Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Chanticleer Book Reviews

COME the WIND by Alexander Edlund – Fantasy, War, Coming of Age Y/A

With Come the Wind—the second in his series, The Book of Banea—author Alexander Edlund creates a lush tapestry of fantasy, coming of age story that links the power of one woman to the skills and talents of all women.

Breea Banea, born to the Library of Limtir, became aware of her destiny as an Alach “weaver” or manipulator of etheric energies in A Woman Warrior Born, causing her to take up arms against the mysterious Oregule threatening her people. In Come the Wind we learn that the Oregule are in fact evil shapeshifters manipulated by an ancient enemy of Limtir. In her attempt to overcome the Oregule, Breea must free the regions they dominate. She will do so both as a warrior, and more reluctantly, as a queen, a role she adopts in order to recruit the Kultash and other peoples to her side in battle.

In her new role as “Chosen,” Breea, a natural leader, will meet war victims needing help, consider the possibly duplicitous priest, Duyazen, and convene with leaders of all the region’s armies whose support she needs, but who mistrust her new edict that women can fight alongside men. But most significantly perhaps, she is approached by a stranger who speaks her Limtir tongue and advises her of a great prophecy concerning “six Alach-born children who are destined each to destroy an Oregule. A child each of earth, wind, life, light, fire, and song.”

Unknown to Breea, even as this fateful prediction is uttered two of her own faithful followers, the lord Taumea and his companion Valenia are already on the trail of Alach sisters, Anila and Spe, who though young, display mighty powers not unlike those to which Breea herself is heir. Together they will take on the nefarious Oregule.

Edmund’s prose is potent, with no wasted words and many splendid ones. He celebrates Breea’s warrior nature along with her wisdom and the extraordinary abilities she has been given while showing her “human” failings and self-doubts for balance. She is always willing to take advice from her servant Dori and the refugee Simarn, who is proving herself to be as strong and fearless as her new queen. Though at times seeming burdened with holding together the fabric of his fantasy through every conceivable situation, Edlund is as faithful as he can be to the powers and limitations of every character and creature he has created. His book would benefit with a brief precis of the first volume in the series to bring the reader up to speed, even a glossary of terms would be useful. This is no slight – it is indicative of an exceptionally intricate world and readers will not want to miss a beat.

In this war and weapon-filled coming of age fantasy, one woman’s strengths and aspirations prove her worthiness as a leader. Exceptionally intricate world building and potent prose — readers will not want to miss a beat of this epic fantasy!

November 3, 2017
A WOMAN of NOTE by Carol Cram – Historical Fiction, Literary, Vienna

Isabette Gruber is in a panic. If only her sister were still with her to steady her hands on the keyboard as she plays Beethoven’s Eighth Sonata, known as the “Pathetique,” in her first public concert at Vienna’s Hofburg Palace. Then she hears Johanna’s voice in her head, and her poise and confidence return. The nineteen-year-old Isabette raises her hands, shapes her fingers above the keyboard, and launches into the “Pathetique.” Her powerful performance thrills the audience, whose applause continues through a third bow, and does honor to its composer, Ludwig van Beethoven, whose funeral took place in Vienna that very day, March 29, 1827.

Filling Isabette’s heart more than the applause, however, are the words of praise from her beautiful, new American friend, eighteen-year-old Amelia Mason, who received four bows for her extraordinary vocal performance. Afterward, Amelia asks the young virtuoso pianist to become her accompanist. Isabette is eager to hear more about this enticing proposition, but Mama arrives with her cloak. Herr Dietrich (her indecorous manager) is waiting with their carriage. “Hurry, Isabette!”

