• HOME
  • Media
  • About Michael
  • The Books
  • What People are Saying
  • News & Events
  • Contact
2017
07.11

Review of Perish From the Earth by Jonathan F. Putnam

Category: Book Reviews / Tag: Crooked Lane Books, Jonathan F. Putnam, Lincoln and Speed Mystery, new mystery books, New York Journal of Books, Perish From the Earth, review of Perish From the Earth / Add Comment

Author: Jonathan F. Putnam

Release date: July 11, 2017

Publisher: Crooked Lane

Pages: 304

Buy the book from Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/Perish-Earth-Lincoln-Speed-Mystery/dp/1683311396/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1499788543&sr=8-1&keywords=perish+from+the+earth

“plenty of intrigue to delight mystery genre enthusiasts, enough historical accuracy to placate any history buff, and sufficient courtroom drama to satisfy any legal eagle.”

Two hundred and nine years after his birth in a log cabin in Kentucky, Abraham Lincoln continues to fascinate. His moral clarity, his extraordinary gifts with language, his decisive role in preserving the Union and what some consider his ultimate martyrdom combine to make Lincoln a mythic figure that still has a firm hold on our collective imagination. It is commonly known that Lincoln had a deep commitment to the rule law and an abhorrence of mob rule. A conservative estimate puts the number of books written about the 16th President at around 16,000.

Nationally renowned trial lawyer and avid amateur Lincoln scholar Jonathan F. Putnam adds to this number with his new historical novel Perish from the Earth, the second installment in the Lincoln and Speed mystery series. In this sequel to These Honored Dead (2016), we find Kentucky gentleman Joshua Speed once again teaming up with the future president to help solve a murder aboard a Mississippi riverboat in 1837.

“The circuit was a kind of traveling legal circus. Several times a year, during breaks in the court calendar in Springfield, a group of lawyers would pack their saddlebags and, with a judge in tow, ride an irregular, winding path—a circuit—through the outlying towns and villages that lacked a regular court. At each stop, the lawyers would set up temporary offices, usually under a stout old tree on the village green, and persons of the community having legal issues would come to consult. The judge would erect a rump courtroom, and civil trials would be conducted. Then, after three or four days in any one place, the whole group would pack up and move off together to the next stop.”

Newly minted trail lawyer Abraham Lincoln is riding the circuit, traveling by carriage with other lawyers and a judge to bring justice to the remote parts of Illinois. Meanwhile, Lincoln’s close friend Joshua Speed steams up the Mississippi River aboard a steamboat owned by Speed’s father. Suddenly, his journey is interrupted when a rigged card game turns violent and then to murder.
Speed enlists Lincoln to defend the accused, but soon they come to discover that more than just the card games are crooked aboard the Speed family’s ship. As the Day of Judgment hurtles toward them, Lincoln and Speed must fight to save not only the life of Lincoln’s client but also the merit of Speed’s good name.

Perish from the Earth is an admirable sequel and meticulously researched. In it we see Lincoln as an eager young trial lawyer, employing his gift of storytelling and turning his failures into successes. While Putnam points out that this is a work of “imaginative fiction,” he also states that “the people, places, and cases populating it are drawn from Lincoln’s actual life and times.” Nearly everything in this novel feels plausible and is in keeping with what is historically known about Lincoln and his times. Although the pace of the plot is a bit sluggish and a little unengaging at times, fans of historical and legal fiction will not be disappointed. Overall, there is plenty of intrigue to delight mystery genre enthusiasts, enough historical accuracy to placate any history buff, and sufficient courtroom drama to satisfy any legal eagle.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of seven nonfiction books that includes Literary Legends of the British Isles and America’s Literary Legends.

Review first appeared at the New York Journal of Books on July 11, 2017 – http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/perish-earth

Comments are closed.

  • California's Deadly Women

    Murder and Mayhem in the Golden State 1850–1950


      Buy from Amazon
      Buy from Schiffer

      • California Crime

        In the Company of Evil Thirty Years of California Crime, 1950-1980


          Buy from Amazon
          Buy from Schiffer

        • America's Literary Legends

          America's Literary Legends: The Lives & Burial Places of 50 Great Writers


            Buy from Amazon
            Buy from Schiffer

          • Short Story

            Once in a Blue Moon

              Buy from Amazon

            • Literary Legends

              The Lives & Burial Places of 50 Great Writers

                Buy from Amazon
                Buy from Barnes and Noble
                Buy from Schiffer

            • Great Britain's Royal Tombs

              A Guide to the Lives and Burial Places of British Monarchs

                Buy from Amazon
                Buy from Barnes and Noble
                Buy from Schiffer

            • Murder and Mayhem

              52 Crimes that Shocked Early Califonia

                Buy from Amazon
                Buy from Barnes and Noble
                Buy from Schiffer

            • Fade to Black

                 

                Buy from Amazon
                Buy from Barnes and Noble
                Buy from Schiffer Books

            • Final Resting Places


                 

                Buy from Amazon
                Buy from Barnes and Noble
                Buy from Schiffer Books

            • Reviews and Testimonials

              "This is an enjoyable read offering more then the interesting anecdotes and history so well described by Michael Barry, but an opportunity for loyal fans to pay their respects to those they love and admire. Thank you Michael for your gift and I hope others enjoy it as much as I have."

              -Celeste Holm, winner of the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1948

              Read More

            • Newsletter Sign-Up

              Sign up for our newsletter to receive updates and information about upcoming events.

MichaelThomasBarry ©2009. All rights reserved.                                                                                      Created by SmartAuthorSites.com ... Websites for Authors