|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
FADED COAT OF BLUE is a remarkable first mystery, written with a strong, and different voice, set in a difficult time. Abel Jones, born and raised in Wales, has a background in warfare he'd like to forget, and although he was through with war, fought in the Union Army and was wounded. His early life was full of grief and hardship, he's tough, at times pompous and morally superior and at times compassionate and sweet-natured, he's asked to investigate the seeming murder of a vocal abolitionist. All through the book, I constantly muttered "this is not my kind of book". My partner Stu had read it and liked it, but he know my taste well, and knows that I often (but not always) prefer female protagonists and have little interest in warfare. And Jones often bugged me and yetäand yetäI read this book avidly. Part of the fascination is Parry's major talent in giving Jones a voice -- he does not speak in a modern style, and sounds very "foreign" in some very real ways. And yet, while I've encountered very poor attempts to write dialect and accents, this works very well. I was moved back into the years of the Civil War as I read. And because the character is so multi-dimensional, often dealing with his own conflicts about war, service, and being a good and right man, I wanted to know him. The mystery also worked. Anthony Fowler, considered a golden boy in many ways, is more than the myth he became, with his odd and rather spooky mother and the family's background of helping "the heathen Chinese". Abraham Lincoln and George McClellan appear here, as so beggars and thieves, rich boys and whores. The war is never exciting or thrilling; it is ugly, dirty and awful. Jones notes thefts of uniforms intended for soldiers -- profiteering, desertion, drunkenness are daily occurrences in this war. And Abel Jones, who's taken the pledge, and whose biased opinions are both real for his time also risks his life for other human beings and horses caught in a fire, is worth following. Very few mystery characters are captured as well as Owen Parry's characters here. The slightly pretentious author blurb on the back of he book reports that Parry "turned his back on a successful career to write". Our gain.
Reviewed by Andi Shechter, December 2001
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
|
