J. W. G. reviewed on
Helpful Score: 2
I've greatly enjoyed the entire Abel Jones series. The most recent novel was published in 2005, and since then, Ralph Peters (for whom Owen Parry is a pseudonym) has produced books in his other publication streams - political analysis, present-day thriller novels - but no more Abel Jones books have appeared. I sincerely hope this series isn't finished. No other series has had a protagonist like Major Jones: Genuinely good, honest to a fault, tough, loving, an odd-looking fellow with a wife who adores him, a superb soldier, a dogged searcher despite antagonists who might temporarily fool him, a teetotaler Methodist with a mind large enough to entertain the idea that other beliefs might have something to recommend them, a middle-aged Welsh-American with a surprising back-story that we get in bits, a man of peace able to turn expertly deadly when he must. Abel makes odd friends and sometimes fascinating enemies. In this genre, many authors fall into a groove and tell the same story novel after novel - but each of Parry's Abel Jones stories is very different from the others. Add to this a rich and detailed rendering of Civil-War times given in Abel Jones' engaging first-person narrative voice and it's clear why I don't want the series to end.
