The Irish Ties That Bind by Michael J. Hopkins - #bookspotlight #blogtour

I am delighted to be shining the book spotlight on this book today. The Irish Ties That Bind by Michael J. Hopkins is historical fiction and sounds fascinating.

The Blurb

From the green hills of southern Ireland to the heartland of America, four families are united by faith, perseverance, and an enduring legacy that spans generations.

As famine and hardship drive Irish immigrants across the Atlantic in the mid-nineteenth century, the Power and Coughlin families plant new roots in the American Midwest. Their daughters answer a higher calling, joining the fledgling Congregation of the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa. Through the remarkable leadership of Sister Emily and Sister Samuel, these women help shape a religious community that will educate thousands and leave an indelible mark on the nation.

Their story intertwines with those of the Cullen and Hynes families, whose lives are transformed by the sisters’ influence. Seeking refuge from the unrest of postwar Chicago, they settle in Dixon, Illinois, where friendship, faith, and family bind them to another rising family—the Reagans. As Ronald Reagan grows from a small-town boy into a radio broadcaster, actor, and emerging public figure, the lives of ordinary and extraordinary Americans intersect in unexpected ways.

Set against the backdrop of immigration, the Great Depression, two world wars, and the dawn of the Cold War, The Irish Ties That Bind is a sweeping historical saga of courage, devotion, and the families whose quiet strength shaped generations. It is a powerful testament to the bonds of family, faith, and heritage that endure long after history's tides have turned.

Book Details

ISBN: 979 8950078163

Publisher: Historium Press

Formats: e-book, hardback and paperback

No. of Pages: 324 (paperback)

Purchase Links

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the Author

A lifelong resident of Wisconsin, Michael J. Hopkins earned his undergraduate degree in economics from Beloit College, subsequently obtaining a degree in history from Arizona State University and the University of Wisconsin–Platteville. He furthered his academic pursuits by completing a Master of Arts in the Humanities at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Mr. Hopkins concluded a distinguished forty-year tenure in secondary education, having served as a social studies instructor at Darlington High School for thirty-nine years.

In addition to his teaching responsibilities, he dedicated many years to coaching basketball, baseball, and football at the same high school. His contributions to athletics were formally recognized in 2021 with his induction into the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. 

Following his retirement from education, he has transitioned into a career as an author. In 2025, he published his autobiographical memoir, Embracing A Competitive Life: Trials, Triumphs, and 150 Life Lessons in Six Decades of Competition, which chronicles his experiences as both an athlete and a coach.

My Other Blog Posts Featuring Historical Fiction Set in Ireland

Maid of Steel by Kate Barker

The Midnight House by Amanda Geard

Witchcraft: A Graphic History: Stories of Wise Women, Healers and Magic by Lindsay Squire

My Heart Went Walking by Sally Hanan

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

(media courtesy of The Coffee Pot Book Club)

(all opinions are my own)

(Bookshop.org affiliated)

Books I Read in August 2026

As August draws to a close our streets and lanes already look like autumn. Of course, it isn't yet but this overly hot, dry summer have sent our plants and trees into distress and leaves have just shrivelled up and shed themselves.

I will be away next week so the blog will be quiet but rest assured I will soon be back with lots of great booky stuff to share with you.

Enjoy the rest of summer and happy reading!

Murder at Christmas by T.A. Williams

It seemed somewhat ironic to be reading a Christmas book during a heatwave, but I so enjoyed reading about Private Investigator Dan Armstrong and his faithful canine friend, Oscar. You can find my full review here.

The Secret Dressmaker by Jenny O'Brien

I enjoyed this book set around the French Resistance in World War II. You can find my full review here.

The One Where They Fall in Love by Cristina Wolf

I absolutely loved the slow burn of friendship, later followed by desire between the two main characters in this book. You can find my full review here.

Lost and Never Found by Simon Mason

This is currently my favourite crime series. The characters are just wonderful.

A Dangerous Crossing by Jane Mitchell

This is probably the best book I have read so far this year. You can find my full review here.

A Hymn to Life: Shame Has To Change Sides by Gisele Pelicot

What can I say? This memoir from Gisele Pelicot is something everyone should read. Her bravery and resilience is second to none.

Currently Reading

A History of the Novel in Britain by Philip Hensher

The Alchemist's Secret by Clare Marchant

Invitation from a Dictator by Rory Clements

The Wine of Angels by Phil Rickman

A Dangerous Crossing by Jane Mitchell - #bookreview #blogtour

I sprint around the perimeter of Freedom Square in the centre of Kobani. I hardly recognise this place any more, it is such a wreck now...

***

I am required to make it clear at the beginning of my reviews that I received this book for free from The Write Reads. I have not been paid for doing this and all opinions are my own. I am Bookshop.org affiliated, which means I earn a very small amount of money if you buy from there using my direct link. Although I include purchase links to Amazon, I am not affiliated with them. I include them to make it easy for you to navigate to them if you so wish.

