"Rapscallion" by James McGee / Tuesday, May 28, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

It’s the early 1800s and espionage is alive and well in jolly old England.

“Rapscallion” by James McGee is the third adventure for Bow Street Runner Matthew Hawkwood and in this installment, without giving too much away, he is to go undercover as a prisoner of war to discover how prisoners are escaping from a floating penitentiary. Posing as an American mercenary fighting for the French, Hawkwood soon learns his assignment is a fate worse than death as he finds himself on a former man-o-war converted into a prison ship. Set first in the hull of the nasty ship where prisoners seem to make their own laws and later in the English backcountry where order and laws do not seem to matter, Hawkwood tries to get to the bottom of a human smuggling operation while continuing the ruse and his life.

I love the dark English portrayal of the Napoleonic time period.  The novel reads true.  I don’t know that I’ve personally ever read anything quite like it, though the war profiteering scheme does ring familiar in our own time.  As Rhett Butler observed, there is more money to be made in the fall of a civilization than in the building of it.

This is definitely a page-turner, especially as we reach the climax; my only problem was I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. If you’re in the mood for a dark historical, this is definitely one to get. It will make you thankful for the simple things, such as a shower or bath.

– Clay Stafford is an author / filmmaker and founder of Killer Nashville. Stafford’s latest projects are the documentary “One of the Miracles” and the music CD “XO”.

Buy the book from the Killer Nashville Bookstore and help support a new generation of writers and readers.

Visit our bookstore for other similar books.

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join our Facebook Killer Nashville group page or our blog and join in the discussion.

Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!

"Another Sun" by Timothy Williams / Tuesday, May 14, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

I love taking trips to places I’ve never been and I think this is the first novel I’ve read set in Guadeloupe.  It is an underdog tale with a twist.

“Another Son” by Timothy Williams is a gripping story of a judge who takes it upon herself to prove a man innocent whom everyone else thinks is guilty.  The twist is that the accused has no interest in helping his counsel because she is a woman and he is a man. This is a story of an area flavored by old politics, gender bias, and racial prejudices against a backdrop of French colonialism.  The story is set in Guadeloupe in 1980 and Timothy Williams says that he has been working on this novel for 30 years meaning, I guess, that he started it back around the time that the story is set.

In the novel, the elderly Hegesippe Bray has been charged with the murder of a white landowner who was running him off his property.  The landowner had few friends and most were glad to see him die.  Still, justice must be done.  The French view the case as open-and-shut, but not French judge Anne Marie Laveaud.  The big question is whether or not the accused is guilty.  The larger theme, though, is the political and historical structure of this little island within which Laveaud must navigate.  Bray is a grouchy curmudgeon whom one has to eventually like.  Laveaud grows on the reader as she pursues justice in her own objective way; you admire her tenacity.  The feel of the novel is gritty like sand, which – I guess – is how crime novels should probably feel, especially when set on an island.

The UK Observer calls Timothy Williams one of the “Ten Best European Crime Writers.”  The title is well-deserved.  If you would like to spend a little time on an island this spring seeing if you can out-sleuth Williams, this book is up to the challenge.  Few, I think, will predict the outcome before they get there.

– Clay Stafford is an author / filmmaker and founder of Killer Nashville. Stafford’s latest projects are the documentary “One of the Miracles” and the music CD “XO”.

Buy the book from the Killer Nashville Bookstore and help support a new generation of writers and readers.

Visit our bookstore for other similar books.

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join our Facebook Killer Nashville group page or our blog and join in the discussion.

Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!