Dark Angel

Dark Angel (1994) Tracy Grant

Set in Spain and England in 1813

Adam Durward was orphaned at a young age, and although his parentage has made things difficult in some ways, he has managed to create a good career for himself.

Caroline Rawley was a childhood friend of Adam Duward, but her marriage to Jared Rawley damaged their friendship, and the request she mad of Adam in 1808 further ruined things between them.

The heart of the story is the mystery of defective canon.

“Most of the cannon blew up in their gunners’ faces,” Adam said slowly, spelling it out for her. “How many deaths do you think that caused, Caro? We were fighting the French. These were English deaths.”

Adam’s parentage is important to the story, but interestingly it isn’t the hindrance that one necessarily would have expected. Even if things weren’t necessarily easy.

“How can you laugh about it?” Caroline demanded.

“How can I do anything else?” Adam said;

This story is also about the horrors of war–in this case the Napoleonic war, but these dangers are lightened in part by the presence of Emily, Caroline’s daughter.

“Elena’s going to make me look like a lady,” Emily said. “Then we can play marbles.”

Emily took a sandwich to Wilkins and then asked her mother for two more to feed the horses.

I like the Emily is a fully developed character and important to the story in her own right–and how we get to see the issues of travel with a small child (nevermind a small child in a war zone).
Rating: 8.5/10

Published by NYLA

• Browse the archives:
  
• Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand » »
• « « In a Treacherous Court