A Spell for the Revolution (Traitor to the Crown Series #2) » (Original)

C. C. Finlay was born in 1964 in New York City but soon thereafter was banished to rural Ohio. His childhood was divided equally between playing in the woods and reading his way through the fiction shelves of his small town’s Carnegie library. Like Jay Gatsby, he studied abroad briefly at the University of Oxford, and it was there, at New College, founded in 1379 around a remnant of the old city wall built by William the Conqueror, that he fell in love with history. He studied literature at Capital University and did graduate work in history at the Ohio State University, where he was a research assistant on two award-winning books about the U.S. Constitution. He started writing fiction after the birth of his first son because he wanted to set an example about chasing one’s dreams. He lives in Columbus with his wife, Rae, and two sons, all smart readers, who keep him honest.

After making early gains on the battlefields, General Washington’s struggling young armies are being relentlessly pressed back by British troops and Hessian mercenaries. Among the enemy’s ranks is a mysterious force from the Covenant, a secret society of evil witches that for centuries has been pulling the strings of European history: a Hessian necromancer who drinks the power of other witches like a vampire and whose allies include devils and ghosts. Now this man seeks to sap the fighting spirit of Washington’s troops by means of a pernicious curse, chaining the souls of the dead to the spirits of the living.

Against him stand Proctor Brown and Deborah Walcott, two young patriots who lead a ragtag band of witches as much in danger from their own side as from the enemy. Proctor and Deborah must find a way to break the Hessian’s curse before the newborn revolution is smothered in its cradle—and the Covenant extends its dark dominion to the shores of America, extinguishing forever the already sputtering torch of liberty.

Publishers Weekly

In the charming second book of the Traitor to the Crown historical fantasy trilogy, Finlay continues to adeptly reimagine the American Revolution. Magical and mundane terrors follow Proctor Brown, newly trained witch, and Deborah Walcott, Quaker sorceress, as they venture from New England to the battlefields of New York and New Jersey. Proctor and Deborah seek to save unwary witches from the Covenant, an international cabal of power-hungry mages, and must maneuver through the Battle of Long Island, the crossing of the Delaware and the Christmas attack on Trenton. Finlay's clean, clear prose unites imaginative magic and a strong historical foundation. The book delivers inspired, historically-informed nuggets, including Proctor and Deborah inspiring Thomas Paine and saving Betsy Ross. History and fantasy buffs alike will delight in the mystic reworking of well-known events, and fans of romance will enjoy the deepening relationship between Procter and Deborah.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.