Enemy Women

Enemy Women BY PAULETTE JILES (WILLIAM MORROW, $24.95)

Battered, burned, and plundered by both Union and Confederate militia, southeastern Missouri was a desperately cruel place during the Civil War. In her first novel, poet and Missouri native Paulette Jiles zealously digs through the harsh, little-known Ozark war history to create a tale of spunk, romance, and discovery.

After Union militia beat and drag away her father, Adair Colley takes to the mountain trails to try to recover him. Denounced as a traitor, she is soon hauled off to prison in St. Louis. In that grim place, as she and her Union interrogator fall in love, the stage is set for both a tender courtship and possible betrayal and disaster. Devoid of quotation marks, the dialogue is authentic to the time and place and immerses the reader in this compelling odyssey. KATE GREER

Copyright Southern Progress Corporation Jul 2002
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