Overwhelmed by this revelation, Pope Brock went to Indiana to conduct extensive research. In "Indiana Gothic" he tells the story of Ham Dillon as a sweeping, powerful novel, re-creating the era in such vivid detail that it feels like time-travel. We first see the young Ham Dillon -- handsome, charismatic, ambitious -- as he courts Maggie Thompson, the daughter of a well-to-do farmer. A few years later, after their marriage in 1898, Ham comes into the orbit of Maggie's sister, Allie, who is locked in a joyless marriage to the depressive Link Hale. A red-hot passion erupts between Ham and Allie, and soon thereafter the truth comes out and tragedy ensues -- culminating in the high drama of Link's sensational murder trial, which made headlines for its controversial use of the insanity plea.

Atmospheric and gripping from first page to last, "Indiana Gothic" is a breathtaking saga of an American past that is both forever lost and strangely, startlingly, familiar.