Grant Me Timely Grace

Description

A Union officer was not court-martialed after disobeying a direct order during battle. Why?

Major Russell Johns is being played by puppet-master, Gerard Chantier. Transplanted New Orleans businessman and toast of the town. Chantier hosts the city’s most lavish entertainments attended by members of Lincoln’s cabinet and Washington’s elite.

Little do they know Gerard is coordinating an attack with Confederate general JEB Stuart’s cavalry to take over the city, kidnap Lincoln and bring victory to the South.

When Russell’s probing brings him in contact with Chantier’s daughter, Thérèse, he has to face his most difficult moral choice: manipulating her to get to her father or honoring the one thing that has sustained him through years of battle and loss—his own integrity.

PRAISE OF GRANT ME TIMELY GRACE:

“It is late June, 1863 and the Army of Northern Virginia is north of the Potomac River with elements well into Pennsylvania. Jeb Stuart’s Confederate cavalry is close to the Western approaches of Washington, D.C. but what is their intent? An attack on the city? Needless to say, The Union leadership and their advisers are shaken and desperately searching for ways to counter the threat, or are they?

The soon to be released novel, Grant Me Timely Grace, by Tim Woods, weaves an intricate story of deep cover spies, disgraced military men, diplomatic intrigue and lovely Southern belles into a riveting fictional account of Washington before the Battle of Gettysburg. The novel revolves around Gerard Chantier, an immensely wealthy expatriate widowed Louisianan who has become the confident of the high Union leadership, his beautiful and brilliant daughter Therese, and Gerard’s longtime friend and assistant, James Bayeaux, who he had freed from being a family slave upon inheriting his wealth. Add in a disgraced Union officer searching for redemption, a lethal female Southern sympathizer and a suave British intelligence operative and you have quite a story.

Author Woods has a good command of the Civil War era and moves deftly between actual and fictional events. He speaks of the intricate defense system of Washington, which also had its flaws which play a role in his narrative. The byzantine politics of both the Northern and Southern governments are also well related. A refreshing addition to Civil War fiction is the plot line involving diplomacy and intrigue with the British Empire, a most fascinating what-if.

Grant Me Timely Grace … is highly recommended for those who enjoy historical fiction, especially fiction related to the Gettysburg Campaign.’