I’ve begun reading one of the five books I recently acquired at my library book sale, as described in another thread (https://forums.online-go.com/t/how-was-your-day-regular-part-ii/46165/5870): The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch (Flatiron Books, 2019).
The fact of the plot is moderately well known among people interested in U.S. history. I first encountered the story in a children’s book, Spies of the Revolution by Katherine and John Bakeless (Scholastic Book Services, 1962), which I read when I was about 11 and thereby acquired a lifelong interest in the history of espionage. It was an abridgment of a landmark book, Turncoats, Traitors and Heroes (1959), with the academic apparatus omitted. I should add that John Bakeless, who had been an intelligence officer during WW2 and a CIA consultant in the 1950s, wrote several other outstanding books on U.S. history, including the unforgettable Spies of the Confederacy, still the benchmark on the subject.
However, this is the first book that treats the subject of its title in detail. It is a complicated story, and the book takes the time to describe thoroughly the strategic background to the events. I had forgotten, if I ever knew, how numerous and problematic the Loyalists (Tories) were. It really seems miraculous that the revolution succeeded.
The book reads very easily and swiftly. This is a tribute not only to the clean style, but to the authors’ well-organized presentation of the many threads in the narrative.