Boxed Set III (Books 7, 8 & 9) – Local Author – Robert Lackey

Despot’s Heel – Book 7

The nation slips over the brink in 1860-1862. Compromises fail, drums of war rattle the soul of a nation tearing itself apart, and the Pulaski Family is pulled into the middle of it all. Ben and Sonja struggle in their commitment to keep the escaping slaves moving north, even under the military occupation of Maryland. Sons  Aaron and Isaac stand firm on their different paths. The horror of the Civil War explodes, driving Maryland and the nation into chaos.

Bloody Ground, Shallow Graves – Book 8

Ben and Sonja Pulaski are charged with sedition by the occupying Union Army’s Provost Marshal. They are sent as punishment to help bury the dead of the bloodiest war the world has seen. Son Isaac faces life with part of his body torn away, withdrawn with his wife and children far from the battlefield. Aaron is trapped in the South, an abolitionist amid the warring cries of slave owners, hiding with his southern wife and son, smuggling reports to his newspaper in Washington.  Alisha defends her station on the Underground Railroad while her husband fights in the South. The war drags thousands more young men to their deaths, millions of severed arms and legs pile onto monuments to horror. The tragedies of war wash over the nation. The Pulaskis struggle to uphold family and honor, in spite of it all.

Brutal Peace – Book 9

1865-70.  The bloody Civil War has finally ended, but angers of the conflict lingers within the family . The specters of the past slam into their lives with burdensome gifts holding dark legacies. The Pulaskis face personal tragedies, the hardships of reconstruction, the failures of the Freedmen’s Bureau, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, and the loss of family and friends! 

Robert Lackey is a native of Havre de Grace, Maryland. The area is rich in history and watershed culture, reaching back to the beginning of the country. Robert has been a writer, soldier, photographer, and administrator, but always comes back to his writing. Stepping outside of technical writing in 2005, he focused his alternate passion on understanding life along the canal, and the uniqueness of Maryland history. That passion for history evolved into the historical novel “Pulaski’s Canal”, set in 1841 Havre de Grace, published in 2014. He then continued the story within the novel series: The Pulaski Saga.

The novels follow a representative family, from the mid to latter 19^th century. The Pulaskis settle along the canal that passes daily between slave and free state, awakening them to the moral quandary of bondage versus humanity. From awakening to action, the husband and wife team face the real struggles of life in the 1800s while devoting more of themselves to helping runaway slaves escape north. As the years pass, their sons and daughter join them in the mission to do what they can, at a time when the country was tearing itself apart over slavery. The series exposes the reader to the actual national histories through the experiences of the Pulaskis. The author challenges the characters within that history by bold adventures, dangers in hate and war, and desperate searches for love, fundamental for a good read.