Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: David Fitz-Gerald

ROLLING HOME, Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail Book 5 by David Fitz-Gerald – Historical Fiction, Oregon Trail, Mystical & Supernatural Fiction

David Fitz-Gerald concludes the Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail series with a grand finale for an eclectic cast of characters, as the long wagon train is finally Rolling Home to their new lives in the wild west of Oregon.

With the end of the trail just out of reach, however, their hopes dwindle and their hunger rages. The rigor of the western environment continues to test their determination and threaten vows of heartfelt romance. These weary people ache and mourn losses, while seeking new ways to survive and pull each other forward in the face of impending winter.

This wagon train of travelers will also face venomous villains who have been lurking in the shadows, outlaws waiting for their best opportunity to pounce.

Now they feel the traveling train is at its weakest, and strike without mercy. Dorcas and her family are in a desperate situation, clinging to the hope of a better life ahead. But even if they can hang on to reach that final destination, they doubt whether the life they’d planned in Oregon is still the future they want.

Injured at the beginning of this final leg of their journey, Dorcas Moon struggles desperately to keep her family together.

Her young children have had to rapidly grow up and take on responsibilities well beyond their years in order to keep pace with this treacherous, unpredictable life. Surrounded by perils, their joys are fleeting and cannot be taken for granted.

Fellow travelers have become friends and family, tying their futures together, and Dorcas feels the weight of responsibility for all of their dreams.

Dorcas’s children are pulled deeper into the world of spirits and the paranormal. Even Dorcas begins a tentative connection with those forces. She must also open herself to feelings in the material world— she had been resistant to embracing the love she has for Agapito, but now she can no longer hold back. Does he feel the same?

The wagon train keep moving, but at times with a painful slowness. When they roll through snow on the trail, their fear becomes tangible. If they’re caught in the heights of the mountains when winter descends, warmth and safety will be impossible to reach.

Disagreement among the travelers on the best way forward fuels those fears. Decisions need to be made and mistakes can be deadly. The dangers of river crossings claim Dorcas’ own belongings and wagon. And when the outlaws strike, Rose and Dorcas herself are both kidnapped. Precious lives are lost and more surprises yet wait in store. Will they ever see the promised land of Oregon?

Our wagon master, author David Fitz-Gerald, has skillfully guided readers on an epic journey to a time and mode of travel that excites the imagination and pushes the limits of suspense.

His story is compelling from the first book all the way through to this incredible end of the trail. The growth of the characters through their adventures, sacrifices, and joys along the way shows human nature’s persistence and people’s dedication to each other. As long as there is the glimmer of hope, Dorcas and her band will set their sights on the future, and set their wagon wheels Rolling Home.

The Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail series by David Fitz-Gerald won Grand Prize in the 2023 CIBA Series Awards for Genre Fiction.

August 7, 2024
SNARLING WOLF: Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail Book 4 by David Fitz-Gerald – Historical Fiction, American West, Mystical

In Snarling Wolf, David Fitz-Gerald’s fourth installment of an adventurous migration to Oregon, wagon wheels sidewind along and through the serpentine Snake River.

It’s summertime, hot and dangerous on the cross-country trails. Wild animals, and the titular Snarling Wolf, ominously share the wilderness with a caravan of travelers. The group has become accustomed to their daily routines, but their remote destination seems almost mystical, moving always farther away, taunting and driving them toward madness.

Widowed Dorcas Moon is determined to do anything it takes for her beloved children to survive and thrive in a new life in a new land. But this difficult trip takes its toll on her family in surprising ways, and will leave them forever changed.

Dorcas Moon deeply fears an animal attack on their unprepared people.

As a native tribal member whose name loosely translates to Snarling Wolf follows their caravan, Dorcas even begins to suspect that he is a true two-legged wolf. Dorcas learns that, in truth, Snarling Wolf is a gentle and philosophical man, and cannot help but be drawn to him. But that doesn’t stop her worrying about the attraction between him and her daughter Rose, a vulnerable girl who believes she sees and aids the dead.

Rose confesses a shocking action to her mother, which has Dorcas concerned if her daughter is telling the truth or going mad. Barely a teen, Rose and this young man Snarling Wolf proclaim they are destined to be together, convinced of this inevitability by the paranormal insights of guiding spirits.

Dorcas has much to learn from Snarling Wolf. And the young couple have much to learn about life, promises, and the inevitability of fate.

