King of America: War was Only Half the Battle

In the early 1800s a beautiful, rebellious American teenager was seduced and later abandoned by the spoiled, ambitious youngest brother of Napoleon I. Little did anyone realize at the time that the scandal, one of the most highly publicized of the 19th Century, would set in motion a chain of events that a half-century later would threaten to change the future of the world.

"King of America" tells the forgotten story of how this scorned woman and her offspring were pulled into a plot to turn the tide of the bloody American Civil War. It posits how two sons of American privilege, Henry Adams, the grandson of Presidents, and Cassius Clay, one of the most hated of Southern anti-slavery abolitionists, join forces to foil the scheme.

The novel combines the "coming of age" story of a 19th Century beauty's painful lessons in love and seduction, with the violent "buddy" adventure of two diametrically different American patriots, who learn mutual respect while trying to foil the evil plot. It deals with the earliest days of the Civil War, when the brain trust behind the Confederate government realize their only chance of winning secession is to secure the military support of a foreign ally. France and its Emperor, Napoleon III, emerge as the best hope to extend aid and recognition, which is how a family of American Bonapartes are brought into the intrigue.

"King of America" provides a believable, well-researched scenario for how the Confederate offer was made and how it was foiled. Americans know the details of the Civil War, but "King of America" tells the story they don't know, the foreign intrigue and diplomacy that had as much to do with the outcome of that war as any battle.