PS I no longer participate in WWW.WEDNESDAY via that link because her blog won't accept Blogger comments. I mention this only to save you the frustration I experienced trying to link up.
1. What are you currently reading? Dear Debbie by Freida McFadden. I know the author is very popular but this is my first exposure to her. So far, it's entertainingly twisty. Debbie Mullen is a nice suburban housewife. She lives with her husband and teenaged daughters in a house they can't quite afford. Her husband is an accountant and she has a part-time job as an advice columnist for the local paper (hence the title, Dear Debbie). She gardens, she goes to book club, she and her husband share a membership at the local gym. From the outside, it all looks so normal.
Let's just say looks can be deceiving.
It's one of those books I think about when I'm not reading it. I'm trying to ignore some nagging plot holes as the story carries me along.
2. What did you recently finish reading? Lincoln's Last Trial by Dan Abrams. Lincoln myth emphasizes his humble origins and it's true, he was born in a one-room log cabin and once supported himself by manual labor (splitting rails). But he was also a very successful, albeit mostly self taught, lawyer. When you tour the Lincoln sites in Springfield, IL, you can see his home in contrast to the others of the time and it was bigger (he added the second floor) and nicer (its kitchen was very modern for the era). So I was happy this facet of Abe's life is at center stage. Yes, he often took cases for no fee if his clients couldn't afford it, but he also acted as prosecutor for the State of Illinois* and represented corporate concerns in civil litigation. The work was lucrative and he was well paid because he was very good.
The Mr. Lincoln on these pages is ambitious. He was well on his way to becoming a national figure when he took the case of accused killer Peachy Quinn, and took the unusual step of hiring R. R. Hitt as his stenographer. Court reporters were not standard at that time, but Lincoln wanted a record of this trial that he could use to burnish his image ... if he won.
The case was important, not only to Abe professionally but to all of Springfield. Peachy Quinn stabbed Greek Crafton. Both were known to Lincoln and to most folks in town, as well. Springfield was divided. Either Peachy was unjustly accused of murder and was just defending himself against a much larger man, or Greek had been viciously slashed by a hothead who could easily have just walked away but instead brandished a weapon.
There were matters of law argued here, and Lincoln's steno man got just about every word. How much force is justifiable as self defense? Did Quinn choose to carry his knife that day because he believed he was in danger, or was he looking for Grafton and spoiling for a fight? Should Greek's words to a minister on his deathbed be admissible? Does it matter that – how's this for small town life? – the minister he confessed to was his killer's grandfather? I found it all fascinating and placed myself in the jury box (even though as a woman I would not be eligible to be juror).
I don't need my Lincoln to be as simple and good as Santa Claus. I want to know the real man: smart, strategic, ambitious and at times manipulative. He was all those things in service of causes he believed in, and we're all better for it.
3. What will you read next? I don't know.
*That's one of the cooler things I learned. Back in the 1850s, lawyers had no specialties. There were no district attorneys, no defense attorneys, no corporate lawyers, etc. A lawyer was a lawyer. When the State needed to prosecute somebody, the assigned judge would hire someone locally to represent the State. Like many lawyers at the time, Mr. Lincoln didn't focus on prosecution or defense and considered any job that came his way.
