I cannot recommend highly enough the new novel by Dena Hunt, who will be well known to visitors to the Ink Desk and to subscribers to the St. Austin Review. Dena’s novel, Treason, a thrilling story set in the anti-Catholic totalitarianism of Elizabethan England, will be published by Sophia Institue Press at the end of March. It’s a story of the English Martyrs, which harmonizes with the theme of the new issue of StAR, “Dungeon, Fire and Sword: The English Reformation”. An excerpt from Dena’s novel is published in the new issue and can be read on-line from this very site. Just go to the “current issue” section on the right of this page and click on the link “Treason and Truth”. Having read this short excerpt you’ll want to order the book to read the rest of this gripping tale of Catholic heroism in the face of secular tyranny.
On a related theme, today’s Crisis has an excerpt from my own forthcoming book, Beauteous Truth: Faith, Reason, Literature and Culture (St. Augustine’s Press), on R. H. Benson’s novel, Come Rack! Come Rope!, which is also about the English Martyrs and is also set in Elizabethan England. Here’s the link to the Crisis article:
I will certainly get Dena’s novel. Congratualtions Dena!
Thank you, Manny!
–Dena
I have a copy of ‘Come rack! Come rope..!
I first read it as a teenager and agree with your comments. I should like to read ‘Treason.’ I wonder however, if the author’s choice of characters’ names is not anachronistic. Was Caroline used in England in the16th century? Was Norma?. Has the author consulted
contemporary Parish registers?
Dear Mary,
I do hope you read–and enjoy–Treason. Yes, both “Caroline” and “Norma” are anacronistic names. The former arrived in England–via France, I believe–about a century later, and the latter was not really common in England until the nineteenth century. There are actually two other anachronistic names as well. I used the names with knowledge of this fact; I hope it doesn’t spoil the story for you.