John Jakes, the author of over 60 books, including the eight-part Kent Family Chronicles, The North and South trilogy, and innumerable short stories of the American West, returns to the Civil War in the engrossing On Secret Service. The story of a war within a war on various levels-the North v. the South, the Union's Pinkerton Detective Agency v. the Confederacy's agent provocateurs, youthful idealism v. youthful lust-On Secret Service chronicles the lives and times of four young Americans, from the war's early tremors in January 1861, through its bloody conclusion, Lincoln's assassination, and John Wilkes Booth's murder in May 1865. "Jakes combines encyclopedic command of historical fact with unmatched storytelling. Carefully researched and filled with colorful characters who move in an authentic Washington atmosphere."-Booklist