I was mainly looking forward to Hand of Miriam because of the Jewish content which is relatively rare in fantasy. Eva Gordon made the wise decision to provide us with a female protagonist who is a secular Jew with more religiously observant relatives. This meant that Bayla, the protagonist, would have some familiarity with Jewish culture, but that there would be fewer references to Jewish practices that would need to be checked for accuracy.
When I learned that Bayla's family were Ladino speaking descendants of Spanish Jews, I was concerned that the character's name might be inconsistent with her background. You see, I knew Bayla as a Yiddish name for Jewish women of Ashkenazi/Eastern European descent. When I researched the name , I learned that the Yiddish name was originally spelled Baila, and that Bayla was also a Spanish name with a completely different meaning from the Yiddish equivalent. I am happy to say that this Orthodox raised Jewish blogger found no Jewish cultural errors in Hand of Miriam.
The most prominent Jewish cultural symbol was the hand shaped protective object known as a Hamsa. The hyperlink points to an article on My Jewish Learning. As an American Ashkenazi, I hadn't heard of the Hamsa until I was gifted with one by an Israeli who informed me that it was also Islamic. I was intrigued by the fact that the Hamsa is cross-cultural. I hadn't seen it referred to as the Hand of Miriam until I read Eva Gordon's book, but in researching for this post I did see this association in various online sources.
Now I need to weigh in on the swordfighting aspect of this novel. My perspective on this topic comes from having seen every Highlander TV episode numerous times. This is because I'm a Highlander series fan. The main protagonist in Highlander: The Series uses a katana as Bayla does in The Hand of Miriam.
The most important point I want to bring up about swordfighting is that you need significant practice with it. Duncan MacLeod is portrayed as training constantly with his katana on the Highlander series. There is a scene in which Bayla manages to successfully use a katana without any previous scenes in which she practices. Later in the novel, she does do sword training, but that early scene stuck out for me as not very believable.
There's also a scene in which Bayla produces her katana from nowhere. She wasn't wearing the long coat Duncan MacLeod usually wears to conceal his katana, nor was she wearing any other garment where she could have kept it. Actually, there were numerous instances when characters on Highlander: The Series produced swords from nowhere. Highlander fans decided there must be a magical Katana Space in another dimension from which katanas could be plucked when needed. I suppose Bayla might have her own version of Katana Space. 😄
I admit I was not fond of seeing Jack the Ripper in Hand of Miriam. Some authors seem to be unable to resist throwing him into the mix. I consider the Jack the Ripper murder case a predictable element in books that are set in England during the Victorian Era.
Although I have some criticisms of Hand of Miriam, I did enjoy reading it. I hope that Her Majesty's Witch is equally entertaining.
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