Flintlock by Jason Manning



Good summer fun!

Aaron Burr (1756-1836)
Flintlock is the frontier nickname of Nathaniel Jones, a deadeye shot on the Kentucky frontier. The book is ostensibly about Aaron Burr and his attempt to break the American West away from the rest of the United States in the early 1800s. For those of you not familiar with Burr, he was the former Vice President (Jefferson's first term) who killed America's first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton (the guy on your $10 bill) in a duel. This ruined his political career and he was accused of conspiring to turn the US territory East of the Mississippi and west of the Appalachians into a personal dictatorship.

The book has a rather large prologue (almost 1/2 of the book) that concerns young Flintlock's exploits as a teen in the Revolutionary War on the Virginia/Kentucky frontier. To be honest, that is the only complaint that I have with the book - its back cover does not accurately describe its contents. It's a fun summertime book, a quick read with lots of action and lots of historical background thrown in. Is it a great work of fiction, able to stand with Melville and Hemingway? No, but it is a fun little book that does all that it was ever intended to do - entertain a lot and educate a little.

 I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

 This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Flintlock.

 Reviewed in 2004.

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