Angel With Spurs
$2.75
By
LIPPINCOTT
THIS is a novel based on the expedition by the thousand Confederate troopers led by General Jo Shelby into Mexico to join Maximilian, The Civil War was over, but Shelby’s men refused to surrender. Instead they marched as a disciplined fighting force to offer their services where they would be most useful, and most appreciated, in Mexico. This offer was not accepted and Shelby’s dream of a Mexican state upheld by 50,000 Confederate veterans faded away in failure and frustration. He might have been an empire builder, but his luck was out and his march turned out to be only “a memorable adventure.”
As such, its story has definite romantic probabilities and the author has not ignored them. A love story between a young officer and a charming Confederate heroine, a really villainous villain, a redwhiskered Falstaffian, Shelby himself - all the people and fixings are there for a hung-up romantic, historical novel. Somehow it is never entirely successful. The author shows neither the sureness of touch nor the narrative strength and skill which marked his earlier novel, Jubal Troop. It is a good story and, if one had not read and admired Jubal Troop, one would not complain over the stilted and artificial elements in this novel. As it is, one has the impression that the author rend up his subject and then sat down and manfully constructed a historical novel while his publishers called steadily for copy. The result is a good job, but one which lacks inspiration, R. E. D.