The Yellow Lantern is a edge of your seat, engrossing book. Well written and well characters. I would read more by this author.

I just finished reading “The Yellow Lantern” by Angie Dicken. What a gripping tale! I was hooked at the first paragraph. It was a great historical read that not only kept me intrigued but also educated me on something in history I knew very little about.

Josephine Clayton (Josie Clay) had a passion for healing herbs. She was happy "...among the scents, textures and memory of a less complicated time." "Mourning had taught her that living proved more difficult", especially after her mother's death. Josie worked as medical assistant to Dr. Chadwick. Chadwick was too quick to operate on a patient who was transferred from a sickbed, a patient "...who doesn't have much longer on earth."

Josie fell victim to the doctor's deception. "Dr. Chadwick with knife raised stood over her in his coat of dried blood...Sir please, I am alive." In exchange for her life, "she had agreed to assist in remedies and ailments. The messy business of exploring stolen bodies for clues and cures was something she'd not expected. But when her father was taken to debtor's prison, she had no choice but to stay and earn his way out." Alvin Green, farmhand at the Clayton's farm said, "Your father does not owe money. He owes bodies...you are replacing him at the graveside."

Josie's cover was to apply for a job at Gloughton Mill in Massachusetts. The year was 1824. Packed in her luggage were a black veil and ebony gown, mourners garb. Newly hired mill girl Josie would spy on the cotton factory operations. Soon, Josie Clay was "rising on the platform of stubborn compassion with a work ethic to admire." Her work ethic and healing skills did not go unnoticed. She ministered to a mill girl injured on the job and mixed elixirs for several sick girls. Manager Braham Taylor had definitely noticed. "A dormant protection woke up in Braham with great force."

Josie was trapped in a web of lies and deceit. Posing as a mourner and being a lookout for the body snatchers was a way to ensure successful grave-robbing. When Braham's beloved aunt died, Josie insisted on spending the entire night by her graveside. Aunt Myrtle's grave remained undisturbed.
Josie needed to break free from this immoral resurrection business.

"The Yellow Lantern: True Colors: Historical Stories of American Crime" by Angie Dicken could arguably be classified as historical fiction, historical romance or Christian romance. The novel seemed to be more about the girls work at the cotton mill and less about systematic grave-robbing. Examination of one's moral compass cannot be understated.

Thank you Barbour Publishing, Inc. and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "The Yellow Lantern".

I think this story line, especially where relating to grave robbery, had the potential to be much more interestingly written. The book starts off strong with Josephine awakening in a terrifying situation and draws the reader in, but I found the bulk of the story when she is working as a mill girl quite dull. I did enjoy the historical vision of women working in mills during this time period and the highlighting of unsafe work conditions.

Author Dicken has several published novels with good reviews and I was initially delighted to read The Yellow Lantern, Dicken writes with skill and sets the scene in an eerie, compelling opening. However, The Yellow Lantern was a disappointment to me. I recognized before starting that it was written for a niche genre. and from the description, I expected thrilling drama, Instead, the book delivered a preposterous storyline, tepid characters, contrived dialog and so much repetition of trite phrases that I started counting them. Characters "narrowed their eyes" a dozen times throughout the novel, "slumped" nine times, "grimaced" nineteen times, and "sighed" an astonishing twenty-four times! As American body-snatchers were active during the time period of the novel, I expected some factual detail rooted in history instead of the melodramatic Dr. Chadwick and his uncertain motive and sanity. Most troubling to me is that I found very little evidence of active Christian faith in the mawkish main character, Josie Clay. She seemed maudlin about life and fickle about Braham, her love interest, and when love was finally (and abruptly) mutually declared, it seemed too little, too late.

This book is well written and will keep you on the edge of your seat. It is full of suspense and will keep you turning the pages to see what happens next. I really enjoyed this book. Thank you Barbour Publishing via NetGalley for the ARC copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

In the 1800’s, some people practiced “grave robbing” in order to perform autopsies on a patient’s body in order to develop a cure for disease.
In this story, a young lady, Josephine, is sworn to help grave robbers in order to keep her father from being killed by those whom he owed a debt to.
Josephine dies and is buried and brought back to life again by a doctor who steals bodies.
In order to protect her father she must help his associates gain new bodies from accidental deaths. She gets a job in a mill, and mysterious accidents start happening, and her employer, Braham, a former slave, is drawn to Josephine and he does not know her secrets.
You will enjoy reading this exciting story, and you will be left guessing of the outcome until the end of the book.