The Steep and Thorny Way
Read The Steep and Thorny Way Online
Authors: Cat Winters
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Winters, Cat.
Title: The steep and thorny way / by Cat Winters.
Description: New York : Amulet Books, 2016. | Summary: “A sixteen-year-old biracial girl in rural Oregon in the 1920s searches for the truth about her father's death while avoiding trouble from the Ku Klux Klan in this YA historical novel inspired by Shakespeare's âHamlet'”âProvided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015022705 | ISBN 9781419719158 (hardback) | eISBN: 9781613129067
Subjects: | CYAC: PrejudicesâFiction. | MurderâFiction. | GhostsâFiction. | Racially mixed peopleâFiction. | OregonâHistoryâ20th centuryâFiction. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Historical / United States / 20th Century. | JUVENILE FICTION / Horror & Ghost Stories. | JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / Prejudice & Racism.
Classification: LCC PZ7.W76673 St 2016 | DDC [Fic]âdc23
LC record available at
http://lccn.loc.gov/2015022705
Text copyright © 2016 Catherine Karp
Jacket and title page photography © 2016 Symon Chow
Book design by Maria T. Middleton
For image credits, see
this page
.
Published in 2016 by Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.
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IN LOVING
MEMORY OF
MY COUSIN
JIMMY
HACKER
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 3: DESPERATE WITH IMAGINATION
CHAPTER 4: SOMETHING IS ROTTEN
CHAPTER 5: WHERE WILT THOU LEAD ME?
CHAPTER 7: THOU HAST THY FATHER MUCH OFFENDED
CHAPTER 8: THE PLAY'S THE THING
CHAPTER 11: WITH FIERY QUICKNESS
CHAPTER 12: HOW UNWORTHY A THING YOU MAKE OF ME
CHAPTER 14: CAST THY NIGHTED COLOR OFF
CHAPTER 15: WHO IS'T THAT CAN INFORM ME?
CHAPTER 18: DESPERATE UNDERTAKINGS
CHAPTER 19: NEVER DOUBT I LOVE
CHAPTER 20: BE EVEN AND DIRECT WITH ME
CHAPTER 21: MOST UNNATURAL MURDER
CHAPTER 23: THE DEVIL TAKE THY SOUL
CHAPTER 24: THAT IT SHOULD COME TO THIS
CHAPTER 25: A VERY PALPABLE HIT
CHAPTER 27: THE REST IS SILENCE
CHAPTER 28: REST, PERTURBED SPIRIT
CHAPTER 29: TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE
DO NOT, AS SOME
UNGRACIOUS
PASTORS DO,
SHOW ME
THE
STEEP AND
THORNY
WAY
TO
HEAVEN,
WHILES, LIKE
A PUFFED AND
RECKLESS
LIBERTINE,
HIMSELF THE
PRIMROSE PATH
OF DALLIANCE
TREADS . . .
â
HAMLET
DRAMATIS
PERSONAE
H
ANALEE
D
ENNEY
,
daughter to the late Hank Denney, and stepdaughter to Clyde Koning
G
RETA
K
ONING
,
mother to Hanalee, and wife to Clyde Koning
G
HOST
of Hank Denney
C
LYDE
K
ONING
,
physician
F
LEUR
P
AULISSEN
,
friend to Hanalee, and sister to Laurence
L
AURENCE
P
AULISSEN
,
brother to Fleur
P
OLLY
P
AULISSEN
,
widow, and mother to Fleur and Laurence
J
OE
A
DDER
,
accused of the murder of Hank Denney
R
EVEREND AND
M
RS
. A
DDER
,
parents to Joe and six other children
M
ILDRED
M
ARKS
,
a neighbor
B
ERNICE
M
ARKS
,
younger sister to Mildred
M
RS
. M
ARKS
,
widow, and mother to Mildred, Bernice, and seven other children
S
HERIFF
R
INK
,
head law enforcer
D
EPUTY
F
ORTAINE
,
assistant to Sheriff Rink
R
OBBIE AND
G
IL
W
ITTEN
,
twin brothers, and friends to Laurence
M
R. AND
M
RS
. F
RANKLIN
,
restaurateurs
O
PAL
R
ICKERT
,
sweetheart to Laurence
H
ARRY
C
ORNELIUS
, A
L
V
OLTMAN
, O
SCAR AND
C
HESTER
K
LEIN
,
local boys
S
CENE
:
Elston, Oregon
WASHINGTON COUNTY, OREGON, EARLY 1900
s
.
CHAPTER 1
MURDER MOST FOUL
JULY 1, 1923