So many books, so much physical danger to me if the stacks fall! There really are a lot of books this time, because I've taken back about 1200 books that a store held for me on consignment, and a reasonable number of them were historicals.

Remember, you can have as many books as you want, but reviews are due in 60 days unless we make other arrangements. Also, unless we have made other arrangements, you must send in any outstanding reviews (or return the books) before I send out any more books. You know who you are! The books are then yours to keep, but if you decided that you don't want to keep them, you may return return them to me so that someone else can have a chance to review them. Negative reviews are fine, as long as your criticisms are supported, but if you hate the book so much that you can't finish it, return it to me so that someone else can give it a try. You must be a member of HMAS to request any of these books!

Some general rules and requests about reviews:

1) The average review should run 300 - 400 words. If you're reviewing more than one book by the same author in the same review, add an average of 150 - 200 words for each additional book.

2) Type the review into an e-mail message (or type it in your word processor program and then cut and paste it into your e-mail). NO ATTACHED FILES, PLEASE!!!!! And please, if you have access to e-mail, don't snail the reviews to me. I'm having a fair amount of carpal tunnel symptoms, and really don't want to type anything that I don't have to.

3) Send only one review per e-mail, otherwise I have to save your e-mail as two separate files, under each book name, and then edit each file as I use the review.

4) Type your full name at the end of each review.

5) PLEASE refer to the e-mail on preferred formatting; ask me for a copy if you don't have it. This is really, really important to me -- it's very nit-picky stuff, but it adds up to a lot of time and painful wrists for me if you don't.

Some rules about asking for books:

1) Don't ask for more books than you can handle in the time period. Be realistic about your other commitments. On the other hand, if you request a lot of books because you'll be working on an article, or simply because you want a lot of books, the deadline will be flexible.

2) Tell me the maximum number of books you will accept, whether by specific request or "orphans".

3) List your books in order of preference. I will try to match you as closely as possible to the top of your list.

4) Tell me if you'll take "orphans" (the books nobody else wants).

5) Be adventurous -- try something you might not ordinarily read.

6) And finally, please, please put your full name and address at the bottom of your return e-mail and save me the step of having to look it up.

THE BOOKS

 

Alexander, Bruce: Blind Justice

Barron, Stephanie: Jane and the Man of the Cloth , Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor, Jane and the Wandering Eye

Bastable, Bernard: Too Many Notes, Mr. Mozart (1830 German - Bastable is Robert Barnard)

Blank, Hannah: A Murder of Convenience (1953 Paris - if this one is really good I might want to borrow it back so that I can read it!)

Brewer, James: No Escape (1873 Memphis)

Brightwell, Emily: Mrs. Jeffries Questions the Answer

Bryan, Kate: Murder at Bent Elbow , Murder on the Barbary Coast (Both in the 1875 female inquiry agent series)

Butler, Ragan: Captain Nash and the Honour of England (1772) Captain Nash and the Wroth Inheritance (1771 London - "scientific theory of detection")

Chisholm, P.F.: A Famine of Horses (1592 Scotland) A Surfeit of Guns

Clynes, Michael: The Grail Murders (P.C. Doherty's Roger Shallot series)

Collins, Max Allan: The Titanic Murders (I'd like someone to do this with the McCarver book, below)

Dams, Jeanne: Death in Lacquer Red

Davis, Lindsey: Poseidon's Gold

Day, Dianne: Emperor Norton's Ghost , The Strange Files of Fremont Jones

DeAndrea, William: Fatal Elixir (1800s Wyoming Territory, I think)

Doherty, P.C.: The Assassin in the Greenwood (Hugh Corbett)

Douglas, Carole Nelson: Irene's Last Waltz, Amberleigh (1893 Irish estate, looks more like historical romantic suspense)

Dunn, Carola: Damsel in Distress

Eddenden, A.E.: Murder at the Movies (1939 Fort York in Canada)

Engel, Howard: Murder in Montparnasse (1925 Paris)

Edwards, Martin: Past Crimes (short stories)

Falkirk, Richard: Blackstone and the Scourge of Europe (Blackstone is sent by George IV to investigate rumours of Napoleon's escape from St. Helena)

Furutani, Dale: Jade Palace Vendetta

Gellis, Roberta: A Mortal Bane (popular historical romance writer's first historical mystery - this one is in uncorrected page proofs since the book isn't due until September; set in 1139 England)

