Perdition

Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote - https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R8XZNDAMWPA35?ref=pf_ov_at_pdctrvw_srp

Agent Delilah Thorn and Agent Rook are sent to the heart of darkness in deepest Arkansas.

It's been more than 150 years since the McClellan-Davis Accords that ended the American Civil War. The United States has been extremely security conscious. The Confederacy has split into two nations, the eastern seaboard consisting of the Free States of the Confederacy, and it's dirt poor sibling, the Confederacy, consisting of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas.

The Confederacy is retarded and poor and insular, but it has allowed a federal mission to open in Perdition, Arkansas. A federal agent has gone missing and Rook and Thorne are sent in to find out what happened to the agent.

Author Marella Sands has sketched out an intriguing alternative history. I'm guessing that McClellan beat Lincoln in 1864 and negotiated a peace settlement. I have no clue why the United States became security conscious or why it is barely scratching the doors of international power, although fighting World War I to retake Tennessee probably doesn't help. Also, there is a reference to California being part of the Japanese empire and Deseret being an independent nation.

This is all like catnip to anyone who loves alternative history.

The story works and the writing is engaging, I enjoyed the story the whole-way through. I am deducting a star, though, because this really is not a self-contained novel. The story concludes by extracting the pair, but it doesn't solve or unfold, the big mystery the story sets up. Clearly, this is the opening chapters of a larger novel. We are introduced to the main characters and the supporting characters and provided the context and the problem that will be eventually solved.

On the whole, I enjoyed the story. I would recommend it and I look forward to the future installments.