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Michael J. Deeb
is the author of seven novels which take place during the American Civil War known as The Drieborg Chronicles.
Duty and Honor is the first novel of The Drieborg Chronicles.
Duty Accomplished is the second novel.
In Honor Restored the character Michael returns to the life of a farmer.
In the fourth novel, The Lincoln Assassination Michael Drieborg works with a team of marshals.
The title 1860 America Moves Toward War explores the issues at stake in the 1860 elections.In The Way West, Michael Drieborg's youngest son runs away to join the US Cavalry in the West. Civil War Prisons follows the fate of both Union and Confederate captives and the quality of life they each endured during their confinement.
Mike Deeb, with co-writer Robert Lockwood Mills, has also penned two novels which explore the Kennedy Assassination and attempts to answer the question, "Did Oswald Really Act Alone?" Learn more at thekennedymurder.com.
Michael also blogs on the Website americacolonists.com, telling the stories of the freest people on earth.
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A Great Read! I couldn’t put this book down once I got started. The detail was great and I really like the main character, Michael. Knowing that so much research went into this book made it exciting to read! Anon
The First Assassin
by
John Miller
Reviewed by Dr. Michael J. Deeb
| TITLE: | The First Assassin |
| AUTHOR: | John Miller |
| ORDERING: | Woodbridge Press |
In March 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as president. Seven states of that union had left in anticipation of his inauguration. Several additional states would follow. Lincoln’s capital was located in secessionist leaning Maryland. In fear for his life the president-elect had to sneak into Washington to take office. It is no wonder that there were plots aplenty discussed in the city’s bars, bedchambers and offices.
John J. Miller is a well-written novel of that time and place. It is a fast paced thriller bringing the reader into the Washington DC of the spring of 1861 and into the heads of both assassins and protectors of the president.
Col. Charles Rook is determined to protect the new president. His risks his career in the lonely belief that post Sumter Washington is still full of pro Confederates and is thus a dangerous place for a president who seems contemptuous of the dangers swirling about him. This is especially true when loyalties are in doubt.
Despite repeated orders to the contrary, Rook has his small crew spy on people he suspects of secessionist sympathies. Popular and influential Washington socialite Violet Grainer was chief among them.
Meanwhile, a South Carolina plantation owner, Langston Bennett, hired a Cuban assassin to kill Abraham Lincoln. Bennett’s long time personal slave, Lucius held the belief current among Negroes, that Lincoln was destined to free all slaves. So, he gave the assassin’s photo to his young granddaughter and ordered her to escape the plantation to warn Lincoln himself, in Washington.
Back in Washington, Col. Rook unwittingly discovers the assassin through his surveillance of Violet Grenier, who is a friend of Langston Bennett. Meanwhile, against enormous odds, the runaway slave girl, Portia evades the dogs of her pursuers and finds her way to the Washington presidential offices and a late night chance meeting with Abraham Lincoln himself.
As a result, the safety of the president becomes a priority along with the defense of the city. Col. Rook’s fears and suspicions are justified.
These and other separate story threads are skillfully brought together in Miller’s page turning thriller. A believable story set at a tumultuous time will captivate the historical fiction fan and interest the hard-core Civil War enthusiast.
Reviewed by: Dr. Michael J. Deeb. Teacher of American History and author of Civil War era novels: Duty and Honor: Duty Accomplished: and Honor Restored.