Friday, August 17, 2012

The Lincoln Letter-William Martin

The Lincoln Letter


William Martin

Forge, Aug 21 2012, $25.99

ISBN: 9780765321985



The discovery of a President Lincoln letter written the day before his assassination would excite historians in of itself. However, the content is what has historians euphoric as Lincoln implies he kept a diary during the Civil War including the months before the Emancipation Proclamation. Everyone wants to find it as a race begins. Among the crowd searching for the historical priceless journal are reluctant Bostonian antiquarian Peter Fallon and travel writer Evangeline Carrington who are tired from the perilous search for historical documents (see Back Bay, Harvard Yard, The Lost Constitution and City of Dreams). Still unable to resist they reluctantly head to DC seeking the diary.



In 1862, Union Army Lieutenant Halsey Hutchinson finds the President’s lost notebook. He plans to return it to President Lincoln, but loses it when someone steals the diary. Before he can follow up, Halsey is arrested on a murder charge.



Rotating between the Civil War and the present the latest Fallon “historical” mystery is a fabulous thriller as readers will want to read Lincoln’s musings. The storyline is fast-paced, but difficult to accept twenty-first century people would kill hoping to expose that five score and ten years ago the Great Emancipator was a fraud. Still this is a taut tale as the diary seems real.



Harriet Klausner

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