The Wolves of Andover
In the harsh wilderness of colonial Massachusetts, Martha Allen works as a servant in her cousin's household, taking charge and locking wills with everyone. Thomas Carrier labors for the family and is known both for his immense strength and size and mysterious past. The two begin a courtship that suits their independent natures, with Thomas slowly revealing the story of his part in the English Civil War. But in the rugged new world they inhabit, danger is ever present, whether it be from the...
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In the harsh wilderness of colonial Massachusetts, Martha Allen works as a servant in her cousin's household, taking charge and locking wills with everyone. Thomas Carrier labors for the family and is known both for his immense strength and size and mysterious past. The two begin a courtship that suits their independent natures, with Thomas slowly revealing the story of his part in the English Civil War. But in the rugged new world they inhabit, danger is ever present, whether it be from the assassins sent from London to kill the executioner of Charles I or the wolves-in many forms-who hunt for blood. A love story and a tale of courage, The Wolves of Andover confirms Kathleen Kent's ability to craft powerful stories of family from colonial history.Publishers WeeklyKent doesn't disappoint in this prequel to The Heretic's Daughter, taking readers back to Massachusetts before the Salem witch trials as strong-willed 23-year-old Martha Allen falls in love with strong-armed hired hand Thomas Carrier. Rumor has it that Thomas, while living in England under another name, played a role in the execution of King Charles I. Now both he and Martha work for Martha's cousin on her farm and are brought together with a little help from the wolves stalking the farm. But after Thomas saves Martha from a wolf attack, he discovers wild animals are not the only dangers lurking in the Massachusetts woods: assassins have arrived from London to capture Charles I's executioner, said to be living outside Boston under an assumed name. Kent weaves in references to her first novel while creating an immersive stand-alone where Old World corruption clashes with New World opportunity; London bustles as civilization is carved out of the Massachusetts wilderness; and colonial self-reliance contrasts with dealing for favors in Restoration England. Kent brings colonial America to life by poking into its dark corners and finding its emotional and personal underpinnings. (Nov.)
\ Publishers WeeklyKent doesn't disappoint in this prequel to The Heretic's Daughter, taking readers back to Massachusetts before the Salem witch trials as strong-willed 23-year-old Martha Allen falls in love with strong-armed hired hand Thomas Carrier. Rumor has it that Thomas, while living in England under another name, played a role in the execution of King Charles I. Now both he and Martha work for Martha's cousin on her farm and are brought together with a little help from the wolves stalking the farm. But after Thomas saves Martha from a wolf attack, he discovers wild animals are not the only dangers lurking in the Massachusetts woods: assassins have arrived from London to capture Charles I's executioner, said to be living outside Boston under an assumed name. Kent weaves in references to her first novel while creating an immersive stand-alone where Old World corruption clashes with New World opportunity; London bustles as civilization is carved out of the Massachusetts wilderness; and colonial self-reliance contrasts with dealing for favors in Restoration England. Kent brings colonial America to life by poking into its dark corners and finding its emotional and personal underpinnings. (Nov.)\ \ \ \ \ Library JournalIn coastal Massachusetts in 1673, wolves still lurked in the shadows, and farmers toiled to keep the forest at bay. Martha Allen is sent to such a farm to help her cousin who's in the final months of her pregnancy. Sharp-tongued and independent, Martha finds life difficult no matter where she is and considers her cousin Patience to be spoiled and soft and the hired men impudent. As Martha becomes accustomed to life in Billerica, she forms a tenuous friendship with Thomas Carrier, a hired man of enormous size and few words. As they forge ahead in their relationship, hired assassins from London are on their way to assassinate the men who executed Charles II during the English civil war. Who will succeed and who will die? VERDICT In this prequel to Kent's best-selling The Heretic's Daughter—a retelling of her ancestor's execution during the Salem witch trials—the author combines harsh images of early Colonial life with a well-paced story and careful details. The result is a taut narrative that will satisfy historical fiction lovers. [Barbara Hoffert's Fiction Pick, Prepub Alert, LJ 8/10; on Saturday, Nov. 6, the publisher and Kent are inviting descendants of the Carrier family and other families associated with the witch trials as well as history buffs to a Carrier family reunion in Salem, MA.—Ed.]