1850 and America is violently divided on the issue of slavery. When
President Zachary Taylor dies, suddenly and under questionable
circumstances, it is left to his Vice President, Millard Fillmore, a
weaker man, to find ways to keep the North and the South apart.
In New York, child of Irish immigrants, Matthew O'Hanlon is fired from
his job as a newsman on the Herald but, surprisingly, finds work as
Foreign Correspondent for the Associated Press in Panama City. There he
is given accommodation with a Dr Couperin, his wife, and beautiful
daughter, Edith, but finds himself caught up with the secret agents
protecting America's commercial interests during the struggle for
control of Panama's trade routes and, as it crashes about him, realises
that he has been living in a house of cards. Set against the Gold Rush
and the opening up of California and the OregonTerritories, when the
United States walked a narrow and dangerous line, The Eagle Turns
charts the course of history as America's Secret Services struggle to
bring prosperity amid the conflict.
James Green is well known as the author of the Jimmy Costello crime
series, the first book of which, Bad Catholics, was short-listed for
the 2009 Crime Writers Association Dagger Awards.
A prolific writer, James, who is now working on the second of the
five-book series which begins with Another Small Kingdom, is married
and lives in Nottinghamshire.