***

The Blurb

Ghalib doesn't want to leave his home in Syria. But the city has become too dangerous, and his family has no choice but to flee. Together they make their way through Syria to the Turkish border, where Ghalib gets separated from his family. Stricken with grief and fear, fighting cold, pain and hunger, he manages to make it to a refugee camp in Turkey. Ghalib is safe for now, but life in a refugee camp is wretched and hopeless, and this boy's journey in search of safety is far from over. Based on true accounts and real Syrian children, A Dangerous Crossing is the story of one boy's search for refuge.

My Review

This is probably one of the best books I have read this year. Quite the accolade when considering that I have currently read 83 books so far.

The main character in the book is thirteen-year-old Ghalib. He was a contented child, living with his parents, older sister and younger brother until the war began in Syria. From then, every day was a fight for survival.

The story has been beautifully told and the writer has demonstrated real skill in the telling. The entire book came alive on the pages. It is well-written, compelling and highly engaging. This is one of the few books where I could have cried simply because the book had ended. I wanted to scoop Ghalib up into my arms and to somehow make the world a better place for him. It isn't often that I become this invested in a book.

The book is aimed at a young adult readership. I would encourage every secondary school library to have a copy of this on their shelves. That said, it is highly suitable for adults too.

This was a deeply moving and heart-wrenching book and I would challenge anyone to read this and not be deeply moved. Each of the characters in the book is the name of a real Syrian child who was killed during the war. What a wonderful tribute to so many young lives so needlessly lost.

Book Details

ISBN: 978 1910411582

Publisher: Little Island

Formats: e-book and paperback

No. of Pages: 224 (paperback)

Purchase Links

Bookshop.org

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the Author

Jane Mitchell lives in Dublin and works with children with physical disabilities. Her Amnesty International- endorsed novel A Dangerous Crossing (Little Island), about a Syrian family fleeing the war, has sold more than 100,000 copies worldwide. Jane spent time volunteering at the refugee camp in Calais to research the book. Chalkline (Walker), about child soldiers in Kashmir, won the Children's Choice Award at the 2010 CBI Awards.

You can also find Jane at:

Author Website

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(ARC and media courtesy of The Write Reads)

(all opinions are my own)

(Bookshop.org affiliated)

Lady of Lincoln by Rachel Elwiss Joyce - #bookreview

***

I am required to make it clear at the beginning of my reviews that I received this book for free from the author. I have not been paid for doing this and all opinions are my own. I am Bookshop.org affiliated, which means I earn a very small amount of money if you buy from there using my direct link. Although I include purchase links to Amazon, I am not affiliated with them. I include them to make it easy for you to navigate to them if you so wish.

***

The Blurb

A true story. A forgotten heroine. In a time when women were told to stay silent, could she become the saviour her people need?

12th-century England. Nicola de la Haye wants to do her duty. But though she’s taught a female cannot lead alone, the young noblewoman bristles at the marriage her father has arranged to secure her inheritance. And when an unexpected death leaves her unguided, the impetuous girl shuns the king’s blessing and weds a handsome-but-landless knight.

Harshly fined by Henry II for her unsanctioned union, Nicola struggles to salvage her estates while dealing with devastating betrayals from her husband… and his choice to join rebels in a brewing civil war. Yet after averting a tragedy and gaining the castle garrison’s respect, she still must face the might of powerful men determined to crush her under their will.

Can she survive love, threats, and violent ambition to prove she’s worthy of authority?

In this carefully researched and vividly human series debut, Rachel Elwiss Joyce showcases the complex themes of honour, responsibility, and freedom in the story of a remarkable heroine who men tried to erase from history. And as readers dive into a world defined by violence and turmoil, they’ll be stunned by this courageous young woman’s journey toward greatness.

Lady of Lincoln is the gritty first book in the Nicola de la Haye Series historical fiction saga. If you like richly textured female heroes, courtly drama, and fast-paced intrigue, then you’ll adore Rachel Elwiss Joyce’s gripping true-life tale.

My Review

I love novels which bring an almost forgotten woman to the fore. This was one such book and I enjoyed it very much.

The main character is Nicola de la Haye and I became immersed in her story very quickly. She is courageous, feisty and has to rapidly learn how to use these talents in a time when women had little control over their own lives.

Set in twelfth-century England, Nicola knows that her role in life is to marry a man of her father's choosing. His choice is Gerard de Camville, a man with wealth and land and who is loyal. However, Nicola wants to marry for love. Following the death of her father she does just that and marries William Fitzernest, a handsome younger man who is attracted to Nicola more for her inheritance than for love.

