Talk Back

[edting]

This one starts like “Our Town” (it’s set in a small New England village) turns into something like “The Lottery” and winds up like “Twelve Angry Men.” A 92 year old woman is murdered in a small town, and a strange Czech immigrant is arrested shortly afterwards. All circumstantial evidence points to the Czech as the murderer. To prevent a lynching, the local judge arranges a “sham” trial to appease the citizens. The citizens don’t know the trial isn’t real. In the course of the fake trial, the real killer is revealed.

While it’s a good book, I felt it wasn’t quite up to the level of inspiration of the other book in the series.