Owen Parry (1)

Welshman Abel Jones, a veteran of the British Army’s mid-19th century Indian wars, had put his military past behind him when he married his childhood sweetheart and settled in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. The outbreak of the Civil War in his newly-adopted country has Jones volunteering in Union blue to lend his military experience to raw recruits. A crippling injury in the Battle of Bull Run lands Jones in an administrative role, keeping accounts and procuring uniforms for the army. When a popular young abolitionist captain is murdered outside a Union camp, rumors fly that the Confederates are behind it. With evidence pointing toward the young man’s Union comrades as possible culprits, Jones is tasked with investigating the death and finding the truth before events spin out of control.

Author Parry successfully creates an authentic-feeling Civil War atmosphere from start to finish. Captain Jones possess admirable qualities, including a strong sense of justice and duty, and his love for his wife and infant son. However, he expresses strong prejudices against the Irish and other ethnic groups who hadn’t yet “melted” into the American pot, and he occasionally uses racial slurs that are as offensive today as they were to their 19th-century targets. The mystery plot would have benefited from the same attention to detail as the setting and characters received. Jones did not conduct a methodical investigation, and his first-person account of his search for the murderer suffered as a result.… (meer)

Sixth in a series of mystery novels featuring Major Abel Jones: a diminutive ex-sergeant in the East India Company who, somewhat against his will, finds himself acting as a confidential detective in the Union Army during the American Civil War. In his current case, he’s investigating the murder of a Northern heiress who had traveled to New Orleans with the idea of financing a scheme to return emancipated slaves to Africa.


Jones is not an intellectually brilliant Sherlock Holmes type - rather, the cases get solved by dogged persistence. Jones does not have modern, politically correct sentiments; instead, he’s heartily critical of anything that’s not white, Welsh, and Methodist - although he will sometimes allow that he could be mistaken. The first person narration makes for an interesting “voice”; with just enough Welsh idiom and sentence structure to make the read interesting. I’m taken by the way Major Jones is portrayed as a religious man; the author is not reluctant to give a 19th Century protagonist appropriate values for the time, and does not mock those values. The author also has a good eye; these books would make good movies - lots of action, period costumes, etc.


Major Abel Jones doesn’t like 1863 New Orleans very much; too hot, too many unreconstructed Confederates, too much luxury, too many French, too much Popery, too many women with not enough clothes. He doesn’t have a lot of confidence in General Nathaniel Banks, the Union military governor. The murder victim is Susan Peabody, the daughter of a wealthy and politically connected industrialist, a class Jones doesn’t have much use for. And there are dark hints that Miss Peabody may have Behaved Improperly With Negroes. Nevertheless, Jones has a job to do and goes about doing it. Some pretty unpleasant things happen in the course of doing this; human life at the time was often nasty, brutish, and short. A reasonably alert reader should be able to figure out what’s going on at just the right time; enough before Jones does to feel smug about it but not so early as to ruin things. The ending is satisfying; justice gets done.


The author resists the temptation to introduce anachronism. Jones doesn’t prematurely invent fingerprinting or blood type analysis. There’s a moderate element of the supernatural; Jones, despite now being a devoted husband to his Mary Mwfwnwy back in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, lead a somewhat looser life during his India service and had a Without Benefit of Clergy-style relationship with a native girl. Her ghost shows up from time to time in the novels, including this one (Jones himself never sees her; she directs rescuers to him when he gets in trouble). Jones also goes through a voodoo ceremony (as a test of sincerity) which is depicted with the unfortunate mixture of voyeuristic titillation and condescending respect that is often accorded to “traditional” religions. However, the paranormal is muted enough not to interfere with the overall tone.


A good period mystery, both this book and the series; I’d start at the first (Faded Coat of Blue) to get Abel Jones’ background.… (meer)

This poignant little book of Civil War Christmas stories brings together the horrors of war with the gentle hope of the holy-day. The protagonist in each story wallows in his circumstances created by the war and the historical period - a time when Northerners endorsed the war for its goal to end slavery in the U.S., while maintaining their racist attitudes and behaviors toward other human beings. Through understanding and acceptance of self and others, humility, and kindness, each story's hero rises above the fray to a fresh comprehension of the true meaning of Christmas.

The stories are well written and original, although occasional lapses into incomplete sentences for emphasis are mildly annoying. In the first story, the outcome is unresolved so that more than one conclusion is possible; glimpses of what could be are provided, if the reader is attuned to subtle writing. The second story gives a final accounting of the protagonist's future, while surprising the reader with one very important detail. Story three is about the return of a Confederate soldier to his mountain home and his conversation with his grandmother. I knew the ending by the 9th paragraph, but it's still a sweet story. The fourth tale is about slavery, poverty, the turning-of-tables, and forgiveness. Although I enjoyed the story, the forgiveness seems too quick; more explanation on the process that led to the decision to forgive would have strengthened the story.

The Civil War is clearly well researched, expressed in conversations, scenery, events, and objects; soldiering is the primary focus. I'll be thinking about these stories beyond the Christmas holidays this year.… (meer)