I didn't find this book particularly gripping, but by the time I was done pondering the section title "The Crucible of Garfield", I was 77% of the way through my digital copy and just decided to finish it. It's not a bad book by any means in reference to in its coverage of the lives and deaths of President Garfield and his assassin Charles J. Guiteau, and the lives and deaths of those friends, family, and acquaintences who played a major role in both. I take issue in how the author handled the sexual abuse rampant in the Oneida community. I understand that it wasn't the book's focus, but by only acknowledging the problematic nature of the family and sexual dynamics in the Oneida community in how it condoned the sexual abuse of young girls by powerful men in the community, only in subtext until the last chapters of the book made me as a reader feel as if the issue was being brushed aside and used only as a show piece to show the early signs of Guiteau's monstrous nature.
It is understandable that the author's intent is most likely to give an unbiased view of the events that took place, but in having the book end with a vignette of the last days of John Humphrey Noyes and his life with his last devoted followers, a large population of children included,  feels like a neat but unsatisfying and discomforting way of tying up an issue that necessitated further exploration. 
Not a bad read, overall.