Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch’s nonfiction history, “The Lincoln Conspiracy” of the first attempted assassination of Abraham Lincoln on his trek by train from Springfield, Illinois to Washington, D.C. After his election, South Carolina secedes from the Union along with several other Southern, slave-owning states.

This book covers the route from Illinois post-election through the Northern states that fully supported Lincoln and finally through Baltimore, Maryland, a slave state full of angry men set on getting rid of the President-elect before he can take office. The book also includes the history of Allan Pinkerton, owner of detective agency that worked to foil the assassination plot, hiring Kate Warne, the first female detective.

This was a fascinating, but not exhaustive, account of the perilous journey that could have prevented the man who was to become America’s greatest president, Lincoln, from ever coming to office.

Get a copy of “The Lincoln Conspiracy” by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch on Amazon here.