Verna MacLean's Historical Romance

 “Verna MacLean's uncanny gift for narrative detail completely envelops the reader in the heroine's world. As a result, we keenly feel the pain of her cruel journey. The characters are fictional, but the history is real, and this is a story we should all know."

—Mary Israel, Assistant Professor Retired, Drama and Theatre, Queens College, City University of New York.

“Verna MacLean has transformed a single line in our history books into the tragic story of the MacFarlanes' removal from their Rhilochan home as part of the Highland Clearances. The details made me see the hovel that the MacFarlanes and their neighbors lived in, the limited diet, and the beautiful countryside. This would make a highly entertaining movie!”

—Shirley Shimada, Research Coordinator, College of Education, University of Washington

“Farewell Rhilochan" is the retelling of a tale that has been lived and relived over the centuries. It's about a proprietor exercising a legal right to rationalize the employment of a productive asset. The result was to maximize its return to the estate but at great cost to those who had, until removed, eked out a spare living on the holding."

“After rationalization there was no need nor room for the crofters who had managed a meager subsistence living in the Scottish Highlands for a millennium before the introduction of the ‘Great Sheep.’ By being ordered by the Duchess of Sutherland to burn their Highland homes, remove themselves to the coast where they were expected to adopt a wholly alien way of life, the villagers of Rhilochan were forced to provide the emotional and sweat equity needed to ‘finance’ the investment required by agricultural improvement."

“Verna MacLean has used a microcosm of Highland life, the folk of Rhilochan, to skillfully tell us of the vast adjustments and great pain associated with the forced mobility that was the rural side of the Industrial Revolution. And who are ‘us?’ A generation born in the 1930's or later and so wedded to, or at least, inured to mobility that we expect to have to move at least once and consider the prospect without emotion. "

“Those of us who read Farewell Rhilochan will witness with profound empathy the immense losses and the contrasting small victories of the victims of the Highland Clearances of 1806. Readers will also witness with admiration the hardy persistence of some of those underclass victim—especially Catherine, the novel's protagonist—who managed to prevail despite the harshness of the circumstances forced upon them by one of the era's rational, economic decision-makers.”

—Ralph Gray, Professor Emeritus, Economics, DePauw University.

“Verna MacLean's new novel, Farewell Rhilochan, creates a warmly emotional tale around the distress and upheavals experienced by the ordinary people of Rhilochan. Engrossing....”

—Lillian Britain, Retired Docent, Seattle Art Museum.

”I was completely drawn to the feisty Catherine MacFarlane, willingly following her so I could learn more about her. It was hard to stop reading and return to my own life. I wanted so much to know what would happen to her as she was pulled into life-changing events, either thrilling or horrifyingly sad. Well written, the story brought home that the Clearances were imposed on real people who were wrenched from their homes and the lives they'd known for generations in the Scottish Highlands.”

—Gloria L. Young, Avid Reader

“This book is a wonderful change from the usual racing plot stories with no real character analysis. Like the Highlands of Scotland where it’s set, the plot rolls gently into the story, gaining momentum. Rather than being a blood and thunder type of book, as one might expect of the early 19th century, it delves into the real thoughts and experiences of the people involved."

“MacLean's writing style is full of similes and metaphors that flow easily one after another, moving the story ahead by painting complete pictures of the landscapes, village living, poverty and hardship. Full of beauty, her writing style, reminiscent of Willa Cather’s, describes a very difficult time. I truly enjoyed this book.”

—Sharon Krachunis, Docent, Albuquerque Museum of Art, Albuquerque, N.M.

“Verna MacLean’s Farewell Rhilochan is a fascinating story of a young Scots girl caught up in the bitter clash of two civilizations, and of her successful struggle to survive without giving up her culture. The details of the Highlanders’ everyday lives are contrasted with the ‘official’ English interpretation in brief historical quotations at the start of every chapter. It is instructive that the Highland Clearances ‘solution’ was followed a few decades later by the Irish potato famine crisis and the English exportation of ‘problem populations’ to the new colonies in the Americas. So many were lost in both cases, but the survivors created a new culture. Verna MacLean has wonderfully captured the world-view of the Highland Scots and how everything changed day by day. You won't be able to put it down.”

