Murder at the Capitol is C.M. Gleason’s third Lincoln’s White House Mystery. She writes of Washington, D.C. at the beginning of the war with images I never really thought about. D.C. was really a small town in 1861, and a southern small town even more than it was a northern town. That never dawned on me. It was a town filled with spies, southerners, Union troops waiting to go to war, and people with opposing viewpoints about slavery. It was a diverse city, on the eve of civil war.
Independence Day, 1861 provided an opportunity for bands and parading troops. It was also a time of parties and revelry. But, sometime during the night, Piney Tufts, a Southern sympathizer, snuck into the Capitol building. On July 5, people arriving to view Congress in session were greeted by a crane with a man’s body hanging from it. Sophie Gates, a wannabe journalist, insisted someone send for Adam Speed Quinn, President Lincoln’s investigator. While most thought Tuft’s hanged himself, Sophie suspected murder from the beginning.
Adam Quinn, a one-armed frontiersman, came to D.C. as part of Lincoln’s security team. However, the President quickly discovered that the nephew of his old friend, Joshua Speed, was an astute investigator. He had teamed up several times with Sophie Gates to search for a killer. He’s called to the Capitol, and then enlists a friend, a free black physician, Dr. George Hilton, to help with the body. By the time a second body is found near the Capitol, Hilton has been attacked, rescued by a Southern woman, and Sophie has been enlisted to search for a blackmailer.
Gleason packs as much history into this riveting mystery as she can. There was construction going on in the Capitol, so there was a reason for a crane. There were female spies in D.C., and the author introduces a real one as well as a fictional character. She does an excellent job with the historical details, and mixing actual figures with the fictional ones. And, she brings the characters and setting to life with this story of a city on the eve of war.
Do you read mysteries for the characters? You’ll appreciate Adam Quinn, Sophie Gates, Dr. Hilton, several spies, and their backstories. If you appreciate historical settings and background, Murder at the Capitol provides a fascinating backdrop. It’s a setting that is dirty and loud and sprawling, just perfect for the time period. Even if you haven’t read the first in this series, you can jump right into Murder at the Capitol. If you’re ready for a compelling historical mystery, I’d recommend this one.
C.M. Gleason’s website is www.cmgleason.com
Murder at the Capitol by C.M. Gleason. Kensington Books, 2020. ISBN 9781496723987 (hardcover), 288p.
*****
FTC Full Disclosure – I received the book to review for a journal.
Yes, it's true. Lincoln had to almost sneak through Baltimore on his way to his inauguration because it was a city of Southern sympathizers, and Washington was divided but even more Southern. The streets were a muddy mess, the Capitol was unfinished, and the Washington Monument construction was stopped due to lack of funds (and then the war) from 1854 to 1877. It was completed in 1884.
Margaret Leech's Pulitzer Prize winner, REVEILLE IN WASHINGTON, 1860-1865, gives a good picture.
I knew about Lincoln and Baltimore, Jeff. I guess it just never dawned on me how truly Southern D.C. was. I went to grad school there, but just didn't think of its past. I was so totally involved in its present.
This does interest me because of my interest in the Civil War. Jackie has read a couple of romance series set in that period, but they involved vampires! I think one was by Heather Graham. There was another series about Lincoln's Vampire.
It was Christopher Farnsworth, a trilogy including The President's Vampire.
Heather Graham did have a couple books involving ghosts from the Civil War, Jeff, but not vampires. You're right about The President's Vampire. I'm not into the vampires as I am the ghosts in Graham's books.
She had a vampire trilogy – Night of the Wolves, Night of the Vampires, and Bride of the Night. Lincoln was in at least one of the books. Jackie asked Graham about it at a convention, because there was an obvious fourth book to be written. She told her that the publisher didn't want another book – I guess sales weren't that great. The first two were published in 2009, the third in 2011.
Ah, I didn't know. Vampires were never my thing. Dracula was enough for me.