Pg. 99: George G. Szpiro's "Ignorance"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Ignorance: What We Do Not Know, Cannot Know, Must Not Know, and Refuse to Know by George G. Szpiro.

About the book, from the publisher:

Does the lack of evidence mean that aliens don’t exist? Why does an unproven mathematical hypothesis have profound consequences? Are humans capable of grasping the nature of divinity? Is it ethical to give a patient a placebo? Why do people persist in demonstrably false beliefs like flat earth theory? Should someone want to know when they will die?

George G. Szpiro examines these questions and many others, offering an engaging and witty tour of what we can learn from ignorance. In a series of fast-paced chapters, he unravels problems ranging across science, mathematics, law, economics, politics, religion, psychology, and philosophy—some esoteric, others drawn from everyday life. Ignorance comes in many forms, Szpiro shows. Some questions are only temporarily unsolved; others are inherently unanswerable. Sometimes authorities keep answers from us, for good or ill. Often our assumptions and biases keep us from overcoming our ignorance, and occasionally we choose to remain ignorant—for surprisingly rational reasons.

Ultimately, Szpiro argues, ignorance is not purely negative. It can motivate the pursuit of learning and wisdom—as long as we acknowledge it. Presenting sophisticated topics in an accessible way, this book shows how ignorance sheds light on the nature of knowledge.

Visit George G. Szpiro's website.

The Page 99 Test: Perplexing Paradoxes.

The Page 99 Test: Ignorance.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Catriona McPherson reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Catriona McPherson, author of The Dead Room.

Her entry begins:

I’ve been having a fantastic run of reading just recently. Yes, my alphabetically-through-the-TBR policy has come good again. I’m in the Hs – Greg Herren, Mick Herron, Georgette Heyer – and these three I’m picking out today.

Edwin Hill is a pal and so I went to my local bookshop (Avid Reader, Davis) when I heard he had a new one out. Shamingly enough, though, I realised I was two books behind, rather than one, so it’s Edwin’s 2024 psychothriller Who to Believe that I’ve just devoured.

It’s a structural masterclass. I never mean that to suggest that the structure is what you’re going to notice – which sounds like no fun at all – but always that the structure is an advanced undertaking that disappears completely into an enjoyable read. That’s certainly true here. If I wrote a murder multiple times, once for each of the characters who was there at the metaphorical kill, I’d bore myself, my agent and possibly my editor. If my agent ever passed it on. I wouldn’t bore anyone else unless a burglar broke in and took it from the drawer where it belonged. But Edwin? Fantastic stuff. The murder, its lead-up and its aftermath get more fascinating with every new narrator. And, for once, even though each narrator is compelling, you’re never sorry when the change happens. I can’t recommend this highly enough. It’s a...[read on]

About The Dead Room, from the publisher:

In this atmospheric thriller from Catriona McPherson, a young widow seeking refuge from her grief wades into the mists at the far end of memory lane―where something even darker awaits.

Reeling from the death of her husband, thirty-something audiobook narrator Lindsay Hale retreats to her Scottish hometown and the comforts of old times. The bungalow where she grew up is just as she left it, next to the scrapyard her family still owns. But something is wrong…something beyond grief.

Something she can only glimpse from the corner of her eye.

Lindsay’s brother and best friend are there to welcome her back. An elderly widow helps Lindsay make sense of her new normal, and a kind man hints at unexpected possibilities. But when her widow friend vanishes, only Lindsay seems to notice. And while she starts “recognizing” strangers, she begins forgetting familiar faces.

Every night, as Lindsay’s dream house fills with nightmares, she wonders whether she’s truly unraveling―or if something more sinister’s at play. Buried secrets surface and reality bends, forcing Lindsay to face the terrifying truth that her new haven isn’t so safe after all.

Visit Catriona McPherson's website.

The Page 69 Test: Go to My Grave.

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson (November 2018).

My Book, The Movie: The Turning Tide.

The Page 69 Test: The Turning Tide.

My Book, The Movie: A Gingerbread House.

The Page 69 Test: Hop Scot.

