Theodore B. Thoben
During the early days of the American Revolution, enterprising young attorney Miles Carlton is disinterested in the rising conflict between his colonial brethren and their British overlords. Pledging loyalty only to the Boston law firm he represents, he chooses to remain impartial to the strife around him to focus on fine-tuning his career and perhaps salvage what once was between himself and his former lover Elizabeth. His plans are disrupted when he is assigned to embark on an expedition to Quebec to retrieve the daughter of a patriot client who has chosen to wed a British officer. Tasked with a mission where the risk far outweighs reward, he can no longer afford to remain unbiased as his journey leads him into the crossfire between the rebels and redcoats. Can a man with no allegiance find it within himself to honor a noble cause, or like the angels who remained neutral during Lucifer’s rebellion, is he condemned to stand for nothing? Theodore “Ted” Thoben’s journey began in Boston in the spring of 1932. While most others yearned for the discoveries of tomorrow, Ted would more often lament the quiet dignity of the history we had left behind—a time when we were closer to nature, when a correspondence was gracefully etched against parchment with a feathered quill, and the night sky was still the most wondrous of spectacles. Ted often kept his eyes on the skies, and after serving his country in post–World War II Germany, he spent time as a UFO investigator for NICAP. Always an enthusiast for history, his favorite pastime was painting panoramas of precolonized American landscapes and reading about the nation’s infancy. Ever the humblest of artists, he kept his dream of becoming a novelist private and sadly passed away in 2017 before witnessing the seeds of his stories bloom into print. Forever to be remembered for his open mind and tender heart, Ted left behind as many happy memories as he did words on the page.
