A Child Went Forth

Charlemagne “Charlie” Griffin and his father Ezekiel gain people’s confidence and swindle them. They do it with style, but Charlie is young and has a conscience. Their latest con has targeted the anti-slavery movement and in particular well-known Henry Beecher in New York. The pair are being followed by a pair of murderous thieves, who report to a vengeful associate of Beecher. Charlie is desirous of getting back to Ohio and a chance to emancipate his mom from an asylum. The plans are scuttled as Charlie’s Dad is attacked and killed, but Charlie is already on the run, praying a train can outrun the thugs looking for the $4000 sewn into his jacket. Charlie’s journey home is imbued with saviors, scalawags and other assorted lots who aid or stand in his way of freedom. Charlie’s trip home becomes entangled with his burdened conscience and his desire to make things right, the question remains will he be alive to do so?

A Child Went Forth is a pulse rattling mix of historical fiction and adventure. The salaciousness of a con mixed with the righting of wrongs in a time of a fractured nation becoming more broken. Boston Teran engages the reader with the first sentence and brings the pre-Civil War era to the 21st century reader in empowering ways. Historical fiction has never been so endearing.