Gwyn Hillerman lives in the Alaskan frontier with her father who is the only doctor in the area and helps him as his nurse. Dr. Jeremiah Vaughan moves to Alaska from Chicago when his medical license is revoked and soon an attraction develops between him and Gwyn.
All things Hidden
by Tracie Peterson & Kimberley Woodhouse
Bethany House
January 2014
All Things Hidden by Tracie Peterson & Kimberley Woodhouse was a most enjoyable story which also taught me some American history. Harold Hillerman felt called to take his medical practice to the Alaskan frontier. He moved his wife and two daughters to Alaska early in the twentieth century but his wife and younger daughter had only contempt for the land and the people and moved back to Chicago. Gwyn stayed in Alaska with her father and worked in the medical clinic with him as his nurse. In the era of the Depression, one of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal projects was The Matanuska Colonization. This brought two hundred families to the area where Gwyn lived and soon her doctor father was greatly overworked. Dr. Jeremiah Vaughan was stripped of his medical license in Chicago, and to get away from the situation and his broken engagement, he moved to Alaska to help Dr. Hillerman who had been his mentor and friend since he was a young boy. Gwyn's life had been hard since her mother left but she had great friends among the Alaskan natives and she felt that Alaska was the most beautiful place that God created.
The authors did an excellent job in writing this book. Even though it is a fictional story, they accurately presented actual historical events that took place throughout the book. The development of the characters was so well done that they came to life on the pages of the book and I felt as if I knew everyone of them personally. I even found myself taking part in the conversations in my mind. The plot had a lot of twists and turns and just when I had things all figured out, the plot would change. All the scenes were so well written that in my mind I could see exactly what was happening and was right in the middle of the action. Their descriptions of the mountains and landscapes of Alaska were so vivid that I could see them in my mind's eye and it also made me want to visit Alaska. The story was filled with love, hate, suspense, murder, friendship, romance, forgiveness, and trust in God. I found this story to be uplifting, entertaining, and informative.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a great story filled with suspense, romance, murder, history and has vivid descriptions of the beauty of Alaska.