Circle of spies
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1865--Marietta Hughes never wanted to be a spy, but the family legacy of espionage is thrust upon her as the War Between the States rolls on. Unknown to her, the Knights of the Golden Circle--a Confederate secret society bent on destroying the Union her brother died for--has been meeting in a hidden lair beneath her home. Faced with the secrets of her late husband and his brother, whom she thought she could trust with anything, Marietta's world tilts out of control. Can she right it by protecting a Union agent infiltrating the KGC? Slade Osborne, an undercover Pinkerton agent, is determined to do whatever is necessary to end the conflict between the North and the South. When he infiltrates this secret cell, it isn't just their inner workings that baffle him--it's the beautiful woman who seems to be a puppet for the new leader and yet ... so much more. Do they dare trust each other in this circle of intrigue? Will their shared faith sustain them? And can Mari and Slade stymie the enemy long enough to see their beloved country reunited?
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This book is not afraid to get down into the real hearts and souls of the characters. Every one of them are flawed, all in need of redemption. Mari and Slade are an interesting couple; Slade is sent to infiltrate the Knights who are plotting to tilt the war in favor of slaveholders by nefarious means just as Mari is shown by her friends that her late husband's family is in the plot up to their necks. She is a staunch Unionist and can hardly believe that her brother-in-law and new fiancé is one of the ringleaders of the movement which goes against everything she's ever believed.
With her world turned upside down, she does what she can to halt the Southern plot and help Slade catch the ringleaders.
What I liked best: Mari's awakening, and how her brother's legacy helped her look in the right place when she was ready to seek redemption.
What I liked least: The book is too short to deal fully with the issues of the war. It is character and plot driven, and even rich with historical period detail, but a book of this type and length must take a more simplistic view of the issues of an incredibly complex war. So North=good and South=bad for the most part. It is only toward the end that the book touches on the incredible difficulties that slaves and former slaves did and would face in Northern society as well, and then it was only briefly. There were heroes and villains on both sides, but it seems we mostly hear of the heroes of the North in modern historical fiction.
