Bellewether

RITA Award-winning author Kearsley (The Firebird) pens a captivating tale of a Long Island family caught up in the tumultuous events of the French and Indian War (1754–63) that culminated in the fall of French Canada to the British. The narrative is told from the point of view of three individuals: Lydia and Jean-Philippe, a captured French Canadian soldier billeted with Lydia's family, and present-day curator Charley, who is establishing Lydia's home as a museum. Kearsley skillfully creates an atmosphere of parallel times between past and present by connecting a random object from the end of each of Charley's present-day chapters to a like object at the start of the succeeding chapter belonging to Lydia or Jean-Philippe. This magical feeling is enhanced by the ghostly presence that Charley encounters at the museum site and the legends she learns about the ill-fated lovers.