Parry's third Abel Jones Civil War mystery (after Shadows of Glory
and Faded Coat of Blue) begins with a hell of an opening sequence—specifically, the hell that was the battle of Shiloh, a battle Jones participates in out of a sense of duty on his way to meet General Grant and accept his latest assignment. That assignment involves the complex matter at the heart of the war: slavery. For the last month, runaway slaves have been butchered—probably by renegade Southerners—just ahead of the Union Army's advance to Shiloh. Grant's fear is that if abolitionists in New York get wind of the news and trumpet it as proof that the war is being fought to free slaves rather than to preserve the Union, then troops will start deserting and the Union war effort will be crippled. And since the Confederates have just as much of an interest in seeing their crime buried, Jones is assigned to cross enemy lines and partner up with a Southern soldier, Francis Drake Raines, who knows the owner of a group of recently murdered runaway slaves. As Jones traces the crime back to its source, a plantation called Shady Grove, he encounters Micah Lott and his band of Northern renegades (think a Northern version of Quantrill's raiders), learns a great deal about the South and a thing or two about himself. It's a gripping story, told in the deceptively easygoing style that has become Parry's hallmark, a style that is if anything stronger and more assured than in his previous two outings. When you factor in the astounding battle scenes that bookend the novel and the subtle way that Parry details Abel Jones's dawning awareness of the true meaning of the Civil War, this novel stands out as the best in the series. (Oct.)
