Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Historical Fiction

DEAD To RIGHTS by Gail Hertzog – Historical Fiction, American West, Murder Mystery

Set during the turbulent years of 1914–1915, Gail Hertzog’s Dead to Rights delivers a raw, bruising, and utterly captivating descent into Winnemucca, Nevada, a desert town where the divide between oppression and savagery is no wider than a razor’s edge.

At the heart of this shadow-ridden world stands Red Forquer—a former Churchill County deputy sheriff turned manipulative, violent, and universally feared crime boss. Even in death, Red’s presence seeps into every corner of the community. Dead to Rights opens with the discovery of his corpse by a local taxi driver, described in a chilling posthumous observation that sets the tone for everything that follows.

The story shifts to the perspective of Gary Lindsay, a lamplighter with a keen eye and intimate knowledge of Winnemucca’s social strata—the scandals, the criminals, the downtrodden, and the self-satisfied wealthy. Through Gary, we learn that Red’s talent for intimidation gave him an uncanny ability to bend others to his will, epitomized in the black leather gloves through which he dealt his violence.

No one can challenge Red’s quiet domination, nor his peculiar combination of charm and menace, even Jo, a strong-willed woman who has vowed not to be manipulated by anyone ever again.

Jo’s escape from her old life is quickly eclipsed by Red’s influence after he interviews her to work at his “Combination Saloon.” Hulda, seeking work as a singer, finds herself immediately assessed by Red not for her talent but for her worth as his pawn. Red calculates the leverage her employment gives him against her powerful father, all while Hulda believes she has found just the perfect stage for her independence.

What arises when Hulda meets Jo is a dangerous alliance that begins with shared glances and hushed conversations. Their mutual need to survive in a world ruled by fists, where trusting the wrong person could quickly end your life, starts a conspiracy against the powers of Winnemucca.

Dead to Rights is a deep exploration into the making of “a being devoid of soul.”

Through the brutal alchemy of Red’s childhood trauma, Hertzog examines the long-term effects of parental abuse and its ability to shape a child’s inner world into something defined by aggression. We follow a soul fractured by early betrayal, how it spends a lifetime spent clawing back power through the very forces that once destroyed it.

Hertzog builds broader themes upon this foundational struggle against cruel authority—the corrosive power of secrets and the fierce resilience of female solidarity—revealing the hidden currents pulsing beneath a patriarchal society. Through these themes, she masterfully presents a gritty, realistic portrait of how power is often won, even in today’s world, not through courage or skill but through psychological manipulation.

Readers are taken on a journey that captures the illusion of choice amidst coercive control, the performance of intimacy vs. transactional reality, the consequences of betrayal, and the search for agency anyway in a world of limited opportunities.

This intricate exploration makes the story much more than a mere glimpse into the past. Dead to Rights opts to leave an unsettling impression of the high cost of survival, as well as the fragile line between it and complicity.

Hertzog’s choice to begin the book with the end is brilliant. Rather than the common whodunit suspense, she embraces a compelling “how-dunit” and “why-dunit” approach. The multi-perspective narrative creates a rich story line with a communal touch to it, a truly immersive experience where readers don’t just become observers, but rather residents of Winnemucca.

Dead to Rights by Gail Hertzog is a great pick for readers who appreciate female protagonists as well as a nuanced exploration of power, trauma, and resilience. Those seeking a mystery that prioritizes the “why” over the “who” in vengeance and solidarity will be utterly absorbed.

January 12, 2026
THE LIFE & TIMES Of SARAH GOOD, ACCUSED WITCH by Sandra Wagner-Wright – Historical Fiction, Salem Witchcraft Trials, Colonial America

Even hundreds of years later, the Salem witch trials continue to capture the imagination. In The Life & Times of Sarah Good, Accused Witch, Sandra Wagner-Wright taps into this enduring fascination with historical details and emotional revelations. The suffering of women, the religious fervor, the inexplicable claims of supernatural experiences—it’s all here, in a compulsively-readable work of historical fiction.

Wagner-Wright makes good use of her background as an academic historian, never bogging down readers with unnecessary descriptions but selectively choosing details that immerse us in Sarah Good’s world.

