Tom Mach's award-winning and critically-acclaimed novel Sissy! is a sensitive novel about a young woman torn by the heat of compassion and forgiveness during an incredible era of hatred and violence. In Sissy! "Bleeding" Kansas comes alive and Jessica Radford experiences the horrible events that culminate in the infamous Quantrill raid--a 19th century terrorist attack that killed almost 200 innocent men and children in Lawrence, Kansas. This unusually well-researched Civil War novel shows how young Jessica, disguised as a male solider, braves death as she attempts to avenge the murder of her parents by border ruffians. Delusional and about to kill the wrong man on a Tennessee battlefield, she believes she sees an angel, who stops her from making a tragic mistake.

Sissy! opens in 1857 with an Underground Railroad rescue of a slave girl and ends with the 1863 Quantrill raid. The novel contains touching scenes, such as the death of a young ex-slave named Lazarus in the arms of a prostitute and Jessica's inner struggle over a tumultuous love affair. It talks about unknown heroes who worked through the Underground Railroad...brave women who disguised themselves in order to fight alongside men ...and men like William Quantrill who thought nothing of committing terrorism, killing innocent civilians in a defenseless town. After reading about the heartbreak and tenacity of the men and the courage and sacrifice of these remarkable women in that bygone era, the reader of Sissy! will experience a deeper appreciation of this emotionally-charged era in our nation's history.