The Second Mrs. Hockaday by Susan Rivers

If you like historical fiction, please look for THE SECOND MRS. HOCKADAY by Susan Rivers.  The story takes place over two generations, during the American Civil war and in 1892.  The focus is on Placidia Fincher Hockaday, a not quite 18 year-old girl who marries a Confederate soldier (Major Gryffth Hockaday) and then is left to take care of his farm and young son at Holland Creek, South Carolina. In material provided by her publisher, author Rivers explains that the story is based on a real inquest that occurred in 1865 involving a youthful wife (named Elizabeth Kennedy) accused of murdering the infant she bore in her husband Arthur’s absence. Rivers says that she was “electrified by the plight of this young woman and by the extraordinary courage she must have possessed to face this ordeal alone in a war-torn world.”

The fictional Placidia Hockaday is herself a truly memorable character. The feeling of immediacy, apprehension and overall emotional impact of the novel are deepened by Rivers’ choice to relate events through letters, through the inquest proceedings, and ultimately through Placidia’s diary (written on the back of illustrations in her copy of David Copperfield due to paper shortages).  Rivers obviously relied on extensive research for details like that and recommends numerous sources in her end notes.  

THE SECOND MRS. HOCKADAY, a debut novel by playwright Rivers, is a Library Reads choice for January 2017 and received a starred review from Booklist.