The Civil War novel, BAKER'S DOZENTH, by Les Cole, stands up with the historical novels of our time. The American Civil War pitted brother against brother. In Baker's Dozenth, Jason Todd Wilder is pitted against himself. He is caught in the web of war, drawn there by President Abraham Lincoln. The president is concerned about the activities of spymaster Colonel Lafayette Baker, head of the new U.S. Secret Service. Jason goes undercover and recruits a highly educated ex-slave. Together, they face peril - arson, a drumhead court martial, enemy fire, a desperate chase out of Richmond, the Confederate capitol - that allows them to help preserve the Union. How Jason, a loyal Southerner, matures with Northern ideals occurs in the ambience of his parents' beliefs. More important, Jason discovers the meaning of hopeless love between two misfits - one black, one white - in the deep South just prior to the eruption of the Civil War. Rather than a Southern moonlight-and-magnolias setting, this novel explores the lesser known gritty, industrial sabotage aspects in the North; Southern attempts to burn Northern cities and destroy Lincoln's war-making capabilities. The Civil War tore at the hearts of all Americans. Baker's Dozenth will tear at your heart.