THE NEW NOVEL

Petticoats
and Ash

She survived the war--but what she did to survive haunted her for twenty-five years.

She survived the war—but what she did to survive haunted her for years. Kentucky, 1862. With two sons fighting for the Union and another for the Confederacy, Annie Claiborne watches the Civil War divide her family before it reaches her doorstep. When Confederate soldiers commandeer the family cave to produce saltpeter for gunpowder, an explosion kills her husband, leaving Annie to protect those who remain. As slavery loosens its grip and loyalties fracture, survival demands choices she can never undo. Twenty-five years later, Annie finally writes her son the truth—about the war, the dead, and what she did to survive.

01 / 04

Sooner or later, life puts each of us in a vise.

That is the moment I write toward.

Ken Merrell
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Petticoats and a Traitor’s Death

They hanged her husband. They did not silence his widow.

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