The Constable's Tale

by Donald Smith

Overview

When a traveling peddler discovers the murder of a farm family in colonial North Carolina whose bodies have been left in bizarre positions, circumstances point to an Indian attack. But Harry Woodyard, a young planter who is the volunteer constable of Craven County during a period in America's past when there was no professional police force, finds clues that seem to indicate otherwise. The county establishment wants to blame the crime on a former inhabitant, an elderly Indian who has suddenly reappeared in the vicinity like an old ghost. But he is a person to whom Harry owes much. Defying the authorities, Harry goes off on his own to find the real killer. His investigation takes him up the Atlantic seacoast and turns into a hunt for even bigger quarry and more adventure then he ever dreamed possible. During his search for the truth about the murders, Harry learns that the eyes are not always to be trusted and people are not always as they seem.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781605988627
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	09/15/2015
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	577 KB

About the Author

Donald Smith is a Washington, D.C.-based writer, broadcaster, and radio-TV producer. His articles have appeared in The Atlantic, Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, National Geographic, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune. He was executive co-producer of Radio Expeditions, the DuPont Award-winning National Geographic-National Public Radio production heard on NPR's Morning Edition. See his website for more information: www.donaldsmith.net.

Editorial Reviews

Donald Smith's exceptional first novel, The Constable's Tale, is a revelatory look at colonial America…In unmasking a villain, the investigation…provides insights into the surprisingly worldly ways of our colonial ancestors.

The New York Times Book Review - Marilyn Stasio

Rich with historical details and surprising turns, The Constable’s Tale, a story of murder, love and loyalty, is an outstanding debut.

Barbara Corrado Pope

Historical fiction at its best. I have read many books about America’s history, but this blood-curdling murder-mystery, set in 18th century North-Carolina, with America at the brink of the Revolutionary War, taught me a lot. Stylish, exciting, and packed with historical insight.

Bob Van Laerhoven

Rich in historical details and character. Smith’s writing is well-paced, and his attention to historical detail is such that it does not overwhelm the reader,
but still brings colonial America alive.

Historical Novels Review

Donald
Smith’s exceptional first novel is a revelatory look at colonial America. In unmasking a villain, the investigation also provides insights into the surprisingly worldly ways of our colonial ancestors.

New York Times Book Review

In The Constable’s Tale, Donald Smith delivers a captivating blend of political intrigue, mystery, and romance set during the closing months of the French and Indian War. Read it for its suspense, for its many surprises, and for its insight into early American colonial life. But read it foremost because Smith’s debut novel is a fast-paced romp, a beautifully spun tale.

Gary Schanbacher

With its intrepid detective, skillful plotting, colorful characters, action and rich period detail, Donald Smith's novel is sure to please fans of historical mystery.

Gary Inbinder

A yarn that combines the hue and scope of James Fenimore Cooper with the taut suspense of Elmore
Leonard.

John Smolens

The Constable’s Tale is the best first novel I’ve read in a long while. Lyrical and tough and suspenseful and set in a time and place that’s been little explored in fiction, especially detective fiction, but which Donald Smith brings alive with clarity and vibrancy and a muscular authority. A first-rate novel.

Edgar and Shamus Award-winning author James W. Hall

Set in colonial North Carolina with a cast of authentic and endearing characters,
including Harry Woodyard, a tobacco planter and the volunteer constable of
Craven County, and his outspoken Welsh wife, Toby. Harry is a wonderful blend of naiveté and no-nonsense, compassion and reason, and his tale's an intriguing one.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Through detailed descriptions of characters and setting, readers can easily imagine early American life and its shifting governance. Compares well with the Bone
Rattler series by Eliot Pattison or the Smithyman saga by David More.

Booklist

Through detailed descriptions of characters and setting, readers can easily imagine early American life and its shifting governance. Compares well with the Bone
Rattler series by Eliot Pattison or the Smithyman saga by David More.

Booklist

2015-10-06
Being named Royal Constable and "leaving behind for good the brawlers and pranksters and wenchers he previously had kept company with" gives young North Carolina planter Harry Woodyard a chance to advance in Craven County society during the French and Indian War. What Harry can't suspect is that his duties will fetch him up on the Plains of Abraham as British Gen. Wolfe takes Quebec. Smith's spun a rollicking good yarn in his debut novel. Harry's pursuing the murderer of a local plantation family, heading over the Colonial border to Williamsburg, then Annapolis and Boston, and finally to the Quebec army camp. Comet Elijah, last of the fearsome Tuscarora tribe, has been jailed as the killer. It was Comet Elijah and Natty, Harry's grandfather, who raised the boy, teaching him woodcraft and the ways of the world. Harry's certain his friend isn't guilty, especially since he found an inscribed Masonic pin at the murder scene. Smith's sketches of life in 1759 are superb: "small beer" for breakfast, rogues on the post road, and notes on how plantations flourished behind the isolating Outer Banks. Harry's left his new wife, Toby with the "pretty brown eyes," waiting in North Carolina, and his letters home—"My deareft wife, I pray thif letter finds you & ye Plantation well"—provide another window into Colonial life. Harry meets Washington—"We are all proud of our George for his conduct at Monongahela"—and teenage Jefferson and learns why his first love, Maddie, daughter of New Bern's chief justice, threw him over for a Virginia plantation scion, Richard Ayerdale. Seesawing between ambition and inferiority, Harry meets governors, generals, and aristocracy, relying on his treasured tome, Rules of Civilty & Decent Behaviour for guidance. Top-notch historical fiction, authentic in character and setting, laced with a mystery and a bit of international intrigue, right up to the whipsaw conclusion.

Kirkus Reviews