Whitlock Trilogy

During Missouri’s Mormon Wars of the mid-1800s, the Whitlock family seeks to escape mob violence on the state’s western frontier by hiding in the rugged north Missouri wilderness where the Hill Spring Trail crosses the Chariton River. Here, in constant fear of discovery, David Whitlock meets and falls in love with Suzanna Shattuck, the spirited daughter of a nearby settler. As David and Suzanna struggle with their growing passion for each other and with the differences that separate their families, two other figures move inescapably toward each other and the young couple.

A tender, tense, and heart-wrenching journey into the heart and soul of 1860s Civil War America! When the tumultuous decade scatters her family across the war-torn country, Suzanna Whitlock is left alone in the bucolic Iowa village of Afton to manage the family's lumber mill while other family member engages in the nation's dividing conflicts: Her husband David in the savagery of the Civil War, son Johnny in the Paiute Wars in the vast Utah territory, and daughter Elizabeth in the volatile campaign for women's suffrage in mid-century Chicago.

In the spring of 1867, two strangers arrive in the village of Afton, Iowa, where the Whitlocks have settled: One bringing trouble to the Whitlock business, the other bringing promise of family fortune. The visitors draw Suzanna Whitlock and her scattered family into the political and social upheavals that are re-shaping post-Civil War America. An inspiring tale of commitment, courage, independent spirit, and acceptance.

The Whitlock Trilogy brings together in a searchable boxset the three books of award-winning author Allen Kent's popular historical fiction family saga. Set in the tumultuous 1860s and 70s of the American frontier, River of Light and Shadow, Wild Whistling Blackbirds, and Suzanna's Song reflect the energy, tension, romance, and adventure that defined the nation's westward expansion.