Breaking Blue

In Breaking Blue, Timothy Egan reports a true story of crime, corruption, and cover-up that reads like a thriller and offers a compelling look at the rough-and-tumble days of the Inland Northwest during the Depression. In Egan's vivid account, follow modern-day lawman Tony Bamonte -- graduate student, logger's son, and Vietnam veteran -- as his investigation plunges him back in time to black-market crime, extortion, and even murder. As he unfolds layer after layer of unsavory detail, Bamonte's determination leads him to the murder weapon -- missing half a century -- and to the ex-cop he's convinced is the murderer. Book jacket.

Timothy Egan, author of The Good Rain, Lasso the Wind, and The Winemaker's Daughter, is a Seattle-based reporter for The New York Times