Books like The Mosaic of Shadows

I loved Kerr’s decision to view Berlin through the eyes of his PI Bernie Gunther because I’m seeing fascism through the eyes of a protagonist who cares little about an ideology he recognizes as flawed.

It creates an interesting tension for the character—a strategic loyalty, a quiet resistance to something he knows he can’t topple, so he remains himself—true to his own personality. I love the arc Kerr creates that had me locked into his noir world.

I dove into this book because I wanted to know about the Napoleonic Wars and was surprised that a historian could write so well. The points are clear, and the anecdotes are appropriate, not just gimmicks. I liked how the small fact was connected to the big point about how mass mobilization changed the nature of war and made it more penetrating and inescapable.

I saw the French levée en masse and the massacres of the Vendée and Goya’s Spain in new light. It made me want to hear more about the colonial wars like Haiti.

I love historical fiction, and this one is just great. It brings to life a past and a place, and I was engrossed by the revolutionary personalities, shocked by the callousness of the colonial masters, and bewildered by the scale and intensity of the violence.

They were all messy, and only the largest stakes could let me make a judgment about good and evil. It was, in the end, a fight for freedom. Toussaint Louverture was always one of my heroes, and here he is humanized, with all justice done to his leadership and foresight.

I was impressed by how she used one life to tell the story of a whole Empire. I learned and I also relaxed as she took me through the Ottoman Empire and showed me how people could be cosmopolitan and tolerant.

I had grown up with stories of violent Turks, and here I had people doing what they could to keep the peace and keep the empire together. It was a different world. We know that they failed, and we should wonder why.

A solid grasp of crusading geography is essential for anyone who wishes to understand these complex holy wars, and this book is unsurpassed in providing such information in a clear and comprehensible manner. Its many maps and charts, each beautifully drawn and accompanied by insightful commentary and, in most cases, relevant illustrations and excerpts from primary sources, make this an indispensable resource that belongs in every crusade historian’s library. If you can find a used copy of this out-of-print treasure, buy it without hesitation. Be careful, there is another so-called atlas of the crusades out there by someone who is not a crusade historian, and it is filled with numerous errors.   

I stumbled on this book in Raven secondhand bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

I was researching for my 12th-century trilogy, Conquest, and this book is a brilliant critical study of the Anglo-Norman chronicler, Orderic Vitalis. The book is wonderfully written and conveys the astonishing beauty of Orderic’s own work.

Orderic, as he writes, ranged far and wide across the Anglo-Norman kingdom in his imagination and then returned to his ‘black-clad life’ as a monk.

Raven and Shakespeare and Co. Bookshop in Paris are amongst my top favourites. I love to visit Shakespeare for its cramped unevenly floored labyrinth and intelligent array of books.

I greatly enjoy a bookshop – these two and Victoria Bookshop in Haverfordwest spring to mind – where the staff is obviously as lovestruck by books as I am.

Not many books set in the Middle Ages manage to incorporate “contemporary” concerns within their narrative such as racism and identity – but I like this book for doing just that!

With the action moving from England to the Holy Land, this book tells the story of two very different boys – one in the service of an English knight who joins a crusading army to recapture Jerusalem from Muslim armies, the other a doctor’s apprentice who works in the camp of the Muslim commander, Saladin.

A long but absorbing read that I enjoyed for its vivid recreation of the era, and for its investigation of how the Crusades are viewed from a non-European perspective.

I have always been fascinated by medieval history, but I became interested in this particular era after reading this book and learning about the German Order of Swordbrothers (Schwertbrüderorden). 

What intrigued me was that they were a small Order, not very pious or saintly. They were unorthodox and argued constantly with Bishop Albert, the leader of the Christian mission. They were a rough and ready lot, acting more like brigands than warrior monks. One of the brothers murdered the first master, and they locked up their second master when he tried to exert more control over their behavior. Over time, they were accused of almost every crime.

I loved Christiansen’s book, which opened a new world of discovery. He writes in a witty, easy-to-read style that hooked me from the beginning.

William Urban is an American history professor who specializes in the Baltic Crusades. He is probably the pre-eminent English-speaking historian on this subject and has written many other books–mostly on this theme or the Teutonic Knights. I particularly enjoy his no-nonsense writing style. The book has proven invaluable in my own research as it just concentrates on the Crusade in Livonia and Estonia in the first half of the 13th century–as well as showing the other political events taking place in Germany at the time. 

Urban was a great help to my own book. He kindly read an earlier draft of Sword Brethren and gave me some crucial historical advice. He has also agreed to read the next book in the series early in 2025, and I await his opinion with anticipation.

As a historian, I pick books outside my area to read for pleasure, so can enjoy them without feeling like I need to take notes for my next academic project. I picked up Madden’s book in an airport bookstore before a long coast-to-coast flight. By the time we landed, I had finished this compelling story. Put aside what you think you know about the Crusades from Hollywood, novels, and school; this is the real story, of religious devotion, climactic battles, kings in conflict, and changing the world. The clash of Christianity and Islam during the Middle Ages made Europe and the Middle East, in ways that Madden helps us understand.