Lincoln assassination -- Conspiracies within conspiracies

In this novel, set in the closing weeks of the American Civil War, actor John Wilkes Booth is recruited by the Southern Confederacy to assemble a team and develop a plan to kidnap the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Not known to Booth is that his team are intended to be decoys, to attract suspicion upon themselves and away from similar plots by rebel soldiers and spies. Believing that the fate of the Confederacy rests upon himself and his cohorts, Booth makes his plans and watches for an opportunity. When it appears that the South is collapsing, and it is too late to save it, the frustrated Booth changes his plans from kidnapping to assassination. This historical novel is closer to actual events and characters than any other fictional work. Care has been taken to represent the people involved in this story as history presents them to us. Most of the events of the story are likewise based upon real events, from actual historical accounts. Here is all the drama of a modern murder mystery, the frustration and grief of those suddenly deprived of their leader, husband, father, friend and savior. Here, too, is the desperation of those who tried to reverse the course of events through desperate and dangerous all-or-nothing action. Likewise, we see the fear of those whose actions are suddenly found to cast suspicion upon them. This story is full of drama, and of irony, more so than in most mysteries or action stories. There are lessons to be learned, and little-known details to be found, as well as entertainment to be had from a story whose diverse pathways gradually run together toward the explosive impact of one of the major events of American history.

Frederick Hatch has been writing for over fifty years. A life-long interest in history led to his concentrating upon the life and times of Abraham Lincoln. The dramatic power and intrigue of the assassination caused him to focus on that event, and on the details of a very complex story. The novel, In Honor Or Dishonor - A Novel of the Lincoln Assassination emerged as an effort to present the basic story in both a dramatic and thoughtful fashion. In 1987 Mr. Hatch founded a magazine, Journal of the Lincoln Assassination, which he still publishes. In 2011 his non-fiction book, Protecting President Lincoln, was published; the first extended study of the degree and nature of the protection -and lack of protection - afforded to President Lincoln. Another non-fiction work, The Lincoln Assassination Conspiracy Trial and Its Legacy, will be published in 2014.