Review: In the Company of Wolves by Erick W. Nason

Melding fact and imagination, author Erick W. Nason provides vivid scenes of warfare and snippets of the daily lives of America’s earliest settlers in In the Company of Wolves: The New Campaigns of Ranger Captain Jacob Clarke, an impressively detailed and entertaining work of historical fiction.

Having arrived in the continent of North America in the 1700s, both French and English colonials have territorial claims. By mid-century, the zeal to acquire more lands drives the two nations into war. As part of their defense, a stalwart band of special British operatives is formed. Roger’s Rangers are intrepid, fearless, and always on duty no matter what the weather or terrain, the Rangers were respected and often called upon by the ordinary military.

When the battle for dominance in New York and Canada seems resolved with the British as victors, battle-proven Ranger Jacob Clarke is sent south where terrorist tactics by Cherokee peoples seem poised to eliminate English settlements. Clarke and his Ranger buddies – Samuel Penny and Peter Fisch – recruit and train new men to their ranks to quell the uprisings as quickly as possible. This suits Clarke and his friends very well, as none has a strong desire to return to their lonely, and rather boring, civilian lives.

Within a few weeks they land in Charles Towne where Clarke confers with the state’s governor about the situation in the uplands. While in Charles Towne, Clarke sees African slaves and slave markets for the first time, and in the nearby Dorchester region, where he will be in command of the new Rangers, he meets Maria, the first woman he has felt romantic towards since the death of his first sweetheart in the earlier conflict.

Clarke and his cohort face innumerable struggles through the pages of this lengthy, exploit-packed saga. Having been allied in the north with the Iroquois Nation, Clarke attempts to meet on equal terms with the Cherokee and convince them of the ultimate futility of their attacks on the determined settlers. But as he has noted among his British military and governmental superiors, politics always plays a role, illustrating a frustrating timelessness of certain issues. Though he can speak trading language with the Cherokee, and show proof that the Rangers wish them no ill if they cooperate, not all the chiefs are convinced. The violence will continue to rage, other tribes will become involved, and this portion of Clarke’s series concludes with the certain knowledge that a new storm is brewing.

Nason has meticulously researched the era he describes, and that, coupled with his own service in a Ranger Battalion during his long military career, gives his book credibility and a strong flavor of the times, from the food and foibles of ordinary folk, to the deadly weaponry and practices of the Rangers and their enemies. Scalping is depicted in great detail, with Samuel being a survivor of this bloody tactic, which gives an immersive sense of the stakes. Wolves too, playing a vital role as the title suggests, as pets and useful fellow fighters for the hardy Rangers.

With changes of scene and action on nearly every page, Nason’s book is certain to attract fans of military fiction with a strong infusion of historical record, as the book is highly fascinating and well-researched on both fronts.