Lincoln's Secret Spy: The Civil War Case That Changed the Future of Espionage

Historians Singer (The Confederate Dirty War) and Stewart (Confederate Spies at Large) collaborate on what is, despite the subtitle's exaggeration, an interesting look at an obscure part of Civil War history, but their baroque language will alienate some readers. The authors introduce the title figure, William Alvin Lloyd, as a "comet, streaking through decades with impudence and impunity. A simmering broth of lust, indefatigable, energy, greed, and larceny, he was magical, priapic, musical, inventive, a survivor and a scoundrel." The overcooked prose continues throughout the account of Lloyd's life, leading up to his appeal to President Grant for payment for the covert work he supposedly undertook in the Confederacy for President Lincoln. The resolution of that claim, which reached the U.S. Supreme Court, has continued to influence judicial decisions on espionage contracts; still, it's a stretch to assert that Lloyd's case "changed the future of espionage." Readers who look past the hype and language will find Lloyd a colorful character, and hope that another book will do his unusual life justice. (Apr.)