Friday, August 17, 2007

Soul Catcher by Michael White

In Soul Catcher, Augustus Cain is hired to find two runaway slaves, Henry and Rosetta. Cain has a knack for tracking and finding people and sets out, with three others, to find them in America’s northeast. It’s before the American civil war when slavery was rampant in the south and “soul catchers” hunted those who tried to escape.

White presents a beautifully written, but haunting story about the slaves and slave catchers. He provides lots of details to give the reader a full picture of the characters, the area and the era. The writing was easy to read, but the subject matter wasn’t. As I got to know the characters more, I cringed every time I saw the word “shackle”.

This book was very different from books I normally read; yet I enjoyed this book immensely. I really didn’t want to put it down. I thought about the characters even when I wasn’t reading the book. I loved seeing the conflicts and changes in Cain and Rosetta as the story moved along.

I’m not a fan of history; therefore, I generally shy away from historic novels. I knew very little about the subject matter, so the book was quite the eye-opener for me. I learned a lot. The author put faces on both sides of this terrible and troubling era in America’s history.

This is my first book by Michael White. I hope to read more. Highly recommended.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks so much for your comment. I really appreciate it. Unfortunately, I've been getting lots of spam comments, so I'm turning on word verification to help keep spammers away. I know it's a pain; I don't like it either. Hopefully, in time I'll be able to turn it off again. Thank you!