The Second Mrs. Hockaday

Written by Susan Rivers, this novel was inspired by a true incident. Major Gryffth Hockaday is called back to the front lines of the Civil War, leaving his new bride, teenaged Placidia, to care for her husband's 300 acre farm and the infant son of his deceased first wife. She is not prepared for the responsibility and spends the darkest part of the war on her own. When Major Hockaday returns two years later he is a different man, and Dia is apparently different as well. For she has borne a child in his absence and is accused of murdering that child. What really happened while he was gone? This is a well written, excellent book that ends with great hope.