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Summary
Summary
As the British scheme to kidnap George Washington and bring the war to an end, a tide of espionage ebbs and flows between the opposing armies. Two very different men are sucked into these vicious currents. This is a world of plot and counterplot, where a night of love could lead to an act of treason and a mans avowed ideals can fashion a noose around his neck.
Author Notes
Thomas James Fleming was born in Jersey City, New Jersey on July 5, 1927. During World War II, he served on the cruiser Topeka. He graduated from Fordham University in 1950. He worked as a reporter for The Herald-Statesman in Yonkers and as the executive editor of Cosmopolitan magazine. In 1958, he was asked to write an article for Cosmopolitan about the Battle of Bunker Hill. This assignment led to his writing his first non-fiction book Now We Are Enemies.
He wrote almost 50 fiction and non-fiction books during his lifetime. His novels include All Good Men, The Officers' Wives, and Dreams of Glory. His non-fiction book included Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and the Future of America; The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers; The Great Divide: The Conflict Between Washington and Jefferson That Defined a Nation; and The Strategy of Victory: How General George Washington Won the American Revolution. In 2005, he wrote a memoir entitled Mysteries of My Father. He died on July 23, 2017 at the age of 90.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Entertaining in all of the ways readers have come to expect, the prolific Fleming's (The Officers' Wives; Remember the Morning; etc.) newest historical fiction concerns a British scheme to kidnap George Washington. It's the winter of 1780, and Washington's near-mutinous rebel army is stationed in Morristown, N.J., with the Brits across the Hudson. Both sides engage in "intelligence" work; indeed, it seems everyone in Fleming's large cast of characters is a turncoat. When Caesar Muzzey, a slave owned by Flora Kuyper and secret courier for the Redcoats, turns up dead in the American camp, Congressman Hugh Stapleton and Chaplain Caleb Chandler become enmeshed in espionage. Caleb wants justice for the dead slave and begins snooping around; Hugh is uninterested until he meets Flora, a beautiful seductress in the pay of the Brits. Even the meek Yankee chaplain falls in love, though he is coerced by his American superiors into lying to Flora and working with her boss, English spymaster and prospective Washington-kidnapper Walter Beckford, thus becoming an unlikely double agent. A literally explosive twist at the end shows exactly where each character's true loyalties lie. Readers will have no trouble overlooking some inflated writing in favor of the resourceful plot and well-drawn historical figures. It's been two years since Fleming has produced a straightforward historical novel (in the interim, he has authored Hours of Gladness, a contemporary thriller, and Duel, a popular history of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr), and his fans will cheer his return to the genre. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Historical set during the Revolutionary Warin an America not so beautiful. Its winter, and what remains of the rebel army is bivouacked in New Jersey, close to Morristown. And close to mutiny. There are reasons: the soldiers are hungry and cold, their clothes in tatters. Routinely, they die from exposure, dysentery, and a variety of other pernicious diseases. They also havent been paid in months, and desertions are a daily occurrence. Meanwhile, the Continental Congress, convened in Philadelphia to almost no purpose, engages in a kind of fratricidal war within a war, southern aristocrats and Yankee entrepreneurs sniping and carping at each other, and all of them sneering at George Washingtonnever mind that hes the glue that keeps their revolution from flying apart. Four years have passed since the headiness of Lexington and Concord. Apathy, cupidity, and defeatism are now rampant, blotting anything good from Flemings bleak canvas. Four characters act out most of the dismal drama, all of them gripped by self-hatred and some form of despair: the degraded Major Beckford, chief of British intelligence, matched by the embittered Major Stallworth, his opposite number. Ruthlessly exploited by these cynical spymasters are the beautiful half-Jew, half-black Flora Kuyper, and the disillusioned clergyman Caleb Chandlerthe former the unwilling tool of the British; the latter, equally reluctant, pressed into service by the Americans. Scruples have long since become excess baggage; only victory matters, justifying all means that end, a position even Washington accepts. With blackmail, torture and murder commonplace, both armies battle ingloriously, leaving a rooting interest hard to come by. The prolific Fleming (Hours of Gladness, 1999, etc.) has been around for a while, of course, but this manifestation of him may surprise his readers: much better prose, significantly darker view.
Booklist Review
Best-selling author Fleming follows Hours of Gladness (1999) with another thriller, this one intriguingly set during the Revolutionary War. Well anchored in accurate historical detail, the novel offers a provocative fictional take on spying and counterspying while General Washington and his ragtag army are holed up in their winter encampment, struggling to survive the harsh conditions. This espionage saga has almost a John le Carrefeel to it: intrigue and double cross are center stage, with the Revolutionary War standing in for the cold war. The British and American armies are not the only forces at odds here; colonialists who support the revolution are in conflict with those whose loyalties continue to lie with the British crown. And within these two sets of conflicts, Fleming has fashioned a multilayered plot about the aiding, abetting, and thwarting of British spies and American spies; even a plan for the kidnapping of General Washington is afloat. The many characters, even the great Virginian himself, emerge well-rounded and many-sided. --Brad Hooper
Library Journal Review
Set during the frigid, bone-creaking winter of January 1780, when the Revolutionary War had seemingly quieted down, this rousing tale is based on an actual British plot to kidnap George Washington. Historian/novelist Fleming (Remember the Morning) relates personal stories on both sides of the conflict, bringing his characters alive by flawlessly weaving together emotions and actual events. At the heart of the novel is the elusive British spy Twenty-Six, whose activities touch all the other characters. Meanwhile, Fleming gives us an almost tactile sense of that cold winter and the desperate living conditions of the American troops in contrast to the near luxury of the British. Fleming does not stoop to patriotic prose but uses the despair of his characters to show that the "dubious proposition called the United States" survived because of courage, love, and perseverance. Recommended for all historical fiction readers.DBarbara L. Roberts, Maricopa Cty. Lib. Dist., Phoenix (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.