The Jackal's Mistress by Chris Bohjalian

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.

 

Blood Moon by Sandra Brown

 When Beth Collins, a senior producer in New York on a true crime show, has a theory about the murder of a teenager that occurred more than three years ago in Auclair, Louisiana, during a blood moon, Detective John Bowie shrugs off her idea in Blood Moon by Sandra Brown coming out March 4. Most important, if Beth is right, the two must work together to prevent another young woman from disappearing during the next blood moon…in four days.

Bowie is still smarting over the investigation of Crissy Mellin’s disappearance that was derailed by his corrupt boss, who is being interviewed for Beth’s show, “Crisis Point”. Bowie has been commanded to keep to himself his criticisms about how poorly the investigation was handled. The more Bowie follows Beth’s lead about the timing of blue moons and murders, the more determined he is to go rogue and partner with three other police agencies who have had murders during a blue moon.

The cop and the producer race to pool the clues they have gathered to find the murderer before he acts again. At the same time, they are on the run from the dirty cops who want to silence the pair before they spoil everything for Bowie’s nemesis.

Publishing since 1981, Sandra Brown has written more than 70 novels. She is primarily a writer of romantic suspense with detailed sex scenes, with Blood Moon no exception.  Brown has also written historical fiction about the Great Depression, titled Rainwater.  Four of this native Texan’s books have been adapted to film.

 

Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister

 Two bodies still unidentified seven years after the crime, their hostage taker still in the wind: thus begins Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister due out February 25. Camilla Deschamps has become a single mother of a 9-month-old child with her husband Luke, likely now a murderer and nowhere to be found.

After seven years and no word from Luke—is he dead or alive?—Camilla seeks to have him declared dead so that she and little Polly can leave their house and start life anew in a different place. She has gone back to using her maiden name in her job as a literary agent. Yet, she has not forgotten the love she shared with Luke, keeping his cell phone in service so she can call and hear his voice.

One day she gets a cryptic message with coordinates and a time that take her to a street in Central London. However, the police, who have been monitoring Cam’s life all this time, have intercepted and altered the message, making her an hour late to the street, while a detective has already been there, evidently scaring away whoever sent the text to Cam.

Cam’s sister Libby has been pushing Cam to move on so she is dating a colleague from work but is he who he says he is? Who is the dark figure caught by her motion detector in the back yard? What is the possibility that it was Luke who sent the coordinates, and he is alive? Why can’t Cam give up on Luke since it seems he became a criminal?

British-born Gillian McAllister has had her seven novels translated into 40 languages with several optioned for television and film. She is also the creator and co-host of the popular Honest Authors podcast. She lives in Birmingham, England.