For Love Or Honor Bound
By Derek Hart

     Countess Isabelle Sophia Bario appears at first glance to be a beautiful but conventional woman but looks are deceptive, for she has recently been recruited to be a spy in the War Between the States. Married to a much older man she does not love, she yearns for excitement and romance, and gets both and more in spades. Waiting out there is Robert Norton, a confederate cavalry officer and his brother Ian who is in favor of the Unionist cause and the commander of the USS Superior. She will fall in love with one of these two brothers, as she flees across America with her family and plays a very dangerous game indeed.

     Derek Hart's previous books Crooked Cross Factor and Tales of the Yellow Silk have shown him to be adept at novels of military adventure and espionage. Now he turns his attention to the historical novel, and has concocted a heady mixture of romance, action and derring-do balanced nicely out with plenty of genuine Civil War history. There is grittiness in here, but this is not a tale of the gory blood-and-guts reality of warfare a la James Carlos Blake; with its female lead it can be enjoyed by fans of traditional Romantic Times type romances as well as those interested in military history and a different genre. In short, in spans the genres neatly and ought to appeal in equal part to both sexes which are very positive things to say about any book in my opinion. The epic scope of war is there, but it is the lives of its three protagonists that are to the forefront, giving them plenty of time to develop. To its detriment, it is somewhat overlong and could certainly stand some editing and in parts a little repetitive which slows down the action which is so much a part of the story, but an impressive feat all the same in its scope and cross-genre appeal…surely it is too exciting to be a mere midlister (?)!