HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT

A detective foils a plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln.

This expertly paced tale ratchets up the tension as readers learn that Lincoln’s life was in danger as he set out by train to Washington, D.C., for his 1861 presidential inauguration. Anderson adeptly plays with dramatic irony: Readers likely already know that he ultimately made it. But how? Enter Kate Warne, “the first female detective in the United States,” who uncovered a plot to kill Lincoln in Baltimore, his only stop in the South. Lincoln “wasn’t welcome” here because of his opposition to slavery. Kate and Allan Pinkerton, head of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, needed to convince Lincoln the threat was real. After they initially failed, they concocted a ruse that involved disabling telegraph lines, donning costumes, and keeping Southern spies at bay. Kate, traveling incognito, secured a berth for her “sick brother.” Lincoln boarded the train in disguise, and she kept watch until they arrived in Baltimore and his train car was rerouted. Having successfully safeguarded the president-elect, Kate disappeared into a Baltimore crowd, “hiding in plain sight” to await her next assignment. Organized chronologically, each spread opens like a scrapbook, with pictorial maps of Lincoln’s train route and framed portraits of principal characters and events, all suffused in an ominous, dusky palette. Cleverly, Comport incorporates recurring images of timepieces, matching the sense of suspense layered into Anderson’s text—time is indeed of the essence.

A lively, luminous account of a lesser-known woman’s ingenious contribution to presidential history.