Annie lost both her husband and son at the recent Battle of Seven Pines. While her husband’s body was returned to her for burial, her son’s grave is unknown. Upon hearing her story, Narcissa believes that Annie’s son James may still be alive and takes it upon herself to try and track James down.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Narcissa, the Confederacy is in danger of being betrayed. A crucial letter has been stolen from the home of Jefferson Davis and presumably will be delivered into Union hands. The thief, a young black servant, soon confides what she has done to the freeborn John Chapman and asks for his help to escape. He complies, but is wracked with guilt over his role in abetting the crime.

John’s life soon gets still more complicated as he discovers an abandoned baby boy along his delivery route. Unsure what to do, he brings the newborn home and entrusts him to the care of Judah Daniel, a former slave who now works as a healer. Judah is intrigued by the unusual quilt used to wrap up the infant and follows the clues to determine where he came from.

Soon Narcissa and Judah determine that their investigations may be related, and as the war rages just outside the city they work together to solve the mysteries.

Chicakhominy Fever marks the fourth entry in Ann McMillan’s series of Civil War mysteries. McMillan is clearly a devoted scholar of the period, as evidenced by her close attention to historical accuracy. The story is rich with the sort of details that transport the reader to the specific time and place she depicts.

Unfortunately, McMillan’s facility with historical details fails to translate to other aspects of the story. Many of the suspenseful elements appear to depend on the reader’s inability to remember events that took place a mere ten pages prior, which dampens the mystery considerably. The clues to the mystery are many times painfully obvious, while other times key details appear from nowhere with little explanation.

McMillan also struggles to write her characters effectively, particularly with regard to their inner monologues. Frequently the main characters serve as a mouthpiece for questions that readers consider when figuring out a mystery, a convention seems unnatural and unnecessarily forced. Several characters are also overly idealized, lacking the foibles that would give them greater depth and make them more plausible and authentic.

McMillan does do a better job of characterization with her villains – even as they act wrongly the reader can understand their motivations and relate to them. Sadly, this strength also helps to highlight the one-dimensional nature of her protagonists.

In sum, Chickahominy Fever may be worth the time spent for fans of Civil War history, but has little else to offer for the mystery fan.

--Jessica Plonka