Tag: nutrition

K. M. Ashman, In Shadows of Kings (Silverback Books 2014)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20810891-in-shadows-of-kings?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=LqrO1d5DVD&rank=2

Rhodri ap Gruffydd, nicknamed Tarian (Shield of the Poor), has summoned his knights to a secret banquet. King Henry of England is dead, Edward Longshanks yet in the Holy Land, but more battles with the Welsh are in store on his return. Tarian and his knights are doubting the leadership of Prince Llewelyn.
At Brycheniog Abbey, Abbot Williams, the man who murdered Garyn’s parents, discusses the transport of the True Cross to Rome. Garyn ap Thomas, the blacksmith’s son, joins his wife Elspeth for dinner, exhausted from rethatching the roof. His brother Geraint, missing the camaraderie of the Crusades, is about to leave on a journey aboard a ship commissioned by Tarian.
Owen Cadwallader comes to the manor of the deceased Sir Robert Cadwallader to forge a marriage between Sir Gerald of Essex and the elder daughter, Suzette.
Father Williams and the newly betrothed Sir Gerald seem to have it in for Garyn’s family and livelihood, and he has to flee. He joins the Blaidd (Wolves) mercenaries to fight brigands. The rescue of a kidnapped girl brings new information about the True Cross, leading Garyn to realise that he had been double crossed.
Tarian’s flotilla disembark on a new world and battle with the natives, aided by the Mandan, a people who speak their language. They’ve come seeking the descendant of Madoc, who travelled three times to the New World.
The characters are lively, the dialogue credible and the plot exciting, alternating interestingly between Wales and the new World. The writing is just archaic enough to pass, but without any embellishments. This is Book 2 in the Medieval Series, and Book 1’s backstory of the retrieval of the True Cross and the persecution of Garyn’s parents is handled skilfully. It keeps the promise of the ‘direction you will not expect’ promised in the Foreword.
This review was originally written for Historical Novels Review.

Sarah Hawkswood, A Taste for Killing (Allison & Busby 2022)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60186466-a-taste-for-killing?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=vxUUUOGgTY&rank=1

Master Godfrey Bowyer and his wife Blanche are arguing again, and throwing crockery, within earshot of the servants, Gode, Runild and Alwin, who will have to clean up the mess. But before anyone can retire, the Master and Mistress collapse vomiting, the Master to his death. The healer pronounces it a case of poison, and Serjeant Catchpoll is summoned, bringing along his journeyman Walkelin. The bow-maker was little liked, but who would go as far as murder?
They report to the lord sheriff William de Beauchamp, and Catchpoll rides to inform lord Bradecote.
At some point in the past, the Master’s roving eye had caught Runild, and the effect is beginning to show. Mistress Blanche had motive aplenty, but why would she have knowingly taken the poison, too? Godfrey had taken her bowl after she had thrown his against the wall, so it could be that she herself was the intended target.
Godfrey’s brother Herluin the Strengere arrives, expecting to inherit the business. He had been seen a week earlier in private conversation with Gode, she gesticulating wildly and saying the word ‘loyal’. He had also had heated words with his brother at the door just before the fateful dinner. Both Herluin and Blanche have secrets in their past.
We have suspicions from the start as to the identity of the murderer, but the unravelling of the evidence is interesting.
A good mediaeval whodunnit. Clues are drip-fed as the lawmen interview person after person. There are numerous characters in the town, so we’re on our toes as to who might have had a hand in the murder. I’m not familiar with Worcester dialect, but the language has local flavour. It captures well the mediaeval times, where people rarely venture beyond their own manor or village, rank is all-important, and information spreads slowly.
This review was originally written for Historical Novels Review.

A. J. MacKenzie, The Fallen Sword (Canelo Adventure 2022)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60668914-the-fallen-sword?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=K6ouDpln7A&rank=3