Salem in 1692 has its own clothing, traditions, and terminology. Wagner-Wright writes convincing period dialogue with a healthy smattering of religious references. While words such as “fichu”—a woman’s kerchief worn to cover the neckline of a dress—aren’t explicitly defined in the text, there’s often enough context to figure out meanings. Plus, readers can find such definitions in a helpful glossary at the end of the book.

Although Sarah Good is the main character, Wagner-Wright weaves the narrative from many different perspectives. Two supporting characters, Ann Carr and her love interest Thomas Putnam, introduce readers to 17^th Century Salem, shaping it into a realistic, tangible place. From Ann in particular, we get an understanding of the dominant role of religion in their society. The day of the church raising is a special one: most of Salem Town “and most importantly, Tom” will be there, Ann reflects. By showing the church as a cornerstone of society, Wagner-Wright sets up the later religious hysteria that will take over Salem.

Through Ann, we also get a close look at the hopes and heavy responsibilities of being a woman.

Ann is well aware of the importance of marriage. A woman without a husband has no status, and no safety net unless her family provides one. Yet Ann also learns of the burdens of marriage through her older sister. Many pregnancies are expected, and the physical stress of carrying and raising children can be draining. All too often, the babies don’t survive past infancy, so grief is intertwined in a woman’s burden.

With this setup, the stakes feel much higher when we return to Sarah’s perspective later in the book. Ann has successfully established herself with the things a woman needs: a husband, a home, and a family. Sarah has had no such luck. She’s unmarried, which means she’s unable to receive her inheritance, and at 28 is well past marrying age for the time. The unexpected appearance of a potential husband suggests her fortunes might change. Yet in short order, tragedy strikes, and Sarah’s once again on her own. Here, her downfall truly begins.

Wagner-Wright tells an exciting version of the events in Salem, with plenty of drama between characters. But the book’s compassion for its titular accused witch is what makes it truly stand out.

Wagner Wright paints a vivid picture of Sarah’s tragedy. To others, Sarah has gone mad and might well be a witch. Yet because we see things from Sarah’s perspective, readers can surmise that her increasingly odd behavior is more likely a natural reaction to stress and trauma. She’s lost both loved ones and physical security. Having been failed by her family, she has nothing to fall back on for support. Perhaps Sarah is indeed mad, but it’s not from any supernatural cause—she’s simply reeling from the worst outcomes for women of that period. Without a caring family or husband, she has no way of protecting herself.

This transition happens quickly, leaving some unanswered questions as Sarah progresses from ordinary woman to accused witch. Still, readers are bound to feel compassion as she falls further into her plight. Soon, it seems almost everyone in Salem is against her—certainly its religious leaders, who hold so much power in the community. The toll of poverty and inequality spirals into a haze of superstition alongside terrible coincidences. While other women are also accused of witchcraft, Sarah remains at the center of the maelstrom.

Anyone familiar with the Salem witch trials knows there are no happy endings. Yet in this work of historical fiction, Wagner-Wright gives Sarah a voice, which she uses to protest the unfairness to her last breath. With The Life & Times of Sarah Good, Accused Witch, Wagner-Wright has deftly set up her book series, Salem Stories, which promises to provide a further feminist take on one of history’s most interesting villages.

January 5, 2026
THE ROUND PRAIRIE WARS by Aden Ross – Historical Fiction, Cold War, Social & Family Issues

On the wind-swept plains of 1950s Nebraska, nine-year-old Jeb Wilder wages a campaign against the boredom that stretches longer than summer days, fends off local bullies, and navigates the uneasy terrain of a family coming apart at the seams. In The Round Prairie Wars, Aden Ross turns these small, familiar struggles into something much larger—a portrait of a childhood shaped by the echoes of distant conflicts.

As Jeb makes sense of her own “wars” at home, the shadow of World War II and the Cold War’s anxious hum linger in the background.

Jeb and Sam, her older brother, play games pretending to be pilots in a crippled WWII dive bomber in an imaginary unit they call “back-to-back.” This metaphor exemplifies their reliance on one another whenever they escape their confined, impoverished life in their small trailer house called Prairie Schooner.

