The White Rose

by Marcella Thum

The beautiful white actress and the proud black slave--worlds apart in every way but they were both the same woman.... When Lucinda Appleton was asked to put aside her career on the Washington stage and become a spy for the Union Army, she readily agreed. Her assignment? To work undercover in the elegant home of Mrs. Arabella Von Bruck - the Lavender Countess, a sadistic and wanton woman who would resort to murder to help the Confederate cause. Lucinda would become Sukey - the countess's black maid, and try to discover the true identity of the Confederate agent who seemed to know every movement of the Union Army. It was a shock to discover her old friend Cole Sinclair on such intimate terms with the countess. Lucinda had worshiped Cole when she was a young girl on the Appleton plantation. But love could not stand in the way now; she knew his true identity and knew that she would have to kill him.

Genres: Historical Romance, Historical, Romance, Civil War

414 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Marcella Thum, an award-winning author and librarian, died Thursday (July 11, 2002) of lymphoma at St. Mary's Health Center. She was 77 and lived in Affton.
Miss Thum wrote more than 20 books, both fiction and nonfiction, on various subjects.


For her first book, "The Mystery at Crane's Landing," she received an Edgar Award for best juvenile work from the Mystery Writers of America in 1965.

Her nonfiction work, "Exploring Black America," was a guide to points of interest for African-Americans in 1975. For that, she received a Notable Children's Book Award from the American Library Association. She updated it in 1991, and it was published as "A Guide to Black America."

She also collaborated with her sister, Gladys, on several nonfiction books, including "Exploring Military America," which pointed out battlefields and museums of interest, in 1982.

Born in St. Louis, Miss Thum earned a bachelor's degree from Washington University and a master's degree in library science from the University of California at Berkeley.
Throughout the 1950s, she worked as a librarian and writer for the Air Force and was stationed in South Korea, Germany, Hawaii and Okinawa and at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois.

With her love of traveling and her experience living abroad, she was able to set a few novels in exotic locales. She wrote "Mistress of Paradise" about the takeover of Hawaii by the United States, and "Thorn Trees," which was set in Kenya in World War I.

"When she wrote her stories, she always wanted to teach the history in a way that would be interesting so people would learn," said her niece, Marilee Gilmore. "She always took the underdog side. She educated people, in a gentle way, to see the other side."

She wrote primarily in her spare time. After working for the government, she became librarian at Affton High School in the early 1960s. She later was a librarian at St. Louis Community College at Meramec.

She was honored as a Distinguished St. Louisan at Cupples House at St. Louis University and by the Missouri Writers Guild. Although she received numerous accolades, Miss Thum did not boast about her accomplishments. "She was very humble; nobody would guess that she was such a great writer," Gilmore said.

Years ago, she was active in the St. Louis chapter of Romance Writers of America and several area writers clubs. She was a member of the Rose Society at the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Mount Tabor United Church of Christ and the American Library Association.

She is interred with her sister, Gladys (1920-2005).

Reviews

[Sarah Mac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intense, action-packed, & emotionally heady bodice-ripper. This one could never be published today; it's not so much the un-PC spy plotline as the hero's callous treatment of the heroine in both personas that would send editors running.

Despite said improbable adventures of the heroine (yes, there were spies who infiltrated the southern lifestyle, but Lucy's repeated near-death escapes were above & beyond, sheer entertaining lolz), I was fully invested in her story & filled with rage at certain scenes re: the "hero" Cole & his massive douchebaggery. Cole is one of the biggest assholes I've ever read in a romance novel, surpassing even guys like Thomas Eden or Sean Cullhane. He's breathtakingly rude, arrogant, rapey, & abusive; even when he claims to love "Sukey" (or Lucy) at varying points in the story, I wanted to beat his face with a baseball bat & shovel the remains through a woodchipper.

