Just finished
Mrs. Mike by Ben and Nancy Freedman; I couldn't go to bed until I had finished it. I don't know how I would describe it other than I want to say powerful. The life and culture are true to what I have read of the time period in other stories. I liked that the story didn't have copious details, but told the story as relating facts to those familiar with that life and time period. I'm terrible at explaining it all, but this is definitely a book I would recommend.
Spoiler:
'Mrs. Mike' is a love story, a true story; the story of Katherine Mary O’Fallon, a sixteen year-old Irish girl from Boston, and Sergeant Mike Flannigan of the Canadian Mounted Police who meet at her uncle’s ranch in Alberta, Canada where she is sent to recover from pleurisy. They meet, they court, they marry and, following Mike’s orders, move to Hudson’s Hope far into the interior of Alberta.
But it is more than a love story between two people: it is also a love story of the land and animals, of the beavers and the ice, the northern lights and the fires, of whooping cough and whiskey running. It is a love story of the First Peoples and their struggles, the immigrants and their hopes and all the people who came and went through Mike and Kathy’s lives.
Still free at
Amazon and I was made aware of the book from the Deals forum
post by mitford13.