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Historical Fiction October 2022
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Shrines of Gaiety
by Kate Atkinson
What it's about: In London after the Great War, Nellie Carter, the notorious and ruthless queen of a dazzling, seductive and corrupt new world in the clubs of Soho, finds her success breeding enemies as she faces threats from without and within, revealing the dark underbelly beneath Soho's gaiety.
Reviewers say: Atkinson's palpable fondness for her characters helps her to imbue even the most minor of them with texture and depth, and she brings the same attention to detail to her portrait of the highs and lows of Jazz Age London. Another triumph from one of our finest novelists (Booklist).
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| Big Red (Hoopla)by Jerome CharynWhat it's about: Underemployed wannabe gossip columnist Rusty Redburn takes a public relations job at Columbia Pictures, where her knack for keeping tabs on stars gets her noticed by company president Harry Cohn, who decides to offer her a new assignment.
The mission: work as a personal secretary for high-profile couple Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth, all the while reporting back to Cohn on his company's two biggest stars, whose public and private behavior has been growing increasingly volatile.
Reviewers say: Big Red is "an intimate, fly-on-the-wall look at a legendary, tumultuous romance" (Booklist). |
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Act of Oblivion
by Robert Harris
What it's about: Follows General Edward Whalleys and his son-in law Colonel William Goffes flight to America in 1660 after their involvement in the beheading of King Charles I, in the new novel from the best-selling author of Fatherland.
Reviewers say: This further burnishes Harris’s reputation as a talented author of historical suspense (Publisher's Weekly).
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| The Last of the Seven (Hoopla)by Steven HartovWhat it is: an atmospheric and well-researched story of survival and revenge, inspired by the true story of the Special Interrogation Group (SIG), a British army unit composed of German-speaking Jewish volunteers sent on sabotage missions behind Nazi lines.
How it opens: Dragging a gangrenous broken leg and wearing a Nazi uniform, George Henry Lane, the sole survivor of an SIG detachment, stumbles out of the desert and turns himself in to a the British military.
Read it for: the visceral, stirring descriptions of the physical challenges the characters endure and the welcome moments of gallows humor. |
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| The Soviet Sisters by Anika ScottWhat it is: an intricately plotted, atmospheric spy thriller sisters, secrets, and Cold War paranoia.
Starring: Marya, who has spent 9 years in a gulag after being convicted for espionage; Marya's sister Vera, a state attorney who finally gets the courage to officially reopen her sister's case.
For fans of: the novels of Kate Quinn, especially recent titles like The Rose Code and The Alice Network. |
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| The Wild Hunt (Hoopla)by Emma SeckelThe setting: a rugged little island off the coast of Scotland, just after World War II.
The premise: Leigh Welles has lived on the mainland for years but decides to return home after her father's sudden death.
The problem: When Leigh arrives she's surprised at the cool detachment her brother treats her with, and in the wake of wartime losses, the other islanders are turning increasingly superstitious and distrustful of outsiders and each other. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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