“A master storyteller ... The best book I have read in twenty years!”
~ Lieutenant Colonel James Munroe United States Marine Corps
"Never in all my years of reading have I ever enjoyed or been so moved by a book!"
~ Susan White McCarvill Mohawk & French
Winner National Historic Research and Preservation Award Daughters of Colonial Wars
This novel, based on a true story, tells the long forgotten story of Hannah Hawks Scott, a woman whom Joseph Anderson called the most afflicted woman in all New England. Born to a soldier in King Philip's War, Hannah found herself caught in the inevitable clash of two cultures. Yet, she was not alone in her affliction. Drawing on many sources, the author weaves into Hannah's story the tale of a fictional Pequot boy whose life redefines the word "massacre."
Spanning the 1637 attack on the Pequot Fort to the 1704 raid of Deerfield, Massachusetts, and through Queen Anne's War, this novel delivers a powerful examination of the conflict between Puritan colonists and the First Nations of North America. Follow the lives of Hannah and this young boy as they endure the nightmare of war ~ each struggling for family, each struggling for home.
"We were spellbound!"
~ Chaplain Dick Eisemann United States Air Force (Retired)
"A must read!"
~ Linda F. Skarnulis Regent, Trumbull-Porter Chapter National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, Colonial Dames
“A colonial America must-read…”
~ Edward Ellis Author, In This Small Place
"Pervading the page-turner is the finest job I have ever seen to treat with fairness and credibility the viewpoints (including religious) of both the Native American Indians and the English settlers -- remarkable! There are lessons for our time in this."
~ Judy Holy Author, The Women Who Married The Orcutt Men
“When I received my copy of the book I couldn't put it down... Much research went into the writing of that book and I think that it should be required reading for high school students…”
~ Florence Crowell Author, Images of America: Watertown President Watertown Historical Society
"A writing style in the fashion of Jack London -- Farley Mowatt..."
~ Randall Booher LLB Resources
"Skjelver writes one helluva remarkable, fine book! ...a WONDERFUL BOOK!"
~ Richard Morgan History Department North Dakota State University, Ret.
Scroll down for the full text of these reviews.
Praise for MASSACRE: Daughter of War
“A master storyteller…Danielle Skjelver delivers a powerfully unique and heart-wrenching tale that creatively weaves family compassion, deadly vengeance, and the brutal tribulations of daily survival in the Colonial period. She will send you back in time three hundred years to live the simple Puritan life and dwell with the native Americans… and after the entertaining, emotional, and sometimes shocking adventure, you may just want to stay. The best book I have read in twenty years!”
~ Lt.Col. James Munroe United States Marine Corps
"Never in all my years of reading have I ever been so moved by a book. Not only did it take me from the reality in which I live and into the reality that once was (by the way, this has never happened to me before), but it gave me a personal understanding of how this French-Indian Catholic girl could have come to be. It helped me to understand why I was raised with so many different opinions on life and death and God. With such diversity growing up, life seemed to be confusing and hard. Massacre: Daughter of War helped me to bring it all together to make sense.
I hope everyone, especially teens who think life is unfair or too hard on them, would read this book. They would soon understand life is what you make it, and it holds opportunities and punishments beyond our wildest dreams."
~ Susan White McCarvill Mohawk & French
"Skjelver writes one helluva remarkable, fine book! Skjelver does an outstanding job of wearing a moccasin on one foot, a slipper on the other. She describes and presents both 'sides' fairly and accurately without being precious and patronizingly politically correct. Another aspect of merit, the details of daily life, puts the reader there, makes it all so real. Hoorah for the genealogical family trees! I referred to them constantly. All in all, a WONDERFUL BOOK!"
~ Richard Morgan History Department University of North Dakota, Ret.
"A colonial America must-read... Before I read Danielle Skjelver’s compelling novel, Massacre: Daughter of War, I thought I had a firm grasp on the realities of frontier life. I was wrong. Nothing in my experience and nothing in literature had informed me of the nature of an existence where death and the likelihood of death is so immediate. With the conclusion of this book, my conception of the exquisite and excruciating realities of early colonial America is forever changed.
This is a story that had to be told. It is about members of the author’s family. It is about an important chapter in the history of New England. For that alone it was worth the telling. But the author’s moving insights about human nature, the bounds of love and the pain of loss make this much more than a book of history. It is a book skillfully interlaced simultaneously with romance, adventure and horror.
Anyone with an interest in native Americans, colonial life, military affairs or the behavior of humans under stress will find this book hard to resist. If you think you know something of these topics, Massacre: Daughter of War will surely change your mind."
~ Edward Ellis Author, In This Small Place
Monument To And Graves of Jonathan and Hannah Hawks (Hawkes) Scott.
"I don't know when I have been so deeply moved, to the core of my being, page after page, sentence after sentence, phrase after phrase. Nor have I read, I don't recall, such a very satisfying book -- one that takes questions that matter so greatly to me, and carries them through so lovingly, so care-fully, to amazingly healing and peaceful places of rest.
This wonderfully well-written new historical novel gave me a remarkably personal view/experience of what it was surely like to live through the events of the era around the 1704 Deerfield Massacre/Raid in western Massachusetts. The author has powerfully blended her own interest in family history into a well-researched awareness of the documented events of that period, casting it in a journal format. Gripping! It covers the lead-up to the 1704 Raid (including the 1637 Pequot War), together with captivity experiences of English settlers (Skjelver's own ancestors). Pervading the page-turner is the finest job I've ever seen to treat with fairness and credibility the viewpoints (including religious) of both the Native American Indians and the English settlers -- remarkable! There are lessons for our time in this."
~ Judy Holy Author, The Women Who Married The Orcutt Men
"Danielle Skjelver paints with vivid imagery a poignant story of two families immersed in culture clashes and brutal battles. The colliding cultures weave their lives together resulting in a difficult choice for a young boy struggling to become a man and find peace for his soul. I can hardly wait for the prequel!"
~ Julie Rahm President, St. Timothy's Lutheran Church
"Danielle Skjelver, a genealogist of considerable note, has gone back to the early American colonial times of our ancestors to trace the hardships of life in Connecticut during the Pequot War, Queen Anne's War and the 1704 raid on the pioneer village of Deerfield, Mass.
She discusses a compelling message in describing the fighting between the white people and Indians. "When white people slaughter hundreds of Indians, it is a battle," she says. "When Indians do the same, it is a massacre." Massacre: Daughter of War is not a book for the faint of heart. It is violent, graphic and chilling. Among the grim portrayals is the 'skinning' of a pioneer frontiersman by Indians.
But Skjelver's book never loses its sense of historic heritage. And, it leads the reader through the dangerous intrigue and adventure of colonial life without pulling any punches. The frequent divergence of opinion of the French missionaries in Canada and the puritanical English is an important sidebar. Hannah Hawks Scott is the "daughter of war," although it is her husband, Jonathan, and their children, John and Junior, who seem to be the principal characters of the book. Their capture and life among the Indians introduces an intriguing sub-plot to the book, and carries the reader to the final page. Skjelver's writing style is easy to follow. She uses short, simple sentences and ties them together in a manner that makes it easy to understand. Personally, I like historical novels, and this one gets a thumbs up!"
"Massacre: Daughter of War...There are no 'extras'... no 'supporting actors'. Each character is a human being...each human being had a 'lead role'. A writing style in the fashion of Jack London -- Farley Mowatt... Danielle Skjelver has the unique ability to give 'life to every name...every man & woman...every child. Each person is a story....each story is worthy of being told...worthy of being remembered."
