Book Review: Skull in the Ashes
Skull in the Ashes: Murder, A Gold Rush Manhunt, and the Birth of Circumstantial Evidence in America By: Peter Kaufman Genre: History 298 pages Publisher: University of Iowa Press Publication Date: September 2013 Get it at: University of Iowa Amazon B&N * I received a complimentary copy from the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: On a February night in 1897, the general store in Walford, Iowa, burned down. The next morning, townspeople discovered a charred corpse in the ashes. Everyone knew that the store’s owner, Frank Novak, had been sleeping in the store as a safeguard against burglars. Now all that remained were a few of his personal items scattered under the body. At first, it seemed to be a tragic accident mitigated just a bit by Novak’s foresight in buying generous life insurance policies to provide for his family. But soon an investigation by the ambitious new county attorney, M. J. Tobin, turned up evi...