While the English army besieges Calais, Philippa of Hainault, Queen of England, is in Bruges to broker a marriage between her daughter and the count of Flanders, currently a prisoner. The queen comes under attack, and five of her men are dead.
The boatmen have been strangled, with catgut ligatures—probably by the musicians, suspected to be connected to the secret society of Pilgrims, mercenaries for hire.
Simon Merrivale the herald and Tiphaine de Tesson the queen’s lady seek information on the renewed conspiracy against the English crown. Three men are meeting in secret: an English courtier to King Edward and two courtiers to King Philippe, John of Hainault and Guy de Béthune. The Englishman, the ‘man from the north’, plans “to redraw the map of Europe”.
In an ever-widening spiral of conspiracies, the French crown, the papal throne and the throne of the Romans are all under threat. The Knights of St John also have a role to play.
Across war-torn Flanders Merrivale and his allies dodge ambushes and conduct secret meetings in ruined castles. Neither are Paris nor Bruges safe from assassins’ knives.
People betray their friends and switch allegiances, but in the end, the English take Calais, and the traitor’s identity is revealed.
The cast of characters is huge, most real historical figures, but a list at the front of the book helps to keep track. I was almost lost by Chapter 6 and remained almost lost throughout. Right up to the dramatic conclusion, new characters are entering the picture. Even simply to know the identities, much less to understand the intricate political intrigues, of all these personages must have required prodigious research. The plot is as wonderfully complex as European history was at that time—and as difficult to follow.
Book 3 in the Hundred Years’ War series.
This review was originally written for Historical Novels Review.

Eilidh McGinness, Resistance: Book 3 Fraternity (Neilsen 2022)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71916725-resistance?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=lILaRxakM6&rank=1

Sabine and her comrades are the brave Resistance operatives who kept the flag of Free France flying until the Nazis were expelled.
For long periods, she is separated from her love, the dashing fighter Hérisson, who will only tell her his real name on their wedding day. She herself is hailed a hero, about which she feels conflicted, as she feels she gave up the job of courier out of cowardice.
This book is set during the end of the Nazi occupation. Sabine, Hérisson, their comrades and relatives face persecution—a few of the women are bearing the children of rape by Nazi soldiers. They experience the massacre at Mussidan, one of the most serious atrocities of this war. A mission goes wrong, and Hérisson and his men are captured and narrowly escape the firing squad.
Most enjoyable about this novel is the portrayals of everyday French life. We can smell the rabbit stew on the cuisinière and hear the crackle of paté being spread on rounds of baguette. The author lives in the south of France and we feel her love of the culture. The characters’ emotional arcs are very rich. We feel the fear of the men facing the firing squad and the tension of the men as they sneak around behind enemy lines. The feelings and the hardships of the women are excellently portrayed. The plot moves excitingly along, and yet time is taken to paint a rich portrait. Some chapters, devoted almost entirely to Sabine’s emotions, are gorgeous.
Book 3 in the series.

Jess Kidd, The Night Ship (Atria Books 2022)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59366231-the-night-ship?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=6ozv5ao9rL&rank=1

6 stars!

Based on the true story of the sinking of the Batavia.
1629 A girl named Mayken, with her nursemaid Imke, boards the Batavia, setting out to find her father who lives in a land where ‘the midday sun is fierce enough to melt a Dutch child’. Her mother has died ‘from the bloody flux’. Francisco Pelsaert is the upper-merchant, Jeronimus Cornelisz the under-merchant and Ariaean Jacobsz the skipper. In the next cabin is Lucretia Jansdochter and her maid Zwaatie. Jan Pelgrom, Pelsaert’s steward, helps her to go to the Below World, disguised as a cabin boy and calling herself Obbe, in which guise she delivers drugs for the butcher-surgeon. There’s some kind of monster down in the hold. Utter horror ensues after the shipwreck.
1989 Gil, a boy mourning his mother, is placed in the care of his fisherman grandfather Joss off the Australian coast. His mother has died ‘from a mishap’. He meets Silvia Zanetti, wife of the foremost fisherman Frank, whose stepson Roper has a metal plate in his head. Silvia won’t take Gil inside her house because of ‘what he did’. The island has a ghost, a girl from the shipwreck of the Batavia—islanders leave gifts for her—and Gil has a pet tortoise. Scientists are digging up remains of the wreck of the ship that had ‘set sail with a psycho on board’. There’s are ancient feuds between Joss and the other fishermen that play out between Gil and the other boys,
Gorgeously written, the Voices in this novel are remarkable. Mayken is stalwart, willing to courier drugs for the surgeon in return for being allowed to watch him amputate a sailor’s leg, willing to confront a monster to save her beloved nurse. The Batavia is so horrifying, crawling with rats and eels—we never know whether we’re inside one of Maykens’ nightmares. Gil is the loneliest of boys, persecuted by the island children and full of dark secrets.
I was given this book by the Historical Novel Society because I had reviewed for them Anatomy of a Heretic by David Mark, which also treated the sinking of the Batavia.

