A Death in Belmont (Sebastian Junger)

I'm also on a non-fiction diet. This one was gripping . . . in the way that only books about serial murders can be. As in, how long is it going to take before they catch the guy. What makes this "hit home" is that the author--Sebastian Junger, who is also a journalist--had met the man who was finally arrested for the murders in Boston. In fact, the man had helped build an art studio for his mother, and so he was often on their property and in their house. And when the neighbor woman was killed, and if this same man did it, he would have killed the woman during his lunch hour. C-r-e-e-p-y. But that's not all. A black man (who had been hired that same day to help clean the house and was supposedly the last person to see the woman alive) was accused (and convicted) of the murder of that neighbor--a murder that seemed very much like the murders that the serial murderer committed and admitted to. So, how much the racial issues of the time tainted the verdict is debated by Junger in this book. As is the history of Boston and of the death of President Kennedy--who is murdered on the eve of the conviction. Junger is also the author of "The Perfect Storm." So, if anyone has a knack for suspense, he certainly leads the pack in "terrific."