Midwest Book Review
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The Lies That Bind
Ed Protzel http://www.edprotzel.com
TouchPoint Press https://touchpointpress.com Represented by Loiacono Literary Agency www.loiaconoliteraryagency.com
9780692591888, $16.98, PB, 270pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis:
In 1859, Durksen Hurst, a visionary charlatan on the run, encounters a dozen hungry slaves stranded in the Mississippi wilds. Led by the deceptively simple-looking Big Josh, together they agree to build their own egalitarian plantation, with Hurst acting as a “figurehead master” to hoodwink the town. But wise Big Josh fears that Hurst’s grandiose schemes may doom them all to the hangman’s noose.
In the town, the reclusive widow, Marie Brussard French, manipulates the region’s bankers and cotton brokers, that is, everyone except her frail, rebellious heir-apparent, Devereau. Driven by unbearable loneliness to mad acts, Devereau threatens to expose the family’s own tenuous facade, a revelation that, if made, would prove fatal to the Frenches.
Meanwhile, Antoinette DuVallier, a beautiful, Cassandra-like fugitive from New Orleans with mysterious ties to the Frenches, arrives on her own desperate mission. Her overpowering presence detonates long-repressed conflicts, unleashing a devastating upheaval of fire and blood that tears asunder the once-sleepy hamlet. As the story’s tangled webs of deceit unravel, each startling plot twist and cathartic revelation shines a fresh light on what it means to be a man, a woman, free or enslaved. Indeed, what it means to be human.
Critique:
The debut novel of author Ed Protzel’s ‘Dark Horse Trilogy’ series, The Lies That Bind is a deftly crafted and consistently compelling read from beginning to end. While strongly recommended for community library Historical Fiction collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that The Lies That Bind is also available in a Kindle edition ($4.99).