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BROTHERS OF CAIN
by Miriam Grace Monfredo
Berkley Prime Crime, August 2001
323 pages
$22.95
ISBN: 0425181898


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Brothers of Cain is not a traditional "whodunit." The novel's tension comes from Bronwen Llyr's attempts to survive and complete her work in the heart of the Confederacy during the "Seven Days" of the Peninsula campaign, as federal troops prepared to capture Richmond, a mission that they might have accomplished had George McClellan not been such an incompetent boob.

The novel opens with a heartbreaking scene. Seth Llyr, a Union courier, risks his life and freedom to comfort a dying drummer boy from North Carolina, whose only fear is that his father will think him a coward. Seth is indeed arrested and jailed, and the episode is turned against him at his trial.

Seth has two sisters, Bronwen, an undercover agent for the Treasury Department, and Kathryn, a nurse, who must fight the doctors' prejudices against using female nurses and accusations of treason when she treats Confederate wounded.

Bronwen has a twofold mission in Richmond. Most important to her is freeing her brother from prison. But Abraham Lincoln has entrusted her with another charge. England and France have huge amounts of money invested in tobacco warehoused in Richmond. The U.S. blockade of Atlantic ports was so effective that the tobacco could not be shipped in the traditional way. Lincoln has a plan to have the tobacco shipped to England through Canada, an act which will present the British from coming into the war on the side of the Confederacy. He entrusts Bronwen with making the arrangements necessary to implement his plan.

Kathryn has "adopted" a street urchin, Natty, whose skill at picking pockets and whose other semi-felonious activities, are major factors in the plot. He is amusingly indifferent to the illegality of his actions.

Bronwen, the principal character in the novel, has no idea who is trustworthy (except for a female spy in Richmond). Should she trust Colonel Dorian De Warde, a British agent who offers to help her liberate her brother? Should she trust Kerry O'Hara, an utterly charming Irish born Treasury agent? Most importantly, can she foil the nefarious Confederate spy, Bluebell, who almost succeeded in killing her and her sister?

Curiously, Glynis Tryon, the linchpin of Monfredo's Seneca Falls series, appears in the middle of the book for five pages for no discernible reason.

This is a rich novel which very deftly entwines a personal plot with politics and the war. The noises, the horrible casualties, the exhaustion of soldiers and civilians -- all are so vivid that you will feel yourself in the middle of the horrific events.

Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Devine, December 2001

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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