In Lincoln, Massachusetts-a Boston exurb of exquisite taste and understatement-one simply doesn't acknowledge the raw capitalism and the rank privilege that sustain the hot-house liberal sensitivities blooming there. Until Miranda, a woman of devastating wit and looks, enters town politics. Her goal is to force the right-thinking people of Lincoln to confront their hypocrisies, and ultimately, the cherished refinements that prevent them from beating back the barbarians gathering at their perfectly weather-worn, split-rail fences. As Miranda takes her cause from town hall to the governor's office, the reader, gliding in her slipstream, experiences a tour of life in the elegant houses at the end of the unmarked gravel driveways, and gets a glimpse into the minds of the people who live in them, fearful of being noticed by anyone but their own kind. Miranda crusades with all in the righteous certainty of a colonial New England religious dissenter, but contending with the gods of our times. Will she prevail?

Howard Foster has been a lawyer since 1988. His practice has focused on civil RICO cases against companies that hire illegal immigrants, including one that went up to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2006. Miranda’s War is his first novel.