Stories of war grip the parents as much as their children. When the family attends an outdoor showing of The Day the Earth Stood Still, the film acts as a litmus test for the parents’ fears, revealing deep ideological fissures running through their home.

The family’s first Sunday at a Methodist church leaves young Jeb confused and heartbroken at the perversion of the pulpit.

This institution that Jeb had trusted to spearhead faith and hope unmasks itself as a platform for political fear-mongering and hypocrisy. The Reverend’s sermon is less a theological lesson than a diatribe against “godless communists.” Jeb can only seek moral and intellectual guidance elsewhere.

Jeb’s new sanctuary is a place of freedom and acceptance, where books provide truth beyond any sermon.

One such book carries a familiar smell. It reminds Jeb of her brother’s paranoid warning about a key figure in their life who can build far more than just bicycles. Sam’s words cease to be a childish theory and now become a chilling possibility that leaves Jeb unable to trust the assumptions of her small, fragile world. She begins to wonder if the real enemies aren’t out there among the communists, or even the local bullies, but are instead much closer to home.

Ross builds this vivid, complex world upon a deep foundation of metaphor.

The characters are well-hewn individuals, embodying nuanced themes around the ideological civil war of 1950s America. They not only experience their own immediate struggles but are vessels of pain inherited from history, family, and societal trauma—often without being fully understood. The world of the novel is anything but simple, and these characters help chart the complex, universal forces every child must decipher along the path to adulthood.

Ross’s exploration of the Cold War era through the lens of a young child makes the sprawling anxieties of the time into something intimate, tangible, and terrifyingly powerful.

She grounds the story in a confined space with barely any escape from family tensions. This domestic stage plays out the nation’s conflict, where ideological battles and personal trauma clash in whispered arguments.

The Round Prairie Wars by Aden Ross speaks with a voice burdened by echoes from the past. A testament to childhood caught in the gears of history, Jeb’s story honors conflict lived not in headlines but in the hushed, terrified, and wonderfully resilient hearts that endure it. The perfect read for those who cherish history from the ground up, as well as those who seek to capture the true sense of a time of personal and societal uncertainty.

December 1, 2025
MORSE CODE: Land, Sea, and Air Book 3 by Sue C. Dugan – Middle Grade Adventure, Time Travel, Historical Fiction

Morse Code, the third book in Sue C. Dugan’s the Land, Sea, and Air series, plunges readers into double-layered intrigue. It’s a riot of sleuthing, history, and time itself at play.

At one end of the story, young British twins Dot and Dash Foxshire encounter three peculiar strangers around their parents’ archaeological dig in 1921’s Guatemala. Oddly overdressed for the jungle, the newcomers reveal they had just survived both the shipwrecks of the Titanic in 1912 and the S.S. Austria in 1858 (see Book One: Save Our Ships).

Meanwhile, Morse Code picks up where Book Two: Mayday left off. Jessie, her father, and Ben make it home from a remote island in the past, unaware that Prince, a man native to that island, has secretly stowed away with them into the future.

His presence in 2016 quickly attracts the government’s attention; a linguist studies Prince in quarantine and grows fascinated with his hybrid system of gestures and speech, identifying it as an extinct Mayan language. Having safely arrived home in 2016’s Florida, Jessie seeks guidance from Roberto, an attractive boy at her school whose knowledge of time-space travel gives Jessie a new theory about where Prince really came from.

Jessie persuades the linguist to travel back into the Guatemalan jungle and return Prince to his home—with her older brother, Phil, acting as reluctant chaperone. However, their expedition takes an unexpected turn when an earthquake in Guatemala hurls Jessie and Prince into 1921, where they cross paths with Dot, Dash, and the Titanic trio.

The delight of Morse Code lies in its willingness to let two plots collide head-on, embracing historical what-ifs with a sense of childlike wonder.

As the mismatched group assembles a chronology of their overlapping stories, Jessie recalls Roberto mentioning that Albert Einstein would be in 1921’s New York City. If anyone can help untangle the mysteries of time, it’s him. With the Foxshire family’s help, the crew sets its sights on unraveling the mystery at the heart of their travels.

