Beverly Swerling combines mystery, thriller, and fictional
historical facts in BRISTOL HOUSE.
We meet Annie who is an academic historian along with being
a recovering alcoholic.
She accepts an assignment from the Shalom Foundation to look
into missing ancient Jewish artifacts. Once she moves into
her flat in London's BRISTOL HOUSE, strange things start to
happen.
Geoff Harris is an investigative reporter who Annie meets
once in London. He has his own reasons for wanting to help
Annie. As they work together strange things continue to
happen, and the action moves from historic Tudor times to
Modern Day London.
As I read I like to imagine myself in the story as the
heroine of the book. I had a hard time imagining myself as
Annie. Beverly Swerling has a unique writing style, and if
you like historic fiction that starts slowly, is an
excellent source of historic facts and moves back and forth
between time periods then I believe that BRISTOL HOUSE will
be a book you will enjoy.
In the tradition of Kate Mosse, a swiftly-paced mystery that
stretches from modern London to Tudor England
In modern-day London, architectural historian and recovering
alcoholic Annie Kendall hopes to turn her life around and
restart her career by locating several long-missing pieces
of ancient Judaica. Geoff Harris, an investigative reporter,
is soon drawn into her quest, both by romantic interest and
suspicions about the head of the Shalom Foundation, the
organization sponsoring her work. He’s also a dead ringer
for the ghost of a monk Annie believes she has seen at the
flat she is subletting in Bristol House.
In 1535, Tudor London is a very different city, one in which
monks are being executed by Henry VIII and Jews are
banished. In this treacherous environment of religious
persecution, Dom Justin, a Carthusian monk, and a goldsmith
known as the Jew of Holborn must navigate a shadowy world of
intrigue involving Thomas Cromwell, Jewish treasure, and
sexual secrets. Their struggles shed light on the mysteries
Annie and Geoff aim to puzzle out—at their own peril.
This riveting dual-period narrative seamlessly blends a
haunting supernatural thriller with vivid historical
fiction. Beverly Swerling, widely acclaimed for her City of
Dreams series, delivers a bewitching and epic story of a
historian and a monk, half a millennium apart, whose
destinies are on a collision course.