A Time for Treason

Nonfiction author Walther (Divorce Hangover) tries her hand at historical fiction with a tepid romance novel set before and during the American Revolution. The plot follows French countess Eug nie Devereux as she is sent undercover to the American colonies by ""the cartel of France's intellectual aristocracy,"" to try to determine whether the colonists will fight for independence from Great Britain, and whether Bermuda's citizens will also aid the cause. Eug nie has a personal motive: the British killed her parents, and she wants revenge. Walther overdramatizes Eug nie's undercover sleuthing, as the information she wants isn't really secret, but like a true spy, Eugenie charms the Whittington family on their Virginia plantation and then goes on to do the same with the Tucker family in Bermuda. All the men she meets fall hopelessly in love with her, but Eug nie has eyes only for the British sympathizer and sea pirate Bridger Goodrich, with whom she engages in flowery love talk and has a lukewarm physical relationship. Walther effectively describes the Gunpowder Theft of 1775, in which Eug nie helps conspire to steal gunpowder from the Bermudan governor. The author's extensive research is awkwardly evident in long, dry, textbook descriptions of historical events, which are poorly incorporated into the text. Even more annoying is her practice of conveying such information in dialogue, making for stilted and unrealistic conversation. However, Patrick Henry's ""Give me liberty, or give me death"" speech, brushes with Martha Washington and Thomas Jefferson, and painstaking details of colonial life do add historical color to the novel's overly ambitious scope. 10-city author tour. (June)