Sunday, March 1, 2020

The Blue Cloak by Shannon McNear - A Book Review

The Blue Cloak (True Colors)   An image posted by the author.


In the front matter the author describes how difficult it was for her to write this book. She touches upon that again at the end of her Historical Notes section. Each True Colors book, of which this is number five in the series, centers around a true American crime or criminal. The Blue Cloak focuses on the story of Micajah and Wiley Harpe, AKA Roberts, serial killers that plagued Tennessee and Kentucky in the late 1700s. It is also the story of Susan, Betsey, and Sally, three women who were controlled by the Harpe men and who served as wives to them both. Susan and Betsey were stolen by the men as young girls in or near their teens. Wiley, living up to his name, tricked Sally, a Baptist preacher's daughter, into marrying him before she learned of the lifestyle they would be living. McNear successfully tackled the daunting task of writing a Christian fiction piece that could truly claim that descriptor while telling of the horrors perpetrated by Micajah and Wiley. Having the name of my current hometown of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, mentioned several times made the story all the more real to me, horrifyingly real.

This book will appeal to those who like historical fiction as well as those who like thrillers. I am grateful to have received a copy from Barbour Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion. I was under no obligation to provide a positive review, and received no monetary compensation.

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