Really good book, as in you start to read it and can't put it down. All about the manhunt for Booth after Lincoln was shot. I did a historic tour during my college years of "The Night LIncoln Was Shot". Honestly, I would drag tours around DC early Sunday mornings. I even still have the slide presentation that goes with it.
I learned stuff I didn't know. For one thing, Dr.Mudd was guilty as sin and should have hung. His family spent generations trying to "clear" his name. The guy was a traitor. And he was trying to cover his ass kind of traitor.
It was the first time I had heard of civilians being tried by a military court, which I thought of again recently!
Still, all through the book the author refers to anyone that did not help Booth 100% (for instance making him sleep in the woods instead of the house) as a "Judas". He refers to one woman that gave the wounded and dying Booth water as the same as the Biblical woman that gave Christ a drink of water. I mean, this guy really seems to like and admire Booth. He really hates anyone that was a "Judas" or traitor to the Southern cause.
He quotes Booths sister Asia's many positive writings, rather more than was necessary. I'm thinking, "what is this some sort of revisionist history of Booth?" He even implies that Booth would be thrilled with the reopening of Ford's Theatre and calls it a "museum to Booth" and exactly what Booth would have wanted his legacy to be.
I'm going, "oh boy... closet racist". Because I know enough DCh history to know enough of this is slanted like Heck!
Then comes the "tacked on" last chapter. Who wrote this last chapter? The editor? It's all about how when Martin Luther King spoke the ghost of Booth was there...and how his legacy is the racism that exsists even today.
Huh?
I smell an editor saying, "oh boy, honestly this book will sell in the South, but let's do a little of the PC stuff in this last chapter to make up for the rest of the book."
Only one line I can think of that even implied that much of the South was upset at the assasination. A lot of Southerners saw that this would lead to an excuse to come down hard on the South. Lincoln was seen as being a moderate that wanted forgiveness and unity to be the order of the day. Booth didn't give the South a hero by shooting Lincoln (though parts of the book imply that is what happened). He did a great harm to the South by shooting Lincoln.
Anyway, I can reccomend the book, because of the little known facts and the ability of the author to keep the suspence in a story that would think you know.
But that last tacked on chapter, fooey!
I learned stuff I didn't know. For one thing, Dr.Mudd was guilty as sin and should have hung. His family spent generations trying to "clear" his name. The guy was a traitor. And he was trying to cover his ass kind of traitor.
It was the first time I had heard of civilians being tried by a military court, which I thought of again recently!
Still, all through the book the author refers to anyone that did not help Booth 100% (for instance making him sleep in the woods instead of the house) as a "Judas". He refers to one woman that gave the wounded and dying Booth water as the same as the Biblical woman that gave Christ a drink of water. I mean, this guy really seems to like and admire Booth. He really hates anyone that was a "Judas" or traitor to the Southern cause.
He quotes Booths sister Asia's many positive writings, rather more than was necessary. I'm thinking, "what is this some sort of revisionist history of Booth?" He even implies that Booth would be thrilled with the reopening of Ford's Theatre and calls it a "museum to Booth" and exactly what Booth would have wanted his legacy to be.
I'm going, "oh boy... closet racist". Because I know enough DCh history to know enough of this is slanted like Heck!
Then comes the "tacked on" last chapter. Who wrote this last chapter? The editor? It's all about how when Martin Luther King spoke the ghost of Booth was there...and how his legacy is the racism that exsists even today.
Huh?
I smell an editor saying, "oh boy, honestly this book will sell in the South, but let's do a little of the PC stuff in this last chapter to make up for the rest of the book."
Only one line I can think of that even implied that much of the South was upset at the assasination. A lot of Southerners saw that this would lead to an excuse to come down hard on the South. Lincoln was seen as being a moderate that wanted forgiveness and unity to be the order of the day. Booth didn't give the South a hero by shooting Lincoln (though parts of the book imply that is what happened). He did a great harm to the South by shooting Lincoln.
Anyway, I can reccomend the book, because of the little known facts and the ability of the author to keep the suspence in a story that would think you know.
But that last tacked on chapter, fooey!