The Van Zandt Affair [NOOK Book]

Overview

Formerly published as The President Has Been Shot!
It’s only 9:30 in the morning, but already the July heat in the Nation’s capital seems unbearable. The year is 1881, and an athletic-looking President James Abram Garfield—barely four months in office—steps nimbly down from the presidential carriage as it pulls up to the bustling Washington Train Depot. Garfield will shortly board a train that will take him to a refreshingly cooler New England where he’s scheduled to speak at his beloved alma mater, Williams College.
A shot rings out. At first no one thinks much about it, for it’s always noisy at Washington’s busy train station. Then a second sharp report is heard, and the president drops in his tracks. He remains alive for nearly three months as White House doctors repeatedly issue reassuring reports of his improving health. When no improvement is seen in the president’s condition, the inventor Alexander Graham Bell has a brainstorm and is brought in to help the ailing leader. But on September 19, the nation is plunged into gloom, when it learns that Garfield has suddenly passed away despite all efforts.
Three years later, the scene shifts to a stately old mansion in the historic section of Salem, Massachusetts, where wealthy, but controversial magazine publisher Martin Van Zandt hosts a sumptuous dinner for the board members of his highly successful publication. The dinner party quickly deteriorates into a shouting match as disgruntled board members trade accusations with the hated publisher. Before the night is over, Van Zandt will be found dead, apparently the victim of a botched burglary.
Another scene shift takes the reader to an elegant townhouse in Boston’s Beacon Hill section, where journalist James Christopher, Martin Van Zandt’s nephew, receives an unexpected visit from his adopted cousin Samantha. Samantha, Van Zandt’s daughter, believes that her father was murdered by a member of the board and not by a burglar. She appeals to James, known for his investigative skills, to get to the bottom of her father’s death. Thus begins a process of inquiry and detection that takes us from Salem to Boston to Washington.