The Page 69 Test: Deep Beneath Us.

Q&A with Catriona McPherson.

The Page 69 Test: The Witching Hour.

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson (September 2024).

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson (December 2024).

The Page 69 Test: Scotzilla.

My Book, The Movie: Scotzilla.

The Page 69 Test: Scot's Eggs.

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson (November 2025).

The Page 69 Test: The Dead Room.

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine of the best climate & sustainability books

Vogue asked four climate activists to help "compile a reading list that offers context and perspective on issues of climate, sustainability, and resistance." One pick by Leah Thomas, intersectional environmental activist and eco-communicator:

Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden by Camille T. Dungy

I love this book because it shows how tending to the land can be both a personal and political act, especially as a Black woman reclaiming space, care, and belonging. It’s a beautiful reflection on how our relationships with soil, home, and community are deeply tied to climate, justice, and what it means to nurture a livable future.

Read about another entry on the list.

Soil is among Sari Fordham's seven books to read when the world is on fire.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Mahmud El Sayed's "The Republic of Memory"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Republic of Memory: A Novel (The Song of the Safina) by Mahmud El Sayed.

About the novel, from the publisher:

A Memory Called Empire meets Children of Time in this Arabfuturist debut set on a generation ship on the brink of revolution as its crew begin to ask why they should toil for a people, and an empire, none of them remember.

The Safina is a city ship halfway through its four-hundred-year voyage from the ruins of Earth to a new colony world. Its crew maintain the ship, generation after generation, while protecting their ancestors in cryostasis so that one day they will be able to enjoy a fresh start under clear blue skies.

But when blackouts start, unrest follows.

The ship can only continue running smoothly with the cooperation of the crew. And the crew has had enough. As coordinated acts of resistance coincide with a much more complex conspiracy, a chain of events is set into motion that will change life on the Safina forever.

Inspired by the real-world events of the Arab Spring, The Republic of Memory is a bold interrogation of empire and an energizing portrait of revolution.

Follow Mahmud El Sayed on Instagram.

The Page 69 Test: The Republic of Memory.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Melinda Leigh

From my Q&A with Melinda Leigh, author of You Can Tell Me:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

You Can Tell Me as a title is meant to feel personal, as if someone is whispering secrets. The main character, Olivia Cruz, is a former investigative journalist turned true crime writer. One of her strengths is getting people to talk to her. They tell her their secrets. She is small and physically nonthreatening, and she uses this to her advantage. Since this is a series, the title of the first book must also establish the feel of the books yet to come.

What's in a name?

My protagonists are strong women, and I like to...[read on]

Visit Melinda Leigh's website.

Q&A with Melinda Leigh.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven novels that let India’s smaller towns shine

Sneha Pathak is an independent writer and translator based in India. Her work has appeared in Business Standard, Scroll.in and Strange Horizons. She translates between Hindi and English.

At Electric Lit Pathak tagged seven novels that feature India’s smaller towns. One title on the list:

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

Kiran Desai’s novel moves between New York and Kalimpong, a small town in the Eastern Himalayan region, weaving the stories of multiple characters. There’s a retired, Cambridge-educated judge clinging to colonial ways; his granddaughter, Sai; and their cook’s son, Biju, an undocumented immigrant struggling in New York. The action unfolds during a tumultuous period in the region’s history as the Nepali-speaking majority demands its own state, turning the quiet, misty town into a “ghost town.” With the mighty Kanchenjunga looming over its treacherous terrain, a sharp class divide and political tensions on the rise, Kalimpong becomes an active presence shaping the trajectory of its characters’ lives.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Inheritance of Loss is among Geneva Abdul's five best postcolonial novels.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm's "The Genealogy of Genealogy"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Genealogy of Genealogy: Nietzsche, Foucault, and the Coils of Critical History by Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm.

About the book, from the publisher:

A daring reassessment of the critical method that reshaped the humanities and an invitation to imagine new ways of doing history.

