The Americans of Abercromby Square

With its conspiracies, assassinations and shady ‘billionaires’ with too much to lose, John Maxwell’s new book could comfortably be set in Trump’s America.

But the ‘times are not a-changing’ much Stateside for this is the 1860s and, unlike Trump, the assassins hit their mark, killing President Abe Lincoln as he sat in a Washington theatre just as his Unionists were on the verge of victory in the American Civil War.

The Americans of Abercromby Square is a fictionalised account of what happened next and how a Liverpool spy helps track down one of the conspirators, who escapes to Liverpool – then a stronghold of Confederate support.

Refreshingly, the spy is a woman, Irish-American Harriet Farrell, a character in his previous historical-fiction novel Water Street and whose grit and tenacity is inspired by the strong women in John’s own Irish family in Liverpool.

“It is true that men get cast into the majority of these characters in films and books,” says John. “But female spies were a feature of counterintelligence and espionage in this conflict.”

John, a creative writing lecturer in the School of Humanities and Social Studies, first recounts Liverpool’s role in the American Civil War and battle for the transatlantic slave trade in the critically-acclaimed Water Street (July 2023) and was champing at the bit to write more.

“Writing the second book was a natural extension of the first and I'd worked out the plot before I'd even finished the last draft of Water Street,” he says.

“This sequel - The Americans of Abercromby Square comes from discovering that not only was Liverpool a hotbed of Confederate interests but, the project to assassinate President Lincoln was financed here. Further, John Surratt, the only conspirator to escape – and the one Harriet must track down - was given sanctuary in Holy Cross church which stood on Great Crosshall Street.”

A spy thriller aficionado, John partly attributes this to his time at SSEES in London, a known Cold War recruiting ground where he studied Russian as an undergraduate.

“I see a raft of similarities between Civil War era Liverpool and US/UK/Soviet bloc shenanigans, allied to the Western trope of a stranger coming to town, which is very much driven into Harriet's story. If Liverpool is an old melting pot, so are these books.

“The relationship between the United States, the secessionists in the South and Liverpool was set hard since the Declaration of Independence in 1776, built off the backs of slaves and drenched in abominable suffering. T

“There is certainly a legion of tales predating the 1860s that joins this backstory, but the forgotten ties with the US and this climactic war continues to fascinate me. If you go looking for it, it is hidden in plain sight.”

So what do his students think of this latest book? Which Costa Award nominee and Liverpool playwright Jeff Young describes “a wild ballad sung with sass and verve.”

“I've had a fair number of students speak to me about the books and the process of writing and researching them,” John says.

“Because there is a direct link between where they are studying and these world-changing events, I can use this to inform their writing craft, in connecting place with story. Within five minutes' walk of the classroom are settings that are key to these events and to show them is better than telling them by a thousandfold. If you want to discover a story in this city, just go for a walk.”

-The Americans of Abercromby Square by JP Maxwell is available in paperback and can be pre-ordered from Blackwell's.