphin, I just have to say dolphins.  As I was reading this dolphin, I thought - wow, dolphin.  There are not enough dolphins in dolphins.  The world just does not dolphin enough dolphins.  Because dolphins.

Seriously, though.  They are adorable.  Anyone who does not love dolphins should be beaten with dorsal fins and pushed out to sea on a leaky boat.

Betina Krahn is quickly becoming one of my favourite romance writers.  Last year I read and enjoyed a whole bunch of critically-acclaimed romances by critcally-acclaimed authors, but it was Sweet Talking Man I loved and remembered the most.   And I just can't understand why she's not more popular.  She has a knack for writing great historical heroines with fantastic careers and feminist plots.

The Mermaid centres around Celeste Ashton, a young Victorian woman who lives on England's south shore and who has written a book about dolphin behaviour that is waaaayyy ahead of its time.  In it, she purports that dolphins are not only intelligent, they also speak their own language and have complex social interactions that rival those of humans.  Her book becomes a bestseller, not because of its scientific content, but because people are fascinated by dolphin sex and because Celeste is young and beautiful and how dare she write about such shocking subjects?  Celeste becomes the (unwitting) notorious toast of England and earns the nickname The Lady Mermaid.

Of course all the male scientists pooh-pooh her research.  When Celeste tries to defend herself at a lecture, they basically jeer at her and humiliate her.  Enter stick-in-the mud ichthyolgist professor Titus Thorne, who is called upon to discredit her work.  Yes, our hero studies fish guts for a living.  And it's frigging awesome.  Anyway, Titus has to go down to Celeste's home on the coast in order to watch her in action.  A number of problems arise:

1. Titus is deathly afraid of water.
2. Celeste's grandmother is slightly loonie and she and her friends are part of a society who think they can bring back the lost city of Atlantis with mystical chanting and rituals.  They also want to mate Titus and Celeste.
3. There's a nefarious villain who wants to steal Celeste's dolphins.
4.  Celeste keeps stripping down to get in the water with the dolphins, which is totally improper but HOT.

And of course, there's lots of dolphins in this.  And they are ridiculously adorable.

What I love about this book is that there is a lot of triumphing of reason over superstition, and it's led by the heroine.  Titus, as a scientist, has to learn to let go of his skepticism about dolphin behaviour in the face of the evidence in front of him.  And just as the hero in Sweet Talking Man has a feminist epiphany when he comes to respect the heroine's business savvy, Titus also does a complete about-face in his thinking about women by the end of the book.  In one scene, he walks through the streets of London and observes the women around him, admitting that it is unlikely all of them "have defective brains."  It's a nice feminist moment in a book about trusting the evidence of the natural world.  And it's just a sweet story.

Betina Krahn - I must read more of your books.

Inferno

The title: Inferno
The author: Dan Brown
Publication: Doubleday, 2013
Got it from: The library

Say what you want about Dan Brown - go ahead, everyone else is - but he knows how to write a page-turning story.  He's the only "bestselling" author that I automatically request at the library, but it helps that he only writes a new one every three or four years.  What makes his books stand apart from the usual intrigue novel is tons of history.  Again, criticize his research if you must, but keep in mind that sometimes facts have to play second fiddle to a good yarn.

In this fourth novel in the series, hero and Harvard symbology professor Robert Langdon wakes up with amnesia in a hospital in Florence, only to find himself being pursued by mysterious baddies.  Faster than you can say plot device, he's on the run with beautiful young doctor Sienna Brooks.  The twist in this one is that he's already solved many of the mysteries that we encounter as the book progresses, only now he has to re-solve them.  Most of the riddles revolve around Dante Aligheri's epic poem Inferno.  The villain in this piece is obsessed with Dante's work and (slight spoiler) uses its imagery in a plan to control global population.

