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Great
Mischief “makes history come alive” |
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Reviewed by Historical Novels Review Online,
February 2010
In
Great Mischief, Jonathan Carriel returns his readers to the New York
village of New Utrecht in 1759 for another adventure of Thomas Dordrecht, an
impressionable young war veteran in a tight-knit community of Dutch[-speaking]
settlers. A prisoner being held in the public stocks is found one early morning
with his throat slit, and to clear his own family of any implication (his
father was supposed to be guarding the prisoner, and it’s Thomas himself who
discovers the hideous deed by trying to wake the prisoner)—as well as out of a
sense of justice—Thomas seeks to learn the truth of the matter.
Carriel
has done a phenomenal amount of research.
His website features extensive background material on practically every
character, building, and livestock animal in this book and its predecessor Die
Fasting; to put it mildly, you don’t often find murder mystery novels with
this kind of back story, and while it actually adds nothing to the plot, the
hyper-earnestness of it all is oddly charming....
Great Mischief’s main strength isn’t revealing a crime
but instead revealing a time; by walking us through what daily life was like in
colonial America, Carriel makes his history come alive. His characters crack
jokes, do housework, agonize over whether or not to invest money in buying a black
slave, and travel through a New York world utterly alien to Zagat’s or Gossip Girl. Readers will want to revisit that world—I’m hoping
Carriel has many trips planned.
—Steve Donoghue
Great
Mischief Wins Recognition
On May 14, 2009, C. Goulet, Awards Administrator, announced that Great Mischief was chosen one of ten Finalists in the 2009 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, an industry competition.
Meanwhile, friends have kindly stated that they found Great Mischief “even better than the first one,” and that it “was the first book I ever finished while on a [usually hyper-active] Caribbean sailing vacation!”
An English friend wrote in December 2009: “Thank you again for “Great Mischief.” I read it entirely because I enjoyed it, rather than out of any sense of loyalty to an old friend! “Die Fasting” wasn’t bad, but this was an order of magnitude better. I found the attention to the detail of the lifestyle and values of New York at that time absolutely fascinating. Keep going!”
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Notices for Die
Fasting
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Die Fasting received an independent, professional review from Historical Novels Review Online of August 2007. Here it is quoted in its entirety.
Several friends, unsolicited, have also spoken very highly of Die Fasting.
· Frederick Cookinham, creator of the In Depth Walking Tours (highly recommended by JTC!) and author of The Age of Rand, recently read the following capsule review to a regular meeting of the American Revolution Round Table of New York (where both of us are members):
· Judy Neale (a fellow Life Member of the Village Light Opera Group) has posted a Customer Review on the Amazon website
·
Fiona Sutherland (former member of VLOG now
living in
· My sailing friend Linda Luxemburg has also posted an Amazon Customer Review
· Sailing friend Mary Christine (“Chris”) Behrens sent the following very flattering card [typed out below]
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December 31, 2006 Dear Jon, Congratulations, really, on a terrific book. I wondered how I would handle it if I didn't like it, being your friend and all. But I was very much entertained and happy with the book. I like the books Tom borrowed and copied his example by retreating to a quiet spot with the book as an escape from the family hullabaloo over Christmas. What worked well to my taste was the movement, the deadly hurry up and wait, the impediments of laundry, food, getting rained on and the energy draining portages. Also the impending sense of danger from the French, the Indians and the bullies and prigs was nicely balanced with the release of the scenes with manly men and one of my favorites, the fiddling scene with Tom & Eakin singing. The motive for murder was surprising and convincing. The tension between the fear and aggression of the mob mentality and 18 year old enthusiasm for charging a fort and the individual's aim to think things through for himself was well done as was the prejudiced and bigoted views of the period. Also they are topics for today. I especially liked when on the
way home he pulled into northern Since it is a series I hope Two Feathers will put in another appearance. How are you going to handle the fact that Tom can't stay permanently naive? Love, Chris |
