Assassin of Shadows
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- £11.99
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- £11.99
Publisher Description
The latest historical thriller by New York Times Notable mystery author Lawrence Goldstone plunges readers into the dramatic events surrounding the assassination of President William McKinley.
Just after 4 p.m. on September 6, 1901, twenty-eight year old anarchist Leon Czolgosz pumped two shots into the chest and abdomen of President William McKinley. Czolgosz had been on a receiving line waiting to shake the president’s hand, his revolver concealed in an oversized bandage covering his right hand and wrist. McKinley had two Secret Service agents by his side, but neither made a move to stop the assailant. After he was apprehended, Czolgosz said simply, “I done my duty.”
Both law enforcement and the press insisted that Czolgosz was merely the tip of a vast and murderous conspiracy, likely instigated by the “high priestess of anarchy,” Emma Goldman. To untangle its threads and bring the remaining conspirators to justice, the president’s most senior advisors choose two other Secret Service agents, Walter George and Harry Swayne. What they uncover will not only absolve the anarchists, but also expose a plot that will threaten the foundations of American democracy, and likely cost them their lives.
As in his other brilliant novels combining history and fiction, Lawrence Goldstone creates a remarkable and chilling tableau, filled with suspense and unexpected turns of fate, detailing events that actually might have happened. As Publishers Weekly observed in its starred review of the “exceptional thriller,” Deadly Cure, “Goldstone again blends fact and fiction seamlessly.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
What if President McKinley's assassination in 1901 was not just the work of a lone nut? That's the premise of this outstanding thriller from Goldstone (The Anatomy of Deception). After anarchist Leon Czolgosz manages to get close enough to McKinley at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, N.Y., to shoot him, Secret Service agents Walter George and Harry Swayne are dispatched to that city to investigate. Their boss, John Wilkie, and power broker Mark Hanna are convinced there's a conspiracy. But McKinley, who initially survives the shooting, insists that the agents not railroad anyone and pursue the truth, which could lead to Czolgosz's political allies, who include Emma Goldman. The dogged George and Swayne begin to wonder if the attack was aided from the inside, given that the agents protecting McKinley weren't suspicious of the assassin's bandaged hand, which concealed his weapon. As McKinley's condition worsens, George and Swayne come under surveillance and under fire. Goldstone combines an intriguing theory of the crime with a jaw-dropping ending. This is his best novel yet.
