Original Death

Starred review from June 17, 2013
Edgar-winner Pattison combines action, period details, and a whodunit with ease in his impressive third mystery set in Colonial America (after 2010’s Eye of the Raven). The French and Indian War is in its sixth year in 1760, and the American wilderness is full of armed men “lusting to soak the land in blood for the sake of distant kings.” Against this backdrop and the continued encroachment of the white man on the traditions and lands of the American Indian, Scottish exile Duncan McCallum is trying to help his Nipmuc friend, Conawago—who’s given up hope of ever seeing another member of his tribe—reunite with a previously unknown relative. The quest gets off to an ominous start with McCallum’s discovery of a dead soldier tied to a wheel at the bottom of a lake. As the bodies pile up, Pattison pays tribute to the conventions of the murder mystery without sacrificing excitement or a nuanced look at the final stage of the war between the British and the French for control of North America. Agent: Natasha Kern, Natasha Kern Literary Agency.

August 1, 2013
The French and Indian War provides a backdrop for a complex tale of clashing cultures and mass murder. In the summer of 1760, Scotsman Duncan McCallum accompanies his Indian mate, Conawago, on a journey to reconnect with the remainder of his tribe, Christians all. A massacre they find at Bethel Church sends Conawago into deep grief. There are soldiers all around. Madame Pritchard, a Frenchwoman who feigns deafness so that the English don't imprison her or worse, reports that the raiders took the children of the community with them. With the help of a Mohawk named Sagatchie, they begin their slow pursuit, which is full of obstacles and hardships. A few letters they discover fill in some of the details surrounding the mass murder. Falsely arresting Duncan for the killing of a corporal, sadistic British Col. Cameron takes perverse pleasure in putting him into "the iron hole." Conawago, meanwhile, is tortured by his captors. Duncan and Conawago's escape makes them objects of a manhunt as they try to untangle the story of the brutal crime. A pair of quirky adventurers--Ishmael, who's highly attuned to the spirit world, and Macauley, who's left his regiment in disgust--enliven their party and their story. Reminiscence and conjecture among the adventurers fill the quiet moments between episodes. Hetty, a notorious witch, members of several different tribes and the discovery of a thrilling library are highlights of their odyssey. Duncan's third mystery (Eye of the Raven, 2010, etc.), rich in period detail, is often somber and unblinking in its portrayal of a dark period in history.

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Starred review from July 1, 2013
Third in the Bone Rattler series, this novel continues Highlander Duncan McCallum's American adventures after he and his friend Conawago discover the massacred remains of Christian Indians in a small settlement, and they attempt to rescue the few surviving children who have been abducted. Set during the French and Indian War, the story vividly depicts the wilderness landscape, the disparate Native Americans allied with the English army, the Highlanders hoping to start a new life, innocent settlers, missionaries, and spies. Every faction fights to retain a way of life that is foreign to the others, and McCallum somehow juggles them against each other, time and again thumbing his nose at torture, imprisonment, and death. Pattison twists a skein of plotlines and weaves Indian mysticism into a time-capsule portrait of America at a crossroads: a time of endings for some and the beginning of a revolution played out by cruel, compelling, and sometimes powerful people with warring visions. Themes of disillusionment and a vanishing way of life make this series in some ways similar to Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, though Pattison adds an element of psychological suspense comparable to Jean Zimmerman's The Orphanmaster (2012) and a degree of human complexity that suggests Sarah Donati's Wilderness novels.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)