On the eve of the March on Washington, racial tensions flare in McCain’s small town
In the summer of 1963, freedom riders are crisscrossing the South, Martin Luther King is preparing for a march on Washington, and the people of Black River Falls, Iowa, are about to go to the polls. Senator Williams is cruising to reelection when a blackmailer starts sending him photos of his daughter arm in arm with a handsome black student. To save his campaign, Williams hires private investigator Sam McCain to talk sense into the crook, but the blackmailer is nowhere to be found—until McCain discovers him behind his shack, dead in the dirt, with a handsome black corpse beside him.
TV crews arrive with the police, to broadcast the horrible scene across the state. As Black River Falls threatens to erupt into all-out race war, Iowa will have much more to worry about than Election Day. Searching for the savage killer, McCain learns that quiet prejudice can be the most dangerous kind of all.
Ed Gorman (b. 1941) is an American author best known for writing mystery novels. After two decades in advertising, he began publishing novels in the mid-1980s. While using the pen name Daniel Ransom to write popular horror stories like Daddy’s Little Girl (1985) and Toys in the Attic (1986), he published more ambitious work under his own name, starting with Rough Cut (1986). A story about murder and intrigue inside the advertising world, it was based on his own experience, and introduced Midwestern private detective Jack Dwyer, a compassionate sleuth with a taste for acting.