My first reaction upon finishing The Second Mrs Hockaday was stunned silence immediately followed by a powerful sense of loss. Placidia's story so entranced me that it took me several hours to mourn the fact that I had finished it. The silence came about because her story was so powerful it swept me into her world and made me forget my own. It has been a long time since any novel has made me feel this way.

Susan Rivers' second novel is the epitome of exemplary use of the epistolary literary format and stellar writing. Through the use of personal correspondence, diary entries, and legal documents, Ms. Rivers not only tells Placidia's tragic story but recreates the South at the end of the Civil War with vivid clarity. Each document has a distinct voice that adds to the story as much as their words do. Other than the inquest documents, the letters are so natural and honest that it is all too easy to get sucked into reading just one more letter, and one more, and yet one more. The Second Mrs Hockaday is the perfect example of an unputdownable novel.

I really enjoyed this book, and I know it seems as if I say that a lot, but it had a certain je ne sais quoi. In my defence I do have a nose for picking good reads and in general authors seem to have upped the ante just a wee bit.

Placidia, also known as Dia throughout the book, is the main character and the entire story evolves around a traumatic event that happens to her. Rivers has actually based the story on a true event, which took place during the same era. The birth, death and burial of a baby born to a woman of good social standing, during a time when her husband was at war. He was also at war during the conception of said child, hence his automatic response on his return being a trip to the local magistrate to report his wife. She was arrested and put on trial.

Rivers has taken that particular moment in time and turned it into a wonderful and captivating read.

Often when authors use correspondence to move a story along it doesn’t work. In this case it is exactly the right way to have the characters interact, despite not being in the same vicinity of one another.

The only negative for me was when the story and correspondence leapt nearly 30 years ahead. I had to go back and re-read more than once to understand why there was a jump from Dia to a new character. It wasn’t until I looked closer at the dates on the letters or correspondence that I noticed the huge leap in the dates.

I enjoyed the way the author kept the tone and voice of the story entirely as era accurate as possible. Of course that includes slavery and the treatment of men, women and children who fell into those brackets. For example there is a sexual assault at the very beginning, which is merely noted as a small incident due to the dirt on the knees of the white man in question. No outrage, no mention, just an overall acceptance of this tragic status quo. Throughout the story this treatment of slaves as chattel or animals is noted merely as normal and part of society.

In a really subtle way Rivers points out both the parallels and the paradox between the treatment of slaves and white women when it came to being treated as a sub-species in the eyes of white men. This includes domestic abuse and sexual violence. It’s rather ironic that white women, and indeed even Dia, do not recognise the similarities between all of them.

The reality and horror of war is woven into the fabric of the story and the steady but achingly slow advancement of civil rights, all while this personal family drama and heartache plays out. As I said I really enjoyed the read.
*Thank you to the pub;isher and NetGalley for my copy of The Second Mrs Hockaday.*

Placidia only knew her future husband for 48 hours before she married him. They met when he bought a mule from her father and fell in fascination (if not love) dancing at her step-sister’s wedding. But the new Mrs. Hockaday is separated from her new husband when he is summoned back to Stonewall Jackson’s regiment two days after the wedding. They two of them remain apart until the end of the Civil War. The Second Mrs. Hockaday, by Susan Rivers, is told in letters and documents as others try to figure out what happened during the Hockadays’ separation, Placidia’s trial for infanticide, and the aftermath.

The Second Mrs. Hockaday is divided into parts that span 30 years of family history. The first part is a series of letters between Placidia and her relative, Mildred. Placidia is in jail, awaiting trial for supposedly killing the child she conceived a bore while Major Hockaday was at war. Placidia infuriates her cousin by talking around what happened, avoiding all direct questions. She tells Mildred about how she and the Major met, their rapid marriage, and their farewell. Just before the trial is about to begin, the novel jumps ahead from 1865 to 1892. Placidia’s son, Achilles, is told by the Major to destroy Placidia’s papers and the diary she kept on the illustration pages of a copy of David Copperfield.

The Hockadays might have been an ordinary loving couple if it hadn’t been for timing and setting. They live in rural South Carolina, which was overrun with deserters and bandits while most of the men were fighting in the Confederate Army. While the Major fights in huge battles at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, seeing all the horrors of the Civil War, Placidia has to deal with floods, the aforementioned deserters and bandits, and a disintegrating way of life. Rivers doesn’t make the mistake of writing southerners with modern sensibilities about slavery. The Hockadays do own slaves. The Major is a Confederate. But it’s hard not to sympathize with these characters, even without their lightning strike love for each other.

I wasn’t sure what to think of Placidia after the first part. She doesn’t deny having a child and that the child died. It’s clear, however, that she’s protecting someone or several someones. It takes Achilles’ later efforts and the diary to put it all together. By the end, I deeply admired Placidia’s strength and love of family. What begins as a sinister mystery becomes a moving story of a woman and a man trying to make peace with violence and love. Both characters suffer from what we would now call post-traumatic stress syndrome, but in a time when men were expected to be soldiers without complaint and women were expected to be reputable above all else. I very much enjoyed this book. The books that can surprise me are always a joy to read.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration. It will be released 10 January 2017.

Historical fiction told through letters, journals and court documents which I enjoy even though the flipping back and forth between characters and time periods was confusing at times. Sometimes brutal in its telling, the story revolves around a young civil war bride and the mystery surrounding a dead baby. Beautifully written.

17-year-old Placidia has barely met Major Gryffth Hockaday when she agrees to marry him. Leaving her childhood home behind, she travels with her new husband to the farm that is her new home, and meets her infant step-son for the first time. Placidia and Gryffth have two brief days together as husband and wife before he must return to fight in the Civil War. Young Placidia is left to care for her new child in her new home, and is ill-prepared for either task. Despite the weight of so much responsibility on her shoulders, Placidia adapts as best she can, and longs for the day her husband will come home to her.

When Gryffth returns two years later, he is shocked to hear his wife recently gave birth to a baby, and has been accused of killing the child. Despite Gryffth (and others) demanding to know who fathered the child, Placidia refuses to name him, though her reasons for remaining mute are a mystery.

The story is told in a series of letters written by Placidia and others, as well as diary entries. That may be off-putting to some readers, but being told in an unconventional way didn't harm the narrative in the least. It won't work for every story, but I felt it worked beautifully for this one.

WHAT I LIKED:

The secrets. There are layers of secrets in this story, and two big ones caught me by surprise when they were revealed. I'm always delighted when a secret is revealed that I never even came close to guessing, and that was the case with these particular secrets.
The history. We weren't given a blow-by-blow of every single battle/skirmish during Gryffth's two year absence, but that's a good thing, as it wouldn't have fit in this story. Instead, we got just enough to remember that Gryffth was off fighting in the war somewhere

Stayed true to the time period. There's nothing more infuriating for me than reading something that's out of place (or rather, time) in historical novels. Luckily, that wasn't the case here—the clothing, the language, social mores—everything was as it should be.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:

Please, can I have some more? I would have liked a bit more story dealing with Placidia's step-mother and step-sister, and perhaps Achilles, as well. But I suppose that's mostly because the characters were interesting to me, not because their storylines were lacking in some way.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Rivers debut is well worth the read. Replete with engaging characters, intense drama, and stunning plot twists, it's an excellent novel to curl up with on a cold winter's day.