Review - Beloved Enemy

BELOVED ENEMY
Written by: AL LACY
Published by:  MULTNOMAH PUBLISHERS, Inc.
ISBN: 978-1-590-52903-4
Pages: 356
Pub Date: 1994

    Jenny Jordan, the daughter of Colonel Jeffrey Jordan, takes a job as a sectary for the Senate Military Committee that was offered by the newly elected Abraham Lincoln, just as the Civil War begins. Soon she meets Corporal Francis “Buck” Brownell, who is part of the Zouave from New York. The Union soldier begins courting Jenny, which is somewhat of a problem because she is original from the southern state of Virginia.

    Before long, she finds out that her father is a spy for the Confederate, and he asks his daughter to help him take a message to the Confederate. Jenny loves her country and Buck, but she is devoted to her father and her home state of Virginia. She must become a Confederate spy, but she hopes she can still have a future with Buck.

    I received “Beloved Enemy” from the publisher in exchange for this review. At the time the book was published this was the 5oth western novel published by Al Lacy! His experience and love for the genre is shown in the details he used depicting the start of the Civil War. Even thought Jenny and Buck are the main characters, Abraham Lincoln and his family have great deal to do in this third novel in the Battles of Destiny series. I especially liked the opening chapter, which showed Colonel Elmer Ellsworth and his Pinkerton men escorting the President-elect Lincoln and his family from Springfield, Illinois to Washington D.C. by train. I didn’t realize how dangerous it was  for Lincoln when he was elected.

    The author must have done a great deal of research to get all the historical details correct for the battle scenes, in which “Beloved Enemy” chronicles the first battle of Bull Run. The book is combination of “North & South” and “The Killer Angels”, two other great books that I recommend. Overall, “Beloved Enemy” is incredible read for Civil War and western buffs.