# historical novel (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 3 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover historical novel. Page: Feed: --- ## [Love, disease, and self-deception: the life of Typhoid Mary](https://malwarwickonbooks.com/book-about-typhoid-mary/) _2026-08-20 · Mal Warwick · Mal Warwick on Books: Insightful Reviews and Recommendations_ Shortly after the 19th century turned into the 20th, a medical sleuth named George Soper, whom we would today call an epidemiologist, identified a young Irish immigrant cook in New York City as an asymptomatic carrier of the pathogen that causes typhoid fever. Her name was Mary Mallon, and we make her acquaintance in this \[…\] Mal Warwick on Books: Insightful Reviews and Recommendations ## [How the OSS saved the Parthenon and other Greek treasures](https://malwarwickonbooks.com/ww2-spies-in-greece/) _2026-08-19 · Mal Warwick · Mal Warwick on Books: Insightful Reviews and Recommendations_ Most of what appears in print today about the OSS in World War II dwells on the heroic men and women it infiltrated into France to sabotage the Nazis or in the China-Burma-India theater. Of course, “Wild Bill” Donovan’s brief as head of the Office of Strategic Services was much broader than that. The agency \[…\] Mal Warwick on Books: Insightful Reviews and Recommendations ## [A complex and compelling detective novel set in inland Africa](https://malwarwickonbooks.com/thriller-about-the-diamond-trade/) _2026-08-18 · Mal Warwick · Mal Warwick on Books: Insightful Reviews and Recommendations_ With such sparse media coverage of events in Africa today, and the short shrift most Western history textbooks give the continent, it’s no wonder Americans have developed a stereotyped view of Africa and Africans. This flies in the face of reality. The continent is vast, encompassing 54 nations and over 1.5 billion genetically diverse people \[…\] Mal Warwick on Books: Insightful Reviews and… ## [The top mystery and thriller award winners](https://malwarwickonbooks.com/mystery-and-thriller-award-winners/) _2026-08-13 · Mal Warwick · Mal Warwick on Books: Insightful Reviews and Recommendations_ Most citations of awards in the mystery, thriller, and suspense field mention the Edgar, Gold Dagger, Anthony, and International Thriller Writer Awards. But the categories used by these four awards don’t match. And as you’ll see, the awards themselves don’t often, either. For example, the Mystery Writers of America (MWA) grant Edgar Allen Poe Awards \[…\] Mal Warwick on Books: Insightful Reviews and… ## [Vladimir Putin, the KGB, and the restoration of Soviet Russia](https://malwarwickonbooks.com/book-about-vladimir-putin/) _2026-08-12 · Mal Warwick · Mal Warwick on Books: Insightful Reviews and Recommendations_ A review of The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin, by Masha Gessen. ★★★★☆. A critical biography of the three-term Russian President by a skilled Moscow reporter with personal knowledge of the people and events of the time since the fall of Communism. Mal Warwick on Books: Insightful Reviews and Recommendations ## [The first in a series of uniquely clever detective novels](https://malwarwickonbooks.com/odd-couple-detectives/) _2026-08-11 · Mal Warwick · Mal Warwick on Books: Insightful Reviews and Recommendations_ Anthony Horowitz possesses one of the crime genre’s most original minds. He’s proved it over and over again in scores of novels and several long-running television series. But nowhere is his cunning intelligence more in evidence than in The Word is Murder. It’s the first of what are to date six mystery novels about the \[…\] Mal Warwick on Books: Insightful Reviews and Recommendations ## [All great civilizations fall. This fascinating book explores why.](https://malwarwickonbooks.com/learning-from-history/) _2026-08-05 · Mal Warwick · Mal Warwick on Books: Insightful Reviews and Recommendations_ Some of us, schooled in idealized portraits of ancient civilizations such as Rome and Greece and China, jump to conclusions about how history is repeating itself when we see superficial similarities to what we think took place thousands of years ago. Of course, we do know that history doesn’t repeat. But perhaps Mark Twain was \[…\] Mal Warwick on Books: Insightful Reviews and Recommendations ## [Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis tackle an “unsolvable” cold case](https://malwarwickonbooks.com/unsolvable-cold-case/) _2026-08-04 · Mal Warwick · Mal Warwick on Books: Insightful Reviews and Recommendations_ Milo Sturgis is not your cookie-cutter homicide detective. He’s gay, for one thing. But there’s more. A lieutenant with the LAPD’s highest close rate, he’s