Bone Rattler: A Mystery of Colonial America

By Eliot Pattison

Book Overview

In a novel rich in historical detail, acclaimed author Eliot Pattison reconsiders the founding of America and explores how disenfranchised people of any age and place struggle to find justice, how conflicting cultures can be reconciled through compassion and tolerance, and ultimately how the natural world has its own morality.

Aboard a British convict ship bound for the New World, protagonist Duncan McCallum witnesses a series of murders and apparent suicides among his fellow Scottish prisoners. A strange trail of clues leads Duncan into the New World and eventually thrusts him into the bloody maw of the French and Indian War. Duncan is indentured to the British Lord Ramsey, whose estate in the uncharted New York woodlands is a Heart of Darkness where multiple warring factions are engaged in physical, psychological, and spiritual battle.

Exploring a frontier world shrouded in danger and defying death in a wilderness populated by European settlers, Indian shamans, and mysterious scalping parties, Duncan, the exiled chief of his near-extinct Scottish clan, finds that sometimes justice cannot be reached unless the cultures and spirits of those involved are appeased.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1582434646
• ISBN13: 9781582434643
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
• Length: 464 Pages
• Weight: 1.37 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

history is a wildthing

PATTISONS BOOKS STARTING WITH SKULL MANTRA ARE THE MOST ENTICING REASON TO STUDY POLITICS AND HISTORY,HIS CHARACTERS LIVE NEXT DOOR ,HIS CONFLICTS UNIVERSAL,PERSONAL AND BELIEVABLE,I KEEP BUYING HIS BOOKS TO HAND OUT TO FRIENDS FOR PRESENTS ,AS HE IS THE BEST,

a rousing good read

Eliot Pattison is well known for his award-winning Inspector Shun Tao Yun series ("The Skull Mantra" etc.). With "Bone Rattler" he moves from present-day Tibet to the Colonial American. The well-researched and beautifully-crafted story begins with Scottish prisoners aboard a British convict ship in 1759, moves to New York territory during the French and Indian War. Mr. Pattison avoids cliche and stereotype in his characters, and gives some fascinating examples of European expectations of American Indians and their relations with settlers as opposed to the actual relationships encountered. All this gives considerable depth to a great read full of adventure at sea and on the Colonial American frontier.

An exceptional work of fiction

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.

spellbinding

This book is mesmerizing. The mystery almost takes a back seat to the conflicts and alliances between cultures. Mr. Pattison is already an award winner, but Bone Rattler must be the top of his game.

Worth Getting Past The First 20 Pages

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!