Murder echoes off the rugged peaks of the Cutthroat Mountains in the Pacific Northwest and shatters the complacency of guests at Slate Creek Lodge. For one of those guests the death of a colleague brings the emptiness of his own life into sharp relief. As far as Donald McLure can see trading the life of a forensic pathologist in Scotland for that of an academic in the USA has been a mistake. Despite the outward appearance of success he feels unfulfilled. He doesn't belong in this country. His work is esoteric. His wife spends increasing amounts of time abroad and is even more distant when she is at home. The only accomplishments that give him any comfort are the security and happiness of his three kids. Although excluded from the official investigation, Donald is fascinated by the details of this ruthlessly planned murder. When his son's ex-girlfriend is accused of the crime he launches himself on a quest to exonerate the young woman. Following threads and inconsistencies that the police are ignoring he encounters evasion and half truths from the dead man's colleagues in Seattle and hostility from the residents of Slate Creek Valley. Beneath the tranquil veneer of rural life Donald encounters people more interested in a twenty-year-old murder that rocked the community than in this recent murder of an outsider. A family of faded aristocrats clings to the myths of bygone times. A bitter and twisted artist paints hostile pictures to offend the tourists. From the tightly wound innkeeper to a nest of anti-government zealots Donald's probing uncovers more about the old murder than the one he set out to solve. Goaded by a collusion of deceit he stumbles into mortal danger, confronts the killer, and faces up to the realities of his own life.

The author's first book, The 50th Pennsylvania's Civil War Odyssey, addressed the wartime journey of a regiment that fought in six Southern states. In this, his second Civil War tale, you follow the hardships faced by a regiment that fought in only two. It fought in McClellan's Virginia Peninsula Campaign and then, in its second major fight at Plymouth, NC in April 1864, the entire Union garrison was captured by General Hoke's Confederate forces. This book also focuses on a lucky lieutenant from Bedford, Pennsylvania, who escaped from rebel captivity with two companions and, with help from field slaves and Unionists in the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee, walked 250 miles in 42 days to Union lines. His regiment, the 101st Pennsylvania, was not so fortunate. Captured in April of 1864 in its entirety at Plymouth, NC, nearly half of its enlisted men perished in Confederate POW camps.

Getting the Message Through, the companion volume to Rebecca Robbins Raines' Signal Corps, traces the evolution of the corps from the appointment of the first signal officer on the eve of the Civil War, through its stages of growth and change, to its service in Operation DESERT SHIELD/DESERT STORM. Raines highlights not only the increasingly specialized nature of warfare and the rise of sophisticated communications technology, but also such diverse missions as weather reporting and military aviation. Information dominance in the form of superior communications is considered to be sine qua non to modern warfare. As Raines ably shows, the Signal Corps--once considered by some Army officers to be of little or no military value--and the communications it provides have become integral to all aspects of military operations on modern digitized battlefields. The volume is an invaluable reference source for anyone interested in the institutional history of the branch.

This work provides an organizational history of the maneuver brigade and case studies of its employment throughout the various wars. Apart from the text, the appendices at the end of the work provide a ready reference to all brigade organizations used in the Army since 1917 and the history of the brigade colors.