I Like to Read - Manhunt

I recently finished the book Manhunt, a book about the 12 days following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.  I often read history books, but rarely finish them.   Manhunt was much different.  It captured my interest from the first chapter and held it to the end.

The book is primarliy a historical chronicle of the events preceding Lincoln's assassination, the actual event, the death room where he lingered before dying, the pursuit of John Wilkes Booth and conspirators, and the eventual capture, death or arrest of each.  I was especially impressed by the level of detail provided in a book that reads as a novel.  Many of the conversations were not fabricated, but based on testimony of witnesses, be they doctors, cabinent secretaries, casual witnesses, investigators or the conspirators themselves.  These folks wrote everything down in amazing detail.

I was amazed at how the entire story was pieced together from hundreds of sources covering over 50 years.  The book is an amazing read whether you like history or not.  The story is compelling and written as a first hand account of this historic time.