Freedom's Ghost

August 7, 2023
Edgar Award winner Pattison (The King’s Beast) delivers another rousing adventure for Scotsman Duncan McCallum in pre–Revolutionary War America. The year is 1770, and Massachusetts is a powder keg waiting to explode as tensions mount between the British Redcoats and the American Sons of Liberty. When a British soldier is found dead with his lips sewn shut, it falls to McCallum, currently employed by merchant John Hancock, to uncover who is responsible. During his investigation, McCallum rubs elbows with John Adams, British Maj. Gen. Thomas Gage, Benjamin Franklin, and Crispus Attucks, the real-life Black Indigenous sailor who was the first person killed at the Boston Massacre. As more Redcoat bodies pile up, McCallum’s investigation, aided by his resourceful fiancée, Sarah Ramsey, is stymied by agents working for the shadowy Black Office of the British War Council. The climax involves a furious chase up the Hudson River as McCallum’s brig, filled with escaped slaves, is pursued by a slave-catching schooner. Though the narrative is a bit overcrowded, McCallum is a forward-thinking hero who embraces equality, and Pattison fully immerses readers in the daily life of colonial Boston and Manhattan. This historical mystery is good fun. Agent: Natasha Kern, Natasha Kern Literary.

September 1, 2023
In the powder keg of colonial America, Scotsman Duncan McCallum, known as Deathspeaker for his ability to glean clues from post-mortem examinations, moves amongst a diverse milieu that includes British soldiers, Native Americans, and the Sons of Liberty. As a patriot who hopes for liberty without violence, McCallum realizes tensions are high, and his investigations into the murders of British officers must strike a delicate balance. The situation is further complicated when his smuggler fianc�e involves him in plans to guide rescued enslaved people from Barbados to freedom in the wilds of New York. Pattison adeptly portrays the panorama of late-1700s Massachusetts, sprinkling in historical characters (e.g., John Hancock, John Adams), British spies, impressment, and more. Multiple plot threads run simultaneously, maintaining suspense as McCallum tracks a sadistic killer. The seventh book in the Bone Rattler series, following The King's Beast (2020), can stand alone, but readers will benefit from starting at the beginning, especially in terms of character development. Pattison's latest will engage readers who enjoy historical crime fiction and novels about the American Revolution.

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