Holmes’ satisfying conclusion offers a twist to the tale….[and] the novel’s explorations of the horrors of misogyny and racism have powerful contemporary resonance. Along the way, Holmes constructs a vivid and believable historical setting and populates her novel with well-developed characters who are flawed and relatable as they seek to triumph over evil. A notable tale that offers the hope that even small actions can lead toward greater good.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“A timeless story of kinships, friendships, and secret legacies born of good and evil. With a keen eye for detail and an intricate plot leading to a satisfying conclusion, this tale is sure to enchant readers.”
—Donna Everhart, author of The Road to Bittersweet and The Saints of Swallow Hill “In Adele Holmes’s debut novel, a white herbalist and her Black best friend challenge a slick conman and the KKK in 1917 rural America. The strong characters and vivid sense of place lingered in my mind long after the last page. That’s my measure of a darned good book.”
—Marcia Preston, Mary Higgins Clark Award Winner and author of The Spiderling and The Butterfly House
“Adele Holmes’s Winter’s Reckoning is a beautifully written story that reminds America of our unresolved sins against humanity and our struggles to place value where it’s due. Protagonist Madeline Fairbanks and her protégée Ren Morgan represent our hopes of resolving our fears of the other and erasing old hates.”
—Janis F. Kearney, author, publisher, and personal diarist for President Bill Clinton in the White House
“A spellbinding narrative that brilliantly captures both the price of standing against segregation and how bold action paves the way to unexpected healing. Holmes’s beautifully developed characters allude to our inevitable connection to the past in a story that resonates to the bone. Simply unputdownable.”
—Cara Brookins, author of Rise: How a House Built a Family
“Set in the brooding rural South, and for a good portion of the novel in the challenging and crystalline world of a deep snowstorm, Winter’s Reckoning is rich in storyline and character with plenty of mystery woven throughout. Simply put, here’s a story that takes on issues whose harm remains with us today. With a climactic pulpit scene that’s not to be missed - and one novel we can highly recommend!”
—Chanticleer Reviews
“Brimming with all the feels—friendship, passion, hatred, prejudice. A remarkable debut.”
—Julia Daily, author of No Names to Be Given
“Tear out a page of Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier, add in a mix of Deliverance and The Apostle, along with a dash of Nell... and you have yourself a die-hard Appalachian story set so far back in the woods and so backwards in their thinking, that Madeline Fairbanks, the local healer, must find an inner strength to fight the racial and misogynistic prejudice permeating the town.”
—Historical Fiction Company Review
2022-05-26
In this debut historical novel, set in 1917, a healer and herbalist must set aside her personal demons to save her town from a corrupt pastor.
In Jamesville, a tiny Southern Appalachian town, widow Maddie Fairbanks, who’s White, tends her farm and heals the sick with the help of her apprentice, Renetta Morgan, who’s Black. The two have a close friendship that angers local segregationists. After Carl Howard, the new pastor, arrives, he preaches that a woman’s place is in the home, and that Black and White people should be separated. Local members of the Ku Klux Klan burn crosses and hang nooses in people’s front yards, and locals associate Maddie’s herbalism and midwifery with witchcraft. Meanwhile, Carl flirts with Maddie’s married daughter, Jane, and seduces Ren into a sexual relationship. Maddie, her granddaughter Hannah, and newspaper reporter Randall Evans are all deeply troubled by Carl’s machinations, but most other townspeople follow his disturbing lead. Not long after a blizzard rattles the entire town (“The biggest snowdrifts were higher than a person’s head, and even the shallow spots were too deep to spot hare”), even Ren turns against Maddie for a short time. Meanwhile, Maddie is strongly affected by a tragic event and finds it hard to regain her strength and stand up to Carl, who’s determined to force her out of town. Holmes’ satisfying conclusion offers a twist to the tale, and she does not shy away from the dark side of human nature and the brutality of those who profane religion for their own ends. In addition, the novel’s explorations of the horrors of misogyny and racism have powerful contemporary resonance. Along the way, Holmes constructs a vivid and believable historical setting and populates her novel with well-developed characters who are flawed and relatable as they seek to triumph over evil.
A notable tale that offers the hope that even small actions can lead toward greater good.
