"Putnam's well-researched first novel...does a fine job presenting a recognizable young Abraham Lincoln."
--Publishers Weekly starred review
"[A] well-researched debut mystery...Eye-opening historical details on hunting runaway slaves and 19th-century poorhouses will interest readers who enjoy works by Caleb Carr and E.L. Doctorow."
--Library Journal
"Lawyer Putnam bases his debut novel on a solid historical foundation...in the first of what looks to be a winning historical-mystery series."
--Booklist
"This book is a time machine, and the mystery at its core is equally elegant and brutal. Just like our history. But, man, is it fun to root for Abraham Lincoln."
--Brad Meltzer, bestselling author of The President's Shadow
"What a splendid debut novel! Jonathan Putnam combines an historian's understanding of character and context with a remarkable narrative drive that kept me fascinated from start to finish as I tried to figure out how the mystery would unfold. I read history during the days and mysteries every night before going to sleep, so for me, These Honored Dead was one of the most enjoyable works of fiction I have read in a long time."
--Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of The Bully Pulpit
"Putnam combines the historical fact of a lifelong friendship with lively fiction in a debut set on the edge of the American frontier."
--Kirkus
"Putnam takes the real-life friendship of Lincoln and Speed and spins a wonderful fictional history of their first years together...A well-researched book that will appeal to fans of historical fiction, and a book that should be on a Lincoln buff's reading list."
--Historical Novel Society
"These Honored Dead feels so completely authentic that it might very well be a recovered journal from the nineteenth century, peopled with true-life investigators named Lincoln and Speed. But the pacing is so assured, and the mystery is so intriguing that it can't be anything but a masterfully crafted modern novel. Jonathan Putnam has crafted the most gripping debut in years, and I can't wait to read his next book."
--Alex Grecian, national bestselling author of the Scotland Yard Murder Squad series
"Young Mr. Lincoln makes a crackerjack detective. He and the narrator, Speed, are a fine Holmes and Watson. Putnam's book is historical mystery at its best."
--Will Thomas, Barry and Shamus Award-nominated author of Anatomy of Evil
"Anatomy of a Murder, frontier-style; Lincoln lives again in this sharp and engaging period mystery. Great characters, solid research, and effective twists."
--Stephen Gallagher, critically-acclaimed author of The Kingdom of Bones and The Bedlam Detective