In A Woman of Note, Carol Cram has crafted a second brilliant female artist, this time a pianist and composer in 19^th-century Vienna. Isabette must fight to establish her position in the male-dominated European world of classical music, much as Cram’s Sofia had to do in 14^th-century Italy’s world of painting, in The Towers of Tuscany (2014). Cram’s precise, colorful writing enables us to hear the young Isabette playing the “Pathetique” in Hofburg Palace, see her enjoying a stroll with Amelia in the Prater, feel her pain over the loss of father and sister, and appreciate her determined efforts to convince music publisher Herr Weissel to accept her compositions, under the pseudonym of Anson Kruetzer. (Weissel roars with laughter, but agrees!)

Once home from the Hofburg, Isabette thinks back to her practice session that morning in the small, dusty parlor of the apartment where she lives with her mother. With a heavy heart, she remembers what a happy home this had been when her sister Johanna and she shared both a talent and a love for music and were skillfully taught to play and compose by their proud father. Now Papa is dead, Johanna is in an asylum, and Mama seems to think of Isabette more as a means to an income than as her younger daughter. The tall, lanky girl with a plain face and dull, straight hair never gives a thought to her social life or the possibility of marriage and children. Her every moment is devoted to practicing. Tonight, though, she thinks of a new life with Amelia in it. Soon, they are together every day practicing, but also developing their friendship as they go for long walks around Vienna.

When piano teacher Josef Hauser, who fancies himself a superior composer, meets the two young women, the story’s complexity grows. Josef is enamored with Amelia’s beauty but enthralled with Isabette’s talent. (In fact, he agrees to become her teacher if she revises his compositions so they will be accepted for publication.) Isabette treasures every minute she spends with the vibrant, cheerful Amelia, but feels uncomfortable when Amelia strokes her arms and kisses her neck. Amelia is jealous of Josef’s attention to Isabette during her piano lessons. Isabette realizes she could love Josef but knows that he is passionate about Amelia and could never feel that way about her. Then Josef’s flutist/poet friend Daniel Leitner joins the threesome. Gentleman that he is, he maintains a discreet distance from the ladies at least for a time.

Readers will love Carol Cram’s colorful writing and attention to the minute details of daily life at this time in European history. Even more enjoyable, however, will be finding out where her intertwining love stories lead as the characters mature. The book never loses its pace. and readers will be rapidly turning the pages until the very end.

While the cameo appearances and mentions of such famous musicians as Johann Hummel, Carl Czerny, Franz Schubert, Fredric Chopin, Robert Schumann and his wife Clara, and Louise Farrenc are of course fictional, they add drama and reality to the story, which is based on Cram’s meticulous research. An Author’s Note provides background on actual women composers of the time and place.

A young virtuoso pianist rises above the many musicians of her time, blazing a path of passion for music and love that is hers and hers alone in nineteenth-century Vienna.

November 1, 2017
MY DEAR WIFE and CHILDREN: CIVIL WAR LETTERS FROM a 2nd MINNESOTA VOLUNTEER by Nick K. Adams – Civil War Memoir, Family Letters

Collected and annotated by the great-great-grandson of a Union soldier, these recollections of the Civil War take on new life and meaning in current times.

Nick K. Adams, a retired schoolteacher and Civil War re-enactor, was fortunate to have access to letters written by his ancestor, Brainard Griffin. A Minnesota farmer, Griffin volunteered to fight for the Union, leaving behind his wife Minerva, their two young daughters and baby son. His first letter home was written on September 30, 1861. The letters, 100 in all, express his longing to be back home while describing in often minute detail the life of an ordinary combatant.

Griffin wrote the letters in quiet times, holding a board or his knapsack on his lap as a table. The repeated themes are poignant: loving messages to his wife and children, advice for the management of the farm, even bits of gossip.

Money worries were constant; at one point Griffin washed the clothes of other soldiers so he could send more of his pay back to his family. Around the mid-point in his service he avows that, “experience is a good school,” assuring “Nerva” that when he returns, he will “prize” his time with family and home.

