“Historical crime fiction is sometimes little more than a modern adventure in fancy dress. Not so the novels of CJ Sansom, whose magnificent books set in the reign of Henry VIII bring to life the sounds and smells of Tudor England…” (Sunday Times)
Sansom was a solicitor in Sussex when he started writing and hit the jackpot with his Shardlake historical crime novels. S G (Shona) MacLean has a PhD in 17th century Scottish history which gave her plenty of background for her Alexander Seaton books but when she switched to write about Damien Seeker in London during the Protectorate she had to do a lot of research and get to know London in the mid 17th century. Jack Jewer was a successful writer, filmmaker and artist before he turned to historical fiction: The Lost Diary of Samuel Pepys, 2022. A sequel, Seething Lane, comes out later this year.
Their genre has always been popular; they follow in the footsteps of Georgette Heyer, Patrick O’Brian and Mary Renault for example. Primarily they are good writers and only sometimes historians. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the creator of Cesare Aldo, a gay investigator for the judiciary in Renaissance Florence and Tuscany. D V Bishop wrote and edited comic strips and books about Doctor Who and Judge Dredd, among others. All these writers pass the Sunday Times smell test; caveat, I haven’t read Pepys yet.
The portrait of Cosimo Medici by Pontormo (see yesterday’s post) was done in 1538, when Cosimo was nineteen and had been elected to rule Florence the previous year after the assassination of his cousin, Alessandro. Florence had been a republic but became a duchy (Cosimo was the second Duke of Florence) and then the Grand Duchy of Tuscany as Cosimo became the first Grand Duke. Murders, a walled city and political intrigue provide the backdrop for the Aldo series. I am a fan.
Reading tastes change. I used to read history and biography and now have turned to fiction. For a while I liked detective murder mysteries written in the 1920s and 30s but they longer appeal, except for Maigret. I enjoyed Donna Leon’s detective series set in modern Venice but they became increasingly dark. I am going to try Montalbano, which I have only seen on TV, and have just finished River of Shadows by Italian investigative journalist (La Repubblica, La Stampa), Valerio Varesi. His creation is Commissario Soneri, “a moody, cigar-smoking, gourmet investigator from Parma who navigates the misty, atmospheric, and crime-hidden landscapes of the Po River” (Crime Read). His books are informed by his experience as a journalist and insight into the political and social landscape in Italy and particularly Lombardy.