At the Point of the Sword

On the eve of his fourteenth birthday, Jack Crawford's world shatters. His father, a quiet Englishman living in Peru, has been executed by Spanish authorities for his secret involvement in the independence movement. Now Jack must run, thrust into a war he barely understands, carrying nothing but grief and a father's broken sword. Fleeing into the Peruvian wilderness with only his father's trusted servant José, Jack transforms from sheltered boy to fugitive. The revolution that claimed his father now engulf the entire nation, and Jack finds himself drawn into its turbulence: hidden messages, dangerous crossings, rebels who might be friends or enemies. Along the way, he forms an unlikely alliance with Rosa, the girl who brought him the news of his father's death, and discovers that survival requires more than just courage. This is adventure fiction as the Edwardians wrote it: breathless, morally clear, and utterly unapologetic about its conviction that a young man can forge himself into something worthy through trial and danger. Hayens populates his revolution with vivid characters and grounds his adventure in the real history of Peru's struggle against Spanish rule. It endures not because it's subtle, but because it understands exactly what it wants to be.