The Spectrum — Gary Link

The long-awaited sequel to The Burnt District! In December of 1846 the United States is at war. Parading soldiers and military bands fill Pittsburgh's streets with martial airs. But the dead bodies turning up in the city's back alleys have nothing to do with battle. The victims are the poorest of the poor, the flotsam and jetsam from the shores of Europe. City Constable John Parker is again at odds with his boss, High Constable Abraham Butler, about who is doing the killing and why. Butler believes the murders to be directly related to the warriors from the East who fill his city. Parker suspects the answer may lie in a different battle, a dark struggle within America itself, the outcome of which will determine the identity of a nation. But if Parker is to find the killer and prevent more deaths, he must first take seriously warnings that he, now, has become the target.