Richard Paul Evans has explored the redemptive power of hope, love, and family. His first trilogy, "The Christmas Box," "Timepiece," and "The Letter," are holiday favorites and have a combined in print figure of more than five million copies worldwide. "The Locket," the first book in his new series, spent 11 weeks on the New York Times List. This season, Evans offers the second volume in his new series, "The Looking Glass."
I believe readers will find "The Looking Glass" another inspiring keepsake novel whose message of love, faith, forgiveness, and the possibility of second chances an added treasure to their reading experience.
Words from an Irish folk song show the plight of the Irish in 1847, "There's no love left on earth and God is dead in heaven, in the dark and deadly days of Black ‘47." Indeed, Cork, Ireland and the McGandley family are facing starvation. Thousands have already died and Connall McGandley knows his family has no more than a week or two until their fate collides with the rest of their neighbors. When destiny offers him a chance to save his precious daughter Quaye, he has no recourse but to accept.
Jak Morse, a sadistic American sailor is selling space on a ship sailing for America. The Irish are leaving in great numbers for the new world, but Connall has no money to purchase passage for himself or his wife and daughter. He offers his 14-year-old daughter to Jak if he will marry her and take her with him to America. Jak realizes the value of the copper-haired Irish beauty and feels he has the best of the bargain. Quaye, is offered no say in the matter and finds herself in New York in even worse circumstances than she was at home in Ireland.
Evans leaves Quaye and introduces Hunter Bell. The scene begins in the Goldstrike Mining Camp in Western Utah, May 31, 1857. Hunter's diary for May 29 reveals that it has been nearly three months since he arrived in Goldstrike. "It is a barbarous camp as thirsty for blood as it is for the noble metals." He says that he's become proficient at cards and can turn an ace as well as he once turned holy writ. Hunter now feels that cards are more profitable than prospecting and more predictable than God. You may have guessed by now, Hunter's nickname is, "The Preacher."
In Goldstrike, one Thomas Cage is introduced. He is rangy, meanspirited, and capable of not only poisoning a man's horse, but killing humankind without feeling a twinge of remorse. Cage is also head of the Vigilantes' law in the mining camp. The Vigilantes ruled that if a man they deemed guilty walked free on account of a lawyer's skillful tongue, the lawyer would be hung in his stead or, at the least, be relieved of his tongue. "It didn't take all the lawyers long to leave town."
Due to Hunter's phenomenal luck at cards, Cage and his henchmen decide he's cheating and set a plan to hang The Preacher. Isabel Gayarre, the beautiful daughter of Cajun Pere Gayarre, owner of the only boardinghouse in Goldstrike, warns Hunter of the plan. He escapes a few steps ahead of the posse. In his diary Hunt notes, "I have fled yet another town. It is a precarious line I walk; one step ahead of the noose and one step behind peace."
At this point in the book I had so many questions about Quaye's circumstances and just what had caused Hunter, to flee his home and parish in West Chester, Pennsylvania, I really wanted to look ahead in the book to get my answers. Then, I remembered my friend Sol Stein's advice. "Always make the reader want more. Lead them forward, then do the unexpected." So, I waited, but with anticipation and not a little aggravation.
The rest of the story rewarded me with a tale beyond my expectations. Destiny brings Quaye and Hunter together in a situation that is incredible but believable. Evans employs no coincidences, no contrived scenes, just great story telling that touches all the senses.
Hunter hits the mother lode in a small mountain stream and with the help of a Chinese family builds himself a fine cabin. He also starts a little township which he names Bethel. When word gets out about his gold strike, more than 1600 souls flock to Bethel and with them comes Jak and Quaye. Here I was reminded that Midas's gift was a curse, not a blessing.
Evans vernacular is right on target for the period with one exception. Yes, I'm picking lint, but the word "hypothermia" which is used several times was not coined into English usage until ca 1886. Nevertheless, Evans uses colorful phrases, and just the right words that show his characters and the locale in such a way as to take his readers into the heart of his story.
Throughout the book, entries from Hunter Bell's diary reveal the man Hunter has been and in many ways still is. Evans has used his characters' journals, diaries, and thoughts in his other works to further his stories. This is a ploy that works wonders, and lends great depth to the characters as well as the stories.
In his prologue, Evans says that Quaye, the young Irishwoman from a small hamlet on the other side of the world and Hunter, the fallen Presbyterian minister, come together in a story of redemption. "It is, as well, a love story; they are, perhaps, the same. For it is true that all salvation comes only in and through love. Most simply, the story of Quaye McGandley and Hunter Bell is the story of two broken people who come together to make each other whole."
###
(Jones is a published writer & literary critic)
The information compiled on this site is Copyright 1999-2012 by Attard Communications, Inc. and by the individual authors.
Business Know-How is a woman-owned business and a registered trademark of Attard Communications, Inc.
Phone: 631-467-8883.
