A Killing at Ball's Bluff
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
“A tightly constructed, well-written, and suspenseful whodunit” starring “a relentless but all-too-human hero” (Booklist).
The messenger finds Harrison Raines in one of the finest gambling halls in Washington. As usual, Raines is losing. Union intelligence demands his presence immediately—it’s a matter that could affect the outcome of the Civil War—but Raines delays. After all, he’s holding four eights, and as a southern dandy who renounced his family to serve the Union government as a secret agent, Raines can’t resist a bet.
But as soon as he finishes this hand of poker, Raines will be gambling with more than cards—he’ll be wagering his life. Abraham Lincoln is a close friend of Colonel Baker, and he orders Raines to guard the colonel on the battlefield. But in the chaos of Ball’s Bluff, Baker refuses to take cover from enemy fire. When Baker cut down by a Confederate riding a white horse, Raines is a prime suspect for the murder, and must clear his name or risk being a fugitive from both sides of the Civil War.
“Kilian’s use of historical detail is accurate and pertinent without detracting from what is, essentially, a tightly constructed, well-written, and suspenseful whodunit. Raines, a relentless but all-too-human hero, is an intriguing character . . . in what promises to be a fine series of novels. Both Civil War and mystery fans will appreciate Kilian’s grasp of the genres of historical fiction and mystery.” —Booklist
A Killing at Ball’s Bluff is the second book in the Harrison Raines Civil War Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Harrison Raines of Virginia, the likable myopic operative working on the northern side for Allan Pinkerton's newly formed U.S. Secret Service, returns for another romp through the battlefields of the Civil War, in this case the fighting atop Ball's Bluff late in 1861. Veteran author Kilian debuted this series with Murder at Manassas (2000), featuring the battle of Bull Run, and has announced plans for mysteries set during each major engagement of the conflict. In his effort to solve the actual murder of a good friend of Lincoln's, Col. Edward Baker (a mystery unsolved to this day), Raines encounters such historical figures as Confederate spies Belle Boyd and Rose Greenhow, and the Cuban Loreta Janeta Velasquez (who dressed as a man and fought in the early battles). It seems a bit much when Nathaniel Hawthorne appears briefly to stiff Raines for a bar tab, but then our hero's lady love favors the arms of John Wilkes Booth (one senses this could lead to real trouble). Kilian offers clues for anyone wishing to guess the identity of the murderer, but also indulges in a case of misdirection that might nag at a genuine mystery buff for months. The weightier issues of slavery and the horrors of combat are sketched in, but the gist here is picaresque adventure--spy vs. spy, chase scenes on land and water: Civil War lite.
