Manhunt

📘 About This Book

The acclaimed and thrilling account of Abraham Lincoln's assassination and the twelve-day chase for John Wilkes Booth, winner of the Edgar Award and adapted into an acclaimed Apple TV+ Series “A terrific narrative of the hunt for Lincoln’s killers that will mesmerize the reader from start to finish.”—Doris Kearns Goodwin The murder of Abraham Lincoln set off the greatest manhunt in American history--the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth. From April 14 to April 26, 1865, the assassin led Union cavalry troops on a wild, 12-day chase from the streets of Washington, D.C., across the swamps of Maryland, and into the forests of Virginia, while the nation, still reeling from the just-ended Civil War, watched in horror and sadness. Based on rare archival materials, obscure trial transcripts, and Lincoln’s own blood relics Manhunt is a fully documented, fascinating tale of murder, intrigue, and betrayal. A gripping hour-by-hour account told through the eyes of the hunted and the hunters, it is history as it’s never been read before.

📖 Summary

James L. Swanson's acclaimed historical work, Manhunt, delivers a thrilling and meticulously researched account of the greatest manhunt in American history. Spanning nearly five hundred pages, the book chronicles the tragic assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and the subsequent twelve-day chase for his killer, John Wilkes Booth. Beginning on April 14, 1865, just as the American Civil War was drawing to its painful close, the narrative plunges the reader directly into the chaos of Ford's Theatre. Swanson captures the national shock and horror of the moment when Booth, a famous actor turned Confederate sympathizer, fatally shot the sixteenth president. What follows is a relentless, high-stakes pursuit that transfixed a grieving nation. The core of the book details Booth's desperate escape from the streets of Washington, D.C., guided by a network of southern sympathizers, co-conspirators, and desperate loyalists. As Booth makes his way across the swamps of Maryland and ultimately into the deep forests of Virginia, Union cavalry troops and federal agents mount an aggressive, frantic tracking operation. Swanson uses rare archival materials and obscure trial transcripts to breathe vivid life into the historic pursuit, offering readers a day-by-day, and sometimes hour-by-hour, breakdown of the military dragnet closing in on the fugitive. Beyond just tracking Booth himself, Swanson widens the lens to examine the massive security apparatus mobilized in the wake of the assassination. The entire nation watched with bated breath as the government sought not only Booth, but also his accomplices involved in the broader conspiracy, which had targeted other high-ranking officials in the Lincoln administration. The book explores the psychological and emotional toll on a country that had barely begun to heal from four years of bloody civil war, only to have its victorious leader struck down at the moment of peace. Ultimately, Manhunt serves as both a gripping true-crime thriller and a deeply serious historical document. Swanson paints a panoramic picture of nineteenth-century America, capturing the mud, the telegraph lines, the military camps, and the raw human emotions driving both the hunters and the hunted. The narrative culminates in the tense final confrontation in a Virginia tobacco barn, bringing a dramatic close to one of the most infamous chapters in the political history of the United States. Through meticulous pacing and deep historical grounding, Swanson ensures that the human drama, the terror, and the historic scale of these twelve days remain as vivid and immediate as they were in the spring of 1865.

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James L. SwansonView all books →

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