Mountain Stranger — Shirley Noe Swiesz

Mountain Stranger has two main characters, Sadra Pierce, and Saul Prescott. While the main characters are colorful and exciting, perhaps it is the secondary characters, the mountain people, who steal the show. It is this cast of characters that made up the wild times right after the Civil War in what later became the coal fields of Kentucky. Sadra Pierce has been in love with Saul Prescott since she first saw him during the war, but she is married to an abusive man chosen by her family. Her husband is killed after the war and when Saul Prescott comes back to the mountains looking for land, Sadra makes him a dealshe will give him her lumber rich land in exchange for marriage. The mother of two children and living in a harsh land, Sadra is not the usual character for a love story. She brings emotions and tenderness as well as mule-headed stubbornness into the life of a young Northerner who turned his back on his Southern wife and fought for the North. Saul Prescott feels he is not worthy of love and the fight begins between two determined people as family and friends join in. And in the midst of it all, the questions haunt each characterwho killed Sadra Pierces husband? Or is he really dead? As you turn the pages you will become immersed in this fast-paced drama.