Margaret Thatcher: A Life and Legacy
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by David Cannadine (Oxford University Press)
Originally meant to be an entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (for which the author acts as general editor), this slim volume doesn’t really attempt to get inside the mind or soul of Margaret Hilda Thatcher (nće Roberts)—a hardworking grocer’s daughter from Grantham who surprised everyone, including herself, by shattering the glass ceiling. Instead, world-renowned historian Cannadine closely tracks the stateswoman’s career, successes and failures, always prizing facts and politics over opinions or personal matters. Thatcher’s husband’s nervous breakdown, the greatest crisis of her marriage, for example, gets barely a paragraph, but the results of each election are carefully tallied alongside astute analysis of the pressures behind every win, loss and reversal of fortune. It’s an extraordinarily accessible resource to understand the era and reign of Britain’s first female—and also most admired and reviled—prime minister, whose legacy endures 27 years after she left 10 Downing Street.
Margaret Thatcher goes on sale March 1.
Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life
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Prince Charles wearing a suit and tie
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Prince Charles wearing a suit and tie
by Sally Bedell Smith (Random House) Royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith, on the other hand, follows up her award-winning 2012 account of Her Majesty (Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch) by getting very personal with the Queen’s eldest son—the longest-serving heir apparent in British history. “Poor Charles,” Bedell writes, is the constant refrain from both his friends and foes. Some will no doubt focus just on the gossipy pages with boarding-school torments and, obviously, his romantic life: the “ferocious rows” with Diana, his enduring love with longtime mistress/second wife Camilla—and even an implied affair with business associate Sue Townsend. However, through exhaustive research, his complex— both progressive and reactionary, intelligent yet single-minded, insecure but ambitious—and surprisingly rebellious spirit is revealed. (Charles even once got into a fight with Thatcher: “I run this country, not you, sir,’ she said.”) It makes for a fascinating portrait of a man who, for a brief time, was the most popular member of the royal family and would make a very outspoken King, if he ever gets that chance.
Prince Charles goes on sale April 4.
The Time Traveler’s Guide to Restoration Britain
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by Ian Mortimer (Pegasus Press)
If you’re planning a vacation to London circa 1684, “Do wrap up warm,” counsels Dr. Ian Mortimer in his latest chronological travelogue. During the winter of that year, the “Little Ice Age” froze the Thames in what was, by then, officially Britain. (England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland were collectively declared a republic in 1649. Not that this won’t change over the years, but you’ll be too busy in the 17th century checking your clothes for nits to worry about that.) Following Mortimer’s past entries to Medieval and Elizabethan times, this humorous, comprehensive guide provides all sorts of tips to managing life during the Restoration—when even Samuel Pepys feared the sanitation methods.
—Bethanne Patrick
This title goes on sale April 4.
Mary Berry: Foolproof Cooking
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Mary Berry posing for a picture
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Mary Berry posing for a picture
by Mary Berry (BBC Books)
Great British Bake Off fans tore their aprons in grief when everyone’s favorite judge announced she wouldn’t return for the eighth series. (Like hosts Mell Giedroyc and Sue Perkins, her loyalty to the BBC prevents her from switching to Channel 4.)
But you can take comfort in this companion book from Berry’s 2016 six-part UK solo show. The Cordon Bleu’ trained, CBE-awarded chef provides 120 no-muss, no-fuss recipes—like her Chicken and Bacon Lattice Pie or her Cheese and Garlic Tear-and-Share Scones. The perfect comfort foods for when you are eventually forced to settle for Berry-free Bake Off episodes.
Mary Berry: Foolproof Cooking goes on sale April 1.
Murder on the Serpentine: A Charlotte and Thomas Pitt Novel
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by Anne Perry (Ballantine). The queen of Victorian crime fiction returns with another Thomas and Charlotte Pitt novel—and Victoria herself features prominently in the series’ 32nd installment. It’s 1899 and Thomas Pitt has been promoted to head of the Special Branch. Victoria, 80 years old and aware her time is nearing its end, tasks him with investigating her heir, the Prince of Wales—specifically, an associate of Bertie’s whom Victoria finds suspicious. The last man she sent to snoop wound up dead (his body found in a boat on the Serpentine, hence the title). Filled with rich, lush details that place you squarely in turn-of-the-20th-century England, Murder on the Serpentine is a solidly smart and taut mystery, an extremely worthy addition to Perry’s exceptionally prolific career.
—John Hogan
Murder on the Serpentine goes on sale March 21.
The Whole Art of Detection: Lost Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes
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by Lyndsay Faye (Mysterious Press)
Get ready, Sherlockians! Novelist Lyndsay Faye (Dust and Shadow, Jane Steele) is a lifelong fan of literature’s most brilliant investigator, which explains how she can so expertly mimic the wit, style and tone of the great “consulting detective.” This collection of 15 stories— 13 of which were originally written for the Strand magazine—spans Holmes’ adult life through short, suspenseful whodunits. Dividing these stories into four distinct eras of the detective’s career, Faye takes considerable care to create four different age-appropriate voices for Holmes—each one so pitch-perfect even a Baker Street Irregular wouldn’t believe they weren’t crafted by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself. Not to be forgotten, faithful companion and biographer Watson also gets his due respect.
—JH
The Whole Art of Detection goes on sale March 7.
Murder Is for Keeps
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A sign with a building in the background
Elizabeth J. Duncan imagines a Wales so bright and friendly it’s almost a shame to see it sullied with something as ghastly as murder. Intrepid painter and amateur sleuth Penny Branigan has a knack for finding trouble (and bodies), so it’s hardly a surprise that she stumbles upon a deceased landscaper while painting Gwrych Castle, a dilapidated estate on the outskirts of her northern Welsh town of Abergele. This 19th-century country house is a real (and sadly ruined) place that makes a quaint backdrop for crime, and it lets Duncan use art and architecture as an impetus to crime-solving. With a likable heroine and beautifully picturesque small town as her canvas, Duncan paints a lovely portrait and then ratchets up the suspense at all the right moments. The mystery is cozy—even the murder that sets these events in motion is bloodless—but the intrigue is gripping, the pacing nicely done and the setting is so charming that it’ll have readers scheduling a visit to Gwrych Castle, which is now, thankfully, being restored.
—JH
Murder Is for Keeps goes on sale April 11.
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