The Last Days of Night

New York, 1888. Gas lamps still light the streets, and electric light is new enough that whoever controls it stands to make history and a vast fortune. Paul Cravath, a young lawyer just out of Columbia Law School, has never tried a case of any weight.

His client is George Westinghouse, whom Thomas Edison has taken to court. The dispute is worth a billion dollars and turns on two points: who invented the light bulb, and who has the right to power the country. Edison is a wily, dangerous opponent. Spies work for him, newspapers answer to him, and J. P. Morgan backs him.

The case draws Paul into high society, from glittering parties in a Gramercy Park mansion to darker dealings behind closed doors. In his obsessive push to win, he crosses paths with Nikola Tesla, an eccentric inventor who may hold the key to beating Edison. He also meets Agnes Huntington, an opera singer who performs flawlessly on stage and off.

This is historical fiction based on actual events, told as a legal and business contest with a thriller's edge. Paul takes bigger and bigger risks, and the people around him are each playing a game of their own. Nobody is quite who they seem.