A review by book_bookman
Manhunt: The Twelve-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson

4.0

Pretty fascinating stuff. History really comes to life on the page. The account of the assassination is by far the most compelling part. I knew what was going to happen, but I wished that somehow it wouldn’t. The actual manhunt isn’t quite as interesting, if only because Booth isn’t a sympathetic “character”. Swanson crafts the manhunt as a sort of 19th century version of the Bonnie & Clyde movie, but the doomed antihero thing doesn’t really work since Booth is a pompous schmuck. And, of course, it’s hard to sympathize with the plight of the guy who killed Abraham Lincoln. The post-hunt stuff is neat, though. It’s kind of funny how ghoulish people were about wanting relics and memorabilia of the assassination and manhunt. It seems like the true crime phenomenon has always been popular.