claimed a privileged existence largely insulated from demands by his superiors. Except that this time around an assistant chief is insisting that he take on a 36-year-old cold case because \[…\] Mal Warwick on Books: Insightful Reviews and… ## [Many write about Donald Trump. These authors really know.](https://malwarwickonbooks.com/trumps-second-term/) _2026-07-29 · Mal Warwick · Mal Warwick on Books: Insightful Reviews and Recommendations_ Obviously, I’m some kind of masochist. To date I’ve read and reviewed 25 books about Donald Trump. I’d sworn off subjecting myself to any others until Maggie Haberman’s account of Trump’s first year back in office. She’s been on point on Donald Trump for the New York Times for more than a decade. Her reporting \[…\] Mal Warwick on Books: Insightful Reviews and Recommendations ## [Murder at the top of Indian society. Literally.](https://malwarwickonbooks.com/indian-crime-thriller/) _2026-07-28 · Mal Warwick · Mal Warwick on Books: Insightful Reviews and Recommendations_ A decade ago Anglo-Indian author Abir Mukherjee broke into a second career as a crime novelist after 20 years working as an accountant. His first effort, A Rising Man, appeared in 2016. An historical detective novel featuring a pair of Calcutta cops shortly after World War I, it won a coveted literary award soon after \[…\] Mal Warwick on Books: Insightful Reviews and Recommendations ## [Ask the crowd: AI or not (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/e7yP4JsrHdaR) _2026-07-28 · **Sponsored**_ Get a transparent verdict from verified humans via web, RSS, or API. ## [Why do some novels win literary awards?](https://malwarwickonbooks.com/literary-awards/) _2026-07-23 · Mal Warwick · Mal Warwick on Books: Insightful Reviews and Recommendations_ Let’s see if we can figure out why this paper-thin work of fiction won wide recognition and a literary award for its author. Snow Hunters introduces . . . let’s count them: eight characters in 226 pages: A few others make brief appearances from time to time, but this is the cast of principal characters. \[…\] Mal Warwick on Books: Insightful Reviews and Recommendations ## [A view from the American trenches in the First World War](https://malwarwickonbooks.com/world-war-i-american-soldiers/) _2026-07-22 · Mal Warwick · Mal Warwick on Books: Insightful Reviews and Recommendations_ Twenty-nine-year-old Richard Newhall was teaching history at Harvard. Younger at 22, George Haydock, a Quaker, was a recent graduate, as was Alexander McKinlock a wealthy football hero. Younger still, William Morgan was an undergraduate there. By contrast, graduate George Redwood was a celerated journalist in Baltimore. And in 1917, these five Harvard men began their \[…\] Mal Warwick on Books:… ## [The roots of this detective’s career lie in the Cultural Revolution](https://malwarwickonbooks.com/cultural-revolutions-impact/) _2026-07-21 · Mal Warwick · Mal Warwick on Books: Insightful Reviews and Recommendations_ For years, Chief Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Police Bureau had been widely celebrated as a “rising cadre” in the Communist Party. He was a man on his way up, rumored to soon be tapped as the Bureau’s Party Secretary. But his success has undone him. Chen has exposed too many influential men in \[…\] Mal Warwick on Books: Insightful Reviews and Recommendations ## [Either fight or surf](https://timothymillernovels.blogspot.com/2026/06/either-fight-or-surf.html) _2026-06-30 · Timothy Miller · Timothy Miller_ “You either fight or surf!” is, of course, the famous choice posed by Col. Kilgore in Apocalypse Now . In the madness of battle, Kilgore gives his soldiers a blank choice between two missions—take it to the waves or take it to the enemy. Screenwriter John Milius later revealed that the scene was inspired by a comment made by former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon during the Six-Day War of… ## [Review: The Heiress of Northanger Abbey](https://timothymillernovels.blogspot.com/2026/06/review-heiress-of-northanger-abbey.html) _2026-06-13 · Timothy Miller · Timothy Miller_ I’m a sucker for meta-fiction, which reflects back on itself like a mirror within a mirror. So when someone comes along with a sequel to Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey which, rather than satirizing the gothic novel, embraces it, validating all Catherine Morland’s forbidding fantasies—I’m all in. (If you haven’t read the original, Wikipedia sums it up as a coming-of-age story and a satire of the… ## [So? true?](https://timothymillernovels.blogspot.com/2026/06/so-true.html) _2026-06-05 · Timothy Miller · Timothy Miller_ Proteus One expression that really irritates me? “So