Author: James L. Swanson | Page Count: 208
Chasing Lincoln's Killer is a novel about not just President Lincoln's assassination, but also the entire conspiracy behind it and of course the ensuing manhunt. Following many participants, we see the story unfold from the planning to well past the manhunt and trials of the guilty parties. The text presents the story as a more contemporary suspense novel rather than a history lesson, but still uses many details from transcripts and diaries of the participants as well as numerous photos from the period depicting many things from newspaper articles to actual photos of the conspirators. We learn a bit about how they felt about the events they were a part of.
What we don't really see in the novel is more of the historical causes and such that precipitated and allowed this tale to happen. This dumbing down is necessary for the books intended audience of young teenagers, so I can't really fault it for that. Don't want to scare the kiddies with the boring nuts and bolts behind the words. The book is well-paced and easy to read not just because of Swanson's writing, but also the layout itself. The big font and spaces are also intended to make it easier for a younger audience without the reading skills to handle a regular novels' length and small text. The book would be half the length otherwise.
Interesting subject matter written in an easily digestible style over 14 chapters that could serve as a launching point for the curious to learn more on their own.
3 Booth could have just strolled into the White House out of 5
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