The Color of Lightning

March 9, 2009
The author of Stormy Weather
and Enemy Women
returns with a lively exploration of revenge, dedication and betrayal set mainly in Kentucky and Texas near the end of the Civil War. Britt Johnson is a free black man traveling with a larger band of white settlers in search of a better life for his wife, Mary, and their children, despite the many perils of the journey itself. After a war party of 700 Comanche and Kiowa scalp, rape and murder many of the whites, Mary and her children get separated from Britt and become the property of a Native named Gonkon. Britt must wait through the winter before he can set out to rescue and reclaim his wife and children, only to discover that not only does he not have enough money to bargain with the Indians but also that his own family's fate has as much to do with land disputes and treaties as it does with his determination to get revenge. Jiles writes like she owns the frontier, and in this multifaceted, riveting and full of danger novel, she does.

Starred review from April 1, 2009
As the Civil War winds down, freed slave Britt Johnson moves his wife and three children to Young County, TX. He dreams of starting a freight business, and his wife wants to teach school. But when the Comanche and Kiowa come raiding, Britt is not there to defend his family; his oldest son is killed, and the rest of his family and neighbors are taken captive. Britt spends a long winter plotting how to rescue them. Samuel Hammond, a Quaker man from Philadelphia, is sent to the region to be the new Indian Agent. He holds high ideals about nonviolence and teaching the Indians an agrarian lifestyle. Riveting suspense builds as Britt journeys north toward Indian country and encounters many Indian captives who do not want to be re-Anglicized. Using as her basis true histories of the Johnson family and others, Jiles ("Stormy Weather") paints a stirring, panoramic tale of the young, troubled state of Texas. Highly recommended for historical fiction fans and readers who enjoy original Westerns. [Prepub Alert, "LJ" 12/08.]Keddy Ann Outlaw, Harris Cty. P.L., Houston, TX

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2009
Jiles, author of the best-selling Stormy Weather (2007) and Enemy Women (2002), interweaves three narrative threads into a compelling postCivil War tapestry. The stage is set for a tragic cultural collision when freed slave Britt Johnsona character firmly rooted in history and actual eventstravels west with his family and settles in frontier Texas. His dreams of a new life, however, are brutally shattered when his wife and children are abducted during a Kiowa-Comanche raid. Determined to reunite his family, the only circumstance he doesnt take into account is the assimilation of his children into Native American life. As the focus shifts back and forth between Johnson and the captives, Samuel Hammond, the newly appointed representative of the Office of Indian Affairs, serves as a deeply conflicted bridge between the two worlds. Jiles never reduces her cast of characters to stock stereotypes, tackling a traumatic and tragic episode in American history with sensitivity and assurance.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

March 1, 2009
A novel of the Old West, based on the true story of Britt Johnson, a freed slave whose wife and family were stolen by Indians but eventually recovered.

Most of Johnson's narrative has been passed down through oral history, but Jiles (Stormy Weather, 2007, etc.) fills in the gaps more than adequately. One day while Johnson is away getting supplies (and, sadly, after a nasty spat with his wife), his wife and two children are abducted by Kiowa-Comanche along with an older neighbor and her grandchildren. The Indians brutalize the women, but the children—especially the Johnson's ten-year-old son Jube—begin to adapt to life on the plains. The narrative divides itself between Johnson's search for his family and his family's exposure to Indian life, and then divides again with the introduction of Samuel Hammond, a Quaker who, as a representative of the post–Civil War (and radically revamped) Office of Indian Affairs, is assigned the task of attempting to"civilize" the Comanche-Kiowa and turn a nomadic and warrior culture toward farming. Hammond is appalled at the number of abductions, and even more repelled to discover that some of the younger abductees have no desire to return to their previous lives. Part of the tension involves Hammond's growing discontent with Indian culture—he finds himself conflicted because, as a Quaker friend has written him, it is"our professed desire [as Quakers] to treat the Red Man as our brother and as a being deeply wronged over the centuries that we have inhabited this continent." Meanwhile, Johnson, in conjunction with his Comanche friend Tissoyo, succeeds in ransoming his wife and children, though he discovers that his wife has been psychologically scarred as well as physically injured. During her fragile recovery Johnson starts a freighting company, carrying goods from various settlements to frontier forts through dangerous territory.

A rousing, character-driven tale.

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