The book has been well researched and I was drawn into the time period every bit as much as the plot. I felt as though I was walking through the grounds of Lincoln Castle in the twelfth century and the author did a fantastic job of bringing the time period and setting to life.

It has a brisk pace and I flew through the book fairly quickly. However, that might equally have been due to my reluctance to put it down. 

This is the first in a series and I can't wait to continue with it once the second book has been published. I applaud the author for bringing this little-known woman of the past back to life within the pages of this book.

If you enjoy historical fiction then you will adore this one as much as I did. I highly recommend it.

Book Details

ISBN:  978 1919337906

Publisher:  Hedgehog Books

Formats:  e-book, audio and paperback (currently available on Kindle Unlimited) 

No. of Pages:  462 (paperback)

Series:   Book 1 in the Nicola de la Haye series

Purchase Links

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the Author

After a rewarding career in the sciences, Rachel returned to her first love—history and the art of storytelling. Fascinated by the women history neglected, or tried to forget, she creates meticulously researched, emotionally resonant fiction that brings her characters’ stories vividly to life.

Her fascination with the past began early. At six years old, she was already inventing tales about medieval women in castles, inspired by her treasured Ladybird books and other picture-rich stories that transported her to another time. By the time she discovered Katherine by Anya Seton as a teenager, she knew the joy and escape that only great historical fiction can bring.

Rachel’s two grown-up children still tease her (fondly) about childhoods spent being “dragged” around castles, archaeological sites, and historical re-enactments. For Rachel, history and imagination have always gone hand in hand.

There was, however, a long gap between the stories of her childhood and her decision to write her own novel. The spark came when she discovered the remarkable true story of Nicola de la Haye—the first female sheriff of England, who defended Lincoln Castle against a French invasion and became known as “the woman who saved England,” Rachel knew she had found her heroine, and a story she was destined to tell.

Rachel lives in the UK, where she continues to explore the lives of women who shaped history but were left out of its pages.

You can also find Rachel at:

Author Website

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My Other Blog Posts Featuring This Author

Extract from Lady of Lincoln

(ARC and media courtesy of the author)

(all opinions are my own)

The Maternal Element by Kate Nicholls - #extract #excerpt #blogtour

I am very excited to be bringing you an extract from The Maternal Element by Kate Nicholls. I love books which feature forgotten women and this one looks fabulous.

The Blurb

Siberia 1833.

Forty-one-year-old Maria Mendeleeva is enduring her seventeenth pregnancy. Her husband Ivan has lost his sight, and her brother Vasily has left their grandfather’s glass factory in ruins. The factory Maria hungered for as a child. On the brink of poverty and her family’s only remaining hope, Maria must find a way to make the factory viable. She must find the power to bring her grandfather's dreams back to life. She must make the glass sing.

The Maternal Element is a sweeping, gripping epic with an extraordinary woman at its heart. Maria Mendeleeva – mother of Dmitri Mendeleev, who devised the Periodic Table of the Elements – is a heroine like no other. A woman who refuses to be quashed by circumstance, Maria fights against the strictures of her time to gain an education for herself and for her children as she traverses the Urals of Russia seeking opportunity and safety for her family. A vivid and visceral portrait of a woman history has long since forgotten, The Maternal Element is a manifesto for truth, female empowerment and defying societal expectations.

The Extract

 “Why must I stay at home and study all alone? I know there are questions that I cannot ask because I am ignorant of their very existence,” Maria cried furiously one morning, pummelling her fists into a heap of flour moistened by buttermilk. She and Nyanya were preparing the midday meal with Cook, who was at the other end of the kitchen table chopping yellow onions into fine pieces and adding them to a bowl of minced pork.

“Gently, Masha, gently,” Cook instructed, “you must encourage the dough – not beat it to death.”

“Exactly my point,” declared the girl, “I want to be encouraged . . . to be allowed to grow and think and understand the world. Instead, I’m trapped at home, and without Papinka and Vasily to help me, I would be lost.”

Cook glanced at Nyanya and saw a fleeting hurt pass over her friend’s face.

“You have a good many people here to help you, Masha,” Cook retorted sharply, “and you have much to learn. One day, your Papa will not be there to give you a roof over your head, and there may not be so much good food in your pantry or so many fine pots to boil soup in.” Her knife was gathering quite terrifying speed. “Your book reading won’t feed your family or keep them warm at night, I can tell you that . . . you need to know how to squeeze the goodness out of a cabbage leaf Miss Know-it-all . . . that’s women’s work . . . and good work too, don’t you think otherwise.”

Cook ran her sleeve against her face to wipe away tiny pearls of sweat that had gathered on her brow, and Maria ran to hug her.

“I know, I know how lucky I am. You and Nyanya are my dearest friends,” cried the child, distraught to see the usually cheerful woman in such distress.

