Dorothy K Morris, Author

Tally's Nook
by Dorothy K. Morris Edition: Paperback
Price: $16.95

5 used & new from $16.95

Mockingbird Hill continues to enthrall, September 16, 2014

This review is from: Tally's Nook (Paperback)

Dorothy K Morris has the gift - she loves writing and it shows graciously throughout her growing series of books - the four books that comprise THE MOCKINGBIRD HILL SERIES. She writes 'about people, the human condition, with out strengths, weaknesses, courage, cowardice, love, kindness, and cruelty.' Now she takes us to the early part of the 18th century in what is termed a second prequel to the four book series. According to Morris, `I wrote it because it is, indeed, my heritage, but so far back that I knew nothing about the subject. When most people think of slavery in the South, we think of King Cotton. Seldom or never do we think of rice. But Glaberrima Rice, African rice, was the product that made South Carolina the richest Colony and Charles Town the wealthiest city, and slaves from the West Coast of Africa were the people with the expertise to do it. Rice from Asia came much later.' The prequel was DIRTY RICE and now the follow up sequel TALLY'S NOOK extends the seeds sewn in that prequel that have sprouted and grown into more mature aspects of this impressive series.

As is so often the case, the author's synopsis best distills the storyline: "Mr. Barnes, you can take this shipyard and all the others and shove 'em up His Majesty's bloody arse." Shouting these treasonous words to his employer, Isham Holt, by far the most skilled shipwright in England, angrily left his place of employment and began a journey of discovery: of a new land, a new culture, new friends and ultimately of himself. At a time when Colonial South Carolina had ended its Proprietary phase and had become a Crown Colony, the Talleigh fortune was thoroughly invested in this new world. Lord Fredrick Talleigh had dreams of new endeavors and new ways of living that, as the new head of The Colonial Land, Shipping and Commerce Company, and with his beloved Corinna by his side, he was determined to establish. TALLY'S NOOK takes us from pages of DIRTY RICE into new territory with new characters and old. We follow them as they all struggle to survive and to love and to prosper amid the outrages of fevers and violent storms, even emotional storms, in this beautiful land: the Low Country of South Carolina.'

But in the end much of the stimulation of reading the novels of Dorothy K Morris lies in the discovery or re-discovery of the stains slavery placed on the development of this country. We will never repair the past but it seems that the growth of a still nascent country is now more mature. For the interest of those just beginning Morris' American epic, the order of the books is as follows: 1 Sins of the Mother, 2 Coyotes of Creek Crossing, 3 The Eighth Evil, 4 The Time In Between, 5 prequel Dirty Rice, 6 Tally's Nook. Grady Harp, September 14

NOTICE: TO ORDER THE FIRST IN THIS SERIES, SECRET SINS OF THE MOTHERS, PLEASE GO TO THIS LINK. YOU CAN ORDER IT DIRECTLY FROM THIS PAGE INTO YOUR CART.

http://www.kennethharperfinton.com/helio-books.html

Greetings to the followers of my historical fiction series about the early days of the Low Country of South Carolina. These books have come to be referred to as The Mockingbird Hill series.

Before I list the titles of the series, I'll introduce you to the seventh and latest, published August, 2015:

FROM THE FAR PLACES

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In order to really appreciate the series, I have been told by my readers that it is much better to read from the first and continue in order of publication. I write serious fiction for serious readers. Before you purchase you might like to read the reviews of all the books on Amazon.com. I am very proud of those reviews and the many 4 and 5 stars the books have collected.

So here they are:

The first is SECRET SINS OF THE MOTHERS.

From the back Cover: The setting is South Carolina before and during the Civil War, with flash forwards to 1996. The story shows the effects that the actions of our ancestors have upon the lives of their descendants. This an easy-to-read, classic tale of romance and mystery and history. This is a book that you cannot put down until you reach the very end.

One Reader's review:

"Just wanted you to know my mom can't meet me for lunch

because she can't put your book down, Secret sins of the mothers! Her and my stepfather have started reading all your books this week and they are pulling all nighters!!! I said I would invite them and you to go to lunch and they are very excited to maybe get to meet you!"

VERY IMPORTANT!!: This first book is available only from Used Books on Amazon or from the publisher, Ken Finton. It is currently out of print, temporarily I hope. The only copies are those on used books.

If you cannot get a copy of the book, please let me know. I will do what I can to get it for you.

The following books are available through:Amazon.com

Barnes&Noble.com

Virtualbookworm.com

Goodreads.com

Second- Sequel to Secret Sins of the Mother

COYOTES OF CREEK CROSSING.

From the back cover:

From the battlefields of the Civil War to the wilds of frontier Texas...Adventure...Romance...Mystery...Heroism...Cowardice...