—Jane M. Perry, History Buff.

“The Scottish highlands of 1807 come alive in Farewell Rhilochan. We can almost smell the peat, feel the warmth of cottage fires, and hear the fiddles as we're drawn into a tale of loyalty and love, of greed and betrayal, as real today as the latest headlines.”

—Patty Whisler, Community Organizer, Seattle.

"An enthralling love story amid the horror and chaos of the Highland Clearances of 1807. A must read!”

—Janet Roberts Retired teacher, Decatur, Georgia

“I enjoy history very much and I found Farewell Rhilochan to be thoroughly informative and enjoyable. The characters were vivid and descriptive, as well as the setting in Scotland. All in all it was most pleasurable to read.”

—Barbara Lentz, Amateur Historian.

“Farewell Rhilochan is a fascinating, well-researched, novel that takes place in a dark time in the history of Scotland. Verna MacLean paints vivid pictures in your mind with her writing, then supplies a happy ending to give us all hope in this world.”

—Robin Wood, Author

“I have two criteria for books I recommend highly: one is to loan them to friends who are also voracious readers; two is to wish the book had more pages and a continuing character story line. Both of these apply to Farewell Rhilochan by Verna MacLean.”

—Donna D. Hegstrom, Medical Education Administrator (ret.).

“The cover of Farewell Rhilochan pictures the experience of the story's characters whose world is turned upside down when they are driven from their generational homes so that the big sheep of empire can graze where they have lived. Like the small sheep they have grazed, the Highlanders are abandoned. Verna MacLean tells a straightforward story in clear, simple prose, the hardest kind of writing of all. Against the elegant simplicity of this story of power abused and human life disregarded, the courage and compassion of the Highlanders stand out with strength and clarity. Rich in sensual detail, touched with the lilting magic of the old ways, this novel opens the reader's heart in a journey to another time and place, leaving the truths the story reveals and its memorable characters lingering in the reader's mind long after the final page is turned.”

—Lesley Kellas Payne, Freelance Fiction Editor.

Kenneth MacLean's "The Mind Keepers" Draws Praise

"Ken MacLean is a talented weaver of suspense in this unique and spellbinding story. Each turn of the page leaves you with the thought that this author may be a Jules Verne for the new millennium. The threads of eminent technology are masterfully spun with the insightful drama of vivid characters. The reader has a sense of visiting a small town that has become central in the shadow of a menace that could change the future of civilization. Entertaining, exciting and ponderous, enjoy!”

—Eryn Adams, Editor, Michael S. Andrews Publishing, LLC

"Kenneth MacLean's new novel, The Mind Keepers, a distinctly well-crafted thriller by a gifted American poet, delivers a realistic and compelling, cautionary tale with serious political implications.
The work is carefully paced with a collection of richly drawn characters, which cleverly reveal colorful themes of a suspenseful plot as they uncover where the hero's investigation into the secret machinations of the powerful will take them.


The hero, Michael Neilly, is a convincing ‘Everyman’ with acute intelligence, as are his devious adversaries. ‘What will happen?’ we wonder, as the pages turn swiftly, and we become deeply involved in mysteries we recognize as being not unlike our own so-called reality.
But readers will think beyond the margins of this evocative, entertaining story toward making an ethical—dare one say moral—judgment about the dubious behavior of dark power, even as it claims to have only our safety and significant interests at heart.”

—Robert Bonazzi, Book Columnist, San Antonio Express-News;
Author of Man in the Mirror: John Howard Griffen and Black Like Me

"Ken MacLean has done a incredible job of raising vital questions that bedevil contemporary society, while, at the same time, wrapping all this in an engaging tale of mystery and intrigue. Although the issues are momentous, he sets the action in a rural hamlet in the Pacific Northwest, peopled by ordinary folk concerned with ordinary matters of school, church, work and their personal lives. This is a genuine ’whodunit’ with thought and substance.”

