"The Gold of Cape Girardeau" is a wonderful story that successfully combines fiction with history. You fall in love with the characters and become unable to put the book down. It has an intriguing plot that mixes the past with modern day. You go back through time and become a part of Lindy's and John's world, laughing when they laugh, crying when they cry. It evokes all your emotions and touches your heart. It is truly one of the best!

Morley Swingle has a gift of storytelling that makes the 290+ pages of this book speed by, you'll be reading and not notice that hours have passed. The characters in The Gold of Cape Girardeau were honest and believable, the villian didn't even come forth as being cartoony, even though that would have been easy to do with someone as hateful as Claxton. I highly reccomend this book to anyone who loves a good story. For someone who lived in Cape Girardeau for four years and who has lived in Missouri his whole life this book is even more entertaining. The numerous references to the area made the book leap to life in my head. I often used to drive out to Cape Rock to watch the river and the boats drift past lazily. As an alumni of Southeast Missouri State University i'm proud for the schools name to be attached to this book. A friend who is involved with the SEMO Press tells me the book may be turned into a movie. Keep your fingers crossed!

I really enjoyed this book! The Gold of Cape Girardeau is an exhilarating tale of life on the Mississippi during the 1850's and the civil war. The historical side of the story is part river adventure, part war story and part love story, with characters both real and varied. Meanwhile the villain and the hero posses that full measure of chilling menace and lion-hearted likeableness that kept me either cheering or booing throughout the whole book.

A fun twist is that Swingle adds a feel of time-travel without resorting to science fiction. He gives the reader a present-day courtroom drama that joins the older story--not in time--but in the basement of an old house in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

Morley Swingle has crafted a perfect story, with great attention lavished on both his characters and his steamboat & civil war history. While the modern courtroom scenes are the smaller part of this book, courtroom buffs will relish Swingle's realism on that battlefield as well.