Book Log 2012 #43: The Lincoln Letter by William Martin

The fifth book featuring antiquarian/treasure hunter Peter Fallon, this is probably the best of the more overtly political books in the series. Fallon, along with some neo-Confederates, a billionaire etailer, and a handful of Lincoln scholars and biographers, is looking for a lost Lincoln diary, whose contents are hoped will influence any number of issues, current and historical. The story of his search is intertwined with that of a Union officer who comes into possession of the diary in 1862, loses it, and spends the rest of the book trying to get it out of the hands of Copperheads, Southern sympathizers, and those who would use it for self-promotion.

The historical story is the better of the two, which makes me think this may have been a better book if set completely in the past, like Citizen Washington. The modern storyline has all of the typical Fallon touches - brushes with danger, dragging girlfriend Evangeline Carrington into the mix, etc. - but comes to a head somewhat perfunctorily. The politics of the modern story don't clog things up too much (a blend of state's rights and the potential introduction of a VAT), adding just enough to the plot to explain the presence of the various antagonists.

Not a bad book in the whole, but I would really like it if in his next adventure Fallon came home to Boston to find the original Sacred Cod or something.