—Dr. Warren Johnson, Emeritus Professor of History, Seattle University

”The Mind Keepers is a contemporary book easily appreciated by a society which has been through 9/11, exposed to the work of conniving and clever business executives, and further, become somewhat knowledgeable with extraordinary, new technology. The recent study reported by neuroscientists at the University of Washington, in which a computer was programmed to respond to the thoughts of a human subject, is the sort of thing hinted at in MacLean’s fine book. The story is well written with intrigue and excitement; it pulls you through chapter after chapter, rooting for the good guys over the bad. You can’t be sure how it is going to end until the last few pages. I liked the book and recommend it.”

—Robert Hegstrom, M.D., retired staff physician, Virginia Mason Hospital, Seattle

"Kenneth MacLean's extensive research into the subject of microwave electronics creates this narrative of an engrossing and disquieting tale about the possibility and results of public ’mind control.’ The information and the story are certainly worth the read.”

—Lillian Britain, retired docent, The Seattle Art Museum

"The Mind Keepers, an action-packed novel that evolves around a mysterious, electronic weapon, becomes more frightening page by page. This mind-bending weapon can induce seizures or heart attacks; torment a human target with ominous ’ghost voices,’ or rack victims with pain: ’like being shaved with a flamethrower during a tsunami.’ Who has developed this weapon and for what purpose?

Author Kenneth MacLean, so passionately committed to a democratic and free society, understands the dangers of a federal government that is secretly developing pulse wave energy technology for mind control. His hero, former FBI Agent Mike Neilly, is extracted from an early retirement because someone murders his best friend. As he investigates the inner workings of an apparently harmless corporation that is installing a national defense system outside the imaginative village of Morton City, he unleashes the sinister power of this corporation and its weapon. I was spellbound at the implications as I wondered if this book is a novel or science fiction? Or, are dark forces, even now, harnessing electronic pulse energy?

Kenneth MacLean's thought-provoking novel makes a good read. You'll never look at a microwave tower the same way again!”

—Dr. John Bean, Professor of English, Seattle University

“I’ve seen a lot of reviews saying how this book is perfect for the conspiracy theorists among us. Well, I’m certainly not a conspiracy theorist, but the book is still an excellent read. If you read it like a mystery, it impresses with its characterization and mounting tension. If you think about the mysterious possibilities it raises, it delivers in a whole different way.”

—Skyler Roth, High School Senior, Olympia, Washington

"Kenneth MacLean, in his novel The Mind Keepers, has skillfully crafted an intriguing and spell-binding tapestry, comprising some of the ever-present elements of our society; subjects (not necessarily disparate) such as race, environmental activism, and paranoid distrust of government. The book's primary theme revolves around the Federal Government's proposed development and implementation of electronic, radio-controlled technology for national security and intelligence gathering purposes. On the surface, not an alarming proposition, but intimations of general population mind control by power hungry criminals spurs some exciting detective work and action. The background and connective theme of this engrossing story is the investigation into the murder of a close friend of the novel's chief character, former FBI Agent, Mike Neilly.
MacLean has created a cast of well-drawn characters in a rich and exciting narrative, making this novel an eminently satisfying read.”

—Joseph Israel, Retired Vice President, Chase Manhattan Bank

"Kenneth MacLean's The Mind Keepers is an engrossing novel of intrigue and suspense that involves a timely notion: The abuse of microwave technology by a cadre of the power and money-hungry, with the resulting potential for great harm.
MacLean demonstrates that he understands the technology involved in this believable book. His characters are well developed, especially Michael Neilly, an ex-Army intelligence and FBI Agent, who takes on the bad guys.
Especially effective is the dialogue; I've never read any more crisp or natural.
The Mind Keepers is a good read."