Griffin’s regiment traveled extensively through Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama, constantly on the alert, experiencing battles, sickness and the travails of heat, mud, and snow. He observed the ravages of war in the farming communities and burned-down towns he passed through and saw firsthand the horrors of a field hospital. He met slaves and engaged them in personal conversation. He often lamented “the curse of slavery” and vowed to fight to end it. From the outset, he believed that the war would soon be over—in a few months, or a year at the most. His accounts of mealtimes indicate the increasing stress on the army’s resources: from coffee twice a day, pancakes, beef, fresh fruits, even pies, to half rations for months at a time, and towards the end of his accounts, mostly salted meat and crackers.

Despite his optimism that the war would soon end, and his repeated visions of returning to Minerva and the children, Griffin was killed in the first few moments of the savage Battle of Chickamauga, two years after his first letter home, and was buried by Confederate soldiers in a mass grave.

Adams has taken care to present the letters in their original form. Before each section, he highlights the coming contents and includes a map of troop movements. Though there is repetition, it seems fitting that almost every letter begins and ends with loving greetings to Griffin’s wife and children (some written directly to the girls), and that all express the simple daily trials of the foot soldier. Griffin had illnesses, lost teeth, grew a beard, and never ceased encouraging his wife in her work on their homestead.

His homey remarks and even a bit of good-natured joking show him as a strong-willed, positive person, and his views on the progress of the national struggle reveal him as a thoughtful patriot with a mind to the future of his country and all its inhabitants.

November 1, 2017
CORRALLING KENZIE: BOOK 4 of the WINTERS SISTERS by Joanne Jaytanie – Genetic Engineering, Fantasy, Romance, Psychics

Jaytanie veers off the sister track with her introduction to brand-new characters in her latest sizzling Winters Sisters Series read, Corralling Kenzie.

Kenzie Vaughn leaps out of her bed in the dead of night, responding to a cry from her horse. She discovers Boone shot and bleeding out. Kenzie contacts her neighbor, Victory Winters, who happens to be the closest vet in the area. While Victory is tending to Boone and Kenzie, Logan Mendoza, one of the DNA-enhanced Special Operations Command team (SOCOM) who investigates her ranch, is confident that the notorious Kaleidoscope Group (KG) used the mysterious shooting to get to Kenzie. Further probing indicates that Kenzie’s background may provide essential clues, particularly from her brother, Marcus who was sent to an institution when he was seven.

It is during an attempt on Kenzie’s life that she encounters Marcus. He, in turn, sets up a meeting with SOCOM to divulge the connective tie with KG. Indeed, KG is in the process of furthering their diabolical DNA experimentation, and Kenzie is a key player. More information unfolds with each day as Kenzie develops friendships with the Winters sisters. During Logan’s assignment to guard Kenzie, the two become close, and their friendship evolves into a steamy romance. Logan determines to keep her safe even while he’s away on a brief mission. But upon his return, Kenzie is not around. She’s been kidnapped!

For fans who are caught up in the lives of the Winters sisters, they are in for a big surprise with Jaytanie’s fourth installment. Up to this point, books one thru three have mainly concentrated on Victory, Payton, and Willow and KG’s sinister schemes directed toward the girls. But with the addition of the sisters’ neighbor Kenzie, Jaytanie opens the door to a whole new world of outsiders who have fallen prey to DNA tampering. Although pseudo-realism in design, this chilling realm into the dark side of medicine is reminiscent of the grisly experiments on children throughout history.

Jaytanie does a stellar job balancing the bad and ugly with the good, and “good” comes in various forms, the most obvious from the alpha-male SOCOM team and the Winters sisters. But on a deeper level, Jaytanie has created relatable characters; their near-realistic personas are riddled with strengths and weakness, even on a romantic playing field. Certainly, when Logan and Kenzie get their mojo on, it’s steamy. Leading up to those moments, Jaytanie sets an example of what a beautiful friendship should look like—slow but steady.

As with all of the books in this series, Corralling Kenzie functions perfectly well as a stand-alone read. There is richness when readers start from the very beginning of the series. Let’s just say that Jaytanie is a master of all things and will thrill and delight new readers as well as her loyal fans with this new installment.

