... fascinating and extremely readable ... Considering Meltzer's literary background, it's no surprise that The Lincoln Conspiracy reads like an expertly crafted thriller. What's remarkable about the book is that Meltzer and Mensch are able to sustain the suspense even though the reader knows how it ends ... They're able to pull that off because of their gift for pacing and because of the structure of the book — it has short, punchy chapters, each of which teases the next. As was the case with their book about George Washington, Meltzer and Mensch do have a tendency to end each chapter with somewhat breathless prose, not unlike the way some television shows end each act with a cliffhanger. And while that may annoy readers with a taste for more academic history, it's an effective technique that's likely to pique the interest of more casual history fans. That's not to say the book isn't well researched; it is, very much so, with nearly 50 pages of endnotes drawn from Lincoln's and Pinkerton's papers. Meltzer and Mensch have clearly done their homework, and they prove to be experts at rendering history in an urgent, exciting way ... is, despite its dark subject matter, relentlessly fun to read. Meltzer and Mensch are refreshingly unpretentious authors who prove gifted at providing essential context to the main storyline — they deftly paint a picture of 19th-century America, taking deep dives into Lincoln's life and the prevailing attitudes toward race and politics at the time. It's an expertly crafted book that seems sure to delight readers with an interest in lesser-known episodes of American history.

... remarkable and often riveting ... Drawing from contemporaneous accounts and biographies of the central characters, Meltzer and Mensch use Lincoln’s two-week journey by train from his home in Illinois to his under-cover-of-darkness arrival in Washington as a gripping narrative to revisit the discovery of the assassination plot and the frantic efforts to prevent its success ... In their briskly paced telling — each of the book’s 81 chapters is just a few pages long — the authors provide a robust historical framework.

... a historical work that reads like a page-turning thriller. Many parts of the story are reinforced with photos and images, some of which I never saw before in other books about Abraham Lincoln or the Civil War. It's almost like your American history textbook became cool and could be read like a bestselling novel ... Even though we have found out much of this information through school textbooks or various documentaries and film adaptations, in the hands of Meltzer and Mensch, it is told in riveting fashion. The narrative is so fluid and interesting that you find yourself rooting for Lincoln like he was the heroic protagonist in a fantasy novel ... The Acknowledgements and Credits are almost as long as a novella and show the depth of research that Meltzer and Mensch brought to this engaging and exhilarating book.

Most books on Lincoln are imbued with a sense of tragic melancholy—like those on JFK, only more so. The Lincoln Conspiracy, by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch, is a refreshing counterinstance to this generality ... Mr. Meltzer, the author of popular thrillers and a host on the History Channel, and Mr. Mensch, a historian and television producer, have written a tale that begs to be a movie. The book is narrated in the present tense, like the script of a documentary, and its 81 short chapters typically end on a note of heavy suspense. There are constant and unnecessary reminders of how American history would have taken a different course if this or that detail had been otherwise. But The Lincoln Conspiracy also includes much on Lincoln’s life and character, and every episode is scrupulously referenced. An occasionally melodramatic page-turner with proper endnotes—not a bad thing.

Meltzer and Mensch introduce a constellation of pro-slavery militias and secret societies, with names like the Knights of the Golden Circle, which worked with the local police on plans to ensnare Lincoln, while their discussion of how the newly founded Pinkerton National Detective Agency infiltrated the conspiracy includes unexpected details of undercover work, 1860s-style—including by pathbreaking women detectives. A delightful addition to popular literature on the Civil War era.

While the authors offer no new information or interpretation of Lincoln’s preinaugural journey, which is better related in Ted Widmer’s Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to Washington, the instructive accounting of the mentality, movements, and means of Pinkerton and his agents makes for a revealing look inside the world of secessionist fanaticism.

In short, energetic chapters, Meltzer and Mensch fashion a brisk political thriller centered on a nefarious plot to murder Lincoln before his inauguration ... In addition to revealing the conspiracy, the authors vividly convey the virulent racism endemic in the South ... A sharply drawn episode from a regrettable part of America's past.

... solid ... Meltzer and Mensch maintain suspense despite the known outcome of the story, and convincingly counter claims that Pinkerton made the whole thing up for publicity purposes. Readers new to the Baltimore Plot will appreciate this comprehensive and well-written overview.