book review: "Girl in Disguise"...

... written by Greer Macallister, who is reportedly a USA Today Best Selling Author, according to the wording on the boxed set of Cds. Published in 2017 by Sourcebooks, Inc. Really good reading, and well researched to boot.

Kate Warne is the lead character. A single woman living in Chicago, in the middle 1800's, a few years before the heated arguments preceding the declaration of war in the US. She was married, had a child that was still born, and husband no longer on the scene. Alone, no skills, nothing that might help her to become self-supporting. She applies for a job with Allan Pinkerton as he is in the early stages of recruiting to form the Pinkerton Detective Agency. As  you might suspect, there has never been a female operative, both Pinkerton and his agents are suspicious, doubtful, reluctant to even think of a woman as qualified to suss out criminals, suspicious characters, alleged evil-doers.

She is desperate for employment, eventually persuaded the disinclined Pinkerton to take her on. He begins to train her, and help her to learn the ropes of subterfuge, investigations, cloaking her identity with disguises, using guile to gain needed information.The author has obviously done her homework, as a tremendous amount of research is evident with each turn of the page. Kate is assigned a number of investigations, and sent out to inquire about details related to several cases: bank robbery, mysterious homicides. She has great powers of observation, and readily uncovers details of the various crimes no one else can claim. Historical facts woven into the tale include two separate meetings with Abraham Lincoln, once in a small Illinois town, and again as the president elect.

She is sent as a spy to the south, from their home base in Chicago, before the beginning of conflict in the Civil War. She develops a back story, invents her history and charms many in society as she travels to New Orleans, Birmingham, Atlanta, Charlotte, other points where the rebels are fomenting insurrection, collecting information. Her cover story is she is a married woman, in the company of her fellow-spy/fictitious husband Tim Bellamy. They spend so much time together, they eventually do become a couple. But when Pinkerton discovers their engagement and plans to wed after the war, she is separated from Tim, and he is sent  away. His identify is discovered, he is hanged as a Union  spy. You keep hoping, expecting with each turn of the page, that Tim will return, it was only a case of mistaken identity...

I really enjoyed this story, even though it took me weeks to finish the nine discs. Plenty of action, well written with details of towns and military to make it seem most realistic, the people came to life and I found myself pulled into their stories as the book was read while I was driving. Well written, believable characters, so detailed it is difficult to realize it is fiction and not an accurate telling of footnotes from that time in history.