The Girl Who Married an Eagle: A Mystery

by Tamar Myers

Overview

Based on actual events in Tamar Myers's life, The Girl Who Married an Eagle is a beautiful addition to her Belgian Congo mystery series

When Julia Elaine Newton, a young, pretty Ohio girl, volunteered to go on a mission to the Belgian Congo, she knew it was going to be a huge change. But she never expected to wind up teaching at an all-girls boarding school that consisted mostly of runaway child brides!

Much to her chagrin, Buakane was born beautiful. If only she'd been ugly, Chief Eagle would not have noticed her. Escaping from an arranged marriage, the scrappy young girl finds her way to Julia Newton and the school. But this time her jilted husband will not be denied. Now it's up to Julia and Buakane to try to save the school as Congolese independence looms and Chief Eagle is set on revenge. With the help of Cripple, Cripple's husband, and even Amanda Brown, these plucky women must learn to save themselves.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062203861
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	04/30/2013
Series:	Belgian Congo Mystery , #4
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	480 KB

About the Author

Tamar Myers is the author of the Belgian Congo series and the Den of Antiquity series as well as the Pennsylvania-Dutch mysteries. Born and raised in the Congo, she lives in North Carolina.

Editorial Reviews

Don't miss the finale (and fourth entry) to this haunting and inspirational story out of 1950s Congo (after The Boy Who Stole the Leopard's Spots), partially derived from Myers's own background as a child of missionaries.

Library Journal

Flashes of talent are evident in Myers’s uneven fourth and final Belgian Congo mystery (after 2012’s The Boy Who Stole the Leopard’s Spots). The main action opens with the winning line, “Julia Elaine Newton was young and naïve, but she was not altogether stupid”; the novel then goes on to recount Julia’s experiences as a missionary whom the locals dub “She Whose Name One Can’t Be Bothered to Remember.” And every so often, Myers comes up with a memorable way of describing the land where she was born and spent her early years (e.g., “Travel in the Belgian Congo was like pulling the handle on a slot machine—one that was rigged so that it never came up with three matching numbers”). But those looking for a mystery storyline are likely to be disappointed. Julia’s confrontations with a chief intent on getting his wife back will strike many as stagy rather than dramatic. Agent: Nancy Yost, Nancy Yost Literary Agency. (May)

Publishers Weekly

An artful combination of cultural anthropology and fiction. The eagle of the title refers to a chief of the Bashilele tribe who reside in the Kasai district of the Belgian Congo. The novel interweaves the stories of two young women: Julia, a white girl from the Bible Belt of the United States who wishes to do missionary work in Africa, and Buakane, who longs to escape her fate. Buakane is traded for goats and chickens by her parents to the chief, who is looking for his 23rd wife, a position that ensures she will have food and shelter until her powerful and abusive husband dies, at which time she will be buried alive alongside him. The women's paths cross when Buakane runs away from her wedding and is rescued from a hyena attack by missionaries driving Julia to her new post. As the story progresses, readers are invited to contemplate religious philosophy and consider the exploitation of women. Engrossing and educational.

Kirkus Reviews