Historical Fiction we have you covered!
Here’s five titles we think you’ll love- All of the titles are available from our libraries using Click and Collect or through Borrowbox our FREE download service.
“The Devil and the Dark Water” by Stuart Turton
This is rather different to Stuart’s first book “The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle” but with all the wonderful scene setting and suspense plus individuals having multiple deaths- I do wonder whether this will make it to Stuart’s third book?
The story starts at sea in 1634 where Samuel Pipps is being transported to Amsterdam to be executed for a crime. With the ship thrust into a storm of suspense and three men find themselves marked for death- is it supernatural? There’s murder, mystery and plenty of suspense in what is an ever growing plot that will find you gripped to the end.
“The Mercies” by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
This one has been out for a while but has stayed with me and I knew needed to make the list- set in the same century as Stuart Turton’s story at sea and starting with the menfolk of an entire Norwegian Island being lost to the waves in a sudden and catastrophic storm, the Women of Vardo take centre stage!
Inspired by the real storm of Vardo and the witch trials of 1621 Kiran spins a story of suspicion, love and brutality against women- the book is hauntingly beautiful.
“Execution” by SJ Parris
The latest in SJ Parris’ Giordano Bruno series of Tudor espionage books- Parris has made Giordano Bruno 16th century heretic and philosopher into a very unlikely hero.
Book six of the series “Execution” sees Giordano Bruno once more under the employ of Elizabeth I’s spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham, can they save Elizabeth I from an assassination plot?
SJ Parris paints a fantastically vivid scene of this period in history, definitely one for the Tudor fans.
“A Net For Small Fishes” by Sarah Jago
Set in the Jacobean court, Sarah Jago transports you back in time, the book is so immersive and Jago knows her craft with fantastic narration.
The book is a story based in fact and tells the tale of Frances Howard and Mistress Anne Turner- exploring sexuality and class woven into one of the biggest scandals of the period. One critic described it as “The Thelma and Louise of the seventeenth century!”
If you loved the “Wolf Hall trilogy” by Hilary Mantel or “The Poison Bed” by Elizabeth Freemantle this is definitely the book for you.
“Hamnet” by Maggie ‘O’ Farrell
Winner of the Women’s prize for fiction and named the best book of 2020 by Guardian, Financial Times and Literary Hub, 2021 sees “Hamnet” released as a paperback on April 1st.
Bold, Beautiful and devastating!
Hamnet is an emotionally charged story of grief after the loss of a child, it tells the fictionalized story of Anne or Agnes who we know to be Shakespeare’s (who remains nameless throughout the book) wife and the loss of her beloved son Hamnet at the age of 11.
This book however isn’t Shakespeare’s or Hamnet’s book as the title would suggest but puts Anne/Agnes front and centre exploring her childhood, courtship, marriage and the tragedy that consumes her in 1596.