Saturday, March 19, 2011

Bloody Crimes - Davis and Lincoln

Have I told you about the fascinating book a friend sent us called Bloody CrimesThe Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln's Corpse, by James Swanson? I have not actually been able to read it because I cannot pry it away from my husband but I can hardly wait!.

Here is Doris Goodwin's comment about the book: "Swanson's brilliant decision to weave together the final days of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis provides fresh and compelling insights on both familiar figures".

Author, Edward Steers Jr., says, "he makes the parallel journeys of Lincoln and Davis come magically alive. I wish I had written this book".

Swanson had already written Manhunt: The Twelve Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer, the story about John Wilkes Booth's incredible escape from the scene of the crime at Ford's Theatre and his run to death and infamy . Bloody Crimes begins with Jefferson Davis's flight from Richmond and the thrilling chase in which Union cavalry hunted the confederate President. Two weeks later Lincoln was assassinated, and the nation believed that Davis was involved.

Swanson masterfully weaves together, and I quote, " the stories of two fallen leaders as they made their last expeditions through the bloody landscape of a wounded nation". Wow, this is powerful stuff indeed.

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