Format Hardcover
Publication Date 06/04/19
ISBN 9781643131306
Trim Size / Pages 6 x 9 in / 352

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Assassin of Shadows

A Novel

Lawrence Goldstone

The latest historical thriller by New York Times Notable mystery author Lawrence Goldstone plunges readers into the dramatic events surrounding the assassination of President William McKinley.

Just after 4 p.m. on September 6, 1901, twenty-eight year old anarchist Leon Czolgosz pumped two shots into the chest and abdomen of President William McKinley. Czolgosz had been on a receiving line waiting to shake the president’s hand, his revolver concealed in an oversized bandage covering his right hand and wrist. McKinley had two Secret Service agents by his side, but neither made a move to stop the assailant. After he was apprehended, Czolgosz said simply, “I done my duty.”

Both law enforcement and the press insisted that Czolgosz was merely the tip of a vast and murderous conspiracy, likely instigated by the “high priestess of anarchy,” Emma Goldman. To untangle its threads and bring the remaining conspirators to justice, the president’s most senior advisors choose two other Secret Service agents, Walter George and Harry Swayne. What they uncover will not only absolve the anarchists, but also expose a plot that will threaten the foundations of American democracy, and likely cost them their lives.

As in his other brilliant novels combining history and fiction, Lawrence Goldstone creates a remarkable and chilling tableau, filled with suspense and unexpected turns of fate, detailing events that actually might have happened. As Publishers Weekly observed in its starred review of the “exceptional thriller,” Deadly Cure, “Goldstone again blends fact and fiction seamlessly.”

Lawrence Goldstone began life on Wall Street and has now written over a dozen books. His latest is Drive!: Henry Ford, George Selden, and the Race to Invent the Auto Age. The first book in this series of innovation histories was Birdmen: The Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss, and the Battle to Control the Skies. He and his wife, author Nancy Goldstone, live in East Hampton, New York.

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Endorsements & Reviews

"An outstanding thriller. Goldstone combines an intriguing theory of the crime with a jaw-dropping ending. His best novel yet." Publishers Weekly (starred)
"Goldstone deftly mixes fact and fiction to bring the turn of the century alive as his detecting pair unearth a breathtaking, satisfying conspiracy." Kirkus Reviews
"A masterfully conceived, suspenseful ‘what if’ story." Booklist