Description: With Rebel Falls, Tim Wendel takes us to late summer of 1864. The Civil War rages on. Sherman is marching on Atlanta, while the armies of Grant and Lee battle across Virginia. In the North, war-weariness has made Lincoln's bid for reelection seem doubtful. As the fate of the nation hangs in the balance, Confederate agents gather in Niagara Falls to plan one last maneuver to turn the tide of the conflict.
Rory Chase, a capable yet haunted young woman eager to contribute to the Union cause, accepts a mission from the Secretary of State to travel to Niagara Falls and prevent two rebel spies, John Yates Beall and Bennet Burley, from seizing the U.S.S. Michigan on Lake Erie and bombarding Buffalo, Cleveland, and other northern cities. To succeed, Rory must gain the rebel spies' trust and, with the help of the Underground Railroad network, foil their desperate gambit. But can she maintain the pretense of being a Confederate sympathizer long enough to unravel Beall and Burley's ingenious plot? With actual events underpinning the tumultuous story in Rebel Falls, a forgotten chapter in the history of the Civil War is revealed. Far from frontlines, Wendel's exciting, character-driven narrative about a consequential struggle in the shadow of Niagara Falls' dramatic beauty is gripping from start to finish.Brief description: Tim Wendel is a writer-in-residence at Johns Hopkins University and the author of Summer of '68, Cancer Crossings, High Heat, and the historical novels, Castro's Curveball and its sequel Escape from Castro's Cuba. He has appeared on PBS, CNN, ESPN, and NPR, and is the narrator of several audiobooks.