Booth: A Novel

A gripping historical novel in the best selling tradition of "The Alienist, Booth" brings vividly to life a figure who continues to haunt the American imagination, John Wilkes Booth. Told from the perspective of John Surratt, the only conspirator in the plot to kill Abraham Lincoln who survived, the novel both chronicles the young, naive Surratt's tragic coming of age as he belatedly realizes the nature of the plot Booth has sucked him into, and illuminates the motivations and larger-than-life appetites and appeal of the charismatic and world famous stage actor.

The novel opens in 1916, the year of the historical Surratt's death. Surratt has been approached by D.W. Griffith to appear in his movie "Birth of a Nation, " where Surratt is to read from his Civil War diary and recount the days leading to the assassination. At that point, the story flashes back to 1864, and John Surratt's encounter with Booth on the streets of Washington. As Surratt delves further into the diaries and transcripts, we see the spell Booth has cast on him growing stronger and stronger. And as we reach the end of this long days journey into night, Surratt reveals yet a further secret--the genuine diary that Booth left, explaining his actions and implicating others around him.

Compulsively readable, and filled with brilliant period detail--as well as a dozen reproductions of actual photographs of the conspirators and their execution-- "Booth" is powerful evocation of a dangerous, chaotic and tragic time in our history, a story that continues to resonate to this day.