First Assassin

by John J. Miller

Book Overview

Winter 1861: the United States teeters on the brink of civil war. In Washington, D.C., Colonel Charles P. Rook is tapped to organize the district's security and to protect president-elect Abraham... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0547744994
• ISBN13: 9780547744995
• Release Date: November 2011
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 464 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

An entertaining read

I like reading historical novels like this. You pay attention more to the details of personality, setting, wardrobe, etc. - those things which are markedly different from your own time and interesting to think about. I didn't know what to expect because I've never read this author before, but I found that the book held me. The plot and pacing were just right for my taste, and the descriptions were thorough enough to get the image, but without impeding the flow. I might order another as a Christmas present for an in-law of mine who always has his head in a book.

A First-rate Page-turner

Miller has managed to create a believable, suspense-filled thriller out of a story whose ultimate ending everone knows, which is no small task. He does so by giving us refreshing characters who don't quite fit the stereotypes assigned them by prejudice or history and doing meticulous historical research to make his setting come alive. The writing is crisp, the dialogue natural, and the plot twists keep you turning the page. He wisely kept Abe Lincoln in the background through most of the novel, and when he does appear, briefly, it's not the Abe Lincoln as statesman or orator we see, but a man with a sense of humor even as he faces the nation's darkest hour. I loved the book and will be putting on my Christmas list to give friends and family.

Couldstart a civil war if you only have one copy

Miller's first book is a page turner. He created a great story with believable dialogue and presents the perfect backdrop for historical characters we have always wanted to know more about. This is what historical fiction is supposed to accomplish. Great supplement to our homeschool curriculum.

Not my usual read, but very enjoyable.

I have to admit this is not my usual cup of tea. I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed reading this book. The way that it was written conveyed a very clear picture of Washington DC as it was ~150 years ago. I have read John J Miller's excerpts and news articles for years and look forward to more of his writings. I suggest this for anyone interested in historical fiction or simply a good read.

A first novel to be proud of

I'm sure it won't escape anyone who notices the sudden explosion of one-star "reviews" of "The First Assassin" how many of those so-called "reviews" are ad-hominems against the author, not reviews of the book. Those that do talk about the book rely on the excerpts posted here or on the author's own website, or (as another reviewer points out) on the comments of a particular blogger who evidently has it in for John Miller because of who Mr. Miller writes for. Readers interested in the book itself, instead of the author's politics, will know how to look past all that, and see the merits of which is in fact a pretty darn good first novel. Most immediately impressive, of course, is the depth of John Miller's historical research. He's able to capture both the era and the people in it quite well. More significantly, however, he's been able to wrap that research around a well-crafted story, a plot that keeps the reader involved, and characters we can care about (contrast this, for people still looking for political bias, with the wooden characterizations in Newt Gingrich's Pearl Harbor novel Days of Infamy, where I would not have recognized his "Winston Churchill" as Winston Churchill if the author hadn't told us that's who he was). Is Miller's prose style to everyone's taste? No, of course not. But then, neither is any other writer's. Parts of "The First Assassin" could use some tightening, as the pros say. Some of the narrative passages, I'd like to have seen as dialogue instead ("Show them, don't tell them"). I'm confident future novels will be more polished -- and there will be future novels, won't there? Look. This is a first novel. It's not flawless, but how many of us get to be J.D. Salinger and have our first novels called one of the great works of the century? The key thing is that John Miller's rookie effort is a remarkably good job. In fact, it's one any number of more experienced writers would be proud to have under their belts, and a novel people interested in the era, or just a well-crafted story, will find entirely worth reading -- regardless of the politically-motivated beatdown a handful of people try to give it.