Murder in the Lincoln Bedroom: An Eleanor Roosevelt Mystery (Eleanor Roosevelt Mysteries)

This was my third of the Eleanor Roosevelt mysteries and I feel the same as I did in my review of the first. "As a historian I was tickled by some of the historical minutae that doesn't often surface about the White House or the Roosevelts. It is a light weight mystery but what a lark."

For anyone who loves history (and my preferred historical periods are the Great Depression and World War II), Elliott Roosevelt offers the sense that you are actually there, reliving the events themselves. So many facts that he includes in his books are historically accurate, and a delight to encounter in a novel. His mysteries are, to me, less about solving various murders than about his fascinating parents, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. And the mysteries are pretty good, too! I'd recommend them to anyone.

Elliott Roosevelt has written a series of mysteries in which his mother, the First Lady, solves one or more murders. Each gives us a mystery plus a sense of the White House and popular culture during the Roosevelt administration in the 1930-1940 era. In this story, it is 1943. The allies and the axis powers are fighting desperately around the world. Winston Churchill and his Generals have come to the White House secretly to plan the invasion of France. But upstairs, a policeman finds the body of one of the President's aides, murdered in the Lincoln Bedroom. Realizing that this must be kept secret because of the conference, Eleanor Roosevelt sets out to solve the killing. With the aid of a Secret Service agent and a Washington Police detective, she uncovers and thwarts a plot to assassinate the President. The book is enjoyable, more for the flavor of 1943 than for its simple plot, but it is a smooth-reading story.

... and very boring. The pace of the book is slow, and it is very conservative in its ideas. Even though I don't enjoy excessive dirty language, the morals of this book are so different than the 'modern' ones that it makes it hard to thoroughly understand, especially for a non - American who doesn't have the proper historical background.

Then why 2 stars? Because I think that this is the sort of book can appeal to people who are looking for all the points mentioned above in a book - the slower pace, the historical perspective and 'name dropping', etc.

In 1943, the Roosevelt White House worries about the corpse of attorney Paul Weyrich found in the Lincoln Bedroom due to the timing of the event. FDR hosts a critical conference attended by Prime Minister Churchill and European Theater of Operation Commander Eisenhower with the agenda being the plan to liberate Europe from the Nazis.

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt accompanied by her friend local police officer Ed Kennelly begin investigating the homicide thinking it is probably a stand alone murder. As Eleanor digs deeper into the background of the culprit, she soon realizes that the homicide is part of a gamut to kill her spouse. With the free world at stake, Eleanor sets in motion a plan to use Franklin as bait to capture an assassin before the deadly deed occurs.

The latest Eleanor Roosevelt amateur sleuth novel, MURDER IN THE LINCOLN BEDROOM, is typical of the long running series. The story line is fun but a no brainer and the motives when revealed seem feeble when considering the momentous event envisioned by the criminals. Still Elliot Roosevelt writes in a easy to read, smooth manner including using self deprecating humor when other noted twentieth century figures discuss the shortcomings of the Icon,s son. The opportunity to see the major players during the long running FDR Administration turns this novel like its twenty or so predecessors into an enjoyable, albeit one-sided experience for historical mystery buffs who are not concerned with a historiographer's perspective.

Harriet Klausner