Book
On Secret Service
First published 2000
As secession begins, former Pinkerton detective Lon Price enters Union intelligence while actress Margaret Miller becomes entangled with espionage and divided political sympathies. Confederate officer Frederick Dasher and actress Hanna Siegel form a second pair whose loyalties repeatedly place love, professional duty and personal survival in conflict.
The novel follows intelligence work from the early war through Richmond prisons, covert networks and the creation of federal secret services. Allan Pinkerton, Lafayette C. Baker and other historical figures appear as the story moves towards John Wilkes Booth’s conspiracy and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Espionage is presented as an improvised and often lawless struggle rather than a controlled contest of codes and disguises.
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