Lincoln's Greatest Case

Richard Poe offers a solid and, at times, animated reading of this examination of one of Abraham Lincoln's more celebrated court cases. But Poe's presentation is uneven. He reads witness testimony with animation, as if he were portraying the witness himself in a play. It adds to the atmosphere nicely. But in the author's long expository sections--on topics such as the history of steamboats and railroads--Poe is more neutral and sometimes pauses overly long between sentences and phrases. The author uses those chapters to lengthen his look at a case that started with a steamboat crashing into a Mississippi River railroad bridge. A more evenly engaging performance would help listeners follow the material more easily. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine