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ClareR (5726 KP) rated Lucifer’s Game in Books

Feb 15, 2022  
Lucifer’s Game
Lucifer’s Game
Cristina Loggia | 2022 | Fiction & Poetry, Thriller
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This was an enjoyable, well-researched historical fiction novel set during WW2 in Rome.
Cordelia Olivieri’s life in Rome becomes more precarious as the Italian fascists start to identify more Italians with Jewish heritage. Cordelia’s English mother was Jewish. She has a friend in the Vatican who promises to get her on a transport to England, if she will just photograph the German plans for North Africa. This seems a simple task (or not!), as the German officer in charge of the planning for Rommel has taken over Cordelia’s hotel as his centre of operations. But Cordelia complicates things somewhat when she starts to fall in love with him.
The villains in this book are thoroughly despicable, and the ‘goodies’ are in constant danger. It’s all very nail-bitingly exciting and another great read on The Pigeonhole!
  
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ClareR (5726 KP) rated The Lady of the Ravens in Books

Jan 7, 2020  
The Lady of the Ravens
The Lady of the Ravens
Joanna Hickson | 2020 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics
8
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Lady of the Ravens is based on the real historical character of Joan Vaux. I find historical fiction fascinating, especially those books which have a foot firmly placed in what was the real world.

Joan and her mother are taken in to the care of Margaret Beaufort, Henry VII’s mother, during the end years of the Wars of the Roses. She becomes a good friend to Princess Elizabeth in the time before she marries Henry, and goes on to be a Lady in Waiting and eventually the Lady Governess to the Princesses Margaret and Mary.

I really enjoyed all of the historical detail and what life was really like in Tudor England: the preoccupation with death and the many ways that a woman especially, could die, and the precariousness of children’s lives.

I had never really thought about the Ravens in the Tower of London (you’re never interested about the places that are on your doorstep as you’re growing up, I fear 🤷🏼‍♀️), assumed they’d always been there and that they’d always been seen as important to the realm. But in this novel, we learn that they were actually seen as vermin by the nobility and soldiers stationed there, until Joan and her servant looked after them, convincing others - royalty especially - of their significance to the safety of England and the Royal Family.

I haven’t read Joanna Hickson books before, but I really enjoyed the characters, the insights into the royal family, the uncertainty around the possible sons of York (Perkin Warbeck for one), the descriptions of everyday life - and just the evocative styled her writing.

Many thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for my copy of this great book to read and review.
  
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Lindsay (1717 KP) rated Last Stop in Brooklyn in Books

Mar 20, 2018  
Last Stop in Brooklyn
Last Stop in Brooklyn
Lawrence Levy | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics, Mystery
6
7.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Mary is a case when she feels like someone is following her. But she cannot tell who at the moment. Once she sees her friend's husband talking to Colleen. She thinks the worse of her best friend's husband.

On her way out, she confronts a man see that is following her. When she does, he wants her to look into his brother case that is that Ben Ali is not a killer.

There seems to be some corruption going on in the NYPD in the year of 1894. Who does all the cover-up? Who the Killer of more than a dozen woman.

Looks like Mary get pulled into an investigation that has to do with Sage Bombing and as she gets more into the case of Ben Ali she finds more clues and finding the killer. Who is Jack the Ripper, the killer?

You will be turning the page to find out. Have you read the book you learn about that time period in NY? We even meet Teddy Roosevelt before he becomes President of United States and the reason why or at least partly.

If you are a historical Fiction fan you will enjoy this book. It a Mystery and part historical so you will get both if you are a fan of both or one or the other.