The slow-moving wagon train slithers along the Snake River, sometimes moving away only to meet it again miles ahead. There is no escaping the river’s coils—eventually they will have to plunge their wagons through this deep, treacherous water to reach the other side and, if they make it, onto the promise of the west.

From the experience of the trail so far, Dorcas knows she can’t predict what’s going to happen next, leaving a tangible danger in the air. The ever-present threat of thieves hides all along the route, including the vicious Viper who is planning and biding his time to hit when he feels the wagons are most vulnerable.

All Dorcas’s children are growing up in this wild adventure, and Dorcas is often surprised at how they each do so. Her two sons have had to step up after the loss of their dad, and the increased responsibilities bring both rewards and tribulations. Nightmares from the trail even visit Dorcas’s youngest daughter, no longer a babe in arms. One foot in front of the other, they face each day head on.

As they trudge forward, Dorcas continues to wish for a new love, yet instinctively she hesitates to embrace affection with dear Agapito. She vows she must remain a single, independent woman.

How will destiny propel this family and their fellow travelers through the wild country in the heat of the summer, and what will they find on the other side?

Author David Fitz-Gerald skillfully continues an epic, historic tale about the people of the 1850 American West. He illustrates their dreams, sacrifices, fears, joys, persistence, and love against an exciting and suspenseful backdrop. Readers will revel in raw emotion shared with the vivid and diverse characters. They’re moving slow, and despite the heat of today, winter’s coming fast. Unknown secrets lay in wait, revealed by Snarling Wolf in the miles still ahead.

July 8, 2024
STAY With The WAGONS: Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail Book 3 by David Fitz-Gerald – Historical Fiction, Oregon Trail, Mystery Edit | Live

The wheels roll relentlessly westward. In Stay with the Wagons, book 3 of David Fitz-Gerald’s Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail series, the families upon those wheels must face not only the consequences of the trail behind them but also new dangers that lie ahead.

Dorcas, the resilient mother, widow, and adventurer will need to summon forth all her remaining strength– physical and emotional– to survive these new challenges. Especially with her children to protect. Their community of waggoneers have supported each other through great hardship, but cracks are growing between them.

Amongst its incredible beauty, the country they travel through contains great danger, wild animals, and a hidden evil energized by greed and violence. There is a promise, a hope of happiness on the trail west if you Stay With The Wagons, but nothing is guaranteed.

There’s no turning back now for Dorcas and her children, as they near the halfway point to Oregon.

She can’t give up on this dream, facing down their long way to go into the unknown. Dorcas yearns to truly become a strong and independent Athena-style woman, yet doubts linger.

It’s the first day of summer, so the weather conditions are improving, but even this helpful development brings forth new challenges. So far the graves left behind them due to illness have been isolated cases. Dorcas buried her husband, but now she faces her own possible demise as she falls deathly sick.

While she fights desperately for life, her children must step up to responsibilities beyond their years. Their friends in the wagon train do what they can to help, but can this family carry on and can their mother summon the vitality to recover? Like a mustang out on the plain, will the family’s wild spirit prevail?

Along the trail there are many spirited encounters. Some are animalistic, some are devilish, some are affairs of the heart– none are predictable.

Grizzlies, snakes, even scorpions seem to conspire against the invaders of their lands. But true evil lurks in human form, and paranormal forces hovers over the wagons.

The complications of love are woven within the community, and even beyond. It’s not only romance that provokes trembles, but also the love for family, and wishing only the best of dreams for those who are cherished. When they reach a fork in the trail, life choices must be made with dire stakes.

Don’t fall behind now. This series continues west to the promised future.

Author David Fitz-Gerald propels readers through the 1850 American West, alongside the people of that era in the journey of their lifetime. We all know the destination, but no one knows whether– or how– this wagon train will arrive. Fitz-Gerald wields an amazing talent for suspense and surprise twists.

Readers will feel as if they’re walking the trail step by step with Dorcas and her family, sharing the emotional heights of rocky precipices as well as the depths of valleys in all their vivid beauty and daring, as they continue onward to Stay With The Wagons.

April 12, 2024
LIGHTEN The LOAD: Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail Book 2 by David Fitz-Gerald – Historical Fiction, Oregon Trail, Mystery

Once on a grand adventure to a new life with her husband and young family, Dorcas suddenly finds herself the sole shepherd for her children into the unknown, in David Fitz-Gerald’s historical fiction novel, Lighten the Load.