Yet, Maria’s frustration grew, and things came to a head on a rainy afternoon some months later when she and her brother fought so fiercely that they tumbled onto the floor, pulling each other’s hair, and had to be separated by their exasperated nanny.

“Vasily Kornilyev,” cried the woman, wrenching the boy from his sister’s grasp and shaking him until he rattled – the household keys around her waist clanging in lockstep with her fury. “Maria Kornilyeva, what is this? You are both too old to engage in such unruly behaviour. I have never seen such bad children. I shall put you both out in the night to freeze to death.”

“He called me foolish,” shouted the unrepentant girl, “I’m far cleverer than he and – and – I shall do great things in my life – you shall see – I shall travel far and wide like Professor Lomonosov and I shall go the far ends of the earth, just you wait. Vasily is so stupid – too – too stupid to remember the words of his poem . . . and such a wonderful poem . . . and he called me foolish and . . . oh I just hate him.”

At this she ran out of the room in a storm of tears. It transpired that Vasily had been instructed by his teacher to learn An Ode on the Benefits of Glass, by the polymath Mikhail Lomonosov. On seeing her brother struggling to recall the lengthy poem, Maria had offered to help by reading the text and gently correcting his mistakes. For a while, she urged him along, but as time passed, his fumbling became too much to bear, and finally throwing the book to the floor, she stood full square and recited the entire poem with such a flaming passion that her brother fell upon her in a fury, declaring her a foolish girl who had no right to their father’s library.

Perhaps it was irony that had caused Maria such anguish, for the ode revealed the poetic chemist’s reverence for the enigmatic material that lay somewhere between liquid and solid in which light and colour were both captured and free. It was she, not Vasily, who shared their grandfather’s passion for glass – it was she who longed to be taken to see the great furnaces in which, by glorious alchemy, sand was transformed into transparency. And it was she who trundled up stairs to watch from the upstairs window as her father and Vasily sped off in the carriage to spend weeks and weeks together in the village on the other side of the forest.

It was Vasily who cared not a jot, who would inherit the dragon’s lair.

Life was intolerably unfair.

Book Details

ISBN:  978 1784633998

Publisher:  Salt Publishing

Formats:  e-book and paperback

No. of Pages:  400 (paperback)

Purchase Links

Salt Publishing

Bookshop.org

Amazon UK

About the Author

Kate Nicholls is an author and former actor who traded the stage to study evolutionary biology. She raised and home schooled five children while researching lions in the Ocavango Delta. She now lives and writes in Rome

You can also find Kate at:

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(media courtesy of Random Things Tours)

(all opinions are my own)

(Bookshop.org affiliated)

Body Language and Heartless by Brian Fitzgerald - #bookspotlight

Today I am shining the book spotlight on two great looking titles by author, Brian Fitzgerald. Body Language and Heartless are thrillers that blur the lines between right and wrong.

The Blurb - Body Language

When Alan Wright learns his ex-wife Andrea leapt to her death only hours after getting remarried to a man he hates, he's heartbroken. When he receives a package in the mail two days after her death, filled with the documents she'd used to plan that wedding, he's hurt and angry. And when he learns that Andrea's bizarre last wishes require him to spread her ashes over a lake outside a small village in Africa, he's beyond resentful. But love, loyalty and the uncanny power of human connection win out, sending Wright back into the volatile stew of hope and cynicism that is aid work in the poorest parts of the world. In the teeming city of Kinshasa and the remote villages of the Congo he rediscovers his love for Andrea and begins to understand that buried in the strange details of the wedding itself were subtle clues she'd left for him. Those clues point to a plan she'd helped create but that had gone terribly wrong; a plan to unleash genetic engineering in a way so reckless that its failure could mean the end of all human life, but its success could leave the fundamental definition of humanity in the hands of a small team of scientists and the power-hungry government that supported them.

Blurb - Heartless

Ten years of frustration and heartbreak caring for his son John, born with a catastrophic heart defect, have convinced Rick Morrow that the world is stacked against his family. And on what should be the best day of their life -- the day when John will finally get a new heart - an even worse nightmare begins, when the helicopter carrying the heart crashes, destroying the heart and the hopes of the Morrow family.

Rick's heartbreak turns to rage as he begins to suspect that the accident was no accident at all. His pursuit of the truth puts him on a collision course with the giant Cera Corporation and the powerful family that runs it, who have an agenda of their own and will stop at nothing to make it come true. The escalating conflict threatens Rick's reputation, his safety and even his marriage. It reaches its gut-wrenching climax with Rick and his wife Mary facing and even more terrible question; will they sacrifice all they believe in to save their own son, at a cost almost too high to imagine?

Heartless forces us to ask ourselves the most basic of questions: how far should we go to save the life of someone we love? And what makes a life matter in the first place?

