In the year Eighteen-Six, it has been two hundred years since last a practical magician walked in England, when Mr. Norrell shews himself after many years of study. In time, he is joined by a student Jonathan Strange who later dis­tin­guish­es himself in the Peninsular War against the tyrant Bonaparte. But their most dangerous adversary is the capricious gentleman with the thistle-down hair from Faerie.

Susanna Clarke's debut novel is a startling take on fantasy, evoking the work of Austen and Dickens, pitting madness against reason, exploring magic and …continue.

A year after Sir Edward Grey's sudden collapse and death, his widow Lady Julia realizes the truth in what Nicholas Brisbane, the private inquiry agent, had told her: Sir Edward had received threat­en­ing letters. She engages Brisbane to in­ves­ti­gate the possible murder and starts asking questions herself.

The most re­spectable member of her large, eccentric family, Julia starts to shed her Victorian con­ven­tion­al­i­ty as she is drawn to the enigmatic Brisbane.

Inspector John Madden, like so many of his generation, came back from the Great War a changed man. When a par­tic­u­lar­ly savage and senseless murder takes place, he must persuade his superiors at Scotland Yard to adopt some new and unwelcome practices, such as psy­cho­log­i­cal profiling.

This well-done thriller is as much about the aftermath of World War I as it is a police procedural.

After the events of The Truelove, Aubrey and Maturin set sail for Peru to undertake the in­tel­li­gence mission originally begun four books ago in The Letter of Marque. O'Brian packs more than usual into this book: multiple sea battles, the Reverend Martin's descent into madness, Stephen inciting a revolution of in­de­pen­dence against the Spanish, naturalism high in the Andes, Jack almost being lost at sea in a small boat, and a nerve-wracking encounter with an American frigate amongst the ice floes of Cape Horn.

Highly rec­om­mend­ed.

Leaving Sydney after the events of The Nutmeg of Con­so­la­tion, Aubrey and Maturin sail for Moahu, a fictional British island near Hawaii. Jack Aubrey is out of sorts for various reasons; most notably a young female convict, Clarissa Harvill, has been smuggled aboard by Midshipman Oakes. Like many sailors, he is su­per­sti­tious about women on board his ship. Not without reason: even after her shipboard marriage to Oakes, men vie for her attention and factions form aboard the ship.

Few battles in this one. Most of the conflict arises …continue.

At the end of The Thirteen-Gun Salute, Aubrey, Maturin, and the crew of the Diane were marooned on an East Indian island. They are rescued eventually by a passing junk and taken to Batavia, where the governor gives them a new ship, the Nutmeg of Con­so­la­tion. They resume their original mission and travel to the penal colony in New South Wales. Sydney is a hellhole, ruled by capricious sadists.

This is another fine entry in the long-running Aubrey–­Ma­turin saga. Seafaring, a long chase, a couple …continue.

For two tumultuous years of the Depression, 1933 and 1934, the first war on crime caught the American imag­i­na­tion. John Dillinger, Machine Gun Kelly, Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, and the Barkers robbed banks and killed people, mostly across the Midwest. The war on crime also caused the FBI to rise from obscurity.

The movie of the book con­cen­trat­ed on Dillinger and Melvin Purvis of the FBI. The book itself tells a broader, more nuanced story, skipping between its subjects in chrono­log­i­cal order.

Hoover's FBI comes off badly. Staffed …continue.

After the events of The Letter of Marque, Jack Aubrey is reinstated as a post-captain in the Royal Navy. He and Stephen Maturin are sent on a diplomatic mission to the South China Sea. Stephen gets to indulge in both a great deal of natural history and in behind-the-scenes political intrigue during the ne­go­ti­a­tions. Soon after their departure from Pulo Prabang, the Diane beaches upon a reef and breaks up during a storm, marooning them on a remote island.

The book stands on its own merits, …continue.

Jack Aubrey was disgraced in The Reverse of the Medal. He is now a civilian privateer, bitter at having been framed. Two ex­tra­or­di­nary actions do much to recommend him to the general public and make him wealthy, and by the end of this book, it seems certain that he will soon be restored to the Navy List. Stephen Maturin's own fortunes improve as he effects a rec­on­cil­i­a­tion with his wife.

The Letter of Marque is the twelfth novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series. O'Brian once again …continue.