The Hour of Peril

The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War by Daniel Stashower
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Suspenseful story about the Baltimore plot to assassinate President-Elect Lincoln on his way to inauguration in Washington in 1861. I was chewing my nails, even though I knew the outcome. That's good writing!

The famous detective Allan Pinkerton was hired by a railway executive to make sure his trains were safe, when he stumbled onto a plot to murder Lincoln. Kate Warne, the first female detective, was instrumental in helping Lincoln pass through Baltimore undetected by the assassins. I'll never listen to "Maryland, My Maryland" without thinking of how close our country came to a very different history in 1861.

View all my reviews