About the Author

Brian Fitzgerald writes intelligent thrillers that explore the human consequences of advances in technology, medicine, and the systems we trust most.

 

Over a career spanning marketing, technology, and national broadcast media, Brian built his reputation as a storyteller and communicator. As head of communications for a billion-dollar information security firm, he found himself at the center of some of the most significant cybersecurity breaches and global privacy events of the modern era, working alongside, and at times at odds with, the media, academia, and America's intelligence and law enforcement communities.

 

Those experiences continue to shape his fiction, where scientific innovation, medical breakthroughs, and emerging technologies collide with deeply human questions that have no easy answers.

You can also find Brian at:

Author Website

(media courtesy of Author Marketing Experts)

(all opinions are my own)

The Santorini Writing Retreat by Eva Glyn - #bookreview

The Blurb

Three women, one writing retreat, endless possibilities…

Bestselling author Jessica Rose needs to escape from a terrible secret that’s robbed her of her creativity. Could leading a retreat on a gorgeous Greek island be just what she needs?

Coming home to Santorini was never in Zina’s plans, but now she’s determined to make her new business a success.

And then there’s Karmela, who just wants to write her book and make her mother proud.

In the heat of their Greek island paradise, these new friends find the courage to shape their own stories, and write endings they can all be proud of…

My Review

When I read The Dubrovnik Book Club earlier this year, I just knew that I would want to read the next in the series as soon as possible. I am so glad that I did as I loved this book as much as the first one.

Although it is the second in the Bookish Escape series, it is very much a standalone novel. One of the characters from the first book, Karmela, is the main character in this one and it was lovely to spend more time with her.

The chapters were told from the perspective of the three main characters: Karmela, Jo and Zina. Three very different women who form a strong bond and help one another to deal with the challenges they are faced with. There are secrets in their lives which the reader is privy to but which are only revealed to one another as the novel progresses.

The setting of the book was beautiful; the titular Santorini was just wonderful to immerse myself in. The author did a great job of creating the environment and thus, the book was atmospheric and I soaked up the beauty of Greece whilst reading.

Anyone who enjoys a bit of escapism in their reading material will love this. Coupled with the story of strong women who form a tight-knit friendship, it makes this a novel well worth reading. 

Thank you to my wonderful local library for sourcing me a copy of this. I am now very keen to read the next book in the series, The Croatian Island Library.

Book Details

ISBN: 978 0008648138

Publisher:  One More Chapter

Formats:  e-book, audio and paperback

No. of Pages:  368 (paperback)

Series:  Book 2 in the Bookish Escape series

Purchase Links

Bookshop.org

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the Author

Eva Glyn writes escapist relationship-driven fiction with a kernel of truth at its heart. She loves to travel and finds inspiration in beautiful places and the stories they hide.

Set mainly in Croatia, her contemporary stories are more about friendship than romance, the coming together of people through shared interests, and the opportunity to make fresh starts in their lives. A love of books is a common theme too, so her publisher, One More Chapter, has christened them the Bookish Escapes collection which currently includes The Dubrovnik Book Club, and The Santorini Writing Retreat, with The Croatian Island Library to be published in January 2026.

In addition Eva has written two Second World War dual timeline romances, An Island of Secrets and The Collaborator’s Daughter, and a new beginnings novel entitled The Olive Grove. All are set in Croatia, a country she loves.

Although she considers herself Welsh, Eva lives in Cornwall with the man she met and fell in love with more than thirty years ago. She also writes as Jane Cable.

You can also find Eva at:

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The Croatian Library Cover Reveal

The DuBrovnik Book Club - Book Review

(media courtesy of the author's website)

(all opinions are my own)

(Bookshop.org affiliated)

The Knife Maker of Venice by David Gilman - #authorQ&A #blogtour

I am thrilled to welcome author, David Gilman onto the blog today. David is the author of The Knife Maker of Venice. It's a powerful historical adventure perfect for fans of Kate Mosse, Ken Follett and Robert Harris.

The Blurb

A young Englishman captured by slavers must survive the snakepit that is seventeenth-century Venice.

1604 - As pirates seeking slaves to sell in the markets of North Africa terrorise the coasts of Europe, headstrong Richard Sheriff and his sister Elizabeth are torn from their Devonshire home and thrust into a waking nightmare. Richard's skills as a blacksmith see him fetch a high price, but the pirate captain has other plans for Elizabeth and once they are separated, Richard has no idea of his sister's fate. They must both learn to survive on a deadly voyage into the unknown.

Sold into servitude in Venice: glittering, vicious city of secrets, he is apprenticed to a knife maker. Richard's talents soon win him renown... but haunted by his sister's absence, he vows never to stop looking for her, knowing she would do the same for him.

First he must survive that city of ghosts. Will the siblings live to see each other again, or will they join the myriads lost to Venice, where life is cheap, profit is all, and escape nigh-on impossible?

Welcome to the blog David and for answering some questions about your new book.

Q What first sparked the idea for The Knife Maker of Venice?

A My publisher, Nic Cheetham, caught me unawares during our annual meeting and asked me to write another standalone novel before the next volume in my Master of War series. I had nothing in mind, and then a memory from 30 years ago gave me a starting point. When I returned to the UK after working and living in South Africa, I toured around the southwest coast looking for somewhere to live. I saw a plaque at Dartmouth Castle commemorating the seizure of a boy by pirates in the seventeenth century. There was the germ of the story. Little did I know what I had let myself in for.

Q Why Venice for this story? What does the city allow you to explore that another setting might not? 

A It's a magical city. I visited several times and every time felt different. There’s so much to explore and its history is fascinating. I am still in awe as to how all that brick, mortar and beauty were built on a swamp. There’s a story around every corner. 

I had already completed a great deal of research, but I learnt an awful lot more by spending a day with a local accredited guide walking the fondamente and calli. Being Venetian, she was soaked in its history. She showed me nooks and crannies and, in some cases, dismissed my understanding of events in Venice. At that time, I thought I had done what I considered to be my own painstaking research. So, as has happened to me in the past with my Master of War series, having someone local proved to be an enormous help.

Q Tell us about your central characters, Richard and Elizabeth, and how it was writing their brother and sister dynamic in this story?

A I always prefer to throw someone in the deep end – why should the writer be the only one? And in this case, I was very keen to have a shared female protagonist. So, we have a talented apprentice blacksmith, Richard Sheriff, ambitious but constrained by the restraints of his trade and social status in the small market town of Totnes. A young, headstrong man with a keen sense of social justice that gets him into continual trouble. And Richard will reach a time in his journey when he has to go against all his deep-seated beliefs. 

His sister, Elizabeth, older by four years, works as a house servant in a wealthy merchant’s house nine miles downriver in Dartmouth. She is an intelligent and partially educated woman but carries her own dark secret of something that happened in the merchant’s house one night. 

Richard and Elizabeth were orphaned a decade ago when Richard was ten years old. The hardship of their lives is tempered by their love for each other – who looks after whom is the question they often ask each other. And it’s something from Elizabeth’s past that hurls them both into a terrifying fight for survival when they are torn apart. 

Q How much historical research went into this novel, and what were the most surprising things you discovered?

A The Knife Maker of Venice heralded one of the most challenging books I’ve written. It demanded constant research across many historical facts. It was the immediate period following the death of Queen Elizabeth I, at a time when corruption and harsh laws caused misery. What had seemed a simple idea was anything but. I researched blacksmithing, knife making, sailing, the slave trade, the wealth of Venice, and the secret trials and executions that took place there. The multi-national traders and the restrictions on trade; and discovering that there were various slave markets in north 

Africa – notably in places governed by the Ottoman Turks – for Europeans who had been seized, but there were no slave markets in Venice where slaves were nonetheless bought and sold beyond the Republic of Venice. Hypocrisy at its most blatant. The wealth of characters is drawn from their various backgrounds and circumstances. All of this research and the characters that emerged from it made an enticing time writing the novel. 

And I remember being surprised to learn that there were tourists on holiday from across Europe visiting the city in the early seventeenth century. Enjoying the sights and attending extravagant balls and the theatre. And I suppose that as the research unfolded, I was surprised at so many small facts that I wasn’t aware of.

Q What do you hope readers take away from the novel once they’ve finished it?

A I always become immersed in the writing process for a novel, so my hope is that the journey that the reader and writer share becomes a narrative and visual feast. Do readers care about my characters? Are they swept along with the story and the predicaments these people face? And perhaps more than anything else is the hope that the storytelling takes the reader out of their own lives for a while and plunges them into a dangerous and vivid world they can believe in.

Many thanks David for your fascinating answers to my questions. It has been a pleasure to have you on the blog today.

Book Details

ISBN:  978 1035910373

Publisher:  Head of Zeus -- an Aries Book

Formats:  e-book, audio and hardback

No. of Pages:  512 (hardback)

Purchase Links

Bookshop.org

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the Author

David Gilman has enjoyed many careers, including paratrooper, firefighter, and photographer. An award-winning author and screenwriter, he is the author of the critically acclaimed Master of War series of historical novels, and was shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize for The Last Horseman. He was longlisted for the same prize for The Englishman, the first book featuring ex-French Foreign Legionnaire Dan Raglan. David lives in Devon. 

Follow David on @davidgilmanuk,  and 

You can also find David at:

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(media courtesy of Rachel's Random Resources)

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10 Ten Exciting New Release Books Coming in September 2026

The sweet little doggie in the photo above resonates with how excited I am about some of the new release books coming this month. Honestly, if it wasn't so hot I might well be leaping around excitedly myself!!

