Outskirts Press, INC.

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.