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Historical Fiction Stars: 2003

Lists of historical fiction titles receiving starred reviews.

Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine, unless otherwise noted.

Historical fiction is loosely defined on this page - a book set 25 years ago may qualify for inclusion.

Categories on this page include general (period setting), romance, mystery & suspense, and also worthy of note (time slip, alternate history, generational sagas, etc.)

• Under the Skin
  Author: Blake, James Carlos
  Publisher: Morrow $ 25.95 ISBN: 0380977516 Date: 2003
  Library Journal
  Blake's latest tough-skinned novel is a 1930s crime saga with roots on both sides of the Rio Grande. Under the Skin is the tale of Jimmy Youngblood, bodyguard to gangster brothers. As the story ranges from steamy Galveston to the brutal Mexican desert, Jimmy's life takes its most fearsome turn yet when he fails for the wife of a powerful and vengeful Mexican warlord.
  Updated 1.16.03
• A Son of War
  Author: Bragg, Melvyn
  Publisher: Arcade $ 25.95 ISBN: 1559706864 Date: 2003
  Kirkus LJ Booklist
  This novel takes up where The Soldier's Return left off, following the lives of the Richardson family from 1947 to the mid-1950s. If the earlier novel focused on the father, Sam, the sequel gives equal emphasis to the son, Joe, who is eight as the story opens and an adolescent as it closes.
  Updated 8.13.03
• Moloka'i
  Author: Brennert, Alan
  Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 031230434x Date: 2003
  PW
  Young Rachel Kalama, growing up in Honolulu in the 1890s, is part of a big, loving Hawaiian family but, at the age of seven, Rachel's dreams are shattered by the discovery that she has leprosy.
  Updated 9.08.03
• Seduced
  Author: Britton, Pamela
  Publisher: Warner $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0446611298 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Although they loathe one another, roguish Lucien St. Aubyn and headstrong Elizabeth Montclair are thrown together in matrimony after they are caught in a compromising position. Although she was the only woman to resist his charms, how long can Elizabeth last before she gives in?
  Updated 2.20.03
• Pretty Boy
  Author: Brooks, Bill
  Publisher: Forge $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765304732 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  From the author of the Western classic, The Stone Garden: The Epic Life of Billy the Kid, comes the life of one of the Depression's most dangerous outlaw, Pretty Boy Floyd.
  Suggested Reading: Biographical Fiction
  Updated 5.29.03
• Iron Rose
  Author: Canham, Marsha
  Publisher: Signet $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0451208153 Date: 2003
  PW
  Following a Spanish galleon's attack on his English merchant ship, Varian St. Clare discovers that the captain of the privateer who saved him is Juliet Dante, daughter of the legendary Pirate Wolf, who Varian has been sent to find. Juliet agrees to take him to her father--but only as her hostage.
  Updated 2.10.03
• The Devil You Know
  Author: Carlyle, Liz
  Publisher: Pocket $ 6.99 ISBN: 074343787x Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Cast aside by her beau, Frederica d'Avillez is comforted by Bentley Rutledge, a scoundrel whose wild ways embroil the couple in a passionate romance. Soon, Frederica finds herself in need of a husband. And who better than the devil that got her into her situation?
  Updated 4.16.03
• Heretic
  Author: Cornwell, Bernard
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060530499 Date: 2003
  PW
  The newest installment--after The Archer's Tale and Vagabond--continues the bestselling saga about a young archer on a quest for the Holy Grail.
  Updated 8.11.03
• Moon's Crossing
  Author: Croft, Barbara
  Publisher: Mariner $ 12 ISBN: 0618341536 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  "In August of 1914, on the eve of World War I, Jim Moon, then sixty-eight years old, stepped off the stern of a ferry in New York Harbor just as the boat passed under the Brooklyn Bridge." So begins this spare, cinematic novel that explores a unique time in American history.
