Edwards, Geoffrey S. Fire Bell in the Night.(Brief article)(Book review)

Edwards, Geoffrey S. Fire Bell in the Night. Touchstone: S. & S. Sept. 2007. ISBN 978-1--4165-6424-9. pap. $14. F

This debut novel, which took second place in Gather.com's inaugural First Chapters writing competition, is set in Charleston, SC, in 1850. John Sharp, a reporter for the New York Tribune, arrives to cover the trial of Darcy Nance Calhoun, a poor white farmer who stands to lose his life for aiding a runaway slave. Sharp comes into contact with a wide variety of Southerners, most notably the slaveholder Tyler Breckenridge; strangely for a novel about slavery, African American characters are largely absent. As the trial begins, tensions between North and …