The Murder of the Century - by Paul Collins (Paperback)

About the Book

A grisly discovery in 1897 New York plunges detectives headlong into the era's most perplexing murder and prompts battling newspaper moguls Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst to sensationalize the case in their tabloids, turning it into a publicity circus.

Book Synopsis

The "enormously entertaining" (The Wall Street Journal) account of a shocking 1897 murder mystery that "artfully re-create[s] the era, the crime, and the newspaper wars it touched off" (The New York Times)

AN EDGAR NOMINEE FOR BEST FACT CRIME - "Fascinating . . . won't disappoint readers in search of a book like Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City."--The Washington Post

On Long Island, a farmer finds a duck pond turned red with blood. On the Lower East Side, two boys discover a floating human torso wrapped tightly in oilcloth. Blueberry pickers near Harlem stumble upon neatly severed limbs in an overgrown ditch. The police are baffled: There are no witnesses, no motives, no suspects.

The grisly finds that began on the afternoon of June 26, 1897, plunged detectives headlong into the era's most perplexing murder mystery. Seized upon by battling media moguls Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, the case became a publicity circus, as their rival newspapers the World and the Journal raced to solve the crime. What emerged was a sensational love triangle and an even more sensational trial. The Murder of the Century is a rollicking tale--a rich evocation of America during the Gilded Age and a colorful re-creation of the tabloid wars that forever changed newspaper journalism.

Review Quotes

"[Collins'] exploration of the newspaper world, at the very moment when tabloid values were being born, is revealing but also enormously entertaining....Collins has a clear eye, a good sense of telling detail, and a fine narrative ability." --Wall Street Journal

"Riveting....Collins has mined enough newspaper clippings and other archives to artfully recreate the era, the crime and the newspaper wars it touched off." --New York Times

"[A] richly detailed book that reads like a novel and yet maintains a strict fidelity to facts. THE MURDER OF THE CENTURY isn't a case of history with a moral. It's simply a fantastic, factual yarn, and a reminder that abhorrent violence is nothing new under the sun." --Oregonian

"A wonderful reminder that we have often been just as we are: fools for spectacle, short of memory, cheered by the invigorating shock of the immoral." --Willamette Week

"Paul Collins' account of the headless torso murder that led to an all-out newspaper war and then a dramatic trial has all the timeless elements of a great yarn--a baffling mystery, intriguing suspects, and flawed detectives. It's compelling history that's also great page-turning entertainment." --Howard Blum, author of The Floor of Heaven and American Lightning

"Wonderfully rich in period detail, salacious facts about the case and infectious wonder at the chutzpah and inventiveness displayed by Pulitzer's and Hearst's minions. Both a gripping true-crime narrative and an astonishing portrait of fin de siecle yellow journalism." --Kirkus Reviews

"A dismembered corpse and rival newspapers squabbling for headlines fuel Collins's intriguing look at the birth of "yellow journalism" in late-19th-century New York. an in-depth account of the exponential growth of lurid news and the public's (continuing) insatiable appetite for it." --Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Paul Collins is the author of seven books, which have been translated into ten languages. His work has appeared in Slate, New Scientist, and The New York Times, and he is regularly featured on NPR's Weekend Edition as their "literary detective." He lives in Portland, Oregon.