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Name of the Book and Author: Final Resting Place: A Lincoln & Speed Mystery
by Jonathan F. Putnam
Basic Plot: Twenty-nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln has spent his entire adult life running from his past?from the poverty of the dirt-floor log cabin where he was raised, from the dominion of his uneducated father, and from a failed early courtship. But now, Lincoln’s past is racing back to haunt him.
It is the summer of 1838, and Springfield is embroiled in a tumultuous, violent political season. All of Springfield’s elite have gathered at a grand party to celebrate the Fourth of July. Spirits are high?until a prominent local politician is assassinated in the midst of fireworks. When his political rival is arrested, young lawyer Lincoln and his best friend Joshua Speed are back on the case to investigate.
It’s no ordinary trial, however, as Lincoln and Speed soon face unwelcome complications. Lincoln’s ne’er-do-well father and stepbrother appear in town and threaten Lincoln’s good name and political future. And before long, anonymous letters start appearing in the local newspapers, with ominous threats that make Lincoln fear for himself and his loved ones.
As the day of reckoning arrives, the threats against Lincoln continue to escalate. Lincoln and Speed must identify the culprit and fast, before Lincoln loses the race to outrun his past in Final Resting Place, the brilliant third installment of Jonathan F. Putnam’s acclaimed Lincoln and Speed mysteries.
My Review: I met the author, Jonathan F. Putnam, while at SIBA's (Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance) convention in Tampa this past summer. Outside of the convention hall the weather was sticky hot, but inside anyone who loves good books found perfect respite along with the joy of talking literature with likeminded folks.
I decided to venture into one of the offerings which allowed writers, booksellers, and others to a Q&A with a select group of authors, Mr. Putnam included. I was immediately drawn to his easy manner, the way he crossed one leg over the other, his kind smile, the straight but relaxed shoulders. I thought surely he had been dyed in the wool of the South. I still don't know where he hails from, but his curriculum vitae impressed me greatly. A graduate of Harvard … a law practice in NYC … lives in England with his wife and three sons …
And he's a Lincoln scholar. If you have a question about the 16th President of the United States, he's got the answer.
But on to the book. I love history. And I love history that includes Lincoln, so I jumped right in with both feet, enjoying the way the author wove the ribbon of social norms with a who-dun-it story. I often reminded myself that the tall lanky gentleman in the story was the same who anguished over a country divided; the second one seeming so illusive to us and the first so … normal. A sweet reminder that great men most likely come from ordinary beginnings.
I read The Final Resting Place while in flight, which made the long journey from Orlando to Phoenix via New Orleans / Phoenix to Orlando via Buffalo much shorter and enjoyable. I completed the read a few days after I arrived home and got my bearings and was pleasantly shocked by the killer's identity.
Mr. Putnam was woven another great Lincoln and Speed Mystery. You may want to begin with books I and II (These Honored Dead and Perish From the Earth), but it's not necessary.
On a final note, it is because I had just read this book that I was able to say (with absolute certainty in a debate) that Lincoln was a Republican … and before that, a Whig.
Eva Marie Everson is the bestselling, multiple award winning author of both fiction and nonfiction. Her The One True Love of Alice-Ann was recognized by BookList as being within the top 10 works of inspirational fiction for 2017 and her Reflections of God's Holy Land; a Personal Journey Through Israel won the coveted Silver Medallion. She is the president of Word Weavers International, director of Florida Christian Writers Conference the North Georgia Christian Writers Conference, and managing editor of Firefly Southern Fiction.