The Sword & Scabbard: Thieves and Thugs and the Bloody Massacre in Boston - A Page Turning Thriller
- Details
- Category: Books
- Published on Thursday, 10 December 2015 10:20
- Written by Janet Walker
The Sword & Scabbard, from Allen Woods, looks as if it would appeal to Boston’s very tony elite, not until pushing through the labyrinth of technology interruptions does one realizes Woods has created a page turning account of corruption, violence, and a bloody re-revolution massacre.
Understanding of course, some reaches of history only extend to the 1960’s and the birth of Christ, with the years in-between a fast forward blur in the annals of opinions, now The Sword & Scabbard: Thieves and Thugs and the Bloody Massacre in Boston, a rather long title again for the sake of history, bring to the pages Boston, the hot bed of the American revolution, the changing times, a vision of more perfect union coming together in a cataclysmic shaking.
Woods, a career freelancer writing everything from magazine fiction to readers for primary students, decided to bring to life this historical time, which could have resulted in (yawn) another boring rendition of historical reference that is best served in the dusty libraries of days past.
He has however built a fast paced, strangely reminiscent, mimicked in Whitey Bulger, violent novel, that weaves together politics, exposing corruption at the highest levels even in the infancy of the union, crime which seems to go hand in hand with Bostonian history and intrigue.
Maggie Magowan and Nicholas Gray the proprietors of a North End Tavern, The Sword & Scabbard, are quick with the pour and quiet as they pick up the rumblings of discontent from the well-to-do’s including the framers John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and others who skirt the law and exercise their newfound freedoms.
The Revolution, the war, looms, and as it is on home soil, so does fear. Prostitutes, thieves, the sounds of revolution, the unemployed, bribery, dock workers on strike, custom workers intimated with beatings, life in 18th century Boston never seem so contemporary and no one ever expected the Bloody Massacre.
The Sword & Scabbard: Thieves and Thugs and the Bloody Massacre in Boston by Allen Woods is the first in a series of novels that answers this question, weaving a story of crime, intrigue and politics to look at an unexplored section of history in a compelling new way.
Based on actual events, The Sword & Scabbard: Thieves and Thugs and the Bloody Massacre in Boston, fills in history and creates a page-turning thriller. Not simply a must read for historians, but a must read for those lovers of life in different worlds, as 18th Century Boston is a world within itself.
The Sword & Scabbard: Thieves and Thugs and the Bloody Massacre in Boston is the first in a series from Allen Woods and can be purchased http://www.theswordandscabbard.com/book/
Image courtesy of Allen Woods
