Asunder
A Novel of the Civil War
by
Curt Locklear
Genre/s
Fiction, Action and Adventure, Military / War, Historical, Romance, Western
Publish Date
September 14, 2016
Short Description
"I'M TRAPPED!" Sara Reeder, a headstrong, beguiling Southern sympathizer is caught betwen charging armies!
"AWAKEN SPIRITS!... Tell me where my husband, Joseph, fell in battle." Cyntha Favor, an ardent abolitionist and believer in Spiritualism, seeks to free her dead husband's tormented soul.
EXCEPT Joseph, a Union soldier, is not dead! Knocked unconscious in battle, he has lost all memory. Nursed to health by Sara and her father, Lucas, a disabled vetern, Joseph feels drwan to Sara, yet compelled to find his past.
WAR SURROUNDS the Reeder home. Transformed into a field hosptial, their only suport is Dred Workman, a Union traitor.
FORMER SLAVE Josiah Reynolds, is protector and confidant of Cyntha. Deep in slave territory, he knows the danger he faces.
THE FOX SISTERS - President Lincoln's wife invited spriituralists to invoke seances in the White House. These most famous of all Spiritualists become Cyntha's hope.
With marauders, river pirates, intense battles and captivating romance from Texas to Missouri to New York to Minnesota, the war rages. Can love triumph? Who will survive?
$19.95
or FREE with Kindle Unlimited
Book's Awards
Description
The story opens in Feburary 1862 in southwest Missouri. A terrible battle happened there in August 1861. Cyntha Favor, and abolitionist, has been told by an erring Union colonel that her husband, Joseph, was killed in the battle. She is accompanied by her dear friend and freeman, Josiah Reynolds. She believes fervently that she can invoke the "spirit world" to tell her where her husband is buried. She finds nothing. However, a member of a Marauder gang tails the two who ride in a carriage from the battle site.
The story goes back in time to the battle. Joseph is heavily involved in the intense battle and, because of all the smoke of battle, is knocked unconscious by one of his fellow soldiers.
Sara Reeder believes strongly in the dignity of Southern heritage and in defending their homeland from Yankee invaders. In trying to warn the Confederates of the approaching Union army, she is caught in the carnage of the battle. Her father, a disabled mostly deaf veteran, fought bravely in the Mexican War.
After the batlle, she and her father find Joseph on the battlefield and nurse him back to health with the aid of a Union traitor, turned Rebel, named Dred Workman.
The war wages on, but the home is now a field hospital. Workman, Sara, Lucas, and their aged slave, Abram, tend to all the wounded. Her father and Abram are best friends. Lucas wants to free Abram, since he no longer believes in slavery.
Sara begins to have feelings for Joseph, and he for her. He has no memory of his former life. Workman convinces him and everyone else that Joseph is actually a Confederate soldier. (Record keeping in those days were substantially incomplete.)
Cyntha and Reynolds are held captive by the Union army, but plan an escape. She meets with a soothsayer who misleads her about her husband, so she wants to meet the Fox Sisters, who are making a lot of money convincing whole crowds they can speak with the dead.
The story continues with the Marauders becoming even more of a threat. They burn and pillage. Lucas tries to keep the family safe, but the war encroaches. Whom will Joseph choose as his love? Will his memory ever return? Can Sara come to grip with so much sadness and loss? Asunder is the first book of the trilogy. Splintered is the second, Reconciled is the third.