Graham, Mark: The Killing Breed

Greenberg, Martin: Holmes for the Holiday

Gregory, Susanna: A Bone of Contention

Gordon, Alan: Thirteenth Night (1200 Italy, first novel)

Grayson, Richard: Death in the Skies (Paris, 20 years after the Eiffel Tower was built, whenever that was - murder and espionage)

Hambly, Barbara: Fever Season

Harper, Karen: The Poyson Garden

Hawksley, Elizabeth: Crossing the Tamar (1808 Cornwall - the dustjacket copy doesn't make it sound like a mystery, but the publisher sent it for consideration for The Herodotus, so what do I know? The copy DOES say, "Like Jane Austen, but faster.")

Heck, Peter: Death on the Mississippi

Honig, Donald: Last Man Out (1946 New York, helps if you like baseball)

Hosier, Sydney: Elementary, Mrs. Hudson ; Most Baffling, Mrs. Hudson ; Murder, Mrs. Hudson

Jackson, Marian: The Punjat's Ruby (The world's first female consulting detective)

Janes, J. Robert: Mannequin (1942, German-occupied France - I'd like someone to take all three titles and really explore the relationship between the two protagonists) Salamander Stonekiller (There's a extra one of this title)

Jennings, Maureen: Except the Dying

King, Laurie: O Jerusalem

Kingsbury, Kate: Check Out Time Chivalry is Dead , Death with Reservations , Do Not Disturb, Ground for Murder , Pay the Piper(These are all in the Edwardian Pennyfoot Hotel series)

Kurzweil, Allen: A Case of Curiosities (France, eve of Revolution - not sure this is really a mystery, but it was hawked by mystery booksellers when it was first published in 1992)

Lawrence, Margaret: The Burning Bride

Linscott, Gillian: An Easy Day for a Lady (1910 England)

Marlowe, Stephen: The Lighthouse at the End of the World (Edgar Allan Poe disappeared for a week - what did he do?)

Matthews, Greg: Come to Dust (1940s Hollywood - might go well with the Shah book below)

McCarver, Sam: The Case of Cabin 13 (Murder on the Titanic - I'd like someone to do this with the Collins book, above)

Medawar, Mardi Oakley: Murder at Medicine Lodge (1867 Kansas, Kiowa tribe)

Miles, Keith: Saint's Rest (1931 Chicago - Keith is Edward Marston)

Monfredo, Miriam Grace: North Star Conspiracy , Through a Gold Eagle

Morson, Ian: Falconer and the Face of God

Paige, Robin: Death at Bishop's Keep , Death at Devil's Bridge , Death at Gallows Green (all 3 are of the same Victorian series)

Pearce, Michael: The Mamur Zapt and the Girl on the Nile

Perry, Anne: The Hyde Park Headsman , Weighed in the Balance

Peters, Elizabeth: The Ape Who Guards the Balance , Seeing a Large Cat

Peters, Ellis: Monk's Hood

Radley, Sheila: New Blook from Old Bones

Rafferty, S.S.: Cork of the Colonies (13 short crimes in 13 colonies - perhaps someone might be interested in doing an article on mysteries in early American including this, Margaret Lawrence and Margaret Miles)

Roberts, Barrie: Sherlock Holmes and the Royal Flush (1887, Victoria's Jubilee and political skulduggery)

Roberts, John Maddox: King of the Wood (1450 "Treeland" - what the Vikings called the eastern half of North America; probably not a mystery, but equally probably suspenseful)

Robinson, Lynda S.: Murder in the Place of Anubis

Roosevelt, Elliott: New Deal for Death (Blackjack Endicott series, not Eleanor)

Rowland, Laura Joh: The Concubine's Tattoo

Satterthwaite, Walter: Masquerade

Saylor, Steven: Catalina's Riddle

Sedley, Kate: The Holy Innocents

Schunk, Laurel: Death in Exile (1816 England)

Shah, Diane: Dying Cheek to Cheek (1947 Hollywood - might go well with the Matthews book above)

Sherman, Delia: The Porcelain Dove (France on the eve of Revolution - appears suspenseful rather than mysterious)

Thayer, James: Five Past Midnight (1945 Berlin, American on a mission to kill Hitler, German detective out to find him)

Todd, Charles: Wings of Fire

Journal of the Historical Mystery Appreciation Society and content © 1998-2002 Sue Feder.

Last update: 21 Mar 99.

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