  Updated 6.19.03
• Fox's Walk
  Author: Davis-Goff, Annabel
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 25 ISBN: 015101020x Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  During the First World War, ten-year-old Alice Moore is left in the care of her autocratic grandmother at Ballydavid, a lovely country house in County Waterford. After the Easter Rising, when blood is spilled close to home, the girl is forced to choose between her heritage of privilege and her growing moral and political conscience.
  Updated 6.30.03
• Oscar Wilde Discovers America
  Author: Edwards, Louis
  Publisher: Scribner $ 24 BN: 0743236890 Date: 2003
  Kirkus LJ
  This compelling and unique fictional foray into American history follows a brilliantly conjured Wilde and his young black valet on a whirlwind tour across the country from high-society Newport to the deep south.
  Suggested Reading: Biographical Fiction
  Updated 11.20.02
• Gloriana's Torch
  Author: Finney, Patricia
  Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN:0312312857 Date: 2003
  Kirkus LJ
  Finney's brilliant reworking of Britain's Armada legend is an imaginative tour de force. Thrilling, intricate, and inspiring, this is a tale of courage, love, and, ultimately, redemption.
  Updated 9.25.03
• Hell at the Breech
  Author: Franklin, Tom
  Publisher: Morrow $ 23.95 ISBN: 0688167411 Date: 2003
  Kirkus PW Booklist
  The award-winning author of Poachers weaves together historical fact, dark lyrical prose, and blistering action in this stunning first novel of hooded vigilantes in 1897 Alabama.
  Suggested Reading: First Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Updated 5.29.03
• Stone Heart: A Novel of Sacagawea
  Author: Glancy, Diane
  Publisher: Overlook $ 21.95 ISBN: 158567365x Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  The drama and wonder of the Lewis and Clark expedition recaptured through the voice of Sacajawea, the enigmatic Shoshoni woman who accompanied them through the West.- Publisher Marketing.
  Updated 11.12.02
• Signal & Noise
  Author: Griesemer, John
  Publisher: Picador $ 26 ISBN: 0312300824 Date: 2003
  Kirkus Booklist
  Signal & Noise is the epic page-turning story of the laying of the trans-Atlantic cable, and the men and women who are caught in its monumental tide.
  Updated 2.28.03
• I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company: A Novel of Lewis and Clark
  Author: Hall, Brian
  Publisher: Viking $ 25.95 ISBN: 0670031895 Date: 2003
  Kirkus PW
  Presenting the story of Lewis and Clark in an entirely new light, Hall uses the novelist's art to produce a compulsively readable book that fills the gaps and provides a new perspective on this great American story.
  Suggested Reading: Biographical Fiction
  Updated 11.27.02
• Pompeii
  Author: Harris, Robert
  Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0679428895 Date: 2003
  Kirkus Booklist
  Ancient Rome is the setting for the superb new novel from Robert Harris, author of the number one bestsellers Fatherland, Enigma and Archangel. - Publisher Marketing.
  Updated 10.23.03
• Great Fire
  Author: Hazzard, Shirley
  Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux $ 24 ISBN: 0374166447 Date: 2003
  Kirkus PW Booklist LJ
  This is Hazzard's first novel since The Transit of Venus, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. The conflagration of her title is the Second World War. In war-torn Asia and stricken Europe, men and women must reinvent their lives and expectations, and learn, from their past, to dream again.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | World Wars
  Updated 10.7.03
• Ghost Eater
  Author: Highland, Frederick
  Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312306717 Date: 2003
  LJ
  A tale of courage, command, and self-discovery vividly re-creates the tapestry of the 19th-century East Indies, even as it immerses readers in a harrowing, suspenseful river journey.
  Updated 8.14.03
• Rope Eater
  Author: Jones, Ben
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 24 ISBN: 0385509774 Date: 2003
  PW Booklist LJ
