Book reviews & comments on returning to the US after living overseas a really long time.
Sunday, May 28, 2006
The Year of the Hangman by Gary Blackwood
Here's another book by the author of the series : The Shakespeare Stealer (Spy, Scribe -- series) This series has been very popular in Middle School being passed around.
This particular book is an alternative history of the American Revolutionary Period. It's an interesting perspective as the colonial rebels have been subdued by the British Army and are in hiding in New Orleans, La. (a Spanish colony) George Washington is under arrest in British held territory and the rebels in New Orleans are plotting to free him.
The story begins with Creighton Brown, spoiled son of a British officer supposedly killed in the war, being involuntarily dispatched there in hopes that his ruthless uncle, Hugh Gower, colonel in charge of the Charles Town garrison, can shape him up. The colonel, a thoroughly unpleasant individual has no intention of dealing with Creighton.
Captured by pirates led by dashing hothead Benedict Arnold, Creighton meets Ben Franklin and other exiles living in Spanish-held New Orleans, and finds himself playing both sides, forced to spy for Gower while becoming embroiled in a rebel plan to find and free Washington. The action is constant and the dialogue is clever; all the while, Creighton is finding out the meaning of honor and the value of war.
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