Owner of a fully loaded wagon, in a train of travelers on the truly wild western trail, Dorcas must give every decision her full attention. She faces immediate life-altering choices, some threatening her own safety and others putting her children at terrible risk. The expedition rolls forward over a mystery yet to be solved and an underlying paranormal mystique.

On this dangerous venture west, Dorcas is called upon often to help and comfort her fellow travelers. As she and her family face escalating dangers and devastating catastrophes, can she learn to Lighten the Load and accept help when she desperately needs it?

Dorcas and her children struggle to adjust to all they’ve faced since they left home.

This future was certainly her husband’s dream, but did she really share it? Dorcas and her family begin this episode of their lives where there is no sign of civilization other than the people of the wagon train where they’ve hitched their hopes. And as her oxen struggle to pull forward their heavy wagon, Dorcas debates if Oregon is still the best future for them. With all the deaths so far on the trail, will any of them even reach Oregon?

The leader of their caravan has concerns too, and offers a controversial solution. Dorcas is called to the campfire to meet a man willing to marry her. Though she embraces the romance, of her own choosing, her heart and thoughts weigh heavy on her. She takes responsibility for her children and the tragic circumstances of those around her: her new friend’s difficult pregnancy; those who are grieving; and others who are discouraged from pursuing their dreams. And always that push, rolling forward deeper into new territory.

The difficulties on the trail contrast with majestic views of the great outdoors, as well as the camaraderie, sacrifice, and friendship of those around Dorcas, and the vision of what could be.

There are surprises around every corner. A lingering mystery casts a shadow over the notorious lothario, Armand Bartholamieux. Clues begin to surface, and Dorcas seeks answers. All the while, she cares for her children, trying to teach them lessons of self-reliance. But her daughter Rose continues to be drawn towards a supernatural force. Dorcas worries and debates how to best help her daughter, until Rose disappears. And lurking in the shadows are the mysterious Viper and his brothers.

Hitch your team up for a memorable journey into the 1850 American West. Award-winning author David Fitz-Gerald skillfully guides readers through vivid descriptions of a setting filled with ever-changing extremes.

Lighten the Load will introduce you to fascinating characters who relentlessly continue their life’s journey toward destiny. Dorcas must learn how to move forward after all she’s faced, and if she can, she just might find Oregon, a bright future, and even blooming love.

February 21, 2024
A GRAVE EVERY MILE: Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail Book 1 by David Fitz-Gerald – Historical Fiction, Oregon Trail Fiction, Family Saga

Each day’s trumpet blasts the predawn quiet of the sleeping wagon train, demanding that its migrating families face what’s ahead, whether incredible scenery or mortal danger, in David Fitz-Gerald’s A Grave Every Mile.

This beautifully told story mixes adventure, survival, community, and history, all shown through the eyes of Dorcas, a feisty mother of four. She’s dreamed of hitting the trail to the storied West for so long, but much about this trip and their destination remains unknown.

Another wagon travels alongside hers. Who are they? Will they remain strangers, or become friends? Now that Dorcas stands with her family at the trail’s starting point and on the brink of changing their lives forever, a tremor of doubt surfaces about what lies ahead. Is her family strong enough to face their future? Will it be everything she and her husband hoped for? That future is 720,000 turns of the wagon wheels away, and there may be A Grave Every Mile. It all starts with that first pull by the team of oxen.

The action starts on page one when an intense fistfight breaks out amid a crowd of people stocking up their wagons.

The crowd cheers on the two combatants in a frenzy. Dorcas, however, has seen enough. Leveraging her athletic and tall physique, she moves in to break up the fight. Her boldness will have to carry her forward on the trail, as she and her family face unfamiliar challenges every day. They struggle to keep their wits and sense of humor about them through the rigors of the daily chores and travel. Even something seemingly straightforward, like crossing a river, requires skill and careful planning in 1850.

Human nature remains unpredictable. A traveling caravan becomes a community of individuals with joys, but also concerns and burdens.

Can these strangers pull together in tough times and help each other, or do they tear each other apart? Each family’s story is deeply touching. Traveling this path, the tensions and frictions within a family grow until they can’t be ignored. Further down the trail, those wounds may not be able to heal.

Children are not immune to the effects of these wild, open spaces. As with adults, previously hidden aspects of their personalities take hold.

