Regina Silsby's Phontom Militia

Rachel Winslow has returned to the Boston area with her grandfather and cousin Sarah in hopes of locating Rachel's missing brother, Robert, who was left behind when the rest of the family fled the city a year earlier due to Rachel's acts of sabotage on behalf of the Patriots. Though not originally intending to wreak more havok under the mask and cloak of "ghost" Regina Silsby, circumstances force Rachel to resurrect the phantom. Sarah, through a mishap that brought herself and "Regina" together in Rachel's bedroom, discovers that her cousin is the one "haunting" Boston, and she insists on becoming Regina's ghastly sister. Together the cousins foil an assassination plot, help divert British supplies to the Patriots, and free American prisoners of war. Sarah, by nature talkative and vivacious, turns the heads of the British troops stationed in Boston, garnering acquaintances and invitations that become important sources of information to Rachel as the two haunt the town. It is through one such invitation that Rachel meets Major Cauldon, an officer who has been newly commissioned to catch Regina Silsby. Cauldon can be as vindictive as the Captain Dudley that captured Rachel the previous year, but, unlike Dudley, Cauldon is no pompous idiot. He plans to use Regina Silsby to further British purposes, thereby making her odious to the Patriots she has obviously sided with. Brodeur's second Regina Silsby book is similiar to the first in both content and style. His continued use of the King's English adds character to his writing, which, excepting a slight overuse of "said," is extremely vivid. The plot doesn't flow quite as well as that of the previous book, in which case the enigma of the real Regina Silsby added a unifying element to Rachel's various adventures. However, the story as it is still makes "Regina Silsby's Phantom Militia" an engrossing novel that I found well worth reading again.

Tom's second Regina Silsby book is every bit as good as the first. Plenty of action, strong life lesson themes, and very good character development make this a fast reading book that everyone in the family will enjoy!