I liked the first in this historical series, set in Upper Canada in 1837 and featuring Lieutenant Marc Edwards.  This second Edwards novel is even better.  Gutteridge knows his Canadian history, and how to turn it into fiction.

The story takes up as Edwards resigns his position with the governor-general and returns to his regiment.  All seems well until Edwards’s friend Rick Hilliard is found standing over the corpse of an actor he had suspected of rape.  Worse, Hilliard can’t remember what happened.  Could he be a killer?

The loss-of-memory plot is an old chestnut, but aside from that, Gutteridge is on solid ground.  The plot gives us snippets of early Canadian travelling theatre, local lore and incursions by the blasted Americans.  Lots of fun for history buffs, and even for those who think Upper Canada is only a brand of beer.

--Margaret Cannon, The Globe and Mail, Saturday, June 23, 2007