War may end on the battlefield, but its consequences rarely obey a cease-fire. In Soldier’s Joy, M. F. Jones brings that reality home with Avery Gowan, an Iraq veteran carrying the guilt of a mission that killed three of his friends and maimed another. His return becomes even more complicated when he encounters a ghost who looks disturbingly like him—and who insists that a woman Avery has only recently met may be the person who can help him.

That woman is Jessie Gibbs, whose connection to Avery’s Civil War ancestor, Lemuel Sanders, began with the discovery of his unmarked grave and extends into territory Avery cannot yet understand. As Book II of The Sentinel Heart Trilogy, Soldier’s Joy links the wounds of two wars through family history, a supernatural guardian, and a relationship in which both Avery and Jessie are keeping consequential secrets.

Romance: Historical, Supernatural, Military

Release Date: Sep 28, 2026

Publisher: Fieldwood Books

Category: Adult Fiction (18 yrs +)

Series: Book II of The Sentinel Heart Trilogy

Content Rating: PG-13 + M: Soldier's Joy contains wartime violence, the suicide of a minor character, two slightly explicit sex scenes though without gratuitous detail, and profanities like s**t, a**hole, and God damn it, though no f-words.

༺ ABOUT THE BOOK ༻

 

Avery Gowan is barely home from Iraq when a ghost appears to him—one that looks disturbingly like him. The apparition says that Jessie Gibbs, a woman he’s just met, can help him escape the guilt of the mission that killed three of his friends and maimed another.

 

A few days earlier, at a service honoring his family’s Civil War relative, Lemuel Sanders, Avery was drawn to Jessie’s quiet strength and calm presence. Jessie, a musician, had been camping with her Civil War-style band the previous year when she discovered Lemuel’s unmarked woodland grave, leading to his identification and proper burial after 145 years.

 

Jessie and Avery begin a relationship, but his anger, recklessness, and self-doubt threaten to tear them apart. When the ghost saves him from a deadly motorcycle crash, Avery hides the truth about his spectral guardian, afraid Jessie will see him as broken beyond repair.

 

But Jessie is hiding something too—a secret about her true connection to Lemuel Sanders that may cost her Avery’s love.

 

The sequel to the award-winning Stones River, Soldier’s Joy nonetheless stands alone as a haunting, emotionally charged story about how the past refuses to stay buried, how healing demands facing it, and how love gives the courage to do so.

༺ My Review ༻

The Author Gives Us Another Unique Story. I enjoyed Stones River, the first book in The Sentinel Heart Trilogy, so I was looking forward to seeing where M. F. Jones would take us in the next book. As much as I liked the first book, I think I liked Soldier's Joy just a little more. This time, Jones brings Civil War history together with the story of a soldier returning home from Iraq, along with romance, family secrets, and the supernatural thread connecting the past and present. I really liked how those pieces were woven together, especially as the connection between Avery and Lemuel began to unfold. The book has plenty of military and historical detail, but it never felt like I was being handed a history lesson. It all fits naturally into the story, and the writing flows easily, which made it very readable for me.

Expect to Connect to the Characters. Avery was probably my favorite part of the book. He comes home from Iraq carrying an enormous amount of guilt, and he is definitely not a perfect character. He can be angry, reckless, stubborn, and frustrating, but those flaws made sense considering everything he was trying to deal with. What I really liked was his desire to be a better man, even when he didn't always know how to get there. Jessie balances him well, but she also has her own history and a pretty big secret involving Lemuel, so she never feels like she is simply there to fix Avery. I enjoyed watching their relationship develop, but I also liked getting to know them individually. I had read Stone's River before this one, and while I didn't remember all the details from that first book, I never felt lost here, and immediately reconnected with Jones' characters and settled right into the supernatural elements this time around.

Would I recommend Soldier's Joy? Definitely. In fact, if you enjoyed Stones River, I think you'll like this one even more—I did. It has historical fiction, romance, military fiction, mystery, and a touch of the paranormal, but underneath it all is a very human story about guilt, grief, healing, and figuring out how to move forward when you can't change what happened in the past. I especially liked that the supernatural side never overshadowed the characters or what Avery was going through. 

