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  "...I could not put this book 
   down. It is gripping..."
   --- Patrick Cloonan,
   Daily News Staff Writer,
   McKeesport, Pennsylvania     

   
  "...rambunctious, fantastic 
   historical novel."
   --- Steve Donoghue,
   OpenLettersMonthly.com   

   
  "...it fleshes out [Potter's]  
   life in most convincing detail
   ...a fine read, and a worthwhile
   book for lovers of good fiction."
   --- Dr. Al Past for PODGRAM    

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Major Andre smiled in his most private and bemused fashion; it was the manner that Israel had come to recognize as his most dangerous.

"Your analysis is accurate, Bradfille. Washington is all that remains of the rebel cause in the field. His absence, in whatever form, will ensure its total destruction."

Still, Israel did not see it until he weighed every qualifying word that Andre had spoken. A poet, he was always careful of his phrasing.

"In whatever form, sir?"

"Yes," said Andre. "We shall of course attempt to take him alive."

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A complimentary copy of Gone Over is available to qualified reviewers. Email the information below to mary@foremostpress.com

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About this Book

Who subverted Benjamin Franklin, Benedict Arnold, and brought everything but the war to a successful conclusion for King George III?

His name is Israel Potter, a great American who happened to be working for British Intelligence. Gone Over is a no-holds barred story of deep cover espionage that has never been told in the way it really happened.

High drama, below-the-belt action, a hidden world of intrigue and a wealth of famous and fascinating characters make this a must-read for every man or woman who thinks they know how freedom was won. And all the things that were lost, never to be returned.

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About the Authors

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Feel free to use all or part of the following, and edit to suit. This content was prepared for your use. We ask no acknowledgement of any kind.

Gone Over is a daring reinterpretation of the thrice-told story of Israel Potter. Herman Melville had a turn at this Revolutionary War biography, but David Chacko and Alexander Kulcsar go far beyond anything previously attempted. Based on in-depth research into the life of Potter and the men around him, it presents a comprehensive look at the panoply of the secret War of Independence.

Potter’s life as presented by his biographer Henry Trumbull is a pastiche of faux reality that Chacko and Kulscar have turned into a fascinating character study of an espionage agent present at every important moment deep inside British Intelligence. From the beginning in England where as a prisoner he is forcibly recruited by the spymaster Paul Wentworth, Potter is trained as an agent of penetration. He begins his career by infiltrating the network of the Friends of America in England, gaining the trust of men like John Horne—a great, largely unknown figure of the time—who unwittingly assist Potter in pursuit of his ultimate object—the American Commissioner in France, Benjamin Franklin.

Franklin in turn introduces Potter to Edward Bancroft, who was without doubt the most successful double agent in the history of espionage. Working in close tandem, these two deftly manipulate the work of the American commission. This includes their participation in the peripatetic workings of the British stock market and its close correlation with the events of the war. Self-interest and espionage meld seamlessly in exciting excursions into the high finance of The City.

The wealth of famous characters in the novel is expertly handled by the authors with fine descriptive passages and dialogue that is as authentic as it is relentlessly alive. From King George III to the lowest denizens of Exchange Alley, no character is left unexplored or less than finely realized. When the story shifts to America, the cast of characters grows larger and more compelling.

The shifting sequence of events in America centers around the subversion of its best fighting general, Benedict Arnold. His cultivation by Potter and Major John Andre is a juggernaut of action, sexual encounter and intrigue. Potter’s maturation as a man trapped in a fratricidal war, along with his consummate skills as an agent, are realized as few things are in tales of the Revolution. Not only is he involved with Arnold, but even more deeply with Arnold’s wife, the beautiful and dangerous Peggy.

Everyone knows how this story ends, but few know these outsized characters as alive and conflicted as they are in Gone Over. The inevitable American victory is set against chaos in England as Potter returns to his estranged wife and a country that has lost a great part of its future. Suffice to say that history has little use for superannuated spies, and that Israel Potter is a casualty of the trade he has learned so well. And of course the stock market crashes with a calamitous noise heard round the world. That rings true, too.

Gone Over was published by Foremost Press. It can be ordered through local bookstores and at ForemostPress.com, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.com.
ISBN 10: 0-9818418-8-0
ISBN-13: 978-0-9818418-8-5
446 pp, $18.97

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