Bright Morning Star — Tom Coffey

Bright Morning Star is set in a familiar but faraway country -- the United States in the early 1900s. The novel's protagonist, Emma Pierce, is the quintessential “new woman” of the times. Talented and sharp, she is the confidante and “right hand man” to her father, the head of the prestigious Seneca Institute. Here she writes speeches and letters for her father, and mingles with the great leaders and thinkers of the day, from Theodore Roosevelt to Mark Twain, and struggles to balance her father's expectations with her growing sense of independence. This balance is tested when she meets Caleb Johnson, the charismatic son of a revivalist preacher, whose views on religion are anathema to her father's free-thinking sensibilities.  The test proves to be too much, and Emma finds herself estranged from her father, separated from Caleb, and embarking on an ambitious new career as a magazine writer in New York. It is there that her skills come to serve her best. Emma is assigned to cover the case of a soldier returning to America from the war in the Philippines. He has been court-martialed for violent crimes against civilians and faces a 20-year prison sentence. But the case is personal -- the convicted soldier is Caleb Johnson, who is refusing to talk about the events that resulted in his conviction, and Emma, as determined as ever, vows to discover what led this honorable man to commit atrocities. 

Tom Coffey... Tom Coffey's first novel, THE SERPENT CLUB, was published in 1999 and earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly. His second novel, MIAMI TWILIGHT, was published in 2001, and his third novel, BLOOD ALLEY, came out in hardcover in 2008, and in paperback and e-book editions in 2012. BLOOD ALLEY also earned a starred review from PW. Tom has been a member of the Mystery Writers of America since 1999. A graduate of the Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University, Tom has been a staff editor at The New York Times since 1997. He has also worked for New York Newsday, The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and The Miami Herald. He lives in Lower Manhattan with his wife and daughter.