Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson MyShelf.Com
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More than a Ghost Story--Marilyn Brown Brings Utah's Mining History to Life

There are some ghosts in the first chapter of "Ghosts of the Oquirrhs" by Marilyn Brown. Thankfully, they mostly disappear in favor of a lovely story based on a young woman's diary which the author inherited from her grandfather.

I say "thankfully" because the ghosts are never fully realized. Ghosts, after all, have a tendency to be ethereal. The meat-and-bones history of a small mining town in Utah are much more interesting than ghosts. The sweetness in this Utah town is not the ghosts, but its tendency toward acceptance of all, regardless of color or religion. And the story of how this town called Sweet Pie very nearly lost its innocence is of much greater value than any ghost story I've ever read. The protagonist, Miss Cecily McKinsey, is of far more interest as a real-life girl of her time than the eerie winds that whistle through the underground mines in her town ever could be.

Marilyn Brown is an author steeped in love for the history of her state. She brings it to life in this unaffected novel about love and how it can be endangered by pettiness, but can triumph when good people stand firm in the face of evil.