༺ ABOUT THE AUTHOR ༻

M. F. JONES is a former editor for Viking Press book publishers, and Redbook, Family Circle, and Reader’s Digest magazines. When not writing, she can be found reading, knitting (while listening to audiobooks), singing in a choir, or hiking in the beautiful Tennessee woods near the home she shares with her husband, composer Douglas Hedwig.

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༺ LAST WORD ༻

Soldier’s Joy places its most important conflict in the space between what has happened and what its characters are willing to face. Avery cannot change the Iraq mission that cost his friends so dearly, and Lemuel’s death belongs to a war fought generations earlier, yet neither history is finished exerting its influence. Jessie’s place between those stories makes the novel’s secrets particularly consequential: the person Avery has been told can help him is also keeping information capable of changing what he believes about her.

 

That convergence of military history, supernatural intervention, and concealed family connections gives this second Sentinel Heart novel its own identity. Avery may have come home from Iraq, but Soldier’s Joy is concerned with the much harder question of what coming home requires after the fighting is over—and what can happen when the past arrives there waiting for you.

༺ JOIN THE CONVERSATION ༻

 

“I’m getting married!” Juliette burst through the door, holding her ring finger up for the world to see. Well, for my dear husband of twenty-two years and me to see.
            Said dear husband rose from his chair with such gusto that the poor chair clattered to the floor, victim of his temper. “What?!”
            The humid June air clung to the back of my neck as I stood. Pushing my graying hair out of my eyes, I took a step toward my husband and placed a hand on his upper arm. I recognized the fear that flashed beneath his anger. I’d seen that look far too many times lately as she missed her curfew night after night all summer long.  “Tristan, dear, just...calm down, okay?” I cast a pleading glance between him and our daughter. I could see the words on the edge of his tongue. Don’t follow in my footsteps. His own impulsive marriage led to a tragedy that impacted both our lives. I knew the thought of Juliette repeating his mistakes kept him awake at night.
            “Calm down?” Tristan tossed his hands up; then his arms flopped to his thin torso’s sides.
            “Your heart,” I said, stepping in front of him. “Please.”
            He released a sound somewhere between a growl and a groan, then righted his chair and sat. “So, who’s the lucky guy?” he shot at Juliette. “Don’t tell me it’s that long-haired hippie.”
It wasn’t just the hair. David's casual attitude toward drugs reminded Tristan too much of his own dance with addiction, though he'd never admit that to her.
            Juliette stood just inside the open door. Only the screen separated her from darting outside and the darkness swallowing her for another late night. Another night without a curfew. Another night we hoped we could trust her judgment. Another night our little girl proved she wasn’t so little anymore.
            She crossed her arms over her chest and sent her dad a glare worthy of one of his own. Her blue eyes held the same spark that challenged, much like Tristan’s eyes. “Seriously, Dad? Like you should talk.” She gestured toward his messy, longish hair.
            “That’s not the point,” Tristan said, teeth clenched. “You can’t just go running off with the first guy who puts a ring on your finger. If he had any decency, he’d have asked us first.”
            Juliette closed the door and scoffed. “It’s 1967, Daddio.” She popped her gum as she leaned against the table. “I don’t need your permission.”
            “Like hell you don’t.” Tristan stood, the menacing tone creeping back into his voice.
            I came between them. “Okay, both of you… Can’t we talk about this?”
            Juliette shifted her gaze to me. “Mom, please. Can’t you make Dad see reason?”
            I held back a sigh and lifted my hand. About to place it on her shoulder, I resisted and let my arm drop. “Juliette, this isn’t a good idea. David isn’t—”
            “Isn’t what, Mom?” A tremor ran through her voice. She blinked rapidly, then stepped away. She headed for the door to the dining and living rooms, stopping before she exited. “Why can’t you just be happy for me for once?” Her footsteps banged through the house and up the stairs. A slam of her bedroom door and I knew it would be unwise to knock anytime the rest of the night. 

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The opening confrontation makes the emotional problem in It’s All About Love clear without making it simple. Juliette sees an engagement and a new life; Tristan sees the possibility of history repeating itself; and Lorna understands enough of both perspectives to know that neither anger nor reassurance will easily close the distance between them. Moving Juliette from that family argument into the promises and dangers of Haight-Ashbury gives her rebellion consequences beyond shocking her parents. At the same time, the wounds her departure exposes at home suggest that this is not solely Juliette’s coming-of-age story. The family she leaves behind has its own unfinished history to confront.

A newspaper obituary is supposed to close a life, but for Dan Driscoll, seeing his own death in print looks remarkably like an escape hatch. Buried in gambling debt and caught in the aftermath of violence, he has every reason to disappear—and suddenly the world is prepared to believe he already has. In Cain’s Chameleon, Mark G. Bearss follows the consequences of that decision from the shores of Lake Michigan into the upheaval of World War II, where secrets carried from home refuse to remain safely in the past. 

Behind the fiction is an equally intriguing piece of history: Bearss developed the story after finding separate newspaper accounts of an attempted murder near his family’s summer cottage and a drowning victim discovered on the beach where he once played. He wondered whether the two events might have been connected, then turned that unanswered question into a novel.

Historical Fiction

Date Published: 01-27-2026

Publisher: BearssLair Books

Dan Driscoll is consumed by gambling debt, cornered by bookies and loan sharks, forced to bet on one last scheme. When things turn violent and two people are shot, his best friend, Stan Neumann, swallows what he suspects. He can't risk divulging a closely-held family secret. 

Then a body washes up on the Lake Michigan shoreline, and the lake gives Dan what the bookies never would: a way out. Authorities call it an accident and list him as the drowning victim. For Dan, it's an escape route delivered in black ink. 

He becomes a ghost, an imposter, a chameleon. But lies don't stay buried. 

As America is pulled into World War II, Stan enlists, choosing duty on his terms before the draft can rewrite his life. In Pearl Harbor, one chance encounter dredges up a name he thought was long buried. 

War changes everything, but it doesn't erase unfinished business. And when the truth demands to be heard, how long can a stolen life stay buried before the past comes to collect?

Lucy wasn’t smiling like she used to when she folded her letter, slipped it into the envelope, sealed it with a kiss, and applied the three-cent stamp. Even the spring in her step lacked the zeal she typically exhibited during her walk to the post office. The words on the paper were true to her commitment. They spoke of the news from the home front, stories that helped Stan’s morale, and made sure her underlying message was being proud, supportive, and encouraging. The words wandering around in Lucy’s thoughts, however, were in stark contrast to this messaging. 

Ever since Stan was assigned to the navy radar training school, Lucy had become more and more unsure in her belief that things would be okay. His work as an Aviation Machinists Mate stateside meant he was safe. And Minneapolis was relatively close to home. Being trained as a radarman for shipboard duties meant it was more likely he would be sent overseas into a combat zone. This caused a higher level of worry. Like everything else this war has put in short supply, her ration of optimism was slowly being depleted, and the resources for replenishing that reservoir were becoming scarce. 

Her quandary was not letting Stan know about this foreboding, even though he was normally her most trusted sounding board. She tried to talk about this with her sister Millie. But Millie’s approach to these heartfelt struggles was to fix them, make them go away, or advise Lucy, “Try not to think about it.” This was not the type of support Lucy needed. 

During her alone time, sitting staring out the window, the overwhelming emotion that prevailed over all others was that she really missed her husband. She now knew what being heartbroken felt like.

Cain’s Chameleon builds its intrigue around more than whether Dan can successfully disappear. His false death leaves unfinished business behind, and that deception follows the story from a Lake Michigan community into Stan’s wartime service. What begins with gambling debt, violence, and a convenient case of mistaken identity becomes increasingly complicated as private secrets collide with lives being reshaped by World War II.

