Cindy Holby, Crosswinds

Crosswinds

Cindy Holby

Leisure, Feb 2004, $6.99, 368 pp.

ISBN: 0843952792

Though she knows she is being selfish, Catherine Lynch Kincaid desperately wants her husband Tyler to return from the war as she not only misses him, but more so wonders if she will ever become the mother of his children. Catherine prays everyday for Tyler's safe return as his family plantation home is lonely.

Tyler wants only to hold his beloved wife Catherine, but feels responsibility to his friends and relatives who have joined him in the fight for the Southern cause against Northern aggression. He feels his duty is to try to get as many of his comrades home alive as the War Between the States looks futile to Tyler as he anticipates the Confederacy losing. He prays every night that his darling Catherine waits for him assuming he makes it home still breathing.

CROSSWINDS is more a historical tale than a romance as the audience receives a terse vivid description of the costs of war at the front and the anguish for those waiting at home. Catherine is a delightful lead character struggling not to feel she is being selfish with her desires, but still yearning for her spouse to return to her. She represents the adage that there are no atheists amongst loved one waiting for a soldier at risk. Tyler is heroic though he would deny that as he wants to leave, but desertion would dishonor him and more critical hurt those people he cares about. Though too many subplots make it difficult to follow at times, CROSSWINDS is a sweeping Civil War tale that brings to the front the horrific mental impact on everyone associated with war.

Harriet Klausner