The Books I Read In November

 Fiction

'No Time Like The Past' by Jodi Taylor

This is the fifth book in the main Chronicles of St. Mary's. After the literal battle for the institution in the previous book 'A Trail Through Time' (2019) https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-books-i-read-in-september.html the ongoing story settles down a little to the normal pattern. Funding issues means that the historians go back to the Great Fire of London in 1666 to loot valuables that can then be fortunately be 'discovered' by their employers, Thirsk University. However, as is typical in these stories things go wrong. There is always a jarring of tone in these books between the light and jolly and the grave outcomes. This time sees the murder of one of the historians and the finding of this in a gruesome way plus the ending of the only lesbian couple so far featured. There is also a visit to the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE which almost leads to history being altered significantly. In contrast there is an open day at the institute, again aimed at raising money and despite the humour it is undercut by the grim turn of events. However, at the end of the book, Max marries her long term boyfriend (or at least a version of the one she first dated), Chief Technician Leon Farrell.

In many ways I enjoy these books. The portrayal of all the different times and places they visit is very well done and shows a lot of research that is to be admired. While Taylor feels obliged to make things go wrong this sometimes lead to a light tone but then one that is whacked by the tragedy which she seems compelled to bring in. I guess it is good that we can feel a genuine sense of jeopardy for the regular characters, after all the heroine and her lover have already both been killed in the first four books, but it does mean as a reader you have to be ready for abrupt tonal shifts. After a tragedy it is quickly 'business as usual'. At least by this book, Max, who has a doctorate, is shown clearly a mature adult rather than at times in the first couple of books in which at times she came over as a teenager. I have more of these books to read and feel I am now girded sufficiently to cope with the sharp highs and lows of them while enjoying the trips into the past which are the best rendered elements of the series.

'Jerusalem: Kingdom of Heaven' by Richard Foreman

This is the final book of Foreman's First Crusade trilogy and it is a bit better than the preceding two. I cannot remember spotting the kind of anachronistic howlers of those books. There is still a lot of abrupt jumping around in terms of the point of view, though perhaps somewhat less than earlier too. Foreman is a writer in a hurry and whereas he could have explored what happened to the crusade between Antioch and Jerusalem we only get this reported in a letter from Thomas the interpreter, now rather ineffectual knight. In some ways Foreman plays to his strengths and the siege and especially the assault of the city are where his writing is best. The main protagonist, Edward Kemp, also has a mission to 'recover' or effectively loot treasures which had been taken from a wealthy Jewish man who wants them restored, though this is mainly seen as Kemp and his friends setting themselves up to return home after the crusade is finished.

Overall, Foreman gives a fair portrayal of the warfare of the time and of 11th Century Jerusalem. However, all these books needed some serious editing especially in terms of anachronism and points of view. In addition, the whole trilogy has felt terribly rushed. The three books could have been a single volume and more time could have been taken in exploring the setting. The characters are acceptable and we can comprehend their motives, but at the end, aside from descriptions of battles you are rather left dissatisfied. I now do wonder if these were three short stories that he decided to work up into (short) book length. What I have read in this series, though not the worst novels set in the First Crusade, do not encourage me to buy other books by Foreman.

If you are interested in a story set in this time and place, I would recommend 'Knight with Armour' (1959) by Alfred Duggan. While, given when it was published, it does not have the sexual content of Foreman's books, it provides a better written and more rounded out story of the First Crusade's progress.

'The Snack Thief' by Andrea Camilleri

This is the third book in the Montalbano series and it works better than the preceding one, 'The Terracotta Dog' (1996) which I read last month https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-books-i-read-in-october.html Whereas that went off into a kind of archaeological mystery this one sticks more closely to a standard police procedural story and is better for it. There are two cases, the shooting dead of a Tunisian working on a Sicilian fishing boat and the stabbing to death in a lift of a retired businessman. Naturally it turns out that in fact the two murders are connected. First of all Montalbano must track down the lover of the businessman, Kamira, who has disappeared with her son François. Steadily he uncovers that she had been prostituting herself to a number of middle aged businessmen especially those with sexual peccadilloes as well as acting as their cleaner.

