“Dee-lighted,” Theodore Roosevelt says when he greets his Secretary of State, John Hay, in an early chapter of THE ATTEMPTED MURDER OF TEDDY ROOSEVELT. That could be an excellent one-word review of Burt Solomon’s novel. It is a thoroughly delightful read for several reasons.

For myself, I was excited to read a work of fiction featuring John Hay. Hay began public life with one of the most fascinating jobs in the world: serving as one of President Lincoln’s two secretaries. (Solomon’s previous novel featuring Hay, THE MURDER OF WILLIE LINCOLN, is set in this period.) Hay was an astute and incisive chronicler of the Lincoln presidency, and spent his career weaving in and out of Republican politics. He had been picked as Secretary of State by William McKinley, and stayed on in the new administration after McKinley’s assassination.

"Anyone with any kind of interest in the period and the characters will be glad to immerse themselves in the narrative, and the more casual mystery reader will appreciate the overall sense of suspense and gratification at the resolution."

Although Roosevelt would be the target of an assassin’s bullet after he left the White House, Solomon’s novel centers on a real-world episode that took place during his presidency --- a Massachusetts carriage accident that injured TR and killed his lone Secret Service bodyguard. In Solomon’s fiction, the supposed accident was, as TR suspects, a conspiracy --- and he enlists Hay to get to the bottom of it.

Solomon presents Hay in much the same way --- and much to the same effect --- as Hilary Mantel did of Thomas Cromwell in WOLF HALL. Both Hay and Cromwell are public men whose best work is hidden because it has to be. (And both work for an impetuous and mercurial boss, although it really isn’t fair to either Henry VIII or TR to draw the comparison much further.) Cromwell and Hay are presented as having more modern habits of mind than either historical figure likely would have had. The difference is that Hay is much more fun to be around as a narrator. This is largely because Hay was a more well-rounded individual --- Solomon, for instance, always has him jotting down poetry, which is not too far from reality. (He also puts Hay, at 60 years old, in the boxing ring, which isn’t exactly historical and doesn’t do much to move the plot forward.)

The structure of the book, though, owes less to Mantel and more to Agatha Christie. This is a very old-fashioned sort of murder mystery, where most everyone is a suspect and there are the standard red herrings and false leads. A better comparison would be THE ALIENIST, Caleb Carr’s superb psychological mystery (which also features TR as a minor character). Both books share an abiding love for turn-of-the-century America and a profound interest in how the country was changing and growing at that time.

Primarily, though, THE ATTEMPTED MURDER OF TEDDY ROOSEVELT is about delighting its audience, and Solomon does a thorough job of doing just that. He breathes life not only into the character of John Hay, but also to a host of other luminaries ranging from Henry Adams to Nellie Bly. Hay is nobody’s idea of a great detective, but he works his way through the labyrinthine plot with verve and purpose. Anyone with any kind of interest in the period and the characters will be glad to immerse themselves in the narrative, and the more casual mystery reader will appreciate the overall sense of suspense and gratification at the resolution.