A thoughtfully written and very well-researched biography of the first Black American female novelist in the nineteenth century.

I thought that this book would be more readable, but it really is for the scholar who is interested in this most important and yet overlooked woman of US History.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

In a true example of historical detective work, Professor Gregg Hecimovich unravels the mystery of the author of The Bondswoman’s Narrative which was first published in 2002. Hecimovich identifies the author as Hannah Bond “Crafts” and places her book in the realm of semi-autobiographical fiction, and he explores the list of five possible authors of The Bondswoman’s Narrative before finally settling on Hannah Bond as the most likely author. In this biography, Hecimovich brings these several narratives together to build a narrative of mid-nineteenth century American slavery and the remarkability of Hannah Bond’s ability to develop such a powerful literary voice in direct opposition to the institutional systems that affected her. Hecimovich’s historical analysis and historical detective work are fascinating to read, especially since Hecimovich goes into such detail about the process and the source material available. The depth of research, time commitment, and work in this biography is absolutely incredible, and the research into this forgotten author and the larger social history makes this book incredibly powerful, relevant, and an important read. Despite all the research and academic importance of this biography, Hecimovich has made this book incredibly readable and digestible for historians, academics, and regular readers alike.

This is a must read for anyone interested in literary history.

A tale of love, friendship, betrayal, and violence set against the backdrop of America’s slide into Civil War. If you are at all interested in American history, grab this book.

Thank you the publisher and Netgalley for an arc. All opinions expressed are my own.

In 1857, a woman flees enslavement on a North Carolina plantation, finding refuge on a New York farm where she secretly pens a The Bondwoman’s Narrative. The manuscript remains unpublished until 2002, when the novel gains acclaim. The author's identity remained a mystery until Professor Gregg Hecimovich unraveled the truth behind the first black woman to write a novel.

I did not read The Bondwoman’s Narrative when it was first published. In fact, seeing this book was the first I’d heard anything about it. Still, I was fascinated by the idea of discovering the identity of a writer, so I was eager to read this. It was extraordinary to read the amount of effort it took to find some clues as to who could have written the manuscript and what happened.

At times, this book was difficult to get through. It jumped around a bit, detailing why one person’s story matched the events of the manuscript but then why they were not the author. It jumped to the writer’s mother and how she affected the story. It was a lot of information and I was not able to read for long lengths of time because it felt overwhelming.

Still, this was an interesting look into the life of an enslaved woman and how she used her pen to take back control of all that had happened to her. I suspect reading the manuscript would have given more weight to the search for her identity.

I would recommend this to readers interested in the life of an enslaved person and the search through history to discover who she was.

This review will publish Oct. 31, 2023, in multiple newspapers and magazines.

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A season of reading: A dozen titles for your holiday basket

by Tom Mayer

The year-ending, pre-holiday book season is one bibliophiles wait for all year. October and November are traditionally the months we watch as names blockbuster (Grisham, King), rising (Gerritsen, Ward) or just heartwarmingly familiar (McCammon, Dugoni) descend from the upper echelons of ivy towers to the stacks of our local bookstores and online shopping carts.


This year is no different, though it is marked by a couple of significant deviations to the norm from two stalwart fall-release authors: Stephen King, who makes his own rules, gifted us with “Holly” in early September and Nicholas Sparks — almost unbelievably given his decades-long track record of releases — won’t have a new book for us this year (a fact I had to double check with his publicist, though when I spoke with Nicholas in 2022 about his wonderful book, “Dreamland,” he did promise something completely surprising and different for his next release. Give some grace, get some grace — surprising and different can take time.)

Still, October and November 2023 are filled with exciting and fresh titles, including a dozen that we’ll touch on here. Far from exhaustive and brief in scope, consider this a primer for the season we’re just dipping into.

I’ll be laser-focusing on some of these in pullout columns during the next few weeks — and adding more titles for November and December — but send me a quick note at tmayer132435@gmail.com if you want a link to those when they appear.


For now, happy holidays, book lovers.



‘One Last Kill’ (Thomas & Mercer, 379 pages, $16.99) by Robert Dugoni


The prolific Robert Dugoni gifts us with his 10th detective Tracy Crosswhite novel, and in this one the stakes are raised. Set in familiar environs, after 13 victims Tracy reopens the cold trail of Seattle’s Route 99 serial killer. Closure for the families and redemption for the Seattle Police Department are on the line, but if Tracy’s going to achieve either she’ll have to do it by partnering with an old nemesis: Captain Johnny Nolasco. Those who traveled with Tracy through her earlier thrillers know exactly what that means. New readers will soon find out.



‘Murder on the Christmas Express’ (Poisoned Pen Press, 272 pages, $24) by Alexandra Benedict


What’s the holiday season without a murder mystery to help pass the time? A sleeper train en route from London on Christmas Eve is buried in snow in a remote and isolated location. As a killer tries to pick off passengers one by one, a former detective, Roz Parker, decides to give the investigation a go. You’ve been here before, but this locked room puzzle both is and isn’t what you’ll expect. Bon voyage.



‘Long Past Dues’’ (Ace, 411 pages, $27) by James J. Butcher


Bringing us into volume 2 of The Unorthodox Chronicles, James J. Butcher now presents Grimshaw Griswald Grimsby as an auditor for Boston’s Department of Unorthodox Affairs. Tasked with enforcing laws about magic, the job sounds more glamorous than it is — which explains why Grimshaw steps outside of his role to take a special case for a friend. Werewolves and a journey to the bowels of Boston’s subterranean city ensue.



