This superbly researched, brilliantly plotted, and thoroughly gripping mystery draws readers into a sinister conspiracy of assassination and intrigue.
In March 1900, as former congressman John Bingham lies dying, he tells a strange tale to his physician, Dr. Jamie Fraser. Bingham famously prosecuted eight members of John Wilkes Booth's plot to kill President Lincoln. But during the 1865 trial, conspirator Mary Surratt divulged a secret so explosive it could still shatter the republic. It is a secret Bingham takes to his grave—and a mystery that awakens Fraser's curiosity.
Bored with his small-town medical practice, Fraser begins to investigate, securing an ally in Speed Cook, a black, college-educated professional ballplayer and would-be newspaperman. Both of them agree that the accepted version of Lincoln's assassination somehow rings false. Was Booth truly the mastermind—or were other, more powerful forces behind it all?
Following a trail across the country, the unlikely pair tracks down key figures and witnesses, uncovering a long-hidden story of greed, ambition, courage, and tragedy. But there are those who want the story to stay buried—and are more than willing to bury Fraser and Cook along with it.
Blending real and fictional characters, The Lincoln Deception is an "entertaining, educating, and elevating" mystery that explores one of the nation's darkest and most fascinating eras, and the plot that changed world history (David L. Robbins).
1 of 1 copy available
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
August 27, 2013 -
Formats
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780758290687
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780758290687
- File size: 349 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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July 22, 2013
Set in 1900, this impressive debut novel from historian Stewart (American Emperor) opens with Jamie Fraser, an Ohio country doctor, agonizing over the cryptic deathbed revelation of 85-year-old John Bingham, the respected statesman who tried the conspirators in the 16th president’s murder: Mary Surratt, an accomplice to assassin John Wilkes Booth, privately confessed to Bingham a secret that threatened “the survival of the republic.” Along with Speed Cook, a black ex-baseball player and aspiring newspaperman, Fraser obsesses over parsing this secret, which could reveal a conspiracy that reaches beyond Booth to the higher powers of the Union and the Confederacy. Traversing New York City, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., the amateur sleuths confront henchmen of the shadowy Sons of Liberty, racist mobs, and powerful financiers, whose cotton-trading connections are somehow tied to the fateful night at Ford’s Theater. Eschewing the wild fantasies of many conspiracy thrillers, Stewart constructs a plausible version of history that works as both fiction and speculative inquiry. Agent: Will Lippincott, Lippincott Massie McQuilkin. -
September 1, 2013
Physician Jamie Fraser is stunned when his dying patient, John Bingham, the lead prosecutor for the Lincoln assassination trials, confesses that there was more to the Lincoln case than was ever revealed. John alludes to an evil force that would have threatened the nation's survival. Later, Jamie searches through John's letters and papers for evidence to bolster that tantalizing possibility. Meanwhile, Speed Cook, a confident and college-educated black man who dreams of publishing his own newspaper, strolls into Jamie's life. He, too, feels compelled to learn more about this mystery. Jamie and Speed forge an uneasy alliance fortified by subsequent battles and close calls with assorted bad guys as they pursue false leads and uncover surprising new facts in Baltimore, New York, and Washington, DC. VERDICT Historian Stewart's (Impeached; American Emperor) debut novel, set in 1900, is dense with detail and intrigue, making a hearty read for conspiracy addicts.
Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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