Reviews
Beautifully written, meticulously researched, and paced like an edge-of-your-seat-novel---I love this big, ambitious, unstoppable book., Engrossing…Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy is conscientiously researched and smoothly written and structured., Thrilling, illuminating, heart-pounding. Liar, Temptress, Solider, Spy reads like a crackling espionage novel...Karen Abbott brings to vivid life four of extraordinary and audacious women, and runs glorious roughshod over all our traditional notions of the role of women in the Civil War., Abbott…[reveals] in such vivid detail the extraordinary lives of women who involved themselves so dangerously in the Civil War. This is that rare work of history that reads like a novel -- and a really good one at that -- and in which the truth is more thrilling than fiction., [Abbott] obviously has a strong interest in women who decline to accept the roles society tries to force them into...her prose is vivid, especially when she writes about battles and the terrible costs they exact., Not for nothing has Abbott been called a 'pioneer of sizzle history.' Here she creates a gripping page-turner that moves at a breathtaking clip through the dramatic events of the Civil War., The subjects of Karen Abbott's gripping story Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy leap up -- and almost off -- the page… an irresistibly good tale of Civil War espionage and a reminder that the heroes of our history are often found in the most unexpected places., With this book, Karen Abbott declares herself the John le Carré of Civil War espionage--with the added benefit that the saga she tells is all true and beautifully researched., With Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, Karen Abbott has taken history and written it with the eloquence of good fiction. Halfway through her book, I decided Ian Fleming could not have invented better spies…nor have written about them with any more suspense., Compelling... Karen Abbott stitches together a patchwork narrative as complex as a piece quilt, combining colorful, unrelated tales of four women who fought in the Civil War as surely as Lee and Grant... she proves the basic purpose of history, which is to illuminate the past for one's time., Eloquent… A riveting psychological inquiry and probing examination of the courage, incomparable patriotism, stamina, and agility of four women who repeatedly risked their lives to serve their citizenry... Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy [feels] like an operatic espionage novel, where deception, betrayal, love, and redemption are interspersed with gripping combat scenes and perilous rescues., Karen Abbott's Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy...is full of so many titillating dramas and details, you could be forgiven for periodically checking the back of the book to make sure it's nonfiction., Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy is a masterwork of suspenseful plots and unforgettable characters rendered in exacting, gorgeous detail-a brilliant new take on the heroines and villainesses of the Civil War., A revelation... Abbott profiles four [women], sometimes weaving, sometimes stacking their stories together into a compelling narrative., Karen Abbott's Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy is the kind of page-turning book you can get so absorbed in that you keep forgetting it's nonfiction., Karen Abbott's powerful narrative is first rate American history about a fascinating, little-known chapter of the Civil War, as well as a compulsive, thrilling saga of espionage. Brilliant storytelling, highly accessible, and impossible to put down., Abbott's Prose Is Vivid, Especially When She Writes about Battles and the Terrible Costs They Exact., Liar, Temptress, Solider, Spy by Karen Abbott is a masterpiece of narrative storytelling, backed by impeccable research and extraordinary material. I was gripped by every page., Compelling... Karen Abbott stitches together a patchwork narrative as complex as a pieced quilt, combining the colorful, unrelated tales of four women who fought in the Civil War as surely as Lee and Grant… [her] high achievement lies in her Augean compilation of published and archival material., Abbott's book is a riveting psychological inquiry and probing examination of the courage, incomparable patriotism, stamina, and agility of four women who repeatedly risked their lives to serve their citizenry...An operatic espionage novel, where deception, betrayal, love, and redemption are interspersed with gripping combat scenes and perilous rescues.
