Bloody Ground

From Library Journal Cornwell's fourth novel about Nathaniel Starbuck, a Northerner in the Confederate Army, carries this Civil War saga to Antietam, which ruined Robert E. Lee's attempt to carry the war to the North. A British writer, Cornwell brings a fresh spin to the war by peopling his story with Northerners serving the South, Southerners serving the North, spies, turncoats, and real historical figures?including Lee and Stonewall Jackson. His characters are many, and the historical arena is complex, but complications never confuse the listener. The genius of Cornwell's narratives about Starbuck and Richard Sharpe, his British rifleman (e.g., Sharpe's Regiment, Audio Reviews, LJ 11/15/96), lies in his ability to place protagonists in such ever-deepening personal peril that readers cannot turn away. Indeed, the human drama of The Bloody Ground is so compelling that it overcomes the competent but often grating reading of British actor Hayward Morse, who gives Starbuck Jimmy Cagney's voice and makes senior Confederate officers sound like Al Capp's Jubilation T. Cornpone. Engaging listening for commuters; recommended for public libraries.?R. Kent Rasmussen, Thousand Oaks, Cal.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.