What if the president survived the assassination attempt, only to face an impeachment trial two years later? That's the premise of this stout, absorbing tale. But Carter, with an almost mesmerizing touch, weaves more than a "what if" story here. What most engaged me is the way that Carter liberated himself from any stilted, biased or passive political ranting of his own. Instead of telegraphing his views into the characters, he allowed history to inform us, while never forgetting to hook us with an invented story within the framework of an intense and complex time in history.

In 1867, the war has been over for two years. Andrew Johnson, not Abe Lincoln, was shot and killed by Booth. And Secretary of State William Seward has been so wounded that he doesn't leave his house anymore. And the president's wife has died a year ago from a mysterious accident. This is the alternate history that Carter has meticulously woven together. Lincoln faces an impeachment trial from Congress on four counts due to his policies (or lack thereof) and intercessions (or lack thereof) during Reconstruction: 1) suspension of habeas corpus, 2) seizing of telegrams and shuttering a handful of newspapers 3) not sufficiently protecting the freedmen in the southern states 4) conspiring with the military officers to overthrow the constitutional forms of government.

This finely nuanced and well-paced novel is packed with fully realized characters and situations. Of course, with a cast this extensive, and numerous plots within plots, some characters are there to lend background and color, or to promote a larger connection. There are plots and subplots, romance, adventure, conspiracies, and even murder. How Carter tightly brings it all together in this capacious novel is superbly tight, with room for ambiguity, and he always remains a step ahead of the reader. Half of the fun was trying to catch up and tease out the disclosures before he did!

Abigail Canner is a twenty-one-year-old black graduate from Oberlin who lives with her aunt, a freed slave named Nanny Pork, in Washington City. She aspires to become a lawyer, and shrewdly procures a job as a clerk in the law office that represents Lincoln. It is a win-win, too, because the personnel know it looks good to practice what they preach. All too often, it is known that "like so many people of liberal persuasion, they value their own progressive opinions more than they value the people they hold those opinions about."

Abigail is the polestar of this book, and Carter has drawn her with an able and agile hand. Whatever a reader might fear could occur with a character like Abigail--such as too much PC, or implausibly heroic--those fears will be allayed by the subtle sharpness of Miss Canner. Yes, there's romance in the air, and it doesn't take the reader long to foresee its possibility, but Carter wins you over with his credible storyline and keen restraint. And, not all is as doubtless (or doubtful!) as it may initially seem.

The book was like a web, or a circle with vectors projecting in every direction. As the author demonstrates, there are no easy answers, and often, both sides imbibe elements of hypocrisy and criminal behaviors, as well as righteousness and nobility. At this time, during the impeachment proceedings, Lincoln states that he would be ready to step down, but doesn't feel that his work is finished until he brings the Union together. The radical Republicans--who are men of his own party who could be seen, on the one hand, as fanatical, or on the other, as dedicated and true--want to oust him now.

I was concerned that the story would be clumsy, with a ham-handed Lincoln and a heavy-handed story. It has to be difficult to portray an icon known as "Honest Abe," two years beyond his actual survival time, a president most known for freeing the slaves. But this isn't just the Lincoln we learned about in our history textbooks in high school. Here we have a troubled, complicated man, always at the ready with an amusing anecdote, a sometimes dour but witty and enigmatic presence. And a flawed human being who nevertheless understands the times he is facing.

There is nothing black and white in this racially charged novel of American history. Besides the conflict of race, there are the businessmen with greedy propositions about tariffs; egos; political ambitions; social issues of women and class; and more.

"The cost of war," says Lincoln in 1867, " is impossible to estimate in advance...wars continue long after one side surrenders. Every conflict plagues the peace that follows it."

"There is a tradition," says retired Union General Dan Sickles, one of Lincoln's staunchest supporters, "that once a great war has been won, the leader must at once be deposed. The Romans used to do it. The British, too."

In the Author's Note, a must-read at the end of the book, Carter provides important information regarding his source material, and a fascinating peek at how he braided fact and fiction together. Like his first novel, THE EMPEROR OF OCEAN PARK, he slyly evinces the skullduggery in the chess games of politics, as well as the toll of personal loss to the cause and commitment of justice. Moreover, he doesn't forget that his story is, principally, to entertain, and seduce his readers into believers. He makes the most of his characters and their individual and shared passions, and renders a deeply felt and plausible history, back to the future.