'The Painter from Shanghai' by Jennifer Cody Epstein

ISBN: 0393065286
Format: Hardcover, 416pp
Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Pub. Date: March 2008
Price: $24.95

After turning the last page in The Painter from Shanghai, my first thought was one of amazement. This is Jennifer Cody Epstein’s first novel and it flows off the page as if some famous historical author had penned it. Which I’m sure she will be in time.

With a deft talent, not unlike a skilled painter, Jennifer Cody Epstein brings to life Pan Yuliang a “one-time prostitute, postimpressionist, and adopted Parisian” who lived from 1899-1977. Pan Yuliang was infamous as much for her past as her nude self-portraits, and Jennifer Cody Epstein brings this woman to life on the pages. Yuliang is a character so real that once the book is closed, she haunts you.

We are first introduced to Yuliang in 1957, working in a studio in France. She’s painting two nude models, swept up in her work, but the past creeps in. In the first few pages you are swept away by the strength of the woman on the page, her view of the world. Only once we have met her as a semi-successful artist do we go back and get the rest of the story.

At the age of fourteen Yuliang is sold into prostitution in Wuhu by her only living relative, an opium addicted uncle. Soon she has adapted to life in the Flower House, becoming the top-girls protégée and eventually taking over the spot. Here she meets Pan Zanhua, a government official who buys her out of her contract at the Flower House.

Yuliang goes to live with Zanhua which causes a stir in the town of Wuhu. But Zanhua isn’t just interested in her body or the services she could perform for him. He is unexpected in every way to Yulaing, in that he speaks to her as an equal and is interested in thoughts and beliefs. The two fall in love and Yliang becomes his second wife. Zanhua is a rock for Yuliang, supporting her ambitions for education and eventually her dreams to paint.

When the gossip becomes too much in Wuhu and begins to affect Zanhua’s career he moves Yuliang to Shanghai. It is in Shanghai that Yuliang starts to really sketch and expand on her natural born talent. She eventually attends school and goes abroad to study in France and Italy. Yulaing becomes famous for her nude self portraits as well as her blend of Western and Eastern styles. Yulaing’s dedication to her art eventually leads to her becoming a target of the Chinese government.

I have no real complaints with this novel. You are treated to the high points of Yuliang’s life and not bogged down with extra information, which in turn moves the novel forward at a steady pace that never falters. From her life in the false beauty of the Flower House to the streets of Paris, and the city and people in-between, Jennifer Cody Epstein breathes life into Pan Yulaing and when the book ends she only leaves you wanting more.

The Painter from Shanghai is by turns sad and uplifting, brilliant and bright as only an artist’s life can be. But Pan Yuliang isn’t the only artist on the page. Jennifer Cody Epstein paints this painter’s life with words, leaving the mind full of colorful images and half dreams as the pages swirl by.

'Friday's Child' by Georgette Heyer

ISBN: 1402210795
Format: Paperback, 432pp
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Incorporated
Price: $12.95

If you’re looking for a good laugh with your Regency romance, look no father than Friday’s Child, another of Georgette Heyer’s engrossing and unforgettable novels.

Lord Sherrington - Sherry for short - is exactly the kind of young man any woman would be lucky to have; rich, well bred, and dashing, he has any number of nice qualities to recommend him. Or so he thinks, and when the Incomparable Beauty Miss Milborne, a childhood friend, refuses him in marriage he can’t understand why. On top of that, she accuses him of being a libertine and a gambler who doesn’t love her anyway. But Sherry isn’t going to give up on marriage that easily; it just might not involve Miss Milborne.

Sherry is determined that he should be married before his 25th birthday so that he might come into his inheritance sooner. Of course, it doesn’t help that he has a number of gambling debts hanging over his head, nothing too deep mind you, but just enough to make a gentleman a bit nervous. Sherry swears as he leaves Miss Milborne that he will marry the first woman he meets. Fortunately for him, that woman is Miss Hero Wantage.