The novel’s origins are just as noteworthy. While researching his father’s wartime history, Mark G. Bearss encountered two separate reports in The Oceana Herald: an attempted murder near his family’s Lake Michigan summer cottage and a drowning victim found on the beach where he once played. His decision to imagine a connection between those incidents places real pieces of local history beneath the novel’s fictional mystery.

The excerpt featuring Lucy also shows that the story is concerned with what wartime separation looked like at home. She writes the reassuring letter Stan needs while privately fearing that his radar training will eventually send him into combat. That contrast between what Lucy puts on paper and what she cannot bring herself to tell her husband offers a quieter counterpoint to Dan’s much larger deception—two characters withholding the truth for very different reasons.

This one belongs on the radar of historical-fiction readers who appreciate stories rooted in specific places and surviving documentary traces. The Lake Michigan setting, the newspaper-inspired mystery, Dan’s assumed death, and Stan’s World War II service create a strong fit for those interested in the point where local history intersects with national events. It should also appeal to readers drawn to morally complicated identity stories, wartime home-front experiences, naval history, and fiction that uses research as part of its underlying architecture.

While author Mark Bearss was setting the stage for his retirement, concerned co-workers would ask, “What are you going to do when you’re not working?” He found this question rather curious. It should have been posed, “What are you going to do first?” Mark knew that if travel was involved, he had had enough of commercial flights after 28 years of teaching for the medical device industry. Mark yearned for road trips – to visit those places he only saw from 38,000 feet. Little did he know that wish journeyed down an unexpected fork in the road. He would become an author. 

While conducting genealogy research, Mark discovered archived de-classified military documents that revealed the name of a U.S. Navy destroyer his father served aboard during WWII. The reason this was a poignant discovery was because, while growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, his father made no mention of this. Apart from being a U.S. Naval Reserve flight instructor, he knew his father served aboard the carrier USS ESSEX. But in what capacity? That, too, was not revealed. More discoveries materialized the further he dug. In fact, there was a lot more his father didn’t mention. This wasn’t unusual. Many WWII veterans didn’t talk about what happened back then.Because of the pandemic, the National Archives in St. Louis was closed and rendered Lt. Bearss’ military records unavailable. Thus began a project that challenged Mark’s research endeavors for over two years and about 5,000 miles on the road. The biographical sketch was sorted from creative Internet search strings, history books, navy publications, and networking with journalists, librarians, archivists, bloggers, aviation enthusiasts, museum and historical society curators, navy veterans, relatives, and more. One online resource that was instrumental in tracking his father’s journey was the weekly newspaper published in the county where his parents grew up: The Oceana Herald. It included a Local News section where family members and organizations could submit a short blurb about a relative’s visit, a social gathering, or – where a son or husband was currently stationed. 

This project culminated in 2022 with Mark’s first publication titled, Undisclosed Stories Discovered: Honoring the World War II Military Journey of Lt. Joseph Ward Bearss, USNR. When asked what was one of the highlights surrounding this story, he described the road trips to seek out and discover places where his father lived, trained and was stationed during the war. What prompted him to write this as a biography took place during a meeting with the curator of the World War II Home Front Museum on St. Simons Island, Georgia. St. Simons Naval Air Station was the site for the U.S. Naval Radar Training Station, where Lt. Bearss was trained in shipboard radar operations, enemy interception, and Fighter Direction.  While the museum had ample archived materials about the facility, it had very little documented about the servicemembers who trained there. 

Only 250 copies were printed. Mark went back on the road in his Class-B motorhome and personally donated those copies to family members, friends and relatives, the librarians, archivists, researchers, museums, curators, historical societies, newspapers, The American Heritage Center, VFW Posts, airport FBOs, and other assorted WWII enthusiasts in 12 states who helped in his endeavors. It was a two-fold reward. Not only did his father’s story finally become told, Mark experienced the pleasure of meeting all these wonderful people who were his resources, advisors, collaborators, and consultants. Up until that point, they were only names in an email contact list. 

