Reviews

This account of the fraternal conflict between Edwin Booth-one of the most acclaimed Shakespearean actors of his era-and his less successful brother John Wilkes, who would soon achieve another, far darker brand of immortality for his own dramatic act, is read by John Bedford Lloyd, whose placid tone belies an undertone of menace. His reading is solid but uninspired-a surprising tone for a book that is itself about the lives of two singular dramatists. The audiobook also offers an introduction read by Doris Kearns Goodwin, who good-naturedly, if slightly awkwardly, pays tribute to the quality of Titone's scholarship. A Free Press hardcover. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

"This is narrative history at its most engaging and edifying: the forgotten story of a sibling rivalry, shot through with Shakespearean overtones, that played itself out tragically on the national stage. With the authority of a historian, and the dramatic talents of a novelist, Nora Titone has written a book full of surprises that will fundamentally change the way Americans think about John Wilkes Booth."

--Toby Lester, author of "The Fourth Part of the World"

"The Booth family, like most involved with creative endeavors, produced brilliant eccentrics. What began as sibling rivalry transformed into something darker and deadly as national divisions became mirrored in family squabbles. How ironic that the greatest family of the American theatre produced the assassin of the greatest President who supported American theatre. For anyone wanting to know how this could happen, """My Thoughts Be Bloody" is the book to read."

--Tom Schwartz, Director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

"Titone's riveting book - written with the authority of a historian and the twists and turns of a novelist - leads us to see Lincoln's killing, for the first time, through the crucible of bitter sibling rivalry...A great read." --"Philadelphia Inquirer"
Why did John Wilkes Booth do it? In "My Thoughts Be Bloody" young historian Nora Titone is one of the few to have genuinely explored this question. In doing so, she has crafted a fascinating psychological drama about one of the central events of the Civil War: the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. This book promises to stimulate lively historical debate, and will be a treat for every Civil War buff who always pondered that haunting question, "what made him pull that trigger?" Bravo on a marvelous achievement. -- Jay Winik, author of "April 1865" and "The Great Upheaval"
"Nora Titone's energetic narrative persuades a reader that history must add to its indictment of Booth the crime of fratricide." --Thomas Mallon, author of "Henry and Clara"