April Is the Month for Civil War Mysteries

With states rights and minority rights currently sparking passionate political clashes, April is a great month to gain historical perspective on the issues. After all, the first shot in the American Civil War, the ultimate battle over states rights and equality, was fired 155 years ago on April 12, 1861, when Confederate shore batteries opened fire on Fort Sumter, South Carolina. Four years later, with 650,000-850,000 killed per recent estimates, the nation's bloodiest war essentially ended on April 9, 1865, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant in Appomattox, Va. Today, when victory is measured in bombast and votes rather than blood, and when politicos fret over party rifts, Abraham Lincoln amazes with the compassionate, inclusive leadership of his Second Inaugural, "with malice toward none, with charity for all." If history books put you to sleep, murder mysteries may be an easier way to revisit that watershed time this April. For example, Faded Coat of Blue by Owen Parry won the Herodotus Award for historical fiction and started Parry's Abel Jones mystery series about a Union officer courted by General George McClellan as a spy. On the distaff side, Miriam Grace Monfredo penned the Cain Trilogy about Bronwen Llyr, a spy for the Treasury Department, and her sister, Katherine, a nurse for the Union Army. She also won the Herodotus Award with Brothers of Cain, the second in the trilogy. For more Civil War mystery suggestions: http://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/2012/06/civil-war-mysteries-in-time-for-the-sesquicentennial-anniversary-tony-hays-historical-miriam-grace-monfredo-michael-killian-owen-parry-ann-mcmillan