Charlie O'Donnell, a turpentine worker from the Low-Country of South Carolina and Sarah Truesdale, a high toned young wife from Boston--two people from totally different worlds--each seeking peace. However, in the midst of turmoil and intrigue, in the wilds of post Civil War Texas, they find not peace, but each other. There are also some very strange characters indeed, in this historical mystery, complete with stage coach robbers and unknown men who shadow Sarah on her journey of escape. It is a yarn that you cannot put down.

Third - Sequel to Coyotes of Creek Crossing

THE EIGHTH EVIL.

From the back cover:
In this third book in the Mockingbird Hill saga, the North and the South come together in battle again, although on a nominal scale. Anthony Parish, war weary Confederate soldier, returns home, his mind and heart set to rebuild his life on his beloved Low-Country plantation, Tally's Nook, only to find it totally destroyed by fire. In THE EIGHTH EVIL you meet love, hatred, anger, pride, sorrow and joy. You see how some characters' lives are.made fuller and more beautiful when they overcome their negative attitudes, and you see how some are destroyed by clinging to useless prejudices and self-centered ways.

Fourth - Sequel to The Eighth Evil

THE TIME IN BETWEEN.

From the back cover:

The start and the finish; the beginning and the end; birth and death; it is not these that matter most. It is the time in between. In this, the fourth book in what has become the acclaimed Mockingbird Hill Series, we meet old friends and new. We see a world that had been torn apart by civil war, being burdened again through that evil. We see a love that is willing to let go rather than live in dishonor and to dishonor that love. We find brutality that gives birth to success. Again there is the power of love that transforms timidity into courage. And there is the ultimate tragedy that ushers in the power of redemption. THE TIME IN BETWEEN will take you from the Low-Country of South Carolina to the shores of England and back again. A host of new characters come to intermingle with our old friends of Mockingbird Hill in this exciting sequel.

Five - DIRTY RICE. A PREQUEL TO THE AFORMENTIONED FOUR.

From the back cover:

BEFORE KING COTTON THERE WAS AFRICAN RICE.

The early 18th Century saw vast expansion into the New World from England, the European Continent and from Africa, and the establishment of rice plantations in the coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia.

This is the story of African rice and African people, their knowledge, expertise and their forced labor that made the Carolina Colony the wealthiest colony in Colonial America. It takes us from the plush parlors of aristocratic English absentee land owners, who set policy in the colony to maximize profit to the swampy shorses of Carolina amid the mud and muck of rice fields, where people kidnapped from Weat Africa because of their knowledgte and expertise in the growing of rice , were forced to work to fill the cofferes of the landowners with wealth. It is a story of exploitation by some and compassion from others.

Sixth:. Sequel to Dirty Rice

TALLY'S NOOK

From the back cover:

“Mr. Barnes, you can take this shipyard and all the others and shove ‘em up His Majesty’s bloody arse.”Shouting these treasonous words to his employer, Isham Holt, by far the most skilled shipwright in England, angrily left his place of employment and began a journey of discovery: of a new land, a new culture, new friends and ultimately of himself.At a time when Colonial South Carolina had ended its Proprietary phase and had become a Crown Colony, the Talleigh fortune was thoroughly invested in this new world. Lord Fredrick Talleigh had dreams of new endeavors and new ways of living that, as the new head of The Colonial Land, Shipping and Commerce Company, and with his beloved Corinna by his side, he was determined to establish.TALLY’S NOOK takes us from pages of DIRTY RICE into new territory with new characters and old. We follow them as they all struggle to survive and to love and to prosper amid the outrages of fevers and violent storms, even emotional storms, in this beautiful land: the Low Country of South Carolina.

EIGHTH: sequel to TALLY'S NOOK

FROM THE FAR PLACES

From the Back Cover:

FROM THE FAR PLACES, A NOVEL OF COLONIAL SOUTH CAROLINA

THE WIDELY ANTICIPATED SEQUEL TO TALLY’S NOOK

It is the year seventeen hundred and thirty three. From a lonely monastery in far Northumbria, the wilds of the Occaneechi Warrior’s Path in the Carolina piedmont and a mansion in The Strand of London they come: a man of middle age seeking his lost youth, a boy and a girl who help him to find it and a beautiful red stallion that brings them together.

From the Far Places is the seventh novel in the Mockingbird Hill series. Here in the Low-Country is the melting pot that made up the population of early South Carolina. In those early days of the colony, men, women and children came from many countries and many varied lifestyles; yes, children, for quite often children as young as nine and ten years old, and even younger, came alone as indentured servants or as slaves from Africa or the Islands. This conglomeration of types, religions, nationalities and ethnic groups, with their accompanying stresses and tensions, created what the state is today. Some ingredients blend easily. Other ingredients will not blend at all. This novel is about that blending and separation.

FROM THE FAR PLACES takes us from the pages of TALLY’S NOOK into new territory with new characters and old. We continue to follow them as they face new ideas and feelings concerning class and race in the Low-Country of South Carolina.

Dorothy K Morris, Author

Sunday, September 20, 2015