‘Weird Tales: 100 Years of Weird’ (Blackstone Publishing, 659 pages, $28) edited by Jonathan Maberry


Who doesn’t love a compilation of a century’s worth of stories from one of the world’s most storied publications? Coming from the hallowed halls of “Weird Tales Magazine,” this book is simply beautiful in style, substance and craft (pro tip: buy the hardcover; it’s a gem). Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the magazine, this volume contains 100 years of the most peculiar tales you’ll ever encounter or, as the periodical likes to boast, those “too strange to publish elsewhere.” A true reader’s delight.

‘

The Exchange’ (Doubleday, 352 pages, $30) by John Grisham


You know you’ve been waiting for this one. Published 32 years after John Grisham’s “The Firm,” the king of legal thrillers picks up the thread of the lives of Mitch and Abby McDeere and family as they’re caught in an international kidnapping plot — and struggling to retain the normalcy they’ve worked 15 years to achieve since they exposed the crimes of the mob-related Memphis law firm of Bendini, Lambert & Locke. With just enough backstory to fill in the history of those unfamiliar with “The Firm,” Grisham crafts a credible and timely (though it’s set in the mid-2000s) story filled with his hallmarks: greed, crime, deception and more than a bit of heroics. A worthy successor and one, I should mention, completely unlike the 2012 TV series sequel to both the original novel and film adaptation.



‘The Spy Coast’ (Thomas & Mercer, 341 pages, $29) by Tess Gerritsen


The Martini Club continues in Tess Gerritsen’s “The Spy Coast” as former spy Maggie Bird is drawn from her bucolic Maine chicken farm life into a new thriller — something that tends to happen when the body that appears in your driveway is sent as a message from your former adversaries. The former spies, like Bird, may all be retired, but they’re definitely up for a fresh case, and especially a case that involves those who are bent on killing one of their own.



‘The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts: The true story of the Bondwoman’s Narrative’ (Ecco, 432 pages, $40) by Gregg Hecimovich with a foreword by Henry Louis Gates Jr.


In 1857, a woman escaped enslavement from a North Carolina plantation. Fleeing to a farm in New York, she found time to craft a manuscript about her trials. This important and groundbreaking book about the nation’s first Black female novelist comes from the biographer who first solved the mystery of her identity.



‘American Girl’ (Blackstone Publishing, 246 pages, $27) by Wendy Walker


This important thriller from best-selling author Wendy Walker introduces Charlie Hudson, an autistic teen with a desire to leave her small, Pennsylvania town as soon as she graduates. But first, when the owner of the sandwich shop at which Wendy works is found dead, the 17-year-old and her friends are drawn into a dangerous case with an unusual point of view: The story is told through the eyes of the protagonist.



'Let Us Descend' (Scribner, 320 pages, $28) by Jesmyn Ward


Jesmyn Ward is a two-time National Book winner, and “Let Us Descend” shows us why. This tale, a reimagining of American slavery, is a beautifully harsh read. The story comes to us from Annis, a slave sold south by her white enslaver father and her heart-wrenching journey is punctuated only by the fleeting comfort of memories of her mother and African warrior grandmother. An emotional narrative rich in description.



'The Last Applicant’ (Lake Union Publishing, 317 pages, $29) by Rebecca Hanover


A deep dive into this ripped-from-the-headlines story by Rebecca Hanover takes us into the life of Audrey Singer, an admissions director of an elite private school in Manhattan. One overachieving mother will do anything — anything — to get her son enrolled, but as the ploys escalate it rapidly becomes clear that this might not be all she is after. Secrets are threatened to be revealed as this tale takes a deep, dark turn.



‘Seven Shades of Evil’ (Lividian Publications, 424 pages, $39.50) by Robert McCammon


You had me at, Robert McCammon. Literally, I would buy anything with this Alabama author’s name on it, but you’ll never go afield picking up a book involving Matthew Corbett. This volume of short stories, the ninth installment in that world, is the penultimate volume of the Corbett series — a tremendous set of historical thrillers that have been drawing legions of readers into Early America for more than two decades.



‘Robots through the Ages: A Science Fiction Anthology’ (Blackstone, 495 pages, $26) by Robert Silverberg (introduction) and Bryan Thomas Schmidt (editor)


OK, I’m cheating a bit by including ‘Robots’ in this list — it first published during the summer — but with the conflation of technology and well, our entire world, igniting in the form of AI at an exponential pace, this is one that more than a few readers would welcome under the tree. A vast and inclusive sweep of robot stories told through the ages (really, we begin the journey with “The Iliad”), this volume includes tales from the heroes of science fiction, including names such as Philip K. Dick, Seanan McGuire, Connie Willis and Roger Zelazny. A fascinating journey, “Robots through the Ages” is replete with prescient tales of today.

With a foreword written by Henry Louis Gates Jr. who published the first edition of Hannah Crafts handwritten and self-edited manuscript, The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts is an exploration of the life and work of this formerly enslaved Black woman who is the first ever known Black, female novelist.

Gregg Hecimovich is a biographer who committed himself to doing a deep dive into the life of Hannah Crafts in order to piece her story together. For over 150 years Hannah Crafts manuscript has remained hidden with evidence that Emily Driscoll, a book shop owner in NYC acquired it in 1948 and listed it in her store as: "a fictionalized biography, written in an effusive style, purporting to be the story of the early life and escape of one Hannah Crafts, a mulatto...".

As a lover of Black literature, I am so grateful that Gregg Hecimovich wrote this book in order to demystify the woman behind what others had reduced to "the mixed-race fugitive author". So many of our heroes are turned into myths and in this narrative Hannah Crafts humanity is centered. The author seeks to answer the questions: Who was Hannah? Why did she tell her story as a novel that mostly hid her identity? Why did her story never get published over the course of her lifetime? He both answers each of these questions and reclaims the events of her life on which this novel is based.

Thank you so much to the author and publisher for the e-arc copy!