Sarah Gale is a seamstress and convicted murderer awaiting execution in Newgate Prison. She was tried for assisting her boyfriend, James Greenacre, in the killing of another woman and has lost her case against the Crown. With only a few weeks until her sentence is carried out, Edmund Fleetwood, a barrister, is assigned to review…
Biographer, editor and man of letters Michael Sims agreed to let me pick his brain about Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes, a fascination we share. Sims was a distinguished speaker at the Baker Street Irregulars annual gathering in 2011. Sims’ newest book, Arthur and Sherlock, comes out January 24. Q: Did you read Sherlock Holmes…
How interesting can a book about wallpaper be? Extremely. Lucinda Hawksley has written a brief, approachable history of the use of wallpaper and arsenic in the Victorian era. While Regency decoration favored more muted color palettes, the Victorians embraced bright, gaudy and electric hues. This included the rich fabrics used to make women’s ball gowns…
This madcap Victorian adventure is hysterical from beginning to end. Third rate poet Lionel Savage has been unhappy since getting married. Though he fell hard for his beautiful and vivacious wife, marital life just doesn’t seem to be working for them. She has become aloof and he can no longer find inspiration. This book is both snort-out-loud funny and tickle-your-brain funny. Plus, it’s an entertaining adventure.
Cora is recently widowed, and not nearly as sad as her society dictates she should be. She decamps London, with son Francis and friend Martha in tow, for rural Essex. There she can pursue her study of fossils and lost creatures. She also soon learns the villagers believe there is a monstrous creature lurking in the tidal shoals — just waiting to attack.