19 topic. It is. AH Book by best selling number one Best selling author bread. Meltzer. Brad Meltzer wrote the book The Lincoln Conspiracy. The secret plot to kill America's 16th president and why it failed. Brad. Welcome to the Paul W. Smith show WJR. Thank you, sir. And as a Michigan grad, I I really appreciate you having me on. Well, a fellow Michigan grab great to hear that. I know that's why I said it. Oh, I didn't know Shin too. Okay? What class of wind 99 90 92. Yeah, I was a little before that, um All right. That was a lot less familiar eyes a lot before that. Meanwhile, Brad, this is obviously something you were working on before there was a Corona virus. Even though this is a savior for people who want to have something they could lose themselves in a good book. What led you to writing the Lincoln conspiracy? The secret plan to kill Americans, 60 of president and why it failed. You know, it was just the story itself. We all know the story of John Wilkes Booth and ink Lincoln's presidency. This is the story of the first secret plot to kill Abraham Lincoln at the very start. In order to be sworn in as America's 16th president Lincoln had to take a train from his home in Springfield, Illinois, for Washington, D C. And the only way to get there was to go through Baltimore, But Maryland at the time was a slave state, so the plan was simple. A secret society plotted to kill Abraham Lincoln when he came through Baltimore and then this presidency before it even began. And needless to say, that's not exactly what happened. Imagine how history would have been changed if it had succeeded. That's exactly the whole thing. Right in the middle of the night is a speeding train filled with passengers, including two businessmen, a woman and her invalid brother. None of them are who they say they are on this train. The man is famed Detective Allan Pinkerton, head of the Pinkerton Detective agency. The woman is Kate Warne, America's first female private eye in the fourth man isn't an invalid or her brother. His name is Abraham Lincoln. They give him a code name. They dressed him up in a disguise. Even along in the middle of the night to avoid the men who were trying to kill him, And that's the end of Chapter one. And when I heard that I was like, Can you imagine what happens if it works like you said all of history changes. And that's why the book is important right now. I mean, it's a time in America. The Lincoln Conspiracy is set where the Civil War is just about to break out. America's divided in half. One side hates the other. Whatever side you're on. You think the other side is a bunch of awful horrible people? Does that sound familiar to you? On what you think What you see in the book is what great leaders do in that situation and the greatest of leaders. Abraham Lincoln. The sides, Of course you don't divide us. You unite us. And so the book takes on. Especially in this covert environment, especially where we are politically just a beautiful, beautiful look at real leadership. My goodness you have M Grant. Brad Meltzer, number one New York Times bestselling author of the Escape artist and many other bestselling thrillers, as well as the ordinary people Change the World. Syriza's Also host of the history Channel TV shows Brad Meltzer's decoded and Brad Meltzer's lost history. And you have this thing about Presidents that almost were assassinated. Didn't you have that? Didn't you write the first conspiracy? The secret plot to kill George Washington? Yeah, we started with George Washington. And I found the secret plot to kill George Washington, which really happened in 17 76. And now we said, How do you top you know George Washington, but, of course, using Abraham Lincoln in that book. No. Was blurbed by two U. S presidents. We, you know, loved the book. It was an incredible thing to work on. The amazing part. Was it a kind of overlapped again in the linking conspiracy Because Is this wonderful moment they might favorite in the book. Where the Pinkerton detectives finally go in. Tell Abraham Lincoln. Hey, there's a secret plot to kill you. They go to his hotel room and Lincoln. Stay. Stay. Don't listen. You gotta leave on the next train. We've got to get you through Baltimore Quicker. Skip your event in Philadelphia tomorrow is supposed to be in Philadelphia the next day. On Lincoln's responses. I'm not missing my event in Philly. You wanna know why? Because in Philadelphia the next day, they're honoring at Independence Hall, Abraham Lincoln's greatest hero. A man named George Washington on his birthday. Lincoln says. I'm not missing honoring George Washington, and he risked his life to go there. You'll see a longer on the team, but he gives a speech about uniting the country and says if you don't we don't stand together. You might as well assassinate me and what we know now, when you read the book. That he actually knew there was a plot to assassinate and when he said that, and it's one of the most amazing moments behind the scenes of Abraham Lincoln you've ever seen. I love the fact that even in the midst of all this, they honor George Washington then right after that again, this is where it all kicks in. They jump on this train. They put a disguise on Lincoln. The Pinkerton detective gave Abraham Lincoln's life. I won't I won't ruin how, but it's an amazing moment of their defeat in this secret society. What a great great story the.