In this dazzling debut, Taylor M. Polites crafts a Southern gothic novel that mines classic literary archetypes while shaping them in new ways. Set in Reconstruction-era Alabama, The Rebel Wife opens with Augusta Branson losing her husband to a terrible blood fever. Now she and her son must fend for themselves in a community being destroyed by violence. When the inheritance she expected suddenly disappears, Augusta starts hunting for answers, but she'll have to find them fast-before the deadly fever claims the life of everyone in town, including her son.