City of the Saints

Famous throughout the world for his search for the mysterious source of the Nile and his adventure as one of the first non-Muslims to visit the holy city of Mecca, author and explorer Richard F. Burton has turned his attention in the spring of 1860 to another remote outpost where the faithful have drawn together—the Mormon settlement of Utah. During a stop in Washington, Lord Lyons, the British minister, persuades Burton to travel to New Orleans to investigate a report that a former British subject is plotting an insurrection that will hasten the onset of the Civil War.

In a city consumed in talk of secession and war, Burton’s passions for studying culture and religion are aroused as he encounters the enigmatic Hartwell and his beautiful daughters. Marie Laveau and Doctor John at the height of their powers, and brilliant physicians are shaping the future of medicine at the country's largest hospital. Burton smashes the plot and solves a murder with the help of an eccentric trio of young men who help him to solve a murder as he learns more about their city and himself.