Chris Bohjalian’s latest novel, The Jackal's Mistress, has it roots in the Civil War when a Vermont Lieutenant left to die in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley was nursed back to health by a Confederate soldier’s wife. This March 11 offering has taken the seed of that fact, budding into a tense historical fiction novel.
Libby Steadman has been keeping the home fires burning after her husband Peter left to serve the Confederate cause, even though he had freed his own slaves after taking over the farm from his father. While Libby clings to the hope that Peter will return, she knows that he was captured by the Union Army at Gettysburg, his future in limbo.
When her servant Sally,
a freed slave, discovers Captain Jonathan Weybridge, left for dead in a
neighbor’s vacant house, Libby and her servant Joseph manage to get him to
Libby’s house where she nurses his amputated leg and his missing fingers. Of
course, this is treason, and if the Confederate Army learns she abetted an
enemy, she could be put to death along with her servants. Her goal is to
restore his health in order that she may return him to the Union in exchange
for her husband.
Libby and Joseph keep
the gristmill going, providing food requisitioned by the Confederate Army,
visited from time to time by soldiers looking for Billy Yanks. So far, they
have been able to hide Weybridge, nicknamed The Jackal by her niece Jubilee who
lives with Libby since her mother is dead and her father is off fighting for
the South. But what might happen if--worse, when--the Rebels catch Libby off
guard, finding the rumored Union captain? Already the farm has been visited numerous
times, soldiers taking food and livestock, leaving Libby with little to feed
herself, her niece, and her servants.
Chris Bohjalian always spins
a remarkable story, and The Jackal’s Mistress does not disappoint. The
author has already seen four of his books turned into movies, and he writes
plays as well as novels. He enjoyed success with his book The Flight
Attendant that became a series for HBO. Bohjalian lives in Vermont with his
wife, photographer Victoria Blewer.
My review will be posted on
Goodreads starting November 4, 2024.
I would like to thank Doubleday
Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective
review.