The Murder of Andrew Johnson

Starred review from August 21, 2023
What if President Andrew Johnson’s 1875 death was the result of a deliberate poisoning instead of natural causes? Solomon poses that provocative question in his entertaining third mystery featuring Lincoln-aide-turned-reporter John Hay (after 2019’s The Attempted Murder of Teddy Roosevelt). Hay is sent to Tennessee by the New York Tribune to cover the funeral of Johnson, whose impeachment and bungling of Reconstruction have led many Americans to loathe a president once considered “the Great Commoner.” Johnson had recently returned to Washington as a senator but had a stroke while visiting one of his children in Tennessee. At first he appeared to improve, but he soon abruptly died from apoplexy. When Hay arrives, however, he uncovers some unanswered questions about Johnson’s demise, plus a long list of people who may have wanted the former president dead, including family members who stand to benefit financially from his estate. Hay’s investigation takes him to D.C., where he convinces President Ulysses S. Grant to grant him access to political records and finds evidence of an extortion scheme that may have been connected to Johnson’s murder. Solomon evokes the period brilliantly, and he makes his deviations from the historical record feel plausible by sticking closely to it elsewhere. Fans of alternate histories should check this out.