—Sally H. Gray, retired judge and teacher

"For a interesting, challenging and very worthwhile reading experience, I enthusiastically recommend Kenneth MacLean's The Mind Keepers. The reader will find the period and setting most plausible, the description crisp. The progression of plot is so compelling that it is hard to put the book down, although the hour is late.

Most importantly, the reader will confront, in many cases for the first time, the inherent danger to our safety and our constitutional rights, and responsibilities of permitting the unquestioned and unrestricted advance of technology exemplified in the intrusion of microwave electronics on a thoroughly American small town."

—Winfield S. Fountain, retired Professor of Education, Seattle University

“Kenneth MacLean’s Michael Neilly is the quintessential American hero, willing to stand against the abuse of authority and power, even when the majority of his peers, friends and neighbors are unable or refuse to see the looming danger. The Mind Keepers is a well conceived and well written thriller, not an easy thing to find on bookstore shelves as readers hope. The science that is central to the story is as solid as the author’s craft. Artful development makes the relationships and interactions among characters credible and compelling, including those of Michael Neilly’s marriage. It is not too hard to write a strong hero or a strong heroine; it is delightful, however, to encounter in fiction a man and a woman together of matched conviction and courage. The Mind Keepers is a story of our time: one that reveals the dangers of political and corporate greed and secrecy. It is a story that keeps the reader turning the pages long into the night, proof of the seamless road.”

—Lesley Kellas Payne, Freelance Fiction Editor

“From the first page, The Mind Keepers caught and held my attention. The principal characters are well drawn and developed against a backdrop of mysterious forces at work that unfold with subtlety. The protagonist comes to grips with consummate evil. The reader experiences a pleasant excitement as to the outcome. I could not put this book down.”

—Charles R. Lonergan Jr., Siderius and Lonergan, Attorneys, Seattle

"The Mind Keepers is an intriguing tale of scientific mind control that takes place in the quiet outback of Washington State with an unlikely, but intriguing cast of characters, which includes a former FBI Agent and Army Intelligence Officer. Concern with ’how ruthless the demands on democracy had become,’ suggests contemporary issues with which we are all too familiar. Mixed in with an electronic thought-control scheme by a large power monopoly, Eramond Co., are many of the environmental concerns of the Pacific Northwest."

—Dr. James E. Parry, Professor Emeritus, History, Seattle University

“The Mind Keepers is a chilling tale of a private/public defense project gone wrong—in fact, it’s murderous! Kenneth MacLean’s first novel is set in an obscure Washington town, fraught with animosity. This thriller is a well-crafted mix of characters, led by Michael Neilly, former intelligence officer and FBI agent, who tries to sort out the truth. This isn’t a whodunit: it’s a how-they-almost-got-away-with-it.”

—Trina O. McKinstry, volunteer teacher, ESL, North Seattle Community College

“‘The Mind Keepers’ takes the reader into the dark world of new weaponry with frequency technology that can destroy human life. This manner of destruction leaves little evidence to be uncovered without the expertise of a well-trained investigator, such as the main character of Kenneth MacLean’s book, Michael Neilly.

Neilly left the FBI when he saw it turning into ‘a paramilitary force with the power of a secret police agency.’ Fate has another plan that interrupts his new life in a small Washington town. He finds himself surrounded by undercover government agents, corruption, mysterious deaths and a frequency device that can disrupt a brain pattern, heart pattern or bio-stability.

Fiction so ably rides the rail between reality and possible reality. Anyone who has kept up with the direction the Tesla technology or psychotronic instrumentation development will be quick to ‘connect the dots’ of possibilities and undeclared, secret use and abuse of these instruments. ‘The Mind Keepers’ is a well-written, easy read that captures your attention and reminds you that if you can imagine it, it is possible!”

—Beverly Coleman, U.S. Psychotronics Association

"A brilliant and extraordinary piece of fiction with memorable characters. This book is compulsively readable. Professor MacLean is an excellent writer and storyteller."

—Edwin L. Winter, Career Pentagon Employee

"A solid, satisfying read. MacLean is a true novelist, a first rate genre writer."

—Irene Jasperson, Former Congressional Aide