The genealogical method—a mode of historical analysis that shows that what looks timeless is in fact contingent, bound to shifting relations of meaning, knowledge, and power—has become the dominant paradigm of humanistic inquiry. In The Genealogy of Genealogy, Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm turns this influential practice back on itself, tracing its unlikely rise through Nietzsche and Foucault and uncovering its suppressed ties to eugenics and racism. He rethinks the very stakes of critical history and proposes new tools for thinking about historical continuity, change, and difference.

Provocative and timely, The Genealogy of Genealogy offers both a diagnosis and a vision, challenging scholars across the humanities and social sciences to rethink how we write history and whether our most trusted methods are fit for the futures we seek to build.

Learn more about The Genealogy of Genealogy at the University of Chicago Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Myth of Disenchantment.

The Page 99 Test: The Genealogy of Genealogy.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Shay Kauwe reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Shay Kauwe, author of The Killing Spell.

Her entry begins:

I just finished The Reformatory by Tananarive Due, a historical horror set in the Jim Crow era, centered around the experiences of two siblings: Robbie, who’s been sentenced to a school for troubled boys, and his sister Gloria, who’s trying to get him out. The emotional intensity of this book left a lasting impact. I needed a little break from ghosts after this.

Lately, I've been drawn to Westerns, so...[read on]

About The Killing Spell, from the publisher.

In this spellbinding fantasy debut set in a future where language magic reigns, a young Hawaiian woman must solve a murder to clear her name.

Kea Petrova is dealing with more than her fair share of trouble.

At just twenty-five years old, she’s the youngest of five Hawaiian clan leaders living on the Homestead in outer Los Angeles. Nearly 200 years ago, when a catastrophic flood submerged the Hawaiian islands and unleashed magic into the world, these clans forged a treaty with the city, establishing a new Hawaiian homeland. But that treaty is about to expire.

Kea struggles to keep her small clan afloat, scraping together rent each month through odd jobs and selling her own crafted Hawaiian language spells. While her talent for language magic is her saving grace, she feels like a shadow of those who came before her. Just when she thinks things can’t get any more complicated, the murder of Angelo Reyes—LA’s most prominent Filipino activist—turns her world upside-down.

Angelo was killed by a death spell—something that, due to the properties of each school of language magic, can only exist in Hawaiian. With independent spellsmithing being technically illegal, Kea quickly becomes the prime suspect, known for her spellwork on the Homestead. To clear her name, she must unravel the mystery behind Angelo’s murder and confront LA’s most powerful (and dangerous) players, each wielding their own type of magic. The clock is ticking—can Kea save herself, her clan, and the Homestead before it’s too late?

Visit Shay Kauwe's website.

Q&A with Shay Kauwe.

Writers Read: Shay Kauwe.

--Marshal Zeringue

Twenty-eight top investigative journalism books

At the Waterstones blog Anna Orhanen tagged twenty-eight "investigative journalism books as page-turning as any thriller," including:

The New Age of Sexism: How the AI Revolution is Reinventing Misogyny by Laura Bates

From deepfakes to cyber brothels, this terrifying and timely exposé from the bestselling author of Everyday Sexism and Men Who Hate Women reveals the real and fast-spreading dangers of new, inherently misogynistic techonology and their detrimental effect on gender equality.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Catriona McPherson's "The Dead Room"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Dead Room by Catriona McPherson.

About the novel, from the publisher:

In this atmospheric thriller from Catriona McPherson, a young widow seeking refuge from her grief wades into the mists at the far end of memory lane―where something even darker awaits.

Reeling from the death of her husband, thirty-something audiobook narrator Lindsay Hale retreats to her Scottish hometown and the comforts of old times. The bungalow where she grew up is just as she left it, next to the scrapyard her family still owns. But something is wrong…something beyond grief.

Something she can only glimpse from the corner of her eye.

Lindsay’s brother and best friend are there to welcome her back. An elderly widow helps Lindsay make sense of her new normal, and a kind man hints at unexpected possibilities. But when her widow friend vanishes, only Lindsay seems to notice. And while she starts “recognizing” strangers, she begins forgetting familiar faces.

