Nevermore: 38 Nooses, Time of the Wolf, Book of Killowen & The Undertaking

Nevermore members have been reading a number of books lately about the relationships between Native Americans and settlers. This week a reader brought in 38 Nooses by Scott W. Berg about the Dakota War of 1862. The Dakota were tired of broken treaties, loss of their lands, and were finding it increasingly difficult to eke out a living.  A group of warriors began a series of raids against the whites in Minnesota, which led to the U.S. Army crushing the uprising. Nearly 300 Dakota were convicted of murder; President Lincoln, though preoccupied with the Civil War, commuted the sentences of all but 38 who were hanged in the largest mass execution in U.S. history.  Berg recounts the stories of several concerned individuals, including former Indian captive Sarah Wakefield, General John Wakefield, and Bishop Henry Whipple, to round out his account. Our reader was most struck by the incredible cultural divide between the Native Americans and the settlers.

One of England’s times of civil strife is the setting for the novel  Time of the Wolf by James Wilde.  Edward the Confessor is holding on the throne, but he is ill and the question of succession is up in the air. In Normandy, William is plotting to invade.  Enter Hereward, an exiled warrior and master tactician, who wants to defend his country against all invaders, from Vikings to Normans, and from those who would destroy it from within.  This is the first in a trilogy.

The Book of Killowen is the latest novel from Erin Hart, who is earning a number of fans with her  mysteries set in Ireland.  American forensic pathologist Nora Gavin and her lover, archaeologist Cormac Maguire, are called in when the body of a ninth century man is found in a bog—in the trunk of a car.  A missing philosopher of a much more recent vintage is found along side.  As usual, Hart has done an excellent job of blending a past mystery with a current mystery, and is winning rave reviews.

The Undertaking:  Life Studies from the Dismal Trade by Thomas Lynch is a bit of play on words, as one might expect from a poet.  Lynch, like his father and siblings, is a funeral director. This is a collection of essays about, as he puts it, “standing between the living and the living who have died.”  It’s been described as thought-provoking, meditative, and poetic.