Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer

Manhunt: The Twelve-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer (2006) by James L. Swanson is a popular true-crime historical thriller about the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865 and the search for the assassin John Wilkes Booth. James Swanson has written several books about Abraham Lincoln and other events in American history including the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The book won the Edgar Award, a literary award for fiction and non-fiction works about crime. It was later adapted into a young adult version entitled Chasing Lincoln’s Killer: The Search for John Wilkes Booth (2008). In 2024, Manhunt: The Twelve-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer was adapted into a limited series for Apple TV+ starring Tobias Menzies as Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.

Manhunt: The Twelve-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer is a popular history that relies on an extensive bibliography of first-person accounts, newspaper coverage, and academic histories. Written as a minute-by-minute narrative covering the assassination and its aftermath, it describes the challenges authorities faced in their search for Lincoln’s assassin. It also covers the public response to the shocking events both at the time they took place and in the contemporary era.