Continuing spotlight on Sylvia Bambola, with The Daughters of Jim Farrell!

...From this perch on “their” hill, Kate saw a billowing cloud of sooty-looking smoke that made her heart plummet. The last time she saw something this large the William Penn mine had exploded, killing five. Many claimed that Pennsylvania coal country took one anthracite worker a day, through injury or death. But here, in Schuylkill County, home of the most dangerous anthracite mines in the world, she knew the number was often higher. 

When she opened the window the deafening shriek of the breaker whistle filled the room. “Is it the Sherman?” Mrs. Clayton repeated. 

Kate put her arm around the trembling woman. Only yesterday, Widow Clayton told everyone how her grandson was promoted to fire boss at the Sherman Colliery. 

“No. The smoke is further west. It’s got to be the Mattson.”

“I think you’re right,” Virginia said, wiping her wet hands on a rag. “The Miner’s Journal has been predicting trouble for weeks, ever since the railroad took over the Mattson. And a few days ago some of their coal cars were derailed and the mine boss got a ‘coffin notice’.” 

“Could just be fire damp,” said Colonel Smyth, a retired Union officer who had distinguished himself at Vicksburg. “The miners are always grumbling about the marsh gas at the Mattson.” 

“Or maybe it’s a cave in,” said Miss Rodgers, the spinster piano teacher who, some say, was once a famous stage personality. 

“Aren’t most mining accidents caused by falling roofs?”

“It’s no cave-in. And not fire damp, either,” said Clarence Thumbolt, a retired railroad man. “It’s the Mollies. Who else would send a coffin notice? It was a warning there’d be trouble. And no one can conjure up more trouble than that bunch. This is their doing, mark my words.”

“If it is, perhaps they have a reason,” returned Jasper Wright, the new dentist from Philadelphia who seldom left the boardinghouse before ten to open his office. 

“And what would you know about these troublemakers? Being an out-of-towner and all,” demanded Thumbolt. 

“I’ve been associated with these parts for more than thirty years and could tell you stories that would curl your hair. Why, just a few years back didn’t the Mollies assassinate Patrick Burns, foreman of the Silver Creek Colliery? A good man, too. Killed him because he caught them stealing from the company. And two years ago it was poor Morgan Powell. The Mollies killed him just for being a Welshman! You don’t want to get on the wrong side of that bunch. Believe me, they could bring down a whole mine if it suited them.” 

Jasper Wright jutted his chin as he secured one of the small pearl buttons of his gray waistcoat. “Sometimes bad conditions produce bad men, sometimes."

“Whatever the cause, it’s sure to be serious.” Mother said, ending the conversation. “Kate, get my ointments and some clean rags. We need to go.” “I’ll come, too,” Virginia said. 

“No, just Kate. Her stomach isn’t as queasy as yours. No telling what we’ll see. You stay and finish scrubbing the knives with brick dust, then make that sassafras solution for Charlotte.” She lowered her voice. “And see that Charlotte washes down all of Mrs. Clayton’s furniture.”

~~~

2016 READERS' FAVORITE BRONZE AWARD WINNER for Christian Historical Fiction

The Daughters of 
  Jim Farrell

By Sylvia Bambola

Many of my relatives have worked in the coal mines--one uncle, I remember, had to crawl in to his work area and stay on his knees during the time he was working... I learned from this significant historical story that they were called Monkey Holes at that time and were assigned to those less in favor... We learn that the Irish workers were often chosen for these jobs and trouble was stirring...  The Molly McGuires was a secret organization of Irish coal miners in Pennsylvania and in other areas. We learn that many of the things that happened were often blamed on the Mollies... I enjoyed having the opportunity to read about those early times in my home state...

But there is so much more complexity to the novel than expected. The basic thrust of the mystery which will be solved is that the father, Jim Farrell, of an important family, was charged and hanged for murder. His wife and daughters were forced to convert their home into a boarding house, with his wife, moving quickly to convert as many rooms as possible into living quarters for renters. Even the daughters had given up their own bedrooms. Much of the book shares about how hard they worked to maintain and provide quality service for those who now lived in their previous home.

But none of the daughters were happy in the change of their circumstances--they were now looked down upon and rejected by the elite of the town. Only Charlotte had maintained some connection since she had been involved with the son of one of the important families. But his mother made it quite clear to Charlotte that she was working to break off their arrangement! In the meantime, it took all of them to clean, cook, and serve meals.

Kate, the oldest daughter had never gotten over her father's death, nor the shame that came with the family now being social outcasts. Her mother had requested that they move on and live as best they could. But Kate wanted to find out who had actually killed the man for whom her father had hanged. And she wanted to clear the unwarranted shame from their family name. She wanted to hire a Pinkerton Detective... and was asking her sisters for money. Charlotte finally gave her the $10 she'd been saving for her trousseau but Virginia was not quite so willing to give up her savings to purchase a printing press, since she planned to start a town newspaper...

The sight of both sisters so downcast pricked Kate’s heart. Love is patient, love is kind, love doesn’t seek its own way, she heard her mother’s voice drone in her head. Oh, why was she always trying to get her way? 

Why was she so headstrong? Her sisters were right, she was a bully. That would explain why it was so easy for her to overlook their feelings: Charlotte’s broken heart and Virginia’s dashed dreams. Oh what a wretch I am. And was Mother right too? In saying Kate had allowed a root of bitterness to take hold? 

What did bitterness look like, exactly? Did it look like tall gallows, and the bound and hooded body of her father dangling at the end of a rope? She closed her eyes. Was it so wrong to seek justice? 

“I’m sorry about Mrs. Gaylord,” Kate said, opening her eyes and looking at Charlotte. “And I’m sorry about your newspaper,” she added, turning to Virginia. 

Life had been much simpler when Father was alive.