Hero, another childhood friend of Sherry’s, has worshiped him from day one, and when he sweeps her off her feet in a run away marriage she feels just like Cinderella. Of course Hero might not be as beautiful as Miss Milborne or as refined and educated, but she has her charms, namely among them her innocence and complete trust in Sherry. So when Sherry says that it will be a marriage of convenience and he won’t interfere with her life if she doesn’t interfere with his, she agrees. However, going from a quiet country life as a poor relation to the bride of one of the more eligible men in London, Hero is sure to get herself into a few tight spots. Between Sherry’s wonderful friends, who take it upon themselves to look after Hero and of course Sherry, they manage to pull her out of each one with only a few minor scrapes and her reputation intact.

The premise for Friday’s Child is one that has been done a million times before and will be done a million times again. Girl and boy fall in love without realizing it or meaning to, and after a few slapstick mistakes, they live happily ever after. However, Georgette Heyer puts a smart spin on it, and with her secondary characters (here for comedic relief), the story comes to life. With each problem that Hero faces, you will both cringe and laugh. When Sherry finally realizes that he loves his wife above all things, you have to smile.

Friday’s Child is a cut above the rest, which is saying quite a lot since this is Georgette Heyer we’re talking about and all her books happen to be fantastic. Friday’s Child is filled with likable characters that stick with you and witty dialogue that will make you laugh out loud. This was one I simply couldn’t put down, and I even took it to the gym with me and turned pages while I cycled away to nowhere. It’s just that great.

'The Somnambulist' by Jonathan Barnes

ISBN: 0061375381
Format: Hardcover, 353pp
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Pub. Date: February 2008
Price: $23.95

Peopled with the odd and the outstanding, The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes is a macabre tale of crime told by an almost nameless narrator. We are warned from the beginning that this book contains no literary value and that we should not become attached to its characters. Of course the narrator does leave it up to us to decide and in the end you can’t help but be engrossed by the characters and tale that is spun like a web across the page.

Edward Moon is a man who once was the toast of this 19th century London; he is a conjuror, an illusionist of the highest order who also has a reputation for solving the unsolvable crimes that baffle the police. A constant companion to Moon is the Somnambulist, a man with no other name, who is completely silent, communicates via a chalk board and has a passion for milk.

But Moon has seen better times; he is past his prime, hair finally starting to thin and clothes which were once the height of fashion now worn. He belongs to an older time, an older London in which there were great criminal cases to occupy his mind and his theater was full every night as he performed his illusions with the Somnambulist. Those times have passed. A new century has begun and it seems as if Edward Moon will fade into the past, something he is loathe to do.

When there is a mysterious murder Detective Merryweather comes to Moon for help. Moon, desperate and bored, jumps at the chance to prove that he still has his edge and with the Somnambulist in tow he jumps into the investigation. But like any good 19th century sensation novel The Somnambulist is a twisty, curvy tale that leads you in many directions as once. While the answer in the end is constant the question throughout the book changes. The murder is just the tip of the iceberg and soon Moon is trying to uncover a conspiracy that could bring London to her knees.

The characters are unique and wonderful by turns as well as sick and depraved. My favorites are the deadly duo, those cheerful bringers of death and destruction, the Prefects. Yes, from the moment they stabbed someone in the heart with an umbrella and opened it they had my heart. These two men, one large and one small, are always dressed in school boy uniforms and both have permanently cheerful demeanors. You can’t do anything but love, or be slightly sickened by this very imaginative, murderous pair. There are also such standouts like The Fly, Mina a bearded prostitute, a man who lives his life backward, a vagrant that carries a sign which reads “Surely I Am Coming Soon. Revelation 22:20” and an albino civil servant with a penchant for arson.

In the final chapters the narrator is revealed and the story which up until this point was more of a period crime novel with elements of the fantastic becomes complete fantasy. It builds slowly so that once this change finally does happen it makes complete sense and you can’t imagine the story taking any other turn. The Somnambulist is a dark and slightly odd tale that is not to be missed whether you’re a fan of… well anything. This is simply a must read.

'Territory' by Emma Bull

ISBN: 0312857357
ISBN-13: 9780312857356
Format: Hardcover, 320pp
Publisher: Tor
Price: $24.95

Like all good westerns Territory, Emma Bull’s latest offering to the world of fantasy, starts with a lone man riding into a small town. Or rather a man who has been shot being carried into town by a stolen horse, which is even better. That this town just happens to be Tombstone and the characters that pop up some of the most famous men in Western history only add to what becomes an unforgettable tale of magic and men.

