2 0 1 9 TO P N O TA B L E I N D I E S N O TA B L E # 3
N O TA B L E # 4
A VEIL REMOVED
ANGELS AND PATRIOTS
by Michelle Cox
by Salina B Baker
Their honeymoon abruptly ended by the untimely death of Alcott Howard, Clive and Henrietta return to Highbury, where Clive discovers all is not as it should be. Increasingly convinced that his father’s death was not an accident, Clive launches his own investigation, despite his mother’s belief that he has become “mentally disturbed” with grief. As Clive and Henrietta uncover the truth behind Alcott’s troubled affairs, the case becomes darker than they ever imagined.
As the Revolutionary War stretches into 1776, John Adams beseeches Archangel Colm Bohannon and his brotherhood of fallen angels to return to fight for the Patriots. But millenniums of battling demons have done damage to the brotherhood. After killing the demons in a fit of rage, Colm is left to grapple with his distressed angels and the impact of losing his friend, Dr. Joseph Warren.
Meanwhile, Henrietta’s sister, Elsie, begins to take classes at a women’s college—an attempt to evade her troubles and prevent any further romantic temptations. When she meets a bookish German custodian at the school, however, he challenges her to think for herself . . . even as she discovers some shocking secrets about his past life.
From The Author:
When the angels join the new Continental Army, Colm, an experienced leader and warrior, finds himself at odds with the indecisive, amateur General George Washington. Washington’s belief in Providence leads him to ponder whether the angels’ presence is of any benefit to his army. In the violent struggle for liberty and loyalty through the fog of war, can he find faith?
From The Author:
This was a challenging book to write because, in terms of Henrietta and Clive, there was a decided shift in focus from “will they/won’t they?” get together to “should we/shouldn’t we?” launch a detective agency. Also, Elsie’s storyline has grown from being an amusing subplot to a full-blown dual narrative, which took a bit of effort to successfully weave throughout while keeping the pacing even.
This is the second book in my Revolutionary War series. From the start, learning and writing about the war and its effects on the people on both sides of the conflict opened my world. Angels and Patriots Book Two was no different as the war moved into 1776. New people and challenges arrived, like George Washington, who received command of the fledgling Continental Army, and the war moved from Massachusetts to New York.
One thing I really did enjoy writing about, however, was my alma mater, Mundelein College, which would have been a brand new school at the time the story takes place. It was immensely fun to dig up old school newspapers in the archives and try to imagine it as it might have been in those early days—a women’s-only school on the shore of Lake Michigan.
The challenge of blending historical figures and historically authentic events with fantasy was exhilarating. With the Americans and fallen angels allied to fight for their intertwined liberty against multifarious enemies, I reveled in writing about the uncertainties of the Revolutionary War when loyalties and faith were tenuous; and about the power of love and the ultimate sacrifice. 70