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Title details for Duel with the Devil by Paul Collins - Available

Duel with the Devil

The True Story of How Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr Teamed Up to Take on America's First Sensational Murder Mystery

by Paul Collins
Mark Peckham
Audiobook
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1 of 1 copy available

In the closing days of 1799, the United States was still a young republic, its uncertain future contested by the two major political parties of the day: the well-moneyed Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton, and the populist Republicans, led by Aaron Burr. The two finest lawyers in New York, Burr and Hamilton were bitter rivals both in and out of the courtroom, and as the next election approached—with Manhattan likely to be the swing district on which the presidency would hinge—their animosity reached a fever pitch. Until, that is, a beautiful young woman was found floating in Burr's newly constructed Manhattan Well. The accused killer, Levi Weeks, was the brother of an influential architect with ties to both men, and the crime quickly became the most sensational murder in the history of the young nation. With the entire city crying for Levi's head, the young man was in danger of being hastily condemned without a proper hearing. And so America's two greatest attorneys did the unthinkable—they teamed up.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 4, 2013

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781624605444
      • File size: 229633 KB
      • Duration: 07:58:24

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from April 15, 2013
      NPR’s “literary detective” once again applies his skills as a historian to a now-obscure crime that was a cause célèbre in its day. With a novelist’s touch, Collins (The Murder of the Century) opens with the January 1800 discovery of a woman’s body in a Manhattan well, before flashing back six months to provide the back-story to that grim find. The victim proves to be Elma Sands, a Quaker woman who had disappeared from her lodging house under circumstances that led authorities to suspect carpenter and fellow boarder Levi Weeks. Fortunately for Weeks, his defense fell to two of the most prominent and skilled lawyers of the day—bitter political rivals Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, whose later fatal duel casts a somber pall over the suspenseful account of the crime, the trial, and its aftermath. Using the court transcript as a primary source, Collins makes the most of the inherent drama of the case, and goes one step further to unearth convincing proof of the identity of the real killer. Agent: Michelle Tessler, Tessler Literary Agency.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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