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Blog Tour/Review/Guest Post: The Hidden Bones (Clare Hills #1) by Nicola Ford

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I’m delighted to be hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for The Hidden Bones by Nicola Ford. It’s the first in a new crime mystery series featuring archaeologist Clare Hills. You can read my review of The Hidden Bones below plus I also have a wonderful guest post from Nicola, entitled ‘Wiltshire Noire’.

The Hidden BonesAbout the Book

Following the recent death of her husband, Clare Hills is listless and unsure of her place in the world. When her former university friend Dr David Barbrook asks her to help him sift through the effects of deceased archaeologist Gerald Hart, she sees this as a useful distraction from her grief. During her search, Clare stumbles across the unpublished journals detailing Gerald’s most glittering dig. Hidden from view for decades and supposedly destroyed in an arson attack, she cannot believe her luck. Finding the Hungerbourne Barrows archive is every archaeologist’s dream. Determined to document Gerald’s career-defining find for the public, Clare and David delve into his meticulously kept records of the excavation.

But the dream suddenly becomes a nightmare as the pair unearth a disturbing discovery, putting them at the centre of a murder inquiry and in the path of a dangerous killer determined to bury the truth for ever.

Format: Hardcover, ebook (352 pp.)   Publisher: Allison and Busby Published: 21st June 2018  Genre: Crime, Mystery

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ Publisher ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find The Hidden Bones on Goodreads

Guest Post: ‘Wiltshire Noire’ by Nicola Ford, author of The Hidden Bones

People make landscapes and landscapes make people. Whether it’s the urban inner city landscape of London, New York or Paris or the bleakly beautiful uplands of the High Peak. Both are to a large extent man made and where we live and spend our lives shapes not only our views and opinions but also how we live our lives and the choices we make. And sometimes those decisions can lead us to very dark places.

For many years now I’ve had the privilege of living and working in Wiltshire. It’s a county that encompasses some of the most magical landscape in the country. But it’s also one of the most frequently overlooked. Every year thousands of holiday makers make their way through Wiltshire on their way to the delights of Devon and Cornwall, most of them giving little more than a passing glance at this ancient county. But it’s a county that holds many secrets. It’s littered with more ancient sites per square mile than virtually any other place on the planet.

Those places include the two extraordinary landscapes that I’m privileged to spend my days working in as the National Trust Archaeologist for the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site. But the deep past that suffuses Wiltshire stretches well beyond the boundaries of these two landscapes. Bronze Age burial mounds, Roman Villas, Saxon cemeteries, Norman castles, Gothic cathedrals and Iron Age hill forts jockey for space alongside the great megalithic monuments of our Neolithic ancestors.

For those of us who live in this ancient shire the past is ever present. And it affects our daily lives in ways that we’re often not even wholly aware of. It’s that ever present effect of both the deep past and the more recent past on how people think about the place they call home and how they act as a consequence that I wanted to explore in The Hidden Bones.

There is folklore and legends aplenty here but there’s sometimes something darker too. Making a life on or from the land has many pleasures but the rural life isn’t always a bucolic idyll. Life in a small village on the uplands of the Marlborough Downs or Salisbury Plain can be every bit as tough as the inner city. The challenges are just different.

As an archaeologist I’ve worked in many landscapes across many countries. I’ve seen the effects of how people have carved out their lives on the bones of the land, and their choices always leave their trace for the next generation. They bequeath us a many layered inheritance that shapes the future in ways that they couldn’t possibly have imagined. In The Hidden Bones, when archaeologists Clare Hills and David Barbrook start to strip away those layers, they reveal a past that none of them had expected and within which lies the darkest of secrets. A secret that someone will go to any lengths to protect.                                                                                           © Nicola Ford, 2018

My Review

Recently widowed, Clare is feeling rather lost at having to cope on her own after years of  happy marriage. The death of her husband was both sudden and unexpected. When her old university friend, David, contacts her about getting involved in his research project, it seems like the perfect distraction from her grief and also an opportunity to rekindle her love of archaeology.

Initially, I wasn’t sure I shared Clare and David’s excitement at the discovery of a missing artefact as they comb through the papers of deceased archaeologist, Gerald Hart, famed for his work on the Hungerbourne Barrow.   However, that all changed when the pair make a startling discovery about one of the finds in the collection. It brings to light revelations from the past that although historic definitely do not relate to the Bronze Age. I was now hooked.

History starts to repeat itself in other ways as the excavation team led by David and Clare are plagued by graffiti warning messages and accidents on site, just as occurred at the time of the original excavation. But are they actually just accidents or are they manifestations of an ancient curse or something more sinister but distinctly earthbound?  When events turn darker and more dangerous still, it becomes clear that there is someone who will stop at nothing to prevent the excavation continuing.

