Mil Nicholson

"When it comes to walking the mean streets, Dickens could give modern genre authors the tour of their lives." -Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times When a corpse is found in the Thames River and identified as John Harmon, many lives will be forever changed. John, who had been abroad and estranged from his miserly father for years, will no longer collect his inheritance. It will instead go to the miser's employees, Mr. and Mrs. Boffin, transforming...

Granny Reid's youth wasn't the only thing changed by time in tiny, nondescript McGill, Georgia. Except even in the Reagan era, the Southern town still had a way of attracting downright dubious characters--including an ignorant gang believed to have orchestrated several hate crimes.imes.

As a child, the astonishing Joan Grant became aware of her uncanny "Far Memory," the ability to recall past incarnations who had lived in long-ago times and far-flung places. Her seven historical novels stand out for their vividness and rich detail. For Joan, these books were not works of the imagination but personal recollections of her previous lives. In Winged Pharaoh, Joan Grant tells the story of Sekeeta, the Pharaoh's daughter. The ancient Egyptians...

Lion of Ireland was the breathtaking chronicle of Brian Boru, the Great King who led the bickering chiefs of Ireland to unity under his reign. He overthrew traditions, reformed society, and became the Irish Charlemagne. The Ireland of 1014 was a dream Brian Boru had dreamed and brought into being. Now, with all the fire and brilliance for which her writing is known, Morgan Llywelyn takes us there, to the battlefield where Brian died, and to Brian's...

Piyan demanded new freedom and an end to her tribe's sexual segregation and brutality. Trained and educated with the young braves, she develops strength and courage, and soon she will succeed the tribal chief-that is if she can at last overcome a series of ordeals, which prove her worthy of the Scarlet Feather.

"The greatest writer of his time."-Edmund Wilson "One of the great poets of the novel, a genius of his art"-Edgar Johnson "His characters are marvelous, his insights wonderful…you don't expect reality but you get something bigger and better."-Ruth Rendell The Old Curiosity Shop was initially published in a weekly serial, "Master Humphrey's Clock", between 1840 and 1841. Charles Dickens' story of the frail and innocent orphan had become such...

As the Moonlight Magnolia Agency revisits old memories on Christmas Eve, Granny Reid takes the reins back thirty years to the 1980s-back when she went by Stella, everyone's hair was bigger, and sweaters were colorful disasters. But murder never went out of style... Christmas has arrived in sleepy McGill, Georgia, but holiday cheer can't keep temperamental Stella Reid from swinging a rolling pin at anyone who crosses her bad side-and this season,...

Fully entitled "Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty," this novel was Dickens' first attempt at a historical novel. As such, it is the precursor to his more famous "A Tale of Two Cities", in which his exploration of mob violence, and especially the effect of public events on individual lives, becomes apparent. This work centers on Barnaby Rudge, a mentally simple son, and his loving mother, who are a part of the small village of Epping Forest,...

Somewhere in the shadowy borderland between myth and history lies the territory of Finn Mac Cool. Mightiest of the Irish heroes, leader of the invincible army of Fianna, he was a man of many faces: warrior, poet, lover, creator, and destroyer. Finn Mac Cool is a man taken from one of the lowest classes of Irish society, driven by ambition and strength to rise above his birth and bring new respect and status to his people. He had it all and lost it...

The struggle of the Irish people for independence is one of the epic tales of the twentieth century. Morgan Llywelyn has chosen it as the subject of her major work, The Irish Century, a multi-novel chronicle that began with 1916, and now continues in 1921, both a story and a history. The two big historical names in 1921 are Eamon de Valera and Michael Collins, both famous, mysterious, and familiar Irish figures. The year 1921 is the year of the...