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THE THUMB POINTED FINGERS
Based on actual events in the early 1900s in rural Michigan. J.W. and Carrie Sparling were newlyweds in 1882 with a promising life ahead of them. They lived and farmed in an area of Michigan known as "The Thumb." Nine years later their family had grown to include one daughter and four sons. By all accounts the family was happy and prosperous. However, beginning in 1908,, the Sparling family was plagued by the mysterious and unexplainable deaths, one by one, of four family members. What was happening to the Sparlings?
417 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
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November 23, 2009Local author, local murder mystery from 1800s. Surprisingly good. My dad recalls hearing about the story, he is only 91...
April 28, 2011
Interesting historical topic for people from the thumb.
November 27, 2011
Loved the local who-done-it!
October 8, 2017
I thought the plot took too long to develop and I thought it was just going to be a genealogy story. Soon, I found myself interested in the Sparling family. Then, I was so caught up in the drama that I couldn't put the book down. The open ending may leave some unhappy but I liked it.
August 12, 2018
Great whodunit and was it on purpose? Thought provoking based on the author's own family. Great thumb history and a great discussion book. I've read it twice, love it.
December 21, 2018
A couple of summers ago, my dad and I took a drive from his home in Cass City, Michigan out to the ghost town of Tyre, Michigan, in Austin Township. While, at one time, it was a bustling farm village with two general stores, a post office, church, hotel, and a railroad depot, among other things, it is little more than a crossroads today.
As we drove through, the setting reminded me of Whistlestop, the fictional town in the movie Fried Green Tomatoes. Little did I know, at the time, Whistlestop and Tyre share more than visual similarities; they are both scenes of mysterious murders.
Jacki Howard’s The Thumb Pointed Fingers tells, in novel form, the story of the murders of the Sparling men at the turn of the 20th century, in Tyre. First, J.W. passes away in 1909, due to an unknown illness; he was followed by son Peter in 1910, and both sons Albert and Scyrel in 1911, all of whom died of painful illnesses doctors later diagnosed as arsenic poisoning.
The first two-thirds of the book tells the story of the Sparling family and the untimely deaths of the Sparling men. The last third of the book, beginning with chapter 43, is where it gets good. The bulk of it is a fascinating transcript of the trial proceedings of the accused (I won’t tell you who it is), and is, by far, the best portion of dialogue in the novel.
Despite the interesting story, the novel lacks literary color. The writing is plain and the characters are not well-developed. The readers is often told what a person does, instead of it being described for them, allowing the description to bring the people to life.
Additionally, the author does not give the reader physical descriptions of the places and objects about which she writes. We read of automobiles, houses, farms, roads, etc. without having any description of how those things appear, smell, feel. This made reading the novel, especially the first two-thirds of it, at times boring and flat.
With that said, the author, who is a relative of the Sparling family, does well at building a fictitious storyline around the basic historical facts of the account. It becomes readily apparent to the reader that Howard has done her research, genealogical and otherwise, in her preparation for telling her family’s fascinating story.
I give this book 3 stars out of 5, and recommend it to anyone interested in historical fiction, especially those living in the Thumb of Michigan.
You can purchase the book here.
As we drove through, the setting reminded me of Whistlestop, the fictional town in the movie Fried Green Tomatoes. Little did I know, at the time, Whistlestop and Tyre share more than visual similarities; they are both scenes of mysterious murders.
Jacki Howard’s The Thumb Pointed Fingers tells, in novel form, the story of the murders of the Sparling men at the turn of the 20th century, in Tyre. First, J.W. passes away in 1909, due to an unknown illness; he was followed by son Peter in 1910, and both sons Albert and Scyrel in 1911, all of whom died of painful illnesses doctors later diagnosed as arsenic poisoning.
The first two-thirds of the book tells the story of the Sparling family and the untimely deaths of the Sparling men. The last third of the book, beginning with chapter 43, is where it gets good. The bulk of it is a fascinating transcript of the trial proceedings of the accused (I won’t tell you who it is), and is, by far, the best portion of dialogue in the novel.
Despite the interesting story, the novel lacks literary color. The writing is plain and the characters are not well-developed. The readers is often told what a person does, instead of it being described for them, allowing the description to bring the people to life.
Additionally, the author does not give the reader physical descriptions of the places and objects about which she writes. We read of automobiles, houses, farms, roads, etc. without having any description of how those things appear, smell, feel. This made reading the novel, especially the first two-thirds of it, at times boring and flat.
With that said, the author, who is a relative of the Sparling family, does well at building a fictitious storyline around the basic historical facts of the account. It becomes readily apparent to the reader that Howard has done her research, genealogical and otherwise, in her preparation for telling her family’s fascinating story.
I give this book 3 stars out of 5, and recommend it to anyone interested in historical fiction, especially those living in the Thumb of Michigan.
You can purchase the book here.
October 4, 2023
I was surprised I was able to stick with this one but it really pulled me in! It was well-written and an interesting story about an area in MI I love! Nice touch that there were real photos of news clippings.
February 18, 2017
This is probably a little known book but deserves more credit and circulation then just Michigan. It is a historical fiction about a farm family near Ubly. It starts out with Carrie being a young woman in the early 1900's. She marries, has 4 boys and a girl. Her husband dies of an unknown malady and then her sons start dying. All but the last boy and the girl are left. This leads to a mysterious case and it leaves you kind of guessing as to the real outcome. I liked it a lot because I can relate to the area and actually know some of the history of this story.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews