Did you ever start a vacation reading a book that was so good, nothing else you have is satisfying? I loaded a lot of books onto my Nook, making sure I would not run out of reading material before I came home. I was once stuck on a long flight with nothing to read. Never again! But what a waste. None of the other books were as complex and intriguing. A non-fiction book on a subject I thought was interesting (the Celts and who they really were) was too technical – it had a lot about land surveying, too much work and too many calculations for a vacation. After a hard day of sight seeing, I had nothing I wanted to read.
The book that caused the problem was An Air of Treason by PF Chisholm. Yes, a Poisoned Pen Press author, and one whose books I was reading long before I had a relationship with PPP myself.
It was intriguing, funny, and complex. There were new insights into a centuries old historical mystery. There were new insights into regular series characters. There were new characters to look forward to seeing again in the next book. There was Sergeant Dodd, an unlikely hero if there ever was one, and Robert Carey, the likely hero. Queen Elizabeth shows up. And there is a new villain (sort of villain) who may actually be a psychopath but that remains to be seen.
It would take a lot of book to follow that one, don’t you think? The solution ended up being a biography of Marietta Tree (look her up) I found in the house where we were staying. It was both perceptive and gossipy, about a time I almost remember but a world I did not know. It was the complete change I needed.
Now I am still thinking about the Chisholm book and trying to define what makes them so good. That is, aside from the terrific stories and the dry wit.
It’s obvious from my own books that I have a special interest in history. I’ve been thinking about historical fiction for a long time. In fact I wrote a paper in library school (yes, there were dinosaurs on campus back then) about Rosemary Sutcliff, who was a reknowned British writer of historical fiction for (older, very literate) children. She wrote some adult books too, including what was probably the first “how King Arthur might have really happened”, but the best of her books for young people can be read by adults with great pleasure.
Her most famous books take place in Britain under Roman rule and in the early middle ages, a very distant world. One of the critics described her as so immersed in her time period, she is unable even to imagine a figure of speech that is not appropriate.
That’s how I feel about Chisholm’s books. The characters are fully imagined, recognizable human beings but they are also a bit different because their world, and their assumptions about that world, are different. Every so often, they have a thought that stops me in my reading, because it is so surprising. And it is so completely right.
Long may they continue to have adventures, “the courtier” Sir Robert Carey, and unpolished, forthright Sgt. Dodd. I’ll be thrilled to keep reading about them as long as Ms. Chisholm keeps writing them.
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