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Hanging Mary by Susan Higginbotham

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Susan
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Posts: 3746
Joined: August 2008
Location: New Jersey, USA

Hanging Mary by Susan Higginbotham

Post by Susan » Sun April 3rd, 2016, 10:10 pm

Hanging Mary by Susan Higginbotham

The subject of the novel is Mary Surratt who ran a boarding house in Washington, DC and was implicated in the conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln.

I've read Susan Higginbotham's novels set in England during the Middle Ages and the Wars of the Roses, so when I found out she was writing a novel about the conspiracy surrounding Abraham Lincoln's assassination, I was intrigued. I read a lot of historical fiction, but not a lot of American historical fiction, but of course I'd take a chance with one of Susan's novels. I was not disappointed. I was hooked by the first sentence. Susan creates a well researched setting and characters (who were all mostly real people) who are interesting and make the reader want to know more about them. Using two first person narrators who were eyewitnesses to events gave an atmosphere of absolute realism. I knew of Mary Surratt, but not a lot. Susan does not lead the reader in a particular way regarding Mary, but now I want to know more about her and about the fate that she was dealt, so some non-fiction reading might be down the road. In particular, I have questions about the way she and the others were handled legally. I will have a lot of new places to see next time I visit my son who lives across the Potomac River from Washington, DC.
~Susan~
~Unofficial Royalty~
Royal news updated daily, information and discussion about royalty past and present
http://www.unofficialroyalty.com/

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MLE (Emily Cotton)
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 3566
Joined: August 2008
Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
Location: California Bay Area

Re: Hanging Mary by Susan Higginbotham

Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Mon April 4th, 2016, 12:43 am

Thanks for the review, Susan. I was thinking about this for bookgroup. We all enoyed My Name is Mary Sutter, and Hanging Mary would expand the view of those times.

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Susan
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Location: New Jersey, USA

Re: Hanging Mary by Susan Higginbotham

Post by Susan » Mon April 4th, 2016, 1:37 am

MLE (Emily Cotton) wrote:Thanks for the review, Susan. I was thinking about this for bookgroup. We all enoyed My Name is Mary Sutter, and Hanging Mary would expand the view of those times.
Indeed it would!
~Susan~
~Unofficial Royalty~
Royal news updated daily, information and discussion about royalty past and present
http://www.unofficialroyalty.com/

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princess garnet
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Location: Maryland

Re: Hanging Mary by Susan Higginbotham

Post by princess garnet » Mon April 4th, 2016, 7:21 pm

Susan wrote:I will have a lot of new places to see next time I visit my son who lives across the Potomac River from Washington, DC.
The boarding house is now the Wok 'n Roll Chinese/Japanese Restaurant. (A plaque is on the entrance) I've eaten there several times, it's not bad.

Not far away, St. Patrick's Church, is the oldest Catholic Church in the city and is worth stopping for a visit. Mrs. Surratt was a parishioner there. The priest who went with her to the hanging was from St. Patrick's.

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