Veil of Fire
by Marlo Schalesky
Colorado Springs: Cook Communications, 2007, 320 pp., paperback.

Veil of Fire tells a moving story based on the real Hinkley, Minnesota firestorm of 1894, 113 years ago today. Author Marlo Schalesky draws you in with the drama of the fire, and then spends most of the novel working out the stories of loss, sacrifice and courage, betrayal and cowardice, love and redemption that arise out of the tragedy.

Soon after the fire rages, a mysterious figure is spotted in the hills near town. Is it a monster of some sort? A survivor marred by the fire, unwilling to face the townspeople? An outsider trying to take advantage of the tragedy? The mystery grows as people with things to hide and others with the need to love find their lives more complicated in the flames' aftermath than they could have imagined possible.

I made the mistake of setting this book aside when it arrived, and then forgetting about it. Months later when I discovered it under a pile of other books and decided to give it a try, I was immediately drawn in and had to keep reading at every opportunity until I was finished. I highly recommed Veil of Fire for teen/adult readers.

Visit Marlo Schalesky.

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