These Honored Dead

Starred review from June 6, 2016
Trial lawyer Putnam’s well-researched first novel, a series launch, does a fine job presenting a recognizable young Abraham Lincoln. In 1837, Lincoln moves to Springfield, Ill., where he finds lodging with merchant Joshua Speed, a historical figure, who was to become one of the future president’s best friends. Despite their closeness, Speed conceals from Lincoln his recent affair with Rebecca Harriman, who runs a general store in a nearby town, a relationship that she broke off two months earlier to forestall gossip that could harm her business. Rebecca reenters Speed’s life unexpectedly when her teenage niece, Lilly Walker, is stabbed to death in her barn, a tragedy that she delayed reporting to the authorities for some reason. Two more murders follow, apparently connected. Convinced of the prime suspect’s innocence, Lincoln takes up the man’s defense, despite the lack of time to prepare his case and to gather exonerating evidence. The courtroom scenes are nicely dramatic, and the final reveal a plausible surprise. Agent: Scott Miller, Trident Media Group.

August 1, 2016

In 1837 Springfield, IL, merchant Joshua Fry Speed offers a berth in his bed to a young lawyer named Abraham Lincoln, a common practice for unmarried men at this time. Speed and Lincoln are drawn into a murder investigation when a woman in a nearby town is accused of killing her niece. Speed wants to help Rebecca Harriman because he has been sleeping with her. As bodies pile up, Speed and Lincoln are in a race to unmask the killer before Springfield goes up in flames. VERDICT Frontier justice was not the jurisprudence we know today, as this well-researched debut mystery by a lawyer and amateur Lincoln scholar reveals. Eye-opening historical details on hunting runaway slaves and 19th-century poorhouses will interest readers who enjoy works by Caleb Carr and E.L. Doctorow.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2016
A lovesick storekeeper and a newly minted Illinois lawyer pool their talents in a murder case.In 1837, the new state capitol building in Springfield is only a cornerstone, and housing is in such short supply that Joshua Speed reluctantly agrees to share not just the room over his store, but also his bed with a newcomer to town. Former flatboat pilot/surveyor/postmaster/storekeeper Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as a lawyer about half an hour before he meets Speed, who, like Lincoln, is Kentucky-born but, unlike him, is a wealthy plantation-owning judge's son who decided to go into business instead of the law. As Lincoln takes on his first major client, Dr. Allan Patterson, in a real estate case, the 22-year-old Joshua still mourns the end of his relationship with Rebecca Harriman, an older widow who owns a store in a small frontier settlement. She broke off the affair because, despite their discretion, she was afraid for her reputation. She has even more to fear after she rescues her niece and nephew, Lilly and Jesse Walker, from a grim poorhouse. She's overheard arguing with Lilly, who's found with a knife in her neck in Rebecca's hay barn, a knife whose twin is hidden on the premises. Then Jesse disappears, and an even more shocking turn puts Dr. Patterson in the defendant's seat for murder. Joshua and his feisty sister try to help Lincoln make a case against other possible suspects--a German traveler, for instance, or Patterson's adversary in the land speculation case, the doctor's former brother-in-law, who's still holding a grudge because his sister died mysteriously years ago. Desperation forces Lincoln to propose an even bolder defense strategy that turns out to be unexpectedly relevant. Putnam combines the historical fact of a lifelong friendship with lively fiction in a debut set on the edge of the American frontier.

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June 1, 2016
In 1837, brand-new lawyer Abraham Lincoln takes on his first murder case. Just after being sworn in, he agrees to share a bed with Joshua Speed in a room above the general store Speed runs in Springfield, Illinois. As the two men exchange personal information, Speed omits telling Lincoln about his previous affair with widow Rebecca Harriman, a fellow storekeeper in a nearby town, who soon becomes notorious. Just months after Rebecca takes in her orphaned niece and nephew, the two are murdered sequentiallyteenager Lilly with her throat slit, younger Jesse with his head bashed inand Rebecca is initially the prime suspect. When suspicion turns to the man with whom she has a romantic relationship, Lincoln becomes the defense attorney in what seems likely to be a speedy trial ending with execution. Narrator Speed proves an able detective who works well with Lincoln, a partnership likely to continue for the four years Lincoln spends in Springfield. Lawyer Putnam bases his debut novel on a solid historical foundation, introducing the issue of emancipation, in the first of what looks to be a winning historical-mystery series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)