Oscar de Muriel found the Victorian clash between science and superstition an irresistible background for his Frey and McGray spooky Scottish whodunits, he tells Historia. A man sets up a box amidst a busy market, jumps on top of it cradling a boxful of tiny glass vials, and begins his chant. His new miraculous tonic […]
The Darker Arts by Oscar de Muriel
The Darker Arts, the fifth in the Frey and McGray series of spooky whodunits written by Oscar de Muriel
Summer reading for history lovers
Recommended summer reading books, both history and historical fiction, from Historical Writers’ Association authors,
The Emerald Cross by Jemahl Evans
It’s 1646. Blandford Candy, rake and spy, travels to the colonies on family business. He becomes embroiled in a quest for a priceless emerald cross, once destined for the Pope in Rome but lost in the American wilderness. Our hero has to escape a mutinous pirate crew, warring settlers, and hostile native tribes, but Blandford […]
I want to write a parallel narrative novel, but I don’t know how
Historia’s resident agony aunt, Dr Darwin, answers another question about the craft (and art) of writing. This time: how to write a parallel narrative novel which grabs – and keeps – your reader. Dear Dr Darwin, I have fantastic idea for a novel which is made of two almost entirely separate historical narrative threads plaited […]
Review: The Bone Fire by SD Sykes
It’s a nerve-wracking thing, a series, warns Catherine Hokin. The author commits to a character, the reader buys in; everyone steels themselves against the nightmare moment when a shark will appear and be thoroughly jumped. Well, fear not, Oswald de Lacy fans, this is a shark-free zone: SD Sykes’s latest outing for her medieval crime-solver […]
The Bone Fire by SD Sykes
It’s 1361. Plague has returned to England – thirteen years after the devastation of the Black Death. As destruction advances towards his estate in Kent, Oswald de Lacy leads his family to the safety of a remote castle in the marshes – where his friend Godfrey is preparing a fortress to survive the coming disaster. […]
Nemesis by Rory Clements
Can a ruthless spy ring change the course of war? In a great English house, a young woman offers herself to one of the most powerful and influential figures in the land – but this is no ordinary seduction. She plans to ensure his death . . . On holiday in France, Professor Tom Wilde […]