THE ROYAL DIRK

by John & Patricia Beatty ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1966

Lending a hand to Bonnie Prince Charlie is one of the adventure themes that turns up with monotonous regularity in junior fiction and the Beattys, who did much better in Campion Towers, have succumbed to the urge to write it up as a novel yet again. Their special feeling and attention to the language as it was spoken at that time lends a distinct and appealing rhythm to their characters' speech. However it can't surmount the fact that the plot is thick with too-often encountered devices of the chase, hide, escape, kidnap, intrigue school of juvenile writing. Their young Alan Macrae is a manly sort of boy who risked his kilt and his neck to help restore the Stuarts. It's a continuous adventure that takes him from Scotland to London and back. The restoration of the Stuarts is potentially exciting but possibly one of the events in history destined to leave Americans lethargic. Plaid-on-fustian melodrama.

Pub Date: April 1, 1966

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Morrow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1966

Categories: FICTION