Beulah Hill

This book is a reminder of all the problems..... that anyone of color, anyone who was poorly educated, anyone dealing with poverty, anyone who was different in any way from their neighbor; faced in the years of the Depression, in the North. You cannot help but admire the characters Samuel, his parents, Elizabeth, Jehiel, and Frenchy, as they struggle to deal with complex issues and their stories are a reminder that racial hatred was not confined to the South, nor is some of the pap that we were fed in history class, true. There was much ugliness everywhere, yet in the midst of all of this turbulence, love manages to survive, dispute the reminder that Hitler is coming into power, and our country is struggling to find it's moral balance. It will be may years before racial issues will be addressed by our nation, yet the fine writing of Mr. Heffernan, and the clarity of his story rings true, despite the times in which the characters lived.It is easy to visualize the events that occurred in those years; as Hitler is the death of everything good and pure, so is the hatred, gossip, and mob control, the beginning of everything that will bring death and destruction to Beulah Hill. There is some offensive material in this book, with good reason; but what you are offended by reflects your character, as a person and reader.The story is well told; a good read....worthy of any book club discussion...... I am looking forward to reading more of his writing....

This book by Mr. Heffernan takes place in the early 1930's in Jerusalem's Landing, Vermont. A white man is found on Beulah Hill murdered by multiple stabbings from a pitchfork. Jehiel Flood who is one of the black families left in the county owns Beulah Hill. Samuel Bradley is the local constable in charge of the investigation and he is considered bleached instead of white by law. This is making the townspeople angry because they have made up their mind that it was the black folks on the Hill that killed Royal Fermin and don't think that Samuel Bradley is the man to do the investigation. They think he could be prejudiced against the white folks in the community and will not find the real killer of Royal Fermin. Samuel has had to enlist the help of Frenchy LeMay to help in determining who might have caused the death of young Royal and also to take some the heat off him because the white folks are saying Constable Bradley might be favoring the Negroes. In their quest to find the killer a lot of unrest is taking place between the whites and the blacks of Jerusalem Landing. Also in this mix is a Negro woman by the name of Elizabeth, that is the local schoolteacher, and Samuel has been in love with her since he was a young boy. I believe the mystery is secondary to the story of Samuel discovering whether he is white or black and what that means to him.This was a very gripping story and I loved the characters and was very saddened that this could have been the way of life in the 1930's during the depression when like was already tough on everyone. I will be looking for other books by Mr. Heffernan because he writes descriptively and I could actually feel and see Beulah Hill. This is definitely a five star book.

Set in Vermont in 1933, this book portrays the outrageous persecution suffered by a small Negro community at the hands of the local white folk. This is a terrific novel filled with suspense and tensions that are on a slow-boil and which inevitably explodes into violence.A young white man is found dead in the woods on what is acknowledged as the land of Jehiel Flood. Jehiel is a black man and it's because of this that he is accused of the murder and undergoes racial abuse and personal attacks from the townsfolk. This is an account of a situation that just keeps getting more and more tense. It's a suspense novel of the highest quality and deals with the issue of racism in considerable detail.Samuel Bradley relates the story. He is a young constable helps carry out the investigation into the murder. Although legally a white man, he is considered a "bleached" Negro. This means that he is third-generation white because his great-grandmother was a Negro, but through generations of inter-racial breeding, he was deemed to be white. This legal aspect however is irrelevant to the locals who still consider him black and overly sympathetic with Jehiel Flood and his family.The outrage I felt over the injustices described in the book bear testament to the storytelling ability displayed by Heffernan. Although I was aware that it was only a story, the knowledge that this sort of thing was not particularly uncommon was always in the back of my mind. Heffernan doesn't waste a word in this extraordinary book.

In spite of the Heffernan reputation for gore and strong language, I let myself be persuaded to pick up "Beaulah Hill". Then, I couldn't put it down. It's more than a murder mystery. It's a deep look into a small, dark corner of the American soul. This is Heffernan with a heart, and it came as a total surprise.

Jerusalem's Landing has a fascinating history when it comes to blacks and slavery starting before the Civil War began. Blacks remained on the property of their owners, but their children were set free at sixteen for girls and eighteen for boys. These free blacks worked on farms and as house servants. A shortage of white females led to many interracial marriages. The descendants of these unions are considered white or bleached.By 1933, there remained only two families of purebred blacks and both resided on BEULAH HILL. When one of the town's white bad boys was found dead in the woods near Beaulah Hill, many residents believed that one of the Blacks killed the lad. Constable Samuel Bradley, a bleached white and a lifelong recipient of racism, accompanies his boss Sheriff French Le May as they look for a murderer and struggle to keep a vigilante mob from killing someone in the name of justice.This work provides an appealing gaze at a small Vermont town during the Great depression and Prohibition. The undercurrent of bigotry is depressing, but an accurate depiction of the period. Though well done, the murder mystery stays in the rear as William Hefferman writes his best work to date, a historical novel that will bring him much acclaim to an already stellar career.Harriet Klausner