Saving Lincoln
Beth Wendland arrives at her aunt’s home in Richmond, Virginia in June of 1862. Her Aunt Anna hardly recognizes her niece, who is bedraggled and shockingly thin. Beth, had run away from her family in New Jersey and was presumed dead. Beth realizes the life she led in bondage as a prostitute must be kept secret from Anna. Beth learns her cousin Andy is a courier for the Confederacy, but as Beth soon finds out, Anna has other loyalties and works with her friend Elizabeth to uncover vital information.
Captain John Saulnier, wounded in battle, is assigned reluctantly to the Secret Service. However, he is consoled when part of his job is to oversee the making of a bomb that is intended to kill President Lincoln. Saulnier’s face is a hideous web of scars and his cruelty toward women spies is unspeakable, Hattie Lawton is one who knows. Beth takes it upon herself to rescue Hattie from a hospital after Saulnier arranges to break Hattie’s arm. Unfortunately, Beth makes a serious mistake in judgment that will put her in the clutches of Saulnier. What Saulnier doesn’t know is that Beth is a spy for the North, the infamous Icicle, who continues to elude him.
Robert Kresge will astonish audiences with his Civil War novel. He maintains balance between the realms of reality and fiction to complement his imagined tale. His story meanders through our history picking up faces, like the most famous spy Elizabeth Van Lew, Grant, Sherman, and Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Readers will recognize battles, people and places mentioned throughout. The Plug Uglies, Colonel Mosbey, Libby Prison, Torpedo Bureau, Confederate Secret Service, the muddy lawns of the Capitol quartering troops and the unfinished Washington Monument. Saving Lincoln is a plausibly animated historical novel. Highly recommended.