Every night, as Lindsay’s dream house fills with nightmares, she wonders whether she’s truly unraveling―or if something more sinister’s at play. Buried secrets surface and reality bends, forcing Lindsay to face the terrifying truth that her new haven isn’t so safe after all.

Visit Catriona McPherson's website.

The Page 69 Test: Go to My Grave.

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson (November 2018).

My Book, The Movie: The Turning Tide.

The Page 69 Test: The Turning Tide.

My Book, The Movie: A Gingerbread House.

The Page 69 Test: Hop Scot.

The Page 69 Test: Deep Beneath Us.

Q&A with Catriona McPherson.

The Page 69 Test: The Witching Hour.

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson (September 2024).

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson (December 2024).

The Page 69 Test: Scotzilla.

My Book, The Movie: Scotzilla.

The Page 69 Test: Scot's Eggs.

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson (November 2025).

The Page 69 Test: The Dead Room.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kayla Hardy's "The Quarter Queen," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Quarter Queen: A Novel by Kayla Hardy.

The entry begins:

The Quarter Queen is the story of New Orleans’ infamous Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveau and her daughter, Marie Laveau II set within a morally gray fantasy that tackles magical factional politics within a racialized 19th century context. At its heart, it is a tumultuous mother-daughter story where Marie’s rebellious daughter must retrace her mother’s past to find answers to very real circling threats in the present. Secretive and filled with awe-inspiring magic, Marie is a figure few can truly know, even her own daughter.

For me, because The Quarter Queen began as a television pilot in its original form, there was always only one actress I pictured capable of tackling Marie’s complex dual nature—and that is Thandiwe Newton. With a take-no-prisoners ferocity and an almost ethereal sensitivity, she remains the immediate choice for Marie’s fiery power and spiritual sageness. Naturally the next question became, but who would play Marie “Ree” Laveau II? And...[read on]

Visit Kayla Hardy's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Quarter Queen.

Q&A with Kayla Hardy.

My Book, The Movie: The Quarter Queen.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten gripping western historical fiction books

At Woman’s World Melissa D’Agnese and Carissa Mosness tagged ten of the best western historical fiction books. One title on the list:

One for The Blackbird, One for the Crow by Olivia Hawker

If you’re looking for a truly powerful and poetic novel set on the American frontier, look no further than Olivia Hawker’s One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow. With thousands of 5-star reviews on GoodReads and Amazon, readers can’t get enough of this story. Set in 1876 Wyoming, the Bemis and Webber families are accustomed to relying on each other—there are no other settlers for miles. But when Ernest Bemis discovers his wife, Cora, with another man, he snaps and soon a man lies dead. Ernest is sent to prison, and the women left behind must navigate a bitter divide. Soon, a turbulent road of survival and sacrifice unfolds during a treacherous Wyoming winter.

Read about another entry on the list.

My Book, The Movie: One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow.

The Page 69 Test: One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Dan Turello's "Connection"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Connection: How Technology Can Make Us Better Humans by Dan Turello.

About the book, from the publisher:

Technology gets a bad rap. It is accused of being a dehumanizing force, a chief culprit in everything from mass commercialization to environmental crisis through the potential collapse of civilization. In Connection, Dan Turello reflects on the origins and limitations of such views. He offers a philosophical and literary meditation on what technology is and can be, arguing that it provides surprising ways to strengthen and deepen what makes us human.

Putting medieval Italian poets and Renaissance artists in conversation with contemporary philosophers and pop culture, this book traces the roots of our fascination with―and aversion to―technology. Turello shows how the moments that shaped Western views of technology offer perspective on our current predicaments, as figures such as St. Francis of Assisi and Dante grappled with problems that are strikingly reminiscent of the ones we face today. Challenging nostalgia for preindustrial innocence, he demonstrates that historically technology has enabled us to develop art, philosophy, religion, and culture. Today, technology can safeguard human creativity―if we choose self-awareness and community over consumption and exploitation. Wide-ranging and inviting, Connection makes a timely case for embodied experience in the age of AI.

Visit Dan Turello's website.

