SOURCE: Daniels, Jonathan. “Death of a Hero.” Nation 195, no. 6 (8 September 1962): 118.

In the following review, Daniels describes Murder or Suicide? as a “fascinating work of historical detection,” but observes that Fisher fails to address broader questions raised by the story.

The news did not come rapidly in those days from such a Far West as Tennessee. Much time passed before the young country which had properly made him a national hero knew that Meriwether Lewis had died a violent death at Grinder's Stand on the old dangerous trail called the Natchez Trace. Even today, more than 150 years later, the clear straight story has not come into the history books as to whether Lewis was murdered or committed suicide that October night in 1809.

Thomas Jefferson, who had sent Lewis with William Clark on the great Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific, gave his verdict confidently four years after the...