Cut to the Heart [Mass Market Paperback]

While perhaps not technically a mystery, Dianne Day's new novel about Clara Barton is a richly drawn account of one indomitable woman's determination to serve her country during one of the darkest periods in its history. Set on Hilton Head Island, SC, during the Union occupation in 1863, "Cut to the Heart" rings with the authenticity we've come to expect from Ms. Day, whose Fremont Jones novels brought turn-of-the-century San Francisco so vividly to life. She has captured the lush, steamy landscape of the Lowcountry so completely you can almost smell the dank pluff mud of the marshes and hear the constant whine of the insects.
Accurate as well is Day's portrayal of the Sea Islands' recently freed black population, abandoned and forgotten by their white masters who fled inland ahead of the victorious Union Navy assault. Untrained to survive on their own, the former slaves are suffering from malnutrition and the many diseases riding on the fetid air of the swampy marshlands.
Enter Clara Barton, self-appointed "Angel of the Battlefield" and future founder of the Red Cross. Sent to the garrison on Hilton Head to await the next battle, Clara finds herself drawn to the plight of the local people. While she struggles to understand their lyrical Gullah language and strange blend of Christianity and ancient magic, Clara defies the military medical establishment by treating them as best she can. She enlists the aid of a young black teenager named Erasmus, whose thirst for learning stirs Clara's hope for his people's future. Together they gather and stockpile the wagonloads of donated supplies which have earned her the unique battlefield pass she carries.
Drawing on meticulous research into private letters and diaries, Ms. Day provides us with a fascinating, although fictionalized, vision of this revered woman. In her liaison with Col. John Elwell, the married commandant of the Hilton Head post, we discover a Clara Barton as passionate about love as she is about her mission. Stalked by a demented doctor who is obsessed with a revolutionary medical experiment that requires an increasing number of live "specimens," Clara soon finds herself enmeshed in a bizarre chess match with a faceless nemesis who may be much closer than she thinks. As local blacks -- both adults and children -- begin disappearing, Clara Barton turns sleuth and, in the process, may have unwittingly delivered herself into the hands of her tormentor.
The mystery may be thin, but this well-written historical novel is certainly loaded with suspense as well as a stunning ending. It is well worth the reader's investment

The author of the wonderful "Fremont Jones" series has made a dramatic move in writing CUT TO THE HEART and yet that same "you are there" sense of place and time that makes the Fremont Jones' series so great makes this book great also.
I admire the research, the time and the effort that went into this book and respect Ms. Day all the more for it.
Clara Barton, founder of the Red Cross, an image in my mind since childhood, is brought to vivid light and the vague ideas I had are embued with life thanks to this book.
Bravo to Ms. Day. I look forward to where she turns her pen next.

It's 1963 and Clara Barton, "The Angel of the Battlefield," is in Hilton Head, SC, awaiting the Union forces' attack on Charleston. She prepares her supplies, falls in love with a married man and has an affair, and becomes a sleuth, tracking down the psychotic who has stalked her and terrorized the community.

Barton is one of my heroes, so I enjoyed seeing what Day did in her fictionalization, even if it doesn't ring true with what I already know about her. I also adore the South Sea Islands area of the U.S., and Day more than does justice to the natural beauty of the area and its people. A nice subplot has Barton helping a young black boy become literate and find a future. The horrors of our Civil War are also brought to life well.

But the book's pace is too slow, and Barton's bodice-ripping romance is a bit amateur. Any reader of the murder-mystery genre will find the stalcker entirely predictable.

Get it at the library.