Popular history writer Walsh (Midnight Dreary) offers an account of the serendipitous events that led to British Major John Andre's capture and execution in 1780—which arguably made possible the success of the American Revolution. Andre was the British spy dispatched to plot the fall of West Point with Benedict Arnold. The British capture of West Point would have most likely diminished or even ended the chance for an American victory. Andre, as described by Walsh, was a dashing and charming officer badly cast as a spy, but who nonetheless, out of greed and a desire for prestige, took the assignment to meet with Arnold on American soil. His subsequent capture was the result of a series of his own misjudgments, Arnold's miscalculations and bad luck. Much of the drama of the story is in Andre's machinations to rationalize his actions to Washington and the American tribunal that tried him. Walsh's history is "novelized," a literary device that is often distracting. We read unrecorded intimate conversations, internal dialogues and minute details of events. For example, Andre realizes "how dry his mouth felt, how thirsty he was." And readers are told, "The sour look on André's face showed the utter distaste he felt...." Walsh also has the even more distracting habit of inserting himself into the history by explicitly calling attention to the uniqueness of his interpretation of events. Nonetheless, despite these flaws as well as a pedestrian style, there is enough inherent drama in the telling of Andre's story to interest fans of American history. Illus. (Oct. 8)
