Our book club was honored this month to host author, Mally Becker, and her new book – The Turncoat’s Widow: A Revolutionary War Mystery.

We so enjoyed reading her book that we were thrilled to be able to ask her questions about where she came up with the idea for a strong female lead in America’s revolutionary war. The seed of the story came about when Mally was looking through Morristown National Historical Park archival letters and she found a copy of an indictment for the crime of traveling from NJ to NY without permission or passport. 

So began her writing journey. And we were so glad she did.

The story begins with the death of the Philip Parcell. He had been held prisoner and was tortured by the British who were looking for a list of informants.  Before his death, he told a fellow prisoner (Daniel) to contact his wife, Rebecca and have her sell the list to General Washington.

Daniel escapes and goes in search of Rebecca. All is not well for her at home. She struggles to maintain their farm and must deal with hostile townspeople who think she’s a turncoat and threaten to take her farm away. She has wanted nothing to do with this war but finds herself square in the middle of it by the time Daniel finds Rebecca. Washington tasks both with finding the list. In turn, he will safeguard her farm and grant it to her if she prevails.

There’s a lot going on in this novel but it’s an exciting read with believable and interesting characters throughout. Plus, we all learned a bunch of things about women in that time period and about the war itself. Well researched. Your book club will love it.

Rating: 8.5