Much like the Magic Tree House series, Morse Code, Book Three of the Land, Sea, and Air series by Sue C. Dugan, balances whimsy with a little history lesson, respecting the complexities of its ideas while keeping a brisk pace toward another suspenseful cliff-hanger. Middle-grade readers eager to puzzle out myths and mysteries lost to time will find Morse Code, along with the series as a whole, both rewarding and wildly entertaining.

November 24, 2025
FRACTURED by Brian Blackwood – Urban Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Dark Fantasy

A genre defying debut, Fractured by Brian Blackwood tells the story of Rook Maison, who sustains his life by ripping out peoples’ souls to steal their bodies for himself. This unique ability comes with one cataclysmic side effect. Each time Rook replaces a soul, those souls—and Rook’s own—become increasingly fractured.

The forces of Heaven and Hell rely on a carefully maintained balance, and Rook has pushed that balance to a breaking point.

Originally a Catholic monk during the emergence and upheaval of Lutheranism, Rook has become increasingly disillusioned towards his religion and the purpose of his endless mercurial life. As the centuries passed by, Rook became a shell of who he once was, doing anything and taking whatever bodies necessary to continue his existence.

Rook grew hellbent on finding every scrap of information about his mysterious origins. But now, with a target on his back, Rook must decide if finding the truth is worth destroying the worlds of the living and the dead.

Fractured will entice those who root for the morally grey and antiheroes, as Rook Maison is a deeply interesting example.

Readers experience him in many different forms, from his devout beginnings and guilt-ridden conscience at having to take soul to a villainous disregard for the lives of others in favor of selfish survival. The plot jumps around in time as it reveals Rook’s backstory, building a sense of mystery and foreboding.

Some chapters focus on the perspective of the Angels, a fascinating angle on the story as they join with Hell to stop the fabric of the universe from being destroyed.

Placing Fractured within one genre would not do it justice. Its blend of urban fantasy, historical fiction, horror, and religion creates something unique and exciting for a variety of readers.

Brian Blackwood’s background in theory and screenwriting shines through his cinematic prose.

Illustrations at the beginning of each chapter set the tone for the pages that follow and piques interest in the central mystery that is Rook Maison.

A thought-provoking wild ride, Brian Blackwood’s Fractured is not to be missed. It asks complex questions through a well-developed character while providing the entertainment of a time-traveling adventure. An excellent choice for fans of urban fantasy, historical thrillers, and gothic religious horror. Rook Maison is one hell of a force to be reckoned with.

November 19, 2025
A CLAN CHIEF’S DAUGHTER: She Who Rides Horses Book 2 by Sarah V. Barnes – Historical Fiction, Ancient World, Metaphysical Fiction

Caught in the midst of a succession crisis, Naya sacrifices much of herself to be the dutiful girl she thinks her father expects. In A Clan Chief’s Daughter by Sarah V. Barnes, Naya’s kept in the dark while enemies plot her family’s downfall.

In the previous book of the series, She Who Rides Horses, Naya began the monumental task of bonding with the wild horses of the Pontic-Caspian Steppe. Guided by dreams of purpose alongside the red filly Réhda, they’d gone so far as to gallop free together. But returning to her clan after a winter apart, Naya finds a terrible captivity waiting for both her and the horses she loves.

A confluence of tragedy and treachery leaves Naya’s father, Potis, vulnerable in his role as Chief.

The clans of the Plānos tribe are soon convening for their annual Gathering. As this year’s host, Potis is expected to supply a plentiful animal sacrifice, especially since he hopes to claim his late father’s position as Plānos Chief of Chiefs. That would be hard enough after a brutal winter, but without warning much of the clan’s livestock are slaughtered in a senseless and suspicious attack.

The stage set, a captivating young man arrives as the clan’s seeming savior. Wailos, son of Potis’s main rival, helps the clan capture a herd of horses that had become habituated to humans—the very same whose trust Naya earned. They are to be sacrificed in place of the clan’s missing livestock.

Wailos shows interest in Naya, who’s begun preparations to be presented as a young woman at the Gathering. He promises a rich bride price of livestock, and such a marriage could prove a valuable political alliance in itself. Naya disregards her own reservations about Wailos in the hopes of helping her father and maybe even sparing the horses.

