The South May Win the Civil War in "A Rebel in Time"

A REBEL IN TIME, Harry Harrison, Tor, 1983, paperback, 315pp.

This is a time travel book and you can guess the gimmick just from the title and cover art.  So you are several steps ahead of the good guys but you are still pulled along, wondering just how this will play out.  How will they catch on to Colonel Wesley McCullough's plan?  How will they figure out how he makes his one-way trip through time?  That occupies the first half of this fast-reading novel.

By the time you reach the second half, you find yourself trailing investigator Sergeant Troy Harmon, wondering how he will answer the questions that occur to the reader. Will Sergeant Harmon, who is black, dare pursue McCullough on a one-way trip to the pre-Civil War South, of all places?  Is McCullough waiting for him?   How can Harmon possibly accomplish his mission?  And just what is McCullough's incredible and insane history-changing plan?  Will he change time?  Can he change time? 

The story is solid and moves irresistably forward.   Harrison answers the questions raised while telling his tale which plays around with one of those big what-ifs of history always very popular in science fiction.

There's even a nice little personal twist for Harmon in the end.

The noted author of many science fiction classics, Harry Harrison is probably best known to the mainstream reader for writing "Make Room, Make Room" which was the basis of the Charlton Heston movie, Soylent Green  ("Soylent Green is people). He also created the popular science fiction series character, the Stainless Steel Rat.

Even if you don't care for science fiction, you may find yourself enjoying this book. It is not a nuts and bolts space opera with a distant or even a near-future setting.

The setting for the first half of the book, as you should realize by now, is the mundane present-day while the second half shifts to the historical pre-Confederate South.  Nary a spaceship to be found.

It starts prosaically with a red flag going up when McCullough, the officer in charge of security at a secret government lab, is found to be acting out of character... especially  when he goes Goldfinger, buying up gold, even mortgaging his house to build up his supply.

Nothing illegal about that, but his behavior changes do make him look suspicious and worthy of a quick investigation rather than chance later recriminations.   Harmon is assigned and the plot, as they suggest, thickens.

Murders occur and McCullough seems pretty clearly to be the suspect who hasn't even done much to cover his culpability.   But he and his gold disappears.  Investigators want to know where and are understandably confused.

That's more than enough detail. If you come across it at a yard sale, pick it up. Or check Half.com, Amazon, or eBay for this out of print book.