Those who know me can testify to the fact that I love words. I love to write them, to speak them, and to learn new ones. Written in 1859, The Hidden Hand contains a wealth of vocabulary from a century ago. E.D.E.N Southworth’s book was the first American novel to sell over a million copies.
If we thought E.D.E.N Southworth couldn’t top Ishmael, we were wrong. Talk about melodrama! True love, false love, no love at all; fortunes, shipwrecks, a castle in Scotland, murder, kidnapping, vile plots, so on and so forth. And yet through it all Ishmael remains exemplary in every way. The sequel is equally captivating, and contains even more mystery and twists that its predecessor. 
I am convinced you will never read a story that is more inspiring and challenging than Ishmael. Perhaps it is the emotional connection I have with this book, and the memories it holds of me reading to my departed brother, but I don’t think that is it.
