COPPERHEAD

The second installment of Cornwell's Starbuck Chronicles has protagonists switching sides in the Civil War. Nate Starbuck, son of one of New England's prominent abolitionists, befriends a scion of Virginian artistocracy, Adam Faulconer, at Yale. Adam's patriotism and love of country ultimately force him to fight alongside Northerners while, Nate, escaping from a tyrannical father and enamoured with the South, finds his spritiual home in a Rebel regiment. But being from the North, Nate is thought to be a spy. Tom Parker rises gallantly to the challenges of Cornwell's complicated plot. The character of Starbuck conveys the sincerity that makes him an appealing character, and the many other principals in the story are easy to distinguish through their Southern, Scots, and Irish characterizations. One wishes only that Parker's pauses to indicate time shifts were a tad longer. M.D.H. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/JUL 02]