The exciting aspect of this series is that book four does not complete the set. Closing on a major cliffhanger, Jaytanie has much more in store for her beloved audience. Stay tuned!

October 29, 2017
ELEVEN – A BRANDON FISHER FBI Series #1 by Carolyn Arnold – Thriller/Suspense, Hard-Boiled Police Procedural

Carolyn Arnold’s absorbing crime thriller, Eleven, is taut with suspense from the very first page. Brandon Fisher, just starting his two-year probationary period with the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit, is doing his utmost to impress his supervisor, the legendary Special Agent Jack Harper, as they survey a shocking crime scene.

They’re standing in an underground dirt bunker with tunnels that lead to small, circular rooms with chicken wire pressed against the dirt walls. There are ten corpses in all, their bodies marked with identical incisions that tell a tale of ritualistic torture and murder. Only one victim has not been disemboweled. Brandon, growing more claustrophobic in the bunker by the second, struggles to show no emotion in front of unflappable Jack, but that’s difficult when he realizes the bunker contains a room for an eleventh victim. Before long, Brandon will learn that he very well could be the serial murderer’s next target. Could his first case be any more difficult?

The forensic team ascertains that the killer is highly intelligent and disciplined. While they have an immediate suspect, the team is also certain that the killer had a helper. Most of the book focuses on discerning who, amongst a large group of possibilities, serves as the accomplice. This second perpetrator is thought of as a “follower” or an “apprentice.” This mentor-apprentice relationship unnervingly echoes the relationship between Jack and Brandon.

Readers who are drawn to crime thrillers will not be disappointed with the details Brandon, Jack and the rest of the team sort through as they gather evidence. As the title of the book indicates, the number eleven is a key clue.

The dialogue involving the latest method s for extracting DNA from objects and lifting fingerprints indicates the author has done her homework; she integrates scientific details nicely into the plot. In fact, each member of the team is distinct and well realized.

This book is a fast read as the writing is straight-forward and engaging. Arnold leads the reader through some winding plot twists and each one is more riveting than the last. Suspense builds and builds and the ending is every bit as shocking as the opening pages of the novel. Although Jack tells Brandon, “This isn’t like TV,” there’s no doubt that fans of shows like CSI (in its various locations) and Criminal Minds (which has a small cameo) will want to read Eleven. Readers will find the book difficult to put down – and, if they do, they may very well sleep with the lights on.

A lead FBI agent hunts his prey and grooms his apprentice while a ritualistic killer does the very same thing. Riveting and disturbing, Eleven, is guaranteed to thrill and terrorize readers.

October 23, 2017
ENGAGED in DANGER: A JAMIE QUINN MYSTERY by Barbara-Venkataraman – Cozy Mystery/Thriller & Suspense, Amateur Sleuth

Did I really lose my guy to a Hairy-Nosed Wombat … a Northern Hairy-Nosed wombat? That’s the question that plagues attorney Jamie Quinn while she lays awake and stares at the ceiling every night. But it’s not too long after her boyfriend, Kip, drops his Save the Wombat bomb and flies off to Australia, that she has more immediate issues to keep her awake—secret business machinations, a hint of Russian collusion, blackmail, and murder, for starters.

In Engaged in Danger – A Jamie Quinn Mystery by Barbara Venkataraman anything is possible. And even though Hollywood, Florida where Jamie lives and practices family law is a small, quiet town surprising things happen there.

Three days after Kip announced his temp job and is packing for a three-month stint in Australia, an elegant, older woman walks into Jamie’s office seeking a divorce. Someone is trying to kill her spouse, but she doesn’t care—she just wants a divorce, and money is no problem. Interest piqued, Jamie soon learns the husband in question is the most “famous/infamous” (translated, rich, powerful, and politically connected) attorney in town. He also proves to be a crafty, dangerous opponent with fingers in many pies. On the home front, Jamie’s neighbors who are caring for their orphaned niece, ask Jamie to look into the details surrounding the recent plane crash that killed the child’s parents.

