The doomed Fenian invasion of Canada, when Irish rebels invaded the then-English colony, is at the center of historical novelist Tom Fleming's latest page-turner "A Passionate Girl." The novel revolves around beautiful and rebellious Bess Fitzmaurice. She falls for Dan McCaffrey, an Irish-American visiting Ireland in 1865 to aid the Fenian revolt against Britain. Dan, an American Civil War veteran, is being hunted by British forces. So, Bess and her brother help get Dan on a ship to the U.S. which, of course, has not yet recovered from the Civil War. When Fleming's characters land in New York, crime, politics and outright corruption all clash, amidst romantic longing and envy. In the meantime, the rebels manage to launch the invasion of Canada, only to be double-crossed by their allies. Fleming's characters are lively and sharp-tongued, and once again he brings history on both sides of the Atlantic to life. The Jersey City-born son of a powerful machine politician, Fleming is the author of more than 40 books. He is perhaps best known for his 1981 novel, "The Officers' Wives." But it is his overall body of work - which is heavily Irish and Irish American - that by now is most impressive. With "A Passionate Girl," Fleming sheds new, not to mention entertaining, light on a key moment in U.S. and Irish history. ($25.95 / 416 pages / Forge)