The Author's Talk Show with Jeff Andrews (historical fiction novelist)

Jeff Andrews is a published author of two works of historical fiction.

His first novel is The Freedom Star.

A 99,000-word historical novel immerses readers in the lives, dreams, and sufferings of two families, one slave and one master, bound together by the tobacco fields of South Boston, Virginia.

Isaac yearns for the freedom that Henry McConnell, his friend and owner’s son, takes for granted. After false promises, failed escapes, imprisonment, and the sting of his master’s whip, Isaac’s only hope of fleeing slavery and reuniting with the woman he loves lies in accompanying Henry and the Confederates on their march north. When Yankees wound Henry and take him prisoner, Isaac finds himself behind the Union lines, free, but with a choice: continue north toward his dream or return to slavery to save his friend.

His second novel is The Gandy Dancer.

His career is on the rocks. His ex-wife is demanding more money. A woman he can’t even remember accuses him of fathering her child. Newspaper reporter Mitch Corsini shrugs and takes another drink. However, when his estranged teenaged daughter mysteriously disappears, his life finally has a purpose: find the child he's neglected for too long and rekindle the love they once shared.   

Mitch’s quest takes him to the Virginia mountains and his ancestral home. There, he finds himself locked in a life or death struggle to save his daughter as seventy-year-old family secrets and the fate of a long-forgotten railroad worker combine to shatter the very foundations of his world.

The Gandy Dancer weaves parallel story lines, one modern, one set in the 1930s. Readers familiar with The Freedom Star might appreciate the appearance of Isaac’s descendants in this fast-paced 80,000-word novel.