Naya’s self-denial extends to her loved ones and her very purpose, as she holds herself responsible for the suffering of the horses in captivity.

She refuses her grandmother Awija’s lessons on the importance of dreams and following one’s own heart. Visiting the horses is more than she can bear, especially as it brings her close to Aytal. While Naya holds deep resentment towards the young man, she can’t forget the connection and affection that grew between them over the winter.

Naya’s mother Sata leaves the clan for her childhood home alongside Oyuun, Aytal’s father, and Naya refuses to see it as anything but a betrayal of her and Potis. She turns away from the pain of her conflicted feelings and into the role of a clan chief’s daughter.

When the promises of that role unravel around her, she risks losing her freedom, her loved ones, and her heart’s deepest desire forever.

Barnes builds a societal conflict with complicated systems of alliance and tradition, enriching the story and historical detail through their combination.

The contest for power as Plānos Chief of Chiefs is well-grounded in the immediate and daunting challenges Potis faces as he struggles to stabilize his people. All the while, threads of conspiracy close in around Potis and Naya alike, with the villains always a step ahead. Potis decides not to reveal the danger Wailos poses to Naya, building a powerful sense of dread as Wailos uses the social expectations of their tribe to draw her into a cruel trap.

This conflict revolves around a theme of cooperation versus competition. Potis understands the necessity of maintaining peaceful bonds within and beyond their tribe, but he faces people who are willing to destroy anyone to grasp power.

A Clan Chief’s Daughter shows the injustice of strict gender roles and the vital importance of fighting against them. Barnes uses her rich characters to illuminate different facets of this oppression.

Awija and Sata both hope to turn Naya away from accepting what is expected of her—to be traded away as a commodity through marriage. But though Sata’s struggle to understand her desires against social stricture mirrors Naya’s own, Naya can’t listen without confronting the parts of herself she wants only to escape.

Throughout Naya’s preparation for the Gathering, Awija tries to instill an understanding of self-possessed womanhood in her and the other girls. Having come from a different culture in her youth, Awija contrasts the beliefs of the Plānos. She implies how such gender roles are not essential facets of nature but rather tools of control and power consolidation—tools that this story’s villains wield to harrowing effect.

After months trying to put her wants and fears aside to better serve her expected role, Naya is betrayed completely. She hopes that there might yet be friends she can turn to, but will only reach them if she learns to trust herself again.

Naya’s inner journey takes her through despair at how much she loses, but also an enlightening catharsis. She sacrifices her connection to the horses in a way that mirrors Aytal’s earlier sacrifice of his skill as a bowman, making A Clan Chief’s Daughter an effective rejoinder to the themes established in She Who Rides Horses.

Once Naya accepts that she cannot separate her love, anger, and grief from one another, she can finally begin to brave her nightmares to recover her own destiny.

In its well-crafted combination of vulnerable personal journey, well-researched ancient setting, and commentary on social roles that still manifest in our world today, A Clan Chief’s Daughter by Sarah V. Barnes will fascinate and satisfy in equal measure. A worthy successor to the first book in the series, She Who Rides Horses.

Buy it now through Bookshop.org!

November 10, 2025
SARITA by Natalie Musgrave Dossett – Adventure Western, Suspense, Historical Fiction

Set against the backdrop of Prohibition and Pancho Villa’s waning reign of terror, Sarita by Natalie Musgrave Dossett combines a page-turning western adventure and the coming-of-age of a bold young woman.

Set in 1920 South Texas, 19-year-old Sarita has already been through tough times. She had to return from high school, and her dream of being a reporter, to care for her dying mother. As she deals with those losses, Sarita’s fiancé, Jackson Cage, deserts her.

When the vicious tequila smuggler Javier Salsito de Ortega shoots her little brother, JJ, for their horses, Sarita finds herself alone in the face of grave danger.

The Texas Rangers focus their resources on Prohibition and the border incursion of Pancho Villa’s rebels, lacking the manpower to go after JJ’s murderer. Sarita worries that her grieving father will sell their land to an oil speculator. Weak with a bad heart, he is unable to pursue justice, so Sarita takes matters into her own hands.