Once he has uncovered the identity of the dead Tunisian sailor, he is drawn into the affairs of the secret services of both Italy and Tunisia. Camilleri works well in constantly shifting both the protagonist's and the reader's views on what is happening as satisfyingly Montalbano peels through the layers while also seeking to protect the innocent. In contrast his rebarbative manner means he acts as a bully putting witnesses whose behaviour he dislikes into difficult position as some kind of revenge. He does get called out for this. At times, the fractiousness with his colleagues seems rather forced but I suppose it is so we do not see him as an uncomplicated 'good guy' but at times this feels rather forced and rather counterbalances when he cleverly uses what resources he has to advance the case.

The other traits we have already seen in the inspector, his love of Sicilian specialities, his regular swimming, but also his consumption of cigarettes all come back here, the little elements that for so many fictional detectives are there to round out the character. At times his repeated eating of very particular meal after meal feels a little overdone and it is unsurprising that he is not more unhealthy than he portrayed. 

The snack thief by the way as I imagine readers will quickly identify, is François once he is left to fend for himself on the streets. The fact that Montalbano mundanely decrees his girlfriend from northern Italy, Livia should marry him and they adopt the boy seemed very artificial and might have been handled better than it seeming very much a plot device to end the very single lifestyle the detective has been living with Livia hundreds of miles away for much of the time. Still, I have more of these books to read and as yet, these aspects have not entirely put me off doing so.

'The Taexali Game' by Nancy Jardine

My next alternate history novel is set among Celtic tribes in the late 3rd Century CE, so when, aptly in an Aberdeen charity shop I saw this book, even though it is aimed at children, I thought it a good idea to pick it up. The Taexali were the Celtic tribe which lived along the coast of what is nowadays Aberdeenshire, with the better-known Caledonians occupying the mountains to the west of them. While attacked in 84 CE and 210 CE (as shown in this novel) and signing treaties with the Romans, being north of both Hadrian's Wall and then the Antonine Wall they largely were able to exist untroubled for much of the Roman period in Britain.

In this novel three 13-14 year olds, Aran and his friends, twins Brian and Fianna are sent back to 210 CE by the twins' biological father, Callum, under the pretence that they are testing out a new highly interactive VR game. In fact he and his colleagues have created a time machine. The children are connected to it by sophisticated metal armbands which allow them to be equipped with appropriate clothing and can translate the Brittonic and later Latin that they hear. It takes them quite a while to realise, largely due to the country smells, that they are not in a game. Saving the daughter of a local chief (the hierarchy between local chiefs and their overlords because important as the story progresses) they are quickly drawn into the life of the tribe based at the village of Balbath close to modern day Kintore.

The trio have to prove their value to the Celts who are suspicious of them as potential Roman spies, as Roman forces under Emperor Severus and his two vicious sons have been ravaging much of eastern 'Scotland' in an effort to subdue all the tribes living there as had already happened with Celtic tribes farther south. Having the three characters means we can see how the invasion and battles play out. Though I knew there was a sequel intended, there did seem to be jeopardy not simply for the protagonists but for the friends they have made, notably Seonagh the chief's daughter who is sent into slavery as part of the peace deal. It was nice to see teenagers drawing on skills that involve more than swiping on the phone and their lessons in Sooyang Do, a very popular martial art around Aberdeen and Brian's musical abilities help them out.

At times I was concerned that we were going to get an 'info dump' but some of this is in fact as the children themselves need to be brought up to speed. They are more assiduous in their studies than many their age, but I guess if they were bumbling around clueless as to what was going on and where they were it would be much tougher and slow up what is a fast moving novel even at 315 pages long. I certainly learnt stuff about the Celts that I did not know, which I suppose was one reason for me buying the book in the first place. While I do not know Kintore, I do know the mouths of the Rivers Dee and Don so it was interesting to have a book so linked to a specific area and how it was in the past.

