4-1/2 stars, rounded up. Chris Bohjalian has long been one of my favorite authors, and his latest novel does not disappoint. Set in Virginia during the Civil War, it centers on Libby Steadman, a young woman managing her family's mill while her husband is off fighting for the Confederacy. An unusual southerner, he had released all of his family's slaves when he inherited the small plantation upon his father's death; only one elderly couple remained, no longer enslaved, but choosing to remain and work for the family for a wage.

The other main character is Captain Jonathan Weybridge, an officer in the Union Army who is badly injured and believed to be near death when his comrades leave him behind in a vacant house near the Steadman property. Learning of his presence, Libby is determined to try to save him despite the danger this poses for herself and those around her, knowing that if her husband were injured, she would hope someone would do the same for him.

Based on true events and similar characters, The Jackal's Mistress is a compelling story, beautifully written, and filled with well-drawn characters in dangerous circumstances, at a time when good and evil were defined quite differently by the two sides in America's deadliest war.

Thank you to #Doubleday publishing and #NetGalley for providing a free advance copy in exchange for an objective review.

This book was gripping and hard to put down. It didn't feel like everything else you see out there, it felt very fresh. I really enjoyed this book!

It’s 1864. With her husband languishing and probably dead in a Yankee prison, Libby Steadman is left to run the family gristmill that serves both Yankee and Confederate soldiers in this battleground area of Western Virginia. She has the help of her young niece Jubilee and two freed slaves, Joseph and Sarah. Daily life is both tedious and dangerous until it becomes more so when Sarah hears a voice calling for help.

Days earlier, Captain Jonathan Weymouth of the Vermont Brigade had been writing a letter home to his wife. A skirmish erupts and his leg and part of his hand are blown off. His men carry him to a nearby house, give him rudimentary treatment and abandon him there when they retreat. When Sarah tells Libby that she heard a voice crying for help, Libby immediately plans a way to move Weymouth to her bedroom, a place where no gentleman Confederate officer would search. She is wrong, of course, but clever and manages to keep the Captain alive.

The Jackal’s Mistress, loosely based on a true story, is a love story, a story full of the minutiae of everyday life during the Civil War in a remote part of the Shenandoah Valley. This is not a glory filled novel waiting to be made into a movie or streaming series. There is no glory here, only the sad deaths of soldiers far from home. It’s a story of survival, of cowardice and bravery, and of the joy of finding love where you least expect it. Bohjalian, a master storyteller, teases out an ending that you don’t want and won’t see coming. 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Doubleday Books and Chris Bohjalian for this ARC.

Bohjalian is a fantastic storyteller. Despite not being typically interested in the subject, I wanted to read more about the characters crafted by Bohjalian. Overall, not my favorite, but still an excellent book.