The Lincoln Deception (A Fraser and Cook Historical Mystery, Book 1)
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3.9 • 24 Ratings
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
“A taut, suspenseful, terrifically well-researched historical thriller about the greatest crime of the 19th Century.” ~William Martin, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Lincoln Letter and Bound for Gold.
In 1900, former Congressman John Bingham tells his doctor, Jamie Fraser, about a terrible secret he learned thirty-five years ago while prosecuting John Wilkes Booth’s co-conspirators in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln—a secret that could destroy the republic. Then Bingham dies before revealing what he knows.
Obsessed with discovering Bingham’s secret, Fraser encounters aspiring newspaper publisher Speed Cook—the last black man to play baseball in the big leagues. Navigating perilous social norms designed to separate blacks and whites, they set out to unravel the truth.
While dodging race riots, kidnappers, and muggers, elusive clues reveal an alliance between the nation’s foremost cotton tycoon—with connections to a Northern pro-Confederacy faction—and the last general of the Confederate Army.
Now face-to-face with the treacherous pair, Fraser and Cook must survive long enough to expose the deception thrust upon the entire nation.
Publisherʼs Note: The Fraser and Cook Historical Mystery Series will be enjoyed by fans of American history and period mystery novels. Free of graphic sex and with some mild profanity, this series can be enjoyed by readers of all ages.
“…more than enough to satisfy any reader of historical whodunits…its conclusion has a wry double edge that Lincoln himself would have appreciated.”—Washington Post
“…a rip-snorting tale about those involved in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. What secret did Union prosecutor John Bingham carry to the grave…did the conspiracy involve more than John Wilkes Booth?”—Frank J. Williams, Founding Chair of The Lincoln Forum and retired Chief Justice, Rhode Island Supreme Court
“The Lincoln Deception is a superb melding of fact, mystery, and imaginary ‘what-ifsʼ that blow open the conspiracy shrouds surrounding the murder of a president.”—GateHouse News Service
“David O. Stewart dramatically reopens the file on the Lincoln assassination conspiracy with a nail-biting, historically grounded page turner. Where the facts end and the fiction begins will inspire plenty of debate. Meanwhile, enjoy this for the terrific read Stewart provides.”—Harold Holzer
The Fraser and Cook Historical Mystery Series
The Lincoln Deception
The Paris Deception
The Babe Ruth Deception
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in 1900, this impressive debut novel from historian Stewart (American Emperor) opens with Jamie Fraser, an Ohio country doctor, agonizing over the cryptic deathbed revelation of 85-year-old John Bingham, the respected statesman who tried the conspirators in the 16th president's murder: Mary Surratt, an accomplice to assassin John Wilkes Booth, privately confessed to Bingham a secret that threatened "the survival of the republic." Along with Speed Cook, a black ex-baseball player and aspiring newspaperman, Fraser obsesses over parsing this secret, which could reveal a conspiracy that reaches beyond Booth to the higher powers of the Union and the Confederacy. Traversing New York City, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., the amateur sleuths confront henchmen of the shadowy Sons of Liberty, racist mobs, and powerful financiers, whose cotton-trading connections are somehow tied to the fateful night at Ford's Theater. Eschewing the wild fantasies of many conspiracy thrillers, Stewart constructs a plausible version of history that works as both fiction and speculative inquiry.