Dorcas sees her oldest daughter’s soulful reaction to tragedy as bordering on the paranormal. Her adventurous son becomes even more daring, while her other son enthusiastically begins a newsletter as he researches and documents incidents along the way. Underlying all the travails, there is love. Sometimes that love is found when and where it is not expected. Sometimes it sparks jealousy. And so often that love is cherished. Yet, there will come a time when Dorcas is going to have to make a very difficult choice.

Climb on board and get those wheels turning to experience a journey into the frontier of 1850, described in full sensory detail.

Award-winning author David Fitz-Gerald’s fascination with this era is skillfully displayed throughout this novel. Historical insights and facts are skillfully woven into the plot, with a hint of the paranormal sparking some intrigue. His memorable characters warm the heart, excite the conscience, and will often take readers by surprise. This novel’s unique writing style is incredibly engaging, as the pages and the days on the trail eagerly turn from one to another.

January 10, 2024
IF IT’S The LAST THING I DO by David Fitz-Gerald – Financial Thrillers, Historical Fiction, Small Town Fiction

If It’s The Last Thing I Do by David Fitz-Gerald tells the story of Misty Menard, a 69-year-old woman who in 1975 returns to her upstate New York hometown to attend the funeral of her beloved father. She is dumbfounded to find she has inherited his business, making wooden dowels and buttons.

A receptionist for most of her adult life, with no business experience, she is at best ill-suited to the job. Personal problems hang over her as well, as a divorcee determined to keep sober and cigarette-free while in weekly therapy. But to keep her father’s memory alive, she is determined to keep the business afloat while she decides what to do with it in the long term. The last thing she imagined she would be doing on the cusp of 70 was running a business.

She turns the business into an employee-owned enterprise, an ESOP (employee stock ownership plan.) This gives her employees a shot at owning part or all of the business. The skill with which If It’s the Last Thing I Do integrates ESOP into its story, making it digestible, is among its many pleasures.

Her three-man management team is aggressively against it, and the local bank that hosts the trust and handles its transactions is resistant to providing loans to facilitate the deal. As the ESOP continues taking shape, the bank becomes its mortal enemy.

While those issues would be difficult on their own, the collapsing economy of that era pushes Misty’s company to the brink of insolvency.

Buyers emerge offering to purchase it on the cheap. There are unexplained incidents of vandalism on the premises. And in an almost Biblical moment, a huge storm brings raging floods that threaten to destroy the company’s physical foundations.

The decision to turn the company over to its employees, giving them a stake in its future, becomes more complex as the financial noose tightens.

Misty’s family life adds yet more weight to her shoulders.

Her husband abandoned her for another woman. One of her two sons is dead, leaving the other son to bring up his nephew, who in turn has a child. That child, a boy nicknamed Four, has ambitions to become an Olympic skater, but finds his path may not wind up as he envisioned.

Misty is filled with self-doubts. She makes decisions from the heart instead of from practicality. But her belief in the rightness of her decisions, her essential goodness, is one of this novel’s strengths. People both good and wicked drive this story, their motivations and machinations not always apparent at first.

Readers who enjoy a well-paced, gripping novel should put If It’s The Last Thing I Do on top of their reading list. Misty’s complex relationships with her family and her own mortality, combined with her efforts as a CEO, turn this novel into a true page-turner.

October 23, 2023
CAUGHT In A TRANCE: The Adirondack Spirit Series Book 5 by David Fitz-Gerald – 19th Century Historical Fiction, Mystical, Family Fiction

Caught in a Trance by David Fitz-Gerald transports readers to Wilmington, New York in 1849, where the scenery is breathtaking, restless spirits hover, and dark secrets lurk.

Moses Munch grew up in Wilmington, his happy childhood turning into a content adult life as a loving husband, devoted father, and caring friend to many. He dabbles in the transcendental, using his spiritual connection as an aid in guiding others through their troubles. But he is about to learn that sometimes even the best of intentions can lead to terrifying consequences. When an innocent curiosity becomes an obsession, he might lose his friends and family forever. Who will be able to help, when the person who tried to save others is now the one who needs saving?

Moses Munch’s whole family is devoted to helping others. They want to bring joy to those around them and are the first to act when others are in trouble.

Moses’ wife Lovina is a caring matchmaker, spreading happiness throughout the community. Their thirteen-year-old son Silas aspires to serve God, assisting the town’s Reverend Hammond in his work. He is a very mature teenager, wiser than many adults. Moses’ mother is secretly aiding black slaves to freedom through an underground escape route. Moses works through the art of what he calls “trancification”. He uses hypnoses to guide people on a spiritual journey into their previous lives, in search of understanding and peace.

