Five days after General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox, President Abraham Lincoln is mortally wounded by an assassin's bullet. Scattered Confederate forces ignore the armistice, determined to continue the Civil War despite the Union victory. American citizens, tired of years of bloodshed, want nothing more than to rebuild a country vulnerable to corruption and criminal enterprises. Disgraced ex-Deputy U.S. Marshal Gideon Ryder has been given a second chance to serve his country-as an agent of the newly created United States Secret Service. Assigned to investigate a smuggling ring operating out of Galveston Island on the Gulf Coast of Texas, Ryder must navigate his way through the population of immigrants, sailors, former slaves, and ex-Rebels to infiltrate a gang of outlaws more deadly and dangerous than the Secret Service could have imagined... FIRST IN A NEW SERIES