Hellhound on His Trail - by Hampton Sides (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

With a blistering, cross-cutting narrative that draws on a wealth of dramatic unpublished documents, Hampton Sides, bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers, delivers a non-fiction thriller in the tradition of William Manchester's The Death of a President and Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. With Hellhound On His Trail, Sides shines a light on the largest manhunt in American history and brings it to life for all to see.

With a New Afterword

Review Quotes

"Viscerally dramatic ... spellbinding ... Both Dr. King and Ray come to life in these remarkable pages. " --The New York Times

"Impossible-to-put-down . . . a masterful work of narrative nonfiction, no one does it better than Hampton Sides." --Associated Press

"Gripping, exciting, and engrossing . . . hits us with the shuddering intensity of a high-speed collision." --The Times of London

"A taut, vibrant account....chilling in detail and particularly haunting in evoking the confusion and pathos in the minutes following the single crack of Ray's rifle." --Los Angeles Times

"An authoritative, engrossing narrative....thoroughly researched but executed with the pacing of a fine novel and a dash of top-notch police procedural....meticulous."--Miami Herald

"Searing. . . . A complex crime mystery that shifts the focus from Dr. King to his killer. . . . Gripping."--Wall Street Journal

"As urgent a page-turner as any crime novel -- a feat Sides accomplishes without sacrificing historical detail and insight." --St. Petersburg Times

"Remarkable. . . . A window on the passions and contradictions of an era....a page-turner."--Christian Science Monitor

"A riveting re-creation of a tragedy. . . . Through Sides' use of novelistic pacing, details and descriptions, he creates suspense that will propel readers through a slice of history."--USA Today

"Enlightening . . . a valuable contribution to the historical record [and] a memorable and persuasive portrait." --The Washington Post

"Meticulously researched, reads like nothing so much as a novel ... creating plenty of plain old-fashioned suspense that makes the reader's heart pound."--The Portland Oregonian

"It's as much thriller as history book and the compulsive story races along like a fugitive on the lam."--San Francisco Gate

"Sides' meticulous yet driving account of Ray's plot to murder King and the 68-day international manhunt that followed is in essence a true-crime story and a splendid specimen of the genre--a genuine corker."--Salon

"Remarkable journalism. . . . compulsively readable. . . . [Sides] writes . . . with a passion that resonates.....Compelling" --Dallas Morning News

"Extraordinary....remarkable journalism.....compulsively readable." --San Francisco Chronicle

"Hellhound unfolds like a mystery--one read not for the ending but for all the missteps, gotchas and near misses along the way."--Time

"Exhaustively researched, fast-paced and at times minute-by-minute telling....To Sides' great credit, this is a feat of shoe-leather reporting and research....astonishing....briskly alive."--Austin American Statesman

"Meticulous....a page turner, and something more: It brings the disquiet of an era fully alive."--Bloomberg

"A carefully researched and crisply written account....Sides crafts careful profiles of his major characters"--St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"[Sides] masterfully recreates the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr ....Though the outcome is clear, we are nonetheless rapt--and then devastated."--Time Out New York

"Nailbitingly riveting."--Newsday

About the Author