The Deserter: Murder at Gettysburg - Hardcover

Langton, Mrs. Jane; Langton, Jane

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312301863 ISBN 13: 9780312301866

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2003

Synopsis

“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.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

A Short List of the Many Writers and Reviewers who are Founding Members in Good Standing of the Honorable Jane Langton Appreciation Society

"Ebullience and good humor and a sort of picnic charm of abandon and play...a good mystery."--Eudora Welty on The Memorial Hall Murder

"Langton brings back the Golden Age Murder with style, wit, and charm."--Tony Hillerman on Murder at the Gardner

"One could scarcely ask for a better mystery. Jane Langton's books...are literate, beautifully crafted, and graced with her own attractive drawings...This is superb Americana."--Robin Winks, The Boston Globe, on God in Concord

"Inventive and exhilirating."--Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Books Review, on Divine Inspiration

"Today's best American writer."--St. Louis Dispatch on Dark Nantucket Moon

"Delightful and always beguiling."--The Boston Globe on Dead as a Dodo

"Simply divine...Langton has emerged as one of the best of U.S. mystery writers, the American equivalent of Britain's Ruth Rendell and P.D. James."--San Diego Union Tribune on Divine Inspiration

"Jane Langton's writing calls forth a babble of delight."--The Drood Review of Mystery on The Face on the Wall

"Oxford University has garnered many a tribute, but surely none more charming and more unpretentiously entertaining than this from Jane Langton's shrewd eye and delightful sketcher's pen."--H. R. F. Keating on Dead as a Dodo

"The thing that animates Jane Langton's detective fiction is a kind of New England integrity, a feeling for the honorable and unadultered...and a prose style that dances off the page."--The London Times Literary Supplement on The Face on the Wall

"Like Jane Autsten and Barbara Pym, Langton is blessed with the comic spirit--a rare gift of genius to be cherished."--The St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Good and Dead

"A clever mystery set against a fascinating historical backdrop, the novel is a surefire winnter and one of the high-water marks in a consistently oustanding series."--Publishers Weekly on Murder at Monticello

"Taut, suspenseful, and absorbing all the way...one of Langton's cleverest mysteries yet."--Kirkus Reviews on The Face on the Wall

"Well-nigh perfect."--New York Daily News on Divine Inspiration

From the Inside Flap:

"Langton's sparkling prose and inimitable wit offer a delectable feast for the discriminating reader."--Publishers Weekly (starred review) on The Thief of Venice

About this edition

• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0312301863
• ISBN 13: 9780312301866
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256