~~~

The Pinkerton Agency had already earned national attention. Kate felt they needed to go out of town for help, since the railroads, the mine owners and business owners in town seemed to be in control of everything. 

Joshua Adams arrival to town was not a happy one...First of all, he wasn't the respectable-looking older man who could be trusted and depended on... Instead, his appearance was startling to the entire family!

He carried a bulging, scruffy carpetbag and wore a brown, wide-brimmed felt hat that only countrymen or farmers wore. His black, double-breasted frock coat had sloping shoulders and opened to reveal a rumpled, beige waistcoat with notched collar. Around his neck was a black silk cravat, loosely tied. His beige trousers flared at the bottom and only partially covered his boots. Flared trousers had gone out of style years ago; so had sloping shoulders; and a farmer’s hat . .

Joshua was not the man they had expected--that they had given up their hard-earned savings to hire. None were happy, but Kate felt they had to proceed since he was assigned to their case... Then Joshua made it worse, by telling the four women that he wanted them to say he was a visiting cousin so he could work incognito. That really separated him further, since as good Christian women, they did not lie and were upset that he had even asked...

But none of them wanted to forfeit their money...The investigation began... While the life of the community continued, with the four women busily working to serve their boarders... Except, lots of different activities started affecting each of the daughters. Kate was being proposition because of her lowered status... Charlotte was afraid of never marrying into the type of social family where she was most comfortable, while Virginia started writing articles for a newspaper that upset people in town...  

Of course, the three daughters each had to deal with the romantic side of their lives... It was interesting to watch as each of them moved forward into finding their lives as women, independent, and able to make their own decisions. One character I particularly found compelling was a young boy whose hand and part of his arm had been ripped off as a breaker boy. We meet him because the only thing he could do to work was to do errands for the town's people...and one of the sisters in particular.

The investigation keeps readers guessing and relationships tend to result in dangerous or uncomfortable situation for the daughters, until one was actually kidnapped...

Bambola inserts mining terminology into the narrative with no difficulty and readers learn much about actual mining operations...and accidents that have occurred for various reasons. The Christian aspect is not as prominent in this novel as in others--but rather, inserts moral issues and decisions as they are relevant to the story itself. The murder mystery merged within the takeover of independent mines by the railroad is extensive and reveals the various ways by which criminal actions are peripheral to the dirty, dangerous, and hard work of those who actually work the mines, together with those family members who care for them and constantly pray that they will see them come home at the end of each day.

For me, this was historical fiction at its finest, combined with a mystery as well as romantic suspense. I could have been happier with a different ending, but, then, that apparently was not what God had planned for the three daughters of Jim Farrell. Read this author! She's a fantastic writer, with a different story to tell in each book. Her variety of topics brings a new adventure and I find I keep going back to read more...So, do check out all my reviews by searching on the author's name. All are definitely recommended 

Watch for my review of her first nonfiction book on Monday, with a followup article by the author...

GABixlerReviews

Desert God by Wilbur Smith -- Historical Fantasy and Adventure Never Better Merged!

