THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE by Rachel Beanland

Historical fiction can be educational, as is this novel about the Richmond Theatre fire of 1811.  I had never heard of this disaster, which Patrick Henry’s daughter, Sally, survived.  She, along with three other characters, headline the chapters and present their various perspectives on the events of that tragic night.  She was a patron the night of the fire, and in this telling, she jumped from a third floor window and survived.  Gilbert is a slave who caught a dozen white women who plunged into his arms from a second story window.  Cecily is Gilbert’s niece who sees the event and the city’s inability to identify the dead as an opportunity to flee to freedom.  Jack is a young stagehand whose actions contributed to the accident that caused the fire.  The book reads like a thriller as we follow Cecily’s escape plans and Jack’s efforts to quiet his conscience when his fellow theatre workers concoct a story of a slave revolt as a cover-up for their own mistakes in causing the fire.  However, the characters are fairly one-dimensional, especially the villains, including the blacksmith who owns Gilbert, and Cecily’s owner’s son, a brute who frequently rapes her.  However, the slave owners are not the only cruel characters.  Sally experiences a rude awakening when she discovers that many of the men in the theatre survived the fire by basically trampling the women.  So much for chivalry.  Thank you to Book Club Favorites at Simon & Schuster for the free copy for review.