Another Review at MyShelf.Com

The Blacksmith’s Daughter
American Revolution Mystery, No 2

by Suzanne Adair

This is a story about a family during the Revolutionary and the trials and tribulations that came from being involved in the major event that brought about the revolution from England. Suzanne Adair has done it again, another winner about the history of this country. This is a follow-up to Paper Woman and the same family who helped in the Revolution, as printers who delivered the news. I can’t say enough about The Blacksmith’s Daughter (this current book) or for that matter, Paper Woman. Both were stupendous, insightful and thoroughly engrossing. History written in the fiction format is usually well done with a very compelling storyline, but Ms. Adair has a way with words and descriptions that makes the reader feel like they are truly there in the middle of whatever is happening to her characters. Ms. Adair is an award-winning (The Patrick D. Smith Award for literature from the Florida Historical Society) writer from Raleigh, N.C. who puts the reader right into the thick of the smoke and war with the loyalists, patriots and redcoats.

The Blacksmith’s Daughter is Betsy Sheridan, a very pregnant seventeen-year-old woman married to Clark. She’s the daughter of Paper Woman's Sophie Barton and Mathias Hale, a Creek Indian half-breed, who are on the run, hiding in South Carolina from the British soldiers, and who took a very long journey to Cuba looking for information. Betsy becomes involved because her husband is one of the rebels and they’re both trying to find and locate her mother. Lieutenant Dunstan Fairfax is a brutal man who uses his position and office to apprehend Clark, Betsy, and her mother Sophie, for whom he has a vendetta. He was once sweet on her, and she turned him down only to turn to the Indians rather than follow his lead. She was trying to maintain neutrality so she could report on the battles and occupation by the British. Fairfax has set traps for Betsy and Clark along the way to Camden, GA from Alton, GA and tries his best to thwart any help or attempts to reconcile with her family along the way. The Battle of Camden was a real event that led to the many other battles, and the eventual throwing off of the British that let the Revolutionaries win American independence from the English throne and King George III. Fairfax was a brutal redcoat and not one to trifle with, and Betsy learned that lesson very well.

I can’t wait to read the next book to find out what happened to both Betsy and her mother Sophia. Ms. Adair is an excellent writer and her way with words takes the reader right into the middle of old Georgia with war going on all around them. It is historically accurate and very enlightening. Great reading for anyone studying the history of our nation.

American Revolution Series
Paper Woman, 1
The Blacksmith’s Daughter, 2
Camp Follower, 3

The Book

Whittler’s Bench Press / an Imprint of Dram Tree Books
September 2007
Paperback
978-0978526535
Historical suspense [Revolutionary War 1780]
More at Amazon.com
NOTE: Not a shred of explicit language or context that might offend anyone. All age groups can read.

The Reviewer

Claudia Turner VanLydegraf
Reviewed 2007
NOTE:
© 2006 MyShelf.com