A Dark Place of Promise
A novel coming soon from JC Beichner
A Dark Place of Promise is a Civil War novel that explores an American family torn apart by misplaced alliances and the fight for a country at odds with its own people.
Set in rural Savannah, Georgia in 1864, just weeks before General Sherman’s infamous march to the sea, A Dark Place of Promise tells the story of Rebecca Matheson, a young woman who is suddenly alone when her parents, accused of spying, are murdered by a rogue Confederate Colonel.
Rebecca has no idea she is now the new focus and obsession of her parent’s assassin.
Colonel Raymond Wright places himself above the law and the chain of command, twisted by rage and revenge for his own losses; he feeds on the vulnerable families left behind by fighting men who may never return home.
Rebecca finds a letter from her father instructing her to walk 20 miles into town and take shelter at the home of the local Parson and his wife. Unbeknownst to Rebecca, the Parson Williams has ties to the Underground Railroad which she will soon learn may be the reason why her parents were murdered.
Meanwhile, Rebecca’s uncle, Captain Jack Matheson is fighting for Lincoln’s Army, but is a poor excuse for an officer. Battle fatigued and struggling with alcoholism, he is stationed off the Kentucky border awaiting reinforcements. He receives word from a friend in Army Intelligence that his alienated brother fighting for the Rebels has been murdered. With no word or confirmation on the life of his niece Rebecca whom he hasn’t seen in more than ten years, Matheson sets outs for the South to rescue what’s left of his family before the war completely consumes them all.
"We have shared the incommunicable experience of war. We felt, we still feel, the passion of life to its top. In our youths, our hearts were touched by fire."
- Oliver Wendell Holmes,
on the young soldiers of the
Civil War
