The Case of the Hydegild Sacrifice: The Lincoln Assassination Conspiracy (Major Gask Mysteries)
Scotland, February 1865. This is book four of the Major Gask & Erroll Rait Mysteries. Gask and Rait have to leave Scotland quickly to avoid being gunned down by a member of the Die Broederskap gang, whom the two had had dealings with in Australia a year or so previously. They decide to take advantage of a request by Gask’s previous employer, a construction company, to go to America and offer their help in rebuilding the country after the devastation resulting from the Civil War.
On the ship to the New World they meet Mrs Harriet Lewis who, she reveals, is a member of the Pinkerton private detective agency. She knows about Gask’s task to meet U.S. government officials to offer assistance in planning the reconstruction following the war, and she believes that he will be able to gather intelligence that will assist the Agency in their bid to prevent a second attempt to kidnap President Lincoln.
By accepting this seemingly simple task, Gask & Rait become heavily involved in what becomes the assassination of President Lincoln on April 14th, 1865, and the subsequent hunting down, capture and death of the assassin, John Wilkes Booth.
The word ‘Hydegild’ means whipping-boy or scapegoat and comes from the fact that in the Tudor and Stuart monarchies, royalty couldn’t be punished for misdemeanours, so an appointed playmate was beaten instead. This is a clear indication of Cairns’ belief, voiced but never proven by Gask and Rait, that Booth was being used by someone far higher up the political ladder; he was a scapegoat.
If you read this book not so much as a ‘who dunnit?’ but more as a well-researched and well-described explanation of why he dunnit, and if you are interested in life in America at this time, this is well worth reading.
