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Bone Rattler: A Mystery of Colonial America

Bone Rattler: A Mystery of Colonial America
By Eliot Pattison

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Product Description

Aboard a British convict ship bound for the New World, Duncan McCallum witnesses a series of murders and seeming suicides among his fellow Scottish prisoners that thrusts him into the bloody maw of the French and Indian War. As the only man aboard with any medical training, Duncan is ordered to assemble evidence to hold another prisoner accountable for the deaths — or face punishment that will mean his own death. His conclusions suggest that the wave of violence is somehow linked to the "savages" of the American wilderness. Duncan’s suspicions that the prison company is to be sacrificed in the war seem to be confirmed when he learns that they are all indentured to Lord Ramsey’s estate in the uncharted New York woodlands, a Heart of Darkness where multiple warring factions are engaged in physical, psychological, and spiritual battle. Following a strange trail of clues that seem half Iroquois and half Highland Scot, mesmerized by the Lord Ramsey’s beautiful daughter, and frequently defying death in a dangerous wilderness populated by grizzled European settlers, mysterious scalping parties, and Indian sorcerers, Duncan McCallum, exiled chief of his near-extinct clan, finds the source of all evil at the site of an Indian massacre.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #639828 in Books
  • Published on: 2007-12-28
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • 464 pages

Features

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Having already won an Edgar for his Inspector Shan series (The Skull Mantra, etc.), Pattison makes a strong bid for another with this outstanding mystery set in colonial America. Scottish prisoner Duncan McCallum, indentured to the Ramsey Company, is troubled by a series of mysterious deaths on the ship carrying him to the New World. When McCallum's close friend Adam Munroe and a professor who was to work as a tutor are added to the list of the dead, McCallum, who has extensive medical training, is enlisted by the captain to investigate. The shipboard mysteries remain unresolved when they arrive in New York, and McCallum's quest for the truth leads him to perilous encounters on both sides of the French and Indian War. Pattison's moving characters, intricate plot and masterful evocation of the time, including sensitive depictions of the effects of the European war on Native Americans, set this leagues beyond most historicals and augur well for future entries in this series. (Jan.)
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Review
"Set against a background that is alternately bleak and blazingly beautiful, this is at once a top-notch thriller and a substantive look at Tibet under siege."

Customer Reviews

Worth Getting Past The First 20 Pages4
Let me say it straight out-the first 20 pages are really tough. I had a hard time figuring out what was going on. But I forced myself to continue and it was worth the effort.
Pattison's brillant tale of mystery and muder set during the French & Indian Wars deserves your attention. At a time when American's struggle to understand the Muslim world, Pattison takes us back to another time of cultures crossing: Native American's versus European settlers. Here we face the Europeans trying to grasp the religion and religious symbols of the culture they cross-with deadly consequences.
Good and evil, man's mistreatment f his fellow man are simple story lines. But when you add the lost culture of the Native A merican's who inhabited the area north of New York City massive lessons can be learned. The significance of the geogrpahy, so close to the World Trade Centers, should not be lost on any reader.
I do not try to summatize the book. I leave that to others. But if you want a great read with lots to learn, pick up Bone Rattler!

The Skull Mantra Redux2
"Bone Rattler" was the first Eliot Pattison book I read and I really liked it (with the exception of the seemingly dense protagonist),liked it until I read "The Skull Mantra" that is. If you've read the Skull Mantra you've pretty much read "Bone Rattler". It appears Mr. Pattison did a cut and paste job when writing "Bone Rattler". Substitute Native Americans for Tibetans and indentured Scots slave laborers/political prisoners for Tibetan/Chinese slave laborers/political prisoners and it's pretty much the same book. Had I not read "The Skull Mantra" I would have given "Bone Rattler" a better review, but, I did and I feel a bit cheated by Mr. Pattison.

An exceptional work of fiction5
In BONE RATTLER, Pattison writes a brilliant suspense novel that includes insights about the founding of our country, as well as the spiritual nature of both Native Americans and the persecuted minorities like the Scots who fled to these shores for refuge, freedom and a new life. These disenfranchised people had to make up justice on the early frontier even though they did not speak the same language, share similar cultures or espouse the same religious views. How did this happen uniquely in pre-colonial America? The crimes in this mystery encompass people from several distinct cultures (Scottish, English, Huron, French, Iroquois, Dutch, German, Quaker, Jesuit etc). BONE RATTLER focuses on the heroism inherent in maintaining identity or culture in the face of great trials; the sacrifices made by the founders of our country; and also the question of what law and justice mean and how they can be developed and preserved. This novel truly is leagues beyond the average mystery! It is hard to imagine a subject more relevant in our contemporary world than how democracy can be created, and how disparate tribes and peoples can communicate with and get along with one another. To have woven all of this into a fasciating mystery is a triumph.