The Gettysburg Conspiracy (The Ian Carlyle Series)

Will Hutchison
Infinity Publishing (2009)
ISBN 9780741456502
Reviewed by Ron Standerfer for Reader Views (02/10)

 

When I received a copy of “The Gettysburg Conspiracy” by Will Hutchison to review, I couldn’t wait to get started.  After all, the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln are two of my favorite reading subjects.  This is bound to be a good read, I thought to myself.  The book did not disappoint.

For those not familiar with Hutchison’s work, “The Gettysburg Conspiracy” is the latest in “The Ian Carlyle Series: Abraham Lincoln and the American Civil War.”  He is also the author of a photographic chronicle, “Crimean Memories: Artifacts of the Crimean War.”  Although he is a scrupulous researcher with a passion for military history, he did not spend his life lurking around dusty bookshelves.  No stranger to danger, he led Marines in Vietnam, worked as an undercover drug agent in Amsterdam, and served as a Federal special agent conducting fraud investigations and counter terrorism initiatives involving nuclear plants.  No wonder the ring of authenticity comes through loud and clear in his writing!

Ian Carlyle, the hero of “The Carlyle Series,” is a handsome, young Scottish nobleman who is posted to America by his regiment to report on the effectiveness of a repeating rifle that is just being introduced into the Union Army.  Although the English are officially neutral at the time, he gains permission to observe battles between Union and Confederate forces with the strict admonition that he is to remain on the sidelines and above the fray.  Despite his arguably best efforts, he finds himself in the thick of the battle and is severely wounded on several occasions.  These actions do not go unnoticed in Washington and slowly but surely, he finds himself drawn into a conspiracy between American, British, and Confederate sympathizers to assassinate Lincoln during the Gettysburg address.

The thing I like about the Carlyle character is that he is boldly drawn, giving him qualities of skill, courage, and ingenuity that at times seem almost superhuman; yet, Hutchison lets us see the other side of his character---the youthful, impetuous, adventurer, spoiling for a fight and prone to lapses of judgment from time to time.  It is the latter side of Carlyle that allows him to be seduced by the fiery, young daughter of his late father’s friend.  He pays dearly for this lapse of judgment as the reader will learn.The storyline gallops along in fine fashion and arrives breathlessly just as Lincoln is taking the stage to begin the Gettysburg address and the assassin, a disgruntled former Confederate soldier, is about to squeeze the trigger.  Of course we know that Lincoln was assassinated at Ford Theater in Washington D.C., not at Gettysburg, but I have to admit, I was holding my breath for a minute.  As expected, the assassination attempt is broken up at the last possible second and Carlyle is in the thick of it.  At this point I am ready to close the book and go to bed.  But wait!  I turn the page and there is more.  As Yogi Berra once famously said, “It ain’t over until it’s over.”  Carlyle returns to Washington to tie up some loose ends and is confronted with a challenge so violent, bloody and heart wrenching that it changes his life forever.  He returns to Scotland a broken man.

Although Carlyle is presumably still in Scotland brooding, bereft of all the things he holds dear in life, I am hoping that there will be another book in “The Carlyle Series.”  If so, I will be one of the first in line to read it.  “The Gettysburg Conspiracy” by Will Hutchison----excellent writing and an excellent read.  Well done, Marine.  Well done!

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