Being from Kansas originally myself, I was intrigued to find this fictionalized account of an era in Kansas history that is not often explored and published. Jack Marshall Maness, a CU professor, has a great talent in capturing the zeitgeist of the years leading up to the American Civil War, of which Kansas played a pivotal role. He reveals the disparity of feelings and beliefs in the formative years of Kansas territory becoming a state through the eyes of Patrick Dugan, a young Irish immigrant, his Irish immigrant wife, Maria Dugan, and her brother all coming from the Boston area, as well as the Hawkins family from Missouri. Both families are just trying to settle peacefully in a place they can call their own but have radically different ideologies and yet find, very reluctantly, that they must depend on each other in this untamed wilderness.When opportunities arise to purchase Kansas territory land very cheap, Patrick convinces his reluctant wife to strike out to establish their new home as what they called at the time "squatters." Along with the rattlesnakes, tempestuous weather, and challenges of homesteading, they find the conflict they thought they left behind inescapable--constantly coming across the brutality of the slave-staters and their horrible abuse towards Black people, Native Americans, and anyone who supports them and the free-staters who want to see an end to it and create equality between all men.
Throughout, there is a touch of magical realism... Patrick and Maria each have a sixth sense compelling, guiding, and warning them of evil events unraveling before them. Patrick 'sees' a creature of ill omen--a giant bird who we discover is the legendary Jayhawk. He fatefully encounters an old French Trapper living in the wilds, who helps him interpret his visions and tells him of the old American Indian tales and mythology and the ghosts who still roam. Corruption lays all around on both sides, governors and mayors playing to highest bidder or the strongest voice, journalists who twist the truth to suit them, and rogue marauders terrorizing every citizen for their own agenda. The battle between the greedy and the righteous will decide the fate of Kansas and ultimately the rest of the country. Despite doing his best to avoid it all, Patrick inevitably is forced to take sides and eventually decides when to and when to NOT use violence to protect what is his and what is right.
The sequel, Where the Waters Converge, is just as well written, taking us into the next phase of our character's experiences as war arrives. I anxiously await the publication of the 3rd book in the trilogy, which has not yet been published.