Synopsis
When aspiring journalist Mariel Erickson leaves the civilized comforts of Chicago for Goss Valley, a small town on the Dakota prairie, she isn't prepared for the turmoil she and her husband encounter. As if hostile homesteaders, harsh weather, impoverished Indians, and shady frontier politics aren't bad enough, Mariel soon finds herself embroiled in Goss Valley's first murder case. The facts of the case appear straightforward. In full view of five witnesses, wagon driver Clyde Hartwig beat an Irish immigrant to death with a baseball bat. The victim was known as a decent and hardworking family man. But Mariel hears rumors of his involvement with homemade bombs and Fenian terrorism. Could that have been Hartwig's motive? On assignment for the town's fledgling newspaper, Mariel must get the killer's side of the story before he's silenced by the hangman's rope. Hartwig's trial, set for early January, promises to be the biggest event to ever happen in the short history of Goss Valley, and the residents eagerly anticipate a fine spectacle. Little does anyone know that a much larger force is about to descend on the town, revealing how capricious life on the prairie can be.
"Dave Hoing and Roger Hileman write historical fiction so believable, you'd swear the authors have been alive since before the Civil War." -- Carol Kean, Perihelion Magazine
Review
Mariel is a schoolteacher who emigrates to the Dakota Territory at the time of initial European dominance. A Killing Snow engages us as we see Mariel's determined efforts to adapt to her new environment. The authors take the reader back 130 years, there to see characters facing a set of circumstances and challenges radically different from those of our digital age. As a reader of biographies, histories, and many sorts of novels, I found quite a bit to enjoy in A Killing Snow.... The reader moves briskly through the story, following Mariel's observations and experiences, including several traumatic recollections from her husband Randall and his Civil War buddy Mike Hammon. Her students are vulnerable young people experiencing the troubles of youth, while the many adults with whom Mariel interacts have a multitude of their own problems, many resulting from their clashing cultures. A Killing Snow does a nice job, a well-practiced job, of depicting all of the above." -- William Tate, author of Dark Strides.
"A Killing Snow is a wonderful addition to pioneer literature. The characters are flawed--like other humans. In the very small community of Goss Valley, Dakota Territory, people are often thrown together with others they wouldn't have associated with back East, and either have to make the best of it, or not. Both courses have consequences.... A murder of a shunned immigrant by a reviled citizen would not be expected to polarize the community or weave itself into unrelated events, but it does because of the complex relationships among the characters. Hoing and Hileman do a great job of elaborating the context of the times: a couple of decades after the Civil War, the height of immigration, the beginnings of modern technology (the post office gets a telephone but it is useless for the time being because no one else has one). A wonderful and enjoyable read." --Karen Nortman, author of The Time Travel Trailer.
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