Debbie Wentworth Wilson's Reviews > The Saintly Buccaneer: 1777

Once Charity Alden returns to Boston from Valley Forge with her younger brother's body, she tries to find doctors and supplies to help the struggling patriots. She has met Major Adam Winslow, his son Nathan and daughter-in-law Julie while at Valley Forge and turns to Adam's brother Charles for help for the soldiers. Instead, she finds that Charles Winslow is a devoted Tory. His son Paul is even worse, a debauched drunkard.

When Paul offers to help, Charity meets him at a tavern where Paul gets her alone and tries to assault her. Quick-thinking Charity grabs a candle snuffer and strikes him in the face with it, leaving a long wound. She escapes.

On a trip to New York, Paul is pressed into the British navy after a fight which leaves him with a head injury that causes amnesia. He is given the name of Hawke by those who nurse him back to health. He has no idea that his family thinks he's dead.

I picked this up for a reading challenge. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed The House of Winslow series as it came out years ago. Morris's fast-paced writing takes us into the saga of the Winslow family from the Mayflower to at least World War II. The Saintly Buccaneer is the fifth in the series.

Morris develops his characters well. Charity is the fearless, headstrong daughter raised on her father's ships. Dan Greene is the somewhat lapsed Quaker Charity meets at Valley Forge, and Paul Winslow is the debauched young rich man whom almost nobody can stand, quick to drink, fight, and chase women. All are developing characters.

This is a Christian book. Paul's attempted rape of Charity and the scar he receives from it figure into the plotline. The language is clean. One of the things I appreciate in the story is the Christian characters determining not to be "unequally yoked."

Our family read some of this series together when our sons were teenagers. A homeschooling friend required her kids to read the series as a supplement to their history books.