In a prologue, Peter Jay uses the key given to him by his recently deceased father, John, to access a manuscript that \u201clooks beneath the record\u201d with margins \u201ccrowded with a single name, written over and over\u2014Mr. Smith.\u201d The narrative then continues in chapters that jump back and forth in time to share the saga of the Doctrine, a covert agency led by Smith, that spans from the run-up to the American Revolutionary War to Andrew Jackson\u2019s rise to the presidency. This latest series installment introduces a new fictional main character called Cyrus, a foundling brought by Smith\u2014whose origin story was covered in Phantom Patriot\u00a0(2025)\u2014to John Jay and his wife, Sarah, in Spain in 1780. The couple were residing in the country during Jay\u2019s ambassadorship there. Cyrus is raised as part of the Jay family, eventually moving back with the clan to the United States. Meanwhile, he receives secret instructions on how to become a Doctrine asset. By the age of 16, he begins his assignments, with Cyrus and others traveling the globe to perform such tasks as switching shipping manifests. A watershed moment involves Cyrus meeting the alluring Camille, soon revealed to be a French intelligence agent, with the two drawn to each other despite differing missions. Both Smith and Cyrus elude assassination attempts thanks to surprising saviors. Then, by 1829, the Doctrine itself is in jeopardy with \u201cJefferson\u2019s shadow fading fast\u201d and \u201chalf the old norms…being stripped for sport\u201d in the new Jackson era.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this story sends you back to the footnotes others skim\u2014if you pause when the archive goes too quiet too quickly\u2014then it has done its work,\u201d notes Gosselin in his afterword, objectives well met in this intriguing imagining of an Illuminati-type force operating on behalf of the emerging U.S. on the world stage. The author points to his discovery of a notation for \u201cpayment rendered for intelligence\u201d to a \u201cSmith\u201d in a 1786 ledger found in the Library of Congress as inspiration for his series. Gosselin\u2019s love of documentation is evident throughout this latest installment, with the Doctrine\u2019s work often involving forging or misdirecting papers and Peter Jay left puzzling over a final code in that unlocked manuscript, setting the stage for a possible fourth volume in this series. Unfortunately, the author can focus a bit too much on Doctrine mechanics and minutiae (the secret meetings, even those with Founding Fathers, become somewhat repetitive) while not always providing enough background on the actual historical events covered. Many readers will likely stop and consult external sources to better understand the context of this novel\u2019s references to the Chesapeake-Leopard affair, the Shays\u2019 Rebellion, U.S. concerns in Haiti in 1802, and more. Scenes featuring Doctrine operatives other than Cyrus and Smith also distract from the compelling duo. Still, the most striking takeaway of this engaging work is how fraught the U.S.\u2019s beginnings were, with the issues faced by the young nation\u2014including disagreements about trade embargoes and how to enter others\u2019 wars\u2014still resonating today.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a prologue, Peter Jay uses the key given to him by his recently deceased father, John, to access a manuscript that \u201clooks beneath the record\u201d with margins \u201ccrowded with a single name, written over and over\u2014Mr. Smith.\u201d The narrative then continues in chapters that jump back and forth in time to share the saga […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4642"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}