In late 2012 I read the first novel in The Fifth Knight series and I’ve been hooked ever since. So I was delighted to receive a request to review The Lord of Ireland, the third book in the series, when it was released recently.
Here’s how the publisher, Thomas & Mercer, describes the novel: “England, 1185. John is a prince without prospect of a crown. As the youngest son of Henry II, he has long borne the hated nickname ‘Lackland’. When warring tribes and an ambitious Anglo-Norman lord threaten Henry’s reign in Ireland, John believes his time has finally come. Henry is dispatching him there with a mighty force to impose order.
Yet it is a thwarted young man who arrives on the troubled isle. John has not been granted its kingship—he is merely the Lord of Ireland, destined never to escape his father’s shadow. Unknown to John, Henry has also sent his right-hand man, Sir Benedict Palmer, to root out the traitors he fears are working to steal the land from him.
But Palmer is horrified when John disregards Henry’s orders and embarks on a campaign of bloodshed that could destroy the kingdom. Now Palmer has to battle the increasingly powerful Lord of Ireland. Power, in John’s hands, is a murderous force—and he is only just beginning to wield it.”
Like the previous novels, this book is a fast-paced historical thriller. It opens almost a decade after the second book, The Blood of the Fifth Knight, ended. The Palmers have settled on their own estate and are working hard to run it, glad to be free of the intrigues and dangers of Royal Court life that they have experienced in the past. Their children are almost grown and they have everything they want from life. So the summons Sir Benedict receives from King Henry II to accompany his son, Prince John, to Ireland on his campaign to quell the unrest there turns their lives on end. Built around Prince John’s first campaign in Ireland, a lesser-known chapter in his life, the plot is gripping and convincing. The author imagines details about people and events beyond the historical accounts to create scenes that are action-packed and fraught with political tensions and intrigues.
But the heart of the Fifth Knight books is the characters. The author is adept at portraying the emotional and physical humanity of characters from an age that held values and beliefs vastly different from modern society, making it easy for readers to empathise with them. Sir Benedict is still the honourable knight readers have come to know, now challenged by the physical limitations aging imposes. His wife, Theodosia, is still courageous and fiercely loyal to her husband and her family. I particularly enjoyed the author’s humorous portrayal of the historical figure, the royal clerk, Gerald of Wales as rather snivelling and cowardly. Some other memorable characters include arrogant and lustful Prince John, intelligent and cunning Hugh de Lacy and his proud, valiant Irish wife.
The author’s thorough knowledge of medieval life pulls everything together to vividly evoke for the reader the world in which the story is set. Although I’m not an avid fan of medieval fiction, EM Powell’s novels always draw me into the era. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and can recommend it to anyone who likes an exciting story, peopled by characters that seem to live and breathe.
For more information about the author and the series, visit E.M. Powell’s website and blog. Readers can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads. The novel is available on Amazon and other retailers.
About E.M. Powell: E.M. Powell’s medieval thrillers The Fifth Knight and The Blood of the Fifth Knight have been number-one Amazon bestsellers and on the Bild bestseller list in Germany.
Born into the family of Michael Collins (the legendary revolutionary and founder of the Irish Free State) and raised in the Republic of Ireland, she lives in north-west England with her husband, daughter and a Facebook-friendly dog.
She reviews fiction and non-fiction for the Historical Novel Society, blogs for English Historical Fiction Authors and is a contributing editor to International Thriller Writers’ The Big Thrill magazine.
hemisphere, winter for those in the southern hemisphere. It’s more or less, half way through the year.
As a Private Investigator, Jenna Preston had been hired to help solve murders, insurance fraud, cheating spouses and more. This was a new one for her.
“Jenna, you’ve seen how difficult and fussy they can be, and their egos—they’re constantly seeking confirmation of how beautiful they look. They want to come to a high-end salon, expecting to be treated like royalty. And believe me, we do.”
About M. Glenda Rosen: She is the author of The Woman’s Business Therapist: Eliminate the MindBlocks and RoadBlocks to Success, and award-winning My Memoir Workbook. For over fifteen years, she helped numerous authors develop and market their books, and presented writing programs in New York, The Hamptons, New Mexico and Carmel, California, on “Encouraging and Supporting the Writer Within You!” She’s the founder and owner of a successful marketing and public relations agency for twenty-five years.
JA: Against the background of Chicago history in the last half of the 19th century, The Gilded Cage tells the story of Potter and Bertha (Cissy) Honoré Palmer. He was a prominent businessman and builder of the city, owner of the still-operating Palmer House Hotel; she was one of the first socialites to believe that wealth carried an obligation to philanthropy and to put her belief into actions beyond monetary donations. Her greatest accomplishment came as president of the Board of Lady Managers at the 1893 Columbian Exposition.
About Judy Alter: She is the award winning author of fiction for adults and young adults. Other historical fiction includes Libbie, the story of Elizabeth Bacon (Mrs. George Armstrong) Custer; Jessie, the story of Jessie Benton Frémont and her explorer / miner / entrepreneur / soldier / politician husband; Cherokee Rose, a novel loosely based on the life of the first cowgirl roper to ride in Wild West shows; and Sundance, Butch and Me, the adventures of Etta Place and the Hole in the Wall Gang.
AKR: Promised to the Crown tells the story of three very different women who chose to accept Louis XIV’s offer to travel to his colony in Canada, then known as New France, in order to choose husbands from among the legion of bachelor settlers. The King needs women to help increase the population to hold the colony from the British menace and to tie the men to the land. France was in a time of relative prosperity, yet 770 brave women answered the call to go to the frozen north. Elisabeth, Rose, and Nicole face hardships and triumph in the new world, and the friendship they forge on their crossing sees them through it all.
