Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever (original 2011; edition 2011)

In this non-fiction book by Bill O'Reilly, he brings an immediacy and vividness to history that is most often lacking, as he examines the last few weeks of Lincoln's life. I would highly recommend this book particularly for high school students. Like a well-paced novel the story pulls the reader in from page one. This book is totally non-political and I wish people would stop giving stars for its worth or lack thereof, based upon their political leanings and their view of O'Reilly. This is a book about history...period, and should be judged only on its own merits. ( )

"Killing Lincoln" by Bill O'Reilly is very well done, much better than O'Reilly's other assassination book (JFK). This covers the last 14 days or so of Lincoln's life and the first 100 pages (of approximately 300) focus on the last days of the Civil War. Lee is trying to move his army from their encampment of the past 10 months at Petersburg and get to the Carolinas where he expects to find supplies and additional troops. There are a number of small battles as the scene shifts further and further west, inevitably toward Appomattox. There are strategies and counter-strategies with incredible successes and failures for both sides. Lincoln impatiently awaits news of the expected surrender, first on a ship in a nearby river, then in Richmond and finally in Washington. Slowly the story shifts its focus to Lincoln and how he spends his final days. The last 25% of the book deals with Booth's escape route and the efforts to track him down. Again, there is a well done "whatever became of..." of all the principal characters in an Afterword. Lots of photos and helpful maps.. The story is told at a brisk pace and the tension is maintained throughout. I've been to Ford's Theater and the boarding house where Lincoln was taken after the shooting, and I have read other books on the subject - but I still learned a good deal from this book and I recommend it highly. I will give it to my 13 year old grandson and I am sure he will find it as interesting and exciting as I did. It has its flaws though, nothing really major. The reader is constantly reminded that Lincoln "has X days left", and "this is the last Y he will ever do..." That's been done too many times by so many others and its just too melodramatic. He also mentions the rumors of Stanton's supposed involvement in this plot as a key ringleader but none of the evidence raised any doubts for me. Killing Lincoln is a bit too "pop" history, but it works nevertheless. ( )

I do not usually read non-fiction books but, I loved this one! Full of facts that I did not know, including all the people that were attacked the same evening as Lincoln was killed. I really enjoyed the way the authors included information on popular conspiracies and the facts that contributed to those ideas. Includes an appendix with samples from the newspaper articles from this time period. ( )

The switching between first and third person is often confusing to the reader. Also this book takes a while to get interesting because Lincoln is basically a supporting character. The civil war leaders, Grant and Lee, are the leads in the first part and the assassin is the lead toward the end. We don't learn a great deal about the late president in this book. So I found it a little dull compared to Killing Kennedy. Perhaps O'Reilly should stick to killing people who had more interesting personal lives. I hear MLK was secretly a rascal. Maybe that story could be told without fellow blacks sending a posse for O'Reilly. ( )

I was not particularly fond of the rapid-fire pace of the writing and the short chapters designed to increase the intensity and obscure the facts - guess I should have known given the author. ( )