Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War - Karen Abbott Audiobook

Written by Karen Abbott
Read by Karen White
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: HarperCollins 2014
Edition: Unabridged
Duration: 15:14:30

Summary
In Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, bestselling author Karen Abbott tells the spellbinding true story of four women who risked everything—their homes, their families, and their very lives—during the Civil War.

Belle Boyd, Emma Edmonds, Rose O’Neal Greenhow, Elizabeth Van Lew

Seventeen-year-old Belle Boyd, an avowed rebel with a dangerous temper, shot a Union soldier in her home and became a courier and spy for the Confederate army, using her considerable charms to seduce men on both sides. Emma Edmonds disguised herself as a man to enlist as a Union private named Frank Thompson, witnessing the bloodiest battles of the war and infiltrating enemy lines, all the while fearing that her past would catch up with her. The beautiful widow Rose O’Neal Greenhow engaged in affairs with powerful Northern politicians, used her young daughter to send information to Southern generals, and sailed abroad to lobby for the Confederacy, a journey that cost her more than she ever imagined. Elizabeth Van Lew, a wealthy Richmond abolitionist, hid behind her proper Southern manners as she orchestrated a far-reaching espionage ring—even placing a former slave inside the Confederate White House—right under the noses of increasingly suspicious rebel detectives.

Abbott’s pulse-quickening narrative weaves the adventures of these four forgotten daredevils into the tumultuous landscape of a broken America, evoking a secret world that will surprise even the most avid enthusiasts of Civil War–era history. With a cast of real-life characters, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, General Stonewall Jackson, Detective Allan Pinkerton, Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, and Emperor Napoléon III, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy shines a dramatic new light on these daring—and, until now, unsung—heroines.

Being involved in the Civil War proved to be a mental burden for two of the four women profiled in this history. One spent time in an asylum, and another was known postwar as “Crazy Bette. Although this work concentrates on four specific women and their heroic parts in the war, the account offers glimpses into the lives of women in general on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line

About the narrator
Karen White’s gentle voice creates a contrast between the traditional roles expected of women and the actualities of these women’s lives. The stories, such as a spy being taunted while in a prison cell and the daily anxiety of a Northern informer in Richmond, read almost like fiction or drama. White’s voice becomes coquettish or tough, depending on the story