Full of the wildly colorful characters Gary Jenning is famous for, the epic saga of Spangle takes us on a grand tour of two continents, from the Reconstruction South and a North which has remade our Union, across the ocean to an ancient union reestablished, and the glittering capitals of Europe. In The Center Ring we follow ex-confederate officer Zachary Edge and his uncommon crew, who have now traveled across the Atlantic. their first stop is the turbulent new kingdom of Italy, then it's on to Austria, where Zachary befriends the beautiful Austrian Empress Elisabeth. While encountering some of the most memorable faces in history, Edge finds himself faced with both unforeseen dangers and moments of extraordinary passion, as the tour takes us all across a Europe being remade.