THE PRISONERS OF SEPTEMBER

With aplomb (Garfield is an experienced writer of children's books) this story of the French Revolution avoids the samenesses of the genre and goes out of its way still further to bypass happy endings. Lewis Alexander Boston, British Importer of Fine Wines, and Richard Mortimer, are by temperament unlikely friends; and so it is that they participate in the events across the Channel on separate sides -- Mortimer becoming a Septemberer, betrayed and murdered, while Lewis spends all of his money to retrieve a family of aristocrats only to learn he's been diddled -- they're counterfeiters and really belonged in the Bastille. No, le jour de gloire n'est pas arrive for our two heroes and while there's a little romance on the side, it's with, not without, culottes. Garfield writes with a cheerful enthusiasm which is easy to reciprocate -- the publishers have high hopes.