Once Sarita crosses the Rio Grande, she stumbles into a situation much more treacherous than she’d imagined.

It doesn’t take long for Sarita to realize she is in over her head, caught in the clutches of criminals and drunks who think women are only good for one thing. To her surprise, Jackson Cage comes to her aid. But he seems to be in league with those who killed her brother. Sarita joins a childhood friend and that friend’s great-aunt on the dangerous trek to Santa Rosa, where Sarita hopes to find Javier and get her revenge.

As Sarita faces challenges beyond anything she was prepared for, she discovers an inner strength that chafes at the restrictions placed on women of her time. “A red-hot wave engulfed me. I was tired of being told what to do; of men taking what they wanted. I was tired of being threatened. I’d seen enough.”

Sarita by Natalie Musgrave Dossett is a suspenseful novel that does not shy away from the brutality of the 1920s, the consequences that others could suffer at the hands of ruthless smugglers and Villa’s rebels just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The tension is palpable as Sarita navigates her journey to justice all the while hoping to show her father that she is capable of taking care of their land.

Sarita by Natalie Musgrave Dossett won Grand Prize in the 2024 CIBA Laramie Awards for Americana Fiction.

October 29, 2025
Five Days Remain: The Series, Collections, Nellie Bly, and Military and Front Line Awards call!
The 2025 CIBAs Close Soon!

Don’t let your book miss out!
Only 5 days left to submit your books to these prestigious CIBA Divisions and embark on an extraordinary journey to success.

The Chanticleer International Book Awards provide ongoing recognition that amplifies authors’ digital footprints through high-traffic website features, social media promotion, newsletter spotlights, and long-tail marketing that continues promoting winners throughout the year and beyond!

The Series, Collections and Anthologies, Nellie Bly and Military and Front Line Awards are still open!

Congratulations to the 2024 Winners of the Series Awards!
- Karen Inglis – Secret Lake Mystery Adventures
- Glen Dahlgren – The Chronicles of Chaos
- Sandra Wagner-Wright – Salem Stories
- Taryn R. Hutchison – A Cold War Trilogy
- Kari Bovee – The Pryce of Murder
- J.L. Oakley – The Jossing series
- Ralph R. “Rick” Steinke – Jake Fortina Series
- Mike Murphey – Tales of Physics, Lust and Greed
- Rose Prendeville – Brides of Chattan
And a huge round of applause to our 2024 Series Grand Prize Winner:

A Vengeful Realms

By Tim Facciola

Collections and Anthologies is our Newest Division, recently split off of the SEA Shorts Award!

SEA Shorts now covers Short Stories, Essays and Novellas together, and Collections and Anthologies is for exactly that, Multi-Story Collections and Multi-Author Anthologies!
The Nellie Bly Award for Journalistic and Research-Based Non-Fiction
- Carla Conti – Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir
- Kori Reed – Men-in-the-Middle Conversations to Gain Momentum with Gender Equity’s Silent Majority
- Bonnie Bley – Stolen Voices: Missing and Murdered in Big Horn County
- Sarah Towle – Crossing the Line: Finding America in the Borderlands
And a huge round of applause to our 2024 Nellie Bly Grand Prize Winner:

The Sing Sing Files

One Journalist, Six Innocent Men, and A 20 Year Fight For Justice

By Dan Slepian

Congratulations to the 2024 Winners of the Military and Front Line Awards for Service to Others Non-Fiction!
- Roderick S. Haynes – Unauthorized Disclosures a Navy Memoir of the 1980s
- David Huntley – The B-17 Tomahawk Warrior: a WWII Final Honor
- Patrick Hogan – Coincidence, You Say?
- Shari Biery – It’s Your Turn How To Rediscover Yourself Prioritize Your Well-Being Thrive with Purpose
- Max Lauker & Antonio Garcia – Number 788: My Experiences in Swedish Special Operations – Preparing for NATO and the War on Terror
- Bibi LeBlanc – Wings of Freedom – The Story of the Berlin Airlift | Flugel der Freiheit – Die Geschichte der Berliner Luftbrucke
And a huge round of applause to our 2024 Military and Front Line Grand Prize Winner:

Memoirs From The Front Lines

Four States, Two Years, One Pandemic

By Kim Sloan

The CIBAs provide a ladder to success with a range of achievement tiers and expert long tail marketing strategies. From the highly anticipated Long List to the prestigious Overall Grand Prize Winner, the CIBA lists energize both authors and readers, maximizing your digital footprint and expanding your fan base.

