In THE MYSTERY OF RASCAL PRATT, OR, THE PRETTY RED, author William Robert Scott paints his protagonist, the thirteen-year-old Emma, with enough charm, joviality and self-awareness to reel in the wariest adult reader. His prose is luxuriant as it first combs the bustling streets of 19th century San Francisco, then drifts along the slimy boulders at the feet of the lighthouse, which soon becomes a junction point for a handful of conflicting personalities.
Scott weaves historical facts into a tense plot, offering crippling observations regarding human greed, savagery, perseverance, wit and fragility. He does so with a hefty dose of realism, reminding both his characters and the reader that justice plays a marginal role in conducting people through life. He does this by invoking the treatment of Native Americans, the way servitude became synonymous with slavery and countless lives fell under the lawful dominion of the white colonist. Furthermore, light is thrown on the American Civil War and the baseness of war in general. By sketching its reality, Scott offers contrasting views concerning desertion, with some of his characters declaring it a crime punishable by torture, and others seeing it as nothing more than a symptom of sanity. Through artful characterization, Scott expands the issue to comment on the conflict between duty and free will, twisting and defying the notion of morality.
Some of the heaviness of the plot is offset by the arrival of Rascal Pratt, the self-proclaimed pirate with a cunning disposition. Emma’s unravelling of the mystery surrounding the boy makes for an arresting tale, particularly the way the narrative convulses and reshapes itself as the story gains grit. Though thrilling in its resolution, THE MYSTERY OF RASCAL PRATT, OR, THE PRETTY RED does take a leisurely approach to fleshing out its exposition. The novel’s inciting event fails to make an appearance until about the halfway mark, making it a fairly slow read. And yet, Scott’s writing lends ambience to the chameleon-like setting of the San Francisco Bay Area, rewarding readers with enough spatial awareness to magnify the events that follow. Similarly, Emma’s character could be accused of being too peripheral. While her somewhat disjoined presence justifies the story’s enigmatic feel, the girl’s naiveté creates a rift between the reader and the story at times, presenting it as something taking place beyond the remoteness she embodies. In the end, though, these are all minor setbacks to an otherwise fascinating tale.
In THE MYSTERY OF RASCAL PRATT, OR, THE PRETTY RED, William Robert Scott outfits a young adult adventure story with a complexity of both mind and circumstance via exceptional writing and characterization.
~Neil Czeszejko for IndieReader