Title- Moccasin Trace
By- Hawk MacKinney
Genre- Historical Romance
Published By- ArcheBooks Publishing
Publication Date- March 2014
Blurb:
… it was about the land…a tale of love and loss and hope…
Hamilton Ingram looked out across the fertile Georgia bottomlands that were Moccasin Hollows, seeing holdings it had taken generations of Ingrams to build. No drop of slave sweat ever shed in its creation. It was about the land…his trust, his duty to preserve it for the generation of Ingrams to come…
It is July of 1859, a month of sweltering dog days and feverish emotional bombast. Life is good for widower Rundell Ingram and his Hazel-eyed, roan-haired son, Hamilton. Between the two of them, they take care of Moccasin Hollows, their rustic dogtrot ancestral home, a sprawling non-slave plantation in the rolling farming country outside Queensborough Towne in east Georgia. Adjoining Ingram lands is Wisteria Bend, the vast slave-holding plantation of Andrew and Corinthia Greer, their daughter Sarah, and son Benjamin.
Both families share generations of long-accepted traditions, and childhood playmates are no longer children. The rangy, even-tempered Norman-Scottish young Hamilton is smitten with Sarah, who has become an enticing capricious beauty-the young lovers more in love with each passing day, and only pleasant times ahead of them.
But a blood tide of war is sweeping across the South, a tide that might be impossible to stand before.
Excerpt:
The Captain lowered his brass spyglass. "My apologies for having to disturb you," he said to Hamilton. With full steam and sail for now we have speed on their lead ship. They'll try to angle us off from the inlet this side of Santa Rosa, but I mean to give 'em no chance of that. Too shallow in there for them to clear the reef. Once we get lee to the shoals..." he raised his glass. "Lead frigate is gaining." He shook his head. "First time we've picked up anything this close in."
Sarah walked to the bridge railing and fixed her eyes toward the tall white sails of the onrushing juggernaut. Her father's enemy, Hamilton's enemy, her enemy; until this moment the battles had been some place far away. Tall and sleek in the distance, coming toward them, a deadly beauty in the mad fury of men's devotion to destruction and death.
Hamilton asked the Captain, "Will they try to board?"
His jaw set, "When we don't heave to, she'll try to force us to ground. Failing that they'll use their guns."
The thought of this pirate flag bearing down on them, their seafarers clamoring over the side, stabbed Hamilton into a heated white-hot hate of Yankies -- good ones, bad ones, any of them.
"They're not boardin' us," the Captain said. "We'll scuttle first. No Yankee's puttin' a foul foot on my ship, as long as..."
The distant muzzle flash was followed by a muffled boom rolling across the water. Hamilton sheltered Sarah in his arms. The shot smacked the water off their port bow, sending up a tall blossoming white plume tall and falling back in a graceful slow splash.
"...a warning shot for us to heave to," the Captain frowned. "Allows 'em[+> to ]adjust their range." He eyed Sarah, "Missus Ingram..." he agonized, "To avoid exposing you to harm, I am prepared to yield to..."
"You will do no such thing!" Sarah bristled. Her head turned toward this full-sailed invader. "These philistines are in our waters -- attacking us!" Sarah's blood was up.
"Sarah, the Captain's right," Hamilton said
"No, I say!" Sarah whirled to face both men. "We will not yield to those...those barbarians!" Greer fiery rage showed in full vigor. Her fists clenched, "You said you could make a run for it! Our armies need your cargo. If there's a chance..." She glowered toward the oncoming menace.
Hamilton saw not the pampered daughter of a rich plantation father, but a wind-whipped chalk-faced New World Jeanne d'Arc girded for battle, blazing with indignation, exchanging armoured horse for ship and English for Yankie, and loved her the more for it.
He nodded to the Captain, "We run for it."
"I know how Papa felt," her lip quivered, "...when he said he hated runnin'."
"...to fight another day," Hamilton hugged her tighter.
My Review:
I received a free copy of the book from the author for my honest opinion.
Hamilton Ingram and his father, widower Rundell both take care of their plantation that was built by their ancestors and not by slaves. Hamilton and Rundell both have their own jobs that they have to do to keep the plantation running smoothly and they both jump in and get it done. They work from sun up til sun down out in the fields, planting their crops and taking them to market. Their plantation, Moccasin Hollows boarders the Wisteria Bend a slave run plantation owned by the Greer's, Andrew and Corinthia along with their daughter Sarah, and son Benjamin.
Hamilton and Sarah have been sweet on each other for a very long time. They have been slipping around being with each other for a while. Oh they think they are being sneaky and keeping their little adventures a secret from everyone but they are sadly mistaken. But the ones that know don't have a problem with it. Both of their families can't wait for them to get married and have a baby.
Hamilton loves Sarah very much as she does him and he finally gets up the nerve to ask her to marry him and of course she says yes. Sarah and her mother plan a wedding for the fall after harvest season is over. Hamilton and Sarah think that married life is going to be nothing but fun as they will be together all the time and every night of course. But they have a few disappointments and grievances that kind of put their lives on hold for a while which may tear them apart. Hamilton and Sarah both are hurt so deeply that they may never be able to put their lives back together again. The Greer's and the Ingram's are all going through a lot of heartbreak and hardships during the civil war as the army makes its way across Georgia. Taking whatever they please and with orders to burn people's homes as they travel through Georgia leaving lots and lots of people with a home that they and probably even their ancestors help them to build with a lot hard work and sweat.
The Greer's and the Ingram's were all very good people and would fight until the death for each other. When Hamilton and Sarah married they all became one big family. Sarah, Hamilton and Ben as well as Bessie's' son Sam all grew up together. If they weren't playing at Wisteria Bend they could all be found at Moccasin Hollows. They may not have all been blood related but they were family in every way that made someone family.
If you like reading and learning about the civil war, two families that cared a lot for each other and also a boy and girl who has spent most of their lives with each other and ended up falling in love as adults then I recommend Moccasin Trace.
About the Author:
With postgraduate degrees and faculty appointments in several medical universities, Hawk MacKinney has taught graduate courses in both the United States and Jerusalem. In addition to professional articles and texts on chordate neuroembryology, Hawk has authored several works of fiction.
Hawk began writing mysteries for his school newspaper. His works of fiction, historical love stories, science fiction and mystery-thrillers are not genre-centered, but plot-character driven, and reflect his southwest upbringing in Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma. Moccasin Trace, a historical novel nominated for the prestigious Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction, the IPPY, and the Writers Notes Book Award, details the family bloodlines of his serial protagonist in the Craige Ingram Mystery Series… murder and mayhem with a touch of romance. Vault of Secrets, the first book in the Ingram series, was followed by Nymrod Resurrection, Blood and Gold, and The Lady of Corpsewood Manor. All have received national attention. Walking the Pet is Hawk's latest release in the Ingram series with another mystery-thriller work scheduled for release in 2014. The Bleikovat Event, the first volume in The Cairns of Sainctuarie science fiction series, was released in 2012. Its sequel, The Missing Planets, will be released late 2014.
"Without question, Hawk is one of the most gifted and imaginative writers I have had the pleasure to represent. His reading fans have something special to look forward to-whether it is historical romance that takes place during the Civil War, science fiction that involves other mysterious worlds, or mystery/suspense in the Craige Ingram Mystery Series that takes Hawk's main character, Navy ex-SEAL/part-time private investigator Craige Ingram, from his South Carolina ancestral home of Moccasin Hollow to the dirty backrooms of the nation's capital and across Europe and the Middle East."
Barbara Casey, President
Barbara Casey Literary Agency
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