"Great storytelling"

Reverend Randall Howe died while poking Lizard Flats' only prostitute Letty Murphy. She turned to town drunk Eulis Potter for help in hiding the corpse by offering him unlimited use of her body. To further their deception, Eulis posed as a preacher, which he got away with for awhile because no one remembered him dressed up and not drunk. Shockingly, Letty gains religion and Eulis enjoys his sobering role though no pokes occur.

The twosome tour the local Kansas towns as a preacher and his spinster sister even while violence between supporters of the south vs. that of the north have led to a Cain and Abel killing environment. They continue into Colorado preaching the Lord's Word and beginning to find more than solace with one another. Unmasked, they decide to seek gold in the Rockies, but Letty and Eulis who have reinvented themselves into ethical giving people love one another in the biblical way, but both remain reluctant to tell the other because they need the camaraderie and companionship as much, perhaps more, than the adult love they hide.

With the sequel to wonderful WHIPPOORWILL, sensational Sharon Sala shows why she consistently is among the best authors of historical romance. THE AMEN TRAIL is a terrific look back at a troubling time in American history when "Bleeding Kansas" continues into the Civil War. Ms. Sala enables her audience to observe vividly the righteous defend their side in God's name through what the born again Eulis and Letty see. The crafty romantic subplot augments a fantastic late 1850s early 1860s trek into the former Kansas territory.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted August 9, 2004