Tag: Reviews

My Week in Books – 31st July 2022

whatcathyreadnext

MyWeekinBooksOn What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I shared my review of The Cleaner of Chartres by Salley Vickers, one of the books in my list for the 20 Books of Summer 2022 Reading Challenge. 

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topics was Books On My Seasonal TBRs I Still Haven’t Read.  

Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is my weekly opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next… and to take a peek at what others are reading. 

Thursday – I travelled to 2nd century Britain for my review of historical novel The Iron Way by Tim Leach. 

Saturday – I shared an update on my gardening week for #SixOnSaturday.

New arrivals

After-the-Rising-and-Before-the-Fall-Cover-EBOOK-scaled-1After the Rising & Before the Fall by Orna Ross

A love forbidden by family. A feud spanning generations. A woman still yearning for freedom.

Twenty years after she was driven away from her family and the only man she ever truly loved, Jo Devereux has returned to the small Irish village where she grew up. And this time, she wants answers.

What happened to her family during the Irish Civil War? Did her great-uncle’s best friend really shoot him dead? And what did this “war of the brothers” mean for mothers, sisters and daughters?

Searching through papers bequeathed by her estranged mother, Jo uncovers astonishing truths about her grandmother and great-aunt – secrets of a cold-blooded murder with consequences that ricocheted down the generations into her own life.

Urged on by Rory O’Donovan, her lost love and the son of her family’s sworn enemies, Jo is tempted to reignite the fires of rebellion. Can she ever go back to the life she’d made for herself in San Francisco? Or will what she’s learning about her heritage incite her to cast off caution – and claim what should have been hers?

A Winter WarA Winter War by Tim Leach (Head of Zeus)  

AD173. The Danube has frozen. On its far banks gather the clans of Sarmatia. Winter-starved, life ebbing away on a barren plain of ice and snow, to survive they must cross the river’s frozen waters. There’s just one thing in their way. Petty feuds have been cast aside, six thousand heavy cavalry marshalled.

Will it be enough? For across the ice lies the Roman Empire, and deployed in front of them, one of its legions.

The Sarmatians are proud, cast as if from the ice itself. After decades of warfare they are the only tribe still fighting the Romans. They have broken legions in battle before. They will do so again. They charge.

Sarmatian warrior Kai awakes on a bloodied battlefield, his only company the dead. The disgrace of his defeat compounded by his survival, Kai must now navigate a course between honour and shame, his people and the Empire, for Rome hasn’t finished with Kai or the Sarmatians yet.

The Santa KillerThe Santa Killer by Ross Greenwood (eARC, Boldwood)

One night less than two weeks before Christmas, a single mother is violently assaulted. It’s a brutal crime at the time of year when there should be goodwill to all. When DI Barton begins his investigation, he’s surprised to find the victim is a woman with nothing to hide and no reason for anyone to hurt her.

A few days later, the mother of the woman attacked rings the police station. Her granddaughter has drawn a shocking picture. It seems she was looking out of the window when her mother was attacked. And when her grandmother asks the young girl who the person with the weapon is, she whispers two words. 

Bad Santa.

The rumours start spreading, and none of the city’s women feel safe – which one of them will be next

He’s got a list. It’s quite precise. It won’t matter even if you’re nice. 

Under A Veiled MoonUnder A Veiled Moon (Inspector Corravan Mystery #2) by Karen Odden (eARC, Crooked Lane Books)

September 1878. One night, as the pleasure boat the Princess Alice makes her daily trip up the Thames, she collides with the Bywell Castle, a huge iron-hulled collier. The Princess Alice shears apart, throwing all 600 passengers into the river; only 130 survive. It is the worst maritime disaster London has ever seen, and early clues point to sabotage by the Irish Republican Brotherhood, who believe violence is the path to restoring Irish Home Rule. 

For Scotland Yard Inspector Michael Corravan, born in Ireland and adopted by the Irish Doyle family, the case presents a challenge. Accused by the Home Office of willfully disregarding the obvious conclusion, and berated by his Irish friends for bowing to prejudice, Corravan doggedly pursues the truth, knowing that if the Princess Alice disaster is pinned on the IRB, hopes for Home Rule could be dashed forever.

Corrovan’s dilemma is compounded by Colin, the youngest Doyle, who has joined James McCabe’s Irish gang. As violence in Whitechapel rises, Corravan strikes a deal with McCabe to get Colin out of harm’s way. But unbeknownst to Corravan, Colin bears longstanding resentments against his adopted brother and scorns his help.

As the newspapers link the IRB to further accidents, London threatens to devolve into terror and chaos. With the help of his young colleague, the loyal Mr. Stiles, and his friend Belinda Gale, Corravan uncovers the harrowing truth – one that will shake his faith in his countrymen, the law, and himself.

