“James Swanson has written a terrific narrative . . . a triumphant book.” — Doris Kearns Goodwin
“Brilliant! Absolutely haunting. . . . This historical book is almost impossible to put down.” — Patricia Cornwell
“A gripping page-turner . . . Riviting . . . Booth comes across as viscerally real.” — Entertainment Weekly (Grade: A)
“Told expertly . . . Swanson’s moment by moment account of the 12-day chase is compulsively readable.” — Wall Street Journal
“Extraordinary . . . Brilliant . . . As gripping as any tightly scripted crime drama” — Boston Globe
“An action-adventure . . . infuse[d] with high drama. . . . A multifaceted chronicle.” — New York Times
“Vividly readable example of the you-are-there genre . . . managed with ‘CSI’ immediacy.” — Washington Post
Brilliant! Absolutely haunting. . . . This historical book is almost impossible to put down.
James Swanson has written a terrific narrative . . . a triumphant book.
Vividly readable example of the you-are-there genre . . . managed with ‘CSI’ immediacy.
Extraordinary . . . Brilliant . . . As gripping as any tightly scripted crime drama
Told expertly . . . Swanson’s moment by moment account of the 12-day chase is compulsively readable.
Vividly readable example of the you-are-there genre . . . managed with ‘CSI’ immediacy.
An action-adventure . . . infuse[d] with high drama. . . . A multifaceted chronicle.
A gripping page-turner . . . Riviting . . . Booth comes across as viscerally real.
Entertainment Weekly (Grade: A)
Told expertly . . . Swanson’s moment by moment account of the 12-day chase is compulsively readable.
A gripping page-turner . . . Riviting . . . Booth comes across as viscerally real.
Has any other month in American history been as tumultuous as April 1865? In a matter of weeks, Richmond fell; the Confederacy collapsed and surrendered; President Abraham Lincoln was shot and killed; and, for 12 days, Lincoln's assassin, famed actor John Wilkes Booth, outraced and outsmarted his would-be captors before he was cornered in a barn and shot dead. In Manhunt, James L. Swanson retraces the search for a celebrity who succeeded in changing our history.
Nearly 141 years later, the body of literature about Lincoln's death is immense and seemingly exhaustive. Yet James L. Swanson's Manhunt has found a reasonably new angle from which to approach its material … he has successfully streamlined the assassination's aftermath into an action-adventure version of these events. He makes Manhunt very accessible and infuses it with high drama.
Thomas has done many solid jobs of acting in all mediums since his television days on The Waltons, but it's the memories of the wide open American country tones of his flexible voice that add immeasurably to his reading of the audio version of Swanson's intensive new book about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the full-throttle hunt for the conspirators who planned and carried out the deed. Thomas's nuanced but never hyped narration serves as a seamless link between the words of the individual characters he brings to life. Some of the voices work better than others: his Lincoln is perhaps a bit too young and straightforward, especially compared to the darker, richer oratory of actors connected to the role such as Raymond Massey. But his John Wilkes Booth is just about perfect, catching the desperation and increasing lunacy of an actor getting ready for his role in history. And the other major characters-plotters, hunters, politicians, distraught family members-all bring a familiar story to exciting new life. Simultaneous release with the Morrow hardcover (Reviews, Dec. 12, 2005). (Feb.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Small wonder that Manhunt has been optioned as a major motion picture. In this fast-paced, hour-by-hour account of the 12 days following Lincoln's assassination at Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865, Swanson (coauthor, with Daniel R. Weinberg, of Lincoln's Assassins: Their Trial and Execution) allows the reader to ride along with the Union cavalry and federal agents through the streets of the nation's capital and the wilds of Maryland and Virginia in pursuit of John Wilkes Booth, his coconspirators, and the host of rebel enablers who constituted a viable Confederate underground railroad. Swanson's eye for detail and his excellent thumbnail sketches of the figures involved bring the chronicle alive. There was the simultaneous assassination attempt on Secretary of State William Seward, and Secretary of War Stanton's pivotal role in keeping the nation together during the unrest, stoked by an irresponsible press, following Lincoln's death. Swanson details the conditions endured by Booth while on the run and the foolish mistakes committed by him and his pursuers during the long chase until the last stand at a farm near Port Royal, VA, on April 26. Swanson concludes with discussions of the trial and execution of the four secondary conspirators, the subsequent squabbling over reward money, and the unfolding of the post-assassination lives of the drama's major personalities. Ably researched and seamlessly written, this engrossing book is recommended for all Civil War and Lincoln collections-and all libraries.-John Carver Edwards, Univ. of Georgia Libs., Cleveland Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
"A gripping page-turner . . . Riviting . . . Booth comes across as viscerally real."
(Grade: A) - Entertainment Weekly
