A mysterious murder leads presidential aide Adam Quinn to a Confederate spy ring in this "clever mystery" by the New York Times–bestselling author (Kirkus Reviews). July 4, 1861. On Independence Day, the citizens of Washington, D.C., are celebrating as if the country hasn't gone to war. But the city is teeming with Union recruits, and President Lincoln is at work with his War Department on a military strategy that will bring the conflict to a swift end. Manassas, Virginia, near Bull Run Creek, is in their sights. As Congress convenes the next morning, a dead body is found hanging from the crane beneath the unfinished dome of the Capitol. Lincoln's confidant, Adam Speed Quinn, is called upon to investigate what he soon determines to be murder. Working with Dr. George Hilton and journalist Sophie Gates, the former scout finds himself up against a Confederate sympathizer running a female spy network. She has an...

Marina Alexander returns in a thrilling new mystery of international intrigue, lost treasures, and high-stakes adventure.The Lake Superior Basin, 2000 B.C.E.: Two hundred tons of raw copper are mined and removed by white-skinned strangers who leave behind a mystery of their own. Tunguska Siberia, 1908: The earth rumbles and roars, destroying everything in a thirty mile radius...except for an infant, miraculously left untouched. St. Louis, Missouri, Present Day: A far-reaching blackout brings the economy in the Midwest to a halt...and the only explanation is a swarm of rare beetles from the Amazon. Napo, Ecuador: The body of a Korean businessman, still dressed in his suit and loafers, is found in the Amazon jungle...with no indication of how he got there.

March 4, 1861: On the day of Abraham Lincoln's inauguration, the air is charged with hope and apprehension. The last thing anyone wants is any sort of hitch in the proceedings—let alone murder! Fortunately the president has young Adam Quinn by his side . . .At the inaugural ball, Lincoln's trusted entourage is on their guard. Allan Pinkerton, head of the president's security team, is wary of potential assassins. And Lincoln's oldest friend, Joshua Speed, is by his side, along with Speed's nephew, Adam Quinn—called back from the Kansas frontier to serve as the president's assistant and jack-of-all-trades.Despite the tight security, trouble comes nonetheless. A man is found stabbed to death in a nearby room, only yards from the president. Not wishing to cause alarm, Lincoln dispatches young Quinn—instead of the high-profile Pinkerton—to discreetly investigate.Could the proximity of the murder possibly be a coincidence? Or is the crime...

April 13, 1861: Rebel troops are across the Potomac River, only 800 feet from the White House and President Lincoln—but a murderer is even closer . . . With the Confederate Army firing on Fort Sumter, the Civil War has begun—and an invasion of Washington, DC, from Secessionist Virginia seems imminent. As the population evacuates, the President is in desperate need of men to defend the capital. Lincoln's trusted aide, Adam Speed Quinn, and Quinn's old friend from the Bloody Kansas conflict, Senator Jim Lane, hastily assemble a motley crew of just over a hundred men and garrison them in the East Room at the White House itself. Dubbed the Frontier Guard, these rough-and-tumble patriots steel themselves for the inevitable attack. But even as dawn breaks with no Rebel strike, a single act of violence intrudes within the White House. One of the Frontier Guard lies dead in the oval library, throat slit ear to...