‘Wyatt Earp. Doc Holliday. Ike Clanton. You think you know the story. You don’t.’ Most people know about the shoot-out at the O.K. Corral, that part of the story doesn’t need to be explained. In a lot of ways the end doesn’t matter because the most fascinating part is how it started, where it all began and who was really involved.

Trouble breaks out for the Earp brothers when a stage coach is almost robbed and two men killed in the attempt. The youngest Earp, Morgan, was involved and even though Doc Holliday tries to keep it quiet, Wyatt finds out. Wyatt is the head of the clan, from his brothers to their wives and families; he is the man that they turn to. There is something special about Wyatt, almost a sixth sense; he is able to find the outlaws that no one else can, it seems as if he is able to read minds. To protect his little brother and his family from the scandal that the truth would cause Wyatt takes matters into his own hands.

Jesse Fox comes into town dusty and footsore, following his stolen horse, and with his arrival trouble follows. He first meets Doc Holliday, disrupting his game of poker, in a saloon. Jesse is just passing through; he never would have come to Tombstone if his horse hadn’t been stolen, and has plans to leave as soon as possible. But when he finds Lung, a friend of his from San Francisco living in Chinatown, he decides to stay on for awhile.

Mildred is a widow living and working in Tombstone. When her husband passed away a year ago she could have moved back east, but she stayed, proving to be made of sterner stuff than most. Working at one of the local papers by day as a typesetter, spending her nights penning serial stories for a sensational magazine, she is content. When Jesse walks into The Nugget to pick up a paper she is caught off guard, but then, so is he.

As the battle for Tombstone whirls around the residents, Jesse with his knack for finding trouble and Mildred with her newspaper eye get to know each other, discovering that there might be a reason they have been drawn together. Wyatt Earp, busy manipulating people, is sure that his way is best. Whatever the means might be they justify the end in his eyes; if he has to use his family and friends to make peace a permanent part of life in Tombstone he plans to do so.

From the main street of Tombstone to the exotic smells of Chinatown you are presented with clear cut images; a dark brush stroke figure against a light sky, a flooded river rolling boulders downstream, a fire licking and eating the buildings as it spreads through Tombstone. As each layer is peeled away, magic slowly blossoming around the characters, dark secrets and hidden truths are revealed. Emma Bull has woven a spell binding story.

Territory has also given us wonderful characters to love. Jesse Fox is brilliant. Mildred with her eccentricity and solid good manners all rolled into one is enchanting. Ms. Bull’s Doc Holliday is truly inspired. The Earp brothers and their wives are by turns human and something so much more. This is everything a good fantasy novel should be and I cannot recommend Territory highly enough.

'An Infamous Army' by Georgette Heyer

ISBN: 1402210078
Format: Paperback, 436pp
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Incorporated
Price: $14.95

An Infamous Army, originally published in 1937, is centered around the famous battle of Waterloo, the final battle of the Napoleonic Wars. This historical novel gives you an amazingly detailed account of the final battle in which Wellington and his allied forces lost 22,000 of their troops and the French losses totaled over 25,000. Leading up to that point Georgette Heyer (1902-1974), author of over 50 novels set in the Regency period, paints a vivid picture of life in Brussels, a city that is just a few miles away and living life to the fullest with the threat of war looming on the horizon.

The novel takes its title from a famous quote of Wellington’s, “I have an infamous army; very weak and ill-equipped, and a very inexperienced staff.” But despite this crusty remark the battle was won, and the war was won with this infamous army of his.

Lady Barbara Childe, Bab for short, is as gorgeous as she is wicked. A widow known to be rather infamous herself, Bab is referred to as ‘the incomparable, the dashing, the fatal Barbara’ because wherever she goes she leaves a trail of broken hearts in her wake. But despite this, or because of it, Colonel Charles Audley, Wellington’s aid-de-camp, falls madly in love with her at first sight and soon proposes.

