Harriet T. Comstock(Barry) Born in the late eighteen hundreds, Harriet T. Comstock is a long-forgotten American author. Her novel, The Shield of Silence is one of the most memorable books I have ever read and, from the very outset, contains an ingenious plot twist.

Learning that her sister has died in childbirth after running away from a despotic husband, a young woman, Doris Fletcher, visits the remote monastery where the baby is being cared for by a handful of nuns. Initially Doris refuses to take the child arguing that, once the spiteful father discovers what has happened, he will demand custody and ultimately destroy the young child just as he laid waste to the woman he married.

However, in an utterly bizarre turn of events, when Doris learns that an impoverished mountain child has also recently been abandoned at the nunnery, she agrees to take both children into her care but only if she can do so without knowing which infant is her biological niece. Needless to say, the head nun, Sister Angela, is utterly dumbfounded by the outlandish request until the woman explains that her sister’s husband would want no part of a child that he couldn’t properly identify as his own flesh and blood.

So Doris Fletcher takes both children, Nancy and Joan, under her maternal wing and raises them with selfless devotion. When the diabolical husband finally resurfaces, running true to form, he is unwilling to claim either child without learning the proper birthright. But which child is Doris’ niece and which the abandoned indigent? The truth is only revealed in the final few pages of the lengthy, well-written novel, and I will guard that hidden secret for those readers who decide to read this captivating novel.

My original intent in writing this essay was not to offer a review of The Shield of Silence but rather to discuss the author, Harriet T. Comstock. However, my research discovered next to nothing about this amazing, world-class novelist. Long forgotten, she has literally dropped off the face of the earth. Thankfully, many of her books still exist in the public domain and can be downloaded free (i.e. I have seven currently on my kindle) from the Gutenberg Free Press site on the internet.

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