About Aimie K. Runyan: A member of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and Women’s Fiction Writers Association, she has been an avid student of French and Francophone Studies for more than fifteen years. While working on her Master’s thesis on the brave women who helped found French Canada, she was fortunate enough to win a generous grant from the Quebec government to study onsite for three months, which enabled the detailed research necessary for her work. Aimie lives in Colorado with her husband and two children.
NE: Camelot’s Queen is the second book of my Arthurian legend trilogy that tells Guinevere’s life story from her point of view. This one focuses on the story we think we all know – Guinevere’s time as queen. (Her early life before King Arthur is told in Daughter of Destiny, the first book in the series.) All the familiar elements are there – the battles, the infamous affair, the Holy Grail – but they are told in a way that’s different from the medieval legends we’re familiar with. Guinevere is a battle queen who rules side-by-side with Arthur, rather than being in his shadow; her affair with Lancelot doesn’t happen simply out of lust – it’s actually Arthur’s fault; and the Grail is different than you’ve ever seen it. Plus, Morgan is a disrupting influence in a way I don’t think any other author has ever shown her. And I delve into the dark side of Arthurian legend surrounding Guinevere’s kidnapping which is something many authors have shied away from. No matter the situation, this is a Guinevere with agency, perfectly willing to rescue herself.
romantic comedy writer. Her debut novel, Daughter of Destiny, the first book of an Arthurian legend trilogy that tells Guinevere’s life story from her point of view, has been short-listed for the Chaucer Award in Early Historical Fiction. Camelot’s Queen is its sequel.
Gathered at their childhood home to mourn their father’s death, Ally D’Aplièse and her five adoptive sisters receive tantalizing clues to their distinct heritages. Ally soon finds herself in Norway where she begins to make sense of her elusive past in the second part of an epic new series by #1 internationally bestselling author Lucinda Riley.
About Lucinda Riley: She was born in Ireland and wrote her first book aged 24. Her novel ‘Hothouse Flower’ (also called ‘The Orchid House’) was selected for the UK’s Richard and Judy Bookclub in 2011 and went on to sell 2 million copies worldwide. She is a multiple New York Times bestselling author and has topped the bestseller charts in four European countries.
SC: A Death Along The River Fleet opens with Lucy Campion, 17th century printer’s apprentice and bookseller, on her way to deliver some books to a customer several miles from her shop. As she crosses the River Fleet and enters the vast wasteland created by the Great Fire of London of 1666, she encounters a strange woman who speaks of being chased by the Devil. The woman is barefoot, clad only in a shift, covered in blood that is not her own, and unable to remember her identity. Worried that the woman will be set upon by fearful villagers, Lucy brings the woman to the home of a physician she knows. When they suspect that the woman may be a noblewoman, the physician does not wish to throw her out of her house and presses Lucy to tend the woman while the woman’s family is being located. To make matters more strange, the body of a murdered man is found in the ruins nearby, and the odd woman may well be the murderess.
SC: This time period in British history fascinates me generally. King Charles had only been restored to the throne for several years (following two decades of more repressive Puritan rule) when the plague struck, followed soon after by the Great Fire. Those events completely disrupted families and communities in London, as people died, or fled from the area. Not only was there a great deal of identity theft (servants could become masters and appropriate titles, property and wealth) but there were also unheralded job opportunities. Lucy was able to avoid some of the patriarchal strictures of her time, by finding a way to become a printer’s apprentice (even if the stationer’s guild does not formally accept her).
SC: I try to balance accuracy and authenticity. I try to be as accurate as possible, using period maps and primary sources to help me with details, and scholarly secondary sources to help me make sense of the larger social, cultural, religious and political trends. But there were certainly a few things that I had to simplify—for example, there was no police force at this time period, so I had to give my constable a broader range of duties and powers that were probably a bit exaggerated.
SC: I created every character in my book. I do reference historical figures like King Charles II or the diarist Sam Pepys, but those details just serve to enhance the larger historical backdrop. I made the decision a long time ago not to use real historical figures, because I think I would feel too limited in what I could let the character say or do or act. I would want to be scrupulous in the way I portrayed this person, and that just seems very challenging.
About Susanna Calkins: Susanna became fascinated with seventeenth-century England while pursuing her doctorate in British history and uses her fiction to explore this chaotic period. Originally from Philadelphia, Calkins now lives outside of Chicago with her husband and two sons. A Death Along the River Fleet is her fourth novel.
Today I’ve been chatting with Vanessa Couchman on her blog about how to meet wartime fiction readers’ expectations, even when your story isn’t set in one of the places where they expect to find themselves when they open the book and turn to the first page. Since I’m writing the Second World War saga series, The Yankee Years, set in Northern Ireland during the war, I’ve had a bit of experience with this quandary.
ML: Death of an Alchemist is Book 2 in the Bianca Goddard Mysteries, a new series set in the final years of King Henry VIII’s reign. The series features the estranged daughter of an infamous alchemist who makes medicines for the sick. She combines herbal knowledge (learned from her mother) with alchemy (learned from her father). Death and murder are quite common in Tudor London. Bianca has a curious mind and seeks to understand disease as well as what motivates people to murder.
About Mary Lawrence: She studied biology and chemistry, graduating from Indiana University with a degree in Cytotechnology. Along with writing and farming, Lawrence works as a cytologist near Boston. She lives in Maine.
dianneascroft.com 