  A voyage of Arctic exploration during the American Civil War becomes an epic of madness and survival, in a stunning first novel animated by the spirits of Poe, Crane, Conrad, and Melville.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Fiction & Mystery Debuts | Sea Stories
  Updated 12.29.03
• The Known World
  Author: Jones, Edward P.
  Publisher: Amistad $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060557540 Date: 2003
  Kirkus LJ Booklist
  Henry Townsend, a black bootmaker and former slave in antebellum Virginia, becomes a proprietor of his own plantation--as well as his own slaves. This modern masterpiece explores what happens when he dies and "the known world" unravels.
  Suggested Reading: African American Stars | All Stars
  Updated 10.2.03
• Patrick: Son of Ireland
  Author: Lawhead, Stephen R.
  Publisher: Morrow $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060012811 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  A magnificent historical novel about the early life of the man who would one day be known as St. Patrick. This is the story of Patrick's "missing years"--years of calamity, defeat, and crushing disappointment that form him into a bard and advisor to the High King of Ireland, and lead to the mission for which his name will be remembered throughout history.
  Suggested Reading: Biographical Fiction
  Updated 3.13.03
• The Coffee Trader
  Author: Liss, David
  Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375508546 Date: 2003
  PW
  With wit, imagination, and mystery, Liss depicts a world of subterfuge, danger, and repressed longing, where religious and cultural traditions clash with the demands of a new and exciting way of doing business. Readers of historical suspense and lovers of coffee will be up all night with this intriguing novel.
  Updated 1.28.03
• Property
  Author: Martin, Valerie
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 23.95 ISBN: 038550408x Date: 2003
  PW LJ
  From the acclaimed author of Mary Reilly comes a groundbreaking novel set in the antebellum South during a slave rebellion, told by Manon Gaudet, a female slave owner who speaks about her past, her present, and her longings in an uncensored, pitch-perfect voice from the heart of moral darkness.
  Updated 1.29.03
• The Wandering Hill: A Novel
  Author: McMurtry, Larry
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 26 ISBN: 0743233034 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  The sensational Pulitzer Prize-winning author delivers the second thrilling book in the Berrybender Narratives--The Wandering Hill is Larry McMurtry at his best. He spins an epic American adventure of the Old West that succeeds the bestselling Sin Killer and stands beside Lonesome Dove in breadth, passion, and authenticity.
  Suggested Reading: Western Stars
  Updated 3.31.03
• Brave Enemies
  Author: Morgan, Robert
  Publisher: Algonquin $ 24.95 ISBN: 1565123565 Date: 2003
  PW
  After murdering her abusive stepfather, Josie Summers escapes into the Carolina wilderness disguised as a boy. She is befriended by John Trethman, a traveling minister, who is unaware that she's a girl.
  Updated 6.2.03
• Star of the Sea
  Author: O'Connor, Joseph
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 25 ISBN: 0151009082 Date: 2003
  Kirkus LJ
  In this spellbinding tale of tragedy and mercy, love and healing, the farther the Star of the Sea sails toward the Promised Land, the more her passengers seem moored to a past that will never let them go. As urgently contemporary as it is historical, this gripping and compassionate novel builds with the pace of a thriller to a stunning conclusion.
  Suggested Reading: Sea Stories
  Updated 4.29.03
• The Jester
  Author: Patterson, James & Andrew Gross
  Publisher: Little Brown $ 27.95 ISBN: 0316602051 Date: 2003
  PW
  With the unstoppable pace and plot of his page-turning thrillers, The Jester is a breathtakingly romantic, pulse-pounding adventure set in the Middle Ages--one that could only be conjured by the mind of international bestselling author Patterson.
  Updated 2.4.03
• Beyond Sunrise
  Author: Proctor, Candice
  Publisher: Ivy $ 6.99 ISBN: 0345447182 Date: 2003
  PW
  The bestselling author of Midnight Confessions presents this breathtaking tale of India McKnight, an independent 19th-century woman who sails to the unknown South Pacific and finds unexpected adventure--and love.
