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Book ReviewsCivil Blood |
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Book: Civil Blood
Written by: Ann McMilan |
Publisher: Books on Tape
Average Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5
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Nice Series
Rating:
4 / 5
I really enjoy this series and it is one of the better-written ones going today. This one takes place in the late spring of 1862 and there are outbreaks of smallpox occurring requiring some patients to be quarantined. When one of those patients dies with Narcissa at his side, he whispers something to indicate that there might be some money circulating with the smallpox virus contaminiating it. Narcissa is put in charge of containing that outbreak and, along with Judah Daniel, works to do that while also solving the mystery of how that money came into circulation. This book is a fascinating portrait of Civil War America and the mystery is intriguing as well. Highly recommended.
Look out! Smallpox!
Rating:
5 / 5
I was dying, ha ha, to read Ms. McMillan's book and got tired of waiting for the paperback, so I ordered online, used, from Amazon.[com] I was not disappointed. Her Civil War mystery series is getting more in depth.
This time the story seemed to focus more on Narcissa and less on Judah; it seems like the last book had more of Judah and less Narcissa; which I suppose is as it should be. Poor Brit Wallace isn't mentioned in the attempts to get you to interested in these mysteries (jacket cover, publisher summaries, etc)---however, as the newspaperman from Britain in Richmond, he is just as much a "detective" as the other two.
I kept going back and forth between Brit and Cameron Archer; which would be the better suitor for Narcissa? Theres plenty of tentative romance to keep us on tenterhooks for a few more books; do we have to wait that long?
The story does have more of the hospital and nursing aspects; we learn about smallpox in the city of Richmond and the possible threat of an outbreak when a contaminated jacket is stolen.
Ms. McMillan kept me guessing but I was grateful that I could actually figure out "whodunit" before she let us in on it.
Isn't that the goal of every mystery reader? To figure it out before the author lets you in?
Anyways. Very good. She has a way of writing that makes you feel like you're really there. I don't know what it is. Thats why I was a bit out of sorts at the end---I thought it ended abruptly.
Is that another typicality of a mystery series?
Looking forward to buying a used hardback of the next book! :)
A brilliant mystery of substance
Rating:
5 / 5
Smallpox breaks out in an American city. The country is at war, and the ethics of combat in question. Has the horrid disease been loosed intentionally? And by which side? Have children been enlisted in this war? The plot lines in "Civil Blood" could be lifted from today's headlines, but this is a mystery about Civil War Richmond (published months before 9/11/01). For all its eerie relevance to the present, this book is rooted unerringly in its era. Ann McMillan's well-drawn characters never warp out of the 1800s. They deal with the anguish of their own war and their own time. A mystery of substance. Another brilliant installment in McMillan's series.
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