Standing behind me was a sailor. He elbowed me to
one side and stepped into the staff. He went to one
of the crowned women sitting there.
"I call upon you to pay your debt to the goddess,"
he challenged her, and he tossed a coin into her rap.
She looked up at him dispassionately as he pulled
his kilt up above his waist and with his free hand
worked... His belly was protuberant and covered
with a dense carpet of black hair. The woman
grimaced as she removed the floral crown from her
head and lay back on the mattress, letting her
knees fall apart...
The spectacle of sordid little people performing a
grotesque parody of something so essentially
beautiful inclines me toward melancholy rather
than pleasure.
~~~

Suddenly I became aware of the fact that I was being observed. I turned quickly toward the high temple ziggurat that stood beside the palace. The spiral terrace that rose from ground level to the top of the temple passed so close to where I stood that it seemed I might easily have lobbed a small stone across the gap that separated us.
On the temple terrace opposite me stood a cloaked and hooded figure. I could not see the eyes in the shadow of the hood, but I could feel them focused on my face. I felt perfectly at ease under this scrutiny, but intrigued by the identity of the stranger. I am fully aware that except for the injuries that were inflicted on me so long ago, my body is tall and exceptionally well formed. My musculature is honed by hard riding and exercises at arms. Modesty usually prevents me from employing the word beautiful when describing myself but honesty requires me to do so in this instance. 
Both the stranger and I stood calmly studying each other. Then slowly the cloaked figure raised both hands and lifted the hood off its head and let it drop in folds around its shoulders. Perversely I had presumed that the stranger was a man, but now I was faced with abundant evidence that I had been mistaken.
This was a woman who stood before me, a woman lovely beyond my most extravagant dreams of beauty. Her face was so divine that it caused me exquisite anguish to look upon it. I searched for words to describe it, but all the superlatives of our glorious language paled and were rendered trite and mundane before it. I have never before experienced such soul-rending emotion. Here was all that I have ever hungered for and been denied, everything of value that a cruel fate has placed far beyond my reach for all time. Here was all the glory of femininity embodied.
Slowly I reached out my hand toward her, understanding that it was a forlorn gesture, knowing full well that such magnificence would remain always far beyond my reach, but that it would also remain preserved entirely in my memory to haunt me through all eternity.
She smiled at me sadly, an expression of sympathy for my plight and deep regret for having brought it upon me. Then she covered her head with the hood of her cloak, turned from me and glided away into the precincts of the temple, leaving me bereft...

I have seen the bodies of many beautiful women during my long life, but Inanna far surpassed any of them. Her hips were voluptuous but above them her narrow waist emphasized their elegant contours. Although she was as tall as I am her limbs were so delicately smooth and sculptured that I could not prevent myself reaching out to stroke them. Lightly I ran my fingers up her arms from her wrists to the curve of her shoulders. Her skin was silken but the muscles beneath it were adamantine...
The light grew sronger still and I realized that we were standing in the Hanging Gardens high above the city of Babylon. The masses of shrubbery and flowers that surrounded us were wondrously lovely, but they were rendered mundane by Inanna's beauty. She took my hands from her shoulders and she kissed them one after the other. I shivered at the sensation that pervaded my whole being.

"What do you want of me, Inanna?" It did not sound like my own voice that said it."
"I propose to unite with you..."
~~~

Desert God:

A Novel of Ancient Egypt

By Wilbur Smith

Omar Sharif as Taita!
It is a simple matter for me to tell the
difference between these two races.
My Egyptians are a handsome people
with lively and intelligent faces,
high foreheads, large widely spaced
eyes, and finely etched features. In
short, one is usually able to tell at a
glance that they are a superior race.
~~~

This exceptional story has already been signed for making into a movie! It is an epic history war tale, but, for me, and maybe many other female fans, it is or will be also one of the most erotic stories I've ever read...  

Taita is the main character and one who quickly won my esteem. He is the first character I have enjoyed who was not only brilliant in his tactical activities and decisions, but was also sympathetic and just in dealing with...most...of his enemies...

Egypt's major enemy was the Hykos who had come from foreign lands and taken strategic areas which hampered the activities of the latest Pharoah of Egypt. The tragedy was mostly caused by the fact that the Hykos were a cruel and avarice people who totally destroyed both the people and buildings of any place they invaded. The result was that now Thebes, which is now Luxor, was landlocked.

Taita was special, that's all I'll include in my review, other than that he was at least 90 years

Suddenly I heard the unmistakble sounds
of a moving vessel coming up the channel
from the seaward direction of where we lay,
and I cautioned my companions to silence.
The creaking of the rigging, the voice of the
seaman chanting the soundings in the bows
and the thud of the oars in the rowlocks
increased in volume until suddenly an
enormous seagoing vessel appeared around
the bend in the channel.
I had never seen a ship of this type or size
before; however, I knew from descriptions
that my spies had sent me that this was a
Cretan trireme. She was both a cargo vessel
and a warship. She was triple-decked, with
three banks of oars...
The chances of me arriving at Tamiat at
exactly the same time as the treasure
convoy was so remote that it must have
been arranged by divine intervention...
~~~

old. He had been an advisor for more than one pharaoh and had been like a father to the present Pharaoh and his two sisters. Now Taita advised the present Pharaoh Tamose and had presented to him a plan to begin the restoration of Thebes to power of all Egypt. His plan was ingenious and was just the first step in moving forward... The result: unbelievable bounty for the treasury! I must say that this was my favorite adventure for Taita. His cunning and imagination, as well as his willingness to call upon his god, as needed, make him the type of hero anybody would follow...

