I read quite a few books while I was on vacation but I will discuss only one: The Yellow Wife by Sadequa Johnson.

Phelby is the daughter of the plantation’s master and thus grows up petted and treated differently than most enslaved people on the plantation. She has been promised her freedom at sixteen but instead, while the master is away, Phelby’s mother dies and the mistress (a jealous and vengeful woman) sells Phelby. She is supposed to be sold to a ‘fancy house’, a brothel but while the line of slaves is being held at an intermediate point, the jailor sees her and pulls her out to become his mistress. She bears him several children and after the Civil War, when intermarriage is allowed, he marries her.

I wanted to read this because, although it takes place later in the 1800s than my own book – Death in the Great Dismal – it does have some similarities.

First, both deal with slavery. Writing about this very thorny subject was difficult for me and it took me a long time to reach the point when I felt I could do it.

Both also feature a mixed race woman involved with a white man/master. Both include a white woman who was jealous of the mixed race woman.

Of course, there were some obvious differences. My protagonist, Will Rees, is a white man. He is also a northerner, outside of the Southern culture, and so always maintains a certain distance. Johnson wrote her book from the point of view of Phelby herself, the woman at the center of the action. My mixed race character, Sandy, fancies herself in love. Phelby’s reaction to the jailor who plucks her out of the coffle to become his mistress/wife is much more nuanced. She’s afraid of him but remains tied to him until his death. Although her children, all but one, escape to the north and pass for white, Phelby does not. My character Sandy does escape with Rees and Lydia after a severe beating by the mistress of the house. I wanted a happy ending.

Since I wrote my mystery as entertainment, the story is not as dark as The Yellow Wife. I suspect it is more accurate to the experiences of the times.

I will be at the Albany Book Fair on Saturday from 10 am to 4pm. The Festival is held in the upper campus; my table will be in the ballroom. Stop by for a chat if you’re in the area.