THE DELIVERANCE OF BARKER MCRAE

In 19th-century gold rush Georgia, young Barker McRae finds herself in possession of a land deed that stokes family greed in this historical novel by Pelletier.

It’s the early 1830s, and gold has been discovered in Georgia. The state holds a lottery—40 acres of prime prospecting land for lucky winners. (The fact that most of that land is owned by the Cherokee is a cloudy quibble.) Barker McRae is awarded one of those deeds, but her evil uncle, Wiley Wood, demands to have it. So she takes off with the deed, throwing her lot in with Matthew Higgenbotham, the deed deliverer who set all this in motion. But we soon find out what Barker is really after: her father, Lorenzo McRae, a God-maddened circuit rider who abandoned her when she was 12. Wiley happens to be a captain of the county militia, so he and an impromptu posse are in hot pursuit of Barker and Higgenbotham—not to mention that valuable deed. Our daring duo endure one crisis after another, all culminating in a final, heart-stopping climax—involving Barker, Higgenbotham, Lorenzo, and Wiley and his men—at the spectacular Tallulah Gorge. Pelletier is an experienced writer, and it shows in every line. (“And the wolfdog bears within himself the same agonized dissent as this assaulted land, the same throttled bewilderment.”) That “wolfdog” is a stray who decides that guarding Barker is his life’s mission. This novel has a lot to say about the historical situation of pre–Civil War Georgia. There really was a Georgia gold rush, long before the more famous ones in California and Montana, and there really was an illegal lottery. Two characters bear special mention. One is the truly diabolical but complex and conflicted Wiley Wood, a sexual abuser who convinces himself in a twisted way that he loves his niece. The other is reluctant hero Matthew Higgenbotham. All he wanted to do was shake the red Georgia clay off his boots for good and go home to Vermont. Instead, he becomes Barker’s surrogate father, whether either of them likes it or not.

A barnburner of a novel featuring some truly unforgettable characters.