On the eve of the New York City’s 400th anniversary, author Sam Roberts chose to tell the history of the city through 31 people who left their mark on the metropolis.
REVIEW: The Dame of Sark
The story of a fiesty woman who resisted the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands was so inspiring and, in many ways, hilarious.
REVIEW: The Half Life of Valery K
Regular readers of Natasha Pulley will find this novel to be least like any of her others. While there are some winks to her other universes (a pet octopus, a lighthouse), this may be her most grim. The alternate realities explored by her previous characters exist only in the author’s imagination. Here it is a battle of conflicting realities — the one which is killing people covertly and the one which the government wishes to portray.
REVIEW: In the Houses of Their Dead
Like most American families in the 1840s and 50s, the Lincolns and the Booths practiced a religion that also embraced aspects of Spiritualism. By using this framework for the biographical history, Alford explores the societal turmoil that allowed Lincoln to become president and John Wilkes Booth to become an assassin.
REVIEW: Two-Way Murder
The cast of village characters becomes a network of suspects, amateur detectives, and gossips — each trying to piece together the events of the evening.