Bloody Crimes

The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln's Corpse

By: James L. Swanson

Narrated by: Richard Thomas

Length: 12 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

On the morning of April 2, 1865, Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, received a telegram from General Robert E. Lee. There is no more time - the Yankees are coming, it warned. Shortly before midnight, Davis fled the capital, setting off an intense and thrilling chase in which Union cavalry hunted the Confederate president.

Two weeks later, President Lincoln was assassinated, and the nation was convinced that Davis was involved in the conspiracy that led to the crime. To the Union, Davis was no longer merely a traitor. He became a murderer, a wanted man with a $100,000 bounty on his head. Davis was hunted down and placed in captivity, the beginning of an intense and dramatic odyssey that would transform him into a martyr of the South's Lost Cause.

Meanwhile, Lincoln's final journey began when soldiers placed his corpse aboard a special train that would carry the fallen president through the largest and most magnificent funeral pageant in American history.

The saga that began with Manhunt continues with the suspenseful and electrifying Bloody Crimes. James Swanson masterfully weaves together the stories of two fallen leaders as they made their last expeditions through the bloody landscape of a wounded nation.

©2010 James L. Swanson (P)2010 HarperCollins Publishers

Not as good as manhunt

This book is well read, but the writing is not as good as manhunt. Swanson seems to have a personal dislike for Mary Lincoln which is not backed up by facts in the book. Every statement about her seems to be tainted with the idea of her being a bad person, as opposed to the widow or Jeffery Davidson. don't buy it.

Excellent perspective on history.

I especially enjoyed the perspective by the author of the similarities of President Lincoln and President Davis. Bloody Crimes was a very interesting historical read.

A Perfect Tribute

This amazing book fills in many details of the Lincoln funeral and the last years of Jefferson Davis. Mr. Swanson treats both men with dignity and tenderness, and you find yourself swept up in the drama both men experienced. Describing both with alternating stories made the book even more compelling. Fascinating information about the memorials of each man put a capstone on this book. And through it all, Richard Thomas’s narration could not have been more perfect. I’m sure I will return to listen again. It’s that good!

Not as good as Manhunt

Bounces around a little. Retelling of the Lincoln Assassination to set the stage followed by the hunt for Jeff Davis with the Lincoln Funeral and trip home to Springfield. Might have benefit from fox s.

good, but not great

Bloody Crimes is a good book, but not a great one. Unlike Swanson's previous book in this series, about the manhunt for John Wilkes Booth and his fellow conspirators, this book does not have an adventure at its core, nor the pacing the a detective-story-like volume is the natural consequence of its subject. I would give the earlier book a "5" had I listened to it (I read it). This book gets a "3." But the book itself is bumpy, uneven. With respect to the flight of Jefferson Davis, there have been better books on this subject. Davis gets short shrift here, little new information. With respect to Lincoln, the new material relates to the funeral and the long trip from Washington DC to Springfield. This is interesting, in its way. In part I was interested because my paternal great-grandmother saw Lincoln's body in Cleveland on that trip (it is one of the few things I know about her).

Although the funeral portion is new, it is also the most uneven part of the book. Long passages describing orders-of-march, planning, peoples' clothing and such are interspersed with the politics of the time & the players (politics & players being the more interesting of these two). Swanson could have done some editing here to help the book move along (of course, one of the weaknesses of audio is that you cannot easily skim through such passages).

If you are willing to tolerate this uneveness, there are good parts too. The excellent narration by Richard Thomas helps to save it.

Lincoln

slow story very boring at times. read his other books about Lincolns murder much much better

As good as manhunt.

Loved it. He manages to make a funeral train with numerous stops interesting. Both books are fascinating, very well narrated history.

Bloody Crimed.

I loved this book . I always wanted to know more about Jefferson Davis life .

Great book. I have listened to it several times.

Great book, have listened to it several times even though it is lengthy. So sad , losing his precious sons.

A book deeply in need of an editor

The prose of the day with its excessive flourishes makes for tedious listening today and the author padded this book with a surplus of that kind of quoted material. In doing so, he took two interesting stories and diminished them with trivia. This is one of the reasons for footnotes. Richard Thomas does as much as I suppose he can with this.