With a cast of real-life characters, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, General Stonewall Jackson, Detective Allan Pinkerton, Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, and Emperor Napoleon III, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy shines a dramatic new light on these daring and, until now, unsung heroines. Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy asserts that women played a far greater role in the Civil War than they are given credit for. Elizabeth Van Lew, a wealthy Richmond abolitionist, hid behind her proper Southern manners as she orchestrated a far-reaching espionage ring even placing a former slave inside the Confederate White House right under the noses of increasingly suspicious rebel detectives. The beautiful widow Rose O’Neal Greenhow engaged in affairs with powerful Northern politicians and used her young daughter to send information to Southern generals. While even she surely had trouble at times separating truth from fiction (there was, Abbott says, a lot of self-mythologizing during the war), there is no doubting that these women were more daring. Emma Edmonds disguised herself as a man to enlist as a Union private named Frank Thompson, witnessing the bloodiest battles of the war and infiltrating enemy lines. Seventeen-year-old Belle Boyd, an avowed rebel with a dangerous temper, shot a Union soldier in her home, and became a courier and spy for the Confederate army, using her considerable charms to seduce men on both sides. New York Times bestselling author Karen Abbott tells the spellbinding true story of four women who risked everything during the Civil War. Although 400ish pages, I found it a quick and enjoyable read due to the short chapters that flipped back and forth between the four viewpoints, leaving me on the edge of my seat as to what was going to happen next to Belle, the flashy out-in-the-open Confederate spy, Emma 'Frank', the Godly sweet-hearted Union soldier, Elizabeth, the rich. A Library Journal Best Book of 2014A Christian Science Monitor Best Book of 2014

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