‘The Plot’ provides surprising twist
to Lincoln assassination conspiracy

U.S. Marshal Clay McDowell believes indicted Lincoln assassination conspirator Mary Surratt is innocent.

He reasons the evidence against her is circumstantial and there’s no solid proof she was among those plotting to kill President Abraham Lincoln. And, even if she were to be found guilty, America would never hang a woman.

McDowell’s superior disagrees.

“Someone’s really going to pay,” he maintains. “Who better than Mary Surratt? Hang her and you really underscore the seriousness of the crime.”

“The Plot,” a new book by Civil War author Ed Ford, concerns a Kentucky lawman’s involvement in combatting a Confederate plan to kidnap President Lincoln or members of his family as a means of ending the Civil War. That effort finally leads to the President’s assassination as McDowell, federal lawman for the Eastern District of Kentucky, joins with U.S. Marshals from Virginia, Maryland and Washington City in an attempt to derail the clandestined activity.

McDowell deals with spies, a counterfeiting ring, and, finally, the participants in Lincoln’s assassination in this fast-paced historical fiction novel. Along the way, McDowell falls in love with an actress he has recruited to spy on John Wilkes Booth and his compatriots. The Marshal is involved in a number of armed conflicts with the conspirators and their associates and is a witness at the concluding trials as four, including Mary Surratt, are executed.

There’s a déjà vu twist to the surprising ending, adding another dimension to an event that changed the nation and its residents.

“The Plot,” the third Civil War offering by Ford, a Richmond, Ky., author, is priced at $22.95 and is available at Central Kentucky bookstores and through the internet, including www.fordbooks.com.

Ford, a past president and director of the Civil War Battle of Richmond Association, is editor/publisher of The Kentucky Civil War Bugle. He also is a member of the Kentucky Civil War Sites Association and can be contacted at fordpr@mis.net.