The Spy on the Tennessee Walker

At the start of Peterson’s intriguing third novel featuring San Francisco magazine writer and editor Maggie Fiori (after 2013’s The Devil’s Interval), a relative in Oxford, Miss., sends Maggie a 19th-century daguerreotype showing a woman on horseback who bears a striking resemblance to Maggie herself. Maggie learns that this woman is her great-great-great-grandmother, Victoria Alma Cardworthy, who served as a nurse during the Civil War. Linking the generations is Maggie’s Grandmama Alma, who served as a nurse during WWII. Was Victoria loyal to the Confederate cause, Maggie wonders, or did she transfer her loyalty to the Union—or did she serve both sides as a double or even triple agent? Maggie seeks answers in Oxford, where she delves through the family archives and finds a volume by poet Walt Whitman inscribed to Victoria. Readers will finish this engaging book wishing that it had gone on for many more pages. [em]Agent: Amy Rennert, Amy Rennert Agency. (Nov.) [/em]