In Traces Patricia Hudson rescues Rebecca Boone and her daughters from the shadow of the celebrated Daniel. This vivid narrative brings the Boone women delightfully alive. Independent, resourceful, they provide a window on a significant era of our history. The novel dramatizes conflicts and tragedies, as well as desire, loyalty, and abiding love. You will not forget this story of a significant family on the frontier of the young Republic.
~Robert Morgan, author of Boone: A Biography
Patricia Hudson's lyrical yet riveting debut novel Traces is an exceptional work of historical fiction, an intimate portrait of the forgotten women in Daniel Boone's life, set against the vast backdrop of the American frontier. I couldn't stop turning pages, spellbound and enlightened both at once. I know I'll be thinking about these faithfully-rendered characters and their inspiring life stories for a long time to come.
~Amy Greene, author of Bloodroot
Patricia Hudson's debut novel Traces is a well-researched, absorbing story of southern pioneer life as experienced by the wife and daughters of iconic American folk hero Daniel Boone. Rebecca, Susanna and Jemima Boone encounter all the dangers and hardships of frontier living while contending with the daily challenges of marriages to men always on the move. Hudson skillfully immerses the reader in their world through the use of vivid details and dramatic scenes, offering an unforgettable taste of life at a pivotal time in our nation's history. If you're looking for an historical novel that will hold your interest from beginning to end, you can't go wrong with Traces.
~Amy Belding Brown, author of Emily's House, Flight of the Sparrow and Mr. Emerson's Wife
Toward the end of Patricia Hudson's Traces, Daniel Boone reads John Filson's The Adventures of Colonel Daniel Boone aloud to his family. His wife Rebecca has already heard it, laughing at some of its myth-making, while noting that Filson mentions neither her nor any of her ten children by name. Never mind that she had sheltered and fed him during the weeks he lived in her house to interview Daniel. Never mind that they had 'washed [his] clothes and grained his horse and emptied his chamber pot.' Filson's Boone says of blazing the trail to Kentucky, 'Soon I began this work, having collected a number of enterprising men, well armed.' 'Not just men,' Susannah, their eldest daughter says. 'Dolly and I were on that journey,' Susannah as camp cook and Dolly as the enslaved servant of Colonel Calloway. 'We were there,' Susannah [says], 'but no one will remember us.' In your hands you hold that remembering.
~George Ella Lyon, Kentucky Poet Laureate (2015-2016), author of Back to the Light: Poems
I never knew that Daniel Boone and his family spent time in West Virginia, so to find him and Rebecca on the banks of the Kanawha River, within walking distance of my father's childhood home, was a thrill and a surprise. I was also intrigued to see that Traces acknowledges the presence of the Shawnee in the region. It's wonderful to catch a glimpse of them in the Kanawha Valley within these pages.
~Kathy Mattea, Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter and West Virginia native
Finalist for the 2023 Weatherford Award for fiction
Finalist for the 2023 Clara Johnson Award for Women's Literature
This book was hard to put down. Such an incredibly well researched and carefully executed historical fiction novel.
~2023 Clara Johnson Award for Women's Literature Committee
2024 East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame Inductee