When a neighbor arrives in town, he threatens to destroy this Wilmington’s tranquility. Bartholomieux has just moved to Wilmington and is disrupting families, ridiculing hypnotism, and threatening Moses’ marriage. What is in this man’s past life that drives him? Moses is determined to stop Bartholomieux’s machinations, but he struggles to find a way to do so.

Curiosity becomes a nagging ache within Moses.

He enjoys joining his mind with those he helps in, entering trances and traveling into their spirited universe. Moses seeks a way to travel into his own past, and eventually uncovers it. What he discovers is entrancing, and he begins participating in these hypnotisms more and more. What once was an aid for others becomes an addiction, and one day Moses becomes lost in a trance. He cannot save himself, stuck between his past and his present. Though he reaches for his loved ones, the distance is too great. And while he is caught, Bartholomieux works against him.

Author David Fitz-Gerald offers the fifth book in the Adirondack Spirit series, an engaging and touching story.

He beautifully describes the setting and shows the consequences of addiction, not only for the person addicted but also for their loved ones. Caught in a Trance is a unique look at the subject because instead of an addiction to drugs, Moses is addicted to his mystical practice. Fitz-Gerald skillfully weaves the emotional impacts of Moses’s addiction throughout the plot.

Scenes in the spirited universe show artful settings and reveal mystical secrets, keeping the reader enthusiastically turning pages. In the mundane scenes, Fitz-Gerald’s historical research and characters shine. The members of the Munch family show courage as they face their everyday problems, and rely on family loyalty to keep them afloat even in the darkest of times. Readers will root for these characters, and wonder the same question: will Moses ever find a way back to his present life?

November 30, 2022
Waking Up Lost: The Adirondack Spirit Series Book 4 by David Fitz-Gerald – Historical Fantasy, Native American Fiction, Coming of Age

Seventeen-year-old Noah Munch craves acceptance more than anything in David Fitz-Gerald’s coming of age novel, Waking Up Lost.

As a biracial boy growing up in a small village in upper New York, Noah doesn’t feel that he belongs to either part of his heritage. Having lost his Native American father before he was born, Noah has spent his short life trying to connect with that missing part of himself. Meanwhile, he has to keep the peace with the Wilmington villagers who find his native side offensive. Noah also protects a family secret. His mother, Mehitable, speaks with spirits and his brother, Moses, has an uncanny ability to predict disaster and show up with inhuman speed to prevent it.

As a result of his complex home life, Noah spends a great deal of time alone. He dreams of someday being a mountain man, living off his wits and the nature around him. However, Noah can’t stop himself from admiring Arminda, the prettiest girl in town. He doubts he will ever have a chance to court the blonde beauty, especially considering the meanest young man in town, Erastus Moss, has spoken for her.

Erastus, whose grandparents died at the hands of Native Americans on a journey out West, begins to harass Noah when he notices Noah’s interest in Arminda.

Noah endures taunts, feeling the burden of prejudice and simultaneously the inadequacy of being the only “normal” member of his family until the night he wakes up on top of a mountain.

He begins to experience strange episodes, which he believes are sleepwalking fits. One night appears inside the home of his beloved Arminda. Once the town discovers his odd behavior, suspicion and fear turn even more people against him, and Erastus uses it as an excuse to escalate his torture. Can Noah stop the crazed man and find a way to control his abilities before it’s too late?

The fourth installment of the Adirondack Spirit Series revolves around Noah’s coming of age.

In true bildungsroman style, Noah embarks on both a physical and spiritual journey. He suffers the distance between himself and other boys, including his twenty-year-old brother. Noah, small, scrawny, and by his own admission, doesn’t have the physical presence that others expect of a boy his age. Though often the most handsome boy in Wilmington, Noah’s dark hair and olive skin set him apart in his racist town.

However, Noah never knew his father’s people, so he has nobody other than his white neighbors to socialize with. He can’t see himself as anything other than a clumsy daydreamer who will never fit in, driving him to live alone in the mountains as his father had done years ago. Noah yearns to connect to the father he resembles, but when he isolates himself, nature and man conspire to bring him right back to the town he hates.

He finds no solace in his mother and brother, even as they assure him that he possesses great power.

