Monday, March 9, 2015

Spy Of Richmond - Jocelyn Green

Spy Of Richmond
Jocelyn Green
River North, Mar 1 2015, $14.99
ISBN: 9780802405791

In 1859 near Savannah, her slaveholding daddy explains to his daughter Sophie Kent that slaves massacred their family in Virginia and demands a family pledge of loyalty from her, which she reluctantly gives.  He goes off to fight for the Confederacy.  By 1863, he is a POW locked away in Fort Delaware, Pennsylvania and unbeknownst to him his wife died.  Sophia resides in Richmond where, in spite of her father’s loyalty to the Southern cause, she is under suspicion of Northern sympathy due to her maternal Pennsylvania roots and her schooling in Philadelphia.

With her husband incarcerated in Richmond former slave Bella Jamison arrives in the Confederacy capital.  Meanwhile to her chagrin, Sophia owns Bella’s sister Daphne.  Risking their lives, the three females forge an espionage ring to do what they can to support the North.  Reporter Harrison Caldwell supports them from his position inside the War Department, but soon becomes drafted to defend Richmond.

The Fourth Heroines Behind the Lines Civil War drama (see Yankee in Atlanta, Wedded to War and Widow of Gettysburg) is a tremendous historical that focuses on the impact of war on everyone, but especially the forgotten social class of POWs, slaves and PTSD sufferers.  The heroines are fully developed even while they bravely risk their lives to do what they think is right.  Filled with espionage action yet ethical issues abound throughout; for instance Sophia turns to Scripture for mental sustenance while wondering if God would accept her logic that a good end justifies a deceptive mean.


Harriet Klausner

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