Set against the deadliest fire in American history, Conflagration is a sweeping historical romance of survival, devotion, and a community on the edge of annihilation.

John Mulligan—a former pugilist, Civil War soldier, turned logging foreman—fights to protect the woman he loves. Jennie, fierce and tender, carries the weight of family legacy and the quiet strength of survival.

Set in the days leading up to their wedding and the harrowing aftermath of the fire, Conflagration traces their journey as they forge a new life in a town not yet changed—until the flames come. Through scorched earth and silent graves, they confront loss, resilience, and the fragile hope of rebuilding.

Woven through the ashes is the enduring presence of the Menominee people—keepers of memory, land, and quiet resistance—whose stories echo beneath the surface of this fiery reckoning.

Inspired by true events, a mix of actual and fictitious people, and ancestral memory, Susan M. Gordon’s Conflagration honors the lives lost—and the courage of those who endured.