Unholy Fire: A Novel of the Civil War [Hardcover]

Robert J. Mrazek (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 4, 2003

John “Kit” McKittredge is a young Federal officer from Maine who is terribly wounded in one of the first battles of the Civil War. Still unfit for active duty after nine months in hospital, he is recruited by an unorthodox colonel named Valentine Burdette to work in the Provost Marshal General’s office in Washington.

The beleaguered Capital, now swollen to seven times its pre-war population, is filled with saloons, brothels, spies, thieves and murderers. It is also rife with official corruption and political intrigue.

While investigating what appears to be a routine case of military procurement fraud, Kit becomes embroiled in the murder of a beautiful young woman who has had the misfortune to attend the birthday party of Union General Joseph Hooker, the notorious and charming libertine.

The investigation leads Kit through a series of harrowing adventures—both on the battlefield and in the Capital’s darkest dens of depravity—until he and Val Burdette must confront a vast criminal conspiracy that threatens both their own lives as well as the fate of the Republic.

This riveting thriller by the award-winning author of the critically-acclaimed Stonewall’s Gold hauntingly brings to life one of the most dramatic periods of the Civil War.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Among Civil War novels, this second effort by former U.S. Congressman Mrazek (after his prize-winning Stonewall's Gold) is a rare find: a book that successfully combines mystery, historical drama and impressive wartime verisimilitude. Lt. John McKittredge commands a company of Massachusetts infantry in the Union Army. A Harvard student from Maine, just 20 years old, he is eager and na‹ve about the war. Wounded at the battle at Ball's Bluff in October 1861, he spends nine months in a grimy, stinking military hospital where he becomes addicted to laudanum (opium). He survives his wounds and is assigned as an investigator with the Union Army's provost marshal in Washington, D.C. McKittredge buys laudanum on the black market while investigating cases of graft, bribery and theft involving fraudulent government contracts for shoddy military supplies and equipment. He is saved from an opium death by Col. Valentine Burdette, a disheveled and brilliant military policeman who sees value in the young officer. Together they pursue leads in a case of faulty munitions and gun carriages, an investigation that leads to the curious murder of a young woman and to crooked politicians and generals linked in a bizarre conspiracy to change the government and end the war. What McKittredge and Burdette do not realize until too late is that no one really wants them to solve the case at all, and that there are stronger powers who will kill to ensure they fail. Mrazek's portrayal of Civil War battle is stark, graphic, bloody and exciting, and is only exceeded by his memorable description of Washington, D.C., as a Gomorrah on the Potomac.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Mrazek has crafted a suspenseful Civil War-era adventure. After being critically wounded in a Union battle fiasco, Lieutenant McKitredge is sent to a makeshift hospital on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., to die. Believing he has no chance of survival, well-meaning doctors continually dose him with laudanum. Defying the odds, Kit survives, one of the many Civil War heroes to be rewarded with a serious opium addiction. Dispatched to the office of the provost marshal, he is assigned to investigate the cases of thieves, murderers, and deserters. Caught up in a murder case that seems to implicate General Joseph Hooker, he must unravel a perplexing mystery and foil a plot to assassinate the president while trying to cope with his increasingly debilitating addiction. Full of dark twists and turns, this brooding drama underscores the brutal nature of both the physical and the psychological casualties associated with war. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; 1st edition (April 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312306733
• ISBN-13: 978-0312306731
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,149,428 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Escape, January 3, 2004

By 

Thomas N. Gellert (Northport, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unholy Fire: A Novel of the Civil War (Hardcover)

Former Congressman Bob Mrazek has done a superb job with "Unholy Fire" following his wonderful first Civil War novel, "Stonewall's Gold." Here is a terrific page turner filled with the horrific stories of the underbelly of corruption and intrigue during Lincoln's presidency. For once the reader is not bombarded with the righteousness of the Union struggle but instead is given an underground tour of the many unfit "military" minds of the Union army combined with the crisp storytelling style and historical accuracy we have come to appreciate from Mrazek. There is much here to savor for both Civil War buffs and anyone looking for a satisfying read. For those Civil War aficiandos out there ... there are overtones here and there of Abel Jones in the wonderful Owen Parry books to be found in Mrazek's best detective narrative. What surprised me the most here is how Mr. Mrazek was able to change his approach from his first novel. The adventurer in him is still very apparent but in many ways this book is much more of a "grown-up" read. There is something for everyone here! One can only hope that there will be many more books to come from Mr. Mrazek! Thank you Congressman ... we still miss you in Huntington, NY!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars better than grisham, November 13, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Unholy Fire: A Novel of the Civil War (Hardcover)

I picked up this book because a friend who is a real civil war buff told me that the author's previous book, Stonewall's Gold was the best civil war thriller he had ever read. This one was also billed as a thriller, but it begins with one of the most vividly recreated battle scenes I've ever read. I saw combat in Korea and can tell you that the author takes you through what combat is really like. The recovery scenes in the hospital also ring very true. The thriller doesn't really get started until you're sixty pages in, and then the book clicks in like a civil war Grisham story. I just loved the character of Val Burdette, the sloppy but brilliant lawyer doing battle against the same parasites that have always fed off our military establishment right to this day. This book is a fantastic read, and I don't know why it isn't a best seller. There is even a fine, understated love story that plays out very painfully in the background. I recommend it wholeheartedly, and look forward to Marzek's next book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting and Masterful Historical Fiction, December 30, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Unholy Fire: A Novel of the Civil War (Hardcover)

A master storyteller and a masterful work of suspense, mystery, love, and heroism. What an enormous pleasure it was to read this book. With the deft strokes of a Wouk or Vidal at their best, Mrazek captures the mood and spirit of Washington during the Civil War and puts the reader squarely in the middle of a wonderful tale. The characters come alive on the page, both those who actually lived, and those I only wish had lived, including the most beautifully etched Lincoln I've seen realized in fiction. A very special novel.