The Curse of Cain

It is an excellent read. The authors took the Lincoln assassination and by moving the facts a few degrees gave it a whole new perspective. The authors obviously did mountains of research to make the story and characters as historically correct as possible. Character development is great and I had trouble putting the book down.

Almost since the moment Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, writers and historians have argued about the possibility of Confederate involvement in the president's killing. A large part of the issue has centered on whether the South stood to gain anything by Lincoln's death - at least in the minds of those high up in the Jefferson Davis administration. Though we may never reach a consensus, there is much to recommend the argument that the South was better off with Abraham Lincoln alive than dead. This is the underlying assumption of this new and exciting novel by J. Mark Powell and L. D. Meagher. In The Curse of Cain, Powell and Meagher put a new twist on the Lincoln conspiracy. In their version of the story, the assassination is indeed the result of Southern malfeasance. But the chief instigator, a Confederate congressman, is actually a loose cannon, and when his own government learns that he has hired an assassin to eliminate Lincoln, they send an agent to find the killer before he brings the "Curse of Cain" down upon them all. Powell and Meagher have built their story around a plausible idea, and have constructed a well-paced narrative with just the right mix of action and intrigue. Their heroes include the Confederate agent, Kate St. Claire, who spends her time cultivating contacts in the upper strata of Washington society; and Jack Tanner, a no-nonsense detective in the Confederate provost guard. Their villains are Basil Tarleton, a cold-blooded killer; and John Wilkes Booth, his reluctant cohort who wants only to capture the president. These people move about in a deadly game of cat and mouse, each team set against the other, but both with the ultimate goal of saving the Confederacy. The Curse of Cain is a fast-paced adventure with heart-stopping action and surprises at every turn. It is a great read, and would make an excellent addition to any collection of Civil War literature.