Two young cousins and their fathers become involved in events leading up to abolitionist John Brown's raid on the federal armory at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, in 1859.

An adventure that exposes the extremes of the abolitionist movement.

A man investigating treason is assassinated, and the case must be solved by a “brilliant and haunted Southerner” working for the Union Army (RP Dahlke, author of the Dead Red Mysteries). Cpt. Alphonso Clay had been summoned to meet John Brown—not that John Brown, but a former Boston detective recruited by Abe Lincoln to put his skills to work in the war effort. Brown has now ferreted out treachery among powerful military figures . . . but he’s killed before he can meet with Clay. Now Clay’s only hope is to decipher Brown’s cryptic notes and follow his deductive instincts to solve the murder, unmask the traitors, and ensure the Union’s victory at Vicksburg . . .

A New York Times Notable Book for 2011 A Library Journal Top Ten Best Books of 2011 A Boston Globe Best Nonfiction Book of 2011 Bestselling author Tony Horwitz tells the electrifying tale of the daring insurrection that put America on the path to bloody war Plotted in secret, launched in the dark, John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was a pivotal moment in U.S. history. But few Americans know the true story of the men and women who launched a desperate strike at the slaveholding South. Now, Midnight Rising portrays Brown's uprising in vivid color, revealing a country on the brink of explosive conflict. Brown, the descendant of New England Puritans, saw slavery as a sin against America's founding principles. Unlike most abolitionists, he was willing to take up arms, and in 1859 he prepared for battle at a hideout in Maryland, joined by his teenage daughter, three of his sons, and a guerrilla band that included former slaves and a dashing spy. On October 17, the raiders seized Harpers Ferry, stunning the nation and prompting a counterattack led by Robert E. Lee. After Brown's capture, his defiant eloquence galvanized the North and appalled the South, which considered Brown a terrorist. The raid also helped elect Abraham Lincoln, who later began to fulfill Brown's dream with the Emancipation Proclamation, a measure he called "a John Brown raid, on a gigantic scale." Tony Horwitz's riveting book travels antebellum America to deliver both a taut historical drama and a telling portrait of a nation divided—a time that still resonates in ours.

"An examination of the influence--however contested--of John Brown of the Harper's Ferry Rebellion on the national narrative of the United States"--Amazon.com.