The Second Mrs. Hockaday

October 3, 2016
Based on true events, Rivers’s epistolary historical novel is a stirring Civil War–era version of The Scarlet Letter. Placidia Fincher is 17 when she marries Confederate Major Gryffth Hockaday in April 1863, after knowing him for just a handful of hours. Two days after their wedding, Gryffth is called to fight again, and he doesn’t return from the war to his South Carolina farm for nearly two years. When he does, he discovers that during his absence, his wife had carried another man’s child, who was born and died of mysterious causes right before Gryffth’s return. To protect the innocent parties close to her, Placidia refuses to give up any information about the incident, even after a heartbroken Gryffth orders a court hearing for infanticide. She bears all of the weight of this secret, until her diary falls into the wrong hands. Told through gripping, suspenseful letters, court documents, and diary entries, Rivers’s story spans three decades to show the rippling effects of buried secrets, when the Hockadays and future generations must learn to overcome the damage this secret and the war have done to all the families involved. Agent: Susan Ginsburg, Writers House.

September 1, 2016

Placidia (Dia) Fincher Hockaday shares two days with her new husband, Maj. Gryffth Hockaday, before he leaves to fight in the Civil War. During the second year of his absence, Dia gives birth to a child. The baby's father, and the infant's subsequent fate, are at the center of the scandal that opens this first novel. Largely told through letters and diary entries, the narration, initially slow paced, accelerates as the story evolves and the protagonists' roles in the scandal unfold. Most of the story line is set against the stark realities of wartime survival, except for an awkward middle section that jumps to a future generation of characters trying to unravel the mystery of Dia. Once reoriented to the past, readers will find that, as with all wartime tales, brutality toward women and slaves occurs with depressing frequency. VERDICT Fans of Geraldine Brooks's Year of Wonders and Sarah Blake's The Postmistress will enjoy this solid historical novel, which is also a good choice for book clubs, as Dia's motivations for her actions will yield great discussions.--Tina Panik, Avon Free P.L., CT

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2016
Diary entries and letters form the basis of this novel about one woman's experiences during the Civil War.Placidia Fincher is 17 when she marries Gryffth Hockaday, an enigmatic major in the Confederate army. She spends two days as his wife before his redeployment, when she's left to run his estate and care for his child by an earlier marriage. It's at least two years before they see each other again, and in that time, Placidia bears a child, and the child dies. The circumstances of the child's birth and death are unknown in the community but much remarked upon, mainly because Maj. Hockaday could not have been the father. When he finally returns from war, he accuses his young wife of adultery and murder. This is the first novel by Rivers, an award-winning playwright, and it's a remarkable one. She takes a collage approach to her storytelling, advancing the narrative through letters between Placidia and a cousin, diary entries, and more letters, written decades later, which finally uncover the truth of Placidia's circumstances. Rivers is adept at doling out information in teaspoon-sized increments, which makes the book hard to put down. And while the Civil War-era language can seem stiff in the early chapters, Rivers seems to smooth out her syntax as the book goes along. There are moments of loveliness amid the struggles and hardships of war, and Rivers is able to depict scenes of horror without exploiting her characters or manipulating her readers. If this book is any indicator, Rivers is a promising talent and an adroit storyteller. Hopefully, this won't be her only foray into fiction. A compulsively readable work that takes on the legacy of slavery in the United States, the struggles specific to women, and the possibilities for empathy and forgiveness.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from July 1, 2016
How did southern women on isolated farms survive the Civil War? In her debut novel, Rivers brings the stark realities of history to life through the story of a privileged teenager who weds in haste. Only two days after marrying Placidia, Confederate Major Hockaday is called to war, leaving his young wife alone to run the farm in Holland County, South Carolina; care for his two-year-old son, Charlie; and manage the slavesnone of which she's equipped to do. Early in the narrative, told from multiple perspectives, we learn that Placidia becomes pregnant long after the major's departure, that the baby dies, and that she goes to jail for killing the child. The mystery of what happens spins out in a white-knuckle tale of survival, told through letters, court records, and, toward the book's end, Placidia's diary, found 30 years later. With language evocative of the South ( craggy as a shagbark stump ) and taut, almost unbearable suspense, dramatized by characters readers will swear they know, this galvanizing historical portrait of courage, determination, and abiding love mesmerizes and shocks. Similar in tone and descriptive flow to Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain (1997) and with the compelling narratives found in Robert Hicks' The Widow of the South (2005).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)