A Civil War Spy ... a Temptress, a Villain, a Mission. A “potent historical thriller of a Union reporter uncovering a Confederate plot.” —BookLife Review, Editor's Pick The spring of 1861 , and President Lincoln has just been elected. Southern states are seceding, and the country sits on the precipice of civil war. Newspaperman John Gage travels to Charleston, South Carolina, where the first battle will soon be fought. Sent there as a spy, Gage also seeks answers about lingering personal issues: a love lost five years earlier and the emerging links of his family’s company to the Confederacy. In Charleston, with the help of an enigmatic woman of society and an escaping slave desperate to reunite with his family, Gage learns of a Confederate plot to seize the nation’s capital, a plot so connected to his family’s company that his mother’s life may be in jeopardy. But before he can return to Washington City, his secret mission is discovered resulting in his arrest and quick conviction. Gage is sentenced to death, and it appears all might be lost. From the despair and hope of the slave camps to the gala affairs of Southern society, from the harrowing battle for Fort Sumter to the contentious strategy sessions of Lincoln's cabinet, Saving Washington City tells the story of the opening stages of the Civil War as the book's characters cross paths with notable historic figures such as Lincoln, General P.G.T. Beauregard, and Kate Warne, the country’s first female private detective. Aikman's suspenseful storytelling blends historical detail, sharp pacing, and bursts of action (complete with cannonballs), capturing the era’s essence by contrasting the gritty industrial landscape with the lives of slaves and the opulent ballrooms of Charleston . . . . Aikman’s story is both exciting and illuminating, leaving a lasting impression of not just the triumphs and tragedies of the Civil War era but of the textures of living. Aikman conveys the enduring nature of human connection as a nation fights for its soul, as well as lives caught in moral and ethical turmoil.— BookLife Review, Editor's Pick A " potent historical thriller of a Union reporter uncovering a Confederate plot . Set in the tense days before the civil war, this thoughtful historical thriller from Aikman (author of All Things Touch ) centers on Major John Gage, a resourceful Union officer and newspaperman, dispatched from Washington, which is seething with fear of traitors and rumors of assassination plots, to Charleston in the just-seceded state of South Carolina. There, as he gathers intelligence and faces some personal concerns including long-gone love and his mother's remarriage, he makes a jolting discovery: a Confederate scheme to take Washington, that incidentally will jeopardize the life of someone close to him. Gage's navigation of the complexities of the era will be tense and dangerous--the novel opens with him facing imminent execution in a Confederate jail--as he faces deception, treachery, and unlikely alliances in his mission to save Washington City. With swift but engaging prose, Aikman conjures a fraught milieu and offers insight into the political and strategic landscape. Gage interacts with high-profile real-life figures, all convincingly drawn, as is the invented Gus, an escaped slave, whom Gage befriends and, in a heart-stopping encounter, shares the terror of life on the run. Gage's personal life is also deftly handled, especially his strained relationship with his brother, Aramis Gage, and moments of intimacy and confrontations with one-time love Jacqueline Cordele. Gage confronts his past and, with the help of private detective Kate Warne, the 'dread' of the nation's near future. Aikman's suspenseful storytelling blends historical detail, sharp pacing, and bursts of action (complete with canonballs), capturing the era's essence by contrasting the gritty industrial landscape with the lives of slaves and the opulent ballrooms of Charleston. Aikman's story is both exciting and illuminating, leaving a lasting impression of not just the triumphs and trgedies of the Civil War era but of the textures of living. Aikman conveys the enduring nature of human connection as a nation fights for its soul, as well as lives caught in the moral and ethical turmoil."-- BookLife Review, Editor's Pick . A dedicated student of history, John Randall Aikman is a former attorney, business executive, and adjunct professor. He lives in Westfield, Indiana, with his wife, Judith. This is his second novel, the first being the sweeping nineteenth-century saga of the fictional Markim and Reynolds families entitled All Things Touch: a Saga of the American West .