Jean Fullerton, A Ration Book Victory (Corvus 2022)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60294332-a-ration-book-victory?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=Yv5uzIqDRE&rank=1

Dressed in their Sunday best, 5-year-old Philomena (Queenie) Dooley attends church with her family in Kinsale, Ireland. Shunned as ‘tinkers’ they sit at the back, but a prosperous farmer’s boy catches her eye. She and Patrick become friends “for ever”. That was before Nora came between them and she married Fergus Brogan instead.

Queenie Brogan barters grocery rations for eggs with Bernadine O’Toole. Though “just a shade over 21” Queenie is a grandmother.
Queenie bursts in. Father Mahon has collapsed and is in hospital. Mattie McCarthy née Brogan has her suspicions about Granny and Father Mahon. Though he’s in the care of doctors, Queenie has faith in ‘spirits’.
Jo Sweete, the second Brogan girl, bows her head in church, praying to be blessed with children as her sisters have been. Ida and Pearl are fighting. Billy knows. Aunt Pearl is his ‘real mother’. Pearl’s husband, a rich gangster, is a bad influence.
Ida and Jeremiah are discussing their growing removals business, contemplating a move to East Ham and larger premises, when a V-2 shatters the entire street.
The Brogan girls celebrate Victory in Europe in style in front of Buckingham Palace.
Tommy and Jo are adopting a war orphan.
A few issues around paternity are resolved. The deadly rivalry between Nora and Philomena (Queenie) plays out with tragic consequences. But surrounded by grandchildren, the Brogan family moves into the new post-war future.
The easy dialogue and the colloquial style bring the good ole’ days of the war era to life. This is just at the end of the war, when the young women had waited so patiently and fearfully for their husbands to come home. The joy and catharsis of VE Day really comes across.
This WWII family saga is Book 8 in the Ration Book series.
This review first appeared in Historical Novels Review.

Tony Bassett, Murder of a Doctor (The Book Folks 2022)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61118068-murder-of-a-doctor?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=YFkx47ZiTg&rank=2

Dr Scott Deeley, once a consultant on the TV soap, Morning Surgery, is out for a run on Foxwell Heath when he is found brutally murdered.
There’s a host of suspects – a few dog-walkers, who discovered the body; Robert Brown, a man found near the scene who gives police a false address; the father of a boy who died when the doctor misdiagnosed his medical condition; and the dead man’s aunt, who has been suspiciously unavailable for interview.
A surprising connection provides the clue that, in the end, enables Detective Sergeant Sunita Roy to crack the case.
This is a thrilling and well written detective story. It’s refreshing to read a crime novel that recounts police procedures realistically and paints policemen as real people, though the complex plot leaves not a lot of time for character development, and I love that one of the author’s main protagonists is a non-Anglo woman. The case unravels realistically, as well; we learn clues piece by piece, making it fun for the reader to try and second-guess the heroes.
Book 3 in the Roy and Roscoe series.

Martin J. Bird, The Seeds of Heimdall (Kindle 2022)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61337077-the-seeds-of-heimdall?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=NNpGdNLAGR&rank=1

This Viking Age novel is Book 3 of the Four Masters Trilogy, and it is advisable to read Books 1 and 2 first.

Rannal Halvorsen, newly freed of his monastic duties at Clonmacnoise, and his friend Lorcán, lord of Rinn Duin of Connacht, are playing with the children at Rinn Duin, when Cormac, lord of An Líonán, arrives in a longship. Lord Muirgheas, the crown prince of Connacht, is among those invited to the feast.
Shifts in the political landscape have taken their toll on Rannal’s family; there is rivalry between his twin stepsons, Seíghín and Ruairí. The two brothers may find themselves on opposing ends of a game of thrones.
The High King, Mael Sechnaill Mór, seeks to dominate all of Ireland, but Brian Ború, King of Munster, fired by ancient rivalry with the Uí Néill, plans to throw off the supremacy of the north. The men are gathering the longships and discussing battle plans. Which clan will support them, which will oppose?
As the show-down looms, other kings and clans enter the play. There is a traitor in the halls of Brian’s palace at Ceann Coradh, and the race is on to inform Lord Brian in time. They catch up to him at Uisneach, the conquest of which has been suspiciously too easy. Seíghín rushes to warn Connacht before the final battle, as it becomes apparent that more is at stake than treachery against Munster.
As the Connachtmen fight for their homeland, rifts in the Halvorsen family are tested, and lessons learned.
I had to refer often to the cast of characters at the beginning, and the longships all have names, too. It takes the first 70 pages or so to introduce everybody. The ‘head-hopping’ from one character’s point of view to the next can be confusing.
However, the backstory is skilfully woven into the dialogue. Current events in the complexity of Viking Age Irish history are recounted as they relate to the characters and their clans, so are more easily digested. The intricate politics of regnal competition in a land with 150 kings and clan strife in an age of warfare are well portrayed.
I love historical fiction like this which mixes fictional and historic characters. The fictional characters beef up a period of which known facts and figures are sparce. Fans of ‘military fiction’ will really love this.
This review was written for Reedsy Discovery.

