Publisher's Weekly Review
Grissom's follow-up novel to her debut, The Kitchen House, breathes life into the captivating story of Jamie Pyke, son of a white slave owner and biracial mother. In the early 19th century, at the age of 13, Jamie, who had been raised white by his grandmother as a member of the plantation owner's family, learned that his mother was a slave. After shooting his evil father, Marshall, who was going to sell him into slavery, Jamie fled his home in Virginia so that he could continue to live as a free white man in Philadelphia. Nursed back to health by Henry, a black man who lives by scavenging off the land, Jamie finds a job with a silversmith, eventually becoming a successful apprentice. Twenty years later, when Jamie is a thriving businessman, he is afraid to return to the South, believing that he might be captured. But he finds it hard to refuse Henry's request to search for Henry's young son, Pan, a valued member of Jamie's household, who has likely been taken and sold as a slave. The journey south is filled with danger as Jamie meets up with Sukey, a slave who has been protecting Pan. Once Jamie joins Pan and Sukey, the three travel north and face the risks of the Underground Railroad. Grissom's lyrical storytelling is rich with period details, and the novel can be read as either a memorable standalone or a captivating sequel to The Kitchen House. Agent: Rebecca Gradinger, Fletcher & Company. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A continuation of Grissom's (The Kitchen House, 2010) gripping saga of escaped slaves in the 1830s. Although this book, as advertised, stands alone, it will enrich the reader's experience to start with the first volume. Here, James "Jamie" Pyke is the main narrator. The son of Marshall Pyke, master of the Tall Oaks Plantation, and the slave Belle, Jamie looks white, and when, on the run after killing his father, he encounters another fugitive slave, Henry, the latter advises him to "pass." He does so, apprenticing with Mr. Burton, a Philadelphia silversmith. Although a jealous housemaid, Delia, discovers letters from Tall Oaks and threatens him with exposure, James is adopted by the Burtons. Eventually inheriting both the Burton shop and the family fortune, he becomes a painter specializing in ornithological illustration. But when his lover, Caroline, a married socialite, gives birth, her father forces James to flee Philadelphia. Before taking refuge in Virginia with his loyal butler, Robert, and his infant daughter (sent to him after Caroline's death in childbirth), James is compelled by a promise he had made to journey back to slave territory to find Henry's 10-year-old son, Pan. Ignoring Henry's warnings, Pan had ventured to the Philadelphia docks and was kidnapped and sold South. On the way, he is brutally beaten for complaining about another child's mistreatment and spends weeks in a "sick house," a makeshift hospital at a North Carolina plantation. James manages to learn Pan's whereabouts and ingratiates himself with a neighbor family, the Spencers, but his negotiations to purchase Pan fail, and he himself is in jeopardy. Luckily though, the Spencers are a stop on the Underground Railroad. But brutal slave tracker Rankin is closing in. Breathless to the end. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
By 1830, it's been 20 years since young Jamie Pyke fled his Virginia plantation home. Now known as James Burton, a respected businessman and ornithologist, he mixes in genteel Philadelphia society. But he holds some dangerous secrets. Despite his fair complexion, his mother was a slave, and he escaped Virginia under violent circumstances. When the free black man who once saved James' life begs a favor to find his son, Pan, who was kidnapped by slave-traders James feels obligated to act, even though returning to the South could prove deadly. In addition, his world is already crumbling; his relationship with the woman he loves is at risk. Grissom's highly anticipated sequel to The Kitchen House (2010) combines a fast-paced rescue mission and James' journey toward self-acceptance. Although she occasionally relies on tried-and-true character types, Grissom spins a dramatic story line the suspense never wavers and captures the racially tense times. The bravery and unanticipated kindnesses James and Pan encounter in their quests for freedom make this an emotionally rewarding novel. Expect strong book club demand.--Johnson, Sarah Copyright 2016 Booklist
Library Journal Review
In 1830 Philadelphia, artist Jamie Pyke passes as white, even though he is an escaped slave, the product of the plantation master's brutal rape of his mother. When a young black man has taken on as a servant is kidnapped and sold into slavery, Jamie returns to North Carolina to find and free him. Soon, slave hunters are seeking him as well as the boy. In this powerful narrative, Grissom relates harrowing truths about the slave experience by telling a gripping tale filled with vivid characters. The most memorable and admirable of them all is Sukey, a house slave who lost her tongue-her master cut it out-because she cried out when her husband and children were sold and taken away from her. And then there is Jamie, who for years has lived a lie concealing a part of himself-his blackness-that he loathes. VERDICT Grissom (The Kitchen House) is a superior storyteller who remarks notably on the consequences of an institution that made beasts of some while making liars of others. [See Prepub Alert, 10/12/15.] © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.