Bold Sons of Erin: A Novel of Suspense (Abel Jones Mysteries) | 
 enlarge | Author: Owen Parry
Publisher: William Morrow
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 427134
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2
ISBN: 006051390X
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780060513900
ASIN: 006051390X
Publication Date: September 1, 2003
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Product Description
A Union general's senseless murder is swiftly cloaked in lies and the evidence points to Irish laborers struggling to find a place in their new homeland. But the turmoil of war hides layers of dangerous secrets, and a Welsh immigrant nursing wounds old and new must overcome ancient hatreds to honor justice. Thousands of Irishmen serve valiantly on the fields of battle, yet others deny that the South's rebellion is any concern of theirs. Amid maddening rumors and lingering superstitions, an effort to draft more Irishmen into the army leads to a violent confrontation. A local death threatens to become an international crisis. At the request of President Lincoln, Union Major Abel Jones follows the trail of guilt from a windswept graveyard to the killing fields of Fredericksburg -- and soon learns that no one really wants to know the truth behind the general's murder. While heartbreaking revelations tear at his own family, Jones must work his way through encounters with Irish secret societies and past the distrust of men and women for whom starvation and oppression are recent memories. Political agendas disregard mere facts, and even the dead general might not be the man he first seemed. In this gripping novel, Washington intrigue and industrial corruption collide with hints of rural witchcraft and the sorrows of political exile. A wandering beauty who may be mad, a priest with an unbearable secret, revolutionary assassins, and a genuine Irish hero, Meagher of the Sword, are but a few of the vivid characters who rise full-blooded from these pages. At once swift of pace and poetic, ablaze with suspense and rich with insights into the human heart, Bold Sons of Erin continues Owen Parry's tradition of bringing America's past to life with unrivaled storytelling ability, extraordinary historical accuracy, and a disarming sense of our common humanity.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
 Abel Jones is one of the Best Characters in Fiction March 13, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
A Union general recruiting among the Irish coal miners in Pennsylvania is dead. The confessed killer is also dead. But Major Abel Jones believes otherwise, convinced that the clannish Irish miners, violently opposed to the Civil War and emancipation, have hidden the killer. But when Jones opens the casket of the supposed murderer, and instead finds the body of a woman, he finds himself in a tangled web of political and social hatred and rivalries.
I say nothing new by stating that the central draw of Owen Parry's "Abel Jones" series is the beautifully developed character of Jones. "Bold Sons of Erin", the fifth entry in the series, displays that strength of character spectacularly. Jones for the most part remains the stiff, snotty, but honest Welsh Methodist we know and love, spouting off his low opinions of Irish Catholics, and his mixed views on everyone else. However, Jones experiences a great deal of growth, not only pursuing a murderer, but dealing with personal battles on the home front. His adventures have taken him from home. His wife Mary, while still loyal and understanding, is slowly losing patience with his sense of duty. His young son doesn't know him well. The young girl he has adopted has created resentment. And finally, when Mary's uncle dies, he leaves the Jones' with a great deal of wealth, and Abel with a horrible secret about his wife. Jones frequently finds himself reexamining his views of the world as the truths he has clung to are challenged by reality.
While set during the Civil War, Parry only brings that event to the foreground when necessary and appropriate. Jones is not Forrest Gump, miraculously present for every important event. He recounts witnessing Antietam early in the book, and gives us a very bloody and heartfelt description of the atrocity of Fredericksburg at the close of the novel. Jones works directly for Abraham Lincoln, and so meets with the president on one occasion. Parry's is more interested in the social ramifications and political maneuvering of the War than with the military aspects. Thus, Jones must struggle with resentful Irish violently opposed to the draft (even as the Irish brigade distinguishes itself), consumed by the superstitions of the old country; the loyal German immigrants whose importance to the Union effort cannot be understated, even as some of them have revolutionary tendencies; and the mysterious role of Russia, the only major European power to support the North. He also finds himself with the shifting social fabric of his own community, including his wife's growing independence.
The mystery itself is one of the best of the series, as Parry is very careful to weave a variety of plot lines into a nice chilling romp. Grotesque and violent imagery abounds, as Jones plumbs the mystery of the murdered general. As is often the case with a good mystery, red herrings abound, as matters that Jones initially believes important prove incidental, and trivial matters are the key to affairs. However, the truth of the matter is, sharing company with Jones is more than enough to keep a novel going. A well-constructed mystery is a bonus.
Parry continues to weave satisfying books. Sometimes, he even achieves a near-greatness. While I'm not sure what the future holds, Parry drops hints that there are plenty more adventures for Jones even after the Civil War. So as far as I am concerned, Parry can keep this series going as long as he wants.