Even amongst his family, Noah doesn’t fit. He despairs his ordinary nature with a mother who guides spirits to the afterlife and brother with inhuman speed. If he could rely on a secret talent, he could tolerate his neighbors’ prejudice. But when he does develop an unexplainable ability, it proves nightmarish and deadly. Noah never knows when it will happen or, more importantly, where it will take him. Ironically, this strange power becomes paramount in discovering the very purpose he longs to find.

Faith and trust in God frame Noah’s life.

Noah often relies on his faith to carry him through the unbelievably tricky situations in his life. In pain, he turns to prayer for comfort and reassurance, and later when he commits a crime (albeit justified), he only frees himself of the burden when he seeks absolution from God. Though his episodes sometimes prove horrific, Noah realizes his power borders on the miraculous.

He searches for God’s plan for his life even while questioning how he will know it when he sees it. When Noah hits his lowest point, fearing for his life, he feels the “warmth” of God physically and hears His message that Noah isn’t alone. Noah becomes God’s servant, and he begins to understand that he must become what God expects, not what he wants.

The supernatural elements in the story set it apart from the typical novel of this genre, creating a hybrid between historical and paranormal.

The family members’ unusual abilities heighten their outsider status. Mehitable raised her biracial sons in a town of hate and prejudice for seventeen years. Though she does have a few staunch supporters, these people can’t always keep the wolves at bay. She and her sons suffer from the racism so prolific during the 1800s in America. Compounding her pariah-like treatment, she speaks to spirits and must keep her gifts secret for fear of further mistreatment. Moses must also keep his powers hidden. Noah suffers for his gift. Though he has no control over its occurrence, the townspeople practically exile him, leaving the young man to find a way to bridge this chasm between himself and others.

December 15, 2021
CURSE of the CONCHOBAR – A Prequel to the Adirondack Spirit Series by David Fitz-Gerald – U.S. Historical Fiction, Family Saga Fiction, Ghost Fiction

Conchobar wakes, barely alive and in a world he does not know.

When he’s found by the tribes who call this land home, he’ll become caught by the ties of family, violence, and love, none of which he’s ready to face.

Conchobar lives in the house of Spits Teeth, the patriarch of his adoptive family. He struggles to learn their way of life, still tied by memory and longing to his home at the monastery of Skellig Michael. But he must learn to hunt, fish, and fight if he wants to survive and belong.

Despite his struggles and the language barrier itself, Conchobar begins to care for the new family around him. But an endless cycle of battle and bloodshed roars between his new tribe and their neighbors. Soon, events will rise and test his peaceful nature and put his beloved family in great peril. Beyond the threat of warclubs and arrows, a dark curse threatens to swallow all the good that he might find in this new world.

Conchobar’s life amongst the tribe of Spits Teeth is defined by his distance from them, his sense of being a fish out of water.

No matter how much he learns to live as the people around him do, he never quite understands them, always somehow on the outside looking in or yearning for his past life. He spends much of his time in his own head, musing on the world around him as he faces new and strange things. The world is interesting and alive through his eyes. The dynamic villagers show their place in the world with every word and action; as Conchobar grows close to them, they show more of who they are, what they want, and what they fear. Conchobar offers his love to his new family and his grave concern as he realizes the danger they’re in.

Fitz-Gerald takes time and great care with Conchobar, sitting with his thoughts and sorrows and joys.

His growing sense of doom becomes one with the story, as cruel twists of fate begin to unfold upon his new family. But between this dread, the people of the village open up as Conchobar learns their language, and the action of their battles and hunts together flows smoothly across the page. Their material world slowly mingles with the supernatural and mystical, spurred by Conchobar’s strange place between the two. But he doesn’t have the time to unravel his curse and his connection to the natural world, as the longer he stays in the midst of battle, the more personal it becomes to him.

The Curse of Conchobar is a tale of violence begetting violence, of the perseverance of faith and hope in the face of grief and fear. Conchobar’s dreamlike connection to nature becomes a religious experience, showing him wonders of the world, cut off by the approach of a people who never needed to be enemies.

Throughout the story, Conchobar’s voice remains strong. Fitz-Gerald breathes life into his Spits Teeth characters. In love, loss, and anger, the emotion is palpable to the reader and will remain long after the book is read. The Curse of the Conchobar – A Prequel to the Adirondack Spirit Series scratches the itch for rich character exploration, historical fiction in a time and place often underrepresented, and a love story marked by tragedy and transcendence. In other words, Fitz-Gerald delivers a worthy prequel to the Adirondack Spirit Series.

April 16, 2021