The Quicksilver Pool

Finished The Quicksilver Pool by Phyllis A. Whitney. This is her second novel for adults. The library had it filed under mystery, but it could also be categorized as historical fiction.

Set during the American Civil War, a young woman named Lora marries Wade, a wounded soldier who she has nursed back to health. She travels with him to his home on Staten Island to live with his young son and his domineering mother. Wade's fist wife died under mysterious circumstances and her memory is alive and well in Wade's home. In some ways this reminded me of Rebecca, in the sense that a young bride must take her place in household riddled with the memory of her husband's first wife. Unlike the heroine in Rebecca, Lora is strong willed and fights for her place in the family. Meanwhile as the war drags on, the Peace Democrats, or Copperheads, connive a way to stop the war, causing riots against the draft in New York City and endangering the lives of freed slaves living in the North. This book was a fun and exciting read and I learned some history that I was unaware of.