Deserter: Murder at Gettysburg by Jane Langton, Phil Mazzone (Designed by)

From the Publisher

“I’d been wanting for a long time to use the Civil War as a background, but couldn’t imagine how to do it. One day while taking a walk it dawned on me that since my long-suffering characters Homer and Mary Kelly teach and work in Harvard’s Memorial Hall, they could become interested in the memorial tablets lining the walls of the corridor, tablets listing the names of Harvard men who fell in the war. It was a way in.”

Jane Langton has set part of this dramatic story in the present and part during the great battle of Gettysburg. In the here-and-now, Homer and Mary Kelly try to trace the mysterious shame attached to the name of Mary's ancestor, Seth Morgan, a young student who served his country during the Civil War. In other chapters the secrets of what happened to Seth all those many years ago are unraveled in Jane Langton’s inimitable style.

The Deserter: Murder at Gettysburg is illustrated with authentic nineteenth century photographs, some of actual soldiers who fought and died in the battle, others chosen from anonymous photographs to represent fictional characters. Among these are Seth Morgan's pregnant wife, Ida, who trudges across the battlefield in search of him; Ida’s younger brother, Eben, who sets out to bring Ida home but joins up instead; and Dr. Alexander Clock, who attends Ida's delivery in the Patent Office hospital in wartime Washington. Most importantly, readers will be introduced to that infamous skedaddler, Private Otis Pike, along with Pike’s lady friend, buxom dancer Lily LeBeau.

No three days in history are more dramatic in American memory than the battle of Gettysburg.Langton's characters take part (or refuse to take part) in the rush to battle on the first day, the fatal abandonment of Union trenches on the second day, the deadly charge to regain them on the morning of the third day, and the mighty artillery duel and final repulse of the Rebel assault that afternoon.

As Homer and Mary combine clues from both the past and present, they finally solve the perplexing puzzle of what really happened to Seth Morgan. In a final chapter some of the famous men and women of the 1860's speak up, and Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural brings the story to an eloquent close.

In The Deserter, Jane Langton has once again outdone herself, which, as her legions of passionate devotees know, is saying quite a lot indeed.

Publishers Weekly

Civil War buffs will especially appreciate Langton's 17th Homer Kelly mystery (after 2002's The Escher Twist), in which the Harvard professor/sleuth and his wife, Mary, plunge into research in an effort to exonerate Seth Morgan, Mary's great-great-grandfather, a Harvard man suspected of desertion at Gettysburg. In 1863, in the battle's aftermath, Seth's pregnant wife, Ida, an independent and hardy New Englander, desperately seeks her missing husband as far as Baltimore and Washington. Meanwhile, Seth's comrade-in-arms Otis Pike, "the witty darling of his class at Harvard," provides some comic relief with his tendency to skedaddle and his scandalous involvement with actress Lily LeBeau. Homer realizes that the key to the mystery of Mary's ancestor's seemingly shameful action lies in ascertaining the particulars of Seth's relationship to Otis. The suspense builds as the author adroitly shifts between past and present. Period photos, an 1860 playbill for the Hasty Pudding show, quotations from Walt Whitman and loads of Harvard lore add historical weight. Fans of this generally lighthearted series, though, should be prepared for some graphic description of the horrors of war. (June 2) Forecast: Booksellers looking to observe the forthcoming 140th anniversary of Gettysburg can put this on display with Newt Gingrich's alternative history, Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War (Forecasts, May 12), as well as new nonfiction titles on the battle, such as Robert Clasby's Gettysburg: You Are There (Forecasts, March 10). Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Homer Kelly's wife, Mary, wants to clear the name of her Civil War ancestor, purported to have been a deserter. As the narrative alternates between past and present, the Kellys find evidence of false identity and murder. Langton's 17th Homer Kelly novel is for all collections. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Every family has black sheep, but what could Mary Kelly's great-great-grandfather Seth Morgan, Harvard class of 1860, have done that was so shameful no one ever spoke of it? Mary and her scholar/sleuth/cop husband Homer (The Escher Twist, 2002, etc.) like nothing better than foraging through archives and attics in search of truth. Now their research lands them smack in the middle of the Battle of Gettysburg with the fighting men of Company E, Second Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. Heroic deaths waited there for three Harvard graduates, two officers and a private not known for his bravery, but the evidence points to their classmate Seth's skedaddling to Baltimore. Or does it? Alternating present-day sleuthing that pits Mary and Homer against Mary's distant cousin, an avaricious Civil War groupie, with searing chapters recounting the very pregnant Ida Morgan's search for her husband-listed on the muster rolls as missing-as she moves from one field hospital to the next, the tale of Seth's desertion leads to the Baltimore stage and a coquettishly plump actress, to Washington theatrical playbills, and then back to the attic and to Harvard, where Seth is finally memorialized properly. Fine storytelling grounded in solid research and highlighted with vintage photographs and the author's trademark line drawings. An unabashed love letter to Harvard and librarians, and an admonition for hawks in our own time.

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