Few books by Kansas-born authors get a starred review, indicating a book that is particularly outstanding, in Library Journal. Charlotte Hingers new historical novel, The Healers Daughter, is one such book. Set in Nicodemus, an all-black settlement in western Kansas in the post-Civil War era, the book emphasizes accuracy above sentimentality. Lured by promotions which paint Kansas as a near-paradise, the settlers struggle to survive and thrive on the prairie. Threats come from both within and outside the community, but through hard work they manage to build a new community.
Some may remember Hinger, a native of Lone Elm who now lives in Colorado, from her appearance at one of the librarys Family Reading Festivals a few years back. She has also written nonfiction (history), as well as a mystery series featuring Lottie Albright, a local historian who helps solve murders.
The Damascus Road by Jay Parini is based on the life of St. Paul and told from two perspectives, Pauls and that of his traveling companion, Luke. It details Pauls conversion and transformation into an advocate for Christ, his clashes with Jesus brother James and the apostle Peter, his difficult missionary trips, his struggles with the thorn in the flesh, and Lukes efforts to compile an accurate account of Jesus life.
Author Michael Koryta read a book about locked-in syndrome, in which someone appears to be in a vegetative state. Despite being unable to move or communicate, they are fully aware. He says he thought What if that patient was a witness to something? In his thriller If She Wakes, Koryta turns that thought into a novel. After surviving a car crash which was not an accident, Tara is a victim of locked-in syndrome. And she knows someone is trying to kill her.
Women who performed important clandestine work for the Allies in occupied France during World War II are the subject of two new books. A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell focuses on one in particular, Virginia Hall. An American with a limp because of her wooden leg, Hall ran a network of spies and eluded German attempts to catch her. The other book, D-Day Girls by Sarah Rose, looks at a number of French women who worked for the British and the roles they played in gathering information and committing acts of sabotage.