Enlisting the assistance of her BFF, corporate attorney Grace Anderson, along with that of the charming PI, Duke Broussard, a good old Louisiana boy who has one foot on either side of the law, Jamie simultaneously takes on the high-profile divorce case and the suspicious airplane crash. What ensues is an intriguing mix of characters and events interwoven into a mystery that satisfies even the pickiest fan.

While written as a stand-alone, this book is like a gift of Babushka dolls. Allusions to backstories and Jamie’s history with Kip, with her dad in Nicaragua whom she’s never met, with Grace, and with Duke can at times be distracting, at other times, tantalizing.

Engaged in Danger is a fast-paced, well-written cozy with its complex, quirky characters, and unique plot brings unexpected twists and turns and has more than a bit of romance tucked between its pages. Venkataraman tempers the story with wry, self-deprecating humor that entertains and engages the mind, tickles the funny-bone, warms the heart, and leaves the reader ready for more.

October 23, 2017
RUTH 66 by Elizabeth Barlo – Humorous, YA, Family & Social Issues

When a banged-up old bus pulls into his family’s driveway, Charlie has no idea that the rattling junker would be his ride to freedom. For years he’d been suffering under the thumb of a cold-hearted mother and a vindictive twin sister, while his father languished behind bars for tax fraud. The only family member with whom the young man held a loving bond was his grandfather, Opa Bill. Since Bill’s recent death, Charlie has been holding it together by listening to the music he and his grandfather loved. That musical thread weaves its way throughout the story as a sort of narrative jukebox.

Now Charlie’s respectable Oma Ruth has careened back into his life in a shocking new incarnation: a freewheeling hippie in kaftan and beads, unafraid to swap barbed words with her appalled daughter, nor to insist that Charlie accompany her on her road trip. He’s dead-set against it – he’d just found his dream job at a record store – and is disgusted when his mother dumps him on her mother without hesitation.

So Charlie sets out with Ruth – and, as it turns out, with Opa Bill, whose urn rests on the dashboard. At first, Ruth’s bizarre behavior and Charlie’s resentment at being dragged along make for a very uncomfortable ride. She insists on traveling without modern technology, but when she relents and allows his iPod and a new stereo system, the thaw begins.

Although Route 66 is the road they travel as they head west, this is no travelogue about nostalgic remnants of yesterday. This is a journey of discovery: of Charlie’s strength and capacity to love, of Ruth’s ability to be honest with herself, of her secrets and those of her late husband, and of the people who will teach them along the way.

There’s the comical Count Doobie, and Jonas the Swede, who appreciates Ruth’s beauty and makes her feel truly free. There’s also heartbroken Barry, who, with his daughter Rosie, barely keeps afloat a strip joint in the middle of nowhere, Texas. And there’s even Charlie’s embittered sister Becky, who rediscovers compassion and her affection for her twin away from their mother’s toxic influence.

Above all, there’s Rosie, the beautiful young woman who pines for her missing mother and valiantly offers to become a stripper to help her father’s business. She sets Charlie’s heart and hormones on fire, turning him into a bumbling puppy before he learns to overcome his insecurities and grow into a hero of sorts. Their relationship becomes entangled in the revelation of Ruth’s secrets, but the resolution is both satisfying and a bit of a relief.

A word of caution to the straight-laced reader: Ruth has embraced the hippie lifestyle to its fullest, and so you’ll find pot-smoking, swearing, nudity, and sex, as Charlie and Rosie let loose their teenage hormones and Ruth re-engages her lost libido. But far more than that, there is love, forgiveness, and bravery on this journey, not to mention a lot of laughs, some wonderfully wacky moments, and at times exciting and literally explosive revelations.

