Second Mrs. Hockaday (Rivers) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Based on true events...[and told] old through gripping, suspenseful letters, court documents, and diary entries, Rivers’s story spans three decades to show the rippling effects of buried secrets.
Publishers Weekly


[I]nitially slow paced, [it] accelerates as the story evolves and the protagonists' roles in the scandal unfold. Most of the story line is set against the stark realities of wartime survival....[and] as with all wartime tales, brutality toward women and slaves occurs with depressing frequency .—Tina Panik, Avon Free P.L., CT
Library Journal


(Starred review.) With language evocative of the South ('craggy as a shagbark stump') and taut, almost unbearable suspense, dramatized by characters readers will swear they know, this galvanizing historical portrait of courage, determination, and abiding love mesmerizes and shocks.
Booklist


Rivers is adept at doling out information in teaspoon-sized increments, which makes the book hard to put down.... A compulsively readable work that takes on the legacy of slavery in the United States, the struggles specific to women, and the possibilities for empathy and forgiveness.
Kirkus Reviews