Call Each River Jordan: A Novel of Historical Suspense

I've read SHADOWS OF GLORY, FADED COAT OF BLUE, and CALL EACH RIVER JORDAN and Owen Parry is rapidly becoming one of my favorite writers. Although I'm a Civil War buff, I think it's the protagonist's "voice" that does it. The main character is a little Welsh immigrant named Major Abel Jones, a British war veteran and a hero of Bull Run. He's also an investigator for the government. Parry does a wonderful job with this guy's accent. Just one example, "It is a pickle you are in, then?" He does use "But let that bide" a bit much, but you barely notice it after you've read a couple of the books. CALL EACH RIVER JORDAN centers around the Battle of Shiloh, which Jones becomes enmeshed in as he tries to report to General Grant. Everyone's running away, so Jones takes charge of a few of the more malleable of the scared soldiers and forms them into a unit. We eventually meet Grant and W.T. Sherman and P.T.G. Beauregard, of whom Jones doesn't think much, and we get to the jist of the matter, which is to find out who's been lynching slaves. The most recent case is the hanging of forty men, women and children at a crossroads. I always find that the best mysteries are those in which there's some humor to go along with the suspense. Some of that occurs when Jones falls captive to some Confederates on his way to see Beauregard. One of them is a fellow Welsh immigrant, whose accent Jones recognizes as being from a certain village near his. Jones compares the man's accent to his own, which he thinks is devoid of any trace of his former brogue. Jones also hates horses and he's given one named Rascal, that's way too much horse for him. Parry employs a standard cast of characters: The rogue Molloy, with whom he fought in India, is getting married and isn't in this one, but the moody Doctor Mick Tyrone is shown sawing off arms and legs in the aftermath of battle. Jones and Tyrone are usually in the midst of some philosophical discourse. My favorite is Mrs. Schutzengel, Jones's landlady in Washington. She's a socialist, a devotee of Karl Marx. Jones also has a wife, Mary Myfanwy, whom he dearly loves but rarely sees. Once again, this is one of those novels where the characters are so great that you just want to look in on them to see what they've been doing lately.

In FADED COAT OF BLUE, Owen Parry invented a new fable out of an old American tragedy. In SHADOWS OF GLORY, Parry found his voice, allowing us to share the unconventional Civil War adventures of his intriguing Welsh-immigrant, ex-India Army protagonist, Major Abel Jones of the Union Army. Now in CALL EACH RIVER JORDAN, Owen Parry truly hits his stride. The story opens with Abel Jones inadvertently caught up in the slaughter of Shiloh. We meet the laconic, unpretentious Grant and the firey Sherman, who send him on his new adventure behind Confederate lines to solve the mystery of 40 murdered slaves. Parry's discriptions of the preening Beauregard and the ponderous Halleck are pure poetic mischief! And we meet the delightfully odd figure of the transplanted Englishman Barnaby B. Barnaby, a truly stalward fellow one would hope to encounter again. Parry's clever insights into immigrant Welsh-Irish-Scots-English tribal bigotry get better with each installment. His writing scatters gems of wit, wisdom, whimsey and pathos on every page. For those those who have followed Parry's telling of Abel Jones' adventures through the back alleys of the Civil War, here is the best volume yet. For first-time readers, start at the beginning, but be sure to buy this one! There is tragedy aplenty in Owen Parry's yarn. Some of it is a vehicle for suspense to draw the reader along. But the fundamental tragedy depicted is one that stains our noble history to this day. The epic struggle that resulted - and its rightful outcome, however incomplete - is what made America modern. Parry has few peers in the telling of it, because he makes it a human progression. Look you! All will want to know of Abel Jones' next adventure and what Owen Parry next will reveal to us about ourselves. Seems we are next to find Abel in Blighty! One must hope he eventually will go with Sherman to the Sea. But let that bide.

Let me first confess that I've become a big fan of Owen Parry's work, so this review is not unbiased. With that said, however, I think this is the best yet in the Owen Parry series of Civil War mysteries. It is a remarkable, textured, gripping, delightful, suspenseful page-turner of a book.If you are new to the series, I would recommend that you read the first book first: *Faded Coat of Blue.* Then read the second one, *Shadows of Glory,* before turning to *Call Each River Jordan.* That way I think you'll better come to know and appreciate the main characters. *Faded Coat of Blue* is a wonderful book and a great introduction to the series. *Shadows of Glory* changes the setting and has a mystical, wintry, and scenic air to it. And *Call Each River Jordan* refocuses the reader into the hell of the Civil War and its hatreds and terror. All are vivid, intriguing, and tremendously enjoyable.Why do I think this is the best yet in the series? In *Call Each River Jordan,* Parry draws us more deeply into battle--this time in the fires of Shiloh--and then he draws us more deeply into the personal bitterness of the war. He shows us scenes in the deep south of 1862 that we've never viewed before and the gruesomeness of that conflict both on and off the battlefield. His descriptions are powerful--we see the flames and smell the smoke. His characters, as in the earlier books in the series, are colorful and believable. I particularly enjoyed getting to know a little better one of the characters we met in *Faded Coat of Blue,* Dr. Mick Tyrone, who provides an interesting counterpoint to the dominant and accurately portrayed religiosity of the era. One point of caution: Most of us are offended by the "N" word today. Good for us. But Parry's characters converse in the language of the 1860s. They would not ring true to life if they didn't. Writing or reading authentic accounts of the Civil War era requires an understanding that it was a far different time in our country's social progress. Beyond that, some of the hellish scenes Parry paints are not for the squeamish.When I first read *Faded Coat of Blue,* I wondered how the author would be able to sustain in subsequent books in the series the stylishness of that first book, its authenticity, and the terrific mystery of it. He has succeeded wonderfully. The three books in the series so far are all delights, each with a different flavor, but all sustaining the quality of the series, providing remarkable authenticity in describing the historical era and its settings, and developing the characters and story lines beautifully. And they're excellent mysteries, too.If you enjoy murder mysteries and have even the slightest interest in the Civil War era, read all the books in this series. You might choose to dive right into *Call Each River Jordan,* and if so, I think you'll enjoy it very much. But as I tell my friends and relatives, I think you should start with *Faded Coat of Blue,* then read *Shadows of Glory.* You'll g

This is the best novel so far in a consistently wonderful series. Parry's remarkable, soldier's eye view of the battle of Shiloh is easily the most realistic, stunning picture of Civil War (or any) combat I have encountered. But this book is about much more than just that tragic battle. It's a dark (yet sunlit), riveting journey into the South of 1862, an honest, fair and complex portrait of slavery, and as beautifully-written as any novel I have read by a living American writer. The prose is musical, poetic, yet clear as clean glass, and the characters, from the wonderful Abel Jones to the Pickwickian Barnaby B. Barnaby make this an unusual novel at a time when characterization of the first order seems out of style in contemporary literature. I could ramble on about how much I loved this book--for which I was waiting anxiously--but I'll end by saying that, yes, it is a page-turner mystery--but the real mystery is how anyone could capture a lost world so beautifully and heartbreakingly on the page. Very strongly recommended for all who love good fiction, historical, mystery, or in any other genre!