Second Meeting Featured Book: The Hour of Peril

The Hour of Peril by Daniel Stashower

Reported by Donna Cleavelin
Report Highlights:

• Donna reports that this one is truly a page-turner that has the reader in complete suspense, even though it is a historical account for which we know the ending!
• The book relays the story of an assassination plot against Abraham Lincoln that took place before he was even inaugurated.
• The story also revolves around the Pinkerton Detective Agency, and how Pinkerton himself had a career path that went from sheriff of a town in Illinois, to the founder of a major detective agency.
• Pinkerton also hired a woman detective, Kate Warne.  He had to be talked into this by her, as this was way ahead of its time.  She convinced him by emphasizing how she, as a woman, could get access to situations and people that a man couldn't.  Particularly, she could talk to and garner information more easily from other women.
• Read more to find out how the Pinkerton Detective Agency intervened, and find out who was planning to assassinate our greatest president who helped end slavery!  Imagine if they hadn't been successful...