It took me several hours of tactful mani-
pulation before I could convince him that
the danger of leaving Egypt without a
leader at such a crucial point in our history
far outweighed the glory or other benefit
that he could hope to win from a successful
capture of the Minoan fortress at Tamiat and
the treasure it contained...
However, before he dismissed me Pharoah
Tamose placed in my hands the royal hawk
seal. This was Pharoah's means of delegating
all of his powers to the bearer...
!!!

Now that they had money, the next part of the plan began. Taita had already created a major block for the Hykos desire to build a liaison with Crete, the richest country at that time. With Taita obtaining information from other lands, he had learned that both of his maidens would be considered an appropriate gift to merge Egypt and Crete--but that merger, which is near the end of the book, did not happen as expected! But it certainly does made for an explosive ending!

According to Amythaon he is a
splendid and imposing figure
who is always masked when he
appears in public. The mask he
wears is in the shape of a bull's
head fashioned out of pure silver.
None of his subjects have ever
seen his face...
"He has a hundred wives,"
Amythaon went on and looked at
me to be impressed. I adopted an
expression of awe. "The Supreme
Minos received wives from all the
other kings of the city states across
the islands that dot the Aegean Sea.
Four times a year, on the festivals
which mark the changing of the
seasons, they are sent to him in a
form of tribute."
..."That adds up to 182 each year...
"That is correct, my lord."
"Then can you explain to me how
the number of his wives remains at
one hundred, as you asserted at first?"
~~~

To make the trip from landlocked Thebes required that they travel across the desert on to Babylon and Sumeria and then, with ships acquired there, sail on to Crete. This trip was fraught with danger, as well as some interesting interplay between soldiers with the princesses who would be given in marriage Crete. The two girls have Taita wound around their fingers, as most princesses would, especially with their great beauty. I must admit that I was quite satisfied with how the ending occurred... especially since the individual to whom they were to marry appeared only with a mask fashion after the head of an auroch bull! In fact, Taita, had already encountered one of the real ones during his time on Crete. And this is just another strange incident that readers will encounter one after the other...

This is my first time reading Smith and I'm certainly happy to have had the opportunity to thoroughly enjoy my first time with him. He is a well-known historical novelist, with Stephen King declaring him the best. Of all history, the ancient times were always my favorite--the times seem so extraordinarily thrilling, even though we know now that much of what is written is mythical. Still, the stories of the various gods and how they were selected as "favorites" was intriguing, yet implied that there was some response to the humans who worshiped them. At least in the case of Inana, I was happy to learn of her story and her own decision to not interfere with the life Taita had been condemned to. Personally, I'd loved to see followup of how Taita and Inana shared a future life in that ancient land of Egypt...

Smith's writing pulled me back into the language of our past and he does a fine job in ensuring readers that we are aware of the time period into which we've escaped. The book itself has those small additions such as edged pages, relevant graphic chapter headings and a sensational map of the ancient lands as covered in the novel. I found myself referring to it often, especially as Taita and a large entourage, including the two princesses, left Thebes on the Nile, into the Red Sea, through the desert of Arabia and then on to Babylon, sailing then on to the small island of Crete. Readers have the opportunity to follow the map as each town was reached and to ponder the challenges of the amazing journey upon which Taita was leading his people. A truly fascinating tale, even though I have no idea how the percentage of fantasy and adventure stands against the realism of the historical accounts. But then, that can probably be said for much of the information for the time period, right? I admit to being surprised at how much I enjoyed the book, since I'm not a historical fiction fan, especially of wars. However, Taita was exactly the character to have allowed me to marvel at all he had done and accomplished for his beloved country, Egypt. 

If you love adventure merged with fantasy, whether historically based or not, I highly recommend you take a look...and don't wait for the movie!


GABixlerReviews

Wilbur Smith is one of the world's most popular novelists, with more than 125 million copies of his books sold worldwide in twenty-six languages. A native of central Africa, he divides his time between Cape Town and London. 
www.wilbursmithbooks.com