Short Synopsis
Set aboard a nineteenth-century riverboat theater, this is the moving, riveting story of a charmingly frank and naive seamstress who is blackmailed into saving runaways on the Underground Railroad, jeopardizing her freedom, her livelihood, and a new love.

Full Synopsis
It's 1838, and May Bedloe works as a seamstress for her cousin, the famous actress Comfort Vertue—until their steamboat sinks on the Ohio River. Though they both survive, both must find new employment. Comfort is hired to give lectures by noted abolitionist Flora Howard, and May finds work on a small flatboat, Hugo and Helena's Floating Theatre, as it cruises the border between the northern states and the southern slave-holding states.

May becomes indispensable to Hugo and his troupe, and all goes well until she sees her cousin again. Comfort and Mrs. Howard are also traveling down the Ohio River, speaking out against slavery at the many riverside towns. May owes Mrs. Howard a debt she cannot repay, and Mrs. Howard uses the opportunity to enlist May in her network of shadowy characters who ferry babies given up by their slave mothers across the river to freedom. Lying has never come easy to May, but now she is compelled to break the law, deceive all her new-found friends, and deflect the rising suspicions of Dr. Early, who captures runaways and sells them back to their southern masters.

"Warning: The Underground River
is a page-turner. Be prepared to stay up late reading, because once you start you won’t want to put it down." ---Amy Belding Brown, author of Flight of the Sparrow

"The Underground River is a riveting and atmospheric novel about slavery, betrayal and redemption." ---Louisa Treger, author of The Lodger

"A captivating, thoughtful, and unforgettable read." ---Kathleen Grissom, author of The Kitchen House

“Martha Conway's The Underground River is simply wonderful, a novel in which the women—good and bad—matter." ---Beverly Swerling, author of City of Dreams

"Twain had his Life on the Mississippi. Conway’s life on the Ohio makes you see the place, through May’s eyes, in all its muddy glory." ---New York Times

"Hillary Huber narrated the tale and did justice to the story. . . . Her timing and pacing allowed me to slip into the story easily and I will gladly listen to her again." ---Caffeinated Book Reviewer