River Passage

by P.M. Terrell

The river journey should have taken four weeks. Instead, more than four months after they left, a ragtag group of settlers limped into Fort Nashborough with a harrowing tale. Their journey west had taken them through hostile Indian Territory at the height of the Chickamauga Indian War. They faced constant attacks, near starvation, frostbite, disease and deadly whirlpools. Some were captured... some were killed... and some lived to tell the tale... Based on the true story of the Donelson Party of 1779-1780. Written from the perspective of Mary Neely, who was on the voyage with her nine brothers and sisters and mother. Mary is the focus of the book, Songbirds are Free; also by p.m.terrell and her capture by Shawnee warriors near Fort Nashborough.

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

p.m.terrell is the pen name for Patricia McClelland Terrell, the award-winning, internationally acclaimed author of more than 21 books in four genres: contemporary suspense, historical adventure/suspense, computer how-to and non-fiction.

Prior to writing full-time, she founded two computer companies in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area. Among her clients were the Central Intelligence Agency, United States Secret Service, U.S. Information Agency, and Department of Defense. Her specialties were in white collar computer crimes and computer intelligence, themes that have carried forward to her contemporary suspense.

She has been a full-time author since 2002. Vicki’s Key was a top five finalist in the 2012 International Book Awards and 2012 USA Book Awards nominee, and The Pendulum Files was a national finalist for the Best Cover of the Year in 2014. The Tempest Murders was one of four finalists in the 2013 International Book Awards, cross-genre category.

Her historical suspense, River Passage, was a 2010 Best Fiction and Drama Winner. It was determined to be so historically accurate that a copy of the book resides at the Nashville Government Metropolitan Archives in Nashville, Tennessee.

She is also the co-founder of The Book ‘Em Foundation, an organization committed to raising public awareness of the correlation between high crime rates and high illiteracy rates. She is the organizer and chairperson of Book ‘Em North Carolina, an annual event held in Lumberton, North Carolina, to raise funds to increase literacy and reduce crime. For more information on this event and the literacy campaigns funded by it, visit www.bookemnc.org. She is also the founder of The Novel Business, mentoring authors in the business end and selling of books.

She sits on the board of the Friends of the Robeson County Public Library. She has also served on the boards of Robeson County Arts Council, Crime Stoppers and Crime Solvers and became the first female president of the Chesterfield County-Colonial Heights Crime Solvers in Virginia.

Reviews

[Sherry Fundin · Rating 5 out of 5]

First thing, I would recommend reading this before Songbirds Are Free, which I didn’t do. River Passage is the characters journey to the west, which is based on a true story that revolves around the Donelson Party and Mary Neely, P M Terrell’s ancestor.

The writing brings the story to life, all the danger of the Indians, the rapids of the river, the threat of starvation and anything else you can think of during those times. I cannot imagine what they went through and some of it broke my heart, yet gave me hope and inspiration for those who would not give up.

I have a feeling, if they had an idea of how long their four week trip was going to be, many of them would have chose to stay where they were. I tried to walk in their footsteps through P M Terrell’s words, but I just couldn’t get there as I sat here on my cozy lounger.

P M Terrell continues to entertain and amaze me and I look forward to reading more of her work.

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of River Passage by P M Terrell.

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[Tricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part of the amazing rating is that the book is about a relative of mine. The main character Mary Neely is my great, great, great etc. grandmother. But it really is a good story and very well written. It was hard to put down.