Blood of the Oak
A Mystery
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The Edgar Award–winner’s colonial series continues as Scottish exile Duncan McCallum uncovers a loyalist conspiracy—“Historical mystery at its best” (Booklist, starred review).
The American Colonies, 1765. As the Stamp Act dissent marks the first organized resistance to English rule, someone is kidnapping and killing members of the Iroquois Nation. Asked by an elder to investigate, Scottish exile Duncan McCallum soon uncovers a network of secret runners supporting the nascent “committees of correspondence,” engaged in the political dissent fomenting across colonial borders. But as Duncan follows the trail further, it leads to his capture.
Thrown into slavery with the kidnapped runners, Duncan discovers a powerful conspiracy of highly placed English aristocrats bent on crushing all dissent. Inspired by an aged Native American slave and new African friends, Duncan decides not just to escape but to turn their own intrigue against the London lords.
A Publishers Weekly Best Book, the fourth entry in the Bone Rattler series moves ever closer to the beginning of the American Revolution. With a cast of characters that includes Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, the early Pennsylvania rebel James Smith, and Dr. Benjamin Rush, Blood of the Oak takes a fresh view on the birth of the new American nation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