The Page 99 Test: Connection.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Kayla Hardy

From my Q&A with Kayla Hardy, author of The Quarter Queen: A Novel:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

It is my hope that my novel’s title The Quarter Queen centers readers in the heart of New Orleans’ French Quarter which, in a historical fantasy novel, is a character in itself. More than simply a lush backdrop, the French Quarter is alive with dark magic, Voodoo, alchemy, gods, and demons. The title The Quarter Queen is my own twist, made up of the real-life moniker for Marie who was known historically as the ‘Voodoo Queen’ and the neighborhood of New Orleans known as the French Quarter—the Vieux Carré—where she lived and worked her magic. While it is has some great alliteration to it, I hope that readers will see the title as something to be critically unpacked, to study the very nature of unprecedented power that a woman like Marie Laveau wielded in the 19th century.

What's in a name?

Because The Quarter Queen centers both the real-life Marie Laveau I and...[read on]

Visit Kayla Hardy's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Quarter Queen.

Q&A with Kayla Hardy.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six top horror books featuring libraries or librarians

Lyndsie Manusos’s fiction has appeared in PANK, SmokeLong Quarterly, and other publications. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has worked in web production and content management. When she’s not nesting among her books and rough drafts, she’s chasing the baby while the dog watches in confused amusement. She lives with her family in a suburb of Indianapolis.

At Book Riot she tagged six "great stories that either take place in a library or involve a library or a librarian," including:

The Parliament by Aimee Pokwatka

Like The Library at Hellebore, a group of characters is trapped in a library. But instead of a hoard of hungry faculty members, teens and library goers have to fend off a parliament of murderous owls. Murderous! Owls! I mean, look at that cover. I was hooked from the start.

This novel has strong Hitchcockian The Birds vibes, which is one of my favorite horror movies ever. When a murderous parliament of owls descends on Madeleine Purdy’s town library, she and other library visitors must find a way to survive and escape without getting torn apart.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 69 Test: The Parliament.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Jennifer Pearson reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Jennifer Pearson, author of Drop Dead Famous.

Her entry begins:

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

I picked this up after it won the Women’s prize and I absolutely adored it. Set in Holland in the 1960s, we see the main character, Isabel slowly lose control of her small, regimented life, when Eva comes to live with her. It’s a novel of buried tensions, unspoken histories and suppressed longing. It shines a light on a dark period of history and asks the question about what happened when the Jews returned from the camps after the second world war.

The Heirs by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé is a big hitter in the world of YA thrillers and...[read on]

About Drop Dead Famous, from the publisher:

An investigation turns into an obsession when the younger sister of a slain pop starlet is determined to uncover her sister’s killer, no matter what it costs, in this “tense and intricately plotted thriller…[that] achieves high marks across the board” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

When superstar Blair Baker is murdered moments before her triumphant homecoming concert, her younger sister, Stevie, knows she has one chance to find out who’s responsible.

The thing is, Stevie’s been here before, desperately searching for clues that might reveal who hurt someone she loves…but Stevie was younger then, just a kid. This time, she won’t let the truth slip through her fingers.

What begins as a search for answers about Blair’s death turns into a dangerous journey through the darker side of global fame. Soon, Stevie begins to uncover dark secrets closer to home—secrets that someone wants desperately to keep hidden. Is Stevie ready to confront what the truth reveals?

Visit Jenny Pearson's website.

My Book, The Movie: Drop Dead Famous.

The Page 69 Test: Drop Dead Famous.

Q&A with Jennifer Pearson.

Writers Read: Jennifer Pearson.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Angela Brown's "Ways to Find Yourself"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Ways to Find Yourself by Angela Brown.

About the novel, from the publisher:

A woman adrift finds a unique path forward in a charming and heartfelt novel about memories, identity, and the wonderful mysteries of life by the author of Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time.

Grace Whittaker's life is coming apart.

In the wake of her mother's death, a stalled writing career, and a slow-motion separation from her husband, Grace is more directionless than ever. But when she returns to Sea Drift, the beach town where she and her mother summered for years, Grace's life comes together in the most unexpected ways.

