The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy

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The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy

ISBN		978-1-250-02571-5

The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy is a historical fiction novel written by Jacopo della Quercia.^[1] The plot follows President William Howard Taft, scientist Robert Todd Lincoln (Abraham Lincoln's son), Secret Service Chief John Wilkie, Captain (later Major) Archibald Butt, and others as they slowly unravel a worldwide conspiracy over a decade in the making.

The book, which was della Quercia's

The book contains many references to actual events; some, such as the

Plot

In 1910,

, Airship One, to travel to Alaska and test his hypothesis, which Taft gladly allows.

Meanwhile, while conversing with

. After the transmission, Tesla is almost assassinated as part of the mass murder, but he kills the assassin with one of his inventions.

Once Taft, Lincoln, John Hays Hammond and Captain Archibald Butt, Airship One's pilot and Taft's closest friend, board Airship One to travel to Alaska, they hold a meeting in which they discuss recent events. They deduce that a malfunctioning automaton duplicate of Taft (constructed by Thomas Edison to allow the real Taft to engage in covert activities unnoticed, and which also is the origin of the rumor of Taft getting stuck in the White House bathtub) must have been programmed to kill Taft, as it repeatedly targeted him specifically. Lincoln reveals that on the same day that gas from Halley's Comet had been predicted to destroy all life on Earth, a mysterious deep blue light was seen in the night sky over the Wrangell Mountains in Alaska. This reinforces Lincoln's belief in extraterrestrial activity. Hammond, who has worked as the Guggenheims' chief mining engineer, tells the group that miners in the Wrangell Mines (the mines mentioned by the five "gentlemen") were constantly pressured to dig deeper and deeper, and that he believes that business moguls J. P. Morgan and Benjamin Guggenheim, who jointly owned and administered the mines, were secretly mining for a secret, unknown material. He remembers that what caused him to quit was suspicion that Morgan and Guggenheim were secretly working with the late Belgian King Leopold II, who was notorious for oppressing the natives of the Congo Free State. The expedition proves fruitless, as Lincoln and Taft do not find evidence of any extraterrestrial activity nor any information about the pocket watch.

Meanwhile, Wilkie and Wickersham travel to New York City to talk to J.P. Morgan, forcing him to send them all of his financial reports under threat of federal investigation. As Wilkie and Wickersham leave, they decide to have an elite female spy, Miss Knox, enter Morgan's enterprise as a mole, and it is implied that Morgan is the "Gentleman from New York" from Tesla's broadcast. After working as a personal aide to Morgan for months, Miss Knox finds clues indicating that Morgan's shipping trust, the International Mercantile Marine Company (specifically the White Star Line) is at the center of a smuggling operation, and she plans to have herself transferred to the Line.

Over the next year, Lincoln writes to scientists such as

.

The night of the meeting, Taft enters the building alone, and is told by a man named

, who is found to have been the "Gentleman from Boma". The crew kill Rom, but are taken aback by his level of psychosis.

Taft, Wilkie, Lincoln and several Secret Service agents travel to London for a meeting with an informant named "The Colossus" set up by Miss Knox. The Colossus (who turns out to be

.

On

and Butt is already aboard the Titanic. Miss Knox, Major Butt, Taft, Wilkie, and the rescue team descend upon the ship to take it over, but are soon met with mercenaries who kill the captain and hold Taft hostage while engaging the rescue team. The men are greeted by J.P. Morgan and Leopold, the "Gentleman from Brussels", who had faked his death to escape disgrace.

Leopold reveals that he has killed Benjamin Guggenheim, who was the "Gentleman from Philadelphia" from the Tesla broadcast. Leopold has chosen to attack and destroy the United States with his weapon, because the United States was the first country to expose Leopold's brutalities in the Congo Free State. Crippling the United States will plunge the world into war, and when the great powers collapse, Zaharoff and Leopold will be purveyors of precious materials, making them the most powerful people on Earth. Taft escapes and runs after Leopold, while Wilkie and Lincoln are chased around by "Morgan", who is actually an android. As passengers take arms and fight Leopold's men, Airship One is shot down and crashes onto the deck. Robert shorts out the power on the ship, preventing use of the superweapon. As Taft and Wilkie prepare to leave, it is revealed to a shocked Taft that "Wilkie" is really ex-president Theodore Roosevelt. The Californian arrives to aid the Secret Service and rescue Taft and the others. Taft throws the badly wounded Roosevelt to a lifeboat, but before Taft can jump, the Titanic begins to rise out of the water. Leopold sees Taft jumping and prepares to shoot him, but Butt subdues the monarch as the rising waters rush over and kill them. Taft jumps off the ship and is reeled aboard the Californian.

Passengers aboard the Titanic who fought against Leopold are delivered to the U.S. and given new lives by the American and

, where Robert tells Taft that the pocket watch had saved Robert's life on the Titanic by catching a bullet.

In 1936, a rich and healthy Zaharoff is living comfortably at the

detailing the potential use of uranium as a weapon. As Nellie, who has always had a negative opinion of the Roosevelt family, ponders working with the new President Roosevelt, she reverses her anti-Roosevelt stand by stating, "I like these Roosevelts".

Characters

Primary characters

William Howard Taft is the 27th President of the United States for most of the novel. Taft loves his wife, Nellie, more than anyone, and was deeply saddened during her period of extended illness. Nellie persuaded Taft to run for president so that she could influence Taft to implement her political agenda, though he desires to be Chief Justice. Throughout the book, he is shown to be in surprisingly good shape, despite his weight. He is not very knowledgeable in matters regarding science or history, but is surprisingly intelligent and deductive.