October 19, 2017
The HARRIET CLUB: A NOVEL of SAN FRANCISCO by Kathe Maguire – Literary, Y/A Mystery/Thriller, Romance

In 1999, 13-year-old Virgil McCormick disappeared without a trace while waiting for the 43 Masonic bus. Thus, the Harriet Club was born, with 8-year-old Harriet, and her friends Nikki, Dahlia, and Casey, each longing to find out what happened to Virgil. Especially Harriet.

Ten years later, new leads in the cold case have emerged, including suspicious sketches by city graffiti artist Blinky, and the “Spatterer,” someone eager to erase all Blinky’s creations. Harriet’s obsession with the case hasn’t waned, even amid her life with her two moms, two dads, and their sometimes unpredictable lifestyle. The question now is whether The Harriet Club is up to the task of closing the Virgil McCormick case once and for all, as the teenagers face college applications, neglectful parents, substance abuse, and sexual advances from older men. With a complex and diverse cast of characters and incongruous developments at every turn, The Harriet Club definitely has their work cut out for them.

Kathe Maguire brings a dark, twisted humor to this mystery/thriller, demonstrating that in seemingly idyllic San Francisco, the city’s shadows can run deep and sinister. Maguire also does a great job of inserting local culture and color through realistic settings and dialogue. For example, Virgil’s fictional mystery is intertwined with San Francisco’s real-life cases of kidnapped children in the area, including Kevin Collins, Jaycee Dugard, and others, adding a dark and suspenseful element.

This is a well-written and well-paced novel that will capture readers from the opening pages all the way until the end. With exquisite description and visceral imagery, the story definitely tends more on the literary rather than the commercial side, but the break-neck pacing won’t leave genre readers disappointed. There are lots of moving pieces and plots that Maguire skillfully weaves together into a compelling read.

Although the main players in this story are teens, each with different shades of diversity, a much-needed trait in YA literature, this is not a typical YA mystery, and parents should be cautioned that the inclusion of graphic language, talk about sex, scenes of drug use, and themes makes this gritty story a selection for teens at least 16 and older. Dog lovers should also be cautioned of certain scenes involving animal violence. Regardless, this is a must-read for those looking for a compelling mystery that incorporates razor-sharp wit. Those from and in Northern California, and those who wish they were, will also relish in the book’s authentic setting and textures.

Obsession and dedication go hand in hand in Kathe Maguire’s The Harriet Club, a hard-core Y/A mystery thriller set in the shadow of San Francisco.

October 19, 2017
TALLULAH’S FLYING ADVENTURE by Gloria Two-Feathers – Fable, Native American, Children’s Story

A fable with an ancient feel, this story of a plucky spider and her tiny bird companion rests comfortably in the story-telling tradition of Native American peoples.

Tallulah is unusual in a number of ways. Born last and alone after her many siblings had already left the cocoon of the Mother Spider, she is not black but white “with golden eyes and soft golden hair on her long slender legs.” Then, instead of hustling off like the others to explore the wide world, she decides to make her home in the old barn where she was born. She soon befriends a horse named Buck, who gives her the name Tallulah. Buck is the Keeper of the Meadow, and he and Tallulah become great friends. But one day, Buck falls ill and it will be up to Tallulah to save him, and by saving him, to save the meadows that are dying without his daily grazing visits.

Fortunately, she meets another friend who can assist her on her mission, a tiny bird stuck in a web in the rafters. He will help her get to the Old Forest and the home of the Great Grandmother Tree. Tallulah has always longed to fly, and the bird teaches her how to harness her web to make a flying craft. Together they find the Great Grandmother Tree, where the Great Grandmother herself, recognizing Tallulah’s talent and persistence, instructs her in how to save Buck.

This is a book for children that people of all ages can appreciate for its multi-layered charms. There are simple but endearing pen and ink illustrations, and every chapter begins with a quotation from Native American lore, such as this, from the Wisdom of the Elders: “We are each a thread in the web of life, strengthened by the promise of our dreams.” The story itself has many symbols and harks back to a simpler time when children learned such natural but surprisingly mature themes from their elders. Tallulah embodies many admirable qualities, making her a role model of bravery and persistence, while Buck and the bird represent friendship and loyalty. The book offers a small list of Lakota words interspersed in the narrative. Thus, it offers many ways to learn.

