SPARROWHAWK: Book One: Jack Frake

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.)