The First Conspiracy (Young Reader's Edition)
The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington
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- €10.99
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- €10.99
Publisher Description
#1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Meltzer unravels the truth behind the secret assassination attempt on George Washington and how the plot helped create the CIA and the FBI in this young reader's adaptation for younger audiences.
1776.
The early days of the Revolutionary War.
It supposedly began with Thomas Hickey, a private in the Continental Army, and New York governor William Tryon. In an astonishing power grab, they plotted to kill Hickey's boss: a man by the name of George Washington.
In the end, Hickey was caught, brought to trial, and found guilty. It would seem he became the first person in the new nation to be executed for treason.
But to this day, nobody knows for sure if this story is true. In The First Conspiracy, Brad Meltzer sheds light on the close-kept secrets and compelling details surrounding this story and exposes the history of how the assassination plot catalyzed the creation of the CIA and FBI.
This page-turning investigation offers young readers an in-depth look at the facts and remaining questions that surround this contested historical event.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This protracted history of a conspiracy against the Continental Army before the American colonies had even declared their independence doesn't showcase thriller author Meltzer (The Escape Artist) at his best. Meltzer and television veteran Mensch set the scene of the conspiracy in the prologue a moonlit night in 1776 in a clearing in Manhattan, as George Washington emerges from a coach into a planned trap. Then the narrative moves back to 1752; after several chapters, Washington and the Continental Army arrive in New York City in early 1776, where the British governor, William Tryon, is already gathering intelligence against them and pays a New York gunsmith, Gilbert Forbes, to recruit Washington's soldiers into a plot on his life. The authors recount the plot's thwarting by a nascent counterintelligence group led by John Jay, later the first Supreme Court Justice. The authors draw out the story a great deal, breaking it into brief chapters ending in often melodramatic statements like "One thing is clear: nothing in this war will be easy." Some readers may find that the choppy structure heightens the work's drama, while others may find it and the simplistic prose off-putting, but the topic is one that will draw interest.
