3 books for March

I found Soul Catcher by Michael White on the bargain table at the bookstore.  It caught my eye, and I'm glad it did.  It's a story about pre-Civil War times.

Augustus Cain was a "soul catcher", a term I have never come across before.  It refers to those who were fugitive slave catchers.  And Augustus was one of the very best.  He was hired by a slave master to track down two of his slaves, Rosetta and Henry, who had run away and bring them back to him. Augustus set out with three other men on a journey that led them from Richmond to New York, then to Boston.  Augusta tracked the two runaways down, and as they began to return to Richmond, Augustus began healing of his own, as he got to know his captives. The story did not end predictably, but with a strong ending.  I liked it very much!


From the library, I borrowed The Watery Part of the World by Michael Parker.  It is a book that I have been wanting to read for quite some time, so I was glad to come across it have the time to read it!  It is a good historical fiction book!

The story covers over 150 years and is loosely based on two real life events.  Aaron Burr's daughter, Theo Burr Alston, disappeared while she was on a ship headed to New York in 1813.  Theodosia Burr Alston was born in 1783, and had married Joseph Alston, Governor of South Carolina.  In The Watery Part of the World, Theo was not killed, but was found by "Old Whaley", a man who was a bit of an isolationist and somewhat feared/respected on the island where Theo washed up.  He nursed her back to health and over time, Old Whaley and Theo became a couple.

Years later on the same island, live two descendants of Theo and Old Whaley.  They are two older sisters who have lived there all their lives and have seen the island became a popular vacation area, then become a rather abandoned area, with just the two sisters and Woodrow a sort of caretaker on the island.

The book was a very interesting read.  In real life, it was never determined for sure what happened to Theo, so I liked how the author developed the story based on a real person.

And lastly, the book I have been patiently waiting for, the third of the trilogy by Greg Iles: Mississippi Blood.  This was a really good series.  There were lots of themes going on and all three books were huge! The first book was Natchez Burning, the second was The Bone Tree, and now finally the finale.  Or was it?  The author tricked me before.  I thought that there was a hint in the first book about one of the characters who was murdered.  I kept waiting for it to come up in the third book and I was wrong and I was really disappointed about that. And now I feel like there was left an opening at the end of the third book for the story to continue.  I hope that I am right on this one!  I love his writing!

It's hard to sum up this trilogy.  It is about Penn Cage, who has been in the author's other books.  Penn's father was accused of murder of his old nurse, Viola, who had left Natchez, Mississippi some thirty years before, then returned there to die. Viola was a black woman who had lost her brother to the Double Eagles, a violent spin-off from the Ku Klux Klan. Viola had also been raped repeatedly by the members of the Double Eagles. And when she returned to Natchez, the group was still around, consisting of old men who still had their convictions.  Penn was the mayor of Natchez and as he tried and searched for evidence to prove his father innocent, his family became at risk.

I loved the series and Greg Ilse's writing.  Be prepared to not be able to put the books down!  Each one kept me up late at nights as I didn't want to stop reading them.