The author certainly kept me guessing about who the culprit was. One minute I was sure I knew who was responsible, the next minute I was convinced it was someone else. Eventually the perpetrator and their motive is revealed but not before lucky escapes for some members of the team and just the opposite for others.

It turns out archaeology has much in common with the investigation of a crime. They both involve gathering and piecing together evidence, investigating available source information, testing assumptions and coming to conclusions. A crime scene must be preserved in the same way as an archaeological excavation site. Because of the author’s background, the details about the excavation and the archaeological procedures felt completely authentic.  I also got the same sense about David’s tussles with his university head of department over the need to deliver research funding that appears to be such a feature of modern day academia.

What I particularly enjoyed about the book was the strong cast of female characters – Clare, obviously, but also Margaret and Jo. Along with David, the author has lined up an interesting team for future books in the series.   The Hidden Bones is an engrossing murder mystery with engaging characters that will appeal to lovers of crime fiction, fans of TV’s Time Team or those with an interest in history or archaeology.

I received an uncorrected proof copy courtesy of publishers, Allison and Busby, in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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In three words: Suspenseful, engrossing, mystery

Try something similar…The Dark Angel by Elly Griffiths

Nicola FordAbout the Author

Nicola Ford is the pen-name for archaeologist Dr Nick Snashall, National Trust Archaeologist for the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site. Through her day-job and now her writing, she’s spent more than most people thinking about the dead. Her writing brings together the worlds of archaeology and crime, unravelling the tangled threads left behind by murder to reveal the stories of those who can no longer speak for themselves.

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Guest Post: ‘The Artist in Fiction’ by Arthur D. Hittner, author of Artist, Soldier, Lover, Muse

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It’s so frustrating when authors contact you about fascinating sounding books and you know because of your already huge review pile it’s going to be quite a while until you can get to read them.  A case in point is Artist, Soldier, Lover, Muse by Arthur D. Hittner set in pre-war New York City.

However, I’m making amends by bringing you a fantastic guest post from Arthur about the challenge of capturing in words the inspiration that drives the creative process of an artist.  In his article, Arthur illustrates the approach he chose with two excerpts from the book and a wonderful painting by an artist definitely unknown to me.

If this has piqued your interest in Artist, Soldier, Lover, Muse, you can find purchase links below.

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Artist Soldier Lover MuseAbout the Book

Freshly graduated from Yale in 1935, Henry J. Kapler parlays his talent, determination, and creative energy into a burgeoning art career in New York under the wing of artists such as Edward Hopper and Reginald Marsh.  The young artist first gains notoriety when his depiction of a symbolic, interracial handshake between ballplayers is attacked by a knife-wielding assailant at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington.

Yet even as his art star rises, his personal life turns precarious—and perilous—when his love for Fiona, a young WPA muralist, collides with his growing attraction to the exquisitely beautiful Alice, an ex-chorus girl who becomes his model and muse.  Alice is the girlfriend of Fiona’s cousin, Jake Powell, the hot-headed, hard-drinking outfielder for the New York Yankees whose jealousy explodes into abuse and rage, endangering the lives of all three.

While Henry wrestles with his complicated love life, he also struggles mightily to reconcile his pacifism with the rabid patriotism of his Jewish-Russian émigré father.  As war draws near, Henry faces two difficult choices, one of which could cost him his life.

Format: Paperback, ebook (301 pp.)    Publisher: Apple Ridge Fine Arts
Published: 5th December 2017              Genre: Historical Fiction, Art

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ  Amazon.com
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Artist, Soldier, Lover, Muse on Goodreads

Guest Post: ‘The Artist in Fiction’ by Arthur D. Hittner, author of Artist, Soldier, Lover, Muse

I love art.  I’ve a particular affinity for the art of the Depression era, much of which is imbued with an emotional edge that reflects the perils of everyday existence during those difficult times.  In my debut novel Artist, Soldier, Lover, Muse I explore the creative mind of a struggling young painter in the New York City art world of the late 1930s.

How does a writer of historical fiction tap into the mind of an artist from another era?  I began by devouring the colorful accounts of the resourceful artists who practiced their craft in New York during the turbulent decade of the Thirties.  There can be no better source for the ambience of a time and place than the reminiscences of those who experienced it.  To further gauge the tenor of the times, I perused the Times—the historical database of The New York Times—whose articles offered a window into the events and controversies that shaped the lives of New Yorkers.  Armed with this knowledge, I could place my protagonist, the young artist Henry J. Kapler, in the midst of these events, as a participant, observer or commentator, as the story dictated.

But what of the creative act itself?  How do you capture on the written page the inspiration that drives the creative process?  In Artist, Soldier, Lover, Muse I utilized two distinct approaches to tap into the creative impulses of Henry Kapler.  One was to ponder an actual work of art and intuit the circumstances that may have brought it into being.  I’ll call this the Chevalier Method.  Tracy Chevalier created an entire novel from a single work of art in Girl With a Pearl Earring.  Consider, for example, the painting reproduced below.  It is the work of Harold J. Rabinovitz (1915-1944), a now obscure American artist whose life and work provided valuable inspiration for the fictional Henry Kapler.

