Book Review: Sisters of Cain

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Sisters of Cain     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Miriam Grace Monfredo
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Historical   Amateur Sleuth   Woman Main Character
Series: Seneca Falls # 7
Berkley, Sep 2000, $21.95, 384 pp.

In the second year of the Civil War, people from all types of lifestyles throughout the divided country contribute to the war effort. In Seneca Falls, New York, Glynis Tyrone tries her best to contain a local typhoid epidemic. Her two nieces, Kathryn and Bronwyn play a more active role to help their beleaguered nation. Washington DC hosts many southern spies while the government includes numerous southern sympathizers.

Kathryn becomes a nurse working in the field with the Northern army while Bronwyn serves as an intelligence agent behind enemy lines working for the Treasury Department. In Virginia, Bronwyn breaks into the home of a renowned physician who is a rabid secessionist. She finds incriminating evidence exposing high-level federal officials working for the confederacy, but these conspirators now know Bronwyn needs to be eliminated before she can do any more damage.

Anyone who wants to attain a real feel for the early years of the Civil War needs to read SISTERS OF CAIN. The audience will taste petty politics, military maneuvering and posturing not always on the battlefield and surreal Hoover-like expectations of pending victory just around the corner. Miriam Grace Monfredo creates an exciting historical mystery that includes sensational characters with mainstream appeal. Waiting for a Ms. Monfredo novel requires discipline in the art of patience.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner