Historical Humor

Dorothy Hare, the dutiful daughter of a rector in Suffolk, spends her days performing good works and cultivating good thoughts, pricking her arm with a pin when a bad thought arises. She does her best to reconcile her father’s fanciful view of his position in the world with such realities as the butcher’s bill. But even Dorothy’s strength has its limits, and one night, as she works feverishly on costumes for the church-school play, she blacks out. When she comes to, she finds herself on a London street, clad in a sleazy dress and unaware of her identity.

Broke, unemployed barista Halley Greer is shocked when she inherits an Art Deco movie palace from the great uncle she remembers meeting once as a child. She moves to the charming tourist town of Utopia Springs, Arkansas to claim her legacy. In addition to the timeworn theater, she discovers she’s also inherited a trash-heaped apartment, family secrets, her uncle’s friends, a stealthy calico kitty—and an adversary. With a whole latte help from her new friends, the feisty barista fixes up and re-opens the theater as a coffee and wine bar, showing classic films. She generates some steam ...

Mark Robarts, a young vicar, is newly arrived in the village of Framley. With ambitions to further his career, he seeks connections in the county's high society. He is soon preyed upon by a local member of parliament to guarantee a substantial loan, which Mark, in a moment of weakness, agrees to, even though he knows the man is a notorious debtor; it brings Mark to the brink of ruin.

Brussels, 1943. Twelve-year-old street orphan Helene survives by living as a boy and selling copies of the country’s most popular newspaper, Le Soir, now turned into Nazi propaganda. Helene’s entire world changes when she befriends a rogue journalist, Marc Aubrion, who draws her into a secret network that publishes dissident underground newspapers. The Nazis track down Aubrion’s team and give them an impossible choice: Turn the resistance newspapers into a Nazi propaganda bomb that will sway public opinion against the Allies, or be killed.

In the summer of 1320/1941 while the war is raging in Europe and spreading to the borders of Iran, the illustrious Azimi family migrate to their summer home and sprawling property in the north of the city as they do every year. This is a humorous story of the summer of war conspiracy theories and the Azimi family dealing with the war at their door step.

Gravedigger John Gascoigne lives in Downfell Hurst with his wife, Florrie, their three children and his mother, Gran. John is a deep thinker but extremely taciturn - a man of few words and many grunts. Which is why everyone is alarmed when he's hit on the head by a cricket ball, and it suddenly seems as if the words won't stop. What's more, he says he is talking to Saint Christopher - only no one else can see the saint, and they're beginning to worry John's not quite right in the head.

"All's fair in love and war", according to airship captain Josette Dupre, until her hometown of Durum becomes occupied by the enemy and her mother a prisoner of war. Then it becomes "nothing's fair except bombing those Vins to high hell". Before she can rescue her town, however, Josette must maneuver her way through the nest of overstuffed vipers that make up Garnia's military and royal leaders in order to drum up support.

Two hundred years after her death, Jane Austen is still surrounded by the literature she loves, but now it's because she's the owner of Flyleaf Books in a sleepy college town in Upstate New York. Every day she watches her novels fly off the shelves along with dozens of unauthorized sequels, spin-offs, and adaptations. Jane may be undead, but her books have taken on a life of their own.

Timothy (later St. Timothy) is in his study in Thessalonika, where he is bishop of Macedonia. It is A.D. 96, and Timothy is under terrific pressure to record his version of the Sacred Story, since, far in the future, a cyberpunk (the Hacker) has been systematically destroying the tapes that describe the Good News, and Timothy's Gospel is the only one immune to the Hacker's deadly virus.

There are dreamers, those who are afraid to dream, and that rare individual who lives all of their dreams in one lifetime. Sissy falls into the last category. Whether traveling around the globe or settling in quiet locations in the Midwest, Sissy always finds an adventure, and if she doesn’t, adventure finds her. She never sees obstacles, only opportunities. A life well lived will be fraught with mistakes, the highs and lows of good and bad decisions, and the ultimate knowledge of winning the game. In her own words, “I don’t think our mistakes define our existence. Life is a process ...

Harry Flashman: the unrepentant bully of Tom Brown's schooldays, now with a Victoria Cross, has three main talents - horsemanship, facility with foreign languages, and fornication. A reluctant military hero, Flashman plays a key part in most of the defining military campaigns of the 19th century, despite trying his utmost to escape them all. Flash Harry is back! The first new Flashman novel since Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, this is the long-awaited new installment of the Flashman Papers.

