cover image The King’s Beast: A Mystery of the American Revolution

The King’s Beast: A Mystery of the American Revolution

Eliot Pattison. Counterpoint, $17.95 trade paper (432p) ISBN 978-1-64009-318-8

Set in 1769, Edgar-winner Pattison’s sixth mystery featuring Scottish exile Duncan McCallum (after 2018’s Savage Liberty) surpasses the high bar set by the previous five adventures. McCallum serves as a link between the Sons of Liberty and Native American tribes (who call him Deathspeaker for his ability to uncover clues from the bodies of murder victims) in the Kentucky wilderness, where a team, which includes frontiersman Daniel Boone, is excavating giant fossils. McCallum is there at the request of Benjamin Franklin, who in a letter to McCallum expresses his fear that the British will make membership in the Sons of Liberty a capital offense. McCallum’s delivery of the fossils to Franklin in London, the future founding father claims, will help the American colonists’ cause. Meanwhile, McCallum must solve the murder of a member of the excavation party, down whose throat someone has thrust another Franklin letter. Pattison keeps the suspense high throughout. This triumphant combination of whodunit and deeply researched history should help this gifted author get the wider audience he richly deserves. Agent: Natasha Kern, Natasha Kern Literary. (Apr.)