A Wolf You Won't Mind Being Bitten By

This week we turn our blog over to one of our authors, who is reviewing one of his recent reads.

All views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of Selfishgenie Publishing.

I am pleased to have stumbled across the Northern Wolf series of books, by Daniel Greene, the first one of which gives the series its title.
 
The title suggests something that might be in the fantasy genre (there is a fantasy series with a similar name), but it isn’t.

It is a historical series set during the American Civil War (1861-1865). It had me hooked from the first page, so it is good that the series is available as a box set, so I can keep the cost down because I’m definitely riding along with this one.
 
Johannes Wolf.is a young man who is drifting aimlessly through life. Due to a leg injury sustained as a child he is unable to work and, feeling unmanned by his disability, he settles into a life of drinking and brawling. Unwisely, he decides to take on three brothers, Polish migrants with little understanding of the English language, and he ends up in jail, in the next cell to his three former opponents.
 
At this point a recruiting Sergeant for the Union Army turns up and tries to sign up the three brothers; big, strapping lads who would make good soldiers. The sergeant plays on their lack of language skills to get them to sign the enlistment forms. Wolf signals to the brothers that this isn’t a good idea.
 
He then persuades the Sergeant that he can get the brothers to sign, but only on condition that he too is allowed to enlist (he had previously been turned down by the Army because of his disability). While Johannes may not be able to march very well, he has no problem riding a horse and the Sergeant is recruiting for the cavalry.
 
Unable to resist the temptation of signing three good recruits, the Sergeant agrees reluctantly, and Wolf and the three Poles set off to start a new life in the 13th Michigan Cavalry. They are then shipped off to a training camp outside Washington DC, a city under threat from the advancing Confederate Army.
 
It comes as no surprise to anyone who knows a little bit of history that it isn’t long before Wolf and his comrades are called upon to fight in the Battle of Gettysburg (1st – 3rd July 1863). The 13th Michigan are assigned to the Michigan Cavalry Brigade under the command of the newly promoted Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer, who would later find fame for less glorious reasons, but who has already established a reputation for being something of a maverick and a firebrand. That is a fact, by the way, Custer did command this brigade at Gettysburg, though the inclusion of the 13th Michigan Cavalry in the brigade is a fiction.
 
I won’t go into any more detail here, preferring to let author Daniel Greene tell the story, which he does very well.
 
The plot isn’t a complicated one, but the story is well told and the characters Greene creates are interesting and believable. Johannes Wolf finds he enjoys army life and his new sense of purpose motivates him to become a good soldier. Greene surrounds Wolf with a cast of similarly well rounded characters.
 
So why only 4 stars?
 
It is down to the battle scenes. I found them confusing, unable to picture the whereabouts of the characters within the action; who is doing what, where and to whom. There are no helpful maps of the battlefield and I found I lost track of events very quickly
 
No doubt this reflects the fog of war, but it doesn’t help the reader to keep track of events to see how the battle develops and moves through its critical phases. In particular it doesn’t place the book’s characters at the centre of the action where they can influence the outcome. They become irrelevant to the events around them, less than pawns in a game of chess. As Wolf is the main character, he should be right at the centre of the action, saving the day for the Union Army (even if only fictitiously).
 
There is one scene where Wolf’s character is really influential (I won’t give it away here), but that is one incident in a book that is 245 pages long.
 
However, don’t let me put you off this book because, for lovers of historical novels with a military flavour, it is an enjoyable read. This may not be Richard Sharpe at his finest (my benchmark for 5 stars in this genre), but Wolf is a likeable character and I found I really came to care about what would become of him.
 
For my British readers, you don’t have to know a lot about the American Civil War to enjoy this book. My American readers probably know all they need to anyway.
 
I look forward to reading more about Wolf’s adventures in Book 2 of the series, Northern Hunt.
 
If you would like to know more about “Northern Wolf” by Daniel Greene, just click the link below.

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Northern Wolf Series

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