Blood of the Oak

Starred review from January 11, 2016
In 1765, the French and Indian War is over, but the American colonies are not at peace, as shown in Edgar-winner Pattison’s superior fourth mystery featuring Scottish ex-pat Duncan McCallum (after 2013’s Original Death). The Native Americans who inhabit the forests of New York have dubbed McCallum the Death Speaker for his ability to use his medical training to determine how people died. That skill is all too useful when Red Jacob, an Oneida who served with English frontier rangers, is murdered by someone who almost claimed the life of his superior, Duncan’s friend, Capt. Patrick Woolford. Theirs is not the last blood shed. Duncan soon finds himself on the trail of ruthless killers who are targeting messengers working for some secret committees in different cities, whose leaders include Benjamin Franklin. Pattison does a brilliant job of showing how political events at this time paved the way for the start of the Revolutionary War. Agent: Natasha Kern, Natasha Kern Literary Agency.

In Colonial America, a Scottish exile stumbles onto a conspiracy of killers in a most unlikely place. In the spring of 1765, Duncan McCallum is enjoying a beautiful day and looking forward to returning home and seeing his beloved Sarah when he's summoned by Iroquois elder mother Adanahoe, who's on her deathbed. She warns of a vision she's had of Duncan and his Nipmuc Indian friend Conawago suffering grave wounds and asks his help in finding the mysterious man who kidnapped and killed her grandson Siyenca. Sadly, Duncan soon encounters another victim, the Iroquois Red Jacob, whose arm seems to have been eaten away. When he shares the story with Sarah and Conawago, his friend supports Duncan's choice to investigate after some much needed sleep. There turn out to be many more deaths or disappearances, a contagion to which the Iroquois apply a spiritual meaning. Duncan learns that there are political implications as well. He examines the bullets used to kill Red Jacob and finds them pure and advanced, not from frontier weapons. An inflammatory speech he reads in a newspaper leads to an attempt to rescue some captured Iroquois, hearing more accounts of barbarous torture, and learning of a horrible plot involving British opponents of the nascent American independence movement. The fourth installment in Pattison's Bone Rattler series (Original Death, 2013, etc.) is another complexly plotted historical mystery written in a baroque style highly suggestive of the period and unblinking in its portrayal of American history's dark lessons. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

February 15, 2016

Duncan McCallum, a displaced Jacobite from Scotland and part-time healer, lands in another tension-filled morass of bizarre murders, kidnappings, stolen artifacts, and cryptic codes. By 1765 the seeds of the upcoming American Rebellion are beginning to sprout. The Stamp Tax dissent is gaining momentum, and the fallout from the recent French and Indian Wars fuels a palpable anxiety throughout the colonies and the neighboring Native American tribes. All the while, British troops and ships are becoming more prevalent and the English presence feels more like an occupation. Something has to give. VERDICT Pattison's fourth installment of his "Bone Rattler" series (after Original Death) features Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Samuel Adams, and a young Benjamin Rush making cameo appearances. The detailed handling of the times is accurate; however, often the pace slows to a slog and some of the characters feel a bit pedestrian.--Russell Miller, Prescott P.L., AZ

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 15, 2015
In 1765, with the French and Indian War behind him, Duncan McCallum is at peace in the New World, until he is drawn into the burgeoning unrest presaging the American Revolution. After a sacred Iroquois mask is stolen and McCallum finds his close friend, Captain Patrick Woolford, grievously wounded beside the murdered and mutilated body of Woolford's Oneida sergeant, he's urged by Woolford to find 19 men who are doomed to die. The quest takes highlander McCallum (an indentured servant to Sarah Ramsey, the woman he loves) south to Virginia. Along the way, he encounters more ritualistic murders before being enslaved at a plantation illegally confiscated by his nemesis, Lord Ramsey, Sarah's father, who has vowed to kill him. The passage of the Stamp Act has led to tempestuous times in America, and Pattison captures that mood in this intriguing novel, which blends Native American mysticism, African American religion, and the loyalties of European settlers, all united in their desire for freedom. The fourth in Pattison's Bone Rattler series (after Original Death, 2013) combines well-drawn fictional and historical personages in a vivid portrayal of a pivotal year in American history. Historical mystery at its best.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)