Michael 's Reviews > Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer

In the age of social media we are instantly transported to a conflict within minutes. A mass shooting, a rebellion in a foreign country, Tiger Woods accident, hurricanes, tornadoes, sports records that are broken, it is endless visual stream of media pictures and videos describing events that occur in our world. In 1865 social media was in its infancy. With the help of Matthew Brady and his camera the world would find out about Abe Lincoln's assassination. Better yet the world would also find out who killed Abe Lincoln's assassinator John Wilkes Booth. His name is glossed over in many high school textbooks because it was not important. Do you know who it was? All the world cared about was who assassinated President Lincoln and when he was going to be caught and dealt with. I make a note of this because Matthew Brady is just one of many characters in this book that James Swanson describes in a very detailed account of the murder of Abraham Lincoln and its aftermath and we will deal with this John Wilkes Booth assassinator at the end of this review. What is important is the book itself.

What sets Swanson's book apart is that his focus is on a 12-day period which he carefully constructs what made Booth want to kill the President, the people he brought into his plan, the excellent escape plan he had and the stupid mistakes he made during it. The 12-days he is on the run many people will help him and betray him when he is finally is caught by the government.

I enjoyed reading this book. It is a very detailed account of the murder of Abraham Lincoln and its aftermath. It was history written in an entertaining, suspenseful way. The author's naming of every historical character that was involved in the assassination is at times tedious and you will read more history than you need on this event but the narrative moves at a good pace, drawing the reader into the story of that faithful and tragic event.

I always thought I knew the story of Abraham Lincoln's assassination and the hunt of John Wilkes Booth. What I found out after reading this book was to find out how much I didn't know. Oh I must confess also that Matthew Brady helped me to. His picture of Boston Corbett help me to put to rest who actually killed John Wilkes Booth and put this book in its context. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_...