Sacrifice of Lucinda Mills

In late 1932, with so many Americans either starving or mad with worry at its prospect, a Pentecostal evangelist, "Little" Mary Skaggs, began preaching a revival in western Martin County, Kentucky. Among her converts was Lucinda Mills, matriarch of a large local family, and her son John, who soon claimed to be a prophet. John Mills was said to be able to change water into wine and grapevines into snakes, and although few besides his immediate family joined his cult they stirred enough ruckus eventually to attract the national media. John's brother Leonard had been committed to Eastern State Hospital, an insane asylum in Lexington, Kentucky, and to free Leonard from the State's care John determined that a human sacrifice was necessary, with the notion that God would restore the dead back to life within three days. It seems that at first Mills resolved to offer up four of his nieces, but the girls had enough sense to run away and either they or other neighbors notified the authorities. Some family accounts hold that the cult then considered sacrificing at least one infant, but then Lucinda Mills offered herself up for the sacrifice saying that she was willing to give her own life to get Leonard out of the asylum. The sacrifice was made, creating a firestorm of public scandal that the family and community might not have entirely recovered from yet.

This book is a historical novel about the life, character, and sacrifice of Lucinda Mills, told from the viewpoint of a first cousin who knew her well.