First published 2013
Elizabeth Van Lew stands at her Richmond mansion window as Virginia secedes from the Union in April 1861. Born into the slaveholding aristocracy but educated by Northern Quakers, she faces an impossible choice between her birthplace and her convictions. Van Lew chooses the Union cause and pledges her loyalty to Lincoln's White House. She transforms herself into a master spy, constructing the Richmond Underground network that reaches into the highest levels of Confederate government. Van Lew orchestrates prisoner escapes from Libby Prison while posing as a charitable Southern lady. Her agents include clerks in Confederate military departments and even household staff in Jefferson Davis's own home. As the war intensifies, Van Lew's double life becomes increasingly dangerous. Each mission threatens to expose her true allegiance and cost her everything. The novel reveals how one woman's courage and intelligence created one of the Civil War's most effective espionage operations.
Genres: american-civil-war, american-fiction, historical-fiction, historical-romance, biography-memoir, espionage, 19th-century, american-history
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: double-life, enemies-to-lovers, historical-figure, master-spy, secret-identity
Setting: Libby Prison, Richmond, Union, Virginia
Period: 1861, Civil War
355 pages · Hardcover · Dutton