I feel like I have hit some kind of jackpot, as after months of trying to find a book to read that I found interesting enough to finish, I found two back-to-back. I just finished and wrote about Small Pleasures a few days ago, so when I picked up The Second Mrs. Hockaday by an author I had never heard of, I was more than prepared to give up on it after a couple of chapters. After all, what were the chances of me liking it so soon after finding a book I enjoyed, given that I had become so hard to please lately as far as reading was concerned? Also, the book is set during the American Civil War in the 1860s, a time period that — as I was not born in the US — feels quite remote, and, dare I say at the risk of sounding parochial, not particularly interesting to me.

In short, I was fully prepared to pass on the book after a couple of chapters. But much to my surprise, I was hooked and read it all the way through to the end in two days.

The story centers on a 17-year-old girl, Placidia, who falls in love with and marries a man and comes to back with him to his 300-acre farm in South Carolina, all within the course of a couple of days. It is a testament to the immediate attraction that she feels for the man, a Major Hockaday, and he for her. But they have barely a day to enjoy being newly-weds before he is called off to fight in the Civil War, leaving Placidia on her own to manage the farm as well as his infant son from his deceased first wife.

When Major Hockaday returns after two years, he learns that Placidia has borne a child in his absence and that this child is now dead. He feels so betrayed — the baby could not have been his — that he brings criminal charges against her. She is accused of murdering the baby she bore and is jailed. Placidia does not deny that she had a child and that it is now dead. However, she claims that she did not kill the child but that it died of illness. Also, she refuses to say who the father of the child was or how it happened. Did she have an affair or was she raped?

It is, of course, this mystery at the heart of the book that makes it so compelling and such a propulsive read. However, it was not just the suspense, it also how beautifully it was written. The story is told entirely in the form of letters, diary entries, and inquest reports, all of them capturing the details, the mood, the dialogue, the social norms, and the etiquette of that time period. The horrors of the Civil War, as experienced with full force by Placidia in the form of looting, intimidation, and violence, are also vividly portrayed. And then, of course, there was slavery, which at that time was in full force, especially in the South where the book is set. Not surprisingly, it forms one of the key plot points of the book.

The Second Mrs. Hockaday is Susan Rivers’ debut novel, which may be why I had never heard of her. But I am so glad to have found this book and its amazingly talented author.

The Second Mrs. Hockaday
Author: Susan Rivers
Publisher: ‎ Algonquin Books
Publication Date: November 2017

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Contributor: Lachmi Khemlani is a fan of the written word.