The Veil

Title: THE VEIL
Author: Diane Noble
Publisher: WaterBrook Press
June 2009
ISBN: 978-0-307-43807-0
Genre: Inspirational/historical

A shroud of secrecy cloaks a nineteenth-century sect known only as the Saints.
That veil is about to be drawn aside. (from the back cover)

In 1857 Utah, the members of one religious group want nothing more than to practice their beliefs without persecution. However, they have faced so much persecution back in Missouri, Illinois, and Ohio that their leader, Brigham Young, has started teaching that in order to gain heaven; they would need to kill their enemies. It is only by the shedding of blood will they gain redemption.

Hannah McClary is a new saint, she was brought into the “family” when her father felt she needed a woman’s influence instead of living in an all male household, and sent her to live with a great aunt. The quest to kill others confuses Hannah, and she begins to question the leaders who teach it as truth. However, Hannah’s love, Lucas Knight has been trained as a killer for the church since he was a child.

As unwary pioneers come into Utah, they find a tragic confrontation with the Saints at a place called Mountain Meadows. Hannah and Lucas are thrust into the most dangerous confrontation of all…

THE VEIL is written by award-winning author Diane Noble. Diane is truly a gifted artist, able to take a true story and fictionalize the events that surrounded it. I learned a lot about a historic time period and a religious sect that I didn’t know much about. While I know that the Saints had suffered persecution in the Midwest, I didn’t know that had caused them to become more violent in the defense of their promised land. In some ways, the author almost made it seem justified, even as her characters questioned the reasons behind it.

I was a bit confused as I read through the prologue. There were three separate points of view in it and I wondered how on earth stories set in three different parts of the country could even begin to tie together. But it didn’t take long into the story for the different stories to mesh and become one.

Hannah is a realistic heroine, a tomboy, possessing a braveness that probably not many women at that time period obtained. Lucas, one couldn’t help but love, as the man faced a traumatic event early in his life, causing the reader to just want to scoop him up and love him. With his early trauma, it is easy to see why he became who he became and to sympathize with him completely. If you enjoy historic fiction that is based on a real life event then you will be fascinated by this reprint of Ms. Noble’s story, THE VEIL. $6.99. 379 Pages.