Book Review: Killing Lincoln

A couple months ago the publishers over at Henry Holt and Company sent me an advance copy of the book Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard. It took me a while to finish it- but only because I was rotating in several other books as well. Actually, I thought it was a great book and would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about our nation's history, the killing of Lincoln, or just wants to read a good tale.

It is important in our nation to learn about our greatest heroes- and also our greatest villains. By reading stories of people doing great things we are inspired to do great things ourselves; by reading stories of people doing bad things we are also inspired to act to stop these people form doing these bad things. And the story of the last several weeks of United States President Abraham Lincoln is a story of a man doing great things (Lincoln) and another man working to do a very bad thing (John Wilkes Booth).

The book begins with a riveting account of the final days of the Civil War, as Lincoln anxiously follows the news of the last several battles in the war. This exciting part of the book was perhaps my favorite because I enjoy military history so much and felt that the story of Grant vs Lee was a compelling one. But the book soon moves past this into a pattern where we get a glimpse into the work that President Lincoln was putting in to ending the war juxtaposed with glimpses of the plot to kill him.

Although the book is a nonfiction, it reads like a fiction novel, telling a compelling story that will draw you in and leave you wanting more. Even though you know the ending of the book (Lincoln is shot and killed), you keep hoping that there is some way that this great man will find a way out of the plot that is being put together to kill him- you keep hoping that if only he had more time he would have been able to leave the South and our nation in a much better position. And as Lincoln gets closer to doing the right things to end the war in the right manner, as he approaches a successful conclusion to the worst war ever fought in American history and the most damaging to our nation, you read with dismay the ever more sophisticated plot that John Wilkes Booth and his fellow conspirators were putting together.

The book ends much like real life- unsatisfying. You want Booth to come to justice, you want some sort of vengeance done on him for his evil and misguided acts, and you want him to die knowing that what he did was wrong- but instead he slinks away, spending some time in stinking forests, moves slowly south, and if not for a couple chance encounters he way have gotten away. His death is unsatisfying, as I imagine it was for our nation, especially for those who knew Lincoln and weren't just going based on propaganda put out by his political opponents.

Bill O'Reilly brings a readable style to the book that makes you feel like you were there during this time, and Martin Dugard is obviously the history expert and provides the right amount of detail to also draw you in without drowning you in the too many details that sometimes overwhelms historical novels. I highly suggest you pick up this novel and put it into your reading rotation.

It can be found on amazon.com by clicking on the link below. Enjoy!