An Authorlink audio interview
with Lawrence Goldstone
Author of ASSASSIN OF SHADOWS
(Pegasus Books, June 2019)
Just after 4 P.M. on September 6, 1901, twenty-eight-year-old anarchist Leon Czolgosz pumps two shots into the chest and abdomen of President William McKinley. Czolgosz had been on a receiving line waiting to shake the president’s hand, his revolver concealed in an oversized bandage covering his right hand and wrist. After he is apprehended, Czolgosz says simply, “I done my duty.”
In the novel, ASSASSIN OF SHADOWS, Lawrence Goldstone blends historical events with a fictional story. Here, the author talks to Authorlink about how he develops his story ideas, and his publishing challenges. This is his fourth fictional work, but he has also written six non-fiction books.
In ASSASSIN OF SHADOWS, both law enforcement and the press insist that Czolgosz is merely the tip of a vast and murderous conspiracy, likely instigated by the “high priestess of anarchy,” Emma Goldman. To untangle its threads and bring the remaining conspirators to justice, the president’s most senior advisors choose two Secret Service agents, Walter George, and Harry Swayne. What they uncover will not only absolve the anarchists, but also expose a plot that will threaten the foundations of American democracy, and likely cost them their lives.
As in his other brilliant novels combining history and fiction, Lawrence Goldstone creates a remarkable and chilling tableau in Assassin of Shadows, filled with suspense and unexpected turns of fate, detailing events that actually might have happened. As Publishers Weekly observed in its starred review of the “exceptional thriller” Deadly Cure, “Goldstone again blends fact and fiction seamlessly.”
Advance Praise for Assassin of Shadows
“An outstanding thriller. Goldstone combines an intriguing theory of the crime with ajaw dropping ending. His best novel yet.” -Publishers Weekly (starred)
“Goldstone deftly mixes fact and fiction to bring the turn of the century alive as his detecting pair unearth a breathtaking, satisfying conspiracy.” -Kirkus Reviews
“Taking the 1901 assassination of President William McKinley in Buffalo as his starting point, Goldstone combines fact and fiction to weave a story of the plot behind the event. A masterfully conceived, suspenseful ‘what if story that will certainly draw fans of Max Allai1 Collins’s similar series starring Nate Heller.” -Booklist