The problem with Inferno (Brown's book, not Dante's) is that it's not as fun as The Da Vinci Code, as interesting as Angels and Demons, or as thrillingly menacing as The Lost Symbol.  Sure there's lots of twists and turns, but I kind of already figured them out ahead of time, so there wasn't the sense of urgency.  Nor did the "bad guys" seem so bad.  I actually couldn't help but agree with some of their views on the problems of overpopulation.  There's also a lot of what felt like a history lecture from Dan Brown.  Normally I love reading about history, especially when it involves interesting asides and connections between famous people and places, but in many cases it just felt like info dumping.  It slowed down the pace of the story and dragged it out for too long.  My overall impression was that it was a fun but ridiculous story.

Bottom line: If you love Dan Brown, you'll get more of what you love.  If you loathe Dan Brown, you'll get more of what you loathe.

Sweet Tooth: The Bittersweet History of Candy

 

 The title: Sweet Tooth: The Bittersweet History of Candy
The author: Kate Hopkins
Publication: St. Martin's Press, 2012
Got it from: The library

With a name like Sweet Tooth: The Bittersweet History of Candy, and an enticing-looking chocolate on the cover, I couldn't not check this book out of the library.   Kate Hopkins is a food blogger (see her website Accidental Hedonist) and she attempts to trace the history of candy while visiting the places where sweets got their origins.  Her travels take her to Italy, where delicious torrone was invented (among other treats), Great Britain, the home of "grandma" candy as well as Cadbury's, and to her native US where she visits an early confectionery store in Boston and experiences the childlike heaven of Hershey, Pennsylvania - an entire town devoted to all things candy.

The author's premise is to find the simple childhood joys of candy, but the "bittersweet" truth is that when researching its history, she runs up against troubling issues.  Sugar's history has been intertwined for centuries with slavery that still exists today in parts of Africa.  Still, the author's tone never gets too dark, and interspersed with the history we get little fun facts, such as descriptions of various candies accompanied by their "candy exchange rate," always valued against a York Peppermint Pattie.  For instance, she describes candy corn: "A waxy fondant shaped like corn kernels, candy corn was created in the late 1800s as a means to disappoint future generations of children as they went door to door treat or treating," and calls its taste, "little more than candle wax with autumn colors added."  (Candy exchange rate?  1,476 pieces of candy corn = 1 York Peppermint Pattie.)

As someone who was obsessed with sweets as a child and still gets a bit gushy over the likes of Lindt chocolate and Jelly Bellies, I enjoyed this book very much.  It certainly gave me a new appreciation for how candies are made and their long history in Western culture.

Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World

The title:  Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World
The author: Matthew Goodman
Publication: Ballantine Books, 2013
Got it from: The library

I was MIA in April because I was buried deep in five books I was book-talking for a library program (and all of you librarians know how nerve-wracking book talks are).  One of the books was Matthew Goodman's Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World.  

Now, I did read Jules Verne's book a few years ago, and I think Nellie Bly is pretty boss, so how did I not know that she once raced around the world?  If you don't know Nellie Bly, look her up - she was a scrappy female reporter in Gilded Age New York who did some pretty awesome things. (She also has her own mystery series, which will show up here in future reviews).  In 1889, she set out to beat the record set by the fictional Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days and circumnavigate the globe in 75 days.  Meanwhile, another reporter, Elizabeth Bisland (a literary critic who was none too pleased to be told she had to travel in a moment's notice) also set out to race against her, albeit in the opposite direction.

It was the perfect age to travel in.  Both of the ladies had rich newspaper companies paying their first-class fares the whole way around, and Britain was at the height of its empire.  They barely had to step foot off British soil, even though they stopped at ports around the world to change transportation.  Nellie Bly headed east, suffered horrible seasickness on the Atlantic, met Jules Verne in France, bought a monkey in Ceylon, and fended off would-be suitors who thought she was rich.  Elizabeth Bisland went west, encountered a hair-raising train trip through the Rockies, charmed everyone on board her Pacific steamer and fell in love with Japan.  Both women got a bit cranky (as you do when you're traveling at breakneck speed for over seventy days) but only one ultimately emerged triumphant, breaking the world record and becoming a national heroine. 

This book isn't a quick read.  There's a lot of dense text and tons and tons of historical detail that interrupts the narrative of the race itself.  If you don't mind that sort of thing and are curious about what the world looked like in the late 19th century (at least through the eyes of two kinda racist but good-hearted women), you'll love Eighty Days.