Mercy Lytton’s sharp eyes can see farther into the wilderness than any other scout’s. Half white, half Mohawk, She’s been chosen, along with two other English scouts, to take a wagon load of gold to an English fort through a forest rife with French and Indians. They’ll travel in company with a traitor, Elias Dubois, whose sentence to the gallows has been commuted if he helps with the mission. As cover for the journey, Mercy must pose as Elias’ wife. Not surprisingly, their forced proximity ignites romantic interest between the two. When dangers mount, Mercy and Elias learn to count on each other, leaving Mercy to wonder whether Elias really is a traitor and Elias to wonder how he can bear to carry out his own secret orders if that means giving up Mercy.
The entire time I was reading this book, I felt like I was reading a Laura Frantz novel…and since Frantz is a favorite author of mine, that’s a good thing! Mercy and Elias were a well-matched pair, and I loved how Griep gradually crescendoed the trust that lay between them. Both of the main characters’ religious convictions played into the story, and their spiritual character development felt authentic without being over-the-top. The situations with native Americans on the warpath were nail-bitingly tense, and Elias’ calmness under pressure (especially as he negotiated for Mercy’s release in the Indian camp) was remarkable. This is one of the first novels I’ve read set during the French and Indian War, and although many of the events in the story are fictional, they felt accurate for the time and the setting.
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Rosanne E. Lortz 