Bone Rattler: A Mystery of Colonial America - Hardcover

Pattison, Eliot

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1593761856 ISBN 13: 9781593761851

Publisher: Counterpoint, 2007

Synopsis

Aboard a British convict ship bound for the New World, Duncan McCallum witnesses a series of murders and seeming suicides among his fellow Scottish prisoners that thrusts him into the bloody maw of the French and Indian War. As the only man aboard with any medical training, Duncan is ordered to assemble evidence to hold another prisoner accountable for the deaths or face punishment that will mean his own death. His conclusions suggest that the wave of violence is somehow linked to the "savages" of the American wilderness. Duncan’s suspicions that the prison company is to be sacrificed in the war seem to be confirmed when he learns that they are all indentured to Lord Ramsey’s estate in the uncharted New York woodlands, a Heart of Darkness where multiple warring factions are engaged in physical, psychological, and spiritual battle. Following a strange trail of clues that seem half Iroquois and half Highland Scot, mesmerized by the Lord Ramsey’s beautiful daughter, and frequently defying death in a dangerous wilderness populated by grizzled European settlers, mysterious scalping parties, and Indian sorcerers, Duncan McCallum, exiled chief of his near-extinct clan, finds the source of all evil at the site of an Indian massacre.

About this title

About the Author:

Eliot Pattison is the author of "The Skull Mantra", which won the Edgar Award and was a finalist for the "Gold Dagger", as well "Water Touching Stone" and "Bone Mountain". Pattison is a world traveler and frequent visitor to China, and his numerous books and articles on international policy issues have been published around the world.

From Publishers Weekly:

Starred Review. Having already won an Edgar for his Inspector Shan series (The Skull Mantra, etc.), Pattison makes a strong bid for another with this outstanding mystery set in colonial America. Scottish prisoner Duncan McCallum, indentured to the Ramsey Company, is troubled by a series of mysterious deaths on the ship carrying him to the New World. When McCallum's close friend Adam Munroe and a professor who was to work as a tutor are added to the list of the dead, McCallum, who has extensive medical training, is enlisted by the captain to investigate. The shipboard mysteries remain unresolved when they arrive in New York, and McCallum's quest for the truth leads him to perilous encounters on both sides of the French and Indian War. Pattison's moving characters, intricate plot and masterful evocation of the time, including sensitive depictions of the effects of the European war on Native Americans, set this leagues beyond most historicals and augur well for future entries in this series. (Jan.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Counterpoint
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1593761856
• ISBN 13: 9781593761851
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 464