We are always eager to support the Best Books through the CIBAs. Join the ranks of celebrated authors who have already taken this critical step in their publishing.

Your book deserves to be discovered, celebrated, and shared with the world. Don’t miss the chance to showcase your talent and gain valuable exposure at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (April 17-19, 2025) where Winners from all 28 Book Award Divisions will be announced and honored.

In a world hungry for good books, your story deserves to be heard. Submit now and leave a lasting impression.

Let’s celebrate exceptional storytelling together!

Your book deserves to be discovered

Enter Today!
October 26, 2025
THE RABBI’S KNIGHT by Michael J. Cooper – Historical Fiction, Mystic Theology, Adventure

Knight Templar Jonathan St. Clair bears two messages for Rabbi Samuel of Baghdad, one of mortal treachery and another of mystic wonder. In The Rabbi’s Knight by Michael J. Cooper, they journey across the Holy Land to Jerusalem while divisions of faith portend the bloody conclusion of the Crusades.

Games of knowledge and influence play across the Mamluk Sultanate, as the Latin Kingdom holdout city of Acre braces for its last fight.

Samuel and another Rabbi, Solomon Petit, stand opposed in a bitter debate within Judaism concerning the integration of philosophy and science with religious tradition—a controversy sparked by the writings of the medieval philosopher Maimonides.

Samuel plans to excommunicate Petit for burning the writings of Maimonides and desecrating his tomb. Petit doesn’t intend for him to get the chance. Before Samuel can arrive in Acre, Petit makes a deal with the nearby Emir to kill Samuel in exchange for the secrets of Acre’s defenses as the last city under Christian rule will soon be put to siege.

Petit’s pupil, Isaac, realizes his teacher’s betrayal only after he helps him carry it out. He rushes to stop the scroll on Acre’s defenses from reaching the Emir, aided by William Wallace, a young Scottish pilgrim bound for Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, St. Clair and Samuel elude the Emir’s soldiers by hiding in a leper colony on the shores of the Galilee.

Throughout their adventure, Samuel teaches St. Clair some aspects of the mystic tradition of Kabballah—guiding the knight to an understanding of the inscription on the ancient scroll that St. Clair had brought to Samuel to unlock the hidden secrets of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

The Rabbi’s Knight weaves together fictional characters and fictionalized historical figures into a dynamic, lively cast.

Each of the central characters brings a distinct view of their world into the story, multifaceted and endearing in their own way. Isaac’s clever and welcoming nature makes Petit’s cruelty against him keen, and his friendship with Wallace—a newcomer unfamiliar with the region—pushing both young men to consider how they relate to the broader conflicts around them. As intrepid underdogs, their side of the story is particularly exciting to follow.

We also gain insight into the motivations of the villains, as bound by histories of violence as they are willing to perpetuate them. Rabbi Petit ruminates on the burning of Jewish holy texts in France while plotting the death of his own chosen ‘heretic’. Emir Abdullah and Prince Khalil, son of Qa’la’un, both use the coming siege of Acre as leverage to grasp at the Mamluk Sultanate throne.

St. Clair and Samuel share a confluence between their faiths, nurturing a friendship that underpins their journey, though disagreeing in the face of Zahirah—a Mamluk woman who joins their pilgrimage from the leper colony. Samuel tries to convince St. Clair that his growing affection for Zahirah is a sanctification of God, rather than a betrayal. Zahirah herself embraces her desire for St. Clair, dedicated to her own bold will despite how much it clashes with her culture’s expectations for women.

Readers get the pleasure of growing familiar with these good-hearted people through their complicated negotiations with religious philosophy and the various social structures that shape their world.

Cooper relishes in historical detail, welcoming readers to the lived-in corners of 13^th-Century Palestine.

