Description: In the tranquil seaside town of Asbury Park, New Jersey, ten-year-old schoolgirl Marie Smith is brutally murdered. Small-town officials, unable to find the culprit, call upon the young manager of a New York detective agency for help. It is the detective#27;b2#27;ss first murder case, and now, the specifics of the investigation and daring sting operation that caught the killer is captured in all its rich detail for the first time. Occurring exactly halfway between the end of the Civil War in 1865 and the formal beginning of the civil rights movement in 1954, the brutal murder and its highly-covered investigation sits at the historic intersection of sweeping national forces, religious extremism, class struggle, the infancy of criminal forensics, and America's Jim Crow racial violence. History and true crime collide in this sensational murder mystery featuring characters as complex and colorful as those found in the best psychological thrillers.
Brief description:
When he was seven, David Sadzin's first grade teacher gave him a paragraph to read out loud. She interrupted him halfway to proclaim him the "Ringmaster" in his class's musical extravaganza about the circus. He's been using his voice to get out of trouble ever since. After a few intense years on New York's stages, performing traditional and experimental theater, improv, and sketch comedy, he's now settled comfortably in front of the mic in his home studio in Brooklyn.
Review Quotes:
"Fascinating, important and colorfully reported. When a white detective and a former slave work separately but toward the same goal in an unspeakable murder case in 1910- justice is served. Their moral audacity and persistence highlight a question relevant to today: what kind of America do we want to live in?"
-- "Walter Isaacson, #1 New York Times bestselling author"