“GREAT BOOK!!!! I highly recommend every history nut read this!!!! THANKS FOR YOUR HELP IN KEEPING THE STORY ALIVE !!! of what these great men and women did for our Liberty and Freedom. HUZZA!!!!”
Alan Bowen, President, Overmountain Victory Trail Association
“Joe Epley, a former chair of the Public Relations Society of America, has crafted a highly readable novel about events leading up to the Revolutionary War's Battle of Kings Mountain -- a pivotal but underreported fight in the Carolina foothills. He concentrates on the animosities that arose between close neighbors, and even among family members, leading both to the battle itself and to small but deadly skirmishes both before and after the confrontation. It is a must read for military buffs as well as those interested in the Revolution. The reader will come away with a totally new understanding of the words 'Whig' and 'Tory.'”J. Kenneth Clark
“'A Passel of Hate' is an excellent read and historically definitive. Thanks for many hours of entertainment. The characters are alive. Jake Godley serves as a great vehicle to tie the Kings Mountain story together. I could feel his hate for Rance Miller coming off the pages; hell, I wanted to shoot Rance Miller.”Col. (ret.) Jack Tobin, U.S. Army Special Forces
“Epley’s well-researched story of western North Carolina families and the climactic events which shaped their lives centers accurately around the 1780 British invasion. Their struggles tore families apart and culminated at the Battle of Kings Mountain. The very human side of the military campaign contravened the essence of British Southern strategy, to win hearts and minds as well as military victories. Epley’s prose vividly paints the close-up, historic picture of world-changing events that happened in the Carolina piedmont through the words, sights and senses of those common folks, our forebears who lived it. He tells the Kings Mountain story better than I have ever read.”Charles B. Baxley, Publisher, Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution
“… Engaging and exciting. Epley’s words bring life to an incredible chapter in American history.”Robin Lattimore, 2009-10 North Carolina Historian of the Year
“The characters are so well-crafted that it’s difficult to tell the historical figures from those created by Epley, as they all seem fully believable. Most importantly, Epley provides evenhanded treatment of both sides of the conflict. He paints a war fought by real, predominantly decent people with heartfelt but irreconcilable ideas, rather than a black-and-white battle between good and evil. A well-crafted, immersive historical novel, with just the right level of period detail.”Kirkkus Reviews
“In A Passel of Hate, Joe Epley weaves fiction and historical fact into an exciting and little known story about the American Revolution in the Western Carolinas. It should be a must for libraries, book clubs, historical societies, and patriotic groups.”
Hobie Cawood, former Superintendent, Independence National Historical Park;
retired President of Old Salem Museums and Gardens
Carolyn Ward, President, Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation
“I will never look at that war and that battle the same.”Tom Norman, Charlotte, NC
“The author aptly labels the lengthy battle in the interior of the Carolinas that led to King’s Mountain as a ‘civil war’ by dramatically recounting the horrors of neighbors and families pitted against each other. The real and imagined characters are so rich in detail, the battlefield gore so tough to bear, and the story lines so skillfully drawn that readers will feel immersed in the historical realties, and the personal tragedies and triumphs of numerous heroes and villains from all sides. This intellectual testament to all sides of the campaign displays Epley’s understanding of the grace and foibles of human nature.”Jack J. Prather, journalist, poet and writer
“Joe Epley’s work doesn’t start when the storied fighters climbed up the obscure ridge we now know as King’s Mountain. These frontier fighters were not magical heroes who appeared from a cloud. These were real people who chose over a summer’s worth of strife to step onto a stage they had no idea was historic. A Passel of Hate tells how they - and the families they put in danger - chose to take a brutal stand for their homeland in a time of savage uncertainty. These are real people, described brilliantly with faults, cowardice, heroism, pains, failings, and dreams that led to history. They were not cast for that role. They chose it.”Bob Sweeny, founder of the Overmountain Victory Trail Association
“A Passel of Hate” is a spellbinder.”Jim Strenski, Tampa, FL
“Joe Epley’s epic ‘A Passel of Hate’ lifts dusty history off the untrodden paths of King’s Mountain, NC, and into a bright, lively commentary on the most significant battle in the late Revolutionary War. As a reader of 25-30 books on history a year, I was captivated by Epley’s deft ability to blend data, narratives and creative interpretation with excellent writing and dramatic themes to create one of the best American history books in years. His touch of fiction suffices to add continuity and color to this significant conflict and its preceding months. Many Americans don’t realize that the American Revolution stretched far beyond Concord into significance in North and South Carolina, but a good reading of ‘A Passel of Hate’ provides a context that will spur you onto to other histories through the dark swamps and deep mountains of the South.”Reed Bynum, past-president Public Relations Society of America
“The author includes ample history, military strategies and tactics and historical figures. He uses some fictional characters within a creative and wrenching plot to illustrate how the split allegiances between American Revolutionary loyalists and patriots tore apart communities and families. And he weaves fiction and history to show the turmoil resulting from invasion, plundering and destruction.”The News Leader, Landrum, SC
“It is truly amazing how Epley captured the feelings of our countrymen as family, friend & foe. Through his detailed accounts, I have learned more of how kinship & friendships tend to define the mold for totally un-envisioned outcomes.”Dick Bonner, Charlotte, NC
