The Cosgrove report : being the private inquiry of a Pinkerton detective into the death of president Lincoln by Nicholas Cosgrove ; edited and verified by Michael Croft, col., U.S. army (ret.)

The Cosgrove Report is both a gripping historical thriller and a new and entirely plausible solution to that still unanswered question: Why was Abraham Lincoln murdered? Republished to coincide with the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth, this is a novel of immense power and imagination, based on meticulous research into the government’s official records of the assassination and the forgotten memoirs of many eyewitnesses. The novel opens when a recently discovered nineteenth-century manuscript falls into the hands of modern-day private investigator Michael Croft. His assignment is to verify the historical accuracy of the papers, which reveal the shocking cover-up of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the alleged capture and death of John Wilkes Booth. The manuscript itself, written by Pinkerton detective Nicholas Cosgrove, plunges both Croft and the reader back into post-Civil War Washington, where Cosgrove is hired by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to investigate rumors that Booth is still alive. His search brings him face-to-face with some of the most illustrious people of the period, and exposes a trail of lies and evasions equal to any modern day political scandal. A unique historical thriller takes on the true mysteries of Lincoln's assassination “with verve, humor and impressive scholarship” (Time). In 1868, Pinkerton Detective Nicholas Cosgrove is tasked with tracking down John Wilkes Booth, a man who should be three years in his grave. Booth, President Lincoln's assassin, was also a skilled actor and master of disguise, and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton suspects he may still be at large. But Cosgrove unearths more than just the corpse of a man who is decidedly not Booth. The conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln was much larger, and far more dangerous than anyone suspects. Now, more than a century later, Cosgrove's report on his harrowing investigation has fallen into the hands of private eye Michael Croft. Charged with verifying Cosgrove's hair-raising tale—as well as its explosive implications—Croft presents the manuscript here with his own annotations. With meticulous research into official records as well as the forgotten memoirs of eyewitnesses, former CIA agent G. J. A. O'Toole has crafted a highly original novel—both a gripping historical thriller and a shockingly plausible solution to some of the most enthralling mysteries surrounding Lincoln's assassination. “A humdinger of a mystery... transports us to a landscape at once familiar and as exotic as a sinister, murderous oz.” —The Washington Star “It has everything—mystery, adventure, history, and a delightful unsuspected ending.... The unique tale of an American Sherlock Holmes.” —Seattle Times Magazine “With impressive scholarship and sharp wit, O'Toole lays bare for the non-specialist the real and persistent mysteries that still surround the trial of the Lincoln assassins. Altogether, highly entertaining and highly informative.” —Historical Novel Society When private investigator Michael Croft gets his hands on a nineteenth-century manuscript, written by Pinkerton detective Nicholas Cosgrove, that reveals the incredible cover-up of Lincoln's assassination, Croft is sent back in time to review the evidence, follow the clues, and get to the bottom of the mystery