City of Spies

The history of the American War of Independence will be unfamiliar to most young readers but it’s an important one and exciting too.  Iszi Lawrence, fresh from writing about 18^th century pirates, female pilots of World War II and the Suffragettes, opens it up to young readers in her latest historical novel, raising issues that are also relevant today.

Twelve-year-old Aiden is in New York as apprentice to a Manhattan businessman. His family back in England are aristocrats, but his father is the youngest son so won’t get the big house or the land, hence Aiden’s ambitions to return home with a fortune of his own.  He’s working for James Rivington, coffeehouse and printing press owner, and, as some adults will know, a key member of the Culper spy ring. Aiden, like most of New York, believes his boss is a king’s man, and as the story opens, his own loyalties lie with King George too. As a lowly apprentice, Aiden encounters all sorts of people, and makes friends with servants of his own age. An accidental discovery of a coded message opens his eyes to the intrigues going on around him, and the realisation that the city is rife with spies and double agents. As his understanding of what’s happening develops, his views of the king begin to change. Lawrence’s story places Aiden alongside Major John André, head of the British intelligence, as he travels up the Hudson River to meet the traitor Benedict Arnold. The two are involved in skirmishes with the Americans, and Aiden is instrumental in Washington’s soldiers taking his former friend captive. Aiden is distressed and guilty about what he’s done, but readers are left in no doubt that he was right to do it, and indeed, on the right side of history.

There are many moments of spy action – the passing of secret messages, deciphering of codes, narrow escapes for Aiden and his friends – that will be fun for readers but the challenge of working out who believes what, who supports whom, is just as satisfying and definitely more challenging. André’s comparison of the colonies to badly behaved children needing to be beaten into behaving properly rings hollow with Aiden and the image will resonate with all young readers.

A map would be a useful addition to the book, and a cast of characters at the beginning would be welcome too but it’s another gripping, revealing piece of historical adventure from Lawrence and well worth sharing.