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The Jackal’s Mistress
The first reviews are in, raves from the Boston Globe, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Booklist, Library Journal, and the Historical Fiction Society. Scroll down to read them.
A Most Anticipated Book from Barnes and Noble, Bookbub, and others.
A Washington Post “Book to Watch for in 2025.”
An Indie Next Selection, thanks to booksellers across America.
An Amazon Editors’ Pick for March.
In this Civil War love story, inspired by a real-life friendship across enemy lines, the wife of a missing Confederate soldier discovers a wounded Yankee officer and must decide what she’s willing to risk for the life of a stranger, from the New York Times bestselling author of such acclaimed historical fiction as Hour of the Witch and The Sandcastle Girls.
Virginia, 1864—Libby Steadman’s husband has been away for so long that she can barely conjure his voice in her dreams. While she longs for him in the night, fearing him dead in a Union prison camp, her days are spent running a gristmill with her teenage niece, a hired hand, and his wife, all the grain they can produce requisitioned by the Confederate Army. It’s an uneasy life in the Shenandoah Valley, the territory frequently changing hands, control swinging back and forth like a pendulum between North and South, and Libby awakens every morning expecting to see her land a battlefield. And then she finds a gravely injured Union officer left for dead in a neighbor’s house, the bones of his hand and leg shattered. Captain Jonathan Weybridge of the Vermont Brigade is her enemy—but he’s also a human being, and Libby must make a terrible decision: Does she leave him to die alone? Or does she risk treason and try to nurse him back to health? And if she succeeds, does she try to secretly bring him across Union lines, where she might negotiate a trade for news of her own husband?
A vivid and sweeping story of two people navigating the boundaries of love and humanity in a landscape of brutal violence, The Jackal’s Mistress is a heart-stopping new novel, based on a largely unknown piece of American history, from one of our greatest storytellers.
A CIVIL WAR “ROMEO AND jULIET,” INSPIRED BY A TRUE STORY!
PRAISE
“Elegant, poignant, and richly atmospheric. . .Bohjalian once again demonstrates his profound respect for women, endowing his female protagonists with depth and nuance.”
“It's hard not to get pulled in from the first sentence...The Jackal's Mistress gallops along, sweeping us up in its heart-pounding final pages.”
“A masterful yarn. . .A compelling story about two people who long for their spouses in a time of war."
"Inspired by true events… a moving tale about the difficult choices people must make in dangerous circumstances."
A "page-turner from bestselling Bohjalian. . .The vividly drawn characters and historical details make for a compelling read."
"Propulsive and tense. . . A flawless novel, emotional and poignant while showing humanity in all its good and evil during war."
“Bohjalian skillfully ratchets up the tension. . .Readers will be glued to the page."
"All the propulsive plot and sensitive character development one has come to expect from Bohjalian."