AUTHOR JACK CASEY RELEASES ‘HAMILTON’S CHOICE,’ THE FIRST NOVEL ABOUT ALEXANDER HAMILTON, TO CRITICAL PRAISE

HAMILTON’S CHOICE SHOWS WHY ALEXANDER HAMILTON ACCEPTED AARON BURR’S CHALLENGE TO DUEL

CONTACT: Brendan Kennedy
Email: bkennedy@mower.com Phone: 518-951-4226

In his fourth historical novel Hamilton’s Choice, author Jack Casey offers a new answer to the 215-year-old question about why Alexander Hamilton met Aaron Burr in his fatal duel (Publication Date: April 1, 2020, Diamonds Big as Radishes LLC, ISBN: 978-1-7343666-9-3, pp 347 pages, e-book, audiobook).

Hamilton’s Choice is a tale of treachery, political intrigue, and gut-wrenching drama as a heroic American founding father is torn between love for his family and his commitment to his country.  Born into poverty as a bastard orphan from the Caribbean, Alexander Hamilton rose to become one of the foremost leaders of our fledgling nation. Marrying for love into one of American’s most powerful families, he fathered eight children whom he adored.

But with politics, nothing changes. It was then as it is now: turbulent, violent, and often deadly.

When Hamilton’s eldest child is murdered in a duel, his world and his family are torn asunder. This foul crime sets Alexander on a tragic course that will shock the nation. Will it also destroy his beloved family?

Hamilton’s fifth-generation grandson describes Hamilton’s Choice as a “page-turner,” and a Pulitzer Prize-winning author praises it as a “classic American story.”  Kirkus reviews praised Casey’s depiction of Burr, Eliza and Hamilton and said the book is a “vivid portrayal of Hamilton and those who lived in his influential sphere.”

Meticulously researched with characters drawn from original sources, Hamilton’s Choice opens with the dueling death of Hamilton’s 19-year-old son Philip, moves quickly through Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase, the New England states’ attempt to secede, and Burr’s unsuccessful 1804 gubernatorial campaign.  Although both men were Revolutionary War heroes, Hamilton was an outspoken political opponent of Burr and thwarted his 1801 bid for the Presidency and his 1804 campaign to become governor of New York.

Hamilton was America’s first Secretary of the Treasury and architect of the country’s financial system.  Burr served as Vice President under Jefferson, and when Jefferson dropped him from the 1804 ticket, Burr secretly supported the New England states’ conspiracy in order to win the New York governorship.  As the main advocate of a strong central government, Hamilton vigorously opposed secession, and worked hard to defeat Burr.  When Burr suffered a humiliating loss, he used Hamilton’s great private sorrow to get revenge.

In Hamilton’s Choice, Casey effectively places the reader into the culture and political intrigue that permeated New York in the early 19^th Century.  With decades of research and his own background in politics and law, Casey leads the reader through events that created Hamilton’s hopeless conflict between family and politics and shows how he was inexorably drawn to make his fatal choice.

Kirkus Reviews said, “[a]s a character, Burr is truly alive; readers can sense the charm that he might have exuded in real life.  Eliza, Hamilton’s wife, is another strong character; over the course of the book, Casey deftly examines the frustrating reality of being the spouse of a politician.  The passages focusing on Hamilton …effectively highlight how the former Treasury secretary is often torn between his love for his family and his commitment to his country.  A vivid portrayal of Hamilton and those who lived in his influential sphere.”

William Kennedy, the 1984 Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist of Ironweed, praised Casey’s writing and how he captured the period in which Hamilton’s Choice is set.  “Casey is very much at ease in the Revolutionary era,” Kennedy said, “but he avoids trying to match the period reality with equivalently period language. He uses narrative and lively dialogue in ways that give a modern edge to this classic American story.”

Douglas Hamilton, a fifth-generation grandson of Alexander Hamilton, called Hamilton’s Choice “a page-turner,” and noted, “I was reading 100 or more pages at a time. The most unexpected take-away was that the book caused me to more seriously think about the true impact that several of these events had on Hamilton himself, Elizabeth, and their daughter Angelica.  Jack Casey put a lot of work into the book, and I enjoyed it very much.”

Recently married, Casey dedicated the book to his wife, Victoria Wright, who edited the novel. “Victoria has been an indispensable partner in bringing Hamilton’s Choice to fruition,” Casey noted. “As a reader, she is sensitive to flow and to character development, and her insights on how Eliza, Hamilton’s wife, and her sister Angelica Schuyler-Church might have responded to the tragic events were immeasurably helpful.”

Hamilton’s Choice is available in paperback and as an e-book on Kindle. It is also available as an audio book, narrated by multiple Audie Award-winner Robert Fass. Visit www.HamiltonsChoice.com for more details.

About Jack Casey, author of Hamilton’s Choice

Jack Casey’s research into Hamilton’s life uncovered a deep emotional scar he believes solves the mystery of why Hamilton, at the top of his game, accepted the challenge of disgraced scoundrel Aaron Burr. Casey handled civil, criminal and constitutional cases for 32 years in his solo practice, and for 20 years he counseled New York State lawmakers on politics and law. An honors of Yale University and Albany Law School, Casey has studied literature at Cambridge and Edinburgh Universities.

Casey has published four other novels: A Parliament of Fowls (StoneGate, Ink., 2012), Kateri – Lily of the Mohawks (Staff Picks Press, 2012; Bantam, 1984), A Land Beyond the River (Bantam, 1988; Diamond Rock, 2005) and The Trial of Bat Shea (Diamond Rock, 1994, 2011). He has written two dramatic versions of Bat Shea—a play with music and a screenplay. His daughter Molly practices law in Albany, and his son John is a novelist in New York City. Casey recently married Victoria Wright of Raleigh, NC, and they reside in Troy, NY and Raleigh, NC.