Devil´s Den
“Provocative...Enjoyable!"* It's the early 1920s. Someone is killing old Civil War vets. Whatever for? Troubled young G-Man Seth Armitage is assigned by the Bureau to find the killer. Another mystery--why does the corrupt Harding administration care about these old soldiers, and why would they send a shell-shocked newbie to investigate? Green though he may be, Seth is much sharper than anyone bargained for. As he investigates this strange crime, the very forces that put him on the case seem to be obstructing it, and before he knows it he's running from the KKK, hounded by the ambitious young J. Edgar Hoover and entangled with a beautiful blond who may be much less innocent than she appears. A fast-moving and compelling historical thriller featuring meticulously researched real-life characters, Devil's Den brings to life that fascinating and emotionally rich period between WWI and WWII in America. The 1920s were roaring, both the Civil War and WWI still haunted living memories, and Prohibition was bootlegging its way in. For fans of historical fiction like Caleb Carr's The Alienist, and such nonfiction works as Erik Larson's Devil in the White City.
*Kirkus Reviews
Review by CW Historian (Civil War Historian):
A Feast For History Buffs AND Murder Mystery Buffs Both!
This page-turner combines two genres one would not think could coexist in a novel: the historical novel wrapped in a murder mystery. It takes place in the 1920's and is peopled by corrupt Warren Harding cronies as well as the up and coming sleazemeister, the young and ambitious assistant bureau of investigation director, J. Edgar Hoover. A young, smart FBI agent fresh off a horrific Ku Klux Klan infiltration and investigation is assigned to investigate why someone in 1923 is murdering octogenarian veterans of the Battle of Gettysburg, 60 years after the fact. Coincidentally, the young FBI-er's grandfather perished during Picketts Charge....as the agent walks the old Battlefield as part of his murder investigation, he---and you the reader----go back to that terrible afternoon of July 3rd when his Virginia-born grandfather is shot dead by a sniper, who, it turns out, was involved in a plot in 1863 so profound that it reaches to 1923 and threatens the Harding Administration. While it is definitely a book for history buffs, seamlessly going back and forth between the Civil War and 1920s Washington (one of the nation's sleaziest eras) it will please the murder mystery types too.....I couldn't put it down until I had learned "who done it" ....and more importantly, why. Give it a read....you won't be sorry!