Murder in the Lincoln White House

Murder in the Lincoln White House by C. M. Gleason   304 pages

I’m a historical fiction buff, especially for the Civil War era and doubly for anything about the Lincolns. It was with bated breath that I opened the cover of this first book in the Adam Quinn series. 

The time is March 4, 1861, Lincoln’s first inauguration. The day has gone rather smoothly…a bomb threat at Lincoln’s podium was thwarted, but otherwise it’s been a peaceful day. Now it’s almost 11 p.m. and the Lincoln’s have…finally…made an appearance at the Inaugural Ball.

While Abe and his beloved Mary promenade around the room, a body is discovered in one of the side rooms. There isn’t much blood, but Custer Billings is dead, apparently stabbed. When Abe learns of what has happened he asks his closest friend, Joshua Speed’s, nephew, Adam, to handle the case.  

Adam has no background in detective work. In fact he has just returned from the Kansas Territory. He accepts the challenge and the search for the killer begins.

Author Colleen Gleason, writer of more than twenty books, does an excellent job in steeping the reader in the 1860s culture, politics and ambiance of Washington, D.C. The Ball is held in a thrown together building, erected especially for the occasion. Planks cover the mud outside. The half-finished Capitol Building looms in the background. I felt as if I was at the ball with the description of the dresses, the dances, the men’s fashions. But often Gleason went on too long. She used the same description of the dresses several times, and repeated many images. 

Given the tenseness of the times, there is no tension in Murder in the Lincoln White House. Most of the time we see Adam scurrying from place to place, trying to enlist the help of anyone he can to solve the murder, picking up a small clue here and there and berating the ones he does have to death. As the novel takes place over three-four days, that makes the plot seem to move even slower.

I want to give this disappointing novel 2 stars, but the author's research coerced me into giving it 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.