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Soul Catcher
Michael C. White

William Morrow, 2007 - 432 pages

average customer review:based on 18 reviews
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   highly recommended  highly recommended





My favorite book of 2007

A complex and wonderfully told story of a slave catcher and the runaway who challenges his path in life. Multifaceted, rich in historic detail, and emotionally gripping--I could not put this book down. The characters are complex and fascinating, and none of their choices are pat or easy. White somehow creates a sympathetic protagonist out of a character you feel you ought to hate. I really wanted to see Cain redeem himself. Very cinematic in tone--this would make a terrific movie!


"For all your fancy ways, Cain, you're just as coldhearted as preacher...."

Augustus Cain is a drunk, a gambler, and a laudanum addict. Most people would think the sum of all these vices would be bad enough; however, Cain has one more sin to bestow upon this world. Cain's peacetime profession is a "Slave Catcher," aka, a Soul Catcher.

This information forms a very bleak picture of Cain, but it is not the whole story, for Cain is a man struggling with his own ideology. He has been brought up to believe that human beings of a particular race are property. He also believes that men and women who run away from their owners are criminals. And, who is there to oppose this view, for his family, neighbours, even the law, support this very attitude. Nevertheless, Cain has had enough of fetching slaves for wealthy landowners. This is not because of any moral reason, but, rather, because he is hurtling toward middle age, and an old war wound causes him pain when he sleeps outside. In addition, abolitionists like John Brown are just waiting to make examples of southern slave catchers so retrieving slaves is getting to be dangerous business. Reluctantly, Cain agrees to perform one last job, as gambling has robbed him of everything he owns. Enter Rosetta, a feisty, defiant, and beautiful young woman, who will take any risk to achieve her freedom. Cain sets off on a journey that will slowly change everything he believes in. And, after meeting Rosetta, he will cast off the doctrines of his youth and realise the malevolence of his own actions.

Soul Catcher is certainly not a book that will lift your spirits or cheer you up on a rainy day. Its content is harsh, gritty, and intense. And, it is obviously well researched, which makes the story appear more real and authentic. I would not say it was an enjoyable read, because how can this sort of subject matter ever be described in this manner? Nonetheless, as the front cover states, it is certainly rich in detail and contains a very dramatic narrative. This novel will be a feast for those who eat up this kind of fiction!

Soul Catcher does have its flaws, the love story between the two main protagonists seems largely fuelled by lust on Cain's part. Cain's love for Rosetta seems only to fill a basic human need, rather than to be a meeting of the minds. Perhaps if she had been a bit older and not so beautiful, Cain's change of attitude would have had a lot more gravitas. A thirty-six-year-old man, with a physical deformity, falling for a twenty-two-year-old, blue-eyed, dark-skinned beauty, is not much of a stretch. Having said this, their doomed romance does have some beautifully poignant moments. And, although the book has some very likely plot twists, the reader is left guessing to the very end as to how their liaison will end if, in fact, it does.

In Soul Catcher, the true horrors of a land that was about to be torn apart by war are vividly brought to life. Soul Catcher describes a very bleak odyssey that may, at times, appall the contemporary audience. I do not consider this novel a work of great note, as its content is too clichéd and predictable. Despite this, Soul Catcher's moral lesson is a powerful one: Change begins when one person stands up and says, "This is wrong and should not continue!"



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Fabulous story about redemption

I could not put this book down. The background details were almost as wonderful as the characters, but the pace of the book never lagged.
When Cain finally "humanizes" one of the slaves he captures, the trail to redemption is fascinating.
I really liked "Garden of Martyrs" but I LOVED this one. Also historical detail seemed accurate.
I hope some movie producer picks this one up....it would make a fantastic movie. (Hallie Berry and Russell Crowe maybe???)






The best book I have ever read

A beautifully written dramatic novel which hinges on exquisite characterization and compelling narrative which hooked me within a page and a half. It tells the story of Augustus Cain, a jaded veteran of the Mexican wars turned slave catcher and his initially unwilling search for a runaway slave, Rosetta. The journey brings Cain to face the human reality of this trade in souls through a developing relationship with Rosetta. It is ultimately a hearbreaking story of redemption which ends with an epilogue on the eve of the battle of Antietam. The period is captured in accurate detail and descriptions of the landscape through which they ride are, at times, breathtaking. There were a couple of points though, near the end of the book, where I felt that Cain was expressing a late 20th/early 21st century view but this is a minor quibble in an otherwise oustanding book. It is one of the best books I have ever read.


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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4



Augustus Cain faces a past he wants to forget, a present without prospect or fortune, and an uncertain future marred by the loss of his most prized possession: the horse that has been his working companion for years. He is also a man haunted by a terrible skill?the ability to track people who don't want to be found.

Rosetta is a runaway slave fueled by the passion and determination only a mother can feel. She bears the scars?inside and out?of a life lived in servitude to a cruel and unforgiving master. Her flight is her one shot at freedom, and she would rather die than return to the living hell that she has left behind.

In the perilous years before the Civil War, the fates of these two remarkable people will intertwine in an extraordinary adventure?a journey of hardship and redemption that will take them from Virginia to Boston and back?and one that will become an extraordinary test of character and will, mercy and compassion. It is an odyssey that will change them both forever.

Soul Catcher is a dazzling tapestry of imagination and character, atmosphere and emotion. Poignant and utterly compelling, it is a story to be savored and remembered.




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