¡ï 11/16/2015
Bestselling author Harrigan¡¯s 10th book, after 2011¡¯s Remember Ben Clayton, is superb historical fiction focusing on the period 1832¨C1861, from Lincoln¡¯s early years as a tireless circuit-riding lawyer and Illinois state legislator to his election as the 16th president. Lincoln¡¯s fictional friend here is Cage Weatherby, a struggling poet who first meets Lincoln on a bloody battleground during the Black Hawk War of 1832. They become unlikely close friends, and Cage soon realizes that Lincoln is ¡°a man who desperately wanted to be better than the world would ever possibly let him be.¡± Cage knows his friend to be a brilliant lawyer and an astute politician, as well as a homespun raconteur and a neophyte in romance who does not understand women, stumbling from one pratfall to another. The two men are close confidantes, but a surprising murder trial, a stunning development in a courtroom, an astonishing betrayal, and Cage¡¯s painfully emphatic argument that Lincoln should not marry ambitious and vindictive Mary Todd strain their relationship. Still, Harrigan¡¯s standout novel shows the endurance of friendship, and historical fans will find much to savor. (Feb.)