 Review by Maguire Descendant July 7, 2005
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I had to read this book because I had heard that it mentioned the Molly Maguires and I was curious. I didn't particularly care for Owen's style of writing; he tended to go off on tangents sometimes and over-describe some particulars. He also uses the phrase "but let that bide" far too much for my taste. The main thing that the book makes you think about was that if military personnel went to the coal regions during the war to enlist the Irish, what would the mine owners have done? They probably would have done something because who would be left to go work down in the mines? They probably would have had to have started paying fair wages, etc. to get people to go down there! The book makes a good point of telling how difficult it was for the mine workers, how harsh the weather can be in PA and mentions the Molly Maguires. He mentions how Jack Kehoe was hung probably for convenience sake and that everything he did was in an effort to help his people. The main character of his book (the detective) is a Welshman (like the author) and the guy is pretty full of himself (which gets tiring). He portrays the Irish the way many Welsh probably looked at Irish during those times - as dirty, stubborn, unruly, dumb people. He does his best to try to be fair and writes about Kehoe with some admiration though (I'm sure he realized with the title of this book that a lot of Irish would be the ones reading it). I think that maybe some of the people from the coal regions would get a kick out of some of the references to the area and the dialect he wrote in.
Abel Jones progresses through the Civil War January 15, 2005
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is the fifth book in the Abel Jones series, written by Owen Parry, who to my mind is approaching the status of a national treasure. For the uninitiated, Jones is a Welshman who served in Queen Victoria's army in the 1850's, was a sergeant, and saw considerable combat, especially in the Sepoy Rebellion (1857). After many experiences, he made his way to America with a wife and child, swearing to never fight again, only to be confronted with something he can't ignore or sit out: a war to free the slaves. Jones, you see, is very religious, and can't abide slavery; he must, therefore, enlist and use his soldiering skills to do his part in that institution's demise. Wounded at First Bull Run in the leg, so that he can't run or even walk without a cane, he is transferred to more indistinct duties. Instead of clerking somewhere, he's a sort of ad hoc investigator for the Union army, which sets the scene for a wonderful series of private eye novels disguised in a Civil War uniform.
In this, the fifth installment, Jones is sent to coal country in Pennsylvania to discover who murdered a Union general who had been sent there to recruit new soldiers from among the Irish coal miners. The Irish are uninterested, many of them, in fighting for the Union with the goal of freeing the slaves, who many of the Irish see as potential rivals for the menial jobs that those Irishmen now hold down. The supposed killer of the General is a local Irish coal miner, who confessed and then conveniently caught cholera and died, out of cholera season. Jones, however, is not convinced the man is dead, and digs up his grave, to view the body. Instead of the dead man, however, the coffin is inhabited by a young woman, stabbed to death, and this sets Jones to investigating to discover what's going on.
Jones is a marvelous character, full of the prejudices and quirks of the 19th Century man. These, however, don't make him evil, just a product of his times. The character is well-drawn and intelligent, and the supporting cast is well done also, from General Thomas Meagher and President Lincoln to various fictional coal miners and other figures. This book also represents the first break in the narrative of Jones' Civil War service: there's mention of his adventures surrounding the Battle of Antietam, but that episode wasn't the previous book. In addition, there's also reference to the Molly Maguires and other episodes from the post-war period, telling us that Abel Jones will probably move along after the war. One reviewer complained that the Molly Maguires aren't well-defined, here, but of course they hadn't formed yet, so they would be ill-defined, wouldn't they?
I enjoyed this book immensely, and would recommend it to any fan of mysteries, or anyone interested in the Civil War.
 Gets better with each book November 19, 2004
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Owen Parry's books get better with each novel. The suspense is good, the mystery is well handled. His character of Jimmy Malloy is priceless and unlike one reviewer's comments, Mr. Parry (not Perry, that's an Irish name) is even handed and speaking from a 19th century perspective). I would only have several minor nits with it: The German used has occassional grammatical errors; there is no Welsh. A man of Abel Jones' background coming from Merthyr would have spoken Welsh. Why don't he and his wife speak in Welsh in front of the workers rather than go to another room? He also comments on the baroness being from "Estland" (Estonia) and then commenting about the German barons' treatment of the Slavs. The Estonians are Finns, not slavs.
You cannot read these books fast. There is a lot of excellent imbedded wisdom. I think every fundamentalist who reads his Bible with blinders on should read the section when Malloy talks about Darwin and the creation story.
In earlier works you get a very real sense of what Washington and London were like in these days. Here you get a very real sense of the coal mines and Fredericksburg (where I live and work as a volunteer at our Civil War parks) after the Union occupation.
 Sorry, not my kind of book! August 10, 2004
0 out of 15 found this review helpful
If you enjoy reading about a pompous ass major in the Union army that debases every religion, race, sex, political affiliation and nationality that isn't his own...who likes to tell you all about the faults of the Irish and Germans and at the same time praises (over and over) the Welsh (of which he is one of course)... who can't tolerate socializing with a prostitute...who's wife has a lot of sympathy for said prostitute, but none for her husbands adopted daughter...and who will tell you about his "bad" leg at least fifteen times throughout the book, then by all means read this book. Be smart and buy it at a used book store so you will only be ripped off half as bad.
In fairness to the author the story line and plot were alright. For me it was the characters (in particular Able Jones) whom I couldn't tolerate. Mr. Perry did seem to have the habit of many authors where they write a 200 page mystery in 400 pages. I understand that Able Jones is just a character in a book, however it would be nice if he had at least a few redeeming characteristics.
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