This well-researched historical novel is set in New York in 1799, just before Wall Street began to be regulated for the business of trading in stocks. The town is teeming with many Irish immigrants and sailors happy to find profit wherever they can, many intent on enjoyment and advancement. Memories of the Revolutionary War are fresh, as is the even more recent financial crash. Young Justy Flanagan is newly returned from Europe and is immediately swept into the middle of events in all classes of society.
This is not a setting I had any familiarity with and I was grateful for the slang glossary at the back as I learned more rude words than I imagined were possible. There are thefts, fraud, violence, murders, fights and kidnappings galore. Justy is intent on unravelling the events surrounding his father's death some years previously and this proves to be more and more complicated. He is brave but not always shrewd enough and there are many brushes with death for Justy and his friends.
The characters are not as fully-fleshed as I like so I had to use my imagination. The action scenes, however, were full of detail. I realy would have liked to have a contemporary map included to make more sense of the travels of Justy and his enemies.
This is not a setting I had any familiarity with and I was grateful for the slang glossary at the back as I learned more rude words than I imagined were possible. There are thefts, fraud, violence, murders, fights and kidnappings galore. Justy is intent on unravelling the events surrounding his father's death some years previously and this proves to be more and more complicated. He is brave but not always shrewd enough and there are many brushes with death for Justy and his friends.
The characters are not as fully-fleshed as I like so I had to use my imagination. The action scenes, however, were full of detail. I realy would have liked to have a contemporary map included to make more sense of the travels of Justy and his enemies.