While the Music Plays

by Diane Austell

Daring Yankee Chase Girard persuades a young Southern widow to become a spy for the Union during the Civil War, but the dangers of her deception frighten Laura Chandler less than the seductive hold the handsome Northerner has on her heart. Original.

448 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1996

Reviews

[Penney · Rating 5 out of 5]

very good, A daring Yankee persuades a young Southern widow into spying for the Union cause during the Civil War. But the dangers of deception frighten Laura Chandler less than the seductive hold her dashing spymaster has on her heart--in this deeply satisfying love story.

[Sharon Buxton · Rating 2 out of 5]

D. fiction, historical fiction, Civil War, espionage, romance, from stash, discard

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was an interesting read taking place in the South during the Civil War. It was a romance but I found the description of the times more interesting

[Kathleen Hagen]

While the Music Plays, by Diane Austell, narrated by Anna Fields, produced by Blackstone Audio, downloaded from audible.com.

I can’t resist any book narrated by Anna Fields, who will always remain my very favorite narrator. This book isn’t typical of my kind of novel, but I read it mainly because Anna Fields narrated it. It actually was a good novel, a little too reminiscent of “Gone with the Wind” but still good. Laura Chandler has grown up in Richmond and has learned the skills of charming men. She marries a popular senator, much older than she. After the senator dies, she learns things she didn’t know about him, and decides not to let herself fall in love again. Then, the civil war begins. She knows that her husband was not in favor of the south seceding, but she has two brothers who go to war for theConfederacy. She meets Chase Girard who is the best man at her niece’s wedding. Chase is a Yankee soldier working under cover, trying to find people who will inform on the south. Laura agrees to help. As the war progresses and things get increasingly grim, (no guns or powder, no food or clothing, it becomes clear that the south will lose the war, but neither side will give in. This is a book about the futility of war, but with the romance of the south thrown in. For its genre, which I generally don’t read, it’s a better than average book.