Tea at Trianon: The Hanging of Samuel Ash

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, August 9, 2013

The Hanging of Samuel Ash

The talents of one-armed railroad detective Hook Runyon are put to the test in Sheldon Russell's mystery The Hanging of Samuel Ash. In the post-war West of the late ‘40s, Hook and his faithful dog Mixer are dealing with pickpockets and the usual ups and downs of life on the rails when the corpse of a young veteran is found hanging from a wigwag signal. Reluctant to abandon a war hero to a pauper’s grave, Hook sets out with the casket to find the young man’s family, if there is one. His search leads him to a small town in Oklahoma where there are many carefully protected secrets. While trying to uncover the truth behind the victim’s death, Hook is faced with challenges brought about by a potential assassin, a callow new assistant, and a lovely former convent novice, not to mention the usual colorful cast of railway compatriots. In the meantime, Hook endeavors to expand his library of first editions, which he keeps in the red caboose he calls home. Full of suspense as well as pathos, Russell’s narrative style is laced with the dry humor that makes for a highly entertaining read.

This review originally appeared in the August 2013 edition of the Historical Novels Review.

(*NOTE: This book was sent to me by the Historical Novel Society in exchange for my honest opinion.)

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