Customer Reviews

The Governor's Ladies

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Deryn Lake is a pseudonym of a well know historical novelist. Among the books she has written are the popular John Rawlings Mysteries. As all the John Rawlings title are preceded by the word death, it is a pretty good indication regarding the contents of the books and very good historical murder mysteries they are. `Deryn Lake' live near Hastings, in East Sussex

This book is a change of pace for the author. It was written in 2005 and it would have been so much easier for her to add to the growing list of John Rawlings mysteries, books that have a ready audience of readers. Instead she has gone down a totally different road setting this book in America in the year 1775 when the War of Independence is about to erupt.

The town of Boston Massachusetts is a fiery cauldron of unrest as war is about to erput. Caught in the middle of the turmoil is the British Governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Gage, married to Margaret, an American woman. Loyalties are bound to be tested and heartbreak is never far away. Can their marriage and the loyalty of the people around them survive this traumatic period in their lives?

The book was not really my cup of tea, but no one can deny that it is well written and I am sure will attract a great many readers. I surely cannot blame the author for my lack of interest in the subject she has chosen to write about.

First of all, the writing (narrative and dialogue) is very weak, seeming on the juvenile side at times. When an author just takes one or two history books and makes narrative fiction from the events, this usually leads to a boring presentation. Better to read the history books. But when doing this is coupled with weak writing, the effect is a disaster. The writer should have spent another year in re-writes. Conjecturing about the gray areas of history is what can make these historicals worthwhile, but that can be misused, as it was here. One example, does anyone really believe that Joseph Warren, now the general of the army outside Boston, would, or could leave his post and go back into Boston, risking capture, just for a few medical supplies and to have sex with Margaret? This thought was inspired when the author read that Benjamin Church did just that, at least that was his excuse to the Patriots. But he went into Boston being Gage's spy, not for medicine.

There is some good stuff that can be developed here. I just wish these authors would take some pride and make good books instead of settling on the mediocre or worse.