The garden of martyrs

the long version

"Based on an actual murder in 1805, The Garden Martyrs is the story of the interwoven fates of three men. Two Irish Catholic immigrants, Dominic Daley and James Halligan, had come to America hoping to escape the oppression of their native country. They were walking on the Boston Post Road, headed for New York when at the same time, a Yankee farmboy traveling the same road was robbed and brutally murdered. Suspicion quickly fell on the two Irishmen. Though they denied any knowledge of the crime, they were arrested and charged with murder. The case ignited deep-seated prejudices against Irish Catholics. After spending five months in jail, the accused were given two days to consult with a lawyer before their trial, a mockery of justice that lasted a single day. No witnesses were called on their behalf, and they were not even allowed to take the stand in their own defense." "Father Cheverus, an emigre priest from France and one of only two Roman Catholic clerics in all of New England, is asked by Daley's wife and mother to go see the prisoners in order to give them spiritual comfort. The three men are thus brought together: Cheverus, who narrowly escaped the Terror of the French Revolution but is plagued by his own past; Daley, a simple family man with a young son and a fervent belief in God's grace; and Halligan, a loner with a checkered history, a man who spends his last days musing on a love he left behind in Ireland. Both men must face their fate with the help of the exiled priest."--BOOK JACKET.