A teenage orphan is caught up in President Lincoln's assassination-and another macabre plot-in this "fast-paced and dramatic" historical novel (
Publishers Weekly).
Emily's mother always told her that she should avoid Uncle Valentine, a doctor, that he was involved in things she shouldn't know about. But after Emily is orphaned-as Washington, DC, is in chaos due to the end of the Civil War-she has nowhere else to go.
Now, in addition to coping with the loss of her mother, the fourteen-year-old finds herself involved in two mysteries. First, she wonders about her best friend, Annie Surratt, and the Surratt family. Annie has a signed picture of the handsome actor John Wilkes Booth in her room-but there seems to be more of a connection between Booth and the Surratt family than Emily thought. . . possibly including the plot to kill Lincoln. At the same time, Uncle Valentine's odd behavior leads Emily to suspect that he is involved with body-snatching.
As dark secrets swirl around her, Emily must figure out who she can trust, in this suspenseful tale "with a wealth of interesting background information" (
Publishers Weekly).
"Rinaldi has woven two interesting plots here into a fine coming-of-age historical novel. . . . Makes readers feel as if they are living in history."-
Booklist
"A vivid account of the moral ambiguities surrounding body snatching-for medical research-at the close of the Civil War."-
Publishers Weekly
