Best known as an acclaimed writer of crime fiction, author Dennis Lehane has written a historical epic set in Boston at the end of WWI. Police officer Danny Coughlin, the latest in a long line of cops, is a fresh face on the force and anxious to impress his father. Thus, he agrees to go undercover to infiltrate a group of anarchists involved in labor strikes. As Danny penetrates this underground world, however, he befriends people--such as a beautiful Irish immigrant and a black servant-turned-criminal--who force him to re-evaluate his beliefs. Incorporating real historic events, such as the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic and the 1919 Boston police strike, Lehane "captures the sense of a country coming of age".