The information was interesting but the style was hard to read. I gave up about 2/3 of the way through; I simply didn't care anymore. ( )

(2014) NF. Abbott tells the story of 4 women who were either spies or undercover during the Civil War. The most fascinating is the story of Emma Edmonds who enlisted with the Union disguised as a man and served valiantly during the war all the while hiding her sex. Very good.KIRKUS:Four Civil War subversives¥who happened to be womenÂ¥garner a lively treatment.Having previously written on Gypsy Rose Lee (American Rose) and the Everleigh brothel in turn-of-the-century Chicago (Sin in the Second City), Abbott finds some sympathetic, fiery characters in these four women who managed to aid their causes, either North or South, in their own particular ways. Belle Boyd, a 17-year-old farmer's daughter from Martinsburg, Virginia, which had voted three to one against secession, declared her loyalty to the Southern cause by shooting a Yankee soldier who dared to touch her mother, and thereby took advantage of the confusion and movement of troops to slip through the lines and pass secrets; she was in and out of jail during the course of the war. Emma Edmonds, having left the family farm in 1859 to reinvent herself as a man selling Bibles door to door, offered herself to the Union cause two years later, serving mostly in a medical capacity. According to Abbott, Edmonds was one of 400 women, Northern and Southern, who posed as men. Rose Greenhow, a comely widow and grieving mother of some means in Washington, D.C., fashioned herself as a spy for the Southern cause, learning code, passing messages wound in her servants' hair and inviting all kinds of late-night gentlemen callers; Greenhow would eventually go abroad to drum up sympathy for the Confederacy in England and France, turning her charms on Napoleon III and others. A wealthy Richmond spinster, Elizabeth Van Lew had deep Yankee roots in her family and was unique in that she cultivated intricate subterfuge right under her Southern neighbors' nosesÂ¥e.g., passing Confederate troops movements to Gen. Benjamin Butler. Abbott proceeds chronologically, navigating the historical record through quotes and personal detail.Remarkable, brave lives rendered in a fluidly readable, even romantic history lesson.Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2014ISBN: 978-0-06-209289-2Page Count: 544Publisher: Harper/HarperCollinsReview Posted Online: June 1, 2014Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014

Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy is a GREAT book and an excellent book group selection. Don't make the mistake of thinking that because it focuses on the remarkable lives of four Civil War women, that it's a "women's book." The man who first recommended it to me is quite possibly the book's biggest fan. Our book group had the opportunity to Skype with Abbott, and were immensely impressed with her warmth, openness, genuine enthusiasm for readers, and passion for historical research and writing. Now I’m reading one of her earlier books, American Rose (life and times of Gypsy Rose Lee), and can't wait to start her book titled Sin in the City. This is an author I'll be following. ( )

True story of 4 women who played unusual roles in the Civil War. The author waas obviously painstaking in her research. ( )

Karen Abbott takes a look at four women of the American Civil War, two Northern and two Southern: Elizabeth Van Lew, Emma Edmonds (aka Frank Thompson), Rose Greenhow, and Belle Boyd. She sheds new light on the roles of women in the Civil War and highlights little-known activities of her subjects. This book shows how some women exploited social mores and beliefs to advance their respective wartime causes.

Elizabeth Van Lew was a wealthy abolitionist living in Richmond who supported Union prisoners from her home. Emma Edmonds disguised herself as a man in order to become a Union soldier. Rose Greenhow, a socialite living in Washington DC, assembled a courier network of southern sympathizers. Belle Boyd used flirtation as a technique for obtaining information to pass to the Confederacy.

I listened to the audiobook, read by Karen White in a clipped style. On the plus side, the narrative maintains the reader’s interest throughout. It is filled with period details, intrigue, setups, and daring schemes. It pulls no punches in describing the carnage of this war and gives the reader a sense of how horrible it truly was. On the minus side, the author states that she will point out where the journals do not match facts but does not follow through. As a result, it feels like the book repackages the women’s own memoirs and ends up conveying their biased viewpoints.
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