Shelly's Book Blog

Gary Blackwell's The Year of the Hangman easily kept my interest, so much so that I was rather disappointed with the ending because I wanted to hear more of the story. This book, as the author explains in a note, is an alternate history, set in the Revolutionary War-era United States. In this version, George Washington is captured by the British. The main character is Creighton Brown, a young British man who is sent by his mother to live in the United States with his uncle, who is a cold, heartless British officer. Crieghton meets and interacts with Benjamin Franklin and Benedict Arnold as he at first struggles to find a way home to England at any cost, but then gradually finds himself siding with the American rebels against his countrymen. Blackwell encourages his readers to check out a web site called uchronia.net, which offers an extensive list of alternate history novels.