Lincoln’s Bodyguard

In the prologue of Turner’s first novel, an intriguing and plausible alternative history, Joseph Foster, a bodyguard in the presidential box at Ford’s Theatre on the night of Apr. 14, 1865, prevents John Wilkes Booth from assassinating Lincoln. Seven years later, however, the Civil War still simmers as a guerilla conflict. Foster, who left Washington after saving the president’s life, returns to D.C. in response to a summons from Lincoln, now in his third term. The president, a shadow of his former self (“the office had drained him, pulling his very essence from the shell of his suit”), is worried about a traitor in the White House passing secrets to the Confederates. Meanwhile, Col. William Norris, a leader of the resistance who headed the Confederate Secret Service, offers to end the fighting. Despite Norris’s role in planning Booth’s murderous mission, Lincoln wants Foster to meet with him. The plot twists of this imaginative what-if will keep readers guessing. [em]Agent: Elizabeth Kracht, Kimberley Cameron & Associates. (Apr.) [/em]