Lucy, a twelve-year-old slave girl, is desperate to escape the plantation where she was born. On the way to being sold, she escapes and heads for the underground railroad where she hopes to get help. Unfortunately, she’s captured in Springfield, Missouri, where Lincoln practices law. He’s running for president and trying to keep a low profile while waiting for the vote count.
Abby Kelley Foster, a fiery abolitionist speaker, is in Springfield and eager to give a speech. She thinks Lincoln’s approach to ending slavery is too gradual, and she wants to make the point in his city.
Lucy is scheduled to be returned to her owner because of the Fugitive Slave Law. In her speech, Abby incites a crowd to keep Lucy from being taken. This ends in her being charged with inciting a riot. She wants the best lawyer in Springfield to represent her, so she goes to Lincoln. He reluctantly agrees although he worries that it will cost him the election.
This is an interesting novel about the time just before Lincoln became President. The emotions are well portrayed, but the plot is not particularly historically accurate. For me, this made the book rather choppy. The author did explain the historical discrepancies in a note at the end, but that didn’t work well for me.
The book had a great many characters. This made the character development for most of them rather sketchy. I thought the author tried to tell too many stories in detail within the confines of a single book which made it difficult to get interested in any one character.
I received this book from Harlequin for this review.
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