A thrilling read: "Manhunt: The 12 Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer"

[Lex]

It is absolutely riveting. I highly recommend it. The following review pretty much describes it to a t.

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In the early days of April 1865, with the bloody war to preserve the union finished, Swanson tells us, Abraham Lincoln was "jubilant." Elsewhere in Washington, the other player in the coming drama of the president's assassination was miserable. Hearing Lincoln's April 10 victory speech, famed actor and Confederate die-hard John Wilkes Booth turned to a friend and remarked with seething hatred, "That means ni***** citizenship. Now, by God, I'll put him through." On April 14, Booth did just that. With great power, passion and at a thrilling, breakneck pace, Swanson (Lincoln's Assassins: Their Trial and Execution) conjures up an exhausted yet jubilant nation ruptured by grief, stunned by tragedy and hell-bent on revenge. For 12 days, assisted by family and some women smitten by his legendary physical beauty, Booth relied on smarts, stealth and luck to elude the best detectives, military officers and local police the federal government could muster. Taking the reader into the action, the story is shot through with breathless, vivid, even gory detail. With a deft, probing style and no small amount of swagger, Swanson, a member of the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, has crafted pure narrative pleasure, sure to satisfy the casual reader and Civil War aficionado alike. 11 b&w photos. Link

[Captain Hilts]

1. Sounds great. I'll have to read this one.

It would be a great movie too. Let Ron Howard direct because he had me so worried about the guys on Apollo 13 even though I knew how it came out.

[Lex]

2. Looks like HBO has something in the works based

on the book. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0481131/board/nest/117891430

http://www.mania.com/hbo-goes-manhunt_article_87294.html

[Sequoia]

3. I read this when it came out in hardback and want to read it again!

It was a most excellent, and I mean excellent and well written book. John Wilkes Booth could not bear to have an ex-slave have the same rights as white men and feared that Lincoln would make it so.