In The Spider's Web, his first novel, Roth paints a chillingly realistic picture of the conspiracies of the radical right that were to undermine the Weimar Republic and pave the way for Hitler and National Socialism.

Continuing the story based on the brief, eventful and tragic life of Englishman William Reynolds and the parallel exploits of the furtive Atzerodt. Arriving in the bustling city of Baltimore, William is soon to realise his ambition to become a soldier. Following attestation in a Union Army Volunteer Regiment and initial encampment and preparations in the city, Reynolds' regiment is sent south to serve in the Gulf. Surviving a perilous sea journey he finds himself fighting his way through Louisiana...at Bisland...Port Hudson...Sabine Crossroads...Pleasant Hill. Wounded in battle and forced to leave the Army, Reynolds finds employment in a remote coal mining community in the mountains of Pennsylvania. Here he lodges with a Scots family who are all members of a temperance society and, out of respect, he too joins the Good Templars. Yet William finds that digging coal earns him insufficient wages to make ends meet and, after six months as a miner, service in the Union Army once more beckons.Come April 1865, in the aftermath of the momentous events at Ford's Theatre - the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln - fate decrees that Reynolds is set to lead a gruelling manhunt across rural Maryland. ..