From Publishers Weekly
Set in 1740s England, this enthralling first installment in a projected four-book cycle about the American Revolution introduces the main character of the series, young Jack Frake. Clever, observant and fiercely loyal, Jack gets himself noticed by Rector Robert Parmley, who decides to tutor the boy, but Jack's mother has other plans plans that lead to the murder of Parmley and Jack's running away from home. He eventually gets a job in a pub in the seaside town of Gwynnford and, after an impulsive act of bravery, he ends up in the company of the notorious Augustus Skelly and his lieutenant Redmagne leaders of a group of men who believe that the government of England is too intrusive. Cline presents these rogues as believably libertarian ancestors of the Founding Fathers. Through crisp informative dialogue, he lays the groundwork for the coming revolution by showing the mood of individualism and antigovernmentals sentiment in England 30 years before Lexington and Concord. The novel ends with Jack leaving England to serve an eight-year sentence in the colonies. Filled with period detail and characters readers will care about, the novel portrays an England of press gangs, smug nobility, oppressive government and mind-numbing poverty. Also on hand are smugglers clever enough to write utopian satires and honorable enough to live by the ideals on which government is based. Comparing favorably to the swashbuckling action of a Rafael Sabatini novel and the grueling realism of Bernard Cornwell, this is the best kind of historical fiction: a tale that reflects and illuminates its age. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Sparrowhawk Book One: Jack Frake FROM THE PUBLISHER
Bringing a totally new perspective to the events leading up to The American Revolution, Sparrowhawk, a new series of historical novels, establishes that The Revolution occurred in two stages: the war for independence and also a more subtle revolution that happened in men's minds that occurred many years before the Declaration of Independence.
Book 1 in this new series introduces the reader to life in 18th Century England, where, despite being one of the freest countries in the world there were rumblings of discontent amongst the citizens and Jake Frake is no exception to this endemic restlessness.
From an early age he has developed an independent mind and spirit, a trait that is not openly welcomed for someone of his lowly class. Fate and circumstance leads him to join a band of smugglers and he furthers their cause until the band is eventually trapped and the leaders hanged for their crimes. Jack himself is sentenced to eight years in the Colonies and he embarques on a sea voyage aboard the Sparrowhawk, destined for Virginia.
Author Biography:Edward Cline is the author of First Prize and Whisper The Guns, a suspense novel, and has written for a variety of publications including the Colonial Williamsburg Journal and Marine Corps League. His essay on John Locke was reprinted in the book Western Civilization II published by McGraw-Hill.
While researching Sparrowhawk he lived in the Virginia Tidewater, working as a freelance writer and copyeditor. He currently lives in Las Vegas, NV.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Set in 1740s England, this enthralling first installment in a projected four-book cycle about the American Revolution introduces the main character of the series, young Jack Frake. Clever, observant and fiercely loyal, Jack gets himself noticed by Rector Robert Parmley, who decides to tutor the boy, but Jack's mother has other plans plans that lead to the murder of Parmley and Jack's running away from home. He eventually gets a job in a pub in the seaside town of Gwynnford and, after an impulsive act of bravery, he ends up in the company of the notorious Augustus Skelly and his lieutenant Redmagne leaders of a group of men who believe that the government of England is too intrusive. Cline presents these rogues as believably libertarian ancestors of the Founding Fathers. Through crisp informative dialogue, he lays the groundwork for the coming revolution by showing the mood of individualism and antigovernmentals sentiment in England 30 years before Lexington and Concord. The novel ends with Jack leaving England to serve an eight-year sentence in the colonies. Filled with period detail and characters readers will care about, the novel portrays an England of press gangs, smug nobility, oppressive government and mind-numbing poverty. Also on hand are smugglers clever enough to write utopian satires and honorable enough to live by the ideals on which government is based. Comparing favorably to the swashbuckling action of a Rafael Sabatini novel and the grueling realism of Bernard Cornwell, this is the best kind of historical fiction: a tale that reflects and illuminates its age. (Nov.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Suspense novelist Cline (Whisper the Guns, not reviewed, etc.) switches genres for a tidy, well-grounded historical, the first in a projected trilogy, about a smuggling ring in tax-smarting 18th-century England. Jack Frake, the independent-minded ten-year-old son of impoverished parents who are "locally notorious" in coastal Cornwall, figures as the hero in this coming-of-age tale. Jack's kindly mentor, an educated rector, has taken up the boy's instruction out of charity. But the rector is killed during an aborted attempt to spirit Jack into slavery. Already surging with hatred of the corruption and inequity he has seen British officials perpetuate, the boy eagerly joins a savvy smuggling operation led by Augustus Skelly, "a kind of inverse Robin Hood who robbed the Customs and excise and split the profits between himself and the poor." Cline methodically pursues two storylines that inevitably dovetail without undue suspense or excitement. Jack eludes his evil new stepfather Leith (his mother, the only female character of note, is portrayed as nothing but a drunk and a whore), while Skelly and his literary right-hand man, who goes by the alias Methuselah Redmagne, are stalked Javert-like by the wily Revenue Service official Henoch Pannell. The author's interests are clearly historical, and he inserts with academic faithfulness various lessons on English law, European succession, and geography. Literary readers will enjoy Redmagne's instruction of Jack in the development of the English novel (e.g., Swift, Defoe), but Cline's own novel suffers from stifling plotting, leaving little room for surprise or delight. The title refers to the ship that teenaged Jack boards at the close, headingfor America and (presumably) the Revolution. A solid if less than thrilling effort to render a complicated period in English history.
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