Dickens, Austen & Conan Doyle??

Instruments of Darkness by Imogen Robertson

Gabriel Crowther is described as a reclusive anatomist, sort of a cross between Sherlock Holmes and Quincy, medical examiner, from the old TV series.  His partner in crime is a Harriet Westerman, a head strong mistress of a Sussex Manor, who finds a dead body on the edges of her estate, and solicits the aid of Crowther to help identify the victim and the killer.  This mismatched pair of 18th century sleuths both have razor sharp minds, an eye for crime scene details and a nose for mystery.  And there are plenty of mysteries to go around in this debut novel by Robertson.

First there is the identification of the dead body, and who the murderer might be.  The body may have connections with the mysterious neighboring estate, Thornleigh Manor, and its missing heir, Alexander, or the younger brother, Hugh Thornfield, who has his own mysterious past, while serving in the British Army during the American Revolution.  To top off the list of mysteries, even the protaganist, Gabriel Crowther, has his own mysterious past.  Crowther may not be his real name.

To start unraveling this first in a series of Westerman and Crowther mysteries, you might want to pick up Instruments of Darkness to determine if this is a crime novel series you want to follow.  While I enjoyed the story and the two main characters, I did not find it as riveting as some of the reviews at the Barnes and Noble website indicate.  But I will try the second novel in Robertson's series, Anatomy of Murder, to see if the potential of these two characters, pans out.

A Case of Genocide?

The Famine Plot: England's Role in Ireland's Greatest Tragedy
by Tim Pat Coogan

Most people know about the so-called Irish Famine...that time in 1846 when a blight started infecting Ireland's Potato crop, and best estimates indicate 1.1 million people were killed by famine and its associated diseases.  Another 1.3 million were forced to emigrate.  This is how the history books primarily portray this tragic moment in Irish history.  What most people don't know is that the Irish people do not refer to this time period as a Famine.  Instead it is called the Great Hunger.  The other aspect of the Famine not known is the role the British government played in actually causing it, not the blight itself of course, but the starvation of the Irish people.

Ireland's best-known historian, Tim Pat Coogan, tackles this dark period in Irish history and argues that it constituted one of the first acts of genocide.  Through meticulous research and documentation, Coogan presents a vivid and horrifying picture of this catastrophe and holds specific individuals within the British government to account.

As with most tragedies of this magnitude, there is usually a villain.  In the case of the Great Hunger, that role falls squarely on the shoulders of British civil servant, Sir Charles Trevelyan.  While Trevelyan may have been just a civil servant, it was his responsibility to implement and enforce any policies and programs proposed by the British government.  The British response to the tragedy primarily consisted of evictions, emigration and a policy of laissez faire economics. Trevelyan believed the fate of the Irish people should be left in the hands of Providence.  In other words, according to Trevelyan, those who died of starvation were meant to because they deserved it.  In reading this book, I felt I was listening to the Republican party's response to poverty here in the United States.  According to some of the rhetoric one hears in the media, it is a poor person's own fault if they are poor, and the federal government should not do anything to help them.  The rhetoric makes it sound as if they borrowed that philosophy directly from the British government's response to the Irish "famine".

Coogan does not totally condemn the British government.  There were attempts with some government policies to alleviate the suffering of the Irish people.  For example, Prime Minister Robert Peel made some effort to assuage the problem, however misguided, allowing the purchase of Indian maize from America.  There also were efforts to set up workhouses and soup kitchens, but Trevelyan made sure there was not adequate funding for these programs to work.  In disturbingly graphic images and compelling language based on true stories from the Famine archives and using the actual language from the United Nations Articles on Genocide, Coogan clearly shows intentional culpability for the famine by the British government.

Another powerful Irish Literary Voice

Red Sky in Morning by Paul Lynch
Another powerful literary voice from Ireland.  Red Sky in Morning is a unique tale, but in another way, it epitomizes the tragic history and diaspora of the Irish people.  The protagonist, Coll Coyle, has been pushed too far. The landlord is about to evict him and his wife and new child from their hovel.  He decides he would try to talk to the landlord, but looses his temper and accidentally kills the landowner's son in the spring of 1832.  He is forced to abandon his wife and daughter and flee County Donegal for America.
Coyle is on the run, but the landlord’s sadistic henchman, John Faller, is a trained tracker, and manages to stay one step behind Coyle all the way to Philadelphia.  Faller is a relentless and sadistic killer.

This is a grim, but poetic story, that in so many ways illustrates the tragic story of the Irish immigrant.  First, circumstances force Coyle to leave his homeland and his family. Second, he books passage to America on a "coffin ship".  After a long sea voyage, Coll eventually arrives in America and finds work laying railroad track in Pennsylvania.  This work is scarcely less exploitative and brutal than what he was having to do in Ireland for a landowner. During this part of the novel, Lynch seamlessly weaves in an actual historical event. Use one of the library's databases and search for "Duffy's Cut", and read more about this tragic event in U.S. immigrant labor history about a choleric work camp along the Pennsylvania railroad.

Lynch's lyrical prose paints a vivid picture and builds suspense with this tale of a man on the run, and being doggedly pursued by a determined hunter/killer.  It will be interesting to see what this fresh young Irish writer comes up with next.  Stay tuned!

Restoring a King's Reputation

The King's Grave: The Discovery of Richard III's Lost Burial Place and the Clues It Holds by Philippa Langley and Michael Jones

I was immediately drawn to this story, when it first appeared in the Star Tribune newspaper.  The story talked about how Philippa Langley believed she had pinpointed where the remains of Richard III were buried following his defeat and death at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 against Henry Tudor for the English throne.

