I'm something of a Lincoln fan and have read books on him from several angles. And on our recent family vacation, I visited the Todd house in Lexington. Those were reason enough for me to read this book. It was well-written and interesting throughout, but I'll say this — Mary may not have been insane, but she was certainly thoroughly unlikeable.

It left me with one question. What's the story with Robert Lincoln. The book portrays him as a cold, unloving, struggling Chicago lawyer who unfairly had his mother committed after borrowing large sums of money from her. Then, all of a sudden, he's the Secretary of War. No doubt he traded on his name to some extent, but he must have had some ability of his own to reach that level. I'll have to find a biography of him next.