In All Cases Whatsoever
by
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When Trevor’s moment came and the room became suddenly quiet, he lowered the tone of his voice by an octave, powered his words, and spoke slowly so that everyone could hear and understand. He did this in the same manner as politicians and leaders had at fraternal dinners he had attended in New York.
“My friends, your spy master has indeed performed a miracle; he has brought me off a sloop going upriver without even knowing my name. Furthermore, he and his cohorts do not know my background or even how I make my living. It takes a lot of cunning and calculation to do that!
“So far as he is concerned, I could be John Adams, Philip Schuyler, Isaac Sears, or George Clinton, John Hancock or William Franklin. We are not that far apart in age or appearance. But this is no concern of his, for he is a great sleuth. Indeed, using the same tactics, he could bring any one of you to the scaffold because he says that he has spent months, with his nameless team of well-paid detectives, working to find the spy.
“Also, you must remember that he has now brought a total of six men, deemed to be enemies of the state, to their deaths. They have not been bankers who have dispossessed you of your farms, or lawyers who used fancy words to twist a contract against you, or horse traders who pawned-off an ancient nag. No. They were human beings whose crime was that they were strangers who had no one to vouch for them. They also represented money in the bank, times six, to pay for the brainpower of the spy master and his so-called incognito experts.
“I will not presume to take any more of your time since you probably would like to hear how your leader managed to pick me off a boat in the darkness out of all those people traveling on the river tonight. Thank you.” He waited for his words to sink in...
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About the Book
Imagine meeting a charming young woman at a dance; you fall in love, marry, and sail with her to America. At the same time you save your best friend from being captured as a deserter from the British army. Mix in literaly stumbling on a gold ingot while fly fishing and smuggling it to New York where you join the rebels. Independence from England has just been declared and the British fleet is in New York Harbor. Your country and your life are in jeopardy. This is the setting for In All Cases Whatsoever. Mr. Ford’s plot of battles and unlikely spies dovetails with history, and the book’s final event, which occurred in the Mohawk Valley, is so bizarre, one would believe it to be fiction. Chief Honeoye plays an important part. But readers will enjoy sorting it out for themselves.
About the Author
After writing Sure Signs: Stories Behind the Historical Markers of Central New York, Howard Ford wrote a novel, Some Call it Treason, about a young English couple and their friend who, together, visited the American colonies and joined the rebels just before the Revolution. This most recent novel is a sequel titled In All Cases Whatsoever, to reflect the unwavering arrogance of the English government, an attitude largely responsible for the war. Those who fought the Revolution, whether soldier or spy, were not only brave, but cunning and resourceful, and worthy of our attention for their fortitude. Many, including officers, were Englishmen who fought on the Yankee side Ford, who is retired from the financial services industry, said he does not wish to abandon his beloved characters from the first two novels and is therefore planning a third to finish his series on this segment of the war. We hope that he is as successful in that project as were the first patriots. He and his wife, Ann, live in upstate New York.