Hiding in Plain Sight: Kate Warne and the Race to Save Abraham Lincoln

America’s first female detective Kate Warne’s mission? Protect president-elect Abraham Lincoln from Southern rebels bent on assassinating him before his inauguration.

Abraham Lincoln faces a dangerous and uncertain future after leaving Springfield, Illinois, for his inauguration in Washington, DC. Luckily for him, detective Kate Warne has his back, even if he didn’t know it yet.

Working for the Pinkerton Detective Agency, Kate uncovers the rebel plot to kill Abraham Lincoln in Baltimore. Kate warns Lincoln’s staff that this only Southern city on his inaugural train route to Washington, DC is planning a deadly welcome. President-elect Lincoln is urged to change his route. But he refuses to cancel his commitments. In a race against time, Kate and Pinkerton have one last chance. Using disguises, false names, and the cover of darkness, the detectives put their plan into action.

Can they sneak Lincoln through Baltimore undetected?
Can they fool the spies watching his every move?
Can they get Lincoln safely to DC?

This exciting American history picture book from award-winning author Beth Anderson, well-known for action-packed books on daring women, and illustrated by Sally Wern Comport in her signature mix of collage, drawing, and paint, brings Kate Warne to thrilling and vivid life.

Beth Anderson is the author of Revolutionary Prudence Wright, Tad Lincoln’s Restless Wriggle, and Cloaked in Courage. Her title Lizzie Demands a Seat won the Bank Street Flora Stieglitz Straus Award and the Norman A. Sugarman Children’s Biography Honor Award.

Sally Wern Comport is the illustrator of numerous picture books and covers, including Blast Off! How Mary Sherman Morgan Fueled America into Space, Ada’s Violin, and Nile Crossing. Sally has been working as an artist since she was 15 years old, when she would draw ads for her father’s advertising agency. Her work is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of American Illustration in New York.