The Grapes of Wrath (Audiobook) John Steinbeck’s controversial novel tells the story of the migration of an Oklahoma Dust Bowl family as they journey to California in search of work. Dogged by bad luck and dashed hopes, the Joad’s are forced to accept ever-decreasing wages as they move from place to place, struggling to keep…
Category: Historical
‘The Invention of Murder’ by Judith Flanders
The Invention of Murder With its subtitle – ‘How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime’, this book traces the British public’s interest in murder as a sort of national entertainment. Though the book’s title clearly suggests we’re talking about the Victorian period (1837-1901), Ms Flanders begins her romp through the…
Killer Pottery
Without the benefits of 20th-century technology, the faces of Victorian villains couldn’t be plastered all over the media, so how were their images and stories relayed to the general public? These days when a murder is discovered, the news hits the media in text, photos and on film, not to mention Facebook and Twitter. However,…
Tim Walker – Author Interview
Historical author Tim Walker likes his fiction to be set in Roman Britain, so where did his interest in times long past come from? Coming from a career that includes journalism, mineral exploration and rugby, how did you end up writing historical novels? I developed a love for history and literature at school, and my…
Indie Author Interview – Kathryn McMaster
Historical crime fiction has always fascinated true-crime writer Kathryn McMaster, but how does she manage her writing career while running a farm? Your first two books, ‘Who Killed Little Johnny Gill?’ and ‘Blackmail, Sex and Lies’ focus very much on murders committed in the nineteenth century. Does this period of history still interest you and…
‘Labyrinth’ by Kate Mosse
Labyrinth (Audiobook) Carcassonne, 1209. When a young woman is given a mysterious book by her father, she begins a quest to uncover an ancient mystery – the secret of the true Grail. Twelve hundred years later, archaeology volunteer Alice Tanner finds two skeletons in a cave in the French Pyrenees. Realising there’s something familiar about…
‘The Five’ by Hallie Rubenhold
The Five Famous for nothing more than being victims of Jack the Ripper, the reputations of five women have for years been tarnished by claims that they were simply prostitutes, sex workers who led selfish, pointless lives. But in truth, their stories have never been told. Now, Hallie Rubenhold uncovers the real lives of Polly,…
‘The Reckoning’ by John Grisham
The Reckoning (Audiobook) 1946. In Clanton, Mississippi, the townspeople are left shocked and confused when local farmer and war hero Pete Banning drives over to the Methodist Church and shoots and kills the Reverend Dexter Bell. Instructing a bystander to fetch the sheriff, Banning returns home to await his arrest. However, what baffles everyone, not…
‘The Murder of Harriet Monckton’ by Elizabeth Haynes
The Murder of Harriet Monckton November 1843. A young woman, 23-year-old Harriet Monckton, is found dead in the privy behind the chapel in Bromley, Kent. It appears she died from swallowing prussic acid, but when the autopsy reveals she was also six months pregnant, the community begin to wonder who might be responsible, and if…
‘The Healer’s Secret’ by Helen Pryke
The Healer’s Secret She’s lost her job, is threatened with divorce and struggling to cope with her dependency on alcohol. What else can go wrong in Jennifer’s life? But thanks to her mother, the thirty-one-year-old is thrown a lifeline. Offered the opportunity to discover her Italian roots, she eventually agrees to move into her family’s…
