A Hundred Crickets Singing

Author: Cathy Gohlke

Publisher: Tyndale

Release Date: April 5, 2022

Characters from Night Bird Calling return for a new adventure set between two wars!

Old houses always hold secrets and Gardens Gate is no exception.  After a storm damages the roof, a hidden room is discovered by Celia Percy and her younger brother.  With civil war era clothing and documents, they discover that this room was once used to hide slaves making their way along the Underground Railroad to find freedom in the North, which is completely unexpected knowing that the ancestors were slave owners and Klan members.  As Celia uncovers more about the civil war, her friends Marshal and Joe are across the Atlantic preparing for the Normandy invasion in 1944.  When Marshal makes a choice that shocks not only his family, but the whole community, Celia knows it is up to her to make it so that he can return home.

Eighty years earlier, Minnie Belvidere is stuck between her two brothers, one that is for the Union, but must enlist in the Confederacy and the other who fully believes the Confederate values.  Her mother was always a proponent of freedom for all men and women, which made them an unpopular family in North Carolina.  After her mother’s death, her father’s health begins to deteriorate, she knows she must step in to continue her mother’s legacy.

I was not expecting a time slip novel from Cathy Gohlke, but I’m pleased to say that I hope she decides to write more.  She has been such a master of historical fiction that it seemed only fitting that she took this challenge to bring readers not just one, but two fantastic stories set years apart, but both at war. 

I loved seeing previous characters return for a chance to see how their stories are continuing as well as meeting new characters from a previous era.  In both timelines, the protagonist is a young female who is set on making wrongs right based on the social norms.  With love, suspense, and great characters, readers will love this book just as much as the first.  While I would say that you don’t have to read Night Bird Calling before this one, I do think it will give quite a bit of backstory that readers would otherwise miss.

I received a complimentary copy of this title from the publisher.  The views and opinions expressed within are my own.