Reviews Continued – Shadow Patriots

“Lucia St. Clair Robson’s Shadow Patriots (Forge) immerses us in the Revolutionary War, which used to be the subject of good fiction — my childhood was spent devouring the novels of Kenneth Roberts — but not lately. Robson’s book, however, redresses that unfortunate imbalance as it tells the story of a Quaker woman who falls for the English Major John Andre and negotiates a tenuous tightrope between her sympathy for the American cause and her feelings for Andre, which are complicated by her family’s Loyalist sympathies.

It’s unusually well-researched — the period gradually envelops you as you read — and carries the author’s frequent air of dash and narrative conviction. Nor does it shy away from unpleasant accompaniments to war such as sudden death and other tragedies. This is historical fiction as it ought to be written and seldom is.”

“Petticoat espionage in a decidedly stinky, dangerous Old New York.

Few novelists working now have a better grasp of early American history than Robson (Fearless, 1998, etc.), who, among her other virtues, understands that not every colonist talked like a pirate and shuns outré and anachronistic dialect.

In this spirited — and entertaining— confection, she turns her attention to a Quaker clan in a New York whose administration isn’t quite working at the dawn of the Revolution, with all the mounds of uncollected garbage that entails. The likes of General Howe and suave spy Major André wish very much to see royal governance restored, and Rob Townsend hasn’t been doing much to stop them; he “had watched the Continental Army straggle into the city four months ago, but this was not his fight. He was a Quaker, and he swore loyalty to no one but God.” Hearing the Declaration of Independence proclaimed changes Rob’s mind, and fellow Quaker Seth Darby and his 17-year-old sister Kate likewise opt for the rebel cause, all prepared to give their lives just as good Nathan Hale is about to do.

Rob has a thing for Kate (“He clasped his hands behind his back so she would not see them trembling”). So does Major André, and Kate has, well, reciprocal views: “He did have the most beautiful teeth and eyes. Kate felt the usual flutter in her chest whenever he was near.” Even Benedict Arnold, André’s onetime bete noir and ally-to-be, notices Kate, and he’s got his hands full with the tenacious Peggy Shippen, a figure nicely drafted out of real history to do duty here.

Chests heave, flintlocks discharge, and history takes its ever unpredictable twists and turns as spy meets spy, George Washington tells fibs that would make Parson Weems wince, Alex Hamilton takes offence at everyone and everything, and the Revolution suffers its darkest hours.

Wholly believable, confidently realized, attention-holding historical fiction.”