MADreads

After the hellish experience of the past few years, Aki Ito finally feels like it might be possible to be happy again. She and her parents are about to leave Manzanar, the California desert internment camp into which her family and other Japanese-Americans were forced by the government following Pearl Harbor, for an unfamiliar Chicago neighborhood the government has deemed acceptable for ‘resettlement’.

Single motherhood with the responsibilities of earning enough to support several generations—it’s a situation not unfamiliar to many modern women. It’s the situation Christine de Pizan lives in, but her world—1393 Paris—is far from modern in Tania Bayard’s debut In the Presence of Evil. As an educated woman, Christine is already something of an oddity, but growing up as both beloved daughter and widow of scholars employed in the French court has given her a chance to earn her living as a scribe and support her children and mother.

In the current romance publishing climate, it’s not unusual for ‘debut’ authors to have multiple titles in print through self-publishing houses before they’re picked up by conventional publishers. While the quality of self-published titles are definitely hit-or-miss in terms of quality, self-publishing gives authors the possibility of publishing stories that traditional publishers pass on or to hone their writing chops in different directions.

For a thousand year old castle, it’s certainly not the first time a violent death has happened within its walls. But it’s still shocking when Windsor Castle staff discover the body of a young Russian pianist in the wardrobe of a guest room deep within what is one of the most secure citadels in the world—and more so when that death is revealed as a murder. Her Majesty the Queen is of course horrified to hear the news—she had danced with the man only the previous night—but when police and MI-6 suspects that Russia is behind the crime with a possible mole, she knows what she has to do.