‘The Patriot Witch’ – C.C. Finlay (Del Rey)

It’s funny how the little things can put you off picking a book up. Not just little things either, I’m talking ‘completely out the blue’ random things that make no sense whatsoever. Take ‘The Patriot Witch’ for instance, the word ‘patriot’ always gets me thinking of the film ‘Patriot Games’ and I can’t stand the character of Jack Ryan. I also got a mental image of Harrison Ford casting spells during the War of Independence which didn’t encourage me to pick the book up at all! Does this kind of completely irrational behaviour ever happen to you?
I worked through this though and finally gave ‘The Patriot Witch’ a go this week. I’m really glad I did; one of the marks of a good book (I find) is whether it takes my mind off the daily commute and ‘The Patriot Witch’ passed the test with flying colours...

Proctor Brown works on the family farm in the New England of 1775 and is also a minuteman, one of the local militia who aim to protect the rights of the colonies by standing up to the strong arm tactics of the British army. Proctor is a lot more than he appears though, magic flows in his blood and he must constantly hide this or risk the hangman’s rope...
There is a wider world of magic that Proctor is unaware of but a chance encounter with a British officer (with magic of his own) is about to propel him right into the heart of a secret war between witches. Whilst the battle for independence rages, another war is happening that could decide far more...

Despite a few ‘bumpy bits’ here and there, I pretty much flew through ‘The Patriot Witch’ and am looking forward to seeing what it’s sequel (‘A Spell for the Revolution’) has to offer. ‘The Patriot Witch’ is the first in the ‘Traitor to the Crown’ series and promises good things to come, being a good blend of action and examination of the characters being put through their paces.

My degree was in American Studies but the passing of time (and the fact that I didn’t attend very many lectures) has led me to forget most of what I learned. ‘The Patriot Witch’ is steeped in the history of that period and a better knowledge of American history (than mine) is useful if you’re going to get the most out of this book. I can remember roughly what happened but the abundance of names, militia movements etc left me in no doubt that I was missing out on a lot more than I was reading.
The plot carries you along at such a pace that, to an extent, that a detailed knowledge of the background history isn’t essential. It does help though :o)

Without going into the story too much (don’t want to give anything away), ‘The Patriot Witch’ did leave me wondering whether Finlay should have made certain of Proctor’s actions pivotal to historical events, especially as he seemed to get over his guilt fairly quickly. I get all the reasons for taking this approach but I was left wondering how necessary it was considering it didn’t seem to go anywhere afterwards. Maybe these ramifications will be explored in a later book...

The plot speeds along at a fair pace that is only derailed slightly when the focus shifts onto interactions between characters. With this being the first book in a series there’s obviously a lot of setting things up to do (as is always the case) but I was left wondering if some of it couldn’t have waited until another book. The characters are all good to spend time with but sometimes things went into a level of detail that detracted from the urgency of the plot...

Having said that though the plot is a great one to follow in terms of mysteries to be solved and problems overcome. The magic on display is simple yet very effective and Finlay writes these passages in such a way that the magic really stands out against an otherwise ordinary background. Finally, any book featuring the undead will always get my vote and Finlay’s undead are particularly nasty!

The pacing can be a bit choppy at times but this didn’t really detract too much from my enjoyment of ‘The Patriot Witch’. There’s no question of whether or not I’m in for the long haul with the ‘Traitor to the Crown’ series, I just am. It’s that simple.

Nine out of Ten