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The third in the "Cain" trilogy, focusing on the two sisters Llyr, Bronwen,a Treasury agent and Kathryn, a battlefield nurse, takes place (as do the others) in the Peninsula Campaign in Virginia in 1862, when the Civil War would have been won, had General George McClellan not proved such an incompetent boob. After McClellan's retreat, a Union loyalist wrote, "Nothing occurred during the whole war so much to give new life, spirit, energy, and courage to the Confederate Army and people as the untoward retreat of McClellan from the Peninsula." The book bogs down in history at first but picks up a pace which continues as Bronwen undertakes to rescue another Treasury agent, her sister Kathryn, and Natty, a child of the streets with no known last name (or age) from Chimborazo, a Confederate hospital. Commanding the rescue is another Treasury agent, Kerry O'Hara, whom Bronwen, with no real evidence, suspects to be a double agent; partly she is put off by his "devil may care" attitude and partly she is distressed by his dislike of McClellan (an opinion she comes round to only when the general's incompetence becomes crystal clear). The book meshes the exploits of Bronwen and Kathryn, Bronwen principally involved with collecting and disseminating information (often at great personal risk) and Kathryn principally involved with nursing the wounded. The book is often difficult to read, because the conditions in which the men fought and lived are so unspeakably awful, and the conditions of Bronwen and Kathryn aren't much better. Walking miles through woods, surrounded by Rebels, sometimes having to masquerade as Confederate sympathizers. The sense of the mud and filth and heat and the swamps so vivid it's hard to believe that Monfredo wasn't there as a witness. There is also the matter of whom one is to believe -- O'Hara, who went to West Point with Jeb Stuart? Frances Hobart, who comes to the Union camp, begging Kathryn's help in finding her fourteen year old son, who enlisted with an Ohio regiment? But there's no Ohio regiment in the area, and the woman might or might not be a double agent. Colonel Dorian de Warde of England, who tries to ingratiate himself with Bronwen, at the same time profiting on the hugely lucrative blockade running business? Add to the mix the blockade runners who are bringing weapons to the Confederacy in ships disguised as importers of medical supplies. Probably the most endearing character is the young rogue and street urchin, Natty, who has no sense of right or wrong. He steals food from the commissary and sells it to the soldiers. He has attached himself to Kathryn, whom he calls "Lady," and has acquired a canine whom he imaginatively names "Dog. When Kerry O'Hara wants him to leave the dog behind as they begin their escape from the hospital in a small sloop, Natty refuses, saying that he will stay back if Dog can't come. "He's the only thing I've ever had that was mine," he cries. The dog reciprocates the loyalty by saving Natty's life. Glynis Tryon, of the Seneca Falls series, makes a cameo appearance that has nothing to do with the plot, other than to bring Jacques Sundown of Seneca Falls into the book. The ending deftly fuses betrayal and blockade running -- and foreshadows the beginning of the end of McClellan's military career.
Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Devine, October 2002
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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