PATRIOT IN THE SADDLE

The only thing Kye Devon knows about himself is that he was found as a baby, tucked in a tree trunk with only a gold locket and a few papers as clues to his identity. The period was 110 -- the locale a Tennessee valley -- and Kye is precipitated into a life of his own at , when the only home he has known, Uncle Shp's shack, is burned. He goes to Nashville, meets Andrew Jackson and works for him as stableboy. Then he goes on to Washington, during Madison's administration, and becomes a courier, one of the young riders who ride ""hell for leather"" through the city and country, carrying messages between Congress and the President and proclamations to the countryside. Washington is shown full of intrigue and rumors of war with England, and during Kye's private investigations into his own identity, he stumbles on a British plot. When war is finally declared, he fights under Jackson. A fast-moving, exciting story, full of the color of the period. Jeannette Nolan can always be counted on for pace and characterization and good writing.