A great 17th century history lesson of both customs and religion feed by a wonderful, descriptive writing style. The protagonist a strange but endearing character. One might guess the ending from the beginning but the journey is worth the taking. Never overly written, the narrative introduces a myriad of hamlet dwellers that become as endearing as the story.

Homecoming coaxes you into the ark of this family from the first page. It reads like a family member relating a history you were too young to experience but yet long to know. The serious elements can be difficult to read but as life is sometimes difficult, it portrays these incidents as they happened, not sugar coating it for the hearing of it. The people are genuine and become endearing because of the way it is written. When one is sad to leave the characters in a book behind, its the sign of a well written book and this is one of them. A very good read from start to finish.

I tried very hard to read this book, really really hard. I got lost in the rhetoric and a cast akin to reading war and peace. The story is formulaic and wordy, perhaps classic readers of the genre would find it interesting after they read through the nonsense. I had hoped the theme would revolve more around history than it did. I could not gain interest in the characters enough to care what happened to them

There is nothing good to say about this book. The story is unbelievable, the events too coincidental, the characters forgettable. Too much conversation and too little plot development. I truly didn't care what happened to these people. It was a chore to read.

A vividly detailed historic perspective and beautifully written saga of early Louisiana. Though the story is predictable, the characters come alive through the enjoyable writing style. The intensely personal description of not only the people but the time and place make reading the detailed history a pleasure rather than a lesson.
Clark is dispassionate about the history revealing what happen to the territory, the natives and the settlers with equal voice.

A well written look at life and poverty in the south. the beauty of place and thankfulness for small things make the writing lovely. The story, especially the first part, of how everyday life unfolds for these people and their neighbors and with the pleasure found if ordinary small daily occurrences.

A shift occurs when the mystery unfurls, and the book becomes littered with implausible coincidences that try a realistic reader. One wishes the story could have been told without the mystery, or the mystery written in more believable terms.

Not overwritten, with good character development as well as a descriptive quality of landscape make it a good read.

Rarely, if ever, has it been necessary for me to skim descriptive pararaphs to finish a book, but this was the only alternative in finishing this book. The plot unbelieveable, the redundancy of fact unnecessary made this a difficult read. The characters not compelling, the coincidence of circumstance hard to believe, the writing poor. The ending leaving a path for future books too obvious. Not having read the previous installments of this series, it seemed unbelievable that this being the third the protagonist was so predictable.

Having to say goodbye to the people in this book is like losing close friends. The format of a book written in letters put me off at first glance thinking characters could never be developed properly in this manner. Was I wrong, I loved this book, loved the people I met in its pages. Never a dull sequence, never without wit and reverence, one becomes kin to these people and experience the joys and sorrows along with them. The descriptive quality of the writing makes you want to visit the very island itself and to even believe you could walk up to one of the cottages and know the person living within. Each letter writer has their own impression of what is happening and each has a unique way of describing detail. I found myself dreading each turn of the page because it brought me closer to the end. Alas, it is over and I miss them already.

A superficial novel, never developing the characters enough to encourage interest in them or their plight. Dialogue too monotonous to allow imagination. One feels on the verge of interest when the plot is redirected leaving one searching to rekindle caring. Although the premise evokes intrigue, it ends up reading like a book for a teenage girl. There is a good story here that a more skilled writer could make into a page turner.

The breezy prose and conversational style allow this formula mystery an easy flow. The interjection of historical perspective fits well with the plot. What detracts from its content is the improbable situations the reader is expected to believe. Too many coincidental encounters take away from the credibility of the story and some of the subplots are unnecessary. The historical content is what keeps the reader interested rather than the story which is unconvincing.