From Amazon.com
Miriam Grace Monfredo's Seneca Falls, New York, produces some extraordinary women, chief among them Glynis Tryon (1999's
Must the Maiden Die, et al), the librarian turned early feminist detective, and Tryon's nieces Bronwen and Kathryn Llyr.
Sisters of Cain, the seventh in Monfredo's series, takes place in 1862. The more conservative Kathryn is determined to nurse the wounded of the Civil War and hence travels to Washington to join Dorothea Dix's squad of Union battlefield nurses. Bronwen, the fiery redhead lately canned by the Pinkerton Detective Agency, has joined forces with Rhys Bevan, the chief of detectives at the U.S. Treasury Department. The Pinkertons, as it happens, comprise the Union's spy network from Washington southward. By the time of the action, they have been entirely compromised by secessionist sympathizers within the U.S. government, pressing the Pinkertons (who are professional detectives but amateurs at spying) into deep cover, the deep South, and deep trouble.
"Since your contact was one of those named on that page, you may also be known. The upshot of it," Rhys added, "is that I can't send you back there. Which, at least temporarily, gives me no agents in Baltimore." She knew him too well to take this as a callous remark. No matter how it sounded, it wasn't a lack of agents in Baltimore that had so disturbed him, but their violent deaths.
The Union's most immediate concerns are launching its ironclad, the Monitor, to meet and nullify the South's just commissioned Merrimac, and taking the war to the South with General George McClellan's Virginia Peninsula Campaign. And it is in and around both of these events, and amongst Monfredo's well-drawn characters both real (McClellan, Dix, Bevan, Lincoln, et al) and imagined, that Bronwen and Kathryn must prevail.
Fast-moving, tightly written, and more than enough historical accuracy, feminism, spy craft, romance, and mystery for almost any reader, Sisters of Cain will no doubt find its way to a wide variety of bedsides. And if the detective-fancying-Civil-War-buff fans in those beds enjoy this, they should also try John Jakes's On Secret Service. --Michael Hudson
From Publishers Weekly
The author's chronicling of the mid-19th century moves deeper into the Civil War period in this seventh Seneca Falls mystery (following Must the Maiden Die), which provides a marriage of history and mystery with a sharp and sharp-witted feminist viewpoint. Adventuresome Bronwen Llyr continues to flaunt convention as she moves from detective to spy, joining up with Treasury Chief Rhys Bevan's fledgling Special Intelligence Force in Washington, D.C. Her more conservative sister, Kathryn Llyr, also comes to Washington, hoping to win a job as a nurse under Dorothea Dix. Both sisters end up coping with great danger and interacting with historical and fictional characters as they play major and minor roles in the Virginia Peninsula Campaign of 1862. Monfredo's historical accuracy provides a solid foundation for the exploits of both sisters. Bronwen makes forays into Confederate territory and conducts a battle of wits and wills with spies, counterspies and traitors. And Kathryn, though rejected by Dix, finds scope for her talents dealing with the ravages wrought by disease and also gets caught in the eddies of her sister. Monfredo's skillful characterizations of historical figures (Lincoln, General McClellan, Dix, etc.) blend easily with her fictional creations. And her insights into the race to develop ironclad ships (Merrimack and Monitor), to woo British and European allies and to develop essential information-gathering units nicely flesh out this intriguing novel, which should appeal to Civil War buffs and mystery fans equally. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
