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Sunday, January 30, 2022

Review: Siciliana by Carlo Treviso


Synopsis: A family torn apart by conflict. An uprising of deadly magnitude. A nation altered forever. Inspired by actual events, "Siciliana" is the harrowing tale of a young woman’s courage in the face of unthinkable turmoil.

In 1282 AD, the Kingdom of Sicily is under the rule of a tyrannical French king and subject to his brutal Angevin army. Daily acts of violence and persecution are commonplace in a once-prosperous realm.

For twenty-year-old Aetna Vespiri, daughter of a revered Sicilian knight, survival has become second nature. As a child, she witnessed the destruction of her family’s vineyard by Angevin soldiers and spent the next decade learning the tenets of stiletto blade combat.

Years later in Palermo, as the evening bells toll for Vespers, Aetna fends off a nefarious sergeant and sparks an uprising against the Angevin occupation. Now, standing at the forefront of an accelerating people’s rebellion, Aetna finds herself fighting not only for a nation she believes in but also for the meaning of family. In her darkest hour, this dauntless Sicilian woman steps out of obscurity and into the pages of history. The legend of "Siciliana" is born.

Set amid bustling Arab markets and brooding Norman fortresses, "Siciliana" will envelop readers in the sights, sounds, and dangers lurking around every corner of medieval Sicily.


The Sicilian Vespers (vespiri siciliani) was a successful rebellion on the island of Sicily that broke out at Easter 1282 against the rule of the French-born king Charles I, who had ruled the Kingdom of Sicily since 1266.

The island of Sicily had been part of the Kingdom of Sicily, which had encompassed the southern Italian peninsula since the early 12th century, when Roger II of Sicily defeated the Italian mainland barons and was elected king by the pope. His reign had been inherited by Frederick II of Sicily, whose son Manfred would be ousted by the French invasion of Charles I of Anjou. The French rule soon assumed a repressive and ferocious nature.

On Easter Monday (30 March) 1282, at the Church of the Holy Spirit just outside Palermo, at evening prayer (vespers), a Frenchman harassed a Sicilian woman. Accounts differ as to what the harassment entailed, who the woman was, and who the Frenchman was. Fed up with years of oppression, insolence and brutality, the cry went up - "moranu li Francis" - death to the French!.  This single event led to the massacre of four  thousand French men and women within twenty four hours, and possibly as many as thirteen thousand over the course of the next six weeks. The government of Charles lost control of the island - and the War of the Sicilian Vespers was underway.

The Chronica of the Catalan mercenary Ramon Muntaner (d.1336) recounts the rebellion of the peoples of Sicily wherein he notes that "... all Sicily rebelled against King Charles and they killed all the Frenchmen they could find ..". Although a contemporary of the times, he too ascribes no one single person as the catalyst for the events whose "... efficiency and ruthlessness frightened monarchs far beyond Naples and Rome ..." according to renowned author Louis Mendola.

Instead Treviso, in this fictional account, has given the rebellion a voice and a focal point - a woman - as most accounts lay the reasons for the massacre of the French firmly in the camp of outrages committed against a woman or women leaving Church during the holy week of Easter. The continuance of the initial rebellion, however, has since been credited to one Alaimo da Lentini, a former supporter of the Angevan presence in Sicily and now ally of the Aragonese.

Treviso begins by recounting Siciliana's beginnings and thus the events that led her to champion the people and led the rebellion. This was no easy task - and there was much opposition to the rebels, including from the Sicilian nobility and the Church, whose current favoured position was under threat. Once we return to 1282, the countdown to the Vespers begins in earnest as we go behind the scenes to various places and locales within the city of Palermo, watching and waiting as the tinderbox is about to be lit.

Treviso provides an engaging and at times, fraught narrative, as the players on the chessboard are being slowly and carefully positioned for the impending finale.

As an avid student of Sicilian history, I welcomed this fictional account of one of many a major turning point the history of this island nation.


Review: The Hiding Place by Simon Lelic

Synopsis: Four Friends. One Murder. A Game They Can't Escape.

'It was only a game.' ~ Until a boy went missing.
'No one was meant to get hurt.' ~ But a body has been found.
'Just some innocent fun.' ~ Except one of them is a killer.
Ready or not, here I come.  It's time to play hide and seek again.


I actually read this in one sitting in December 2021 - so obviously I was held fast in its grip. The Hiding Place follows on strongly from The Search Party, though this can be read as a stand-alone.

A dying boy prays to God that no-one will find him - but they did - 22 years later. Can Fleet and Collins solve this cold case, thrust upon them with no anticipation of it ever being solved. But solve it they do, bringing the secrets of a posh school out in the open as they seek redemption for the child.

Brilliant narrative, alternating between the current investigation and the boy's last days.  Like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle which at first seem to fit but then don't as they will be found to fit somewhere else.

Lelic's tenth book and my second from him - both being fabulous reads.

Wednesday, January 26, 2022

How To Keep Your Readers Coming Back for More

From Joanna Schaffhausen on CrimeReads:
Cracking open a new book in a detective series is like reuniting with old friends. If you want a protagonist who endures, give them plenty of problems both inside and out, a distinct life perspective and a specific geographic locale, a thirst for answers, and some entertaining (possibly furry!) sidekicks.

Joanna Schaffhausen takes the reader / writer through five essential character traits for your detective to keep readers turning pages long past book one.

read more here @ CrimeReads



Sunday, January 23, 2022

30 Essential Crime Reads Written by Women in the Last 100 Years

A post by Emily Temple for CrimeReads:

Undisputed Queen of Crime Agatha Christie died on this day [12th Jan] in 1976. Crime fiction is a genre that has traditionally been dominated by men — but on the other hand, Christie is the best-selling author of all time, so that should tell you something. In honor of her life (and her prolific publishing career) I’ve picked out a few great crime novels written by women from each of the last ten decades. Now, of course, there are more than three crime novels from each decade that you should read (and probably more than three novels in every genre that you should read), but one has to stop somewhere, so add your own recommendations with abandon. 

NB: This is not a definitive list by any means; genre is necessarily a bit fluid here, privilege has gone to important, groundbreaking or otherwise historically notable works where I’ve noted them, but taste has, as ever, played a factor.


read the list of books here @ CrimeReads