As always, I've limited myself to just ten. I hope you find something in this list that excites you too.

 In This Life or Another by Melissa Payne

On the brink of death, a man comes to terms with the life he lived versus the one he never pursued in an emotionally rich novel of parallel lives, redemption, and finding purpose.

On the eve of his sixtieth birthday, mechanic Rusty Wilson takes a bullet to save the patrons of a small-town Colorado diner—and awakens to a strange realm between life and death.

However, he finds that this limbo is not the end. There are still choices to be made and a lifetime to review. Paths open for a man who believes the life he did live was one of disappointments, grief, and devastating family estrangements. Given a chance to experience an alternate reality, Rusty is visited by figures from his past and present, sees what could have been if he had pursued a woman he loved from afar, and confronts a family secret that shaped everything. Now it’s Rusty’s choice: accept the imperfect existence he knew, or the what-if that could still be his.

At the heart of this poignant exploration of mortality, memory, and second chances is the profoundly simple question: What makes a life truly meaningful?

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The English Bookstore in Bologna by Boo Walker

Against the sunlit backdrop of Italy, five expats discover each other—and rediscover themselves—in a charmingly funny and poignant novel by the author of An Unfinished Story and A Spanish Sunrise.

Tucked away on a cobblestone street in enchanting Bologna, Italy, is the only English bookstore in the city. It’s owned by prickly Sandy Cooke, who keeps love, and even romantic fiction, at a distance. Her employee, timid and hopelessly optimistic Moira, dreams of transforming the struggling shop into a vibrant community hub. Against the odds, one Bolognese summer, it becomes a haven for fellow expats at their own crossroads.

Bianca is a psychotherapist escaping both a breakdown and withering reviews of her new self-help book. On her heels is her father, George, wrestling with retirement—and regrets. He’s had a few, but the light of his life has always been his daughter. Then there’s Harold, a young and awkward barista from Denver recovering from his first belly-flopping high dive into love. Maybe it’s time for reinvention.

At the only English bookstore in Bologna, paths converge for five damaged souls who discover that healing doesn’t require much—just honest connection and an open heart.

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Under Story by Chloe Benjamin

At an isolated research station in Antarctica, biologist Laurel Salter washes dishes for a living ten hours a day, six days a week. She tells no one why she left her career, or why her marriage ended.

But even in this remote outpost, Laurel can't outrun her past. When a strange light appears across the ice and draws a group of physicists to McMurdo, her former husband, Eli, won't be far behind.

Laurel is captivated by the Arc: its surreal glow; the way it seems almost alive. And though Eli is reluctant to test her wildest theory, Laurel is convinced that the Arc leads down a rabbit hole and into a world they can barely imagine. Can she persuade him to risk everything to fix the burden that hangs between them - to turn back the clock and live their story a second time?

And this time, live it differently.

Once read, never forgotten, Under Story is a genre-defying exploration of the promise of this life, what might lie beyond it, and how far we would go for more time with the people we love.

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The Day Our Lives Collided by Laura Pearson

How do you know when you’ve met your soulmate?

It’s the first day of term, and the lives of three new university students are about to collide. They’re going to introduce each other to more friends too. People who will be in their lives forever.

They’re young when the weddings start. Tash and Adam seem destined for each other, only 22 but with a baby already on the way. Even when a chance remark from Adam’s best man about their other friend, Hayden, puts everything at risk.

By the time the second wedding comes around, everything’s changed. And even more by the third…

Because it turns out, our soulmates aren’t always who we think they’ll be. And life has a funny way of switching things around. Just when you least expect it.

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Tell Two Friends by Ann Garvin

A wickedly funny and empowering thriller about women, the manipulators who underestimate them, and keeping your dignity while saving the day by the author of I Thought You Said This Would Work.

Jane Baye is a regular person, good at a lot of things, but identifying the serial killer right in front of her isn’t one of them.

In 1990, college senior Jane wrote to an incarcerated woman because it seemed like a nice thing to do. Thirty-six years later, that felon, actually a man, has moved in next door. He’s watching her every move, with a decades-long plan for Jane that a nice person like her would never see coming.

Especially because Jane is wrapped up in her own problems: a small-town golden boy with talk of forever and a diabolical history of cheating. When she exposes her ex, the entire town of Wonder Lake turns against her.

It’s no wonder she doesn’t see what’s coming on the night of the Norwegian heritage festival.

But woe to those who mistake Jane for a pushover. When celebration becomes a fight for survival, the very qualities that make her ordinary become the weapons she’ll bet everything on.

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The Library of Lost Stories by Eloise Williams

It’s Christmas 1976, Noni and her dad have no money left and the bailiffs are getting ready to take away their home. Noni thinks that fixing the mobile library might be the thing to bring a spark back to her dad’s eyes and get him back to work. But the library van is stuck on Mrs Williams’ driveway and, according to the stories, she’s probably a witch.

