The Ambush of My Name

Rating:
Summary: Good book / Fun history
Review: I really enjoyed this book. It's obvious that the author took a lot of pains to get the history right. There were a lot of details about the war and its aftermath that I didn't know before I read the book. It's a great way to learn more about history while reading a good mystery tale.

Rating:
Summary: Great historical mystery
Review: It has been six months since Lee surrendered to Grant and now the victorious General thinks he will run for president once Johnson's term ends. Grant returns to his hometown of Georgetown, Ohio expecting a hero's welcome.

Perhaps it is the geographical location being near the Border States but there are many Confederacy sympathizers are in the crowds. He is called butcher by a heckler and no one intercedes on his or his wife Julia's behalf. When the Grants enter their hotel room, they find a corpse waits to greet them. Later Ulysses takes Julia on a picnic on the back roads only to have a sniper try to kill them. Secretary of State Seward sends a Pinkerton Agent to investigate and soon he concludes that southerners are still fighting the war by targeting Grant as a means of shocking the nation with his assassination.

Jeffrey marks has done a wonderful job of capturing the mood of the nation just six months after the Civil War ended. General grant is treated as real person with doubts and fears as opposed to an unflappable legend. THE AMBUSH OF MY NAME is a fascinating historical mystery that achieves the mark of excellence.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Inconsistent effort
Review: There are elements of this novel that I liked very much. The history seemed well researched. Some of the characters are interesting (although others could be cardboard cutouts.) the concept is intriguing. The major weakness, in my opinion, is that the book is not very well written. The author shows Grant looking up from a dead body on the bed and noticing that the pictures on the walls are watercolors by local artists. What's with that? Frequently, when Grant is put in an embarassing or uncomfortable situation he thinks, "This is worse than Cold Harbor" or some other battle. Not at all believable. I really liked the idea and wanted to like the book, but what should be a fun read turned into chore at times.

Rating:
Summary: The Biggest Mystery Is How This Got Published
Review: This novel--intended as part of a strange crusade by the author to turn Ulysses Grant into Nancy Drew with a beard--has nothing to offer fans of either USG or Agatha Christie. It is hilariously inaccurate historically, and Marks obviously never bothered to learn the first thing about the the real-life figures he writes about. He depicts Grant as a henpecked, wimpy twerp who would have never lasted for two minutes against Robert E. Lee (or Mary Custis Lee, for that matter,) and his adoring--and adored--wife Julia is, bafflingly, depicted here as Hillary Clinton in hoops. He could not have created a more misleading portrayal of those two if he had tried.

I perhaps could have forgiven this if he had at least created an engaging work of fiction, but he did not. The book is shallow and dull, with a plot that the author must have spent a whole 45 seconds concocting. The book is, in short, a waste of time and paper.

Rating:
Summary: The Biggest Mystery Is How This Got Published
Review: This novel--intended as part of a strange effort to turn Ulysses Grant into Nancy Drew with a beard--has nothing to offer fans of either USG or Agatha Christie. It is hilariously inaccurate, and Marks couldn't even be bothered to learn the first thing about the real historical figures he writes about--his Grant is a henpecked, wimpy doofus who would never have lasted two minutes against Robert E. Lee (or Mary Custis Lee, for that matter,) and his adoring wife Julia is, for reasons best known to the author, portrayed as Hillary Clinton in hoops. Marks could not have created a more misleading portrait of those two if he had tried.

I perhaps could have forgiven all this if the author had at least created an engaging work of fiction, but he did not. The book is remarkably dull and shallow, with a plot he must have spent a whole 45 seconds concocting. It is at times like this that I wish Amazon allowed reviewers to rate a book with minus points.