[ Previous ] [ Next ]

[Published by Random House, epublished 2009]

The Demon Redcoat is meant to be read after one reads the first two books in his Traitor to the Crown trilogy (The Patriot Witch and A Spell for the Revolution).

However, those with a disinterest in fantasy novels (but an interest in Tarleton) won't miss out on much. In my opinion, the series would have worked much better as a one-off novel -- there is a lot of filler, some sounding very much as if it was being written with an eye towards selling the books to Hollywood. So, if you have seen any modern horror films about witchcraft or demonology and have even a passing interest in the AWI, you can pretty much piece together the events of the first two-thirds of the series.

As a reader of fantasy novels, I appreciated the general conceit, though -- there are not too many works of fantasy fiction set during the Rev War. But, as an American reenactor who plays on the British side, I was pretty unhappy with the title of the third book. So, when BT appears in Chapter 1, riding at the head of the British Legion, I feared the worst.

As it turns out, Ban is not, in fact, the eponymous redcoat, which is a relief. Mr. Finlay did some research -- he very obviously has read the Bass book, and looked closely at the Reynolds portrait (unlike some other authors I could name). Quite clearly, though, he either did not bother moving on to Tony Scotti's book, or to this site, as several hoary old legends are (literally) exhumed.

I personally do not hand out spoilers for books, but I will say the following -- Mr. Finley does have a reason for dredging up the myths, which he explains in the "Acknowledgement" section at the end of the book, although I do wish someone would inform him that certain events depicted in "The Patriot" are completely fictitious.