By: Dennis Lehane/Harper

Celebrated crime novelist Dennis takes on the historical genre to churn out a stunner, set in Boston at the end of WWI. US post war politics and morality come under his creative gaze as two families one black, one white are caught up in a maelstrom of revolutionaries, anarchists, immigrants, all battling for survival. In focus are beat cop Danny (striving to unionise Boston Police) and baseballer Luther Lawrence (a black man on the run from the mafia, striving to reunite with his pregnant wife). As their paths cross, we also meet historical figures like baseseller Babe Ruth, playwright Eugene O’Neill and US president Calvin Coolidge and reenter events such as the Spanish influenza of 1918 and the violent Boston police strike of 1919-all cameos that add a dash of authenticity to the very imaginative, very ambitious writing.

Hot Tip: A fiery read, with epic potential!