Secrets of a Civil War Submarine: 
Solving the Mysteries of the H.L. Hanley

 “This is a fine­ly craft­ed account of the Hun­ley from its incep­tion to the mod­ern archae­o­log­i­cal quest to exhume her from the water. It is divid­ed into chrono­log­i­cal chap­ters com­plete with pic­tures, maps, and pri­ma­ry sources. Half of the book dis­cuss­es the con­struc­tion and design of the sub­ma­rine, in addi­tion to its prac­tice runs and its first and only mis­sion. The sec­ond half con­sists of the process of locat­ing and exca­vat­ing the Hun­ley, as well as piec­ing togeth­er the puz­zle of exact­ly what hap­pened on that fate­ful night in 1864. The archae­o­log­i­cal process is well doc­u­ment­ed in both words and pic­tures, and the con­clu­sions are inter­est­ing and even sur­pris­ing. High­ly rec­om­mend­ed for school and pub­lic libraries.” (School Library Jour­nal, starred review)

 “Thor­ough­ly researched, nice­ly designed, and well illus­trat­ed with clear, col­or pho­tos, the book will serve as an infor­ma­tive guide to any­one inter­est­ed in the hun­ley or intrigued by archae­ol­o­gy.” (Book­list, starred review)

“Walk­er has tak­en a tough sto­ry to tell—and paint­ed it with grace, dig­ni­ty, and respect for all involved. She put flesh and blood to names that had been buried in history—and brought those names to life mag­nif­i­cent­ly. She objec­tive­ly presents a sto­ry through facts, fig­ures, and events/actions that will cre­ate deep emo­tion­al impres­sions upon read­ers. This is a mag­nif­i­cent book, one that adds an incred­i­bly impor­tant lay­er to the his­to­ry of this con­flict.” (Jef­frey Copeland, Uni­ver­si­ty of North­ern Iowa)