REVIEWS
THEY SHALL NOT SEE THE DAWN
“A timely, thrilling history of how some of the greatest villains ever were hunted down and brought to justice. I loved the pace and style. A must read for World War II buffs and all those who love a damn good true story.”
–Alexander Kershaw, New York Times bestselling author of The First Wave and The Liberator
“A visceral, heart-pounding account, They Shall Not See the Dawn is a cinematic thriller that proves no war criminal is out of reach. . . . Lachman masterfully recreates the greatest manhunt, told through the eyes of an unlikely band of scholars, linguists, and refugees in a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse. This is narrative non-fiction as it’s supposed to be written.”
–Kevin Maurer, #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of No Easy Day and author of Damn Lucky
CODENAME NEMO
“A relentless, pressure-packed plunge into the depths of war. Codename Nemo is a story-telling tour-de-force—indeed, the quintessential story of the Battle of the Atlantic, rendered in taut prose, and with an immediacy and intimacy that all but makes a participant of the reader. In the wake of this story, you’ll feel a profound sense of gratitude to the men who went after U-505, and to Charles Lachman for bringing them back.”
–James Sullivan, author of Unsinkable
“Codename Nemo is a pulse-pounding tale of high-stakes espionage and daring courage…A riveting narrative combining historical research with visceral scenes, Codename Nemo is a must-read for anyone in search of a thrilling maritime adventure.”
–Andrew Dubbins, author of Into Enemy Waters
“What a terrific read from Charles Lachman! A suspenseful, fast-paced but little-known saga of hide-and-seek between a US ‘baby flattop’ and a German U-boat during Word War II. It’s a wild, engrossing ride from start to finish with extraordinary details and insights into daily life—clashes, arguments, even suicide—aboard both German boats and American ships during the Battle of the Atlantic. This one is a winner!”
–Carole Engle Avriett, author of Coffin Corner Boys and Marine Raiders
“Crisp as a torpedo striking the water, Codename Nemo pulls you along with a deeply personal account of the hunters on both sides of an amazing drama.”
–Walter R. Borneman, author of The Admirals and Brothers Down
FOOTSTEPS IN THE SNOW
Lachman (The Last Lincolns: The Rise and Fall of a Great American Family) does an outstanding job of making the resolution of a horrific cold-case murder into a gripping page-turner. The murder case dates back to December 1957, in the small Illinois town of Sycamore. Two young girls, Maria Ridulph and Kathy Sigman, were playing just outside their homes when a stranger approached them, introducing himself as Johnny and offering to give the girls piggyback rides. – Publishers Weekly
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Kathy ran inside to retrieve her mittens; when she returned, Maria and Johnny were gone. The search for the missing Maria engulfed the community, but ended tragically with the discovery of the seven-year-old’s corpse months later. It took decades for the killer to be identified, under circumstances that sound like fiction, with a dramatic deathbed revelation that set the stage for a prosecution more than 50 years after the crime. Despite the book’s length, Lachman paces it perfectly, carrying the reader along on a narrative full of twists, while delving into the tragedy’s impact on Sycamore and its residents.
Reviewed on: 09/29/2014
Release date: 11/04/2014
A SECRET LIFE: The Lies and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland
“Epic history . . . gripping and suspenseful” – Christian Science Monitor
Press Release for A Secret Life
Famed as a pugnaciously honest leader, Grover Cleveland set the tone for what a politician should do when caught in scandal: “Whatever you say, tell the truth.” But to save himself from career-ending allegations involving a rape and violence, he lied — and won election to two terms as president of the United States.
Now, in his gripping work of nonfiction, A SECRET LIFE: The Lies and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland (Skyhorse Publishing; July 25, 2011; $24.95), acclaimed author Charles Lachman reveals that Cleveland led a secret life that previous histories and biographies have overlooked. Lachman’s heavily researched, engrossing work of investigative history will rewrite the way history looks at one of our most esteemed presidents.
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When he ran for the presidency in 1884 – an election considered by many to be the dirtiest national campaign in U.S. history – Grover Cleveland faced down accusations that as a young lawyer in Buffalo, New York, he fathered an illegitimate son. Cleveland’s opponents taunted him with the rallying cry, “Ma, Ma, where’s my Pa?” but the candidate and his allies successfully deflected the scandal by claiming that the woman in question, Maria Halpin, was a harlot. The Cleveland campaign argued that Grover Cleveland — as the only bachelor among Halpin’s many paramours — had valiantly assumed responsibility for the child, trying to protect his married friends.
This version of the Cleveland-Halpin story has come to be accepted as historical fact. But as A SECRET LIFE shows, almost none of it is true. Among Charles Lachman’s discoveries:
Maria Halpin was the victim of a malicious smear campaign that destroyed her life and defames her to this day. Far from wanton, she was, in fact, a church-going widow and mother of two young children. In a sworn affidavit obtained by the author and ignored for more than 125 years, Maria Halpin claims that Cleveland raped her in her apartment.
Cleveland’s illegitimate son, Oscar Folsom Cleveland, was born on Sept. 14, 1874 at a Buffalo hospital for unwed mothers. In a cruel injustice straight out of a Charles Dickens novel, Cleveland arranged to have Maria Halpin thrown into the Providence Lunatic Asylum and had the child forcibly removed from his mother and placed in the Buffalo Orphan Asylum.
Solving one of the great riddles of presidential lore, A SECRET LIFE tells how Cleveland’s illegitimate son, Oscar, was adopted by a distinguished Buffalo family, in cahoots with Grover Cleveland, and given the name James King Jr. In adulthood, he became a physician, and died at age 71 in 1947.
Rose Elizabeth Cleveland, Grover’s sister who served as First Lady before Cleveland married, harbored a politically explosive secret of her own: She was a lesbian, as revealed in a collection of private correspondence that Lachman discovered, written to her lover whom she called “my Viking.”
Frances Folsom was the daughter of Cleveland’s best friend, Oscar Folsom, who died when the girl was 11. At 21, she became Cleveland’s wife and the youngest First Lady in U.S. history. A SECRET LIFE explores as never before Cleveland’s sordid and furtive romancing of Frances, 28 years his junior and also his surrogate daughter.
A SECRET LIFE is the story of a president haunted by his past. Lachman builds a page-turning narrative that finally sets the record straight on an American president, his illegitimate son and the woman who has been so wrongly vilified in history, Maria Halpin.
A SECRET LIFE: The Lies and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland
“Brilliant.” – New York Post
“…a fascinating and well-researched family history that documents the traumatic impact of Lincoln’s assassination on his family and, the Lincoln legacy. A skilled storyteller, Lachman… paints an intimate portrait of Mary Lincoln, who never forgave her son Robert for sending her to a mental institution.”
– Publishers Weekly
“Important and engaging. . . . Charles Lachman has written an absorbing, well-researched account of the Lincoln family from their days as America’s first family to their twentieth century tribulations. A compelling story, The Last Lincolns definitively answers the question of what happened to members of the family after Lincoln’s assassination.”
– Jean H. Baker, professor of history, Goucher College, author, Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography
“Charles Lachman has given us a spellbinding account of Abraham Lincoln’s family and descendants – right down to the last one, or so we think.”
– Frank J. Williams, found chairman, The Lincoln Forum, chief justice, Rhode Island Supreme Court.
“Who could imagine the Great Emancipator’s Family falling into scandal and disgrace so soon after his murder? Yet they did, as Charles Lachman chronicles in this intimate portrait of decline.”
– Kenneth D. Ackerman, author, Dark Horse: The Surprise Election and Political Murder of President James A. Garfield.
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