This is a book about Mary Surratt who was involved in the Lincoln Assassination plot. Which is something I didn't know. None of my history teachers got into details about the Lincoln Assassination beyond John Wikes Booth.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Studio for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review which I will be posting on Goodreads and Twitter.

On the 14th of April 1865, the 16th United States’ president, Abraham Lincoln, was shot in the head at Ford’s Theatre in front of a full room of theatre goers. His killer, ironically a famous actor, hurtled from the theatre box onto the stage and made his escape, managing to evade capture for weeks until he was apprehended and accidentally killed before being put in front of a jury. John Wilkes Booth will go down in history as the main orchestrator, but he also had many co-conspirators, the most controversial of them being the one woman named Mary Surratt.

Hanged! is a historical non-fiction story of the first woman to ever be executed by the United States federal government after being convicted for being involved in the conspiracy to assasinate the president. Surratt was the owner of the boardinghouse that Booth and his co-conspirators were believed to have frequented to plan their plot; a woman who succeeding president Andrew Johnson called the one who “kept the nest the hatched the egg”. The mystery of Mary Surratt has interested and divided the public since the time of her trial, and while we will never get a definitive answer, the book is a solid addition to the debate of how complicit this woman was and whether she should be considered a co-conspirator at all.

While Mary Surratt is at the centre of the book, it is necessary to look at the other people involved. The author chronologically builds the conspiracy around her, introducing the other key players and a timeline is established of the investigation following the president’s assasination. The omnipresent narrator voice presents the objective facts - it neither paints the characters in sympathy nor damnation. The audience is not forced to think either way, we are just left to ponder the case.

The second half of the book largely focuses on the trial of the conspirators. Even though history has already revealed the final outcome of the trial, we see all the testimonies both against and in Surratt’s favour relayed as if you are sitting in the courtroom watching in real time. You watch piece by piece how her defense falls to pieces, despite the best attempts of her legal counsel. We follow the swift execution order and rejection of the clemency deal, right up to the moment of her hanging and the reactions years afterwards.

This is very well-researched and Sarah Miller does an excellent job of critically analysing her sources: considering who said it, their biases, what information was given voluntary vs coerced, and what was the motivations for why and when they spoke. Photos and sketches of the key players, the infamous boarding house, the box where President Lincoln was shot, the layout of the courtroom, and photos from the day of the hanging are also included to immerse you further into the time period.

This controversial case has had historians debating for years about Mary Surratt’s involvement in one of America’s biggest historical events, and I believe Miller’s Hanged! is a worthwhile addition to this unsolved mystery.

If history, museums, assassinations, and famous mystery cases interest you, I would definitely recommend.

As a former history teacher I was so excited when I saw this book! It did not disappoint and is one of the best nonfiction books that I have read in quite some time, Miller's narrative transports the reader to 1865 to Lincoln's assassination, the attack on William Seward (Secretary of State), and the events that followed including the arrest and trial of those thought to be involved. Miller thoroughly chronicles the proceedings especially those that related to Mary Surratt who ran the boarding house where many of the conspirators, including her son, met to form their plans. Witness accounts are evaluated and facts are laid out leaving the reader wondering if Mary Surratt was aware of what was going on under her roof and if she helped the conspirators carry out the plan.. Miller does an excellent job exposing the many injustices that took place including the horrid prison conditions the accused were subjected to. I believe students who love history will be drawn to this book and find it enjoyable and hard to put down..

This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our list for order this year and will recommend it to students.

The YA Historical Fiction book, Hanged', by Sarah Miller is an engaging book on Mary Surratt, the first woman to be executed by the United States for her role in President Abraham Lincoln's assassination. The mother of one of the co-conspirators with John Wilkes Booth (JWB), her son who also a Confederate Secret Service courier during the Civil War. The co-conspirators were known to have met at her Maryland boarding house, but there remains a debate as to how involved the Widow Surratt was in the planning and implementation of the assassination of Lincoln and the attempted assignation of other leaders.
An area of interest to YA readers will likely be how the prisoners were treated as they were held for trial, how quickly the trial took place, and the way in which they were tried. Normal court protocols were not followed as the believed co-conspirators were tried by a military tribunal rather than in criminal court. The release of this book at shortly after Booth by Karen Joy Fowler will allow YA readers delve deeper into the lives of the individuals involved in this tragic event in our history. Thank you NetGalley.