Image in the Looking Glass By Jacquelyn Cook
Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan 1986

"Image in The Looking Glass", by Sumter County author Jacquelyn Cook of DeSoto, is an inspirational novel of Civil War days set in Andersonville during the days of the Confederate Prison.

The story is told through the eyes of Caroline Hannah, a young lady who is forced to leave Wesleyan Female College in Macon when the war financially ruins her father and the approach of Union forces makes the safety of the students questionable. Advised in a letter from her father to seek refuge on the plantation of her long-dead mother’s cousins, Looking Glass Plantation near Andersonville, she no sooner arrives there than she learns of the battlefield deaths of her father and her fiancé. Adding to her troubles is the knowledge that for some reason she cannot fathom, she is not truly welcome at Looking Glass Plantation. Subsequent incidents lead her to believe that someone on the plantation is actually trying to kill her. She feels desperately alone and frightened until she meets Lieutenant Jeremy Medlock, aide to Captain Henry Wirz, keeper of the nearby Confederate Prison. Her friendship and growing romantic feelings toward Jeremy give her an intimate look at the agony of both the suffering Union prisoners and the men in charge of the prison who are helpless to alleviate the deplorable conditions there.

Mrs. Cook has done her historical research well. She weaves an intriguing suspense story against an accurate background of what was going on in and around Andersonville during 1864 and '65. Caroline, Jeremy and cousins Sophronia and Penelope are fictional characters, but she uses in her story actual people from the history of Andersonville – Captain Wirz, Colonel Alexander Persons, the commander of Andersonville Prison preceding Wirz; Ben Dykes, Andersonville Post Master, Railroad Agent, grist mill operator, and owner of the land on which the prison was located; and Dr. B. J. Head of Americus who served at the inadequate prison hospital. Her sympathies are with controversial Captain Wirz, who because of the suffering and many deaths of Andersonville prisoners, was tried, convicted, and hanged for war crimes by the United States government. "Image in the Looking Glass" is the third book Cook has done for Zondervan. The first two, "The River Between" and "The Wind Along the River", are part of a trilogy set in the Eufaula area and concerned with a Chattahoochee riverboat captain and a young lady living with affluent relatives in one of Eufaula 's impressive townhouses in pre-Civil War days. The third Eufaula book, "River of Fire, is currently at the publishers.

A prolific writer, Jacquelyn Cook has contributed regularly to newspapers and magazines ranging from "Good Housekeeping" and "Home Life" to "Progressive Farmer". She has written two books of local history "From Violence To Love", the history of her hometown, DeSoto, Georgia, and "Tabernacle of Living Water", the history of the Methodist Church’s Dooly Campground near Vienna.

Cook is an active church member, officer, and Sunday School teacher. Of her spiritual theme in "Image in the Looking Glass", she says "A follower of Christ should not seek to be loved, but rather to give love. Forgetting self and showing Christ’s love to others is the secret to a happy life."