A review by stevienlcf
River of Dust by Virginia Pye

3.0

Debut novelist, whose grandfather was a Christian missionary in China, creates a missionary couple who are placed in China's far west near the Gobi Desert in the early 1900s. The husband is so highly regarded by his colleagues that even his pregnant wife refers to him as "Reverend," and he has earned the respect of the Chinese by building roads and schools. His wife Grace, who "followed a man in whom she sensed greatness into the desert halfway around the world," dotes on their little boy, Wesley, while being apprehensive about her pregnancy after having suffered several miscarriages. In the opening pages of the novel, Wesley is kidnapped by bandits, but the kidnapping is not a random act of barbarism. As the Reverend sets out in the rugged, corrupt countryside with his dedicated Chinese servant Ancho, his Christian beliefs are tested. A journey that is mysterious, exotic and a bit creepy.