Books › Manhunt
Manhunt
The 12-Day Chase for Abraham Lincoln's Killer
733 pages
A ticking-clock historical thriller that plunges the reader into the desperate, hour-by-hour pursuit of America's most notorious fugitive.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like being strapped into a ticking-clock procedural, where the weight of a national tragedy fuels a relentless, high-stakes pursuit. The narrative moves with a propulsive, hour-by-hour urgency, shifting seamlessly between the desperate psychology of a hunted man and the determined focus of his pursuers. Despite knowing the historical outcome, the atmosphere remains thick with suspense and dread, capturing the raw, chaotic aftermath of an assassination. The prose is immediate and meticulously detailed, grounding the reader in the gritty reality of a nineteenth-century manhunt. It is a perfect match for readers who devour true crime and historical nonfiction, offering an immersive, breathless experience that transforms a well-known historical event into a gripping cat-and-mouse thriller.
- Mood
- suspenseful
- relentless
- high-stakes
- dread-soaked
- Tone
- urgent
- factual
- tense
- objective
- Pace
- propulsive
- Themes
- the pursuit of justice · historical tragedy · the psychology of a fugitive · cat-and-mouse dynamics
- The writing
- Detailed and immediate, constructing an hour-by-hour timeline that reads with the urgency of a thriller.
- The arc
- Moves from the shock of a national tragedy into a relentless, high-stakes pursuit, culminating in an inevitable, fatal confrontation.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave deeply researched historical nonfiction that moves with the breathless momentum of a true-crime procedural.
Content notes
- assassination
- murder
- death
- fugitive pursuit
About the book
Manhunt presents an hour-by-hour account of the twelve days in 1865 between President Abraham Lincoln's assassination and the capture and death of his murderer, John Wilkes Booth. It tells the story through the eyes of the hunted and the hunters - and makes clear why Booth refused to be taken alive. Originally published in 2006.
Description from Open Library.
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