In 1922, three of the Irish Republican Army’s top gunmen arrived in New York City seeking ven­geance. Their target: “Cruxy” O’Connor, a young Irishman who kept switching sides as revolution swept his country in the wake of World War I. Cruxy’s last betrayal dealt a stunning blow to Ireland’s struggle for independence — six of his IRA comrades were killed when he told police the location of their safe house outside Cork. A year later, the IRA gunned him down in a hail of bullets before a crowd of horrified New Yorkers at 84th Street and Central Park West. A #1 New Release in True Espionage on Amazon

Sensational tales of true-life crime, the devastation of the Irish potato famine, the upheaval of the Civil War, and the turbulent emergence of the American labor movement come together in a captivating exploration of the roots of the Molly Maguires. A secret society of peasant rebels in famine-era Ireland that re-emerged in Pennsylvania’s hard-coal region, the Mollies organized strikes, murdered mine bosses, and fought the Civil War draft. Their shadowy twelve-year duel with the all-powerful coal companies marked the beginning of class warfare in America.

My interest in Irish rebel gunmen in America began with the 1970 film “The Molly Maguires” – my mother came from a long line of Irish-American coal miners, and grew up in the Pennsylvania township where the Molly Maguires were born. A fleeting comment in a review of my first book, The Sons of Molly Maguire, led me to the amazing story behind Ambush at Central Park. I live outside New York with my family, two cats and about 500 books.