Readers of my book reviews on this blog will be nodding their heads
when I say that I need to find a new genre or two to read. I’ve
sampled the best writers fantasy has to offer, and found them not to
my taste. Science fiction isn’t really much better. One of the
reasons I started writing was that I couldn’t find modern books
that appealed to me, and that hasn’t changed. While I still follow
science fiction blogs and YouTubers, I really don’t know why since I
haven’t found anything that really interests me in years. It is time to move on.
But to what? I had
been reading James Calvell’s Tai-Pan, which was okay, but failed to
seal the deal, largely because of my need to have a comfortable
companion in the story to tag along with. I didn’t click with Mr
Tai-Pan. Still, it seemed that historical fiction of some sort might
be a good starting point, so that’s what I have started my quest.
To be more specific, “Free Historical Fiction” on Amazon. It was
less daunting that trying to select a book off of a half dozen rows
of books at the library.
Free historical
fiction on Amazon will deliver a grab bag of genre and story lengths,
from short stories to full novels, many of them teasers for series.
Romance is a key element of at least the ones I selected. But I like
a bit of romance in all my stories, so why not? I’ve read three so
far. All of these books are published by some sort of traditional publishers of one sort or another.
First off was
Liar’s Dice, A Lotus Palace Mystery by Jeannie Lin, a novella
of historical romance set in China’s Tang Dynasty period, that
would be around 849 A.D. which teases a four book series. While the
author claims to have extensively researched the period, that
research is not to be found in this book, at least as far as making
the world of the Tang Dynasty visible to this reader. Perhaps it is
developed in greater detail and color in the novels. Like all three
of the books I’ve read, this is written from a female point of view
aimed primarily at female readers. I found it interesting enough just
for that aspect alone, though as a mystery, our point of view
character, the unmarried daughter of a wealthy family is not (yet)
anyway, a Sherlock Holmes as she is involved in a murder that might
involve her brother as well. There is, of course, a love interest
that remains unresolved. I’d give it a “C” (on the curve).
Next up was A
Deal with the Rakish Duke, A Steamy Historical Regency Romance
Novel by Sally Vixen. A determined “spinster” makes a deal
with an infamous rake to pretend that they are a couple in order to
dissuade a woman who insists on marrying the infamous rake. Of course
he falls in love with her, and she him – and we find that the
spinster is only 23 years old… Note that “steamy” means
soft-core porn, erotica, so you get a couple of
steamy scenes in your 163 pages. Porn Erotica from
the woman’s point of view was interesting. It made me wonder what
my wife thought of me – forty-five years ago… I suppose if you
are named “Sally Vixen” you would probably be fated to write this
sort of stuff. Like Liar’s Dice, there is not much of an attempt to
set the story in Regency Era England except to have balls and dukes
everywhere. I’d give it a “C” (again on the curve, as I am not
its target audience)
The third book is Murder at the Dolphin Hotel by Helena Dixon. This one is set in
1933 Dartmouth England. A young woman is put in charge of her
grandmother’s hotel while gram goes to Scotland to tend to her
elderly sister. The grandmother hires a rather mysterious man, to
look after her hotel and granddaughter because someone is sending
threatening letters about getting “what is rightfully theirs.”
Unlike the first two books, Dixon does make an attempt to paint a
picture of 1933 Dartmouth, though to be honest, I didn’t get much
of authentic vibe.
Here is a most
amusing passage: Kitty sighed and pulled out the visitor’s
register. In a few seconds she beckoned Matt
to come around to her side of the desk and view the page.
‘This is the
man. Mr Briand Smith from Essex, room twenty-one on the second
floor.’
He stood behind
her to peer at the details. ‘Can you make me a copy of the register
entry?’ He was close enough to smell the fresh soapy scent on her
skin and to notice the tiny mole below her earlobe. Matt forced his
attention to the screen and tried not to think about his proximity to
Kitty or why she ruffled his senses so much. If
you didn’t find it amusing, read it again.
It
is my understanding that readers of historical fiction are pretty
demanding when it comes to historical accuracy, and I have to admit
that I’m with them there. If you are going to put your story into
real history, it needs to be entirely immersed in it. In the case of
this story, the author made a conscious to make the setting real –
with less than complete success, at least for me. It had the flavor of a
Google street view setting, which is to say, she tossed in a lot of
details about Dartmouth, but they seemed superficial, things you
might note looking at a modern street in street view. And, she had an
elderly character apparently driving to Scotland in a motor car. This being
1933, there is no way an elderly lady would drive a car all the way
to Scotland – driving was still a bit of an adventure in those days
– plus the most common way to travel any distance in those days was
by train. This, like the “screen” above show that the author has
not been able to put the present day world entirely aside when writing this
novel.
My
other complaint, and this applies to almost all mysteries, is the
number of murders mystery writers seemed compelled to include in their
stories. I don’t know if writers are compelled to always write
about murder – and add a few more as the story goes along – by
readers, editors, or simply by laziness, since murder is, as the
ultimate stakes, is an easy way to make things matter, and raise the
stakes, as the story goes along. I stopped reading mysteries because this began
to really annoy me. This story has three murders – three too many –
in my opinion. An none of them at the Dolphin Hotel. One is off screen, before the story commences, and
maybe could be justified by setting the stake, but the other two are
clearly just tossed in an attempt to raise the stakes. One is of a
long time employee of the hotel where the main character has lived since she was six years old, and her death seems to have had no
effect on this character other than it is “horrible” or some such
thing, which I found to be totally unrealistic, indicating t me that this murder was simply part of the formula, as understood by the author.
And
just to be fair, I grabbed a copy of Dorothy L Sayers Clouds of
Witness off my book shelf and read a page or two of it. It was,
as I suspected, an order of magnitude better written. While Dixson
uses language, Sayers commands it. That said, going in with low
expectations, I guess it met them, so once again I have a grade of a
“C” on a curve, but I won’t be reading further stories.
I’m
almost tempted to keep reading the Sayers’ book, but perhaps I
should continue on with my quest. The next one up is Impossible Dream
by Gemma Jackson, an Irish writer.