Isaac maneuvers through the cosmopolitan port of Acre while its Templar defenders are supplied by sea for the looming attack. The narrow alleys of Jerusalem reveal remnants of ancient history beside the works of restoration and craftsmen. Wallace chafes with his gaudy disguise as a Genoese merchant. Lepers cling to the hope that Rabbi Samuel’s examination will declare them clean.

The Rabbi’s Knight opens with a helpful map of the Holy Land in 1290. As the characters journey through it, readers get to explore living cities and hallowed landmarks through reverent sensory descriptions.

Despite how far in the past this story takes place, the setting feels suitably ancient to the characters themselves. They and readers share the experience of trying to understand a long-past but still relevant time.

Beneath its adventure, suspense, and history, The Rabbi’s Knight embraces a mystic philosophy of the pan-human search for the divine.

Jewish theological debate defines the conflicts between Rabbis Petit and Samuel, while Samuel’s instruction of St. Clair introduces readers to some Kabalistic concepts—uncovering the layered emanations of God’s essence. In his role as teacher, Samuel refutes the sectarian divides between and within different religions, insisting that each faith is dedicated to understanding the sacred pattern of creation.

The characters themselves grow to reflect this philosophy, risking all to help one another, they come to a far greater understanding of the world than they ever could have alone.

A thoughtful and rewarding tale, Michael J. Cooper’s The Rabbi’s Knight will satisfy lovers of history and theology alike, all on a well-paced adventure to the Holy City. Readers can follow the story further, centuries into the future, through Cooper’s earlier novels Wages of Empire and Crossroads of Empire.

October 22, 2025
Inês: The Queens of Portugal Trilogy by Catherine Mathis – Historical Fiction, Romance, Courtly Intrigue

Inspired by a true story, Catherine Mathis’s incredible novel, Inês: The Queens of Portugal Trilogy, follows the forbidden love of Ines de Castro and Infante Pedro, and their indelible connection to one another even after a most tragic death.

Alfonso, the rightful heir to the Portuguese throne in Chao da Feira Palace in Santarem, nearly loses his crown to his stepbrother. Goncalves, a courtier, rescues the situation, earning him the king’s undying loyalty. Alfonso puts his son Pedro under Goncalve’s care to learn the moral code and values of the royal court. As the heir to the Portuguese throne and an only child, his father arranges a royal union for him with Infanta Constanza, a Castilian noblewoman.

Love, however, does not conform to alliances or compromise. The arrival of 15-year-old Ines de Castro of Castile in 1339, a lady-in-waiting to Infanta Constanza, creates a precarious rift between a father and his son. Pedro falls madly in love with Ines despite being already married to Constanza. He begins an affair that displeases the king and fuels palace gossip among the nobles. Fearing for the independence of his nation and possible revolts, King Alfonso is forced to take drastic measures that fan power struggles, betrayal, dishonor, and even death.

Catherine Mathis takes a blazingly smart and deep dive into an era of history that still resonates today.

With rich, robust, and evenly matched characters, she offers a historically accurate plot that is voyeuristic in all the right ways. Being fictionalized, in part, there is a lot to relish in the author’s creative craft, such as the introduction of minor characters who propel the plot into a sweeping conclusion. Plunging readers into the royal heart of a love story that has shaped history, Inês: The Queens of Portugal Trilogy is sublimely sensual with a captivating sense of charm.

Although it has a well-trodden conflict alongside it, this romance between a royal heir and a lady-in-waiting will gratify readers. Mathis excels through an abundance of tense and evocative dialogue, balancing it with the right amount of lively banter. The result is a tour de force that is surefooted and rich in human emotion.

The book’s details are brilliant and perceptible, whether they are used to describe the culture, sounds, attitudes, or smells of 14th-century Portugal.

The text’s most imperative scenes, within the palace walls, exude the intrigues of an institution that influences every sphere of society.

Inês: The Queens of Portugal Trilogy is a compact tale of love, loss, vengeance, and justice, delivering a swift kick to the heart. Exquisitely researched and told at a rapid pace, Mathis’s debut offering is a sweep of grace and virtuosity in its genre.

Inês: The Queens of Portugal Trilogy by Catherine Mathis won First Place in the 2019 CIBA Chaucer Awards for Pre-1750s Historical Fiction.

October 15, 2025