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THE TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF THE TRAITOR GEORGE WASHINGTON By: Charles Rosenberg
Hanover Square Press
July 2018
On Sale: June 26, 2018
432 pages ISBN: 1335200320 EAN: 9781335200327 Kindle: B075R2CD6V Hardcover / e-Book
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Historical | Science Fiction Alternate History
A thought-provoking novel that imagines what would have happened if the British had succeeded in kidnapping General George Washington. British special agent Jeremiah Black, an officer of the Kingβs Guard, lands on a lonely beach in the wee hours of the morning in late November 1780. The revolution is in full swing but has become deadlocked. Black is here to change all that. His mission, aided by Loyalists, is to kidnap George Washington and spirit him back to London aboard the HMS Peregrine, a British sloop of war that is waiting closely offshore. Once he lands, though, the βaid by Loyalistsβ proves problematic because some would prefer just to kill the general outright. Black managesβjustβto get Washington aboard the Peregrine, which sails away. Upon their arrival in London, Washington is imprisoned in the Tower to await trial on charges of high treason. Englandβs most famous barristers seek to represent him but he insists on using an American. He chooses Abraham Hobhouse, an American-born barrister with an English wifeβa man who doesnβt really need the work and thinks the βcareer-buildingβ case will be easily resolved through a settlement of the revolution and Washingtonβs release. But as greater political and military forces swirl around them and peace seems ever more distant, Hobhouse finds that he is the only thing keeping Washington from the hangmanβs noose. Drawing inspiration from a rumored kidnapping plot hatched in 1776 by a member of Washingtonβs own Commander-in-Chief Guard, Charles Rosenberg has written a compelling novel that envisions what would take place if the leader of Americaβs fledgling rebellion were taken from the nation at the height of the war, imperiling any chance of victory.
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