This is a well written and extremely well researched novel of the post-colonial period in American history. Ethan Saunders is a former spy with Washington’s army who finds himself wrongly disgraced at the end of the Revolutionary War and has fallen into a pit of despair for failing at every attempt to clear his name. Concurrently, Joan Maycott, the wife of a handsome, wounded veteran of the same conflict attempts, along with her husband, to establish a new life on the western frontier, which is to eventually become the Pennsylvania-Ohio boarder. Her exposure to the brutal conditions and life or death struggles of everyday life, give us insight into how difficult survival must have been. These two marvelous characters eventually cross paths but along the way America’s early history is brought to life. The origins of the country’s struggling economic system, and political conflicts to make the new country evolve and become shaped by totally different political points of view provide perspective into the antipathy that goes on to this day. I must admit I was struck by the fact that contemporaries of the framers of the Constitution were often no more certain of its interpretation then, than is often the case today. It gives a fresh position from which to view the term “Strict Constitutional Constructionists”. An exciting read with action and adventures from beginning to end.