A Chain of Thunder: A Novel of the Siege of Vicksburg (A Novel of the Civil War)
Although Civil War novels abound, Shaara’s searing trilogy “explores the often overlooked story of the Civil War in the west.” A Blaze of Glory (2012), the best-selling first volume in this series, documented the fiercely bloody Battle of Shiloh, in Tennessee. The second installment details a different—but equally devastating—type of military action. Pushing further southwest, General Grant and the Union forces have driven the beleaguered Confederates to the outskirts of Vicksburg, Mississippi. With no surrender in sight and control of the crucial Mississippi River hanging in the balance, Grant reluctantly opts to lay siege to the city, subjecting both soldiers and civilians to an agonizing combination of starvation, degradation, and barragement. Shaara seamlessly interweaves multiple points of view, as the plot is driven by a stellar cast of real-life and fictional characters coping with the pivotal crisis. --Margaret Flanagan