Mr. Book just finished Manhunt: The 12 Day Chase For Lincoln’s Killer, by James Swanson.
I really enjoyed the note to the reader at the start of the book. Swanson pointed out that this is a true story and “What happened in Washington, D.C. in the spring of 1865, and in the swamps and rivers, and the forests and fields of Maryland and Virginia during the next twelve days, is far too incredible to have ever been made up.” I have a very good friend who the two of us are constantly pointing out things that are really happening/just happened that are so unbelievable that any TV show would be rejected, as unrealistic, if they ever attempted an episode, or whole series, about it.
The events surrounding the Lincoln assassination and then the manhunt for Booth falls under the category of we wouldn’t believe it in a TV show. It’s another case of history being very stranger, and much more interesting, than fiction.
The book does a good job setting the stage for the manhunt with its discussion of the events leading up and including the assassination: Booth putting together his team of conspirators, Booth attending the inauguration and Lincoln’s final speech in which he advocated giving voting rights to blacks and Booth’s actions the day of the assassination.
Swanson speculates on what would have happened if Booth had missed when he fired his shot at Lincoln, which would have given the president the opportunity to get up and physically confront him. While that discussion was only a single paragraph, I found it very interesting and realized I don’t remember ever seeing any other source address that possibility. And “Booth had almost missed. If the president had leaned forward a little more, the bullet might have whistled just over his head.”
This is a very fast paced book. I don’t watch movies, but if they ever made a movie of this one, I would make it one of the rare exceptions.
I give this book an A+ and inducted it into the Hall of Fame. Goodreads requires grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A+ equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).
This review has been posted at my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews, and Goodreads.
Mr. Book originally finished reading this on October 10, 2010. I then reread it, since under the Rules for the Hall of Fame, anything given an A+ prior to the start of 2023 was a presumptive inductee, but needed to be reread in order to get inducted. I also have the audiobook and, if I listen to an audiobook, I also have to read or reread it (order does not matter). And it was also reread so I could give it a review.
