cover image A Bullet for Lincoln

A Bullet for Lincoln

Benjamin King. Pelican Publishing Company, $19.95 (304pp) ISBN 978-0-88289-927-5

Retro-conspiracy theory fuels this canny thriller about Abraham Lincoln's assassination. John Wilkes Booth, it seems, is merely the dupe of the actual killer, who has been hired by powerful men--none other than J. P. Morgan, Jim Fisk and Jay Gould. The troika's motives are strictly financial: with Lincoln gone, the Radical Republicans will hold the defeated South in bondage, and the country will devote its efforts toward westward expansion rather than to rebuilding the South's infrastructure. Enter Anderson, the cold-blooded killer from King's A Bullet for Stonewall , whose secrecy and efficiency make him the most feared member of the Washington, D.C., underworld. Morgan contracts Anderson to murder Lincoln, with two stipulations: it must be done after the South's defeat and the blame must be placed on either a Southerner or a Southern sympathizer. To add to the suspense, two intelligent detectives track Anderson. King is meticulous in his plotting, especially in the devious ways Anderson manipulates Booth, and he weaves the threads of history into the story so capably that all seems within the realm of possibility. (July)