With the backdrop of the coming war Bab and Charles announce their engagement to the disbelief of many, including Charles’s sister Judith, though it is not a surprise to her husband, Lord Worth. As the weeks pass and Napoleon marches closer, Bab cannot seem to drop the wild aspects of her personality. She does everything she wishes, everything that exposes herself and her newly betrothed Charles to gossip, including almost breaking up the marriage of the close friend of the Worth family.

But Lady Barbara, as the reader and Charles know, has a good heart beneath all her wild behavior. She is a strong character, likable and vibrant. Charles in turn is everything you would expect of an English gentleman and the interaction between the two is delightful. When the battle finally does break out, Bab rises to the occasion, doing everything she can helping wounded men and showing a strength and gentleness of character you always knew was there.

From the beginning to the end, what makes An Infamous Army so easy to read is the flawless style. Each moment is brought out and shown to the reader in all it’s brutal glory. Every episode is mesmerizing: The men leaving a ball when the news arrives that Napoleon is just a few miles away, the soldiers forming their ranks and calling out their battle cry, the sound of the cannons heard for the first time by the residents of Brussels, and even the small conflicts between the characters as they must learn to live with or without each other.

Never has history been more exciting than within the pages of An Infamous Army. The social drama with its romance lightens the almost overwhelming details of which general commands which regiment, troop movements, and battle strategies. The final chapters dedicated to the battle itself are horrific as well as heart-wrenching as the deaths of the soldiers and their horses are described. I have never read a better or more powerful piece of historical fiction.

'Nefertiti: Queen of Egypt, Daughter of Eternity' by Michelle Moran

ISBN: 0307381463
Format: Hardcover, 480pp
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Price: $24.95

Nefertiti tells the story of a powerful woman's rise and fall in Ancient Egypt. Through the eyes of her younger sister, Mutnodjmet, we are introduced to a young Nefertiti, destined to one day become a powerful ruler. Beautiful beyond compare and power-hungry, Nefertiti is a fascinating character. As the pages turn her actions become more outrageous and you begin to realize that power is everything and whoever controls the throne has the power.

Nefertiti marries Prince Akhenaten, who has come into line for the throne with the suspicious death of his older brother. Akhenaten is a reckless unstable young man and Nefertiti is chosen by his mother to sway Akhenaten away from some of his more disastrous views. He believes that there should only be one god in Egypt and that the Pharaoh should be his only voice, not some priests in a temple. Suspicious of everyone, including his parents, Akhenaten is determined to alter Egypt’s destiny.

But while both his parents are still alive he does not have complete control of Egypt, even though he is crowed Pharaoh. His father is referred to as the Elder and only once he has passed away does Akhenaten come fully into power. Bitter with life and paranoid beyond reason, Akhenaten moves his court into the middle of the desert to build a new capital and a new city in the glory of his one god Aten.

Nefertiti is meant to be a balancing influence for Akhenaten while being susceptible to the voices of her vizier father and the Queen. But determined to have her name known for all eternity, Nefertiti is soon blind to the folly that her husband presents as she struggles to gain as much control as she can over the thrones of Egypt.

Mutnodjmet meanwhile is trapped in the role of being the sister of Nefertiti. All her life her family has done everything and anything to please Nefertiti because she is the link to their own immortality. But as Nefertiti becomes blind in her arrogance to the problems that are slowly building with the Egyptian people, Mutnodjmet is able to make a break for freedom.

Full of palace intrigues, court banter, and struggles for power, Nefertiti really comes alive on the page. The characters are well rounded, three dimensional beings and you are pulled into their lives from the first sentence on. With each new turn in the story your heart will rise and fall with Mutnodjmet as she tries to be a voice of reason for her sister while still living a life of her own.

Nefertiti is a powerful first novel from Michelle Moran. Well written and rich with details it is hard to put down once you start reading. I can only hope that her next book will be about Ancient Egypt as well; it is a place I long to go back to.

