In the Houses of Their Dead: The Lincolns, the Booths, and the Spirits

In the Houses of Their Dead is a meticulously researched and annotated history of the Lincoln family, their interaction and common themes and the relationship of both families to spiritualism written by Dr. Terry Alford. Released 14th June 2022 by W.W. Norton on their Liveright imprint, it's 320 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. 

This was a fascinating look at the general social and economic realities of the USA in the mid to late 19th century. The author has written a much more extensive biography of the wider families and contemporaries of Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth, and the relatively newly minted "scientific" study of spiritualism and how it informed their fateful decisions. 

The book is layman accessible and extensively annotated. The chapter notes and bibliography will provide many hours of further reading.

The text is liberally annotated and illustrated with line drawings, facsimiles of period documents, and an impressive number of photos. Although the treatment is admittedly academic, there's enough annotation and chapter notation and bibliography to satisfy the staunchest pedant - at the same time, there's a clear and compelling biographical narrative. I'm amazed that there's enough period record to reconstruct the stories of these families after all this time (despite their fame, and in the case of the Booths, their notoriety). 

The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 9 hours and 14 minutes and is capably narrated by Danny Campbell. The narrator has a rich and rugged voice and reads clearly and distinctly. Sound and production quality are high throughout the recording. The down-side of the audiobook format is the lack of photos and reference notes. 

Four and a half stars. It's an interesting synergistic look at a mostly unfamiliar facet of Lincoln and his wife. I would recommend this book to readers of American history, war history, American culture, as a support text for classroom instruction on Civil War history, or allied subjects. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.