“Vibrant. . . . Completely engaging. . . . A unique blend of poetic language and graphic depictions of the injustices suffered by African Americans in the post-Civil War period.”— Booklist (starred review)

Diane McKinney-Whetstone's stunning historical novel, Lazaretto, begins in the chaotic back streets of post-Civil War Philadelphia as a young black woman, Meda, gives birth to a child fathered by her wealthy white employer. In a city riven by racial tension, the father’s transgression is unforgivable. He arranges to take the baby, so it falls to Sylvia, the midwife’s teenage apprentice, to tell Meda that her child is dead—a lie that will define the course of both women’s lives. 

A devastated Meda dedicates herself to working in an orphanage and becomes a surrogate mother to two white boys; while Sylvia, fueled by her guilt, throws herself into her nursing studies and finds a post at the Lazaretto, the country’s first quarantine hospital, situated near the Delaware River, just south of Philadelphia.

The Lazaretto is a crucible of life and death; sick passengers and corpses are quarantined here, but this is also the place where immigrants take their first steps toward the American dream. The live-in staff are mostly black Philadelphians, and when two of them arrange to marry, the city’s black community prepares for a party on its grounds. But the celebration is plunged into chaos when gunshots ring out across the river.

As Sylvia races to save the victim, the fates of Meda’s beloved orphans also converge on the Lazaretto. Here conflicts escalate, lies collapse, and secrets begin to surface. Like dead men rising, past sins cannot be contained.

A “rich and tightly woven” historical novel of the woman enslaved by Achilles is “well recommended for all lovers of historical fiction”

(Library Journal

).

The rightful-born queen of Lyrnessos, Briseis watched helplessly from the battlements as her husband and brothers are crushed by the invincible army of King Agamemnon. Taken into slavery, the proud, beautiful seer became the prize of Prince Achilles, the conquering Greeks’ mightiest hero. But passion forged chains stronger than any iron, binding the hearts of captive and captor with a love that knew no equal, and when Troy fell, great Achilles promised his beloved Briseis would reign at his side as queen of Thessaly. Yet the jealousy of a ruthless king and the whims of the capricious deities would deny the lovers their happiness. As the flames of war rose higher around them, the prophetess vowed to save the beloved warrior for whom her dark gift foretold doom—even if it meant defying the gods themselves.

“Occult happenings, romantic passion, and murder disrupt the peace of a Berkshire village in 1911 in this hauntingly good novel.”—Marie Claire (UK)

Katherine Webb’s debut novel, The Legacy, was an international bestseller—and her remarkable second effort, The Unseen, is as gripping, thrilling, and unforgettable as her first. In this compelling story of love, deception, obsession, and illusion, the arrival of two dangerous strangers in a small village in England in the early 1900s disrupts the quiet lives of a vicar with a fascination with spiritualism and his naïve young wife, and ultimately leads to murder. The Unseen is literary suspense at its most entertaining and enthralling, truly superior fiction not unlike the captivating tales of Kate Morton and Diane Setterfield.

Arrows fly, swords clash, women are bedded, prizes are taken, nobles and churchmen are gulled out of their coins, and the French and Venetians are successfully blamed for things they did not do. It is the summer of year 1321. Edward the Second and his lover Lord Despenser, are being challenged by the Queen and her lover Lord Mortimer who want to put her son on throne as England's king with the Queen as the boy's regent and Mortimer as the de facto King. The archers are hard at work doing what they do best when their is conflict and confusing - extracting coins from everyone. In this case to pay them to protect the prince. In the process the archers, the first of the great merchant companies at the dawn of Britain's rise as a great commercial and military power changes England and the royal family forever.This is another witty and exciting story in Martin Archer’s continuing and action-packed saga about the men of a company of English archers in the medieval world’s very real game of thrones. It is one of the most action-packed and wittiest stories in the saga. Flashman would be proud and Tom Brown appalled.