The White Feather Murders (Herringford and Watts Mysteries Book 3), By Rachel McMillan

If you love historical fiction, and mysteries where you cannot guess the murderer, you will enjoy Rachel McMillan's Herringford and Watts Mystery series. In this third novel in the series, it is 1914 and Toronto is anxiously waiting to hear whether the British Empire is going to war with Germany. In this tense environment, which gets more tense after war is declared, female detectives Merinda Herringford and Jemima Watts (Mrs. DeLucca) must find out who is terrorizing German immigrants and leaving white feathers at the murder scenes of seemingly unconnected individuals.

Neither of McMillan's detectives fits the mold of an early 20th century female. Jemima, married with a baby son, agonizes over her duties to her family, and her commitment to her detective agency and to her friend Miranda. Miranda furiously rejects marriage because she does not want to lose her independence. At the same time, however, she is strongly conflicted on the subject. In many ways, these conflicts are reminiscent of the roiling internal battles fought by Dorothy Sayers' 1930s' character Harriet Vane in her relationship with Lord Peter Wimsey. McMillan makes the battles just as believable.

McMillan does an excellent job of bringing 1914 Toronto to life as a multilayered budding metropolis, home to wealthy elites, a growing middle class, and a refuge for immigrants fleeing the tyranny and poverty of the old world. My only concern with the novel is its sense of finality. I hope it is not the last book in the Herringford and Watts Mystery series because I want to know what happens to McMillan's well-crafted protagonists as the trenches and fires of World War I change everything.

* Print Length: 236 pages
* Publisher: Harvest House Publishers (April 25, 2017)
* Publication Date: April 11, 2017
* Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

BLOG TOUR:* GUEST POST, By Radha Vatsal

Radha Vatsal is the author of two highly rated historical novels set in New York City during the years leading up to America entering World War I: "The Front Page, Affair," and, "Murder Between the Lines. We have reviewed both books in our prior post.

We asked Ms. Vatsal why she chose the years of World War, and she graciously provided us with the following guest column.


"World War I isn’t usually considered to be America’s war. The US joined the fighting late – the war began in the fall of 1914 and America joined the fray in 1917. By and large, stories about the war tend to focus on the experience “over there”—in English or French country homes, or in the battlefields of Europe. To me, it seems that we know more about World War II, in part because of that war’s atrocities and in part because it had clear good guys, Roosevelt and Churchill, and bad guys, Hitler and Stalin. World War I is more complicated. It was started by Kaiser Wilhelm--first cousin to King George of England--but was the result of military buildup that had been going on in Europe during the so-called “Belle Epoque,” a seemingly tranquil period of peace and prosperity—and the setting of many beloved period series and films. But tensions were mounting behind the scenes and when they exploded, the world changed. Empires that had ruled great swathes of the world for centuries fell: the Hapsburgs of Austria-Hungary, the Romanovs of Russia, the Ottomans of Turkey, and the seeds were set for the modern world of nation-states that we inhabit and for political strife that haunts us to this day.



Across the Atlantic, the US didn’t remain untouched by all this upheaval. It faced what we would now call domestic terrorism on its shores (the subject of A Front Page Affair) and rapidly went from being a second-tier country to a global superpower. Along the way, President Wilson had to convince the public that America could no longer remain “a provincial nation”—part of a speech he gave at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. The speech forms the climax of Murder Between the Lines and a crucial part of American history. The American economy prospered, thanks in no small part to the ramping up of the military—Kitty Weeks delves into this as she investigates the Edison company’s work on new submarine batteries.



I chose to set the Kitty Weeks Mystery series during the WWI-era because so much happened during this period, and there so many colorful stories that have remained under-explored and under-reported. In addition to the world history aspect, the late 1910s also saw a seismic shift for women: women won the right to vote after WWI in 1920. In the course of her adventures and investigations, Kitty Weeks meets and interviews (as is only fitting for a reporter at the New York Sentinel’s Ladies’ Page!) influential women of her day. In A Front Page Affair, it’s Anne Morgan, the philanthropist sister of banker J.P. Morgan. Anne Morgan championed the cause of working women, was active in war relief efforts in France, and was one of the founders of the first women’s-only club with its own building, the Colony Club in Manhattan, which still exists today. In Murder Between the Lines, Kitty interviews the divorcee and widow Alva Belmont. Belmont had originally been married to W.K. Vanderbilt, whom she divorced—much to society’s dismay—and then married financier, O.H.P. Belmont. After Belmont died, she devoted her energies and fortune to promoting the cause of woman suffrage, even producing a “suffragist operetta,” Melinda and Her Sisters—Kitty observes the rehearsals in Murder. Kitty grows, learns and is inspired by these women, many of whom are forgotten today.

