Murder on the Baltimore Express by Suzanne Jermain

Plotted like a step-by-step thriller, Murder on the Baltimore Express tells how Abraham Lincoln almost didn’t become president.

Murder on the Baltimore Express: The Plot to Keep Abraham Lincoln from Becoming President by Suzanne Jurmain. Yellow Jacket (Little Bee), 2021, 223 pages + bibliography and index.

Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12

Recommended for: ages 10-15

You think times are tense today? In 1861, the United States was at a boiling point. The election of 1860 had been bitterly contested with four candidates on the ballot, and in the free-for-all Abraham Lincoln of Illinois emerged on top. He wasn’t exactly popular: southerners, especially, saw him as the most anti-slavery candidate and the greatest threat to their economic security. If he was elected, they threatened an end to the United States. And they meant it: 43 days after Lincoln was declared the winner, South Carolina seceded from the Union. Within weeks, six other states followed. Maryland was not one of them, but the state was a hive of radicals, especially in Baltimore.

When an up-and-coming detective heard of a developing plot to murder Mr. Lincoln, he was on the case. Was there anything to the rumor, and if so, how cold the President-elect safely make it to D. C. for his inauguration? The story is plotted like a step-by-step thriller, during which we meet some interesting historical characters as the tension ratchets up. The style is sometimes a bit too breathless, more so than warranted by events, but it’s a good story well told. The times were indeed perilous, and the consequences dire. May the United States never face quite that level of tension again.

Consideration:

• The author quotes a number of historical documents and letters, including  few curse words.

Overall Rating: 4 (out of 5)

• Worldview/moral value: 3.5
• Artistic/literary value: 4.5

Read more about our ratings here.                 

Also at Redeemed Reader:

• Reviews: Lots of Lincoln books, from the strange to the studious. The weird: Abe Lincoln’s Dream and Abe Lincoln, Pro Wrestler. More studious: It’s Up to You, Abe Lincoln, Chasing Lincoln’s Killer, and Lincoln & Douglass.

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