July 1864: In the Civil War’s last, desperate invasion of Union territory, a regiment of Confederate cavalry carries out its own version of the Charge of the Light Brigade, and annihilates two Union artillery batteries to save its army at the battle of Fort Stevens, outside Washington DC.
But as soon as his wounds have healed, the hero who ordered and led that charge is put up against a wall and shot by his own side for ‘cowardice, treason and mutiny’ following a rigged court-martial.
Almost a century and a half later, the discovery of a journal written by one of the two survivors of the charge, and the contradictions within it, set a young historian on a quest to discover more about the circumstances of a blatant judicial murder.
So what’s going on?
May 2010: At the same time, in the first term of America’s first black President, the former Confederate States of America are rocked by a series of apparently random bomb outrages that result in serious loss of life. But they’re not random—the Confederacy’s last secret is being played out in a madman’s determination to create a much different future for America
What kind of future? Again, what’s going on?
In a bizarre twist of fate, both historian and madman are bound together by the long-gone events of 1865. But even if the protagonists had known the extent of their relationship, the fulfilment of the ‘Motherland Project’ wouldn’t allow it to matter one bit, for there’s blood in the water . . . . .
What the reviewers said:
“Look Away, Dixieland is a great read in the genre of ‘faction’ or fictionalised fact – a gripping historical-contemporary thriller combined with a sweet and tragic 19th century romance.“
“(A modern-day sociopath) is in fact masterminding a series of terrorist acts aimed at forcing the American government to grant long-awaited self-government to the southern Dixie states.”