The article stated they had located the fairly complete skeletal remains in a Leicester car park, and would be conducting DNA tests to determine if the bones were those of last king of England to die in battle. Langley and her team of archaeologists had a male DNA sample provided by a Canadian citizen who claimed to be a descendant of Richard III.

Several months later there appeared a follow-up article claiming the carbon dating and DNA tests performed verified the bones were the remains of King Richard III. The photograph of the skeletal remains showed a curvature of the spine, at first reinforcing the image of Richard III as portrayed over the years in various productions of Shakespeare's play.  A forensics pathologist diagnosed the condition as severe scoliosis, but the disability did not hamper Richard's skills in battle.  The skeleton’s wounds showed this last English king to die in battle led a courageous and carefully planned cavalry charge at Bosworth against an inexperienced, fearful Henry Tudor luckily saved by mercenary French pikemen.  Langley states upfront in the book her intention was to quash the caricature of a murderous, hunchbacked psychopath vilified by Tudor propagandists and Shakespeare alike.

The work and findings from this three week dig and subsequent publication of The King's Grave successfully restores the dignity and reputation of one of England's most maligned members of royalty.  While Richard reigned only two years, the true historical record shows Richard was an idealistic king with a keen sense of justice and humor, as well as a courageous warrior who was devoted to his father and brother.  To paraphrase the old adage, "To the victor may go the spoils, but not necessarily the final historical record."

An interesting and fascinating read!

The Dreyfus Affair

A Man in Uniform by Kate Taylor

The Alfred Dreyfus Affair in 1890's France is given an intriguing and enjoyable fictional twist in A Man in Uniform.  Dreyfus, a Jewish Frency Army officer was sent to the Devil's Island penal colony after a questionable 1894 treason trial.  In an appeal, Dreyfus was eventually found innocent and was released.  However the circumstances that led to Dreyfus' arrest and imprisonment should continue to serve as a bracing reminder, according to the Toronto Globe and Mail, that we dare not have blind faith in the willingness of our leaders to defend our most cherished rights and freedoms.

Taylor does a good job of recreating the atmosphere and suspicion permeating Paris at this time.  The main character, Francois Dubon, is a former criminal law barrister, who has abandoned that legal arena to practice the more lucrative personal estate and private will practice.  A mysterious widow suddenly enters his office and turns his world upside down.  The beautiful widow is convinced Captain Dreyfus, an army captain convicted of treason, was framed and is innocent.  She wants Dubon to find out the truth and to mount an appeal for Captain Dreyfus.  Dubon is drawn by the widow's magnetic appeal, and begins to live a double life as he strives to find the information that will exonerate the captain. While certain situations Dubon finds himself in seem somewhat incredulous at times, Taylor succeeds in pulling the reader into the machinations of her plot.

The cover-up and quick resolution, manufactured by the military, to push a spying incident under the rug and off the front pages of the papers, reminds one of the multitude of similar military actions and practices since 9/11 here in the U.S.  Taylor's literate thriller is "disturbing in its implications about the fragility of human rights.” (Elle Magazine).  Whether Taylor has a subliminal message buried in her plot or not, it is still a fun read.

Schindler's Legacy

The Boy on the Wooden Box: How the Impossible Became Possible . . . on Schindler's List by Leon Leyson

No matter how many books I read about the Holocaust, I never cease to be shocked and horrified by the suffering inflicted upon the Jewish people by the Nazis.  Leon Leyson (born  Leib Lezjon) was number 289 on Oscar Schindler's list and its youngest member. Decades later, as a grown man now living in the United States, Leon has an opportunity to greet Oscar Schindler and to thank him. He does not expect Schindler will even recognize or know him, because he was just 13 when his father convinced Schindler to put his young son to work in his enamelware factory. When Leon shakes Schindler's hand, Oscar says, you are "little Leyson" the boy on the wooden box.  To operate the machine he worked on in the factory, Leon had to stand on a wooden box to reach the controls.  According to Oscar Schindler, he was an "essential worker".

This moving memoir captures the innocence and the horror experienced by a young boy who survives the holocaust with incredible luck, perseverance, courage and ingenuity.  Leon rarely spoke about how he survived the Holocaust until after Steven Spielberg's film was released.  Leon Leyson died in January 2013 at the age of 83 without knowing that his book would be published.  A MUST READ!!!

The Secrets that hide in Rare Books

The BOOKMAN'S *TALE*: A Novel of Obsession by Charles Lovett 

Anyone who loves books (about books) will get hooked on this one.  A mysterious Victorian watercolor portrait, found in an 18th century book about Shakespeare forgeries, bears an uncanny resemblance to a young antiquarian bookseller's late wife.  Just six months after losing his beloved wife, Amanda, and now living in England, antiquarian bookseller, Peter Byerly, is trying to put his life back together. In his search to find out the name of the artist and possibly who the young woman might be, Peter finds himself searching through time and possibly the original works of Shakespeare.  His research to identify the watercolor's origins uncovers what could be the holy grail of Shakespeare studies—a book possibly annotated by the Bard himself at the time he was writing the play, A Winter's Tale.

This leads Peter back into the cutthroat world of antiquarian books to prove the book's authenticity, while also trying to identify the young woman in the portrait.  This is an intricately layered literary mystery that will surely keep you turning the pages as you follow Peter's journey from the Victorian era back to Shakespeare's time.  This book is not just for bibliophiles and Shakespeare aficionados.  Anyone who enjoys a good, intricate mystery will enjoy Lovett's first novel.