Arthur Hittner Guest Post Image

The following excerpt reflects how I imagined Henry might have approached the subject of this poignant work of art:

‘The Seventh Avenue Express was the subway Henry knew best.  It stopped at Fourteenth Street, running north to Harlem and southeast to Brooklyn.  With his sketchbook and a pocket full of tokens, Henry descended into the bowels of the city.  He remained submerged for the better part of two weeks, riding from one end of the line to the other, observing and sketching.  Surfacing only to eat, sleep, and attend his morning classes at the League, Henry became as much a part of the screeching, grimy, often creepy world of the underground as the foot-long rats that scampered through the stations like frantic commuters.

The stark interior of a subway car was the setting for Henry’s opus.  Marsh had tackled a similar subject earlier in Why Not Use the “L”, portraying the indifference of passengers in documentary fashion.  Henry would go further, injecting social commentary by staging a morality play within the confines of his canvas.

Henry sifted through scores of sketches for the characters to inhabit his composition.  He roughed out a scene depicting two seated men on the near side of the car to the left, one with his head buried in a newspaper and the other looking blankly ahead; a third man barely awake across the aisle, his elbow resting against the seat back, his right hand propping up his weary head; and a young mother sitting beside him, straining to rein in her fidgety son.  One last figure would complete the composition and supply the narrative: a sightless young man in shirtsleeves and dark glasses proceeding down the aisle toward the viewer, his left hand limply grasping a walking cane, his right palm turned upward in supplication.  It was an all-too-familiar scene, variations of which he’d witnessed repeatedly during his self-banishment underground: a group of passengers, distracted by their own burdens, studiously ignoring the entreaties of a man less fortunate as he passes by seeking charity.’

The second (and diametrically opposite) entrée into the creative mind of my protagonist was through the developing plotline, trusting that the story would inform Henry who would, in turn, create an artwork derived purely from my own imagination.  In Artist, Soldier, Lover, Muse  Henry’s muse, Alice Woodley, is a beautiful ex-chorus girl involved in an abusive relationship with a professional athlete named Jake Powell.

Consider this excerpt from Chapter Twenty-Two:

‘For much of the next forty-eight hours, the portrait of Alice consumed him.  He realized that what he’d started to paint from life, he was now painting from deep within himself.  What she’d told him, and how she’d spoken and acted, were as much a part of what he was now creating as the actuality of her physical being.  He remembered the fist Kuniyoshi had placed on the table in the classroom, and the shadow it cast.  He’d captured the actuality of his model in their session two days earlier, but it took the succeeding couple days of laborious effort for the truth to emerge.  He studied the painting closely.  What had begun as a likeness of an extraordinarily beautiful young woman had evolved into a portrait of both beauty and vulnerability.  This was not the hardened, streetwise woman that had surprised and disappointed him at the automat, although that was certainly a part of what she’d become.  There was much more—and it thrilled him to discover it peering out from the canvas.

Waiting was the title he chose for the painting.  It made sense to him.  He perceived a young woman waiting to make sense of her life, to comprehend and reconcile the choices she’d made, to find a path forward.’

In the end, the writer’s means for divining the artistic vision of his protagonist shouldn’t matter.  What matters is that his character’s creative impulses feel genuine to the reader.  The paintings portrayed in the novelist’s narrative should be equally accessible in the reader’s mind, whether the artwork has an existence in the real world or solely in the writer’s imagination.  Whether I’ve succeeded in transporting you into the creative mind of Henry Kapler is something only you can judge.  I invite you to read Artist, Soldier, Lover, Muse to decide for yourself.                                  © Arthur D. Hittner, 2018

Arthur D HittnerAbout the Author

Arthur D. Hittner is the author of the historical novel Artist, Soldier, Lover, Muse and  Honus Wagner: The Life of Baseball’s ‘Flying Dutchman (McFarland, 1996), winner of the Seymour Medal awarded by the Society of American Baseball Research for the best book of baseball history or biography published in 1996.  Other books include At the Threshold of Brilliance:The Brief but Splendid Career of Harold J. Rabinovitz (The Rabinovitz Project, 2014), a biography and catalogue raisonne of a newly rediscovered master of American art of the Depression era and the irreverent travelogue, Cross-Country Chronicles: Road Trips Through the Art and Soul of America.

Mr. Hittner has also written about fine art subjects for Maine Antique Digest, Fine Art Connoisseur and Antiques & Fine Art and has served as a Trustee of the Danforth Museum of Art and the Tucson Museum of Art.

Connect with Arthur

Website ǀ  Goodreads