It is always exciting to me when readers tell me personally, write or e-mail me to express their enjoyment of and appreciation for one of my novels. Especially, when it has taken several years to complete the work. All the while the book is in progress, I wonder if readers will find enough mystery, enough intrigue, enough concern for my characters to hold their interest until the end. Then finally, when readers express to me their deep affection for my people and the happiness they have derived from their reading experience, I am deeply touched and graciously rewarded for my efforts.
On November 15, 1864, Briars is occupied by a battle seasoned detachment of Sherman's Union Army led by young, inexperienced Lieutenant Shane Alexander Moss on his first field command. Entrusted to him in Sherman's own hand are written orders similar to those of other burning teams. They are to burn every structure within five miles of wherever they are billeted for the night before rendezvousing for Sherman's March to the Sea. Essentially alone and unprotected in the only occupied house for miles around, the Heirs women experience numbing, gruesome tragedy after occupying soldiers turn on their young leader. The men never realize that advantage is shifting as the Mistress of Briars, her daughters, her fifteen year old son, and an old Negro man plot to wage their own private war against the intruders. Thus begins a life and death contest within Briars' surrounding hawthorn hedges.
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BRIARS: The House of Heirs
by Ann Gray
It is November 15, 1864, and the Yankees are afoot with orders from Sherman to torch Atlanta. Houses for miles around are vacant, but Lillian Heirs, mistress of the Briars' household, is holding fast. She is waiting for one of her sons to come home from the War to help bury her husband Morgan. Waiting with Lillian are her daughters, sweet Sarah and the fiery Morgana, and her daughter-in-law, Laura Lee.
Meanwhile, needing a place to billet during the burning mission, Lieutenant Shane Alexander Moss chooses Briars to house his detachment of the Union raiders. The naïve, young lieutenant assures Lillian that she and the three other Heirs women will not be disturbed -- and Briars will he spared from flames. The battle-worn soldiers, however, have other plans. While the Union foxes are plotting their pillage of the hen house, the Heirs women, with help from an old Negro, and the youngest Heirs son, pursue their own war against the invaders.
Though Ormond Beach writer Ann Gray opens Briars: The House of Heirs, with the pressing, personal story of Yankees at the gate the Briars saga begins in 1838 when Morgan Heirs wins the Briars land in a barroom bet.
Using a deliberate style befitting period fiction, Gray draws readers through the lives of Morgan and Lillian and their offspring; their loves, losses, rebellions and transgressions. Endorsed for historical accuracy by The Daughters of the Confederacy, Gray paints a realistic picture of the Old South while retaining the idealistic charm of a romance.
Briars is a thick read of 387 pages plus an extensive roster of characters, including the household servants and family pets. Covering almost three decades, this isn't a book to he gobbled, but read slowly while absorbing the history and personalities.
Gray, a short story writer, says she was inspired by her own Confederate roots to undertake the daunting task of researching and depicting a Southern family. She says Briars is her labor of love.
Briars: House of Heirs can be ordered from the Internet or ask for it at your favorite book retailer.
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