The Corioli Affair by Mary Deasy is a historical novel set in the 1880s in the fictional river town of Corioli on a tributary of the Mississippi River. It tells the story of Lacey Dereen, a young Irish immigrant who becomes a schoolteacher and becomes entangled in a forbidden love affair with Captain Jed Dayton, a married steamboat captain. Their passionate relationship leads to scandal, the loss of Lacey’s position, and tragic consequences including a murder, a trial, and Jed’s eventual death while fleeing with Lacey. The narrative is framed as Lacey’s retrospective account years later, highlighting the dramatic events, social tensions, and moral complexities of love, loyalty, and reputation in the post-Civil War American South, focusing more on external drama than psychological depth.