You’re probably asking, “How is all this relevant to Mark’s new novel, Cain’s Chameleon?” It was the research from The Oceana Herald that planted the seed for this story. While perusing its issues, Mark stumbled on two articles that piqued his curiosity. The first reported an attempted murder in a home close to his family’s summer cottage on Lake Michigan. The second reported a drowning victim that washed up on the beach right where Mark and his friends used to play. Just two more stories never divulged while growing up. He wondered, Were these two events related? Then Mark decided — he would make them related.

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Cain’s Chameleon begins with a mistake that offers Dan exactly what desperation has made tempting: the chance to let the world believe he is dead. From there, the premise opens into questions of identity, secrecy, loyalty, and what happens when unfinished business survives long enough to cross into wartime. The novel’s origin in two archived newspaper reports gives that setup another compelling layer—the historical record supplied the separate events, while Bearss asked what might happen if fiction connected them. For readers drawn to historical novels anchored in place, research, and consequential choices, that is an intriguing reason to take a closer look.

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A staged séance, a frightened noblewoman, and a murder accusation give Kate Quill little time to regret accepting a job above her station. Clearing her name means crossing the distance between Whitechapel and Belgravia, where wealth protects secrets and Scotland Yard has already settled on its suspect. With a seamstress at the center of the inquiry, petty thieves gathering intelligence, and a former gentleman’s gentleman applying his talent for puzzles, The Belgravia Phantom approaches the Victorian drawing-room mystery from the servants’ entrance.

Victorian mystery fiction as you’ve never read it before
—from well below stairs.

How do you prove you didn’t scare Lady Pemberton to death with a phantom?

Such is Kate Quill’s quandary. The faked séance went horribly wrong, and now Inspector Hartwell of Scotland Yard has her in his sights.

Kate’s poor. Seamstress poor. But what she lacks in the pocket, she makes up for in allies.
There are her siblings. Daisy, the actress. Ned and Vi… There’s no way around this – they’re petty thieves.

There’s Mrs McGinty, their formidable Irish landlady. There are Vi’s Whitechapel Worthies, Little Till (adorable) and the Twins (quite odd).

And there is Frederick Page, former gentleman’s gentleman, chess aficionado, lover of puzzles, and now reluctant partner in an unlikely Victorian detective duo. Please, do not refer to him as Freddie, or he’ll be grasping for the smelling salts.

Can this glorious rabble somehow band together to investigate all those lofty lords and ladies who attended the séance?

And discover who really murdered Lady Dorothea Pemberton?

The Belgravia Phantom is the first in a series of irresistible Victorian murder mysteries from the acclaimed author of the Samuel Pepys Mysteries. Expect fiendish whodunits, singular characters and vivid history. Step into London’s gaslit and swirling pea-soupers, and hear those click-clack footsteps approach...

Kate’s investigation begins from a position most Victorian detectives never occupy: she must solve the crime while poverty, class prejudice, and Scotland Yard’s suspicion work against her. The people assisting her are not respectable professionals with official access. They are siblings, lodgers, street children, thieves, and one exquisitely particular former servant whose knowledge of privileged households may prove as useful as Kate’s nerve.

That arrangement gives the mystery two distinct worlds to examine. Belgravia supplies the séance guests and their protected secrets, while Whitechapel supplies the improvised network capable of uncovering them. The contrast is not decorative background; it shapes who can ask questions, who goes unnoticed, and whose account is likely to be believed.

The excerpt also reveals an interest in the practical details of East End life, from costermongers and naphtha lamps to the small deceptions required to secure a hot meal. Readers can therefore expect the investigation to unfold alongside the routines, resourcefulness, and humor of characters accustomed to surviving without money or influence.

Ned and Vi belong to the evening, when the naphtha lamps of the costermongers’ stalls hiss and flare, and all between is subsumed in shadow. When the streets still throng with shoppers, and the trams and cabs and omnibuses are lit by oil - white light, oncoming; red light, receding - and Whitechapel Road feels interesting to know. When the cries of the chestnut roasters, the fried-fish sellers and the pie-men create a cacophony of distraction. 

This is when they thrive. 

