When writing a historical book, sometimes you need a recess from hard history. I thought The Lincoln Myth by Steve Berry would provide an appropriate break. Instead of relaxing, I found the book annoying. The Lincoln Myth interlaces Mormon history and a trendy premise about Abraham Lincoln into a modern-day thriller. The premise probably came from The Real Lincoln by Thomas J. DiLorenzo, a popular 2009 book that argued that the South had a right to secede and that the Civil War was unnecessary. DiLorenzo went further, stating that eliminating slavery was not a goal of the conflict and was only afterwards used as a justification. I believe this premise is an oversimplification.
What drew me to the book was the intertwining of Lincoln and the Constitution's history throughout the story. I wrote my own Lincoln mystery/thriller (The Shut Mouth Society) and a novelization of the Constitutional Convention (Tempest at Dawn), so I found it jarring to read Berry's portrayal of Madison’s convention notes and come across material I knew was not there. Berry had a viewpoint with little supporting evidence, so he altered existing documentation and invented entirely new documentation. I objected less to the invented documentation because it disappeared with a novelist's sleight of hand. Perfectly legitimate. Altering Madison’s notes, however, seemed lazy and unnecessary to support his plot. Berry was making a political point by modifying the historical record. If omitted, the plot could have continued along the same path without a jarring interruption that defiled Madison, his politics, and his convention notes.
As a thriller, The Lincoln Myth succeeds but not as well as Berry's other novels.
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