Soon after arriving on the picturesque coastline that meant so much to her, Grace discovers more than she remembers, and for reasons she can't possibly fathom. Amid the weathered surf shops, pastel motels, and sloping beaches, Grace begins to encounter younger versions of herself. Each one is vivid, alive, and breathtakingly real.

As she navigates this most surreal week--reconnecting with old friends, trying to solve a quiet mystery about her mother, and revisiting a love she left behind--Grace is forced to remember who she used to be. It's the only way she can figure out who she can still become.

Visit Angela Brown's website.

The Page 69 Test: Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time.

Q&A with Angela Brown.

The Page 69 Test: Some Other Time.

The Page 69 Test: Ways to Find Yourself.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six top literary mysteries set in the 1980s

T. Greenwood grew up in rural Vermont in the 1970s. She began writing stories at seven years old and wrote her first "novel" at nine on her dad's electric typewriter.

Since then, she has published sixteen novels. She has received grants from the Sherwood Anderson Foundation, the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Maryland State Arts Council. She has won three San Diego Book Awards. Five of her novels have been Indie Next picks. Bodies of Water was finalist for a Lambda Foundation award, and Keeping Lucy was a Target Book Club Pick.

[My Book, The Movie: Rust and Stardust; The Page 69 Test: Rust and Stardust; Writers Read: T. Greenwood (August 2019); The Page 69 Test: Keeping Lucy; My Book, The Movie: Keeping Lucy; Q&A with T. Greenwood; The Page 69 Test: Such a Pretty Girl; My Book, The Movie: The Still Point; My Book, The Movie: Everything Has Happened]

Greenwood's new novel is Everything Has Happened.

At CrimeReads the author tagged six favorite literary mysteries set in the 1980s, including:

Karen Winn, Our Little World

Our Little World is Karen Winn’s debut novel, which was published in 2022 but is set in 1985. The story revolves around the disappearance of Sally, a four-year-old neighbor of Bee, the twelve-year-old protagonist. And while the story involves a disappearance, it is also a moving coming-of-age story about sisterhood, jealousy, and secrets.

Our Little World is beautifully written and evocative of the period. It also captures the shift in the 1980s from children being relatively unsupervised to the media-driven parental hysteria which marked the Stranger Danger era.

Read about another title on Greenwood's list.

The Page 69 Test: Our Little World.

My Book, The Movie: Our Little World.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Lauren Nicole Henley's "Inquisition for Blood"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Inquisition for Blood: The Making of a Black Female Serial Killer in the Jim Crow South by Lauren Nicole Henley.

About the book, from the publisher:

For three years in the early 1900s, a serial killer zigzagged across the rice belt region of the United States, using an everyday ax to slaughter Black families living within a mile of the Southern Pacific Railroad’s Sunset Route. The similarities among the murders were uncanny, yet lawmen in early twentieth-century America had neither the technology nor the vocabulary to identify the serial killer in their midst. Instead, regional authorities worked the cases as individual homicides.

This approach led to seemingly contradictory realities: the unknown killer was dubbed “the axman,” and a young Black woman named Clementine Barnabet was arrested as a suspect. She offered questionable confessions and swiftly gained international recognition, as the press reimagined Clementine as a cult-leading, ax-wielding, sacrifice-driven serial killer. But there was a problem: Clementine was already in jail by the time more than half of the murders occurred.

In Inquisition for Blood, Lauren Nicole Henley examines this conundrum as she describes how axman madness consumed an entire region for years. She unpacks these crimes and their aftermaths to show how Black communities responded to incomprehensible violence, how the state criminalized Blackness, and how a young Black woman ultimately came to be understood as a serial killer. Drawing on more than three thousand newspaper articles, hundreds of pages of court records, prison ledgers, death certificates, censuses, city directories, and more, Henley tells a historical narrative that is as intriguing as any true crime novel, challenging our assumptions about who has the ability to get away with murder.

Learn more about Inquisition for Blood at the LSU Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Inquisition for Blood.

--Marshal Zeringue