David Mulholland's "Duel"
by Steve Scanlon
A lot of books are conceived by asking the question “what if”. I suspect that David Mulholland has taken the same concept and applied it to his latest novel, Duel.
His newest work explores the duel between Robert Lyon and John Wilson that took place in the town of Perth on June 13, 1833. We all know why men fight - love or money top the list - but “what if” this famous duel was fought for different reasons? “What if” a report surfaced many years later that had been written fifty years after the fact and documented the exact cause and its ultimate effect? “What if” this report tells a different tale from the one considered historically relevant? “What if” the two principals were mere puppets in a twisted turn of events?
Mulholland takes us back to the early 1800’s and opens our eyes to the history of the region as told by his narrator, an eyewitness to the fatal duel between John Wilson and Robert Lyon. The concept of this, his second novel, is based solely on the recently discovered report of the duel and the events leading up to that fateful day.
David claims the account is real and he doesn’t sway from the concept. The book is chock-full of little tidbits of historical facts and descriptions of day-to-day life at the time. History, love, lust, intrigue - this book has it all. The momentum builds to the very end where David reinforces the existence of the recently uncovered account of the event and appropriately ends with the following quote from Owen Brown: “these things, when I have finished telling them, will not alter history. They will not revise the received truth. That Truth is shaped strictly by the needs of those who wish to receive it.” His research is extensive and the storyline makes you more than aware that there are always, at the very least, two sides to every story. This side of the story is all-encompassing.
David Mulholland was born in Kingston and has worked as a writer in many forms over the years: copywriting, reporting, music reviewing, speech writing and stand-up comedy. His first novel, McNab, was published in 2006; Duel is his second work of historical fiction.