"

-Radha Vatsal is the author of the Kitty Weeks mystery series. Her latest book, Murder between the Lines (Sourcebooks), was published on May 2, 2017.

BLOG TOUR:* Murder Between the Lines and The Front Page Affair, By Radha Vatsal

MURDER BETWEEN THE LINES, By Radha Vatsal

In her second Kitty Weeks novel, Radha Vatsal again takes us back to the 1910s, a tumultuous time in U.S. history, where women are demanding the long promised right to vote, and, as World War I bloodies Europe, the American government and defense industries are quietly preparing for war.

Set in 1915, New York City, "Murder Between the Lines," depicts an America that, on the surface, appears to be as it has been for decades. Kitty Weeks, the daughter of a wealthy man who simultaneously tries to protect her as he encourages her to be independent, knows that war is coming. The signs are not hidden well. Her best friend returns from nursing soldiers on the battlefields of Europe a broken woman. She has seen the horror of trench warfare first hand. At the same time, former President Theodore Roosevelt has "called for a navy that would be second in size and efficiency only to that of Great Britain," and government money is pouring in to test Edison's batteries for use in submarines.

A writer for the ladies' page of "The Sentinel" newspaper, Kitty has pushed hard against covering tea parties and has successfully convinced her editor to allow her to cover suffragettes and Woodrow Wilson's visit to New York City. When Elspeth Bright, a young, vibrant woman, connected to the Edison battery-research, is found frozen to death in Central Park, Kitty is driven to use her journalist skills to try to bring her justice.

Vatsal's meticulous historical research broadens Kitty's world to include the famous suffragette, Alva Belmont (also known as Alva Vanderbilt), and the actress Marie Dressler, known later for, among other things, her brilliant performance in "Dinner at Eight." We also attend the "first annual dinner of the Motion Picture Board of Trade of America" at the newish Waldorf-Astoria. Here, President Woodrow Wilson prophetically states: “America will always seek to the last point at which her honor is involved to avoid the things which disturb the peace of the world, ...there will come that day when the world will say, ‘This America that we thought was full of a multitude of contrary counsels now speaks with the great volume of the heart’s accord, and that great heart of America has behind it the supreme moral force of righteousness and hope and the liberty of mankind!'”

Radha Vatsal is an exceptional writer and gifted historian. In the first Kitty Weeks novel, "The Front Page Affair," and again in this second novel, Vatsal has successfully recreated the mood, the sights, smells and controversies of New York City in the years leading up to the deployment of American soldiers to fight in the Great War. As the United States enters into the centennial anniversary of America's involvement in that war, Vatsal's books allow us to reflect on the small fires that led to the conflagration, and they allow us to recognize that the fight for female equality is not a recent endeavor.

"Murder Between the Lines" deserves more than five stars. Read it and you will agree.

Print Length: 320 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark (May 2, 2017)
Publication Date: May 2, 2017
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

*A virtual blog tour is underway where six book bloggers, including me, post clues provided by Radha Vatsal to a mystery involving President Wilson's 1915, wedding. Click here to read clue number four, and to find links to other five clues.*

THE FRONT PAGE AFFAIR, By Vadha Vatsal

Although World War I raged in Europe starting in 1914, the United States did not declare war on Germany until April 6, 1917. As we enter into the centennial anniversary of America's involvement in that war, historical novels, such as Radha Vatsal's excellent, debut novel, "The Front Page Affair," provide clear and insightful glimpses into the tension-filled and fearful miasmas that permeated New York City in the years preceding 1917.

Specifically, Ms. Vatsal recreates the 1915, New York City world of Kitty Weeks, a wealthy young woman who has traveled the world with her cosmopolitan father. Although she is considered from the "wrong side of town," (at least, according to Kitty's debutante friend), Weeks is a well educated, modern woman.

Constrained by the social mores of the time, Kitty is prohibited from covering news stories, and instead she is forced to write for the Ladies' Page of one of the many New York City newspapers. Born abroad, raised in Europe and educated in Switzerland, Kitty struggles to find her niche. After stumbling upon a murder while covering her first society event, she finds herself enmeshed in what may be an espionage scandal that has major implications for America's continued neutrality concerning the war with Germany.

It is very rare to find a debut novel so well written and so engrossing. "The Front Page Affair" is on a par with the Maisie Dobbs novels of Jacqueline Winspear. More than that, Ms. Vatsal clearly understands the importance of creating an historical novel that transforms 1915 from a dusty, ancient year in America's past, to a vibrant and dangerous time not unlike our own.

* Print Length: 338 pages
* Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark (May 3, 2016)
* Publication Date: May 3, 2016
* Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Radha Vatsal is the author of two highly rated historical novels set in New York City during the years leading up to America entering World War I: "The Front Page, Affair," and, "Murder Between the Lines." We have reviewed both books, above.