  Updated 3.31.03
• Last Citadel: A Novel of the Battle of Kursk
  Author: Robbins, David L.
  Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell $ 24.95 ISBN: 0553801775 Date: 2003
  LJ
  A remarkable, passionate tale of espionage, deceit, and unprecedented valor, the tension builds to an unbearable degree as each soldier waits for the sun to rise on July 5, 1943, the day that will change history--and their lives--forever.
  Suggested Reading: World Wars
  Updated 8.14.03
• The Pilots
  Author: Spencer, James
  Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399149732 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  Spencer flew B-24 bombers during 1944 and 1945. Decades later he began to write about it. The extraordinary result is The Pilots, a novel-in-stories about a group of young men as they evolve in unpredictable ways during the last years of the war.
  Suggested Reading: World War Fiction Stars
  Updated 12.16.02
• The Shadow King
  Author: Stevenson, Jane
  Publisher: Houghton Mifflin $ 24 ISBN: 0618149139 Date: 2003
  LJ
  In the second volume of Stevenson's masterly trilogy, Balthasar--son of Elizabeth of Bohemia and Pelagius, an African prince--is driven out of Holland by the plague. Now a young doctor, he makes his way first to the raffish, cynical world of Restoration London and then to Barbados, a land of slavery and savage racism.
  Updated 10.7.03
• Farewell, My Queen
  Author: Thomas, Chantal
  Publisher: Braziller $ 22.50 ISBN: 0807615145 Date: 2003
  Kirkus Booklist PW
  A woman whose function it once was to read books aloud to Marie-Antoinette is haunted by the memory of her last days at the French court of Versailles, when Louis XVI's magnificent palace succumbed to the irrepressible forces of revolution.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 6.19.03
• Colour
  Author: Tremain, Rose
  Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux $ 25 ISBN: 0374126054 Date: 2003
  PW Kirkus Booklist
  Tremain's new novel is a saga of love and greed set during the mid-19th century gold rush in New Zealand. Newlyweds Joseph and Harriet Blackstone emigrate from England in search of new beginnings and prosperity. But the harsh land where they settle threatens to destroy them almost before they begin.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
  Updated 5.29.03
• 1929
  Author: Turner, Frederick W.
  Publisher: Counterpoint $ 25 ISBN: 1582432651 Date: 2003
  Kirkus Booklist
  In a briefly affluent and deeply disenchanted postwar America, the Jazz Age erupts in gaudy glory. It and one of its most colorful icons, Bix Beiderbecke, are celebrated in this first novel by an acclaimed nonfiction writer.
  Suggested Reading: Music & Fiction | Biographical Fiction
  Updated 5.29.03
• Easter Island
  Author: Vanderbes, Jennifer
  Publisher: Dial $ 22.95 ISBN: 038533673x Date: 2003
  Kirkus PW
  It is 1913. Elsa Pendleton travels from England to Easter Island with her husband and her sister. What begins as familial duty becomes a grand adventure as she discovers her true calling. Easter Island is a tour-de-force of storytelling that will establish Vanderbes as a most gifted writer.
  Updated 5.19.03
• Westward: A Fictional History of the American West
  Author: Walker, Dale L. (ed)
  Publisher: Forge $ 25.95 ISBN: 0765304511 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  In Westward, the history of the Old American West unfolds in 28 original stories written especially for this unique collection commemorating the 50th anniversary of Western Writers of America, Inc.
  Suggested Reading: Western Stars
  Updated 4.7.03
• Fanny: A Fiction
  Author: White, Edmund
  Publisher: Ecco $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060004843 Date: 2003
  Kirkus PW LJ Booklist
  This highly anticipated work is a brilliant novel based on the life of Fanny Wright--Scottish gentlewoman, early abolitionist, plantation owner, and newspaper publisher.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Biographical Fiction
  Updated 10.2.03

LINKS:

Historical Mysteries
Soon's Historical Fiction Site
Uchronia: Alternate History