Michael Phillips Miss Katie’s Rosewood

Miss Katie's Rosewood

Michael Phillips

Bethany House, Jul 2007, $13.99

ISBN: 0764200445

Katie and Mayme leave their beloved Rosewood plantation in the Carolinas to travel by train to Philadelphia, but the latter is required to ride in the last car, the "Coloreds Only" coach. Upon reaching the city, a stunned Katie finds herself alone as the "Coloreds Only" car is missing. She fears her free friend may have been sold along with the other Negro passengers into slavery perhaps in the Caribbean. Deputy Rob Paxton offers to help find and if necessary rescue Mayme. He and Katie investigate.

At the same time back in the Carolinas the KKK plans to burn Rosewood to the ground as a warning for anyone else who upgrades slaves as equals to white folks. One lonely rider hopes to save the families residing there. However he has no idea how the mostly former slaves will react between fight and flight for the plantation is life to all of them and will continue to be so if he makes it on time.

This terrific Reconstruction Era Carolina Cousins thriller is a superb conclusion to one of the best nineteenth century Americana series on the market today. The story line is fast-paced and the key characters fully developed. However, it is the time period that so vividly comes alive as different forces vie for their vision of society in the aftermath of the destructive Civil War turning the "peace" into further hostility. MISS KATIE'S ROSEWOOD is an incredible historical that can be read alone but enhanced with the previous winning tales (see A PERILOUS PROPOSAL, THE SOLDIER'S LADY, and NEVER TOO LATE).

Harriet Klausner