A polished master of the cozy, with characters as colorful as all get-out.
Description
Deep in the woods of Maine, the Revolutionary War is still fresh in settlers' minds as a young man named Peter Loon sets off at his mother's urging to find a mysterious person. Peter, who has never been away from his home, quickly falls into a series of startling entanglements. He befriends a nomadic parson with a seafaring past and whose humble intelligence and steady head prove useful, especially when the two find themselves in the middle of a bitter land battle. Crisscrossing between the two sides, Peter and Parson Leach tread the razor-thin line between law and justice. With the inimitable storytelling, exquisitely etched characters, and gentle humor that make Reid such a master, Peter Loon is a breathtaking tale of high adventure and great humility.
Reviews
Return with Reid to a less cynical age. Reid's impersonation of a late-Enlightenment novelist is persuasive, and Peter himself is engagingly picaresque.
Reid's one-man campaign to resurrect the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century novel is a campaign well worth enlisting in. Don't miss Peter Loon. [starred review]
Reid has an excellent sense of dramatic situation, draws shrewd characters, and makes good use of suspense. Writing with power, restraint, and light comic touch, he keeps a surprise till the last.
[starred review]
