Lincoln's Bodyguard (Five Stars)

If Lincoln had survived the Civil War things would have been different. But would they have been better?




T.J. Turner's alternate history features Joseph Foster, an Indian halfbreed who was assigned to be President Abraham Lincoln's personal bodyguard. When John Wilkes Booth attempts to murder the President in Ford's Theater he is himself killed by Foster's Bowie knife. But instead of the war ending Booth becomes a martyr to the Confederacy and the rebels do not return to their old lives but instead begin an insurgency which keeps the country from moving forward. Years later, southern raiders are attacking isolated Union units and holding trains up for ransom while the North takes the most heinous measures in retaliation. And Lincoln is caught in the middle of it all, unable to end the conflict.




Turner's book is riveting and suspenseful. The characters are well-developed and Bodyguard is a real page-turner!