Reading this book made me realize that I didn't know as much about Abraham Lincoln's assassination as I thought I did. Even though it's basically a condensed version of author James Swanson's Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer, this book (targeted primarily at a teenaged reader market) is still chock full of little-known facts and tidbits about this most seminal of events in American history.

Obviously, John Wilkes Booth dominates the narrative, but I was most interested in what the author had to say about the other individuals (Dr. Samuel Mudd and Mary Surratt in particular) tried and sentenced for their involvement in the conspiracy. There have always been some who make the claim for Dr. Mudd's innocence, while the hanging of Mary Surratt has long been controversial as well. Swanson does a nice job of explaining the involvement of both, leaving little room for doubt that these two were involved to a significant degree, before and after the fact.

Like many Americans, I have stood in Ford's Theatre looking over at the booth where Lincoln was shot, and I've stood in the room of the Petersen House where he died several hours later. (I hope that the author's surprising statement that most visitors to Ford's Theatre do not venture across the street to the Petersen House is not true.) The solemnity of those moments is a far cry from the panic and bedlam of the crowds in the shooting's immediate aftermath, and Swanson's description of the latter gives one a whole new perspective on the events of that night. You witness, through the pages of this book, the surreal horror of Dr. Charles A. Leale, one of America's great unsung heroes, dislodging a clot of blood from the hole in Lincoln's head (to relieve pressure on the brain) and slinging it to the ground from his bloody fingers -- in front of hundreds of onlookers -- even as he valiantly tried to find some quiet place the President could pass his final hours. This is followed by the evocative image of Lincoln, being carried inside a blanket, appearing in an almost Christ-like way as he was passed up to the second level of the Petersen house, giving the crowd below an unforgettable final image of the mortally wounded man.

One also tends to forget that Lincoln was not the only target for assassination on that night. Vice President Andrew Johnson's assigned killer chickened out (but was still hanged with three other co-conspirators), while a staggering display of violence and bravery played out inside the home of Secretary of State Seward. The story of the conspirators' individual captures makes for truly fascinating reading, as mere stupidity and lack of planning led several of them to the gallows or life in prison.

Then, of course, there is the story of Booth's desperate race south, a race that took 12 days to play out before the assassin was finally cornered and killed at Garret's farm. You just don't get the full story in the history books. It is a story that begins some time before April 14, 1865, as Booth's original plan was to kidnap the president and take him to Richmond. There is much damning evidence of Samuel Mudd to be found in this part of the story.