Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, Karen Abbott
Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, Karen Abbott
5 Rating(s)
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Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy
Four Women Undercover in the Civil War

Bestseller

Author: Karen Abbott

Narrator: Karen White

Unabridged: 15 hr 14 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 09/02/2014


Synopsis

Karen Abbott, the New York Times bestselling author of Sin in the Second City and “pioneer of sizzle history” (USA Today), tells the spellbinding true story of four women who risked everything to become spies during the Civil War.Karen Abbott illuminates one of the most fascinating yet little known aspects of the Civil War: the stories of four courageous women—a socialite, a farmgirl, an abolitionist, and a widow—who were spies.After shooting a Union soldier in her front hall with a pocket pistol, Belle Boyd became a courier and spy for the Confederate army, using her charms to seduce men on both sides. Emma Edmonds cut off her hair and assumed the identity of a man to enlist as a Union private, witnessing the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. The beautiful widow, Rose O’Neale Greenhow, engaged in affairs with powerful Northern politicians to gather intelligence for the Confederacy, and used her young daughter to send information to Southern generals. Elizabeth Van Lew, a wealthy Richmond abolitionist, hid behind her proper Southern manners as she orchestrated a far-reaching espionage ring, right under the noses of suspicious rebel detectives.Using a wealth of primary source material and interviews with the spies’ descendants, Abbott seamlessly weaves the adventures of these four heroines throughout the tumultuous years of the war. With a cast of real-life characters including Walt Whitman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, General Stonewall Jackson, detective Allan Pinkerton, Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, and Emperor Napoleon III, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy draws you into the war as these daring women lived it.

About Karen Abbott

Karen Abbott is the New York Times bestselling author of Sin in the Second City, American Rose, and, most recently, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy. She has written for the New York Times Book Review, Wall Street Journal, Smithsonian magazine, Salon, and other publications.

About Karen White

Karen White is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of twenty-five novels, including Dreams of Falling and The Night the Lights Went Out. She has two grown children and currently lives near Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and two spoiled Havanese dogs.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Mara on May 01, 2019

Four Civil War femme fatales? Yes, please. This book is EVERYTHING!* It's like A League of Their Own had a lovechild with Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, and Doris Kearns Goodwin's (DKG) Team of Rivals, and seasoned with an extra dash of siren song. (Or does one not seaso......more

Goodreads review by Lawyer on October 29, 2014

Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Karen Abbott's History of Four Women in the American Civil War I am always on the women's side.-The Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut Whoever said history has to be dull? Well, when Newsweek Magazine asked one thousand Americans the same U.S. Citizenship Test questions re......more

Goodreads review by Jay on January 11, 2021

Reluctantly, I'm giving this book 2 stars for the author's/publisher's efforts, but the truth is, I did not finish/could not finish this book. Let me explain. I had great expectations for this, but whoever put it together should be hung. The author's content was excellent; very informative and well-r......more

Goodreads review by Christy on March 27, 2024

'Some [women] - privately or publicly, with shrewd caution or gleeful abandon - chafed at the limitations society set for them and determined to change the course of the war'. I picked up this book in celebration of Women's History Month and certainly chose a doozy. 'Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy' fo......more

Goodreads review by Paige on May 23, 2022

When I say I want to read about interesting women, this is EXACTLY what I mean. Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy tells the story of: •BELLE BOYD : self proclaimed "Cleopatra of the Secession" and a real piece of work. Before the age of 20, Belle had already killed a man, become a spy for the Confederacy......more