First published 2012
On Christmas 1905, a bomb explodes at the garden gate of Idaho's former governor, killing him instantly. The assassination sends shockwaves through a nation already torn between capital and labor. Pinkerton detective James McParland takes charge of the investigation and executes a bold plan to kidnap radical union leader "Big Bill" Haywood from Colorado to face trial in Idaho. The courtroom becomes a battleground between flamboyant prosecutor William Borah, a progressive senator, and Clarence Darrow, the young champion of the dispossessed. As the trial unfolds, the case draws in President Theodore Roosevelt and Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. The proceedings reveal a country caught between hope and fear as it enters the twentieth century. Railroad magnate E.H. Harriman, socialist Eugene V. Debs, actress Ethel Barrymore, and baseball star Walter Johnson move through a world where class warfare simmers beneath the surface, particularly in the raw, acquisitive West.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, mystery, crime, political-thriller, american-history
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Colorado, Idaho, United States
Period: 1905, 20th Century
880 pages · Kindle Edition · Simon & Schuster