One of the perks of writing a glowing review of an author’s book is that sometimes they will ask you to read and review other books that they have written. I assume that is because they think that you already believe that the authors write in a style that you enjoy and that the subject matter may be something that interests you.

Such is the case here. Several years ago, I read and really enjoyed The Last Stand of Fox Company: A True Story of U.S. Marines in Combat. I don’t know if it was the authors that impressed me so much as the desperate battle of the First Division Marines against overwhelming odds in Korea. Whichever it was, though, it was a ripping yarn that I really enjoyed, and I said so in my review. I also read and reviewed Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America's First Frontier and in this instance I did comment on the authors’ ability to apply historical perspective to the stories read in one’s youth. I had read of Boone the trailbreaker and Indian fighter but had never realized that most of his actions were shaped by the events of the American Revolution until Clavin & Drury put the events into perspective.

Which brings us to my review of their newest book. Like Blood and Treasure, Throne of Grace tells the story of one of America’s early trailblazers, the explorer, trapper and mountain man, Jedediah Smith. Although the first few chapters are a bit dry, Smith soon has enough hair-raising adventures to keep the entire dime novel industry in silver for decades. That he survived one such encounter is amazing but that he did it again and again, and always kept going back for more just boggles the imagination.

The writing team of Clavin and Drury once again adds a good deal of historical perspective to the saga of the mountain men and even adds to the list of Smith’s accomplishments a new title, that of spy. During his travels, much of what is now the western United States was claimed by either England or Mexico. Both suspected, not without merit, that the United States had designs on these territories. During his trips to California and Oregon, Smith may have acted the appreciative guest, but as ”a keen and accurate observer, Smith had departed California with the layouts and defenses of the San Gabriel, San Diego, San Jose, Monterrey, and San Francisco missions and presidios committed to memory. He could now add the design and functions of the British Fort Vancouver to the store of knowledge he would dispatch east.”

If I have one beef with this book, and it is not a big one, it is the vocabulary that they use. My vocabulary is pretty good, and it is rarely that a book will send me to the dictionary to look up a word but this book had me doing it at least thirty times. It reminds me of what Hemingway once said about Faulkner, “Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don’t know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use.” Examples of the words they used are:
Bullyragged instead of “scolded, browbeat or intimidated”.
Planter meaning an “underwater obstacle”.
Corvine to mean “beaklike”.
Juments instead of “livestock”.
Drove instead of “herd”.
Spinney instead of “grove”.
Amanuensis instead of “scribe” or “secretary”.
I don’t recall having this problem in previous books by these authors, so I suspect that the cause is that they are using words that they encountered in documents contemporary to Smith’s time. While I appreciate the opportunity to learn new words, an author’s main goal should be to make the subject matter easily understood. Reluctant as I am to say this, I agree with Hemingway here.

Bottom line: This is another excellent book by two historians who are building up a good number of excellent books about our country’s history. I highly recommend this book.

*Quotations are cited from an advanced reading copy. Most, if not all, have been checked and are the same as appears in the final published edition. The review was based on an advanced reading copy obtained at no cost from the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review. While this does take any ‘not worth what I paid for it’ statements out of my review, it otherwise has no impact on its content.

FYI: On a 5-point scale I assign stars based on my assessment of what the book needs in the way of improvements:
*5 Stars – Nothing at all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
*4 Stars – It could stand for a few tweaks here and there but it’s pretty good as it is.
*3 Stars – A solid C grade. Some serious rewriting would be needed for this book to be considered great or even memorable.
*2 Stars – This book needs a lot of work. A good start would be to change the plot, the character development, the writing style and the ending.
*1 Star – The only thing that would improve this book is a good bonfire. ( )