MWSA Review
Knowing what actually happened after Lincoln’s death casts no shadow over this imaginative novel. What if President Lincoln hadn’t died that night in 1865? What if Lincoln’s bodyguard had killed John Wilkes Booth instead?
Lincoln’s Bodyguard creates an alternate reality that is believable and filled with intrigue. Tension runs through every page as Joseph, Lincoln’s bodyguard, returns years later at Lincoln’s request. Lincoln, the Old Man as Joseph calls him, is still president and still trying to end the war.
Political maneuverings, greed, treachery and anger rule the land. Joseph has his own demons but admires Lincoln enough to agree to take on a secret mission. Although evil followed his every step, he had learned to trust no one.
Turner mixes fantasy and actual characters so realistically that it’s difficult to remember where truth ends and fiction begins. Real people like Allan Pinkerton and Ward Hill Lamon play their roles out on this stage of “what if.”
Joseph, half Indian and half white, is the son of a woman who dedicated her life to the Underground Railroad. As he grew up, Joseph learned the routes and skills that played an important role in helping Lincoln. The murder of his wife and kidnapping of his daughter haunt Joseph. Can he search for his daughter and serve Lincoln at the same time? He enlists the help of Molly, his former mistress. Can he escape his past, win back Molly and find redemption?
You won’t want to put this one down!
Reviewed by Pat Avery, MWSA Reviewer
Author's Synopsis:
In Lincoln’s Bodyguard, an alternative version of American history, President Lincoln is saved from assassination. Though he prophesied his own death—the only way he believed the South would truly surrender—Lincoln never accounted for the heroics of his bodyguard, Joseph Foster. The biracial son of a white man and Miami Indian mother, Joseph makes an enemy of the South by killing John Wilkes Booth and preventing the death of the president. His wife is murdered and his daughter kidnapped, sending Joseph on a revenge-fueled rampage to recover his daughter. When his search fails, he disappears. The nation falls into a simmering insurgency instead of an end to the War.
Years later, Joseph is still running from his past when he receives a letter from Lincoln pleading for help. The President has a secret mission. Pursued from the outset, Joseph turns to the only person who might help, the woman he abandoned years earlier. If he can win Molly over, he might just fulfill the President’s urgent request, find his daughter, and maybe even return peace to the war-torn country.
ISBN/ASIN: 978-1-60809-143-0, 978-1-60809-184-3
Book Format(s): Hard cover, Soft cover
Genre(s): Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thriller
Review Genre: Fiction—Mystery/Thriller
Number of Pages: 240