Uncivil Death

Rating:
Summary: A notable start for an engaging new series!
Review: As the story moves, characters, suspects, and clues are introduced. Ms. Cooper gives some interesting insight into the historical characters' personalities without going into extensive detail. The straightforward writing gives the story, as a whole, a smooth delivery. Readers will be entranced with the civil war scenes and particulars, not to mention the added historical gossip blended into the storyline. Expect a well-played, well-hidden mystery, only to be solved at the end.

Rating:
Summary: We can't help but be mesmerized
Review: M.E. Cooper discovered the life of General W.W. Loring from research in a museum in Saint Augustine, Florida, and is writing a series of mysteries based around his life using "UNCIVIL" in each title. General Loring and General Stonewall Jackson reportedly disliked each other intensely, which serves as a backdrop for this fascinating mystery set during the Civil War in Virginia during the winter of 1862. Cooper is presently working on Uncivil Death In Norfolk.

General Loring's troops are camped out for the winter of 1862, engaging in fighting, repairing destroyed railroad beds, and searching out the enemy. The General himself is down with a bout of pneumonia, enlisting the sleuthing skills of his aide, Lieutenant Jack Conley, to act in his stead when a brutal murder takes the life of Private Nancy Johnson. Private Nancy had disguised herself as a man and enlisted to fight the Yankees with her husband. Only her lifeless body revealed the ruse, which both shocked and enraged the company with the idea that one of their own Southern women could be so abused. Then the company's supply of quinine disappears, and the plot thickens.

M.E. Cooper does a superb job of weaving insights into the middle of this camp of outgunned soldiers as they struggle both with the concept of slavery, the fight to maintain their way of life, and the struggles with spies:

"Suddenly I became aware that Othello could undoubtedly hear every word of our conversation. It made me blush to realize how often we talk in front of the servants, as if they were made of wood instead of flesh and bone. Somehow it never occurs to us that the servants might have feelings or emotions concerning the topic of conversation."

Cooper manages to produce a gripping whodunit against the backdrop that made us all fall in love with Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler. Her mastery of character produces enough to engage us in several miniplots as she leads us totally by the nose towards her surprise denouement. We can't help but be mesmerized by General W.W. Loring. Cooper knows how to pick her heroes. We are there in camp, experiencing the mud, the villains, and rooting for the good guys.

Rating:
Summary: We can't help but be mesmerized
Review: M.E. Cooper discovered the life of General W.W. Loring from research in a museum in Saint Augustine, Florida, and is writing a series of mysteries based around his life using "UNCIVIL" in each title. General Loring and General Stonewall Jackson reportedly disliked each other intensely, which serves as a backdrop for this fascinating mystery set during the Civil War in Virginia during the winter of 1862. Cooper is presently working on Uncivil Death In Norfolk.

General Loring's troops are camped out for the winter of 1862, engaging in fighting, repairing destroyed railroad beds, and searching out the enemy. The General himself is down with a bout of pneumonia, enlisting the sleuthing skills of his aide, Lieutenant Jack Conley, to act in his stead when a brutal murder takes the life of Private Nancy Johnson. Private Nancy had disguised herself as a man and enlisted to fight the Yankees with her husband. Only her lifeless body revealed the ruse, which both shocked and enraged the company with the idea that one of their own Southern women could be so abused. Then the company's supply of quinine disappears, and the plot thickens.

M.E. Cooper does a superb job of weaving insights into the middle of this camp of outgunned soldiers as they struggle both with the concept of slavery, the fight to maintain their way of life, and the struggles with spies:

"Suddenly I became aware that Othello could undoubtedly hear every word of our conversation. It made me blush to realize how often we talk in front of the servants, as if they were made of wood instead of flesh and bone. Somehow it never occurs to us that the servants might have feelings or emotions concerning the topic of conversation."

Cooper manages to produce a gripping whodunit against the backdrop that made us all fall in love with Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler. Her mastery of character produces enough to engage us in several miniplots as she leads us totally by the nose towards her surprise denouement. We can't help but be mesmerized by General W.W. Loring. Cooper knows how to pick her heroes. We are there in camp, experiencing the mud, the villains, and rooting for the good guys.