Set in pre-Civil War Texas and featuring a large cast of dynamic characters, AT WHAT COST, SILENCE? is the first entry in Karen Lynne Klink’s Texian Trilogy. History and mystery pervade this fascinating saga, leading to the division of a nation and the separation of friends and lovers.

Told through multiple voices, Klink’s panorama opens on a tobacco plantation in Washington County, Texas, where a young boy, Adrien Villere, is about to “do murder,” determined to shoot a coyote marauding the family henhouse. His failure to do so is an occasion for scorn from his snobbish Creole father, though his loyal friend --- and Black servant --- Isaac will continue to support and protect him, and his more plainspoken white neighbor, Jacob Hart, will generally stand up for him and encourage him. Later, as an adolescent, Adrien discovers a secret about himself that he feels he must repress, especially in the midst of family squabbles, intrigues and deaths by fever.

"This series has the potential to attract a broad spectrum of people, with cinematic possibilities that Klink would do well to explore."

The differences between the two white families are starkly painted when Jacob is given the grisly task of whipping a slave. Adrien’s father has very different, but not publicly revealed, ideas about Black servitude. His outspoken sister, Bernadette, plays a significant role in exploring, among other possibilities, the potential freedom for slaves after reading the radical works of Frederick Douglass. Readers will see the North-South divide deepening and rumors of war spreading even as the Texans nourish hopes for a better future. Adrien will have to make a hard-won decision to begin a life elsewhere after a failed love affair --- and will accept a final farewell gift from someone he has come to think of as more than a brother.

Klink’s educational background in psychology undoubtedly sustains her clear ability to create her credible, culturally distinct characters --- male, female, Black, white, young, old --- along with their individual stories throughout this wide-ranging tale. She has gone hiking and backpacking, in the West and beyond, which is another gutsy factor that endows her epic with a realistic sense of place across the changing times about which she writes so informatively. She also is bold in tackling the thorny issues of race, gender identity and the complexities of the slave trade.

This series has the potential to attract a broad spectrum of people, with cinematic possibilities that Klink would do well to explore. It is especially highly recommended for Cajuns, Texans, Civil War buffs and LGBTQ+ readers.