Olivia Costillo, Daughter of the Boricua (Kindle 2022)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61055722-daughter-of-the-boricua?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=EJ8KBlaYou&rank=1

This multi-generational family saga tells the stories of three women connected by a bloodline; they are all descendants of Moctezuma II. Love for Puerto Rico is a theme running through.
Isabella and her sisters watch as her father, Moctezuma II greets ‘the white god’ Cortés with gifts and garland of flowers. Two weeks later, the Spaniards are burning huts and raping women. Moctezuma is killed, and with his dying breath he curses the seed of Cortés.
After the Spaniards are expelled, Isabella married first one successor to the Aztec throne, then another, until the conquistadors return and Cortés seizes her. She learns Spanish and converts to Christianity. She determines she will bear Cortés’ child. One night with the conquistador, and she conceives and bears Leonor, but then rejects the child. On her deathbed, she frees her slaves. Leonor inherits her estate and also Moctezuma’s curse.
Leonor’s bloodline unravels to Puerto Rico and then to Malibu, California in her descendant Josie Antheus. Her parents’ marriage is breaking down, and she’s taken up cliff diving to take her mind off it. She dives badly and loses consciousness underwater. As she comes to, she hears a voice in some foreign language, which somehow, she understands. It is not her first such experience.
Back in time to 1895 in Isla de Mona, Puerto Rico, Liani Agüeybana rows her canoe to visit her Tía Anani. Her people, the Taíno, are almost extinct. She brings news that Abuela Karaya is sick. Abuela says, ‘the fault is on Cortés’.
The years progress in each timeframe. Liani finds love and makes a family. Isabella and her daughter Josie love, divorce and love again, and make a family. Moctezuma’s curse and the vicissitudes of weather and history challenge them, but love for each other pulls them through.
The first Isabella’s story is bit heavily third person omniscient, but the subsequent stories have more Showing and more dialogue. I couldn’t understand why she would purposefully seduce Cortés but then reject the child.
The stories are vibrant, and I love the concept of writing about the lives of people in different timeframes from the same bloodline, Moctezuma’s curse following them down the centuries. Despite the theme of Moctezuma’s curse, the story is not overly supernatural (except that Isabella and Josie see visions); the supposed effects of the curse just look like natural tragedies—fatal accidents, marital infidelity. The narrative jumps around in time in no particular order, culminating—as you would expect—in 2017. It works, as each vignette brings you closer to understanding the big picture of this bloodline’s story.
This review was orignially written for Reedsy Discovery.

Joseph Heller, Catch 22 (1961; this edition Simon & Schuster 2004)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/168668.Catch_22?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=4HU7hngs6f&rank=1

Bombardier captain Yossarian is in hospital, trying to eke out the luxury of having meals brought to him in bed for as long as possible. Regretfully discharged, he spends the rest of the war trying not to get killed, having nonsensical conversations and ‘not giv[ing] a damn’.
The insanity of war and the military bureaucracy are constant themes. Air force doc Daneeka is authorised to ground pilots who are crazy; the ‘catch’ is that ‘anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn’t really crazy’. Every time Yossarian nears his quota of combat missions and looks forward to going home, Col. Cathcart raises the quota.
Yossarian presents himself in the nude to receive a medal. But he is not the only victim of war insanity. There’s a soldier living in the woods, and men are playing musical beds in the hospital trying to appropriate more serious diagnoses. Gen. Dreedle is obsessed with choreographing bombing patterns so they photograph well. Col. Scheisskopf’s first item of business upon being promoted to General is to order the marching of more parades. Aarfy rapes and kills an Italian girl, yet it is Yossarian the MPs arrest, for being in Rome without a pass.
The style is almost stream of consciousness. Yossarian is often in the background of the action, but we still see things from his point of view. Each chapter focuses more or less on a particular character, and there’s little linear plot. The plot is just a bunch of men doing whatever craziness they need to do to get through the war.
I was surprised to learn that this masterpiece of satire got mixed reviews when it first came out. Most now would acknowledge as one of the great works of literature. Yossarian’s understated wit is not laugh-out-loud funny; rather, his cynical turns of phrase will stay with you, etched in your memory as something new and original.