They have their stomachs set on the hawker of baked potatoes, with his lovingly polished can on four legs, its brass plaque proclaiming: “Old Original Baked Potatoes”. The old man who ran the stand for many a year lately died; his errant son has the business now, and shows rather less aptitude for vigilance. 

While Ned lurks in the background, Vi sidles up. Her head tilts this way and that, apparently undecided. She plays with an unseen coin in her hand. The bait. 

Glowing charcoal lights the lad’s face orange. He narrows eyes at her. Steam rises from his burner, and the earthy aroma of the treasure within. 

“What can I have for a ha’penny?” she asks. It is all she could spare, but it should suffice if she plays it right. 

He snorts. “On your way, missy. My prices start at a penny and no less.” 

She glances up and down the road, where the sellers either side, of ham sandwiches, hot green peas and eels, have patrons queueing. 

He kicks a heel. It has not been easy, taking over his father’s trade. The baker who roasts his hundredweights recently upped his fee, and the locals whose custom the old man relied upon have found new flavours elsewhere. Many deserted him for that other potato hawker in Spitalfields. 

As his gaze follows Vi’s, he licks his lips. “S’pose I might be able to find a small one.” 

He opens the wide half-lid, peers inside debating, and picks out the smallest spud he can find. 

“Butter and salt?” she asks innocently. 

“For a ha’penny? Don’t push yer luck.” 

As he hands over the plain fare, she fumbles the coin. The tiniest flick of her thumb sends it skittering into a gutter, his attention trapped on its progress. By the time he has retrieved it, mumbling sourly, Ned has pounced and vanished, melting into the crowd. He moves slickly for a big lad, even one cradling stolen potatoes in an untucked shirt. 

“Sorry. Butterfingers.” Vi smiles, savouring the spud’s warmth as she heads home.

This opening case belongs on the reading lists of mystery lovers who prefer amateur investigators with limited means, sharp social observation, and allies drawn from beyond polite society. The partnership between Kate Quill and Frederick Page should appeal especially to those who enjoy contrasting sleuths: one practical and accustomed to improvisation, the other precise, puzzle-minded, and deeply conscious of proper forms of address. 

The East End ensemble offers another point of entry for readers who value found-family dynamics and supporting characters with active roles in an investigation. Those drawn to Victorian London will find both grand houses and crowded streets represented, while the séance, wrongful suspicion, and closed circle of aristocratic attendees provide the structure of a classic whodunit viewed from an uncommon social angle.

Ellis Blackwood writes very British historical mysteries: fiendish whodunits packed with singular characters, vivid period detail and plenty of wit. His completed nine-book Samuel Pepys Mysteries series is set in 17th century London. He is currently working on the Quill & Page Victorian Mysteries, featuring a found family of East End misfits investigating the crimes of the upper classes who cast them out. 

A former journalist, Ellis wrote features for the UK's most popular national newspapers and magazines before escaping to Cornwall with his wife, two daughters and Spike the dog. He holds an MA in Comedy Writing, which explains a lot. 

He grew up on The Hardy Boys and Three Investigators, graduated to Sherlock Holmes, and has never quite recovered from Columbo. He prefers writing female sleuths, with the odd chap thrown in, and is firmly convinced that historical settings are simply more fascinating. 

“Absolutely fabulous, reek of authenticity, full of intrigue and fun” – Amazon review of the Samuel Pepys Mysteries

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Kate Quill’s first case is built around more than the question of who killed Lady Pemberton. It also asks what an accused seamstress can learn when respectable society refuses to take her seriously—and what becomes possible when the people dismissed by that society combine their particular talents. The séance supplies the phantom, but the sharper tension lies in watching Kate and her unconventional circle challenge a version of events already accepted by those with authority. 

The Whitechapel excerpt makes the series’ intentions especially clear: the lives below stairs and beyond the grand squares are not incidental to the mystery. They are where the partnership, humor, and methods of detection take shape. For readers intrigued by a class-conscious Victorian puzzle with an ensemble of resourceful outsiders, The Belgravia Phantom offers a promising introduction to the Quill & Page investigations.

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