Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde, MyShelf.com
Buy a US || UK Copy

If you love tales of adventure and at the same time want a novel with an erudite style and meticulous research, then look no further. Richard has certainly done his homework and confected a novel that describes Washington's early campaigns during the 1750s as the Native Americans, English and French all try to hold on to land that they insist is theirs and war is about to erupt.

The 21-year-old Washington has been made Adjutant General of Virginia by Governor Robert Dinwiddie and has been sent as an emissary to try and negotiate with the French over who owns Ohio. Thus, it could be a straight, linear biographical novel centering around the one historical character, and many books do just this and make great reading, but Patton has gone one further and given the reader several viewpoints. As George tries to do his best in his first command and longs for the forbidden charms of Sally, Shawnee Old Smoke wonders where he fits in and walks between two worlds and wild young Pariah West is about to undergo a strange metamorphosis. This is a novel that deals as much with the Native American point of view as much as the British one, something that came as a pleasant surprise to this reader. The Shawnee village is almost as central to the action as Washington and his men and at times the novel reminded me of Robert J Conley, whose books I greatly enjoy for their readability and historical verisimilitude.

To be truly disinterested, it might have been an even better idea to paint the French in a more sympathetic light (they are the true villains here at all times) but this is one novel that, though short, has a lot of reading in it. I can't wait for the next part - this is one of those novels that stays in the mind long afterwards.