'Hunters of the Dark Sea' by Mel Odom

ISBN: 0765304805
Format: Hardcover, 400pp
Publisher: Doherty, Tom Associates, LLC
Price: $

Hunters of the Dark Sea is set the Pacific ocean in 1813, when the ocean is crawling with pirates and privateers. Whaling ships also cross the wide blue expanses hunting the beasts not only for the blubber that is needed for oil lamps but also for the bone that is used for buttons and ladies' hoop skirts. Sometimes the whaling ships and the pirates paths' cross, with dangerous consequences.

Ethan Swain is the first mate on the whaling ship Reliant. A good man with a good heart he keeps the crew's best interests in mind. He is what holds the crew together. The ship is captained by Captain Folger, who has a close eye on the profit margin and cares little about the men under him and even less about Ethan. We learn early on that Ethan is a man with a dark past and that the Captain is always looking for a way to undermine him.

On the Brown-Eyed Sue, in another part of the Pacific Ocean, Professor Bullock and his daughter Katharine are searching for something that the natives of Easter Island call "Death-in-the-Water." The natives claim that it has the mask of a whale, but is not actually a whale. The Professor finds a man washed up on the shore and views first-hand the horrible damage that Death-in-the-Water deals to its prey; right before the Professor’s eyes the man that he tries to save liquefies from the venom that the monster has injected him with.

When an unknown ship pulls into harbor close to the Brown-Eyed Sue, most of her crew welcome the chance to meet the new people, even though they are aware of the danger. Only pirates, privateers, and scientist frequent these waters but the crew welcomes the chance to trade supplies and upgrade their stores.

The Sunfisher is captained by the seemingly well-mannered Captain McAfee, who quickly shows his true colors. Brown-Eyed Sue escapes in the fog only to have the Sunfisher coming up fast behind her.

All three ships are hunting and being hunted. The Reliant and her crew are hunting whales, the Brown-Eyed Sue is hunting the monster, and the Sunfisher is on the look out for a quick way to make a profit. Each ship has deadly encounters with the monster that is hunting them through the ocean.

When Captain Folger of the Reliant lets greed get the better of him, he places his entire crew, as well as his ship, at the mercy of the monster. Ethan battles to save the men as well as the ship, fighting the weather and the monster, determined to make it through alive.

Hunters of the Dark Sea is vividly written and the images drawn by Mel Odom are clear and precise. I was glued to the book as Reliant tossed on an angry sea, the wind and lightning lashing around the sails. Horror gripped my stomach as the monster claims victim after victim and Ethan narrowly escapes. It was a great adventure filled with action and suspense; this a book that once you pick it up you just can't put it down until you have finished.

'Darcy's Story' by Janet Aylmer

ISBN: 0061148709
Format: Paperback, 277pp
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Price: $13.95


I am a Jane Austen fan. Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorites. There have been a lot of Lizzys and Darcys out there. Several writers have picked up the classic love story of these two beloved characters: Linda Berdoll the author of Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife: Pride and Prejudice Continues and Darcy & Elizabeth: Nights and Days at Pemberley and Elizabeth Aston, author of Mr. Darcy’s Daughters, The Exploits & Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy, The True Darcy Spirit, and due out in March of 2007, The Second Mrs. Darcy. There are many others and each interpretation is different.

I always pick up any new story involving my favorite characters. I know deep down that most of the time I’ll be disappointed, but I like to give each one a chance. I buy the book, make myself some tea, and curl up to read. I did the same with Darcy’s Story, but unlike some novels I have come across, this one did not disappoint.

One of the reasons I think that Pride and Prejudice is loved so much is Lizzy. After reading the novel, each of us wants to be her; she is such a strong character. Then you get involved in the love story, one that has remained a favorite for the last two centuries.

Darcy's Story lacks the depth of the original, only skimming the surface of the classic love story. But we do see much more of Fitzwilliam Darcy’s relationship with his sister and his friendship with Bingley. We get to see what Darcy was up to while he was away from Lizzy and Netherfield in London as well. The best part, though, was getting to see the biggest moments out of the book from his point of view.

This book doesn’t give us anything new; it just covers the ground we have walked before, hand in hand with Jane Austen. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth picking up. Think of it as a companion book to the classic, something to pick up when you might not have the time to read Pride and Prejudice, or would just like to see it all from Darcy’s point of view.