Soul Catcher

Not read it all yet, but so far a really good book

this is a good book to read, one you dont want to put down, have read it before and now bought for a friend

Loved the story, the history, the atmosphere, the suspense - excellent book. Deserves all five stars.

At over 400 pages I thought I was in for a long haul, but no…. I absolutely raced through this book in one gripping sitting. With an effortless prose, rich characterisation and dramatic plotlines the novel was consistently engaging and entertaining with a rewarding albeit stirring conclusion.Set during the American Civil War the novel follows its protagonist August Cain as he “reluctantly” sets off to capture two slaves, a task he must take on to clear his debts and one that he is very successful at. However, he is finding he’s increasingly questioning his motives and feelings about the nature of this undertaking. For this expedition accompanying him are men paid by the slave owner to ensure the safe return of his “goods”.The novel continues in a detailed but very readable engaging prose with conflicts between the characters and within Cain himself explored. Once the slaves are captured the novel introduces new antagonisms and frictions culminating in a strengthening bond between Cain and the female slave Rosetta. As the true nature for the owner’s desperation of the slaves’ return is revealed Cain finds himself with Rosetta fleeing the Northern states pursued by Unionists as momentum for the impending civil war gathers pace.To give this novel a specific genre is difficult but I think it would appeal to readers who enjoy historical, grand, rich, heroic tales of adventure conflict and romance. It’s long but not a heavy read and with my limited knowledge of American history I can’t verify its accuracy or realistic portrayals of character’s behaviours, but it all feels believable within its dramatic context which made it a very exciting read, so highly recommended.

Augustus Cain is the Soul Catcher, a man who hunts runaway slaves in the pre-Civil War America.He is not an unfeeling brute, but subsumes his morality with drugs and alcohol in order to allow himself to carry out his function without guilt. Or so he imagines. A reader of Milton and a man who appreciates fine books, he loves his horse more than he loves most people.This is a beautifully crafted tale of impossible love, extreme acts of violence, desperation in the face of overwhelming odds, and ultimately of redemption that is partial at best. Cain isn't so much a hero as a vehicle through which to explore the horrific tensions that slavery brings to an emerging nation.The personal journey that Cain undergoes is as inevitable as the plot is predictable (in all but the denouement, which is neither neat nor particularly satisfying). For students of the period this book is no doubt a repository of well researched historical detail, and there is never a moment where the reader is aware of any artifice or inconsistency.At times the author betrays the influence of Tinsel Town, especially when filling out Cain's back story in the early chapters. The action is interrupted in mid stream whilst Cain reflects on some incident from his childhood. This soon leads to a split narrative, which is engaging enough. But splitting the action of the primary thread is a mistake that weakens the opening. It would work brilliantly in cinema, but here it simply frustrates the reader.But when the story settles down and the characters are drawn fluidly and with panache, the early stutter can be forgiven. At first Cain seemed to be written for Clint Eastwood, but a sign of the way the book develops might be that by the end it seems much more like a Kevin Costner vehicle.To a reader who has encountered any of the modern, grittily realistic Western genre films, the themes and settings will be instantly familiar, and White plays on this familiarity to bring new themes into play. Yes, there is the usual, good vs. evil pantomime, with wild eyed psychopaths and the evangelistically violent both given stage time.But there is also the mystical, in the form of what can only be described as soothsayers, predicting with various degrees of accuracy the horrors and moral conundrums to come. The parade of bizarre but utterly believable characters is probably the book's greatest strength.This is a lavishly written book, with a flowing and easily read prose style that enlarges its themes with a kind of poetry that is very satisfying. If some of the characters and settings seem to have been lifted straight from Unforgiven or Dances With Wolves, then that's not necessarily a bad thing.A fascinating story, which transcends the ugliness of the material it deals with. Not everyone will find it engaging, but most who give it a chance will end up admiring it as a very successful piece of work.

Soul Catcher starts rather mechanically and to honest ends rather mechanically as both the start and end are set in fight scenes which make the whole thing seem like a rather cumbersome pulp fiction western novel. But get past those few opening chapters and this is a book with some depth to it.Augustus Cain is a man of honour but also a man who has run from facing his responsibilities in the past. When he is in debt to a southern slave owner he agrees to pursue and return a runaway slave. After the rather cumbersome opening chapters this settles down and we see Cain's character develop as he pursues and eventually empathises with the slave he is chasing and that's where this novels strength lies, in watching Cain's character grow and develop.There are a few rather crudely drawn parallels between the characters and situations of Cain and Rosetta, the slave he follows, as she says 'neither of us are free'. Those parallels are perhaps rather too obvious to need underlining in that way. Similarly some of the minor characters are rather two dimensional but in a novel of this length that is only to be expected. While we see Cain's and Rosetta's characters develop, Michael White doesn't let Cain's companions characters have the same development. It's easy to sympathise with Cain's position as we see him as a real, albeit flawed, person while other characters are cameo roles whose fates fail to interest us.Don't read this expecting a great insight into American pre civil war society but accept that this is a novel about one man and one woman and it is a very good novel. It's flaws if any are it's cumbersome start and the way minor characters appear but those are excusable flaws more than offset by the handling of the main characters and the fact that it's a novel which rewards persistence and becomes progressively better.