Lois Hoadley Dick

As a home-schooled kid of the 90s, I read many books from BJU Press's Light Line and Pennant imprints, and I remember this one being a favorite. It's fast-paced and vivid in its depiction of 1600s England--the conflicts of the Church of England, the Black Plague, the Fire of London, and protagonist Cissy Nidd's meeting John Bunyan when he's jailed as a Dissenter. I loved reading the letters between Cissy and Gil Turpin, the highwayman trying to make good. I loved the question of whether show more Cissy and Gil will be false or true coin when their love and faith is tested.

I still own this book, though I haven't read it in decades. Given its shortness (less than 200 pages!), I don't see how the author could have fully developed all the setting and events and characters I remember, but when I first read it, I loved its uniqueness among the contemporary and American historical novels available then. show less

England's monarchy fell with the King's head, and anarchy threatened to reign. Matthew Hale was the right man at the right time.

He wanted to shake a continent for Christ, but he was just a cobbler

He wanted to shake a continent for Christ, but he was just a cobbler