As those who read Old Skool are aware, a basic rule for unrepentant bodice-shredding assholes like Thomas or Sean is that they suffer a physical equivalent to their heroine's own physical or emotional trials -- like, say, having the skin flayed off your back (Thomas) or being partially castrated (Sean). But Cole receives no such payback. He thinks "Sukey" has been killed & throws himself into the worst of the most awful bloodbaths, yet emerges with shrapnel in one leg that makes him slightly gimpy on occasion. BIG DEAL! Otherwise, the guy suffers no consequences whatsoever & is still raping Lucy for revenge in the last ten pages of the book. Da fuck?? I loathed him. I despised him. I was begging Sam or Jephthah to murder him on-page so I could enjoy it first-hand, but alas. ;____;

Lest the reader think all males in the 1860s are total asshats, the aforementioned Jephthah & Sam are both fabulous characters & I loved them every bit as much as I loathed Cole. (Lucy, girl...you should've run west with Jephthah. Seriously.) I also loved Lucy herself (despite her questionable affection for Cole) & minor characters like Aunt Clare, Jane, & the lolzy insane bitch Countess. I suppose you could even say I was attached to Cole in an aghast punching-bag sort of way; he certainly was vivid, so props to the author for that. As I've mentioned before, outright loathing is preferable to indifference. >:P

Overall, though, I really enjoyed this one. Solid 4 stars -- somewhere between 4 & 4.5.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a classic bodice ripper with rape, mayhem and a tomcatting hero. LOVED IT.

Yeah, okay the mistaken identity was paper thin, but it wasn't as bad as other novels with the 200 dukes and women who act as if they were born in the year 2000 instead 1700. If you ask me, the mistaken identity trope is more believable.

Oh, and we don't have some shrinking flower as a heroine. Our girl shoots the asshole hero and GETS AWAY. You go, girl!

So, if you don't get your panties in a wad over a jerk hero that rapes the heroine, this book is perfect bodice ripper fun! If you do, skip it because that shit happens.

[☀️Carden☀️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a romping read. However, I have a few bones I want to pick with this book.

A few things I would like to discuss.

(1) Dont give me a badass AND pistol wielding herione who is abused all the time through the story. Also, Lucy has a cool dual revolver that one of her Union agent friend gives her, and BARELY even uses it.

(2) Cole Sinclair was nothing like Adam Tremain (The Black Swan) or Travis Coltrane (Love and War). Adam was very interesting and treated Dulcie kindly, and at least Travis was tolerable and had some pleasant interactions with Kitty .

Cole? He physically and verbally abuses Lucy, being manipulative and toxic. I found nothing steamy or appealing about him.

(3) Don’t tear me off with a rushed ending after reading so much action packed and cool drama with spies and intrigue.

I liked Lucinda Appleton a lot. She was very brave and funny, and deserved so much after being beaten and losing people that she loved. She makes a cool spy and a actress, and is very good at using firearms.

The main plot mostly involves Lucy tracking down Cole as an enemy agent and then running off to her plantation where she tries to survive the cruelties of the war. The book ends at the end of the Civil War, and Lucy finds her HEA with Cole.

If Cole were written right, I would have enjoyed him a bit more but I didn’t find anything likeable about him.

Anyhow, four stars for Lucy, because she carried the whole book, and was really the only character I loved. And also for the intricate historical detail.

Upsides: We have a badass herione who is very brave and determined. With an added bonus, she is a pistol wielding heriones (and as we all know by now, I love pistol wielding heriones in Civil War romances.) There is lush descriptions of places and events. Lots of drama and cool spy stuff.

Downsides: A rushed ending that paled in comparison to the awesome main plot. A very trashy hero who didn’t really deserve our herione.

Violence: Lucy uses a derringer and later a dual revolver to defend herself. A character gets cut and tortured. Mentions of hangings and deaths. A slave gets whipped. A house is set on a fire. A guard gets their throat slit.