Robert is always looking for information about his father's assassination; This desire causes Robert to discover the watch, thus setting the plot of the book in motion.

Archibald Butt is captain of Airship One and Taft's closest personal friend. After Taft's personal aide Charles Dyer Norton is fired, Taft personally hires Butt to take Norton's place. During the raids of New Haven and the Titanic, Butt is portrayed to be a talented strategist and commander, as shown when he expertly directs the sharpshooters to provide cover for the protagonists. Butt is shown to think a lot about his mother, and has a near-romantic relationship with Miss Knox.

Theodore Roosevelt is one of the most depicted characters in the book, but in most of his appearances he is disguised as Secret Service Chief John Wilkie. Roosevelt's wartime experience makes him a strong leader of the Secret Service, as demonstrated by his skills in combat. Roosevelt's resourcefulness is another distinguishing quality; Roosevelt is able to significantly damage the android by creating a makeshift Molotov cocktail, and is clever enough to short out the power by shooting Tesla's electric rifle at the android of J.P. Morgan. He is able to effectively fool Taft and the others with his disguise for several years, though he expresses disdain for Wilkie's habit of smoking cigars, which he must enact to maintain his disguise. Nellie Taft often voices her suspicion that Wilkie is a spy working for Theodore Roosevelt, which is, in a sense, true.

Miss Knox is an elite Secret Service agent. She is highly trained in martial arts and can easily get herself hired and transferred throughout companies as she pleases. She is one of the Secret Service's most talented agents, as shown by the effectiveness with which she investigates the White Star Line under the alias of Violet Jessop. In real life, after the Titanic sank, Violet Jessop served on its sister ships, the Olympic and the Britannic, suggesting that Miss Knox's character would have continued to monitor the Line even after the Taft administration is out of the White House.

Secondary characters

is William Taft's loving wife. Although she loves her husband, it is said that the main reason she chose to marry him was that she believed he could ascend to the presidency. Nellie is portrayed as having much more political acumen than Taft, and as the real executive force of the Taft administration. She commissioned the construction of Airship One to keep Taft "distracted and away from the White House while she expertly [steers] the world into the 20th century".

Leopold II is a tyrannical former Belgian monarch. After establishing the Congo Free State, Leopold began to steal private-owned lands and kill their inhabitants. Leopold's crimes was exposed by an American historian, his empire collapsed, causing him to blame America for his being removed from power. He faked his death to escape excommunication and vowed revenge on the U.S. and the rest of the world, eventually drawing Zaharoff, Morgan and Guggenheim into his plan of revenge with promises of money and power. It is implied that Leopold only sought the millionaires so that he could use their money and power to support his plot, and would have killed them if the plot was successful.

Basil Zaharoff is a Greek arms dealer and the "Gentleman from Paris" from the Tesla broadcast. Zaharoff first conceptualized the superweapon after seeing the designs for the pocket watch, and developed it from the cesium mined in Alaska. He serves as the main facilitator of Leopold's plans.

is the Attorney General of the United States. Wickersham is faithful to the Taft administration and facilitates the prosecution of the Morgan-Guggenheim Syndicate. He is portrayed as a hotheaded, short-tempered man with endless respect for the law.

is a famous millionaire businessman. Drawn into Leopold's plan for world domination, Morgan believed that he would become even more powerful than he was; however, it is implied that Leopold has merely used Morgan for his wealth and power, planning to kill him once the plan is complete.

Benjamin Guggenheim is a world-renowned mining magnate. Though unseen in the novel, Guggenheim plays a key role in Leopold's plot by providing Leopold and Zaharoff access to his uranium mines. He was likely drawn into the plot just as Morgan was, and Leopold has him killed before he can claim his reward.

Historical figures

In addition to the above characters, The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy depicts or mentions a large number of historical figures:

Reception

The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy received very positive reviews. The novel was named a Favorite Read of 2014

The novel's largest point of criticism is its incredibility. Charlotte Toledo of The Cauldron, the school newspaper for Cleveland State University, criticizing the action and plotline, calling them "far-fetched" and "preposterous," but acknowledged "that doesn’t subtract from the fact that this is an excellent novel, one that should be recommended."^[12] The Historical Novel Society noted that the readers' inevitable knowledge of many events depicted in the book ends their suspensions of disbelief.^[13]

Promotion

To attract potential buyers, two chapters were released on the book's website: the first chapter and an "exclusive, online-only chapter" that does not appear in the book.^[14] The online chapter is set several months before the beginning of the book, and shows Miss Knox applying for her job at the Secret Service. After she is accepted, she reports to Nellie that Wilkie, a supporter of Roosevelt, does not have a picture of Taft hanging in his office, to which Nellie replies with her much-used phrase "I hate the Roosevelts".

Della Quercia also offered a limited supply of autographed copies of the novel, which could be ordered from the website The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, mailing out pages from the book's original manuscript with the first orders.^[15]

Notes

References

Works cited

• della Quercia, Jacopo. The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2014. Print.
• "The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy–Kirkus Review". Kirkus Reviews. Kirkus, 2014. Web. 1 Dec. 2014.
• "The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy". Goodreads. Goodreads, 2014. Web. 1 Dec. 2014.
• "The Reviews". Pocket Watch Conspiracy. N.p., 2014. Web. 1 Dec 2014.
• Teti, John (Aug 4, 2014). "The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy embroiders history with lunacy". The AV Club. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
• Johnson, Kathryn (November 2014). "The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocketwatch Conspiracy". The Historical Novel Review (70). The Historical Novel Society.
• Toledo, Charlotte (October 19, 2014). "Book Review: 'The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy'". Cleveland State University Cauldron. Retrieved December 2, 2014.