—Anna Karras Nelson, Collier Cty. P.L., Naples, FL\ \ \ Kirkus ReviewsIn this prequel to The Heretic's Daughter(2008), Kent tells the fictionalized story of her ancestor Martha Carrier's courtship with her future husband years before she became a victim of the Salem Witch Trials.\ In 1673, Martha's father sends her to help her pregnant cousin Patience, whose husband Daniel is often away from the family's farm near Andover. He's also hoping she'll find a proper suitor among the local clergy. Instead she's drawn to one of the two indentured hired men on the farm. An unusually tall Welshman approaching 50, Thomas Carrier carries himself with an air of mystery and authority that intrigues Martha despite herself, especially after he kills the wolves menacing the farm. Those wolves, which Martha dangerously approaches before Thomas shoots them, resemble the band of assassins sent to Massachusetts from London by a minion of King Charles II, who wants to avenge the death of his father, the Catholic Charles I killed by Cromwell. The book cuts between Martha's growing relationship with Thomas and the assassins' ill-fated mission as the killers drop off one by one, victims of double-cross, drowning, poison and warring Indians. Martha soon learns that Thomas served as the King's guard as a youth before joining Cromwell's cause. He was indeed the one who brought the ax down on Charles I's head, but he later lost faith in Cromwell when he saw him becoming a despot. As the surviving assassin draws closer, Martha—who has her own secret—fears she has inadvertently betrayed Thomas's secret when Patience finds the diary in which Martha wrote down his story. But Daniel, like most of his neighbors, is a staunch defender of Protestantism. For all his evil, diabolic planning, the assassin never has a chance.\ Kent has more fun with the Londoners—Johnny Depp could play almost any of the baddies—than her somewhat morose ancestors, but she lovingly captures their daily grind and brings looming dangers, whether man or beast, to harrowing life.\ \ \ \ \ \ The Barnes & Noble ReviewThe Wolves Of Andover is a prequel to Kathleen Kent’s best-selling first novel, The Heretic’s Daughter. That story was set during the time of the Salem witch trials, and concerns the accused Martha Currier her brave young daughter, Sarah and the spectre of potentially fatal family secrets. Written with grace and lyricism, Kent's debut played out at a galloping pace that made for a fine first work of fiction.\ The Wolves Of Andover steps back in time to tell Martha's back story as she comes of age in Colonial Massachusetts in the 1670s. The unmarried and seemingly unmarriageable Martha Allen is sent nearly as a servant to help out at her pregnant cousin's house. Past twenty years old, and considered a hopeless old maid, stubborn Martha is "passed like an old kettle" to the new family. Life is hard; luxuries, even pleasures are few. Wolves prowl the countryside, and Indians and deadly pox pose daily threats. Martha is haunted not only by these immediate dangers, but by memories of her own childhood abuse at the hands of a minister -- a secret she reveals only to her hidden red notebook.\ Martha is intrigued almost against her will by a tall Welshman named Thomas, handyman and laborer at her cousin's farm. Thomas may have secrets of his own, linking him dangerously to the death of King Charles. Meanwhile, a parallel plot shows us the seedy side of life in England under the second King Charles, who seeks vengeance for his father's murder. This subplot is surely the novel's weak link, filled as it is with villains who seem to have been sent over by Central Casting -- the snarky servant to the king, the bloodthirsty bullies, the randy king etc. Altogether too much space is devoted to this British gang and their violent doings, making The Wolves Of Andover darker and more gruesome than it need be, and slowing the novel's pacing.\ On the other hand, Kent is a master at conveying the details of life in seventeenth-century New England. The trading of two piglets for a bolt of fine wool; the slippery elm used to ease a newborn's passage; live traps set for marauding wolves. Moments such as these open a window onto both the world and the voice of Colonial America, as do some of Martha's musings: "the sorts of words that the Old Scotsmen still used were like pepperweed in a mutton stew." What's more, Martha is a genuinely engaging heroine, and Thomas emerges as a worthy counterpart. Their slow, reluctant but passionate courtship comes to life under Kent's hand: "She wound her arms more tightly around his neck, impressing herself onto him, promising to wear the unintended bruises like the flags of a new country."\ As passages such as the above indicate, The Wolves Of Andover will largely appeal to devotees of straightforward historical romance, though admirers of The Heretic's Daughter may also welcome the chance to come to know Martha Currier better. And the story, while at its center a predictable fulfillment of its heroine's deferred hopes, has one or two marvelous twists, including one hero hidden where you'd never expected to find him.\ --Liz Rosenberg\ \ \