We asked Ms. Vatsal why she chose the years of World War I as the setting for her Kitty Weeks novels, and she graciously provided us with a guest post, found here.

*A virtual blog tour is underway where six book bloggers, including me, post clues provided by Radha Vatsal to a mystery involving President Wilson's 1915, wedding. Click here to read clue number four, and to find links to the other five clues.

The Summer Before the War, by Helen Simonson

As we approach the 100th anniversary of America's entry into WWI, it's a good time to reflect on the state of the world on the eve of that war as Helen Simonson sets out to do in her novel, "The Summer Before the War."

Beatrice Nash is our protagonist. A scholar in her early 20s, Nash has agreed to stay a spinster in order to become the latin teacher at the local school in the English coastal town of Rye. Having been her professorial father's assistant for many years, Beatrice has been left with almost nothing after his death. Used to her independence, she is now beholden to her father's distant, cold family for money from her trust and subservient to the Victorian-era school board as to whether or not she is spinsterly enough for the teaching position.

In the early summer of 1914, as Beatrice settles into Rye, England was suffering from a hide-bound ruling class that hunted down and imprisoned homosexuals, and that was unable to deal with the pressure of a rising working class, and a strong suffragette movement. While England "was dreaming under summer skies, . . wrapped in her mantle of marshes and calm channel waters," the old feuds between Queen Victoria's grandchildren were also exploding; the assassination of the Archduke in Sarejo simply lit a fuse that was ready to burn.

Although Henry James claimed this was "the most beautiful English summer conceivable," its beauty and innocence were paper thin. The slaughter of British troops in the Crimea and the Boer wars with their merciless battles and blood soaked fields, was still a recent memory. As was the bloody civil war which Simonson's character, Tillingham, (based on Henry James), clearly remembers, telling Beatrice: "I have been remembering the great American conflict of my youth. Not a hundred years from gaining our independence, we tore each other apart—brother against brother, patriot against patriot—the wheat fields dressed in the blood of young farm boys, towns burned to the ground by neighbors. Most of all I remember that what begins with drums and fife, flags and bunting, becomes too swiftly a long and gray winter of the spirit. . . .Some argument must be made as to whether America, if it stands by while all that is fine and ancient in the civilized world is put to the sword, can still hope to build its own shining city.”

"The Summer Before the War" is a wonderful, enjoyable novel that, on the one hand allows us to pretend, for a moment, that Edwardian England was all roses and innocence in the summer of 1914, and on the other hand forces us to look at the shattering of Edwardian society during and after the war as England came to grips with the wholesale slaughter of a generation of young men, including child-soldiers who often ended up as fodder for bloody battles that won nothing, with many executed by their own leaders for the crime of being afraid or too shell-shocked to follow orders.

Unfortunately, the lessons of WWI are still, for the most part, unlearned and 100 years later, we are still a long way from building that "shining city."

Print Length: 497 pages
Publisher: Random House; Reprint edition (March 22, 2016)
Publication Date: March 22, 2016
Sold by: Random House LLC

The Women Friends: Selina, by Emma Rose Millar, Miriam Drori

Authors Millar and Drori write: "in 1917, Gustav Klimt painted his sensuous masterpiece The Women Friends. Nothing is known about the two women in the painting, but it is thought they were a real couple." Selina is one of the women. If Selina is fictional, then the authors never let us realize that, instead they breathe such life into her, we must conclude that she is real. A country girl from the Tyrol area of Austria, born at the cusp of the new century, she goes to Vienna in 1917, to become an artist's model. Although, she fails at modeling, her love affair with Gustav Klimt's female muse, Janika, inspires Klimt to paint "The Women Friends."

In telling Selina's story, the authors succeed in describing the hypocrisy of bohemian life of Vienna during World War I. The artists and members of this community had a desperate need to invalidate Viennese society at the same time they desperately sought funding from that same society and its wealthy citizens.

Klimt died in 1918, but Selina's story continues long after his death. In the early 1930s, she lives through the crash of the banks, hyperinflation, the rise of anti-semitism and the mass strikes, after which, she notes that: "Broken glass lay glinting in the Viennese sunshine and dogs scavenged for food," and she asks, "how had this city of opera and Sachertorte slipped so swiftly into barbarism?"

Throughout the telling of Selina's story, Klimt's influence on the authors is clear, as Klimt painted with color, so Millar and Drori paint with words.

The authors write that the "tragic fate of the painting itself and ominous developments in Vienna in the early twentieth-century inspired us to write a series of stories, based on Klimt's women and some of his most renowned work," and this book is the first of the series. I look forward to their future work.

Gustav Klimt, (1917) The Women Friends
(In return for an honest review, I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.)
Paperback: 140 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (November 18, 2016)
Language: English