Lincoln is a popular topic these days with sometimes fanciful results in fiction and movies. This book has a solid historian behind the fantasy. This review first appeared in Historical Novels Review Issue 66, November 2013.
David O. Stewart, a respected historian, has made a strong contribution with The Lincoln Deception, his first work of fiction. The prosecutor of the Booth conspirators told on his deathbed of a dangerous secret concerning Lincoln’s assassination, but he took the secret to his grave and the provenance of this tale was “by no means sturdy.” The story being too juicy to ignore, Stewart turned to fiction. Stewart’s historical premise is that Booth was not a fanatic working alone, but part of an attempted coup d’etat. With suspense Stewart has you guessing the co-conspirators’ identities. Both Northern and Southern suspects, including major institutions, abound. In between, Stewart works in some romance for his main character, a fictional doctor based loosely on Bingham’s real physician. The other main character, a black pro baseball player, is also based indirectly on an historical person, but the fictionalization gives Stewart room to tell an exciting story and develop unusual characters in depth. Lincoln himself is an indirect presence in a book set years after the president’s death and focused on the motives and thinking of the conspirators. Who would have gained by Lincoln’s death, financially or politically? What advantage could a defeated South see in its foe’s murder? This book raises interesting questions while taking a fresh angle on the Lincoln story. Stewart has enough historical expertise to pull off this flight into fiction.
Sound very compelling. The Lincoln Conspiracy idea has been around for some time. I don’t think any assassination needs ‘advantage’ for the perpetrators, though. A wonderful history, Bruce Levine’s The Fall of the House of Dixie, makes clear how much so many Southerners hated Lincoln, even before the Emancipation Proclamation, because he threatened their view of themselves, which depended on believing that the Africans they had enslaved were inferior. Denial, anger, economic loss, humiliation, the whole idea of a ‘noble’ cause–I’m looking forward to reading Stewart’s book. Thanks, Judy!
I found his theory worth the writing and his characters entertainingly well drawn. He goes more for the grand advantage than pure hatred, but we have clearly seen that that existed and continues whenever race is involved. Look at how the current President gets treated by some.
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