Hanging Mary

[RJNorton]

Christine, I read the book earlier this year, and I am positive you will enjoy it. The story is told through the eyes of Mary Surratt and Nora Fitzpatrick. Thus you get two different perspectives on the events that took place. The book humanizes Mary more than any other I have read. Susan is an excellent writer.

Bob Cook is a wonderful analyst of Lincoln assassination literature, and he wrote as follows:

"I might mention that I now regard Susan Higginbotham's novel Hanging Mary as one of the best-written works of fiction re Our Topic that I have encountered so far. Like the (non-fiction) Backstage at the Lincoln Assassination, her consistently -compelling novel truly "puts you there" from start to finish. And the alterations/emendations/etc. that she decided to use for the purpose of enhancing the narrative are convincingly explained in the Author's Note section at the end of the book.

I was particularly well-taken by Ms. Higginbotham's inclusions of many direct (documented) participant quotations - including the one uttered by Mary Surratt (according to Louis Weichmann*) after dropping off the "shootin' irons" at the Surratt Tavern that, for me, is the "Smoking Gun" (so to speak) comment that convinced me that Mary Surratt knew by the morning of April 14, 1865 that the plot was then an assassination one (and, therefor, subsequently deserved the punishment that she received.)

The (proverbial) Bottom Line: Hanging Mary is an (unqualified) excellent achievement by Ms. Higginbotham and one definitely not to be missed."