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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Fiery Historical Novel, November 4, 2007
This review is from: Fire Bell in the Night: A Novel (Paperback)
Crime, conspiracy, manipulation, racism, slavery, honesty, and mystery are all themes dealt with in this page turning novel. The setting is pre-civil war in the US. The mix of detailed history and research provides a rich learning experience about America of the past through the telling of a unique historical trial in the South. North-South divisions are debated through the perspectives of southern plantation owners, residents and a northern reporter, John Sharp.
Throughout this story, we learn about a simple man, Darcy Calhoun, who is charged with harboring a slave. We learn about this man's history and fate through the investigative reporting of John Sharp. John uncovers many secrets that are held by the plantation owners throughout his adventures.
Angry mobs and fires are common occurrences in this normally quant city of Charleston, SC. John's little friend Samuel helps to research the fires and disturbances around the city which lead to further discoveries and several near death experiences for John.
At the end of the trial, John struggles with the information he uncovers about his new friend Darcy Calhoun. John must decide how to handle this information as he will have to live with these decisions that will impact the rest of his life. These life changing experiences make John a stronger character as he has grown from a novice questioning reporter to a decisive strong man at the conclusion of the novel.
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Prime Time Read, September 10, 2007
This review is from: Fire Bell in the Night: A Novel (Paperback)
With his maiden work, Geoffrey S. Edwards is already a young master of the literary craft. In Fire Bell in the Night, the thirty-one-year-old author has shaped the raw materials of an historically-based tale into a stellar work of art.
Sent in 1850 to Charleston, South Carolina, New York Tribune reporter John Sharp is tasked with following the trail of his freshly killed colleague in covering the trial of a slave-aiding defendant whose guilty verdict and hanging sentence are all but certain before the jury is even sworn in. The bigger story he probes, however, is the dissention about secession showing itself as a series of fires, each of which is punctuated by bongs from the town's church steeples in each evening's darkest hours.
I will give you no more details about the plot, so as not to spoil the deftness of Edwards' weaving a great Southern tapestry. I will, however, share with you examples of what makes this author such a delight to enjoy. Fire Bell in the Night reads like a succulent piece of prime rib, perfectly hot and crusted on the outside, exquisitely rare and juicy on the inside, with a flavor so detailed with a variety of notes that you have to close your eyes with every bite in order to savor it appropriately.
Edwards is superb in rendering his settings on the page. He deftly both allows and causes a reader to pause and enjoy people, place, and play of a scene. For example, early on he let's us see the loveliness of Charleston through what flows down the steps of the Charleson Hotel.
"A flower fluttered to the pavement from above, followed by a gentle exclamation of regret. A white glove appeared against the black wrought iron of the balcony railing, and a young woman peeked over at the sidewalk below. She wore a white dress with an impossibly tiny waist and a full hooped skirt. A parasol framed her auburn hair. A gentleman looked down also. No one would have mistaken the man for a New Yorker unless he had a career on the stage, yet he appeared representative of his class in Charleston. Every element of his appearance spoke of flamboyance--a looser cut in his coat and pant legs, wide lapels, a flowing silk cravat, and a tall stovepipe hat perched atop his long, wavy hair. His comment made the girl laugh--a soft giggle quickly covered by the glove. They stood there for a moment looking down at the street, she casually turning the parasol with her fingers as he puffed on a thick cigar. The smoke hovered just above their heads, swirling and stagnating with no breeze to disturb it. Then the man offered his arm, and they turned to walk across the landing, moving so effortlessly that they could have been gliding on a sheet of ice, with no extraneous movement save the twirling of the parasol."
One cannot read such a paragraph without finishing it with a deep sigh that says, "Holy Heaven, this man can write." And when you look at the six-foot-six, bald, goateed, linebacker who supposedly wrote it, you just have to ask yourself, "Where in the heck did that come from?"
Not only does Edwards describe a scene well, he also impresses on the reader how its contents make his characters feel and should make the reader feel as well. Note Sharp's first close view of slaves in the South.
