Bone Rattler: A Mystery of Colonial America

by Eliot Pattison Narrated by Matthew Waterson

Overview

The Edgar Award winner's acclaimed mystery set in colonial America is “The Last of the Mohicans meets Braveheart, with a curious dash of CSI”. -Entertainment Weekly

Unfairly convicted and force into indentured servitude, young Highland Scot Duncan McCallum finds himself aboard a prisoner ship bound for the New World. A series of mysterious deaths plagues the passengers and claims the life of Duncan's dear friend Adam Munroe. Enlisted by his captors to investigate, a strange trail of clues leads Duncan into the New World and eventually thrusts him into the bloody maw of the French and Indian War.

Duncan is indentured to the British Lord Ramsey, whose estate in the uncharted New York woodlands is a Heart of Darkness where multiple warring factions-the British, rogue Scots, the French, the Huron, and the Iroquois-are engaged in battle. Exploring a frontier world shrouded in danger, Duncan, the exiled chief of his near-extinct Scottish clan, finds that sometimes justice cannot be reached unless the cultures and spirits of those involved are resolved.

“Having already won an Edgar for his Inspector Shan series, Pattison makes a strong bid for another with this outstanding” first novel in his acclaimed Bone Rattler series. -Publishers Weekly, starred review

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

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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Library Journal

Pattison has won numerous awards for his Inspector Shan series (e.g., the Edgar Award-winning The Skull Mantra), set in Tibet. Here, he breaks new ground on the American frontier in 1758. It is a time of high stakes for the French and English monarchs, with warring on every continent. And in North America the Hurons fight against the Mohawks (Iroquois) and the French against the English. No one is safe: death on the frontier is sudden and harsh. Into this world comes Duncan McCallum, chief of his Scottish clan by default, for only his brother and he survived the English depredations. Imprisoned for sheltering an aged relative, McCallum is deported to America. Aboard the ship he is pressed to examine an apparent suicide and uncovers evidence of murder, with more occurring after his arrival in the New World. In the process of identifying the killer, he meets the Iroquois and gains respect for them. The choice of McCallum as detective is a good one: there are many resonances between the life of this highland warrior and the ways of the Iroquois. Recommended for mystery and historical fiction collections.
—David Keymer

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175097178
Publisher:	Everand Productions
Publication date:	09/08/2020
Series:	The Bone Rattler Series , #1
Edition description:	Unabridged

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