Fiction Five: Captivating historical fiction

This month’s new books start in Kansas and take us to the other side of the globe. From 1896 to the 1960s here are five historical fiction titles hitting shelves in August that offer a glimpse of another place and time.

After Oz by Gordon McAlpine

After a tornado destroys the Gale family farm, 11-year-old Dorothy goes missing. When she turns up four days later, Dorothy recounts her story of wizards and witches in a magical land. When locals find body of a elderly woman they make connections between the evil witch Dorothy claims to have defeated and the spinster. Dorothy is sentenced to the Topeka Insane Asylum where she makes her case to a young psychologist. Is there more at play than a seemingly straightforward crime?

“In After Oz, Gordon McAlpine performs the magic trick of taking an iconic story and giving us a new and fascinating chapter. Anyone who's ever wondered how Dorothy Gale fared after her return to Kansas will be thrilled by this perceptive, engrossing account of a small Midwestern town, a bizarre crime, and the young girl whose adventures in a far-off land are only the beginning of what awaits her in real life after the tornado passes. A page-turning, genre-blending feat that has forever changed the way I'll read The Wizard of Oz.” –Sara Flannery Murphy, author of Girl One

The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

1950s Hollywood: Every actress wants to play Salome the star-making role in a big-budget movie about the famed princess. When the director casts Vera Larios, a young and unknown Mexican woman, Vera becomes an object of envy. Nancy Hartley is a bit player who will do anything to win the fame she believes she richly deserves.

But this is also the story of Salome herself in a struggle between duty and passion, battling to justify her love for the prophet who has proclaimed the doom of her stepfather, King Herod.

“I’ve been a huge Silvia Moreno-Garcia fan since her sensational Mexican Gothic, but this epic of 1950s Hollywood really hits my sweet spot. The Seventh Veil of Salome is absolutely not to be missed!”–Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Diamond Eye

“When I want to read a book I know will be good, I go to Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Her genres are ever-changing, and her ability to take on a wild story each time is incredible. You never know what she’s going to do, but you know it will be a page-turner.” –Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones & The Six

Agony Hill by Sarah Stewart Taylor

In the summer of 1965 Franklin Warren arrives in Bethany, Vermont, to accept a position with the state police. Bethany is a small New England town feeling the ripples of bigger world issues, from the Cold War to the war in Vietnam.

Warren is called to a disturbance on a remote farm where a man set fire to his barn and himself. The details aren’t adding up for Warren, and the people of Bethany seem to be hiding something. On a hunt to find out the truth about this death, Warren gets to know the people and traditions of this new town that is now his home.

Agony Hill is the first novel in a new historical mystery series.

"Sarah Stewart Taylor's stunning new mystery examines life and death in a small town in 1965 with a loving but unsentimental eye." –Julia Spencer-Fleming

In a League of Her Own by Kaia Alderson

An ambitious Harlem woman’s husband upends her social climbing when he buys a Negro Leagues baseball team and appoints her as the team’s business manager. Overnight Effa Manley goes from 125th Street’s civil rights champion to interloper.

She navigates her way through gentlemen’s agreement contracts, the over-the-top flirtations of superstar Satchel Paige, and a sports world that would much rather see this woman back in the kitchen. Effa ultimately whips her team, the Newark Eagles, into the Negro Leagues Champions of 1946. But how long will she get to enjoy the fruits of her success before Major League Baseball tears it all apart?

"A great read about the independence women have been striving for, a small lesson in Negro League baseball history, and a story about friendship and other relationships, perfect for fans of historical fiction featuring real-life heroines." –Booklist

Our Narrow Hiding Places by Kristopher Jansma

Eighty-year-old Mieke Geborn lives a very quiet life filled with tai chi and friendly visits. When her grandson visits with questions about family secrets, the life she has built is soon upended.

Mieke must journey back in her memory to a childhood in Holland during World War II when thousands of Dutch citizens starved. From the coastal beaches of The Hague to the cell of a concentration camp, Our Narrow Hiding Places is the story of a family coming to terms with its matriarch’s brutal experiences through a war, and how those experiences would shape the lives of generations to come.

“A vivid, devastating account of Holland's Hunger Winter and a complex, compassionate tale of human resilience. … Our Narrow Hiding Places moves seamlessly between the beaches of wartime Holland and the present day beach towns of the Jersey Shore. …  A multi-layered novel about memory, community, suffering, and tenacity, told with imagination and grace.” –Alice McDermott, author of Absolution