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • My Five Favourite July Reads
  • Book Review: Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason
  • Book Review: Learwife by J R Thorp
  • Cover Reveal: Hokey Pokey by Kate Mascarenhas
  • #6Degrees of Separation

#BookReview The Iron Way by Tim Leach

whatcathyreadnext3 Comments

The Iron WayAbout the Book

In the hard, unforgiving land at the northernmost point of the Roman Empire lies a great wall. Once, the edge had been but a thing of thought and dreams, but one day the great Emperor from across the water had grown tired of borders made from thoughts and dreams. So, a wall was raised from the earth at his command. From afar, it looked invincible.

Yet every wall has its weaknesses – if one looks close enough.

In its shadow, gather five thousand fearsome soldiers. Men bred to fight and kill. The Sarmatians have suffered capture and defeat, but under a new command they are prepared to fight again.

For of the other side of the wall there are rumours. Of men closer to giants, of warriors who fight without fear or restraint. And the Sarmatians are called to defend against them.

To stand and fight, to die for Rome.

Format: Hardback (320 pages)        Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 4th August 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find The Iron Way on Goodreads

Pre-order/Purchase links
Bookshop.org
Disclosure: If you buy a book via the above link, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops

Hive | Amazon UK
Links provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

I really enjoyed Tim Leach’s The Last King of Lydia when I read it way back in 2013 and I loved The Smile of the Wolf, published in 2018, which I reviewed as part of the blog tour. Therefore I have no idea how I missed the fact he had a new series on the way – The Sarmatian Trilogy – or the publication of the first book, A Winter War, in September last year.  The Iron Way is the second book in the trilogy, set in 2nd century Britain. It can definitely be read without having read the first book – as I did – however, although there are references to events in the first book, I felt I missed out by not knowing more of the back stories of the main characters. (Reader, I may just have ‘happened’ to be in Waterstones yesterday and found myself at the till with a copy of A Winter War.)

I confess I had never heard of the Sarmatians before reading this book but it seems I can be forgiven because in his Historical Note the author reveals that very little is known for certain about them. A nomadic, warlike people, they left no written records and minimal archaeological evidence. However, the events in the first book – their defeat by the Romans and a peace settlement the terms of which saw thousands of their warriors sent to the north of Britain – are based on fact.

The book focuses on one band of Sarmatians, made up of five hundred warriors, under their Roman commander, Lucius, who as a result of previous events has become a sort of ‘honorary’ Sarmatian. He’s described at one point as having the soul of a Sarmatian locked in a Roman body.  Bound by an oath to serve as part of the Roman army for twenty-five years, the Sarmatians find themselves guarding one of the forts along Hadrian’s Wall against the threat of attack from tribes to the north. It’s not where they want to be. They pine for the wide open spaces of their homeland, ‘the long grass dancing with the wind, the wildflowers shining under the sun, the world open before them beneath an endless sky’. Instead they find themselves confined to the settlement around the fort, in the shadow of Hadrian’s  Wall. ‘They saw their prison, the chain of stone that bound them, the symbol of a shameful defeat.’

The author gives the reader a fascinating insight into the Sarmatian people. What we learn is that they are bound together not just by ties of kinship but by sacred oaths and the belief that to die in battle is glorious. Their philosophy? ‘Given the choice between two paths, between safety and danger, one must always go toward sword and spear, and choose the iron way.’  And that’s not just the men because the Sarmatian women are warriors too.

The story is told from the point of view of three main characters – Lucius, his Sarmatian comrade Kai and Arite, the wife of Kai’s former friend. None of them is where they want to be.  Lucius recognises his posting to the Wall is a sign of his fall from grace.  And he soon discovers he is pawn in the hands of powerful and ambitious men. Kai longs to return to his homeland and see his daughter once again. Arite finds herself unable to use her skills as a warrior, consigned instead to a life of household drudgery. The frustration felt by the Sarmatians creates an atmosphere of extreme tension. Unused to the discipline of a Roman army, there are drunken brawls and petty rivalries.

There are some terrific action scenes that put the reader in the heart of the battle and reveal some quite remarkable aspects of the Sarmatians as a fighting force. But the writing throughout flows beautifully giving a real insight into the thoughts and feelings of a people quite different from ourselves – or at least those of us who don’t gallop across the steppes on huge heavily armoured horses trained to kill.

Having endured one betrayal, the end of the book sees Lucius come to the realisation that what lies ahead for the Sarmatians is a conflict not of their own making but one driven by the personal ambition of others.

I thought The Iron Way was brilliant. Its blend of fascinating historical detail, absorbing storyline, interesting characters and full-on action made it a thoroughly engrossing read. Roll on book three.

My thanks to Head of Zeus for my digital review copy via NetGalley.

In three words: Compelling, pacy, immersive

Try something similar: The Capsarius by Simon Turney

Tim Leach credit Emma LeachAbout the Author

Tim Leach is a graduate of the Warwick Writing Programme, where he now teaches as an Assistant Professor. His first novel, The Last King of Lydia, was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize.  (Photo credit: Emma Leach)

Connect with Tim
Website | Twitter