Today is the official publication day of my twenty-third novel, Mrs. Lincoln's Rival, a new Civil War tale I hope you'll love. RT Book Reviews calls it “a wonderful novel,” the Columbus Dispatch praises it as “sparkling,” and regarding Mrs. Lincoln's Rival as well as my previous two historical novels, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says, “In addition to simply being fascinating stories, these novels go a long way in capturing the texture of life for women, rich and poor, black and white, in those perilous years.”
Mrs. Lincoln's Rival is a fictional account of the famous First Lady’s very public social and political contest with Kate Chase Sprague, memorialized as “one of the most remarkable women ever known to Washington society” (Providence Journal).
Kate Chase Sprague was born in 1840 in Cincinnati, Ohio, the second daughter to the second wife of a devout but ambitious lawyer. Her father, Salmon P. Chase, rose to prominence in the antebellum years and was appointed secretary of the treasury in Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet, while aspiring to even greater heights. Beautiful, intelligent, regal, and entrancing, young Kate Chase stepped into the role of establishing her thrice-widowed father in Washington society and as a future presidential candidate. Her efforts were successful enough that The Washington Star declared her “the most brilliant woman of her day. None outshone her.”
None, that is, but Mary Todd Lincoln.
The book tour for Mrs. Lincoln's Rival will begin on Tuesday, January 14 in Madison, Wisconsin, and will take me to several wonderful bookstores and libraries across the country. Please visit the Events page to see if I'm coming to a town near you.