"John and Samuel stopped for a wagon to pass on the cross street before them. A row of men, all black, lined the periphery of the wagon bed, their legs dangling over the side, their arms entwined in the fencing that surrounded them. A second tier stood in the middle--five or six men teetering precariously back and forth as the wagon bumped along the uneven road. They rode in silence, their faces emotionless. It was their eyes that sent a chill through John. No flicker of movement betrayed acknowledgement of his presence; their focus did not seem to extend beyond the cart. No aspect of the scene around the men seemed to make any difference to them whatsoever."
But the book is not all fiddle-dee-dee and falderal. The dialogue is genteel when allowed and terse when called for. Tension and conflict are slathered on every slice of this roast like a perfect horseradish sauce. Its proportion and content perfectly enhancing the experience of the meal.
And then, all too soon, page 444 leaves us begging for dessert as we scream for help like a Fire Bell in the Night.
About the Reviewer: Kenneth R. Besser is a husband, father, son, brother, friend, community leader, author, entrepreneur, and lawyer, in that order. His motivational parable Great! All the Time! has been enjoyed by countless readers and the first book of his young adult adventure series, Arnie Carver and the Plague of Demeverde, is enjoying rave reviews. In between polishing the next Arnie Carver Adventure, Arnie Carver and the Legend of Omarosa's Dowry, he is working on a "big picture" parenting manual, Practically Perfect Parenting, and a book to help people over their heads in debt, the title of which is Dealing with Debt Collectors.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fire Bell is a Five Alarm Thriller, October 20, 2007
This review is from: Fire Bell in the Night: A Novel (Paperback)
Nothing is as it seems. Readers of Geoffrey Edward's debut novel, Fire Bell in the Night, would do well to remember that. Edwards uses the historical event of the Crisis of 1850 as the backdrop to this thriller, set during that fateful summer in Charleston, South Carolina.
A white plantation owner and his family have been slaughtered in a slave uprising. A white farmer, Darcy Calhoun, is about to go on trial for harboring a runaway slave. As the temperatures rise in the June heat, so do the tempers and tensions of the slave-owning plantation owners and the frightened, angry townspeople. Adding to the heat are a series of unexplained fires, curfews for blacks, and a buildup of the militia. Into this simmering cauldron, in the author's words, a "pressure cooker", enters John Sharp, a 22-year-old reporter from New York, sent to cover the trial. John, and the reader, will be forever changed by what happens next.
The story Edwards tells is complex, but his masterful story telling style never makes it complicated. Through the eyes of his lead character, Edwards presents all sides of the story to the reader, without judgment, respecting the reader's ability to discern the subtleties and dichotomies of the choices facing these people, and our nation at that volatile time. Edward's background as a history major, and his extensive research into the place and the era, provides a solid grounding of authenticity to this exciting, and gut-wrenching, novel.
This is not a book to be rushed, but to be savored. Edwards has a gift for description. Strolling through Charleston with the lead character, or at a weekend plantation party, one is surrounded with the sights, and scents, and sounds of 1850 in this southern harbor town. In one brief paragraph, at the opening of Chapter 15, Edwards traces the effects along the path of a simple breeze with such elegance and grace that the reader will sigh with as much relief as if that breeze had cooled their own overheated cheeks. Edwards also has a gift for characterization. From the lead characters to the merest shopkeeper, each person is fully realized, three-dimensional, and has a unique voice.
There is nothing easy about this novel. It is multi-layered, textural, and lush. The languid pace of the southern heat barely hides the relentless drumbeats of the impending march to secession, and war. The Fire Bell in the Night sounds not only a warning to the residents of Charleston, but to the nation. Edwards skillfully brings the story to a personal level, a level to which the reader can relate. Unexpected friendships blossom in the summer's heat, but so do violence, deceptions, and betrayals. This is, at its core, a simple story of men who are trying to do the right thing, men who are trying to bridge the chasms between them, and men whose every step can lead to unimaginable consequences. But the reader is reminded again, that for each of these men, nothing is as it seems.
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