Customer Reviews

The Ambush of My Name

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Hiram Grant, re christened Ulysses S Grant by the U.S.Army, decides to revisit Georgetown, Ohio prior to the run for presidency his wife desires more than he. Fresh from the war, Grant is labeled hero by some and butcher by others. To his disappointment, a hero's welcome after a twenty-five year absence from his childhood hometown is withheld.
Escorted to the National Union hotel's best accommodations, Grant and his socially-conscious wife, Julia, discover their locked room's bed is already occupied -- by a dead man.
A single Confederate bill mixed with the dead man's belongings, an anxious young journalist aspiring to be the next Horace Greeley and an old flame resurfacing add to Grant's problems.
Following the recent assassination of the president and amid rumors of plans to kill Lincoln's entire cabinet, Grant is forced to confront the threats as viable. Much to Grant's distaste, a Pinkerton detective is sent as his body guard.
Jeffrey Marks proves his storytelling abilities worth the reader's time with THE AMBUSH OF MY NAME. Marks use of personality nuances of his characters make them seem like old acquaintances. We can feel the grit while we sidestep horse dung in the dust-filled streets. Caught up in the mystery, the reader delights in finding historical facts lead us not into a mere history lesson, but into an engaging hunt for clues to the superb resolution.

Civil war buffs and mystery aficionados alike will be delighted with Jeffrey Mark's `The Ambush of My Name." By deftly weaving historical facts through the manuscript, he keeps his readers riveted right till the end.

A must-read for anyone looking for a captivating book

In The Ambush of My Name, a story of Ulysses Grant and his wife Julia, Grant returns to his hometown expecting a hero's welcome. What he finds is a dead body waiting for him in his hotel room at the National Union.

He receives a second surprise when his childhood sweetheart, Adelaide Duncan, shows up unexpectedly and appears to be involved in some way.

With the help of a young reporter named Hart and a Pinkerton agent named Tyson, Grant tries to solve the mystery of who the dead man is and why he was murdered. Is the body left in Grant's room to sully his name? Could it have anything to do with the Lincoln assassination? The suspect list is relatively short, but as the story progresses things take a few twists and turns to keep you guessing, including attempts on Grant's life. The resolution to this story will, I think, surprise you.

I hope Jeffrey Marks might bring General Grant and his wife, Julia, back for a curtain call in future books. The characters, as Marks created them, were endearing and memorable. I was delighted with this debut novel and look forward to more stories by this author.

Marja McGraw

There are elements of this novel that I liked very much. The history seemed well researched. Some of the characters are interesting (although others could be cardboard cutouts.) the concept is intriguing. The major weakness, in my opinion, is that the book is not very well written. The author shows Grant looking up from a dead body on the bed and noticing that the pictures on the walls are watercolors by local artists. What's with that? Frequently, when Grant is put in an embarassing or uncomfortable situation he thinks, "This is worse than Cold Harbor" or some other battle. Not at all believable. I really liked the idea and wanted to like the book, but what should be a fun read turned into chore at times.

I really enjoyed this book. It's obvious that the author took a lot of pains to get the history right. There were a lot of details about the war and its aftermath that I didn't know before I read the book. It's a great way to learn more about history while reading a good mystery tale.

It has been six months since Lee surrendered to Grant and now the victorious General thinks he will run for president once Johnson's term ends. Grant returns to his hometown of Georgetown, Ohio expecting a hero's welcome.

Perhaps it is the geographical location being near the Border States but there are many Confederacy sympathizers are in the crowds. He is called butcher by a heckler and no one intercedes on his or his wife Julia's behalf. When the Grants enter their hotel room, they find a corpse waits to greet them. Later Ulysses takes Julia on a picnic on the back roads only to have a sniper try to kill them. Secretary of State Seward sends a Pinkerton Agent to investigate and soon he concludes that southerners are still fighting the war by targeting Grant as a means of shocking the nation with his assassination.

Jeffrey marks has done a wonderful job of capturing the mood of the nation just six months after the Civil War ended. General grant is treated as real person with doubts and fears as opposed to an unflappable legend. THE AMBUSH OF MY NAME is a fascinating historical mystery that achieves the mark of excellence.

Harriet Klausner

This novel--intended as part of a strange effort to turn Ulysses Grant into Nancy Drew with a beard--has nothing to offer fans of either USG or Agatha Christie. It is hilariously inaccurate, and Marks couldn't even be bothered to learn the first thing about the real historical figures he writes about--his Grant is a henpecked, wimpy doofus who would never have lasted two minutes against Robert E. Lee (or Mary Custis Lee, for that matter,) and his adoring wife Julia is, for reasons best known to the author, portrayed as Hillary Clinton in hoops. Marks could not have created a more misleading portrait of those two if he had tried.

I perhaps could have forgiven all this if the author had at least created an engaging work of fiction, but he did not. The book is remarkably dull and shallow, with a plot he must have spent a whole 45 seconds concocting. It is at times like this that I wish Amazon allowed reviewers to rate a book with minus points.