Bookstore - American Civil War

Ann McMillan's Civil War Mystery Series

Chickahominy Fever
by Ann McMillan

Hardcover: 224 pages; Viking Press; (March 31, 2003)

The latest installment in this well-regarded Civil War series, featuring war nurse Narcissa Powers and former slave and herbal healer Judah Daniels. In June 1862, as the Seven Days Battle rages mere miles outside the besieged Confederate capital of Richmond, Va., Narcissa attends to the wounded filling the cots of the Chimborazo pavilion hospital where she volunteers.

Dead March
by Ann McMillan

Paperback - 288 pages (September 1999) Penguin USA
Ann McMillan's Dead March is the first in what promises to be a series of Civil War-era mysteries as appealing as Anne Perry's historical procedurals. Narcissa Power, a young Virginia widow consigned to a dismal existence in the country home of her sister-in-law, receives an urgent summons from family friends of her beloved brother, Charley. Narcissa plunges into the turmoil of Richmond in the days between Fort Sumter and the first great battle of the Civil War. A colorful collection of plausible characters gather in the parlors and back alleys of Richmond--a British journalist, a dashing but arrogant young doctor, a cruel overseer, and Judah Daniel, a freedwoman who is also the local herbalist and "conjure woman." Each will be a part of the eventual unraveling of the mystery.

Angel Trumpet
by Ann McMillan

Paperback - 288 pages (February 27, 2001) Penguin USA
This Civil War mystery describes the political, social, and economic complexities of the time while engaging us in an outrageous misdeed. Confederate Colonel John Bretton returns home to his plantation, the scene of brutal murder. Narrator Kimberly Schraf unravels the evil doings of an unknown perpetrator, voicing males and females, blacks and whites with unique personas. White widow Narcissa Power and black herbalist Judah Daniel collaborate to seek out justice during their tumultuous investigation. B.J.L. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Civil Blood
by Ann McMillan

Hardcover - 196 pages (June 21, 2001) Viking Press
In May 1862 the Confederate capital, Richmond, Va., faces both Yankee encroachment and the spread of slow murder from paper money tainted with smallpox, in McMillan's third well-researched historical (after Dead March and Angel Trumpet). Abetted by Judah Daniel, a former slave and herbal healer, and Brit Wallace, a jaunty English journalist, war nurse Narcissa Powers must search for answers under the eyes of plug-uglies from Baltimore, hired to maintain martial law over the city.

Fixin' Things
by Peggy Ullman Bell

280 pages; Writers Club Press; (February 24, 2002)Tthe story of Megan Loren's struggle with herself and her "trusted" brother-in-law. The turning point of America's Civil War erupts outside her bedroom window, adding its horrors and triumphs to Megan's already complicated life.

The Killer Angels : A Novel
by Michael Shaara

Paperback - 374 pages Reprint edition (July 1996) Ballantine Books
This novel reveals more about the Battle of Gettysburg than any piece of learned nonfiction on the same subject. Michael Shaara's account of the three most important days of the Civil War features deft characterizations of all of the main actors, including Lee, Longstreet, Pickett, Buford, and Hancock. The most inspiring figure in the book, however, is Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, whose 20th Maine regiment of volunteers held the Union's left flank on the second day of the battle. This unit's bravery at Little Round Top helped turned the tide of the war against the rebels.

Coolmore : a historical novel of destruction, reconstruction, and reconciliation
by William L. Everett

382 pages E & E Publishers
In COOLMORE, William L. Everett has interwoven a romantic narrative with actual events of the War Between the States. The book takes its name from Coolmore Plantation, built c. 1859 in North Carolina. Against the backdrop of the war, fictional characters suffer the hardships, anguish and privations experienced by people in the South when the Union army dismantled and destroyed life as they had known it.

The Guns of the South : A Novel of the Civil War
by Harry Turtledove

Paperback - 528 pages (May 1997) Del Rey
January 1864: General Robert E. Lee is facing defeat, when a strange man approaches him with an amazing rifle. Its name--AK47. "As a Civil War historian, I literally could not put The Guns of the South down. It is absolutely unique--without question the most fascinating Civil War novel I have ever read. Harry Turtledove knows his Civil War. And best of all, The Guns of the South is not simply great entertainment; it is also a serious and successful effort to come to grips with the central issues of the war. It is must reading for every Civil War student."--Professor James M. McPherson, Edwards Professor of American History, Princeton University; Author of Pulitzer Prize-winning Battle Cry of Freedom

The Baraboo Guards : A Novel of the American Civil War
by John K. Driscoll

Paperback (November 1995) Prairie Oak Pr
The story opens in May, 1861, as a hundred men from Sauk County assemble at the town of Baraboo to depart for their regimental rendezvous at Madison. They soon board a train for Washington, D. C. and receive a harrowing baptism of fire at the First Battle of Bull Run. In the months that follow, the 2d Wisconsin is joined by the 6th and 7th Wisconsin and the 19th Indiana, although nearly another year would pass before the brigade would receive a chance to prove its mettle in battle.

Cold Mountain : A Novel
by Charles Frazier

Paperback - 448 pages 1 edition (August 19, 1998) Vintage Books
The hero of Charles Frazier's first novel is Inman, a disillusioned Confederate soldier who has failed to die as expected after being seriously wounded in battle during the last days of the Civil War. Rather than waiting to be redeployed to the front, the soul-sick Inman deserts, and embarks on a dangerous and lonely odyssey through the devastated South, heading home to North Carolina, and seeking only to be reunited with his beloved, Ada, who has herself been struggling to maintain the family farm she inherited.

Nowhere Else on Earth
by Josephine Humphreys

Paperback - 368 pages (October 2, 2001) Penguin USA
Humphreys' latest novel gracefully uses a very common device in historical fiction: presenting the plot in the form of a memoir. In this case, the setting is North Carolina during the closing months of the Civil War. Rhoda Strong is a Native American living in an Indian settlement. It is Rhoda's belief that "a Scuffletown girl could take care of herself and make her own way," no matter what. And in these declining weeks of the conflict between the North and South, as the Union Army makes its presence felt in the collapsing Confederacy, Rhoda does just that--she takes care of herself. The people of Scuffletown only want a cessation of hostilities, even if that means a Union victory, so that they may return to "cropping, working, house-building, marrying." Henry, the man Rhoda loves, who eventually becomes her husband, is chased as an outlaw with a price on his head, and even then Rhoda proves herself strong enough to be a Scuffletown girl. Rhoda is a noble but real character, and her story is uplifting. Humphrey's novel will not appeal to those who like fast-paced, action-oriented historical fiction, but it is perfect for readers who value layered character development and careful scene setting in a historical context.
Brad Hooper Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved