During Missouri’s Mormon Wars of the mid-1800s, the Whitlock family seeks to escape mob violence on the state’s western frontier by hiding in the rugged north Missouri wilderness where the Hill Spring Trail crosses the Chariton River. Here, in constant fear of discovery, David Whitlock meets and falls in love with Suzanna Shattuck, the independent and spirited daughter of a nearby settler. As David and Suzanna struggle with their growing passion for each other and with the differences that separate their families, two other figures move inescapably toward each other and the young couple. In Jefferson City, legislator Jacob Randall champions the cause of Missouri's outcasts while Sheck Rogers, a self-appointed Mormon hunter, roams the state murdering and mutilating those he suspects of belonging to a church against which the Governor has issued an extermination order. In this entrancing historical novel of love, fear, courage and redemption, two young lovers seek to find themselves and each other in Missouri’s untamed wilderness as their families struggle to survive the politics and passions of one of the nation’s most tumultuous periods. River of Light and Shadow touches the deepest recesses of the heart while provoking, inspiring and teaching in ways that characterize the best historical fiction.

In the tumultuous 1860s, David Whitlock enlists in the hellish Civil War, leaving his wife, Suzanna, to manage the family lumber mill. With a son keeping a Pony Express station in Paiute Indian country and a daughter campaigning for women's rights in mid-century Chicago, Suzanna finds herself a lone woman in a man's world. When reports of her husband’s death place the future of the mill at risk, she battles prejudice, loneliness, and greed to keep the estate intact as she struggles to reunite her scattered family. Set in what is arguably the most impactful decade in American history, Wild Whistling Blackbirds is a story of courage, love, independence, and resilience—immersing the reader in the fears, hopes, and possibilities that were reshaping a divided nation.

Though written as a stand-alone novel, "Suzanna's Song" is the third and final book in the Whitlock family saga that included "River of Light and Shadow" and "Wild Whistling Blackbirds." The trilogy follows the Whitlocks as they flee the tumultuous Mormon Wars of 1840s Missouri, endure the national and personal tragedies of the American Civil War, and become part of reconstruction and westward expansion in the late 1860s. In the spring of 1867, two strangers arrive in the village of Afton, Iowa, where the Whitlocks have settled: one bringing trouble to the Whitlock business, the other bringing promise of family fortune. The visitors draw Suzanna Whitlock and her scattered family into the political and social upheavals that are re-shaping post-Civil War America. This inspiring tale of commitment, courage, independent spirit, and acceptance serves as a fascinating primer on currents influencing late 1860s US history while exploring the challenges of a nation coming to terms with ever-growing differences in race and class. It presents a poignant portrait of four family members who struggle to remain connected as the vastness of their expanding nation and the lure of new opportunities threaten to pull them apart.