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Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War
Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War
Karen Abbott | 2018 | History & Politics
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I think the women and the stories of their lives undercover during the Civil War are interesting. I'm glad to see that the book has women representing both sides of the war and doesn't try to tell you which side is best. We have enough of that in the current US political divisiveness. However, I don't like that the author has chosen to break the stories apart by one chapter of each woman and repeating that pattern in the book. It's made the book less enjoyable to read because when you're really getting into one story, the chapter ends and you have to trudge along slowly through the point she's trying to make with the next three characters and by the time you pick it back up, you've forgotten the suspense and drama. It can get confusing and it's quite anticlimactic. It has made it less interesting for me and it is taking me much longer to read this than other books because I just don't my usual enthusiam for this one. I don't know if it was the author's choice to do this or the author's way of building suspense throughout the book but it was a poor decision on someone's part
  
Blood's Campaign
Blood's Campaign
Angus Donald | 2020 | Fiction & Poetry
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Third entry in Angus Donald's Holcroft Blood series (after Blood's Game and Blood's Revolution), with this one set in Ireland.

Which is where I live (well, in Northern Ireland).

Living, as I do, not that far from Carrickfergus in Belfast I was aware of the siege of Carrickfergus, and (of course) of the Battle of the Boyne - it's impossible not to be, living here! With William's victory celebrated by a section of the community every 12th of July - although the subjects were never really taught at all in my school days; seemingly more concerned with the Norman conquest or with the English Civil War or World War 2 than with 'local' history. In retrospect, I think that might be because local history is (still) a touchy subject: what is one man's hero, for example, is another man's villain in this country!

Anyway, I've gone off topic: Blood's Campaign.

An interesting read, with Holcroft Blood still an unusual protagonist (hinted as being on the autistic spectrum?), with - even for someone born and raised in Northern Ireland - some fascinating history thrown in, although (I have to say), that this one didn't quite grip me as much as Angus Donald's 'Outlaw' (Robin Hood) series.