Book excerpt: A fascinating, thoroughly researched historical novel of Haiti and Africa, and the early United States, outlining Haitians battle for freedom seen through the eyes of one man. It features Albion Hamlin, who comes to Boston in 1800 to defend a man accused of violating the Alien and Sedition Act. In a whirlwind of action, Hamlin is jailed, then escapes to Haiti in search of his client's daughter, Lydia Bailey, with whom he has fallen in love simply by gazing at her portrait.