James L. Swanson and his subject, Abraham Lincoln, share the same birthday, although the author claims that this fact has nothing to do with his lifelong fascination with one of our most revered and respected presidents. Hailing from a long line of passionate storytellers, Swanson also has investigating in his blood; his grandfather was a policeman in the Chicago police department and James would hang on his every word when he entertained the family with stories about Prohibition gangsters such as Al Capone. Swanson's grandmother worked at a newspaper and brought home an engraving of the Derringer gun that had been used in Lincoln's assassination thereby sowing the seed for a fascination that would lead to the writing of not one, but two books, about Lincoln's murder.
Chasing Lincoln's Killer begins just as the Civil War comes to an end. President Lincoln had been re-elected in a landslide victory although the eleven southern states, who wished to secede from the union as a whole, did not vote. By early 1865, the Confederacy was definitely on the back foot when it came to fighting in the war, and it seemed that all factors were against them. On April 9th, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia, but there were still pockets of resistance that needed to be beaten before the war could be officially declared over. However, before this official ending happened, John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Lincoln.
Chasing Lincoln's Killer is a history book aimed at teen readers adapted from the author's own book, Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer. Rather than just simplifying the verbiage used in his original work, Swanson asked young readers to read his adult history book and cherry-pick the more interesting parts out of it, so that he could write something that was more likely to captivate a younger readership and eliminate the longer and more detailed sections that they might find hard going or boring. This youthful focus group instructed him to leave in all the salacious and gory details, which he made sure to do.
The book was extremely well-received, winning both the American Library Association's award for Best Children's History Book, but also for Audio Book as well. Critics and educators particularly liked his use of historical manuscripts to tell the story, involving his young readers in the chain of evidence that led to Booth's capture. Swanson also went on to write historical books about the assassination of President Kennedy, and the manhunt for Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
