Customer Reviews

The Blue and the Gray Undercover: All New Civil War Spy Adventures

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Editor Gorman has compiled eighteen original short stories for this fairly entertaining anthology of Civil War spy stories, likely to appeal primarily to the Civil War fiction readers looking for a change of pace, or to mystery fans looking for a change of setting. Each of the authors (none of whom I've read before) contributes a story of 15-25 pages, some of which are fictional treatments of historical incidents or persons, the rest of which are straight fiction. Most of the stories are fairly basic short tales, with a reversal near the end that showcases the spy's skill or trickery. Common protagonists are bewitching and cunning women who shockingly turn out to be spies, and blacks and children who are inevitably smarter and craftier than suspected. As befits the depressing reality of the Civil War, many of the stories are rather bleak and depressing, in their setting if not always in their outcome. There are a few, however, that are a little more swashbuckling and James Bondish in their approach, such as Robert Randisi's "The Knights of Liberty", James Cobb's "Monica Van Tefflen" and the one true throwaway entry, Bill Crider's "Belle Boyd, The Rebel Spy," which is a silly treatment for a cliffhanger serial film. What each author has done well is inject obscure period details and history into their stories, with the result, that even if the story fails to entertain, it will inform. All in all, the collection strikes a fairly good balance of suspense, tragedy, horror, romance, politics, and of course, history-however, if the stories have greater impact if you read them one a day instead of all in one sitting. Another reason not to read it in one sitting is that the typeface is set incredibly small. Even for someone with young (30 year old) eyes like myself, reading it for more than 30 minutes at a time was a strain.