Noni needs the help of Becca, Gareth, Clare and stray dog Jones to get the job done. But can Noni learn to trust her new friends and get the van started before she loses her home?

An unforgettable, heartwarming novel and the perfect Christmas gift.

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Heartbreak for the Irish Midwife by Seana Tinley

Belfast, 1939.

When World War Two is declared, Maisie Canavan is working as a newly-qualified midwife in Belfast's Royal Maternity Hospital, helping women and babies across the community - no matter what their families' background is. She's just moved back home from London after having her heart broken, but focusing on helping new life enter the world is enough to distract her thoughts, and she's determined not to let herself fall for someone again.

But as she works more and more with Dr Alex Lowe, Maisie is pulled in by his kind grey eyes and gentle heart. Maisie and Alex find themselves drawn together - but they come from opposite sides of the Irish political divide, and the world around them isn't ready to accept love between a Catholic and a Protestant. They have no choice but to keep their feelings a secret . . .

As bombs begin to rain on Belfast, and she sees Alex risking his life to care for the whole community, Maisie can't help but wonder why two people in love should be kept apart.

Can she find the strength to go against her own community for love - or will the dangers of war mean her heart is broken for a second time . . .

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Until the Last Day by Cynthia Ellingsen

The fate of two strangers becomes part of the heartbreaking history of a celebrated painting in a novel of suspense and forbidden love by the bestselling author of The Lost Letters of Aisling.

The historic art gallery Hatterfield House symbolizes hope for cancer survivor Hannah Caddell. Like the art she painstakingly restores, Hannah needs to be brought back to life herself. Everything is upended when she and a new client, Lucas Henry, are held hostage by gunmen in search of a world-renowned painting from the Cuban Missile Crisis that, decades ago, captured both dread and beauty in a time of cataclysmic fears.

In 1961, Maryann Linnegan can’t see beyond her narrow future as a traditional wife and Florida socialite. Then she falls unexpectedly, deeply in love with Elio, a construction worker and Cuban immigrant. Their forbidden love couldn’t possibly survive beneath the weight of expectations. But when the Cuban Missile Crisis threatens to end the world as they know it, will they choose each other in spite of it all?

Past and present converge as Hannah and Lucas find a startling connection between the painting and the long-ago love story. As the mystery reveals itself, Hannah wonders who she can trust and what she must risk to protect a profound work of art—and to make it out alive.

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The Golden Hours by Louisa Young

Continuing the story of one of the most beloved families in British literature, The Golden Hours is the brilliant new novel in Elizabeth Jane Howard’s iconic Cazalet Chronicles written by her niece, the bestselling author Louisa Young.

Our lives have changed so much . . .

It’s December 1962, and the Cazalet family are gathering to celebrate Christmas. With the family’s beloved Home Place long sold, Polly and Gerald have offered up their rambling stately pile, Fakenham Hall in Norfolk, to parents, siblings, cousins and children.

The old guard – brothers Hugh, Edward, Rupert and their sister Rachel – look on as the England they knew and understood fades from view. Cousins Polly, Louise and Clary, all now on the brink of turning forty, are struggling to balance the demands of midlife with their personal desires – however secret. And then there are the young – a new generation growing up in a society on the cusp of real change.

In this spellbinding novel, familiar faces reappear, newcomers are introduced, and the legacy of the Cazalets carries on into the Swinging Sixties.

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Beneath David's Throne: Michal's Story by Melissa Alfredson

THEY CALL JERUSALEM DAVID'S TRIUMPH.

Michal calls it her cage.

Once a princess of Israel and the woman who helped secure King David's crown, Michal now lives as a discarded queen in the palace her husband built upon the ruins of her father's dynasty. Childless and increasingly sidelined as new wives and their sons rise around her, she clings to the fragile power her name still commands.

But when the house of David fractures under rival claims and hidden betrayals, Michal is drawn into the deadly politics of succession as she fights to protect the young princess Tamar, the one soul in the palace she cannot abandon.

As prophecy closes in around David's throne and old wounds refuse to stay buried, Michal must confront the legacy of her father, the silence of the husband she once loved, and the God whose purposes she cannot escape.

Darkly lyrical and psychologically charged, Beneath David's Throne is a work of literary historical fiction steeped in the court intrigue and dynastic politics of ancient Israel. For readers of The Red Tent and The Marriage Portrait, this first novel in the Beneath David's Throne saga reclaims Michal, daughter of Saul—the forgotten woman who stood closest to David's throne.

History remembered her as barren. This is the story it left out.

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(Header photo courtesy of Joe Caonie/Unsplash)

(Bookshop.org affiliated)

(all opinions are my own)