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The co-op bookstore for avid readers
The Rope: A True Story of Murder, Heroism, and the Dawn of the NAACP
Critic Reviews
Good
Based on 9 reviews on
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's 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 "compelling and timely" (Vanity Fair) murder mystery featuring characters as complex and colorful as those found in the best psychological thrillers--the unconventional truth-seeking detective Ray Schindler; the sinister pedophile Frank Heidemann; the ambitious Asbury Park Sheriff Clarence Hetrick; the mysterious "sting artist," Carl Neumeister; the indomitable crusader Ida Wells; and the victim, Marie Smith, who represented all the innocent and vulnerable children living in turn-of-the-century America.
"Brisk and cinematic" (The Wall Street Journal), The Rope is an important piece of history that gives a voice to the voiceless and resurrects a long-forgotten true crime story that speaks to the very divisions tearing at the nation's fabric today.
Book Details
- Publisher: 37 Ink
- Publish Date: Feb 1st, 2022
- Pages: 336
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 8.30in - 5.50in - 0.90in - 0.60lb
- EAN: 9781982114039
- Categories: • Murder - General• United States - 20th Century• African American & Black
More books to explore
About the Author
More books by Alex Tresniowski
Critics’ reviews
Praise for this book
"[A] riveting read" - New York Times Book Review
"Compelling" - The Guardian
"This thrilling true crime story documents a critical chapter in the crusade against racial violence in America." - Publisher's Weekly
"Gripping and powerful, The Rope is an important piece of history that gives a voice to the voiceless and resurrects a long-forgotten true crime story that speaks to the very divisions tearing at the nation's fabric today." -- Book Reporter
"This suspenseful, well-written true-crime tale will be an eye-opener for anyone who assumes that after Reconstruction, lynching remained a serious threat only in the South. High-velocity historical true crime." -- Kirkus Reviews
"Journalist and author Tresniowski details[s] the life and career of anti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells, and her work with the newly formed NAACP as they launched their first legal battles to defend wrongly-accused victims... The parallel stories are engrossing, and the action continues apace as the two strands come together. The satisfying conclusion describes the trial and its aftermath, and fills in the later lives of Williams, Tarbell, and Schindler. An indictment of lynching on a stark, personal level." -- Booklist
"Tresniowski breathes life into a largely forgotten murder mystery in this gripping true crime story... An important reminder of the many layers of injustice still present in the United States... Timely, relevant."--Library Journal
"In this riveting true story, Alex Tresniowski tells the intertwined stories of a crusading reporter, an innovative detective, and a man unjustly imprisoned... You'll read this in a night, I promise!" --Crime Reads, 2021 Most Anticipated Books of the Year
"There are some parts here that'll make you gasp with cliff-hanging movie-worthiness, and reach for more.. Why you'll devour The Rope should be no mystery." -- The Philadelphia Tribune