Set in 1920s Chicago, The Folded Leaf follows two very different boys who find themselves forming an unlikely friendship. Lymie is thin, clever and terrible at sport. Spud is athletic and quick to fight and blithely accepts Lymie’s passionate devotion to him. The bond between them is obsessively close, until they leave home for college [...]
Filed under: 1920's, 4½ Stars, America, Essential Reads, Fiction, Reviews | 6 Comments »
With Queen Elizabeth newly established on her throne, the now elderly secret agent is reaching the end of his scandalous career. Despite his fast-approaching retirement, queer events leave Box unable to resist investigating one last case…Why have pillars of the Establishment started dying in bizarrely reckless accidents? Who are the deadly pay-masters of enigmatic assassin [...]
Filed under: 1950's, 4½ Stars, detective, Fiction, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
Exiled to an abandoned presidio in southwestern Texas, Father Alonzo Vargas is accustomed to being utterly alone except for his white donkey, Angelica. He is also fully acquainted with the corrupt and rotten sheriff, John Cullen, the man responsible for his semi-permanent exile. When he finds a victim of the sheriff hanging upside down from [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4½ Stars, ebook, Jamie Craig, novella, Reviews, Western | 1 Comment »
Craiglockhart War Hospital, Scotland, 1917, where army psychiatrist William Rivers is treating shell-shocked soldiers. Under his care are the poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, as well as mute Billy Prior, who is only able to communicate by means of pencil and paper. Rivers’ job is to make the men in his charge healthy enough [...]
Filed under: 4½ Stars, Charlie Cochrane, Fiction, Reviews, World War I | 2 Comments »
1642, England: David Caverlys strict father has brought home the quiet, puritanical Jonathan Graie to help his dreamer of a son work the family forge. With war brewing in Parliament, the demand for metal work increases as armies are raised. The fair David is drawn to his fathers new apprentice. And though his father treats [...]
Filed under: 17th Century, 4½ Stars, England, Erastes, Fiction | 3 Comments »
Nathaniel, or Natty as his family calls him, is a young man at a crossroads. His mother wants him to spend time with her family, far better off than his father, who is a poor vicar. His father would rather he do just about anything else, and his cousins have no interest in getting to [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4½ Stars, Alex Beecroft, England, Fiction, Hayden Thorne, Reviews, YA | Leave a Comment »
At 20, when his reign began, Alexander the Great was already a seasoned soldier and a complex, passionate man. This novel tells the story of the boy Alexander, and the years that shaped him. Review by Charlie Cochrane It seems illogical to read a set of books starting with the last and working back to [...]
Filed under: 4½ Stars, Alexander, Charlie Cochrane, Fiction, Reviews | 2 Comments »
After Alexander’s death in 323 B.C .his only direct heirs were two unborn sons and a simpleton half-brother. Every long-simmering faction exploded into the vacuum of power. Wives, distant relatives, and generals all vied for the loyalty of the increasingly undisciplined Macedonian army. Most failed and were killed in the attempt. For no one possessed [...]
Filed under: 4½ Stars, Alexander, Charlie Cochrane, Fiction, Reviews | 2 Comments »
It’s the Winter of 1802 and the long war between England and France has entered a fragile truce. But the lives of Commander William Marshall and Lieutenant David Archer, have become more complicated than ever. As a Commander, Will is accustomed to making tough decisions. Can he give an order that will surely put his [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4½ Stars, Age of Sail, Fiction, Lee Rowan, novella, Reviews, Royal Navy Series | 1 Comment »
They’re Britain’s ‘Wild Ones’ – the motorcycle cowboys who live for gas machines and faster girls – who ton-up along the Motorways, terrorising drivers and defying the law. Who experience sex too young, marry unthinkingly and live only for the next kick – whatever or whoever it is. The Leather Boys is a savage, brilliantly [...]
Filed under: 1950's, 4½ Stars, Erastes, Essential Reads, Fiction, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
Vienna Dolorosa by Mykola Dementiuk is a full-length historical novel set in Vienna, Austria, in an inner city hotel managed by a transvestite and doubling as a brothel for men who like boys dressed up as girls. The entire book takes place during a one-day time period — March 12, 1938, the day Hitler “invades” [...]
Filed under: 1930's, 4½ Stars, Erastes, Fiction, history, Reviews, Uncategorized, World War II | 11 Comments »
Poetry drew them together. Forbidden love bound their hearts. A student of letters, Micah Yardley wants one thing: To meet Jefferson Dering, a poet he’s long admired from afar. After hearing his idol speak at Harvard, Micah travels to Jefferson’s home in Wroxham, entertaining visions of discussing poetry over dinner and drinks. What he experiences [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4½ Stars, Alex Beecroft, ebook, Fiction, Jamie Craig, Reviews | 1 Comment »
New York City, 1896. A serial killer is on the loose, gruesomely preying upon cross-dressing boy prostitutes. Police detectives are making no progress solving the ghastly crimes. In fact, someone with power or influence seems to be bent on silencing witnesses and thwarting any investigation. Reform-minded police commissioner, and future president Theodore Roosevelt is determined [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4½ Stars, detective, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | 6 Comments »
In 1941 Poland, silence is a way of life. Eighteen-year-old seminary student Koby Bruk has watched for two years as the people of his home town allowed the Germans to move in, displace homes and families, and impose their rule on the people who remain. When Koby is bullied by his classmate Irvine, he [...]
Filed under: 1940's, 4½ Stars, graphic novel | 8 Comments »
It’s 1943 and the world is at war. Reporter Nathan Doyle is just back from the European Theater when he’s asked to cover the murder of a society blackmailer–a man who, Homicide Detective Matthew Spain believes, Nathan had every reason to want dead. Review by Alex Beecroft It is 1943. When the body of a [...]
Filed under: 1940's, 4½ Stars, Alex Beecroft, Fiction, Reviews | 6 Comments »
Review by Alex Beecroft This is not a novel at all, but a collection of three long short stories. (Or perhaps a short story and two novellas). The three are ‘The Hellfire Club’, ‘The Succubus’, and ‘The Haunted Soldier’. The Hellfire Club is set before ‘Lord John and the Private Matter’ and sees John [...]
Filed under: 18th Century, 4½ Stars, Alex Beecroft, Jacobite, Reviews | 6 Comments »
Review by Erastes From the blurb: “Ambitious and handsome, Joshua Andrews had always valued his life too much to take unnecessary risks. Then he laid eyes on the elegant picture of perfection that is Peter Kenyon. Soon to be promoted to captain, Peter Kenyon is the darling of the Bermuda garrison. With a string of [...]
Filed under: 4½ Stars, Age of Sail, Alex Beecroft, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | 12 Comments »
. 
