Title: Saffire

Author: Sigmund Brouwer

Rating: 3/5

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Synopsis: 

I reminded myself that once you start to defend someone, it’s difficult to find a place to stop. But I went ahead and took that first step anyway. . .

For President Teddy Roosevelt, controlling the east-west passage between two oceans mattered so much that he orchestrated a revolution to control it. His command was to ‘let the dirt fly’ and for years, the American Zone of the Panama Canal mesmerized the world, working in uneasy co-existence with the Panamanian aristocrats.

It’s in this buffered Zone where, in 1909, James Holt begins to protect a defenseless girl named Saffire, expecting a short and simple search for her mother. Instead it draws him away from safety, into a land haunted by a history of pirates, gold runners, and plantation owners, all leaving behind ghosts of their interwoven desires sins and ambitions, ghosts that create the web of deceit and intrigue of a new generation of revolutionary politics.  It will also bring him together with a woman who will change his course—or bring an end to it.

A love story set within a historical mystery, Saffire brings to life the most impressive-and embattled- engineering achievement of the twentieth-century.

Review:

Saffire is a historical fiction novel that involves romance and mystery, but I found the novel very dry.  The historical aspects to the story were adequate, but it felt more like reading a textbook than a novel.

Sigmund Brouwer chose to write about a time in our history that is forgotten and doesn’t receive much recognition, and for that I applaud him, but the characters in the book came off as one dimensional and I couldn’t get myself into the mystery involved.

I am always a big history fan, and as far as the historical aspects go, I applaud Brouwer.  He clearly understands the time period present in this book, and he did his research to make sure that the story was believable.  If you are a history buff like I am, then you will love this accurate portrayal of American history.  Just don’t expect it to be a thrilling fiction, because that it is not.

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