true.” I’‘m reminded of what my high school English teacher used to say: “You can’t be very unique or a little bit pregnant.” some terms by their nature are binary. They either are or aren’t. There are no degrees of truth. You can approach truth, as you can approach the summit of a mountain, but you can’t plant your flag on Everest until you’ve… ## [Tall Summer Girls](https://timothymillernovels.blogspot.com/2026/05/tall-summer-girls.html) _2026-05-27 · Timothy Miller · Timothy Miller_ Delta Morning Empty Swing , Milly L. Moorhead Here’s what it’s like to be on the cusp of life. It’s a Louisiana summer evening, suspended between twilight and night, suspended between 6th and 7th grades. Your hands are touching the shoulder blades of a tall girl who’s sitting on the swing in front of you. The swing must have been moving before, but now is still. You were talking before, you must… ## [Review: The Samurai's Octopus](https://timothymillernovels.blogspot.com/2026/05/review-samurais-octopus.html) _2026-05-14 · Timothy Miller · Timothy Miller_ What if … Charles Dickens were not a name synonymous with Victorian London, but were transplanted instead to 18 th century Edo (Tokyo)? You might wind up with something like Jonelle Patrick’s triumphant new novel, The Samurai’s Octopus. It’s not written in Dickens’s style of course. Patrick’s style is all her own, lucid and sharp-edged as Japanese calligraphy. But it’s Dickensian in subject… ## [Hive Mind](https://timothymillernovels.blogspot.com/2026/05/hive-mind.html) _2026-05-13 · Timothy Miller · Timothy Miller_ I’ve been bingeing on Hercule Poirot on PBS lately. Poirot, if anyone in the English-speaking world is unaware, is Agatha Christie’s funny little Belgian detective, the most celebrated fictional detective this side of Sherlock Holmes. I’ve read all the books and seen all the shows already, more than once. So now I suppose you could say I’m luxuriating in nostalgia. Poirot is always talking about… ## [Gravity and Me](https://timothymillernovels.blogspot.com/2026/05/gravity-and-me.html) _2026-05-04 · Timothy Miller · Timothy Miller_ There are a few years in your childhood when you can positively fly. It’s a natural progression, when you think about it. We’re born nailed to the earth. Then we learn to sit up, to crawl, to stand, to run, to dance. I know this program intimately. When I had my stroke seven years ago, I had to repeat the program, every step of the way. And every night in my bed I dreamed of running. After you… ## [Collect Open Source Legends (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/koMHx3PAFwtw) _2026-05-04 · **Sponsored**_ Open-licensed art, limited foil trading packs, and optional on-chain mints. ## [Rex Stout on character](https://timothymillernovels.blogspot.com/2026/04/rex-stout-on-character.html) _2026-04-18 · Timothy Miller · Timothy Miller_ Rex Stout was prolific--he claimed it took between 35 and 41 days to write a novel, as long as he wasn't drinking. He wrote 33 novels and I won't get into the number of stories. His best-known as the creator of Nero Wolfe--the genius detective with the too too solid flesh. " A character who is thought-out is not born, he or she is contrived. A born character is round, a thought-out character is… ## [Not to Diss Gruntle](https://timothymillernovels.blogspot.com/2026/04/not-to-diss-gruntle.html) _2026-04-15 · Timothy Miller · Timothy Miller_ Gruntled to the dis- Would you like to be gruntled? On the face of it, probably not. It doesn't sound like much fun. But we know for sure that no one likes to be disgruntled . So what's our option? It turns out, "gruntle" is a very old English word (1682) that means to grumble or complain. But "disgruntled," rather than the opposite, means even more gruntled, a real complainy-face, and probably… ## [The Cookie or the Ciggie?](https://timothymillernovels.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-cookie-or-cigarette.html) _2026-04-11 · Timothy Miller · Timothy Miller_ Marcel Proust ate a cookie one day which transported him back to his childhood and affected him so profoundly that he was compelled to write a seven-volume semi-autobiographical novel about it. Then he died. The lesson for writers is clear: lay off the sweets. Marcel Proust That’s my take on it, anyway. These are his actual words: She sent out for one of those short, plump little cakes called… ## [50 years ago, I did the near-impossible . . .](https://www.howardweinsteinbooks.com/single-post/50-years-ago-i-did-the-near-impossible) _2024-08-28 · Howard Weinstein Books · howardweinsteinbooks_ How, at the tender age of 19, did I become the youngest person to sell a script to any of Star Trek’s twelve TV series (totaling over...