In a shocking and absorbing narrative, Adams, a former inmate on death row, recounts his wrongful conviction for murder in 1976, his 13 years in a Texas prison, and the protracted legal and political battle to free him. Straightforwardly and without bitterness, Adams—writing with the help of the Hoffers (Freefall, 1989, etc.)—tells how casual acquaintance David Harris, the juvenile murderer of a police officer, identified Adams as the murderer. Although Harris already had an extensive record of serious crime and Adams had no criminal record, and although there was considerable evidence that Adams was not at the crime scene, the press and police regarded Adams's guilt as a foregone conclusion. Adams was convicted and sentenced to death. The prosecutor, Doug Mulder, emerges here as a profoundly unethical man, willing to suppress exculpatory evidence in order to achieve the conviction and death sentence he so desired. Ultimately, it took a decision of the Supreme Court to get Adams off death row (the court ruled that Texas jury-selection procedures predisposed the jurors to condemn Adams to death); however, it took years of further legal wrangling and a confession from Harris (as well as publicity, especially from Earl Morris's film The Thin Blue Line) to persuade Texas authorities to drop the charges against Adams and free him. Adams's description of life in prison is harrowing, and the story of his long ordeal makes one wonder how he did not succumb to despair. A chilling, forthright account of a Kafkaesque nightmare, rendered with a remarkable lack of resentment.
Pub Date: June 18, 1991
ISBN: 0-312-05811-X
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1991
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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