Perish from the Earth
A Lincoln and Speed Mystery
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- £9.49
Publisher Description
A murder aboard a steamboat forces Abraham Lincoln to make a fateful choice—one on which the future of the nation may hang, if his client doesn’t first—in this gripping follow-up to the “masterfully crafted” These Honored Dead (Alex Grecian)
Newly minted trial lawyer Abraham Lincoln is riding the circuit, traveling by carriage with other lawyers and a judge to bring justice to the remote parts of Illinois. Meanwhile, Lincoln’s close friend Joshua Speed steams up the Mississippi River aboard a steamboat owned by Speed’s father. Suddenly, his journey is interrupted when a rigged card game turns to violence—and then murder.
Speed enlists Lincoln to defend the accused, but soon they come to discover that more than just the card games are crooked aboard the Speed family’s ship. As the day of judgment hurtles toward them, Lincoln must fight to save the life of his client while also preserving the cause he holds so dear.
Meticulously researched and deftly plotted, Jonathan F. Putnam’s second Lincoln and Speed mystery, Perish from the Earth, revolves around a true historical murder that, while nearly forgotten today, was one of the most infamous crimes of the nineteenth century and played a key role in driving the nation toward civil war.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Putnam successfully integrates the politics of 1837 America into his solid second mystery featuring Abraham Lincoln, then a practicing attorney, and his real-life close friend Joshua Speed (after 2016's These Honored Dead). When Speed boards his family's steamboat War Eagle to look into why its profits have declined, the captain claims that he needs to pay a fixed percentage of the income to a corrupt port inspector. The explanation leaves Speed searching for another way to replenish his family's fortunes, which have suffered from his ailing father's imprudent business decisions. Prominent abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy plays a key role in the action. Meanwhile, Speed and Lincoln who has been traveling around Illinois handling a variety of cases get involved in a murder investigation after the body of John W. Jones, an unsuccessful gambler Speed meets on the War Eagle, is found floating in the Mississippi. The dramatic denouement, which features Lincoln's vaunted courtroom skills, provides a satisfying resolution.