'Gallows Thief' by Bernard Cornwell

I find the quality of Cornwell's books varies quite a bit, though I was optimistic about his as it is a stand-alone one and I had enjoyed 'Fools and Mortals' (2017) https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2022/04/books-i-read-in-april.html That book was effectively a detective story set around the theatre of Shakespeare's time. This book has a similar approach. Cornwell uses the story of detection to show us details of a particular time and activity. In this case it is around the criminal 'justice' system of England in 1817. The book opens with four executions in front of Newgate Prison where they had been moved from Tyburn, but they remained a public spectacle. The hanging was very inefficient with the convicted slowly strangled at the end of a rope, much to the entertainment of the crowd.

The protagonist is former Captain in the 52nd Foot, Rider Sandman. The fact that he fought at the Battle of Waterloo - he has subsequently sold his commission - and was a skilled cricket batsman opens a number of doors for him. His father was bankrupted by a scam investment leading to him committing suicide. This has left Sandman, let alone his mother and sister, in financial difficulties and having fallen through the social classes. That led to the breaking off of the engagement by his fiancée, Eleanor Forrest, though it is clear she still has affection for him, provides useful information and considers eloping with him.

Sandman scratches out a meagre living by playing cricket, but is increasingly alienated by the corruption in the game. He lives in an inn on Drury Lane, infamous for its criminal residents, though he is aided by a fellow resident Sally Hood, a part-time actress and sister to a highwayman. For a decent payment Sandman takes up a job as an Investigator for the Home Secretary who has been pressured to investigate a case against a young painter accused of raping and murdering the Countess of Avebury, because of a request from one of Queen Charlotte. This is a rare occurrence as it is felt throughout that anyone convicted in court must be guilty and any evidence to the contrary is seen as questioning the wisdom of judges. Cornwell is making a point about the legal system of England at the time when 200 offences, including simple theft, carried the death penalty, though as he makes clear in the notes at the end only around 10% of the condemned were executed, with the rest transported to Australia if someone notable petitioned on their behalf.

The book is very much a romp. It does remind us that the Regency period looked back to the 18th Century more than it looked forward to the later 19th Century. Cornwell does rather over-indulge in Austenesque/Hogarthian tropes. The book is jammed with 'flash' slang, i.e. the cant of the criminal classes, as if the author felt obliged to get in every term that he had come across. Every other character is a lord. There is a sordid club for well-to-do gentlemen, the Seraphim Club and a web of blackmail and scapegoating. In classic detective style Sandman has only 1 week to spare the accused, the young (closeted homosexual) Charles Corday from execution and hares not simply around London but off into Wiltshire and Kent leading to a charge to the gallows which is clichéd.

The book is fascinating in all its historical detail of English society and its behaviours, including cricket, of the time. It does move at a pace which I think helps it avoid feeling like a history text book. The characters are interesting, if at times a bit stereotyped, especially Sally and the loyal Sergeant Sam Berrigan. Perhaps I have seen the tropes too often and to another reader this will come over as a very different detective story, which does not spare the cruelty of post-Napoleonic Wars England and uses it effectively to create a knotty investigation and action story.

Non-Fiction

'Never Again: Britain 1945-51' by Peter Hennessy

I guess I had expected a bit different style for this more clearly history book than Hennessy used for 'Whitehall' (1989). However, it had a similar raconteur style, often very personal in nature, we learn quite a lot about Hennessy's home district of Walthamstow in this period. He goes between this very much 'people's history' approach often quoting from people who lived it to the world of high politics with a focus on ministers and leading civil servants and what they were doing so the story is seen from the two ends of society. In theory the book actually starts in 1938, but especially in terms of the development of the welfare state, Hennessy goes back well before the 20th Century to trace all the roots which led to what the Labour governments were able to introduce in this period.

Perhaps most effective are the chapters on the beginning of decolonisation and the Cold War. The one on sport and culture is interesting as it moves briskly through various facets and once more brings in personal recollections from the author about cricketers. The final chapter, assessment of mid-century Britain, could be read as a stand alone essay in its own right and very successfully brings together multiple threads in an analytical way which does contrast with the raconteur style of much of the book. As I said with 'Whitehall' this is book is actually presented in a way which would appeal very much to a general reader wanting a clear but welcoming guide to the period, rather than an academic text. I have three other, slightly newer books by Hennessy lined up to read and I wonder if that approach continues throughout as his career moved further from journalism deeper into academia.