Code Name: Grackle

by Barbara Flanagan

Cassius Marcellus Clay, for whom both Muhammad Ali and his father were named, was an abolitionist newspaper editor, ambassador, and advisor to President Lincoln. Leading up to the Civil War in Kentucky, he donated the land to build Berea College. Cala Johnson is an idealistic young teacher at the school. She's driven out by pro-slavery thugs who are coming through the pass to burn down the abolitionist Berea School and “punish” the teachers. Accompanied only by her six-year-old sister, Cala hastily loads the buckboard with as many books as she can save and flees west, with no time to even bid farewell to her family. By 1865, the sisters settle in the Confederate Choctaw town of Old Boggy Depot, living quietly in genteel poverty--at least until Trouble comes to town.

Trouble is Kate Warne, first female Pinkerton detective, and she's looking for bushwhacking Rosie O’Riley and her marauding outlaw sons. Kate plans to enlist Cala as an undercover agent to help track down the O’Rileys. Cala’s quiet life is about to take several interesting turns as she risks her life and her heart in her first foray as a Pinkerton Lady Detective.

153 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 29, 2016