ALL ABOARD! Jax and his crew set sail on a deadly voyage into his past. New York City 1923. When three easy cases explode into a mess of major crimes, PI Jax Diamond is ready to throw in the towel on his job, his future, and his search for his past. In this line of work, he can barely support himself and Ace, his courageous canine partner. How will he ever give Laura, his beloved fiancée, the life that she deserves? In the nick of time, a wealthy client offers him a lucrative side job on a notorious riverboat, and it's an opportunity he can't resist. But Laura and Ace smell something fishy...

Welcome to the world of Steamboat Willie’s Whistlestop Puzzle Mysteries! It’s the 1920s, and you’re the new first mate of a steamboat, the SS Wilkinshire. Willie is a talking mouse who you’ll encounter on your first mystery! Together, the two of you will solve crimes. And there’s a lot of them! The SS Wilkinshire is a magnet for unfortunate events: murder, blackmail, thievery. There’s always a puzzle that needs to be solved. If you think playing detective is going to be easy, think again! These puzzle mysteries are tricky. It takes a very sharp eye to recognize the clues, so ...

Mr Edgar Finchley, unmarried clerk, aged 45, is told to take a holiday for the first time in his life. He decides to go to the seaside. But Fate has other plans in store...From his abduction by a cheerful crook, to his smuggling escapade off the south coast, the timid but plucky Mr Finchley is plunged into a series of the most astonishing and extraordinary adventures. His rural adventure takes him gradually westward through the English countryside and back, via a smuggling yacht, to London.

A Sassy Adventure or Fan Fiction? Madge, a 60-something widow struggling to recover her self-confidence, visits Marseille and buys what she believes to be an antique ring. Then in her dreams she’s visited by Tanith, a Priestess of Astarte, the Goddess of Love and War, who asks her to return the ring to her. Can Madge avoid the thugs accosting her and travel through time to save a great civilization—and live to tell about it? Maybe, with the help of Jason Bourne, a retired James Bond, and Indiana Jones.

A marijuana mystery, the story of Rolland Greene. Rolland Greene, a local writer, and his friends find themselves wrapped up in a complex paper chase. Rolland Greene takes you to the heartland of Northern California and reveals the mind and heart of a Mendonesian caught up in high strangeness. Rolland spends his time writing his political treatise, but suddenly finds himself trying to survive the tumult surrounding his lifestyle and friends. Rolland and his buds all find themselves tormented by bad luck when criminals begin pursuit of a treasure unique to Mendocino, the guidebook to crime. ...

This nostalgic page-turner is full of humor and heart! Aloha, Oregon, Summer 1994… Rick Reese, a sports obsessed family man and factory worker who was once a top baseball prospect, re-ignites a bitter grudge match with his estranged childhood friend Alex Winfield. Alex, however, is no longer just a hometown rival. He’s a beloved major leaguer and outspoken proponent of the ongoing MLB player strike. From the small-town soapbox of his weekly pickup game involving a ragtag squad of ball-hounded stooges known as the Sunday Hoppers, Rick challenges Alex's legacy to distract from not ...

Harry Flashman: the unrepentant bully of Tom Brown's schooldays, now with a Victoria Cross, has three main talents - horsemanship, facility with foreign languages and fornication. A reluctant military hero, Flashman plays a key part in most of the defining military campaigns of the 19th century, despite trying his utmost to escape them all. What caused the Indian Mutiny?

A delightful day in 1910 at the Haxford Spring Fair turns horrifying and deadly when a balloonist plummets to the earth from the blue skies above. However unlikely, it’s soon discovered that this unfortunate corpse was not done in by his precipitous plunge but instead from an arrow fatally lodged in his chest. Unraveling the twisted web of intrigue that took the man’s life requires the expert skills of Haxford’s brilliant and sartorially splendid Chief Inspector Pignon Scorbion. But the quirky detective is not alone. Aiding Scorbion in his dogged pursuit are his chosen deputies.

Mit präzisem Blick für die tragische Komik des Lebens stolpert Herr Lehmann durchs Leben. Durch jahrelange, ausgefuchste Ausweichmanöver und heroische Trägheit hat der arglistfreie, bis ins Mark ambitionslose Bierzapfer erfolgreich Ansprüche von Eltern, Vermietern, Nachbarn und Frauen ausgesessen. Nun, wir schreiben das Jahr 1989, lebt er weitgehend störungsfrei in seiner Eineinhalbzimmerwohnung in Kreuzberg, wenn er nicht in die nächste Kneipe geht. Doch plötzlich bricht eine unvorhergesehene Störung nach der anderen in seinen heißgeliebten Alltagstrott...