Review: Ghost Riders

This is a civil war story that flips back and forth between the present and the past. It combines the story of Zebulon Vance, a self made man that hails from the mountains to become an ambitious politician during the Civil War, and Keith Blalock and his wife Malinda “Sam” Blalock from the same Appalacian Mountains who are unwillingly drawn into the Civil War. Keith is well known around his home in the mountains as a Union sympathizer but is forced to join the Confederacy for the money and to try to get to the front line and slip over to the Union side. His wife, Malinda dresses in men’s clothes and follows him off to war and passes herself off as his younger brother Sam. They are not in the confederate army long before they contrive a way to get themselves discharged. Keith then joins up with the Union forces as a tracker and avenger of families that are loyal to the Union and mistreated by the confederates. Sam continues to follow Keith in his travels as his wife and a soldier. It gives the reader an insight into what life must have been like in a small community with family and neighbors divided by the war.

We then jump to the present with a group of civil war re-enactors in the same area where Keith and Malinda spent most of the war, Nora Bonesteel and Rattler two residents of the area with the “sight”, and a brief appearance by Sheriff Spencer Arrowood. The story continues to jump back and forth by chapter from past to present. And apparently the civil war re-enactors are arousing angry Civil War Ghosts.

I enjoyed the story due to the fact that it gave me more of an insight as to what life must have been like during the Civil War and the atrocities committed during the war along with the difficulty of family, friends and neighbors being on different sides. However, I do not feel this novel should be categorized as a mystery. The only mystery I saw in it was who would survive the war and who would not. It was a very slow paced novel with all of the back and forth between the past and the present.

I believe the book could have been much better just written as a book set in the Civil War time without involving the present. In my opinion, the very brief appearances of Nora Bonesteel and Spencer Arrowood were only thrown in so that past readers who enjoy these characters would buy the book.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Gina Metz - RAM

Book Review: Ghost Riders