A Timely Visit to Baltimore

Hector DeJean - Minotaur Books Publicity Manager sent me this interesting press release for a timely release -

Minotaur Books has acquired an original work of historic crime non-fiction by Daniel Stashower, a two-time Edgar® Award winning writer. The new book examines a little-known yet dramatic and momentous 1861 plot to assassinate president-elect Abraham Lincoln in Baltimore, during Lincoln’s inaugural trip to Washington. According to Stashower, the foiled plot had a powerful impact on both Lincoln’s presidency and issues of security and public opinion for decades afterward, even up to the present day.

Minotaur Books publisher Andrew Martin and St. Martin’s executive editor Charles Spicer acquired rights to Stashower’s book from agent Larry Kirschbaum, founder of LJK Literary Management. The acquisition represents a departure from the norm for Minotaur, which until now has successfully published many widely-hailed crime fiction novels, yet has not previously ventured into non-fiction.

“For some time we have been on the lookout for the kind of non-fiction that can compliment our fiction list,” said Mr. Martin. “In the tradition of Devil in the White City and Manhunt, Minotaur is seeking extremely well-written historical narrative crime non-fiction. Mr. Stashower has delivered the perfect kind of book we’re looking for, and – as an Edgar® Award winning author – he is the perfect fit for Minotaur.”

Minotaur Books’s Down River by John Hart won the Edgar® for Best Novel in 2008, and Blue Heaven by C.J. Box is short-listed for Best Novel this year. Both novels were New York Times bestsellers.

Mr. Stashower’s book is tentatively scheduled to be published in late 2010, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Lincoln’s inauguration.

Acclaimed author Stashower won Edgar® Awards for his books Teller of Tales: The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle and Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters. Stashower is also the author of The Beautiful Cigar Girl, a highly-praised book focusing on the real-life murder that inspired Edgar Allen Poe’s story The Mystery of Marie Roget.

About Minotaur Books:
Minotaur Books is an imprint of the St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Launched in 1999, Minotaur publishes about 130 hardcover crime fiction titles annually. Minotaur Books grew out of a fifty-year tradition of publishing quality crime fiction at St. Martin’s Press, and has published many award-winning and best-selling titles.

St. Martin’s Press is part of Macmillan, the U. S. publishing group owned by Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GMBH of Stuttgart, Germany.