A Brief Review of a Blog Friend's Novel

Blog friend, Vicki Lane, the already accomplished author of The Elizabeth Goodweather Appalachian Mysteries, has published a very different kind of novel. Her new work, And the Crows Took Their Eyes, is an impressive piece of historical fiction, based on real people and events from the Civil War period in her area of North Carolina.

Although it takes place during and after the war between the States, Crows is not about the war itself, for Lane depicts no battle scenes and very little of army life. A small but extremely important part of the narrative, does very directly involve soldiers and their actions, but the tale is primarily about people on the periphery of the conflict. While I describe them as being on the periphery of most of the action, they are, nevertheless, hugely impacted by the events.

There are five main characters in the narrative. Two might be described as upper-class residents of Marshall. They are secessionists or secesh: the term used in the book. Two are Unionists from the nearby, rural, hill country. The final character, the only one actually created by the author in this historical fiction, is more of an itinerant and mostly unaligned person.

Naturally, we follow the trials and tribulations of all of the characters through the war period and even for a long time afterward. The war years and shortly thereafter form the bulk of the plot, but the novel does end with snippets from the ensuing decades, which satisfy the desire for an appropriate conclusion.

Crows is memorable. The five characters will linger in my memory for a long time, even after I most likely forget their names.

It might be different for you, but for me, it was a novel for which I preferred to digest a little at a time. Whatever the case, I found Crows to be very well conceived and written. It is a wonderful exploration of the people and events of the time, and I am very glad to have read Vicki Lane’s very fine and authentic  work.

And the Crows Took Their Eyes is available at AmazonUS in both paperback and kindle format and also at Amazon Canada as well as from Canadian book retailer, Indigo.