After Lycurgus (Surge) Sherwood is wounded by a gunman at a tent revival meeting, he and his companions seek refuge at the home of Owen Lovejoy, famed abolitionist whose Princeton, Illinois, home was the headquarters of the Underground Railroad in the West. When Surge sets out to find who shot him, he discovers corruption and malfeasance not only among outlaws, but among those sworn to uphold the law.

John Spencer is a retired neuropsychologist. He has published one other novel, and one non-fiction, Complementary and Alternative Medicine: An Evidence Based Approach. He lives in San Antonio, Texas with his wife, Patricia.