The Mercer Files

The Mercer Files is a sweeping alternate-history novel about war, ambition, family, and the terrible cost of becoming necessary.

In 1860, Elias Mercer is a former West Point officer who wants nothing more than to remain on his Tennessee farm with his wife, Ellen, and their children. But as the nation fractures and civil war reaches his doorstep, duty pulls him back into uniform.

What begins as a struggle to protect home becomes a journey across armies, causes, countries, and continents. Mercer serves the Confederacy, becomes a prisoner, crosses into Union command, and rises through a military machine transformed by new weapons, new tactics, and the influence of Christian Fullerton.

By 1875, Elias Mercer is a four-star general-respected, feared, and remembered by history. Yet every promotion carries him farther from the family he promised to return to.

Told through battlefield accounts, letters, interviews, official records, and the memories of those who knew him, The Mercer Files asks a haunting question:

What does it cost a man to become necessary?

A powerful addition to The Cave Chronicles, this is the story of the man behind the rank-the husband, the father, and the soldier who spent a lifetime searching for the road home.