Hunting Teddy Roosevelt

J. P. Morgan stood at a window of his Manhattan townhouse and watched his two guests alight from separate horse-drawn carriages. Neither was aware he was about to help plan the assassination of the outgoing president of the United States.

The first paragraph of chapter one told me everything I needed to know about this book: it would be about the Great Men of the turn of the century, it would be at least somewhat ahistorical, and it would be rip-roaring fun. (The last should never have been in doubt; it would be almost criminal for a book about Teddy Roosevelt to not be a fun ride.) I have to say that Jim Ross certainly delivered on all three.

After deciding not to run for a third presidential term, Teddy goes on safari in Africa with his son Kermit, unaware that as he hunts great beasts, he himself is being hunted. While the pace of the book is at times baffling, slowing down for emotional moments in scenes I felt should be fast-paced and skipping ahead a little too far at other times, overall, this book is an exciting adventure. Anyone intrigued by the three things that the first paragraph told me will surely find it an enjoyable read.