Boston, Buffalo, the Canadian border, 1865–1866. The Civil War is over, but for David H. Crowley, a Cork-born veteran of the Fighting 69th, the peace feels more dangerous than the war. Recruited into the Fenian Brotherhood — the secret society plotting to strike Britain by invading Canada — Crowley finds a cause built on real grievance: famine, eviction, and generations of a homeland's suffering. But he's also been quietly placed inside it by George Bliss and the fledgling U.S. Secret Service, tasked with reporting on the very brotherhood that has claimed his loyalty.
As Fenian regiments mass for the Ridgeway campaign and a parallel plot forms near Pigeon Hill, Crowley is pulled deeper into a world of coded ledgers, dead drops, and men who speak the language of patriotism while counting the profits of betrayal. He begins to see what no rifle can show him: that the most dangerous enemies of a just cause are rarely the ones fighting against it — they're the ones fighting from inside it, for money, protection, and control.
Grounded in Crowley's real 1930 obituary, congressional testimony, and the documented history of the Fenian raids, The Fenian Ledger is a prequel in spirit to Truth Buried in the Dust, tracing the making of the man who would later stand alone against Tammany Hall. Long before he learned to read a city's corruption, David Crowley had to learn to read a cause's — and to survive what he found in the ledger no one was supposed to see.
The Fenian Ledger is Book Two of The Crowley Ledger Series.
“This is a deeply rewarding novel, but it does ask a lot of you. The cast is huge and the historical detail is incredibly thorough, and there were moments when that level of precision slowed the pace for me. Still, Crowley’s story is compelling, and the writing is consistently strong enough to keep pulling you forward. It’s the kind of book that wants your full attention, and if you give it that, it pays you back in a big way. For me, it lands at four stars as a reading experience, but it genuinely feels like a five-star accomplishment.”
— Jeff Schein
A book by
Donald I. Zebe is a Long Island native, Idaho State University graduate, and commercial real estate veteran who spent fourteen years uncovering his great-great-grandfather's secret war against Tammany Hall. He lives in Pocatello, Idaho, with his wife Cyndee, two sons, and seven grandchildren.
Donald I. "Don" Zebe was born in 1954 in the Bronx, New York, raised in a proud Irish-American family that still spoke in hushed awe about their Civil War ancestor. After Idaho State University and a long corporate career, Don is now semi-retired in Pocatello, Idaho.
He shares his life with Cyndee, his wife of 46 years, and is grateful that their children Mike and Jared, along with their wives and grandchildren, all call the same town home.
That same family pride — the stories passed down at the dinner table — eventually became more than just folklore to Don. A passing mention of a Civil War ancestor grew into a years-long pursuit to uncover the truth behind the family legend. What he found surprised him at every turn: a man far more complex, far more consequential, and far more human than the whispered stories had ever let on. The deeper Don dug, the more he realized this was not just his family's story — it was a piece of American history that deserved to be told. And with grandchildren of his own now growing up in the same town, the desire to preserve that truth, to hand them something real rather than a faded rumor, became the force that wouldn't let him stop.
Through pension files, Secret Service records, and long-forgotten trial transcripts, Don spent years chasing a story that history had nearly buried. What emerged was a portrait of David H. Crowley that no family legend could have predicted — a life that touched some of the most dramatic moments of the Civil War era and deserved far more than silence.