Overview

As the Civil War rages, a man and his regiment of former slaves risk their lives for freedom in the second novel from the author of The Lies That Bind.   2017 Missouri Writers Guild Historical Fiction Award Winner   After fleeing Mississippi and the destruction of DarkHorse plantation, Durksen Hurst, his fiancÉe, Antoinette, and a band of freed slaves have reached the North, where they are plunged into a gale-force storm of violence and retribution. On the Missouri-Kansas border, neighbor has turned against neighbor as bushwhackers wreak havoc across the land. Desperately wanting to fight to free their people, Durk’s Black comrades urge him to try to form a cavalry regiment. Never one to back down from a challenge—and always one to skirt the law—Durk succeeds.    Following their every move is Devereau French, thirsting for revenge after what happened in Mississippi. Meeting up with Confederate guerilla leader William Quantrill, French convinces him to raid Lawrence, Kansas, where Durk and his men are training. The plan works better than expected: After the bloody massacre, Durk and Antoinette are arrested as suspected spies. To save themselves from the hangman’s noose, Durk must pull every trick he can think of—and some he could never have imagined . . .   “A pulse-pounding journey of desperate men and women caught up in the merciless forces of hatred and fear that tear worlds apart, and the healing power of friendship to bring them together.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch   “A simply riveting read . . . will leave enthralled readers looking eagerly toward the concluding volume Something in Madness.” —Midwest Book Review  

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Ed Protzel grew up in St. Louis, the son of a Jewish father and a part-Cherokee mother. For a time he lived in an orphanage when his parents divorced, and left home after high school to live in St. Louis’s bohemian Gaslight Square entertainment district. These experiences gave Protzel a unique perspective, which is reflected in the traits of many of his fictional characters: outsiders and gamesters—male or female—on lonely quests, seeking justice, love, and fulfillment against society’s blindness. ​Protzel began writing both novels and screenplays while in college, working on them in his spare time while employed in securities management. He kept writing as he moved around the United States. He did some freelance work for 20th Century Studios and completed several original screenplays, one of which was optioned by a producer. But Protzel couldn’t abide what he calls Hollywood’s “hyper-Darwinism,” so he enrolled in grad school at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where he earned his master’s in English and creative writing.

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