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DIE LIKE A HERO
by Clyde Linsley
Berkley, April 2005
256 pages
$6.99
ISBN: 0425200035


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Josiah Beede, the 'hero of New Orleans' is back in Washington discussing the death of William Henry Harrison with Daniel Webster. Harrison is the first president to die in office, after having served only about a month after his inauguration.

John Tyler is now president and the Whigs are not happy campers, since Harrison was more malleable to their program than is Tyler. Some Whigs are sure that foul play was involved, and although Beede is not a member of their party, they ask him to look into the matter, since he is known to be a fair and just man

During Beede's investigation, he receives a letter telling him that Frank Turner, husband of the woman he loves, Deborah Tomkins Turner, has disappeared. He rode off one night and has never returned.

Beede returns to New Hampshire, and finds that his friend, a free man of color, Randolph, who is working the farm next to the one Josiah owns, has things well in hand. He has put a group of Irishmen in charge of Josiah's farm and it is running smoothly. Randolph's farm is also prospering, but Randolph and his wife Louisa, are not much accepted in the community.

Linsley's books are a glimpse into the world of mid-19th century America, its politics and its social history. We get the politics in school, but not the social history. We imagine that the US was divided into North or non-slave owning states, and South, with its large plantations and use of slave labor.

During the 1840s, it wasn't always that clear. There were parts of the north where slave catchers (those who tracked escaped slaves and brought them back to their masters) were welcome. Although Beede and Tomkins could look beyond a man's color and religious practices, many people in New Hampshire could not, and Randolph and particularly Louisa, would always have to look behind them.

Needless to say, Beede solves the case of the missing husband. His musings on the speed of the new railroad to Washington are an interesting sideline to the investigations. This is a series that deserves wider distribution. It is well researched, has interesting characters, and wonderful descriptions of life in America over 150 years ago.

Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, April 2005

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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