Posted June 14, 2004 The Garden of Martyrs A Novel by Michael C. White St. Martin's Press, New York An excerpt from the jacket: "A meticulously researched and richly drawn portrait . . . Michael C. White has delivered a historical novel of lasting contemporary resonance."  A. Manette Ansay, author of Vinegar Hill   "What strikes me most about this wonderful novel . . . is the authenticity of place and character." Anita Shreve, author of The Pilot's Wife   "Painstakingly researched, expertly told, The Garden of Martyrs is a gripping, wonderful novel." Roland Merullo, author of Revere Beach     St. Martin’s Press is proud to announce the publication of Michael C. White's fourth novel, The Garden of Martyrs, a powerful story set in early Nineteenth Century New England.  Richard Russo has said that it is "everything a historical, or any novel should be--rich in its characters and setting, compelling in its drama, and utterly true in its deepest emotions and ideology," while Anita Shreve has called it "an absorbing and engrossing novel by one of our finest novelists writing today."  It involves the trial and execution of two men wrongly accused of a cime.   "In 1806 two Irish immigrants, Dominic Daley and James Halligan, were hanged for murder: it took nearly 200 years for the state of Massachusetts to proclaim their innocence. White, who captured Boston Irish Catholicism in The Blind Side of the Heart (1999), takes the historical characters in this story and weaves a novel around them. Heading each chapter with quotes from primary documents, he reveals the intense anti-Catholic prejudice of nineteenth-century Boston. The French priest Father Cheverus must weigh his superior's fear of offending local officials against the great need of the accused for spiritual succor. We know just how badly this will go, as White spins out the tales of Daley and Halligan, their histories and families, and that of Father Cheverus."  Booklist     The book is available in bookstores and on Amazon.com.  If you would like to interview Michael White or have him come to speak to your group, he can be reached at (413) 596-6645 or by email at mcwhite1023@aol.com.  You may visit his website at www.michaelcwhite.com.