Review of Heroes in the Dust by Jennifer Macaire
Reviewed by Tricia McGill author
It is early December 330BC and Alexander, now the king of Macedonia, Greece,
Egypt, and most of Persia, is marching at the head of his 60,000 strong army.
Alexander is on the trail of Bessus who kidnapped his and Ashley’s son. Bessus
had betrayed Darius, the Persian king, then killed him.
Ashley is Alexander’s time-travelling wife—his third wife. Ashley and Alexander
are now both 25 and he’s been king for 5 years. Ashley, being a time-traveller,
knows when Alexander is going to die and it breaks her heart to know this.
Ashley also knows that if the course of history is changed she will be snatched
away and it will be as if she was never there.
Alexander is a man whose mastery at battle is supreme, a man whose character is
complex. A man who is loved by other men as passionately as by the women in his
life. Here is a man who founded cities, a man who loved getting letters and
perfected a postal system. A man who created a network of military bases.
This second book in the series contains more tragedy, revenge killings, and
murders perhaps than the first, but is steeped with emotion. I waited with
impatience for this book and I wasn’t disappointed. The poignant and enthralling
love triangle between Alexander, Plexus, his childhood friend, and Ashley is
played out with such mastery I find myself understanding fully how one woman can
love two men while the two men can be besotted by the other, yet also love
Ashley. So much sorrow befalls them that I cried along with Alexander and
Ashley. Paragraphs and phrases had to be re-read because they conveyed such
intense emotion they left me feeling as if I had lived with them through their
despair.
Elephants fascinated Alexander, who wanted to go to India to see them. When he
heard they were also in Africa he wanted to go there too. So, perhaps that’s
where Jennifer Macaire, an accomplished storyteller, will take us with Ashley
and Alexander in book three. I look forward to this next stage in her epic with
eager anticipation.
© Tricia McGill
'Blue Haze', 'Amaryllis', 'White Clover' and 'Traces of Dreams'
Also by Jennifer Macaire: Time for Alexander
Visit Jennifer Macaire's website
Heroes in the Dust is Book 2 in the ISKANDER series and is ublished in March
2003 by Jacobyte Books
ISBN (paperback) 1 74100 130 7 and (e-book) 1 74100 128 5