Carl Hinman didn’t murder his wife; someone set him up. In the winter of 1846, Detroit authorities found Claire’s frozen corpse in an open field, bludgeoned and stabbed. Two tracks of snowy footprints led into the field, but only one came out—and they were just Carl’s size. More damning were the funeral arrangements made before the murder, with Carl’s signature appearing on the bank draft. Fearing his capture would leave his young daughter parentless, he packs her up and flees.

Carl reemerges in a small Ohio farming community, planning to raise his daughter and forget the past. But it’s not to be. Claire’s father returns from the sea demanding justice, and when Carl’s daughter becomes desperately ill, her only chance for recovery rests with a doctor back home. He must return with her to Detroit, risking capture and prison. There, Claire’s father is waiting for him.

SHUN THE HEAVEN, a 77,000-word historical mystery, goes deep into the lives of people inhabiting a world very different from our own. The cast ranges from the ordinary to the exotic, from farmers and sailors to a confidence man and his diminutive assistant, from freak-show performers to a feisty former slave.