This book was so good! I plan to go back and read the first book in this series! I love historical fiction and I also like to read about Abraham Lincoln-this book fit both! Abraham Lincoln is just starting out as a traveling lawyer, bringing justice to Illinois. He is enlisted by his friend, Joshua Speed, to solve a murder that occurred on the Speed family's riverboat. Full of twists and turns, this book kept my interest right from the beginning. I hope author Jonathan F. Putnam will continue to add more installments to this series!

When I saw that Doris Kearns Goodwin enjoyed Jonathan F. Putman's first Lincoln and Speed mystery novel, I decided to request the second in the series, Perish From the Earth. The idea of a mystery involving circuit court lawyer Abe Lincoln and his bunkmate Joshua Speed intrigued me.

The action takes place in St. Louis in 1837, at a time when Abolitionists were considered radical lawbreakers.
Joshua Speed, our narrator accepts slavery, although he is disturbed by scenes of abuse. Abe supports it as constitutional but hopes that it will be phased out over time.

1837 saw the inauguration of Martin Van Buren and the Panic of 1837, a financial crisis. Oberlin College became the first in the nation to accept female students. (Michigan also became a state!)

Speed is on the War Princess, a Mississippi paddleboat owned by his father, investigating why it has not been a profitable venture. While he is on board, a man goes missing and his body is afterward found by Speed and Lincoln. A rival in love, the artist George Bingham, is accused of his murder and Lincoln agrees to represent him in court.

As Speed and his intrepid sister Martha investigate, the reader learns about American society at the time: slavery, plantation life, abolition, the newfangled justice and prison system, and life on a paddleboat.

Events and persons are based in history. A mob murders an abolitionist newspaperman, based on Elijah Lovejoy. Other characters drawn from history include the gambler Devon, George Bingham, and persons in the legal system. Likewise taken from history is the prison in Alton. Robert E. Lee shows up, managing a project for the War Department's Engineering Corps.

Lincoln had a deep commitment to the law and an abhorrence of mob rule.
We see Lincoln as a trial lawyer, employing his gift of storytelling and turning his failures into successes.

I liked the characters and enjoyed the vivid descriptions that brought the historical time period to life. Everything felt probable and in keeping with what we know of Lincoln. This was an enjoyable read.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Young Joshua Speed books passage on his father’s steamship War Eagle in order to look into some business issues for his father, but on board a young man gets ruined financially in a rigged card game, and a man is murdered. Speed and his friend, attorney and state legislator Abraham Lincoln, become involved in order to clear a young artist who is arrested for the crime, and they discover that crooked gambling is only one of a number of very shady activities along the mighty Mississippi.
When I open the second book in a series, I always do it with my fingers crossed. Will the author be able to keep up a reader’s interest, or was one book all he had? Perish from the Earth, I am pleased to report, is even better than the first volume, with a good solid mystery AND more substantial historical flavor.
Author Jonathan Putnam tells a good story, with satisfying surprises (including the choice of murder victim, who was NOT the person I expected to get killed!). Appropriately for a novel written by a Harvard Law School grad, there is a delightful courtroom scene in which the judge delivers his verdict from a rather unusual perspective! The book blurb and subtitle could mislead a reader into thinking Lincoln is the main character in the series, but Steed is definitely the protagonist, ably assisted by Lincoln, Joshua’s feisty sister Martha, and the ancient enigmatic all-knowing Nanny Mae.
A successful historical mystery demands a lot from an author if it is to build an authentic picture of the age in which it is set, and Jonathan Putnam has clearly done meticulous research, which he documents in a Historical Note at the end of the book. There is a good depiction of the controversy over slavery as it was fomenting in 1837, including the working of the underground railroad along the river and the murder of a prominent radical abolitionist, Elijah Lovejoy, at the hands of a mob. I especially enjoyed, however, the aspects of 1830s life that were not as prominent in my history classes, like life along the river in Illinois and Missouri, the steamboats with their riverboat gamblers, and even the Illinois State Prison. It is also fun that Joshua Speed was, indeed, a good friend of Abraham Lincoln and roomed with him when they were both young.
Perish from the Earth delivers all the elements a reader wants in a historical novel: a good story and insights into an earlier time. I hope the series continues!
NOTE: You can enjoy this book fully even if you have not read the first in the series.
Well-done historical mystery---good story, interesting history

What a delightful murder mystery! It's full of twists, suspense, believable characters, excellent imagery, and simple surprises. Told by Joshua Speed, it details his difficulties in investigating the financial problems his father is having related to the captain of the riverboat the family owns. In the course of this investigation, Joshua comes across the body of a man who had been a fellow passenger on said riverboat. He also is happy to see his old friend Abraham Lincoln,who is a lawyer riding the circuit with several others. Then another of the riverboat passengers, an artist, is charged with the murder of the dead man, and Lincoln becomes his lawyer. A very self important constable wants to see the artist tried and found guilty in order to elevate his own status. The trial cannot be held for several weeks, so Speed heads off to further his investigation of the captain's probable embezzlement, and also to find witnesses and other evidence that the artist is not guilty.
Of course, there is lots more to the tale, but it is all very well done, and does clearly portray the prevailing attitudes and practices of the time.
Many thanks to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to request this book from the publisher who provided an ARC at no cost to me.

Well plotted historical fiction with Abraham Lincoln and real events.

This was a good blend of historical fiction and mystery. Joshua Speed is a younger son of a wealthy planter, tasked with looking out for his father's interests. Lincoln is a newly-minted lawyer making the circuit of the area. When a man is killed, and someone is arrested, they set out to investigate.

The thing I liked the most about this book is how it actually used the time in history as an aspect of the mystery - it wasn't just a a modern-type story that happened to be set in the 1800s. Tensions over slavery were running high, mob mentality sometimes prevailed, and the legal system was very different from the system of today (not that I'm saying today's system is great....).

Set in 1837, this historical mystery involves the son of a steamboat owner who sets out to find out why his father's business is going under, and ends up working to determine the perpetrator of a murder on the Mississippi. As the best friend of young Abraham Lincoln, Speed is determined to help his friend win the defense case of an artist accused of murder. In the process, he learns more than he wished to know about the evils of slavery and the vagaries of the judicial system of the time. While not particularly fast-paced, this mystery stands out because of its historical basis and the insights into the mindset of border states prior to the Civil War. The subplot about Elijah Lovejoy is particularly interesting.

Perish from the Earth is a mystery that contains actual events and characters from history. I guess that makes it a historical mystery! It sent me to the Internet to find out more several times. I think Perish from the Earth could be used in a high school history class to help make history come alive.