The Muse and Other Stories of History, Mystery and Myth

[Lesa Holstine]

Lillian Stewart Carl's latest anthology is a magical escape into the past, the past of history and literature.

If you have a familiarity with the basic bones of Carl's stories, they are even more enchanting. She covers literature, from Charles Dickens to Shakespeare to Johnson and Boswell. There's wonderful historical elements, from Ann Boleyn to Elizabeth 1, from Thomas Jefferson to World War II. Carl is adept at switching settings and language to fit the story. And, the pararnormal elements that appear in some of the stories is just an added bonus.

The thirteen stories include wonderful ones such as A Stake of Holly, set nineteen years after A Christmas Carol. Scrooge is on his deathbed, asking Tim Cratchit to find out the identity of the ghosts that visited him. As a young man, in one story, Thomas Jefferson is asked to find a murderer. And, for cat lovers, there is a tribute to the classic stories of Wodehouse and Christie, a fun mystery called Sardines for Tea.

The Muse and Other Stories of History, Mystery and Myth allows the author to explore a range of historical periods, and literary classics. Carl has intriguing plots in which she challenges the reader to look at culture with a different eye. Lillian Stewart Carl invites the interested reader into a collection of stories filled with the magic of the past.

Lillian Stewart Carl's website is www.lillianstewartcarl.com

The Muse and Other Stories of History, Mystery and Myth by Lillian Stewart Carl. Delphi Books, ©2007, ISBN 978-9-9765185-5-6 (paperback), 251p.