Gloria Two-Feathers comes from a combined Scottish and Native American heritage and studied extensively with a Lakota elder. Story-telling springs naturally from her background, allowing her to create, in Tallulah’s Flying Adventure, a tale ideal for reading aloud and sure to engage the reader as much as the listener.

October 16, 2017
The LAST CRUSADER KINGDOM: DAWN of a DYNASTY in TWELFTH-CENTURY CYPRUS by Helena P. Schrader

In the Introduction and Acknowledgements section of her fascinating novel, The Last Crusader Kingdom: Dawn of a Dynasty in Twelfth-Century Cyprus, Helena P. Schrader notes that “. . . the historical basis for this novel is very thin,” and that the book serves as “a fictional depiction of events as I believe they could have happened.” Upon finishing the book, one concludes that only the rare reader would disagree with Schrader’s version of the historical events that comprise her narrative. Her comprehensive research and impressive scholarship are evident on every single page. This is a work of historical fiction, admittedly, but Schrader clearly was tireless in exhuming every possible detail to piece together as authentic a history of medieval Cyprus, 1193-1198, as possible.

The establishment of a Latin Kingdom on the formerly Byzantine island of Cyprus in the late twelfth-century is as engrossing and intricate a chapter in history as possible, one that involved a plethora of cultures, religions, family dynasties, battles, treaties, and, inevitably, human greed and vanity. Schrader addresses both public and private lives and demonstrates how their intertwining shaped history. She considers all classes of society, from barons to beggars. It would be easy to get lost amongst the riveting and numerous details, but the author takes the reader by the hand and offers a guided tour to people, places, and events. The novel includes a Cast of Characters, Genealogical Charts for the Houses of Jerusalem, Lusignan, and Ibelin, as well as historical maps of Cyprus and the Outremer. Her Historical Notes underscore the depth of her research, and she also provides a glossary to orient the reader with historical and regional terms.

Schrader matches her exhaustive research with a thoroughly captivating narrative. Her prose shimmers with elegant confidence and wit. The story traces how this strategically positioned island, formerly fraught with the greatest animosity between the inept and despised Frankish ruler, Guy de Lusignan, and the Greek Orthodox natives is pacified even after the influx of Latin immigrants. How all this came about is as exciting and adventurous tale as anyone could imagine. Schrader pays keen attention to how power is grasped, nourished, and maintained, and her tale demonstrates the essential and timeless balance of politics, religion, economy, and public relations. Although the novel takes place in medieval times, much of it could serve as a primer for twenty-first-century global politics and diplomacy.

One might expect the medieval world to be dominated by men, yet the author fully addresses the lives of women. Obviously siring male heirs was of importance in the twelfth century, but Schrader does not limit episodes involving female characters to pregnancy and birth. She emphasizes their role as astute advisers to their husbands and other male relations. The women understood that marriages were opportunities for strategic alliances and personal power. Queens and wives of public figures were keenly aware of the critical public relations roles they played in binding their subjects to the ruling families.

The reader also learns a wealth of information on shipbuilding, irrigation, aqueducts, woodcarving, piracy, on and on. The Last Crusader Kingdom is not just the story of key families ascending to power; it’s also an enlightening overview on the state of technology, the arts, and crime at the close of the twelfth century. The reader trusts Schrader’s depiction of events as accurate in large part because her meticulous research makes every scene vivid and memorable. Schrader matches her exhaustive historical research with a thoroughly captivating narrative. Her prose shimmers with elegant confidence and wit.

Helena P. Schrader is an author who doesn’t just bring history to life but one who reminds us that each passing moment is also history. To understand the events reported on the front pages of today’s newspapers, there’s no greater teacher than the past. The Last Crusader Kingdom is filled with lessons we’d be foolish to neglect.

October 8, 2017