When actor John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, many members of the audience recognized him. After firing the fatal shot, he jumped to the stage and broke his leg. Telegraphs identifying Booth as the assassin went out across the region before he escaped Washington city limits. Yet for 12 days, he evaded his would-be captors. He had help, of course. An ex-Confederate soldier rowed him across the Potomac River. Dr. Samuel Mudd of Virginia tended to Booth's leg wound before directing him toward safer hideouts. Davey Herold, a 22-year-old Washington clerk, stayed by Booth's side all 12 days, until Union soldiers found the pair sleeping in a tobacco barn.
Readers who haven't revisited this story since grade school may be surprised by many of the details in James L. Swanson's 'œgripping' account, said Benjamin Svetkey in Entertainment Weekly. Not only did Booth run loose for more than a week, he was the leader of a wider conspiracy that aimed to take out the vice president and secretary of State on the same night Lincoln was shot. Two years ago, Michael W. Kauffman's American Brutus laid out the plot with even greater precision, said Richard Willing in USA Today. But that book was 'œsometimes exhausting.' Swanson has turned the chase for Booth and Herold into 'œa rattling good read.' When you close the cover on its last cinematic sequence, you're already hankering for a sequel.
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