WHEN THIS CRUEL WAR IS OVER

Civil War novel by the immensely prolific Fleming (Hours of Gladness, 1999, etc.). Much goes on in the summer of 1864: two states hope to form the Northwest Confederacy in the heartland area of Indiana/Kentucky when anger at the North gives birth to the Sons of Liberty, who may bring the war to a bloody stop. The group’s courier and evangelist is Janet Todd, who writes letters urging her fiancé Adam Jameson to bring the Sons of Liberty into the Confederacy to help bear down on the federal government. Meanwhile, shortly before he’s killed, Paul Stapleton writes his brother Jonathan a cryptic letter from Nashville. Fifteen years after war’s end, Jonathan hires Clay Pendleton to investigate Paul’s death. Pendleton’s notes remain sealed until all those mentioned in them have died. Therefore, just in the past year they were handed over to Fleming.

Intriguing, replete with séances, and with love arising between Janet and Paul.