The Lost King

Review also includes:

The Night Run, Bali Rai, 978-1472904362

The Girl from Hard Times Hill, Emma Barnes, 978-1472904430

Three new additions to this excellent historical fiction series that includes titles by authors such as Geraldine McCaughrean, Adèle Geras, Geoffrey Trease and Melvyn Burgess.  The settings of these three could not be more different: 15th-century England in the aftermath of the Wars of the Roses, Amritsar, India in the last days of the British Empire, and West Wales in the 1950s.  The Lost King follows the brief reign of Richard III as recounted by the nursemaid to the two young princes.  We are drawn into the unfolding of events in this first-person account, wanting to know what really happened to the boys and whether Richard was responsible for their disappearance.  The Night Run is the dramatic story of a young boy who learns that his father has been falsely accused of crimes and embarks on a perilous journey to save him, braving armoured troops, martial curfew and vicious bandits in a city on the brink of riot.  The Girl from Hard Times Hill is an emotional tale of growing up, 11-year-old Megan struggling to cope with the changes that face her at home and at school in post-war Britain.  Each of the three titles is remarkable for convincing dialogue, and for the depiction of events in their historical setting.  What seems surprising is that the publisher makes so little effort to blow the trumpet of three prize-winning authors or to point to other titles or even the success of their own series.