Bottom line: Despite the jerky alpha hole hero and a very cheesy disappointing ending to a good adventure, I still found the book enjoyable.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The White Rose" is a strange book. The set up is theoretically very offensive: at the height of the Civil War, Virginia heiress Lucinda Appleton, who has been disgracing her family by professionally acting, agrees to become a spy to help the Union cause. Her spying is dependent upon her disguising herself as a light-skinned slave, Sukey, and infiltrating the household of the sinister Countess Arabella Von Druck. And of course, while there, she will recounter a childhood crush, Confederate colonel Cole Sinclair, who is also a spy. Somehow, out of this minefield of racial politics, Marcella Thum creates a gripping story that does its best not to sensationalize race and tries to avoid as many stereotypes as she can. "The White Rose" also follows Lucinda's exploits as she navigates the remainder of the war, getting in and out of danger and living by her wits. Dastardly, villainous supporting characters; and a fully textured, heroic supporting cast--especially the runaway slave Troy/Sam and her aunt Claire--are also a plus. It's definitely a very atypical Civil War romance and comes off much better than it could've.

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Spying during Civil War. Romance is always front and centre despite a good story with good historical background.

[Celery66 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had just gone through a list on this site and this had come to mind. I didn't come across at the time , but here it is. The nostalgia is making me giddy!

Loved this book!

[ANGELIA · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book! I had a few misgivings at first: since it was written in the late 70's, I was afraid it would turn out to be typical BR stuff, but thankfully, that wasn't the case. (It did, sad to say, have a couple of what seem to be obligatory rapes, which could have been done without, but maybe, since this took place in wartime, Ms. Thum was just being realistic, as she was about other aspects of life during a war.) The story of Lucinda Appleton, southern belle, a.k.a. Rosalind Le Seur, actress, a.k.a. "The White Rose", Union spy, a.k.a. Sukey, freed biracial servant, is indeed a fascinating one. As much as she loves the family plantation, Belle Boyd, Lucinda hates slavery (not to mention some of her unscrupulous relatives) and after living up north for several years, pledges her allegiance to the Union cause and agrees to relay info to their army. She uses her acting skills to get hired as a servant to Arabella van Bruck ("The Lavendar Countess"), long suspected of being a Confederate sympathizer and spy. What starts out as an adventure turns into a serious as well as dangerous undertaking, as her life's put in jeopardy more than once, her cover is almost blown, and she discovers that the amoral Arabella (who has a thing for S&M) is the lover of the famous Confederate spy "The Silver Fox", who happens to be Cole Sinclair, the man Lucinda's been in love with ever since she was the tomboy sister of his best friend, Charles. Cole, meanwhile, finds himself falling for "Sukey", who he thinks may be Lucinda's half-sister! (At one point, after mourning Sukey's "death", Cole reunites with Lucinda, who's acting the party of a flirtatious belle, and when he shows a romantic interest, she's bothered by the fact that he seems to have gotten over Sukey so fast. She doesn't stop to think that she's jealous of herself!)

Yes, it sounds like a convoluted soap opera, but it's so much more than that. There's a lot of history thrown in, generals are mentioned, battles and plans are described, and actual spies make an appearance, like Lafayette Baker and Elizabeth van Lew. (Lucinda works for Baker and passes info and messages to van Lew.) Others are mentioned in passing, like Rose O'Neal and Pauline Cushman. There are scenes in military prisons and hospitals, as well as southern homes being looted, burned and destroyed, by both Union soldiers and those who are just out for what they can get.

There's also the reality of slavery, and you get a glimpse of what black people, went through, like Jane and Sam, a married couple owned by Arabella, who Lucinda helped escape. Sam later worked at Belle Boyd and acted as bodyguard for Lucinda. You root for Jane and Sam (both abused by Arabella and her horrible henchman, Cesar) to have their happy ending, and look forward to Arabella and Cesar getting what they deserve.

There's the OM, or rather two of them, good guy Jeptha, her fellow spy, who keeps his romantic feelings to himself, as well as bad guy step cousin Harry (Aunt Clare's son by her first marriage), who makes his romantic feelings well known, but with an ulterior motive.

I won't say another word; just read the book and enjoy the story.

[Karla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in the 1980s. I'm sure it doesn't hold up today. :{

[Kaylana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the story. It was detailed and had so much drama 🫣🫣

[Ryan Lapuz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read this book back in 1995-96. Lost the book when we moved houses and only recently got another copy. I just loved how this author writes, her voice, and the way she organically weaved historical details into the story. I like her other books too but for me this was her best one.