Showing results for "Historical Turns" in All Categories

When Mary Corbet walks into private investigator Jennie Redhead's rundown Oxford office one pleasant spring day in 1974, she is a desperate woman. Although she's convinced her daughter has been murdered, she can get neither the police nor her husband to agree with her. Jennie is not convinced either, but more out of compassion than conviction agrees to take the case. The only clue she has to go on is a fragment of an obscure 17th-century poem she finds in Linda's bedroom.

As the year 1349 approaches, the Black Death continues its devastating course across England. In Dorseteshire, the quarantined people of Develish question whether they are the only survivors. Guided by their beloved young mistress, Lady Anne, they wait, knowing that when their dwindling stores are finally gone they will have no choice but to leave. But where will they find safety in the desolate wasteland outside? One man has the courage to find out. Thaddeus Thurkell, a free-thinking, educated serf, strikes out in search of supplies and news.

In Thorne Manor there is one locked door. Behind it lies a portal to the 21st century, and nothing is going to stop Miranda Hastings from stepping through. After all, she is a Victorian writer of risqué pirate adventures—traveling to the future would be the greatest adventure of them all. When Miranda goes through, though, she lands in Georgian England...and in the path of Nicolas Dupuis, a privateer accused of piracy.

As 1941 draws to a close, brave young men are fighting for freedom in countries across the globe. But for Sub-Lieutenant Harry Gilmour, washed up in neutral Spain alongside 'interned belligerents' from both sides of the war, hostilities have come to a pause. Before long, his unlikely comrades must once again become his enemies, and he is back at the frontline of the battle for the Mediterranean.

When fun-loving glamour girl Quintessa Beaumont learns that the Navy has established the WAVES program for women, she enlists, determined to throw off her frivolous ways and contribute to the war effort. No-nonsense Lieutenant Dan Avery, hoping to make admiral, has been using his skills to fight German U-boats. The last thing he wants to see on his radar is a girl like Tess....

The year is 1794. Free from jail, John Pearce is not free from the smugglers whose boat he stole. While lying low, Pearce soon has other pressing concerns on his mind. Granted a commission by William Pitt, John Pearce evades his pursuers by undertaking a dangerous mission in France. As rebellious ambition turns to bloody disaster, Pearce must try to re-join Admiral Howe. Also serving with Howe is Ralph Barclay - who has somehow contrived to yet again press Pearce’s friends into his crew.

1850 and America is violently divided on the issue of slavery. When President Zachary Taylor dies, suddenly and under questionable circumstances, it is left to his Vice President, Millard Fillmore, a weaker man, to find ways to keep the North and the South apart. In New York, child of Irish immigrants, Matthew O’Hanlon is fired from his job as a newsman on the Herald but, surprisingly, finds work as Foreign Correspondent for the Associated Press in Panama City.

The year 1900 ushers in a new century and the promise of social change, and women rise together toward equality. Yet rules and restrictions remain, especially for women like Alice Butterworth, whose husband has abruptly disappeared. Constance Halstead, a young widow, has thrown herself into charitable work. Meeting Alice at the orphanage, she offers lodging in exchange for Alice's help creating a gown for the Leap Year ball of Les Mystérieuses, the first all-female krewe of Mardi Gras. Piece by piece, the breathtaking gown takes shape, becoming a symbol of strength for both women.

John Davis has a "dull aching sense of missing out, of not getting anywhere". There must be millions like him, he thinks. His relations with his wife, Serena, are shallow and unsatisfying. In the late 1930's, he tries to rekindle their marriage by bringing her to a special place from his past, the Montana Mountains. He is chagrined when she asks other people to join them on the camping trip.

A governess is hired by a bachelor to take care of his nephew and niece. She has barely arrives at the house that she starts seeing ghosts and having other supernatural visions. She decides to share her frightening experience with the maid of the house, Mrs. Grose. The maid, however, is not surprised and tells the governess that the ghosts are those of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel.