Jocelyn Green

Dear Readers, 

After having met Jocelyn Green this past fall, I was looking forward to reading her last installment of her Heroines Behind the lines; Civil War.  Spy of Richmond once again proved that to be a strong woman doesn’t mean you have to have a man doing the work for you.  You  can love and do great things. 

Sophie is a Union loyalist living behind the enemy lines.  Her father owns slaves and her suitor is an officer in the confederate army.   So what is this a girl to do?  Become a spy for the Union army, she has the perfect cover, a family deeply embedded in the southern culture, who would suspect her?

With suspicion rising, Sophie knows that she isnow risking everything.  Not only is her espionage putting her in danger, it is also risking her father’s life and their lively hood.   Can she continue helping the North at the risk of her life?

I think that is what is the best thing about Jocelyn’s books.  Her characters have to wrestle with what is the right thing to do.  Sometimes the answers are completely gray not black and white.  Is it right to continue something if it is going to endanger someone else?  Even if what you are doing is the right thing to do?  Spying for the North was something Sophie considered as the morally correct thing to do, but she really struggles with right and wrong.  

A book that doesn’t leave you comfortable with what you have always thought was correct makes for an interesting read.  I know ending slavery was/is the correct thing to do, but at the risk of someone who is innocent of the wrong doing… Does the end justify the means?  Hmm that does make it a more difficult question. 

One other thought, I carried a series a few years ago that had as it main character as spy for the U.S.A in Russia.  One of the things they really wrestled with was as a Christian could they be a spy?  Spying is actually lying for a living, and that is considered a sin.  It sure does make for some lively conversations when talking about the book.

Happy Reading,