CAPTAIN SEDITION

In this historical novel set on the brink of the Revolutionary War, a man searches for his missing father in Colonial America and struggles to resist being drawn into the brewing conflict.

When Joethan Wolfe discovers that his father, Nicholas, has been arrested for smuggling in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, he’s reluctant to leave London, England, for his native land—he hasn't seen Nicholas for 14 years, and they’re not on friendly terms. However, Wolfe’s best friend, Benjamin Franklin, convinces him to go as a matter of duty and helps him secure a bribe for his father’s pardon. In 1774, the Colonies are on the precipice of open revolt, and the British government prepares to impose an embargo on arms and gunpowder and also send additional soldiers. Wolfe has no interest in the dispute, but he keeps getting pulled into it anyway; Governor General Thomas Gage, the highest-ranking British official in the Colonies, and Dr. Joseph Warren, one of the “leading lights” of the increasingly volatile insurrection, both want to recruit him to their own side. Wolfe is told that Nicholas was killed while escaping his captors, but he later learns his dad is, in fact, alive—and was initially arrested for working for the cause of liberty, which makes neutrality for Wolfe even more elusive. Fusaro’s first installment in a planned series is a fine work of historical scholarship brought vividly to dramatic life. Over the course of the book, he limns with admirable rigor the factional lines of the clash between the crown and the Colonies. Furthermore, Wolfe is a compelling protagonist who’s politically disinterested—he sees the fight in the Colonies as a “pissing contest” in which he has no personal stake—but also terribly astute; he tries to keep himself apart from ongoing events even as he longs for a more active life that’s not merely comfortable or “adequate.” Overall, Fusaro’s novel is as engaging as it is informative.

A skillful blend of historical authenticity and dramatic power.