Clear The Way isn’t anything like Stephen Crane's classic, The Red Badge of Courage, other than its Civil War plot, but it reminded me of that book in so many ways. The Red Badge of Courage, published in 1865, thirty years after Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia. Three decades had passed, but the American Civil War, the bloodiest war in American History, was still fresh in memory when Stephen Crane wrote The Red Badge of Courage. One hundred and twenty-seven years had passed before Kellie May published Clear the Way, yet she writes with such authority that I felt like she was Crane’s contemporary.This may be a work of historical fiction, but the research that went into writing it was meticulous and makes it read like actual history. May nails the character of the real historical figures that make appearances in this tale, as well as the nature of historical sites like Andersonville, the Confederate prisoners of war prison. In some ways, I felt as if I had ridden that well-known DeLorean back in time and was right there in the heat of battle with The Dragoons.This is a great work of historical fiction, but no book is perfect. I felt let down by the ending. It didn’t end the way I had envisioned it ending. Was it a good ending? I’ll let you decide that for yourself after reading the story.
