Comment

Aug 15, 2013rab1953 rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
The period details and descriptions of New York and Newfoundland are distinct and memorable, which makes this tampering with historical figures the more puzzling, and hard to separate from the historical facts (as with The Colony of Unrequited Dreams). Perhaps that’s the point – history is always told selectively, with embellishments and from a point of view. The story leads to questions of what to accept (both for Devlin and for the reader) in historical narrative. It is an entertaining story with interesting characters, and it’s easy to get lost in the storytelling without worrying about what’s factual. As a reader, I’m uneasy about the stories told here, and perhaps should be equally uneasy about the other historical stories. But then, what can one accept?