Perry Fox’s debut novel, Lincoln's Double: Friend or Foe, published this October, draws on a remarkable piece of family history: his grandfather, Franklin James Benjamin Fox, was a 6'5" Confederate second lieutenant from Madison, Florida, who bore a striking resemblance to Abraham Lincoln. The novel imagines a fictional scenario in which Frank Fox is plucked from the Confederate ranks and trained to impersonate the president as part of a kidnapping plot. While the plot is fiction, the character is rooted in verifiable fact: FJB fought in the Virginia Peninsula, was wounded in action, later served in the artillery, and was captured in 1865, spending months in Camp Chase prison in Ohio.
The book’s importance lies in its approach to historical fiction. Rather than merely inventing a story, Fox uses documented details of his grandfather’s military service as a foundation, then builds a narrative that explores how war can transform beliefs and forge unexpected bonds. The premise—a Confederate soldier forced to become Lincoln’s secret body double—serves as a vehicle for examining moral complexity and human drama during the Civil War. This matters to readers because it demonstrates how family stories, often passed down orally, can intersect with major historical events and raise questions about identity, loyalty, and redemption.
Fox explains the project’s origin: “This story started with my father, Barney, telling me about his own father,” he says. “The image of my grandfather, tall, like Lincoln, and deeply dedicated to his family and faith, stayed with me. I wanted to honor his memory and the experiences of so many soldiers by placing him in a story that captures the moral complexity and human drama of the Civil War.” That statement underscores the novel’s dual purpose: it is both a tribute to a grandfather the author never met and a broader meditation on the lived experience of Civil War soldiers.
For the publishing industry, Lincoln's Double represents a notable case of an author leveraging genealogical research and family lore to create a commercially appealing historical thriller. The book’s hook—a real-life Lincoln lookalike who fought for the Confederacy—is the kind of high-concept premise that can attract readers beyond the usual Civil War buffs. It also fits within a growing trend of novels that blend factual family history with speculative fiction, a category that has seen success in recent years.
For readers, the novel offers an accessible entry point into a turbulent period of American history, one that avoids dry recitation in favor of personal stakes. The fictional kidnapping plot and the protagonist’s forced impersonation of Lincoln create a lens through which to consider the era’s divisions and the possibility of personal transformation. The book also raises timely questions about how we remember our ancestors and how much of their stories we can responsibly fictionalize.
Lincoln's Double: Friend or Foe is available now. Review copies, interviews, and media requests can be directed to the publisher.
