By the Standing Stone

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

This second volume in a projected historical fiction trilogy begins in
1773, some 10 years after A Circle of Silver’s events. Though the
first novel’s central character, John MacNeil, now 26, still plays a
role, his leading function has been assumed by his 15-year-old ward, the
orphaned Charlotte “Mack” MacNeil, who, having enjoyed the new
world’s freedom for three years, fears being returned to restrictive
England.

Almost too much happens in this story. Mack and Jamie, her 11-year-old
cousin, are kidnapped by villains intent on selling them into servitude.
Rescued by British army camp followers, the pair are being escorted to
Fort Niagara when they encounter Owela, an Oneida and John’s friend,
who has instructions to take them to Boston where the MacNeil family
ship is moored. There they meet Paul Revere and later become
participants in the December 16, 1773, Boston Tea Party. As the group,
now including John, returns to Fort Detroit, Jamie breaks his leg, and
the party winters over in Owela’s village where Mack learns the ways
of the Oneida (which means People of the Standing Stone). Though a
romance appears to begin between Mack and Owela, the spring sees the
travelers, without Owela, continuing to John’s home on Peche Island.
The book closes in 1775 with the announcement that the “rebels in the
colonies have risen up against the Crown” and Owela’s appearance and
indication that he is seeking a wife.

Not as emotionally engaging as A Circle of Silver (1999), By the
Standing Stone is still a good read and will leave readers anticipating
the final volume. Recommended.