Paper Woman [Paperback]

Suzanne Adair's debut novel is a powerful story of a strong, independent woman caught up in the events of the American Revolution against her will. It's a suspenseful historical novel that takes Sophie Barton, the heroine, into a headlong rush into danger.

Sophie runs her father's printing press, has been widowed twice, raised a daughter. She wants to travel, and have more out of life. But, she didn't plan on identifying her father's corpse. She didn't expect to flee from the British and the rebels, running with her brother; Mathias, a friend; Mathias' Creek cousins and his French uncle. The group did intend to find her father's murderer. As they escaped Georgia, they encountered bandits, Spanish assassins and runaway slaves.

Adair's novel tells of the Revolutionary War in the southern colonies, the Caribbean and Cuba. It's a compelling story of little-known history, and a group of neutral people caught up between opposing forces. After reading this historical pageturner, I'm anxiously waiting for the sequel, The Blacksmith's Daughter.

I have what may be an unusual yardstick for historical fiction - does the author tell us what the toilet facilities are? Yeah, it is weird, but I find that if the author doesn't give us this information they often haven't done their research and just setting the book in the past so the characters can wear pretty costumes.

So I am pleased to say that Paper Woman tells us about the (sometimes icky) facts of life in 1780. And, since author Suzanne Adair is a Revolutionary War re-enactor, you know that she has first-hand knowledge on this subject. But enough about outhouses, chamber pots, and bushes...

Paper Woman is set in Alton, Georgia in 1780. The main character is Sophie Barton, a thirty-three year old widow who lives with her father and helps him run his printing business. In 1780, battles are being fought in hot spots in the American colonies between local militias and English soldiers, while other areas were largely peaceful. Alton has been quiet so far, but Sophie knows her father and his friends in the Safety Committee are up to something. Sophie isn't sure what is happening, but the local British garrison has become quite interested in her father's activities, two mysterious Spaniards show up, and the local Creek Indians are being seen in large groups. When her father and two other men are murdered under unusual circumstances and she decodes secret messages sent to her father, Sophie decides to keep his rendez-vous with the mysterious message sender to determine what he knows of her father's death.

Sophie and her traveling companions begin a dangerous journey South towards their destination in Havanna, Cuba. Along the way, they realize that the rendez-vous message is not as secret as they thought and their lives depend on unraveling political intrigues and discovering just who their enemies and allies are.

Paper Woman is not your traditional mystery, but it has lots of good stuff in it - adventure, suspense, intrigue, and some romance, too. There are several things I particularly like about this book. First, Adair shows life in 1780 as messy, dangerous, and smelly instead of glamorizing it. Second, she resists "name-dropping" and incorporating famous revolutionary figures into the plot, which often feels fake. She relies instead on good fictional characters to carry the story. Third, she shows the incredible diverse population of the time - colonists from different countries, English soldiers, French and Spanish settlers from Louisiana and Florida, Indian tribes, slaves - all were part of the struggle for control of the colonies and all have a part in this story.

Favorite character? Jacques le Coeuvre and his not-so-tall tales. Did I guess it? No, the political intrigue was beyond me so I just gave up and enjoyed the book. Will I read another? Yes.

Widow Sophie Barton helps her father run his printing press and tries to stay out of politics in the small town of Alton, GA, which remains peaceful while redcoats and colonists clash in other parts of the colonies. Sophie's father, however, has been acting mysterious and Sophie suspects he has aligned himself against King George. Although Sophie is being courted by the major of the British garrison, she isn't so sure she wants to become his mistress and move to England with him. When her father's burned body is discovered, Sophie is placed under house arrest with orders to decode a secret message meant for him. She escapes with Mathias, her former lover, and embarks South, accompanied by her brother and Mathias's uncle, in hopes of finding the person who killed her father. Their trip turns into an electrifying journey as they traverse through Floridian swamps, sail along the Caribbean, and end up in Havana, Cuba, pursued by the major and his lieutenant, a demented man who enjoys torturing those who oppose him, as well as two Spanish assassins.

Adair takes her reader on a thrilling adventure with Paper Woman. Packed with action and breath-taking suspense interwoven around a fascinating time in American history, with the perfect blend of romance, this is an exhilarating story that will captivate the reader from beginning to end.